294. Floodplains II

294. Floodplains II

Year 274 (part 2)

There were still a few more worlds to explore, but back home, I tried to consider my options with the eleven worlds we have visited so far. I decided it was a good idea to pool all my domain holders and get some preliminary assessments.

It’s likely that the four worlds wouldn’t be too far off.

A group back home started to work on our expected response to the demons. Some of these worlds were in a stable state.

It made me wonder, of course. Despite the peripheral world’s distance to the demon king, not all of them have folded. So, why?

So, I’ve been thinking about the nature of the peripheral worlds, and concluded that the peripheral worlds usually have some kind of ‘defensibility’. It is this defensibility that makes them into contested zones. Worlds that are hard for the demons to fully capture. Worlds that are also hard for the gods to properly reinforce.

In short, peripheral worlds are not peripheral worlds by distance, even if it was one of the factors, but by sheer survivorship bias. Faraway worlds that cannot be defended, and lacked inherent defensibility meant they would easily fold to the demons.

That meant they were not the gods’ problem any more, since they are then demon worlds.

Worlds that are close to the gods can be easily defended and reinforced, so they remain as normal worlds.

So, peripheral worlds are those that are in limbo. Worlds that are hard for the demons to conquer due to their design, and those that the gods find it hard to reinforce. If these two were true, it was likely that these sorts of worlds would become ‘peripheral’ worlds, because they would survive the drift.

“Could it just be a fluke, that the heroes’ old artifacts and items give the natives some fighting chance to hang on?” Lumoof countered.

“Of course. But it’s just something I’ve been thinking about.” It was just a hypothesis, that peripheral worlds become battlegrounds, because they experience longer periods of struggle against the demons.

Worlds that can’t put up a fight die, or fall to the demons, and thus drift out of the god’s influence anyway.

***

***

Lavaworld

“How do you feel?” Khefri said as Samuel, or Samahiro the elf hero, gained levels battling the demons of Lavaworld.

“Better. Stronger.” Samuel said while he rested. He gained a level that day. The demon champion was hardly a threat. With more power, they would have the ability to retake Landas from the demon king. The goal was to get Samuel at least into the level 100s, one they achieved fairly easily.

But each new hero had their own style of battle, and Kei, as the new hero-manager, decided that all the heroes needed to have ‘practice’ sessions. It was something copied from the Valthorns, since the Valthorns had battle simulations in order to form their battle tactics. The heroes, even with their natural gifts, still needed practice.

Samuel also needed to get used to his new abilities, even if the divine gifts of the hero class helped tremendously.

But the demon champions were too weak to be a challenge. Without really pushing it, it was hard for the heroes to really know how well they worked together. Teamwork was one of the few things that the hero class wasn’t very good at.

“It is good to have another close combat fighter in our team.” Adrian said.

Colette, Prabu, Adrian, Khefri. Four heroes. And now they were five once more.

“I’m just happy there’s more of us.” Prabu sighed. “I hope they find more heroes on the other worlds.”T/his chapter is updated by nov(ê(l)biin.co/m

Samuel looked around. It was better than being alone, for sure. “I hope so too.”

The Valthorns concluded it was best to decide which world to clear out its demon king, only after we’ve explored all fifteen worlds. In some states it’s likely there were ‘stable’ worlds.

So for now, Samuel and the other heroes prepared for war. They repaired old hero items, restored magical defenses.

***

Twelveth

Gigantadragon - The Planetary Dragon

Stella and Lumoof opened the portal and instantly knew this was one of those unusual worlds. A world that existed on the surface of a gigantic planetary dragon, that’s forever chasing a sun. The world was constantly moving, it wasn’t moving in the void sea, but after staring at the edge of its reality bubble for a moment, we concluded it was likely to only ‘appear’ as if it was always moving. Maybe, it was like a marble spinning in place as water flowed around it.

“Well. A giant dragon.” Lumoof looked around. They landed on what appeared to be the middle part of the dragon’s body. The part that looked like the head was the brightest, and yet, even on the surface of this gigantic planetary dragon’s body, there was running water, plants, trees, and mountains. “That’s a first.”

“I wonder whether Aeon’s clone could link to the dragon’s will, then we could possibly gain control, or communicate with it.”

“You’re concluding that a planetary sized world’s core is a sentient dragon.”

“Yes. I suppose.” Stella said. “A creature of this size-”

“I think we have to let go of some of our assumptions. It may only possess the physical form of a dragon, but nothing actually requires it to be sentient. It’s movements, it’s mannerisms may just be a set of instructions imprinted to its being.”

“Demon lords?” Lumoof asked.

“Demons empowered by the ley lines. They are quite powerful, but nothing like the demon king. We could take one down, but the ley lines are all protected by these demon lords.”

“Ah. Demon champions. Just terminology differences.” Lumoof breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn’t an unusual class of demon, most likely just a demon champion that has a similar energy-absorption mechanism as its parent demon king.

This demon king seemed to rely on capturing ley lines to make itself stronger, and also spawn more powerful demons.

“So, actually, we kinda got ahead of ourselves by diving right into the demon problem. What is this world?” Lumoof said. The dragonlings of this world, Giganta, looked at us with interest, but ultimately left us alone.

The heroes were more than happy to explain it to us.

The world of Gigantadragon is a long-dragon shaped planet that is perpetually chasing the golden sun. The day-night cycle is determined by the position of the dragon’s head, and the long shadow the head casts over the rest of its body as it moves through in a rotational pattern through space, blocking out the sun. It twirls and moves, as the stars around the world warped and shifted, as if it is forever chasing the sun, but we knew this was an illusion. Nothing was moving.

The land itself is separated into fifteen large segments, each representing like a chunk or segment of the body, as if the body of the dragon is some sort of gigantic centipede of stone and earth, and on those segments are rather normal features such as mountains, seas, lakes, farmlands and so on. Between the segments is a part called the dragon’s skin, essentially an unstable part of the land that frequently experiences fissures due to how two linked segments of the planet-sized dragon moves about as it rotates around the sun.

The tail end is significantly colder than the parts closer to the head, where it is warmer. The magical energies of the ley lines are also stronger closer to the dragon’s head, but there are ley lines throughout Giganta’s body.

The locals refer to the ley lines as the ‘dragon’s veins’, because they were the energies of the gigantic dragon.

It is inhabited by a mixture of dragonlings, drakes, and humanoids, and the dragonlings worship a mix of Hawa and Gaya.

The dragonlings and drakes have elemental biases that were reflected in their skin. The green-shaded dragonlings and drakes generally had powers of the wood and earth, the reddish, orange dragonlings were fire, and the blue-white dragonlings and drakes were of the water, ice and wind elements.

These three were the main subgroups of dragonlings, and the fire element dragonlings were clustered closer to the head of Giganta and the areas where there were volcanoes and rivers of lava, while the water and earth element dragonlings were more spread out.

Rajah and Wira, as heroes, were the union of the three dragonling subgroups, and they had powers of all three dragonlings, and could empower their drakes. The drakes of Capra or Johann’s Dragon would be fascinating to introduce to the dragonlings of this world, and vice versa, but that would be a later problem.

For now, it is the heroes that would do the moving.

“So, when are you two going to sneak past the gates? Are you two like world travelers? Like some hero that finished their quest and now could travel from world to world?”

Stella shook her head. “Nothing like that. We’re not even heroes, but let’s say we have an organization behind us.”

“I don’t see it. Is it like some kind of starship flying overhead?” Rajah and Wira looked overhead. The sky was somehow filled with stars, even if it’s not a real thing, and the stars looked like they moved in a particular direction.

“No. I suppose if we deploy a node here, we can introduce you to the rest of us.”

“Wait, wait, wait. What about defenses? We’ll have to hold the demon king back. If it senses us disappearing, it may decide to attack! We’re what stands between the demon king and total annihilation of the dragonlings!”

“That doesn’t always happen.” Lumoof countered.

“It doesn’t? No. We can’t desert our post here. Not even for a bit.” The two heroes said with certainty.

Their reaction made Lumoof pause for a while, before he said. “I see. Then we need to discuss our plans before we go ahead.”

The two domain holders left the heroes to their own affairs.

“What’d you think?” Stella and Lumoof met somewhere away from the heroes. “Their hero class compulsions seem a little strong there.”

“They are fairly high level, that sort of meddling is expected.” Lumoof frowned. “We wouldn’t be able to move them, and we’ll have to bring the rest of the heroes here.”

Stella merely nodded, and waited for Lumoof to continue.

“Or we do what’s sensible. We sneak past the demon’s battle lines and hit the ley lines. That would ensure that the heroes can survive the next conflict with the demon king. Then we bring the heroes. If we leave as it is, it’s likely they won’t survive an encounter with the demon king. I think we should call for some reinforcement, give them some breathing room then decide later.”

The void domain holder nodded. “Yeah. That’s probably our best choice. We should figure out what’s up with this demon king anyway.”

Spaizzer

The peripheral parts will end in about 6-8 chapters. Hang in there.

In the meantime, check out this story :

/series/1039151/a-chronicle-of-liesbook--puppeteer/ Synopsis

Vincent Cordell a college student with schizophrenia, doesn’t want to be crazy. He just wants to lead a normal life, something his condition has never let him have. Voices whisper, walls bleed, eyes sprout in strange places. Getting a degree in electrical engineering is hard enough without worrying about falling into the abyss of his own madness.

But one dark night, the abyss pulls him in...

A supernatural entity strikes, and a simple car accident becomes anything but as Vincent finds himself thrust into a majestic, alien world where dragons stand on two legs, living and dying like men. And, thanks to a painful, impossible transformation, he is now one of them, stuck in a body he doesn't even know how to use.

An ancient evil stirs. Strange storms leave terrors in their wake. The natives of this world think Vincent has the power to save them. But he doesn't want anything to do with them or their myths. Dragons and prophecies are the products of a broken mind...aren't they?