All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 296: Friend and Foe

"What?" Bee asked, surprised as she looked at Daedalus. "How is it worse than we thought? At most, the demons have some human allies."

Daedalus shook his head. Archibald held his hand out and waggled it side to side.

"I mean, yes and no. You see, back when we first fought them, the demons weren't alone. They had help - humans like us were forced to serve them. And though most of us were slaves..." Archibald paused. "Not all of us were. Some of them served eagerly and very much of their own volition."

Bee flinched, "Really?"

Daedalus nodded. "Yup. Honestly, they were some of the more difficult ones to deal with."

"Why?"

"Well," Archibald said carefully, looking at Daedalus for confirmation, "the Lieutenants aren't usually that tactical, aside from the illusion one. They are powerful, intelligent, and crafty in their own ways, but they're also extremely overconfident. They rely heavily on their regeneration and supposed indestructibility. They walk into fights that they could have easily avoided or take fights with poor odds when they could have found a better position. Why wouldn't they if they didn't think they could lose? But with the help of humans serving them, they were given information that often pointed them in a better direction. They'd make more tactical decisions. They would make sure the Lieutenants found out about danger in time so that when they acted, they maximize their effectiveness.

"It was a weird sort of relationship where the humans would almost try to manipulate their demonic masters by feeding them specific information, using them as blunt weapons. The demons didn't always listen, of course. But when they did, it was bad news and pretty much always made things worse for us." Archibald shook his head. "Yet there was no question about who was actually in control. Maybe the ones who overstepped got dealt with. OR maybe the Lieutenants were just playing along."

"So you're saying there's basically a cult of demon worshipers that have survived to this day?" Bee asked, thinking about the Warden's organization. She hadn't thought it would be possible for an organization to survive for thousands of years, but clearly, at least one had. Why not others?

Archibald shrugged. "I suspect not. It's unlikely, but that doesn't mean that they haven't formed some similar relationship here. It would only take one of the smarter Lieutenants to realize there was an opportunity to form a similar sort of cult."

"And... okay, one more thing," Bee said, "how is this worse than just them working with humans like we originally suspected? Cult or not, isn't it pretty much the same result?"

"You're not wrong," Archibald rubbed his chin. "But it's still worrisome. If these guys have been worshipping demons for a long time, they might have better ideas about what they can do. I don't know how much success we'll have fighting the remaining Lieutenants, either. Not without a lot of casualties."

"Right how many of them are left now?" Bee inquired.

"Seven," Daedalus said. She looked at her master, who beeped in agreement, flashing the names and figures of the six permanently destroyed lieutenants. Bee couldn't help but be awed at the reminder of her master's power. Of just how quickly Void had rid the world of half of its greatest evils.

"Still, we fought six of them, killed four, and drove off two, "Bee said. "Even if all seven come at us at once, as long as we're together, Maybe we can handle them."

She wasn't trying to be overconfident, but it was hard not to be sure of success. As long as her god was backing her, how could they fail?

"That's the important caveat, though," Archibald said. "As long as we're together. For anyone besides Void, fighting even one Lieutenant would be trouble. Two would be nearly a death sentence. And that's not even considering the weak points we have to defend back home."

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Bee's mind went back to the argument they had been having over the past day and a half about whether they should go back to the capital to protect their people. "We need people to get stronger," she said. "If they follow Void, it's much easier for them to level up. And with enough powerful people, our cities can protect themselves while we are out fighting."

"You're not wrong," Archibald admitted. "But it's a ways off, and I don't feel comfortable enough leaving the demons to their planning in the meantime. Plus, even if Void's followers do level fast, who's to say it'll be enough to face a Lieutenant? We're still their best defense."

Bee nodded, accepting his point. "True. But if we can't find them, what are we going to do? War? I don't think we are ready for a second march so soon against a fully prepared enemy."

Daedalus rumbled. "We should head back. It's clear what has happened, at least to me. The humans likely provided our fleeing foes with some resources, or another of their kind, that allowed them to hide their trail before they moved on. That's why they came here as fast as they could. They couldn't lose us, though they could slow us down in our tracking. And if they could get here ahead of us, they knew that they could slip away unharmed.

"Perhaps we can find out more information by staying here. I think we can be sure that they did actually come here after fleeing rather than attacking the capital. But now? They're either hiding or heading back to retaliate. I suggest that we head back to cut off any surprises."

Void beeped and showed a strange circular graph divided into little triangles. He zoomed in on one of them, showing a percentile, and a little bit of text appeared. "I calculate there's a 15% chance that if we don't head back, the capital will be destroyed when we do return later. Going back now shrinks that to 5%.

"Is this a risk we're willing to take?" Bee asked the group. Her master's calculation was a significant increase in the chance of surviving the capital. Was it worth letting the demons run rampant? Well, she realized she was missing some information to make that decision, even though it wasn't hers to make.

"What are the odds that we find the demons here and can do something about it?" she asked.

"Unknown," Void responded instantly. "However, I do not like our odds going into an area where they are fully prepared for us and have had time to set up beyond just a day. In the last trap they set, they only had numbers and no preparations. I don't think they will make the same mistake again."

Bee didn't like it, but they'd have to give up the chase for now. Honestly, it's probably for the best. She could only imagine what was going on back in the city in her absence. And as much as she trusted the people she left in charge, there were forces in the city that she didn't fully trust. Zeal and his cult were likely up to no good, and she only hoped that they hadn't made too much progress while she was away.

The four of them left their hiding spots away from the city and headed back toward their own kingdom. Bee could feel the wind parting in front of her as they flew, likely due to Void. She could see with her magic that the air was being parted by some skill. Her All-Seeing Eye told her that they were increasing in speed by a significant amount.

Once they settled into a comfortably fast pace, she considered her skill choices again. She still hadn't decided between the three she had been given. If they had gone into combat, she would have likely chosen something quickly just to have it available. But otherwise, she hadn't wanted to make a rash decision.

She honestly still had no idea what was best. Still Movement was tempting, but ultimately, the name was just too vague. Would it allow her to still any kind of movement? Did it only affect her or others as well? How still would things become? Her imagination ran wild with ways to abuse that power to the point of absurdity. But it all depended on what it actually did.

Mind of Granite would be useful and finally give her some defense against mental attacks. But those weren't common, and the Illusion Lieutenant was already dead. She might not find it quite as useful against the others. And besides, her all-seeing eye skill should hopefully be able to pierce most tricks and illusions already, so she was fairly certain she wouldn't pick it.

Void's Breath was just as ambiguous as any skill she had ever seen, but anything that was tagged by her master seemed to be potent. But still, the frankly absurd potential options of Still Movement tempted her not to choose the one backing her faith.

She looked over at her master, zipping around them as it did something with the air parting before it. She couldn't tell what it was doing, but the ease in which it outpaced a dragon flying as fast as it could made her firm her resolve. With a final sigh, she picked Void's Breath. Now the only thing left to do was figuring out what it actually did.

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