Parasitreec Relationship

Parasitreec Relationship

Year 199

The war in the South intensified, and by now, it felt like everyone was fighting everyone else. Yet, the two temples continued to enforce the blockade on the Southern Continent. Only, this time, to keep the people in. The temples did not want the demons to spread to the other continents, so they called on the other continents to reinforce the blockade.

This is ridiculous. Edna spoke to us and the council. We need to act decisively, the temples are not doing a good job, and a lot of the kingdoms have openly gone against the temples for the recent madness. This demonic parasite is going to spread, and it will spread quickly.

Madness, as in, glassing of entire cities because of the suspicions of corrupted men among them. The champions also were more crafty than normal. They were adapted to the minds of men, and were able to hide.

My spies tell me, some are already on the other continents.

It was a matter of time. for new novels

I dont get it. The heroes are clearing up cities. One of the Lords considered the facts. The heroes met a few champions too, and they made short work of them.

Every time a city gets cleared, refugees rush to it by the thousands, and inevitably, the demons return. Edna explained. They only managed to build one single large scale star mana emitter so far, and that only cleaned up an area the size of Freshka and its immediate surrounding areas. Even that, caused huge political conflicts that the heroes clearly missed.

The heroes were rather oblivious to the politics of where they placed their miracle cures. Cities and kingdoms wanted it, and so, the city that possessed such an artifact had to protect it with their lives from the other kingdoms who wanted it.

Matriarch Hoyia, who was also on the call, said With every previous demon king, the worlds generally agree to drop their arms against each other and support the heroes with the demons. Not this one. Theres not even a semblance of unity against the demons, and everyone seems to think that someone else is a demon.

I thought to myself then, that this is what it will be like, in a world without demon kings. Everyone is fighting each other for the slimmest of advantages and wealth. Felt like an absolute shitshow. No. It felt like earth. It was a sad thing to think about, that, even if we stopped the demon king, the world would just revert to its natural state.

So, I didnt.

I focused on the larva that we cultivated in our little patch of Rottedlands, and we experimented with them to a great degree. It was really easy to kill them when they were outside. We could squish them like maggots. The problem was still, how do we kill them when they are already in a host, without harming the host.

Anyway, as we researched, rather than actually gain the ability to create a similar larva-type parasite, I instead gained a different type of parasite.

[Youve gained the skill : Normal Tree Parasite Creation. You may now create tree parasites of your own. These parasitic trees take the form of vines that grow on the skin and flesh of living beings. They leech on the lifeforce of their hosts.]

I checked. They did nothing else.

What the fuck. All that and these parasitic trees did nothing else? It doesnt even let me gain control like the demons?

I need to upgrade the skill, then? Is that it?

Anyway, we conducted more experiments on the larva, with different kinds of materials and injections. It didnt yield much.

Maybe were not doing it correctly. Alka suggested as he helped to run another separate batch of tests on these demonic parasites. He didnt ask questions where the parasites came from, of course. We should be testing a response on live persons.

Why?

From our earlier knowledge, we know certain skills and abilities can delay and stop the demons from taking control, but this is not very useful since we cant give skills on a large scale. But, we also know that mental attacks work very well on these demonic parasites, as they are attuned to thoughts.

I allowed my field scientist to complete his thoughts.

Can we drug it to death? Not to kill it, but essentially turn it useless by overwhelming it with stimulation.

With psychedelic sap?

Yes! Alka said. We should try it out. A dose of strong psychedelics on someone possessed by demons.

I ran this through my council, the earthlings and my leaders in the South, just for their thoughts.

Overstimulating the demonic parasite... could be worth a try. Stella said. If its better than killing the host.

One of the Lords theorised. Theres always been a drug trade, even in the South. If this theory holds any water, those kingdoms where theres higher use of these psychedelics should see lower demonic-possession?

The South doesn't have that kind of data. Another Lord countered. Not everyone has a bureaucracy that tracks everything.

I felt like that was a jab at me, or at us generally.

We can send a batch to Matriarch Hoyia and let her test it out with our forces there.

Edna nodded. The idea is these things should essentially drive the demons wild?

I had yet to introduce the demonic parasites to the Canari, since, well, it didnt seem right for me to subject them to the horrors of our homeworld.

With the discovery of coffee as a possible solution for cleansing the body of parasites, we had to quickly grow large quantities of coffee. As it is, the central continent already has some coffee plantations, and we had some existing coffee stockpiles, but its certainly insufficient if we were to push for a wide-scale consumption of coffee.

As we pushed the kingdoms that were affiliated or in a hidden alliance with us to consume more coffee, the temples seemed to have discovered our solution, and they too started widely promoting the consumption of coffee.

As a solution for the South, which had a large population of humanoids, the coffee worked for a few months, since it essentially forced the larva to make a choice.

Infest or Leave the body, rather than remain dormant or hidden.

The widespread consumption of coffee reduced the demonic parasites hold, and brought about the end of internal wars, and an odd tradition of visitors and travellers having to down a dose of coffee before entering new towns. I believe this would probably be a new tradition unique to the South, since they bore the brunt of the demonic infestation.

The temples, of course, began touting the discovery of coffee as their success, a claim, which we disputed, but did not strongly pursue. Whats the point, anyway?

Also, the demons adapted, and took a more adversarial stance. Once possessed, the demons immediately infested and surfaced, rather than remaining dormant. This helped clear the confusion and fog on who were demons, and who were not.

The kingdoms continued to struggle with the demon champions, since these champions were still very powerful, but it was easier when one didnt have to watch their back all the time.

The heroes, thus, continued to push towards the demon-infested nations. There were large swaths of the south where the demons have fully conquered the kingdoms. The risk, of course, was that there were some that have yet to be infested by the demons, but the heroes advanced with their star mana serving as a beacon.

They burned brightly, and the demons were moths drawn to the flame.

Two more years. The demons were slain 8 years ago. At least 2 more years to go.

Year 200

Coffee didnt work that well on treefolk, drakes and lizard-people. This was a secret, of course, but we couldnt keep it for long. Once news of infested drakes and treefolks went out, it only resulted in more speciesism, as trade and deals with the treefolks, drakes and lizard-people essentially dropped to zero. They were pretty much the pariah in the southern continent.

That sucked. We needed something that worked for them, and it was partly because of how their bodies processed coffee. The caffeine that overwhelmed the demons were absorbed by certain organs unique to these three races, and thus spared the demons.

Strangely, even minotaurs got ostracized even though they were close to immune to the effects of these parasites.

The Hawa temple, which counted humans, elfs and dwarves as the majority of its believers, outright commanded that these other races be banned from all of its allied territories, and led to large refugee camps as these races were forced out of their homes and villages.

It annoyed me very much that our solutions amplified racial issues. We tried stronger doses and so on, but it didnt work. We needed something with caffeine that the bodies of these races didnt absorb.

So back to the drawing board. I tasked a few lizard-people and treefolks to lead the research, since, well, I sensed that some of the human and elven researchers didnt give the issue the same weightage as before.

That also annoyed me.

-

Meanwhile, the heroes attacked more of the demon-infested kingdoms. The demon champions had already taken over as the ruler of the various kingdoms, and they ran the kingdoms with their stolen skills.

It was annoying to fight them, because the demons were already strong with their own abilities, which augmented the basic strength of their hosts, and on top of that, they were blessed by the stolen [king] class skills, or [general] or [strategist] skills. Some of these [king] skills gave these demons usable skills!

They could steal skill! They could even stack the skills and make the regular demons stronger than usual.

It didnt occur to me to think about how to exploit the demons natural abilities, until Alka, who was still busy with Lumoofs purchased otherworldly research, offhandedly suggested. Capture one of these demon champions. We may learn how to use its power against the demon king.

Huh. That made so much sense to me.

I felt like an idiot. I always was, of course. Thats why I rely on those smarter than me.

I immediately pinged Stella and Edna. Stella, to open one more portal, and Edna, to tell me where the nearest demon nation was. I would like to find one of these demon champions, if not more.

We dont know. Its not as if the demons say they are demons. They just somehow know that they are demons.

That was also a good question. How do these demon parasites identify each other as demons?

If there is a mechanism, can we copy it, and alter it such that the demons identify us as demons? With such an ability, we could essentially smuggle ourselves into the demon worlds, and explore it without fear.

Actually, taking that to the extreme, if everyone in the world was identified as demon, could we pretty much co-exist with the demons?

Spaizzer

THERE IS NO CHAPTER NEXT WEEK AS I AM ON BREAK.