Tree of aeons 7 an iseka.., p.3
Tree of Aeons 7: An Isekai LitRPG Adventure, page 3
“It’s the safer option, and more suitable for those fond of more subtle types of moves,” another Valthorn spoke, and Lausanne nodded. Not all Valthorns were the warrior types—some were spies, like Spymaster Intip, and many others were diplomats. Each of them had worlds and situations that best made use of their talents.
For Lausanne, she felt she belonged in the battlefields. She longed to fight against demons, an experience now mostly missing from Treehome.
Roon and Johann also spoke of the void worlds, but the void worlds would remain off limits for non-domain holders. The presence of unusual creatures and strange rules meant the void worlds were a significantly higher risk to the elite Valthorns, while the peripheral worlds, as unloved, soon-to-be-godless worlds, were likely to be free of more obstructive and invasive, divine meddling.
Lausanne listened as Roon and Johann narrated that the meeting was more to assess the level of interest amongst the Valthorns. The exploration team of Stella, Edna, and Ezar was still surveying the faraway worlds, and the Valthorn presence would come in once they’d established the general details.
The initial reports were not encouraging. The earliest departure to the peripheral worlds would happen within days, because the peripheral worlds were all under heavy attack.
The elven warrior listened and wondered whether she’d be able to join the exploration team like Edna. That sounded interesting, and she remembered how she used to explore the other continents of Treehome.
She would like to be there. Exploration was one of her other interests. She heard tales of how Valthorns were involved in exploring the various tunnels and caves of Mountainworld, and her heart wished she was a part of it.
“You look like you have unanswered questions, milady. Something on your mind?” At that point, Johann was the one that approached Kei and Lausanne.
Lausanne smiled back and spoke her mind. “I was thinking about the explorers and wondering what it’ll be like to be one.”
Johann nodded. “If you are interested, I believe Aeon would be happy to rotate you to the exploration team.”
Lausanne agreed. “Ah, I will raise it the next time I speak to him.”
Johann grinned. Few people could answer that way. “We look forward to having you with us on the field, Lausanne. From what I know, we’ll need almost all our people.”
Lausanne nodded.
It was horrifying.
The peripheral worlds were pretty much demon-infested, at different stages of destruction.
Yet she found herself excited at the prospects.
Treehome
Aeon.
“Are we involved in the peripheral worlds?” Colette and Prabu asked. They were briefed, naturally, as were Adrian and Khefri. The presence of heroes in these worlds rekindled the idea of a League of Heroes, one that would be managed by Kei.
“Yes. The number of worlds involved would require all of you to be deployed, at least to help remove the threat of the demon kings,” I responded directly. “The Valthorns would then come in to sweep up the rest and help rebuild these worlds. I will need you all to step in, if there are any heroes surviving.”
“You will be doing this in your own name?” Colette wondered. “Or on behalf of Hawa?”
“My own. If Hawa wishes to spread his presence, he can send some of his forces over, we’d be happy to facilitate, but since it’s our lives on the line, I’ve got no intention of letting him get the credit.”
Colette paused before answering. “I see.”
I’d like to minimize the role of the heroes, simply because their strength was inconsistent. My domain holders all appeared much more stable and centered, while the heroes felt like they could snap. Well, maybe except for Colette.
Colette’s [liberated hero] gave her a sense of calm and assuredness that the rest of them didn’t have. Even her partner had strange outbursts, like when he interacted with Chung.
It was a strange thing to feel, even though I personally liked talking to Prabu more than the rest. The heroes all had a switch in them that could trigger without notice and suddenly alter their reactions and behavior. It was for this reason that they were unreliable, even if interacting with them on a day-to-day basis could be pleasant and friendly.
They were trustworthy, until they suddenly were not.
I didn’t want to work with these sorts of requirements. Not in the peripheral worlds, and not when we took the battle to the demon sun.
So I intended that the peripheral worlds become a farming location for my Valthorns and hoped we could elevate a few more of my Valthorns.
Once we stabilized the demon situation, I intended to deploy at least two clones, in the largest, most populous worlds, and use that presence to transform those worlds. I would like these peripheral worlds as future “Core” worlds, just like Treehome, Branchhold, and what I was doing with the world of Delvegard.
The data that came back from Edna and Stella was rather depressing.
The first world they were in, Landas, was almost conquered by the demon king.
The demon king that attacked Landas was some kind of flying demon king, and Landas itself faced demons with high regularity, apparently records, whatever little that they had left, claimed that the demon kings attacked almost every ten years.
They also used to have heroes, but the amount of heroes shrunk quite quickly, and so the condition in their world deteriorated rapidly. It only held on due to the many, many historical relics left behind by all the different heroes and the high-leveled warriors that protected their cities.
In short, they were perfect as our first base.
From Stella’s surveys, they really needed help.
Peripheral Landas 3
Edna
Edna and team arrived at the next location on the map, only to find it was already an open-air cemetery. The bodies of elves torn by the flying demons were everywhere. Blood and the smell of rotting bodies filled the air. The elves probably died no more than a few days ago, because the bodies were only beginning to rot.
“We’re too late,” Edna said.
Ezar’s shock was brief, because he quickly steeled himself and nodded. There were things that needed to be done. “Let’s keep going. We don’t want to be late for the next one.”
Edna looked at the two rangers and druids. “Wait. Too late to save the cities, but there may still be survivors. Let’s search underneath all of this. We should help them before we leave. Just in case anyone’s left.”
The knight’s words made the Valthorn druid regain his composure and spread out his senses. The ranger used a kind of calming ability on himself and searched.
Ezar looked at Stella. “Lady Stella, send me over to the other locations first. If there are demons, I want to be there.”
Stella nodded, and the portal whirled open. As expected, there were demons. Ezar nodded, and he stepped to the other side.
About that time, the druid shouted, “There’s a small group of them hidden underneath this rubble. They’re very weak!”
After stating that, roots and vines immediately emerged from the druid and pierced into the rubble and began to lift the collapsed structure. A set of roots reached for the semi-conscious elves hidden underneath. They were injured, hungry, and almost dying. Only three. But three was better than none.
Edna got to them and immediately used a set of potions on them. Their wounds healed, and soon their eyes opened to the sight of Edna’s glimmering form.
“Are we dead?” they asked.
“No,” Edna said gently. “You’re not.”
The ranger then shouted, “There’s another few hidden here. They’re in bad shape, too.”
The druid and the mage immediately went over, while Stella checked on the first group. From his pocket space, the druid took out more potions. They continued to search and soon found, in total, twenty survivors, mostly children and their mothers, hidden underneath the rubble.
Many were delirious, but the potions helped with the physical wounds and the shot of food helped with their hunger.
Stella immediately opened a portal and sent them back to the Fortress of Roskor.
Novorosk was there when the portal opened before his eyes.
“Warleader Novorosk, these are the survivors from the nearby city. Take care of them.” The ranger guided the survivors through the portal.
Novorosk stared. “What—”
“Just take care of them. Feed them and house them somewhere. We will come back and check.”
Novorosk panicked but nodded. Once all of them were over, the portal closed.
At that point, Edna then looked back at Stella. “Ezar’s right. If there are other cities, we should go and get to them quickly. The more survivors we can save, the faster we can get this world back on its feet. Aeon needs to send more people over and to all of the fifteen worlds.”
“We can’t scout that many worlds at the same time,” Stella countered. The domain holders must be first to go. The druid’s roots immediately rescued another few more elves hidden under the buried rubble.
The demons killed indiscriminately. To the demons, the mortals were just obstructions. What the demons wanted was the planet’s Core. Everything else was unnecessary.
Edna looked around. “I think we can leave this world to the rest of the Valthorns. Leave Ezar here just in case. We must start moving. We don’t know what condition we’ll find in the other fourteen worlds. Each day we waste is another day for the demons to slaughter more of these folks. Many of them do not have our advantages. We need full mobilization now.”
“But—”
“Us domain holders will need to start hopping. Let’s deploy the [node] here, and we’ll use this place as our launchpad,” Edna said. “We need all the domain holders in all the peripheral worlds.”
Stella pointed to the immediate problem. “There’s not enough of us to cover all the worlds.”
There were eight domain holders, excluding Aeon, and there were fifteen worlds. There were only four heroes.
“We’ll have to leave node trees there and use that to support those worlds where we can’t. The [heroes] will have to step in. We will need to hop extensively.”
Stella nodded. That wasn’t ideal, but it was the best plan they could do with their current resources. Fifteen worlds also meant some worlds wouldn’t have a [node] tree. Aeon only had nine node tree slots left, after the first one was used on Delvegard.
“Kafa will have to leave Delvegard.”
“Delvegard’s priority should be lower,” Edna countered. “Lives are at stake. Let’s make haste. We can afford to patch it up as we go.”
Stella nodded. “Very well. Let me do so.”
Ezar
The portal led to a horde of demons attacking what was probably a city. It was one, once. There was already crazy fighting when he arrived, the demons have stained the lands with blood and corpses. Flying demons loomed as arrows zoomed.
The defenders were fighting with their lives on the line. Everyone was fighting. There were children, old elves, all doing their best with sticks and whatever weapons they had.
He looked around and immediately spotted the demon champion in charge. It was one of those axe champions. A large, bulky demon with four giant wings, two large, clawed legs, and two arms, each with a burning battleax.
He fought demons across the worlds, many times, and always found them to be emotionless creatures. If anything, he always thought the demons looked afraid. But it was ridiculous. The demons didn’t feel fear. So he didn’t believe it, either, when he thought the demon champion looked smug.
Demons had no feelings. Ezar’s enchanted gauntlets glowed as he channeled his domain ability. In an instant, the burst of energy from his fist smashed into the champion, and it splattered to death, unaware what hit him.
The death of the demon champion sent the demon army into a wild frenzy, but that was intentional.
Ezar activated the rings on his fingers and released their stored ability. They summoned five gigantic beasts, two lions and three gray wolves, each about Level 80 in power. “Go and slay the demons.”
The presence of the five giant animals instantly drew the attention of the demons. Without the demon champion, the rest of the flying demons were torn apart by the five powerful magical beasts.
Ezar hopped, and in a single leap he landed right next to the breaking lines. He spoke, his voice carried by the weight of his [domain].
“Stand back.”
To the defenders fighting for their lives, they did.
Ezar’s gauntlet glowed, and he punched with such weight that all the demons in front of him were crushed in a single energy punch.
There was no need to use his domain ability here. He watched as his five summoned beasts tore through the demons, and the flying demons fled. Any demon that got close was crushed.
“Mommy, are we saved?” There was an elven boy who looked absolutely in awe. He was dirty, covered in blood, but his mother was injured. His mother, an elf, held a sharp, pointy wooden stick as a weapon.
His mother looked around. Everyone did. There was a feeling amongst all of the elves.
Disbelief.
Hope.
Relief.
Ezar turned. “Is this it? Any more demons?”
The elves didn’t know what to answer. So no one answered. Ezar realized they probably weren’t in any condition to know.
The place was probably a fortification of some kind, but the walls were already destroyed. The elves were fighting their last stand within the city itself, because they couldn’t outrun the flying demons. Not that there was anywhere else to go, anyway.
The elves looked amongst themselves. There were no leaders left; all that were supposed to lead them died during the battle. The five beasts walked closer to Ezar, now that their target had been destroyed, and the elves stared in fear.
Ezar looked back at them. They were creatures tagged to his enchanted summoning ring, one of his many pieces of equipment. There was no need to speak the command, high-tier summons were mentally linked to their masters, but Ezar said it to assure the elves. “Patrol the perimeter. Roar if there are any demons.”
The lions and wolves roared in acknowledgment, and they ran to secure the perimeter. The elves were relieved to see the creatures move.
“Bring all the wounded here. I’ll help them where I can. Those that can’t move, call me,” Ezar said as the rest of the elves scrambled to sort everything out. But at that point, they obeyed.
Ezar looked around and frowned. This wasn’t the only world.
“Ezar to Stella, Ezar to Stella. This location is safe, but we need to keep moving and hit the rest of the cities. Can you open a portal?”
“Portal incoming. We plan to deploy a node soon to bring more forces over. Domain holders will need to visit all the peripheral worlds as soon as possible to deploy nodes.”
Ezar smiled. It was nice having teammates that he could count on. “Acknowledged. Let me know.”
Ezar turned back to face the elves as he checked his inventory. At that point, the portal swirled open, and both Stella and the druid stepped out. “Ezar, you’re needed elsewhere. Falin will handle the healing and fixing the security.”
Falin, the Level 130 Valthorn druid, got to work.
“There are other locations with demons,” Stella said as she prepared to open a portal again.
Ezar nodded as Falin looked at the location. The druid’s arms glowed briefly as roots shot out of his arms. At that moment, a wall of bramble emerged around what was left of the elven encampment. “This should protect the location for now.”
“Where’s Edna?”
“There’s another location. A proper city. It may be under siege.”
“Is it our timing? Why are cities under siege at this time?” Ezar found it terribly unusual. It was common knowledge that most reinforcements arrived either too early or too late, though in some ways, they were too late. Somehow, so many cities were under siege.
Stella smiled. “We’ll deal with that later. Portal open. Go, go, go. I’ll deploy the node once Aeon acknowledges our request.”
Ezar didn’t know where and how far he was from Stella, but it didn’t matter. He trusted she’ll come back for him once it was over. The portal opened, and he arrived to immediately see three demon champions in the air.
Three! How cute.
The demons actually saw him this time, and they roared at him.
He punched through them. Two died instantly, and then he dashed toward the third with such speed that the third demon champion briefly looked horrified. He was fairly sure it wasn’t horror. Perhaps it was just a survival reaction.
It died.
The elven city of this location was protected by a magical shield that felt like [star mana]. A quick glance suggested that this was a fairly prosperous city at one point in its life. But it had a breach.
There were two more demon champions there, battling the defenders. The defenders here were actually fairly competent. There were two Level 80–plus elven warriors battling against the demon champions, and they looked like they had special equipment from a much earlier time.
“Stella, I don’t think this location needs help. They have [hero items].”
“Really?” Stella responded through the [message]. “Uh, give me a couple of minutes. I’ll send you elsewhere.”
“Got it. I’ll make myself useful for a bit.”
He looked around and decided to just help their odds for a bit. His domain spread out. Everyone saw Ezar glowing midair like a god of war, his fists shimmered with power like the fists of furious heavens. Lightning, fire, and the elements each in a single punch.
The demons charged at him. Mindlessly.
The two demon champions trying to break the gates turned to face him, as they soon decided he was the larger threat.
They all were nothing before a [domain holder]. His domain was oppressive to these lesser demons.
