Tree of Aeons (an Isekai Story)

262. Rock and Log Roll

Chapter 262

Year 260. Comet Invasion Part II

As the bubble of space was ripped apart by the Demon King’s struggles, Stella immediately sounded the alarm. The domain holder of void was most sensitive to the weakening bubble of reality. 

“I’m evacuating the team-” Stella yelled, as the void mages began to bail out, back to Lavaworld. “-All this disturbance is making it harder for us to escape!” Void mages began to open magic- but the turbulence sucked them in, and some of them vanished. 

Literally. Consumed by the void sea, or perhaps flung somewhere. 

It’s like jumping off an airplane while it’s flying through a hurricane. The little tunnel of void energy between the worlds that a void mage forms had very little chance to survive the teleportation. 

“Scratch that! Do not attempt teleportation back to Lavaworld! Team- teleport to the Clone! Aeon will have to send us out!”

I wasn’t sure whether that was a good idea, as my massive clone body was also beginning to feel the effects of reality crumbling apart. It felt like some parts of my roots seemed to have vanished, along with whatever rocks it held onto. 

Magic was going to be wonky in this sort of situation. 

The entire comet’s vibrations grew in intensity. My demonic roots and the connections to my spawned demonic trees shook, and parts of the comet began to shift.

“-uh.” Stella stopped. “I think the golem might be waking up?”

“Really?” There were parts of the comet, where my roots were, it felt as if the Golem wasn’t waking up, but instead was forced by the ripples of space. More and more of my Valthorns began teleporting to my clone, and I quickly sent them back. 

But Stella remained. She held the button to trigger the explosives. Around the same time, the Comet’s Core itself tried to reassert it’s hold on reality. The flow of the rivers of demonic mana went nuts, while more of it tried to block my intrusion into the core.

It wasn’t working. The domain holders were immune to the effects of the demonic mana. The core’s attempt to overwhelm my three domainholders hacking deeper into the core was ineffective. 

***

“How much deeper do we need to go?” Edna asked, but not once her attacks stopped. She seemed to be able to wield the rock cutter blade as if it weighed nothing.

Alka frowned. “I don’t know, but from the magical energies around us, I think much deeper.”

The tunnel was also covered with my demonic roots, but the core’s frantic attempts to throw all their mana at the domainholders was just like it’s attempts to overwhelm my clone. Blocked. 

If it was anyone else, they’d be overwhelmed by demonic mana and corrupted. 

“-SToP-”

Lumoof, and myself, was bombarded with the voices and screams of the demon’s core. My senses, through the roots connected to Lumoof, told me this was the right path. I was getting closer to the core. 

“TuRn-BaCk!”

“TrUCE”

The voices of the Demon’s Core got louder. We kept going anyway. 

Because the cracks kept growing. With each hit, the stability of the Comet's reality bubble weakened.

***

“Are you guys alright?” Stella asked from the surface. Her team protected her, while the demons tried to attack the surface team. Even as reality seemed to be falling apart, the demons were relentless. Spurred and empowered by the chaotic mess of demonic energy, demons attacked Stella repeatedly. 

Roon and Johann pinged back. “We’re fine- but the demon king’s still getting closer! You should get yourself back to safety too!” 

Stella slammed that idea. “I’ll do that once I get everyone back to the clone safely.” 

Even then, some of the teleportation failed, and some Valthorns vanished into the nothingness. If that was an end, it was a cruel one, because consumed by the void meant I didn’t even manage to hold their soul. 

The demon king Multipus made progress towards the core. All the heroes and their repeated attacks, and somehow Multipus was just built to a different level of toughness and strength. Roon and Johann’s repeated strikes did nothing. Johann even summoned his dragon to attack the demon king, but it’s wounds healed as quickly as they were made.

“This guy is incredibly tough. Even after hitting with all the shit we have it’s still going! Edna, how are you holding down there?"

Edna responded. “We’re deep in the core. I’m feeling a huge amount of mana swirling around us. We seem to be breaking reality up."

Alka touched the rock around him, and felt the swirling energies. He gave Lumoof a look. He'll have to use his ability soon. 

“Will you be able to get out?” Stella was worried that the Core’s huge blob of mana and it’s existence would mess with my teleportation ability. 

“Doesn’t seem like it would.” Edna countered. “But no matter, we’ll be fine. Send the rest of them back.” 

“Trying!” Stella said. “I’m trying to paint in a storm, here!” 

The three domainholders laughed. “Well, we’re in the eye of the storm, and we don’t feel a thing.”

“Come on.” Stella sent more of the Valthorns back to my tree. But even more vanished, seemingly eaten by the ripples of the decaying void bubble. “-shit.”

I didn’t feel them die, but I suddenly could not sense them anymore. I tried to pull them back through the system, but I couldn’t. “What’s happening?” I asked.

“The void’s decay is creating very unstable areas between the Comet’s reality and the greater void sea, and those unstable areas- well, I’ve no idea what the hell is happening.”

The comet, or the comet-golem, shifted. An entire chunk of the comet vanished.

If our goal was to break the comet, it seems we’re almost there. Even if it felt like we were not winning. 

“Should we just start the bomb?” Stella said. 

***

But what was the golem? Was it the core? Or was it the demon king Multipus? Or is there a part that I’m missing? Or is it all three together, and they fuse together like some combination robot transformation? 

What exactly are we targeting, when we bomb this piece of rock? Just destroying the rocks?

***

The heroes attacked the demon king constantly. Multipus’s severed tentacles attacked the heroes like automatons, but its attacks were like the wild flailing of a separated lizard’s tail. All it did was leave more cracks and marks on the demon’s comet. 

More chunks of the comet vanished. 

“Why won’t you die!” Chung cursed as he bombarded Multipus with even more attacks. But the demon comet’s core redirected its mana flow to Multipus, and doing so significantly amplified its regeneration. 

“Aeon! Can you shut down the flow of mana? It’s regenerating from all our hits!” The mages, Prabu and Colette said. 

I tried. I attempted to mess with the mana flow of the demon comet’s core. The mana of the demon’s comet core pretty much lashed out erratically, yet the nature of demonic mana meant it still couldn’t corrupt something that was already corrupted. 

“CrAcK!”

The Comet’s Core then released a strange pulse-

Stella’s eyes widened. The Comet’s structure made huge, loud cracks. The comet was cracking apart, like a golem unfurling itself- “Aeon- I’m triggering the bomb now. I don’t think we can wait anymore-”

She pressed it, and a magical signal blasted outwards, out to all our crystal bombs throughout the comet. Each of them vibrated, and the magic stored within them was instantaneously released.

***

The magical ripple from the explosion could be felt throughout the Comet. On its own, the bombs wouldn’t have destroyed the Comet. But there were cracks, and tears already present in the Comet, many created by the same demon king. 

The cracks and weaknesses in the structure collapsed, and the sudden explosion of magic only amplified the chaos of the already chaotic bubble of reality around the Comet. 

Parts of the Comet vanished, along with everything on it. 

“Bail bail bail!” Roon and Johann commanded, as the cavern chamber they were in began to collapse. “Let’s blast the demon king with the strongest thing we have and bail!”

The fraying fabric of space could be felt even in the depth of the comet, not just on the surface. The heroes could feel it too, as if the rifts itself were twisting. The heroes attacked with their most powerful attacks, trying to weaken the demon king. It took the hit, and then released a magical pulse quite like the self-destruct sequence. 

“Shit.” I cursed.

Roon and Johann both yelled in unison. “Teleport back to Aeon’s clone. Now!” 

But the magical ripples in the comet’s reality made teleportation messy. Both Prabu and Colette, being the masters of magic, managed to teleport back safely to the Clone. The heroes did not expect the other heroes to have difficulty. 

Khefri, Adrian, Chung and Kelly were left behind. Their first attempt to teleport failed as their magic was torn by the collapsing fabric of space and reality. 

“Shit. I can’t get a clean teleport! Prabu, Colette! Help!” Chung yelled. 

“Wait. Trying!” Prabu and Colette rushed to create a portal from their end, while Roon and Johann both rushed towards the demon king, with a slew of special anti magical and anti mana weapons. 

These were made as part of the anti-explosion countermeasures, because we noticed that they seemed to reduce the potency of the demon king’s explosions.

A portal opened, and Adrian, Chung and Khefri got through-

Roon and Johann’s anti-magical weapons smashed into the demon king, and one of the demon king’s tentacle limbs exploded.

The explosion, however, was lopsided, the blast radius curved and bent by the ripples of space. It destroyed Kelly instantly. My two domain holders, despite being nearer, escaped the blast radius.

[Kelly has died][You received one fragment]

“Kelly, dammit.” Adrian cursed, but now in the safety of the clone, there was nothing he could do. 

“-Let’s go.” I spoke to the heroes. “Let’s send you back before reality crumbles around us.”

“But-” Adrian frowned. 

“I’ll retrieve what’s left of Kelly, if there’s any.”

There was a charred body. I felt her soul enter my own. 

***

The blast radius from the demon king’s exploded tentacle left a huge tunnel along its blast radius. The Comet’s crumbling was almost certain, as the cracks in the comet were now everywhere. More chunks of the Comet seemingly disappeared into the void sea.

But the demon king wasn’t dead. The Multpus then multiplied, it’s body bubbled like a strange boiling pot.

“Wait what.” Johann was bewildered that it could launch such an attack. “That wasn’t it’s suicide move?”

“Uh.” Roon looked at the demon king, they kept attacking, but without the heroes, they didn’t have the firepower needed. Multipus was easily the strongest demon king they ever fought in terms of durability. Never have they seen a demon king take so many hits, and could still counterattack. 

Then-

Back in the core.

Lumoof was the first to sense the unusual magical movements in the Core’s mana. “The Core’s behaving strangely.”

The manna of the demon’s comet began spread throughout the comet, instead of trying to defend itself. My mana pierced through it’s defenses. 

I took in some of that demonic mana, and pulled it through my vines and roots-

Only to immediately see a vision of a world. 

Then a direction. An explosion. Impact. There were coordinates transmitted through the demonic mana and core mana, and I sent it to Stella immediately.

“Treehome.” She deciphered it.

THe mana fanned out, and the Core itself started to crack intentionally. It was splitting apart-

“Wait. I thought the Comet’s a golem?” Edna said, wondering as the cracks and the tunnel we made started to get a lot bigger suddenly. 

Even more chunks of those Comet parts vanished, as if swallowed by the void sea. But the comet’s mana touched every single piece of rock it could, as if giving each and every chunk instructions, core mana and demonic mana, and a destination. 

My mana tried to steal more of these mana away, removing the mana from the crystals and rocks. 

“The Comet’s turning into a barrage of missiles.” Stella realized. 

Alka frowned. “Lumoof- you might want to bail. Edna, you should probably activate your [Duty] now. I think we need to blow this core up before it gets even further.”

***

Multipus multiplied, splitting itself into many smaller tentacle demons, and then, each of those demons split up. Only one headed for the core. 

“Uh- you guys seeing this?” Roon and Johann tried to attack repeatedly, but Multipus, still powered by the core’s tremendous mana, continued to regenerate. The fact that they could hack the core to produce demonic mana, and then use an infinite regeneration source clearly meant the demons actually had some defensive advantages too. This was something we needed to prepare for. 

I tracked the movement of the smaller demon kings, and noticed they entrenched themselves in different parts of the comet, as if preparing to hitch a ride. 

“Great.” I cursed. If these smaller rocks hit Treehome, it will also deliver Multipus to Treehome like an orbital pod.

“There’s no time to waste, Aeon. Let’s nuke this shit apart before we lose our window.”

Edna nodded. “I’ll stay with you.” 

As a last ditch effort, through Lumoof, I tried to seize control of the core. 

I had already broke through it’s defenses earlier. But getting an entry wasn’t the same as taking over. My mana pushed against the Core.. Even with my significantly improved control over demonic mana and core mana, I still didn’t have enough.

A core’s mana still outstripped mine.

***

Chunks of the Comet began to break off, but these chunks did not vanish into the void sea. Instead, we could see them turn into smaller, much smaller bubbles of space. Their own little bit of reality. 

Like smaller comets emerging from the larger comets, they separated, somehow, from the main comet. 

Then, some sped off, out of reach, and some drifted slower. Some vanished. 

But most of these much, much smaller chunks, they moved in the same direction, towards Treehome. Faster. 

And out of reach. 

I was impressed. With the mana and instructions provided by the demonic core, the chunks of Comet could somehow maintain its own bubble of reality. So I tried to steal more of the mana. I wanted to know how the Comet did that. 

All that did was give me more visions of Treehome, and coordinates. Coordinates that the demons used for their riftgates. Stella teleported to my clone and pretty much told Lumoof, Alka and Edna to get out. “Get your ass out of there.” 

“Wait.” Alka said. “I need to nuke this thing.”

“Not when the demon king’s headed your way.” 

Multipus, at least, the largest remaining segment of the multi-body demon king that is Multipus, continued to head towards the core. More parts of the Comet were breaking up. Alka laughed. “I happen to enjoy living dangerously. There’s no time to wait. Lumoof? Edna?” 

Stella frowned. “There’s no need to risk it. The comet’s smaller. We’ll have to prepare for impact.”

Alka disagreed. “On the contrary, this is the perfect chance for me to destroy the largest remaining part.”

“I’ll stay with you.” Edna said. “Someone needs to hold the demon king off.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Alka laughed. “My ability was meant for this.” 

All my domain holders carried my special familiar. Edna waited, and realized. “Teleport out once you’re able.”

“There’s absolutely nothing to worry about.” Alka assured her. “Go.”

Edna nodded. “Very well.” 

The rest of the domain holders were sent back to the temporary safety of Freshka. By now, everyone who could get out, was out. What’s left were those that were swallowed by the void. 

“Just me- and you, Aeon.” Alka said as we felt the demon king rush towards us. By now, the core was cracked in many, many ways. The Demon King Multipus somehow could sense Alka’s presence. 

With most of the comet broken up, there was no need for me to disguise my mana. The sea of demonic mana around us was weakened. The core itself had lost multiple chunks to the void sea. Fragments. 

Like an onion, the entire outer layer of the comet was already gone. What’s left was the inner part, an egg shaped inner core that was filled with holes. Even my Clone struggled to hold on, as all the rock around my clone began to vanish, swallowed by the void. The bubble of reality was shrinking quickly. The Demon King charged through the gaps of the hole, and Alka grinned. “I’ve always wanted to be a pioneer.” 

He waited as long as he could, and just as the Demon King was about to strike, he activated his explosion ability. 

In a single explosion, it cracked the significantly weakened inner sphere, and it crumbled into hundreds of chunks. This included the rock that held my Clone. I held onto the rocks around me, and I floated in the void sea once more like the Cometworld. I tried to grab whatever rocks I could that flew close. 

Alka naturally noticed, but he frowned. “Looks like it’s not over.”

The hundreds of chunks each were their own bubble of reality, many with their own little Demon Kings on them. 

The largest of the Comet’s remnants was the hollowed Core. There was a carapace of sorts, an outer frame that defined the Core. Fractured from all the strike, it was the largest single remaining object, and on it, were Alka and Multipus. 

It looked like a car that went through a nuclear explosion, with only its charred frame left.

The explosion destroyed three of the Demon King’s tentacles, but it was not enough. I saw a tentacle pierced through my dwarven domain holder. Multipus somehow lived, holding on to the remnant of the hollowed Core. 

“Alka?” I asked.

“I’m fine. We can resurrect, remember?” Alka laughed, blood splattering out of his mouth, and in his dying breath. “I shall be the pioneer for the resurrection ability.” 

Then, even the remnant frame of the egg shaped Comet’s Core shattered like glass. 

With the comet’s core effectively fractured into hundreds of parts, the bubble of reality around us collapsed, like a big giant soap bubble exploding into hundreds of smaller soap bubbles. 

Each of those small bubbles represented a tiny chunk of the Comet.

My clone vanished with the collapse of the last bubble of reality, shredded by the void sea. The largest chunk of the Comet’s Core vanished with us. 

Some devolved into crumbs. Little chunks that continued the journey. 

[Alka has died. His soul has returned to your main body, and will now begin resurrection. Resurrection will take 17 years. You may consume excess hero fragments (in excess of  a hundred hero fragments) to accelerate the resurrection time. Each Hero fragment will reduce time needed by 5 years ]

[You’ve shattered the Demon’s Comet! You’ve gained 18 levels You are now Level 259!]

[You can now deploy three (3) more additional clones!]

[New [Domain] ability obtained : Panspermia. In addition to your clones, you may now control up to ten (10) Node Trees. Node Trees take the form of Space Seeds that you may now shoot across the void sea like a minor comet of your own or deliver normally by your assistants. Once they land on a particular world, they will transform into Node Trees, which will function like a teleportation gate to any of your clone trees. You may also convert any Node Tree into a Clone, if you have a Clone slot available. Doing so will free up a Node Tree slot. While the space seeds travel through space, they have some vision. Note that Space Seeds can be destroyed if they encounter void barriers or unusual events, or are attacked by the creatures of the void]

[New [Domain] passive ability obtained : Planetary Symbiosis. Each of your clones now generate significantly higher mana and energy. Additionally, some of these energies will be shared with the Will of the Worlds, and expand the bubble of reality. This will allow for the existence of secondary livable planets in the same realm, and also solar systems. Note, removing your clone will cause the eventual collapse of these secondary planets.]

[New [Domain] passive ability obtained :Titan Substitution / Titan Supercharge : Due to the significant increase in power and energies of your clones, each of your clone bodies can power One (1) Titan each. For Titans powered by Clones, you do not require a Titan Frame from Champions or Heroes. With Titan Supercharge, combining a Titan Frame with a Clone Substitution will immediately increase their power levels.]

[New Title awarded : Cometbreaker]

***

Alka’s soul nestled quietly within a special chamber deep inside my main body. He was asleep, his soul damaged by travel. The reconstruction of his body happened through some kind of system shenanigans that I did not understand.

But I wasn’t the only one that gained levels, and two of the Valthorns that fought with us were elevated into new [domain] holders. 

One of the physically-focused Valthorns who did a lot of excavating, his name was Ezar, a brawler-ranger. He was level 143 just six years ago, but the entire Comet campaign somehow pushed him over the edge, and now he was a Level 150 [Domain of the Fist]. 

It was a funny thing, of course, because everyone joked that he should’ve been a shovel-domain, since all he used during those last few years were shovels and mining pickaxes. His first ability [Fist of the Rising Star], allowed him to essentially punch stuff super hard. 

The other was Kafa, and he became the first Lizardfolk, [Domain of the Claw]. His first ability was also another combat ability with some parallels to Edna’s. [Tooth and Claw] made Kafa a temporary hero-tier combatant, but didn’t grant him invulnerability. 

In terms of utility, I suppose both their abilities were kinda lame, but additional hero-tier combatants were always useful.

Edna too, reached Level 190 , but her new domain ability was instead an expansion of her [Duty Beyond Life and Death]. It now protected her for a week, and also, cast a healing presence on all allies around her. 

Roon and Johann gained levels too. Johann gained the ability to have a second super-pet. His dragon, also experienced a sudden growth and became much bigger. Personally, I found Johann’s pet somewhat underwhelming, since it didn’t do much on the Comet. But I suppose it wasn’t the right tool for that sort of situation.

Roon’s [Sniper] domain granted him a power that overlapped with mine. [Domain Awareness], and granted him full knowledge and awareness of everything around him. In short, he was a super spy. In some cases this would be useful, especially when we’re exploring new worlds, but on the Core-Clone worlds, this ability’s use would be fairly limited since my trees effectively covered most practical uses. 

There was also the issue of how [domain] abilities spied on other [domain] abilities, and in Roon’s case, it didn’t work. 

Stella also reached Level 170, and so gained two additional [Void Explorers]. In addition, she gained the ability [Void Shadow], where she could sense all use of [Void magic], and reopen any recently closed portals or tunnels. 

Lumoof, my domainholder, was now the second highest leveled person around, as he reached almost Level 197. His new [domain] ability was [Fury of the Avatar]. In a weird twist of how skills and abilities stacked, [Fury of the Avatar] made Lumoof a stronger combatant than my main body, because there was some kind of multiplier applied when fighting through Lumoof’s avatar mode. 

I’d have to wait till Alka woke up to see what he got, if he got anything after all.

***

Stella looked into the skies, as we prepared for the next phase of our battle. 

“There will be smaller comets and meteors.” 

These rocks wouldn’t destroy the world. . But it could destroy cities and countries, and there’s the demon king’s body that’s hitchhiking on these objects. There was no way to intercept them. It was just emptiness after the Lavaworld, but they were all still headed our way. 

Objects from space would likely appear at the very edge of Treehome’s bubble of reality. One that was much bigger thanks to my new ability. 

They were much smaller, these fragments of the Comet. Baby comets. Stella’s data indicate that the largest of them could still be destroyed conventionally. But there’s a lot more to destroy. 

So, taking a note out of missile and projectile warfare, we planned to build weapons to shoot down the smaller comets and meteors, the moment they entered the range of our reality. We’d have to build moon-based Weapons platforms, and prepare to shoot those meteors and comets down. 

We’ve destroyed the biggest Comet. Somehow. 

Now, we’d have to shoot down some meteors. What remains of the Comet would not wipe us out, even if it would rain death on our world.

A problem a few years down the road.

But first-

With the focus on the Comet world lifted, there were a few annoyances I wanted to solve.

I have another annoying shiny rock to crush.

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