Tangled Webs (1/2)
Year 111
“I didn’t think that the great protector of New Freeka lived.” Harris said, as he arrived at the edges of my restored valley. He came with a group one hundred strong. “The rumors of the survivors are true after all. Good decision, Commander.”
A commander bowed next to him. They saw the field of normal green trees. “Indeed. I wonder where they have hidden the past twenty years.”
“Perhaps they were biding their time.”
“Alright, let’s stop, we’re in their territory now.” Harris said.
“Yes, your Highness.” They nodded, and the group of hundred moved nimbly, they were clearly well trained and of a decent level. They didn’t look like guards, and they were armed with clearly magical star mana-enchanted weapons.
Jura went to meet them. Jura, along with one hundred other survivors.
“Stop. Who goes there.” Jura and all were well-armed, but their equipment paled in comparison. In a straight fight, they would’ve lost easily. Still, they were alerted to these visitors, and they moved quickly.
“This is the entourage of his Holiness, the Emperor Harris the First, Slayer of the Demon King, Supreme Ruler of the Harisan Empire, and you stand before the Emperor himself. It would be wise to kneel, peasant.” One of the men said, he leaped ahead with his armor gleaming. Clearly showing off his enchanted gear.
Jura shrugged. He hasn’t lost his distaste for royals. “Greetings, Emperor Harris. You walk on the blessed lands of Aeon the Ageless, the great Tree Spirit and Defender of the Valley. We, the believers of the true spirit of the land, kneel before no King or Royal.”
The man was quickly offended and wanted to attack, but then Harris stepped in. “Greetings. Pardon my entourage, their zeal to glorify my name is but a minor crime. Truly, does Aeon still live?”
Jura shrugged. “We’ve never doubted him. But it seemed that the outsiders have.”
Harris laughed. He’s no longer a child now, a man in his late thirties, yet the glow of his heroic presence was unmistakable. He was equipped, from head to toe for war, every item he wielded radiated enormous amounts of star mana. It would not be out of place, if anyone assumed he was preparing to face the demon king.
“What brings you here, Emperor?”
“Watch your words.” One of Harris’s lackeys interrupted.
Jura ignored it. Harris took a step forward. “I stayed very briefly in New Freeka, before my fateful battle with the demon king. I still remember the great tree spirit’s massive wooden shields that blocked out the demon’s attack. In hindsight, I should’ve predicted that the Tree Spirit lived. I still have his familiar, after all.”
Some of the lackeys were like, woah and wow. Goodness, the hero surrounded himself with sycophants?
“Anyway, may I speak to the Tree Spirit? I have much to discuss with a being of such great power.”
Jura paused, but I think he knew he wanted me to tell him what to do. I mentally agreed, and Jura looked at Harris. “Certainly, but the Tree Spirit would not have all of you armed, and only you alone.”
The lackeys were about to say something ridiculous again. “If there are any accommodations or rest stops for my group to rest, that will be sufficient. Perhaps a hotel, if such institutions survived. It’s fine for me to meet the Tree Spirit myself.”
“Unfortunately, 20 years without customers has been extremely hard on our hotels, so none of them remained.” Jura joked. “Let’s come this way.”
Jura led them into one of the tunnels, and from there, they arrived in the submerged valley. They looked quite surprised to see a massive tree with a burning top that’s hidden underneath.
“How did we miss this?” Harris said quietly. But before the sycophants could answer, he cut them off. “Rhetorical question.”
Jura and the survivors watched the group carefully, and soon, they saw the beetles. But right before one of the sycophants wanted to attack the beetle, Harris stopped it.
“Idiot. Can you use your brain and think why is there a beetle here? It must be the Tree’s servants. I see they haven’t changed much.”
“Oh?” Jura asked. “You’ve seen them?”
“Yes. I have. Twenty over years ago.” He said. “So... where can I meet the Tree?”
“Ah, right this way. Could you request your men to wait over at that area?” Jura pointed to a resting area that’s made last year. There’s a lot of wooden furniture, a small blossoming collection of fruit juice stalls, and some barbeque stalls that roast the local meats, kind of like an al-fresco foodcourt.
Harris nodded, and the men obeyed. Only Jura and Harris walked to one of the larger Giant Attendant Trees, that’s been converted to a meeting room. He sat alone inside.
“Aeon will speak to you here.” Jura nodded, and he shut the door. Inside the Giant Attendant Tree, there’s only him.
He looked around, as if he was waiting for something. “Hmmm...”
“Hello, Harris.” I said.
“Ah. Makes sense that a tree spirit is telepathic. The last time we met, all I got was a notification about the familiar, when Lady Mika spoke. Greetings, Aeon. Much has changed.”
“I was told you sought us out, once you found out of our existence.”
“Indeed.” Harris sat. “Let me cut to the chase, Aeon. We are four years away from the next demon king, maybe five years if we are lucky. I’m trying to gather a force to defeat the next demon king as soon as it spawns, and your defensive abilities are something that’s quite firmly etched in my mind. Would you help me?”
“Interesting offer, but I suppose you did not forget that I’m an immobile tree?”
“That’s true. But, we could make artifacts that could temporarily store some of your abilities, as a single use skill. With a bit of star mana, and some special crystals, we could create a spell-matrix that could store some of your shields. In fact, I’d also like to store that demonic suppression aura of yours. It would prove incredibly helpful in a battle against the demon king, at least it would help to weaken the lackeys for the rest of us.”
Hmmm. Well, it seemed all the survivors are making plans for the demon king, so that’s an encouraging sign. Certainly it is aligned to my own goals, so in this case, I should cooperate.
“Agreed. But I will demand some of those spell-matrices for my own use.”
Harris laughed. “That’s quick. I expected a Tree to take a longer time to deliberate such things. There’s also another matter...”
“Oh?”
“Twenty over years ago, New Freeka played host to many... refugees. Royalty of many families. And you might remember many kingdoms were destroyed, essentially beheaded, because the demons possessed powerful ranged weapons.”
“And?”
“Well... may I ask you to offer the same protection to my offsprings?”
“I find that hard to believe, hero. You have star mana and the ability to create powerful magical defenses. Certainly your capital has been enchanted many times to prepare for such an event.”
“Yes it has. But the children are fools. They squabble with each other over petty goals, and trigger their star mana artifacts too easily, exhausting them. Artifacts meant for greater dangers.” He said, sighing.
A cup of tea appeared next to him.
He sipped. “And damn, I missed this tea so much.” He drank another sip. “Seriously. This damned world is trying to kill us.”
“Huh?” Who?
“They got Becky. Ah. It’s the tea that makes me feel upset.” Harris sighed. “The demons. They killed her a few years ago. Even though we fought together. Well, maybe except Gerrard who’s too busy getting drunk and hiding in strange places throughout the world.”
The human hero looked sad, confused, and tired all at the same time. I wonder whether the tea was alcoholic, because I was damn sure it wasn’t. It’s just a bit of hospitality.
“Fuck the gods, y’know. This fucking game is just engineered to kill us. We’re leader-heroes. We have armies of magical summons, and the gods just fucking turn it around and spawn super-demons where our army of magical summons are just fodder, and wide swathes of my army-boosting abilities are just absolutely useless. They made this game and tie one of our hands right behind our backs.”
Why is he ranting?
“Ah. It’s just so nostalgic to come back to the first place where we were saved. Dammit. I suddenly feel like I’m a young teen again.”
I checked whether any of my [Tree of Prayers] or [psychedelics] were active. Nope. I think he’s just having all these things pent up.
“Fuck it. I mean.” He took a deep breath. “I mean... yeah. Stupid kids. Would you protect them? They’re still my children, but damn if they are not idiots. I don’t remember being so idiotic as a young teenager.”
“When you look back, every generation has always thought the younger generation were idiots.”
Harris paused. “Well. Yeah. But still, they are MY idiots. And that annoys me. This fucking world is out to kill us. Me, Mirei, Gerrard. Just three of us left. I just hope my stupid kids don’t get involved.”
“How many kids do you have?”