All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 324: Rods from God

Daedalus’s ears perked up as he heard the signal. Spot’s song, as well as the subsequent flashes of light sent up through the clouds, were easy enough to decipher. It was time for him to shine. With a final snort, he dove down.

Still, he had to confirm the coordinates several times before diving. Having him miss the city entirely wasn’t exactly something they’d planned for, and he was a little skeptical of what his small friend was asking for. But he trusted Spot’s processing, and so down they went. He was a very quick-witted young god, after all.

Archibald whooped, clutching onto the spines on his back as the air rushed by. As they neared the ground, broad red wings extended, and they leveled out of their several-minute-long dive. Opening his jaws, Daedalus blasted the ground below him with as much fire as he could before arching back upwards and dropping the heavy rock held in his claws. The very air vibrated as the missile struck the ground at terminal velocity, sending a shower of dirt in every direction.

Daedalus had been hoping to strike back at the palace with that, but apparently, it was more important to hit this random Spot on the ground twenty meters out of the city. Oh, well.

He and his rider were now fully exposed, but they’d done their job. Now, he would do as he pleased. They did a strafing run, blasting apart the back wall of the city and its defenses. Soldiers scattered as they tried to defend the structure, which was consumed by fire. Satisfied for the moment, the dragon circled back. It would be wise to see if he had made a satisfactory crater in the random Spot of ground or if he would have to go find another massively heavy rock and lug it all the way up above the clouds again.

He grimaced slightly at the thought. His wing joints ached a little from that first ascent, and he wasn't exactly excited about doing it again. Perhaps he was getting a little past his prime – though that seemed impossible since dragons were always in their prime.

But it had been fun to watch that impact. It was a different kind of satisfaction than spraying things with dragon fire alone, but not in a bad way. This splashing, molten, and burning dirt had made it a pretty impressive show of its own.

Archibald pointed out a particularly large group of what appeared to be demons. Daedalus ran over it with another quick layer of fire, clearing out some of the courtyards that the demons were forming up in. Hopefully, that would help his friends a bit, if indirectly. It wasn’t like he could go assist on the front lines without toasting a lot of people on accident.

Before settling down next to the command post, Spot beeped his thanks.

“Of course,” Daedalus nodded. “Though I must admit, I’m a little confused at your request…”

“Yeah, what was that?” Archibald piped up. “We didn’t even hit anything until after.”

After some questioning, Spot explained that they had just collapsed a tunnel that the demons were using to get into the city relatively undetected. Archibald slid off Daedalus's back and brought up a very good point.

“How long will that slow them down? They just have to dig up to the surface again, right?”

Spot beeped in agreement, projecting his calculations overhead. Daedalus skipped over the numbers to locate the final estimate. It would only be a couple of hours at most.

Arthur scowled. “That might be true, but even a couple of hours with fewer reinforcements might be enough for us to get a better foothold and take the city. But still, it's not ideal. We still need to find some way to stem the flow, if we can. Otherwise, we'll be in trouble once our people get tired or need to sleep. We'd just have to hope there is an end to this."

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Beatrice looked thoughtful as everyone waited for her to make a decision. Would they retreat? Would they take the city anyway? Would Spot and him level it such that there's nothing to defend? All these were viable options except for retreat, in his opinion.

---

Bee listened to Daedalus's report. On one hand, it was great that they had actually put a stop to the reinforcements, even briefly. But on the other hand, she was frustrated that they hadn’t actually solved the problem. Sure, it might grant them some reprieve for a while, but without taking advantage of the opportunity, things were still going to be a problem.

She really didn't want to level it, of course. Not only did the thought make her feel squeamish, but there were still so many people who lived here. People who may or may not even be involved in this whole matter. The way she saw it, that just wouldn't be a healthy thing to do.

Bee turned to Arthur with an idea. “You don't need the Nighty Knights or me here to maintain the status quo, do you?”

Arthur rubbed his jaw and hummed thoughtfully. “No, I don't think so. The only issue is if a Lieutenant shows up. We might not have anyone who can match it here. I don't think I could keep one pinned down for more than a couple of moments still. We might be able to handle it as a group, but again, it's a war of attrition that we won't win...

She nodded. “That's an issue. But I think we're going to have to take a chance. No Lieutenant has shown itself yet, even after Daedalus came down. So I don't think they're here. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that they're all in that direction at the end of that tunnel.”

“I’d agree with that,” Arthur nodded. “It’s a reasonable guess, at least. But by Harold's estimations, the place he was worried about is pretty far out. Even with your speed.”

“Right. If that’s not it, then I can't imagine we wouldn't have drawn one out by now.”

Void cut in and beeped, explaining a brilliant strategy where her master would hold an illusion. Convincing the enemy that Void and Daedalus were nearby, preventing any sort of interaction by the Lieutenants.

Bee realized that it hinged on her master's assumption that the Lieutenants weren't willing to risk themselves fighting void for something as unimportant to them as a human city, seeing that they had already lost so many of their number to the all-devouring god of cleanliness as it was. Arthur seemed slightly uncomfortable with the risk but willing to take it.

“Okay,” Bee finally decided, turning to Tony. “Get Felix and the Nighty Knights ready. We’re going to cut off the problem at its source.”

Archibald raised a hand. “Mind if we come, too? The way I see it, you’ll be in big trouble than we will here if those guys show up.”

Bee nodded gratefully. “If you don’t mind.”

Void chirped that it was coming, too. Bee bowed and thanked her god for the assistance. She obviously hadn't wanted to assume, even though Void was one of the only ways they could permanently deal with these things. But. It was nice to know that she would have its support.

As Tony went to collect the Nighty Knights, Bee and the rest of their party gathered together. As they waited, she got to work busying herself. She still had a lot of energy to spare, and she could take the pressure off the soldiers for some time before they left.

Her broom spun as Scouring Strikes blasted into demons. Stepping into the fray once more, she held a gap as her Holy Aura vaporized enemies and strengthened her allies alike. Nearby, soldiers poured over the walls to continue taking over the defenses. This went on for almost half an hour before she stepped back, starting to feel a slight drain on her magical ability. She had taken the advice of Void ever since.

At some point, she began incorporating her other skills as well. Void’s Breath mixed into her combat patterns as well. Whenever she had a chance, she inhaled bits of scattered demons into her internal holding space. It's something that had taken her years of practice to get used to, much less used actively like this. But now, she could finally do something other than simply storing things. She could actually do something with them. She could transmute them into energy.

It had been very difficult for her to do at first, much less without losing everything she had kept inside her pocket dimension. But now she could transmute small things. Bits of demon at a time, really. That meant her current enemies were perfect. It was just enough to keep her energy mostly topped off and massively slow the drain on her skills. Also, it was a good exercise.

The more she did it, the more precise she was. So when she finally stepped back, her energy reserves were only at half, and she felt more than capable of still defending herself. She would recover them before they reached the next target. By that time, all the Nighty Knights had been pulled out of combat and were ready to go. It would be a flight for several hours to their target location, but who knew what they would find when they got there. They would have nearly unstoppable firepower with them. But still, she couldn’t help but worry.