Tree of Aeons (an Isekai Story)

251. Camping on the Comet

Year 253 (part 2)

“Hafiz died.” Stella said. There will be consequences, that I will have to deal with. Already I felt brewing discontent among the heroes, and some went to their hero’s journal for solace. 

Stella got the notification on the fragments too, and she waited on the demonic turtleworld. Her eyes and magical senses was waiting for the comet. It was almost within range. It was so very close.  

I had already regenerated Alka’s destroyed limb, but he still needed some time to rest. He wasn’t ready for the attack, yet. 

Lumoof added a prayer. “May he find peace in his sacrifice.”

Stella nodded. “Peace, and hopefully the gods hold up their bargain.”

The demon’s comet entered the range of our void mages, and then we were immediately hit with the sensation of something pushing at our minds. “Stella, you feel that?” Lumoof said. 

Edna, Roon and Johann gathered around Stella. It was now within our portal range, and their magical senses got to work. The void mages looked grim. 

“We’ve got to go first,” Stella said. “Ready?”

Lumoof shook his head. “Never, but let’s go.” I shared the feeling that we won’t ever be ready for what awaited us, but there was no delaying the inevitable. I could feel our collective resolve to get this shit over with. 

Stella nodded. “Well, let’s see whether our portals can get through-”

They did, and Lumoof was first to go through, entirely encased in magical shields.

***

Lumoof stepped through the magical portal, and we were immediately assaulted by the overwhelming presence of demonic magic. It was as if the entirely of the Rottedlands was amplified a thousandfold and distilled onto this Comet. 

The Comet’s surface was filled with reddish spires, filled with spawning pools-

A demon champion attacked us almost instantly, it’s claws smashed into a wall of wood. “Well, that’s the welcoming party I was expecting.” Lumoof smirked, as his feet touched the crystalline floor. He scanned the surface to answer our key issue and cursed. “There are places here that Aeon can’t deploy his clone. We’ll need to look for it.” 

Edna, Roon, and Johann joined the fray soon after, only to find ourselves surrounded by more demon champions. 

“Well.” Edna looked amused as she eyed the demon champions. “Were we too early? We also come with gifts.” 

Her anti-demon spears rained down on the champions, and soon the landing area was cleared of demons.

***

“There’s strong magic holding this entire place together.” Stella cursed. Her magical senses were the strongest of the domain holders, Lumoof’s senses were instead constantly disturbed by the swirling demonic magic in the comet.

Roon and Johann looked around, only to find more demon champions throughout the place. “Should we call the rest of the team? We need to start bombing this place.”

Stella shook her head, as she examined the crystals. “I think bombing this place up from the surface won’t work. These things are particularly magic-resistant. The effects of magical bombs would be reduced. We need to figure out what’s holding it together.” 

“Do we need to?” Roon shrugged. “It’s definitely a demon king. Or a core. Or both. Fairly sure that if we get to the core, kill the demon king, the Comet will then disintegrate. Whatever keeping this ball of rock and crystals together will break apart.”

“Kinda annoying that we prepped for so much explosions only to find out it’s not as useful as we like.”

“We can use it on the core.” Roon said. “Portal to the source-?”

Stella shook her head. “There’s a core. The central area of this comet has some kind of magical winds shearing away my attempts to form a portal.”

“See?” Roon said smugly, much to the annoyance of the rest of them. “I suppose we should be looking for a way to the core, then?”

“You think there will be a pit, just like the worlds?” Stella could only shrug. She had no answer, and her magical senses couldn’t-

There was a pulse of intense magical energy, and all my domain holders recoiled. Stella immediately created a magical shield around herself, and the rest of them were protected by Lumoof’s wooden spherical shield

It lasted for a good 30 minutes, and it felt like the entire surface was cooked. The dirt below us was incredibly hot, that it was almost burning, and the red crystals glowed like they were a lamp. Tthe core itself released a strong burst of heat and magical energy that burnt everything on the surface.

Except, demon champions. Even lesser demons were destroyed by the burst of heat.

“That rules out the surface team.” Edna cursed, as she observed the heavy burns on the wooden spherical shield. 

“Sounds like the demons had experience with people invading their Comets.” Roon mused. 

Stella didn’t, instead, she seemed thoughtful for a while. “The magical energies came from multiple areas underneath the surface, not really the core. There seems to be certain parts of this Comet that contain-”

At that point, their conversation was interrupted. A group of demons emerged, and a quick read of their magical energies revealed they were likely to be formed from the merger of multiple demon champions. 

We’ve known they could merge, just like how the demon walkers merged to form the demon supercannon. 

“When did the demons have such powerful creatures?” Roon cursed, as the demons attacked. 

“What do you mean, when?” Johann countered as the swarm of merged demon champions attacked. He deftly dodged the demon’s attacks, and could easily counterattack.

My domain holders were more than a match for these merged demon champions. Demon champions, on their own, were generally classified as threats around levels 80 to 100. If someone had anti-demonic super-blessings, like myself, I could handle them at level 60. Many of my Valthorns had lesser anti-demonic blessings, and I’ve seen my own Valthorns defeat a demon champion single-handedly at level 65. 

These merged creatures were stronger, around level 120 to 130, but my domain holders were in their level 160s to 170s. 

It wasn’t much of a fight. Lumoof stood his ground, and my roots emerged to wrestle with these demon champions. My mana flowed through my avatar and my roots, then attempted to overwhelm these demon champions.

We won easily, the demon champions suffered tremendous damage and victory was at hand-

A pulse from the Comet’s Core, and a sudden surge of demonic mana once more. It was so thick that it felt like I was absorbing demonic mana just by existing. The demon champions devoured the thick demonic mana like a parched man, and their wounds mended. 

We cursed as we watch our attacks were regenerated so quickly.

“We need to blow them up in one go, or this crazy demonic mana will just regenerate the whole thing!” Roon cursed. He was able to blow up one of the merged demon champions in a single magical shot, but it clearly took a lot of energy. 

I recalled that earlier incident with the separated demon king, and how their ‘soul-imprints’ served as the foundation of the regeneration. I wanted to search for similar- but then I quickly realized that the demons were not regenerating themselves, but reconstructing themselves. 

Just to be sure, I briefly activated spirit vision through my priest and found none that these demon champions were just hastily cobbled together, fueled by the abundant demonic mana released by the Comet itself.

“If they are indestructible like this,” Edna cursed, “Can you imagine demon kings constantly regenerating?”

“That’s a horrible prospect to imagine,” Roon responded while he blew up another of the demon champion, but he wasn’t thorough enough. A part of it survived and began to quickly reassemble itself from the dirt and crystals around it. “This entire damned comet is just fuel for the demons!”

Lumoof realized this was going nowhere and decided the best way forward was to drain away the demonic mana. Roots and vines expanded everywhere. “I’m going to drain the demonic mana. Take that window to blow them up completely!” 

“Got it.” 

He sucked the demonic mana from the air itself and from the ground. It reduced the density of the demonic energies for a brief window which my champions quickly utilized to crush the demons. 

The demon champions couldn’t regenerate, and for now, we had our victory. They were all destroyed.

Then the pulse happened again.

More demon champions emerged, and they repeated the strategy.

It was exhausting. 

“We’ll have to stay here for the next two years until we can deploy Aeon’s clone.” Roon cursed, as they fought through the demon champions. The Comet didn’t have much of an atmosphere, so it was through magic that they could function. 

It drained them slightly, but it was a constant drain that detracted from their fighting strength. They leveled slightly after they fought through the tenth batch of demon champions.

They moved and looked for the entrance. But this entire thing was a creation of the demons, and Stella suspected it was built layer by layer. So, there was no entrance.

“We have to punch a way to the center.” Edna said as she remembered the various plans they created. 

We were prepared for that, in fact, one of the options was to use my Titan slot to create a digging-type Titan, but it’s likely we’ll need to provide it support while it dug to the center of this massive thing. 

“Let’s just find a place where Aeon can place his clone, secure the location, and wait until the clone is ready.” my avatar reiterated the strategy. “We’ll just have to endure until then.”

“The question is whether to bring the rest of the team over.” Stella asked. 

The Comet and Turtleworld will only share an intersection for only about a year. After that year, we’ll only be able to reach the Comet once it intersects with Lavaworld many years later.

Edna, Roon and Johann looked at each other, then Johann said, “We could use some support, Let’s bring 30 of the strongest ones, to cover us while some of us rest. If we’re going to be fighting constantly for the next two years, we’ll need rest and rotation.”

“Alright then.” Stella said.

***

About 30 Valthorns all ranging around Level 125 to 149 prepared themselves for the move to the Comet. They would bring resources and materials with them, to prepare for a long war.

Two years of constant harassment by the endless demons before I would be able to deploy my clone. 

They bring with them anti-mana weapons, made from the same antimagic sand. It was effective in reducing the mana density of the surroundings, but only up to their absorption limit. This meant they could slow down the rate of the demon champion’s regeneration, and increase the damage window available for us to permanently destroy the demons. 

Lumoof naturally talked about whether it’s possible to push back the demonic mana by converting the ground.

“I’d use the [Forest Rod].” He suggested. “But with the overwhelming demonic mana from the core, it might just get pushed back.”

The core flared again. The Valthorns were all equipped with magical shields and my familiars, and it activated to protect them from the char. 

The demon’s core flared intermittently, at least once a day. Every time it did, the force of five domainholders and thirty Valthorns had to brace for attacks.

***

“I’m fine now.” Alka said and he felt healthy. My checks indicated he mostly recovered from the battle after three weeks of recovery. “I need to join the rest of them.”

My dwarven explosions expert stretched and equipped himself. The news of our discoveries were relayed to the local team, and we probably needed to activate my Titans on the Comet. 

Utility. That was the function of my titans. They can’t deal the sort of damage needed to hurt demon kings, but their utility is where they excelled. Alka was generally receptive of the idea, a few earth mages together with my future digging Titan should do quite well. 

I rechecked my Titan options that I first encountered almost 80, no, 90 years ago, back when it was Year 163.

In terms of digging utility, I have three main options. The Depth Worm was likely to be the best at digging since that was its specialization.

[Depth Worm - Starts at Level 70. A creature of the subterranean world. Extremely good at digging and making tunnels. Has very good ‘earth-sense’ and is able to detect hidden features in the deep ground. Weak to magical attack. Also produces certain types of minerals and metals.]

[Fusion with Horns. Starts at level 80. Transforms Horns into a Goliath Kingbeetle that’s able to use earth magic and various other protective and offensive abilities. Goliath Kingbeetle can create Royal Warbeetles. Also produces very high-quality beetle-silk. Royal Warbeetles can improve crop output in the area]

[Giant Tree Serpent, Nydus - A massive serpent. Able to use earth and wood magic. Starts at level 70. Gains powers to summon all sorts of serpents and poisons. Master of poisons and has the ability to brew multiple types of potent poisons and cures. Able to grant poison immunity.]

Although they lagged behind in terms of levels compared to my level 125-149 earth mages, Titans are very good at their narrow scope of tasks, just like how Patreeck is incredible at mind reading and computation. So, the depth worm, or earth magic Titan could be just as competent at moving earth, or more. 

“Think the depth worm’s the best choice.” My advisors said. Horn was mostly bored out of his mind, but being an artificial mind, he wasn’t the type to complain all that much.

I probably could disassemble Titan-souls now since it’s been a long time since I meddled with them. My comprehension of the souls improved a lot.

***

Alka landed on the Comet and smiled at the rest of the domainholders. He gave the rest of them a hug. The rest of them were taking a rest, in between the constant demonic harassment. 

“We were wondering when you’d join us,” Johann said while petting his pet dragon. “Welcome to Hell. I heard you lost a hand.”

“I thought that’s Lavaworld.” Alka laughed and flexed his arm. “Nothing Aeon couldn’t fix.”

“That’s just purgatory.” Stella smiled. “This is the first layer of the pits where we face endless evils.”

“Sounds like fun.” Everyone rolled their eyes. 

“You’ll change your mind soon enough.” There was at least one wave of demon attack per day, often two. “This is like a dungeon that never quite ends.”

“Exactly what we’ve been looking for?” Alka laughed as he eyed the rest of the Valthorns. He recognized most of them, most high-level 125 to 149s were friends of the domainholders and interacted with them a lot. “A place with high-level threats for Valthorns to level!”

For the Valthorns, this was indeed a great leveling opportunity. Yet, after the constant harassment, it did feel tiring. 

“I don’t really see why we need to camp here.” One of the Valthorns said. “Can’t we just jump in a few days before the window closes? There is a year after all.”

That was a valid point, but Stella answered frankly. “We’re not taking risks with portals. Our portals can be easily shredded by unusual magics, and this Comet is filled with surprises. If we are here, let’s just wait it out.”

“Two years of constantly fighting demons. Man, it’s like we’re back to the old era again.” One of the Valthorns sounded nostalgic. “Bet those battle-nuts on Mountainworld would love to be here.”

Alka shrugged as he scanned the horizon of demonic spires. They were camped in a valleyish area surrounded by more demonic spires, and frankly, there was no safe space here. “Well, I should start using my ability?”

“If you could draw the demons away from us, why not?” Edna smirked. “Don’t die, alright?” 

Stella called him over. “Have a look at our records before you do.”

Alka walked over, picked up a few of the crystals and rocks from the ground while he studied the data, “and damn, these crystals are pretty much designed to absorb magical energies. It’s like this whole comet is Daemolite.”

Stella nodded. “Yeah. Your bombs are going to be fairly ineffective on the terrain.” 

Fairly. It would still destroy it, but it would take more explosions to get to the core. 

Of the 30 Valthorns that joined Stella, about six of them worked on various observational equipment. Many were custom-built for this operation.

They scanned the depths of the comet, especially the daily charring pulses, and soon noticed there were eight nodes that released those bursts. Each of those nodes were located fairly deep, but not entirely to the core.

The Comet itself was a blend of crystals, earth, and something in the center. It emitted a core-like energy that was heavily mixed with demonic energy but did not provide sufficient data for us to understand what exactly was in there. 

“Would Aeon survive the pulse?” Alka asked. 

“I bet he could,” Stella said. “I’m more worried about the overwhelming demonic mana, and what it means to be planted on the comet.”

I’d be exposing myself to huge quantities of demonic mana. It could potentially overwhelm my clone. But at this point, risking demonic corruption is a risk I’d have to take. 

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