All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 265: Devil May Care

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The ghost demon looked at the piece of paper hovering in the air in front of him and scrunched up his brow. His expression looked quite funny as he read it. "Tasks I can perform. Why, I'm a demon! I can rip your enemies limb from limb, I am so strong!"

He reached down to pick up a chair sitting not that far away from him and phased right through its back. He then tried to bend down and pick it up again. "Um. Well. Uh... I can spy on your enemies? No one can see me. Um. I can do all sorts of mischief and evil deeds!"

Then he threw back his head and laughed in a very unconvincing way while still sweating red drops. I watched as the very confused ghost demon went on a tirade about his other best points and methods of mischief. I wasn't exactly sure what he was getting at, but he didn't seem to be handling the whole being a ghost part well. He went on and on, and eventually, I had enough of it.

So I asked my next question. "How do I banish you?"

The demon looked at me strangely.

"So you do want to banish me?" He let out a defeated sigh. "Look. I'm not sure what you're getting at here. Could you explain what's going on? I mean, if you banish me, I'll just go back to the demon plane, which is fine. But I could also stay here in the, you know, the material plane and enjoy all the delights of the this reality if you want a demonic servant," he said hopefully.

"No, I really just want to know how to banish you."

"Well, ok." His face turned bewildered. "Your call I guess. Just take my core and perform the banishment ritual, then you can send me back to my plane."

"What do you mean?"

"What do I-- how are you this oblivious?! Do I have to spell it out?" He began tapping his foot in annoyed exasperation.

"Yes."

"Fine, fine. I swear, godlings these days..."

He then went on to describe a long, overly complicated magical process involving materials I'd never heard of. Unfortunately, I didn't care much about that part. Why would I perform some sort of expensive-sounding magic just to send him home?

Especially if he wanted to warn the other demons about me? Well, I suppose I could have just consumed him, so he must really think I was that nice. How very thoughtful of him.

No, the part I cared about was the core thing. None of the demons I'd seen previously dropped cores like this when they died. Though, to be fair, I had never tried to clean their souls. At least not that I had noticed.

"Your core?" I asked. Now, even he looked confused.

"Yeah. You should be able to fetch it as godling, right? I mean, I think. To be fair, this is the first time I've ever actually run into a godling for real. This plane never really has them, I've only ever heard about them coming from other planes. But you know, surely you should be able to find my core. At least that's what N'gtho'sheek'al'beth'el told me."

At least, that's kind of what the name sounded like. There was a lot more screeching and phlegm involved.

"Do you mean this?" I asked as I motioned to the broken soul piece I placed on the ground.

For a moment, the demon kept staring at the paper. "What? Am I supposed to see something?"

Right. He couldn't see me. I hovered the paper above the broken shards and printed a large arrow pointing down.

He looked at it. "I don't see anything there. It's just an empty piece of ground."

I looked at his soul shards again. They certainly were there for me, in some sense, neither purely physical nor energy. However, they didn't appear to obey the laws of physics properly.

"It's a little chipped," I wrote, and he winced.

"You… broke my core…?"

"Yes," I put on the paper. Whoops.

"Well, I guess you're can't really banish me, then." The demon looked around and rubbed the back of his head a little awkwardly. "Um, yeah. So… what now?"

What now, indeed? Maybe it would solve this issue if I could just transmute him. If I could get him in my dustbin, I could get rid of him. Then, he wouldn't be wandering around and causing mischief like he promised. But then, how was I supposed to get him in there?

I reached out with Void Manipulation to try to pull him into my dustbin. But unfortunately, as I half expected, nothing really happened. The void passed through him, causing no changes, and he didn't even seem to notice. I went through and tried all my other skills, but the only thing that even registered his existence was my soul sense. And even then, I wasn't exactly sure how they were picking them up.

After waiting and looking around nervously for a while, the demon eventually shrugged. "Well, if you're not going to banish me, and I'm not bound by service." The guy mused as he tried to touch the wall. "That means…. I'm freeeeeee! You can't do anything to me. I'm invincible!"

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He shouted and jumped at the desk, passing through it effortlessly. He cackled madly as he flew through a wall.

Well. That was weird. I wasn't entirely sure what to do about that. I could go after him, but I obviously couldn't get rid of him. Though he didn't seem to be able to do anything, so hopefully, it would be ok. I just mentally shrugged as I started to head home.

I had learned some very important things, though. These demons had red fissures running through their souls. They might look like people, but they were definitely not. Whether they were possessed, disguised, or something else, I didn't know. But I definitely would need a better way of dealing with them than crushing their souls.

I mean, that might prevent them from ever getting back to the demon realm or doing anything bad here. But then we would have a bunch of really annoying demon ghosts running around. Plus, I'm sure, eventually, they'd figure something out if enough of them worked together. Maybe it was better to just smite and transmute them like normal. Just like old times.

---

Bee woke up surprisingly late in the morning. With her high level, she didn't need to rest very much anymore, which was a testament to how exhausting and surprising yesterday had been.

The sun was about to peek over the horizon outside her window. Most people were still in bed, but the first signs of life began to fill the streets of the city. Normally, she would have been up for hours doing paperwork, preparing for a sermon, or handling any of the numerous issues around the castle. But now that she was in the city, she'd actually had more free time than ever, in recent memory at least. And she intended to make the most of it. If sleeping in was what she wanted, then sleeping in was what she'd get.

Bee headed downstairs for breakfast. Even if she had slept in, Talia and Mrs. Chadwick certainly hadn't. The early risers were already bustling about the modest kitchen preparing breakfast. But surprisingly, they weren't alone.

Aunt Beatrix sat in the corner, watching them cook and sipping on a hot mug of something that smelled bitter. Her sleepy expression and red-rimmed eyes wandered about until she saw Bee. The usually severe woman gave her a smile and wave while seemingly half asleep.

"Morning, dearie," she said as her eyes drifted slowly closed.

"What are you doing here?" Bee hesitated at the bottom of the stairs. "I don't remember you being an early riser."

"I'm not. I just was so excited… I had trouble sleeping last night."

"Really? Well, you should have said something. I might have been able to get you something to help sleep."

"Oh?" The woman stifled a yawn. "Like what?"

"Well, I did learn some alchemy. Sleeping potions are fairly simple, and I'm sure I have enough ingredients with me."

"Oh, alchemy? Excellent. I was sure those mages were up to nothing good. I actually thought sending you was a bad idea, but your father insisted. He claimed that learning magic would always be useful."

Bee blinked. Not even close to being willing to unpack that statement, she moved on.

"Sit, sit," Beatrix said, waving Bee to the stool next to her. "These wonderful ladies are making us breakfast."

Bee smiled. "Thanks, but maybe in a bit."

With that, she went over to talk with Talia and see if there was anything they needed. Apparently not. They would need some more money soon, but they had been able to provide food just fine. Bee was considering whether or not they should hire servants, but neither of the two women seemed to actually like that idea.

As Mrs. Chadwick put it, "what else am I to do all day while you lot are out busying yourselves? If this is how I can provide for us, then I'm happy to do it."

Bee would have to hire someone to help clean, or it might be too suspicious, but with Void taking care of all the cleaning and the church members pitching in whenever they saw something to tidy up, it did seem like the least of their concerns. What other work could they have someone do?

A few minutes later, several plates of eggs, toast, and bacon were laid out on the table. The other two women joined Bee and Beatrix at the table as they had a quiet breakfast. Once Beatrix got a little bit of food in her, she seemed to perk up a little bit, though her eyelids were still drooped. The coffee she was drinking eventually took effect, though, and she was soon ready to drag Bee out into the city.

"There's a salon not too far away that I simply must show you. We can talk all about our business dealings there. Come on! It'll be much fun." Before Bee knew what was happening, she was bustled out of the manor and into the early dawn streets, her aunt practically dragging her in her wake.