Timeless Trees

Timeless Trees

Year 181

The heroes tried again, if anything, out of a desire for revenge. The demon king killed 2 of them, and they were going to live, this time. They hunted champions and gained more levels, and all of them were now in their level 100s, if only in the early level 100s. The 2 fragments each of them had made them level faster, and made them stronger.

They know Im talking to you guys. Kei said.

So? Youre free to have friends, right?

I think theyre alright, but some of them are suspicious why Im reporting everything to you. And rightly so. The way Im behaving is very much a spy. In a way, I am a spy. Kei laughed awkwardly.

I thought you told them everything?

Yes, but still, they continue to maintain some distance. Kei paused. If I were in their shoes, Id be suspicious of a girl or golem who claims to be a former hero and somehow reports on their activities back to someone they dont know.

Then stop staying there. I think they no longer need your help. Not anymore. The longer they stay, the more suspicious they get.

...youre right.

Kei had one last conversation with the heroes before their fight with the demon king. Theyve reached level 100, and just as before theyve unlocked their star-mana forms. Theres 7 of them at level 100+, against one demon king, honestly, the odds are pretty good that theyll win. She spoke of hero-made items from previous generations, and whether the heroes wanted a trip to the Central Continent before their 2nd encounter with the demon king.

They refused. Well, some of them wanted it, but they already unlocked their own [Heros Forge] and could make their own hero items.

You think theyll live? Stella asked through [message], as Kei made her way to the shore. I could recall her at any time, but she wanted to wait for the heroes to actually fight the demon king before she left. What did you think of the demon king?

I saw it briefly, I was really far away but I think... I think they have a good chance of winning. But I think half of them will die. Its still a bit too early

Huh. Are they prepared for a self-destruction gimmick at the end?

I dont know whether they remembered. When I reminded them they just brushed it off.

Huh? Stella asked.

Im not sure whether what I told them got through to their heads. Lately they just seem... I dont know how to put it...

Stubborn?

No.

Confident?

Not that either...

Middle-grade syndrome?

...that might be it.

But they are late teens, right?

Yes. One of them reincarnated as a half-dark elf so age is a little bit more flexible but yes. Late teens, mentally.

You were there, once. You should know why they dont listen.

Fuck that.

We felt the effects of the battle from a distance. The heroes pulled out all the stops, and my magical sensors felt the churn of magic in the air, even so far away. The weather seemed to sense this, and the world waited for the outcome of the battle of heroes. The instability of magic lasted for a day, and this time, I felt sensations that were very familiar.

It felt like those old, healed wounds had been torn open. But I was still physically fine. Why did I feel it then?

[Demon King Ethrezen has been slain]

[Kenny Hills has been slain. You received a fragment]

[Elly Pato has been slain. You received a fragment]Follow the latest novels at novelhall.com

[Nancy Pelos has been slain. You received a fragment]

Only three deaths. That meant four of the heroes survived. The four survivors were Prabu and Colette, both archmages, Hafiz the Knight and Chung the Archer. There was an explosion at the end, but somehow they still managed to survive it.

Kei, of course, felt the explosion. The explosions shockwave could be felt a world away, and she ran at full speed towards the center of the explosion once it was clear the explosion was done. The entire area had been turned into a volcanic wasteland, but the four were alive, but weak. All of them suffered heavy burns and their skins charred. They lived. Both archmages were unconscious, but they somehow managed to sustain a multi-layered magical shield that collapsed once Kei approached them. The burns were so bad that they could not speak, not yet.

She quickly stabilised them with her familiars healing abilities. Despite how horrific the burns were, they were heroes, and the healing quickly restored them. Exhausted and weak, even though somewhat healed, Kei escorted them out and brought them to the nearest town where they got food and shelter.

-

Well thats over. I gathered the Valthorns. As usual well have to face the issue that the heroes may be hostile, or may be friendly. We will initiate our hero-preparations procedure again. We had this preparation since the crusades, mainly to consider how to fight heroes on our home ground, should the temples order another round of Crusades.

Theres four of them. Five if we count the missing hero. We know that two of them are mages, and they have good shields, shields strong enough to stop the demon kings last bomb. They also survived the demon king, so that should put them in the Level 120s. In a straight combat, were in trouble. Even with both Lumoof and Edna, I think itll be a long shot if we even win. So, avoiding combat should be the first priority.

At least the propaganda from the temples are not outright hostile these days, so hopefully the heroes dont turn out that bad.

They would have to mop up the rest of the demons too. There are still demon champions and large hordes of demons left unchecked. The heroes will get to them soon, perhaps in a month.

Something doesnt seem quite right. I mused to the Valthorns, summarising the underground explorations.

Alka, my chief researcher nodded. Indeed. The amount of remnants we dug up seems rather small for what was a large capital.

Could everything be destroyed? A senior druid proposed. So many other kingdoms were destroyed that day.

Indeed, but most of them left behind a lot of noticeable debris or damaged structures. Alka soon ordered a far bigger archaeological study of the area. Within a month, we mapped out the debris and places where the damage was found. Indeed, there was a large circular area where there was very little debris or ruins. It was strange.

What are we theorising here? Edna asked.

Is it possible for the destruction to be so uneven?

It could be something that exploded and then destroyed the city before the demon kings sludge reached this place. We soon created a lot more magical sensors in that area in hope of cracking the clue, but we didnt detect anything at all. Perhaps whatever magic that caused this has faded after the decades.

If something happened, we were too late. Alka wondered.

-

The death of the demon king meant the seas and oceans returned to normal. Gradually. The storms closer to the southern continent were the first to recover from the turbulence. It will still take some time for the traders to resume, usually those merchants that were forced to change their jobs or businesses in order to adapt to the turbulent weathers would still need some time to research which trades are worthwhile, while some of the more confident or foolhardy merchants would immediately jump back. These are usually the first to move anyway.

-

During this time, Patreeck picked up some interesting individuals through his mind-reading abilities. These guys had magical camouflage abilities that hide their presence, but they could not mask their very clear thought-bubbles.

The artifact is acting funny. That missing hero is not here.

On closer look, I felt like Ive seen that thing before. A hero-locator. No, more importantly, there was something pressing against my presence, and I pressed back. The little mental or magical tug of war happened only shortly, then it disappeared.

False positive. Again. The two talked. I remembered how I felt like they seemed really high level all the way back then, but now, not anymore. Based on my much more refined magical sensors and my [inspection], I suspect they are in their level 60s, but had special equipment to support their tasks.

They paused.

Someone just used [Inspect] on me. Ah. They have a counter-detection ability. Thats interesting. It functioned just as how my [domain] protected me?

Me too. Stop talking. This meant whoever did that could hear us.

Oh. What do we do?

Retreat.

At that point, Patreeck asked. Should we pursue and follow? Once they are out of my mind-reading range itll be hard to find them. Patreecks mind-reading powers essentially revealed all hidden characters, a bit like a detector.

Yes. But dont kill them. I want to know what they are plotting. I quickly called on my high leveled Valthorn Rangers and Scouts. They had counter-espionage skills, though they are a little underdeveloped due to my extensive tree network.

My rangers gave chase, and they seemed to know it.

They fled. In fact, they actually disappeared out of my sight for a while and managed to throw fake trails that led my Rangers and Scouts on the wrong path.

Their skill or ability had a time limit, because about two towns away, deep in the woods, my trees could see them appear out of their illusions.

The hell was that.

Were too careless. Well, they still are. We shouldve known a supposed deity could see through our invisibility charms.

Okay. Okay. Lets calm down and review what we have. We didnt detect any sign of the hero.

Aeon has a depository of hero-items. So our artefact is probably detecting that.

So hes not here.

He might still be in the south, then. They took out their bag, and I saw something that looked pretty broken. A circular disc that was cracked.

When did that break? One of the spies asked the other.

I.. I dont know. I was too busy running away.

We need to report this.

At this point, I decided to let them believe they managed to lose my scouts. I kept my eye and watched them make the entire journey to the Eastern seaboard, and then got on some ships. Throughout the entire time, I learned a few things.

They are part of an organisation called the Laenza, and theyre trying to find heroes. I wasnt sure they were helping them, or trying to kill them, because it seemed they were prepared for both.

Find more info on this... Laenza.

What we soon found was that there were actually multiple members of the Laenza even on our central continent, but most of them were only mid-tier individuals, around level 30s to 50s. They had attempted at various times to recruit individuals of higher levels but with mixed success. Theres very little they could offer the nobility that they could not already obtain in some way or form from the existing structure.

Those we interrogated revealed nothing unique, other than the Laenza is a group dedicated to assisting heroes in their tasks. Or kill them, if they were detrimental.

They also had a magical ring that was hidden by magic, but soon revealed itself when brought close to me. It seemed that my [domain] had an anti-illusion effect. I wasnt sure what it did, but for now, it went into the magical labs for research.

More importantly, what did they want with the missing hero?