Invading Impact

Roko hadn't fought these blob monster all that much. The first time he met them, he used them as a distraction in Cordis. The second time, he was too busy trying to help Corissa out of her possession. So this was the first time he really got to run a blade through them. And they died pretty easily. For a being with no discernible organs or other natural systems for living moving with a power unknown to this world, they died quickly and cleanly, splattering into bloodless puddles that evaporate quickly. All they needed to do was keep themselves from being overwhelmed and letting one of them get parasitized. With Corissa unable to cast holy in this situation, they'd have to abort the recall first before freeing someone. And even if they managed to convince Enlil to redo the spell for them, these monsters would just be back in full force in the memory anyway. Theoretically at least.

That said, Roko did notice that these blobs were remarkably more primitive than the modern ones he had seen. While the modern monsters of this sort were essentially melted blobs of flesh like the ones they were fighting now, they were also much more detailed and more literally melted flesh, complete with meaningless features like eyes, mouths, teeth, noses, ears and such. Sometimes with multiples of each of these in an unnerving mix of human features. These ones in front of them simply seemed like a mass of skin. It seemed like it was more clearly textured like skin but these things were lacking bigger features unlike the modern ones. Perhaps they were also weaker in this time period as well.

In short time, the army of monsters began to thin and even the elven king and his soldiers had dealt with the main force attacking them. Once Helena had frozen the last of them, the group quickly turned their attention to the elves who were already speaking among themselves.

"All those monsters have been routed?" The king spoke to his small group of warriors, "Then we'll progress to the Cradle."

"That such monsters would appear so close to the Tree Cradle." One of the soldiers sighed, "All our fighting and we've made such little progress."

"The king will not tolerate such cowardice, Hyacinth!"

"Scabius, calm yourself." Another elf said, "The King is no such tyrant. At least let us settle back into the cradle before stirring such fights."

"Nasturtium is right. You all are disgracing the king with your words."

"I don't want to hear that from you, Borage! It's only through the king's great tolerance that you're even part of the Hyssop Circle! And you, Zinnia! Don't you stay quiet! Back me up!"

The last elf, Zinnia, just stayed quiet.

"If you're all quite done."

"Y-Yes sir!" All the elves quickly stood up straight and saluted as the king glanced behind him at them.

With his subordinates sorted, the king returned to the empty road in front of him and adjusted an ornate bracelet on his armored wrist. And with a wave, the elf king summoned a curtain of light, an aurora of colorful light that cut across the road in front of them before being pulled back to reveal a completely different location between them. The king held up his arm as his soldiers hurriedly rushed into this different reality. And as the king lowered his arm to go through himself, reality suddenly paused all around them.

"So." Enlil's voice called out from above them, "I've paused the memory for you guys for a bit right now. You can go through the curtain with the king or I can just fast forward it to inside this Cradle location. Which do you want?"

"Oh!" Helena blinked, "Uuhh...guess we'll just quickly go through ourselves."

"First time seeing this kind of magic. It's pretty crazy to see what things were like 700,000 years ago."

"Yeah, I can't even imagine how to create and maintain magic as big and fancy as this." Momo said as she looked up at the frozen rainbow lights, "700,000 years ago must've been one hell of a time."

"If I recall correctly..." Kaguya said, "There was a theory that there was an extraordinary amount of mana in the atmosphere back in ancient times. That would explain how such complex magic could be woven together. We all already know how the more mana there is in the environment, the easier it is to craft spells."

"Huh. Does that mean you can use magic right now, Roko?"

"Let me check." Roko replied with zero enthusiasm as he lifted his hand and tried to form the seal for a fire spell. He was barely able to make a circle, "I'm going to say no."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about but from the sound of it, I can say the mana in the atmosphere's the same as modern day. This is just a memory, not a perfect recreation."

"If that's true then why did those monsters attack us?" Helena asked, "They're supposed to be just memories right? How'd they see us?"

"..."

"Hello?"

"I...I don't know! I've never experienced something like this before! The spell is working perfectly and even if there was some sort of quirk with it, it wouldn't let you interact with what should be simulations! I don't understand how this is possible! By all accounts, it doesn't make sense!"

"I wouldn't worry about it." Roko said, "Some things just don't have an explanation. Especially when they're naturally otherworldly."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Can somebody explain?"

"Well...I don't know how much we can really explain but..."

Roko looked up as they walked past the memory's elven king into the special area beyond the aurora curtain. As they passed, they could see the elven king frozen in time looking back as he was about to step through himself. Perhaps most of them simply thought the king was making sure he wasn't being followed but Roko followed his frozen gaze back. Back to forest edge where he and his party had fought those monsters. Back to where those monsters had split off from the main force. Roko looked at the king's gaze frozen to look at where they were...and walked on past him.

Inside this enclosed space was a small collection of homes. Wooden houses, detailed tastefully but compared to Granreveria, much more humbly. Either they had not discovered stoneworking to build more advanced homes like Granreveria or these homes were more for function than culture. Though there was little chance of any home living up to the giant tree in the center of it. This titanic tree was larger than even the alien one that had taken over the Momokami Castle. It stretched up to the sky which was impressive when it seemed like this differentiated space had a limited space that was cylindrical. There was a clear sort of...wall around them with the image of forests and skies and mountains applied on top of them. Except when you left the height of the normal trees, the sky seemed to stretch up in an elongated manner. It was something Roko had seen in old, old video games but he couldn't imagine his companions had witnessed something similar to this before. This big tree seemed perfectly natural though. Aside from it's unnatural height, of course, the tree did not seem to be elongated in any similar manner. It was a normal abnormally large tree held inside a space isolating cage with a poor internal skybox.

That said, while the ultimate height of the tree was huge, there wasn't much of it that was really accessible as the trunk of the tree would bend into a wide crescent arc with most of its body. There was a small bit of upright trunk that held this wooden arc to the ground that was certainly large on it's own, perhaps 2/3s as tall as Momokami's castle but was not nearly as significant as the rest of it that seemed to wrap around the sun in the sky. The sun that seemed to be peering down from the tip of this cylindrical space. While it was probably a very impressive feat of magical engineering, comparing it to an old or poorly made video game was too funny a concept for Roko to take it seriously again.

"Wow, this is one hell of a hidden space." Helena remarked, "I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before."

"It's certainly a unique place." Kaguya remarked, "I don't think I've seen space folded like this."

"That tree..." Brook frowned as she looked up at the crescent tree in the center.

"Seem familiar?" Roko asked.

"No but I can tell it's...not natural."

"You're telling US?" Roland scoffed.

"No, I mean it's almost wholly magical in nature." Brook sighed, "That is an actual tree but it's been so magically manipulated that it's practically completely energy. How do I put this? It's like someone took a sapling and forced it to mature into that form. Or rather...someone stretched the tree out into that form but it's still growing to fill in the holes where it just isn't big enough to fill yet."

"Is that frowned upon by elves?"

"I wouldn't say it's...frowned upon I guess..." Brook bit her lips, "It's just something most elves wouldn't even think of doing. Like this isn't exactly a forbidden technique because no one would think someone would do this in the first place."

"But it makes you feel uncomfortable?"

"Yeah I...I just don't think someone should do that."

"Well, this is wartime." Kaguya suggested, "Perhaps somethings needed to be done in desperation."

"Speaking of the war, I guess we won't be finding out what kind of war that is." Helena sighed, "We seem to be pretty far from any battlef-IELD!"

Helena cried out in surprise as the elf king suddenly walked through her to join up with his soldiers.

"Whoa." Reaumur said, "I guess that confirms that we can't really be seen by the memory people here."

"That's what I've been saying." Enlil sighed.

"That still doesn't explain why those monsters attacked us though." Momo said.

"I don't have an answer for everything!"

"Guys, can we please pay attention to what the elves are saying for once?" Kaguya sighed, "It's the whole reason why we're here after all."

"Status report." The king commanded.

"Hyacinth. Reporting healthy and unharmed, my liege."

"Scabius. Ready for next orders, sir."

"Nasturtium. All conditions nominal."

"Borage. No enemies in sight. Hale and hearty."

The last elf didn't say anything as he simply stood there.

"Good." The king nodded, "We seem to have arrived a tad early."

"Sir, the caretakers are coming out to greet us." Borage smiled as a collection of adult elves quickly left from the few houses around the big tree along with a large collection of elven kids.

"My lord, I'm happy to see you arrived without harm." One of them said as all of them quickly bowed politely in front of their king, "Thank you for taking time out of your efforts to come visit the Tree Cradle. The kids are very excited."

"Hello sir!" One of the kid elves said energetically, "Do you have any honey?"

"H-Hey! Laurestine!"

The King looked down at this child in front of him...and scoffed, "Hyacinth."

"Yes sir!" Hyacinth smiled as she waved her hand and summoned a large hole in space. From this spatial spell, she pulled out a trolley full of boxes. Popping one of the crates opened, Hyacinth pulled out a jar of honey from inside, "Of course, we have all sorts of treats for all you kids here!"

All the kids began to cry out in excitement and crowd around the trolley as the royal elven guard began to pass out treats to the young elves.

"Aw, isn't that sweet." Momo smiled.

"Hey, Brook, how old do you think those children are?" Helena grinned.

"Those kids there?" Brook asked.

"Yeah. What, are they 50 years old? 70?"

"If you're asking me...13."

"...You mean like 13 years old in human years?"

"No, I mean 13 human AND elven years."

"That's...really young..." Kaguya frowned, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I figured elves would like...still be in the womb at 13 human years." Helena gulped.

"We also start counting years after we come out of the womb you know." Brook sighed, "And yeah, I'm sure. For the most part anyway."

"Really?" Momo said, "They look pretty similar to Enl...uuuuuuhhh..."

"What?" Enlil said, "Are you talking about me?"

"It's not a matter of appearance." Brook explained, "We elves grow to an immature state like humans but our physical growth stops there for a period. That's because we begin to grow in magical energy at this stage and it's only until we reach a magical equilibrium do we start growing again."

"So...you're sure they're only 13 because of the-"

"Because of the mana inside of them." Brook nodded, "You humans probably can't see or sense it but it's pretty clear to elves like us."

"Are you sure this isn't some mistake cause by inconsistencies in the memory replay?" Roko asked.

"Hey, you can't just pin everything on me." Enlil frowned, "This kind of stuff is dealt with by the temporal mask. Sure, some of it is being determined by the memory holder's own recollection but if time itself says these are kids, there's not much I can do to change it."

"Speaking of the memory holder..." Kaguya said, "Whose memory are we seeing technically? Roko, do you know?"

"When we read it, it actually seemed like the journal had several owners at different points." Roko explained, "It's mostly recording vague details in this Interminable War until it's owner abruptly dies and is passed down to someone else. We're not actually sure who the last owner was, there aren't always introductions every time the journal changes hands."

"Did the spirit name themselves, Enlil?" Momo asked.

"Uuuhhh, I never asked but now that I have, the spirit wishes to remain anonymous."

"A little sus." Helena said, "But if it's one of these guys...and we know it's not the king or Hyacinth..."

"And considering this journal currently belongs to Glacier now..." Momo mused, "The original owner's probably-"

"Scabius." Everyone agreed.

"Well, even if we're wrong, the journal owner's identity will reveal themselves to us eventually." Helena shrugged, "We'll only be able to follow their memory after all."

"That's true." Kaguya nodded, "Unless something drastic happens."

Roko, who was keeping an eye on the elves' celebrations, noticed the silent one, Zinnia, walking up to the king and whispering something in his ear.

"Alright everyone." The king announced, "We have an even bigger surprise in store but first, we must leave to prepare it for a moment. Do not leave this area for the time being."

The kids all agreed, only half paying attention as the king called his soldiers to him and reopened the aurora curtain.

"What's going on now?" Helena asked as they quickly followed the elves back out to the random forested road that they had just left.

The soldiers all stood in the middle of the road, drawing their weapons and seemingly preparing for battle against...nothing that the humans could sense. But when it was clear that his soldiers were ready for combat, the king raised his arm...and flicked his wrist. The gesture created an enormous crack in the space in front of them. Thunder and lightning blasted out from the gap that towered over all of them. And in a sight that sent their party into terrified shock, a large clawed hand reached out from the crack and pulled space aside like it was fabric. And what was behind it…

A black oil ran around the frame of its body. Stuffed together to form much of its mass was a collection of dead, rotting bodies withering and wailing about as they were fused together with large toothy maws. Covering the surface of this monster's body. Thinly stretched skin was hung tightly around the key parts of this creature's body like its hands and feet from crystalline roots that held this monster together. A light blue flower, almost glasslike in its appearance, was covering the monster's face. This monster among monsters looked down at the elves in the memory, its emotions impossible to discern but its intentions were clear. As it raised one mountainous hand up to smash down the royal guards.

"What is that?!" Helena cried as she covered her head from the dust that were sent into the air from the monster's attack on the earth.

"It's...like all the monsters we've seen combined into one..." Momo said, her voice chilled with a sense of fear, "How does something like this exist?"

"I can't even imagine how we could begin fighting a monster like that." Kaguya said, "Roko, what we do?"

Roko looked at the monster with wide eyes. It was the biggest creature of any kind that he's seen, even larger than the giant that Bedlam became. The only thing that came close to its scale were the giant tentacles that had formed from the sky during the orc raid. But more interesting and more dangerous was the inclusion of nearly all the types of eldritch abominations that Roko had encountered thus far. This monster gave no results from his spells like every other abnormalities. This impossible creature seemed doubly so from what Roko understood of these lifeforms. If each type of monster was controlled by a grimoire then what sort of being is this that accumulated traits of all of them? Was there one being controlling all of them or multiple? Was this being even controlled by any being from their world? If so, what kind of grimoire would even allow for a being of this creation? What would even happen to a human who attempted such a feat? If this kind of creature existed in the past, why hasn't Roko seen it in modern day? And most of all…

Roko looked down at the unfazed elves standing before this towering mass of otherworldly origin.

Can just a handful of elves really beat something like this?