245. Chronometree

245. Chronometree

Year 248

The time ticked. We had 5 years until the comet intersected with the demon turtleworld, and Alka was in a rush to hunt more demon mothers. Alka got a title, but the rest of us didnt, simply because it was the same title as the one before when we liberated Tropicsworld.

This demonic houndsworld was free.

Lumoof stayed back, and made regular trips to this world, to get a sense of the worlds mind. Each world had a will, and each will was probably slightly unique-

Woof.

I was flooded with sounds and images of dogs and hounds, and they came from the freed core instead. Dogs. Hounds. All kinds. I saw a field of grass and flowers, and dogs running through them, chasing after larger animals. Sheeps. Cows. Animals.

There were just dogs. They were a little like the Canari, but these were not truly sapient. It was just a world with dogs. I felt more images of dogs, and I briefly wondered whether the overwhelming presence of demonic hounds throughout the demonic worlds was due to worlds like this. Surely there are demonic cats as well.

I shouldve known that some of these Will of the Worlds have primal, feral minds. Just like how tropicsworld communicated mainly with images and sensations.

***

On Mountainworld, the local team prepared for the coming demonic invasion. Five years was plenty of time, but with explosive crystals in relative short supply, the forces on the Mountainworld had to find local alternatives.

The heroes, in particular, led the charge, as they adopted some of our methods and used their [hero forges] to create star mana explosives. These were functionally unusable via the void portals as they cant be shipped and delivered as payload to the coming comet due to the void-star mana interactions.

So, they deployed and made them on Mountainworld instead, and for now, everything was stored in my clone tree. These were incredibly powerful bombs made of pure star mana, and if I intended for any of my clones to go with a bang, teleporting these star mana bombs through my clones was probably one of the best ways. Its likely to destroy my own clone in the process, or severely injure and damage my clone.

The demon king could be early or late, but for now the star paths through space were still relatively fuzzy. The path still wasnt robust enough, but if we wanted, a void archmage could open a path to explore the invaders world.

But void archmages are in short supply. We have four, still only four, and they are all occupied with their own projects.

Despite that, the heroes are confident, and they have every reason to be. Even with our B-team deployed on Mountainworld to support the heroes, they should still have enough weapons at their disposal to weaken whatever came their way.

We should be able to pin down the demon kings location closer to its arrival, perhaps in another four years.

***

Tropicsworld was our primary backup location. Large and mostly uninhabited, we maintained multiple operation bases back in the days of the war, but since its eventual reclamation, we granted the use of some of these bases to the pioneer migrants.

But, with the coming comet, we had to prepare for evacuation of an entire planet, and a lot of my Valthorns came over and constructed a few cities out of locally available materials. Along with it came everything the cities needed to be self-sufficient.

The pioneers did well, with the few [Pioneer Lords] and [Pioneer Chiefs] leading the way, and the relative safety provided by perpetual Valthorn presence meant there were already a few independent cities of their own.

The great thing is that theres effectively an information embargo between Tropicsworld and other worlds, because almost no message got through without the void mages, or me knowing about it.

[Message] spells didnt work across worlds, though there are some magical ability that allowed communication across worlds. My Valthorns tested certain communication abilities like [mind-link], which allowed two people to maintain a mental link, and it persisted even through other worlds, albeit at a high mana cost per message.

In time we would probably need to figure out a way to tweak the riftgates such that they function as information routers and modems.

Prior to our reclamation of the Tropicworld, there were already multiple large forests due to my presence and the long war against the parasitic demons, and these days, the entire world was pretty much covered with trees, except for the areas where the terrain warped to suit the recovering cores preferences.

The pioneers had to adapt to the new environment, and they did so with quite a bit of success since the beginning of the reclamation projects. But so far, the core somehow knew where we were and no one had actually died when it did some unusual terrain adjustments.

I estimate the core to be about a third of Treehomes strength since its freedom three decades ago. The rate of recovery over the past three decades appear to be fairly erratic. Im not sure whether the rate of recovery of Tropicsworld would slow down or accelerate.

In any case, at the current strength it should be able to sustain the population of Threehome. If barely.

I do have a tinge of worry, whether overloading a world with too much people affected the core.

My domain holders were busy, but with the Houndworld freed from the demons hold, it was also another potential evacuation spot.

But it was a lot less accessible, because it required my void mages to multiple hops to reach the Houndworld.

A smaller group went and set up an operating base anyway.

***

The vassal wars had a small breather this year. Both sides grew weary and tired of the war, and the merchant guilds wanted to consolidate their positions. So, in an entirely unplanned moment, most of the guilds and the defenders just stopped launching new offensives, focused on their own defenses and shoring up their own economy.

They will return to the wars eventually, but the breather gave the general populace a great chance to recover from damage.

Until it all gets destroyed all over again.

***

Do you feel we are increasingly becoming irrelevant? Chung asked the other heroes one day when they were on Mountainworld. The preparations were going well, and there was still leisure time.

I didnt push the heroes very hard, as long as they fought the demon kings. What they did in their free time, I left it to them. Like Prabu and Colettes plan to have a child.

What do you mean? Prabu said while stuffing himself some more.

Not really. Colette answered. Were still doing what we are meant to be doing.

But were increasingly becoming less- less important.

Did the [hero] class suddenly trigger something, Chung? Prabu looked at his friend with a strange look. Theyve been together for decades, and the relationship among heroes can be a little tense because even the smallest things trigger them after so long. Thankfully, they only need to be together when they prepare for the demon king, and the heroes frequently return to their own homes to decompress.

Im very torn on the nature of the [hero] class. It certainly has an overwhelming influence on the heroes mindset, and guides them towards fighting the demons. The best time to investigate the hero class is when a hero is weak, when its still growing and not fully matured. But that often involves capturing or letting a hero suffer some kind of injury such that Id be in the position to access the hero class and their soul spring.

Just like Harris or Meela.

I remember being able to remove Meelas class at one point, but with the current generation of heroes I had never gotten that prompt.

***

My [void explorer] reached a new world. Im not sure if its near the gods, yet.

The gods could be hiding, and honestly we dont know how exactly to sense a god. I know that Aivas presence could be keenly felt, but theres no certainty that it is repeated everywhere, or whether the other gods transmit their presence.

Therefore, it fell on Lumoof to explore this new world.

***

Is it a good idea to explore when we face the prospect of a demons comet? Lumoof asked me privately. Alka spent some time fighting more monsters in the dungeon, but since the demon mother only gave a few levels, it wasnt really worth it. Freeing an additional world was a risk, especially if it meant that world could be retaken by another invading demon king.

Even the Houndworld, without my clone, I didnt have much confidence in my ability to secure that world if we were attacked by demon kings since the heroes wouldnt be there to deliver the final blow.

Theres nothing much we can do, beyond getting stronger, but the prospect of gaining allies from far away is worth it.

Lumoof shrugged. Alka was busy preparing weapons and checking on all the bombs on Turtleworld. Stellas still working on the void magic platforms on the Turtleworlds asteroids. Roon, Edna and Johann were preparing the invasion force.

There were priests and other patriarchs to do the priestly stuff that Lumoof sometimes did.

Youre my avatar, if not you, then who?

Lumoof laughed. I suppose so.