266. Twined Serpents

266. Twined Serpents

Year 264

The first of the Earth Mages from Ulara reached Level 70 two decades ago. Now, the first of them, that same Earth Mage, reached Level 90.

The limits of their soul. Anything beyond here, would require the [Soul Strengthening Seed].

Ularans, despite their tinier size, seemed to have a far higher level limit than humans who capped at around level 80-85. I suspect it was the nature of their souls.

Level 90.

I offered the not-so-young Ulara, Kapakulartajam, or Kobra, as his Valthorn classmates referred to him, a Soul Strengthening Seed. He accepted, but requested for a return to Ulara before he took it.

With my new abilities, there wasnt much to think about. I could easily place a [node tree] on Ulara, while keeping my clone trees for more strategic locations. Still, I tried to wrangle some benefits out of Snek.

So- that [hero] class. Will you trade it for a [node tree]? I offered, in plain and simple terms. There was no need to overcomplicate it. If he accepted, I will place the node. If not, I wouldnt.

Snek paused, thinking it seriously.

There was some movement of Ularans between Treehome and Ulara, facilitated by the rift gate, but there were times when the rift gates were inoperational, due to unknown reasons. The void mages call them void storms.

It doesnt do much, other than make teleportation impossible, and frankly quite predictable. The vibrations tend to start small, and slowly grow in intensity over a few months, before coming down again.

Snek, initially, hoped to consult with those on Ulara, whether he had the right to give it away. After all, his mission was performed at the instruction of the old lords of the dens. But centuries later, most of the Ularans refused to even consider it theirs.

It made him feel a little abandoned, and a little bitter towards the whole [hero] class. All that sacrifice, for nothing.

At this point, its your choice. I said frankly. Im not sure what Ill do with the [hero] class, either. If you want, you could use it yourself.

It was an idea Snek opposed. Im not worthy.

Then no one is. I answered. Snek sacrificed his physical body to save his world, endured the void sea, and succeeded when many others failed. If he wasnt worthy of the class, who is? Even the kids who received the [hero] class were not the kind that would sacrifice themselves for the cause. Its only because of the [hero] classs intervention that warped their minds into this demon killing machine.

He couldnt decide. Not yet.

But, through one of the Rift Gates, we sent one of the Ularans back anyway. Snek and Lumoof followed along.

The first of our offspring to return to Ulara as a warrior. Ularsawabesars, or Snek, watched, as the first of the Ularan children, taken from their home decades ago.

Lumoof smiled. Do you feel proud?

The little Snek nodded. A little. But our world is not free. My hope is by fostering contact with the wider network of worlds, my people would once again regain the pride that they lost. I want to remind them that they were once surface dwellers, that we once built our dens under the sun, instead of the depths.

There is pride in enduring even the harshest of oppression. Lumoof countered.

For my people, it is not enduring oppression. It is accepting their place, and that is just sad.

Kobra looked at Snek, Old one, what do you think our people will think of me? He had spent a long time on Treehome.

They would not know what to think. But once you show them that we can stand up to our demon dragon occupiers, I like to believe their minds will begin to change.

The party of three returned, and first thing was for Kobra to visit his old family.

Unlike Snek, Kobra went with them as a child about four decades ago. When he returned, his family, still living in dens, were shocked to see him.

But Ularans had something in common with Lizardfolks in terms of biology. Their scales correlated to their power. Powerful lizardfolks have shiny, healthy scales, and the same applies to the Ularans.

Ularan scales manifested the elements of their class, which meant that Ularans pretty much announced the type of class they had on their scales, by color and shape. An Earth Mage like Kobra had shiny, brown and bronze scales that flickered with magic.

Snek and Lumoof allowed Kobra his space, but eventually, the den lord approached Snek.

Old one.

Den Lord Ularlicintenduk. Snek answered.

Ill cut to the chase. What happened to the rest of them?

Still not ready to return. But they will.

Kapakulartajam says some of them are not doing well.

Not all were as talented as I hoped. Snek countered. The world on the other side is-

Highly advanced. The Den Lord answered.

Snek nodded. Id like to invite more to travel over, if I may.

And return them like Kapakulartajam? Glistening with power?

At that point, Kobra joined the two. He greeted the Den Lord in the Ularan way, which was some kind of strange hiss of their forked tongues. Den Lord. Old one.

***

We should be taking out these demon mothers as much as we can. Stellas next focus was to reclaim the demon worlds. Each demon world ultimately supported the demons voting bloc in the system.

There is no need to act hastily. I countered. The system moves slowly, changes happen over decades. Lets take worlds that we can hold.

We had to take stock of where we were. After my clone vanished on the demons comet, it now sits in my reset timer. Id have that clone back by Year 271.

Where are we now?

I took a moment with my artificial minds to review the status of everything thats in play.

We faced a wave of meteors, and there were already large scale constructions throughout Treehome. The void mages have restarted the moon base, without my Clone, but they didnt need it. It was good for them to practice setting up a base of operations without my involvement, even if that meant they were totally away from my observation area.

Once the moon base was operational, they would start construction of the space-mounted weapon arrays, and the plan was to move those weapon arrays into location from the moon.

Mountainworld is doing fine, and would face a new demon king much later, only by Year 268. Thats another 4 or 5 years to go. My spies and agents are actively working the message into the general populace that we will not tolerate another Dwarven King-like incident.

We were still recruiting well, so luckily, the incident didnt really dent how we were received.

Threeworlds recently had their demon king, and they wouldnt need to deal with one up until year 278. With the Crystal King imprisoned, my forces quickly began to set up shop in Maelga, effectively claiming it as my own.

It was surprising that a [Giant Attendant Tree] could hold the domain holder, but then again, all I did was destroying its outer shells and attempts to regenerate its limbs. I left its core untouched. I was fairly certain it had magical ways of communicating, which I could not block.

But a message was sent, and the world was a mess. One thing was clear, I was going to make changes, changes that the insular Crystal King didnt like.

First, I wanted trade, and so I commanded that the war with the Sandpeople to cease immediately, and next, that new trade routes opened. The sandpeople had robust trade networks within their own cities, and the same applied to the humans and centaurs. But trade between the three was tense and dangerous, and so it didnt occur all that often. There were, as always, those who tread those sensitive lines, but they were clever enough to stay out of the limelight, and never transact in anything too high risk.

After all, when it came to demigods like the Three Hegemons, no argument would ever really pass muster.

Zhaanpu was both relieved and worried, and I could tell. Open trade and communication between the three races of Threeworld had never occurred in the recent centuries. The last time it happened was many, many millennia ago, in a time when the gods touch was strong.

The Centaurs couldnt even muster a response, as their own centaur leaders scrambled meeting after meeting whether to oppose us, out of respect for the old pact, or to side with us. But trade was something they accepted. They were still recovering from the consequences of earlier demon king attacks, and they needed all the advantage they could get to restore their land.

Then, theres Tropicworld.

This was the brave new world, the world restored. Canari, humans, and dwarves claimed most of the land, but there was more than enough land for me to carve out a large area for the new Ularan Nation.

The Canari reacted to their presence generally well. These dog-people had enough land, more than enough that the Canari lands fractured into four nations about five years ago. Still, not much fighting broke out, since everyone was busy building up their own level of strength. The fact that Tropicworlds terrain continued to change, as the Cores strength recovered, meant most of these settlers have enough environmental issues to deal with.

I thought of sending them to the Houndworld. Canari, after all, seemed like a natural fit for that sort of core. But I chose not to reveal its existence just yet. From my experience with the Canari, who are generally territorial, they would likely demand the Houndworld entirely for themselves. They may even view it as their promised land. Or perhaps I could dangle it as a reward, position myself as some kind of guide to their promised land. Would that win their loyalty?

Regardless, the new generation of Canari were friendly, and in time, once we were ready to properly repopulate the Houndworld, I would allow them first cut.

Then, theres Lavaworld, my Hell, and also where I conduct my demonic experimentations. A land now filled with demonic trees. Other than the now improved mana situation, I wasnt sure what to do with this world.

I could attempt to free it from the hands of the demons, by mounting an offensive to the core. With my stronger forces, it shouldnt be much of a risk.

Still, for now we hold this world as it is.

Cometworld remains traveling into the far distance.

***

I think Ive gotten my trajectory wrong. Stella said.

What do you mean? I asked my void holder.

I shouldve thought about it, but when we arrived at that Beastworld, where the native deity claimed that they are out of range of both the gods and demons?

Yeah.

I shouldnt have missed that datapoint. I think that I should be sending my [void explorers] in the other direction instead. Looking at the data I have now heavily suggests that the gods are on the other side of the demon sun.

-shit. Can you get there? I had hoped that reaching the gods would be the equivalent of getting the cavalry. If they are on the other side-

I mean, Im going to start redirecting two of my new void explorers in that direction. Its also likely not all gods are in that direction anyway-

There might be some that we can reach. I said. Theres nothing to do but try.

Stella nodded. Yeah. Thats what I thought. But the one thats still going, Ill let it keep going?

Yup. We probably need to plan how to use my node trees. I can fire my node trees like little seeds, but well have to find a suitable place. If the gods a really are on the other side, I could fire my nodes in that direction-

Oh wait. I cant. Theyll slam into the demons barrier and burn. Ill have to hop around the barrier to reach the other side.

As for the void archmages close to a domain, its time they start doing more risky stuff, along with our new domain holders. Kafa and Ezar can help explore our new worlds.

Got it.

***