259. Tree heart-to-heart

259. Tree heart-to-heart

Year 259

11 Years to Impact

Some of the heroes wanted to let Ken go, but ultimately, I saw Ken as leverage. It was pathetic, and sad, but I could not afford the heroes to fracture at this time. I needed the heroes to help me get through my Comet problem. Chung absolutely refused to let him die, and insisted that I keep him alive.

He threatened to quit from all combat engagements if I allowed Ken to die.

Ive always had a rather tense relationship with the archer hero, but this sort of blackmail only confirmed my feelings. Khefri, the woman that Chung had a crush on, found his threat so repulsive that the two had an argument.

Youre a dickhead. Khefri cursed. Why do I only attract people that either want my power, or just outright horrible people.

Chung tried his best to downplay the severity of the threat. Khefri, come on, Im just asking Aeon to keep Ken alive.

Ive had idiots on Threeworlds trying to sabotage the demon king preparations, and here you are flinging threats like this around, threatening Aeon not to participate in battles against the demon king. What does that make me? Im an idiot for thinking this hero-league thing could work, if its composed of selfish assholes like you. You immature foolish prick.

Khefri-

The scorpionoid lady refused to talk to him, and went back to Threeworlds to continue the preparations.

After thinking about it, I decided I was in no position to refuse Chungs request, and it only made Ken mad as hell. He understood, but he was mad.

Youre a horrible person, Aeon. Ken cursed. You said youd like to let me die.

I felt a little shit doing this to him, but at this point, Id rather offend Ken than the heroes. I will. Later.

He understood, of course. He wasnt stupid and saw the writing on the wall. You just want them to help you destroy the Comet.

My non-response was all the confirmation he needed.

To think that at this point, Im fucking leverage. I hate you, Aeon. Dont do this to me.

There are sacrifices I need to make, to achieve the goals. Goals that your friends agree with. I will throw you under the bus, if I have to. Unfortunately, your friend has forced me to do so.

The demonic manas gotten to you. Ken cursed. I know it didnt, but it didnt change that some people would think that way.

***

Demons. What is a demon? I believe I am at the point where it is important to differentiate between being a demon, and being made from demonic stuff.

Or is this me trying to defend my own decisions? Has using demonic mana influenced me already?

I asked Patreeck, and my artificial minds to give myself a scan, and wondered whether it was even possible to duplicate a copy of my thought process, such that I could remember who I was. THey could copy my memories, but my thought process was very much linked to my soul, and essentially, Id have to duplicate my soul.

Not possible.

Demons. What are they?

Its actually quite hard to answer the question, but we know that they seek to assimilate worlds, and have captured gods to do so. Or at least, their divine energy. They have advanced portal and void technologies, and have the capability to construct superstructures to make the most of them.

It seems to me that the demons themselves cant really answer that question, because my roots, made of demonic-energy and materials, moved unobstructed through the Comet.

My beetle moved unharmed.

We walked and moved among demons, and they did not react to our presence. We dont know how long this would last, but we have to move quickly.

Before the demons figure out there is a pretender among them.

Digging deeper, and deeper, while the time continues to tick. Next year, the Comet will briefly approach Lavaworld.

If theres an opportunity to launch an attack, thats one of my best chances. I could simultaneously attack from the surface, and from my clone, while trying to sneak some demonic-mana beetles, trees and roots into the very depths of the Comet.

My roots were naturally sensitive to the rocky-crystalline structure around us, and it was easiest for my roots to push deeper through the gaps, where different types of rock-crystals meet. I had presumed that the rock-structure would get more coherent as we went deeper, but the presence of imperfections in the comets structure reinforced our earlier theory that this rock was a cobbled mess.

***

Just assume for a moment. What if you could have your own demon swarm? One that you controlled? The repulsive idea came from Alka. Despite his own reservations about the demonic mana earlier, as time went on, he somehow came out with a wild idea.

It was the magical equivalent of creating a mutant supervirus, one where I already have the cure, and have a built in kill switch. The dangers of such a weapon was so off the charts that I couldnt even contemplate the outcome should it out-evolve its inbuilt kill switches.

If we could reliably control it, its no different from your swarm of beetles.

Nothing.

I got nothing.

I went to my domain holders, and at this point, it could go either way. Im not sure if waiting too long would-

Lets go with honesty. Lumoof suggested in the end.

So, I transmitted my response through my demonic root. Someone trying to stop this rock from crashing into our world.

-Invaders. I felt my heart drop. Shit.

Immediately, I could feel contamination. The voice I was speaking with was laced with demonic energy. The entire demonic Comets Core shook, as I felt the Demon King Multipus rouse from its slumber. Things have not been going well for me this time.

There was really no point to hold back, at this time, so I spawned even more beetles-

Here, in the depth of the Comets Core, the mana from the core was extremely dense, but clearly, the demons have no way of separating demons from each other.

What the fuck. I cursed, as I watched the awakened Demon King crush their own demons as well as my demonic beetles. It didnt care. It began to destroy everything. Tentacles the size of buildings slammed into the ground with such force that the rocks cracked.

This could be a strategy! Lumoof shouted. It cant identify friend or foe. So it can only attack everything that isnt itself.

I realized that was true, and my demonic roots expanded as fast as I could push them. I drew even more demonic mana from ever larger demonic Giant Attendant Tree farms.

I know I shouldnt.

But there was no choice. Watch me and stop me if I do anything strange. I pulled even more demonic mana, felt a strange sensation nagging in my mind, and forces pushing back against it.

Patreeck voiced his concern immediately. Master, we need more minds to watch for unusual behavior from the demonic mana. Youre pulling too much mana from Lavaworld-

I spawned more. But I needed more demonic mana to sustain my expanded roots, as the demon kings gigantic tentacles smashed into the ground around us.

The core itself was unharmed-

Could we confuse the demon king? Lumoof entered avatar mode, and I felt some of his thoughts . Make it seem as if the Core is part of us?

We- we could try.

I injected my demonic mana into the rocks and stones- my roots and vines constantly trying to spread further and deeper into the core, and I felt more of the Cores will make contact with mine.

[Domain has blocked attempted intrusion]

[Domain has blocked attempted intrusion]

[Domain has blocked attempted intrusion]

[Domain has blocked attempted intrusion]

[...]

I felt my domain block intrusions repeatedly, but at this point, all I could do was flood more demonic mana into the demons core. The gigantic tentacle king slammed its massive limbs on the core structure, and more of them cracked.

It did so repeatedly, but the demons core somehow caught on to my plot, as the core suddenly began to emit a constant wave of demonic mana, and it formed a shield around itself. I tried to inject my demonic mana through that barrier of demonic mana, and it didnt get through.

My advance deeper into the core was halted. For now. I immediately tried to mimic the cores demonic mana signatures. It was still subtly different, but somehow, it seemed to have fooled the demon king.

The demon king continued to smash everywhere for a bit more, and then it stopped.

It just sat motionless for a few days, as if trying to pay attention to the mana flows around it. It was all demonic mana. Mine, and the demon comets cores.

But the damage was done. The demon comets core was now littered with huge cracks from the demon king.

I took that time to observe my surroundings. Ive gotten quite good at blending my demonic mana with that of the surroundings.

Intruder.

But I had also gotten quite deep into the core.

-destroy you.

-help me. The voice that got through was distorted. A whisper. Is there a will underneath that, despite the control of the demon king?

***