New Estates

New Estates

Year 223

No void mages in the angel world. Stella agreed after my discussion. They seemed so reasonable, though.

The most frightening folks usually sound reasonable. Thats how they get their foot through the door and win over followers. It is an art of guiding the blind, to achieve more perverse goals.

Is it really that bad? Edna said. If we need to, we can fight them. They lack the means and ways to compete with us.

Four-winged, six-winged angels, or higher, have no level restrictions, so dont exactly count them out. Lumoof answered. They are in the same class as dragons and that kind. They may gain their own domain holders, in due course. Given that they even can innately see the astral paths, they may gain access to other worlds sooner than we think.

...fuh. Edna nodded.

We should kidnap some and study them. Roon suggested. They are fascinating.

ROON! Stella said. You cannot be serious! Youre suggesting kidnapping innocent angels for studies! Aeon hasnt gone that far!

Then bribe them! Entice them with money, knowledge. Trade small useless information for it. The more we learn about them, the more we can prepare for them. Roon proposed.

Thats... Unethical. Stella said.

But it works. Roon said, and Edna nodded along. Keep our demons close, and in this case, angels, closer.

I agree. If these angels have innate astral-knowledge, that could be a welcome addition to our lineup. We may not need angels directly, but there are humans who developed similar abilities. Surely some arrangement can be made.

Stella frowned. I feel like thats cheating.

Its called preparation.

...fine. Stella wasnt pleased.

If they get there, I think thats not a bad thing. Edna admitted. Someone that could help fight the demons is still a net positive.

A point which I agreed with, and was why I let Raph go. We dont need much ties, beyond being there for the final battle, I guess.

If we want them there for the final battle, we will need ties.

Of course, if theres such a thing as a final battle. Theres a possibility this conflict is like pest-removal. Just a constant, never ending war against a multiversal cockroach infestation.

***

The second revelation, of course, was about my two new seeds. Just two seeds...? Roon and Johann immediately realized that this wasnt going to go that well. If lets say theres another two more seeds further down the road, after what... three decades, wed just have a grand total of nine worlds?

It wasnt great, and it meant that the total stable war potential was spread over nine worlds, more if we could add Stella and the void mages portal abilities.

The future we foresee is a war of attrition against the demons, and I could see the shifting battlelines in the stars. The war will be fought over many worlds, with the heroes, and nine worlds is not enough.

What if we did what we did in the lava-world, and attacked all the demons blobs.

They could take countermeasures. Stella said. The black blob wasnt adequately protected, and what makes you think these demons wont realize it? They have some battlefield intelligence, and can adapt to us.

So youre saying what we did was a fluke.

Stella paused. Not exactly. In specific circumstances, we could repeat it. I do not mean to reduce our achievements down to something less. Its just that... its a changing battlefield, and the demons can and will adapt.

The ranger laughed. Alright, alright. We gotta hop to the Mountainworld. Theyll have a demon king too.

***

Unlike our little stint in the lavaworld, I took a step back for the Mountainworld. A cursory scouting mission to the demons world, which returned us to the boreal demonworld filled with ice and trees.

Sure you guys dont want to do more?

Lumoof shrugged. Well take a step back and support you guys this time.

You do realise you are sharing your mind- Chung, being the natural voice of skepticism among the heroes.

Lumoof does it and hes alright. Stella said. Look. I know the risks, but we have this core, and we have to crack it. We cant fight this war against the demons blind. Were currently essentially reacting to every single invasion.

Were doing a lot!

I know, but we can do better. Fight wars without having to fight them, you know? All it takes is more brain power, and in this world of magic, I really dont see why youre feeling queasy about it. Stella said. Can you build something, a structure or a thing to do so?

I checked, and realised I could. Essentially, I would have to grow an attachment that would tap into her mind, something like a living helmet, which would then be linked to an artificial mind. Yes. Well start small.

Within a month I had a prototype, forged out of [wood magic] and my evolutionary powers, to create a wooden suit that essentially linked itself to her scalp. It would tap into her mind, if she granted access, to be augmented by artificial minds.

Holy Shit, I feel like Iron Man. Stella said as she was wrapped in a wooden suit that was linked to artificial minds nearby. The limitation was that the transmission of the mind-waves meant the artificial minds couldnt be very far. Is this how you see the world?

Also, because shes a [domain] holder, she has to explicitly grant access to the artificial minds to her mind. That, in a way, was a weakness. Essentially, a domain was a firewall, and allowing artificial minds was a vulnerability in her mental defenses. Unlike Lumoof, who benefited from avatar mode, which meant he could get the mental support directly without having to open up to that sort of vulnerability. My priest just shrugged. Yup. It takes a bit of getting used to.

You should totally roll this out to everyone. Its freaking amazing. Stella said. Its like what modern soldiers wanted to have. A dedicated AI for every single one.

Roon and Johann were both intrigued. Seriously?

Alka observed it, and nodded. Its that amazing? I already have these lab assistants in my lab.

I know, but these things help so much. If they can be specifically configured- Stella asked. Aeon, can they be magic focused?

They are designed to do specific functions. It would need some prototyping and training before they can do what you want them to.

Ah. Never mind. Lets see how this does against the cores void-map- She then tested out her contraption, and tapped into the demon kings core. I felt the supporting artificial minds glow and then....

They splattered in a small explosion, as the demands of the demon kings core overwhelmed them. I immediately cut off the connection.

Oof. Not ready yet. Stella cursed.

I could use a titan-soul to make an artificial mind. That kind of mind support might be sufficient for Stellas intentions. But I still didnt have the option. I needed more void-mind related experiments, before the system grants me the option to create a void-variant supermind.

Despite the failure, I liked the idea enough.

A combination of familiars, artificial minds, special wood-mind suits to support high leveled Valthorns, I could give them support in terms of mental load, coordination and strategy.

It felt like a natural evolution of the Valthornian supersoldier, and so, I immediately got Patreeck to start work on designing new supersoldier suits. In line with its superhero inspiration, I decided the first version would be named the Timberman Mark I.

***

Howd it go? I asked Edna, who reappeared from the pocket realm.

It went well. It wasnt even that hard a fight. The knight answered. Just punching some monsters really hard, and I get this.

She showed off her new haul, a shining sword. [Sword of the Demon Slayer].

Its got buffs quite comparable to your demon hunter special class, but its an object, instead of a class.

It was interesting that the system permitted multiple iterations to achieve the same goals, and the return of the mythical era of knights was really appealing to me. My own extrapolation suggested that Edna could even some day obtain some kind of excalibur-equivalent. At the domain level, the system seemed to encourage the creation of new myths or legends.

Interestingly, Im permitted to undertake quests to obtain specific anti-swords.

Oh?

If I chose demons as my chosen enemy for the quest, Id get swords for that purpose. The only condition it needs to fulfill is some kind of evil or injustice or destruction criteria, and I could choose them as a target. That means, should a hero commit evil, I could undertake a set of quests under this ability, that would grant me some kind of anti-hero sword.

Thats really overpowered.

It is. Edna said. Lesser knights can obtain lesser variants, of course, but it is still an incredible force multiplier.

It meant knights, under this mechanism, would function as a check-and-balance since any act of tremendous evil could result in creation of anti-evil quests.

Spaizzer

Thanks for reading :)