A walk in the void forest

A walk in the void forest

Year 216

[Void Explorer]. At that moment, I felt Stella do something, I waited for it to happen, and then... detected nothing.

What happened?

A single, split body of mine is in the void forest, and its traveling there. With this, I can go and see a lot further than just relying on our astral sight. Best part, I can establish a void portal to anywhere my void explorer is. But only one world at a time.

Oh. I couldnt see it. Is it similar to what Snek did?

A bit. But he couldnt travel very far. Ive got so such restriction, and I dont need to kill myself to do it.

But using void portals does mean that heroes cant travel to whatever you find.

Yes, but you can, and as long as your seed gets through, it also means the heroes can.

This also seems like a duplication of your efforts with the rift gates language.

Well, in a way, yes and no. We hoped to learn the rift gates language to enable us to travel to faraway worlds, but, its like randomly dialing numbers without knowing what the numbers are. With this, I could actually arrive at a world, and figure out whats the number to call through my void explorer, since I know its location in the void forest. Of course, I need to get the number and lock the number while its there, before I move on, because the numbers change as the void forest moves.

I frankly struggled to understand this concept. The very fact that we lock the number, locks the number, even as it wobbles. But if we never lock-on to the worlds number, that number keeps changing.

Stella called it like a slot-machine or a schroedingers cat, because a worlds calling number is not fixed until it is observed and locked in a riftgate. Perhaps the very act of locking it in a riftgates releases a signal to the void sea or void forest that identifies that world as this particular number as linked to it.

Outside of complicated void magic logic which I still struggle to understand, Stella was now a member of the pantheon, and that meant she could now venture out into the other worlds with an insurance policy.

Itll still hurt as hell, and Im not sure if there are side effects, but we would try not to find out. Nothing so powerful didnt have side effects.

What else? Any particular benefits from gaining your domain?

She shrugged. It took forever, but frankly, I feel a lot stronger, and my mana pool felt like it just tripled. Not just that, it even felt like my void manas a little bit more dense and stronger. Most importantly, Ive got a far better view of the void forest, and that, I think, will be the most helpful ability.

I see.

But now, we can move on to the next phase. I briefed Stella on the full details on what my goal was, and whether she was willing to assist me on it. She said she wouldnt take the battle itself, but she would be more than happy to play the role of the logistics and transportation person. And can we do something about all these things attempting to read my mind? Whys my [domain] constantly blocking attempted interference?

Edna chuckled when she heard it. It comes with the level. Now you know how many things are constantly attempting to read your mind.

Shit. Stella cursed. But where are they from, how do they do it from this far away?

Edna just shook her head, and then walked to the wooden window overlooking the entirety of Branchhold. Well, whats next?

Whats next is we figure out what to do with the next demon king, while helping that parasiteworld get back to its feet.

Our victory on the Parasiteworld was unknown to the general public, it was an invasion known only to the senior leaders of the Valtrian order, and the select group of people around the heroes.

For now, no ones clamouring for anything, but now that I pretty much have an entire world to repopulate, its something I needed to think about more seriously.

What do you guys think about a planetary migration programme to the Parasiteworld? I asked them. The parasiteworld has no native population to immigrate and build a city. Id need to invite a pioneer generation to move to the world, and live there.

The first group I approached were naturally the Canari and many other similar, less populated groups.

Aeon has gained access to an unpopulated world, and it is my honor to extend an invitation to the Canari to make a move to this world.

Its unpopulated? Does that mean Aeon giving us the entire world? My diplomat flinched at the sheer greed of the Canari princes statement. The Canari had lived on Treehome for 2 decades now, and theres a group of lost generation, those born on Treehome, but found themselves with an identity crisis.

No. You do need to negotiate which parcel of land you want from the senior Valthorns, the allocation of land currently sits with Patriarch Lumoof. The Canari is just one of the first groups invited for this move. He hoped that this new world would be a permanent home for the Canari.

If were sharing we are not interested-

One of the other Canari leaders quickly interrupted the Prince. Let us take this back and discuss.

For the Canari that lived as the sole race on what was Cometworld, a life of coexistence with the other races was a huge, huge problem. The fact that they havent waged any large wars is merely because they were extremely intimidated by the sheer power we had. They didnt have any single person who could match any of my level 100 fighters, what more my domain holders.

Or we could keep it as a reserve weapon, until we have a wider array of tools to deploy. Im personally of the view that we dont want to alert the demons too much. Were uncertain of their intellectual ability, and what sort of retaliation if they start viewing us as a threat. They would start paying attention to us, and the longer we can pull the wool over their eyes, the stronger we can be.

That too. Stella nodded. Secondly, the bad news. The demons have a set core suns. These are the black suns we saw, and I saw at least five or six of them, each located in a different segment of space. These things, from what I briefly saw through the core, provide the fuel and the demonic mana, and also, theres a black blob, which gives the intelligence behind the core. If the endgame is to defeat the demons permanently, we will need to take out these suns, somehow. So unfortunately, theres no real single target at the center of it all, unless that black

I suddenly realized that maybe its a variant of my own clone ability. Were the demons, at its heart, created by some kind of demon-life type of god?

Or should I treat the term slavers literally, that there is, at its heart, a parasitic virus that seeks to assimilate all races into its fold, enslaving those which resisted?

The third item is that I should be able to locate Sneks homeworld within the next 10 to 15 years, and establish a connection to that world. The question therefore, is Sneks world important enough for us to do so? I ask this, because my void explorers ability to survey worlds is quite limited.

Were constrained by Aeons clone. Edna responded.

Ken immediately interjected and supported Sneks case. Yes. Sneks world is valuable. His world has demonic dragons, and their people are familiar with blood magic and spiritual magic to an incredible degree. Sneks own abilities are good, but theres more of that on their homeworld. Saving it, or rescuing whoever thats left is an overall increase in combat power.

You do realise we need to agree too, right? Chung added, in a rare rebuke of Kens position.

Ken glared at his friend, but quickly saved it. Yes. I am aware, but at the very least, we could arrange an escape for those still living on that world, if a full invasion cant be done. Weve seen what the demons do when their worlds get invaded.

There was an uncomfortable silence, but then Prabu cut in. What if we use Stellas void explorer to look for more worlds, more living worlds specifically? There should be their own heroes, and with that, we could grow the league of heroes. Itll make it a lot easier to defeat any demonic scourge with a bigger league of heroes.

That too. Stella said. Theres two real directions at the moment, I either send my void explorer towards the demonic core and find whats there, or go the other direction where Sneks world is, and see what else we can find along the way. From what I can see, my void explorer takes a really long time to get anywhere, because the space between worlds is so freaking large, and there are some other strange creatures in the void that I would like to avoid.

There are things in the void forest?

Things quite difficult to describe. If youre familiar with the more wild, cosmic horror stuff... yeah. They are there, and well, what we do is we avoid them.

Can they fight demons?

Stella just shrugged. Id like to be in the void forest. I believed it to be the way forward, and if needed, Id like to meet these creatures.

Should we vote on the last one? Stella asked, and Lumoof nodded.

Edna shrugged. A league of heroes would definitely buy us time, I guess, and we should save whats left of Sneks world. For.

Eventually the majority voted For, except for Chung, Roon and Johann. It was cute that it was the three archer-hero and domainholders that voted against. They are focused on their targets.

***

Its been one year since weve liberated the Parasiteworld, and the worlds energy level continues to increase. We spotted the appearance of more natural monsters and animals, including more variants of regular animals such as cats and dogs. Even the vegetation seemed to have started to sprout.

From the core, which now glowed, we noticed the holes in the core started to fill in. It would take some time, but eventually, I believe the world would recover.

For now, that consciousness from within the core remain dormant.

I thought of taking the core before, but I didnt want to be like the demons. I also wanted to see if I could cooperate with it.

Spaizzer

Thanks for reading. On September 17th, 2018, that was when Tree of Aeon's first chapter went on RR. So we're almost 4 years old!

So, today I have THREE shoutouts, and I hope you guys are willing to give them a chance :)

First shoutout - /fiction/56014/dying-for-a-cure

Just when Vince was on the crux of starting his life, he found out it was going to end. Cancer. Inoperable. Less than a year to live. Then he's summoned to the magical world of Earris and thrown directly into battle. He quickly learns that everyone in this world has a Skill, even him. Though his appears not to be useful...

Second Shout /fiction/58021/blair

Blair is an action-packed litrpg apocalypse with a dark elf protagonist. It's in the same genre as Primal Hunter and shares some similarities, so if you enjoyed that check it out!

Third is something written by a 'friend' - Hydra and the Hero's shadow

It's an academy story with a summoner MC, litrpg and cultivation /fiction/58533/hydra-and-the-heros-shadow-academy-cultivation-litrpg