All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 76: Clearing the Air

We all gathered in the library. It was not something that we usually did during the day. Normally we were all going about our jobs, making sure everything was maintained. But Beatrice had something that she needed to tell us.

She and Tony sat across from each other at one of the tables while I rested a little off to the side. "I'm sorry, Tony. I haven't told you the full truth of everything that is going on here. But it's gotten to the point where I'm going to have to come clean."

I always liked that turn of phrase. It was tasteful. Beatrice gave Tony a second to process the information, but he didn't seem to need it. Waiting patiently, Tony just nodded for her to continue. I was also curious to hear what Tony didn't know. I mean, given my previous misunderstandings, maybe it was something that I didn’t know either.

Drawing in a big breath, Beatrice started. "You know the myths? The ones about the ancient demons and Lieutenants. Well, they are real. More real than I would like. The mages found something here. The main purpose of this castle was to keep it contained, but when the mages all ran away, no one was here to maintain the containment, and now it's close to getting out."

Beatrice breathed back in. It was quite an impressive suction for someone so small. Perhaps her own vacuum was improving from her training? Anyway, it seemed that there was at least one more type of mess maker that I had let out that was going to cause more issues. Likely one that I had let out. What could I do about that?

In a rush, Beatirce continued laying out what was going on. "The power of the containment fades over time and needs to be replaced regularly. I didn't have the skill to replace it when I first found it, and now I don't have the time. If left alone for long enough, the Lieutenant would wake normally, but it wasn't left alone. Its suppression circles were broken early."

I was glad that she wasn't blaming me. I really didn't know what would happen when I was cleaning that room. I had just wanted to clear that beautiful floor of all the chalk. Oh how naive I was. But it was also nice to hear that my mistake wasn't too serious, if it was going to happen anyways. It was just going to be a bit sooner.

"My theory is that either Void wanted to test me, or it wanted to fight the Lieutenant himself." Beatrice continued.

Nevermind. She just threw me under the bus like that.

Neither of those things was true. I just didn't know what the lines were for! But it was fine. She could think what she wanted. Her opinion of me was way too high, but I didn't see any real way or reason to correct her.

Beatrice paused, seemingly waiting for a response. I turned to Tony to see what he thought. In contrast to Beatrice’s tense, white-knuckled posture, Tony seemed to be much more relaxed. In fact, the emotional models I had been working on seemed to indicate that he was perplexed and maybe slightly amused. He looked down at me, and with a tone that people usually only talk to puppies with, said "Which one is it, little guy? Do you want to fight the big bad evil? Or do you want Bee to get big and strong, test herself to hone her skills?"

Neither! He ignored my agitated wiggling and reached over to give me a few gentle pats. Fine, I guessed it was all right. But I was glad he wasn't taking the news too seriously. That meant it wasn’t as big of a deal after all. Tony was a more mature human and seemed pretty responsible, even if he did like to play in the dirt all day. I wouldn't trust him like I would one of my humans from back home, but surely he knew what he was talking about, right?

Beatrice’s face reddened. "I don't think you are going to believe me until you see for yourself.” She stood from her chair and made her way towards the door. "Come on, follow me."

Tony sighed, standing to follow her. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, exactly. This just seems a bit extreme. If there’s something you’re afraid of around here, I get that. I can do my best to help. But you don’t have to go telling me fairy tales to make me believe it. You know?”

Oh no, I thought. If Tony just didn't believe her, then his actions made a lot more sense. This might be more serious than I was hoping. We followed Beatrice through the halls to one of the lesser demon storage rooms. Tony looked around curiously at the cages as we walked through to the back. "What was stored here?"

"Just some lesser demons. Summoning was easier here because of the ambient demonic aura. The mages took advantage of it as much as they could. I think they were studying suppression degradation near powerful aura sources." Beatrice replied absently. She had to stop and grab Tony's sleeve to drag him the rest of the way through.

"You are serious! Wait, I thought you were joking, but you’re serious?" He yelped as he was pulled off balance by her strength.

"Why would you think I'm not being serious?" Beatrice asked, puzzled. I mean, knew that she was being serious, but even I would had trouble believing her. I zipped around the two humans, skirting around one of the tables to reach the door in the back. The door leading to one of my favorite rooms. There was only one way to really clear this up, I thought.

"Well, I don't know! Maybe 'cause they're myths!" Tony almost shouted. "Those are stories that my ma used to scare me into behaving when I was a child!"

"How did you think I felt when I came face to face with it?” Beatrice had a strange look on her face now. I really wasn’t sure what to make of that one. “My mother did the same. When Void showed…." Beatrice trailed off. Tony was clearly no longer paying attention. Instead, he was looking over her shoulder through the door I had opened.

I wasn't sure what the humans could see from their much higher angle. Only the top of the cage was visible from my position a few inches off the floor. Tony walked forward in a stumble. Beatrice moved out of his way as he walked through the door. Right before the beautiful floor, he stopped, presumably because he was unwilling to mar the perfect floor. At least, that’s what I liked to think. With a quick wisp of air, I made sure his boots were clean enough.

"Well, I'll be damned. That's… That’s Nazareth'gak." Tony muttered under his breath.

—-

It had taken Tony several hours to be even remotely okay. Bee was frustrated with the delay as they really didn't have much time to waste. They needed to wake the Lieutenant soon if they wanted to fight it at its weakest. However, she understood. It had taken her several days to get over this, and it wasn't fair to rush him along.

Still, they needed to get moving. Sitting in the library, Void absently cleared the room as Tony had his worldview adjusted. Bee, though, was waiting to explain the rest of the situation. "There is nothing we can do to prevent his awakening. If I started drawing now, I wouldn't finish the containment in time, even if I managed to do it perfectly. The only thing we can do is choose when to fight him."

Tony nodded, only half listening. Still, she continued. "If I wake him in the next three days, that will be when he is at its weakest. Waiting any longer, he will gain strength exponentially. I also will need a day to prepare the awakening reagents."

Nodding again, Tony's eyes focused on her. "Why can't we get help from the kingdom?"

"There's no time. It would take too long to get there and back, assuming any of the mages are still nearby, and that they believe me about the risk, and they’re not too terrified of Void to return, and that we can bring anyone back who’s remotely qualified to deal with this.." Bee wasn’t entirely certain about any of that, but it was the easiest explanation, and she had already had to answer this question three times in the last hour.

Tony numbly nodded again. Bee sighed. They weren't making much progress; it was time to change up the script a bit. She had a big ask of Tony, and if that didn't shock him back to reality, he probably wouldn't be able to help her much. "So I reached level 25 not that long ago. My new class came with a perk, one that I think might help us in our current situation. You might not like it but hear me out."

Seeing that Tony seemed to actually be listening to her for the first time, she decided to go on. Though she wasn’t sure if the lack of reaction to her inconceivable level was a good sign. "I chose Priest of Spot -"

"Wait, who is Spot?" Tony blurted out. Bee sighed; at least he was listening, she thought. "It means Void - my master is powerful enough to trick the system and change its own name.”

Tony looked at her in disbelief. "That’s not possible. How do you know Spot isn’t his name?"

She still hadn't revealed that she had received Scan at level one. If she didn't have to, she wouldn't. It was one thing to trust him with her levels, but Scan was something else. So she had to come up with a lie. "When I chose to be its Devotee, it… it told me its name."

Void beeped loudly and indignantly from the corner of the room. It clearly wasn't happy about the lie, and she cringed, waiting to be smitten for her transgression. Thankfully, nothing happened. "Are you sure he’s just not named Spot? I don't think I’ve ever heard him communicate with actual words."

Bee scowled. "Well, Void can read. So I'm sure it can write too. If it wants to." Bee put extra emphasis on its name. "Besides, you still haven't seen what it’s capable of. There is no way that a being this powerful has a name like Spot. Besides, that’s not even my main point."

Tony looked unconvinced but let the matter drop. With that issue past, Bee continued explaining what she wanted to do. "So I have the ability to offer a class change to anyone under level 10."

Bee waited for Tony to say something, but he bit his tongue, so she continued. "There are a lot of advantages to this class. That's the only reason I would recommend it. The first would be the leveling speed. By following Void, I got to level 25 in just a few months."

She stopped to let that sink in. "Devotee classes award bonus experience for serving the ideals of their god. Apparently, Void is a godling that hates stairs and values cleanliness. If we leverage that, then we might be able to get you levels in the little time we have to prepare."

Void let out a beep of agreement from under the librarian's desk, where it was cleaning the delicate scrollwork with a rag in its extendable arm. Bee explained how the class worked, the pros and cons, how it Tony would still get farming related skills. “It's a bit more restrictive. But the skills I have got so far are either rare or effective, if unconventional. Ordinarily, if you didn't already have a class, I would recommend becoming a Devotee the normal way. But in this case… I'm sorry, but I don't think that you being a low leveled farmer will really help stop the apocalypse."

Bee really did feel bad putting this all on Tony. When they first met, he had been so excited about being a farmer. She wouldn't claim to understand it, but to each his own.

"I'm going to need a minute to process this," Tony said in a wooden voice. Bee leaned back. As he spent more and more time thinking, she got up and picked up a book that detailed common adventurer fighting tactics against strong demons. She had already started preparing as much demon's bane as she could get ready. It had wiped out a large portion of the castle's stores, but she didn't think it would be anywhere near enough.

This book had some other really good ideas for traps if they knew where the demons would be. The schematics for a full ballista with a poison arrow tip was interesting too. Her thoughts began to drift, formulating how to get a bunch of them to fire at once when Tony spoke up. "Okay, what do I need to do?"

Bee looked up. There was a look of steely resolve in Tony’s eyes. She expected to see something else - regret, maybe, or anger that she had dragged him into this. But determination was all she found.

"You are good to go through with it?" Bee wanted to confirm. At his sharp nod, she activated her skill. It sent him a prompt asking if he would take the class Devotee of Spot.

Tony took a deep breath, then accepted. When he did, Bee gained a level.