A growing garden


    <b>Year 192</b>


    With the battle against the demon king behind us, I moved Lumoof back to the North. The first order of the day was to find Ken again.


    Where did he go?


    And we couldnt find him. So, we made sure to keep all my artificial minds on the lookout. Its possible they sailed to the other continents, and if so, theres no point looking for them here in the North.


    Around this time, we received a letter from Me. Another meeting with her, and Alexis.


    -


    We met again in that same hotel, this time, only Lumoof and Edna. There really was no need to bring anyone else.


    Patriarch Lumoof, we meet again. This is Alexis, my partner and co-leader of the Rosewoods. Me nodded, and this was when I saw Alexis again after so long. She was a tall, slender woman, her face was that of a human, with the exception of the beetle-like iris, and two little feelers on her forehead. She had humanlike fingers, but the tips were like little ws with tiny hooks.


    Alexis nodded, and Edna too gave a knowing nod. Lumoof made a guess on her ss.


    [Assassin]


    Me noticed the way Alexis and Edna looked at each other, and immediately exined. I believe weve met under less than pleasant situations. But lets put that behind us and look forward. Alexis was still tense and she sat down. Edna could single-handedly defeat everyone in this room, and everyone knew it.


    Lumoof smiled and sat on the chair. Indeed, I was also told by one former hero that you two tried to attack her.


    Me nodded knowingly. It was clear that shes a former hero after that event, ourck of intel from the central continent made us blind. Its very unfortunate that our meeting devolved in that manner.


    Lumoof took a cup of tea and sipped. He wasnt worried whether it was poisoned. Oh, she was equally surprised to learn that the two of you were former heroes of another generation. It seems to us that the number of former heroes in the world only keeps growing.


    Meughed. I suddenly feel a lot less special.


    Lumoof only nodded. So, lets start. I would like to preface our discussion with Aeons view. As he promised many years ago, he has no intention of meddling, and wishes to respect that both of you have separate lives.


    Alexis immediately leaned in. Define meddling. Is he not meddling, when the two of you are here? Me merely sighed at the response.


    Lumoof was calm and he expected the question. Its important to look at context and the overall picture. Aeons ultimate goal is to break this world from the cycle. To do so, he has to asionally step in to save the heroes, especially if they are cursed, in order to minimise the destruction from the demon king. Though, as we could see from Alvins case, he didnt do that well against the previous demon king. Nevertheless, after our incident in the North, Aeon decided that he needed to move in the North, as it seemed that these inds are home to quite a bit of the anti-hero factions, if only to maintain the bnce.


    Sounds like an excuse to expand his power.


    Lumoof nodded. Oh, we make no excuses there. Aeon in its pursuit of power, will have to expand to everywhere in this world.


    Alexis immediately turned to face Me. The room already had anti-magic shielding.


    The world will run out of time. Lumoof said before Alexis can continue. Aiva told us that the gods powers fade. Well, we only heard from Aiva, we dont know whether the other gods are actually fading or not. In a century or two, Aiva will no longer support the summons, and the world may end up without heroes to face the corruption of the demons.


    Wait. What? Alexis looked at Me. Me didnt respond to the statement.


    Aeon is aware of your past disagreements with his methods. Rich, and hypocritical now that Alexis is an assassin that killed many others. But shes a smart girl, and I like to believe her intellect could be useful. But lets work together, at least, to ovee this challenge. Past enmities can be managed.


    Alexis sat down. Youre not lying.


    We met Aiva herself. I wasnt sure whether to refer to Aiva as male or female. Honestly it could go either way, though the church of Aiva tends to refer to Aiva as a goddess, even though that isnt exactly in their scripture. Her presence was real.


    Can you tell us why Aeon has all the hero fragments? Alexis sat.


    Lumoof mentally pinged me, and I agreed. It was something he kept from everyone until recently, but he is what they call... coteral damage. An idental tag-along during the hero summons. The fragments were awarded to all those who tagged along.


    There was silence, as Alexis and Me both processed it.


    It was a long silence.


    Youre telling me now, that he understood all our references all this time? And he never said a word? Alexis had a look that was mostly anger.


    Yes. Infuriating as it may be, it was Aeons decision in the early days.


    This is ridiculous. Alexis looked at Me. She stood and mmed the table. You believe this shit?


    I must say I do. Me looked back. It makes a lot of sense, taking ount of his paranoia with his knowledge of our world, he is quite like some of the more paranoid heroes. I didnt feel I was paranoid. I thought I was reasonable in protecting myself.


    Why? Alexis stood.


    I took over Lumoof, as Lumoofs eyes glowed. I spoke through him.


    Because a tree cannot move. If the entire world knew of my origins, would they turn on me? Maybe yes, maybe not. But I did not take chances, not with what little power I had then. I am unlike the rest of you, who can afford to run, to hide, to alter how they appear with magic, or with the right spells, to move to another world. If we made a wrong move, I am a sitting duck. I have been on the receiving end of so many hexbombs, that I no longer bother to count them. The truth costs me a lot more. I am willing to admit the truth, because now, I can afford to. The world is not a pleasant ce. Youve seen how assassins tried to kill heroes even with the overwhelming power of heroes. What could a tree, an immobile tree, do?


    Me sighed. Alexis was silent.


    Me and Alexis, we meet again after so long, and I would have preferred we met under more auspicious and pleasant circumstances. But the reality is this, we have just a few centuries left to chart our path, and prepare for the moments when our crutches are off.


    They were listening, even if they felt intimidated.


    It may seem long, but its only 15 to 20 demon kings. That may not be enough to level enough of us, such that we can survive subsequent demon kings without the support of heroes consistently. Not just one demon king, but for the rest of this worlds existence. Without divine support.


    Me nodded. I understand, and so, whats the n?


    Alexis turned. Me.


    Aeon is right. If the summoning of the heroes will stop, this world is truly fucked. Like it or not, we cant ever reach that level. We certainly dont have the right skills or items to even stand up to any regr hero, what more the demon king. Me defended me. Weve worked at this for a century, and youre still only level 90, and Im barely above level 100. If Aeon is able to even graze the level of the gods, then we need to work with him.


    I said frankly. Honestly, I am willing to let the two of you continue as is. There really is no need for both of you to make massive adjustments to the new lives you have built over thest century. But I hoped to rely on both of you for intelligence, for support should it be needed, and mainly, to put things bluntly, dont get in the way. What I want at the moment, is an intelligence sharing agreement, and a non-interference with our actions here in the North, or wherever you may operate. I can dictate that by force, if I need to, but thats an unnecessary waste of manpower.


    With the Valthorns, I could field far more power than they have. There was no need to have them enterbat, or enter into a formal alliance. They just had to stay out of the way, and if they dont, Ill have to force them to.


    Me turned. I can agree to that.


    Alexis stood and looked at her partner, there was a hint of displeasure in her statement. We should discuss this.


    Non-interference should be a clear yes, Alexis. This doesnt change anything significantly, not with the proverbial [Soul Contract] on our souls. Intelligence is also an eptable trade, we have an interest in keeping the world safe and supporting the heroes in their mission. We can do more working with Aeon, than against him.


    Alexis wanted to respond, and then she sat back down. She didnt look too happy, but she seemed to ept it.


    You mentioned there were others like us? Like Miss Kei? Me asked. The point that I havent quite decided on, was whether I should expose them to Kei, Ste, or any of the other future heroes who maye under my umbre.


    Yes. How about you, have you seen any of your own?


    ...Yes. We have two under our care at the moment. But tell me, whats their role in this? How do they fit in?


    Two? Hmmm. Im beginning to suspect idents are moremon than I thought. I decided I could share some information. Theyre mostly helping me where they can, and how they could apply their own knowledge to improve things. One of them worked on portals. Another is helping with crystalline bombs which we will deploy against the demon kings.


    Ah, Ive heard of the bombs. Me said. Fascinating stuff. Alexis even got her hands on a few undetonated ones. Now that we know Aeon was from Earth, it really exined some of these unusualbat strategies.


    Alexis asked. How does Aeon n to end the cycle? Weve heard the goal, but does he have a n in mind?


    Lumoof shrugged. This is partly why we are here. We dont have a firm n, we are attempting quite a few things, but if we had more minds, with different viewpoints, we could have more leads. Some of the ideas are quite outrageous.


    Alexis stared at Me. So all that rhetoric of a grand goal, and Aeon doesnt have a n.


    Me smiled back. Well, dont all great ns begin with a vision?


    Maybe its a vision that will lead us to hell.


    Are we not in some kind of hell-world already? Me responded.


    The two of them seemed to be pretty tense with each other. Maybe theyve been together for too long. Its hard to imagine a friendship thats a century-long would still be cordial. Lumoof and Edna just watched.


    No point jumping into their fire.


    What I found strange was that they did not respond to the portals. Did they hear it, or were they also working on something simr? Strange.


    -


    Ste finallypleted her examination of the demon kings core. Its a dud. Again.


    The core received star mana damage, and its clearly messed up whatever that was in there. Sorry, Aeon. Not good enough.


    I felt like stomping my feet. We worked so hard and it wasnt enough! Of course, Edna expected it. Its not like we did most of the damage.


    Your domain skill really delivered though. I praised Edna then. We just need to work on damage. We both needed to work on damage. Even my fragments didnt seem to make much of a difference against the demon king. Its likely that the fragments are only effective for non-demon kings. This, of course, suggested that demon kings are not demons, but in their own ss entirely.


    We also examined the mana I drained from the core to prevent thatst minute meltdown. Its a lot of void mana and demonic mana mixed in, and the trees and potatoes that I used to hold these manas were corroding rather quickly, and I needed to constantly heal the potatoes so that these void mana didnt leak out and blow the whole ce up.


    But the mana type nor the ratio didnt tell us much other than what we already know. The demon king contained void mana within itself, and most of this was about to blow. Luckily, this time, I was able to absorb significantly higher quantities of mana to avoid any catastrophic blowup. In the first ce, it was already weakened and had already consumed a bit of its void and demonic mana.


    Oh well. Maybe the third time well get it.


    -


    Our spies were helpful, but they were not able to extract Neira''s secret godmunion methods. More correctly, they were not even sure it existed.


    Among the mid-tier leadership team, they were not aware of any means of seeking out their god. They have the understanding that they will be contacted by their god, not the other way round.


    This, of course, made me wonder, why do their followers even pray, then? If their prayers do not actually go to their respective gods, then what is it for? Yet, despite the prayers never reaching the god, those who pray somehow receive blessings? How does that work?


    I attempted to make sense of this whole prayer thing.


    As I understood it, Lilies once said a domain is a higher-order ess to the system. But looking at what Ive seen so far, its probably not just that. At this point, I theorise that a domain holder essentially creates a spot for itself in the system. This was why Lilies felt my presence spread throughout the system.


    If so, when prayers are given, I believe these prayers are then recorded by the system, and theres a code or a programme in the system itself, created either indirectly or directly by a persons ascension to the higher levels of domains, that then absorbs these prayers and then responds to them.


    In other words, the system functioned as an automated god system on behalf of the gods. The god may have set criterias for the system, or the system itself interpreted a set of criterias from the gods behavior that formed the basis of how it responded to prayers.


    I mean, that has to be how it worked, because Im not linked or giving powers to those who have [aeonic] sses, and yet they clearly derive some power that is modelled after mine. The system did that, not me.


    I did not assess these believers whether they were worthy or not, it was the system who did it. The system, as the only impartial operator in the world, made that judgement call.


    Thus, its likely that even if Aiva drifted out of range of her normal, direct powers, the benefits from an Aivan blessing or ss would continue.


    No, thinking about it, would it be a good idea to link the world to where the gods are, if they are friendly? Such that they can use their powers more directly here.


    Certainly that would be good for the world, in the sense that Aiva can then protect this world directly, but not good for me, since they probably would not tolerate me being so close to them. A portal worked both ways.


    -


    The four heroes came to the Central Continent again, this time on their own ord. Theyve finished the clean up of the demons in the West.


    I didnt like that they wanted toe, of course, but they were heroes, and they could just teleport to our continent if they wanted to. So, rather than resist and fail, since theres four of them, I decided to just allow them entry.


    I want snacks. All types of them. Prabu told the attendants at the port. The attendants hurried to retrieve snacks from the warehouse.


    A Valthorn quickly reached out to me. As the heroes are not invited on an official visit, should we charge them the cost of their lodgings and food? This was a diplomatic headache, of course. Previously they came at Keis invitation, and so I agreed to waive the cost of whatever they consumed. I decided to call on my council for their input.


    I think we should absorb it, for now. One of the Lords advised. Most kingdoms absorb the cost of hero visits. After all, they never really stay for long. Most end up starting their own kingdoms.


    I think we should be more concerned if one of these heroes wanted to start their own kingdom here. Another Lord responded. But until then, most kingdoms put on their best face forward.


    What if the heroes start to mate with any of the younger princes or princesses around the Central Continent? That could cause some of the kingdoms to stray from influence.


    And is that likely? I asked.


    Its possible. Many kingdoms historically attempted, with some sesses, to absorb heroes into their royal families as a way of enhancing the unique status of the royal family. Granted this has not happened yet in the recent Aeonic era, but it was amon thing, historically. Some heroes end up usurping the throne via marriage.


    <i>Fuck.</i>


    A hero as one of the Kings? Theres no way I could keep them in line if that happened.


    Prabu munched on a te of snacks. I love snacks so much Im going to stay in the Central Continent.


    <i>Fuck.</i>