Nutty Friends

Year 171

It was strange to see and feel through Lumoof once more. 

“Your eyes are glowing.” Edna said. 

“That’s because Aeon is here.”

“Ah.” Edna laughed. “So do your eyes glow every time he is there?”

“I think so?” 

The way it works is that there’s two states to the Avatar. In the off-state, I can only feel, hear and see through him, but I cannot control him. In the on-state, he became the vessel of my power, and it was like my entire presence was there. 

To have humanoid sensations again was really rather awkward. These feelings were so familiar. This very act meant Lumoof could speak to me mentally, and I had access to his mind, should he choose to reveal it to me. 

All in, it was strange.

“I consider this progress.” Lumoof said. “Consider how useless I was during the battle with the demon king. This means I can be of some use! Sorry, I mean, Aeon can be of some use!” Lumoof laughed as he joked about it. Though he looked younger, his jokes were still very... old.

Edna merely shrugged. “Good point.”

The avatar, combined with my existing Court of the Deitree essentially meant I could participate in any battle relatively risk free. In short, Lumoof’s decision to elect himself as my subdomain pretty much solved one of the key problems I faced.

Projecting force at a distance. In fact, I’d be keen to test whether this avatar even works across worlds. My view is, it should. It goes through the system. The system is this ever present thing that transcends all. 

-

Through the avatar, there were many things that I saw for the first time. The insides of my dungeons. How Freshka looked through the eyes of a local. The random unnamed spaces where I did not place my [eyes]. How noisy it was in the cities. 

Because it took some time for me to rectify the ‘drained’ dungeons, both Edna and Lumoof could stop their dungeon diving. It also didn’t make sense for both of them to be present and slow down the growth of the other level 125-130 Valthorns like Roon, Johann etc. 

Lumoof and Edna had a lot of practicing to do, in that their domains leaked a presence that pressed on those around them. Those in the higher levels, such as the Valthorns are less affected by it, but when they walked in the streets, it often caused unintentional faintings, and some crazed mumblings. There are also cases of hysteria and inexplicable yellings, cured by a big dose of calming tea concentrate.

“So this happens all the time?” Lumoof asked, surprised by how easily those weaker than him seemed to suffer from just being around him. 

“Yes?” I always thought it was my [Haunted Forest] skills, but I suppose the domain itself has a kind of ‘authority’ presence. It worked a lot less to those of a higher levels.

Edna was a lot better at controlling her own domain energies, but that’s also partly because her domain is her own and she got hers a few years earlier. Lumoof’s domain is linked to mine, so to some extent, it feels a little ‘foreign’. With two ‘demi-gods’ on my side, I felt quite good.

-

Alvin returned to the northern isles with little fanfare. The northern temples wisely chose to keep the entire incident quiet. Once he returned, he swiftly crushed the locust nests with his restored power. That was the end of the locusts.

-

Lausanne, Kei and Stella continued their experiments with the daemolite and void mana. Stella was approaching level 70s as a [void mage], spurred on by her recent exploits with daemolite and the ‘astral paths’.

I have a few speculations. One, void mana may not be the only way to travel through space and time. The gods must have used something else to send the heroes here, and I do not think they use void mana, since star mana and void mana reacted violently with each other. 

Even with the daemolite as the battery, she was only able to open a small hole, and she saw nothing but a bright light.

Still, she was able to maintain her connection for a bit longer than before, even if it’s a tiny bit. Some paths were easier than the others, and the one that ‘brightest’ to me, was the easiest.

-

> You seek our knowledge of the void? <

Vallasira finally returned, and he magically appeared in a pond in the Valley of the Unrotten. He seemed to have some kind of ability to just ‘teleport’ to any sufficiently large body of water.

< Yes. I have a human [void mage], and I now possess some knowledge of the starways. > 

> The starways are but one way to travel through the stars. < 

Alright, point noted. < Can you teach? >

> ...if she is worthy. Bring her here. <

Stella came and saw the giant zaratan for the first time. To her, the Zaratan was a massive being, the size of a small building, with a head the size of a truck. She walked closer to the zaratan, and briefly, Stella’s hand touched the legs of the massive zaratan.

I sensed some kind of magic at that moment, yet I do not recognise it. 

The two shared a look.

>  It seems she is. I shall take her away for a while. <

< For how long? > 

> Years if needed. The art of the void is vast, and I will need to seek counsel and guidance. < 

“Stella, are you willing to go with Vallasira?”

Stella nodded. Vallasira bent his legs and a magical stairs appeared that led to his back. There was a small island on his back after all, but I saw a hut magically appear then. Stella climbed. 

< I will take her to the other worlds, and allow her to experience the ways of the void. > 

Stella briefly spoke. “Tell Kei and Lausanne that this is my training power up arc. I’ll be back!”

If I could my mentally roll my eyes, I would. But I humored her. “Certainly.”

Kei laughed when I repeated Stella’s words. Lausanne didn’t get it so she just looked lost. “Oh, it’s a thing from back home, where main characters go on training arcs and emerge more powerful. It’s just a trope.”

-

Year 172

I was still tweaking the ley lines to create a new Level 120 and Level 130 dungeon. In fact, I was hoping to go further and create a Level 140 dungeon. These fickle natural mana flows are really hard, and are a bit like believing in feng shui or some qi-flow bullshit. It’s really unpredictable.

-

Kei prepared for the next demon king, mainly by practicing. Now that she felt and saw Edna and Lumoof’s presence, she too wanted to get that strong again. By Patreeck’s own calculation they are around 50% of a hero’s strength on an overall basis, though effective strength against a demon king would probably be lower. If Level 150 makes them 50% stronger, does that mean I’m already as strong as a hero (in a non-demon king situation)? 

Kei quickly demanded to have access to those dungeons, as she would like to be there for Alvin the next time.

But after thinking about her situation, I thought that wasn’t the best use of her current skillsets and condition. So I called her to the valley, alone.

“You and I have something in common at this point.” 

Kei paused. “And what would that be?”

“We are both beings with long lives.”

“And?”

“I don’t want you to lose your life so easily. Help me with my goal. With our long lives, we should aim for something bigger than just stopping one demon king.”

Kei sat on a wooden stool in the circle of trees. 

“I wish to end this cycle of heroes and demons. If I can’t stop the cycle, then I wish to hide the world away from their influence, and end the destruction that comes with the cycles. I have some ideas how, but these goals require those with long lives, as the pieces that we need to move are slow, and our knowledge of the greater world incomplete.”

Kei sighed. “If I was still a hero, the gods would know, wouldn’t they?”

“Yes.”

“That book the previous heroes left behind, was it one of your ideas? To help free the heroes from the cycle?”

“No. They came up with it. But it aligned with my goals.”

“You’re telling this to me now, because you think I’ll be wasting my abilities if I go fight with Alvin against the next demon king, isn’t that right? Withs my immortality, I should make the most of it.”

The golem paced the room and just sighed. 

“...I need some time to think about it.”

-

Meanwhile, I noticed that all the starways are brighter now, though one of them, the one that was previously the brightest, somehow got even brighter. All of them are brighter. What does this even mean? 

Too bad Stella’s still on her power up training, so I have no way of reaching her. 

-

I checked on Reefy. He’s expanding his domain and he acquired some new fish-fighters. They looked a bit like an underwater lovechild of a fish and a goblin. 

< What are those? >

> Seapeople <

< Seapeople? >

> Yes. People that live in the sea. They can talk a bit. I created them. <

Wait. Wait a minute? How did a Reef Mind thing create people?  < How? >

> System created skill. [Seafantry]. Creates these seapeople. Like your soldiers. <

< Ooooh that is nice. What can they say? >

> Yes. No. Enemy Spotted. Food Spotted. < 

Ah. So they are more like beetles than actual people. Not exactly intelligent creatures. < That’s good. How’s everything? Is everything okay? > I suppose I sound like a parent checking in on a child that has been playing alone for some time.

> Yes. Nothing that can threaten me. Everything else has been killed. < Well, the area that Reefy inhabits is mostly a big blank space to me, but so far, it seems he’s keeping everything under control. 

< That’s good. > 

-

The Demon King Durthal was slain is Year 167. So, effectively, on a 10 year cycle, the demon king should descend in year 177. The rifts will appear 2 years before that. 

Our attention shifts to the South, and also to the West. Central, North and East had their demon king events recently, so if there is some kind of ‘rotation’ going on, it should head to the untouched continents.

Of course, that’s just me. The data indicates that there’s no such rotation happening, nor does the demon king complete a full circuit of all continents. It’s not unusual for it to hit the same continent twice or even three times in a span of 50-60 years. 

The other temples and continents maintain a policy of non-engagement, and generally refuse to deal with me publicly... except for the church of Aiva. The Aivan church one again secretly sent an envoy. 

“Our god decreed that we should seek your force’s training. Our god wishes for our temple to grow in strength. For our military to move up.”

“And?” 

“We will switch sides and break from the other three churches. Our god has decreed it fine to split.” 

This... was not predicted. But should I cooperate with the churches, even if I worked against their gods? 

“I will need some time to deliberate this offer.”

Was it a trap? 

“Edna, Lumoof, what do you think of this offer?” I summoned all of my Valthorns with Level 100 or above, and also a selected group of other individuals and presented the envoy’s argument. The Aivan church offered a formal alliance and to cut off with the other three churches of Hawa, Gaya and Neira. 

Alka, my field scientist responsible for my crystal bombs was the first to posit an argument. “If we look at the records we have access to, the ancient cities worshipped different gods. That suggests that the gods themselves are perhaps transitory in nature, that their influence over the world rises, and also ebbs to some unknown cycle. If the Aivan church is fading, then this alliance is useless to us. As it is, the Aivan church offers us only trade, which is already happening secretly.”

“Formal recognition would pave the way for our spread on the other continents.” One Valthorn suggested.

“Which god needs other gods for recognition?” Lumoof shot that down quickly. “Each god stands on their own merit.”

Alka nodded. “Thus, the offer for alliance, and military training is lopsided. The Aivan church gets most of the benefits, and few drawbacks.”

A point which I agreed to. The Aivan church has nothing to offer me. 

One of the other Patreearchs, a Level 104 [Aeonic Faithweaver], one of Lumoof’s juniors, argued differently. “That may be true, but we should not see this as a cost-benefit analysis. Our role as a religion is to spread, and we often will incur losses to do so. Taking this deal allows us to claim that even the great Aivan church has been humbled. That our single faith is stronger than the other 3 gods. That is a great victory for that reason alone.”

Also a point I agree to. Accepting this meant one of the churchs signalled to the rest of their followers that I am superior to the 3, and that will shake the faith of those who believe in the 3 other gods. It’s a loss to us operationally, but morally and spiritually, a win. 

There was a murmur of agreement among the Valthorns too. 

“Doesn’t this also mean we also agree to deal with Aiva as equals? We are different from them, their gods nowhere to be seen, occasionally dispensing divine messages and blessings.”

“And they would take this as an opportunity to learn our abilities and strengths.” 

“I am sure they already know some of our strengths anyway.”

“I don’t see what’s the problem if they know our strength. They should fear us, and know that we are superior.”

“We should only engage if this arrangement is one where we are seen as the superior one. That this is our ‘kindness’ to the Aivan church.”

“Blood has been spilled in the past. Some kingdoms will see this as a weakening.”

“The crusades and the naval blockades ended three decades ago. We have generations of young that do not remember the blockades. We even have Arjan here, who was born after the blockades.” Arjan was a relatively young centaur, only in his late 20s who reached Level 100 recently. His combat experience was mostly through the dungeons, but his stratospheric rise began when he was 10, when somehow, despite not having parents who were Valthorns, he himself acquired the [Blessing of the Soul Tree]. 

“If we never let go of past feuds, we should slaughter every single kingdom on our continent. Every kingdom has gone to war with each other some time in the past.”

That was also a valid point. Surely there must be a time for peace. 

“Are we missing the forest for the trees? Aeon’s goal is to break the cycle. That’s why all of us are here. Does this get us there? No, will allying with the Aivan church help this cause? We will go to war with the heroes, and the gods one day. If the Aivan church will be our enemy, then let it be so. We now speak from a position of strength. Let us not make friends, and later stab them in the back. If they are our enemy, it will be better on our consciousness, and the honor of our class as [Knights], to be clear of our position.” That was a knight’s argument, and Edna nodded.

But is there truly no path for us? Must the cycle be broken through ‘war’? As I thought about it, it wasn’t a question anyone present could answer. No, the only person that can answer, is perhaps their head priests. The triumvirs. 

I summoned the envoy.

“I wish to speak to your triumvirs and your god. All 3 of them, and they must come prepared with the means to communicate with your god.”

The envoy quickly responded, “That... that’s too much.”

“If your god decreed that the Aivan church is to have a pact, then your god or those who speak for him should come and speak to me himself. Else, it certainly doesn’t seem sincere, and your god clearly does not regard me as equals to send someone to do their own task. Send them here, or there is no chance for this to work.”

The envoy gulped and nodded. He left quickly, on the fastest ships to return east. 

-

Kei finally gave an answer to my request. “I will go and fight with Alvin, and support him where I can. I would like to request for your strongest bombs, becauseI know that my place is not in direct conflict with the demon king. I will still go, but I will not risk myself unnecessarily. I think.” 

It wasn’t a very good answer, clearly she wanted to have her cake and eat it too. But very well, I don’t get many chances to have immortal friends and allies. I need a lot more than just Lumoof, Edna and Lilies.  “Then you will have it.”