Interlude : 

It’s been decades since she saw active duty, but Kei was right all along. 

A part of her wanted to go back, now that her kids have all grown up. It wasn’t hard. It was only hard in her mind.

What’s worse, was that she knew it was her own mind working against her. Aeon said once, apparently, from an old philosopher, that the mind is its own unmaking. It was true, and yet it still happened to her. There were things that were so clearly headed their way, and yet, the mind would refuse to do anything. 

She stretched, her elven muscles and bones regained its old flexibility. It was magic. She’d even say it got stronger. Since she took the Soul Strengthening Seed, she felt she was more complete. More whole. 

Matters of the soul were hard to explain. The concept of being more whole, more complete, when the soul was already complete, seemed counterintuitive. 

But the soul can grow. 

The soul’s density. It’s weight. It’s presence. 

More.

When she was a child, Aeon spoke to her at length about the nature of the soul. Of everyone in this city today, she remembered many small talks between her and TreeTree. Even now, she could feel him there, at the very edges of her mind. 

A door she could open at any time. A voice she could reach out and talk to.

She remembered that Lumoof once said that if the mind was a house, Aeon was like one of the rooms in his mind. It was there, and she felt it was apt. For her, it was a door. 

At times, it was like an invisible limb. 

It was that door that allowed her to sense Aeon’s return from the Rottedlands. 

Long ago, during the days of her travels in the Eastern Continent, she remembered how the door wasn’t even there. 

But these days, even in the Northern Islands, or the mountainous underground cities of the Eastern Continent, that door was still there. She knew what it meant. Aeon’s reach had covered the entire realm. 

She could speak to him anywhere, and felt the rest of her soul. She wondered why she could sense herself.

A rare ability, the priests and other mages claimed. She wondered whether it was something she inherited from Aeon.

The soul grows. It grows when nourished. Each act of ‘gaining experience’ is forming a brick that grows the spring of the soul. 

She picked up the spear. When she mentioned she wanted a new weapon, multiple high level craftsmen volunteered to make her something customized. 

Lausanne swung it around, as she practiced with her sparring partner, Kei. Her golem opponent used her golem-abilities to her benefit. She could create shields of crystal, a temporary ‘growth’ from her limbs, and block her spear strikes.

“You don’t seem to be in the zone, today.” Kei said. 

Lausanne laughed, as her spear thrust slammed into Kei’s shield, then followed with a rapid series of jabs. “No. I’m not.” 

“What’s on your mind?”

“What’s on yours?” Lausanne countered. Kei didn’t like the idea of the League of Heroes all that much, despite being ‘forced’ to accept the task, and Kei believed a volunteer group, composed of people like Lausanne, would work better in the long term. 

Kei wanted a mix of summoned heroes, and native champions because she saw the flaws of the summoned heroes, and believed that native champions could augment the gaps. The summoned heroes were too unstable, despite their power, and strong native champions could serve as their anchors. 

Lausanne, therefore, served two purposes. Kei wanted Lausanne to be a counterweight to Aeon’s increasingly expansionist ways. It was impossible to stop an expansionist Aeon, and given the state of the world, some worlds definitely needed an expansionist Aeon to make up for their lack of support. 

Along that path, Kei hoped that Lausanne would also support Kei as the ‘anchor’ of the mixed group of heroes. Of course, Edna, or Roon or Johann would have worked as well, but Kei knew that group was part of the exploratory force that visited all the new worlds. 

Eventually, there needed to be some kind of specialization. A defense-focused force of domain holders and heroes, and an offense and exploration focused force of domain holders. The worlds out there was too large, and they needed more pieces on the field.

But despite all that, Lausanne told herself she was doing this for the right reason. She didn’t do it because she was selfish. She was not here to satisfy the hole in her heart.

She lied. She knew it was there. 

A gnawing sensation.

She liked this. 

She enjoyed it. Far more than being at home. 

***

“Mom, you’re really going back to the military?” Lauda asked. She had gone through six dungeon tours by then, and this was the fifteenth time he asked. 

They were not young anymore. Lauda was an adult, and would soon have a family of his own. She would be a grandmother in due time.

A grandmother back in the military. 

Laufen, her own mother, once said it is rare for elven grandmothers to serve in battle, but not so for grandfathers. But she wasn’t just any grandmother. She looked at her own mother, and knew the life of a doting grandmother filled with social work and societal duties was not a role for her. 

In her heart, her calling was still out there. 

She suppressed it during Lauda and Arlisa’s younger years. Tried her best to dedicate her life to her growing children.

But the joy and lightness in her heart when she sparred with Kei was all she needed. She knew it when she went back to the dungeons and slaughtered monsters. She could feel it in her limbs.

“Yes. It’s where I should be.”

“Why?” Arlisa asked. 

“Because I enjoy it.” She was good at it. She still is good at it. She may be a long way from being the best, but she was pretty damned good at it.

Lauda understood. “Stay safe, mother.” But he would ask her again. Her son couldn’t help but worry. Because doubt never faded. However remote, there was a chance she would not return.

That was life on the battlefield.

Arlisa looked at her mother like she was insane. “You’re already so old.”

Lausanne nodded. It was a response from her human half. For elves, and especially Lausanne with the [soul strengthening seed], she felt fitter than ever. “I know. But I still want to do this.”

Level 100 came a few weeks ago after one of the Level 90 dungeons, and her class transformed into [Aeonic Phantom of War]. A fairly unique class, despite it being an upgrade from the [Aeonic Weaponmaster], though Kei said there were about twelve others with the same class in the entirety of the Order. 

Her [blessings] also mutated at level 100, turning into the only one in the entirety of the Valtrian Order, [First Sentinel of the Tree]

She didn’t like the name. She wondered whether Jura had it first, and a part of her felt a little torn, for taking what should have been someone else’s. 

That door in her mind felt wider, and the way it linked to her familiar felt stronger. Aeon’s familiars had been able to replicate some of Aeon’s powers, and it is often capped at their own levels. 

Someone at level 80 could access a variant of Aeon’s level 80 ability through the familiar. It was usually weaker. Much weaker. It didn’t come from Aeon directly, of course. The access of power came through the [system]. The system replicated Aeon as a template, and granted access to variants of that template. 

It was similar to how the [Court of the Deitree] retained the skills of its predecessors. 

She looked at her children. Arlisa disagreed. 

“I must do this.” 

Arlisa frowned. She knew her daughter opposed it. Her son didn’t look at her. 

***

Two years later

Lausanne sweated it out in the final room of the secret dungeon. She heard of its existence, but it’s been a long time since she delved into the Level 100 plus dungeons, located deep in the subterranean chambers of Treehome. 

Kei smiled. “That went well.” 

Lausanne nodded, the boss of the level 110 dungeon was some kind of gigantic thorny lizard. The materials harvested from the lizard would be given to the Order, and they would usually make some weapons or potions out of the remnants.

She formed a small team. Kei, Lausanne, and two other younger Valthorns that were in the early level 100s. 

They were surprisingly stressed out. Kei and Lausanne were famously known as members of Aeon’s inner circle. Royalty. Elite. Whatever they called it, the two of them had Aeon’s ears, and almost everyone treated them carefully. 

After the dungeon, they went to that secret town in the underground chambers.

The nomadic dungeon town. Every building here was movable, and when the dungeons moved, the buildings moved with it. They had to, because the dungeons expire after a while, the ley lines energy dwindled over time.

Their goal was Level 125. They could get there with the experience seeds, but there was a flaw to it. Someone who worked hard to get to Level 125 was going to be a little bit stronger than someone who got there through consumption of experience seeds. 

Long ago, Edna and the first generation of domain holders needed to move every other month, because the dungeons’ energies would be exhausted.

These days,  they didn’t have to move as much, and the dungeons’ energies recharged faster. The domain holders claimed that it’s Aeon’s enhanced vitality after Aeon hit Level 250. Lumoof claimed it was a combination of factors, such as the enhanced energy of Treehome that meant stronger leylines, and also the higher levels and skill.

Kei stretched, and asked. Kei asked the same question many times, and Lausanne realized the golem had a tendency to repeat herself. “How long is it going to take for you to hit Level 125?”

“I don’t really know how long it’ll take.” Lausanne said, but Kei said her leveling speed was extraordinary. In many ways, it was. Lausanne gained 3 levels when others gained 2. Even next to Kei, with her fragmented hero’s blessing, Lausanne’s levels were still faster. 

But to Kei, it was absolutely normal. “Aeon’s been watching you since forever, and you’ve got all of Aeon’s blessings. If you can’t gain levels, I doubt anyone else can.”

She remembered Lumoof’s explanations. Level 125 was where things got harder. They had to earn the right to be a domain holder. The system didn’t like power levelers much at that point, and it is well known that most ‘blessings’ begin to dwindle in effectiveness. 

Except for the [hero shards]. 

Those divine objects worked at all levels, and were so thoroughly broken, Lausanne wondered how the system even allowed the hero shards to exist. 

It upended all the principles that everyone else followed. 

***

“Mother, how’ve you been?” Lausanne asked as she visited Laufen in her home some distance away. 

“Well. Better, now that you’ve decided to take up arms.” Laufen smiled at her daughter. The two don’t look far apart in terms of age, for humans, they’d be mistaken as sisters. 

Lausanne said nothing. She remembered her mother’s emotions when it came to her service fluctuated from acceptance, support, to sometimes disagreement and objection. It often depended on the mood she was in, and the news she heard from her social circle. So, nothing was said. Sometimes, it was better that way. 

Laufen looked at her. “Do you remember when Jura died?” 

Lausanne remembered taking Arlisa to visit the place that eventually became the city of Tigashfall. It was a vivid sensation, to speak to Jura through spiritual communion, facilitated by Aeon.

Something she didn’t wish to do, ever. But sadly, death forever remains more frequent than she hoped, and she knew Aeon’s priests facilitated that service for the spirits that managed to linger for a bit. 

So she nodded. 

Laufen smiled. “Good. I don’t intend to speak to you that way, ever. I hope to see you as one of the domain holders.”

Lausanne let out a long sigh. The path is laid out, but it is not an easy one. “I will try, mother.”

Laufen held her daughter’s hand. “It’s one thing to see our children die in battle. It’s another thing entirely to see our children die inside, hollowed out like a husk. If this is what you want, go.”

The younger elf nodded. “Was it that bad? I didn’t feel it was.”

“I could smell the fetid stench from my mansion.”

“No you couldn’t.” Lausanne laughed. 

***

Lavaworld was different. 

It’s been a long, long time since she visited this hellhole, and she was instantly disturbed by how peaceful it seemed. There were demonic trees right around Aeon’s clone tree. 

Here, she looked at the gigantic tree, and understood why Kei and the domain holders had concerns.

Aeon’s clones were infinitely adaptable. They would adjust themselves to fit its natural environment, and here, Aeon’s tree took a hybrid form, a blend of a tree and the demonic energies of Lavaworld. 

“I thought Aeon limited its use of demonic energy.” Lausanne gazed at the titanic tree, its presence on Lavaworld was a testament, a monolith of nature’s defiance. Its tree was both green and red, its trunks  glowed, and filled with streaks of red, blue and green. Its leaves were mixed, some bright, vividly green, some in a shade of demonic red, and some others, withered and dead. 

She could feel it here, the throbbing blend of natural energy, demonic energy, and something else. “This is the testing ground.” Kei countered. 

“It seems on a larger scale than I expected. I was expecting just a small farm of demonic trees, not an entire forest.” Lausanne looked, and in her heart, understood the domain holder’s concerns. 

In her mind, maybe it was just their scale of things that didn’t line up. To Aeon, a forest really was tiny. If its trees covered multiple worlds, relatively, what was an entire forest of demonic trees? 

It could be just 1%. No, less than that.

But seeing it for itself, it did make her feel a sense of disturbance she couldn’t quite explain. Lavaworld was a land of magma and lava. If any, what little original vegetation here consumed the minerals and gasses of the vents. 

The demonic trees didn’t attack her at all. No. As someone who could feel a connection to Aeon, it disturbed her that she felt that same connection with these demonic trees. Aeon was the master of these demonic trees. She saw the demonic beetles crawling between the branches of the demonic trees, jumping, stumbling, falling. 

“The demon champion is around here?” Lausanne asked.

“No. It’s far ahead.”

“Why are we not teleporting?”

Kei looked around. “I thought you needed to see this. What Aeon tries to do with the demons. Learning. Absorbing. Assimilating. Studying our opponents to become better. But the humans once said, just as one gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into them. I fear Aeon learns more than he bargained for.”

“You’ve become really good at propaganda.” Lausanne countered. She felt shaken.

“It’s standard espionage and insurgency training. The spies talk about instilling fear. They speak of the gravity of the offense. To show proof, to spin small realities into great horrors. To show darkness such that they drown out the light. To rig the scales by playing with the emotions and expectations within ourselves.”

“And you’re still doing it.” Lausanne frowned. “You’re scaring me about the spy operation’s insidious nature.”

Kei laughed. “I’ve spent too much time with Spymaster Intip. But the best propaganda all starts with a little grain of truth. By showing angles to the truth. By showing how the same fact can be interpreted wildly differently, just by taking a different position. It’s like the void sea.”

The elven lady and the golem walked past even more demonic trees, and into an area where Aeon bred and experimented on large amounts of demonic beetles. The entire spawning area was filled with purpose-built demonic trees. 

“The truth is whatever you think it is.” Kei laughed.

“You don’t believe that sort of flimsy statement.” Lausanne countered.

Kei laughed some more. “I don’t. I do believe there is some objective truth out there. I believe there is right and wrong, good and evil. I’d like to believe I’m still innocent and naive.”

Lausanne nodded. That sounded a bit more like the Kei she knew. They stood there and watched the demonic beetles emerge from their large tree-sacs. These were experiments, and they noticed each beetle was slightly different. Very slightly. 

It was essentially evolution by sheer quantity and brute force. The demonic trees all spawned little beetles. Some collapsed, and their bodies were reabsorbed by the trees.

She felt a bond with them. She could feel them through that door in her soul.

These were Aeon’s. 

She knew it. 

And she wondered, as her eyes gazed at the strange, alien creatures,  whether what Aeon needs is really a moral guide.

“Kei.”

“What?” 

“I don’t think my role is to be Aeon’s moral guide.” There were others to guide the ship.

“Oh?” 

She thought about her own history. From the very first days of Freeka, to New Freeka, and then to Freshka. She held faith that their tree was there to protect them. Even when it seemed like TreeTree was overwhelmed by the demonic sludge, the entire valley overflowing with demonic energy, it tried its best to protect them.

“Then what do you think it is?”

“To be his first believer.” Lausanne looked at the demons, and felt her connection to the world around her. It was not malice. It was curiosity. 

A desire to learn. 

“Despite how dark and grim Aeon’s actions may seem, it is guided by a desire to save us all. Even if all else fails, I want to believe in it. I’ve seen him in weaker times, and his desire to resist has not failed. Even when he converted demons, even when the demon kings threatened to overwhelm us all, I believe.” 

Kei looked around. Lausanne guessed Kei knew people a lot better than she let on. Kei seemed to have a sense of how to press buttons. 

“Progress does not come instantly. Progress does not always take a straight line.” Lausanne recited it, but her heart trembled at how it felt so relevant to herself. “Progress often requires us to gaze into the depths, and discover where we should not go. When a cave explorer dives into the deep dark caves to find what’s down there, our role is to keep the faith, and ensure that the ropes for the diver remain secure. We protect the path, for them to climb back out of the darkness.”

Lesser beings cannot even try to explore the depths of the demon’s corruption. The demons would overwhelm them. There truly is no one she knows that could even hope to venture into the darkness and live to tell the tale. If it is not Aeon, then who? 

Someone has to be foolish, insane, and a bit twisted, to venture into the dark, and create the first light. To touch the unspeakable, to understand the taint of their corrupt energies, and master the means to reverse them.

Kei smiled. “You have more faith in Aeon, than you have in yourself.”

Lausanne felt that. “That is true.” 

“And I’d like to say you are born from pretty much the same cloth. Or patch.” 

Lausanne shook her head. Her mind thought of Uncle Jura. She wished for many things, but ultimately, she accepted his decision to die a hero. 

He died a hero, and left a set of shoes that was always too big for her. 

It wouldn’t be possible to fit into his shoes. But she hoped her shoes would walk the path he once did. To continue the journey that ended for him. It just took her more than a century to realize it. 

Aeon would’ve said she wasn’t ready, back then.

She probably wasn’t.

Now, with lesser worries behind her, she will be. 

***