Year 327

"Let's have a guerilla strike plan against the demons." Stella proposed. "As it is, the demons are manufacturing high leveled demons, but they spread their lower level resources across these many, many demonflesh worlds. There are thousands of them, but thousands are still achievable. We can nibble at the edges and weaken them from the outside."

"Achievable?" Lumoof thought about it, but the more we pondered the matter, the more it made sense. There's no reason for us to leave the demonflesh worlds as they are now. 

"Three of us, or many more, we strike against these demon flesh worlds, taking them one or two worlds at a time. With enough destruction, we put an end to this foul manufacturing process. Our strategy will be two-pronged. Outside of the barrier, we continue to enhance our strength, while the three of us harass these outer worlds until they are no longer able to grow. If we can't or find it too hard to take out the fleshworlds themselves, we hunt down the surface riftgates and the Corrupted Wadran Spawns that function as their transportation network, and then we come back to them later."

Lumoof looked at Edna, and Edna shrugged. "I think it could work, and we might be able to lure whatever is in the inner worlds toward us. If we bait them out here one-by-one or in smaller batches, we might be able to manage whatever they send our way."

The inner group worlds within the demonic barrier were home to many strange things. Floating demon comets. Worlds that looked like and felt like normal worlds. 

Stella felt a constant, frightening presence within the inner worlds, but she could not identify whether they were just a single entity or multiple weaker entities that layered their influence around the turbulent void sea. 

The void seas here were far more dense with void mana, and it must have been entirely intentional. Void mana, from what Hawa and Aiva shared, weakened the power of divine energy. The demons intended to use the void mana as a smokescreen to hide their affairs from the gods. 

Lumoof paused, and sighed. "Well, if we can take five worlds a year, at best, we would need 200 years to even take out all the demon worlds, and they could certainly restore and repair the worlds we destroyed in that time being."

"But we will get stronger, and the pace at which we move through these demon worlds will increase." Edna countered. "Once our friends outside get stronger, they can join us in the assault, then we can spread our influence to more worlds."

"But they can't move without Stella. The rest of them, even the void archmages, can't even move between worlds because of how dense the void seas here are."

"So we must break the demon's barrier." Stella said. "The shattering of the void barrier will allow the void mana within these demon realms to flow out into the wider world. This barrier is like a dam, an embankment to keep these places far more dense in void energy. The six Sun-Rings also continuously send more void mana into these worlds, so disabling them will eventually allow the outer true demonworlds to be 'traversable' by my disciples."

"We either wait, and hope that the pace of our growth outstrips whatever manufacturing process the demons have, or we break it, and then, we can bring our entire force to the fray and start weakening the entire thing as a whole. The three of us can destroy worlds, but we can't do so faster than they can fix it." 

"Well, we'll have to try it out, then." Stella said. 

"Actually, I've been wondering about your [void] creatures. Can they help us?" Edna asked. "Here in this void mana dense environment, shouldn't they feel more empowered."

"Yes. It's exactly why I think we can do more damage, but I'm not sure how big of a difference that is on our timescales."

***

The trio visited a second demon fleshworld, and this time, they were not here to sightsee and learn. They were on a path of destruction with the sole goal of crushing the true demon breeding operations. 

We sought out the corrupted Wadran spawn and destroyed it. We crushed it, and then, we turned our direction downwards into the fleshworld. 

We dug. 

With the combined might of our summons and our domain-tier powers, we directed our attention below and excavated a hole. 

The demons sought to stop us, and all the while Stella was on the lookout. We knew the corrupted core possessed some means of communication with the rest of the demonworlds, and she'd have to stop them. 

But a part of us also wanted to know what would come to the world. Through Lumoof, I noticed that my roots and my attacks went much deeper than before, and this alone would've shaved us half of the time needed to reach the core.

The flesh could not resist my presence. My mana churned and burned through them easily as if my mana was a rotting infection.

"Do you think demons get sick from Aeon's presence?" Stella watched in absolute bewilderment.

"Most likely [Corebreaker Aura]." Edna said. "That's the only thing that changed." 

"If these things are no longer some kind of magical construct like the other demons, they could possibly get sick. They are somewhat organic."

Stella's thoughts were not unique. Our previous order to research weaknesses in these true demons led to a large-scale experimentation on what could work, and that included diseases. 

***

The Order often experimented on demons to discover and test new tools, new weapons, bombs, and all that.

But disease research and poison research on demons was an entirely new field, partly because they were non-existent when the demons were constructs with no real vulnerability to tiny organic matter. Toxins and acids could work, but poisons and diseases did not work so well, since there were only a limited range of things they could interact with within the demons.

Now though, the idea of making an entire demonflesh planet sick and implode on itself was a fascinating idea, since these demonflesh were its own type of organism with physical properties not found on the old demons. 

Though, we did realize that if these organisms had souls, they could just as easily develop [skills] that would offset or nullify the effects of our poison.

So, in true evil-wizard fashion, the Order's poison would not only be effective, it needed to be thorough and work so quickly that the demons could not develop a counter [skill]. 

The heroes, like Colette and Prabu, occasionally supported the Order's magical research division, previously with experiments on hero items and also because the [hero's forge] was an exceptional prototyping tool. 

We'd tried to minimize the heroes' front-line deployment, since we noticed that the effects of the [hero] class often flared up when they channeled large quantities of star mana through their souls.

The Order thus found many ways to use the heroes in support roles. Teaching, magical simulation, sparring partners, and also in magical research and development. 

It was quite easy to start from a weapon or tool designed from [Hero Forge] and then work backwards to discover what else could be used as a substitute. 

The [Hero Forge] was also an exceptional 'emergency' solution tool. If any particular machinery was missing a critical component, [Hero Forge] could patch it up and get it running while the rest of the Order's industrial machinery cranked up to meet the needs. The only side effects were these hero items had all the usual hero item drawbacks, meaning star mana and the potential mana and spiritual overload for lesser mages when interacting with such powerful items.

The biological lab was located on Lavaworld, partly because we wanted an easily managed containment area just in case something went wrong. 

Biological weapons against demons felt right and could be huge, but we also knew that there was potential that such a weapon could be used on normal people.

The thing that assuaged our concerns were the entirely different organic structure of the demonflesh that meant what was poison to the demons, would not react the same way with regular folk, and regular folk were so varied in physique, nature, and anatomy that it likely would not affect the majority of races. 

An outbreak of a magical disease was likely contained to specific races, unless there was a way for these mutant magical diseases to adapt to all the different races. That was a horrifying prospect and likely too much power for a single disease to carry. Diseases didn't have levels or skills, and that was a great reason to believe they wouldn't be a world-ending danger. 

Unlike earth or the source worlds, the mages and the heroes only needed to equip themselves with a set of bracelets that granted magical protection from magic and created a small protection field around themselves.

As a result, there was no need for uniforms in the lab. All the mages, herbalists, and healers here wore whatever they wanted, though most wore some basic protective equipment usually from their own paranoia. 

These labs were filled with hundreds and thousands of experimental chambers filled with the organic demons captured from the True Demonworlds. 

"Looks like something out of the movies." Prabu said as the couple walked past a screaming demon. The way the demon wailed was unnatural, and everyone wore protections to cover their ears. The glass and magical protective barriers rattled as the demons attempted to break them.

"It is. It's even experimenting on demons to develop a disease to kill them. Think this is how some zombie-horror movie starts?"

"Oh please. If they made a zombie magical plague we'd all be so screwed." 

"I don't think we'd be." Colette said. "But yeah, if it infects the Order, our society would be pretty bad."

One of the true demons resembled a mutant ogre, and it hammered the glass walls repeatedly. Each time it did so, the attacks bounced off the magical barrier, and it only enraged the creature further. 

Prabu almost instinctively felt the urge to blast the creature to smithereens, but Colette held his hand in time. "It's alright."

Prabu breathed. "Yeah, let's go."

***

We reached the second core far faster than we initially anticipated, the Corebreaker Aura's effects meant Stella's initial assessment was far more conservative than we predicted. We could potentially hit about eight to nine worlds a year, up from four to five. 

Once we reached the core, Lumoof and I decided to try something else. 

We hammered it with our attacks at first, just to weaken it. 

Just like before, it attempted to call for help, and this time, Stella didn't intervene. We wanted to know what was coming and whether they were opponents that we could face.

The second true demonworld's core vibrated as we sliced more and more of the flesh out, our roots were exceptionally effective on its body. 

Stella and Edna braced, as a rift gate appeared right within the core chamber, and out of it came a strange demon.

To call it a demon king was incorrect, because it felt different. It looked as if it was an experiment gone wrong. It looked like a stitched up mix of three demon kings as it had three distinctly different parts of flesh, as if each of them were made from an entirely different type of demon.

[ True Demon ???? ]

Edna's spears glowed as her [Martial Paragon] sent power throughout her being. The creature parried the blow, but the powerful magical blow from Edna's sword sent a vibration of magic through its flesh, and I sensed that it was, in every sense of the word, a stitched together monstrosity. 

It had three demon king cores wrapped around a demonic soul. One of the cores was flooded with void mana, while the other two contained regular demonic mana. 

[ Domain blocked attempted intrusion ]

We felt mental attacks from both the damaged demonflesh core and the True Demon Mutant. 

"Well, here to protect your core? Come and get it." Edna's spears jammed into the creature, and we noticed the demon mutant was unnaturally restrained. It stuck to very specific attacks and angles that avoided damaging the core, and Edna exploited this vulnerability to position herself in the best attacking spots. 

The creature clearly had more powerful weapons in its arsenal, because each of the strikes revealed its internal magical structure. The cores were not exerted at all, and their powers were clearly meant for a wider array of blast and magical attacks.

Yet here in the core, it did none of that. 

Stella's attacks did not hurt as much, but between Edna and the creature, it was a fairly even exchange of blows. So Lumoof stepped in, and with his avatar form, we brought the battle to an end fairly quickly. 

It was stronger than a demon king, but as it began to realize that the battle was turning against it, it stopped restricting itself so much and started attacking the environment with its magic. 

There were blasts,beams, and magical spells that burned both the environment, and also damaged the core even more.

I felt a little sorry for the creature, because my roots blew through its defenses just as easily as a normal demon king. If its opponent were a hero, I'd believe they would have had better odds. 

The death of the True Demon Mutant brought levels for the four of us. My three domain holders and myself, fighting through my avatar, all gained one or two.

[You've gained levels. You are now Level 275 ]

[Clone Number increased by 2]

[Node Number Increased by 5]

[Second Subdomain Choice unlocked ]

But I decided to look at that later. I turned my attention to the demonflesh world’s core at the heart of the demon world, and wanted to know what happened if I flooded it with mana. 

Lumoof approached the demonic world core. Roots, vines, and branches exploded out of his avatar, and quickly wrapped around the massive demonic core. 

The demons had long been a parasite to the other worlds. 

What would happen if it was in reverse?

My mana flooded through the demonic core, and that moment I felt its wailing screams. It sent me thoughts and memories, but all were blocked by my domain. 

I did not need to know. 

My mana seemed toxic as the flesh itself turned into goo. The goo melted away, and the vines tightened its grip on what was left of the flesh. 

More of it melted away.

"Well, melting a demonflesh core is one way we can solve problems." Stella said. 

"It's not planned." Lumoof insisted.

More of the flesh melted and melted away, but within all organic matter were natural materials, and slowly my mana intervened and began to reorganize the melted goo and gunk into something more natural.

Something more rocky.

"Now this was what I was hoping for." Lumoof said as some parts of the demonflesh began to transform and explode into rock-coral like structures.

Stella and Edna quickly found a place to sit down. She had already had a picnic table and mat set up, while Lumoof and my avatar pushed more of our mana into the demonflesh core. "We'll be here. I'll keep your food warm."

There was nothing they could contribute to this part of the work. Perhaps Hoyia could help, but the other domain holders were better off doing something else. 

"Aye, thanks. Hopefully we don't have to run away from this world."

"I bet the demons know." Stella said as she offered a slice of meat from a package to Edna. Edna took the slice with her hands and placed it in her bread. 

"They already know when we blew up the other world." Edna added. "We're just announcing our presence a little louder."

"I wonder whether they'd panic."

"You're assuming these things have emotions."

"They do!" Stella said. "The research papers claim they exhibit some basic emotions! I believe it comes as part and parcel of having a soul."

“Wait. Doesn’t that mean we could, I don’t know, reason with these things?” 

“Do you reason with cockroaches or locusts? Or a wolf that’s trying to eat you?” 

“Why not?” Lumoof countered, though most of his mind was focused on the demonflesh core. My avatar felt the assistance of an army of artificial minds, connected through the avatar. “Maybe at lower levels, these demons have a way of controlling these demons, but I reckon once they reach domain-tier, whatever controls the demons have will weaken.”

Stella ate a sandwich. “The idea of making these true demons rebelling against their own masters is fascinating.”

“Of course, we’d have to make sure we can figure out what these things’ needs, desires and priorities are, if they have them. If they are creatures with souls but do not have that.”

“They might not get a domain.” Stella added. “WIthout a little bit of madness and personality, the system as it is would lock them out of a domain.”

“That’s just your theory.”

“I have faith in it.” Stella added. “You should have some faith in your fellow demigod.”

“Really?”

Lumoof and my spiritual energies flooded the core some more, and we were halfway. The rest of the demonflesh vibrated strongly as my mana overwhelmed the core in its entirety. 

Its resistance faded altogether, and then, the entire demonflesh core vibrated as if it was a balloon struggling to hold its contents together. 

It exploded in a splatter as it expelled all the unwanted demonic matter, and what was left was a far, far larger core than the piece we found back on the first true demonworld. Most of this larger core was new, things we made through my mana forcibly reversing the demonification of the world. 

Still, the world shook. It shook violently.

I heard a voice from the core. 

"This is not enough to sustain the world. At this size, the world still dies."

Our reverse-demonification did not do enough to undo the damage. It was the equivalent of removing tumors, but not having enough critical organs remaining for the patient to function as a living being.

"Well," Lumoof had seen this pattern long enough. "We'll get it next time. We just got a few new skills and some."

The world shook. It shook violently. It was the final throes of a world that knew it was dying. 

Stella and Edna both frowned. A flick of magic later, and their picnic setup vanished. "I'll give you your sandwich later."

"Later." Lumoof said, as he held the core. "Can I take you with me?"

The core thrummed, and we knew it agreed. 

Stella, Edna, and Lumoof warped out of that collapsing world, and we got another title.

[Title Awarded : The Core Thief]