The Uncertaintree Principle

The Uncertaintree Principle

Year 206 -

Lumoof and Edna was the first to go through. With their abilities, they had little to fear whatever that may be on the other side.

The riftgate hummed in a strange sound, Stella and her team of void mages were excited to fire up the riftgate. Our hope was that we would eventually be able to manufacture these riftgates, but for now, I was content with salvaging and pillaging the demons for their riftgates.

I found it silly that the civilised world was the backward one, that we had to resort to pillaging the demons for their interplanar technology.

The Valthorns wargamed this entire operation about fifteen times, tapping into Patreecks mind reading ability and my [Dream Academy] as preparations for this special military operation into the demonic lands.

According to the void mages, the riftgate should theoretically be able to send through about 1,000 guys before it runs out of void mana, at which point Stella and all would have to recharge them.

Stella cannot reach the demon world using her normal void portals, so the rift gate was crucial to ensure that a portal can be opened. Based on what weve seen, these demonic portals travel both ways.

It was time, and see whether our plans could survive first contact.

***

I felt a buzz as we travelled through the riftgates. It was similar to that time when I snuck through using my own roots, but this time, it was Lumoof who went first.

The sky was bright, like an extremely sunny day, and the first thing we felt was the incredibly strong sunlight that burned. Literally.

It wasnt fire, or at least, fire immunity didnt seem to protect against these harsh rays.

Lumoof instantly activated a wooden shield to serve as an umbrella, and even then, the naturally fire-resistant shield still got warm. Items that were not protected quickly caught fire.

It wasnt just sunlight too. It was some kind of magical UV that seemed to heat everything up. For Lumoof, it was still tolerable thanks to his wide range of resistances, and Edna, she was protected by a magical shield.

This was not a good development, since it meant the lower leveled, those in the level 80s and 90s would have to sit out from the invasion. The mana cost of sustaining a perpetual sunshield would mean their ability to fight would be severely impaired. Even my beetles, unmodified, would find themselves weakened by the incredibly strong sunlight.

There was a bright, glowing white sun that burned overhead, and the place, at first, was just a vast desert canyon, sand, dirt and rocks of all shapes and sizes.

Hold. I told the guys back home, and shared our first findings. Our plans designed around a habitable environment had to be immediately scrapped. We had some plans designed around inhospitable environments, but that meant the strike force was now a much, much smaller one, composed of my level 120+ elites.

Alka was keen to go through, but instead, I sent one of my Treechikomas over. I hoped to use it to conduct some experiments-

It burned to death.

So back to the drawing board. I had to design something with natural shieldings, and so, sent my minds out to scour our archives and Registree for such items and technologies. We should have some kind of natural shields, or design large walkers for it.

Alternatively, we could immediately start tunnelling in the sand to avoid the rays, and try to bring the fight below ground. But Lumoofs initial assessment wasnt great. The ground was naturally sandy, and our tunnels would cost a lot more mana to maintain.

Well, spot any demons? Lumoof looked around, squinting. The large wooden shield acted like a massive umbrella.

Edna looked around, and then we saw them, camouflaged by the sand and the dirt. Giant-sand-lizards.

There. Sand-lizard-demons, their backs looked like rocks, they blended really well against the canyon. The sand-lizards didnt move, they were frozen, unmoving. The only thing that truly made them demonic was very faint reddish lines that glowed with demonic energy.

Edna didnt move, not yet, anyway.

All of the sudden, the sand started to shake, and then, wind started to blow. We saw a wall of sand in the distance.

Sandstorm. Lumoof walked next to Edna, and a shield went up around them. The sand blasted through the surroundings, and the sand actually dealt damage. These were corrosive sand.

Well, were truly in hostile territory. Edna smirked.

Funny. Lumoof joked as the wooden shields all had sand embedded in them. The sand smashed into the shields repeatedly, and they didnt do much damage against those powerful shields. The lizard should be attacking any time now.

They didnt.

The sandstorm stopped almost as quickly as it came, The sands, once whipped up by the sudden gusts, now fell back to the ground.

The sand-lizards did not move.

Edna and Lumoof shared a glance, Lumoof asked. Should we engage?

No. Lets go find the demon king.

Lumoof and Edna activated their magical artifacts, and started to fly across the terrain. Indeed, moving on foot in this sandy terrain seemed like a huge pain in the ass. Everywhere was sand and rock.

There was no sign of water anywhere, but plenty of sand-lizards. As they flew, they spotted other kinds of demonic creatures too. There were a few sand-serpents and worms, these were more like gigantic wurms with a rocky skin, and then there were these rock-like scorpions and insects too.

This entire place is a demonic desert wasteland. Edna commented, and had to stop as the flying artifact ran out of mana. Somehow flying in this place took a lot out of the place, and Edna noticed the magical artifact seemed to drain out quicker than others.

Which, after a little bit of investigation, was due to the sunlight. The sunlight directly damaged magical items and also drained mana out of them. The sun, as strange as it sounded, had a strong magical-ignition quality to it, such that it weakened everything with mana.

How does a world like this even hold demons?

We noticed that the demons frequently hid underground too. Even the massive rockwurms and the serpents all tunneled underground after a while, and they only surfaced momentarily.

I knew that demons were generated by their spawning pools or the spires. But in such a world, where were they?

Edna took out Stellas void-mana-detector, and it went round and round like a compass faced with magnetic interference.

This is strange.

Was there void mana in the air itself? Or was the sun emitting some kind of void energy? I wasnt sure.

The demons were strangely quiet, and mostly didnt move.

The earth shook, and we looked around. Well? Edna asked as she stood in the midst of thirty demonic corpses. Hmm... they dont decay as quickly as the other demons.

Lumoof nodded, and the whimpering sand lizard crouched. Strange. Demonic bodies should begin to fade within minutes.

There was a reason why its difficult to harvest or recover demonic parts. From what weve seen some demon champions leave their bodies behind, but all began decaying and reverting to demonic mana within minutes, even if that process took a while.

Do you think its the anti-mana qualities? Edna speculated. That its interfering with their natural process of returning to demonic mana?

Lumoof shrugged. No idea. Maybe these demons are made of real materials, and the decaying parts are only- Lumoof flipped one of the bodies over, and noticed some of the softer underbelly decaying as normal. Yeah. Only parts sustained by demonic mana?

Edna was quiet as she stared. Mountain-eater demons? I recall something similar in the really old archives. She immediately began to close her eyes and expanded her senses. In the darkness of the night, we felt the ground and the sand tremble and shake. I stretched out my senses, and realised something had just gone underneath us during the fight, and it was moving. It was as if the entire desert moved.

The anti-magical qualities interfered with our senses, and we didnt sense its movement beneath us. It was deep, but the ground moved. At its size it was probably a demon champion, but it lumbered slowly. I wasnt sure because of all the natural dirt and rock really messed with my senses, and I wasnt sure whether it was pure rock, or part-demon.

Still, I believe it was like a supermassive lizard that took a step every half an hour. It was almost a stationary target.

Oh great. Mountain-sized anti-magical rock demons. Edna cursed. Well need miners and magical pickaxes.

Lumoof squinted his eyes to look in the distance.. I say its a good opportunity for Alka to test out his bombs. He always lamented that the demons are too small, or move too quickly. I say one of his bigger ones would take this one out. A bombs a good way to level a mountain, especially one that probably seems to be a moving mountain range.

Itll take a lot of mana to get it to work- wait. Theres more? Edna turned and focused her senses even further. This world didnt have moons, so it was really, really dark. But she could still feel it, the seemingly synchronised movements.

Lumoof laughed. Eh, he just gotta wrap up the bomb in one of Aeons massive anti-demon spears. Or just get our two new domain holders to pop the bomb right under its belly.

I wondered inwardly whether this was a good time for strategic banter between my two domainholders.

Edna clapped her hands together. Thats a good idea! I suppose its time for Roon and Johann to display their new domain skills anyway!

I had to interrupt. Guys, wheres the riftgate?

More importantly, how are these things going to get through the rift gates? They were way larger than the largest demon champions Ive seen so far, unless the rift gate had some kind of temporary-shrinkage ability?

Lumoof took out the device again, and it was similarly jammed. Nope. Not working. Maybe we need Stella here, but thats a risk.

A small one since Stella also has my Court of the Deitree ability, so I could pull her back if needed.

Stella?

Stella paused. Are these creatures... captured and converted zaratans?

Huh?

Theres an uncanny similarity in their nature as moving mountains, and zaratans as moving islands.

Are you saying these monsters dont need rift gates because they can tap into the astral pathways directly?

Thats a good point, but no. Im saying these guys may be former zaratans. Maybe this world was a zaratan world.

I dont see the similarity, honestly. Other than their size. I honestly dont see it. Maybe that they may be reptile-inspired creatures?

***

Anti-magical demons. Is that a first? Chung asked through the magical device. He was somewhere else, we were not sure where. Probably somewhere in the Southern Continent.

Apparently no. Colette said as she read the dossier my Valthorns had compiled. There was something similar many, many years ago. About... 1,200 years ago. But those were regular sized creatures. Apparently these ones are massive stuff.

The demons are out to get us. Howd they know we have two archmages on the team?

Colette and Prabu collectively shrugged. Random chance I suppose, or perhaps through the arrangement of demon king types? I mean, if you know what kind of demon kings you will introduce in a series, and what kind powers work against earlier demon kings, you could, without knowing what exactly is deployed, arrange subsequent demon kings to be counters of what countered the earlier demon kings.

So youre saying this is purely from the demons end, and that this arrangement, or sequence of demon kings is pre-set. They predicted that the previous king would be countered, and thus set subsequent demon kings to be counters of the hero counters.

Yeah. LIke, pokemon. If youre going to play a Grass-type, and you predict the enemy will make a counter, perhaps Fire type, then you could, without knowing whether its actually a Fire type, set that the pokemon that follows is a Water-type.

...that makes sense.

At which point, Prabu added. This makes Kens idea of a League of Heroes even more compelling, honestly. We could essentially theorise whats a counter for the counter of the current generation?

Chung paused and thought about it for a moment. But, how are parasites our counters?

Maybe theres a sequential pattern, or paired patterns, that only three successive sets of demon kings follow this counter-of-counter pattern. The ones in between are all randomised.

Chung sighed. Are we attributing actual intelligence and predictive ability to the demons now?

They are intelligent. They can talk. And they can think. They have strategic ability. Prabu responded. Even if its just concentrated on each demon king. From what weve seen, they are not purely stupid.

Colette smiled and just stretched. Maybe the demons just some kind of ancient self-replicating war-program.

Chung actually laughed. Thats my theory too!

Did I tell you Ken thought the demons sounded like some kind of multiverse-wide Life-Harvesting system?

Chungs face straightened. Dont tell me you believe that.

Its possible, I think. Even though we dont see any evidence of harvesting...

Maybe we lack the tools to see what exactly they are harvesting?

What, theyre harvesting war-energy like Ares?

Possible!