291. The Tainted Greenfields I_Tree of Aeons

291. The Tainted Greenfields I

 291 - Greenfields VIII

 The Purple Moon of the Three Ringed World

 The four domain holdersnded on the purple moon, and the sensation was immediate.

 Core. Lumoof said, but he didnt really need to say it. All the domain holders knew, it was simr to the time when they reached the Core of Tropicsworld. There was no doubt, no uncertainty.

 Just merely stepping on it they felt the core attempt to make a connection. For the rest of them, their domains blocked it. but Lumoof allowed it through, so that I could speak to it.

 The feeling of a million thoughts seeping through his feet, and somehow the million voices coalesced into three distinct voices, yet they speak as one. The mere contact flooded me with visions of the Three Rings, of a world once without the gue of the demons.

 Of a world when the Purple Moon did not release bursts of energy to cause the monsters to run amok.

 Visitors. How- strange.

 The voice spoke through my mind immediately, and by now, I was quite used to the presence of such ancient things. Hello. I am Aeon, from another world.

 We have not had visitors since the long drift apart.

 There was a long pause, but I said nothing, because I felt its probing senses. Cores, from what I could tell, were not evil. It was looking for things around me, and its energies moved.

 I can sense the vague remnants of my fellow Cores in your being, their power subsumed into yours.

 I wondered then whether those were my clones.

 Are you here to im us? Like the foul constructs?

 No. I answered through the avatar form. With things like the Core, I decided honesty was the best policy. They were in some ways, sentient machines. Ie to destroy them, as requested by one of the gods.

 So you are a imant either way. A less destructive one.

 I could feel Lumoofs intention to respond negatively, but again, Ive talked to enough cores to understand that their statements tend to be more pointed.

 If that counts as iming, then yes. I will establish a presence in your ringworlds, and then use it to mount a counterattack on the demons. I said inly through our mental link. The domain holders stood on the purple rock, and the entirety of the rock was this realmsary core.

 It just didnt take the form of aary core, but instead ced itself out of reach of the demons by existing as a moon.

 What will you do to our children?

 The cores created and took care of each of their inhabitants. In that way, each native is a child of their core. Still, I was not sure how to answer them. They will live. Prosper, perhaps. But live.

 I felt a probing sense, as if it tried to understand where and what I had done. It somehow traced my flesh across all the worlds, yet not through me, but as if it were droplets of rain flowing down the leaves and barks of a tree.

 Yet. Protectiveness. This was a protective core. A world that wanted to keep its children alive.

 Altered forever, but alive. Our voice, if our children believe.

 I felt a sense of eptance, that my presence would be tolerable. eptable. The cores voice vanished.

 We were still standing on the core. The core refused to entertain us further, as I felt the Will retreat back into the depths of the Core. I could force it if I nt a clone here.

 But would I be better than the demons that way?

 I think of cores, or actually, these realm cores as the center of each world. It is not the sun like our old worlds, but instead, these worlds are as if medieval beliefs where Earth was the center of the universe was true. Well, almost every one, except for this one. I had many questions about the design and creation of this world.

 We looked back at the Three Rings. From this vantage point, it was as if the three rings moved around us. We nced at the sections where the three rings intersected one another. There were six intersection points, and at each of these intersection points were beams of light that connected one ring to another, a ce referred to as thedder.

 It allowed the natives to move from one ring to another, and it was how all three rings are connected, even if one didnt have magic.

 I suppose we should just move on. Ste said. Or step into the demon worlds linked through the rift gates.

 This world has two demon kings. Edna countered. From the purple moon it was surprisingly easy to find the demon king, because its presence was not obstructed by other things, and there was a straight line from the purple moon to the sun-facing side of the rings.

 And this world is a long way from being captured. Ste countered. Its only issue is that Hawa cant send anyone over anymore, and anyone Hawa sends need to send enough to deal with two demon kings.

 Lumoof looked at the rifts, and the paths through the stars. Let us hit the other worlds. We have a mission. This world can wait. The locals look very cozy and the demon kings seem content to wait.

 Why dont we just take a tour, pay a visit to the demon kings and just see what it was up to? Edna smirked, and it made all the other three domain holders stare at her.

 Youre serious.

 Yes. Why is it not doing anything? Dont you want to get more data points?

 And it was strange. We stood near it and watched the demon king remain as if it was in a hibernating state, or at least, in a state where all it did was reproduce. The demon king did not move as if waiting for something to happen.

 Does this count as a stable state? Edna asked. We were wary that there are vulnerabilities, like what happened to Keis demon king. If we attacked a living but ultimately harmless demon king, we could invite the presence of a far stronger demon king that would not just sit idly around.

 As weird as it sounded, when demon kings didnt act and remained passive, our immediate thought was to consider whether it would be less harmful overall to just suppress the rest of the demons, and leave the demon king as it is.

 A sort of fantasy version of harm mitigation.

 I think we should ask Hawa. This sounds like something Hawa would know. Edna said.

 Lumoof nodded. Well, another thing to add to our growing list of questions.

 Probably easier to just visit Satrya again. Edna said, but she knew we could not do so.

 Our mere presence creates doubt, and shakes the faith of their followers. In a world where god is present and that god says it is the only god, the mere presence of someone outside that gods rule is heretical.

 I bet theres more to ask after this. Kafa said. Every single one of these peripheral worlds is about to be abandoned by Hawa. Might as well just move ahead and get on with it. We canpile our questionster.

 Is that artifact time limited or with limited use?

 Not really, it just takes a long time to charge between uses. The divine energies contained within it takes a while to umte. Lumoof said.

 Then lets keep going. Lets split up again. You are with me, this time. Lumoof pointed at Ste. Ste grinned.

 Sure, old man.

 This time, Edna would go with Kafa to the Ninth, while Ste and Lumoof would go together to the Eighth.

 ***

 Eight World - Triotuga

 The eighth world started with Lumoofnding on what seemed like an alley. That was a good sign. Ste followed a brief moment after, since she did have to open the portals for everyone.

 An alley. A narrow street. A good sign. Lumoof said as his senses fanned out into the surroundings. There were people. Humans, just the typical humans. They were both cloaked in illusions made to hide their presence, and so, they walked out of the alley to find a vibrant market. For once, this human city was not at war.

 Not yet, at least.

 This worlds human society resembled the typical human-magical medieval society. There are kings, knights in armor, guards in chainmail and mages in robes walking around the main street.

 This is one of those copy-pasted worlds. Ste said. Kindazy when they designed worlds like that.

 Lumoof chuckled. You make it sound like creating worlds and societies to be an easy thing.

 I would think the natural evolution of-

 One of those the heroes cause the spread of humans across the worlds theory?. Lumoof looked around and felt calm. Rxed. At least, for one, I like how familiar everything is.

 Familiar yet different? Steughed as the humans argued. As with all medieval societies, there exists a noble ss, a priest ss, a tradesmen ss, the soldier ss and then the peasant ss. A priest wearing typical Hawa outfits walked by, but he looked like the most corrupt, fat priest she had ever seen. Correction. Familiar, and extremely disgusting.

 From one priest to another, let us not judge too hastily. My avatar smiled, and walked about. The pair explored the human kingdoms, and found that this world was a tripartite state simr to Threeworlds.

 The humans, the forestfolks, and the demon-users.

 Humanity and corruption are almost inseparable. The humans were incredibly typical. It was a wide number of small and medium sized human-dominant monarchies that were spread over one third of thend.

 Unlike Threehome, they didnt have dominant bodies, and so, the alliance of the human nations were motivated by a need to stick together to counter the incursions of the others. There was no set of central authority, and overtaking it would be fairly easy.

 The forest folks were made of two great subspecies, the winged faeries, and the earthbound dryads. Unlike the myth of our own world, these faeries were allrge, almost human seized and possessed sharp ws and teeth. In some ways, these winged fairies were more like winged goblins than actual faeries, and the faeries were more like the lower ss, and seemed to be bred in gigantic hives that looked like an oversized bees nest.

 The dryads were the usual rulers, twice the size of humans and thergest were the size of full trees. They took the form of humans with bark skin, but could shapeshift into trees, or even animals. They also possessed a variety of earth magic. It reminded me of the dryad body I once possessed, and wondered whether that would be one way to infiltrate them. Or I could use my parasite, Ally, the former demon champion.

 From what we gathered, the forestfolks were also made for a collection of kingdoms, each a gigantic forest of its own.

 With the existence of such a ce, naturally I wondered whether their kingdoms were anchored by spiritual trees, but despite therge amount of magic coursing through their forests, Lumoof did not detect any spiritual trees.

 The forest folks used a kind of light [camouge] and [illusion] ability, simr to my [dark forest] in order to hide their presence from others, but around domain holders, it was fairly easy to unmask.

 The border areas between the forest folks and the humans were outright battlegrounds. The forest folks tolerated no humans, and killed them with their control over the trees. The humans of the border practised extensive culling of trees, and permitted no shrub or bush higher than a child. Every singlerge nt along the border and arge buffer zone was effectively purged of allrge nts. The humans were just as brutal, and the humans of the border used magicals and harpoons with a kind of iron string.

 The priests of Hawa, despite their corruption, also possessed a set of [Purge] and [Banish] abilities that seemed extensively effective against the forest folks. The forest folks, on the other hand, were able to regenerate and recover from damage by draining their nearby trees of its life force. Their weakness was iron, and so, in a defensive battle, the forest folks could fight with extremely high toughness. The dryads, on top of their passives also had good ranged abilities and had the ability to control their environment.

 I suspected that the dryads had a hostile rtionship with spirit trees, and potentially, given the forest folks ability to drain life force from spirit trees, its likely that any spirit trees that spawned in their magical forests were sucked to death.

 The third faction, the demon users, were a kind of boar-faced people with strong hides, and it was walking into theirnds that we realized what was wrong with them. They controlled demons, and I could feel their spiritual tendrils extend beyond their body. Young boarfolk could extend one or two spiritual tendrils out of their bodies, and they would link this to the demons. This would allow the boarfolk to control them.

 But this link was not a one-way link, and in older boarfolk that controlled more demons, the demons influence also corrupted them, and turned them into almost-demon like creatures.

 This is like Aeons mana overwhelming, but far more specific. Lumoof observed them from our hidden location. The tendrils were visible to me because of our spiritual vision, but to normal mana sensitive folk, they would feel as if there is a haze of magic emitted out of the boarfolk.

 The boarfolk created a society of sorts, small cities made of boarfolk and their enthralled demons. They were able to control weaker demons, but from what I could see, not a single demon champion.

 Instead, we followed the footsteps of the stronger boarfolk and observed that their base abilities were simr to animal tamers. They controlled the demons as their pets, and empowered their pets to do the fighting. Maybe they even were beast tamers at one point, but then turned their talents towards the demons.

 Unfortunately, this link would be supercharged whenever there is a demon king present. A link that would corrupt them.

 In short, when a demon king arrives into this world, the entirety of the Boarfolk suffers from demonic corruption, and transforms into a demon. This process would strangely reverse itself once the demon king dies.

 Not all boarfolk transformed into the demons, like the children, and the boarfolk constructed special locations to house their young boarlings during the demon years, supported by a group of boarfolk that did not control any single demon.

 They essentially sold themselves to the demons. The demons spared the boarfolk, because of the demonic corruption through their mental link. I would love to capture them and study how their mental link worked.

 It should be possible for me to create more powerful versions of the boarfolks demonic control, and turn the demons against itself. Though, looking at how the demons mana worked, its likely such a thing would be outright rejected by my domain holders, unless the circumstances truly demanded it.

 As of now, the world is still rtively stable. The rifts have not yet opened, but there was a glowing path in the skies above. The demon king wasing soon, and war would break out.

 The boarfolk always invaded the rest of them, and so the other two races erected massive fortifications along the border.

 But weve seen enough. We would send Valthorns here to understand them in detail. It was time for the domainholders to keep moving.

 ***

 Ninth Peripheral World

 The Tale of the Two Continents

 The portals opened, and Ednanded on the roof of what seemed to be a heavily popted city. Kafa followed.

 Crowds. They saw crowds, and everyone lived their lives. It almost seemed like none of them worried about the demons.

 Well. This doesnt look like a demon world. Kafaughed after a week of traveling. It was just more and more people. It was just a world with a lot of humanoids. Humans, lizardfolk, dwarves, elves, centaurs. It had most of the types of people, and yet they were all trapped on this massive continent-sized ind.

 An ind that clearly didnt have enough resources to meet everyones desires, and so they fought each other over what little they had. Thend was mediocre, the metals were mediocre, and the magic in the air was thin.

 It was a massive continental ind, home to hundreds of millions, and not a single demon in sight. There were few forests in this world, instead, everyone lived in cities, or in the case of the elves and dwarves, turned forests into cities.

 Farnd was also plenty, but unlike the other worlds, the farms here were heavily worked. They could feel the presence of many effects and abilities trying to force more output out of their limited farnds.

 Arge, heavily popted world with a scarcity issue.

 But only on this continent. Edna and Kafa knew the world was much bigger, and so they used magic, and traveled.

 Then they discovered a few more inds, with more resources, but infested with monsters.

 And even further away, another full sized continent overrun with demons.

 It was as if imagining Treehome, in a situation where a demon king stuck to one continent and never left it. The humanoids imed one continent for themselves, and the demons imed another. The continent of demons was densely covered with demons of varying strength, and the demon king was a gigantic three headed demonic elephant that was already digging into the ground.

 In a decade or two, it wouldpletely dig into the core, and this worlds way of life would change forever.

 The rest of the smaller inds were just overrun with magical creatures, and this was where the humanoids ventured for wealth and resources.

 But the great demon continent remained forever and none dared touch. And of death and destruction.

 They referred to it as the cursed continent.

 I couldnt help but feel a tinge affected. That was what they called the Central Continent, once.

 Well. Kafa and Ednanded on the ind, and Kafa looked at his fellow warrior. This worlds not in trouble. Not yet, anyway.

 Seen enough? Edna smiled after about a month of travel.

 Kafa sighed. Theyvergely formed an assessment in that month. The great part of this world is its poption. If our goal as an institution is to truly collect talent, then a significantlyrger surviving poption is more likely to produce the talent we need.

 Outside of the poption, I suppose you are right. Lets go to the next.

 Each world had their own demon kings, and each had their own ticking timer. Some had more time, some had less.

 We would likely need to do a full sweep of all the worlds, clean it up for demon kings, and then decide where to properly set up base. There were six more worlds to go.

AliNovel

291. The Tainted Greenfields I