Seedling Portfolio

Seedling Portfolio

Year 225

Roon, Johann and Lumoof both arrived in Threeworlds, and found it the same as it once was. At least, at first glance. Their mission was simple, to just have a check on what has changed in the years since we last visited.

Its been a while since the three of us traveled together for something unrelated to the demon king. Johann shrugged.

Roon shrugged. Its usually Stella and Lumoof. And this is still tangentially related.

Three domain holders was quite overkill, but theyd all split up and headed in their own directions. Both Roon and Johann were rangers, and they had, in their arsenal of skills, a wide variety of camouflage, scouting and movement abilities that made them perfect for checking on these folks from afar. Lumoofs [projected presence] also helped play the same role.

How long till we get to see your dragon? Roon asked.

Its a dragon. Johann sighed, And guess what, dragons take forever to grow. Its just an egg now.

Hah! Roon laughed. Shouldve started with something more ordinary. Like a zaratan.

Im pretty sure Zaratans also take forever to mature.

At least with a zaratan, youd have your own interstellar ride.

Thats... a good point. I shouldve thought of that. Johann realized a personal Zaratan pet was probably the ideal interplanetary transportation vehicle. I wouldnt need Stella or the archmages to send me anywhere.

Roon just gave him a gentle punch on the shoulder. But I guess dragons just have that cool legendary factor. Anyway, we should split up and start searching.

Yup. Got it. Johanns body faded, and blended into the background. He was off, and Lumoof also activated his own [camouflage]. It didnt take long for them to each check on the three factions of Threeworlds.

***

Everythings normal here. Roon said through our shared communication ability, as he observed the massive city of the Sandpeople. They were a blend of desert creatures and humans, ruled by the scarab-men. Their warriors were the scorpion-oids, and their lesser folk everyone else. Doesnt even seem like the demons came this way.

Some minor damage to the main city, and a bit more on the outskirts, otherwise, its normal. Lumoof returned to the outskirts of the Crystal Mountain, and found it the same. The city looked far more heavily fortified than before, with large crystal golems on the walls. Those were new. There seemed to be some battle scars, but otherwise, its all normal.

The demons had come for the land of man, and they damaged them only slightly.

The Centaurs camps looked heavily damaged, and their population seemed to have shrunk quite a bit. But their main city holds, but I see the scars of heavy battle in this place. Theres a large segment of their vast steppes thats now filled with demonic corruption, and theres a large crater in the center that looks to be the remains of the demon king.

Roon and Lumoof activated their own teleportation scrolls, and arrived next to Johann in the vast, now corrupted steppes of the Centaurs.

They survived. Roon said. I suppose thatll have to be good enough.

With at least a third of their grazing lands gone- Johann naturally was sympathetic.

They dont need us here. Roon said. They chased Lumoof out the last time were here. They survived. If we approach them now, theyll view us with even more suspicion.

Lumoof nodded along. Roon is right. This isnt an urgent problem, even if the pain of the land is palpable. I felt it, of course. Even with my domain, I could shut it out, but its there, like someone shouting outside the window. The call of the trees, the grass and the land, for aid, to resist the interlopers.

Corrupters.

Undo the damage.

Ive done so on Branchhold, Ive aided the heroes to clear the demonic corruption, and there, its now almost all gone. I felt that same voice here, to clean it up.

We should destroy the daemolite. Johann said. Or shift it to one of the other worlds. Parasiteworlds a good place to start, since its a blank slate.

What if they want it? Roon retorted.

Then theyll get more demons.

A strategy like this required some knowledge of the nature and thought process of mortals, but the demons could read minds, and they have acquired that knowledge by capturing heroes in the past.

If this was the demons chosen strategy, it required eternal vigilance and heavy preparation over decades and centuries, and that was a very hard thing for a society of mortals to do effectively.

Well, good thing we have an immortal on our side, then? Alka laughed.

Youre all immortals. The issue is making sure our mortal friends share our concerns. If we warn them too much, and too consistently but nothing actually happens, theyll think, after a decade or two, its just scaremongering and we are just being naggy old creatures.

I had no issues with those longer lived, because they know. For someone who lived through one-in-a-hundred year disasters, those things were very real, but to those who didnt, or grew up after those disasters, they just dont feel it personally and would take things lightly. I would mitigate this in my Valthorns with my [dream academies] and other such abilities, and send them to the other worlds.

I realize this contradicted a thought I had previously with Branchhold. That different societies had different future-time-horizons. Some cultures prepared. Some cultures reacted.

Aeon, your concerns are overstated. Theres actually no reason to warn them at all. Alka interjected. What could the kingdoms do with their levels and their resources? Nothing truly substantial. Nothing compared to what we have access to. If anything, the duty to prepare falls on us, those with [domains]. We do not expect a regular man on the street to know how to guide a ship through a hurricane, and likewise, we do not expect a Village Chief to know what to do against a God.

Is that from a book somewhere? Stella quipped.

No. But our eyes can see, our minds can foresee, and we shall guide our fellow men through these dark woods.

Stella actually clapped. Youve been reading.

Yes, I have. Alka laughed.

I suppose it's true, theres not much these societies could do against such an existential threat.

***

Kraviek, my Treefolk [Aeonic Lord of Growth] approached me with the latest of void-attuned treefolks. The youngest one could now speak, and grew up well. By now, we have close to fifteen such treefolks, our process of breeding more of them was slow because we checked everything.

Our concerns of their weak physique was overstated, as it soon became clear that the soul adapted to the body, and the body adapted to the soul. Their soul springs became an unusual mixture of both void and normal mana, and their soul springs had a two-layered structure, one normal mana, one void.

Still too young to learn magic, the first void-attuned Treefolk was named Kaala. Curious, and uncertain of his place in the world, we spoke a lot, and the void child reminded me very much of a once-young Lausanne.

They still had their naive innocence, a clear, wide-eyed wonder of the world around them. They do not know to be intimidated, the very act of speaking to me did not strike them with fear.

Every time I look at the children I trained, and designed, all for the future of waging war, I felt conflicted.

They were necessary. The skills, the adaptations they had. All, in my mind, necessary.

Reality remains cruel, and with the demons all over the multiverse, my recruitment of talented children never stopped. The continuous process of building a pipeline of talent, for our war to end this cycle never ended.

I hoped there was a world some day in the future, where children could be children, and not have to fight wars on my behalf.

When we destroyed and defeated the demon king, I wondered for a moment whether Ive achieved my goals. I asked my domainholders once, whether this was it.

That this was where we should stop, since weve stopped the cycle for Treehome.

But everyone knew it wasnt.

All we did was buy time, and force them to rethink their strategy.

They would return. They were still there.

I looked at my future young soldiers all over Treehome and Branchhold, and prepared them for a war that I wish I never had to fight.

But it must.

One day it will end. One day we will have our victory. But until then, I will keep adding more to our war potential.