286. The node and the hero

Edna, on Landas, the Elven Peripheral World

The portal whirled open to the old location, supposed to be where the hero was. Nunarnusk was once the great capital of the White Elves, and so, they retained many old records, stored, luckily, in their underground vaults. The locals gladly gave her a tour of the place, and indeed, there was a time long, long ago when they rivaled even the great empires of Threeworld or Mountainworld. 

Great empires are but materials to be turned into sawdust in the hands of the demon’s ever persistent grinding machine. 

The old vaults were sealed magically. The White Elves hoped that if they fell, the city’s history would still somehow remain within these vaults. There were no weapons here, instead, it was all books and records. Paintings.

And most importantly, detailed maps. 

Maps, that made it easy for Stella to roughly locate it’s location. An old White Elf, apparently almost 600 years old, volunteered to help them verify the location of the Hero’s resting place. There was a time, a few centuries ago, when there was a lull in the demon’s push. When they lucked out with a hero with the right mix of talent, capability and luck to help beat back the demons and push the balance of power in their favor. 

During the fleeting era of peace, there was travel between the cities. There was trade that has long vanished. Magical travel was possible during the period, instead of the constant, perpetual disruptions today. 

“Portal disruptions seem pretty common.” Stella said. A lot of the [messaging] and [teleportation] failure was entirely due to the demon’s magical disruption, and for someone like Stella, it wasn’t even hard to tell where those disruptive energies came from. 

The demon’s nests in the deserts of Landas were all sources of that disruption. Stella almost didn’t notice them, but Stella’s portals, that survived the shredding of reality and teleportation on far more chaotic environments like the Demon’s Comet, easily overpowered the disruptions. If they had capable mages, they might have managed to maintain some semblance of a communication network even in spite of the disruptions, but Edna knew that those odds were unlikely. 

Talent needed the right circumstances to flourish, and even today, even with the huge talent infrastructure of the Valthorns, mage training remains slow. Faster than before, but still, slow. 

And so the portal opened, to a field of destruction and burnt wood. Ash. 

It was a lake, once upon a time, but it has long since dried up. There were bodies filled with the corpses of the dead, though demons rarely left corpses. They decayed way too quickly. 

There were champions in the distance, hammering at what appeared to be a magical shield. The shield protected a cherry tree that has long since withered and without a single leaf or flower. 

There is an injured hero within that tree’s little space. 

All around the shield was just endless, endless destruction. The White Elf collapsed on the ground and wailed. “This entire place- it- it used to be a large city. One hundred thousand High Elves once walked this land, and now, all that remains is the Sacred Cherry of the First Estate?!”

Edna and Stella’s eyes both scanned the demon-filled surroundings, there certainly didn’t seem to be anything resembling a city here. It was just a series of craters, whatever civilization didn’t leave any structures or infrastructure that survived the demon’s attack. 

The champions all hammered away at the shield. The shield did not break. The shield did not bend. But they both could sense the attacks chipping away at it’s strength. Slowly. The shield could last a few more years. 

“Since I am here.” Edna said, as she jumped and landed not far away from the flood of demons. “I might as well play.” 

Her [Quest Swords] appeared by the tens, and the knight’s magical summons soon appeared to accompany her. What were champions before a domain holder?

Stella created a shield around herself and her guide, the old white elf. Edna’s blade shone like the fury of the stars. In the land that was once the First Estate, light returned, and ended centuries of darkness brought about by the demons’ champions.

In what was no more than ten series of flashing lights, the army of demon champions crumbled.

The pounding of the shield ended, and an eerie silence returned to the land. 

Even the wind seemed to stop. 

Edna’s footsteps felt like the marches of a million soldiers. She walked to the gigantic Cherry tree that’s all withered, and felt the presence of a heroic shield. 

“Aeon would be pleased to find another spirit tree out here.” Edna said, her [quest swords] vanished into their own magical space. 

Stella looked at the White Elf guide, “Please return to Nunarnusk.”

The White Elf wanted to stay, but he dared no object. “Please don’t hurt the Sacred Cherry. It is one of the most sacred places for all of the High Elves. Our ancestors have offended the gods enough, I do not wish to offend them further.”

Stella found that amusing. All the briefings they received suggested they were all enemies. “Rest assured, if the Sacred Cherry is not our enemy, it would not find us a threat.”

The white elf went back through the portal, and Stella teleported up to Edna.

With not a single demon in sight, the withered Cherry Tree stood before them. 

“So, do we talk to it?” Stella asked. “Or do we require Lumoof’s presence? Connect roots and stuff.”

“I thought you said we’d just deploy Aeon’s clone here and be done with it.” Edna teased, but the nature of their work meant most plans had to be adjusted. Reality and plans were not good friends. 

A root emerged from Edna’s body, an ability of Aeon’s familiar. It pierced the dirt around them, and made contact with the roots of the Cherry Tree.

The sensation was immediate, like two minds touching. But her domain protected her, while the counterpart was unprotected. 

[Domain blocked attempted intrusion]

But they could still speak through the connection of roots.

“Greetings.” Edna’s words were transmitted through the roots from her body. All she felt was a weak whimper from the other side. Its thoughts were slurred and weak. 

Edna could feel the vulnerability, the frailness in its energies, and so she tapped into the familiar’s healing powers. Though nothing like the real thing, the effects were immediate, as the flow of healing energies into the Cherry Tree reinvigorated the withered plant, it’s branches and trunk gained color that was lost, and small cherry buds began to emerge from the tips of it’s branches. New leaves spawned from the tips of the tree. 

It took about ten or fifteen minutes, but the Cherry Tree no longer withered. Stella smiled. “Well?”

This time, the reply from the Cherry Tree had strength that was once lost.

“I greet our rescuers. Our gratitude knows no bounds.” The Cherry Tree’s voice was like the whisper of a gentle old man. 

Edna looked around. “I was told the hero is here.”

“The hero lies within. Nursing his curse.”

“The hero is cursed.” Edna recited from experience. “His soul feels as if he’s wrestling against the darkness. There is demonic poisoning within his soul. A curse that tainted his soul, a mark that blemished his once pristine soul spring. He may even have voices in his mind, whispering demonic words.”

“You have seen this sickness.” Edna felt the Cherry Tree’s surprise through their root connection.

The knight grinned in amusement. Things repeated. She understood why Aeon once said that what was possible, is pretty much a certainty to occur. Once they visited enough worlds, it was inevitable that they would meet those with similar circumstances.

“We have someone that can heal the curse.” Edna looked at Stella. “We need Lumoof here.”

Stella caught on. “On it.” The rift gate opened, though momentarily Edna detected the Cherry Tree’s defensiveness. It must have suspected this was the demon’s work.

The priest stepped through the rift gate, and the earth itself around them seemed to spring forth with life. Plants, grass spawned as if spurred on by the world itself, and the Cherry Tree’s buds bloomed. What was a destroyed field turned into a field of young grass.

“Well, where is the patient?” Lumoof asked.

“Within.” The Cherry Tree answered, and Lumoof nodded. The Cherry Tree’s bark bent magically, and a door opened. 

“[Secret Hideout].” Lumoof said as he approached the room. It was a tiny space, much smaller than the labyrinth within Aeon’s true body. 

Edna followed closely behind and saw an elvish man strapped to tree vines. One side of his arm turned black from the effects of the curse, a familiar old rot from a far older time. She saw something similar in Aeon’s [dream academy]. 

Lumoof touched the elvish man, and he felt Lumoof’s [domain] focus. It was instantaneous, because Lumoof’s energies grabbed something within the elf hero, and pulled. 

The demon’s curse was ejected forcefully, a festering parasite that Lumoof grabbed and pulled out of his soul. It immediately transformed and attempted to take the form of some kind of demonic spawn. Edna’s blade was through the spawn’s body, and her shining blade destroyed it instantly.

The removal of the demon’s curse restored health to the elven hero instantly, as the darkened skin on the hero’s body regained color. His face that was once in pain instantly relaxed. Lumoof, Edna and Stella stood, and allowed the hero to sleep. 

“Well, I was told there are many other worlds like this.” Lumoof looked at Stella as the three domain holders rested outside the Cherry Tree. “Should you start moving?”

Stella shrugged. “Well, yes, but we couldn’t leave things in their current state here. And since we are familiar with this place already, we might as well finish what we started.” 

“You are like us.” The Cherry Tree spoke abruptly. 

Lumoof stopped. “Ah yes, I did not introduce ourselves. We are from the Valtrian Order, and we are an organization that aims to defeat the demons across the multiverse. We were asked to come here, to shore up the local’s defenses, as the old gods’ presence fades.”

“You are a tree.” The Cherry Tree emphasized. 

Edna and Stella chuckled. 

Lumoof shook his head. “I’m not a tree, I am merely the avatar of one.”

“There is no difference.”

“Oh, there is a huge difference.” Lumoof countered. 

***

“We have authorization for deployment.” Lausanne sat quietly in the vast meeting room when the commander and strategist presented the layout. “Our destination is Landas, and based on the map retrieved these are the identified settlements. Each team of ten will visit thirty locations, defeat demons, rescue survivors, help restore some basic semblance of civilization, and report back.”

Lausanne nodded, as the teams of ten were formed. All in all there were twenty teams. “Nice to see you again, Ebon.” Lausanne smiled. 

Ebon, the [aeonic battle knight], shook her hand. “Glad to serve with you. It’s been a long time.”

Ebon served as a knight for many decades, though he did take a break. But he was also one of those who was stuck in the high level 130s to 140s, unable to push on. 

Then, a centaur approached. “Arjan. You’re on our team too?”

Arjan nodded. “Hallowed company indeed. Aeon’s princess and the old black knight.” The centaur peeked behind Lausanne to find another woman. “And a matreearch.”

Lausanne turned and bowed before Matreearch Hoyia. “I was not aware you are participating in this round of exploration.”

Hoyia smiled gently. “There are younger priests to handle affairs on Treehome, and things are stable here. How could I resist diving into the deep end and see what it is like? I would have to trouble the rest of you to be my bodyguard.”

Lausanne chuckled. Hoyia was a Treeology Matreearch that served for decades  and she doubted the woman needed protection. Not with her own natural set of blessings. Six other Valthorns joined the four, and they were all in the level 125 and above. 

It wasn’t the first run for most of them. The announcement came immediately that evening.

“Alright, the [node tree] was deployed, get ready for transport. Equipment ready! Final checks!” Lausanne checked her own backpack, and her spears. Her group would be led by Ebon, he was technically the most experienced one here with a long history of deployments to strange new worlds. 

Ebon glanced at his team, and they all indicated their readiness. 

“Well, let’s go.”

About 250 will be teleported over to Landas, but 50 of them will be around the [node tree]. “The node tree in the outskirts of Nunarnusk.”

“Good luck.” 

***

“Another survivor here.” Hoyia said, as she helped a young boy out of the hole. There was something about visiting a world where death is so commonplace, that survivors seem like a miracle. 

Lausanne wondered how the boy survived in that hole, but such perilous circumstances often seemed to create miracles. 

“Are you angels sent by the gods?” The young boy asked when he was much better. It almost seemed like all of them were surrounded by a halo.  

Lausanne shook her head, even though she could see why the boy thought so. “No.” 

She remembered that conversation with Kei, how she was a hero in her eyes. She looked around, at her team, and saw they too had similar emotions. No matter what they said, in the eyes of these survivors, the team were heroes. 

“Alright, let’s send them to Roskor. We need to keep moving. More places to go.” Ebon commanded. This was their sixth location, and almost all of them were just ruins. Most survivors lucked out, somehow trapped under rubble but not yet dead. The others hid and ran. The rangers found many survivors this way, hiding in what remains of the forests, in caves or holes throughout the land. 

Of the marked locations, they found a few somewhat intact cities. These cities and towns were all lucky, because long ago, the heroes left defensive items for them. Some ruins were just filled with dead people, dead for years, if not decades. 

The seventh location was a field of death. Destruction claimed the land from long ago that plants began to grow from the ashes. 

“This is what our world could be like.” Hoyia said quietly.

Arjan merely tapped the matriarch’s shoulder. “Don’t dwell on it for too long, priestess. Our focus is on rescuing survivors, if any remain.”

Lausanne remembered a similar scene on the Eastern Continent. The demons didn’t get a chance to destroy freely, because Aeon existed. If the locals could not defend themselves, the solution was obvious. Aeon needed to be everywhere. 

They needed to be everywhere. 

Lausanne realized later that day that being everywhere was a lot harder than they expected. 

***

They covered eleven locations that day, and gave themselves four hours to rest. They would need to keep moving. 

“The domainholders will be moving to another world.” Ebon spoke when they woke from their rest. “New orders. They expect that only four or five teams will remain in this world to support the natives by the week’s end. We need to start making substantive improvement’s to this world’s defenses, as soon as possible.”

“-what?” Hoyia said. “But we just came here.”

“There are fifteen worlds to reinforce. Treehome expects to send lower leveled Valthorns over to support those that remain.” Ebon said. “Let’s keep moving. We won’t be able to rest much.”

***

The seven surviving domainholders had to split up, and formed three teams. Edna and Stella left Landas behind, and arrived in the next world. Lumoof and Kafa were sent to another one. Johann, Roon and Ezar to the fourth peripheral world. 

All three teams found more worlds at stake. All these worlds were under attack by the demon kings. Some were almost all lost, and in others, the heroes were significantly less and weaker from their earlier days.

They were weakened, because the demons employed demonic curses extensively in all these worlds. Demonic parasites, demonic curses were found even in lesser beings, but these lesser beings died quickly. 

“They are pulling the teams there already?” Hoyia’s exasperation was immediate. “Don’t we have people on Treehome?”

“Too low leveled.” Ebon countered. 

The Valtrian Order as a whole had about 3,000 level 100 and above individuals. A huge amount that meant the Valtrian Order far outclassed the powers of every other party in Treehome, Mountainworld, and Threeworlds combined. 

It was, in every sense of the world, a monumental sum. A fighting force to fear.

But, about one third of these are non-combat classes. Crafters, enchanters, builders. Merchants and Lords. Mage-researchers. Trainers and teachers..

So, effectively, only 2,000 level 100 individuals that were ready for deployment. There was also a need to maintain standing forces on Threeworld, Mountainworld, and Tropicsworld. These three worlds’ security situation required a larger staff strength. That eliminated another 1,000 or so level 100 individuals from deployment. If they stretched it, they could reduce the number to 500.

So, at any one point, only about 1,000 to 1,500 or so Level 100s could be deployed as an expeditionary or peacekeeping force, supported by a larger population of lower leveled Valthorns.

The high level math was obvious. “If there are 15 worlds like this, we can only deploy about 70 to 100 level 100 individuals per world.”

It seemed like a big number, but each of these worlds were large places. These 70 Valthorns would definitely turn the tide and trivialize all lesser threats wherever they went, but they couldn’t be everywhere. It wasn’t large enough to cover all the places that needed help. 

“It will have to do.” Ebon said. The support force of those below level 100 would have to fill up the gaps. 

The team sat and processed Ebon’s update. Lausanne looked around them, and wondered whether there were enough of them to reach these worlds in time.

“Let’s keep going. We might have to depart for another world once we’re done here too.” 

They visited location after location in a rush, and finally, when they stopped at the last marked location, Lausanne stood over a corpse that was still warm. A young elven woman gored to death by demons. 

Maybe if they reached the place an hour earlier, she would’ve lived.

“No use thinking about it.” Ebon sat next to Lausanne as they ate some of their rations. There were few animals or wild creatures to hunt for food, and most forests were destroyed. The surviving cities all had their own specialized farms, supported by their local [druids] and [farmers]. “We just have to keep going.”

Lausanne didn’t like the feeling of helplessness. What price would she pay if she could save more people? No, what would she sacrifice to end this war?

Maybe that was Aeon’s question. She knew Aeon sensed it all. Aeon could see this. He absorbs the spirits of the dead by the hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions. 

Why would he not make a deal with the devil to end this slaughter?

“How many of us are left on Landas?” Lausanne asked.

“Six teams remaining. The other fourteen have been summoned to leave for the other worlds. More are getting ready.”

Lausanne looked around them. Hoyia helped some of the injured with her healing powers. Her blend of priestly and familiar powers meant she could fix most injuries instantaneously. 

Thanks to the combined efforts of all their teams, they’ve constructed a revised map of Landas, indicating all the surviving cities. Of the six great capitals of the elves, only three remained. The other three were razed into the ground by the demons. Nunarnusk, Atarusk and Sorokor were the three last elven capitals that stood in some way or form. 

“Alright, Lumoof and Kafa have left the world.” Ebon said suddenly. It was a matter-of-fact update. 

“Wait. It’s been barely a few days?” Lausanne thought.

“Their world was in such terrible shape that there wasn’t much left to help.” Ebon recited the communications that came through the network. Updates on the peripheral worlds were given regularly to each of the team leaders, along with updates on the domainholder movements. 

“Did they deploy a node?”

“No. Not yet.” Ebon countered. 

“What are our orders now?” Lausanne wondered as one of the druids helped create a reinforced wooden rampart for the survivors. They would survive. They’ve eliminated almost all the demons they could find.

“None yet. At this point, Treehome Command’s leaving it up to the rest of us team leaders to decide what to do. ” 

Lausanne’s instincts were simple. If the overarching goal was to reinforce the natives, then they could also accomplish that by weakening the demons. “We have two main choices that maximize our presence. We strike the demon’s bases in the deserts. Clean up the shit that was left behind, and reduce the frequency of demonic raids on the surviving natives. Or we support the elf hero’s retaliation.”

Ebon nodded. “The elf hero’s in Treehome for now. So the hero’s retaliation will have to wait until he returns. Let me talk to the rest of them and build a strike force.”