Tree of Aeons

316. Peeling Back

Void Layers - 2nd Layer?

Lumoof thought it felt like years, but it wasn’t. It was just the sameness of it all that made time seem to stretch out.

“How many days have we been moving?” Lumoof asked Stella. If he didn’t regularly check in through our mutual connection, it almost felt like he was lost in the ocean of strings. At times, the strings looked fat, like gigantic long earthworms. Sometimes they resembled colorful eels, wriggling and wobbling just out of reach around them, never quite touching them. 

“I don’t know.” Stella said, but she soldiered on. “Keep going. We’re almost there. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but actually, this is a familiar feeling.”

“A familiar feeling?” Lumoof asked.

“I couldn’t pin it down, and kept wondering where I felt this feeling before. But you know, I learned void magic from the Zaratans, and the Zaratans have a mind-state where the void forest feels like something similar. Rather than strings, instead it was like a constant slurry of mud.”

“Oh. It’s different then.” The avatar wasn’t sure where Stella was going with it, but humored her.

“It is.” Stella said and then she stopped. “I think we’re here.”

The strings just stopped moving, and without us fully coming to the realization, we were suddenly not in that part of the void layers anymore.

The layer below felt normal. There was soil, albeit blue soil. There was a sky, albeit a brown sky. There was a sun, albeit a black sun. But it was somewhat normal. Compared to an ocean of strings, this was normal.

“So, why are we here?” Lumoof looked around and touched some of the soil. The world didn’t feel magical. Instead, it felt thoroughly devoid of magic, and all their magic would have to come from within them. This would be a dangerous world to be stuck in, if they didn’t have their own internal ways of generating magical energy.

“I have no idea.” Stella said. “But it is a different layer. My senses tell me that much. Let me just lock this layer in-”

Lumoof gave the woman some space and so spent some time walking about the clearly lifeless place. It was as if it was a failed world. After a while, Stella looked like she was done registering the place into her own record of the void layers. “At least we’re out of there.” Lumoof looked around. “Does your gut feel tell us where we need to go, now?”

Stella blinked as she stared accusingly at the avatar. “My gut feeling is not a compass.”

“But you do know where we need to go. Don’t you?”

The woman made a rare blush. “Well, yes. Yes I do. Come.”

The vast lands eventually gave way to a single hole in the ground. Stella seemed to be able to feel the unusual flows of the void layers. “It’s like there’s a flowing layer in the background. It’s like water moving in a particular direction, and so all I do is follow it.” 

Lumoof looked at her. “Will this actually go anywhere? Like we’re trying to find a way to reach parts of the world we couldn’t do normally. Does this actually help?”

“I don’t know.” Stella answered. “But we have to understand it. At least, somewhat understand it. Then we can start using it. As it is, we know nothing. Something is still infinitely better than nothing.”

“That something is knowing that there’s a layer made of eels, strings, and elongated stretched objects is not exactly useful.”

“Yes, but they must exist to do something. The void layers don’t feel purposeless. They have a purpose. Either as a failed state, a graveyard of worlds, or just as a nursery for something. They exist as a result of a creation process.” Stella said, but we’d known her long enough to know this was part of her theorizing. “Let’s go.”

We did, and we entered a tunnel. A vast, massive tunnel. But there were walls here. Walls that were invisible, its presence written into our souls. Yet, we could see what happened beyond the tunnel’s walls. In a distance imperceptibly far away, we both saw an egg form before our eyes. 

A black egg, as massive as the world and more.

We walked and kept walking along that tunnel, fully able to see what was around us and what was ahead. As we walked further, we could see further, deeper into a giant swirling black object. 

Then we couldn’t proceed any more.

There was a barrier, made of a tremendous amount of void energy, blocking our path. It was transparent and yet visible to our souls. A gigantic puzzle in the shape of an ever changing door. A door that we could not open, no matter how much force or energy we exerted on it. 

It was a mechanism present within the void layer. Perhaps, a protection from things that the void layer didn’t want others to touch. 

“What in the world-” 

Stella frowned as she tried to get past it. She looked at Lumoof. “Use Aeon’s power and try to hit it.”

Lumoof did and with the full strength of my powers, we attacked this invisible barrier. The sensation was unusually clean, as if my powers smashed into a perfectly repelling rubber wall, and the recoil was just as perfect. 

“Ouch. It’s not going to work.” From the recoil, it answered everything I wanted to know and realized how poorly made the demon’s void barrier was. Whatever it was that the demons used to block the rest of the worlds away from our eyes, it was nothing compared to this. This was incredible, and from that single hit I knew I was dealing with something that was created out of the very laws of the multiverse. This was the system itself saying no to us. “I don’t think I’ll break it with more power, no matter the number of times I hit it.”

Stella frowned, and yet she felt a connection to this mechanism. “It’s a lock. And I will need enough void mana to get through it. I have an inkling how to get past it, but I’m- I’m not ready yet.”

She just knew. 

No. The very interaction with the mechanism and barrier fed the knowledge to her. It spoke to her and imprinted into her being that she wasn’t ready. 

She stopped and looked at Lumoof. “We’ll return when I’m stronger. I think I need to reach Level 250 to get past this layered lock. Whatever this is, it is made as a fundamental law of this layer, and we won’t get past it without fulfilling its requirements.”

“That is a very high bar to reach.” Lumoof looked further, and it was clear that there were other mechanisms in the way. “And it won’t be the last barrier.”

“If one wants to pursue the truth, it lies beyond this thing. Let’s go home.” Stella looked back at the black swirling object that stood at the very end of the transparent tunnel. It wasn’t black anymore. Instead, it started to change color. There were more eggs around us, each a nascent world preparing for birth. 

Lumoof looked at it, and back. Was this really something to the demons? This felt like one of those hidden stories that went far off course from our goals. “It may not be worth it. Our goal is to stop the demons.”

“I know. But I think this, just maybe, this is something for me to chase after all of that is over.” Stella looked, and she created a portal to bring them out of the void layers. 

Year 285

Mountainworld

The arrival of the demon king was long overdue. In the past three years, the demon’s rifts were a minor affair, since our Valthorns ensured that none of these demon rits ever caused any significant damage. 

After the last attack on Mountainworld about 17 years ago, it would be finally time for Mountainworld to face its regular, scheduled disaster. 

It was slightly late. We’d been monitoring the connected demonworld for the past three years, and didn’t detect much movement, and on our end, we didn’t want to trigger another demon comet by attacking the demonworld world directly. So we allowed it to play out as usual. 

Over the next few years, there were quite a few demon kings that would spawn. 

The world of Caval, with the hero swords, would face a new demon king in a few years. Whether we followed Edna’s plan and allowed for a hero to be summoned, or deferred to Stella and destroyed the demon king upfront, was still open. I personally leaned towards Edna’s plan, since, if what the Gods’ said was true, heroes really did return to that moment in time where they ‘died’ or a version where they didn’t die. 

Yes, it would be traumatic for the hero, but with the right support system and a community of fellow heroes, we could minimize the pain, while we got a chance to fully explore the powers of  a growing ‘hero sword’ and try to push that to the limits. 

There was quite an interesting overlap between the nature of these hero swords and the nature of my artificial souls and titans. I thought that the learnings from this experience could lead to stronger artificial souls. 

It really cannot be understated how useful artificial souls are in administering my vast empire. It is the artificial souls that control the movement of beetles throughout the empire. Without the artificial souls ensuring that my beetles move where they are supposed to, the logistic network of the Order would grind to a halt. They are pretty much the trucks and cargo ships of my empire, the red blood cells ferrying crucial cargo everywhere. 

Better artificial souls would only allow me to handle more beetles and deploy even more resources. 

There was also the world of Triotuga. When we visited that world, the demon king was already dead, but in the next few years, they should have a demon king as well. It’s also one where we would live to observe the Boarpeople and how their powers interacted with the demon king’s presence.

Then, there’s Twinspace and Ulara, where the demon king still reigned unchallenged. 

All in, there were about four to five demon kings over the next five years to defeat. 

We would use these battles as a chance to elevate people like Lausanne, Ebon, and Hoyia to be the next generation of domain holders. 

A few others like them all asked for a chance to face the demon king without assistance. We roughly concluded that it was quite difficult to be domain holders if they fought demon kings with too much help. They needed the experience, the entire experience. The Level 140s would battle the coming demon kings entirely on their own, until they were spent and totally unable to. Only then our domain holders would step in. 

It was risky, but no one became domain holders without taking on some risk. 

We’ve grown large. Large enough that there is going to be some world, somewhere, that is going to be invaded by demons and a demon king. 

We can handle it. 

***

Ulara was a world where we were quite torn on.

They are a low priority world. The peripheral worlds and their perilous conditions meant I’d need to maintain my node trees for convenience of access to the peripheral worlds and to facilitate smoother movement of traffic. 

If I gain an increase in my number of node trees, I am still hesitant to place a node on the little snakeworld of Ulara, partly because the locals don’t really want me there. But if Snek insisted, I would spawn a node tree just so that they can have an exit route, if that day ever came to pass. 

Meanwhile, I spent some time checking on the city of New Ulara. 

The new group of Ularan migrants, who made a home on Tropicsworld, did well. The past decade of expansion and growth meant the hard part of migrating had mostly passed. Most of the Ularans now settled down, and the new generation of Ularans adapted to their new way of living. Snek hoped that New Ulara would take after the practices of the older, pre-demon Ularans, before the demonic conquest, but those records were still back on Ulara.

The old den lords were not keen to allow those who left a chance to return. Their reasons were entirely understandable. They didn’t want their ideology to spread amongst the Ularans that remained behind. 

So, without access to the ancient records, Snek shared stories as much as he could remember and the builders of New Ulara tried to recreate the old cities of Ulara to the best they could. 

But it was a struggle. Even after so many years, the Ularan migrants were so used to the subterranean life that life on the surface was awkward, and even after a decade, there were still some parts where their behavior was strange.

They were getting better. Day by day, there was improvement. 

From what I could see, this was probably one of the better stages to be in. The pioneer era was the time when great chances were made, new norms were formed, and society experienced a period of genuine, well distributed growth. 

New Ulara was meant to be the new symbol of the Ularan’s desire for change, and in some ways, it was. The younger Ularans grew up without fear of the demons, even if it would take a generation or two to fully change their ways. 

Just like many others, they would grow up different from their parents.

The early mature and developed stage would usually be the golden era. The post-pioneer era where some structure and order would emerge, but not still not overwhelming. Resources would be abundant, everyone would have opportunities to make something for themselves, ancient norms and rules would still not be so rigid, and their society would go through the equivalent of their teen and early adult years.

For some societies, this was when they peaked and it was all downhill from there, unless they went through a good process of renewal. 

Institutions get used to a particular way of working, and over time that creates a force that resists improvement. No, more than the ossification of institutions is the presence of immortals.

It’s very much true in worlds with magic, where there are existences like myself. Immortals create a concentration of power that resists change, unless the immortals themselves desired change. 

We are the old pillars that prevent the rot from being too deep, but we are also the barriers that prevent further improvement. The societies, due to the pervasive effects of the immortals, over time are an image, a creation of their controlling immortal’s views.

***

Freshka

The heroes had a few relatively peaceful years, and for them, they moved about and visited each other. The income provided from trading the hero items to the Order was lavish and afforded them many luxuries. Some heroes, like Khefri, liked massive mansions with dancers and all that. 

It was a very comfortable and luxurious life, but I could tell that they were all a little lonely. Only Colette and perhaps Prabu, were less so.

It’s not as if the heroes didn’t have friends. Many did try to make friends and successfully did so with the various Valthorns, whom at some level, could be their peers. But they were never too close.

The restraints on the [hero] class didn’t just hurt their ability to maintain their sanity. The [Hero] class sabotaged their ability to form connections with their friends. Peers. But I’d seen how to break the [hero] class’s constraints.

I understood that it was all written into the structure of the soul spring. That white, corrupted soul spring. And so Colette also suggested something, for Prabu, and the rest of the heroes. 

It emerged because Colette grew increasingly frustrated at how much she had to look after the rest of the heroes. 

“The soul spring contains our [hero] class, and if you remember correctly, it cracked over time. Can you have a look into Prabu’s soul and see whether there is something in there?” 

The heroes regularly visited my biolabs for scheduled medical checkups, once every few years. They were heroes, but it was a good habit. It kept them in generally good shape, physically. But the mental aspects were gated behind the heroic soul spring, and I wouldn’t touch it unless explicitly instructed to.

I dipped into the hero’s soul, and from outside, it looked generally alright. 

Prabu winced, but I could feel his mind struggling. I sometimes wondered whether the [hero] class had some level of sentience to it. At least, maybe Caval’s hero class had something different to it. 

“I’m going to lift up your soul spring. If there’s something hidden within your soul spring, or if there’s some damage, we’ll take it out.” 

It was relatively easy to lift the once-heavy heroic soul springs. They still consumed a large amount of energy, but given my stronger levels, it felt as if they were lesser.

Stronger, I felt confident and tried to look deeper into the spring itself. The last time I tried there felt like the hero’s class resisted, but this time, that resistance could not stop me. So, I noticed that some of the rocks that represented the hero class protruded into the flow of the mana. 

It was as if the rocks were shaping the flow of the soul’s mana into the rest of the body. 

I lifted the stones that formed the hero skills, and as Colette predicted, there was damage throughout the rocks. 

“There is damage, isn’t it?” Colette frowned, who was also along for the ride through a sharing of vision via [Dream Academy]. “Can you fix it?”

My spiritual tentacles touched them, and the damaged rocks were fused back together. They were not really actual stones, but more like representations of a hero class. Was all this some kind of wear and tear? I did not recall such damage in my Valthorns, as I have done similar checks on them. 

Was this the engineered decay of the [hero] class? The heroes’ experienced skill decay after they defeated the demon king. This ‘decay’ was this ‘wear’ in their soul spring?There were some remnants, the grinded up dust and shattered remains of these hero class stones. I picked them up and kept some. 

When I did, I got a notification from the system. 

[Dusts of the Heroic Class - Can be used to seed new classes and skills and empower them significantly]

Was this why there was a mechanism within the system to convert the hero classes to something else? For non-hero classes they often took a different color and shape, and these non-hero classes were often forced to the outer ring of the Soul Spring. 

Colette quickly reminded me to focus on Prabu. “Ah yes. Let’s get to it.”

I picked up Prabu’s heroic class stones and fixed them one by one, but as I went deeper, I reached some of the protruding rocks. I didn’t understand why they were meddling with Prabu’s soul flow, and they were likely pushed out of place over the years. 

So, I adjusted the locations of these rocks so that they no longer blocked the flow of mana from the spring. 

I was done. “How’d you feel?”

Prabu blinked as his partner quickly gave him a hug. “I feel. Strange. Strangely clear headed. Like, everything feels fresh and new.”

“That’s amazing. Should we do this for everyone?” I asked Colette.

“Yeah. Let’s ask them. I’ll word it as just some spiritual healing and therapy.”