All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 331: Using Your Head

After so much searching, Archibald was finally getting to fight again. But the sense of freedom and elation that he felt was starting to fade. He remembered why he hadn't really liked fighting the demon Lieutenants in the first place, despite how satisfying each blow was, as it was pretty much impossible to actually win. In the past, they had driven them off a few times. With the help of other dragons, they had subdued them. Still, they never had anyone actually been able to kill one, not before Void, at least.

Still, his own limitations became more and more evident as the fight went on. Even though their opponents were significantly more powerful than the Lieutenants had been when they had last fought them four years ago, they still were just as hard to kill.

That wasn't to say that Daedalus and Archibald hadn't gotten stronger, of course. The two of them were easily able to overpower one Lieutenant, and the two aspects of Lieutenants fighting against them had a particularly bad type of matchup. The air and shadow demons were quick, but neither could really take a hit.

Archibald yelled a battle cry as he lashed out with the Heroic Strike skill he had received recently. The might of his glowing sword blasted the shadow Lieutenant away, the light sending it into a nearby mountain peak like a flattened pancake. He turned to help Daedalus ward off the flanking air Lieutenant. But even as he did, the shadow Lieutenant was already rushing back toward them in a spiral of darkness, and they had to engage it once more.

This tedious back-and-forth was all too familiar. Still, it wasn't all for naught. They were keeping the Lieutenants off of their ground forces and Tony, which would be enough. It wasn't the role that he had thought he and his partner would play during the final battle for the ages, but a distraction was at least useful.

A screech of terror echoing through the mountains froze their fight, all four of the combatants turning to look for its source. At first Archibald looked down, worrying that something had happened to the Nighty Knights or Beatrice, but soon realized the sound was coming from above. The unrestrained terror in the cry made his insides twist, but when he finally found the source, his brow furrowed in confusion.

The succubus had Tony. She gripped him by the lapels of his coat, pulling him close. In fact, based on their positions, it looked like she was about to kiss him. That in itself was worrying enough that Archibald wanted to dart up and help right away. But instead of Tony, it was the Lieutenant who was screaming in terror.

As Archibald tried to make sense of the situation, he just managed to make out the faint lines of power radiating out from Tony's mouth. The form of the succubus rippled ever so slightly where she hovered. It started with her hair, which began swirling toward him.

Her tail distorted, becoming larger as the space around her twisted strangely, and her head shrank. Even as she attempted to force herself away from Tony's chest, his hands reached out and formed a vise-like grip on her upper arms. She was pulled inexorably towards Tony's open mouth. Her scream warped slightly as she was dragged into the blue void that glowed behind Tony's jaws.

Archibald could only watch in horror. It was slow at first. Just the Lieutenant's head stretched forth unnaturally into his mouth. But the progress accelerated quickly until the tip of her tail disappeared down Tony's gullet. As the demon disappeared, he closed his mouth and looked rather green for a moment. Then, the guy began pounding his fist on his chest a couple times and belching loudly.

Archibald grinned, raising his sword in salute and shouting toward him. "Tony, Custodian of the Void and Official Demon Taste Tester!"

Tony rolled his eyes, his face still scrunched up distastefully. As one, the three of them turned and faced down at the two remaining lieutenants.

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Bee heard her master's cry and saw the Nighty Knights move into the fortress. She tried to disengage from her fight to follow, but a wall of sickly red energy blocked her off and forced her to turn back and trade a flurry of blows with the fallen angel.

They were not evenly matched. Bee was far more powerful and a better fighter to boot. She dealt several grievous wounds, but the issue was that this Lieutenant healed, just like all the others. In fact, it healed even faster than the rest. Because, of course, it did.

She lopped off a hand, and before it had even hit the ground, another had grown back to replace it. In fact, unless something changed, Bee had no idea how she would deal with the demon. She could handle battling it for quite a while, of course, but she couldn't just leave it. Then, it would reinforce its allies. In particular, she didn't want it to interrupt Void's fight. It was more important to let her master finish off Lieutenants one at a time because once it won, they would be dead. Dead for good. Not coming back constantly. And right now, that was the most important thing.

That didn't mean she wanted to leave her own allies on their own, though. Bee racked her brain, trying to figure out how she was going to help the Nighty Knights deal with whatever was in the central keep. Presumably, it would be all sorts of demons, summoning circles, and maybe other powerful enemies who were located there. Also, unless Void had destroyed any Lieutenants since they came, two Lieutenants were still unaccounted for, and she didn't want the Nighty Knights to have to face even one, even if they were working as a group.

She was sure they could hold it off, but then they'd face the same challenge that anyone did. They couldn't kill it.

Well, if she couldn't leave or kill her opponent, then there was only one solution. She was just going to bring her along.

Bee positioned herself and launched forward, one hand grabbing the fallen angel's wrist and the other her throat as she kicked off. She blasted herself through the demon, using her as a shield as she smashed through a stone wall several feet thick. The impact pulverized the bones in the back of the angel. She could feel the spine turn to dust under her fingers and reform just as quickly, but not before they smashed through another wall. And then another.

It took seven full walls to stop their momentum. At that point, Bee held more of a puddle of demon parts rather than an entire Lieutenant. But even that was reforming as she watched.

By the time she blasted into the central chamber where the Nighty Knights were, she dropped her unwilling passenger, ready to act. Bee didn't believe that she could do any more damage at the moment, and it would take a moment to recover. So, she took a half second to assess the situation, her All Seeing Eye telling her everything she wanted to know.

Her fears were confirmed. Among the many many smaller demons and countless flashing summoning circles, there were two lieutenants here, one of bone and one with a strange mask. The Lord of the Ossuary and the Witch Doctor. The Witch Doctor stood at the center of a complex ritual circle painted along the floor in red. Between his knobby feet sat a strange, wriggling lump of black material that he chanted over. Bone earrings and feathered trinkets clinked as he waved his hands emphatically.

The Nighty Knights stood in the midst of it all, fighting in a group. They were already hard at work battling a horde of demons, several archfiends, and the terrifying lich that seemed to protect his chanting companion. Even as she watched, the skeletal demon reformed yet again after being cleaved in two by Bradley Chadwick's massive flaming sword.

As she rushed forward to join, she noticed the magical symbols on the floor and frowned. Something was familiar about them. They were not the magic she was familiar with, necessarily. Still, they reminded her of a dead language that she had seen a few times. Some of the structure was familiar, at least. The lesser circles that continuously flooded the room with smaller fodder for the Nighty Knights to kill stood off to the side. But this was something else. It was something more powerful. Much more powerful than the circles she had seen in the kingdom's capital four years ago when Archdemons and others had been summoned. But what was it for? Her skill gave her an idea.

She looked up and saw the chanting witch doctor. Were they summoning more Lieutenants? Was it possible? She paled at the thought. There were always 13, but that didn't mean there couldn't be more in the demon realm. There were just 13 here. But if they could summon more… then why had they never done it before? Why would they have waited? There must have been some reason. Then something pulled her attention away.

The strange lump at the center of the ritual also looked oddly familiar. She gave it another look. It took her a second to place it, and when she did, horror filled her. It was a head. And not just any head. As it turned in her direction, she met the cold eyes that she'd seen so many times before.

Her voice came out as a breathless whisper. "Oh no. What have you done?"