Tree of Aeons

345

The vastness of the void sea was comforting. It was welcoming. Every time she looked up into the skies, beyond the clouds and the false stars, she saw the void.

The great darkness of the void. These days, it no longer looked dark to her.

Instead, it sometimes looked more like an endless stream of little wiggling worms, each of them a different variation and location. On other times, it looked more like she was staring at a dark pool that gradually unfurled the darkness to reveal strange, weird things happening within it. It was as if she now had the ability to see scenes she saw in the void layers, things that were hidden to everyone else.

But she did not feel horror. Instead, the very thought that it could contain everything that once was, would be, and could be was strange, welcoming, and natural. Her mind found comfort at the discomfort others felt, that everything that was was not real. Reality, in other words, was a creation.

An imagination.

A dream.

A painting, stitched together by the brushes of many.

So, the vastness of the void sea instead, became a sign of all the unmet potential of the world. Unreality that could be made real, if the circumstances were right.

When she looked into the vastness of the void and now saw the many nascent unborn worlds, she realized that somewhere in there was a true utopian world. A world of constant improvement, even if perfection is never achieved. Even if they stumbled, they would get up and try to make things better.

She saw, in the voidness, worlds that could create great things. Worlds that could form great armies that could help the war against the demons. Worlds with people who lived a life in a bubble, but would join the cause if summoned.

She remembered the Zaratans. Her teachers in the initial ways of the void, but they did not see the void as nascent potential. Instead, to the Zaratans, the void was always a dark sea with thin, powerful currents that connected the large bodies of water to each other. That was how they pictured the void, and thus, it was what it was to them.

Stella touched her hair and allowed her head to rest on the grass. There was a gentle slope to it, such that she could gaze into the dark skies above. In these worlds, distant stars were an illusion. They were figments, creations of the world to maintain a coherence.

But she also realized that under certain circumstances, these 'fake' distant stars could be real. It was very possible that the void did not 'make' them real just yet, but under sufficient power and circumstances, it was possible that all of those stars that they saw were real.

Just in another layer of the void.

"Taking a break?" Edna popped up and landed next to her. They were visiting a faraway world, resting for a few days before continuing on their journey. Their search for some other divine entity had not ended. But while Aeon looked at matters in the manner of years, for Stella, Edna and Lumoof, the three still lived their days by the moments. Though arguably, it was much harder on Lumoof than the two of them.

"Yeah." Edna sat on the grass. This was very much an unclaimed world. Some of them worshiped Hawa, some worshipped Neira, but we knew that this was far from those two. Just days ago, both Edna and Lumoof ripped through an army of demons and found the demon king waiting. It didn't take long for the foul creation to die miserably to the two demigods. Edna joined Stella looking up at the dark night sky.

"The stars look different in every world." Edna answered. "I know it's beyond me, but are you able to tell if the stars are similar or the same?"

Stella shook her head. "They are generations. Visions. If they are not real, they are thus different in each world."

But she wasn't truly sure. What if the void sea ran a series of 'parallel' worlds, and that multiple worlds could be looking at the starscape generations based on the same parallel worlds?

Edna didn't answer. The wind blew, and Edna set her helmet on the ground next to her. She didn't need the helmet for protection, but the helmet was Edna's link to the wider world. It contained all the various communication artifacts, magical formations, and tools that helped her remember all the other things around the Order.

Stella looked at the knight's medium length hair fluttering in the wind. "You ever wonder how you ended up here?"

Edna laughed and stabbed one of her swords on the ground. "There were moments when I had those thoughts a lot. These days, not really. But I still like coming to these hills and just enjoy the scenery."

"It's so sparse." Stella said. These environments were alien to her. The concept of uninhabited lands were logical, but not something she had personal experience in prior to her summoning to these worlds. The world she came from, the closest she knew were the rural areas, which had vast farmlands, but there was always... someone.

Here, in these demon-ravaged worlds, there were places that just didn't have a single soul for vast distances, despite being fertile, forested areas.

"Beautiful." Edna said. "Compare it to Treehome, where almost everywhere is already settled at least by someone."

There was a level of safety on Treehome that was clearly taken for granted, such that many civilians didn't think it was crazy to live as far from a city or town as possible. Maybe it was the conveniences of Treehome. Treehome was home to the most advanced types of magical artifacts, many that interacted with other magical towers placed throughout Treehome for communications.

"I feel calm in places like this."

"You feel calm everywhere." Stella corrected. "You even feel calm in the chaos of war. I don't think you ever needed to feel calm."

Edna genuinely blushed at the void mage's comment and laughed. "It's a side effect of Martial Paragon. The clarity I feel in battle is surreal."

"I can see that." Stella laughed. "I remember how you explained it to us. For you, it is your duty to grow tall, because the Order will grow wide. Do you regret that choice?"

The knight shook her head, and her hair whipped around her as the wind continued to blow. Here, on these uninhabited hills far from the nearest town, the movement of the wind through the sheets of grass created a constant rustling sound. She would like to paint something like this.

"No." Edna stretched her hands. Her skin was perfect as were her palms. There were no monsters to bother her, though the insects didn't seem to mind.

Even if they tried to hide it, the two's aura glowed like a warning sign to the lesser creatures. Monsters all could feel the very real threat of instant death looming over the two outworlders. Only insects of these worlds skittered around them, and Stella momentarily noticed how they all had three, four, and even eight legs.

"In our world, these wouldn't be called insects. They have more than six legs."

"It doesn't quite make a difference." Edna smirked. "They are still bugs."

"Why not 10? Why not 100?" Stella picked up the bug, and it flew away. The bug did not enjoy being picked up. "I like sitting here looking into the void, and the void reminds me how limited I am in imagination."

Edna said nothing. The knight often found it hard to follow the void mage's unusual tangential thoughts. It took someone with an ability to think unconventionally to accept and grapple with the madness of the void, and Edna wasn't one of them.

"Tall." Stella declared. "There is no other path for the trailblazers."

She looked into the infinite void sea and saw the greatness of potential, all that was, and all that could be.

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But she also saw, within it, the possibility of returning home. She might not want to return home, but she wanted the option to choose. The path that led to the most options must be the best one for her.

Edna merely nodded.

She remembered that moment when she ventured into the depths of the void layers and saw that door. A door that even Aeon's power could not break.

How could it? A door that she knew in her soul that was meant for her. Her own answers required her to go through that barrier, and she knew, more than anything, that she had a place there.

It was a door that called to her.

And so she closed her eyes and made her choice.

"[Void Inheritor]."

The void sea embraced her as the system registered her selection. Her soul swirled and grew to embrace the choice she made, her soul spring transformed to hold and receive the power she would now contain within.

She saw the very possibilities there and then, that the void sea simulated all the variations that could happen and might have happened. Power, a different sort of power flowed through her, as her soul itself was no longer black from the void sea. Instead, the void mana that flowed with her now gained an almost-divine sheen, as if it was both void and divine at the same moment.

The weight of her mana increased, and now she felt a kind of unnatural reality to them. They were more than just normal void mana. They were her void mana, and as a result, they could be more.

The void layers that once challenged her mind so strongly also felt less strenuous. As if her mind gained the ability to grasp and comprehend what it could not before. More importantly, her gaze and vision into the void sea was now much, much further.

"Would you go somewhere with me?" Stella looked at Edna and asked. "I need someone to look after me, just in case."

Edna tapped her chest and teased mischievously. "Naturally, it is a knight's duty to keep her princess well protected. Let's go."

Stella grinned. "You and Lausanne hang out too often."

"She's my senior, so naturally I spend time with her." Edna said. Within the Order, most knew that Lausanne predated everyone in seniority. Training soldiers and warriors emerged with Lausanne as student no.1. Of course, reality was not so clear cut.

The two hopped.

And hopped.

And then returned to the world of Sun-Rings VI.

"Oh. You want to see what'd you find in the void barrier." Edna stated and Stella's newfound domain stretched itself. The demonic barrier that cut off the entirety of the demon-controlled space itself didn't look so insurmountable now. "See anything?"

What once seemed like a thick, almost impermeable layer of thick black liquid now appeared entirely different to Stella.

"I can poke a hole in it." Stella stated. "Very sure I can."

"Oh?"

"If I'm close enough I can take control of the void mana that forms this barrier and weave it just enough to open a small hole for some of us to get through."

The hole wouldn't last very long once Stella wasn't there to 'hack' the void mana's behavior, but she knew she could do it.

"So..."

"We won't be able to mount an invasion into the demonlands, since the path could only carry maybe... just five of us at once."

Edna paused before she elaborated on the thoughts in her mind. "It doesn't matter, does it? Lumoof could get through, and that's all that matters. Once Lumoof is on the other side, it'll be possible to use [clone] and mount an invasion from there. We'd have the element of surprise, but more importantly, we'd know exactly what we face."

"Do we do it??" Stella paused and then shook her head. "Not yet. Not yet. But we have an option."

"You might've just saved us from using Hawa's relic."

"But it also means that the other gods can't reinforce us, if we need them. Right now, the barrier prevents us from going in, but doesn't stop the demons from going out." Stella said. "If we break the barrier, it'll be possible for everyone to reach us."

"If they come to our aid." The knight said. "I have doubts some of them will. But let's sit on this and let Lumoof know. Though I'm sure he could already feel you making a choice. Your choice rippled and I felt like something changed in the air around us."

Stella looked around and felt the stale air. The world's close to the Sun-Rings and the void barrier were ravaged, demon-controlled worlds. There were demon mothers located in the cores of the world, and they had only removed the demon mother on the world closest to their homeworld.

But they'd yet to dive into the cores of the other Sun-Ring's attached worlds.

It was something on the cards, but a part of the Order wanted caution. If the main demon could detect that their connection with demon kings and demon mothers was suddenly cut off on many of the Sun-Rings, they would know that there was a systematic attack on them. As it were, the demons already knew there were attacks from a certain direction.

Stella suspected the demons likely didn't think of matters in such a systematic manner, even if they'd seen some proof of intelligence in the demonic parasites and demon kings. The responses from the demons seemed fairly automated, as if triggering certain thresholds evoked certain responses.

The gods, too, didn't seem to think too much about the demons other than a very persistent plague that was mostly harmless to their core regions.

She looked at the void barrier and then back at Edna.

"So, are you going back to the void layer and try to open that door?"

"No. Not yet. It's not ready for me." Stella said. She thought of that door. That place deep within the void layers that led somewhere.

She felt like now, she had half a key. She needed a bit more. Level 225 or 250 perhaps, and she would be ready.

The lady of the void also knew, somehow, a gut feeling that whatever is in there wasn't going to solve their problems. Instead, it was a pathway to something else. It was as if the void whispered in her mind, and she knew that it led to a different place. Somewhere there was a path to send all of them, for those who wanted it, back home.

Edna shrugged. "Options are options."

"Don't hate me for it." Stella said.

"Not at all. I'd hate it if people don't agree with my choices. So, I'll extend the same to you. Choose whatever feels right for you." The knight turned. "Besides, if I recall, your ability can control voidlings?"

"Yes."

"Wanna visit Delvegard and try it out?"

She blinked. "Well, why not."

***

Delvegard had changed in the decades since the Delvegardian Disappearance. The Kingdoms, many of whom survived, found themselves without access to many of their best weapons, and those that kept theirs were paranoid about it.

Even younger teens disappeared, many of them joined the Order and now lived on Darkgard. Darkgard, despite the name, wasn't dark at all. Since the demon mother was removed decades ago, the three Darkgardian worlds had prospered wonderfully and now was home to far more dwarves than ever before.

As for the remaining dwarves, the local Delvegardians went in two major directions. Some guarded their technical abilities heavily and focused on redeveloping what was 'stolen' from them by the Order. The other faction decided to develop other aspects of their weaponry and equipment to gain an edge, because the War Machines that once threatened everyone had been significantly removed from the balance of power.

But Stella was not here for Darkgard. She was here to visit one of the many unmanned Sunsteel veins. Thankfully, the journey was fairly straightforward now that Lumoof could also function as a clone transportation point.

Many of these veins were now un-mined, simply because the void weaponry and heroic items that they once used to destroy the void creatures were stolen.

She knew where they were, just by being in the same area. In fact, once she landed on the surface of the Sunsteel vein, she could feel them down below, calling out to her. They whispered in strange dreams.

Voices. Images. Music.

More importantly, she could command them. Control them. They were like... pets?

She approached, and the voidlings transformed in her presence. They took on shapes she remembered. Puppies. Kittens. Little birds.

"Wild." Edna said, and they hissed at the knight.

Stella didn't even need to say a word, but these transformed voidlings quickly kept their distance and approached the void mage instead.

The knight-lady shrugged. "Well, I suppose you know why they crowd around these things?"

"They like the Sunsteel because it gives them a pleasant feeling. It's warm and makes them feel nice. The Sunsteel is like a light in the dark, and these voidlings are drawn to it. Once here, they don't want to leave."

"But they will leave with you." Edna asked, unsure. Stella walked, and it was quite strange for the little voidlings to follow her like a mother hen leading a pack of little chicks.

"I'm... mommy." Stella realized, as she noticed how they followed her around.

"Oh dear." Edna said, unsure whether to congratulate her, wish her well, or commiserate in her suffering.

"Well. Mommy isn't really a thing for them, but in their eyes I'm their... protector?" Stella extended her hand and reached out. The voidlings touched her, and then they vanished into her flesh. "Oh. I can keep them within my soul realm."

"Ooooh fancy. I shouldn't touch them, right? I must admit, seeing voidlings as such tiny things is adorable."

"Yeah, don't. They are still creatures of the void and normal people will experience void-curses. I think you'll be fine though." A voidling jumped on her skin, as if they were shadows that moved around her body. "They can take an immaterial form and exist within my spirit."

"What else can you do with them?"

"I'll have to find out." Stella said as the voidlings all vanished into Stella.

"I suppose the local dwarves will be surprised to find a vein totally unguarded."

"It'll lure new voidlings with enough time." Stella answered, as she heard the voidling's whispers in her ears. "The voidlings can't help themselves."