All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 232: War Never Changes

I wanted to interrupt and ask how Daedalus planned on talking to the “spirit” that was in the mountain. But before I could, he just opened his mouth and let out a rumbling roar. It was different than his usual ones - this sounded like rocks grinding on each other.

Thucydides and I exchanged confused glances as we hung there, waiting. The only sign that something had happened was that the stone golems down below had paused mid-stride. 29.7 seconds later, the golems shifted back into an organized formation.

Then, from across the mountain, another rumbling sounded. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I would have assumed it was just random bunch of rocks falling, but given the context it seemed like a response. Daedalus hovered in the air for a good 31.4 seconds afterward. Then he opened his mouth and roared back. This time, he sounded like an avalanche of rocks pounding down a snowy slope. I was very impressed that he managed to have enough vocal dexterity to convey all this.

Thucydides winced, shaking his head as if the noise was bothering him. It seemed that the mountain and the dragon were going to be talking for a while. So, the two of us headed over a little ways away, where the vibrations were not nearly as intense. He sat down heavily in front of me in a clearing less than a mountain over. "Did you know my brother could speak Mountain Spirit?"

I let out a negative beep and flashed up a message. "Me neither. I had no idea that mountain spirits even existed.”

Thucydides shrugged his massive scaled shoulders. His wings rippled along his back as they settled back into place. "Yeah, I had heard of them. They always sounded kinda boring, if you ask me. But wow, Big bro is amazing."

We waited for several hours listening to what sounded like the mountain tearing itself apart.Every time I checked I could still see the distant form of Daedalus up in the sky, so I assumed they were just having a good conversation. Eventually though, the rumbling came to a close. Daedalus winged his way over and landed before us. Thucydides impatiently asked for an update. "So what did it say?"

"Well, apparently, it felt the Lieutenant escape a while back. It’s also been trying to destroy what it feels is the unnatural evil loose on the world for the past several months."

"The Lieutenant escaped?" I asked. That was news to me.

"Oh, yeah." Daedalus quickly filled me in on what he and his little brother had found in the cave. It was worrying, to say the least. Honestly, if this Lieutenant had been free for a long time, it was likely to be at a much higher power level than Nazareth’gak had been when we faced him. Not to mention that we didn't have Beatrice and Tony slinging anti-demon measures and other assaults at it to soften it up.

Well, I was a lot more powerful, too, at least. But I had heard Daedalus’s stories. Nazareth’gak’s regeneration had been bad enough to deal with, but if this one regenerated faster? That might make it even harder to get the thing in my dustbin, especially if they resisted consumption like the mountain spirit had.

I expressed my concerns about being able to face a Lieutenant at full power, and Daedalus nodded. "It makes sense. It's hard to say if you had trouble consuming the mountain spirit because it was at a higher level than you or because of some inherent property of it being a mountain. I would normally say it's a coin flip. But if you’ve consumed a higher level before, then it’s probably the latter. Mountains are heavy, and it would make sense to make them metaphysically immovable. But at the same time, the mountain spirit was probably level 87 or even 90. I don't think it has broken the 90 barrier yet."

I blinked, my light flickering in confusion. The mountain was level 80 plus? That was mildly terrifying.

"So what did you tell the mountain spirit?" I pressed for Daedalus to continue his story. His recounting of the conversation continued, and apparently, he'd explained to the mountain spirit that the Lieutenant was probably long gone, and it wasn't worth terrifying the snowmen villagers staying on top of the mountain to find it. The mountain spirit requested that they hunt down the Lieutenant, and if they did find it, let the mountain spirit know that it was done so it wouldn't have to stay on alert. Daedalus had readily agreed, and decided that wouldn't be an issue.

Thucydides nodded uncertainly. "Ok, so… we're going to track down a Lieutenant now?"

Daedalus started to nod, then froze. His eyes went wide as his neck stretched toward the sky.

"What is it?" Thucydides asked.

"I need to go." Daedalus said, already beating his wings urgently. A moment later, he was up into the air. Thucydides and I began to follow until he noticed us. "No, you two need to take care of this. I need to get back. Something's with happening with Archibald."

Thucydides and I exchanged looks. I suppose Thucydides knew a lot more about the world than I did, so he’d certainly be helpful in figuring out where to start looking. But as we tracked down the Lieutenant, I just worried that the two of us together might not be enough to destroy it. If Daedalus had been helping me, my models were a bit more confident about our chances. I simply wasn’t sure about this smaller dragon though. He didn’t seem nearly as powerful as I was led to believe all dragons were.

Oh well. We had a job to do. I didn’t know how long this thing had been on the loose for, but I shuddered to think of the destruction and messes it must have gotten up to. It had to be stopped. Hopefully Beatrice wouldn’t mind me taking a little longer on my trip.

—

As it turned out, Bee didn't have to go to the army to confirm whether or not there were demons amongst the ranks of humans. That had been made very clear from numerous reports, and one squad had already brought back the body of what was indeed a demon. Judging based off of the way the encampment was organized and a concerted effort to make sweeping attacks on each section of the camp, nearly 20% of the forces arrayed against them were demons.

Of course, some of the most basic demons were barely better than a soldier. But when it came to siege warfare, the demons did not care if they lived or died, and the ability to climb up walls would make this a little bit more difficult. The only thing they really had going for them was that most of the rest of the enemy didn't seem to be aware that they were demons. They still wore their disguises, and some interception of communications said that the officers were telling the regular soldiers that the demon corpses they found after raids were from the attackers. Bee had to admit that the lie was rather clever and plausible based on what the military would think of Void.

The way that the camp was set up kept most of the humans from the actual raids that affected the demons. She had the inkling of an idea to force a demon confrontation with the rest of the army. It would be hard to organize, but her idea to instigate a fight between some real humans and some demons in the camp was shot down by Susan and a few others. Apparently, it wouldn't be that hard to just say that it was just due to an infiltrator or something like that.

Still, if the demons were going to be openly used in combat, the word had to come out eventually. Hopefully, they could use this to their advantage somehow, though she wasn't quite sure how yet. But that time was coming closer than she would have liked.

Late the night before, the enemy had camped out just outside of bowshot of the third wall. They could have maybe moved some trebuchets or something forward and started bombarding them, but they decided to wait. It would be a surprise right as the attack on the third wall started in earnest. Between that and the wall’s other surprises, the Church of the Cleansing Void had planned to make quite the impression. So the members of the castle’s forces and the army simply stood watch on the wall, keeping hidden for the most part.

No response was given, and no shouts or calls were made. They tried to make themselves seem as relaxed and unimposing as possible. The only reason she was there was in case they asked for some sort of conversation before the battle. Bee didn’t expect that there would be though. Arthur hoped that they would want to parlay, but apparently, Bee was right. As the sun set, still no one had come out to ask for their leader. It didn't seem that they expected or even sought their surrender.

***

The next morning, Bee stood on the wall, looking out over the endless sea of tents of the army ahead of her. The sun was just breaking the horizon, and she had to admit she was getting a little tired. She would be here for the opening of the battle and fight for several hours before going back to rest in the first shift. If things went as planned, anyway. Ahead, the soldiers formed ranks under the watchful gazes of officers and began to march towards the wall.

At the blast of a horn, Bee raised a signal flag, and the defenders all along the wall got ready. Archers readied their bows and waited for her signal. It was about a quarter of the overall forces.

They expected to lose this wall quickly. They would empty all the arrows they had stored here and then disengage at the first real sign of contact. As soon as the enemy forces reached a few discrete rocks piled up in no man's land, Bee dropped the signal flag she was holding, and a volley of arrows shot forward to slam into their ranks.

While formations had to move to get wounded back out or step over the fallen. It didn't slow their approach at all. Every three seconds, Bee called for another volley, and the thousands upon thousands of arrows that rained into the approaching soldiers quickly turned their march into a sprint as they launched toward the walls. A second flag went up, and the army stopped shooting in volleys in favor of firing as quickly as they could, practically straight down into the faces of their enemies.

They were at such a short distance that there really was no need to aim. The bows were powerful enough that pretty much any shot would at least take the enemy out of the battle, and the enemy's shields were not used as effectively as they should have been. As Arthur had warned. The enemy’s initial forces barely reached the wall. Once they did, half the archers put down their bows and picked up long spears.

Each was 12 to 15 feet long and long enough to reach the bottom of the wall from the very top. Of course, the length made them rather flimsy, but that's why there were backups. Frantically stabbing down, they forced anyone who was attempting to scale the wall to back off. The enemy had brought some ladders, but the concentrated fire made it so that even those ladders advanced very slowly.

The archers then shifted their focus and started firing into the back ranks of the army, not wanting to disrupt their allies' targets. Besides, that's where the officers likely were. Arthur had shared some bits of wisdom the night before when they were all up on the ramparts. The way he said it made him stick in Bee's mind, and hopefully everyone else’s as well: "Aim for the fancy hats."

Those were the officers. Anyone with some sort of insignia that denoted them as something besides a regular soldier would be prioritized. If they removed enough of their leaders, they would quickly run out of direction. And without good leaders, they'd be slow and efficient, or even be forced to retreat. Bee doubted that last bit would happen, but removing the command staff did seem like a smart decision.

Once the battle was in full swing, Bee stopped worrying about signaling and pulled out her own weapon. Her broom couldn't really do too much from up here, but it felt good to have it in her hand. She maybe had some options to throw rocks or try to use a bow herself, but she didn't feel the need. It was better for her to sit back and wait to deal with any problems that did show up.