Sacred Lotus

Sacred Lotus

Year 173

Alvin remained in contact with Kei this time, and through him, we learned that the northern temples pretty much let the kidnapping pass. With Alvins restored powers, he regained his harem and went back to his baby making ways. Though, from what he said, he claims he treats them better.

Alvin shared stories about his mates, the oracle girl, the priestesses, the adventurers and various elven companions. He had a thing for their long ears. Kei just sighed.

-

I was working on my own version of the parasite. Now that I learned that its possible to create parasites that can consume ones mana, I thought about whether the parasite could be used for medical purposes, Consider that if a curse fed on a persons mana spring, would the process of drying out the mana cause the curse to die off?

Of course, this required another massive collection exercise, where my Valthorns gathered various types of plants, bugs and fungi, for my biolabs analysis. Many of them Ive seen before at one point throughout the decades, and also had analysed them, but perhaps researching them and testing them for their mana consumption ability wasnt something I considered. Truly, it is hard to imagine what could be done, until it was already done.

I also had to figure out how to create things that can tunnel or embed itself into another persons soul spring. Like, how did the parasite do it? The soul realms meant to be a place where one doesnt easily enter, unless you are a tree that dabbles in soul-related matters, like me!

I mean, could I put a parasite into another person?

So... I tested it. I had a bunch of criminals, hah, we still have those despite my near omnipresent surveillance state, especially those on death row, for experiments.

They failed... at first. The first few attempts didnt go well, but then I soon started encasing the plants with a specially attuned mana. Just like when I attempted to fix Juras hand. It worked for a while... and then fizzled out because the tree-parasite samples I had couldnt generate their own mana so they could not sustain the attunement.

Alright, I found one way to do it. How did the parasite do it? Did they start with the assumption that the parasite will eat up all defenses?

Is mana actually a form of soul defense emitted by the soul spring? Or is it something about the material which allowed it to do so?

In a way, this was similar to the rift mana attunement, since each rift had a particular resonance. It seemed to me that the demons are masters of mana frequencies, if their parasites could even resonate with their host.

I wanted to know whether there are natural equivalents, surely the demons are not the first to adopt this strategy in the world. So, I instructed my artificial minds to datamine my large library of books, and my records of all the biological samples I had. My biolabs also started large scale breeding programmes of naturally occurring parasites. My goal was to cultivate mana-attuned parasites that could mimic the resonance-mimicking qualities of the demons.

At the same time, I revisited Hytreerions physical structure. I wondered whether it was a materials thing. That perhaps the demonic flesh is just naturally mana-sensitive and thus adopts the mana of its host. This meant my earlier success with the capture of the demons was also due to their naturally mana-sensitive state. My earlier difficulty with converting other objects may be due to the materials they are made of.

Hytreerion gained some levels during the battle with the demon king, but has since then stagnated. Levelling him up has been challenging, simply because he was too large to explore a dungeon. In fact, both of my Titans are massive. Patreecks physical structure, his [Grand Mind Tree] was also too large.

Could I get a titan level performance without the size? I suppose they wont be titans, then?

-

As calm and relief returned to the wider world, we were back at our technological research.

> How long will Vallasira take the girl away? < I asked Lilies one fine day, when they shared about their experience dealing with dead bodies decaying in the lake. Lilies revealed that they maintained a large number of flesh-eating creatures that lived in their lake, and they consumed the corpses given by the corpse.

I thought a few years was a bit long, but I guess its common for training arcs to be decade long.

> What was the longest period of peace youve seen? < I asked, curious.

Lilies responded, being rather technical about it.

> Huh. <

> What would you have done if that bomb was a little bit nearer? < I wondered how they would cope with the apocalyptic sludge.

> That would be bad. <

Lilies was rather nonchalant about the whole affair.

> Oh. I will have him visit. <

-

The Aivan church sent a message, delivered by another envoy. It merely said that the Triumvir needed to consult with their god, and that their divine consultation will take some time. Oh well.

It was then a strange, masked man approached the group. Guide, the Will have spoken that this man will be allowed entrance. He wore a mask that formed the shape of a fish, but it was a fearsome one with massive teeth and two black eyes. Strange.

Lumoof nodded but asked about the two accompanying Valthorns. My friends?

Only you.

This time, the fishmask man led us into the temple. There was nothing inside, except a large spiral staircase that led downwards into the lake bed. We walked down... and the fish masked man stopped.

This is where I stop. Please go ahead. The will awaits.

The staircase got narrow, and the walls closed in. Lumoof had to keep going. But it kept going and going down, and it took an hour to get to the very bottom, where we reached a large room at the end. It was very dark, but then a faint magical light turned on, and revealed thousands of skulls, overgrown with roots. Then, all the thousands of skulls moved, each of them had one little fire in their eye socket.

It spoke in unison, in a choirlike voice quite familiar to me. The skulls rattled and their jaws moved.

We welcome the avatar of the tree, to the roots of our ancient body. This wasnt their true body, but perhaps this was close enough. If their intent was to scare the living hells out of anyone, this was pretty effective. We are made from the minds and memories of the thousands that died, and we cull and select the best of the dead to form us.

Lumoof nodded, here, Lilies presence was overwhelming, but he was unfazed. He too, was already a step into the divine.

We thank you for coming, and we wish to show you an item. Something we found recently, when it washed up on our shores. Lilies said again, and the skulls shuffled around. Then, one of the roots moved and dragged out a large chunk of broken wood. At a glance, it looked like any other driftwood, but when we examined it in greater detail, we noticed strange marks.

Its a set of symbols.

Its etched with words we do not understand. Runes.

Its from another ancient time.

Yes. But we fear to reveal it to the wider world. So we keep it here.

Lumoof examined it, and then pointed at a row. These symbols I've seen once, in Margmar. I cant remember where .. But I could, and I quickly tapped my memory. It matched those on the temples.

Oh. You have seen them! Lilies said in surprise, and this time, I sent the images through my rootnet. Lilies received them.

Still, I had so many questions. Why would it appear on a wooden log? Unless its only disguised to look like a log? Perhaps its a trick. The fact that the log survived for so long unnoticed meant it wasnt meant to be noticed. How did Lilies pick it up? What made you notice it?

When it wouldnt break when we wanted to consume it. Ah. Lilies consumed driftwood, thats something I didnt know. When the driftwood resisted, they examined it closer. A simple discovery by accident.

I see. I spoke through Lumoof. Lumoof held the log in his hands, his strength augmented by his levels. We will have to put these through a biolab.

Lumoof then said. I feel a faint presence... something divine. I felt nothing, but then Lumoof was the priest and he was a lot more sensitive to such things than me. No, actually, if priests are naturally more sensitive to divine energies, would they be able to detect the presence of mind-alteration from the gods?

We feel it too. Lilies responded, one of the skulls moved. Which is why we kept it here and do not speak of it. This area is shielded by our strongest magics, and yet, we do not even know whether the gods still can see it.

So what if they can see it? I asked. I mean, so what if they can see? I do not fear the gods, clearly their powers are restricted if all they can do so far is summon heroes, send divine messages and some subtle mind alterations. Their powers are weak.

Do not take them lightly, ages ago their powers were strong, if not stronger.

Then what happened?

We do not know. Are the gods fading? No. I somehow dont think so. There must be something else. One of the skulls moved, and some skeletons appeared. They took the driftwood. Do you have a way to take it back? Without it ever touching the sunlight? It is an old saying, that all things that are under the sky can be seen by the gods.

Cant we just hide it in a bag? Lumoof asked plainly.

Preferably not. Their eyes can see through magical items, but strangely, not through thick layers of earth.

How strange that the gods are stopped by mere dirt. Lumoof said. Perhaps it is a lie.

If they could see it, they must have noticed when it floated on the lake. I thought briefly. But yes. If you let us create a tunnel directly here, we could transport this log secretly. Out of respect, just like with Reefy, my roots did not travel through or under the realm of other spirits. So my roots merely connected to Lilies at the edges.

Lets make the tunnel.