Year 258

Khefri watched as the Valthorns began to pour into the Centaur lands with whatever weapons and bombs we could spare. After the incident on the Dwarven kingdom, the heroes seemed to suddenly regain their fear of demons, and devoted more time to prepare for the demon kings.

Weapons shortage still caused issues across all the three worlds, but my mages were innovative folks, as some began harvesting crystals from the various demon worlds.

Resource shortages had forced my mages and Valthorns to develop a dedicated exploratory mining and manufacturing expedition force, to take resources available on the various demon worlds.

We could not just work with our three habited worlds. Not without messing things up for those who lived there. Significant price inflation for crystals, runic materials and magical crafting affected high society and culture in strange ways, even if we ensured that food and necessary supplies remained cheap and readily available to almost all segments of our society.

In a way, it really amplified class divisions and messed with the education of young children. Those who could afford these materials could give them a head start in magic education, but the rest of them couldn’t.

Stella felt that personally, because as a former educator, she saw the effects of resource shortages happen back home. Watching how those with advantages and wealth, those who could afford private tutors, special materials and have practice with expensive materials get a head start in life really sucked.

The Valtrian Order tries to mitigate this, but there is a balance between quality, quantity and cost, and also our other priorities, such as war.

Due to the rise in crystal-based equipment, such as crystalline bombs, crystalline magic storage devices, and crystal powered golems, crystals were the new ‘gold’. It’s possible to create artificial crystals, and grow them through various means. Yet, these remain relatively slow processes, and the amount of crystal consumed by a society that depended on them to organize work, move money around, supply energy to various equipment and store important memories was huge.

Prior to the era of peace, it didn’t make sense to build large magical formations for mundane purposes. Magical formations were first and foremost for protection, and for war. That meant the use of crystals as a store of energy, or to supply heat, power cooling or lighting were fairly limited in scope.

It didn’t help that common crystals didn’t store a lot of mana, compared to the demonic daemolite. It took significant development over the years, from the entire crystal-crafting industry and pretty much an army of other mages, craftsmen and even dedicated crystal growers, to create high-density crystals that could store more mana, and pack in more spells.

Development of high-density mana crystals, in terms of total output and total capacity, remains an ongoing research subject, because of the expansive usage options. There were attempts to use anti-magic glass and crystals from the anti-magic world to create segmentation within mana crystals, to pack more magic.

The mages called it [microcrystallization]. The craftsmen called it [crystal compartmentalization] or [crystal nesting].

Density was always important. Even back when we were trying to design bombs meant to kill demon kings in a single blow, Alka and his team have always tried to create high density bombs and crystals.

The best way, currently, remains star mana, which sadly was corrosive. It meant the crystal-bombs, created by the heroes through their hero forge, packed with star mana, all had an expiry date.

This was true for all [hero items]. After a while, they would decay, but bombs were exceptional because of their design. They were meant for explosive single use, so their nature was against endurance.

The expected arrival place of the demon king was on a vast field of grass. There were some habited areas nearby, but the centaurs were semi-nomadic. So asking them to move temporarily proved to be significantly easier.

If the demon king arrived at Hoofhall, I’d face more problems getting the centaurs to move.

Khefri watched as more bombs were placed.

I sensed magical disturbances as my trees spawned in the area in the form of small shrubs. Attempted scrying from the humans affiliated to the Crystal King. It didn’t take long for agents of the Crystal King to start causing trouble.

Khefri and the heroes were naturally furious, as the fifth attempted saboteur was caught.

“This is ridiculous. The crystal king wants me to die?” Khefri held up the man, her scorpionoid hands trembling. She was trying her best to hold her anger within.

“Yes!” The man was deathly afraid as the hero’s fury rippled in the air. Magic made the world around them feel heavy. “He wants a new generation of heroes to appear.”

“And he is willing to kill me to do it?”

“No! He said to just mess with the preparations-”

Khefri was furious. “That’s just trying to kill me in another way. Does he want war? I have no issues marching into his lands and blasting that damned mountain to smithereens.”

In truth, Khefri would be a fool to do so alone. Each of the rulers and deities of the Three forces were packed with ancient spells and artifacts. Khefri might as well kill herself. There were certain aspects of Khefri’s hero power that were tied to an ancient pact between the Three, and that meant the Crystal King had countermeasures against her.

But, if the entirety of the hero force, especially those from Mountainworld and Treehome headed there, there was nothing he could do. Those heroes were not shackled by the pacts of the Three.

As the fourth force, I thus assisted the heroes in making a declaration, and a warning.

If the Crystal King messes with the anti-demon king preparations, I would apply the weight of my force against him.

It was a controversial statement. One that Zhaanpu didn’t like, but he didn’t say much. He did flag his concerns on the ancient pact, that should the Crystal King were to die, the ancient pact with the gods could be broken.

Some worlds had pacts, some didn’t.

It didn’t matter.

If the Crystal King indirectly causes the death of the heroes, I consider that just cause for war. It would also help that I’d be able to then use his lands as home for potential refugees. The people of Treehome.

It was convenient, even if I certainly came across as machiavellian. For his sake, I hope he didn’t give me just cause.

That said, not everyone was unhelpful. The Centaurs of Threehome themselves had a special request. As the war would be fought over their lands, their ancient customs dictate that they must participate in the battle. Even if it was suicide, their ancient custom does not permit others to defend their land on their behalf.

Someone from the Centaurs must fight.

Their ancient honor system depended on martial prowess, and martial prowess did not allow hiding from a fight to protect their home.

***

“I have another world for you to visit, Lumoof.” Stella came over. “The archmages found one of the worlds that could be of interest- the metals on that world are unusual, but we have not yet found-”

“Don’t we have the demons of Threeworld to prepare for?”

“Roon, Johann and Alka’s headed there already. They can handle it. This one’s for you.”

“Alright-” Lumoof nodded. “Another world to visit.”

***

The way age works is well known, but its tendency to strike is still hard to pin down, even if we could chart its probabilities. Old age is like playing a game of chance. Each day, you’re a little bit closer to death.

Every day, the dice is weighed a little more.

I’ve studied death in old people many, many times, and often, the collapse is sudden. There are many ways old age kills. One of the most common was when the soul’s link to it’s body somehow tears, as if a soul that no longer wanted its body. Then, the body would begin to malfunction. Organs that functioned normally the day before started exhibiting unusual behavior.

It is as if a gear just decided to turn a different way. Or a key that went into the wrong hole. A door that didn’t open properly. Organs and parts of the body begin to collapse, and teath would come soon after.

Old age is a sneaky assassin, and behaved, in some ways, like stress. Or wear-and-tear. It’s a ticking time bomb. It leaves its mark on every part of the body, for the right moment to trigger, and these marks come in physical, magical, and spiritual form. I’ve gotten quite good at removing the physical and magical elements of old age, and it is why I could extend some of my soldiers’ lives, if they wanted me to. Even spiritual elements of old age, the marks left by the soul, could be removed.

If I could find them.

For old, dying mortals, if they were under observation and the signs of soul-misalignment arising from age were to strike, I could usually step in, and correct that misalignment of soul-body.

Prolong one’s life for a few more weeks, or months. Even years. I could do it, often consuming a little bit of my mountain of soul fragments. Patching a soul had a cost. A small one.

And today, the specter of death came for the former hero.

He was at home. Ken looked perfectly fine, and then without any reason but time, he began coughing like mad. He started to choke, and my vines wrapped him. Healing fluids help suppress the symptoms.

I could save him, but he said. “No.” I didn’t listen.

“You have a lot to do that you’ve left undone.”.

“The hell with that.” Ken coughed. Through my vines I could sense parts of his body imploding on itself. This was something I’ve seen in many old folks, and I could rescue them. If I wanted to. He coughed a bit more, and I sensed parts of his liver and lungs starting to collapse.

My healing powers flowed through his body-

“Stop.” Ken said- choking half way.

“No.” I answered. “I will not let you die without the other heroes being here.”

“Don’t tell them.” Ken said. “Don’t tell my friends.”

“Ken, selfish as it may be, I will keep you alive until your friends get here.”

“Fuck that.” He said. “Fuck-”

“It’s not all about you. It’s about the optics of letting you die without your friends.”

“Fuck. Can’t even die in peace. Just drug me, put me to sleep and let me go-” The former hero cursed. Old age was a battle against the soul, and one I’m really good at winning. I could keep him alive indefinitely.

But I know he doesn’t want to. Snek spammed the magical crystals and sent alerts to all the heroes. I felt the local area shift as teleportation magic created a temporary warp, and the heroes ran in.

Chung was naturally first to barge in. He came cursing. “You fool!”

“Fuck you. Can’t even die without seeing your stupid face.” Ken cursed back.

“You don’t regret it? Come on. Just tell Aeon to fix your soul and make you live longer.” Chung said, cursing, but also pleading. “Don’t.”

“No.” Ken said. “I’m not-”

Prabu and Colette came next. Colette walked in, and she frowned. “How’re you feeling?”

“Dying. But Aeon’s not letting me die.”

Colette smirked. “Smart ass is still putting up a fight on your deathbed.”

Chung looked at Colette. “-tell him to stay.”

The liberated hero shrugged. “Me? No. I like to believe in choices.” She looked at Ken. “Is this your choice?”

“Colette- that’s rubbish. Choice shouldn’t matter when he’s making an irreversible decision to kill himself.”

Ken frowned. “It’s called euthanasia, Chung. Did you not pay attention in school?”

“I was young as fuck when I was sent here. Do you think I remember what I learned in school?”

Colette looked at Prabu. Prabu didn’t say anything, just nodded and held Ken’s hand. His skin was quite wrinkly, but today, it’s as if there was an extra fifty years added.

Snek actually agreed with Chung. “I agree with your friend, Ken. Live. You still need to convince Aeon to plant a clone on Ulara.”

Ken laughed-while-choking. “You can negotiate with the Tree yourself.”

He coughed some more, and couldn’t seem to stop. I injected him with more of my healing energies, and helped patch him through. “Aeon, can I die now?”

I thought about it for a moment. I’ve seen people die around me, usually suddenly. Most would not want to die, but suicide was not uncommon. “No.”

“Fuck-” Ken cursed, and he flailed against my vines, trying to rip them off like a medical patient trying to pull out all the medical tubes. Unlike medical tubes, my vines were much stronger, so I injected him with a sleeping drug.

The heroes watched as Ken flailed and then slept.

“I’ve put him to sleep. For now.”

“Don’t let him die.”

“He will. His soul is imploding.”

“You can fix it.” Chung said.

“I can, but if he doesn’t want me to fix it, it’ll make things harder.”

“I don’t care.”

Colette looked at Chung. She looked sympathetic, but in a way, he looked pathetic. Colette sighed. “Chung, let him go.”

“No.” Chung turned to face Colette, his face was ugly. “Are all of you murderers? Why are you aiding his suicide? This is insane.”

“There comes a time- and place- when we must let our hands go.” Colette said, with a maturity I’ve not seen before she became a [liberated hero]. She spoke from a place of inner peace. “-you must let go. The more you try to hold on to him, the more he will resist, and he will walk way. Death is not the end, Chung.”

“Death is not the end?” Chung repeated, furious. “This is absurd, Colette. It is the end, in every way and form.”

“No. Not for us. We are promised a return home.”

“You believe that shit? Ken doesn’t believe it.”

Colette smiled. “There’s no evidence against it.”

“There’s no evidence for.”

“On the contrary, we know souls reincarnate in this world. Why is it so hard to believe that our souls will, too?”

Chung stomped away, he didn’t go far, just down the corner where there was a relatively new drinking place. “He better not die while I’m away.”

“That’s not your choice to make, Chung.”

In a way, it was mine. And I needed Chung's help.

Ken won't die. Not yet.