319. Sentreements (Patreon)

[Once again, thanks to the lovely editors imnebel and cooltech kush]

Chapter 319

Aeon

I felt glad that of the first few elves that I took under my wing, one of them finally achieved a domain. 

A part of me feared for them, and a part of me still dreaded the separation of death that occurred with Jura. I would lose Laufen as well, though her eventual death as an elven woman was still at least many hundreds of years away.

Life would eventually end, even for elves with their exceptionally long lifespan. That is the way of the world. 

But even for me, there are days when I feel a little weary. Tired. Just like Lausanne said. There are times, moments, when one wished for the simpler days of the past. Now I would not have to witness Lausanne’s permanent death, and that was a great deal of relief. I was fond of them, the first few elves that walked the path with me. They were there for me, and I was there for them. And now, one of them would live, for as long as possible. In Lausanne’s domain, I had an additional anchor to my early village of Freeka days. 

It also felt nice, a sense of validation that my goal wasn’t wrong. I had supported her in her dream to be a hero, even if that journey took hundreds of years and a long detour through many worlds. She would now be a domain holder, with the powers similar to a hero. No matter the choice she made, it was still a significant step up in her strength.

So, while Lausanne pondered her new pleasant dilemma, the wider worlds continued to demand my attention.

***

Twinspace

Hoyia returned to Twinspace to continue the crusades for the cursed continent. As of now, half of the continent’s nations had already converted to Hoyia’s Temple of Aeon. 

The level of expansion slowed around this point, for two main reasons. One, the number of priests and agents at Hoyia’s disposal was limited. Hoyia was increasingly concerned that once her area of rule expanded, there were not enough priests and agents to expand and properly steer the zealots.

The zealots were powerful. Their passion was real, but it was therefore really important to properly guide this fervor in a way that would lead to productive outcomes. 

The second reason was really more of a number issue. With any significantly large number of people, there would be those who oppose for the sake of opposing. Those that felt a need to struggle against others and rebel against the norm. 

Half of the inhabited Old Continent was more than good enough. 

Hoyia’s followers channeled the zealots from their converted population. The most passionate were redirected to building ships and raising an army to sail on them towards the new islands. The islands at the middle were built into a rest and refueling stop, for them to proceed to the cursed continent.

They built 1,000 to 2,000 ships, and all in a few hundred thousand warriors would leave for the journey. Many of these would set sail for the Cursed Continent from the islands, chasing the dream of the promised land.

As with all acts of faith, there was a special ceremony to seek the blessings of their patron god. For assistance, for a smooth journey, and for a successful venture. 

A few thousand warriors and a few thousand more spectators. The ceremony would be held across the cities simultaneously, though the main event that was a massive sendoff at the main port city. 

Multiple platforms were constructed throughout the cities in order to host the event.

It would be time for her to summon a titan, and she made arrangements with Lumoof to make it a spectacle. It had to be. She asked for a beetle carrier to fly overhead. Its surreal, alien quality was something she wanted to exploit to properly cement Aeon’s role as an otherworldly god. 

The first fleet would be referred to by many names by future historians, but in general we called it the Expeditionary Fleet, and the army that went to the Cursed Continent was referred to as The Army of the Promised Land. The names were something the priests created to help their appeal in the eyes of their followers.

There was a launch event, to flag off the first ships from the anchor points that would sail towards the Promised Land. 

On a sea-facing platform located on the shoreline of their largest ports, Hoyia was once again surrounded by hundreds of thousands of spectators. Her group of priests began to sing. The singing, amplified by their priest powers, could be heard throughout the city, and it was as if everyone was sucked into a song, even if they didn’t want to. 

The skies darkened, a mix of magic from various mages, and then, Lumoof appeared from above in the avatar form. He was tiny. 

He was an actor in Hoyia’s scheme. 

A role to play in the goal of solidifying their mythos. 

The chants continued, and Hoyia’s priests sang to call on their god’s blessings.

The song and hymns intensified, and they timed it for the moment it almost hit a crescendo. The skies above changed as Lumoof activated his [avatar] form. 

Everyone in the city looked up and saw a gigantic magical tree that covered the sun and clouds. An oppressive atmosphere descended on the entire city as their “god” came to their world.

“We are blessed!” Hoyia roared. 

And as if controlled by the priestess, the crowd followed and roared. For a moment, the entire city echoed with the collective roar of the spectators, guided by her gentle, but stern voice. 

Through Lumoof, a gigantic living beetle emerged. Its size cast a large shadow that caused everyone to look up.

It was larger than any of the ships that waited in the harbor, and was large enough to hold hundreds, if not thousands of beetles within its gigantic wings. 

Its appearance made the crowd stare in silence, and awe. The beetle carrier floated in the air, then, as if woken from a long slumber, the massive wings began to flap. A burst of wind swept through the entire city.

“Our god has blessed our crusade and granted us one of its powerful servants to aid us on our journey! Together with our great expeditionary fleet, we will crush the demons!” 

Throughout the continent, those who used some form of scrying magic to observe the event were all struck in fear, as the size of the gigantic beetle carrier overhead was myth and legend made real. 

Spurred by their god’s perceived blessing, the first crusade sailed for the demon’s continent. A gigantic beetle-carrier flew above the fleet of ships, its winds helped the magical sails to go further, faster. 

***

Privately, the Order knew it was just easier to use magic. But extensive teleportation magic just didn’t have the spectacle and emotional touch of a journey across the ocean. There were also not enough mages and wizards to teleport a few hundred thousand warriors and their supplies over an entire ocean.

But that would be solved later. 

The mages of the Order began construction of a large teleportation array on the de facto capital of the Temple of Aeon on Twinspace on Port Tarfa.

Port Tarfa would be given a special title as its special place in the eyes of the Temple. 

The Holy Port City of Tarfa would be the seat of the Matriarch’s primary temple, and rather than commission a grand temple, she got some druids from Treehome to grow a gigantic tree into the shape of a temple.

Ideally, she would have liked it to be a [node tree], but the actual node would be placed on the Demon’s continent to facilitate the conquest of the new continent. So this was the compromise they ended with.

The teleportation array would then be paired with another teleportation array on the demon’s continent close to the node tree, and the two would then facilitate fairly regular movement of people between the two continents without the use of ships or airships in the future. 

***

The journey across the ocean took about two months, faster than expected due to some favorable winds and magic from the Order’s mages.

Hoyia wanted the first fleet to appear ‘blessed’, and so she had used her resources to ensure favorable winds. With things going well, the Expeditionary Fleet’s army was in high spirits. 

Hundreds of thousands landed on the demonic continent and with the backing of the giant beetle carrier that flew overhead, nicknamed Gantry, war finally came for the cursed continent. 

The landing site they chose would be where they founded the cursed continent’s first city, and the city would be later named Expedition’s Landing. The demons were fairly disorganized, and so the army of zealots were able to swiftly purge the area of demons and thus. The war to claim the cursed continent had begun.

These expeditioners quickly able to verify the Temple of Aeon’s claims.

The cursed land really was incredibly fertile and rich with resources. It was never mined, never farmed. Even with the demon’s corruptive blight. 

***

Back on the old continent, there were rumors and news that began to spread. Wealth. Resources. Large untapped masses of potential farmland! 

But no one believed it yet. After all, they did not see it.

The Cursed Continent was covered in demonic blight, and that same demonic blight tampered with magic. This interference was too much for most of the relatively lower level native mages of Twinspace.

But Hoyia knew she had to show results. Something to keep the nobles and the new zealots hooked. So, Hoyia’s expeditionary fleet hauled up large boulders of unprocessed ore. Most of these boulders were left untouched by the demons, filled with gold and gems, and were shipped back to the main continent.

She knew that day when the first ship, their very first ‘Treasure ship’ landed on Port Tarfa and unveiled what they had brought back from their very first landing post, the rush for the cursed continent would truly begin. 

***

Treehome

“Everything’s okay.” Prabu said as he emerged from the biolab. “I feel great, actually. Strangely nice.”

He stretched. Did some small jumps. The man looked like he never aged a bit. Rohana, his daughter, looked happy. Relieved. The heroes had many children, though both Prabu and Colette have been fairly special with each other and only have Rohana. 

She was much older now and in her teens. A human like her didn’t have much special skills, but as she began to age faster than her parents, I knew they would start to have strange thoughts about their children. 

But it was a can they kicked down the road. 

For now, everything is fine. In fact, things are better. 

Our scheduled inspections post-soul spring operation didn’t indicate anything unusual, but after some regular battle tests later, we discovered there were small improvements to Prabu’s abilities.

We noticed Prabu stopped complaining about unusual pains in his head. 

It wasn’t totally gone. But they were far less painful than before. 

They didn’t hurt him in a primal way when we spoke about topics regarding demon kings and postponing battles. He could endure those conversations and retain memories of them. 

I thus formulated a hypothesis that those protruding stones in their soul springs were ways the hero class influenced their minds. It warped the shape of the spiritual energy flows, and in doing so, they shaped their mind. All other classes did not have those protrusions. I’ve examined so many other Valthorns and individuals to know that classes do not alter the flow of mana from the ‘inner’ soul. 

So, I quickly summoned the rest of the heroes for a similar inspection.

Not all of them wanted to let me work on their souls and clean it up, but they were willing to allow me to have a look in their soul spring.

I peered into the soul springs of Khefri, Adrian, Samuel, Rajah and Wira and realized that they all had multiple protruding stone structures that altered the flow of their souls. This was the equivalent of a tumor growing within their brains. It applied pressure on their minds, and thus, shaped and directed their behavior in a certain fashion. 

Unless they were able to thoroughly purge and ‘clean’ their hero class like Colette, this did mean I could suppress and weaken the [hero] class’s mental influences and allow them to think with more clarity.

I believe if I wanted an honest discussion with the heroes, they needed to be able to think clearly. 

Yet, of the five other heroes, only Khefri and Adrian wanted me to help them fix the protruding stone structures. 

Samuel, Rajah, and Wira all were still a little apprehensive. They were still new, and maybe, still didn’t trust me fully. Rajah and Wira, in the larger scheme of things, were mostly out of the Order’s day to day activities.

Gigantadragon, the world that they came from, was still fairly independent, and with the enemy demon king slain, their world could get back to normalcy on their own. They still had multiple surviving large nations and cities that could invest and rebuild their old destroyed nations, and they did. 

Samuel wanted to wait and see. The handsome elven hero decided, somehow, that the hero class is sacred and shouldn’t be tampered with. Perhaps it was a holdover of all the education from the Sacred Cherry Tree of Landas. 

Regardless, I helped Khefri and Adrian adjust their protruding stone structures and clean up some of the accumulated ‘waste’ within their heroic soul springs. Just like with Prabu, I received a little more of the [heroic dust]. It was a strange thing, but I wanted to experiment with it a little bit more. 

But with Khefri, this time I noticed there was something else in there. A differently colored rock within her soul spring. I didn’t know why I never noticed it before, or perhaps, because it was in the inner side of the soul spring, obscured by the turbulent star mana of her soul. 

It had a connection to another.

This was a part of the [Pact of the Three], between the three powers of Threeworld.

It was how Zhaanpu kept some limited control over Khefri. Once I just gently touched it, it responded back to me and it felt like something I knew. 

It was a skill, a [Contract]. 

A [Soul Pact of the Three]. 

[Soul Pact of the Three is invisible to its host. An ancient bond that ties all heroes to the three hegemons of Threeworld. It allows the Three Hegemons to exercise some control and influence on the heroes]

I knew that Zhaanpu had some ways of controlling Khefri. But now I know how. 

I left it untouched, but I wondered whether I should let Khefri know. For now, I adjusted the rest of the protruding stones and removed the tampering effect on the flow of her star mana. 

***

Threeworlds

Khefri returned to the world of Threeworlds feeling refreshed. Her mind was clear. Clearer than it had even been.

Somehow, when she stepped into her old palace, something she did out of habit, she looked around and asked herself.

“Why am I doing all of this?” 

The more she wandered through her old palace, she truly didn’t understand what she went through. It didn’t make any sense. It used to feel comfortable. As if it appealed to a part of her. What was the harem of dancing boys for? 

It puzzled her. The clarity of mind suddenly placed all her past actions under question, and she began to realize that they were coping mechanisms.

The [hero] class distracted her from things. She wandered her palace, and in the end, decided to go talk to Zhaanpu.

“You’ve come to see me willingly.” Zhaanpu said with a sigh. “What happened now?”

“Aeon removed some of the inhibitions of the [hero] class.”

Zhaanpu sighed. “He should not have done that. They exist for a reason.” 

“Did you know this would happen?”

“Me? No. I have never seen it done. But heroes are dangerous. You can be dangerous. These inhibitions and distractions are how the gods ensure heroes remain functional and non-destructive in a world that only needs you for moments in time. The reality of being ripped out of your old world and placed into a new one is hard for you.” 

Zhaanpu geared for a fight, as if Khefri was here for a showdown. Maybe it was Zhaanpu’s old past life’s experience. His past with heroes often involved showdowns.

But he didn’t get one. “No.” Khefri countered, as she realized Zhaanpu was prepared to fight her. He was worried that without the inhibitions, she would go rogue. But no. That’s not what she is here for. “No it’s not. Not for me. There’s no need for this.” Khefri said, as she realized that Zhaanpu’s fears were unfounded. “I have my fellow hero-friends, and as long as there is a community, I can deal with this. I just came to talk.”

That made Zhaanpu a little puzzled. “That is quite a surprise.”

“Yeah. I think you can just take back my palace and assimilate my old queendom. I don’t need it anymore.” Khefri said. “But I will return to fight the demons, as I must.”

“I see. This is an interesting turn of events.” 

Khefri seemed to agree. It was great that there was a place that increasingly reminded her of her old home. The chaotic city life of Freshka was very earth-like, as were all the various entertainment and food options. 

She should return to her fellow hero friends. Maybe they too need a friend in her.