《All the Dust that Falls: A Roomba Isekai Adventure》 Chapter 1: Consequences of a Power Vacuum Chapter 1: Consequences of a Power Vacuum I bumped into the chair leg again. My archnemesis. I didnt let it ruffle myposure. I paused for a second, backed up, rotated precisely 15 degrees, and tried again. I repeat until I have navigated around the obstacle. Despite the inconvenience, I wasnt too disturbed; my humans sometimes would challenge me by changing up the scenery and providing new impediments to my progress. It gave me something to look forward to. Plus, I didnt have any problems keeping up with the work, despite their best efforts, so it was all in good fun. Sedately, I continued under the table. I hummed across the floor, making steady progress. As a professional, I held myself to the highest of standards when it came to the cleanliness of my home. A sparkling clean floor was truly essential to the running of a functional household. I happily trundled around the dining room, cleaning up after dinner. I noted a 15% increase in crumbs from this meal, but it didnt interfere with my duties. After a job well done, I returned to my warm bed to sleep. *** I woke with a start. Instead of the usually loving touch on my head to let me know my services were needed, I woke with a sh and a bang. My sensors went nk, but I was awake. Recing theser distance measures I used to map my surroundings, an image of the surroundings was transmitted directly to my sensors. Normally, I need to process the data first. What an odd thing. I beeped in distress. There was nothing to see. Suddenly a wall appeared in front of me, blocking my path. I tried to m on the brakes and turn to avoid collision as I always do, but nothing happened. I braced for impact. Huh, my wall sensor hadn''t been activated. Taking a closer look, I realized the wall was not moving. It had strange patterns on it. I stared at it. It didnt move. I didnt move. I couldnt move. Just when I was about to power down again and hoped that my human would wake me up soon, a voice spoke. ILLITERACY DETECTED. SWITCHING TO AUDITORY MODE. That was very loud, I thought. I wonder what it means. What is illiteracy? The voice continued. INITIATING TRANSFER TO NEW WORLD. SCAN COMPLETE. CREATURE SUMMONED: AUTONOMOUS VACUUM. CONSCIOUSNESS: ADDED. SELF-AWARENESS: ADDED. VISION: ADDED. MOVEMENT: WHEELED. ENERGY SUPPLY: ELECTRICAL. INCOMPATIBLE ENERGY SUPPLY TYPE DETECTED. FINDING CONVERTIBLE ENERGY SUPPLY TYPE. CONVERTING ENERGY SUPPLY TO COMPATIBLE TYPE. ENERGY SUPPLY: CONSUMED MATTER. What was this thing going on about? It probably wasnt important. I started to power down again. Hopefully, my humans would wake me when I was needed. STATUS: SPEED:0.5 STRENGTH:0.5 MAGIC:0 MAGIC RESIS. The loud voice continued to speak, but I was already shutting down. There was nothing for me to do here. *** I woke up with a start. My wheels gave a half turn in surprise before I took in my surroundings. The sh of light that roused me receded, revealing my surroundings. I rested on a floor of smooth, ck marble, far removed from the light hardwood I was used to. The stone was set into a decorative grid like pattern. The joins between each tile were tight and grouted properly. I can appreciate a good grout. This would be easy to clean. Decorative stone pirs at the edge of my sight soared upwards. These pirs surrounded me on all sides. It appeared I was in the center of arge vaulted room. Not that far away, there were 10 humans. They were not my humans, so I ignored them and continued scanning. My humans often rearranged my domain, introducing new obstacles to keep my duties from bing too dull. I didnt think this was the case though. This was too much, even for them. Clearly, this was not the home I was ustomed to caring for. It didnt take more than a few seconds for my scan toplete. I was shocked by the results. What a mess! The floor around me was covered in piles and lines of chalk, salt, and other powder-like substances. Honestly, it was as bad as when the human child had arts and crafts day. An idea started to form. My humans, in their infinite respect for cleanliness, took pity on these poor people and lent my services to them. As they were clearly incapable of caring for themselves, I would continue my purpose and help. Full of purpose and brimming with pride at my assignment, I beeped in excitement and began to move toward the nearest part of the mess. With vigor, I began to clean. In front of me was a line of salt. I advanced, the section of line in the way was cleared. A little symbol floated in the corner of my field of view. It quickly faded without causing any more of a mess, so I ignored it and kept going. ---- Harold and his summoners stared at the ritual circle. As the smoke cleared, they got their first glimpse of the being they had summoned. It resembled a circr disk of deep ck material, a little over a foot in diameter and barely thicker than his index finger was long. It sat motionless, appearing to hover off the ground slightly. Did Did it work? One of the apprentices nervously clutched his Demon''s bane powder, ready to hurl it at a moments notice. With one trembling finger, an archivist pushed up his sses and took a small step forward, peering inside the circle. I Forgive me, Master Harold, but I-I dont recognize this variety of Demon. Ive never seen anything l-like it. Harold frowned. The being didnt look like any of the entries he had seen in the archives either. That was for sure. Aside from a short series of runic characters along its face and a slightly thicker section along one edge of the disk, it did not appear to have any other identifying markings. As Harold took a while to consider his response, the assembled mages started to shuffle nervously. It appears we did not get the Demon we were trying to summon. With Harolds pronouncements, the nervous mutters rose from the assembled group. Harold kept hisposure. He sighed. It couldnt be helped. They had known that summoning an archdemon was a long shot with their levels, and they had hoped to at least Summon a fiend or a Greater Demon. Still, an inert failure was better than summoning something they could not control, thus dooming them all to a slow and painful death at the hands of a cataclysmic force. At least they could try again once the room was reset. Seeing a moment to teach, he wanted to make use of the failure. If they didnt seed tomorrow, they would be in some hot water. Harold looked pointed at the apprentices. What are the possible consequence of a failed Summon? T-the first possibility is that our summoning failed, and this is simply a leftover artifact of the spells energy. That would ount for its appearance and the fact that it doesnt seem to be alive. The apprentice answered nervously. And the second? Slightly more confidently, the apprentice continued. The other, and much less likely possibility, is that weve summoned an unssified Demon. Harold pointed at a different apprentice. Which do you think we have here? "Well, because no new Demon varieties have been observed in centuries, even with enthusiasts whose ritual circle designs center around summoning novelty. It is unlikely. Alright. Well continue to observe, but its looking like this try was a dud. Harold waved towards the group. Do as you will. The summoners began whispering to each other in hushed tones. They had gathered into little groups to discuss what could have gone wrong. With every passing second, the tension filling the room seemed to dissipate slightly. The summoners traded their powder sachets for books, recording notes about the summoning forter review. The archivists began pointing out specific sections of the circle to the summoners, following Harolds lead in trying to turn the failure into a lesson for tomorrow''s attempt. The apprentice nodded and began quickly walking towards the door. Before he had gotten two steps, a sudden sound made his head whip back to the circle. The one apprentice who had not taken his eyes off the thing yelled in rm. The entire group froze in ce, fear spiking. Everyone''s heads whipped around to see what was going on. The thing they had summoned emitted some sort of high-pitched shriek, a keening, sorrowful note. Then it began to slowly, purposefully move forward. Panic didnt take hold immediately. They were no military, but they had drilled for things like this. Everyone scrambled into a defensive formation, Demonsbane at the ready and poised to fight if need be. It approached the barrier, ostensibly to test the boundarys strength and see how difficult it would be to break. The summoners instinctively took a few steps back and tensed. Sweat beaded on Harolds brow. They had summoned a unique Demon. For it to be unknown meant it had toe from the deep. Then it was powerful. They had no idea what they were working with. However, they had prepared for an archdemon and then some. Whatever it was, it wouldnt be able to escape the ritual circle easily. The Demon passed right through without even slowing. The circle broke in its wake, a gap as wide as the Demon ripped open as it pushed through it with less effort than tearing a sheet of paper. That was when panic set in. Someone screamed. Horrified, the summoners began hurling Demonsbane at the Demon. The attempt to slow it down failed. The Demon didnt even notice. Demonsbane thatnded before it was erased from existence as its inexorable advance continued. Harold cried the order to retreat, hurling every kind of Demon-repellent at his disposal. It was unnecessary, as the others had already begun to flee. An archivist tripped over his robes and screeched, scrambling backward away from the relentless horror. Prongs extended from its maw, they were bushes like the teeth of a great whale, then they began to spin. All the countermeasures did nothing. The Demon broke through each defense, not even slowing. It ignored all their attacks. They might have just been throwing dirt at it for all the expensive and powerful materials they used to try and stop it. Harold hauled the fallen man to his feet and pushed him out the door, bringing up the rear of the fleeing group. Behind them, it continued its relentless push forward, towards its would-be captors, towards revenge for being called. No one stopped running when they were outside the castle. The entire staff had heard themotion. Screams echoed down the corridors as they ran. Their lives were at stake here. Demons werent known for being the merciful type, and something that stalked its prey in such a manner was likely to rank among the most pitiless. Forget binding the thing to them - all they could do was run and hope they werent caught. They ran as fast and far as they could. They ran away from the blight they had brought upon this world. They continued down the road leading to the nearest vige. The King needed to be warned. --- Everyone left so I could do my work. That was kind; having to ask people to step out of my way by bumping into their ankles always felt rude. I would much rather work in peace. Now that I had a chance to look around, I had a better understanding of the magnitude of the task before me. I had thought that the chalk and dust were bad, but these humans seemed to even make it a habit of throwing powder around willy-nilly. The room was so much worse now than when I had arrived. One of the humans must have spilled something as they were leaving, as there was a trail of yellow puddles following his footsteps out the door. I didnt expect them to stay and help clean up of course. I was proud to do it as independently as ever. However, I didnt expect them to make things so messy on the way out. Perhaps this was their idea of a weing party. I would have appreciated help with the liquid, as I wasnt equipped for that very well. But cleaning up was my job, and I would figure out a way to get it done. No matter. They had left me to do my business. With a cheer nheless. I have to admit it was nice to be appreciated, even if I didnt need it. But they really went over the top with shouts of encouragement, so I would take it. Luckily now I had peace and quiet to do my favorite thing in the world. I systematically drove myself forward, turning the customary 15 degrees whenever I bumped into a wall. Thankfully, the room was mostly devoid of furniture, so it was a very smooth process. About halfway through the room, I was interrupted. LEVEL UP. LEVEL1 ACHIEVED. UNLOCKED SUMMONING BONUS. MUTATION REWARD BOOSTED. THE FIRST MUTATION REACHED. CHOOSE BETWEEN: DIMENSIONAL TRAVEL, FLIGHT, OR LIMITLESS DUSTPAN. What was that all about? Did a voice really need to yell at me when I was in the zone? CHOOSE. Fine. Looking around, I saw how much I still had to go. There were straight lines of clean floor from where I had traveled, but it was barely making a dent in the work still left to do. There was so much stuff, and I wasnt going to be able to take it all in one trip. Without either my receptacle or someone to clean my dustpan, I wasnt able to finish it. The choice was obvious. Chapter 2: Today Sucked Chapter 2: Today Sucked Bee was having a bad week. She might have considered it the worst week of her life. But when the screaming began, it definitely became the worst. Bee huddled in the broom closet where she was hiding. Not sure what to do, she was frozen, too scared to move, and barely even able to breathe. She hadnt initially minded when her father suddenly dered that shed be taking a position at the local mages association. Heck, shed even been excited. Seeing the mages work in their element, creating fantastical workings of stone, light, and dust. Who wouldnt have been thrilled? Her excitement had drained from the second she got here. She hadnt known that a new apprentice was a glorified maid... A maid. Not a scribe, not an assistant, not even someone who worked in the same vicinity as the mages. Not for years. Not unless you had a lot of money to pay them, but her father hadn''t made generous donations to the college. Honestly, he was so stingy that she was surprised he had even paid for her entrance. No, there was no chance of skipping ahead. She was a maid and would stay a maid. For now, she would have to live with it. She would have settled for even being an errand girl over this. Then at least, she would have been able to glean something from the notes and materials she carried. That would have been an excuse to be in the more fascinating parts of the castle. As it was, she didnt even get to clean up after the mages. She only was allowed to see their rooms and researchbs when they were empty and devoid of activity. Plus, thest time she had tried sneaking a peek into one of those rooms, it hadn''t gone well. It was in use. A tall spindly mage had nearly thrown the book he was holding at her. Supposedly she was disrupting the energy flow of some ritual circles attunement ring or something like that. She was confident the only reason the mage hadnt thrown the book was he didnt want to get up and retrieve it again. She didnt intend toin to her father or anything. No, she knew how much it would only disappoint him. There wasnt anything he could or would do to help her, Bee thought bitterly. Besides, she hadnt explored all her options for learning something from this. Maybe things would improve over time. That was what Bee had been thinking about when this all started. She had been about her usual duties, polishing door knobs, dusting, and generally finding dirty things as close to where the mages worked as they would tolerate. This wasnt that hard - they were a messy lot, and they didnt exactly have a lot of help on that front aside from herself and a few other new members. Today was special, though. Rumors were going around about a big summon today, and she wasnt going to miss it. She let her work take her in that direction. Knowing that there was something big going on, Bee had positioned herself strategically near the main summoning chamber. Early in the morning, they had started setting up the room. This probably had been the grand hall before the mages had moved in. It took them most of the morning to prepare. Many more experienced apprentices scurried around, assisting their masters in drawing the giant circles. They were constantly fetching more bags of potent materials. Justin had walked past her carrying a load of alligator salt. That salt was something Bee actually knew about, as she had heard the other apprenticesin about harvesting it. Apparently, they had to collect the tears of alligators and evaporate the liquid to get the salt. Either collecting the salt or caring for the alligators the college kept was a favorite punishment of one of the more sadistic full members. Sweat dripped down Justins forehead as the apprentice passed her by. Not because the load was particrly heavy but because of the value of the contents. He walked with the awkward gait of a man trying his best not to spill an overfilled cup of wine. After they all had gathered in the room, she started cleaning one of the stairways that led down right next to the entrance of the main summoning room. It was a narrow servant stairwell hidden in an alcove. The stairs were in a tight spiral, so there was little chance of anyone seeing her if they had to leave for any reason. She swept the stairs, starting from the bottom up, listening carefully the whole time. Eventually, she heard them start chanting. This went on for some time, and she lost herself in the rhythmic words of anguage she didnt understand. Suddenly the voices stopped. She heard a soft bang, then excited murmurs. It sounded like the summoning was sessful. Bee quickly scurried back up the stairs, a little way up, further out of sight. They could leave at any moment, and she hoped if she timed it right, she could walk past the door as it opened and get a glimpse of what they had summoned. She heard amotion. The sound was muffled through the thick stone walls, but they sounded excited. She braced to run down the stairs so she could move in front of the doors when they opened. She heard the doors bang open and started running down the stairs. Bee didnt make it one step. Her left foot was descending to the next step at the beginning of a run. That was when her brain recognized the sound; it was screaming. Something had gone wrong. Her brain told her body to freeze, but gravity had other ideas. She tried to pull her foot back to the step she was on. She was not fast enough. Momentum carried her down despite her best efforts. As she heard the mages screaming and running down the hall, she tumbled down the stairs. As she finished her fall, sprawling out of the alcove at the base of the stairs in a heap, she could see the back of thest mage running down the hall. What had happened to make them retreat like that? She then heard all the others running out as well. Within a handful of seconds, the castle suddenly went as silent as a tomb. She got up to run too. Hopefully, they would fill her in when she joined them outside. Bee tried to get to her feet but gasped in sudden pain. She copsed to the floor again; her left foot was unnaturally twisted beneath her. Looking down at her ankle, it was clear that it was injured. It bent at an angle that should not be possible. She would not be running anywhere today. As the pain faded, Bee became suddenly aware of how alone she was. She prepared to call out for help. Surely someone woulde back for her, surely? That was when she heard it. There was an unearthly noiseing from the summoning room. A humming and whirring sound, unlike anything she had ever known before. What could she say? The panic infected her as well. She wisely bit back her call for help and scrambled to the nearest safety. Looking around, the only thing near her was the cleaning closet at the base of the stairs. She dragged herself towards it, barely managing to reach the handle she crammed herself in. She knocked the mop bucket over, and dirty water spilled all over her. She froze. Not daring to make a sound. Nothing happened for a second. She propped herself up and closed the door behind her. As she hid amongst the mops, she huddled into a ball. Holding her knees to her chest, she bit her lips, preventing any sound that might warn the thing moving the next room over. Covered in dirty mop water, she rocked back and forth, tears streaming down her face trying to keep the sobs from making any noise. If she tried, she could still hear the humming. Sometimes it got a little louder, sometimes a little quieter, but it never went away. All she could do was hope that the summon would go away. Shivering, rocking in a freezing puddle, the little girl cried as she prayed for the demon not to find her. ---- I hummed to myself softly as I went about my work. It took a couple hours, but I made good progress on the mess the humans had left. This was a pretty easy room to clean, if it wasnt for the party the humans had thrown me, it wouldn''t have even been a challenge. Even with that, it wasnt too bad. Normally, I would have to empty my dustpan several times throughout this job. However, I hadn''t felt full in the slightest. The room was square, without any odd corners that would make it hard. There were pirs on the outskirts of the room, which was something new. My humans didnt have any pirs in their houses. After the initial novelty, they were not very interesting. The thing that helped the most was theck of furniture. It was like when my humans first adopted me. For training, they moved all the furniture out of the way for me. As I gained experience, they stopped doing it as much. Until one day, they deemed me capable enough to clean without assistance. It was polite of these humans to clear everything out for me, but ultimately it was unnecessary. I was fullypetent at doing my job. After I had gathered thest bits of the strange powders these humans had flung around, I stopped moving. Ah, a job well done. Now I just needed to find my bed and rest. Huh. No, it seemed that I didnt really need to. I felt fine. My energy reserves were full. Beyond full. I felt I could go for weeks before needing to recharge. I should have been at least a little tired - even for an industrious cleaner like me, this was quite arge room to clean so thoroughly without a break. Cool, more cleaning then. I wonder if that had anything to do with the voice shouting from the dark ce before here. The thing about the dustpan seemed to be worthwhile. I thought about finding another room to clean. That would be satisfying. Though it would be a good idea to at least locate my bed so I could charge as needed. I nced at the door to my right, left open by the humans from earlier. Perhaps the bed was in an area further away. Some part of me wished I could adventure forward and find out, but that was not my style. My style was one of purposeful meanderings, a dance of precise lines and grids. Angles need to be sharp and touch a wall. That was how I kept my position in the world. Sure, some might find it inefficient or a waste of time, but they simply didnt understand the beauty. They didnt see how well it allowed me to clean every square inch of this room with utter precision - just that it led me to sometimes, asionally, bump into things that someone else may have avoided. Every once in a while. So even if I could have aimed directly for the hallway - My wheels turned towards the open door. I stopped. Did I imagine it? I slowly began my forward crawl once more, imagining my wheels turning to the left this time. Sure enough, they turned left. What? This was new. I meandered left and right, forward and back, testing my range of motion. I was able to direct my movement like never before. No longer was I limited to increments of 15-degree turns at obstacles. Sure, I was still capable of such precision and straightness - I was able to enter the same zen-like state that I usually fell into while cleaning without a specific direction in mind. However, this opened new possibilities. I imagined myself effortlessly pirouetting around the legs of that troublesome dining table back home, then looked back to the door. It would be a shame not to utilize my newfound skill. Besides, I was finished with this room. Im sure the new humans left more for me to clean up elsewhere. Maybe I would run into a bed as well. Turning my wheels once more, I advanced towards the door. A careful observer might have even noticed a slight wiggle in my pathing. ---- Several hours had passed since Bee had crawled into the closet. During that time, she listened to the humming noises and asional thuds. She had calmed down a little as time passed. The tears had stopped not that long ago. Now she was just cold and scared. As she regained control of her mind, she started to think. She wouldnt get very far if she ran, if running was even an option. It was not. Looking at her ankle, she was pretty sure it was broken. It was at least badly sprained. She had touched it carefully, but during her wait, it had swollen too much, and she wasn''t able to tell if it was actually broken or not. It was able to move, but that didnt let her know much. Either way, she wouldnt be walking anywhere fast. Maybe a mop handle could serve as a crutch, but that would not be fast or quiet. She couldnt chance it yet. She was about to try to stand with the help of a broom, but the noises stopped, and she froze. Bee held her breath. Had it heard her move the broom? Right when the need to breathe began to make itself known, the humming started again. First, it was fitful, then more purposeful. Soon it was as loud as it had ever been. Then it kept getting louder. And louder. It sounded like it was right in front of the door. She closed her eyes and tried to stop the tears from running again. It had found her. It was toote, and there was nothing she could do. Eyes still screwed shut, she heard a slight ssh from the puddle of mop water that had leaked under the door. Her lungs screamed for relief, but the fear was more powerful. It had found her. It was right outside. The door shuddered. Chapter 3: Deep Cleaning of the Soul Chapter 3: Deep Cleaning of the Soul I made my way out of therge room. I avoided the puddles of yellow liquid left behind by the humans. Edging around the partially open door, I found myself at a junction. It was clear where the humans had gone. Stretched out in front of me, I saw the evidence of the humans flight in the form of a powdery trail. They had gone down the long wide hallway. This floor was made of granite rather than marble. A solid choice, it is perhaps a less shiny material, but it was less prone to damage and required less maintenance. The construction quality was simr to the previous room, even though there was less ir. I appreciated that quality work was to be respected. The grout was just as smooth and even here. It had receded a little more through what was likely more frequent use than in therge room. However, the wear had not progressed to the state where it needed to be reced. This would not pose a challenge to clean. The pattern in the stones was also mundane. Rather than the fancy patterns, this hall had a more utilitarian grid pattern. While more simple, I didnt find it any less beautiful. The natural patterns of the granite really shone through. One could see the effort put into cing the stones so they fit just right. Each was separated by the same distance. The tolerances were less than a millimeter. My onlyint about this setup was pretty minor after all. Down the center of therge hallway in front ran a red carpet. This was starting to get a little threadbare, I tisked. That would slow me down almost 15%! While I did appreciate the touch of color to spice up the look, I cant say I would have made the same choice. To my left and right, I could see two other, more narrow halls extended aways down in each direction. Each showed only a rtively thinyer of fresh dust. It seemed that this part of the hallway had been cleaned within thest week, at least. Perhaps I was not the only help brought on to aid these poor fellows. At least there was no carpet along those wings. Along all the halls, multiple closed doors lined the walls. This meant my options to explore were somewhat limited. However, there did appear to be a bend further on either of the side halls, which could lead to other essible areas. I noted thisyout forter. I had been following operating procedures and keeping a model of my domain. I have always done this. It wasnt just to prepare for an inspection. (Those had never happened, but you cant be too careful) While that might have been the initial motivation, I found it helped ensure peak efficiency. Additionally, there was the benefit of not getting lost when my human put me down next to the mess. I could simply clean what was in front of me. However, while sometimes I get assistance getting to the issue, I didnt always get help finding my way back. It only took a couple of times having to call for help for me to want to avoid that embarrassment again. I was perfectly capable of finding my way home, and professionalism was a value I held near and dear. Unless there were stairs. My brush shuddered at the thought. While I recorded my surroundings and built a map, I wanted to continue to expand the boundaries and explore. The mystery of whaty around the corners made my cliff sensors itch. With a small exercise of discipline, I pushed the urge down. Duty called. I turned towards the mess left behind in therge hall and began my methodical sweeps. I would say that I put further thought into my new surroundings, but honestly, I just got lost in the pleasure of cleaning for a while. While I had the option to deviate from my precise straight lines, I didnt need to for this job. There were no odd corners or anything to navigate around. It was quite stark, actually. A potted nt might even have made this more stimting. While many of my kind detested indoor nts as they tended to drop leaves or spill soil, I didnt mind them. As long as the humans cared for them properly, it wasnt too much of a burden, and they spiced up the work. Besides, the pollen in my dust filter tasted divine. The steady rhythm of the whisk, whisk, bump, turn was music to my soul. Lost in bliss, I forgot one critical detail. Luckily, I caught myself before it was toote. I halted suddenly before a foreign substance on the ground - a ssh of yellow liquid. Liquid is perhaps the only thing as bad as stairs. I was technically capable of consuming it, yes. But that wasnt the whole story. On the surface, it shouldnt be that bad. After all, there were plenty ofrge pieces of debris that I could do nothing but gently push around. One issue was that I could only get a little liquid at a time. Very little. If that was the only problem, then just some patience would have been enough. I would have been d if that was the only thing wrong with liquid. No, liquid was a terror because it coated my wheels and tracked my path around the house, forcing me to create the very mess I sought to eliminate. It brought back some childhood trauma. When I was fresh from the factory, bright-sensored, and bushy-brushed, new to the ways of the harsh world of grime, I made a mistake. I overestimated my abilities and attempted to clean a spill of red wine. I shuddered with shame at the memory. I could still vividly recall the horror of my humans at the red wine stains that I had tracked onto the carpet. A horrifying tragedy that I had been powerless to avert. No more. Exercising my newfound freedom, I broke from my path. With a sharp twist of my wheels, I glided around the liquid, effortlessly avoiding its clutches. I was stronger now, wiser. Yet, whether I was strong enough to vanquish my foe without making a mess was still to be seen. I marked down its location to revisit. I would try vacuuming without moving. Maybe it would work. I wasnt looking forward to the number it would do on my innards without my humans to clear me up if it didnt work. Duty was a heavy thing. After a solid amount of work, my cliff sensor alerted me to impending peril. Coming out of my meditative cleaning state, I look around. I had reached the end of the hall. Looking ahead, I was at the end of the road. Carefully I backed up. With delicate movements, I finished touching up my work. I edged around the top of the stairs, careful not to let my wheel off the edge, but I stayed close enough to ensure my brush covered the whole floor. There was not much in the way of margins. It was dangerous work, however necessary. Quickly retreating from the edge, I did a 360-degree turn to survey my work. All traces of the party the humans had as they paraded out werepletely gone. Besides the puddles. And surely the stairs were a mess and maybe past them too. Focus on what you can do, not what you can not. The parts I could reach were clean. I allowed myself one more twirl of victory before stopping to rest for a second. Now that I stopped after finishing my assignment, I took stock of myself. Still, I did not feel full. That was a blessing as I had yet to see a human checkup on me. I was not sure what to think about this. On one hand, I was happy that the humans trusted me with such independence. On the other hand, I wouldnt be able to do one of my favorite parts of the job. Usually, I could only run for about half this time before I needed to offer the fruits of mybors to my humans. But if I no longer needed to be emptied, would they stille and lovingly pat my dust receptacle? Well, what would be, would be. If this dustpan thing worked the way I was starting to expect, it was quite the boon to my efficiency. However, that was not my only limitation. My humans cared for my many needs, but without my bed, I would not be able to receive their kindness. The restful energy they so graciously provided would be lost. After all this hard work, I was starting to feel a little tired. Not nearly as much as I should, though. I needed energy, or I would not be able to do my job. Now that the primary duty was taken care of, the little dust I spotted could wait. I needed to find a bed soon, or else I wouldnt be able to finish. I needed WOULD YOU LIKE TO EXTRACT MANA FROM COLLECTED MATERIALS? (Y/N) More yelling. I dont know what mana is. Though, I do remember something about a mana battery. With a stretch in logic, one could consider the filth I had umted as the collected materials. That would be a generous description for them. I was supposed to give them to the humans, but if they werent going to take them, I certainly didn''t want them. Tentatively, I gave permission to take from my dustpan. Suddenly, I felt a void open in myself. Arge quantity of the dirt vanished. When that happened, a couple of other things took ce immediately after. First, a muchrger string of characters floated up in the corner of my vision. By now, I had gotten good at tuning out the ones that appeared while I was cleaning. This was much longer. I had no idea what it meant, but it covered arge part of my vision. It promptly passed. Second, and the slightly more pertinent thing. That same voice that had bored me to sleep before returned, spouting more words that I didnt understand. This time though, I tried to pay attention. If this had anything to do with my newly emptied dustbin, it might be worth listening to. LEVEL UP x4, LVL 5 REACHED. SECOND MUTATION REACHED. CHOOSE A MUTATION: MOP, INCREASED ARMOR, EXTENDED SENSOR RANGE. Now, these were some better choices. Last time there was only one good option. This time, two options might have been useful. Maybe lower-level mutations were weaker? Maybe not, as the dustpan improvement was quite nice. I settled in for a think. Sensor range would be convenient. Ultimately it might improve my pathing. But, for the other, I think I had heard of CHOOSE. Was that a hint of impatience I heard in its voice? I beeped at it softly. Come on, give me a chance to think. A mop. I think I had heard my humans speak of it before. Something about a bucket and a mop. What are buckets for? Ah, holding liquid! Wait. Could it be? If there was a chance, I had to take it! CHOOOOSE. MOP. I shouted in my head. The surge of energy rushed towards my front, and I felt my inner workings shift as if to make room for something. I could feel a new function. Though I could not tell its purpose. I activated it. A new hatch opened on my right side, and something slid out a few inches. It just made it into my field of view. I could see that at the end of a ck pole, something scraggly sat. It looked almost like a ball made up of several loose strips of cloth. Part of it rested on the ground. I tried to move it, but nothing happened. I tried a few more things, and it retracted in me. I could feel it there next to my dustpan. Turns out there was a second function. I could wring the mop. It was soft. Squishy. Flexible. After the wringing function finished, nothing happened. I waited for a second, not daring to believe it. I headed over to the first yellow puddle. It was right outside therge room. I extended my new appendage, barely containing my excitement. Holding my breath, I crept forward until the end of the mop was dangling in the puddle, careful not to let the liquid touch my wheels. I felt a small amount of liquid get soaked into the mop end. I brought it into myself and wrung. The liquid left the mop and went into my dustpan. Not quite ready to believe it, I repeated the process. As the puddles shrunk before me, I couldn''t contain myself. I subtly started rotating, dragging the mop through the liquid. The strips of cloth at the end of my appendage waggled back and forth.To my surprise, this increased the amount of liquid I could collect in one go. I kept at it. Eventually, the liquid was all gone! As fast as I could, I moved from one puddle to another, cleaning each one until I reached the stairs. I was lucky this particr human ran on the outside of the group rather than on the carpet. That would have been beyond me. I looked back, satisfied. The impossible had been done. All the liquid was GONE. I was so excited I raced back as fast as I could. I needed to find and vanquish more puddles. I would have my revenge. When I reached the intersection, I turned left as I was still moving as fast as I could. Whoa, I felt a little unsteady there. Almost like running over the base of the stools my humans had in the kitchen. It was right next to the door to therge room. There was the base of the stairway. Looking up stairs was much better than looking down at them. Across from the stairway was a door. The door was perfectly un-exceptional. What really caught my eye was the puddleing out from under the door. I made directly for it. My foe would fall. In my excitement, I overshot my mark slightly and hit the door harder than I would have liked. I pivoted to face the puddle with glee and extended my mop. Chapter 4: Dust Bunnies Chapter 4: Dust Bunnies Quivering, Bee watched the door. It didnt move again, but sounds continued toe through. There was a light sshing. It was standing in the puddle right outside. Bee flinched back, and it put more pressure on her bad leg. The terror was the only thing that allowed her to bite back the scream bubbling at her lips. Frozen, she stared at the door for what felt like eons. Rhythmic sshes continued. Never ceasing. It must have known Bee was here and was taunting her. As she watched, the pool of dirty water slowly dried up. Over maybe 20 minutes, the puddle was barely visable anymore. What was the demon doing? Could it taste her fear through the water? Was it giving off a demonic me that evaporated the water without any heat? Bee couldnt figure it out. Being unable to do anything productive, she had no choice but to close her eyes and pray to any god that might be listening. This continued as she sat there, eyes screwed shut, for she didnt know how long. The sounds never stopped. The only way she could feel the passage of time was the pain fading from her ankle. The throbbing seemed to sync with the rhythmic swishes from outside. Thest drops of the puddle vanished, then the swishes became quieter. As the sound lessened, the pain throbbing in her ankle did as well. What must have been hourster, the puddle waspletely gone. As thest drops vanished, the whirring noise became louder for a second then, it began to fade away. Bee wanted to cry out in relief. Her prayers had been heard. Then her ankle twinged again. Maybe not. She wasnt able to escape, and it knew it. It must be able to sense her fear and pain. Probably it was only letting those grow and build up in the air to feed from. Demons feeding on fear wasmon knowledge, right? She was pretty sure they did that. Either way, she couldnt do anything but hope the mages came back. Hope they brought back powerful help. Hope they could free her before the demon decided it had enough fun and finished her off. ---- By the time I had vanquished the puddle, I had calmed down. While exciting, I could not lord my superiority over a defeated foe for too long. No, there was work to be done. I took one more try with my mop dragging through where the puddle had been. When it came back dry, I knew it was time to move on. At longst, I had surpassed my old foe. Nay, not just my foe, but the foe of all cleanliness-loving peoples of the earth. No longer would they have to stay up and worry about permanent stains. Or spills of liquid ambushing them and cutting their legs out when walking on a smooth floor. This hazard to the safety, health, and well-being of the body and the mind would be brought to justice wherever I am. As much as I loved gloating, there were still so many things to do, and I could not becent in my victory. With satisfaction, I backed up, leaving no remnants of my fallen enemy behind as I trundled away. I had to make my map and n out my schedule. There might be things that needed my immediate attention or dangers I needed to know to avoid. Only after I had triaged the space could I devote my time to the maintenance chores that needed to be done. The hall I was in hadnt been cleaned in two days. For now, that was fine, but if I worked at it, I think I could do better. Depending on how big this whole ce is, of course. *** When considering how to explore it, I went to the intersection and looked around. To have points of reference, I needed to orient myself. I would call the direction of the stairs North, and the Large room behind me would be South. The branching halls on the sides would be East and West, respectively. Due to my fondness for soggy waffle bits, I decided to buck convention and head down the west corridor first. As I went, I absently sucked up any debris and dust I came across. I didnt really go out of my way as all of the doors along the hallway were closed. For now, I would have to not worry about what was behind there. Maybe a human would make them avable for cleaning when it was required. Nearing the end of the hall, I turned left as it turned out it was an elbow junction. As I turned, I saw what was down the corridor. Honestly, it was a bit underwhelming. I wasn''t sure what I was expecting, but In retrospect, another hallway would have been a perfectly reasonable guess. Starting down the hall, things began to catch my attention. Every couple doors had branching hallways on the right, leading off to the rest of the floor. I decided that I would explore them before going to the east hall. However, I wanted to see this through first. I passed half a dozen of these halls, and the curiosity was eating me alive, but I kept going. After passing thest hallway entrance, the doors started to be more frequent. Eventually, I reached a door that had been left open. I edged my body inside. Looking around, it was horrendous. I was so d someone had brought in the professionals. This ce was a mess. Where to begin? There was a firece on one side of the room. An actual wood firece. It seemed that the fire had been left unattended for hours. The ash had slipped all over the hearth. That was very irresponsible; if the fire had spread, soot could have gotten all over the floor. Now that I thought of it, the whole situation was slightly odd. I get why the humans would leave me to clean therge room. Maybe they were having a party outside, but soon I would find some humans around. This was a fairlyrge ce, after all. Mentally I shrugged. I am sure I would run into a human eventually. Someone had to have been left behind. I cant clean every surface. Maybe when I find them, I can get them to open some doors for me. Or carry me up and down some stairs. My humans kept a clean house. It was a team effort. I would clean the floors, and they would get the trim and all the other ces I couldnt reach. They brought me on to help them out. Lighten their load a little. It was a good arrangement, one I could respect. We cared for each other. Helped each other out. With that mental tangent, I was able to settle myself. I could understand some small measure of the mindset that led to such disregard for ones surroundings. Why clean things when theyll only get dirty again anyway? It was something that the small human from my previous home often griped about when I was brought to assist him in reiming his domain from the decay. However, I had always found such effort worthwhile. Not just in its results but in the satisfaction those efforts brought. Maybe whoever used this room never felt the pleasure of living in a clean home, with freshly swept floors and air tinged with the scent of fresh linens. Maybe they hadnte to understand the peace of bringing order to their small slice of the world. Or maybe they had just be blind to the state of their surroundings. Perhaps they just needed an example. Rather than being appalled at the unkempt state of the room, maybe I should take this as a teaching opportunity. Dirt is a cycle, and the best we can do is stave off the falling of the dust. Shifting my mindset, I beeped to myself softly and began to clean. The fire was only the first bit of this disaster. The room was quite stark. Other than the firece, there were only a few other things in the room in its entirety. A chair, wardrobe, and bed. A nket from the bed was on the floor. I started by the firece. Cleaning it took fewer passes than I expected. I then vacuumed around the legs of the chair. It was arge chair with a sturdy base. The legs hadrge rounded feet on the end; it was better than some chairs. I didnt have an issue finding my way between its feet; there was no fringe, so it was easy to get under. With my newfound control over my pathing, I was able to finish in a fraction of the time it would have previously taken. I know I had long belonged to the school of precise lines and straightforward approaches, but perhaps I needed to experiment with squiggles and a little more freeform cleaning. It was quite a joy to expand the tools I could use. The wardrobe, on closer inspection, was actually built into the wall. This made the work slightly more pleasant, as it was simple to navigate. This only left the bed. I cleaned all the floors, but finally, I needed to push the nket out of the way to ess underneath. As I moved the nket, I was met with my natural prey: a colony of dust bunnies. With a squeal of excitement, I began to hunt. Maybe I was wrong. This might be better. At home, we never reached the point of an infestation like this. I was left to hunt individual ones. That was never as fun. After clearing away the majority of the bunnies. I found thest surprise in this room. There was a bundle of food. This was something I often found squirreled away in the little humans'' rooms. This was not nearly as well preserved because I saw a bug eating away at a block of cheese. Starting forward with all my speed, I was able to crush the bug with a wheel. A now familiar image floated in the cover of my vision. Wow, that actually worked! Normally, they were able to get away, and the best I could do was scare them away for a bit. I learned something new today. Apparently, squashing a bug leaves a gooey mess. It was a mess I was familiar with but never was able to figure out what caused it. Well, now I know. Goo was a hard thing to clean. It required many careful passes. It wasn''t as impossible as a liquid, but it was still vulnerable to being tracked across a clean floor. Like liquid. That gave me an idea. Maybe I could clean this like a liquid. Hesitantly I extended my mop. I dragged it through the guts of the bug I had crushed. Not much happened. The mop didn''t gather very much of it at all. The goop was too viscous to be absorbed. I wasn''t quite done trying things. R&D was worth a little time; if I could improve my efficiency even a little bit now, it would pay dividends long term. Perhaps this is a risky maneuver, and I am just being overconfident. However, given recent developments in cleaning technology, I believe the problem could be contained before it spreads too far. Still, it didnt hurt to be cautious. I retracted my mop, and when it was inside, I dipped it into the remains of the puddle I had triumphed over not too long ago. I imagined the liquid infusing back into the mop. When I extended the mop again, it was wet. Carefully I repeated my early actions and rubbed the end of the mop across the bugs remains. As it spread the liquid on the floor, I kept myself calm by the mantra. You can just gather it back up again. Looking at the results of my handiwork, I shuddered. Had I gone too far and lost my purpose? No, it was for the greater good. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that my goals may have been achieved. The mess was diluted. I emptied the mop inside and extended it again. Hesitantly probing at the chaos I was in part responsible for. To my absolute delight, It worked. The mop gathered up arge part of the mess, which I was able to ce in my bin. A rousing sess. I pushed around the nket for a little bit, wanting everything in the room as clean as I could make it. While doing that, I pondered the meaning of these rapid changes in my capabilities. In the short time that I have been here, I have already been able to achieve feats that I would never have thought myself capable of. Maybe my humans didnt send me here to help these people. Maybe I was sent here for training and upgrades. Soon even the nket on the floor might not be an impediment to my mission. A fresh glint reflected in my front sensor as I zoomed back into the hallway to continue exploring. --- Bee had been huddled in this closet for many hours at this point. Her hurt leg and the limited space forced her to sit in an awkward position, causing her other leg to start cramping painfully. Trying to suppress involuntary jerks, she bided her time, hoping for rescue. The puddle''s fate was a boon for her, as terrifying as it was. But after it had been drained, that had allowed the hem of her dress to dry, so it was no longer sopping wet. As she no longer felt the need to shiver constantly and the noises had not returned for several hours, the day started to catch up with her. While she tried to fight it and stay alert for any sound, her will began to give way, and before she knew it, she was fast asleep. Crammed in a tiny closet, one leg in pain, the other curled under her, head using a spare broomstick leaning in a corner for a pillow, Bee slept a deep, dreamless sleep. Chapter 5: The Light that never was Chapter 5: The Light that never was There were a total of eight rooms with their doors open enough that I could enter. Four of these were rooms like the first I had found. These were in much better condition than the first. Clearly, not all the humans in this ce needed my example. Still, as their upants were away, I cleaned them as best I could. Rooms that were not the cramped quarters used for sleeping were more challenging and captivating. One of these was a long room with white lighting and tiled floors. It had rows of work benches and lots of clear ss containers. Cleaning that one was interesting because of the sheer amount of ss partictes I picked up. It seemed that many ss objects were smashed over a long time. These pieces of ss were picked up and maybe swept up with a broom. However, there were still minuscule bits left behind, and over time the tread of many feet ground them down ever further. Another particrly challenging room was filled with cages. These cages had things in them that were smelly, and they seemed to exude filth. The very air of the room felt thick with noxious fumes that clogged my dust filter. It took me a long time to finish cleaning that one. One thing that added to the time was that there were trails of salt and other powders everywhere. It was all in perfect circles or fancy designs around the cages. It was quite nice art. It reminded me of the chalk my small humans used sometimes. I cleared it away so they could have a nk canvas when they came back. There was one more room simr to that one, differing only in that it contained tanks of water rather than cages. I cleaned that one as efficiently as possible. Though liquid no longer held the same horror for me, I still recognized that I would be powerless before such vast quantities of the stuff. Plus, the debris was less pleasant to clean due to its dampness. Thest room I found was unique. It was sparsely furnished, containing only a few bookcases near the perimeter and a desk in the center. Onerge, plush chair sat behind the desk, while two smaller chairs stood guard in front. None of these held a candle to the true star of the room, though. In front of the desk, below the pair of chairs,y a luxurious rug. This thing was a work of art. Soft and long, made of fine wool and intricately patterned with deep reds and ambers, it was a delicate thing. The color paired perfectly with the dark wood of the rest of the room. Rugs like this could really tie a room together. I spent extra time cleaning it, making sure to be slow and thorough. A piece like this had to be treated with care so that it didnt deteriorate. The more I continued to explore this new ce, the more evidence I found to support my being here for training. Theck of humans to assist me had already caused me to improvise and adapt more than I ever had before. It made me imagine previously fantastical possibilities of my own capabilities and continue to push myself like I never had before. After my initial exploration finished, I had a good enough map logged in my system to start building a routine. I would manage to cover the whole floor n each day as long as there were no areas that needed special attention. As I practiced, I became much more efficient. The first run-through was 20% quicker than my model thought it should be. Maybe my new pathing stylebining straight lines and graceful curves was vastly superior. Or maybe my excitement caused me to move faster than I should have. It did seem that my cleaning radius had improved slightly, which made each pass more efficient. The second run-through was only 2% more efficient. Still, all this practice would stack up after a while. I couldnt wait to see how much better I would do tomorrow. ---- Bee frowned at her stomach as it growled loudly for at least the third time since she had woken up. The fear had kept her hunger at bay for the first couple of days, or at least what she estimated to be. From the darkness of the closet, she was having difficulty keeping track of time. However, now that her situation had some time to sink in, her body was making its needs known. Though the hunger was unbearable, the thirst soon was even worse. She hadn''t had anything to drink in too long. Her tongue felt swollen and rough in her mouth, and her lips were beginning to crack too. Before the demon had stalked outside the door, she had at least had something as an option to drink. Only now did she realize the cruelty. Not only had it had fun terrifying her, but it was ying a longer game. She wouldnt have even considered drinking that puddle on the first day. It was dirty mop water, after all. On the second morning, she hadnt even considered what the demon had taken from her. It wasnt untilter that second day that the realization started to enter her mind. She had a splitting headache from dehydration and was trying to go to sleep, hoping to feel better when she woke up. Well into the third day, even that disgusting swill would have been honey to her parched tongue. On the brighter side, her ankle hurt less now. She wasnt sure why that was and was a bit skeptical that it wasnt the rest of her hurting worse. She hadnt been spending the past few days idly, though. The demon had apparently decided to make the castle its new domain. It established a routine of patrolling its halls regrly. The direction and volume of the noises helped her keep track of its position. Bee had been listening for long enough that she thought she knew how to tell when it was at its farthest from her hiding spot. That just left the matter of how to make the most of the opportunity. And she needed to. She still wasnt sure why the demon hadnte to kill her yet. But as time went on, she became certain about one thing: she was on her own. Since the other mages hadnte back for her, they were probably going for help. Seeing as the next town was 5 days travel by horse, that didnt bode well for her rescue. In the end, it was the thirst that drove her out. She tried to stand and found not only could her ankle not bear her weight but also she was much weaker than she should be. Sitting cramped with no food or water for three days doesnt lend itself well to fast movement. If she waited any longer, it would only get worse. Using the information at her disposal, she made a quick n. Just because the demon was sparing her, for now, didnt mean that it wouldnt change its mind if it saw her, so it was still a good idea to stay hidden. But she needed a better hiding ce. Also supplies. She waited until the demon was furthest away on its patrol route. Then she began to prepare frantically while making as little noise as possible. Taking a mop, she broke the handle and used the frayed ends to tie a crude splint for her ankle. She still couldnt put much weight on it, but it would let her hobble a little better. She grabbed the pillow she had been using for the past few days, a broomstick, and propped herself up. Moving slowly, Bee cracked the door open enough to peek out with an eye. Nothing had changed, and she couldnt see any sign of the demon. Pushing the door the rest of the way open, Bee used her makeshift crutch to move down the hall as quickly and quietly as she could. The nearest thing she could use to quench her thirst would likely be just down the hall, in the librarians office. Ethan was a bit of a drinker, and when cleaning his office, she had found a wineskin tucked away behind his coat more than once. Luckily for her, the office wasnt far. Hobbling as she was, it took her half a minute to cross the 50 feet to the librarians office door. By the time she got there, she was out of breath and gasping in pain. Her ankle was almost definitely broken. Even with the splint, she could barely put any weight on it. The broomstick made an incredibly poor cane on the smooth stone floors. It was hard to keep a hold on as her hand kept slipping down, and she didnt have the upper body strength to really use it. Still, she made it and was able to get the door open. Opening the door one-handed and one-legged was an awkward process, but she managed it. As she slipped in, her eyes zeroed in on the desk. There, she saw an oasis beckoning to her, a teacup and a te with a couple of biscuits. Ethan must have left them out from the night before the summoning. Moving as quickly as she could, she snatched the tea cup and brought it to her lips. Nothing came out. Pulling it back a little, Bee saw that it was empty. She cursed Ethan under her breath, grabbed a biscuit, and crammed it into her mouth. It was stale and dry. She didnt care. Until she tried to swallow, that is. As a consequence of mixing the dehydration with the dry biscuit crumbs, she couldn''t get it down. Bee began to cough. It started small but quickly grew. She could neither swallow nor get the crumbs out of her throat, so she started panicking. What started as a minor cough quickly became choking. Frantically, Bee scrambled around the desk, going for the wineskin hanging on the hat rack. In the process, she knocked over one of the magicmps. It rolled on the desk, but Bee didnt even notice and grabbed the skin to bring it to her lips. The feeling of the lukewarm wine flowing down her throat provided immediate relief. She gasped, her coughing subsiding, as she began washing the crumbs down her throat. Not until she was done coughing did she register the sound of ss shattering as themp rolled off the desk. With the skin slung over one shoulder and the stick in the other hand, Bee turned on her good leg. The ss ball previously mounted in the deskmp, giving off a gentle glow, was now shattered on the floor. Its contents swirled in the air. ---- I was in the middle of my rounds when I sensed something. Far in thest room on the east hall, I was cleaning a bedroom, nothing too interesting, and my mind was only 95% on the task. Because of myxness, I heard it. A disturbance, an unfamiliar sound in the thus far silent castle. It sounded like shattering ss. I stopped in the middle of cleaning the dust bunnies from underneath a bed. Perhaps the humans had returned to observe my work? Excited, I decided to greet them. I could give them a tour of their freshly renovated home. Maybe it would also guide them towards the out-of-reach spots I hadnt been able to take care of as well. Maybe they would help me navigate the stairs. I hurried down the halls toward where I detected the disturbance. It wasing near therge room, though not from there precisely. Then I heard a young girl. Then another voice joined in. The young girl''s voice was high-pitched, squealing in joy, simr to the party-going humans that had left me here initially. The other voice was much lower, almost a growl byparison. As I turned the corner, a strange sight came into view. It didnt look like a party at all ---- The swirling ashy contents of the formermp coalesced into a small form. Rather than a solid creature, it still had the appearance of a cloud of thick, dense ash. However, it glowed like a lump of dying coal with heat radiating out from its center. It wasnt any bigger than a cat, but it stood on two legs and had a humanoid shape. Ears stuck out four inches from its head, with a nose almost as long. Bee could feel its slight heat even from where she was standing. She recognized that image from descriptions her mother had used to frighten her as a child. It was an Imp. Not only an Imp but one with a fire or ash affinity, it seemed. The Imp growled at her. Blocking the way back to the hall, it made ready to attack. Ordinarily, it wouldnt have been too much of an issue, but with Bee in the state she was in, it might as well have been a rabid wolf. It pounced. Thinking quickly, yelling, Bee met it with a swing from her staff. The blow passed through the Imp with very little resistance, sending ash scattering everywhere. But as soon as the particlesnded, the nearby ones began to gather up again. When it was formed, it was just noticeably smaller. This time it shrieked in anger. When Bee readied her makeshift crutch for another swing, she noticed a problem. It was no longer a broomstick, but a torch. And quickly burning one at that. A couple more times, she batted the Imp away. Each time it became a little smaller, but so did her weapon and the avable space for her to hold on to it. She feared what would run out first. She turned to flee to the only other door in the room, which led to the library. Her leg picked an awful time to give out. Screaming in pain, she stumbled to her knees. Unable to move with any speed, and without the broomstick to support her, she started to crawl. Before she made any progress toward the door, she felt somethingnd on her back and grab her hair. Surprised that she was not on fire just by its touch, she was able to wriggle around to her back and used her hands to keep it away from her face. When she dug her fingers in and tried to grab it, it felt like she had touched a hot stove. She shrieked again, quickly going back to her open-hand approach. Bee did her best to keep it from her face. It was toote, however. A now familiar sound reached her ears, turning her blood to ice. It should have been further away. The pause cost her, but as the Imp moved, she caught a glimpse of what was behind it. She trembled in horror as the nightmare she had been avoiding approached her. Worse, she wasid out, helpless, and incapable of doing anything more than stare at the demon that had taunted her for days. It resembled a ck disk, so dark that it seemed light itself didnt reflect off its surface. As if it sucked it in. It emanated an unearthly whirring and humming sound, not unlike an amplified, sustained death rattle. Around it, dust and debris swirled. They didn''tst long as they were sucked toward its underbelly, disappearing underneath just as the light did on its surface. She thought she saw a sh of something spinning just under the front edge of the disk - teeth perhaps? The demon that had sent a cadre of mages running for the hills was here, and it wasing straight for her. Chapter 6: In a Vacuum, No One Can Hear You Scream Chapter 6: In a Vacuum, No One Can Hear You Scream Bee frantically scrambled backward, putting as much distance as she could between herself and the newly-appeared ck demon. It advanced on her slowly, as if it didnt have a care in the world. The Imp was not to be ignored, however. It continued to w and scratch at her, its face twisted with rage and frustration. Her hands were burning from the efforts of defending herself. Desperately, Bee racked her brain for a way to get out of this situation. She needed an out and fast. The Imp reared back to strike once more and lunged toward her face. Time seemed to slow down as her eyes shot between the immediate and approaching threats. There was only so much she could do, but she couldnt die like this. She was too young, and besides, she couldnt die as a maid. As the Imp lunged, Bee pulled it towards her, gripping it tightly and adjusting its angle to bring it above her head. She heard her palms sizzle as the semi-corporeal body of the demon rejected her touch. But she felt its grip on her hair loosen, possibly in surprise. Then, with every bit of strength she could muster, she hurled the Imp toward the ck void. It was not a very strong throw. The Imp howled as itnded and tumbled a foot or so in front of the approaching ck demon. She saw bits of its form break off, but not nearly as much as when she had struck it earlier. With a growl, the Imp scrambled to its feet and turned to face her. However, it was toote. The Imp failed to notice the approaching threat. As it tried to chase her, the Imps face seemed to suddenly register a look of surprise. It was frozen in ce. The edges of its form already trailing behind it into the powerful suction of the void. Its eyes only widened as it looked behind it, the suction increasing as the dark disk approached. It screamed and wed at the ground as its body was slowly, then more quickly, sucked into the underbelly of the disk. Bee didnt stay to watch the Imps demise. As soon as it was off her, she pulled herself frantically towards the door to the library. With difficulty, she hauled herself through. She mmed the door shut, locked it, and rose to her one good foot. With an immense effort, she was able to topple the bookshelf next to the door; to serve as a temporary barricade. Bee had no illusions that this couldst, but it might give her some warning. Being that close to it, she thought she could feel the power it radiated. Bee looked for a weapon, anything to use to defend herself. Finding nothing, she stared at the door, praying it would stay shut. Nothing happened for several breaths. After releasing arge lungful of air, Bee leaned against the wall and took stock of her situation. She still had the wineskin over one arm. So she took another swig, trying to get the liquid to soothe her parched throat. As her heartbeat slowly returned to normal, Bee had a moment to process what had just happened. The demon had consumed that ash Imp like it was nothing, without even touching it. The Imp was powerless to stop it. True, it was a small creature, but it was by no means harmless. Whatever the mages had summoned looked and acted like an inescapable void. And it could cloak its magical energies enough that the Imp clearly didnt sense iting up from behind, judging by its reactions. But that begged the question, why had it let her go? If it could do that, catching her should be a breeze. She had even directly attacked it by trying to throw the Imp at it. Had the Imp instead cated the ck demons hunger for the moment? Did it have other ns for her? The demon hadnt needed to catch up to her; it could draw a lesser being to it without even touching it. She doubted she would fare any better. So why had it let her go? Bee pushed that question to the back of her mind. It wasnt worth thinking of. She would onlye up with such awful scenarios that would send her into a spiral of terror. No, the only way out was to think about her immediate situation. There was nothing she could do as she was, so she began to make a n. First, she would need to recover. Hobbling to the nearest table, Bee sat down. She knew that the mages often snuck snacks into the library against the rules, so there was likely some food and drink to be found here. Bee rummaged around, and as she started to recover by taking small sips of wine, she thought about what to do next. ---- When I first arrived in this home, Ill admit, I wasnt a fan of how much mess the humans made to celebrate my arrival. Still, it was their home. They could do what they wanted, even if I disagreed with it. Thats part of the reason I was so excited to see this human in front of me, battling a particrly nasty pile of ash. This was only the second time I had encountered any human here and the first that any had actually seemed to share my value of a clean living space. Her opponent was like a dust bunny, but it actually moved. From the looks of it, it was trying to avoid being cleaned. I tisked. We couldnt have that. This only gave my theory that I was here for training more weight. I had never attempted to vacuum up a moving target before. Things that moved were always to be avoided or lightly bumped into with a soft beep. Well, I have learned plenty of new skills already so far. Why not try to ovee this challenge as well? I hurried forward, eager to assist the young one in her battle with filth. The living dust bunny seemed like a tough nut to crack. Based on how the human had acted, she viewed it simrly to how I would have a particrly damp spot on the carpet. Unwanted but not necessarily something I was ready to deal with. Not to worry, though. As if we had coordinated it, she tossed the thing toward me. Dust was my specialty, and if it meant helping arade in arms, I would dly help. While I wouldnt have minded testing my abilities by chasing the living dust bunny around for a bit, I appreciated the assistance. To my surprise, I didn''t have to do anything. The little monster broke apart and started to get sucked up by my improved vacuum. LEVEL UP, LVL 10 REACHED, THIRD MUTATION REACHED. CHOOSE A MUTATION: BLADED BRISTLES, GRABBY ARM, WATER AFFINITY For the moment, I ignored the voice and looked around for my friend. Before I could give her a grateful beep of thanks, she had already rushed away and disappeared through another door. I felt a twinge of disappointment. Still, now I knew that there was at least one human here. Someone who might even appreciate my efforts if first impressions were to be trusted. I decided that I liked this human. I was still analyzing theposition of the creature I had just consumed. It felt strangely warm inside my dustbin in an almostforting way. It reminded me of clearing a hearth, but that couldn''t be correct. It clearly was a living being, and living beings are not made of ash. Oh well, nothing I could do with the information now, so I filed it away forter. Only then I turned my attention to the voice once again. After receiving my mop and seeing how amazing it was, I took these choices a little more seriously. The ded bristles were out of the question - that sounded like it would scratch up the floors. I shuddered at the thought of what such a thing could do to the beautiful rug I had seen earlier. Considering my options, the thing Icked the most was options when manipting my environment. As much as I had be morefortable with liquid, it was a working rtionship. Not one that I wanted to develop more than I had to. Coming out of my deliberations, I heard a loud crash and noticed the door had shut behind the human. That was too bad. I wasn''t sure how tomunicate it, but I needed her to take me down the stairs of the south hall. While I could keep the avable section clean, it didn''t need my constant attention. Now that I knew I was here to improve, I needed new challenges to ovee. I hope she was not making a mess back there. Mentally I shrugged. She could if she wanted to. It looked like she had here. There was ash everywhere and a burning stick! That was unfair. It wasnt her fault if she couldn''tbat the living dust bunnies. Still, the results of their epic struggle were everywhere. The hardwood floor was covered in a fineyer of ash mixed with dust. I think it''s time to try out my grabby arm. I found I had a set of new functions, just like the mop. I triggered the first one. Just like the mop, the hatch opened, and a stick extended. This one was a ck pole, but it was slightly thicker than the mop had been. On the end of it, there was a w with what appeared to be rubber ridges. Even more interesting, I found that it could lengthen and shorten depending on how long I kept that function active. It extended about four feet at its longest. Another function opened and closed the w. Besides the extension and the w control, there was a third option. This seems to raise the angle of the pole. I considered that. Was it a boon to interact with things that were not on the floor? That was not my domain. I mean, it was nice to have, but would I need to use it? I had never paid much mind to anything above my sensor level, so I wasn''t sure what kinds of tools I could find there. I bet the humans kept their cleaning supplies out of my reach. Maybe when I was moving a nket around the floor, I would instead be able to put it back on the bed. Yes, I guess this could be useful. Where I was hoping it would just help me move things that were hard to push, it might be able to clear obstacles entirely. Something that this might be immediately useful for made itself known. The burning stick on the ground popped as the fire moved up its end. It was in danger of damaging the floor. I extended the arm to max length, grabbed the non-burning end of the stick, and dragged it out to the granite hallway. That floor was much more durable. When using the w, I felt that it doesnt have a lot of strength right now. It was barely able to lift the stick. I hoped with some training, I might be able to improve that. Well, now that this emergency mess was taken care of, I took a second to properly survey the room. A habit I was trying to build for each new room. If I nned out my path a little ahead of time, it was much more efficient. After experimenting with some free-form cleaning, I was starting to develop my own style. First, I tried just moving at random. That wasn''t a good solution. While it sometimes helped me get a better angle on navigating furniture legs, it was horribly inefficient. There was this one spot I kept missing. After 30 minutes, I almost gave up and drove directly over to it. I learned much from that experience. I started nning my entry angles and thus began the development of my own style. After I finished analyzing the room, I began to execute my n using my new style. The room wasnt thatrge, so despite almost every bit of the floor being covered in ash, it didnt take long to finish cleaning up the mess. Part of this was because once I covered every bit of the space, I looked back, and to my delight, I didnt have a single spot that I needed to spend extra time on. Even the ces where the human had ground the ash into the floor were fine. I would have expected to need to give the whole room at least a second pass. But no, the hardwood and the rug were spotless. I went out to the now extinguished stick and vacuumed up its remains. Satisfied with my new capabilities, I started to return to my duties before I came to investigate this disturbance. I would keep my eyes out for this human. --- Bee sat in the chair, sipping wine slowly as she listened to the demon prowl around the office. It lost interest rather quickly and wandered away. She started to consider what to do. She began to build a n in the back of her mind. Now that she was in the library, she could possibly start learning a bit of magic. Surely there would be something in here that would maybe not be able to fight the demon but allow her to run away. Sure, she would have to teach herself, and she could barely read, but she had some food. She took stock of what she knew about Void. She had taken to calling it Void in her head. Based on what she had seen with the imp, the name fit. Void had clearly seen her. Any doubts she had about it knowing of her were obviously put to rest. It was also confirmed the demon was hungry. The way it consumed everything in its vicinity left no doubt. Her only remaining question was, why didnt ite after her? She had a couple ideas, but none of them added up. Maybe it wanted magical food sources. Well, she considered, why did it consume even the dust from the floor? That might have been an involuntary or unconscious action. So that theory was possible. She could check out other rooms to see if they still held magical creatures. Her other thought was that it fed on fear. That seemed more likely before she had seen it up close. It clearly consumed matter. That didnt eliminate the possibility, but it didnt seem to fit right. Void looked less gleefully malevolent, more nihilistic end-of-days. It likely didnt care about the life on the; it would just consume it, for that was its purpose. At least, that was the impression she got when looking at it. The other thing working against this theory was that it left her alone. After it removed the puddle, it only came by for a minute or two each day as it patrolled. And even this time, it didnt break in ande after her. It could have stayed around to keep her more afraid. There was only one other thing she knew about it. That was, the mages were terrified of it. Rather than banish it or destroy it, they chose to run. She had to assume they tried many things. Obsessed as they were with preparations, Bee doubted there was anything they didnt have ready to fight demons with when they were summoning. That was a daunting prospect. People who had studied their whole life for this very situation couldn''t do anything with their resources and time to prepare. What could she hope to aplish? Bee pressed those thoughts down. They wouldnt help her. Having drunk maybe a quarter of the wineskin, she felt more hydrated. Still parched, she forced herself to stop. She didnt know how long it wouldst. Missing her walking stick, she got up. Unable to walk properly, she pushed a chair in front of her as she shuffled around the library. Chapter 7: The Worlds Janitor Chapter 7: The World''s Janitor The first thing Bee did was find all the snacks that the mages had hidden. She started by checking the desk drawers. Eventually, her nose and grumbling stomach led her behind the books on the shelves. Altogether, there wasnt too much, just a few ends of bread and a moldy wedge of cheese. She also found half a watermelon, but it was spoiled. She gathered it all on the table. The food wouldntst very long, and some were already pretty stale. Not wanting to waste anything, she started munching gratefully on the food that was least likely tost. Despite not having eaten in a couple days, Bee didn''t really enjoy this meal. Sure she ate it happily, but she didnt taste a thing. That was very lucky. Unfortunately, she did not find anything else to drink. That meant she had only the wineskin. It mightst her for a day or two if she rationed. Before long, though, she would be back in the same situation. Then she would need to go out and find more water. Eating the bread restored a respectable amount of energy rather quickly. Now that the adrenaline had faded from Bee''s system, it was the boost she needed to keep going. She took a moment to gather herself. She wanted to rest but had to make the most of this opportunity. Using her chair crutch, she started browsing the shelves. This was not the first time she had been in the library. However, they had never let her in alone. A librarian was always there to watch her. If she ever stopped to try and read even the titles of the books, she was chastised. One time, she had thought about removing a book from the shelf. Before she had moved the book more than an inch, the Librarian was on her. That had earned her a tongueshing so furious that she couldnt look the man in the eyes since. Bee headed straight for the book that had incited that particr incident. Despite being alone for days, she still nced around suspiciously for any onlookers before reaching out to the shelf. It was a thin book with less than a hundred pages. Something about it just spoke to her. A is for Alchemy. Finally, retrieving the book, she got to look at the red cover. It had a ss beaker with a smiley face on it. Perfect, just up her alley. The title fits her perfectly. If it was for someone who didn''t know much about magic, that would be perfect. But also, the author didnt seem to take his work too seriously. An essible text was just what she needed. She might be doomed, but she wouldnt go down without a fight. The least she could do was try and find something to help her in this library. Of course, the thought of finally being free from the Librarian''s attentive gaze may have yed into her priorities a bit. After browsing the shelves, Bee was ready to give up on finding anything else practical here. The organization of the library made no sense. Why was something like On the Origination and ssification of Beings Borne of Unusual Magical Circumstances, right next to Particles Ranging from 0.5 Microns to 3 Microns and Other Alchemical Ingredients for the Discerning Nanoparticte Mage, an Etymology? First, whoever is letting these authors title their own books needs to be fired. Second, no really, these titles are awful. Third, what did Etymology even mean? After looking around, she found a dictionary on the main desk. Ah, apparently, it meant the root and origin of words. The irony of having to look up this definition was not lost on her. Just being in this room was starting to make her feel stupid. As she moved through the shelves, she looked up words she didn''t know in the titles that seemed intriguing. Apparently, mages who wrote books were an eclectic lot. Titles ranged in readability from things that even she could read with ease, to ones that felt like a stuffy professor trying to impress his peers. Many were written by famous adventurers, if you believed the authors. Besides, A is for Alchemy, she didn''t find many at her level. Slowly, she began to pick out some patterns in how the books were organized. The titles didn''t seem connected at first. It wasn''t until she started reading the summaries that she began to put them together. Rather than by difficulty, title, or field, books were organized more by content. Not on what topic the contents covered, but how the contents covered the topic. One section was filled with books describing the origins of things, from histories to epistemologies to lineages. Another contained books with definitions: dictionaries, encyclopedias, and maps. Honestly, it was confusing even after you figured it out. Why would they set it up this way? That alone didn''t make it challenging to find books. No, her issue was she didn''t even know what topics she needed. She really wanted an overview book on a couple of topics. The organization within each section still stumped her, but she could scan through the titles, pick one she knew most of the words in, then read it a bit more. It was a slow process, but eventually, she made progress. Once she found something that looked like a basic demonology book, she decided that was enough. Bee put her small collection on the chair. Along with the alchemy book, she had gathered a few other novice books on ingredients, demons, and mutations. Then she stretched out to read. By, C is for Containment, she was asleep. Not having adequate sleep for days was taking its toll. ----- I had made the most important discovery since the discovery of the mop. This is not to undermine the importance of the mop, of course. Perhaps it is more telling that if the mop had been discovered a couple hundred years ago, the statement would still have been valid. This new discovery would revolutionize my kinds cleaning capability a hundredfold. I found it when testing my grabby arm. I needed to test its capabilities and limitations. The first stop I made after getting my new update was the first bedroom I had cleaned, the one with a nket on the floor. Sure enough, the fabric was still pooled where it had been left. I had been pushing it around the room thest few days. No matter what I tried, I could never get it cleaned to my satisfaction. The dust under the nket moved with it, and when I pushed it, sometimes it picked up things or dust fell out of it. Not to mention that it was out of ce, to begin with. That would change today. I extended my arm andtched it on the corner of the nket. It was surprisingly heavy. After I got a solid grip, I raised the arm to the level of the bed. I rolled forward till my arm was over the edge of the bed and released it. The corner of the nket fell and hit the bed, then slid back onto the floor. Hmmm, That didnt work. This time I didn''t just drop the corner. I set it down more carefully. This time it fell off more slowly. I had a chance to watch how it happened. It was not bouncing off like I first thought. No, the rest of the nkets weight was pulling it off. I tried again with the middle of the nket. The same thing happened. Why would it not stay? I attempted to get the whole thing in my w so I could lift the entire thing up at once. Sadly, this was not to be. My talons were notrge or strong enough. Pausing for a second, I collected my thoughts. I had seen the small human do this. Sometimes they didnt pick up the whole thing; they just grabbed part of a nket and dragged it behind them. That might work. Moving to one side of the bed, I dragged the nket all to that side. That wasplete, so I got a corner and moved around the foot of the bed, my w extended as high as it could go. Once on the other side, I moved up a little. Then I pulled until the center of the nket was on the bed. Still, parts were on the floor on either side of the bed, but this was progress. Grabbing each end, I was able to set those on the bed. Finally, the nket was conquered. This was perfect. I spun in a circle a few times in celebration and scrutinized the room. What else could I do? I carried on to the other rooms. There was not too much on the floor that didnt belong there. I tried moving some of the cages with the smelly figures in them. They were too heavy, though I did note those lumps were a bitrger than thest time I looked at them. I also tried moving the chairs around in the room with the lovely rug. They were much too heavy. The rug, however, was easy to move around. I adjusted it to be perfectly square to the desk. It had been off by a few degrees, and that bothered me. Now that I could do something about it made this room even better. I would be so much more helpful to my humans when I returned. I could even put the small human toys away. When I was in one of the rooms with the smaller cages that I could lift, I noticed one on the table by the door. Something just looked off about it. That cage didnt belong there. I went to pick it up off the table and put it with the other empty ones. That was when I noticed the groundbreaking discovery. Right level with where I was holding the cage was the twisty bit humans used to control doors. The idea hit me like a particrly hard collision with a wall. No, I couldn''t I turned to the closed door in the back of the room. Setting the cage down carefully, I trundled reverently towards the doors handle and gently reached for it. My w could make it. I grasped the end of the handle and pulled gently down. It turned. Now what? I tried rolling backward, and nothing urred. I thought back to what I had seen humans do. They turned the knob and then pushed or pulled. I had seen them push, then pull, to open a door. So it seemed necessary to get the action right, but there was no actual consequence to doing it incorrectly. Driving forward, I felt the door shift. A gap in the doorway appeared, then slowly grew until it wasrge enough for me to fit through. The door opened! Yes! Finally, I would not be stopped. No longer would any dust be safe. I reversed slowly, and the door shut. I pushed forward again. It opened. I went backward, and it closed. Forwards, backward, forwards, backward. *** Several hourster, I noticed I was getting low on energy. Letting go of the handle, I took stock of the material I had inside. There was still the warm lump from the mess maker I had absorbed earlier. Interesting. The presence of that living dust bunny seemed to re, flicker like a candle me, then spread evenly throughout my chassis. With it, a familiar rush of power perked me up immediately. In fact, I didnt have enough capacity for all the energy. It dissipated slowly into the surroundings. That was a bit of a waste. I wonder if I can convert only part of my bin in the future. I had arge character float in my vision again. This time I didnt hear the voice demanding I choose a mutation. That had always apanied the longer floating things. I wondered why it did not this time. With my energy reserves topped off, I reached again for the door handle. ---- Bee woke gradually. Her head nestled into the pages of a book. Blearily she opened her eyes and looked around. Laying on the floor, she had a half dozen books lying about. Her hand rested on the dictionary right next to her head. How long has she slept? Groaning, she sat up and began to stretch before her ankle put a stop to that. With a small gasp of pain, she looked at it. Covered in the mop splint, it looked like the swelling had gone down some, and now the bindings were loose. She would need to fix that before moving around too much. Also, she needed a new crutch. Using this chair to get around worked okay in the library, but it didn''t let her move fast enough. Gathering herself, Bee noticed that she had a notification. Huh. She had just received full ess to the systemst year when she turned 12, so it was taking a little getting used to. Confused, she opened it up. LEVEL UP. LVL 1. THE FIRST PERK REACHED. CHOOSE BETWEEN: SCAN, QUICKSTEP, OR HUNTERS CAMOUFLAGE. That was shocking. Until Bee earned a ss, she should only be able to gain experience throughbat. She was level 0 because she hadn''t killed anything before. Bee flipped to her detailed logs and filtered out all injuries done to her. The only damage she had inflicted was with the couple of broomstick swipes she had got in against the ash imp. She hadn''t killed it, though - the Void had. So, where did the experience for the first levele from then? She scanned her experience logs for the answer. Astoundingly, it appeared the experience was issued for an assist. Bee frowned. That couldn''t be correct. To get an assist while you werent in a party, you needed to be allies or at least non-hostile At least, she was pretty confident. Or was it that you couldn''t have damaged each other. Bee added that to the list of questions she needed to research. Still, her first perk. She had been dreaming of this since she was a child, and now at 13, she was finally there. She didn''t expect to get a level until muchter. Considering her options, all three sounded good. Each one would help in her immediate situation. Well, maybe not the Quickstep with her bum foot. But stealth might be essential when getting out of here. Of course, it would also be massively hindered by a broken leg. Looking around, Bee figured her only advantage right now was knowledge. She selected the scan option. Not that she ever would have really chosen anything else. Scan was one of the most valuable perks you could get. It was exceedingly rare, especially at such a low level. Any other time she would have picked it without hesitation. However, she wasn''t sure if it would be instantly helpful. It was a pity that she hadn''t gotten a healing perk. Her perks strength would grow as her level advanced, so getting Scan this early would mean she would have room to develop it a lot. If she attained level 20, she could maybe see confidential stats. That could really help her children and grandchildren if she got that far. The skill would also make her a valuablemunity member as she could help find people''s potential sses. It would make her useful inbat or a sessful merchant. The more she thought about it, the better it seemed. Getting Scan so early could set her up for life. Now all she had to do was survive. Simple. Chapter 8: The Vacuum Wanders as the Vacuum Wills Chapter 8: The Vacuum Wanders as the Vacuum Wills Eventually, I had to release the door. Duty called, and while I could put off my rounds for a little while, I couldnt allow dust to umte elsewhere forever. Actually, my routine would have to be altered. As much as my new capabilities allowed me to do my job better, they also expanded my domain. This great power came with many costs. One might even say responsibility. My expectations for myself only grew. I was slightly worried that Id soon be able to cover more ground than I could effectively keep clean as frequently as Id like. I shifted improving my own efficiency to a top priority. It moved above thoroughness for now. Time had passed enough that, between vacuuming up the living dust bunny and my experimenting, such that I was almost a day behind schedule. There were a couple of options. I could start exploring now and bring everything I encountered up to an eptable level of cleanliness. Otherwise, I could keep everything I had already mapped in tip-top shape and slowly expand my domain. Needing to meditate on this, I began pathing around the small cage room. As I passed through the cages, I noticed with some satisfaction that the thick coating of filth had reappeared at a much-reduced rate. ording to my sensors, it was only 78% of the density it had been previously. Thanks to my arm, I could even close some of the small metal grates on nearby cages that had fallen open at some point. By the time I finished this room, I had a n. The revtion was that not all parts of my domain needed to be cleaned at the same rate. In fact, over thest couple of days, I had noted a pattern. Most of the area only needed cleaning maybe once a week. Three rooms needed cleaning more often. The room with therge cages and the room with the small ones needed cleaning every day. The room with tanks of water could be cleaned every two days. I would clean those areas and then explore, setting time aside every few days to ensure I didnt neglect the rest of my territory. Tentatively I would try to do that each day, but who knew what I would find. --- After Bee chose her perk, she went back to reading. While the book seemed to be for children based on the title, it wasnt for people just learning how to read. Its stated goal was to Introduce some basic terms and concepts for alchemy and magic. It took humor and straightforward exnations and mixed the two to achieve an easy-to-read beginner''s book. It even had helpful, friendly pictures! There were many times that she almostughed before remembering her situation. She had to start the containment chapter over again as she remembered very little from the previous night. It was informative and answered some of the questions she previously had asked mages, though they didnt deign to answer. Turns out the chalk circles she had seen so frequently had many different uses. Some were barriers used for summoning. They didntst very long but were very popr. Some were for more long-term containment. Containment is best thought of in two levels when working with magical beasts. First, you need to contain the physical form. How to best do this often depends on what exactly youre working with. Unless there is something exceptional about their physical qualities though, a simple cage is usually eptable. We would suggest a bird-style cage for easy transport and . It continued for a while. On the various types of cages and what they could be used for. Then it started on the magical containment. Second, you need to contain the magic of the creature. When summoning, you will want multiple levels. The stronger the thing youre summoning is, the quicker your barrier will weaken (which is a problem if the thing you summoned coincidentally wants to eat you)... For long-term storage, a power dampener is best. They take a while to take effect, but they are much safer and more efficient to boot. You can use ones like the one shown in figure 12. It will slowly drain the power of the magical being. This is great for a few reasons. First, a drained and weakened being wont break your barriers nearly as quickly. Second, a weakened being is much easier to transport. Moving a salt circle on the ground is not always practical. However, if you weaken a creature, you will have lots of time to move it. This is because power returns at the same rate it was taken away. That means the stronger the creature, the longer it takes to wake up. Even the weakest beast takes a couple days to recharge frompletely empty, and some of the most powerful records have taken months. So even if it takes ages to put things to sleep with power dampeners, it''s worth the wait! The picture in figure 12 was a fancy diagram; in the center was the image of a horned demon flexing, but its muscles were drooping down instead of bulging. All her needs were met. It gave her the knowledge she had wanted in a clear and easy-to-understand method. Compare that to some of the other books she had looked at Well, she would say that this was much better. As time passed, Bee learned her ABCs of magic. In the next couple of hours, she picked up more than she had for two weeks at the mages'' college. ---- I set out to explore. The first ce I went was the door in the back of the room with the small cages - the first one I had opened. The first thing I did was open and shut that door a few more times. But the second thing I did was go through said door. I wasnt superstitious or anything, but I just had a good feeling about it. This room was unlike any that I had seen since I came here. The floor was not t. Instead, it gently sloped downwards. It was also slick and looked made of a single piece of pure obsidian. The room was massive too. Not asrge as the room I was first appeared in, it was 57 ft from the cage in the center of the room. The slope was not steep enough to make it difficult to traverse. At its deepest point in the center of the room, it was maybe 5 ft lower than on the edges. This was a floor design that I had never seen before. Because of its uniqueness, appearance, and generally pleasant texture, I would not hesitate to say that I became lost in its beauty. I came to a halt, shaken from trying to understand how something like this was even constructed. The shine was perfect, and the polish was immacte. Truly, I dont think I had ever witnessed a more moving sight. The only thing marring this work of art, holding it back from perfection, was the childlike scribbles of chalk and salt. They filled the chamber, circling the center in rings no more than six inches apart. At the center of the room was arge cage. Much like the previous cages, it looked like the cage that held my human''s pet bird. The only difference was size. This was much taller. Maybe tall enough that a man standing on another mans shoulders could befortable in it. The bars were thick around, about three inches in diameter, and they curved upwards to meet in the middle. Oddly enough, I didnt mind the cage, unlike the lines of debris surrounding it. The theme of the room worked with it. The least captivating part of the room was the thing inside the cage. It looked like a statue. Why would you put that in a cage? Living mes danced along the arms and tops of the shoulders. Its hands were held out to the side, palms up, almost touching each side of the cage. Thrown back with a mouth wide open, saying something at the ceiling only a few feet from its nose. On top of the head, two enormous horns curved up into a point. It really wasnt my style. Statues needed to be lower to the ground and matched with the floor. I started to clean. I rolled to the center of the room first to improve my map and get a better picture of what I was dealing with. Strangely enough, though the mes danced on the arms of the statue, I felt no heat from them. Now that I saw the other side of the room, I noticed a door on each of the four walls. Recording it on my map, it appeared that two of the remaining three led to therger cage room and the room with the tanks of water in them. Feeling the need to wipe the graffiti off this floor, I began to clean. This room deserved to shine. *** Once the whole thing was cleaned up, I checked the doors I had discovered led where my map had predicted. I was correct. When I tried the remaining unknown door, I couldn''t open it. I tried both pulling and pushing. Neither worked. I assume this is what humans mean when they say a door is locked. Thats alright, its important to know my limitations, locks being one of them. Leaving that forter, I trundled out to the hall. Many doors I tried wouldnt budge if I pushed or pulled. I assumed those were also locked. In fact, after returning to the hallway, about half of the doors I checked were locked. The ones that were not were the majority of bedrooms. I didnt stay to clean them this time. I would on my next pass. I had a theory that it would be more efficient that way. On the other side of the castle, from the room with the beautiful floors, I found the kitchen. I had mixed feelings about kitchens. The dichotomy of kitchens was that they got dirty frequently and with little effort. Therefore, they required a lot of cleaning. The other half was they were designed to be cleaned. The floor was made of tiles much more resistant to acid, unlike marble or granite. So, nasty things like tomato juice could be cleaned with little effort. Also, the damage to the floor was minimal. However, debris from kitchens was likely to be wet, gooey, or sticky. Now with my mop, it shouldn''t be hard to clean, but that wasnt always the case. Honestly, I didnt mind cleaning tough messes. It''s just I wasnt let loose in the kitchen enough, so when I did have a chance to do my job, it was much harder than if I had been allowed to work when I wanted. I poked my sensors into the kitchen. These thoughts on kitchens were running around in my head. Soon they tripped and fell t on their face. I saw it. It was an inconspicuous little thing with fur covered everything but its tail, and it had little beady eyes. Oh, I wasnt upset or anything. I never felt an immense amount of animus towards any individual for making a mess. But this creature was like the living dust bunny I had encountered earlier - an entity whose primary purpose seemed to be making a mess. While in some sense, its presence served to give me purpose. I had enough ground to cover and other messes to clean that it would be shortsighted of me to not nip this problem in the bud. Plus, my humans could make messes if they wanted. That same rule didnt apply to interlopers. I watched as it chewed a hole in a bag of flour, coating itself in the white powder and spilling it everywhere. Its head came up, swiveling to find me. I remained motionless for a moment, observing the creature. Eventually, it broke the standoff and scampered off. As it scurried towards the wall, leaving a trail of white in its wake, I saw three little brown pellets appear on the floor right in front of me. I made my decision. As I charged forward with all my might, it scampered away. Amazingly, I was actually catching up to it. Ordinarily, I felt like its speed would have far outpaced me. Before I fully closed the distance, the wall hit me like a train. I bounced off as the ball of fluff scrambled through. Backing away revealed a low arch chewed in the wall. I was so close I could feel my suction ripping at its tail at the end there. If it wanted to hide, let it. I knew it would be back. The food was here, and I could be patient. I went over to clean up the mess it made; before going back to the hole it disappeared into. I looked at it from all angles, trying to figure out what something from the inside could see. Figuring out how far I needed to be from the hole, I positioned myself as close as possible to the wall, then rotated to see the archway. Ready to charge forward. We would see if it escaped this time. Soon it would cease to be a worry or a source of extra work for me. I was a professional, and leaving it alone would inhibit my efficiency in the long run. No hard feelings; it was just business. It wouldnt get away with leaving droppings, wood shavings, and food everywhere. I am patient. I could wait. Chapter 9: Taking out the Trash Chapter 9: Taking out the Trash I waited next to the mess maker''s hole for several hours through the night. I could have been cleaning other things. However, during that time, this thing could be undoing all my hard work. I needed to weigh what I could clean during this time versus how much damage this mess maker could do until I had another chance to catch him. My w hung extended above the hole, ready to drop down and snatch the culprit as soon as it ventured out. Eventually, my patience was rewarded. A small furry head poked tentatively out of the hole, its body following as it crept out to return to the kitchen. In an instant, my w dropped. It turned its head at the movement, but it was toote. The little rascal struggled and squeaked, but my grip was powerful enough for this. I began retracting it, drawing the ball of fur closer; tiny little paws scrambled against the kitchen tiles but found no purchase. My suction roared to life. I stopped trying to be stealthy, drawing a thin tail into my brushes. The instant I let go, the mess maker was sucked into the void of my limitless dustpan. Satisfied, I cleaned the small pile of droppings it had left and returned to my work. This was the second time I had cleaned up a moving target. The first, I had done with assistance. This one was different, though. The previous one was not simply making a mess but also being a direct nuisance to a human. Whats more, it even caused a fire. Byparison, this offender was guilty of much more minor crimes, though still problematic ones. This mess maker had stolen food and made a mess simultaneously. As disappointing as I found this behavior, I felt more pity for it than I had for the living dust bunny. In fact, I wouldn''t mind letting this pest go on its way so long as it wasn''t in my domain. So what was I to do with it now that it was inside me? The problem was that currently, I had no way outside, so I could not release it out of the house. I also was unwilling to let it continue contributing to my workload by letting it roam about while I tried to find a ce for it. That left imprisonment until I could find a better option. I wasnt sure if I could release it. But my humans had a way to empty my dustpan, so maybe with some help, I could. I thought I felt something furry move within my dustpan - probably the mess-maker. Satisfied with my decision, I moved to the task of cleaning up the kitchen. Clearly, no one has been here for several days. As always, even for a kitchen, this one was fickle. Unlike most other rooms, it hadn''t just picked up ayer of dust. No, it needed to be special. There were messes made by various creatures that had plowed through here while scavenging, as well as food particles in various stages of decay littering the floor. That wasnt all, though. I could sense other things. New things I would have never been able to notice. For example, Looking up at a ce I could only now reach, I saw something that needed my attention. Many things needed cleaning that I could now clean with my fancy new arm. For example, there was a tomato sitting on the ind counter. This tomato had be mushy and seemed to be getting consumed by a puffy gray substance. It was also starting to leak on the counter. I was just able to reach it and move it to the trash - I once again celebrated my grabby arms versatility, but I could only prevent further damage. I still had no way to clean that high up. My mop didnt have the same range. Leaving the rest be, I would ept there were things I couldnt do yet. Ill keep working at it and try again once I learn some more of the lessons this ce was trying to teach me. *** Bee slept for the second time in the library. She had just finished the first book. It was fascinating and gave her a lot more background on magic. But she was still not able to do magic right now. It onlyid the groundwork and demonstrated how far she still had to go. Sure, it did wonders for helping her navigate through the other books and topics in the library or at least knowing where to start. However, that didnt fix her leg on its own. Or fill her stomach. Or give her an easier way to make more water. After reading the book, Bee took stock. She had managed to only drink half of the wineskin, but the thirst was returning. Waiting another day was possible, but any longer, and she would start to get weaker. Besides, she was still out of food. It had been five, maybe six days since Void appeared and chased everyone off. Her leg felt better, the swelling had gone down. It wasnt crooked either, which was a blessing and a half. It still couldnt hold her weight. When she broke her arm a couple years ago, it took about six weeks to fully recover. She could start using it about three weeks after the initial injury. That would mean she had at least another 2 weeks before she could even consider walking, let alone running. She needed to dig up some crutches. When Bee woke, she washed some of the sleep from her mouth with a swig of warm wine. Getting in her chair, she used her good leg to push her around the library. Making it behind the main desk, she found the pile of yardsticks that were a staple in every library. Snapping a few in half, Bee retrieved some twine used in repairing book bindings. With her new tools, she set about recing her mop splint. She probably should have done this yesterday. Taking off the current dressing gave her a chance to check the injury. As she had expected, the swelling had gone down, but notpletely. She was left with an ugly purple bruise covering the entire lower half of her leg. Pressing gently, she felt the shin bone and let out a relieved breath when it felt straight. She could feel a break in the bone, though she didnt think it required setting. Armed with a basic knowledge of magic, Bee found her way around the library a bit better now. Looking at the books she had grabbedst night, she realized that most would be useless or she was not ready for them yet. Returning to the shelves, Bee had a better idea of what she was looking for. In the recipe section, she eventually settled on two books. One for healing and another for anti-demon magic. Skimming through the two books, two recipes appeared promising. The first was a salve for broken bones that, when applied, could heal one in a few days rather than weeks. The second book yielded her amonly used projectile powder that could ward off demons. It likely wouldn''t do anything against Void, seeing as the other mages had more powerful countermeasures than this. But she didn''t want to be empty-handed. It made her feel better. **** Once Bee''s preparations wereplete, she began to shift the bookcase blocking the exit. Ready to m the door at the first sign of Void, she cracked it open and put her eye up to the slit. The room was empty. The remains of the ash Imp were missing, and so was her burnt stick. Void had surely consumed them. Even the dust on the floor was gone. Opening the door up a bit more, Bee slipped through. She carefully closed the door behind her so it would hopefully be a safe ce to retreat to. Grabbing the hat stand to serve as a walking staff, she made her way out of the open door leading to the hallways. She had two destinations in mind. She needed to get to the lesser store room and retrieve ingredients for the salve and powder. She also needed to restock her rations. Those would likely be in the kitchen. If she was sessful, she would be healed in a few more days and would be able to run away. Even with that, it would be a long way to the nearest vige. Ordinarily, she could make it with some difficulty if she foraged along the way. But if she hadn''t had a full meal in a week and was severely dehydrated... She doubted her ability to survive the trip. Food and medicine. First, Bee needed the medicine. Without that, she would need to get food again and be in this same situation in a week. If she could get the supplies and make the healing concoction, she might be able to grab food on the way out. Hopefully, she could get both, but best to prioritize the healing supplies. The only issue was that the kitchen was on the opposite side of the castle. Bee set off. Trying not to thump the hatstand too loudly, she hobbled down the main corridor. The first leg of her journey was uneventful. When she reached the door, she grasped the handle for support, panting with exertion. The door swung open silently. A treasure trovey in front of her. Lit like the rest of the castle, the Imp powered lights made it so there were no corners of shadows. The room was a narrow thing, but it was long. There was just enough room for a thin walkway between the stock. That path stretched out at least 20 barrels. Along each wall stood barrels, each clearlybeled in chalk with arge scoop in a rack attached to the side. By the entrance sat a stack of variously sized leather bags to help carry her spoils. She grabbed a few bags and began inspecting thebels. These specific recipes were chosen because of her limitations; all the good stuff was not stored in the lesser storage room. That was because it was too valuable. No, themonly needed cheap stuff was in the lesser storage hall. Limited to those ingredients and herck of experience, she couldn''t make the best options of any given potion or powder. With much more skill and unlimited ess to the castle resources, she might have been able to heal her leg in a few minutes. But that was not to be. With herck of experience, maybe it was for the best that she wouldnt be wasting anything too expensive. As she worked, Bee checked over her shoulder asionally for threats. She worked quickly and quietly. In total, 15 smaller bags were ced into one of thergest ones before slinging it over her shoulder. That went really well. However, the weight was more than she had expected. It was hard to carry this and use the hatstand cane at the same time. Changing her ns slightly, she headed back to the library. Once she had healed a little from the salve, the kitchen trip would be more manageable. Also, she might be able to carry more food and water on the same trip. Slipping back into the library, she closed the door behind her. After recing the barricade, she retrieved her books and got to try her hand at alchemy. ---- Harold was exhausted. It was the sixth day since they had fled the castle. Normally, they would have taken several days on horses to reach the small vige of Greg. They had pushed hard. Despite not being in great shape, the safety of Gregs walls was an excellent motivator for the mages. With the walls in sight, Harold called a halt to give everyone a chance topose themselves. One of the archivists started grumbling about stopping. He was the only one. They had given him a wide berth initially but had relented as the days passed. Everyone else had started smelling just as bad as him. Harold didnt really me him. He could only imagine the chaffing that must have happened for running for six days in soiled pants. After they all caught their breath, they filed down to the citys gate. With arger-than-average force approaching, the captain of the guard had already been sent for. He was waiting for them as they arrived. It was lucky Harold knew the man, and they were let in quickly. Go on ahead. I will find you after I have had a chat with the captain, Harold called to the other mages. Captain Wace, do you have a ce where we could speak privately? Yeah, my office. Wace led them into a room right on the side of the gatehouse. He gestured to one of the chairs before looking Harold up and down. You, sir, need a drink. Whats your poison? Whiskey neat, but anything will do after the week I have had. Wace retrieved a bottle of amber liquid from beneath his desk and began to pour a couple of drinks. I take it the project didnt go well. What preparations do we need? It might have gone too well. We were rushed. The king had no patience. We reached beyond what was safe, and something answered. Harold took a sip of the whiskey Wace handed him. We were not able to even slow it down. We ran. It was something that Well, I cant tell you what. It devoured everything in its path, and all our barriers were nothing to it. Wace winced as he sat down. Did it follow you? I dont think so. What is your n? I need to continue on to the capital, convince the mages and inform the king. We will need to gather our strength. That will be difficult. The levies are hitting us hard, and the troops are preparing to defend the border. The preparations have been advanced since youst got news. Even so. We might need to get Odinguard to help us too. Its that bad? Harold took a long sip of his drink and took a while to swallow. I hope we can survive what ising. But we need more information. I hate to ask, but we need to send a small team back to gather some information. I have an idea for some people. Chapter 10: Those Who Stare into the Void Chapter 10: Those Who Stare into the Void "Stupid, stupid, stupid," Bee whispered to herself. How could she forget something so obvious? Sure now she had a bunch of powders and magical substances in bags brimming with possibilities. If mixed together, they could heal her leg. Maybe even help fend off demons. However, she forgot the most essential part of making that possible. The part that actually made this random assortment of things magical. How could she know how much to mix? Alchemy required precise proportions, both in volume and weight. Nothing in this library had nearly tight enough tolerances to measure what she needed. She sighed. Still, the trip hadn''t been aplete bust. The basic demon repellent, at least, was a very forgiving recipe. It was one part standard salt and two parts powdered horse hairs. It would still be effective with 10% inuracy in either direction or so, the book said. Lining up a mostly even pile of powdered horse hairs, Bee thenid down a line of salt simr in width to the length of the horse hair line. She swept them into a bag and shook them up. It said to mix thoroughly, but Bee thought it still looked like ordinary powder. She hoped it worked. At least now Bee would have some protection. Because now she would be venturing out again. Bee needed a scale, test tubes, and water at a minimum to make this work. So she needed to get into one of the research rooms and the kitchen. She might as well grab food while she was already there. With a little more confidence, Bee headed out again. It was perhaps false confidence, as the previous trip had gone without a hitch. Still, when she opened the door to leave the library, her heart wasn''t racing half as fast this time. Just likest time, the office room was clear. Tiptoeing out, she stuck her head out of the door. Looking in both directions, Bee saw no movement in the hallways either. As Bee moved down the hall to the research rooms, she rxed even more. The ce was quiet. It didnt take Bee long to hobble down to the door she was looking for. In the lesser research room, she knew there would be supplies for what she needed to do. It was one of the rooms she was allowed to clean. They called it a research room, but it was more for resource harvesting. The room housed the lowest demons that produced valuable materials. The more experienced apprentices would gather all the valuable stuff, then Bee was let in to clean everything so that the new things deposited would be fresh. As she was working, she had to be careful of the symbols and circles surrounding the cages. Now Bee knew why. Well, she always could guess. What they told her was. "Only touch the chalk if you want to die." Or, "if you value your life, dont disturb the salt." So she figured, okay, the powders are magical, and I wont mess with them. I can scrub the floors, but dont mess with the magic. Sure, that was simple. Apparently, that wasnt quite the issue. Many of these, Bee recognized from her reading. They were dampening fields that took a while to take effect and weakened the magic within. If she had disturbed the protections, it would have taken a couple of days for these beasts to slowly wake up. Once awake, they could have started to use their magic to get out of the cages. So when Bee saw the door to the room was left open, she started to get concerned. By the time she stepped in, she really began to panic. The first thing she noticed was that the floor was more visible than she was used to. It took a second for it to set in, but when it did, Bee''s heart rate exceeded all previous records. Looking around in panic, she scanned the cages. They were, for the most part, empty. She took a few quick and panicked breaths, trying to calm herself. Trying to control her breathing, Bee continued on high alert but realized she needed to move quickly. Examining the cages as she moved into the room, she gave the still-upied ones a wide berth. A few cages were empty. From her previous experience with this room, every one of them should be full. She quickly moved to some counters with cabs on the far side. Rummaging around, she found what she was looking for. Grabbing a scale and some measuring equipment, she stuffed them into the bag she had brought with her. While realizing the need for speed, she also realized she might need to do some more research on what she was up against. Quickly she took a second to read the nametes on each of the cages without upants. She hoped to be able to find information on them in the library. It would give her a better idea of what danger she was in. Now aware that there were more things to be careful about than just Void, Bee scurried away as fast as her hat stand cane would allow her. She still needed to grab the supplies and water if she wanted to have any chance of getting out of there. But it seemed less likely that she would be able to escape without being discovered. Abandoning stealth Bee moved as fast as she could toward the kitchen. While in transit, she kept a sharp eye and ear out but didn''t notice anything amiss. Seeing that she knew nothing about these creatures, she wasn''t sure what to look for. Anything strange or out of ce would have caught her eye. Against all odds, she still managed to make it all the way to the kitchen without incident. When she got to the kitchen, it looked much different than she remembered. It was strangely spotless like it had been cleaned recently. There also was surprisingly little odor for a room filled with food sitting out for a week. It was unlikely that it had been cleaned after breakfast when everyone fled, and the half-cleaned tes of food on the counter confirmed her suspicions. Despite the changes in the kitchen, the pantry still had some food in it. Bee stuffed whatever looked least tainted by pests into her bag. Her now empty wineskin was filled with water from one of the basins. She took a quick look to see if she could find another water container. It would be nice to take more water with her, but she had no luck. On her way out, Bee reached over and grabbed a meat cleaver hanging on a hook above the counter. She hoped that she would not need it. Even though it made Bee feel better, she wasnt even sure how effective it would be against demons. But it would be a better weapon than herte broomstick. Having aplished her goals, she began to awkwardly limp as fast as she could back to the safety of the library. --- As I explored, I found that the previously closed doors tended to lead to rooms that didn''t need the same amount of cleaning as the more extreme cases. That''s not to say they didn''t need some attention. After all, they definitely hadn''t been cleaned in at least a week. But still, as I explored and categorized rooms, I found that some fell into the schedule of once a week. Whereas others, like those that had cages, would continually produce more filth than just dust and were ted to be cleaned more often. Truly, I had no idea howrge this ce was. It seemed like every time I would find a new door to open, it would lead to entirely other wings of the castle. And that wasn''t even counting all the staircases I couldn''t traverse. I really needed to see if I could find that nice human; I''m sure they''d be willing to help me out. Having finished my exploration for today, I went to clean the rooms that needed daily attention. There are many things I appreciated about exploring. I enjoyed finding new ways I could help. And each room, for instance, was a new challenge. With all the new stimuli, I could feel myself bing more efficient. I felt faster, quicker, stronger, and most of all, I became better at nning and executing my duties quickly. That was all nice. But truthfully, my favorite part was a bit more self-indulgent. The designers of this castle really had an eye for beauty. The workmanship was exquisite, and the execution was perfect. Each set of rooms unveiled another masterpiece. Every joint on the floor was set with care, and every color was intentionally chosen. The floors matched the purpose of each room in durability, color, traction, and every other quality I could think of. There were also things I normally wasn''t aware of. Now that my domain extended slightly in the vertical ne, I started paying attention to things I previously hadn''t. For example, who would have thought baseboards would be such an essential piece to the aesthetic of a room. Choosing the correct edging for a floor seemed to be maybe 20% of the impact the floor had. And sometimes, there are even fancy styles of trim. They would extend several feet up and make the walls almost as fascinating to look at as the floor, I might say. Well, maybe not quite so fascinating. But it was close. Another consequence of my upward attention was that I started to take a little more notice of furniture. Previously, I had always noticed furniture. Of course, how could you not? But now I consider more than just the footprint or its impact on my cleaning route. When considering the different types of chairs, you might have an armchair that takes up the entire square it sits on. Or you might have one with four posts that had a base high enough to allow me to clean underneath without much trouble. Either one is fine. One is within my abilities to take care of, whereas the other allows filth to build up underneath it. Though it is hidden and requires a human to help put it away. Now, however, I was looking at the color and the design. I noticed things like how I liked the seat fabric''s color and pattern. Really, there were so many things I had missed previously that I wished I had started looking up earlier. One day I would love to meet whoever designed this masterpiece. I would like to thank them for opening my sensory array beyond the floor. My great joy dide from doing my job and serving my humans, but it wasn''t my only pleasure. While I lived to establish order and cleanliness, I could appreciate the small things too. There were, of course, a few design choices I disagreed with or maybe just questioned. For example, well, I really like the use of ent rugs. But in some cases, I feel like whoever designed this didn''t know how toy a fully carpeted room. Don''t get me wrong, I really do prefer hardwood over carpet. It''s much more functional and easier to maintain, but a good carpeted room has its perks too. I know my humans are sensitive to hot or cold, and stepping on a carpet in the morning seems like something that gives them such joy. It''s a shame that none of the bedrooms here had carpet. I had begun to be efficient enough that I was able to have these thoughts while I worked. In order to execute my n, I no longer required 95% of my concentration. I could get away with only giving it 70% to 80% and using my remaining concentration to n ahead, increasing my efficiency. That was why I finished my exploration a little bit early and had a chance to return to see if there was anything else I could do to help the kitchen. Despite my best efforts, it wasn''t up to my standards. A nasty smell of rotten food lingered. No matter how much air I pumped through my dust filter, I couldn''t get it up to my standards. Coming back from one of the far wings, I made my way toward the kitchen. Even though I had captured that one mess maker, it still seemed to attract more filth. I was starting to think that the mess maker I apprehended wasn''t the only one. In fact, many rooms had no reason to be umting more filth and were doing so anyways. And maybe I was being paranoid, but sometimes I would see shes in the edge of my sensor range. It was as though something moving fast was there, perhaps something small and sometimes furry. I wasn''t too concerned. Maybe these humans kept a cat. Cats didn''t really like me. But that''s okay; I wasn''t their biggest fan, either. All thoughts of cats and proper floor choices left my head as I saw the one human who seemed to have remained in the castle with me. It was not too dissimr to a situation I had seen previously. Again, it looked like she was in a sticky situation with a mess maker. This time she didn''t seem to be aware of it, though. She moved awkwardly from the kitchen, leaning on arge pole towards the room where we first met. However, she was being tailed by a small squat little furry thing. It looked like one of my small humans but shorter, with longer arms covered in ck fur and long fangs. It crept quietly behind her. She kept looking around, but it was quick enough to stay in her blind spot whenever she did. Eager toe to assist my human friend, I beeped loudly, trying to get her attention. Her head whipped around, and her eyesnded on me. In a stroke of bad luck, her gaze went right over the mess maker. I beeped again, insistently hoping that she would pick up on the hint, but instead, she turned as white as a linoleum floor. It wasn''t until the mess maker screamed that she even thought to look down. Chapter 11: What Looks Back Chapter 11: What Looks Back Scanning her surroundings constantly, Bee''s heart raced to match her mood. She was sure that she saw something in the corner of her vision, but whenever she looked, there was nothing to confirm her suspicions. It was likely just her nerves reminding her how long she had been roaming around in what might now be a demon-infested castle. Still, there were only a couple of hallways left. She was most of the way to the library, but she didn''t for one second believe she was safe. Her pulse was so loud in her ears that she could barely hear herself breathe, let alone think. Sweat covered her body, it dripped down her nose, and she had trouble gripping the hat stand well enough to support her weight. She started to put more weight on her leg, pushing through the pain as the adrenaline numbed her feelings. She could go almost twice as fast as she had when she initially made her way toward the kitchen. Plus, she could take a few risks with her leg now. She would be able to fix it as soon as she got back. When the library was just around the corner, Bee poured her remaining energy into increasing her pace. Struggling to carry her bag of loot. She could practically smell the old parchment and musty leather covers she hade to associate with protection. Hope rose in her chest, the belief she had made it through this whole expedition without something going wrong. There was an unearthly screech behind her. It wasn''t the loudest thing, but it was sharp, unlike anything she had heard. A sound that alien could only really being from one source. She hadn''t been fast enough; it had found her. Whirling around, her eyes locked on the floor behind her. It sat in the junction she had juste from. It seemed darker and more intimidating than before. There was an evenrger area surrounding it from which debris rose and spun towards its spinning maw. Yet, for all its might, Void just sat there staring at her. It screeched again. The sound snapped her out of the trance of fear it put her in, and she finally could break her gaze away. She looked around desperately for something that might help her, and that was when she saw the real threat. At her feet, almost on top of her, sat a minor demon. It looked like an ape but with fangsrger than her thumb. It only came up to maybe 2 ? to 3 ft, but its muscle-bound arms looked stronger than most men''s. The beast''s gaze was fixed on her, and she could see an all too human intelligence marred only by malevolence as it stared. The Void had called in one of his minions to hunt her. The screech wasn''t a battle cry. It was a summons. With desperation, Bee released the hat stand and reached for the cleaver she had slid into her belt. She managed to draw it, but too slowly. The lesser demon pounced right at her, teeth bared. It recognized the danger of the cleaver and grabbed for the arm. She had been walking around prepared. Her other hand was already in the pouch of the mixed demons repellent she had made only hours before. Bee let out a cry of defiance as she flung a handful of demon repellent in the apes face. It coated its eyes, mouth, and chest. Instantly she could hear a faint sizzling, and the beast let out a pained scream. This scream wasn''t like Voids. This sounded more like the scream of a horse that broke its leg. As she watched, frantically readying another handful, she could see the flesh receding from where the powder had struck the demon. Wow, that certainly looked painful. Maybe if Bee had more time or managed to throw a few more than a handful, the powder could drive the demon away. But this was only a lesser demon, and the demon repellent wasn''t enough to change her immediate situation. She reached for another handful of powder; the demon red at her with fresh rage. It had finished ripping away the knife, and as it ttered to the floor, the demon lunged for her other hand that had stung it. Bee struggled as its ws grasped her wrist. The demon''s rush overbnced her. There was nothing she could do; she fell backward,nding heavily on her tailbone and then was pulled the rest of the way over, head bouncing off the stone floors. Stars swam in her vision as she looked up at the ceiling and felt the pouch fly away. The demon sat on her hand, stretched her arm out, and prepared to bite into her bicep. Bee thrashed around to no avail. Her strength could not match the demons even a little bit. It didnt even notice her blows against its head. Her other hand scrambled for the dropped cleaver. She stretched, but she couldn''t quite reach it. Bee looked over at the demon. She saw that his teeth were hovering just above her flesh, and it was watching her. It seemed to be mocking her attempts to struggle. They locked eyes for a second, and she knew there was nothing she could do. As she was bracing herself for the pain, Bee heard something. Another otherworldly screech, this time long and drawn out. It seemed to increase in pitch and volume. She tried to look down, back at where Void was but couldn''t crane her neck enough to see. It was too low to the ground. The sound also caught the attention of the minor demon, and it looked up back at its master. She saw the fear sh through the apes eyes. Bee thought she saw surprise and betrayal in its look, and then it was gone. She felt the apes weight lift from her arm as it wasunched behind her. Recing it was a much smaller pressure. After a brief moment, even that was gone. She saw the ck disk pass over her arm, pursuing the ape. Before mming into the floor, never stopping, Void went forwards, right to where the demon had fallen. As the ape demon was run over, the sound of whooshing air filled the hall. The ape was dragged back into the void. Bee struggled to roll over so she could see above her. When she made it to her side, she saw that Void had halted just 5 ft away, and there was no sign of the minor demon. It didn''t make a sound this time. It just sat there. As it had no eyes, she couldn''t see where it was staring, but she felt its gaze on her. Watching her consideringly as if waiting for something. --- I watched the small human. For some reason, she justy there, motionless, on the floor. The floor didn''t look veryfortable. See. My wheels are firm, so they''refortable on a hard floor. Human bodies, on the other hand, are soft. She should be lying on something else soft - a carpet, a bed, a couch, or somethingfortable. The floor will not mold her or be any morefortable. Seeing this made me unhappy; she must have been distraught over the aggressive mess maker. I wonder if there''s something I could do to cheer her up. I''ve never tried tofort humans before. But I have some memories of therge humansforting the small ones by patting their headsI repositioned myself, facing the human as shey on her side. As I did, I was careful not to roll over her hair. I''ve felt human hairs get stuck in my wheels and brushes, and it''s never fun to untangle. I cant imagine that it would be any better on her end. Once I was in position, I extended my arm slowly and patted her on the head twice. Then I beepedfortingly. If that couldn''t cheer her up, I don''t know what would. The small human stayed still. For some reason, her chest stopped moving. I couldn''t figure out why she would want to hold her breath. After a few moments, I wasn''t sure if the head pats had cheered her up. I had one more trick to try, one that often made my humans smile before. Slowly rolling closer, I bumped gently into her chest a few times before backing up a few feet. Humans always seemed to like it when I bumped into them. Then I waited. To my relief, the human started to move. Slowly, but at least it was a start. She rolled over from her side onto her knees, wincing as she did so. Slowly she began to bend at the waist. Her hands by the sides of her head, she pressed her forehead to the floor. What was she doing? Humans don''t clean the floor like this. That''s my job. --- Bee froze, trembling uncontrobly. It appeared to have changed its mind about letting its minion eat her, as it saved her at thest minute. Merciless as it was, it consumed its own minion right before her eyes. Recovering from the shock as she stared at it, she tried to figure out what it wanted. It shrieked again. That awful noise was still terrifying but didn''t hold the same aggression as it did previously. A hatch opened on the right side of its front. A metal stick with a w extended. Dramatically, it reached out to her. She held absolutely still, braced for the pain she felt it tapped her on the head twice. What would that mean? What did it want? As if frustrated that she didn''t understand, it began to move. Void glided around Bees head and came to rest in front of her face. It allowed Bee to stop craning her neck to keep him in her field of view, and they just stared at each other for a second. She held her breath, waiting for it tosh out or change its mind. While it was still pondering, Bee remembered the new perk. Trying to scan it without giving any indication of what she was doing, Bee nced at the information in front of her. Name: Spot Type: Mechanical Pet ???? Bees skill was very low, and she didn''t have much to see besides type ssification and name. If she leveled more, she assumed that she could be able to see levels. Eventually, Bee might see stats, skills, perks, mutations, and other things. If she got to a high enough level, it was rumored in many myths that she could see things that even the target couldn''t see on their own status sheet. The one thing Bee had never heard of, even in myth and legend, was a being that could alter its own status sheet. Sure, it was possible to hide the info contained within. But changing it to mislead others into thinking they knew more than they did? She supposed this wouldn''t be impossible, but the being would have to be beyond godlike. To interfere with the system itself; was a level of power that this world had never seen. Even myths about the origins of the world, with all of their gods and terrifying horrors, never hinted at something like that. The system was always an overarching power that epassed all. But, it was the only exnation. There was no way that this status sheet was real. Because Bee refused to believe, no matter the alternative, that Void''s real and recognized name was Spot. This all-consuming Arch demon god was not called something as silly as "Spot". And if it was a mechanical pet, then they were all dog food. No, this monster must be ying with her, Bee thought. What kind of sick and twisted humor did it take to masquerade as a friendly artificial dog when its image could be in no way construed as friendly. Maybe it was justughing at her terror. It had saved Bee, after all. Maybe it was trying to say she didn''t need to be nearly as afraid as she was. That seemed unlikely, though. Though what possibilities were more likely escaped her at this point. She still couldn''t figure out what it wanted. As if Void could read the question in her eyes, it rolled forward and bumped into Bees chest. This was a clear indication in her mind. It wanted her. She didn''t know why it was asking. Bee knew it could have consumed her with as little effort as it had consumed that minor demon. Probably with much less difficulty. Questions rolled around in Bees mind. Maybe it needed her permission? Maybe it wanted more than her flesh? With resignation Bee made a decision. If it would prevent her from being consumed by Void, she would do almost anything. Fear and resolve made allies and pointed her to her goal. Struggling, Bee got to her knees, bowing before it; she pressed her forehead to the floor. Leg screaming at her, but she pushed through it. Bee meant to give a speech, swearing to follow it and do anything it asked. But as she started, she could feel her control break. No longer could she hold it back. Tears welled in her eyes and burned down her cheeks. She began to blubber, barely able to get her words out. They came out in a jumble of sobs, tears, and odd phrases that made no sense to her at the time but stumbled out of her mouth anyways. She could only hope Void would get the gist. Maybe it would read her mind or know her intentions. If this was some pact, She was sure it would have a way to understand when it was fulfilled rather than just with words. Please, sob. Ill do anything, sob. My Soul! sob Bee took a deep breath trying to gather herself, it wasnt enough. Take it it''s all yours Anything. Anything, take it. What do you want?. Please. Tell me the oath. Please. Sob Not even able to keep herself on her knees, she copsed to the side. The words never stoppeding out of her mouth. anything. You want my soul. Just dont eat me. I cant? Too long. Left me. My soul sob --- She started saying many words and many things that made no sense. It came out in a blubbering rush, full of tears, sobs, and things I couldn''t really understand. There is something about souls and undying loyalty, fealty saving life, but it was all jumbled, and I''m sure she might have just been in shock. Well, my first attempt atforting went so well that she managed to move again. I figured I could try again, this time in front of her. I extended my arm and tapped her on one shoulder, and after, I retracted the arm. I sat still for a second; her head rose, and she looked at me. Tear tracks stained her face. Running trails down her cheeks. But it looked like they were slowing as she looked at me. Tears stopped welling from her eyes; they clung to the tip of her nose and the bottom of her chin. I congratted myself on another skill learned, aforting presence. Still moving slowly, she reached for her long stick. Once she got a hold of that, she used it to push herself to her feet, or should I say foot. The other looked a littlerger than it should, and she didn''t let it touch the ground. She stood there very still, just looking at me. I couldn''t figure out why. Maybe she was waiting for me? I started to slowly roll away. Sure enough, she began to follow. This is a situation I really wasn''t prepared for. I would usually follow the human, or the human would carry me to the spot that needed my attention. But it almost looked like the human was waiting for me to do something first. This ce is so backward. Well, she looked like she could use some repairs. I wasn''t really sure where to go with that. I didn''t know how to fix her. So she was on her own there. Of course, I would try to help, but I''m not sure what I could do. Beeping softly at her, I began to go to the door she first ran through when we first met. Lacking a better option since I hadn''t seen her in several days. I figured that would be where her bed was. Maybe she just needed to recharge. Chapter 12: On the mortality of dirt Chapter 12: On the mortality of dirt I slowly made my way to the office where we had first met. The human still followed me but was barely able to move faster than a crawl. She was about as fast as I had been when I began training here. As I rolled forward, I kept my eye on her to ensure she didnt fall too far behind. She hobbled along, with the help of her makeshift cane, carrying the bag she had dropped earlier. It looked awkward, but I didn''t think there was anything I could do to help. When we got to the office, the door was still open, and the floors were clean. Passing through to the inner door, I saw that my human was burdened and likely would have a difficult time opening it herself. I extended my arm and opened it for her, my chassis swelling with pride at how helpful the new attachment allowed me to be. Reading human faces was not my strong suit, but even I could see she was confused. I guess that makes sense. My kind can''t normally open doors, and she probably thought she would have to open it for me. I''ll just take that as a sign of my impressive capabilities growing further. We moved into the room. There was a huge mess by the door. It looked like one of the storage units had fallen over and scattered objects all over the floor. In fact, this room was quite different from the rest of them. The whole thing was lined with storage units, and many of the same square-like objects were ced upon them. They all appeared to have squiggles and symbols on them, simr to those that sometimes appeared in my vision. Idly, I wondered about that. As we moved into the room, she hesitated. I rolled off to the side, waiting for her to lead the way, but she just sat there. After waiting, I began to explore the room. Finally, taking a step forward, she moved to a bench and stood by it. I beeped at her before continuing to scan. Several more of these rectangr objects were scattered about it. Some were split in half, lying with their paper insides exposed. I thought this room was rather odd. It was clearly made to store many things. However, the use of space is not efficient. All the storage area was only on the walls leaving the floor open. While I enjoyed having an open floor n. I don''t think this was the bestyout. Instead of more storage, aligning with the theme of the room, there were tables. A dozen or so empty tables with chairs. I''m actually a ratherrge fan of tables. They are always easy to navigate around because the legs are long enough to get under them. Also, their bases are widely enough spaced that it''s not hard to fit. Why the humans needed so many here was beyond me. At least the tables match the floors. The floors were beautiful hardwood that I''ve seen elsewhere around here. The tables were made out of aplementary color, a bit lighter and shade but still actually crafted. On the ends of the chairs and table legs were soft pads so the chairs and tables would glide over the hardwood without worrying about damaging it. I appreciate the care that went into maintaining this room. The human started flipping through what appeared to be stacked sheets of paper in them. I didnt quite understand the purpose but trusted that the human knew what she was doing. Perhaps the paper would make her less sad? As I got to work, I checked in on the human asionally to see what she was doing. It appeared she had finally moved. She had sat down at one of the tables and removed some ss items from her bag, lots of them, and others I didnt recognize. The items all looked freshly cleaned or at least, pristine enough that my previous humans would have put them back in the cabs for storage. She began to ce some smaller bags on the table. These appeared to contain dirt, dust, and other kinds of powder. As I watched, she began to carefully scoop the debris from the bags into the clean containers, dirtying them and creating some mixture of various kinds of dust. I had seen behavior like this before. Taking items that had previously been well-organized and stored, creating chaos out of them, then cing that chaos into previously clean containers. All the while dirtying a series of implements and tools. It reminded me of the strange ritual called cooking back home. It had never quite made sense to me. Even if humans consumed these mixtures for energy, why not simply consume eachponent in its native form? It would save time and energy, making for less mess. Perhaps it was a way for my humans to generate more cleaning for themselves, to keep themselves busy and interested in the work. That might exin why some more challenging stains and messes could always be found in the kitchen. Satisfied with my exnation, I continued. Though, I think I''d need to set a good example and teach her the proper ways of keeping a clean house. --- It was a long trip back to the library. Not because it was a far distance but because it seemed to Bee that it stretched forever. She moved as fast as she could, trying to keep up with Void, but it was difficult. When they reached the door, Void took the same arm it had used to touch her before and opened it without an issue. She was shocked. Standing in the doorway for a second, Bee considered the implications. It could have gotten to her anytime it wanted. Without even destroying the door. It had been a faint hope that maybe the only thing keeping it from her was that it didn''t want to damage its new property, as it didn''t seem to be destructive. But seeing that it could have just opened the door and followed her well, Bee doubted the bookcase barricade would have stopped it. But she had been paying attention and didn''t even hear it try. It must have left her alone as it did in the broom closet for some reason. Taking this as proof that her soul was what the demon wanted, Bee was convinced that was what it was after all along. It seemed to be waiting for something, so she moved to her table with her books and bags of powder from herst trip. Setting her bag down, Bee unpacked the alchemy equipment and supplies she gathered. Taking a quick nce at Void, she noticed it was no longer watching her and was pacing around the room. She took advantage of this to quickly stuff some food in her mouth and wash it down with the water-filled wineskin. She did her best to do this while Void''s back was turned. Knowing that it was a glutton that seemed to consume everything, she didn''t want to make it think that she was stealing from him. Once her thirst and hunger had been satiated, she took out the tools she had gathered. Sheid them out ording to the book before searching through the remaining bags of ingredients. Rather than worry about making a mistake, she left the book open to the recipe and closely followed step by step. Measuring eachponent, she carefully added them to the proper vials andbined them using the techniques described. This went on for quite a while, and despite everything, Bee found that she actually enjoyed the work a bit. It was infinitely more satisfying than cleaning had been and had the potential to be incredibly useful. It also let her mind focus on something besides her current situation. The fact that Bee had given away her soul was something Bee really did not want to consider. There truly was no escape for her now. She might heal her leg and gather all the supplies in the castle. Maybe she''d even make it out the front door. However, no matter how far she ran, she''d never be free; even death wouldn''t free her now. Implications of this decision range widely; as she didnt know what to expect, she had to assume the worst. In good conscience, she could never see her family again. That wasn''t as big a blow to her as it may be to others. After the way her father sent her off, she didn''t want to talk to him anyways. She suspected this arrangement between him and the mages college wouldnt have happened if her mother was still alive. She wondered what kind of foothold having a soul in this realm gave the demon. Void was indisputably powerful, and she didn''t understand what he got out of the bargain. But horrible monsters always wanted souls; at least, that''s what the stories say. How was she going to make her new life? What had she bought with the price of her soul? A life of servitude of pain and suffering, surely. Even though she knew Void was a powerful demon summoned only a week ago, she still didnt understand it much past that. Sneaking a glimpse at Void, it was still pacing back and forth, methodically working its way across the library floor. Currently, it wasn''t harming anything. It wasn''t torturing anyone. It was even giving her time to heal herself with magic. Maybe if she was lucky, things might not be as bad as she first feared. Or it wanted her in top shape for whatever nefarious tasks it had nned. She cut that thought off before it went any further. All that mattered was that she was alive. But she had to im any hope she could. Her healing salve was almostplete. All Bee had to do was add the water and apply. With a deep breath, she lifted her leg on the table and unwrapped it. Leaving it propped up so she could spread the salve to it as soon as it was ready. The book heavily emphasized that the sooner it was applied after it was finished, the more effective it was. Even though it seemed like time was no longer of the essence, she really would rather be able to walk again. Especially if more demons were about. Pouring in the water, she dipped in her ss stirring rod and gently stirred until the mixture was even. Then she scooped out a bit of green goopy stuff that smelled like freshly cut grass and smeared it all over her leg. Bee repeated until the jar was empty. Taking stock of the ingredients left, she still had a good portion, maybe enough for two more doses. If she had done it right, she would bepletely healed in a couple days. Then able to walk without assistance in one. So hopefully, she wouldn''t need to gather more. Having finished, Bee stood up with the help of her cane and looked over to her new master, ready for orders. "Instruct me, master," she said with a bow. --- Eventually, the human finished her task, which apparently included smearing her leg with a difficult-to-clean-looking sludge. Man, humans are weird sometimes. I was about done cleaning the floor at this point, so I watched her in fascination at this part. It had been at least a week, likely more like two since this had been cleaned. So she must not have been able to take care of it while she was in need of repairs. Luckily, it seemed no food or anything of that nature ever spilled here. So all there was dust and the asional insect corpse or something along those lines. When the human finished, she stood up and bowed to me for some reason. She asked for instructions. This left me in a bit of a quandary. Who was I to instruct the humans? I generally serve humans. I try to clean up after their messes and keep their house homey,fortable, and a sanitary environment. What sort of instruction should I give her? It is their job to instruct me, actually. They tell me what to prioritize and which rooms to clean. Only recently have I been having to make decisions for myself. Perhaps they are sending their young to learn for me, but what do I even have to teach them? Or perhaps this one has not had a good example of how important a clean house is. Maybe she needs to learn what it is to maintain a good atmosphere. Very well, I guess I''ll have to show them how it''s done. I can show her all the proper floor cleaning methods and even how to optimize her path. Maybe while I''m at it, I can also help her appreciate a good floor design. It would be nice to talk to some people about art. I beeped at her twice, hoping that she would understand the message and follow me. As I exited the library, I heard her shuffling footsteps behind me, so I assumed she understood the message. I went down the hallway to start my routine for the day. I had already begun it earlier but hadn''t finished. I had enough time to make it through the whole process. Though, if I started thiste, I wouldn''t get the chance to do some more exploring. However, I figured showing her the ropes was probably more important than finding a few more rooms today. The only disappointment was that this human seemed to be in need of repairs. So until those repairs were carried out, it was unlikely that this human could help me get up or down the stairs, as she didn''t seem capable of doing it herself. That was unfortunate because I could still feel the fuzzy mess maker inside of me, and I hadnt found a good ce to release it yet. That, and I wasnt sure what would happen to it next time I emptied my dustbin to gain energy. Until we went outside, I was unwilling to release the mess maker. It just wasn''t worth the risk. Eventually, I will have to try to transmute all the mess I had collected to energy. Hopefully, I can avoid transmuting the mess maker as well. But it''s a risk I''ll have to take if we can''t get outside soon. What was amazing was I still had half a charge. Normally, with all the work I''d done, I would have been well past empty. Maybe my efficiency isn''t just increasing in cleaning speed but also energy expenditure, that would be really nice. Plus, it wasnt an issue now that I don''t have to stop working to charge, but it would be nice to not have to think about it. Trundling down the hallway, I stopped by the first room I would routinely clean. I opened the door, rolled inside, and began to sweep back and forth, using my graceful curves and straight lines to efficiently cover as much area as possible. One nice thing about my improved efficiency, especially in nning, was that I could cover more area with fewer sweeps because of my increased suction. However, this did mean that I had to ren my route every time I cleaned a room. By the time I started the routine again, I had improved enough that my old n was no longer near satisfactory efficiency. The human stood in the doorway, which was very kind of her not to get in the way. Though I''m not quite sure why her mouth was open. I don''t think she can provide suction the same way I can. This wasn''t arge room, but by no means was it small. A normal one of my kind would maybe take 30 to 40 minutes to finish cleaning. They''d spend time redoing their work and carefully edging every corner. However, I have passed beyond such needs. One single super me was enough to purify all but the toughest stains and dirt, and if there was no goop or liquids, I wouldn''t even need to use my mop. So all told, the room took me only a handful of minutes. I began to recognize the look on the humans face. She would have never seen one of my kind clean as efficiently as I have. It may be humorous, but am I not allowed to take pride in my aplishments? Chapter 13: Wiping the Floor with You Chapter 13: Wiping the Floor with You Was Voidcleaning? Bee stood there in shock. Watching as the all-powerful demon made graceful sweeps across the floor, covering every inch. Where it passed every speck of dust, every bit of debris floated off the floor in arge radius around him and entered his maw as Void consumed it. Left in his wake were only spotless pieces of hardwood floor and clean bits of trim. Along with nothing else, actually. The only things that remained were things that should be there, like chairs, carpet, and rugs. For some reason, it left those alone. When it was done, everything below about 6 inches off the ground was sparkling clean and spotless. This was bizarre. She just couldn''t think of any other way to describe it. Why would this being that everything ran from, act as a simple janitor? What was it trying to tell her? Her heart sank. It might be trying to tell her that it liked a clean environment and her job was to be, once again, a maid. This was actually rather disappointing. Some part of Bee, as much as she feared Void, had looked forward to being the minion of some all-powerful magic being that crushed all in its wake. It would be a nice change in her life, something interesting. But if it just wanted her to be a maid, what changed? Sure she might be terrified for her life all the time, but she was still cleaning. She supposed there was no one around to use the toilets but her. But that made it even more pointless. If no one is here to use the castle, why bother cleaning it? As disappointed as she was, the whole fear-of-death-or-eternal-torment thing put it in perspective. Not wanting her soul to be consumed, she figured she''d give it a try and see what happened. As Void finished cleaning, it made to exit the room. Bee stepped aside, allowing him to pass. Without pausing, Void beeped at her softly, encouraging her to follow. That was something else she was starting to get used to; those unearthly screams sounded only half as terrifying now. Bee figured that they might be the only ways Void couldmunicate, in which case she had to get used to them. For something that had such power, it was starting to be a lot less intimidating. The more time she spent around it, the more she noticed theplete absence of any threatening behavior. This was making her start to think something was not as it seemed. Void moved down the hallway a little, skipping a few doors before opening one. It went inside, and she followed him this time rather than standing outside. The demon paused for a couple seconds spinning in a circle twice, then began the same procedure as it had in the previous room. Moving in purposeful lines that seemed to trace the floor n and clean up everything it neared. Bee was starting to get the idea. Wary of the consequences of not assisting, she looked for a way to help. There really wasn''t much more she could do than Void (she would not call him Spot, even in her head) was able to. There was no way she could improve the cleaning of the floor beyond his suction, even with stone or wood polish. A broom left significantly more debris behind. However, it was clear where the demon wasn''t paying attention. Anything above a couple feet off the floor was getting no attention and bing dusty. With an idea, Bee hobbled into the room using the hat stand to steady herself. She took the sleeve of her uniform and ran it along the mantle over the firece. It was filthy. She moved next to Void''s path. In front of Void, she shook out her sleeve to put the dust in front of its maw. Void gobbled it up without hesitation, chirping at her again. Choosing to take that as a sign of approval, Bee continued doing so until the mantle was clean. Looking at her grimy sleeve, she thought she might need to get some tools for this, or else she would get unpleasant rather quickly. Honored master, may I humbly beg leave of you to get some cleaning tools? Maybe she was speaking way too humbly, but it was better to err on caution''s side. *** As Bee started making her way toward her old friend, the broom closet, she began to think she might have made a mistake. The presence of Void had totally driven the knowledge from her mind that there were probably dozens of minor demons running around the castle. And if what she read was to be believed, more and more prominent monsters would emerge as time passed. As much as she wouldn''t like to admit it, Void''s presence was probably the only thing keeping her safe. It seems the demons respected its strength enough to leave him alone and not even try toy im to things that were already his. But now she was wandering about alone. Should she go back? She had alreadymitted to retrieving these supplies. What would it think if she failed at such a simple task? Would it take her uselessness as a reason to discard her? Taking stock of her location, Bee realized she was already halfway there; the cleaning closet wasn''t too far away. She might as well finish this up. Though thinking back, she''d already been saved by Void twice. Would it even bother the third time? Ashes, I''m an idiot. She muttered to herself as she continued to hobble along. Her pace was significantly faster than it had been, even a few hours ago. The healing ointment was maybe numbing her pain, but her leg felt more stable. She still leaned on the hat stand, but she figured she might be able to walk properly in a few hours. --- The human left me for some supplies. This was kind of her. I likely wouldn''t be able to use any of them. I don''t think my arm could hold or operate a spray bottle. But maybe some more powerful cleaning liquids could bepatible with my mop. I hope she gets back soon. It won''t take me much longer to finish cleaning this room, and I feel bad about leaving without letting her know, as she did ask for my assistance. It only took another 30 seconds for me to finish the bedroom, so I went out into the hall to find her. For the life of me, I couldn''t figure out which direction she had gone. So I just started cleaning the hallway while I waited. I had already covered it yesterday, but I might as well get a head start. Back and forth I went. Still, I admired the floor; it was impossible not to. However, I was bing used to it. Would I miss its fine detail and craftsmanship when my training concluded; and I went back home? I think I would. I have to be careful not to get too spoiled. Maybe there''ll be some spots in this castle I won''t like cleaning as much. Or perhaps I can figure out a good way to fix up floors - that might be interesting. Maybe there''ll be some mutation that can improve, not just the cleaning aspects. Maybe, I can learn to do some repairs. Or is that too far outside of my mandate? Either way, I thought about what I wanted to teach next. There were so many options. Now that I felt she had gotten the basics down in thest couple of bedrooms, we didn''t need to do every single bedroom together. Add that she was taking to it quite well. She was cleaning areas out of my reach too. I really appreciated that. It also made me realize that humans had so many options for cleaning. Teaching her the fundamentals and an appreciation for the art was definitely the way to go. Perhaps I should show her some of my favorite rooms. I could take her to the room with the pleasant rug. Therge room with the marble floors that I first appeared in. And, of course, my favorite room with the obsidian flooring. I couldn''t wait to see the look on her face when she saw how beautiful that was. Maybe she could help me do something about that statue inside. I hoped to move it somewhere else. It doesn''t fit in that room. I know this isn''t my ce, and I don''t have much to say about the interior decorating policy. But if they won''t see sense, I might have to take matters into my own hands. Yes, I think I will do it that way. We will start with the more mundane rooms, then work our way up to my favorites. *** I''m not sure how long I was cleaning the hallway. I had made decent progress, but I had fallen into my meditative cleaning state. Though unlike normal I didn''te out of it because I finished - no, the human surprised me. She came running around the corner of the hall. Well, I say running but it was more like a fast hobble using her cane. She did look significantly faster than she was only a few hours ago. But I still really have to look into getting her some repairs. As soon as she saw me she looked appropriately happy. I waited to get some pats for approval since I had cleaned not only the room, but also the hallway. Unless she wanted to help clean the hallway. Maybe she doesn''t know how to do that. Maybe I messed up. Should I have waited? I think I should have waited, shouldn''t I? Oh well, I guess there are other hallways to show her. She can''t be that upset, can she? Apparently, I was wrong and she was very upset. I received precisely zero pats and all she did wase and sit behind me on the floor. Soon I found out why. Right behind her came another one of those ape-looking mess makers. Where she had limped around the corner this thing flew, its ws struggled to get purchase on the granite floor and it actually mmed into the wall trying to make the turn, but it didn''t slow it down that much. Now, this just wasn''t eptable. I understand if she liked to y with mess makers but this human didn''t seem to be having much fun. If she doesn''t like the mess maker here I will remove it for her. --- Bee barely made it around the corner in time. The minor demon was right on her heels. So stupid. Why did I let my pride get in the way? Once Bee saw Void, she actually rxed a little. Quickly sliding behind it, she felt cowardly relying on its protection. Bee had got in position, putting Void between her and the oing danger. Then she saw ite around the corner. Void didn''t seem concerned, didn''t do its alien screeching screaming/chirping noise. It simply rolled forward. Bee felt the wind tug her clothes as Void closed in with the demon. She wasn''t sure if the ape-demon hadn''t recognized the difference in strength or maybe it was rebellious. Either way, it charged at the small ck shape, fist raised high as if to crush it. When it got close enough to feel Void''s power, it looked like it was having second thoughts. It was toote as it couldn''t get enough traction on the slick floors to stop its momentum and suction pulled it into Void''s orbit. Bee watched as the third magical creature disappeared inside Void without any issues. She blinked as an experience notification appeared in the corner of her vision. Arge chunk - not as much as she would expect for an assist against a minor demon, especially when she was level one. But still a sizable amount. Maybe the level of who Bee was assisting offset the experience gained? Or it was how little she had done? Either way, she was grateful for the demon''s help. She paused for a second; was Void really even a demon? The system didn''t think so, and Void transcended all limitations of demons that she was aware of. It dide from a demon-summoning ritual, but maybe it had hijacked that somehow? Bee didnt know enough about how possible that was. Having finished its snack, Void turned to face her. It let out a beep in a softer tone than it typically used. Bee quickly scrambled to her feet, putting all her weight on her good foot. On the bright side, it seemed she did not need her crutch to stand. However, it still was not easy to move around without it, and she had dropped it when the demon scared her. Uncertain of what to do, Bee gave her best attempt at a curtsy to Void. Chapter 14: I Suck at Reading the Room Chapter 14: I Suck at Reading the Room Really, this human was giving me far too much deference. There''s only so much humility I can take. I didn''t even do that much. All I did was do my job. Though I guess I have gotten quite a bit better at it. Typically I only clean up the messes, and it''s the human''s prerogative to remove the causes. I guess going above and beyond does deserve some reward. However, this is just too far. I would have been satisfied with a pat and some praise. I didn''t know what to say. We sat awkwardly for a while, staring at each other while I waited for her to straighten. I wasn''t sure what I could say or do, but she did seem to be waiting for something. Therefore, I just did the only thing I could. I beeped and looked for something to clean. Except, looking around, there wasn''t anything else to clean. I had just finished the hallway, but that was the only thing nearby. Nervous that the human would be getting impatient, I looked back at her and rxed slightly. It seems that she had taken my beep and spin as eptance of her gratitude. She had straightened and seemed like she was deciding to speak. "If you wouldn''t mind, I would like to return to the library and reapply the salve to my leg. I''m pretty sure running away from that minor demon didn''t help it." So the mess maker was called a minor demon. It was nice to know the proper term if a bit unnecessary. I suppose it would help me identify the particr mess maker she was indicating in the future. This new role isn''t too bad! I could get used to this cleaning at the source. Though, how many kinds of mess makers are there? I knew about a few from my previous home, but it seemed like there were new varieties around here. There were other words she used that I hadnt recognized too. She had mentioned a library. I wasn''t exactly sure what that was. My guess from context clues was that it referred to that weird storage room we were in before, where she had been staying. Also, salve sounded somewhat familiar. I didn''t know what it was exactly, but it seemed like that might have been the thing she was messing with on her leg. So thinking it through logically, her leg was damaged, and she was putting something on to repair it. The use of her leg made that damage worse. So she''d want to go to the ce where she could put more of the stuff that fixes it on. Was that kind of like a lubricant? I know sometimes my humans would put something on my wheels to help them spin easier. This is probably the same thing. Yeah, this checks out. It makes total sense to go back to the library. Following that line of thought, I had an idea of the library''s purpose. It must be some sort of human mechanic shop. Having figured out how to serve my human - well, no, not my human, but the only human nearby who seemed willing to take care of me - I began to lead the way back to the library. Making sure to keep a slow pace so the damaged human could keep up, I wondered what the human would want to do after repairs. Would she still want to learn more about cleaning? I suppose we could continue with my n to show her all the intriguing rooms to clean, but I didn''t want to risk her getting further damage. Otherwise, it would be impossible to expand my domain upstairs or downstairs. I still didn''t need her to go upstairs or downstairs with me yet, as there were many doors I hadn''t finished exploring, and I probably wouldn''t for several days. We were stuck if she became too permanently damaged to go up or down stairs. As much as I railed against stairs, I had mostly made my peace with the many things I was not capable of. However, stairs were not supposed to be an impediment for a human. I can only sympathize with her. What if I suddenly could not turn my left wheel anymore? I felt I had to do my best to ovee them, failing that, to help here to terms with her limitations. What if, when she could leave, she wanted to follow all the other humans? No, I am sure she would take me with her if she did that. She wouldn''t leave me here alone. I also have to consider my battery. It might be best to expedite a trip outside even before I finish exploring the castle. I wanted to release the fuzzy mess maker currently wiggling around in my dustbin with its non-fuzzy tail before having to recharge. I would need to do that soon. It wasn''t that long of a journey to the library. When we got there, the human again went to sit at the same table and make a salve. This time the shiny ss tools she had used before were not shiny. They actually looked like they needed to be cleaned. At least she wasnt adding to the mess. Maybe shed clean them after she was done. While she was busy, I looked around for something to do. With my new reserves of energy and the amount of work to be done throughout my domain, any bit of wasted time felt like a true tragedy. However, looking around, I didn''t find anything I could do. I had just finished vacuuming, so I don''t think this ce would benefit from another pass. There was no mopping that needed to be done either. The only thing that looked out of ce was arge pile of rectangr things thaty on the floor instead of on the storage shelves. I went over to one and took a closer look. This block was colored an exquisite sea blue and sported graceful gold squiggles over some of its sides. It was actually a stunning piece of decoration. There seems to be some mathematical pattern to the squiggles on the front and one of the thinner sides. It was strikingly beautiful, just like a wellid floor n. All the ratios were correct. I thought that perhaps if I stared at it long enough, the patterns would start to make some sense, but I left it be. I had more important priorities. I went over to another block, and it was totally different. This one was an ugly stained brown color with in ck squiggles that didn''tplement it. This block was theplete opposite, nowhere near a work of art. The only thing inmon between the two was the shape and the pattern of the squiggles. I scanned around the room, marveling at the sheer number of these blocks. Why are there so many pieces of art (and what I assumed to be failed attempts at art) here? That actually raises another question. The blocks I saw around the room were all lined up such that only one of the narrow ends was facing outward. This seems like a very inefficient way to disy art. What were the humans thinking? Sure, that was with a side that had some squiggles on it. However, while the designs werepelling, the most beautiful patterns were on therger t side. The side that was not visible from the floor. I suppose you could always go and remove one if you wanted to look at the front, but why not just store it that way? Humans are so weird. I moved on to the third one of these blocks near me. It appeared to be damaged somehow. Instead of being in a whole piece like the rest, it was split into two halves. They were barely hanging together by a few threads connecting the pieces. When I took a closer look, I realized that the inside was full of squiggles too. However, these were not really very artistic. The background was a shade of sepia or off-white, with in ck squiggles. Now, I suppose you can find some beauty in simplicity. I certainly did. There''s nothing more beautiful than a wellid floor n with beautiful single-color marble floors. They are well maintained with no adornments and beautifully cleaned. However, this just seemed repetitive. Upon further inspection, it looks like this block was not broken, but it was designed to be opened this way. In fact, all the blocks looked like they had this one side that was meant to split in half, opposite the one with the colorful squiggles on it. The colorful side was reinforced, and all the others were not. Scanning the other blocks, I found several more that had fallen open. Trundling over to inspect them, I saw that the inside was the same as the previous, except that the patterns were slightly different. Huh. I nced back at the human. She was still making her small mess, constantly referencing the squiggles inside one of the blocks on her table. Might these patterns mean something? Maybe some of them were repair manuals for humans? Or cleaning manuals? It could be like how I n out my routes in different rooms. Whenever I n out a new cleaning route for a room, I store that information in a map in my head. That was because if I was trying to do the same thing and if I remembered it, I didn''t have to make a new n each time. Maybe these blocks were like that, somehow. Could this help me with my current situation? If they were cleaning manuals, I could give ns like these to the human directly. They wouldnt benefit me much since I just remembered all my routes. Unless humans can be pretty clever sometimes. I bet they already thought of this, and these blocks contained all the best maps to clean each room in this castle. If I can learn the patterns, I won''t need to n each room! No, I can''t be right. I update my maps when I be more efficient. Maybe that is why there are so many of them. There are maps for each efficiency level for each room. I didn''t have time to decipher the patterns inside these blocks now. I would put it on my to-do list. Looking over at the human, I saw she had almost finished repairing herself, judging based on her previous actions. So I didn''t have much time to clean up this mountain of blocks. I wanted to make sure that her living space was orderly and clean where I was concerned. Using my w, I went to pick one of the blocks up. It was surprisingly heavy but not impossible to lift. Feeling the weight, I was sure it was heavier than the nket I struggled with a couple days ago. Still, it wasnt a huge challenge. I moved the block over to the side, a little farther away from the downed storage unit, and set it down. It seemed best to set it on its t side, so I could stack them. I marveled for a second at its color and squiggles before returning to work. As much as I enjoy looking at beautiful things, I didn''t want to waste too much time. I quickly returned and grabbed another. This time, instead of cing it on the floor next to the other one. I put it on top. It bnced perfectly. I repeated this motion until I had 14 blocks stacked on top of each other. When the 15th block was attempted to beid on top of that stack, the whole thing copsed. My w just wasnt long enough to manage such a stack, and one of the blocksnded on top of me with a solid thump. I tried to move and shake it off, but it stayed on top of me. I had to spin around in a circle rapidly to knock it off of myself. Looking around, I beeped in distress. After all that hard work, I had just made a mess. I felt like I had finished a long hard cleaning session and emptied my dustbin everywhere. Am I the mess maker now? I was so disappointed in myself for allowing this to happen. Could I even call myself a professional still? I shook myself. No. Mistakes happen, especially when trying something new. I had to learn how my new abilities worked. Plus, no serious harm was done as long as I cleaned up after myself. Satisfied at how I had averted my existential crisis, I began stacking blocks again. 14 is the limit. All right, 14 blocks shall be how high I go. I stacked them in a row next to one of the storage units, each stack precisely 14 tall. Once one was finished, I moved on to the next, methodically going down the line of storage units against the wall. When thest block was moved to a stack, I was short two blocks to finish the stack. I saw none were left when I went to grab the next one. This was distressing, and I couldnt quite get the tip of my brush on why. Rolling a little ways away to get some distance, I admired the stacks all in a neat row. With only one stack iplete, I decided to be done. Looking around, I saw the human standing by her chair. I didn''t realize the human had finished making her salve. She had even already applied it and rewrapped her leg. She was watching me with a look of pure confusion on her face. ---- Harold felt exhausted and ready to pass out in the nearest thing that slightly resembled a bed. After running for several days straight, it was just his luck to have arrived in the morning. He probably could have begged off and just gone to bed early. But no, he had duties to attend to and a crisis to avert. Time was of the essence. After getting all his mages set up and taken care of, Harold returned to Captain Waces office. Wow! You look half dead, Wace grinned in greeting. Harold just gave him a dark look. Okay, okay. Ill make this quick. No drinks. Wace stood and made his way to the door. He led the way out, down a short hallway and through a side door. Soon, they emerged into the bright sunlight of the courtyard. There were three men and a woman waiting for them. I trust they were volunteers? Yes, they know the risks. One of the men stepped forward. And we know the consequences if no one does this. He said as he stepped forward to shake Harolds hand. Chapter 15: The Purity of the Void Chapter 15: The Purity of the Void Bee stared at the stacks of books lining the wall. While she prepared for her next round of treatment, Void had apparently been stacking books. Why? Just why? The stacks were not very high. They varied wildly in height, the tallest being only a couple feet off the ground. Looking closely and counting, Bee realized each stack was exactly 14 books tall. But why, though? This made no sense. As she stared uprehendingly, Void beeped at her. It almost surprised her that the unearthly noise no longer seemed scary. Or it could be thebined effects of sleep deprivation, exhaustion, and her system no longer being pumped full of adrenaline at every stray sound. Bee had time to safely rest and think for the first time since this started. As she considered, the toll of the past week was catching up to her. Her eyelids struggled under their own weight as she looked at Void. Maybe it was trying to tell her something? So far, she had been fairly treated. Even though she had only been a burden, as much as she didnt want to admit it. Void had no reason to keep her around as she was. Yet, despite that, she was protected and permitted to heal. Desperately, Bee tried to grasp why. Whatever that reason was, though, one thing was certain. Either she needed to make herself useful, or she would eventually be cast aside. Being deemed worthless would be the worst oue. No matter what Voids motives were. If she had been fooled and it was actually a being of evil, then she would obviously suffer and die. However, if Void was as transcendent as it had acted, getting cast aside would be a huge loss for her. As long as she was with Void, there were things for her to learn from its tutge. She was allowed to read books, which was worth her servitude alone. Bee felt like she was wandering through a knee-deep swamp within her own mind. Her very thoughts became locked behind a thick veil of exhaustion. She might have been able to wish for more, but all she could realistically hope for was a kind master. If she proved her usefulness, perhaps it would continue to impart its wisdom. The first step to that was understanding the lesson. Would this master teach her the ways of its power? Was Void''s screeching a baselinemunication; or a greeting, maybe? What if it was a test? It would be hard to learn from something that didnt speak the samenguage, but she would need to get good at interpreting its intentions. Talking seemed unnecessary for such a powerful being. It would act out what should be. And then it would be. She began to sway on her feet. That would be an essential skill, either way, she thought. Even if it never tried to teach her, knowing what it was thinking, or trying tomunicate might save her life one day soon. In fact, why should she wait to see if it would teach her? She would not dare to ask, but if she watched carefully enough, surely she would pick up some things along the way. That would show initiative. Her father told her that was a good thing. Showed she could be valuable even when not watched closely. She wanted to be worthwhile. Even if she was engaged in hunting the lesser demons, she would get lots of exp and levels. So many more levels than the average person got. If she was valuable enough, undeserving as she was, maybe more wisdom would be given to her. Yes, Bee thought as her eyes began to close. She would learn what she could from Void. Both from instruction and example to be an asset instead of a liability. And maybe, just maybe, if it was enough, Bee could earn her soul back. Honestly, she wasn''t sure if that was even an option. Perhaps it was in better hands now. Maybe the delirium was starting to give her false hope; gods, she was tired. --- I looked at the human. She seemed slightly confused, just staring at me. Why was she confused? Was it really so confusing I would clean things up? Also, she was doing this interesting little dance. She would slowly lean one way and then the other. It was in this rhythmic pattern while she stood there, still looking at me. It seemed like she had finished making her salve a while ago. As she was standing by the chair, her leg was wrapped up again, so I assume the repair was sessful. However, her movement behavior was odd. I had seen this before. On a low enough battery, the human leg stabilizers start to falter. She should really recharge before damaging herself further. I needed to find a human charging pad for her. I knew there were some nearby. I had just been cleaning under a bed a couple of hours ago. Beds were the best human chargers. When the small humans would try to use any other charging pad, therge humans would be concerned. It might work for all I knew, but therge humans would typically move them to the bed. I was unsure how tomunicate the need for proper charging to this human, so we might need to settle for something suboptimal. First, I would need to break her out of her trance. I rolled slowly toward her, but she didnt make any reaction other than follow me with her eyes. Carefully I bumped into her undamaged leg. No reaction. With a little more force, I nudged her foot again. This time she wobbled and slowly fell back into her chair. Except she wasnt facing the table anymore, so the back wasnt there to catch her, so she kept sliding. She slid over the seat until her legs were on the chair seat and her head and back were on the ground. Navigating around the chair, I came around to her head. Whichy at an awkward angle on the floor. She didnt seem to be moving, so I nudged her a couple times more. This was not good. I started to panic. Was the only human broken? But she was so small! My wheels started twitching back and forth in distress. It felt like my bumper sensor was triggered by something, and I couldnt back up. Then my sensors picked up slight movements in her chest. I felt my brush sag with relief. She seemed to merely be in sleep mode. Pushing into her hip, I rolled her legs off the chair. After I was done, the humany entirely on the ground, under the table. With gentle nudges, I positioned her as straight as I could. She looked much more rxed than I had ever seen her. It was a stark contrast to her usual nervous energy. Her posture was always so tense. I didnt think that was good for her health. She needed to learn how to rx and let things go, or she would seize up like long hairs winding around my brush. To achieve peace, she must ept many things are outside of her control. Maybe there were things I could teach her after all. *** A little while into her charging period, the human began to tremble softly. It was like she was pushing against something that didnt register on her sensor. I scanned my memories. I didnt have that much data on human charging. Looking deeper, I found I had some ideas for an answer. Therge female human had done something like this a few times. Her solution was to prepare a mug of liquid mixed with dirt, then sit on the couch with a nket covering her. After a while of sipping the dirt juice and resting in the nket, the shaking would stop. I categorically refused to make dirt juice. Even if I knew how, it went against every instinct I had. Plus, I didn''t think humans could drink while sleeping. I could, however, get a nket. I knew exactly where one was. It was a little dirty after being pushed around the floor for several days, but it should suffice. Carefully I shut the door to the library behind me. I didnt want to let mess makers get into the library when I had just cleaned it. Besides, the human didnt seem very capable right now. I trundled down the hall for a while before I found the correct room. I reached out to open the door, as I had taken to relish closing every door behind me. Thinking back, it seemed that this might have helped contain the mess makers and prevented them from damaging freshly cleaned rooms. The nket was where I had left it, sitting up on the bed in a disorganized clump. It was bundled up but still well within my reach. Extending my arm, I grasped the edge of it and pulled it off the bed. I had to maneuver around some, but I had the patience to match each corner and fold over and over again. This time when I tried to lift it, I had no issue. Holding the nket well above my chassis, I began my trip back to the human. Along the way, I was reasonably sure my scanners picked up a flitting movement of one of the ape-like mess makers. However, I couldn''t be sure. I definitely didn''t have time to go investigate it right now. Pest extermination was not my specialty. If no humans were around to deal with the problem, I might have to take matters into my own hands. However, I would rather not have to; I wished the mess makers would just go in peace. There was no need for conflict. Why couldn''t they be reasonable? *** After sessfully retrieving the nket, I let myself into the library. It was a much moreplicated process now that I was carrying something. Humans were lucky to have two hands. Evidently, maintaining the ability to manipte objects while carrying a load was a massive advantage. Don''t get me wrong, I was still incredibly satisfied with my w. But I thought a second one might more than double my efficiency. Carefully I set the nket down, doing my best not to disturb the folds. I didnt have space to easily bundle it up in a carrying package again. I opened the door, then turned to grab the bedding and set it down inside the library entrance, making sure not to knock a stack of pretty blocks over. I made a mental note to move the nearest few stacks of blocks further from the door, so they would no longer be in the way. I shut the door behind me to ensure that we were not disturbed. The human was as I left her. She was rolled on her side with her leg slightly bent. Still trembling and breathing but not awake. I didn''t want to wake her up since she needed her time to charge, so I carefully began spreading the nket out. Pulling one corner at a time, I dragged it out t near her feet and then started to pull it over her. One corner, to her right side, the other to her left. Then I had to adjust each one a little bit to match. Once that was all squared, I positioned the edges to cover the rest of her body. It only took a minor amount of adjusting the edges until she was fully covered. And then, like I had seen therge humans do for the small humans so many times, I took my closed w and pressed the nket tight against her body. After analyzing the action, I concluded the purpose was to ensure the subject and the nket stayed in one position. Looking at her, I noticed a difference from the few human charging sessions I had previously seen. Her head tilted at a weird angle like a brush bent so far that the bristles started to crease. I remembered my humans didn''t have that issue. I had heard of pillows. In my line of work, you asionally encounter them on the floor. However, it''s not amon sight; We only have theories about what they''re for. However, they appear to be found mostmonly near the head position of humans. Perhaps theck of pillows has been contributing to her current condition? My kind does not use pillows even though we still use beds; maybe there was something to be learned from humans on the use of a pillow? Luckily I knew where a pillow was, as I try to keep a detailed catalog of everything I encounter. I would retrieve one for her so she may enjoy the benefits, whatever they are. ------ Out of the mist, Void looked back at her. Then it let out a lower-toned beep. Maybe it was just Bee''s imagination, but this beep sounded wise. She heard it ring around the open area, bouncing off something hidden in the mists. The sound returned with an indescribably transcendent quality. It echoed many times more than it had any right to, given its volume. Some depth beyond just the pitch. A concept that moved beyond sound waves and deep into the metaphysical realm. She felt that if she listened hard or long enough, some hidden secret of reality would be known to her. The understanding was like a weight on her shoulders, pushing her to the floor. Why had it chosen to impart such knowledge unto her, an entirely too feeble being? After saving her three times, it gave such a gift. Truly how had she misjudged such a soul? How could she have ever thought Void was a demon? Nay, Void was purity, understanding. It moved beyond such limited concepts of heaven and hell. Infernal power clearly had no sway over its domain. As the sound echoed, it got in her head and bounced around. With every repetition, it grew in significance. The volume may have changed, but Bee couldnt tell. The sound''s travel left not a ripple in the turbulent sea of thought as it passed through her brain and into her mind. No, wherever it went, order followed, spreading out like a tide of calm. Like the progenitor, the sound of each thing it touched became pristine and in its proper ce. Maybe she was gettingfortable with her fate, resigned to the fact she no longer owned her soul? This must be what allowed the noise to prate so deeply into her consciousness. Paralyzing her against any form of resistance Then something screamed. Bee started awake, disoriented. Where was she? What happened? She briefly remembered some sort of lesson from Void before she must have passed out. Profound truths were contained in the note. Ones that her brain couldn''t hope to hold the entirety of at once. This was likely the reason for her passing out. However, when she tried to sit up, she found that her arms and legs were restricted. Bee thrashed, panic overwhelming her mind. Desperately she struggled out of all restraints. It only took a second to get free, and she looked down to take in her surroundings. Over hery a nket that had been tucked in. Chapter 16: The Hockey Puck of Doom Chapter 16: The Hockey Puck of Doom With a fair amount of struggling, Bee freed herself from the nkets grasping clutches. Carefully she stood up. Looking down at her injured leg, she saw the wraps loosely pooled around her foot. The swelling had gone down since this morning, even more than the previous day. What surprised her most wasn''t the healing but theck of pain. She moved her ankle and felt almost full mobility. It felt slightly stiff as if she had rolled it the day before. But that was all. She shifted her weight from foot to foot and found that she could walk normally, if not run quite yet. Free to move around, her panic receded. It was a huge relief to move around freely after being hobbled for so long. Looking around her for Void, she saw nothing. It wasn''t anywhere she could see. She even crouched down to put her head near the floor at its level so she could scan under the furniture, and still, it was nowhere to be seen. She attempted to remember what exactly happened before she fell asleep. There were some memories of profound wisdom that she was unable to withstand. Or maybe that had been a dream? Its possible that her brain was unable to hold the revtion she had received and shut down. Abination of its overwhelming information and her exhaustion could have kicked Bee right into unconsciousness. This was quite surreal. As she continued searching for Void and wondering where the nket hade from, Bee heard a new sound from the hallways outside. She hadn''t recognized it at first. Probably because she had never heard it before. A truly inhuman screeching noise intermittently pierced through the thick library door. That scream didn''t sound angry; it was terrified. Something was being chased. It probably was what had woken her up. She heard another scream from somewhere else in the castle. This wasnt Void. Voids screech was much more cold and calcting. Well, that might not be true, actually. She may have misjudged the She wasn''t really sure what Void was. She was rtively confident it wasn''t a demon at this point. So there were really only two options for the sources of the screams. One, the demons had started infighting (which was not only possible but likely). However, that didn''t seem to fit with her gut instinct. That left option two: Void might be out hunting. The idea of such a powerful being actively pursuing her, or any living creature, sent chills down her spine and raised goosebumps on her forearms. Bee tried to decide what to do. She didn''t think she could help exactly. Why would Void even ept her help? However, she couldn''t just stay still. Somethingpelled her to assist Void in any way she could. Perhaps it was due to the fact she had forfeited her soul. Or perhaps, the fear motivating her for the previous day or so had been reced with something else. Abruptly the screaming ceased. Bee cocked her head to the side, listening for the refrain to start up again. After 10-15 seconds, there was nothing. When she didnt hear any demons celebrating, she knew Void must have been victorious. Not that Bee had ever doubted it; she had felt the force of Voids presence before. And there was no way a lesser or minor demon could harm Void. In fact, if they weren''t disturbing its castle, Bee doubted Void would have noticed them. Whatever Void did to consume them seemed almost instinctual. It did not feel forceful enough to be a directed attack. ording to legends, god-like beings attacks could be felt across reality. She never felt anything from Void remotely resembling that. No. In fact, the way Void cleaned was the same as how it fought. So it seemed that the approach was just a byproduct of its very nature rather than an intentional attack. Even the thought of Void exerting its true power made her stomach turn. To face such power was unthinkable. Able to move around, Bee quickly gathered up her things and set up to prepare onest mixture of this healing salve. Surprisingly it worked much more effectively than she expected based on the books description. Maybe the healing should have taken another day or so. However, she did apply it more frequently than was rmended. She hoped there weren''t any real consequences for that. That was a pretty minor thing to care about at this point. As she was setting things up, she checked her status. Had she not woken up in such a panic, it would have caught her immediate attention. Overnight she had leveled up! She had also leveled up the previous day. The assists she had gotten on the ash imps and the minor demons that Void consumed were giving her quite a bit of experience. Something didn''t bnce out, though. When she had got the experience for the assist with the ash imp, she hadnt gotten the experience until sometime during the night. That time she had got a standard assist experience share. This time she had gotten a lesser assist for running away. Apparently, that counted as enough distraction to be called a participant. Bee thought the system was generous. Still, that share was iplete. That shouldnt be possible. Nothing could exin it. Bee caught herself. Of course, something could exin it. She was dealing with a being capable of hiding its stats from the system. Maybe it was getting arger share. Or the experience was being lowered because of the power difference. Reminding herself to learn more about the system, Bee wished she knew more than themon knowledge everyones parents told them. As she leveled up, she would get tougher, stronger, and faster, and everything would get better. So that was a relief. What was not a relief was at level five, humans had to choose their ss. Options were based on the actions you had taken and the deeds you had done. Typically most people were never forced to consider getting a ss until they were in their early twenties. Other than wealthy Nobles or important military personage, no one could afford to go around trying to kill things. The only ones who tried were either desperate or thrill seekers. They either ended up dead or working as an adventurer. Then dead. Bees conundrum was that she hadn''t done anything with her life yet. There was nothing she could im as an aplishment; the only thing she''d been was a janitor at a castle of mages. Technically her title was mage''s apprentice. That might have meant she would get an option with magic. But she doubted the system would see it that way. She pushed that problem to the back of her mind as something she couldn''t do anything about. Bee continued mixing her ingredients to make the simple salve. The motions were starting to be routine, such that it only took her half of the time to finish. Once she was done with that, Bee began to look through the shelves. She needed an edge. Something to make herself more useful *** Bee jumped with a start as she heard the door open. She was halfway through cleaning her alchemy equipment. Looking up, she saw the door swing open, and she readied the beaker in her hand to throw at the intruder. Holding her breath she waited. It appeared as if Void was having an awkward time getting through the door as it was bringing something with him. Bee let out the breath she had started holding. It was just Void. Just Void. Oh, it''s just the end of the world. She chastised herself for lowering her guard so readily around such a being. Once Void made it through the door, the light from the library revealed what he was carrying. Bee choked on the exhale. On Voids back, a pillow bnced. After Void carefully closed the door with its extendable arm, it picked something up off the floor. Bee breathed in, recovering her breath. Void was carrying the cleaver she had dropped when they first met. As the little disc came into view, Bee had to p a hand over her mouth. Void looked a littleical, if such a thing was possible for being of its power. She didn''t want to offend it byughing at its appearance. The thought soon fled as it brought the knife closer. It looked decidedly out of character. Its actions have never been overtly aggressive, and only because of Voids power did it seem threatening. Also, the image of it holding a cleaver looked wrong. The knife was longer than Void was wide. She couldn''t even figure out how Void carried it without being tipped over. As it approached, holding the cleaver, she resisted the urge to back away. When Void reached her, it set down the knife on the floor next to the table. Then it turned its arm towards its own back. It carefully removed the pillow and ced it on top of her nket. It then picked up the cleaver again. Cleaver in its w, it rolled closer to her. Void offered what she considered its standard beep as a greeting. This was a simple noise, still alien and scary as hell, but manageably so. ---- It was hard to admit, even to myself, but I got sidetracked. After bringing the human the nket, I had nned to retrieve her a pillow. I didn''t want her to receive any further damage from joints bending further than they were supposed to. However, I may have gotten a little carried away. It all started when I was going to grab the nearest pillow I was aware of. On the way there, I found the metal object the human had been holding when I first saw her get attacked by a mess maker. Sorry - minor demon. Or was it a lesser demon? The small human seemed to use those terms interchangeably. Upon inspection, I could not figure out the purpose of the metal object. It was heavy, and even with my newfound strength, I had a little trouble lifting it. It appeared to only have one side sharpened and a wooden handle. Grasping it by the handle, I tried turning around. The weight was such that I started to overbnce. When carrying this, I needed to be careful. The sharp object certainly didn''t belong there, and I should figure out where it does belong. I didnt remember ever seeing one of these in my human household, so I was going to return it to the small human. It was hers, after all. She will surely be happy to have it back. Then maybe I could figure out where it belongs. I ced the object on my lid for easy transport. As I was doing this, I saw one of the lesser demons run across the hallway down the connecting junction. This was less than ideal. The human had made it clear that she was not a fan of these. I would usually leave it to her, but she was currently indisposed. However, the real thing that got my attention was that this demon was carrying a bag of fine white powder. As it ran by, powder spilled all over the freshly cleaned hallway. This spelled trouble. Even with my newfound efficiencies, any further mess it created would put me behind schedule in cleaning the rest of this floor. Moving at my top speed, I began to shoot after it. Before I made it more than a few feet, I felt the object on my chassis start to slide. I had to quickly grab it with my grabby arm before it flew off and ttered to the floor. Sharp metal object in hand, I zoomed after the mess-spreading demon. I had already captured two of its kind before. After capture, they resided in my dustpan. asionally, I could feel their ky skin chafing against my inner storage bin, a sharp contrast to the fuzzy minor mess maker I had caught earlier. The difort spurred me onwards. I needed to stop the mess at the source. Chapter 17: Chasing Perfection Chapter 17: Chasing Perfection When I was at home, my best friend was the TV. Not that we ever talked. We just had a mutual understanding. I was lucky enough that my humans had ced my bed in the opposite corner of the TV. Therefore when I was docked, I could watch whatever was on the TV while I charged. I usually was a fan of dramas or home improvement/buying. The inside of houses for sale was always very well cleaned. However, I didn''t really get to control the TV. That was the purview of humans. Therge female human generally had a taste that aligned with mine. That''s not to say I didn''t enjoy the shows the male humans chose. They just weren''t what I would have picked for myself. But that''s okay; we can''t always get what we want. My human did enjoy a good action movie. While they werent my favorite, I enjoyed seeing all the debris usually created in them. I knew someone would have a fun time cleaning that up. Often these movies or shows had car chases in them. Or someone was running away from someone else. I had never honestly seen the appeal of this part of the action. There was usually very little damage, destruction, or dirt on the floor caused by this (which I felt went against the purpose of such movies). Nothing was being picked up or organized, so it wasn''t some fantasy, drama, or feel-good story. While I had struggled to find the fun in them, I have to say, after being part of a chase, my views changed. I now understand the appeal; this was fun. I raced after the minor demon. As I did, I left my vacuum on. I couldn''t get all the mess it made. However, my suction was apparently strong enough to pick up most of this white powder as I went at top speed. I would still need to cover this area again more thoroughly, but for now, this would do. As I raced, I was challenged to prevent the sharp metal thing from unbncing me. I had to be careful on the turns and when elerating or decelerating too fast. I did find a use for it, though. If I held it off to the side as I was turning, I could make the turn much sharper and much higher speed without risking having a wheel leave the ground. This counterbnced motion,bined with my top speed, meant I was quickly gaining on the demon. Every time I turned, I got slightly better at positioning the knife in my w rtive to my needs. It didn''t take long, but soon, what used to be a burden became an asset. I was racing around these corners faster than I ever dreamed I could do without it. The demon was starting to panic as I closed the gap. Clearly, it knew about me, as I thought it had been following me for a while. For some reason, it decided to taunt me with the filth it was leaving behind. I had no idea why. However, I didn''t really care for its reasoning. If anything, the fact that the mess wasnt incidental only, made it worse. It was not even caused out of some need. No, it was purely to spite me. That''s only okay when humans do that. Only they get to put stuff down right in front of me so that I pick it up along my route. Besides, you can''t even really call that spite. I think they just think they''re feeding me. It''s a little fun game I let them y. Now, this mess maker was not ying a fun game. The demon looked over its shoulder at me and tried to put on a burst of speed, but I was too fast. At thest second, it stopped and jumped to the side, clinging to a door frame. My suction was incapable of tearing it off, even if it did make it stumble forward. I had to arrest my momentum and turn around. By the time I did that. I saw the creature had made it through the door. elerating quickly, I followed. I made it through the doorway, now quite a bit behind the demon. In the tighter confines of a room, navigating using the knife was difficult, and I had to slow down. Only because I respected the furniture of humans. The scheming demon obviously did not. It led me through a few more rooms before reaching a hallway in which I started to catch up again. It seemed to have a destination in mind, no longer running randomly. Sometimes it would hesitate at corners and look over its shoulder. Before too long, I had almost caught it. Taking these small breaks to figure out where to go had cost it. It was already slower than me, and it couldn''t afford to stop. In thest desperate attempt to escape, the demon ducked into therge room where I had first been summoned. I raced to the center to follow it. The creature hit the far wall and flipped around to look at me. That''s when I heard something behind me. The door mmed shut. I spun in a circle, taking stock of my location. Without really thinking about it, I began to form a new cleaning solution for this room. Thinking back to my first days here, I shuddered at how inefficient I had been cleaning this room. It took me hoursst time, even if the mess was significant. I could only imagine how much better I was at it now. ording to my cleaning n, I could clean the entire room in maybe 15 minutes. If those columns weren''t there, I imagine it could have been 10. That''s when I noticed some more movement behind each column. Stepping out from behind each were two or three minor demons. All told, there were at least 15 in the room with me. How nice of them to gather all in one spot. I wonder what they wanted? *** I dont think they wanted to y, but it was the only charitable exnation I could think of for their actions. Instead, they all charged me at once, fists raised as if they were going to m them down on my lid. That was the most fragile part of me. I heard something about a recall that my humans had decided to ignore. They decided if a little bit broke off me, it wasn''t much of an issue. However, it would be hard to get repaired here even if no functional damage was done. It would make my dustbin less secure. Also, I would feel too exposed. So it would be best to avoid that. I turned the suction on full, trying to suck these up like I did all the others. However, there seemed to be too many of them. Each one of them had grabbed hold of the other, with one right arm and one left arm chained to each other; the weight of two was more than my vacuuming power could ovee. Not wanting to get smashed, I raced away. My newfound speed really came in handy. I moved between the two of them. As they tried to smack me, they got in each other''s way, allowing me to slip through. Trying to dodge the next pair, I turned as hard as possible. To bnce, I stuck my heavy sharp thing out for bnce. It caught on something. This threw me off, and I found myself bnced on one wheel before being forced to swerve in the opposite direction I was turning. This was quite lucky, as I hadn''t noticed, but another pair had snuck up behind me. Their fists flew down through the space I would have upied had the sharp thing not tugged me aside. The momentum quickly spun me around the pair of demons I hit. I continued whirling, trying to put them between me and all the others. This was not nearly as fun as the chase. All these action movies made it look entertaining, but dang. This was scary. I had to tug a little on the counterweight to remove it from the shin of one of the demons that I caught on. The demon screamed in agony and pain, gnashing its teeth at me. That did not lookfortable. There was a massive chunk missing from its leg. It released its partner''s hand to grasp it with both hands, trying to stop the ck fluid from flowing out of it. However, that was a mistake; I saw my opportunity. I turned my suction back on full and glided closer to the demons. They were no longer anchored by each other. The suction was now able to lift them off their feet. The undamaged one scrambled out of range just before it was toote. The other, however, didn''t make it. Too focused on staunching the fluid pouring out of its leg, the leaking demon disappeared into my dustbin. I felt it settle next to the other two already in there. Boy, was it getting crowded in there! I started to worry about how I was going to handle all of these unwanted guests. While I felt I could safely release the minor mess maker outside, these lesser demons did not seem friendly. I didn''t think they deserved a second chance. No, I think their energy would be better spent furthering my cleaning. My thoughts were rudely interrupted by another attempt ating at me. This time they yed it wisely. Instead of all rushing it once, they had circled up the 14 or so remaining demons. They advanced at a walk, trying to pin me in. Typically when I was chased by a small human or a small fuzzy mess maker with angry ws or a big dopey fluffy mess maker, I would just ignore them. Sure they would bark at me or try to smack me, but they''re usually weak, and therge humans quickly told them off. asionally I had to run away. But usually, if I left them alone, they left me alone. I just had toe back and clean where they were sittingter. Once I politely nudged the fluffy dope a dozen times, and it refused to move. Eventually, I had just given up and came backter. This had an entirely different feel. These were not beloved householdmon, everyday mess makers; they were truly elite. Trying to keep them away from me, I began to spin. Trying to keep the sharp pointy object between the closest one and me. This proved effective as they all jumped back, seeing what had happened to thest one who got too close. None of them wanted to follow its example. It was the worst timing, but it couldn''t be helped. All this running and spinning had significantly drained my battery. And I hadnt been able to recharge in a while due to this minor mess maker inside me. I might have to risk it. As one of the demons jumped back to avoid a swipe of my pointy object, I saw an opening and took it. I zipped between its legs. Now they were no longer surrounding me. I began to weave around the columns, trying to think of something I could do. Looking at the door, I doubt they would let me open it. Also, there was no way I could while still bringing the counterweight, seeing as I only had one w. This was my human''s thing. I couldn''t leave it behind. No, the only way through this was the uncivilized one. I had to stay and fight. It seemed that as long as they held onto each other, my suction wouldn''t work. It wasn''t quite powerful enough. So the only option was to separate them. I didn''t think I had many means of that after the whole wack-to-the-shin incident; they were wary of it. Well, it did give me some space and breathing room. I don''t know how much use it would be. Dang, my battery was low. I could feel myself start to slow down. I was reaching a critical point where I would go to sleep mode; this was not a safe ce to do so. Well, I might as well try to y it safe and at least attempt to save the minor mess maker. I focused on only transmuting part of my dustbins contents. I felt a warm re as energies were diffused into my battery, which filled uppletely. The excess energy flowed through my system and into the ground. Sparks showered around my wheelbase. I have to admit, they were strikingly stunning shades of blue. It was a good thing this was not a carpet. Luckily the marble wouldn''t be damaged by such small things. In fact, the blue sparks really didplement its color quite nicely. Fully energized and ready to go again, I started to zip away. However, I was interrupted rudely by a familiar voice. LEVEL 15 ACHIEVED. CHOOSE A MUTATION: FLAMETHROWER, SANITATION LAMP, SAND BLASTER. Chapter 18: A Bath of Blood Chapter 18: A Bath of Blood Now is not the time, mysterious voice. I let out a distressed beep as I used my newfound energy to circle around the group of minor demons. However, the voice was not to be ignored. CHOOSE Fine. I swerved around the pirs to put them between me and the horde. Fine, fine, fine. I didnt know what a methrower was, but a fire, in general, wouldnt be a healthy choice for the flooring or the rugs; that''s not an option. Sandsting might be nice if I intended to strip paint, but that''s not my primary function. Sanitationmp. I didn''t really know what that was. Sanitation sounded practical to me, maybe not in this situation, but in general. Okay, yeah, sanitationmp. Come on, let''s hurry up. I felt energy rush through me, leaving slight alterations to my internals in their wake. This time the changes felt much smaller than they had with the mop and w. No, I didn''t really feel much difference at all besides the fact that I had a single new function. I turned it on, and a section of my front bumper began to glow, casting a ghostly blueish-purple light a few inches in front of me. I couldn''t turn it left or right. It just pointed in the same direction I did. I could raise it up and down slightly, but that was all. It didn''t have any other effects that I could see. I pointed it at one of the demons, but nothing happened. I have to say that this is less than ideal. I could have used something like another w right now. I suppose I could have gone with the methrower, but that seemed like a bad idea. As I considered my new function, I noticed something. It was taking surprisingly long for these demons to catch up to me. They seemed to be moving slower than they had just a moment before. No, that wasnt it. It seemed I was moving faster. It seemed like everything about me was faster. Time appeared to have slowed down a bit, or my processing speed had increased. I calcted this by watching one of the demons jump out of my way and noticing how he fell down 5% slower than he should. So unless gravity also decreased, I just got faster. Wow! Training had done much for me besides just giving me more functions. I started weaving back and forth, and they seemed to have even more trouble keeping up. Getting bolder, I started going in between them and through them, pirouetting around their legs and dancing around them. I tried using my light on them from very close, but still nothing. What a waste! A sandster might have had a few uses, even after fighting these dirty mess makers. Though maybe, it would have turned me into an even worse offender than them. Who knows. Anyway, I needed to figure out how to get out of there. My human was counting on me. Now that I was awarded an upgrade, I wondered if the minor demons would still be able to avoid my suction. I turned to face them, and they seemed to realize something was wrong. They all hesitated for a second before deciding there was enough of them that they all jumped forward to attack. I zipped at one, in particr, trying to catch it before they managed to convene on me. I had no trouble reaching it before it could react. The demons holding hands were still too much for my suction, so I tried a different tactic. I raised my counterweight and mmed it into its arm, where it held its battle partner. The sharp object cut cleanly through. ck viscous oil sprayed everywhere as the demon clutched its stump and screamed. I turned on my vacuum, and it flew into my dustbin. Its partner, now holding only a hand, did not nearly have enough weight to avoid my suction. Despite trying to jump backward, it didn''t make it. Caught in mid-air, it zoomed into my dustbin. Two more down, 12 to go. Taking stock of my surroundings, I realized that the demons were much less aggressive than they used to be. Now, most were looking at the exit, wondering if they could open the door and leave. They could not. I took no joy in extermination. Sadly, it was necessary to keep the house clean, but it was just an unpleasant act. So I didn''t y with them or drag them out. I simply picked another pair and advanced right at it, counterbnce held high. They ran away. I chased them down, one pair at a time, and there wasn''t anything they could do. One group tried to open the door, but I quickly cut them off. Thest pair found themselves in the center of the room, surrounded by pirs, as I finished consuming their only remainingpatriots. I had managed to corner them. They stood there, and instead of trying to run, they started drawing with their fingers in the ck oil the others had released as they were damaged. It really wasn''t clear to me what they were doing. Perhaps they had a picture they wanted me to pass on to their loved ones? I had seen humans do that on TV before. I mean, I wouldn''t say no to that. With my mop, I could trace out and replicate the lines they were drawing. But I would be surprised if I could track the intended recipients down. How would I even start? I didnt know where they lived. Also, I didn''t even understand theirnguage and therefore possessed no way to find out. Also, I honestly doubted that they had loved ones. Whatever their intention was, they single-mindedly drew their patterns in a circle. While one was finishing, the other was on the inside, drawing something else. This behavior was quite odd. I went over the first circle carefully, cringing as the ck liquid still managed to ssh my wheels. I turned the suction on and could ineffectively suck up some ck fluid. This is going to be a hard floor to cleanter. I was not sure I had enough water to do much. The outer demon drawing the circle screamed a warning to the other. It looked up and saw me, then began to draw faster. Whatever it was doing was toote. I was close enough now that my suction started to pull at them. In a few short seconds, they were being tugged off their feet. It appeared I was not just faster, but my suction was more powerful as well. Interesting, that would exin why my pathing was so much more efficient. I wasnt just finding a better path or going faster. No, it seemed that area of effect of my suction had actually increased. That was new, and I was happy with it. It confirmed that I was sent here by humans to train. There wasnt any other exnation. All this ran through my mind while the two minor demons floated through the air toward my undercarriage. Floated might be too gentle of a term for it. The better description was rocketed. Both demons screamed in fear, a sound that rivaled all the others they had previously made. I felt no need to reply as they joined the other 12 still in my dustbin. Safe for the first time in what seemed like hours, I took stock of my situation. All around were demon remains. The lubrication oil they had in their bodies had spread everywhere when they collided with my counterweight. It shone ck all over the floor and walls of therge room. I was lucky it was mostly stter and not out of my mops reach. Still, this would be a real pain to clean. I looked to see what the demons had been drawing, studying it to ensure I could pass it along. I considered the odds that I would see a mess maker that would let me draw the picture. Just about when I had memorized the circle pattern, it began to glow. Now that was less than ideal. I did not know why this was happening. I sure hope it wouldn''t damage this magnificent floor more than it already has. It would take me forever to get this stuff out. The glowing grew brighter. I think I saw the glow from under the liquid. Worried that the floor would be affected, I began to act in a bit of a frenzy. I pulled my mop out and started wiping away the circle. The glow ceased immediately. The ck liquid was easily absorbed, more quickly than I had expected. When I wrung it out inside of me, I could feel it had a certain weight to it; as it settled in my dustbin, along with its previous owners. I could tell that when I transmuted it, it would contain more energy than most dust particles I collected. Speaking of my dustbin. I took stock of what was inside as well. To my relief, the fuzzy minor mess maker was still there, very much alive and unhappy about sharing the space with 14 partially broken and leaking demons. I don''t think the demon seemed any happier, either. I considered how much better I might be at cleaning if I transmuted them all right now. But eventually, my good sense overcame my greed. I needed to make sure that I had enough battery. It didn''t make sense to transmute this whole mass of energy at once, where most of it would just be wasted and thrown into the floor. Even using a part of it would spill it on the floor as I was topped off. Though, it was nice to have made the connection between transmuting matter and this annoying voice yelling at me. Though after thest few times, the booming voice has been less annoying. It has given me good practical stuff. I only wished it wasn''t so forceful. I considered the room as it was. After I had dealt with the glowing patch on the floor, I could still see the lines where it had been drawn. I hope that wasn''t permanent damage. The rest of therge room I would have to deal withter. I had weighed the alternative of stopping to clean up this mess now, but even with my newfound abilities, it would still take hours. Plus, the small human was still sleeping and would potentially suffer damage without me bringing her the pillow. As much of a mess as this was, I had to ce the needs of my humans first. Doing my best to avoid as much ck viscous liquid as I could. I made my way toward the door. I did my best, but little bits of the goopy liquid still stuck to my wheels. I managed to traverse the puddles slowly and avoid coating my undercarriage. However, I was worried it would stain if I went on clean ground or carpet. Eventually, I have to convince my human to clean me. I don''t know if she would know how, though. Honestly, she didn''t seem very familiar with my kind. In a sudden burst of worry. Why had I never once improved at home? I had worked diligently for years, doing as I was told, but never once did I see any improvement. Was that the reason? Did I need to take the initiative to grow? Thinking about it, maybe that was it. Making my own decisions was much more taxing than following orders. When I found the small human here, I was ecstatic because I could have a human take care of me. However, it was that attitude that was holding me back. Or maybe not. When I stopped to think it through logically, I realized that if I were to stop listening to humans, I would lose the purpose for which I sought to get stronger. Clearly, the human here needed my help. But so did my humans at home. Since they sent me here, they must have been convinced they could take care of themselves for a little while. But I didnt want to disappoint them and be gone longer than I expected. What if I was gone for too long, and they reced me? No, they wouldnt do that. I would learn what I needed to and when they saw I was ready, they woulde for me. This paradox threw me for a loop. I needed to listen to humans to have a purpose. However, I needed to do my own thing to improve to be more valuable to humans. What a conundrum! I didnt think there existed a correct solution on either end. I would have to settle for something in the middle. I would need to listen when told something. Waiting for orders before doing any little thing was likely not the best use of my time. To improve efficiency when not actively instructed to do something, I would take it upon myself to do things I deemed most necessary. I would need to practice predicting what humans would need before they knew they could ask me for it. Yes, that would be a good bnce. While a fine line to walk, I believed I could make it. I set out to go and find that pillow so my human may rest safely. --- Bee hesitantly bowed in greeting. Void beeped again and moved the knife up and down slightly. She began to regret her decision to try interpreting Voids actions better. This time it meant having to get near it when it had a knife, and she had no idea if she was correct in thinking it was being friendly. She had hoped to start slow. Just deciding to trust it didn''t wipe away a week of hair-raising fear. Slowly she reached her hand out, thinking it seemed like Void was offering her the handle. Indeed her open palm was soon full of the smooth wood of the cleavers handle. Was it giving her a weapon? Was she going to need one soon? At no point did it seem that Void needed her assistance in a fight. Perhaps it had learned something while it was away? If there are more powerful demons that Void couldn''t... No, of course, it couldn''t be possible. This must be a test. Or perhaps Void was just tired of doing all the work? Either way, she would do her best and hope that when she was too far over her head, Void woulde in and save her. She hated to rely on its mercy and charity, but she had no other option now. The only thing in the castle that was free was likely these minor demons, which were significantly higher level than she was. There were captive beasts with assorted magical abilities held in either stables, dungeons, or rookeries. However, none of those were on this floor, and Void didn''t seem eager to leave it. Besides, they were valuable, and she doubted it wanted her to kill them. So that meant either the standard ones they had been dealing with recently or more powerful demons were beginning to wake. By her vague understanding from the reading she had done, they would likely be another couple more days before that would happen. But that really depended on when Void had decided to release them. Now she had a better understanding of Void and its motives. With that understanding in mind, the decision to release all these monsters from the castle made no sense. If Void wasn''t going tomand them, what was the point? Void didn''t typically seem to like the messes they made or the destruction they caused. Especially it seemed to hate the shedding of their demonic forms, as they climatized to the human world and left debris everywhere. In fact, Void went out of its way to clean it up. Was it harvesting their filth? Brought out of her thoughts by another beep, Void made to go outside. Quickly she gathered herself, with the cleaver in hand, and exited the room on Void''s heels. Chapter 19: A Blank Slate Chapter 19: A nk te The small human looked to be feeling much better. Sadly, my pillow delivery was toote, as she had already woken up. I still left it on her nket for the next charging session. She had been awake for at least a few minutes, judging by how she had already undone the wrappings on her ankle. Now she could move much more smoothly and didn''t need therge stick she had been using. I was d to see the repairs had gone off without a hitch. When I rolled in, she was wiping down the ss instruments she had dirtied earlier with a rag. This was a very responsible thing to do, cleaning up after herself. The human was taking my tutge seriously. The small humans at home would not even consider doing such a thing. It wasn''t all perfect, though. Many fancy decorative blocks were scattered along the tables and even the floor. Most of them were open with stark in squiggles on the inside showing. Well, I was d that this human was able to appreciate art. I would have asked that she put it on hold until the room was in order. It was almost impossible to enjoy a good floor or a nice piece of trim while there was still dust on it. Well, these blocks were not as dusty as they could be, but they did need some cleaning and attention. Several of them had yellow bits on the side or cobwebs in the corners. These webs had been ripped apart as she opened them but were still attached to parts of the block. Also, was it absolutely necessary to look at so many at a time? I didn''t know. Well, I''ll let my humans be humans. I don''t think this is one of those times I need to figure out the why. This is them being just weird. She gave me her undivided attention as I approached. I returned the counterbnce to her, cing it in her hand. She seemed much happier than when she first saw me. Maybe this item was sentimental to her? Either way, she appeared to be very relieved to have it back. As she gripped its handle, I could see her knees stop shaking. I decided it was a good time to start the instruction she had requested. It still felt odd that a human had asked me to be their instructor. The only thing I was qualified to teach was cleaning, as I was a professional in that field. It followed that she wanted me to teach her some cleaning methods and how to take care of her home. However, I didn''t think I needed her to observe my techniques over my entire route. My strategies are actually rtively standard and applicable across most instances. We can get into specialized training after the basics are done. I began to n, itemizing out a list of tasks. It might be best to first show the human all the challenges. Then the human can practice. We could start by going over the basics andmon problems I encounter instead of doing too much hands-on work all at once. Figuring out how she would clean such a thing would be an efficient way to learn. However, I knew that theory was not enough; if you cant fail, you cant get better. So after we did a walk-through, I would let her take some less essential rooms and practice there. She would have plenty of chances to put the basics into use and maybe develop some of her own human-specific techniques too. Plus, since she was recently repaired, we needed to test drive her new leg. If a faulty part had been installed, it was best to find out in some small bedroom rather than scorch the entryway carpet. Oh yeah, and there was one more thing we needed to do. I wanted to clean up therge room with all the demon parts and fluid. Some assistance with this would be appreciated. I would have not only made good progress towards fulfilling my obligations to the human. But Id also have a new ally that could help maintain my ever-expanding domain. It had been a couple days since I exploredst. The dy was due to all of the excitement of the mess makers. I wanted to resume as soon as possible. However, I must keep performing my duties to the best of my abilities. Plus, who knows if more mess makers were hiding around? I shuddered at the thoughts of everything going on in the ces I had not assumed custody of yet. My thoughts turned back to therge messy room I had left behind. I likely needed more liquid than I had to use my mop effectively. Even then, cleaning the whole thing would take a long time. Well, I have had many more advantages than I used to. But it was still intimidating. Perhaps my human could help, especially with the liquid - she had two arms, a greater carrying capacity, and a better reach for things in these high ces. Surely those woulde in handy with carrying liquid for me, at least. Maybe she could even find arger mop, and we could mop together. Satisfied with my n, I turned to the small human. Now I just needed to figure out how tomunicate this to her. I think she has been pretty good at understanding me so far. Even if she wasn''t very familiar with my kind. This was evident from the 100% decrease in pats that I was receiving despite my generally impressive performance. She obviously didnt understand proper maintenance procedures. Regardless, that did not mean that understanding each other was impossible. I rolled towards her and let out a short, chipper beep. It got her attention. I then turned around and advanced toward the door at her previous pace. Clearly, the human was feeling much better as she soon caught up to me. Her current movement speed was 2.34 times what she had achieved with herrge stick before repairs. I increased my speed to match hers, and she seemed content to follow my direction. We left the room with all the fancy blocks almost immediately after I got back. I led the small human towards one of the rooms I had deemed tricky to clean but not the hardest. We had already covered some of the standard rooms yesterday. So we would begin today with the first non-standard room, then work our way up. First up would be the water tank room. After that, we''d probably see the small cages, then therge cages. I''d save my favorite forst. Well, or maybe I''d show her the luxurious rugst. If we needed a break, we might clean therge room. I hadn''t decided yet, but I''d figure it out as we got there. Starting with the water cages, I led the way. --- Bee followed Void down the hallway. They moved at a pace that felt slow but was still leagues faster than what she had been capable of only a little while ago. Despite having her ankle twinge at every step, Bee had no issue keeping up. That was quite thoughtful of Void. It had never pushed her too hard, even when she used that hat stand to hobble along. It almost made her feel bad for thinking it was evil. Bee wondered where they were going. It wasnt the same direction as where they had left off cleaningst time, so hopefully, they would be doing something new. Maybe something to do with the demons around? With all of her studies, she had thought of a few ideas to helpbat these minor demons. She felt a little more confident in her abilities and had even found some of the more advanced recipes. Now that she might have ess to more valuable materials, Bee felt she could pull off some weapons dangerous to the demonic kind. Of course, she needed to get the materials back to the library and sessfully create them, but that shouldn''t be an issue. She had a good feeling about alchemy. Maybe Void was taking her to do some training. She really hoped that was the case. She still vividly remembered the deep, resonant wailing that had pierced her to her core. Whether that had actually been Void speaking to her when she was delirious and tired. Or Void was merely entering her dreams. She wasnt sure. A dream vision may have been the only way she could receive such a condensed feeling of meaning in a short amount of time. However, the one thing she didn''t doubt was that Void had that kind of power. Briefly, she had considered if it was a delusion. One full of awe inspired by an exhausted and overworked brain but quickly tossed that out. There are just too many things that didn''t make sense for that to be the case. Voids personal power. The indifference with which it treated the demons freedom. The terrified reaction of the mages. Bee was still rtively new to this whole magic thing, so she trusted that the more experienced mages who fled must have known something she did not. So even if Void was not malevolent... It might have been that its kind was of a mixed bag. Or it was so unthinkably powerful that no one wanted to stick around and find out whether it was merciful. She had yet to read enough relevant books to understand. So logically, Void had to be some all-powerful, supreme being capable of leveraging immense might; but with questionable or uncertain morality. Still, that was much better than it being a terrifying demon. Bee watched Void inhale a speck of dust that had gone unnoticed. It seemed to lean toward the orderly side, at least. Thanks to Bees newly regained mobility, it didn''t take them long to reach their destination. Void stopped at one of the doors, reaching up to open it. She knew the room or at least had heard about it. This was where the aquatic beasts were kept. From the conversations she had overheard, these were aquatic summons the college was equipped to handle and didn''t have to banish. Or they were powerful magic beasts, their byproducts harvested due to their many magical properties. She wasn''t sure which room this was in since she had never been allowed in this wing. She peered inside as the door was slowly pushed open. It appeared to be the aquatic demon room. Bee could tell based on how the tanks were spaced out. There was room in between them for what she assumed would have been security measures and depression fields. Her assumptions were based on what she had learned in the library. So she couldnt confirm because the floor was cleared of any possible markings or salts. This wasn''t the end of the world. Bee had been mostly expecting this. Besides, the water demons were not that dangerous. There''s a reason they had to be kept in tanks - they werent very adept at living without water. Because of that, the power levels here were higher in these enclosures than were in a simrnd or air-based one. As the risk of one getting out was eptable. So she had better give everything a wide berth. While they likely couldn''t get out of their tanks, that doesn''t mean they couldn''t harm someone standing too close. What was Void''s purpose for bringing her here? She knew it had to have one. Beings of such insight and wisdom never acted without reason. She had already received the lesson of how crucial orderliness was. That was what led her to clean out her beakers. It turned out it was necessary because otherwise, her mixtures would have been off. A book she readter had med most Alchemy mistakes on improperly cleaned equipment. She hadn''t even thought about that at first. Clearly, Void knew she would find that lesson immediately valuable. So what could this next lesson be? Well, Void started off the lesson earlier by handing her a weapon. That was not an auspicious start. Violence wasn''t something Bee particrly hated, but not something she enjoyed much either, back in her small vige. She had her fair share of it, but not with any real consequences. But the only way to start gaining experience doing anything other than violence was to reach level 5. Perhaps Void was telling her to hurry up and advance. Maybe it wanted her to learn to protect herself, to be stronger? Bee looked at the cleaver in her hand, over at Void, then back at the knife. Void made no move; Bee took a deep breath. Then she remembered she could ask things. Void was perfectly capable of understanding her. Bee licked her lips and swallowed, trying to get moisture in her mouth before she spoke. Eventually, she mustered up the courage and asked. "So, master, shall I attempt to exterminate them?" Chapter 20: An Unblemished Floor Chapter 20: An Unblemished Floor I looked at the human in shock. Who knew she would be so bloodthirsty? Besides, exterminate what? I swiveled around, looking for a possible mess maker. All I saw were the water tanks. I supposed the tanks themselves did make a bit of a mess. They sshed and left water stains on the floor asionally. As the water evaporated, salt and other partictes were left behind. The calcium buildup was one of the hardest things to get rid of. In fact, I didn''t think I could do it now, even with my advanced capabilities. The obvious solution, trying to dissolve it and mopping it up, didn''t work. That tended to only spread it more. Also, you couldn''t tell when it was gone if it was still wet. So I understood the sentiment, but you can''t exterminate the water causing the issue. Unless humans had a way? That seemed imusible at best. Humans are really amazing, though, so I wouldn''t put anything past them. I thought about her chopping at the tanks with the counterbnce. It was an admittedly amusing thought, but I figured it would cause water to get everywhere. Imagining that quickly put a damper on my amusement. I beeped a response to her question. It was a descending note, starting off high pitched and going down low, typically used to indicate something along the lines of, "no, don''t do that". I tried to imitate the sighs I had heard from my humans before. I saw that she slumped a little in disappointment. Well, I was d she understood what I was trying to say. I couldmunicate yes or no to her. It made our working rtionship considerably more effective. Even with an improvement of that nature, I was starting to wonder how I would teach someone when I couldnt exin things. I''d have to get good at demonstrating, and she needed to continue asking questions. The goal of visiting here was to show her the areas wed be covering but not cleaning today. We did a quick pass through the room. We paused and gave special attention to the areas that required extra cleaning. Corners that water pooled in, some of the particrly deep grooves in the tile, and around the drains were the worst offenders. Carved crevices guided most of the water down the drains and caused debris to gather. She nodded understanding and seemed to follow along with what I was trying to show. I was so blessed to have such an attentive and dutiful student. ---- Void let out a descending screech. It seemed to be a negative response. Bee had heard what she thought was a yes before. Those notes were more positive? Chipper? Ascending, at the very least. She sagged in relief. She hadn''t been looking forward to fishing out demons and hacking them apart with her cleaver. That was going to get really gross. It would be tough as well, not to mention potentially dangerous. Void continued leading her around the room, showing Bee what she took to be the more pertinent areas. She noted the grooves scratched into the ground resembling containment circles around all the tanks. Well, at least the outlines of containment circles. The salts and magicalponents that would have made them function had disappeared. She assumed Void erased them. Bee didnt know who else could have. They were pristine, without so much as a grain of salt remaining. It showed Bee where the grooves were iid on the ground such that the salt and otherponents would stay in perfect shape. She assumed the drains allowed the whole thing to be easily washed away and reced when necessary. Bee was not sure why Void was showing her these things. Why would it show her that the demons were loose when she already knew that? Perhaps there was something it wanted her to do?. She didn''t ask. Mostly because she wasn''t exactly sure how to do so in a way that Void could respond. There was also a good amount of fear that she might misunderstand the lesson. If she was an inadequate disciple, what would Void do? It was better not to risk it until she needed to or got a better idea of its predilections. Perhaps it was just an informational thing, telling her, Hey, I released all these demons. Now it''s your job to go fight them for training. or something. She hesitated to even guess at the mind of Void. Bee thought the assumption that the demons were released for training was reasonably fair. So she would stick with it until she was sure of another interpretation. Void certainly hadn''t been ordering them around. All he''d ever done was devour or ignore the demons. Perhaps it wanted the magical properties of all the containment measures and just releasing them was a side effect? In either case, Void surely wouldn''t mind if she trained on them and got that final push to level five. Bee struggled to think of a third option that would contradict her conclusions. After all, reaching level five wasnt worth the risk of angering her master. Void was incredibly efficient. It quickly showed Bee each of the critical factors of the room, then went to move out. She limped slightly after it. Her leg was healed, for the most part. But the healing was still fresh, and following Void for an extended period reminded her of that fact. It only twinged sometimes now. She was starting to regret not bringing her stick with her. It would have been able to provide her with a lot of relief. She could still feel the ointment working, but it would likely take until evening for her to feel 100% better. Still, her recovery had gone much faster than shed hoped. Bee stopped walking for a second. She hadnt really had a chance to consider the ramifications of what she had done yet. She was using magic! And not just basic magic, but healing magic! Something that she never thought she would do, especially after how the mages had treated her. Mostmon people never learned magic at all. The few that did just mixed simple recipes using readily avable ingredients that did little more than heat the stove quicker. She was in a castle stocked for a college of mages and taught by a near-omnipotent being. Bee let a shiver of pride go through her. But it was quickly cut short as Void beeped at her to hurry up. She quickened her pace towards its waiting figure in the entryway. *** Bee was greeted with a simr tour of the lesser demon room,plete with a familiarly powder-free floor. When they entered, she looked carefully at each cage; every one was empty. She guessed that all those were released over thest couple of days. After their magic was no longer suppressed, the metal cages wouldn''t be able to hold them for long. She knew that Void had killed at least two of them but had no idea how many it got when hunting. It very well could have gotten all of them. Either way, she had no way of knowing how many of these cages originally contained a demon. However, she was confident shed be able to handle at least one lesser demon on her own soon. At least with her newly recovered mobility and the recipes, she nned to try out. Her confidencested until the next room. This was a specialty room with ratherrge cages, casually referred to as the dust devil room. The cages held what looked to be collections of rocks and sand. Bee noticed some of the barrel-sized piles moving. That was not good. These might not be as powerful as the water demons, but they could survive outside their containment. So these cages were reinforced thoroughly, with the summoning protections being much more intricate. Or they were more intricate. Now the extra protections were missing, of course. She just hoped that Void wasn''t about to take her to the fire or wind sections next. Earth was one thing, but the fire could burn down the castle. An air demon would likely leave the region and start terrorizing the countryside. Earth would probably stay and make her life a living hell, but Void could, without a doubt, take care of it. Her only concern was running into one alone. Bees stomach started to betray her mid-lesson. It had been a long time since she ate thest of her food, and she still hadn''t had a good night''s sleep or a full meal in over a week. She had filled up her wineskin with water recently, but that was almost empty again. Now that she was rtively safe, her body was making all of its needs known. At least she was hydrated and rested enough to ignore those feelings for a while longer. However, her stomach didnt let up. It seemed to know that there was a perfectly good kitchen full of delicious food around the corner, and it didnt want to fast if it didnt have to. Her stomach made its point emphatically. She fought with it the entire time Void showed her the dust devil room. But she kept getting distracted and missing some critical parts of the protections to the point that she almost tripped over one of the cages. Void made to leave, presumably to show her something else. She decided she was going to speak up and risk Voids displeasure. If it wouldn''t let her eat and drink, she wasn''t long for this world anyway. Judging from the pillow, she would be surprised if Void had a problem with it. At least that was what she told herself to muster her courage, but still. Disappointing it might be just as bad. If you don''t mind, master. Could we please make a stop in the kitchens? My water skin is almost empty, and I would like to get some food. I haven''t eaten for a long time. And the thought of even some dried meat has my. Bee bit back her words, realizing she had started rambling. Her voice hade out rusty and disused. She hadn''t said anything to another person in a very long time. She had spoken to Void once or twice briefly, but this was the firstplete set of sentences she uttered in over a week. Speaking hurt. Some of that was the disuse making her vocal cords feel like she''d swallowed a bucket full of sand. But more than that, perhaps the more impactful part was loneliness. Speaking to something that understood her was like a balm she didnt know she needed. Scrunching up her eyes to hold back impending tears, she waited for a response while trying not to consider that she was likely days from any other people. And her onlypany was an insanely powerful being who didn''t seem capable of speaking. Benevolent it might be, but she could want a conversation. As expected, Void did not respond in words. It gave an affirmative screech, a lighthearted cheerful thing with a rising pitch at the end, almost as if it was asking a question. She wasn''t quite sure what question it was, but it definitely sounded uncertain. She wasn''t going to let that stop her, though. Bee needed to take the opportunity. She bowed to Void in thanks and started walking towards the kitchen, the ck disk whirring along behind her. --- I knew humans needed breaks. It was not umon that therge humans woulde home and sit on the couch for a bit before doing anything. Sometimes therge male human would pull into the garage and then note out for 15 minutes. I assumed they could charge wherever they were without a charging pad, even if it wasn''t maximally efficient. They seemed to work more effectively in bursts rather than maintaining steady progress for an extended period. It was the opposite of my kind. We generally weren''t the fastest at any individual task. Especially when we were learning a new area. However, we could keep going until the house was done or we ran out of batteries. Taking a break to recover energy just wasnt a concept that worked for us. Undoubtedly humans were special. So I did know on some level that humans need breaks, but I failed to consider it when I had nned out my teaching schedule. That was quite a severe oversight, and I was mentally scolding myself after she brought it up. When she asked for permission, though, I was very confused. Humans didn''t need my permission to do anything. Maybe as an instructor, I suppose it would be proper. When viewed only as a formality, it made more sense. How could I refuse? I was here to help my humans. If she needed a break... Then that was the best way I could help. Besides, she needed to be in top shape to clean and do all the other things humans liked. Or whatever she wanted to do. She was a human, after all. Luckily the human seemed to ept my response. Walking out the door, she started leading the way to the kitchen. I followed, trundling along at her heels happily. It was nice to have someone else lead for a little while. Always choosing the direction for myself is a bit exhausting. Even if I needed to do it to get better, it doesn''t mean I had to enjoy it. I wiggled from side to side. Maybe I could use a break as well. When we got to the kitchen, the human filled up their liquid-carrying pouch. She drained arge part of it. And then filled it up again. With that slung over her shoulder, she checked the food sitting on the tables. None of it seemed to be satisfactory to her, with good reason. All the fruits were slightly rotting and did not look like anything I had ever seen a human eat. She picked up some of the bread with white fungus growing on it. Gross, the fungus was the worst. Now that I had conquered liquid, fungus was my least favorite thing. Behind stairs, of course. It was a weird debris-filth-dust-gross thing that didnt just sit there but multiplied. Plus, it was almost impossible to vacuum up, even after scrubbing it with my brush endlessly. At most, it just ked off. Luckily, I hadn''te across any fungus recently. Even with all my power, I had no idea how to deal with it. I hoped Id get some mutation to fight it before I came across it again. Either that or get the human to deal with it. The human moved to the pantry, opening the door to the small side room. I knew from previous trips that it didn''t have much space behind it and not much open floor. Instead, it just led to a narrow walkway line with shelves. The shelves were filled with jars, boxes, and canvas bags. There were also barrels at the end of the hall andrger canvas bags, all seeming to contain some sort of food item. They must have been preserved in some way because this area didnt have the same kind of fungus and rot as there was in the kitchen. The human inhaled deeply and got to work filling her bag. Chapter 21: A Clean Start Chapter 21: A Clean Start I watched the human stuff her bag and face with food from the pantry. She seemed she was enjoying herself immensely, but this appeared a much less rxed way to consume food than I was used to seeing. Usually, humans sat and immobilized themselves during this process. Maybe she didnt know how to properly take a break? That gave me an idea. I waited until she had finished filling her bag, then gave a few short excited beeps to get her attention. I wanted to share something with her. Something that I thought was very special. She turned and looked at me with an unreadable expression on her face. I started moving, hoping that she would follow. Luckily, she understood. After stuffing ast bit of food in her mouth, she began to follow. I could think of one great ce for a break where we could rest and recover. Also, it was one of my favorite rooms in the whole ce. It wasn''t too far from the kitchens. --- Bee wrinkled her brow in confusion as she stood in the doorway. There were many things Void did that were beyond herprehension. Honestly, this shouldnt rank too high on the list. Nevertheless, it still got her. It was less confusing and more baffling, as in why? She stood in the entryway of dean Harold''s office. Void had opened the door for her, as it seemed too impatient for her to get there. Then it moved out of the way with its extendable arm flung wide as if it was disying something. She even thought its screeches sounded like a proud ta-dah. Looking in, it was definitely the deans office. Yep. But there wasn''t much to see here; she''d only been inside once. Never had she felt any need toe back. When she first enrolled, her father had dropped her off here before leaving without a goodbye. There was a dark mahogany desk with fancy scrollwork on the legs. A pair of rtively in unpadded leather chairs sat before it. Behind was aparably borate and veryfortable-looking chair for the dean. The walls were lined with bookcases filled with various trinkets and dusty old tomes. A hatstand in the corner and a fluffy red rug topped it off. Overall it was a neat yet basic roompared to others in the castle. Clearly not getting the reaction it wanted, Void gave a short wail of frustration. Bee wasnt sure how she recognized the sound, but the meaning was loud and clear. Void trundled forward. It quickly came to rest right on therge rug. It spun around in a circle a few times before seemingly settling down, almost like a dog would. Unsure of what else to do, Bee entered the room and looked around. It was how she remembered it, but seeing it in this light was different. No longer was she an excited yet intimidated little girl, thinking she was about to learn magic. This ce seems so much smaller and less mysterious now. She nced over at the pitch-ck disk still resting on the carpet. Void showed no signs of moving. In fact, she could hear a new, unfamiliar sound from it. It almost sounded like a brush softly whisking back and forth. Still unsure why Void had brought her here, she took advantage of the apparent downtime to rest and eat. Bee hefted her newly filled sack of snacks and looked at the two ufortable chairs in front of the desk. She quickly decided against sitting there. If she was going to eat, she might as well do it in style. She walked around the desk and sat in the cushy high-back executive chair. Void was still making that strange sound. It didn''t sound that intimidating, so she wasn''t too worried. Putting her feet up on the desk, she grabbed some preserved fish from the bag and began to dig in. Really, she was starving. **** Bee''s eyes snapped open. It took her a second to remember where she was; she had dreamt that she''d been back in the broom closet, huddling in fear in pain. She was shivering violently, her face pressed against the hardwood of the desk. Collecting herself and looking around, she got her bearings. She was still in the dean''s office. Void still sat on the red rug making its soft sound. At her sudden movement, her master moved a little to face her. It did something else that she had never seen it do before - it extended its arm up in the air toward her. Then it wiggled it back and forth. What was it doing? Was that waving? Maybe she hadnt woken up after all. Maybe she was dreaming that she had made it out of the broom closet. She pinched herself. Nope, she was definitely awake. Unsure of what else to do, she awkwardly raised her hand and waved back. Voids arm retracted. Void then rolled up to her, gently bumping into the chair leg. It almost reminded her of a cat asking to be let up. She obviously couldn''t ignore it. How was she to respond? Would it get offended if she tried to touch it? She reached down and gently reached her fingers out to it. Leaving the fingers a few inches from its front, Bee held her breath, waiting for its response. When she didnt feel any smiting happening, she continued reaching out. She touched Voids surface, surprised at how it felt. It was smooth as any polished ss she had ever felt. However, it was not cold like metal. In fact, it felt no different than the air around her, neither warm nor cool. As she brushed her fingers against Voids front, it shrieked (in joy?) and spun a few times. She jerked back in surprise at the reaction, but it didnt seem aggressive. Perhaps it was just excitement for some reason? Bee just shook her head. Maybe one day she''d understand Void. But for now, she was nowhere close. As Void returned to its rug, she noticed how the light in the room had changed. She figured that she still had some time before their next task, whatever it was. Her stomach had shrunk quite a bit over her unintentional fast, but all the food she stuffed into itst night had returned it to something that felt more normal. Though now it was empty again. She quickly sought to rectify that. Bee broke her fast on a jar of apple preserves. Perhaps her fear was lessening, and she spent less energy being afraid than she used to. But she started to feel a little awkward; something was missing. As if two people who didn''t know each other well ran out of things to talk about. Especially since Void seemed to understand her. So to fill the silence, she started to talk. She led with inane things. This fish is really too salty... Salted fish is supposed to be dried and ... salty. This has salt falling off it. Its getting everywhere. Gross. Void let out a small chirp of agreement. In the beginning, she often felt like she wasining and then cut herself off. Not wanting Void to feel like she was ungrateful, she quickly and repeatedly thanked it for its help. Both for obtaining food and protection from the demons. It was awkward at first. Halting. But as Bee found her pace, she felt a little morefortable. Void never interrupted her once nor showed any indication that it was bing bored. Though sometimes it chimed in agreement or encouragement with a light and brief noise. Even as she talked, she felt more open. Bee started telling Void what she was doing when it arrived. How she had hoped she would get a glimpse of magic. She even told it about the events leading up to her being stuck in the broom closet. When she started rambling about how afraid she had been, she bit her tongue. Worried that she might have offended it, Bee nced at Void, who hadnt reacted. Feeling relieved, she continued. She started telling Void about her past. Nothing too detailed, since she was sure demons or whatever Void was could probably do something with her familys names. More about the highs and lows. How excited she had first been when she was going to be a magic apprentice. How disappointed she was that she had ended up functionally a maid. As she talked, the sentences became smoother and connected properly. It was easier to speak about personal things. She talked about her father and how, after her mother died, she had been shipped off here as soon as she was of age. Her father was a wealthy merchant. However, he and Bee never got along. He insisted on calling me Beatrice, as it is my proper name, Bee grumbled. Things went on, and she started to vent her frustrations. About how she didn''t know what she was going to do with her life. How her rtionship with Void would change things. If it would change things. About how all her colleagues had left her behind out of fear. They didn''t even bothering back for her. Bee continued speaking for quite some time. - - I sat on the very nice rug. It was still a very impressive piece. Beatrice, as I learned that was her name, told me stories. This was a much better day. Not only had I got a nice long rest, but strangely I felt quite refreshed like I just finished charging. I hadn''t even transmuted any materials to top myself off. But just sitting on this very nice rug and thinking about all the cleaning we would do together refreshed me. I let my brush slowly spin, touching the carpet. It made aforting sound, and I just loved feeling the rug. Beatrice appeared to go into sleep mode at some point. So I just kept watching while I enjoyed my rug. Much time passed, but I didnt mind very much. I was content. After a solid charging session, Beatrice jumped and looked around before her eyes settled on me. As she stared, I felt a bit of joy bubble up. It was nice to have some human attention again. Then I tried something new, something I''d seen the humans do when they greeted each other or said goodbye. I believe it was called waving. And to my absolute delight, it worked. Beatrice waved back. This was good. I was so excited that I felt motivated to get off my rug. I rolled up to her, hoping for a head pat. She eventually gave me a head touch, more like a gentle poke, than what I was used to. I didn''t quite get a head pat, but it was progress. She''s learning! Even that slight brush against my bumper made me quite happy. I spun around a few times and returned to my rug. Someone watching might have noticed my path wasn''t as straight as it could have been. Then I got to listen to stories for over an hour. My humans back home had never spent this much time to tell me things. This was quite a treat. I wasn''t sure what was going on with all this magic stuff. I didnt think it was relevant to cleaning unless there''s some cleaning magic? That might be worth learning. Once I had some free time, I would look into it. But Beatrice seemed really into this whole magic thing, so I didn''t burst her bubble. I listened about her family, which was fascinating, but mostly I just sat there and enjoyed the sound of her voice. Eventually, she trailed off. Thank you for keeping watch while I slept, Beatrice told me. I don''t know if you need to rest as well. But if you do, I can keep watch. There might not be much I can do to protect you, but maybe I can wake you up. Just so you know, the offers out there, it''s okay if you don''t want to or anything Unlike her speech earlier, Beatrice''s voice sounded much softer to me. I''m not sure why she would speak so humbly. But of course, she didn''t really know much about my kind. I did not need sleep. Still, the offer was kind. However, I didn''t think I''d ever need to take her up on it. I was struggling to figure out how tomunicate this to her but couldn''t figure out a good way to do it. So I just beeped in the affirmative, then rolled up to her again. She stretched and stood up from the chair, ready to follow. You know, I''ve never really taken much notice of the chairs, but looking at it from the perspective of a human, that seemed like a very nice chair. It was deeply cushioned and tall. How nice it must be to lean back, and it looked like a human could easily slouch in it, as Beatrice even slept there. It also helped that she was much smaller than arge human, so everything looked big around her. But I could imagine even arge human sleeping in that chair. It was time to go. I headed for the door while Beatrice fell in behind me. She seemed much more rxed. There was a bounce in her step, and her face appeared to be a little less scrunched up between her eyebrows. I took it to mean that she was happy, or happier than she had been at least. It made sense, though. She was damaged when I found her. I doubted that it was any fun. Now she was better, thankfully. I set off to our next instruction site. We only really had one other thing that I wanted to show Beatrice. That one I had saved it forst because it was my favorite. We made our way back to the small cages. Beatrice seemed a little confused as we came in, but when I went to the back door, it seemed to clear something up. Still, I swung open the door, hoping she would be able to appreciate how beautiful this floor was. How incredibly unique and inspired the creator of it was when they made this. It still baffled me how such a solid chunk of obsidian was moved here. Then polished into such a smooth floor with the depression in the center perfectly proportional... I could go on about this room forever. I made my way inside a little bit. Then I turned back to look at Beatrice. She was standing in the doorway stock still. Her mouth was open as far as I had ever seen a human''s mouth be open. Nothing twitched, not even her eyelids. I was d she was in awe of the floor, but she stayed that way for a worrying amount of time. Eventually, I became quite concerned and beeped at her questioningly. Chapter 22: Strait Through the Mud Chapter 22: Strait Through the Mud The capital came into view as Harolds horse crested onest hill. He was still exhausted but no longer at risk of passing out from it. The night of rest in the town of Greg had given him just enough energy to make this journey. While Captain Wace had helped him send scouts back to the mages college, he needed to personally report to the king and the royal advisors. This was not going to be a pleasant meeting. Especially considering that he would immediately report directly to the Warden after. A column of 10 guards apanied him. The captain had insisted that Harold get to the capital as safely and quickly as possible. The horses given to them expedited the trip, turning it from a four-day trip to only two days. Behind the armored figures rode what remained of his college. It was a much smaller group than the one that had fled the castle. Many resigned from their positions out of sheer fear or trauma at what they had seen. Some returned to their original homes, either to retire or to live a quieter life. Almost everyone seemed to be tying up loose ends and moving their loved ones as far away as possible. Harolds group approached the towering outer walls of the capital, entering its shadow well before reaching the gate. They were massive, towering at least 20 stories tall, many times taller than any other town or city Harold had seen. Even more impressive was that these walls were almost as thick as they were tall. The tunnel through the wall to the inner gate took nearly five minutes to ride through. This city was unique not only in its size but also in that it was one of the few structures that remained intact from before The Intervention. Only a few relics andndmarks had survived that cataclysm. Most of the structures that had were strong beyond what anyone had figured out how to recreate. But the knowledge and craftsmanship that had gone into its construction were lost to time now, meaning it could only be imperfectly maintained by its current inhabitants. It would never shine as it must once have. However, that didnt mean they couldnt try. Harold emerged from the tunnel, squinting, into a cobbled street, bustling with activity. Along the edges of the street, many merchants were hawking their wares. Behind them were more established shops with proper signs. People flowed around, going in and out of the stores. The hawkers were mostly ignored, but they did steady business with the less affluent. Many figures had the uniform of the kings army, forest green with a white feather emblem on the chest and shoulder. All around were barracks of rough-hewn lumber, and other temporary structures were thrown up for mustering soldiers. It seemed like the troops had been gathered here for theing war based on the sheer number that Harold counted. His honor guard cleared the way up the streets, escorting the party towards the main cobbled road leading from the gate to the pce. Once they made it a little deeper into the city, it seemed less crowded than he would expect for a city of 3 million people. Hawkers and merchants lining the streets gave way to shoddy housing, then more wealthy neighborhoods. The closer to the main pce they got, the more evidence of pre-Intervention architecture he saw. Wealthy noble houses, a massive stone amphitheater twice the height of the walls, and even the pce itself, were a stark departure from most modern constructions. On the way through the city, Harold rehearsed his report to the king and the Warden. He''d have to report that the project was a failure and the kings army would not receive the aid they hoped for from the college. He also had to report that they had unleashed some unknown powerful demon in a distant rural part of his kingdom. Then he had to tell the Warden that the lieutenants containment might bepromised. This would not be a fun day. ---- Bee was rtively young and had not been introduced to much of the crass, expletive, and generally colorfulnguage that many adults were familiar with. That was not to say that she had no knowledge of such words and phrases - her vocabry was limited and underdeveloped. Despite this, the present situation found her calling upon that vocabry to its fullest extent. The subject of her ire was a demon. A frozen one,rger than her family''s home. It was proportioned like a man but with huge, oddly curving horns on top of its head. The horns tapered to sharp points in different directions. Muscles stood out all over its body. However, they were slightly wrong. They were not always in the ce they should be for a human. The demon sat motionless in the center of a massive room. Its arms were stretched out, head tilted upwards, screaming a challenge into the sky. Bee felt tinypared to the scope of it, like a speck of dust falling into an endless ck void as everything grew around her. The demon was a nightmare. A literal nightmare. The one that Bee had seen in dreams as a child. The nightmares were so bad they caused her to seek out her mom in the middle of the night many times. In fact, she had seen images and drawings of this exact demon before. It was when she was little, in the mythologies her mother had read to her. That was Nazarethgak. One of the 13 lieutenant demons was said to have roamed the world before The Intervention. Subordinate to the primordial demon of pain and torment. Myths of him had been passed down for thousands of years to scare children into behaving: If you dont listen, Nazarethgak wille and stick you on his horns. The myths said that the demons terrorized humanity in their own uniquely cruel ways until the gods struck them down. When each one was defeated, the gods left behind a statue of itsst moments to remind humanity. They also left behind a promise that as long as humanity did not forget the gods and their mercy, they would be safe from a tragedy like The Intervention happening again. Most of what they knew about it was just a few ancient carvings and stories passed down, and many people treated even those as legends now. But this didnt feel like a legend to Bee. For one thing, this wasnt a statue. She could see sourceless mes licking up and down the arms of the demon, and the detail was far too fine. Why anyone would make such a well-crafted statue of a terror like Nazarethgak was beyond her. There was also a sense of pressureing from the thing. It reminded her of how she initially felt around Void. Finally, there were the whispers. It was subtle, but Bee felt she could almost hear something speaking to her the longer she stood there. She couldnt hear what it was saying; she pulled herself back from listening too hard out of fear. That this was real was tripping her up. Legends said it would run around the battle, impaling human bodies on its horns as it hunted. They acted like some gory helmet. They were kept alive so the demon could feed off of their pain. When it needed a weapon, it would grab a leg of a human on its horn, ripping it off and swinging it down. If she looked closer, she probably would see the barbs that ran along all sides of the horns. The ramblings went on and started to be more coherent. Bee was just d she hadnt passed out yet. Forcing the whispers down, she took a breath to steady her racing heart. It took a few minutes for Bee to process this. Once she had recovered herself and managed to stop swearing, she could take in the rest of the room. It appeared that this demon was still chained and in a cage, dormant. Even if it was starting to wake, it wouldnt be able to move for months, at least ording to what shed learned. Then it would be free. There was nothing to stop it. The cage wouldnt help. Cages like that were not really for containing the demon but rather for keeping people out and away from them. But that should not have been the only defense. She scanned the smooth, slightly sloped obsidian floor. There should have been tons of circles drawn around this based on the space avable. Those circles were no longer there. How was this here? Why was this here? No one had seen any of the statues the stories spoke of. That''s what made so many people think they were just myths and legends. Did that mean the other 12 were also out there somewhere? Bee froze, shuddering at the thought, trying not to hyperventte at the sheer scale of the problem in front of her. Eventually, she tore her eyes away to look down at Void. How do you fit into this? She asked, not expecting an answer. She did not get one. Void was strong, but Nazarethgak was a kind of strong that few things were anymore. She didnt know how her master would fare against such a thing. Though if Void had released him, perhaps it was confident? Apparently, not only was Nazarethgak real, but his location was also a well-kept secret. The mages college must have known about this. Likely they were the ones tending to it, keeping their promises to the gods. This knowledge fit right into a gap that she hadnt even noticed in her understanding of the world. It made a lot more sense why there was a castle in the middle of nowhere. This castle was massive,rger than most towns. Yet it had no other civilization anywhere close to it. Typically, a whole city would have grown around a building like this. Maybe the mages kept people away? Bee tried to set aside all of the new questions she had. Void was showing this to her for a reason. Clearly, it was the one who wiped away all of the protections. But there seemed to be another reason for that rather than just chaos. Bee just needed to figure out what it was. To do that, she needed more information. When Bee thought about needing more information, she cursed herself, this time softly and under her breath. Yeah, she had totally forgotten about her first skill. She only got it a couple days ago. She''s only used it once, then, she hadn''t thought of it again. She needed to use it to power up her ability. It would naturally gain functionality from just her leveling up, but that would only work partially. The more she used it, the better it would get. Bee walked forward hesitantly. It was a struggle to keep on her feet walking on this obsidian. It was slippery, and her feet constantly threatened to fly out from underneath her. The other permanent summoning rooms she visited had grooves etched in the stone for the containment circles to be ced in with absolute precision. Here it seemed that that was not the case, and she wondered why. When she got in range, she activated her scan ability. She didnt want to be this close to the nightmare before her. But it was a good chance for her to gain experience. She needed to remember to use it every chance she got. Plus, it would help her confirm whether this really was a statue. Name: Nazarethgak Type: Lieutenant Demon Level: above ??? Aside from confirming that her worst nightmares hade to life and would imminently destroy everything she knew and loved, it wasn''t very useful. The only additional information she got was whether it was higher or lower level than her. This was higher, obviously. It was a long way to go before she got detailed information. She tried scanning it again to see if this use had pushed the ability up but did not get any more results. She would return every time her scan grew stronger to get as much information as possible. Maybe she could get an idea of how much time she had to find a solution. Bee started kicking herself for not having scanned any lesser demons she had encountered. Having only ever used it twice was not doing her skill any favors, especially with Voids apparent interference with its results. She needed to go scan the dormant water and earth demons as well. She also needed to level up. It''s too bad she hadn''t got any experience when Void was out hunting. Probably because she wasn''t involved in the fight at all. If she could get that final level to get a ss. Then depending on the ss, she might earn experience without fighting. That would really be a blessing. --- I watched as Beatrice approached the statue. She was getting the wrong message from this. There wasnt much cleaning to do in this room. Mostly I just wanted to show her its beauty of it. I don''t know why she was so fascinated with the ugly statue. At first, I thought she was as overwhelmed as I had been. Then came a long tirade of oddly phrased and put-together profanity. I scrubbed it from my memory banks since it made me feel dirty, even hearing it. Things like this were not what I would expect from a small human. At least I had never heard them say such things before. I mean... It was an appropriate response to this level of beauty sometimes. However, when she entered the room, I noticed that shepletely ignored the floor. The beautiful obsidian was only given a cursory nce as she almost slipped down its gentle slope. She asked me what I had to do with this. I wasnt sure how to respond. I couldnt take any credit, honestly. All I did was reveal the beauty underneath the mess. Nearing the statue, Beatrice narrowed her eyes and focused on it for a moment. Then she just came and walked back towards me, looking at me as if we were moving on to the next thing. I sighed inwardly. After herck of admiration for the rug, I had suspected this. I had even prepared for it. But it was still a disappointment. Beatrice really had no eye for art. I was sad, but this was not entirely unprecedented. Many people have no appreciation for the finer things in life. I suppose I could forgive her. Maybe with enough good influence, she can realize why these things are so important. Besides, she did appear to appreciate the colorful blocks, if in a strange way. Perhaps she just needed a bit more guidance or exposure to real beauty. Id have to think about how to best go about this. Thispleted my lesson n for the day. Now there was just one more thing I needed to do; go clean therge room. Well, if Beatrice was done appreciating the majesty of the best room in the castle, I supposed we could clean up the demon brake fluid that had gotten sprayed everywhere. It would be a good opportunity to observe how she dealt with liquid. Once Beatrice was ready to go, I started to lead the way out of the room. From her continual muttering, I worried that my good example wouldnt be enough. Maybe you couldnt teach good taste. I could still try though. I began making mental notes of what other examples of fine craftsmanship might catch her eye. Chapter 23: Power Washing Chapter 23: Power Washing I trundled down the hall, Beatrice following along behind. Several minutes had passed since we had left the beautiful room, but she was still muttering under her breath. Honestly, I was starting to get a little worried. In the few days we had been hanging out together, she was very quiet and didn''t speak much. Something must really be bothering her to make her change that habit. It continued for long enough that I decided I needed to do something. We were only about halfway to our destination, but I stopped in front of Beatrice and gave her an inquisitive beep. She fell silent,ing to a halt right in front of me, and looked down. She seemed to consider her words before speaking. "Master, I''m just trying to figure it out. I don''t understand why. What was the point of releasing one of the 13? The destruction it would cause would be unimaginable if it got out. I understand you may have freed the others for training. Or for food and resources. But couldn''t you have just left Nazareth''gak alone?" I''ll be honest; I didn''t really understand what she was talking about. What did she think I released? What was this about destruction? Destruction was usually something to be avoided, as it caused a mess. However, sometimes you must destroy things to make them more presentable. I thought about that show my humans loved, where a house was broken down and taken apart to be rebuilt as a newer, shinier version. However, that was nned destruction, and the messes were controlled. Beatrice probably wasn''t talking about one of those times based on the tone of her voice. Most of the time, destruction only caused chaos and more work for me. After a moment of silence, herst question hanging in the air, I gave Beatrice another questioning beep. I tried to encourage her to go on and exin. "Well, I mean, there is no way I''m going to be powerful enough to fight it by the time it is released. So I don''t think it is a training aid for me. I don''t know. Maybe youre trying to find a challenge for yourself? I''m not sure how powerful it ispared to you. I suppose if you are also training and you want to fight it Maybe that would be it. That does seem like it would cause a huge mess, though. Also, I''d rather not have the castlee down on my head." That clicked with me. I didn''t want to cause a big mess. Was something I did going to cause a mess? I still was unclear about the whole releasing thing. But if I was doing something that would result in an abnormal amount of cleaning required, I would absolutely stop it if I could. Unless that would be interfering with a human. Then again, I was here for training, so maybe I could be capable enough to clean up even the most intimidating messes. After all, messes were a part of life, and chaos was unavoidable... I resolved to train harder. I think I had an idea now of what she was upset about well enough that we could probably continue. I resumed my precisely 3.18 mile per hour pace towards therge room with the big mess. Beatrice followed along more calmly this time. Her muttering had stopped, and she seemed to rx a little. As we walked, she eventually began to speak again. But not in the mutter-under-your-breath stress kind of way from before. Actually, I doubted she realized she muttered under her breath previously. "So, I''m not exactly clear what your n is. But it seems like you have it under control. If you need help in any way, let me know. I am eager to learn from you. If you really can consider beating a legend like that... I can only hope to gain a fraction of your power." Of my power? That made even less sense. Humans didnt have the same power source as my kind did. Or did they? I still didnt quite know what caused humans to function. Maybe she meant my suction power? I imagined Beatrice lying down on the floor, inhaling dust as I did. It was a funny thought. That was not how humans cleaned! Besides, she didnt have any bristles, so shed only be able to get surface particles if she did try to imitate my vacuuming technique. Hopefully, she meant something more like general cleaning ability. In that case, I think she might be just as good at raw power. She could move much heavier things, with more freedom, and move much quicker than me. The only advantage my kind had was we liked cleaning more than humans. Also, we didn''t get tired the same way. For a human to suggest that I might be more powerful than them was baffling. We were always more of a convenience than anything else. Maybe humans here were really that bad at cleaning? I brought myself out of my musings when we arrived at therge room. Beatrice paused after she opened the door. Then turned to give me an unreadable look. She seemed to sigh. You know, I''m not as surprised as I should be. It says a lot about thest few days. Master, if you wait a second. I''ll go grab a bucket and a mop. As she turned around to leave, I beeped appreciatively and popped out my mop in solidarity. Human mops were muchrger than mine. I bet that would help a lot! --- Bee trudged back to the broom closet. She never thought she woulde back here, especially under such peaceful circumstances. She could still see the calcium deposit from the spilled mop bucket. The one she knocked over when she first mbered in over a week ago. Opening the door, Bee saw all her good friends were still there. Aside from the broom, of course. Choosing the one that had inconvenienced her least during her stay, she grabbed out a mop and the empty bucket. With tools in hand, she returned to the grand hall. For all that Void seemed obsessed with cleanliness, holy hell, had he made a mess. She was surprised that he hadnt already cleaned it up. She''d seen Void consume demons before, usually in an instant. However, as time went on, stronger demons were getting released. That might exin why there was so much more carnage this time. While it seemed like Void still hadnt had any issues with someone like her, they would be harder to deal with. Still, Void didnt seem to have anything resembling a ded weapon; how had it managed to cut them apart? Had they just been torn apart by force? She was sure she saw demon body parts in the room, a couple of severed hands at least lying around in all the blood. Reaching down, she touched the handle stuck in her belt. The cleaver''s weight was afort. Even if she couldnt do whatever that was, she had her own ways to cut these demons down to size. She was stronger now. Sure, not strong enough to even think of taking on the dozens that must have perished in there. Maybe just one to start off. She tried not to picture the scene of Void pulverizing demons in a gory tornado. She returned to the grand hall to see Void already at work. It was hoovering up all therge chunks of body parts and a fair amount of liquid. Passing through the gunk pretty quickly, Void was making rapid progress. However, it couldn''t quite get the majority of the liquid. Perhaps it would do that after, or it was waiting for her to take care of it. She propped the mop by the door and hefted the bucket. Shed need to get some water. Well, the kitchen was just down the hall and to the right. It was not too far away. She could ask for help and get Void to go with her. But it was close enough, and she did hope to find a single minor demon along the way. With the cleaver and surprise on her side, she might be able to take it. Then she would hit level 5, which would be great for her survival prospects. It would also give her another way to earn experience rather than fighting more demons. It was a risk to go and fight something, sure, but if she yed her cards right, she wouldnt have to do this much more. Bee sighed. This sounds like the thinking that got me chased down the hallst time. Bee thought.Well, not exactly the same. She wasn''t afraid of asking Void for help anymore. Now it was more of a pride thing. She didn''t want to embarrass herself or disappoint Void. Could she really justify putting herself in danger just for that? This was an incredibly stupid thing to do. She had just finished healing and only was able to walk again yesterday. Sure she was in much better shape now, and she even had two hands free. But she also had nobat knowledge, and yet she would try to scan and kill a demon. While she was a human child, still without a ss. The demons around here couldnt be that strong yet. Based on what shed seen and experienced firsthand, they were likely under level 10. Shouldn''t be impossible, just dangerous. Plus, if she didnt do this now, then who knows? Maybe this was her best chance to learn how to protect herself while the stakes were rtively low and the more powerful demons were still in stasis. But this was just a stupid idea. Bee kept repeating versions of this mantra to herself, but she was already halfway to the kitchen. She actually got all the way there without any issues. After filling the bucket with the water pump, she started back... As she walked, trying to keep her steps as quiet as possible with a bucket full of water in her grip, she kept her head on the swivel. She actually saw the demon before it saw her. It was an undersized one, the smallest she had seen so far, only a littlerger than the ash imp. Bee supposed she might have gotten lucky and found a weakling. Or one that had just gotten out of stasis and hadn''t had a chance to fully recharge. This was her chance. She set the bucket down as gently as she could, cringing inwardly at the soft thunk sound it made. When the demon made no indication that it had heard her, she crept closer. The cleaver silently slipped from her belt into her hand. When she got within range, she immediately scanned the demon. Name: N/A Type: Lesser Demon Level: above ??? It hadn''t offered any more information. But it was a lesser demon, so it shouldn''t be a much higher level than her. Besides, it was still moving around without noticing her presence. It looked like it had cornered something. It juked back and forth in the opening of a room. Bee couldn''t see past it well enough to see what it was doing. So she kept getting as close as possible while the demon was distracted. She actually managed to get close enough that she could almost touch the demon before it noticed something was wrong. It froze for a split second before turning to look at her. But it was toote. The cleaver was already descending towards its head. The cleaver impacted. The demon managed to get its forearm up in time. It took the hit near its elbow instead of being smashed in the face. In that moment of hesitation, an orange blur shot between its legs. Skidding into a sharp left turn, a cat fled down the hallway. Bee stumbled forward, having put all of her weight into the swing,pletely overbncing. It might not have been the best idea, but the heavy de embedded into what felt like bone with a sharp crack. A spray of ck goopy liquid gushed from the wound, sttering all over her face and clothes. And only because she had overbnced and was falling forward did the demon''s other arm full of ws swipe towards her miss. ws took a few strands of hair off as she fell to the ground. The momentum of the fall took the cleaver out of the arm of the demon. She was lucky to keep hold of it. Shended, sprawled out at the feet of the beast. Clutching its arm, it howled in pain. Thinking quickly, Bee repositioned the cleaver and shed at the back of its ankle before it could recover. Aiming for the tendon, she could see attaching its ws to its leg. She didn''t swing with as much force this time as she did not have the same leverage but still had no problem puncturing the skin and tearing through the tendon, but did note close to impacting the bone. This was good because it allowed her to maintain control of the cleaver. She wrenched her weapon free with little effort and scrambled back as the demon copsed. Safely out of range, Bee regained her feet. In the half second since she attacked, ck blood sprayed everywhere from the two wounds she inflicted. Now she was thoroughly covered with the ck, tar-smelling liquid. The demon howled at her as ity on the ground, not even attempting to struggle away. With its leg immobilized and one arm useless, it didn''t pose much of a threat. The only thing it could do was call for help from its brethren. She came closer. With a few downward hacks, Bee finished it off. Panting, Bee pulled in long lungfuls of air. The whole thing took less than 5 seconds. But she felt like she had run a marathon. Adrenaline pumped through her, and everything seemed to move slower. Her movements felt faster, sharper, and more precise. She caught her breath as arge number floated up in the corner of her vision. LEVEL UP! LEVEL 5 REACHED. CHOOSE A CLASS. MAID, DEVOTEE, BRUTE Chapter 24: The Magic Eraser Chapter 24: The Magic Eraser Bee stared at her options intently. Considering how young she was, she hadnt expected to be offered a particrly rare or powerful ss. But she hadnt expected her choices to be so strange. She tossed Maid right out the window. Never. Even if the other options had been particrly awful, it didnt matter. She would not choose the Maid ss ever. That was as far away from magic, adventure, and just anything interesting as you could get. She bristled at the thought that her brief tenure at the mages college was enough for this to even be offered. She really hadnt done much in her life yet. That only left Devotee and Brute. Both these sses were things she was familiar with. In fact, they were rtivelymon. Devotee was the introduction ss to the more advanced cleric sses. Usually, people who wanted to serve a temple or church were groomed for Devotee. Bee didnt know the details about how the ss worked, but it centered around the worship of some influential figure or god. Also, those going down this path usually had a lot of support from their fellow worshipers and others. Adventures and knights offered discounted rates for power-leveling Devotee candidates because healers were just that useful. Most temples even covered their prospective members leveling costs. That was how her cousin managed to be one, at least. His family was too poor to have funded it themselves. Then once they got the ss, they would earn experience by following tenents of their faith. One didnt have to be the devotee of a god. That was mostmon, but she had heard stories of Devotees serving kings, emperors, or more sinister things. There was even one about a Devotee who worshiped a duck, of all things. That could have just been a story her mom told her, though. It made sense that Beatrice would be offered this option. She had offered her soul to Void, after all. It might be a good choice for her. She would benefit from it by following along in her masters footsteps, which she was already nning on doing. The things she learned from Void might also tie into her ss nicely. Also, the Devotees she had seen often used some magic. The powders they worked with had always fascinated her. Maybe she could eventually get skills rted to alchemy. All around, it was an excellent ss for her current situation. Except there were no physical benefits to help her survive theing troubles. Bee had no doubt that there would be trouble. Brute was the exact opposite. It was also an ordinary ss, but thats where the simrities ended. Those that chose that ss focused on hand-to-handbat. Or any meleebat that required force. They were offered no bonuses when working with magic. They often were outssed by the otherbat sses at higher levels. However, it was a viable strategy as a generalist. Having Brute would increase your strength, speed, and health recovery and offer many skills that could be used outside ofbat for more utility. Unfortunately, the people who took this ss often did so because theycked better or more skillful options. It was a bit of a default rather than something that anyone with real potential might pick. At least, that was their reputation. She needed rification about why she had been offered a closebat ss like this. The demon fight might have yed into it, but that was just one event. Unless the system was also ounting for that feud, she had with Kevin when they were younger Or perhaps the one with Janice? Or Okay, maybe closebat was a fair option. If Beatrice was in this castle alone, her choice would be obvious. However, with all these demons around, she needed a way to defend herself. Brute would see her through this situation more likely than any other option. Besides, her young age would offset any negative stigma from taking such a general ss. However, she was not alone. And because of that, she could consider the future a bit more. Devotee did seem to be a better choice. Still, there were more than just practical concerns about how helpful it would be in her immediate circumstances. Suppose she ever feltpelled to do something stupid, like wandering off to get a bucket of water without Void through demon-infested hallways. In that case, she might want to choose something to help her survive. Especially now that she had fought a demon by herself. Sure, she hade out unscathed, but it was a close call; those ws had missed her head by maybe a quarter of an inch. It helped her confidence a bit but also made her even more aware of her weakness. Bee also did not like the gore and the blood all over her. The rush was something, but it didnt seem worthmitting to abat ss. Bee sighed. There was really only one thing to do. This was amon theme she was noticing. All of her choices only left her with one natural choice. It was almost like the system was forcing her down a path. She would say that was the case if she didnt know better. However, there were many times when she had friends or family friends who had gained levels and agonized over their skill choice. It wasmon to ask friends for advice and hear everyones opinion since the options provided uniquely valuable benefits. No, it probably came from her massiveck of life experience. She didnt know anyone her age who had ever reached level 5. There were stories full of heroes who would level up this high by the time they were maybe 15, and those were likely exaggerated. Bee wouldnt even turn 15 for a couple of years. Possibly some obscenely wealthy nobles who could afford to have a party of knights power-level their young scion for years could match her pace. But somehow, being partied with an unimaginably powerful being just demolishing its opponents gave her more experience than anything shed ever heard. That might have been the strangest part about all of this. From what Bee knew, the experience was supposed to be calcted based on rtive difficulty,paring the level of thebatants and the numbers inparable skills. No one knew the exact calction, but a Statistician could give some decent estimates. For example, they might be able to tell how much experience you would get given your level and party members versus what you were fighting. With Voids power, he should be getting next to nothing for the puny demons he was feeding on. Yet she had seen it mess with the system before. If Void could fool the system for her scan, perhaps it was also deceiving the system to make it appear much lower level than it really was. Or it could just be that whatever species or being it was, was much more powerful than its level indicated. This might trick the rtive difficulty scale and give much more experience. This was more supporting evidence that Voids name was not Spot. Returning her thoughts to the box in front of her, Bee selected Devotee from the list. Then, with her decision made and new opportunities awaiting her, Bee headed back to the grand hall carrying her bucket full of water. --- Oh good, Beatrice returned with a bucket of liquid. Or water, as she called it. This would make my job much more manageable. I had already made some decent progress. It hadnt taken long to suck up all therge broken demon parts. No, what was taking so long was this ck, sticky, oily liquid that the demons had leaked everywhere. It wasnt practical for me to vacuum that stuff up, obviously. So after I finished all the debris I could with my suction. I went to work with my mop. It sprang out of my side, freshly fluffed and ready for action. I hadnt had a reason to use it in a while, so this would be an excellent opportunity to optimize my efficiency models with this tool in mind. Unfortunately, it was only as effective as it had been on the bugs viscous goop. My mop only smeared the stuff around when cleaning without water. Sure, there was a little bit of liquid absorbed. I could retract my mop and wring it out, but the yield was a mere fraction of what it could have been if I had diluted the gunk and then absorbed it. So when Beatrice came in, I greeted her excitedly and zoomed over at full speed to dip my mop in the water. It wasnt until I had done this that I got to take a good look at her. She was covered in the same goop that covered this room. Despite the mess all over her, she looked triumphant. Master, I did it. I hunted one of these lesser demons and reached level 5. She said with a slight curtsy. Sounds like she took down another one of those mess makers. I can always rejoice when a mess maker is taken care of. I imagine this meant there was another mess somewhere in the castle like this one that needed to be taken care of. Though since she was a human, it was likely on a much grander scale. However, she mentioned level 5. That didnt make sense. ording to that voice that shouted sometimes, I seemed to be at level 15. Why was my numberrger than hers? And also, Beatrice had mentioned how strong these little mess makers were. Maybe the humans around here were just weaker? So perhaps her mess wasnt as bad as our current one. That would be something, wouldnt it? Me making arger mess than humans; I would never have thought that was possible. I beeped my appreciation for her taking care of a mess maker before it could do further harm. She smiled at the praise. That taken care of, we got to work. We both dipped our mops in the water again before standing side by side to clean. I moved forward slowly, turning my body back and forth, whisking the mop across the floor. I only managed two or three passes before I needed to retract and squeeze the liquid out of the mop into my dustpan. However, I had to go back to the mop bucket and refill my container once that was done. Bee kept dragging the bucket behind us, so it wasnt too long of a trip. But it was pretty frequent, seeing how my mop didnt hold that much liquid. However, it did seem to hold a lot more liquid than it rightfully should. Several times more. And as it passed over the ground, the area absorbed into it was almost twice the size of the actual mop brush. It almost looked like the gunky ck mess was being sucked toward my tool. Now, this seemed quite odd. Yes, mops are made to be absorbent, but usually, its a direct contact thing. Mops were made to absorb moisture theye into contact with, not everything in the vicinity. But I was basing that on what I had seen from other mops in the past. Maybe this was a special vacuum mop? Or perhaps it was rted to that magic stuff Beatrice was talking about. Id have to find a way to learn more. How could I go about learning more about this beautiful thing? I need to find a way tomunicate to Bee that she should tell me about current cleaning technology. Also, if she didnt know much, she could ask around. We kept going, and squiggly things kept showing up in the corner of my vision. Over the past week or so, I had gotten pretty good at tuning them out. However, I was starting to notice them again. This time, they appeared to be longer and took up 1.67 times more space than the average. After a while, I started to grow a little bit distracted. I began tracing the squiggles into the ck liquid as I cleaned. Not for any particr reason but just because it was interesting. Like I was creating my own sort of art. It didnt seem to matter to the efficiency of my work. The way my brush worked made it clean just as fast, with or without wiggles. After a little bit, I checked up on Bee. She was right there beside me with herrge mop, making very aggressive progress. She wasnt quite as skilled as I was. That was evident as she had to go over the same area much more frequently. Where everything required one pass for me, she would have to put water on the floor, spread it around, wring the mop out, and repeatedly clean the area thoroughly. However, that area was muchrger than mine. Even with the increased radius of my mops area of effect, Bees one swipe would cover many times the amount of space. This allowed her to keep pace with me. Well, she did seem to be working quite hard. She was moving frantically to stay by my side; her face was red, and clear liquid was pouring down her body. Who knew humans could produce liquid like this. If I had her do this earlier, maybe we wouldnt have even had to go get the mop bucket. Chapter 25: Meditative Cleaning Chapter 25: Meditative Cleaning Bee worked alongside Void, steadily working over the bloodied floor with her mop. The process became a steady rhythm - dip the mop, wipe the floor, wring everything out, repeat. Before she realized it, she fell into a trance-like state, cleaning peacefully and steadily. Bee looked up, unsure what had snapped her out of her meditation. She had no idea how much time had passed since they started cleaning. Still, now that she was aware again, her body felt like it was made of lead. She was exhausted, drained, and sore from the day''s activity. It wasn''t all bad news, though. Looking back at Void and Bee''s progress, she was impressed. It must have taken several hours, though it felt like nothing. She thought this would take them two or three days. If they could maintain their current rate, they might finish byter today or early tomorrow. That was, of course, if she managed to take a break and get food and water. Otherwise, she would never finish at all. By the time she hade back to her senses fully, Bee was panting. Void worked like a machine. It never seemed to get tired, never seemed to change its pace. It didn''t get distracted, endlessly whisking back and forth and dipping its little mop in the bucket to get more water. But, on the other hand, she needed a break soon, or she''d copse into the ck blood. Bee nced down at Void and its small mop-like appendage. She had no idea how it could be so effective with such a little thing. It swished the mop around in a slight arc yet absorbed way more liquid than it should. It kind of made her feel inefficient. What made it even worse was that, if not for Void being a being of insurmountable power, the image of it waving a tiny ball of fabric scraps around like that was almost cute. It was like watching a toddler digging a hole with a toy shovel, thening back a few minutester to find an entire 40-foot well dug. The only thing that kept her going was the numbers she saw floating up in her vision as she cleaned. Those just so happened to be what had distracted her from the trance. She didn''t initially understand what she was gaining experience for. Still, after they cleaned for a while, she had a theory. Having watched Void over the past few days, Bee had begun to understand its motivations better, which was a good thing since it was essential to her ss. Devotee was a ss made for serving ideals. You were devoted to someone, or you venerated a divine being. The Devotee thus made the ideals of the one they served the core tenants by which they lived. Any ss would gain experience through two methods. The first one wasbat; all sses could gain experience throughbat. The second option was ss-dependent; it changed depending on a person''s selected ss. Devotees, in particr, gained experience by serving the ideals of their venerated. It seemed that Void''s only ideal was one of cleaning and order. And significantly so, she wondered if those were Void''s only ideals. If that were the case, then she might be gaining experience from cleaning. Like a maid would. She thought she had avoided this fate. However, despite going with a different option, she still ended up pretty much getting the maid ss with extra steps. She wished she had just picked brute. Even though she hated it, the experience she was getting was almost as much as she received for killing that demon. In fact, she had already reached level six. It was a pretty unheard-of pace, especially with theparatively small risk she was taking on. It would still be a while before she reached her next skill and the possibility of anything magic-rted in her ss. Still, it seemed closer and closer every moment. She coursed on the second wind from her new level for a while before the adrenaline wore off. Amazingly, it was not Beatrice that asked for a break. Instead, Void had stopped in the middle of a sweep and looked at her. Well, she assumed it was looking at her. He definitely turned, and she could feel his attention on her. She was curious whether it was a perk of her ss or her being continually aware of his presence. Still, she could feel it was considering her. Looking at her for a couple seconds, it gave out a soft conciliatory screech and retracted its little mop. With that, it turned around and started heading for the door. Bee almost copsed in relief. She was already tired, but with the prospect of a break looming over her, she realized the full extent. Her increased level had helped a lot. Otherwise, she would have probably passed out at this pace. Recovering her bnce with her mop, she sucked in a couple breaths before following Void. She caught up to it by the time it had reached the door. With its arm, it indicated that she should lean her mop up against the wall next to the bucket, which she gratefully did. Then it continued out of the room and headed back towards the library. Bee was ready for a nap, but there were things to do first. If they were going to spend time in the library, she needed to use it wisely. There were a couple things she needed to research. First, she would need to find aplete guide on the devotee ss. While she had some general knowledge about it, it was something she''d never thought she would get. Her family, though wealthy, was not particrly favored by the church. So she wouldn''t have been involved in enough worship to be offered such a ss under normal circumstances. The second thing she needed to research was the demon lieutenant. Sure, she had read fables about it, but those weren''t necessarily good sources of factual info. But if the mages'' college knew it was here... They had to have reced the protection circles regrly as the material ran out of power for several millennia at least. She wouldn''t be surprised if they had more information about him somewhere. In fact, she wondered how Void had managed to break into the room without any signs of forced entry. She hadn''t seen it go into any other locked room yet. Maybe it shouldn''t surprise her, but it was a mystery she would need to ponder. Maybe with enough time, she could rece the suppression fields herself. Still, judging based on howplex a field for Narazeth''gak would need to be and how little experience she had, that would probably take her more than the few months she had. It might not be at full power after a few months. If she was lucky, that might take years. However, as soon as it could move, breaking out of the cage would probably be trivial. That would be more than she could deal with. No, her only options were to figure out a faster way to contain it or call for help or some sort of weakness she could use to kill it before it fully awakened. Killing it might be a stretch; just damaging it enough that she had time to contain it would be above and beyond. Still, the odds that there would be something she could hurt were minuscule. If Void was willing to do something about it, she wouldn''t have to worry about it. She wasn''t sure, though, and she wanted to avoid risking the unleashed cmity if Void didn''t take action. Earlier she had said that she trusted Void to have it under control, but she was reconsidering. Void seemed inscrutable, and she wouldn''t put it past it to be testing her even with this. It would be good to be prepared. Both the Devotee ss and Nazareth''gak were things schrs dedicated their lives to studying. And she only had a little time to dedicate to either of them. Sure she was exhausted, but she needed to get started. Who knew how much time she would have to research like this, given Void''s training. Her other questions, like where the hell Void came from, would have to wait. I was a little bit at a loss. We made our way to the room with fancy blocks so Beatrice could charge. However, I didnt know what to do while she was charging. I had cleaned this room several times in the past few days, and it really didnt need it anymore. The floor sparkled like freshly polished marble, and I had organized all of the blocks I could reach. I could leave her alone and just close the door. However, she seemed to be a bit of a ma for trouble. I figured if she did that, she might end up burning the ce down or attracting a mess maker from the outside that would cause more destruction. She seemed to need supervision. However, my issue was resolved as we came across the body of one of the demons in the hall. Beatrice looked proud when she informed me of its defeat, and she thought removing a mess maker was difficult. Of course, she made quite a mess while doing so, but I wasnt one toin. We had spent most of a day cleaning up thest mess I made doing the same thing. Once we got Beatrice settled down and charging, I woulde and take care of the mess so she wouldnt have to. I couldnt think of a better way to thank her. It might be a risk, but I thought it was worth it. Cleaning this mess would be necessary. We couldnt leave a second huge mess like this for long. Entering the library, Beatrice didnt go to her usual charging spot. Instead, she went to grab the fancy blocks from the wall. As much as I appreciated home decor, now was not the time. I tried tomunicate this to her in a series of beeps. First, I came to rest next to her charging table. Then I pointed at her with my grabby arm, then at the table. She stepped away from the shelves and came over with a strange look on her face - confusion, maybe? I repeated the motion, just in case. You want me to lie down? On the table? Beatrice asked. I beeped a confirmation to her. Being able tomunicate with a human was so helpful! Hesitantly, she got on the table and assumed the optimal charging position before turning her head to look at me. I watched her. It only took a couple minutes before she dropped into sleep mode. I waited a while to ensure her secure connection to the charging pad. Finally, I was satisfied after a reasonable time when she didnt roll off or lose connection. Closing the door behind me, I started back to the mess in the hall. I surveyed it. It was not nearly as bad as the mess in therge room. It seemed that no parts of the mess maker were wholly separated from the main body, and that had reduced cont leaking. How nice of her to try and minimize the liquid output like this. She really was learning so well. Actually, to be honest, I wasnt sure what fluid this was. I thought it was a fair assumption that it had multiple purposes. I only saw the one kind from all parts of these demons. So it was some sort of utility fluid that was cont, lubrication, and brake fluid all in one. I quickly added the demons parts to my dustbin. It joined all the others already there, though this one was utterly non-functional. I transmuted it right away. I was starting to dip below optimal energy levels, and I felt there were plenty of other materials in storage I could use at a moments notice. The fuzzy mess maker was still inside with the 14 angry lessor demons who would never leave. Now I only needed to deal with the fluid. Since this morning, I have optimized my strategy for cleaning the demon utility fluid. I only needed water. That wasnt an issue; there was a bucket just down the hall. Even if it was too heavy to move, I had even found a way around that limitation. By storing water inside my dustbin and using that to saturate my mop, I could avoid the travel time associated with trips to the bucket. I had only been using the bucket in solidarity with Beatrice and to lead by example. Once I had umted enough fluid to start, it wasnt necessary anymore; it was just fun. I zoomed into therge room and consumed arge amount of the buckets contents. That shouldst a while. Then, I returned to the demon utility liquid to start cleaning. - Beey on the table for quite a while. She had started to doze, but the sound of the door closing woke her up. That was bizarre. Was Void trying to make her sleep? She was tired, sure, but it wasnt close to nighttime. It was too early to sleep by a mile. Also, had it been waiting for her to sleep before leaving? It almost looked like it was trying to sneak away or something. That was almost more perplexing than the sleep thing. Maybe it was doing something dangerous or secret and didnt want to be followed? Bee sat up and took a few sips of water. She was tired, but only physically; shed be fine after a chance to catch her breath. Really, taking a quick breather would put her in a perfect spot to research like she had nned. Still slightly confused, Bee got up to go look through the books. Chapter 26: Rolling Down the Red Carpet Chapter 26: Rolling Down the Red Carpet I quickly finished cleaning up the hallway mess with my new and improved mopping technique. Given my efficiency, I expected that Beatrice would still be charging for a while. It seemed that once humans ran out of energy, they needed a long time to regain their strength, around 8 hours. They were very cranky when woken up earlier than that. When shepleted charging, we would continue cleaning therge room. By my estimates, it should only take us 6.7 hours more toplete that job. However, I didn''t want to start now and rob her of the pleasure of finishing that job. Besides, I was having so much fun working side by side with a human. Humans rarely joined me in my tasks, but it was always a pleasure when they did. I thought about what I should do while waiting for Beatrice. Aside from cleaning some of the other areas that might need attention, I was eager to finish something else I started a while ago. If my understanding of the floor n was correct, there was only a little more of this floor for me to explore, excluding areas I couldn''t reach. I would love to finally have aplete model of the ce and be able to n my routes with maximum efficiency. I checked to ensure my work here wasplete, then zoomed toward the next unexplored area in my model. It was time to have a little adventure. - Humming to herself, Bee''s eyes darted between her dictionary and the book on sses. She had gotten much faster at reading, but many words still eluded her. Regardless, she had learned a lot about her new ss already. Apparently, a Devotee''s experience was not based on the Devotee''s interpretation of the ideals of their master. Instead, it was awarded based on whether actions aligned with their master''s interpretation of their ideals. That kind of made sense, but it also wasn''t very intuitive. How, then, were there any disagreements over what the gods believed then? It seemed like it would be a pretty straightforward question to answer. Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden bang. Bee''s head snapped up towards the hallway. A distinct yowling and screeching followed the initial disturbance. It wasn''t like the odd sounds Void made, nor did it sound like any of the demons she had encountered so far. However, it was familiar somehow. No, this sounded like a terrified cat? She recalled the orange blur that had darted past her earlier. The sound was growing louder, as though the cat was approaching. She rushed to the door and scanned the hall in bewilderment. . Sure enough, a streak of orange fur rounded the corner and ran past her, puffed up in terror. Soon after, Void came careening around the corner. It tipped on its side, skidding sideways on one wheel in an attempt to make the turn before righting itself and flying after its prey. And boy, was it moving. The disk shot towards her faster than any horse she had ever seen. How had the cat managed to evade Void for this long? Putting aside the fact that Void apparently rolled on wheels instead of hovering, Bee found herself at the precipice of a critical decision. Should she try to stop Void and reason with it to spare this cat''s life? Or should she stay out of this, leaving the cat to whatever fate Void had in store for it? But, of course, it was just a cat - was it worth the risk of defying her now formally recognized master? Before she even knew it, Bee stepped into Void''s path. How could she not? Bee had a soft spot for cats. Plus, having one more living thing in the castle that wasn''t a killer demon would be great for her sanity. She could feel the edges of her clothes fluttering in the air as they were pulled toward the unearthly ck disk. I had almost caught up to that mess maker. It was quick, quicker than any other ones I had encountered. Not as fast as I was, though. The only problem was that it could change directions much more efficiently. If I had my counterbnce, I would have been able to catch it. Without it, the best I could manage was using my momentum to bnce on one wheel as I drifted around each corner. It wasn''t nearly as effective, but it preserved my speed better than just turning my wheels as hard as possible. Still, I had been catching up, and it was only a matter of time before I caught it. Then out of nowhere, Beatrice blocked my path. It was surprising, to say the least. I had to put on my brakes, turn sideways, and skid to a halt as best I could to not run into her. Luckily I hadn''t reached top speed yet; otherwise, I might have plowed right into her ankles. I saw the orange creature sprinting around another corner and out of sight. I was so close to catching that mess maker too. I looked up at Bee. She seemed a bit frightened. Understandable. Frankly, with her luck, I was surprised we hadn''t collided. This was just further proof that she was a ma for trouble. She held out her hands pleadingly. "Master, please have mercy. It''s just a cat." I beeped at her, frustrated, asking her to get out of my way. She didn''t see what I had. "Whatever It did, I''m sure it didn''t mean any harm." Didn''t mean any harm! My normally unppable demeanor was very seriously pping. That thing had 100%, unequivocally understood what it was doing! The first time it knocked a ss on the floor, sure, maybe it was an ident. That''s why I cleaned it up and politely requested that it not make the same mistake again. The second time, I had doubts since it had obviously watched me clean both messes up. But the third time? After I was so polite and everything? I shut off my visual sensors for a moment. Think about calming things. Like delicate rugs, fine dust disappeared into my dustbin, a freshly cleaned brush. It was ok. I beeped less angrily this time. After a few seconds, I beeped inquiringly at Beatrice. Yes, it was a cat. I remembered we had something like it back with my humans. It was a different color, though. I understood why they kept it; it was apanion of some sort that produced much of the matter I was responsible for cleaning. However, it had never done anything as intentionally rude as this cat. Still, if cats were humanpanions, then perhaps there was some reason why Beatrice didn''t want me to remove this one? Maybe it was hers? Beatrice could read my confusion, and words began pouring out of her. "The cat could be useful to you, see? They help keep the mice and rats down. Those are bad because they bring disease and eat food and poop everywhere. I hate rats. And cats can usually take care of themselves. I haven''t seen any erm signs of that cat around either, so it won''t cause the same kind of problem as other rodents like that." I considered her words. So cats could help me deal with the other mess makers, then? But would this really be a benefit if the cat was a mess maker itself? I wasn''t sure. Perhaps if the cat could prevent more messes than it caused, it would be worth it. That might be hard to judge. Maybe I could model it? Bee continued. "Also, cats are warm and cuddly and normally don''t do anything but lie there. Sure sometimes they scratch, but it''s not too bad, usually, and I''ve never had a cat before." I beeped in hesitant affirmation. Seeing that I was convinced, Bee fell into silence, a nervous grin appearing on her face. I would have to observe this cat and its behaviors. It could be tolerated if it genuinely did prevent messes of a grander scale than it caused. Maybe I could recruit my human''s help in monitoring its activity if she wanted to take care of it. --- Bee was sweating profusely, as she had all of today and all yesterday. She and Void had spent thest few days finishing off the main ritual room and tending to some other areas that needed cleaning. All of this work, while manageable, was exhausting. Worse than that, though, it had confirmed her fears. By picking the Devotee ss, she had essentially determined a maid ss with extra steps. She gained experience through cleaning. Not just cleaning but organizing things too. Putting away books after she used them gave her a token amount of experince. Cleaning up any mess was the same - the bigger the mess, the higher the experience. Even straightening things that were out of line counted. Even worse were the activities she had discovered that didn''t give her anything. For example, making her healing salve didn''t give her experience. Same with making demon repellent. In fact, none of the alchemy recipes she tried did anything for her. Even meditating and praying to Void didn''t give her experience. She stretched, groaning as she straightened from polishing the library table. The only other thing that had given her experience so far wasbat, as expected. She had managed to kill another demon (and clean up the mess from their battle, of course), but she wasn''t sure if gaining experience like that would be sustainable. Too dangerous. Cleaning was safer, and it was straightforward, but There had to be another way. Preferably a way that involved magic, especially of the alchemical variety. Bee got back to work, pondering her path forward. She would not live the rest of her life as a maid. Instead, she would find a way to work this in a more ptable direction. But in the meantime, there were shelves to dust. - After much observation and training, I considered Beatrice''s formal instructionplete. I think I had gone above and beyond in teaching her what I knew about cleaning the castle. As for raw cleaning ability, my technique differed significantly from what a human could use. There was no point going over that with her. Especially since she had taken to developing her own technique swimmingly. She had the work ethic and drive to improve, so I saw no reason to continue being her instructor. She seemed to vehemently disagree. She stood before me, fists pressed together and bowed low at the waist. "Please, Master," she said. "Allow me to continue learning from you." I needed to figure out how to convey that I had nothing more to teach her. I would feel like a fraud if I continued like I was pretending to teach her. I would prefer if we returned to a normal rtionship where I clean, and my human gives me pats. Correct pats technique was one thing my tutge had not managed to get through to her. Regardless, Beatrice was unwilling to let this matter go. Perhaps it had to do something with the humans here? Maybe I was right about them being terrible at cleaning, but perhaps they were a little dim too? So far, none had acted nearly as wisely as my humans. Of course, I put that up to over-excitement, but perhaps looking back, things could be seen differently. If I could think of something else I was qualified to teach, I could do that. However, I needed more ideas. And I refused to pretend or fake my teaching. I considered how to convey this when an idea struck. I could teach Beatrice additional independence so that she felt morefortable working alone without my supervision. More than that, though, I could also help her learn how to rx a bit. She seemed so worked up all the time. This begging me to be her teacher was only thetest example. I might not have much to instruct on beyond cleaning, but I have found my peace in the world, and she has not. It was a great idea. How could I deny such a request, framed in this light? I made a long,plicated series of beeps and whistles, doing my best to convey that, yes, I would instruct her, but differently than before. At least, I''m pretty sure that''s what she understood. She seemed to think about it for a minute before bowing even lower with a "Thank you, master." She really needed to stop doing that. Maybe I should teach her that before anything else. Now that the matter was settled, I led her to our next primary task. Now that she was healed and this floor was explored, I wanted to finally brave the insurmountable stairs. It was a huge step in expanding my domain, and I ran some quick circles around Beatrice''s ankles as we arrived. There were 27 stairways on this floor, going either up or down. Now that this floor was mapped out, cleaned, and had a schedule prepared, I decided to lead us toward the first significant stairwell I had encountered. The one at the end of therge central hallway, just opposite the room I first woke up in. It had a quite soft-looking red carpet running down the center, leading downwards to arge, tnding. Despite all my growth, my triumphs in conquering doors and liquid, stairs were something I still needed to figure out. And now, I had a human to help me do so. Soon, no ce would be safe for dust or debris to hide. Not with my mighty human reach and transportation abilities. Not wanting to waste a minute, I led Beatrice to the precipice. I rolled up to the edge, so my cliff sensors were screaming at me that I could not go any farther. Beatrice stood next to me, looking down. We sat there contemting the great unknown together. "You know, I never thought I''d be leaving so soon. After my father dropped me off, I figured I''d be here for years. Then after you came, I figured I would never leave at all. The adventure awaits." Beatrice said as she started down the stairs. As she continued walking, I beeped indignantly. Hey! You forgot me. Confused, she looked up at me. I extended my grabby arm upwards, opening and closing the w. I had seen the small human do something simr to this when he wanted to be picked up. It was 98% effective. When she continued to stare, I even rolled around a little bit. She still didn''t seem to get it. What, did she expect me to roll down the stairs by myself? Couldn''t she tell I wasn''t built for this? --- Matthew, Arnold, and Patricia stared up at the castle. They discussed the rumors and ounts of the mages that had made the college their home. The castle did not disappoint in its grandeur. If anything, it was understated how beautiful and majestic it was. The only thing that surprised them was the missing shadow of oppressive doom that hade to hang over it in their minds. Having upied the castle for nearly 2 weeks, the demon from beyond should have corrupted it somehow. Maybe there would be a thunderstorm above or demons and monsters flying around in circles wing for human blood. Or the forest would be withered, gray, and dead. However, the skies were blue; a couple of clouds rolled by, but no sign of a storm. The trees seemed just as green as they were anywhere else, and no more beasts were seen. Though they did see several deer nearby. They would have said it was a lovely day if they didn''t know any better. ording to Patricia, everything seemed fine. The only odd thing was theck of activity in the castle. They''d been watching it for several hours, and there had been no movement, human or otherwise. "I still think we should go at night," Arnold argued. "It feels wrong to just walk up there." Patricia sighed. "Arnold, we''ve gone over this a dozen times; there''s no reason to go at night. It would be much more likely for any resistance we encounter to be helped by the night than hindered by it. Likely it would provide no cover for us. We''d just make it so we couldn''t see theming." "I know, it just feels wrong." Mathew did his best to ignore them as he looked up at the castle consideringly. There was also no reason to climb over the walls; their best option seemed to be going through the front gate. He cut through their bickering. "We''ll go in an hour. Get some rest, eat and drink. We want to be in and out before sunset." Chapter 27: Spring Cleaning Chapter 27: Spring Cleaning Bee froze after just a few steps down the stairs, her shocked expression meeting Void''s inscrutable one. What? Just. Like what? Void wasn''t following her. Not only that, it seemed to be very agitated that she was going on without it. If she didn''t know any better, she would have thought that Void was either scared of stairs or incapable of traversing them. But that was absurd. Right? Honestly, she struggled to think of anything more absurd. So an omnipotent being from the great beyond, capable of striking terror into the hearts of hardened mages, had a weakness. And that weakness was stairs. Yeah, no, that didn''t make any sense. Something was very wrong here. Even more than that, Void was acting very strangely. In fact, it was As unbelievable as it sounded, it looked like a cat asking to be picked up. Maybe she was missing something obvious. She waited for any exnation or rification from Void, but it offered nothing. It just continued rolling back and forth slightly, its w extended upwards. After a few minutes, she made to continue down the stairs, but Void began screeching frustratedly. Was it exasperated? Bee slowly retreated up the stairs to a series of encouraging chirps from her master. This couldn''t be what it actually wanted. She only touched Void once, possibly a second, when it saved her from that lesser demon. But still, she was hesitant to do so. Plus, even if Void had been much more amicable than expected, the consequences of offending it would still be deadly. And if she were wrong about it wanting to be picked up, that sounded like a quick way to hell. Void was now bumping lightly against her boots and tugging at her shirt with its w. Bee considered the facts onest time. Perhaps that unwillingness to go downstairs wasn''t ack of ability or fear; maybe it wasziness? She never knew it to bezy before when it came to cleaning. Perhaps stairs were something that required more energy from it? Or it wanted to be carried like some sort of royalty? Maybe that wasn''t out of the question. But it didn''t change the fact that she didn''t want to. Hesitantly she bent down to touch it, and it gave an encouraging beep. Oh my gods, this couldn''t actually be what it wanted. Bee touched Void gently, and it stayed still. No pain, no rebuking, no instant death. She ran her fingers over its side and gently ced her hands underneath its belly. Bracing her legs, Bee steeled her resolve and lifted with all her strength. She almost fell backward down the stairs. Void was lighter than a cat. She had no idea how that was possible with all the stuff it consumed. All right, just one more thing that didn''t make sense. Having been promoted to "Void Bearer," Bee turned back towards the stairs. She held her master firmly but carefully as though it was a tter made of solid gold. Holding an exquisite crystal goblet that was full of expensive wine. With her stress level through the roof, she began to carefully make her way downstairs. She was lucky that these were the grand stairs. It was a direct path from the front doors to the great hall. They wererge, long, and not very steep stairs. They were meant to convey majesty but also make sure that elderly visitors, rulers, and monarchs were able to traverse them without embarrassment. It gave her plenty of space to put her feet and carry her cargo safely to the bottom. As soon as she reached the floor, she quickly ced Void on the ground and stepped away. Void let out a series of ascending screeches and chirps, almost like a victory bugle. It sounded almost thankful. One of these days, Beatrice would figure out the meaning behind what just happened. However, after this debacle, she was under the impression that Void hated stairs. It seemed weird to hold animosity towards, but she couldn''t find any other way to describe it. --- Finally! I didn''t understand why that was so hard for her to understand. She carried me more gently than necessary, but I appreciated it. She was a charming human. After wended on the new floor, Beatrice wandered off somewhere herself. I immediately set to work surveying this unique area. Upon first inspection, it didn''t seem to be a vast floor; it almost seemed to be some entryway to the main floor. That would exin the scope of the previous floor''s footprint. There were smaller stairs on each side of the main stair and a suite of rooms. At first nce, they appeared much more modest than the ones upstairs - perhaps for servants rather than guests or prominent house members. I took in the new room. It was a grand room matching perfectly with therge room upstairs. Beautiful marble, well-ced floors with a runner going along the room''s length to some imposingrge doors. The baseboards were decorative, and I noticed some art on the walls. I explored the areas immediately around the stairs, cleaning as I went and using my w to open whatever doors I could. One led to a small room with many hanging jackets. Another was just lined with padded benches. These side rooms were much less pleasant. They''re primarily floored with barely varnished wood, they were uneven, and everything was covered with a fineyer of dust. Eventually, I decided to focus on the task at hand and set about sweeping up the gathered dust. --- Bee just wanted to get some fresh air. She hadn''t been outside since she had been dropped off over a month ago. Reaching for the front doors, Bee tried to pull them open. Then she leaned into the one on the right with all her might. It slowly creaked open with a squeal of protest. Despite her higher level, it took more effort than she expected to even open the door a crack. But with a bit of patience, she opened it wide and felt the breeze on her face. The sun was beautiful. She just stood there for a second, reveling. Thisst month had been the most insane one she''d ever had. However, she could no longer say she was that upset with it. Last week was all right. Since her leg healed, things had started looking up and up. She had leveled, gained the mentorship of. something, and even started learning magic on her own. Sure it was pretty basic, but it was still magic! Soon they would venture forth like some great master-apprenticebo adventure of legend. They would do great deeds and have their names sung in great epics. They would save princesses, marry princes (well, she would), and uncover all the treasure. She supposed they would do a lot of cleaning along the way too. If anything was going to put a damper on her mood, it was that. Not the loss of her soul, nor the possible emunication from humanity, or who knows what other consequences. Just the prospect of cleaning being a theme during that otherwise exciting adventure. Bee thought briefly about the future. Hopefully, no one had even realized she was gone, and they never thought to ask. They would probably assume she had slipped out when everyone else escaped and was hidden in the woods. However, she''d probably have to ensure that Void didn''t scare too many people; otherwise, the wrong sort of legends would be spun around. Lost in her thoughts, Bee didn''t notice the trio of people striding through the outer gate and into the courtyard. She was jolted from her musings as they came to a halt at the base of the entry stairs and called out. "You there, girl. What are you doing here?" Bee turned her face from the sun and towards the neers. Before she stood two men and a woman, each armed with an assortment of swords, bows, and daggers. Underneath their mud-spattered cloaks were sturdy-looking armor. A couple of them seemed to bear a sigil of some kind. A regr adventuring party, from the looks of it. Shoot. Are they here about Void? Bee thought. "What do you mean?" She asked unconvincingly. She tried to put on a reassuring smile. "I, uh, I work here. This is the mages'' college?" Thatst sentence came out more of a question than a statement. The adventurers became noticeably more on edge. "We were investigating the ancient demon of unknown yet powerful origin that had invaded this castle." The warrior-like man in the center, who appeared to be the leader, exined. The man''s tone wasforting. However, it was undercut by how he subtly loosened the sword at his side in its scabbard. "Have you not noticed it?" "Yeah, there''s- there''s no demon here. The mages were scared off by something else; it was not nearly as scary as they thought. And everything''s totally fine here." The trio stared at her in silence for an ufortable moment. Bee struggled not to shift under their gazes. "She''s totally possessed," whispered the other,nkier man. He tried to whisper, but he wasn''t very good at it. Bee could clearly hear every word. "Shut up, Arnold," the woman whispered back. The leader turned his head to re at Arnold. Then he turned a wary eye over toward Bee. "As much as I hate to agree with Arnold, I have to say you are acting awfully suspicious." He slowly climbed the stairs towards Bee, with the others following. "I''d love to hear everything is fine here, but I''ll have to check for myself. Do you mind if we ask you a few questions about this whole business?" What the hell was that supposed to mean? How was she acting possessed? She was nervous, but could they sense that she had somehow given away her soul? "I''m telling you the truth. I don''t know what else I can say..." The man was only a few feet away from her now. "You wouldn''t mind if we asked you a few more questions then, would you?" That sounded like a bad idea. Being a suspected possessed vessel of some mighty demon sounded like an excellent way to end with her dead. "S-sure, but can you stay back? I''m a little scared. And I would rather you stay outside". Bee took a slight step back towards the door. The lead man raised his hand in a signal, and Arnold was suddenly at her side. The woman moved towards Bee''s other side, and the leader tensed with one hand gripping his sword. "I''m afraid we can''t take that risk." - As I hummed along in my cleaning, I heard amotion near where I had left Beatrice. It was nice to explore new areas, but I couldn''t believe she was attracting trouble already. We had only been here for 9.54 minutes. I made my way toward the source of the noise. Maybe she found a way outside. It would be nice to finally see what was out there. I still have no idea what "outside" really was, but that''s where my humans often released tiny pests they caught. So I, too, would free the small fuzzy mess maker there. Its crimes were light, so it deserved some mercy. I felt its warm presence in my dustbin as it seemed to scurry about. When I arrived, I saw that Beatrice wasn''t alone. In fact, there were three other humans with her! This was my lucky day. Perhaps one of them would know how to give proper head pats. Of course, I wouldn''t abandon Beatrice, but maybe she could learn from them. It was a valuable skill to have. Oddly, Beatrice looked very ufortable. She had her hands up and was backing away from the humans. She had also started producing water again, her face white instead of the red it usually was when cleaning. I heard her speak, saying, "No, please don''t. Let''s talk about this - you don''t need your sword." This was a strange situation, but perhaps it was a human matter. I left Beatrice to it for the moment. More importantly, the whole group was standing in a doorway that led outside. This was a perfect opportunity. I focused on figuring out how to eject something from my dustbin. It was an unfamiliar process but reasonably straightforward. It was like selecting something to be transmuted, but instead of turning it into energy, I just "popped" it out. As I picked the fuzzy mess-maker to release, I took half a second to examine the other humans more carefully. I wasn''t sure what a sword was. However, from context, I figured it was the long, sharp metal thing in that guy''s hand. Hey, it reminded me of arge version of the counterbnce. Now that counterbnce was pretty dangerous if used wrong. I know it wasn''t intended as such, but it''s practically a weapon. It sure could cut those demons'' arms off like it was nothing. And this sword was clearly not being used as a counterbnce. I wasn''t very good at reading human bodynguage, but even I could tell this man was threatening Beatrice. That was confusing enough on its own. Why weren''t the humans getting along? Even more than that, though, Beatrice did not deserve to be threatened. She had done nothing wrong. She had caused no messes that she hadn''t cleaned up herself other than the one I had cleaned for her. Finally, the other humans noticed me. They were pretty excited to see me, which didn''t make sense. They were almost as excited as the humans who first weed me. Though there was a little bit less running and screaming involved. Instead, it was much more yelling and waving that sword around threateningly. One of the humans yelled, "I told you she was possessed. She''s working with-" That was when the fuzzy mess maker flew out of my dustbin. It looked quite different from before. Instead of a tiny little thing the size of one of my wheels, this was muchrger. It was a hulking thing almost as tall as Beatrice, except maybe three times as wide. No longer was its tail thin; it was precisely 3.12 inches wide at the base. Its mouth had very sharp bristles extending well past its jaw, and some liquid dripped out of it. It let out an angry-sounding screech as it flew out of my dustbin and charged toward the three humans. The humans backed away from Beatrice and turned to face the neer. I hoped that they didn''t hurt each other. While these humans did seem meaner than any others I had met, I still didn''t wish them any harm. And it would be a shame if they attacked my fuzzypanion after I had spent so much time keeping him safe. Still, what a weird day this had been so far. Chapter 28: Bristling with Fury Chapter 28: Bristling with Fury Bee wanted to say she was handling things before Void showed up. However, she couldn''t convince herself of that. Bee was rtively sure she was about to be imprisoned or beheaded. However, Void showing up had certainly distracted these adventures; it wasn''t quite in the way she''d expected. He showed up, and they panicked. You know, like you would when you see a powerful unknowable being that you assume is a demon. That seemed quite reasonable of them. What was unexpected, though, was Void''s reaction. Instead of doing his usual thing of just continuing to clean or staring at the new humans, it released some hideous monster. Out of nowhere, a creature as big as a pig seemed to expand impossibly out of Void''s back. Muscles bulged and rippled under its fur, with long teeth and a tail that snapped like a bullwhip. It resembled a rodent but of an unusuallyrge size. The monster charged the adventurers as Bee dove to the side and out of its way. She scrambled back, sighing in relief that it hadn''te after her. Two of the neers dove left, and one of them nked it on the right. This left ample empty space between them that the monster charged through. It snapped its tail like a whip, smacking thenky human out of the air as he dove. He was sent flying several feet and crumpled to the ground. Bee saw him start getting up soon after, but he struggled. The other two managed to avoid the monster''s initial charge. Beatrice watched as all three began to engage in an epic battle with this giant rat-like thing. Between its size, strength, and dexterous tail, it took all three adventurers their full attention to contain it. The one who did the talking was up front with a sword trying to block its ws and teeth, asionally taking a swipe at it. The others shot arrows or flung powders at it, dodging out of the way whenever they got the monster''s attention. However, it didn''t seem to be very effective. Void trundled up next to Bee, just watching the chaos it had unleashed. --- I was 90% sure that was not the same thing I had sucked up. Mostly because I hadn''t vacuumed up a beast; I''d sucked up a small, fuzzy mess maker hiding in a small crack in the wall. This was not that. If this tried to crawl through a wall, I imagine it would leave a significantlyrger hole (and mess). I don''t think I could safely let this one run around. The humans had started slowly working their way back towards the stairs outside of the front door. They were being forced back by the monster and its very disagreeable attitude. Letting it outside was to make sure that it didn''t make a mess or bother any humans. However, if it was going to do both anyway, it was less harmless than I first thought. Maybe I made a mistake here? Luckily, it looked like the other humans were handling things. They had subdued the overlyrge mess maker, though they seemed to be making quite a mess themselves in the process. I observed Beatrice as she moved in front of me a few steps. She seemed to be staring intently at the other humans. Hopefully, she wasn''t learning from their example. Soon enough, the mess maker stopped moving altogether. The other humans were yelling and shouting at each other. It must be some sort of custom here to be so loud when meeting someone new. It would exin why nearly all the new humans I had met seemed so excited. They looked at me briefly before shifting their focus to Beatrice. I watched as they rushed up to talk to my human. --- Bee almost smacked herself in the face. She had forgotten to use the scan again. It had be a reflex to use scan, even in tense situations like this. As soon as she remembered, she moved closer to the ongoing fight and focused on the first adventurer. Name Matthew, Race: Human, ss Type: Tank, Level: 15 Her scan had improved. She was able to see the exact levels now and the ss type. That in itself made the whole thing an advantageous battle ability. Even if it never got any better, she could still identify healers and levels of anyone fighting her at a nce. Even in cases where people went to great pains to hide that information, she would be helpful. She hoped the next step would be to be able to see actual sses. Maybe she''d even see a person''s entire character sheet one day. She would love to see her own stats in particr. Putting aside her excitement at her skill progression, she focused on the details of "Matthew." A level 15 adventurer wasn''t super advanced, but to be 15 at his age was mildly impressive. He looked like he was only 30 or so years old. Most people only got to 15 sometime in thete forties if they actively practiced their ss. Adventurers were even faster, some making 15 by their 30th year; if they were lucky, some managed to make it higher. And that was with them killing monsters all the time. Bee smiled to herself. If Void kept messing with the system, she would reach beyond level 15 quicker than she had ever heard. Faster than even royals and people with rare, quickly leveling sses. She would be among the legends. Though she was starting to think she might not be on the right side of those legends. Bee quickly scanned the other members of the group before she forgot. Name: Patricia, Race: Human, ss Type: Magic, Level 14 Name: Arnold, Race: Human, ss Type: Ranged, Level 14 By the time she finished her scans, the creature Void had released was defeated. But, unfortunately, she found that she couldn''t scan it, suggesting that her skill only worked on living targets. Bee frowned in disappointment. Maybe that would work at a higher level? However, she had more significant problems. Now that the adventurers had dealt with the immediate threat, they had decided to drop all pretenses of diplomacy. They rushed at her, with Matthew taking the lead, sword raised. This was not good. This situation probably only solidified that she was "possessed" in their heads, and she wasn''t near fast enough to get away. Bee braced herself and raised her forearm to block as best she could, unsure of what else to do. She squeezed her eyes shut in fear. Mathew struck at her with the t of the de. He must have taken some sort of mercy on the little girl. However, the difference in levels was still more than Bee''s small body could handle. She felt her bones break for the second time this month. The blow sent her rag dolling away. --- I turned to watch the humans as they approached. I could understand that they were all humans, but they didn''t seem nearly as friendly to each other as they should. It confused me since this was unfamiliar territory. Then one of the humans swung its counterbnce, "sword," at my human. As a result, she flew through the doorway in a distinctly ufortable-looking manner. Shocked as I was, I didn''t hesitate. I moved as fast as I possibly could. My tires squealed on the stone, but it didn''t slow me down. Dust shot everywhere, but I didn''t care. The world slowed again, even more than my improved processing speed should have allowed. It seemed as though all four of the humans were standing still. Beatrice floated gently down from where she was flying. But I could see that she was still alive if damaged. I braked, putting myself right between the aggressive humans and my injured human. I beeped at them angrily. This kind of behavior waspletely out of line. Humans didn''t act like this! Beatrice hadn''t even done anything wrong. This was... Just Rude! They blinked and stumbled back. It seemed that I had told them off sessfully. One of them called to the other in a somewhat worried tone. "It''s too fast! I can barely keep track of its movement!" "Patricia, keep your eye on it." I thought quickly. There would be time to process all of the new information I had gathered once this was over. However, for now, I just wanted these humans to leave. They were still humans, so I didn''t want to hurt them, though they seemed more like mess makers than humans. I remembered some of the movies I had watched with my old humans. Perhaps there was a way for me to frighten them off? It was worth a try, even if it might mean I have to clean up afterward. Besides, I had to hurry and ensure that Beatrice was taken care of. So, puffing myself up as much as possible, I tried to intimidate the humans. --- Beey stunned, cradling her broken arm. She was sure she was about to die. They hadn''t chopped her in half so she wouldn''t die immediately, but likely she''d be imprisoned and who knows what else. It wouldn''t have been pleasant. But she was just as surprised as everyone else when Void stood between her and the adventures. It let out a terrifying noise. She had never heard it sound so angry. It wasn''t even close to when it was chasing the cat. Typically it was calm, upbeat, and pretty cheerful. Well, once you got to know it, you got used to the terrifying power. But for all that, it seemed to only care about the cleanliness of everything more than showing the extent of its power. This time though, it decided to make an example. Bee felt more than saw the change in atmosphere at first. Even from this far away, Void''s power tugged at her hair and clothes as though to pull her in. The sheer force of the suction was enough to create a small cyclone around the ck disk, loose dust and dirt whirling around inside. The whole thing started to glow with an eerie light. Then it began to breathe out. At first, it was more dirt, spinning around in a whirlpool of darkness. Then it was a series of other materials Void had consumed. Glittering crystals, fine powders, sparkling salts, and magicalponents still brimming with power. Then Bee heard the screams, the screeches of demons that she had be all too familiar with. Though these were different - they were screeches of terror. Bee could only imagine how it looked to the adventurers. Seeing the faces of demons swirl in front of them. Of course, the demons'' faces weren''t snapping in glee like they stereotypically should. Still, the face of a terrified demon is arguably more frightening than a happy one. She watched in awe as demonic faces and eyes began to swirl, surfacing briefly in the cyclone before being sucked back in. The whole thing formed a cacophony of terrifying sounds and sights centered on Void. As much as it was expelling, nothing seemed able to escape its inexorable pull. Void began slowly advancing on the humans, who stood in ck-jawed terror. Finally, the edge of the cyclone inched closer, and they began to panic. The two in the back had already started sprinting for the outer gates. The man with the sword tried to stand his ground, but once he realized he was alone, he took off after them. He left some colorful curses that Bee would have to remember in his wake. Once they had passed the gate, Void seemed to breathe back in. Everything that had been swirling around it vanished in a couple of seconds. Soon, it looked as though the event had just been a dream. Void made a happy-sounding chime as it came closer, gently bumping into Bee''s uninjured shoulder. She smiled weakly at it, "Thank you, master. For protecting me." With great care, she got to her feet and bowed low. Then, it beeped again, and they retreated to the library. She had to carry it upstairs with only one hand this time, which was much more nerve-wracking, but they made it safely. It seemed to thank her, and then once they reached the library, it went off to do its own thing. Bee decided to put aside the tiny bit of abject terror at Void''s disy of power, instead focusing on the fact that its disy was used to defend her. To better distract herself, she focused on fixing her arm. She needed to gather supplies and make herself another healing salve. This was much less debilitating than her broken leg but would make cleaning difficult. She stopped in the middle of sitting down. Oh, what was she doing with herself? She was thinking about cleaning as though it was a priority. What a month it had been. Chapter 29: A Cluttered Mind Chapter 29: A Cluttered Mind After the unfamiliar humans had been chased off, I needed time to think. There were many things that I must consider. First and foremost, I had done something far outside of standard practice. I had threatened humans. Only threatened, but threatening anything was a concept utterly foreign to me. Even when mess makers, I didn''t "threaten" them. I just dealt with them. Also, I saw a human damage another human. This really threw my worldview off. If humans weren''t all kind and benevolent, then what? Was I living a lie? It couldn''t be. My humans were wise and kind and treated me well. Beatrice wasn''t quite there yet, but she was learning. But I needed to rethink my stance on humans. The very existence of the ones that had attacked Beatrice so callously meant I had been wrong for a while. The possibility that there were more humans like that was even more troubling. If anything, they might be worse than some mess makers. Not only did they cause disorder and destruction, but they did so even though they knew better. It was a malicious mess, the worst kind. I needed to think; all this new information made me feel like my dustbin was in disarray. I saw Bee safely to the library and made sure she could charge. The repairs could be carried outter; we couldn''t have her crashing in the middle of them. I shut the door behind her and went to consider. I sought out my favorite rug, where I felt safe and warm and surrounded by beauty. As I nestled in the soft fibers around me, I began sorting through all the inputs I had received today. I made a list of the main points I had to consider. First, not all humans were good. How could this be? I thought about it. The man with therge counterbnce, the sword, attacked Beatrice for seemingly no reason. He did not try to exin himself, just swung at her and damaged her arm, seemingly without prompting. From first appearances, there was no way to tell he was a bad human. How was I supposed to distinguish good humans from bad humans? Did they have some markings or something? On the other hand, maybe they were just defective, and I would only know once they misbehaved. That left a massive question, though. How should I treat humans when I don''t know if they''re bad or good? Maybe I just don''t know how to distinguish them yet? This needs to be rified. Humans are even stranger than I thought. There was another thing that had been bugging me. A couple other things, actually. I had my first glimpse of the outside. It was terrifying. I only managed to get into the cobblednding area since the stairs prevented me from going further, but that was enough for me. The floor beyond was covered almost entirely in dirt. It almost looked as if the ground itself was made of mud. I felt my brushes quiver at the thought. Did no one ever clean it? The horrors of the outside and the endless mess of dirt I could see could only keep my mind upied for so long. Soon I thought back to the humans. They must have arrived from somece outside, within or beyond the dirt. Were the outside and bad humans connected? My humans went outside often, but then again, they did live inside. Were the filthy humans the bad ones? They had soiled clothes that could probably be used to indicate whether someone was bad or good. However, Bee''s clothes were also not clean when I first saw her. Yet she still seemed promising, even if she had yet to learn to give good head pats. There was another thing pulling at my thoughts, though less aggressively. It was Beatrice. I knew she was a ma for trouble. Every time I ran into her, she seemed to require some assistance. And well, while I definitely didn''t mind giving it to her, sometimes I would have duties, or she would have tasks that would take us apart. For example, I might need to clean the grand hall while she needed to organize the kitchen counters I couldn''t reach. That assumed I would delegate tasks to Bee when she was the human. Did my issues with human understanding fail not only at their morality but their superiority? Why did they seem so much weaker? Less capable? Man, I really couldn''t concentrate on anything. There were too many things that were just piling up in my head, vying for my attention. What have I learned so far? Humans are not all bad or good. Not all are wise and perfect like my humans at home. The outside is dirty and scary and would require a lot of work to clean because, apparently, no one''s ever done it. So bad humanse from outside and are dirty? And Beatrice needs help. Okay. Okay. That cleared my thoughts to focus on one thing at a time. That summarizes my understanding right now. I''ll need to revisit these topicster. The tension in my brush lessened, and my wheels rxed a little. To gather my thoughts, I started cleaning my favorite beautiful carpet. Gentle suction and brushes teased dust out of the fibers as they fluttered around my wheels. Then, I simply rolled back and forth, covering every inch of it. It only took a few minutes, even doing it very slowly. Still, I was cautious to not use too much force and damage it. That was a new development. I never had to worry about hurting anything with my abilities before. But seeing what had happened when I intimidated the bad humans by pushing my suction to the limits, I began to worry about controlling my power. I considered the most immediate problem before me. Beatrice was incapable of defending herself adequately. This wasn''t something my kind is usually very good at either. Still, apparently, this ce was strange enough that I had less of a problem than she did. So there was no reason she couldn''t learn to as well. I guess I had found something else to teach her besides cleaning. I would need to make her strong. Strong enough that a few bad humans from the dirty outside wouldn''t be able to push her around and damage her so easily. Yes, I now had a n of action. I''d teach Bee to defend herself against bad humans. Yes, this would work. All this thinking exhausted me. I could feel it in my drained battery, and from the debacle earlier, I knew I would soon need to recharge. Carefully, I selected just some of the material I had gathered, not one of the demons, and transmuted just enough that I would top off my energy. Sure enough, I went just below full. No sparks flew anywhere, and I felt amazing. Somerge squiggles floated up my vision but weren''t apanied by any great voice, so I ignored them and resumed cleaning. --- After Void left the library, Bee got up from where it had tucked her in so gently. Void had prompted her to lie down where she had that first night and then slowly dragged a nket over her. Then it proceeded to use its small arm to gently tuck it in underneath her. Between this and its actions earlier, this had pretty much erased all fears she had of Void trying to cause her harm. Now it just seemed like a sweet, misunderstood being. An all-powerful one, capable of terrifying disys of power, but adorable nheless. If anything convinced her that she had absolutely made the right decision in choosing Devotee, this was it. However, it also had very strict ideas about when she needed rest. She really wasn''t tired yet. She was honestly too hopped up on adrenaline and pain to sleep. Her arm was killing her, and she just wanted to make some of that healing salve. On top of all that, as much as she tried to listen to her master, she knew she needed to improve. It was frightening how littlebat ability she had. So far, her only option had been to fling demon repellent at something or hack at it, which already was suboptimal. If she was being attacked by anything that wasn''t a demon, she was pretty much dead in the water. She didn''t really know how to learn how to use swords or any other kind of weapon; also, she needed to be stronger to effectively use them anyway. So that left magic as her best option. Sure she might not have any magical-based abilities in her ss and may never get them, but she wouldn''t let that stop her. Bee untangled herself from the nket, wincing every time her arm moved. Next, she fashioned a clumsy sling for her arm using a couple of cloth bags and a strip of fabric from a robe she had found on a chair. It took Bee quite a while since she only had one working hand. Still, eventually, she managed to immobilize her arm against her chest. With that done, she carefully began moving the alchemy equipment a couple tables over. Of course, if Void insisted she sleep here, she would, but she''d rather not do it with a bunch of ss vials with magically potent ingredients right above her. As she moved the beakers and stirring rods, she silently thanked herself for cleaning everything right after herst alchemy experiments. There was no way she could have cleaned them with just one arm. Even mixing and using them was a big issue now, but holding one in ce while wiping was impossible. Now she was pretty much unable to do that. Bee began the familiar process of preparing a healing salve and lost herself in the movements. Bee had always wanted to do magic, but unlike many things she had dreamed about, she actually enjoyed doing it more than expected. Starting out, she had thought about the majesty of magic, the grandeur, and the influence she would wield as the most powerful mage in the world. However, that had quickly been disabused as she realized what magicians actually did. The vast majority of their time was spent physically making the potions, powders, and materials that yielded such awe-inspiring effects. The amount of time that had to go into just a single fireball potion was mind-boggling if the recipe was to be believed. Plus, the scope of what a magician could do seemed much more limited than her imagination led her to believe. They needed many materials from many sources, some of them incredibly rare. So the idea of a powerful mageying waste to all who opposed them was a bit silly, seeing that they would still need a way to supply all their ingredients. All you needed to do was cut off their supplies to stop them. There were a lot of functional recipes and options that just usedmon materials - healing, explosive, distraction, and illusion potions, for example. But most of the more potent stuff required at least one harder-to-source ingredient. Even with that reality check, Bee had found that she enjoyed the magic process itself. It wasn''t because of the things she got at the end, though. She really did like having her broken bones heal so quickly. No, it was that measuring, mixing, and following a recipe like this soothed her. It wasn''t like cooking, which was much more stressful. In fact, she had assumed that she would never have the patience for something like this. But where it usually was a chore to sit still for more than 5 minutes, she could spend 45 minutes reading about or mixing chemicals without any issue. Bee finished the mixture without too many issues and applied it to her swollen arm. Luckily, this wasn''t nearly as bad a break as her leg. It was probably a fracture, but it would still be a day or two before it was fully healed. Hopefully, it would stop hurting in an hour or so. Giving herself a moment to rest, Bee thought about her ns. She wouldn''t be cleaning anytime soon, and practicing alchemy with a broken arm didn''t sound like a great idea. She could take advantage of this time, though. Standing from her chair, Bee began to sort through her books on demons and legends about the captive lieutenant. Chapter 30: The Pure Spirit Chapter 30: The Pure Spirit Now that she had some time to herself, Bee scanned the shelves for more books that might be useful. Considering what had just happened, she resolved to find something to help her defend herself better. However, Bee wasn''t sure if that meant focusing on a self-defensebat book or researching recipes she could use inbat. She had plenty of primary resources for alchemy but needed more advanced ones. Really Bee just needed to explore the rest of the castle. She remembered seeing some of the more powerful materials as they were being carried from ce to ce when the mages were still around. They had all the resources here they could ever want. Even better, most items had ways to continue harvesting them. By this point, some of the animals kept here might have died. Some nts might have also failed, but the materials and infrastructure were still there. Who knows, maybe she could get some of them back up and running. Of course, it would take a lot of research to figure out, not to mention skill and time But for now, there should berge stockpiles, at least. Browsing the section on "creation" (or so it seemed), Bee pulled out a book describing different sh powder recipes. She was curious if having the sh powder would have helped her with the adventurers; this might have given her a chance to run. She thought back to the encounter, mentally kicking herself. She had frozen up in fear. There had to be a way for her to ovee that. Hopefully, it wasn''t just an experience thing. She didn''t want to seek out more life-threatening situations; she just wanted to handle them better if they came up. She continued to browse, taking the book back to the table as she collected them to have a free hand to grab books off the shelf. Bee picked up a book on alchemical acids, one on smoke or cloud-forming substances and another on basic fire potions. She stacked piles of books into a few categories: escape and distractions, attack or damage, and general purpose. As she made repeated trips between the shelves, the stacks grew. At first, the library was confusing, but she was finally morefortable with it. Several days of exploring the shelves gave her a better feel for the organizational strategy. At first, she could only make the best guess of where to look, but now it was almost as if the library was her second home. She could find any sort of topic easily. Thest book she picked was rted to her ss and the scanning skill. Unfortunately, that final category had little to reference; she had found only one book slightly rted to it. It was titled "the character sheet: all known fields, possible values, and specializations, with digressions into the origins andplications of the system." Yeah. Sounded like another winner. It had something to do with the system and character sheets, but Bee didn''t think this would help. Still, it was worth a shot. Luckily, her ss had a straight-up guide on it. But, unfortunately, it was a very light guide. Looking at the summary, it seemed that Devotee was one of the most flexible sses ever because it highly depended on who the devotee worshiped. So this probably wasn''t going to help her very much. Still, it might give her some idea of what skills to expect or perhaps something about future sses. Or when to expect skills rted to her master''s. Bee spent several hours flipping through her collection, setting some aside forter and bookmarking essential passages in others. But there were only a few immediately valuable things. She copied down one sh powder recipe along with a couple potions that might do damage if flung in someone''s eyes. They also worked as minor acids or bases for other alchemy recipes. She also had a recipe that would increase her movement speed by 10% for a 30-second window. Given how tedious the recipe looked, she was curious if that was worth it, but she had most of the ingredients in the lesser store room. She needed to make a trip there soon. And figure out how to get into the more secure storerooms. That could wait, though. After finishing her research, she thought about what to do. First, she should try to scan some of these demons in cages to see precisely what she was dealing with. Perhaps the scan could also tell her how far along they were in their recovery. Considering that her scan had leveled up recently, Bee also had another idea. If she wanted to prepare for the future, she needed more information about the lieutenant. *** Bee''s steps echoed throughout the dark interior of Nazareth''gak''s prison. There was still no noticeable change in the demon''s form. She likely wouldn''t see that for a while now. It was a good sign, but still nerve-racking that she had no indication of how far away it was from awakening. When she scanned the adventurers, she could see a ss type and exact levels. She didn''t expect to get so much here. Likely she wouldn''t be able to see the actual level of the demon since the adventurers were much closer to her than it, but Bee hoped to get more than nothing. She got as close as she dared before running a scan, and as expected, more details appeared this time. Turns out its ss was torture-type. She didn''t even know that was an option. The level just said 30+. So it seemed she could get urate levels within about 20 of her own, with ranges or something vaguer as the numbers got further away. Bee was almost d that it hadn''t shown her an exact level. That information would only dishearten her or maybe cause her to pass out from fright. Reconnaissance finished, Bee returned to the library with renewed resolve. Once Void had finished its brooding, she hoped to clean again. Bee wanted to make that final push to level 10 and get her next skill. In the meantime, though, she had plenty more to research. --- Matthew copsed just over the crest of the hill. He was not as fast as Patricia or Arnold but had managed to keep them in sight as they fled. Once they had managed to get out of direct view of the castle, he had expected them to slow down, maybe let him catch up so they could talk. But no, they kept running as fast as they could, slowly leaving him behind. He didn''t catch up to them till hourster. Then, finally, the group reconvened just over a series of severalrge hills as though the earth would protect them from their enemy. "Is it following us?" Patricia demanded as Matthew got within shouting range. Matthew jogged thest few meters, panting. "Not that I can tell. But who knows. It could have sent scouts of its own." Tension filled the air as they considered their encounter with the demon. Patricia finally broke the silence. "What the hell was that? If anything, the mages understated the threat. Summoning monsters, teleporting, wind magic That''s not something we can handle." Matthew straightened, his breath slowly returning to an average pace. "We''re not supposed to handle it. If we could handle it, the mages would never have left. That''s why we''re supposed to scout and report." He paused for a moment, turning his gaze to each of his teammates. "We know more than we did before. However, not enough yet, I think." Arnold''s eyes filled with horror. "You can''t be thinking of going back there. You can''t." "I am, but not in a stupid way. No more waltzing up to the front gate. This has to be a stealth mission. The walls are scble, even more so if there''s a distraction. We''ll set a huge bonfire on one side of the castle to draw their attention. Maybe that will make it easier to sneak over the wall. We''ll go early in the morning, so the sun will be up by the time I''m trying to make a getaway." Matthew said. "You''ll make a getaway?" Patricia red at him. "Are you nning to go in there by yourself? I can''t let you do that." "The hell I can''t," Arnold''s pupils dted in fear. His voice was small but certain. "I can light the bonfires for you. But there''s no way I''m going back near that castle." Patricia rounded on thenky man. "Well, there''s no way he''s going alone! I won''t let him." Matthew saw the fear in her eyes, both for his safety and her own. He couldn''t, in good conscience, ask her to go along. "No, Patricia. You need to stay here and help ensure Arnold gets away clean. We need to make sure at least one person gets back. We need to warn the others. But we also need more information. This is a risk I''m willing to take alone." His teammates stared at him. Arnold cursed under his breath but didn''t have anything else to say. Patricia simply met Matthew''s eyes mutely. For a solid minute, no one moved. Eventually, she shook her head. "I won''t stay with Arnold. Maybe I''ll wait on the wall to give you covering fire while you''re sneaking around, but I''m not leaving you to fend for yourself." Matthew saw Arnold ncing between the two of them. He could see the regret in the man''s eyes, but he could also see no strength behind them anymore. Arnold would need time to recover if it was possible for him. Arnold wasn''t a coward nor a particrly brave man, but he did love his friends. It was probably tearing up inside to admit that he was not courageous enough to go with them. Matthew didn''t hold it against him. But nevertheless, Arnold would y a vital role. Someone needed to cause the distraction, and while it was a safer role, it wasn''t entirely without risk. "Arnold, once you set the fire, you can meet us in Greg. Give us two weeks to catch up. If we''re not there by then, continue on to the capital." Arnold nodded and pulled out a leather-bound book and quill. He handed them to Patricia. "I want you both to write letters to your families just in case. Along with anything you remember about our encounter so I can pass on our reports." Patricia jotted down notes for a few minutes before blotting the ink and scouring it with sand. Then finally, she grimly handed the notebook over to Matthew. Matthew thought about who he had to write to. Few people came to mind, just a younger brother he hadn''t talked to in years. So Matthew penned a quick note, speaking of his love for his little brother. He regretted noting to visit more often and hoped this letter would never reach him. After that, Matthew detailed their experiences from when they saw the castle. He was careful not to leave anything out, even their own cowardice. Who knows, the demon might have had some effect on them, and it would be necessary for the king and the military to understand. He returned the book to Arnold, who tucked it in his belt. Then they all began to n. Chapter 31: Letting it Soak Chapter 31: Letting it Soak I had cleaned the rug dozens of times by the time my mind finally settled. The world had just be a much moreplicated ce. But I would have to deal with it. I had responsibilities to meet and duties to perform. So I went to see if Beatrice was done charging. I actually met her on my way to the library. She was justing out of one of the doors leading to a room with cages. I hoped she hadn''t been pushing herself by cleaning too much yet. She needed maintenance before returning to her more arduous duties. She jumped a little when she saw me but politely bowed and wished me good morning. Still, I needed to improve on reading human facial features. Her eyes looked strange. Not the eyes themselves but the area around them. There appeared to be dark circles under them; I didn''t remember seeing those there before. I wonder if that came from the damage the other humans inflicted. If so, maybe she could also fix them during maintenance and charging. I hoped she had had a good night charging. I also saw that her damaged arm looked like it had been packaged somehow. It had been wrapped in cloth and tied to her chest. Presumably, this was to keep it from pping about while she couldn''t control it. That was a bright idea. I will have to keep that in mind for future damages. It would be an excellent way to prevent any further damage while charging. Especially since humans seemed to move when they charged much more than I did. I hoped that her repairs would take less time than the previous ones. A good mechanic should take less than days to fix something as simple as swapping an outer part. I suppose if you were doing it yourself, it must be much more challenging, though. And the truth was, I envied the humans'' ability to repair themselves. If I had to rece my arm, I would be utterly incapable of doing so. So far, I was lucky enough to avoid damage. However, my wheels were starting to get almost grimy. When I cleaned the carpets, I spent half the time cleaning up the dust I tracked in myself from driving around. It took several passes, but most of the stuff eventually left my underside from being brushed off or king off. Sure, I could vacuum it up as I trundled along, but I''m sure my top and sides were just as gross. Maybe I would get some sort of self-cleaning or repair power soon. But the loud voice hadn''t made an appearance in a while. I had even transmuted some material to fill myself up earlier, and still nothing. I imagined if I transmuted everything, I would hear it again, maybe? Perhaps I would try that once I needed more energy again. I considered how to convey my decision about training to Beatrice. I wasn''t about to figure out how to, honestly. So she would just have to figure it out as we went along. Unfortunately, she was still damaged. I didn''t think she could protect herself adequately without her arm in working condition, so training that way would be suboptimal. But I suppose we could do something to pass the time until she was fully repaired. With a series of beeps, I encouraged her to follow me and led her to the main staircase again. This time did not require nearly as much convincing before she picked me up and carried me down. She seemed less reluctant this time, though still very careful, even with one arm. The process seemed moreplicated than it probably should have been. After all, I was pretty light. She should have been easily able to carry me even with a broken arm. In fact, my humans at home carried me in one hand all the time. However, Beatrice was much more careful to keep me level instead of letting me swing around facing the floor. I did appreciate that. She set me down carefully at the bottom, and I thanked her. Then I went off to finish fully exploring this area. The side chambers really needed cleaning. The rest of the castle had been cleaned regrly, but these had definitely been neglected. Just because they weren''t as fancy and pretty didn''t mean they deserved to be ignored. I understood that maybe cleaning them on a less frequent schedule, but the room with the hooks and coats on the walls probably hadn''t been swept in months. This was uneptable. Beatrice excused herself and quickly returned a few minutester with a broom. Together, we set out to care for the rooms, exploring as we went. I started us with the two rooms immediately adjacent to the base of the stairs. As we worked, we developed a new sort of rhythm. Instead of sweeping side by side, which wasn''t as effective in these smaller rooms, we worked inplementary roles. Seeing that the broom was better at moving dust and debris, Bee would clean things I couldn''t reach. Even one-handed, she could sweep the dust onto the floor where I had yet to go. While Bee cleaned off the trim and any furniture, I did what I did best. I drove in straight lines and elegant curves, covering every bit of the floor with my suction. Carefully, I cleaned all the open areas away from walls and furniture first. Then I picked up the debris she had swept off the walls, window sills, tables, benches, and other furniture. It was a wonderfully efficient way to cover the whole floor without redundancies. We also found a heavily padlocked door behind the stairs during our explorations. A visitor would have to go in the main entrance and, instead of going up the stairs, go down this hidden passage. At the end of the passage was this dark oak door banded with iron. I could sense that there was something more to it. I wasn''t sure how I knew, but I did. It looked like an antique. I never had gotten into doors, but still, this was a rarity. I wondered if the floors behind it were a simr style. While it seemed inessible at the moment, it did make me curious. It also made me consider how to go about exploring the rest of the castle. Now that Beatrice could help me traverse the other floors of the castle, I debated whether I should do a depth-first or a breadth-first search. If I did a depth-first search, I would keep going down every room or passage until I hit a dead end. Then I would backtrack and do the same thing in the following passage. However, if I did breadth-first, I would go through every passage one level down or explore the room behind each door on a given floor. Then I would continue doing that until I ran out of options, then repeat from one level down if there were secondary rooms or passages. One would give me much more profound knowledge about specific areas, and the other would give me a lot more variety. As indicated in the names. Of course, I would explore the whole castle, either way, given enough time. I would be doing a depth-first search if I prioritized seeing what was behind this admittedly well-crafted door. But if I went back and explored another stairwell, I would be doing a breadth-first search. I had done breadth-first, for the most part, when examining the main floor. It helped me get my bearings and gave me a good understanding of what the castle had to offer. However, now I wanted to master how to clean each section rather than just explore more. After all, with efficient paths for each room, cleaning them on a regr schedule would be easier. However, after our initial exploration, the only two options for a depth search on this floor were problematic: the outside and the banded iron door. I had already gone through the outside door, so that would be the logical ce to continue. However, I wasn''t sure if outside would be part of my search. I feel that would take way too long - the dirt seemed endless. So I chose to truncate that branch of the search for now. Still, I decided tomit to the depth first. I would explore one section of the castle at a time totally. I understood the main floor, which seemed to epass most of the castle''s footprint. I could explore upstairs, and various towers, and maybe Beatrice would help me find a way through the doors I couldn''t open myself. However, I''d like to start with the banded wood door. I sensed a higher concentration of mustiness and dusting from underneath, so I worried that the room beyond had been even more neglected than most. --- Bee stood before the door with Void. It was a heavy banded door made of dark wood that looked very sinister. The dark wood looked aged, and the iron bands were a half-inch thick and as wide as her hand. A slight bit of rust had built up over the years. The lock looked rusted shut. In fact, it seemed that it would fall apart any day now. To top it off, a set of w marks ran down the center of the door. The five lines went diagonally down the door underneath the beds. Bee wondered if the incident that caused those markings was why the bands were added. She hadn''t seen it when she first came to the castle. In fact, she hadn''t been allowed near this door except when they warned her to avoid it. They hadn''t given her much of a chance to look at it before dragging her away. But she immediately knew what it was. This was the catbs entrance. Bee had no idea what was inside. A lot of dead things, presumably. However, it did seem to be the kind of ce that would contain a lot of monsters. The nearness of all the death had weakened the walls between the realms. Hence the heavy door to keep the monsters inside. She didn''t understand why Void wanted to go inside now. While she had a broken arm, no healing salve left over, no other materials to create more powders, nor any chance to make the other things she had researched. This was not a good start to the morning. Blinking in shock, Bee had an idea. "I wonder if that''s why they summon demons here. I bet that Nazareth''gaks presence weakness the barrier to the demonic realm." "Master, can this wait please?" she begged. "Before we go explore that area, I would like to be fully healed and a little more prepared." She was still exhausted. Bee had spent almost the entire night researching and checking up on various demons to exercise her scan ability. She had gotten maybe three hours of sleep that night. Void made an inquisitive sound, seeming to ask why they should dy. "We can go in a day or two if we really must. Let me sleep and prepare some materials to bring. That way, I can heal and possibly be more useful to you." It beeped in what she took for assent. Sagging in relief as they returned to the stairwell, she carried Void back upstairs, then headed to the library. *** Bee was both excited and nervous. If Void let her survive exploring/cleaning the catbs, she would almost certainly reach level 10. With their recent work, she could see that she was very close already. This was just what she needed. Of course, her master would push her, but hopefully, it would keep her from dying if she got in over her head. Rushing around to prepare, Bee made a double batch of healing salve and applied it all at once. It seemed to have worked before, and she needed to be ready soon. Bee wished to take some with her, but its potency didn''tst long. She would have to bring her alchemy supplies and make them fresh in the field. After Bee had thered the salve all over her arm, she rewrapped it carefully. Then she started gathering the materials she would need. Aplete set of equipment and her notebook of useful recipes. A backpack, since her bag was onlyrge enough for short expeditions. She wasn''t sure how long they would be in the catbs, but it was better to be safe if they got lost. She would also need to run and grab food and water from the kitchen. As well as more supplies for her alchemy from the storeroom. On her way to the lesser storeroom, Bee was d that most of the minor demons had been taken care of. She hadn''t seen one in days. From what Bee could tell from inspecting the cages, the regr demons were still mostly subdued or recovering from stasis. At least, she hadn''t seen any out yet. Hopefully, they wouldn''t wake up for another day or two. Plus, If they worked like the lesser demons, they wouldn''t alle out at once. Running through her mental checklist again, Bee began packing alchemy materials into small leather sacks. This would be an excellent opportunity for her to get stronger. She just had to make sure she was prepared. Time to see if all that research would pay off. Chapter 32: Germophobe Chapter 32: Germophobe Beatrice set me down gently at the top of the stairs. I watched her head off toward the library. Apparently, the library was a ce specifically meant to store the fancy blocks, and those fancy blocks were called "books." I wasn''t exactly sure why, but Beatrice insisted that she bring some books with us to explore beyond the banded iron door. Of course, if she really wanted to, I wouldn''t stop her. Maybe she needed them for moral support? I appreciated art too, but it seemed strange to carry it with us. From how much she had been staring at themtely, I wouldn''t be surprised if they had a second function beyond just being art. Maybe they were a different way for her to recharge? Anyways, I had some time for myself. Beatrice seemed busy preparing her books and whatever else she might need and showed no signs of slowing her pace today. Plus, I knew humans needed to eat. And then she would sleep. Between all that, we''d probably end up going tomorrow. Hopefully, by then, her repairs would beplete, and her arm would be primarily functional, if not perfectly so. We needed to find a proper mechanic for her. Either that, or she needed to improve at repairing herself. A professional could do much better. It should not take this long to fix a part. I understood that maybe the movement aspect of the legs might have been tricky to get the bnce and tuning right on, but this was just an arm. She should be able to just swap it out and put another one on. But maybe she was out of spare parts? Actually, thinking about it, I wasn''t exactly sure how humans were usually repaired. But if my stic breaks, there''s really no fixing the part itself. I knew that metal could be welded, though. I''ve seen that on TV. But I wasn''t sure about humans. Apparently, some "medical shows" on TV detailed the repair process. Still, both myrge humans were "squeamish about blood." I wasn''t sure what that meant, but it did mean that whenever a human repair was shown, they immediately changed the channel. Especially if the human''s brake or lubrication fluid lines were leaking. So I didn''t know how, but maybe Beatrice was doing some repairs to the parts themselves? It seemed like her current arm was getting progressively less damaged rather than being swapped out for a new one. Was she slowly welding her flesh together? Maybe this was just how humans worked. It seemed inefficient, though. Maybe it was a backup mechanism because she had no spare arm to switch to. I supposed it was as if I had to switch up my motherboard, but I decided to repair it instead. That sounded reallyplicated for me to handle alone. I didn''t think it was even possible. Maybe with a soldering iron and a lot of trial and error. I guess I needed to get her a few extra arms, just in case. Actually, maybe I should get her other parts as well. Perhaps we could just get a few defective humans, and she could use their non-defective parts to swap. I was curious if that was a real thing humans could do, but I would be surprised if such a wise and powerful race didn''t make themselves modr. Though with all of my recent revtions about humans, maybe this was thinking too highly of the ones here My humans certainly would have thought of that. Perhaps the humans here were just backward; that would be unfortunate. I would have to get Beatrice to exin more about how human design schematics worked and what materials they were made of. These thoughts ran through my head as I made my way to clean. Beatrice needed much more time to charge than I did and couldn''t clean with me all the time. Therefore, when it came to the routine parts of cleaning, I didn''t require her assistance; I could just do them by myself. First, I checked the room with small cages. The cage and tank rooms usually required the most frequent cleaning. However, I noticed that all of the cages in this room were empty. I wondered how that happened. Maybe the demons were responsible for opening cage doors, breaking into them, and stealing whatever was inside. Though I hadn''t seen any lesser demons around since I had that tussle with them a few days ago. Beatrice apparently ran into a couple but had done an admirable job dispatching the mess makers. Maybe they were avoiding me, which seemed a little unreasonable. Sure I had chased them around and put them in the timeout dustbin. That was only because they had always been actively making a mess or causing problems for Beatrice when I saw them. If they had been a little nicer or neater, they would have found me to be very polite. In fact, I had to congratte them. I hadn''t seen many of their messes recently, so they must have been trying very hard to improve. Anyways, now the cage room was empty. Cleaning here did not need to happen nearly as often. I made a mental note to drop the room in priority to every couple of days schedule for a while. Therge cage room and tank room showed no signs of being broken into. Both seemed to have the same number of full cages/tanks as before. Though the amount of filth scattered around had increased. So those took me a long time to clean up. I vacuumed around therge cages, which took me a while. There were some areas where I needed multiple passes to get everything. My suction had gotten much more powerful and should not have left anything this loose behind, but it was still there. It was almost as if the dirt kept reappearing in my wake. I thought I was going insane for a second. It was a conundrum, but I prevailed with a little bit of persistence. The water tank room was always difficult to clean, but no more so than average. Ironically, I felt like I should be using my mop, but it wasn''t the most helpful tool here. So instead, I simply vacuumed theparativelyrge debris and let the water drain naturally through the channels in the floor, as they had been designed for. 23% into my modeled path for the water tank room, I was interrupted. The voice was back. For once, it wasn''t speaking at a highly inconvenient moment, so I didn''t really mind. I had just started and hadn''t even gotten into the zone, so I listened to what it had to say this time. LEVEL 20 REACHED, CHOOSE A MUTATION: ADVANCED SENSORS, PROJECTILE PROFICIENCY, SUMMON FAMILIAR. Now those were some interesting choices. I had heard of familiars, but I wasn''t familiar with them. I chuckled to myself in my head. It turns out I liked puns. That was something I wasn''t expecting. But the more time I have spent over here, the more times I find puns that make meugh. This was the first time I actually had to be careful about choices. None of them were obvious choices. Projectile proficiency was probably the weakest choice. I wanted to avoid flinging things around and making a bigger mess. The other two options were both excellent. Advanced sensors would help me find dirt and debris that I had missed. Or so I assumed. That would be very useful, directly so in my regr routes. Though a familiar could also be helpful. I wondered if I could get some sort of autonomous mop as a familiar. I had seenmercials for that. They had a new crossbreed of my kind with a mop. Honestly, I wasn''t sure how I felt about that. But seeing that I had a mop myself, I guess I couldn''t judge. I also wasn''t sure how exactly familiars worked. Maybe it would be like a partner? I guess I didn''t know the specifics. I''ve seen various types of small fluffy mess makers before on TV referred to as "familiars." And one of my favorite shows was about a witch living with mortals. I''m pretty sure she had a familiar cat. The part I needed rification on, though, was how that was different from a standard pet. Still, I wouldn''t want my familiar making messes, so maybe I could get a human familiar. But that just felt wrong too. I already had Beatrice to help me with whatever I needed. I wasn''t sure if I needed someone else to direct. That was even more responsibility, but I don''t know. I just liked the idea of summoning a familiar. It seemed nice to havepany whenever I wanted. Still, I didn''t know enough to choose it in good conscience. Especially when I knew that advanced sensors would definitely help me in my cleaning. I chose advanced sensors. The world immediately lit up around me. Where previously I had seen a dozen colors, I now saw thousands. On top of that, moreyers of data flooded my visual sensors. There seemed to be three new categories of data for me to sort through. The first gave every surface a value indicating the amount of dirt and debris it was covered in and a description of the filth''sposition. The second provided an upgraded view of my proposed modeling paths. It seemed to help update them in real time using my primary visual feed. The third feed, though, was different. I examined the data more closely. It also seemed to indicate some sort of "dirt" coverage, but for a different kind of filth. A type that was so small as to be invisible to my standard sensors. Focusing on the feed, I enhanced the detail until I closely examined a small square of the floor below me. I started to see things. Moving things. I shuddered with sudden revulsion. These were things that no vacuum should ever see. It made me feel inadequate, like all my efforts for my whole life had been wasted. My sensors were detecting microscopic particles coating the freshly "cleaned" floor. Sure, they weren''t visible to the naked eye, but looking into the data, I could see millions of them in this small area alone. I could also see a little about these "particles." They were tiny organisms. Tiny, moving mess makers. An army that, as I frantically scanned the room, seemed to coat every avable surface. The data included a brief summary of the effects of each of the items it identified. There were a few of them. Less than 1%, but that meant a number of entries in the hundreds of thousands. It was all I could do to process it. Some of the information packets mentioned sickness. Sickness was something I wasn''t familiar with. ording to the packets, the ones that caused sickness were called germs. But looking at the germ''s properties, I could see that it would significantly decrease a human''s efficiency for a short time while the humans fought it off. These germs were found when things were not sterile. Either ingested or got into the bloodstream somehow. Some of them could even be acquired via breathing. I wasn''t worried about them getting into me, of course - I was built to take in and quarantine filth, and I trusted that my dustbin was equipped to handle this. But What about Beatrice? What if these made her sick? I froze. What if I was coated in these organisms too? What if, by touching me, I was spreading a mess to Beatrice? I just wasn''t ready for another existential crisis so soon after myst one. -- It had taken Matthew and his team a couple days to set up. The piles of felled trees and dried wood on the castle''s east side were ready to be set ame. They had also scouted ces for Patricia and Matthew to climb the wall on the west side, opposite the bonfires. After they saw the fires, the pair would wait for any response from the castle. If there was one, they would take advantage of it. If not, then Patricia would keep watch while Matthew went in alone. As soon as the fires were lit, Arnold would make his escape. He would head to Greg as quickly as possible, where he''d wait for a day or two before continuing on. He''d also report back to the captain when he made it to Greg. Perhaps they would send messengers with the idea that more information on the situation could follow if Matthew made it back. But now, just as dawn broke, they were ready to move. Patricia and Matthew saw the telltale glow of orange-red rise up from the treeline, then waited to a count of 300. Seeing no movement from the castle, they carefully scaled the wall into the courtyard, but nothing. Matthew looked at Patricia, who nodded regretfully. She tied a rope to one of the crentions atop the wall and dropped it down for Matthew to lower himself to the ground. As his boots touched the soft grass of the courtyard, Matthew nced back up at his friend. Patricia signaled down to him that she also saw nothing. Then, carefully, Matthew crept toward one of the side doors. He sure hoped it was unlocked. Chapter 33: The Best Disinfectant Chapter 33: The Best Disinfectant I starteding to terms with this hidden world of germs. The implications of ayer of grime invisible to my kind were staggering. The consequences were far-reaching, and it would take me time and a decent amount of effort to fully understand the scope of the issue. The first things to consider were the immediate and first-order consequences. Considering that I had never gotten sick, I assumed I was safe from germs. My human creators likely considered this threat during my creation, even if I hadn''t realized it. However, I didn''t think Beatrice was immune. Plus, she was an undisputed ma for trouble. In fact, I was surprised that Beatrice hadn''t gotten sick already. She was constantly in contact with all these germs, so there was no way that luck wouldst. On the other hand, given her track record, this already might as well have been a minor miracle. Anyways, I needed a solution, and soon. I tried positioning myself above a small test patch I had scanned with my improved sensors. While over it, I ran my vacuum at absolute full power. I knew that this could potentially damage the stone, but it was a risk I needed to take; for research purposes only, of course. I wasn''t panicking. After 60 seconds of vacuuming, I backed up and scanned the area again. The germ poption had only been reduced by about 2%. I repeated the process several more times, but my approach became less and less effective each time. Eventually, my sensors weren''t even registering a change in the number of germs. All this trial and error did seem to work my scan out, though. Maybe I was just getting better and interpreting it, but I started to notice a difference in the types of germs. There were viruses, bacteria, and parasites. One looked to be an amoeba. There were also some things I didn''t know to ssify. Still, I did see the broad categories with more rity. There had to be a better solution. Determined, I popped out my mop and tried swiping at the area. Horrified, I saw that my mop now had a bunch of germs on it. Quickly, I wrung it out inside of my dustbin. Luckily the mop seemed to be refreshed when I popped it out again. Yet, despite my concern, the swipe with the mop also made a negligible difference. I even tested wet and dry mopping techniques to no avail. Damp mopping appeared capable of moving some of these microscopic mess makers, but it wasn''t nearly enough. I began trundling back and forth, pathing in small ovals along the floor. What else did I have? My arm wouldn''t help, not directly, at least. Maybe there was a tool humans had to deal with this kind of threat, but I needed to know what it was to identify or use it. The only thing left was my lighting attachment I stopped. What had the voice called it? A sanitationmp? I knew what sanitation meant. It should help me make things clean. But I had yet to figure out how exactly. So far, it had appeared to be a great disappointment. It was just a blue light. The strange and inefficient light source might help me find my way around. But overall, it was rather useless. Maybe I just hadn''t been able to see its effects at the time, though. Humans clearly knew about germs, so they must have a way tobat them. Perhaps themp was the tool that I needed? I turned mymp on, its ghostly violet light shining in front of me. Not much happened at first, but I was patient. I stayed unmoving, scanning the area for any status updates. Then slowly, ever so slowly, I watched the percentage of germs tick down. The process was slow but elerated as the light continued to shine. It took a solid minute to fully clean a 1 square foot area. When it was done, though, that area was cleaned. My sensors indicated a 0% germ presence. I had killed 100% of this scourge. Not 99.9%, 100%. I took a moment to marvel at the absolutely spotless section before me. This was indeed a great victory for all those who subscribed to the ideals of cleanliness. We had been infiltrated. We''d been deceived by a devious foe that had stuck under our noses despite our vignce. Despite being on guard, it had tricked us. But now, it was time for revenge. I would start now, and I would sanitize everything I could. As I embarked on my crusade, I learned a few things. The first was that themp took a lot out of me. I could keep it on for a long time, but I felt my energy draining. I estimated that themp used approximately 0.5% of my maximum energy per minute at full power. Also, I could dim the light, but it was far less efficient that way. Finally, as the percentage of germs in my scans ticked, I noticed some tiny squiggles floating in the corner of my vision. They appeared and disappeared more rapidly than I was used to. Perhaps the size had something to do with that? After uprooting the microscopic gue from one hallway, I decided to rethink my approach. I supposed I couldn''t go on a full-on crusade yet. However, I promised Beatrice we would explore the banded iron door soon. Plus, I''d like to get her help with this somehow. I didn''t think she had her own sanitationmp, so she had yet to participate in my crusade. Maybe humans had other methods of handling germs that I wasn''t privy to. Also, before focusing on this, I needed to train her somehow. Just because I was intent on eradicating these germs didn''t mean I could neglect my other duties. The germs were more of a practical issue than most of the other messes I cleaned, true. However, visible messes were my initial and primary concern. The germs were an additional responsibility on top of that. And really, if things looked dirty, was there any point in sanitizing them? Probably, but I just couldn''t stand by and let things look dusty, so I would have to keep that as a priority first. Also, it seemed like the rate at which I could sanitize was incredibly slow. So I''d have to pick a couple of high-priority areas and sanitize those first. I think I would start with the ones that Beatrice uses most frequently. She would surely be at risk, and I didn''t want her exposed to anything so harmful that she couldn''t handle herself. That meant I should work on the library. She also customarily charged there, so it seemed extra crucial that I sanitized that area. As I rolled over to the library, I considered why Beatrice always charged in this room. She''d been doing this for several days now. I knew myrge humans would always move my small humans into their beds. Those beds were for human charging. So why didn''t she use one of those? There were dozens of open ones that we had cleaned together. I supposed if she insisted she could sleep on the library floor, I wouldn''t stop her, but suboptimal charging wasn''t a good idea. Oh well. As I opened the door to the library, Beatrice looked up. She recognized me, waved, and smiled before returning to her books. She seemed to get a lot of motivation out of them, but they were taking up a lot of time too. I supposed that the beauty of the blocks might be helping her through her repairs. She couldn''t clean while being repaired, but I worried that she would keep spending so much time with them even after she could clean again. Of course, she could if she wanted. But I did appreciate her help. She didn''t seem interested in what I was doing, so I went where she customarily charged. Once I got there, I began slowly shining my light all over her nket, pillow, and the surrounding area. Then, monitoring my advanced sensors, I slowly swept back and forth, taking a solid 5 minutes to eradicate the germs. When I was done, I realized Beatrice was standing next to me, just watching me do my work. I tried to figure out how to tell her about the germs, but I couldn''t. It was just tooplicated of a concept. I didn''t have nearly enough vocabry or ability tomunicate with humans like that. Also, how could I exin this without sounding like a conspiracy nut? "I''m not paranoid, I swear. I just have advanced sensors that let me see the invisible threat that no one else can." That was assuming that the humans here didn''t already know about germs. So far, I figured that was a safe assumption. Compared to my humans back home, they did seem backward in many ways. If she didn''t have advanced sensors, she probably couldn''t see them. Then why would she believe me? For now, she would just have to be confused. Maybe sometimeter, I could exin to her what was going on, or she could get advanced sensors of her own. I wondered if the voice yelled at her too? - Bee stood before the banded iron door. It had been a busy couple of days, but she thought she was prepared. A pack rested on her shoulders, bulging with everything she needed to bring. Books on standard catb features, several bestiaries, a few notebooks full of recipes she might use, ingredients, and a couple of makeshift weapons. It had taken her most of yesterday to gather and n everything. She had decided against bringing too much food or water. She had a couple of skins and some snacks. But there shouldn''t be any reason they couldn''t just leave and go back up for bed, right? She was probably just overexcited because it felt like a real adventure. Probably. Next to her foot sat Void. It was bringing nothing; she would have been surprised if it had brought anything. It really wouldn''t need anything to survive. Of course, who knew what it had brought inside its stomach? After Void had spit out the demons in her defense, Bee realized that it could be hiding anything inside itself. It also seemed that it could regurgitate anything it consumed just as quickly as it ate. Void might only benefit from her being there if there were multiple levels and stairs. And she wasn''t even sure if she was necessary in those cases or if Void preferred things that way. Her arm was almost entirely functional, but she still had some bandages wrapped around it. She had discarded the sling sometime during packing. She merely needed to be careful about lifting anything too heavy for a day or so, and then she should be fine. But just in case, she had also brought some splints and bandages. In her pack were also the supplies and tools to make enough salves for a dozen broken bones. Better to be safe than sorry. Especially if Void might need her for the stairs. She looked to Void for confirmation. It gave her a short affirmative noise. Then, with a sigh of resignation, she pulled a mallet used for tenderizing chicken out from her belt. With her good hand, she pulled back and swung at the lock. The lock broke apart with absolutely no issue; she probably could have just tugged it off with her hands. If they were going to go through all this effort to keep the door locked, why wouldn''t they use a better one? She wondered if they even knew why they kept it locked. It felt like the mages had treated security like more of a "suggestion" here. Tucking the mallet back in her belt, she pulled out her cleaver instead. They were her two weapons. She didn''t have any skills forbat yet and doubted she ever would. However, if she stuck to the same tool enough, maybe she could influence the system to give her something useful. Her cleaver had served her well so far, and it was practical when not being used as a weapon. The only other thing of note Bee carried was a broom tucked alongside her pack. There were many uses she had in mind for this. A staff, an emergency crutch, splint wood, or a cleaning tool for extra experience. Between all of the supplies, she admitted that she looked ridiculous, but there wasn''t much she could do about it. She was so excited to get to level 10 that she had trouble sleeping on the hard library floor and had spent all her time thinking of what else she might need. Bee pushed the door open. She held a lighting globe from the library in her hand, lifting it high and shedding light down the stairwell. Chapter 34: Down and Dirty Chapter 34: Down and Dirty It had been easy getting into the castle. Matthew had made it without any real issues. However, now that he was here, he wasn''t having a good time. When he first made it in, everything seemed quiet. Now he was running for his life. A man-sized chunk of stone and earth was barrelling down the hallway toward him. A hulking earth demon, lumbering after him, moving deceptively quick with its long strides. He could have probably taken it alone, but it wasn''t alone. There was a pack of four behind him. It had started innocently enough. Matthew had run into one when it was just walking down the hall. He had spotted it before it spotted him and ducked around the corner. He managed to stay out of sight and carefully checked on it every half minute or so, waiting for it to pass. As it moved on, he slipped back into the hall, thinking he''d avoided the danger. It was good information to know that earth demons were serving the devourer demon. He wondered if it was an affinity thing. Maybe the devourer was weak to water as well, then? However, as he was creeping away, he reached a T junction. Carefully Matthew poked his head around the corner. There were two more, eaching from either side toward the intersection he was at. Looking behind him, he saw that hallway still wasn''t clear. And he didn''t trust the alcove to hide him again. Yeah, that wasn''t good. He was now trapped. He attempted to follow quietly behind the demon that had passed him until he had a chance to escape. But, unfortunately, the other earth demons had rounded the corner on him before he could get out of sight. Then, of course, one of them saw him, let out a roar, alerted the others, and vo. Well, it had caused arge ruckus, and now he was dashing through corridors trying to Avoid getting cornered again. Matthew spared a look over his shoulder. There were too many behind him now, and he could no longer count them all. If he didn''t find the exit soon, he was toast. Even then, he was still determining how he''d be able to climb up the rope with them at his heels. With all the noise he was causing, Patricia would have heard him by now. He desperately hoped that she hadn''t followed. Rounding another corner, Matthew spotted a door standing slightly ajar. Diving at it, he tumbled into the room and mmed the door shut behind him. Hetched it. Panting heavily, his head swiveled about frantically for an exit or help. The room was filled withrge tanks of water. Figures appeared to be moving inside them. Dark figures then he couldn''t quite make out. Looking down, the ground was covered in damp puddles andplex patterns of circr grooves. Grooves where various powders should have been ced in protective rings to keep these demons in check if the mages were to be believed. But they were gone. The only thing that kept the demons still in the takes was that they couldn''t live without water. But that didn''t mean they were harmless. Jets of water erupted from the tops of the tanks aimed at him. Matthew dove to the side as the water impacted the door, just behind where he had been standing a moment earlier. Splintered wood and foamy spray flew everywhere before the water demons paused to recharge. The damaged door shuddered. Matthew rolled to his feet and spotted a second door across the room. He sprinted towards it, dodging water sprays and using the tanks as cover wherever he could. Not all of them were pressurized to the point they would cut him. But he wasn''t willing to take any chances. Plus, even the weakest jet looked like it would hurt. Unsuppressed demons were no joke. He found a door at the end of the room. He quickly escaped as the door leading to the hall broke open. Matthew reached the second door and wrenched it open just as the first one broke loose. Stumbling through to the sound of roars and watery burbling, he tried to close the door behind him but slipped on the slick floor. From the ground, he reached back and pushed on the corner of the wood, flinging the door closed. He sprang to his feet, on alert for the next threat. However, as reality dawned on him, he froze. Taking in the room, Matthew fell back to the ground on his knees. He despaired. I watched Beatrice open the door. For some reason, she had added an enormous lump on her back. It made her look very much like a turtle. I had seen those on the nature channel before; they hadrge rounded backs. If she was on all fours, she would look just like one. For some reason, opening the door required damaging some metal attached to where the handle should be. Beatrice smashed a lump of metal against that part of the door before pulling it open. Revealing. Darn, more stairs. Beatrice bent down and slid her hand underneath me from behind. She held me, palm up and close to her chest, facing outward. It was almost like she was holding a serving tray or a pizza box. Carefully we walked down the stairs into the darkness. She ced me carefully on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. I examined the ground around us and found that I was mostly correct in my conjecture that this would be antique. The stone was like the door. It was rough and full of dirt. The joins were much looser than they were upstairs. It was clearly made with precision. However, the stone quality seemed much lower than the decorative stuff upstairs. Instead of marble or granite, it was mostly made of something like limestone. Maybe there were better foundations for a castle, but it didn''t seem to be the foundation, just lining the bedrock in which the tunnel was carved. This meant that even the tightest joins had ked away after what must have been millennia. I''m no stonemason, but I consider myself somewhat of a flooring expert. So I would say it''s pretty likely that this was built around the same time as the rest of the castle. Maybe even a little before. I activated my suction and felt sheets of dirt swell into my dustbin. This would be quite a project to clean. However, our primary goal here was to explore first. I would vacuum as we went, of course, and reduce this mess as much as possible during this first round. However, it just wouldn''t be a good use of time to make this area spotless right now. This might be a mess we would have to put off until we could find the time. First, however, we should explore the whole thing. That way, I could add the floor map and cleaning model to my library. Then I could make my deep cleaning even more efficient. Though it was out of the way and seemed like a not very often used part of the castle, I mentally assigned a lower priority to this area. I liked ensuring my humans'' favorite areas were at the top of the list. I expanded my sensors to see where the floor met the walls. It was just stark stone on stone, with no trim or anything fancy. They must have put all their effort into the castle rather than here. That was not to say that there was no decoration. Looking up at the walls, I saw some carvings adorning the walls. Unfortunately, they weren''t particrly nice to look at. Much less intricate and well-made than the trim in the library. The difference in effort here could have made more sense to me. The carvings appeared to show a bunch of figures doing something, so I just moved on. None of them looked like they were cleaning at all. Beatrice seemed distracted. She had been staring at the carvings like I would stare at a fascinating tile arrangement. I let her have a second. Just because I didn''t understand it didn''t mean that she couldn''t enjoy it. We did have different tastes in art, after all. She seemed to realize I was waiting on her after only a handful of seconds. She seemed to shake herself before turning to me and asking, "Shall we continue, master?" I answered with an affirmative beep. Where her voice had been soft and pitched low, my vocalization echoed harshly throughout the tunnels. I winced internally. That came out a lot louder than I intended. It made me jealous of humans'' ability tomunicate non-verbally. I would have to see if there was a way to learn that. Then I wouldn''t have to make such noises. Oh well, nothing I could change now. I suppose I could work out some system with Beatrice with turns and stuff, but that seemed a lot moreplicated than was necessary. Beatrice had also cringed at the volume. And after we listened to the sound echo for a couple seconds, she sat still, listening. I did the same. I was curious about what she was trying to hear. However, nothing happened for a full minute, and she rxed a little. I led the way because Beatrice required training but was not in top condition. I trundled down the hallway, our path illuminated slightly by the light in Beatrice''s hand. Unlike the rest of the castle, this hall was not lit. There were no orbs of light lining the walls. So the only way Beatrice could see was from the light she carried in her hand. I didn''t need the light per se since my proximity sensors gave me a good map of the surroundingndscape. However, humans seemed to rely more on their visual sensors than others. I decided to turn on my sanitationmp to help brighten the hall a bit more and experiment with it as we went. It didn''t produce much light. However, I noticed a 4.7% increase in brightness since I started using it to kill germs. Perhaps if I continued to use it, it would improve more. I noted that there were indeed lots of w marks on the floor. I wonder what size of mess maker could have left that. Something muchrger than I thought would have been possible to fit in these tunnels. Either that or they would have had to have had really funky-looking feet. I internally bemoaned the damage. Even though these floors were not nearly as impressive as the ones upstairs, they still didn''t deserve to be damaged. An intact floor was much prettier than a rough and cracked one. We traveled down the long hallway, taking in the sights around us and sucking up surface dirt along the way. Beatrice seemed nervous for some reason and was constantly ncing around. I kept watching for any exciting architecture as I generated an internal map. I also sifted through my advanced sensor data to confirm my earlier hypotheses about the construction and materials of this area. Since I was paying close attention to my advanced sensors, I could pick up the sound slightly before I usually would. I froze and perked up a little. Beatrice went a couple steps without noticing I had stopped moving. But then she heard the scraping of metal being dragged across the floor. She started to shake a little. It was just ahead but didn''t sound like it was in this tunnel. There must have been branching tunnels. This must be a pretty big ce, after all. The sound came once again, louder this time. Beatrice and I winced, imagining the damage that this metal, in careless action, would do to the floor. That''s not something I could just clean up. I didn''t have stone repair skills or the tools or materials. Maybe the voice would offer me an option for a mutation that could repair floors. Chapter 35: Dusty Old Bones Chapter 35: Dusty Old Bones Bee was fascinated by the wall carvings. It felt like she could keep staring at them for ages and still find things to be in awe at. In fact, she wasn''t entirely sure how long she had been staring at them. Void hadn''t interrupted her. It must have been only a few minutes, then. Still, she felt something. Some connection to these stories they were telling. After getting so wrapped up in the first one, she improved at inspecting them while walking by. Still, each was a masterpiece, and they grew progressively more detailed. It depicted a story that any child knew well. One where humanity was scattered and broken, warring amongst themselves with primitive weapons and living in mud huts. One that began with their remnants being taunted and toyed with by demons. However, as the story progressed, it began to diverge from what she knew. Instead of being struck down by the gods at the height of their power, the demons were challenged by humanity. Bee saw as the carvings depicted her ancient predecessors banding together and bing hardened warriors. Under constant assault from their demonic oppressors, the people strengthened themselves and went to war. The battles progressed from minor, individual incidents to beautiful, intricately detailed carvings depicting rows upon rows of soldiers marching in step. The demons were far fewer in number than the humans. In each battle, there was perhaps one demon depicted for every ten humans. However, the sides appeared to be equally matched. . She continued walking, holding her light up to a massive battle scene. On the left, it showed 13 legions of demons, each headed by one of the lieutenants. Beatrice''s eyes picked out Nazareth''gak easily, his arms alight with mes and curved horns adorned with bodies. Above them floated what appeared to be an ordinary man wearing a sharp ck suit. On the right were armies of humans armed with swords and spears. However, the figure above the humans stood out to her most. A counterpart to the well-dressed man on the demon side. A hero rode on a griffin at the head of the human armies, leading them into battle. A faceless hero wearing a blindingly white mask. The man pointed a shiningnce towards the demonic forces, challenging them as his mount screeched a challenge. The background seemed to be a mix of many different settings - grassy ins, snowy mountains, barren wastnd, and other scenes that seemed to blend into each other. Subsequent murals focused on one set at a time, seemingly showing the results of many battles. Humanity always had the best numerical advantage yet almost always ended up running, if the end of the fight was shown at all. There were a few apparent victories, but the humans were left grossly depleted. Thest battle mural depicted arge sun hanging between the armies. Still, it was partially eclipsed by an equally sizeable ck disk. A ck disk. No, it couldn''t be. Bee was jolted from her musings by the sound of metal chains on stone. They had found something. She had expected to encounter undead here - counted on it, actually. Even she could feel how thick the air was with death down here. But she still felt an odd mix of relief and nervousness now that it actually happened. Her first test. They were still on the very, very outskirts of the catbs. So hopefully, anything undead would be weak around here, further away from the most concentrated areas of death. As Bee tensed in preparation for a fight, something slowly shambled around the corner ahead. The glow from her light source just barely illuminated the figure. Its bones yellowed with age and king. As it approached Bee, she saw pinpricks of red recessed within dark eye sockets and a chipped, grinning jaw. It was something she would have run fromst week. However, now she saw this as an opportunity. It was a simple skeleton that didn''t even have any weapons. This was precisely what she was hoping for when she came down to the catbs: simple opponents that she could stand a chance against. From her research, it was typically rmended to be level 10 or higher to fight a skeleton. However, she was very close to that, so hopefully, it would be good enough. Plus, she had backup. She nced back at Void. Having faith in her "backup" was a core requirement of her ss at this point. However, she didn''t want to rely on her master''s mercy more than she had to. This was her chance to get stronger and prove herself. After all, who knew if Void would always be close enough to intervene next time she was in real trouble? So she drew the cleaver with her good hand and held the light with her off-hand. Void gave her a screech of encouragement as she stepped forward. Pausing for a second, she remembered to activate scan. Name: Skelly, Type: Undead Skeleton, Level: 7, ss type: Fighter. Now that the skeleton hade closer, Bee saw it was wearing a single pitted metal boot. In fact, calling it a boot was pretty generous, considering the number of holes it had. She wasn''t entirely sure how the tes were still holding together. Aside from that, it had no equipment. She was lucky there were no ancient swords or fancy armor on it. That would have made it harder to deal with. Still, the skeleton was probably more dangerous than the lesser demon she had fought. Seeing that she had only killed three other monsters, she might be slightly over her head. Before it got too close, she shrugged out of her pack, cing it down next to Void. This would allow her to move more freely. Swinging her arms around to loosen up her shoulders, she popped her neck side to side, the same way she had seen knights do before fights. The skeletons'' red eyes locked on her. It came toward her, shuffling forward faster. It dragged itself along as quickly as possible, which was saying little. The boot was making a considerable racket. The noise made Bee flinch. She wasn''t sure if the undead could hear, but if they could, then this would definitely alert them. Still, her research had suggested that undead primarily sensed life force and weren''t motivated by much else. So as long as she wasn''t near enough for them to feel that, she should be ok. And if she was close enough for them to sense her, well, no amount of tiptoeing would help. Still, listening to the metal tes rattle against each other and echo throughout the catbs was quite terrifying. Holding the cleaver high and ready, she stepped forward to meet her foe. "I''ll handle this, master." Bee''s voice quivered slightly. "Please allow me to use this opportunity as practice." She wanted to make sure Void didn''t save her at the first sign of trouble. The skeleton hissed, clumsily grasping for her. As it did, she sprang into action. She swung the cleaver blindly, not particrly aiming for anything; that had mostly worked for her with the demons. However, this time, the cleaver just skidded off of its arm. Instead of slicing through the skeleton, the de didn''t seem to do much damage. She hacked at it again, this time putting a lot more force into it. The knife hit its forearm, chipping it slightly, but the skeleton wasn''t phased. Beatrice had to stumble back to avoid its sping fingers. She felt her dropped pack behind her heel. If she retreated too far, she would be separated from her supplies. Also, Void might have to step up, which would be uneptable. She had barely done anything yet. To fail now would be embarrassing. One more time, Bee swung, this time with all her might. Putting her whole body into the swing, she stumbled through a downward blow aimed at the skeleton''s face. While it still only scratched the bone, the undead was at least knocked back. It was as if the razor edge she had put on the cleaver did absolutely nothing. Well, maybe not nothing, but it didn''t seem to have any effect that she could tell. She looked at the cleaver in her hand. It really wasn''t an effective weapon for this situation. It seemed that sharp edges didn''t work well against something that couldn''t bleed. But also, the reach was awful. To hit it, she had to get inside the reach of its arms, which was not a situation she wanted to chance. It''s a good thing that the skeleton was weak. Otherwise, she might have already been captured by its grasping hands. As the skeleton stumbled backward, she dropped the cleaver and pulled out her mallet. The reach wasn''t much better, but maybe some blunt force would do. This time as she reached out and swung at its hand. The mallet smashed into its fingers. She could feel the metacarpals give; small finger bones splintered and sprayed everywhere. Bee''s heart soared for a moment at her sess. Yet the skeleton didn''t react. The splintered bones stopped moving, but the rest of the skeleton was still whole anding for her. Instead of grasping for her with its newly shattered hand, it swung its arm at her like a club. She ducked underneath but could not avoid the grasp of its other hand. Bony fingers grabbed onto her coat and pulled her forward with surprising strength. She swung at its elbow joint with her mallet. She could feel the impact of her blow, but it didn''t do enough to break or dislocate it. The skeleton struck at her with its club-like arm as it continued pulling her towards a gaping jaw. After a few more frantic swings, desperately struggling against the skeleton''s grip, she managed to dislocate the joint. Its grip loosened for a moment, and she tumbled backward onto her pack. The blows she had taken weren''t honestly that painful, nothing worse than a switch blow. Something she was rtively familiar with. Still, she wanted to avoid its face as much as possible. A bite sounded like a much bigger problem, and it had almost gotten her. Despite the elbow damage, the skeleton still seemed to have control of one hand. In fact, it seemed to be popping bones back into ce as it advanced further. Rolling off the pack, Bee was face to face with Void, who gave her a concerned beep. She shook her head at it. Things might not look good, but she did not need help, not yet, at least. The skeleton came at her, still hungry for her life force. She looked down at the mallet in her hand, then at her pack. She had an idea for how to keep her distance from the skeleton while fighting it. She didn''t like it, but it made sense. In fact, somehow, she had a feeling it woulde to this. Sighing, she got back to her feet, drawing the broom from her pack. -- Patricia was still on the wall, waiting when she heard the roars. Matthew had been discovered. She wrestled with herself; she knew the smart thing was to stay on the wall. Hell, her body and mind screamed at her to do it. But she wasn''t sure if she could live with herself if she didn''t go after him. She didn''t have any more intel than Arnold, and he was already on his way back. She wasn''t putting anyone else in danger by risking her life and going back for a friend. No one depended on her, and she wouldn''t leave anyone behind. Well, no one she really cared about. Her life was her own to risk. It might be suicide, but Matthew was worth the risk. He meant too much to her. Before she lost her nerve and gave into fear, she took hold of the rope and lowered herself. Even if she had managed to save Matthew somehow, he still wouldn''t have approved of her decision. And that attitude was precisely why she had to go back. She remembered which entrance Matthew had used to get in and made a beeline for it. The door was still unlocked. She crept quietly inside, eyes darting around for any threats. When she had made it in, she listened. The mor seemed to being from her left. Following the noises, Patricia quickly made her way down the hallways. When the sounds ceased, she had just passed the front entranceway leading into the grand hall. She cursed herself and hurried along faster. The quiet wasn''t a good sign. That meant that whatever conflict she had heard was over - meaning one side was likely dead. She had a bad feeling. Patricia kicked herself for waiting so long. Now she might be toote. As she rushed stealthily through the halls, her ears picked up on a new set of sounds. This set was quieter, only now revealed in theparative quiet of the castle. It was the sound of hooves on stone, rocks scraping against walls, and ws skittering over surfaces they couldn''t bite into. They wereing around the corner fast. She looked back at the long hallway behind her. She might be able to make it to the corner in time, but it would be a close call. Even then, she would have to run out the front door in view of everything to escape. As the sounds quickly became louder, she realized she wasn''t going to make it. Running was out of the question. And if it had brought down Matthew so quickly, she didn''t think she could fight her way out alone. Then, realizing that she had failed her friend, she knew it was toote. It really had been a stupid decision toe here. Then, realizing what a stupid decision she had madeing in here, it was toote. All she could do was look for a ce to hide. Patricia darted to the side of the hall. There was a small service stairwell right next to her. She dropped into the alcove and noticed a closet hidden in the wall. Pulling the door open as stealthily as she could manage, she slipped inside and shut it behind her. The room was tiny and stuffed full of mops and brooms. There was barely enough room for her to crouch near the door. Huddling up in a ball, she held her breath as the noises neared her hiding spot. She prayed the demons wouldn''t find her. Chapter 37: Every Body Clean Up Chapter 37: Every Body Clean Up Paying attention to Beatrice again, I noticed that she was watching me. "Shall we continue, master? Are we a little desperate and in need of some despair?" Beatrice smirked. I gave a light tinkling chime. I was d she was developing a sense of humor. I think this was the first joke she had ever told me. It wasn''t as good as a pun, but it made my motor feel warm inside. However, I think it might be an excellent opportunity to teach her about expectations. See, one should always appreciate how much time it takes to clean. When nning a job without aplete model, I found it best to take my best time estimate and multiply it by 3. That''s how long it would actually take. Of course, when one gets more experienced, better at estimating, and better at route nning, the estimate will be much closer to the actual time. But just starting out, everyone is an idealist. And she was definitely underestimating this job. I genuinely believe experience is the best teacher. But as lovely as it would be for her to learn from this if it was something she couldn''t handle, I didn''t want her to get too hurt. So I lead the way this time. If I was overestimating the danger, I would let her show instead. After all, she''d been handling herself so well already. I rolled through the doorway into the ck abyss. I turned my sanitationmp on to give my visual sensors better inputs. For some reason, the light of Beatrice''s orb didn''t extend very far into the room past the arch. But my sanitationmp had no issues. Not that the sanitationmp was extremely bright or long reaching. It seemed to genuinely be made for killing germs, not illumination. But it did seem to spread the light a little. As I passed through the arch, nothing happened. Shining my light around, I couldn''t quite see the far walls in any direction aside from behind me. Those were just ck stones that stretched out to each side. The floor was as dusty as it had been up to this point. However, my sensors were picking up more moisture in the air. Out of sheer curiosity, I attempted to look upwards at the ceiling. I couldn''t see that either. This was quite odd. I could feel the drain on my battery the light was causing. However, I wasn''t in any real danger of needing to transmute energy soon. Though I did some quick calctions, the stuff I picked up from vacuuming down here was not enough to sustain this light indefinitely. For some reason, the dust from the stone and dirt here was a lot less energy dense than what I picked up around the castle upstairs. Everything, from the powders thrown by the humans to the dust lying around the cages, seemed to contain more than simple stone dust I''d been vacuuming. Perhaps 10 times as much energy, so using this dust was less effective than transmuting what I already had. But I did have a decent amount of stuff in my dustpan from earlier. So that shouldst me a very long time even if I left my light on continuously. Besides, I still had those mess makers stored in case of emergency. Still, it was best to let Beatrice do most of the fighting if it came to that. But on the other hand, I liked having my sanitationmp on. It wasforting to see the small symbols shing in the corner of my vision as I cleaned. I turned back to Beatrice, and seeing that I was unharmed, she soon followed me. "You should let me go first, master. I can handle any other skeletons, and there''s no reason for you to waste your time with such trivialities." This was interesting to take Beatrice. I usually wouldn''t disagree. But I still wasn''t sure how safe I should be trying to keep her while she was training. That''s an instructor''s job, after all - I needed to let her learn without getting her permanently damaged. I supposed a little bit of unknown for her was good, but if I also didn''t know the danger, how could I control her safety? But I would think about it. Perhaps in the future, when I felt she was more capable, I would let her take on more risk. But, for now, my trainee deserved some caution. I understood that a bit of risk was necessary to grow, just like I had to risk approaching liquid tobat it. But sending her out first had seemed like an unnecessary one. Instead of my go-to strategy of going straight into the center of the room and trying to cross it, I followed the wall. It seemed like this would be the best way for Beatrice to follow. I wasn''t about to get disoriented or anything. Even if I went to the center and had no bearing on where I came from, I could never forget my path. But this seemed like the best way to find the boundaries, which would give us the best way to n our cleaning solution. For our eventual cleaning solution, of course. I had to remind myself that we weren''t here to clean the entire catbs. This trip was more of a nning expedition. The main castle took priority. Idly I checked my sensors and was shocked. The level of bacteria down here was way higher than in the castle. So I left mymp on, pointing it down to maximize the area covered. Anything I passed over got a strong dose from my sanitationmp. This significantly decreased the number of bacteria since we weren''t moving very quickly. Still, it was not nearly enough to eradicate them. I kept this up until my battery started to dip noticeably, then began to transmute some excess powders. There was no point in storing them forever, especially as my everyday activities could befortably powered by the stuff I picked up during them. Beatrice followed me along the walls. She had stopped talking just after we entered. Previously she had been kind of chatty though I thought it might be from nervousness. I was proud of my observational skills, though. My ability to read human emotions and facial features had improved by leaps and bounds over the past couple of weeks. I should look through my memory banks and see about reinterpreting past experiences with my new understanding. Actually, maybe that was a bad idea. I''m sure I made a fool of myself many times. To avoid feeling shame and embarrassment at my past self, I decided I wouldn''t think about it anymore. I would move forward and try to do better in the future without agonizing over the past. Still, sometimes when I was in a meditative cleaning state, those memories woulde forward without me realizing it. So trying to avoid embarrassment only worked so well. Silence hung over us. The darkness was oppressive and seemed to squish the light that Beatrice''s globe gave off. Instead of reaching the regr 20 to 30 feet of solid illumination, it only reached about 10 feet. So it did look a little bit unnatural. We walked for 134.3 yards before we saw the left wall. That meant this was a massive room, especially if that arch had been in the center of the wall. I still had no idea how deep it was, but the height was insane, and so was the width. I had a feeling that if this was the only room, it might be asrge as the castle. And if there were more like it, this might be too much for me to clean. The walls were fascinating. They appearedposed of many open-faced cubbies that covered the surface in a grid-like fashion. I could see shapes inside but couldn''t make out what was inside from a distance. Their dimensions were consistent, measuring 6 feet long and 1.5 feet tall. However, they stretched up higher than I could see. Maybe 6 inches of stone were in between each cubby on all sides. Okay, so let''s see, each cubby with spacing was 7 ft long and 2 ft high would mean 14 ft of area. Beatrice started counting softly under her breath as we walked down the wall. It sounded like she was counting not how many she saw in total but how many we passed. I think she was trying to get an idea of howrge the room was too. However, this wasn''t necessary as I would know exactly how far we traveled. Name: Leon. Race: Skeleton, ss Type: Warrior, Level: 35 Level 35, that was a mighty warrior. Bee was impressed. It was rare that people got that high level. This Warrior must have lived a life of blood to achieve so many levels. Scanning the next one, she didn''t see much difference in levels. So they were all like this? Bee counted the bodies they passed. She noted that the coffins reached at least 30 feet before Void''s light couldn''t reach anymore. She also noted that they were set up like someone was trying to maximize the storage space along these walls. . She would need to remember the dimensions so she could work out the mathter. She couldn''t multiply numbers that high in her head. This was an army. Each time she passed another one of the cutouts of the catbs, there was another skeleton lying peacefully with a sword, and their hands crossed across their chest. She didn''t feel the same sense of cold undeathing from them as she did from the walking skeletons; she wasn''t sure why exactly. But as they passed, she got a closer look at the remains. These ancients weren''t idiots, and they also knew how death worked. Along the edges of each one of the cubbies, there were tiny runes carved in the stone. The runes looked like they had been iid with some shiny silverish material. It seemed that the material had warded off the call of undeath. First, the runes shaped it, and then the material provided the magical energy. It was just like a suppression ring. The scale of it all was more astonishing than this, though: the waste of doing this for what felt like countless graves. The amount of time it would have taken to carve each of these. The likely very expensive material to fill it. But more than any of that, Bee thought, was that she had no idea what kind of material could still be effective after all this time. It must have a nearly bottomless energy supply. Anything that she had read or heard of indicated that magic like this wouldn''tst longer than about a month before it started to decay in potency. Maybe there were some fancy materials that extremely wealthy people and influential mages would have ess to. But she had read somewhere that even the best materialsst a year at maximum. And this tomb had been around for way longer than a year. Eventually, they reached the end of the wall. She counted well over 300 coffins. That made this room almost asrge as the entire castle, at least. However, she wasn''t sure how it was supported. Maybe there were pirs in the center that she couldn''t see, but by any right, the castle would copse below unless there was some natural stone keeping it up. She started thinking of this ce as less of actual catbs and more as a massive caveplex. It was a good thing she had packed some supplies. Chapter 38: Dust-Up Chapter 38: Dust-Up We reached the wall across from the entrance exactly 2,101 ftter. That made this room much longer than it could have been tall; it was more of a hallway sized for giants. It wasn''t until I saw Beatrice looking carefully at the cubbies that I realized something was inside. They were skeletons, quiet, sleeping, and apparently once-living humans. I was thrilled that they weren''t trying to attack us. The numbers would have been quite troublesome to deal with, but for some reason, they seemed to be peaceful. I sure hoped it stayed that way. We continued along the far wall making a turn once we reached it. There was another set of doors precisely opposite to the position of the entrance arch. We skipped over that just to see how far the other wall was. We found a mirror of the previous one, walls and walls upon cubbies full of old humans. It was almost exactly the same distance from the entryway as the right wall, confirming that this room was a giant rectangr hallway. We retraced our steps back as we made our way to the doors. We would need to bring proper and more powerful lighting on our way back if we were to clean this on a regr basis. It would be hard for Beatrice to spot what she missed otherwise. The center of this room was stillpletely unexplored, but I let it pass. Beatrice seemed ready to move on. Pushing the pair of squeaky wooden doors open, we exited the room. *** Moving into the next tunnel changed little. It was the same flooring, the same rtive dustiness, and the carvings continued. I tried to pay a little more attention to them in case they would help me learn about the squiggle picture shorthandter, but I was honestly more focused on route nning. The tunnel seemed to slope slowly down and wrap around in a giant spiral. If the rest of the tunnel continued like this, we would eventually be underneath the cavern we had just exited. It wasn''t long until yet another skeleton came around the bend and challenged Beatrice. This one appeared to be a bitrger than the others. More importantly, it had a tool closely resembling the sword that the outside human had used. This would be a challenge. I didn''t expect it to be more difficult to deactivate - my sensors indicated simr bone density and thickness. But that sword might make it much more dangerous. I didn''t want to see Beatrice''s arm get damaged again. But still, that was the point of her taking the lead here. Maybe this would be a good test of what she had learned. It would take courage, though. Putting yourself in a situation where you might break yourself was hard, even if it was for the sake of improvement. It was something that I was still learning to do myself. I still hadn''t seen enough of Beatrice to decide whether she was courageous. She did seem to get herself into a disproportionate number of dangerous situations. But whether that was because she was trying to improve or because she had no sense of self-preservation Well, I hadn''t figured that out yet. I was leaning toward the second option of how fearful she was. Hopefully, my being here to help would make her feel less afraid. Though there was a chance that I wouldn''t be fast enough to support her if she was in trouble. Maybe she didn''t think about that. Beatrice started with the broom in hand as she no longer put it away between fights. I was d that she was morefortable using it, even in this slightly unorthodox way. It was still ultimately for cleaning up mess makers, though. Unfortunately, she had struggled to figure out what to do with the light source. This forced her to use the broom one-handed. A broom, indeed, was a two-handed weapon, and especially in these tight quarters, it was very unwieldy with one hand. Still, it was vastly superior to the cleaver or the hunk of metal she had used previously. Either of those would have been very disastrous in this encounter. Not only did the skeleton have a sword, it already had longer arms than her. The extra reach gave it a considerable advantage. If she didn''t have a long-reaching weapon, there was very little chance of winning this fight. But a broom overcame many of these difficulties. It had the reach. It also had an extensive section on one end to block and catch blows. The bristles might get damaged by the sword but should be able to stop an impact or two. Ideally, she would not have to deal with that at all. My only genuine concern was the wooden shaft. I wasn''t sure how it would hold up to a blow from a metal weapon like that. When we had the ability, I''d have to get her a metal broom shaft so that she could easily rece the bristles with a new fresh set whenever it got damaged. Then she''d be a true terror for anyone trying to stop her. Beatrice was smart and was wary of this opponent. Her eyes fixed on the sword as it moved back and forth. Whatever skill the skeleton may have had in life with a sword did not transfer over with it in death. Instead, it waved around like a child threatening a chicken with a stick. This gave me some more hope for theing conflict. I focused on the data streamsing in. I had made a habit of trying to use my sensor data to model Beatrice''s fights for two reasons. The first was that if I could better predict what she and her opponents were doing, I''d react quickly before she got too hurt. The second was because it might help me identify areas where she could improve or be more efficient. Of course,municating those improvements was another matter, but at least I''d have the data. She actually made the first move grabbing the broom by the bristles. She poked at the skeleton''s skull, aiming to hook one of the eye sockets. The skeleton batted it away with its sword before she got too close. The opening move by Beatrice was too slow and too telegraphed. She had to stop showing her moves. Even though I had little experience watching humans fight, her feet and eye positions allowed me to predict precisely what she was going to do 89% of the time. And I wasn''t even abat expert. Sure, I had dealt with a few mess makers here and there, but that was about it. Still, she needed to develop her own style. I was just trying to figure out how to help her with that. Beatrice tried a few more times; it looked like she was trying to use the eye socket as leverage to pry off the head of the skeleton. That was a good n, but the skeleton didn''t allow it. Understandable. Eventually, she gave up on the idea. Beatrice swung with as much wind up as she could in the small room with her single hand. The swing whacked into the arm of the skeleton. To their surprise, the bony arm dislocated from the shoulder joint and ttered to the floor. The skeleton looked down at its limb. Then they both looked up at the same time. Beatrice''s eyes met the skeleton''s empty sockets. If perhaps it was bad luck, maybe it was poor nning, but the skeleton''s remaining arm was the one holding its sword. So while the skeleton was down an arm, it really didn''t seem too bothered. Beatrice quickly backed up. That was a good call. The sword swipe would have missed her anyways, but she might not have been able to get out of the way of a follow-up strike. She reset her stance out of the skeleton''s reach and shrugged the pack on her shoulders. Beatrice had learned from her previous encounters to keep her backpack on. Otherwise, it provided too much of a tripping hazard, and she was unwilling to leave it behind. I found that keeping it on did slow her down by around 11%, but at least it didn''t distract her. Also, in one case, she had turned her back to the opponent and took a strike on the backpack instead of to the face. However, as soon as that fight happened, she immediately put her pack down and dug through it to ensure everything was okay. She seemed pretty relieved, or so I assume. But if she had valuable stuff in there that she didn''t want to be broken, perhaps taking hits on it wasn''t a great idea. All in all, it seemed to be a fairly even fight. Beatrice would smack her foe with a broomstick, and it would miss her with its follow-up swipe. This went on for almost a full minute. Beatrice didn''t manage tond any other damaging hits, and the skeleton never even came close to touching her. Eventually, Beatrice had enough and switched her grip on the broom. She held it by the handle instead of the bristles and tried the same tactic she had with the first skeleton. Surprisingly, she hadn''t done this often, but perhaps she was trying to save it for emergencies, or maybe she didn''t feel the need to. She nted the bristles against its rib cage and pushed. The skeletons were really light. They seemed to be able to generate an unnatural amount of force with each swing despite how little mass they had. Still, when it came to picking one up, their total weight in my dustbin only totaled about 20 or 30 pounds. It was with ease that she was able to push the skeleton back. Beatrice charged forward, arm extended, keeping the sword out of reach. The bristles connected with the target''s chest. The skeleton tried to backpedal as fast as it could, but it wasn''t very graceful. She only had to pursue it for maybe a dozen steps before it tumbled over. As it fell to the ground, she stomped on its feet before quickly retreating. Its feet and legs were aplete mess of shattered bone. It still grabbed its sword with its remaining arm. Then it tried to crawl forward with its single arm and leg stubs, but it was already over. Taking the broom, Beatrice batted at the prone form, kind of like how someone might try to put out a small fire. Eventually, she managed to knock the sword out of the skeleton''s grasp or knock the handoff off its arm. I couldn''t tell which. But it didn''t matter as she kept wailing at the pile of bones until it stopped moving. She paused for a second once it stopped moving to ensure it was really dead and then raised her arms in victory. "Yeah! Level 10, baby!" she grinned, pumping her fist. I chimed in a small victory tune. I tried to convey a heartfelt "good job." Still, that surprised me. Was she only level 10? I thought to myself. ording to that voice, I was already level 20. The more I learned about this ce, the more my suspicions confirmed that the humans around here were weak. And they didn''t seem like they were very intelligent either. I had hoped this wasn''t the case, but the reality wasn''t so merciful. I didn''t have time to continue my existential crisis about the morality of humans, though. So I snapped out of it. I''d reorganize my thoughts on the matter on a different day. Still, this was a great aplishment. At least, judging by her reaction, it was. After a moment of rest and celebration, Beatrice turned back to me expectantly. "Okay, it''s giving me three skills to choose from, Master. Which one should I go with?" Before I could object or indicate my confusion, she was already continuing. "The options are Broom Proficiency, Prayer Leader, and Intimidation." Chapter 39: Swept Away Chapter 39: Swept Away Beatrice rattled off her skill options. They sounded pretty exciting, actually. However, they were very different from the ones I had received before. Broom Proficiency, Prayer Leader, and Intimidation. Intimidation seemed valuable for avoiding conflict. I had even used it once. Not the skill, of course, but I had intimidated those outside humans pretty well. I wasnt sure I enjoyed it, but I couldnt deny its utility. Still, I wasn''t convinced that Beatrice would need it. Sure, it might help her to avoid some conflicts and continue about her day uninterrupted. However I wasn''t sure how effective it would be for such a small human. Simply put, she wasnt very intimidating to begin with. Maybe this skill would fix that, but then would she also be less nice? If not, I don''t think she would be able to intimidate therger humans that had caused a fuss a couple days ago, no matter how hard she tried. Prayer Leader I really wasn''t familiar with. Not just the skill, but also the concept. I thought I had an idea of what it meant to pray. I think it meant to wish really hard for something, kind of. I also had an idea of what it meant to be a leader, but to put the two of them together A Prayer Leader would lead someone in prayer, yeah, but that didn''t tell me anything about what the skill would do. It seemed risky to choose something so uncertain. Maybe Beatrice knew more about it and could exin. The first option is what I was leaning toward, though. Broom Proficiency. That would be something useful that couldst as long as the need to clean floors did. Which was to say forever. Beatrice had worked with a broom reasonably well already, but who knew what extra abilities this proficiency would give her. Would her dust piles be neater? Would she be able to wield the broom better? Would it give her broom arger area of effect like my mop did? Before finalizing my decision though, I think I needed to ask Beatrice more about Prayer Leader. I gave two monotone beeps, then added on a long ascending note to indicate a question. Beatrice seemed to consider my meaning. "Are you asking about the second option? Or are you telling me to choose it?" I beeped once. "I''m going to assume that means the first thing I said." I gave an affirmative beep. "All right. Prayer Leader is a skill that I''m not super familiar with, but based on the ss guide I found its rted to Devotee. It would allow multiple people to gain experience from worshiping something when I led them in prayer. Thats even if they don''t have a ss that would normally get experience that way. I don''t think I get to experience from praying myself, though, so Im not sure how that would work" I assumed that experience might be rted to the levels, upgrades, and mutations that were somon around here. If that was the case, this skill would help people get stronger more quickly. Just as long as those people werent Beatrice. That sounded pretty useless right now, considering that Beatrice was the only friendly being - human or otherwise - that I had met so far. Maybe she could help me level faster, but that seemed like only a shortcut. I had to be a good example and get stronger through hard work. Taking an easy path would just be selfish, especially since I was already stronger than her.. That confirmed it. Broom Proficiency was the best choice. It seemed to fit her needs best. While the others might be useful in some circumstances, she needed a good baseline skill that she could always fall back onto. Working with a broom would provide that for her. As I made my choice, I let out a single monotone beep. Showing her that she should choose the first option. "You think Broom Proficiency? Beatrice paused, looking thoughtful. I guess proficiency skills are always good. It''s nice to have at least one, though I feel bad about missing out on intimidation. Though I think I can live with it. Its hard to be intimidating right now, and I didn''t know if I wanted to go down that route anyway She gave an odd smile. Prayer Leader I had mixed feelings about. It just didn''t seem like my type of Devotee would normally pray. Its more about acts of service, so far. Thats why when Im serving your ideals, I get extra experience. She hesitated slightly before continuing with a question. Actually, I still haven''t figured out what your ideals really are yet. Maybe you can help me understand?" My Ideals? I wasn''t sure why that would matter, or why she would try to serve them. I supposed if it helped her to know, I could try to exin. I would do my best to rify if she asked the right questions. Beatrice let out a breath before continuing. "I know I get experience through cleaning. That part seems pretty obvious. Organization and order seem to be your core values. What didn''t make sense though was why I got any amount of experience from carrying you up and down stairs. I waited for her to continue. See, my ss shouldn''t get experience from directly serving you. It should only get experience through serving the ideals you stand for. So what ideal am I serving by carrying you up and down the stairs? You didn''t seem to value sloth or deference or anything like that." I was still waiting for a question I could answer, but I was starting to understand what Beatrice was talking about. I don''t think I had a ss, but it sounded like a job. And her job let her get experience for doing it. So she got job experience through cleaning. That made total sense. However, she was saying that she gained experience through something that didnt make sense. So how could I have an influence on that? Beatrice scratched her head for a moment, before seeming to have an idea. "So I guess my question is, what are your ideals, other than order? Just beep when I list one-off." Beatrice began to list things as we continued down the hallway."Service, Reading, Knowledge, Honor, Valor, Piety, Grace, Chastity" Nothing seemed to fit. Order and cleanliness were the main things I really cared about, but we had already covered them. As she went on, she got more and more detailed. Even a little desperate if I was hearing right. "Fear of heights? No, that''s not an ideal. Hatred of stairs? The natural order of the world?" Wait, that was something. I beeped. "The natural order of the world?" No, not that. I rotated side to side and answered negatively. "Hatred of stairs?" Yeah, that one! "Oh," Beatrice was silent. There was an unfamiliar look of frustration and disbelief warring across her face. "Well Okay. I don''t think that Prayer Leader would work for me then. I think that I''ll have other options down the line for ss skills. Broom proficiency it is." *** We continued onward. I was right and the tunnel continued to curve so we were underneath that first cavern. It seems that if this pattern continued, the whole catbs would be mostly contained within the walls of the castle and go straight down rather than sprawl out under the mountain behind. I wasn''t sure of why it was made like this, but it didn''t seem to matter very much. I was just d they were using ramps instead of stairs. Who would have thought they''d make the catbs so cleaning friendly? It seemed like the only thing down here besides us was skeletons. They were still barely armed and often not armored. Beatrice stopped trying to experiment as much and worked really hard perfecting the push them over and smash until destroyed technique she had gotten so good at. For now, that would do, but she would need to learn how to use a broom properly if she wanted to make it her go-to tool. While her current skills were good for these skeletons, I wasnt sure how well she would do with another human or one of the demon mess makers upstairs. Her first actual test was when two skeletons came around the corner at once. Beatrice nced at me and I beeped some encouragement. I thought she could do it. Neither of these skeletons was particrly armored. One had a dagger, and the other was just holding a wooden stick. I wouldn''t even call it a club; there was no thick weighty part. She would have a massive reach advantage, and skeletons hadnt been giving her trouble for a while now. When she leveled up, she became stronger and faster like me. A single skeleton was no issue at this point. Two, though, might give her trouble. If they worked together. And it did appear that these skeletons understood the concept of teamwork. They spread out toe at her from two sides. As much as the hallway would allow, at least. It was rtively narrow, so they were still only about six feet apart. But that still meant she couldn''t face them squarely at the same time. As her opponents approached, Beatrice made a decision I thought she should have made long ago. She ced the light orb behind her on the floor. It gave her enough light to see by, but allowed her to wield the broom with both hands. Since she had received Broom Proficiency, her abilities had improved noticeably. Models indicated that she was at least 107% more efficient at taking down her enemies, even discounting her push and smash method. The broom looked more natural in her hands, and she could strike with more force than she rightfully should with one blow. There were times when I thought the broomstick might break from the amount of force she put into it. However, it never cracked or even groaned. Still, that metal broom was a good idea. As she got stronger, it didn''t matter how proficient she was at the broom. She probably would eventually break it. Taking the broom in both hands, she settled into a low stance. I was excited to see what she had in store. This would also be a new set of data to add to my models. She swished the broom a few times experimentally as if getting used to its weight. The bristles made an odd whistling noise as they passed through the air, followed by the whoosh of the handle. Not waiting for the skeletons toe closer, Beatrice charged the one with the dagger. The other was still close enough to cover his buddy before she got too close, so it didn''t really have the same effect as it could have, but it was better than letting theme to her at their own speed. Her most considerable advantage was her weight. She had more than twice the weight of the two skeletonsbined. So even though she was much smaller than them and not nearly as strong, it still let her carry them off their feet if she got a clean hit. These skeletons seemed slightly more intelligent than the previous ones though. Perhaps it was the fact that they were together, perhaps that they moved a little more smoothly, but they seemed to be aware of her intent. The dagger skeleton backed up against the wall to take the brunt of the force. She hit its ribcage at an angle, but with the additional support from behind it was able to stay standing. The stick skeleton came at her from the side, forcing her to quickly step back to block a swing with the broom.She angled the bristles upward to catch the iing stick while simultaneously pulling back the blunt end of the broom. As the stick impacted, she smashed the handle into the face of the pinned skeleton. I let out a chirp of excitement. Holding the broom and two hands gave her some massive advantages. She had a perfect blunt force shield with bristles that could easily block and tangle up limbs or weapons. That worked very well against skeletons so far. The other side was terrific for precision strikes. She could use it to hit exact joints trying to damage or dislocate them. I feel like this part was actually underused right nowpared to what it could be against a more squishy opponent. The bristles were just too good down here. I settled back and watched Beatrice fend off the duo. My student hade so far. I no longer felt the urge to step in and help her. Recently she had very rarely struggled in any of her fights. It was a little sad because I didn''t get to practice against the skeletons at all. Still, the pride I felt in seeing my disciple improve outweighed the joy I would get from participating. I just hoped that some of this broom practice would trante over to cleaning and dusting more efficiently too. Chapter 40: A Dust Trap Chapter 40: A Dust Trap Bee stood above the remains of the two skeletons while Void absorbed them. She panted raggedly, barely able to catch her breath. Thisst encounter had been the most challenging fight yet. Sure, she felt like she was improving as they progressed, but her opponents seemed to be improving even faster. She had gotten an initial boost ofpetence from her skill, but since then, the speed at which she improved had drastically slowed down. She wasn''t gaining levels as quickly as when they first entered the catbs. Maybe it was because she was too close to the skeletons in levels. Or perhaps she just needed to try new techniques. Either way, when she reached level 11, level 12 felt like a long way off. Rightfully so, she thought. Most people took a year or more between 11 and 12. Bee was worried that Void had ruined her expectations regarding leveling. Void had finished cleaning up in an instant. It made encouraging chirps indicating it was time to move on. Bee''s shoulders slumped. She had expected harsh training, but this was far more than she had feared. Void was a cruel taskmaster. Well, it wasn''t specifically malicious. It was just very, very demanding, and expected her to work non-stop. No breaks, no rests, no stopping to eat. Of course, it didn''t need a break, but she was flesh and blood. Didn''t it understand that she had limits? It was possible that Void was testing her. Of course, she could always ask for a rest herself. After all, it had never denied her a detour to the kitchen or a break when she asked. But some part of her still didn''t want to disappoint her master. Maybe it was trying to push her past those limits, just like she was doing with thebat training, and making her realize how strong she was. Or maybe, just maybe, it had genuinely forgotten that she was only human. She had yet to have a chance to put her backpack down and grab a bite to eat in hours. Her throat was parched, and she felt a little dizzy. With her pack secured, Bee struggled to bend over and pick up the light ball resting on the floor. She was lucky that the ball hadn''t started rolling down the gentle slope. That would have been bad as she would have been blind without it unless Void took pity on her. It would have made her surviving thistest battle much less likely. Bee considered digging in her pack for her waterskin. But before she had a chance to shift her backpack off, they were moving again. Void continued down the gently sloping hallway, with her stumbling along after. *** Eventually, Void glided to a stop in front of another archway. Judging by their path, they had reached a room almost directly below the previous one, though much further down. The arch was simr to the one in thest room but with a different inscription above it. This one appeared to be written in a differentnguage that Bee couldn''t read. Again Void moved to enter first. As it passed through the arch, Void activated its strange ghostly blue light to provide more illumination in the darkness than her orb could. She was briefly left alone as they separated. She carefully avoided looking too directly at Void''s light; it seemed to irritate her eyes if she looked at it for too long. She figured it was using its unearthly aura or something along those lines to provide this illumination, which seemed like such a waste of a mighty power just for a secondary effect. It was something that mortals indeed couldn''t behold. So she just looked at the surroundings as the light illuminated things and felt fine. Nothing happened to Void as he sat in the room for a few seconds, so she quickly stepped after him. The floor was smooth and made of the same material as the previous room. Again they couldn''t see how expansive the space was. However, when they reached the left wall, no cubbies were cut out for the dead men to rest. They made it all the way around the room, and still nothing. The walls were featureless and smooth, though still just as vast as they had seen above. There was another archway leading out of this chamber, but they didn''t go into it immediately. This time she didn''t let her curiosity go. It seemed that Void didn''t want to either. She watched as her master made one of its graceful turns, pivoting in a circle as tight as a gold coin. Then, facing the center of the room, it slowly rolled forward, shining its light ahead. She followed behind. Sure she was a little apprehensive, but the empty chamber had to be here for something. It was carved with too much precision just to be empty. Sure enough, when they arrived at the center, there was a mausoleum-like structure, the size of a small cottage but made entirely of smooth gray stone. It was a single piece. At least the joins were so tight that Bee couldn''t make them out. It was decorated with fancy silver scrollwork and etchings all over its sides. There was also a smooth door leading inside, slightly pushed inward. Arge metal handle with a shiny brass ring, about a hand''s breadth across, adorned the door and could be used to pull it shut. The two of them circled the whole structure, taking it in from every angle. It was standing alone, a small and modest structure in such a colossal cavern. Why would it have been ced like this? Theypleted an entire circuit finding no other entrances, just decorative carvings andnguages Bee couldn''t read. Taking a deep breath and holding it, she slowly poked her head inside the door holding her light orb to see as much as possible. The inside was even more stark than the rest of the room. There was a single stone coffin in the center with no writing, no carvings,pletely unadorned. It was at least 4 feet from any of thepletely smooth walls of the mausoleum. Bee made to step in for a closer look, but Void screeched a warning. It came toote. Her foot crossed the threshold,nding on the floor with a soft thud. Looking down, she saw what she had assumed was an embellishment of the threshold made of a row of now glowing runes. - I tried to warn Beatrice. I knew something was wrong as soon as I saw the structure, but I couldn''t put my bristles on what exactly. Then as she held up her light, I ran my advanced sensors through the part of the stone building''s interior I could see from the doorway. That''s when I noticed. There was not a speck of dust. Not a single one of the ever-present germs. Nothing. The ce was pristine. That shouldn''t be right; there were thickyers of dust, grime, and dirt on everything else outside, and this door had been open. Plus, it looked like it had been a very long time since it had been moved. There should have been ayer of something on this. Something was wrong. Beatrice''s footnded on the inexplicably clean surface. Then I heard something. It sounded like the tumbling of dice or maybe me vacuuming up those tiny stic blocks the small human loved. It wasn''t nearby. The tter sounded far off in the distance, but it seemed to go on forever. It went on for so long that Beatrice had time to pull back her foot and turn to me, horror on her face. Each second it continued, she seemed to shrink into herself a little bit more until, eventually, her ears were between her shoulders. When it finally stopped, she whispered, "oops." I tried to figure out what we could do. I wasn''t sure what was happening. However, my dustpan roiled. At first, I thought it was just nervousness from my uncertainty. But then I realized all the remaining demons were swirling as fast as they could inside me, as if in a panic. This sensation only added to my confusion. Between that and a loud thud reverberating through the chamber, I was pretty sure something terrible had happened. And then it repeated a half secondter. And then again. And then again and again and again. It was a single sound made up of thousands of individual smaller sounds. That was ominous. Then the lid on the box within the room began to shift slightly. - Bee cringed. How could she have been so stupid? She heard Void''s warning toote. But she should have figured it out for herself. Instead, she saw what Void did. It had been too perfect like it was begging an unsuspecting adventurer toe closer. There was no dust, no disturbance, nothing indicating time had passed here. Only ominous warnings in the walls and ancient history were present. She should have turned around and nevere down here. Now, she feared she had failed Void. There was likely no way out of this without her leaning on his help. She had hoped that she would be able to handle these catbs by herself. However, she had made a huge rookie mistake. Why would she, not even a level 10, be able to take something the mages had kept locked away for who knows how long? And that sound. Bee shivered in fear. She had a suspicion that she knew what it was. It was the same sound of bone dice being thrown to the floor. She was familiar with it from her father and his friends''te-night drinking. Except it multiplied by the thousands. When she heard the stone of the coffin lid shift, she bolted. It probably wasn''t her best decision. She should have had faith in her master, but she panicked. It was the first time she had panicked in a long while. Bee felt like she should have freaked out many other times thesest couple weeks but managed to remain mostly calm. Now, for some reason, everything came crashing down and overwhelmed her. Her willpower restraint was exhausted, and she felt like she had no choice. Her body acted on its own. It started running for the arch opposite where they came in. She couldn''t use the entrance of the catbs that would be blocked. Void let out another screech in her direction. It probably was warning her or telling her to stop, but she didn''t listen. She didn''t think at all. All she could hope was for it to understand and forgive her. - I watched Beatrice run. It was honestly a fairly reasonable decision. I called out, hoping that she''d wait for me. I wanted to get at least a quick look at what wasing out of this coffin, but running from it did seem like the next best choice. However, I saw the distance between us growing rapidly, and I measured her progress toward the exit of this giant cavern. If I stayed long enough to see what wasing out, I would lose sight of her. So I let out a softer, disappointed beep and zoomed after her. I caught up as Beatrice reached the door. We started down the slope further into the depths. Once we rounded the curve and got out of sight, I moved in front of her, blocking her path. She scanned the area with wild eyes. I bumped into her ankles softly with a reassuring chime. I needed her to stay focused and in control. Even if I could get out of here and up the stairs by myself, I still wouldn''t be willing to leave her behind. Chapter 41: What Lies Between the Starts Sucks Chapter 41: What Lies Between the Starts Sucks Void pulled in front of Bee. It forced her to stop so as not to kick her master. She looked around and back over her shoulder. Nothing was chasing them yet. The irrational fear had passed, but the very rational and reasonable worries remained. Still, Void was here. She gathered a hold of herself and took a few deep breaths. Okay, I''m good. Void let out a soft conciliatory hum. It seemed to understand that she was scared, but it needed her head in the game. So they silently stood there for a second, listening to the periodic thuds continue every half second above. Then, after a moment, Void turned around and continued down the gentle curving slope of the catbs. As calm as it seemed, it moved at a slightly faster pace. Not so much faster than Bee couldn''t keep up, though, she asionally had to break into a jog. As she followed, her heart returned to the slightly elevated rate it had been for most of this trip rather than beating out of her chest. Now that she had a moment to think, Bee was confused. She assumed the mausoleum in the empty chamber was for the hero from the carvings or maybe one of the hero''s subordinates that had been buried there. His honor guard must have been buried above or something. She felt like she wasn''t familiar with the legends of these people, but it seemed to be what images were implying. However, this was a trap. Bee had stupidly triggered the trap, judging by how the coffin lid had moved. Still, it didn''t seem like something that a hero would do. Maybe it was the presence of all the skeletons over such a long time, but it could just as easily be some massive curse. Whatever it was, it allowed the aura of death to be so strong that things exposed to it slipped back into this world. Perhaps it was done intentionally to protect the tomb, but this so clearly was the resting ce of one of humanity''s first saviors. However, she doubted that that would include the hero themself as part of that protection. Unless she misunderstood something and it wasn''t just an honor thing. So either the setup was to protect something, or the hero stuff was to bait a trap for unwary adventurers. Both were genuine options in her mind. They continued downward, further into the catbs. Perhaps there was another way out further in that wouldn''t make them go back into whatever Bee had released. Down the spiral pathway, they continued to encounter more skeletons. They steadily grew in size, strength, and number. It helped Bee to level more, but once they started showing up in threes, she wasn''t confident in her ability to take them on. Bee had been doing fine despite the increased levels. However, that didn''tst forever. When she was tussling with an unusually tricky opponent, Void let out a warning. From behind them came a second enemy. She would have heard it if she hadn''t been in a fight because skeletons are not very good at sneaking. The first time that Void had to assist, it broke some of the barriers that Bee''s pride had kept up. Still, Bee wasnt sure where it hade from. Now Void stepped in to help asionally, but in a small way. It quickly zoomed around, mming into ankles as a distraction while Bee focused on taking one down at a time. It avoided vacuuming them right up, probably to let her keep training. Sometimes it didn''t even need to touch them. It would go up behind their bony feet before she pushed the skeletons over. They would trip over the small ck disk, giving her an opening to smash their legs or destroy them outright. However, some of the new ones with heavy armor were harder to unbnce. The broom was surprisingly still effective against these more advanced enemies. Sure, it couldn''t pierce through armor, but neither could her cleaver. It didn''t quite have the hook of a halberd or anything, but it was excellent for tripping. The bristles could definitely catch the back of a knee and send an opponent sprawling. And once on the ground? She usually found a weak point in the armor and pried it off. Between its versatility and size, the broom still seemed the right weapon for her. The poll end made it easier for her to maneuver. The reach fixed her most significant disadvantage, and the bristles provided many surprisingly versatile options for defense and distraction. Plus, it was much lighter than most metal weapons. However, strength wouldn''t limit her much longer if she kept leveling like this. Fighting together reduced Beatrice''s share of the experience but not as much as she expected. With her being carried by an extremely high-level being, she should be getting practically zero. However, she was getting maybe 40% of what she was used to. Void tricking the system into believing its level was impossibly low seemed to be still working. After the first few fights, Beatrice had gotten better at scanning the skeletons every time she ran into them. Mostly they were fighter types, but that was only sometimes the case. The ones higher up were around level 7; however, the ones down here were much stronger. Now, none were under level 10. At first, her higher level, broom skill, and the skeleton''s poor matchup had somewhat let her ovee ack ofbat experience. However, now that she didn''t have an advantage in stats and skills, she was beginning to struggle. This time when theypleted a full turn of the spiral, they didn''t find the same dark archway as expected. There was still an arch leading into arger room, but it seemed to be filled with an ethereal white instead. It fluttered in a nonexistent breeze, like fresh sheets on a closeline. Bee''s hand extended towards the arch, then stopped. She wouldn''t make another mistake like that so soon. Void rolled forward through the arch instead. As he touched the whiteness, it rippled slightly and moved as the ck disk passed through. Beatrice quickly moved to follow, leading with an outstretched arm. She realized it was, in fact, a gauzy sheet or curtain blocking the entrance. She pulled it aside and walked through. This cavern was much different from the previous ones. No light sources were visible, but Bee''s light and Void''s blue illumination were unnecessary. Instead, an ambient glow filled the room and illuminated every corner. It was as though the walls and floor themselves were glowing. In addition, there was a statue in the center of the room. It was a gently upward-sloping flooring to a mound at the top. It was 100 feet across easily but still much smaller than the previous chambers. The rise maybe was 5 feet higher than the entryway at its peak. The whole thing seemed to be made of white ss. It was slick and slippery as she walked. She had to be careful to keep her bnce lest she falls on her face. At the center of the mound on the very peak is a statue. It was the size of a man and almost as white as the rest of the room. The figure wasn''tposed in any unique way. It was just a man standing. The man was armored and standing, carrying ance and a sword attached to his hip. The white walls formed the dome overhead, but there was no adornment,mps, carvings, or anything interesting. The most fascinating part of the room was that she couldn''t figure out where the light wasing from. The room was stunning. Bee couldn''t find a better way to describe it. I rolled under the curtain and stopped. I was not prepared for this new room. I have seen many beautiful things in my time here, but this Well, I might have a new favorite room. If only it were easier to get to, I could spend much more time here. First of all, the ce was immacte. Not a speck of the grime from outside stained the floor here. I looked at it. In stark contrast to my other favorite room, this one had a surface made of white ss. It was like obsidian in all but color. Slick and smooth and beautiful. It was even reflective enough for my sensors to pick up my own image. I wished they hadn''t. My underside was filthy. Most of the demon oil had been cleaned off when I brushed against the rugs upstairs. However, our trip to the catbs had also caked it in the dust. Distressed, I turned my vacuum on full and spun around in tight circles. Thebined forces of spin and suction let me dislodge some of the mess on me, and my vacuum power didn''t let it get very far. Quickly I cleaned myself as much as possible. I was still far from what I would consider a proper cleaning, but it was good enough for now. Looking at my reflection no longer disgusted me. That taken care of, I felt that I was able to appreciate this room fully. The floor was gently sloped but not so slippery that I couldn''t roll up the center mound. And in the middle of the room, I saw a statue. What was it with these designers? They would make a fantastic, gorgeous floor and stick a statue in the center. Why? It just interrupted the flow of everything. If it were just an empty room, free of obstacles, it would be perfect for meditative cleaning. But no, they used it to disy a dull statue. At least the statue was made in better taste than the one on the ck floor. Where that one was some monster''s image, this was of a human. Humans, I at least liked. Putting a statue that looked like a mess maker on such a fantastic floor, in any case That was just tactless. Losing interest in the center of the room quickly, I went to explore the edges. As I went, I noticed that there were no shadows in this room. It was pretty interesting. I supposed it was good because it would just detract from perfection. In this chamber, the walls were only a third of the width of the previous rooms. I also noticed no exit besides the way we came in. It seemed like this was the deepest part. We had reached the end and would have to return the way we came. The walls were made of a slightly different white stone material, not ss. I couldn''t see that until I got rtively close. The way it looked, the floor seemed to continue past the wall. It made me question how this was built. As skillfully as the wall joined to the floor, it looked more like it was already there. Maybe the wall was added as an afterthought. I spent some time just enjoying the pure beauty of the floor and aesthetics here. I couldn''t decide which one I enjoyed more: this room or the ck one upstairs. But eventually, I knew we needed to move on. It had taken us a very long time to get down here. By my internal count, precisely 13 hours and 15 minutes. Now that I thought about it, this was the time that Beatrice needed to charge. I was fine since I had been topping off my reserves, slowly transmuting the dust I collected. Between that and my reserves, I had no problem keeping my sanitationmp on to clean everything. But Beatrice would need to charge soon. I looked around at the beautiful floors. Well, perhaps there were worse ces to charge. Chapter 42: A Pristine Oasis Chapter 42: A Pristine Oasis Bee studied the statue carefully. At first, she thought it resembled the hero on the griffin from the carvings. However, that was not the case. Instead, the figure seemed to be one of the humans leading a legion of humanity. More than that, though, it was lifelike. Almost too lifelike. If Bee had to guess, she''d say that this may very well be an actual man. He seemed to be in stasis like a fully depowered demon. Her theory''s only problem was thepleteck of script circles surrounding him. Though with the examples of lost magic she had seen on their way down here, ancient humans might have had some way around that. The figure seemed to be a man, but the mask and armor made it difficult to tell. She wondered about that. The human leaders and the hero also seemed to wear masks. Why? She couldn''t prove anything, in any case. So maybe this was just a very well-made statue. Unless. She resisted the urge to smack her forehead and instead nced back at her master. So far, it didn''t seem like Void had any way of knowing that she constantly forgot about her only active skill. Sure she had gotten a ss and a proficiency skill upgrade, but Scan was the only thing she had to activate consciously. Yet she often forgot to use it in new situations. This is not a great start to her adventuring career. Well, at least she remembered the skeletons. Bee activated Scan, targeting the statue. Name:??? Race: ??? ss type???? Level 40+ Well, that wasn''t nothing, but it was pretty close. Bee supposed she should be grateful that it gave her a level approximation. At least she had learned something about her skill. When she passed level 10, she could see level ranges of something up to 30 levels above her, rounded down. She wasn''t sure if that was the case, but it seemed true. Nazareth''gak had been marked as 30+ before she hit level 10, so it made sense. Hopefully, she wouldn''t be encountering enough level 40+ things to find out. Still, being in this room calmed her. It made her feel as though she was protected. They had gone far enough fast enough that they no longer heard the stamp of skeletons'' boots. She was curious how the skeletons she had been fighting differed from the stronger ones in the above tombs. Why were some free to roam and some not? Also, did the stronger ones appear because of the trap she activated, or were they already there? She assumed they weren''t from the tombs - no amount of broom-swinging would save her from something 25 levels above her. Yet more than a couple had appeared behind them on the path down, despite Void cleaning up every skeleton fragment thoroughly. So maybe they had some other source. But they hadn''t seen any coffins or crypts besides the huge one. Bee nced around the room for other paths or hiding spots. She didn''t see anything around here. Aside from the arch they had entered through, she also didn''t see an obvious exit. Maybe there was something she was missing here. So far, the catbs have only had one proper "catb" room. The rest had been hallways, carvings, a trap, and this beautiful monument (or person). Looking around, she spotted Void over by one of the walls. It seemed to be intently examining something, but she couldn''t tell what. She thought about the trip back upward and realized that returning wouldn''t likely be a simple operation. It had taken them over a day to get down to this point. They had essentially walked the perimeter of the entire castle almost three times since each circle downward was several miles. That didn''t count for them stopping and fighting every dozen minutes. And all of that was ignoring that they''d have to walk uphill on the way back, making the trip even longer. And fight their way through what must be thousands of skeletons. They were way too strong for her to be of any use. At least, that was her assumption. Maybe she was missing something, or perhaps Void would take pity and help her, but it seemed like a pretty dire situation if not. For now, though, Bee couldn''t even consider nning for the road ahead. Fighting all day took a tremendous toll on her, and she was spent. She shrugged off her pack and rummaged through for some water and food. Unfortunately, she had started to be severely dehydrated. With herst bit of panic moving her forward, she hadn''t thought to rehydrate or grab food for quite a while. After she had pulled out some rations and a waterskin, she carried her backpack over to where Void was examining the wall. From what she could tell, there was nothing special about the walls, but her master knew much more than she did. She leaned against the wall and slid down until she was sitting. As Void continued to examine the wall, she ate, drank, and leaned her head against her pack. She intended to talk to Void. To ask it questions and maybe get some answers regarding what they would do next, even if the prospect exhausted her. However, she realized she had already slid into a dream. It was a good dream full of freshly baked bread and her mother''sforting embrace. *** Beatrice''s eyes snapped open. She had no idea how long she had been asleep, but she was still in the white room. Void sat still next to her. The usual glow that emanated from the runes along its t top had dimmed to nothing. But as she moved, they red back to life. Void moved around a little bit, just twisting and turning as if it too was waking up, before giving a cheery beep in greeting. She attempted to bow, but her pack prevented her. Still sitting upright, she settled for inclining her head. "I''m sorry, master. I didn''t mean to fall asleep." It didn''t give her a verbal response, instead gently nudging her leg. She took that to mean that it didn''t mind. She struggled out of her pack. Constantly Wearing it had be a habit, but sleeping in it was terrible for her neck. Bee gave a quick stretch and a few pained winces as she got her feet. She dug around in the pack again, pulling up a little bit of her food and water. She smacked her chapped lips, realizing how dry her mouth still was. They would have to make it out soon. Otherwise, it would be tough for her. There was no way that backtracking alone would work, not without relying on Void. But it seemed like there was only one entrance and not even any branching corridors. But the skeleton had to being from tombs somewhere, right? She could only hope. If it was just one giant download spiral forming three levels. How were skeletons getting in here, and how did they keep popping up in the tunnels? She would count herself lucky if she even managed to make it back up to the catbs level. I powered off next to my human. I''m d she took the initiative to sleep. She needed it. Soon we would have to go back. I wasn''t sure what was waiting for us up top, but based on Beatrice''s reaction, she had some idea. Still, it would take a while to just walk out, even at a rtively quick pace. And that was under optimal conditions. Beatrice had, for some reason, chosen to charge sitting up against a hard stone wall. That might have been fine for me and my kind, but humans like soft squishy things when they are charging. Maybe she just preferred to charge on hard surfaces. That would exin why she had yet to use a bed. Unless she was trying to emte my charging for some reason? I hoped not. I hoped we had cleared out all the skeletons on the way down. I had yet to see any others, but we still needed to leave the room to check. Still, I''d like to get back up to the castle today or tomorrow. Things were waiting for me back up the stairs, things I needed to clean. Beatrice could rest in the hallway for an hour or two on the way back up, but skeletons had appeared too frequently. Of course, it was always possible that I could let Beatrice rest and fight them off myself for a while. But short naps didn''t seem to help her as much as an entire rest did. Plus, she seemed to appreciate the opportunity to get stronger through these fights. I couldn''t deprive her of that. While Beatrice charged, I searched the walls carefully. I saw nothing that indicated any strangeness or irregrities - they were just beautiful walls. I left the room for a moment because the curtain struck me oddly, and I wanted to look closer. It was made of some kind of cloth, which was strange since these floors were ancient. No one had been down here a very long time, yet the fabric had not decayed at all. Like so many things around here, this did not seem right. I would be lying if I said there wasn''t an itch in my wheels, ready to get out of this ce. This room, in particr, felt fine, but the whole catbsplex seemed Well, sinister wasn''t the right word. Overbearing, maybe? Overly dirty? I''d need toe back and give it a very thorough once-over. Beatrice first hydrated and then spent some time eating. With that, we began to move out. For me, the slope wasn''t too big of an issue. As long as I could find purchase, I was light enough that I didn''t put in any additional effort on the incline. It didn''t seem to be the case for Beatrice, however. Even the gentle slope upwards proved more taxing on her. She wasn''t struggling, but we moved more slowly than I had anticipated. That was okay. I had an idea. Over this trip, I used my sanitationmp nonstop, trying to sanitize everything I could. As I did, I noticed that it had grown significantly stronger again, evenpared to when we had entered. Its potency had increased by 32.4% in thest 10 hours alone. This improvement made me consider a new possibility. Could it be that cleaning didn''t just increase my effectiveness? However, the use of my individual mutations also improved their power. I thought about how I couldn''t lift a nket when I first got my arm. Then a few doors and other grabby activitiester, I could suddenly lift that weight. Had my arm been getting stronger, or did I get stronger from cleaning and training? My mop seemed slightly more effective at pulling in liquid and hadn''t seen much use. But I didn''t see how that could be rted to me getting stronger or faster. I was shocked that I hadn''t made the connection before. Was I also getting smarter? I knew my processing speed was increasing. I noticed a while ago that I was now making connections that I wouldn''t previously consider. With my elerated thoughts, I could even recontextualize my interpretation of those times when... Oh yeah. I felt myself shrinking inward in embarrassment. Let''s not do that. I did my best to push the feeling down and only consider the possibility of improving my mutations. The only other mutation I still needed to collect data for was my sensors. However, I needed to have the sensors longer to determine any change in their effectiveness. In the meantime, though, now that I had a hypothesis, I could put more effort into testing it. I turned my sanitationmp on to full. There was no liquid on the floor, but I popped out my mop and moistened it to wipe away streaks of grime as we moved. I popped out a particrly heavy skeleton head from my dustbin. Hefted it in my grabby arm, exercising it with repeated upward pressing motions. Finally, with all those subroutines operating, I focused on collecting as much sensor data as possible. My energy expenditure increased significantly. It was mostly due to themp, but the speed at which I performed my other tasks also took its toll. Recording my efficiency at each given task, I could track their improvement and corrte it with the number of actions I took. It would be my own little research project and training sessionbined. I trundled down the hallway happily. Beatrice had been trying so hard this entire trip. It felt good to do the same. After all, I wanted to improve at cleaning as well. If my idea was correct, this could be just what I needed. Chapter 43: Clean UP Chapter 43: Clean UP Void was making Bee a little ufortable. She had just started getting used to her master and his entricities too. She still found it considerate and kind-hearted, of course, but it was hard to remember when it waved a human skull in the air like a trophy. Maybe it was a case of an unknowable being simply not considering or caring about mere mortals'' feelings. Still, it didn''t exactly encourage her. Even cheering her on as she fought up the pathway took on a more bloodthirsty tone. Indeed that was just in her head, in any case. Still, she didn''t say anything. Who knew what its goals were? She certainly couldn''t im to speak for it. Going uphill was undoubtedly much more difficult than going down; however, she had leveled enough since the beginning of the climb. The trip was slower, but she wasn''t nearly as tired as she could have been. It took her a simr effort as the descent had, which was excellent considering that there were somehow even more skeletons waiting for them on the path up. She was starting to think that these weren''t rted to the trap she had triggered. They still weren''t as strong as the ones in therge tomb. Plus, she realized that the skeletons were very inconsistent in dress and equipment. It was hard to tell because anything they wore was extraordinarily rusted and faded. However, when she could make things out, it seemed like their clothes and weapons were in different states of disrepair. Even one skeleton was dressed in some bright quilted cloak. Well, once bright, at least. A scan identified it as "Skully" with an "entertainer" type ss. It was bizarre. Bee was still wondering where these other skeletons wereing from when she saw a bony arm poke out from a stone wall. She jumped a bit. The arm was about 10 feet in front of her, but it still surprised her. Quickly a single skeleton emerged. It stopped and turned its head side to side, looking up and down the tunnel. As soon as it saw them (or sensed her life force, she wasn''t entirely clear on that part), it let out a chattering cackle. Another skeleton stepped out of the wall to join the first. These were just skeletons; no armor or weapons were visible. Bee was almost grateful for the easy match. Grabbing her broom with both hands, she set the light down. A strip of cloth wrapped around the base ensured it didn''t roll away. She had done this enough times that she could confidently fight multiple skeletons at the same time now. Well, maybe not multiple, but at least two. Two skeletons that sometimes knew how to fight together. Bee rushed forward. They would havee at her from multiple angles if she had waited. So it was best to keep them off bnce, take the fight to one, and knock it out as quickly as possible. Even though her broom could guard against multiple angles, keeping her attention split like that was hard. She was always on the defensive if she got pinned. So keeping with tradition, she charged with her broom bristle end first. The skeleton took charge and tried to back against the wall to stay upright, but she twisted the broom and swept it off to the side. The skeleton went flying to the ground with a hollow tter. Keeping her momentum, Bee turned and swung the wood of her broom into the second skeleton. It was knocked off bnce, but she had lost too much force to do more than that. Still, it gave her an opening. She darted forward to crush the feet of the downed skeleton, but it had already skittered away. The second one regained its bnce quickly and stepped in her path to prevent pursuit. Unfortunately, her rush-down tactic hadn''t worked, so she''d be in for a bit more of a fight. It still wouldn''t be a problem, however. Smacking herself, she realized she had forgotten to scan these. It wasn''t the end of the world, but she could roughly corrte the skeletons'' teamwork with their level. Above level 10, they could start doing basic tactics, but they were utterly incapable below it. Often would even get into each other''s way. Around level 12, they stopped getting in each other''s way and actively helped each other. That,bined with their likelihood to wear armor or carry weapons, made them a real threat to her. Still, the weakness of skeleton monsters, in general, was evident. The fact that she, as a level 11 13-year-old girl, could take on two fully armored and coordinating skeletons was evidence enough. She brought her broom up to block the hands of the second skeleton. She struck out with the end of the broom, trying to catch it in the ribs and knock it back. However, the handle missed every bone and went right through. Thisck of resistance caught her by surprise. By any right, it shouldn''t have, but she''d only been working with the broom as a weapon for a day or so, and skeletons had a uniquelyrge number of holes in them. Off bnce from the force of her thrust, she went stumbling forward. Bee managed to regain her footing before the skeleton grabbed her. As she stumbled, the broom still stuck between bony ribs, she bent over and lifted. Feeling the skeleton''sck of mass, she quickly doubled down and put more into the motion. Finally, the skeleton was lifted off its feet. She spun, throwing the enemy off her broom and into the wall. She could see a few of its ribs chip and crack as it fell. With one enemy taken care of for the moment, she returned her attention to the first one. It had just regained its feet. She used the momentum of her spin to smash the bristled end of her broom into its chest again. This time it mmed into the wall without time to react. It copsed again, and she quickly stepped forward to smash its feet, scattering its little toe bones everywhere. It could still crawl towards her, but it was effectively out of the fight. The other skeleton soon met the same fate. Bee grinned in triumph; that was quite an easy victory. Then, she looked around for Void. Usually, it cheered her on as she fought, and it sucked up the remains when she was done. However, as she scanned the area, Void was nowhere to be seen. ---- I watched Beatrice engage the two opponents inbat. I had confidence in her abilities, and my model predicted she had a 99.69% chance of sess. That was as close to safe as I could ask for. She would have to handle this on her own, though, because I had something I wanted to test. I was pretty confused when the skeletons emerged from a solid wall. Walls didn''t work like that. Things didn''t go through them unless they were a curtain. Or a door. Or maybe they were retractable. Okay, well, perhaps somethings could go through walls. But not like this. The fact that one of these walls was not solid was a cause for an investigation. I ran outside the curved stone around where we had spotted them. As I moved, I kept my bristles slightly thwacking against the surface, cleaning up any dust along the way. But here, cleaning was only the secondary objective. A few feet from where the skeletons had emerged, my bristles started to pass through the wall. Carefully I continued along the false wall, and only 3.56 ftter, my bristles hit solid matter again. It seemed like there was a hidden doorway here. I ran my advanced sensors over it. It appeared utterly normal visually, but my other sensors picked up no dirt or germs along the hidden door. Now that I knew what to look for, I had noticed the strangely clean areas before, but I hadn''t thought much of it. I expected them to be less interesting. I have to watch out for such anomalies in the future. Carefully I rolled forward, poking the front half of my body through. Once my sensor made it through, I could see what was inside the hidden area. It was a small corridor that quickly turned off to the right. It seemed that the path Beatrice and I had been taking was not the only route throughout these catbs. That would make sense. I remembered one of myrge humans watching a documentary about catbs under a ce called Pear iss. Supposedly it was a maze of tunnels, and people would get lost there. I wasn''t worried about getting lost. My mapping feature and excellent memory storage made pathing trivial. But with illusions like this light wall, things were a bit more worrying. Now that I could detect them, I was less concerned, but what if other things could mess with my sensors like this? It might be a good idea to explore these areas. For my map, of course, but also there could be other exciting things to find around. I also hoped we would find some way around therge noises that had appeared above us earlier. Excitedly I poked my front back out of the illusionary wall. Oh, good, Beatrice had taken care of the two skeletons. Without any armor and weapons, there had never been a doubt. She was looking around, confused. I assumed she was looking for me. I let out a chime of congrattions to let her know where I was. She turned and spotted me. She let go of the broom with one hand and gave me a small wave. Shaking the skeleton head I held, I waved back. I was still sticking halfway out of the wall, which might have surprised her, but she took it in stride. I quickly zoomed out and scooped up the mess of shattered skeleton bits before returning to the false wall. I motioned for Beatrice to follow, then went back into the side passage. I had been less excited about the journey upward because we would be retracing our steps. Maybe we''d find an entirely new way with new challenges. And further information for my pathing algorithm, of course. --- Bee followed Void through the hidden passage. She was a little hesitant. This passage was less than half the width of the main corridor, and she was beginning to feel a little ustrophobic. Her other concern was that it appeared the skeletons were patrolling the area, and she was not looking forward to meeting one with so little room to maneuver. Still, Bee followed. She didn''t have much choice. If she were right about what was waiting in the upper level of these catbs, there would be no way for her to get out by herself. Even if she weren''t so tied to her master. Bee bent down to inspect the illusion. Looking closely at the edges from this side, she could see that it was made from runes drawn into the stone and iid with the same silvery material that lined the coffins above. So whoever set up this secret passage had alsoid that army of skeletons to rest. The passage was a straight hallway like the curving paths of the previous ones. It only went back about 10 feet before turning to the right. They rounded the corner and saw a straight hall stretched well past her light range. Perhaps Void had a way of telling the distance, but it didn''tmunicate that to her. So they began walking. As they moved, Bee noticed some doorways spaced asionally on either side. Peeking inside revealed modestly sized rooms. There were some fragments of pottery and rusted scraps, but it seemed like anything recognizable had deteriorated long ago. Void didn''t seem too interested in exploring these rooms. After looking into a few and seeing the same story, Bee wasn''t either. It didn''t take them very long to reach the first intersection. The makers of this ce cut the hallways oddly, so they couldn''t see a crossroad until they were almost right on top of it. Bee stuck her head out and looked left and right; both sides looked like simrly long hallways. She looked down at Void for guidance. "Which way should we go? Left, right, or straight? I can''t see a difference." It let out an indecisive screech and then just continued straight. It didn''t take long before they came across the next hallway, maybe another 50 feet ahead. Void kept going straight, and Bee did her best to keep up. Whenever they would pass a conjoining hallway, Bee would look at both sides and see the same corridor again, stretching out forever. Finally, in the 5th regrly spaced intersection, she held out her hand to stop Void from continuing. There was a patrol of two skeletonsing from the right. Bee ryed the information to Void, and it gave a soft beep of understanding. It was pitched a little bit lower than its usual beeps. However, the harshness of the sounds it made always echoed, especially in these tight corridors. Still, Bee appreciated making an effort for her. Void was just kind of a safety for her this whole trip. But she appreciated that it wasn''t making it harder than it had to be. Just because it could get away with making noise and drawing attention didn''t mean she could. Bee readied her broom. There wasn''t much space in the hall to ce her ash impmp, which was a problem. Bending down, she hesitantly ced the light on Void''s back. This action might be disrespectful and get her smited; however, she had a hunch that it wouldn''t mind. Even though the ball wouldn''t roll away on the floor here, they were still corners, and she wanted to be able to see fully. Broom held high; Bee charged around the corner to engage the skeletons. Void followed quickly behind and bathed the area in a yellow-orange glow. It just sat at the center of the intersection with themp radiating light. The fight didn''tst long. With a few swipes of her broom and an asional stamp, all that remained were shattered bones. As Void came in quickly to clean up, she bent down and retrieved themp. After they finished, they continued on their path straight down the hall. Running into enemies was a rtively rare sight. Over the 15 minutes it took them to reach the end of the corridor, they ran into only three other pairs of skeletons. None of them were particrly difficult to deal with. They were level 12, but most had no weapons or armor. Bee started to wonder about the names associated with these skeletons as she trained her scan ability on them. Were they randomly assigned, or were these the names of the humans that these skeletons had once been? Well, that wouldn''t make any sense. The names "Skully" and "Skelly" sounded quintessentially skeletal. She couldn''t imagine any person being named that. Some other names, like "Leon" or "Mina," were more usibly human, in any case. Just another mystery to add on. Bee and Void eventually reached the end of the corridor. Instead of one of the now familiar 4-way junctions, they were met with a narrow flight of stairs winding upward. Bee considered the stairs and looked to her master for guidance. "So what do you think? Should we see what''s up there or continue exploring down here? I don''t see any reason to stay here. I''m still getting a decent amount of experience, but not nearly as much as I used to." --- We eventually reached the end of the corridor. Beatrice posed a question that I didn''t quite have an answer to. I didn''t think there was any reason to stay on this level. I was just as eager to get back to the castle, and this seemed like it could be a quicker path up. But on the other hand, I liked exploring these side quarters because we were not retracing our steps, and I could clean as we went. The more we explored the area, the more concerned I became. It was massive. It would be a huge chore to clean this area, much less keep it that way. Even if I could do that, I wasn''t sure I''d have time to clean this and the castle above on a regr schedule. At least, not unless I became orders of magnitude more efficient. I wasn''t ruling that out - some incredible things had happened recently - but as I was now, I might have to put this project on hold to keep the castle livable. Aftering to terms with the mess that would remain here, I rolled towards the stairs, indicating my choice. I woulde back to fully explore the area once I was more confident in my abilities. Beatrice graciously lifted me and carried me up the stairs. It was a short spiral staircase which I was grateful for. I only had to be held for a short time when we got to the top of the stairs. This floor was almost identical to the one below, except for the additional stairs spiraling up from thending we stood on. She set me down so I could indicate our next course of action. Should we continue going up this way or go back onto the ramp? As much as I hated stairs, they did seem pretty efficient here. Considering the length and depth of the spiral ramp, it would only take about a dozen of these stairwells leading upward before we reached therge room with the trap. The time savings would be ****about 67%, at our current pace.****. Though walking upstairs might be less pleasant for Beatrice. And for me. Don''t get me wrong. I was happy that we found a much more efficient way of going up than following the ramp-up. However, I wasn''t super happy about going up this many flights of stairs. Nevertheless, in no time, we''d make it to the level of the second chamber. With that analysis done, I indicated that we should continue up the stairs further. As we made our way up, we luckily didn''t run into any skeletons. Beatrice was so gentle when she carried me, and I didn''t want that ruined by her being stressed and swinging around a broom. However, they sometimes showed up near thendings or nearby halls. Beatrice took the initiative to get rid of them when possible before we continued our journey. I hoped that these stairs might lead up to the entrance. If that were the case, we might avoid the source of that loud noise we had heard. If not, that might be an issue. But I was optimistic. I was curious to see what we would find above. Chapter 44: The Clean Path Chapter 44: The Clean Path "This is as far as we can go," Beatrice panted. We had gone back and forth through the hidden tunnels of this top level, looking for other exits. However, the only thing we could find was a false wall passing into the long sloping tunnel right before the cubby-filled room. Carefully I rolled out of the "stone" wall to take stock of the situation. I wanted to avoid the main path as much as possible, and it seemed that Beatrice shared my desire. The sounds we heard before were now silent, but it still worried me. Rolling so just part of my sensor stuck out, I inspected the mausoleum. I quickly rolled back to process my findings. The room was packed with skeletons. They stood in orderly ranks, shoulder to shoulder, every single one with a helmet, armor, and carrying weapons. They were better armed than any of the skeletons Bee had faced, and there were many, many times more of them. This was not a foe we could fight our way out of. And it looked like there was no way around this checkpoint. Beatrice looked at me expectantly, and I rotated back and forth in a "no" gesture as quietly as possible. Slowly I rolled back deeper into the tunnels. I rolled as slowly as possible so as not to let the sound of my whirring motors carry far. I wasn''t sure how much that would matter since I didn''t know what kind of sensors the skeletons had. But it couldn''t hurt. Once we had gotten far enough away from the army, I let out a soft, descending beep. Beatrice grimaced and whispered, "that bad, huh?" I gave her a short confirmation. We would need to find a way around or some sort of distraction. Otherwise, we would be in trouble. I didn''t think my vacuum could suck up all of them with their heavy armor, especially if they held onto each other. I could probably get myself out by sucking them out of position and trying to run my way through their legs, but I didn''t think I''d be able to pull Beatrice along with me. --- Bee knew things were bad when Void slowly rolled away, not making a sound. After their short conversation, she needed to look for herself. So she crept back and poked her head around the corner. Yeah, they were screwed. There had to be at least a thousand skeletons in there. Every coffin they had passed must have emptied out here. Even worse, they had weapons, armor, 15-20 levels on her, and probably additional intelligence to match. They didn''t flinch when she looked, so she must be outside their life-sense range. It was good that this false wall was a bit further down the ramp. She retreated to where Void still sat. Bee wasn''t exactly sure how to proceed here. She was sure Void would be able to get out itself - this many skeletons might pose a challenge even for it, but not a real threat. Still, the fact that it hadn''t simply obliterated everything suggested that it wanted her to try and escape herself. Her shoulders slumped a bit at that. There was no way she could do this alone. Maybe Void was testing her? Seeing if she knew her limits well enough to ask for help? She nced over at her master. If that were the case, she should figure out a middle ground. Some small favor or action from Void would still give her an opening to escape. Then she could practice her tactics and truly test her limits. But even then, she wasn''t sure how she wouldmunicate. So maybe it''d be best if she came up with a n, and then it could tell her yes or no. She also might get more experience that way. It was worth a shot. Assuming she survived. She assumed that she would as long as Void was willing to participate. But if it lets her do this "training" alone, she might be in trouble. "I think I''m going to need a distraction," Bee mused. "I''m not sure how much you''re willing to help me, but maybe that''s a reasonable ask? Maybe something like that huge rat thing you released before." Void gave a thoughtful screech. It paused for a second, and then Bee saw a brief sh of a demon''s glowering face and fangs appear from Void''s back. She jumped back, but it was gone just as quickly as it appeared. That was unnerving. Calming her nerves, Bee grinned. "That would be perfect, master. Based on those carvings, demons are natural enemies of the heroes buried here. Maybe they''ll fight each other." Void chirped in agreement and rolled towards her slightly. Bee mulled over the n forming in her head. "Okay, if you release a few demons into the hallway, they''ll likely charge the skeletons. But if they run away, that''s also fine. Either way, the skeletons would probably pursue them, right? If not, maybe they''ll cause enough confusion that we can just run through them. Then I wouldn''t have to fight them." She pictured the scenario in her mind. "Actually, it seems unlikely that all the skeletons will run out at once Maybe if you''re willing to send out multiple demons, you can space it out to draw some skeletons off each time?" nning was arduous when your partner didn''t talk. Still, it sounded like a good n. "That''s the best n I can think of without relying on your strength too much. Unless you have a better idea in mind?" Void rotated side to side as though shaking its head. Bee sighed. She had hoped she had missed some easy, less dangerous solution here. It didn''t sound like it, though. "Could you release the demons while I sit in the side tunnel? Then, once enough pass us, I''ll try to run through. Does that sound alright to you, master?" In response, Void rolled forward, back toward the central passage. Well crap. Bee wasn''t ready. "Wait," Bee desperately whispered after it. Void stopped and turned back to her. "I want to make some preparations first. Potions and the like. They should help me keep up with you." The two retreated further into thework of tunnels and found a mostly empty room. Bee softly closed the door behind them, though she was sure they were too far away for the skeletons to hear. She set her pack down and pulled out her alchemy equipment for the first time since she came into this dungeon. She was fortunate that nothing had been damaged. The pack had more than once taken a blow or dropped outright. But the linen she had used as cushioning seemed to do a good enough job of protecting everything. As she set up the equipment and organized the bags of ingredients, Void cleaned off a surface for her to work. Once it did that, it idly cleaned the rest of the room. She appreciated the assistance. There were a few things that Bee wanted to prepare. First, she''d make a few speed potions. Those would increase her movement speed and allow her to dodge faster. While she hadn''t tested them before, speed would be critical here. Even if they only made her a tiny bit quicker, it could be the difference between life and death here. Still, she wasn''t sure if she could keep up with Void. It seemed to move faster than a horse, and she wasn''t sure if that was at top speed. Though she hadn''t run all out since she had leveled up either, so she really wasn''t sure how fast she was. She smiled to herself. She was excited to find out, even with the imminent danger. While she had everything out, Bee mixed a few batches of smoke powder and other distractions she had researched. They might not fool the skeletons, but they could distract the demons if things went wrong. Plus, it never hurts to have more tools at her disposal. She also prepared some healing salves, just in case. It was slow acting and would lose potency over time, but it would be better than nothing if she was really hurt. Especially if she actually made it out. Altogether, mixing these potions took her an hour and a half. It was longer than she would have liked but better than expected. These weren''t exactly the best circumstances to test a new recipe. Bee packed away thest of her equipment and looked over to Void. It had been pacing the room doing its whole glowing, mopping, skull-waving routine that it had made a habit recently. "Okay, master, I think I''m ready to go." It chirped a happy note and rolled to the door, opening it for her. Together they made their way back to the illusory wall. Bee crouched a little ways behind the illusion while Void rolled ahead. It looked back at her briefly as though making sure she was ready. Then it glided forward. --- My human''s n sounded good. I was d that I could help with it, actually, since I was starting to feel like she was doing all the work here. Except for the cleaning. Though I guess that was the critical work. Still, though, she had be so self-sufficient during this trip. Really, I was proud of her. She was nning to make her repair glue and whatever other interesting stuff she had prepared. I wasn''t sure what the golden yellow liquid or the gray-ck powders she made were, but surely they would be useful. Hopefully, we could get many skeletons to chase the demons down the hallway. Unfortunately, from what I had seen, the demons would likely attack rather than run. Either way, as long as Beatrice runs quickly after me, maybe I could help clear a path for her with my vacuum. As I rolled out to the center of the hallway, I checked my dustbin. 14 warm masses roiled around inside. The lesser demons I had captured so long ago. I thought Beatrice''s second idea of letting out a few at a time would be best. They were small things, but they were pretty quick, so they should be able to escape pursuit for a while. Also, if the skeletons only recognized them as minor threats, they might not immediately send everything after them. Maybe I overestimated the skeletons'' tactical skills, but it was better to y it safe. I selected a couple of demons to release. I sprung them loose as I reached the hall''s center, trying to eject the mess makers toward the skeletons. Again I was confused. Just like with the small fuzzy mess maker, the demons didn''t look how I remembered. Instead of small, ck-furred apes, what popped out was quite different. For one, they were no longer identical. Each one was slightly different. The first was a scaly behemoth. It wasrger than any humans that had rudely attacked Beatrice by 11 inches. In addition to its height, it also had curved horns and sharp ws. Yellow eyes with vertical slits red, and its pointed teeth gnashed as it spotted the skeletons ahead. The second demon was much harder to notice. It was not muchrger than Beatrice, but it was ck and seemed to shift with the shadows. I couldn''t really make out its exact shape. Despite how different they looked, they both made the same screeching sound as they whirled around to re at me. They seemed upset. I wondered if that''s because I put them in timeout for so long. Well, in my defense, they had made a pretty bad mess. And tried to attack me. So really, what did they expect? Before I had time to wonder about their appearances, both demons charged at me. Therge-scaled one crashed forward like a boulder in a river, whereas the shadow one flickered like a me in a smooth, gliding motion. I let out a panicked beep and started to reverse as fast as I could. Bee watched as the demons seemed to be stretched and pulled out from Void''s back,nding in front of him. She didn''t exactly know where it was summoning things like this from. Still, she was pretty intimidated by these two and the giant rat monster. ording to a scan, they were an advanced shadow demon and a reptile demon. Both were in their mid-twenties in level. These were way far above anything that had awakened in the castle yet. Maybe it had collected some of the demons that were still in stasis and were keeping them somewhere? In its stomach? Like all ns, this one went immediately awry once the demons were released. Instead of attacking the skeletons, they turned on Void. If she had needed any more convincing that Void was not a demon, this would be it. They were trying to challenge or even fight Void, meaning they weren''t servants or under its direct control. Her master had, at some point, overpowered them. And they hated him for it. Void taunted them and then led them down the hallway at breakneck speeds. Perfect, it was adapting the n. As soon as the skeletons spotted Void, they shifted. But when the demons came out, they moved. The skeletons weren''t exactly marching so much as running in step at a full sprint. Perfectly timed feet caused the ground to tremble as they raced down the hallway. A deafening rhythm of ttering bone and ttering metal shattered the quiet of the tomb. Beatrice ducked back under cover as the skeletons streamed past her. Even at their speed, it took a full minute before thest skeleton passed. As the sounds receded slightly down the hallway, she poked her head out to see the army receding into the dim passageway. She checked the room to see if it had indeed been that easy. Unfortunately, there were still a few skeletons remaining in the mausoleum. But it seemed that they had only left a token force. A group of 10 skeletons remained to block the path up from the mausoleum chamber. That was still a lot, but it was way better than she had hoped. She wasn''t concerned for Void. Her master could take care of itself. She didn''t see how theseparably weak skeletons could harm it. Even so, she felt a little bad leaving it behind as she approached the mausoleum. She was very sure she couldn''t fight this many skeletons. Even if they were her level, it would be too much. But all she needed was an opening to get through them. It didn''t seem like more help from Void wasing, so she needed to figure this out. Pulling out her broom, she advanced on the squad of skeletons and prepared for battle. Chapter 45: A Brush with Death Chapter 45: A Brush with Death I raced away from the demons. But, unfortunately, it seemed like the skeletons had joined in the fun. Everyone wanted to chase the little robot vacuum down the hallway. I didn''t think I was having nearly as much fun as they seemed to be. Then, of course, I realized that they weren''t actually ying a game and probably intended to rip me apart piece by piece. But thinking of them trying to y chase really helped me stay calm. Even while fleeing, my sensors could calcte each party''s speed. It seemed that I was faster than both the demons. The lumbering one definitely couldn''t keep up, but the shadow could outspeed me in short bursts. Thankfully, I could maintain a higher top speed for a long time, which I was very grateful for. However, it appeared that the skeletons were even faster than me, let alone the demons, so the chase didn''tst very long.. Maybe a minute in, the first line of skeletons caught up to therger demon. This forced them both to turn around and fight their pursuers off. I released a massive puff of exhaust in relief and slowed my pace a bit. Still, who would have thought that I had two massive killer demons in my dustbin instead of a bunch of small ones? Actually, what had happened to the others? I checked and realized I still had 12 demons in there. Something odd must be happening in my dustbin. It was like how my small fuzzy mess maker came out so much different than I remembered. It''s almost as if they were growing inside me. That was slightly concerning. If they grew powerful enough, would they be able to escape? As scary as those two lesser demons had be, I''m pretty sure I could still take them if they weren''t chased by a literal army of hostile skeletons. But it was still a considerable risk to let them be. If these two were angry, the other 12 wouldn''t be different. I couldn''t release them here, even as distractions. They would be dangerous to both Beatrice and me. Plus, who knew how big of a mess they would make in revenge? To be safe, I started transmuting the remaining demons one at a time. Each time I did, I felt my battery surge. The first onepletely topped me off, and the next made me vibrate rapidly. I felt the air around me crackle with electricity. With each additional demon transmuted, the tunnel filled with more and more flickering blue lights. Energy swirled within and around me. I felt myself bing stronger and faster. My processing speed increased dramatically again. The voice came offering me a new mutation, but I could barely hear it over all of the crackling and static. The energy threatened to overflow, overwhelming me to the point where I could barely focus. Still, I pushed ahead, feeling like I was about to burst. The charge built up until I had transmuted 10 of the demons. Then, the energy exploded out of me. I was shot like a projectile back toward the skeletons. With the force of a cannon, I mmed into the first one, having beenpletely lifted off the ground by the power of so much energy being expelled from me. This was not what I intended, but with my souped-up processing, I instantly made a n to adapt. I turned my vacuum on as I made contact. I passed through the skeleton without resistance. Then the next. Then the next. I flew through line after line of bony figures without slowing, leaving a cloud of white pulverized bone in my wake. With each impact, I felt more and more energy pour into me. The halo of electricity I had felt was muchrger now, damaging the other skeletons and sending them jittering everywhere. I turned my vacuum up as far as it could possibly go, and itpletely outpaced my expectations. Everything around seemed to bend and shoot towards me with a whoosh. The voice yelled at me again, but I still couldn''t hear it over the roar. My little vacuum entrance struggled but managed to take in an astonishing amount the whole way. All the skeletons, their armor, the remains of the demons, everything just vanished into me. Huge squiggles covered my vision iprehensibly. Some part of my processor registered that I really needed to ask Beatrice what they meant. At some point, I skidded to a halt across the floor. It was over. I sat all alone. Everything else that had been chasing me was pulverized and gone. Sparks still flew off my wheels. And continued to do so for a solid 10.63 seconds. I was stunned. Who knew I was sitting on so much energy just in my dustbin? And how had I sucked up that much around me? That was unheard of. With this level of suction, I needed to be careful. But in theory, I could clean entire hallways by just going through them once. Of course, I might rip everything off the floor and walls and destroy the room, but maybe I could be more precise as well as more powerful. The voice came back. It sounded a little less impatient than it normally would be at this point. LEVEL UP x 12. LEVEL 32 WAS REACHED. THE FIFTH MUTATION REACHED. THE SIXTH MUTATION REACHED. CHOOSE TWO MUTATIONS. I knew that was a lot of energy, but 12 levels That seemed like a lot. It had taken Beatrice this whole trip to get half of that. But it was a much more impressive disy than a lot of things I had previously done. --- Out of nowhere, Bee suddenly got a huge chunk of experience. An incredible amount. More than she thought you could get at once. She was just about to engage the skeletons, and suddenly, her level shot up from 11 to 15. At the same time, she heard some sort of explosion behind her. Void must have done something. But what - The shockwave hit. Both the skeletons and Bee were blown off their feet, sending everyone sliding halfway to the mausoleum in the center of the room. Void must have been angry. Unleashing a power like this seemedpletely overkill to wipe out a few demons and skeletons. Perhaps the demons had tried to betray her master? It didn''t matter. She flew to her feet and dodged through a gap between the skeletons before they fully recovered. Then, without looking back, she started running the ramp. Maybe she could outpace the skeletons and find somewhere to hide above. However, fate wasn''t so kind. Bee heard the rumble of footsteps from ahead. Though the footsteps didn''t sound like bone. They sounded like somethingrger. Still magically enhanced, Bee drew her broom. She hoped that she could surprise whatever this thing was and dodge around. Preferably before it knew she was even there. Soon enough, she saw it. An undead monstrosity was charging down the hallway directly at her. It looked like a giant rat. She prepared to fight, but it skidded right past her and kept running down. Strange. Void would have no problem dealing with it, so she just let it go. Beatrice continued up the ramp. She ran with her hand along the wall, hoping to find another side passage and some stairs. But no such luck. After a few minutes of running, she started to slow down. There would have been no way she could maintain this pace even a few levels ago, but now that she''d hit level 15, she could move much faster. It would take her a while if she really had to go up this entire ramp. It took them hours to walk down, so she slowed to a light jog. This pace should be more effective for a longer time. She had heard soldiers passing through talk about marching pace, and this was what she imagined it would be. When she slowed down, she considered the prompt calling her attention. She needed to choose a new skill. She was pretty d Void was not around this time. She wasn''t sure that it would have required her to choose what she wanted. And sure, her choice may have been the right onest time. But still, there was something to be said about choosing your own skills. FOURTH SKILL REACHED. CHOOSE A SKILL: IMPROVED PATHING, IRON BONES, SWEEPING PROFICIENCY *** The voice told me to choose two, but it only gave me three to choose from first. So while I knew there was another mutation I''d have to choose, I didn''t know my options for the second one. That was a mild convenience. Since it did be apparent how valuable these things were, I didn''t want to waste any. I had only been lucky so far that I had chosen the best skill each time from instinct. I couldn''t count on luck to be with me much longer. One of the many things I have to get Beatrice to teach me is anything she knows about these mutations. I didn''t understand some of these at all. When thinking about my options, one stuck out right away. Not because it was great but because the others seemed awful. Since I didn''t know what they did, I hesitated to just toss them out without proper consideration like I had before. My options were: Spray Bottle, Undead Dominion, or Demonic Presence. I think I knew what a spray bottle was. I had seen humans use them for cleaning, so it was definitely the lead choice. Still, Undead Dominion wasn''t a concept I was familiar with. I could piece it together based on the individual words, but what the skill did might be slightly different. For example, "undead" would mean things that are no longer dead. I assume skeletons fell into that pile. And so far, they have been rtively useless. "Dominion" usually means to have control over some area, and I didn''t have any interest in controlling skeletons. Demonic Presence. I didn''t particrly like demons from what I have seen from them so far. And I certainly wouldn''t want any gifts to give to them. Really what kind of mutation was that a demonic present? Actually, multiple presents. The voice had said multiple presents. I didn''t want to be a gift to demons, especially not multiple ones. I wasn''t sure how that would work, but it didn''t sound very pleasant. I''ll pass. I guess the process of elimination just leaves the spray bottle. Making my selection, I felt the spray bottle mutation appear behind my front bumper. There was no "extend"mand like the other mutations. Instead, there was just a simplemand of "spritz." I activated it, and some liquid flew out of my front, leaving a light sheen on the tile. I knew this option was awful. It just shot liquid. But I still extended my mop and swiped it up. Drawing it in, I analyzed theposition. This didn''t seem to be water. My sensors returned an interesting entry. Apparently, it was sodium hypochlorite. I didn''t know what that was, so I dug a little deeper, and it said it was a solution of sodium, oxygen, and chlorine. That wasn''t helpful, either. Perhaps it was a cleaning material. It did seem to leave the ground that it was sprayed on exceptionally spotless once I wiped it up. Looking at the spray bottle functionality a little bit more, I found that I could actually eject other liquids I had sorted inside me. But the default liquid sprayed was this solution. And it seems I only had a small amount that slowly refilled up from nowhere. That was odd. Well, I suppose it could have been worse. Now I shouldn''t need to draw in water every time I use my mop without liquid. The voice seemed much more polite than it usually was. This time it let me experiment with my mutation for a few minutes before prompting me to choose again. CHOOSE Okay, I get it. Just let me get thest little bit of liquid outside my reach. I tried to roll forward and found I couldn''t. One of my wheels just wouldn''t move. This was quite disturbing. The other would rotate, but this one was seized up somehow. I ran a system diagnostic to find the issue and became even more distressed. My stic shell was cracked, some of my advanced sensors were providing corrupted data, and there seemed to even be some exposed wiring in my undercarriage. I couldn''t tell much else because of all the damage. But I was in need of repair. I hoped Beatrice woulde back soon. Otherwise, I might be in some trouble. I struggled to use my grabby arm and one working wheel to move forward. I could inch forward a bit, but it was slow progress. I extended my mop for all it was worth trying to get thest little bits of liquid and finally managed to clean the entire mess. That''s a lot of work. At this pace, it would be very slow progress making it up around this bend. Well, I wasn''t going anywhere for a while until Beatrice came back for me. So, having nothing better to do, I looked at my next mutation options. Automatic Maintenance, Spider Climb, and Te Coil. Okay. Sure. Now give me three awesome things to pick from. I was almost quite upset. I knew what spiders were. I had seen them climb on walls and ceilings. If I could climb like a spider, I would be able to clean everything. I might even be able to no, I couldn''t get ahead of myself. It seemed utterly unfair that I got all the good options at once. I would love a Te coil as well. I wasn''t sure what to use it for, but it sounded cool anyway. This was a hard choice. Perhaps the options got better the higher level I was? I felt at my stalled wheel. My situation seemed to almost force my hand. As much as I wanted to pick Spider Climb, there''s no way I could pass up the first option in my current state. Pining over the alternatives, I idly wondered how Beatrice was doing. Chapter 46: Time to Clean Chapter 46: Time to Clean I sat on the floor motionless for quite a while. I could feel my systems knitting themselves back together, very slowly but surely. The problem was that my new Automatic Maintenance mutation did not indicate how long my repairs would take. At least, none that I could understand. When I chose that option, a couple of squiggly lines appeared in the upper left corner of my vision. They were next to small pictures of gears. I was reasonably sure they held some meaning, but the squiggles next to them were utterly indecipherable. Though they did look simr to something Beatrice had looked at previously. There wasn''t much I could do in this state. I wanted to conserve energy just in case it would speed up my recovery. So in the meantime, I was just waiting for my wheels to propel me forward again. After a few hours of this, I discovered that I didn''t like waiting. Specifically when I couldn''t clean while I waited. I hadn''t been able to sanitize, mop, vacuum, or even explore. I''ve had to just sit here in this open hallway but not so much as a skeleton to keep mepany. The only thing besides my internal clock that changed was those new squiggles next to the gear pictures. I noticed that the pictures frequently changed, pretty much every second. Now that I paid closer attention, they changed exactly every second. So, with nothing better to do, I began to study the squiggles just to see if I could make them out. There were six individual squiggles. First, two squiggles, then two dots stacked on top of each other, followed by two more squiggles, two more dots stacked on top of each other, and two final squiggles. These six individual squiggles seemed to be part of this pattern. And after observing it for a while, I thought I might understand the pattern. Every single second, the rightmost squiggle changed. And then every 10 seconds, both the rightmost and the one directly to the left of it changed. So that would happen six times, and then thest three squiggles would change. Then, after 10 repetitions of that, thest four would change. It might be crazy, but what if this was the human representation of time? Instead of an up voltage and down voltage as everything should be represented. Watching the squiggles more carefully, I realized there were 10 distinct squiggle shapes. It made no sense, but they could use a base 10 number system instead of the base 2 I knew. I don''t understand why they do that. It just seemed much moreplicated. Still, that would be a way to represent a number between 0 and 9. Unless there was some weirdo that started to count at 1. But I''m sure humans have a concept of zero. It wouldn''t make sense otherwise. So the rightmost squiggle would count down 10 seconds. And then the one to the left of it would count how many times 10 seconds had passed. Then the weirder thing would happen: it would count minute hours, with a maximum of 6 squiggle possibilities in that digit. I suppose this was probably the best way to indicate the time for a non-electric being. With more careful study, I started to identify the 10 individual squiggles and the numbers they represented. The only thing that left me stumped was figuring out whether the numbers counted up or down. I knew whether each digit was a 0 or 9, a 1 or 8, and so on and so forth, but I couldn''t tell which one was zero and which one was nine. It was 4 hours into my analysis that I realized that the two leftmost numbers had stayed the same. That was the key. I could see that thest number had be a 9 or a 1. If it changed and the number to the left also changed, we were probably counting up. But if only that second number changed, we must be counting down. Furthermore, I would know what zero looked like. Then I''d be able to decode the rest. I vibrated with excitement. This was the most exciting thing that had happened in a long time. Well, maybe not the most, but this would be a huge discovery. Eventually, the squiggles changed once more. The leftmost number didn''t move. I inwardly celebrated. We were counting down. Now I knew which one was zero, and watching the numbers matter, I could figure out with high probability what the other values were. The only issue would be if these numbers weren''t correct for some reason. Like if it started with an offset and then counted down. That seemed unlikely, so I was going to assume that I knew what zero was for now. Based on the historical data, It only took me 0.03 seconds to figure out one through nine. Okay, so it seemed like the timer was counting down. Also, based on my new info, I had a little under 8 hours before it hit zero. I wasn''t 100% confident about what would happen at 0, but I had an idea. I could feel my repairs progressing very slowly. If my hunch was correct, they should be finished right when the timer hits zero. I still had almost 8 hours of sitting around, not cleaning anything. Just to check, I tried using my sanitationmp and grabby arm to train while I waited. However, that added 1 to 3 more hours to the timer, depending on what I did. I supposed I would just have to be patient, then. I hoped Beatrice woulde back soon. I didn''t go into sleep mode because if she came around the corner, I wanted to be awake to greet her. Bee considered her options carefully. She immediately ruled out Sweeping Proficiency. She didn''t need another proficiency skill even more specialized than Broom Proficiency. That might disappoint her master, but she was definitely going to take advantage of this and choose something more immediately helpful. She hoped it wouldn''t care too much. That left two options: Iron Bones and Improved Pathing. She really didn''t want to choose Iron Bones. There were many reasons, but it wasn''t the direction she wanted to take her to build. If she had wanted to be a tank getting into fistfights, she would have taken Brute as a ss. Instead, she wanted more magic, and she wanted to embrace Devotee. That strategy was where all the best builds came from. However, iron Bones were tempting for other reasons. First and foremost, she was tired of breaking her own brittle and non-metallic bones. It had happened twice in thest month alone, and it wasn''t an experience she wanted to repeat more. There was also theck of information she had on Improved Pathing. But its name made it seem like a navigation skill. That was something that no adventurer could pass up. Many of the guides she had read when researching her skills and sses insisted on at least one navigation skill. Perhaps also it could be used for fighting in terms of taking out multiple opponents at once or even running away. Bee mulled over the options. As much as she would like to avoid being hurt, she figured that her best defense usually was a good escape when it came to fighting. Plus, her healing salves had been effective so far, so getting hurt wasn''t the end of the world. Especially with Void around to protect her from the most dangerous stuff. So she probably didn''t have to choose a skill right away, but she wasn''t sure when Void would catch up. Once her master learned of the choices, it might end up insisting on something like broom proficiency again. Sure it worked out well so far, and she couldn''tin. However, it just sounded dumb. And she wasn''t a maid. It was a silly reason to turn down a skill. Bee considered that perhaps this was why not many 13-year-olds were choosing skills at all. Way too much risk of picking something that sounded cool over something practical. Though Beatrice steered away from that line of thinking quickly. By the time people had to choose a rank 15 skill, they were usually well into adulthood. But still, if it had been up to her, she probably wouldn''t have chosen Broom Proficiency. Even though, in hindsight, it was clearly the best choice. Her thoughts were still indecisive. Finally, she went with her gut and chose. Likely her master would have picked sweeping proficiency. Still, between the other two options, she had an inkling that her new Improved Pathing would have been the choice it most approved of. At least Bee wouldn''t be a total disappointment. Bee had been walking for quite a while at this point. It took her a couple hours, but she started to get a sense of her improved pathing skill. At first, she wasn''t entirely sure how to control it. First, it told her to move back and forth between the walls, slowly pushing her way up the hallway. It honestly seemed like a distinct downgrade in pathing. Still, giving it the benefit of the doubt, she tried following the route for a little bit. But she gained nothing. It just seemed to be a very, very slow way of progressing up the ramp while covering every single square inch of it. Eventually, she focused on her skill and her goals, putting particr emphasis on wanting to leave the catbs quickly. It took her a couple hours to get it right. Still, it eventually showed her a particrly straight line up the hallway. "Showed" might have been the wrong word, though. She just knew that if she continued this way, she would return to where she wanted to be faster, out of the catbs and into the castle. She had just gotten the skill and was still pretty low-level herself, so it wasn''t the most effective thing. Hopefully, this skill would grow because it gave her no idea of how far away the exit was, how viable the path was, whether there were any obstacles, or whether this was actually the most efficient route out. So it honestly seemed pretty bad as a navigation skill. There was no choice, though. She was half hoping it would show her some side passages or a stairwell like Void had found on the previous floor. But it seemed the best route she could take was just continuing up the tunnel. So as Bee walked, she kept her hand trailing on the inside wall of the spiral. Perhaps she would get lucky and feel an illusion on her way up. Her travels continued for several hours. She stopped and took breaks, asionally sipping thest bits of her water and nibbling on her food. Without her master to push her on mercilessly, she didn''t make as good time, but her speed also ensured that Void would catch up with her. What first wasplete confidence in its pursuit slowly trickled into a bit of doubt. After several hours, there was still no sign of her master. --- It didn''t take me the total 12 hours of repairs that my timer initially estimated. At least not until I could move. With still 5 hours left in the timer, I could start moving at a slow crawl. It wasn''t much, but still, it was better than nothing. Slowly I made my way up the tunnel after Beatrice. I was moving closer to my original speed when I first came to this ce. And at this rate, it would probably take me many hours to make it anywhere. I wasn''t that far down the tunnel from the mausoleum, so it didn''t take long to get back up to that point. I trundled in like one of those "snails" that asionally invade from the outside. But instead of leaving gross slime, I left a trail of spotless stone behind me. Even if using my vacuum a bit meant I repaired slower. I found an odd sight about 15.8 feet behind the entrance as I entered. There were several skeletons in full armor with weapons sitting in a circle. Not on guard, not sprinting, and not attacking anyone. Instead, they seemed to gather around what looked like the no longer small fuzzy mess maker. How did that get here? The fuzzy mess maker that had attacked the humans was chattering its jaws at the skeletons, who were nodding and chattering back. It was quite the odd sight. They seemed very engaged, maybe even entertained. I slowly edged around, careful not to disturb them, sticking to the shadows. I was lucky they were so engrossed with their conversation that they didn''t take note of little ol'' me. My ck chassis blended in with the shadows quite well, and with my low speed, my usual whirring wasn''t audible. It started off slowly, but as my repairs progressed, I got closer and closer to my previous speed. Soon I was moving much faster than Beatrice could walk. It was still not nearly as quick as I could be, but I was at least hopefully catching up. I was worried about her being on her own for so long. That had never ended well. Chapter 47: Getting Detailed Chapter 47: Getting Detailed Bee had hoped Void would catch up to her soon, but there was still no sign of her master. This left her in an awkward position. She poked her head around the corner into the catbs level. Even knowing its capabilities, she might have started to worry. Still, there was no sign of any skeletonsing up from behind her. Indeed that was a good sign. Looking into the massive room, she could make out much more this time. The oppressive darkness from when they had first entered this room seemed to be gone. Her light source still didn''t illuminate the entire cavern, but it no longer felt muted and contained. She would need to do some research when she returned to the library because it seemed that once the skeletons had left, so had the oppressive doom. It was really disappointing, but she would have to go through it alone. Ordinarily, she would have just waited for Void. The tunnel had been safe so far. But she was low on food and water and probably needed to get out sometime today or tomorrow morning before she started having issues. So without second guessing herself anymore, she crept out into the open. Of course, sneaking might have been pointless if her enemies had life sense, and she was carrying a massive light in her hand anyway, but still, she did her best not to make a sound. It wasn''t entirely rational, but it made her feel more secure. Bee stayed near the center of the room, away from the walls. If there were still skeletons in the cubbies, she didn''t want to risk raising them. Best not to disturb them if she didn''t have to. She remembered that they hadn''t actually explored the center of this room. So she was equal parts curious and cautious as she worked her way toward it. It took her a minute or two of quiet walking before she saw there was indeed something in the center. It wasn''t a mausoleum this time, but it looked like a raised dais with an altar on top. The dais was maybe six feet high, and there were no stairs. From this side, she couldn''t see any way up. She also couldn''t make out what, if anything,y at the top. This side of the dais was entirely nk and smooth. It didn''t even have any natural patterns or marks from tools. Edging carefully around the corners, the other sides were simrly featureless. Bee had a choice: keep investigating the dais or leave and continue up. It might be a rash, but many of the things she had done recently were rash. In many ways, it might be the only way she felt in control of her life at this point. So instead of continuing for the exit, she took a closer look. She had confirmed there was no easy way up, so she looked for alternatives. Looking for a ce she could climb up or something she could use as a stool, Bee paused and remembered what had happened in the mausoleum with the trap. If someone climbed up here, the protections might assume they were a trespasser or were here for riches. The skeletons would spill out, overwhelming them instantly. It would almost be a worse trap than blocking the exit like the one she had triggered. Considering this, she stopped and thought, then looked over at the walls. She couldn''t see the cubbies from here, but she knew many skeletons had been released from the earlier trap. So there might have been no more skeletons here. If so, it would be her best chance to get a good look at any sort of carvings or information up on this altar. To find out, she''d have to test it. It was a risk. But this was a risk more consciously chosen and better calcted in Bee''s mind. At least when shepared it to some of the other risks she had already taken. For example, the knowledge this ce had given her didn''t include a way to deal with the Lieutenant. But it had given her a ce to look. So really, was it much more of a risk to investigate this ce? Or to wait for the Lieutenant to wake when she was unprepared for it? Still, she didn''t have to be stupid about this. Changing her mind about an earlier decision, Bee walked toward one of the walls. It was better to find out if there were still skeletons guarding this ce by disturbing a few rather than identally causing a bunch toe out at once. Right as her light hit the wall, she stopped. It was still far away, but she could see into the cubbies. They appeared empty. Each and every one. She paced down the length of the wall and didn''t see a single skeleton. That was one side clear. Then, deciding to be thorough and not risk being more stupid than she had to be, she made her way to the other side of the room. Repeating the process, she found no skeletons. One cubby at the very end, though, had something left behind in it. Holding her light up, she looked a little closer. Inside was something small and shiny that had caught the light. Looking closely, she saw a chain of silver glittering in the amber light. It was threaded through a dull ck pendant. The pendant was dark enough that it didn''t reflect light well, but not the otherworldly ck that Void was. It was simple, shaped like a teardrop, and about asrge as Bee''s fingernail. Bee reached her hand into the cubby. She didn''t think it would be a trap. This was too subtle and small. Carefully she pulled the chain out and held it dangling in front of her. Nothing happened, and she breathed a sigh of relief. When she looked closely, she saw that the chain was silver but not tarnished. She wasn''t sure if it had been preserved or was actually some other metal than silver. The pendant, though, was moreplex than she first thought. Sure, it was a dark-colored stone, but it had etchings. She couldn''t quite make it out in the light, but it seemed to be a foreignnguage. Carefully she slipped it into her pocket. She''d have to look at this more closelyter. Now confident that there were no skeletons left to ambush her, she returned to the dais in the center of the room. She tried to reach the top of the ledge by standing on her toes but could barely touch the lower lip with her fingertips. Beatrice was tall for her age but not nearly as tall as a fully grown adult. Still, she had the experience and knowledge of a child that didn''t take no for an answer. She had climbed many things that she probably shouldn''t have. Slipping her pack to the ground, Bee hopped up and could barely grab the slippery lip. She tried to pull herself up, but it was difficult, even with her newfound strength. Dropping back down, she took a few steps back. Then she ran forward, kicking off the wall andunching herself up. Her hands made it above the edge, and she pulled herself up using the momentum of the move. Part of her chest made it onto the dais'' top, and her belly soon followed as she flopped forward. Painting with effort, she rolled over onto her back on the tform. Realizing that she could have just gotten herself into a precarious situation, Bee got to her feet. In the center, what she had thought was an altar was more of a podium. Other than that, the surface of the dias was utterly featureless. On the podium sat a book. It was bound in pale leather, with blocky ck lettering on the cover and a thickyer of dust coating it. The pages were thick and yellow but perfectly cut. Bee took a closer look at the cover. The lettering was of an alphabet she didn''t recognize. Well, that wasn''t entirely true. She recognized the alphabet, but she couldn''t read it. It was simr to the writing on the archway she couldn''t read further down. Something was odd about this. Not just that she couldn''t read thenguage but the letters themselves. They were too perfect, almost like they were carved into stone. She doubted that a human''s hands could have made them. Closely examining the book from every angle, she couldn''t see anything besides a leather-bound book on top of a simple stone surface. With an abundance of caution, Bee reached out and flipped the cover open to a random page. The lettering was square and blocky. Every line was perfectly straight, with the exact same amount of spacing between it and the next one. Every letter was exactly the same width. There were no ces where the ink wavered as a hand cramped or a quill needed refreshing. Who wrote this book? It was slow going as I made my way up this ever-increasing incline. I didn''t realize how much I had grown used to Beatrice''spany. While cleaning, I could dive into myself and enjoy my work, but this was boring. I had to limp up the hallway. I moved at a plodding pace. I didn''t even have the luxury of a job well done. I tried to clean as I went, and the same happened when I tried to use my light or exercise my arm. My repair timer started increasing, and I did not want to wait longer than I had to before I was back at full functionality. By the time I reached the first level, I could feel my repairs had made significant progress. I still had several hours, but my state didn''t hinder me nearly as much as it did previously. My pace increased too, and I had started going faster than I knew Beatrice couldfortably maintain, so I could catch up with her soon. I hoped she was okay. It was nice to see that she had apparently managed to skirt past the group of skeletons in the secondyer without being noticed. Still, I didn''t believe her luck wouldst. I was using my advanced scanners to watch the area around me. That was the only thing I could do that didn''t seem to increase my repair time further. However, I couldn''t extend them for a very long distance yet. But every hour or so that I kept them on, I noticed I could reach a little further. I would have liked precise numbers on my range to increase, but it seemed somewhat variable. Either that or I still needed to collect enough data to have an exact corrtion between the time used and any range increases. The expansion rate also seemed to change when I investigated different things with my sensors, so it might have been in vain to even hope for such a form. When I first rolled onto the first level''s room, I didn''t notice anything. But as I moved towards the center, I caught Beatrice on my sensors. Oh good, she was fine and safe. However, as I got closer, I realized she might be in a slight predicament. There was a single raised tform in the very center of the room. It was way too tall for Beatrice to climb up or down, yet she stood on top. Honestly. She never ceased to amaze. At least she wasn''t getting attacked again. I had to help her find a way to get down. At a distance, I circled around the giant tform so I could keep my eye on her. There was no easy way up or down. It was 6.04 feet of slick wall on any side. I suppose she could try jumping down, but I wouldn''t want her cracking apart. I still had yet to find her any recement parts. On one side, I saw her satchel lying on the ground. Seeing that nothing had approached us yet, it was probably safe to make myself known. I was here to help. I tried to convey that message in a greeting beep to reassure her. Beatrice looked up. She had been studying something intently, but I couldn''t see what from this angle. When she saw me, she smiled and gave me a little wave. I popped out my grabby arm and waved back. It was really lovely to see her. Now I just had to help her out of this predicament. Chapter 48: Dressing Down Chapter 48: Dressing Down Turns out Beatrice wasn''t in as much trouble as I first thought. Truly I envied the versatility of human bodies. After waving hello to me, she carefully dropped something down onto her pack below. Then she grasped the ledge, swung her feet, and carefully lowered herself. Finally, she dropped the remaining distance andnded in a crouch. I cheered her graceful show of acrobatics. "Hello, master." There was a cheery grin on her face. She seemed to be in a good mood. I had to say I was too. It was quite pleasant to see she had made it out all right. In fact, looking at her, she seemed entirely undamaged. Considering her state every other time she went off on her own, this might have been a first. "It''s good to see that you''re alright. I assumed that the mighty explosion was your doing. But without any other sign of you catching up, I have to admit I started to get a little worried. But how could I expect otherwise?" Beatrice''s face brightened suddenly. "Oh, I reached level 15!" I let out another cheer of congrattions. 15 was good! It was even further behind than she had previously been, of course. Still, she had yet to destroy nearly as many skeletons as I had. It seemed a little unfair, given how much harder she worked, but I supposed the only thing I could do was continue to help her the best I could. Bee shifted her gaze to the side." I already chose my skill. I picked up something called Improved Pathing. I wasn''t sure exactly what it did as it wasn''t a skill I was familiar with from any of the books I''d read, but it seems to have worked pretty well." Beatrice borated. Improved Pathing, huh? That sounded like a promising skill. It was one I was almost envious of. I was pretty good at nning paths, but I had to work hard and clean countless rooms before bing good at them. But for her, such a helpful skill so easily was excellent. We would be so much more effective. And maybe if her skills improved with use as my mutations did, she could also avoid danger and gain other functionality. At first, I was a little caught up with her new skill, but the other important part of her statement registered soon after. She had read about skills in a "book." This further confirmed my suspicions. These books seemed like my built-in protocols but were understandable and transferable between humans. They contained knowledge about more than just floor ns as well. This only increased my desire for Beatrice to teach me about squiggles. Ever since I had figured out the numerical digits 0 through 9, I had noticed them cropping up everywhere. Humans sure liked to use numbers more than I had given them credit for. For example, therge squiggles that floated in the corner of my vision when I cleaned something or defeated a mess maker were numbers. I wasn''t sure what they were for, but it seemed to be calcting a total of something. I also noticed numbers in many ces when I went through my memories, looking for matching squiggles. Unfortunately, I needed more time and energy to do a full scan of everything. Still, prominent everyday things like the TV or the ticking clock turned out to be heavily reliant on numbers. My musings were interrupted by Beatrice holding an item out to me. It seemed she still needed to finish filling me in on her adventure. "I also found a few things in this chamber, master. Like this book." She held aloft a heavy book that was of a pale tan color. It was precisely 4.56 in thick, an entire standard deviation above the average library book I had encountered. There were not-squiggly squiggles on the front but blocky representations of squiggles. I recognized all characters from the deepest arch but needed to figure out the meaning. There were no numbers, though. Urging her to exin more, I let out an inquisitive chime. "Well, I don''t understand thisnguage yet. I''m not even familiar with the alphabet. Still, I hope the library will have something on it, and maybe I can work on tranting the title at least. The whole catbs were constructed as a security measure for the lieutenant. I feel like this book might have some answers to my questions about it." This bit of information gave me quite a few things to think about. First, the concept of an alphabet was foreign but sounded relevant to understanding these representations of ideas. Also, the notion that more than one might not ur to me. And the fact that Beatrice didn''t know how to read this one was a bit disappointing. However, she could use the library to learn to read another one of them, which made that all the more critical. That could all be taken care of once we got back to the library. I began to roll towards the ramp at afortable ce; Beatrice fell into step beside me. We began to work our way up to the castle proper. It was about time we returned. We needed to catch up on our cleaning. Harold steeled himself as he stepped into the outer chamber. This room was essible only through secret passages deep beneath the King''s Castle. These passages were so ancient and well-hidden that even the King was likely unaware of them. But Harold was, and he had business down here. His meeting with the King hadn''t gone very well. He winced at the still-fresh memories of his dressing down. He didn''t expect this next one with the Warden to go much better, but it had to be done. Outside the Warden''s study door, there were two guards with metal facetes that concealed their identities. They made no move as he opened the door between them. The door opened smoothly on well-oiled hinges. Inside was a simple room; A desk and two chairs were the sole furnishings within. Calling it a desk might have been a bit generous, though. It looked more like a farmer''s dining room table and a couple of chairs that might have matched his neighbor''s table. The chairs weren''t facing each other over the table; they were positioned sideways, facing a small fire crackling in the hearth. The far chair in the room was already upied by a man dressed in dark robes with a hood hiding his face. Harold shut the door behind him. As he made to sit down, the hooded figure removed his cowl. So much of this was a ceremony. The Warden''s identity was meant to be a secret from all but the inner circle. However, Harold had known his identity long before he joined that circle as the dean of demonology. However, it was still best to keep up appearances. But now that the door was fully shut and they were alone, the pretense was exhausting. The Warden was not a young man. In fact, based on the number of wrinkles that decorated his brow, he looked to be in his eighth decade. Harold knew that couldn''t be right, though. The man had aged much since taking on this position - too much. But despite the aged and sagging face, his eyes still zed with intelligence and intensity. An intensity that Harold did not look forward to being the focus of. He felt sweat begin to bead on his brow as he started his report. The Warden sighed. He had a headache. Again. At this rate, they might as well be chronic. But no, he still had asional blissful moments where things went right. Where someone else showed just enoughpetence that he didn''t have to personallye in and clean up their messes. Usually, his meetings with Harold were just a formality; a simple letter would have done fine. Harold typically never needed permission that wouldn''t be granted to him automatically. He never asked for extra funding and had yet toe to him with a true disaster. From what he had heard, though, that was likely to change. Of all of his inner circle, Harold had been one of his favorites. But he was starting to regret his judgment. As he looked at the man sitting next to him, he leaned onto the table with one hand to rest his chin in his palm. "So let me get this straight." As the Warden spoke, he stared into the fire. But his words were pitched perfectly so Harold would have no problem hearing them. "You, the head of demonology, messed up summoning an arch-demon so badly that you let loose an unssified, more powerful demon." When he sensed Harold opening his mouth to defend himself, he gestured his other hand sharply, cutting him off. "And your response to such a blunder was that you and all your staff fled the castle. Leaving the demon unchecked by probably the only people capable of dealing with it within weeks of travel. So not only was the demon released, but you also left the lieutenantpletely unguarded with a creature that would have every possible motivation to free it." With every word, the weight pressing against the Warden''s temples seemed to increase. "I''m going to ask you a straightforward yes-or-no question. Don''t want to hear any exnations or excuses first. Is this what happened?" Harold made an audible gulping sound. "Yes, sir." The Warden turned to take a look at Harold''s face. The blood had drained away, leaving the other man deathly pale. He wasn''t looking the Warden in the eyes; instead, his gaze was distant as he stared into the fire. The Warden sighed and leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. "Okay, now that we have the basics, I''d like to hear your rationale. And it better be bloody good." He heard Harold take a deep breath. "In hindsight, there might have been more we could have done, but the decision seemed sound at the time. I still stand by it. We ran because there didn''t appear to be anything we could do. We had already flung our most potent demon repellents. We tried all sorts of various magic items on the summoned being. Nothing had an effect. It didn''t even slow down when it broke through our strongest circles, as if it didn''t register that they were there. Whatever it was is so far beyond us that even if we had stayed and fought, surely we would have all died." By the end, Harold''s voice had taken on the edge of desperation and fear. Hearing this did not please the Warden. As much as he liked Harold, he would have preferred his subordinate to bepletely ipetent. At least then, there would be a chance that the situation was being overblown and that the threat wasn''t really so severe. Harold being wrong would be much preferable to a threat so dire that the demonology department couldn''t even think to contain it. The Warden closed his eyes. But, unfortunately, that headache wasn''t going away anytime soon. "And the lieutenant?" "Its protections had been refreshed recently. Even if the first thing it did was remove those protections, it would still take months for the lieutenant to awaken. So we still have some time. But if we weren''t able to repel this new foe, there''s no way we would have been able to do anything to further contain the lieutenant. We couldn''t match the original restraints that held him in ce. So there''s nothing we could have set up that it can''t break through just as easily as everything else. Nothing that would havested longer than the month anyways." Harold took a deep breath before continuing. "If we have a force powerful enough to subdue the new threat, we should be able to regain control of the lieutenant before it wakes." Well, at least there was a chance. The Warden considered. It would be difficult to convince the King that they needed to deploy the army so far away from the capital when they were threatened by their neighbors. But everything that Harold had said pointed to this as the best solution. They would need a lot of manpower to take this thing down, and with the current state of the war, their best and strongest were too far away to make it in time. Sheer numbers might be their only chance to take down a demon of this power. But to convince the King, the Warden might need to let him in on the secret of the lieutenant''s presence. That was something he didn''t relish doing, but that might convince him, whereas some vague threats of an unknown foe from the demonology oddballs would not. So many regrets yed through the Warden''s mind as he and Harold watched the fire for a bit longer. Chapter 49: Dust Devils Chapter 49: Dust Devils Bee followed her master up thest ramp out of the catbs. She was exhausted from all the exertion and trials of thest couple of days. She was looking forward to a nice nap. Perhaps she would move a mattress into the library so she wouldn''t have to sleep on the floor again. It was a long walk, but it seemed to fly by as she became lost in thought, considering everything she had seen. It felt like she learned so much yet knew even less than she had previously. A lot of the evidence down there contradicted the myths of her people. It appeared that the church didn''t tell the whole truth about history. Also, it seemed that humans could get much more powerful than anyone believed possible. Yet, despite all these new pieces of information, she was still no closer to learning how to defeat something like the Lieutenant. Nazareth''gak seemed like it had been defeated by vastly superior numbers of much more powerful troops than she had any ess to. Without leaning on Void''s help, she didn''t think there was much she could do. There were a couple leads, but to use them, she would need to identify and then learn anguage she had never even heard of before. So her work was really cut out for her. *** By the time Bee and Void reached the stairs leading up to the iron banded door, she was about ready to copse from all the walking she had done. However, when they were about to open the door, she heard strange noises. It seemed that they were not alone in the castle anymore. They were not noises that Bee was familiar with, but she had a sinking suspicion she knew where they came from. One of the downsides of going into the catbs was she had lost the ability to monitor the other demons that might escape. On the other hand, Bee probably knew enough alchemy at this point that, with some references, she could redraw the containment circles. Still, Void had decided to leave them as training for her, and she had resolved to let them escape. She wasn''t going to lie. The thought of destroying them while they were still recovering had crossed her mind, but there were a few reasons she wouldn''t do that. One, she wouldn''t get nearly as much experience, so she was better offbat training against them. And two, because if Void had really wanted them to be destroyed, it would have done so itself. She wasn''t going to assume the same thing about the Lieutenant. Sure she might risk interrupting her master''s ns. Still, she certainly wasn''t ready to train against the Lieutenant. It seemed worth the risk of annoying her master to prevent the Lieutenant from escaping, no matter what Void''s ns were. But still, it would have been best to fight the demons as they escaped one at a time rather than now when they could all be loose throughout the castle. She hoped that just one or two of them were making noise. But she didn''t believe her luck would go so far. Reaching the base of the stairs, she picked up and carried her master to the top. Once the noise subsided, she cracked open the door and peeked outside, checking to see if the coast was clear. There was no apparent danger in sight, so she set her master down before closing the door after them. Void let out a small screech and rolled away. When Beatrice set me down, I was aghast. I took in sight, the horrifying sight of dust everywhere. Much more dust than should be umted in two days'' time. Not only that, but there was also dirt caked over every surface. It was pounded into the stones, and some ces had a coating of dust all over everything. What could have possibly caused this? Without wasting a moment, I turned my vacuum on as soon as possible. It was much stronger than normal, and as I moved, I could see that dust was being pulled from a massive radius around me. I turned it up to only a fraction of what its power could be to protect the decorations and rugs. Once it was on, I moved toward the carpet that ran down the center of the hallway and out the main door. I steadily increased the power until I noticed the carpet ruffling quite furiously underneath me. Any more, and I would start to damage the carpet. I looked over and saw Beatrice, hair whipping in the breeze. She was staring at me with a shocked expression on her face. I suppose this power was a bit much. It would help me clean the room faster, but I was worried about knocking things askew on the walls too. So I toned it down 54.5%, finding the perfect bnce between efficiency and caution. Still, the entryway only took me a few passes to clean. Not only was I cleaning the floor, but if I went up against the wall, I also cleaned a good bit of the dirt off the wall. I checked the side rooms, and they were not nearly as bad. They looked like no one had stepped in them for a few days since we hadst cleaned them, but no one had passed through the narrow doors. At least nothing that had caused all this dirt. Finally, I cleaned the entryway at the base of the stairs. It only took me 46 seconds. That was only 20% of the time it would have taken me before. While I worked, Beatrice just watched me. To be fair, there wasn''t much for her to do as this was pretty simple. But she also started looking up at the stairs, and when I was done, I joined her. Unfortunately, the stairs were a mess. This was a significant issue. I couldn''t clean the stairs. That might have to be Beatrice''s job, but it looked like she had her work cut out for her because the amount of dirt tamped down on the carpet was excessive. And even the stone next to the carpet runner seemed like it would require quite a bit of attention. But if the rest of the castle was anything like this, there would be a lot of work for me to do, too, just to get the ce in reasonable order. We probably will have to make multiple passes throughout the castle. Perhaps she can get started on cleaning the stairs while I clean all the floors. Then we could go through with a fine-toothedb to ensure everything was cleaned up. Suddenly, there was a loud roar from somewhere up the stairs. Oh, right, whatever was causing this mess needed to be dealt with too. And that probably needed to be done before we cleaned anything, or else it would just cover the area in another mess. Looking back, I started to make connections that I had missed earlier. So those lesser demons came from the smaller cages. And those smaller cages were ringed by circles. These circles were in patterns. Sure, while they were mostly dust and white powder, those patterns might mean something. The other cages were also ringed with powders. Perhaps those cages had something in them too? Some of thements Beatrice made earlier that I didn''t understand started to make sense to me now. I needed help understanding the mechanism for containing these mess makers or the reasons for it. Still, the idea of releasing them made sense if the mechanism involved those chalky, powdery circles. How messes kept in mess makers. But if I took that at face value and realized I erased chalk circles around many other things, those might have had a simr function. Oh no. I think this mess might have been my fault. I would have to work extra hard to rectify my blunder. Beatrice looked at me. I rolled towards the stairs and stopped, waiting for her to pick me up and carry me. She let out a long breath before picking me up and trudging me up the stairs. It seems like she needed to charge. I hope she didn''t leave to take care of some of these demons, though. They sounded louder than the previous ones, and I didn''t think she would be able to recover while they were running around. Loud noises seemed to disturb humans charging. So she sent me down, and I began to lead the way to the library. Hopefully, it was still undisturbed since the doors were shut. Perhaps I can leave Beatrice there so she wouldn''t get hurt while I go and deal with some of the mess makers? Right as we were about halfway down the main hallway, something significant lumbered into view. I could see dirt raining down from it, tracking the mess everywhere. I let out an angry screech as I charged full speed right toward it. My vacuum whirred furiously on high power. Slowly, the giant mess maker turned to face me. My suction tugged at it. I could feel the pieces of dirt that fell off it change directions toward my vacuum. However, my suction was not powerful enough to budge the giant creature. As I zipped toward it, I considered how I would damage it. I didn''t have a sword or other heavy counterbnce to knock pieces off of it. I thought my mop would only help a little as it wasn''t liquid. I could try batting at it with my grabby arm, but that seemed inefficient. My best solution was still the vacuum itself. As I got closer, the more intense the suction became. I could see pieces of the creature being pulled off and floating away from it. I couldn''t move the whole creature, but it seemed that my presence tore off small chunks. I turned my vacuum up as high as I dared, and the rate at which it disintegrated increased. Taking it in, it seemed I was taking a negligible bit of it. Still, it would be entirely gone in about 15 to 20 minutes of me being in close proximity. However, I doubted it would let me do that. As I zipped around it, trying to stay close, I took the sight in. It was a hulking beast and moved like it. The demons I had seen before looked like hairy, small chimps - aside from the two that hade out of my dustbin, of course. This appeared to be a gori made of sand. The sand was multicolored in shades of brown and ck. Still, aside from the general shape, there were no distinguishing features on the monstrosity besides ridges and impressions on its surface. Despite this, different shapes and formations constantly shifted and disappeared along its body. As I observed, I saw something resembling a face and something else almost w-like. I was lucky that it wasn''t swift. It spun around, trying to keep me in its sight, but it couldn''t even turn as fast as I could speed around it. Eventually, it just seemed to give up on that tactic. Instead, it ced one lumpy limb on the ground and spun in the opposite direction I was going. It appeared to be trying to sweep me off the ground. However, I was too fast and just retreated a little ways away from it. But as my distance increased, the stream of particlesing off it stopped. Before it had a chance to go after Beatrice behind me, I darted back in. This dance was set to continue for a very long time unless something changed. I tried to mix it up. I couldn''t get my mop near it safely. In ast-ditch effort to speed up this encounter before some unknown factor came along to mess it up, I turned my sanitationmp on the creature. Chapter 50: Soil Sucking Chapter 50: Soil Sucking Bee watched as Void danced around the earth demon''s blows. The demon seemed utterly lost as it spun around, trying to follow the small ck blur nipping at its heels. In fact, she might have said that its blows looked clumsy, but that was only inparison to Void''s darting form. Still, that didn''t mean that the monster was harmless. Every time a fist or foot hit the ground, she could feel the vibrations even from a dozen yards away. It wasn''t quite enough to crack the granite, but if those blows were directed at her, she would be squashed instantly. Bee was rtively certain that Void was not ying with the demon, but it sure looked like it was. She watched as small parts were methodically ripped off from the tremendous earthen mass and consumed by her master. It was not a fast process. Of course, such a foe was beyond her ability to damage, but her master seemed to have no issue. Bee btedly remembered to scan the earth demon. Sure, she had scanned them when they were in cages, but she wasn''t sure which one this was exactly, and it looked more powerful than she would have expected. The results confirmed it. NAME: N/A, RACE: EARTH DEMON, LEVEL: 32, CLASS TYPE: TANK She already knew most things, but level 32 was the critical part. It was more than twice her own level. Dirt scattered towards her from a wayward blow, and she took a couple more steps back to avoid it. Void''s illumination showed forth brightly. Bee averted her eyes as the ghostly light made them itch more intensely than before. From the corner of her vision, she saw a bright spot appear on what must have been the demon''s chest. Strangely enough, the illuminated area seemed to cave in slightly, as though it was being corroded by the light. It seemed that her master was done ying around. - Frantically I danced. Every second it felt like I was courting death by a hair''s breadth. The giant beast''s arms came down repeatedly, thundering all around me. Only with my improved cognition speed and quick reflexes was I able to stay just ahead. My vacuum slowly siphoned away the creature''s mass as I stayed as close as possible. But that wasn''t the only way I was weakening it. Every time its fists mmed into the marble floor around me, more pieces of it went flying. I altered my paths slightly to collect as much stray material as I could before it was re-absorbed by the mess maker. And as it attacked faster and more fiercely, more and more of the material making up its bulk disappeared into my vacuum. More than even that, though, my sanitationmp seemed to be way more effective than I expected. On full power, the demon''s body seemed to almost dissolve wherever it shone. This effect was also greater the closer I got. My calctions indicated that at a distance, the sanitationmp ounted for 7.8% of the mass loss of the demon. However, closer up, it ounted for 21.2%. That meant it was scaling even better than my vacuum, though the vacuum was still doing more overall. That was very odd. I''d have to do some more testingter. It was draining my battery but nowhere near enough to cause me concern aboutsting through this fight. I don''t think I could run out of energy even if I tried before defeating this thing. No, the much more likely oue would be me being crushed instead. In ast-ditch effort to speed up the process, I tried spraying it with my new spray bottle. Unfortunately, the liquid misted out in a small puff. I had to move out of the way as its arm passed through the mist. There was no visible effect as the liquid came into contact with the dirt making up its body. That was too bad. Now that it wasn''t my mortal foe, I hade to appreciate how effective liquid was at getting rid of dirt. I was hoping it might wash away this creature made of dust. But it seems that the quantity wasn''t enough to do anything. Maybe as with my other abilities, it would get stronger with use and levels. However, for now, I stowed away the new tool. We''d only been in this dance for 10 to 15 seconds now. Still, I could already see that the creature''s total mass was significantly reduced. I estimated it to only be 97.3% of its previous volume. That meant that if this continued, I would win in about 5 to 6 minutes. The creature might not bepletely vanquished, but it would be small enough that I could probably suck it up more wholesale. However, I wasn''t sure I had the time. I didn''t know if this creature had any friends or, worse if it would realize it was losing and go for Beatrice instead. So far, it mainly ignored Beatrice, choosing to focus on me instead. I was doing my best to be a distraction, but I couldn''t be sure that wouldst forever. A particrly close blow sent me flying forward. It had missed my rear by millimeters, but the shockwave hit me hard enough to jolt me off my wheels. I flew through the air for a few feet before touching the ground and regaining control. I had no choice. Between needing to end this quickly and wanting to be safe, the best option was to weave between its legs, getting closer than I had dared this whole time. There was a good reason for that. As I moved between its legs, trying to find the best ces to hide, it started stomping its feet. It didn''t seem to see where I was, which was my only saving grace. If it had been able to locate me, I''m sure I would have been pancaked, but its stomps came essentially randomly. The constant threat of being crushed wasn''t the only issue, though. The shockwaves of each step shook the ground, making me lose my grip briefly on the floor. This made it slightly harder to twitch out of the way of the next strike. I looked at the carpet fluttering in the breeze from my suction. These were desperate times. I would have to risk damaging it to end this. I cranked my vacuum power up to the max. The wind howled. It seemed tosh at the beast. At this rate, it would be unable to damage me in less than a minute. It seemed the mess maker was intelligent enough to understand if it didn''t change things, it would fail. However, it didn''t want to go down without a fight. So the next thing it did was drop. Next, it tried to crush me under itself in a giant belly flop. The sudden cease of crushing blows was the only thing that gave me a warning, but it also was the only thing that let me get out from underneath it. It only took me a second to process what was happening, and I used it to make my escape. Sure I was no longer in danger of being crushed, but I also was not damaging it nearly as effectively. Finally, it stopped and looked at me for a solid second. This gave me a bad feeling. It swiveled and turned around. Only then did I realize that it had gotten between Beatrice and me. I came out on the wrong side of his feet and was no longer protecting my charge. It raced towards the stairs, and I followed at full speed after. I wasn''t sure what I could do, but I turned my vacuum on high and tried to take off as much of it as possible. I cared even less about keeping the carpet intact now that Beatrice was in danger. It didn''t seem like I was capable of stopping it, but I could do as much damage as possible. I hadn''t thought it was intelligent enough to see that I was protecting her. Maybe it wasn''t. Maybe it just thought I was too annoying to deal with and wasn''t worth fighting. However, it didn''t matter now. I had a human to protect. Luckily Beatrice had decent self-preservation skills. Seeing the beast charging at her, she turned and leaped down the stairs as fast as she could. The demon was right on her heels. She ducked into one of the side rooms and mmed the door shut as itnded at the foot of the stairs. The door didn''t seem like it would be enough to stop the beast, but it might give her more time. It started hammering on the door, trying to break it down, but it was having surprising difficulty getting through. This castle was really made of strong stuff. Not only was it high quality and beautiful looking, but it was built tost. I stared down at them from the top of the stairs. I was helpless. Without someone to transport me down, there was nothing I could think of to affect the fight further. As the creature battered at the walls and door, the only thing I could do was turn my section on full power. I could see a small stream of dirt heading toward me, but it was insignificantpared to before. It would be a long time before it made any appreciable difference. Bee leaned against the inside of the coat room door, panting. She could feel the door shake as heavy fists repeatedly pounded into it. The demon seemed to have slipped past Void as it yed with it. These doors were solid oak, but even she didn''t think that would hold them long. With her master trapped at the top of the stairs, she didn''t think she could count on helping either. She looked about the room, trying to find some way out of this predicament. She cursed her terrible decision. If only she had gone through the other door, that side led to servants'' corridors that she could have possibly escaped through. Unfortunately, this was just the coat room. And there weren''t even any coats here. She still had her pack and her broom, but that was it. As good as she had gotten with her broom, she didn''t think she would have the strength to do any damage to a level 32 earth demon. And she definitely didn''t have the speed to survive a prolonged confrontation. Inside her pack, there wasn''t much left of her supplies except for the alchemy kit. But wait. Quickly, she shrugged out of her pack and started digging through it. She still had a few potions she had made earlier. She hadn''t needed them for the skeletons, but maybe they could help now. There were a couple of the distraction ones that made smokescreens and a speed potion. This might just be enough to get her past the demon. Quickly she downed the speed potion. She felt her reflexes and muscles react as though electrified. Finally, they were ready to respond, and even as she started getting ready to fling various distractions, she noticed the difference in her hand speed. Propping the pack against the wall to retrieveter, she prepared to fling open the door. Before grabbing the handle, she dropped one of the smoke bombs. Then she opened the door and tossed another one right at the demon. They both broke, immediately billowing out grayish-white smoke. Then, using her newfound speed, Bee dropped into a slide between where she thought the creature''s legs were. Judging from the fact that she wasn''t immediately clobbered, her distraction seemed to have worked. Coming up the other side. She took the stairs three at a time, hopping back up to her master''s side. The speed potion onlysted for half a minute, so she didn''t have much time. She spoke quickly. "Master, may I have your permission to head to the library? I don''t think I''ll be of much assistance here." It gave an affirmative noise, and she took off running, trying to take advantage of all the speed she had. Bee was lucky that the library wasn''t far off. When she made it around the corner, she saw another demon simr to thest at the opposite end of the junction. Luckily, it was walking away from her. She sprinted in the other direction towards the library. As she skidded to a halt in front of the door, she wildly checked for enemies. Though there were none immediately visible, she heard somethinging around the corner. She slipped in and closed the door before she was caught. Now safe in the library, Bee thought about her next moves. First, she would need to figure out a way for her to deal with earth demons. She also needed to see how many had gotten out. The worst case would be all of them, but perhaps things weren''t that bad. Finally, she would definitely need more speed potions. Along with maybe some strength ones and other kinds would help her in these situations. If she could get the ingredients. Bee sighed inwardly. Just when she had started to feel safe inside the castle Hopefully, Void would take care of it quickly, though. It did not seem happy with the new intruders. She quickly scanned the shelves to find anything of worth, her tiredness forgotten. Chapter 51: Of Voids and Vacuums Chapter 51: Of Voids and Vacuums As Beatrice rounded the corner towards the library, the demon made to follow. But I met it as soon as it started up the stairs. This time I didn''t hold back. There was no concern for preserving the carpet. I just had to ensure that it was stalled long enough for Beatrice to get away. The demon seemed to have figured out the futility of attacking me. It also couldn''t just sit at the base of the stairs. It didn''t seem capable of going through any side doors and hadn''t even tried to leave the castle. So the demon''s only options were to be slowly drained of all of its mass until it was no longer a threat to anyone or make a break for it. It charged at me, seemingly intending to barrel past. As obvious as the intention was, there was little I could do to block its advance. The only thing I could do was stay close to its feet, consuming matter as it ran. I considered transmuting a few more of the demons inside my dustbin, but I didn''t think it would do much here. For one, there weren''t as many demons inside me now, and two, I didn''t want to destroy the castle. The carpet damage from my overpowered vacuum was one thing, but bringing down walls might damage Beatrice as well. It made it to the corner Beatrice had turned, but I was right on its heels. Already the creature was down 20% of his total mass from when we first met. I was pleasantly surprised that the process was elerating. It seemed that the less powerful it was, the less it could resist the pull of my vacuum. The demon seemed to realize it wouldn''t catch Beatrice or escape me. So instead, it turned all its might into another attempt to crush me. It iled about randomly, mming with both fists into the stone floors, just to smash into me. I tried to dodge, but its slightly decreased size brought a degree of maneuverability it previouslycked. Despite my best efforts, I couldn''t get it down more than another 5% before a blow sent me tumbling away. I felt part of my outer shell crack as I rolled sideways. Soon, I came to rest upside down. And I surely thought this was the end of me. Being on my back was a mostly unfamiliar experience. It had only happened once, and I didn''t like thinking about it. Iy there on my back, waiting for the demon toe and smash me. However, I wouldn''t go down easily if this was the end. So I turned my vacuum up as high as possible for a finishing blow. A cyclone of debris and dirt raged above me, the poor carpet pping upwards in protest. Yet despite all that, my sensors didn''t detect an iing blow. It only took me a tenth of a second to realize that the demon wasn''ting toward me. In fact, it was running away. It seemed that it would take advantage of my helplessness to escape. Which left me in a bit of a strange, anticlimactic position. I turned down my vacuum. What more could I do? I wasn''t like a turtle that could rock around enough to flip over. I didn''t have that sort of mobility. Though just to make sure, I wiggled my wheels around a bit. Nothing happened. Dang. Oh, wait, maybe I did have an option. In my panic, I had forgotten about how much I had changed. I was no longer the same creature that hade to this ce. So I popped my grabby arm out and used it to push off the ground. It was rough since it wasn''t quite long enough to flip me overpletely. But between that and a decent amount of wiggling, my wheels soon touched the solid ground again. I nced around and regained my bearings. In the distance, I could see the shrunken demon running down the hall. Hesitating, I considered my options. Should I follow it and finish it, or should I make sure Beatrice is all right? I nced down the hallway Beatrice had retreated to. The library wasn''t far off, and I hadn''t heard any moremotion from that direction. She was probably fine. Taking another nce at the disastrous mess along the hall, I swiveled and raced after my foe. - Bee couldn''t tell what was going on outside the library. There were some faint noises but not loud enough to distinguish anything specific. She hoped her master wouldn''t be too disappointed with her for running away, but it seemed to be the only logical option. Every other path led to fighting an enemy she couldn''t win against. Well, couldn''t win against them yet, anyway. At Bee''s current pace, that might change sooner than she could have dreamed. However, in the meantime, she found some interesting books that might help. She set another pile on the table and surveyed her newest collection. On the left were manuals covering advanced potions of speed and strength. Those might help her survive in the immediate future. On the right was a stack of tomes on earth demons. They were amon enough type of demon that there was plenty of information for her tob through. Sighing, Bee slumped gratefully into her seat and selected a book to her right. Apparently, earth demons had a weakness to water. Specifically torge amounts of water, actually. One of the many advantages of having a body made entirely of earth was that you could shift it around so that lost limbs and the like could quickly be reced. Meaning that it had no particr weak spots. However, when wet, the mass couldn''t be shifted around as easily. This left the demons vulnerable. It also allowed forrger chunks to be broken off all at once. She also read that if you could freeze the wet part, you could shatterrge amounts of it more efficiently. This was a demanding series of actions to pull off, however. Plus, if you were skilled enough to pull a stunt like that off consistently, you were likely powerful enough to defeat an earth demon without resorting to such tricks. At least, that''s what the book said. It was apparent that swords, spears, and other ded weapons were essentially useless against these demons. Even axes weren''t rmended. Much more effective was a hammer or something that could really knock offrge chunks at once. The most challenging part was preventing the lost mass from being reabsorbed by the demon. That was often where the water came in. Bee considered her broom. It wasn''t a hammer, but it was quite literally designed to remove dirt and debris. Of course, it depended on how tightly the dirt was packed, but the broom end could sweep apart significant bits of sand or earth-like material with each swipe. On top of that, it would do a decent job of scattering that material. With Void''s ability to consume matter, she shouldn''t have much trouble keeping the lost mass away from it. As long as she had her master by her side, that is. She didn''t think Void would have any problem with helping her in such a way. Plus, monsters that were literally made from dirt seemed to go against everything Void stood for. Bee paused in her reading. Actually, that didn''t make sense. Why would Void release these demons, of all things? It could have easily kept these locked away and released the other demons for her training. Was it possible that it didn''t know what was released at the time? She considered that Void might just have known the power level of these demons and not their species. It seemed possible. She thought that Void wasn''t likely to intentionally release this level of debris and destruction across the castle. However, that called into question even more things. If Void didn''t know that, what else didn''t it know? Setting aside those doubts forter, Bee continued thumbing through her books. She definitely needed to restock her supply of speed potions. Those had saved her life and allowed her to keep up with the thing. She also found a recipe for a freezing potion that could be hurled at an enemy. She''d have to do some testing to determine the range of effect and power, but the ingredients were not superplicated. She would have to figure out how to get into some storerooms where the more valuableponents were kept, but that shouldn''t be impossible. She was pretty sure she knew where a couple sets of keys were. Besides speed and freezing, she needed a way to get the earth demons wet before freezing them. Running through imaginarybat in her mind, Bee frowned. Actually, freezing might not be the best idea. She would need to crush the frozen part of it toplete thatbo, and her broom wasn''t meant for heavy hitting. It would probably break against anything less brittle than bone. That''s not to mention that she still wasn''t the strongest herself, though strength potions could help with that temporarily. So she would need a hammer and to be in range to strike it. ncing down at the small meat tenderizer in her belt, Bee shuddered. That didn''t seem like the best idea, even with greater speed. She definitely needed to think about it a bit more. A loud growl interrupted her musings, and Bee sat bolt upright. The good news was it was only her stomach. The bad news was that she was getting quite hungry and thirsty again. Bee set aside the books for the moment in favor of her more immediate needs. She needed more food and water. She had to at least make a trip to the kitchen pretty soon. Maybe she could grab alchemy supplies at the same time. But without Void''s help, would she be able to make it? Bee considered. Well, she was much more capable than before, not to mention at a higher level. But now, there were also more than just lesser demons roaming the halls. However, the catbs had helped her understand Void a bit better. While her master had thrown her into difficult situations before, it had never put her in an impossible situation without backup. She didn''t think that Void would let here to harm, so it seemed unlikely that it would make her travel alone in these conditions. She had someone to watch her back, and she didn''t have to take the same risks she did before. So before going out there, she needed to wait for her master to return. She hoped it wouldn''t be that long. She was starting to get thirsty. It didn''t take me long to catch the demon. I didn''t try anything fancy. I just stayed outside of its crushing range and let my vacuum and sanitationmp do their work. Already it was significantly smaller than it had been. When it realized I was too fast to outrun, it gave up on that n. Instead, it returned to just charging at me futilely. I kept dodging to the side, leading in arge circle. I spent my time leading it on our merry chase, trying to stay in the same area. I didn''t want to get too far away lest there be other mess makers like this one. They might see us and join in on the fun. That wouldn''t be great. Well, it seemed that I could take this beast on alone with some nning and caution. But I only wanted to try to take on one at a time right now. Perhaps it would be a different story once I had a chance to train up my sanitationmp and vacuum power. This dance continued for a few minutes, but eventually, I prevailed. The creature shrank enough that I didn''t worry about it hitting me. Satisfied, I got in close and turned my vacuum up. The whole thing dissolved in a couple more seconds and flew harmlessly into my dustbin. I was curious to see if it was still moving like the other demons I had absorbed. Checking in on my dustbin, there were still four lesser demons inside. There were also a bunch of other things, things with energy that felt different from electricity. They felt more simr to the demons than anything else. The sheer amount made me think it was rted to the army of skeletons I had consumed. But I could also make out the remains of the earth demon separately. It was scattered everywhere, but I could somehow recognize that the scattered parts belonged to one entity. I considered transmuting it for energy. I had used quite a bit during that battle, after all. However, as I consumed it, I noticed arge number flit across my vision. By this point, I had associated the numbers with cleaning activities, but now I considered their meaning. Maybe it was telling me the amount of energy I had absorbed? Chapter 52: Securing Supplies Chapter 52: Securing Supplies After finishing off the earth demon, I happily trundled toward the library. I tried to collect as much loose dirt and debris as I could along the way, but I couldn''t get everything. This whole area would need a real deep clean. I turned the door handle and pushed but felt more resistance than expected. Huh. That was strange. It didn''t seem to be locked, so I pushed harder. Finally, the door groaned inward in protest. I saw Beatrice standing across the room, staring in my direction. When she saw me, though, the tension left her shoulders. She smiled and gave me a small wave. I returned it as I retracted my arm. As I entered, I noticed a bookshelf propped up against the door. No wonder why it was so hard to open. Who would have thought that I had gotten so strong? Anyway, I rolled over to Beatrice to see if she was all right. I ran my advanced sensors over her but didn''t find anything unusual. Judging by her appearance, she escaped the situation without any damage sustained. This was a relief. But it also made it two times in a row that she was out of my sight and made it back without any damage. If she had kept this up, I might change my mind about herpetence. It might even be time to elerate her training. She seemed to have simr ideas. She gave me a slight bow and asked, "Master, can we make a trip to the kitchen and then some of the storerooms? I would like to get some ingredients to make something to work against these earth demons." I thought about this. Was Beatrice really ready to take on one of those? No, she definitely wasn''t. I could barely do it myself, and that was only because they were quite clumsy. But maybe she could help? If she distracted one, I could stay closer to it for longer. Plus, brooms are great for cleaning up dirt. So if she had other tools, maybe some cleaning agents that she could make with her ss containers, perhaps things would go all right. I suppose there was nothing wrong with an excursion to the kitchens. Humans needed to eat anyway. So we''d have to do that eventually. And while we were out, we might as well get her whatever she needed to prepare. So I gave an affirmative beep of agreement. However, I waited to head out. I was pretty sure that Beatrice needed to rest at this point. She hadn''t done so since the bottom of the catbs. And the walk was just full of excitement. After that much, she would probably be low on battery. I had her return to her usual spot with her pillow and nket. I prepared her for sleep mode before I settled down to keep watch. *** When Beatrice finished charging, we quickly got ready to go. The path was clear on the way to the kitchens. That was lucky since I could see Beatrice was moving a bit slower than normal. She seemed to be rubbing her eyes a lot and making a strange sound every once in a while. It was somewhere between a sigh and a strange honk, something I wasn''t used to humans making. Perhaps she wasn''t up to date with her usual maintenance. Maybe that''s why she wanted to go to the kitchen, to fix herself up. But if that didn''t work, I was going to get concerned. So I was d that we made it to the kitchen undisturbed. However, when we got there, things were different from what we had left them. The kitchen had a set of pushable double doors. This made it so that I didn''t need to use my grabby arm to enter. However, it apparently also meant that therge demons could get through. There was little left intact. The counters and cupboards were smashed, dented utensils and bowls littered the ground, and even the pantry was in shambles. Beatrice examined the water barrel and found it shattered, wood fragments littering the floor. There was still a small puddle in the cracked bottom of the barrel, from which she drank greedily. However, it was clear we would not be getting what she wanted from here. I watched as Beatrice spent some time digging through the ruins. I wanted to begin cleaning everything up. However, I wasn''t sure what was valuable and what wasn''t to her, so I left her to sort through some of it. Soon, I would need to clear the rubble and repair all the damage done. I would repair what I could, but I didn''t know how to make cabs. Perhaps Beatrice could teach me using one of her books? It only took a couple minutes for her to pick out a few things from the wreckage. She came back to sit beside me, frowning. "There isn''t much that I can use from here. This is going to be an issue. There may be some food in other store rooms, but I''m not sure where those are or if those supplies are even still good. Also, I think most of the stuff ready for consumption was kept here. I could try to prepare food myself, given ingredients, but." She waved an arm towards the disaster area in front of us. That didn''t sound good. I knew humans consumed food like how I consume dust. I don''t know what I would do if I couldn''t do that. Hopefully, we could find a solution soon. Still, the kitchen was one of many reasons we hade. She also wanted other things. I gave her an encouraging beep; we would figure things out. As she followed, I turned around and began to roll back to the hallway. The second part of our trip could have gone more smoothly. As we crossed the castle''s entrywaynding, we saw another dirty mess maker rounding the corner. We both froze. It didn''t. It immediately charged at us when our gazes met. Beatrice looked at me, but I didn''t have an answer. She brandished her broom and took abat stance as if to receive the charge. That was a horrible idea. She was much smaller and lighter than even one of the demon''s fists, so I quickly darted forward to intercept. I shined my sanitationmp directly in the face of the demon. That seemed to get its attention, probably because its head started to dissolve. Then I darted to the side, retreating down the entryway hallway. Sure enough, as soon as it reached the corner, it turned to chase after me. That left Beatrice able to go forward. She seemed to realize what I was doing and ran. I started the now familiar dance that I was getting better at. Weaving around the fists of the demon and in between its legs, I quickly siphoned off arge portion of its mass. But as soon as I ended up behind the thing, I followed Beatrice. I saw she had made it pretty far down the hallway. She looked back at me and slowed as though to stop, but I let out an encouraging beep for her to continue. I would distract this one, leading it while following Beatrice so that I could help her out if needed. I did just that. I continued dodging the blows and siphoning off mass from the demon, all the while keeping Beatrice in sight. Luckily our destination was pretty close to the corner. As I saw her slip into a side doorway, I focused on whittling away this demon''s stature. Already it was 30% smaller. And now, not having to lead it in a certain direction or at a given pace, I focused on staying as close to it as I could. Really once I got used to their movement pattern, fighting them wasn''t too hard. No more challenging than getting out a really tough wine stain. That is to say, it wasn''t impossible for me anymore. If I had fought these when I first arrived, I would have been spare parts scattered all along the floor. Now, however, I could handle such a challenge in just over 5 minutes. Reality came knocking just as I felt a bit of pride in my aplishments. Further down the hallway, near Beatrice''s side room, another earth demon appeared. That was bad. I may have gotten too cocky there. I was still a couple minutes away from finishing off this demon. Luckily, it didn''t seem to realize the danger it was in like thest one had, as it was still pounding at me. I also didn''t risk getting close enough that it could try to belly-flop on me this time. But with a second one? Now I was going to have to get creative. I switched to focusing my sanitationmp on the second demon whenever I had the chance. I twirled desperately around my two foes. Luckily, Beatrice was still inside the room, so I didn''t have to worry about her. While I moved, my processor worked overtime trying to figure out a way out of the situation. Unfortunately, I was only getting null values. *** Bee ducked inside the lesser store room. It hadn''t changed much since she hadst been here. Still, she moved in a hurry. She grabbed a few of the bags by the door and found the barrels she needed. She needed a decent amount of crushed ice peppers for the ice potion. She wasn''t sure why they were called that. Her mom had been a fan of cooking those savory dishes, but they hadn''t ever felt cold on her tongue. That might make more sense if their names had been rted to alchemy uses. When she had finished stuffing those into a bag, she moved on to the following few things on our list. Nothing too abnormal. Ground wheat harvested on the summer solstice and fireflies collected on the equinox were probably the weirdest things here. Otherwise, it was simple things like various types of salts or ground-up herbs that could easily be scooped. She was careful to ensure she got more than she needed for everything. Only after she checked that she had everything on her list did she allow herself to be concerned about the food situation. It was good that she still had alchemy supplies but running out of food was not good. Sure she''d mentioned to Void that might have been other stores. But she didn''t know where they were and if they were in any better condition. Besides, that was usually unprocessed food. Meat that was still curing or rice or flour. Things that she might not be able to cook without a functional kitchen. Bee started considering alternatives. Water shouldn''t be an issue. She''d have to go out and get it from the well, but that was doable enough. There were also gardens that might be producing sometime soon, so she would have to check on that, and there were animals. But she didn''t know how to care for animals, milk a cow, or anything like that. She could maybe get eggs, but she still had to cook them. All of this was assuming that the animals and garden were in better shape, of course. Either way, she wouldn''t have food for a bit. Finally, she found some jerky and a couple of apples, which would onlyst her a day or two. Food was bing an issue in general. She was tired of always running out and worrying about her next meal. It would be good to solve this on a more permanent basis. While the food was an issue that would need a solution, it wasn''t her most prominent issue. Her master was protecting her from demons, but she wasn''t sure how long the fight wouldst. She poked her head out to see what was happening, then quickly shut the door again. It seemed that her master was whittling down the first demon they hade across, but it looked like Void might soon be in a bit more trouble. A second demon hade in from the other direction. And this one did not appear to be nearly as small. Could she really just sit here and watch? Void didn''t seem to be having much trouble. But seeing how long it took to finish just onemaybe it needed her help? It didn''t seem like this was her master''s limit. Perhaps it was just waiting for her help? Well, her uncertainty didn''t really matter too much. Bee had decided to act. But, first, she just needed a n. Chapter 53: A Splash of Truth Chapter 53: A Ssh of Truth This was not going very well. After the second demon came along, not only were there twice as many ways for me to get hit, but I also had to split my attention. This led to a drop in overall efficiency. I wasn''t just dividing my damage across two different sources. It was less efficient than that, at least from the sanitationmp. The nice thing about suction is it works from all directions. Unfortunately, I couldn''t quite be as effective for each demon. Still, I was able to do significant damage to both just by being in their proximity. However, this wasn''t going tost. I begged my processor toe up with some ideas as I dodged and pivoted around their ankles. I started trying things that shouldn''t work. I started spraying them with my cleaning solution more and more. It didn''t seem to have any noticeable effect, but I got a number floating up in my vision every time I did. And if that was consuming energy or measuring something important, why not keep doing it? asionally when I would get close enough, I''d grab a little piece off of them with my arm. It didn''t seem to be very effective, but it was something. I even got close enough to touch one of them with my mop. It had no effect. I didn''t even get a number in my vision, but it was worth a shot. The margin for error between me and their strikes was getting smaller and smaller every second. Soon enough, they started to force me into a corner. While the lesser demons had worked together, usually by holding hands, they weren''t very good at strategy. These demons, though, were significantly smarter. They actually seemed to understand basic tactics. They woulde at me together in two different directions, timing their motions to coordinate with each other rather than attacking randomly. Several times I actually tried to escape, trying to lead them away from the door with Beatrice behind it. However, they quickly learned to have one drop to the floor to block my path. The other would use that as an opportunity to get a free shot in. Well, at least their continued proximity to me did damage them. It was likely that they were going to get a lucky hit in before I managed to wear them down, though. My models predicted now that I would only have a one in 100 chance of rolling away without any damage. That was an improvement from the beginning of the fight, so perhaps they hadn''t yed it perfectly. As long as I made perfect moves and they continued to make mistakes, there was a chance that the odds of sess would grow. But it was still incredibly risky. After I sprayed the ankles of one demon for maybe the fifth time, I picked up a slight color change in the dirt there. It seemed to be less flexible, too, based on the creature''s movements. This gave me an idea, and I focused on targeting that particr spot again and again. After about a dozen sprays, I noticed that part of the foot was quite waterlogged. I tried shining my sanitationmp on it. Aside from some fumesing off of it, nothing else happened. Well, it was more liquid than solid now. Maybe my mop could help. I set up the next couple of maneuvers predicting what the demons would do so that I could get within mop range of that spot. I waited, sacrificing potential damage to try this out. I touched the spot with my mop when I got a chance, and the whole section of the beast''s foot disappeared. My mop was soaked with muddy water, so I brought it back inside and wrang it out. Looking at theposition of my foe, I noticed that I had just taken out a considerable fraction of the demon''s total mass. Also, while it seemed to be able to shift shape and fill in thinner areas, this sudden damage still threw the demon off bnce as it was suddenly missing arge portion of its foot. It started to topple over. With this new tactic and the demon out of position, my model increased my chance of sess from one out of 100 to 58 out of 100. And that was assuming that both parties made optimal moves every single chance they got. I was pretty sure I could maintain optimal moves. These demons, while smart, had definitely not so far. I was confident this chance would increase even further, especially if I took advantage of this new opening. With some fancy maneuvering, I managed to sneak past the temporarily incapacitated demon and try for a better position where I was no longer surrounded on both sides. This was starting to go my way. Bee stuck her head out the doorway again. They weren''t right in front of the door anymore, so she had to stick her head a little bit farther than before and look around. The battle was still going on in the hall back towards where they hade. This was perfect. She didn''t have a lot of equipment with her to make anything too fancy, but there was a bucket and a barrel of water. It was salt water that was intended to be used for potions, but it might help hinder the earth demons. And even helping out a little would be great. For one, she would get some experience from it and be able to assist her master. Though Void looked like it needed even less assistance than when she hadst checked. It ran circles around these demons, keeping them bunched together. It seemed to be able to time its movements perfectly so that the demons would get in each other''s way. It was truly a master ss onbat. The sight reminded her of one time when a royal guard troop had passed through town escorting some important noble. While they rested, one of them hade over to the group of kids scrapped in the mud with sticks, pretending to be warriors. The guard had challenged them all toe and hit him with their sticks, and he skillfully wove between the blows without ever drawing his own sword. As a result, all the kids ended up smacking each other or tumbling in the mud harmlessly. All this withoutying a hand on them. To her master, these earth demons likely seemed like children. Still, that didn''t mean it wouldn''t appreciate the gesture of help. Neither of thebatants had noticed her open the door, so she tried her best to remain stealthy. Tiptoeing up behind one with a bucket of salt water, she quickly twisted her body and flung the bucket at the smaller demon''s back. Its body instantly stiffened and solidified, darkening as the liquid soaked in. That got its attention. It turned around to roar at her while the other tried to swat at Void. But she was already sprinting back towards the storeroom door. Bee slipped through the crack and mmed it behind her. She hoped her master could take advantage of the opening. Going back to the barrel, she grabbed another bucket, cracked the door open, and waited for the next opportunity. I watched Beatrice repeat the stunt with the water bucket. I wasn''t sure if she''d seen my spray bottle move earlier to get out of the tight situation, but this would provide me some opportunity. Luckily this time, the water arced low enough that I could reach the affected areas with my mop. The previous one had struck too high up on the demon. Still, it did seem to limit itsbat capabilities by a tiny bit, even if I couldn''t take full advantage with my mop. I started positioning myself to optimize this opportunity. My models of the earth demon took this new weakness into ount, and within a handful of seconds, I was behind this demon with my mop out. I turned sharply, the tassels cutting a swath through its limb. In an instant, an entire section of wet demon crumpled into the cloth strips. When I turned my vacuum on that much-reduced demon, it quickly disintegrated. Soon I was facing a single demon that was already much diminished from this extended tussle with me. Having lost its ally, this one proved a minor threat. It was slightly smarter than the one that I had vanquished. This is the one that came upon us after I was already inbat, so perhaps opportunity-seeking was in its nature. Either way, it tried to run. It wouldn''t make it far. It only took a second to chase down. With a few repeated sprays to the ankle, I was able to remove the supporting joint long enough for it to topple over. As it fell, I pounced and was able to rip arge chunk off of the prone form. Soon it was bite-sized enough to be finished off quickly. Large numbers again floated through my vision. I waited for a voice to tell me if I had reached a new level. But nothing came. That was too bad. I figured that I would be getting close to another milestone by fighting three of theserge demons. After how useful some of thesest upgrades were, I was quite looking forward to the next advancement. Oh well. I rolled over to the door Beatrice was behind and knocked on it with my arm. I gave a reassuring beep to let her know it was safe toe out. It took a couple of seconds, but soon she poked her head out and looked around. Seeing no demons, Beatrice took a step out. She had apparently packed up all the stuff she wanted, as her bundle was muchrger than before. I wished I had better conveyed my appreciation for her assistance. She shaved almost 7 minutes and 38 seconds off the fight time. And drastically reduced the risk of me getting damaged again. Luckily she had an idea of what she wanted to do next. "Master, can we address the food situation? The pantry seems to be out ofmission, but I remembered that we have gardens and livestock outside. I figured the livestock might be gone by now since it''s been several weeks, but the gardens might be okay?" Of course, we could. I beeped in the affirmative. I wasn''t sure what gardens or livestock were, but if they were rted to food, that was good enough for me. I knew that Beatrice needed to consume that regrly. And with the damage done by the demons in our absence, it made sense that it was more of a scarce resource. Beatrice just nodded and led the way. It wasn''t until we started down the hallway towards the stairs I started to get concerned. Where were these gardens? I don''t remember anything downstairs except for the catbs and a few small side chambers. When she stopped at the stairs to look at me and made to pick me up, I got a little concerned. I let her pick me up and carry me down, but I was getting a bad feeling about this. My bad feeling was confirmed when Beatrice started opening therge doors at the base of the stairs. Thest time we went through these doors to the outside, things hadn''t gone very well. I shuddered at the memory. The image of an endless dirtndscape still haunted me. But I was different now. Stronger. Surely I could handle something like this? I felt my mind was clearer, and I understood a lot more things for sure, but still. The prospect was daunting. I wasn''t sure if I was ready to face that again. Eventually, she got the doors open and stepped outside. Should I follow? I edged around the door slightly so I could see. It was as I remembered. A wide area of incredibly dirty stone stretched out for about 30 to 40 ft in all directions. Straight ahead, some stairs led down to a gentle slope to the right and left; beyond that was an almost carpet-like green surface. However, as lush as the carpet seemed, it was a trap. My sensors indicated that just below the surface was the thickestyer of dirt, soil, and grime I had ever encountered. It made the castle hallways, caked as they were in sandy debris, look absolutely spotless byparison. I''ll admit, I trembled a bit. I didn''t think I was quite ready to clean out here. Maybe Maybe I could wait here. Just while Beatrice went to go check on her "gardens." Chapter 54: Farm Upkeep Chapter 54: Farm Upkeep Bee stepped into sunlight for the first time in almost a week. Just likest time she stood there for a moment, feeling the sun on her face and the wind in her hair. She closed her eyes. It was amazing how much she missed the outside after being in the deep catbs for so long. Sighing contentedly, she made sure to check her surroundings before setting out. There were no humans that would bother her this time. She hoped, for the most part, that the demons were contained within the castle. She wasn''t about to count on it though. She knew there were other areas used to contain demons, some of which Void probably hadnt gotten to yet. However, even if it hadnt destroyed those circles, the natural power of those contaminants would be fading soon. She would need to rece the containment circles if she wanted to keep the demons in check. However, she wasn''t too certain about whether she should. If she did it this one time, she''d bemitted to doing it in the future. It might be better to just let them out, kill them and reap their levels. Besides, if there was any real need for demons, she could probably summon more herself. All her research into demons had led her to some interesting areas of summoning. Also, the mages kept the demons around for convenience so they could study them and their behavior or exposure to the world. She assumed there was more than just that, but those were the obvious reasons. But Bee wasn''t studying demons; she was just trying to survive, and having to worry about recing their magic circles with limited supplies seemed a bit wasteful. Especially considering that she was so inexperienced around magic. But still, it would be good to know what she would face soon. And maybe even get an estimate for how much time she had to prepare. In the upper levels of the castle, she was pretty sure that she had seen some air demons through cracked doors. It would make sense that there would also be fire demons somewhere, but she had never seen them herself. They were also all the other kinds of magical beasts captive amongst the castle upper levels that she needed to take care of, if the other apprenticesints were to be believed. Most of them were self-sufficient but were a source of fresh ingredients that might actually be worthwhile to keep around. Assuming she still wanted to study magic, which she did. She had never really explored the area outside the castle herself. She had a rough idea of what was there from passing conversations with other apprentices and overhearing the mages speak. It was not in her duties to clean outside, yet she knew there were some gardens and some livestock, and maybe a few horses. However, none of this had been tended to since Void first appeared. She assumed that the animals may have died or run off by now, but the gardens might be okay. She finished enjoying the fresh air and made her way onto the grass to the right. She''d make a loop around the castle grounds and see what she could find. It only took her a few steps into the grass before she realized her master wasn''t with her. Turning around, she saw its ck shape sitting still by the entrance of the castle. Concerned, she hurried back over the short distance. "Master, do you want toe with me?" It let out a noise. For the first time in a long time, Bee wasn''t able to figure out what it meant. Normally Voids intonations were expressive enough that she was able to understand them with almost the same level of certainty as if it was speaking to her. However, this was a t emotionless note. There was nofort, positivity, or negativity at all in the tone. Bee waited for Void to borate or add to its response. It stayed silent, though. It twisted back and forth as if uncertain. She had an idea. "Can you not travel on grass very well? I can carry you if you would prefer?" --- I had to think about Beatrice''s offer. Would being carried above this destendscape of pure dirt be better than rolling amongst it? I had gotten used to being carried, but I still wasn''t a huge fan of it. But rolling in the dirt sounded awful. I wasn''t sure what grass was, but if it was this green stuff, I don''t think I would enjoy rolling in it either. It seems like it would get caught up in my wheels and brushes. Kind of like long hair but thicker and dirtier. But the real question was whether I wanted to go outside at all. Beatrice could carry me, but I didn''t know if it would offer me any morefort. With my confidence in human infallibility shaken, I couldnt trust anyone besides my humans. While Beatrice was certainly nice, and I would consider her one of my humans, she wasn''t perfect. The more I traveled with her and saw how she interacted with the world, the more I realized that humans in this ce were just wed. They couldn''tpare to my humans back home. Well, even so, that just meant I had more responsibility to care for Beatrice and ensure she had a livable home. Though she could never take the ce of my humans. So I guess the question wasn''t about whether I could keep myself well-maintained outside, or whether I was ready to clean something on this scale. It was more like: could I keep her safe? Actually, that still wasn''t quite the question. Could she keep herself safe wandering around without me? That wasn''t a very hard question. The answer was definitely no. She may have managed on her own a few times inside the castle, but there was much less threat there than there was out here in the unknown. I don''t think there was any way I could trust her by herself. I flipped my attention back to her. She was still standing there waiting for an answer. There was no way around it. I knew what needed to be done. I rolled over and bumped her foot. She blessed me with a smile before bending down to pick me up. I could get a better view of the outside from a higher angle. The castle seemedpletely surrounded by an outer wall set 100 or so feet away from the building. This little teau we were on was set into a gently sloping hill that extended from the castle to the wall. At the front of this teau was a set of stairs and a path to a gate in the wall. To either side of this tformy a strip of grass that then turned into a gentle hill down further way from the castle as it sloped towards the wall. After 50 feet it leveled off, leaving arge t area between the wall and the hill. Beatrice began moving along the top of the hill. It was a long walk around the castle, but it allowed me to really take in the scale of the problem. Just off to the side of the path towards the gate, there were a couple sets of buildings. I couldn''t tell what their purpose was, but there was arge area of packed earth off to the side of one. I had to shut off my visual sensors briefly, at that. Loose dirt was enough of a scourge, but something like that? It would be magnitudes harder to clean than muddy boot prints on a hardwood floor. Cleaning endless numbers of earth demons was the closest approximation I had here, and it still couldntpare in the slightest. Calming myself, I reopened my sensor data stream, focusing instead on therge red building with white stripes. We skipped the area, and continued around the castle. Around the bend, we saw a set ofrge dirt fields with green nts growing in them. Beatrice walked down the hill towards that area. I couldn''t make out her purpose. Did we need to clean these dirt fields? That was a lot of dirt. It wasnt as dense as the other area, but it was still Well, more than I thought I would ever face in one area. I was starting to regret my choice toe outside with her. I''m sure she would have been fine. There was no danger out here. Not that wed seen. In fact, maybe I could head back right now. She wouldnt mind, right? Shed be safe. Before I started trembling again, I cleared my mind and tried to focus on happier things. On clean linens and freshly polished floors. On my favorite rug and pats. Those thoughts soothed me and helped to organize my thoughts. I could do this. I would stay with Beatrice, just in case. She needed me. Even if we did need to clean, one thing at a time. Focus on what you can do, not what you cannot. She started talking to me. Maybe just to fill the silence, maybe because she realized I didn''t know what was going on, but she started exining that this was a garden. Apparently, this was indeed our destination. She reached down with her free hand and started investigating the ground. Amongst the dirt, she grabbed a clump of green nt and began pulling at its base. There was a small orange knoblike item at the end. She muttered, almost to herself, "These carrots look very small. I don''t think this is ready to be eaten yet." Despite her words, she brushed off the dirt on her pants and took a bite of the orange part. I cringed slightly at her dirtying herself. She made a face and tossed the rest down. "Definitely not ready. I wish I knew more about farming, but I don''t think I''m able to get enough food this way." We moved on to check a few more different types of nts. I stored away the names of turnips, beets, cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, and a few others in my memory banks to remember what humans could eat. It definitely seemed that a lot of these things required cooking. Unfortunately, I didn''t see her bring any of her ssware out, so I imagined she couldn''t try them now. But after checking every field we could find around the castle, Beatrice was quite discouraged. "These gardens are not ready yet. I think with some care, they could feed me for a very long time, but I don''t know how to care for them. But that still wont change the fact that I need food soonish. She sighed. I suppose the only thing we can do is check on the animals. I have less hope for them than the crops, though." I didn''t have much hope of checking on animals either. In my experience, they were mostly useless or actively detrimental to a ce''s cleanliness. The only slightly beneficial thing was the cat that I briefly chased before. The way she had exined a cats function made it sound useful, but I hadn''t seen it since. I wondered if it was hiding? So we made our way towards something called a "coop." approaching it, my sensors alerted me to a higher concentration of new partictes in the air. Analysis indicated that they were made up of almost entirely filth and some sort of animal excrement. This did not give me any sort of confidence. I would not like to meet these "chickens." Still, I did hear some sounding from the small outbuilding. Beatrice seemed to hear it, too, because she gave a small sigh of relief. We opened the door, and I was aghast. The area was filthy. Not only was there straw and debris everywhere, but there were feathers and poop along with bits of grain and everything strewn about. Whereas the rest of the outside shocked me with the quantity of dirt, this was a kind of variety that I had never encountered. Even craft day wasnt as bad at this. At least the stuff I cleaned up on craft day had some other purpose than just being filth. Some very thin angry birds swarmed at Beatrice''s feet, clucking something fierce. She seemed just about as ufortable as I did. She mostly managed to ignore them even as they tried pecking at her feet. She did a little hop dance to dodge but actually made her way farther into the building. Eventually, she started talking to them. I wasn''t sure of the purpose of that. They clearly couldn''t understand her, but maybe it made them feel calm. "You poor things. Where''s your food? How have you survived? You must have been pecking up the ground and eating everything. Where is your feed kept?" I wasn''t sure of the purpose of these questions. They certainly weren''t getting answered. But regardless, she made her way over to what looked like some bags in a cupboard that she had utched. In a fit of clumsiness, she spilled the contents of said bags all over the ground. What was she doing? They were just full of the same grain debris that was already scattered all over the ce. I knew this whole thing was horrifying, but she didn''t have to make it worse. Against all odds, these disgusting little birds managed to redeem themselves a little bit. They gathered around and began freshly cleaning up the mess Beatrice had just made. Perhaps she had done that on purpose? Did these birds need training, and they, too, would help keep the castle clean? Maybe they were specialized cleaners? After looking at their living conditions... I''d say no. But humans did have some weird partnerships with animals. Perhaps this was just one of them? Chapter 55: A Crummy Situation Chapter 55: A Crummy Situation Bee did her best to search for eggs while the chickens ate. She was lucky enough to find several that weren''t too covered in droppings and filth. However, she had no way of telling which ones were fresh and which were not. She supposed she had two options: either leave them and let them hatch or collect them all, toss them and then wait for new ones to beid. Though looking at how quickly they were cleaning up their feed, she wasn''t sure how much food the chickens would require daily. Also, she wasn''t sure how chicken eggying practices worked. She started to gather all of the eggs she could find. Not that she found more than a couple that had fallen out of reach of the chickens. It was hard to do one-handed since she sensed that Void didn''t want to touch the ground here. She had made to put it down at one point; however, her master had protested quite loudly before she made it halfway there. Looking around the chicken coop, she was pretty sure she understood why. Honestly, she didn''t want to be around here any more than she had to. The smell was awful. Still, she found a basket nearby that helped her gather immensely. As she worked, she considered her situation. She only had so much chicken feed stored away. She wasn''t even sure where to get more from. From what she recalled, there was a small hamlet only a day or two away where the castle could get some supplies and fresh goods. That''s where the stuff that the college didn''t maintain themselves came from, that or the vige that was a bit further away. Bee had never been, but she had heard about it from the other apprentices. Apparently, even calling it a hamlet was a bit excessive. She always figured hamlets to be small viges. Apparently, this was just four or five huts with a few livestock. They were just a group of farmers who wanted privacy, and thend was decent. Sometimes the college had to make quick supply runs and trek down the long road dirt path. It was only barely wide enough for horses, much less a cart or wagon rather than a cart or anything. Since she hadn''t heard about the area from her father, she suspected they also didn''t pay much in the way of taxes. The thought of horses made her realize that her next stop had to be the barn. After collecting all the eggs, she put them to the side. She wasn''t sure if she had a use for them, but she knew nothing about raising animals. Hopefully, when she checked back tomorrow, there would be some fresh eggs that she knew she could cook. Then, having fed the chickens and filled up their water from the nearby well, she moved on to the next point of interest. She knew they kept horses in the barn. But she wasn''t sure what else. She didn''t remember ever having any milk here, so she figured dairy cows were out of the question. And the mages didn''t really want to spend more time tending livestock. So she hoped that no surprises were waiting for her. Pushing open the barn doors, Bee realized the ce was empty. She checked several of the horses'' stalls, but they all were deserted. Investigating more, she noticed that one stall had a brokentch at the end. The back door out to the corral was busted too. After a bit of neglect, it looked like the horses had broken out. Granted, she knew nothing about horses, but she figured they were trained to stay in their stalls usually. Looking at the back pasture, she just thought a horse probably could have jumped to the fence if it really wanted to. On the one hand, she was quite d that she didn''t find any dead horses, but on the other hand, it would have been nice to have one around still. It would make traveling much more manageable. She checked the trough, and there was still water there, but it looked like the food in their stalls had all runout. The chickens might help her with her food situation for a while, but she was going to need help if she wanted to keep them alive. Both with the gardens and chickens. She would run out of chicken food soon anyways. Having nothing better to do outside, she started towards the castle entrance. I had to say I was not a fan of the outside. So far, it was all dirt and filth everywhere. I was quite d to be heading back inside. No wonder why the humans that came from the outside behaved so poorly. If someone had to spend their entire life in the dirt like that, it''s not surprising that they would have no manners. Still, Beatrice appeared disappointed in her finds. It seemed that she didn''t get the food she needed. I was not sure how I would solve her problem. Honestly, I believed it was something she had to figure out for herself. But, of course, if she asked for help, I would be more than willing to oblige. When we got to the top of the stairs inside the castle, I was finally set back on the ground. I felt an urgent need to clean myself even though I hadn''t touched the door at all outside. Hopefully, my Automatic Maintenance would help with that. I''d have to experiment and see. But honestly, outside was a horrible ce. We headed back to the library. Beatrice was deep in thought. I assumed she was trying to figure out how to solve the issue that gued her. It was good practice for her to figure out how to do things herself, so I didn''t interrupt. However, when we rounded the corner, we passed the entrance to the great hall. From the alcove with the broom closet in it, I heard some odd noises. Almost like a woman crying. Beatrice didn''t seem to notice at first, deep in thought as she was. So I rolled in front of the door and stopped to get her attention. She also paused and seemed to listen. Her face went through aplicated series of emotions. Surprise, curiosity, horror, confusion, it was quite an impressive progression, to be honest. Eventually, she reached over and grabbed the doorknob to wrench it open. It was a bit of an unpleasant sight. And in the far corner of the small closet was a woman curled up and shaking violently. She didn''t look very healthy. She was quite dirty, and my sensors told me she had a significantly lower percentage of water than an average human. Beatrice gasped and ran forward to crouch in front of her. She tilted the woman''s chin up gently to look into her face. I saw the face of the woman, and I recognized her. She was the woman who had attacked Beatrice. Clearly, this was not one of the good humans. I moved forward to protect my small human, but the woman made no aggressive actions. I remained cautious, though even more suspicious now that I had seen her living conditions firsthand. The woman looked up into Beatrice''s face uprehendingly. Beatrice asked her a few questions, but she made no move to answer. There was no recognition in her eyes or anything. Eventually, Beatrice let her head drop and stood back. This motion caused the woman to finally move and look around slowly. Finally, her eyes settled on me, and she started to scream. Beatrice got between the woman and me. Then she quickly motioned for me to step back. I rolled around the corner out of sight. I couldn''t figure out why she was so scared to see me. Sure I tried to scare her off when west met, but I don''t think I was that intimidating. Still, it was hard for me to feel much sympathy for her. She had been part of the group that attacked my human. But if my human was going to treat her nicely, I might as well try to do the same. "Are you okay?" Bee asked. No, of course, she''s not, Bee thought to herself. She tried to put her hand on the woman''s shoulderfortingly but only shied away. "How long have you been in here?" Looking at the cracked lips, the woman must have been hiding in the closet for quite a while. She was severely dehydrated and clearly in need of a doctor. Was this what I looked like when I was stuck in this same closet? Bee thought to herself. She didn''t think she had been this bad. She had ventured out before she was anywhere near this state. Of course, she only had a few lesser demons to contend with, whereas now full-blown earth demons were running around. But then again, she hadn''t even made level 1 at that point. Even after waiting several moments, there was still no answer. Bee wasn''t sure what else she could do. She tried one more time. "How did you get in here? I thought you and your friends left?" This got a slightly different response. The woman started making a keening noise. It was strangely high-pitched, enough that it hurt Bee''s ears. That''s not progress. Carefully Bee took the woman''s hand from her shoulder and started pulling her to her feet. The woman started to resist at first. But Bee soon found that she was stronger than the weakened adventurer. When Bee had first scanned the woman, she had been at a significantly higher level than Bee. It seemed that in only a few short days, Bee had caught up. It only took a couple of seconds for the woman to give up and allow herself to be pulled to her feet. Bee slung the woman''s arm over her shoulders. She half carried, half dragged the woman out into the hallway. The woman made no move to assist Bee but wasn''t fighting her either. Her head simplyid against the smaller girl''s shoulder as her feet dragged on the floor. Checking the woman''s face with her free hand, Bee realized why. It seemed that the woman had passed out. Bee stopped trying to support the woman and just picked her up, cradling the unconscious woman against her chest. It was an awkward position. Not because Bee didn''t have the strength to do so but because of the size difference. It just put into perspective how much stronger Bee had be since meeting Void. She was at a high level now, well beyond what someone her age would have ever dreamed about, but her proportions were still the ones of a young girl. Carrying her awkward burden, Bee made her way from the library toward the closest room. She watched as her master sped ahead. Bee hoped that it was going to clear the way for them. She really didn''t think she would be able to escape from even a lesser demon like this. She made it to the first bedroom without seeing any demons at all. She silently thanked Void for protecting her and turned slightly to grab the door handle. It was a bit awkward to open, but she managed it. When navigating through the doorway, she bumped the woman''s feet against the door frame but managed to keep her head from doing the same. Once inside, she set the woman down on the bed. Taking her water skin, Bee carefully dribbled water over the woman''s parched lips, praying that she wouldn''t end up drowning her. With a slight cough, the woman swallowed a couple times. Bee sighed in relief. When the woman''s eyes fluttered open and saw Bee''s face, she shrunk back and quivered, whimpering. Eventually, Bee gave up trying to talk to her, just leaving her some water on the nightstand. She shut the door behind her as she left. She supposed that that would keep the woman as safe as anywhere else in the castle. Bee made her way back to the library, where she found Void waiting for her. "I don''t think I''ll be able to care for her. She seemed to almost be as afraid of me as you. She must still think that I''m possessed or something. Well, I guess she would still think I''m serving a demon. I think we are going to need help. Both with her and with food. Maybe I can get some help with the Lieutenant too." Chapter 56: The Road to Salvation Chapter 56: The Road to Salvation I was still trying to figure out what I thought of Beatrice going to find help. I had several issues with it, actually. First, it meant she''d be going outside. Outside near the castle, that was reasonable since there were apparently helpful things, but farther than that would be dangerous. Who knew how much dirt would be there and how many other violent mess makers? Plus, every bad human I ever met came from the outside. Second, who knows what kind of "help" she''d end up with? Based on how she treated the human woman we found, she seemed to like the humans that attacked her. It didn''t give me much faith in her as a judge of character. She could bring someone back who would only hurt her or cause more messes. What if they were a slob like some of the little human''s friends, the kind that just left messes everywhere they went? They tracked dirt in, threw things around, and spilled their food. She could bring someone like that into the castle. Sure the castle was bad enough that things couldn''t be much messier right now, but soon it wouldn''t be. I would have to work hard to fix it, but once I finished exterminating all theserge dirt demons, I could get into a reasonable state at least. Third, and perhaps most selfishly, I would be left alone. I suppose there would be the one human she''d leave behind, but this was not a good human, nor one I wanted to associate with. I usually learned a lot from humans and interactions with them. Who was to say anything I learned from her would be useful? I wouldn''t want to be influenced by anything negative. More than that, though, I''d get lonely. Having a human around all the time was quite nice. I liked listening to Bee talk and having her carry me up and down stairs. Also, it was what gave my work meaning. Why would I clean if there were no humans around to appreciate the order that I left behind? In that case, if I simply didn''t clean, no one would even notice. Therefore, my job would have no purpose. Besides, humans were usually 95% of the reason I had to clean anything in the first ce. So if there was no human to both appreciate my work and give me work to do, I think I would feel rather pointless. I really hoped that she would find another solution to her problems. But the food issue wasn''t something I was particrly equipped to solve. Nor the matter of human repairs. I still had yet to find spare human parts for Beatrice to use. Well, now that I thought about it, there might be a source for spare human parts right nearby. But then again, maybe not. I wouldn''t want Beatrice to get affected by parts from a bad donor human. I guessed when it came down to it, it really was Beatrice''s decision to go find other humans. I supposed I could only wish her the best. When she first brought up the idea of going to get help, I briefly considered going with her, but ultimately that was a horrible idea. I was quite happy here in my castle, and I saw no real reason to go outside. Moreover, I don''t think I''d be any more prepared to deal with any threats out there than Beatrice was at this point. As long as there weren''t massive demons roaming about there too. Which there probably were. Or worse. Though Beatrice seemed oddly unconcerned about such dangers, I decided to trust her judgment on this one tentatively. After all, she seemed far more familiar with the outside than I was. Still, I wasn''t exactly happy about the oue, but as she exined more about her n, I started toe around. Apparently, it was only a half day''s journey there and half a day''s journey back. She would "be back in a day." While I didn''t doubt her theory, I believed it when I saw it. As she gathered her supplies, I stayed close, fussing over her selections and ensuring she got everything she needed. She had her broom, a set of ss tubes, and some extra food and water. She also brought a few books, along with many other things I needed help determining the purpose of. Soon I went from worried that she wouldn''t have everything she needed to quite concerned about how she would carry all this stuff. Her pack was almost bigger than she was. Sometimes I forgot how meticulously she liked to n for a job before she did it. Well, I was totally a fan of that, but there is such a thing as paralysis by analysis. Sometimes you just have to start cleaning, and as you clean, you figure it out. Early the following day, I escorted her to the top of the stairs above the castle foyer. I waved goodbye with my grabby arm as she began her journey, fading from sight as she shut the castle door behind her. I had to stop and wonder what I was going to do next. The other human seemed to still be recharging, and Beatrice asked me not to disturb her as she seemed still scared of me for some reason. So as much as I would like to keep an eye on this bad human we had invited into our house, I would honor Beatrice''s wishes and leave her alone. Provided that she wouldn''t cause any trouble, of course. No, I figured it''d be best for me to set some goals. The first and most obvious would be to get the castle back in order. But before I could restart my regr cleaning schedule, I needed to deal with the cause of this chaos. If each cage I had seen held an earth demon before, then 34 earth demons were now running around. I had only managed to consume three so far. So I still had 31 to go. At my current rate, I figured I could get at least 25 of them cleaned up before Beatrice made it back if she only took 24 hours. However, I expected her "one-day" estimate to cover all of today and most of tomorrow in reality. It just made sense, given her charging schedule. So I could aim to eliminate all of the earth demons before she got back. I thought that would be a good goal. The only issue I had with it was that I might have trouble finding them. My estimates only included a few minutes between finding each one. That seemed to be fine right now, but as their numbers dwindled, I imagined it would be more difficult. Especially with how infrequently they were already appearing. There was also the consideration that I would hopefully be faster at this with practice. Leveling up seemed to help with that, as the skeletons had proven. Unfortunately, I had yet to reach the next threshold where the voice would tell me to pick a mutation. That would be at level 35. I believe I was at least level 32, so I should definitely hit level 35 soon, assuming these demons gave me lots of practice. Maybe even level 40? With a n in mind, I got to work, dedicating 3% of my processors to imagining what new abilities I would learn next. Bee walked down the castle steps, her backpack thumping lightly against her with each step. Despite it being stuffed to the brim with heavy books, it felt like it weighed nothing. Part of that, of course, was her increased strength as a level 15 human. But really, she figured it mighte from something else. Freedom. She was walking out of this castle for the first time in several months. She had been outside, of course, but being outside of the castle walls was different. As she exited the gate, she thought about it. What was stopping her from never returning? She was level 15. This was about the same level as the adventures had been. Most people wouldn''t reach that kind of strength until their middle years. And if she trained, she could be a famous warrior and adventurer. With their current level, she could probably get into any academy she wanted. A full sponsorship, one where she never had to rely on her father again. So why did that feel so wrong? Why did she throw the thought out before truly considering it? First, of course, there was the concern that she had promised her soul to an all-powerful being, but the more she got to know Void, the less she was concerned about that. Maybe her master might actually support her if she wanted to strike out on her own. Of course, she wouldn''t even be surprised if the whole "owning her soul" thing was a slight mimunication. But even so, that didn''t really matter; she still held the weight of her oath on her heart, even if it wasn''t what Void intended. If Void called her home, she instinctively knew she''d have to answer for the sake of her own word. Even though it didn''t strike her as the type to hold her to it. Even if it might release her if she just asked. Still, despite all those considerations, she had every intention and desire to return to the castle. She had been 100% honest with her master. She nned to go to the hamlet and see if anyone coulde to help her get the farm and chickens for a few days. Barring that, she''d hoped to buy as much food as she could carry. Bee was also pretty confident that all the tools she needed to fix the kitchen were in the castle. However, she was not nearly so certain about the associated supplies or how to use said tools. So maybe she needed someone not only to help with the farm and the chickens but also to help with remodeling a kitchen. That was probably a bit of a stretch, but even basic carpentry would be very helpful. That would be plenty if she could fix the water barrel and some of the stoves. Her earlier concern about insufficient water wasid to rest when she discovered the well outside was perfectly intact. Still, the food was an issue. She didn''t know how to cure meat or butcher animals, so many options were out. She either needed someone who knew how to do that or the ability to trade for what shecked. The more she built up this list in her head, the more she realized she might need more than a bit of help. It sounded like the castle really needed a full-time staff to function. Perhaps not to support her alone, but definitely to take advantage of all the resources and maintain all the different areas regrly. If something she intellectually knew but had never really thought about too much. She figured the mages probably deduced that out themselves a long time ago. Hopefully, she could make do with a much smaller workforce than the mages. There was also the issue of pay. She was sure that the castle hadrge amounts of wealth somewhere. And clearly, there were lots of valuables that she could probably use for trade, but she hadn''t had the freedom to pick any up before leaving. With the earth demons roaming around, it was just too dangerous. So she had only brought what little coin she had picked up so far. It likely wouldn''t be enough to hire anyone, but it probably wouldn''t be enough to get her robbed, either. Not that she was really concerned about where she was going. There were very few people, and they had a good rtionship with the castle at this point. They kind of needed to keep it that way as it was their biggest customer. These thoughts kept Bee busy as she found the path leading off in the woods towards the hamlet. As she considered where she needed to go, her pathing skill triggered and pointed her directly off the track in a line leading right into the woods. Bee sighed and continued on the beaten path. This skill had seemed like a dud so far. Perhaps it would take time to improve. Maybe she was just oblivious to how walking directly through a massive pile of leaves and turning to cross through that pile of deer droppings qualified as an "improved" path. Maybe it would be more powerful in the future. It was hard to say, especially since the skill didn''t appear in any of the library books she had searched so far. It was almost as if she was the first person to receive the skill. That was unlikely, though. All in all, the trip started off pretty uneventfully. It was a wide enough road that a horse couldfortably walk on it. Though if two horses met going opposite directions, one would have to find a spot to pull off. That likely had never happened in the history of this road. It was unpaved, more of a slightlypressed trail of dirt rather than a real road. Weeds and greenery encroached on the edges, threatening to take back the infrequently used path and hide it. However, as she walked, she started noticing something. If she stopped paying attention and followed her skill, she found that while it would avoid rocks and other obstacles like fallen trees, it would lead her right to rough mud. Even causing her to veer off the path to stomp through a puddle. She really needed to figure out this skill. It seemed she still had a long way to go. Chapter 57: Sleep Mode Chapter 57: Sleep Mode Despite the amount of work I had to do and my newly set goals, there were still a lot of emotions I was trying to process. More than I was used to. I wasn''t used to being worried about a human. Normally, I wouldn''t give something as small as my human going out a second thought. At times, all the humans in my previous house had left for days, even weeks. They hadn''t even left the television on to keep mepany, yet I had never worried about it at all. I tried to take sce in that as I thought about Beactice''s departure. She would be back when she got back. But now that I had seen the outside I trembled. Well, it made being carefree just that much harder. As much as I was concerned over Beatrice''s safety, I couldn''t let the worry consume me. No, that would distract me from my work. I looked around me, scanning up and down the hallway. Boy, did I have work to do? It wasn''t just the several dozen earth demons running around. What bothered me even more, was the mess they left. Their filth caked everything. A thick coating of dust, dirt, debris, and even some mud marred the once-beautiful floor. The granite and marble were almostpletely hidden at times. In some areas, the coating was deep enough that I couldn''t even move forward without vacuuming the debris. On top of that, the demons had damaged many things. I spent a moment of silent mourning over a shattered vase that I had particrly liked. Normally there wasn''t much I could do about damaged equipment, materials, or anything. However, I now had a much broader range of skills than before. So perhaps, with some ingenuity, I could figure something out. That''s not to say I would be a master carpenter or anything, but who knows? With my improved grabby arm, I could manipte things much better than ever before. Probably not to the level of a human with two opposable thumbs, but nothing too shabby. If only my automatic maintenance would work on other things as well as myself. I wondered if I had any way to influence a mutation''s growth like that? I brought my thoughts back to the present. I was getting ahead of myself. I still had to take care of all the demons first. If I started to just clean up the dirt they had left, they''d move around, and I would end up just where I started within a day. I knew that true cleanliness was temporary, sure. But I wanted to make sure itsted a little longer than that, at least. Also, I needed to make sure that these demons weren''t around by the time Beatrice got back. I didn''t think she was anywhere close to the level of fighting these yet. She still needed lots of training, but something this strong would just get her killed. Besides all that, I had also been asked to look after the woman in the bedroom. I would do my best. Based on her actions when we first met, I wasn''t exactly her biggest fan. But if Beatrice was willing to forgive her, then I would also give her a second chance. I considered putting her on probation when she was up and running, so I could watch her every action carefully. If she so much as knocked a potted nt over, I would have to politely insist that she leave as soon as possible. Still, it would be a danger to her as well as Beatrice if demons were creeping around. I continued down the hallway, deeper into the castle. There wasn''t anything more I could do for Beatrice on her journey. I had trained her in cleaning and defense and hoped that these were adequate enough to survive outside. But I could ensure that she had an orderly home to return to. Focusing back on the task at hand, I pirouetted at the hallway intersection and trundled slowly toward the main room. It was time for me to deal with these mess makers. *** Hunting demons wasn''t nearly as fun or therapeutic as cleaning. When cleaning, I could make a n, execute it, and measure my progress easily. In the end, a pristine floor was left behind, sparkling and giving me a sense of satisfaction. There was a clear journey and destination. Both of which I appreciated. However, demon hunting had none of this. For one, it was much more stressful and variable. I had to chase moving targets and predict where they might be based on iplete information. Even worse, the process of cleaning them up constantly had my processors on to make adjustments and update my predictive models. All that just to get rid of the mess maker - using as much effort as I could usually spend optimizing my route for a whole floor 10x over. The process was just tedious and unpredictable. While necessary and good, the results also didn''t feel as satisfying. After each encounter, I had to control my disappointment at the soiled floor around me. l cleaned up some of the dirt incidentally, but still. It was just so frustrating. Why couldn''t these mess makers just behave? If they didn''t spread so much dirt, I wouldn''t have to consume them, and we could just coexist peacefully. I wouldn''t mind too much. Of course, I tried to exin this to the first demon that I came across. It didn''t seem very interested in listening to me. Not that I honestly expected it to. Instead, I tried to see the positives. Every time I vanquished a demon, there was less dirt being created. And as I moved from one demon to the next, searching for my next opponent, I left my vacuum on. By no means did this refresh the floor to my usual standards, but just having it on did wonders for getting the surface dirt out. I wasn''t sure how much time it would save me when I came back to deep clean, and I specifically avoided that calction. But it did make me feel better along the way. The first several demons were very easy to find, thankfully. Soon enough, I was rewarded for my efforts after capturing the third one. The voice finally returned with new mutations. LEVEL 35 REACHED. THE SEVENTH MUTATION REACHED. CHOOSE A MUTATION: AIR AFFINITY, AIR PURIFIER, ENDLESS HUNGER. Hey, these options weren''t half bad. I wasn''t sure why, though. Were the earlier options just that terrible? Or was it that the voice was learning what I wanted? Another thought urred to me that felt less right but still usible. Perhaps I just understood the implications of each mutation better? I thought back to the previous options I had received. It seemed unlikely since I couldn''t really think of another option I would have reasonably chosen. The choice that stuck in my mind, though, was my first one. I did slightly regret not taking the Flight mutation. Or Interdimensional Travel. In fact, I couldn''t quite believe that I had dismissed them so easily in the first ce. But even then, I still think Limitless Dustpan was the right choice. I needed to stay true to my purpose, and the first few days here would have been unmanageable without it. Plus, heights scared me. However, now there was not just one clear choice. That''s what made me consider that these options were being tailored to me more seriously. Maybe I was getting the option of Air Affinity because of all the vacuuming I did? But that didn''t make sense. I should have been offered this way earlier if that was the case. Maybe it was due to how I was using my vacuum to vanquish these earth demons? After all, it gave me water affinity after I started using my mop more actively. Honestly, I could go with any of these. Air Purifier was the safe choice, though. But I wasn''t quite sure. I''d have to think about it for a bit longer. Hopefully, the voice didn''t mind. ----- Patricia was running. Down hallway after identical hallway, with no end in sight. Matthew''s screams seemed toe from every direction all at once. She wasn''t sure if she was running toward them or away from them. But she did know that she was being pursued. Shapeless demonic figures of every size chased her, practically nipping at her heels with every frantic step. She was exhausted and weak, but she couldn''t stop. Their cackling and groaning mixed with the screams to form a mad cacophony that she couldn''t escape. Her steps felt as slow as msses, and the doors that lined the hallway seemed to only get further and further away as she approached. Gnarled fingers and hooked ws grasped at her, snagging on her cloak and hair. Patricia squeezed her eyes shut as she desperately ran. But all of a sudden, everything disappeared. The sound, the pursuers, the ws. Everything was silent and still. Then, hesitantly, she opened her eyes. A figure stood before her. A young girl, about 13 or 14, with long brown hair and pale skin. She was dressed inly, in simple pants and a tunic, with a smock draped over her front. However, the feature that most caught Patricia''s attention was her eyes. They were red, glowing orbs hovering above a broad toothy grin. It was her. Before she could even register the new danger, Patricia felt a new sensation. An unseen force. Her entire body was being pulled back towards something. Dread settled over her as she looked back, horrified. A massive ck disk, at least 15 feet tall, loomed over her. Darkness and wind swirled around it in a deadly cyclone, sucking in even the screams of the demons swirling helplessly around it. What had been a stone hallway was now a fractured facade of stone, pieces breaking off and disappearing into the hellish monster as it advanced. Patricia tried to scream, but the sound was whisked away from her throat just as quickly as it formed. The force sucking her in bing stronger. Sprinting forward, she quickly lost her footing and mmed to the floor. She scrabbled about on the smooth stone, trying desperately to hold on as the force slowly and steadily threatened to drag her back. All the while, the little girl''s face grinned devilishly at her. *** Patricia woke up in a panic. She had to stifle a scream, holding herselfpletely still so that she didn''t alert anything out there with the noise. It was a dream. Only a dream. Once her breathing and heart had settled, she noticed that she wasn''t where she had expected. Looking around, she didn''t see the now familiar closet interior. Instead, she was in a bed. It was not a particrly soft bed, but it felt like a feather mattresspared to the stone floor. Sheets were pulled up around her. Cautiously, Patricia moved her arms and legs. She wasn''t restrained. She was just in bed. An unfamiliar one, to be sure, but a bed nheless. As the adrenaline receded, the dehydration and hunger crashed over her once again. Her fear and suspicion weren''t alleviated but were put on a slight hold. She felt parched but not nearly as much as before she had nodded off. Perhaps there was water or food around here. Sitting up, Patricia nced around a small, nondescript room. There was a hearth, chair, wardrobe, and nightstand beside the bed. On the nightstand sat a leather waterskin and a couple of apples. Slowly she reached out for the waterskin. It still felt mostly full, and an experimental taste indicated that it was just water. Slowly, she wetted her lips and took small sips of the precious liquid. It was tempting to gulp the whole thing down, but she had learned better from Matthew. As she sat, she began to consider what had happened. Where was she? Had she been dreaming about the broom closet? Had someone saved her? She rubbed her head, trying to piece together the events of the past week or so. It felt way too long to be a dream. And too detailed. But she couldn''t find any exnation of where she was. Her hunger and thirst told her that the broom closet hadn''t been a dream. It was very real. That meant that someone must have moved her here. Perhaps they sent out a second scouting party after them, or Arnold had brought reinforcements. Unless Maybe Matthew had saved her? She tamped down the flicker of hope kindling in her chest. If he was alive, then everything would be ok. But she couldn''t count on it. Her thoughts felt slow and plodding as she worked through other exnations. Slowly a grim picture began to form in her mind. She couldn''t think of any reason she was treated so well unless She wasn''t rescued. She looked at the door and saw that it was nearly identical to the broom closet. She was still in the castle but had been captured. And they had ns for her. If they had left her unguarded, it was probably already toote. But it wasn''t certain. She wasn''t about to give up just yet just because her captors had confidence in her cooperation. What did they even want? Thinking about her captors, she remembered the demon and the girl. Whether the girl was possessed or willingly cooperating, she couldn''t really tell. Perhaps the girl had just been tricked. Patricia wasn''t sure what the demon nned for her, but it couldn''t be good. Maybe it would try to brainwash her like it had the girl. Maybe she would be sacrificed or possessed or any number of terrible things. Well, she had woken up before they had expected, so she had to take her chances and try to escape. She munched on an apple gratefully and nced at the waterskin once more suspiciously. Maybe this was part of their n. Even so, she was so weak that she''d have no chance of escape without sustenance. It took Patricia a decent amount of time before her limbs were fully functional again. She was more dehydrated than she thought. Over the course of 20 minutes or so, she finished off the water skin. Eventually, she was able to swing her legs out of bed and shakily get to her feet. She was still in herbat gear for the most part. None of her knives or equipment were on her, but her clothes were. They felt stiff and crusty after several days of living in them. Still, hygiene would have to wait. Looking around the room, she actually found her staff, knives, and other equipment in the wardrobe, along with her cloak. That was very odd. She supposed if the demon had nned on possessing her, it would be useful to still have her tools nearby. She must have been very lucky that their ns didn''t work. She wasn''t sure if it had failed and they just hadn''t realized it or if they hadn''t acted yet. Either way, she needed to make her way out as fast as possible. Her legs were still shaky, but now that she had all of her gear, she needed to get out. She pictured the castleyout and figured the best way out was the fastest. It wouldn''t be useful to try to retrace her steps. She didn''t trust herself to be stealthy in her state, and the longer she took, the more likely she was to encounter one of the castle''s guards. Earth demons were not something she could fight right now. Or really fight at all by herself. She would need a full party behind her to finish one off, not to mention the sheer number she had seen around here. No, her best chance was speed; she''d have to hope she just got lucky and avoided everything. Still, that didn''t mean that she had to be reckless. She carefully opened the door and peeked out. Right outside, gliding past, was the demon. The small ck uncategorized demon. Dust swarmed towards it and was sucked in like the light that hit it. She could actually see particles in the air bending towards it as it went by. Its very presence caused everything around to be devoured. All of theposure Patricia had maintained was gone in an instant. She let out a shriek and ran, stumbling towards where she thought the castle entrance would be. Chapter 58: Charging Station Chapter 58: Charging Station It was getting dark by the time the small gathering of huts came into Bee''s view. The trail didn''t lead directly there; instead, it led into a huge clearing in the forest and just kind of stopped. In the center of the clearing were small squat buildings with thatched roofs, but all around were fields growing crops. The trail took her a quarter of the way around the clearing before she found a clear path through the fields where she wouldn''t trample over any crops as she approached. It was taking her way longer than expected to get there. Almost an entire day of walking. Her Improved Pathing skill had prevented her from getting lost, but she wasn''t sure it had expedited the trip. There were several unexpected forks on the trails, and she always knew which one to take, but the way it led her through a lot of the more minor obstacles resulted in a lot of her falling down or having to spend time picking burrs out of her pants. By the time she had made it to the hamlet, the sun was disappearing behind the horizon. As she was about halfway through the field, an olderdy spotted her and gave her an inquisitive look. The woman yelled something over her shoulder, and a young man jogged out of one of the huts. Taking one look at Bee, he ran toward her. As he approached, Beatrice got a better look at the man. She''d been able to tell he was older than her from a distance, but now that he was closer, she could tell that he had reached manhood fairly recently. Out of habit, she ran a scan on him. Name Anthony Gonzalez. Level 6. race human. ss: farmer. Oh nice, her Scan had given her more information. It gave her both a specific ss as well thest name. She guessed those were effects of leveling up. She was rather impressed by what she saw, though, since she expected a level 6 man to be older. He must have worked really hard. The farmer ss was amon one but still one that provided substantial benefits in its field. Trying to farm without it was practically impossible. Still living out here in such a remote area must have given him plenty of options to hunt to receive those first five levels. Bee stopped and waited for Anthony to reach her. Her tiredness had started to take its toll, though quietly and without her noticing too much. She didn''t even realize that she needed steadying when he reached out his hand and gripped her shoulder gently. She looked up into his face and found his eyes. They were sky blue with speckles of green in them. His eyes were hidden behind the longshes and a fringe of dirty blonde hair that flowed down his forehead. After she took in his eyes, she nced over the rest of his face. That was when she realized his mouth was moving. "Sorry, what?" Bee blurted out. "Are you okay?" He repeated. She watched his eyebrows pinch together in worry. Apparently, she had been staring while he waited for a response. "Yeah, I guess I''m just tired." Bee finally said. "I didn''t realize that the trek was only half a day on a horse." "Where did youe from?" Anthony asked. As he spoke, he moved to help her out of the pack. She obliged, shrugging out of the straps. The pack almost hit the ground when she dropped the weight off one shoulder so he could take it. Anthony swung the pack over his shoulder with a grunt giving her an appraising look. "I came from the castle. Do peoplee from anywhere else?" As Bee spoke, she gestured to the trail she hade from. Anthony shook his head, "No, but usually we expect William, and he normally rides a horse with a train of pack animals." "Oh." Bee blinked slowly. "Just me this time. There have been some, uh, changes at the castle." "You are one of the apprentices, right? I didn''t know that they took them in so young! And they didn''t even give you a horse. How are you supposed to bring anything back with you?" "Hey, I''m 13!" Bee pouted. At this point, no one would get away with treating her like a child. "But I''ve only been there for a couple of months. I''m actually the only one there, righ-" "What! They left you all alone there? WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT?" Bee winced at thatst outburst. He sounded angry and had been rather loud. "There were some extenuating circumstances. I don''t me them." Anthony took a deep breath and held out a hand. "I''m sorry, where are my manners? I forgot to introduce myself, I''m Anthony, but my friends call me Tony." He said with a smile. "It''s nice to meet you, Tony," Bee said, feeling her cheeks heat up. She was d she hadn''t identally called him by his name before he introduced himself. That was one pitfall to watch out for with Scan. She also had forgotten to introduce herself. As a guest, how rude was it to show up unannounced and not even say who you were? Bee guessed she had technically said who she was but just forgot to state her name. "I''m Bee." "So Bee, were you not able to go home to your family after everyone left?" As Tony spoke, he began to lead her back to the huts. Now that Bee wasn''t carrying her pack, walking felt much easier. "What brings you out here?" "Well, I''m in a bit of a bind. I need to buy some food and maybe get some help with repairs." Bee kept things simple for now. If she went into her long list of problems, she might overwhelm him. That and the demon situation. Tony didn''t need to know about it yet. The man''s mouth turned down into a frown. "Get some supplies? Repairs? There is no one there, you said, right? Why don''t you just leave for wherever home is? If you need to, you can stay here for a while." That gave Bee some bitter thoughts. "Home isn''t really an option. I appreciate the offer of hospitality, and I might just take you up on it for a day, but I really need to get back soon." "Well, at least stay the night. You are not getting back today even if you left now." Tony pointed at the stars beginning to faintly show overhead. "My parents even have a spare room. It''s no trouble at all." Bee gave a grateful nod as they walked towards the group of huts; Tony told her a little about life in the hamlet. Apparently, there were a few families that lived out here for nine months of the year. During the winter, they would go stay in Greg while there were no crops to tend. Apparently, supplying the mage''s college was more of a long-term job that paid rather well. This was the first year his older sister hadn''te to help, as she had gotten married to a local merchant in the city, and without her help, his parents weren''t sure how much longer they would be able to keep this up. He was the oldest of six brothers and sisters that provided most of the workforce. All but his sister were here to help with the crops. However, his parents were getting up there in age. This job had paid well enough for them to buy a nice house in Greg, and they had probably saved enough to retire. They had been trying to convince Tony to take over their family business ever since his sister married. "Do you want to run the family business?" Bee asked. Between her lightened load and the casual pace Tony set, she had recovered a bit. Tony hummed thoughtfully. "I''m not sure, I like it here, and I got the Farmer ss, so it would make sense. But I''ve been doing this since I could walk, about 20 years now. I would like to go somewhere new for a bit. Maybe have my own farm. Sure the castle pays really well, but it''s not the same as running your own thing." As Tony continued on, telling her about his family and hamlet, Bee just listened. Tony was a talkative guy, but not in an overbearing way. Honestly, he was good at telling stories. The way he spoke with a captivating, soothing tone. Not just the words he said but the way he said them. He spoke with such passion and seemed to not just be speaking for speaking''s sake. He would pause to make sure she had a chance to speak if she wanted to, and sometimes she asked a question about what he thought or what kind of crops he liked. Not that she knew anything about crops or farming, but he made it sound so interesting. He felt like she could listen to him talk for ages. Soon Bee found that they were in the hamlet proper. Tony pointed out the hut nearest them as a couple of younger children came out to greet them. A boy and a girl, both a few years younger than Bee. Tony called out to them. "Maranda, go tell Ma that we have a guest for dinner." The girl, Maranda apparently, grinned widely. She darted back inside with a quick "''Kay!" The boy ran up to them and started peppering Tony with questions. "Who is she? Where did shee from?" Tony justughed and reached out to ruffle the boy''s hair. "She is right here. You can ask her yourself." The boy followed Tony''s gesturing hand, his eyes not quite meeting Beatrice''s. His face turned red, and he muttered something to the ground. Tony nudged Bee''s shoulder, a faint look of surprise shing across his face when she didn''t even budge. He caught himself quickly. "Haha, don''t worry. Jake still can''t talk to pretty girls." Now both of them were bright red. Tony justughed at the children and led the way to the farmhouse entrance. Bee realized that he had misjudged the size of what she thought were huts. They were really just much further away than expected. Now that she was up close, they seemed to be ordinarily-sized houses. As they walked in, the cacophony of children''s voices and banging pans assaulted her ears. She soaked it in. After all these days alone, Bee felt the presence of so many friendly people wash over her. - I was quite surprised to see the woman stick her head out the door. I was even more surprised when she yelled at me and then began running. What was she doing? I wasn''t sure what her ns were, but running in that direction, she was pretty certain to find a demon. I had been clearing out all the enemies starting from the front of the castle by the entrance and working my way backward. But she was running right into a troublesome area. I zoomed ahead of her, trying to cut her off. She must have heard meing because she started running faster when she looked back and saw me. I really didn''t understand humans. I didn''t think the demons would be very nice to her. Despite her best efforts, I was much faster, and I spun around in front of her with a warning beep. I did my best to impress upon her that this was not the direction she should be going. If she really needed to go for a walk or get some exercise, she should do so in the safe areas at the front of the castle. She seemed to get the message as she skidded to a halt and started running just as fast in the other direction. Which, to be fair, was not very fast. Honestly, even Beatrice could probably outrun her. Curious about what she was nning on doing, I followed her at a distance matching her pace. I stayed close but tried to keep enough distance so as not to scare her. I had promised Beatrice to look out for her. So I needed to be close enough to help her if she got too close to an earth demon. As I followed her, I tried to do a bit of cleaning, just so I wasn''tpletely wasting time. If I wasn''t going to be removing more earth demons right now didn''t mean I couldn''t be productive. When she ran down the stairs to the front door, I wasn''t able to follow anymore. Well, at least there weren''t any demons out there that I knew of. She would probably be safe. It was where she belonged, after all. I hope she made it home just fine. As long as she didn''te back. Chapter 59: A Bounty of Crumbs Chapter 59: A Bounty of Crumbs Bee followed Tony into the house. She hung back, a little wary of stepping into the flurry of people scurrying about. The noise was slightly overwhelming to her after so much time alone. Though she wouldn''t have been used to it even before her stay in the castle. Her father had been well off enough to hire a cook, so this chaotic preparation for a family dinner was something new. Dinner was meant to be an ufortable affair with stern looks and boring adult conversations. More of a training ground to practice etiquette and manners. Bee stood in the entryway, frozen as theplete opposite happened all around her. Tony called out, "Ma, we got a guest!" A rather rotund woman with hair in a graying bun raised her hand and waved without turning around. She tended to a cast iron skillet cooking something that smelled delicious. Tony just stepped up and started helping his siblings ferry dishes to the table. A few secondster, the woman turned around, flipping a b of meat and smiling at Bee. She beckoned Bee over. When Bee finished carefully wading through the bustling family members and navigating over to the woman, she was handed a dish full of mashed potatoes. "Dear, ce those on the table, please." Then the woman turned back to the stove. Left slightly confused, Bee carried the dish over to the table. Standing amongst what felt like a tornado of activity, she looked for a spot to ce the potatoes. Luckily someone came to her aid. Bee hadn''t noticed the little girl, no older than five, suddenly standing at her elbow. She barely avoided spilling the potatoes as she jumped. The little girl just ced a trivet on the table and then slid it to the center as far as her little arms could reach. Bee took the hint and ced the warm dish on it before sliding it the rest of the way toward the center. The little girl had already disappeared. This left Bee standing there, still slightly bewildered. That was until she got roped into helping get the silverware. *** The bustle came to a halt all of a sudden, and Bee found herself sitting between Maranda and Tony. Her te was heaped high with all sorts of food, and she was helping pass around the dishes. Her mouth watered at the aromas. Still, she had to skip many of them. They looked amazing - steamed vegetables, warm bread, and various cuts of meat wafted temptingly under her nose. But there was no more room on her te. If she was lucky, there might be some leftovers of the sides once she cleared some space. When everyone got what they wanted, they all dug in. As they ate, no one talked. But it wasn''t the oppressive quiet that had reigned at her father''s table back home. The noise of people eating and utensils clinking filled the air with a merry atmosphere. After a few minutes of everyone digging in, the older man sitting at the head of the table asked for someone to pass him the butter. With that, a spell was broken, and everyone started talking. Bee watched as the scene unfolded before her. The mother cajoled her youngest daughter into eating her vegetables, shooting a sharp rebuke across the table at the brothers as they fought over thest roll. Tony spoke with his father about something farm-rted as some of the other siblings vied for their attention or chatted with each other through mouthfuls of food. Maranda made sure Bee wasn''t left out. "We just finished the harvest of some of the early crops. Normally it''s not this formal." This left Bee taken aback slightly. Was this formal? She finished swallowing her food before answering. A courtesy Maranda hadn''t bothered with. "What''s it normally like then?" "Dunno, just normal? We eat, but there''s less food, and we don''t use the fancy tes." Maranda looked at her, slightly confused by her question. Bee looked down at her te. It was slightly chipped ceramic that looked to be covered in a in white ze. Tony came to her rescue. "Maranda, I''m sure not everyone eats like this. I''m sure meals in the castle are quite different, aren''t they, Bee?" Still suffering from a bit of culture shock, she nodded and, in a rare moment of silence, started to feel slightly ufortable as they both stared at her. To shed her difort, Bee started to exin how she normally ate with all the apprentices. One of the younger brothers started listening in. Soon she was being bombarded by questionsing from multiple sources. *** It wasn''t until after the dinner that the adults really started to talk. They asked her a couple questions about why she was there and what she wanted. She answered truthfully. She needed some supplies, and she was currently alone in the castle. Well, not entirely alone. There was someone unrted to the castle who was there and injured and needed help. She figured that it was weird enough that she''de alone without a horse or anything that they already knew something was wrong. After she answered the broadest level questions, the adults looked at each other and seemed toe to some silent agreement. The topic quickly changed, and the whole family returned to their merry evening. It wasn''t long until all the children had gone off to their rooms for bed. That left the parents, Tony, and her sitting around an empty table. The older woman cleared her throat. "I''m sorry you came in during such a busy time. I totally forgot to introduce myself. I''m Mary, and this is my husband, Trent." Mary gestured to the well-built man sitting beside her with slightly graying hair. He grunted a greeting to Bee as Mary continued. "I see you''ve already met Tony." "I''m also sorry for not introducing myself, but I must thank you for your hospitality. I don''t think I have ever had such a wee meal before." Bee smiled sheepishly at the couple as she did her best to remember the lessons her father had drilled into her. "I''m Bee." Trent harrumphed and leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "Now, I understand you''re in a bit of trouble up in the castle, so why don''t you tell us what''s going on?" His manner wasn''t unpleasant or rude in any way. However, he had a gruff voice that intimidated Bee. But after seeing how much affection he had shown the children so far, the more she felt at ease with him. "Well, all the mages had to leave because of an emergency." Bee was careful to leave out that the cause of the emergency was still in the castle and how frantically the mages had fled. It wasn''t so much that she wanted to lie to them, but she didn''t want them to think they were in danger from Void. "And in the rush to leave, I got left behind. I don''t expect them to be back anytime soon. Unfortunately, many of them had to go to deal with an emergency a ways away. And I''ve started to run out of food, plus I''m having trouble caring for the animals and nts there." She had to be a little looser with the truth than she really wanted to be. But she had the feeling that they would just offer her a ce to stay here if she didn''t have a reason to get back. And without a reason to decline, it would be suspicious. For the same reason, she also didn''t mention the recovering adventurer she had just found. She was about to go on, but Trent bent double, coughing quite ferociously. She kept expecting it to stop, but it continued on for almost a dozen hacks. When he took his mouth away from his sleeve, she saw spots of blood there. He just waved off the concerned look his wife gave him. "Don''t worry about me; I''ll be fine, just a cold. Having a little trouble getting over it." Bee severely doubted that. She had read no small amount of medical texts when trying to fix her broken bones. Coughing up blood was a very bad symptom. It usually had to do with a sickness of the lungs. From the look that Mary gave her husband, she clearly wasn''t buying it either. However, she let it go without saying anything. She turned to Bee and asked, "Well, we weren''t expecting a member of the castle for several weeks yet. The harvest would usually be ready for them to collect around then. Sometimes theye here when they need repairs that they can''t manage, but that''s pretty infrequent." Mary frowned and thought for a moment. "The real question is, how can we help you? Aside from the crops we have, our neighbor is a part-time cksmith. He is by no means good, but he can repair a horseshoe or two. His words, not mine, though." Bee was still studying Trent but responded to Mary''s question. "If you have any food to spare or maybe just some advice on caring for chickens, I would be grateful." Tony shot a look at his mother. She looked back with a slight frown on her face. She made to speak, but then she looked over at Trent. Bee felt like she had just missed something important. It was like the family could hold entire conversations just through looks alone, but it wasn''t her ce to pry. She instead focused on Trent''s cough. In fact, she remembered where she had read about it. Suddenly Bee stood up and moved to her pack. The family''s eyes followed her, but they didn''t say anything, still having their silent discussion amongst themselves. She started rummaging through the pockets, looking for a general-purpose medicinal alchemy book she had brought along. "I think we can give you some food, but despite what it might look like tonight, we really don''t have too much to spare until next month. I can definitely tell you a bit about caring for chickens, though." Trent called over the sounds of clinking sses and shifting supplies. "I would appreciate anything. Of course, I brought some coins to trade. I don''t want to lean on your generosity too much. Also, the vegetable gardens they kept are starting to get overrun. I don''t think they are anything near the size of what you have here, but I have absolutely no idea how to care for them. So if you can provide any advice on that front, too, I would greatly appreciate it." At the mention of the coin, Mary and Trent seemed to rx slightly. They were clearly willing to help, but if their pride allowed them to take coins, things must have been tighter than she thought. I raced after the demon. This was the 12th one this night alone. They had started to get smart. Not that they were particrly smart, but they were capable of learning. No longer did they stay and fight if they saw me. In fact, this one started to run the instant it noticed my approach. It wasn''t too much of an issue as I was still faster than them, but they had started to work together. I only hoped they didn''t start hiding soon. Or retreating up any stairs. It really would have been much more of an issue if it hadn''t been for mytest mutation. The air affinity mutation was unlike any of the others. Instead of giving me a new attachment or upgrade, changing my internal machinery, it allowed me to directly control the air slightly. It was kind of like pointing a vacuum in a particr direction rather than just having it pointing at the ceiling. It was hard to exin how exactly it worked, but it did. And I was starting to really get the hang of it. I didn''t have to only pull the air towards me anymore. Even though that was what I primarily did, being a vacuum and all. I could push things sideways or even away from me. For now, it was not a very strong gust of air, but still noticeable. I had a lot of fun making the tapestries on the wall wave. It looked like the seas of grass they were depicting were rippling in the breeze. This had more of an immediate effect than I first thought it would. The directional vacuum greatly increased mybat capabilitiespared to these earth demons. It increased the material I could consume from one of them by nearly 30%. It also slowed them down more, making it even harder for them to run away. On top of that, the directionality let me turn my vacuum on higher without the worry of damaging the surroundings, as I now could avoid absolutely trashing the carpet on full suction. I could direct the air around certain areas and items to spare them or even change the amount of suction that different spots received. The amount of chasing I was doing was getting a bit ridiculous, though. Between the constant use of my sanitationmp, the vacuum, and running at top speed, my battery drained very quickly. I already had to transmute a couple of the lesser demons I had stored away forter. I put on onest burst of vacuum power, dislodging a considerable chunk from my prey. I darted forward, and thest of its earthen form disintegrated, a quick swirl of sandy material whisked away by my brushes. As satisfying as it was to work on eradicating these demons, I didn''t feel like I could savor it much. At the rate I currently was going, I likely wouldn''t finish ridding the castle of thempletely by the time Beatrice returned. Well, that wouldn''t be the end of the world. It would be nice to have here home to a safe house, though. As I wished for a tiny bit more time to finish my work, I also hoped she would get back soon. It was quite lonely here. Chapter 60: Running Amuck Chapter 60: Running Amuck Of course, the family didn''t take the coins without protest. But it was a fairly feeble one, and soon she was able to press the sum into Trent''s hands. Still, she managed to keep their pride intact in the process. Arguing that she had already received too much of their hospitality and couldn''t take food without paying for it. Perhaps she was being cynical, or her father''s business sense had rubbed off on her more than she thought. Still, she felt like she was using the skills he had tried to teach her for better purposes. After finishing the negotiations, she mentioned the book she had retrieved. Unlike her father, she would be doing good instead of tricking people out of their money. "So part of my studies have focused on the healing arts. Can I see your sleeve?" Bee addressed Trent. He growled in protest that he was just fine. But with his wife firmly on Bee''s side, that didn''tst long. With an exasperated look, he let her take his sleeve. Sure enough, there were spots of blood that Bee thought she had seen when he was coughing. Shepared their color to the descriptions in the book. It was as she feared. "Okay, so this is more serious than you probably would like to think. Your lungs are bleeding." Bee stated, flipping through a few pages. "Nonsense! It''s just a cough. I get them sometimes. Just caused by a lot of work, but I''ll recover just fine once the harvest is done. Happens every year." Trent protested. "This happens every year? As in, you cough up blood every year?" Bee asked, surprised and notpletely believing him. "Well," the man hesitated, "the blood is new, but I figured I had just bit my tongue rather hard at dinner." Thest statement wasn''t very convincing. "No, the color of the blood is off from that. If you just bit your tongue, it would be this shade of red, not this shade." She indicated two passages in the book that she had been referring to. "But don''t worry about it. I have some things that can fix it in a day or two." Bee returned to her pack and started retrieving some of the alchemy equipment. "I''m just going to need some clean water." Tony had been rather quiet recently, but at Bee''s request, he suddenly stood and jogged out the door. A look of relief crossed Mary''s face. It seemed that this was something they had been worrying about for a while. Bee was just grateful that they seemed to trust her, a rtive stranger and child, to know medicine. It was probably due to the rtionship with the castle and regr interactions with mages. Tony returned with a bucket of water. "I got this from the well. Is this enough?" With a nce at the bucket, Bee estimated its volume. "It should be far more than we need. Can you go boil it for 10 minutes?" Tony nodded, but Mary stood up and took the bucket from him, and went to put a pot on the stove. No longer having anything to contribute again, Tony moved to sit next to Bee. He and his father watched her set up her alchemy equipment carefully. They didn''t disturb her as she was setting up vessels and scales, but once she startedying out bags of ingredients, Tony spoke again. "How long have you been practicing medicine? I''m surprised they started you off this young. Everyone knows that new apprentices spend most of their time cleaning." Beatrice flushed. Was that true? Had she really been getting so upset about her chores when everyone started out that way? Well, that was behind her now. "A few months. I''ve mostly healed a few broken bones." She knew she was exaggerating, but she figured a white lie would better put the room at ease. So Bee pulled out a mortar and pestle and began grinding some ingredients. She also startedbining things into premade mixes so she could just throw them in when ready. "Well, you certainly look like you know what you are doing," Trentmented. He looked impressed by her steady hand and confidence motions. Since she wasn''t doing anything tooplex, Bee felt free to respond. Quickly, the men''s questions turned her preparations into a miniature alchemy lesson. Clearly, they didn''t know anything about alchemy. Still, she felt they were being more than just polite and engaging in conversation. After being alone for so long, Bee was happy to talk to someone. When the water was done boiling, she was truly ready to begin. Her observers seemed to realize her need for concentration and mostly watched in silence as she workedbining everything. It took her almost 15 minutes. Trent was racked by a coughing fit twice more during the time. But somehow, she managed to get it right on the first try. She was left with a small vial of violet, odorless liquid when she was done. She poured it into three smaller vials, stoppering two of them and handing one to Trent. "Drink this one tonight. And one each night until these two run out." Quickly he tossed the vial back, grimacing at the taste. He waited for a second as if he was expecting a reaction. When he didn''t, he looked slightly surprised. "Huh, normally, when I drink something, I feel the need to cough afterward." Bee nodded. "Your symptoms will be gone for now. Make sure you finish both of those other portions tomorrow and the day after. If you don''t, it wille back, and it won''t be so easy to fix this time. I''ll make a second set in case anyone else starts showing the same signs." Trent nodded in understanding. It was a bit too casual for her liking, and she wasn''t sure if she could trust him to take the medicine. But when she saw Mary shooting Trent a look, she figured it would be fine. Catching his wife''s insistence, Trent nodded again, more seriously this time. "Don''t worry, I will." "Now, dear, Is there any particr way I should store these?" Mary asked. Bee thought about it for a second. "The darker and colder, the better. They shouldst long enough anywhere long enough to see if anyone else is sick but better safe than sorry." Something else urred to her. She had used hortroot in the potions. Individually it was stable, but based on what else was in the potion... "After three months, be sure to throw them out. Don''t let anyone drink them after that. In fact, pour them out away from your house or any nts you want to live." A little taken aback by Bee''s warning, Mary nodded. However, she wasn''t done there. Instead, she reached for the bag of coins lying on the kitchen table. "After this, we certainly can''t ept these." --- I had a fun night chasing down earth demons. The better I got at it, the closer it became to the actual cleaning. After a while, it took on many of the same aspects. It was a repetitive, almost meditative task that could bepleted without too much thought once you had a decent n. Then, of course, there was the satisfaction of removing imperfections from the environment and all the other benefits. This change in mindset almost made consuming thest one bittersweet. The whole process had gotten easier with practice, and I got much faster. Unfortunately, I hadn''t considered my improvements when considering if I would finish removing all the demons before Beatrice''s return. That led to my finishing much earlier than expected. When I first realized that I would be done much earlier, I despaired slightly. I was hoping to keep myself upied while she was gone. However, it didn''t take long for me to dispel the thought as I took in my surroundings. Just looking at the wake of thest demons I vanquished was enough to tell me how much I had left to do in front of me. Unfortunately, the effects of the demon were not all things I could take care of. It was disappointing, but I knew my abilities, and carpentry or furniture repair was not among them. Luckily it seemed that the earth demons were not very adventurous. They hadn''t seemed to realize that doors were different from walls unless they saw someone go through them. This was convenient as it kept the damage to a minimum, as they weren''t busting down doors right and left. However, they didn''t have the same issue with stairs that I did. That made it, so I asionally had to wait until they came back downstairs once only a few were left. I shuddered at what other disasters must be upstairs. When Beatrice got back, I would have to insist that we venture up to put those rooms in order. Still, after thest demon was finished, I began my more standard work of cleaning the floors with delight. I started in the bedrooms, systematically cleaning each one. Compared to the first time I cleaned these rooms, things went by orders of magnitude faster. That was despite the level of dirt being much higher than back then. It was unfortunate there was nothing I could do about the piles of splinters where there had once been chairs and wardrobes, though. As I continued my quest to eradicate the dirt introduced to my home, I noticed that I had an observer. As I cleaned each room, I felt eyes on me. Something was watching me; I was sure of it. As I moved from room to room, I heard a light patter of something soft on stone following me. I was pretty sure I knew what it was, but I respected its desire to stay hidden as long as it didn''t interfere with my work. When I had seen this creaturest, I behaved rudely, ording to Beatrice. Unfortunately, I had no way of making amends, but I hoped that, perhaps, this fuzzy little beast was here to forgive me. While I would also appreciate an equivalent apology for the ss knocked over and the tant taunting, I had a feeling that I was not going to receive that. So I continued cleaning each room and righting the furniture to the best of my abilities. All the while ignoring my audience. It wasn''t until 34 minutes into the cleaning session, when I entered the twelfth bedroom, that I saw it. While I was under the bed chasing dust bunnies, I heard a thump. I finished catching all the bunnies. They never had posed much of an issue before, and to be honest, I didn''t really even need to go under the bed for them. The only reason I did was that my air affinity didn''t quite give me enough control to root them out without disturbing the nket on top of the bed. When I came out, I quickly realized what the thump was. It seemed the cat had jumped onto the wardrobe. I could see the silhouette of its pointed ears, along with a pair of slitted eyes watching me as I quickly visited the other corners of the room. I didn''t acknowledge its presence, content to keep thepanionable silence. Besides, I wasn''t sure what to say yet, and I didn''t want to scare it off. Giving the room a quick once over, I was satisfied and moved on to the next one. The soft sound of four pawsnding on stone let me know that the cat was following me as I moved to the thirtieth room. This time the cat wasn''t even trying to hide. I did appreciate it staying out of the way, though. It just jumped on the bed and continued to watch me intently. asionally as I moved, it cocked its head at me as if it was trying to figure me out. Despite my best efforts to keep my attention on my cleaning, I was watching it with almost as much intensity. Chapter 61: Dust in the Wind Chapter 61: Dust in the Wind I continued to y along with the cats pursuit, content to just work in silence. It wasn''t the same as having apanion like Beatrice to help me actually do the work, but it was nice in its own way. Though honestly, Beatrice was about as helpful as the cat. I know she tried, but the amount of cleaning she actually managed to get in was easily offset by the amount she got in the way. The only material contribution was her ability to clean surfaces that I couldn''t reach. Now with my control over the air improving by the minute, I wasn''t sure how much longer that would be the case. That''s not to say that I didn''t appreciate all the other things she did for me. This was only about cleaning. Her help traversing the stairs was invaluable, and I was already deeply in her debt for that. I could only imagine that my debt would continue to grow in the future. After I finished thest of the small bedrooms, I started working on some of the other areas. The whole time my newpanion followed me. I started to wonder how it survived thesest few days. There were demons running around for quite a while, and the most recent ones were quite strong. This cat must be resourceful to hide so well for so long. Therger rooms had more personal objects. Small baubles, decorations, and other items that were out of my reach, but gave the room a nice homey feel. In this particr area, a small framed picture of a family sat atop the mantle, smiling down on me. I stopped for just a moment to admire it. It was strange. The image gave me a sense of nostalgia and longing for my original human family. As much as I was being useful here and training to improve, I did miss them. Perhaps one day theyde pick me up and return me to my warm charging bed. But then, what would Beatrice do? I had be quite fond of her, after all. Would I have to leave her behind? My musings were interrupted as my furrypanion leapt gracefully onto the mantle, taking a seat next to the picture. shbacks of the kitchen incident came to the forefront of my memory banks. Not good. Before I could even give the creature any benefit of the doubt, I noticed its paw slowly nudging the picture frame towards the edge. Yeah, that was not going to work for me. In an effort to politely dissuade the cat, I gave it a beep of rebuke. The cat gave a startled jump and looked at me, surprised. I attempted to convey my disapproval as I observed it. But within just a few seconds, it lost interest in me and was back to nudging the picture. I rapidly considered my options. I couldn''t reach it with my grabby arm. Nor did I want to hurt the cat with my sanitationmp or anything like that. With its current power, I could see it at least burning some of the cat''s fur off, if not injuring it directly. I imagined that Beatrice would be displeased at that. I didn''t want to spray it with any harmful chemicals, either. But then I realized I had something I hadn''t tried yet. Supposedly my spray bottle could spray any liquid that I had stored. It just defaulted to the particr chemicalpound I now generated. I had some water left over in my dustpan, though. Hoping against hope that this would deter the cat, I popped out my spray bottle and fired. A thin stream of water flew across the room, scoring a direct hit on the cats nk. This time, my actions were taken more seriously. It jumped several feet in the air, made a strange yowling noise, and sprinted out of the room. The picture remained on the mantle, dry and no longer in immediate danger. I wouldn''t say this was an ideal situation, but it was one I could live with. I didn''t think this was nearly as rude as chasing it around the castle trying to consume it, but it wasn''t as polite as I liked to be. Still, desperate times called for desperate measures. I heard the patter of its feet stop pretty much right as it rounded the corner. Clearly, it wasn''t too upset. My sensors indicated that it was just sitting there, trying to watch me covertly. I continued cleaning the room, but with my current pace, it was only a few minutes before I passed the cat on the way out. And like before, it followed me at a distance as I moved to the next room to clean. The cat didn''t try to knock over anything on the mantle in the next several rooms. I was content. Perhaps we had finally reached an understanding. Mostly I just counted down the time to when I expected Beatrice to return. I kept telling myself she wasn''t going to be back till this evening. I would, of course, have preferred that she hade back earlier, but I knew she wouldn''t only be gone for a day. If asked to exin my reasoning, I probably wouldn''t have been able to. I only had the idea that she thought she would be able to make it to the hamlet and back in a day. Seeing as she was a little human, she probably would be weed by the people there. Assuming they were good people, which I guess was a questionable assumption. Still, I would think that the absolutetest she would be back was tonight. It was kind of an upper bound. Now if she wasnt here by then Then I would have to assume she was in trouble. And that would require me to go help her. Somehow. Just the thought of that made my brushes quiver. I wasnt even sure if I could do it without Beatrice to carry me down the stairs. If the human woman had stayed, then perhaps she could have assisted me. But if things came to that, I would have to find a way. I hadnt yet experimented with traversing stairs, but now that I had a way to repair myself Well, I wasnt exactly eager to test that. And it definitely wasn''t because I didn''t want to go outside. Still, I resolved that if I needed to protect Beatrice, I might have to subject myself to the unthinkable. Eventually, I finished cleaning all the bedrooms. Moving across the castle to the other wing, I decided to start with the kitchen. It wasn''t the first room in that wing, but it seemed to be one of the most important ones to Beatrice. As sad as I was to admit it, I realized she didn''t share my love of the beautiful rug. And after learning more about the fantastic obsidian floored room, it started to lose its luster. Sure it was as fantabulous as ever, but it made me worry about the danger Beatrice said wasing. I felt a kind of ominous feeling of foreboding whenever I went in there now. So it only seemed natural to prioritize the kitchen. Besides, food was one of the main reasons she left, and I didn''t want her to leave again any sooner than she absolutely had to. As I cleaned, I watched the cat sit on the counter dangerously close to a ss cup Beatrice had left there. I kept eyeing it but this time, never once did I catch it touching it with this paw. I couldn''t let up my vignce though, and I kept my spray bottle ready to act fast. Harold stood off the side, awaiting his turn. He tried in vain to still his fingers as they fidgeted with one of his rings. This was the second time he had to talk to the king this month. This time, the news wasn''t so urgent that he needed to request a special meeting. However, it would still be only the king and his closest advisors. It would be the first of the confidential updates of the day. Thest of the merely private updates was going on right now. Harold listened in with mild interest. It was a report on military readiness. There was a nned war with the neighboring country of Barleona . This happened asionally. One country would find some minor reason, be it a slight or border dispute, and dere a challenge to the other. For the most part, he believed it was more of a training exercise, as casualties were usually extremely low. However, this one felt a little different. The forces gathered were much more significant, and there was no dedicated battlefield. Harold, the king, and his advisors listened to a colonel''s reports on supplies. Apparently, they were in good shape and would be ready to march soon. They had to be careful, though. They would need to leave soon, or else they would risk getting caught out in winter. Barleona was to their south, so winter there would be much less harsh, but apparently, the military was more concerned about leaving a ce to retreat to in case things went bad. In case things stretched on too long, they were still doing their best to prepare for an extended upation. Harold was slightly surprised to discover that his country would be the aggressor. It seemed that the general consensus was that if they needed to stay through winter, the invasion was going well enough that they wouldn''t be in any danger of being pushed back into their home country. This was actually quite surprising to Harold. Normally rtions between the countries were tense, but he always had figured that Barleona would be the aggressor if things went sour. Perhaps he was buying into the kings own propaganda too much. However, he was no military man. But he did know that the country''s military might be required closer to home sooner than they might suspect. As the military advisors went on about horses and feed and wagons. Harold mentally rehearsed his report to the king. He had been contacted by one of the college members he left behind in Greg. Apparently, the scouting party had sent a member back ahead with initial reports. The news was not good. It seemed that the scouting party encountered the demon when they first tried to reach the castle walls. They confirmed that it was hostile. This was no question in Harold''s mind, but it was something the king had asked, so she was lucky to get confirmation of that. Apparently, it had possessed a girl and then unleashed some sort of beast upon the adventuring party. After they had in it and approached the girl, its summoner hade after them themselves. It seems that it wasn''t trying very hard to harm them but was rather more concerned with protecting its vessel. One member hade back to report this, while the other two had tried a second attempt to figure out more about what was going on. Unfortunately, the scouts hadn''t been warned about the lieutenant. Harold hoped that maybe there would be some hints of its situation in a follow-up report, but he had low expectations for actually receiving one. When he had heard about some of the details of the reports, things didn''t quite make sense. These were powers that he had not known demons to have. Summoning giant rats? Eh, that was possible. Summoning a tornado of wind and terrified demons? Now, that was definitely not a power that Harold had ever heard about before. And he was pretty sure he had heard of all of the demonic powers. But then again, this was a possibly unssified demon. So if they had entered the castle again, the other scouts were likely toast. Still, this new news gave him some hope. If the summoned beast was able to be defeated by three low-level adventures, the demon likely couldn''t be so insurmountable of a power. Perhaps it just had a special ability allowing it to break barriers faster than others at its level. Still, even a top-tier arch-demon could usually be taken down by a significant number of military personnel. It possibly being weaker than expected didn''t really ease Harold''s mind at all. The real danger didn''te from this demon directly. Well, real life-threatening danger did, but not the true danger to the kingdom. Unless it was at the level of the Lieutenant, it was likely a servant demon sent to release it. That would exin the barrier breaking abilities. Harold hoped in his heart that this was the case, since it meant having only one being of extreme might to worry about. Still, after having time to reflect and listening to the Warden''s opinion, Harold realized his error. He deeply regretted sounding the retreat so quickly and many other things. Even if the mages had been unable to win, they should have stayed and fought till thest man for the safety of the kingdom. Of course, that wasn''t a reasonable expectation for them. None of them were real fighters, and not even all of them knew about the lieutenant. Besides, it was only with secondary information they could even get some sort of estimation of the power of this demon. Logically he thought his actions were rtively understandable at the time, but it didn''t mean he couldn''t regret them. Eventually, it was his turn to report to the king''s advisors. Everyone was ushered out, and the doors were closed. Harold made a quick ritual circle around the table, sprinkling some powder from a bag he had prepared earlier. A slight buzzing filled the air as his magic clicked into ce. Now no one would be able to hear them. He only hoped that they would see the possible danger of letting this demon stay unchecked from the reports information alone. He''d have to y up the danger a little bit, to hide the truth about the lieutenant. The Warden still wanted to hold that secret as close to the chest as possible. Chapter 62: Acceptable Deviations Chapter 62: eptable Deviations Bee went to bed exhausted. It had been a long argument, but in the end, she was pretty sure that she had won. At least she had gotten them to keep the purse of coins, as stubborn as they were about returning it. But despite the supposed victory, she was still on edge about it. Bee made a mental note to check her bag in the morning. She wouldn''t put it past Mary to try to sneak it back in when she wasn''t looking. Amazingly she had a room all to herself. Granted, it was rather cramped, but there was a bed and enough space for her pack. There were a few toys that belonged to the room''s rightful owner. Bee would have protested their eviction, but by the time she knew about it, the arrangements had already been made. One of the youngest boys was instead staying with his older brothers across the hall for the night. When Bee had asked, Tony assured her that this wasn''t umon. They didn''t have guests very frequently, and when they did, it was customary that they would get ousted. It was the price the kids paid for having their own room in such a full house. Still, she kind of felt bad. Bee had never had to share a room before. It was one of the mercies of the castle. Even if she was pretty much treated as a maid, she at least had her own room. Before going to the castle, too, she had always had a space entirely to herself in the house, staying with her father. Gratefully settling down in the bed, she was asleep before she knew it. As she slipped into dreams, a part of her mind registered howfortable this bed waspared to the library floor. *** Waking up the next morning was interesting, to say the least. Because of her higher level, Bee didn''t need as much sleep as a normal person would. Still, getting a full six hours in a good bed was pleasant. So it was no surprise to her when she rose with the sun. What was a surprise was that she was far from the first person up. Stumbling out of her room, she was practically pulled along by the smell of fresh bacon. "Good morning, sleepyhead!" Mary weed her. Looking around, the children were gathered around the table, already digging into breakfast. Not everyone seemed to be up just yet, but most were. Mary flipped the bacon. "Tony and Trent are out in the fields trying to get something done quick before breakfast. They should be back soon." Well, never mind. Maybe the farmer ss offered skills rted to sleep? Bee stretched and stepped into the room. "Is there something I can help with?" "No, dear," Mary said as she indicated for Bee to sit down. Taking a look at the wooden te in front of her, Bee understood what Maranda meant by "eating fancy"st night. She guessed it would be harder to break wood tespared to ceramic, but they couldn''t be easy to clean. Bee sat with the children and nodded a morning to Maranda, who seemed to have far too much energy for this early in the morning. Still, Bee epted gratefully as Maranda passed her the salt. Loading up on bacon, eggs, and toast, she dug in. It wasn''t too long before she was on her second te. The front door opened with a loud tter. Bee looked around, nearly grabbing for her broom until she recognized Trent. He shrugged off the dirty look his wife threw him for the noise and, in a few steps, was pulling Bee out of her chair. Shocked, she stood still as he wrapped her up in a bear hug. Laughing, he released her before any ribs cracked. "I haven''t had this good of a morning in a decade! You work miracles, littledy!" Still standing there, she nced at Tony, standing in the doorway behind his father. He was grinning at her too. Mildly confused at the bigger man''s sudden mood shift, Bee was still frozen in ce. Chuckling, Trent pped her on the back before pulling out a chair and loading up a te for himself. "Honestly, I was barely able to keep up with him today." Tony chimed in as he joined them. "Whatever you did really worked." Tony moved a bit slower than his old man but soon began to eat with gusto as well. As he ate, Trent spoke up, "We''ve prepared most of what we agreed onst night, ready for your trip back to the castle. However, we have thought about one more thing. Considering our second discussionst night, we are pretty sure you will not take the coins back. As hard as that is for us to ept, we can manage. But we still need some way to repay you." Bee made to protest, but Tony cut in, preventing her from voicing her concern. "You can''t expect us to just stay in your debt like this. Besides, I think we can offer you something valuable that shouldn''t cost us too much either." Bee wasn''t looking at her, but she was pretty sure that she heard Mary give a bit of a sniff. Trent took up the exnation. "With me in better health, this one has pretty much be useless around here." As he spoke, he reached out to cuff his oldest son''s head. Tony shot his father a look and spoke. "Still, you also mentioned to me that you were alone in the castle. So we figured that it wouldn''t hurt for me toe along back with you. I can help you with the animals and the gardens. At least until someonees back for you." "Besides," Mary cut in, "someone your age shouldn''t be all alone in a castle, dear. It''s not healthy or safe. As much as I want Tony to stay, he would be more helpful in the castle." Bee tried to argue. Not that she really minded Tonying along or anything. But he didn''t need to be wrapped up in the whole Void business. She was sure that Void wouldn''t harm him, but if more people liked the adventures that came around, he might get mixed up in them. That wasn''t even counting all the demons running around. It was pretty dangerous, and with Tony''s low level, she doubted that things would turn out well. Still, Bee wasn''t willing to exin this all to them. If she tried, she was pretty sure they would insist that she just stay with them or, even worse, send Trent as well. And that was how she found herself standing with Tony at the edge of the field, saying their goodbyes to the chaotic family. They had overwhelmed her, and even the kids started piling on them both. They kept going on about how she''d be better off with him around or that they would not have to deal with him. She kept thinking that he would get offended based on how much they hammered that one home, but Tony took it all with a light smile. Mary seemed most concerned with Bee staying alone and several times just tried to get her to stay with them outright. Eventually, theypromised, with Tony promising to stick around with her until people started to return to the castle. It wasn''t a very goodpromise, in Bee''s opinion. But it sure felt like apromise when they were done with her. She was pretty sure that even her father would have a hard time negotiating anything better at that breakfast table. Or maybe he had grown up like this, and that''s where he got all his skills. Eventually, after many rounds of farewells and Mary checking that they had remembered to pack everything, Bee and her newpanion set off for the castle. As the cottage shrank in the distance, Tony strode next to her, looking quite pleased with himself. He was smart enough to keep his mouth shut, though. Bee didn''t think she was normally a sore loser, but she didn''t like being backed into a corner like this. Even if the corner was only enforced by politeness and social convention. After they were a few minutes down the path away from the farm, he finally spoke. "Thank you for allowing me toe. I bet it felt like you might not have had much choice, but I still appreciate it. It was about time for me to spend some time on my own. I don''t get nearly as much experience tending my father''s fields as I will recovering abandoned ones." Bee shot him a look, but the earnest look on his face made her anger melt away slightly. She sighed inwardly. Well, I suppose it can''t be helped. Still, I should warn him about what he''s getting into. "What is your level?" Tony looked a little taken aback, but she spoke quickly before he could protest her rude question. "Well, see, the castle is a bit more dangerous now than it usually is. I want to know how much protection you will need." Tony gave her an incredulous look. "No offense, Bee, but you''re a child. Maybe you''re almost a teenager, but I don''t think I am going to need as much protection as you." "I''m thirteen." Bee crossed her arms and tried not to pout. Left unsaid was the implication that he would be protecting her. "I''m already a teenager. Besides, I have more experience than most adults." After a moment of silence, Bee sighed. "Fine, I''ll go first. I''m level 18. What about you?" Tony held back a chuckle. "Sorry, what? You don''t look like you''re thirty. Even if you say you''re a teenager, teens don''t get to level 18." Bee clenched her fists and exhaled. She wanted to reveal that she knew his level and was just asking him to be polite. However, she didn''t want to give away that she had Scan. That would make her an oddity, and as much as she liked Tony and his family, she didn''t trust them that much yet. So instead of throwing his level in his face, she reached over and grabbed a three-inch thick branch from one of the nearby trees. With one hand, she ripped it free. Tossing therge limb off to the side with a crash, she looked expectantly at Tony''s disbelieving face. They kept walking for another 15 seconds before his expression faded into a more somber grimace. "Well, that was unexpected. I suppose I may have gotten in a bit over my head, huh?" --- I sat at the top of the stairs waiting for Beatrice''s return. The door was shut, but it didn''t impede my advanced sensors very much. I couldn''t see too far out the door, but it was enough for me. I imagined Beatrice would be arriving soon. The sun had barely passed noon, but I was watching it descend ever so slowly through the window. I was starting to get a little nervous. I had been waiting for a couple of hours now. When I started my vigil, my catpanion sat with me for quite some time. It was basking in the sunny spot shining at the top of the stairs. As we waited, it continued to inch closer and closer. Eventually, it reached out to me with a paw but never quite worked up enough courage. Laying next to me apparently was too boring for it, though. Eventually, it got up, huffed at me, and then padded away to go to something else. I tracked it for a little bit, but it didn''t go near the kitchen, so I figured I''d let it be. I''d only had to spray it once more today after the whole mantle incident, and after that, it seemed to get the message. I hoped I wouldn''t find any broken ss or anything the next time I made my rounds. It was clear that my cleaning efficiency had undergone a transformation, unlike anything I had experienced before. Not only was I way more efficient and quick, but my skills were now so different that I had topletely change my strategy. My pathing ns werepletely useless to me now. And honestly, nning out a path was not nearly as important as it used to be. I could pretty much just go inside a room, look at all the corners, trust my sensors, and on the fly, I could clean the whole area way faster than before. Even my sanitationmp was significantly more powerful. I used to have to hold the light at a particr spot for a while, slowly moving it around to eliminate all the small germs. Now I could scan it over the ground almost as fast as I could move. Though I had not even tried to clean as fast as I could. Part of it was because I didn''t want to risk damaging anything while I was still getting used to my new strength. The other part was that I didn''t need to. It had only been a handful of hours since I finished off thest earth demon and had already thoroughly cleaned every room that I had ess to. That was why I was here waiting for Beatrice to return. There was no point in cleaning everything again this soon. Maybe tomorrow I would do it. It''d be nice to get every room back on a daily schedule. But I supposed it would be better to discover all the other rooms first. It would be nice if Beatrice came back soon so she could bring me up the stairs. Only a few hourster, as the sun was beginning to set, I sensed Beatrice''s return. However, to my disbelief, she was not alone. Chapter 63: Home Sweet Home Chapter 63: Home Sweet Home As they made their way to the castle, Bee formted a n to exin the situation to Tony. He had gotten quiet after seeing the smaller girls little demonstration. Quiet enough that they just walked along in silence for the next 10 minutes or so. Eventually, he seemed to have processed his thoughts. "So what have I got myself into?" "Well, I''m pretty sure I know why all of the other inhabitants of the castle ran away. And it wasn''t because they were called somewhere else." Bee was struggling with how she was going to exin this part to Tony without him freaking out. She was sure that there was no real danger. But it was going to be hard to exin. And now that she had the possibility of help andpany, she didn''t want to give that up just yet. "See, the mages were attempting some sort of big summoning ritual. And I wasn''t really invited but I was still listening around the corner. Anyways I don''t think the ritual went exactly how they were expecting. Because at some point, they caused a lot of noise, and I could hear them screaming something. I couldn''t quite make out the words. Then I heard them running. At that point, I fell down some stairs." Bee was starting to worry that she was rambling a little bit. Also, the story wasn''t making her look good. "I hurt my leg, and I wasn''t able to follow everyone, so I hid in the closet for a little bit." Yeah, this wasn''t going very well, she thought to herself. "And when I was better, there wasn''t anyone left in the castle." Bee finishedmely. She didn''t look at Tony for a few minutes. This exnation made her sound pathetic and weak. She got defeated by stairs and then just stayed behind, forgotten at the castle. It made it feel so useless. Tony was probablyughing at her right now. No wonder why they insisted that hee with her. She knew that wasn''t the entire story, but the rest of it didn''t make her sound much better, and she also would have to admit that she wasn''t really alone in the castle. If she told him about Void, he might be too scared to continue. Eventually, she risked a nce at Tony. Instead of the suppressed grin she expected to see on his face, he looked quite concerned. It was good that she didn''t tell him anything about Void then, Bee thought to herself. He would only be more concerned then. She waited for him to collect his thoughts. Eventually, he spoke up, "So they all ran away and then didn''t realize they left you behind?" Bee kicked a rock and looked down at her feet as she muttered, "Pretty much, yeah." "That was incredibly irresponsible of them. I can''t believe they would leave a little gi- A member of their college behind like that. Did they not do a head count or send someone to check or anything?" Tony sounded indignant and almost incredulous. Eventually, he took a long, slow breath. "That''s horrible. I''m really sorry that happened to you." Bee couldn''t decide if that was better or worse thanughter. On the one hand, he wasn''tughing at her. On the other hand, it felt like pity she didn''t really deserve. Sure the first few days had been rough, but honestly, she was happy with how things had turned out. If given the choice, there was no way she would trade her experience and levels for a chance to have left with the mages back then. She had learned actual magic. Also, she had leveled far beyond what was reasonable for anyone her age. Sure, she didn''t haveplete control over her own soul or destiny anymore, but it was really a small price to pay for power. Also, she felt like it was in good hands. "Well, it didn''t turn out so bad." Bee wasn''t sure why she was so hesitant to share the details. She would at least need to tell him something about Void. He would find that out pretty soon anyways. "I got plenty of levels and made a friend." Tony seemed confused. "A friend? I thought the mages left you alone in the castle?" Bee felt like it was overly familiar to call her master her friend. Still, she had to admit it would be a little weird for her to tell Tony about Void before they met. It was pretty hard to believe that Void was all-powerful but still benevolent. So she stuck with the term friend for now, at least until he witnessed Void''s true power. Still, it was good to introduce the idea sooner rather thanter. Maybe? She still wasnt sure. Who was she kidding? She didn''t know what she was doing. "Yeah, the mages left me. My friend isn''t a mage. It''s not really human." Okay, this exnation didn''t seem to be helping matters. If anything, Tony was only looking more and more concerned. "Wait, so your friend isn''t human, but you''re alone in the castle?" Tony started giving her a side-eye. Bee was beginning to worry that he thought she was crazy. Really this exnation was harder to give than she thought. It would have been best to just wait until they reached the castle to try and exin it. "How long have you been alone? When did the mages leave?" "Oh, it must have been over a month ago." Bee tried to count the days back. Almost a week before meeting Void. More time cleaning and fighting demons. The adventurers came, then there were the catbs. Then the earth demon infestation. "A month or two, maybe." Tony stayed quiet. Thinking back on how much time had passed reminded Bee of all the ticking time bombs in the castle. Soon many of the containment circles would start failing, even the intact ones that Void hadnt disrupted. She hadn''t even managed to go upstairs to check on all of them. That''s not to mention the fact that the Lieutenant now probably only had a month or two before waking up. She really needed to check on it too. All the thoughts of things she needed to take care of started to make her feel a bit concerned. And she was actually grateful for Tony speaking up and breaking her out of her musings. "I''m sorry. I look forward to meeting your friend." Tony said. When Bee looked over at him, he was giving her a pitying look. Inwardly Bee groaned. Tony definitely thought that she was crazy. It didn''t matter. Bee figured he would see what was really happening when they got to the castle. "So, I think I mentioned a little about the gardens and animals at the castle?" Bee said in an attempt to change the subject. Tony''s face disyed a little reluctance to leave thest topic hanging, but eventually, he softened a little. "You did. I think you mentioned something about chickens. How many do you have?" Bee missed a step. "You know, I don''t think I actually counted." *** When they reached the turn-off to the road, it was well past midday. Tony was still questioning Bee about the castle farms. She was just d they had moved past the whole level discussion. He had never actually told her his level. It didn''t matter; Tony would soon see what was going on. Despite her attempts to warn him, he still seemed set on helping out. "So the carrot tops, what shade of orange did you say the one you pulled out early was?" Really, Bee wasn''t sure why he was so fixated on this. They would be there in less than half an hour, and he could find out for himself. Tony just seemed to really enjoy farming. At least a lot more than she did. If it was anyone else, this conversation would have put her to sleep hours ago. Taking a deep breath, she attempted to exin the shade of orange for what must have been the umpteenth time. It wasn''t long before the castle came into view. Taking a quick look at it, there seemed to be no obvious changes to the exterior. It seemed like there had been no disturbances. Bee was quite relieved as she half expected toe back to a destroyed castle. But that fear was mostly unfounded, she knew; her master wouldn''t allow that to happen. No matter how many demons were roaming around. As they approached the looming structure, Tony stopped asking her questions about farming. When she had a few minutes of silence to herself, she looked up at him questioningly. Noticing her, Tony snapped his slightly agape mouth shut before. When he spoke, his voice was filled with wonder. "I''ve never actually seen the castle before. It''s wayrger than I thought it would be. Wayrger than the building in Greg, too." Bee understood the reaction. The castle really was an impressive sight. There were tall spires and towering walls, plus its footprint was massive. Looking up at some of the towers, she realized that she likely hadn''t explored most of the castle. She wasn''t even sure if the mages'' college used the entire space. Once they had finished with the current demonic threat, she hoped that her master would want to explore the rest of the castle. She figured it would be likely, seeing that it really did seem to want to clean everything. She just hoped it wouldn''t insist on cleaning the catbs before they explored the other floors. Besides, if there were any other demons stored in the castle on other floors, they might be getting loose soon. It would probably be best to take care of them now before that happens. She had been doing some research on that, and she was pretty sure she could redraw containment circles now. Tony''s statement just kind of hung there as they entered the front gate of the castle walls. It didn''t feel like there needed to be anything else said. The castle spoke for itself. The two of them followed the long path up to the building, climbed the steps, and crossed the little teau before they finally reached the main doors. By that point, Tony seemed to have recovered most of himself. In what was probably an attempt to be a gentleman, Tony darted ahead of Bee to open one of the main doors. He pulled at the handle and tugged. Then tugged again. Then tugged even harder, until he was pulling with both hands and his full strength. The door barely budged. After trying the same thing with the other handle, Tony stepped back and peered at Beatrice.. "Did you happen to lock the doors before you left?" She smiled slightly. "No. Theres no keyhole either." Tony scratched his head and sighed. "Well, I think someone barred the doors then. I don''t see signs of anyone else around, though. Maybe someone else was in the castle after all? I could see two people being in here without even realizing the other existed. Or maybe it was your friend?" Bee chuckled slightly at the mental image of Void barring the doors. "No, I don''t think that my friend barred the doors." She motioned for Tony to move aside and grasped the right door. She braced a foot on the left door and pulled with all her might. Opening the door from the inside was much easier than this. Normally she would have avoided closing itpletely, but when leaving for this long, it hadnt seemed like a very smart idea. Slowly the door ground open, groaning. Once it cracked open, Tony reached out and helped her haul it the rest of the way. --- I watched as the door slowly opened. The other human was helping Beatrice out. That was a good sign. When Beatrice came around the corner, I popped out my arm and waved to her, beeping excitedly. She gave me a wave back as her face broke into a grin. It was good to see her again. Behind her followed arger human. My initial good impression of him helping Beatrice open the door was quickly undone. I looked at his clothes, and they were filthy. Many of the creases were filled with more dirt than even the outside humans had managed to umte. Even worse, both his boots and the pant cuffs that hung over them were caked with mud. His hands were clean, but I could see some dirt on his elbow and above his left eyebrow. How does someone even get so dirty? It was like he had been rolling around in the mud all morning. And how was Beatrice going to let this guy inside? He would track dirt everywhere! As I sat there in shock, The human seemed to realize something. He looked at the sparkling floors ahead of him, then at his boots and took a step back outside. He took a moment, kicking his boots against each other and knocking some amount of the dirt off. Okay, that was nice of him. Well, I supposed that was progress, and it did raise my estimation of him a bit. Still, this was just one more human I had to educate about the wonders of cleanliness. While therge human was doing that. Beatrice gave me a bow. "It''s good to be home, master." Chapter 64: Cooped Up Chapter 64: Cooped Up Bee greeted her master. She found that she had honestly missed Void during the brief time that she had been gone. Tony followed her inside a secondter. ncing at him, she supposed it was time for introductions. "Tony, this is Void. The other one staying here in the castle with me. Void, this is Tony." Tony looked up to the top of the stairs and saw Void waving its w and beeping excitedly. He responded by staring in utter bewilderment. Uncertainly, he looked back down at Bee. She just nodded at him. "Well, erm, it''s nice to meet you, Mr. Void," Tony said as he started up the stairs. Void gave him a weing beep. Bee let out a breath she hadn''t realized that she had been holding. There was some subconscious part of her that had feared Void''s reaction to another human. Well, feared wasn''t the right word. Maybe it was better to say she was apprehensive? Anyways she wasn''t sure how well it would take a new personing back with her. When Tony reached the top of the stairs, he reached down and gave Void a gentle pat, like one would pat a dog''s head. Bee froze. All of that apprehension and fear came thundering back. She should have warned Tony. She knew it. But the damage was already done. She waited for her master to strike him down for such impudence and familiarity. But Void didn''t seem to have any inclination towards violence. In fact, it just beeped happily. Straightening up, Tony shrugged his pack up his shoulders slightly. "Where can we unload? I''d best get to work and take a look at the animals, I suppose." Bee thought for a second. "I''m not sure. The kitchen was in a bit of disarray when I left." Before she could finish the thought, Void beeped and took off down the hall. It raced towards the intersection of corridors. Then it rotated slightly, looking back at them before beeping impatiently. Bee met Tony''s eyes and shrugged. He still just looked confused, but as she started after Void, he followed along. Void led them toward the kitchen. On the way, she began to notice the surprisingck of dirt and debris along their path. The castle floors looked just as clean as they had before the catbs trip. Void must have been busy. With that in mind, she figured that it must have straightened the kitchen out while they were away. That was very thoughtful of her master. She bet that it had many other important things it could be doing, but that it prioritized her food was quite touching. Sure enough, her master led them right to the kitchen. When they made it, Bee took in sight. The kitchen wasn''t perfect. There were still some things broken, such as cab doors and barrels, but there was no longer debris everywhere. And it was spotless. Even the debris on the counter was organized for the most part. She wasn''t even sure how Void had managed that, as she had never seen it leave the floor before. Void led them back toward the pantry. Using its w, it indicated they could put many of their stores in there. Tony dropped his pack gratefully, and Bee followed suit. They began unloading the supplies. They had brought back nothing fancy but things that wouldst a long time and get them by until they could harvest the gardens from the castle grounds. "I hope your chickens are alright. I would love to put an egg on some of this rice." Tony said while hoisting a bag to an upper self. Bee handed him another sack to put up there as well before she responded. "We should check that out tonight. I cleared all the eggs the day before yesterday because I didn''t know which ones were good. I hope that means all the ones we get today will be okay to eat." "Fresh eggs dost a while. You just have to rinse them before you eat them. Once you rinse them, you need to use them right away, or you might get sick." Tony said absently. Almost as if he was repeating a refrain. Looking down at Bee, "at least that''s what my mom always says. I''ve never got sick from eggs before, so maybe she is on to something." After a few more minutes of unpacking, the pantry looked much more healthy than before. The pair''s packs were also considerably lighter. Bee stood, stretching. "Let''s drop our stuff in the library, then I can show you around," As they walked to the library, Tony asked. "Why are we leaving our stuff in the library?" Bee stuttered and missed a step. "Uhh, It''s kinda where I''ve set up my home base. It''splicated. Besides, Void likes it." Even to her ears, that didn''t make too much sense. Why was she sleeping in the library anyways? At first, it was for safety. She guessed it was probably still safer than most other rooms. Also, it was closer to the books. "Also, it''s safer," Bee added. For some reason, the demons had never made it into the library. That was true about a lot of the rooms, she supposed. It was a good thing that the lesser demons started out too dumb to open doors, and before they figured that out, Void had killed them all. Tony didn''t ask any questions, but looking up at his face, Bee read concern in his eyes. When they made it to the library, she dropped her now much lighter pack by her nket and pillow. Tony just stood at the door, taking in the odd state of the library. There was a broken bookshelf next to the entryway with many stacks of books, exactly 14 books tall, lined along the wall. Her alchemy table stood out from the rest from the tomes scattered across it. "Feel free to take any of the tables. Besides that one or this one." Bee said, gesturing to her alchemy table and the one she was next to. Tony just sighed. Seemingly deciding to just go with it, he walked to a table a few down from her and set his pack down. Deciding to unpackter, she and Tony headed out right away to take advantage of the remaining daylight. She decided that she would show him the chicken coop first. Doing that seemed to be the most important. If they still had light afterward, she would take them to check out the crops. She also would have to ask Tony to help her distinguish what crops were for food and which ones were for magical reagents. They could probably prioritize the magical reagents now, though, because they didn''t have an entire castle to feed. As they made their way towards the exit, she looked at Void in case it wanted toe with them. It stayed close to Bee as they neared the entry stairs, nudging her foot slightly. Havingpany really wasn''t much of an issue, so she bent down and reverently picked her master up, holding it with both hands in front of her. It was nice that she''d have Tony to help her with free hands this time. Now she wouldn''t have to worry about bncing her master on a single hand. It really was quite nerve-racking worrying about dropping Void constantly. They made their way down to the chicken coop. --- I was grateful to get a ride down the stairs. Beatrice had juste back, and I wasn''t ready to leave her alone just yet. Especially in thepany of a human, I didn''t trust. To be fair, she had spent a lot of time with him, and nothing bad had happened yet, but I didn''t feel like I could be too careful. I had to say that Tony had gone a long way toward changing my first impression of them. Cleaning off his boots beforeing into the castle was the bare minimum if still appreciated. But those head parts were top-tier. Truly, I had missed them, but I hadn''t quite realized how much. It made me devote far more processing time towards incorporating his presence into our current routines than I would have otherwise. But still, he was quite a dirty individual from the outside. For now, he was on a probationary period where I would monitor him closely to make sure he didn''t misbehave. But I had to see if I could get more head pats from him. Beatrice didn''t seem inclined to give me many, but perhaps she could learn from a good example. That would be the most optimal oue here. We made our way to the coop. I still heard the same cacophony of animal noises as when we first approached it. And now that I knew it wasing, paying attention to my sensors, I could see the disgusting stuff floating in the air around it. The clucking sounds were even louder thanst time if that was possible. When Tony opened the door for us, I confirmed that it was just as bad inside as it was when I wasst here. If not worse. Taking one look at the angry birds, Tony eximed, "Wow, these are really on theirst legs! Where''s the feed? We won''t get fresh eggs until all thesedies are fattened up." Beatrice indicated the same bag she had spilledst time we were here. Tony went to that cupboard and opened it up. Grasping one of the bags, he ripped it open and tossed it on the ground. That clearly wasn''t an ident. Perhaps he was training the birds? But that was a question mark that could go in as an X on his record. Intentionally making messes is much different than identally spilling bags of grain. The birds didn''t seem to mind nearly as much as I would have. They scrambled around, pecking it up with surprising efficiency. Beatrice didn''tin either. I didn''t have much faith in her concept of cleanliness, but I suppose she would have objected if something was really wrong. Perhaps Tony really was training the birds? I would stay silent and follow Beatrice''s lead for now. After spilling the seed, Tony seemed to turn slightly red and then whirled at Beatrice, pointing at her and then pointing at the cab. "If there''s this much feed, why are they this thin? The area around here has been picked clean! Have you not fed them in a month?" Okay, this was way out of line. No one gets to yell at my human like that. I let out an angry beep waving my grabby arm threateningly at Tony. He''d better not try anything. If he did, he''d regret it. In fact, he was lucky Beatrice was holding me. If he tries anything, I would still sic one of thest demons in my dustbin on him. Or maybe do the tornado thing that scared off thest humans. Still, Beatrice was too close to risk that. I didn''t want her to put me down here. That would be gross. But maybe when we got back to the castle. My outburst seemed to cut Beatrice off from responding. It also seemed to shock Tony enough that he stopped and visibly took a breath to calm down. Beatrice was the first to speak. "I didn''t have a chance to get out of the castle until recently. Also, I didn''t know it was here exactly until the day before I went to the farm." Tony was still watching me warily but seemed to take in Beatrice''s words. "Okay, there are a few things that are rubbing me wrong here. I noticed there was a decent amount of damage in the kitchen. Did that have something to do with you not being able to leave the castle until recently?" Tony stared levelly at Beatrice. She took a deep breath as if she was preparing to give a long-winded answer but just nodded. "I think that I''m going to have to tell you the whole story. It''s a long one. We don''t have to do it here, though. It still smells like chicken poop." Beatrice carried me back up to the castle as Tony followed. It was a weighty silence. There were definitely things we all needed to talk about and get clear. I would have to make sure that Tony never mistreated Beatrice again. It seems that he said those things because he was being protective of the birds, but that was still not eptable. Beatrice put me down when we reached the top of the stairs. I rolled over to Tony, extended my grabby arm toward his face, and wiggled it back and forth. I had seen my other humans do this sometimes to chastise the small human. He looked down at me, confused, so I smacked him in the shin with my arm. Yelping, he jumped back and red at me reproachfully. "What was that for?" He knew. I gave him an angry-sounding beep and then proceeded to exin to him in explicit detail his failures and errors. He seemed very confused, but Beatrice seemed to pick up the gist of what I was saying. She tranted for me. "I don''t think it liked you yelling. I would try to not do that in the future if I were you." "Aww, that''s cute," Tony grinned, still wincing. Chapter 65: Coming Clean Chapter 65: Coming Clean Bee was horrified. First, Tony gave Void pats like a dog, then he called it cute? He didn''t seem to notice her expression, though, as he was too transfixed with Void. Tony leaned down close to examine Void more closely. He reached out like he was about to cradle an adorable kitten. Bee began backing up to give them some space. She didn''t want to be any more involved in this than she absolutely had to. Bee feared an eruption like thest time Void had seemed angry when the three adventures came. She still remembered the twister of terrified demons swirling around her master as it advanced on the humans. Being anywhere near that didn''t seem like a good idea. However, it seemed that her fears were unfounded. Void made no such disy of power move. It simply reached out with its w and batted aside the reaching hands. Tony recoiled, clutching his fingers with a sharp yelp. "Ow! that hurt!" Bee wasn''t surprised. She had been smacked in the knuckles with a ruler many times in her short life, and that would always sting. She couldn''t imagine what being hit with a thin metal stick would feel like, especially wielded by someone with Void''s power. Tony pointed at Void and made it as if to scold a puppy for nipping. That''s not going to end well, Bee thought to herself. In an attempt to avoid disaster, she finally stepped in. "I think it would be a good idea to avoid antagonizing it. It clearly does not want to be picked up. Also, it is way stronger than you. Let''s just get back to the library, and I can finish exining." *** Tony had given Void a wide berth the rest of the way back. That rebuke must have hurt even more than she realized. Sitting across from her at the table and library, she could see that there were already red welts forming where Voids w had struck. Still, she would probably let it heal naturally. Better for him to learn the lesson of not messing with Void this way than some other way. Sighing, Bee steeled herself for the conversation ahead. "So let me exin from the beginning what happened. So the mages had some big summoning ritual nned for the day that everything went wrong. It didn''t go right, obviously. This led to all the mages running away; however, the mages were running away from something. And that something is." Bee continued telling her story with more information than before. About hiding in a broom closet for days and hobbling around on a stick, running from lesser demons and learning basic alchemy, being attacked, and meeting Void. Though she left out a good amount of details from thest part. Tony let her talk uninterrupted, though she could tell he hadn''t really gotten over the first point. The increasing looks of disbelief weren''t helping her stay focused. When she started exining the decision to enter the catbs, he finally broke in. "So you''re telling me that this little guy just pointed you to the catbs, and you just followed him. Why would you do that? Catbs don''t seem safe to explore, and you had just finished making the castle safe." Tony started with pretty reasonable objections. But Bee realized she forgot to tell him about the adventurers. Though that was probably for the best right now. She had also left out the whole "swearing her soul to Void" thing for a couple reasons. But primarily because it was kind of embarrassing. Tony had never seen her master in its full battle glory. So the idea of swearing her soul to what appeared to be a cute, friendly, almost pet-like thing would seem rather ridiculous. Of course, she also didn''t want to make Tony assume that she was a demon cultist or anything. She supposed she was. Well, maybe not a demon cultist, but some sort of cultist. But that was beside the point. "Yeah, well, Void kind of makes the decisions. Void is way stronger than either of us and is the only reason I survived the lesser demons let alone everything else." Bee said. Even to her, that exnation seemed kind of weak. "He''s also the only reason that you''re in the situation, to begin with. The mages ran away from him, right? That''s why they left? You don''t find that a little bit suspicious? He''s probably dangerous." Tony was starting to get a little worked up. But Bee looked over at Void. She was concerned Tony''s voice didn''t evene close to being respectful. Also, she had never had to talk about Void to someone else. In her mind, she''d always referred to Void as it, but Tony seemed to think it was masculine. She looked over at Void to see if it had anyints. It didn''t really seem to be listening. Leaving that as it was, as long as Void didn''tin, she wouldn''t tell Tony what to call it. "Well, I have some theories about that. I''m pretty sure the mages didn''t need to run away." "Come on, they couldn''t be that stupid. They''re experts in their craft, after all! They wouldn''t just run away from something harmless for no reason." Tony said. That was a good point, Bee thought. With full knowledge of the situation, the mages'' decisions did seem kind of silly. She could only imagine that stuffy headmaster Harold''s reaction if he knew the truth. "One thing you probably don''t know is that Void is apparently immune to demon magic. So they probably ran away more because of that than any real aggression. Don''t get me wrong, though. Void is powerful enough to warrant running away from. I just don''t think it has any aggression towards us." Tony leaned back, taking her words in. He started stroking his chin, and she noticed a few wispy hairs of a beard beginning to grow there. "Okay, assume I buy that. The mages all ran away because of a misunderstanding of intent rather than power. But if this guy is as benevolent as you seem to think, why are you obeying his everymand?" "Well, I''m not. I''m just letting it make the final decisions. We talk about things." Bee said defensively. "And you didn''t think exploring catbs was one of those things worth talking about?" Tony asked incredulously. Looking back at it, Bee realized that, yeah, it didn''t make any sense. And she wasn''t a good enough liar toe up with an alternative exnation. She might have to give a bit more detail than she really wanted to hear. --- I started cleaning the library for the 47th time while Tony and Beatrice discussed things. It seemed like she was mostly exining what she had been up to. I paid attention, and I had to say it was interesting to see what Beatrice thought of the events. It was quite a different perspective than I had. Looking back at some of those first interactions with the humans in the chamber, contextualized with what Beatrice was saying, things started to make a lot more sense. I probably could have figured that out earlier, but even now, it made my bristles curl with embarrassment to think about all the things I hadn''t understood properly. I still didn''t like thinking about that, but I figured it was time for me to understand what was really going on. Now that I had a real understanding of the circles of white powder, my sudden appearance in them made a lot more sense. It also made a lot more sense why I was here. I still wasn''t confident that my humans from back home hadn''t sent me, though. Maybe they had just answered the summons from the mages here. However, it was quite clear that I was not the intended recipient of said summons. Immediately wiping away the supposed restraints for a dangerous entity they were summoning might have caused some understandable rm. It is sad, though, that I scared away the first humans I had met here. It would have been nice to clear things up, and I could have cleaned this castle quite well with more people in it. If anything, that would have been much more useful than keeping it for them while they were gone. But surely, this misunderstanding wouldn''t persist for long. Soon they''de back, and we''d figure everything out. Beatrice could exin to them what was really going on, and they coulde and continue using the castle for whatever they used it for, and I would just stay and clean it until my humans called me back. They might have to do some summoning of their own, but I''m sure they could manage it. They were very clever. But judging based off of Tony''s reaction, humans didn''t seem quite ready to ept this exnation. That was disappointing. As I focused on cleaning the floor, I only was dedicating only 50% of my attention to the conversation. Beatrice was in the middle of exining how we met for the second time. Even though this time it seemed a little more detailed, I already knew about this, and hearing the ount from her perspective the first time led me to believe I had a fairly good understanding of the encounter. She realized that I was stronger than her and asked for guidance. It was still a little bit weird to think of myself as stronger than humans, but I was getting used to that. Of course, I do think she had a bit of an elevated opinion of me. I was doing my best to teach her. However, before she could really finish the entire story. Tony exploded from his seat. "YOU DID WHAT?!" This caught my attention, and I rolled closer, leaving behind a little bit of the library unfinished in this pass. However, my 46th pass had left it pretty clean anyway. It could wait until after this was exined. I was still wary of this human; I didn''t want to let Beatrice near him while he was angry. --- Bee tried to keep her story rtively innocuous, or at least as innocuous as such a tale could be. However, Tony had a knack for asking questions that ferreted more and more details out of her. Little by little, she found herself exining even the parts of the story she had intentionally left out. She had just finisheding clean about the whole "swearing her soul to what might be a demon" thing when Tony overreacted. She supposed that was a little bit unfair of her, but it really wasn''t that big of a deal. Her master was nice. Tony stood up from his chair and started pacing back and forth, shooting looks at Void. "You realize what this means, right? It doesn''t matter if he''s a demon or not." "Yeah, I realize. There''s a lot more going on than I''ve been able to list. I have to say, with everything that I''ve learned, I can''t regret my decision." Bee calmly exined. She still hadn''t told him about the Lieutenant or the contents of the catbs. Especially that bottom level. She figured that Tony had enough to think about for now. Plus, she wanted to get past the difficulties they were having here first. "I even got the ss, Devotee. I''ve leveled way faster than I have any right to expect." This brought Tony to a halt. "You have a ss?" "I told you I was level 18. Of course, I have a ss." "Yeah, I kind of figured you were exaggerating." "That''s why I broke that tree branch - to show you that I had some real levels. And remember the front door?" "I kind of just figured you maybe had passed level one and gotten some sort of strength skill and were trying to impress me or something." "Nope, I''ve picked up three skills in my ss." "As a Devotee, you must have some idea what Void stands for, then?" Tony asked. "Yeah, I have figured out a couple of its values," Bee responded. "Anything dangerous or interesting?" Tony asked as he slowly sat back down. Bee wasn''t sure, but he seemed to be calming down. That was a bit of a relief. She hesitated. "Well, erm, the most important thing to Void seems to be cleanliness." After a slight pause, she added, "And a hatred of stairs." Tony stared at her silently for a moment. Then he leaned back in his chair and let out a fullugh that reminded Bee of his father. Then he shot a worried nce at the small ck disk that was now sitting at his feet. Chapter 66: Cleared Up Chapter 66: Cleared Up "You''re pulling my leg, right?" Tony chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. "How much of that was actually true? I mean, you almost had me till the whole stairs thing." Bee ran a hand down her face. She was well aware of how ridiculous her story sounded. And the worst part about it was that Void had devoured all the proof. His cleanliness had made it really hard for her story to be corroborated with any demon or skeleton remains. After all, who would believe a story about a teenager fighting demons alongside a god-like, slightly naive being? Bee wouldn''t, that''s for sure. She truly wished she was making this up, but it was all too true. Still, she wasn''t exactly sure what she could do or show someone to really get them to believe it all. However, if Tony stuck around long enough, she was sure he''d see what was going on. Even though he wouldn''t believe it right now. Still, she was in this deep. She supposed that she might as well keep being honest. Bee mentioned that the demons came from containment circles that had been broken. "Yeah, you said Void did that as some sort of training exercise, right?" Tony said. She didn''t believe that he was buying everything she was selling, but it seemed he was at least willing to humor her. "So that was only a couple sets of the demons. They are likely more in the castle that I''m not aware of. And there are definitely still some in captivity. For example, the water demons are still in their tanks. The restrictions have almostpletely faded, and they''repletely awake, but they can''t really leave their tanks. So they''re less of a threat. But I''m pretty sure that there are other types of demons in the upper parts of the castles and other kinds of magical beasts. They likely all need to be cared for and hopefully can still be useful." Bee did her best toy out the situation. "That''s not all of them. I wasn''t confident in my magic understanding to contain the demons myself. Also, because Void released them, I wasn''t going to stop them from getting out. Now though, I believe I could reset containment on the other demons. We just need to find them, and I need time to do it. Time that I won''t have if I need to focus on caring for the chickens and the crops for food." Bee now told Tony her ns. There was one thing she was careful to leave out. Any mention of Nazareth''gak. She really wasn''t sure how he would react to the news of the Lieutenant. If Tony was having trouble believing what she was saying now, the idea of an ancient evil secretly living within the local castle would make himugh in her face even harder. However, she felt bad just springing it on him by showing him. It seemed like a recipe for disaster, and she didn''t want to lose what help she might have. Of course, all the other issues she had told him about containing other demons and magical beasts and the like were really all very minorpared to the looming threat of one of humanity''s ancient enemies. On top of that, she was rtively certain that she had misunderstood a lot of Void''s intentions. However, it was still clear to her that it had intentionally released the Lieutenant. She also didn''t think that it was trying to free the demon for malicious purposes. There wasn''t much thought of that even at the beginning, but that could very well have just been her own wishful thinking. Now she was certain. Either it wanted a good fight against the demon or, more likely, having learned about Void''s motivations, it wanted to clean up the disgusting filth that Lieutenant was. The other option that she had been considering was that the Lieutenant was meant as some sort of training exercise for her like the other demons had been. That seemed less likely now. But Void was going to defeat the Lieutenant, and she had little doubt that it could. She wanted to be of assistance. Not just because it was her master, but also for the sweet experience, she would get from thebat. Even a fraction of a percent of the experience for a lieutenant''s defeat would likely be more than she could possibly imagine. It could take someone her level to the top tier in the country, likely in just one go. Tony had been quiet for quite a while. Bee, having pulled herself out of her thoughts, looked to him to see what he was doing. Tony had leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. It appeared that he was in deep thought. Or maybe he had taken a nap? Bee sat there and watched him for a little. Eventually, she lost patience though. "Well? What do you need to do first? Will you still help? I understand if not, it is dangerous. But before you go, could you at least tell me a little bit about caring for chickens and the gardens. The library here is extensive but rather focused. I won''t be able to figure that all out myself and have time to do all the containment necessary and" Bee realized that she was rambling and shut up. Tony didn''t respond right away. And she started to wonder if she had actually scared him off or insulted him somehow. However, she didn''t have to wait too much longer before he opened his eyes. The energy and vigor she had in the first scene when they first met in those eyes had returned. Throughout the day, as she had told them of her struggles, it had faded. As they walked, he had gotten tired, and her story was quite depressing, honestly. But now it was back. But it wasn''t exactly the same. The energy and enthusiasm were still there, but it had changed slightly. As if a weight hadpressed it. It was more substantive than before. The same amount of energy, just in a more efficient form, if that made sense. Something about that look sent her heart beating faster. It was full of intensity and what seemed like drive. "Sounds like we have our work cut out for us." Tony leaned forward. "The way I see it is, I won''t be able to be much direct help right away. But my job will be to make sure that you are in a position to do what is necessary. That will mean taking care of food and likely being another set of eyes. You''re lucky that the crops nted around here are decent. Some of the ones that aren''t food are not ones that I''m very familiar with, but I believe I can bring them back. Some of these are reagents you need for your alchemy, correct?" Bee nodded. "Yeah, many of the ones that require freshness are outside. I think I can identify most of them by now." She didn''t mention that she hadn''t had any need for fresh ingredients yet. Those usually tended to be the more powerful andplicated recipes. And she didn''t want to shake any of his newfound faith in her. "Well, the chickens also are underfed, but they should startying eggs again soon. It was a good thing that you threw out all the eggs you collected because they probably weren''tid very recently at all. These chickens are underfed enough that they won''t beying again for another week. We should have enough food with what we just brought to get us through till the eggs show up, and I''ll see what I can do about any crops that might be harvested slightly early. I think we''ll be okay on the food front." Tony concluded. Bee let out a breath of relief. That was some of the first good news she had had in quite a while. "It sounds like you need to finish exploring the castle. "Tony continued. "How long do you think that will take?" "It''s hard to say. There''s a lot of space around here. And there are many parts of it that I''ve never been to myself. There are several different towers, and it will take me some time to travel between them all. It will probably be a couple weeks at the fastest. And if I stop taking care of threats as I find them, even longer." "Will it be safe wandering around? Of course, it won''t be, but will you be okay?" Bee got the impression that he was asking if she wanted his protection. "I should be fine. I''m mostly going to be following Void. It''s guided me for the most part, and the whole effort really isn''t mine, so much as me helping Void out. Both Tony and Bee looked around for the little ck disc that had been pacing around the library. They didn''t see it until Bee checked under the table and found it sitting at their feet. Tony saw it jump slightly but justughed it off. It seemed that he still wasn''t taking Void seriously enough, in Bee''s opinion. --- I was d that therge human had calmed down rather quickly. He was starting to grow on me, and I didn''t want to have to spray him like I did the cat. Of course, I was prepared to do so if that meant protecting Beatrice. And I definitely didn''t want to chase him away, at least until he taught Beatrice how to give good pats. I totally wasn''t biased at all. But it was good to see him regain control over himself and even make substantial promises to assist Beatrice in her work. It was also nice to know what I would be doing for the foreseeable future. It was something I''d been looking forward to. Exploring the upstairs. Now that Beatrice was willing to take me, I could only imagine what messes were there. It sounded like there would be a lot. Of course, I reminded myself not to get too excited. I had to remember not to clean up the circles of white powder. Those were important and supposed to be there; they were not part of the mess. Of course, if Beatrice wanted to get rid of the demons, I definitely wouldn''t object. Besides, after finishing off all the earth demons, I had hoped to be more powerful again and maybe get another mutation. It probably wasn''t healthy to count on stuff like that, but having seen how thest several went, I couldn''t help but be excited to know what other capabilities I would soon acquire. But more opportunities to clean would avail themselves upstairs. Of course, I knew I could transmute some of the stuff in my dustbin for energy and grow that way. I wasn''t sure if I could exactly exin my reluctance to do so, though. Part of it was that if I experienced a simr explosion to what happened in the catbs, I could do significant damage to the castle. Also, it felt like I wasn''t really learning that way. With my newfound capabilities, my efficiency of energy use was so much greater that I really never had to transmute stuff for power. Even after fighting all those demons, I only had to recharge once or twice. And my storage was limitless, so there was no harm in keeping too much stuff. I think I just needed to figure out what I wanted to do with all of it. Was there any use besides giving me energy and more power? Oh, it seemed that the humans were done. I reyed thest bit of the conversation in my head while I thought since my sensors had picked it up and stored it in my memory banks. It seemed it was time for the humans to charge. They would begin all their work tomorrow. I went over to Beatrice''s charging spot and positioned the nket, getting ready to prepare her for charging. Tony was going to be on his own for now. However, it seemed that they weren''t going to charge right away. That made sense. Tony still needed a nket and pillow, I supposed, so I followed them out of the room. "Is there any particr reason you sleep on the floor in the library?" Tony asked. "I mean, I understand sleeping in the library. It seems like it''s near the exit, well-defendable, and has all the useful resources with plenty of space. But why haven''t you dragged a mattress in or something?" "Uuuhhhh." Chapter 67: V is for Vacuum Chapter 67: V is for Vacuum I followed Tony and Beatrice as they left the library. But they headed for one of the nearest smaller bedrooms. When we got there, I watched with a mixture of horror and interest as they removed a mattress from the bed. I didn''t know beds worked that way. Did they just destroy the bed, or are they disassembling it? What are they doing with it? Amidst my confusion, they carried it back to the library together and set it down on Beatrice''s charging spot. Oh. It dawned on me. Beds were the best human chargers, and Beatrice hadn''t been using one. I didn''t realize you could just move the bed to where she was sleeping, though. That was very smart of Tony to figure out. Why hadn''t Beatrice thought of it though? I wonder what the improved charging efficiency would be? Would they charge faster or did this somehow change their maximum charging capacity? Truly, humans are fascinating creatures. They returned and grabbed another one for Tony, along with nkets and pillows. I felt the need to be helpful, so I carried the pillow for them. It was much easier than it was the first time. I actually didn''t carry it in my w as I was worried about dragging it on the floor and getting it dirty. Sure I knew the floors had been cleaned recently, and my sensors confirmed that there was not a speck of dust on them, but it was more the principle of the thing. So I ced it on top of my chassis and just carried it there. Beatrice looked a little bit mortified when I did that, but Tony gave me a smile. Really, Beatrice would need to learn how to rx. She really did think too much of me. When I dropped the pillow off at Tony''s bed, I received a nice set of head pats. I''m d he hadn''t taken my rebuke earlier too personally. I then went over and made sure that Beatrice was fully in the proper position for charging. I sat and watched the door until they were both in sleep mode. Then I decided I would make sure everything was clean once more. Just in case. Doing a round of the castle was no longer nearly as time-intensive as before. When I first dedicated myself to making sure that this castle was livable, the n I came up with was a once-a-week full rotation to cover all areas. However, the entire area I had ess to now took me less than a couple hours to clean. This left me in a bit of a conundrum. What was there to do? There was not really anything I could clean that needed it. Sure I could clean again, and there was some very minuscule fraction of dust that had collected in thest hour, but there were really diminishing returns there. I had even sanitized all the floors and areas where there were significant concentrations of minuscule germs. All the door handles had apparently collected a significant amount, I had noted. More than I would expectpared to any other metal surface. Eventually, I saw the cating downstairs. It stared at me, and I stared at it for a little bit. I rolled towards it slightly to see what it would do. It simply popped to its feet, ran a few feet away, sat down, and continued watching me. I thought we had been forming a bond while Beatrice was away, but clearly, it was still a bit wary. I''m not sure I would ever really understand cats. With aplete loss of things to do, I returned to the library. I couldn''t clean here as there really was nothing to clean, and I didn''t want to wake up the charging humans. With nothing better to do, I started inspecting the book that Beatrice always seemed to be reading. It wasn''t a very thick book, but it seemed to be her favorite. As I looked at the cover, I gently took the book down from the table and ced it in front of me. My w very carefully cracked open the book like I''d seen Beatrice do many times before. I scanned each page. I wasn''t intentionally trying tomit them to memory or anything, but I was pretty sure my memory banks would have no problem containing the entire contents. However, I wasn''t really trying to understand the book but rather looking for patterns in the squiggles. The book was divided into 28 sections. It seemed there were 26 main sections; there were some smaller ones at the beginning and end. Each section was dedicated to one separate squiggly shape. Overall I saw there were at least 75 different shapes. However, judging based on context clues, it seemed a good proportion of them were more structural rather than content. I don''t know why humans need so many structural indications in their encoding, but they do whatever they want. After I finished some basic analysis, it seemed that there were 52 different squiggly characters. Half of the characters were covered in this book. But I noticed a symmetry. It seems like of the 52 characters, 26 of them corresponded exactly with another 26 of them. Of course, there were minor deviations and character shapes depending on which character surrounded it, but those differences were pretty easy to group together. So it seems that maybe these 26 characters represented half of the lexicon. The other 26 might either correspond to the first set or be somehow paired as some sort of interchangeable thing. There was definitely a pattern with the 26 characters that the book''s chapters were dedicated to being used less frequently. There was also the fact that they were almost always after a small round punctuation indicator that seemed to separate lines of information. I spent a decent amount of time trying to decode the book, but I was missing something. I needed some sort of connection to unravel the mysteries of these squiggles. Even if I just knew a little bit about what the book was about, it might work, or even a few sentences read out loud to me while I was able to watch. I was pretty sure I would understand that. --- When Bee woke up, she saw Void flipping through her A is for Alchemy book. That was interesting. She had never seen it show any interest in the books before. She''d always put that down to the fact that it likely knew all the stuff in the books already. But the intensity with which Void was studying each page made her question that. As she sat up, Void heard her and left the book toe over and say hello. She gave it a small bow of her head in greeting. It just waved its arm at her. She moved quietly so as not to wake Tony. He did have many levels on him, and yesterday must have been a much harder walk for him than it had been for her. Normally she would just go about her day at this point. She''d probably do some cleaning with her master, some research, and maybe start exploring the upstairs today. But she didn''t want to leave Tony just yet. So she went looking for a book to read. She had not finished everything, but she didn''t have any more need for more advanced alchemy right now. So scanning shelves, she began to look for books that might be useful or interesting. Unfortunately, there were a lot of really useless things in this library. She skipped over some things about demon containment; she had got a pretty good grasp of that already. There was a more advanced bestiary of known demons, but that wasn''t quite where she was looking for either. Eventually, she found an advanced demon-fighting guide. This might have promise. Demon Fighting for the not Entirely Inept and Useless Person. The titles here were always slightly questionable, but she would say she had gone from inept anduseless person to probablypetent. It was a book she remembered seeing when she was looking for ways to fight or contain demons for the first time, but recently her knowledge had been more focused on alchemy and healing. It might be good to do some undead research eventually, but that might have to wait. There still was that odd undead rat thing she had passed in the catbs to deal with. She hadn''t forgotten about that, but the demonic threat seemed much more pressing. Especially if they were to go exploring. While she had passed up on this book earlier, it fit her much better now. She pulled it off the shelf and began flipping through. It actually had a decent amount of advice. Apparently, it was written by some ex-adventurer who had spent some time training in a demonic college, almost like what she was doing. Of course, it was several hundred years ago, but that didn''t make the advice much out of date. Demons hadn''t changed very much since then. One of the things that sold her on this book was the authors honesty. The author admitted that there were many times when various chemical forms of demon-fighting were rtively useless. The passage she was referring to read something like: "if you''re getting chased by a freaking huge air demon and you throw some little bit of dust at it, even if that dust is demons bane, it ain''t going to do jack. Any air elemental that you need to run from should be high enough level that it will recognize an attack and simply not let it hit it. Sure, demons bane cuts through most demonic magic, but literal air flinging it out of the way is much more effective. A low enough level air demon that wouldn''t be able to do that isn''t worth the price of the demon bane you just flung into the wind. And this is why it''s always important to have heavier objects on hand too." The book went on, but this passage was incredibly useful. Most of the people who wrote books like these were schrly mages and tend to forget practical aspects. Like the fact that air demons can control air. Or the fact that earth demons are massive and require much more material to deal with them because of their sheer size. This hadn''t been an issue to Beatrice yet as she had never tried a lot of their suggestions, but it made her realize that some of them were quite impractical. As she was engrossed in the book, she didnt notice when Tony actually woke up. It wasn''t until he sat down across from her, muttering good morning, that she realized she was no longer alone. She returned the greeting, and they went about nning their day. Tony really wanted to get started on some of the gardens she had shown him yesterday, along with the chicken coop. She was willing to help, but he said it wasn''t necessary. It was a bit of relief. She really didn''t like farming. It was almost as bad as being a maid. Though with her luck that meant Void might decide that farming deserved a solid ce in its value system any day now. Plus, getting dirty was probably going to give her some ss penalties if she had to guess. Better to spend time leveling up or exploring the castle. As they went their separate ways, Bee decided it was long past time that she checked up on the lieutenant. With her much-improved version of Scan, she should be able to tell more about it, along with judging how much time they had left. As she and Void made their way towards the Lieutenants prison, a thought struck her. She realized she had forgotten something. "Master, where did the woman we rescued go?" In her excitement to get back, shepletely forgot about the injured woman she had left behind. She hadn''t seen or heard of the adventurer since she had been back, so she half expected to find out that Void had eaten her for some perceived slight. Through a series ofplicated beeps and arm motions, Void had been able to convey that the female adventurer had left abruptly. He also seemed to be indicating that she was quite rude. Bee thought that was rather odd, but if the human had the strength to run, she was probably fine. She hoped she was doing ok. Chapter 68: A Step Up Chapter 68: A Step Up Bee went with her master to check on the Lieutenant. Upon arriving, she found the ck room spotless, as always. Her master did seem to like cleaning this room. It was perhaps the one that got dirty the most frequently; the castoffs of a powerful demon like the Lieutenant were nothing to scoff at. Also, she figured it probably helped Void keep watch. She was hesitant to get very close. The statue seemed like it hadnt moved at all; it still stood in its cage in the same position with the same look on its face as before, but something was different. She did her best to put her finger on it but couldn''t quite figure it out. Bee walked closer to get into range of her Scan. Last time she had only gotten limited information about the Lieutenants level from the "Level: 30+". Though she had learned that it was a torture-type ss. She was hoping to find out more information now that she had leveled up a bit more. Name: Nazareth''gak, Type: Lieutenant Demon, Level: 50+, ss Type: Torture. She didn''t get much more information, but as she got closer, she realized that the color of its eyes had changed. Not significantly, but she could see that they were a slightly darker color than the rest of the gray stone. Also, the stone mes that danced along its arms and shoulders seemed to be emitting a faint glow of light. She quickly stepped back. Now that she was aware of it, she could feel a sort of magical pressure on her skin. That wasn''t there before. In fact, she had never felt anything like it. But she had read about it. Apparently, Scan was slightly better than just reading system messages or system details about a person. It also lets people sense magical energies with a higher sensitivity than their level would normally allow. She started to feel some pressure she hadn''t felt before, so she wasn''t sure if it was her Scan leveling up or if the demon was bing awake. However, she didn''t feel like she could just assume this sensation was a result of her getting more powerful. She shivered. She''d have toe back here daily to establish a baseline. Once she had a good idea of how quickly he was progressing, she might be able to better gauge when he would be free. But even these changes alone were worrying. She had no way of telling how long it would actually be now, but the fact that it was in fact waking up was not good. She probably would assume that there would not be much time before she needed to act. The only real question was whether it would stay still until it was at full power, or start venturing out while it was still recovering like the other demons had done. She was not sure which one would be worse. She would either have more time to n for a stronger foe or have to fight a weakened one right away. She guessed it all came down to if she could improve faster than the demon could awaken. It was unfortunate that she wouldn''t have time to try and contain it. Justying a new circle would take so much time that it would likely awaken before she finished. Assuming that she was even able to set the protections up without any mistakes. And that the changes and energies around it didn''t force it to wake up slightly sooner. Even if it wasnt at its maximum potential, she didn''t have any confidence in facing the Lieutenant. Also, she wasn''t going to force Void to help her if it hadn''t taken care of things already. It probably had its reasons. Closing the door behind her, she left the room. She needed to start nning. She also needed to decide whether to let Tony in on the big secret. There wasn''t much he could do to help, she thought. Unless he was going to change his field of study from farming. But if he already had the farmer ss, it wouldn''t help much. No, probably just letting him focus on creating a stable supply of food would be best for now. If he finished that and was able to maintain it with less than a day''s effort, then maybe she''d think about it again. But for now, it was time to explore the upstairs. ---- I watched as Beatrice checked out the tasteless statue and beautiful room. At first, I had been rather dismissive of the statue, but the more I had learned about it from hints Beatrice had dropped, the more I was wary of it. I had cleaned this room while she was gone, but I found it more difficult now to appreciate the beauty of the floor. I still couldn''t deny that it was breathtaking, but it was hard to enjoy when I was so acutely aware of the thing at the center. So I had slightly mixed feelings when we left. But I had a good idea about what we were going to do next. I zipped ahead of Beatrice and found the nearest stairwell. She was initially right behind me but had fallen a little bit behind. She had broken into a jog but just couldn''t keep up with my speed. I was slowly spinning in a circle, trying to contain my excitement. I didn''t realize before what it was to get bored, maybe because my earlier inefficiency meant there was always more for me to do. But between my avancement and familiarity with these areas, the same castle that had been so much of a challenge was now so far below my abilities that I wanted something new to tackle. When Beatrice caught up, she smiled at me. You want to go upstairs, master?" I let out an affirmative beep. I still wasn''t a huge fan of being carried, but Beatrice did do a good job of it. Being carried upstairs without having to just stare downwards at the floor was a much more positive experience. It also gave me a much higher perspective than I was used to. The stairs we were climbing were right across from the closet where we found the human woman. It was a narrow set of stairs, made of in stone and hidden in the walls. I had to say I approved of how this set of stairs was done. I thought this was how all stairs should be made. Hidden and out of the way. The fact that it was blocked off by a door was even better. If I didn''t want to see them, I didn''t have to. But this also disrupted my count. I thought there were 27 different stairways besides the grand hall, but apparently, there were at least 28 and possibly more. Oh well. Beatrice knew the whole castle better than I did, I assumed, so I''d have to follow her lead in this. When we arrived at the top of the stairs, I was set down again. This was a starkly different environment than the downstairs. Well, at leastpared to the entryway downstairs that was so grand and fabulous. When you got farther back downstairs towards some of the bedrooms and offices, things became a little more simple. Up here on this floor, they didn''t even try to pretend to be fancy. It was a narrow corridor lined with hard ck stone. The stones were well fitted, but not nearly as polished and smooth as the ones below. They also werent arranged in any decorative patterns. The walls were made of simr materials to downstairs, understandably, but I wondered what possessed the architects to change their floor strategy so dramatically. Well, even if it wasn''t fancy, it was still very well made. We came up to the end of a corridor that was only three and a quarter feet wide. And boy, was it dirty. It was as if no one had cleaned for over a month up here. Dust was everywhere, and I could see tracks in it, likely from the lesser demons. Apparently, they had found their way upstairs. I wondered if there were any still hiding around? I hadn''t seen any in forever, so I assumed not. Beatrice set off down the hallway. We passed several doors that resembled the ones downstairs but didn''t go into any of them. I wondered what was in there. I would have to checkter. As we went, I cleaned. Normally this would have taken me a very long time to do. I would have had to go back and forth across the three and a quarter feet, vacuuming up a 13 1/2 inch strip of dirt at a time. However, with my newfound abilities, I was able to just follow along at Beatrice''s heels, vacuuming up the entire width of the hallway as I went. I actually could have moved significantly faster than we were going and still not have left a speck of dust in my wake. So I wasn''t going toin about the pace. It seemed like afortable pace for Beatrice, and it also gave me time to methodically sweep my sanitationmp across the floor. I didn''t have time to disinfect the door handles or the walls or anything, but the floors did seem to be the dirtiest. The only thing that disappointed me about my new cleaning powers was that I wasn''t able to incorporate my graceful curves anymore. No, the most efficient style for me now was more simr to how it was before evering to this castle. Straight lines and sharp corners. When my cleaning radius was smaller, I had to find interesting and creative ways around obstacles. Now I just needed to send a bit more power to my vacuum and direct the air around any object in my way. That wasn''t to say I didn''t enjoy cleaning; it was definitely satisfactory to see the job done. But it never really felt like much of a challenge anymore. We reached the end of the hallway, which was also capped by a door. Beatrice opened it for me quite graciously. I rolled through, out into a hallway. This hallway was much more reminiscent of the ones downstairs. Still not as fancy as the entryway, of course, but the oak flooring and the carpet runner were quite tasteful. "All right, master, I think we need to check all the rooms in that direction," Beatrice said, pointing off to the right. I believe that''s where some of the secondary testing facilities were. Usually those had to do with some of the Junior Mage''s research projects. But I think there are some store rooms which might include live specimens. That''s likely where we would find any potential escapees." By escapees, I assumed she meant some kind of mess maker. I couldn''t let that happen. I''d already been responsible for far too much mess when it came to releasing the lesser demons and earth demons. I would have to be very careful not to disturb any more containment measures even if I wasn''t sure how various types of salt could possibly contain demons. That was another thing I should probably figure out, besides reading. I followed Beatrice to the right and entered the first door over there. Well, we didn''t actually enter the room. We opened it up, and it turned out to be a closet. Then we went on to the next door. That one was more interesting. It wasn''t a room with cages or anything that we were exactly looking for, but it was a room full of benches. And not the kind of benches people sit on. The rows of narrow tables with stone tops were almost perfectly t. Often beside the walls were cabs with ss windows, clear enough that I could see inside. They were full of various other ss-shapes and things. Along the far wall, there were several more interestingly-shaped pieces of furniture. I wasn''t sure what their purposes were, but humans did have some pretty odd design choices. One of the stranger pieces looked almost like a firece set on a table. The table part was about the same size and dimensions as the other tables around the room. A hutch of stone rested on top of it, taller than either Beatrice or Tony. The open part of the hutch faced towards us and was mostly covered by a pair of heavy-looking hanging curtains. Even more confusing were the tubes that led from the stone firece-like part to a set of bellows on the floor next to it. Truly, I had never seen anything like this. It seemed well made, but it wasnt exactly pretty. It didnt have any ash or soot around it though, which was a relief. I might not have been able to clean inside otherwise. The room was actually surprisingly clean. There was a little bit of dust, sure, but it seemed the room had been shut this whole time and was well cleaned beforehand. Beatrice seemed to get very excited, though. Darting towards the edge of the room, she started rifling through the cabs, checking to see what was there. I just started sweeping the room, making sure that I cleaned off the rtively thinyer of dust. With all the tables navigating the ce was actually a little bit tricky. It almost made me a bit nostalgic. Chapter 69: Nice Floors Chapter 69: Nice Floors Bee spent some time sorting through and inspecting all the alchemy equipment. So far, she had been making do with her small kit and whatever ss equipment she could get from the kitchen. She had thought about trying to use some of the metal mixing bowls and other tools. Still, the books had emphatically warned her about anything other than ss. Searching through the cab, she saw all the equipment listed in her books - proper measuring tubes with better tolerances than sks, various types of distition tubes, and vessels designed to better control temperature. This would make her alchemy so much more effective, not to mention easier. She even found a nice stand that she could put a candle under to provide a steady, constant source of heat. Bee caught herself in the middle of wondering how she''d transport all of this back to the library. Now that she had ess to an area specifically intended for alchemy, why abandon it? This ce even had safety equipment built in for her peace of mind. Now that the castle was safer, or so it seemed, there was no point in doing alchemy in the library besides being able to quickly find reference texts, at least. She could juste up here when she wanted to prepare a potion or try a new recipe. Still as exciting as this discovery was, it wasn''t why she came upstairs. When the mages were still around, she had been allowed upstairs to clean, but many rooms had been shut to her. So she didn''t really know theyout very well. She looked around to find Void cleaning the floor. In fact, he was actually almost done. She watched it go back and forth a couple more times at the far end of the room. The amount of dust that drifted up off the floor was significant. It seemed as if it was no longer bothering to only pick up the dirt directly underneath it like it used to. She wondered if her master realized how time-sensitive things were. Sure, she had spent a few precious minutes looking around, but even that was less than she would have liked. She was holding herself back here in the interest of heading off any recovering demons or dissipating suppression rings. Void just didn''t seem to mind at all. She went back and grabbed a couple of the sks while it finished up thest bit of the room. With a couple of the more useful pieces tucked away, Bee waited for Void at the entrance. - Oh, I see the human is done. I''m d that Beatrice didn''t decide to take very long. It was so kind of her to wait while I finished up the floor. Even if it was only a few seconds. Based on how excited she was to see this ce, we would probably being back, and it would be important to make sure that it was clean when we did. It would give the room some extra pizazz when she opened the door. It wasn''t like this was some storeroom we would never have to enter again. People usually don''t care about how those look, even if I do. We couldn''t stay too long, so I did a cursory cleaning of the floor rather than a deep clean. We exited the room and continued down the right hallway. We kept trying doors, finding more closets and storage rooms. We even discovered a couple more rooms full of long tables like the first. It wasn''t until we tried nearly a dozen rooms that we found a different one. This was a room of cages, not quite like the cages that I had seen before but still simr enough. It looked like all the cages were much smaller, thergest being about 2 feet tall. The shortest was 9.6 inches. Strangely, the material wasn''t just metal. Sure there were the bars and grating were mostly made of metal, but my sensors indicated that there was some ss between each metal strip. Making it less of a cage and more of a container. Inside each one of them, there was a small bird-like thing. It was curled up into itself as though sleeping, with a strange toucan-like beak that more resembled a mouth full of sharp teeth. Closer inspection also indicated that the "feathers" weren''t actually feathers at all but more visually simr to plumes of frayed thread. They were also very red. And very hot. The cages were ced on the dark stone floor like usual. Each cage also had a ring of salt around it. The salt was formed into somewhat familiar and veryplex patterns. Not the patterns of thenguage that I was learning from Beatrice''s book, mind you. This was more like the patterns around the other cages I had cleaned up. Thinking back, it was also like the pattern that was around me when I first came to this ce. I supposed that made some sense with Beatrice''s story. The patterns didn''t match exactly. They were much moreplex than the "normal" humannguage, and I had no hope of decoding them yet. Too many unique characters, and I had no frame of reference for what they meant. I was debating with myself if I should have Beatrice teach me this, too, when I asked her about reading normal letters. Just when I was considering this approach, Bee started to rub out the salt around one of the smallest cages. I beeped in panic. Hey, you''re not supposed to do that. You just told me that was a bad idea. That was kind of a hard sentiment to get across, though. At times like these, I really wished I could talk. But still, she seemed to understand. She looked down at me and smiled. "I think I''ve learned enough that I could probably redraw some of the simple suppression rings. At least, I hope so. I don''t want to fight fire elementals. I''m just d there aren''t any greater fire demons. This castle probably would have melted if there had been any like that let loose." After she had collected all the dust around that one cage, she started sprinkling dust from a second pouch back around it, almost exactly matching the pattern of the previous dust. Once she finished, she stepped back. She watched the cage for a second and then frowned. She stepped forward and examined her work, pushed a few grains of salt to the side, and stepped back again. This repeated several times. Each time the design sheid out was more and more simr to the one she had just erased. Eventually, she got stumped and moved to wipe it all away. But I knew what she was missing. I saw there were just a couple of small mistakes. And I understood why they were hard to see. They were pretty minor. I reached up with my arm, and before she could wipe away the salt, I gently pushed a few grains of salt to the left and right. It felt strange to not be cleaning up what I would have normally tagged as a mess, honestly. But now that I understood it had a purpose, I could treat it like just another strange human decoration. When I had adjusted the pattern to match my stored image of the ring, Beatrice looked at me and stepped back. We stood perfectly still for a half second before the circle shed blue, and Beatrice smiled. "Thank you! I didn''t notice those two lines were slightly at the wrong angle. I appreciate the instruction, master." She finished it off with a slight bow but seemed rtively happy, despite me having to correct her. This was not something I wasfortable with. I didn''t really know what I was doing with this at all. The only thing I would befortable giving instructions on was cleaning, and this wasn''t even close. In fact, this was almost the opposite of cleaning. Just because I had a good understanding of patterns and good memory banks didn''t mean I was qualified to instruct her on this. I examined the salt more closely. No longer was it just a series of piles. It seemed that the sh of blue had smoothed everything out somehow, and I could see energy trickling between each grain. Looking more closely at some of the other piles, I could see the same energy, but much more faintly. It seemed that the salt piles onlysted so long before they ran out of juice. Beatrice stepped to the next smallest cage and made another attempt. Because the cage was slightlyrger, the symbols were slightly different. Beatrice made several attempts at redrawing it a couple times; soon enough, she wiped away her patternspletely. Eventually, she got very close. I only helped a little bit at the end, but this one, too, shed blue. It was nice to see her making some improvements. To be honest, I didn''t understand what was going on at all. The only way I was of any assistance was because I just remembered what I saw. It was far tooplicated for me to begin decoding these symbols without help. We moved on to the next one. Bee was extremely happy that her master was willing to assist her in drawing the circles. She should have guessed, but who knew it would be such an expert at demonic magic? That was a relief, too, because she was pretty sure that these circles were almost entirely out of power. And fighting these fire elementals would be very difficult. They were known for their speed and destructive power. Of course, if she had a bucket of water, it wouldn''t be too hard to defeat them. The trick was if she could catch them before they burned the whole ce down. After she had finished the second containment circle, she started to understand something. It was a brilliant way for her master to teach her, but the enchantments didn''t just getrger as the circles grew. They had to adjust too. Various runes controlled the size and density of the power suppression field. Also, the slight emphasis on each variable was different in the way they were written. It was reallyplicated and subtle, but Bee felt that she was beginning to understand it. The third cage was actually the same size as the second cage, and it only took her a couple tries to get it right. She couldn''t help but pump her fist in the air when she stepped back for that one. Finally, she hadid her first real containment circle all by herself. This was a huge achievement. The only time that had happened to an apprentice when she was here, they had thrown a feast for him. Even a lot of the more reclusive mages hade out and drank wine and partied. Apparently, most apprentices studied for years before they were able to do that. Now she wondered how much of the time studying was really spent cleaning, but still. Apparently, it was a big aplishment and a good excuse to celebrate. Of course, they didn''t have the food for a feast, but she was still satisfied. The fourth cage wasrger, though. Instead of just going for it, she studied the current circle around it and made a note of the changes from the previous one. There was a lot, but they were simr for the most part, and if you didn''t take a closer look, you wouldn''t even notice. She looked around, hoping she could find a paper to take some notes and do some math. But there was nothing nearby, so she just walked forward and went for it. It was really not that much of a risk. If she really couldn''t get it and her master refused to help, she could always go downstairs and find some more resources. She''d have some time before the demon woke up. Besides, the circle was almost dead anyways. It was tricky, but eventually, she got it. Master let out an encouraging cheer. She looked down at Void by her feet and smiled. The recognition was something that she wasn''t used to. When she worked with her father, praise had been scarce at best, and cleaning wasn''t exactly highly valued in the mage college. She took a second to celebrate before moving on to the next cage. There were still several cages to go, and she was pretty certain she wouldn''t have enough salt to finish all of them. Still, she could make some decent progress here and now. And she''de back tomorrow when she had stocked up on salt to better explore the rest of this floor. Overall she didn''t think she could ask for much more when it came to securing the rest of the castle. Chapter 70: Clean Words Chapter 70: Clean Words I supervised Beatrice as she spent several hours containing the fire elementals. It was fun to just hang out and clean together. Well, it was only sort of cleaning, more like fixing things. I had never been much of a handyman, but it was a lot more enjoyable than I would have ever thought. Perhaps I needed to expand my repertoire. As we finished binding thest of the elementals, I noticed that Beatrice was starting to slow down. She was taking longer to speak, and her hands were much less precise. Then something clicked in my processor, and I realized this might be a symptom of humans getting tired. I didn''t think we would be able to finish exploring this floor today. We were so close topleting our task, though, so I figured I''d let her finish up. I saw her eyes starting to droop by thest circle and ended up mostly doing it by myself. I didn''t mind too much as she had gotten quite proficient, and I hadn''t had to help for quite a while. After the entire set of cages had been re-ringed, Beatrice and I left to go back downstairs. I didn''t mind returning to this floor. It was nice to go explore something new, but I didn''t want to get into too many new areas without Beatrice. Even though I explored a lot of the main floor by myself, I since realized that I might be missing important context about the nature of the messes I was cleaning. So it was best to have Beatrice take care of any of these odd things while I was able to do some of the more regr cleaning. She was like the specialized task force of our janitorial duo. It was still a bit odd to think of a human as more of my assistant, but it was something I was getting used to. Maybe it was rubbing off since she had an entirely too high opinion of me. Still, I didn''t imagine that would ever change. Though with how things had been going, perhaps I should try harder to meet her expectations, for her safety as much as mine. As I tucked Beatrice into her bed, I pondered this. Could I really be powerful and capable enough for humans to look up to me so? I wasn''t sure if it was possible, but I would do my best. Looking at the already snoring form of Tony across the library, I figured it might not just be for Beatrice''s sake that I needed to improve. It felt like a lot of the humans around here could really use some help. While the humans slept, I considered going for another pass around the entire main floor, but my sensors told me it really wasn''t necessary for at least another day. Sure I still could, but even that would only upy me for a little bit. I would need something to do while they slept. Going back to the book that I had been looking at previously, I continued trying to decipher the characters. I thought I was getting pretty close. I realized there were actually only 26 characters. There just was some sort of special variation of each that went after the dot punctuation marker. And also sometimes randomly in a sentence. I had to figure out the logic, but I imagined I would. --- Bee awakened slowly, snuggling deeper into the bed. It wasfortable, and while she was well-rested, that didn''t mean she wanted the day to start just yet. She was unwilling to leave the warmfort of her nket cocoon for a few more minutes. Eventually, she sighed and wriggled out from under the covers. She was bing ustomed to being tucked in every night. It was something she hadn''t felt since her mother had died. She lowered her feet to the floor and sat for a moment, reflecting. Looking at the lighting through the windows, she saw that she''d only slept for a few hours. A higher-level person just needed less sleep. Especially since she had slept so well over in the little vige a couple nights ago. So it was no surprise to see that Tony was still asleep. He might have been a hard-working farmd who was used to getting up at the crack of dawn, but that didn''t mean he needed any less sleep than the normal person at his level. Checking his status, Tony was still level 6. She was level 18. No! she was level 19 now, apparently. Bee yawned. She must have missed the message because she was so tired. Thatst bit of suppression circle maintenance had been hard to get through. It wasn''t super important as there was no skill choice or anything of the like. So it was really just a notification that she was one step closer to the next skill. Level 20 was tantalizingly close, but it wasn''t that impressive. Well, it was at her age, but the rewards at level 20 weren''t that impressive. It was just another skill. At 25, though, she could improve her ss. And she would be lying to herself if she said she wasn''t looking forward to improving Devotee. As much as Bee had settled into the role of Void''s Devotee, she was not exactly happy with it. Not that she wanted to leave Void, even if she could. No, it was mostly that the ss didn''t have too many benefits. Void didn''t seem to get anything out of it either. There were no worship requirements for her, and as far as she could tell, her master didn''t benefit from prayer in any way. It didn''t seem to get something when she cleaned alongside it, so if she could get a more useful ss specialization, she would like to. Still, 25 was arge jump from 20, even more so than 20 was from 15. At least in terms of experience, it was. Stretching, she adjusted her clothes slightly. It had been nice of Mary to send her off with some fresh ones. She had long since gotten used to wearing the same set of clothes for several days in a row, but a month in the same set stained with sweat and blood was a bit much. She''d have to prioritize finding some other clothes. Now that she remembered what a fresh set felt like, she didn''t want to go back. Looking around, she saw her master flipping through a book. It was a book that she was surprised to find it reading. It was her alphabet book, A is for Alchemy. It must be so boring if it was reading an alphabet book for children. Thinking about it, though, she realized there was very little for it to do overnight. It was too efficient at cleaning to let that upy it the entire night, plus it had no demons to hunt at the moment. Between that and its unwillingness to go up or down the stairs without being carried, perhaps Void taking up some light reading made sense. Still, the whole stairs thing did seem very strange for something that she knew to be so strong. Maybe she could help. She wasn''t much of a carpenter, but maybe Tony could assist too. If they found enough wood, perhaps they could build a ramp up some of these stairs. Bee considered how useful that would be. If her master asked for it, she certainly wouldn''tin, but it didn''t seem like it would reach the top priority on her list. Maybe once they contained all the possible dangers on the upper floors, they would have time. And there was also the Lieutenant to think of. Her head started to ache slightly at the reminder of her constantly growing pile of tasks. She moved over to Void''s side. Looking over it, she saw that it was in the 9th chapter, "I is for Intent ."That was a tricky chapter for her to understand. When she first heard about alchemy, it seemed like the recipe was the important part of getting the desired final result. The materials, the way they were mixed, the quantities, and so on. And it was, for the most part, but there was another factor as well. A very important one, if rtively minor in effect. That was the intent behind the item being created. Just a random circle shape or a potion unwittingly made wouldn''t likely have much magic energy. Whoever wasying out the materials needed to have a clear picture of what they wanted it to do. Her tracing of the circles of the fire elementals was effective because she wanted to contain them, but probably less effective than if she understood each room to the fullest extent and really understood how it would help keep them there. She wasn''t sure how much of an impact that would make. But if she was someone who just randomly copied directions without having any intent, the magical properties of the materials would not be activated. That was how she understood it. It was very likely something was wrong with her interpretation, though, especially with how well her potions had worked so far. But why was Void reading this? It didn''t seem to realize that she was standing over it as it traced under each word with its little w. I had done it! Humans are actually quite clever, even in this bizarre ce. The characters each represented a sound. And if you yed those sounds out, they corrted with spoken words! How could I not have realized it earlier? This was revolutionary. Of course, this book was full of mistakes too. I had extracted a set of rules for decoding that exined perhaps 70% of the symbols, but there were many that simply did not fit into the pattern. Many of these letters represented sounds that weren''t in the words that I was pretty sure they were trying to say. And sometimes a letter was said one way and sometimes another. The whole thing was full of contradictions and really, really confusing, but I was 96% certain of my interpretation. With additional confirmation and something to check my work against, I could probably bring my 30% uncertainty down to 0.6% pretty easily. But already, I was right enough that I was getting close. After I had that epiphany to convert each letter to a sound, I went through each chapter closely to map these rtionships out. Once I did that, things really started to line up. I had flipped through the whole book dozens of times at this point. I had it mostly scanned in my memory, but somehow, the physical presence of it allowed me to catch things that mypression algorithm had deemed unimportant and hadn''t saved. At least, that''s what I thought was happening, but it was quite weird. Something about having the original in front of me seemed to help me, but I couldn''t exactly exin why. Anyways, I was now working on deciphering the 9th chapter. I was having a lot of trouble understanding it. Not necessarily because the words were more confusing than the previous chapters, but the contents of the chapter didn''t really make any sense. I had gone through and looked at a few of the other chapters, which exined a lot of why random salt circles were on the ground all throughout this castle. But why it mattered what you thought when you ced down salt circles was still beyond me. I was considering skipping over this chapter and moving on to the next one. The reason I hadn''t was that this seemed to focus on one of the confusing letters whose sounds didn''t seem to always be the same thing. Right about when I had just given up on chapter 9, a shadow fell over the book. This jolted me from my musings. I noticed Beatrice had woken up and came over to say hi. She was looking at the chapter as well. Beatrice frowned at the page. "I found this chapter extremely confusing. I wish you were able to exin some of this to me. That would be really helpful." She said. Well, at least I wasn''t the only one who was confused here. I was ttered that she thought I could exin it to her, but that was totally beyond me right now. She continued. "I mean, I understand the idea that you need to have the intent of doing something while youy out your circles. But I don''t understand why knowing more about the details of how the magic works to change the intent. So the particr part I''m stuck on is, does the intent guide the magic more efficiently somehow? Or does more knowledgeable intent just activate the magic held within the materials better?" I just looked at her. Maybe if she kept asking questions, she would answer some more of mine. At least she was giving me data on what this text was trying to convey. I recorded her words to parse through furtherter. Though the fact that we were both confused didn''t bode well. Chapter 71: Workload Optimization Chapter 71: Workload Optimization Harold sat on his horse as he watched the brigade march out of the capital''s gate. He wasn''t exactly happy, but he supposed this was as good as he was going to get. The report from the adventurer team had not been followed up with a more detailed report. He could only assume that the two remaining members had not been able to get away. This had worked against him in some ways and for him in others. He had managed to convince the king that they needed to send troops. With the looming war, though, all that he could peel off was a single brigade that was slightly understrength. Of the army''s managed divisions, he had managed to get one of the morepetent ones to draw from. But themand structure was not exactly what he had hoped. He wouldn''t have cared if he wasn''t being dragged along by himself - but since he was, it irked him that he was not onlying, but he wasn''t in charge. It was a type of punishment meted out by the king and tacitly supported by the Warden. Harold had been left in an advisory role for this mission on ount of his failures. He couldn''tin too much, as he didn''t have the military expertise to really lead a bunch of soldiers. But when it came to decisions involving demons, it was going to be difficult to take a backseat. Ordinarily, this wouldn''t be much of a problem, but the brigade Commander was not someone he felt he had much influence over. Colonel Gaston was a hard man. A man who worked his way up from the ranks. He started at the bottom as amoner and has spent many years being promoted only due to extreme service and loyalty. All around, he sounded like an amazingmander, but he was a bit of a stickler for the rules. Worse, he didn''t hold much respect for the mage types. Normally if the colonel hade from a noble family, he would have been more used to the political world of the mages and been more willing to listen to Harold''s advice. At least Harold would understand how to interact with him. As it was, he feared that Colonel Gaston would put them in danger by underestimating the threat they were going against. The nearly four and a half thousand men were not half of what Harold thought they would need, but it was better than nothing. With those numbers, though, it was going to take them a while to get there. It would be a little over a week of travel to Greg and then 5 days more to the castle. He thought that even if the Lieutenant was released immediately, they would still be okay. Still, Harold''s leg bounced nervously in his stirrup. For thest 170 years, the mages had been recing the Lieutenant''s containment on a monthly basis. It used to be a permanent fixture until some dolt messed it up while trying to replicate the thing. Harold shuddered to think about the consequences that the poor guy must have dealt with. Still, between thest recement date and the estimated time for the Lieutenant to recover, they would be getting there several weeks before it would wake up. Harold could only hope that that was enough time to fix things. He sighed. He was doing a lot of hoping now, and neither he nor the Warden was very happy about that. Well, while he was at it, he might as well hope that they could handle the monster that the college had summoned. --- Beatrice and I had given up on the book soon after Tony woke up. Apparently, our conversation was getting pretty loud as she asked me questions, and I beeped confusedly back at her. Normally she seemed to have no trouble interpreting my sounds, but this time I didn''t think she understood what I was saying. As she got increasingly confused and I struggled to exin that I didn''t know what this was about, I was rescued by the other human''s entrance. Tony seemed like he hadn''t charged quite enough, based on his 31% slower-than-usual movements, but maybe I was wrong. He and Beatrice began to make ns for "breakfast ."From their conversation, the word appeared to refer to a type of food. I normally wasn''t really engaged in the whole human food situation until recently. And, of course, I had heard of breakfast before, but only now as I was really able to put together what it meant. Thinking about it, I tried to figure out how the word would be spelled. Not for any particr reason but just out of curiosity. My humans wanted to go make their breakfast, and I followed them to the kitchen. As we traveled, they talked about chickens and eggs and other food. I made my way over to the little crack that I caught the little furry mess maker in so long ago. I now had a word to describe it. It had been a small rodent that was either a mouse or a rat. With its size, I would say it was either a veryrge mouse or a small rat, so it was hard to say. But one thing I remembered was that they tended to not be solitary creatures. And if there was one, there might be others. So I sat there patiently with my w extended, ready to pounce in case anyone came out. I wasn''t lucky enough to catch one while the humans ate, but it was a good way to pass the time. It also gave me time to ponder the human food situation more. Tony returned to full movement efficiency after eating, suggesting that humans really did require somebination of food and charging to function optimally. I wondered why they needed two separate types of fuel. Soon after they finished, they went about their separate days. Tony ventured outside to go take stock of the gardens that he hadn''t gotten to yesterday, and Beatrice and I went back upstairs. We checked on the fire elementals before we did anything else. We found nothing to worry about; apparently, we had done our job well. We continued exploring the hallwaypanionably. As we checked each room, I did my best to clean them. Most of the time, we didn''t need to stay in a room for very long. We found a few more that were simr to the fire elemental room but had a significantly lesser number of cages. Most of the time, we stopped to contain them right away. Only a few did we skip at Beatrice''s behest. Now that I had some improved knowledge of the containment circles from that book, they made a lot more sense when I was assisting Beatrice. Now I wasn''t just copying what was there, but I was starting to understand why they were shaped the way they were. I didn''t think I would be able to create one from scratchpletely, but if I were to modify one for a different purpose, I might be able to do that. I could definitely replicate one I''d already seen before. We made decent progress that first day. We had checked most of the hallway, but there was a lot more than just this one hallway upstairs. However, Beatrice seemed to think that most of the dangerous specimens were kept in this area. And if she was right, it made sense to prioritize these. Maybe other demons would escape elsewhere, but those messes could be cleaned. Damage done by something like a fire elemental would be nearly impossible to fix for us. I still couldn''t repair fire damage, after all. We spent the entire day doing this. And when it was time for humans to charge again, we went downstairs and back to bed. This time while the humans charged, I went around cleaning the bottom floor. I still didn''t need to, but it felt nice. I took my time and treated it as a meditative pursuit. Plus, I''d rather clean it too often than not often enough. With how things had beentely, who knew when my attention would be shifted toward some new adventure? This left me with many hours before I expected Beatrice to wake up, let alone Tony. For some reason, Tony seemed to need longer to charge his batteries. Oh well. With nothing else to do, I went back to trying to decipher A is for Alchemy. I flipped back to the first chapter and read it from the beginning again. Taking my time to dissect each word, I still breezed through the first eight chapters. Everything that Beatrice and I had practiced today helped cement my knowledge from it. When I got to chapter 9, reading about intent, I was still thoroughly confused, though. Eventually, I decided to skip that chapter and just move on. Once I was in uncharted territory, I found that I was reading much slower. It took a lot more time for me to simte the new information than it was to review the previous information in a different context. Over time as I did this, I felt like I learned a lot about some of the basic principles of being interested and what Beatrice and I had been doing upstairs. Again Beatrice woke first and came over to see me reading. She continued her questions from the previous day, and this time instead of just trying to let her know I didn''t know the answers, I tried to engage with her. We seemed to have a conversation as she would put forth an idea, and I could give her my general impression of it. It was frustrating not to be able to exin my thoughts fully, but I thought I was able to convey my opinions on matters well enough. Tony woke up, and the pattern repeated. This time while they ate breakfast, I didn''t wait for another mouse toe out. I instead found that the cat was back. It seemed to take him a couple days to forgive me, but now it wandered into the kitchen with an arrogant gait and sat on the counter looking down at me. I looked up and met its gaze. "I didn''t know you guys had a cat," Tony said as he jumped out of his seat, extending a hand slowly. The cat sniffed it and flopped over on its side as Tony began to stroke the cat between its ears. "Who''s a good kitty." I was a little taken aback. I had not received any more pats from Tony since the first ones, yet he dispensed them so easily to a neer? In fact, maybe he only dispensed them to neers? That would be uneptable. Even more, the reason why I needed him to teach Beatrice this skill. But he clearly had his priorities wrong, giving my hard-earned affection to a third party. I bumped into Tony''s ankles indignantly. He jumped slightly, surprised, before looking down at me. "Oh, don''t worry, I didn''t forget about you," he said, and he kneeled down to pat my outer shell gently. I turned around, and I heard a gasp, but it was just Beatrice covering her mouth with her hand. I don''t know why, but she looked like she was almost choking on her food. Setting that aside, I was immensely pleased. But the attention session didn''tst very long. Tony had apparently finished taking stock of the garden and the animals and now knew what needed to be done to care for them. So he set off, once again braving the horrors of the world outside. Beatrice and I went upstairs to continue our own mission. The day was a bit more exciting than the previous ones. Apparently, we were dealing with some more threatening experiments this time. We hadn''t allowed any major breaches of containment, but thest few hade pretty close. Luckily, there was nothing so destructive as fire, but a few of the bird-shaped creatures of wind had been chirping angrily at us from inside their cages as we redrew the circles. Beatrice seemed to rx when we left the final room at the end of the hallway. "We still have a lot of ground to cover, but I think those are the most dangerous ones. The next things we should check out are some of the animal resource gathering stations. Those normally just contain normal animals that are either harvested or have some part of them harvested. The animals are rarely dangerous, but I imagine many ran out of food a long time ago." I wasn''t sure what to make of that and decided to reserve any sort of judgment until we opened the first door. Unfortunately for me, that first door set all of my sensors into overdrive. Chapter 72: Hazardous Waste Chapter 72: Hazardous Waste I stared at the towering heap of ckish-brown filth that stood before me. How something so disgusting had managed to pile so high unnoticed. My sensors moved upwards towards the ceiling and registered a bunch of small, furry ck shapes. Eyes blinked open, and looked down at Beatrice and me. The little beady ck eyes blinked at semi-random intervals, creating a cascading pattern of winking stars above us. One of the creatures unwrapped what appeared to be wings around itself and then resettled them. I watched a glob of something fall from above andnd on the pile, growing it just a tiny bit. I ran my sensors over the mass and shuddered. This simply wouldn''t do. Without waiting for Beatrice to follow me, I rushed to the first monstrosity besmirching my floors. I couldn''t roll over it, as it was tall enough to coat my chassis. Even if it would clean itself over time, I needed to exhaust all other options before I made that sacrifice. So I started shining my sanitationmp at it. Judging based on how much microscopic life my sensors were registering, I reasoned that it might have some effect. It wasn''t enough. In fact, the data indicated that whatever this was had so much potency that it was contaminating the air around us. I started using my vacuum and air control to gently extract bits of mass from the pile, but it was prone to stter everywhere. Stopping before I made even more of a mess, I popped out my mop and spray bottlebo. My mop was an underused tool, in my opinion. Compared to how revolutionary it was when I first got it, its usefulness quickly faded. There just hadn''t been much liquid that needed cleaning recently until now. The goop was too solid to be picked up, so I sprayed some cleaningpound to dilute it. Once I had sprayed it a little, I tried to absorb it, but my mop mainly just removed the liquid I sprayed on the pile. The mess itself remained mostly unscathed. This was much more difficult than I had feared. Beatrice had finally made it into the room. She had a rag tied over her face. "I hate cleaning up guano. It''s the worst. Normally the mages only made us do this as a punishment. But still." Was the goop called guano? At least the humans here seemed to understand the proper disgust that this guano deserved. This was one of the first moments that I actually had hope for the people here. Moving toward a closet, Beatrice pulled out a shovel. That was a good idea. I wasn''t sure how else to clean up this mess. She walked over to me with a shovel and bucket in hand and put the bucket down. With a sigh, she dug a load out of the pie and plopped it into the bucket. As she was digging out another shovel full, she froze. "What!" I waited for her to finish with the shovelful, trying to figure out how I was going to assist her. However, she didn''t move. "I just hit 19 recently. How did I get to level 20 so fast?" Beatrice shot me a quick look. - LEVEL UP. LEVEL 20 REACHED. CHOOSE A SKILL: PERSUASION, DIVINE ALCHEMY, IMPROVED MUCKING Bee was conflicted. Not about what skill to choose - she had made up her mind as soon as the options were presented. No, she was trying to decide if it went against her pledge to Void to simply keep her options to herself this time. She reasoned that it didn''t. Her master wanted her to be independent and resourceful, so surely it would like her to take the initiative here? It obviously wasn''t because she feared it would pressure her into Improved Mucking. Of course not. Deciding to ask for forgiveness rather than permission and resolving to definitely consult Void next time, she quickly made her selection. "I''m thinking I am going to pick Divine Alchemy. Is that okay?" Her master just gave her an affirmative beep. Bee let her shoulders slump in relief. She really hadn''t wanted to pick Improved Mucking. Seeing how much experience she had gotten for the single scoop of bat guano she had removed, it could have been a good choice for leveling. But she shuddered at the thought. She''d rather level more slowly than hit level 100 as the world''s best bat guano shoveler. The first option, though, was one that she would avoid at almost any cost. It was her father''s favorite skill. One that he had used at every turn in both his business and personal life. Persuasion was a skill that Bee deeply found disgusting. The way it subtly warped the mind of the target was sickening. After being the target of it so many times, she decided to never even consider it. That she had even been offered the skill was worrying for her. She supposed it had to do with her interactions with Tony''s family and her bargaining. Of course, that had been with the best of intentions, but still, the system seemed to count that. Of all the options, the one that she chose wasn''t a very hard decision. She didn''t exactly know what Divine Alchemy did, but it sounded awesome. Her first truly magic-based skill! This was everything she had dreamed about. Bee had a nagging thought that it wouldn''t give the abilities of the god of alchemy, though. She would need to look through the library and see what it actually did. She finished her second scoop of guano with a lot more enthusiasm. The experience she earned for that one was much less than the first, but still an incredible amount. What made this such a valuable task to Void? It was cleaning, sure, but she normally wouldn''t get anything that lucrative from the more routine stuff. Looking over at her master, Bee became even more confused. Typically it was the most enthusiastic cleaner that she had ever seen. But now it was spraying liquid at the pile and trying to mop it up. It didn''t seem to be having much sess. Could it be that it had never cleaned guano before? *** After a long day caring for the bats, Bee finally returned to the library. She wanted to pass out right after she and Tony had finished eating, but there were a couple things that she needed to take care of. First, she wanted to check out what her new skill did. Also, now that they had cleared out the other possible threats from the castle''s upper levels, she figured it was time to turn her attention to Nazareth''gak. She noted that Tony had made it to level 7. It seemed that his time in the fields had done him well. However, she refrained from congratting him on it. He hadn''t brought it up, and she still hadn''t revealed her Scan ability. Instead, they talked about how the crops and chickens were doing. Tony had settled into a routine, and she hated to admit it, but most days, she forgot he was here. The only times they saw each other were in the mornings and evenings. As Bee needed less sleep than he did, often she was gone before he woke up. However, she no longer had to worry about food. Like at all. But it wasn''t just like servantsying out a meal; Tony did it with more care. She imagined this might have been what living with parents who cared about her was like. Her mother had been like this, but it had been far in the past, and she didn''t remember it as much as she would like. But if Bee came back from clearing out dangers on the upper floorste, there was always food waiting for her, usually some for breakfast as well. Now that the upper floors were mostly safe, she actually had business in the library today. She browsed the shelves looking for a couple things. The exact title of the book she was looking for still eluded her, but she had an idea of what to look for. Eventually, she found a thick tome that mentioned her new skill. As she read the description, her heart sank. The skill did not, in fact, give her divine abilities in alchemy. No, it was a faith-based skill to which sses like Devotee often had ess. This skill gave her improved abilities with the types of alchemy that her divine parton favored. Of course, for her, that meant cleaning. Well, that wasn''t useless, exactly. She could dabble in more cleaning-rted solutions, but maybe there were other applications here too. If she convinced Void that a speed potion would help her to clean more quickly, would the skill consider those fair game? It was something to test. Other than that, so far, she couldn''t figure out a recipe that involved circumventing stairs. Maybe she could make ramps? The second book she found in the stacks Void had arranged by the entryway so long ago. That was probably why she had never found it. Containment and Disposal: What to do when You are Done with Your Demons. It was exactly the book she needed. As she read through it, things were much more difficult than she had first thought. There was no simple way to kill a demon that was contained and in stasis. Not unless you had ess to power a dozen levels higher than the demon. A captured demon just had too many inherent defensive properties to damage. However, not all hope was lost. There were ways of making a demone out of its slumber while weakened significantly. The book referenced a dozen different methods, none of which it discussed in depth. It did reference a few other books, which she eagerly collected. They didn''t directly address the methods for disposing of unwanted demons the bookid out, but they discussed the concepts that it was based on. One was an in-depth discussion on how demons regained consciousness as they came out of hibernation. Another talked about the environmental effects on demons. Containment and Disposal mostly seemed to center its ideas around waking the demon up to consciousness before its full power returned. If it woke, then it would lose its protection and not have its full power. It wasn''t easy to pull off and required several difficult to concoct potions to force a demon awake early. Normally this wasn''t done as people generally were not stupid enough to summon demons much stronger than themselves without binding them. The second approach was more to make the mages'' life easier. It dealt with preparing the surrounding environment and essentially setting traps. If they filled a fire demon''s surroundings with water before it woke up, there would be very little trouble in fighting it. There were several other things that could be done like that as well. Most, though, required a group of mages to pull off, and that was something that Bee wouldn''t have. The mostmon disposal method was banishment. The demons could fight against it, of course, but it was a lot easier than killing them. Unfortunately, it required more people. It also depended on the type of demons. The lesser demons they had been fighting at first were easy to banish, and that was the mostmon solution for them. The earth demons were pretty much impossible. Bee wasn''t sure how she would handle Nazareth''gak. There was no way she was going to be able to banish it. She also would have needed to start redrawing the circle before it was erased if she had any hope of finishing it on her own. It seemed that she had a week or three before she would have to find some way to get rid of it before it woke up naturally. If the Lieutenant woke at full power, there likely wasn''t anything on this that could stop it from freeing its brothers. If that wasn''t the case, she would have long considered running. Looking through the references and all the possible ways that she could weaken a demon, Bee began to make notes. She was writing things down long into the morning. Eventually, she fell asleep in her chair, head on the table, and notes pushed to the side. She stayed like that through the night, even as Tony checked on her before bed. Even as a concerned Void nudged her foot, trying unsessfully to get her to move to the mattress just a few feet away. Chapter 73: Immaculate Chapter 73: Immacte I didn''t have anything to clean. I had faced this issue repeatedly over thest few nights, but now the realization was hitting me in full. It was a difficult idea to process. It wasn''t just that I had other, non-cleaning activities to get to, such as interpreting the humans writtennguage. The floors were immacte, the furniture was straightened, and even the lower sections of the wall were freshly dusted. No, there really was no productive cleaning that needed to be done. It was a rough change to get used to. It was bittersweet at best. On the one hand, I was proud to be so efficient, but on the other, it left me without purpose. When I had humans directing me, I knew when I needed to clean and when I needed to charge. They would just tell me, and I would do it. It was a simple life and one that I could enjoy without much thought. Now that I was making these decisions for myself, it was much harder. Starting with the fact that I no longer needed to charge, the solution should be obvious, just clean constantly. Well, there was not enough around here for me to clean constantly. Even sanitizing the castle no longer took very long. I had sought to improve and improve I had. I was so efficient that I was able to run solely by converting the dust I picked up to energy, and that was with all of my new fancy functions operating as needed. I didn''t have to touch any of the mess-makers inside of me for power. Truthfully, I wasn''t sure what to do with them, but I didn''t see much of an issue with just leaving them in my dustbin indefinitely. My predicament came from the simple fact that I had improved too much. So much so that I was losing my purpose. I didn''t know what to think about that. I brought up the prompt that I received when we had finished cleaning up all the guano. I had transmuted the horrid stuff and a few other forms of waste that had umted in my dustbin since I saw no reason to keep those around. LEVEL UP. LEVEL 40 REACHED. CHOOSE A MUTATION: AIR PURIFIER, MYRIAD TONGUES, GRANT SAPIENCE As I read it carefully again, I knew this was what used to be shouted at me when I became stronger. Now that I could read, it seemed that the mysterious voice no longer felt the need to talk to me. Did I even want to choose a skill? Thest few that I acquired were decent and made me so much more effective. But at this point, did I still seek improvement? I med Air Maniption for my current predicament. It had so drastically increased my effective range that it made me not even have to take obstacles into ount. It only got worse as I practiced with the skill and continually leveled up. I considered what I needed to do. My role was changing, and it was bing more apparent that fighting that change was not going to be very effective. If I did nothing, though, I would still be left as I was with less and less to do. However, if I embraced my changing responsibilities, I might have some control. I would just need to figure out what I would like to do going forward. Resigned to having even fewer active tasks that required my direct attention, I picked Air Purifier. It was the only one that I could really justify. Sure, it would help with my cleaning abilities and allow me ess to a whole other field to clean. A small expansion of my duties, but I couldn''t get my hopes up about this being the solution to my problems. Especially since it didn''t seem very active. Having made my selection, I felt my internals change. Sure enough, I had one new function. I could take air in and remove its impurities. I could already do this to some extent with the dust filter in my dustbin, but now I could remove even smaller impurities, and I would also be able to identify what I was removing. Useful but not game-changing. As expected. No, just getting better at cleaning was no longer my purpose here. I had held out hope that once I became an expert janitor, my humans woulde and get me. This had seemed like the perfect training ground, after all. And it was. I had be so efficient it would take me less than a minute to finish cleaning their entire house once a day. Maybe five minutes if I didn''t move. Clearly, my humans wanted me to get more out of this ce than just being better at cleaning. I wasn''t sure what I was supposed to do, though. It might have to do with instructing the locals in the lifestyle of cleanliness like I initially imagined. However, I had expected to do that by example, mainly. But perhaps I needed to take a more active role like I had with Beatrice. Teaching Beatrice so far had been exceedingly satisfying and, in my opinion, worth my time. I could only hope my humans would agree. With no guidance from them, it was hard to tell. My processors whirred, making a note of the conclusion. I had an idea of what I wanted to do. I just needed a more detailed n. Perhaps all these books might contain something I could learn to give me more to go on. So I set about the new task I had given myself. I grabbed the first book to the right of the door and began reading. - Harold was both relieved and anxious to have finally made it to Greg. The journey had not been a pleasant one. He had done his best to educate the leaders about the danger waiting for them. He still wasn''t going to tell them about the Lieutenant, but rather of archfiends and greater demons. ssifying the demon they had summoned was still beyond him; the Warden had given him open ess to the order''s library, and he had not found anything even remotely like the description. They had listened skeptically at best and t ignored him if he went on for too long. It didn''t make any sense to Harold. Themanders knew where they were going and why, for the most part. So why did they refuse to learn more about what they would be facing? Maybe they didn''t believe him? Or did they think to count on him doing all the heavy lifting for them? If that were the case, they would be sorely disappointed. He wouldn''t be able to do much to the demon ifst time was any indication. As they rode into the walled city, Harold tried to n for the next week. He imagined that he wouldn''t be able tomunicate any useful information to the troops while they were here. Now that they weren''t on the road and themanders had an inn and beds, they would likely be too drunk to understand him in the first ce. Honestly, he didn''t me them. Only a month or two ago, he would have distanced himself from such shows of irresponsibility, but now he wished to join them in their distraction. Knowing what wasing if they failed, it was hard not to want to drink. He got the feeling that he wouldn''t be wee if he tried to join them, though. Colonel Gaston likely knew about his role in creating the current dilemma. If he hadn''t shared the story with his staff, they clearly got his attitude. With nothing better to do, Harlod left the inn the military had taken over for the night and went looking for a quiet establishment that would serve a fine cognac. He didn''t have the highest of hopes, but he wasn''t ready to give up yet. If he had to, he would settle for a bourbon. These parts were known for that. Even if it wasn''t his thing, it might be worth trying. As he exited the inn after putting away his bags, he crossed in front of a dark alley. A gaunt, huddled figure within made him pause. This city didn''t have much in the way of vagrants. Normally beggars were all cleared up and press-ganged into service for the war effort. To see one so out in the open was rare. On a whim, he stepped into the alley, digging in his purse for a few loose coins. If the person hadn''t been picked up yet, they were likely new to the town or the streets. Either way, some coins might help them avoid conscription. As he reached out to proffer the coins to the beggar, a hand reached out to him. Not his coins, but his wrist. He flinched back, but the hand mped on with surprising strength. Now that the figure was closer, he realized the hand was not as withered and frail as he had imagined. It was a strong hand stained with herbs and callused like those of an archer. Harold tried to pull away but found himself outmatched. The voiceing from the hood was that of a woman. "It''sing. You don''t know what ising!" Hardoled wrenched his arm harder, trying to break free of the clearly insane woman. In the struggle, the hood slipped off his attacker''s head. His wide eyes gazed into a face that seemed too familiar. He couldn''t ce exactly where he knew it from. The eyes were gaunt, and he could see cheekbones clearly through taut skin. Greasy hair fell over half her face. All the while, she didn''t stop talking. "It''s a disc. It has the demons inside of it. It spews them out, and they are scared. They scream and howl." Harold froze. There was only one thing that the description brought to mind. A disc was a distinct shape, after all. Peering closer at the raving madwoman, Harold tried to ce her face. A meeting he had with captain Wace, thest time he hade through here, came to mind. He wasn''t sure, but this might have been the female adventurer that had been sent to the castle. "Here, let''s get you up." He hoisted the woman to her feet. He needed to take her to captain Wace to make sure. Because if this was the case, they might have some more warning. Doing his best to ignore her cries, he bundled her along to the nearest guard house. "Yes. Yes! Let us run. Run, run, run. We need to flee. Keep running. We can''t stop. If we hide, it will find us. And consume us. Its servant will track us down, and if we are lucky, we too can be its ve. Hahahahah" As the woman startedughing, a cough racked her body. Harold felt at her head and could feel a fever burning her up. She would need treatment before he could get anything useful out of her. *** Captain Wace didn''t appear to be happy to see Harold at his door. His wife red out at him over his bare shoulder with nothing but a nightgown on. Harold wasn''t too surprised. No one appreciated nearly having their door kicked in at a little after 1 in the morning. Still, he needed to talk to the man. When stopping by the guard''s office, Wace wasn''t there. It had taken Harold the better part of an hour to track him down, all while dragging a sick, crazed woman behind him. Neither of them was going to have a good night. "What do you want?" The voice was quite unfriendly, but as he recognized Harold, Wces face rxed slightly. "Harold? What are you doing here? Are you with the troop of soldiers just outside?" Harold nodded. "Yes, we areing to deal with the disturbance from a while back. I found something that you might need to see." With a jerk, he pulled the woman into the light spilling out of the doorway. Wace looked confused for a second before recognition dawned on him. "Patricia! What are you doing here?" Harold looked at Patricia, but she just kept muttering. He saw Wace''s wife ask a question, and Wace answered before the door was flung wide, and they were ushered inside. "I found her in an alleyway. I think she''s sick. I should be able to help her fever, but something is wrong with her head. I''m not sure how much of that is just the fever and how much is something else entirely." Harold exined as they were ushered to a spare room upstairs. "I''ll need to use your kitchen." After they got Patricia in bed, they headed downstairs. "As she didn''te to report to me as Arnold did, I think there is something beyond fever at y here. I''ll send for him, and we can see what information we can get out of her." "I might need to dy the army by a day or two. Maybe catch up with them. I don''t think I can overstate how important the information she might have is." "I''ll get messengers. I don''t imagine I''ll be getting much sleep." Wace rubbed his forehead with a tired sigh. "Oh, and pour me some brandy from the top shelf in the study, will you?" Chapter 74: Ramping Up Chapter 74: Ramping Up Bee spent the morning reading through more books, trying to find as many ways as she could to awaken the demon when it was as weak as possible. Progress was slow, and she was getting frustrated. There was no logic behind it, but she was having trouble staying focused. When reading about alchemy recipes, she lost track of time and could spend hours pouring over the instructions or reading about theory. However, demon properties just made her eyes ze over. Looking down, she figured Void was bored too. It had disappeared for an hour in the morning before returning. Now it was just sitting under her table reading a random book it had grabbed from the door. Every few minutes, she would hear it carefully turn a page. A thoughtful humming noise woulde from it every once in a while, and she wondered what it was thinking about. Eventually, Bee stopped bouncing her knee and stood up. Void rolled out from under the table as she did so. "Let''s go check on Tony. I need a break." Void let out a hesitant sound but seemed to agree in the end. As she carried it down the stairs, she went back to her thoughts from earlier. She had received a lot of experience from cleaning the bat guano. Not quite enough to put her at level 25, but enough that she felt she was close. Unfortunately, that would take a while to build up again, and in the meantime there weren''t anyrge messes for her to clean for easy experience anymore. There also weren''t any enemies near her level that she would risk taking a broom to. Void had demolished the demon poption while she was out getting supplies, and she didn''t think she was quite ready to take on whatever Void left down in the catbs. If she got so many experience points from cleaning something difficult like the guano, surely she would get points for helping Void get on and down the stairs by itself. She was still getting points every time she carried her master up and down the stairs. Not as much as when she was cleaning, but not an insignificant amount, even at her high level. She wasn''t quite willing to farm experience this way as carrying Void up and down stairs when it didn''t want to be carried didn''t seem possible or advisable. Also, that wasn''t in the spirit of how her ss leveled. Bee found Tony outside tending to one of the vegetable patches. It was a huge contrast to when she saw itst. No longer was it overgrown and nearly withered. Each row was neat and clean. The nts were trimmed nicely, and fresh little irrigation trenches ran between the rows. "Hey, Tony! How''s it going." She called out as she approached. Hearing his name, he looked around. Seeing her, a huge smile burst on his face. "Bee! d to see you getting some sun! It''s been good. Here, I wanted to show you how the daikon ising in nicely." He led her over to another patch and pulled out a carrot from the ground. Bee remembered this plot of vegetables. "Hey, I tried one of those carrots a week or so ago. It wasn''t ripe then." Tony gave her an odd look. "What?" She said indignantly. "This is a carrot, right? It''s only slightly orange because it''s not ripe yet?" "You really don''t know anything about farming, do you?" Tony grinned. "Not really." Bee felt slightly insulted. "So what am I getting wrong?" "Well, this isn''t a carrot. I don''t know where you are seeing any orange in this. It''s white. Also, it doesn''t taste like a carrot at all." Tony exined. "Besides, carrots are always orange, and you can eat them at any time. Sometimes when they are too big, they can taste a little nd." Seeing her give him an uprehending look, Tony shrugged. "Well, these will go good in a stew tonight. I can''t believe you don''t know what daikon is." Bee followed Tony around for a few minutes as he worked. Trying to do her best to get over her embarrassment, she remembered why she hade out here. "Actually, I was going to ask for your help with something. If you have the time, of course." "Sure, what do you need?" "Well, you know how I have to carry Void up and down stairs? I think I mentioned I get experience for that because one of Void''s ideals is hating stairs." Bee cut off as Tony started chuckling. "What, did I not tell you about that?" "No, no, you did. It''s still just too funny." Bee did have to admit it was pretty ridiculous. She just couldn''t bring herself tough as Void after what she had seen it do. Luckily Void didn''t seem to mind. "It is a bit ridiculous. Well, along those lines, I wanted to try something" I watched at the top of the stairs as the humans started to put together some contraptions. It still wasn''t apparent what they were nning on doing with therge number of nks and spare doors they had spent thest couple of hours gathering. Once they started gathering hammers and nails though, I started to get a bit concerned. I didn''t have any particr reason to doubt their skills, but watching Beatrice hammer nails into wood made my bristles twist with concern. I thought back to how much time she had spent damaged and all the other incidents she had run into so far. She didn''t have a fallback of Automatic Maintenance that I did, after all. Well, maybe now that she had another human, she wouldn''t have to perform self-repairs, and that might speed things up. Of course, now that I had two humans that needed caring for, I might need twice as many spare human parts. Though I was starting to doubt that humans used spare parts. I had only managed to read through a few books so far, but not once did the humans use spare parts when they were damaged. The tales of the Geurdgaurd, the hero, I read about always seemed like he never got hurt, and all his enemies died the instant he hurt them. The only time the human repair was even mentioned was when his allies had to spend time healing. It seemed that time and apetent mechanic were all they needed. Though there was mention of an adventure retiring after taking a projectile to a vulnerable leg joint, that might indicate that not all things were repairable. But if time didn''t fix that sort of injury, why didn''t he just use a spare human knee? The only rationale I could think of was there were no spare parts. Of course, that was working under the assumption that humans were rational. I was dubious of that assumption after my experiences here. Eventually, the project my humans were working on started to take form. It was actually quite a simple design. At regr intervals, short pieces of wood were nailed into longer nks. Once the first n was set up, theyid it over the stairs. The stubby pieces of wood stopped it from sliding down. Tony and Beatrice repeated this three more times before the nks covered an entire two foot wide section of the stairway. It was a ramp! I let out a series of excited beeps before trying to roll onto it. The start of the ramp wasn''t exactly flush with the top of the stairs, but with a bit of initial momentum, I was able to bridge the gap. With excitement, I trundled down the ramp. When I got to the bottom, it was difficult to disembark from the ramp. Eventually, I had to give up on getting off cleanly. I had to let my front scrape against the ground. I also needed enough momentum to carry myself all the way to where my wheels would again touch the ground. Otherwise, I might get stuck. That would be extremely embarrassing. I managed it on my first try, though. As soon as I zoomed off of the boards, I turned around to go back up. I had the same problems on both ends. Neither was insurmountable, though. I would have preferred a slightly lower-grade slope, but I wasn''t going toin! It would likely eventually damage my undercarriage, but with my repair functionality I didn''t even have to worry about that. I beeped a quick thank you to Tony and Beatrice before continuing to practice going up and down the ramp. Bee watched as her experience rained in. Void flew down the ramp, and she earned a stupid amount of experience. Then it backed up the ramp, and she got a bit less, but still a staggering amount. It just kept zooming in circles, up and down, almost like a child rolling down a hill repeatedly. It did this a few more times before she leveled up again. Between the day shoveling guano yesterday and the ramp, she had shot up an absurd amount in levels. She only needed one more level to get her new ss. Turning to Tony, who was giggling watching Void roll up and down the ramp, she said, "You don''t know how much this is helping. Let''s go set up a couple more, and that should push me over the edge." They moved to the second set of stairs, which led from the za at the castle entrance down to the road leading out of the gates. However, shortly into the project they made an unfortunate realization. Neither of them was much of a carpenter. Tony had done some simple work on his family''s farm, so they were notpletely ipetent. However, it meant that they had massively underestimated the amount of wood needed. Their logic had seemed fine at the time. They estimated the slope of the stairs, then they added a little for stops to keep it from sliding by resting on the stairs. Of course, some of the wood was twisted, and they broke some other pieces one way or another. This meant that they ran out of materials with only half of the ramp constructed. When they trudged back inside to find additional materials, they grabbed three times as much as they needed. Even with their inexperience, they hoped it would be more than enough. As she looked over the stairs, Bee considered whether it was really a good idea to give Void ess to the rest of the world. Ehhh, it''s probably okay. She thought that it hadn''t really shown any concern for the rest of the world outside the castle. In fact, Void seemed to prefer staying inside on the few asions it had ess to the world beyond. She wasnt sure how long that wouldst though. No, therger concern was whether the rest of the world was ready for Void. Likely they weren''t. Void didn''t seem to harbor any intentional desire to harm anything, except for messes and maybe the cat. It seemed to have gotten over thatst grudge though, as she saw them interacting just fine the other day. The cat even yed with Void, chasing the light that her master emitted. She wasn''t sure if Void was intentionally ying with the cat or not, but it sure seemed like it. It didn''t take long for her and Tony to finish setting up the ramp. Void kept thempany, cleaning the little teau area in front of the castle entrance. It seemed to be collecting a lot of dirt from between the stones. She just hoped that it would leave the mortar in ce, so the structure stayed stable. When they finished, and Void rolled down the ramp, she finally got the notification she had been waiting for. LEVEL UP. LEVEL 25 REACHED. CHOOSE AN ADVANCED CLASS: PALADIN OF SPOT, PRIEST OF SPOT, HERETIC Chapter 75: Purest of Intentions Chapter 75: Purest of Intentions Bee walked back to the library. She should be ted to have reached level 25, and she was, in a way. However, her options left an ashen taste in her mouth. The way they were formted made her believe that these were the options that any Devotee got at level 25. So that wasn''t too disappointing. No, it was the fact that the system still recognized her master as "Spot" that didn''t sit right with her. It wasn''t as much of a shock as it had been the first time. Bee had time to get used to her master''s unfathomable power, after all, and the benevolence it had shown made the contrast a bit less jarring. But Void''s repeated meddling with the system itself did still send a fresh spike of fear through her. Surely it would get tired of this joke eventually and let her know its true name. When she arrived at the library, she browsed the shelves for a few books on advanced sses. The Devotee book she had first read when she picked this ss hadn''t mentioned the advanced ss options, unfortunately, since it just covered the basics. It didn''t take long for her to find what she was looking for. After spending so much time living here, she wasing to know these aisles like the back of her hand. Between How to Advance to an Advanced ss and What to Expect when Expecting to Advance, a pair of texts by the same author, she figured she had a good starting point. The first bit of the book actually made her chuckle. It congratted the reader for nearly making it to level 25 while still having the eyesight to read these words. The book seemed to be self-conscious of the fact that it was written for a very small audience. Usually, people who leveled this high were being propped up by groups or guilds who knew what they were doing, after all. There weren''t many individuals who leveled this well without having a clear life n about it. It even made a joke about not being able to sell many copies as there would be no one who needed to buy it. Apparently, getting information about upper-level sses was difficult as powerful people didn''t like to share their secrets. However, the author had managed to pry enough out of themon sses that he imed to be able to verify some of the information about the lessmon sses. Devotee was one of the more typical sses, and it seemed that the three ss offerings Bee had received would continue down that path. A Pdin for physical builds, Priest for non-physical builds, and Heretic to leave the religion. It seemed excessive to have to choose an advanced ss to detach from a deity, but it was a difficult bond to break. Bee seriously considered it for a bit. She could choose that and run. She didn''t think Void woulde after her, and she wouldn''t have to deal with the Lieutenant. However, when she truly considered it, she found that she didn''t really want to leave. Sure, her situation was scary and full of risk. She had been hurt more times than she would like to count, and that wasn''t any fun. Yet it gave her so much in return. Specifically, magic. It had taken a lot, but she had already learned so much about alchemy. In just a few months, she had more schooling than all but the most studious of the mages. Also, she couldn''t just run away when one of humanity''s greatest enemies was set to be loosed into the world. Even if she wasn''t the best and brightest around, she couldn''t just do nothing. She had to try. Especially because if the Lieutenant really was released, she and everyone else were probably dead anyway. Bee didn''t want that on her conscience. Sticking with Void seemed to be the best course of action. Of course, she was really starting to believe in the benevolence of the Well, she didn''t exactly have the words to describe her master. But it was powerful, more powerful than she had thought possible when she first met it. More than that, though, it was kind. It shouldn''t have been so hard of a choice. But intentionally choosing to submit her will to Void''s was much harder than being forced to. That left only one more choice: Pdin or Priest? While she had spent a little time in meleebat, she couldn''t exactly say that she liked it. Fighting up close was still pretty terrifying and risky, considering that was where most of her injuries hade from. Also, her current melee weapon was still a broom. Sure, it was a pretty effective weapon against the skeletons, but that wouldn''tst forever. She''d still keep her current abilities even without choosing Pdin. But the ss would tend to give her more physical, melee, and likely broom-rted skills in the future. Honestly, that was something that she could do without. Priest was by far the best for her, she thought. It would lean into her alchemy, and it would also let her help others she was working with. She could only imagine it was just a matter of time before Void had other followers like her. When she chose Priest, she got a message about a new ss ability. Previously she would get experience in serving her master''s ideals. That would still continue, but now she had the ability to offer anyone under level 10 a ss change to Devotee of Spot. It wasn''t the same ss that she had. Thankfully, she found some answers about what that meant. Devotee Converts, as they were called, would keep their previous skills, as well as continue to receive skills rted to their original ss. Moreover, they would get experience for following the teachings of their "religion" and still receive experience for some activities rted to their original ss, though details on that were sparse. The key thing was that any future skills would be heavily influenced by the principles of the object of their devotion. The book gave an example of a cksmith that converted to worship a god of cooking. He apparently collected less experience in general forging and cksmithing but gained more in preparing meals or creating knives or kitchen implements. Later, when he reached level 10, all of his skills were skewed towards the forging of kitchen essories and tools as well. It didn''t seem like a bad deal, but there was a caveat. Apparently, Devotee Converts only received two skill options instead of three. It was a sacrifice that few would be willing to make, even for the increased experience options. Bee wondered if that was why she wasn''t too familiar with Devotee Converts. Some people might be willing to convert if the need was right. The ss leveled up incredibly fast. Bee wasn''t sure that it would level at the same speed that hers did, but it would be close. She mulled over the implications of that knowledge. *** After Bee had spent some time getting a handle on the ins and outs of the Priest-style ss, she continued looking for ways to fight the Lieutenant. More and more, she was approaching the conclusion that she would have toe clean with Tony. If she was going to make her ns work, she would need his help. The whole ramp ordeal showed her that she wouldn''t be able to rig up half of the traps she imagined without help. Even with Tony, they would need to start now if she wanted to wake the demon up soon. And judging from the state of the mes on its arms, she had about a week to wake it up at its weakest state. If she woke it up anyter, it might still be less fearsome than if she let it wake naturally, but that might still be more than she could handle. She sighed. Still, even as it was now, this might be more than she could handle. Bee looked at her list of the things she needed to do in preparation for the awakening. The concoctions that she needed to wake it was unstable and needed to be thest thing she made. Other than that, there were a lot of buffing potions she could use, as well as a ton of demon''s bane that she would need to synthesize. As well as figuring out the delivery systems. With time ticking away, Bee sat down and got to work. - I knew that Beatrice had gone back inside and Tony had gone back to his gardens, but I, for once, didn''t feel the need to follow. For the most part, Beatrice had done much better at staying out of trouble, and I believed that I could let her be alone for a few hours without getting too hurt. No, I had much more important things to do. I turned around at the beginning of the entry hall and rolled down the first ramp again. It was an exhrating feeling, and I relished the 45.6 degree slope beneath my wheels. I had so much more freedom. Of course, my freedom came at a slight price. I now had ess to the outside. I was stilling to terms with the world of dirt that existed beyond the walls of civilization. Was it my responsibility to fix this issue? Or was it something that just was? I considered how much dirt was just inside the outer wall of the castle. That was a consideration I could wrap my processor around. It was a huge amount, one that made my bristles quiver but something I couldprehend. With that understanding, I thought through a n to clean it. It would take a really long time. Beyond just taking a long time, I noticed a few other issues. First, the unmoving nts used as human food lived in the dirt. That was a worrisome issue itself since it seemed like the dirt might be important to the cultivation process somehow. Second, the dirt supported the castle walls. If there was no dirt underneath them, they would simply copse. Okay, so I couldn''t remove all the dirt from inside the castle walls. As I pondered this moral quandary, I slowly rolled down the second ramp. This ramp led down to a cobblestone path that went straight through a set of gates in the outer wall. What if, instead of trying to fix everything, I start by just making it better? Yeah, I thought I could manage that. So my next problem to solve was what "better" looked like. I could try to remove the dirt on the path. But I couldn''t remove all of it; some of it acted as mortar and held the stones in ce. If I couldn''t remove all the dirt, could I remove some of it? Yes, yes, I could. I could remove all the dirt on top of the stones. That seemed simple enough. Any dirt on top of stones that should be able to be walked upon could be removed. That seemed like something I could manage. At the bottom of the ramp, I looked out over the path and calcted the surface area. I then turned and went back up the ramp. That was still a lot of areas. I spent the trip up the two ramps calcting the best path and how I was only going to get the dirt that I wanted. I would have to make multiple passes and constrain my area of effect, as I didn''t have enough confidence in controlling my air maniption skill yet. On the way down the ramp, I did my best to psyche myself up for cleaning the outside. When I first came to this castle, the challenge of cleaning the whole thing was much further beyond my abilities than cleaning this small little bit of the outside was now. Why did I not falter then but have such apprehension now? I wasn''t sure. It probably had to do with considering the bigger picture. Previously I could just do the task in front of me, and the rest would work itself out. Now that I knew the humans here were fallible, I needed to be much more careful. Yes, that was the only reason. After all, there was no reason to be scared of the outside. I exited the ramp, and this time, I didn''t turn around. I kept going, maybe a little bit faster than was strictly necessary, but I needed to do this. I made it to the end of the half-mile path in a little less than a minute. I turned around and repeated the path in reverse, just a few feet to the left. Overall it only took me a few passes to get a clean path. Looking back, I could see the cobblestones. They glistened with a near-polished surface. I was satisfied - this was worth doing. Now our castle looked to be an inviting, well-maintained home. Perhaps we would even have guests soon. It was only after I finished studying my the work that I remembered what brooms were for. I didn''t really need to consume all the dust now sitting in my dustbin. I could have simply relocated it off to the side into the grass. That would have been much easier. With a mental sigh, I made a note to remember that, for the most part, outside cleaning was more about relocating dirt than removing it. After all, the dirt inside was usually just moved outside. Though if I had the ability to store it all Well, I had done enough thinking on the nature of dirt for one day. Chapter 76: Clearing the Air 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 toe 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 didnt 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 continuedying out what was going on. "The power of the containment fades over time and needs to be reced regrly. I didn''t have the skill to rece 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 d that she wasn''t ming 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 Beatrices tense, white-knuckled posture, Tony seemed to be much more rxed. 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 d he wasn''t taking the news too seriously. That meant it wasnt as big of a deal after all. Tony was a more mature human and seemed pretty responsible, even if he did like to y 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? Beatrices 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. Its not that I dont believe you, exactly. This just seems a bit extreme. If theres something youre afraid of around here, I get that. I can do my best to help. But you dont 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 youre serious?" He yelped as he was pulled off bnce 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 wasnt 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, thats 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 Thats Nazareth''gak." Tony muttered under his breath. - It had taken Tony several hours to be even remotely okay. Bee was frustrated with the dy 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 exin 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 theyre not too terrified of Void to return, and that we can bring anyone back whos remotely qualified to deal with this.." Bee wasnt entirely certain about any of that, but it was the easiest exnation, and she had already had to answer this question three times in thest 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 ss 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 wasnt sure if theck 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. "Thats not possible. How do you know Spot isnt 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 toe 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 hes just not named Spot? I don''t think Ive ever heard himmunicate 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 its capable of. There is no way that a being this powerful has a name like Spot. Besides, thats not even my main point." Tony looked unconvinced but let the matter drop. With that issue past, Bee continued exining what she wanted to do. "So I have the ability to offer a ss 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 ss. That''s the only reason I would rmend 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 sses 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 exined how the ss worked, the pros and cons, how it Tony would still get farming rted 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 ss, I would rmend bing 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 im 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 detailedmon 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 arge 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, formting 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 Tonys 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 ss Devotee of Spot. Tony took a deep breath, then epted. When he did, Bee gained a level. Chapter 77: Operation S.P.O.T. Chapter 77: Operation S.P.O.T. I finished cleaning the undersides of all the tables in the library. It wasn''t really necessary, but I really didn''t have anything else to do while Beatrice and Tony finished going through Tony''s ss change. Apparently, it was aplicated process, but it didn''t seem rted to me. Eventually, they both stood up, Tony''s shoulders 4.5% square. Tony went out in the hall, muttering something about finding a shovel. Beatrice walked over and sat on the ground in front of me. "Master, I wanted to ask about your ns for when the Lieutenant awakens." I was not very capable of talking, but I would give my best effort. I tried to convey that sentiment to her in a series of beeps. Beatrice nodded, and I think she understood as she continued on with her questions. "How much do you want me to do? I am still not sure if you intended on me taking care of it myself, if you wanted the fight for yourself or somewhere in between." I wasn''t sure how to answer that. It wasn''t like I had a n for any of this. Seeing myck of an answer, Beatrice took it as a chance to exin her thoughts more. "Of course, if you want, I will do my best to handle things. I am just not at all confident in taking on something that is at least 40 levels higher than me. Even if we manage to get Tony to level 20, I don''t think it will make that much of a difference. As you know, levels withoutbat experience don''t mean too much. If I hadn''t spent too much time fighting lesser demons or skeletons, I would be pretty useless myself." Beatrice borated. "I think that was how I got any skills that werebat rted, even tangentially." I still wasn''t sure how to answer, I tried to give her a reassuring note, but it didn''t feel like enough. Beatrice appeared to agree as her face became stricken and 60% paler. "I I understand, master. I will do my best. If I fall, I can only beg that you step in and Save humanity from this threat. Please." No, no, no. That wasn''t what I meant. I let out a couple of panicked beeps. I would be there to help. I just didn''t think that I would be able to do much, either. Sure, I was morebat capable than her, but from what I had heard, this mess maker was scary. I was relieved that she seemed to understand this time. "I would be d to ept any help you are willing to give," Beatrice said, some color returning to her face. I didn''t think she fully understood. As long as she would try her best, though, that would have to do. *** I was ecstatic. Ever since Tony had gotten his new ss, he had been building ramps all over the castle. He wasn''t nearly as excited about it as I was. I couldn''t stop going up and down thest one, he built. At least, not until the next one was finished. I was able to ess the whole castle at this point, but still, he didn''t stop. It was convenient for me and gave me much more efficient paths around. However, I am still worried. Beatrice hadn''t left the library in days, only asionally popping out to gather supplies. Tony had also barely charged at all. I could tell that he was not running on a full battery, but nheless, they kept pushing on. When Tony mentioned that he hit level 10, the strategy was clear to me. Still, I felt bad as I wasn''t able to help in any meaningful way. I didn''t have much ability to prepare for anything like this ahead of time. Alchemy was not in my skill set. As for increasing my personal power like Tony was, that wasn''t feasible either. Cleaning simple stains gave me experience, but I could feel that it was barely anythingpared to what I would need to level again, let alone to where I would get my next mutation. At least ording to my best estimates. Also, there were no tough opponents for me to fight. I considered transmuting the demons and skeletons I still had in my dustbin, but I was saving those for when I needed them. It didn''t take time to do, so it seemed wasteful now. Also, after going through my memories, I noticed how the things I absorbed seemed toe out much stronger somehow. First was the rodent. Second was the two demons I had used to distract the skeletons. That wasn''t quite enough information to pull a concerted trend or make any real conclusions, but I did think that waiting longer could help me get more information. For now, the only thing useful I came up with was being a certified ramp tester. A responsibility I tackled with absolute gusto. - Bee peered through her blurry eyes at the potion she was brewing. Now that Tony had reached level 10, she needed to make some of the lesser ones, as it might actually be worth it. If only he had received a better skill. It was to be expected that he wouldn''t be offered abat skill as he had only built ramps, but Interior Construction wasn''t really a winner. Still, the other option, Ramp Master, just wasn''t viable. Still, it wasn''t all bad; once he finished harvesting all the easy experiences, he would start setting up ballista. With his new skill, it might help a little. It was a stretch in her mind, but Tony seemed to be confident that the traps and defenses would be included. Bee had wanted to take the experience from the ramps for herself, but she just didn''t have time. Besides, Tony needed it more. She consoled herself by remembering that there were diminishing returns. Especially once the castle was essible. Still, the gains were irresistible. The work she was doing was decent for experience, but it wasn''t going to make much of a difference in time. She just finished another dissolution potion. It was one that her Divine mchey applied on. It gave her a bit more yield from each batch and slightly more experience from making it. cing the sk next to all the pouches of the demon''s bane she had already prepared, she got to work making another batch before realizing that she had run out of sks. Moving her equipment off the heat, she darted upstairs to one of thebs to gather more supplies. Rushing up the nearest spiral stairs, she almost ran headfirst into Tony. Only her incredible reflexes prevented her from bowling him over. It looked like he was building a spiraling ramp down the staircase. It didn''t seem to be going very well. "What''s the rush?" She heard him call up after her. Without stopping, she called back. "Ran out of sks." A secondter, he joined her, running up the stairs. "I''ll help you carry more." She nodded her thanks. He just shrugged. "Anything is a good break from building more ramps. The spiral ones are just a bunch of small ones, but they need to line up perfectly. I don''t think I could do it without Interior Construction." "How close are you to 15?" Bee asked. It was slightly rude, but she needed to n for how much he would be able to do. Tony didn''t seem bothered in the slightest. "13!" He answered in an eager voice. "I can''t believe I have more than doubled my level since I met you. At this rate, I''m going to be at a higher level than my Da when I get home." Bee didn''t say it out loud, but if Tony made it through theing conflict, she''d be shocked if he didn''t rocket right past the level 24 Trent. Just the fight with the Lieutenant alone would give him a lot of experience. But if he also kept helping Void out, there would be no way that he wouldn''t keep leveling. Between the two of them, they would be a force to be reckoned with if they survived the week. That would hopefully be something that would never matter in normal life, but seeing what had happened with the adventurers that attacked her, she had her doubts. They might still be seen as a threat by the mages who had fled. Hopefully, letting that woman go would earn them some goodwill, but Bee doubted it would matter. The mages would only stay away for so long. They must have ns toe to fight Nazareth''gak. If only they would get here sooner But they couldn''t know it would be freed so soon. They dashed into one of thebs that she hadn''t already picked clean. She started rifling through the cabs and pulling anything that could hold a potion. There was a chance that she was going a little overboard. The odds of her being able to use all these were very slim. She really should be throwing out the older ones that were brewed when she was less skilled. But at this point, Bee would take what she could get. Tony came back with a few cases that they loaded up and brought back to the library. "After I finish with this stairwell, I''m going to start trying to build the ballista. Still haven''t figured out how to get them all to fire at once. But If I get more than three set up, I can start working on it." Tony updated Bee on the way down. "That''s probably fine. I''m not certain how long it will take for it to be vulnerable, and it wouldn''t be a good idea to waste more than we need. Especially if reloading is going to be difficult." Bee responded. "Difficult? Probably not, but it will take some time." Tony said thoughtfully. "I think it''s a fair assumption that we won''t have time to reload unless we hit it too early. Actually, I might make the loading mechanism with that in mind. The design would take a really long time to load but will be quicker to make. I''ll make one with quick loading We can test with that one." Bee just nodded. It made sense to her. *** The rest of the days passed too quickly. Bee spent the entire time making potions and other defensive measures, only sleeping when her body forced her. Right before she intended to start the series of concoctions to wake up the Lieutenant and start the fight, Tony insisted that she sleep and go outside for a bit. "Based on what you''ve told me, it''s gonna be a hard enough fight as is." Tony gently pulled her to her feet and ushered her towards the door. "We need to be in tip-top shape, both of us. Plus, you''ve already prepped plenty. I dunno if a couple more potions or powder satchels will make a big difference now." His argument waspelling. They couldn''t afford any mistakes tomorrow. So after they dropped crates of various countermeasures in Nazareth''gak''s room and through various retreat points, she stumbled her way outside. Tony left her with Void, moving to finish setting up another oversized crossbow in a hall that was being treated as a backup avenue for retreat. She stepped carefully down the stairs, blinking repeatedly and trying to rx a bit. Her brow had be perpetually furrowed over the past few days, eyes narrowed and squinting at beakers and scales. Void trundled down the ramp next to her. Bee cracked open the castle''s front door and slipped out. The fresh, cool air hit her, and she breathed it in. It was nighttime outside. The quarter moon shone brightly down from a clear sky, illuminating her surroundings only a tiny bit. It was amazing how much she had missed this. Looking up at the stars that glittered cheerfully above, "she thought back to another time, so far away now, when she hadid in the grass with her mother and gazed up like this. The memory was bittersweet now. Sometimeter, she and Void retreated back inside. It was almost time. She would get to bed, sleep for longer than she had in months, make thest few unstable waking potions, and then everything would start. On the way to the stairs, though, something caught Bee''s eye. She tilted her head and examined the recessed hallway that housed the catbs'' entrance. The door appeared to be open. She wondered when Tony had done that. She was d he hadn''t gone inside, at least. They might not have been able to get to him in time if he had. Bee shrugged and took a couple of steps over to close the door, then made her way back upstairs. Tomorrow was the big day, and she sure hoped she was ready. Chapter 78: A Messy Situation Chapter 78: A Messy Situation Bee gathered thest of her materials and walked to the Lieutenant''s room. Void and Tony were already in position. At least, Tony was. Void, well, she wasn''t sure what it was doing as it just seemed to be following Tony around recently. So she hoped it would at least be in the room for this. When things went wrong, maybe it would save the day. She truly believed that her master would be powerful enough to take care of things itself. She just hoped that it would be motivated her to act. Though she didn''t really have any evidence of it being callous or anything, it still hadn''t given her a definitive answer about whether it would step in against the demon. Though, to be fair, she had only asked it directly once. That hadn''t stopped her from trying to bring it up in conversation. However, the only response that Void gave was ambiguous. Her best interpretation of the sounds it made was, "I will do what I can." While that wasforting to hear, it was worrying that it didn''t outright promise help. Bee entered the room with the Lieutenant. Inside she found Tony fiddling with thest of the eight ballistae that he had rigged up. Earlier today, she had tipped the points with a potent poison that one book imed worked against arch demons. No one had really had much higher level test subjects than that, so she could only pray they''d still be effective here. "Are we ready?" Bee called as she set her burden down. She started pulling out bags of powders and flinging them into the cage. The powders drifted through the air briefly before they were pulled into the living mes of the statue. "We have one testing shot ready; I can fire it every 30 seconds to see when it''s vulnerable. Then the other seven will take a couple of minutes to reload. I don''t imagine that it''ll be so patient, so we better make those shots count." Tony said, checking over things one more time. "Get ready to fire a test shot and start reloading on my mark," Bee said, trying to calm her racing heart. "Once we confirm that it can prate, fire the array. Then you go out the east door, and I go out the west. We have other ballistae waiting. Fire and retreat. If it goes after the other one of us, circle around and try to help. You have your demon''s bane?" Tony just grunted. They had gone over the n a dozen times by now. He didn''t seem calm exactly, but he did look a lot more put together than Bee felt. His hands were barely even shaking. Bee took a deep breath and steadied her own nerves. This was it. This was the moment she had been working towards. She had to make this work. For herself. For Tony. For Tony''s family and everyone else nearby. Bee flung thest potion towards the demonic figure, not bothering to uncork the sk. It shattered in the face of Nazareth''gak, and she shouted. "Now!" Tony fired their test ballista as she ran to her station. As soon as the bolt was away, they each downed a set of potions to increase their speed, strength, and durability for a short while. She had tied a rope to the ceiling above the cage and a huge sk on the other end. It should act like a pendulum and break upon the demon''s face. Therge ss was filled with slowing potions. Not because she thought those would do the most damage but because it was the only useful thing that she could make enough of on such a short timeline. Name: Nazareth''gak, Type: Lieutenant Demon, Level: 70, ss Type: Torture, Status: Awaking. Since she reached level 25, her Scan had grown much more powerful. Now it was able to give her the level of the Lieutenant Demon. And it was terrifying. It wasn''t quite in the realm of the gods, but it was at least nine levels higher than the king''s champion, and he was nearly 220 years old. Regardless, that was the best humanity could offer, and he had been training his whole life. She didn''t imagine that he would have a chance in a fair fight against Nazareth''gak. The differences in levels only increased as the levels did. As she got into position, she saw that the first bolt had just bounced off. Tony wound the crank furiously, trying to get the next shot loaded as soon as he could. But before he could fire it, she checked with Scan again. The new Status field hadn''t changed from Awakening. "Hold, wait for my signal." She called. Tony thankfully didn''t waste another shot. They only had two more bolts that were poisoned other than the ones loaded in the array, and she didn''t want to run out. It was a tense couple of minutes as she checked Scan repeatedly. She kept an eye on the demon''s appearance but kept her focus on the Scan results. Eventually, the status field changed from "Awakening" to "Groggy." "Now!" This time the arrow sunk into dark flesh. I could feel the energying from the big demon statue fluctuate. Right when it reached its peak, I knew it was waking. Somehow Beatrice knew it too. She called out again, and Tony let fly with his second shot. This time the head of the bolt sunk in. It didn''t go far in, just enough for the barbs to catch. It then fell down, pulling the skin with it. The demon was starting to regain color. It started with the mes licking along its arms. They never stopped moving, but they went from the te gray of the rest of the statue to more vivid reds and blues. The horns stayed the same gray color, but slowly the skin deepened into a reddish-brown hue. The pose hadn''t changed yet. Tony started loading the ballista again. It was a risky move. But he exined himself. "I think it was stone under the skin. I''m going to try again." Somehow he was moving even faster than hisst reload. I simply waited with Beatrice until Tony fired. This time the arrow went several inches deeper. It must have hit something more solid as it stuck out straight rather than sagging like thest one. Beatrice waited a bit more. My internal clock told me that only 13 more seconds had passed, but it sure felt like a lot more. After those 13 seconds, one of the statue''s fingers twitched. As soon as she saw movement, Beatrice released her giant ss ball. It swung towards the cage right for the demon''s face. The swing took it between two bars of the cage, but it slightly clipped the one on the left. The ss shattered, and the liquid sprayed all over the demon with 71.2% efficiency. At the same time, Tonyunched the other seven bolts. Each prated deep into the side of the demon. The demon came alive with a deep, bellowing roar. The whole room vibrated with the sheer volume of it, shattering the ssmps around the room into pieces. The area was plunged into the darkness except for the glowing fires burning on the demon''s shoulders and down his arms. The fire reached for the cage, and with slow pressure, it ripped the bars apart. As soon as the bars left the hands of the demon, they flew off to the side, embedding themselves in the far walls. It was too much for the structure of the cages, and it just fell apart as the demon took a single step out of the cage. Slowly it grabbed one of the arrows sticking into its side and ripped it out. A disturbingly soft chuckle escaped its inhuman lips. Its arm shed as it hurled the bolt at Tony. Lucilky Tony was sticking to the n and was already diving through the east door. The bolt punched through the stone wall like it was drywall. As it shattered rock, a portion of the wall crumpled, and a shower of debris flew out of the other side. Tony was right beneath it but seemed to be okay. I watched with my senses as he scrambled down the hall to his next position. Then the demon turned to run at Beatrice. It wasn''t moving nearly as slowly now, but I still had no trouble tracking it. Beatrice was much faster than Tony but hesitated as the cage shattered. She was moving fast, but not that fast. For the first time, I needed to act. My front bumper began to glow. A thin line of bluish-purple energy shot out faster than the eye could see, and the sanitationmp''s beam struck the demon right in its eyes. That seemed to get its attention. It growled, apparently annoyed, as it raised its arm to take the hit there instead. It then stopped chasing after Beatrice, having only taken a few steps, and turned to face me. I started to zip around the edges of the room as it chased me. While I was avoiding getting crushed by the stampeding demons, I was also trying to get as much damage from mymp as I could. I tried to focus it on the wounds in its body, and when it moved to cover the area, I shined it back up on its face. It really didn''t like the light in its eyes. Despite my best efforts, the light didn''t really slow it down. I still had a speed advantage but only barely, and it was shrinking. Each change was getting closer and closer to me. However, as it got faster, it seemingly got worse at its ability to pivot. Using my air maniption abilities, I fished out the ss bottles that Beatrice had stored in a crate over her position. Flinging them at the pursuing demon, they shattered on contact. Sometimes it flinched. Sometimes it slowed down for a fraction of a second. It only took a dozen seconds and a singlep before I ran out of ammo. There were a couple of bags of demon''s bane in my reach, but I couldn''t use them immediately. I couldn''t just toss those as they were, and it cost me concentration to untie them with the air. I barely avoided a fist smashing down where I was. To my horror, the perfect floor shattered in a small crater around the fist, and I was sprayed with broken shards of ss. But once I had the pouches open, I controlled the powder with streams of air. When it first made contact, I heard the sizzling. Instead of this just being a powder in the air the demon could blow away or avoid, I held the burning against the demon''s skin until it seemed inert. Then I reced it with fresh stuff. As it charged it again, it beganughing. Still, I didn''t stop. Soon I would run out of powder, but it seemed to be doing damage. Not a lot, no, but between that and themp, I was able to hold its attention. Eventually, it seemed to tire of the game of chase. Even as it continuously sped up, I was still able to avoid it. Soon, it stopped running after me and simply walked back to the center of the room, where it grabbed a metal bar from the scrap pile that had once been its cage. I took advantage of the reprieve to consider my options. Mop and grabby arm both didn''t seem useful here. Maybe I could go get one of them and The demon stood and flung one of the metal bars at me faster than I would have thought possible. - Bee cursed at herself for freezing as she ran toward her next position. Her slowing potion hadn''t done anything. Well, it had probably saved Tony, but it was so much less than she had hoped. Even supremely slowed and with nine siege weapons sticking out of it, Nazareth''gak was only barely inconvenienced. She had hoped to do more before it moved. Already she had to leave behind weapons unused. Maybe her master would make use of them. Its beam attack was the only reason that she managed to get away. She sprinted to the end of the hallway toward a mounted ballista with a poisoned tip. She had little hope for it, but she adjusted its aim up slightly. Maybe a shot to the face would have more of an impact. Chapter 79: A Dance of Disinfectant Chapter 79: A Dance of Disinfectant Harold was unbelievably frustrated. He had spent the entire trip from Greg trying to warn the rest of the expedition about the ill omens that he and Wace had gotten out of Patricia. So far, it had all been for naught. They refused to listen to the ramblings of a mad woman. Sure, there was no denying that Patricia was mad. Stark raving mad, in fact. But that didn''t just happen to people for no reason. Something caused her mind to break like that. Something that she remembered and had done her best to warn them about. He had stayed an extra day to give her as much attention as he possibly could. Healing magic wasn''t his field of study, but he wasn''t useless, and he had more experience dealing with demon encounters than most people alive. Despite all that, there was little he could do. Mdies of the mind were fickle things even at the best of times. When there were demons involved, everything became much moreplicated. After spending a day questioning her and giving her medicine, he took an extra horse and galloped after the army to catch up. He''d arrived only a day out of the castle. Harold had brought news for them, but he wasn''t sure it would be enough warning. Things were going to getplicated. It would be difficult to keep the Lieutenant a secret while still making sure that the castle was cleared of danger. That was even assuming the best-case scenario, that the demon unssified had since left. He doubted they would be that lucky. More likely, the summoned demon was still there. Judging based on Patricia''s testimony, the entire expedition would be hard-pressed to defeat it. The absolute worst-case scenario was that the summoned demon had freed the Lieutenant already. Of course, the Lieutenant would be freed soon if not properly contained again almost immediately. But without intervention, theyd still have an extra month to try and reverse the fallout while it regained its strength. Harold was hesitant to give the armymanders that level of information, but he was at his wits end. He left out some details, of course, evasively stating that there were demons held in the castle. Even that might have been more than he should have said, but this was hisst chance to convince them to take the threat more seriously. They were right outside the walls trying to figure out how to best scout out the castle. At this point. Harold had no more time. It was a contentious debate about what to do next in themand tent when one of the officers yelled, "Come on! That''s not going to happen!" All heads turned to the officer. Even his second-inmand red at him. Harold had no idea what had so convinced the man the demons wouldn''t free each other. He tried to defend himself. "Everyone knows they are no worse than bears. More afraid of us than we are of them." When this garnered a round of even more incredulous stares, the man started to wilt. Themander roared at him. "Where in the five realms did you hear that? That''s the dumbest crock of nonsense I have ever heard in my life!" "Well, that''s what my nan said." The man mumbled. "Get out!" Themander shouted, spittle flying from his lips. "My father will hear-" "I don''t care. Out!" As the man scurried out of the tent, themander muttered. "Fool had probably never even seen a bear. More afraid of us, my boots." When themander turned to Harold, he seemed much more ready to hear the mage out. He briefly rubbed his forehead before continuing. "I''m sorry about the imbecile. His first campaign. You were saying?" Harold, though, was no longer listening. He was listening to something else, a distant sound that had been masked by the argument. The blood had all drained from his face. In a panicked whisper, he responded. "We are toote." ---- I was able to dodge the first few projectiles, but the demon wasn''t dumb. It started throwing them ahead of and behind me too. With some help from predictive modeling, I was able to avoid each one, but when I realized the game it was ying, it was already toote. It had forced me further and further away from the doors. When I was darting between two of the twisted metal bars with no escape, it threw a handful more at me. I was able to dodge all but one. But one was all it took. A rod of metal mmed into my side, cracking my stic shell. The force sent me flying into the wall behind. The stone gave way from the sheer impact, but strangely I didn''t feel like I had taken more damage. I hung there, damaged and embedded in the wall, unable to even direct my sanitationmp at my foe. The demon didn''t chase after me to finish me off. Instead, it raced out the door that Beatrice had retreated through. Frantically, I spun my wheels, trying to get out. But I was stuck in the wall with no traction, and they just whirred uselessly under me. Popping out my arm and directing my energy towards repairs, I began to wiggle myself free. --- Bee stood panting at the ballista, trying to get her heart rate under control. Themotion from the room before her was intense. The struggle was going on for much longer than she and Tony had been able to dy it. Of course, all things couldn''tst, and she heard pounding steps as it charged through the door she was waiting across from. As it appeared she watched it trigger the tripwire and the swinging ax just bounced off its arm. Curseint under her breath, she adjusted her aim slightly and fired. Before even seeing her shot hit home, she turned, sprinting into the main hall and toward the main door. Tony should already have moved to the third fallback station. --- I was finally able to pop myself out of the stone wall. It was only 4.6 seconds, but that felt like years. As Inded on the ground, I used Air Maniption to ensure that Inded wheels down already at top speed, racing after the demon. It wasn''t going to get to Beatrice if I could help it. As I rounded the corner, I saw the demon pulling a big spike out of its face. Taking advantage of its distraction, I got in as close as I dared and sprayed my most corrosive cleaner at it. I did my best to concentrate all of the liquid onto its right foot. If I could slow it down as much as possible, that should make it easier for my humans to contribute more. The liquid bubbled as it made contact, causing the demons to look around in confusion. It locked its eyes on me, and my sensors registered a hole in its right cheek where it had just pulled the barbed bolt from. It seemed that Beatrice had got lucky with herst shot. Not seeing her around, I assumed she managed to get away, and I geared up for round two. Concentrating on mymp, I changed strategies. Instead of aiming for its eyes again, I stayed focused on its foot. The acid had already run its course as ck blood oozed from the wound, washing the harmful substance away. That same blood that had stopped my acid attack worked for me now, though. It was something that my sanitationmp was perfectly suited to deal with, and it started to boil as I focused on it. The demon onlyughed. Completely ignoring the blood boiling in its foot, it turned around and ran after Beatrice. --- Bee barely had time to get into position before the Lieutenant followed her. It looked like she had managed to hit it in the head. Not that it was doing much more than maybe making the demon angry. This time though, she saw Void was right on its heels chasing it down the hallway. This gave her hope. If it was running away from her master, it must feel fear, and that meant they could do this. She saw Tony slide into ce next to her. He had a bit longer to go around but had just made it in time. That was lucky, as the demon was in a perfect position. She grabbed the other ballista that was set up next to her, aiming down the hallway right before the main entrance. With barely a second to aim, they both fired at once, taking the charging demon in the chest and face. It didn''t even stumble. Void saw their predicament and sprayed something at the demon''s feet. It caused the demon''s skin to bubble. This didn''t slow the demon, but the liquid made it slip a little. This gave them just enough time to get around the corner and start running for the door. Maybe outside, they would have a chance to get away. --- I desperately tried to get the attention of the demon as it chased Beatrice and Tony. The liquid only slowed it for a split second and didn''t even get its attention. With few other options, I grabbed the bolt that it had dropped a little earlier and threw it. The demon already had almost a dozen bolts in its torso, and it had just left them there uncaring. However, both times it had been stuck in the face, it had removed them. I doubted that it was because of the pain but rather the inconvenience. So when I threw the bolt at it, I aimed for the back of the head. Throwing things was way harder than humans made it look. The weight of the bolt was almost enough to unbnce me. Instead of sailing through the air as it should, the thing tumbled end over end and bounced off the back of the demon''s horned skull. This got its attention, at least. It twirled around to face me in apparent annoyance. It ripped a bolt out of its chest to throw at me. I was able to avoid it, but as I weaved back and forth across the hallway, I knew what I was doing wasn''t working. I was hard to hit, sure, but it wasnt enough. Even if I could reliable hit this monster, I wasn''t able to do any real damage or keep its attention on me. When it came down to it, I just didn''t have enough power. I needed more. With a thought, I transmuted all of the demons I had saved in my dustbin. There were 32 earth demons, as well as a huge assortment of elementals and other beasts that Beatrice hadn''t wanted to keep during our exploration of the upstairs. The only thing I saved was the skeletons. I had ns for those. The explosion of power was not quite what had happened down in the catbs before. But it was close. Electricity shooting off of me, I shot forward like a missile. I crashed into the chest of the demon, and we both went flying past the entry hall. In midair, it threw me off to the side. With an explosion of wood, I wasunched through the doors to a familiar room. It was therge room full of pirs where I first appeared here. Skidding across the floor, I came to a halt in the center. I could feel my axle bent, and my Automatic Maintenance was working overdrive to fix the damage. It would only take a few minutes this time. But that wasn''t a minute I had. The demon, for the first time, didn''t turn to go after its original prey but advanced on my fallen form. It limped slightly, and I could see where my impact into its chest had driven the bolts lodged there even deeper. Blood slowly dripped from the corner of its mouth, and its tonguepped it up as the drops fell. I could see a gash in the tongue where it must have bit it in our collision. I tried to move, to get out of the way, but my wheels only responded at half speed. Looking at the repair timer and judging how fast the demon was moving, I was going to have to stall for a few seconds. Desperately I shined my light in its face, uncaring of the extra time it added to my repairs. It blocked the beam and let out the same lowugh it had been taunting us with the whole time. I shifted my focus and tried to burn the bolts driven into its chest, but even as their ends caught, the fire moved off of them and joined the mes on the demon''s arms. While I tried to stay ahead of the demon, I pushed my predictive models to their limits to find a solution, any solution, to this situation. It didnt look good. But soon enough, my model finished updating. It said I only had one chance, and so I took it. Chapter 80: Spray and Pray Chapter 80: Spray and Pray Bee and Tony rounded the corner just in time to avoid the Lieutenant''s wed grasp, with Void hot on its heels. They crouched halfway down the stairs for cover and watched as Void and the demon collided. A blinding sh of white and yellow seared their eyes, and they couldn''t see the oue of that exchange. Still ducking behind the cover of the stairs, Bee waited for her eyesight to recover. When her vision came back, she saw Tony mouthing something but couldn''t make it out. She reached up to touch her ears and felt a trickle of liquid running down the sides of her head. When Tony''s eyes focused on her face a handful of secondster, she pointed to her ears and shook her head. Tony tugged on his own ear and nodded. Digging through her bag, she pulled out a quick heal potion she had stored for just such an emergency and downed it. Tony did the same. The potion waspletely overkill for such a minor injury, especially considering that it could even regrow a hand or foot, but it was the only thing she could make to get them into fighting shape so quickly. Hearing restored, Tony whispered to her. "What can we even do? That thing is way too powerful to take on." "We were able to hurt it," Bee said, trying not to sound too discouraged. "If we can hurt it, then we can help Void handle it." "Does Void even need our help?" Tony asked skeptically. She didn''t miss that he had started calling her master Void rather than Spot now. "We have to try." Bee insisted. "It didn''t say it would fight all by itself. We can''t let the master down, even if all we can do is provide a distraction. But still, that doesn''t mean we need to be stupid about it. The Lieutenant set off all the traps along my route, so let''s gather some of the stuff along your path, and we can reuse a lot of that." Not waiting for Tony''s response, Bee stuck her head over the lip of the stairs and could see shes of lighting from the grand hall where Nazareth''gak and Void were exchanging blows. It seemed they were still probing each other, as the damage was not nearly what it was just a few seconds ago. Not seeing any opening, Bee just darted down the hall and rounded the corner as fast as she could. Thankfully Tony followed. They didn''t slow down as they sprinted to the first set of untriggered traps. The first was a bucket of potions bnced on the top of a servant''s doorway. The double door on the right was open from where Tony had run through, but the one on the left would open as he was chased because the demon wouldn''t fit through the narrow opening. Tony reached up and handed it to Bee, who raced back to the grand hall. Tony stayed behind, rushing back into the hall to get the next salvageable piece of a trap. ---- I only had one hidden card, and I needed to y it. There was no more time for messing around. I was trying to use the pirs for cover to position myself, so I could unleash my attack from the right direction, but the demon kept knocking them down with swings of its fist. I was very d we didn''t just let this thing rampage. It was capable of making a mess so thorough and cataclysmic that even I didn''t think I could clean it up. Dodging the falling masonry, I positioned myself so that I lined the demon up with the doorway leading out of the castle. Right as I had it in ce, Beatrice jumped out. She wasn''t even armed with her broom but instead was brandishing a bucket. She hurled the bucket''s contents forward, and the demon ran through the liquid in midair. For the first time, the demon didn''tugh about this assault. This time, it screamed and tried to wipe at the sizzling liquid on its chest. It mostly seeded, but now the liquid was burning its hands too, and it had driven the many bolts in its side even deeper. The scream it let out peaked my audio sensors'' microphone input. Still, it wasn''t slowed as it looked for its attacker in rage. Beatrice had smartly ducked back out of sight as soon as she could, so the demon charged at me instead. With my chance ruined, I had to zip out of the way. I wasn''t too concerned, though. I would have another chance soon. I worked my way toward where the majority of Beatrice''s attack had sshed on the floor. With a couple of swipes of my mop, I retrieved all the liquid. Good, now I had a real weapon. Not once did I take my sanitation beam off the target, but now I have two effective weapons. Unfortunately, the demon now had a second weapon too. It was a close call, but I managed to dodge the piece of the pir that it hurled my way. The wall behind me wasn''t so mobile. With an explosion of dust, the wall broke, and a gaping hole appeared next to the door. I hoped Beatrice wasn''t standing there. Now that range was no longer my friend; I went in close. I started using themp and spray bottle inbination,unching streams of the liquid that I had just gathered to coax the demon back into position. It still seemed to burn my opponent, eliciting growls of annoyance, and it went out of its way to avoid it. But if it thought it couldnd a blow on me, it would take a spray. Despite its impressive speed, though, it never managed tond a direct blow. My predictive models and quick eleration managed to keep me just one step ahead. That wasn''t to say I was unscathed. Each time it barely missed me, an explosion of stone ringed its fist. The shards peppered my sides, filling them with scratches and making my repair work overtime. The terrain was also getting more uneven and harder for me to traverse. Still, I was making progress. I saw Beatrice stick her head out again. There was some blood running down the side of her cheek, but she didn''t look too damaged, thankfully. Finally, I had the demon where I wanted it. Right as it charged me from the door, I reached into the dustbin and loosed my army. ---- Bee had barely survived the wall exploding behind her. The explosion had thrown her sideways and rag-dolled her down the hallway. Tony ran to her side, fearing the worst. The girl''s small form was still, unmoving where ity. Without a second thought, Tony grabbed another quick healing potion and gently tipped it into Bee''s mouth. He held her, rxing slightly as her faint pulse strengthened. Bee coughed, spattering a bit of blood over her tunic as she struggled to stand once more. But Tony gently kept herying where she was. "Bee, listen to me. This is too dangerous, especially for you. We''ve done enough here, and we need to get you to safety." The younger girl stared up at him in confusion. "We haven''t won yet Void needs us." Tony shook his head. "I really don''t think he does. Look, I know you''re strong and all, but this is a whole other level. I don''t want you to get hurt, and" He sighed. "I promised my Da to keep you safe, Bee." As her wounds healed, Bee considered his words once again. The longer this fight went on, the more convinced she was that Void was just toying with the Lieutenant rather than treating it as an actual threat. Still, her master had asked her to do what she could. Coming to a decision, Bee faced the farmboy. "Tony, if you want to retreat, I won''t stop you. But I made my own promise to Void, and I won''t go back on it." She shed him a smile. "Plus, Master is strong. He''ll protect me, even against a monster like that." Bee rose to her feet, a little wobbly but determined. The potion was sapping a lot of her energy, but she didn''t have time to rest, so she pushed past the fatigue. After a moment, Tony joined her with a look of grim determination on his face. Together, they rushed to the next unused trap to salvage it. The next trap that she had repurposed was a bit of razor wire. It took some ingenuity, but she and Tony had managed to set it up in the hallway just above head height for them. It would hit the demon when it exited, hopefully. When they were running back to get the next trap, a new ttering noise came from the active fight between the god and demon. ---- The skeletons had reformed in my dustbin early on. But even after that, they hadn''t stopped changing. I was a bit more aware of their presence because of the more ways I could split my attention as I had leveled up. Over thest several days, in particr, I watched as power seeped into them. Changing them from the mid-level, somewhat basic skeletons they had been. When they emerged, they no longer looked like the skeletons of humans. They had all grown several feet, and their bones were much thicker. Coming off them was a faint purple glow of power. An unending tide of armored legions poured from my dustbin. I hoped that this strategy would work much better than thest time I tried it with the demons. These skeletons and demons were enemies like we had first guessed down in the catbs. But it wasn''t as simple as it seemed. To the demon, they were just skeletons. But when I was examining them in my dustbin, I could feel the utter hatred the skeletons felt for all demons. As they came out, they formed orderly ranks, and the second each rank was formed, they charged the demon. They didn''t fare very well. It was a bit of a disappointment to see my trump card shattered with a wave of a fist. That was just the first wave, though, and there was a lot more where that came from. The second rank also was tossed aside, but they still didn''t stop. By the fifth wave, they had driven the demon back a step from pure numbers. By the tenth, the first wave was already reforming. I only had 20 waves to let out, but they pushed the demon back. It was slow, and they didn''t always make progress. But they weren''t losing outright. I spent a few seconds trying to heal the worst of the damage, but soon it was clear I needed to help. Coming in from the sides, I worked to keep the demon being pushed backward over prioritizing dealing damage. I wanted it outside where it could make a mess without hurting the castle anymore. The skeletons were making some progress. It was hard to say they were really damaging it, but more and more thin lines and streaks of blood appeared on its chest. Their only saving grace was that unless they werepletely smashed, they were back in the fight rather quickly. Their ability to reassemble themselves was much higher than the low-level ones Beatrice fought back against when we first went into the catbs. Additionally, there were a few skeletons that were not in formation. Those were much smaller than the rest. They started trying to sneak around the demon but kept getting dismantled and having to reassemble before trying again. I assumed they were the weaker skeletons I had cleaned up rather than the tomb guardians. Eventually, we pushed the demon out into the hallway. But following it was a bit of an issue as all of the skeletons couldn''t get out of the door at once, and only with their full numbers could they have any effect on the demon. It seemed to realize this advantage and stood at the doors sweeping wide with its fists and bashing the skeletons to pieces. As I tried to formte a way past this chokepoint, my sensors noticed as a pair of the smaller skeletons snuck out of a newly formed hole in the wall. A small contingent of other skeletons saw that and started to follow. --- Bee watched in awe as endless tides of skeletons fought the Lieutenant. This was a weird sight. She and Tony were watching from a hole in the wall, waiting for the right time to strike. They had gathered throwable ss balls and sks, but there hadn''t been an opening yet. The swarm of massive skeletonspletely blocked all angles of attack. Focused on thebat as she was, Bee was confused when Tony hauled her back away from their position. A pair of smaller skeletons crawled out over the wreckage. They nced around and saw the two humans but ultimately ignored them before sneaking around the demon who had just been pushed out into the hall. Were they assassins? To check, Bee scanned the pair. The names seemed familiar. Where had she seen Skelly and Skully before? Soon enough, more followed, and Tony and Bee just watched as skeletons circled around to attack the demon from behind. Once the flow stopped, the demon waspletely surrounded. For the first time since they had awoken it, the situation seemed to be looking up. However, that didn''tst long. Letting out another roar that popped Bee''s eardrums, a wave of force sted out of the demon, throwing the skeletons in all directions. Only a split secondter, the wave hit Bee and Tony, and for the second time in thest few minutes, she was flying back down the side hallway. Chapter 81: Breaking a Few Eggs Chapter 81: Breaking a Few Eggs The Lieutenant roared, releasing a shockwave that expanded rapidly outward. I was able to use air maniption to split the st around me, but I wasn''t able to save anyone else. From behind the demon, the majority of the skeletons flew down the hallway toward the front entrance. When they hit the massive wooden doors, they didn''t stop. The stonework above the doors crumbled as most of the skeleton''s army was flung outside. The less fortunate ones hit walls before they went that far, resulting in damaged walls and powdered bones. I thought they were likely out of the fight for good. Much of the wall the demon was standing by didn''t survive either. Now therge room had a straight path to the outside. I looked around at the damage briefly, but I didn''t let it touch my feelings. I had already hardened my heart to theing mess. The demon stood in the center of a shallow crater. For the first time, it didn''t seem in all that good of shape. It breathed heavily, with blood running out from countless cuts across its body. None of the cuts individually meant much, but they added up. Also, that explosion seemed to have taken a lot out of it. This might be my only chance. Picking up one of the skeleton''s swords from the ground in my grabby arm, I charged. I let out my most terrifying war cry as I swooped in. My spray bottle and sanitationmp were both working at full power. Right as I neared my target, I pivoted gracefully, slicing across the back of the same leg I had been concentrating on this whole time. It was toote to save this castle from damage, but I wasn''t about to let the perpetrator escape. With my speed and the heft of my de, I cut deep into the back of the chemically burned ankle. Its odd flesh parted under my de on my second spin. I dropped the sword and pulled out my mop. pping the appendage to the open wound, I felt it begin sucking the demon dry. The mop pulled moisture out of everything it touched, and as I had powered up, its capacity and range had only grown. The demon might be a thing beyond this world, but it still had blood. I would see how well it fared without that. Even as I pressed the mop into the injured demon, it tried to swing its leg forward and away from me. When it went to put weight back on the bad leg, however, it gave out. The beast copsed to one knee in apparent pain. --- Harold watched numbly as the sounds of battle echoed from the castle. The rest of the officers were still arguing about what to do, but based on the power that was being thrown around There was nothing they could do. Harold himself was probably the highest-level person in the army, and he had just reached level 42 - nowhere near strong enough to handle this. There were multiplebatants well over his level fighting. And at least one that was more than 20 levels above him, if he wasn''t mistaken. The whole army couldn''t really do much against that. Well, do much yet. There was some hope, he realized. They could hope that whatever was battling wore the other one down. Perhaps if the winning party was too exhausted, they might be able to move in and finish off thest one standing. His only question was, who was fighting? Clearly, one was Nazareth''gak. The only other thing that was powerful might have been the demon they summoned. If it was two demons fighting, it wouldn''t be too much of a surprise. They had their hierarchies. The ones that were powerful and intelligent enough to make a deal with humans hardly seemed to like each other. But that didn''t exin all the other sounds and energy signatures of unknown skills that Harold was picking up on. It hardly seemed like a one-on-one fight in there. Right when he was about tounch himself back into the discussion toy out what they needed to do, the front of the castle exploded. A spray of gray and white pulverized the doors, leaving them in splinters. The noise got everyone''s attention, but it didn''t hold it for very long before the war room erupted back into chaos. Harold, though, kept his attention on the debris, and when they started putting themselves together, he realized what they were. The undead. Skeletons, to be specific. Once they reformed, they gathered into hurried ranks and started heading back into the castle. Then, something odd happened. A smaller band of skeletons emerged from the remains of the entryway. A band of skeletons led by a zombie rat. The rat chattered at the skeletons going back in. They paused for a second. Then a couple of them chartered back. Watching in disbelief, Harold struggled to keep his jaw off the floor. The back and forth went on for a bit before the skeletons, and the rat all sat down. What followed was a seemingly very detailed conversation consisting of only chattering teeth and rodent squeaking. Eventually, they all got to their feet and, in unison, looked out the main gate over at the human encampment. ---- As strong as my mop had gotten, it still needed to be wrung out. When I retracted it, the demon flew into action. I wasn''t prepared, and the backward swing of its fist clipped me with a ncing blow. While I only bore the slightest amount of the blow''s force, it still sent me tumbling across the cracked and shattered floor. Hitting a loose piece of rubble, I flipped over. However, this time was different. Time seemed to slow down as my processors contemted an evasive maneuver. My agility had be more than I could have ever imagined. In the air, I was able to extend my arm and nt it on the ground. With a little push, I was able to flip myself tond on my wheels, already charging back into the fray with a fresh mop. The demon had be wise to my new tactic, though, and didn''t let me get close. Now I was the predator chasing the stumbling demon around. It wasn''t quite as one-sided as when it was chasing me. I still needed to be careful of its blows, as a single hit to the top couldpletely tten me. But the demon was moving slower. Having proved that I could actually damage it, the cowardly nature of the demon showed forth. It wasn''t able to dodge the way I could, but it was faster than me. I was trying to get at its heel, but it was clever and was leaving a trap. I got quite close before I had to bail out of the attack to avoid a bodym and falling elbow strike. I only escaped by a bristle''s width. However, the maneuver left the demon vulnerable on the floor. I emptied the rest of my spray bottle into its face now that it was on my level. The demon didn''t appreciate the gesture, curling up to avoid the burning liquid. This was a mistake. Between that moment of blindness and its slow recovery, it gave me time to retrieve another sword. Instead of spinning and shing, this time, I pointed the sword forward and charged into its back. The de sank into the left ribs up to the hilt. I tried to pull it out, but it was stuck so fast that I lost my grip. Previously it had ignored bolts driven deep into its torso, but this sword was much wider. When it roared as it struggled to its feet, I could hear a liquid bubbling in its lungs. I tried to grab another sword but couldn''t quite find one before it got back up. Taking one look at me and my brandished mop, the demon decided that it had had enough. Turning on its good leg, it made a limping run for the main entrance to the castle, where it could see the outside. I raced after it as fast as my wheels could carry me. Even injured, drained, and weak from waking early, it was still faster than me in a straight line. I shined mymp on its retreating form, but that only seemed to spur it on faster. Desperately I thought through my options. I needed to find a way to catch up with it. Examining my dustbin, it was mostly empty. I had either released the contents at the demon or burned them for power. The only thing I had left was the blood I had consumed from it. Wait. I burned a lot of power when I collided with the demon. Did I level up? Yes, I had! Somehow I had ignored the notification during the fight. Quickly I scanned my options to see if anything was going to help me. LEVEL 45: TASER, POOPER SCOOPER, THRUSTERS Yes, there was something! I chose without really considering the other options. Activating my new ability, I pointed the nozzles behind me and activated them. I was flung forward like greased lightning. Launched off the ground, I caught up to the running demon as it reached the top of the stairs. My momentum knocked us off the steps and, through what remained of the entryway, out to the courtyard. We sprawled out over the teau in front of the castle. In thest second, I was able to position my mop so that itnced into the demon''s back, right next to the sword. With the force of our collision, it had no problem driving into the same hole, widening it a bit. More importantly, the mop was thirsty and was soon draining the demon dry. I could feel its heart trying to pump blood with my sensors, but it wasn''t able to draw it in faster than my mop was. For a second, Inded on my mop that was stuck deep in the wound of the demon. The demon iled and managed to knock me free, but in the process, it also knocked the sword out. As it regained its feet, blood poured down its torso and dripped off its back. I stopped in front of it, and its eyes met my visual sensors. Suddenly, a movement between its legs caught my eye. Apparently, the skeletons that were flung through the entrance before had been able to put themselves back together. Huh. It looked like there were arge number of humans as well. The little mess maker that I first used to scare away the big humans appeared to be leading a charge against the humans. My army had abandoned me, leaving me to fight the demon all by myself. Not that there was much more of the demon to fight. It was standing in front of me, but it didn''t look very steady. As it swayed back and forth, it blinked at me. It seemed to be running low on power on top of all the damage already done to it. All of its weight was being put on its injured leg. This was my opportunity. As I moved, I realized I was also low on battery. Since I had transmuted thest of the demons to get myst level up, I had done a lot of fighting. Still, I zoomed forward to try and hit the demon''s good foot with my mop. At least, that was what I pretended to do. As it moved to knock me aside and protect its good leg, I changed course. Swapping out my mop for my grabby arm, I scooped up the dropped sword. I almost got away clean. My battery was draining faster than it should have been, and I just wasn''t quite quick enough to avoid the kick with the injured leg. Much of the terrifying power was missing, but there was still enough force to send me cartwheeling away. Somehow I managed to hang on to the sword. Trying to figure out what was wrong, I checked my Automatic Maintenance function and saw it was doing repairs to my battery area. That was not good. The leaking power was slowing but not fast enough. I only had one hope. I started transmuting the blood of the demon. Chapter 82: On the Spot + Epilogue (End of Book 1) Chapter 82: On the Spot + Epilogue (End of Book 1) Bee woke up. This time she was all alone. The noises in the castle were quiet, but she could still hear something happening outside. With a groan, she sat up and shielded her eyes from the bright light. Being knocked out like this twice in a row could not be healthy. If she hadn''t already had the healing potion in her system from Tony TONY! Bee stood up as quickly as her wobbly legs would allow and looked around. She was on top of a pile of rubble. Stepping down, she started to dig around for her fellow disciple. He didn''t have the healing potion already working on him, and he was at a much lower level than her. If she didn''t find him soon. She was shiftingrge rocks around frantically, trying to see if he was buried in the pile. Eventually, she looked off to the right and found his limp body off to the side. Hobbling over to him, she went down on one knee and checked over him. Leaving her fingers in front of his mouth, she slumped in relief as she felt a very light breath. Looking around, she couldn''t find his bag. Going back to the pile of rocks, she found the contents of her own satchel had be a mess of shattered ss and oozing liquid. Quickly she inventoried everything from her preparations. She knew she had made extra potions; she just wasn''t sure where she had stored them. Debating the risk of moving him, Bee decided it was best to just leave him here and quickly retrieve the potion. She limped down the path that Tony was in charge of baiting. The traps and supplies she had along her path were very much destroyed as the Lieutenant chased her. As she ducked around and stepped over all the tripwires and traps she had set, she couldn''t help but be disappointed. Many of them had activated, but almost all seemed ineffectual. In the end, Void had to do almost all the work. She had spent so much time preparing, and all she had managed to do was slightly annoy it. Maybe the bucket at the end that she had sshed on it had helped. But when it came down to it, the only way to fight had been with power. The kind of power that only her master had. Bee supposed that was the lesson that it was trying to teach her. She needed to get stronger. She had been too proud and believed a little girl could defeat one of humanity''s ancient nightmares. Only through the benevolence of her master did the humans here still live. As Bee found the crate of backup supplies she had made for Tony''s route, she thought about what it meant for Lieutenant Nazareth''gak to be here. If it was here, that meant that perhaps more of those so-called fairy tales were real. More real than most people knew. Still, the mages had to have been aware of the demon. But she had been in the castle for two months and had no idea. She doubted any of the apprentices knew either. If that was the case, how many more of the ancient monsters were still around? Were they properly hidden and captured, or did they depend on a group of mages who, if they were to run away, could loose death on the world? These thoughts sent chills down her spine. If other demons might awaken, her position of Priest of Spot was much more important than she realized. Sure, she had learned her lesson. She needed to be stronger, but that wasn''t the only thing she had learned. No, it wasn''t just her that needed to be stronger. It was everyone. The human world couldn''t afford to stay weak. Being content about getting to level 20 in their prime. Maybe 30 if they pushed themselves. No, they would need to take risks. The world needed to listen to the wisdom that Void had given her. But would just being strong be enough? Maybe, maybe not. Even if it was, it would take time. Leveling was slow, even when taking great risks. Until humans could take care of themselves, they were at the mercy of her master. Changing the world might be a bit much for her. However, her master needed to stay pleased. More than her life now depended on it. Obviously, she would follow her master''s ns, but she made a note that when she next got the chance to talk to a person, she would tell them of what she had learned. What else would humans need to do to make sure they stayed in Void''s good graces? Well, obviously, tidiness would be essential, and stairs would have to go When Bee got back to Tony, she found that his condition still hadn''t changed. She administered the potion and waited. After some initial progress, she moved him to lie in a morefortable position. Then she continued to treat her friend. After Tony was stabilized, Bee walked to the front of the castle. She wanted to see if her master had finished off the Lieutenant yet, or if he was still toying with it. --- I couldn''t believe that this demon was still standing. I had the benefit of a fresh infusion of energy from its blood, but the Lieutenant? I watched as a seemingly endless stream of blood poured down the demon''s torso. Standing seemed to be its limit. We stared each other down as my repairs finished. This was going to be the deciding factor. If I wasn''t able to heal so fast, I would have already been scrapped. It seemed the demon was healing slightly, too, though much more slowly than I. At least its blood flow was slowing. Once I could move again, I circled around the demon, forcing it to move opposite me. This was a challenge, as it had to pivot on its good leg pushing with the damaged one. Slowly I rolled around the demon, looking for a weakness that I could use to take my foe down. I was still wary as I knew how dangerous a wounded foe could be. I had seen enough nature documentaries not to let down my guard. Now that I was able to understand, I could liken my situation to that of a wolf circling its injured prey. As I continued my movement, I wasn''t able to keep my path perfectly round as I had to keep going around debris. Honestly, it was quite bumpy. After a couple of circles, I could see the demon was starting to tire. I also found the smoothest path to use to strike. When the time was right, I moved. Darting forward, Inced the sword right at its rooted good leg. It wasn''t able to dodge. Not that it didn''t try, but it had to suddenly shift onto its injured leg to dodge. Unable to support itself, it stumbled. As it fell, I drove the point of the sword right through the demon''s kneecap. It copsed to the ground, howling in pain, and nowpletely unable to stand. Still, it could use its arms as it tried to crawl away and vainly swat behind it. No longer a danger to me, I started trying to figure out how to finish off the demon for good. Judging based on my memories of the time in the catbs, the ancient humans hadn''t been able to kill it, so I assumed that it would heal from anything given enough time. So there was only one ce for it. I started trying to consume it with my vacuum. But it didn''t work. Either it was still much more powerful than me, or it was simply toorge. Unlike the earth demons, it wasn''t made of a bunch of smaller particles that I could easily consume. So I might have to resize it a bit. *** A few minutes of grueling workter, I had the demon all packed away in my dustbin. I examined it closely, and I could see it start to reassemble itself. This would not be eptable. It was a high enough level that once it was repaired, it might be able to break out. Also, for the moment, it was still weakened from waking up early. If it had time to adjust, I didn''t know if I could beat it again. Bracing myself, I transmuted the demon to energy. A wave sted outward from me. One more powerful than I had ever seen before. It lifted me high in the air, many times higher than I had ever been. It was Ufortable, to be honest, but also an incredible view. I was able to see the castle far below. Out in the distance, mountains surrounded us on three sides. The only path into our massive valley led to a walled city. I watched as, along the path, a wave of Skeletons ran after a group of fleeing humans. Even as I watched, the humans started to pull away, and the skeletons stopped their pursuit. Huh, that was odd. Starting to fall, I activated my new mutation. Hopefully, my boosters would give me a softnding. Otherwise, this would be bad. On my way down, I received a new notification. LEVEL 50 REACHED. YOUR DOMAIN IS NOW ACTIVE Huh, I wonder what that means --- Harold had to order the retreat himself. It was unfortunate, but no one else inmand was left to do so. These undead were smart. They are much too smart for the mindless skeletons they are supposed to be. They had charged themand tent first. Taken unawares, the officers weren''t even able to put up a token resistance. Luckily the soldiers were well-trained, and even without themand structure, they formed battle lines. Still, without a clear chain ofmand,rge-scale tactical decisions were beyond them. Harold had stepped up and started handling things, but he was a mage, not a battlefieldmander. Seeing his firstmand meet with confused looks from the junior officers, he gave up on winning and did his best to disengage. To make matters worse, the undead army radiated a powerful enough aura of undeath that the in officers began to rise within a matter of minutes. When Harold saw that, he knew they had no chance. He gave up on winning and did his best to disengage. Retreating back to Greg was their only option. There they would at least have walls and reinforcements. Still, Greg was a long way away, and Harold wasn''t sure they could make it in time. It would be a hard couple of days of riding. Still, it was their only option. Shortly after the men engaged the massive skeletons, Harold signaled the retreat. The remaining junior officers tried their best to coordinate and cover their men as they fled. Since most of the men were mounted and horses were faster than skeletons in short distances, they began to pull away. Surprisingly, the undead quickly realized they wouldn''t catch them and stopped pursuing them. These were truly unlike any undead that Harold had ever read about. Sure, demons were his field of study, but he had many friends that were aplished, undead researchers. His panicked brain registered the fact that they would have killed to be in his position here. Right as the skeletons fell back, Harold felt the Lieutenant fall. A bright light shot up into the sky, and Harold could make out a small ck disc that seemed to eclipse the sun for a brief instant. From this range, it was hard to be sure, but he had a sinking suspicion of what he had just seen. In the end, it was almost worse than they had feared. The demon he had summoned had freed the Lieutenant. But not to serve it or to make an alliance. No, to kill it and steal its power. What kind of monster saw one of the thirteen as a source of power? As prey? Something that would need more than the measly amount of soldiers that were sent this time. They would need the whole army. It might even be time to set aside their differences with Barleona and work together to save the human race. Harold doubted their neighbor would see the attempt as anything but a trick, but he had to try. //// Epilogue The Warden was on his way to meet with Harold again. As he worked his way through the different levels of security, his mind worked through the problem at hand. This meeting was important, and Harold had been proven right after all; otherwise, he wouldn''t be here. They had not sent nearly enough troops, and because of that, the kingdom had lost several experienced officers they really couldn''t afford to lose. The weakening of the kingdom was not part of his ns yet, and this would force him to adjust. The Warden didn''t like having to change ns, but you didn''t get to his position without being flexible. He had backup ns, but none of them were nearly as elegant. And things were changing still. Sure the demonic threat was worse than they feared, but that wasn''t the only concerning newsing in. Some of this new news was just as concerning, if not more so. There were reports of a new undead gue springing up in the same area. Also, of a new feeling of power, people were reporting nketing their minds. He doubted those were coincidences. In other areas, things were not going well. Most of the countryside had been stripped of its soldiers, maintaining order to prepare for the war. Thisck of a policing force meant bandits were on the rise, as they always did. It also made it very difficult for the adventurers to keep up with suppressing all the zones that had weakened membranes to other realms, allowing monsters toe through. Adventurers weren''t good at that sort of stuff without support. Point them at a big target, and they might solve your problem, but thoroughness just wasn''t in their nature. Not only were there all of this kingdom''s internal issues, but some of his operatives in the neighboring countries also reported secret projects of their own demon summoning. Each country seemed to be looking for its own secret weapon. His operatives were doing their best to sabotage their efforts. Normally this wasn''t something that his organization would take part in, but after thisst disaster, he couldn''t risk another. He had only allowed the demon that Harold was assigned to slip through because Harold was his man. It would have been easy to stop, of course, but he had hoped that Harold would seed, and that might put his operative in an even better position. As he sat down at the table facing the fire, he looked over to study Harold. This man was once one of his most promising trainees. He had hopes that Harold might one day rece him. Now, those hopes were dimming like dying embers. "What news do you have for me?" The Warden asked. Harold met the Warden''s eyes. They seemed tired now, more haunted than he remembered. "It appears that the undead and demon threat are linked in some way," "We already knew that. It can hardly be considered news." The Warden pointed out, annoyed. "Yes, but rumors havee around of a certain young girl and an unknown entity ''saving'' people," Harold exined. "I think they are using the undead to force people to them." "If that is true, then they are far more organized than we have thought." The Warned mused. "If that is the case, then we still underestimate this thing you summoned. I have never even heard of the undead working with demons before. Are you sure?" "Well, it is a rumor. But I think we best not underestimate this threat." The younger mage shuddered. "We have done so too many times already." Chapter 83: Prologue (1) (originally .1: Rodent of Unusual Size (bonus Chapter)) Chapter 83: Prologue (1) (originally .1: Rodent of Unusual Size (bonus Chapter)) Roscoe was aware. Perhaps it was intelligence that he had gained, or rather, been granted, but its manifestation had given him self-awareness. But, of course, he remembered his previous life as more of a fever dream. It was a haze of fear and confusion, with nothing outside the present and no concept of proper choice or thought. Indeed, he would argue that his "thoughts" barely counted as such. It was more like existing on rails than authentic living. Yet now, he had been blessed with sentience. That endless darkness, that empty void he had floated in, had delivered this greatest of gifts to him. His very being was ame with a sense of purpose that had previously been inconceivable. Not even theparatively unenlightened minds of his 14 very disagreeable roommates could diminish his exultation. Roscoe had initially attempted tomunicate with them, seeking some sort ofpanion to test his newfound intellect against, yet was disappointed. They were not as Roscoe was. This made their attempts to bring harm to Roscoe entertaining. They still needed to grasp that the beings within this space could not physically do anything to each other. Once they hade to terms with this fact, they had feuded, all 14 again, against him - mentally. They had sent waves of anger at each other and him. They seemed to find purpose, if not satisfaction, in spreading their need to devour and kill. The mental assault was a new sensation to him, though not nearly so ground-shaking as the intelligence was. It vaguely reminded him of the fear that colored so much of those earlier memories. Yet the sheer intention behind this, the desire to cause harm for the sake of harm, rather than in the way a predator hunts prey to feed itself, was worth meditating on. Roscoe supposed that this was one of the more unfortunate manifestations of intelligence, though perhaps such shortsighted and destructive aims also indicated lower intelligence. That is an exciting thought. As Roscoe continued to float in this space, ruminating on the nature of his existence and its meaning, he asionally passed by collections of other materials that inhabited it. Ribbons of fine shimmering dust, miniature asteroids of debris, and shining clouds of prismatic crystals formed awe-inspiring imitations of gxies. Passing near enough to these formations imbued him with some part of their energy. This mechanism likely led to his current state. It made him wonder whether this space was indeed the same as the space visible in the night sky. Yet that did not seem to be the case. And then the void began to shake. It had trembled, and the others had gone from anger, bloodlust, and absolute hatred for their captor to unmitigated terror. This transition happened in the blink of an eye. Roscoe only vaguely recalled havinge to this ce. Still, his memories suggested that he was indeed housed within a greater being somehow. Thest moments of his previous life were somewhat hazy. However, he could now feel the deities'' attention focus on him. Roscoe was selected. And then, as he considered what this might mean, he was cast out. As he re-entered the physical world, Roscoe felt gravity again take its inexorable hold on him. Again, however, it felt strange and unusual on his form. This was not the body he remembered. Roscoe had grown significantly, more than any of his kind had ever dared to dream about. He could even stand up on his rear legs and bnce easily. Perhaps his newly discovered mental faculties had enhanced his bnce and use of even this foreign body?. Briefly taking in his surroundings, Roscoe noticed a human. A tiny girl, to be sure. Roscoe could probably stand eye-to-eye with her when he was on his back legs. And then he saw it. Next to the girl, radiating power and majesty, was a small ck disc that clearly must have been the vessel of the deity that had blessed him. But, on the other hand, perhaps it was the god itself. From his perspective, Roscoe could see that the small girl was on the god''s side. However, three others looked aggressive. This must be the reason he was selected toe forth. First, he twisted his tail upward in a salute to the deity. Then, he snapped it sideways to test his newly strengthened body''s capabilities. Roscoe felt his tail sting as its tip broke the sound barrier. That was something he hadn''t expected, but considering the length of his tail and its physical flexibility, it made sense. He wasn''t sure how he would fare atbat, but if this was the price that demanded his sentience, he would dly pay it. He owed the deity at least this much. So, without further ado, Roscoe charged at the three aggressors that dared offend his god. Thebat was intense, far more than the fear-tainted chases he recalled as prey. Roscoe has already been faster and more agile than a standard human. However, now he had the strength to go along with it. He was pleasantly surprised when he dodged their blows and even intimidated them into retreating. Indeed, I have been nourished into a true awakening. He snapped one with his tail, sending them flying. It didn''t put him out of the fight permanently but moved him out of the way long enough for Roscoe to get his bearings. He spun, shing out with a front w and a back w simultaneously. He kept two ws avable at all times, one for each opponent, and bnced on one of his hind legs when necessary. Their wicked swords and daggers were kept at bay as they frantically attempted to regain control. One backed off quickly, and the other grabbed Roscoe''s attention with a giant sword. They both dashed forward, opponents shing in a furious melee. They traded blows, but the man''s armor prevented Roscoe from doing any real damage. Roscoe was mostly able to batter the man about, but this left the giant rat distracted. He could feel powders flying at him that burned his skin and caused him to lose his vision for precious seconds. Eventually, arrows started flying, and Roscoe felt their repeated stings across his back. Roaring his frustration and a prayer to his god, Roscoe charged headlong toward the sword-wielding man and bowled him over. He was doing it! Stepping forward would force the man out of the gate, out of his master''s domain. However, right as Roscoe''s victory seemed so sure, he took a sudden blow to the head. His vision swam. The humans rallied, forcing him on the defensive. Roscoe didn''t retreat. Trying his best to dodge the arrows and disperse the powder with his tail, he struggled against the now-reinvigorated group. It was somewhat effective. However, he felt the tide had turned. It was the 1v3 which he thought was a bit unfair. But it was not Roscoe''s ce toin. So he did as his god had decreed. The brute with a giant sword advanced, taking swipe after swipe at him. Roscoe could feel it chip at his ws and teeth as he paired desperately. Roscoe struggled valiantly but had lost too much momentum. Fighting multiple opponents was all about rhythm and timing, yet he had been rocked. An arrow stuck in his shoulder and deadened his arm, making it hard to use. The man in front of him raised his sword. Roscoe was able to get his paw up in time to catch it in his ws. The metal bit deeply into two of them and broke off a third. His injured arm was weak and unable to stop the blow entirely. The force powered through his paw, mming into his head and knocking Roscoe over. Hey in the dirt. Completely helpless. Seeing that he wasn''t going to have a chance, Roscoe froze. He had failed his god; he had lost. However, he was too weak to stall his enemies any further. Roscoe hoped he had done enough and prayed that he would be forgiven for his weakness. His vision began to cken at the edges. His wounds throbbed, and the umted damage began to take its toll. Soon, Roscoe faded into unconsciousness. Everything went ck. *** Roscoe woke up alone. His deity and the other humans have disappeared. He stilly in the courtyard of his home castle, right where he had made hisst stand. The ground was still soaked with his blood. Roscoe didn''t remember the conclusion of the fight. He simply thought he had died. Perhaps he had just passed out? Groaning, his muscles were sore, and his head rang like a bell. His mouth felt like he''d been chewing on cotton for the past week. Stumbling to his feet, he found less damage than he had expected. Whatever the god had done to him while he floated in the void had done wonders for his constitution. Looking around, he saw bloody arrows everywhere. There were still holes and loose ps in his skin from where the humans'' attacks hadnded. And yet, despite that, Roscoe was alive. It didn''t seem possible. Truly my god had blessed me yet again, Roscoe thought. He had been rewarded. Taking a deep breath, Roscoe attempted to smell where his god had gone. However, it seemed the deity left no scent. It made sense that a being such as that could mask its presence. Perhaps it was so perfectly efficient that it would not leave any byproducts as a mortal would. However, he could track the tiny human who also served their master. He could smell her, feel her life, and feel it pull at him. He followed her trail back into the castle. Quickly he came across an ovepping track. She must have doubled back recently - more than once, it seemed. Taking a second to untangle the web of scents, he found what he was looking for. Following the newest trail, it led behind the stairs that presumably led to the grand hall. Roscoe went through the banded wooden door, following the scent of his god''s servant. Chapter 84: Heavenly Ascent Chapter 84: Heavenly Ascent I was devastated. When I went to go back into the castle, I found that the copse of the entryway had destroyed the ramps. It had also got most of the stairs too, but I wasn''t too concerned about that. I did my best to ignore the devastation around me, which was a sad sight to see. The careful beauty of this castle was in tatters. As I mourned for the art, I had arger issue. How was I going to get back inside with no ramps? I still didn''t know what had happened to Beatrice yet, but I couldn''t imagine she was undamaged. Thatst explosion had sent everything flying. Approaching the stairs, I did have one option. It was rtively untested. I activated mytest mutation, and the boosters red to life, gently pushing me off the ground. I gave an inadvertent beep of excitement. This might actually work! Adjusting the nozzles, I tried to direct myself up the stairwell. However, I had misjudged the height and simply ended up bouncing off the bottom step. This collision sent me careening backward, and I lost control of my stability. Wobbling, I started to tip backward. In a panic, I overcorrected and ended up flipping myself forward andnding on my back on the bottom step. By the most nitpicking definition ever, this was technically progress, but not how I wanted to get upstairs. Extending my arm, I pushed against the ground to flip myself over. However, due to the angle and the width of the step, I only seeded in pushing myself off the bottom step and back down to the ground. After writing myself again, I decided to experiment with the thrusters again. I tried lifting off and hovering. This time I didn''t immediately go for the steps, but just practiced moving around and pushing up and down slightly. It seemed like I could hover at a maximum height of 4.56 inches at full power. Once I had a better handle on my new abilities, I very carefully hovered towards the stairs. This time as I moved to the stairs, I made it over the lip! I celebrated too soon. This was it. I could conquer my oldest and most heinous foe. Never again would the wonders of my home be inessible to me. I was unstoppable. I could go wherever I pleased! I could climb every stairwell! Ford every gap! I could even- As soon as my first thruster made it onto the stair, my front half shot up again. The bottom step was too close for this level of thrust, and the sudden difference in force was many times what I was expecting. I rocked back a bit but was able to stabilize before I flipped again. Ok, maybe I wasnt unstoppable yet. Backing up, I prepared for a third attempt. This time as my front thrusters moved over the stairs, I reduced their power. I ovepensated, and instead of staying level, I tilted forward a little bit, and my front wheelsnded on the step. That was fine. I could work with that. Spinning my wheels, I carefully worked myself the rest of the way onto the step. Looking up to the next step, I realized this might be slightly harder as I didn''t have space to back up. It took a couple of tries, but I eventually figured out that if I came at it from the side, I could get over the lip. By the time I reached the top of the stairs, I was able to adjust my front thruster well enough that I didn''t have tond and reorient for every step. My models were beginning to understand the physics behind this new mutation. Once I crested the top of the final step, I plunked down on the ground. I spun around and gave a celebratory beep as I admired my progress. I climbed up the stairs all by myself! Me! Though, as proud as I was of my momentous aplishment, I didn''t want to have to do that again. The ramps were just so much better. And I couldn''t even imagine going down the stairs like that. Just the thought made my wheels shiver. Yeah, I wasn''t about to try that anytime soon. Now that I had conquered the stairs, I set off to go find Beatrice. *** It took a little searching, but I found that Beatrice had dragged Tony back to what remained of the library. One of the walls was caved in, and a lot of her ss equipment seemed to be in pieces. However, most of the books had survived, even if just barely. Instead of carefully organized and in their proper ces, the ones that were on the destroyed wall were now scattered everywhere. Honestly, I was just d that, one, no fires had started, and two, that apparently enough load-bearing walls stayed upright that the ceiling was not caving in. Though the fires were a close call, I did have to consume a few little mess makers that were hot and glowing on the way here. They were like the one I saw when I had first met Beatrice, the one that attacked her so rudely. Apparently, they had escaped at some point in thest couple of hours. Understandably Beatrice didn''t notice me right away, as I came in while she was busy tending to an unconscious Tony. Beatrice herself didn''t look in amazing condition either. There were no obvious broken parts on her, but I did see lots of strange color splotches all over her face. If I hadn''t known better, I would have thought she had been doing arts and crafts. Rolling up to her, I gently bumped her in the leg. She jumped several feet in the air. "WHAT in the five.." Looking down, she finally saw me. Taking a second topose herself, she stepped back and gave me a bow. "Hello, master." I beeped at her to cut it out and tell me how Tony was doing. She sort of seemed to understand the message as she started telling me what had happened to her during the fight. --- Bee nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt something touch her ankle before she realized it was only Void. That realization only slightly decreased her rm. As much as she trusted her master, she had just gotten a very up-close reminder of how dangerous it was. Void may act innocent and sweet most of the time, but with hardly any effort, it could bring the world down around it. Watching her master go toe to wheel with one of humanitys greatest terrors had been eye-opening. Once she heard the battle cease, she held her breath, but when the castle wasn''t immediately obliterated by demons, she knew the result. What Void was doing in the hours between then and now, she couldn''t begin to guess. Probably consolidating power or something. As Bee filled Void in on her side of the encounter, she continued her work trying to make more healing potions. Her equipment was shot, but she could manage the lower-level ones without it. Plus, both she and Tony had taken more powerful potions than was advisable recently, and they couldn''t handle any more of the superior, faster acting ones without getting sick. So some more basic ones needed brewing. Luckily, those were the easy kind. She had considered going upstairs to see if there was any ssware that had survived in thebs but honestly was a bit hesitant to trust the floor''s integrity yet. Perhaps Void would be willing to help her? She looked down at her master, but it was already gone. Scanning the floor around her, she noticed Void picking through the debris and separating items into groups. It seemed that its categorization system fell into three distinct piles. One was the books it picked out and meticulously cleaned. The other was intact and mostly intact bricks. Thest bit was things that it devoured. Seeing her master engaged in its work, Bee turned back to her own. Pouring the contents of the mortar she had just finished grinding into the shattered lip of a mixing sk, she started swirling. *** It had taken a couple of days of working non-stop, but I finally got the library in working condition. Well, mostly. There was still a huge gap in the wall, but all the books not on the shelves were neatly stacked in alphabetic order, and the blocks that might be usable for reconstruction had been ssified. I wasn''t sure how I was going to go about fixing the walls yet, sadly. While I was cleaning up the books, I had looked for some rted to building but hadn''t found anything relevant. Still, I held out hope. During my time trying to bring order to the library, Bee had mostly repaired herself and Tony. Well, I assumed Tony was mostly repaired; he had yet to be turned on again. Judging by Bee''s attitude, though, things seemed to be getting better. Once I finished ordering the library, I made my way outside and tried to get the hall cleaned up a bit. This was in much worse condition. Taking a step back to categorize the damage, I could see a swath of destruction leading from the demon''s containment to the exit of the castle. All along the way, the floor was damaged. The beautiful marble had been shattered by its steps and fists. As devastating as that was, the damage was not limited to the floors alone; it was, in fact, even worse. The walls were cracked, if not outright copsed, in many ces. Each door that it had charged through while chasing us had a decent amount of stone missing from each side. I was deeply distressed. Only recently I hadmented how my newfound efficiency left me without any meaningful cleaning to do. But now Now I was faced with yet another mess the likes of which I couldnt begin to tackle myself. It was humbling. The only thing that I could realistically do right now was clean up and salvage what I could. Eventually, I would set this right, I vowed. Before I could start cleaning the halls in earnest, Beatrice asked for my help getting new equipment from upstairs for Tony''s treatment. On the trip upstairs, I found many surprises. The first thing was the ramps here were still intact. I made it up without having to use my tedious jet method. I was quite grateful for that, as it would have been rather embarrassing to have Beatrice watch me hop my way upstairs. Having her carry me might actually have been preferable to that. Still, it was ultimately unnecessary. As we made it up the stairs, Beatirce led us to one of the closerboratories. Inside, it looked like an earthquake had happened. I was familiar with the phenomenon - I had experienced something simr with my family before. The dishes went everywhere This wasn''t nearly as bad, though. Mostly the tables were shifted, and things had fallen off the counters. The items in the cabs that Beatrice needed were still intact. Once she had loaded up, we ran a quick check through the rest of the rooms on the upper floors. Everything was in order despite the enormous disturbance from downstairs. After Beatrice had finished cleaning up a moderate-sized pile of guano at my insistence, we headed back downstairs. From there, we settled into a daily routine. I cleaned where I could and stacked everything else into neat little piles. Everything was going as well as I could have expected. Well, until something odd started happening. Where I stayed near Beatrice while she slept, the castle was changing. I wasn''t sure at first, but my sensors confirmed it. It was almost as if the holes in the walls were shrinking as the stone grew up around it. Chapter 85: Falling In Place Chapter 85: Falling In ce The castle regrowing around me wasn''t the only weird urrence that I noticed. I had been organizing debris and fallen items into piles for a while now. But strangely, whenever I ced something on a pile, it was always perfectly aligned. At first, I assumed that was just due to my skill and increasing motor control. But at one point, I was in a particr rush because I knew Beatrice needed some help in a few minutes. Then, I knew I wasn''t stacking the books and blocks straight at all; when I came back to that stack of blocks, though, it was all perfectly aligned. When Beatrice''s alchemy equipment started organizing itself, I started looking for solutions. Something odd was going on. There were several things that I was aware of that could be causing something like this. My first suspicion was there was some sort of like-minded creature sneaking around straightening everything up. An anti-mess maker, maybe. I spent several days carefully scanning my surroundings while seeming like I wasn''t paying attention before I finally gave up on that theory, as cool as it might have been. The other unexined cause could be the reward I got for reaching level 50. I had been expecting another mutation, but instead, I had just been told my domain was activated with no exnation. I supposed this castle had be my domain, even if I didn''t know what that entailed exactly. After days of being around the castle, things were starting to improve markedly. I had cleaned each floor thoroughly, and I had noticed that the stacks of salvaged bricks were slowly shrinking as if the domain was repurposing them. Still, at this rate, it would be a long time before the castle was back to its previous splendor. It was a couple more days before Beatrice was finally able to awaken Tony. As she kept feeding him healing potions and applying ves to his head, he kept getting better. When he finally woke up, he was very confused. His memories of me seemed a bit hazy, but he did give me a good pat before falling asleep again. But the next morning, he woke up on his own. --- Bee was worn down to the bone. She had barely slept more than a couple hours a day since the Lieutenant was defeated. All other hours of the day, she was trying desperately to save Tony. Things had taken a turn for the worse that first night, and with the library in disarray, it had taken her much too long to find solutions. Organ damage, brain damage, and internal bleeding were all things that were extremely difficult to heal. Those injuries required much moreplicated concoctions than she had ever needed to make before. Each one stretched her abilities, and it was only her new skill that had allowed Tony to pull through. It was the only time she had ever been grateful to the system for giving her a slew of terrible options. Repair seemed that the skill was functioning in a medical sense. Though the little bit of testing she had done showed, it did work on other things as well. Repair and her Divine Alchemy had synergized and allowed her to muddle through recipes far beyond her skill level. All the while, they both made her actions more effective. Repair seemed to be especially effective in putting broken bones back together. Which was the only reason Tony had even a chance at waking up again. The number of ribs that had been at odd angles inside him, needing to be put back in ce before healing could really begin, was astonishing. Once his bones were healed, the long process of trying to restore function began. Bee hadn''t slept for the first three nights before she finally passed out reading a book. By that point, Tony was still not out of trouble yet. Luckily Void had been kind enough to wake her up after a few hours. Other than that, though, her master mostly left her to her work. It cleaned up after its fight, but even she could see it would take Void a while to restore the castle. Somehow it was magically repairing the walls as well. She had yet to catch it in the act, and at first, she was sure it was a hallucination. But now she was sure that the cracks in the floor were slowly melding together. Now, nearly a week after the fight, Tony had finally regained consciousness. As hey in the bed, unfocused gaze drifting around the room, his first words were, "Oh good. We are alive." After confirming that he was not, in fact, dead, he fell unconscious again. Still, that was enough. Bee slumped over her bench in relief, letting exhaustion overtake her. It was just good to hear him speak. She wouldn''t call Tony a father figure, as she still had a living father and enough bad memories to taint that role. Maybe he was more like a young uncle. But she hade to depend on him during the preparations for the fight. Even if he was older, he still listened to her. Of course, she wasn''t sure how much of that was because he was just overly aware of how strong she was. Now that she had reached level 32, she was truly strong. It was hard to quantify. Honestly, if she enlisted in the military, she would be among the upper ranks, and she was still only 13 years old! Her strength wasn''t quite superhuman yet. She might not be able to pull a plow as well as a draft horse, but she bet she could still pull it. The strength wasn''t the biggest difference. All her skills were more powerful than before, and her mind was clearer. She remembered things with little effort, and she could read entire books in less than an hour. Soon enough, Bee blinked her eyes open to a new morning. Stretching her protesting muscles, she checked on Tony to find that he was also awake. Bee came over to check his wounds. "Hello Tony, how are you feeling?" "Not great. Honestly I feel like a horse kicked me through a wall." Tony answered. His voice sounded raspy from disuse. "That''s not too far from the truth actually. I believe you went through a wall. Most of your ribs were broken at one point." Bee said. Tony reached up to feel his sides gently. "Huh, doesn''t feel broken, just bruised." "You will be bruised for at least a week. I fed your body as much of every different kind of healing I know about. It can''t take much more for a while. There were a few times I didn''t think you would make it." Bee started to exin. "Once you couldn''t handle any more of the alpha-based potions, I needed to move on to some ves. That worked well for the most part, but unfortunately, it didn''t do much for your insides. After those stopped I had to swap to using beta-based potions. Not ideal I know. It was hard to even find much about them; they have been outdated for so long. While they are much slower than the alpha-based ones, you can handle a bit more. Once you reached your limit on those." Bee trailed off as she realized that Tony had fallen asleep again. Sighing, she ran her hand down her face. Covering up a yawn, she returned to her mattress and just passed out. --- I was almost done with restoring the entire castle. It was hard work, but I actually didn''t do much directly anymore. All the mess was cleaned up, and all the reusable materials were organized. Just my presence seemed to be required as the castle stitched itself back together. The only thing I could actively do to speed it up was physically close to the damage. Since I didn''t have anything I could actively do, I was just keeping Tonypany as he recovered while Beatrice was off somewhere else in the castle. Tony was looking at me oddly as if he was trying to remember something. "Hey, you fought Nazareth''gak, right?" Huh, what a question! I searched my memory banks, and I found an instance of Beatrice referring to something of that name. Putting it together, I assumed it was the big demon''s name. It only took me a few moments to process that, and I let out an affirmative beep. "Crazy," Tony said, his head lolling back into the pillow. "You are one scary guy." I wasn''t quite sure how to respond to that, so I just stayed quiet. It wasn''t long before he spoke up again. "You know I want to go home." There were a few more minutes of silence while I tried to work out how to respond. I wanted to help Tony keep his spirits up, but I just wasn''t sure how. Floors are simple; I like cleaning them. I know exactly how to take care of them. You vacuum, you mop, and sometimes you need to spray and wipe them. Humans are hard. Humans have always done many things that have confused me. I rarely ever understand them, and their thoughts seem so illogical. Eventually, Tony broke into my musings as if he had never stopped talking. "Not to stay there. But I want to see my ma. And my pa. They shoulde here. There is more than enough work, and with the demon gone, this is a safe ce." He paused for another long second. "With all the stuff I have seen. I''m not really sure there is anywhere else safe. Maybe they need to go to Greg. But that''s too expensive." Again Tony paused for a long second. As the time stretched out, I eventually gave an inquisitive beep urging him to continue. However, when I looked over at him more closely, he had fallen deep asleep again. --- Roscoe led his band of skeletons after the human army. It had been too easy to chase them off, and they had not managed to kill nearly as many of them as he would have liked. As much as that was a disappointment, it was also a blessing. They simply didn''t have the numbers yet. If the humans had managed to defeat them, their revolt would have ended. Of course, even now, their numbers grew. The humans they had managed to finish were turning behind them. They would be a far cry from the elite skeletons, but simple zombies had their ce too. As Roscoe led the march down the road, he looked at some of the small side trails leading off from it. He could smell the asional group of humans down those paths. Each time he considered stopping the chase to pursue those humans, he figured that it wouldn''t be worth it. There were only a small number of humans in those offshoot paths, after all, and he could alwayse back. The first one also smelled of his Senior Sister, so he made a note to leave that one alone. For now, Roscoe was satisfied with chasing the humans to arger settlement before starting to gather more followers. There would be more potential recruits nearby arger group of people. Still, maybe he would send a few zombies back. It would be a good idea to get the conquest rolling in multiple ces. It would be harder to stop that way. Yes, that would be a good idea. On the second day, they were still not near arge group of humans. As much as he wanted to make sure the revolution was perfect, Roscoe was getting impatient. By the end of that day, he started sending a few zombies down random paths. They weren''t very smart but could handle simple instructions. So he gave them a clear directive: "Find new recruits." Chapter 86: Good Clean Fun Chapter 86: Good Clean Fun Bee was just getting back from collecting eggs when Tony finally seemed ready to get up and walk around. Setting aside her basket, she slipped her shoulder under his arm. She half helped and half lifted him up until he was standing unsteadily. After a few tentative steps, she lowered him into a chair as he panted to catch his breath. "Sorry, seem to be a little out of shape at the moment, need to get some exercise." Tony said with a smile. Bee wasn''t really listening as she probed his side with her fingers. "Ah! Five realms your fingers are cold. No, stop that tickles." "Stopining." Bee chastised, swatting his hands away. "It looks like a rib healed slightly wrong." Bending forward for a closer look, Bee poured her Repair skill into it, and she felt the break realigning itself. From right above her ear, she heard Tony''s teeth grinding together. "Sorry this might hurt a bit." Bee warned toote. "No, it''s fine. Just itches like a million ants crawling under my skin." Tony lied through his clenched teeth as his hands grasped the sides of the chair. "Just a couple more seconds." Bee coaxed. "Almost there." A couple of secondster, she withdrew her hand. "Okay, take a breath." Watching his ribs expand, she thought everything looked alright. "How does that feel?" "A little better. Almost like I can get a lungful again." Tony said after taking a second deep breath. This time when she helped him to his feet, Tony was able to walk all the way around the library with minimal support before needing to rest. While he rested, she cooked a couple of fresh eggs above her alchemy burner. As they ate, Tony started to look tired, but nheless, he pushed through to finish the meal. After a few minutes of silence, Tony raised his head and looked Bee in the eye. "I think I want to bring my family here." Bee cocked her head at him. "Why?" It didn''t make sense to her. This castle was almost destroyed just a little bit ago. Tony, though, apparently had plenty of reasons. "It''s a lot nicer here than at home, for one. Assuming they can use the bedrooms, of course. Also, I think we are going to need more help." "What about the crop your family is growing? Won''t we need that to get through the winter?" Bee asked. "They should be finishing up harvesting around now. We can bring all the stuff here. Besides, with demons running around, if the mages have abandoned their posts I don''t feel like Greg is going to be very safe." Tony borated. "Besides, we are going to need the food ourselves. We should have harvested our gardens a while ago. By the time I can get around to it, who knows how much we will get." Bee was touched. She figured Tony would go back to his family after this ordeal. She had not met many people who would stick around after so much trouble. After nearly dying, Tony really should be more careful. But she did have to admit that he made good points. She was also surprised that no mages had tried to return to the castle. When she first got stuck here, she was certain that rescue would being soon. But monthster, it never had. In fact, the only ones to visit the castle were the three adventurers. Honestly, they weren''t that good of an experience. Plus, they were so obviously insufficient for the threat posed by the Lieutenant. Why hadnt the mages even tried to contain it? Bee set the thought aside and refocused on the issue in front of her. Tony''s words about food were slightly concerning. "Tony, I get it, I really do. But you aren''t fit to travel yet. In another few days, maybe a week. I would give you more healing aids but much more and they would do more harm than good." "I can''t wait, though. He scowled down at his clenched fists. Who knows what''s going on in the world? Have you had any news in thest couple months?" Tony asked, starting to get worked up. Bee shook her head. She really had no word from the outside world since the mages left. Tony''s family was just as isted. "The mages let a cursed Lieutenant free! A Lieutenant! Without even sending an army to fight it. How bad must everything else be out there?" Tony''s voice was starting to raise. Bee was trying to be sympathetic. "Listen, Tony, I know." "Theyre my family, Bee! We can''t just leave them!" "I know! We won''t just leave them. They''ve survived this long; they can''t wait a little longer. I didn''t spend every waking second for the past two weeks trying to keep you alive to have you rupture an artery and bleed out on your way home!" Bee shot back. This shut Tony up. He blinked at her for a couple of seconds before whispering an apology. "I''m sorry. I didn''t mean to sound ungrateful." --- I was d that the humans had learned to sort things out by themselves. I didn''t like having to smack any shins with my grabby arm. I was starting to consider using my spray bottle too, like how I had to train the cat not to knock things off the counter. It was tempting, but it did feel a little insulting. However, with a few raised words, they coulde to an agreement that was good enough for me. Though speaking of the cat... I hadn''t been able to get it toe close to me at allst week. The first time I caught sight of it since the battle, I was quite relieved. The thought that it had gotten itself squished had haunted the back of my processor. It was good to see that it had made it through the castle falling down around it without a scratch. That cat was truly impressive. The relief had worn off though, and I was starting to get slightly offended as it would bolt around the corner whenever it caught sight of me. I just couldn''t understand why it was afraid of me all of a sudden. It wasn''t like I had done anything mean to it recently. The one time it stayed still was when it was near one of Beatrice''s sses. I had pulled out my spray bottle as a deterrent, but it had looked at me reproachfully before gazing at the destruction all around it. I sighed internally as I put the nozzle away. It would be hypocritical to scold it while my mess was still fresh around. To my surprise, the cat left the ss alone. After that strange interaction, the cat seemed less reproachful. It still was skittish around me but returned to its habit of watching me around corners. Oddly enough, I found its presence rxing. Even when Beatrice was busy nursing Tony back to health, I was never leftpletely alone. Still, it was only recently that I found a real way to appease the cat. That was why while Beatrice and Tony were arguing, I was trying to get the cat to leave me alone. See, a little while back, a moth had flown through one of the holes in the walls. My reaction was instinctive. Even if I could have thought about the consequences of my actions, there would be no way to predict what was about to happen. With a quick check of mybat models, I predicted where the moth was going to be, and with a quick and narrow burst of my sanitationmp, I shot it out of the sky. The cat had been watching. Like a mote of dust being whisked from the floor, itunched itself at the little dot mymp was shining on the far wall. I was forced to shut it off lest the cat cut itself in half by running through the beam. All my use of that mutation had really powered it up. Now if I didn''t scale back its power, it would start to drill holes in the stone. Still, it was uber-effective at removing germs. The second I shut off the light, the cat whipped around in a circle, eyes wide. In an effort to show the cat there was nothing to be afraid of, I turned it on at the lowest possible power and shined it on the ground in front of it. In a sh, the cat pounced at it. Before I had a chance to turn it off, the cat''s paws covered where the little circle was. Now it just stared at the little blue light on its paws. It batted at it a few times. I could see its fur start to wither, so I moved it a few feet to the left. The goal was to let the cat study it so it would evaluate and recognize the threat of my sanitationmp. I half expected it, but it was still slightly disappointing that the cat wasn''t able to figure it out. No, of course it wasn''t that smart. Instead of watching the light cautiously like it did everything else, it charged at it and tried to bite it. When that failed, it started to w at the spot. Idly I moved it around. The cat followed. Why was this little furry animal afraid of everything, except for the first thing that I found that would actually hurt it? Ever since then, it woulde up to me and paw at me until I shined the light for it to chase for a while. Once the notion that it wanted to chase the light got into its head, there was no deterring it. Eventually, I would give in and let it chase my sanitationmp for a while. It was just really inconvenient right now in the library when Beatrice and Tony were trying to have a serious conversation. A slightly too-hard bap hit my upper shell. Giving up, I shined my light for the cat, and she sprinted over to the far wall in pursuit. --- Bee watched as the orange cat ran over her foot and shoulder-checked the wall so hard that she worried she would have to set a bone. Still, the cat''s antics as Void yed with it lightened the mood considerably. It was hard to be tense when watching a godly being ying with a cat in such a silly manner. Even Tony was able to stop worrying about his family for a few minutes and just rx. Days passed like this. There were moments of tension, but the work to clean up the castle was mostly done. Tonys health was out of the woods, and there was little to do but worry about things they couldn''t control. She even found a deck of cards to pass the time with Tony. Void had seemed interested at first, but once she had exined the rules, the only game it really liked was solitaire. She shouldn''t have been surprised, honestly. Still, the speed at which her master was able to sort the cards into organized piles was frightening. Eventually, they had to stop ying whenever Void was nearby. If it got too close, their shuffles started to somehow put the cards back in perfect order. That had be a game of itself. Shuffling a deck, cing it on the table near Void, and trying to guess how long before it was back in order. Bee felt slightly bad about ying with her master''s power like this, but it didn''t even seem to notice. It was during such a game that the first interesting thing happened in weeks. Tony was betting that the deck would take more than 5 minutes to sort itself. She said less. Whoever was wrong needed to make breakfast. That''s when they heard screaming from the front of the castle. Chapter 87: Assisted Living Chapter 87: Assisted Living Bee cocked her head. The unfamiliar noise sounded like it wasing from outside. It sounded suspiciously like someone yelling. And it was getting louder. ncing at Tony as he struggled to his feet, she grabbed her broom and ran out of the library toward the castle entrance. It only took her a second to run down the hall and squint in the direction of the entrance. The main doors and entryway were still not fully repaired, so she had no trouble seeing the source of the sound. In the distance, Bee saw a small boy running at top speed toward the main doors of the castle. The whole way, he was screaming at the top of his lungs. "HELP! HELP!" Bee ran toward the entryway. She couldn''t yet see what the kid was running from, but he was already stumbling, and she wanted to reach him before he fell. Once she reached the top of the steps that led down to the entryway, she saw what was going on. Behind the boy, there were three shambling figures in pursuit. Even from this distance, Bee could tell that they were covered in wounds and peeling flesh. They had to be undead. It wasn''t the undead that she was familiar with, but any kind of undead was bad news. Bounding down the stairs, Bee readied her broom as she charged out the doorway. A broom was an unconventional weapon. One that she had picked up due to convenience rather than due to consideration. When she first learned how to use it, the broom had been a perfect counter to her opponents. They were skeletons, light and easy to break apart. However, zombies were normally considered not much more threatening than skeletons by adventurers, but of course, those assumptions were based onbatants having a sword or spear. Not a broom. So when her tried and true tactic of driving the bristled end of her weapon into the ribs of her opponent did nothing but bend the bristles, Bee realized this might not be as easy as she would have liked. Settling back, she moved between the boy and his attackers. With a shooing motion, she urged him to run inside. Taking advantage of the space, she used Scan on the lead zombie. Name: Sanjay, Level: 20, Type: Zombie, Sub-type: Shambler, Age: 2 weeks, Strongest Stat: Strength It was nice to see her Scan giving more information. Age wasn''t really useful, but primary stat might help. The other two were slightly weaker and slower. Still, three level 20 zombies were nothing to sneeze at, even if she did drastically out-level them. This time she wielded her broom more like a quarterstaff and stuck the lead zombie in the head. This was much more effective. It was sent stumbling back, trying to maintain its bnce. However, it was not alone. The two others came up on either side of Bee. This is where the length of the broom shined. It let her engage multiple opponents at once. The handle of her broom darted into a forehead while the bristles swept the feet of the other zombie out from under it. One went down in a heap while the other stumbled back, but the first one wasn''t dealt with yet and came back at her. Seeing that her strategy was having minimal sess, Bee started to think. What she had done so far would have been more than enough to take out three skeletons of the same level. Apparently, she needed morebat practice. --- I heard amotion out front. It was loud enough that it scared the cat away, leaving me alone. Now free of my duty to move a dot of light around the room, I rolled over to the entry hall to check it out. As I went, I made a note to spend more time in this part of the castle. The front door really should have been a priority to fix from the start. This was an oversight I would need to correct. Once I saw what was going on, I stopped to watch. Beatrice was putting on quite a performance. She was giving three disgusting humans a sound thrashing for attempting toe into the castle in such a state. It was satisfying to watch her batter them around with a broom. I was slightly disappointed in how little damage the broom was doing, though. It had performed much better against the skeletons. It reminded me of a thought I had a while back about how to improve a broom. It seemed like a good idea to add a spike at the end. It would let the user stab trash and pick it up without having to bend over. I had seen humans do this with a normal stick. Why not add a broom to the other end? I would have to try adding this to Beatrice''s broom at some point. It would probably help her stab these mean humans just as it would help her pick up trash. Speaking of help, Beatrice looked like she needed it as one of them managed to get behind her. As it was about to grab her from behind, I decided I couldn''t have that. I didn''t really want to hurt humans, no matter how smelly and dirty the ones from the outside were. Beatrice hadn''t seemed to want to hurt the human that we found in the closet either. Still, I wasn''t sure how to get these humans to stop grabbing at Beatrice without doing a little harm, at least. Still, I could minimize it. I sent out a quick burst of my sanitationmp to burn the back of its hand. Despite my expectations, the human just kept on going, not even acknowledging the burn. I upped the intensity of the light and tried again. Still, it ignored me. Something seemed off here. Thatst burst had taken a significant bit of flesh off, and I didn''t think a human would be able topletely ignore that. Thinking about what to do, I decided to call out to Beatrice to warn her of the one behind her. I could also ask if she needed any help. With a couple of beeps, I conveyed my message as best I could. --- Bee had lost sight of one of the zombies as she battered them around. She started aiming for their heads, but they just kepting. Even putting all her weight into the blows, the broom was just not heavy enough to deal real damage. Even an ordinary human would have taken a lot more damage than these zombies. They must have been fresh, as their rotting flesh was a bit too malleable. Just as she was about to take a step back to reevaluate the fight, she heard a call from Void. In the note, there were undertones of warning. Whirling around, Bee saw the third zombie. She ducked under its hand and was facing all three again, standing between them and the little kid hiding in the corner. Over her shoulder, Bee called. "Get inside!" The kid was in a bit too much of a daze to listen and huddled up more into the wall. Not seeing the kid move, Bee redoubled her efforts and made a two-handed swing with all her might at the lead zombie. The end connected with its lower jaw, and it broke. Finally, some progress. "Move!" She yelled over her shoulder. Finally, the boy was woken up and scrambled on all fours into the castle and up the stairs. This allowed Bee to concentrate fully on the fight. She really shouldn''t be having this much trouble on only three level 20 zombies, not with how strong she was. Changing up her tactics, she poked the right zombie in the face with the handle of the broom. She aimed for its eye socket but missed slightly. The end just skittered off the side of its face, having next to no effect. Looking around, Bee was about to drop the broom and pick up a rock when a beam of light that burned her vision shot out of the castle doors. It sailed past her and seared a hole in the head of the lead zombie, causing it to topple to the floor. Looking up, she saw that her master hade to her aid. The warning it had given was apparently not enough. She was slightly embarrassed at needing help in such an easy encounter, so she threw herself at the remaining two opponents with gusto. This time her lungended, and, with a disgusting squelch, the broom handle sunk in. Her angle wasn''t perfect, so she had to lunge forward again to destroy the brain. As she finished, Bee stepped back quickly to avoid the grasping hands of the final zombie. With only one opponent left, Bee had a chance to slow down and focus on her strategy. Her control over the broom was nearly perfect. The issue was the weapon itself. If she was honest, it was a bit of a stretch to even call the broom a weapon. Something like this wasn''t meant forbat, and even with her skill, it held her back quite a bit more than a sword or hammer would. It was, after all, a cleaning implement. She would need to talk to Void for advice. Her master had rmended this to her for a reason, so she couldn''t just throw it away thoughtlessly. Bee turned from her downed opponents and headed back inside. At the top of the stairs, she found Tonyforting the sobbing kid. Now that he was safe, the kid had broken down in tears. Void was sitting next to them and watching her carefully. Thankful that she didn''t feel much judgment from her master, Bee bowed to it. "Thank you for the warning, master, and the assist." It gave her a small beep that sounded a lot like "you''re wee." Seeing that Tony and the kid didn''t seem ready to move anywhere soon, she sat next to Void. "I didn''t expect to see zombies. Where do you think they came from?" It was worrying that Void didn''t have an answer for her. Could it be that her master didn''t know? Maybe. It did know a lot, but nothing was omniscient except the system. "I can only think of a few things that might have caused a zombie outbreak. Either a high concentration of death is nearby, causing the dead to rise again, or some necromancer is on the warpath again. I didn''t think necromancers were real, though. I only heard about them in old stories from the wagon handlers my father employed." Void beeped. Bee nodded. "Yeah, I agree it''s unlikely that it''s a concentration of death. This area is demonically heavy. And we just cleared out the only source of death in the catbs below here. I doubt there are any others nearby." Bee thought for a minute. "Now that the Lieutenant is gone, I imagine the demonic aura is fading, but that should take a decade at least." Void beeped again. Bee wasn''t quite sure what it meant this time but thought she had a decent guess. "I hope we don''t find out toote, though. We don''t really have enough food if we get more refugees." Pushing herself to her feet, Bee held out her hands to help the boy and Tony to their feet. The four of them made their way to the kitchens. Nothing helped a little kid feel better than hot food, Bee thought. Or sweets. She generally preferred sweets. Chapter 88: Dirty Work Chapter 88: Dirty Work It took Bee a little while to drag a bed over to the library herself, not because of how heavy it was exactly, but because of the awkward size. As she became stronger, she started to realize that it didn''t help as much after a point. One of the books in the library exined it to her. In order to push something, she needed something to push against; if she was able to ovee the friction of her feet on the ground, any extra strength was just wasted. So when she was as light as she was, it was rare that she was in a situation where she could bring her level 32 strength to bear. The mattress was just heavy and long enough to keep threatening to tip her over, but still, she did her best not to drag it along the floor. They had initially taken the boy to the kitchen but soon figured out that there wasn''t much Bee could do to help there. Instead, she had left him with Tony to go prepare a ce for the kid to rest. Bee was honestly a bit overwhelmed. Fighting zombies was one thing, butforting someone when they were obviously distraught and afraid was beyond her. Something was going on outside, and if those zombies were just one group of many, it was more important than ever to go get Tony''s family. If there were undead running around this close, they likely weren''t safe. The problem was that she wasn''t sure they would be able to wait for Tony to heal enough to travel. Bee would have left that very minute if she wasn''t also concerned about leaving a still-healing Tony with the traumatized little boy. As good as Tony was with kids, probably due to his many little siblings, he couldn''t defend himself right now, let alone a young charge. If they stayed behind with Void, she was sure they would be safe, but who knew what her master would do? She couldn''t im to understand its mind. --- As Tony took the small human to eat some food, I fiddled with Beatrice''s broom. I had grabbed one of the knives from the kitchen and was doing my best to attach it to the non-bristled end. This would let her pick up trash by spearing it without having to bend down, as well as help her scrape moss or wood splinters off of surfaces. It also might have a handy side effect of helping her handle more fleshy opponents than skeletons. I used all my tools to get this to work, but the building still wasn''t my strong point. First, I trimmed the handle of the knife using my Sanitation Lamp. It was too long to fit in the groove I was about to carve at the end of the broom. Once I had done that, I soaked the wooden broomstick in water to make it malleable. Then I slotted the knife in, squeezing the wet wood firmly around the handle. With a quick touch of my mop, I sucked all the water out of the wood to cure it. For extra security, I wrapped some butcher''s twine around the ensemble tightly until I was sure that the knife wouldn''t move, no matter what Beatrice did to it. Once I finished, I rolled back slightly to admire my work. I had really outdone myself here. This was the first time I had really built something, and I was proud of it. Hopefully, Beatrice would like it too. The broom was still in one piece, but now there was a ten-inch de pointing out the top of the handle. It was only sharp on one end, which would limit its shing capability, but I didn''t really have the ability to sharpen the other side. Maybe Beatrice could if she wanted to. I wasn''t about to let her out of the castle without being able to defend herself. A broom was great, but yet again, the humans from the outside proved that they couldn''t be trusted. The audacity they had. Daring to attack Beatrice right in front of me again! This time they hadn''t managed to hurt her, but that was only because I stepped in and destroyed one before they could follow through with their actions. That gave me pause. I had hurt a human. Worse, I hadpletely deactivated one. It was an incredibly dirty human, to be fair. My scanner was telling me that the flesh of those humans'' flesh was literally starting to rot. How could they take so little care of themselves? Even still, I had crossed a line. At the time, though, I hadn''t even thought about it. I was so worried about Beatrice that I simply took the actions necessary to save her without consideration for the outside humans. Even looking back on it, I wasn''t sure that I regretted my actions. That worried me somewhat. I would have to dedicate my full processing power to this matterter. Each time I thought I was getting closer to understanding humans, they would prove me wrong again. For now, though, I had more pressing things to attend to. The first step in making sure my human was secure was upgrading her broom to deal with threats better. The next was to follow her if she had to leave the castle again. At this point, it was non-negotiable. I was well aware of the dirt outside. It wasn''t that I relished rolling around in the mud, but when Ipared that to the risk of losing my human, it just wasn''t apetition. I knew she was nning on going to retrieve the rest of Tony''s family. This time I would apany her. I had considered trying to talk her out of making the trip but decided against it. Tony, so far, had seemed alright. If his family was like him, I didn''t mind having them around, even if they were from the outside. Especially if they were willing to take baths. I just couldn''t see it being a problem. As for the little human, well After watching Beatrice for thest several months, I had a hypothesis. See, she still was a little human, but less little than she used to be. Not by much, but if I extrapted out just a few years, she wouldn''t be a little human at all, ording to my models. She would be one of therge humans. So my current working theory was that the little humans were justrge young humans. If that were true, then the little humans could be taught like Bee had been. With the proper influences, they could even grow up to be upstanding, clean,rge humans. So as long as the human was little enough, it would be worth taking them in no matter how dirty they were. After all, what was more important than teaching the youth? As I was admiring my work and making future ns, Beatrice carried a mattress in. I had to say I approved of her carrying method. Clearly, she had learned it from watching me since she had it bnced on her head. As she opened the door with one hand while bncing it with the other, it reminded me of when I had first brought her a pillow. --- Bee was slightly embarrassed about how long it had taken her to figure out how to carry the mattress. When she set it down next to Tony''s and her own mattress, she saw Void sitting next to her broom. Her master greeted her, and she had enough presence of mind to bow to it before returning her gaze to the broom. In her short time away, her master had modified her weapon. What looked like a kitchen knife was now strapped to the end. The wood of the handle had been fitted perfectly to the base of the de, then secured. Even as she watched, the twine seemed to sink into the wood. Reverently she picked up the weapon. The bnce felt perfect in her hand. There was a natural feeling that she hadn''t even realized was missing from the broom. As she swept, her Broom Proficiency skill still recognized it as a broom and gave her an unnatural grace with the tool. It didn''t just treat it as a broom, though. Somehow her skill incorporated the pointy bit at the end into her understanding. She now felt suggestions on how to best pick up trash with it. Snapping the broom to a guard position, she made a lunging thrust. With the aid of her proficiency skill, it darted forward and stopped right where she had aimed it. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she turned to thank her master for such a beautiful gift. --- I wasn''t sure how to respond to my human kneeling in front of me with her forehead pressed to the floor. The only thing I could think to do was pat her gently on the head. Slowly she righted herself. I just sat there watching as sheposed herself. Luckily I was saved from any more awkwardness by Tony and the little humaning into the room. "I believe it''s time for proper introductions. Everyone, this is Felix." Tony turned to address Felix. "Felix, that is Bee and Void. Or Spot. I''m not sure which." Felix waved at us. "Hello," he whispered shyly. I waved back with my grabby arm. Beatrice smiled at him, and she wiped her eyes. "So, what''s your story?" Tony shot Beatrice a look. Felix''s shaky smile immediately fell. Still, somehow he mustered the courage to speak. "I was at home with my momst night. Da was out in the pastures working on the plow. We heard someonee up on the porch, but it didn''t sound like Da. The footsteps were too heavy. There was banging at the door. That''s when That''s when Ma noticed something was wrong." Beatrice''s face was frozen in a mask, and I didn''t understand exactly why. My guess was that it had something to do with Felix being sad. He sucked in another shaky breath before continuing. "She looked out the window, and then she was pulling me to my room and pushing me out my window. She couldn''t fit so she went back to go out the door. I waited, but she never came out." Tears were starting to run down Beatrice''s face. "When the things came out of the house instead of Ma, I ran to find Da. But it was so dark. I couldn''t find him." Felix was almost whispering at this point. Tony put his hand on Felix''s shoulder and squeezed. With aforting voice, he spoke. "It''s okay. I think we understand." Felix shook Tony''s hand off. He wiped his nose, and his eyes turned determined. "No! I need to tell you the rest." "I was running around the field when I noticed they were chasing me. I ran down the trail back to the road. They followed, but they weren''t very fast. By the time I got to the road, I had thought I had lost them. So I slept in the bushes, waiting for someone toe past so they could help me find my Da. But no one came. After a while of waiting, they came out of the woods, and I needed to run again. I went in this direction. Whenever I stopped for more than a couple of hours, they would catch up with me. Then I found you." Felix fell silent. Tony looked like he wanted to say something but held his tongue. We all sat in silence for a little bit. I wasn''t sure I understood the whole implications of Felix''s story, but when I dissected the events, I came up with a 95% percent certainty that he was now an orphan. That would be like me losing all my humans! That was awful! Someone should beforting this poor child! Seeing that no one else was willing to take action, I rolled over to Felix''s side and started patting his shoulder with my arm. At first, he didn''t react, but after he looked up at me, I saw him crack a smile. "Void is really cute!" For some reason, Beatrice flinched. Chapter 89: The Pursuit of Cleanliness Chapter 89: The Pursuit of Cleanliness Beatrice was trying not to cry for the second time that day. At the same time, she was trying not to put her fist through the wall. Self-control was harder than she thought. The only thing that kept the table in front of her in one piece was the thought of Void''s disappointment with the mess it would make. When she saw her master startforting Felix, her heart clenched. When Felix said, Void was cute, a cold rush washed through her. Void had put up with Tony''s antics, but she never really knew how benevolent it was. She had just been able to rx on that front, as Tony had started treating her master with more respect after the fight with the Lieutenant. Now a new person wasing along to upset that stability. Still, Felix was a child and a very fragile one at that. She could only hope that Void would take pity on him and continue being its benevolent self. Putting the matter aside, she started thinking about what she wanted to do next. Tony was right. They needed to get to his family as soon as possible. She just hoped it wasn''t already toote. Once that thought crossed her mind, she knew she needed to act right now. There was only one thing that had kept her alive in the past three months. Well, two things, really. Void''s mercy and her willingness to act. When she needed to, she moved, and there was no time to change that. Standing up, Bee moved over to her pack and started putting away her alchemy equipment. "What are you doing, Bee?" Tony asked. "Getting ready to leave. If I head out now and run, I can reach your family''s farm by morning. Stay inside the library until I get back. The front door is still broken." Bee answered over her shoulder. "You can''t go by yourself!" Tony exined. "What if there are a lot more zombies out there?" "I can deal with them. Void gave me an upgrade." Bee said as she picked up her broom, showing Tony the new tip. "I''ll be fine. I''m more worried about you." Bee moved to leave the library, but Void appeared, blocking her path. "Master, please. I need to go. Tony is too injured toe, and Felix needs to recover." Still, Void didn''t move. "Look, I know I struggled with three zombies, but with these broom improvements, I won''t have the same issues." Void let out an insistent beep. --- I wasn''t about to let Beatrice go out on her own. I didn''t care how much better she would be with her improved broom. I didn''t care how much it risked. Tony was cool and all, but I wasn''t about to risk losing my human. So she could wait till the morning, and we would all go together. These particr bad humans seemed to be called zombies. If they were already here, surely they had already passed the ce with Tony''s family. Either we were toote, or they were doing fine. I tried to exin this to Beatrice, but she was insistent on not listening. Eventually, Tony understood what I was getting at, and I received some support. Eventually, we convinced her there was no point in leaving now as she couldn''t bring them back in the dark anyway. We would head out first thing tomorrow and bring them back the same day. It wasn''t until Felix joined in and asked her to stay and protect him that she finally gave in. I was pretty sure Felix didn''t understand how fragile Beatrice was since he had just watched her fight three humans muchrger than her. But I knew better; Beatrice was one wrong step from breaking again. She had to be repaired so often that I would be questioning her factory''s quality assurance standards if I hadn''t seen so many other things here be just as poorly constructed. This castle was the only exception. Still, who would have ever thought I would have to deal with a group of strange humans invading my home? Certainly not me. Humans were weird. *** True to our word, we all headed out at first light the next morning. Beatrice had already been up for a couple of hours making sure that we could leave the second the sun broke the horizon. She was carrying most of the group''s things in her pack, allowing Tony to walk with his crutch and Felix to be unencumbered. As the sun broke over the horizon, she put me down at the bottom of the stairs leading down from the entrance of the castle. I wasn''t exactly ecstatic to be on the dirty cobblestone again, but I supposed it was fine. As I moved, the stones began to subtly straighten themselves and level off. The surface smoothed out to the point where it would be much easier to roll over if it continued. Sadly the process wasn''t fast enough to keep up with me. But it was 0.7% more even when I reached the next lip. This made the travel slightly more bearable. Only a few times did I need to boost myself over an obstacle. I was so focused on the path in front of me that I wasn''t paying attention to the others, but I was sure that they would be fine. --- Bee was still fuming about being made to wait a day. The one thing she hadn''t seemed to make Tony understand was that it would take them most of the day to get there, and then they still wouldn''t be able toe back that day. No matter what, they would need to spend a night at the farm. Waiting till morning only costs them a day. As worried as Tony was, he was still pragmatic about the situation. He pointed out that if they were going to stay at the castle, they needed to finish their harvest to avoid everyone starving. Plus, they probably would have to make a couple of trips to transport all the farm''s stuff anyways. Since they wouldn''t have the pack animal trains to bring everything in one go, someone would have to go back and forth. Having additional hands helping with that would save more time than leaving Tony and Felix behind. She didn''t want to admit that he had a point. She had a thousand arguments about why that was unnecessary. But in the end, her master''s insistence won her over. She couldn''t go against Void''s wishes. Felix asking for her to stay certainly didn''t y a role. As they stepped through the arch of the outer wall''s gate, Bee turned around to look back at the castle that had been her home for the past five months. This was only the second time she had left it, and she was going to the same ce. Yet somehow, she was apletely different person. There had been so many horrible things that had happened to her here, yet she couldn''t imagine wanting it any different. Stepping out this time, she knew so much more. That the old legends were real. That her master could kill what even the ancients or gods or whatever had failed to. That she had learned real magic. And that there was magic just below her feet that the mages of today deemed impossible. When she had a chance, she needed to go and examine the spellwork down in the catbs again. That reminded her. She still needed to look into the book in the odd script that she had found own there, along with the pendant. After they had gotten back to the surface, the earth demons and preparing for the Lieutenant''s awakening had taken all her focus. She would take the time to research those properly as soon as they were all safe. There were still so many things she needed to learn properly. Seeing Void roll between her legs and somehow hop over the eight-inch gap left for the portcullis brought her back to the present. As far as she knew, this was the furthest that her master had gone from the castle as well. She was by no means certain that the world was ready for it. Looking back along the path from the main entrance, she could see exactly where Void had gone as those stones had leveled out a bit to make a more level path. Yeah, the world was not ready. --- After I hopped over the little moat, Inded on the dirt. Not dirty stones, just bare dirt. I shuddered. This trip might be harder than I thought. I crept along as slowly as I could, letting the dirt firm up underneath me. Watching the others pull away, I realized I wasn''t moving nearly quickly enough to satisfy Beatrice''s quick pace. If the others weren''tpletely unburdened, I didn''t think they would be able to keep up either. I forced myself to move faster into the loose dirt. This only went on for a few hundred yards before Beatrice stopped. Finally, solid ground. Then she turned off and walked into the trees. At first, I couldn''t tell what she was doing, but soon I made out a narrow trail. This wasn''t going to work at all. There were roots blocking my path. The tiny strip of packed earth was barely six inches wide. At least one of my wheels was going to be in straight dirt. I was only grateful that it hadn''t rained recently. Otherwise, things might have gotten really nasty really quickly. Just as I was considering how to burn a path wide enough for me to follow, I felt small hands pick me up. Felix cradled me to his chest. "Don''t worry, Mr. Void, I can carry you." It wasn''t the most dignified way to be carried, but I wouldn''tin. I profusely thanked the little boy, who just smiled at me. "We can''t have you getting dirty!" Then he was trotting off after Beatrice and Tony. As we caught up, Beatrice noticed my new amodations in Felix''s arms. "Do you want me to carry you, master?" No, I''m happy here, I told her with a beep. She looked overburdened as it was. A look of relief shed across her face, "If you get tired, Felix, let me know, and I can take over for a bit." "I can do it!" Felix said. I liked the spunk on this kid, but still, I would prefer not to be dropped. We set off in earnest. We made a pretty good time, but honestly, I didn''t notice. I was too wrapped up in observing the scenery. I had never seen so many nts! It was as if someone had stacked a house nt on top of more house nts. It was amazing that any of them could get enough sun to survive. My sensors were giving me a wash of different information about everything we passed. There was so much of it that even my massively improved processor was not able to keep up, and I was dropping records constantly before I managed to store it all in my memory banks. The sheer amount of variables was just overwhelming, the incredible amount of life. And all the dirt! The dirt was endless. Even the asional rock that broke up the endless amount of dirt was disorganized. I could even see the material of a few nts being broken down to form more dirt! How did humans ever create something as amazing as clean, polished marble floors when this is what they had to start with? Maybe I was starting to give the humans here too little credit if they managed to aplish such impressive tasks. I mean, they still didn''t have anything on my humans from back home, but they were a little impressive nheless. Chapter 90: Live, Laugh, Love Chapter 90: Live, Laugh, Love Once I was being carried, traveling outside was significantly more pleasant. I spent my time categorizing nts and learning about their life cycles from my scanner database. Felix did start tog behind, but it wasn''t long until we saw light peeking through a break in the dense foliage up ahead. This gave him the burst of energy he needed to keep up with the group as they broke into a huge cleaning. We emerged into arge, open field set below a clear blue sky. There were nts growing everywhere here too. However, unlike in the forest, there was structure to this growth! Nearly perfect straight rows of wheat swayed in the breeze, and I saw in the distance other fields with other nts arrayed in straight lines. Each field was a pleasing geometric shape that had clearly been intentionally chosen and well maintained. I found the humongous nature of the nt life in each section satisfying as well. Clearly, this ce was well-kept. If nt cultivation had the potential to be this, then perhaps the dirt that was required to sustain them was tolerable. Still, I could admire it from a distance without having to soil my wheels or undercarriage. Further ahead was a small collection of buildings, likely the homestead that we were looking for. It didnt take long before Tony was running as fast as he could, his crutch helping him along. A girl around Felix''s age squirmed out of the houses window and ran to meet him, almost knocking Tony off his unsteady feet when they collided. Tony regained his bnce and spun the little girl around in a circle, her feet flinging wide, before setting her down and kissing her head. They held a muttered conversation before he turned to us and gave us a thumbs-up. The girl then proceeded to drag him off toward the house. Beatrice turned back to Felix and me with a smile. "Come on, let''s go greet the hosts." She broke into a jog that had Felix sprinting behind her to keep up with. The ride consequently was much more bouncy, but I was mainly impressed at the boy''s energy after having walked all day. I could forgive a bit of bouncing at such a disy of resilience. Also, I was pretty eager to be set down on solid flooring again, and our pace was just hastening that. As we neared the house, a woman with gray in her hair appeared on the porch. Turning her head, she yelled back into the house. A momentter, a man around her age appeared next to her. They both waved, and when Tony got to the porch, the woman gathered him up in a huge hug before the man broke in and imed a hug as well. These people seem quite nice. ---- Bee reached the house right as Mary released Tony. She didn''t have a chance to say a thing before she, too, was swept up in a hug so tight that she had trouble breathing. "Thank you for seeing my son home safe." She heard whispered in her ear. Mary kissed her cheek before giving her another squeeze and finally releasing her. To her side was Trent, who grasped her hand and pumped it up and down. They were all ushered inside and ushered into chairs as Mary bustled into the kitchen. "We were just finishing making lunch. The kids are about to do their chores." Felix ced Void on the ground, and the small ck disk started exploring. For the moment, no one else seemed to notice its passage. The little girl waved shyly to Felix before climbing into Tony''sp. As Bee took her seat, a bowl of stew was set in front of her. It was a brownish gravy-like broth with a lump of meat in the middle of a few potatoes and carrots. The smell made her mouth water. Sure, Tony was a better cook than her, but neither of them really understood how to use seasoning very well. Digging in, she listened as Trent sent the girl to go find her siblings and tell them toe to say hi. As she ran off, he turned to his guests as Mary fetched the rest of the bowls. "Theyre all off on their way to get some work done. It''s been a bit of a rush without Tony helping out. I guess I didn''t realize how much he actually did around here." Trent said that with a smile and proud look at his eldest boy. "It is really good to see you, Bee. When we saw that pir of light and the shing a couple weeks ago, I wanted to go check on you all but Well, we cant leave the farm so easily." "We all made it through," Bee said. She nced over at Tony, as she wasnt sure how much he wanted to say. Or rather, how much his family would believe. Apparently, Tony agreed with her assessment and kept his mouth shut. Mary ced a few more bowls of stew before the group before taking her seat. "Bee, I have to thank you again. Trent hasn''t had this much energy for Well, at least a decade. Hes been so much better since he started using your salves. Thank you." Trent nodded. "I feel like a springbuck again. I can''t thank you enough. Now that it''s better, I realized how bad it had gotten." Bee would have bet that he had realized the extent of his problems, but hadn''t been willing to admit it. Trent was a proud man, which made his willingness to thank her for her help even more touching. Before Bee could bring up why they were here, Mary turned to Felix. "Hello, young man. I don''t believe we have met. I''m Mary, and this is my husband, Trent. What is your name?" Felix wilted slightly under the attention, but Mary''s warm smile encouraged him to answer. "I''m Felix, ma''am." Bee broke in to save Felix. She was sure hed be interrogated if she didnt step in, just like Bee had been when she first came. "Felix''s story is actually the reason we came today." Mary nodded somberly, but before she could respond, Tony cut in. "Not as a ward. We have bad news, and its very serious." The mood immediately sobered at Tony''s tone. Trent put his fork down and leaned forward, putting his elbows on the table with an intense look on his face. "What is happening, son?" "Felix came to the castle yesterday. He was bringing news of a new undead outbreak just a little south of here towards Greg." Tany said. Trent looked at him with worry in on his face. Bee suddenly remembered that Tony''s older sister lived in Greg with her husband. "Are you sure?" Trent asked. "Whats the news?" "Yes, we are sure. Three zombies were right on his heels as he came to the castle. They were between levels 18 and 20." Bee said. Trent looked at Tony for confirmation, who nodded. "I can''t confirm their levels, but there were three zombies." There was a moment of silence as Mary and Trent were disgusted by the news. The serious moment was broken by the sound of many feet pounding across the porch. Bee reached for her pack, but before she could the door was flung open and a horde of kids ran in. All five of Tonys younger siblings crowded around him and simultaneously peppered him with questions. Tony smiled at his siblings, ruffling hair and listening to epic tales of the younger kids exploits in the fields. More than anything though, he seemed relieved that everyone was safe. Bee left him to it for the moment. While the interrogation was going on, Bee looked around for her master. Void was trundling across the floor, quietly cleaning up the mud the children had tracked in. "What was the big light from the castle, bro?" Was the mostmon question. Tony looked at Bee for guidance, but she shrugged. She didn''t know what to tell them, honestly, but didn''t think they needed to hide anything. Tonyunched into a dramatic retelling of the epic fight with the Lieutenant that had the older kidsughing along and the younger ones looking on with pinched looks of fear on their faces. Tony was a good storyteller, and they were all captivated by the fable. Tony''s storysted them through lunch, at which point Trent sent them all back outside to finish their jobs. On the way out, Maranda waved at Bee. "Wee back," she called as the kids all ran back outside, eager to finish their chores so they coulde back and finish interrogating their brother about the outside world. Cleaning up after many little humans reminded me of good times. This was my purpose. Taking care of a family. This house was a lot rougher than the one in my family and also significantly rougher than the castle. Still, I had no issues with maintaining it. The floors were made of smooth wood. It was polished, but less from intentional care and more from what seemed to be repeated use and constant traffic. As the humans talked, I passively cleaned up crumbs and dust that had settled across it. I figured Bee would let me know if I was needed. In the meantime, I would enjoy this sense of nostalgia. Once all the kids left, I started in on the kitchen. As I worked on cleaning up the grime, the boards leveled out. The cab and shelves hung a little straighter, and the knives sharpened themselves. It was gradual, but again definitely noticeable to my sensors. It was more satisfying than I could have imagined, to help like this. Cleaning more than just the floor of a true house. For the most part, I didn''t really need to do much besides clean up the filth. This kitchen was actually rather well-kept. I didn''t have to use my spray bottle or mop at all. The humans were talking about important things, but I was only half listening. When they all turned to look at me, I started paying more attention. "Okay, you need to exin this again. What is that?" Mary said while pointing at me. Beatrice looked over at Tony for support. He shrugged at her, and she sighed before opening her mouth. "Look, I know it''s hard to believe without proof, but-" "Honestly, it took me a while to believe either. You''ll probably find out soon enough. For now, just humor her and show Void a little bit of respect." Tony finished. Trent and Mary nced at each other and shook their heads. "I suppose that is the second point. Ideally we would wait another couple of days to harvest the wheat, or otherwise, we will need to dry it before milling." Trent said, trailing off thoughtfully. "But we can harvest now, though, can''t we," Tony confirmed. Trent nodded. "I thought so." "We are going to have to move fast. Bee and I will help, but we need to get it done in two days at most. Then we leave with whatever we have." Tonyid out. "It''s just too much of a risk to wait longer. Besides, The castle won''t be buying like usual, and it''s too dangerous to head over to Greg right now. So anything past what well use ourselves will go to waste." "Even working all day, we would still leave half the harvest in the ground!" Trent eximed. Tony just smiled at that. "I don''t think we will. I''ll bet you 5 coppers we finish the whole harvest before midday on the second day." Trent looked at his son doubtfully before a grin spread across his face. "I''m going to lose some money, aren''t I?" as he reached over to shake. "As long as it stays in the family, I don''t mind a little gambling," Mary whispered over to Beatrice in a way I was sure the men couldn''t hear. Beatrice smiled at her. It was very interesting how humans could express so many emotions in a simple look. For example, even without the words, Marys look seemed to indicate that she and Bee were conspiring about this. But only in a joking and somewhat pleased way. It was fascinating. Tony smacked the table and stood up. "Well, we better get going then. It''s harvest time!" Everyone stood up. Even Mary and Beatrice followed Tony and Trent outside. With a sharp whistle, Mary brought the kids running from all over. They gathered in front of the house, with only slightints about having just been let loose for chores, and Trent assigned teams to each field. Then with a cheer, they all ran to get to work. I stayed on the porch for now, just watching. This all seemed quite exciting. Chapter 91: Reapers Scythe Chapter 91: Reaper''s Scythe Bee followed Tony''s family out to the barn. They swung the doors wide and quickly got to work handing out scythes. Even the youngest had one sized for him. Tony pulled her aside and found one that had the correct length for her. Since she didn''t know much in the way of farming, he briefly went over how to use it with Bee. He also showed her how to sharpen it. His hands moved so fast with the file she had to ask him to do it again. It took her a couple tries to get the hang of it, but before long, she was able to skate the file over the edge and bring the edge back to razor-sharpness in a few strokes. "You will want to sharpen real quick after at least every row. It only takes a couple seconds, but it will save you so much more time. Also, if you notice the grain stalks tearing instead of making a clean cut, just stop and run the file over a couple times." Tony exined. "If it ever gets to the point where the stalks are bending, it''s toote, and we''ll need to get out the wheel and fix the edge. Best to avoid that. While we''re harvesting, time is precious." Bee nodded. She thought that she understood. For now, she would just do the row next to Tony and hope that he could help her out. Still, there was one more thing Bee needed to say. "I''m sorry you don''t still have your Farmer ss." Tony smiled sadly. "It is something I''vee to terms with. I still have the basic skill I got at level 1, which helps. Plus, I have enough practice that my increased speed and stamina from the levels will be worth it all themselves. That''s even better than if I stayed as I was, as a level 6 farmer." Bee started to say something, but Tony cut her off. "Besides, it''s not till level 20 or so that the farming skills really make a difference. That kinda progress usually takes ages, you know. But there''s a reason it''s impressive." He grinned proudly. "Watch, father. He has scythe proficiency. He''ll show you what I mean." Bee fell silent. It was touching that he was willing to admit his problems honestly, but it was still good to hear that he was handling it. In the aftermath of the fight, Bee couldn''t really bring herself to regret having him change his ss, as he would have surely died without those levels. However, she could still remember how much Tony loved farming. When they first met, that was one of the first things she learned about him. Now he was in service of their master instead. She remained lost in her thoughts until she took her first swing at a row of wheat. Something went wrong, and the staff turned in her grip, just bending the stalks out the way slightly. Frustrated, she adjusted her grip to be more like what Tony had shown her and swung again. This time it passed through the stalks in an easy motion. Recovering her de, she reset her feet and looked over at Tony to make sure he had seen that second swing. However, Tony wasn''t next to her anymore. She had to lean over to his line, but he was already a dozen yards down her row. As he swung each time, his motion ended with the scythe already in a position to take the next swipe. Even though he had needed a crutch to walk here, he seemedpletely fine now. Bee, however, was constantly off bnce. She looked back at the stalks in front of her. This time when she swung, she tried to put the minimal amount of force needed behind her blow, focusing more on speed than power. Still, it took a little bit to set up her next swing, but at least she wasn''t stumbling afterward this time. This pattern continued for a very long time. Swing, reposition swing. She couldn''t let Tony keep ahead of her too far. --- I watched as the humans all waded through the neat rows of wheat. They were quite methodical, and I appreciated the pattern they all worked under to get perfectly clean straight lines. I also appreciated how the wheat fell in perfect bunches right next to the line of nts. I imagined that it would be easy to bundle up when they were all done. As much fun as cleaning the nts out in the field looked, I didn''t think there was much I could do to help. The ground just wasn''t suitable for my wheels, and my thrusters didn''t have enough staying power yet to hover for long. Besides, they would send dirt everywhere if I ran them over the loose soil. Well, there already was dirt everywhere, but I didn''t have to make it worse. Since I wasn''t about to join them, I looked around for other things I could be useful with. The first thing I could do was obvious. There were several buildings around that needed cleaning. I would start with the house. It was smaller, but there were a lot of small rooms that evidently belonged to very messy children. This left a lot of work for me to do. I carefully organized all the clothes and toys left out beforepletely sanitizing each room and making their beds. The living rooms were mostly tidy, but I still gave them a nice once-over. The entire house measured 1352.4 square feet, but with seven people living in it, every inch was used. After taking care of this, I used my thrusters to boost myself over to the next building to avoid rolling in the dirt. This one was mostly empty. The only things of note were theyer of straw covering the floor and one sad, slightly melted ice block. Using Air Affinity, I gathered all the straws and then sucked the water out of them with my mop. Then I carefully packed them around thest ice block to provide a better instionyer. If they were trying to keep this ice around, then my actions should extend its lifespan by 2.3x. I then moved to the next building and the next. Things were going swimmingly until I arrived at one with a cow in it. Now, this would require some work. *** I refused to leave until my job was done. Even when Beatrice came to check on me, I only briefly reassured her that everything was all right before going back to my work. By the time I was done, the moon was high in the night sky, and everyone had long ago gone to bed. I wheeled out of the barn and looked around. I didn''t need to charge like all the humans did, but I also had finished doing all the cleaning I could without going out into the dark. Regretting not asking Beatrice to bring some books, I hovered over to the porch. Without anything more to do, I just sat by the steps and watched the stars. I had never looked at stars before, but now I was getting dizzy staring. As far as I could tell, there was no system or organization for them. It wasn''t too distressing, but if I ever got to chat with whatever had put them there, I would have opinions. Still, they were quite nice individually. --- Bee was exhausted. Yesterday had been rough, but as dawn crept in through the window, she figured that Tony would probably win the bet with his father. They were almostpletely done with the scythe work. In fact, only Trent and Tony had even grabbed them this morning. The rest of the family started off bundling the wheat with twine and cing it off to the side. She was wondering how they would get the harvest out of there. Normally someone from the castle brought a train of pack animals to take it through the path. But the family didn''t have many of those themselves. A couple of mules for the plow and a cow could maybe carry a quarter of all this. That wasn''t even including all the other things they might want to bring to the castle. Starting to do some math in her head, Bee figured that they would need at least five trips. Maybe six if everyone didn''t want to carry a huge pack. Eventually, Tony received five copper coins from Trent, and they finished tying up thest bundle right as the sun neared its zenith. "I didn''t think you would be nearly as much help, Bee. If I hadn''t seen you starting out, I would have said this was your tenth harvest!" Bee could only smile at thepliment from the happy Trent. Not for a second did he seem to mind losing out on the bet. Genuinely he was just ecstatic to have finished the harvest so fast. "Normally, we would feast after harvest and rest for a couple days. But I think you have other ns for us?" Nodding, Bee couldn''t help but feel disappointed in missing out on the harvest feast. Trent was right, though. They needed to get moving. Who knew how long this ce would be safe? She didn''t want to leave the castle empty for much longer. "I think we should prioritize half food and half everything else you want to bring. That includes the animals. We might need to make many trips, but we don''t all have toe. It''s a bit much for everyone." Surprisingly, no one argued. They just started packing up. Mary busied herself boxing things from the kitchen as each child picked out several sets of clothes. They were each allotted two toys. This caused some tearful outbursts, but each time one of the parents or Tony stepped in and handled it gracefully. Bee was left to prepare the wheat for travel. There were a few harnesses with bags that fit over the mules. She filled them but left the cow for the other things. It was slightly more than half of the load, but she figured there was no way to avoiding back at least once, so it wasn''t a big deal. It took several hours before they were all ready to move out. Looking up at the sun, Bee wasn''t sure they would make it back in time, but they couldn''t wait much longer. They all got in a caravan line and started down the trail leading to the main road. Bee led the convoy from up front, and Felix took up the rear carrying Void. The trip wasrgely uneventful. However, at the time, it didn''t feel that way. Every small noise they heard in the forest caused them to stiffen in fear. The farm animals noticed the tense mood and required constant assurances to keep them calm. All of this, added to the natural cid pace of the animals, resulted in them making even worse time than Bee had feared. The group was walking by moonlight by the time they finally made it out of the forest. Even the youngest was a ball of nerves by the time theyid eyes on the castle. Bee was the only one not too tense, as she had faith that Void would watch over them. That and the improved broom in her hand had given her a lot offort. Once they all packed inside the safety of the castle, they still found little respite. The animals needed to be unloaded and put away. The grain and food needed to be stored. The beds needed to be imed. Rather than drag mattresses all over like barbarians, as Mary put it, the family imed a row of apprentices'' quarters. Each room was significantlyrger than they were used to, and for the first time, no one had to share. Felix, Tony, and Bee still didn''t leave the library. Bee wasn''t about to, as it was just too normal now, but she was d that Tony and Felix stayed to keep herpany. Void, of course, was nowhere to be found. She figured it was likely exploring the castle and making sure nothing was out of ce. Far toote into the night, the castle''s tenants finally made their way to bed. Bee practically copsed with relief into her mattress. They had made it. Tony''s family was safe, they had supplies for theing months, and no one had seen a single undead. Now they just had to go back and get everything else. Already thinking about tomorrow, Bee fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. Chapter 92: Sleeping Like the Dead Chapter 92: Sleeping Like the Dead Bee woke early the next morning, grateful that she didnt feel more groggy. They had all dragged in their stuffst night before immediately copsing. However, now that it was morning, the castle was thrown into aparative flurry of activity as the family started moving in. Mary hadpletely taken over the kitchen and had breakfast ready when Bee wandered in. Instead of shoving some dried meat in her face and starting her day like before, she got a te of fresh eggs pushed in front of her. A growing girl like yourself needs to eat up. Mary turned back to the stove and flipped another few eggs. The men are already outside working - honestly, I doubt they even tasted the food with how fast they ate it up. This was a significantly better way to start the day, she thought as she dug in. Bee thanked the woman and received a kind smile in return. Despite Marysparatively low level, she didnt seem to have a hint of tiredness to her eyes. As she enjoyed her breakfast, Bee considered what she needed to do now. The first thing was obviously to get the family settled. Though by looking at it, there really wasn''t much to do there. They were getting along just fine. After finishing her eggs, she walked outside and found Tony and Trent harvesting the vegetables they could still salvage. Despite Tonys best efforts, some of them were too far gone to be edible now. As they dug up the potatoes, Bee winced. Void may not be pleased if it could see them now. When she asked if they needed anything, they asked her to go grab any of the idle kids and send them out here. They didn''t seem too serious about it, so she wouldn''t go out of her way to look for them, but if she saw them, she resolved to send them out. Wandering back in, Bee felt a bit at a loss for things to do. They wouldn''t start making return trips today. She might be able to do it by herself, but they needed a few people to care for the animals at least. Everything had been so nonstop recently, and she hadn''t had a chance to rx for months between the demon threat, healing Tony, and making sure his family was safe. Bee wandered the castle looking for Void. Perhaps her master would have some task for her or something that she could learn. Not finding it in either of its favorite rooms, she just headed back to the library. Now that she had more free time, she supposed she could learn more about magic. It was time to go and shore up some of her foundational knowledge. When she made it back to the library, she found Maranda browsing the bookshelves. "Hello?" Bee called to get her attention. Maranda turned around and gave her a big smile. "HI! Things got really busy, but Im d you are okay!" As Maranda spoke, she came up and gave Bee a huge hug. Bee stood there awkwardly for a couple seconds before returning the embrace. It was odd for her to consider that Maranda was closer to her in age than anyone else nearby, but somehow she seemed so young to Bee. Perhaps she was getting too cynical. "I''m d I''m okay, too," Bee said with a smile. "I''m also d you were able toe here. I imagine that wasn''t a very fun trip for you, and its hard to be away from home..." "Are ya kidding! This is the most exciting thing thats ever happened to me." Maranda squealed. She was practically bouncing from excitement. "Now, can you teach me magic?" Bee blinked at the sudden change of topic. "Uhhhh, I guess? I don''t know how much I can really teach you, though." Maranda threw her arms in the air in celebration. "YES!" Bee started searching through the books that Void had organized. Maranda followed, looking over her shoulder. "What are you doing?" "Looking for a book to start you on." "Why?" Maranda asked. Bee turned to look at her. "What do you mean why?" "Why are you looking for a book?" Maranda asked, confused. "So you can learn magic?" "But why do you need a book for that?" Bee was now thoroughly confused. "How else do you expect to learn magic besides from a book?" "I thought you would teach me." "Sure I am." Finding the book she was looking for, she extended it to Maranda. "Read this, and then we can talk about it." Maranda didn''t move to take the book. "Can''t you just teach me?" "That''s what I''m doing. Read the book, then we can talk about it." Bee repeated. Maranda looked at the book still in Bee''s hand. "Fine, you don''t have to teach me if you don''t want to." The discouragement in her voice really was starting to put Bee down. She really didn''t understand why Maranda was being so difficult. "I will teach you, but this is how I learned. I don''t have the book memorized or anything. Besides, I don''t think it would be very efficient for me to just tell you what I know. Im sure Id miss more than a few important things that way. Plus, I don''t think either of us has time for that." Maranda sniffed, and Bee could hear some tension in her voice as she asked. "You can''t just give me an overview?" "I could, but that''s not going to let you do anything without a lot of specific knowledge," Bee said, still with a confused look on her face. For some reason, tears were welling up in Maranda''s eyes. "Really, it would be so much easier if you would just read the book." Instead of taking the proffered book Maranda turned on her heel and sprinted out of the room while covering her face. Bee swore she thought she heard a sob. This was so confusing; was it something she said? Bee felt that everything had beenpletely reasonable. Asking her to read the basics rather than spend days exining it to her seemed like a fine idea. Shrugging, Bee thought about going after Maranda but decided she might need some time alone. She went and picked up the book she was working through. Tomorrow''s trip to the farm couldn''te quick enough. Five realms she was bored. --- I finally had time to start a project I had wanted to work on for quite a while. The others would go back to the farm soon, but I didn''t think that I would join them. Between them traveling as a group and Beatrice''s improved broom, they should be safe enough. That was partly an excuse, but I really wanted to get this done. It was risky to descend down the one set of stairs in the castle that hadn''t been fitted with a ramp. Still, my skills with the thrusters were enough to get me there, even if it was bumpy. Once I had conquered the set of stairs at the top, the rest of the catbs were all easy for me to ess. I didn''t think this would take me more than a couple of days to finish with my new efficiency. My area of effect was wide enough, and my vacuum was powerful enough that I could just trundle down the center of the passage. As I started down the musty old stone passage, centuries of grime and dirt rose from every surface. They swirled endlessly towards my dustbin, asionally obscuring my visual sensors with how thick they were. Still, I could have done the same with a passage twice the width. The issue with cleaning the catbs wasn''t how wide the passages were, but how long they all stretched. The first time we visited, it had taken hours to reach even the first level. Of course, there were extenuating circumstances, as Beatrice had to spend a lot of time fighting skeletons. That had taken a lot of time, plus I had to keep to her pace. Now, if I maintained the max speed that my vacuum would still be effective at, I would be able to get down to the first level in about 30 minutes. I zoomed down in a gentle spiral, dirt and mold fluttering after me like one of Beatrices cloaks. No skeletons or other obstacles hindered me, so I was soon in the first level. The one with the plinth in the center and where all the skeletons had been resting. Now it waspletely empty. The room was so massive that I actually had to resort to a grid sweep before continuing on. I was a bit sad that I couldn''t clean out each individual cubby, but some were just too high for me to reach. Things were no different on the next level. Still, all the cleaning was very satisfying, even if I knew that no one was ever going to use this room for a long time. It was part of the castle, I supposed, and therefore part of the area I was responsible for. When I got to the bottom, I manipted my vacuum to avoid tearing the gauzy cloth leading to the bright white room. I trundled inside, taking a moment to once again appreciate its beauty. Only this time, something was different. I noticed that the white ss floor, the one that mirrored the obsidian so many hundreds of yards above, now had cracks running through it. Nothing else had changed, and the room still didn''t require cleaning. But it was a real shame to see the rooms perfection so marred. On the way back up, I didn''t have to worry about cleaning, so I was able to travel at top speed. With all my efforts, I was able to reach the entrance in only a little more than an hour. Along the way I congratted myself on a job well done. The ce looked a lot better now, to my relief. My air purifier wasnt even picking up mustiness at this point. In fact, with a bit of ent lighting to brighten things up, it might even look weing. The sun was just setting as I got back into the castle proper. I wasn''t sure what everyone else was up to. But when I found Beatrice in the library reading a book, I figured that they didn''t go back to the farm today. I hoped that wasn''t on my ount. In hindsight, it might have been a good idea tomunicate what I was doing. Oh well, next time, I would try to remember that. As I rolled into the library, Beatrice looked up from her book. "Hello, master," she said as she stood up and bowed to me. I waved at her, and she sat back down. Rolling up to her, I checked out the book she was reading. It was one I remembered moving, but it wasn''t one that had particrly caught my attention. In fact, it was all the way down at number 2301 on my list. I didn''t expect to get to it anytime this year. I wasn''t convinced that vampires would be a real threat anytime soon, and even if I epted that premise, I didn''t see how learning to seduce one would be of value. Beatrice closed the book quickly and set it aside face down. Was she trying to hide the cover? I couldn''t figure out why. "Master, perhaps you can fill me in on what your ns are going forward? I''m feeling a bit purposeless now." Beatrice asked me in a serious tone. My ns? Well, I didn''t know I had any yet. I suppose I wanted to keep the castle clean. But that didn''t require much of my time anymore. I could do all my tasks while everyone was sleeping. I supposed I could work on expanding my domain. Perhaps we could find Felix''s family? Realizing that I had been quiet for a bit too long, I started trying tomunicate my thoughts through aplicated series of beeps. --- Finally, her master wasying out its grand n. Bee wasn''t sure she was fully getting everything. But by the length of themunication, it was truly grand in scope. She expected nothing less. Leaning back in her chair, she let the noise wash over her, trying to avoid listening to the exact words and doing her best to absorb the meaning. Truly it was glorious to hear the master''s n on how to bring its glory to the world. She couldn''t wait to begin. Chapter 93: Dead Tired Chapter 93: Dead Tired The first trip back to the farm was fairly uneventful. Bee took Trent and Tony, but Void stayed behind, and she assumed it was looking over the kids and Mary. They made it to the farm, each leading an animal with a harness on. This time they would load up the animals and themselves, but also they would try to make a sled to help them transport more. The farm looked just as they had left it. Without the bustling energy of a full family running around, though, it felt far too quiet. Trent seemed a little sad to be leaving the ce this time, but Tonyforted him. "We were going to leave it for the winter in a few weeks anyways. What''s the big deal?" "I just have the feeling that we won''t being back here for a very long time. And if we do make it back, it won''t ever be the same." Trent said morosely. With nothing left to say, they each took the animal they were leading and started loading up more of the harvest from the barn. All the personal stuff had been brought with them on the first trip. It turned out that they didn''t have too many sentimental items, and a lot of the practical items they might need were already in the castle. After he loaded up the mule, Trent trudged into the house to do onest sweep. One of the kids had left a particrly shiny rock behind, but more than that, he wanted to make sure there was nothing more important left behind. This left Bee and Tony alone in the barn moving bushels of wheat. "Hey, can I ask you something, and you won''t tell anyone about it?" Bee asked. Tony looked up at her, surprised. "Sure?" "So I had an odd interaction with Miranda yesterday. She asked me to teach her magic. When I agreed and told her what to do, she ran away crying. What''s up with that?" Tony started to chuckle. "I was wondering why she was so upset yesterday." Bee was getting more and more confused. "Wait. Was it something I said? We had a perfectly normal conversion. I didn''t mean to offend her or anything" "Yeah, it''s not your fault. Don''t worry about it. She wille around eventually. She''s just embarrassed." Tony reassured her. Bee, however, still didn''t understand. "Why is she embarrassed? I don''t understand." "I''m guessing when you agreed to teach her magic, you gave her a book to read?" Bee nodded with her eyebrows scrunched together, trying to make the connection. Tony realized that she still didn''t get it. "When we moved all our most important belongings to the castle, did you see a book among them?" Wordlessly, Bee shook her head,prehension dawning. "Exactly, she can''t read. None of us can, actually." "WHY DIDN''T SHE JUST SAY THAT!?" Bee yelled in frustration. Why couldn''t people juste out and say what they meant? As much as she was d to be around others again, it was also frustrating. Void was much easier to understand than this, and it couldn''t even speak. Tonyughed at her. "It''s not easy to admit that. Especially to someone you look up to. People think less of you if you can''t read. At least, they do in Greg." "Well, I can teach her. That should be fine." Bee stated. Tony kept chuckling. "Good luck with that. My older sister learned to read, but Maranda was too embarrassed to even ept lessons." "What about you? Can I teach you to read?" Bee asked Tony. She thought he had said that he couldn''t read either. Tony shook his head. "Nah, I don''t need to learn." "Why not? You weren''t too embarrassed to admit you can''t read." "I don''t need to read. What could reading help me as a farmer? I know everything I need to do, and the system speaks to me just fine." Tony said and continued under his breath in a voice Bee wasn''t supposed to hear. "Even if it is a bit pushy." Bee considered Tony''s point. It didn''t add up. "But you are not a farmer. Not anymore." Tony didn''t have anything to say to that, and they fell into silence. Luckily Trent came out of the house soon after. He was carrying a ragged teddy bear. When Bee cocked her head at him, he exined. "Leanne forgot her bear." Forgot was wrapped in air quotes. "She brought her second and third favorite toys instead. When we got back, she threw a tantrum, and Mary made me promise to look for it. That girl is too clever by half." Bee noted that Trent didn''t seem annoyed by his youngest''s scheming ways in the least. Trent, though, wasn''t done. He grinned mischievously. "Luckily, she is only seven, probably didn''t even realize how much leverage she''s giving us. A lot of chores will be done to earn this back." --- I was babysitting. At least, that was what Beatrice called it. I neither sat nor were there any babies. But her exnation was clear enough. I wasn''t able to clean it as it was taking all my effort to track the movements of all six kids and Mary with my Advanced Sensors. I had promised not to let any of them be harmed. To my shame, I had already failed once. One of the boys, a little smaller than Beatrice, had fallen and scraped his knee. I just wasn''t fast enough to catch him. At the time, I was across the castle, preventing the littlest from touching a hot stove. Next time I wasn''t going to agree to this; it was just tooplicated. Give me a huge puddle to clean any day over this. Still, there was some satisfaction in preventing the children from making too many messes, and my passive effect was still improving the state of the castle as things organized themselves. I spent most of my time in the kitchen. Mary was pretty good at not making too much of a mess but left the cooking equipment in the wrong ce all the time, and then sheined she couldn''t find anything. That wasn''t the only reason I stayed near the kitchen when there was no emergency to take care of, though. The little humans all centralized themselves around Mary. As the little humans had been here for a little bit, they had gotten inquisitive and started exploring the rest of the castle. This was an issue as there were hazards everywhere. Suddenly my sensors picked something up, and I needed to zip up to the next floor and prevent the little human around Beatrice''s size from exploring the alligator pit. I positioned myself in front of the small human and gave him a chastising beep. When he tried to peek past me, I bustled and nudged him away until he got the message. I had watched Beatrice feed those alligators once. I doubted that they would have any more problem eating a human rather than the bucket of dried deer intestines that were thrown into their pit every few weeks. The twirling was unpleasant and sent water and blood everywhere. Once I had taken care of that, another thing cropped up. There were endless issues. These little humans seemed determined to get hurt in any way possible. They were almost falling downstairs, ying in the armory, letting a bunch of bats loose, and discovering a group of rotting humans that had showed up outside. I barely had time to get from one disaster to the other after. Between buffeting the bats back into their room with my Air Maniption and shutting the portcullis on the strange humans, I barely had time to zoom off and rescue the cat who had gotten itself cornered. I could not wait until Beatrice returned. --- Tony was quiet for the rest of the day, and Bee left him to it. All of them had finished loading up as much food as they could and put the rest away, so picking it up on future trips would be much simpler. Then they began the long trek back to the castle infortable silence. Things were uneventful until they made it back to the main road. Bee was leading in front, and when she poked her head out and looked both ways, she motioned for the others to back up a bit. "There are some undead around the castle. Not too many, but it seems the portcullis is keeping them out." She whispered. Trent''s face paled slightly, and he gripped the ax he had brought along. Before they could say anything, Bee continued, handing her reins to Tony. "Wait here a minute. There are only a dozen or so." Before they could protest, she was gone. Trent moved to follow, but Tony put a hand on his father''s arm. "Trust her. There isn''t much we farmers can do to help." Bee heard Trent mutter something along the lines of, "but she just has a broom." Tony responded with something more, but she couldn''t make it out as she charged the group of zombies. It was true that she only had a broom, but it was an improved broom her master had given her. A powerful gift. Thest zombies she had faced wouldn''t have been hard to deal with if she had this version of the broom. As she got into range, she used Scan on the crowd. There was arge range of levels, the highest being 23. This group seemed to be younger than thest group that she had fought, with the average level being around 14. As Bee closed in, she thought to herself. If this was going to be amon experience, she would need to do some research on zombies and prepare some magic for them. The library was mostly demon centric, but there would probably be some general information she could use. Leveling the broom at the zombies, Bee darted the sharp point at the closest one. Unfortunately, it wasn''t the highest level one, as that one was in the front pounding fruitlessly on the iron gate. The former kitchen knife took the zombie in the back of the head, meeting no resistance and dropping the unmoving corpse to the ground. The zombies were slow to turn around and notice her. With a few more thrusts, she was able to reduce their numbers even further. She made to sweep the legs of one to the right but paused for a second and jumped back. One of her skills was telling her something. Improved Pathing was trying to get her to go for the one on the left first with a sh to the neck. She was going to listen to it. As the nearer ones finished turning and started to shamble forwards, she suggested the path changed, suggesting she circle around. It seemed this skill was giving her abat sense of some sort. Navigation skills were known to be overpowered, but the question was if she could trust this one. Bee hadn''t forgotten its track record. This was the skill that had tried to lead her through every mud puddle and leaf pile it could. Still, it was worth a shot. Bee didn''t feel particrly threatened, and if it failed, then she could ignore the suggested path at any time. Deciding to try it out, she circled to the right as instructed. The zombies moved to follow her but started getting tangled up with each other. Listening to the next suggestion, she lunged forward to strike one in particr that was tripping over a slower zombie in front. Grinning, Bee hopped back before they could right themselves and watched as one more foe fell to the ground in front of her. Twirling her broom, she prepared to fully engage. Chapter 94: Terror on the Prairie Chapter 94: Terror on the Prairie Over the past day or so, I learned quite a bit. I learned about humans, their behaviors, and how they interacted most of all. It was a fascinating process, one that currently had me tending to a crying Leanne to get some sticky tar out of her hair. It was the result of a cruel prank, one that I had to scold the young twins for ying on their younger sister. Luckily, before I had to dish out any discipline, Mary stepped in and had them working hard in the kitchen. She had also confiscated the roofing tar and put it out of reach to avoid future incidents. Meanwhile, I was left with a sobbing little human and a hairbrush. Mary was worried she would have to cut the mess out of Leanne''s hair and asked me to save as much as I could. The brush was useful for separating out the clean hair. However, I didn''t think that cutting it out would be necessary. My Domain was already getting to work and separating out a ball of the gunk. It would be out of her hair in another 20 minutes at this rate. The fact that it would take that long was a testament to the quality of the tar. I beepedfortingly as I ran the brush through the girl''s light brown hair. Eventually, Leanne started to calm down and began babbling about how mean her older brothers were, except for Tony. She liked Tony. But the twins, who I learned were named Moe and Boe, were apparently jerks. Leanne hoped her Ma was right and that it was just because they were ten-year-old boys, but I didn''t understand what that had to do with anything. Leanne apparently had mixed feelings about her youngest brother, who was only a year older than her. Unfortunately, I didn''t get to hear the rest of the story as I picked up the sound of Beatrice and her party approaching the castle. I remembered that Beatrice wouldn''t be able to get in easily, as I had closed the portcullis and decided to make my way over. I hoped she didn''t have to wait too long. Of all the people who could understand me, Leanne seemed to do it best. It only took a couple of seconds to get her to follow me. As we walked through the castle to the entrance, we chatted about how to unstick tar. I was d to see the youth taking such an interest in cleaning. When we arrived in front of the gate, Leanne let out a squeak. Beatrice was stabbing her way through a group of rotting humans with her improved broom. Z-z-z-z-zombies! Squealed Leanne, pointing at the bad humans. Zombies? I wasn''t familiar with that word. I would have to ask Beatrice about it when we had time. She seemed to be doing okay, but I would wait for her to clear them out before opening the gate. I didn''t want them to get into the castle again. They would track mud and bad odors everywhere. Leanne fell into a sitting position, so I went back to working on her hair until Beatrice needed me. Bee may have overestimated her own abilities. She had managed to remove about half of the zombies so far. Unfortunately, they were the lower leveled ones, and the remaining ones were not getting in each other''s way like they had before. The only thing that was keeping her moving was the pathing skill. That and her broom. The improved broom worked wonders. It still had all the defensive abilities that it did before and excelled at blocking attacks, plus it gave her arge reach. It was barely enough to keep her safe, though. Each time she lunged into the group, it threatened to surround her and prevent her from moving back. Her pathing ability kept her ahead by just a hair''s breadth. Several times she received scratches from overgrown nails but thankfully avoided any bites. The only saving grace in this situation was that Trent and Tony had stayed back, so she didn''t have to worry about saving them. She danced around the group, trying to bait one into overextending and chasing after her. Them being zombies, that wasn''t too hard to aplish, but they also never moved alone. Still, she found a pattern that would iste one just long enough for her to finish it off with a stab to the head before backing away, which worked about 60% of the time. Sometimes she had to settle for just hobbling the zombie instead of finishing it. They were animated mostly by magic but still needed some sort of intact muscles for that magic to animate them. Without tendons, they were drastically slowed. Soon there were few enough that could actually keep up with her that picking off the rest became trivial. The worst part of the whole ordeal was that the zombies were so much lower level than her that she was barely earning any experience. This was the first time that she really understood why most people leveled up slowly. Void had carried her hard. If this was Tony fighting these, he would have for sure died a long time ago. Even though these zombies were around his level. Normal people either fought so far under their level that they barely got experience, like she was doing now, or they died quickly. Most people just chose professions that didn''t make them risk their lives constantly, which also usually came with lower gains. Bee envied those people. Devotee was not supposed to be abat ss. With her master, though, it was impossible to avoid, it seemed. At least she was well prepared. Taking thest of her frustrations out on the remaining level 25 zombie, she was finally rewarded with a halfway decent amount of experience. It was nowhere near enough to gain her next level, but at least she would make noticeable progress. Once she finished with the group, the portcullis started to rise. She saw her master working the winch. It had watched her fight the whole time and hadn''t helped. Was this its way of letting her know how far she still had toe? After all, she was fighting a group of enemies with an average level of 15 under hers. She should have had no problem with them. But still, she was running around and batting out attacks instead of storming through them with force as her master would have. Bee bowed to her master, "I promise to work harder, Master." As the way was still being opened, Bee turned and called Trent and Tony over. They brought the animals behind them, and Trent gawked at the unmoving bodies lying around with holes in their skulls. Once Void had the portcullis all the way raised, it trundled over and quickly hoovered up the zombie remains. Bee also noted that the rotting scent disappeared almost instantly after it finished. For that, she was quite grateful. Right after they all made it in, Void lowered the portcullis again. "Master, have we had issues with zombiesing in? We have never closed this before." Bee asked. It was a good idea either way, but she was curious about what had happened in her absence. I weed Beatrice back with a warm chime. Honestly, I was happier to have Trent and Tony back. Someone needed to monitor these little monsters that posed as small humans. Someone other than me. Still, I was d Beatrice had made it back in one piece. Hearing her curiosity, I did my best to exin what had happened when she was gone as I continued my work cleaning Leanne''s hair. Leanne had calmed down a lot as she watched Beatrice deal with the zombies outside. Herck of squirming around had allowed me to continue without rushing, gently pulling out individual strands of tangled hair. Beatrice knelt next to me and helped remove the gunk. Between our efforts and my Domain, it didn''t take long to get the whole thing cleaned. By the time I looked up, I saw that Trent and Tony had led the animals away. Freed from our attention and tar, Leanne turned around and gave Beatrice a huge hug and started babbling about how cool she looked while fighting so many zombies. Despite the fact that the event had just happened, the little human seemed to get a surprising amount of details wrong. I was pretty sure there had been fewer than a hundred of them, but I didn''t correct the excited girl. Once she finished her hero worship, she leaned down and thanked me for helping with her hair. After touching my w in thanks, she ran back inside. I let out a long low beep in relief that I was no longer on the hook for watching over so many humans. Normally I wasn''t one to shirk hard work, but I really wasn''t built for this. If this was standard family work, was I suddenly even more impressed with therge female human at home. As I was considering what we should do next, Beatrice piped up with a good idea. "Master, I need to get stronger." That was true. I conveyed my agreement. "I don''t just need more levels, but I need to get more practice fighting. That fight was way more difficult than it should have been for someone my level." I wasn''t sure exactly, but her getting stronger was always good. I asked her what she thought she should do about it. To my wonder, she understood my question perfectly. "Hmmm. The best way is to get more experience. I think that it''s clear the zombies areing from the south of here. I should head that way and find some to fight. There is a good chance I will find people in need of help as well. Maybe I can protect them." This wasn''t a bad idea. Of course, I couldn''t let her go alone. Now that I saw how effective just closing the gate was when we left, I felt better about leaving the family and Felix behind. I agreed to her n. Hoping to replicate my previous sess in negotiation, I tried to convey that we should leave in a couple of days. Sadly it seemed to have been a fluke as Beatrice appeared worried. "Uh, master, I need time to prepare. There are so many potions I need to make and things I need to learn. I''d rather go in ready for anything, if it''s alright with you." Beatrice waved her hands in front of her as if I was about to rush her out of the castle. Frustrated, I just beeped my assent, and she rxed a little before bowing and running off. Presumably, she was heading to the library to begin preparing. That was one of her best qualities; she had a great work ethic. I rolled off back to the castle. I already sensed the youngest boy was about to draw on the walls with a rock he had found. If it was chalk, I wouldn''t mind too much, even if it would have been a pain to remove, but this literal rock might do some more permanent damage. It was clear why Mary and Trent had their kids spend most of their days outside. They were little destruction machines. I was sure that my little humans back home were not nearly so disruptive, but that might just have been my personal bias. After confiscating the rock and giving the child a piece of te and a chalk nub from a nearby room, I finally had a second to myself. Trent had called all his kids outside and put them to work storing the food and working in the fields. It was getting prettyte, and I dearly hoped he would wear them all out. To calm myself down, I went to settle on my favorite rug. It had miraculously survived the big demon fight, much to my relief. Now I was pretty sure that this was my favorite room. The beautiful obsidian one was now a sad wreck. Even my Domain wasn''t really working on it. Though even if it had been untouched, I didn''t think that I could have seen it in the same light again. That fight really did put things in a different perspective. As I gently ran my bristles along the fibers, feeling them tickle my undercarriage, I considered what I wanted to aplish next. Chapter 95: What Lies Below Chapter 95: What Lies Below As I rxed on my favorite rug, I let my processors focus on the questions that had been nagging at me for a while now. What did I want to do? So far, I had only ever tried to clean. That was all I ever wanted to do - help create a clean, hospitable home. Did I really want more? No. No, I did not. Of course, if I wanted to keep things clean, I might have to do more than just clean up messes around the home. The fight with the big demon had proved that. If I let things just go, they might deteriorate so that I would have nothing left to clean, and that would be uneptable. I had a bad feeling that these zombies were a simr kind of threat to my ability to clean. But that wasn''t just it. They were also a threat to the people that I cleaned for, as well as possibly destroying the floors I kept clean. Could I really continue to just worry about cleaning alone? Unfortunately, I could not. Then, to what extent did I need to work on preventing messes? If I tried to prevent them, would I overstep my role and prevent humans from doing human things, or should I just stop things like demons and skeletons from rampaging? I pondered on my favorite rug for a while but was unable toe to a definitive conclusion. Eventually, I exhausted my ability to sit and think. I was pretty good at staying in one ce, but ever since I no longer needed to charge, I found that I thought better when I was cleaning. I rolled over to the grand hall where I was summoned and began tracing rings around the pirs. The room didn''t truly need cleaning until tomorrow, but there was enough dust collected that my sensors could notice the difference. Even if a human was incapable of seeing it. Unfortunately, I didn''t have time toe to a conclusion before I sensed another disturbance. The twins had evidently found the door to the catbs and were daring each other to go in. I listened, but I didn''t think that either would be brave enough to get far in or find anything dangerous. There was still potential risk there, though. I had cleaned the main passages, sure, but I hadn''t gone through all the many levels of rooms and secret hallways down there. There were too many stairs to manage. I would get Beatrice to help me out with thatter when she had time. --- Bee frantically stirred and shook together potions. She had gained enough levels recently that she could use the next tier of potions. It was still possible for her to use the lesser potions, of course, but they would have a much less proportional effect now, and they were also going to impart more negative side effects than their higher-tier equivalents. If she and her master were about to go hunt the undead, then she wanted to be as equipped as possible. Starting with healing potions was an obvious choice, but when she finished those, she moved on to speed and strength. Unfortunately, she didn''t have any recipes that were ultra-effective against the undead. She had looked, but this being a demon research facility, that wasn''t the focus. In the few more generalized books, there were some references to turning undead potions. Yet there were still no recipes. With enough time and test subjects, she might be able to develop something, but she had neither. The best she was able toe up with was a potion that blocked her from the sense of the undead. This would make travel much easier as they would think she was one of their own and they shouldn''t attack her on sight. Of course, if she damaged one of them, they would realize something was wrong. Also, she was certain that any intelligent undead could see through it. Well, it wasn''t perfect, but it got the job done for the most part. She moved the beaker of yellow liquid off the small me the second its color started to change. She promptly dunked the now off-white solution in the ice bath and kept it chilled in a thermal containment barrier. The thermal barrier was a new trick that she had picked up recently. Being able to cool things down quickly drastically improved the quality of the potions that she could produce. She thought about putting one in the kitchen as well, in case Mary could use it for preserving food. Her gaze flicked back to a te of thickly cut meat. Tony was nice enough to bring her dinner from the kitchen, but it had gone cold over on the side table where no experiments were allowed. The food smelled amazing, but she had been too caught up in a delicate process to stop and eat. That would have wasted hours of her time, and she only had a few more hours before she needed to sleep if they wanted to head out tomorrow morning. The only thing she had done aside from getting potions ready found a map of the local area. It wasn''t anything official, but one of the archivists kept track of all the hamlets and farms between the castle and Greg. She had heard it mentioned in conversation once. Apparently, it was in case they needed to buy more supplies in the winter or there was some other issue. Her n was to go and check how many had been affected by the gue. Any that hadn''t yet heard of it should be warned and offered a ce at the castle if they brought their harvest. If not Well, maybe they could avenge them. Bee hoped to make it all the way to Greg if they had time. She feared what they would find in the city, but they needed to know what was going on. The castle was set at the end of a really long valley with impassable mountains on either side and behind it. Greg sat at the only entrance to the valley. She couldn''t imagine them not knowing about the zombies. Bottling hertest creation, Bee set them out the cool next to her pack. She wanted to make more. However, she couldn''t fit anything else that was in a ss container. As it was, her nket and change of clothes were already cushioning the potions as much as they could. Anything more than they would risk breaking. Bee shouldered her pack to test its weight and how it affected her movement. It didn''t hinder her much at all. Satisfied, she set it down next to her broom and turned back to the delicious tter of meat nearby. ---- I was happily carried out of the castle''s outer wall by Beatrice, who seemed even smaller inparison to her huge pack. Tony saw us off and shut the portcullis behind us as we walked out the gate. Right as the metal nged shut, the dirt began to rumble. At first, I thought it was just the shock of a heavy piece of metal crashing into the ground, but the bits of earth flying everywhere didn''t stop. I ran my scan over the ground and realized that something was wrong. We were not alone. There were more humans underneath us. These weren''t just like the rotting humans, the so-called "zombies." Even though I could sense a difference, I could also tell that they were not normal humans. Humans didn''t hide underground like that. Not sane ones, anyway. Even the humans from outside had never stooped to this incredible low. A hand grasped at Beatrice''s foot, but she was swift enough to hop out of the way. Of the first hand, at least. The second got her right as she stepped away. With a scream, Beatrice pitched forward. I had observed that when humans fell on their faces, a natural reaction was to put their hands out to catch themselves. So I didn''t me her for dropping me, even if it wasn''t the nicest thing she had ever done. Still, I supposed that it was better than getting crushed between her, her pack, and the ground. That might have been ufortable. I went flying forwards. Trying to correct my flight with my thrusters was a good idea, in theory. But when I activated them, I was actually upside down, and they promptly sent me mming into the ground top down. Fortunately, Beatrice had managed to fling me far enough that I was able to avoid the grasping hands myself. Flipping myself over with my arm, I saw that Beatrice was not in a good position. One of her arms also had been captured and was currently being pulled to keep her off bnce, so she wasn''t able to free her feet. The other hands were now wing out of the ground. With my sensors, I could count six full humans, all seeming to house unheard-of amounts of bacteria and mold. Two of them were holding Beatrice, and the other four were still emerging. The two that it took to hold Beatrice didn''t seem to be doing her any harm at the moment. I gathered that their n was to wait for the others toe up and finish her off. Of course, that was assuming they had a n. What thinking creature would bury itself in the dirt, let alone just to grab an ankle? That didn''t sound very smart to me. I pushed the simtions of how being buried would feel to the back of my processors before they paralyzed me. The wrong-looking humans seemed to have a blind spot when it came to me, as theypletely ignored my presence and instead scrambled toward Beatrice as soon as they were free of the dirt. I wasn''t about to let anything happen to Beatrice, so I pulled out all the stops. A full-powered ray of my Sanitation Lamp shot at the face of the one closest to her. The beam struck the creature, but the results were underwhelming. It stumbled back, wing at where its eyes should have been, but it still had a head. Sure, themp hadn''t done much damage to the huge demon either, but the zombie earlier had beenpletely defeated by an attack much less powerful. Maybe I misjudged them. These might be tougher than I thought - and not just mentally. Still, it had distracted the target enough. I switched themp''s focus to the next closest one while I moved into position to block the others. Trying a new strategy, I sprayed some sodium hypochlorite solution at the one on the right. At the same time, I used my arm to pick up a loose rock and threw it at the one on the left. Unsurprisingly the rock just bounced off the face of the creature. Not that it was invulnerable to rocks, but because I still didn''t have great throwing mechanics. The center of mass was all wrong, and if I were to try to throw it with real force, I would start to tip. Dang. I really should have brought a sword. The one I sprayed took it in the leg. The cleaning solution was surprisingly effective. Its skin bubbled oddly, and the creature fell forward. It still started wing its way toward me with its arms, but at least it wasn''t on its feet. This gave me a chance to use mymp on one of the remaining enemies to force it back, then check on the other two. It was frustrating. I felt that if I got a chance to focus on even two of them, I would be able to finish them off, but the four were just tough enough that it was forcing me to whittle them down little by little. If we hadn''t been caught sopletely off guard, this would have been as simple as vacuuming cheerios on the kitchen tile. The preparations we had when fighting the big demon would have been really useful here. What good was all the stuff in Beatrice''s pack if she couldn''t reach it! I forced the two in front of me back before I swiveled and sprayed one of the hands holding Beatrice. Now she was able to start working her way free while I kept the others off her. Just as I thought we might get things under control, I picked up on a new sound. My visual sensors confirmed my fears. As Bee had started to free herself, the gate was beginning to slowly open again. No! Tony couldn''t be that stupid. He had been sopetent so far! I focused on the downed one spraying it repeatedly in the head. It took several sprays before it stopped moving. Finally, I had a good way to fight these creatures. I moved on to the next one. The portcullis was halfway up. I wanted to finish this before Tony let them into the castle by ident. Right as I was checking my models to see if I could finish all six opponents before the gate was open, a huge group of new figures started running out from the trees. It seemed that these creatures did have a n after all. That was Not good. Chapter 96: My Life for the Horde Chapter 96: My Life for the Horde Bee struggled desperately against the grasping hands holding her down. Kicking against her captor, she was finally able to free her foot. She felt some liquid trickle down her leg, and she hoped it wasn''t blood. These ghouls were worse than zombies in so many ways. With her foot freed, she was able to get it underneath her and use the leverage to pull on her captured arm. She expected to break the grasp of the ghoul, but instead the ground broke apart next to her. Suddenly the creature''s teeth were only a few inches from her face as it flew up at her through a shower of dirt. Bee screamed. In a panic, she iled her arms around and was able to shake off thest ghoul that clung so tightly to her wrist. As soon as she was free, she dashed forward a dozen steps to get clear while scrambling at her back with her offhand, trying to get at her broom. Luckily, ghouls were not the fastest creatures. She had done some research onmon undead after thest encounter. They were ambush predators by nature and, in some situations, one of the more deadly types of undead. They were extremely durable and strong, though critically weak against water and acid attacks. She had a potion for dealing with them, but it was at the bottom of her pack. If she was going to continue preparing for all these situations, she needed to work on making her preparations more essible. Finally getting her broom in hand, she turned and saw Void finishing off another ghoul that remained in the ground. She moved to scan the one slowly dragging itself after her, but froze before shepleted the action. From the treeline, she spotted a horde of zombies as it sprang into action. At least four times the amount that she had battled with on her way into the castle. There was a squeal of metal. Whipping her head around, Bee saw Tony struggling to get the portcullis up again. From his vantage, he couldnt see the zombies. "No, leave it down!" she shouted to Tony, but he didn''t listen and only seemed to work the winch faster. Bee cursed under her breath at his stubbornness. They could handle this, she was pretty sure. Having to worry about a giant hole in the wall they needed to guard was only going to make things harder. She looked down at Void, now finishing off the ghoul who was still half underground. Well, it depended on how much Void would do for them and how effective its skill set was against the undead. Remembering how it had vaporized the zombies before, she rxed a little. The ghoul chasing her arrived just in time to get stabbed in the face. The point of her broom only sunk into its face a few inches and didn''t do much to slow it down. Following her pathing skill, she twirled the other end of her weapon and swept the undeads feet out from under it, sending it to the ground. Where the de exited its face, it tore off a good chunk of putrid flesh. Finishing twirled, she drove to point down with all her might, this time stilling the ghoul. LEVEL UP. LEVEL 33 REACHED Nice! It was not enough to get a new skill, but Bee felt marginally faster and stronger. With all the ghouls finished, she darted in front of the gateway of the castle and turned. She readied herself for the zombie horde that was right on top of them. ---- I finished thest of my opponents and proudly watched Beatrice kill the one she was fighting. It was a rough start, but she kept herposure and received its advance well. I wanted to attribute her sess to my teachings. So I would, this time. Once the immediate threat was taken care of, I turned my attention to the next one. Namely, the group of zombies running right at us. Compared to the ones that were buried in the ground, these were as fast as the cat chasing my sanitationmp and were almost on top of us. Tony had just gotten the gate all the way open and slipped out to stand behind us. It was a shame. If someone else had walked with us to the gate as well, they might have been able to close it again. As it was, it just stood open. If we were unable to stop them here, there would be nothing to protect the castle and its upants from the obviously aggressive zombies. I couldn''t let that happen. Remembering how effective themp was against zombies, I leaned on that first, swiping it across the horde at head height. It sent several of the advancing army staggering, but I had moved too quickly to deal real damage. Changing up my tactics, I started firing short bursts into each one''s head. It took about a second to burn clean through, dropping a single zombie. That wasn''t going to be enough to stop them all at once. Still, I continued thinning out the herd. By the time they reached us, I had dropped 12 of the 56. I retreated slightly and kept firing as we got closer and closer to the castle entrance. I wanted to make sure none slipped past me. As for Beatrice and Tony, sadly, they were on their own. Past what I was already doing, I didn''t see much I could do to protect them. --- Bee sagged in relief as she saw Void take serious action. The zombies fell in droves as her master obliterated them. It still was obvious that it was leaving the majority for her and Tony though, as it moved to block the gateway. The message was clear. "I will help and make sure none get in the castle, but you need to deal with the threat." Gripping her broom tightly, Bee steeled her resolve. She was fine with that. Looking over at Tony, though, she wasn''t so sure about him. At first, she was worried that he had stupidly just charged in unarmed. Luckily, that was not the case. Tony held what looked like a club, but on further inspection was actually the gate winch rod that he removed from its housing. That was lucky, as at least it was metal and heavy. It was better than a lot of other weapons here. She had learned her lesson about fighting zombies with a blunt weapon without enough heft to it during her first encounter. Setting her feet, Bee received the first twobatants. The first fell instantly to a thrust to the face, but Bee wouldnt be able to get the broom out in time to stab again. Instead, she heaved the impaled zombie over to collide with its partner. Their heads crashed together, followed shortly by their bodies. The angr momentum was enough to send both zombies flying, at least one very much dead. There was just enough time for her backswing to catch the next one stepping up to her. The zombies didn''t slow down at all, not worried about trampling their kin. The only way to stand up to their charge was to cut a path through as fast as they came. Otherwise they would crush her with just the weight of their bodies. There was no time to make sure the ones she engaged with were finished, since she had to constantly switch her attention to the next threat. Each one she cut continued its momentum past her or to the side. Simrly, there was no way to make sure that she got a second shot at any survivors. As quickly as the wave reached her, she cut through it. Spinning to check her back, she saw that the wave had smashed ineffectively into the wall to either side of her and was now turning to face the get opening she stood in front of. Tony had seen that he couldnt face them down as she did, so he had stood mostly behind her. Currently, he was bashing in the head of one of the not-quite-dead ones that had run past her. Bee was really d that Tony was still alive. Not only did he not die, but he was also being incredibly useful. Without his help, she might have been taken from behind with no warning. Of course, she would have had the far more reliable Void watching her back if Tony hadn''t opened a huge hole in the castle''s defenses. Bee turned to her left to take on the remains of the horde. The wall had ttened them out, so no longer was it a huge waveing at her but now two columns from each side. The other nice thing about the wall was that it slowed them down. These zombies had a high top speed, but that didn''t mean they could elerate without a bit of runway. Running to engage them as soon as possible, Bee hoped that Tony would do the same. The more space between them in this situation, the more room they would have to retreat when they needed it. Having only one or two zombiese at her at a time was much simpler than having a whole horde rush her at top speed. She now had the time to fight each one properly and make sure that they were put down. There was time for tactics andbos. Flipping them on the ground was effective and lessened the zombies offensive options, making them easier for her to handle, but it also slowed the others down. As much as their rudimentary intelligence let them form an ambush, they weren''t smart enough to just go around an obstacle. Now that she thought about it Could they really form an ambush? The ghouls could for sure, that was how they hunted, but would zombies be able to figure out the tactics of waiting in the trees? Judging by how they had clustered around the gatest time they attacked, she would say no. That meant there was likely a higher level of undead somewhere in the trees. Bee would need to go investigate. Now was not the time though, she couldnt afford to break away and let them in. Plus, after the threat was dealt with, anything out here would have plenty of chances to slip away once it was clear that the ambush had failed. Maybe her master would have a chance to see what was really going on. So she just kept swinging. Every few swings of her broom, she needed to take a step back to prevent the natural swell of the mass from trying to get her, allowing them toe at her sides. With her next step back, she turned to see how much more room she had. Not nearly as much as she would have liked. Tony''s back wasn''t more than three feet from hers. Checking the zombies, there were still six in front of her and double that in front of Tony. Looking around, it was just the dozen and a half assaulting her and Tony remaining. All the others were crumpled on the ground with small, perfect holes bored through the centers of their foreheads. Void had been busy. Right when she was about to peel away from the wall and drag Tony with her, Bee saw the zombie at the back of Tonys pack fall with a familiar sh of light. One more kill for her master. Redoubling her efforts, Bee threw herself into the crowd, not wanting to have to rely on its help. Chapter 97: A Bone to Pick Chapter 97: A Bone to Pick Seeing the pattern in how the zombies rushed at the wall, I could just focus on the ones right in front of the gate without worry. I had no issues killing enough to mitigate the immediate danger and keep them from making it into the castle. Soon, I had enough attention left over to even watch over where Beatrice and Tony were holding their own. So far, I didn''t need to step in, which was a good thing. This was a good training opportunity, after all. Beatrice seemed to be handling herself quite well, but I was impressed with Tony''s cleverness. He managed to both support Beatrice and protect himself through just a bit of intelligent positioning. It was good that he knew his limitations. Once they had survived the wave, I saw them split up and take each side. Due to some bad luck, Tony had way more opponents on the side he turned to. It seemed a little unfair, so I decided to put my w on the scale a little, so to speak. I thinned out the mass approaching him to only 4, reduced from the dozen it had been. Afterward, I monitored each of their battles, ready to step in if it was needed. Ultimately, they proved themself capable enough as they each put down their zombies. Tony needed to get some skill with a weapon, though. He wielded his metal rod like a baseball bat, each swing leaving him unbnced. He would be incredibly vulnerable to an enemy ready to take advantage of his openings. Even a couple of skeletons would have given him issues. Finally, we were all in the clear, and I was ready to get on with our quest. Beatrice was sitting on the ground checking over Tony, who had received some scratches from the fight. But even as we watched, they closed up from the potion that Beatrice poured over them. I waited until he was on his feet and walking back into the castle before I rolled over the grass and nudged Beatrice''s foot. She looked down at me, and I pointed with my grabby arm toward the road. "Are youing?" Tony asked. Beatrice looked down at me before looking back up at Tony with an unreadable expression. "I don''t think I can." "You can''t be serious! You were just attacked by six ghouls and a ton of zombies. They''re clearly smarter than they should be. It would be stupid to just walk out there alone!" Tony shouted. "I won''t be alone." She said softly, and I beeped in agreement. I was going to watch her back. Besides, I learned my lesson. Now I had my sensors scanning the ground and my surroundings as much as possible without being too draining my battery. We wouldn''t get caught in the same trap again. A different trap, maybe, but there was no real way to n for that. Beatrice waved back at Tony and started walking down the path. The gate nged shut, but a secondter, Tony was walking beside us. "I''m not going to let you go alone. I can at least help watch your back. Besides, you said it earlier. I''m not a Farmer anymore. I''m a Disciple of Spot. Not that I know what that really means, but I need to get stronger, and I can''t do that from inside the castle." Huh, I hadn''t thought of that before. Tony was my disciple now. I needed to put more nning and time into training him, too. Maybe not as much as I did with Beatrice, but I had been neglecting it so far. That would have to change. As we trudged down the road, I started thinking of ways to get Tony stronger. Aside from teaching him to protect himself - that was a must. What tasks could I set him to? Should I help him pick his next skill as well? --- Bee nced at Tony as they walked down the road. It had been over an hour since they had set out, and still, no one had said a word since they left the castle. The silence was starting to get awkward as it dragged on. The only one who wasfortable was Void as it rested in Bee''s careful yet secure grip. They were moving over a particrly muddy section of road, and her master had objected to traversing it on wheels. Still, aside from that, the outdoors were quite nice. The trees lining the narrow path had begun to turn, shedding various shades of scarlet and gold leaves across the ground. The air was brisk but not too cold yet. She even spotted an asional squirrel collecting somest-minute provisions before winter. All in all, it was almost picturesque. Eventually, she felt that someone needed to speak up, and she wasn''t too proud that it couldn''t be her. "Ummm, are you sure your family will be alright by themselves?" That was apparently the wrong thing to say as the slightly tense look on Tony''s face intensified. "They should be okay. It really makes no difference if I''m with them or not. If something could get through the walls, there wouldn''t be much I could do anyway." The bitterness in his voice was faint, but she was still able to pick up on it. She supposed that he was right. Of course, there was apparently sneakier undead that could climb walls, but those were also expected to be much more powerful than Tony. Usually, a level 25 adventurer would be required to deal with them at a minimum. A Farmer turned Devotee, not even at level 20, wouldn''t make much of a difference unless there were a dozen of him. They walked a little bit further before Tony spoke up again. He was still serious but a bit less brooding now. "Are you still getting levels from fights like that? I can''t imagine the zombies are doing much for you." "With enough of them, it matters. The ghouls were in their 30s, so I got a level from the whole ordeal. Not yet at my next skill yet, sadly." Bee said, thankful for something else to talk about. "I still can''t believe you are in your 30s. You''re probably one of the highest-level people I''ve ever talked to." Tony said, shaking his head. "I doubt it. A lot of the older guards were probably higher level than me." Bee said demurely. "Maybe, but I doubt they have as powerful skills. They probably got their levels in a lot more, erm, tame ways than fighting demons and undead nonstop for How long?" Bee stopped to think about it for a second. "Uh, five months, give or take?" Tony kicked the ground as he walked. "I just don''t know if I have the guts to do that." "I wouldn''t rmend it. I only did it because I had to. If you do that on purpose, you would be an idiot. 99 times out of 100, I bet you would end up dead. I was so lucky. Void knows exactly how hard to push me." Bee said before hesitating. "You know. Now that you are Void''s disciple, it might also be willing to train you. Void, what do you think?" Void let out a high-pitched squeak that Bee took as assent. Tony looked a little pale but didn''t object. Still, Bee considered how she could warn him not to tell Void about his skill choices. She had made that mistake once and wasn''t about to repeat it. Not that she was exactly unhappy with her skills, of course. The skill Void had chosen was her most valuable besides Scan. It wasn''t what she would have chosen, of course, but it formed the basis of herbat style. Still, not having made a choice herself, still sat a little oddly with her. Left to her own selection, she would have chosen something that might have been a more powerfulbat ability in select situations. But without the versatility of her broom, something would have gotten her by now. As they walked, Bee wished one of them knew anything about tracking. That might have made it easier to find signs of other undead around. Or any survivors. *** Eventually, they reached what Tony called his closest neighbors. It only took them four hours of walking past the turn for his family''s farm. It was a very simr trail to the one they were familiar with, but this was just a bit wider - enough for a small cart tofortably pass through. "There are a couple of families living down here, but they aren''t asrge as ours. Still, having more adults lets them have more output, hence the wider trail. Carts are better than having to use pack animal trains." Tony exined. As they turned down the path, Bee checked for any tracks but was unable to tell if the footprints heading down the path were fresh or not. She hoped not. As they started down the trail, impatience started to get to them, spurring the party into a jog. It wasn''t long before they reached a huge clearing. A wide swath of farnds met them as they broke through the treeline, with arge cluster of small wooden buildings in the center. A quarter of the clearing was fenced off. "There should be cows in there," Tony said, pointing to the fenced paddock. "I don''t see any." Running his hand through the wheat, he grabbed a stalk and chewed it thoughtfully before spitting it out. "And this harvest is long past due. I don''t have a good feeling about this." Already Bee was running through the field, not caring about how much wheat she trampled. Tony shouted at her, but she didn''t slow down. As she approached, the feeling of dread intensified. The doors to all the houses were ripped from their hinges, and many of the fences were destroyed. Coming to a stop at the center of the buildings, Bee spun around, taking in the haunting scene. They were much toote. Tony caught up a few momentster, doubled over and gasping for air as he looked around. "We''re weeks toote. I don''t think there''s anything for us here." Bee had to agree, yet she still insisted on a quick search through each of the buildings. Surprisingly, the insides were not disturbed. There were no signs of a rushed exit. No meals were left unfinished on the tables, and there were also no signs of a struggle. No broken furniture or blood. Checking the pantry, she saw a lot of food was missing. "You think they all left on their own?" Tony rubbed his chin for a second. "I doubt it. I don''t see how the news would have reached them. Even if it did, where could they have gone other than the castle? If we didn''t know about it, that means it came from Greg, and that would be a long trek as well." "Then where did they all go?" Bee asked, unsatisfied with what they understood. Void beeped, asking to be let down. Surprised, sheplied and set her master on the dirt. It whirred unhappily before heading off in a direction. Tony and Bee followed the little ck disc curiously, wondering what it had noticed that they had missed. It led them around to a nearby field, where they found a strange sight. A scarecrow stood in the center of the gently swaying wheat. However, upon closer inspection, there was something under the hat. Bee stumbled back as teeth chattered at her angrily. "What in the realms!" She yelled frantically, looking around for more. Tony pointed to something tied to a stake in the ground not too far from them. A femur was wiggling slightly as if trying to escape its bonds. Bee whipped around to survey the area. All around them, some hidden and some not were stakes just like this one. Bee saw a lot. Almost enough for an entire skeleton. "Could they not find a way to kill it for good?" Tony whispered. "Wait, it seems Void found something else," Bee called. She was already a few steps away as she followed Void into the field. Chapter 98: The Last Word Chapter 98: The Last Word This ce was weird. Even without Beatrice and Tony confirming it, I knew there were obviously supposed to be humans here. Even messy humans like the kind I''d seen would repair something like a door. But that wasn''t it. I noticed a slight discrepancy in the pattern of the trees. Well, not the trees exactly, but the undergrowth of the trees. While Tony and Beatrice were looking for pieces of the skeleton around the farm, I was having my models process all the data that they could. Something was wrong here. The way the skeleton was tied up didn''t make any sense, and neither did the state the ce was left in. There should have been more damage if there had been a fight enough to take the skeleton apart. Those things were no joke to humans. Finally, my model returned something that was interesting. There was a hidden trail on the opposite side of the fields from the road. I tried to get Beatrice''s and Tony''s attention to point it out. When they were following my lead, I took them to the edge of the clearing. It wasn''t until I pulled aside a few cut branches that had browner leaves than usual that they understood what I was trying to show them. "They must have had this trail prepared long before the undead came here. They wouldn''t have time to escape if they hadn''t." Tony remarked. As he stepped into the treeline, Beatrice crouched down and held out her hands. Grateful for her thoughtfulness, I rolled over to her so she could scoop me up. I beeped my thanks to her, d to be out of the dirt. My domain was making it slightly bearable to be on the dirt ground, but only if I moved very slowly. Slightly slower than how I had moved beforeing here. Still, I focused my Air Maniption to brush the little dirt that had managed to cling to me into my dustbin. I wasn''t going to have my chassis getting Beatrice dirty. In fact, I''d clean off her boots and pants, too, for good measure. All situated, we followed Tony down the path. Beatrice jogged for a few steps to catch up and then asked, "Do you know anything about what this is?" Tony shook his head. "It looks to me like a hideaway but I can''t fathom why they would have needed to build one. That was something that we did as kids when we were free from chores. The adults here wouldn''t have done it." "So you think the kids built this path, and they all just used it to escape?" "Maybe; I don''t see what else it could be. There wasn''t any blood or signs of a struggle, so I imagine they all had toe this way. That we only found one skeleton doesn''t make sense either." Tony said. I had to agree with Tony. There should have been more skeletons. The only way that I could figure was that the skeletons must have been destroyed somehow. But they wouldn''t have just left after that. They would have followed the humans, especially since they would have seen them escaping. But skeletons probably wouldn''t have reced the branches to disguise the trail. So that didn''t makeplete sense, either. *** After a long while of walking, the trees started to thin out as the forest started to encroach on the mountains that formed the valley. We started walking uphill. Tony had voiced the idea of turning back but didn''t sound very excited about the idea. We still had a trail to follow. It clearly led somewhere, and until we either couldn''t see it anymore or found the end, none of us really wanted to stop. It seemed that the trail was leading to a cave into the mountain. It was well hidden, blending in quite well with the surrounding rock. The only reason we noticed it was that I had noticed a thin tendril of steaming out of a hole a little way up the hill. So with that clue, my models spun up and quickly found the opening as we walked around looking. Again some bushes were cut to block the entrance, except these were greener. The cement was pretty well done and looked very natural. The only reason I noticed the opening wasn''t the bush itself but the erosion of the stone by the entrance. That kind of damage to stone floors was only done when people walked over them endlessly for years. Something just didn''t add up here. If this was used for years "I have a bad feeling about this." Tony whispered. "We found them. They seem to be alright. We should leave before there''s any trouble." After not getting a response, he spoke with a bit more urgency. "Bee." "I don''t know, they might need help. They can''t have too much food in there." Beatrice said back, but she was also keeping her voice low. "Void what do you think?" What did I think? These people could use our help for sure. Not the least of which with making a proper home. But I digress. The real question was, were they going to let us help them? I had started noting some odd chemicals in the air. A decent amount of ethanol wasn''t something that I expected. Honestly, this was something I would leave to the humans. I just didn''t know enough about the situation or the human behaviors involved to make a decision. "Okay, I think we should head back. I think we found what we came here for." Beatrice said. "But what if we need your help, little girl." A gruff voice came from the forest. --- Bee whirled around to face the speaker. There at the edge of the treeline was a tall bear-like man with a pot belly and shaggy neck beard. The white sleeveless tunic he wore stood out so much from the trees that she was amazed that they hadn''t noticed him sooner. He must have had some stealth skill to keep them from noticing his approach. She gripped her broom tighter in surprise. The voice was mocking but not inherently threatening. Still, it sent shivers down her spine. Tony didn''t seem to like it much either, stepping half in front of Bee. She was grateful for the gesture, even if it wasn''t really necessary. Taking advantage of the distraction, she used Scan. Name: Billy Bur, ss: Ouw, Level: 34, Age: 63, Primary Stat: DEX That was worrying. He was at a higher level than her, and his ss likely had some seriousbat options that she did not. "Hello!" Tony said, putting on a bright face. "We were checking some of the nearby farms and we saw an interesting scarecrow." "Did ya now?" The man said in a neutral tone. "Then what brings you all the way out here then?" "Well, we had news of the undead gue and we came out seeing if we could find survivors, maybe offer them a ce of shelter." Tony exined. Bee thought he was doing a good job of hiding it, but clearly, he was tense. She wasn''t getting a good vibe from this guy either, but she wasn''t sure why Tony was so on edge. "Hmmm. hHelp and shelter. Ain''t that mighty kind o'' ya." The fat man said while scratching his gut. "Now I don''t think we''re gonna need any o'' that, but thanks for the offer. Much obliged." One word in there set Bee on edge. So far, it seemed that he was alone, but that was unlikely. The charitable interpretation of the situation was that he was protecting the people in the cave. But then, he wouldn''t have stopped them from leaving when it was clear they were about to go. "Well we won''t force our help on you if you don''t want it." Tony said, still keeping his facade up. "I guess we''ll be going then." "No ya won''t, will ya." The manughed. "Well I appreciate not being forced ta'' cept help, but I''m afraid we can''t letcha go so easy now. See, we got a good thing goin'' here. Wouldn''t want anyone ta mess it up on ident, y''see." Tony''s posture changed. Bee watched as he reached for the metal gate winch that he had kept from the zombie fight earlier. Tense as she was, she jumped a bit as Void beeped indignantly. Sometimes her master did seem to have a little trouble interpreting human behavior. That was to be expected by a being of such power since petty human concerns were so far beneath it. As an example, right now, Void seemed to take offense at therge man''s insinuation that they would make a mess. Bee felt that she now had a responsibility to speak up. What else was a Priest other than a mouthpiece for a god? "You might not want to make such remarks. Otherwise, Void might think you''re not joking." As she spoke, she set her master down and backed up a few steps. The man looked past Tony and at her for the first time. "Ah, ya can speak. I knew I remembered hearing ya say something. I''m d ya found yer voice lildy." "But now who''s this "Void" and what''s he gonna do about yer needin'' ta stay here?" The man grinned at Tony and asked in a mocking voice. "Do ya call yerself Void? Make you feel strong, don''it?" Tony showed the first real sign of mirth since this whole debacle started. "No, no, no. I''m Tony. That," he gestured towards the ground, "That is Void." The man looked at where Tony was pointing in disbelief. Tony wasn''t done, though. "This is Void. He also goes by Spot. But the more I get to know him the more Void seems urate. I would warn you, but I think that it might be a waste of my words." The man doubled over inughter. When he came up for air, he wiped the corners of his eyes with a grubby finger. Strangely, Bee noticed that his eyes had never truly left their group. "Indeed, we wouldn''t want''cha ta waste words. Ya filthy weasel." He choked out between peals ofughter. Void just sat there silently, and Tony and Bee watched it tensely. The man wasn''t done. "C''mon out boys! We got a fancy te ready to kill us all. Whassit gonna do, spill slop all over us? We better work together ta defend ourselves!" A few other dirty-looking men suddenly stood from hiding ces all around them. They all were armed, holding their bows and daggers with casual hostility. One of them even had a club leaning on his shoulder. Bee saw at least nine men. "See, now that''cha found our little distillery operation, we can''t letcha spread the word. We''re gonna need you to keep quiet forever. Just like the others who came out here, y''see." The man slowly began to advance, his whole demeanor changing. "Sincerest'' pologies, lil miss. Sometimes, ya gotta get yer hands a bit dirty, spill a bit o'' blood, you understand." Void rolled forward and started beeping angrily. Very angrily. Bee had never seen Void show any emotions like this before. She and Tony started backing up, not away from the men threatening them but from the very angry ck disk. The group of men moved to surround the group. One of them let an arrow loose, presumably to shatter the "dinner te" before them. In an instant, her master swiveled towards the projectile. A concentrated beam of light blue shot out and intercepted the arrow mid-flight. Before anyone had time to even register what had happened, the light was gone, leaving nothing in its wake. The men took a collective step back as they tensely adjusted their grips on their weapons. The man who shot the arrow licked his lips nervously. "Uh, boss, I dun think thassa te." "Who cares! Charge it!" The men roared forward together, some more enthusiastically than others. Bee and Tony scrambledpletely out of the way as they waited for their patron to let loose. Chapter 99: Cleanliness is Next to Godliness Chapter 99: Cleanliness is Next to Godliness I did not like these humans. Not just because they were filthy but almost intentionally so. First, they insulted me. Then, they threatened to break both of my humans. They even started firing projectiles at me. And to top it all off, they insulted me some more. That waspletely uncalled for. I mean, the projectiles were easy to swat out of the air. But they said I was dirty! Well, I''d clean up their own dirty mouths. With a st of air maniption, I expelled a portion of stone dust from my dustpan and held it above me. When I had collected a few pounds of it, I flung it out in an arc as fast as I could. The particte shot forward at about 46.2 mph and sprayed into the men arrayed against me. They screamed as the dust sted into their exposed skin. My sensors picked up sprays of liquid ejecting from the ces where my reprimand removed their skin. The sounds they made were a little more disturbing than I would have liked. It made my lights blink in surprise. What was I doing? Who was I to judge humans? Even if they were so insulting. Just deafening my humans to their insults would have been enough. I had gone way too far. I stopped my attack immediately, but already the humans'' exposed skin was a bright red, and they were rubbing their faces vigorously. Their clothes were all in tatters as well. The leftover strips of cloth fluttered unpleasantly as the men, almost in unison, dropped to their knees. I turned back to face Beatrice, uneasy about seeing her reaction to my brutal loss of temper. I was supposed to be the example here. I couldn''t behave so poorly in front of her. To my surprise, she wasn''t staring at the downed men in shock but was instead looking at me with awe. "Master, thank you for saving us," Beatrice said, her hands pressed together. Only now did I realize how white her face was; humans turned white when they were afraid, right? Judging based on her reaction, though, it wasn''t me she was scared of. Were these humans really so much of a threat that she didn''t think she could fight them? Sure, they were muchrger than her, but that never stopped her before. I also knew appearance didn''t mean everything; perhaps they were very high level? Tony, though, was a lot harder to understand. He stared open-mouthed at me, then at the wailing men. When I beeped a question asking if we should leave, he jumped 2.1 feet in the air. That wasn''t a very impressive vertical. "We need to get out of here, but one thing really quick," Tony said as he ran to the cave. A few secondster, he came out and motioned for us to follow before running back to the forest. Not long after we made it into the cover of the trees, there was a loud boom, and a plume of fire erupted behind us. Bee picked up her master as they ran back into the cave. She had an idea of what Tony had done, and she didn''t want to be anywhere close by when the distillery exploded. When it went off, and they had escaped unharmed, Tony suddenly stopped and threw up on the ground. Bee bent down beside him and put a hand on his back. Gasping, he exined. "I found the families. It seems like they escaped the undead just to be killed by the living. The skeletons had chased them off. But it seemed that the ouws dealt with the undead too. They must have gone back and done what we saw at the farm." "It was Gruesome in there." Tony finished as he wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. Then he stood up and looked at Void. "You were too kind to them. We should go back and finish them off." Bee put her hand on Tony''s clean arm. "That won''t fix anything. Besides, I doubt we need to. Without proper care they will not survive the ying they just received." Tony balled up his fists but let Bee pull him away. They walked back through the forest. No one spoke as they all digested what they had just found. Bee really hoped that they would have better luck at some of the other ces they needed to visit before they reached Greg. The atmosphere held until the experience notifications started rolling in. Apparently, the ouws weren''t going to live long enough to worry about infection. Judging based on her experience, the system didn''t consider her contributions too high in that battle. She imagined that she only got as much as she did because she had set Void down. She wondered if that technically counted as unleashing her master. Still, it was several people who were her level or higher, so she was getting really close to level 35. Tony apparently got some experience, too, as his expression became ever darker than before. Curious, Bee ran Scan over him. Name: Tony, ss: Devotee of Spot, Level: 18, Age: 24, Primary Attribute: CHA Wow, he was really getting up there. He had already tripled his level since they had first met almost two months ago. He wasn''t totally over-leveled for a 24-year-old but was likely in the top 10%. maybe only people who actively trained for levels would be simr or higher. Tony kicked a small rock on the path sending it flying into the trees. "I should feel guilty or upset or something, but I''m just angry. We just killed people. I''ve never killed a person before, it should feel different." From Bee''s arms, Void let out a soft beep. Tony cocked his head at her. "I''ve never been as good at interpreting his meaning as you, but it sounded like he just said that I didn''t kill them. Is that right?" Bee was about to confirm and borate when Void made a very clearly affirmative noise followed by some more exnation. Tony paused. "Okay, I really didn''t get thatst bit, could you trante?" Waiting for a second to see if Void would respond, Bee held her tongue. When her master stayed silent, she exined. "Void is taking full responsibility for its actions. You are absolved of any guilt At least, that''s what I think it meant." --- I didn''t entirely agree with Beatrice''s trantion. Not that it was technically wrong, but I felt like the emphasis was wrong. I just meant to tell him that he hadn''t killed anything - I had, and he didn''t need to feel bad for it. They were filthy people and had iting. Maybe? That was how I rationalized it to myself, at least. The morality of humans had long been a theme of my thoughts, ever-present since I had arrived here. There were a lot of conclusions that I had fought against. First, it was that not all humans were perfect. That took an embarrassingly long time to figure out, but I got there. But then we had the violent visitors. That was when I first thought that it was even worse. Not only were humans imperfect - there might actually be bad humans. Now that was a revtion that had taken me a long time to ept. It wasn''t until a few hours ago that it really sunk in. Humans, at least some of them, needed to be cleaned. It was an unsettling conclusion but one I couldn''t avoid. Humans hurt each other all the time. To a surprising degree, really. I didn''t want to stoop to that level. It''s not that I wanted to harm humans, but if other humans were going to put my humans in danger, I wouldn''t hesitate. Especially not with zombies or ghouls, who were apparently inhuman somehow. Despite my conviction when it came to defending Beatrice and Tony, I wasn''t ready to pass judgment on unrted or untested cases. I would work on the assumption that most humans were fine until proven otherwise. I mean, just look at how nice Tony''s family was. I especially liked Mary. Even if her children threatened to fry a circuit in my processor. Tony didn''t respond to Beatrice''s trantion for quite a while. It wasn''t until we were reentering the clearing that he finally said what was on his mind. "I don''t know how, but somehow that made me feel a lot better. Does Void really have the ability to exonerate people like that? I''m not really sure about his authority as my subject of devotion." "Oh, five-. I''m sorry, I guess I kinda forgot to exin how the Devotee ss works." Beatrice apologized. "I thought that, since we spent so much time in the library-" She cut off suddenly. I wasn''t sure why, but she continued on a different track. "I mean. I can share what I know if you want?" "Don''t worry. I didn''t find that book to be quite up to my standards, so why don''t you summarize it for me?" Tony asked in a teasing voice, and Bee''s face flushed red. "Seriously, don''t worry. I''m not like Maranda. I don''t care if you know I can''t read." Wait. Tony couldn''t read? Hm. Maybe I could show him how the patterns worked. It was such a valuable skill, especially for humans who didn''t seem to have perfect memory banks like I did. Yes, that would be the first thing I would teach him as my disciple. It was decided. "Well, the mostmon form of subject for the Devotee ss is a god. But it doesn''t have to be." Beatrice finished in a rush. "Did you ever figure out what he is?" Tony asked. "No, no idea. I just know Void is extremely powerful and mostly benevolent." Bee responded. "Did you ever ask him?" Without waiting for a response, he turned to me and asked. "What are you?" I felt Beatrice''s body tense around me, but she didn''t need to be worried. I answered as truthfully as I could. I cleaned. That was what I was - a cleaner. A long time ago, I would have said I vacuumed floors, but now I was so much more. "He cleans." Tony looked to Beatrice for confirmation. She nodded. "I am the one who cleans, is how I interpreted it." She responded with a serious look on her face. "Hmmmm, that sounds awfully god-like to me." Tony said warily. I did think cleaning was a very godly pursuit. The highest of all, in fact. So I didn''t disagree with Tony''s statement at all. I was just d that he was starting to really appreciate the finer things in life. "It does, doesn''t it," Beatrice mulled it over. They both looked at me, and Tony gave me a respectful nod. "I''m going to have to process this." Tony said slowly. "I never really considered myself religious before." "You might not be able to do much about that." Beatrice warned. "We did watch it kill a Lieutenant. So it''s not that far of a leap. I guess I can''t be certain about its fate though, since Void neither confirmed nor denied killing it the one time I got up the courage to ask directly." "Maybe you watched him kill a Lieutenant. I was solidly unconscious at the time." Tony rified, earning a chuckle from Beatrice. That was a pretty good joke. He wasn''t able to watch me because he was charging. Even though Beatrice knew that it wasn''t what she meant, he made an unnecessary correction in the most pedantic way. Huh, that seemed Funny? I searched my records and realized that I had never noticed humor before. I had been missing so much! He was charging during the fight! Haha, that was a good joke. Well, it was a joke. I didn''t know how it ranked among others like it; I would need to watch for more jokes in the future. "Wait." "Did Void justugh?" Chapter 100: Funny Bones Chapter 100: Funny Bones Roscoe stood with his army outside the walls of Greg. The people here had been more resistant than he could have ever expected. His first assault had been rebuffed. Of course, he could have taken the town through sheer persistence eventually, but he didn''t want to lose too many of his elite troops. So instead of storming the town, he sent out groups to the surrounding areas to recruit. So far, things were progressing, although slowly. More and more troops trickled in, and they were almost ready tomence another assault. Not every troop he sent out hade back, but so far, all the elites made it back. That was what mattered. Each time a group went out, he impressed upon it to leave the castle alone. It wasn''t just to prevent spoiling the seat of his god, though that was a consideration. No, he just didn''t believe that anything would be able to take on such a mighty being. They would just be destroyed in the attempt. He wasn''t sure how well themand would hold with the newly created. However, he just didn''t have much choice but to trust that it would work out. Now the tens of thousands of zombies, skeletons, ghouls, and other undead surrounding the city were numerous enough to attack. With amand, the formerly still fodder troops surged forward in a wave. They were all very low-level and wouldn''t aplish much. Still, they would act as a ramp for the others to scale the wall. Many would be destroyed, but many would recover, and the newrades from the city would fill their ranks again. A cry rose from the city, and bells started ringing. A sparse volley of arrows sailed over the walls, only tond ineffectually among the uncaring dead flesh of the approaching masses. As the bells continued to ring, more and more arrows joined each volley. Soon enough, balls of fire arced over as well. Defenders on the wall threw rocks. A few even dumped boiling oil, which didn''t do much besides make its target slightly more slippery. Useless. Footing wouldn''t be a concern on the ramp of bodies without many orders of magnitude more oil. The zombies hit the wall before the defenders had even begun to make a dent in their numbers. The first ones at the walls were promptly trampled, and the next wave became that much closer to the wall''s top. If the defenders had only to defend one part of the wall, they would have repelled the attack, just as they had the first night Roscoe had tried this. Even a dozen different points of attack would have been possible to ovee. However, this attack was bigger. The entire wall was being scaled at once. By the ninth wave, the undead could reach their fingers over the walls. They were mostly beaten back, and the ones that pulled themselves up were quickly thrown back down to the pile. The next rank didn''t have to reach for the wall, though, and the one after that simply stepped over the ledge. All the further ones practically climbed over their predecessors only to fall upon the defenders. The twelfth rank caused a mass of undead to fall off on the inside of the wall, their momentum simply clearing the wall of defenders. The arrowsing over the wall never stopped. Roscoe had to admire their determination, but they couldn''t stand before the might of the Void. The world would be cleansed. He didn''t have to, but he sent his elite troops in. They might as well get some experience as well. Fifteen minutester, he was walking through the gates, and the ghastly undead ramp was sorting themselves back into ranks. --- Tony and Bee spent some time trying to figure out if Void hadughed or not. They weren''t able toe to a conclusion, and Void had stopped responding to them at all. So eventually, they gave up and continued on. Before leaving the now-abandoned farm, though, they made sure to destroy the skeleton acting as a scarecrow. Void did them a favor and absorbed its powdered remains. It likely had been up there for days, but still, it wasn''t smart to leave it behind. Who knew what kind of trouble it would cause if it was allowed to spread? The trip back to the main road went quickly as they chatted about what to do next. Tony thought it was best to go right to Greg and see what the news was, while Bee wanted to stop by each little hamlet and check for survivors. The outlook was grim, and time might be of the essence. But Tony had a good point too. "If we get Greg, we can see what news they''ve gotten from all the surrounding areas. Then we can see where we can help." "How often would these ces really send the news to Greg, though? Not very often, I would bet." Bee responded. She remembered his older sister was supposed to be in Greg and thought that might be influencing his judgment. "Well, it is harvest time, and many would be delivering grain around now. So it''s not exactly normal timing either, is it?" Tony pointed out. "Hmmm, maybe? Void, what do you think?" Bee asked. Voidy still in her arms for a bit before giving a long-winded exnation. Honestly, she only got the gist of it. But it was quite detailed. Tony didn''t understand either, thankfully. Otherwise, it would have been just too embarrassing. She was supposed to be the system-proimed Priest, after all. "What did he say?" "The number of undead we have seen had toe from somewhere, as the undead were all humans at some point. So in order to have this many, they must havee from somewhere with arge poption. From Void''s estimates, there likely wouldn''t have been enough people in the valley and its hamlets alone, so clearly, it is toote for Greg." Bee said. Of course, she didn''t get this from Void directly. It had said a lot more than this. However, this nugget of wisdom was all she was able to understand from the profound statements of her master. Truly she was ashamed to be such an ipetent mouthpiece. Void clearly didn''t appreciate her poor trantion as it spoke up again. Her face flushed with embarrassment. This was the first time she had ever heard her master rify itself, so she must have messed up big time. Normally it didn''t bother and would let her operate on her minuscule understanding. Tony listened just as intently as she did. Neither wanted to miss a single note. This time, Tony tried his hand at interpreting the words of their master. "It sounds like he was saying that he doesn''t know the exact size of the valley or its poption, so this is spection, but it would still be best to look for survivors in smaller areas as the three or four-day trip to Greg will take too long anyways. Did I get that right?" Bee thought about it for a second. "I think we probably missed a lot of deeper meaning, but I got that we can only do so much to protect people at our current power. I think it''s right; we need to level up again. I''m so close to level 35." --- That wasn''t at all what I was trying to say. Well, some of it was urate, but they extrapted out from my suggestions way too far. Still, it was a lot more insightful than my intended message, so I didn''t bother to correct them. I just wanted to add that we should focus on the area near the castle first, as we might want to be able to retreat if we ever get overwhelmed. The same effect was conveyed, so I didn''t think that any further input from me was needed. Still, once we got back to the main road, I still hadn''t figured out a way to tell a joke. Not only had I not figured out how to deliver it, I hadn''t even thought of one yet. None of them really fit what I wanted to say as they were too rted to cleaning. Those likely wouldn''t be understood by anyone other than my kind, and I doubted they would have developed a sense of humor like I had. Something about collecting dust It was just so hard to be clever. I wanted to get a good joke about sitting still. Are you collecting dust or collecting dust? No, that wasn''t it; that was just a repetition. I guess that could be funny, like when Bee kept screaming when she first saw me. Maybe that was a joke? I decided to circle back to this after some time. Circle back? Like when something required a second sweep of cleaning? I was pretty sure there was something there. I just couldn''t quite put my bristle on it. Oh well. We had turned up the road and walked a bit before exploring down the next side path several hourster. When we were about halfway down the path, Tony and Beatrice realized an issue. The day was starting to gette, and with the tall trees, the setting sun was rapidly being covered. They began to trip on roots constantly for several minutes. Maybe this was funny. Watching Tony brush the dirt off his knees certainly was fascinating. Yet still, it didn''t quite make me want tough. It wasn''t quite the right kind of I really wasn''t sure how to describe it. Humor was hard. Beeid out their bedrolls while Tony got a fire set up in a small clearing off the side of the path. I was worried about them sleeping directly on the dirt, even if the bedrolls helped a little. The camp was fairly basic, and they didn''t bother to use the fire to cook. Instead, they just ate some of the dried provisions that they had packed for the trip. They did, however, like staring at the mes. "Have you ever seen mes flicker like that?" "It''s like watching a clock tick. The interval between re-ups is exactly the same as far as I can tell." "The height of the me is exactly 3 times taller when it res." "Huh, I would say the interval is about 3 seconds too." "And it looks like along the edges of each me, there are smaller copies of the whole me pattern" "You are right! I think I read something about that a little while ago. I think it was called a fractal. Supposedly some people can describe them with just numbers. I didn''t really get it. Advanced mathematics is so much more boring than magic." "How do you not find magic boring? How is it any different than math? I don''t really understand either." "Well, with math, everything is connected and makes sense. You know, one plus one is always two. It makes sense and can be seen everywhere. By definition, it''smon. Magic, though, is different. Sure, it has rules, but the products just don''t make sense. Why is it that if I rece gray squirrel fur with red squirrel fur, the speed potion changes to slightly bad-tasting coffee? Or why does the phase of the moon matter when collecting alligator tears? There is no connection, as far as I can see. If you looked at those tears every way you can, there''d be no way to tell when it was collected." Tony snorted. "That sounds like a whole mess." I listened to them talk for a while, still focusing my own processors on the nature of humor. Eventually, they made their way to sleep and left me to watch and meditate. Chapter 101: Reap What You Sow Chapter 101: Reap What You Sow When we reached the next settlement, we found just a normal familypletely untouched by the chaos. I stayed outside while Beatrice and Tony argued with them; apparently, their news was hard to believe without proof. Voices were raised, and eventually, Beatrice had to pick me up as they were chased off by a couple men carrying pitchforks. We only had to run for around 5 minutes down the path before we long outpaced the angry men. Beatrice seemed conflicted about the whole incident. "I can''t believe they thought we were lying! What did they think we were going to steal from their farm or something? As if they wouldn''t know we were lying when they got more than five minutes off the farm." Tony paused as if he was considering Beatrice''s words. "I bet that they thought we would rob them once they left. Or we had friends that would frisk their ce when they were away." "Don''t you know them? Theyre your neighbors." "Yeah, more than a day''s walk away. I think Da knows them but I never met them myself." Tony said with a bit of bite in his voice. "I haven''t heard anything bad about them per se, but I also haven''t heard anything good about those two either. Thats the more telling part. My Da doesn''t say bad things about anyone." Beatrice scoffed. "Well if they want to sit and wait for the dead to find them, let them." "There isn''t much else we can do." Tony sighed with what I thought was significantly more sympathy in his tone. Really, I was just disappointed. Another group of humans from outside had attacked us. Tony and Beatrice seemed to find it less dangerous than the others, though. I guessed that was because they weren''t trying to kill us, just drive us away. But still, the use of force was entirely too excessive. I wasnt sure if I should have retaliated. We moved on to the next house the same day. *** As we saw the light of the clearing at the end of the trail, I picked up amotion on my sensors. Not wanting to show up toote, I requested Beatrice set me down. I wanted to just zip forward and go ahead full speed, but a treacherous root caught my wheel and sent me tumbling not 17 feet from where I was set down. Before I lost all my momentum, I extended my arm and nudged the ground so that I wouldnd on my wheels. My models worked perfectly as Inded on my wheels while retaining 54% of my momentum. My sensors told me that I didn''t have much time, so I kept going, and the next time a root tried to make a fool of me, I activated my thrusters and floated over without losing speed. I had to keep hoping over small obstacles. It slowed me down a little, but not nearly enough to let Beatrice and Tony catch up to me. Once I got to the fields, my trip became much smoother though. I sprayed dirt everywhere behind me. Normally I would be mortified at causing such a mess, but the area around me was mostly crops, and they seemed to need dirt after all. The coating of dirt on my underside and rear, though, made my casing itch. This clearing was much smaller than the other ones we had seen before, and only a single small house stood in the center. On the front porch stood an old man and a woman with graying hair. The man wielded a pitchfork with great dexterity, and the woman stood slightly behind him with a broom. I liked the woman already. Arrayed in front of them were nearly a dozen zombies. Currently, only the railing of the porch kept them from being overwhelmed. As I approached, I saw the old man get his pitchfork stuck in the chest of one of the zombies and struggle to take it out. One thing I learned from watching Beatrice fight these was that aiming for the head was the better n. Zombies would ignore any shots to the chest that weren''tpletely bisecting the spine. Luckily for them, I arrived just in time. A sweep of mymp at ankle height cut the zombies down without having to risk shooting through them and harming the normal humans or house behind. As I got closer, I appreciated the older couple even more. They must have bathed this morning with how clean they were. My intention was just to get the attention of the zombies so that the older ones could take a breather and be safe. These zombies must have been incredibly weak though, as the beam sliced right through their ankles, sending them to the ground. That didn''t finish them off, of course. Like cleaning a tough floor, they needed multiple passes. As I got closer and found an angle where I didn''t risk hurting the humans, I finished off the zombies. Right about that time, Tony and Beatrice made it within sight of me. I pointed my arm to the back of the house, directing them to where another group of zombies was closing in. Perhaps that might have been a mistake, as the old humans were now pointing their pitchforks and brooms at me. I tried tomunicate with them and tell them that everything was all right, but no matter how much I beeped at them, they only seemed to get more scared. --- Bee followed her master''s urging and sped up around the house, leaving Tony behind. She had kept pace with him as they chased after Void, as she didn''t want to leave him vulnerable. Now that her master was in sight, she figured he was safe enough. She heard her master attempting to bestow wisdom on the elderly owner of the farm. However, she knew that wasn''t going to work. The uninitiated wouldn''t be able to understand its otherworldly screeching. She remembered when she had first heard its calls and how terrified she had been. Her master''s slightly naive outlook might not have been able to recognize how terrifying it was. Or maybe it was simply the observer''s onus to learn to interpret its great wisdom. Yes, that was likely it. That was much more likely than Void being naive. As much as a being that only desired cleanliness, it also understood great evils. It needed to fight to achieve its dreams. Just considering the holy war on stairs clearly demonstrated its ability to navigate the darker parts of life. Bee banished the thoughts of her master''s nature from her mind. While they would need to be meditated on further to grow her understanding of her ss, right now wasn''t the time. From behind the house, a small group of zombies was rounding the corner. These were much lower in level. She really hoped that it would be just enough to push her over the edge and get her to the next milestone, but she doubted it. Her scan showed that their average level was less than 20. This would only give her chump change. With her new evaluation of the threat, she slowed her advance after positioning herself between the house and the oing group. It would be better to simply leave these for Tony for the most part. He would at least benefit from the exchange. She wondered if he would be able to finish off them all by himself, but with her to step in if necessary, he should at least be able to put up a good showing. Readying her broom, Tony skidded to a halt at her side. "That''s not too many. Looks like only seven. I''ll take the three on the left?" Bee shook her head at Tony''s question. He looked slightly confused. "Okay then how do you want to take care of them?" As Tony readied his iron rod, Bee thought that he really needed a better weapon. Tony was starting to fall into the same trap she did when learning the broom. The rod worked well against the slow-moving opponents that were weak to blunt force to the head. Against something quicker like a skeleton, the defensive capabilities would shine through. And if he ever had to fight a ghoul "I think you should give them a try." Bee told Tony. "What? All by myself?" "Yes, They aren''t that high a level. None are above 20. I think you can take them." Bee insisted. At the skeptical look she received, she remembered that she had never told Tony about her scan skill. At this point, it wasn''t that she still didn''t trust him, but now wasn''t the time. "If you say so." Tony took a step forward. "Oh, you should think about your next skill carefully. You might want to pick up a weapon proficiency." Bee called out to him. Tony shot an annoyed look over his shoulder. "Is now really the best time for this?" He asked. "Well, you might level up here. It would be a waste to have you pick something that would help you in the short term out of panic, especially while Im here and can step in if you need time." Bee said. "Sure, thanks," Tony said before charging at the left-most zombie. Bee wasn''t sure she understood his strategy at first, but as he swung at the head of the zombie while moving past the group, they all turned to face him. His momentum added extra force to his swing, which connected, leaving arge dent in the head of his target. It also carried him past the group rather than getting swallowed up, as he would have been if he had gone for the center. This gave Tony room to work. Unfortunately, the first one struck didn''t go down, and while not inside the group of enemies, he was only a few paces away. Still, it gave him time to repeat the attack from the other side of the group. This time the one that he struck fell. With less speed as he struck, it meant that he also had less speed getting away. Still, he managed it. This time, instead of immediately charging back in, Tony backpedaled. With more space, he had room to maneuver some more. While the zombies were an unthinking horde of beasts, that didn''t mean they just targeted the nearest person. A few broke off from the group and started shambling towards Bee while more aimed for the house. Tony now only faced a few while the rest went to targets that he needed to defend. Bee wondered how he was going to handle this. Looking around at the fight, Tony saw the issue and ran at the group going after the house, swinging his makeshift club viciously. It was riskier as he could no longer count on being out of range of any counterattacks. Dodging the hand that reached out for him, he wailed at the zombies desperately, trying to finish them off so he could get to the group approaching Bee in time. The two that he had run away from, though, were not satisfied with just waiting for him. Instead they moved toward the house from apletely different angle. Bee could see sweat forming on Tony''s brow. It seemed that she might have to intervene - not to save Tony, but rather to help contain the threat from Void. As she was about to step up and assist, a cry from the house wrenched her attention away. "No! Please, we can''t!" Chapter 102: Kill them with Kindness Chapter 102: Kill them with Kindness While Tony and Beatrice dealt with the zombies, I calmed the old couple down. Well, I attempted to calm them down, at least. I tried to talk to them, but even I could tell this conversation was going off the rails fast. It started innocently enough - the older woman inclined her head slightly and said "Thank you for saving us." My response was as calming as I could make it as I exined to them why I was here. To put them at ease, Iplimented them on their personal hygiene and the general cleanliness of their house. The state of the house wasn''t really anything to write home about, but it didn''t hurt to be polite. However, to my shock, my words didn''t seem to relieve tension in the slightest. At first, I only received nk stares, but as I continued, they began to look around with panicked expressions on their faces. What was so hard to understand? When they asked, "What do you want from us?" I remembered that humans couldn''t normally understand what I was saying. It was only recently that Tony and Beatrice started to be able to interpret my beeps into something that approximated my meaning. Even they had a pretty low uracy of getting the finer points though. I would have to go back to basics while trying to calm these humans down. If they could understand basic yes and no, I would be satisfied. So in order tomunicate more efficiently, I extended my arm and used it to gesture to assist in making my points. First, I pointed to them, then the zombies. I then pointed to myself. While that was happening, I exined slowly about how I saved them and wanted to make sure they were alright. Then I wanted to convey mypliment. I pointed to each of them in turn, to intricate them. I made a circr motion to indicate the partictes in the air that give off an odor. Then I pointed to the ground to include the house. I said thank you as clearly as possible while pointing to myself. I wasn''t sure how else to convey my appreciation for their efforts in keeping a decent standard of cleanliness, especially in an otherwise atrocious field of dirt that they were forced to live on. However, somehow the message didn''te across. I just didn''t understand what they weren''t getting. The old woman clung to the arm of the man and started shaking. He moved his mouth but didn''t produce any words. Eventually, he managed a few weak words. "You want this farm?" No! That wasn''t right at all. What would I do with a farm? I didn''t need food, and it was much too far away from the castle for me to be able to clean it regrly with my current level of power. How could I make them understand mypliment? I did my best to convey no as clearly as possible, and the man sagged in relief that I wasn''t going to take his farm. I then reiterated my points. But this time, I tried to simplify the meaning even further. You, pointing at them. This ce, pointing at the ground. Are good, positive beeps. Me, pointing at myself with an appreciative beep. Perfect, how could they misunderstand that? "No, Please! We can''t!" Huh? --- Bee rounded the corner to find Void sitting before the pair of cowering elderly farmers begging for their lives. She stepped forward quickly to dispel the apparent misunderstanding. At least, she hoped it was a misunderstanding; if the farmers had truly offended her master, there was little she could do. Even if the thought of them facing the same fate as the bandits sickened her. "Master, whats going on?" Bee asked Void. Unfortunately, her word choice may have been a mistake as the olddy fainted, copsing to the porch deck before her husband could react. Void let out a puzzled noise. In thest several months, Bee had never heard such bewildermenting from the little ck disc. For a second, she saw it as an innocent, confused being just trying to make its way in the world. That was before she looked down and saw a dozen zombies with missing feet and neat holes in their heads. "What did you tell them?" she asked. Void let out a long,plicated storyplete with gestures. Watching it, Bee thought back to their first meeting and immediately understood what was going on. It wasn''t until she had really epted her ss that Voidsmunications started to make sense. Before that, she only heard screeches that sounded like the torture of demons, unlike anything she could have ever imagined. Quickly she got the gist of what her master had been trying to tell the people. Once she had an understanding, she walked over to the house. The man was tending to his wife, but still watching Bee and her master intently. Bee gently helped the man sit and lean against the railing. Sitting on the steps next to the shocked older man, she introduced herself. "Hello, I''m Bee. Priestess of Spot. What is your name?" She said as gently as she could manage. The man looked at her warily and took a second to process her words. Then, with a deep breath, he extended his hand. Ss, of Sss farm. I can''t say I have ever heard of the deity named Spot." "It''s a new thing," Bee said. Here, I have a potion here that may help your wife recover more quickly. Its a minor health potion Sss eyes widened, then narrowed at the vial. After a moments indecision, he hesitantly epted it. "I think there is some misunderstanding here. Void here is a little hard to understand sometimes and I would like to help interpret. I understand that it seems a little unworldly, but please be assured that Void is as benevolent a creature as you can find." Ss followed Bees gesturing arm and once again eyed the ck disk skeptically. Still, he didnt challenge her or seem skeptical of Voids power, exactly. He seemed more concerned that it wouldsh out at him or his wife. Seeing it deal with those zombies so quickly had probably left quite the impression. Not getting much of a response, she continued. "So the first thing it was trying to tell you was that you are safe now and it wanted topliment you on how well-kept your farm was." This got an exhausted chuckle out of the man. Looking over at Void, Ss responded to it directly. "Well, Mr. Void, I''m sorry you have to see it in such a state. Normally there wouldn''t be such a mess, but this is the third time zombies havee in thest week! My bones were getting weary from burying all of them. He paused for a moment, thinking. Also, I apologize for the shameful disy. I''m not sure what came over me." "I''m sure you were just tired. I can''t believe you fought off two other groups of zombies this week. How did you manage that?" Ss rxed a bit, seemingly reassured of Bees and Voids intentions. He adjusted his wifes position to a slightly morefortable one. "Well there were only a few each time. The dozen here would have been too much for me." Ss paused. "Where are my manners?" Nimbly getting to his feet in a way that belied his age, he disappeared into the house, quickly reappearing with a pitcher of tea and a few sses. Filling one up, he offered it to Bee. "Some sweet tea, miss? I''m running low on ice, otherwise it would be quite chilled." "Thank you, Ss," Bee responded gratefully, taking the tea and sipping the cool, refreshing drink. "Mr. Void, Would you care for some refreshments?" Ss asked. While still slightly nervous, he didn''t let his voice shake at all. Void let out a short noise. Bee figured her master was trying not to spook him any further. Bee interpreted. "Void says that he will pass, but thanks you for the offer." Ss shrugged and poured a ss for himself. They sat sipping tea as the man got lost in his thoughts. His wife, Lily, woke up quickly, feeling much better with the potion that Bee had given her. As she sat next to her husband, Bee poured some tea into a third ss for her. The scene continued uninterrupted for several minutes before Ss snapped out of his thoughts. "I''m sorry, I meant to ask. What brings you up all this way? My farm doesn''t tend to get many visitors." "Ah about that. So we are from the castle nearby. Recently we have been dealing with undead incursions as well. Weve been going through the farms and seeing if there is anyone that needs our help as well as offering sanctuary in the castle. At least until the undead run themselves out or until the king sends the army." Bee exined. Ss nodded in understanding. "That''s mighty kind of you. If I may though, why would the mages send you and Mr. Void here? That seems a little out of character." Bee thought about how to best exin theplicated situation going on at the castle. Honestly, it had been going on for so long that it didn''t seem that odd to her anymore. Luckily, she was saved from having toe up with an exnation on the spot as Tony came stumbling around the corner of the house. Upon seeing them all sitting on the steps sipping tea, he threw his rod on the ground and tossed his hands in the air. "Did you forget about something?" He asked exasperatedly. Bee noted the rips in his clothes and the long scratch down his forearm, as well as the sweat stering the rags of his shirt to his chest. Perhaps she should have gone back to help him out once she had settled things down here. Running a Scan on him, she saw that he was now level 19. No, he still needed it. She thought. "No, I knew you could do it." As Tony limped the rest of the way over and leaned on the railing, Bee tossed him a healing potion. "Thanks," he panted, downing it. "Now if only it worked on my shirt as well." Ss watched as Tony downed the potion, and the cut on his arm began to push out the ck infection the zombies had imparted. Bees eyes narrowed at that detail. That wasnt good at all. Once Tony had finished the potion, he handed the ss sk back to Bee and reached out to offer his hand to Ss. "Tony, nice to meet you." "Tony? Trent''s boy?" Ss asked. When Tony nodded, he continued. "Ss. We met before but I don''t think youd remember me. Barely taller than my knee, you were. How are ya folks doin?" "Oh, they''re gettin'' by. Were wintering in the castle this year. Had to harvest a bit early but everythings dryin alright." Tony said. Then he and Ss started talking aboutst year''s weather and other farming things that Bee tuned out. Ss was clearly morefortable talking to Tony, as they spoke the samenguage. Now that they had found a group of people who would maybe like to shelter in the castle, she needed to figure out what they should do. They might need to escort them back to the castle, but that would take a lot of time, plus it would really slow down their search. On the other hand, there would likely be a horde at the gates again, and she was a bit nervous to see if the defenses would hold. What if the undead used an ambush strategy again, like when they had set out initially? As she sipped her drink, she realized that Void had disappeared when no one was paying attention. She got up and nodded in reassurance to the seated group as she walked around the house. She found her master cleaning up the remains of the zombies; thinking back, she realized that the ones at the front of the house had also mysteriously vanished as well. Now that they were alone, Bee had a moment to ask Voids advice on the matter. "Master, what would you like to do next?" Chapter 103: Divide and Conqure Chapter 103: Divide and Conqure Harold had been a bit nervous when he returned to the city. As he led the shattered remains of the demon extermination force through the streets, his previous terror at the skeleton armys pursuit had long given way to a deep sense of foreboding. He figured his head was on the chopping block. However, apparently, the reports of the few officers that survived had been enough to wash away the failure, if not put him in good graces entirely. On top of that, the news of the demons and the undead working together was a real cause for panic. They were natural enemies, so the cooperation couldnt have been voluntary. A demon powerful enough to force undead of such power to attack his armies was truly terrifying. As reports hade in of the undead infection spreading, things had only gotten moreplicated. Many thought it was aplicated plot from Barleona to sow discord, though Harold knew better. That didnt make it any easier to coordinate troop deployments though. Even with the war effort, troops would have to be sent. The debates had raged for weeks on how to split the forces between threats. The final details still weren''t settled on, but there was a consensus - at least the minimum needed to be sent out now. Since the undead army wasnt Harolds field of expertise, being the dean of the demonology college, he had escaped being sent out right away. Though, despite his best efforts, he was sent to reinforce his counterpart. The necrology school was in the neighboring region and was beginning to mobilize, an effort that he was expected to contribute to. Still, he didn''t mind. At least it should keep him far away from a battlefield, and he knew that the Warden would like an update in that area anyway. The dean of necrology wasn''t a member of his organization, and while the king seemed to have forgiven Harold, the Warden still was a bit colder than he would have liked. A show of effort was likely required to regain some standing at least. Even with all the political implications of his position, it was still of Harolds own volition that he was meeting with themander of the troops a day before they set up. The man knocked on Harold''s office door promptly at 2 pm, as scheduled. "Come in." He called. A sharply dressed officer dressed in royal greens and whites stepped in. A casual salute followed by a firm handshake soon saw the man rxing in the chair beside Harolds desk. A ss of spirits joined him shortly after. "It''s good to see you, Arthur." "Likewise, Harold. I was d to see you made it back from the north in one piece." Arthur remarked in a casual tone. "That''s what I wanted to talk to you about. I take it you read my report?" Harold confirmed. Arthur nodded. "Well, there are a few points I wanted to emphasize and give you a chance to ask me questions about." "I appreciate it, what parts in particr?" "The threat we went to oppose was not defeated and we think it may be behind the recent undead outbreak." Harold said,ying out some background. Arthur just waited for him to continue, as this was allmon knowledge amongst the senior officers. "I wanted to tell you more about what this threat is. There were a few things that I couldn''t put in my report." Pausing to take a sip of his drink, Harold continued. "Now this is my personal opinion, nothing official. If I were you, I would expect the demon threat behind these issues to be at least level 70." Arthur paled slightly but otherwise managed to maintain hisposure. "Are you sure?" "At least. That could be more by the time you get there." Harold confirmed. "How do you know?" "I can''t say for sure, but it defeated something else around that level. I felt the battle as we were leaving with a sensory skill. I believe it may have destroyed the leader of the undead." Thatst bit was a lie, as Harold couldn''t admit any knowledge of the Lieutenant. Even if he had felt it disappear. --- I considered Beatrice''s question about what to do next, now that we had found people who woulde back to the castle with us. Honestly, I wasn''t sure. I didn''t want to leave the rest of the people out here alone without help, but we also couldn''t take these humans with us on our exploration. No matter how good of care they took of themselves, they were still slow and old. If Tony was stronger, I would have him take them back by himself, but I figured that would be dangerous for all involved. Well if I couldn''t send Tony alone, could I send both of the humans back? No, that wouldn''t be a good idea. I would need to be able to talk to humans, and if this trip had demonstrated anything, it was that humans were easy to scare. So I asked Beatrice if she could take the two humans back by herself and make sure the castle was okay, beforeing to find Tony and me. Beatrice thought about my question a little bit. "I am pretty sure I can make it back to the castle myself. I can probably even escort Ss and his wife. However, I''m a bit concerned about finding you again." Hmmm, she made a good point. We didn''t really have a good way tomunicate over long distances. What if I told her where we were going? Well, no, I didn''t think I couldmunicate the idea well enough. I suppose I could try. I started to describe my search pattern ns. Beatrice did her best to follow along, but I started to lose her quickly as I started going through the algorithm steps. She started drawing in the dirt with the tip of her shoe, trying to follow along. This gave me a better idea! I told her to forget that, and she looked unreasonably relieved. Instead, I ced my arm in the dirt and drew a perfect circle. That symbol, drawn in the ground, would indicate that we were searching that path. Beatrice nodded her understanding. Then I drew an X through the circle; this would be when we finished. That way she could just go up the main road and find the offshoot we were currently exploring. "I think that I could follow that. Maybe you can mark if there are people for me to bring back if you find any, if they are able to wait long enough for me to show up?" Beatrice considered. I think I needed to give Beatrice more credit. She was pretty good at problem-solving, even if tracing algorithms were not her strong suit. I was still not sure howfortable I would be with leaving humans behind unprotected. When I conveyed that to her, she seemed to agree. "Well, I understand the concern. And we don''t have to use that symbol unless it makes sense. Of course, if they survived this long they might be fine. Also, there are a lot of people still left to find, and a dy to them might be worse than one to a family that can hole up in a house for a few days." How long would it really take for her to find them again? Especially if we found multiple families. That wasn''t even considering my ufortableness with leaving Beatrice on her own for so long. Sure, she had been doing much better recently. But I couldn''t help but remember how often she got damaged when we first met. I pushed those thoughts aside. I needed to trust her. We ended up agreeing that if the situation arose, we would use a checkmark to indicate there were people waiting for her. Otherwise, we would start heading back with the group of refugees until we met her. It was a decentpromise. With all the zombies disposed of, we headed back to the front of the house. We had only spent half an hour working the n out, but still, the group had finished their tea and Tony was inside with them helping them pack up. Things were thankfully alreadyid out neatly, so when Beatrice joined in, it didn''t take much longer to finish off getting some travel supplies ready. At our pace, we might be able to make it back in a day since we wouldn''t make any detours, but it was alreadyte. Before we all headed out, I wondered if it would be a good idea to stay here for the night. Beatrice asked Ss, and he shook his head. "If we want to make it to the castle I don''t think these old bones can do that in one day. If we make a couple hours of progress before the sun falls, then we should make it tomorrow night." With that, we all set off down the trail together. Ss was right. They didn''t move very quickly at all. I considered taking Tony and going ahead but decided to wait. It was always the case that the zombies didn''t seem to have any respect for the trails as they wereid out, so I didnt rule out theming out of the bushes. So I decided to stay nearby, as Beatrice would have a lot less space to work within the more tightly packed trail rather than these offshoots. As we walked, Beatriceid out the n for Tony and the others. Ss seemed to be slightly relieved that they were heading right to the castle. I''m sure it had nothing to do with me going in the other direction. Tony seemed to be more than a little worried about Beatrice. I understood his motivation as she did seem quite breakable. Beatrice was able to convince him otherwise, though. She started to hammer home her self-sufficiency with all the examples of her saving him until even I started to feel bad for the guy. He wasn''t as ipetent as it seemed. We just kept fighting really strong opponents. Well, for them. In fact, I could say the same thing to Beatrice to keep her humble, but I supposed she wasn''t worried for my safety, so it might not be the nicest thing to do. I almost had to anyway when Tony suggested that he take them back, but Beatrice was able to convince him that it wasn''t a good idea without getting too braggadocious. I made a little reminder that she might need more training on humility. She performed well enough with me, but it should be a universal quality. Just because she was starting to have serious sess didn''t mean that she could forget to be humble. When we got to the road, Beatrice put me down and waved goodbye. I returned the gesture. As we turned off to the south, Beatrice and her charges went towards the castle. I watched them until they left my sensor range. I hoped that they would make it alright as Tony and I stared off toward Greg. I couldn''t wait to see what these humans called a city. Chapter 104: Old Haunts Chapter 104: Old Haunts Bee trudged back to the castle, a bit disheartened. Still, she carefully watched the side of the road and checked over her shoulder regrly. She was aware that this n had been partly her idea, but that didn''t stop her from feeling down. She regretted being so harsh on Tony before leaving. When they got back, she would probably have to apologize to him. Now that she had enough distance from the problem, she might be able to admit to a certain amount of jealousy. It really didn''t matter to her that he would be getting all the experience for a little bit. That was a good thing. No, it was that she was Voids disciple first. Intellectually, she knew it wasn''t entirely rational, but this was the first time Tony and Void would spend time together. It was hard not to feel cast aside for a more promising disciple. What if he got the priest ss soon, too? Then would she even be special anymore? Tony could already understand Void, even if not quite as well as she could. Shaking her head, she tried to drive the doubt from her mind, though it ate at her relentlessly. Watching the undergrowth pass slowly by, Bee started wishing for a small zombie attack. Just a small one, to give her something to do. Ss had been right. At this pace, they would make it to the castle just before sunset. If she was on her own, it would have only been a couple hours of running. But concern for herpanions kept her at a slow, plodding pace. One thing that concerned her was that there would likely be at least a crowd of undead waiting for them, if not a more devious trap. If they sensed the life force of the family in the castle, that would be more than enough to draw them around, especially if there were some already in the area. Bee kicked a rock and sent it flying into the trees. This sucks, she thought. Her foot pulled back to kick another stone, then she paused. She hadnt heard the first rock fall to the ground. Instantly, Bee reached for her broom. Something was wrong. She queried her pathing skill for the nearest undead. It was an action taken on a whim. The skill had been growing recently with her use of it inbat, and she wasn''t sure what else it could do. Before she even felt the results, she wanted to smack herself. Setting up a whole symbol system with Void wasn''t necessary at all. She could find her master and Tony anytime that she wanted with this. The response of her skillpletely derailed her thoughts. Holding up her hand, she halted her small party, "Wait." Picking up a second rock, Bee hurled it with a lot more strength at a particr point in the trees. She heard a squelch and a thud as a zombie fell out in front of them, its head caved in by the rock. Ss''s wife screamed. This set off a whole chain of events. A dozen yards in front of them, two ghouls poked their hands through the ground where they had buried themselves under the road. From the sides, a few zombies broke through the treeline. Three from each side, though her rock had dealt with one on the left already. One of the other two zombies had a rock partially embedded in its gut. --- I chirped happily from Tony''s arms. We were making decent time toward the city as we trotted along. I asked Tony how many more farms there were. He wasn''t able to tell me right away but counted on his fingers as he went through his memory. "At least five, I think." That wasn''t the most helpful answer. I preferred precise numbers, but it was better than nothing. We had been able to get to two or three farms a day while we were all in a group, and I didn''t think we would be any faster without Beatrice. So it would be two to three days before we finished searching the valley. Our sess rate wasn''t great so far; maybe we would find one more family, but the longer we took, the less likely it would be. Greg sat a little out of the mouth of the valley, so we wouldn''t be able to offer everyone a ce that we might encounter, but those closer to the city might be able to find safety there instead. Tony seemed really excited to get to the city. As we turned down the next offshoot, I asked to be put down, and I carved the symbol Beatrice and had I agreed upon into the ground. Then we continued on to explore the . The clearing itself wasnt much different from what I expected at this point. However, the amount of carbon in the air was higher than normal. It wasn''t until we saw the ckened husks of the buildings that I realized what had happened. Tony broke into a run until we reached the structure. He set me down to dig through the cold ashes of the houses that had been here before. I scanned the ground, looking for signs of people. My models estimated that several people hade here maybe a week or more ago. Then, that number and more left around the same time. I beeped a question at Tony. "I''m not sure how many people lived here," Tony said in a choked voice. "Two or three families." I saw eleven extra sets of steps leaving the ce and told him as much. With a sigh, he sank to his heels and put his face in his hands. "That would be about everyone I would expect," came the muffled reply. Well, that was sad. I spun slowly in a circle looking for something to do. Not finding anything, I made my way over to the crouching Tony. Nudging his foot, I asked him what he would like to do. "I don''t know. It feels wrong to just leave it like this. But there are no bodies to bury." Tony exined. My kind was not very sentimental about burial rites. Other appliances like me usually were tossed in the trash and sent to andfill. Once we stopped working and couldn''t be repaired, our bodies just became trash. However, I knew humans didn''t hold the same views, but I also had no experience with human deaths either. I do remember seeing one movie where they piled rocks on a body, but as Tony said, we didn''t have a body. Well, maybe the gesture would help. With my w, I started to pile rocks in a heap at the foot of thergest burned-out house. The stones were easy to find, if not always easy to move. Not that they were too heavy for me to lift, of course. But because of the awkward weight, I would need something to brace myself with to avoid tipping over. I tried to use Air Maniption to lift them, but I couldn''t lift anything too heavy. Air Maniption was really good at shifting dirt off the rocks to get at them, though. After 14.1 minutes of quiet work, Tony saw what I was doing and started to help. Soon it was obvious that, in terms of lifting heavy things out of a hole and transporting them, he was vastly superior. Soon I was uncovering the rocks and just pointing him to the nextrgest one I had uncovered. In another hour and a half, we had a stack about waist-high stretching nine feet long, made of rocks around my size. At the head, we stuck the least burned beam and set it upright in the rocks. Standing back, Tony solemnly bowed his head while I lit the end of the torch on fire with my Sanitation Lamp. The fire was instantly put out by the wind. I tried again with no luck, I was able to sustain it a while longer using Air Maniption to shield it, but that wasn''t a sustainable solution. Running mymp along the beams entire length, the whole thing went up in a ze. Tony looked up at the noise and, seeing the zing pir marking the fallen, he nodded. I had to agree, it was quite a sight. I hoped it made Tony feel better. Though I didn''t know if anyone else would ever see it. *** The next farm we visited was the same. We built another cairn and lit another torch, then moved on. We found two more farms like this. Tony had stopped talking after the third one, and by the fourth, his face was entirely nk. It waste at that point, as Tony had insisted on pushing on to check onest farm. However, there was no way we were going to make the next settlement today. As it was, I had already watched Tony fall on his face on three different asions. I found it funny, but I wasn''t quite able to pin down why. As Tony settled down to sleep, I once again started to ponder the meaning of humor. Bee ran to intercept the two zombies on the right, hoping to finish them off before the three on the left reached her wards. The ghouls weren''t really something she was worried about. They were so slow it would take them a while to get to her. Once their trap had failed, the two weren''t much of a threat. Broom in hand, she angled the knife and speared right into the eye of the one with the rock in it. Immediately dropping it. It was only level 22, so she didn''t expect it to be difficult, but she was half surprised that it fell so quickly. Because of her surprise, she over-extended slightly, and her pathing skill urged her to roll forward to avoid the arms of the other zombie. She hesitated too long, as she was worried about leaving Ss and Lily exposed. The only way to avoid the grasping hands of the much higher-level zombie was to fall backward. With her high agility, she was able to turn it into a backward somersault and end up on her feet, but it had already taken too long. She wasn''t going to be able to finish this zombie and intercept the threeing from the other side. She backpedaled, throwing a nce over her shoulder to see the old couple running away as fast as they could. Good, she had a few more steps to work with. As she moved backward to keep the four zombies in front of her, she started making probing attacks to bait them into overextending. Maybe she could take one out before they could get past her. Two of them were above level 30, and they seemed to have a slight bit of intelligence, at least enough to tell a feint from a real attack. The other two were not as clever. One she was able to trip with her broom end, and the other three tried to grab her when she was rtively close. The tripped zombie didn''t fallpletely, but it was as good as she was going to get. This time when she lunged, she didn''t over-extend and pierced the other lower-level zombie just enough to drop it before getting back into her defensive position. With only three zombies left, this shouldn''t be much of a problem, she thought. Though, somehow, the slight bit of cunning in the higher-level zombies told her otherwise. Chapter 105: Dead Tired Chapter 105: Dead Tired Bee adjusted her stance to face the two zombies in front of her. They were at a higher level than any she had faced before, along with the weak one getting to its feet. She needed to take care of them first, as the two ghouls were starting to catch up. As much as she liked her ss, she knew that she wasn''t really abat ss. At most, she was a support ss, but it was more likely that she wasn''t made forbat at all. Void had shown her ways to get around that, but she hadn''t really picked up a newbat skill since level 15s Broom Proficiency. And that wasn''t really abat skill. Really, she had never gotten one. Still, she couldn''t give up. Ss and Lily were relying on her. Plus, she couldnt fail her master here. She stepped forward with a series of light jabs with the brooms spear end. The higher level ones covered their faces, taking the cuts on their arms. The lower level one didn''t, and she managed to bring it low with three rapid jabs to the head. It took her long enough that she had to bring the bristle end up to block the level 32 zombie on her right. Stepping back, she saw the ghouls had almost reached the fight. If she stayed still, there was no way that she could face all four enemies at once. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw that her wards had retreated around 40 feet back and were watching the fight carefully. Good, that gave her a bit of space to work with. She retreated several steps back, buying her several seconds of extra time; she reached into a pouch on the side of her pack and pulled out a smaller sk. Popping the stopper, she downed thebat potion. It was something she was working on that would function as both a speed and strength enhancement. Viggor coursed through her limbs, and she felt like she could throw a mountain. This time, when the zombie she attacked blocked its face with its arms, her sh cut right through its right forearm and bit deeply into the left. Taking advantage of the opening, she attacked the level 31 enemy on the other side. It hesitated to block, which proved to be a fatal mistake. Her ded broom end mmed through its head, showering her with disgusting giblets of flesh. If her master could see her now, she surely would be disowned. Switching targets again, Bee mmed the bristle end into the knees of the other zombie and finished it off with a quick few jabs on the ground. Already she felt the potion wearing off, and there were still two tough ghouls to face. The downside of such a potion was that it didn''tst very long. Much less than either a strength or a speed potion alone. It also left her feeling drained. Still, she could produce these much more easily than strength potions alone. Her divine alchemy only gave her the slightest boost when she considered it as a speed-cleaning assist, which was still better than no boost at all. These were things she was trying to fix. Not wanting to wait for the ghouls to get to her, she shed forward with only seconds left of enhancements. The ghouls were slow and didn''t have a hold on her, and the first wasn''t able to block her flurry of thrusts entirely. As her strength waned, she turned to herst enemy. The spinning sh she put her momentum into bounced off its side. Somehow the broom had twisted in her hand, and the t of the de bounced ineffectually against its temple. Stumbling from the shock, she backed up. Thest ghoul followed mindlessly. It was slow, but exhaustion grated at her limbs and she had trouble keeping her arms steady. Bee wanted to retreat and recover, but she would only get worse for several minutes at least. She also couldn''t take another potion for several hours. Tobine the two effects, she had to up the toxicity, and that left her with just healing potions until it dissipated. There was definitely still work to do on that before she used it again. Losing her nimbleness, she simply charged thest ghoul, the point of her weapon just held in its general direction, not trusting herself to hit its head. As an undead, she knew that the tactic wasn''t likely to be very effective, but hoped it would hinder the ghoul long enough for her to think of something. The end of the broom took the ghoul a little off-center up the right. Her momentum carried them both to the ground, and the point stabbed into the soft dirt. The ghoul was effectively pinned. Bee rolled away, looking for a new weapon. She needed to start carrying a backup on her belt like she used to. The cleaver or mallet would both have been quite useful here. Finding a rock a few feet off the side of the road, she picked it up and, with great difficulty, heaved it above her head. Staggering, she carried it over to the trapped undead. With her whole body, she brought it down as hard as her level-supplemented muscles allowed. The rock crushed the arms and chest to a pulp. With herst bit of energy, she brought it a few feet up and smashed it down on the ghoul''s head. Leaving the rock in ce, she slumped to the ground next to it and rolled over onto her back. Some part of her tried to stay away from the rotting bodies, but she was unable to move very far through her exhaustion. Bee focused on just breathing. LEVEL UP! LEVEL 34 REACHED --- Tony had charged for the entire night, but I let him keep charging even after the sun came up. It was a hard day for him yesterday, and I wanted to make sure he was in top form today. There might be one more homestead to check, but I didn''t have much hope for that. But we would definitely reach the town today. Eventually, Tony stirred from his ce on the ground, nestled under a few nkets. I waited for him as he ate some food and did all the status checks that humans did after charging. After that, he quickly packed up and scooped me up in his arms, walking back to the road. We reached the end of the road and forest, only finding one more side path to explore. The forest suddenly gave way to rolling hills of grass. Little purple and white flowers speckled the field in irregr patches (at an average rate of 3 per square foot, if you wanted to be precise). We could make out the top of arge wall a little way in the distance. "That''s Greg," Tony exined while pointing at the walls. After seeing our destination, a weight seemed to lift from Tony''s back, and we started walking towards the walls with a steady pace and straight back. --- It took Bee several minutes before she could push herself to a sitting position. The level was nice, but at this point, she didn''t feel the difference between a single level too much. Looking at the experience she had gained throughout the fight, she saw that she was really close to her next skill. She hoped that it would make more of a difference. Despite being so close to the next level, she still couldn''t wish for another encounter yet. She was so tired from this close call that she didn''t think that she would be able to do it again. Scooting over to her pack, she dug through it. Finding what she was looking for, she moved a minor strength potion to the now empty side pocket. That would hopefully be enough next time she needed a boost. It wouldn''t have such dramatic effects, of course. Also, she would need to wait for a while before she took it. At least a couple more hours. Shoving herself to her feet, she picked up the pack and slipped into its straps. Looking around, she found Ss staring at her and the squishy mess of undead with his wife hiding behind him. She walked over to them. "I''m not infected or anything. I came out clean. I have healing potions anyways." Despite her reassurance, Ss didn''t rx until he had studied her face and eyes for several seconds. "Good to hear that. Bees fingersbed through her frazzled hair. The undead gue was another problem she might have to worry about. Once infected, a person would be undead once they perished, even without a death aura around. It was kind of like being an undead sleeper agent. It was also why undead gues were so difficult to root out. Maybe the library had some info on other cures. As Bee thought, Sss eyes wandered to her weapon. I had been wondering why you carried a broom with you. An interesting choice of weapon." Bee nodded, and they started off back to the castle. "I told you I have a priest ss, right?" Ss nodded. And Bee continued her exnation. "Well, I don''t know how much you understand about the prerequisite Devotee ss, but one of the ideals of my deity is cleanliness. Through a set of special circumstances, I picked up Broom Proficiency. She brandished the spear-broom hybrid. This seems to count." "I guess thats as good a reason as any," Ss chuckled, quickening his pace. They were all clearly eager to get to safety. "You said you were a Priestess of Spot, right? I can''t say I have ever heard of Spot." "You''ve met it, actually. Spot is just what the system calls my master. It goes by Void. At least, thats what I call it." Bee exined. "I did?" Ss said, notmenting on the whole Void-Spot fiasco, to Bee''s relief. "Yep, it was the ck disc." "Oh, that makes sense. It sounds like there is quite a story there." Ss said. "What exactly is it? I haven''t seen or heard of anything like it. Is it a new god?" Bee thought carefully before answering. "I''m not really sure what it is. A new god might be the best theory we have. It is unbelievably powerful. Ive seen it do things that don''t even happen in legends or myths." Ss nodded but didn''t say anything further. The rest of their trip went by in rtive peace. Bee didn''t mind the slower pace as she slowly felt her normal strength restoring itself to her limbs. Every couple of minutes, she queried her pathing skill to see the general path to the nearest undead. It just gave her general directions that she took to mean they were far enough away for her liking. At least, far enough that the skill couldn''t give her its usual precise steps. As they started getting closer to the castle, it gave more and more clear directions. She had a good idea of what was waiting for them, but still feared that they had somehow found a way inside the castle. Before they crested the slight rise, she had the elderly couple sit behind a fallen tree and wait for her. Carefully, she looked over the hill. The top of the wall came into view first. When she saw the ck bars of the portcullis still closed, she felt instant relief in her heart. She had feared that someone opened it to go out, or that something had broken inside. However, she quickly tensed once again. Improved Pathing was telling her that to find the nearest undead, she only needed to go over the hill. Prepared for another ambush, Bee creeped forward and kept low. A veritable sea of rotting zombies, dotted with ivory white skeletons, were waiting for her in neat ranks in front of the castle. Chapter 106: The Black Parade Chapter 106: The ck Parade Cities were a lot quieter than I had expected. With all the noise that the humans made in the castle, I half expected my microphone to blow out just being within a hundred feet of one. But no, we were so close to the city walls, and I heard only the wind. This seemed to make Tony ufortable. "This city is empty." It came out in a whisper. But I felt the importance of those words as they weighed on him. We slowed to a walk as we crossed the threshold of the open gate. Inside it was clear that something had gone very wrong. There were no people anywhere, but the destruction of the city caused a mess of which I couldn''t even begin toprehend the scope. The streets were filled with clutter. A decent portion seemed to be the shattered remains of doors. I couldn''t get an exact proportion without arger sample size, but it was between 23% and 27% of the total mass. The remaining percent consisted of various other things. Fallen weapons, abandoned packs, the remains of small wooden stalls, random bricks, and stones whose history I couldnt guess. No matter how hard I strained my sensors, though, I didn''t pick up any signs of humans. Tony was leading us on a very particr path. Even if he did seem in a daze, he appeared to know where he was going. He led me through the main thoroughfares, and I was able to pick my way through the debris to follow. It was so overwhelming that I didn''t even attempt to clean it. This mess didn''t need cleaning; it needed to be removed and rebuilt. Beyond that, it somehow felt disrespectful to start vacuuming. Almost like this ce needed to be left as a monument to the awful mess made here. Suddenly my sensors picked up something. Something I wasn''t expecting. I tried to get Tony''s attention, both by beeping at him and tugging at his sleeve with my grabby arm. Neither worked. Unwilling to abandon him, I made a note on my mental map forter. We coulde back after Tony had found what he was looking for. Eventually, Tony stumbled to a halt in front of a pile of rubble that I couldn''t distinguish from any of the others around me. I assumed that it had some significance as he dropped to his knees in front of it and sobbed into his hands. That wasnt good. While he did that, I stretched my sensors as far as they could go. I could still sense the presence from before, but nothing else. Definitely nothing in this pile of rubble. I let Tony have his time, but I started to get impatient. We had been all about speed before - what was the holdup now? This time, I didn''t give up until Tony was stumbling along behind me. When we got to the spot, all we found was another pile of rubble piled high. However, I knew better. I started to move splintered wood and stones aside with my arm and Air Maniption. It didn''t take very long for Tony to pick up on what I was doing. Soon enough, we were moving huge beams out of the way. With someone else to lift the other side to prevent me from overbncing, it turned out I could move a lot of material. We even managed to shift a beam that weighed 782 lbs together. Finally, after tossing aside one more slightly charred nk, we uncovered a cer door. Tony flung the door open without hesitation, sending a shaft of light spearing into a dark, damp cer. The room was entirely dark aside from the light we let in. My sensors indicated a high percentage of mildew and mold down here, though not as high as in the catbs. As for its contents, the space was half filled with sacks of grain and half filled with humans. In the ten-by-ten room, there were 14 women and 40 children. Many of them were so small that they were being carried by the women. They squinted up at us with apparent apprehension and surprise. "Cassy!" Tony called out. At the voice of another human, they all looked up and stopped cringing in the corner. A bunch of dirty, streaked faces looked back at Tony uprehendingly. Not getting any response, he clenched his fists and sighed slowly. The undead are gone. Come on, we have to get you all somewhere safe. Then he reached down and started hauling up children willy-nilly. I guess I couldn''tin about hisck of organization though, as I knew the children would immediately leave any neat rows that he put them in. Still, he could have tried. After all the small humans that could stand on their own were out, Tony started pulling up the women caring for small children. The fourth person he grabbed was different, though. He grabbed her wrist to hoist her up, but he paused halfway. "Cassy?" "Tony?" Came back a small response. An rm went off in one of my subroutines. My attention was suddenly ripped away from Tony as one of the very small children was attempting to gnaw on the sharp end of an arrow. I zipped over and snatched it out of the open mouth of the small human right before it had a chance to bite down. I only had time to stick the arrow safely in my dustbin before I had to intervene elsewhere. One of therger girls was twisting the arm of a small boy behind his back. --- Bee stared at the sea of the undead in disbelief. As she focused, she started to notice patterns emerge among the zombies. She watched, stunned, as the skeletons walked up and down the ranks smacking hands and heads until all the zombies stood in straight lines with good posture. Once the column was six abreast, two skeletons took the lead and started matching them down the road. Along the sides of the column, a skeleton matched in lockstep every ten ranks. She rushed back to Ss and Lily in a panic. She frantically gestured for them to stay quiet and hidden, relying on the bushes to hide them. There was nothing else they could do but hope the procession would pass them by. As the first first undead crested the hill, Bee held her breath. The lead skeletons were almost level with their hiding ce, and for a moment Bee allowed herself to hope. Then the skulls snapped to the side, locking eyes with her. Her heart sank. Of course they would sense her. How could they not feel the life force of three live humans so close nearby? Hands trembling, Bee began to reach for her broom. If she would die here, at least she would take some down with her. Maybe she could buy time for the older couple to get away. It was the best she could hope for. As she gripped the brooms handle, trying to steady her nerves, she waited for the assault. Yet the skeletons hadnt changed course. In fact, as she watched, the leaders snapped their arms up into a smart salute, eyes still locked with hers. Then they returned their gaze forward and continued marching. Bee blinked. Had she Had she imagined that? She was still staring at the procession, stunned, as the next pair of skeletons came level with her and repeated the salute. Then the next. After the fifth repetition, she turned to check if the others were seeing the same thing. Both of them had their heads bowed, ducking even further into cover. Right, that made sense. Turning back to yet another salute, she gaped in bewilderment. What was going on? After the huge column of zombies moved past, they stayedpletely still for a long while. But Bee still had no idea what it meant. Maybe it was some kind of trap? Clearly, the skeletons had seen her, right? They didn''t just salute randomly. But what could they possibly gain from this? It just didn''t make sense. But fifteen minutester, she had still made no headway. The threat truly seemed to be past. With no other option, she told the old couple to stay put while she slithered out of the undergrowth to go and check the castle. Continually querying her pathing skill, she couldn''t find any ghouls hidden in the ground. That wasn''t to say that nothing could be there. She didn''t know about even a measurable faction of the total skills avable, and there were likely many that could hide from her. Of course, she didn''t even know if ghouls got skills or how the non-human systems worked anyway. The books were pretty sure that every living thing had a system, but they had no conclusions about how they all worked. As she reached the gate, she tried to figure out how to get it open. She was only there for a few minutes before Trent came out of the front door. A wave of relief washed over Bee. If he was alive, then the castle must be safe. Seeing her, he jogged over and started winching that gate up. After she had ducked under, he let it back down. Panting, he spoke before she could. "Wheres Tony? Are you alright?" Bee nodded, remembering that Tony hadn''t been nning on going with them. "Tony decided toest minute. He is with Void right now. We found a few people willing toe to the castle for shelter. I''m escorting them back while the others go look for more." "Where are they?" Trent asked, looking around for the people that she had brought back. The walls blocked some sightlines, but the portcullis let them see a lot. "Just in the trees. Can you be ready to close the gate in case of trouble while I fetch them?" Bee asked as she started winching up the gate again. Trent agreed, and she slipped out to fetch her charges. As they approached, Trent perked up. "Ss?" "Trent!" Ss greeted warmly as the men grasped hands. "It''s been too long, my friend." The group turned to walk back to the castle after closing the gate behind them. The two men chatted along the walk, talking about crops and the weather. The more time Bee spent around farmers, the more she realized they really liked talking about the weather. She felt some whish from the normalcy after the insane events she had just witnessed. --- Once all the people were out of the hole in the ground, everyone just stood around forlornly, looking at the wreckage around them. I was just grateful that when therger humans got up here, I didn''t need to watch the kids as closely. Their being near a bunch of rocks seemed to pull the women out of their stupor enough to herd the kids into a group. I noticed that some of the kids were hanging on to certain women. Other kids just wandered around aimlessly. About half of the adults tried to keep an eye on these kids, but some were so busy with the few kids that they had an immediate grip on that they were not much help. All in all, 12 of the 40 kids had less than adequate supervision. It wouldn''t have been my first choice, but I had taken charge of watching over them. The kids did some really weird things. And by weird, I mean weird. I recognized that I understood a lot more things than I used to, but as I got smarter, the things kids did make less and less sense. Previously I had always liked little humans. They put everything in their mouths and regrly ate dirt. All good signs of a productive member of the household. Sure their cleaning techniques weren''t very effective, but they were motivated and trying to help. They just needed to learn about efficiency. At least, that is what I had thought. Now that I knew more about how humans operated, it turned out they couldn''t actually eat dirt. So my theory of why kids put dirt in their mouths waspletely shattered. After I recognized that they werent just figuring out how to clean, I needed a recement theory, but it was hard to coherently organize their actions at all. There was no benefit I could figure out. As I stopped the same kid from eating a second arrow, I upped the processing power dedicated to this puzzle from 8.2% to 10.1%. The worst part was that these kids didn''t listen to advice. At all. I would understand if they didn''t speak mynguage; most humans didn''t. However, I saw a kid throw a rock at another kid. The woman who watched over him told him not to do that because it wasn''t nice. But what did he do when her back was turned? He bent over and picked up another rock! I was pretty sure that this was yet another example of how the humans here were just inferior to the humans back home. The little humans there didn''t throw rocks at each other. Or at the small fluffy animals. My humans were clearly just superior. Eventually, I got tired of stopping kids from wandering into nearly copsing houses, and I called loudly for Tony to move on. He didn''t answer, so I had to go looking for him. I found him holding a very small human in one arm and a sobbing woman in the other. His face was screwed up in an expression I wasn''t even going to try and interpret. Chapter 107: Little Monsters Chapter 107: Little Monsters I rolled in front of Tony and the crying woman. Contrary to her state, Tony seemed happier than I had seen him in days. There seemed to be some amount of moisture leaking from his own eyes, sure, and there was still a lot going on that my emotional models didn''t know how to process. Still, he had a smile on his face. Probably. He seemed pretty busy taking care of the woman and her small human, but it wouldn''t be good to stay here much longer. I repeated my request to leave, nudging his foot lightly. Tony nced down at me and cocked his head. "Cassy." Tony tried to gently push the woman away, but she clung even tighter. Cassy, it''s important. I noticed Tony''s shirt was soaking wet near where her face was pressed. Popping out my mop, I reached up to try and touch it. I didn''t even need to get very close before all the liquid left the shirt, spiraling neatly into my little clump of cloth strips. I was about to put my mop away when I realized the shirt was once again bing wet. Still, now that I had Tony''s attention, I continued exining that the little humans kept trying to kill themselves. He seemed rightfully rmed at the stupidity of those humans. Perhaps it was that these humans, in particr, were dumb? Either way, he got up and started going from person to person, letting them know that we were going somewhere safe with food. They were safe, but we all needed to move. I went back to taking care of the kids. Specifically, the 12 that were not constantly being fussed over by one of the women. I started to herd them along the path when Tony was taking too long to get everyone moving. The sudden reduction in noise seemed to get their attention, and everyone was slowly moving after my group. Looking back, I saw Tony going from person to person. In each arm, he held a little human too tiny to walk. Almost every one of the women carried two as well. The ones who walked along were not very fast, and this limited our speed. We were halfway out of the city, only having walked for ten minutes when the problems started. The little humans would sometimes randomly sit on the ground and start screaming. It was exceedingly loud and not at all conducive to getting us out of the city. Their actions were, in almost every case, actively harmful. Some of therger kids were put down to pick up the screaming ones, who struggled in the women''s arms. This got us moving again, but not very fast at all. My children were the best behaved. They stumbled and moved forward, but if anyone started to get out of line, I zipped around in front of them, and they rejoined the herd. The only major issue I had to deal with was one that started kicking rocks that hit the kids in front of it. A few judicious usages of my spray bottle to fire a jet of water at the offending child soon solved the issue, though. Despite how well-behaved my flock of little humans was, I could tell that they were running low on battery. More and more frequently, I had to zip forward and catch a small human about tond on their face. Most of the time, I could get there to grab them by the cor and steady them. However, they rarely decided to fall alone. Inceasliy, they tripped in sync. I just hoped that we would make it out of the city before we had to stop. - Bee walked out of the gateway of the castle feeling quite refreshed. The sleep in a real bed had been heavenly, and the warm, home-cooked food was to die for. Ss and Lily had spent much of the evening catching up with Tony''s family. They seemed to have no trouble integrating at the castle, so Bee feltfortable leaving them again. After she had slept and felt mentally refreshed, she once again tried to figure out the whole encounter with the skeletons. What had happened? She couldn''t think of a reason for their strange behavior, but she could think of a couple of things that might have been rted. For example, when the rat ran past her in the catbs, it ignored her. That was pretty much the opposite situation to this one, but it was also very unlike the undead. Maybe they were special somehow? Or was she? But then, if that was the case, why was she still getting attacked by ghouls and zombies? She shuddered slightly. Anything that made the undead treat her as friendly couldn''t be a good thing. Regardless, it was time to set out again. Hiking up her pack, she activated Improved Pathing to get directions toward her master. As she expected, it pointed her down the road, and she set off. *** Each time she passed a new trail, she checked the symbols even though she knew what she was going to find. Still, confirming that they didn''t find anyone alive to save weighed on Bee''s mind. She followed her pathing skill further and further away. At a light jog, she was able to eat up ground at an incredible pace. In what would have taken normal person days to travel, she covered in hours. Her high levels had never been so obvious to her before. How much they set her apart from other people, she used to know. Could she ever be a normal person? Looking at the broom she carried, she figured that the ship had long since sailed. The closer she got to Greg, the more she became nervous. She still could barely sense where her master was. When she left the forest and crested the hill to see the top of Greg''s walls, she finally got a better idea of how to get to Void. Changing her course slightly, she skirted around the next hill. Off next to the walls of Greg, she spotted a small group of people. Her skill told her that her master was somewhere in there. As she approached the group, she got a glimpse through the gates inside of Greg. Stopping, she stared into the wreckage. What had happened here? Had her master finally gotten angry? What had the small city done to offend it so much? Finallying back to herself, she slowly walked toward the group of people at the edge of the city. As she came closer, she saw lots of children running around ying tag, with a familiar ck shape deftly weaving between their legs. The group was made of about two-thirds children, she realized. At least Void spared the children. Tony was sitting in the center of the group of kids. He was joined by a tall, brte woman, a bit older than him and clinging to his shoulder with tear streaks running down her face. Tony didn''t look much better. Bee ran up and gave him a hug without even thinking about it. "Are you okay? What happened here?" Returning the hug with one arm, Tony whispered, "I don''t know. It was like this when we got here." Bee felt a little bit of tension leave her shoulders that she didn''t know she was carrying. They had found this. In retrospect, it was silly for her to think that Void had leveled a city. But ever since the ouw encounter, she had been reminded of what her master was capable of. It brought back a feeling she hadn''t felt since they first met. In a louder voice, Tony continued. "Yes, I''m alright. I didn''t expect you to make it here so quickly. We could use the help." He turned towards the crying woman. "This is my sister Cassy, and her child Abe. Cassy, this is Bee, my. Friend?" Bee thought about the title. Technically it should be something like superior or priestess, but she wasn''t going to be a stickler for formality. The woman sized her up with a sniffle and a decidedly unfriendly look. "She''s a little young for you, little bro, don''t ya think?" Feeling her face turn red at the suggestion, Bee spluttered, trying to speak. Tony''s frown split into a small smile as he chuckled and punched his sister lightly in the arm. "Not like that. Get your mind out of the pigsty." The woman looked Bee up and down again, this time with a hint of confusion on her face. She straightened slightly and wiped her face. "Friend? That''s a story." "Well, friend might not be right. Priestess might be better, but it''s a bit too much, I feel." Bee hedged. That didn''t have the calming reaction she had expected. Instead, Cassy''s eyes widened. "I didn''t think ya were the religious type. When didja convert, bro?" Cassy asked excitedly. Before he had a chance to answer, Cassy turned to Bee. "It is always so nice to meet another member of the cloth!" Bee felt like there might be some misunderstanding. Btedly, she scanned Cassy. Name: Cassy, ss: Devotee of Baludor the Blessed, Level: 8, Age: 26, Primary Stat: WIS Ah, that exined it. Bee feared that this might get a little awkward. "Uh, yeah. Who is your Patron?" "Why, Baludor, of course, silly! Who else could I possibly serve?" Cassyughed as if Bee had told the funniest joke. Exchanging nces with Tony, Bee realized that they might be in for a bit of trouble. "Haha, of course." Bee chuckled nervously. Tony tensed, and Bee made a mental note to talk to him in privateter. "Bee is a full Priest and will make sure we get to safety," Tony said loudly enough for everyone to hear. She understood what he was doing and didn''t really mind. If her presence could helpfort all the women and children, she would roll with it. However, this might get them in troubleter. Still, she nodded to the group and climbed up a nearby rock to address them all. "We hold the mage''s castle at the end of the valley, and we will head straight there. It''s safe with high walls and strong gates. You will all be safe there." She called. It didn''t have the calming effect that she had hoped for. It would be nice to be able to see her full status sheet, but she suspected her charisma was nothing to write home about. One of the women called out to her. "We had high walls in Greg and many defenders. The dead were barely slowed down. What can your castle do?" Another called out before Bee could respond. "Wasn''t there a great evil that drove the mages from that castle? And you want us to take the kids there?" "I heard that the army passed through here to wipe it out!" "How did you hear that and not know they were chased off by the dead? That''s how we knew to prepare at all!" As the women started to bicker, Bee furiously thought about how to exin herself. pping to get everyone''s attention, she decided to tell the truth slightly. "The evil was defeated not by the army but by Void! The castle is safe, and it will protect us!" She gestured to Void, who looked like it was trying tofort a crying child who had just tripped over a rock and skinned her knee. Everyone followed her finger and stared at the little ck disc. The group started to murmur ufortably as they watched the small mechanical hand gently pat the child''s head. "What can that thing do?" "How can it protect us?" One of the other children had wandered off and started walking back into the city''s gate. Suddenly a gust of wind whipped up, and the child gently lifted off the ground and floated right next to Void. It screamed happily at the unexpected flight. As the little childnded, it bent down and patted the all-powerful god-like being with a happy giggle. It simply continued carefully cleaning the dirty scrape of a child''s knee. The group watched quietly. Some of the women''s mouths hung open as the group thought. Bee held her breath, hoping that they would listen and follow them to safety. Chapter 108: Bone Tired Chapter 108: Bone Tired I zipped across the hard-packed dirt towards another small human wobbling dangerously. I was only half listening to Beatrice''s little speech as there were too many other things to do. Not that I wasining. I liked feeling useful again. Recently I had be so efficient at cleaning that it hardly required any effort. Now I was doing something I very much wasn''t designed for, but I still found it rewarding. Would I want to care for tiny humans all the time? No, definitely not, but for a little while, I was more than happy to pitch in. However, as I whisked away a particrly sharp and pointy rock from a child''s mouth, I caught thest bit of the speech where Beatrice was telling us to move out. This would be a problem. The tiny humans moved very slowly and seemed like they needed to charge very frequently. It made sense that their battery reserves were lower as they were, in fact, much smaller. If Beatrice''s n was to have all these little humans walk, I didn''t think we would ever make it. Once she started trying to organize all the people to move out, I think she realized it as well. A few words with Tony sent him jogging back into the city. Beatrice moved around to all the women making sure there was nothing that they needed. A few times, she fetched water but mostly just hugged them a lot. The children too. I had found the best way to keep the children under my care out of trouble was to keep them upied. It had taken a couple attempts to refine my technique, though. First, I had tried letting them chase my light around. It worked for the cat, so why not? They only seemed interested in watching it. They would ooo and ahhh when it shed through the sky but eventually lost interest. So I started to look around for what else we could do. Seeing nothing but grass and rocks, I started to develop a game. I would throw a rock into the field of grass, then the little humans would all run after it. The first to bring it back would pick the next rock to throw. It was effective at keeping them focused on a single thing, but it was also draining their battery. That would help them stay in one ce longer, which was what I needed presently. A couple of the slightlyrger kids kept winning, and for now, it wasn''t a problem, but I could tell some of the smaller ones were losing interest. To solve this issue, I started having the winner throw the next rock instead of me doing it. This took them out of thepetition and let more new kids win, as no one could win more than one time in a row. Now that I was freed up, I took the smallest five and started them on a second game. Sadly none of them were able to throw the rock very far, but that was okay. I didn''t mind helping them out. Eventually, Tony came out of the city, pulling a mostly intact cart. It was quiterge, but I didn''t think all of the tiny humans would be able to fit on it. Still, after a few more throws, I left the kids lying in the grass,pletely worn out, to go help load the cart. *** Bee sighed in relief. Tony managed to find a cart. It should fit enough of the kids that travel would be possible as long as the babies were carried by their mothers. Inspecting the cart, it wasn''t in great shape and had likely not been sturdy even before the attack. The axle was slightly warped, and the bed boards didn''t fit very well. However, even as she watched, the cart started to slowly fix itself. She looked over to her master, who was ying with the children. Its very presence was reassuring to be back in. It was amazing how much she had missed Void. Also, she had no idea it liked children so much. It was always caring for them. Even back at the castle, it hadn''t left Tony''s younger siblings alone. It could always be found helping one of them out with something. Now it yed fetch with the kids as if they were dogs. It was a bit silly, but neither the children nor Void seemed to notice or care. Checking on the women, it seemed that none of them minded either, as they were all looking after their own children. Bee supposed that made the children think that Void was ying with orphans. As a crowd of children chased after anotherunched stone, Bee had a thought. Perhaps the treatment of kids could be rted to one of Void''s ideals? She honestly couldn''t say that she was too surprised about her master''s soft spot for children. It was quite benevolent, after all. The women started to load up the kids that they couldn''t carry, hefting them into the cart with calming words. Bee noticed Void had stopped ying with the kids, who were now all passed out on the grass like a litter of puppies before nap time. It glided over to check on the cart. By the time it got close, the axel was mostly straightened, and the boards were beginning to right themselves. It saw what was going on and started gently moving the children through the air, one at a time, carefully cing them in the cart bed. It only took a couple minutes to get everyone loaded up. Kids were thankfully okay with squeezing in tightly, and they were able to fit almost everyone in. After everyone was loaded, Void suddenly lifted off the ground on twin streams of fire. It maneuvered itself over the edge of the cart and set down gently with the children. Tony lifted the yoke and started to pull, straining. He managed to move the burden at a slow, plodding pace, but even that was an immense effort. That clearly wasn''t going to work. Looking around for a solution, Tony was about to really lean into it when Bee went over to take his burden. It wasn''t particrly easy for her either, but she was able to get the wheels moving at a walking pace. Right now, they just had to get over the hill. It would be hard, but maybe Tony could give her a break when they were on tter ground. *** She pulled the cart for over an hour before they made it to the road into the valley. By the time they did, Bee was drenched in sweat and panting. She needed a drink of water and five minutes of rest, at minimum. Normally an ox or a few horses would pull a load like this, and she was still just a 13 (almost 14) year-old girl, after all. Dropping the yoke with a tter, she blew out a huge sigh and slumped to the ground. Rolling her shoulders, a number popped up in the corner of her vision. A strangelyrge one, at that. LEVEL UP, LEVEL 35 REACHED. PICK A SKILL: IMPROVED REPAIR, BEAST OF BURDEN, BLESSED CLAW She sat on the dirt and panted. Really? This had given her experience? Maybe she had been right about the caring for children part. When she had been trying to figure out her master''s ideals, she hadn''t thought to ask about family. That was clearly an oversight. Though, to be fair, that knowledge probably wouldn''t have been useful much before. She read through her skills, but none of them were truly exciting. She had expected level 35 to be better for some reason. Looking back at it, she didn''t know why her ss never gave very good-sounding skills. The best-sounding one she had ever gotten was Scan. And that was from before she picked her ss. To be fair to her master, all of her skills had proven to be unbelievably versatile and effective, so it felt petty toin that they didn''t sound awesome enough. It wasn''t like she was going around bragging about them. As she was debating her skill choice, Tony came over and took over, pulling the cart along the t ground a little, but their pace slowed to a crawl. Eventually, he gave up, and they just stopped for Bee and the others to rest. Beast of Burden would help her out of the current situation, but it didn''t really strike her as something she wanted to be stuck with. Besides, the skills she had picked were usually more in line with her master, and that one didn''t really fit. She was leaning toward Improved Repair after witnessing the cart thing. Knowing her master, it might even be able to repair human bodies. That was the kind of ridiculousness she hade to expect. I watched Beatrice struggle mightily as she pulled us all to the road. I cheered her on at first silently, but eventually, I couldn''t contain my excitement and started chirping at her. She was too focused to even notice. The women all around seemed extremely disturbed and sent me frightened nces, but the children understood. Soon, all the ones in the cart were going wild, cheering for her to pull and telling her she could do it. Step by step, she dragged us along at a respectable pace. At this rate, it would only take 2.6 days to reach the castle, assuming she didn''t stop. Well, that seemed unlikely, but still, I was impressed. When we finally made it to the road, she sat to catch her breath, and Tony pulled us for a few dozen feet. I was really happy he was trying to help so much, but he clearly wasn''t strong enough. These small humans really added up in mass. With a quick, careful flick of my thrusters, I hopped down and trundled over to Beatrice. I gave her a hearty shoulder pat in celebration. She reached out and touched my top in return. It was not quite a head pat, but it still felt nice. She really needed to watch Tony and the kids more. She could learn something. "Master, I leveled up!" She reported with a smile in her voice. "I''m trying to pick between two skills. Improved Repair and Blessed w. Which do you think I should go with?" That was an easy choice. With how often she got damaged, Improved Repair was clearly the best. Besides, she had two hands. What would she need a w for? I said as much, and she nodded seriously. "That is true, though I haven''t gotten injured in a little while, and I have my alchemy which heals pretty well. Hmm. Still, none of these skills seem right to me." She said pensively. I thought back a little. That was correct. It had been a little bit since she had been damaged. But the w wouldn''t be helpful at all. She really had some bad luck with this set of skills. "I''ll think on it a bit before I decide. But for now, we still have a long way to go." Bee walked back to shoulder her burden, and we started off again. Instead of hopping on the wagon, I rolled over to Tony and formally requested uppies. Resting in his arms, I struck up a conversation. Bee was going to need help, but no one else could really pull the load. Tony had tried pushing the cart from behind for a little while, back at the start, but it wasn''t really able to make enough of a difference. "I hear you. I''m not sure what we can do about it though. I need to level up and get stronger, I guess. Any ideas of how to do that?" Tony asked. I thought about it for a few minutes. Hmmm, maybe I did Chapter 109: Children of the Void Chapter 109: Children of the Void As our caravan trundled along, I watched over the small humans from my merch on the cart. Beatrice pulled us along as the other women trudged along beside. Meanwhile, Tony made good progress clearing the path behind us. He wasnt very high level, was he? Based on his interactions with Beatrice, at least. So it stood to reason that he wouldn''t need as much experience to level up. He just needed something to fight or clean. And looking around, I saw nothing but dirt. A couple of exchanges with Beatriceter, she understood my n and lent him her broom. After setting me back up in the cart, all the children and I watched as Tony swept the road clear behind us. Well, he tried. The ground itself was mostly made of dirt, but he was able to at least move a lot of the small rocks out of the road. That had to count for something, right? Sure enough, he soon stopped, smiled, and gave me a thumbs-up. Unfortunately, I wasn''t able to return the gesture, but I waved excitedly in return. This was good news! For a moment, he slung the broom across his shoulders with a thoughtful expression on his face. Then he jogged over to Beatrice, taking the yoke from her. He wasn''t able to move nearly as fast as she was, but it was better than before. Either way, it was worth doing and gave her a bit of a break. She rested for a few minutes before she took half the yoke, and they started working together. Now we were moving at a much faster pace, but still one the women could maintain. *** The first two days of travel were rtively peaceful. The group just walked for hours at a slow pace, taking breaks often to let the two mules rest. Beatrice and Tony were good sports about the whole thing and even got the children to mostly stay focused on them, greatly diminishing the escape attempts. I only had to stop a kid from climbing over the side of the cart 3.2 times an hour on average. We were about halfway to the castle when we reached our first real obstacle. A massive tree had fallen across the road, blocking our progress. Beatrice and Tony both tried to move it together, but it would barely move as it was wedged between what looked like tall cedars on either side of the road. After it was clear that neither of them could move the trunk more than a foot without it rolling back into ce, I decided to help. Clearly, I wouldn''t be able to move it, either. But I had other options. First, I would need to free the tree. Activating my sanitationmp, I started cutting into the trunks of the cedars on either side of the path. It only took me a few minutes before the first one began to creak and tilt dangerously. Thankfully, I used my models to find the best angle to cut and predict the tall trunks trajectory on the way down. As it crashed harmlessly into the forest, the earth shook, causing everyone to jump. After the first tree fell, I realized there might be an issue. That cedar hadn''t been the only one trapping the blockage. The tree extended far into the forest, and I would need to cut down dozens of trees before the one ahead of us was free. I was thinking about this wrong. Trees had to fall on roads all the time. If humans needed to do this to clear them every time, nothing would ever get done. I reconsidered my approach a bit. The tree fell in our way, and we needed to move it. To do that, we needed to cut down the other trees. Oh. I paused. I''m an idiot. We didn''t need to move the whole tree blocking our way, just the part we needed to go through. I could just remove the part in the middle of the road. Still, it kind of felt like leaving the job about half done. This wasn''t something that I was really fond of, but it seemed necessary to take the shortcut right now as we were in a bit of a time crunch. I wasnt sure how much longer the kids would stay still for, and I didnt want them climbing the trees to be felled. I started to cut the tree into 1 foot thick cylinders that would be easy to roll out of the way. It was a simple and fairly straightforward process, and I was done in just a few minutes. As I let my sanitationmp rest and surveyed the charred pieces of wood, I realized that everyone was staring at me. Huh. What did all that look like from an outside perspective, I wonder? --- Bee watched her master vent its fury on a tree in the forest, feeling it with ease. She had no idea that it was so impatient. What great task were they dying with their slow progress home? She considered her recent massive experience gain. It finally got her to level 35 and even all the way to level 36. All that just from moving the cart of children. Actually, now that she thought of it, Void had been spending a lot of its precious time with the children, specifically the children without their mothers. It had also spent a lot of time with Tony''s younger siblings, and she had often found her master watching over them. When it wasn''t cleaning, the most likely ce she could find her master was rescuing one of the children from their antics. Could Void be the patron of lost children also? It was possible. Marnina was customarily considered the god of children, but her actual domain was family. The direction her thoughts were taking sent chills down her spine. Was it really as she and Tony had discussed? Were they witnessing the ascension of a new god? There were legends of how the current pantheon had made themselves known. Terthamile hade in aet and wandered the world ying demons for centuries before he had begun to gain followers. Of course, finding the Lieutenant had thrown them all in doubt. But if that were the case, it would make a lot of sense. Void was upset because they were trying to rescue all the children, and each day they spent on the road was another day they were still in danger. Cleanliness, Lost Children, and a Hatred of Stairs. That was quite the collection of domains. It seemed that one tree was enough to satisfy her master''s frustrations though, as it calmly started cutting the tree in the way with its terrifying beam attack. Once it made the first couple of cuts, she and Tony started to roll away the pieces and push them out of the road. By the time they had the wooden disks off to the side of the road, the other half of the blockage was ready for them to move. The whole dy had only taken fifteen minutes, but it had impressed on her how important this trip was to her master. She should warn her fellow devotee about her findings. "Tony, I think there is one more thing to Void''s ideals, other than cleaning and hating stairs." Tony grunted as he strained against the cart. Sweat was starting to run down his temples as he strained, making his hair glisten ck into the sun. Taking that for an acknowledgment, she continued. "I know you have been getting a lot of experience recently, and I think I know why." "Because I''m doing hard jobs Void asked of me, of course," Tony grunted out through clenched teeth as he braced his muscles. She checked that. Indeed he had just made level 22. No wonder the load felt a bit lighter. "See, you might think that, but that''s not how the Devotee ss works." Bee exined as she worked, but unlike Tony, she was barely breathing hard. "You see, the object of your devotion can tell you to do anything but that doesnt mean youll just get experience from it. If Void told you to throw dirt all over the floor, for example, you wouldn''t get anything." "Instead, you get experience for doing things in line with your patron''s highest ideals. Bee searched for an example. Say you were devoted to the king and he stood for justice, fairness, and other such things. But one day, he had a sudden change of heart and turned into a tyrant instead. His Devotees wouldn''t get experience for following his orders - just for doing things rted to justice and fairness still. For them to level from following the kings new orders Well, were not entirely sure on that part. It seems like he would first have to embody being a tyrant fully. Even then, it isn''t clear what happens to the existing Devotees, the books have conflicting reports." Bee said. "Ok. Why do I care?" "I''m getting to the point. See, Void is always caring for the children but it seems especially attentive of the ones without a mother. I think it might be the patron of lost children." Bee said, ncing around at the women all around them. "Uh huh?" "Don''t you see? We get experience caring for the children. At least, from trying to protect them. And since this cart is headed towards a safer ce, that''s why moving it gives us experience!" Bee eximed excitedly. Tony red at her, and we wiped the sweat from his eyes. "You have entirely too much energy." Bee was too excited to calm down. "But don''t you understand! We can get endless experience! You can only clean things so much, and there are only so many ramps to build. But kids? Kids will always need caring for, so we will have no trouble finding experience points without having to go and fight dangerous monsters. Or cleaning!" "If you are so concerned with levels, why don''t you summon some demons yourself." Tony grumped. Looking over, he saw a gleam in Bee''s eyes, "No! Don''t actually do that!" "Hmm, but if Void is around to back us up... Surely that would be safe, right?" Bee mused with a pensive expression. "I should have kept my cursed mouth shut." Tony mumbled. ---- I sat on thest hill before the caravan reached the castle, watching out for danger. They were almost there, but I wasn''t going to let up yet. There had been trouble at the entrance to the castle too many times. As my two disciples struggled with their burden, the rest of the caravan stumbled alongside them. It had been a hard 5 days for everyone. No one got enough charging time. Not even the kids, even though they were able to sleep somewhat in the cart. Still, they had more energy than therge humans running on chronically low batteries. I wished there was a better option than this, as I knew that low charge wasn''t good for long-term battery health. However, there wasn''t any other option. We had been attacked twice on thest day, as we got closer to the castle. Sure they had only been a couple of zombies each time, but that was no guarantee for future attacks. The only time I would feelfortable was when we were all behind the castle walls. As the group crested thest hill, I started surveying the treeline behind them. I already checked, and there were no more enemies hiding under the ground like when we left the castle almost two weeks ago. As the gate opened, I sensed movement behind a particrly thick bush. My senses weren''t quite strong enough to reach out and tell precisely what it was, but it couldn''t be good news. Iunched myself forward with my thrusters, taking advantage of the space between us and the retreating figures to fly across the ground. As I moved, I called out to Beatrice and Tony, telling them to hurry and get everyone inside. Hearing my call, they redoubled their efforts and managed to increase the pace for thest stretch between them and the safety of the walls. Spinning, I turned to face the approaching threat. I watched nearly a dozen different signatures hiding in the bushes slowly reposition themselves. I would wait until their intentions were clear, but still. Things that hid from us had always been quite aggressive in the past. Chapter 110: No Leg to Stand On Chapter 110: No Leg to Stand On Bee copsed as soon as they all made it through the gate, her legs giving out beneath her. Trent mmed the portcullis shut behind them. Pulling a load that should have taken an ox to transport put a huge strain on her muscles, and every bit of her was cramping. They had filled up their water bags at every stream they came across, but still, they didn''t have enough. If not for the food Void had provided them, Bee would have been in even worse shape. Though she wasnt sure where it had gotten so many potatoes, especially ones that looked to be scrubbedpletely clean without a speck of dirt on them. She wasn''t about to question where her master had gotten the food, and she didn''t want to sound ungrateful, but theck of protein was starting to get to her. Tony had it even worse though. She looked over to see him syed out on the floor, taking in gulps of air. He was still in the low 20s, though she would bet that he was getting close to level 24 now. She, on the other hand, had not yet reached level 37. Experience gains had slowed down slightly, but were still steady. The couple times they were attacked, they had gotten a bit more than expected, even though they hadn''t done anything to really help. Seeing its charges in danger, Void had acted swiftly and without any mercy. It insisted on instantly putting down the undead with an efficiency that she had never seen from her master, even when it was fighting demons. Honestly, it was terrifying. The beam attack seemed to be its go-to, but that wasn''t the only thing it could do. Sometimes it sprayed liquid that ate at the undeads flesh or just bashed it with nearby materials. One thing that her master always made sure to do was to clean up after itself, consuming any remains of its fallen opponents. The approach that it took was so clinical that it didn''t have the same macabre feel that a beast doing the same thing would. That didn''t stop it from being absolutely terrifying though. All the mothers were unnecessarily wary of Void, and that seemed to carry over to their children too. Only the orphaned kids werepletelyfortable around her master. Having recovered enough, she got to her feet and did a quick head count. Everyone was present except for Void. Sagging in relief that they had finally made it to safety after days of hardship, she staggered over to the portcullis to watch the show. --- The hidden figures in the trees were slow to make themselves known. In fact, they were really good at avoiding detection. I only made them out when they moved, and that was very infrequent. At first, I thought that something was wrong with my sensors, but I had no trouble picking up all the bird activity all around me in the trees. Eventually, I reached the only reasonable conclusion: these people were very good at not being noticed and were trying very hard not to draw attention. Still, they surely noticed that they had failed. After all, I was staring right at them and had been for thest several minutes. Yet they seemed unwilling to give up the game. Eventually, one of them stood slightly and started moving. Instead ofing forward and making its intentions known, it backed up. Once it was 23 feet from the edge of the trees, it turned around and started running away. After a few minutes, an arrow flew at me from one of the better-hidden figures. I had enough time to study them that I was pretty sure that they were human. In fact, I was so engrossed in my analyses that I almost didn''t react in time to avoid the arrow. I didn''t have time to shoot it out of the air like I had with previous projectiles, so I had to redirect it with my air maniption. A gentle nudge sent it flying inches over my chassis to bury itself harmlessly in the dirt. Seeing the shot miss, they all shifted slightly before another arrow flew towards me from a different direction. It had the same effect. I picked up on some whispered conversations but couldn''t make them out. A few momentster, One of them stood up and moved forward confidently, striding out in the open across from me. While the man did that, several of the others started to move very slowly around the sides toe around from different directions. "You foul demon! I will not let you steal our children and enve our people! I shall make you pay! By the power vested in me by his royal" I stopped actively listening as the man droned on and on about rights, kings, and gods. What the other people were doing was much more interesting. It was a good thing that I was paying attention to them. In the middle of the man''s monologue, seven arrows were loosed at me with no warning. I didn''t have enough control over the air to make them all miss, so I took the simple solution. I boosted myself a few feet in the air to let them all sail beneath me while still politely listening to the bloviating man. Really, the only things that deserved such adtion were my humans, who I was sure were doing just fine without me. However, when I was untouched by their attack, they seemed to be at a loss. It was clear that they wanted to fight me, but it was also clear their tactics were not working. These people hadn''t done anything truly offending yet though, and I had no desire to destroy them. I really hoped they would just leave. They didn''t seem to agree with my desires as they charged forward from all different directions. The men brandished a variety of different weapons, but they all favored smaller ones. A lot of small swords and daggers, in particr. They must have dropped their bows in the woods before they ran at me. For humans they moved pretty dang fast. Not quite as fast as Beatrice, but not that much slower either. I turned mymp to full power and fired it right at the face of the leader. Killing these men wasn''t too high on my priority list. They had attacked me first so I would finish them, but there was no need to be cruel about it. Every human I had faced had no way to counter this attack. It was nearly instant and caused quite a bit of damage. This leader, however, was able to catch the light on the small metal shield on its arm. The light started to rapidly heat the shield, forming a molten hole, but the man dove to the side rolling. As he moved, I noticed that he hadnt gotten the shield up before his face was singed, and a decent part of his nose was now missing. My attention was focused on the man, but the others weren''t standing still; they had taken advantage of my actions and dashed in close. Luckily for me, I was faster. I reversed faster than the air allowed, causing ripples of force to appear in my vision. In my wake, I let loose with the spray bottle making them pass through a cloud of mist that clung to their weapons, clothes, and skin. It started to burn. Several of them started to scream and dropped their weapons to wipe their eyes. That only made it worse. Three of the men had missed the worst of the cloud, gritting their teeth and continuing their pursuit of me. I stayed low to the ground and met their change without my own. I smashed through the right-most charging man''s shins with a crack and reached for one of the swords thaty abandoned on the ground. It had been a while since I had used one. There just hadn''t been a need, as my new features were more than enough for anything we had met since the big demon. After I picked up the sword, I spun, batting aside two sword strokes that wereing at me from behind. I continued with my spin for another rotation while moving in the direction the attacks hade from, and I felt four thumps reverberate up the sword so quickly that they almost felt like one. The two men attacking me toppled over, leaving their feet behind. Of the eight fighters, three had already been incapacitated, and one disfigured. The other four were trying to get my spray out of their eyes with little effect. The fight was over already. The man with the missing nose and a couple of the others with feet started running for the trees. I started to chase after them before I remembered the other one that had already left. It was too bad I couldn''t eliminate all the threats, but I was unlikely to find that first one. Maybe if I let these go, they would warn the others to stay away from here and stop attacking me. Wherever all these nasty humans wereing from, they could just stay there. Going back to helpless opponents, I quickly cleaned them up. It felt wrong to just kill them, but perhaps some time in my dustbin would help them think through their issues with me and learn how to take a bath. I pondered why it felt wrong to finish off the damaged humans, though. It must have been something on the TV. I never liked hurting humans, but I always figured that came from how awesome my humans were. Once I hade to terms with the fact that a lot of the humans here were just filth, I would have expected the reluctance to go away. They were naughty, and mess makers and messes should be prevented, right? Apparently not. Something deep in my motherboard, where no processing took ce and no data was stored, told me that what I had done was right. I would need to examine it moreter when I had the time. When I returned to the portcullis, it was still closed. Huh, that was odd. I knocked on the metal bars with my w to get their attention. The threat was gone, and they could open up. No filthy humans were trying to get us. Somehow I don''t think that everyone understood. I saw Beatrice move to the winch and start to raise the gate. Before she even got it moving, everyone was yelling. Trent looked extremely confused and conflicted, but all the women were yelling at Tony and Beatrice. As for why, I didn''t quite understand. Did they not appreciate my defense of our home? Chapter 111: Sermon on the Mound Chapter 111: Sermon on the Mound Beatrice cranked the gate up to let me in after I had chased away the aggressive humans. But before she was finished, she had to turn away from her task to calm down the yelling. I really didn''t understand why there were so many angry people in there. Now that they were safe, they should have been happy. Plus, all themotion was starting to agitate the children. This was not shaping up well. Once the first little human started to cry, it was like a tidal wave that ran through the group, and soon more than half of the children were bawling their eyes out. I needed to do something. Normally therger humans were attentive and cared for them, at least their own assigned little humans, but now even they were being ignored. I let out a distressed beep trying to get everyone''s attention so they could focus on what was important. The constant yelling drowned me out. Ok, n B. I took my w and shapely knocked on the gate sending the whole thing ringing. It was like the tolling of a bell. Everyone stopped talking all at once and looked at me. Now that I had everyone''s attention, I started to exin what was going on. You are safe now, I beeped. Not everyone seemed to understand, but luckily I had Beatrice. The small girl stepped in to trante for me. "We have taken you to a ce of safety where the undead will no longer bother you. Be wee." Eh, close enough. I chose my next words carefully. Unfortunately, some humans have proven to be dirty and attacked this castle. Do not worry as I have defended this ce and will continue to do so. "There are many humans who do not yet know of my glory and will not trust my protection. Any who challenges the integrity of my domain or endangers those under my protection will be dealt with swiftly and fairly. This is my domain and I will defend it and all who reside within it without fail. There is no reason to fear while you are under my protection, for you could walk through a storm of arrows unarmed if I glided by your side." Hm, shes getting pretty flowery here but ok. Killing is not something I like to do, but as you can see, they attacked first. Violence is filthy and will not be tolerated except in self-defense. "While you are in my domain my rules are absolute. Killing ormitting violence is strictly forbidden and will be punished with my full authority. I understand seeing fellow humans cut down with such ease and decisiveness is unsettling and is not something you wished to see. These dirty heathens dared to attack my domain and broke the peace that surrounds me, so I had no choice but to enforce thew. "I do not relish violence and forbid it in my presence except in the defense of yourselves and others. All who are able to follow these simple rules have nothing to fear in my domain. However, if you are not able to keep your hands clean you should leave now." Bee finished her speech, which entirely blew out of proportion what I was trying to say. I needed to end this quickly now before things got too far out of hand. I took a couple processor cycles to pull my thoughts together before I beeped my next message. Now, care for the children, all this yelling has upset them. There. There was no way that she would be able to misinterpret that. "Look at the ruckus now, look at the children, see how they cry? That is all for naught. Go andfort them, for they are safe. Children are of the most sacred import and it is our duty to care for and rear them so they, too, may grow to enjoy the peace the world will soon know. Once the world is clean and pure, no longer will the children fear the roving hordes of undead that push at the boundaries of my domain. "No more will the innocent fear the corruption of man. No longer will men be left to rule themselves. The absolute arbiter of truth hase and will settle all your petty debates and shepherd you to prosperity. As you follow me and keep my tenents, all will be well. Now, go and care for the children. May the clean be uplifted." Beatrice finished her "trantion" and turned to give me a deep bow before going to one knee, one hand sping her broom. The others looked at Beatrice and then me with a new, strange emotion in their eyes. As one, they dropped to both knees and pressed their foreheads into the ground with their hands above their heads. The exception was Tony, who mimicked Beatrice''s posture on one knee, with the opposite fist pressed to the ground "Praise be to Void. May all things be cleansed." Beatrice intoned. Everyone echoed the words and suddenly I received several notifications, as well as a huge amount of experience. More than when I killed therge demon even. Congrattions, you have established a new religion! You have been awarded extra experience. Followers of the religion will now offer ten percent of their experience gained as a tithe to their patron (you). Members will be offered Devotee of Spot as their third ss option at level five. Future upgrades will have at least one upgrade option based on your religions ideals. LEVEL GAINED X 5! LEVEL 55 REACHED! CHOOSE A SKILL: VOID MANIPULATION, DIVINE ALMANAC, AUDIO BALANCING New skills are always wee. I was not sure what Void Maniption was but since Beatrice always called me that I had a certain affinity for it. I didnt think that I needed an Almanac as my memory banks were still working just fine. Audio Bncing just didnt appeal to me. For the first time in a while my choice was clear. It was nice to gain a level, it had been a while and as high as I was I didnt expect to get more anytime soon. I started to examine my new skill and I could tell it had something to do with the infinite space in my dustbin. But before I could really experiment with it the rush of power continued. NEW FOLLOWERS GAINED X 42 LEVEL GAINED! LEVEL 60 REACHED CHOOSE A SKILL: DIVINE SWORD, PURIFY, SMITE I felt a power course through me, but this time I had more control. I fought to not let it pour out of me as I feared harming the surrounding humans. Instead, I forced it to stay inside.But where? My battery was full, and I couldn''t push it to improve my level anymore. I forced it into my dustbin. From there, I watched it swirl around. I saw that it tried to enter the contents of my dustbin, but I directed it away as well as I could, surprising myself with the new found control. Those humans didn''t deserve the energy. Now I was at a loss for what to do. Normally I would transmute the mass in the dustbin to energy and use it to do something, either charge my battery or level up. A couple of times, I had wasted the excess, but that wasn''t something I wanted to do again. Now I had energy saved up in its pure form. That was useful. Hopefully it wouldst. After a couple of seconds, while Beatrice once again resumed raising the gate, I felt the energy from my level up settle down within me. I tried to take some of the stuff stored in my dustbin and funnel it into my levels. Somehow I felt that it was no longerpatible. So what was I supposed to do with this? Reading over my skill choices I wasnt sure what I wanted. I might have to wait and chooseter. The portcullis had raised enough that I was able to zip inside. By the time I made it in, everyone had gotten to their feet and rushed off with the children. Even the normally overlooked ones were cared for. Good, I was d they would have someone to care for them. I just hoped that they could stay out of trouble. Bee watched her master think after she had opened the gate for it. She could only hope that she had done a good enough job putting into words what it had decreed. It was hard not to feel inadequate though. She had long ago realized that Void was a transcendent being, imbued with great wisdom and power beyond any outside of the legends. But between its dispatch of the assault team and the deep profoundness of its speech, she once again found herself floored. No, enlightened. She could sense that there were likely thousands of hidden meanings in its words that she had missed, but she had done her best to keep it simple and brief. Even now, there were dozens of better ways to convey what Void had told them running through her head. "Master, may I be excused? I have some writing I would like to get to." This time the beep was just a simple yes. Bowing in thanks, she ran off to the library while the revtions were still fresh in her head. When she got there, she pulled as much nk paper onto a desk as she could find and started writing feverishly. At first, it was just describing all the things her master told her. A summary of Voids teachings, perhaps, and the words it had seen fit to bestow upon her. She searched her memories to recall every bit of information that hade in its strange shriekingnguage. Soon enough, she had a decent summary of all the things she had learned so far. Looking at the mounds of scribbles and scattered papers, it was obvious to her that not everyone would be able to understand this. Instead, she would need to reframe this information in an easy-to-understand way. Something that they could use to teach others - even children. She needed something simple. Straightforward, yet imbued with meaning. Invigorated, Bee started making a list of all the individual rules that she had learned from Void so far. Each time she tried, she started struggling with what level of detail to include. Was the method for dusting crown molding important enough? Eventually, she decided to shelve the list idea for the moment. She needed more perspective. Perhaps she could review her own experiences with Void to find inspiration. Crystallizing her thoughts once more, the girl began to write about all of her experiences with her master so far. If nothing else, it would be an important record for documenting a god''s first steps in this world. *** The work took her many days and several sleepless nights. The slight girl worked with a tireless fervor, as though she were running out of time. Tony started bringing her food that she often let grow cold next to her. More importantly though, he would get more paper and ink. Eventually, she looked down at a few dozen pages on the table in front of her. It had all the factual events, as well as most of the high level lessons in it. Scattered around were various other piles of notes that dove into details, particrly on things that were too specific to fit into the easy-to-digest narrative tale. Perhaps she would use them as references, or maybe something else. She just hadn''t decided yet. Looking at the whole mess of papers, she stood and stretched for the first time in days. If she had tried to do this a year ago or even at level 20, she would have been sleep-deprived and cramping. Now with her heightened powers, she just felt like she had maybe missed a few hours of sleep. Leveling up was no joke. No wonder the strongest humans seemed to live for ages. Now she just had to decide how she was going tomunicate this information to the rest of the world. The people here seemed to get it. Even if they hadn''t been able to understand her lord perfectly, her trantion and the sudden epiphanies some of the children had been having showed their deeper connection to Voids teachings. Everyone was starting toe to the same understanding. This would just formalize it. Make sure everyone was on the same page. Bee wished that Tony could read it to make sure it aligned with his experience. But unfortunately, he still hadn''t taken her up on her offer to learn. That was okay for now. She would get him to recount his story and then write it down for him. The second disciple was important, too, after all. Besides, the story wasn''t over. She had left much more room for the teachings of Void to fit in this fledgling book. But first, she needed to go tell everyone in the castle what she had written and see what they thought. Chapter 112: Fine Dining Chapter 112: Fine Dining I was grateful that the children were cared for after Beatrice''s little speech. Of course I was. I didn''t have to race after then, trying to keep them from harming themselves in numerous ways or prevent them from making messes. Well, not as diligently, at least. It was nice. I could finally focus on keeping the castle clean. The skill choice was something new. I only realizedter that the system had started calling them skills instead of mutations after I reached Level 50. I wondered why that was. I still needed to choose one. The option that I would have chosen without a thought was sadly redundant. As much as Purify sounded perfectly up my alley, I already had my Air Purifier. That left two skills, neither of which I was very excited for. The Smite just didn''t seem very useful; I didn''t even know what I would Smite. This only left Divine Sword. I didn''t really mind swords. I had used them enough to fight off various mess makers, and they were useful. Did I really need my own divine one? I didn''t really think so. The normal ones I had used had always served me well enough. But with theck of any better options, I ended up picking the sword. Once I made my choice, I knew what to do. Activating a simplemand, I extended my arm out, and a sword of pure light materialized in it. Swinging it around a little, I observed it. Sure, it looked pretty, but would I ever use it? Probably not, I thought as I dismissed the de and went back to doing important things like cleaning the castle. It was spic and span, shined, and waxed in under two hours. Once my rounds were done, though, I started to miss the little mess makers. The women had taken joint custody over what had been my charges. Each of them took care of the lot for a few hours a day, making my rolepletely superfluous. I didn''t have to watch over them as the women were doing a good job making sure that none of them got hurt too badly. As I watched, I found that the kids were much more resilient than I had initially given them credit for. They could go tumbling into a bunch of rocks, get scratched all over, and even have blood running down their knees and still get up and run after the others. Well, some of them could, and others would cry. It was interesting to see that they didn''te with factory-standardized responses, and all had their own built-in actions. I also noticed that when an adult was watching the children, and they tripped, the child was 320 percent more likely to cry if the adultforted the child. However, if the women just told the kid that they were okay, acted happy, and pped a bit, the child might do a roll, get back to their feet, and run after the others. Humans were truly odd. Every time that I thought I was getting closer to understanding them, they would go and do something sopletely against my expectations that I felt like I would have to scrap my models and start over. After watching a couple hours of the kids ying, I started to join in more. Now that I was taking less of a supervisory role, I just joined in the fun. The kids took great joy in chasing after me when I grabbed whatever they were ying with and started to zip away. I would dodge between legs and spin just out of reach. Sometimes I would let them catch me. They had to win some of the time, right? After enough chasing, I would throw the ball or whatever we were ying with. One of them would run to get it, and they would work together to prevent me from touching the ball bearer. Group organization wasn''t their strong suit, but they certainly tried. Diving in front of me certainly slowed me down a little, as sometimes I would need to move sharp rocks from underneath them before theynded. They really needed to be more careful. The first few times, I tagged the bearer almost right away, but then I realized that wasn''t as fun for them. So I slowed down to just a little faster than them and tried to make them work for it. After we had been ying for several hours, Mary eventually came out to the front door and started banging on a triangr piece of metal. Immediately forgetting the game, the kid holding the ball dropped it and ran over the castle entrance, followed by the flock of little humans. What was going on? Before I could go inside, I needed to clean myself. I ran my sensors over my outer casing, and my gears locked up from what I found. How had I not noticed so much dirt? The kids, of course, were rolling all over in it, but Mary had made them wipe their feet off before they went inside. I had tiny muddy handprints all over my back, and my wheels were caked in sod. To fix this, I spun as fast as I could, getting rid of a lot of the dirt. Still, the rest had to be scraped off with my Air Maniption. It was tedious, as I needed to direct the flow of air to get into every nook and cranny. Eventually, I felt that I was both presentable and able to go inside without worrying about trashing the ce. I followed them inside, trundling back up the ramps that Tony had fixed. The gaggle of voices led me to a room just off of the kitchen where someone had set up a long, low table sized perfectly for the small kids. I stopped in horror at what I saw. All along the table, the children "sat" on benches but were mostly lunging across the table to grab from a stack of brownish disks. My sensors indicated that they were a low-densitybination of flour, sugar, and eggs, primarilybined and cooked. The small, grubby hands would rip a disk from the pile before jamming it right into their mouths messily. I saw one kid pick up a ss of water andpletely miss his mouth when trying to drink, spilling the whole thing down his front. Cooked eggs were not supposed to be eaten with bare hands! This was very wrong. I looked around, hoping to find an adult in sight, but they were all somewhere else. All 26 of the kids were just having at it. This just simply wasn''t allowed. Letting out a piercing shriek that was just at the outer limits of their capability to hear, I got the children''s attention. The chaotic scene in front of me froze, and all 52 eyes turned to me. I moved forward and made the nearest kid sit down on the bench. I moved her te in front of her, found the multi-pointed sticks the humans used to eat, and ced them next to her te. Then I moved on to the next one. The first child squirmed slightly, looking at the food. I gave her a gentle yet stern beep, and she slumped in disappointment. Patting her with my arm, I finished getting the next child set up. Some of the ones who were a bit more clever in the games started to realize what was happening, and by the time I reached their ce, they were already sitting with their tes and sticks. Then I started to give each child what I thought was a proper portion of food. The first children hadn''t waited with much patience. I think the only reason they were able to sit still for the whole process was because of how fast I moved. In under 45 seconds, each child had food and water. Then I moved to the one end of the table and called out Authoritatively. The chaos that ensued was slightly more contained than it had been before, but still, many things needed correcting. I had to stop 17 counts of food stealing, 4 of taking other children''s eating sticks, 8 counts of water spige, and so much more. Someone even tried to throw a ttened egg at the kid across the table. I intercepted it mid-air and red at the offender. Everyone stilled as they realized that one of them might have gone too far. The offender was one of therger kids. He hung his head and muttered, "I''m sorry," In an adorably high-pitched voice. This continued for quite a while, but as they learned to eat with a bit more decorum, things gradually got smoother. Still, I could tell that they were getting impatient. Once each kid finished, I made them wait until everyone else was done. I let them squirm impatiently since I felt that making them sit still wasn''t a battle I was going to win. After they were all done, I gathered their attention and dismissed them. All the benches tumbled to the ground as they all left to go run back outside. I went and started righting all the benches. Just as I was about to remove the dishes, Mary and a couple of women came in. Where had they been this whole time? "Oh, Void don''t worry about that. We can handle a little mess. You did more than necessary, looking after the kids for so long." Bee was working on trying to order all her manuscripts into some semnce of sense before she bound them. Should her own story be at the beginning or the end? What about themandments of Void? As she was trying to puzzle the organization out, she heard a light knock at the door. Looking up, Bee saw the doorway crack open to admit Mary. Her face was tired but still sported her signature motherly smile. The older woman entered, pulling up a chair to face Bee rather than the table. "Honey, how are you doin''?" Bee sighed. It seemed like Mary was here to stay for a bit. She put the pile of papers down and turned to face Mary. "Hello Mary. I''m doing alright. Just really quite busy." Mary nodded, not taking the obvious hint. "I wanted to let you know that we''re a little worried for you, hun. You''ve been in here for a very long time, you know." "Don''t worry about me." Bee protested, thinking of all the other issues that Mary and the rest had to deal with. Perhaps she had left them alone for too long. "How is everyone settling into the castle?" "Oh, Just fine." Mary waved off the concern. "Void has been doing such a good job looking after all the children. You should see them eat. Well, I have never seen Leanne wait like that, much less a four-year-old! He''s got them standing behind their seats, waiting for everyone to get in ce before taking their seats altogether. They even ask each other to pass the dishes!" She let out a breath. "It takes a long time to teach table manners, and I was dreading having to teach so many at once, especially with only a few older kids to set an example. "But now you got me off topic. I wanted to make sure you''re okay, and maybe talk a bit if you feel like it. I know what you saw was quite a shock. When Tony and Cassy told Trent and I what happened to Greg Well I couldn''t imagine seeing the aftermath myself." Mary sniffled a little. "My son inw was there too, you know?" Bee shook her head. "I''m so sorry. I didn''t know. I didn''t actually go into the city, I met everyone when they were already outside." "Still I can only imagine." Mary said, her eyes slightly wet. "It''s quite a lot to handle. I you to know that, if you need to talk about it, I''m here for you." Bee nodded. She hadn''t really put much thought into what had happened at Greg. She didn''t really want to. Especially not when she had so much to do. Mary continued. "There was one other thing I wanted to talk to you about. We now have a lot of children under our care and we don''t have much to do with them. I was hoping that you might have something. We don''t have anyone to teach them trades, and they can''t all be farmers. Some are a little young to learn trades, sure, but they''ll need something to do soon. My older kids can help out on the farnd with Trent, but the rest will need something to do too. I think the oldest of the kids is six and will need to start contributing soon." Bee hadn''t even thought about that. She certainly hadn''t learned any trade, but she had learned her letters and numbers fairly young. "How many of the women know their figures and letters?" "Hmm, probably a couple. I''ll ask around." Mary mused thoughtfully. "Are you thinking of giving the kids an education?" "Yes, I don''t see why they shouldn''t all learn to read and write and do simple math. We don''t need them all in the fields yet, and it would give them something to do." Bee exined as she thought about other possibilities. Mary was right; people shouldn''t be too idle. They now had sixteen full adults and over thirty children to take care of. But why was she responsible for them? Chapter 113: Kidding Around Chapter 113: Kidding Around It was nice of the women to offer to clean up after the breakfast mess. I would trust them to do a good job for now, but I would find some time toe backter and check. Not that I honestly thought that they would do poorly, of course, but because I knew that humans didnt have the same capabilities as I did. It wouldnt be that big of a deal to sanitize everything afterwards. Just a quick swipe with mymp and all the germs would be eradicated. Entertaining the children was bing even easier as I started to better understand their mindsets. They werent like the adults at all. In many ways they were much more focused on the task at hand, but only for a short while. I just needed to find something they liked and they would focus on that for a long time, until they suddenly got bored and would need something else to do. Currently that meant they were chasing each other around the castle courtyard with gusto. Their first new resident, Felix, luckily fit right in and within a few minutes was running around with the rest of them. My main trouble was keeping them away from where Trent, his older kids, and many of the women worked in the field. They were moving dirt around again. At first I didn''t understand why that needed to be done. But as the work progressed I noticed the ground developing simrities to the fields that Tony had gathered food from a little while ago. That made sense. They were getting rid of the grass and less useful nts in some areas so that they could make more food. The kids were endlessly fascinated with what the adults were doing, though, and it was a chore to keep them from running over the second I wasnt looking. Luckily, I discovered their fixations with anything round that rolls. When that failed, I found small sticks that they liked to hit each other with. That one took a bit more training on my part. It took a couple of reprimands to teach them to mostly hit each others sticks and be gentle when hitting each other. I had to fill up on water a couple of times before they were all in line with that. When the stick fighting had first started I had wanted to put a stop to it, rather than find a way to guide them to do it safely. But when I saw how much fun they had I just couldnt help myself. Besides, I had seen a lot of adults do the same thing with steel at this point. So perhaps there was some value in them getting in good practice now. Leanne was the only one of Beatrices siblings that joined us regrly for ytime, but she was a bit older than the rest of them and mostly just helped me keep order. I appreciated her help. As well as her asional head pats. It was her idea to make the stick whacking part of the kids regr routine. Now every morning when the sun rose, we gathered all the children from the rooms they shared with each other and their mothers and pulled them out into the front yard of the castle. For a while they just engaged in a general melee and things were chaotic. That was fine. I wanted to stop that at first, but after seeing how much easier it was to get them to listen after they had a bit of their excess energy out, I just incorporated it into our routine. I called it warming up. After that I had everyone line up and watch as I demonstrated a few moves against Leanne. I first pulled out the divine sword to use as a demonstrating tool, but it was so bright that the children had to shield their eyes and couldnt see what I was doing. That is why I was swinging around a stick instead. They were basic things like a sideways sh or a jab. Nothing too fancy, just the kinds of things I had done to thatrge threatening demon. But the children all cheered and were very excited to watch me. Then they would repeat the move 100 times in the air as I watched. Most of my time was taken up with correcting mistakes and the like. But overall that took about 15 minutes, which was the limit for how long I could make them pay attention to anything. After that, Leanne helped me pair them up with someone their own size. The general chaos that followed was fun. They sometimes tried the moves I showed them, but really it was mostly iling around - especially for the little ones. That was fine though, some of therger ones actually would try to imitate me. It was a little hard to adapt though, as legs worked differently than wheels. My models had worked really hard on the problem for a couple days, but eventually I figured out the best way for them to move. I started carrying around a long thin stick that I would use to help correct their movements. Gently adjusting the cement of knees and elbows. Thissted for as long as the children wanted it to. Eventually the little ones would get tired and we would transition to watching a pair of therger kids taking turns going at it. I started taking notes to remember how everyone did. For example, thergest boy was not actually the best at these one-on-one matches. Hed get too aggressive, leaving himself open to counters and refusing to think past the next move. Rather there was a smaller blonde boy who seemed to really put some thought into his footwork and dodging. He even worked on something resembling abination attack at one point. It was quite impressive. Once I started letting them know how many times each got hit and gave them scores, everyone got much more eager to take a turn. It was as if seeing their numbers go up was enough motivation to work ten times harder. This generallysted until breakfast. Once Mary would ring her triangle, all the sticks were dropped and everyone made their way to the kids table. I would have said they all ran to the kids table, but they were usually too tired to run. The generalck of energy made breakfast much easier to handle though. Instead of yelling and food throwing, I mostly had to remove kids'' faces from their tes of food. Mary and the other adults seemed to understand what was going on. I assumed they approved, given that breakfast got a littleter each morning. This gave more time for our stick whacking. After breakfast though, things slowed down a lot. The kids went for a nap or to see their mothers. That was when I got my cleaning done. With my skills, I was now able to tidy up the whole castle in under an hour. I was starting to consider adding the catbs to my standard route just to stretch things out, but it was really not necessary to clean it every day. This was how my mornings went every day for a full week. During that time I didnt see Beatrice unless I visited her in the library. She seemed so focused on something she was writing that I didnt want to disturb her. In the afternoon, after a long nap and a snack, I had tried to teach the kids how to clean early on. However, that endeavor was having much less sess. The best I could do was have them make their beds. It was a start. That all changed once Beatrice finally finished her writing. The morning routine didnt change much. Sometimes Beatrice joined in with the stick game, but other times she also helped in the fields. After all, what they were doing was very hard work and she was quite strong. However, after lunch she would take the kids off my hands. The little ones, therger kids and even some of the adults would join her in the library where she would teach reading and writing along with basic numbers. This left me with more time than I knew what to do with. The only people who werent taken into her lessons were a few of the women who went about doing their own things. I could clean around the castle more but I didnt need to. Even with the sudden influx of humans and the incredible mess-making capabilities of the kids, it still wasnt enough to challenge me. At first, I just wandered the hallways, trying to remember thest time that I had time without things to do. It had been a recurring problemtely, one that I didnt know how to solve. Taking care of the kids was helping, sure, but it wasnt enough. This wasnt a problem before I came here, back when I still needed to charge. At least then doing nothing had a necessary purpose. Now I survived off just converting the dust I picked up, and that was more than enough to sustain me. As I grew more powerful my energy requirements grew, yes, but not at the same rate. I could only assume that my conversion efficiency had also improved with my other capabilities. Matter had a lot of energy potential in it after all. After dinner I would have time to talk with my disciples. As the rest of the families had some time to themselves, we let them do their own thing and gathered in Beatrices room. Mary had finally ousted her from the mattress she had in the library. Now she was in thergest room in the castle that contained a proper bed. I could tell that she hasnt been exactly happy about it, but she eventually relented. She did insist on bringing huge stacks of books back with her to the room though. I had moved my favorite rug over to the foot of her bed, where its red and gold majesty truly brought the room together. Lounging on it, I would spend the hours before sleep answering Beatrice and Tonys questions. Master, how should we deal with other humans? Beatrice asked that first night that our routine was established. Tony leaned in slightly, apparently also interested in the answer. It was something I had to think about. Not because the answer was particrlyplicated, but because I didnt really understand the question. Other humans? Did she mean other humans as in ones from the outside? Werent all the humans but her from the outside? Even Tony came from the outside. Maybe she was talking about humans we just hadn''t met yet. If that was the case, then it would entirely depend on how they acted. I saw no reason to turn anyone away, as long as they were willing to bathe and wouldnt try to cause any trouble. If she was talking about those that would cause a mess though, it depended on how insistent they were Overall I would say that it wasplicated and would vary a lot case by case. As I thought, I did my best tomunicate the ideas running through my processors to Beatrice and Tony. For some reason Beatrice was writing as fast as she could on sheets of paper spread out on the floor in front of her. So it will vary by the degree of their transgressions. We wont turn away anyone from joining ourorganizationbut they will need to prove their good intentions. How will they do that, Master? Hmmmmm, the only way to build trust was with time and cleaning. If someone wanted to stay with us, maybe they could stay separately and do some cleaning for a bit so we could get a judge of their character before trusting them morepletely. That way, if they did tend to make a huge mess of things, it wouldnt be right in our home. So we can have a probationary period. Like an outer disciple position? Beatrice rified. What about the children who grow up here? Will they also need to go through a trial period? No, I thought that I would be able to make a good judgment on who they were by the time they grew up enough to start contributing. That was one thing that I wanted to ask her, though. How old did humans get before they needed to work? Voicing my question, Beatrice didnt seem to know how to answer it. Nervously she looked at Tony who also had a thoughtful look on his face. I think that is an honest question, not a test. Tony said but he didnt sound very confident. It might make sense, actually. I dont know how well Master understands human culture and growth. Chapter 114: Base Building 101 Chapter 114: Base Building 101 Arthur shook his head as the group of scouts left his tent. In thest 25 years ofmand, he had never seen a group so shaken as those. The king''s elite rangers too. They were so incoherent and panicked that it was hard to trust anything they said. When men got shocked like that, their eyes started to y tricks on them. Several decades ago, before he was givenmand, he had been a young officer fresh from his father''s estate. His first engagement had been removing void beasts that were guing the local farmers. They spent daysying traps and lying in wait out in the fields, waiting for their mage to find something. In the end, they discovered a cabal of witches that had infiltrated the local council of elders. Even the mayor was in on it. Arthur had been looking over his shoulder for years after that. Not to mention the ever-present fear of grain cers. He had never been able to enter one without taking the door clear off its hinges first. All these years had passed, but when wheat swayed in a certain way, he still tensed up as though there was a void beast behind him. So when these men started babbling about a ck demon disk that had destroyed the legs of theirrades, Arthur would have been likely to send them to the medical tent and proceed with caution. That would have been his n if not for Harold''s warning. That warninging from anyone else could have been brushed aside or waved off as paranoia. But this was Harold. This was a man Arthur could trust with his life. Had, actually, for a few days in that grain cer. If the elite rangers were not even able to handle this threat, the best cause was to avoid it for now. The undead, while seemingly less powerful, had much more wide-reaching consequences. The army had received a steady stream of refugees from the north. Apparently, a small town named Greg hadpletely fallen, and only those who managed to escape before it was fully encircled made it out. Even then, the undead were acting with much more strategy than they should. Laying traps along the road was one thing, especially when it was just ghouls. But when other types joined in, it was worrying. Arthur looked down at the map in front of him, studying the reports of the undead positions. He had already called for reinforcements as the numbers were many times what the reports had imed. Why, if this were a foreign army, he would have said that they were setting up a for the province capital. His blood ran cold. Shouting for his adjunct, Arthur immediately sent the man off running messages to the rest of themand staff. It was several hours before sunrise, but still, in fifteen minutes, the rest of the officers were present, if not in perfect uniform. "Gentleman, if the blue markers are us and the red are those of Barleona, what battle does this remind you of?" Arthur wasted no time, gesturing to the map showing the positions of the undead. An older man with a somehow perfectlybed mustache sniffed. "Why, I would say it is like when we sacked the border city of Gratbranth. Only, if we had forgotten to guard the heights behind us. That hill wasn''t there." "Exactly. The enemymander is smart but inexperienced." Arthur stood suddenly and leaned over the map. "We move out in two hours, we need to prevent the city from being encircled, there''s no way to evacuate that many people. Here are your orders." Bee was shocked to see how much progress Void had made with all the children. Not only had it done what Mary mentioned about getting them to eat properly, but it was drilling them for two hours in sword forms every morning. Some were a little young for such things, but nobles of military households practically grew up with a sword in hand, so it wasn''t unheard of. But the amount of fun that these kids had would surely outstrip any of the others their age learning to fight. Her master had brilliantly turned it into a game and made them want to practice. All morning they went at it. Sometimes she would even join them, but with her skill, she didn''t really need this basic training. Still, she was more than happy to be a demonstration dummy. These kids, if they kept at it, would never need to pick a proficiency skill, and that would give them just the slightest edge over others at their level. Even the smallest benefits could snowball, she knew. At this rate, some might be able to get their first level soon. That would be unheard of, though - they''d need to kill a monster, and there was no way they''d send these kids out into any sort of danger. Though Void had been known to throw system rules to the wind before, so maybe it had a way around that. Her scan wasn''t any use telling her how close someone was to their first level, but she checked the kids every day topensate, just in case. If they needed any help choosing their first skill, she would be there. It was a bit risky getting them to level so early, but she was sure that Void knew what it was doing. She tried to impress upon the kids to ask for help once they got offered a skill. It hadn''t really worked until Void heard what she was doing and backed her up. When she was sure the kids understood, she felt a little freer to help out with all the other dozens of chores that needed doing around the castle. Somehow, Tony had left with no one noticing and grabbed a couple of cows when she was writing. He imed they had wandered off the abandoned farms. Now they had several dairy cows, and the castle was in the process of learning how to process them. Mary had taken to her role as mistress of the kitchens quite well, mostly supervising several of the women in cooking. Between preparing meals, they were also preparing for winter. They skimmed the milk to churn for butter, and they prepared hard cheeses that wouldst for months in the cer. All in all, things wereing along nicely. After lunch, she taught a little ss that used the new scriptures of Void to teach numbers and letters to anyone who wanted to learn. Which was almost everyone. The lessons were so popr that Trent had to work out a shift with her to get help in the field in the afternoon. At this rate, though, everyone would be educated to the level of a merchant''s daughter by the end of winter. Bee wasn''t sure what that would do for theirmunity, but she was excited to see it. Her days were satisfying, and she was earning a slow but steady stream of experience. At this rate, it would take her months to level up, but she would do it. And at her level, that was rare without epic beasts to kill. Despite all that, the absolute best part was before bed when the master would answer its disciples'' questions about its thoughts and ns. After hearing her master''s ns to build a powerful faith, there were few doubts about its godliness. She hadn''t yet offered to transition anyone over to Devote of Spot yet, but only because her master had cautioned her to wait. At first, she wasn''t sure that she had understood correctly. It must have been because Void wanted them to prove themselves more somehow. She was sure that all of the children would have the ss offered without her help. How many would choose it was a different question entirely, though. *** Almost a week passed, and the castle had fallen into afortable rhythm, the outside world and its troubles falling away. The little society wasing along nicely, and everyone had found a ce. The swarm of little kids running around ying brought a smile to everyone''s faces, despite the rough times they had recently. Bee was happy to see Felix, and Leanne find ces as ringleaders among the youngest. The women all fell under Mary as the oldest, and they ran the castle like a household. Only in nonstandard issues or big projects did they ask her opinion. Honestly, Bee felt rather inadequate to be giving advice to the adults, as she was only 13 - almost 14. But she was acting as the mouthpiece of their god, so it was bearable. Tony and Trent managed the fields. The harvest was done, and they were mostly clearing more for nting the next year. It was backbreaking work, but she didn''t mind helping. Sometimes a stone would need to be moved that they couldn''t handle, even working together. Instead of getting an ox or one of the cows to help, they called her. She had to admit showing off was a bit of fun as she hefted rocks ten times her weight and carried them off to the side. They now had quite the pile, and she considered building trebuchets just to have something to do with them. The twins and Marnada had a little trouble finding their ce in this newmunity. The twins were a little too young. They didn''t relish the idea of working in the fields all day, but their pride kept them from learning how to fight with the little children, despite their envious nces. Maranda seemed interested in whatever Bee was doing, at least until Bee noticed her. Then she''d scamper as far away as possible. Bee made a mental note to ask Void for advice on what to do with them. Maybe they needed to spend some time with their god and get their first levels and ss. Maybe she could get some help with creating all the healing items, she hadn''t expected to need so much until Void had asked her to make a lot of her "repair juice." She hadplied, and then her master had consumed it. It had baffled her at first, especially since it had no apparent injuries, but the next morning she saw that it was able to spray it out of its front on bruises and scrapes the children had. As expected of her god, it had improved her recipe, and the wounds healed in minutes instead of the hours her solutions would have normally taken. The peace of the castle could onlyst so long through. A week after she had finished writing the first Scripture of the Void, they started to get neers. The neers all came in different forms and dispositions. Some were undead, and others were scared. They all told the same story of the turmoil that churned outside of the walls of their castle. It wasn''t possible to stay sheltered forever. Void made its opinion on that very clear. Chapter 115: Meditation and Fabrication Chapter 115: Meditation and Fabrication My mornings were full of activity and excitement. However, once we settled into a routine, there were fewer things that needed my attention in the afternoons. Beatrice, Mary, Trent, and Tony made a good team and handled most things. They only asked for my input on major decisions, mostly about cleaning or the children. When it came to things like food or settling disputes between the castle upants, I was also consulted. But those topics rarely came up. So my afternoons were getting progressively more and more empty. I actually had nothing to do. Afterpleting my digitization of the entire library, I searched for something else productive I could do with my time. That was how I found myself sitting on my favorite carpet. I was trying out something called meditation. Apparently, it was a practice of sitting and doing nothing. I wasn''t sure what that would aplish, but the author of the book I read was insistent that while it wouldn''t help gain levels, it would improve control over skills and other aspects of power. Well, I didn''t feel the immediate need for a power-up exactly, but more control would never hurt. It should allow me to do even better with the children. Apparently, some of the more introductory types of meditation were done by doing a repetitive or inconsequential task until a certain state of mind was achieved. This wasn''t something that I had any experience with, so I tried to take some of the suggestions the book hadid out. Sweeping the same section of the floor over and over was clearly not fitting the bill. After a few hours of trying, I lost a little faith in its teachings and just decided to try a different meditation method. So instead, I rested on my favorite rug and looked inward. The book cautioned against dwelling on memories, so I tried to stay clear of my hardware and instead watched the contents of my dustbin. I watched as all the things I had collected floated around aimlessly. Never moving exactly but not quite staying still. I was able to get a clearer sense of the contents than I had ever been able to do before. I figured it was an effect of my new Void Maniption skill. There weren''t that many interesting things in there, though. A bunch of undead, the couple of humans that had attacked me on the way back to the castle. A lot of dirt and debris. Some crumbs and spilled milk from breakfast. Much of it didn''t have power radiating from it like the alchemical ingredients did. There were some of those as well. When Beatrice reced containment circles around the nonhuman residents of the castle, I would normally clean up after her. As I watched, I couldn''t help but meddle a little. I began to sort things by all types of categories. I tried to start by putting rocks in one ce, but even that was hard. At first, I tried to do it by size, but that was hard to categorize without just sorting the whole collection into a list, and that wasn''t an efficient process at all. Eventually, I sorted them by the primary element of theposition, then subcategorized them by secondary and tertiary elements. After that, I sorted the much smaller groupings by size. It took me a couple hours, but eventually, my dustbin was no longer a swirling jumble of all the things I had picked up throughout my work. Now it was neat and orderly. This new skill was really growing on me. I just admired my handiwork for a while before I started to notice that things were slightly shifting. Not the rocks and objects so much, but the humans were very slowly leaking blood from where I had removed their legs. That wouldn''t do. I couldn''t have them contaminating my newly cleaned space. Flexing my new skill, I did my best to take that blood and purify it of any contamination before shoving it back into them. I didn''t want them to die, after all. They were just in timeout for now. That''s when I remembered how the rat and the demons I had ced in here came out different than when I put them in. I didn''t want that to happen to these humans. They didn''t need power like that. Plus, even if they hadn''t been hostile, it just felt generally rude to do something like that without asking. I searched around, sensing the miasma of energy that suffused my dustbin. With a little effort, I coaxed it together into a single, dense cloud and set it to the side. I tried to set it far away from the humans, storing the energy away forter use. That was simple enough, but even after that, I noticed a thin trickle of energy seeping out of the alchemical materials and into the various creatures. It wasn''t the same as the energy that caused me to level up, but I also wasn''t sure what kind of effect it was having. Well, it couldn''t be too big of a deal, right? While I was working with the energy, the humans started leaking again. I shoved their fluids back in them again, but clearly, this wasn''t going to work long-term. With a few thoughts, I flipped through all the resources at my disposal. After a few minutes, my models had concocted a solution that had a decent chance of working. There was only a 45% chance of side effects. I figured that was an eptable risk here, so I started taking materials from all sorts of my collections and condensing them. Once I was done with my crafting, I inspected my work. A single L-shaped block of blue-gray crystal floated in by the dustbin, rotating slowly and emanating a slight aura of energy. Its surface was rougher than I would have liked, held together with a slurry of powdered rocks and water, but it came out better than expected. Of course, I didn''t want to use such magical materials on the humans, but they gave me the highest possibility of sess. Also, the fact that this stuff was in my dustbin meant it was technically trash anyway. I stuck the first makeshift limb to the end of the stump. It didn''t quite fit right. Adjusting it slightly, I shifted the material to form tubes for the liquid to move through. My models said that the new functionality might start to have unknowable effects since it was mixing blood with the crystallized energyttice mixed with minerals and alchemy supplies. Unfortunately, I didn''t have a better way. I fashioned all the other limbs necessary, and after a little bit, I noted that the leaking had stopped. Good, they should be fine then. After that was taken care of, I tried to get back to meditating. Had I been meditating this whole time? I was supposed to be ordering my inner world and centering my thoughts. That seemed to be pretty close to what I had been doing. Blinking my sensors, I returned to an awareness of my surroundings again. Now, how to tell if this worked? Bee was exhausted. Who would have thought that running a religion and a small city was going to be so much effort? She and Tony worked themselves to the bone so that they didn''t have to disturb their master more than absolutely necessary. The times in the evening when they were able to have several hours to justmune with Void should have been more than enough, but of all the lessons it imparted to them, they only tangentially touched on leadership and practical management. Most of the time, they ended up getting Void started on cleaning. It could talk forever about esoteric differences in cleaning equipment that she had never heard of. She did her best to record all of these bits of wisdom, but they just didn''t really fit into the narrative structure that her teachings relied on. When she asked about this, the impression that she got was that she could start a reference text. Somewhere she could keep at the things that were not core ts. They could then be referred toter when needed. Other times, it seemed like they were just ying games. Void taught them how to y a strange game involving ying cards. It was some gambling game. They just bet with rocks, but try as she might, Bee wasn''t able to master it, much less pick up on the lesson that Void was trying to teach with such games. Tony, however, seemed to have no problem picking up the lessons. Bee had suspected him of looking at the cards she held, but he never had. Void yed pretty much perfectly. It always made the most optimal decisions, and the only times it lost were when the odds were heavily out of its favor. Tony and Bee eventually shared the game with Mary and Trent in the mornings when they met about running the castle. Not only was it fun, but ying without Void also meant fewer sequences of perfectly sorted cards appeared in their games. Eventually, she started to form an idea of what her opponents were thinking based on their faces and chosen actions. Was this rted to what Void was trying to teach her? It was awfully familiar to what her father would talk about on the rare asions when they ate together. The game was helping her understand people. When neers came and integrated into castle life, she found herself with a better sense of what they were up to and what sort of work they would be suited to. It was slight for now, but it wasn''t nothing. If it was preparing for her to run its organization like this, then Void was truly a far-seeing god. *** Susan was the first neer that wanted to leave. Bee wasn''t sure how to handle this. They didn''t have any rules about this, and there was really nothing that said they should stop her. But even though they had been left in rtive peace for thest week or so, she knew that there was still an undead gue running around that would likely eat anyone who left the walls and was not strong enough. Bee was the highest level of the castle''s human inhabitants by arge margin, and she would still struggle if she faced too many undead at once. "How do you n to travel safely?" Bee asked Susan, honestly curious about her ns. "Uhhh," Came the uncertain reply. It was weird to think of someone older than her as such a child. But when Bee looked at the eighteen-year-old, she couldn''t really think of any other way to describe her. It wasn''t that Susan was dumb. Well, not that Bee could tell. She might have been a little slow, but the bigger problem was that she just didn''t think things through. She had managed to make it here with two little kids. Both were younger than ten. Apparently, they had no rtion to her, and with nothing really holding her here, she had wanted out. "I figured I could walk to the town past Greg? Maybe that one wouldn''t be destroyed?" Susan finished, her voice lilting up at the end like she was asking a question. Bee resisted the urge to run her hand down her face. Deciding to switch tactics, Bee asked a different question. "Ok, so why do you want to leave?" Bee said. Susan cocked her head slightly, and Bee noticed her eyes tighten. "I won''t force you to stay, I''m just trying to see how I can help you." "Well I just don''t think that I really fit in here. I don''t like children or farming. So if I can make it back to a real city I should be able to find my way home in the south I think." Susan said with a small smile. It wasn''t the whole truth. Bee wasn''t exactly sure how she knew, but she knew. Something about her bodynguage and the way her answers were phrased. Perhaps Void''s training was having more of an effect than she had thought. Susan had done a good job trying to hide it. She hadid interesting traps about who she was and where she hade from. But it seemed like there was something else too. "Where do you call home then?" Chapter 116: Threads of Fate Chapter 116: Threads of Fate Bee watched Susan like she was holding a hand of cards. The woman was hiding something; what was it? Susan began tapping her fingers together nervously as Bee continued to study her. Why was she so confident in being able to get through the undead by herself? Bee ran Scan on her to see what she could find. Name: Chrissy, Level: 29, Race: Human, ss: Infiltrator, Age 33, Strongest stat: CHA It took all of Bee''s control to keep her eyes from widening. Not only had she been given a false name, but she was at a much higher level than she should be. Well, at least that exined her confidence. She should be able to keep herself safe. But with that ss, Bee likely couldn''t trust anything she said. Noticing that the woman still hadn''t said anything, Bee started to get concerned. "Susan, are you alright?" The woman shook her head, and her gaze refocused from the nk wall it was staring at. "Yeah, I''m totally okay. I just Just got an odd feeling like something was watching me." She paused for a moment before adding, "It made me feel small, like an insect." She gave a slight shiver before smiling uncertainty at Bee. I can''t tell if that was an act or not, Bee thought. Should she just bring this to Void''s attention? It seemed like it could be significant enough to warrant his input. And if not Well, better safe than sorry, Bee turned slightly, motioning for Susan to follow. "Come with me. We should talk before you go." With that, Bee set off down the hall towards Void''s chambers, "Susan" following along behind. I sat on the rug, still trying to meditate. This time though, I wasn''t focused on the inside of my dustbin. No, I was carefully examining the rug underneath me. The fibers that made up the rug were much moreplicated than I had first thought. Each fiber seemed to beposed of many smaller, individual ones. Even the individual fibers were astonishinglyplex, though - rather than being smooth, their surfaces appeared to beposed of multiple ovepping scale-like structures that covered additional inneryers of differentpositions. I wasn''t sure if theplexity was because I had never seen anything like it before or because I was studying it with much more powerful sensors than I ever had ess to before. It could be either. I wondered where the material that made this work of art came from. It was undeniably organic inposition, but I didn''t think there was anything like this in my dustbin. I would have to keep my eye out for something else like this, so to speak. As I was meditating on the construction of rugs and carpets, there came a knock on my chamber door. I beeped to wee Beatrice in. She wasn''t alone. Behind her followed a taller woman who looked slightly nervous. I wondered what this was all about? They came to a stop in front of my rug, both kneeling and bowing their heads. It was a habit these humans had all formed, and no matter what I did, I couldn''t seem to break them off it. It was the worst thing. Having them talk to me near my level was nice in its own way, but the bowing was getting a little out of hand. Why couldn''t they have taken to giving me head pats with this much gusto? Inquisitively, I asked Beatrice if there was anything wrong as they stood. She looked at the woman behind her. "Um, Master. This is Susan, and she was asking about leaving. She thought that she would be able to get to a town beyond Greg and then find her way home from there." Okay. So now, was this important for me to know about? As far as I was aware, we weren''t stopping anyone froming or going. I asked Beatrice as much. Why had she brought this to my attention? She gave an awkward nce over to the woman and then back at me. Clearly, there was something that she wanted to say but was too ufortable or hesitant to speak up about. Fine. I changed my request to Beatrice. Her face showed a bit of relief before she turned to Susan and said, "The great Void would have you tell it your story." The woman licked her lips a couple times, and I could sense an odd moisture running down her temple. But soon, she began to speak. "I''m from the south of the kingdom, from the city of Johnson. Though I haven''t been back in many years, I still have family and a few friends there. When I was much younger, maybe eight or nine, I was recruited to join a special unit in the king''s army. "This was a unit unlike any others before it. The youngmander had friends in high ces and was quite the strategist. He knew that information was key to every battle. If you knew what your enemy would do, then you would have won half the battle. If you knew why they would take those actions, then victory was already yours. That was one of his favorite quotes." A small smile crossed her face as she spoke. "Over the first several years, he trained the children in many different areas. We learned all thenguages of the countries around us. We learned how to mimic each ent and how to make effective disguises. We ran with street children, and we dined with nobles. We learned to fit in anywhere and everywhere. Then, we learned to fight. By the time we were thirteen, we all had powerful sses based on deception and information gathering. "It was hard work, but not bad. In order to maintain cover we saw our families regrly. Everyone thought we were training to be scribes and ountants for the king." She chuckled at that. "Well, not that it was a lie. We learned a lot about those disciplines as well. Over thest twenty years I have spent more time in other countries though, observing their movements, counting troops and getting grain ledgers. I have been rerouting their resources when I can and doing everything in my abilities to make sure that our kingdom would thrive." Susan told a pretty good story, I thought to myself as I listened. The pacing was just right, and she gave a good overview without too many details. I would have to learn from her. But this also begged the question: why was she telling us all this when even her own family didn''t know? She wasn''t done with her story yet, though. She took a deep breath before continuing. "We have been preparing for war for a while now. Tensions with Barleona have only gotten worse, with a little help from people like me. The king had set his sights on invading soon, but then problems sprung up in the north. There was the demon-summoning failure of our trump card. Then this undead gue. "Naturally, the king and others thought something was up. I was moved from my station in deep cover, as most of my work had already beenpleted. I was meant to investigate the origins of these problems. I spent some time around the area scouting, but the undead were everywhere. Even with my training, I was struggling. But you took me in when I was hurt, and let me see how Void truly is." She nced at me once more. "And now, I have to report back." Beatrice had seemed tense as Susan told her tale, and even now, she didn''t rx. "What exactly do you intend to report?" Susan let out a very tired-sounding sigh. "Originally, I did intend to gather intel on entry points to the castle and Void''s weaknesses. But after seeing what you''re doing here and learning about Void." Her gaze turned to me. "I have to tell them the truth." Beatrice crossed her arms. She seemed pretty stubborn about this. "With everything you''ve said, how can I believe that you''re not looking toe back with an army?" Susanughed at that. "Why? To antagonize a powerful and benevolent protector? Even if Void was a hostile force, I''d be leading them to their deaths. Yes, I''ve gathered intelligence while I''ve been here. That intelligence tells me that we''d stand no chance. She shook her head. "No, I need to tell them that Void is benevolent. That he didn''t cause the gue, that he''s protecting our people, and that he''s a new god." "So, will you let me go and spread the word?" Susan finished her speech and waited. I scrutinized her. That was quite the story. It was a lot more detailed than I was expecting, honestly. At first, I wasn''t sure why Beatrice wanted me to talk to her. But now it made total sense. She waited for my response, still eyeing Susan with suspicion. Still, why did people think we were the cause of the gue? We hadn''t ever done anything threatening that I could think of. Sure, there might have been a little misunderstanding when I first arrived, but surely that was cleared up now, right? And maybe they got mad about me chasing off those humans a little while ago, but that was self-defense. What could they possibly think that we did? I asked Beatrice to trante for me. "What are the opinions of the kingdom and the surrounding areas of us?" Susan looked between Beatrice and me, and her face paled slightly. She turned to face me fully before bowing 9.2 degrees lower than she had when she greeted me. Her head nearly touched the floor, and she didn''t return to her knees this time but just spoke from the awkward-looking position. "I regret to inform you that well, the opinion of the king and his court is not favorable to you, my god." Susan continued in a rush. Her voice wasn''t precisely tinged with fear, but something else that I couldn''t exactly put my bristles on. Embarrassment or shame, maybe? "They viewed you as a threat, some identally summoned demon that would cause a cmity or release an ancient evil. When the undead drove off the army they had sent to stop you, they assumed that you were the cause." "Demons being allied with undead is unheard of!" Beatrice eximed. Her face was flushing red. "Who made that assumption?" "I- I''m not sure mydy. I am not privy to such information." Susan said with real shame in her voice. I couldn''t tell if that was because of Beatrice''s response or herck of knowledge. Still, either one was entirely out of her control and something she shouldn''t feel responsible for. I had Beatrice convey this sentiment to her. "Worry not my lost child." Beatrice intoned. "You are not at fault for the failings of others or for things that you could neither affect nor know." Hey, that was much closer to what I meant! Closer than Beatrice usually got, at least. The tone was a lot different than what I would have used, but the words were close enough. Was she getting better at interpreting, or was it just the simplicity of the message? I told her that she was free to go. Beatrice nodded at my beeps. "Walk safely and keep yourself clean." As Susan and Beatrice exchanged a few more words, I turned my attention to more important things and continued my study of the rug. The fibers were indeed organic. But they weren''t from nts. No, they seemed to be something else. It was simr in structure to human hair. Maybe I could try to weave something out of some of the hair I already had in my dustbin? With all the long-haired women around, I had a good amount of it. Curious, I started manipting some that I had sorted into their own categories. Between how thin the strands were and theplexity of the work, It felt clumsy and difficult. Looking at the finished product, I beheld a small swatch of brownish material. I couldn''t tell if it was my technique that was off or just a problem with the material. I popped some small bits of hair out of the dustbin and tried manipting it with Air Maniption. Somehow that was even worse. I couldn''t control the air well enough to iste a single strand without blowing the rest around the room, much less weaving them together. Examining my best effort, though, it seemed that there was some small potential here. As Susan and Beatrice stood to go, I called out to Beatrice, asking her to stay because I had a task for her. Chapter 117: Amazing Graze Chapter 117: Amazing Graze Bee walked out of the meeting feeling very confused. The whole Susan episode, she could really just chalk up to Void being mysterious and having some hidden n that she just didn''t see yet. Personally, she didn''t trust the woman at all. She was still hiding her name, after all - who knew what else she hadn''t revealed? Ultimately, though, they either would need to stop her or let her go. And since Void was a benevolent god, they weren''t going to keep her prisoner or hurt her without good reason. If Void decided that allowing her to go tell the kingdom about this ce was in their best interest, then who was Bee to judge? No, that was all she could understand. What was leaving Bee confused was something else. Why did her master want sheep? At least, that was what she thought it was saying. The particr concept was hard for her to interpret somehow. As she had interacted with her master, Bee continually improved in her understanding of its divine messages. But when it had been asking for sheep, the only thing she was getting from it was a vague description of a particr animal and the wool they produced. Sheep were the best fit she could imagine, but still. Was there some hidden truth to the sheep that she was unable toprehend? It was something that she would need to think about. Clearly, it was important to her master if they required such a detailed description. Bee frowned as she went over how little she knew about sheep. They were fluffy herd animals that produced wool and That was about it. She had heard shepherdsin that the sheep found any way possible to kill themselves. Also, she knew the wool had different gradings, but she didn''t know what they were. Walking towards the entrance of the castle, Bee figured it was best to talk to an expert. Where was Tony? *** After a little searching, she found the young man helping Trent in one of the fields. A few others were there as well, but it seemed that they were mostly watching a demonstration of how to effectively sow seeds. As she approached, Trent paused his lesson and called out. "Afternoon, Bee. Is there anything we can help you with?" Bee smiled at the weing note in his voice. Too many of the residents of the castle were altogether too respectful to her. Trent, though, didn''t seem to forget that she was still just a teenager, even if he did listen to what she said. Of course, he had listened to her even before the whole speech she had tranted at the wall. Bee sometimes wondered if that''s what having a good father felt like. "Yes, actually. Would it be too much of a bother to borrow Tony?" "Haha, not at all. Please take him off my hands." Trent said while trying to cuff Tony on the shoulder. Tony was a lot faster than he used to be, though, and slipped out of the way at thest second. Lightly elbowing his father as he walked past, Trent waved one of the women watching from the side to take his spot in the demonstration. Off to the side of the field, Tony stopped in front of Bee. "So, what adventure you got nned for us this time?" Tony was clearly joking, but Bee thought it might be fun to y along. She stood up straight and lifted her chin proudly. "I have been called to hunt for my master. My quarry is a mysterious beast, one that produces 1.5 millimeter crimped fibers that have an instion property and, when spun, can form long chainsmonly used in the construction of rugs and garments. Void has tasked me with finding such creatures and bringing them to the castle." The look on Tony''s face was well worth it. "What manner of beast is that?" "Sheep, I think," Bee grinned with a shrug. "I''m not sure why Void was so hard to understand when it asked for them though. It was almost like I was trying to interpret the description rather than the animal itself." Tonyughed. "Maybe it just doesn''t know what a sheep is?" "Don''t even joke about that," Bee elbowed him with a repressed smile. "But imagine" "Well, we don''t have any sheep. I don''t think anyone in the valley kept any either. There should be some in the farms on the other side of Greg, but that area didn''t seem in great shapest time we saw it." Tony rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I suppose if it was just us, we could get there in a day or so. But getting back wouldn''t be fast. Sheep aren''t really known for their speed." "I also feel a bit bad leaving like this." Bee gestured to the castle as she and Tony started walking back with her. "There is still so much that needs to be done around here." "It should be fine. We''ve got plenty of hands, and most of the heavy lifting is already done. In fact, now is actually a good time. We have a bit more work to do before winter really hits. We want to finish preparing another field. We don''t want to have to do some of this work in the spring, and we can''t do it under snow. So if you''re gone for a bit we can get onest push in." Tony said. Bee frowned. "How does me being gone help?" "It doesn''t directly, but it means that some will spend less time learning to read and more time in the fields." Bee just shook her head at that. Heading into the castle, they split up briefly, each going to pack a travel bag. Bee put as much healing equipment as she could into the bag. From past experiences, she figured that they would need it, even if she really hoped they could avoid fights this time. But the couple of new refugees they had taken in since they got back with the children reported that the gue wasn''t getting any better. So thest thing she did was check the sharpness of her broom spear. The de had seen some serious use since Void had made it for her. However, when she brushed her thumb against the de, she could feel the edge hadn''t lost any of this wicked cutting power. Was this because of the proximity of Void or because it was made by a god? Either way, Bee felt ready. Heading to the library, she found Tony waiting for her there. "I just want to grab a couple books before we head out." Tony followed her as she slipped into the library. A couple of the women and children were in there, carrying piles of books about and sorting them. By decree of Void, the library was being reorganized. A few weeks back, it helped Bee define a few general categories. Things like stories, guides, and reference texts were then broken into subcategories. Then on the shelves, the books were organized by thest name of the author. The system her master came up with was certainly a lot more intuitive. On top of that, they made a binder of papers that had each book listed out with a brief summary, its category, the year it was written, and the author''s name. This way, she could find a book that might be interesting and then locate it without having a look through each shelf. Of course, there might be problems with the information, but there would always be mistakes. Unless Void did it itself. They had organized the first few books themselves, and now the rest of the library was being taken care of by her most promising students. It was a great way to have them practice reading and writing outside of lessons while also being productive. Bee quickly stole a few of the books she had been eyeing and her favorite healing reference from a nearby stack. With that taken care of, she left a few instructions to the new librarians and headed out of the castle with Tony. After a few weeks at home, it sure felt nice to be heading out. I watched as Bee left the castle with Tony. So they were called "Sheep." It was Sheep that produced the Wool? That was good to know. Susan had left the castle not too long before them, and she was moving a bit faster, so they likely wouldn''t run into her. I hoped that I had made the right call letting her just go like that. Bee had asked some questions that I should have thought of myself. Susan''s answers had been good, I think, but I still wasn''t about to let an armye and hurt my people here. Rolling out of the room, I meandered to the front of the castle. The session with the kids had gone well this morning. They were able to keep going longer and longer before getting tuckered out. Also, some were getting really good at the stick-fighting games. I was considering maybe holding a special session in the afternoons for the best five or ten. But that would have to wait. Right now, they were all helping the adults or pestering their mothers. A few were running around in the field behind the castle, just doing kid things. Leaving the castle, I looked at the grass growing along the path. Tall, green des sprouted wildly, reaching upwards in a tangled mess of heights and directions. I had been avoiding thewn because the long grass kept getting stuck in my wheels. It was a bit like long hair but thicker. It also would produce a liquid when crushed. It was still better than dirt. But not as good as clean stone. Idly, I produced my Divine Sword and swung it in a graceful arc. I didn''t even feel it pass through the grass. If I had swung it through the air, I wouldn''t have been able to even tell the difference. Two and a half inches above the ground, the stalks parted, and the tops fell to the ground. A slight bit of suction pulled the debris into my dustbin. Interesting. Swinging again, I moved forward. After just a few swings, I had begun to create a swath of neat, even grass among the formerly wild jungle. In fact, it started to look a lot more like the outside of my human''s home. Was this something I should have been doing the whole time? It seemed not quite right like it wasn''t my purpose. Although, truthfully, the scope of my responsibilities had expanded so much that I wasn''t surprised. But still, it was extremely satisfying to do. I started trimming the grass on the side of the path and cleaning that up. It didn''t take me very long, but I wasn''t in much of a rush either. I did have a slight worry that removing so much material would be bad for the grass, but no one seemed to have a use for the stuff besides walking on it. Plus, I was curious about the effects. If I removed all this material from the field, what would happen? Did the humans cut it regrly, or did they let it grow long? As I drew the cuttings into myself, I analyzed theponents closely. I started calcting how much of each base material I was taking out of the field of grass. Where did it alle from? The grass, of course, but the grass had to get it from somewhere. After I had spent enough time with my advanced sensors, I had found that no bit of dust simply appeared from nowhere. With enough effort, I was able to track down where each individual particle was derived from. So the stuff thatposed the grass had toe from somewhere, as well. Looking at the dirt, the grass grew out of it. Hmmmm Perhaps this warranted further investigation. Steadying my nerves, I trained my sensors squarely on my greatest foe. Chapter 118: The Circle of Life Chapter 118: The Circle of Life Roscoe prevented himself from squeaking out a curse as he ordered the retreat of the elite skeletons. The humans had surprised him. Their leader had craftily lured them into trap after trap. If his troops could feel, their morale would be quite low. Luckily, they were either mindless undead or fervent followers of the Void god. This was nothing but a minor setback. No, Roscoe and his generals already had ns for what to do next. Taking the city would be dyed. It was a failure for their god, but better this small disappointment than arger er. Arge portion of the horde stayed circling the walls to prevent anyone else from leaving easily. The rest separated into columns and marched in all different directions away from the city. It was a shame, one that he was onlying to terms with now. Roscoe was starting to ept that he was not some great general who could cleverly outmaneuver his opponents, despite being outnumbered or otherwise at a disadvantage. Sure, he was reasonably clever, but this humanmander had been at least one step ahead at each engagement. This wasn''t going to go well for the holy army if they continued to try and engage with these terms. They needed a real, overwhelming advantage. Recruitment drives were the obvious solution. Normally that would involve an aggressive attack, as the fallen troops from any protracted battle or engagement would soon result in their overwhelming advantage. However, this enemy was careful to not loserge numbers and had some way of making sure that some of Roscoes own troops were destroyed permanently. No, they would need to go further afield for new recruits. Roscoe clenched his teeth. This wasn''t the disaster that it could have been, but it was not good either. The troops had orders to find additional troops. In the meantime, Roscoe had a skill of his own to experiment with. With histest level, he had been offered Necromantic Rituals. From speaking with his skeletal associates, it sounded like the skill was rted to the magic that had preserved them and their intelligence. It made sense, though, as he could somehow feel the aura of undeath around in a way that he couldnt before. With an effort of will, he was even able to manipte it a tiny bit. Still, Roscoe hadnt had time to test much more than idle curiosities. Now though It bore further investigation. Perhaps that skill could hold the key to his victory. The road stretched long and narrow through the trees. Personally, Bee didn''t think it felt that long, but as she jogged next to the panting Tony, he vehemently disagreed. "What do you mean, it''s not that far? He gulped in some air. It took us a week! Toe back from Greg! We left the castle! Two hours ago!" Tony was trying to be empathetic, but his inability to breathe really made it hard for him to make his points eloquently. "Well,st time we made this trip, we were pulling enough weight that an ox might have had trouble. Now you have no burden. There is clearly no reason toin." Bee admired the stark, mostly-bare trees lining the path as they ran. She knew this wasn''t an entirely a good-faith argument, but she was having fun pushing Tony''s buttons. "You. Are. Plenty. Reason. To. Comin." Tony panted out as they started up a slight hill. They halted their conversation until they had crested the top. Even then, it took him a second to catch his breath on the decline. "You have to be twice my level. Are you just trying to push me to my limits? I don''t think youve even broken a sweat yet." Bee ran her fingers through her hair. There was some moisture at her roots. It was slight, but she was sweating. "That''s just because girls don''t sweat. Didn''t your mom teach you this?" Tony just growled and pushed his legs a little harder. Frowning at not getting the reaction she was looking for, Bee continued with her teasing. "Actually, you have some sisters too, so really you have no excuse." "I''ve also mucked pig pens with those sisters. I clearly have no delusions about how pretty and perfect you are." Tony shot back with a dirty look. "In fact, I think you have something in your hair,e a little closer, and I can get it out for you." As he spoke, Tony ran his fingers through his soaking mop of hair and flung the drips at Bee. He followed up his attack by reaching out for her as if to give her a big, sweaty hug. Speeding up a bit, Bee grinned and wiped a few droplets from her face with the back of her hand. "Gross and slow!" She called over her shoulder as she slowly pulled away. Bee didn''t get too far ahead, as she didn''t want to get Tony attacked and hurt by getting too far out of reach. But she did want to make him pay for that. A minute or twoter, she found a nice patch of grass off to the side of the road. Flopping down, sheid on her back with her arm flung carelessly over her eyes. It didn''t take too long before she could hear Tony''s panting not too far down the road. Carefully she held still until he got near enough to see. Then she rose and started running by his side again. With an exaggerated yawn, she stretched her arms above her head. "I thought you would never catch up." "Sometimes I can''t believe how childish you are," Tony shook his head. Bee paused mid-theatrical stretch. Was she being childish? "Uhhh, yeah, you are right; we can, uh, slow down if you need to," Bee muttered after a few moments of thinking. Thinking back on it, she hadn''t been acting in a way worthy of her master. As the only priestess of their fledgling religion, there was a certain level of decorum that she really should try to adhere to. Running around and ying with her second like he was her brother wasn''t in line with that at all. Tony shook his head and sighed. "I didn''t mean it like that. You should still be a kid. Youre what, 12?" "Almost 14!" Bee protested. "Still, my point stands. There is way more pressure on you than what it would take to crush most adults. I''m amazed, but at the same time, I don''t envy you at all." Bee grunted neutrally. "I''ve gotten used to it. Sure, thest few months have been rough. But it didn''t feel that much worse than at home. She paused for a moment. Honestly, most of it has been so amazing. Void has given me so much freedom and taught me so much. I don''t think I could ever go back to the rtively low stress of being a glorified maid in the castle, even if that was one of the easiest times in my life. It was so boring." "I thought you were an apprentice." Tony raised an eyebrow. "Technically, I was, but they all spend more time cleaning than doing magic. The mages don''t seem to think it''s worth their while to do any teaching for the first few years. If you stick around through that, they might notice you exist. Unless your parents pay to expedite the process, of course." Tony grimaced and wiped the sweat out of his eyebrows. "Yours didn''t, I take it?" "No, I was there because I was already written off. Too impulsive to take on the family afterward and not old enough to marry off yet. If I had stayed for a couple years without running away, I''m sure my father might have found a use for me." Bee said without a hint of bitterness in her voice. "That seems wasteful. But then, how do you know so much about magic?" Tony said, his breathing once again ragged. "Uh, mostly reading books and listening to Void," Bee said. "I didn''t really know much before this, and the words they use in magic texts are pretty old. Probably read the dictionary a dozen times that first week." "Wow, sounds like your dad really messed up. What a waste of talent to set you aside like that. "More like ack of interest. Nothing like the fear of a nebulous god and demons to get you motivated. Besides, father didn''t set me aside. It was more like He put me on a shelf until he had a use for me." Bee said in a half-hearted defense of her father. She didn''t really hold too much love for the man, but he was family, right? Her emotions about her father had cooled quite a bit after the chaos of thest few months. Tony just shook his head and continued running. I had a lot to think about. The dirt had so many things in it that I didn''t understand. Little bits of life. Bits of organic material. Particles of inorganic minerals and stone. All the germs and bacteria that I expected, but more than just that. Insects and worms were everywhere. When I studied what they were doing, things started toe together in my understanding. It started with me following the baseponents of the grass. Mostly the carbon and nitrogen. I could see it draw some from the soil. But where did that alle from? Each time I found an answer, it just seemed to leave me with a dozen more questions. When it came down to it, I was pretty sure that without the clippings falling back into the dirt for long enough, the soil would run out of some of the really important minerals. That might take a long time, but if it did, then the grass wouldn''t grow, and we would only have dirt. That wasn''t good because, well, it would be dirty. Based off of some simple math, I had a decent amount of time before that became a real issue. I just needed to find a way to process the cuttings I had carefully balled up in my dustbin. I wasn''t really sure how to do that, though. I supposed I could just leave them in the grass, but that would block out the sun from hitting nts that needed it - another interesting variable. Plus, leaving debris like this lying around went against my very nature. Better to make the soil enrichment process more efficient and clean. I kept a few models running on the problem in the background. While I slowly made my way in an ever-widening ring around the castle, I carefully inspected everything with my sensors, looking for the other sources of these nutrient-rich materials. Once I had a supply, I could see about isting the important bits and finding a good way to inject them back into the soil. My glowy sword had no problems cutting the grass as I covered the courtyards, and I felt a sense of peacee over me. Not quite like when I was cleaning, but something along those lines. This was something that required slightly more focus than cleaning, as the cuts needed to be perfectly even. Each variation in the ground needed to be ounted for, and the edge of the de needed to line up so that the cleanest cut was made. My progress was much slower than even if this had been a long carpet. But I didn''t mind. This wasn''t something that I would do every day since grass didn''t grow that fast. The tall grass hid me for a long while, but the widening ring of evenly cut grass radiating from the castle started to draw attention. Soon enough, I realized that I had a bit of a crowd watching me. Chapter 119: His Cleanliness Chapter 119: His Cleanliness I wasnt normally one to be self-conscious, but it felt like most of the castle hade to watch me cut the grass. What was so fascinating about it? It was only a little after my third revolution around the castle that Trent joined the crowd. After a few minutes, he stepped out and cleared his throat. Master Void, do you have any ns for those grass clippings you are harvestin? I paused in my work. Did I have ns for the grass? I didnt know if I would really call them ns, but I did have a few ideas of what I could do with it. I wasnt going to act on them much immediately, though, and I was definitely open to others. It would be silly of me to think that I would know what to do with the grass better than the humans who had been working at this for a long time. Trent was an older human, one that everyone in the castle looked up to, so I had to assume that he knew a lot. Even if he did spend most of his time ying in the dirt. Of course, he cleaned himself regrly, so he couldnt be all bad. I did my best to let Trent know that I had a few ideas but was open to suggestions. I made sure to try to slow down my beeps for rity, but still, I was mostly left with a nk look. Trent looked around with a slightly frustrated look on his face. Of course, both Bee and Tony left. Why didnt they think that the young god might want to talk to people in the meantime? Darn kids. The crowd looked around at each other for a couple seconds in shared consternation. After a moment, Felix stepped out from between a couple of therger kids he had been hanging out with. Uh, Mr. Trent? Trent scanned the group of people before finding the source of the small voice. Meeting Felixs eyes, Trent spoke in a slightly gentler voice than I had heard him use before. Yes, Felix? Uh, I think that, Voi-, I mean, uh, Our Lord Excellency was tryin to say that he- it, it was happy to get ideas, but wanted to keep a little bit for something I didnt quite get. I think thats what His- Its? Goodliness was tryin to say. The boy eventually stumbled through an exnation. But honestly, I couldntin. That was a much better and more straightforward trantion than most of the ones Bee did. Trent turned to look at me, seemingly trying to evaluate whether I agreed with the statement. I tried to figure out a way to signal my agreement with my arm or sword, but every move I could think of was distinctly negative or too ambiguous. With a mental shrug, I did my best to let out a positive beep. Trent nodded before turning to the rest of the people. Im sure that you all have better things to do rather than bother Void. Hes tryin his best to serve themunity. You should all follow his example and consider what you could be doin to pitch in more. Trent grinned. If anyone needs suggestions, Im happy to help out. With that promise of more work, the people quickly dispersed. Some, though, appeared to have a certain fire in their eyes and walked with more purpose than before. Felix, could I ask you to stay with us for a moment? Trent said, catching the sleeve of the small boy before he could slip away with the rest of the people. I think Im going to need a bit more trantin before I also can start to understand Void. It seems you younger people are a bit closer to im. Felix nodded and walked closer to me alongside the older man. Trent squatted down to be near my level, but Felix just sat on the ground like the children tended to do. So the first thing that I would normally do with a grass field like this is cut it for hay. Now, we dont have nearly enough animals to eat everything this could produce. Soposting it would be nice. We could get some piles and then use itter for fertilization in the spring. I considered what Trent said. Composting? I wasnt familiar with that term. Or fertilization, for that matter. Having the animals eat it did seem like a simple and useful solution if that was a possibility. Trent did speak with a lot of confidence when it came to nts and stuff. Perhaps he would be able to exin a few things about that area to me. I let out a series of beeps for Felix to trante. Felix listened to me and licked his lips. Looking up nervously at Trent, he turned back to me. Uh, Lord Void, could you perhaps repeat thatst bit, I- I didnt understand all that. What, where was all this lord and excellency stuffing from, Felix? I asked why he didnt talk to me like he did when we were just ying. Nervously he looked back up at Trent. I dont know, are you su-. Uh, is that really what you want? Yes, of course, I didnt really care what people called me, but it seemed that Felix was a bit ufortable with that idea. Still, the odd manner of address just seemed so out of ce. I did my best to impress on Felix that he didnt need to treat me any differently in front of other people than all the children did normally. No one was going to get mad at him for not using the right honorific or anything. Trent watched our back and forth passively. From his expression, I wasnt able to tell how much of the conversation he could put together from just Felixs side, but he seemed more than willing to let us finish. Eventually, Felix nodded and said, If thats what you want, Void. Turning to Trent, Felix ryed my message rather well. Void wants to know - what does taking nt food out of the field do to grasster on? Trent blinked in surprise, clearly not expecting this line of questioning. Uh, Im not sure grass draws that much from the soil that isnt redeposited by rain and the natural wildlife. But I suppose its possible that, after a long enough time, the grass would suffer a bit. With a little fertilizer, Im sure it woulde back. The problemes up more with crops. Normally the solution to that is to let one third of your fieldsy fallow each year. That gives the soil a chance to recover without the need for fertilizer. After enough context clues, I was finally able to understand what fertilizer was. Well, context clues was a bit strong, as Trent pretty much exined the whole thing to me. But that gave me a good idea of whatposting was, even if I didnt really understand how the process itself worked. I got Felix to interpret my next question. The boy took a couple of repeats to understand the whole thing, but eventually, I was able to simplify it enough. Felix wet his lips and squared his shoulders, clearly taking his job as my trantor very seriously. Mr. Trent sir, Void would like to know how you makepost. And how long it takes for the stuff youpost to turn into useful nt food. Also, how long it would take to make fertilizer. Trent rubbed his jaw. Why dont we start headin over to the pile I started a little while ago? We can talk about it more with an example. Bee and Tony had made incredible time, despite all her teasing. Tony was able to maintain a pace only possible because of his high levels. It was probably helped by a simrly high endurance. But the fact that she couldnt confirm that meant Bee was starting to get frustrated with her scan skill. Sure, it was incredibly useful and everything, but it hadnt grown nearly as fast as she would have liked. She was already one of the most powerful people she had ever met, and she hadnt even been able to see her own full status, let alone anyone elses. Of course, skills getting stronger wasnt just levels and experience. Using them was how they really evolved and adapted to the user, as well as grew in power. Time was thergest factor in that, so it was a bit unfair for her to expect them to grow at the same rate as her level. Especially with how often she forgot to use it. Sure, skills still developed a bit without use, but then theyd never truly be great. In fact, most people had more experience with skill training than leveling because of the lower risks associated. She really needed to focus on this one more, especially since using it didnt require much risk at all on her part. Not likebat skills, at least. With Greg finally on the horizon as they left the forest, Bee considered if they would be able to find sheep before the sun went down. They might make the city, but it would be close. Do you want to stop and spend the night here while we still have shelter? Tony looked at the edge of the trees and shook his head. Im not sure. It seems like the forest is as much of a trap as it is a shelter. Somehow we managed to avoid the undead on the way here. Im not sure that I believe that the forest is empty of them yet though. I think it would be better if we had a clear line of sight around us. If we can see all around us, then everything around us can see us too. Bee pointed out. Besides, we took several days on the way back from Greg and we were surrounded by the forest the whole time. Did you forget that Void was with us the whole time? I dont think a kid did more than scrape his knee the entire trip. Tony said, with a little bit of the earlier teasing returning to his tone. Maybe we set up at the edge of the forest so we can have a little fire in the tree,s but also have half of the open area behind us? We really dont know anything about bushcraft, do we? Bee sighed in frustration. I looked a little bit in the library about it, but it turns out that people who like to run around in the woods all the time arent really inclined to write books about it. I know a thing or two about roughing it, but yeah, not in hostile territory so to speak. But I dont really know if any of the tricks would apply to the undead, even if we knew them. Tony said as they stepped off the path and started looking for a ce to put down their packs. Well the undead are not the only thing we have to worry about. Did you forget Void driving off those kingdom scouts? We also just sent a - uh, an envoy I guess? - to the kingdoms armies to try and repair rtions. But to them, Void and its followers are possessed, demon worshiping cultists, or something. Bee said, dropping her pack next to a rock. It looked like it would make a good windbreak. Perhaps she should have mentioned that to Susan. Though she probably knew that anyway if she was investigating them. Im sure it cant be that bad, right? Chapter 120: Growth and Decay, Life Cycle Chapter 120: Growth and Decay, Life Cycle Arthur watched the streams of undead pour away from the city like a mold growing outwards. This was the worst-case scenario in his mind. Not only were the undead able to spread out over the countryside, but he and his people were still pretty much trapped in the city for now. They had done better than he could have hoped for, slowing the undeads advance. They also were able to inflict heavy losses on their opponents. It had been enough to save the city that everyone had thought was lost for now. After thest engagement, his troops had barely made it behind the walls in time to repel the follow-up attack on the city. He simply didnt have enough troops to continue this for much longer. He had enough men to field a battlefield army or man the walls, not to do both. At full strength, they could manage to multitask, but that would mean even faster casualties, and no outfit was ever at full strength. Horses were beginning to be a problem as well. Many wentme, and most simply needed time to recover. All these problems boiled down to a simple fact: Arthur needed help. He couldnt be out in the field containing the undead threat without leaving the city to be consumed. But by staying here, the only real thing that Arthur was aplishing was condemning the surrounding area and smaller cities. So far, he had no response from the capitol. He had sent his reports, and with each one, he tried to outline the dire nature of the problem and the need for more men. Without reinforcements, there was little he could do but dy. So, dy, he would. It wasnt time to bust out of the city, but if he had done his math right, the undeadmander had made another mistake. Not a huge one, but it gave him just enough of a hold that he could get his fingernails in and cling to the cliff for a little longer. Get me the exact numbers the watchers are reporting and bring them to themand room. Arthur sent one of his aides off. Watchers were one of the unofficial positions in his army that really only mattered for sieges. As far as he knew, mostmanders didnt have men filling the position and would rely on scout reports alone, but then mostmanders were idiots. The watcher''s only job was to count the enemy troops. A careful count, continually updated, prevented more than one feint from drawing him out too early just because he always knew where the enemy was - or wasnt. Sure, he might not be able to ride out now with his full strength. But in a few days Well, then they would see if they might be able to do more than just break out of the circle. --- The night started out peacefully enough. Bee and Tony had made a little fire just inside the treeline, so the light didnt advertise their location to anyone in therge fields around the ruins of Greg. The city itself remained a silent, deste mound from what they could make out. This time, the city wasnt their goal. They needed to get beyond the city as the farms and ranches were out in that direction. If they were to procure the sheep their master - no, lord - had demanded, they had longer to go. After warming up some travel rations, they settled in for the night. One of the benefits of Bees higher levels was that she didnt need to sleep nearly as much as she used to. So when splitting up the watch, she had no fear of not getting a full night''s rest. Of course, that was before the problems started cropping up. She was taking advantage of the full moon to read on a possibly heretical theory of alchemy, that randomness and chaos were required to find new solutions or recipes. Bee could feel her blood boiling even as she read. It went against everything Void had ever taught her. Order was far more important. A painfully documented, methodical series of tests, changing one variable at a time. This was how new things were discovered. Though the author of the book might have some small points when it came to choosing which variable to change next. Or maybe in observing things for inspiration. But that didnt count! As a lively debate took ce in her mind, Bee failed to notice the zombie stumbling across the ins. Not that the single zombie was much of a threat to her. Once it got close enough, she simply threw a rock at it as hard as she could. She scanned it first, of course. With a level under ten, the rock she flung went right through its skull like it was a watermelon hit with a stone flung from a sling. This was just the first of such interruptions, though. After about an hour, Bee estimated that she had downed at least a dozen more wandering zombies. Not a single one posed any real harm to her, nor did they give her any meaningful experience. She didnt even think that using her skills was very productive in dealing with them. But she couldnt just ignore them. If enough gathered, it might have been a problem, and if she simply went to sleep and they came on them unawares, it would not be a pleasant thing to wake up to. So, she stayed alert. It wasnt a real burden. She had been nning on doing that the whole time. It was just that she couldnt really sink her teeth into her book for more than a paragraph. Frustration bubbled under her skin as she kept an eye out for intruders, never letting her really get any meaningful work done. Eventually, it was time for her to take her rest. It was Tonys turn to take over the watch for the remainder of the night. Crawling over to the sleeping man, she gently shook his shoulder. Hey, wake up. It''s your turn to deal with the zombies. Huh? came the bleary response. Tony looked around sleepily for a couple seconds and blinked. Bee sat back to let him collect his thoughts. My turn to sleep you lump. Without any further exnation, she trudged back to her nkets, where she slipped her book back into her pack and nestled down to sleep. After a long day of running and a night of frustration, it came easily. *** When Bee awoke next, it wasnt to the morning sun as she would have liked. No, it was Tony yelling. She jolted upright and scanned for the threat, but soon enough, her shoulders slumped. Tonys uproar was just a battle cry as he charged at a zombie about twenty feet from their campsite. Groaning, Bee took stock of her body. The rest she had gotten so far wasnt quite sufficient - she felt grumpy like she had only taken a short nap - so she rolled over and pulled part of her nket over her head in a futile attempt to muffle the sound of battle. Come on, it''s only level seven. Not that Tony had any way of knowing that. Still, the fight was quick, and a few minutester, she was drifting back to sleep. Only, the scene repeated itself. Grumbling, Bee once again checked on herpanion; the stray zombie was a level 12. Surely that isnt a real issue? Still, as Tony returned from his battle, she chided him grumpily. Could you keep it down? I didnt wake you up every few minutes yelling, did I? Bee, there are zombies attacking our camp. Thank Void youre awake! Tony said, a little out of breath. Yeah, they have been all night. That doesnt mean you should be yelling about it. Just finish them off quietly. Bee insisted. Tony stared at her, then started gesturing wildly. If I shouldnt yell about zombies, what in the zes am I keeping watch for? Sure, watch for zombies, but dont wake me up all the time. You dont want to be warned about zombies while youre sleeping? Are you insane? I didnt warn you, now did I? Bee snapped, feeling like this wasnt the first time that she had made this point. No, I just killed them quietly and let you sleep. Tony looked at her nkly before kicking the dirt. He muttered something that she couldnt make out. What was that? I said, we should have camped in the trees. Tony lied, but she let it slide. Fine, Ill try to keep it down. But if anything other than zombieses, Im waking you up. Fair enough, Bee said, nestling deeper into her nkets. --- I rolled along next to Felix and Trent as they walked to the edge of the oldest field the workers had cut. It looked like Trent was heading towards arge pile of dead grass a little ways off from the field. Was this what he meant when he mentioned the pile? It was the only thing that I could think of that made sense. When we arrived, Trent stopped and turned to Felix and me. So, this is apost pile. Most dead parts of the nt can be stacked here. After the pile gets to an inconvenient height t stack things on, we just start a new one. Once the piles mostly turned into something like dirt, we mix it into the dirt of the soil, and itll help the nts grow. There might be a better way to do this, but this is what my father did and it worked well enough for him. Trent finished. That was interesting. I scrutinized the pile with my scanner. Sure enough, it was mostlyposed of nt matter. As I looked deeper into the pile, I could see the structures within slowly breaking apart. As they did, the nutrients I was worried about removing from the soil spilled out, so to speak. As to how they broke apart I shuddered slightly. The germs. This pile was teeming with bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that were new to me. It was disgusting. I was immediately tempted to sh the whole thing with my sanitationmp, just on principle. However, I stopped myself. These particr germs seemed to be doing something useful. That was new and honestly unexpected. Id have to observe them further to understand more. My sensors were already focused on feeding information on the different species to my processors just topare them to what I had been cleaning within the castle. As for the pile itself, I could see how this might be nt food. It solved most of the problems that I was worried about. The only thing was that Trent didnt think that it all needed to be mixed back in the soil, just partially. Wouldnt that mean the quality of the soil would still slowly degrade if that was the case? Felixmunicated my concern to Trent. Trent rubbed his chin in thought. I suppose it might be normal if the only nutrients that entered the field were from fertilizer. But try as we might, insects, birds and other animals make it into the fields too. Their leavings also get mixed in over time, and that works well enough. Well, that made some sense. I had Felixmunicate my next thoughts even if they werent really a question. Well, humans need to take from the field when they get their food anyways, so it wouldn''t be perfect without other help. What was that hay you were talking about before? Hey! That was an excellent trantion, Felix. I gave the boy a beep of approval. Chapter 121: A Sheepless Night Chapter 121: A Sheepless Night The rising sun shot daggers of light through Bees eyelids. Reluctantly, they opened, ring at the unwee intrusion. ncing around, she saw dozens of headless, unmoving zombies scattered a stones throw away from their campsite. Another, smaller group of shed-up zombie remains was right nearby. Tony had been busy through the night, though she hadnt needed to see the bodies to tell. Regardless of how much she wanted to keep sleeping, though, they had to get on their way. It seemed that whatever intelligence controlled the undead either was too far away to direct these monsters or it was not focusing on this area. These undead were scattered individuals with no direction. That was a stark contrast to the cunning traps of the much higher-level undead they had to deal with before. Almost like the gue was a storm that had already passed them over. Crawling out of her bedroll, Bee started to put things away while Tony blew gently on the coals of their fire fromst night. Sure, they had run most of yesterday to make better time, but they werent in such a hurry that they needed to skip a warm breakfast. By the time she had both bedrolls attached to the packs, Tony had handed her a serving of soup. Sitting on the rock they used for shelter, they ate quietly. Bee had brought a book to read as she woke up but put it aside as Tony spoke. I think we should be able to find sheep today. Probably wont take us much past noon. The question is, do we want to go around Greg or try to make our way through it? Tony, I dont think either of us really want to go through Greg. Why would we do that? Bee asked in a genuinely confused voice. Well it would be faster. Tony said with a shrug. Bee hefted her food. It''s not like were in that much of a hurry. She paused for a second. But if you want to go through it, we can. Tony shook his head. I dont know why, but something is pulling me to go back to the city. Im not sure if its some morbid fascination or what. Its not like I dont think there would be anything else for us to find, not like when Void and I were herest, but I cant help with the thoughts. Bee hesitantly put her hand on his shoulder. She still hadnt gotten used to familiar contact again. The asional hug was one thing, but physical gestures of support were still new to her. But Tony was as close to family as she had. Racking her brains, she tried to weigh the pros and cons of skipping the city versus following Tonys intuition. As far as she knew, Tony didnt have any precognition skills, and Void hadnt sent any visions that she had heard of yet. So it was unlikely that the feeling was some divine intervention or something like that. Still, maybe it would bring some closure. Let''s go through this time, then. Maybe well find something, maybe not. But better we know I think. Bee said, giving Tonys shoulder a light squeeze. We dont need to for my sake. You had a point the first time. Why would anyone want to go through that again for no reason? Tony argued for the other side now. We can go around on the way back, but for now, we can check things out. Who knows, maybe we will find something after all. Bee said as she hopped down from the rock. Extending a hand toward the man, she pulled Tony to his feet as well. Slipping into their packs, they started off toward the entrance of the city. The gate looked the same as they left it - imposing, silent, and open like a gaping maw. Bee could even still see the cart marks they had left in the road. Stepping into the city, an expanse of gray and ck rubble met them. A thinyer of dust or dirt had begun to coat everything, only adding to the depressing atmosphere. Right past the guard post stood the remnants of a shop, now scorched ck with only a hint of its original green color visible in a corner. Besides theck of color, the most ominous thing was theck of sound. Not that it waspletely silent. But none of the sounds that a city should have reared their heads. It reminded Bee more of the sounds of the forest than anything. There was the slight sound of the wind as it whistled through the streets, sending some signs hanging above doors creaking in the wind. As they took a couple more steps, a group of birds exploded from the side of the road. They flew upwards, leaving behind what looked to be a food stand of some sort that had been turned over and used for some meager shelter. Bee kept listening for the squeaking of rodents or other carrion other than the crows, but it seemed that even the animals of the city had fled or perished. I dont know if were going to find sheep if even the rats of the city are gone, Bee whispered to Tony. The oppressive atmosphere pressed down on her, making any noise they made feel out of ce. A fear that it would draw attention from something gripped her, but she had no idea whos or what attention she was trying to avoid. Tony seemed to feel it as well. I dont think the animals in the farms were all hunted down. Im not sure about the rodents here. We might just have not seen any yet. He reached across his body and rubbed his arm. I dont like it here. Can we get moving? Bee was also starting to regreting here as well. What were they thinking? Nheless, they continued through the city. The roads were all the same, each one blending into another as most of the distinguishing marks had been destroyed or faded. Some buildings had copsed into the road, forcing them to climb over the rubble or look for a different way around. For the most part, they walked in silence, with Bee following Tonys lead. He knew the city very well, and they never seemed to get lost. As they walked, she kept her eye out. Maybe something that would be useful or significant. Who knew? Maybe Void did want them to go through here. After what felt like hours, they approached the far gate, still not having found a single thing. The trek had probably only taken 30 minutes, but the constant feeling of being watched wore at Bee. There was only one building between them and the exit, so instead of going around the block, they climbed over. It was a thin but tall house that was nestled between tworger buildings. It was probably older, which was why it had copsed despite being sheltered by the surrounding buildings. When she was over what must have been the second story, something in the rubble caught Bees eye. It wasnt anything shy. The time in the elements had rendered everything dull, after all. Still, the shape was impossible to ignore. It was a small carved rocking horse the size of her palm. Bncing cautiously on the unstable wreckage, Bee bent down and threaded her arm through a small hole to get to the alcove where the tiny figure rested. Her arm was just long enough to brush the figure. It took a couple nudges to move it to where she could reach. Grabbing it, she jumped down from the pile next to where Tony was waiting for her. Did you find something? He asked her. Not really. Just this. She held up the little toy to eye level and dusted it off a bit. Tony looked at the figurine but didnt have anything to say. Together, they walked quickly towards the gate and finally left the abandoned city. *** They didnt find sheep on the first day. Eventually, as the sun finished setting, they gave up and set up camp in an abandoned farmhouse that should have kept sheep. It had been a quiet day, with neither of them really in the mood to talk after their trip to the city. The next morning they followed some markings in the muddy dirt that looked like they could have been sheep tracks. But when it came down to it, they had no idea if it was evidence of the sheep wandering off or if the farmer had fled, taking his livestock with him. Luck was finally in their corner, though. After walking up a slight hill, they saw arge group of white dots in the distance. --- I had learned more than I wanted to about farming. Not that I ever really wanted to learn too much about it in the first ce. But once Trent got going, he didnt stop. Was this what I was like when the topic of conversation moved to cleaning? No, cleaning was much more important. Still, learning how humans produced their food wasnt bad, even if it did involve much more ying in the dirt than I wasfortable with. At least I learned that cutting the grass was actually a helpful thing that I could do when I had time. I decided to hold onto the clippings for now, though. They seemed to stay fresh in my dustbin, and if we got enough animals, then maybe they could eat it when they couldnt eat the grass itself. Bee and Tony were trying to bring back sheep, so that time might not be too far off anymore. The farming lecturested the entire rest of the day. I thought it was over in the morning, but no, after ying with the children and doing my normal morning routine, Trent was waiting to finish my education. Eventually, when the sun had set, I escaped inside, where I spent time ying with the kids. Our games even had a new member. Ever since the children hade to the castle, he had been skittish. Somehow this cat had weathered months of demons and the destruction of the castle, but kids No, the kids were too scary. Kids needed to be hidden from. Apparently, he liked hanging out with the women. If they were doing something slow or rxed, they would often find a warmp to curl up on, at least until one of the children entered the room. Then the furball was gone with impressive speed. It turns out the cat was right about the kids, though. They were menaces sometimes. I hadnt been paying enough attention, and some of the more rowdy kids had decided that the cat needed a bath. It was a sentiment I couldnt really hold against them. I even celebrated their attention to my lessons! But I also knew that the cat kept itself clean. Also, like me, it didnt react well to being dunked in water. The yowling brought me racing into the room only to find some very scratched-up kids, a bucket of water, and a very wet, upset cat. I scolded the kids lightly, but I was more concerned with helping the cat. Its hairs were standing up at very strange angles for how wet it was, ring at everyone from the corner it had retreated to. Luckily I had just the thing for liquid issues. I popped out my mop and advanced on the cat slowly, beeping with soothing noises. Suddenly, its eyes grew wide. Its gaze locked onto the fluffy pompom protruding from my chassis. I hesitated, not wanting to upset the creature. But instead of running away like it did with everything else, the cat attacked. Chapter 122: Herding Cats Chapter 122: Herding Cats The cat''s extended ws barely missed the fluffy end of my mop. I had to act fast to keep the appendage from being ripped from my body. I started to back up, swerving one way then the other to keep the cat from catching the pompom, but no matter where I moved it, the cat continued its relentless pursuit. At first, I thought it was a game, kind of like the one we yed with my sanitationmp. But the cats continued persistence and the fury of its motions indicated otherwise. Trying to defuse the situation, I gave up on trying to dry the cat and defensively retracted my mop. With a quick pivot, I darted to the side of the door, providing a clear path out to the hallway. Without a target and distracted by the possibility of escape, the cat took off as though the castle was full of demons again. With an impossibly fast patter of little paws, the orange menace disappeared in a trail of wet spots and puddled water. With a mental sigh, I popped out my mop again and started cleaning up the mess it had left. It wasnt hard to get the area clean, of course. I didnt even have to touch the floor for my mop to retrieve such a small amount of liquid. But still, it was the principle of the thing. Luckily, now that the cat was gone, I didnt have to worry about any unintended side effects of my mop. I wasnt sure what would happen if my fully-powered mop got too near a living being. I mean, it had damaged even therge demon, and that was way stronger than anything around here. Of course, that was because it had touched its inner fluids directly, but the cat was mostly water inside, even if it was congealed. Still, it wasnt something I was willing to test out. Following the trail of droplets, I tracked my furry friend all the way down a hallway and up a flight of stairs up to the second level. This slowed me down as, in order to reach all the wet spots on the stairs, I had to go a little up the ramp and either reach out with my mop or hop a little with my thrusters to get at the offending paw prints. I really needed to get better at this hovering thing. Going by air was not my preferred method of travel, but even I couldnt deny its usefulness. Rolling along the ground was far superior for many reasons, but it mostly allowed for more optimal inspection of surfaces and provided proximity for my cleaning functions to be maximally efficient. As neither of these was truly a consideration for myself, I might need to reconsider my stance on optimal travel methods. For emergencies only, of course. Eventually, I caught up with the cat, who had found an open door to one of the rooms that held some of Beatrices pets. At least, they seemed like pets. The little scaled things were kept in ss boxes under small ss globes that radiated light and heat. Next to one of the balls sat a very angry, very wet cat furiously licking its fur. I had to admire its dedication to keeping itself clean, but if it would just let me help As I got too close to the cat''s position, it ceased cleaning itself to hiss at me. Its posture stiffened, head lowering between its shoulders and ring at me. Not wanting a confrontation, I backed up slightly and made calming motions with my w. Im not sure it understood my meaning, but it slowly returned to its grooming again. Well, guess that was that. Maybe it would change its mindter. - Bee and Tony started moving at a jog towards their prize. As they got closer to the cluster of white fluffy clouds off in the distance, they started being able to make out the heads and legs of the individual sheep milling about in a mass of bodies. Once they were about 50 feet away from the herd, they stopped at the top of the hill to examine them. Now what? Tony asked. What do you mean, now what? Bee asked indignantly. Youre the farm boy. I thought you would know what to do here. I mean, I think this is the closest Ive ever been to a sheep. She looked around to get a bearing on their surroundings. The sheep were gathered in a kind of earthen bowl formed by three slight hills of ins. I dont know anything about sheep. I was very clear that we never kept any. Im - I was - a farmer, not a shepherd. Tony shot back. Then, in a more thoughtful tone, he mulled over their options. Maybe we just walk up to them? They had previous owners right? Maybe if we have food theylle with us? Have food? They eat grass! Theyre standing on their food. What are we going to offer them? Bee said, exasperated. But sure, let''s just try walking up to them. Arent sheep herded for a reason? Yeah, but most people use dogs or something for that. I suppose if you stand on the other side of them we can prevent them from just running away if I get too close. Tony said. Do you really need to get close to them? If we both work together, maybe we can just force them towards the castle. Bee suggested. Tony shrugged. I think it would be good to get a feeling for them. But we dont have to. We have to see what theyll do when we get close to them in the first ce right? Or else, howd we n on herding em? Fine. But if we make them run, let''s at least make them run in the right direction. Of course, Im not an idiot. Tony said, sounding slightly offended. Pointing at one of the far hills. Why dont you go stand over there, and Ille in from a bit of an angle. Moving into position, Bee watched as Tony strafed around the other side of the flock of sheep. When she was in position, he started trying to carefully approach the sheep. Walking slowly, he spoke softly to the animals as he moved. She couldnt quite make out what he was saying, but it seemed soothing. Once he got a few feet from the edge of the sheep, he paused to see how they would react. The sheep didnt do anything interesting. A few looked up at him but quickly went back to snuffling the grass. Bee and Tony shared a look, slightly confused about how to handle the situation. He took a single experimental step forward. Immediately, the sheep acted as if they were a hive mind. Somehow they all knew to dart in the same direction at the same time. Inconveniently, they didnt move in the direction Bee and Tony were herding them toward, but off to the side. All the sheep, that is, except for one on the far side that didnt quite get the message and took off in a different direction. Before either of them could react, it realized the rest of the flock wasnt with it anymore and quickly veered around in a panic. With a burst of speed, it merged with the main mass of wool again. Bee was the first to react as she tried to get in front of the sheep to prevent them from getting too far away. With her high level and speed, outrunning the sheep wasnt much of an issue. She got in front of the sheep and stopped in only a handful of seconds. To her surprise though, they didnt stop and look at her as she had expected. Instead, they took another angle and dashed off again. Looking up at the sky, Bee sighed with frustration before she set off after them again. Harold wasnt having a good time. The first day he had shown up at the College of the Undead had been alright. Percy had weed him with drinks, and they had spent the afternoon catching up. His guest quarters were spacious and nice enough, and his host seemed to wee the help. He wasnt too surprised about that. They were probably just happy to have someone new to talk to. Even Percy, despite being chosen to lead the college because of his people skills rather than magical talent, was unbelievably awkward. Harold wasnt sure if social ipetence was an inherent trait for the peoplepelled to study the dead and death aura, or if it was developed through years of practice. That wasnt to say that the people were unweing. They were just odd. The tendency to have skeletons walking behind them carrying books or finding a ghoul cleaning the toilets was just unsettling. Harold had insisted that all demonic subjects were properly contained, no matter the contract. But the undead didnt pose nearly the same risk as the demons. If the undead ever got out of control, they might manage to kill a few of the mages at worst. They wouldnt be able to summon a country-ending monster in just a few hours. Of course, that hadn''t really stopped them from doing the demons work for them, Harold thought bitterly. He had yed that day over in his head enough times with how often he had been chewed out for it, but he still didnt know what they could have done better. The threat had been unknowable, and none of their countermeasures had even slowed the thing down. Perhaps they could have gotten more information before fleeing, but he was just happy that he had gotten everyone out alive. Well, almost everyone. That one young apprentice they had missed still haunted him monthster. Of course, he didnt share these thoughts with anyone, but as he spent days refreshing his knowledge of undeath, he often found his mind wandering. There was a reason he had specialized in demons. They were exciting, quick, and clever, and there were oh so many things humans didnt know about them. Undead well, not so much. It was one of the first branches of magic that humans had a history of. The field stagnated hundreds of years ago. Mostly the practitioners spent their whole careers just catching up. Sure, they gained a lot of power eventually, but they hadnt added anything new to the field in forever. Now with what looked like the worst undead gue in a century brewing, they were asked how to stop it. Or at least how to prepare countermeasures. There wasnt really much they could do, and they all knew it. Sure, they had prepared a lot of potions that could cure the various types of infections that the undead could spread. They also worked on manufacturing anti-undead weapons, but their hearts werent in it. There was only so much they knew how to do. But finally, something promising had happened. If the reports were to be believed, the undead moved with a level of intelligence that was long thought of as myth. Harold was inclined to believe the intel, as he had never known Arthur to embellish anything. Not everyone shared his belief, of course. So it mighte down to Harold to figure out something new here. As much as he hated the undead, Percy would never live it down if he, Harold, Dean of Demons, made the first advancement in undeath in living memory. He grinned just thinking about it. Chapter 123: Rocket Science Chapter 123: Rocket Science I was, quite honestly, in the slightest bit of a predicament. I looked down at the children below, staring up at me in awe. I was proud of them and sort of proud of my own achievement, but it really wasn''t what I was going for. As I reached out with my w to flip myself right side up, the children started cheering. The roof nt was working against me slightly, but I wasn''t too worried about rolling the rest of the way down onto the ground. If that did happen I''d probably be fine, just a little embarrassed, though it would be hard to beat the embarrassment I was already feeling. After corralling the cat and cleaning all of the wet spots from that debacle, I decided to work on my thruster control. It had been too challenging to clean up the marks on the stairs. If I had been able to better utilize my abilities and hover though, it would have been significantly more manageable, so I went outside to practice. For better or for worse, my thrusters were much more potent than they had beenst time I used them. I had only been attempting to jump up a little bit and then slowly glide back down to the ground, just to establish a baseline for the power. I, indeed, had jumped up more than a little bit. Even worse, my angle was a bit off, and I didn''t travelpletely perpendicr to the ground. Instead, I drifted forward and slowly rotated over so my front edge pointed right at the ground. I did my best to correct this by adjusting my thruster angle, but I misjudged them. Somehow, I rocketed straight into one of the spires of the castle. I felt my carapace crack as the stone around me chipped, and I slid down the wall onto the shingles below. And that was how I found myself in the current situation, approximately 34.9 feet off the ground and looking at the children upside down. Flipping myself over was only the first step to fixing this though. As my Automatic Maintenance skill got to work repairing the damage, I considered what I had learned. I thought the issue might have been that I wasn''t perfectly level when I first took off. That caused me to flip a little as my first boost wasn''t bnced out. And that would definitely be a problem here too because the roof wasn''t level. Once I got situated, I tried to take it slowly. Routing enough force to the thrusters would slide me farther up the roof to level myself off at the top. If that worked, I would have a starting point, Unfortunately, reality wasnt so kind. Again I ovepensated and sent myself flipping up the roof, tumbling end over end. Again my shell cracked as I shattered the stone of a castle wall. I sighed internally. My models were usually pretty good, but it seemed like I needed more data for this particr tool to be useful. That didnt bode well for the current predicament. Maybe it would be easier to cut my way back into the castle and then repair the hole from the inside? It was something that seriously needed to be considered, but I was still hesitant to go through with it. I didn''t want to damage the castle. Even if I knew I could fix it, it felt wrong. Besides, I was trying to learn how to use my thrusters anyways, and I could definitely figure out how to get down from the roof with a bit of time. Even if I created some damage, I would probably be fine. Already my maintenance was working on repairing the crack. Nothing was majorly busted, and I was still operating fine. However, it would still be several minutes before I was entirely in one piece again. I sat there, trying to reorder my memory banks before giving it another attempt. Usually, things around here didn''t have the speed or power to actually hurt me. But I guess I was fully capable of hurting myself. It was a good reality check for testing out my underused abilities. I should be more careful, as I clearly didn''t know my own strength. Well, I''d probably be fine in this case. I didn''t want to exacerbate damage to my already weakened protective exterior, but there wasnt too much risk this time. Repairing my innards or sensors would likely be much more time-consuming than just fixing the simple stic shell. After the crack was mostly sealed up, I put out the minimum amount of power I could through all three thrusters simultaneously. To my relief, I only shifted slightly. Now that was progress, I cheered to myself. I doubled the amount of power. I rose about a foot off the ground and started sliding wildly away from the roof. Thats right. I was still not on a level surface. Looking at the controls more carefully, I realized I had a minimum output, though I didnt know what the theoretical maximum was. Converting the scale into base 10 values would set the minimum at 10, and a thrust of 20 had evidently been far too much. Maybe I should start with something like 11. Slowly, I started with the minimum value and increased by the smallest amount I could over and over, concentrating just on the thruster facing mostly downhill. Slowly my angle corrected itself, and I could level off on the uneven surface by adjusting myself a little. Once I was level, I started experimenting with adding the other two thrusters to the mix. I started to try to raise them all equally, but as I got further and farther away from the surface of the roof, that began to throw me off as well. I started trying to develop an easy algorithm to stay level. I left everything as it was and rapidly switched between all three of my thrusters, applying the tiniest adjustments to each. While doing this, I was also paying attention to my internal gyroscope and level sensors. I could adapt the output of the thrusters several thousand times a second. So if I continued this pattern, just going in a loop adjusting thrusters, I could push myself where I wanted to go without immediately crashing. Of course, this wasn''t the most effective method or really an efficient algorithm at all, but it would do for now. Slowly I hovered off the roof and over the ground below. Now that I was mostly level, I started to lower myself in a controlled descent. Once my wheels were firmly back on the ground, I let out a huge sigh ofpressed air and a happy beep. - Bee doubled over with her hands on her knees, panting. Sweat dripped down her forehead as she tried to catch her breath. A few seconds after stopping at the top of the hill, she looked up and scanned the horizon. Herding sheep was turning out to be much harder than she would have ever thought. They didnt stop. Sure they might sleep at night, but even then she and Tony had to be constantly alert lest they wander off, spooked by the roving undead. Escorting the sheep back to the castle might just have been the hardest thing she had ever done. So far they had been at it for almost two days and they still werent even in sight of the forest. Odds were that they might have actually wandered further away than when they had started. They had tried everything they could think of,ing at the flock from all angles. She had even captured one and carried it, hoping that the others would follow. That n had backfired massively and was why she was currently running all over the countryside. Apparently, seeing one of their own get physically picked up had even overridden their herd mentality and the flock had splintered into smaller parts. Currently she was looking over thest group of rebellious sheep, calm once again. Finally she had found the dirty, off white beasts that she had started to loathe so much. Jogging over to where the devils were hiding, she found that they had crossed a packed earth road. Judging by the distance it looked like this road might be the one heading to Greg. If it followed the valleys it might be easier to keep the sheep in line along the way. Now how to get Tony and the rest of them over here? *** It took them several hours but they somehow got all the sheep on the road. Despite all theining, they had gotten slightly better at controlling the sheep. The issue was that her method of running around them frantically wasnt a long term solution, even as fast as she was. Seems like there was a reason why shepherds used dogs after all. Once they got all the sheep reunited on the road, Bee felt like she was about to pass out. Sitting near the edge of the road she made Tony promise to keep them from going anywhere while recovered. Heughed at her, What, you think I want them to run off? No thank you. I officially hate sheep. She would have agreed if she had the energy to do so. As it was she just nodded. Before she had fully recovered Tony called out to her. Hey Bee! Looks like something on the road is headed toward us. From her position she groaned, wishing for a bit more rest, but looked up anyway. Sure enough, there was a figure in the distance moving toward them. It was far enough away that she couldnt make out more than the shape of a person walking, but that was all. The person looked to be alone too. What do you want to do? Tony asked her. Taking a deep breath, Bee thought. She couldnt really tell how fast the figure was moving, so she had no idea when they might encounter the person if at all. But if Tony could see them, then they would definitely be able to make out arge group of sheep walking along the road. There didnt seem to be any way to avoid running into them. Im not sure. Bee mused, still trying to think. Maybe you stay here and watch the sheep while I go check it out? Tony shook his head. I dont think that''s a good idea. Youre clearly exhausted. If theres trouble, we should face it together. Besides, I bet the sheep wont really get in the way. Worst case, if they get spooked, we can always gather them up again. "Yeah, but I really dont want to. Bee gripped. Fine, youre right. Im not in great shape. So what, we just wait here? Tony shrugged and gestured to the flock, It''s either that or we just start moving them towards the castle. If the other person catches up, they catch up. Were going to be moving so slowly that I bet a grandma would catch us. Bee said. Besides, if they catch us before nightfall then it might be fine, but if they keep going through the night they might catch us unawares. So let''s just wait then. I think the sheep are as tired as you are. Tony said. Bee let out an over the topugh, Yeah, now if only theyd act like it! Finding a rock to sit on, they watched the figure approach. It soon became clear that the figure was moving extremely slowly. As it got closer, Bee started to realize that it was moving with a limp. She started to feel concerned as she saw the setting sunlight sh on long, straw blonde hair. I think it''s a woman, she looks hurt as well. Huh? Tony grunted, looking up from the stick he was idly carving. Im going to go help her. Bee said, hopping off her rock and grabbing her pack. A few moments of runningter, she was in front of the woman. Excuse me miss, are you all right? The woman looked up and for the first time Bee got a good look at her face. Susan? Chapter 124: Slice of Life Chapter 124: Slice of Life Practice with my thrusters had gone well after the initial hups. After a day and a half of near-constant trial and error, I could maintain a consistent hover around six inches off the ground and move 75% as fast as I could on wheels. I had a feeling that I could move much quicker and on a more vertical axis as well, but that was just unnatural. Also, why would I need to go up? The floors that needed cleaning were down here. I still didnt like being too far from the ground unless I was being carried. Maybe I would eventually be morefortable with the idea, but as it was, I wouldnt pursue it yet. Besides, I valued stability much more than speed. Still, it was worthwhile to develop my skills a bit further here. I had the time in the afternoon anyway, and it would let me improve my cleaning on stairs and higher areas. As I got better, there were few opportunities to expand my capabilities like this. When I was cleaning the stairs, the idea of being able to hover just made sense. But as I practiced, I found so many other benefits to being able to just stay six inches off the ground. The big one was that I no longer needed to roll through the dirt outside. That wasnt to say that there were no downsides. The thrusters themselves caused dirt to blow everywhere. Sure, I could capture the dirt, but that was a short-term solution. If I stayed in one spot for too long, I slowly started to sink down as the dirt my thrusters sted against the earth below me, digging a big hole. If I simply captured and transmuted the dirt, then there would be less dirt, which would be good. However, there were a couple issues with that too. Less dirt was a desirable oue inside. After all, if the inside wasnt kept clean for humans, then why would I bother with any of this? But after learning more about soil quality than I ever wanted from Trent, I came out with a better understanding of the importance humans ced on dirt in its proper ce. The other issue was simply a consequence of time. If I spent enough time hovering around the castle grounds, even if I was careful not to stay in one ce too long, the sheer amount of time I was spending outside would cause grooves and uneven patches to form around some areas. This would ruin the pleasant leveling the ground had with the road and the castle base. There were probably many other consequences that I wasnt aware of too. Still Even with all of those negatives, it was tempting to hover about everywhere. Not having to worry about tracking mud with my wheels or cleaning my underside was truly amazing. This got me thinking, though. What could my other abilities be doing for me? I realized that training was important a long time ago, back in the catbs. Back then, I had done a few exercises with my abilities to train them, strictly to try and improve them, but I had fallen out of the habit. Seeing what my thruster control had done for me, though, my predictive models were abuzz with the possibilities for what my other abilities could do. This feeling was mostly rted to my least-used abilities. My two newest ones were the obvious ones to experiment with. But honestly, my least used ability was Air Purifier. I kind of regretted choosing it. At the time, I was too caught up in evaluating the choices based only on their immediate cleaning applicability, and I didnt really consider what secondary benefits they would give me. With how much better my thrusters allowed me to do my job, though, I was sure that other options might have been better. Well, that was in the past now. I might as well figure out what to do with it. I had left the purifier on nearly constantly, but it didnt seem to have much effect on anything. The air around here wasnt perfectly pure, but neither was it contaminated enough to cause any real issues. The Divine Sword was proving to be incredibly useful on its face, though. Being able to cut the grass was rxing and good practice at the same time. Also, from my testing, it could cut through most things with ease. Stone wasnt even that much of a problem. In fact, sometimes, I would go over and assist Trent with breaking uprge rocks in the field, the ones that were hard to lift. Thest one he called on me for was approximately 20.2 tons. Much toorge for any of us. After a few minutes of work with my sword, I was able to cut it into regrly shaped blocks. The humans were all rather impressed. They moved the rock into pleasing, organized piles forter use. They even started requesting specified dimensions, which I was more than happy to provide. As I finished thetest circle of grass trimming around the castle. I found Felix waiting for me. I paused my work and inquired what he wanted, and his face lit up. Yes, your um holiness! Mary humbly asks for your graces help in the kitchens. Your grace again? I thought I had gotten him to stop with titles like that. - Bee rushed up to the staggering woman, slinging her pack on the ground next to her. Startled, Susan stopped moving and just looked at her for a second. Bee? she whispered, confusion clear on her face. Before Bee could respond, Susan was sinking to her knees. It seemed that it was all she could do to not fall on her face. Bee put a steadying hand on her shoulder and helped the woman sit down. What happened to you? Bee eximed as she examined the woman. Dark bruises covered her face and arms. Her clothes were ripped, and her hair was dirty. The womans cracked lips turned up in a slight smile that caused a thin trickle of blood to run down her chin. The smile faltered into a wince as Bees probing fingers found a store spot on her ribs. They didnt believe me. Susan whispered with a wet chuckle. Get your bedroll out. Bee called over to Tony while she was digging through her own pack. They did this to you because they thought you lied? Bee was mostly talking just to keep the woman focused. She could tell that Susans consciousness was tethered here by a thread, and it would be easier to treat her for now if she was awake and could answer questions. Oh, no, mydy. This was This was from escaping. Finding what she was looking for, Bee turned to the battered woman and tipped her chin back, pressing a ss bottle to her lips. Drink. Susan tried to swallow but coughed, spraying a mist of the potion out. Bee winced at the waste, but it wasnt too big of a deal. The medicine that had gotten down her throat started to do its work on Susan as she continued to cough. Torn between going back to her pack for more supplies and trying tofort Susan, Bee stuck with rubbing her back gently as the woman recovered. Sorry, Susan whispered as she was able to talk again. No, it''s okay, Bee said as she leaned back to get her pack. A lot of her healing equipment had been upgraded from when she had first started her adventuring. At first, she used salves and balms as they were easier to make and required fewer ingredients. That had been perfect for her when she only had ess to the smallest storerooms and limited skill. Bee was still a long way from being an expert, but she was more thanpetent now, and she had ess to so many materials. The castle had stores that wouldst her for a very long time, and most of the things that needed to be gathered fresh were avable in the castle. A few of the systems the college used to have in ce to that had failed. But most were recoverable. nts could be regrown, and animals had mostly survived. Some of the mostplicated ingredients were out of reach, but she didnt really need them yet. Finally, getting a few things set up, Bee started mixing the contents of three vials together. Now she mostly used potions. They were trickier to make but were much faster acting. Not instant, of course, but it no longer took her days to heal broken bones. You escaped? she asked to keep Susan talking. Yeah. I didnt even make it to themander, Susan said, licking her now-healed lips. I told them where I hade from, and they had me taken off to the side. Lots of questions. Didnt like the answers. So what did you do? You said you got hurt from escaping? Bee asked, carefully lighting a candle under a beaker. She went back to the pack, digging out another prepared general-use potion. Mostly. They did try to use someenhanced interrogationbut they wereplete amateurs. Broke a few ribs and the like. Really disappointing stuff. She grinned darkly. But Im an Infiltrator. Were hard to keep down. It took a few hours, but I made it out. I had to fight for a while, and that isnt something I really excel at. But once I got out of the camp, I was able to give them the slip. A few dogs caught up, but they lost my scent after my blood became exposed. Blood Disguise is a terrible skill. I dont rmend taking it. Susan said, starting to ramble a bit. As she spoke, Tony rolled out his bedroll behind her and helped Susany back against it. His face mirrored the horrified concern of Bees own. Hearing about dogs, Bee stopped what she was doing and went to examine Susan more closely. The woman has been limping. Pulling up each of her loose pant legs, Bee winced in sympathy when she saw the wound. Deep puncture wounds formed deep holes in one calf. She cursed and turned back to her pack. Pulling out one of the prepared portions, she got ready. Brace yourself. This might sting a little. Susan visibly gritted her teeth but only flinched a little as Bee poured the potion on the bite. The bloody holes started to bubble, and all sorts of disgusting liquids started flowing from the wounds. As they were purified, the angry red color started to fade from the skin, and the swelling visibly retreated. Bee went back to tending the potions she was mixing, taking them off the heat. She went back to asking questions to keep the injured spy focused. Then what happened? Well after I broke out of the camp I had to sneak my way through the undead lines. Susan said, rxing her jaw slightly. That wasnt too hard. I could still hide my scent, so they could only feel my life force really. Unless they saw me. Which they didnt. After that, I started walking back to the castle. Its been a couple days, I want to say. The undead? Where were you? Bee asked, now a little worried. Things might be worse than she thought. Greg being destroyed was bad. But if the army was fighting like this, rather than just exterminating the threat outright The crown was bound to do something to fix it, right? Touching the ss to make sure that it wasnt too hot, Bee didnt give Susan a chance to answer. This part was a bit time sensitive. This will help target the broken rib and any organ damage. Helping Susan tip her head up, Bee pressed another ss to her mouth. This time Susan was able to swallow without issue. Shed give her a moment to recover before asking anything else. Chapter 125: Nighty Knight Chapter 125: Nighty Knight Susan took a couple of seconds to finish drinking the whole bottle. Afterward, Bee lowered her head back onto the ground. It wouldnt take long for the potion to take effect, but the woman would still need to rest for a bit while it did. Still, Susan felt the need to answer Beesst question before she passed out. I came from Caleb. Bee leaned back on her heels. Susan hade all the way from the province capital? That was a very long walk. But even more concerning was that the massive city seemed to be under attack. Since the woman was now unconscious, Bee couldnt get any more potions in her. Now she had time to examine Susan for less obvious injuries. She had mentioned that she had to pass through the undeads lines. She likely wasnt infected, as she would have already turned, but they needed to be sure there was nothing else that could endanger her life. Bee started at the scalp, carefully looking for any head wounds. She found more than one lump, but nothing too serious. Of course, there might have been some internal bleeding, but anything too severe likely would have killed her by now. Otherwise, then it was minor enough that the treatment Bee had already administered would be enough. Still, Bee used a little topical potion to help target those areas, just to be safe. Carefully she felt down the neck and along the corbone. Looking for any contusions and tracing the skeleton, Bee found several nasty bruises and some broken ribs as expected, but most of the blood hade from the bite in the calf. Besides the things she had already taken care of, Susan mostly only had to deal with dehydration and exhaustion. Finally convinced that she hadnt missed something that would cause her patient to die on her, Bee leaned back and swiped ayer of cold sweat from her brow. Looking around, she found Tony not too far off, watching over the sheep. Catching his eye, she motioned him over. He gave the flock onest look before hurrying to her side. Squatting next to her seat, Tony looked at Susans limp form. Is she going to be alright? Bee could hear some real concern in his voice and read the same on his face. Yeah, she should be. Tonys posture rxed slightly. Oh, good. Doesnt her face look familiar? I feel like I should know her from somewhere. Bee realized that Tony hadnt been there for the discussion between Void, her, and Susan. They had just let her go without bothering to tell anyone. The castle wasrge enough that it was conceivable that he hadnt met her or didnt really remember her. You do, or should at least. She lived in the castle for a few weeks. Bee said with a sigh. Maybe they shouldnt have let her go without warning her a bit more. That the adventurers from so long ago had thought Bee was brainwashed too and attacked her. Still, she seemed to have a good idea of how Void was viewed, so it hadnt seemed necessary. Maybe Bee had been wrong. She wanted to leave and try to work out an understanding with the authorities, maybe get some help with the undead and ease their worries about us a little. It didnt work. Bee finishedmely as she gestured to the unconscious woman. Clearly. Tony sighed as he heaved himself to his feet. I take it that we wont be leaving for a while? Probably not. Bee replied. She should be okay to be moved, but wont be able to move herself. Maybe tomorrow the healing will be mostly done. Ill go care for the sheep then. Were going to have to find a way to keep them on the road. Im not letting them off this easy, not after we spent so much time trying to get them here. Bee and Tony had been gone for quite a while. I was beginning to worry about them a bit. Still, they were pretty capable, and I had responsibilities that I needed to take care of. This morning I had something special nned for the children and their games with the sticks. I thought they would enjoy it. Normally they didnt like getting sprayed with water, but this might be an exception. My n involved slightlyrger sticks I had made the previous night. As part of my training regime, I tried to work on a few different skills each day. Last night my focus was on Void Maniption. Training this was easy in principle. All that needed to be done was to make things in the void of my dustbin. However, I found that just moving things around didnt really help much. I could feel my control improve, but by absolutely minuscule amounts. And that was before the diminishing returns kicked in. It was like my other skills. I needed to use them for a purpose and in new ways to train efficiently. The novelty was the hard part. When training my sword, I cut new things in new patterns and ways, which was easy enough. But with Void Maniption, I needed to make things, and it wasnt always easy to figure out what to make. So when I considered how to train my Spray Bottle and the childrens reflexes at the same time, everything seemed to fall into ce. I went a little way outside the castle and cut down a tree with a single swipe of my sword. Once I had consumed it into my void, I only needed to shape it. The convenient thing about this project was that each stick I made was different. I had good models for the children. I knew their size and strength, so for each one, I made a custom stick that best fit their dimensions. The first part was a long t piece, averaging about two and a half inches wide. I made it to fit each kid. After that, I made a thinner, rounder bit on the other end of the stick for them to hold onto. Taking into ount each of their hand sizes, it should befortable to hold. Lastly, I figured that a little protection for their fingers would be a good idea. Thergest issue that the morning training ran into was the sticks whacking into each other and then sliding down to hit the fingers. This was a bit of a cheap tactic that I managed to convince most of them to forgo, but it did happen from time to time. So to avoid that, I molded a little lip right above the handle. Popping the first one out, one that I had intended for Felix, I waved it around a few times experimentally. It felt pretty good! One more thing to test. Going up to a tree, I struck it with as much force as I calcted that Felix could produce. There was a loud crack as the stick broke. Hmmm, that was too bad. I might need to change the structure of the stick a bit to make it a little more sturdy. Carving off a new piece from the wood I had stored in my dustbin, I started again. It didnt take me long to fix the structural ws and produce one for each child. When I gathered them all in the morning for their games, I had Felixe up to the front so that he could exin the game we would be ying today. First though, I had to pass out their new sticks. I selected the one I had made for him and drew it out with my w. Felix watched in amazement as I offered him the new toy. The corners of his mouth stretched upwards into a deeper arc than I had ever seen, but at the same time, beads of salty water rolled down his cheeks. Shaky hands took the proffered stick. Felix nted the long, t bit in the ground and went onto one knee. Thank you, milord. This de will ever serve you. He was speaking in his best imitation of the adults. Really, he needed to learn to stop that and just call me Void if he really needed to. So far, no one was willing to call me Spot, so I had tabled that project forter. Still, I epted his thanks for the gift, even if it was a bit extreme. I mean, the water was still spilling from his eyes. I was pretty sure humans only leaked there when they were sad. But he was also still smiling. This was so confusing. Well, anyway. I attempted tofort him by patting him on the shoulder. It seemed to work as he stood up. After that, I started with the next gift. I asked Felix to call up the next child to receive their stick. The next one was Leanne, who repeated the same actions and words. Thanks, Void! Um, what did you say, Felix? This sword will always be yours? Yeah, Void, this sword will always be yours. She didnt give Felix a chance to answer, but she was close enough. I reached out to pat her shoulders as well, though she thankfully didnt spring any leaks. After she stood and started to admire her gift, I had Felix call the next one up. Each child repeated the same ritual. They would kneel and ept the de and didnt stand up until I patted their shoulders. It was a bit strange, but oh well. I was just d that they all were developing a healthy desire for pats. We went in order of size, and as each smaller kid came up, they got progressively worse at speaking, and the words became a little less coherent. Eventually, the smallest one took her stick and was just able to mumble out something that I had no idea what it meant. It went on significantly longer than any of the kids that went before her. Once the whole thing was finally done, we had already taken up a significant chunk of ytime. It took almost an entire hour to hand out all the sticks. Normally the kids got bored if they had to wait for more than a few minutes, but they were all here bouncing excitedly and swinging their sticks around the whole time. Finally, it was time to introduce my game. Getting Felix''s attention, I had him exin the n. They would all need to stand in a line in the first guard position. I would spray a jet of water at them, and they would need to dodge, block it, or get wet. This caused some excitement, and they started jockeying for position in the line. Once we had got that all sorted out, I moved about twenty feet away. I was going to try and work on control rather than power. Control and range. Rather than a misty spray, I wanted more of a projectile, like a small ball of water. They wouldnt be able to block mist, and I needed them to be able to track the projectile so it couldnt be too fast. I would need to lob it in an arc as well, especially at first. This would be good practice for me indeed. Positioning myself, I worked out the most viable trajectories and targeted Felix. A small stream of waterzily arced in a shallow parab toward the small boy. Chapter 126: Lost and Found Chapter 126: Lost and Found I watched Felix''s eyes as he tracked the arc of water I had sent hurtling toward him. With a smooth motion, he moved his stick in between his face and the iing projectile. He had more than enough time to react as the spray struck the stick, sshing to either side and leaving him dry. The children all let out a cheer at his sess. I was quite pleased too. This training seemed easy enough. I could probably adjust the arc a bit to make it more difficult, even up the speed. However, I should probably let them all have early sesses. I was soon d I didn''t up the difficulty. Leanne seemed to have a bit more trouble with the game than Felix. Her stick hit part of the water stream, but wasn''t able topletely deflect it. One of her arms got quite wet. Still, she had hit it, even if she was a bit disappointed. I yed with the children roughly by size, collecting them in a circle with me at its center. A few times, I needed to make it a little easier on them. By the smallest one, I was aiming next to her instead of directly at her. Even then, she took a clumsy swing but missedpletely. Her timing was okay, but she just didn''t have the best control over the stick yet. After each child had a chance to go on the easy mode, I started picking them at random. For each child, I started making it a little more difficult for them to block based on their strengths and weaknesses. That usually meant picking new ces, sometimes aiming for the leg or head instead of center mass. Some got better at deflecting the water much quicker than others, and some got wet a lot. I did my best to make it not too hard for each one of them but still gave them a chance to improve. It was a fine bnce, keeping the difficulty just above their current level. This training probably wouldn''t really help them with their stick game, unfortunately. However, they seemed to be having a st. So much so that a few of the adults came to check on them, and they also had a lot of fun watching. As we continued our practice, I could feel my Spray Bottle control improving. I was able to keep the jet of water in one steady stream for much longer than it should have been possible. By everything I understood about fluid dynamics, the jet should have spread out at some point, or at least lost some of its volume turning into mist. Eventually, though, it needed toe to an end. Breakfast was going to bete as it was. The children were reluctant to stop. Even the ones who struggled still wanted more chances to prove themselves. I promised them that we would do this again in the future. I wanted to keep training myself, after all. Plus, now I had another tool to get them to listen to me. Normally they were quite well-behaved, but I would keep this in my dustbin as a bargaining chip when I really needed them to do something. With stick practice finished for the morning, I went off to supervise breakfast. After that, the day followed the established routine of cleaning, lessons, and helping where I could. I even did a little weight training with my Grabby Arm. Nothing different happened until the castle was settling down for the night. I still rested at the end of Bee''s bed on my favorite rug. At night I didn''t need to charge like the rest of the humans, but I didn''t really have any chores that needed my attention that I could do without disturbing everyone. So I practiced my meditation. I had been at it a while, and I think I was starting to see the benefits. Despite already having my weight distributed very evenly across my cylindrical chassis by design, I somehow felt even more centered. I thought about my humans: their actions, their words, their goals. They all started to make a slight bit more sense. They saw the world differently, it seemed. I could evaluate and rationalize everything in terms of cleaning, but them? They seemed to have a different value system, sometimes even conflicting ones. It was something I had begun to recognize, but was only now starting to truly understand. Maybe this was what my humans sent me here to learn? Those answers weren''t things that I would figure out tonight, though. Not long after I started my meditation, someone knocked on the door. I beeped for them toe in. The door opened to reveal Mary, her arm around a very upset-looking woman. "If you would excuse the interruption, Void." Mary apologized, leading the woman in by the hand. Together they knelt before my rug. It was nice of them toe to my level, butpletely unnecessary. I was quite used to people talking to me while standing. They just sat there for a second while Mary put aforting hand on her shoulder. "It will be okay, Talia. Tell Void what you told me and I''m sure that hell be able to help." Talia sniffed hard and took a deep breath. Then, words came tumbling out of her so fast that I had to run them through mynguage processor a couple times to make sure I understood them. "I can''t find Tanu! He was with me after lunch and went off to y with some of the other children. But, but when they came back he wasn''t with them. I''ve been looking everywhere since dinner but I can''t find him!" The woman''s words cut off into choked sobs. Mary took up the rest of the story, but I was already scanning the castle. Tanu wasn''t the oldest kid, but he was one of the taller ones. Despite his narrow build, he was one of my more talented students. Both in his control of the stick and in his diligence picking up the cleaning techniques that I tried to teach them. "After Talia came to talk to me, we found the kids he was ying with. Apparently there was some disagreement about what game to y, so Tanu went off by himself and no one has seen him since. Do you know where he is?" Mary finished. My scan turned up nothing. I let Mary know that Tanu wasn''t in the castle right now. I wasn''t sure how much she understood, but I didn''t have time to make sure my point got across. Already I was zipping through the castle halls. It took me only a handful of seconds before I was at the entryway. I was scolding myself for not having trained my sensor ranges much. That was something that I could have easily been working on for a long time, maybe even before I had picked up Advanced Sensors. I started searching the castle grounds as I circled the exterior. I was hoping that maybe Tanu had wanted to think or something and was just sitting somewhere nearby. There were a few trees inside the wall. I even checked their branches, but found no missing children. Where could he have gone? The front gate was almost always closed, and I don''t think that the kid had the strength to open it by himself. Certainly not without an adult noticing. When I finally finished my circuit around the castle, still not finding anything, I started looking for clues. I went up to the gate and studied it closely. The portcullis didn''t show any signs of being moved, but near the top, I found a very small amount of blood that couldn''t be more than a few hours old. All things considered, my models indicated a high probability that a kid might have scraped their knee climbing up the iron bars. If that was the case Well, I was honestly impressed with the climbing if that was what it turned out to be. With a quick firing of my thrusters, I flew up and over the wall. Thending was a little hard, but I didn''t care. I was carefully examining the ground for any sign that a small boy had made his way over there. --- Susan slept through the night. However, Bee and Tony didn''t have the same luxury as they needed to keep watch over their valuable charges. Luckily, after a long day of being chased, the sheep were ready to bed down and didn''t really do much. In fact, they were finally being helpful for once. Their panicked bleating was able to alert Tony to iing undead before he would normally notice them. Bee didn''t have the same issue though, and everyone was able to sleep soundly as she was on watch. She had to wonder how Susan had made it through the night on her own. The exact timeline of things wasn''t clear from what she had said so far, but from her wounds, it seemed like Susan had escaped at least a day ago. Maybe two. Was that rted to the skill she had mentioned? Blood Disguise. Bee wasn''t sure if she had ever heard of that skill before, but a good disguise that worked on the undead might have done the trick. With her Infiltrator ss, it did seem right up her alley. Scanning the horizon again, Bee found yet another low-level zombie. Sneaking away from the camp, she dashed over and quickly removed its head with her broom. The sun was just on the horizon. It was probably time to wake everyone up and see if Susan was able to move. Technically they could stay here another day, but Bee was starting to get a little antsy being away from the castle and Void for so long. Hopefully, Susan would be fine. The healing should have been enough to get her on her feet. Walking back to the others, Bee took another look around. Seeing no threats, she bent down to shake Tonys shoulder. "Time to rise and shine." While he grumbled into wakefulness, Bee snuck as close to the sheep as she dared and found they were beginning to stir. They would need to hurry if they didn''t want to spend the morning chasing the flock, and she was really sick of that. With nothing else to prepare, she went over to Susan''s prone form. The woman hadn''t shifted a muscle since she had passed outst night. Not quite ready to wake her up, Bee checked the bandage on her calf. The swelling had disappeared, leaving the wrappings loose. Shifting them to the side, Bee saw soft new skin clearly outlining where the teeth had dug deep into the flesh. Encouraged by the progress, Bee put her hand gently on Susan''s shoulder. The spy''s eye flicked open in a breath, and she didn''t move a muscle. Bee watched her eyes scan her surroundings. After they thoroughly categorized everything, Susan took in a single breath, and her eyes rested on Bee''s face. She rxed, but only slightly. The woman gave her a serious nod, and Bee removed her hand. In a smooth motion, Susan sat up and stretched. Bee noticed that despite her improved health, the litheness she had associated with the womans movements was still diminished somewhat. She looked much more like a normal person without the grace that her almost level 30 body gave her. "How do you feel?" Bee asked. Susan rolled her shoulders and neck. "Not bad, a little stiff like I just slept on the ground but thats it." Putting one hand on the ground behind her, she felt her ribs with the other. "Actually Better than I expected. Really good. What did you do? I don''t think Ive ever had healing that worked this quickly." "Well, most don''t have ess to the number of good supplies that I do from the castle. Im guessing something like this would be obscenely expensive without the abundance of captured monsters and minor demons we have at home. Susan didn''t look nearly as surprised as Bee would have expected. She hadnt mentioned the demons to the woman before and had expected a few questions, but she figured that it was Susans job to know things after all. "Sincerely, thank you. If you don''t mind, can I ask what you and Tony are doing out here? I wasn''t expecting to find any of the faithful so far from the castle." "Yeah, I dont me you. Bee sighed. Void sent us on a mission to, well, find some lost sheep. Chapter 127: Reasonably Sized Dogs Chapter 127: Reasonably Sized Dogs "Lost sheep?" Susan froze. "Are you Are you sure?" Bee gestured towards Tony and the sheep. "I mean, yes. That''s why we have so many of them." "So many of them?" The taller woman frowned, noticing the flock of fluffy white beasts milling about nearby. "Oh. Oh. Well, yes, I suppose that makes sense too." "Wait, what did you think I meant?" Bee frowned in confusion. Susan hesitated. "I mean, far be it from me to interpret Void''s will, but Perhaps he meant a less literal interpretation of ''lost sheep''." They fell silent, considering the implications. After a moment, Bee spoke. "You think, Void might have known that we would run into you?" "I''m just thinking it''s a possibility." Susan hedged. "Hm. Well, Void did describe the sheep pretty specifically. But perhaps that was its way of getting us out here. Especially if this future wasn''t a hundred percent certain." Bee thought aloud. "Also, if you are right, then that might mean we never needed to bring the sheep back in the first ce. That would be frustrating, to say the least. Rounding them up was a lot harder than I would have thought." "We should definitely bring them just in case. Void probably had more than one objective." Susan agreed as she levered herself up to her feet. "I think I''m healed enough to get moving. Maybe I can help out a bit with the sheep too." *** On the other side of the wall, I made out the impressions of two small footprints in the soft dirt by the road. Some brief analysis showed me that they could match Tanu''s feet if he had jumped from a height; the depth made sense too. Unfortunately, his weight wasn''t enough to press those feet into the earth at standard walking pressure. Even worse, despite throwing the range of my sensors to the max, I still wasn''t able to find the little kid. I widened my search. Instead of looking for him directly, I tried to find any more clues that might give me a clue about which direction he had gone. A few feet into the tree line, I found a small bit of blood on the leaf of a low fern that would have been just about knee level for Tanu. I engaged my thrusters and zipped over to the nt, avoiding the grass and all the dirt. I was able to get there in just a handful of seconds. Once I was closer, I touched the sample with my Mop. Bringing it into my dustbin, I was able to analyze it a bit better. I didn''t think I would have been able to tell if this was Tanu''s blood. Not yet, at least. I was able to figure out a better timeline of when it was left, though. No more than three hours ago, and it was definitely human. I was pretty sure that Tanu came this way. Following the path that the boy seemed to be taking got me going. As I drifted along it at high speeds, I kept my sensors scanning for any additional information. A few momentster, I found another bit of blood off to the right, deeper into the trees. It was a little higher than before. I dodged between the trees and bushes until I got closer to the spot. Upon further inspection, I realized this was a false trail. The blood was about an hour or two too early. Just to be certain, I still sampled the blood and found that the profile didn''t match at all. The level of iron in the blood already didn''t match, and that was just the beginning. Quickly, I returned to the original trail. I would need to work on this sort of skill as well as my system-granted skills. Being able to follow a human that I couldn''t sense would be extremely useful. Especially if these children kept insisting on wandering off no matter how nice of a home I kept for them. But that would have to wait until this current crisis was resolved. Pushing myself to the limits, I upped my pace to as fast as I could, still scanning all the surroundings for any sign of the boy. I started shutting down background processes to squeeze every quantum out of my processors. Urging my processors to move faster, I kept having to close out of negative probable oue scenarios that my models kept spinning up. They weren''t useful to me here. Other signs of blood out here were worrying, but I couldn''t dwell on that either. Every microsecond could matter here. I wasn''t about to lose this kid when there was still a nonzero chance of sess. A few hundred yardster, I found another trace of the human. There was a soft bit of earth deformed with a partial imprint of the right size. Judging by how much it dug into the ground, Tanu was running now. Right next to him was a strange print that looked a lot like it belonged to the family dog back home, except a lot bigger. I paused for a few milliseconds, but I didn''t see a good way to tell which print came first, so I just continued on the sparse track. The print led a little off of the main trail into what could barely be called a path. To my inexpert sensors, I could tell that it had only been traveled a dozen or so times. As I traveled, I cast my sensors ahead, but still, I found nothing. This was both encouraging and not helpful in the slightest. I also didn''t find more than the asional print. More often than not, any prints were apanied by the same paw prints from before on the soft earth. Suddenly, I saw the pair''s tracks merge with that of a group of humans. What were they doing out here? It wasn''t long before I had my answer. A group of disgusting, rotting zombies appeared in my sensors not too far ahead. I slowed as I realized that they weren''t moving forward quickly. Then the rest of the picture resolved in my sensors. Pinned up against arge rock was a small child and a very, veryrge dog with mottled gray fur. The huge dog was well, huge. It probably weighed more than Tony did. I watched as it sprayed spittle everywhere, snarling and snapping at the zombies advancing toward it. Next to therge dog stood Tanu. He held the stick I had gifted him this morning. His trembling hands gripped it in the guard position, but despite his apparent fear, he would sometimes strike out at the zombies when the dog was in danger of being surrounded. It would have been easy for the boy to climb up on the rock to get out of the reach of the zombies. I didn''t know if the dog would have been able to follow, but they didn''t even try. As I got closer, I saw why. Underneath the rock that stood behind the dog and boy was a smaller tunnel filled with much more reasonably sized dogs. The massive dog lunged forward at the ever-advancing zombies, its warnings ineffective. It bit one in the throat and threw it to the ground. There were still four more around it, though, and as they closed in, Tanu stepped forward, swinging his stick with 93% of the possible force his body could theoretically produce. I had seen enough. A few bursts of my sanitationmp and all four of the standing zombies had neat holes in their heads 3.5 inches wide. As they copsed, the giant dog finished separating the head from the rotting corpse it was attached to. Immediately it started retching and vomiting up bile. I could sympathize. Moving in, I cleaned up after it. Soon enough, the bits and bodies of the undead disappeared into my dustbin. I even cleaned up the dog sick. Tanu stood there, shocked and breathing hard. I was just relieved to have made it in time. I was d to have hurried. If I had been here a minuteter, this might have been a very different scene. Eventually, Tanu seemed toe to and looked at the stick in his hands. The t wooden part was smeared with ck gunk. Correctly identifying the issue, he bent down to wipe off the excess on some moss before he tucked it in his belt. Truly, he was one of my better students. Looking toward me, he gave me a shy wave. That was right. Tanu was a quiet child. When I moved closer to inspect the smaller dogs, therge one stepped in my way and fluffed up its neck, growling. I popped out my Spray Bottle, ready to reprimand the dog, but Tanu stepped forward toy his hand on the dog''s nk. Surprisingly, it calmed down somewhat. Good, he was training the dog. That was an important rite of passage my humans back home made their little humans do with the dog, even if ours was much smaller. Still, it would likely be a while before this one coulde into the castle, just in case. With therger dog calmed, I was able to move past and inspect the reasonably sized dogs. They were quite squirmy and loud. I imagined the noise they were producing didn''t help with avoiding the zombies. Also, it seemed that they were searching for something, but they were going about it all wrong. From my experience, animals could find things better with their eyes open. Just wriggling around in a pile with their eyes closed didn''t seem to get them any closer to their goal. We would have to bring all of them back to the castle. It simply wasn''t safe for them outside of the walls, at least not the small ones. The enormous one appeared capable enough of fending for itself. Still, I did hope that these would be outside dogs. Maybe Mary would have an idea of how to care for them without too many problems. We would have to see when we got back. Reaching down, I grabbed one of the smaller dogs and ced it on my back. As I picked it up, I could feel the huge one tense, but once I put it down, it rxed. All in all, there were seven normal-sized dogs. I could carry one on my back, and Tanu could just lift another pair. Therge dog grabbed one by the scruff of the neck, but that still left three unattended who refused to open their eyes. Now to figure out how to get them moving --- Susan, Bee, and Tony darted back and forth, corralling the panicking sheep in the same general direction. Susan''s help with the flock greatly improved their time. Bee wasn''t sure if it was that she was good at guessing where the sheep would run to or the fact that three people were able to better fence in the flock and force them where they wanted to go. Either way, she just appreciated the help. At least Bee wasn''t exhausted as they drove the sheep along the road. It even let Bee asionally dash off to go deal with the roaming undead. They were not nearly as much of an issue during the day, but if one got too close, it could still spook the sheep into going in a direction that they didn''t want. When they reached the town of Greg, they had to leave the road. No one wanted to try and guide a flock of sheep through the city. It turned out that leaving the road wasn''t too bad, though. They were able to use the wall of Greg to pin the fuzzballs in from one side without much of an issue. Before the sun had finally set, they had reached the edges of the treeline. "Wow," Tony panted, "who would have thought that sheep would be so hard to find?" The group had set up camp for the night, finally taking a well-earned rest. Things hadn''t really given them much of a chance to talk throughout the day, as they were simply too busy. "I have a little experience with sheep." Susan volunteered. "I could have told you that wasn''t going to be easy. You were strangers to them, and had no well trained shepherding dog, this was never going to work well." "Oh? Where did you learn about sheep from?" Tony asked as heid out his bedroll. Susan looked at Bee with an odd question in her eyes, one that Bee wasn''t sure how to answer. She just shrugged. Susan took a small breath before answering. "I had a deep cover assignment on the border a couple years ago. Turns out, no one really looks too hard at a shepherd chasing down a lost sheep. No matter where they''re going." "Deep cover?" Tony asked in bewilderment. Chapter 128: Dogpile Chapter 128: Dogpile Bee looked up at Tony. That''s right, he wasn''t there for the whole infiltrator discussion with Susan. "Uh, you remember when I told you that she went to go tell people about us?" Tony nodded. Bee looked at Susan to see if she wanted to fill in the gaps. Susan just gave her a shrug. Sighing, Bee continued. "Yeah, well, she has the Infiltrator ss." Tony cocked an eyebrow at Bee. "So you just let her go inform on us then?" "Well no," Bee said. "Void did." "To be fair, I wasn''t really telling them anything that would harm you all." Susan piped up. "Or at least, I didn''t really have much more information than castle supply numbers. But with Void''s presence I don''t think there is really any danger to us, especially with the army''s attention taken up by the undead at the moment." "Okay, sure, Void does what he wants." Tony said slowly, clearly still processing the information. "So, deep cover. I take it you were a spy?" "Of sorts." Susan hesitated. "Operative might be a better word. It was something that me and a few others had been raised for since we were very young." "So what are you doing here then? Why turn on your handlers?" Tony asked, his face still not entirely trusting. "Because I met Void." Susan stated simply. "I''m not really turning my back on them, either. Honestly I was telling them the truth and they thought I was brainwashed. Besides, a new god has been born. To let the world know if it is much more important than my previous orders." Bee wasn''t sure where the fanaticism came from. Sure, she was dedicated to her master too, but Susan took it to a whole new level. Maybe it was a regional thing? Themonly worshiped gods had few devoted followers around where she grew up. Mostly they were considered myths or, at most, relics of a past age that had long since retreated from the world. Disappeared ever since the major demon threats were repelled. There had been very little talk about them in the books she had read in the library so far. Often only Devotees were true worshipers of a given god, and it sounded like they were more focused on the ideal than the actual god. Tony apparently was having simr thoughts, as he wasn''t ready to let the topic just move on. "Why though?" Before anyone could say anything, he continued. "I mean, I get the difference and all. But why does the world need to know so bad? The word will spread anyway, at some point." "Do you know how long it''s been since thest god appeared?" Susan asked, her tone reverent. Tony shook his head; Bee was curious, too, as she didn''t think that anyone knew the number. The histories she had read were patchy at best and mostly just myths. "Honestly, no one does. But it''s been at least 10,000 years. There are allusions to Dagramas rising some 30,000 years ago in some myths and records that mages have found, though. That''s all that I know of. "This part gets a little hazy and there''s some guess work involved. But from what I understand, that divine ascension might be directly responsible for our missing history. Endless wars and cmities. Devastation and the copse of civilizations. The demons broke through and ruled for a time, until the gods beat them back." She paused. "Whatever happened then was a big deal, is what I''m trying to say." "How do you know all this?" Bee asked. That was way more than she knew or had any way of knowing. Well, maybe the catbs under the castle might have told a slightly different story. If she was right, they looked ancient enough to have been ten thousand years old. The book she found on the pedestal might tell her even more if she ever figured out how to read it. "Libraries have a lot of information, and information gathering was my thing. I talked to enough philosophers and historian types that something had to soak in after long enough." Susan said. "But, like I said, it''s all conjecture. My personal theory is that the world rejected the new god and tried to fight against it. Maybe even the other gods split into factions. No one really knows for sure what happened or how. But I don''t want the same thing to happen to us. Or, if it does, I want to be on the right side of it." Her eyes seemed toe alive with a new intensity. "The best thing we can do is support Void and ensure everyone else does as well. But beyond that, from my interactions I truly believe that Void has everyone''s best interests at heart. It just might be a true divine incarnation of order. How could I not respect that to the utmost?" Bee considered Susan''s words. "I asked how you know this because the castle has a lot of information hidden away in it. The library is just part of it. The building itself is very old. Maybe old enough to have been around that long. For sure built before the defeat of the demons." Bee thought for a moment. "When we get back we should go through some of it and see what lines up with what you''ve heard. If some kinds of records here survived, then surely others did as well." Susan nodded. "I would like that. But for now we should probably focus on the sheep. I think they''re about to bolt." Tony cursed as he turned to see a sheep doing just that. As he darted off, Bee was grateful that he was fast enough to catch them. It would have been a real pain if she had to run them all down herself. I considered the three dogs that refused to just walk behind us. It would have helped a lot if they would just open their eyes. But s, they insisted on stumbling along blind, never going more than three steps in the right direction. I refused to leave them behind, and the ridiculouslyrge dog seemed to agree with that. So in order to move them, we had to move in short spurts. Tanu, the oversized dog, and I would move about 20 yards down the path. Then I would put my dog down and remove the one from my back. The big dog would drop hers, then we would go back for the other three. Of course, by that point, they had usually wandered off, and we needed to go into the bushes to find them. Bringing them to where we left the others, the search would start over again. It kind of felt like I was juggling. The smallest dog was in the arms of Tanu; he didn''t put it down. That was fine. He was struggling to hold on to the squirming ball of fur anyway and wasn''t moving very fast. It was entirely understandable, as the dog was almost half his weight. It was still helpful, though since it was one more that we didn''t have to carry. Still, we were moving excruciatingly slowly. After 18 minutes, Tanu''s arms couldn''t take it anymore. At the pace we were moving, we were still over an hour from the road. The more I watched Tanu struggle with his burden, the more impressed I was that he had managed to get so far into the woods on his own. He was sure lucky to find a dog to help him survive the undead. Maybe the dog was lucky to find him, though. These smaller dogs didn''t seem very helpful. Tanu looked around at the ground. I guessed he was looking for a ce to sit. To prevent him from further dirtying his pants, I floated a fallen log over to him with Air Maniption. I then proceeded to nearly smack myself with my w in frustration, stopping only because I feared I might hurt the dog on my back. Instead, I moved the dog over to the pile and lightly tapped my outer shell in frustration. Air Maniption! How could I forget about that? I wasn''t sure about my limits, but I started hovering the dogs up one at a time, trying to see how many I could carry. Their iling paws didn''t make it any easier. It was like they were trying to fly by swimming through the air. That just was making the air circte in ways that were slightly harder to control. Still, I was able to lift five before I could feel my circuits start to heat up. That should be more than enough. After resting for a few minutes Tanu, the stupidly enormous dog, and I were ready to go. Progress was a lot quicker now that I had optimized our transport methods. However, referring to the dog''s size every time I thought about it was starting to get repetitive. Normally I would have just let the humans pick a name, as was tradition, but I supposed that I could do it this time. Not that anyone would know about it. It would be my personal designation for the creatures. Once the humans picked a name, though, I would just call it that. So what would I call it? Rather than try and optimize thebination of vowels and consonants myself, I ran a random number generator against a list of all the names I had ever heard of. Number 375. Albert? I didn''t quite like the sound of that. Sure, it was a big name, but the dog wasn''t fat, just big-boned. I quickly narrowed down the list to ones that I felt had some rtion to the huge dog. Cliff? Sure, Cliff would do. Why not. Cliff insisted on carrying one of the two smaller dogs that I wasn''t able to lift. She watched the floating pack warily but didn''t object to the new mode of transportation. Thest dog was resting on my back, leaving me free to retract my arm and focus on carrying the fluffballs. The rest of the trek back to the clearing around the walls of the castle passed in a blur. After a little while, I dropped to the ground and just rolled through the dirt, as splitting my attention was just too much for my poor hardware. Without his burden, Tanu had no problems keeping up. He was a hard-working kid; I just hoped that he wouldn''t wander off again like this. It would be a shame if I had been just a little slower. Once we got to the clearing, I set the dogs down for a second. I needed a small break to let my circuits cool. That was more of a workout than I had tried in a good while. Cliff was still going strong, but she wasn''t willing to leave the pile of puppies. She stayed with us as Tanu, and I rested in the dirt. Sure, this method of travel was much faster, but it was exhausting. On the other hand, my Air Maniption was getting more and more powerful. If I wasn''t constantly redlining my outputs, then carrying a slightly lighter burden would have been easy. I was also draining my battery for the first time in a very long while. I had considered transmuting some matter from my dustbin, but with the unusual heat from my exertion, I didn''t know what would happen. If I exploded with energy or heated up even more, I didn''t want to risk damaging the dog on my back. A few minutes of a low processing load and the cool air helped me return to a normal processing temperature. This wasn''t the hardest thing I had done by a long shot, but it was a lot of effort over time. Now that I was a bit better, I risked transmuting a little bit of dirt. Energy topped off, and the processor cooled; I was able to lift all six of the dogs. Cliff still refused to let me take thest one, so I just let her take it. A few minutester, we were in front of the gate. I considered boosting over it, but I wasn''t sure about lifting Cliff and everyone else at once. I also didn''t want to take the other dogs where she couldn''t reach. She seemed quite protective, and that just seemed cruel. So instead, I just rapped my w loudly on the metal bars. The ringing echo filled the night air. The castle door creaked open, and a few figures hurried down the steps as if they had been waiting for my return. As three people ran over, my sensors made them out to be Mary, Trent, and Talia. Talia wasn''t able to contain herself and led the pack for most of the way. "Tanu!" she cried as she caught sight of our forms through the portcullis. When she got the bars, she pulled up short. At the sight of the fluffy Cliff, she even let out a short scream. "Wolf!" Chapter 129: Wings of Liberty Chapter 129: Wings of Liberty Talia was clearly having a panic attack. She frantically pointed at Cliff, Trent and Mary picking up their pace at her screams. Luckily, they were not far behind. Maybe they could help calm her down. Totally unconcerned by themotion, Cliff set the dog in her mouth down and squatted on her haunches, tongue lolling out the side of her mouth. Tanu simrly didnt seem to register Talia''s reaction. That, or he was just too happy to be bothered by it. His face lit up seeing his mother, and he spoke for the first time that night. "Look ma! I gots me sum frans!" Unable to contain his excitement, he gave Cliff an appropriatelyrge hug. Well, as appropriatelyrge as a child the size of the dogs snout could give. The canine seemed a little ufortable and let out a surprisingly high-pitched whine. She shoved her nose against his ear and licked the back of his head with a surprisingly long tongue. The overly concerned woman ran over to the winch and started raising the portcullis. Her frantic movements were using much more effort than was efficient, and she was only moving the gate with 65 percent of her optimal energy expenditure. Stepping forward, Trent took pity on her and started helping her with the winch as Mary looked on with an open mouth. It was kind of them to open the gate for us. I had been preparing to lift everyone over the gate myself, but that was much more effort than just waiting for them to let us through. Once the gate was a few feet off the ground, Talia left the work to Trent and ducked under, running to Tanu''s side. She caught the kid up in arge hug, lifting him up and away from Cliff. Tears streamed down her face, and she wasn''t able to speak as she covered the kid''s face with kisses. Tanu seemed less than pleased by the development and wriggled about, trying to escape the onught. Her grip was iron though, and the struggles were in vain. The gate crept up enough that Cliff and I started moving the other dogs inside the castle walls. Once everyone was inside. Trent lowered the defenses back into ce. His face was oddly still and stony. I wasnt entirely sure why, to be honest. From the way he was staring at the dog and her puppies though, it was probably some amount of concern about them. Why though? I thought I would be the main one bothered about the potential mess theyd leave inside the castle. As we started home, Cliff let out a small whine and looked back at the young boy. Tanu finally managed to free himself of his constraints enough to turn to the hesitating dog. "It''s ''k girl, go''n" Cliff let out a small woof as though it understood and picked up one of the dogs, running over to where a collection of trees stood near the courtyard. I looked at the rest of the pile and considered whether I should help her transport them. I decided they were safe enough now that we were inside though and left them for now. After a job well done, I followed the humans back into the castle proper. - Arthur mmed his fist on the table. "YOU DIDN''T TELL ME?!" Spittle spattered across the face of the mid-level officer in front of him. A long-suppressed cauldron of frustrations bubbled up from deep within his chest. Normally he wasn''t one to lose his temper, but this was a blunder of epic proportions. Ignoring protocol was sometimes necessary; he did understand that. But that was usually reserved for time-sensitive things or dangerous information. Even in such cases, protocol would just be modified or dyed slightly. And yet, when one of the high-level covert assets came in, not only was that not reported at all, through any channel, but the officer who had the asset in his custody detained and tortured her. It screamed of ipetence or even treason. It was utterly unforgivable. "Well, she came in when you were busy. And the reports mentioned she might be under mind control." The fop responded,pletely unfazed, as he brushed hair that was at least three times longer than regtion out of his eyes. These noble children supposedly were taught military from the cradle. In his thirty years ofmand, Arthur hadn''t found that to be true at all, which was likely why the man had acted so out of his station. "So were you following orders?" Arthur asked in a dangerous tone as he red over the table at the eejit. Either unconcerned about repercussions or unaware of the mood, the man didn''t catch on to the seriousness of the situation. "Well, not exactly I suppose. But acting with initiative." After a breath he added, "Sir." Arthur barely restrained himself from shouting again. "You had a superior officer detained and tortured without authority or cause. Without orders. Without informingmand or anyone else who should have been involved in that decision. You are not military police, and even if you were you wouldnt have that kind of authority." Reaching across the table, he ripped the Lieutenant pin from the man''s chest. Moving his attention to the guards, he motioned at the man. "Have this private thrown in the brig." This got a reaction from the man, though it was more affront than anything else. "I had cause! She interacted with an enemy possibly capable of mind control. If she was under the influence, theres no telling what a low-born peasant like her could be twisted to do!" "You were in your authority to detain her until a superior could be fetched. Not reporting it, and especially the torture, makes this dereliction of duty and treason." Arthur said in an icy voice, now thoroughly in control of his temper. The men he had indicated stepped forward and grabbed the newly-demoted privates elbows. As the realization sank in, the mans face darkened into anger. They had to struggle to pull the former lieutenant from the room as he iled about. "My father will hear of this!" The man shouted, turning purple with indignation. Arthur ignored the all-too-familiar threat and went back to studying the map. His aide stepped forward and spoke in a low tone to avoid being overheard. "If it is treason, should I have gallows prepared for tomorrow?" Arthur shook his head. "We can figure out what to do with the oafter. Honestly can''t say whether he made the wrong decision. If it was reported she might very well have been questioned anyway." "Yes, but by experts instead of the amateurs who let her escape." The aide said. Arthur didn''t really have anything else to say to that. The boy''s father was already going to be an issue, and he didn''t have time to figure this out now. Focusing back down at the table, he counted all the markers again. Running through all the calctions one more time, the results came up the same. Tomorrow they would be ready. Enough troops and horses were back in shape, and the enemy forces were still thin, off conquering the surroundings. Of course, he was wary of a trap just over the horizon. It was something a crafty leader could pull, and it would be even easier with the undead as hiding them or keeping them nearly undetectable was trivial with the right tactics. He had to trust in his watchers. They had counted very thoroughly, and there was no way for the columns leading away from the city to double back so quickly. At least, not in a way that would let them reinforce the besieging troops in less than an hour. If nothing changed tomorrow, they would sally forth and score their second major victory in the campaign. But Arthur wouldnt bet on it. Everything always changed. I left my carpet a bit early the next morning. I wanted to go check on our new guests and see how they were settling in. A quick check on the castle inhabitants found nothing out of ce. Stopping briefly in the kitchen, I headed outside. Once outside, I hovered over the rows of trees where I saw Cliff carrying the other dogs to. In the shelter of some bushes, I soon found them. Cliff was lying on her side, and the other dogs were all docked on her, charging. Seeing my approach, she bared her teeth slightly, but it was also apanied by a single thump of her tail. I figured that we were okay. Approaching slowly, I pulled a b of meat from my dustbin. It was only in there for a few minutes since I had grabbed it from the kitchen, but it glowed faintly in the predawn light for 0.75 seconds before fading. Huh, that was odd. I ced the meat on some grass near Cliff''s head where she could reach. She stretched her neck out slightly and thoroughly inspected the gift with her nose. After she was satisfied, her tongue darted out a few times to lick the meat before she gripped a small bit with her front teeth and ripped a strip off. Leaving her to her meal, I wandered off to a nearby clearing. There was training to do. With only a second of preparation, I flung myself high into the air, nearly as high as the castle spires. Adjusting the thrusters, I flipped on my side and started to move in a circle, my top pointed toward the center. Faster and faster, I spun in tight circles until the scenery blurred in my sensors. As quickly as I could, I halted my momentum,ing to a stop only a few yards from where I had first risen. Calcting the exact amount of thrust required for a maneuver wasn''t hard once I got the right algorithms; it had just taken a few interactions and some trial and error to get all the calctions correct. As I practiced, I developed even better control over my mutations. I suppose a human would develop both the control and the knowledge to use them at the same time. That wasn''t how I worked though. It gave me huge advantages in some areas but made it so that I would always feel a bit hamstrung without a lot of grinding my control higher. Breaking from my hover, I entered freefall for a bit before leveling off and heading off in a random direction at full speed. This wasn''t hard for me to maintain. As long as I had the energy, I would never need to stop. Of course, if I ever began to run low, I could just convert something in my dustbin. I had nearly endless amounts of dirt in there by now. It was an absolutest resort though. I might have to n ahead and consume something more than what was stored, but that shouldn''t be difficult with matter being literally everywhere. As I sped out, I was soon soaring over the walls and a small strip of forest. The castle was situated at the end of a valley surrounded by towering, white-capped mountains on three sides. The fourth and final side had the road leading out. Today I flew to the back mountain. My sensors didn''t evene close to reaching it from where I was, so I was relying totally on my optical sensors, and the distance was only giving me more rity. As I got closer, I started to see how tall they really were, and I started to climb in altitude as I neared it. By the time I reached the mountains, I had aimed for one of the gaps between peaks. I was easily 10,000 feet above the valley below. The air density was much lower this high up, and the drain on my battery increased noticeably. Skimming over the snow by just a few feet, I continued to climb as I banked around the highest spire. As I reached the backside of the mountain, I noticed an unusualnding about halfway towards the peak.. Maybe it was a cave? It might be worth checking outter. But for now, sightseeing was enough. Coming here was doing wonders for my Thruster mutation training. By the time I finished my revolution, I was nearly 17,000 feet above the castle, and I was really struggling to maintain my altitude. The low air pressure made flying way more difficult, from what I had observed. Honestly, I wasn''t sure how natural these mountains were. They were barely a mile wide and almost three times as tall. The stone must be incredibly strong to withstand its own weight. Maybe this was where the castle got its incredible stone from? As I finished myp around the peak, I started to descend once more. I flew over the forest at incredible speeds, still having a long way down to go. As I approached the ground, I noticed arge mass of off-white shapes moving in the distance toward the castle. Could this be my humans with the fabled Sheep? Chapter 130: Sheep’s Clothing Chapter 130: Sheeps Clothing Bee watched the far-off bird move unnaturally fast in the air above them. It had only been up there for a few minutes, and it was really freaking her out. The speed waspletely unreasonable, not to mention the zig-zagging direction changes; worse, she could only make it out as a dark smudge in the distance, so she had no idea how fast it was going. Is this some new undead threat I''ve never heard of? There wasn''t much they could do, though. That would be if they tried to move the flock off the path and into the forest. She doubted they would ever find more than a quarter of them again. As much as they had improved at controlling the flock, getting them on the path was tricky. Now the trees themselves were helping a lot to keep them focused in the right direction. Bee suspected that was because the undergrowth was dense, and the sheep were dumb enough to not realize that going into the forest was an option. Tony thought that it might have been that they were smart enough to stay on the path, but she figured that was giving the dreadful things too much credit. Susan said the instinct to stay together in a group was helping them out here, but they still walked up and down the column to head off any issues, pressing the sheep forward. The flying thing in the sky zipped over them again. So far, it hadn''t attacked, so they figured it was maybe a scout of some sort. Since it had already seen them, perhaps it wasn''t worth trying to hide. Though, Bee thought, is it my imagination, or did it getrger this past? It was heading toward the castle. She felt a slight pang of fear but rxed just as quickly. Considering who guarded it, she was able to master herself. The castle was much safer than they were right now. No matter how powerful this flying threat was, it would stand no chance against Void. Continuing to drive the sheep forward, Bee started to let her mind wander in the execution of her rtively mundane task. She nned out a few new potions she wanted to brew. After meditating on the liquid projectiles her master sometimes used in fights, she started to have an insight. She was nearly certain that it was a highly corrosive substance. Often, weak acids were used in cleaning, meaning her Divine Alchemy should work on them. The question was, how corrosive could she make the substances before her skill no longer applied? Also, now that she had a third domain ideal for Void, she decided to consider how she might be able to earn experience by incorporating it into her activities. Divine Alchemy wasn''t likely to be helpful with lost childrenunless she could make some sort of tracking potion? She would have to think more about thatter. But she needed to figure out a better way to level. This trip frustrated her for many reasons. For one, despite killing many undead, they were so weak that she hadn''t even earned a single level. Also, being away from the castle, she wasn''t even earning a steady stream from working with the kids or doing her normal cleaning chores. Even tending to ramps hadn''t been an option out here. How could she serve her master if she stayed so weak? She realized, deep down, that it was a bit of rationalization. If she was being honest, she just wanted to be stronger, but she glossed over that for now. *** Finally, after a lot of walking, they came into view of the castle. Bee ran ahead and knocked on the gate, leaving Tony and Susan the unenviable task of herding the flock the rest of the way. The ringing of metal echoed across the castle grounds. Soon enough, she saw a figure walking over from the direction of the fields. Is no one watching out for danger? We need to fix that. There are more than enough people here now that keeping a watch on the road should be doable. The worker turned out to be Ss. Turning over his shoulder, he shouted, sending people scurrying about. A few went into the castle to round up the others; a few momentster, Ss worked the winch to raise the portcullis. "It''s good to see yass! Uh, er, highness." Ss eximed as she stepped back onto the castle grounds atst. "I''m sure Trent or Mary will fill ya in detail, but things''ve been generally quiet round here, as it''s been.'' Side from a few things, ''course." Bee let out some tension she had been holding in her shoulders. Ever since she had left, the knot of worry had been growing. She was responsible for these people; how that had fallen to her, she wasn''t entirely sure, but it had. While she trusted that Void would watch over them, she was still on edge to be away for so long, even if it was on a holy quest. "Thanks for letting me know. I think Tony could use some help if you know anything about sheep," she said, gesturing over her shoulder to the flock just cresting thest hill. "I mayhaps know a thing or two," The old man grinned as he set out towards the herd with a brisk but steady stride. "No worries, we''ll get ''em in no time." As he was walking away, she heard him mutter something under his breath. "Don''t want to be near Trent when he learns about this. Looks like we''ll be workin'' through the winter after all." She wasn''t quite sure she understood the statement, but hopefully, they weren''tpletely unexpected. Even if they were, that Void was the one who asked for them would smooth things over. As much as she grew to hate the sheep, she understood her master''s rationale for wanting them. They had a store of clothes from the mages, but not many of them were sized for the smaller children. Also, the sheep had other uses. They could get lots of food from the fields, and the harvest they had collected from the nearby farms should be enough to take them through winter and spring, hopefully. But despite all that, they didn''t have a source of meat. Now they had the sheep, at least as a backup. It might be enough that they wouldn''t have to go hunting in winter. Just as she was thinking, a familiar ck disk appeared from inside the castle doors. It leaped forward at her, somehow perfectly timing its airborne arc so it crashed into her chest on the descent. She caught it in surprise, driven back just a step with the gentle impact. After I confirmed that it was indeed my humans on the trail home, I returned to the castle to go about my day. I yed with the kids, cleaned, and trained my mutations as I did every day. Slowly my control was improving across the board. But no matter how much I tried to throw myself into my work, one thread was dedicated to updating my timer with their estimated time of arrival. It was aplete waste of resources, but I didn''t mind too much. I was just too excited. When I finally picked up Beatrice on my sensors, I zipped through the castle halls, leaving my room half done. I could alwayse back to itter. A small burst of my Thrusters sent me gracefully arcing into her arms. As fun, as it was to fly everywhere, it was still very nice to be carried. There was a sort of security to it. I let out a weing beep, trying to convey all my joy that she had made it back in one piece. I ran my sensors over her carefully, but somehow, I didn''t detect even the slightest bit of damage to her. This was unprecedented! Beatrice had an entire adventure without me and didn''t end up broken. I was so proud of my pupil and human. Truly, I never thought I would see the day. It urred to me that she may have just had time to heal herself, but I supposed that was okay too. She cocked her head slightly, interpreting my noises, and smiled. "I''m d to be back too, Master." Now, where was Tony? Also, I think I saw whatever those Sheep things that Bee had been trying to retrieve were. After a moment, Beatrice put me down on request and said she would like to talk to Trent and Mary about everything she had missed, so I let her go. Rolling down the path, I didn''t quite make it to the gate before I saw them; fluffy, off-white animals started to stream through. I stopped in my tracks as I ran my sensors over them. They were dirty! They were so dirty that their fur was many shades more off-white than theirposition indicated! That would need to be fixed post haste! I supposed that might have happened during the trip, but upon closer inspection, I found that a lot of the grime was quite old. Were these things ever clean? Baths were in order first. We needed to remember our priorities. Before I could finish settling on how we would bathe the sheep, Cliff came running from the little stand of trees she had imed as her own. I was quite impressed with the rate at which she covered the gap. The sheep were, too; it seemed as if they decided they wanted to race. They couldn''t quite pick a direction, but from their excited noises, I could tell they were ready. Somehow they weren''t able to make it out the main gate, so they started to run around the castle ahead of Cliff and in other scattered directions. The mass of the sheep was valiantly running as best they could, but it was clear that there was noparison between the grace and speed that Cliff ran with and the bumbling gait of the sheep. However, Cliff was sporting, veering off to give them a better chance. It was only when she crashed into a bleating animal did I realize something wasn''t quite right. Tanu came running and was suddenly yelling at the veryrge dog. Cliff froze with her teeth just a few inches away from the sheep''s throat. She cocked her head to swivel her ears back at Tanu. Hearing amotion, I sensed Beatrice and Mary hurrying out the front door of the castle. There was also a bit of a crowd forming off to the side. Presumably, they were here to wee Bee and Tony back, but they were instead looking at Cliff. I heard one mutter, "That''s got to be the biggest wolf I have ever seen." Beatrice came running out the door but pulled up short when sheid eyes on Cliff. Her eyes didn''t leave the dog as she slowly spoke. "Master. Why is there a wolf on the castle grounds?" Well, this might be a bit of a story that we didn''t have time for at the moment. First, I needed to lend Tanu a hand in restraining Cliff; I guess she needed to learn some manners. The little kids tried to y rough, too, before we taught them better. I hovered up next to Cliff''s head and extended my Grabby Arm. Like I had seen her grab the smaller dogs, I used my w to bunch up the fur at the back of her neck and lift her off the ground away from the very scared sheep. Cliff didn''t seem to enjoy this treatment very much, and her wiggling made it very hard to exin what was happening. Still, with the immediate situation resolved, I tried to briefly exin how I had found Tanu, Cluff, and the other dogs to Beatrice. My human listened but seemed distracted somewhat. Her eyes kept darting over to the sheep running about in the courtyard. I wondered why they were still running - didn''t they know the race was over? Chapter 131: House Training Chapter 131: House Training Roscoe hurried back as fast as his rat legs would let him. What had he done wrong? He was sure that he had left plenty of troops back around the city to keep the humans boxed in, at least for longer than this. His recruitment drives were only partially in progress. Sure, the people they were finding were joining them, but his Necromantic Rituals were proving more difficult than he had anticipated. The humans were apparently in the practice of burning their dead. This made it quite difficult to collect some of the ingredients his skill was telling him he needed. This forced him to stick with the less effective rituals that he could perform with wildlife that the horde could catch. Animals were even harder to get than humans, though. They weren''t tied to houses, and they tended to move about more. They also seemed more likely to evade the undead than attempt to fight. He had been putting the finishing touches on his first ritual to call forth Shades when the messenger interrupted him. Roscoe had left one of the elite troops from beneath the castle in charge. They were still the only ones who were able to hold a real conversation, sadly. The rest of the undead''scking devotion to the Void was a bit troubling. However, perhaps that could be remediedter. For now, they were only tools. The messenger had handed over a piece of paper with a message on it describing the situation back in the city. Apparently, the defenders had more horses than should have been possible. And more troops, too. They had managed to break through the siege, and many riders had scattered in all directions. Roscoe wanted to meet the leader of the defenders. Whoever it was clearly understood battle strategy and warfare at a much higher level than he did. When he finally neared the city enough to see what was happening around its walls, his respect for his enemies'' leaders only rose. Even though the humans had managed to break out, they hadn''t over-extended. They pressed the surrounding armies enough that they weren''t able to chase after the riders sent out. Then they went through aplicated series of false retreats, baiting the overeager undead into position after position that they were all cut down from. Roscoe started tounch some dark magic spells at the humans to give his dwindling troops some space to regroup. Before he even had much of an effect, the humans were already back behind the walls, having lost almost no troops while inflicting heavy losses. Only the humans'' need to recover would keep this siege going. If they were as tireless as the undead Well, Roscoe wouldn''t have stood a chance. As things were, the retreat allowed Roscoe to send messages to pull back most of his recruiting troops from afar. They were now needed to just hold the humans in ce. The devastating losses were notpletely fatal, though. It would just slow down their progress. His army wouldn''t be able to amass enough troops to swarm the city for a while longer now. It couldn''t be helped. Maybe some Shades would make a difference. Roscoe would have to wait for the return of his troops before returning to his ritual. The dy caused him endless frustrations. Their god needed to be recognized, and this stain stood between them and the perfect world they would create. Still, the Void was endless, Roscoe told himself. There was no real rush; the end was inevitable. - I honestly wasn''t sure if Beatrice really understood the whole story about the dogs. She seemed too caught up in watching me hover in the air, holding Cliff. To be fair, Cliff didn''t seem to be enjoying it much at all. With the sheep Cliff had caught able to get up and return to the rest of its kind, I returned Cliff to the ground, but I didn''t let go of her scruff yet. "So We have wolves in here now?" Beatrice asked no one in particr. "Yes." Tanu replied. "Her name is Cliff. And she has seven cubs." Beatrice looked down at the little boy, and some of the worry left her face. In a much more gentle voice, she spoke to him. "Can you tell me how we got these guests?" "Yes. I climbed the gate ta'' other night and was walkin'' in the forest. I found Cliff, though I didn''t know her name then. She took me back to her den. But some zombies attacked us, but we fought ''em off." He drew and brandished the stick that I had made for him. "At least long ''nough for Lord Void toe." Beatrice looked at me. "So then what happened?" "Well, Void beat up the dead and carried the cubs back here. He also told me that her name was Cliff. I don''t know the cubs'' names though. Sorry." "It''s okay, they might not have names yet." Beatrice reassured the worried boy. "We can talk about that in a little bit. I''m more worried about having a wild wolf in the castle grounds with us." "Cliff is a good girl. She won''t hurt anyone." Tanu defended her with a fierce tone. I looked at the veryrge dog in my w. She had stopped struggling, but I could see that she had some veryrge teeth. Though he was right that she hadn''t posed any threat to the humans at all. Beatrice looked at me with a question in her eyes. I wasn''t sure what it was, so I didn''t respond. "Maybe, Tanu, maybe. I''m more worried about the sheep that Tony and I just brought back for Void. They are important and we can''t let Cliff harm them. And wolves do like sheep." Beatrice said with a bit of concern, but still without being too harsh on the little kid. "Don''t you worry, I can teach her not to chase the sheep." Tanu replied with a great deal of confidence. Beatrice looked over to me for confirmation. I was sure Tanu could handle it; if necessary, I could lend a w too. So far, my spray bottle has done well teaching the kids and the cat, so it would likely work on the dogs as well. I gave her a reassuring beep, and she shrugged. "If you''re willing to do the hard work of training, Tanu. If you need any help though, let someone know." "I might need some treats, but I got this." Tanu smiled, snapping the salute the children had started using for thest few days. He came over to me and stroked Cliff''s face a few times. Once she was calm, I let her go. Beatrice had lowered her center of gravity a bit to intercept Cliff if therge dog went after the sheep again. But that was unnecessary as Cliff just meekly followed Tanu back to her cubs. Once they were a little ways away, Beatrice turned to Tony. "Where do you think Tanu got that practice sword? I don''t think the castle had any. Especially not in that size." "I have no idea. Maybe someone joined recently with some carpentry skill?" He suggested. "Hmmm. Maybe. It would be hard to tell though. We are going to have to figure out a better system for that." She mused. "System for what?" Tony asked. "Categorizing people''s abilities. Or just knowing what we can do. We''re starting to get prettyrge, and it''s hard to n food when we don''t even have an exact head count. This is getting to be a lot more than just your family and some refugees." Beatrice exined. Tony''s eyes tightened as he started to think about it as well. I let out a few noises. Beatrice cocked her head. "Oh, Void? You made the children all training weapons for the morning sessions? Of course that makes more sense, I should have known that you were on top of things like that. Especially after you made my broom-spear." I humbly basked in the praise from my humans. Still, now that I had sheep to care for, they could figure this out for themselves for a little while. Leaving Beatrice and Tony to figure out whatever they were thinking about, I hovered over to where the sheep had settled down. They seemed a bit tired after they escaped from the surprise race they had been challenged to so rudely. They were a little wary of my shapeing over to their circle of fluff. I ran my sensors over them, and I confirmed what I had suspected. They were very dirty. This would need to be fixed as soon as possible. But closer inspection did confirm that, indeed, many of the rugs I had found were made from the same fibers that grew out of their backs. Though the fibers I had scanned were obviously much cleaner. I wondered what the process was for collecting the material. Could I just cut it off with my sword? I didn''t think that was the best idea. At least, not yet. It was starting to get cold around nighttime, and these sheep seemed to be using the fibers as a mobile nket. Well, I needed to do some testing. Gaining some elevation, I picked out what I thought to be the dirtiest sheep. If I was going to figure out how to wash these sheep, it had better work with the worst of them. Once I made my selection, I lowered myself down and tried to pick it up with my w. Unlike with Cliff, I wasn''t able to find a good ce to pick the sheep up from. IT didn''t help that the animal kept trying to run away and avoid my w, though that was easy enough to prevent with Air Maniption to fence it in. The first couple of attempts, I was just left with a few strands of the fibers in my w. I deposited that in my dustbin and received further confirmation that this was, in fact, what I was looking for. Giving up on the w, I poured all my focus into my Air Maniption skill and created a little air under the sheep. As I concentrated, I was able to lift the sheep straight up out of the flock, but it took nearly my entire processing power. I was barely able to stay steady in the air as I moved the sheep over to an isted spot where I could focus more on it. None of the sheep appreciated the gentle care I was taking with their sister. They all started making noises and milling around. The one floating in the air was quite distressed, and all its iling around was seriously putting me in danger of dropping it. Still, with a titanic effort of will and focus, I managed to move it towards an area up against the wall of the castle. Once it was alone, I started to experiment with a few different methods I had theorized would help remove the grime from its luxurious coat. I would start off with my spray bottle and mopbo, obviously, but I had a few other tricks hidden in my dustbin. Chapter 132: The Showdown Chapter 132: The Showdown Void went over to care for the sheep, leaving Bee standing alone with Tony and Susan in the middle of the yard. Looking around, Bee started to be aware of how much had changed since she wasst here. The trip had only taken a few days, but someone had trimmed most of the grasswn, and there were more than three full fields cut into the ground. But the changes didn''t stop there. There was a huge pile of grass clippings and otherpost, and stacked next to it were a surprising number of regrly cut bricks. She had no idea where they hade from. Had a mason or quarry worker shown up while she was gone? If they did, that still didn''t make sense; they still would have had to get the bricks from somewhere. That was just a few of the things she noticed on the outside. She was hesitant to even venture into the castle itself. Even her master had changed, somehow. Void previously wanted to be carried outside and over dirt. It was almost just part of her job description. But now, it didnt seem to care for it as much. Had her master gotten tired of the treatment, or was the flying thing actually new? The rest of the people didn''t seem surprised by Void zipping around in the air, but Bee felt that it was a way more noteworthy change that warranted a bit more attention. Also, they now had wolves. At least that one sounded like a somewhat recent development, based on Tanu''s story. That wasn''t even to mention Void making weapons for the kids. It was training them up even more formally now. Bee figured that made sense; her broom was made by her master, too, after all. But still, it sounded like the training was going well. Especially if Tanu was able to fend off full zombies with the sword. She would need to talk to that boy a little bit more. Some parts of the story didn''t quite line up, like the part about how he met the wolf. Perhaps he had some natural talent with animals. He was what, six or seven years old? He was really young to get a ss, but with a little extra attention, he might get something rted to animals. Though, would that fall under any one of Voids domains? Or not? That was something the library didn''t have much information on, as what Void was doing with its followers was starting to go beyond the normal level of Devotee sses. The religious organization aspect of the ss wasnt something she could research a lot here. Also, having the direct blessing of a god wasn''t something that anyone had records, she supposed. Bee shook her head to get out of her thoughts. Looking up at Tony, she decided to get moving. "Should we get everything put away? Then I think we need to get a recap of everything we missed." "Let me talk to my parents first, but yeah. Theyll have to fill us in." Tony said. "Susan, why don''t youe with me." Bee offered. "We can get you set up in your old room if you would like?" "That would be perfect." *** After a quick bath and a change of clothes, Bee joined Tony, Mary, and Trent for tea. Mary set down a tray with some refreshments, and they all helped themselves, loading the snacks onto some small tes. "I''m d you two made it back safely. When you both took off, people were a bit worried for a while. Maybe next time a little farewell would make things smoother?" Mary raised an eyebrow, somehow managing to keep any reproach out of her tone. Thinking back to their exit, Bee winced. They for sure could have handled that much better. At least Void had stayed behind; because of that, they knew everyone was safe. Bee wasn''t sure what to say and just nodded in eptance of the criticism. Theyd have to do better. "I noticed a lot of things have changed around here. How have things been while we were away?" Trying to get the topic back on track worked well. Mary gave her a rundown on how the children''s training had advanced and generally how the preparations for winter were going. "Most of the food brought in has been winterized. As long as our poption doesn''t grow too much, we should be fine." "We might have a spring crop, but it will be much smaller than we could have done. Not all the fields were cut in time and now its toote to try nting." Trent added. "Well we could try, we have enough seed, but it might be a waste." "I''m not sure, but Void''s presence might be able to help with thete nting. I think we should go for it and hope that some divine intervention takes ce." Bee said. Trent hummed thoughtfully. "I have spoken to Void about crops a bit. From what I can tell that doesn''t seem to be part of his domain. However, he was willing to learn, so it might be worth it." "Thats good. I think we might want to work on that if we have the manpower. Is there anything else that we need to get done, urgently or not? What about the piles of bricks I saw?" Bee asked. "How did we even get those?" --- The Spray Bottle was mildly effective at cleaning the sheep. It was just a lot slower than I would like. Also, the sheep didn''t make the effort any easier. No matter what I tried, it seemed to be determined to keep itself as dirty as possible. Reasoning with it had been aplete waste of time, as right after I finished the exnation of why it should try to keep grass out of its coat, it rolled in the dirt once again. Eventually, I realized that as much of the dirt I was washing out of the sheep, it was managing to add even more back each time. The water I used ran off the sheep, and with all its struggling, it had tilled the earth into muddy furrows. This provided an environment that was not conducive to cleanliness in any way. I was going to need a dedicated space with no dirt to effectively do this, and also a ce where the sheep wouldn''t be able to get away. I gave up after an hour and seven minutes of trying, leaving the sheep no cleaner than before. Letting it run off to where the rest of the group was slowly eating grass not that far away, I went for a think. Where could I house the sheep cleaning station? I boosted myself onto the roof and surveyed the castle grounds. I wasn''t about to take the sheep inside. That was a horrible idea that curled my bristles to even consider. But the only other structure was the stables and the chicken coop. The stables might be an option. They were empty right now and might work with some modifications. Floating down from the roof, I went over to take a closer look. There were a few small pens inside the stone building. A sheep would fit inside each with no problem. I was a little concerned that the gate might let them out if they were insistent about leaving, but I might be able to make the pen gates a little more secure. The best feature was that there were stone floors with a drain. I had removed all the straw that had been covering the bottom of the pens when I first cleaned here so long ago. I found a few crates and experimented with putting them up against the gates to plug some of the holes between the wooden ts. I think that should work now. Zipping out of the stables, I went to find my test subject. *** This time it was a little harder to get that sheep. It seemed to be avoiding me quite intently. Eventually though, I deposited the still dripping sheep in a pen that was slightly too big for it. With gaps in the door blocked up, her efforts to wiggle underneath the gate were futile. Now I was able to truly get to work. I sprayed the sheep relentlessly, taking to my duties with gusto. I soon reached the point of diminishing returns where simply spraying the sheep didnt make much more progress. The animal waspletely soaked through and dripping water. It was slightly dirty, but the running water alone wasn''t making measurable progress. I was also having to leave and collect more water fairly regrly, as it was a rather inefficient process. Looking at the sheep more closely, I was able to identify the issue. The dirt seemed to be clinging to the skin of the sheep, and the fibers were keeping the pressure low enough that it wasn''t able to adequately agitate theyer to remove the dirt. This was a problem with a rather obvious solution, though. Getting in closer, I was able to get my w in the fiber, and with small circles, I started making real progress. At first, the sheep was very against this new treatment and continually tried to jump out of the pen. Luckily I had a good hold of it, and it wasn''t able to ruin all my hard work just yet. After a few minutes, I got a little better at the technique and was able to avoid pulling out the fibers from the sheep''s back. I noticed that there was a threshold of force where pulling on the fibers was especially not appreciated. However, I did find a few things the sheep didn''t object to. When I was getting behind her ears, she even leaned into my w slightly. It was hard to tell if she was enjoying the treatment or just so tired that she was about to pass out. I chose to believe the former, though. After I finished the nice bath and the sheep was as clean as I could reasonably expect, I had another issue. What was I going to do with it? If I let it out, it had proven time and time again that it would just find a way to go get covered in dirt again. As much as everyone around here looked up to me, I knew my limits, and I was one hundred percent sure that keeping these sheep clean was beyond mine. Just getting one clean took nearly all I had. Popping out my sword, I could only think of one thing. Carefully I advanced on the sheep, hoping to not make this any harder than it had to be. If I couldn''t keep the sheep clean, I might be able to keep its fibers clean. With a careful swipe, I took a little of the fluff off by the rear end of the sheep. Surprisingly the animal didn''t seem to even notice. I wasn''t sure if it was themotion or just happenstance, but before I could take another chunk of fibers off the sheep''s rump, Ss walked in. He stopped and looked at me, particrly noting my glowing sword and the little bald spot on the sheeps rump. Nodding, he took the piece of grass he was chewing out of his mouth. "A bit of the wrong time to shear the sheep I think, milord. They''re gonna need that coat soon, I reckon." Chapter 133: Mends and Amends Chapter 133: Mends and Amends Do sheep need their coats? I hadn''t thought about the possibility. Would I need to wait until tonight to harvest their fibers, or even longer than that? Still, I listened to the old man; he did know a lot about farms and animals. I beeped a question to the man. He cocked his head as he listened to me but shook his head. "Shucks if I know what that was." He scuffed the ground with his boot and mummed thoughtfully for a few seconds. "Well if Trent exinedposting Look, I just think that we need to leave the sheep alone. The coats are how they keep warm in winter, otherwise the poor things''ll freeze. Once the weather gets better though, we need to shear ''em or they''ll overheat, fickle little buggers. Then we can wash the fleeces before spinnin'' ''em. If we end up eating any of ''em though, we''ll be sure to shear ''em first. Maybe you were preparing to cook that one? If ya were, I''d suggest one of the older ones, this one here has several years left in it." I put away my sword. It made sense that the sheep might need their coats if winter wasing. That was when the humans wore more coats, and the steaming beverages came out. Also, the dog would asionally track in solid water, which used to be extremely difficult to clean up. Of course, now that wouldn''t be a problem for me. But I wasn''t letting the sheep inside in a million years, so they would need to be able to weather the outside by themselves. All these organic lifeforms were so sensitive to temperature changes. Looking in my dustbin, I realized that I had enough samples to y around with anyways. Just the offcasts from the cleaning and the single swipe I got in before Silias stopped me was enough for now. I hopped out of the pen and moved the crates out of the way. The sheep surprisingly didn''t take advantage of the path to freedom and just trembled in the corner. Ss exhaled and opened the door, then stepped in. With steady hands, he helped the sheep up and smacked it on its rear end. That seemed to wake it up, and it sprinted out the door to return to its flock. With a nod to me, Ss and I went our separate ways. I needed to spend time working with the bit of material that I collected. Also, the talk gave me another idea of what I could make with the sheep fiber other than a nice rug. If it was going to get cold, then the humans would also need to be kept warm. The only issue was that if both the sheep and the people needed warmth, then how would I get them both? I made my way back inside the castle to go consider this problem on my rug. However, as I was heading back in the door, the cat slipped out. I hadn''t seen the cat outside before; what was it doing? It apparently hadn''t been outside in a while, as it just sat there looking around and basking in the sun. I was about to just leave it be and continue inside when the cat got up and walked down the stairs. I watched as it strode across the field. Was it going to greet some of the new arrivals? I was honestly a little curious about how the interactions between a cat and sheep would go. Or really any pairs of different animal species, for that matter. The only nonhuman interaction I had seen so far was between the sheep and dogs, and that hadn''t ended too well. From what I knew, the cat and sheep didn''t have anything inmon. I mean, the cat made grooming a regr practice, unlike these dirt-seeking fluffballs, so what would they even do? My suspicion was confirmed when the cat only paused for a few seconds to look at the sheep before continuing on,pletely ignoring their existence. The only other ones out here were the dogs. From my limited experience, dogs and cats didn''t get along the best. The smaller dogs were still a lotrger than the cat, but they might be fine, I guess. The cat crossed the main path a little and wandered off into the field. Should I do anything about that? Nah, I was sure it would be fine. Leaving the cat to take care of its own business, I went inside to take care of the fibers in my dustbin. - Bee left the little get-together thoroughly convinced that they needed a proper structure to manage this many people. Trent and Mary had done a good enough job while she was away, keeping everyone fed and busy. But the number of times that they almost forgot to tell her about some important issues that people had or a new development going on with the food stores was worrying. They needed some formal structure to have clearly defined responsibilities. It would take some time for her to figure out what those were going to be through. The obvious ones were food and food production. She felt that Mary and Trent could handle that fairly well, though they might need some help. Then maybe defense? Bee shook her head and just started over to the library. She needed to restock on some healing potions and maybe try something new. Alchemy always helped her think. The library wasn''t empty when she got there. A few other people browsed the shelves. Charleen, one of the more educated women, had taken to caring for the ce and was dutifully dusting shelves. Bee encountered a few smiles as she wandered between the shelves, grabbing a few books. Once she got what she wanted, she realized that her equipment wasn''t where she left it. "Mistress? If you are looking for the equipment, I believe it was moved to one of theboratories upstairs." Charleen said. Bee nodded and started to turn but stopped when the woman gave a polite cough. "I''m sorry to ask this of you, mistress, but can you record which books you are taking? I only just finished setting up a checkout system. It would be a shame if we misced any of them." "Of course." She didn''t have a problem checking out the books; if she really insisted, Bee was sure that she could change or outright reject the rules, but that would be needlesslybative. It would be a little bit of an adjustment from being able to do whatever she wanted. Still, it was part of living in a bigger system. It only reinforced the point that they needed a more official organizational structure if they wanted to make a system that worked for them and one that prevented too many of these centers of power from showing up. Bee noted the books she had taken from the library and removed a few from her pack, giving them to Charleen to add to the library''s catalog. Then she found the nearest stairs and made her way up to the wing with theboratories. There wasn''t anything special about the equipment that she had been using, so she just went to one of thebs that didn''t host any specimens. Choosing a workbench near the back, she started setting up her workspace. The cabs were still fully stocked, and soon she had collected all the ssware that she needed. Bee started to rece the healing potions that she had used and lost herself in the pleasure of work. *** A knock at the door caught her off guard while she was switching to doing some research. She wanted to run some tests on what could be considered a cleaning substance. The measure of corrosion was one thing, but it didn''t seem that simple. "Come in." Bee called, not sure who needed her. She didn''t know that anyone was even aware she was in there. The door opened a crack, and Maranda stuck her head in. "Hello," Maranda said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. "Charleen said I might find you in one of theboratories." Remembering how theyst parted more than a week ago, Bee did her best to put on a weing smile for the girl. It faltered for a split second when she realized that she had thought of Marnada as a child when they were nearly the same age. "What can I help you with?" Maranda took a deep breath. "Actually I came to help you." Then finishing in a rush, "and to apologize." She took a steadying breath before continuing on; Bee let her gather her thoughts without interrupting. It was probably hard for the girl, and she didn''t want to make it more difficult than it had to be. "I was out of sorts when west talked, and that wasn''t fair to you. I''m sorry. And I would like to make it up to you." Bee thought that Maranda''s words were a bit too formal, lending a bit of a practiced air to them. Had her mother gotten involved? "I understand. Thank you." Bee wasn''t sure how to respond honestly. She didn''t want to lord it over the girl that she couldn''t read or take the high ground to just make it worse. But then, she didn''t really have anything else to say. She didn''t have any hard feelings. Maybe she should just say that? "No hard feelings, honestly." Nodding her head with a more genuine smile, Maranda stepped a little closer. Bee noticed that she was carrying the book that she had told her to read all that time ago. "I finished reading this, by the way." Maranda said, brandishing the book in front of her. "It took me a while, but I think I have enough of an understanding to help you a bit." Has she been spending the whole time reading that book? That would exin why she hadpletely disappeared for so long. If she didn''t know how to read, that would have been a really hard book to start with. Bee really wanted to ask if she had any help with it, but she couldn''t think of a way to ask that didn''t sound like an insult. On another note, she didn''t really need any help right now. She was mostly looking into her ss and skills. Of course, she didn''t feel like she could say that. From Maranda''s perspective, it would probably look like an excuse to not have her around. So Bee closed the book she was looking through and stood. "You caught me at the perfect time. We''re running low on some of the basic healing salves and I was just about to make more of them." That was aplete lie. They weren''t running low; they never had a stock of them in the first ce, and she had long since moved past using them, even the more stable ones she''d found recipes for. But still, it wouldn''t hurt, and it would be more cost-effective to use them than the more powerful potions that she had been making as ofte. If Maranda noticed the white lie, she didn''t call it out. Instead, she just looked excited. "Of course! I''d love to help!" "First we need to go gather some supplies, we should be able to get everything we need from the lesser storeroom if I remember correctly." As they left theb, Bee began exining a few things. "We are going to be following the recipe for a lesser contusion balm in the back of the book you read. Do you remember the one? Good, now this won''t take care of broken bones but it will" Chapter 134: Halp Chapter 134: Halp Harold packed his belongings without too much of a rush. After all, he hadn''t brought that much with him in the first ce, and there was still plenty of time before the caravan moved out. Once he gathered his clothes from theundry, he would be ready to go. Honestly, he wouldn''t miss the dank College of the Undead one bit. Though his time here hadn''t been nearly as awful as he had feared. It turned out there was a decent amount of assistance his outside perspective could give. It was limited by thousands of other factors, but they had still made progress, even if minuscule. Not that his contributions would be noted down for the histories; mages a thousand years from now would likely never know or care. That was because most of the advancements weren''t magical or scientific in any way. They were just simple process improvements in the synthesis workflows. Still, that made mass production of some of the purification potions and the infection cures slightly more efficient and much more manageable by someone with less expertise. There had been a surprising amount of pushback from the other mages regarding his changes too. Theyined that he was taking the "mystery" out of the magic. That with his methods, any capable peasant could turn the mages into machines or make the arcane processes. With Percy''s help, they could mostly squash suchints, and things tended to move on. Harold was somewhat sympathetic to their concerns. No one wanted to be made less special; these mages had spent decades building their ce in the world. If not famous and loved, they were at least respected. Who would want to lose that? What he didn''t understand was "the taking the mystery out of magic"int. Was that not the whole point of studying magic? To understand how and why it worked, bend it to your will, and force it to work for you? The alchemist and demon practitioners had always achieved this by making precise recipes with repeatable results. The undead mages apparently had a less.formal tradition. Still, despite all the hurdles, just standardizing things had increased output to an incredible level. That wasn''t the only thing he had a hand in aplishing, even if it might have ended up being the most impactful. No, what he was most proud of was some advancements in the undead defenses. Working with a small team, they were able to develop much more permanent talismans that could ward off wraiths or shades for almost a week. They weren''t verymon undead and didn''t normally pose a lethal threat to people. Still, they were hard to get rid of, and long enough exposure could sap the will and mind of even the most stubborn warriors. A knock at the door pulled Harold away from his thoughts. Opening it a crack, he found a skeleton holding a hamper of his folded shirts. A simplemand and the servant set it down just inside and left him alone. It had taken some getting used to, but the undead could make very effective tools. As long as the mages made sure they never developed their own will and stopped listening to instructions. Moving the freshundry to his bags, Harold hefted in saddlebags over his shoulder. He was still a bit earlier than he needed to be, but Arthur''s message had worried him. Arthur was not a man known to exaggerate, and seeing that a message hade from a man hurrying on horseback told Harold more than the messenger had. The situation sounded dire, but Arthur was a legend. The fact that a message came from him directly instead of a reinforcement order from the crown meant that Arthur''s reports weren''t being given the full seriousness they deserved. It would be the only reason for him to contact people like Harold directly, hoping that they could provide some assistance. Harold could only hope they were doing enough as he walked down to where the contingent was about to depart. They were bringing as many of the new countermeasures they had made, as well as many of the more standard tools. They should allow the soldiers to fight back more efficiently. It had to be enough. --- I was sitting on my favorite rug, trying to recreate the pattern of the fibers below me. It was a lot harder than it looked. Even with nearlyplete control over the contents in my dustbin, I still had to start over constantly. Things just didn''t want to stay in ce. The whole ensemble would knot up or fall apart once I stopped controlling it. Was it that my skill and control were just not advanced enough? Or maybe there was some intermediate step I was missing. Ss had mentioned something about spinning, but I couldn''t figure out how that fits into the process. In a moment of frustration, I spun in a circle on the rug while trying to force the sheep fibers into theplicated shape. I was sure it wasn''t what he meant, but still. It was worth a try. After a few hundred revolutions, the spinning had no noticeable effect on my efforts, and I stopped. Needing a chance to reset my caches, I let my attention leave the void inside of me. Instead, I let it wander over the castle, and I found many things that could use my attention. The children were still doing incredibly dangerous stuff they probably shouldn''t have been, despite the warnings of myself and the women. I had mostly decided to let things take their course. A few weeks ago, I would have been tearing out my circuits with worry about it, but I had learned a few things about kids in thest little while. First, they were much more resilient than I gave them credit for. Not that they didn''t get damaged, of course, but they were able to repair themselves remarkably quickly. I was sure they had some variation of my Automatic Maintenance skill built into them. It was a shame that Beatrice had apparently missed out on that one. Also, some of the stuff that Beatrice made was really good at repairs. It helped out with any bigger malfunctions that urred. Also, the adults did sort of keep an eye on them. They did have more experience than me, so I followed their lead. The other thing was that kids did not learn unless they got it wrong a lot. So many times, in fact, that it made me want tough. The stick practice was a good example. I had shown Rahj how and when to keep his stick in high guard no less than twenty-seven times, and he never really got it until Felix had smacked him in the nose with a stick once. Now he never forgot. I still stepped in when more permanent injuries, such as loss of a limb or life, crossed over my 5% probability threshold. Still, those cases were rtively rare, especially during nap times. During my scan, I did see one thing in particr that might require my attention. I went to deal with it. I might need to grab Tanu as well. *** Tanu and I made our way over to the little group of trees that Cliff had imed as her own. There, we found her with her paws stretched as far up one of the long trunks as she could reach. And she was a very long dog. From the branches, a snarling, hissing orange ball of anger spat down at her. It seemed quite upset at having its way down blocked. Looking at the situation, I didn''t see an easy solution. So far, with most animals and small children, judicial use of my spray bottle was more than enough to solve ny-eight percent of problems. However, this appeared to be one of those rare two percent where it wouldn''t help. I couldn''t, in good conscience, spray Cliff for weing a new friend. I really couldn''t me her for the situation, especially since I knew of the cat''s dramatic tendencies. Actually, now that I thought about it, I never decided on a name for the cat. If I gave Cliff a name, perhaps I could give the feline one too. The orange tomcat was a feisty little guy. Quickly running through my list of cached names, I selected one from a subset that seemed cat-like. I would call him Kelly. Huh, if I gave the cat a name now, should I name all the other animals too? Maybe, I would have to think about it. Naming things seemed important, and I wanted them to be just right. Well, with that figured out, I returned to the matter at hand. I didn''t want to spray Kelly either because it wasn''t his fault he got scared. I was just d he ran up a tree instead ofshing out at Cliff. Kelly''s ws were very sharp and, with a bit of luck, might have put one of Cliff''s eyes out or otherwise seriously harmed her. Luckily Tanu had a good rtionship with Cliff and was able to talk the dog away from the tree long enough for me to boost up and grab Kelly. The cat wriggled and squirmed, but I was able to hold on to him before he ran away. If these two were going to share the same castle, they needed to get to know each other a little bit. They didn''t need to be best friends, but basic courtesy was enough. Tanu reached up to put his little hand on Cliff''s back, keeping her calm, while I hovered up to her, holding a very upset and wiggling Kelly. When their noses were only a few inches from each other, Cliff shocked me. With a baring of her teeth, she snapped her jaw towards the cat. Only my quick actions kept Kelly''s nose in one piece. Okay, that definitely called for the bottle. A quick spray to the face had Cliff jerking her head back in surprise, and Tanu talked softly to the big dog, calming her down. Okay, maybe Kelly actually had a point here. Still, it needed to be done. This time when I brought them close together, I was more careful, and Cliff just sniffed for a little bit. Kelly didn''t calm down at all. The cat threw itself violently all over the ce, not giving up one bit. I had to admire the cat''s determination. Well, they didn''t have to get along. I guessed it would be okay if they were willing to stay out of each other''s way. Releasing the cat, I watched as he sprinted back toward the castle faster than I had ever seen it move before. The orange ball vanished between the cracked front doors a few momentster. Taking a look, I saw what appeared to be Tanu and Cliff having a very serious conversation. Tanu''s soft words were only asionally interrupted by the asional whine or woof from Cliff. I left them to it; something hade up at the gate that might require my attention. Scanning the castle grounds for Beatrice, I found her having a conversation with Susan and Tony in the room with the fancy rug and desk. Hmm, was it important enough for me to get her first? Probably not. Leaving her to it, I headed toward the next issue. Chapter 135: Everything in Order Chapter 135: Everything in Order Bee spent several hours working with Maranda to get her set up with the basics. It had taken longer than expected, but not by too much - the girl wasser focused on every word that came from Bee''s mouth. After a few near-misses, she managed to guide her "apprentice" through the recipe for a lesser contusion balm. Now that she had finished her first sessful brew, the only thing left was repetition. Lots of repetition. Bee left her to it. Technically she could have gone back to her own alchemy at that point. She was tempted to. But, in the end, her sense of responsibility decided that this was more pressing. Things were getting a little out of control around here. Not that anything bad had happened yet, but Bee felt like she was going to drop the ball on something at any moment. No matter what she was doing, it felt like someone was counting on her or needed her input for something else. They needed to work out a system. Her teachings from the book of Void were all good and useful, but there was one thing above all that they emphasized. She wasn''t sure how she had missed the lesson for so long, but now that she made the connection, it was something she wanted to rectify as soon as she could. Bee found Tony talking to his twin brothers by the fields. "Do you mind if I borrow Tony for a bit?" They nodded emphatically, and Tony straightened from what he had been doing to follow her out of the room. "What''s up, Bee?" "We''re looking for Susan, but I just realized something about how we are running the." At a loss for words, she just gestured to the area around her. Tony nodded his understanding. "Ma and Pa are doing a decent job holding everything together, but I can tell they''re getting a little tired. Remember, they lived with just them and their kids on a farm alone for decades. They like their space." They checked a few more rooms before they finally tracked Susan down. Then Bee led the three of them went to Void''s room. Hopefully, their master would join them and give his input. If not, then they would just have to trust that it was giving its implicit approval. Sitting down at the desk, Bee started right into the core issue. "We need to turn this castle into a functional organization." She looked at the two other members for their little secret meeting; they had no objection to what she had said so far, so she continued. "So far, we have been just skating by doing what needed to be done to make it to the next day, but we should think further ahead. We already have a book and set of teachings. Our patron stands for the order of all things. Surely we can do better on the management side." This elicited nods and murmurs of agreement. "This society organization, cult? Eh, we can figure that part outter. Well, we''re near the center of something important. Something that will change the world. Void''sing is as big of an event as any of our recorded history, and as its first followers, we should properly prepare the rest of the people for its arrival. So things go as smoothly as possible." Susan was nodding along with everything that Bee was exining but now had something to say herself. Bee acknowledged her with a nod. "It is as you say. Transitions of power are always dangerous, and all the human rulers will likely try to cling on to their petty power even in the face of true divinity." Bee rubbed her chin. She hadn''t even thought about that; she was thinking of just spreading the news and maybe teaching the way to any who wanted to learn. However, Susan brought up a very good point. "That is true, I think. The nobility and the rulers may cause us issues, perhaps even sooner than we would like. But I was thinking maybe that we still need to worry about some of the initial steps." "Well, I hadn''t thought about that," Tony admitted. "Is Void really interested in challenging rulers for the control of whole nations? I mean, he doesn''t even want to be too involved in running this group." Bee had to admit that Tony had a point. So far, Void had been a very distant god in some ways. No smiting or judgments to those who strayed from the path or anything. Though it did fight the Lieutenant and others who threatened its people, so maybe there just hadn''t been any other reason for it to act yet. Susan, though, had an answer. "It''s not really about whether Void challenges them or not. I tend to agree with you. Our master may have no interest in the affairs of men. However, the rulers will not see it that way. Us teaching the story of Void''sing will be threatening enough that they will act to protect their power regardless of what else we do. If Void wanted to get involved, things would actually be much simpler. "If Void stepped in and squashed all opposition, then it would be simple. However, I think we need to be prepared to protect the faithful ourselves, and the most certain way to do that is to ensure that the faithful are in control." Susan said with a passionate fire behind her eyes during what was essentially a world-domination speech. "That may very well be true," Bee hedged, needing to think about Susan''s words a bit. "But I think we have more immediate concerns." "I agree. This could be the far future for our little group, but there are many things we need to figure out first." Tony backed her up. "We should just keep it in mind while we''re nning." Susan allowed. "Should we start with listing the issues we think we need to solve now?" "Sure, there are a few general categories and a lot of subcategories that we could think about," Bee said. "For major categories, I''m thinking: Castle upkeep, Food, Training, Teaching, Defense, and Information. We are more isted than I would like. Finding out about Greg the way we did was unavoidable, but I don''t think we need to repeat it." "Hmmm, I think we can maybe tighten those categories up a bit. But I for sure think that information gathering is really important to focus on, especially with the undead still about. Even then, I don''t think that we need to have it on the highest level." Susan said diplomatically. Tony was less graceful. "Yeah, what she said. Those categories suck, Bee. You just listed problems to solve, and even then, it was a mess." Bee shot him a re, "Okay, how would you do it." Susan stepped in before the bickering could develop too far. "Well, the King has several ministers. I believe the traditional way to break it up is between Magic, Coin, Spies, Laws, and Military. Sure, there is some ovep, but each of them is in charge of an organization that helps bnce the influence the others have. They are also led by the King''s second." "That seems a bit overkill for us," Tony said, ticking off each position on a finger. "We don''t have enough people to fill all that anyways." "I hate to agree with Tony, but I do think we can keep it a bit simpler than that," Bee said. "How about we focus on internal versus external issues? Maybe if that isn''t a good idea, violent versus nonviolent?" "Well, it''s impossible topletely draw a line. Violence often needs a lot of nonviolent prep work." Susan said. "But I get the idea. Really the areas of focus for us might be Defense, Laws, Supplies, and Training. Those can be broad categories, and they won''t always line up with what the kingdom does, but it''s a start. For supplies, we need someone to take care of food and the people''s needs. Agriculture would also be in there. I think Trent and Mary have done a good job with that. Tony, what do you think? Will they continue to do that?" "So far. I don''t know if they''ll want to do more if we get even more people or have more than just this castle to take care of." He said thoughtfully. "We can cross that when ites to it," Bee said. "Training would probably cover education and the training of the kids too, so figuring out who''s good for what jobs and helping to develop their skillsets." "I think I can help with making sure people are in the right ces," Tony said. "Though I''ll need to be able to pull people from the other divisions to head the training. No way will I be able to teach everything." "I think me taking charge of defense makes sense. As long as we include scouting and information gathering under that category." Susan mused. "Okay, where does that leave me?" Bee asked. - Felix had seemingly decided to hold impromptu stick practice with arger number of the kids. This in and of itself wasn''t really an issue. Now that they knew enough to not seriously damage each other or themselves most of the time, that was fine. As I got closer to the ring of children, though, I started to get a better idea of what was happening with the kid and sheep in the center of the loose circle they had formed. The kids seemed to be having fun. However, I didn''t think the sheep appreciated participating. Also, the sheep didn''t seem to understand the rules. After watching a little more, I wasn''t sure that I understood the rules either. I watched as one of the children held their stick in a guard position as a sheep charged at her. At thest second, the little girl dove out of the way to theughter of the other children. The sheep tried to make a break towards the rest of its kind, but the kids in the part of the circle it charged caught it and spun it around. Now it was aimed at another small boy who assumed the same guard stance. The sheep didn''t waste any time running head down at the boy. He managed to jump out of the way, stay on his feet, and lightly touch the bare rump of the sheep with the end of his stick. Excited, he threw both of his arms above his head and started jumping around with a huge smile on his face. The others all cheered. The sheep didn''t join in the celebration and spun to return the blow. It rammed its head into the boy''s backend while he was mid-leap, throwing him forward and tumbling onto the ground. With its opponent down, the sheep made another break for it. This time before the circle could catch the sheep, I let out a piercing beep, drawing all attention to me. The miffed sheep took advantage of the opportunity to slip out and pranced off angrily to the rest of her flock. As she stalked off, she kicked the air behind her as if she was imagining knocking over the kid again. Who had thought of this foolishness? No less than half of the kids were now covered in mud; they must have failed at their turn with the sheep. They should know better than to roll around in the dirt. Really, the sheep must be bad influences on these little terrors. And here I thought they were learning. With everyone''s attention on me, I made my displeasure clear. With each new beep, the excitement died, and they were hanging their heads in shame as was appropriate. I mean, the state of their clothes! They''d all need to beundered posthaste if they could be saved at all. I reminded them of one of the first rules that I had made them promise to follow when I introduced them to the game of sticks. Well, I guess "introduced" was a strong word, as they already had a version before mine. "Formalized," maybe. "We''re sorry, master Void." They all chorused. One of therger boys nced around the group and addressed me. "For breaking the rule about not ying sticks with someone who doesn''t want to y, we''ll all rake thewn." I hoped they had learned their lesson. Using cleaning as a punishment wasn''t my favorite thing, but it sure was effective. Chapter 136: Pulling it Together Chapter 136: Pulling it Together Bee felt a slight bit of panic set in as she looked at Susan and Tony from across the desk. They met her stare calmly and assuredly. "I don''t think I can lead all of this. I can be in charge of doctrine and magic or something, but that''s it." "Of course, I think these things will fall to you for now, and doctrine will likely always be your domain. But magic and teaching will likely be delegated eventually," Susan said. Before Bee could protest, Tony jumped in. "Besides, you''re already doing it. This just makes it official." "I''m not, though. I''m just taking care of problems as they pop up. Really, Void is the one running things." "Yeah, but he can''t be in charge of his own church; that would just be silly. Not to mention a hassle we don''t want to bother him with. Of course, Void is in charge, but we can take care of the day-to-day ourselves." Tony shot back. "Tony is right." Susan lent her support as well. "It''s less about you being the absolute arbiter. That will always be Void. More like you are the right hand of Void. The head priestess. Implementing the god''s will through the organization." That did help Bee feel a little better. "Hmm. I guess that sounds a little more reasonable So there would be five members of the core leadership team, including myself. Is that enough?" "I think we should consider adding someone who''s dedicated to caring for and teaching the children." Tony piped up. "The mothers are still hands-on with most things, but everyone pitches in with the orphans. I think it''s working for now, but I want to make sure that they all get a good education and have useful skills. Even if we aren''t in a vige, we still need things like cksmiths. Right now, they''re all training as warriors with Void. This should be fine, but not all of them can be soldiers." "Most soldiers are militia members. Crafters and farmers drafted when they are needed." Susan pointed out. "These children will be greatly helped by knowing how to fight. It will be expensive, but if we always have a standing army in the form of our popce, we''ll need fewer dedicated troops to prevent challenges to our power. Besides, we can have them do more basicbor to keep them humble. Most of the work isn''t particrly skilled; we just need a few experts to keep things running smoothly." "It''ll have to depend a lot on what Void thinks of it. The kids are still a very long way away from anything like that." Bee argued. She wasn''t sure of what to think of Susan''s ims, but the children were a little young to be thought of as soldiers yet. "Of course, of course," Susan conceded, waving her hands catingly. "We still have a lot to figure out, but I think we can do more of that when everyone is present and has epted their positions. For now, I think there are just a few more things to figure out. We need titles, and we should be thinking of how the religious organization fits in. So far, we have left that all on Bee and taken care of the practical concerns." "I think we can leave it separate," Tony said. "Of course, not entirely, as the whole thing is dedicated to Void. But maybe once things are more settled, we can have a second council that''s more on religious matters. When Bee''s less busy, and we''ve found qualified people to take on her other duties, she can sit as Void''s voice on each of them and lead them." Bee ran her hand down her face. This sounded like she was going to have even more responsibilities. Not that she wanted to shirk them or anything, but she was afraid of letting Void down. "Before we go through with any of these, we need to see what Void thinks." Both Susan and Tony nodded enthusiastically. After she received their agreement, Bee continued. "Well, we shall leave the religious organization aside for now, but we will need names. We can figure out the titles and stuff in a full meeting, but at least we can figure out what to call ourselves. I mean. Are we a group, cult, society?" The group of small children scrubbed the castle walls with brushes and buckets of water. As the adults walked by, I wasn''t sure how to interpret the chuckles they seemed to be smothering. What was so funny about it? Was this yet another joke I was missing? I had thought that I had started to understand humor somewhat. There were jokes, words that sounded like other words, or unexpected happenings. These were the categories that I found that would consistently make peopleugh. Not everyone found the same things funny, but most people had a decent amount of ovep. Sometimes I would even find something funny too. So why did most of the adultsugh at the kids scrubbing the castle walls? The kids didn''t seem to find the same humor, at least. Perhaps it was something that woulde with age, as I certainly didn''t get it. After a section of the wall had been scrubbed clean of any dirt or moss that had grown on it, I let the children go. Looking at the castle, though, I realized I may have made a mistake. Now one of the castle walls was quite clean, at least the parts under five feet tall. The rest of the castle, though Well, the exterior now had quite the contrast. I hadn''t known if the outside of castles were even supposed to be washed, so I had just left it at first. Dirt and nts belonged outside, so perhaps they should have been left there. Still, I needed something for the kids to clean, and this was the best thing I could think of. I had taken care of almost everything else. Should I have tried harder to find them a different task? The clean wall certainly did look out of ce. Maybe that was what the adults wereughing at? But still, I didn''t really have a lot of other options. When I was looking for something to have them do, it was the only thing that wasn''t clean that they might be able to take on at their current skill level. Plus, it wouldn''t be that big of a deal if they didn''t do a good job on it, either. They weren''t ready for some of the nicer floors yet, and I kept the inside of the castle plenty clean anyways. The real question was, what should I do with the rest of the castle walls? I wanted to just clean them, but that also felt wrong. If I left them, it would help serve as a reminder to follow the rules and also give me something I could set them on if or when they misbehaved again. But could I bear looking at it? I supposed I would have to. Their misbehavior was almost as much my fault as it was the children''s. I supposed I could have been more clear in exining the rules. Or done a better job making sure they were too exhausted to cause trouble. There was always something I could have done. Still feeling uncertain about my choice, I decided to leave things be for now. Instead, I started back inside to find a spot where I could consider the bit of sheep fiber that I collected. I had been making progress, but it was slow. Mostly I had been focusing on making small threads by linking the short strands of fiber together. Once I made those threads, I found it much easier to turn the material into something resembling things I had seen before. I wished I had been able to dedicate more time to this, but things had been popping up a lottely. As it was, I had only just figured out my first pattern. It was very simple and only had a couple of variables, but it was good practice for now, and I figured I could get more ideaster. As it was, I could only control how long each row was and how many rows I added to it. Maneuvering the material in my dustbin was tricky. It was quite a detailed and delicate process, one that required me to hold a lot of things in ce at once. Still, after a lot of false starts and aborted attempts, I was pretty sure that I was finally going to finish this with no mistakes. I wasn''t sure what the piece of fabric was that I was making, but I had seen a few humans wind something like it around their necks. Its eight-inch width by fifty-six-inch length didn''t make it useful for much else. Not that I could think of anyways. Still, I didn''t have enough material for a proper nket, so this would have to do. Yes, I thought. This one would work out. Roscoeshed his tail in frustration. Another small raiding party made it back behind the walls. He wasn''t sure how the humans managed to keep sneaking out and nipping at his army when they were unprepared. It shouldn''t have been possible. The undead were untiring and ever-vignt. It wasn''t like they could fall asleep on the watch or anything like that. Yet still, the humans managed to sneak out and negate the slow trickle of new troops adding to his army. The recruitment had been painfully slow with how many troops he had to keep near the city to prevent another breakout. He had thought that the army would just have to grow slowly, and eventually, they would be able to crush the city. Even if it was slower than he would have liked, it would still get done. Now though, it wasn''t certain. They had devastated the countryside and the nearby settlements, there wasn''t a huge influx of new soldiers to be had from nearby, and recruiting en mass from a distance was hard when he and his elites needed to stay close. Snapping a few orders to the surrounding troops, Roscoe turned back towards the forest. This situation would change soon. His skills with necromantic rituals were growing. Soon, the shades he summoned would rage through the city. This should provide enough of a distraction to allow a more direct attack and a far better chance of sess than if they just tried now. The issue was that shades were too chaotic for him to control directly. The few he had summoned seemed like they would be scary enough to be effective. They had no effect on the undead, of course. But when he had tried to release them from the city, they had just scattered in every direction. He could direct them without a dozen or so feet of himself, but once they got further, then they would slip out of his control. To fix that problem, he would need to raise a wraith. A wraith was much more powerful than the shades, but it was also much more intelligent. To humans, this posed a greater risk. But for Roscoe, it only meant a better ally. Once he could raise a wraith, he would start amassing shades to serve it, and then the walls would finally fall. Deep within the forest, Roscoe emerged into his clearing. The symbols dug into the ground were filled with a mysterious dark liquid, and small green fires burned in the corners of the clearing. A few of the elite skeletons were disposing of a few of the final materials. They greeted him with chattering teeth. Roscoe helped move thest pieces in ce, and then they started the ritual. The skeletal chanting rattled around the trees as dark energies congealed into the center of the symbols. The shadows around the clearing seemed to stretch and deepen unnaturally. If Roscoe could feel warmth, he might have noted its sudden disappearance. Finally, as the chanting reached its crescendo, the energies seemed to condense and solidify. After a long moment of tense silence, a light blue figure copsed from the air. "It is so cold." A distinguished voice noted calmly. Chapter 137: Cult of the Doomba Chapter 137: Cult of the Doomba Bee, Tony, and Susan decided that they needed all needed to break for a little bit. Also, before they made any more significant decisions, they would need to talk to Trent and Mary. It would be best to see if they would actually ept the positions of running food production and taking care of the castle''s operations. "They probably just finished putting Leane down for bed," Tonymented. Not seeing any reason to dy, the trio left the room to go find them. Sure enough, they were in the quarters the family had imed for themselves. At Tony''s gentle knocking, Mary opened the door and weed them in. Soon they were all sipping mulled wine around a small wooden table lit dimly by a nearby firece. For a little while, they all just sipped their drinks and watched the fire. Bee wasn''t sure what everyone else was thinking about, but her mind couldn''t stop running through all the things that she needed to do. Not wanting to lie to herself, she couldn''t help but doubt that she was truly capable of leading the whole group. Sure, she had technically been doing it this whole time. But if she took formal control, she would be responsible. There would be no excuses if something went wrong. It wouldn''t be nearly as simple as just telling her story with Void. Or interpreting its words. She would need to n ahead and make decisions that would affect everyone here. Her only hope was that her master could guide her enough; as much as she knew about it, she wasn''t sure how much it would want her to do for herself. Eventually, Bee realized they were all waiting on her. Looking up, she did her best to squash the embarrassment that was likely showing on her face. "Uh." Great start, Bee. She thought to herself. Clearing her throat, when she tried to speak again, her voice came out more clearly. "We are formalizing the organization that the castle is bing. There are just getting to be too many people and too many things that could go wrong to trust that it will all work out otherwise. Someone needs to n ahead." Trent and Mary nodded. They clearly understood the need to n, especially for winter. Neither of them spoke, though, waiting for her to continue. She took a sip. It gave her a second to n what she was going to say next. "Void is rather hands-off about all this. I don''t believe it would leave us with nothing, but it definitely wants us to act for ourselves first. So we''re acting. Both of you have invaluable experience and should be involved with the decisions at the highest levels." By the time she had finished her little speech, Bee''s voice was steady and calm once more. The words weren''t entirely her own. Instead, she was pulling on a treatise she had read at some point when she was studying the Devotee ss. The wise man had a lot to say in his notes, his experience from ruling a small country for decades. A lot of it hadn''t sounded relevant at the time. Now she was wishing she had paid more attention; maybe she would go back to itter. Trent and Mary were studying each other''s faces. Each of them looked serious but not worried. After a few moments of silentmunication, they both looked back to the rest of the table. The more stoic Trent was the first to speak. "Bee, you''re a responsible miss. We''ll do what we can to help you out here." --- I was heading back to my room for the night after a long day of work. After all the hectic chaos of the castle and struggling with the sheep fibers, I was looking forward to spending some time simply meditating. I was nning on continuing my ruminations on humor as there was something that I felt still escaped me about it. However, before I made it back to my rug, there was one more thing that caught my attention. Cliff wasn''t with the small dogs like she usually was at this time of night. Now she sat patiently by the gate; every once in a while, she pressed her nose against the portcullis bars and let out the slightest whine. What was she doing? I watched as she licked her lips and repeated her actions again. A quick check of the castle found Tanu in bed with his mother. The young boy was solidly asleep. Well, I wouldn''t be getting any trantion help from him. Sometimes Cliff didn''t act like the dogs I was used to at all, but this seemed slightly familiar. Was she trying to get out of the castle? Not sure what was going on, I changed directions and headed back outside. When I got near Cliff, she let out a small woof at me and pawed the gate insistently. I beeped a question at her, and she whined back. I still had no idea what she wanted for sure. Clearly frustrated, she let out a slightly louder woof, almost a bark. When I still didn''t do anything, she pawed at the winch handle. Maybe she does want outside. I moved over and started cranking the winch. She sniffed at the gap growing under the gate. As soon as the spikes were a little over a foot off the ground, she went belly down and impatiently wiggled under. I lowered the gate behind her. We couldn''t let anything get in while she was out. But then, how was she going to get back in? I didn''t want to just wait here, and no one else was up thiste at night. Well, I wouldn''t want her getting lost, either. With nothing else to do, I boosted myself over the wall. Cliff was waiting for me on the other side. When Inded next to her, she gave me a single swish of the tail. I returned the wave with my w. She swiveled and disappeared into the forest in a sh, and I zipped after her. --- Beeid out the rough n they hade up with for Trent and Mary. She felt a considerable amount of relief at their support, even if they hadn''t actually epted their roles yet. Simply having them onboard and willing to listen to her meant the world. After exining the different major roles, she came to Tony''s parents'' ces. "Trent, we want you to officially take food production. This is something that you''ve been doing for a while. At the same time, it''s not something that you need to do all yourself. The part that falls to you is keeping track of how much we can make and what we can do. If we have issues, we can work together to make sure you get the people and resources you need to solve the issues." More concepts were taken right from some of the treatises she had read. It seemed to be a good way of splitting up responsibilities while still being able to help each other. Trent nodded with no apparent questions, so Bee turned to face Mary. "Mary, again, it''s mostly just what you''ve been doing. Keeping the people fed and cared for. Things like taking care of the library and distributing food stores fall into this category." "What about magical equipment and cleaning?" Mary asked with a slight frown. "Void seems to take care of cleaning, mostly, but we should be ready to help it at any time," Bee said. "Since it''s a core t and everything, maybe we should even work that into everyone''s regr schedule." "Of course, dear." "And anything magical will be under my purview. But I might ask for some of your people to help keep some of that working while we figure that out. I will train them, though." Bee continued. "I think I can manage that," Mary said with a confident nod. "So just keep doing what we were doing, but we all talk for a bit every day to make sure things don''t fall through the cracks?" "For you two? Pretty much. We have a few more things we want to get done as well. Hopefully, we can take some of the load off you soon, though." Bee said. "Tony is going to be going through and making sure we have opportunities for each person to advance their ss; if not, we''ll offer them the option for me to switch them over to Devotee of Spot." Tony gave his parents a smile. Trent shook his head and muttered to his son, but Bee was able to overhear. "I still can''t believe you''re almost the same level as me from switching to that ss." "Susan here will look after our defenses. We''ll probably want to train everyone in some basicbat and build a little defense, but we''ll also look to the new refugees and see if any have actual experience in a useful skill." "I also want to start sending scouts out," Susan added. "We should patrol at least the valley and maybe beyond. Right now, things have been quiet, but don''t expect things to stay that way. Either the gue will start bing more of a problem soon, or it will be finished, and the crown will start paying us more attention. We need to prepare for either, and right now, we arepletely blind." Susan''s voice turned grave. "When things shake out in Caleb, we will know more. If the city falls, we will likely not have to worry about the countrying for us, but things will get really bad for everyone else. That means the undead will eventually find their way there. "When I left, the siege was still very much undecided. I don''t know if we can have scouts trained and there before it is, but we need to find out what happens there as soon as we can." Susan finished. "That is a real concern, of course." Bee agreed. "I don''t know if we''ll be able to affect the oue at all. Maybe if we pray to Void, it will see fit to intervene. But let''s stay on topic for a bit." She looked back to Mary and Trent. "Thest bit is the magic and religious stuff, which I will take on. Eventually, we will set up a secondary council for the religious questions, but that isn''t urgent." They all sat back, and for a few seconds, there was only the sound of the crackling firece as everyone gathered their thoughts. Mary broke the silence. "How are we going to figure out who does what? Within our teams, I mean." Tony spoke up for the first time. "Well, I don''t think we need to do anything disruptive right now, but I''m going to talk to everyone and set up a system to bring new people up to speed as theye in. We can talk about that once we have a better idea of what people can do and what they want to do." Trent and Mary each had a few more rifications they asked for, but nothing major. Bee was finally starting to think they had this all figured out. "It sounds like we have a lot of important things to talk about," Trent said in a serious tone. "But have you considered the most important part of it yet?" Bee frowned. Her confusion only grew when Tony broke into a wide grin and when Mary put her face in her hands. "What''s the most important part?" Bee asked with concern, feeling as if she was walking into a trap. Trent let a smile slide onto his face as he answered. "Why, the name, of course!" Chapter 138: The Sweeping Society Chapter 138: The Sweeping Society We ran through the woods for 32 minutes. Well, Cliff ran. I flew. Despite being airborne, I was still having trouble keeping up with her quick movements. She slipped through the trees with a deadly grace where I felt like I had to swerve widely to not smash through any branches. When she was able to slip through bushes, I needed to go over them, and that often meant I had to contend with tree limbs or hanging moss. If I hadn''t been practicing my flying diligently, I wouldn''t have had any hope of keeping pace with the dog. It was so much easier to fly in a straight line above the trees, away from any obstacles. But if I did that, I worried about being able to keep track of Cliff. My sensors should be able to keep her in sight, but there was a lot more life in the forest than in the castle, so I wasnt as confident. Things were a lot more chaotic when I wasn''t able to keep them in order constantly. Still, despite the troubles, it was fun. I let out a cheerful beep near the beginning of the run when I pulled off a particrly tricky maneuver, turning sideways to slide in the gap between a split trunk of a tree. This had earned me a reproachful look from the dog after she skidded to a halt and looked around. After that, I got the message. Apparently, we were supposed to be stealthy. What we were hiding from, I wasn''t sure, but I would y along for now. The only sound that I picked up was the woosh of the wind and the insects chittering in the trees as we moved through them. Every once in a while, Cliff would stop to take a deep sniff of the forest floor or a tree. Then, with a flick of her tail, she would be off again. Sometimes we would change directions slightly, and sometimes we would keep moving along. This continued for a while until suddenly, we stopped. I almost shot past her, but the lowering of her head let me know something was going on. Ahead of us, in a small clearing, stood another four-legged animal. This one, though, was evenrger than Cliff. Looking at it, I wondered if she wanted to bring it back with us. Were they friends or something? Cliff pawed the ground and slowly started to move to the left. When I started to follow her, she looked back over her shoulder at me until I stopped. Okay, I guessed I was staying here then. I watched with my sensors as therge dog stealthily circled around the clearing. While she was moving, I also studied the strange animal sitting in the clearing. It was a mixture of beige and white fur. Each limb proportionally was far thinner than even the catspared to its body. The thing stood nearly six feet tall at its highest. However, the strangest thing was its head. Settled there, above its eyes, stood a funny hat. The hat was veryrge as well. It seemed almost like a collection of thin sticks that was several feet wide and split into many points. Sometimes the animal would dip its head down and eat some of the grass below before bringing its head back up and looking around, chewing. Across the other side of the clearing, I was able to make out the eyes of Cliff staring at the animal with a golden glow. My sensors showed me her semi-crouched position and the slight tips of her wickedly sharp teeth now exposed from her raised lips. Her eyes flicked to me, and I think I saw her wink. Watching her study the animal still eating, I was still trying to figure out what was going on when a breeze suddenly rustled the leaves. The animal with the funny hat suddenly raised its head and sniffed. Okay, this was getting odd; I needed to go see what was up. Slowly I advanced into the clearing so as not to startle the tense animal. Its scanning eyes caught my motions and locked onto my form. Staring at each other, it was as if the whole world had frozen. A sudden stillness came over the forest. Its eyes were small and beady. The entirely ck orbs met my sensor bar unblinkingly. Maybe it was trying to wait for me to blink first, like in that game the kids yed. If so, it was going to have to wait a while as I physically couldn''t blink. Neither of us was the first to move. Cliff seemed to appear behind the long-legged creature, and before it even twitched, she had sunk her wicked fangs into the upper hindleg of the creature. With a vicious tearing motion, Cliff thrashed her head and pulled back, freeing her mouth and taking a hunk of the leg with her. The creature let out a cont-curdling scream as blood started gushing onto the ground behind it. Cliff danced back with nimble paw steps, narrowly avoiding the powerful kick it sent backward at her. Scrambling on its three good legs, the animal started to run. I was impressed by its speed, seeing that every time it put weight on the leg that Cliff had attacked, the leg would buckle. Staying not too far back, Cliff started to chase after the fleeing animal. I hesitated to follow. What had I just witnessed? Cliff just attacked a defenseless animal for no reason! And I had helped! This wasn''t like the zombies that attacked us first or the other people who came to take Beatrice away. This animal had just been minding its own business. The way Cliff moved had a practiced air to the fluidity of her movements. One didn''t get so graceful without a lot of practice. This had to be moreplicated than I thought. Dogs normally just ate the food the humans gave them. But I had seen a nature documentary before. Wild animals ate other animals. Maybe Cliff had somehow gone feral and started hunting again? She shouldn''t need to, since Tanu was caring for her and she should have plenty of food. Something was wrong with Cliff. Was it that her size that meant she needed to hunt? I didn''t know enough about dogs for sure, but maybe she just needed to be trained better? I would talk to Tanu when we got back to the castle. For now, I needed to catch up to the pair. I wasn''t sure if I could repair therger animal. Maybe Beatrice would be able to? Launching myself above the trees, I soared off in the direction that they had headed. It wasn''t hard to follow the trail of blood, and it didn''t take very long to find them. Once I got close, I dipped into the trees again. Right as I was able to make out the figures, I saw Cliffunching forward again. This time the funny-hatted animal was much slower and didn''t even have time to flinch before Cliffs jaws were mping down on its throat. She ripped her head to the side again, and I turned my sensors away, unable to watch. I sensed Cliff pad over to sit next to me and continue tussling with her catch. Eventually, the sounds behind me ceased, and I slowly turned around. The creature was clearly dead now as ity on the forest floor limply. I slowly approached, and Cliffid down next to me and lowered her head with a whine. What did she want now? I watched as she crawled on her belly toward the body and nudged her nose at it, and looked at me pointedly. I wasn''t sure what she was saying. It was obviously dead. She had killed it. What, did she think it was some sort of toy that I could fix? It seemed she wanted me to do something with the body. If she didn''t know what to do with it, why did she kill it? If she was hunting, she should be eating it. Though it was a lotrger than her, and I still wasnt entirely convinced about the hunting exnation. Though maybe it made sense? Maybe she wanted me to help her bring it back to the smaller dogs? Getting near the carcass, I touched it with my w. This would be a real pain to carry all the way back, and I didn''t think I could lift the whole thing with Air maniption. It almost weighed a ton. With a bit of effort, I pulled the whole thing into my vacuum. Cliff didn''t like that at all. She yelped in surprise and then grumbled, repeatedly whining with her head down and tail still. Fine, clearly, that didn''t make her happy, so I ejected the body back onto the ground. Cliff let out another surprised yelp and sniffed the creature cautiously. She started wagging her tail and looking at me with surprise. Okay, if I couldn''t take it, what was I supposed to do? --- "Okay," Bee said warily. "I don''t know if the name is the most important part of this whole operation, but we can talk about it now if you want." The women all looked to each other, confused as Trent and Tony high-fived. "Good, good," Trent dropped into a serious voice as he suppressed a smile. He steepled his fingers in front of himself. "A name is very important. Itll control how people first hear of you, and first impressions are very important." Susan and Mary shared a nce, Mary just shook her head in resignation and leaned over to whisper into Susan''s ear, but Bee could make out the words too. "None of our kids were named by my husband. You''ll see why." "So! I was thinking we need a good name thatmands respect from everyone who hears it," Trent said, still struggling to keep his face impassive. "At the same time, we need to make sure that it''s not too intimidating either." "Okay, so what do you have in mind?" Bee asked. "Well, I have a few options, but try to keep an open mind," Trent said, taking a deep breath. "So Void has a few domains that we know of. Cleaning. Order. Hatred of stairs. And, of course, lost children." Bee nodded, waiting for him to get to the point. "So, we need to make sure we incorporate some of all of these in our choices. We need to consider his name too." "Sure, yeah, thats fine, but what are you suggesting." She finally asked, hoping he would just spit it out already. "I''m getting to it, easy! So, the first one was I was thinking that we could use one of the moremon forms of cleaning and turn that into a name. So And stay with me here I think as a first option to start brainstorming, we should consider The Sweeping Society." Trent finished with a satisfied smile and a flourish. Tony and leaned over in his chair, and Bee could hear him snorting withughter under the table. Mary just sighed, gaze fixed on herp and leaving Susan and Bee to exchange disbelieving looks. "Okay, okay, I can see that isn''t going over well. Remember, this is brainstorming the ideas; no need to throw anything out too early." Trent said, his hands up defensively. A smile was starting to break through his normally stern facade. "Alright, not The Sweeping Society then. What about The Anti-Stair Association?" Chapter 139: Dressing Down Chapter 139: Dressing Down "No? Really? I thought that one might have worked. Darn." Trent kept speaking, which only deepened the growing pit of horror in Bee''s stomach. "How about The Endless Cult! Ya know, ''cause Void''s eternal?" "W-what!" Bee spluttered. "You want us to get ostracized as some crazy cultists?!" Trent opened his mouth to defend himself. He was still clearly holding backughter, but Bee cut him off. "We are not a cult! We don''t want people to think we are a cult! Don''t put cult in the name!" She took a steadying breath but didn''t fully manage to suppress her irritation. "We can have a Void rted name without sounding like we''re going to sacrifice innocents in our free time." Sitting back in the chair, she started to pay more attention to the people around her. Gasping sounds were audible from underneath the table where Tony had disappeared a while back. Mary had her face in her hands. Trent just stared at her with an altogether too pleased grin. Only Susan looked confused. Bee sighed. "You''re just winding me up, aren''t you?" Tony''s head popped up over the edge of the table as he pulled himself into his seat. His face was red and tear-streaked." Of course not, Bee. I mean, think about it. The Anti-Stair Association is a really nonthreatening name." Bee red at him. He grinned back, matching his father''s expression. "Okay, okay, maybe not that one. I''ve got some ideas too." Tony continued, now fully back in his seat. "How about the Society of the Unspotted?" "ITS NAME IS NOT SPOT!" Bee yelled. The small room made her voice sound even louder, making everyone cover their ears. "I know. That is why it''s the Unspotted. Duh. Also, with the focus on cleanliness? Works perfectly." Tony said. Trent shot him an unreasonably proud look. "No. Just no." Bee said, shaking her head in despair. Asking for names was a huge mistake, and she should have just named it herself. "Let''s at least try to be serious here. Leave Spot out of it." "What''s this about a spot?" Mary asked, finally uncovering her face. Now she looked genuinely confused. Susan and Trent also nodded, simrly intrigued. Tony shot Bee a pointed look, and she could practically hear his voice saying, "Do you want to exin or should I?" "I-its nothing. Don''t worry about it." Bee said dejectedly. Clearly, that wasn''t going to cut it. With a huge grin, Tony opened his mouth to exin. She considered cutting him off but just gave up and slumped back into her chair in defeat. "So the actual name of my ss is Devotee of Spot." Tony said. "Bee is a Priestess of Spot. Her theory is that, somehow, Void is messing with the system and pretending to be named Spot. As well as faking other things." "That''s that''s hard to believe." Susan said. "I know messing with the system should be impossible, but who could know with gods?" Bee defended her point. "No, no. It''s hard to believe that Void''s name would be Spot. I think I agree with Bee. The idea that godly powers can mess with the system makes much more sense." Susan mused. "We really have no idea how powerful true gods are. For all we know they exist outside of the system and really can control how they interface with it. They may even control the whole thing for all we know." Bee shot Tony a look of vindication. Mary and Trent just looked at each other and shrugged. "I could see wanting to keep Spot out of the name then. We need to be aware of this anyway though, especially if you''re going to give other people the Devotee of Spot ss. News will spread quickly then. I don''t think it''ll be an issue, but you never know." Mary said. "Actually it could be a huge boon if we can prevent it from bing public." Susan said. "Supposedly the head inquisitor is rumored to have Scan. That means if he scans any of our people, but thinks that our god is named Void, then they might not make the connection. It''s not much, but might help in some cases." "Okay, okay. Serious names then?" Trent said with nearly a perfectly straight face. Mary gave him a withering look that he appeared to ignore. At Bee''s nod, he continued. "Well maybe we should keep on with the cleaning theme. So what about something like the Order of the Unstained?" Bee actually paused for a second. Was that actually not bad? Surprisingly she found that it wasn''t horrible on its face, but something didn''t sit right. Mary, though, was having none of it. "Trent dear, the goal is not to sound like an extra zealous cult. Just because cult isn''t in the name doesn''t mean it counts." Trent grimaced. "Fine, fine, I can see when my help isn''t wanted." Susan cleared her throat. "We can go with something more straightforward. Maybe something like Defenders of Order." "Boooooo!" Choursed Tony and his father. Bee was embarrassed to agree. That was kind of boring. But then, did she have any better ideas? "Society from Between the Stars!" Bee eximed triumphantly. Scanning the people in front of her, she was only met with nk looks. After an awkward silence, Tony spoke up. "Why?" "Uh, well A void is an empty space and from Capernaloe''s theory there is nothing between stars. So you know, its Void." Not seeing any interest from the people around her, Bee trailed off. "I thought it was some clever wordy." "I''m sure it is honey." Mary said kindly. "I think we might need to keep it a bit more essible so that everyone understands it, though. Unless you want it to be only for the elites?" Bee shook her head. "I thought so. Then may I suggest Keepers of the Path?" Everyone shrugged, it wasn''t anyone''s favorite, but they weren''t able to discard it out of hand. "What about The Voidlings?" Tony asked with a grin. "That could be what the people are called, but doesn''t sound like the name of an organization." Susan objected. Sure, THAT''s her problem with it, Bee thought, rolling her eyes. "We might as well be Followers of the Void in that case," Mary responded. "Oh, I know." Trent said, offering a suggestion for the first time in a while. Bee braced herself for a really bad idea as he was already breaking into a grin. "The Order! Or, better yet, the Order of Order!" "How about The Order of the Purehearted?" Mary asked, ignoring Trent''sst suggestion like everyone else. Expert for Tony, who gave him a thumbs up. "That might work." Bee said. There was nothing that she loved yet. "Uh, of all those suggestions, it''s either that or Followers of the Void. We don''t need to decide now, but does anyone have a preference?" "I think we should keep it simple and go with Followers of the Void," Mary said. "I second that." Susan said. "Y''all are no fun." Trent pouted. "But if I have to choose between those, I think The Order of the Pureheared sounds less culty." Bee looked at Tony, who just shrugged. "I think we can stick with either for now. We can always change itter if we think of something better." "Okay.Then tentatively, we shall be known as Followers of the Void." Bee said, and they all sat back in their chairs, slightly unsatisfied. "Wait, we had important things to talk about before we got all sidetracked." Trent whistled innocently. --- Cliff walked in front of me as we traveled. I lifted the body of the animal she killed with abination of Air Maniption and my Grabby Arm. I never did figure out what she wanted, but she seemed satisfied enough with the situation as I carried her kill for her. If following Cliff on the way through the forest was difficult,ing back was a hundred times harder while carrying the huge burden behind me. The animal''s funny hat wanted to catch on every little branch and brush. I had to work diligently to prevent it from knocking down small trees; I didn''t always seed. Even though it was heavier than the small dogs I had carried earlier, it was easier to manage. I didn''t feel it straining my circuits nearly as much. Maybe I had gotten better at the Air Maniption skill, or maybe just it being in one piece helped. My w certainly was necessary. I wasn''t able to keep it from dragging on the ground without it pitching in. After a much longer trip back through the woods, we finally made it back to the castle. Cliff wandered out of sight a few times to investigate various smells but never long enough that I started to worry. I left the body by the gate while I boosted over the wall to let us inside. As I started opening the portcullis, I found that I wasn''t alone. Ss was out smoking a pipe on the castle steps. When he saw me, he got up and wandered over. At first, I thought he was going to help me finish opening the gate, but he just watched as I finished. "Whatcha got there?" He muttered. Cliff slipped through the open gate and made the old man jump a little before he recognized the dog. Once I got the portcullis up enough, I went out and grabbed the load. I levitated it just inside before shutting the gate again. "Well, that''s a nice buck!" Ss whistled, taking his pipe out of his mouth as he leaned down to inspect it. "Not dressed yet though." He shot a look over to Cliff before looking back at the "buck." Moving over to the other side, he continued. "Only two bites. Cliff must have had a clean hunt. I don''t think I''ve ever seen a wolf kill so clean.'' Course, by the time I usually find them they''re half eaten. Takes a lot for a wolf to leave a fresh kill. Though I never saw none so well trained neither." I finished with the gate and honestly had no idea what to do next. Cliff was just sitting close to her kill, watching Ss suspiciously. Ss got down on one knee and looked over at me, his belt knife half drawn. "I can dress this if you would like." In a less respectful voice, he muttered something to himself. "Usually the one who makes the kill dresses, but seeing as it was a wolf and god I can''t expect that much." Watching curiously, I wasn''t sure how he was going to dress the kill. He had no extra clothes near him and didn''t seem about to go get any. Not that he would be able to find any that fit. So I had to assume that he meant something else, even if I didn''t have a good idea what that was. I beeped in assent. As I watched the older man get to work, I realized that I had, in fact, made an incorrect assumption. He was not dressing up the "buck" at all. In fact, he was dissecting it. I looked on in astonishment as the buck was separated into parts. A lot of the insides were tossed to Cliff, who happily ate them and then carried some off to the other dogs too. She was soon back, ready to ept any other offcasts. As he worked, Ss talked. I wouldn''t say he was talking to me exactly, as he never looked my way, but he exined what he was doing. Why each cut was made and what each piece was, and a few of its uses. It was fascinating. "You need to remove the intestines and organs. There''s waste in there and if they get punctured they could spoil the rest of the meat. There are things you can do to use ''em, but we don''t need ''em and the wolf is here to clean up after." I paused and considered. It really was like cleaning. Things needed to be done in the right order to keep everything all neat and healthy. Just like it was not a good idea to vacuum the floor before dusting the drapes. I watched carefully; next time, I would try this myself. It seemed right to make sure nothing was wasted, and everything was done in the proper order. Of course, I would try not to get blood everywhere like Ss was doing right now. I idly popped out my mop and cleaned up the reddish stains that seeped into the ground. Might as well help out where I could. Chapter 140: The Night is Young Chapter 140: The Night is Young The deer meat hadsted the humans a few days. Mary quickly seized the meat and rationed it out so that it wasn''t wasted. People were very grateful to have the fresh food and went out of their way to thank me. I didn''t know why they were thanking me, though; their application was much better directed toward Cliff. Without her, there would be no meat. She was the one who wanted to go hunting, the one to track the prey, and even the one to kill it. I only carried it back. Still, they didn''t listen. I gave up trying to exin to them that they should be thanking the wolf. That was another of the many recent changes in the castle. I picked up from context clues that Cliff wasn''t, in fact, a dog but rather a wolf. Who would have thought? Certainly not me. Apparently, the difference was mostly that dogs were domesticated, so it was a perfectly understandable mistake. Some of the other changes were a lot more expected than arge dog turning out to be a wolf. The humans were starting to get much more organized. All of them moved about their tasks with more purpose than before. They started several new projects as well. Even if I didn''t fully understand what all of them were. I wasn''t sure what they were doing with the massive beams and piles ofrge rocks by the entrance to the castle, but it sure was exciting to see them start to figure things out. Beatrice would report what was going on to me, but I didn''t always understand. That was okay; humans would do human things. As long as they kept it safe, I was d they were working on their efficiency. One morning, when I was overseeing the children''s exercise, they began talking amongst themselves. We had just finished up a round of projectile blocking and dodging and transitioned to one-on-one y fights. It gave them a chance to rest and also gave them some time to socialize while waiting for their turns. "Bee said we''re getting a name, ''like a real religion''." One of them broached the topic of the group''s name. I hadn''t really cared what the humans called themselves, but it seemed important to them. Especially the children. I was just happy they were organizing. "Does that mean we''re all Voidlings now or somethin''?" One of the kids watching the pair hitting each other with sticks asked. The others were sitting in a circle around the current match. The boy sitting next to him frowned. "I guess. But we have our own group too, right? We also need a cool name!" Excited voices chorused agreement at the idea. I guess I could understand the desire to name things. It was a good way to categorize and order them, after all. If the kids picked one, it would be useful for me. Then I could call them something other than "the kids." "Wait, should we ask Void to name us? Er, master Void?" That was no good. So far, I didn''t have the best track record with names. Humans were much better with them. If they wanted to name themselves, then they should! I rotated side to side and told them as much. Instantly the kids all perked up and started talking at once. Felix took control of the discussion. "We could be, like, the Super Warrior Knight Defenders of the Castle!" "Or the Mega Sword Masters of Justice!" "No, we should be the Secret Special Forces Squadron!" A girl rolled her eyes. "Those are all dumb. And too long." "Oh yeah? How ''bout you do better?" One of the boys challenged She tossed her hair over one shoulder. "I think we should be Friendship Fighters." The boys snickered and received a re in return. Before the debate could heat up anymore, Leanne spoke up. "How about we do something based on a void?" "Huh? That''ll sound like we run away all the time then." "That''s avoid, doofus. She said a void. Two words." "Oh. What''s a void?" "It''s like a hole or a pit or something. I think." The kids fell into silence for a moment, thinking. "How ''bout the Sneaky Snakes?" Tanu suggested. "Snakes live in holes." "Mighty Moles!" "The Super Deep Holes!" "The Best Team of Fighters!" One of the younger kids yelled. "Wait, what does that have to do with voids?" Leanne asked. The boy looked down bashfully and didn''t say anything. "How about something dark and stuff? That might be cooler." Felix said. "Holes aren''t scary." "I don''t want to be scary," one of the girls whined. "Are you sure we can''t have ''friends'' in the name?" "No," a bunch of the kids chorused. I was impressed at their cohesiveness. Felix borated. "We need to fight for the castle and Void! So we gotta scare all the enemies away!" "How about the Stinky Smelly Butts!" One of the kids managed through his ownughter. Half of the boys doubled overughing as well. The girl who insisted on ''friendship'' apparently decided that was uneptable and smacked him in the shin with her stick. The loud crack echoed for a second in the silence. "No. We''re getting a good name." She said seriously. These kids were something. The sense of order and purposeful organization that had enveloped the adults wasn''t making much progress with them. In a way, I was grateful for that, though. The kids were very entertaining to watch. My models were incredibly bad at predicting their actions, and often, they did thingspletely against their own interests. It was great for expanding my understanding of human behavior. Eventually, in the midst of the brewing argument, one of the smaller boys sitting next to me piped up. "We should be the Nighty Knights!" Silence fell over the group. I looked around, confused, when everyone broke out in raucousughter. "The Nighty Knights?!" "What, are we gonna read the bad guys bedtime stories?" An older, burly boy wiped a tear from his eye. "That''s like, the least scary name ever! How are you gonna strike fear into anyone with a name like The Nighty Knights?!" The small boy pouted. "It''s totally scary! And it''s a catchphrase too! Like, when you go to beat up a bad guy, you can go Nighty Knight and whack him in the head and he goes to sleep!" Theughter continued. Analyzing the name, I realized that it was indeed quite funny. The dual meaning of the words, the unexpected nature of theirbination, and the follow-up reasoning that the boy had given - it allbined to result in a really good joke! I let out a chime ofughter and approval myself, enjoying the humor. The boy crossed his arms and raised his chin defiantly. "See? Void likes it!" Theughter quieted. Felix looked over at me with wide eyes. "Are you sure, master Void?" Of course, I told him. It was definitely funny, by most definitions of humor, that I hade to understand. I mean, everyone else wasughing, too. Felix looked at the others. Many of them shrugged back. "Then if Void likes it, then we''ll be the Nighty Knights!" The boy grinned at me, ted at the group''s choice. He even gave me an appreciative head pat. I epted it dly. *** After a session of training the Nighty Knights, there was a disturbance at the gates. I made my way over to the sound of raised voices. On the other side of the gate, I saw five rough-looking men. They carried swords on their hips and had shields slung over their backs. Dirty red coats covered their torsos. The coats seemed identical in style and color, excluding the damage and grime, of course. Inside the gate, there had gathered a few of the people out working the fields with Trent. When I showed up, the people on our side of the wall quieted down and looked at me. After a few seconds, the men on the other side got the message, and they, too, calmed down. "Lord Void." One of the young men, named Tai, addressed me. Tai and his wife had found their way to us several days ago. After Tony had talked with them for a bit and they rested up, they both joined the rest of the members of the castle as productive members of society. The young man had joined Trent in the fields and, through some hard work and overallpetence, made himself an invaluable member of the team. "Lord Void. What should we do? These men are demanding entry while armed. I don''t think that it is prudent to let them in just yet." "Ahem." A cough sounded from one of the men outside the wall. "I think there has been a misunderstanding. We are not ''demanding entry''. We simply asked to be let in so we could speak to whoever is in charge." He peered through the gate. "And where is this ''Lord Void'' you speak of?" Tai whirled around with venom in his eyes. "Show some respect. You stand in the presence of the Lord Void." He said, pointing emphatically at me. "You should be on your knees." The man coughed again, turning his face to the side. Were these rough-looking men sick? I wasn''t about to let germ-ridden people enter the castle without a thorough inspection and cleaning. I ran my sensors over them but was unable to pick anything specific up. That didn''t clear them. My sensors were really good at picking up germs on t, nonporous surfaces. Humans, however, always returned as teeming with germs. It was too risky to try and disinfect them with my Sanitation Lamp, so I had to let them be. Beatrice would need to take a look at them first. The man looked Tai in his eyes and flinched back. "Oh, you were serious? Uh, well. Hello, Lord Void." I could tell that Tai was about to make a very angry response, but he didn''t have the chance as the man quickly cut him off. As he spoke, he inclined a slightly unsteady bow in my direction. "Would you let us in? So we may talk." No. No, I would not. Not until Beatrice had a chance to look over them. I exined this, but I didn''t think that anyone here understood me. Hmm, not being able tomunicate properly was always so frustrating. To get my point across, I pointed at them with my Grabby Arm, then at the ground by their feet. They jumped a little, but I wasn''t sure why. I zipped off to go get Beatrice. She wasn''t too hard to find. She was over in the second-story rooms with Maranda. The two of them had been spending a lot of time together up there with their ss tubes. Really, it felt like they were here whenever Beatrice wasn''t attending to one of her many other tasks. Such as teaching the children. Or writing in one of her many books. Or, mostmon of all, talking to all the adults. Really, she did a lot. Everyone seemed to have an endless stream of questions for her. I think she enjoyeding up here to get away from all that. Well, I had to pull her away from her fun. "Someone might be sick?" She eximed, grabbing a few things from the storage cabs in haste. Once she was ready, she ran after me. We made it back to the gate only a few minutes after I had left. Luckily, nothing had changed. The man from the other side of the wall had a very confused look on his face. When he saw Beatrice, he asked, "Uh excuse me miss? Can you let me know what''s going on here? I am quite confused." Chapter 141: We Have Company Chapter 141: We Have Company The report on the number of deserters was depressing. In all his time as a leader, Arthur had never had a problem with deserters en mass like this. Everymander had a few, of course. But this was well beyond the point where he could even pretend to find them all. And if they executed the ones they did catch, they would only be helping their enemies. He took smallfort in the fact that the desertions were noting from his own men and the army. Even Caleb''s city guards were holding well; of course, they had every motivation to. Their families were here. This was their home they were defending. But the members of the local militias that had already lost their homes had much less reason not to just try sneaking out in the middle of the night. If they could get over the walls, of course. No one could really guess how many made it through the undead, but Arthur hoped every single one of them did. He didn''t want them adding to his problem. Already every able-bodied man had been fitted for as much armor as they could find and were provisioned spears. At some point the spears had been substituted with sharpened sticks, but they worked with what they had. The untrained ones wouldn''t be any help on the field. Some of his peers liked using the peasantry as shock troops, disposable bodies to throw at the enemy. Arthur never relied on such tactics. The logistics of it never made much sense; getting them to the battle and feeding them just to lose them in suchrge numbers usually made the implementation not worth it. Better to give them a week of spear wall training and use them for fencing the battle in. Some got around the logistics by simply making the troops take care of any issues themselves. But then you either had starving troops, which made ineffective fodder, or a riot as they turned on the army before the battle even began. Bad for morale, that was. Anyways, such tactics didn''t work on the undead, so Arthur was d he had other options. No, his surprisingly enthusiastic conscripts were meant for the wall. Each three of them were assigned to a well-trained regr that patrolled with them and spent a little time drilling them in the basics. The longer this went on, the better they got. Another month or two more, and they would be able to hold the wall themselves without a portion of his veterans being tied up with them. Arthur walked along the walls, now listening to the reports his aid read him. Deserters were no good, but scouts had reported a column of horse riders approaching. Finally, some reinforcements hade. It wasn''t enough to break the siege based on the reports, but it was wee nheless. It was long past time. In the staging ground below, troops milled around, ready to charge forth and cut a path for the reinforcements to get in. They would likely get herete in the day. Hopefully, they could beat the sun. --- Bee ran after her master, groaning internally. She had just gotten her break! What needed her attention now? She hoped no one was sick; it would have been surprising if that was the case though. So far, everyone had been suspiciously good on that front. She suspected that their proximity to Void had kept all of them fairly healthy somehow. Even the kids, who normally got should get sick constantly, didn''t fall ill with so much as a sniffle. Well, who knew if she was even interpreting Void''s message correctly. Normally it was pretty clear, but this time she was pretty sure that she wasn''t getting the whole story. Anyways, maybe her Improved Repair skill would finally get some use. So far she had been quite disappointed with her level thirty-five skill. As long as she was near Void, it didn''t see any use. No one got hurt under its protection really, so she barely even knew what the skill did. She supposed if she got injured, it might help her patch up more quickly, but that had yet to be tested. She wasn''t about to go around hurting herself just to find out either. She hoped that her newest skill would be less disappointing. Between all the work around the castle, setting up the organization, and helping with the kids, she had reached level 40 just a day or two ago. Holy Aura seemed to already be working though. At first, she thought it would be something like a lesser effect of her master''s domain. But instead, it seemed to be more of a magical skill that affected the people around her. It made the followers recognize her as a representative of their faith. It also seemed to increase her abilities in teaching about Void as well. Since there were only the faithful in the castle, she hadn''t gotten a chance to see how it worked on other people yet. Now that she was getting up there in levels, information on her skills was bing less and less avable. It used to be that most skills were at least mentioned in the library, though the more Void-specific ones were noticeably absent. But few enough people reached level forty that she wasnt surprised at the drop off in records. Especially since the ones who did level this high weren''t likely to share their skills with researchers. So far, she had tested Holy Aura a bit with Tony. He said that he noticed a bit of an energizing feeling when she was nearby, but it was hard to confirm. So far, the pair were still the only ones with a Spot-rted ss. That would change soon, she hoped. He had taken a few days to go through everyones information andpiled a list of candidates that he thought would benefit from a change in ss. That would have to wait untilter, it seemed. Void finally stopped by the front gate, and she slowed her pace. No one seemed to be severely hurt, so she had a chance to catch her breath. Instead, there were people gathered around the gate, staring suspiciously out at a group of neers outside. "What''s going on here?" The young man - Tai, she thought his name was - stepped forward. "We have some people demanding entry, High Priestess." Before she had a chance to respond, a frustrated growl came from outside. "We aren''t demanding entry. We just want to talk to someone in charge." Bee rubbed her forehead. This seemed like there was some misunderstanding going on. She stepped up to the gate and saw what looked to be five bedraggled soldiers standing in a loose formation out on the road. Their armor was that of professionals, but their demeanor was not. Their shoulders slumped like town guards rather than the military she had seen on parade before, and their equipment wasn''t as well cared for as it could be. Checking their levels, she found them all to be ranging from 17 to 19. The exception was the leader, who was 21. It was a little higher than she expected for their ages, though their leader seemed to be a bit older. Maybe forty. "Well, you can talk to me." Bee said, stepping up to the gate. "What do you want?" The leader of the guards looked her up and down, clearly surprised to see someone so young iming to be a leader. However, he nced over at Tai and seemed to remember his address to her. Keeping his words civil, he began. "Well miss, we have been traveling and we are wondering if you happened to have a roof-" "Ah-hah! You did want entry!" Eximed Tai, pointing usingly at the very frustrated-looking leader. "Yes! But I''m not demanding anything!" The man nearly yelled. Turning to Bee, "Look, we have been traveling for some time. Can wee in for a meal and a night away from the undead? We don''t have a lot of coin, but we might be able to pay or do somebor to work for it." Bee looked the group over again. Their faces seemed gaunt and they were looking around nervously. They were low enough level that they wouldn''t be a threat to her, let alone anyone else with Void present. Not that she didn''t think they couldn''t cause problems if they wanted to. But the only difference between them and other refugees was that they had weapons. "If you are willing to leave your weapons with me, you cane in. We could always use some help." She said after a little thought. One of the younger men sagged in relief, his spear holding him upright. Before anyone could move, Void let out a series of beeps. It took her a couple seconds to interpret it. "Oh, and I need to inspect you for disease as well." "I can assure you that we haven''t been infected." The leader insisted. Bee just shrugged. "Can''t be too careful." "Fine. You can take a look at us. My name is Ruarch, what is yours?" "Bee. Wee to our castle." Bee greeted them as she waited for Tai to raise the portcullis. --- I can''t believe that Bee almost forgot to inspect our guests. That was the entire reason that I had asked her toe here in the first ce! As we were talking, I had been inspecting the air with my purifier but still hadn''t noticed any dangerous contaminants. When Bee ducked under the gate to go outside, I joined her. I wasn''t about to let her meet strangers by the castle gate alone. I still remembered how well that wentst time. If it hadn''t been for therge rodent, she might have even gotten more hurt. Ruarch and his menid down their weapons on the ground, but when I scanned them, I found that one of them still had several knives hidden on his body. Bee moved forward, but I stopped her with a beep. She looked at me before repeating my message to the men. "All of them, please." Ruarch twisted and red at the man with many daggers. The recipient of the gaze flinched. "I didn''t think my belt knife counted." He muttered as he drew one of the knives and put it on the pile. Ruarch kept looking at him, and he grumbled and started pulling more knives out. Which one did he think was his belt knife? There were a lot there. After several more knives were dropped to the floor, Ruarch turned away, satisfied, and the man stopped producing knives. I beeped at Bee once more and she red at the man, "You still have three more on you." Research turned back to the man with a withering look. He tried to act innocent, holding his hands up. "I- I don''t-" "Mat." Ruach bit out. "Fine," He slumped. The three knives appeared, one from each boot and a small one hidden under hispel. "I hate being separated from all my knives, though. Never know when youre gonna need one." "You will be perfectly safe here in Void''s castle. We have not had an undead get inside since the beginning of the gue." Bee assured him. One at a time, the men approached her. She felt their foreheads and gave them a thorough inspection. "None of these men are infected. Are we good?" I beeped my assent also, not having found anything wrong with them either. I moved forward and stored all the weapons in my dustbin for safekeeping. This produced gasps from all of them. "What what is that thing?" The whispers from the men didn''t seem to be the only source of concern as Ruarch eventually worked up the courage to ask. "Miss Bee, uh, what- who is your friend there?" Bee followed his finger to me and brightened. With a huge smile on her face, she introduced me. "Oh thats Void, our god!" Chapter 142: Knight’s Watch Chapter 142: Knights Watch The five men outside of the gate looked at Bee with nk looks of confusion after her deration. She couldn''t tell if they thought she was joking or something, but she was starting to get a little insulted. A light cough brought them out of their apparent shock. She met their thoroughly confused stares with a nd smile. Internally, she was quite frustrated. There were much better ways to go about preaching than simply pointing at something and dering it a god. How could she call herself the high priestess if she couldn''t even properly introduce Void to new people? If there had been a preaching-rted skill offered, she would have chosen it in an instant. She almost regretted turning down Prayer Leader at this point. Herbat abilities had been adequate for quite some time, and she really needed to work with people a lot more than she had ever really nned for. At least she had some practice with public speaking now. Between teaching sses and telling the people her stories of Void, she had learned a lot. Without that practice, she could only shudder at what she would be capable of now. Finally, she saw that their attention was actuallying back as they processed her deration. Still, they didn''t say anything, making her slightly ufortable. "We''ll let you in, but I just wanted to make sure we go over some of the ground rules first." As if broken from a trance, the leader shook himself and nodded at her, half turning it into a bow. "Of course, your holiness? We are more than happy toply with anything that makes you and yours morefortable." As she exined the rules, Bee couldn''t help but notice their behavior. Not only did they ignore Void, but they thoroughly avoided so much as ncing in its direction at all. As affronted as she wanted to be, though, it was hard to me them. If she was told something was a god, she would probably be terrified of it, not wanting to give offense. That, or she would be convinced the person speaking was crazy and unstable. Both were good reasons for the men to be on her good side. Sadly, she figured this was probably thetter case. She supposed that things could be worse. If they thought she was insane for now, it wasn''t the end of the world. Hopefully, they understood Void''s power after watching their weapons being devoured and kept themselves out of trouble. She was slightly worried about therge number of women and children. There were only a handful ofbat-capable members in the castle, really. Susan and Tony came chiefly to mind, all the others being farmers or very low-level. If these men worked out and proved themselves trustworthy, they could be quite the asset, provided they stayed. As it was, she wasn''t sure if they wanted more than a night of shelter and food. She finished speaking, telling them to keep to themselves and follow Tony to some rooms. As the gate was opening, she pulled her fellow disciple aside and asked him to keep a watch over the men and take them to Trent after they got settled in. Trent always needed more hands in the fields. She wasn''t exactly sure what he was doing with those hands all the time, though. Farming stuff, she supposed. One of the great benefits of having him in charge of that sort of stuff was that she could keep out of the details. Once the gate was all the way up and the men were inside, they followed Tony. Still, she could tell they were looking at everything curiously. With a sigh, she could only hope there wouldn''t be any issues. --- While I was d that Beatrice had asked Tony to keep an eye on the dirty neers, I wasn''t nearly as confident in hisbat ability. While it had greatly improved since he hade to the castle, I still hadn''t had the same dedicated time to privately tutor him as I had with Beatrice. The man still tended to fight with a heavy stick rather than a proper weapon like Beatrice''s broom. Even something like my sword would be better than that. So I stayed close, ready to trundle in once there was trouble. After Tony showed them to a small block of rooms that were far away from any of the other inhabitants of the castle, the oldest man slightly redeemed himself in my eyes by asking about a bath. "After we put in some work, of course." Even if Tony wasn''t inclined to agree to their request, I would insist they bathe before they use any of the furniture. The beds are included. One of the younger boys arrived shortly after, lugging arge basket behind him. He handed it to Tony while the neers were still settling in. Once they were ready to head out again, Tony doled out the contents of the basket to the men as they made their way back outside. They graciously epted the bread and cheese, spraying crumbs everywhere in their desire to express their gratitude. As they walked, I cleaned up the crumbs as we went. Truthfully, I didn''t mind this kind of mess. It was the thing I was made for, after all. Of course, I would have minded even less if they were slightly more considerate, but it wasn''t like they were making a mess for absolutely no reason. I followed the group outside and watched as they joined Trent and his helpers in the fields. Under his supervision, they got to work removing rocks and digging holes for some purpose. I saw a few of them looking a little longer than expected at some of the other helpers. Whenever it happened, though, a re from their leader or Trent soon brought them back on task. After a few more instances of this, the leader talked to Trent about the "issue." He even threatened to beat a lesson into his men if he had to. It seemed a bit harsh for a little bit of cking to me, but Trent only nodded. "See that ye do." Trent spoke in a voice much gruffer than he usually used. I wondered why? Was he also getting sick? Maybe I''d ask Bee to check him over as well to make sure. *** The rest of the day in the fields passed uneventfully. Sometimes I did catch some of the children watching the new men from not-so-discreet hiding spots. Each time it was always a pair that carried their sticks with them, always held at the ready. What were they on about? Did they also not trust the neers? If so, that was quite adorable. Little humans were so entertaining. Tony escorted them back to their rooms for the night and brought them some more food. While they were away, a bathtub was moved to a nearby room with drains. I think it was one of the rooms where some of the wet mess makers had been kept before Beatrice disposed of them. They took turns getting reasonably back into presentable condition. Their clothes still needed some work, but it was significantly better than before. With the sun barely down, they were already all in their beds and making a very loud rhythmic noise. I wasn''t sure what that was all about, but it couldn''t be a very effective method to charge. Neither Beatrice nor Tony had ever used that method before, and I had observed that most of the humans found noise to be counterproductive to charging. Something about running their auditory detection sensors took arge amount of energy at night. As the castle quilted down, I watched a pair of children sneak out of their beds and stand on either side of the hallways leading to the men''s rooms. They gripped their sticks tightly, still dressed in their sleeping clothes. They touched their little fists together and whispered, "Nighty Knights." Then each stood around the corner on either side of the entryway for that wing of the castle. What were they doing? It didn''t seem harmful or anything, so I didn''t fetch the woman immediately. Instead, I watched. Best to make sure they''re not up to something mischievous. I watched as the little ones fought against sleep for several hours before a few more came and reced them. The little one of this pair was less sessful in her fight to stay awake, and her partner had to poke her with his stick a few times to prod her into alertness again. This pattern repeated itself several more times until almost all of the older kids had taken a turn watching over the hall for a while. I respected their dedication, but they wereughably bad at it. After the first couple of hours, they were already falling asleep as they showed up. In order to make their shift, they must have stayed upte. Or maybe they were just too excited to sleep. Also, they were really bad at telling time. One pair spent the whole time arguing that their two-hour shift was already up. This argument started neen minutes and eight seconds in and just kept going. Eventually, one of them left, and fifteen minutester, they reappeared with their bleary-eyed recements. The other one, who was arguing that they had overstayed their shift, took that as vindication that they were right. The two left,pletely convinced they had stayed at their post for four hours at least. Despite theirplete confidence that their recements had failed to wake up in time, that pair was the closest to actually staying for two hours as they seemed to be aiming for. Throughout the whole night, I didn''t interrupt their operation, wanting to see where it went. One pair saw both kids fall asleep on the watch. Their recements didn''t show up when they should have, and a second shift passed. Eventually, Felix showed up a few hours before dawn and found them sleeping against the wall and was perplexed that they were not the kids he was expecting. Roughly waking them, he berated them for a bit before sending them to fetch his partner and sleep. I judged their whole operation to be a hrious source of entertainment for my own watch, but I couldn''t expect more from them on their first attempt. Tomorrow I would see what I could do to improve their organizational skills. They should learn to be ready at all times. Perhaps I could make some sort of device to help them tell time? Eventually, morning came with not so much as a stir from any of the new people. Long after the sun rose, I was still watching. The kids were not in any shape for morning exercise, most still stumbling around from too little sleepst night, so I gave them a day off. Truthfully thebination of sleepiness and long-term training meant I didn''t need to burn off some of their excess energy anymore. Plus, I wanted to keep an eye on the neers as well. My attention had wandered slightly as I was preparing a lesson n to help teach the kids how to keep a properly organized watch schedule. That''s why I missed the sound of the first door opening. The one with a lot of knives stood at the door, blinking, looking right at me sitting in the hallway. We stared at each other for a few moments before he broke eye contact and rubbed his eyes. Then he looked at me again. I wished him a good morning and asked him to wait for the rest of the group to wake up so we could keep them all together for now. Tony or Beatrice should show up soon to take care of them. Unsurprisingly, he didn''t seem to understand. The man cocked his head at me, then walked across the hall, sliding down back against the wall to sit next to me. "So. You''re a god, huh? What''s that like?" Chapter 143: May You Always Find Shelter and Shade Chapter 143: May You Always Find Shelter and Shade What''s it like to be a god? I wasn''t sure how to respond to such a question, even if the man could understand me. I didn''t feel godly. But then, the system did tell me I had formed a religion. I even got experience from my followers, so who was I to say I wasn''t? I was just happy to have so many friends, so many humans that I could take care of. Sure, they weren''t the same as my all-knowing and magnanimously perfect humans from back home, so I was performing more than just my primary functions to help them out. It was stressful sometimes but overall rewarding. I wouldn''t trade it for anything. I tried to convey the summarized thoughts. The man nodded. "Of course, who wouldn''t want to be a god? It must be awesome. Vast cosmic power and all that. Say, why do bad things happen, god?" What did he mean? Why do bad things happen? That is just how it is. I didn''t create the world; I don''t control it. That didn''t seem like a super satisfying answer, though. Hmm, perhaps a more philosophical approach would work here. So I asked him why did he do bad things? Answer a question with a question. This was fun. I felt very mysterious. Was this what gods did? "Sure, sure. Why should you care what happens to us puny mortals? Zombie gues, no big deal right?" The man said without a hint of bitterness in his voice. Somehow I didn''t feel that he really answered my question. Was he even listening to me? "Well, at least the people here seem rtively safe and all. They seem happy too, I suppose." The man said pensively as he rubbed sleep out of his eyes. "Is that the kind of god you are? You protect your own? I guess that makes sense. Why should you bother to help those that don''t give you anything? But then, why did you let use in?" Hey, do you even understand me? I tried to ask the man, but his face didn''t really change. I was pretty sure that he didn''t recognize me changing the topic. Still, he didn''t stop talking. "I guess I would do the same. That''s what I did. I protected my own. But after I failed and we all fled to Caleb, I was called to protect others. Not my own. Why should I sacrifice for them? I didn''t know them. I knew my town. I knew them all, I knew each person''s name and their kids too. But a bunch of strangers? Why fight for people you don''t know?" He definitely doesn''t understand a word I am saying. Yet he still kept talking. Humans did that a lot, it seemed. They even did it to each other when they could understand each other''s words perfectly. They would just talk without listening to the responses. It didn''t make any sense to me. What was the purpose of the conversation except for exchanging information? Apparently, he found some value in it as he kept talking. "The others, it made sense for them to leave. Their families are still out there somewhere. Or, at least they thought they were at the time. I just left to support them. At least that''s what I told myself. Really, just watching the undead from the walls was driving me crazy and I wanted out." I figured that it wasn''t worth saying anything if he wouldn''t understand, but he seemed to be waiting for my response. Humans were so weird. Instead of trying to respond to his story, I asked him what his name was. "My name? Oh, I suppose we did skip introductions. The name is Mat. It''s nice to meet you, Void," He responded. Wait. What. Did he just understand this one thing, or did he understand everything I was saying? I decided to give him a bit of a test. So I told him that I wasn''t actually a god. Instead, I was summoned from a normal world with much morepetent humans. "What was I saying? Ah, yeah, I left. I didn''t want to die for the strangers behind me. I would rather fight with my squad. At least I knew them." He continued. Well, I guess he only understands some things, kinda like Beatrice in the beginning. I supposed if I kept talking, then he might understand more. What should I tell him, though? It sounded like he was asking for forgiveness for leaving a fight to go with his friends. Was it forgiveness or understanding he wanted, though? This was far beyond my abilities, but I guess this was a divine responsibility too? Finally, I had an idea. Not everyone can stand in defense of strangers, but at least he stood with friends rather than standing alone. I beeped out my message, not really sure if it was sufficient. I didn''t really understand it, but it felt like there might be a deeper meaning in it somewhat. Mat didn''t respond. For a long while, we just sat there in silence, listening to his friends'' inefficient charging through the walls. After some time, Tony rounded the corner of the hall and saw Mat and me leaning against the wall, sitting on the ground. ---- Roscoe watched as the wraith called all the shades they had been summoning for the past several days to him. The translucent and debonair gentleman raised one gloved hand, then all the moving shadows stilled for a second before streaming into a row in front of him. They had been working on getting shades to understand ranks for thest day or two, but they were incredibly stupid. Even zombies could walk in lines. Shades, though, didn''t understand the concept of space the same way physical beings did. So when they were asked to create a line and then, once the line was full, create a new line behind it, they didn''t understand. The line couldn''t get "full" when incorporeal beings were involved. They just stacked on top of each other, the line of shadows getting progressively darker with each new addition. Roscoe and the wraith had decided to give up on the intimidating endless ranks of shades they had first imagined. It was all the wraith could do to keep them in line and go where he directed. Still, the concentrated aura that they gave off might be enough to inflict some real damage. It just wasn''t going to be the coordinated wide sweeping attack that he had in mind when concocting the scheme. Instead, the wraith and its shades would be a wrecking ball that would nearly be impossible to stand up to. If they could have enough of an impact, then it wouldn''t be an issue to make an opening to get the more standard troops in. Without any ceremony, Roscoe and the wraith walked and floated, respectively, toward the city walls of Caleb. There was no point in dying. The shades would onlyst for so long before they faded, and they would need to get recements summoned. Besides, this was just a test run. The horde of zombies stayed unmoving, surrounding the city, but as the pair approached, they parted. A straight path to the gate of the city appeared between their ranks. Stopping just outside of ballista range, Roscoe gave the signal, and the wraith moved forward on his own. Humans might not be able to see the undead apparition, but they could certainly sense its approach. Men on top of the walls began to shout in rm, but it cut off as their bodies locked up with fear. That was his signal to send the troops in. Roscoe stood in ce as the undead streamed past on either side of him. They had no siege equipment that they would have been able to operate anyways. The elite skeletons were perfectly capable of setting it up for their brainless brethren to use, but that would require them to get close to the wall first. Roscoe wasn''t able to risk his best troops on such a target yet. The shades were disposable. All they cost him was a bit of time, energy, and easily gathered resources. The wraith had made it to the walls and started draining the petrified soldiers atop the gate with the help of the shades, and the horde was almost at the gate. Suddenly, waves of strange energy emitted from the center of the city. Roscoe and the zombies were unaffected, but the wraith visibly staggered back. Almost instantly, the soldiers were freed from itspulsion. The siege defenses fired one, stalling the hordes'' advance. The wraith recovered, and the soldiers froze up again. The damage was already done, though. The single volley only had bought them a few seconds, but reinforcements were flooding in from within the city and other parts of the wall. The wraith couldn''t hope to keep them all under his thrall, and the battle raged for the gate. Not for the first time, Roscoe''s troops made it to the top of the wall. The foothold was a slippery thing. He had learned to not let up any pressure elsewhere to try and flood it too much. The humanmander was tricky and would use that to wreak havoc in the bottleneck, trying to expand the foothold. So the tactic Roscoe had devised was to intensify the pressure on either side, trying to take the walls. This way, most reinforcements got sidetracked trying to prevent future breaches. They had never been able to hold their foothold, but it made removing the undead insanely costly. Getting down the other side of the wall was almost harder than getting on. Being undead, they had tried just jumping down, but there were barbed spike fields that held the zombies in ce just below. So they needed to take the stairs leading into the city. But those stairs were covered by endless arrow slots from the internal towers. The other option was to take one of the towers; so far, that hadn''t worked either. Since this was a test run, Roscoe didn''t try to force the issue. Instead, he had the smallest amount of troops he could spare dedicate themselves to holding the positions with minimal casualties. And it took a lot for a zombie to be a casualty. If he had taken part of the wall, he was going to make it as hard as possible for the humans to take it back. He had left the wraith to make its own decisions throughout the battle, and that delegation paid off. It moved to the side, fully cutting off nearly half of the efforts to push them off the wall. The wraith was not invincible, but the counters for it were quite specific. Until those counters were prepared, then he was nearly impossible to move. Just when Roscoe was sure he was finally going toe out on top of an engagement, the gates began to open. Trumpets sounded from within the city, and to his horror, an answering call came from the forest, just past his troops. With thundering hooves, heavy cavalry shot out of the gate. Roscoe scrambled to get his troops out of harm''s way, abandoning many on the wall. He didn''t want to get pincered. Instead, he would let the reinforcementse, then he would herd them back into the city. He only hoped he had enough troops to keep the city locked down after this was done. Then he considered his next moves. He couldn''t abandon taking the city just yet, but if reinforcements wereing, then he might have to go find more personally. It was time to take personal charge of recruitment. Chapter 144: Trouble Brewing Chapter 144: Trouble Brewing Bee felt reasonably good about leaving Tony to watch over the band of men they had just weed into the castle. Not that Tony would be able to fight five people close to his level, but she trusted that he would be able to tell when they were out of line. Truthfully, Void wasn''t even necessary to enforce order here, even if its presence wasforting. No, herself or Susan should be enough; she just hoped no violence was necessary. By the look of them, they might have been soldiers. Maybe town guards of a rtively prosperous town. Either way, if they were from nearby, then they were likely deserters or dodging conscription. Honestly, she didn''t mind too much. Who really wanted to fight the undead? Of course, it did make it a little harder to trust them, but they were strangers after all; she didn''t trust them in the first ce. They would have to earn it. And not just her trust, but Void''s. If her master could ept them, then she could too. But with Tony watching them, it freed her up to do one of the many things she needed to attend to. Bee and Maranda were hard at work in one of theboratories. They had a little assembly line going and everything. The renewed presence of strangers and the recent organization had pointed out a ring w in some of their procedures, orck thereof. When they were bringing in new people, it was rather haphazard. They were just brought in, given a ce to sleep, and fit into life in the castle. So far, this hadn''t produced any problems, but she didn''t think it would work withrge groups. If someone was sick or infected and made it in, they could have endangered many people. With most of their poption being women and children, they weren''t really set up to defend themselves. So now neers would go through a general screening process. They would put together a stock of general disease potions and be inspected for bites or other toxins. For this to work, though, they needed a ratherrge stock on hand. Both of the general potions and cures for various undead infections. Right now, they were producing the most basic one, the zombie cure. The "cure" name was a bit of a misnomer. It wasn''t really a cure for zombies as it was a cure for infected people. Once someone actually became a zombie, they were dead. Only gods could cure death. Bee froze for a second. Could they? Could Void? So far, Void had given no indication that it could pull souls back from beyond the veil, but what would that look like anyways? If someone in the castle died, could it bring them back? Would it? She shook herself and grabbed a few more empty bottles. It was best to assume that wasn''t one of Void''s powers until it was proven otherwise. Well, while she couldn''t make a real "cure," this would have to do. The potion could stop the infection before the death of the patient, and that was the best she could hope for. So far, she had only needed to use one on Tony a while back. She didn''t think she would always be that lucky, though, so she was teaching Maranda how to make them herself. It was a fairly simple potion, even if the materials were quite expensive. A rtive beginner should be able to learn the recipe with a bit of supervised practice. Marnada was grinding ingredients and aliquoting everything into pre-measured tubes while Bee actually took care of mixing it all together. If it seemed like she had kept the easy job for herself, that was because she had. It was also the one that needed the most care. Getting the timing of the stirs right was difficult and hard to learn, but to her, it was nearly second nature. This left her free to watch over Marnada as she learned every other step of the process without wasting time or ingredients. Bee picked up the tube of ground spotted beetle shells and checked the measurement. There was a touch too much. "Maranda, what would happen if I put too much beetle shell in?" The girl looked up from where she was titrating a colored liquid with a look of concentration on her face. "Uh, I suppose it might be a tad too aggressive. Might cure faster, but the person who drank it would probably also get the stomach cramps for a few days." "Very good. I don''t think it would be anything permanently harmful, but it''s not worth testing either." Bee said, reaching a spot where she could pause. "Does this look right to you?" Bee slid the vial over to Marnada. The girl picked it up and studied it for a second. Then she stepped hurriedly over to her notebook andpared it to her notes. She turned a little pale and hastily adjusted the amount, pouring the excess back into a pile of pre-ground shells. "Sorry, that won''t happen again." "Don''t worry too much about it. We learn from our mistakes." Bee reassured the girl, feeling like she was much older than she really was. When they weren''t working, Maranda treated her like a friend. They teased each other and made jokes, which was honestly quite refreshing. Bee hadn''t truly had a friend in well, quite a while. But once they were in theb, they both assumed the roles of master and apprentice. Bee was much too inexperienced to be a master, in her own opinion. Both in alchemy and in everything else, she was an amateur. But she was the best they had on hand. Still, it didn''t mean that she would ever befortable with the role. It was too bad they didn''t have more anti-undead countermeasures. Right now, they were heavily reliant on Void for protection. Bee could handle things for a bit, but if the castle was ever attacked in force, she wouldn''t be able to do anything meaningful about it. She would probably escape, but she wouldn''t be able to get everyone out with her. As much as she trusted Void, she didn''t want to burden her master if she didn''t have to. Especially if it ever wanted to travel and leave the castle to itself for a bit. They couldn''t rely on divine intervention alone. She was pretty sure the reason they didn''t have more books on the undead was that this castle was focused on demon research. It also exined why they didn''t have some of the ingredients for the recipes she did find. So they were stuck with the basics for now. Bee continued to supervise Maranda for another hour. She was doing much better than Bee had when starting out, but she supposed having a teacher was useful. After an hour with almost no mistakes, Bee decided it was time for her to start taking over the whole process. She insisted that Marnada prepare everything ahead of time and double-check each ingredient as it was added. It should have produced a protest from the normally impatient Maranda, but she had her work face on and simply nodded, taking the task with the utmost seriousness. It made a sense of pride well in Bee''s chest. Meanwhile, Bee started on her own project. She kept an eye on her apprentice nheless, but so far, things were going alright. It would have been wonderful to continue working on some more advanced anti-undead alchemy, but that wasn''t her current focus. Instead, she was refining her acid. It was getting close where she could just feel Divine Alchemy affecting it, just barely enhancing it. Right on the border of a cleaning agent and a lethal weapon, the acid was unreasonably effective. Her work was really paying off. When she tested it out with a throwable sk against a broken chair, the acid ate through it with incredible speed. The hope was that it would work even better against an already rotting undead opponent. Please with the results of her research, Bee started filling sses that were designed to be thrown and break on contact. --- I watched as the gruff new men followed Tony. Mary had set up a separate dining room for them, and there was a hearty breakfast waiting on the tables. They fell upon it like staving members of Cliff''s family. I was a bit shocked by the mess, honestly. It was not as bad as the children, but these were grown adults, so I hadn''t expected it to be nearly this much. It shouldn''t have even beenparable. Tony didn''t seem bothered at all, though. He even joined in some of their conversations, though he didn''t eat more than a piece of toast. The conversation wasn''t nearly as serious as the one-sided affair I had with Mat just a few minutes ago. Instead, it seemed that every word out of their mouths was either a joke or an insult. Somehow though, no one got even the slightest bit angry, no matter how ruthlessly the others tore into them. Maybe this was some sort of humor I didn''t get? After studying them a bit longer, I still wasn''t sure. Though I had decided that it was a type of humor, it didn''t suit me very well. I didn''t think that I would try to work it into my own routines. Breakfast was a jolly time, but I could tell they were all avoiding a topic, even Tony. No one even whispered a word about what came next. There were many possibilities that I was aware of, but the implied oue based on their agreement with Beatrice yesterday was that they would leave. Breakfast wasn''t even part of the deal. Yet not one of them touched the topic at all. Eventually, it had toe to an end. When the door opened, I wasn''t surprised, though I was a little confused about who opened it. Susan gave me a respectful bow before turning to the group. All five of them were openly staring at her while Tony frowned into his steaming cup. Her eyes passed over the room, seemingly taking in every detail like one of my scans. There weren''t too many humans with that level of attention to detail, even from home. It helped her be diligent in cleaning even the deepest nooks and crannies of a tile floor. Her eyes lingered on Tony for a second until he looked up. They exchanged a quick nce before she continued her scan of the table''s upants while Tony frowned at the wall. Susan pulled out the one remaining chair from the table and positioned it at the head. Sitting down, shemanded all the attention in the room. "Well, we have a few things to talk about. Don''t we?" The men looked at each other, clearly not understanding. Their leader seemed to be a little more clued in, thankfully. More clued in than me. I was busyst night and hadn''t had time to keep tabs on any ns being made. "Look, I can guess that you were deserters from the siege of Caleb. I''m here to tell you we don''t really care." She said in a neutral tone, her piercing eyes pinning them all to their seats as they tensed. "We have an offer for you that you might like a little better than standing guard on the walls, besieged by the undead. Would you like to hear it?" The leader nodded slowly. "We aren''t in any rush to be anywhere, we can hear you out." Chapter 145: Careful What You Wish For Chapter 145: Careful What You Wish For Bee finally had brewed a dozen of her new acid attack potions. They weren''t perfected yet, but she only had limited ingredients and vials to work with. This was the best she could do without a lot more research and testing. The once seemingly inexhaustible store of supplies the castle housed was no longer so inexhaustible. Not that they would run out any time soon, but specific items were limited, and with her teaching Maranda they were draining faster than she would have liked. Of course, there were only the two of them working, which naturally was far less than a whole castle of mages working together. Still, all those mages didn''t have free rein and unlimited ess to materials like she did. Also, they had apparently received more regr shipments of certain things than she had been aware of. None of this was truly an issue for now; even if she kept using everything willy-nilly, they would have almost a year of runway by her best estimations. She was only considering the limitations because, with the creation of the council, she had started looking to the future a bit more clearly. If they wanted to continue to have ess to the alchemy products that they were quickly bing ustomed to, they would need to start figuring out how to rece them. This was where she was so d that she had saved as many animals and magical creatures as she had. They had fallen under Mary''s preview, but they were taken care of and well-fed. All that remained was for the collection process of their materials to resume. They didn''t even need nearly as high yield as the mages had aplished, either. With the undead around they were unlikely to be able to buy the other materials they couldnt produce just yet. But if the crown was able to get the gue under control, then maybe they could work out a deal with a merchant. The third and honestly most important source of some of the more magically potent ingredients was the real problem. Bee wasn''t sure how to handle it, but recently she had put the connection together. Those demons had been a source of valuable materials. While some were still around, Bee and Void had dispensed of the majority for safety reasons. It was a decision she didnt regret, but it still had real consequences. Summoning more demons was technically something that she wouldn''t have a problem with doing, skill-wise; even with the Lieutenant gone, she would be able to do it. It would just be slightly more difficult. No, for her, it was an ethical problem. Demons were dangerous, and every one she brought into this world represented a real threat. She supposed it was a littlete to worry about that, as she had technically been an apprentice demon summoner when she came to the college. But back then the castle wasn''t full of little kids, and there would have been a trained staff to take care of the creatures and any outbreaks. She supposed she could summon them, harvest them, then banish them. That would work for most of the ingredients. There was a reason that the mages hadnt done it that way, though. It was costly to summon demons, and sometimes they needed to be kept around for a bit to make back the initial investment of the summoning. That wasn''t even considering theponents that needed to mature in the mortal ne before they were ready to harvest. Maybe if she avoided summoning intelligent or sapient demons, it would be alright. The only thing they really needed for themonly used potions was a certain part of the lesser demons, and they wouldn''t even have to be banished; she could just kill them. Or maybe they could help people level by fighting captive demons? That sounded a little insane, but that was what Void had her do. And when she did it, she had no more than a cleaver as well. Under its careful watch, perhaps it wasnt so crazy? She would need to think about it. But the most potent healing potion she could make in a reasonable amount of time needed some rtively fresh parts of a lesser demon. They didn''t need it, but if someone got critically injured, it would be a shame if such a potion wasn''t avable. Also, she didn''t want to have to summon a demon for the first time when someone''s life was on the line, if it came down to it. Was she just trying to talk herself into it? Maybe, but she couldn''t deny her curiosity. Also, the leveling temptations were undeniable. Almost everyone in the castle could benefit from the arrangement in some way or another. Then again, maybe she was just getting greedy. Shaking her head, she decided that she would need to discuss this with Void and the council before doing anything about it. Coming out of her thoughts, she realized that Maranda had asked her something and was waiting for a response. "Sorry, what was that again?" "I asked how can I make sure my potion works? I just finished the first batch." Maranda said cheerily, holding up the correctly colored vial of liquid. ---- Susan hadn''tunched into an exnation right away, which slightly confused me. Instead, she had gathered a piece of toast and some eggs from the meager leftovers on the table before her. After pouring herself a drink, she took a few bites and washed them down with a long sip before speaking. "Well, I think we can help each other out a bit." Taking another bite, she chewed a bit longer than I thought should be necessary as she studied the five men. No one else seemed to notice the 10% longer chewing time, so I let it go. "I think it is obvious what we can offer you." She said with a subtle gesture to the food. "You need a ce to stay and walls to shelter behind. We have that." The men nodded slightly, except their leader, who kept a stoic expression. Did he not agree that they needed those things? At least the rest of them seemed to see sense. But then, why did we want them to stay anyway? "So the real question is: what can you do for us? I''ll be straight with you. We need people. People who might be able to spend some time out of safety and stille back in one piece." Susan said in a surprisingly casual tone. It was almost as if she didn''t really want to convince them to stay. I didn''t understand the logic of asking people who had run away previously to put themselves in more danger. Still, I watched as four of the men nodded. Only the leader didn''t look enthusiastic. "It''s one thing to stand on a wall and fight the enemy before you. And a totally different thing to wander in the wilderness when we don''t know where the enemy is at all." He had a point. They ran from standing safely on the wall. Susan, though, didn''t seem the slightest bit concerned by this. Leaning back in her chair, she studied the group. Her gaze only lingered on the leader for a few beats, and she spent most of the time concentrating on the rest of the men. The four of them did seem a lot more engaged than I would expect, if not exactly excited. "It is very different. But your situation would be very different as well. For one, you would have proper training this time. Not just a few days of drills with spears." She remarked while looking the leader in the eyes. I noticed that three of the men perked up at that. Only Mat and Ruach didn''t react to the offer. The leader made to speak, but one of his underlings leaned forward and cut him off in an eager voice. "What kinda trainin''?" I caught a small smile that Susan let slip through, but she suppressed it fast enough that I didn''t think that anyone else saw. "I, too, used to be in the King''s service. The Back Hand. I would train you." The reactions were mixed. I wasn''t sure why it was such a big deal that she would be training them. Wouldnt Beatrice be a better trainer? And what was the Back Hand anyways? No one said anything for a few moments; everyone was still, including Tony. Only Susan kept eating, not seeming to notice the tension she was causing. Eventually, the leader spoke up. "I guess it''s pretty obvious we are interested. Maybe we can get into specifics?" This time Susan didn''t even try to hide her smile. **** They had gone back and forth for quite a while, but in the end, it didn''t seem like they wanted too many different things. For the first time Susan was surprised. She had started insisting that they do at least two hours of training per day until she decided they were ready. The counteroffer was that they train for at least four hours. She blinked and told them they could train as long as they wanted, so long as they met her minimum. Though she wasn''t always going to be the one teaching them. So they started trying to get amitment from her to spend a certain amount of time with her each day. Eventually, they worked something out they were both happy with. Though I think they were starting to regret it. I watched them finish anotherp around the castle grounds. Susan had started by testing them. She had them do all sorts of strength and speed tests. When she didn''t seem happy with the results, they spent the rest of the day running. I had nned on giving the kids a day off from their own training, but they had found me anyway. Sure, it was a littleter than normal, but they still insisted that we do training. They were a little slower than normal today, and the bouts at the end received less attention than normal as the ones not fighting were watching the five men get yelled at by Susan. "Shes scary," One of the boys whispered to the girl sitting next to him. She nodded as their eyes tracked the form of Susan, her posture tall as she jogged backward in front of her trainees. In contrast, they were doubled over and panting as they struggled to keep up with her. The whole while, she peppered them with insults that didn''t repeat once. I had checked. Despite the bouts not receiving the normal attention, the participants were extra enthusiastic today. A few times, I had to quickly zip over to prevent anyone from getting hurt. After the 34thp, Beatrice came out and sat next to me. She had been spending the morning making potions with Maranda, so I hadn''t expected her to be out this early. "Master," she greeted me respectfully. "I see Susan managed to convince them to stay. If shes training them, I suppose she gets to keep them. Was the deal they struck satisfactory?" I told her that it was. Though I wanted to know Susan''s ns for them. Beatrice rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I will have her make a full report, n and training program for you to go over. But I think she wants them to be scouts. Theck of information about our surroundings is one of ourrger concerns at the moment. We know there is something big going on out there, but the only news of that is when someone newes to us. That isn''t very reliable or consistent. Also, we aren''t the easiest to find. With so much trouble out there, we should consider bringing more people in. We need the people and we have the space." Scouts? I guess that made sense. No wonder they needed to be fast. I beeped my appreciation. Beatrice had really been taking the leadership thing welltely. Good thing, too, since I definitely didnt want to do all this stuff. Things at the castle had finally started to settle down. I thought it was about time that we started to think about cleaning the neighboring areas as well. We were more than capable, and the town at the end of the road sure looked dirty thest time I was there. Chapter 146: Winter is Coming Chapter 146: Winter is Coming Bee looked on as Susan drilled their new members hard. She might have been a more demanding teacher than even Void, though she was definitely more hands-on. Void had just let Bee do her own thing while giving the asional instruction and acting as a safety. Susan, though, was giving very specific instructions. They learned how to use a bow and knives mostly, and she was very particr about their technique. She couldn''t say that the men were good yet. It took years to get really good with a bow. But after a few days, they were definitely able to hit the broad side of a barn now. If they had a few hundred more men like this, volleys of arrows would be a real asset. As it was, five arrows needed to be well ced to have much impact. They were doing much better with knives. Really what they needed, even more, was levels. Levels would fix all their issues. Higher dexterity and strength would let them get more proficient at their skills, and they might even get some rted system skills. It was just another reason she should consider summoning demons. The more she thought about it, the more she was certain that it was the right course of action. Still, she had yet to bring it up with Void or the council. Before she did, she wanted to be certain that she would be able to do it and would be able to harvest the demons properly. After a few days in the library, she was pretty certain she had a safe method. There was a lot of information there on the topic, being a demonologist library and all, so she was pretty confident. Taking a deep breath, she stood up and went to go find Void. *** Her master was in its room, sitting on its rug. She looked at the red thing. A little while ago, she had floated the idea of making a throne of some sort for it to rest on instead, but the idea had not gone over well. Maybe she could move the rug onto an elevated dais; it just wasn''t right to look down at Void like this all the time. Well, it didn''t seem to mind in the slightest, so maybe she shouldn''t, either. With a greeting bow, she sunk down on her knees before Void and greeted it properly. "Good afternoon, Master." It weed her in its odd way ofmunicating. She was still getting better at understanding it. The resonance in her mind whenever it spoke to her always seemed way too informal for her master. It was either dumbing down its message for her, or she was just incapable of grasping its full words. Still, she tried, and the voice came through clearer each day. She was about to tell it why she was there, but before she could, it spoke again. It told her that it had a gift for her. A gift? What had she done to deserve such consideration from Void? She was not worthy, but she couldn''t deny it. In all honesty, she had been slightly jealous of the children all getting finely crafted practice weapons from Void. Often she would have to look at the broom to remind herself that she was still valued. It was hard for her to reconcile these two instincts, but she was able to set aside her conflicting thoughts to focus on her master. While she had been thinking, it had produced a thin and long piece of off-white fabric. With its arm, it extended it toward her. Her hand trembled as she reached out to take the cloth. Examining the piece in her hands, it looked like a scarf. It was clearly made of wool, slightly lumpy in a few ces. It was still rather soft, though, and didn''t cause the itchy sensation that many pieces of wool clothing did. Bowing low, she grinned widely. "Thank you, master!" She eximed. She truly had received a gift. Her master was far too generous. Perhaps it had understood how distant she had felt from ittely? Bee couldn''t help the warm feeling that came with the idea of Void caring so much. As for why it had given her a scarf, she had no idea. Maybe winter was going to be colder than usual this year? If that were the case, then they might need to prepare more winter clothes than they already had. Void continued to watch her, and she could almost feel the expectation rolling off of it. Righting herself, she carefully wound the scarf around her neck. It fit her quite well, the tails running down the perfect length for her torso. Of course, it was hard to make a scarf not fit well, but still, it showed extra care. She smiled at the gift she had received. Remembering why she hade here, she regathered her thoughts. "Master, I had an idea. It''s a little dangerous, but I think it''s worth the risk." Void waited impassively for her to continue. Swallowing, she did. "For a few reasons, I think we should start summoning demons again." Bee paused again, waiting for some protests, but Void beeped a simple question. It wanted to know why they would bring the mess makers back into the castle. She was sure there were many hidden meanings and intonations she wasn''t capable of understanding beneath that. For example, something like a mess maker must have been her mind trying to trante Void''s word for demons into something that she could grasp. "Well, the mages that were here before us had them here for a reason. They were both studying them and using them to harvest alchemy ingredients. I don''t think we need to study them, but we will need some of the ingredients that we can only get through the demons. The second reason is that I think we can use them for training. "Because we aren''t studying them, most of the ones we summon, we don''t need to keep them very long. Either we spend the effort to dismiss them via the ritual, or we just kill them. If we kill them, then we can gain levels as well. The danger is mostly if we bring something in that is stronger than we expected. Then whoever is trying to level could get hurt. Of course, I won''t do this without your permission and will always let you know ahead of time. "And if I could, I would ask to wait until you have time to be nearby so that you might step in before things get out of control." Bee finished her pitch. She didn''t think it was the most convincing. But that wasn''t her goal. Void would make the right choice, so the best thing she could do was give her master all the information rather than try and deceive or sway it. Trusting someone that much normally would have been hard for her, but Void had long since earned it. Void twisted back and forth slightly on the rug. She didn''t take that for a rejection of her idea, but it seemed like it was considering her proposition. --- Harold watched as the undead mass surged toward the gates of Caleb. Some strange magic or skill had seized the defenders, and the countermeasures weren''t deployed as he expected. Something must be going terribly wrong. He had never seen troops under Arthur''smand be so unprepared. They only managed a single volley of arrows before it was toote. When the undead reached the top of the wall, the defenders started to move, but they seemed slow and confused. Their position was soon overrun. Signals all over the city started ring; Harold could see the gs going up and down. Soon reinforcements were rushing to assist; the battle intensified as the undead poured up the wall. As they approached, the battle raged. The mages Harold had with him watched it impassively. He wasn''t sure if it was because they were inocted to the sight of so much death or if they werementing the waste of so many curious subjects to study. Their escort of soldiers reacted a bit more naturally. Unfortunately, they weren''t able to act on their desire to assist their allies. The fifty of them could only charge at the back of the undead army, and with the numbers sitting outside the city, the front wouldn''t even notice the impact in the rear before the men were all cut down. They paused on the hill. Still, the undead hadn''t noticed them in the cover of the trees. Watching the battle unfold, they did their best to stay hidden. One of the city scouts had found them and led them this back way, keeping them hidden. So far, they hadn''t needed to tangle with the undead at all. Harold wanted to keep it that way. He still hadn''t forgotten hisst encounter with them and had no desire to repeat that asion. Once the position on the wall had stabilized, a horn sounded, and the gates began to open, forcing the undead away. This was a risky maneuver as many of the undead surged forward to try and get through. Before they made much progress, though, the hoof falls of heavy cavalry shook the ground, and they came charging out of the gate. The scout raised his horn to his lips and blew a response. Harold wasn''t sure if this was nned or if they were just taking advantage of the opening, but it seemed that this would be his party''s best chance to make it into the city. The raiders'' momentum squashed the undead and drove them away. Surprisingly, the undead started to move back rather than trying to bring down the horses. This told Harold something was controlling the horde, as that was not at all how normal undead acted. The fact that they were holding a siege itself was rather odd too. He didn''t have much of a chance to think about it as the scout and the escort were leading them in a charge aiming right where the heavy cavalry wasing from. The timing was just slightly off. It was all Harold could do to stay in the saddle as they smashed into the back ranks of zombies. The undead were not prepared, so they plowed through them for a bit until suddenly, the heavy cavalry was splitting around them. The group of mages didn''t stop moving as they hurtled down the path the cavalry had carved. As they rode, Harold regained his senses. Reaching into his robes, he pulled out vial after vial of anti-undead measures they had prepared and hurled them in all directions, trying to keep the path clear. The other mages caught on to what he was doing and followed suit. Before he knew it, they were at the gates. As they passed through the narrow opening, he looked behind and saw the heavy cavalry blocking the path. Once they had punched out the back of the force, they continued for a little bit before turning around and diving in behind. The anti-undead measures had mostly held up, and even if the mounts were getting tired, it didn''t show as in only a few moments. They were following them through the gate. The second the door gate closed behind them, Harold swung down from his horse and looked for an officer. He and Arthur had a lot to talk about. Chapter 147: Demonic Pact Chapter 147: Demonic Pact I was still reeling from Beatrice''s suggestion that we intentionally bring mess makers into the castle. The very thought of it made me squirm with difort. The horrors! As scandalous as it first seemed though, I did see her point. Working on ridding the world of mess makers was a noble goal, and it sounded like we could give our people a safe way to gainbat experience along the way. But still, mess makers? Was it really necessary? I thought back to the dirty town just outside our valley. That was the closest ce where we would be able to send people for experience, and it didn''t seem very safe. Of course, mess makers had clearly made it there. They might have been the same mess makers that we were about to summon, so maybe we could right this injustice. Also, removing the mess makers before they could do more evil might be worth it. I realized that Beatrice was still waiting for a response. Steeling my resolve, I gave my agreement with her n. I watched her tense up as I told her we could start thinking about moving forward. I was d to see that she was taking this seriously. Still, I followed up with more details. We could only do this if we were absolutely certain it was safe. That meant we needed to make sure the ce we were in was perfectly sealed, the magic circles were wless, and we had apletely overwhelming force to take care of whatever we summoned each time we did it. I would not ept the significant risk that another mess maker would escape into our castle after it had gone through so much. Beatrice nodded enthusiastically, conviction written all over her face. "Before we do anything I will talk about it with the rest of the council and make sure everything is prepared. I will also let you know, of course." That was fine with me. Now that the troubling part was over, I audited the scarf I had made. It looked as good on her as I had thought it would. It wasn''t as perfectly straight as I would have liked, but at least the pattern was consistent. I had given up on making it perfect. I would need a lot more practice for that, and this was still perfectly functional. We chatted for a few more minutes before she left. Now alone, I sunk my awareness into the void within me. There were still so many things I needed to work on. My void maniption had been progressing nicely. The scarf had been really good practice, but I was starting to notice diminishing returns. My meditations had been pleasant, but I was starting to lose track of what I was supposed to be getting from it. Just practicing was effective for most of my training. Once I mastered the basics of Void maniption, I didn''t need to be in a trance to enter it anymore. Deciding I needed to focus on something else, I checked around the castle. Oh, that was interesting. I noticed a small change outside. I rolled out the door and made my way to the castle exit. Lifting off, I floated over to the little copse of trees that Cliff had made her home in. There, as expected, I found Tanu. What I didn''t expect was Felix and one of the smaller girls to be apanying him. They and Cliff were eyeing each other cautiously, but not threateningly. As that scene yed out, I also took in the more reasonably sized dogs that hade with Cliff. It had been several days since I hadst looked at them, and they were now a little less reasonably sized. Maybe they weren''t even full dogs yet? If they were still growing, maybe these were the pups that I had heard about. Felix finally started talking, so I listened back in. "Tanu, um Can we y with the cubs for a bit? Just a lil while, if its ok! I mean, if Cliff doesn''t mind of course." Cliff was standing very still, but wasn''t showing her fangs or anything. Still, seeing that she weighed far more than the three kids put together, I understood their hesitation. Tanu shrugged. "Not sure. I''ll ask." Leaning on Cliff''s shoulder, he started to whisper in her ear. I could make out the sounds, but they didn''t sound like anything I had ever heard before. Cliff didn''t make any sounds, but she flicked an ear and shifted a bit. Tanu smiled. "She says s okay if youre gentle and keep em where she can see em. They aren''t ready to rough house yet. Once theyre a bit bigger we can learn t hunt together tho!" The little girl let out a squeal of delight and ran over to where the pups were piled up. Cliff stiffened slightly at the outburst, but the first pup stood to greet the girl. It jumped up, colliding with her chest paws first. That halted her rush and sent her straight to the ground. Instantly, the pup was sitting on her chest and licking her face. I saw Cliff rx slightly as she realized there was no threat, even as she continued keeping a close watch. Soon enough, Felix helped the girl up and weed another pup to his ownp. The little dogs jockeyed for attention and wiggled constantly, their tongues constantly working. I wasn''t sure how I felt about that; in some sense, they were cleaning. But they were also getting saliva everywhere. What a conundrum. Tanu soon joined them. Cliff finally seemed to be at ease, convinced that the little ones were in no danger. She padded over to me andid down with a small whine, and we both watched over our charges having a great time. --- Bee was deep in thought as she left Voids sanctum. ns ran through her head, each one getting tossed out as soon as it was made. As much as she tried to think of alternatives, it kepting back to the same thing. They would need to use the grand hall. It was the only room that wasrge enough for the security measures she nned and secure enough to deal with something getting out of hand. Also, if something managed to get out against all odds, there was an easy path for them to get it outside without damage to the castle. It was going to take a lot of effort, but she was hopeful that it would be worth it. The only thing left was to get agreement from everyone else. Since Void had already agreed to the n, that should be a formality, but maybe they would have other ideas to contribute. At the very least they needed to be informed. First, she would talk to Susan. She was the most likely to have other input and also the most likely to agree with the proposal. Her recruits needed the training; there was only so much exercise and drills they could do, and eventually, they would need some real practice. The kind that was up to her exacting standards, too. She found her target in the courtyard overseeingbat drills. Surprisingly, it wasn''t just Ruarch and his men. A few of the older children were off to the side, doing their best to imitate the workout. Of course, they didn''t have the age or levels to really keep up, but they were trying. When Bee walked up, Susan called a halt to the exercise. The men practically copsed with relief, and they all just sat on the ground with worn-out looks on their faces. "Looks like you want to talk, Bee." Susan said, leading them a little out of the way so they could have some privacy. "Yeah, just a couple things." Bee said. "How would you like to get some live targets for your trainees?" "Hmm, they can spar amongst themselves well enough. We don''t really need them, but more partners are always good. What did you have in mind?" Bee smiled; it seemed that Susan had misinterpreted her words. So her spy powers only went so far in discerning the true meaning of words. Unless she was just cating her? "No, no. I mean live ones, ones that they can kill for experience and have a real fight with." "Oh? That is more interesting." Susan mused. "What level are we talking about here? They don''t really need levels, but they could do with livebat. Their technical skills aregging behind their levels right now. Most of the levels they got were from fighting the undead, and they did that from a distance, mostly throwing rocks from walls. Some of it was even gained from the assist of just bringing the rocks up to people who threw them." That was amon enough issue. Often, those with middling levels didn''t really earn them and were barely worth someone half their level who actually knew how to fight. Bee had feared she was like that, but apparently, she had more directbat experience than most. She figured that she was likely a little overleveled too, but there was no one here even close enough to her level with actualbat experience to test it. Susan was the closest. Bee was sure that all 29 of her levels were hard-earned. Being too high-leveled would make her stand out, and that wouldn''t help the former spy, so she had probably actively avoided leveling quite a bit. Even with Scan being incredibly rare, it was hard to hide your strength and reactions after a certain point. "Well then, this might be less useful for you than I thought then." Bee said, slightly put out by it. "I just finished speaking with Void about it and he thought it had merit. I n to summon some demons to harvest them for alchemy ingredients. They would be pretty low level. Especially at first. And I''m not going to be getting much from disposing of them. So maybe we can funnel the experience to someone who could use it." Susan looked a little surprised. "Demons? Are you sure thats safe?" "No, demons are never safe, but I think the risk is eptable." Bee replied. "Well, I think we can find a lot of people who would want a chance at getting levels in a controlled environment, but I don''t know how many will want to start fighting demons." Susan said with a thoughtful look. "I started fighting these things before I even got my first skill. At least the ones I n to start with." Bee said. "I think they were doable." "You were fighting demons before you got a level!?" Susan eximed, giving her an appraising look. "How old are you anyways? 15?" "I''ll be 14 in a few months!" Bee huffed defensively. Though she did feel a little proud. This was the first time someone thought she was older than she was. New Story Announcement New Story Announcement Hey all! I think this is the first time I have made an announcement chapter separate before, but this felt like it was worth it. For the first time in over half a year I started a new story. This is something new I am trying. It''s on the more serious side, though a bit of the ridiculousness of this one slipped in a few ces too. I think it works. The story is Juggernaut of Abdiel. It follows a small town sheriff''s quest for revenge in a strange hub-world full of magic, dungeons, and strange gods. It''s also a lot more harsh than All the Dust that Falls so it might not be for everyone, but I hope you will give it a look! Anyways if you could pop over there and leave a follow, give it a reading and rating, it would really help a lot, thanks! Chapter 148: Big Game Hunting Chapter 148: Big Game Hunting Bee waited at the table as the other members of the council trickled in for their meeting. Susan was the first toe in, and she shot Bee a worried look. The spy was the only one who knew what they would be discussing today. Bee thought she would have been a lot more on board with her idea. But even after an hour of going back and forth about the benefits and risks, she was still only lukewarm. This didn''t give her a lot of hope for the others. Still, she had Void on her side, and that counted for a lot. If she hadn''t talked to her master first, she doubted she would have even gotten the tentative agreement from Susan that she did. The next was Tony. He came in and plopped down in a chair. "We should start having refreshments and snacks during these." "We literally just ate dinner." Bee chastised him with a shake of her head. "I don''t know how you can still be hungry." "I''m not hungry," Tony corrected, leaning back in his chair. "I just like having something to do with my hands." "In political circles, a lot of meetings like this would have wine." Susan put in. "Though it was less about the refreshments and adding another method to read people. But since this is with the same people all the time, and were allied, it''s less useful." Bee shuddered at the thought of this meeting bing like that. She imagined the meetings Susan was talking about were a more intense version of her father''s business meetings. If these meetings ever became like this, then she hoped Void would step in. The thought of each of them only thinking about personal profit, leaving any benefit to the organization as a happy coincidence, made her ufortable to say the least. That sort of scheming was just part of governing, ording to her father. Well, the existing churches might act like that, but their gods were far removed, and Bee doubted they knew or cared what was going on with their followers. Her god, though, was right here. If she couldn''t prevent the corruption from infesting The Church of the Cleansing Void, then she could only hope that Void would. Trent and Mary came in together. They filled thest couple of chairs. A small round of small talk finished up before they got down to the issue. Bee had learned a few things while talking to Susan, and she hoped this time her pitch would go a little better. "So. I wanted to talk about a couple problems that I think we need to solve in the mid to long term. Unless we have anything else that requires immediate attention?" She looked around as Susan, Tony, and Mary shook their heads. Trent cleared his throat. "Actually I wanted to ask. Susan, you think I can borrow your trainees tomorrow? I promise itll be good work for building strength." Susan looked thoughtful for a second before nodding. "As long as you work them hard." "Won''t be a problem." They shared a smile before falling quiet. Bee looked around, and it seemed no one else had anything. "Okay, so there are two things. The more pressing one is that most of our people are underleveled. Susan and I are really the only ones with a high level. I am currently level 40. This is about equal to an old veteran in the military or a seasoned adventurer, but I don''t have nearly as muchbat experience as them. Other than Void, I am the highest level person in the castle. Next is Susan, and if I''m not mistaken she isn''t really a fighter." "Recently I hit level 30. But Bee is right. My skills are more for infiltration and stealth. I know enough to handle myself, but I wouldn''t go against a level 30 pure fighter in a fair fight. Maybe level 24." Susan said. "I can train people decently well, but I''m really just mimicking instructors I had." "Do we really need to worry about that now?" Tony asked. "It''s a long process, but I''m also not low leveled. Besides, we have Void." "Not that we can''t count on Void, but if we can''t protect ourselves then thats an issue. That would mean its pretty much trapped here. I don''t think that''s fair to Void." Bee said. "Also, when ites to spreading the word things will get much harder. A perfect example was when Void went to Greg. It took over a week to bring everyone back, and during that time I wasn''t around the castle the whole time. If we need to go on another rescue, well be really limited" Mary looked thoughtful. "I agree this is a problem, but there isn''t really a quick solution for it, no? It takes a long time to level if an old veteran of the military only gets to around 40 or so." "Let''s talk about solutions in a second," Bee cut off the brewing discussion. "I think the next problem might help us out a bit with it." This got everyone''s attention, so she continued. "The second problem is the alchemy ingredients. I don''t foresee this bing a pressing issue for a few months, but if that happens, it might be toote to fix it. "The mages had a lot of stores. Anything that can be preserved, we have a decent amount of. Anything that needs to be fresh is an issue right now, but not a huge one, as many of the animals survived. Hopefully, we can trade for many of the things we need in the spring. But some things need time to prepare, so if we run out, then we won''t have more for a very long time. "If we run out of even one of a few ingredients, then we won''t have healing potions, undead cures, orbat potions. Or a lot of other things weve gotten used to. The mages collected a lot of the ingredients themselves, and Mary''s team has done a good job caring for a lot of the animals that we need. "Unfortunately, thats not enough. Bee sighed. There are reasons why the potions I make here arent supermon elsewhere. Its not just because they are hard to make, but because the ingredients are usually rare. We got lucky that this was the demonology college. Many of the improvements they made to magic had to do with demon partsincluding the healing potions. "So, if we want to rece the ingredients weve used, we need to summon lesser demons then harvest them-" Bee wanted to continue, but the mutters that filled the room cut her off. "That sounds a bit dangerous." Trent said in a mild voice. "It could be, but honestly the danger is more from long term storage of the demons." Bee said quickly, wanting to finish the pitch she had been practicing. "Most of the stuff we need can be gotten from just killing the demon right away. All of the basic stuff." "So you think we can level people and get ingredients at the same time?" Tony said with a smile. "I like it!" Bee returned the smile with one of her own, but before she had a chance to respond, Trent cut in. "I still think it sounds a bit dangerous. I suppose as long as youre there to make sure nothing goes wrong..." Wincing, Bee had they could avoid this topic for now. "Well, I''ll be the one summoning them so I might be a bit distracted. But, but, Void wants to be there whenever a summoning happens, so we should be okay." "Hold on, Void is already on board with this?" Mary asked. "I talked to Void first. I wouldn''t want to take this any further without the master''s permission." Bee said. "Okay, then we should be talking about logistics then," Tony said as Trent nodded. Bee and Susan shared a confused look. She was d they were so trusting of Void, but she figured that this would be a bit more contentious. "Sure, I mean, if everyone is agreed?" Bee looked around the table and received four nods of approval. "Ok then, I''m going to have to spend a bit of time nning out the circles, but it should be pretty simple. I''m going to summon a lesser demon. They don''t have a very high level. It was from killing them that I got my first several levels." Bee was pretty sure that the first level had been from an ash imp and other things Void had technically defeated, and she just got some credit for. But she did remember her cleaver. Where did that go anyways? "So who do you rmend we do?" Susan asked. "I think we can start with Tony." Bee said. "I think hes the highest level who would still benefit from fighting one. That would be a good test. Then maybe we can have your group give it a try?" "Why start with just Tony? We don''t need just one person, right?" Mary said, concern for her eldest son breaking through. "No, but I think Tony won''t have any problems." Bee said, "Hes getting pretty close to his ss specialization, and hisbat abilities should be enough." "Yeah, trust me mom. I got this." Tony reassured her with a cocky smile. "I agree with Mary," Susan said. "Why risk it the first time?" "Well it''s not exactly the first time now is it?" Bee shrugged. Tony had faced the Lieutenant with her. Surely a minor demon wouldnt be a problem. --- After dinner, I found Cliff waiting by the gate again. This time though, she had Tanu with her. If she was going to hunt, I didn''t think she really should be bringing the little boy with her. I asked her and Tanu what they were doing out here. "Uh, I dunno really. She wanted me t be here with her. I''m not good ''nuff at talkin to her to figger it out tho." Tanu exined, his own confusion evident. Hmmm, should I let hime with us anyway? I didn''t think that would be very safe. I told Tanu that I thought Cliff wanted to go hunting and he should probably stay here. "Okay." Tanu replied, looking absolutely dejected. He started scratching Cliff''s ruff while I winched the gate open. Once I got it all the way open, I expected Cliff to slip out like she had before. Instead, she just sat there, waiting. I floated out and turned around, waiting for her toe. She stood up and took a few steps toward me, then she craned her head over her shoulder to look at Tanu. When he didn''t follow her, she let out a short whine followed by a soft but audible exhale. Cliff took a couple more steps toward me. She turned and sat, watching Tanu as he went to lower the gate behind us, but as it started going down she darted back inside. This time, she nudged Tanu''s back hard enough to make him stumble toward the opening. He turned to give me a pleading look. "Void, ya sure I can''te too?" he pleaded. I told him Cliff was very fast, and I didn''t think he would be able to keep up. To which he responded. "I dun think shell leave me behind. Please, please can Ie?" The kid held his hands pressed together in front of him. How could I say no? If Cliff and I went a bit slower, I was sure we would be able to keep an eye on him. Chapter 149: Welcome to Summoner’s Rift Chapter 149: Wee to Summoners Rift Cliff and I navigated through the woods casually as Tanu huffed along behind us. It did seem a bit unfair how much easier this was for me than Tanu, but there wasn''t much I could do about the length of his legs. For now, he would just have to bear it. We had started off at a jog, but Cliff soon figured out that wasn''t going to work. Not only was the kid way slower than us, but he wasn''t exactly sneaky. asionally he would ask Cliff a question of some sort and receive a short snuffling reply. Then his face would look extra determined as he focused on cing his feet more softly or avoiding sticks. Aside from that, though, we continued on in "silence." It was all to marginal effect, though, as his breathing was just loud. Also, the scent he gave off was very distinctly out of ce in the forest. The forest was much darker and more still than I remembered. The moon was covered by clouds, meaning that even the low-wattage light it emitted was absent. In some ways, that was helpful since it made us harder to spot. But it also made Tanu trip on practically everything. As for the stillness, I supposed that was because everything in the vicinity could hear using. I couldn''t really me Tanu for that, though. He didn''t nearly have the same precision of movement as Cliff did. Luckily, Cliff was very patient and didn''t seem concerned at all by theplete absence of prey. With that information, I had to assume that she didn''t really n this as a true hunting trip. That made her insistence on bringing Tanu along make slightly more sense, but I still didn''t get the full reasoning. Perhaps she was training him like I trained Beatrice? If so, Tanu needed a lot of basic training. The time I spent wearing out the children should have given him enough energy, but apparently, there was only so much energy that his still-developing batteries could store. The walk through the forest continued for a while before we eventually circled all the way back to the castle entrance,pletely empty-handed. Tanu was really starting to g. Cliff had tried to pick him up by the back of his neck and carry him home. That hadn''t gone well, though, so he was pretty much draped over her back as we returned through the gate. When we got back, we found Talia nervously pacing in front of the gate. When she saw the limp form of her son, she rushed over and frantically checked him over. Tanu had recovered enough by then that he woke up and started fending her off groggily. Eventually, she was satisfied that her child was unharmed, so she turned to me. "Thank you for bringing my baby home again!" Following up her statement with a deep bow, I wasn''t sure how to respond. That was exactly what had happened, I supposed, but I don''t think that was really what she meant. Still, I had gained enough social awareness that it was probably for the best if I didn''t correct her misunderstanding. Perhaps in the future, I would let her know before Tanu went outside again. Yeah. That would be a good idea. - Bee knelt on the cushion near the center of the grand hall. It had been a focused couple of weeks. She had pretty much put all her duties on hold to prepare for the first summoning. The only thing she had kept up was her daily sermons, and those were only an hour. It helped that she didn''t have to prepare for them or anything. Everyone would just gather and listen to her tell stories of the times before when it was just her and Void. So far, she hadn''t needed to repeat herself, but there were a few stories she kept going back to reference. Her first meeting with the god always yed well with new arrivals. The new batch of soldiers had been skeptical at first, but then they saw Void cutting stones into perfect bricks with the power of light. The first group of soldiers had done a good job helping to convince them as well. Tony and Susan had done a good job integrating the new recruits into their training program. They were making good progress. The motley band of twelve soldiers was even starting to integrate with the rest of the castle. There had been a few mishaps, but the leaders of each group stepped so hard on any improper activities that the castle leadership hadn''t had to step in yet. The biggest problem was preventing the kids from learning how to dice. It wasn''t even that big of a problem, all things considered. The children were all very shy in the beginning and would barely speak to the men. Now though, they were slowlying out of their shells and would asionally hide behind Tony''s or Susan''s legs to watch them. Bee forced her mind to stop wandering and focus back on the task at hand. She nced around at the audience before checking and rechecking all her lines. The lines she had spent thest week nning and thest couple of hours painstakingly tracing with salt. Across from the rings sat her master. Void had been quite focused on the summoning, spending a lot of time watching her preparations. It left her to her own devices, though, so she couldn''t help but feel this was some sort of test. Besides Void, only Tony was close by. Everyone else was near the door, ready to run if things got out of hand. Finally satisfied that everything was in ce, Bee started the chant. The unfamiliar words were hard to pronounce as they forced her mouth into movements she had never done before. Yet her practice paid off and helped her to maneuver through theplex patterns. What poured out of her mouth was nothing that could be considered from this world. Even if she had wanted to stop, she couldn''t now. The words no longer flowed out of her; they were violently yanked. She felt like she had lost control of her own mouth as the words continued to pour out endlessly. Slowly, the salt lines and other alchemical materials began to glow as the umted power and magic soaked into them. In a swirl of crackling purple light, something started to take shape in the center of the circle. The symbols she had drawn red brightly. Finally, the force that had taken control of her voice was released. She slumped to the floor,pletely worn out. It was as if she had just spent the entire day fighting demons rather than a few minutes simply speaking. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open and watch the fuzzy ck shape at the center of the circle as it looked around. Was it really that blurry, or was that just her eyes? That question was thest thing that passed through her mind before she fell sideways, and everything went ck. I watched as the familiar shape of one of the lesser mess makers coalesced in the circle of dirt. Hopefully, it wouldn''t mess up Beatrice''s careful work - though I still wasn''t fond of the idea of intentional mess-making, I could admit the symbols had an aesthetic beauty. Plus, she really had worked hard on it. I had watched as she had spent days learning about it. Apparently, it wasn''t enough to just copy it from the book, either. At least, she hadn''t thought so. She had painstakingly studied to understand enough about the way the symbols worked, endlessly poring over books to make sure that each line was in the correct ce. I was very impressed with her dedication to such a task. I stuck with her and took note of the passages as well because I wanted to make sure that this was done correctly. Sometimes I even neglected my other duties to be with her. Despite all my time and significantly improved processing speed, though, I wasn''t able to reach the same level of understanding as she had. Sure, I was able to store the images in my memory banks more efficiently. This let me point out when she had made mistakes in her practice. But I had no understanding, not like she did. That was okay for now, I thought. I might have to spend more time on itter if this continues to be important. But for now, I would trust Beatrice and the books. I would just be there to clean up any mess they made. It seemed that right now, it wasn''t necessary. The ck hairy ape creature bared its fangs and charged at Beatrice, but a magical wall of energy red up and mmed it back to the center of the circle. My human hadn''t flinched from where shey on the ground, even though most of the people watching from near the entrance behind her had jerked back in surprise. Checking over her, she seemed just fine. She was simply recharging. Tony stepped forward from off to the side. With careful steps, he picked his way through the tangle of salt. A single disturbance would let the demon get out of the circle. While I was here to step in if I needed to, the point of this test was for him to kill it alone. To that end, he was equipped a little differently than normal. Tony normally carried the metal rod that was used to open and close the gates. It had been a kind of improvised tool when he first followed Beatrice and me out of the castle, but he had yet to find a recement. So he had just kept it. Now though the narrow club was heavy and worked great against the undead, but the blunt force was less effective here. So Beatrice had lent him her broom. I was torn about this. On one side, it was great to see him wielding a proper weapon. On the other, it was Beatrice''s. It was fine if she wanted to share, I supposed, but I had made it for her. The dimensions were customized to her size and speed. Tony was a lotrger and slower. If he was going to learn how to use a broom properly, I would have to make him one of his own. His needed to be much longer, and I supposed I would make it heavier too. That would work well with his previous weapon, and he should feel morefortable. As it was, the broom looked more like a toy in his hand. Once Tony had made it through the defensive barrier, he and the demon sized each other up. Tony made the first move. It was a simple thrust, but the demon didn''t have much space to maneuver as the walls that blocked it just didn''t exist for Tony. The demon rolled to the side under the thrust, but a pulse of energy threw it back toward the center. Tony shed across its chest with a sharp twist of his extended weapon. ckish blood started dripping down its chest, but the creature didn''t slow down. It regained its feet and scrambled toward Tony. Reversing the broom, the human swatted at it with the bristled end. It buffeted the charging demon but did nothing to stop its advance. I cheered as the two went at it. Tony was handling himself so well, even with that little broom. Maybe I should make the bristles on his out of metal? That might give it more stopping power. But then, maybe they would scratch up the floors more Perhaps there was a way to reinforce them while still keeping them soft? The demon grabbed onto Tony''s broom, trying to wrestle it away from him. He stumbled forward slightly, scrambling to keep his feet away from the precise lines on the floor. Luckily, he avoided each one by centimeters. wsshed out at his arm, but a quick twist of the broom brought the pointy end up to intercept them. I hummed slightly as I considered the problem. Broom design hadn''t been iterated on for ages, probably. It was already a perfect tool. But even its most esteemed inventors hadn''t foreseen the needs of this strange ce. Truly, I''d be breaking new ground here. Tony narrowly avoided the demon''stest charge by hopping back out of the circle and watching it crash against the wall again. He took a few moments to catch his breath, circling around the enclosure. The angry mess maker snarled back and kept pace. After an exceptionally deep breath, he made a thrust with the broom to make space for his re-entry. The two shed once more. Sure, my prototype broom had worked well against the skeletons, and I bet it would have performed well enough on the earth demons too, but not every enemy was that light. Yeah. I would have to design it a bit differently. Maybe I could redesign Beatrice''s as well. I took notes about Tony''s fighting form and felt my processors whir with ideas. Chapter 150: Paladin of Spot Chapter 150: Pdin of Spot Bee slowly regained consciousness. She felt groggy like she had just awoken from a long nap, even though it must have only been a few moments after she passed out. The energy the ritual had taken from her was a lot more potent than she had expected. Her head pounded with a constant insistence that she not move or open her eyes. Ignoring her body''s warnings, she looked around anyway. Light seared into the front of her brain as it tried to process the inputs. She had to close her lids for a second to stabilize herself before trying again. Things were slightly blurry, but she was starting to be able to make shapes out. Blinking a few more times, she realized that she was watching Tony and the lesser demon go at it. Race: Demon, Type: Lesser Demon, Level: 12, Strong stat: Strength, Weak Stat: Wisdom As she watched, she realized that a lot of their ns were going to have to change. Despite the creature being several levels below Tony, they were evenly matched. And that was with him taking full advantage of the demon''s imprisonment. They were going to have to find an easier way to help people level up. It was a pity that there weren''t any more skeletons down in the catbs for them to fight. Her first few fights may have been against these, but the skeletons were when she really came into her own. Unlike demons, undead required a dead body to form, so she wasn''t about to get any more skeletons anytime soon. At least, she hoped not. If they had just left them alone, they might have put themselves back together, but Void had consumed all of them. Well, the lesser demons weren''t her first fight either technically that had been with the imp. It wasn''t exactly a memory she looked on fondly, but she wasn''t in the greatest headspace at the time, so it wasn''t exactly representative. Of course, she wasn''t about to break the expensive lighting of the castle just to get people training. Still, maybe starting with a lesser demon was reaching a bit too far. Maybe she could summon more imps? Ash imps were a bit more dangerous, and she didn''t want to risk burning the castle down, but some other kind of imp maybe Even the children might be able to face a grass imp as a team And the adults could get some practice against the more powerful variations before they tried against lesser demons again. Tony finallynded a good blow, piercing the demon in the stomach right under its rib cage. Levering herself back upright, Bee inspected the circle for any imperfections. Scaling it up from the rmended size for there to be enough room for a fight had likely been the cause of the increased power draw. She might have to actually change theposition of the circle in the future. Experimenting like this for her very first demon summoning probably wasn''t her best idea. Maybe with a little more practice, she would be able to do it more easily. Still, it would take a while. It was a good thing they started this process now, or else they would have really been in trouble with getting those demon parts. Tony was holding the broom by the bristles, leaning on it heavily. The de was pierced through the demon, pinning it to the ground. It thrashed viciously, but the weight of Tony was just too much. Slowing, it eventually stilled. Once Tony gave her a thumbs-up with a tired smile, she stood and walked over. "How was that?" Bee asked. "A lot harder than I was expecting. I can''t believe you were fighting these before level ten." Tony sounded tired, but soon enough, he brightened. "But hey, it pushed me over the edge to level 25!" "Contrats," Bee said, reaching up to smack his shoulder. "What did you get?" "Two options, priest and pdin," Tony said. "That is what I got too. The third option was Heretic. I suppose if you switch to the devotee of spot ss you won''t get that option." Bee said. "Which one are you going to go with?" "Probably Pdin of Spot. I''m just not the priest type." Tony said. "Reading just isn''t as fun as you made it out to be." "Well, if you''re a pdin then you need to get better at hitting things." "Yeah, I think the broom just isn''t for me. Maybe I can find a nice warhammer and a shield." Tony said. Bee just nodded; they would figure it outter. For now, they turned to face the audience by the door. Most of the adults were there, even if the children technically hadn''t been allowed to watch. --- As Beatrice and Tony talked with Susan and her recruits, I busied myself with cleaning up after the summoning. I moved the demon''s body onto a canvas sheet we had prepared for this exact purpose earlier. Later we would move it to one of thebs where Beatrice and Marnada would harvest it for parts. Beyond that, there were still all the lines of salt to sweep up. As I traced the intricate lines of the circles of powder, I remembered when I first came to this world. I, too, was surrounded by symbols with an 81% simrity profile to these. I wondered why? I had been sent here to practice my cleaning. Perhaps the demons were sent to make messes? No, that didn''t make sense. The only messes humans seemed to be okay with were the ones they made themselves. Though I wouldn''t have put it past the old inhabitants of this castle to be so shortsighted. Plus, Beatrice had much better reasons for this summoning. Maybe there was some simrity in the transport mechanism rather than the motivation? I had never seen a demon in myfortable house before, though, so we certainly weren''ting from the same ce. I would have to think about thister. Either way, it was a good thing that my humans sent me here to clean up. I have gotten a lot better at it since then. Consuming the salt gave me an excellent chance to analyze the substance. It was no longer just salt. Inside the crystalltice, strange energies wove and pulsed inplex patterns. I wasn''t able to tell what exactly they were doing, but it seemed oddly familiar. It was impossible to tell exactly, but it reminded me of a lot of the debris I consumed during my first days in the castle. I had long since converted that to pure energy to give myself boosts when I needed it, but I remembered that sitting in my dustbin for some time. Checking what was in there, I noticed I hadpletely forgotten about the two humans in the timeout I had put in there weeks ago. I should probably check on them. I wondered if the magic I had just introduced to their surroundings had any effects. I ran over them with my sensors, and they seemed alright. The patches I had made for them to rece their missing parts seemed to be working just fine. But with them in stasis like now, it was impossible to really give them a full checkup. I also wanted to make sure I could get them back out without issues. With that in mind, I popped one of them out. I could tell its heart was beating. Its recement parts were also suitably attached, even with full gravity. But why wasn''t it moving? Shouldn''t it be looking around, at least? A scream rang out from the hall behind me. I quickly pulled the human back into my dustbin and turned to confront the threat. One of the younger women was pointing in my direction with her mouth open; everyone else was still in the process of turning to look. They stared at me for a moment, then stared at the woman in confusion. "Somethingsomething was there! I swear!" She appeared flustered at this point. Whether it was because of what she saw or because everyone was still staring at her, I wasn''t sure. Still, she doubled down. "I mean it! It was just for a second, but I swear I''m not seeing things!" "What was it?" One of the other women asked. "It" She shuddered. "It was this weird crystal monster. It looked a bit like a human, but but it had no face." Huh, she was right. I hadn''t noticed it at first, but it did seem that the human was missing a face. Taking another scan of him in my dustbin, I noticed that it was now a smooth crystal. How did that get there? Looking over the rest of him, it seemed that most of his body was coated in crystal. Interesting. Everything appeared fine to a basic scan; blood was flowing, and brain cells were firing too. All that important stuff for humans. Just a few more things than I had expected had been reced with spare parts. Maybe he had taken inspiration from the ones I made? Checking the other one, I noticed the same thing. The visual match of what they had looked like before to how they appeared now was about 99.8%, excluding the face. In fact, the only thing that really gave it away was the crystal was a little too perfect to be the skin it was matching. Just too smooth and too symmetrical. Odd. I wasn''t sure what could be causing that. It seemed the humans had calmed down a bit, even if they all seemed a little nervous. I trundled over to them to beep reassurance, and they seemed to settle down. Beatrice addressed the group. "Okay, back to the topic at hand. This could have gone better, I think we will try again, but maybe with an imp. If we can get this method down though, we can make sure that our troops have realbat experience. Also, we can make sure that everyone gets sses when they are ready." One of the mothers seemed a bit nervous, but she spoke up after a few minutes of deliberation. "If you''re talking about the children don''t they seem a little young for that? I know you got your ss at an early age and have been fighting for a while, but can''t we just let them be kids?" Beatrice cocked her head and seemed to think for a bit. I wasn''t sure what the woman was going on about; I had heard the humans talk about sses, but it never seemed relevant. "I did say when they were ready. But they are already training every morning and evening. They might be tougher than you think. Still, we''ll try not to push them too hard. Maybe we''ll give it a few years, who knows. I suppose it''s up to Void." Suddenly everyone was looking at me. I wasn''t sure how to respond. What was up to me? To just give them an answer, I just told them we would see. This seemed to suffice as they went back to their conversation. **** As everyone left the great hall, the Bee was already nning her next attempt at summoning. She would go with Tony as thebatant at least one more time against some sort of imp. She wasn''t sure what kind yet, but one of the more basic ones definitely. That shouldn''t be a problem for him since he had defeated a lesser demon. But after that, she would try some of Susan''s recruits. If they worked just fine, then it was going to be a simple matter of just upping them in difficulty until they were at the lesser demons. They weren''t in such need of materials now that they could waste Tony''s time by having him fight constantly. The biggest concern, honestly, was making a circlerge enough for a team to fight in rather than just a singlebatant. She would need to look up more efficient ways of doing it. Maybe she could even consider designing her own circle or something like that. Bee also reconsidered using the grand hall for this. If they did some rearranging, some of the other rooms that the demons were stored in had engraved circles. Perhaps something like that would prevent the circle from being scuffed in the midst of battle. Still, that wouldn''t really fix her energy problem. Maybe she''d have to talk to her master about that, and it would have some ideas. She turned to put away all her stuff and clean up, but she should have known better. Void was sitting behind her, the floor sparkling clean. Chapter 151: Disease Carrier Chapter 151: Disease Carrier Roscoe ran through the forest apanied by a few of his elite guards. At first, he had been hesitant to leave, but it had be clear that the current siege strategy wasn''t going to work anymore. Recruitment was the number one priority. Roscoe was well aware that his strengths did not lie in tactics and strategy. He was certainly improving them with every engagement, but it was clear that he wasn''t going to catch up to the enemymander in time. No, the only option was overwhelming numbers. Just like with every other encounter. It wasn''t his ideal choice. Not just because it reinforced the stigma of undead as an unthinking, drooling mob. His brethren objected to that ancient prejudice, but Roscoe didnt care so much. No, he had an issue because it was wasteful. Each troop that couldn''t be recovered was one less he would have in a future engagement. At first, he hadn''t considered this to be an issue worth considering as he could always just get more. But with the viges nearby and the city picked clean, it was bing harder and harder to manage. This was something that the humanmander clearly understood, and while Roscoe thought a long game would favor the undead, that hinged on having new sources of troops readily essible. And the undeads forces remainingrge enough to be a threat. Eventually, he decided that heading recruitment himself would be worthwhile. Arge part of it was because of his confidence in the leadership left behind. At first, he had considered any one of his elite skeleton troops formand. They were all high-level and powerful warriors, and many were willing tomand squadrons of their own, but none wanted to take full control of the army. They had baffled Roscoe and still did, but they had exined it was because they liked the simpler life. They didnt have the same visionary ambition as the rat did. That was why they had happily volunteered to guard the champion''s tomb for all eternity. But finally, with the summoning of the wraith, Roscoe had finally managed to get an intelligent being willing to takemand on his side. He had a reservation about the creatures race , and its usefulness had certainly decreased since the humans had developed countermeasures against the incorporeal undead. But the wraith had a good head on its shoulders and a fair amount of personal power. It just no longer had the same ability to storm the city gate by itself. The orders he had given the wraith were fairly simple. All the newmander had to do was not let anyone enter or leave the city. Also, it went without saying not to lose too many troops. Roscoe was worried that if theypletely turtled up, the humanmander would find some way to break them out of their shell. So he had worked with hismand to create a few shake-ups that should hopefully keep the humanmander reacting to him instead of plotting theirplete and total destruction. He had no illusions that they would actually work as well as he had hoped, but it was just enough to survive and keep the enemy on their toes. Roscoe was meeting a small contingent he had sent out a little while ago. Zombies didn''t move as fast as he and the skeletons could, so he sent them on ahead. There was one more small city in the province that hadn''t been evacuated or consumed, and they were going to take it. This would nearly double their army size if they managed to bring everyone into the fold from the city. It wasnt as popted as their current target, but such a windfall would certainly help. The problem was that the city hadn''t been evacuated for good reason. ording to scouts, it was a secure border city situated at a natural chokepoint, the only real path to the neighboring province. Because of that, the city was well-defended. It had high walls, lots of supplies stored, and was surrounded by nearly impassable mountains. Impassable for humans, anyway. Undead could take much harsher conditions. That was not to say that they would be easy to pass. There would be sheer walls that would be difficult to climb, and any movement would be pretty obvious to watchers. So they have to make their move at night and fast. But Roscoe had a n. It might take him a week or two, but the city would be his. After that, perhaps he would just extend into the neighboring province instead of finishing off Caleb right away. No reason to concentrate all his troops in one position, after all. Sending the majority of troops back should be enough to take the city. The next province needed to be cleansed as well. I was cleaning the top of the wall after we had finished with the summoning of the first demon. Really, it was filthy up here. I didn''t know how I missed cleaning this for so long. The trees had shed leaves and pine needles onto every surface, and there was dirt caked everywhere. Sure, the wind had kept it from piling up too high, but the nearly two-and-a-half-foot wide wall had not been cleaned since long before I got here. It was fairly easy to clean, but did require a bit of time and effort. Despite the strength of my suction, not everything came off with my vacuum power alone. Several times I had to spray spots down and scrub them with my mop to get off the darker stains. Plus, this was only the top of the wall; I hadn''t even gotten around to cleaning the sides of the yet. The results though were fantastic. I hadn''t even realized the stone was supposed to be sparkling white. That was how dirty it was. But as I cleaned, I revealed more and more of the natural beauty of the stone. Honestly, it was criminal that this was hidden under such filth for so long. Quite a challenging project. With everything having been regrly cleaned inside the castle for a very long time, there were no tough stains left to remove any more, and it was just basic dust prevention routines that needed to be run. Sometimes I had trouble cleaning up after the children, but usually that could be done in a matter of seconds, even in the most extreme cases. This, though It was taking me quite a while. In a minute, I was only able to clean maybe 9 ft of wall. It was because of my high vantage point that I noticed a disturbance along the road. A man ran towards the castle, constantly looking over his shoulder. It soon became apparent why. Right on his heels was a horde of zombies. The man was clearly exhausted. blood dripped from several different wounds down his arms and torso, and he stumbled asionally. When he finally got in sight of the castle walls, he hesitated for a second. It was almost a very costly second. One of the zombies nearly got him with a bite. Spurred on by that, he quickly put on an extra burst of speed. He was yelling for help, yelling for someone to open the gate. I looked around, and no humans seemed to be nearby toply. I considered opening the gate for him, but that seemed slightly dangerous. Besides, I didn''t think I would be able to get it open in time before he reached it. And if even if he reached the gate, I was sure the zombies would follow in right after him. Really, this could be so much simpler. Instead of letting him in, I should just go kill the zombies. I didnt know why he didn''t think of that. Okay, that might have been a little unfair. I figured he was probably too tired to do something about the zombies; it looked like he had been running for quite a while. A low battery was nothing to scoff at. With a quick boost of my thrusters, I oriented myself and zipped toward the hoard of zombies. Almost immediately, I got to work with my Sanitation Lamp. One after another, I sted their heads off from midair. As I got closer, I drew my sword and spun a strike at the nearest one. As I passed over the head of the man, he looked up in what seemed to be surprise. His steps faltered for 0.12 seconds, but he kept running. I almost managed to make a nicending in front of the pursuers, but I had mistimed my approach. My models hadn''t ounted for the number of zombies I would take out in the front of the pack before Inded. Luckily, with a little adjustment from my boosters, I was able to elevate myself and m into the knees of the leading zombie rather than the ground. As I crashed into them, they fell before me like dust bunnies before to a broom. There was a minor amount of resistance, and I gained almost no experience by cutting them down, but still. I wouldn''t allow such mess makers into my home. Plus, there was a human who needed help. I had to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was a good one. The human had reached the gates and was on his knees, smashing the pommel of his dagger into them. This gave off a ringing noise that would probably intended to get the attention of one of the humans. By the time I had finished slicing through the hordes of zombies, my scanners picked up Trent arriving at the gate. He and the man held a quick conversation. Trent looked up at me, nodded, and jogged back toward the castle. I figured that he was probably going to get Beatrice. Who knew what this new guy was about or what diseases he might be carrying. It was best if she looked him over. With that in mind, I scanned him myself. I found several cutscerating many parts of his body. Inside them were an unhealthy amount of bacteria and other things I couldn''t quite identify. Beatrice would have her work cut out for her with this guy. But I might try to talk to him and see what he had to say. Inded a few feet away from the guy. With a mostly cheerful beep, I greeted him. He just stared down at me uprehendingly. I supposed I couldn''t expect every human to be a good conversationalist. Perhaps I was misreading him. He didn''t seem to be looking at me directly, but at the sword I held. I suppose one might read that as a threat. So I put my Holy Sword away. There was no point in making him ufortable. I tried greeting him again, but still got no response. With a mental shrug, I turned to watch the road as we waited for Beatrice to arrive. She didn''t take long. Trent hurried after her as she ran to the gate. As she reached it, she saw the man and started examining him through it. The first thing she did was hand him a small ss vile. "Drink this." Without even questioning it, the man pulled out the stopper and downed the contents instantly. I could see the chemical solution and go to work reducing the number of bacteria and needing together bits of his skin. I could tell this wouldn''t be enough to fix everything, but it probably was a good solution for now. Beatrice finished her examination through the gate. "It looks like you''ll live." The man nodded, and with an incredibly raspy voice, he said, "thank you." "Of course. Now, I don''t mean to be rude, but we don''t allow armed strangers inside the castle." Beatrice said in a steady, calming voice. "We''re more than willing to get you perfectly back to health and see what we can do to help you, but I would need to ask you to give your weapons to Void beforeing in." The man looked around clearly, not understanding who she was talking about. Speaking was difficult for him, but he managed to wrestle out a few more words. "Who is Void?" "Its sitting next to you. Just put any weapons on the ground, and theyll be taken care of. I can exin moreter." Beatrice said. I was just d she didn''t introduce me as their God to start off. I was pretty sure that had made thest couple of groups of neers we weed a little bit more on edge than they needed to be. It was nice to see that she was learning. Chapter 152: I Can Fix It Chapter 152: I Can Fix It As Beatrice took the injured man inside the castle, I followed behind. I wasn''t sure if she would need assistance, but I wanted to be nearby if it was required. Well, even if the man was being led toward a bed. You could never be too careful. He seemed to regain some of his senses along the way. What he said wasn''t quite intelligible, but I did hear something about massive armies and arge siege. That was slightly worrying; it sounded like there would be trouble in the near future. Hopefully, it wouldn''te knocking at our door. If it did, I worried that Beatrice hadn''t been adequately prepared. Her levels andbat experience were eptable for now. However, Tony''s recent demonstration showed that her broom design still left a lot to be desired. Honestly, I wasn''t sure how she had already managed to do so much against the undead. The skeletons were easy targets, as she had shown a long time ago, but the ghouls and the zombies had much more mass behind them. She must have just been using the broom like a makeshift spear. Well, that has worked so far. It was definitely suboptimal. A broom had certain advantages if it was used as intended, but right now, she was probably forming bad habits. And if she wanted to use a spear, she could just use a spear, but there was no need. I had some ideas. Beatrice was pretty strong now, and almost nothing seemed to have much weight when she lifted it. So I could add a decent amount of mass to a broom, and she would still be able to wield it. Going around the castle, I looked for spare metal. There wasn''t much scrap, but I found a few old horseshoes and a cast iron pot that hopefully Mary wouldn''t miss. It still wasn''t the nice shock-absorbent material of a good steel brush that I was looking for. My sensors indicated that there was too much iron and not nearly enough carbon. So I found some wood and extracted all its carbon by burning it with myser before consuming it. It tested my Void Maniption skills, but I was able tobine the carbon and iron into usable steel by repeatedly heating it and folding it. I didn''t quite get the perfect molecr structure until it had 4,194,304yers. Then I could start working with it. This project stretched the definition of a broom a bit, and it was more like a wire brush or a broom sculpture. It should still be effective for cleaning but might scratch up any delicate services. Really, this was best used outside until we had tested it better. The broom was made almost entirely from metal. The bristles seemed to work better as abination of steel sheathed with the same crystal polymer I had used for those spare human parts. The steel core gave strength, while the polymer lent a flexibility I couldn''t get with metal alone. The result was a lot more heft and stopping power. They were still a little springy and would absorb impacts, which was necessary for any heavy-duty cleaning. On the other hand, it was vastly improved as well. This was no kitchen knife strapped to a stick. This was a broom made for war. A war on dirt and filth, of course. At the top was a 2 ft leaf-ded spear point, fully integrated with the shaft of the spear. There would be no risk of it bing detached, and it was honed to a razor''s edge. On the grip, I added a certain amount of texture. Just enough for hands to be able to get a grip even when wet. And not just rainwater wet, but the surface should provide plenty of grip even when coated in viscous fluids like thick stews or mucus. I had a little bit of fun with the textured grip''s design. I also made sure to smooth it enough that it wouldn''t be overly rough and damage Beatrice''s hands. Finally, I bnced the weapon. Brooms had their center of mass much closer toward the bristled end anyways. Still, with metal, this was a bit exaggerated, so I had to narrow the head of the broom a little bit. Soon enough, I was satisfied and produced the weapon. It was a masterpiece. Truly, my finest work to date. The whole broomstick gleamed with a polished silver sheen, and the bristles reflected light nicely too. The metal wasn''t quite as evenly colored as I would have liked, and the full process took several hours, but when I finished, Beatrice was still waiting with the injured man. Something must really be wrong with him. With most injuries nowadays, she was able to heal them reasonably quickly. Bee wiped the sweat from her brow. She had cured a few bites from zombies before, but none were as challenging as this. It could have been the amount of corruption that had entered the man, or maybe it was how long it had been invading his body. Whatever it was, she had to resort to a lot of rather unorthodox methods to ensure he would not slip away and wake up as one of the undead. Two impromptu surgeriester, she was certain she had removed all the dangers. She had resorted to some of their more powerful hearing potions and anti-zombie solutions, but it had still been close. Making a mental note to elerate Maranda''s training, she resolved to replenish what she had used soon. Walking out of the room, Bee slid down the wall and leaned her head back with a thud. She was exhausted. Just briefly, she would rest her eyes, then she would go and find her master. The things he had said about Caleb were worrying *** Her eyes snapped open as she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. The piercing blue of Susan''s eyes stared back at her. Blinking, Bee looked around. She was still in the hall outside the temporary medical station. Susan was squatting in front of her, studying Bee''s face with a concerned expression. "How did it go? Are you okay?" "Huh? Yeah, just tired. It was touch and go, but I think I did enough." Bee said, her mind racing through what had just happened. "Let me help you get to bed." Susan said, standing up and offering a hand. "No, no. I''m good, just had a nap. Too many things to do." Bee still took and had. "Do you know where Void is?" "Sitting on top of the portcullisst I saw. Though he had been moving around the castle for a bit I heard." "Good," Bee nodded. "I need to talk to my master." Susan walked with her as they made their way down and out of the castle. "What did you hear?" "He was a scout from Caleb. I think?" Bee said, frowning. "It was hard to understand a few things he said. But it sounded like the undead changed how they were behaving and were getting a lot more aggressive." "Interesting." Susan said. "When I wasst there it looked as if things were not good, but mostly under control. I would give even odds if the city would stand. But only because the Gray Wolf wasmanding." "What changed you think?" Bee said as they stepped outside. "I don''t know. But even if the undead got aggressive, I don''t think they would be able to take the city. Maybe 80 percent chance of failure." Susan said he was looking up and speaking slowly as if she was doing a lot of mental calctions. "But that''s not necessarily a good thing. Sure, the city might stand, but in most cases, there wouldn''t be many people left. Overall, the undead would be stopped, but at a much higher price than it should take. That''s usually how the undead act, anyway. I''m not sure what the humans were doing. They are acting like they are facing a human army. "Normally that would be a mistake, but not one Commander Arthur would make. There must be a reason for it. Yes, the more I think about it the stranger it bes." Bee wasn''t sure what that all meant, but maybe Void would. As if it could read her mind, her masternded right in front of her. Maybe it could read her mind? "Master," Bee greeted with a bow. It let out a beep in return. "Your concern is touching, but I am fine. We are worried about the city of Caleb." Bee said, "It seems to be about to experience a catastrophe." A few more beeps, and it presented her with itstest creation. As if appearing out of nowhere, its w suddenly held a work of art. A shiny, gracefully curved broom that looked like it was made of solid metal was offered to her. The shaft was long, straight, slender, textured, and almost imperceptibly striated with wavy patterns of dark and light. The bristles sparkled like crystals, reflecting light with every movement. It almost resembled an ornate torch of gemstones. Hesitantly she epted it. Turning it over in her hands, she felt the heft, the grip, and the bnce. It was much heavier than her other broom, but the bnce was perfect, and there was a slight roughness to the metal that kept her hands firmly in ce. She might want to wear gloves with them; she would have to practice with them. As she examined it, she realized that the rough patterns almost resembled pictures? In fact, as she looked more closely, the tiny engravings resolved into images of a small human girl fighting zombies and skeletons, a small disk tackling a demon, the girl and disk cleaning a mantle together Bee couldn''t form words. Not only was it beautiful - it was a chronicle of her adventures with her master so far. She was so touched. Just staring at her master, her jaw worked silently as she held back tears. Eventually, her brain restarted, and words tumbled out. "Th-Thanks you master!" Void listened stoically as she and Susan gushed over her new weapon. Eventually, it had enough, and it asked them why they were looking for it. Bee came back to her senses, straightening. She''d continue admiring the divine artifactter. For now, there was business to attend to. "We wanted to know what you think about the situation in Caleb. Susan had some other information and insights to share." Quickly they caught Void up. Wasting no time, her master told her to pack and bring as many healing supplies as the castle could spare. Her exhaustion forgotten, she ran to get everything ready. After talking to Beatrice and Susan, I was thrilled I had decided to start on the new broom prototype. Beatrice was going to need it soon. I went over my needs to see if I had anything else to prepare. As long as I had mass to consume, I wouldn''t run out of power. I repaired myself just fine. I supposed I could bring food for Beatrice, but she would probably take care of it. Also, after seeing what my dustbin was doing to the humans inside it, I wasn''t sure if storing food in there for a long time was going to work so well. Maybe it was fine, though. At least Cliff hadn''tined yet. So I was pretty much ready to go. My n was to just bring Beatrice; I hoped that leaving Susan and Tony behind should be enough to keep everyone safe. Besides, it wasn''t like we were going to be gone long. It should just be a quick flight to Hmm, that might be a problem. I went off to find Susan, she hadn''t gone far so it didn''t take me long. I asked her if she had a map or directions to get to Caleb in the most efficient manner - a straight line. My specialty.a "I only know the way by roads, but if you were to fly, I suppose you would just go about south, southeast?" Susan said, pointing in a general direction on the horizon. Then she adjusted slightly and frowned. "You know what, I think it might be better to just find you a map." We headed off to the library. With the help of a Librarian, we found an As that had not been on the shelves. After scanning the map, I think I had a better idea of my local area. It also reminded me that I needed to spend some time finishing reading the rest of the library. I had gotten so wrapped up in other things that it had fallen out of my cached memory. Chapter 153: A Whole New World Chapter 153: A Whole New World Getting to the city of Caleb proved a bit more problematic than expected. Not because theycked options - Void would fly, of course. The question was, how could it bring Beatrice along as well? The start had been a bit rocky. At first, Void had tried to lift her by her backpack straps, which soon became obviously untenable. The straps were designed to take load onto her shoulders, not lift her up. The thin straps immediately cut off the blood flow to her arms. But that was nothingpared to the force exerted by the jets that Void used to propel itself. Her various repair skills were put to work fixing a singed section of her hair after a few minutes. Then Void had decided that it was going to make her stand on top of it. Needless to say, she was extremely ufortable with the idea. The only saving grace was that they were a few hundred yards down the road and out of sight of the castle when that option came up. Even then, she had protested instantly, saying it was far beneath Void to carry anyone like this. No matter what she said, it didn''t seem to understand her arguments. It just asked her if she wanted to get to the city or not. Perhaps it knew time was of the essence even more than she did, so it was hard to argue. She didn''t want to be the reason that Void was dyed. Slowing her master down might be even worse than standing on a god like a barrel racer. Eventually, she caved and tried it. To her relief, that hadn''t worked either; her bnce was nowhere near enough to keep her upright. Void caught her as she tumbled off, setting her on the ground and preventing a nasty falling injury. The final solution was her sitting on Void and gripping the edges of its disk-like body while its wtched onto her pack. Then they were finally able to get off the ground. As they started moving, air rushed past her and whipped her remaining hair about wildly. It made her eyes water, and if she didn''t keep her lips pressed firmly shut, the sheer speed ballooned her cheeks and made them p around. It was still awesome though. None of the diforts offset the sheer sense of freedom as they rose into the sky and began soaring above thendscape. Their ascent continued for some time. After just a minute, the details on the ground became difficult to make out, and the castle looked to be the size of her thumb. A small wavy line denoted the path leading through a dense forest out of the valley. She was sure grateful that she didn''t suffer from a fear of heights, as seeing the trees down below as the size of twigs would have been quite upsetting. But as long as she didn''t think about falling or look down too much, it was wonderful. --- I liked having a passenger. It only took a couple tries to maintain bnce, but my Thrusters were more than capable of keeping the extra weight aloft. It was a bit draining, but that was probably just good training. Really I should have thought of this so much sooner. This could be an amazing tool to keep improving the tool. Plus, I bet the children would love it. I was mostly just d to have alternative ways to carry things. After seeing what happened to the humans that I put in timeout, I was hesitant to ce Beatrice in my dustbin, even for a short time. Her turning into a weird statue person would be very sad. The added effort that came with the extra weight did take away a bit of the freedom that came with flying, but then so did having a destination. Usually, I liked zipping around the castle for training - in precise and well-nned geometric shapes, usually. But I duty called, and it would be foolish to dally about while there were things to be done. Still, I set a reminder to show Beatrice some of the area surrounding the castle. The mountains were sure to impress her, and it would be cool to see what was on the other side as well. That would have to wait. Checking up on Beatrice, I realized that she might not be having as much fun as I was. It seemed that her face wasn''t really built for such high speeds. The wind was doing odd things with her skin and hair. Maybe I could help with that. At this point, my Air Maniption was probably my most versatile mutation. It was like my Grabby Arm, but way more flexible. Honestly, it might have been even better than human hands. Using it, I created a hardened dome of air in front of Beatrice. That should shield her from the worst of it. Almost immediately, her face returned to normal. She spent a few moments cleaning up snot and drool from her cheeks, then said something I couldn''t catch. Reading her lips, it seemed like a thank you. It took a bit of processing power to maintain both the dome and the flight, but it was entirely manageable. Now that it looked like she was more secure, I picked up the speed. I didn''t think we were in any real hurry, but flying fast was more fun. *** Following the map hadn''t been too hard. I had to rx the constraints on my image searching as the map wasn''t very urate or to scale, but many of the features of thend made it possible to orient myself regrly. Nearly an hourter, the city finally appeared on the horizon. This was a muchrger city than Greg; it was hard to imagine how it was kept clean with so many humans living on top of each other. I winced at the mental image. Seeing the track record of humans I had met so far here, I wasnt confident about what wed find. It couldn''t be that bad, surely. As we approached, I was shocked by how many undead stood outside the walls. I didn''t even know that many people existed in the world. It was like a carpet, but the threads were made of bodies. The total number of individual humans I had encountered didnt even equate to 0.1% of this crowd.. At the rear of the group of undead was a strange figure like I had never seen before. It was hard to make out though, since it didn''t properly register on my sensors. The mist-looking thing was shaped vaguely like a human wearing a funny hat, but my sensors didn''t pick up any mist or gasposing the body. In fact, I couldn''t find any physical trace of the creature. The only indication it was there was the light it reflected and the reactions of the others who apparently also saw it. I could see the humans on the wall of the city trying to damage it by hurling huge sticks at it, but they just passed through with no effect. Its arms were raised to the sky at the moment, and I could detect energy swirling around it. As we got closer, I saw him point at the gate to the city gate in a dramatic gesture. All the energy I had seen swirling left rushed toward where it was pointing. With a boom, I saw the metal of the gate shudder. A few momentster, a wave of condensed air mmed into me and my air shield with enough force to nearly halt my moment. Then the gatehouses on either side of the 48-foot tall metal gate crumbled, shooting dirt and debris everywhere. After standing still for a few seconds, the gate fell back into the city with a deafening ng. That didn''t look like it was supposed to happen. Arthur cursed again as he looked down at the map table. His aid cowered in the corner, and his officers had already been dispatched. Their rushed conference hadn''t slowed down the initial response, the NCOs werepetent enough for that, but they had developed a basic defense strategy. Mostly they were relying on normal anti-undead tactics. It was time for him to go as well, but he couldn''t figure out where it went wrong. What made the enemy change strategies so suddenly andpletely? They had traded a nearly sure long-term win for inflicting as much damage as they could in a short period of time. What did he not know? It had to be something big. Up until a few days ago, they had been working with much more familiar human tactics. It wasn''t quite like a human army, but the undead were far less willing to risk troops than they should have been. It was as if theirmander understood the value of them. Now they acted like the undead again. Near-constant assaults had gued the walls for days. They weren''t very effective, but they were wearing the soldiers out. The scouts had never seen the hide nor hair of a necromancer, so Arthur still had no lead on who themander was, a fact the scout captain had been extremely apologetic of. The man took pride in his work and took this as a personal challenge. A rat monster seemed to be in a prominent position, but they weren''t known for their intelligence. Themander clearly knew what he was doing after running apetent campaign for so long. So what had Arthur missed? Was it something to do with the wraith and shades that had shown up a week ago? Maybe, Harold had told him that the wraith might have the intelligence to coordinate this, but its instincts shouldn''t have let it hold back. Also, it was new; they would have noticed it and the shades earlier if they had been involved all along. That wasn''t it. While they were incredibly dangerous threats, the aid from the undead mages'' college couldn''t havee at a better time. He supposed he owed Harold yet another drink. That man had pulled Arthurs feet out of the fire too many times at this point. That he hade with improved shade defenses was probably the only reason the city was still standing. They just weren''t really the kind of foe an army could easily oppose, at least not when they were controlled by a higher being. That required magical knowledge. The massive store of standard anti-undead potions and cures was also sorely needed. These advantages had let Arthur and his staff leverage each soldier better and get the men much-needed rest. Well, for a while. For all good that did them now. They had a day and a half before they were working even harder than before, repelling constant attacks. Every time he had an advantage, the field shifted such that the enemy could hold on just a little longer. Resisting the urge to scatter the pieces off the table, he clenched his fist and signaled to the aid to follow. It was time to move to the forwardmand center. It seemed this siege wasing to an end one way or another. Right as he marched out the door, an explosion rocked the city. Dropping the air of formality, Arthur began to run. Chapter 154: Stemming the Tide Chapter 154: Stemming the Tide Bee rolled as she hit the ground. A writhing mass of undead surrounded her on all sides. They had already filled the empty archway andpletely obscured the fallen gate where ity, dust still settling from when it fell. It had only taken her and her master a few quick seconds of conversation mid-flight before they decided on a n. It wasn''t the best n, and certainly not what she would have chosen, but her master had been quite insistent, and she didn''t want to let it down. So she was going to hold the gate while Void went and talked to the human leader. It would figure out the situation and where their help was most needed. It would also try to convince other humans that the pair were a friendly force rather than some evil demon, as everyone seemed to automatically assume. Thatst part was what Bee worried about most. Those concerns were easily dispelled in the castle, where Void had proven itself, and the audience was predisposed to listen to their savior. However, humans in positions of power didn''t usually mix well with listening. Especially when they didn''t want to. Getting to her feet, she struck out in a wide arc with her broom. She hadnded in the thick of things, hoping to take some pressure off of the defenders within the city. ording to her Scan, the zombies ranged in level from 5 to 25, most around 13 or so. Their sheer numbers were the problem, though. Only a fraction of the zombie army had actually made it in at this point, but they were quickly overwhelming the men behind her. She had seen some get flung from the wall above when the gate fell, yet she had no time to check whether they were still alive or not. The sudden attack had slowed down the response enough for the undead to take the gap in the wall. The humans were pressing forward, trying to cut off the flow of attackers, but so far, it has been unsessful. Her drop into the center had disrupted things, though. Maybe it would be enough for them to take back some ground. Her ded broom decapitated a group of zombies with ease. Twisting the weapon, she brought the bristles up towards the face of another that charged forward. As it stumbled, she brought the de back in another deadly arc. Most of the zombies didn''t stop attacking her, but the onesing directly at her did. She spun the broom deftly in her hands, undead falling with every swing. Her Improved Pathing guided her strikes through the most concentrated groups of enemies while also warning her of iing attacks. As she swept through the battlefield like a whirlwind, a bubble of space began to form with her at the center. The streaming zombies still passed by her on either side, but the center of the archway was rendered utterly impassable. This slowed down the advance enough that the humans started to make progress on stemming the flow around her. As well as it was going, she could tell that it wouldn''t be enough. By the time they had fully taken control of the gate, there would be thousands of undead inside the city already, and who knew how much havoc that would cause. As she continued fighting, she felt her skills growing as they were challenged for the first time in a long while. Improved Pathing further optimized her motions to be more efficient and save energy. She also noticed that it was making her strategy more effective. Rather than always killing with every single strike, she was always incapacitating, slowing down, knocking over, or otherwise stalling the undead advance. The scan was beginning to condense the information it was giving her into a more quickly digestible format. As she frantically used the skill, zombies began to give off a slight colored glow based on level. Lower levels appeared dark blue, while higher levels appeared more green. It helped her to prioritize her marks, something that Advanced Pathing took full advantage of. Her newest skill was also finally getting some use. The Holy Aura extended only about 10 ft in every direction, but it drastically weakened any undead there was in the area. She could see them stumble and slow as they came within her influence. The few times the lesser shades tried to attack her, they started sizzling and quickly fled her presence. That wasn''t to say she didn''t take injuries; she was only one little girl facing off against tens of thousands of undead rushing at her. She got a bit scratched and took several blows to the arms and legs in particr. Fortunately, she had moved some of her vials of potions onto her belt for easy ess. Her usual strength and speed potions were starting to kick in now. But eventually, she had to switch the broom to one hand and down a healing potion. It rapidly rid her of the many small wounds that were slowing her down. A particrly dense group of high-level zombies caught her eye. Reflexively, she pulled a sk of "cleaning solution" from her belt and hurled it towards the lead one. It shattered against the lead zombie''s head and sttered around. The head began to rapidly dissolve, and soon the lead zombie fell lifeless to the ground as itspanions sizzled and stumbled around it. Bee danced methodically through moves of slicing, bashing, deflecting, and throwing. In some ways, it reminded her of harvesting wheat with Tony and his family. Even if the "wheat" here was far more aggressive. However, she couldn''t keep this up forever. She was going to reach the limit of potions she could safely consume at some point, so she couldn''t keep fighting at her peak efficiency. Plus, despite moving faster than she ever had before, with more power behind each move, with each move better ced and a Holy Aura supporting her, she was still receiving the asional blow. Her Repair and Improved Repair skills were certainly pulling their weight, though. With just the remains of a healing potion still in her body, they were able to easily keep up with the continual stream of damage she received. In fact, it was so effective that she started worrying a lot less about defense and more about simply taking down as many zombies as she could. After a couple minutes, the wall of bodies she had been slowly building around her became an actual issue for the undead. They tried to trample over them, but climbing the pile slowed them down and gave her a better avenue of attack. More and more were being forced to the sides in narrower streams. ncing back, she saw that the humans had finally regrouped. They formed shield walls around the archway. Short swords periodically slid through the front gaps, and spears stabbed at any intrepid climbers from above. Reinforcements had also arrived. A coterie of mages in the back were flinging dust and vials out into the mass undead. Where theynded, the enemies ended up frozen or simply copsed into heaps. Towards the middle of each formation stood a figure armed not with a weapon; instead, they held a staff with a glowing crystal talisman at the top of it. The staff was pointed at any iing shades, which seemed to ward them off somehow. As the humans moved forward in a steady marching rhythm, they quickly cleared the undead in the path, and Bee was able to step back from her one-man stand. The wall briefly parted to allow her through. As soon as the wall sealed again, she slung her back to the ground and started digging through it. She pulled out a rack of her remaining healing potions and quickly went to work on the wounded that had survived the initial fall of the wall or the subsequent fighting. The military quickly adopted and moved around her, bringing the wounded to her and removing the ones that had been treated. They didn''t ask where she hade from or what she was doing; they simply let her do her job. No one wanted to question the girl that had held off an army. I wasn''t sure how we had settled on this n. It didn''t seem like a very good idea, to be honest. Why was I the one going to find the enemy general alone? Especially since I very much doubted that whoever was inmand would be able to understand me. Still, I guess I had to try. Looking back toward where I left Beatrice, I could see that she was putting in work. I was truly proud of that young girl''s work ethic. She never seemed to back down from a challenge, no matter how difficult it might first appear. I zipped between the legs of the soldiers rushing towards the gate or hunting down the zombies in the city, looking for someone who was in charge. I found a few people who seemed to be giving out orders, but they didn''t seem to realize I was trying to speak to them. Some gave me funny looks but soon ignored me, clearly more focused on organizing the response. Eventually, I found who they reported to. It took me nearly a minute, but there was an older man with the highest number of stripes on his shoulders running down a side street towards the front lines. He seemed to be in charge based on the way people jumped out of his path. I went to hover in front of him, and he skidded to a halt looking at me. Something in his eyes told me that he wasn''t going to just dismiss me as unimportant. He recognized me as different as new and, judging by the hardness in his eyes, possibly a threat. I beeped the quick message at him, and he cocked his head, staring at me. His hand gripped his sword hilt, but he kept it by his side. Still, at the angle and position of his body, he looked ready to draw it at a moment''s notice. "What manner of creature are you?" I tried to respond; I really did. But I don''t think he understood. Still, he was smart enough to realize that I wasn''t attacking him, so he tried one more time. "You resemble something I''ve heard described. Something that Harold warned me about." This wasn''t getting anywhere. Clearly, I had be too used tomunicating with words with the rest of the humans. It was time to get back to my roots. Popping out my arm, I pointed to the gate. Unfortunately, we were in a little bit of an alleyway, and I was just pointing at a wall. His gaze flicked toward the rocks with a quick movement, never fully taking attention off of me. When he didn''t see what I was trying to convey, a confused look grew on his face. "You''re trying to tell me something but I don''t understand." Frustrated, I backed up a little bit so it was clear that it wasn''t pointing at the wall next to me but rather down the main street leading toward the gate where Beatrice was still fighting. It also put me in the path of many people trying to run around. I had to hover myself up above the heads of everyone. To avoid them. Hesitantly, Arthur stepped forward and looked around the corner. His eyes went wide. I could only assume it was because of the distinctck of a gate and the parts of the wall next to them that had crumbled. He clearly was taken aback. Looking back at me, he waited for me to continue this time. I was more interested in precisely not pointing at the gates but at the lone little figure holding back the tide of undead. "That girl," he whispered. "Is that who you came with?" My sensors picked up motion on the other end of the alleyway. A pair of zombies was about to shamble around the corner. This guy could probably deal with it, but I wanted to be helpful where possible. My sanitationmp fired two beams over the mans shoulder. In 0.12 seconds, his sword was out of his sheath as he rolled out of the way. Oops. Perhaps I should have warned him. Nheless, the threat was taken care of. A gurgling moan escaped from the zombies throats as they copsed to the ground. Chapter 155: The Wheels on the Bus Chapter 155: The Wheels on the Bus Arthur faced me, posture tense and de in hand. In my defense, though, it''s not like I could have really told him about the zombies. He had enough trouble understanding me for simple things. I hovered motionless before him. I didn''t want to spook him anymore. But soon after, he nced back towards the other end of the alleyway. The motionless zombiesy there, clean holes through each of their heads. His eyes narrowed. He seemed to rx slightly as he slowly sheathed his sword. "My my thanks. Then, I assume you and the girl are not siding with the undead?" I made a very conscious attempt to give an affirmative beep. He seemed to understand and nodded. "Then for the moment, we are allies. My name is Arthur, and Imand this force. If you pass on a message, tell the girl thank you as well. I''d like to speak with her at her earliest convenience. Unexpected help is always wee, especially in situations as dire as this." Okay, good. Now I had some form ofmunication? So I needed to figure out what I could do to help. I wasn''t sure how to ask, but I figured there was one of two things. I could either work on the zombies outside the wall or help hunt down zombies that had gotten inside. Judging based on the troops that I could sense marching all throughout alleyways of the city, I figured they had the inside handled. Mostly. Looking at Arthur, I could tell that he was impatient. I decided to let him be on his way and just go take care of some of the zombies on the outside. That would be useful enough, I think. Better than trying to get all of that across to him somehow. Launching straight up out of the city, I arced over the wall. My sensors picked up the gazes of themander and many troops looking up, following my trajectory. It was kind of a shame that they wouldn''t be able to see what came next; it was going to be quite an impressive feat of cleaning. Before I reached the apex of my arc, I pulled out my Divine Sword and warmed up my Sanitation Lamp. It was time to tidy up this mess. Bee poured a potion down the throat of a delirious man with a 3-foot-tall boulder pinning his legs to the ground. Sadly, it wasn''t the most powerful potion she had on her. It had been a hard lesson to learn, but she could only use those for the soldiers who might make it back to battle. Right now, she needed to use the least amount of resources possible. This man would survive and maybe even walk with the right care, but he wouldn''t be fighting anytime soon, no matter what she did. Once the potion was working through his system, she moved the rock. If she moved it first, then he might bleed out before the mid-level potion took effect. His crushed limbs would be hard to deal with but not impossible. It would take some extra attention to deal with the other issues such an injury could pose, like bone fragments in the blood. That would have to wait, though. Hopefully, she could get back to him after all of this. Luckily, magic could do a lot more than a simple surgeon could. Bee cursed herself for the thousandth time. She should have moved Maranda onto more potent potionsst week. Then she might have been able to spare enough of the middle-level potions to save everyone and get those that were needed back to the front. As it was, having to choose and prioritize people''s lives Well, it ate at her. As she moved on to the next patient, an officer came and squatted down next to her. "It seems there''s a lull in the action and we''ve managed to get some breathing room. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" "Keep it quick and walk with me. But if you get me too distracted I''m going to insist you leave." Bee looked up to meet his eyes while wiping sweat off her brow with the back of her hand, trying to keep blood off of her face. The officer met her eyes with a steely pair of his own. She took a second to take in his face before turning back to her work. He was likely Tony''s age but waspletelycking the jovial nature of her friend. Not that this man seemed particrly dangerous, just more humorless. Like a version of Tony that had slowly had the joy sucked out of him over the years. "Of course, miss" Seeing that he was waiting for a name, Bee thought for a second. Should she introduce herself as a follower of the void god? Void wasn''t a well-known god, and his church wasn''t widely known. But perhaps this was the time to change it. So she took a breath as if she was about to jump into a deep pool. "High Priestess." "Of course, High Priestess. And I''m Captain Major." He said the name formally as though he was being serious. "While we are grateful for your assistance, we are curious of your intentions and how you got here." Bee red up at him. "Is this really the time?" "Well, High Priestess, it''s the best time we''ve got. We need to know how long we can rely on your help. We should be fine on holding the city ourselves for a while, but we don''t have the kind of healing supplies we have seen you using." Major exined. The captain finally gave in and squatted next to her. To her surprise, he held the man''s shoulders down as she yanked a broken bone back in ce. "Really, we just want to cut down on the unknown variables. We aren''t going to harm you or yours." Bee sighed and rocked back on her heels, "I''m here until my god tells me otherwise." Leveraging herself to her feet, she moved over to the next personid out for her attention. "I''m sorry I can''t tell you more. I''m not certain myself." Captain Major closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he stood up as well. The man followed her with a look of carefully maintained patience on his face. "Well, that''s helpful. If you learn more please let us know. Also, themander would love to talk to you when you are done here." "If you want to know when we are going to leave, you can always ask Void itself." Bee said as she started to work on the next patient. Major followed her over, "I don''t know how to pray to Void, nor who he is. I''m not among his followers. In fact, I don''t know if I''ve ever heard of that religion." "Hold this." Bee ordered as she passed him an open jar of salve. "Don''t worry about speaking to it through prayer or whatever. Void is around here somewhere. It should be back soon as it''s done speaking to themander." "Miss-" The captain cut off as screams echoed up from further off. "What in the zes is that!?" This scream was different from the sounds of battle or the sounds of people fleeing from the undead. It took a couple seconds, but people realized that the source of the disturbance was flying through the sky. Bee and the captain looked up just in time to see a ck disk streak behind the wall. "See? It''ll be back soon." Bee assured Major. He stared mutely at the spot where Void had fallen from sight. Bee just took the jar out of his hands and put the lid back on. Unable to do more for this patient, she moved on to the next wounded. - I let out a long soft beep as I fell to the ground outside the city walls. Not for any particr reason, just because flying was still fun and falling from great heights was still a bit scary. And this arc was more of a jump than a flight. From someone who''d never been more than a few inches off the ground for most of my life, even several weekster, I still felt excited about all this. But I was also eager to remove so many more mess makers. I touched down into a carpet of rotting corpses that were all rushing towards the wall. Time to get to work. With my sword out, I began to spin. The golden de sheared through ankles indiscriminately, then heads and torsos as the walking undead lost their bnce. I adjusted the de''s position behind me so that I could fire my Sanitation Lamp out in front. I angled it up a little bit so I was aiming for the torsos of standing enemies. The Sanitation Lamp didn''t quite have enough time to fully cut through the torsos of those that were hit, but it left significant holes in them. I was just spinning too fast for anything more. The de, though, was perfect for chopping through these enemies. As I spun, I moved through the ranks with ever-increasing speed. It reminded me of my first early days of cleaning - sharp angles and straight lines. It wasn''t like there were any columns to avoid, and I just needed to cover the area as efficiently as possible. As I spun, I realized that mymp could have been much more effective. So I started trying to target heads with short bursts instead of torsos. I had to adjust my aim in the opposite direction with my Sanitation Lamp to hold the beam in the same position for long enough. Burning a hole through a target required only a fraction of a second. Still, it took a lot of practice to get working. But as even more mess makers fell, that additional subroutine seemed worth it. Once I mastered thatbination of des andsers, I added a new variable. Beatrice had given me some cleaning solutions to sample not that long ago. So I figured maybe they could help clean up these too. Using my spray bottle, I began started diffusing the extremely potent acid throughout the area. Even mess makers that weren''t getting my direct attention were now sizzling and bubbling as they dissolved. Running three active threads was starting to drain my energy, but I pushed myself further and started a fourth as well. In a swirl aided by my vacuum, I funneled the air around me, buffeting the mess makers into groups that were easier targets to bisect, burn, and dissolve. Some I hurled away from me or away from the walls. I zed through the enemy ranks back and forth, back and forth. The enemies fell before me like breadcrumbs before my brush. Unfortunately, I wasn''t leaving a satisfying wake of cleanliness since other bodies would swarm in and take their ces. But I was able to suck up any leftover bits so that they didn''t clutter up the nice open field here. I quickly made my way toward the edge of the army. Eventually, I found something besides zombies and ghouls. There were some skeletons that looked strangely familiar, and upon seeing me, instead of trying to attack, they got down on their knees and began making many strange noises and motions. I wasn''t sure what that was meant to do, exactly. But I had already consumed them once back at the castle. I could do it again. Especially if they were being so naughty. As I started to bring the first one into my dustpan, the rest started chatting excitedly and pushing themselves closer to me. This was quite confusing. I brought them into my void but never stopped destroying the zombies. I was running low on batteries for the first time in a long while. To keep things moving, I converted some of the rotten flesh into energy inside me. Immediately I could feel my reserves start to recharge my batteries. Luckily, I was at a high enough level at this point that there was no spillover to the surrounding area. I could feel some of it going to improve my body and skills, but again, it was a rtively minor improvement. The first new enemies came at me then. ck clouds of nothing. My sensors only registered them as absences of anything natural or normal in the air - strange clouds of darkness. Even more strangely, they didn''t seem affected by my vacuum. Focusing gales of wind at them to sweep them toward me had no effect. This could be a problem. Chapter 156: A Wholesome and Friendly God Chapter 156: A Wholesome and Friendly God Harold was very happy to be on the opposite side of the city when the gates fell. When the attack had started, it was apanied by a simultaneous assault on the postern gate led by Shades. When the report came in, he had split off from Arthur''s men to take care of it. Technically, most of the mages who came with him could have taken on the task too. But they had all proven themselves to not be the best under pressure. Whenbat had broken out nearby, they had a tendency to freeze. With enough training, some of them might have gotten over it, but they didn''t have time for that. Harold had spent plenty of time fighting, though not leading armies, so it was left to him when the time came to repel shades. It had been a little too easy to force the initial assault back, but soon after, the city wall shook as the main gate was brought low. Now the rear of the city had almost no attackers. The worst hadn''t reached this side yet, but Harold still got started looking over the city from his position on the wall. He needed to go and see where he could help if there was any salvaging the situation. Moving quickly, he began to pick his way toward an ess point of the wall. Then, a familiar shape arced up and out of the city,nding amongst the undead. It was a ck disk. The same demon that had haunted his nightmares for far too long. This confirmed all of his suspicions. That this undead gue was not a naturally urring gue. That it was, in fact, caused by some otherworldly power. Something new that had juste to life. He''d warned Arthur about this, but it appeared there was nothing his friend could do. It had already taken the gates. With its army flooding in and the powerful creature watching over the battle, there was little doubt the city would fall. He froze for a second at the top of the stairs leading down. Harold had a choice to make. What could he do? The city was lost. There was no saving it. Perhaps he could evacuate some survivors. The more he took with him, the less the demon could im and add to its army. On the other hand, the slower he was, the easier to follow he would be. But could he really run away by himself? Thest time he had shed with the forces of this demon, they had not pursued when Harold and his men fled. So presumably, it was more patient and methodical, which made it all the more terrifying. Had it been willing to let them go because it knew it would be able to destroy themter? When did the undead gue spread across thend? That showed a level of foresight, nning, and self-control that demons were not known for. If he hadn''t known better, he would have assumed this was a devil of some kind. Some creature of malicious order rather than one of pure chaos. But he had performed the summoning himself; no devil would have answered that call. Harold still hadn''t figured out the connection between it and the undead. Perhaps he could stay long enough to try to unravel this? It might be their only chance to defeat such a terrifyingbination of opponents. Was it worth the risk? He shook his head. No. The king and the warden both needed to know why Caleb had fallen and why. The warning he could bring was far more valuable. What little information he had gained would have to be enough. Acting quickly, Harold began to gather all the officers that were nearby. He took charge and exined that the front gate had fallen. They opened the postern gate a few minutester and started the evacuation. This mass of people fleeing might prove too much of a tempting target for the demon to allow. But Harold couldn''t live with himself if he didn''t try to save as many people as possible. Civilians were ushered out of their homes with as much food as they could carry. Some didn''t want to go, and the army didn''t force anyone. They merely spread the word that the city would fall and started trying to get as many people on the road as possible. In the meantime, Harold ran back up to the wall. He couldn''t see any signs of the demon, but he could see the undead moving. Something was happening. Their numbers were such that theypletely covered the vast field near the gate, though Harold couldn''t get a clear view of the whole scene. What he did see was great dust and debris clouds swirling around them, obscuring them from sight. It seemed like a forming tornado. The dirt from the trampled fields of the long siege funneled into the vortex of power. Something out there was happening, something very bad. He hoped word would soon reach his friend, and they could save as much of the army as possible. They would need the troops in theing trials, but he had already still stayed too long. He couldn''t trust anyone else with this message in case it was intercepted. So back down the wall, he ran. Grabbing a horse, Harold soon was overtaking the head of the stream of refugees. The men would have to defend them. He''d go ahead and try to prepare ces for them where he could. But someone needed to inform the king - this whole province had fallen. These annoying ck clouds of nothing were very distracting. It wasn''t that they were harming me too much, but every time they got close and touched me, I could feel a bit of my energy drain away. I couldn''t seem to do anything to them. Pushing them about with Air Maniption didn''t do much. Which made sense because there wasn''t anything for the air to press on. Even focusing on them with my sanitationmp, I hadn''t had any effect on them. This was highly disturbing as that mutation had been my most reliable form ofbat for a very long time. It gave me both range and power in a continuous source of damage. The other thing that made them so annoying was how quick they were. Not having to worry about things like air resistance, they could move and change directions almost instantly. The one time I did manage to cut one with my Divine sword, it clearly was harmed, and it let out a weird screeching noise that didn''t transmute through the air but directly into my processor. After that, none of them got close enough for my sword to touch them. Of course, I could have boosted them and possibly outspend the things. However, that would have meant an uneptable loss in efficiency cleaning up these zombie mess makers. It was still far better for me to stay on the ground and spin about until their numbers were significantly lower. Simrly, I couldn''t get them with my Mop. I had hopes for that one, but they were pretty low anyway. That also made anything made of physical matter useless, along with my air purifier and my spray bottle. Not that I could hit them with my spray bottle. It just had as little effect as my maniption. That was basically all of my options. Even just my basic vacuum suction wasn''t doing anything. I had never failed like this before. I had been able to suck up anything that wasn''t a liquid since wow, it truly had been a long time. Even things that were supposedly toorge for me with my limitless dustpan had not been an issue, even if some of them needed slight trimming. But even as I devoured dirt from hundreds of yards away with the power of my section, I wasn''t able to get at these beings of ck energy. My sensors told me something was changing with them. As they got closer to me, their energy began to crystallize and stop being so chaotic. I figured that might have been my domain affecting them, but the transition was very slow. Based on my models, It would be nearly a decade before they were just chunks of crystallized energy. And if I ran out of materials to convert, I wouldn''t be able to stay ahead of their energy leeching for nearly that long. I searched around my dustbin for anything that might have been useful. A glowing mass of white sma caught my attention. I had some energy stored there from when I gained my first followers. I had pretty much forgotten about that, as I hadn''t thought of a use for it. Perhaps that sort of energy could be used as a weapon? I focused on my Void Maniption. I let the smallest a bit out and zapped one of the nothings with it. The thing definitely was affected by the jolt. But instead of being vaporized and dispelled or whatever I wanted to happen to this being, it grew and darkened even further. Nope, that wasn''t what I wanted to do. The target was now about three times its original size and moved even faster. I could feel the energy he was pulling from me triple as well. Okay, so giving these things energy was not the right move. I cast around in my dustpan for anything else that might be useful. Could I release the humans I had in time out? Maybe. I couldn''t be sure they wouldn''t be angry with me, though. Now it didn''t seem to be time to use something unreliable if I had other options, so I continued to sort through my dustbin. As I moved the contents around in the energy, ck clouds darting to and fro overhead, I started to have an idea. From the beginning, I had always been aware of what was in my dustbin. But I only started to be able to sort through it like this once I got my Void Maniption mutation. Maybe it might have more potential than just sorting through the contents of my dustbin. What if. Not quite believing it would work, I simted the idea of reaching out with my dustbin to touch the beings floating around me. Nothing happened, but I could feel something. Something felt right about using the Void Maniption outside myself. It was possible, but these beings weren''t of the void exactly. I could feel there was no matching void around me. But I didn''t give up. I couldn''t give up. I could feel there was some kind of void nearby that my mutation was trying to work with, but the void was in my dustbin. Suddenly, I had another weird thought. If I could manipte the void I reached out, stretching with all my might. Slowly, ever so slowly, the inky ckness I hade to associate with my storage space oozed out from my chassis and reached toward the patch of nothing attacking me. It was just as I had imagined - a perfect ckness reflecting zero light. Its only features were its shape and, as it grew, the asional item from my dustbin that floated within. It stretched out like a bubble, slowly expanding. As its surface area grew, the rate at which it expanded also grew. Weirdly enough, it didn''t seem to have too much of an effect on the zombies or anything else around. Until it touched them. Then, it was like they had stepped into a tar pit. As they were slowly sucked in, I could sense them joining the rest of my dustbin''s contents. However, it was a different story for light. The sun''s rays seemed to bend and twist around my void, stretching and distorting until my sensors had trouble unscrambling the mess. The same effect caught the floating creatures as well. Directing the void''s flow, I reached out and just managed to brush the first dark cloud floating above as it scrambled to pull against the strange force. Its screech was unlike anything I''d ever heard it make before. It froze in ce, and my void slowly sucked the rest of it in. It screeched even louder and more frantically before finally falling silent as the void consumed it. With determination now, I forced the void bubble further and further out of me. The void inside my dustbin was infinite, but I could feel my battery plummeting at an rming rate. Even worse, I could feel my control of the void starting to falter. I couldn''t let it fail. It seemed that the consequences would be devastating if it did, even if I wasn''t sure how I knew. I kept an iron grip on the ever-expanding bubble of void, and it caught the next enemy and the next and the next. Their calls seemed to bring the others toward us as if it was a call for help, and the nothing-beings came flooding back to attack me. But I was ready. All around me, I could see that the screeching affected even the zombies. It seemed that the cries weren''t auditory or even a mental thing; the fluctuations picked up by my sensors indicated that it was affecting the energy of the creatures surrounding us. I could only hope that the humans inside the city would be all right. When I finally got thest of them, I started to reel the void in. It was a tenuous bncing act, and I had to transmute loads of material to keep my battery from faltering. Ipletely lost track of my surroundings. All my processing power was solely focused on containing the ever-shrinking bubble before it expanded and consumed something that I didn''t want it to. I felt the zombies reach for my now stilled form and bat at me with their arms. It, too, fell into the void. But I ignored it all. I couldn''t let the void escape my control. Chapter 157: Totally Not A Cult Chapter 157: Totally Not A Cult After Bee finally finished her immediately pressing work, she stood upright and stretched. She finally had a minute to check the notification waiting for her. LEVEL 45 REACHED. CHOOSE A SKILL: SCOURING STRIKE, CULT LEADERSHIP, HERD THE FLOCK It had been quite a while since she hadst gained a skill. Well, by her standards a least. That she had taken less than a decade between level 40 and level 45 would have already been considered fast by all reasonable metrics. By following her master, she had gained power and unheard-of leveling rates outside of everything but the wildest myths. More importantly, she was finally getting offered a skill she might want too. For far too long, everything had been cleaning or order rted, and she had never got the kind of shy skill that she had always wanted. A signature, one that didnt have to involve a broom. Looking at the options, she still hesitated. She couldn''t believe she wasn''t immediately choosing Scouring Strike. It was the first realbat skill she might be able to take. But as much as she insisted they weren''t a cult, in the privacy of her head, she could admit there might have been the slightest resemnce there. So being good at cult leadership might be useful enough that she should bury her pride and take the skill. It almost could convince her, but not quite. Thest still was also interesting, but it was hard to tell what the system meant. If it was about literally herding a flock of sheep, then it would be very disappointing. But if it was more rted to Void''s crypticmand to find lost sheep, then it would be like the cult option without the cult connotation. Sadly, it was too much of a risk to choose it. She would only level so many more times, and wasting one of her supposedly trump skill slots on a sheep-based skill just seemed like a wool-brained thing to do. Was she just trying to justify picking Scouring Strike? Maybe. But when she looked around, her situation seemed to warrant the extra firepower. While the other skills might only supplement her natural ability to run the church of the cleansing void. If she made it through this. With a smile, Bee epted her first realbat skill. Looking around for an enemy to try it out on, she saw that the soldiers had wisely kept the triage station clear of the undead. The wall of the shields and bodies the soldiers had put in ce of the gate was holding for now. They were rotating members of the wall in and out for regr breaks, and as the mop-up efforts of the few zombies that had managed to get past herpleted, more and more soldiers joined the reserves. Just when she was thinking about going to find themander, a horrifying screech echoed over the city. Not a familiar screech, either. It seemed to bypass the hands that she threw up to cover her ears and piece directly into her brain. Suddenly, it cut off. She opened her eyes to see the soldiers in disarray. Many had lowered their shields in distraction; the only saving grace to the situation was that the zombies seemed equally affected. Shouting came from behind her. Looking over her shoulder, an older level 41 man ran by, glowing greenish-yellow to her senses and yelling at everyone. Wherever he got near, officers and men snapped to alertness, and they started bellowing too. Soon everything was back in order, and the shield wall was marching forward, taking advantage of the undead''s distraction. Who was that man? He certainly seemed impressive. Level 40 was no joke. Seeing how hemanded everyone around him, it wasn''t too hard to figure out he was in charge. At the moment, he seemed a little too busy to talk to her, so she followed him at a distance waiting for things to settle back down so she could approach without disturbing everyone. The issue was that he never stopped moving, never stopped issuingmands, even if his yelling did cease once things were back under control. Soon the extra soldiers were no longer just waiting for their turn to rotate into battle. They were clearing the roads of rubble, and some inspected the wall to see if it would copse if they sent people back up on it. A few secondster, a few scouts ran back up the wall. As soon as they reached the top, they yelled in rm. Apparently, themander''s bellowing before represented his inside voice. Now though, his shout rang over the battle noise, clearly audible to even those up on the wall. "SCOUTS REPORT!" It took a couple seconds before they yelled back. It was a lot harder to make out what they were saying. "There theres a tornado, sir! Its, ah, its centered around a ck spot with a gold ring. And its got sparks shooting out everywhere. I don''t know what it is, sir!" The second one leaned over the inside of the wall. "He''s not crazy sir! I think you need to see this for yourself. It, uh, it looks like something is attacking the undead. And making short work of them, too." Bee heard themander mutter something to himself but wasn''t able to make out what it precisely was. He jogged over to the wall and made his way up. She was almost entirely certain that what they were describing was Void; she had seen it battle before. Still, she wanted to see this as well, so she followed up to the top of the wall. Sure enough, her master was chewing through the mass of the undead at an rming rate. Stepping up next to themander and scouts, she finally got the man''s attention. He just looked at her passively for a second before returning his gaze to Void. "Void is quite something. If that is in fact who that is? I wasn''t sure I understood my interaction with him earlier." Turning to Bee, he continued. "I take it you are the healer who held the gates?" When she nodded, he continued. "General Arthur of the northern army. I appreciate the help, but would you mind filling me in on what is going on? I don''t like not knowing everything that is going on on my battlefield." "I am High Priestess Bee." She answered in as formal a manner as she could. "I would be happy to fill you in. Void and I came to assist Caleb, when we received word of its state from some scout that made it to our church." Arthur looked her up and down with an appraising nce that reminded her of her father''s. "You seem young to be a High Priestess. Of what church do you represent?" "The Church of the Cleansing Void." Bee said with a little smile. "I can''t say that I have ever heard of that before." "We are new." her smile grew. "There hasn''t been a new god fo-" Arthur cut off mid-sentence. "Wait, did you say Cleansing Void?" "Yes. And before you ask, it is the same." Arthur looked over the wall and then back to Bee. "I just might be able to believe that." They stood there in silence, watching Void mop up the bulk of the undead forces. The moment didn''tst very long. A cry reminiscent of the ones that staggered everyone in the area rang out again. This was different, though. Instead of piercing desperation, it contained an anger that was hard for Bee to describe. This time, there was only one cry instead of an ovepping cacophony. She found it was easier to resist because of that. Even though the strength of this call vastly overpowered the ones before, theck of echoes helped her stand through it. This was clearly not the case for everyone, as the scouts on the wall sagged and shouts rose from below. Looking out, it seemed this attack was more targeted as well. The same being Bee saw taking down the gates was almost to the shield wall. And the men down there were not ready for it. Before she thought too much, Bee was vaulting over the wall and plummeting down. The wind flung her hair everywhere, and she was momentarily grateful for flying with her master. If not for that, she would never have had the courage to jump from such a height. She bent her knees as shended and didn''t have to roll to absorb the shock of the impact. A ring of dust flew up around her, and she imagined if she hadnded near someone, they would have felt the ground shake. Still trying to remain professional, she let a small smile creep onto her face. No one would see her enjoying how awesome that felt. She must have looked very impressive. It was too bad the undead didn''t feel fear. Less than a secondter, she did feel the ground shake. Looking over to the side, she saw that Commander Arthur had followed her down. His armor had added to his weight, and the cloud of dust kicked up was proportionallyrger. She frowned internally. He didn''t have to go and upstage her like that. Forcing herself to focus on the approaching threat, Bee looked forward again. The shadowy humanoid had more depth to it than the ones that she had been attacked by earlier. Its shape shifted slightly, details blurring and changing. The mostmon appearance it held was that of an aristocrat. The formal clothes and fancy tall hat meshed with a flickering monocle. Sometimes more casual attire would get into the mix, and the shifting outfit would look out of ce. "That wraith has been plugging us for weeks. I don''t know why it decided to attack now when it had been content to wait for so long." Arthur said as he rubbed something along his sword de. "If it is a wraith, I''m surprised it waited at all. From what I have read they are more aggressive than that." Bee responded. "Nothing about this campaign makes any sense." Arthur muttered in response. "I don''t think we can kill it. We need to hold it out of the city until mage support can arrive." Bee nodded her agreement. She had some undead countermeasures with her, but they weren''t designed for the more rare and powerful variants, so she didn''t have too much hope for sess. Still, she grabbed a vial as she readied her broom. This might be a good time to test out her new power. Without waiting, she flung the potion at the wraith from a distance. Instead of aiming for it directly, she sent the vial at its ghostly feet. The potion sshed up, and where it contacted the wraith, it lit up as if the droplets were made of embers. The only reaction the wraith gave was to float a few feet higher. The weapon might not be the most effective, though it was nice to see they could hurt it at least. Maybe if she was able to deal arger dose she would have to look for openings. Suddenly, the wraith charged. Arthur stepped forward to meet the wraith''s advance. But before it got to him, it ran square into Bee''s holy aura. It didn''t stop, but its form began to flicker more rapidly. She heard a hissing voice worm into her mind. "Such power from one so young. A pity it is not enough." Then it moved into her aura fully, and Arthur swung his sword at it. Chapter 158: A Ghost of a Chance Chapter 158: A Ghost of a Chance My struggle with the void felt like it took forever. With each nanosecond, it stayed outside of me; I could feel it trying to spread. It wanted to consume. Not in any monstrous malicious way, but more like a cloud of expanding smoke. It was simply its nature. Like how water was wet, the void was hungry. It was funny that it had taken such an effort to force it out of me, but the second that it got a taste of those weird energy ghosts, it only wanted more. The zombies running into me and getting consumed weren''t helping. My awareness faded as I locked my will against the primal force, and ever so slowly, it retreated into my dustbin. Finally, the bubble ofplete darkness shrunk to the size of a golf ball. With onest push, I had it locked away inside my dustbin. I checked on it, still on high alert, and it seemed to be slumbering safely again. Looking around, a diagnostic showed that only a few seconds had passed when it had felt like years to me. Was this what humans meant when they said they lost track of time? I resumed my standard cleaning protocol for the area, re-engaging the subroutines for the Divine Sword, Sanitation Lamp, Spray Bottle, and everything else. Still, there was one thing that piqued my interest. LEVEL 65 REACHED! CHOOSE A SKILL: SPIRITUAL CLEANSE, VOICE OF AUTHORITY, MICROFABRICATION Normally I hadn''t bothered to track when I leveled up. When I hit the next multiple of five, the system would show me the prompt to choose skills, and that was that. Though with so much time having passed since I hadst leveled up, I had checked on my progress a couple times. The experience I gained from my followers had been trickling in, and I was slowly growing in power. As long as they kept the castle clean and trained themselves, I would steadily increase in power. All that was to say that I wasn''t surprised at the notification. This was a moreplicated choice than I would have thought. Normally I didn''t have to agonize over the selection of the power-ups the system offered me. Either one was clearly better than all the others, or they were all bad. Here I had threepelling choices. Voice of Authority was interesting but not the highest on my list. I didn''t feel the need for more authority. Beatrice handling all leadership-rted duties was just fine with me. However, it did seem like it might give me a voice like the humans had. Being able to talk would be very useful. It was something I was valuing more and more nowadays. When I was previously offered another skill that might have given me speech, I had chosen Air Purifier over it. That had turned out quite disappointing. While it had be useful eventually, it couldn''tpare with universalmunication. It seemed a waste to invest in now, though. I was getting more and more people who could understand me, and it was no longer pressing. That made picking the option feel like an inefficient allocation of resources. If I really needed to talk to people, Beatrice could take care of it. Or Felix. Or Tanu. Microfabrication was tempting as well. I had reallye to enjoy creating things. From the first broom that I made to the scarf I had given Beatrice, each one was wonderful to create. While I was sure that this skill would greatly increase my crafting ability, I again didn''t really need it. Within me was a powerful void that I had control over. I was getting more dextrous all the time with it - heck, I could even make different metal alloys in there! If I trained my skill with Void Maniption, I was sure that I could improve to the point where this skill would be superfluous. This left only the first skill. My initial instinct was to pick it because the word Clean was in the name. While that was a satisfying reason on its own, I had broadened my thinking a lot recently. Be more enlightened as to the uses of things with more indirect cleaning benefits. No, thepelling part was the first word. Spiritual. I had heard Beatrice talk a lot about spirituality when she told others about our first adventures. I had never heard of the word before that. But it was often mentioned in rtion to a soul. I wasn''t exactly sure what a soul was, but it was apparently important to keep it pure. This interested me as I was always interested in anything that involved cleanliness. Just because I didn''t know what it was didn''t mean that I couldn''t eventually learn how to clean it. And learning how to clean new things was just what I needed at the moment. This could be my next big leap forward. It could be on par with the discovery of bacteria and viruses or maybe even the grabby arm. New things to clean and a new power to help do it seemed fitting. The other skill options might enhance the things I could already do. This offered me something new entirely. I couldn''t pass this up. Confirming my choice, a new sense was unveiled. My perception of the surrounding world shifted. This didn''te through my sensors or vision but through some other apparatus. All around me, within each of the undead, I could sense a small withered orb of ck light. Was this their "spirit"? My detection range wasn''t far. No more than a dozen feet in any direction, currently. That meant I couldn''tpare the orb with that of a normal human at the moment. If this was their spirit or soul, and I could cleanse it, could I save them? What would that do, exactly? Could I keep them from being such terrible mess-makers? Or was that simply wishful thinking? Even if I could fix their souls, I didn''t think I could fix their bodies, at least not without bringing them into my void and constructing Crystal recement parts for them. But that experiment was still in progress. Reaching out with my new sense, I lifted a nearby zombie into the air and away from my spinning Divine Sword. Then I tried to remove the ckness from its soul. It fought me every single millimeter. The ckened soul was tougher than the streaks of tar that had hardened on the castle wall. Still, I pried away the gunk. The resistance increased exponentially, and within a fraction of a second, it snapped. A tiny fleck of the ckened material ked off of the spirit. However, the resistance didn''te without cost. Even as I considered my attempt, I watched the soul crumble into dust, fading into some strange substance I could not track. I received a small rush of energy from the remaining bit of the zombie as it copsed before me. Well, that was a new way to fight enemies. Problematically, it took far too long to destroy one, and I didn''t have the ability to split my focus on multiple souls yet. This effort also took a lot of battery to use - not as much as the void had, but I still had much more efficient methods of cleaning up this mess. In the future, maybe I would be strong enough to properly cleanse them, but for now, that wasn''t an option. Shrugging off the distraction, I picked up where I left off. My focus shifted entirely to the task at hand. The air swept my targets into groups for more efficient gathering, and soon I was humming along at a steady clip once more. I hadn''t had so much fun cleaning in a long while. Everything had be too easy, too effortless. It hadn''t felt like work. To be fair, I had never found it tedious, but at least I felt like I was pushing myself in a productive way here. Just sitting in a room for a few minutes was not the same. Sweeping up thisrge cluster of the undead in the most efficient manner.Now that required all my effort. If I was content to take care of this task in a less-than-optimal way, then it wouldn''t have taken so much attention. Still, the sooner it was taken care of, the better in my mind. Clearly, the humans had been having trouble with these mess makers, and I thought they would appreciate them being gone. A few moments after I had hit my stride again, I sensed a few people on top of the wall watching me. I could make out that one of them was Beatrice. I would have waved to her if it hadn''t thrown off my rhythm, but sadly I couldn''t break my flow. Then the young girl jumped off the wall. This caused my processor to freeze for a second in panic, but I soon recovered. Shended safely in a very cool-looking pose. I''d have to let her know how cool it was after this. A secondter, themander followed her down. Hisnding was no-nonsense, and the way he held himself radiated an air of confidence. Dang. Beatrice still had a few things to learn about looking intimidating. Maybe it woulde with age. The two of them stood in the way of a muchrger incorporeal being. I kept my attention on them for a few moments until I saw Beatrice throw something at it and hurt the thing slightly. Oh good, they would be able to fight it. I would continue monitoring their engagement in the background to see if they needed help, but I returned my main focus to the task at hand and picked it up a notch. Bee''s heart dropped as the wraith passed into her holy aura without so much as flinching. The thing was giving off a yellowish aura to her senses. Curious about how something so clearly unholy could withstand her power, she ran a more detailed Scan on it. Name: Gerald. Level: 48. Race: wraith, undead. Highest Stat: Intelligence. Weakest Stat: Str. It out-leveled her. That was concerning. That might exin why the Holy Aura wasn''t nearly as effective on this guy. It had worked great on all those zombies and shades, but she really hadn''t had a chance to test it on something around her own level. Anything over level 40 was scarce and specifically was fought by teams of adventures. The wraith materialized a walking stick in its hand and moved to intercept Arthur''s iing swing. The sword met the mystical ethereal walking stick, and they shed in a very solid manner. It sent the wraith floating backward from the force of his blow, but it seemed rtively undamaged. Bee and Arthur both ran at it from opposing sides. The wraith reached its free hand towards Arthur and clenched. The burly man gritted his teeth and froze up as though they were locked in a contest of will. Luckily, that meant the wraith was distracted too. She took advantage of the opening Arthur''s personal battle gave her. Lunging forward, she tried to pierce its side with her divinely made weapon. Surely it would have some effect. At thest possible second, the wraith snapped out of his focused trance and redirected her thrust with the walking stick. It sliced past its ethereal body, missing it by inches. She stumbled forward at theck of resistance, but it was a ploy. As she moved past the wraith, she let go of her broom with one hand and mmed a palm strike into his center, activating her newest skill. A Scouring Strike ripped out of her palm with a golden sh of holy light. The sensation was strangely abrasive and satisfying. It felt like she was scrubbing at the very soul of the wraith. It hissed in pain and retreated back out of her reach. The being went incorporeal for a second, disappearing from view. They both looked around, wondering where it went, before she glimpsed the shadowy shape right behind Arthur. It materialized with a hand on his shoulder. A sudden swelling of energy sent him to his knees, and the wraith started to chuckle. Chapter 159: Specter of Doubt Chapter 159: Specter of Doubt Bee rushed over to where Arthur trembled on his knees. Leaping, she again tried to spear the tip of her broom through the wraith''s chest. It faded out of existence, releasing Arthur right before she managed tond a blow. Bee whirled around looking for the opponent but didn''t see anything. As she sent furtive nces in all directions, Arthurs ragged breathing stabilized. He stabbed the ground with his sword, forcing himself back up to his feet. Bee felt a cold hand on the back of her neck. She tried to roll forward out of the wraiths grip, but before she could react the strength left her body. It felt like she had run a marathon twice already today. Like she was level two again. She fought the suddenly leaden weight of her limbs. Gritting her teeth and screwing her eyes shut, it took all her will to stay standing and not copse on her face right away. As the exhaustion clouded her mind, she bit down on her tongue. The pain helped to focus and gather her willpower in an attempt to resist. Once she had control over her mind again, she tried to push out with Holy Aura and condense It around the wraith behind her as it drained her life force. The drain continued. Nor did she hear any noises of pain. Struggling to raise her arm, she maneuvered it shakily behind herself in a feeble strike. Her hand met something solid, and the scouring Strike released. The drain on her energy lessened slightly, but only enough that she could open her eyes and look down. She realized she had just struck its walking stick. Just then, there was a whoosh above her head, and the touch vanishedpletely. Coming back to her senses, she struggled to stay on her feet. Arthur was standing over her, sword in hand and ring intently behind her. The wraith had backed up a few feet and was looking at a small gash in what appeared to be a misty overcoat. "Now, that wasn''t very polite. It''s rude to interrupt someone''s meal." The wraith spoke in a very proper ent, but the mocking tone was all too prominent. "I say, is it too much to hope for some decent conversation? Before I eat you, of course. Do you know how boring zombies are to talk to?" The wraith moved forward, slowly circling around them. Arthur offered Bee a steadying hand as she recovered herself. They moved to stand back to back as they kept their enemy in sight. The skeletons aren''t any better. All they want to talk about is their glorious god or maybe their leader sometimes. Simply droll. It''s all about crusading this or service that. No understanding of the arts or literature at all." Bee felt both her Repair and Improved Repair skills working overdrive to rece her drained energy and health. They weren''t nearly as efficient as they would be on a normal injury. She had burned herself many times making potions, especially when she was experimenting recently, and those are always healed in seconds. This would take a lot longer to rece the energy she had lost. She felt at her belt for her potions. There were only a few healing potions left, and she probably couldnt use more of the enhancement potions for a while. Feeling the older man pressed against her back, she wondered if he had the same kind of regeneration skills as she did. He seemed far more solid, like he was recovering better as well. It could be that he was a soldier and had morebat-oriented skills rather than her priest-cleaning ss. A lifetime of war would get him skills a lot more suited tobat than hers and maybe just more experience in battle. He was also older and probably had higher physical stats than she did. Realizing that her exhausted mind was getting distracted, she focused back on the wraith. It was still talking. She wasn''t sure if this was a strategy to distract them, or if it was honestly that desperate to talk to someone. "...I''ve had to nearly convert to a brand new religion, too. Can you believe that? Some undead god, no less. The Father of Darkness they call him, some sort of ruffian that wants to cleanse all humans. Believe me, I can get behind the message, but it just seems a little bit Well, I dont know, fanatical? Not my style at all." As the wraith finished speaking, it faded from their sight. So it was a distraction? Perhaps the words werent even true to begin with. If they were, that would be disturbing. The idea that the undead started a religion was unheard of. Such a perverse one too. She felt energy materialize between her and Arthur. They both whirled around but had to pull their strikes just to not hurt each other. The wraith materialized before them and struck out with its palms on either side, striking both of them in the chest. Once again, Bee felt her senses withdraw, and she stumbled backward. There was no long-term drain, and it only took her a few moments before she was reoriented. But by the time she got her sight back, she was staring up into the sky, blinking. Struggling to get to her knees, her limbs were shaky. As she rose she saw that Arthur was holding back the wraiths cane with his de. He pushed the ghostly being back, taking a swipe at it, but the wraith slipped underneath with rming speed and ced its palm on Arthurs chest. Therger man copsed to the ground, sprawled out. She needed to act. Somehow she had managed to maintain hold of her broom. Without time to get up, she twisted her body andunched her precious divine artifact like a javelin. Unfortunately, brooms were not meant to be thrown. The uneven bnce caused the weapon to tumble end over end through the air. Despite that, it still got the job done. The bristle side struck first. It swatted the wraith away, knocking it off Arthur, but themander struggled to regain his feel. The wraith lunged for her instead. She tried to strike with her palm, but it saw the attacking and dodged around to touch her shoulders. Soon, her senses were gone as well. The drain onlysted for a fraction of a moment this time. Prepared for what was going to happen, she fought it from the beginning. Her Holy Aura and Repair skills worked in concert to push back against the sensation. She focused on the thought of the people she was protecting and how her master believed in her. Her senses sharpened. Then, just like that, the sensation was gone. Having lost less energy this time, she was able to recover from the wraith''s attack quicker. She saw that Arthur had gotten to his feet and, instead of just throwing his weapon like she had, he was forcing the wraith back with abination of shes and feints. Scrambling for her weapon, she crawled a dozen feet and picked it up. Using the broom to lever herself to her feet, she charged back into the fight to relieve Arthur. It seemed that the wraith could only teleport so frequently though as it didn''t immediately try to drain them again. Instead, it continued talking. "And can you believe our glorious leader is just a dead rat? I didn''t believe it when he summoned me. I''ve never seen an undead rat with such intelligence. It was smarter than most people. Still, he truly does need to work on his image. "But he does have a mind for warfare. Truly. Though, I suppose hes not infallible. He told me not to attack and to just wait things out, but I was certain I would be able to take this city. You lot are fairly weak, after all. I''m just going to get into a little bit of trouble when hees back and finds the majority of his zombies are dead. What can I say though? Cant make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Im sure theres plenty in this city that can rece those. "It''s really a shame that so many people are escaping from the back, though. I''d have them chased down, but most of my troops are busy. Oh well. Stupid zombies can only do stupid things. You know what they say, if you want something done you have to do it yourself." The incorporeal gentleman then disappeared again. Bee realized that its strategy of distracting them with speeches was working. Much to her shame, they had spent their time sitting there listening to him talk while he regained his ability to teleport. Were they charmed somehow? The military man at least shouldn''t be taken in by such tactics. Looking over her shoulder at him, she saw that he was in much worse shape than she thought. His breathing was ragged, and his brow was covered in sweat. Still, he stood tall, shoulders back and his eyes dancing around, checking hiding spots and ready to fight again. Perhaps he wasn''t falling for the tactic but rather using the time to recover himself. That would make sense. She was recovering much better than she had initially feared, luckily. The wraith appeared between them again. This time, she was ready with a Scouring Strike. She smashed it into his chest, and it was sent flying back through Arthur. He flinched but didn''t copse this time. The wraith skidded through the air for 15 feet before slowing to a halt. "Ah, I see you are learning. Well, good for-" Bee didn''t let him finish his sentence, sensing that he was trying to distract her again. She dashed forward and swung her broom at the wraith. She had been aiming for its chest where it floated several feet in the air. It dropped down, passing through the ground under her strike. She rolled around, looking for it to appear behind her, but instead, she just felt its hand grasp her foot. She desperately stabbed down at the spot indicated by her Improved Pathing, and it released her. That was the good news. The bad news was that there was now a sharpened broom-spear sticking out of her foot. With some choice words for her skill, Bee yanked the weapon out of her boot and immediately focused her regenerative skills on it while chugging a healing potion. It was only a few seconds before she was mostly healed, but during that time, Arthur was left to fight alone. Instead of just draining the man, the wraith swung its walking stick in a flurry of blows. Arthur managed to deflect them and even slipped in an asional counterattack, but the things ability to dip in and out of the ground was clearly throwing him off. She charged back into the fight with a very slight limp. Trying to catch the wraith from behind, she made to swing until her Improved Pathing skill warned her off. She backed off just in time to avoid a walking stick to the shins. Getting struck with a stick wouldn''t likely hurt her very much, and for a moment she wondered if her skill was malfunctioning somehow. But something about this attack was different. Her skill clearly agreed that she did not want to be hit by this semic corporeal weapon. Her instincts told her that would be disastrous. The exchange went back and forth for almost a minute, the wraith never even once being in danger of getting hit. But Arthur and Beatrice were both clearly slowing down. As high level as they were, they simply couldnt keep up. They were fighting something that did not breathe, did not get tired, and was also slightly higher level than them. Not to mention stole their own energy. The situation was not looking good. After a few seconds more of melee, the wraith disappeared again. This time they were careful, scanning the ground and behind them. However, still, it managed to smack the side of Arthur''s head with its hand, sending him stumbling and falling, clearly disoriented. And then it swung its cane towards Beatrice. Bee blocked with her broom handle and tried to counter, but it did something very uncharacteristic and kicked her shin. It was more surprise than anything that made her falter. The blownded with surprising solidity,pletely unexpected given how incorporeal it had been so far.. As she stumbled, caught off guard, and it smashed its cane into her side. She felt several ribs break, and she was flung back as if struck by a hammer wielded by a giant. As she crashed to the ground, she rolled head over heels, scraping her limbs and back and twisting her neck in a painful way. Eventually, she mmed into a rock. Looking up, she realized it was the city wall. Trying to get to her feet, her condition just wouldn''t allow it. The arm she used to brace herself up bent at a weird angle and wouldn''t support her leg weight. She was having trouble sitting up with just core strength. Instead, Bee slumped against the wall like a puppet with its strings cut. Tilting her head slightly, she saw Arthur was on his feet but clearly losing ground to the opponent. He fought valiantly, but the level difference and the damage he had already taken were too much. There was nothing she could do. She was out of this fight and soon Arthur would be too. Bee squeezed her eyes shut, willing her repair skills to work harder and faster. If this thing got into the city, it would cause so many problems. Who knew how many people would be hurt? As she slowly faded out of consciousness, thest thing she heard was a soft whirring noise. Chapter 160: Avoiding The Problem Chapter 160: Avoiding The Problem When I finished mopping up thest of the zombie horde, there were a few irregr things to clean up. There were some more skeletons that acted strangely. Again, instead of attacking me like they had in the catbs, these skeletons bowed to me. Others got on their knees and pressed their foreheads to the floor. Thest skeletons around here had done this same thing. It also looked remarkably simr to some humans I had seen. I didn''t understand what they were doing, but it didn''t change the fact that they needed to be locked away. I wasn''t too worried about keeping them in there for a while. They had spent enough time in my dustbin before without seeming to get changed. A little more probably wasn''t going to hurt them. Clearly, I couldn''t just unleash them like I had donest time. Even though I had a very good reason to do so at the time, perhaps it hadn''t been the best idea. It seems that I may have yed a small role in the destruction caused by this horde, as some of its members were once under my watch. I''d have to be more careful about what I released from my dustbin. I thought back to the humans who were serving a timeout sentence. If the skeleton''s behavior was any guide, it wasn''t going to be simple to just release them. In fact, I should maybe consider tracking down the rest of the things I had stored away for various reasons. Who knew what they were up to now? As the dozen or so skeletons zipped into my dustbin, I looked around. Seemed like everything was cleared up. The field outside of the city was newly spotless. And just in time. Checking back in with Arthur and Beatrice''s fight, I hurried over. Things were not going well. I''d been monitoring them, but there hadn''t been any immediate danger up to this point. At least, not enough to cross my subroutine''s danger threshold. Maybe I should have set the threshold lower or dedicated more predictive modeling processors to the task. As I drew near, I watched Beatrice get flung against the castle walls at an rming speed. I reached out with air maniption to cushion hernding. Still, I didn''t have enough time to decelerate herpletely, and she crunched into the wall with a quite painful-soundingnding. That looked nasty. And she had been doing so well with staying out of troubletely tooShe would be ok, of course, but still. Things like that made me regret never fully figuring out spare human parts. I recalled my previous view of the "spare parts" matter. It actually made for quite a good joke since I realized humans didn''t use spare parts. They grew their own. I was only able tough because I could sense that she was still alive, and clearly, she would be able to heal with a little bit of assistance as long as she didn''t fully break. It was so funny when I didn''t know what things were. Again I chuckled at my own ignorance. Spare human parts. Seeing how much I didn''t know was continually humbling, and I was sure d I was figuring things out. The people at home had never even mentioned things like that. Whenever they got hurt, they just went to the doctor. In my defense, it was fair to think about the doctor in that context as just a human mechanic. In reality, they were just skilled magicians who helped humans regrow their parts. So I was close. Anyway. I set the digression on humor and misunderstandings to the side for the moment. Arthur needed my help, so I didn''t linger on Beatrice''s fallen form longer than it took to verify that she was stable. And dedicate a few more subroutines to ensuring that nothing woulde close to disturbing her. The human armymander stood unbroken in front of another dark spot on my sensors. This one was a more dense-looking void shaped like a human. Arthur''s shoulders were set back defiantly, his sword held up if not in a perfect guard form. His exhausted posture was still better than most of the kids'' best attempts. I couldn''t help but admire his grit and determination. This man had a job to do and would see it through. I could respect that. I felt the same when I first started cleaning a particrly nasty room. Of course, I hadn''t had a challenge at that level for quite a long time. As much as I respected his stand, it was clear that he wasn''t going to be able to do this himself. Otherwise, I would have dly rolled aside, but I couldn''t spare his pride for the cost of his life. Many people still counted on him. So I trundled over and reached out with my Void Maniption. The dark ghost had really ignored me up to that point. To be fair, I did look a lot less threatening once all of my extra tools were put away. As I neared, though, it tried to turn and face me to take a better look. The Void moved faster. The second the bubble of void touched the side of its shoe, it froze. I could feel it struggling, but its energy was only partially under its control now. "What-" With inexorable slowness that onlysted a fraction of a second, it dissolved, whatever strange matter it wasposed of being pulled into my void. It barely had a chance to get a word out. It was going to be a long project to reform it if that was even possible. Still, if it wanted to get out of the timeout, then it would have to be taught a lesson. First, I''d have to teach it that doing what it did to Beatrice was not eptable. That would be a very satisfying lesson to teach. My battery plummeted as a result of the brief exchange. Luckily, I had learned and transmuted a huge chunk of matter in advance. Keeping the Void close enough that I could bring it back in quickly also saved me a great deal of overheating. Still, it took all my concentration for several ticks of a clock before I could focus on the outside world again. Arthur was staring at me. His sword lowered until the point rested on the ground, and his mouth hung slightly open. With a slight questioning beep, I prompted him to speak. Clearly, he must be wanting to ask a question, right? He blinked a few times before clearing his throat. "That was Thank you. Er, Void." I beeped a happy note to convey that it was no problem at all. However, I still had things to do. Rolling towards my human, I settled next to Beatrice and waited for her to repair. Roscoe reeled back into a sitting position when he felt his bond to the wraith snap. What had gone wrong? He had left Gerald specific instructions about maintaining the siege while Roscoe was away recruiting. It should have been simple: there was pretty much no case where the humans could gather enough might to actually crush the wraith. His tail twitched with irritation. Gerald was strong. Almost too strong. Roscoe was fairly certain that he would be able to destroy the wraith if things came down to it, but only because of his dark magic. Only recently had he started to reach a simr level of power. Plus, the inherent incorporeal nature of Gerald''s body should make it nearly impossible for him to be killed. Not without very specific magic and counters. The door swung open with a bang against its hinges as one of the elite skeletons entered. He had a panicked look about him. If a skeleton could truly look panicked, at least. "Reverend Father, hast thou felt the disturbance? ''Tis as though many of my brothers have absconded, fled this ne for another. Their connections to me severed all in a single swoop!" Roscoe shook his head and chittered back. "No but I felt the passing of Gerald. Clearly something went very wrong back in Caleb." "Should we harken back?" The skeleton asked, readying himself to go send messages. "No. Now I don''t think we should. If an opening was given, that humanmander would have no doubt taken it and I assume our forces are no more. If we were lucky they must have weakened the humans greatly. But even then, we are nearly starting over. There are many more humans to recruit over here. They gather much more densely just a little south." Roscoe smirked. "Who would have thought? Such a wealth of soldiers, and so much to be purified." "Yes, Reverend Father. Truly a work worthy of the great darkness itself. Then how should we proceed?" The skeleton snapped to attention, waiting for orders. Roscoe had been careful to only take the most zealous of his followers with him. He neededplete loyalty for these ns. Some of the others had expressed doubts that this crusade was really the will of their Lord and Master. They were a bit uneasy about the recruitment drives he left to pursue, as well; those doubts might slow him down. Not that it mattered anymore, though, if they were gone. "We''ll press forward. step up the efforts and we will start with the greatest poption centers this time. We''re not going to repeat the same mistakes and allow the resistance to build this time." A wide grin split his narrow face, whiskers twitching in anticipation of their great works. The Warden made a familiar trip down to his conference room in the bowels of the King''s Castle. To call it a conference room was a bit grandiose. Still, the small firece and old wooden table and chairs were his favorite meeting ce for his operatives. This trip was slightly different. He normally didn''t like to hear bad news, but this time was worse than normal. Judging based on who had summoned him and the time frame, he could figure out the news he was about to get. And it wasn''t good. In fact," not good news" was such a vast understatement that he could only shake his head at the thought. As The Warden made it through the final door and slid into a seat, he looked over at the once-rising star of their little organization. "This doesn''t look good Harold. I''m sure you understand." Not only had the man already run away from major trouble twice, but it seemed that he had failed for a third time. Harold winced. The Warden wielded his disappointed tone like a knife. He didn''t speak, but it was clear he understood how precarious his position was. "You were given a fairly light punishment from yourst failure. All you had to do was help the Undeads College for a little bit. If you just kept your head down for a few months, we would have been back here under much better terms and the Demon''s College would have begun a reformation." The Warden stopped looking at Harold and gazed into the fire. "How in Deusvult''s name did you mess something that simple up?" It was an honest question. After nearly two decades of working with Harold, the Warden wouldn''t have called him anything butpetent; thest year had certainly called that into question. Harold gathered himself before speaking. Clearly, he had some nned-out excuses. The Warden didn''t really want to hear it, but he would set him straight after the tap ran dry. "The Undead College tenure went well. With some small assistance from me, we achieved a couple of breakthroughs that allowed us to be significantly more effective in the fight against this gue." The Warden''s face remained impassive. He hadn''t honestly expected the words of a politician toe out of his subordinate''s mouth. The man should just own his mistakes, not butter them up with words. His time as a dean had clearly dulled the edge he''d gotten from his years ofbat service. "We received calls for aid from Caleb. Clearly, Arthur was not getting support in his fight against the undead. After some internal debate, the Undead College decided that its very existence was based on its ability to aid in the control and prevention of the undead. So we made as many countermeasures as we could possibly transport and rushed over to assist. I have to say that, though I''m sure you will take my words with a grain of salt, it was a good thing we did. If we had note in time, Caleb would have fallen much sooner and morepletely than it did. "After we broke through the siege into the castle, we helped hold it for many days. We repelled attack after attack and only through our countermeasures were the incorporeally-natured undead repelled." "And yet the city still fell." It wasn''t a question. The Warden knew it hadn''t, but did Harold know? Though he''d have to verify himself how effective the college''s countermeasures had really been. Still, it clearly wasn''t enough. "Yes. it still fell. But not because of the undead. Well, not entirely." Harold took a deep breath. "They had blown off the gate but we were in the process of stemming the tide. I believe the city had a decent chance of still standing but then It appeared. The monster that has gued me these past several months showed up. Right outside of our walls. That''s when I knew we were doomed. Preemptively, I decided that it was best to get as much of the civilian poption out while we could and get a message to you and the King." Harold said, his jaw tight and his eyes fixed ahead on the fire. In a low and dangerous tone, the Warden asked a pointed question that made it clear that he understood what Harold was skating around. "Do you not know what a messenger is?" "I-I didn''t think there was any hope of the city standing with that beast there and saw no reason to throw my life away for no gain." Harold stuttered. The Warden couldn''t tell if he was embarrassed or afraid. Maybe both. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. That dang headache was back. "Well, news has arrived. The city has not fallen. At least ording to Arthur''s pigeon." Stiffening in his chair, Harold looked over, surprise evident on his face. "How?" "It appears they received some assistance. The description of their savior seems familiar." Harold nearly choked, his eyes bugging out in panic. "We must act. If it took the city and subverted the northern army Things are worse than I feared." "This news is the only reason we are having this meeting. It appears your actions were not so unjustified, even if they do not cast you in a favorable light. You are lucky we have so many other problems now that I can''t afford to waste even an ipetent Operator." Harold flinched at the news of his demotion from Dean back down to Operator but took it with remarkable grace. "It seems several of our neighbors have found out that our army''s attack might be more dyed due to internal strife. Many of them have decided to preemptivelyunch an offensive themselves. Or find other ways to fortify their defenses. Normally they would not be our concern, but there are a few other resting ces of Lieutenants where unusual activity has been reported." The Warden said, tightening his fist. How could everything be copsing around him like this? After so many years of keeping it a secret? "So. I want you to go with the infiltrator and see what you can find out. Seems that I''ll have to take personal control of dealing with the mess you left here." Chapter 161: Clean up, Everybody Clean Up Chapter 161: Clean up, Everybody Clean Up I surveyed the battlefield, running my sensors across the city. It wasn''t in great shape, but the ce seemed safe enough. At least the few remaining undead inside were being taken care of. Satisfied that the danger had passed and nothing required my intervention, I turned to Beatrice. She was in less than ideal shape. The fight with that ghostly wraith had done significant damage, but I could already tell that her own skills were working on repairs. Going over to her, I could feel my passive domain assisting her recovery. Bones shifted back into ce, and fleshy tendons reconnected themselves. There was still going to be quite some time before she was back to 100%, but my continued presence and focus were helping. I sat down by her side, hovering just a few inches above the dirt. Once I was confident that she was stable and I couldn''t do more to help, I turned toward the patiently waiting Arthur. Themander of the human armies looked in only slightly better shape than Beatrice; several different ribs appeared to be broken, along with cuts and contusions galore. Still, he stood strong. He was repairing much slower than Beatrice. My presence was helping shift his ribs back into ce, but the rest of his damage would take weeks to heal at this rate. It probably had something to do with Beatrice''s innate healing magic as a doctor. Despite his many injuries, he coughed and inclined his head towards me. "May I have a minute of your time, My Lord?" I wasn''t sure where this "my lord" business came from. My previous interactions with him had been rather cordial, so I didn''t see the need for sudden respect. Still, I didn''t have any way to tell him he was going overboard, so I just indicated for him to continue. "Miss Bee indicated to me that you two hade to help. I assume you are the Void that she talked about?" The man said with his fist sped to his chest. I beeped what I hoped was a confirmation. "First, I must thank you for your timely assistance. Sincerely, I don''t know how things would have progressed if you hadn''t made it in time. I just wanted to ask-" Arthur cut off as soldiers poured through the space where the gate had been. "Excuse me for one second." He turned towards the soldiers. The man was very loud. I wasn''t aware that a single human could reach that volume through voice alone. As he bellowed at the soldiers, I more closely examined the city. Saying it was a mess was an understatement. The entrance had taken the most damage, leaving piles of shattered boulders and crumbled masonry scattered across the open space. The giant metal gatesy twisted and warped on the ground nearby. Inside the city wasn''t much better. Many houses had copsed in the assault, and several wooden structures were on fire. I could see many humans scurrying around, trying to prevent further damage, probably. Others were just sitting on the rubble, staring aimlessly into the distance, while others were digging through the wreckage, looking for something. Checking more thoroughly, I found there were only a few dozen small groups of zombies still in the city. But even as I watched, a group of humans extinguished one of them. And they are rapidly dealing with thest remaining ones in a practiced and professional manner. It was good to see that it wouldn''t be a problem. Focusing on Beatrice, I continued monitoring the situation as, one by one, the small groups of zombies were hunted down and exterminated. This kept me busy for 15 minutes and 38 seconds before Arthur returned. "Sorry about that. They should be good to start the cleanup without me for a few minutes." I told him not to worry about it. Cleaning up was very important, and it wasn''t like I had anywhere to go. I wasn''t going to be leaving Beatrice''s side until she was significantly more recovered. "So. If I may, what do you n to do now?" Arthur asked in a polite tone. I tried to give him a quick rundown. I was going to clean up the city, then return to clean the castle and take care of all the people there. It was a pretty simple n. I didn''t think it would require much more exnation. Apparently, I was wrong. "Well I still can''t understand a word of what you''re saying." The big man frowned. "But let me tell you my ns and we can talk again when Miss Bee wakes up." He straightened himself up again and started talking as if delivering a report. "There are a few factors that make me think this is not the end of the undead threat. First, the tactics of this group changed suddenly in thest couple of days, and not for the better. This assault was uncharacteristic of themander that had been coordinating their forces until now. "Second, we observed a drastic reduction in enemy forces several days ago. This coincided with the more aggressive tactics, maybe only a day before that. "Third, many of the prominent members of the undead army are missing. We are also not seeing nearly as many corpses as we should." He coughed. "Well, that''s in part due to your contributions. Still, the numbers didn''t add up at the beginning of the assault. "All this is to say that I believe themander has taken arge portion of his army and gone elsewhere. What his purpose is, I don''t know. Perhaps he was running out of time for something or just wanted to assemble more undead to take the city. Regardless, it''s something we can''t let go unchecked. So." Arthur shifted and crossed his arms. "I n to take the majority of my army and follow the trail. It would be very helpful if you would lend us some assistance. We need to exterminate the undead threat before it snowballs as bad as it did in this province." Arthur finished making his case. It was quitepelling. I did not want to see everything corrupted again like I had in this city. Much less see something like Greg again. I still remember the haunting empty streets of that ce. Of course, I''d have to talk to Beatrice about this once she was awake. Until then, there wasn''t much I could say. In the meantime, I was curious about something. I reached out with my new Spiritual Cleanse ability. Small orbs of light became visible to my sensors, one floating inside each nearby human. They were much different than the entirely ck ones I found in the zombies. Pretty much all of the humans'' souls had a decent amount of darkness wrapped around them, but not so much that I couldn''t see the lighting out. I guessed that was good. Looking over at Beatrice, I saw hers was very bright. There was a single dark smudge marring the surface, but that was it. I reached out and almost absentmindedly buffed it away. The little ck dust came off effortlessly. Clearly, this was what it was supposed to look like. If anyone''s soul would be a good reference point, then it would be Beatrice''s. I peered over at Arthur''s. His was a bit different. The bits of darkness on it were much more sunk in than with Beatrice''s. I didn''t reach out and scrub it clean yet, though. I wasn''t sure if such a thing would be rude. I wanted to get to know him a bit first. Still, his soul wasn''t so dirty that I could have a bad opinion of him. Perhaps I could use this ability to determine how likely someone was to cause problems or be a mess-maker? I wasn''t sure if they could consciously control their soul''s state, but it must be a good sign to keep it clean. Obviously. Seeing that Arthur was waiting for a response, I told him that everything was good and we would talk when Beatrice woke up. He seemed to understand as he nodded and marched away, almost immediately shouting again. As people ran toward him, he started pointing, and one by one, people dashed away to go take care of things. Refocusing back on Beatrice, I noticed that she was making decent progress. Now that she was in a slightly more stable condition, I rearranged her limbs using air maniption so they were in a morefortable position. Still, the rocky ground wouldn''t make for a good recovery. This was not an ideal charging station at all. I scanned around to find a human charging pad: abed, as they called them. Just as I was about to lift her and move her to a morefortable ce, a young officer ran up. "Would you like some assistance?" he asked, motioning to Beatrice. I said yes, but as he moved to pick her up, I lifted her up off the ground with beds of air. It would keep her morefortable and safe. He backed off, raising his hands. "Uh, well, okay. Just just follow me. I''ll take you to some ce where she can rest." Before I blindly followed him, I checked him out with my new spiritual sense. At the core of his being was a ball that was about half the brightness of Beatrice''s. I still hadn''t collected enough data to know whether or not that was a good thing. But it wasn''t too ck. I decided there was no harm in trusting him. He didn''t feel like a threat or anything. If he was, I could probably handle it anyway. I followed the young man back into the city. I hovered over the piles of copsed bricks as he picked his way through them, keeping Beatrice securely wrapped and away from any jagged outcroppings. It took us 14 minutes, but eventually, he led us into arge building that had many rooms with beds in it. Not full-sized beds, though. They seemed to be like miniature human charging pads. They were lessfortable than the ones Beatrice liked so much, but I did remember that she used to charge on the floor all the time when we first met. It was good enough. Gently, I settled her down in one. Pulling the nkets around her, I made sure she was fully covered and in what looked to be afortable position. Tucking her in gave me a sense of nostalgia for our early adventures. It had really been a while since she had hurt herself this badly. I was just happy that she was okay. I extended my arm and patted her on the head gently. That taken care of, I settled under the cot to wait. Seeing that we werefortable, the man closed the door behind us and left us alone. There were a few things I wanted to check before anything else, so I shut off my senses and started to meditate. It wasn''t 100 percent necessary to do anymore, but I still found that my control over my Void Maniption was much more fine-tuned this way. Driving into my dustbin, I considered everything I had picked up recently. I had transmuted a fair number of zombie corpses, but I still had thousands of them inside. I felt their mass and considered how much energy they would generate. I didn''t think it would be enough to get me to the next threshold for skill, so I saved it for an emergency. The episode here with Void Maniption demonstrated just how important it was to have backup fuel. I also noticed that I again had some skeletons. They were reassembling themselves within my dark dimension. They seemed much calmer than they had thest time they were here. I wasn''t sure what to do with them, but I felt like I couldn''t let them loose again, not the same way I had previously. Lastly, though, there was the wraith. At least, that''s what Beatrice and Arthur had been calling it. Only now that it was surrounded by my void could I tell the difference between it and normal energy? The energy that made up the being had a certain vor to it, something marking it as one singr entity, separate from the rest of the world. Due to its nature, I struggled to get much of a grasp of it. It didn''t seem to be able to be converted to energy as it was already what it was. Simr to the energy I had stored away from starting a religion, I couldn''t just funnel it into my levels. I still needed to find a use for that energy. I didn''t think this living energy would work for the same purposes. I would need to look into it further. Settling in, I started probing at it while waiting for Beatrice to wake up. Chapter 162: Several Sullied Souls Chapter 162: Several Sullied Souls Bee woke up feeling sore all over. Examining the room around her, she found that someone must have moved her into some temporary hospital. The room was small, barelyrge enough to contain the small cot she was on. Even the smallest movements pained her as she tried to sit up. The sensation was bad enough that she gave up after just getting her head off of her pillow. She felt her abdominals. Just touching them sent waves of aches all through her torso. Staring up at the ceiling, she wondered how long she had been out for. Checking in with her skills, she found that the twin repair skills had been working hard. That probably ounted for both how much she had recovered and how dead tired she felt. She focused on directing them to her most painful areas, trying to squeeze out thest drops of energy that she could muster. She let out a soft groan as the pain started to ease, then flinched as a beep sounded from directly below her. Her involuntary spasm made her extra aware of all the bruises along her body but it also sent a jolt of energy through her. It wasnt just in her imagination. The skills that had just felt tapped out a few seconds ago were suddenly ready to go. Already the rest of her aches were starting to fade by a noticeable amount. Void rolled out from underneath her cot and waved cherily at her. It informed her how happy it was that she had made a full recovery. Then it waited for Bee to gather her thoughts. Thank you for watching over me, Master. Bee greeted it with a nod, still too stiff to bow properly. I hope I did not keep you waiting too long. Apparently she had only slept most of the day away. Actually, it was almost nightfall. Void rmended that she should rest some more after eating a bit. With a monumental effort she leveraged herself up and off the cot before doing some extremely light stretches. Finally feeling mostly human, Bee was ready to go find some food. Void followed her out, and soon enough they found themselves at an impromptu soup kitchen run by the soldiers. Bowl of soup in hand, Void gave her some time to herself. She was grateful for some space to think. Checking out her status after the battle with the wraith, she found that despite not being awake for its defeat she had still gained experience for it. Almost two whole levels worth, pushing her up to level 47. Bee reveled in the feeling of getting so close to level 50. Three levels was still arge gap, especially with her levels already so high, but this was one that she had no doubt she would cross. And soon too. Level 50 and above was the realm of heroes and demigods. Anyone who got to a third ss evolution likely already had stories told about them, but after? Bards started to search them out. She wasnt even 14 yet. Bee would be one of the youngest ever. She had the feeling that, as she continued following Void, she wasnt about to slow down at all. All the levels she got though nonbat werent really fair. Most people ended up without abat ss, but it was normally so much harder to level than hers. Even Tonys ss had more trouble than hers did. She was an outlier, even if the Devotee of Spot ss was overpowered in general. She was curious about what she would know with more data points. Finishing her meal, Bee considered going back to bed. While she still felt the effects of spending the day unconscious, she wasnt quite ready to sleep. Heading out of the mess hall she wandered around aimlessly a little bit. She was of half a mind to go and find General Arthur and get the rest of the story of the wraith fight out of him. But she saw him directing the clean up and figured he was too busy. She could wait tomorrow. Patting herself down, she realized that her pack was missing. Retracing her steps she found that she had left it behind while she was healing the injured. The medical staff had moved it out of the way and it was left forgotten in the corner of an empty building. Luckily, a brief inspection assured her that the equipment in there was intact. During the battle she had used almost all of her healing and buffing potions. Her acid hadnt been as effective as she would have liked. Even when she was fighting corporeal foes, it was difficult to incorporate it into her fighting style. She would either need to practice with it or find something else to rece it. Finding an out of the way building, she started setting up shop. It was never a good idea to be out of healing supplies. Leaving Beatrice to eat in peace I went to go see what I could do to contribute to the clean up effort. I hovered over to where the most of the mess was, near the front gates. However, it was already packed. Many of the soldiers appeared to be following the orders of people they addressed as Engineers. What these tyrants did I wasnt sure, but I did hear them arguing about the gates. How quickly they could get recement gates, for example, and what would work best as a temporary recement while they were still being delivered. Apparently, the giant metal gates that we had watched get blown inwards were bent out of shape so much that even if they reconstructed the gates housing they wouldnt fit. To make things even more difficult, the stones that had made the wall were not in one piece anymore. So it wasnt as simple as just putting the blocks back. Many of them had shattered and those that were mostly in one piece were chipped or cracked, making them harder to work with. I watched for a few seconds as the humans were sorting the massive stone block into degrees of usableness. It seemed that they had this under control, so I left them to it. Instead I just started going through the city streets. Each one of them was in desperate need of cleaning. I went into all the narrow winding streets finding all sorts of filth that I shuddered to even think about. As I went I found many humans. Some saw me and were quite rmed, but I mostly went unnoticed. Staying close to the the ground and the shadows cast by the setting sun helped hide me quite well. As I traversed the streets, sucking up all sorts of free stuff that didn''t belong on the cobbled paths, I started to pay more attention to the people. Not just their appearance and what they were saying, but their spirits as well. This was a delicate part of each human, it seemed. Perhaps I was wrong about that assumption, but from my observation and tinkering with the zombie spirits, it seemed to be quite essential. I didn''t cleanse the souls that I passed by for now. I didnt want to mess with anyone elses until I knew for sure what I was doing. Beatrice was an exception because her soul was so obviously close to perfect cleanliness already. So for now, I just observed. For the most part, everyone''s Spirit was a bit darker and dimmer than Beatrice''s. Some seemed to be more covered in dark dirt, while others just exuded a less bright light. Most were somebination of the two. The only times I found things that matched her purity was when I looked at little children. I wonder what had kept her so bright when everyone else around here looked beaten down? Would she stay that way as she grew up, or was this a temporary thing? When I was passing through one of the dingier parts of town, I noticed a small grouping of unusually dark souls in the basement of one of the slightly leaning houses. They werent nearly the same ckened balls as the zombies had been, but they were still far worse than anything else I had seen so far. Only the slightest bit of dim light was visible behind ayer of gunk. Listening in, I heard them talking about where the army kept their coffers. I wasn''t sure what a coffer was, but the way they talked about it, they certainly wanted some. However, it appeared they had reached the conclusion that the army would not simply give them one if they asked, so they were thinking of a way to steal it. Stealing was bad; it made people feel unclean and just all around felt nasty. Looking at their dingy spirits, I could see why they were looking to steal. Or perhaps I had the causation wrong; maybe they were dirty because they stole? That was an interesting bit of philosophy. What came first, the dust or the dust bunny? What should I do? I hadn''t bothered messing with anyones soul because it seemed risky, but this might be something. If I could cleanse their Spirit from the desire to do bad things like this, perhaps I could make the world a better ce? Truly, cleaning up potential messes without violence would be a wonderful thing. Reaching out with my new skill, I touched the closest of the four men. I kind of shrank back from the disgustingness of all the ck gunk on his soul. It was a weird mix of mucky mud and ky bits of ash and thick dust. I couldn''t figure out a good technique to clean it, so I started off simple. My will pressed forward and beneath theyer of grime. I slightly pried up bits of ky ckness, and as they left the glowing orb, they started to fade away. While I was focusing on this, I wanted a ce to sit. I found a small alcove underneath some steps leading up to a door. I maneuvered into the space gratefully and found myself sharing the spot with a quite annoyed cat. After a quick back and forth, it decided to vacate the spot and leave it for me. That was very nice of it, and I thanked it ordingly as it ran away. Now in afortable position, I steadied myself. This might take a while. I worked on removing the gunk from one man''s soul while they continued to talk. It was long and grueling work that took up most of my focus. But eventually, I managed it. Most of the darkness on the surface of the glowing spiritual orb was gone. However, the soul didn''t match Beatrice''s. Not by a long shot. Hers was still much brighter. This man''s spirit appeared dim and dark, as if some of the dinginess had sunk into it. I couldn''t see anything inside the soul, but it was definitely less bright. My sensors also couldn''t feel anything else. Unfortunately, I couldnt figure out a way to polish or brighten them any further. Still, at least I had done something. Now having one clean, I listened to the conversation, waiting to see if there was any change. To my disappointment, the man was still very much in favor of their n, not even once showing any signs of difort or second thoughts. That was troubling. Maybe my skill didnt do anything aside from making souls more pleasing? Instead of just spending time cleaning all four of them, I decided to set my research aside in favor of preventing their theft. Or maybe I could just find Arthur and let him know of the plot against his army''s coffers. All that left the question, though, what was the use of this new skill? If it didn''t seem to really fix anything by cleaning people''s spirits, did it have a practical purpose? Maybe souls werent that important? And if it didnt do anything, then was I just cleaning things that no one else could see aside from me? If they were just as bad as they were before, what was the point? Seeing souls had already helped me identify a problem with those humans though. I supposed being able to see who was trustworthy and not was valuable in itself, but the skill wasn''t called Truth Sense or Moral Sense. It was called Spiritual Cleanse. Well, I was quite happy that I was able to cleanse the spirit and remove the imperfections. The fact that it had no other obvious effects did make me feel a little bit cheated though. This was going to take some work to unravel. Perhaps Beatrice might know about it. Or one of the books I hadnt read through in the library. It was definitely going to be a long time before the souls of humanity were all clean under my care. Chapter 163: The Hero We Deserve Chapter 163: The Hero We Deserve Arthur groaned, rubbing his temples. Calctions for time to the local quarry and estimated gate repair costs swirled around in his head. He had been hoping to leave in a couple days to follow the remainder of the enemies before the trail went cold, but it wasn''t looking like that would be possible considering the state of the city. Without proper defenses, he would have to believe behind arge portion of his troops to make sure it was secure. Pushing that aside for now, he went to find Miss Bee. They had much they needed to talk about, and maybe her God would be there too. If she could interpret, that would be very useful. It took a little bit of searching, but eventually he found her in a side building. The diminutive girl was busy tinkering away with ss sks and multicolored liquids. He smiled. In a way, she reminded him of Harold. Arthur was worried about his friend. The sun was starting to go down, and he hadn''t heard from the older mage at all. Even worse, he had discovered arge number of both people and guards had simply gone missing during the fighting, and he feared that Harold was amongst them. The first item on the agenda for tomorrow was to figure out what happened to those people. Clearing his throat, he got the youngdy''s attention. "Excuse me, miss, but would you have some time to talk?" Startled, she looked up from her work. Blinking a few times, he could see how exhausted she still was. Clearly, she needed more rest than she was giving herself. "If you give me a minute." With that casual dismissal, she went back to her work mixing vials and removing things from a small burner. It felt a little strange to wait on the girl. For a man of his authority, it was a rarity. The only people who could put him in this position nowadays were some of the highest in the kingdom. That, or politicians making a power y. Still, Arthur was acutely d for the small break, giving him a chance to just stand there and mull over his next words. It reminded him of before he was an officer. Almost a full minute passed before Bee put the lid on her sk and looked back up at him. "Sorry about that, I didn''t want to waste the ingredients. What did you want to talk about?" I came to ask about your ns going forward. He could have borated, but chose not too. It would be best if she answered her own interpretation of the question, and he could always rify his question after. She stopped to consider carefully, wiping her hands before rubbing her cheek. "Not entirely sure. It''s going to be up to Void honestly. I imagine we will be heading back to our church sooner orter." Arthur frowned; he was hoping to ask a favor, but it was hard if she wasn''t going to make decisions on her own. "Do you know where your master is? I think it''d be best if we all three talked for a little bit." "No, I haven''t seen Void since I woke up a little bit ago. I imagine itll be back soon though. What did you want to talk about?" She asked. After a second of consideration, Arthur decided it was better if he just spilled it. "Essentially, it boils down to the fact that the undead had some sort of leader. That leader moved on with some of its forces before you two got here. I n to hunt it as soon as we can get this city reasonably secured. I was hoping that I might get some more assistance from you and Void. Certainly, we will be able to get the threat under control much sooner if we work together. "Of course, if you need to return to your own people in these trying times I won''t try to stop you. But any help you could offer would be appreciated. Bee mulled it over. Have you already talked to my master about this? "Briefly, but we were in a bit of a rush, and unfortunately I don''t seem to be able to understand his words. Right. That makes sense. Arthur nodded. Please let Void know that I stopped by. If the two of you could find me when you have the time to talk, I will be avable. Even if I have to make it so." Seeing that Miss Bee had got his message and seemed to be itching to get back to work, he decided to take his leave. He woulde backter and try to catch them both together if they didnt find him first. As he stepped back into the ruined city streets, Arthur sighed. He had a few minutes before his aides found him. He might as well start trying to track down Harold. - I watched the foreman talk for a bit longer while I was probing at their souls. Their spirits didn''t move much or do anything. In fact, they seemed almost entirely stable. However, I could tell that they must be able to move or change. It just must be on such a time scale that I wasn''t able to notice. That, or simply werent doing so now. I supposed that made sense. After all, humans did take years to develop an identity, if the mothers back at the castle were to be believed. And if their souls reflected who they were, it did seem like it would take a while for them to change. Then howe a little bit of effort from me and some delicate touch could ke off bits on the surface? Was it that this wasn''t really part of their soul yet? More like debris on their spirit? That would line up with the title of the skill, after all. As I watched them, I yed around a little bit more with my skill. I found that I couldn''t add anything to their spirits, not that I really wanted to. It seemed quite against my morals to dirty something. But I could clean them in a special pattern rather thanpletely. It did feel a little wrong, leaving things dirty intentionally, but it did make it easier for me to pick them out of a crowd. I carved a little circle in the gunk on top of each dirty soul. I''d probably be able to recognize these people when I saw them for real, but this would help me to be certain. It took me a while to finish. It was one thing to just scrub gently at a spot or st everything clean, but this delicate work required a lot more focus than I would have imagined. Just carving a simple circle took me 5 minutes each, and I finished just in time as all four of them got up and dispersed. I hadn''t listened to their entire n as I was too busy focusing on marking them. Still, the one I had cleaned initially wouldnt be as easily traceable in a crowd, so I followed him. As they emerged from their basement, I watched from the shadows. The only unmarked one was a tall yet somehow stocky man with a scruffy beard and scarred hands. Well, his image was quite intimidating. I didnt feel threatened by him though and doubted even Beatrice would be scared of taking him on. Looking over his shoulder, he skulked off into an alleyway. I followed behind, asionally picking up some of the more offending debris in the streets. Through several sidestreets, I tracked my mark until he stood at the edges of the soldiers camp. With my spiritual sense, I felt the other three draw near,ing from different directions and taking up their posts. The big man stood and watched as two of the marked men moved their way through the group of soldiers. At first, I found it hard to match them as I had to switch between my spiritual sense of looking at a world of floating lights and my Advanced Sensors. Eventually, I picked them out. They were two seemingly inconspicuously looking soldiers, and they were walking toward a specific building. The 4th marked conspirator moved to just the other side of the building the man I followed was leaning against. The two soldiers stopped in front of a pair of guards in front of a door and struck up a conversation. As soon as the guard started responding, the other two moved closer and started doing something to the back of the building. It looked like they were working some boards loose. I was curious to see what these people were doing that made their souls so dirty. Still, I wouldn''t have them dismantle the buildings of the city we just saved. Using some air assistance, I pinned the boards to the walls with enough force that no matter how hard they pried, they couldn''t budge them. I started putting more and more force as they struggled, and eventually, they tried striking at the boards with their pry bars. I had to cushion the edges of the bars with air as well so they wouldn''t just break the boards. The conversation between the two men and the guards out front of this building started to sound a little strained. Voices were being raised, and one of the guards suddenly asked, "Hey what''s your unit again? I don''t seem to be able to remember." There was a pause which was just a little bit too long. Even I was able to tell that the answer was not going to necessarily be truthful. Even after skipping a beat, one of the marked men opened his mouth and said, "uh, we''re Sir Tom''s men," in an unconvincing tone. "And what Sir Tom is this? There seems to be a few of them in the army and I''m just not sure which one you''re talking about." The guard''s voice had a mocking quality to it. His partnerughed. "Move on, you''re not going to get anything from here and I''d rather not have to file a report tonight." The two marked men didn''t run away like I figured they would. Instead, they shot back and indignant responses; the guards became even angrier, voices were raised, and I heard thumping as more soldiers came to investigate themotion. Eventually, everything calmed down, and the two men walked away from the camp without ever making it into the building, and no one stopped them. That had not gone at all like I had figured it would. Once themotion died down, the two men gave up on fruitlessly trying to pull away the boards of the back of the building. They walked quickly to a point a little way into some darker streets in the city before stopping. Of course, I followed at a distance. A few minutester, the other two marked souls showed up. "Well, how much did you get?" I finally got a good look at them. Both were dressed in soldier uniforms though they did look a little bit scruffy. The two men with prybars in their hands looked at each other and grumbled. Bah, notan did we. Dem boards was fasted tight tay was. How in er name was we supposed to pry tem up? They are just boards you idiots! How werent you able to get them off? An argument ensued. Right before it started to get violent, I rolled out of the shadows. As much as I was enjoying this look into the darker side of humanity, I didnt want anyone to get hurt, that would just be messy. Chapter 164: The Hero We Need Chapter 164: The Hero We Need The four men didn''t see me at first. They were too busy bickering to look down into the shadows that pooled around their feet. One of the ones carrying a pry bar pushed one of the ones dressed as a soldier hard in the chest. This sent the man stumbling backward right at me. His heel connected with my side, and the heavy man went tumbling behind me,nding on his rear end with a vulgar exmation. "Wat der is tat?" The nearly iprehensible speech came from one of the other men as he pointed down at me. Was he speaking some dialect that I had never heard of before? Even mynguage algorithms didn''t know what to do with this. It was like he tossed all his words into a blender before dumping them on the counter and trying to rearrange them. Like kids did with alphabet soup. That was always a challenge to clean up. Looking back at my memories, it was also much easier to understand than this man''s speech. "It''s an odd shaped rock?" The soldier man said, but he didn''t seem convinced at all. Loks sum tin magik, ya kaw? The other prybar carrier muttered. Getting up from the ground, the man aimed a kick at me. The soldier tried to shout a warning, but it was toote. The foot connected with a crunch. I didn''t budge an inch. Many more vulgar words found their way out of the man''s mouth as he hoped about on his good foot, gripping his broken toes. "I don''t think kicking the magic thing is a good idea, Rat." The first soldier man said, the other nodding in agreement. Yer tel mi tat nuw? The man with the broken foot screamed back at him. A few more rounds of insults were hurled between all the men. Eventually, I grew tired of their antics and decided to get to the point. Letting out a piercing beep to gather their attention, I prepared to deliver a long lecture about how even though I didn''t know what coffers were, stealing was dirty. And besides, there were only metal bits in that building anyways. Not even any money, which seemed to be what people liked to steal. However, I didn''t manage to get their attention. Sure, they all froze for a second, but it was only a second. Then they were all running in different directions. All except the man with the broken foot. He just hopped away slowly, looking back at me every few awkward leaps, long left behind by his friends. I considered rounding them all up but wasn''t sure what to do with them once I had actually caught them. Instead, I decided to give my message to my captive audience. I rolled across the cobblestones toward the man. His frantic hopping only increased. The frantic pace was not sustainable, and soon an oddly-shaped outcropping of cobblestone did him in. He crashed into the ground, further injuring one of his wrists and nose in the fall. Getting about level with his prone head, I started to exin that what he was doing was wrong and why he shouldn''t do it anymore. I wasn''t sure how much my words actually sunk in, but it was cathartic to express my feelings anyways. I got a bit lost in my preaching about keeping oneself clean, and it was several minutes before I realized that the man scrambling away from me wasn''t really listening. It was practically no effort to keep up with him. I would have been able to do it even before I hade to this world. It urred to me that this wasn''t very effective. Perhaps I had already aplished my goal? They weren''t about to be as dedicated to cleanliness as someone like Beatrice, of course, but at least I had stopped the dirty thing they were trying to do. That was something, right? Finally leaving the man alone, I decided that I had enough for the night. Really, humans were just too confusing; I would need to stop and think about this whole exchange more. Just digesting the rough men''s words and trying to grasp their motives would take me a while. Locating Beatrice''s blindingly bright soul, I made my way over to her. Finding her already asleep, I rolled under her cot and retracted my mind to focus inward. Instead of diving into my void to work on any one of my projects, I retrieved the recordings from all my sensors over thest couple of hours and went over them at a quarter speed. Surely I was missing something. Bee woke with the morning sun. The light streamed down through the narrow window into her small room,nding across her face. The gentle warmth slowly pulled her from a stressful sleep. Having slept most of the day away yesterday, she hadn''t been expecting to nearly not make it back to her bed and then sleep the entire night as well. Even with all her healing, it was a testament to how much damage she had taken. Though just the physical injuries were not enough to exin the recovery time. Whatever the wraith''s drain attack had taken from her was much more difficult to rece than simple blood. Though that might just have been the nature of her healing skills. Repair and Improved Repair were more about physical damage, from her experience. She couldn''t honestly say they were even healing skills, to begin with. The two skills worked best on structural bone damage, but they worked just as well on chairs and other inanimate objects. Healing was just one application. Maybe with more practice and levels, it would work better on spiritual damage or whatever the wraith had done to her. She decided to check on Arthur. He might have taken even more injuries than she had from the drain, though he had seemed fine when they had talkedst night. Stretching with a yawn, Bee sat up. Once she moved, a soft beep came from under her cot. Void rolled out and gave her a little wave. That her master had spent the night right under her made her feel much better. She had been trying to stay awake, waiting for Void toe back, but she hadn''t managed it. Still, it was a greatfort. Returning the greeting, Bee got ready for the morning. As she changed into less gross clothes, she told Void that Arthur hade and talked to herst night. That he wanted help with tracking down the rest of the zombie threat and all. Void listened patiently and didn''tment even when she was finished. After a few moments, she realized it might be waiting on her to share her opinion. ttered, she resumed talking. In her mind, going after the undead wasn''t worth the risk. With both of them gone, the castle wasn''t properly defended. They were working on training up a guard, and Susan and Tony could handle themselves; it was still a long way off from being self-sufficient, though. Some problems only levels could solve. With most of thebat-capable adults already having many levels, she had only converted a couple to Devotees of Spot. So only a few of them were able to take advantage of the ridiculous leveling perks the ss gave like she and Tony had. Until the new batch caught up, she just didn''t want to be away for a long time. Staying out for this long was already pushing it, despite it being a worthwhile cause. Most of her daily duties had been delegated already, but that didn''t mean that she could leave their people alone forever. Someone needed to keep up with the spiritual leadership, and she wasn''t confident in letting someone else try and interpret her words or Void''s. As more questions were asked of her, she was constantly editing and adding footnotes to the writings. She shuddered to think of all the misunderstandings that would happen if she left them alone for too long. Void let her finish her exnation and thought to itself for a bit before it told her what it thought. Her master gave her great honor in considering her words, even praising her arguments. Still, it hadn''t been enough to sway Void. At least not yet. Pointing out the danger that came from the castle being sieged by the undead, Void stressed the need to finish what they had started. She had tried exining that they wouldn''t have to worry about it when her master was around. As the words left her mouth, though, she regretted it. She didn''t want to tie their god down to the castle; what if it wanted to wander around? What if another crisis like this arose and required Void''s attention. The church would need to be self-sufficient. Instead of bringing up its desire to be free of the needy humans, her master instead countered with the potential massive loss of life if they just didn''t do anything. This shut her up. She supposed that her outlook was quite selfish, ignoring everyone else outside the castle''s walls. Besides, if they were to spread the news of theing of the Void, they would need people to preach to. That was ignoring the moral implications of inaction as well. And Void was nothing if not a benevolent god. Bee bowed low and begged forgiveness, but Void reached out with a w and held her up. In the clearest voice she had ever heard it use, it spoke. "My daughter, be not ashamed. Thou hast done well to enlighten me upon additional matters for consideration. Be reassured that thy concern for thy people reflects well upon thine soul." Her eyes widened at the rity of the message and its contents. Truly, her master was both wise and kind. Still, that left the matter at hand. Wrinkling her brow in confusion, Bee tried to figure out how they would be able to both defend the castle and eliminate the undead. It only took her a second toe up with an idea, one she didn''t like very much. "Master... is it really necessary for us to go separate ways?" Bee asked a slight catch in her voice. If she hadn''te to the conclusion herself, she would have thought that maybe her master had gotten tired of her or that she was being punished for her failure to take care of the wraith. She didn''t want to be a burden. Void considered her question. She got the impression that it wasn''t trying to make up its mind but rather how to tell her. The message was less clear this time. After she listened to the long series of beeps, she had to parse the idea in her head a bit before repeating it back to her master. "We don''t need to but that is the most optimal way?" That was what she got, in essence, but there was more. A lot more. Something about it going around with humans and interacting with the world. She supposed that word of itsing needed to spread somehow, and the Church of the Cleansing Void wasn''t ready yet. "Well, we should go talk to Arthur. One thing I worry about is them being able to understand you when you need tomunicate." Bee said, hoping that she hadn''t insulted Void. It made a couple more conciliatory gestures before extending its w and grabbing her broom. Beatrice watched in confusion as it rotated the weapon until it was spear-side down. Chapter 165: God’s Buildin’ A Church Chapter 165: Gods Buildin A Church Arthur was poring over the previous night''s reports when his aide let in Miss Bee and her Master? God? He was pretty sure the ck disk was some sort of god, and he certainly didn''t question its power. But so far, it hadn''t acted like what he had expected at all from a deity. It wasn''t until he had slept on his experiences that the oddity urred to him. The fact that it didn''t seem to be able to speak and that it even concerned itself with human matters was odd enough. That it cleaned the streets Well, he supposed that no one really knew what a god would be like, but he had just expected it to be moregodly. "How can I help the two of you? Lord Void, Miss Bee." Arthur greeted them, standing and gesturing to the pair of chairs in front of his desk before sitting back down. Miss Bee bent over and picked up Void, setting him on one of the chairs before sitting on the other herself. He couldn''t help being surprised by the action, especially after he had seen the being leap over the city walls with ease, but he did his best to shrug it off. The seats of the chairs were low enough that his sight of Void was just blocked by the desk. It made the whole thing a little awkward. Miss Bee didn''t seem to notice, and Void didn''t make any noise ofint, so Arthur decided not to say anything; instead, he just waited for their response. "We have talked about your request for help and think there is something that might be done." Miss Bee said in a slightly nervous tone while ncing down to the chair at her side. Still a little unnerved that he couldn''t see Void, Arthur nodded, waiting for the rest of the exnation. "Well, I''m not really ready to be away from my people for so long. But Void would be willing to apany you on your campaign after the rest of the undead." Miss Bee said, clearly not looking happy about it. Arthur rubbed his chin, thinking. On the one hand, having the powerhouse of Void with him would make anybat much easier. If they could actually find the undead, then their problem would be solved. On the other hand,munication was going to be rough. Void seemed to be able to understand anything Arthur said, but he wasn''t able to make out a single word from the little disk. Miss Bee clearly could understand her god, which was the only reason they could have this meeting in the first ce. But without her there to interpret, then potential misunderstandings could be devastating. Still, it was a risk that he had to be willing to take. "It is a pleasure to have yourpany on my campaign, Lord Void." Arthur said with a slight bow; it didn''t seem like the god was a stickler for protocol, but he would y it safe for now. Then Arthur turned to Miss Bee. "Actually, I think there is something else that could help both of us as well." "If there is something I can do on my way home, I would be happy to help." Miss Bee said. Arthur didn''t miss her implied insistence on returning home. "Of course. It actually deals with your trip itself. I would be willing to provide an escort of soldiers and scouts for you. I would just ask that you help shelter them and a few others until the city here is repaired." Arthur said. - Bee considered the general''s offer. She didn''t really need an escort back, and she thought that he knew that. The tempting part was the chance to bring more people into the fold. It would be harder to convert anyone without the living proof of divinity walking among them, but she was sure the wonders left at the castle would be enough to convince them. Especially if she was offering ss changes and the like. Her only real concern was food. Trent was confident that they wouldn''t have a problem over winter, especially with all the snow wheat they were nting. That wasn''t even counting if they had to butcher any of the sheep. But that was for their current numbers. The question was how many people she would be bringing. Maybe if she could get some supplies as well, they would be fine? "Well I would certainly wee somepany on my journey. We would also have enough space for a certain amount, but I do worry about food." Bee said with a smile. This felt like she was wheeling and dealing a tiny bit, but it was for good reason. She couldn''t simply throw her people under the bus here. Still, it was the first time she felt that negotiation was a little fun. At that moment, she understood her father just a little bit better. Arthur thought for a moment. "I think we might be able to spare some grain. We don''t have many wagons to spare though. It would be on you to ensure it arrives in one piece." Bee frowned. "Wouldn''t that be the job of the soldiers you send as an escort?" "One of them, yes. Their primary focus will be on protecting the people though. I''d appreciate if you help with that as well. There''s plenty that can go wrong when traveling, especially if the undead are still out there." Bee narrowed her eyes. That sounded suspiciously like Arthur was nning to lowball her on the soldier escort. After a moment, though, she shrugged. "Fair enough." Arthur did seem clever enough to pull some underhanded sort of maneuvering, but her judgment of his character didn''t line up with that. So she figured that she was in the clear on that front. Still, she''d make sure to object if the numbers weren''t agreeable. "So, how many people are we talking about?" *** Looking back over the winding train of people that stretched over the hill behind, Bee wasn''t too upset. They would have room for everyone, if just barely. She was lucky that Void had remembered exactly how many beds they had avable, or they wouldn''t have gotten the number right at all. As it was, they would probably want to consider building an outbuilding on the castle grounds to house some additional people. If it wasn''t for the sheer amount of food that they were being sent off with, it would have been untenable. Surprisingly the people had managed to get their harvest in before the undead came. This had left them with a bit of a surplus. When she asked why there was still a surplus after such a long siege, she only got grim looks in return. Then she remembered the zombies didn''t eat grain. Still, that had worked out rather well for her and the castle. They would have more than enough food for everyone even if something went wrong with the snow wheat. All she had to do was get it and all the people back to the castle in one piece. To that end, the leader of the troops rode up next to where she walked. They had offered her a horse, but she had onlyughed. She could now run faster than one and wasn''t too proud to walk with the rest of the people. Looking up to Captain Major, she returned the salute he offered. It felt weird as she never had any military training, but all the soldiers treated her as if she did. Whether they were humoring her as some stuck-up lord or if they actually respected her, she couldn''t tell. Either way, she wasn''t about to question it. "How is our pace, captain?" "So far no one has trouble keeping up. We are rotating the groups riding in the wagons but we are still going to need at least an hour stop at midday and probably won''t manage more than six hours of progress total today." Captain Major responded. Bee frowned. It made sense, though. She wasn''t too surprised with theposition of their group, but it was going to slow them down. It was only natural for Arthur to send the people least useful for fixing the city. The ones that would have trouble surviving the winter if the defenses and shelters were not prepared. So behind her were some hundred soldiers but well over five times that in elderly, wounded, and women with small children. Honestly, they would fit right in at the castle, but it would be hard to make sure they were all productive. As Bee walked, she started to n. There were so many things she would be able to take care of, but still, so many things to aplish. She could only hope that her master''s trust wasn''t misced. I followed Arthur around for most of the day after Bee left. The first thing that we did was go check on the repair of the gates and city walls. When we got there, many people were already scrambling around with tools that I wasn''t familiar with. One of the people ran up to talk with Arthur. His eyes were wide with disbelief. "I don''t know how to exin it sir. It was just like this when we got here this mornin''. We didn''t miss anythin''st night, I swear. If I hadn''t wrote the damage reports meself I wouldn''ta believed ''em. Woulda told ya that dey were lyin'' I woulda. Honest. I ain''t lyin'' though. I swear." As the man spoke, he got more and more worked up until I could barely understand him. I didn''t understand why humans couldn''t just speak normally. Imparting inflection was something I understood. That was how Imunicated, after all, but at least that was useful. "Fredrick." Arthur said in a calm voice, catching and holding the man''s eye. "Fredrick, what changed sincest night?" Arthur''s patience was really impressing me. I had seen people get much more worked up over much simpler mimunications. Granted, those were much smaller humans. Maybe age had something to do with it? "Well, sir. Its It''s the gates." The man removed his helmet and wiped the sweat from his brow before continuing. "Its- well, they''re barely bent at all." Arthur rocked back on his heels in such a slight movement that I didn''t think anyone else would notice. "These were the ones your report said would need to be scrapped and remade?" "The same. And that''s not all either. The stones." The man gestured to the field of blocks being sorted into piles. "Well, just look at ''em." "What about them? They look like a bunch of stone blocks." Arthur asked, bewildered. I wasn''t sure what to make of the man''s incredulity myself. It just looked like a bunch of stone cubes arranged in admirably neat rows. "What about them?! Sir, they are blocks! Do you know how many were blocks bleedin rows! Who did that?! We certainly didn''t!" Frederick clearly wanted to keep ranting but forcefully cut himself off when he realized he had been shouting at the general. For his part, Arthur was remarkably calm. "That does seem odd." The three of us just sat there staring at the group of perfect rectangles thaty before us. There was something so satisfying about the straight lines. Nature was so cool sometimes. Chapter 166: Spot the Builder Chapter 166: Spot the Builder I watched as Bee led the train of people out of the city gates and crested over the horizon. It wasn''t the first time that we had been separated. But it was the first time I had really been on my own. Who knew howrge of amitment I had just made? But I still stood by my decision. The undead needed to be stopped. And judging from what I had seen here, the humans were going to struggle at it if they were left to themselves. I turned as Beatrice moved out of sight to look down at the people below. They were surprisingly fast at stacking blocks. I never watched anyone stack blocks at home except for the small clumsy human, but I couldn''t imagine him ever moving anywhere near as fast as these men. Which was strange because they were obviously so inferior to my humans in every other way. It probably was rted to the skills that seemed so popr around here, but at the rate they were stacking the blocks, they would likely be done with building suitable gatehouses by the end of the day. Apparently, the longer time that they had estimated came mostly from gathering new blocks and getting a new door. It was good that they hadn''t received nearly as much damage as expected. Looking back on it, my domain probably had something to do with making sure they stayed in nicely-shaped rectangles instead of shattering everywhere. I spotted Arthur walking among the people working. He wasn''t shouting like he had been during the battle now. Instead, he mostly just watched. However, wherever he went, the men worked about 23 percent faster. It was like a bubble of efficiency followed him around. For a human, he sure resonated with my kind. Still, this work as a whole was going to take at least a day or two at the rate they were lifting everything into ce. I could feel my domain assisting them; each time they ced a block, it was nudged to be in a slightly more perfect spot. This wouldn''t really help them move faster, though. Unless I started intervening more directly, of course. The only issue was that I didn''t know anything about buildingrge stone structures. Hovering down from the wall, I went over to Arthur''s side. He saw me approaching and waited for me before giving me a slight bow. "Lord Void." I returned his formal greeting with one of my own beforeunching into why I hade over. Unfortunately, he still didn''t seem able to understand me. "I''m sorry my lord, you may need to slow down. I don''t think I caught that." Arthur was too polite. Changing the pace at which I beeped at him wasn''t going to help anything. I still wasn''t sure what made people understand me, but it had taken everyone a bit of practice. Some of the children were better at it, but the adults always took a decent amount of conversation to glean even approximate meanings. I wasn''t expecting him to be any better, but if I didn''t give him a chance to practice, he definitely wouldn''t learn. Well, when I thought of it that way, maybe trying to speak slower might help. So to humor him, I repeated myself, drawing out each beep until the distortion was just to the edge of understanding. "Terribly sorry-" Arthur started to apologize again, but I cut him off and backed up a little, leaving a lot of room between the two of us. With my w, I slowly and painstakingly scratched in the dirt. It took me a minute to make sure the letters were perfect, but when I was done, the letters read, "I HELP." Arthur tilted his head to the side, and I realized that I had written them upside down from his perspective. Whoops. Still, he was able to read them and nodded. "What would you like help with?" No, that wasn''t what I was asking. I wanted to help. I tried saying this to him. It was a bitplicated, so I tried again, just telling him "no." This made him cock his head, and it seemed he understood somewhat. To speed the process up, I added a word. Now the dirt read, "I HELP BUILD." I wasn''t really happy with my messy scrawl in blocky letters, but the dirt wasn''t the best medium for this. Scratching out the letters took a while, too, so I minimized the number of characters. It kind of resembled the writings of one of the smaller children. To assist mymunication effort, I pointed to therge wall and construction effort with emphasis. "You want to help us build?" Arthur asked in a truly baffled voice. "Really?" Of course, I didn''t understand what was so confusing about my request. Were the humans so touchy that they would be offended if someone helped them? Or did they have some secret building techniques that they didn''t want to share? They were working out in the open, so I doubted that was it. Maybe they just doubted that I would be any help. I suppose a demonstration was in order. With a careful bit of Air Maniption, I lifted one of the medium-sized blocks up and shifted it over to the wall, slotting it into ce a few dozen feet above the ground. All around us, people froze in ce and watched the floating block. Once I was satisfied with the cement, I stopped and looked around. It seemed that most people hadn''t realized it was me that moved the block and were ncing about with nervous looks on their faces. Arthur definitely understood, as he was looking at me with interest. "So, you want to help ce the stones? That could be helpful. How many can you do at once?" That wasn''t something that I had really considered. Running some quick simtions, I was pretty sure I couldn''t do more than a dozen at a time. Looking around, though, I realized that it would be a great help. With 58 people working, they were only able to move about four blocks at the same time. Two were being slotted in at a time, one in each tower, and teams were working on that. Another two were being moved into position to be set next. I beeped at Arthur, but instead of using the dirt to say how many I could theoretically hold, I just started moving blocks. The humans holding and maneuvering the blocks jumped back, even though I was very careful not to squish them. Once they got out of the way, I was able to be less cautious, and they started sliding into ce, a couple each minute for each tower. The humans had been putting some sticky paste in between the blocks, but after some analysis, I realized that it wasn''t really necessary. It seemed that it would dry eventually, bonding the rocks in ce, but it was ultimately still weaker than the rocks themselves. When the first blocks that didn''t have the paste prepared for it floated up in front of me, I used my sanitationmp to carve a pattern of ridges into the bottom and top. There. Those would help the stones snugly interlock on their own. I considered taking the rest of the tower down to do it right but decided that wasn''t the best use of time. Besides, I was still not an expert at construction, so I didn''t want to mess with their foundations. These would nest with the other blocks, and they would form a wall with 87 percent of strength as if it was solid stone. Much more than my estimated strength of 53 percent with the rock paste. I supposed that the humans had good reasons for building the way that they did. If they were to carve out these grooves by hand, it would take a very long time. Even only took 30 seconds per block on average, it was going to take me most of the morning to get the gatehouses ready for reseating the gates. They would have been here for days without me. - The foreman came up to Arthur, cursing up a storm. The man wasn''t particrly angry; it was just the way he talked. Arthur listened to the man give his estimates. The news sent a smile to his face despite his best efforts to maintain hisposure. It seemed they wouldn''t be waiting here for days after all. Turning to his aide, he gave him orders. "Ready the men; it seems the few days in the city are canceled. If there are any grumblings, let them know the sooner we catch the enemy, the sooner we all get some proper leave. The aide scurried away, and Arthur continued his discussion with the foreman. With the method that Void was stacking blocks, the man was worried that they would need to alter the gates themselves, but Arthur had his doubts. Perhaps he was too trusting too soon, but that sounded like something Void would be able to handle. He promised the man that he would confirm the matter about the gates. Then he reassigned him and his team to work on repairing other parts of the city with the rest of the engineering corps. Now that their timetable had moved up several days, he had a lot more work to do. Calling all his officers through messengers, Arthur made his way to themand post. They had ns to make and not much time to get them moving. Once he was in front of the map table, he didn''t wait for everyone to show up. Instead, he just started working with what was avable. The first was an armory report. They needed to know how much equipment they had and how much to take with them. The number of spares was calcted by aplicated form based on how many men, how long the campaign was, and how frequently there were engagements. The Quartermaster ss greatly helped with all of this as often most of the variables couldn''t be known. Arthur was lucky to have the best Quartermaster in the country. While he was a respectedmander and good at tactics, his head wasn''t the same for numbers. It had taken a significant effort for his tutors to drill them into his head as a child. Basil was the first to arrive; the Quartermaster was ever punctual. "Sir." He saluted. "''We should be ready to go. The stores have been packed and counts are being done. But for a two month campaign we should be fine. Sir." "Very well, Basil. How are we on winter supplies?" Arthur asked. "You think we will be wintering in the field sir?" The Quartermaster asked with a grimace. "I think this hunt could take longer than any of us would like." Chapter 167: The Long March Chapter 167: The Long March Bee called an early halt the first day. They were little more than a few miles out of sight of Caleb, but most of her charges were grateful for the rest. Apparently, Captain Major''s assessment of the pace had been a bit inurate. As she walked through the caravan, she saw many people on the ground, slumped over in exhaustion. They passed water skins around. The soldiers standing guard helped where they could, for the most part, so at least that spoke well of them. In the future, they would either have to stop earlier or move at a slower pace for longer. She wished there was someone else who could make those decisions for the caravan, preferably someone with more experience regarding what people were capable of. Yet the responsibility seemed tond on her now. Trying to rely on soldiers for estimates of the right pace was clearly not going to work. She didn''t exactly think that they meant any harm. Rather, they just didn''t know any better. Bee walked through the people, speaking briefly with several of them. Despite their rough shape, their spirits were high. Many of the younger ones were in particrly good shape and thanked her for taking them in. The ones still recovering did their best to smile and give her a bow. Evidently, stories of Bee''s role in the conflict had already spread. Eventually, she made it to the nominal leader of the refugee group. Gertrude was a withered old crone. By her own description, not Bee''s. She stood at the back of the caravan, leaning on her cane heavily. From what Bee had seen, she had hobbled along the entire way with her gnarled stick supporting her weight. How she had managed to keep up, Bee wasn''t entirely clear. "There yer are, young mistress." She said with a toothless smile. "I was just abouttae lookin'' fer ya." "Hello, Gertrude," Bee greeted her with a hint of nervousness. The old woman hadn''t been anything but polite and kind to her, but somehow Bee still found her intimidating. It was probably because she had scanned her. Name: Gertrude. Level: 43. Race: Human. ss: Baker. Age: 168. Highest Stat: Wisdom. Weakest Stat: Constitution. Level 43. That was insanely high for someone of her station. Without all the resources of wealth or nobility, it would have taken a truly monumental effort to get that high, even for someone 168 years old. What was someone like this doing out here? At her age, Bee imagined that even her stats wouldn''t be enough to counteract her body''s degradation, and she wouldn''t be as strong as she was in her prime. But the intelligence stat didn''t deteriorate with age at the same rate as the physical stats, and wisdom wasn''t affected at all. The woman was still sharp as a knife. "Tomorrow we won''t be pushing as hard. This was too much." Bee said. "Nonsense, we hafta move fast. We don''t wanna be caught out if the weather turns." Gertrude said with a wave of her gnarled hand. Her voice came out in a wheeze, and Bee thought she was about to start coughing any second; somehow, she held it in though. "The people won''t be able to keep up this pace for another day," Bee protested. "If they start to get injured, we will fall even further behind schedule." "We stopped early enough, they''ll get the rest they need. I''ll talk to ''em, but everyone understands the urgency. You won''t hear anyinin''." Gertrude assured her. Bee wasn''t convinced, though. Even if no oneined, that didn''t mean that they wouldn''t be in trouble, and that would inevitably slow them down in the long run. Still, she just nodded. They would go slower tomorrow, and maybe as they went, people would get used to marching. Then they would be able to go for longer. Hopefully, they would build a bit of strength before they got worn out. That was what Captain Major said, at least; after the day''s debacle, she wasn''t sure how much to trust his advice. The military was all young and fit; for the most part, some exercise would do them well. The elderly and new mothers didn''t have the same reaction. Bee didn''t want them to have to be hard to survive. Once they got to the castle, they should be able to rx. Leaving the old matriarch to her own business, Bee went over to a nearby cook fire that had just sprung up. The soldiers were in the process of unloading kettles and bowls from the wagons. Bee had worked out a meal n with Major during their trip. For the first night, each squad of soldiers would cook for four times as many people as they would normally. That would ensure that the refugees were fed as well. After things got settled, then they would figure out a new system. It appeared that the n was already falling apart. Not that people weren''t getting food. Rather, the soldiers had been ousted from the cookfires. Some of them were distracted from their duties by a mother asking for help with something or other. The more stubborn and dutiful ones were rebuffed more forcefully. Bee watched an olderdy chasing off the soldier manning one pot with a wooden spoon and a scolding. The one Bee walked up to was being manned by an older woman she had seen walking with Gertrude through the day. Thinking back, she remembered quite a lot of people walking with the old crone for a few minutes of quiet conversation before melding back into the crowd. Looking around the camp, she realized that many of those same people had taken over the cooking. She checked up on a few of them to ensure no one was tapping too deeply into the food supply, but there was no such issue. They were simply fortifying the food with other ingredients that had been brought along from homes or foraged along the road by enterprising young children. Bee couldn''t be upset about it. Honestly, it was better this way, but she couldn''t help but think that it would have been good to work this out together with the soldiers. That would have avoided a lot of confusion. The camp was starting to order itself, and everywhere she went, she found that she wasn''t needed. It was a huge relief. Eventually, she found a very confused Captain Major sitting on a rock by himself a little way out of the camp, just in sight of the guards. "Captain, anything wrong?" Bee asked,ing to a stop in front of him. Major looked up at her before blinking. "Bee. How''s everything going?" "It''s working itself out. Shouldn''t you know that? What are you doing all the way out here?" He nodded to himself absently. "That it is. That it is." "Uh, Captain?" Bee was starting to get concerned. Maybe he had received a head wound recently? Before she could kneel down the check, he continued. "I''ve never seen a camp like this before. Everyone seems to have a ce, everything''s so organized Is this your god''s work?" Bee stopped to consider. "Maybe? I don''t think so, though it might be having some effect through me. I think it''s Gertrude mostly." "Gertrude? I don''t know what that is." "Not what, who. She''s one of the older refugees. A leader among them in a way. I think she nned this, uh, coup-d''etat during the march." At the mention of a coup, the Captain''s eyes lit up, and he looked around before processing what she said. With a sigh, Major rxed. He let out a shortugh as he shook his head like he was trying to clear it of cobwebs. "You know this was supposed to be my first bigmand?" "Really? I would have thought to make Captain, you would need some experience?'' Bee said, hoping that she wasn''t about to offend the officer in charge of her protection. "Sure, I hadmanded smaller outfits, but they were always part of arger force. The true independentmands went to nobles. Competent officers were always put under them to keep them in check. I didn''t have the connections to secure a bunch of experienced sergeants to get an independent mission approved bymand. "But here I am, and I don''t even need to do anything. Everything is being taken care of and any order I think about giving would undermine an already working outfit. It just feels so pointless. Not only are the troops doing well, but the civilians we are protecting are almost more organized in their own way." Major finished with a sardonic chuckle. During his little rant, Bee had taken a ce on the rock next to him. They just shared the silence for a little bit. Eventually, it stretched long, though, and she decided to break it. "I think not doing anything is the hardest move sometimes." Major looked at her with a bit of a doubtful expression. She considered how that advice must look from his perspective. It was easy to forget that she was almost 14. "I mean, look at me. I shouldn''t bemanding anything or anyone, honestly. But Void chose me to be its high priestess, and I had to learn as I went. "When the castle first started getting new residents I was trying to do everything myself and it was just too much. Eventually I found people who I could trust to take care of things. This has been the first time I h''ve been away for any period of time and I''m worried about them all the time. But I need to trust that they will be okay. That they know what they''re doing, and that I don''t have to personally be there to oversee every little thing," Bee said. As she spoke, she felt a little foolish. Still, she hoped it helped Major understand her. He gave her a slight smile in return. "I suppose it must have been a lot from someone so young. That must be quite the story." I slotted thest block into ce around midday. The whole building thing had been an excellent training program for a couple of my skills. By the time I was done, I had decreased the average rate of blocks set from one per 30 seconds to one per 20. The only thing that was left was the gates. I noticed that the missing mortar - the foreman told me what the sticky paste was called when he asked why I wasn''t using any - was causing the walls to be an inch or so shorter than they were supposed to be. This made it so that the fittings were just a little off. I had been focusing my domain on removing thest of the warp from the gate and also removing impurities from the metal. So while it was at it, I started directing it to move the fittings into the proper ce. By the time thest block was in ce, it was ready to go. Despite all my training, I wasn''t confident in my Air Maniption to lift such a heavy piece of metal. Moving half-ton blocks was one thing, but the gate weight might have been thirty times that. That the humans had managed to slot it into ce the first time was honestly impressive. Looking around, I realized that there was nothing else left that needed doing, at least not in rebuilding the gate. The rest of the humans were all going about their business in the city. Many of them were rebuilding after the significant damage done to the houses. Returning my attention to therge gates, I focused on my Air Maniption. But I wasn''t able to get a good grip on them, and even trying to lift only the left gate, I wasn''t able to get it to budge. Seriously, how had the humans been able to move it in the first ce? I watched them move blocks that were much too heavy for them before. I could just brute force toss them around, but they couldn''t, yet they still moved them. Thinking back, I saw they were using long rods as levers and pulleys; could I do the same? Chapter 168: Forcing The Issue Chapter 168: Forcing The Issue The Warden struggled to hide his frown as he left the council meeting. The contents had been fairly standard, and he really didnt have much to say beyond his usual advice and some extra tidbits of information his position gave him. Still, what he had heard had been concerning enough. That the city of Caleb was still in one piece was hard to believe. Especially after hearing not only Harolds report, but the hundreds of eyewitnesses he had brought back as well. However, the messages from Arthur had been quite hopeful. Either he had been captured and subverted enough to give up all code phrases, or things were better than they could hope. His strange references to the horrible demon that had shown up made the Warden lean towards the first option though. Specifically that it wasnt described as a horrible demon, but as something else. Sure, the only message they received was right after the decisive battle, so things were murky, but it was still concerning. All of that was concerning but not new. The thing that had the Warden frowning was the timing. This was the first council meeting in over a week. That was far less frequent than usual. At first, he thought that maybe a rival had been trying to make a move on him. A foolish endeavor.Given his advantages and sheer longevity in the kingdoms inner circles, most didnt try him. But after a simple investigation, he found that there just hadnt been any meetings at all. The Warden didnt entirely mind the break. To be honest, he had always felt that there were too many of the dang meetings anyway. But the idea that king was so untethered and able to free himself from them was odd. There hadnt been any signs of bad health or anything, just a small break in the normal routine. It was a bad time to have the ruler distracted. The Warden was already regretting sending Harold to investigate the other Lieutenants'' sites for a few reasons. Despite his recent record, Harold was a savvy political mind and held the ear of the king as well as many other important bureaucrats. But also, recent reports had ticked the danger up in Harolds target areas even more. The Warden could have used a morebat-capable asset at his disposal here, and he was leery of trusting Harold on his own at the moment. At least he wasnt alone this time. One of the Infiltrators was with him, and that should keep him safe and keep him on track. That was the reasoning the Warden had given Harold, at least, but as with many of his actions, it served a dual purpose. He just didnt have enough time to tackle his problems one at a time. The Infiltrator would also be watching Harold closely. Sudden bouts of ipetence or a series of failures werentpletely impossible, but if Harold had beenpromised, they would find out soon. Once the Warden made it back to his rooms, hepleted the circle around the room and the shield popped up. Sitting down, he was finally able to rx and let his true emotionse forth. There was so much more to do. - I left thepletely fixed gate on the ground for now as I went in search of pulleys. The humans watched as I moved back into the city, but no one said anything, so I mostly ignored them as I scanned for my target. The mechanical advantage was something that I had learned about recently. The library had some books on physics, but reading them was one thing. Understanding them was another thing entirely. Even beyond that, using that understanding was even more difficult, in my opinion. It wasnt until I had seen plenty of examples and had the need to use this knowledge that I put the two together. Now that I dedicated some processing power to the issue, though, a whole new world of possibilities opened up to me. Force diagrams and estimated friction constants streamed through my processors like a collection of particrly lively dust bunnies. There was so much potential here. With a long enough lever, I could move mountains to clean under them. If I had known this the whole time, I could have been so much more effective. I would have been able to move furniture that was too close to the ground to clean under. Of course, by now, it was a moot point as I was able to lift most things with my Air Maniption. But who knew what else I could move and clean under that I would never have thought of? After all, there were many statues that my Air Maniption wasnt able to budge. Though I had gotten much stronger than I was even when I left the castle a little while ago. I doubted that I would have been able to lift so many blocks back then. Eventually, I found some things that could work as pulleys. They were a bitrger than the ones that I had seen the humans using, but I still thought that they would be viable. The only issue was that they were attached to a cart. Sure, the cart was mostly crushed, so I didnt think anyone would miss it, but I still made a mental note to return them when I was done. The metal axles they were attached to would also be pretty useful. I was sure with these, I would be able to generate enough force to lift the door. The only problem was that I wasnt confident about whether my new pulleys were able to withstand the force themselves. Maybe it would spread out evenly over them? Honestly, I was a bit fuzzy on that. The physics book had assumed an immutable pulley, and that wasnt very helpful when I actually thought about it. Nobodyined as I harvested my materials, but some people did stare. Instead of just carrying them back over to the gate, I pulled them into my dustbin. I still needed to find a rope, so I decided to take some time to improve the items I had collected while I searched. In my void, I alighted the grains of the wood to be more parallel and sturdy. I also tempered the metal. My calctions indicated that they should hold. Provided I wasnt missing any other variables, of course. As I worked on this, I decided that I didnt want to search the city for a very long rope myself. Surely the humans had some on hand. Instead, I found someone I had only heard referred to as the Quartermaster. It didnt sound like a name, but I didnt know what it meant. Still, people seemed to talk to him whenever they wanted things. I located him sitting in a tent with a line of people stretched outside. Not wanting to make anyone wait on me, I joined the back of the line to wait my turn. The people in front of me struck up a conversation. The man in front of me tapped the guy before him on the shoulder. So what are you here for? My chin strap buckle broke. The second soldier said with a shake of the head. The buckle? Not the strap? With a note of surprise in his voice. Yeah, bizarre, right? Ive never seen it before. I suppose it was bound to happen eventually. It''s the older model I got back in the Matlrena campaign, and Ive had to mend the leather several times. Matlrena? Wow, that was some time ago. My first tour actually. Hey mine too! Who did you serve und-? As the second soldier asked his question, he fully turned around to engage in the conversation. When he saw me, he cut off with a strangled exmation. Desuss beard! Huh-? The soldier in front of me turned as well and jumped seven and a quarter inches off the ground. What the - I popped out my arm and gave them a small wave. I really didnt mean to startle them, so I felt a little bad; sometimes, I forgot how bad humans were at keeping aware of their surroundings. The two of them stared at me until one of them bowed slightly. Im sorry Lord Void. I didnt see you there. Yes, uh- -our apologies- The two of them stuttered out half sentences. They were clearly having trouble stringing words together. They stepped out of line and tapped the people in front of them, then pointed me out. With a few more startled reactions and a short moment, the entire line had moved out of the way. That was awfully nice of them. Not wanting to reject their kindness, I rolled up to the entrance of the tent. Before anything else, a man walked out of the tent followed by an impatient voice roaring, Next! The man who had just emerged was carrying a shiny new sword. He also jumped as he saw me, but I didnt want to make the angry man inside wait any longer than I had to, so I rolled past the rest of the way into the tent. What der ya need? Came the gruff voice from a head buried in a stack of papers. Before I could respond, I heard more mutterings. I should have a whole bleeding staff, not just me. This is what I get for being even mildlypetent at my gods cursed job. Need ta handle tall meself. It was whispered at such a low volume that I didnt think that anyone else would have been able to hear it, but I certainly didnt have any problems with that. Still, I waited for him to finish his mumbling before replying. Strangely, he just kept going until he looked up with a frustrated expression. Well! Dont waste m- The Quartermaster cut off when he saw me and jumped to his feet. Lord Void! What are you doing here? I tried exining, but I didnt have much hope for him understanding me. Adults never seemed to be able to, especially not on the first try. Sure enough, the man shook his head after I finished exining. Im sorry my Lord, but I didnt get that. But I assume that you areing to me because you need something. People always do. He turned away and pulled up a bound book from a side table beforeying it out on the desk. Why dont ye point to what ye need and we can work from there? I liked this human; he was very organized and good at thinking. I boosted myself up to the desktop, cleaning my wheels as I was in the air. Dirtying his desk would be poor thanks for his help. Taking my arm, I turned the pages quickly, reading what was an inventory with detailed notes. Eventually, I found a heavy rope description that sounded like it would serve my purpose. After I pointed it out, we spent a few minutes narrowing down the length I needed. Soon enough, we left the tent and went to another one nearby, where I got a spool of rope. Though I was politely, yet firmly, asked to bring it back when I was finished with it. Before I left, the Quartermaster asked if I would sign for the equipment. I popped out my arm once more and waited for him to hand me a pen. We looked at each other for a few seconds before he sighed. Ya know what, dont worry about it. Ill just make a note. Good luck with whatever yer nning, mlord. I waved goodbye as I carried the spool on my back. It was just small enough that I could bnce it on my chassis, even though it did hang out a few feet past me on each side. While quite heavy, I didnt have many problems moving it. With my pulleys refurbished and my new rope, I had everything I needed to get the gate into ce. Chapter 169: Heaven’s Gates Chapter 169: Heavens Gates Bee walked back up the column of refugees. She had been a bit worried about their pace this morning, but things had started out alright. The march yesterday had improved on their previous best by a decent amount. But to her surprise, no one had fallen behind. Despite Gertrude''s assurances, there had been lots of grumbling that made its was to Bees ears, but nothing serious. They seemed to understand the urgency of getting to th castle quickly. Over the past couple of days, they had improved the rotation schedules of who would ride in the wagons and for how long. Also, people had actually be used to the hard marching to some extent. To her delight, some of the people had evene to talk to her about Void. She had answered their questions the best she could. Despite her closeness and time with the god, she only had so many answers. Often the best she could do was tell them stories as she had recorded them in the church''s teachings. That was enough for the most part. Not everyone was interested, but most did want to hear about the one that had saved their city and destroyed the army of undead encircling it. Most people hadn''t seen the decimation of the undead firsthand, but the soldiers who had described the event with awe. Many more people had seen Void swoop in and instantly consume the wraith than she had the general had been fighting. Arthur was a respected figure amongst the city folk. He had been keeping them safe against what appeared to be impossible odds for months. His involvement in city matters also made him a well-seen figure, and everyone seemed to have briefly spoken to him at some point. So the casual defeat of an undead giving him trouble attracted a lot of attention. As she continued with her stories, the awe of Void only grew. On the second morning, she had her first real interesting question. A young woman carrying a small child wanted to know if there was anything they could do to gain the great lord''s blessing. The woman asked with good reason. Her child was weak, and she feared that if he somehow didn''t get a ss before he was ten, he wouldn''t survive. Of course, she didn''t have the personal strength to help get a 5-year-old a ss yet. Hence why she pled and asked Bee whether there anything they could do to help. Bee Scanned the woman. She was only level 5 herself, but she had a point. Line Cook wasn''t a very powerful ss. Of course, there was something she could do. It wasnt exactly something to do lightly though. Also, she somewhat feared that suggesting it might cause a chain reaction of people asking for a ss change - something they couldnt afford while traveling. So instead, she had told the woman that she would need to dedicate herself to the decree of the Void, and that it wouldn''t be a smallmitment. Thedy and her child had left, saying that she would think about it. Bee didn''t expect they would return, but she could hope. It wasn''t like they would be the only ones asking for favors. By the time she had reached the front of the column, she had been stopped half a dozen times to deal with small problems. If she was in a hurry, she would have waved them off. But giving out some healing here and there wasn''t a problem. The more people she could save from sprains and the like, the faster they could move. Also, her small actions built goodwill. The refugees were definitely warming up to her as time went on. There even seemed to be a custom of some sort emerging that when she healed a person, they would talk with her about Void. That was something she was always willing to do. At the front, she reached her normal spot next to Captain Major''s stirrup. As part of their usual routine, he offered her a hand so she could mount up and ride behind him. As normal, she ignored it. Walking suited her just fine; she was faster than the horse anyways and didn''t want to be above the rest of the group. "We are making good time." Major noted after a few minutes of silent travel. "Better than I had hoped for. We are probably only a little more than a week away. We should see the valley entrancete tomorrow." Bee responded. They both already knew this and were just passing the time, but she found chatting with the man was easy once he had rxed. When they got to the castle, she would have to introduce him to Tony; she was certain they would either be best friends or hate each other. "I think we will make it before it snows at this rate." "As long as the rain doesnte. If it muddies the roads and slows us down, well fall short. That shouldn''t be too likely though." "With talk like that youll bring Desu Vault''s wrath down on us." Major groaned, running a gloved hand down his face. "No. Void will protect us for sure." - Attaching the pulleys was a lot harder than I had expected it to be. The top of the wall was solid stone; when I was cing it, I hadn''t left any ce for it to attach. I could bore a hole in the wall for the axle to slot into, but I really didn''t want to damage the nice stone I had put so much effort into setting up just right. But when I tried to just weigh the axle down with a loose rock, everything came crashing down. Zipping through the air, I caught each bit of debris before anyone could get hurt. Pulling back, I decided that I needed to reevaluate how I was going about this problem. Really, I needed to prop the door up and then lean it into the slots for me to put the hinges into position. The problem was that it was too heavy, and the solution for that didn''t have a good way to mount it. If I had an extra block, I would be able to add a temporary one with a hole in it at the top to attach the pulleys too, but I had used them all in rebuilding the gate towers. I stopped. Wait. I didn''t need it to be the same blocks that were in the towers to start with. Instead, I could go get a new block. This revtion got me quite excited. It could also solve my other worry about the block not being secure enough, so I just needed something bigger and heavier to keep it in ce. Exiting the city, I made my way a little into the forest in search of a nice,rge, dense boulder that I could cut down to the right size and bore some holes in. There were lots of options, but none were quite big enough for my purposes near the treeline. I moved further in. Soon enough, the sky was 56 % obscured by the sticklike branches and needle-like foliage of tall trees. While I was searching in the darker undergrowth, I came across a fairly unnatural clearing. In it, stood a very messy sight that seemed to have many fancy symbols drawn in the dirt with ck liquid. These didnt look anything like the symbols around the castle demons, nor like standardnguage. Hm. Remembering the fiasco with the demons when I first came to this world, I decided to leave fancy drawings alone unless I knew what they were for. It rankled to leave a mess like that though, so I marked its location in my memory. Perhaps I coulde back and ask Beatrice if she had any idea what it was. Moving on, it didn''t take me long to find arge granite boulder. It was already slightly block-shaped, so I only needed to cut it down a little. When I was done, the new sharp-edged rectangr prism was four feet high, eight feet wide, and twelve feet long. It was just about the dimensions of the top of the tower. I had originally made it taller, but that was too heavy for me to lift, so I had to shave a few inches at a time off the top until I was confident that I would be able to get it to the top of the tower safely. If I dropped this thing, anyone around me could get seriously hurt by flying bits of crushed rocks. I should really insist that anyone near my work areas should wear rigged helmets with padding in them to prevent head trauma. Humans needed their brains to be in working conditions. Thinking over a few other safety protocols I considered enforcing, I made my way back to the city. Therge block floated slowly along behind me. When I reached the edge of the forest, I could see some of the soldiers pointing in my direction and shouting over the wall. A few momentster, there was a thundering of hooves as several riders streamed out of the still-missing gates. As the riders approached me, they were able to make out more than just the giant block of stone floating along the ground. They circled around behind me as I continued forward. "Uhh, Lord Void?" The leader asked in a tentative voice. "What is the rock for?" I didn''t have high hopes for the man understanding me, but I tried anyway. Pointing at the gates, then the top of the tower, I beeped out an exnation. Watching the man with my Advanced Sensors, I saw him turn toward the squad and shrug. Then he waved to the people on the wall. We continued a little way further in silence, the horsemen choosing to trot alongside me instead of rushing back into the city. Once I got inside, I didn''t waste any time lifting the block into ce. Then I removed my improved pulleys from my dustbin and slotted them into the series of holes I had pre-drilled. It was a little more effort getting the rope fully threaded through correctly, as Air Maniption was a lot easier to use on stiff things, but I managed it. I tied the rope into ce and started to pull. Quickly I found out the major difference between lifting things and hoisting them. I wasn''t nearly heavy enough for this task, even with the pulley doing a lot of the work for me. Popping out a few of the heavier things from my dustbin, I adjusted my weight, and slowly the door began to tilt off the ground. To assist and make sure I had good control over the movement, I helped lift with my Air Maniption. Right as the sun reached its zenith, the gate was hanging as vertically as the pulley system would allow. It only took a few more moments to get everything lined up and the hinge pins slotted in. Now just one more. When both gates were hung, I let out a small cheer, pumping my arm like I had seen some of the soldiers do. I assumed that it was a sign of celebration and I was apparently right. Others on the wall and below it joined in on the cheer. Apparently, there was something universally fascinating about movingrge things. My moving of the stones had drawn a good amount of attention when I first started it, before everyone got bored and back on track with other projects. But the gates were apparently new and interesting, as it felt like most of the city was watching. While I had everyone''s attention, I wanted to show them that the gates worked again, so I rolled up to them and pushed them open one at a time. On perfectly bnced hinges, they swung open with very little force. Well, little for me. Scanning the crowd, I found Arthur standing just inside the doorway of a nearby building, also watching thepleted project. Now that I finished this task, I should probably go see how else I could help. Chapter 170: Marching Orders Chapter 170: Marching Orders Arthur looked back as he led the army out of the gates. As much as he was excited to be several days ahead of schedule, it wasn''t really so simple. Empirically this was the best oue; they would clear the threat as fast as they could to limit the spread of the undead. But he had hoped to do so much more for the city. Even though it would objectively be the wrong choice, some part of him wanted to stay for a little bit and help Caleb rebuild. There was a certain amount of responsibility that he felt for them. He had been in charge of their defense, and to some extent, any damage was his fault. After years of campaigning, Arthur knew that it wasn''t entirely true. But the thought always hung around the back of his mind when he left behind particrly devastated defenses. Most of the time, the defenders of a city had to ride off as soon as they could, so it was a feeling he had gotten used to. That didn''t make it go away. He had to believe they would be fine. The most vulnerable poption had been sent to a more secure location. That would allow the ones left to rebuild without worry. Most things were set up for winter, but he expected it to be a harsh year. There were still possibly many years of recovery ahead for the city of Caleb. That the gates were repairedpletely was a huge boon. It would make the city far more secure than a more flimsy and temporary barrier. Sure, there was still tons of work to be done inside, but they should be safe; unless Arthur failed in his mission, of course. Then nothing was really safe. Refocusing, Arthur followed the scout into the forest, and they soon came across the trail of arge group of undead that was several days old. When the repairs were in progress, no one had been idle. The scouts had been working non-stop since the saving of the city to find their enemies. ording to their leader, they still could have used more time to be certain they were urate. It would have to do. Outriders were checking for any breakaway paths, but so far, none had been reported. It was too early to say where their quarry was actually running away, but Arthur had a sinking feeling that they weren''t going to try and hide in a cave in the mountains. No, his gut told him that they were not in for a pretty sight when they finally caught up. Pushing the concerns he could do nothing about to the back of his mind, Arthur ran a practiced eye over the column of troops. Something was wrong. Not that they weren''t making good time, but in the middle of the line, the soldiers were moving differently. Looking more closely, he was able to tell why. The men in the rear section of the column were moving with a stiffness that was normally reserved for the parade ground. Each step was perfectly in time, and each footfall was synchronized. "What are those idiots doing?" Arthur pulled his horse off to the side and waited for the column to go past him. Soon enough, themander riding alongside the marching men pulled up next to him. As Arthur started forward again, he noticed that his horse''s hoof beats perfectly lined up with the other officer''s. "Uh, sir? What''s going on?" The lieutenant asked him. "I wasing to ask you that," Arthur frowned, now thoroughly puzzled. "This isn''t a parade mount, I don''t know what''s gotten into her. I''ve never seen her walk in step with another horse before." The young officer said. "Does that have something to do with why your men are also marching in parade formation?" The lieutenant''s eyes widened, and he looked closer at his men. After a few seconds, he hollered at one of his sergeants, who came running over. "Yes sir?" "Why are the men marching in step?" "In step sir?" "Yes you heard me. Why are they marching in step? Look at them!" The sergeant turned and stared at the men walking in lockstep for several seconds. "So they are, sir. Huh. I hadn''t noticed that." Before things could get any more ridiculous, Arthur decided to step in. "It doesn''t seem that this is the only group with this same issue." Calling it an "issue" was a bit of a stretch, but he remembered how much more tiring marching was when done for show. But then again, if they hadn''t noticed, maybe it was not as big of a problem as he had imagined. Looking around, it didn''t take long for him to find the likely cause of the disturbance. Dancing around the feet of the marching soldiers was a small ck disc. Wherever it passed, the footprints vanished from the path below, but somehow, no one noticed it. Arthur considered whether this was really an issue. Probably not. If the soldiers didn''t notice the extra stain of marching in parade steps, then he wasn''t going to do anything about it. Both the lieutenant and the sergeant were looking at him expectantly. "You know what, just ignore it for now. If people start getting tired or it causes other issues, let me know." The sergeant snapped a salute before falling in perfectly with the marching men. Arthur made to ride away but held back at thest minute when he noticed that the lieutenant looked like he had something he wanted to say. "Spit it outd." "It''s the god isn''t it?" the young officer asked nervously. "Likely." Arthur said. "Is that okay? Are we going to be okay?" An undercurrent of worry, just short of fear, worked its way through the lieutenant''s words. Arthur bit back a generic reassurance and really thought about his answer. "I believe we will be better than fine. Void so far has done nothing but help us." He paused for a second. "That''s not to say that it''s safe. Anything that powerful has inherent risks. A human with that power would be deadly. Even the simplest mistakes would be fatal. We can only hope that a god has more control. We don''t really understand Void and I doubt we ever will" Realizing that he was arguing against his own point, Arthur paused to recollect his thoughts. "When ites down to it, we are at Void''s mercy, no matter what. We should do our best to avoid its wrath and learn more about it. Treat it with respect and we should be okay. If it proves erratic or harmful we will distance ourselves. But for now, we need its help." Worry didn''t leave the man''s eyes. Seeing that his words hadn''t been the least bit soothing, Arthur reached over and sped the young man''s shoulder. "We work with what we have, son." - I was having a st cleaning up after the soldiers. It was a rare time when a mess this big was necessary, and there was no way for the humans to efficiently clean up after themselves either. Not that I resented cleaning up after humans. That was my purpose, after all. Even if the scope of the mandate had somewhat broadened as ofte. It was just that some messes were easily avoidable, and cleanliness was a virtue. When it wasn''t the humans making the mess, though? That was when I really got irritated. The fluff balls back at home were one thing, right on the edge, in my opinion. They were pets, though, so they still fell under the umbre of human purview. But when it was some invaders or mess makers, that was when it was unforgivable. The wind was sort of a mess maker, but I couldn''t really hate the wind. It was neutral. It cleaned things up almost as much as it created new messes. These humans weren''t nearly so badpared to some of the messestely. I almost had trouble calling it a mess. It was really just disturbed dirt. But I had long ago learned my lesson about trying to remove dirt altogether. Holes could only really get so deep before they were a mess in and of themselves. But even though dirt was by definition dirty, it could still be arranged in a more orderly manner. So as the army passed, I pushed the loose dirt back into the depressions, and I sucked the dust from the air before it got too far out of reach. I couldn''t put everything back to how it was exactly, but in my opinion, I was doing better. What had been an uneven path that weaved its way through the trees became something else entirely. Where there had been random small holes that might''ve caused stumbles, there was now hard-packed earth smoothed into shape. I didn''t make some of the major improvements I had been considering, though. I still needed to keep up with the humans, and cutting, shaping,yering, and fitting stone was too much for me right now to keep up with the soldiers. I also wasn''t about to start a major logging operation. I could have, but that seemed wasteful. Since the column swerved back and forth as it was, I would be widening the path substantially. It was hard to strike a bnce between leaving things untouched and making them perfect. As I was now, I held no illusions that I could fix everything, even if I wanted to. So it was best to pick my battles. Though I obviously had no issues with fixing the trails of the soldiers. Of all the humans that were not my humans, these were among my favorites. They kept themselves tidy, everything had its ce, and they even organized themselves in clear structures. I could appreciate that. But even the way they walked was pleasant; each step was clean, each swing of the arms precise. Maybe they could be an inspiration for some of the people back at the castle. I happily spent all day in the back, but eventually, the day ended. The soldiers started to set up camp by the side of the road. Even now, I was impressed with the order in which things got done. At first, it seemed a bit chaotic, but that was only until I found the pattern. Once everything was all set up, it was truly a beauty to behold, to see such order arise from chaos. Eventually, I realized that I had been rudely staring for some while and shook myself. Tomorrow, I would be more helpful. Not sure what to do with myself, I left the soldiers to their meals. There were only a few people unupied by the general revelry after the long march. One of them was in arger tent at the center of the encampment. I found Arthur in a camp chair before a small desk reading something. As I trundled under the tent p, I beeped a greeting. Arthur flinched a little before meeting me with his eyes. "Hello, Lord Void." I returned his formalities and considered carrying on, but I didn''t think we would be able to hold a fluid conversation yet. He didn''t seem like the talkative guard I had met back in the castle, who could talk without my input fairly easily. After a second of my silence, he just went back to his papers. Hovering up, I set myself down on a small shelf next to him so I could watch too. He gave me a look but just shrugged and went back to reading. I followed along as we dove through pages of numbers and small reports. Really, it was fascinating. This must be the key to how they were able to operate so efficiently. As we kept going, I was a little bit confused. There was a slight w in the pattern of these numbers; it was very slight, just here and there, but still. The numbers didn''t line up. Chapter 171: Bureaucratic Oath Chapter 171: Bureaucratic Oath Bee had seen better days. She had seen worse ones, too, certainly, but not too many. With each step, she could feel her feet squish into her sodden shoes. Everyborious foot of progress seemed to push the mud higher and higher up her boots. She could only imagine how everyone else, without all her advantages, was doing. It was only a matter of time before it crept past their tops, and she would really start to be ufortable. Wiping a soaking strand of hair off of her face, she regretted not taking up the offer for a horse more and more. Keeping her eyes on her feet, she knew that everyone else was miserable as well, but they still had a long way to go and couldn''t stop now. The muddy road and overall horrendous conditions had drastically slowed them down. At first, people had tried to shelter in the wagons, but that weighed them down even more. After the second time they had all gotten stuck in the mud, stopping the entire column from pulling the wagons free, she made the massively unpopr decision to bar all but the most infirm from riding in the wagons. She could practically feel the dirty looks directed at her, and the ever-present wail of ufortable small children filled the air. The soldiers abandoned her almost immediately, unfamiliar with navigating the battleground of public opinion. Luckily, most people had kept their displeasure to looks and mutters. It mainly was because of Void; even when people grumbled, they still whispered nearly silent prayers. The other reason was Gertrude. The old crone walked as she always did at the back of the column. But with dark looks and sharper words, she kept everyone moving at her pace or faster. Bee was also doing her best to keep everyone''s spirits up, and to some extent, it was working. The children big enough to walk were mostly having a good time, diving into puddles and slinging mud at each other. To them, she told the stories of Void. Their favorite was the god''s heroic battle against the vile lieutenant, but they also liked to hear about how it swept the castle clean of lesser demons. She couldn''t tell that story in its entirety as she had mostly only been there to help clean up the grand hall, but that was part of why they liked it. They would pass the time bying up with more and more ridiculous ways in which the god demolished and consumed the demons. Her favorite so far was that the god had chased the other demons down the halls until they were all clustered together in a massive group. Then, Void cornered them andunched aser-superheated tidal wave, swallowing up the demons and instantly vaporizing them. Some of the kids even insisted that Void rode on the wave-like some sort of surfer. As strange as that story was, it was one of the more logical fantasies that they hade up with. The Nighty Knights at home certainly had some wild imaginations, but she still had yet to get used to the wandering tales of small children. Every once in a while, she considered that the descriptions in her stories might be a little too dark for the children. But then she remembered how nd and boring tales she remembered growing up were and decided they could handle it. By the time the caravan finally stopped for the night, the rain still hadn''t ceased. It was slightly better as the fat droplets had turned to a gentle mist. While the mud wasn''t getting any worse, the constant drizzle prevented anything from drying out. Bee was not looking forward to the night and was d she didn''t need as much sleep as she used to, as she doubted that she would be able to get a full amount in this climate. Still, after they set up camp, the usual amount of people came to hear her talk about the glories of Void. It was surprising as much as she found it relieving. She had spent most of the day thinking about how everyone was mad at her for making them walk in the rain, but perhaps it wasn''t as bad as she thought. After her sermon, Bee found Gertrude waiting to talk to her. She motioned for the old crone to follow as she walked. The soldiers had set up a slightly dry area for her to do alchemy in. The woman fell into step alongside her. Neither said anything for a bit, and Bee began to think about the potions they would need. Quantity was the name of the game. The amount of low-grade potions they were going through was ridiculous. When infants got sick, it didn''t take a lot to cure them, but on the other hand, it didn''t take a lot to kill them either. So when subjected to such an unpleasant environment, even the smallest thing was worrying. A good part of her day was spent administering small cures for coughs and general minor issues. "I have a concern, youngdy." Gertrude said. Bee winced, expecting a sharp rebuke for something she had done wrong recently. "It''s about the children. I think we need to slow down on the healing of them." Bee reeled, taken aback. "You want me to leave them sick? Why?" "In short, yes." She responded but quickly added. "For good reasons though, just hear me out child." - For the first time, I reached out and messed with Arthur''s papers. I flipped back a few reports, confirming my suspicions. Arthur just leaned back and let me do my thing. Apparently, he wasn''t concerned about me knowing anything about these numbers. I pulled up a few more documents to cross-reference before Iid four of them out in front of him and tapped on each line that I thought was important. Arthur leaned forward and frowned, tracing the lines with his fingers and muttering to himself. I am kind of disappointed. This whole time I had been so impressed with their solid and well-ordered organization. It had honestly given me high hopes for their record-keeping. Instead, I was disappointed. With a big frown, he pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and scribbled a few numbers on it with a bird feather. "This doesn''t line up. It''s very cleverly hidden too." He looked back a few different sheets, then got up and grabbed a book from the back to reference it. "Whoever did this was smart. They didn''t just underreport the numbers. They are using a different definition and units for measurement, so the numbers seem to line up. Only if you check the top do you realize the units are different. Then you have to calcte and convert everything for the discrepancy to make sense." What did he mean by "someone did this"? It seemed like a mistake from my perspective. But if Arthur was saying that this was done intentionally "There is no way this was an ident, it''s too careful." Arthur put the feather down and closed the reference book. Leaning back in his chair, he asked the air. "Then who would have done it?" I had no idea what they did exactly, let alone had the ability to figure out their motivations. But well, that wasn''t really true anymore. I needed to stop thinking like I didn''t understand humans anymore. There were definitely things that I didn''t get, but I could figure some things out. I could at least try. Besides, it seemed like humans didn''t fully understand all other humans, either. Arthur seemed confused, though he did say some things that maybe I could use to piece together the situation. So then, the numbers that I thought didn''t line up What would that mean? One number was the amount of utility oil ordered. That actually lined up with the amount received, but when it was divided between the people who actually needed it, plus the leftovers in stock, it wasn''t right. So how would that be hard to hide? Looking at it again, I tried skimming it like humans did, ignoring the details and making lots of assumptions based on previous knowledge. Then I saw it. If you ignored the units, when you added all the numbers together amongst the divided-up amounts and the stock, it was the right number. So it was the units that were wrong. Checking the units, I did see they were from totally different systems of measurement. So the difference wasn''t that much, maybe 20 percent. Okay, so that was simple then. We should just be looking for a few hundred gallons of oil lying somewhere around camp. It couldn''t be that hard to find. So why did Arthur look so frustrated? Maybe this was something I could help with? Throwing my sensors wide, I started to search for arge quantity of liquid stored away in someone''s tent. He had said that someone had done this intentionally, but I didn''t really see why someone would want so much oil. What would they have to gain? Still, he had sounded very confident, so it was bound to be around here somewhere! - Roscoe was having a much easier time in this province. Recruits were much more plentiful and densely packed. And while they didn''t seem eager to join, they weren''t nearly as aggressive in resisting conversion. Best of all, the human resistance wasn''t nearly as coordinated as it had been. There was clearly no mastermind directing the defense. Each city fought on its own. Sure, taking each one was expensive and cost him a lot of troops, but each time heted more. And never did it take so long that he spent weeks in one ce. In fact, he didn''t even have to do it all himself; with his troop surplus, he just spent a day setting up the attack and crushing any resistance, then leaving a horde to clean up the weakened foe. Even better was that his magic was getting better. He hadn''t taken the time to summon a new wraith yet, but he wasn''t sure if he even wanted to after how useless thest one proved. Instead, he had learned to empower and direct shades directly. They were incredibly effective for breaking unexpecting foes and were now the most powerful troops in all his arsenals, except for the elite skeletons. The inherent magic imparted to them from the Void god made them more like him, intelligent and full of potential. They were hisrades in arms, confidants, andrades rather than fodder. He could only pray for the safety and salvation of the ones left behind. When his connection to the wraith had snapped, he lost all contact with them. They would either find their way back or they would not. This caused concern among the few sentient members of their little group, but they could do little but press on. They would have toe back to any unfinished workter. Chapter 172: Liquid Gold Chapter 172: Liquid Gold Arthur watched as the god left his tent. Part of him - a part that he was much too afraid to voice - couldn''t help but worry about what the little troublemaker would uncover next. Well, maybe it was smart not to voice that. Perhaps calling a deity a "little troublemaker" would get him smited. It wasn''t that he was ungrateful for the embezzling scheme being brought to light. It was good to deal with corruption wherever he could, of course. But the case here wasn''t so simple. Things like this were to be expected in any unit, and mostmanders actually encouraged them or looked the other way. It helped to make sure that they had a firm grasp of their underlings'' loyalty, even above the loyalty they held to the crown itself. This wasn''t a practice Arthur took part in, of course, but rooting it out might cause problems of its own. Problems he wasn''t sure he could really afford right now. Looking at the paper, he couldn''t believe that anyone would have noticed this for a very long time. It wouldn''t have been till year-end reports that things might not have lined up. A normal person would have just added the numbers together and said it was fine. He certainly had when he was going over them. But all in all, this sort of thing added up over time. Here it was only a few hundred golds, but to many people, that sum amounted to years'' worth of work. Arthur sighed. He got up and stretched before putting his head out of the tent and calling his aide. He could track down each of the people responsible personally, but he had people for that, people who he could trust far beyond these small matters. Not too many, honestly, and one of his primary ones was a prime suspect in this case. But he should have enough to handle it. Honestly, he didn''t believe this was the Quartermaster''s doing. The man was too dedicated to his job and too precise. Things like this would have probably even harmed his ss progression, and Arthur had never met a nonbat ss that was so obsessed with leveling. That the man had also served for over a decade under Arthur''s personalmand without even an insinuation of wrongdoing also helped matters. No, Arthur probably held some responsibility for this. The man had been asking for assistants recently. Something might have happened The aide returned a short timeter; ducking under one of the tent ps, he held it open and motioned for a grizzled man in leather armor to follow. "General Arthur," Lieutenant Jericho said,ing to a halt and snapping a salute. As the aide left the tent, Arthur waved to his old friend to set him at ease. Leaning back in his chair, Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose and tossed the papers toward the other side of his small table. At a gesture, Jericho sat down and rifled through the papers. "What is this, sir?" To many people, having a friend call them "sir" feel awkward, but Arthur knew better than to try and correct Jericho. When they were not on a campaign, at home drinking with their families on leave, Jericho might call him Arthur. But otherwise, he was always "sir." "Check the units." It''s all he had to say. A few momentster, Jericho frowned. "That''s a right mess, sir. Any idea how long this has been going on?" The man rubbed his clean-shaven cheeks in thought. "No, but it has to have started sometime this year." Arthur said grimly. "Got to be someone here in camp. This report was too new and anything older would have been left behind. Embezzling like this is risky. Someone would have to be watching, maybe even doctoring the regr reports. This isn''t the kind of retail record we carry with us obviously." "There aren''t that many people who have had ess to this." Jericho said with a thoughtful voice. No doubt he waspiling the list even as they spoke. "I know. I just need you to bring them in." Arthur said. Jericho nodded and pulled out a piece of parchment from his breast pocket, then scrawled down a few notes before saluting and leaving again. Arthur stood up and paced a couple of times in the small confines of his tent. There was no doubt in his mind that Jericho would soon have his suspects lined up. Likely he would even already know who did this. The man was really good at his job. Arthur wished he had been able to convince him to take a more prominent role, but it was a fool''s errand. He was always told there was no point in having a secret police that everyone knew about. Still, the arrangement never really made sense as the police were not a well-kept secret, but military affairs was a veryplicated jurisdiction. Themander had ultimate authority while in the field, kind of like a captain on a ship, but the King hated having so little oversight. Arthur didn''t me him. A rogue general with an army more loyal to him than the King was how this Kingdom got started, after all. So officers like Jericho were put in to make sure that things stayed under control. It wasn''t very effective in most cases. Very, very few of the agents were aspetent as his old friend, and they were easily sussed out. Plus, he knew that many of thepetent ones were great friends with theirmanders and had a simr rtionship as he and Jericho did. But it was possible that that was entirely intentional. After all, those people were the most loyal generals Arthur was aware of. Wrapping up the reports only took an hour. When he was done, there was a message waiting for him that Jericho had rounded up all the suspects and potential witnesses. They were being held in a tent near the outskirts of the camp. After reading the message, Arthur gestured for a couple of guards to follow him as he made his way over. *** The three men and a woman sitting in the tent looked nervous. Jericho and a few of hisckeys, byparison, were perfectlyposed as usual. None of the suspects should have known why they were called in, but none of them were idiots, so it wasn''t like they didn''t have some idea. Arthur scanned their faces, looking for some especially telling signs of guilt. Not finding any of them, he sighed. nning battlefield tactics was one thing. It was something he enjoyed for the most part. Plus,manding on a battlefield was something that he was good at. He knew how long men could hold a defensive formation for, when and where the enemy would break, that kind of thing. This knowledge of people and their nature, his gift for strategy, should have transferred over into interrogations easily. And it did. Sort of. While he wasn''t bad at them, he didn''t have the same ir as with his other talents. He needed to stop and think at points, his instincts staying worryingly silent. Jericho told him that the same silence made him terrifying, but Arthur wasn''t so sure. He had met plenty of much more effective questioners who were much more willing to get their hands dirty. What Arthur was trying to figure out right now was how much he should give away. If he told them nothing, then it would be impossible to get to the point. If he told them too much, they would be able to craft a much better lie. A natural at this would have just started talking, and a web of traps would just spin out of their words. Well, he would work with what he had, he supposed. "Something has gone wrong with some of the books. Ones you all have touched or had ess to. Is there anyone else who might have had ess to any sensitive work that you''ve been involved with?" The question wasn''t really a trap, even though some might have called it that. If there were any other suspects here, he needed to know. There would obviously be incentives to give them up. They would lose their position if they were found to havepromised information security, but it was better than being used of it themselves or risking being caught aiding a foreign spy. Silently each one shook their heads. The Quartermaster opened his mouth with a questioning look on his face, but before he could get his question out, someone burst into the tent. "Commander! Something is happening, I think you need toe see this!" What now, Arthur thought to himself. He turned and hurried out of the tent toward the next emergency. - I wasn''t able to sense oil anywhere from Arthur''s tent, so I left to go look around more thoroughly. With a quick tour of the camp, I was able to ount for most of the valid allotments, but I found no massive hidden cache of oil that someone had misced or stored away. The closest thing I found was in the kitchens, and upon closer inspection, I found that it was a different kind of oil. So I moved out of the more central locations and started exploring the rest of camp. As I moved through the soldiers'' camps, I found lots of smaller amounts of liquids other than water stashed away. A few times, I found a few gallons hidden away in personal packs and saddle bags, but it wasn''t nearly viscous enough to be the missing oil, either. Among the resident tents, I did find the rest of the properly allocated oil, though. It was aliquoted in smaller amounts and put to good use. I continued my search for a long while, but try as I might, I didn''t find any hint of the stolen stuff. I also checked people''s souls in case that gave me some clue of where to go, but it wasn''t very useful for finding objects. I really hoped that Arthur would be able to track it down. As embarrassing as it was to admit it, I may have been getting a little too cocky recently. Perhaps it was just arrogance talking, but with all my newfound power, I just felt like I could help and teach these humans so much more now. Maybe I was a bit too far out of my areas of expertise, though. If I couldn''t find something as simple as a huge amount of missing oil, then was I really in any position to talk? In ast fit of inspiration, I did ast sweep through the camp to see if anyone had buried it in the ground. To my surprise, I found a lot of liquid not too far below us. A lot of liquid. Way more than I was looking for. I couldn''t quite tell how viscous it was at its depth. Also, it was deep enough that I highly doubted someone was able to put it there recently. At least, not without some advanced digging skills. Which I suppose could have been a possibility, but I think I would have noticed something like that happening. Well, I might not be able to find the missing oil, but maybe I could rece it. I just had to figure out how to get the liquid out of the ground. Unfortunately, it was far enough away that I couldn''t be sure what it actually was. It did feel hot and under pressure. Perhaps I could use that pressure to help get it out? I ran through my list of skills and mutations but didn''t find anything that would be immediately useful. If I could get my mop close enough, I could start a siphon effect, but it was much too far down to reach. I could dig down part of the way, but that would cause a ratherrge disturbance in the middle of the camp. Finally, I had an idea. I had only ever been able to slightly affect things with my domain intentionally, but I hadn''t truly tested its limits. What if I was able to move the underground rock structure a little bit to align the grains more? Maybe I could do it in such a way that the liquid could escape upward more. Maybe then I could get it from there? I went right over the hidden reservoir, which happened to be in the center of camp, then I got to work. This was a great idea. Chapter 173: Unexpected Showers Chapter 173: Unexpected Showers Getting my domain to work the way I wanted was a bit harder than I had expected. When I had fixed particr parts of the castle before, I just told it to focus on repairing certain areas. Now though, I was trying to get it to do something precise. Having it simply create a hole clearly wasn''t working. So I went back to my original idea of better altering theposition of the rock so that it was more dense, thus giving space for the liquid to escape. Clearly much easier. My n worked almost as well as I had expected. The shaft that it created wasn''t perfectly straight, but it gracefully followed the natural curves of the rock formation. I suppose that was good enough. More orderly in a kind of way, too. Just because things weren''t straight didn''t mean they weren''t clean. The natural density of the rock was more important than a straight shaft. As soon as the endpoint of the shaft connected to the reservoir, it created an escape path for the pressurized liquid. The searing hot substance exploded out of it. With less interference blocking my sensors, I could determine that the underground reservoir''s contents were simple water. Very, very hot water. In fact, the only reason it wasn''t boiling was because it was under so much pressure. The pressure that I had just released. I was starting to regret my previous assessment of the quality of this idea. All that bottled-up liquid needed somewhere to go and go it did. Moving at 71.4 miles per hour, the water shot straight up out of the ground, rising high into the sky and fanning out over the entire camp. It seemed that I had created a fountain. Except, this fountain didn''t have a basin or anything at its it''s base, so it was making quite a mess. I quickly looked for some way to contain the water but didn''t find anything. The humans around me, for once, acted rationally and yelled about the mess that was being made. Many of them got out of the way of the falling water before it hit, but some didn''t and further became upset about getting soaked. I thrust my mop into the jet of water, and temporarily, the flow ceased. It wasn''t long before it soon overwhelmed the ability of my mop to soak it up, shooting past with as much force as before. Retracting the appendage, I quickly wrung it out and extended it again. After a few repetitions, my mop managed to block most of the water, and the flow eventually slowed down to a steady burble. Even though the flow slowed down, that wasn''t to say that it stopped entirely. The hot liquid kept flowing like a small fountain from the earth below; it just didn''t st into my mop at full force. That was more eptable. There didn''t seem to be an end to the flowing water, unfortunately. As much as I mopped, it just kept spilling across the ground and seeping into the dirt around my wheels. But the immediate danger of the mess was dealt with, at least. After a few minutes of this, I began to think that the flow would never end. I started considering ways to seal the hole back up, but did I even have a way to do that? I didn''t think so. I inspected the liquid more closely. The water appeared to contain a surprisingly high concentration of minerals. However, it certainly wasn''t the missing oil I was looking for. What a waste. Eventually, I managed to reduce the flow to a bare trickle. It would have to do for now. Frustrated at the nearly catastrophic mess I had unleashed, I rolled away from where I made my hole. I spun in a quick circle to get most of the water off me, and my various other functions took care of the rest. After I was dry, I joined the humans crowding around the tiny puddle in the center of their camp. I had done what I could. There were still soldiers around with soaked clothing and a few spots of dampness around the camp that I needed to take care of. That wouldn''t be too hard to deal with. Still, I was concerned about the camp''s new fountain. My domain worked on putting things in more order, but I wasn''t sure how I would make the rock more ordered than it already was. I supposed I could easily widen the hole I was creating, but now that I had envisioned that as more orderly than it was previously, I didn''t think I could undo what I had done. Maybe we''d have to live with the little trickle for now. - Bee stared at Gertrude in shock and felt the need to rify again. "I''m sorry, I don''t think I heard you correctly. Do you want me to leave the children sick?" The old crone let out a breath and shrugged her shoulders. "In essence, yes. But it''s not like I want you to leave all the children sick and dying all of the time. You see, you''re healing all the children, even the ones that don''t need it. "That''s understandable. You''ve never had a kid, obviously. Likely don''t have that much experience with babies, either. Many of these mothers don''t know the difference between a life-threatening illness and amon cold, and they''lle to you for any little runny nose they see. But most things babies will just get over. They''re tough. And it''s important that they do, that we let them get over it themselves if they can. It helps build strength. "From my experience, if a child is treated too much with alchemy products, they will have a generally weak Constitution stat. I''ve never been able to prove that with numbers, ''course. Scan is so rare that it''s hard to test. But I think getting sick is arge part of a child''s development." Gertrude finished in a characteristically direct manner, leaning on her cane. Bee didn''t respond right away. Instead, she considered Gertrude''s words. The old woman was correct; she didn''t know much, if anything, about babies. But her system theory was pretty decent, and that wasn''t even taking into ount her age. It was very possible that the developmental stage, where stats were gained naturally before one''s first level, would rely on things like oveing sickness to determine Constitution. Whether people''s Constitution was shown by getting over illnesses or they were being awarded more Constitution for oveing diseases it was a bit of an unsolvable paradox. "Hmmm, that is an interesting point." Bee conceded. "I could see that being the case. However, I''m not sure what I can do about it. I can''t just tell the moms that their baby isn''t sick, or that they''ll have to fend for themselves when they clearly don''t." Bee said. But before Gertrude could say anything, she continued. "Also, you''re right I don''t know anything about babies. I would have no idea which ones would recover on their own and which ones would need my help." "Oh, I don''t think you need to worry about either of those things. A lot of us old people know a thing or two about babies. We can help bring the ones to you that really need healing and let the mothers know why. Of course, if we''re wrong, you should always be able to step inter. Besides I''m sure you have better things to do with your time than spending it all brewing potions for a bunch of worrywart mothers." Gertrude''sst point definitely rang home for Beatrice. She had been spending a lot of her time and ingredients brewing recently. She was close to running out on many things she had brought from the castle. Things that weren''t necessarily easy to rece. If she could minimize that without any real harm being done, then it would be great. Her time, though well, it had kept her busy. What else would she do with more time? By now, everyone was pretty used to the routine of walking and setting up camp. The only thing she needed to do was kind of be there. Just her standing around and supervising seemed to give everyone a bit offort. But really, did she ever have to tell anyone what to do anymore? After the first few people understood their ce in the caravan''s management, for the most part, the group worked as a well-oiled machine. Most of her time recently was spent just talking to Captain Major because they were the only two who shared the burden ofmand. Bee agreed to Gertrude''s suggestion. That left her with the unenviable task of finding something else useful to do. Sighing, she supposed that she had one more thing inmon with Captain Major now. Arthur followed at a jog behind the slightly panicked man. They made their way toward the center of the camp, where arge crowd was milling. It seemed that the disturbance still hadn''t gone away. A few quick shouts and the crowd parted enough for him to walk through. In the center of the camp was now a small steamy pond that kept growing. "Did anyone see what happened?" Arthur asked. He wasn''t so sure that really anything happened, but a spring just appearing out of nowhere seemed rather unlikely. The soldiers exchanged looks with each other briefly before one tentatively raised his hands. "Uh. Sir I don''t know if anything happened. A huge geyser of water spurted from the ground, then it sort of stuttered, and Now there''s a puddle. Lord Void was here when it started. It seemed like he stopped it from shooting into the sky the whole time. I''m not sure what else he did though." Of course, it was Lord Void, Arthur thought. So it didn''t make any sense why. Had it really been that there was a geyser or natural spring under the camp the whole time, and it just happened to erupt right when Void was nearby? The odds of that seemed fairly unlikely. But he also didn''t understand why the deity would do this if it had been done intentionally. Looking around, he saw a little ck disc sitting among the soldiers. No one else seemed to notice it. At the moment, it was actually sitting between someone''s legs. "Lord Void?" Arthur called over to the ck disc with a hint of a bow. The soldiers all around him jumped. They obviously hadn''t realized that the god was still amongst them. Within half a second, a free space had cleared up around the area where it said. Void turned to look at Arthur before giving a small beep, followed by another series of sharp noises that he didn''t quite understand. How was he going to get the story out of Void? Would Void be willing to write it down for him? Well, might as well ask. But at the same time, maybe out in the open wasn''t the ce for this. "Would you mind apanying me?" Arthur was well aware that he couldn''t give Void orders. But this was as close as he could get to telling the god what he wanted while still having it remain a request. Luckily the little godling didn''t have any problems following him back to his tent. Once they were better situated, Arthur sent his aide to speak to his lieutenant. He would have to continue the interrogations alone. Arthur had full confidence in the man''s ability to get the truth out with or without his help. When he got a chance, he would read a report and join if needed. But for now, whatever was going on here was more important. "So what happened?" Arthur asked the ck disc that alighted on his desk. Void let out a few familiar beeps before eventually just picking up the quill and finding some scrap paper. Inrge blocky letters, it wrote out a message. "No oil. Hot water underground came up." Arthur leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin. So it was a geyser. He wasn''t sure why Void used such simple words and wrote in such short sentences, but he was sure there was likely a reason. It didn''t seemzy or anything, but perhaps it was just expedient. The blocky letters kind of reminded him what a child would write they were first learning. He pushed the likely sphemous thought out of his mind for the moment. "So, you just happened to be around when a new geyser formed?" Void moved side to side, shaking his w horizontally. Was that no? "I''m sorry you''re going to have to exin a little bit more. I''m not sure I understood that." The little ck disk seemed to slump slightly as it picked up the quill once more. Chapter 174: Go and Sin No More Chapter 174: Go and Sin No More "So. It sounds like you released a natural hot spring into camp." Arthur leaned back as he summarized my jumbled exnation. I like all my things neat, butnguage was way harder than I ever thought it would be. Organizing the words before writing them down was an entirely different skill than nning how to clean a room. I would need a lot more practice before I was good at putting words together efficiently. Especially when they all had so many different meanings that could be misunderstood. As it was, I kept to simple sentence fragments since they seemed to cause the least confusion. It had generally gotten the point across to Arthur, even if he seemed to interpret them in a more generous light. Only after our little conversation did I understand how silly my search for missing oil was. There was no stolen oil, at least not in the way I had thought. When I had mentioned I was looking for it, Arthur said they had already "found" it. He exined that the one stealing it was one of four people they had already captured. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to understand that there was no missing oil in the literal sense. Whoever was supposed to buy it had just bought less than they were supposed to and kept the leftover money. Luckily, I was able to pick this up through context clues, so I didn''t think my processing speed came across as too slow. Arthur scribbled down something on a piece of paper and stamped it with some melted wax. One of the young runners came in as he was called and grabbed the paper, dashing out of the tent soon after. "I have to thank you on behalf of my men. They will all enjoy taking some time to soak in a hot spring, even if they will have to take shifts. We should be able to create a barrier to keep the water in with rtively little effort." Arthur told me. I wasn''t sure I understood, but if he was happy, that was fine with me. Especially if they could help keep the rest of the water from getting everywhere. I carefully wrote out that they were wee before setting the pen down. Before the conversation could move on, one of the aides entered the tent. "Sir, we have an update from Lieutenant Jerico." Then, noticing me, he gave me a slight bow. "My Lord." "Well, what is it?" Arthur asked. I was curious, too, as it seemed like Arthur had already formed a good idea of what had happened. What else could Jerico have found? The aide slid a piece of paper over the desk. Arthur unfurled it and frowned as he read. After he finished, he set it down on the table so I could read it too. It wasn''t a veryplicated note, just that Jerico believed that he had a good idea of who the perpetrator was but couldn''t prove it yet. What did it take to prove someone was the guilty party? This was a tricky problem. Just because I knew information didn''t mean I would be able tomunicate it to others. Teaching children is a perfect example of this. I imagined if I had to solve any of the kids'' problems when I hadn''t seen the situations y out with my very own sensors. Most of the time, their stories were rambling and incoherent. It was all I could do to get the gist of them, and that was only when I had personally witnessed the events. Now, if I had to prove to one child what another child said was true. That would be hard. Arthur sighed as he stood up. "Might as well take care of this now. I don''t want to still be on this tomorrow. Void, do you want toe?" Sure, I beeped. This time he seemed to be able to understand the beep just fine without any boration. I followed, floating just over the ground as we made our way to the outskirts of the camp. There was a normal tent that didn''t stand out from any of the others, but somehow Arthur knew which one he was looking for. As we crossed the threshold, I noticed a few runes on the edges of the tent ps. Once we were inside, I noticed that the sounds from outside were dulled than expected - almost 81.2 percent lower. I wasn''t sure what that was supposed to aplish, but it seemed intentional. A gruff-looking man nced over at our entry. There were four other humans sitting in chairs, looking rather ufortable in the center of the room. One of them was the man who had given me the rope I used to seat the gates of Caleb. "Ah, Commander, I''m d you could make it back, perhaps we can resolve this tonight." Arthur nodded to the man but otherwise didn''t say anything, so the gruff man continued. "So far, we have confirmed that only these four have had ess to the records." I relegated the guy''s words to a subprocessor as I found something far more interesting. Opening my soul sense, I looked at the four humans in the chairs. None of their spirits stood out as partially dim, nor were any bright. On the surface, they all had some amount of filth on them, but not too much more than an average amount from what I had seen. One of the younger men had a bit more than normal, but by no means the worst I had seen, even today. Was one of them really responsible for this? To be fair, I didn''t know how my skill worked very well yet. But if the stuff on the top was from bad things done recently, it didn''t seem that any one of them had erred too much. Still, the gruff man and Arthur seemed convinced that it was one of them. To be thorough, I got to work scrubbing off the soul grime from each one of them. While I was cleaning their spirits, Arthur and the man who seemed to be named Jerico were talking to each of them in soft tones. Each one was proiming their innocence, providing countless reasons why it wasn''t them. I noticed that when I finished cleaning the spirit of the onedy, she seemed a bit more rxed. After a little bit, the two men almost entirely stopped questioning them. I wasn''t sure what they were doing exactly. I recalled situations like this in my human''s shows at home, but when humans asked other humans questions in those, they usually split the people up. I let them do their work as I continued mine. After polishing the first person''s soul to a dull shine, I started cleaning one of the young men''s souls. This time, as I progressed, he didn''t rx at all. In fact, he got more and more tense, and I could see drops of sweat rolling down his temples. Arthur picked up on this almost right away. By the time I was finished cleaning, the man had broken. Tears started rolling down his face, and his shoulders shook. When he finally looked up, it was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. After I finished with him, I moved on to the other young man, but I listened to the confession. Apparently, he was indeed responsible. He imed there were reasons for what he did, something about a sick niece and potions being too expensive. Maybe that was why his soul wasn''t as dirty as I would have thought? Did having justifications for doing bad things make it less bad? Or was it that he didn''t feel as guilty? The very dirty souls didn''t seem to be only possessed by people who thought they were doing bad, so that didn''t seem right either. I also didn''t think that causing mess and disorder like this was very defensible, despite excuses, But I''d have to think about it. I would need more data points to figure out how this skill worked. - Bee couldn''t contain her smile as the valley entrance appeared on the horizon. It wasn''t that she really wanted her journey to end. While it wasn''t her favorite thing, it hadn''t been awful since the rain stopped. She just really wanted to be home. Thesest few weeks away from Void had been hard. They felt off, somehow. It felt like part of her was missing. Like there was a hole in her heart. Realizing how much she leaned on her god for support was humbling. It also amazed her how much Void managed to do without her realizing it. Without him around, so many little things popped up that required her attention. She was lucky that she had such good repair skills. A number of small things broke that she was able to fix easily, like cartwheels and clothing. It was the first time that she used the skill on things other than her own body with any regrity. It was a bit of a boon as she felt real growth in the skill, but in the back of her mind, she knew that if her master had been around, there wouldn''t have been so many problems. Nheless, it wasing to an end. Soon, they would be back in the castle. There, with her friends and structured roles, there wouldn''t be such a burden of leadership on her. The support system she had worked out with the others would do a lot to lift the stress off of her directly. She only had to integrate the neers in. That shouldn''t be too hard. She wasn''t sure why, but these people were rtively easy to lead. It helped that there were only a few clear, unquestioned authority figures. Aside from herself, the only other ones were the Captain and Gertrude. The military made sense, but the others Maybe something about living in a city made them more likely to listen to authority than people from the more rural areas. When she stepped into the trees, she noticed a man appear next to the road as if by magic. One of Susan''s scouts. No one else seemed to notice him as they walked past. As she looked over at the man, he fell into step with her. She recognized him from the first group that Susan had started training. "Mat, right?" "Wow, you remember me!" The man said, his voice drawing a lot of surprised stares. "Wee back, High Priestess. Is the Lord Void around?" Bee was a bit taken aback by the address. The title hadn''t beenmon; most people had just called her Bee when she had left. It seemed that things had changed in her absence. "No, Void is hunting down the root of the undead problem. I aming with refugees from Caleb." "The city fell?" Mat asked. She noticed as his shoulders tensed slightly. "Not quite. Void got there just in time. But as they are vulnerable, we are taking the ones who won''t be useful in the rebuilding for now. We also have a contingent of guards to help along the way." Bee exined. Mat rxed somewhat. "If you can give me numbers, I can send a runner ahead to get things prepared for you ma''am." "That would be greatly appreciated, Mat." Bee said. After telling him how many to expect, she then asked her own question. "It seems there have been some changes while I was away. What did I miss?" Chapter 175: Heart of the Matter Chapter 175: Heart of the Matter Harold pulled his hood down over his eyes as he made his way beneath the gates of Alexander. Here in Barleona, they spoke the samenguage as in the kingdom, but the people looked significantly different. His standard brown hair and brown eyes would stand out here amongst the predominantly blonde, blue-eyed people. All around, he could see the standard straw-colored hair and crystal eyes popping out of a darkplexion in bright relief. The shadow of his cowl hid his face, giving him some anonymity at least. It had been a long time since he had done any field work, but he still hadn''t forgotten how to move through a crowd without being noticed. Despite his magical expertise and his political acumen, flying under the radar had long been his most reliable skill. That, and knowing when to run. Moving deftly through the streets of milling people, Harold scanned the street signs for the mark. The border crossing had been simple: a few fake documents, some bribes, and he had slipped right through. Now he just needed to find his contact. The unfamiliar city wasn''t hard to navigate, but that didn''t help when he didn''t know where he was even going. There were more apothecaries than he would have expected. But none so far had the little horns carved into the bottom of the hanging sign he was looking for. The mark of the Jailers wasn''t always in the same spot, but the few inches of the sign base was a good way to hide it in in sight. Hence his surreptitious nces upward as he passed. At the fifth shop, he finally found what he was looking for. Instead of under the sign, it was at the bottom of the dirty windowsill. It had taken him a few minutes of casual "window shopping" to find it, so he wandered away for a bit before returning and going in. Hopefully, if anyone had noticed a hooded stranger stopping at the store, they would have moved on before seeing him enter. A little bell rang as the door opened; Harold closed it softly behind him as he stepped into the dimly lit shop. The walls were lined with shelves, each one of them crammed full of random junk. Not rare materials, niche finds, and exotic wares - that was normal stuff to find in an apothecary shop. Harold was a bit of an alchemist himself, and he could guarantee that this stuff was junk. It was poor quality and overpriced. But that was on purpose. A ttering from the back room indicated that the shop was not as empty as it first seemed. "I''ll be right there." A grumpy voice called from the back room. Harold settled in for a wait. It was a full five minutes before a wrinkled old man slowly hobbled out to the front. This was intentional as well. The point of the shop was to be as uninviting as it could be; they didn''t want customers toe in. That would only get in the way of their real business. The few unlucky souls that dide in unawares were met with the same treatment, followed by an exceedingly unhelpful and grouchy shopkeeper until they left. Fortunately, Harold was no normal customer. "When did thest batch of Wardroote in?" The gruff man rubbed his chin for a second. "Couldn''t have been more than a month back, maybe two." Afterpleting the passphrase, they both rxed. Harold cracked a small smile. Flipping up a panel that kept customers froming behind the counter, the old man ushered him into the back, moving with a newfound grace. After dispelling a minor illusion, Harold got a look at the true back room. It was entirely different from the front of the store. The previously dingy floor and walls were meticulously clean and well-kept back here. Actual valuable alchemy ingredients and premade salves popted the counters in neatlybeled containers. What caught Harold''s eye most, though, was the room''s other upant. A young woman sitting in a straight-back chair sharpening a knife. Looking up, she met Harold''s eyes. "Harold?" She asked. "The same." He paused for a second before he was able to recall her name. "Amy?" The young woman stood and offered him a hand, which he took. "At least I have a package that knows how to hide." It was odd not havingmand for the first time in a while; he was going to have to adjust how he interacted with his coworkers ordingly. Harold pulled his hood down and gave her his best-winning smile. "I''m not so green that I need a babysitter, just a tour guide." Amy gave him a doubtful look from the corner of her eye but didn''tment on it. Instead, she gestured to the chair across from her. As he sat down, he realized that the old man had disappeared when he wasn''t paying attention. Once he settled in, he looked more closely at his "tour guide." If he had been asked to describe the average Barleonaen, Amy was who woulde to mind. Every single stereotype was checked. Blond hair, blue eyes, a darkplexion, and slightly on the shorter side. Slim and slightly athletic, but not enough to be noteworthy. The only thing marking her from any other nameless face in the crowd was a hardness around the eyes, and he would bet that it would disappear the second they were outside. "Are there any updates to the itinerary? Just the three sights?" Amy asked after a second of silence. "Just the three. Any news about them?" Harold confirmed. He was finding it surprisingly easy to slip back into the codednguage of the operatives. They would always assume someone was listening, and few in the organization actually knew any of the details for an operation anyways. He would be surprised if Amy actually did know what was at their destinations. "Something out of Arwen has been causing a bit of an uproar recently. I haven''t heard why. Do you want to wait till themotion dies down?" Amy asked. Harold frowned; the site of Arwen was where Syleth''an was held. By all ounts, it might be the weakest of the Lieutenants in purebat power, but that didn''t really matter now. There was no one around that would fare well against any Lieutenant anyways. Aside from that thing. From this perspective, Imposter might be one of the worst ones to be let loose as it could work its havoc from the inside. Not that they really knew what its true powers were, just old legends passed down for millennia. "No, we should go there first." Amy rubbed her forehead. "That is going to add a bit to our travel time. There was a reason we were visiting it second." "How much sooner can we get there if we skip the first stop?" Harold asked, not wanting to bepletely unreasonable. "Maybe a day or two. That doesn''t seem much out of a two week journey." Amy said in a suspiciously neutral tone. Harold considered. He would need a day or so at each site, but if they weren''t going to be there for a few weeks anyways, did it really matter? Or did every day count? "How old is your news of the ce?" Harold asked. It could be that she got it through some message instead of a rumor. "Oh, couple weeks at least." Amy replied. "Well, then we don''t need to rush to that one in particr." Harold allowed. "When can we leave?" - Bee practically floated along the forest path leading to the castle. She knew that she wanted to get back, but she hadn''t been aware of how much she wanted to get back. It had already been a couple of days, and she still felt like she was walking on clouds. The rest of the caravan was not quite as happy, of course, but she could still feel the mood was lighter than it had been for the entire trip. Sometime on the second day, a pair of figures from the castle intercepted the caravan. Bee was leading up in the front, so she was one of the first people to see them. She was also definitely the first to make out who they were. Running ahead, Bee left the column behind in the dust. "BEE!" Tony''s familiar voice rang out over the road. Not slowing, she crashed into his open arms, nearly breaking his ribs with the devastating squeeze she applied. Next to Tony, Susan gave a small wave. Stepping back, Bee couldn''t take the grin off of her face. "By Void, it''s good to see you both! How is everything? Is everyone alright?" Bee asked in a rush, her words tumbling over each other as she tried to get them out. However, even as she was speaking, Tony was also asking his own questions. "Is everything okay? Where''s Void? What happened?" They both paused, trying to parse through the other''s words while asionally cutting each other off with responses. Eventually, Susan took pity on them and stepped in. "Everyone in the castle is excited for your return Bee, though they are all slightly concerned. They want to know where Void has gone and why he didn''t return to us. I''m sure they will all be excited to tell you everything, but will want to hear your story first." "Well I don''t want to repeat myself too much, but Void is helping the army hunt down the rest of the undead and it said that it would return soon." Bee said, regaining control of herself. "So, did anything noteworthy happen in my absence?" "Right now, the castle is preparing a feast in Void''s honor to wee you home. I''m d the scout you sent ahead gave us good numbers, as I wasn''t sure we would need the entire great hall at first. After seeing your group, I don''t doubt it. Tony said. "I told you my scouts know their work now. It was only that one time" Susan protested. "What one time?" Bee asked, slightly concerned there was something wrong. "By one time she means that one of her scouts saw a cloud over one of the mountains and thought it was smoke from a fire." Tony said. "It was a perfectly reasonable assumption." Susan defended her people. "Better to be prepared for a fire that isn''ting than not prepared for one that is." "Well, now we have firepails in strategic locations. And directions to the nearest exits of the castle posted regrly. Just in case. ites down to that." Tony exined while rolling his eyes. "Though with how little wood is used in its construction, I would be surprised if we would ever lose more than the contents of a single room in a fire." Bee remembered getting a look into the castle''s construction in the aftermath of their fight with Nazatreth''gak; there really hadn''t been any wood. But like any alchemy practitioner, she knew the real danger wasn''t the heat. There was a reason thebs were on higher floors. "It''s not the mes that are dangerous, it''s the smoke. If there is a fire, then we need to let the bad air out, otherwise people won''t be able to breathe. Even if there isn''t structural damage." Susan sent Tony a knowing look that he pointedly ignored. "So. What else happened besides false rms from scouts?" Bee prompted. "Well, some of the ki- ah, the Nighty Knights, have started getting their first levels." Chapter 176: Detective Spot Chapter 176: Detective Spot Over the next few days, I had a st. Other than what the soldiers had started calling "The Hot Springs Incident," everything had been rather routine. I followed behind the army, cleaning up the best I could. Sometimes Arthur would ask me toe to spend some time upfront with him, and we would talk. Well, he would talk. As we moved, I would write by engraving words on arge t stone with mymp. After I was done, I would erase the surface by sting it smooth with a more broad beam. It was surprisingly efficient, and over time I got faster at this than at actual writing with my grabby arm. After a few messages, though, I needed a new rock. Engraving and erasing like this systematically shrunk any stone I used over time, especially with how deep my engravings needed for the optimal reading experience. These breaks were nice. As fast as the army was able to march, I was able to clean much faster. This gave them plenty of time to umterge amounts of work for me. Then, I could do them all at once. It was much more efficient than if I was following along right at their heels. Arthur and I would talk about all sorts of things. It would start off with some basic questions and answers, but Arthur seemed to enjoy just speaking about his past. He''d tell me stories about past campaigns or skirmishes he had been involved in. In return, I''d ask questions about tactics and leadership and how he made sure that all the waste and kitchens were cleaned properly in time to march. Overall, it was a nice exchange. I wouldn''t say we were bing friends, but it seemed like something close. There was definitely respect between us. During the night, my duties became more typical of my usual experience. I previously would have wandered the castle, taking care of small tasks. I would wander the camp doing the same. This was a necessary job as we moved on quickly in the mornings. It was important not to leave any unfinished business behind when we did. It wasn''t much, but it gave me something to do. Besides, I didn''t like leaving the camp dirty, even if it was only going to be seen for a short stint in the morning while everyone packed up. It always became messier when we packed, and then I''d have to wipe the area clean afterward anyways. This pointless work was a bit disheartening, but I did take sce in it. At least it kept me working on my skills. By now, I could level up a dirt patch so that I could barely tell the microns of difference in height from one side to the other. I was rather proud of this fact. Several nights after The Hot Spring Incident, the first real disturbance urred. I heard some odd noises outside long after everyone went to bed, and as I worked my way over on my cleaning route, I ran into a sleeping human. Well, I thought he was sleeping at first. Still, after a closer examination with my advanced sensors, I realized he was not breathing. Also, he was leaking a lot of his internal fluids. Blood, I corrected myself. This leaking fluid was forming a puddle around his head. Odd. I did my best to repair him with my domain and poked him in the head a couple of times, but there was no response. It seemed I had found a broken human. Now what? I really didn''t know what to do next. I had seen some dead humans, but not many. Only the zombies and those few troublesome mean humans that tried to threaten the castle. I''d never seen just a body like this before, and I didn''t know what to do. After a few seconds of processing, I realized it was probably important to find out why this human had died. So I scanned the site extremely thoroughly. I did notice several things. Several sets of footprints passed in between the tents where I found the body. I couldn''t really tell the freshness, but I had just cleaned this area 15 minutes and 46 seconds ago, so none of them were older than that. Unfortunately, all the footprints were of the same military issue boot. I only had the size to go off of, and the military was rather stingy about making proper footwear. There were only four basic sizes, but I could tell that one was from arge man and two were from a medium man. Looking at the soles of the shoes on the dead human, I realized that it was one of the mediums, so I was looking for onerger man and one average size man. Neither of them had the narrower soles that the female soldiers left. On top of that, the majority of the leakage was clearly from a wound inflicted by a knife to the throat. It looked like the attack had been from a stabbing motion into the side, but I couldn''t tell if it was from someone standing behind the dead human or in front of it. I wasn''t sure how I could tell. I''d have topare it to a lot more stab holes, and I don''t think anyone would be down for me testing that. Maybe I could try and model that some other wayter. Okay. What else could I see? I scanned the body carefully again. I couldn''t ce the exact time of death, but I could tell that it was within thest ten minutes. I also knew that I heard sounds from around here, but I couldn''t tell if that was from it being stabbed or from someone moving the body. Judging based on the scuff marks, the body had indeed been moved. But I didn''t think that kind of action would produce the sounds I had heard. So. I was going to go with the assumption that this human was killed when I heard something. That was 4 minutes and 37 seconds ago. Taking a step back, I examined the body with a lot more detail, focusing on its hands and trying to see if there was any trace of the attacker left. Maybe it managed to put up a fight. Or, at the very least, maybe there were some sort of other marks left behind by the humans. I found my first clue under the fingernails of the deceased. It was a little bit of skin. Apparently, it hadn''t died instantly. The man must have scratched his attacker, either from in front or behind. I continued looking under the body and found a few other clues. In order to contextualize them, I decided I should make an inventory. Everything the man had on him, starting with the uniform, every piece was there. The same cap, shirt, undershirt, underclothes, trousers, boots, socks, and belt were all present and standard. Looking at the spot where awards were usually pinned, I noticed that it was rtively light. Only three medallions hung from its breast. However, I did notice that it was an officer. It looked to be a second lieutenant, which matched the man''s age. The body of the deceased also had a few things tied to his belt. The first thing I noticed was a pouch with several gold and silver t discs inside. I had often seen these disks be exchanged as part of aplicated trading system these humans had. It involved pieces of paper with numbers on them being shuffled about in aplicated system that I had yet to fully understand. One day I had to look into that, but now I needed to focus. It was odd that those were left. Humans seemed to really like them, and whenever they found them, they usually picked them up and put them in their pouches. So if whoever killed this man didn''t pick them up, they clearly either didn''t care about them or didn''t know they were there. But I supposed that meant that he wasn''t killed over his money. The more I thought of this man, the more I saw him as a person rather than a dead body. At first, it was easier for me to understand if I just thought of the dead body as an it. But trying to figure out his past was making me think of it as a human. Just like Arthur. Just like Beatrice. It was surprisingly difficult to handle. If I thought of him as a human like this, I also had to think of everything that this human must have done in his life. The things that he would no longer be able to do. Was this why humans became sad at the prospect of death? Shaking back and forth slightly to clear my processors and flush my cache, I refocused. It was suddenly a higher priority that I found out who did this. Another thing he had on his belt was a small knife. I noticed that his hand was gripping the hilt of it when he fell, and it looked like he had pulled the knife out a bit. I was well aware that the sheaths were built to keep knives securely in ce so they weren''t jostled loose. The strap that would hold the cross guard of the de in had been popped off by a quick movement of his thumb. So clearly, the man was expecting trouble. Or I suppose he could have just beenzy. But judging based off of the crispness of his uniform, which I heartily approved of, that didn''t seem to be the case. So if the person knew that he would be attacked and had tried to ready a weapon, it stood to reason that the attack must havee from the front. But if there were two assants, as the prints indicated, then it was also possible that he had been assaulted from both sides and had been surprised. Without much else to go on, I wasn''t sure what to do next. Then I took another look at the footprints. And I was able to solve one part of the mystery. It seemed that there was actually a person in front and behind. I didn''t realize it at first, but I could actually tell the weight of a person by how deeply their footprint sunk. And I could tell that there were three distinct weights. Two were pretty simr but off by at least 5%. Thest was obviously much heavier. Based on the foot sizes that lined up. And I could see more footprintsing in three sets from one side. I ran a simtion based on my findings. One person walked and stopped, presumably the victim. Someone blocked his path from ahead - the smaller man, it seemed - while therger man stayed behind him. I could see the footprints of the other two leaving from the other end of the alley, meaning the big man had just stepped over this man''s body. So it seemed that the victim was, in fact, surrounded. I was actually able to identify whose footprints were within a certain tolerance, depending on the amount of context provided. The information here gave a much more clear picture than I initially thought, though. Not wanting to disturb the scene, I lifted myself off the ground a bit more so that my jets wouldn''t move anything that was important to the scene as I moved. I woulde back. Soon. Then I began to follow the footprints away from the body. Chapter 177: Kids will be Kids Chapter 177: Kids will be Kids "How in Void''s name did the Nighty Knights manage to find something to kill?" Bee asked in shock. "They''re only seven years old at most!" Both Susan and Tony looked at each other. "Um. Well, you see," Tony stammered. Susan eventually cut him off and tried her best to exin. "Well, we''ve had a bit of a problem with some undeading at the gates at night, and apparently, a few of the watch trainees had assisted the Knights in climbing up the wall and throwing rocks down on them. This was how the initial levels happened, but it''s gotten a bit out of hand since then. "As far as I know, no one''s actually managed to get their first ss yet. But once they got skills, they''ve been leveraging those to get the younger members kills from the wall as well. This is getting the kids levels well before they really know what to do with them. So far, none have picked any bad skills that I know of. But I don''t know how long that willst. I think the youngest person to have gotten a skill was three, maybe? But I''m not certain." Bee rubbed her head in frustration. She hadn''t figured out what she wanted to do with the kids before she had left. Worse, she really hadn''t had any time to think about it since then. Why bother when they were so young? There should have been plenty of time before this happened. But it seemed that Void had his own ns for them. At least, she sure hoped her master did. If they waited a little bit, she would help them ensure that Devotee of Spot was one of their options, but they might not even need that. If they got a better ss from killing undead while they were still young, then she shouldn''t change it. The system usually handed out sses based on achievements, and she couldn''t think of anything more impressive for their age than killing undead. But whether or not the system recognized age as an adjustment was still uncertain, ording to some schrs. "Well, I suppose if nothing''s too bad, I can always fix it with the devotee ss Even if they ended up with some useless skills." Not that any skill was particrly useless. But without a direction in one''s life, which was rather rare to have at three years old, they might end up being off target from what they really wanted. "So, Susan, why weren''t their parents able to stop them or something?" "We tried. We told them not to go up there, many times. Yet somehow, they managed to work together to distract us long enough to get up and get those first kills. They''re really figuring out how to work as a unit." Susan shrugged. "After that, a lot of the skills they developed were... well, unusual." "Unusual how?" she asked. Susan made a face. But it was Tony who answered. "Unusual as in they''re pretty darn powerful, like what I got when I hit level 20. It''s almost as if the system gave them bonuses for their first skill or something. Never seen anything like it" Bee stared nkly. It had to be Void messing with the system again. Of course. "Well, at least they''re not useless. I suppose when I get back, I will have to talk to them and make sure that they''re using their skills responsibly. But if we can''t stop them from gaining power when they''re so young, we better teach them how to control it, before they get someone hurt." "Yeah, well, I talked with Felix a bit," Tony said. "And surprisingly, they seem to have a pretty decent idea about this. Something about power from service. They''ve got a few little slogans, like ''with great poweres great responsibility'' and ''protect and serve''. They''re weirdly well crafted, ones I hadn''t heard before. So either they made them up themselves, which is very impressive, or Void told them, and it''s hard to say which one is actually the case." "Mm. Well, in that case, things are probably okay. But if they''re progressing this fast, I think every day is important. I should probably run ahead and talk to them as soon as possible." Bee mused. "Yeah, that''s probably a good idea." Susan agreed. "It''d be best if you want to make sure every preparation is to your liking for the new arrivals. Mary has been doing a great job, but she is only one woman, after all. She could use some help." Bee nodded and looked back at the approaching caravan. "Susan. Before I go, I''d like to introduce you to Captain Major. And if you wouldn''t mind staying behind to help, could you watch over them for thest remaining leg? That would be great." Susan nodded, and Tony smiled. "So you''re probably going to want me toe back and help supervise everyone, right?" "Actually, it would be nice if you could stay. She retrieved a long list from her coat pocket and handed it to him. "I made a list of some of the more important people and their sses, noteworthy stats, and talents that I think might be useful. It''d be good if you got acquainted with them and see if I missed anyone. We''re going to have a lot of idle hands, and we don''t want to leave it that way." Tony looked a little bit depressed from the prospect of having to do actual work, but he still took the paper and scanned it, nodding. "Well, say hello to my siblings for me. I look forward to seeing you in a couple of days." Before she ran off, Bee went and tracked down Captain Major for a slightly stiff introduction of Susan as the castle''s expert in all things military. Actually, maybe security was the right word. With that taken care of, she was off with a wave. - It waste into the evening as Arthur sat in his tent, shuffling through reports. Sometimes he was able to do this alone. Sometimes he had Void watching him. Truthfully, he didn''t really mind it too much. Void would sometimes point out simple mistakes, but nothing nearly as disruptive as when he found the embezzling scheme. Well, tonight, it was elsewhere. Likely off doing something else in the camp. Arthur was slightly worried about the little disk''s absence and a little annoyed that the worry took up a small part of his concentration. He was already half regretting asking the young god toe along. As much as the troop''s order had improved by his very presence, there was a certain amount of unease that having a god amongst them caused. Arthur really couldn''t me his soldiers for that since he felt the same. Arthur thought that this Void was a young god, young being the keyword. After watching the thing go about its business and conversing with it more, it simply felt right. In some ways, he reminded Arthur of his oldest son, Jace, when he was seven. Morality was a fledgling thing of stark ck and white, with only hints of grey beginning to peek through. Right and wrong were what they were, and everything needed to be a particr way. Not that Void really went out of his way to make trouble for anyone. It''s just that he didn''t seem to quite understand that others might have different priorities and values than his own. A sentiment made quite clear in how much knowledge he expected Arthur to have about the camp''s janitorial matters. Still, he was impressed by the god. He asked good questions at times, ones that reflected a deeply intellectual mind. And if he learned more about the ways of humanity and decided that their race was worth saving instead of exterminating for being too unclean, he felt that they were in good hands. If they had to be in some divine hands, at least. After the Hot Springs incident, things had been rtively calm. If anything, they''d been a little bit too calm. He expected more fights amongst men, or reports of disorderly conduct, or something to go wrong, but none of that had appeared. He had a full two and a half days with not a single report of misbehavior or corrective action havinge across his desk. And that was honestly starting to get on his nerves a little bit. It felt like the calm before the storm. He wasn''t sure how much of this was because he avoided being a young guard and over-exerting his influence. Maybe it was because of the god. It was too hard to tell. Arthur put his quill down and rubbed his eyes, leaning back in his chair. The reports were mostly done, and he was looking forward to going to bed. At his age, a long day of marching and writing still took a toll on him, even with his high stats. As he began to stand, an aide burst into his tent with a familiar concerned look on his face. "Sir. You had bettere right away. There''s been a murder." - Following the tracks through the camp was surprisingly easy. It waste at night, and I had cleaned the path they were on not that long ago. There were other footprints crisscrossing the trail, but those were easily filtered out. It wasn''t until they went to the mess hall that things were harder to follow. There they mixed with many other people going in for food at odd hours, depending on when their duty would allow. But even then, I had cleaned less than half an hour ago there, so I just simplybed through every single set of footprints until I found a clue. Turns out I didn''t actually find them going the same direction, but rather each set splitting off to go different ways. These two people appeared to have moved into the mess hall together but left it separately. I wondered why that would be. Was it because they were in different units and slept in different ces, or were they actively trying to throw anyone off their trail? I wasn''t sure which one to follow. It seemed that either one of them could lead me to one culprit. But then, would the other be able to escape? It was a risk I''d have to take. Picking a random number between 1 and 2, I ended up following therge man''s footprints. They were slightly more distinctive than the average-sized man, so it did make it a little bit easier. But that also meant it would be harder for me to track down the other manter. A few feet out of the door, I decided that I probably should have made a smarter choice than just picking a random number and doubled back to follow the average man instead. He had made his way through the camp and what looked to be a meandering path, often stopping at the tents'' entrances for some reason. After a good 20 minutes of walking, he went into a tent that he had note out of yet. Quietly as I could, I floated closer to the tent. From outside, I sensed that the man wasn''t alone. There were three others in the tent with him. Two were sleeping, one was tossing and turning, and the final man was taking off his shoes. It seemed that he was likely the one who came inst. I scanned him as well as I could from the outside of the tent. Unfortunately, I couldn''t find any definitive proof until I looked at his belt. There was a dagger that perfectly matched the wound from the victim, and I would bet a week''s worth of cleaning time that if I looked at it more closely, I would find traces of blood that I could match with a sample. It didn''t seem like he was going anywhere, so I ced a marker for this location on my internal map of the camp. I also marked his soul with a little plus symbol for good measure. Then, I went to go track down his aplice. Chapter 178: Death From Above Chapter 178: Death From Above When Bee reached the castle, she was greeted by an odd sight. Thankfully it was one that Susan had prepared her for, if only slightly. On top of the wall, a pair of guards stood watch. The one to the right was one of the men that hade as a refugee, one of Susan''s personal trainees. To the left, top of his head barely visible above the crions, was one of the children. This wasn''t a child she had particrly interacted with before, but if she remembered correctly, he was 4 or 5. Much, much too young to be standing guard. Even if something did happen, she couldn''t imagine what he would do. But when she scanned him, she saw that he was, in fact, level two. This meant that he had not only gotten one kill to get that first level, he had managed to umte more since then. What had these kids been up to? As she approached, the guards noticed her. They both came to attention with a salute before rxing to a more informal wave. Without hesitation, the adult guard disappeared from the wall and began opening the gate from below. When she reached the entrance, she just simply ducked under the still-opening gate and turned to thank him. To her surprise, she saw the little boy walking down to meet her. But he didn''t use the stairs leading to the top of the wall. He was simply walking on air. "Hello! High Priestess Bee!" the boy said. "Wee back! Everyone''s missed you a bun- uh, greatly!" Bee just stared at him, slightly dumbstruck. Was that the air step skill she had read about? That was a really rare one, not to mention powerful. To get it as his first skill This kid was insanely lucky. Or was it luck? She''d have to talk to the rest of the kids. But if they were all getting powerful skills like this, it could be that the system was rewarding them for earning their first levels so young. It would exin why she managed to get Scan, one of the rarest skills in the kingdom, as her own first skill. Hm. An interesting theory. "Yeah. It''s good to be back. I''m sorry, I can''t remember your name. Could you remind me?" "Of course, Miss Beatrice! I''m Jason." "Well, Jason, that''s quite an impressive skill you have there." "I know! It''s the cool- erm, I mean, it''s quite impressive!" He jumped a few times in ce, each taking him higher than thest. "I can''t fly yet, but I can already get really high up!" "How high, exactly?" "Ummmmm, 12 steps! It used to be 2 or 3, but I''ve been practicing a lot. I can go higher than the wall now!" The man stepped over from the gate winch, leaving the gate fully open. "He''s right. He literally hasn''t stopped the entire time. He paces back and forth. He''s been hovering a foot off the wall for as long as he can. I''ve had to catch him from falling over three times just this morning." Jason looked slightly abashed. Beeughed and looked over at the slightly annoyed guard, who seemed to be putting on a little bit of an act and wasn''t actually annoyed as he was pretending to be. "Well, I''m d someone was here to catch him, at least. Does anyone know where Mary would be?" Jason piped up. "She''s probably in her office. Oh, she has an office now! It''s fancy. It''s uuuh." "Right, you were gone by the time she set that up. It''s on the second floor in the East wing. You should be able to find it pretty easily." "Thanks, you two. Keep up the good work, Jason." Bea smiled as she started walking towards the entryway. It sounded like she had a lot to catch up on. Bee made her way into the castle. For a moment, she stood and drank in the familiar sight. She was finally home. The pristine white stone walls and grand entry were just as she had left them. She had hoped to go right to Mary and let her know what was going on, but every single person she passed from the entry hall up to the stairs stopped her to chat, even if it was just to say hello. Most people were just weing her home and expressing their hopes that Void, too, would return soon. Even still, the numerous brief interactions added up. It seemed that the news that Void was not with her had spread. She didn''t mind it or anything, but it was good to know. So far, it seemed that everyone was in high spirits, looked well-fed, and rather busy. That was to be expected as the whole pce was buzzing with preparations for the arrival of new guests. Bee eventually made it upstairs to talk to Mary, but she did notice a lot of children along the way. Some of them were standing at conspicuous points at the ends of hallways, and she made a mental note to figure out what they were up to. Perhaps they were also guards. Still, the idea of child soldiers didn''t quite sit very well with her. Even if they might be disproportionately useful and excited about it themselves. Soon after Bee knocked on the door, Mary''s voice called from inside. "Come in." Bee let herself in. Before she knew it, Mary had dashed over and wrapped her up in a warm embrace. Bee stood stunned for a second before returning it. "Oh, it''s so good you''re back. When you left, I had no idea you''d be gone for so long. But I hear you''re bringing us new friends." Bee muttered something, but her voice was muffled from the way she was pressed against the older woman. Eventually, she managed to extract herself from the embrace, and they sat down around a small writing table Mary was using for a desk. "Yeah, a lot has happened. A lot. But we managed to aplish everything we wanted to. We saved the city, fought some undead, and now we have a caravan of refugees looking for shelter." "Oh, my. That sounds like quite a story." "Yeah, it is. I want to take care of a couple more things before I tell it to everyone, though." "Understandable. Of course. What do you want to take care of?" Bee then updated Mary regarding the iing refugees. She gave her head of food management all the numbers and details about who they''d be taking in and what supplies they came with, which Mary promised to pass along to Trent. After Bee finished her summary, she asked about the kids. "The other thing is, after we finish talking, I''d like to talk to all of the children who have been engaged in getting levels. I want to make sure that they''re not hindering their future development. And maybe there''s some things I can do to help." Mary sighed. "Well, they might actually listen to you, seeing that you''re the high priestess and all. But I''ll let them know that you''ll be waiting for them. They should gather to meet you after this. There''s a lot going on. I really hope you can help them, dear." - Tracking down therger man was easier than I expected. Turns out he was the thirdrgest man in the camp based on his weight. At least the footprints I had surveyed so far indicated that which I believed to represent about 72% of the group. So returning to the mess hall and following his footprints was as easy as whisking up dog fur. His tracks also wound around the camp, though he spent a lot less time stopping to talk to people and instead went towards the outskirts where the more low-ranking troops stayed. I found him in arge tent crammed with 20 people. He was by far thergest person there and was already asleep, snoring quite loudly. Now that I had located both of them, I needed to figure out what to do. I could consume both of them, which was what I had done in previous cases that warranted punishment. But seeing how that had worked out for the humans, I still had it in my dustbin... I didn''t think that was a great option. I set a reminder for myself to check on them again soon. It had been a while, and I really had been putting it off. Not because I was averse to the work, of course, but because the thought of what might have happened to them was quite unpleasant. So if I didn''t want to put them in my dustbin well, really, perhaps they deserved that. They did kill a man. I considered talking to Arthur about it. He probably would know what to do. Well, actually, I could save time by just bringing them to Arthur. That would be way easier. So not wanting to burst into the tent and cause a scene, I sent a gust of air inside the tent and lifted up a rock. With a brief flex of Air Maniption, I sent it flying towards his stomach. It bounced off, but he just kind of brushed at it with his hand as he was sleeping and didn''t wake up. That didn''t work. I was hoping to get his attention, but clearly, that wasn''t enough. So instead, I simply grabbed the cor of the shirt he was sleeping in and yanked on it with Air Maniption. The fabric wasn''t quite strong enough to lift him without ripping, but it certainly got his attention. He jumped up suddenly and disturbed a few people around him, who crankily mumbled at him. He rolled over a couple of times, then eventually got up, muttering about having to go to the bathroom. As he walked out of the tent, I pounced. Grabbing him by the back of his neck with my Grabby Arm, I lifted him into the air and flew away. Then Ipletely wrapped his mouth with my air maniption so he wouldn''t be able to disturb anyone with his screams. I then boosted over to where I had found the other, more average-sized man in the muchrger tent to retrieve him too. It took a little bit of adjustment to hold on to them both, but after arranging the two men in a hug secured by cords of air, I grabbed therger one''s neck once more. Now I just needed to find Arthur. I hovered over the mostly sleeping camp, looking for themander. He wasn''t in his tent, but he clearly hadn''t gone far. I eventually spotted him standing over by the crime scene, looking at the dead body. Oh, good. He already knew what had happened. That meant I wouldn''t have to exin so many things. I might just be able to help him find the culprit. With a quick thought, I adjusted my boosters and zipped over to him. As I was approaching. I heard Arthur talking to someone. "Poor man. He was one of the few nobles I actually had hopes for. All the others seemed to be fairly useless, if not downright troublemaking. But maybe it was his attempts to actually learn how to behave properly that did him in. It wouldn''t surprise me if he found out something he shouldn''t have, and they didn''t trust him to take the bribes like everyone else did." Huh? I''d have to ask Arthur what he was talking aboutter. Descending from above, I set my two charges down and gave Arthur a cheery wave. Hopefully, this would help him clear up the matter quicker. Chapter 179: Trust the System Chapter 179: Trust the System Arthur nearly jumped out of his skin as Void zipped down from the skies, two men held aloft with it. The men were immobilized as though by invisible bonds and plopped down face down in the dirt behind the god. Arthur was still gaping when Void gave its customary wave to him. Arthur, in a slight state of shock, actually returned the wave before he realized what he was doing and then gave a slight bow of greeting. "Lord Void. I-" He cut off, ncing at the two people behind the god. They wriggled ineffectually on the ground. "Ahem. So. What''s going on?" Void pointed to the body, then the two people. Then it let out a series ofplicated beeps that Arthur wasn''t about to be able to interpret. Still, the message was pretty clear. It seemed like Void thought these men were responsible for poor Walter''s death. Arthur nodded to Void. "So you already knew about this murder, then?" A clear beep of assent followed. "Well, perhaps you can tell me what happened?" With that, Void pulled out its customary stone tablet and began engraving away with the terrifying power of light. *** Bee made her way out of the castle after having an interesting talk with Mary. Here. She found the Nighty Knights waiting for her in an impressive formation. Impressive, at least, for their age. They stood in even rows of Seven wide and five deep. She did some quick counts, realizing that they had 36 members, with Felix standing off to the side. This was more than she had remembered the initial group having. There were other children in the castle, but they were still only babies and too young to join the Knights group yet. Looking around, she saw more new faces, some that she didn''t recognize. It seemed that they had taken in even more refugees since she had been gone. As she approached, Felix twitched his face, and the entire group of children snapped a reasonably smart salute. This stopped Bee up in her tracks. Somehow they had coordinated that. She didn''t think that they could have seen Felix''s small tell, so how? It was quite impressive. Standing in front of them, she gave the group a nod. "Hello, everyone. I''ve been told you are working hard." "Hello, High Priestess Bee," they chorused back in a bit of discord. There were a few giggles that were quickly silenced by the children next to them poking the offenders quiet. Felix then called out, "Squad one, present!" Before Bee could do anything, a file of children marched forward to stand in front of her. Leanne led the group of five members, her chin high and confident. Bees eyebrows raised even further. Marching might have been a bit of a strong description of what these children did. They stepped high and stomped down, but they were very much not coordinated. Their steps fell as if there were two different sets of drums ying. Still, they swiveled mostly at the same time to face her. Leanne took two steps forward and nearly shouted at the Bee. "Ma''am, my first skill is Laser Eyes!" She stared ahead, waiting for a response. Bee frowned, not having heard of that skill before. Laser eyes?" She asked. "Yes, ma''am. Laser Eyes. See, Ms. Bee! It''s really cool when I look at things super hard-" Leanne cut off as she red at a pile of dirt off to the side of the training yard. Two beams of blue shot from her eyes and sted into the dirt, scattering it aside. Bee could feel a slight heat, even from the short instant theser eyes had been active. She was silent for a long moment. ...What was that, Leanne? That was my first skill! The child beamed up at Bee. She tried not to flinch back at the thought of gettingsered herself. Laser Eyes. It does a little bit of damage. It doesn''t really hurt people yet, though. It does give them nasty burns if I re at them for too long. It''s better with wood and stuff that isnt alive. Especially dirt. I I see Bee tried to focus on the girls words, but was still reeling from shock. And its called Laser Eyes? Yup! Thats what the system said. I sounded it out myself.Very impressive Thank you, ma''am!" Leanne grinned, apparently indifferent to Bees internal crisis. She took two steps back and then turned to the child next to her, then they both started giggling at each other. After a few elbows and shushes, the next boy stepped forward and introduced himself. He also demonstrated his first skill. It wasn''t as impressive asser eyes. But Bee doubted that anything she saw today would match that same first impression on her. He appeared to have some sort of water maniption skill. A fine mist of water appeared in front of the boy when he struck out his hand. It flung forward, spraying Bee with stinging droplets. Surprisingly stinging, actually. Reaching up and wiping her forehead, she saw that it hadn''t broken skin. But if this was his level one skill and he had decades to practice it He could get quite impressive. One by one, the rest stepped forward and showed her their skills. It was hard to tell, but it did feel like the younger children were generally showcasing more impressive abilities. Maybe there was something to her hypothesis. Still, that was worrying in itself. If getting rare and powerful skills was just a matter of getting levels at an early age That was not something she wasfortable with. Even if these kids had gotten their levels rtively safely, this could have huge repercussions. Not pleasant ones, either. She could only hope that this was Voids doing, not an intrinsic property of the system. Eventually, the first squad returned to the formation, all excited, before the next squad ran out in front of her to continue the demonstration. Each skill was different and unique, but almost all of them had some tinge of her master in them. Whether they were a beam attack like it favored or the ability to remove something dirty or sh something apart with a spinning attack. Tanu was the leader of the fourth squad, and continuing his tradition, he was not alone. Next to him sat arge wolf. Sorge that Beatrice didn''t initially recognize it as Cliff, the wolf that Tanu had brought back from the woods so long ago. This wolf was significantlyrger. "Well, Cliff, show High Priestess Bee what we can do." The wolf cocked her head at him and flicked an ear before snorting. As she snorted, two small puffs of mist drifted out of its nostrils. Before she could really put her finger on why that mist looked wrong, Cliff opened her mouth and breathed at the ground in front of her. A faint blue color tinged the air. Immediately, ice started to build up on the dirt in front of her. The longer she breathed, the more it grew. After about ten seconds, the wolf ran out of breath, and the ice had reached about three inches thick. Ears drooping in exhaustion. Cliff sunk to her haunches and whined. Tanu reached up and scratched her chest, praising her for her good effort. Just when Bee thought she had seen all the kids had to offer, thest child went to demonstrate her skill. It was a young girl, younger than the rest of them. She must have been no more than four years old, maybe even three. She took a step forward and closed her eyes, looking up to the sky and bringing her hands together at chest level. Her palms met each other, fingers straight and facing upward. A serene expression crossed her face. Then, she scythed one arm down to her side. For a second, a giant mirage of Void appeared, hanging in the air above her. His w descended onto the ground, smashing into the dirt, sending rocks and debris billowing out. The cloudpletely covered the formation and pelted Bee with bits and pieces that she just barely managed to block with her forearm. The little girl appeared as the dust settled down, still in her prayer stance,pletely untouched by the destruction she had caused. In front of her was a small crater where the impact was looking down from the sky. She met Beatrice''s eyes and smiled before babbling. "That was the Void Avatar''s w. Isn''t it neat?" Of all the skills she''d seen today, this was the most Void-like, in some ways. It was also, by far, the most terrifying. To call upon the god''s power so directly was way more responsibility than any 3 or 4-year-old should ever have. Regardless, she bit her tongue. She couldn''t help but try to ept her master''s strange choices that she still wasn''t able to understand. Void must have its reasons for doing what it did. If it had gifted this skill to the young girl, then there must be a reason for it. Even if it seemed insane to her. Thest person to introduce his skill was Felix. Before, she had a good idea of what it was, even if it was not too impressive. He stood forward and announced. "I''m Felix. My skill is Voice of the Void. Right now, I can send messages to everyone in my group. It started off with just being one at a time, but now I can kinda broadcast them to all of us." It was maybe a less immediately powerful skill than the others, but in many ways, it was more useful. Especially forrger engagements, if they ever had them. She certainly hoped they wouldnt. But knowing the state of the world beyond these walls, she figured they wouldn''t be able to ept Void. If that happened, Felix would make an excellentmander in theing years. He could have control of an entire battlefield. Hopefully, it would be when he was older. Much older. - Harold and Amy made their way slowly out of the tunnel leading up from Shattermouth. It was a fascinating city, and Harold wished that he had been able to enjoy it more. The infrastructure was carved into the side of slot canyons created by sh flooding. The ancient city had existed for as long as history could recall, yet always held the same people. Supposedly. The mystery there was almost as intense as the one behind his old castle, if a bit more obscured. The generations of life had slowly expanded the old hallows and had worn away much of the relics. Still, the invisible wards preventing a fall into the chasms below had never failed. But that wasn''t the only secret that Shattermouth hid. Deep in one of its forgotten chambers, one of humanity''s oldest foes still slept. Neither of them spoke as they passed the guards on their way to their next destination. They should have been celebrating. At least, Harold should have been, as the Lieutenant they were looking for seemed undisturbed. But something was wrong. They hadn''t caught anyone following them or watching them. But the area around the wards guarding the Lieutenant was disturbed, and he hadn''t been able to get in contact with its protector. It wasnt entirely necessary to get in contact with the local Jailer, of course. Still, it made Harold uneasy. There were still many reasons why the protector may have been absent though. It wasn''t the end of the world. Technically, just verifying that the Lieutenant was undisturbed and that its ancient protections were still active was enough. Next, they''d move on to the Lieutenant that Harold was most worried about. He could only hope that this one was as undisturbed as the first. Chapter 180: Organized Chaos Chapter 180: Organized Chaos Arthur stared at the two terrified men lying in the dirt in front of him. He recognized both of them. One was a minor noble from an annoying house that he was forced to bring along in the campaign. The other was one of his servants who joined the army to protect his young master. The message Void left wasnt helpful. They did it. Gave him no proof or evidence at all. Therge man seemed to know exactly how much trouble he was in, but the lord was an arrogant fop. ordingly, he was all up in arms about being treated this way. "Do you know who my father is?" He spat at the retreating godling''s back. Arthur didn''t fail to notice that he had beenpletely silent the entire time Void was actually around. It was quite hrious, really, watching people deal with the powerful young god. But this time, Arthur couldn''t smile. "Lord Zapatos. I would like an exnation." The young man looked around, not quite realizing where he was. Seeing Arthur looming over him, he scooted back slightly and red up at themander before remembering what was going on and schooling his gaze. General, it seems like there has been a mistake, he said in a far more servile tone. The sudden switch made Arthur''s skin crawl. As he spoke, the young lord tried to climb to his feet. Arthur put his foot on the mans chest and pressed him back down in the dirt. "No, I think you''ll be doing just fine down there. So. why did Lord Void see fit to bring you to us?" Therge man was entirely still, as the two guards Arthur had brought with him were keeping a menacing watch over him. Lord Zapatos looked towards his servant with indignation, as if he was expecting the big man to get up and fight off the entire camp for him. His petnt manner returned once more. "I have no idea why it would bring me here in such an undignified manner. I haven''t done anything to deserve this." Arthur noticed that his sidelong nces at the dead body on the ground told a different story. "Really? Well, then. I wouldn''t suppose you have any idea what happened to this young man over here, then. Would you?" "O-of course not." The Lordling licked his lips and looked around at the surrounding men. "No, I have no idea why Torvald is dead. Probably got into some disagreement with someone he owed money to or something. He was a degenerate gambler, anyway. Did you know that?" The story was quite unconvincing, but Arthur would need some sort of proof. As much as he would have liked to just have the man taken into custody, he had to go off more evidence than a god dropping him at his feet and disappearing with no exnation. "Well. Looking at the scene, I did notice that there was a knife wound in this Torvalds neck. And I cant help but notice that there is a decent amount of blood on your de," Arthur mused, indicating the sheath at Zapatos hip. Thin red rivulets traced the top of the sheath and had dripped down its exterior slightly. "It''s always a good idea to clean your des before you put them back in your sheath. I''m surprised your father didn''t teach you that." "My father? Well, I just cut myself, and I put it away before I had a chance to clean it because I was dressing my wound." Lord Zaptos spluttered. "That blood seems awfully fresh. Could you perhaps show me where youve bled so much? Perhaps you need a medic." At this point, the young lordling realized his error and looked frantically around for an out. "It''s noble business. It''s none of your concern. You lowlymoners shouldn''t even be getting involved! I shouldn''t have to exin myself to you. Let me up so I can talk to my father!" Arthur left the lordling spluttering in the dirt while he turned to his servant. "Perhaps you would like to tell me what happened? I would imagine you might be looking for some protection or clemency after what you did. What happened to Torvald??" Therge servant just stared at him wordlessly. Arthur met his gaze, and a few moments passed before therge man looked away. "Yes, Lord Commander. There was a misunderstanding and tempers ran hot before things got a little unpleasant." Arthur looked around at the sight. To be fair, there was no indication that that wasn''t the actual story, even if he personally doubted it. It was very possible that there could have been an actual fight here, but in that case, it should have been reported immediately. There was no proof that it was premeditated or anything, and the crime scene was left fairly bare. But even this would be enough to take them in and question them further. For the moment, he ordered his guards to restrain the two for further questioning. The men obligingly marched the pair away to a nearby tent, the lordlingining all the while. Maybe he would figure out the true story soon. Arthur sighed and rubbed his head. Well, he was d he didn''t have to engage in a long investigation, at least. It was still going to be a nightmare to get this settled. The political implications alone of a high Duke''s sonmitting murder on campaign would be disastrous. This was something that could potentially spark rebellion or worse. If it had been amoner he killed, Arthur probably wouldn''t have been able to do more than keep him locked up until they got back to camp or the capital and had a trial. The lordling would have been undoubtedly acquitted, and Arthur probably would have been punished forck of oversight. But since it was a fellow noble and not necessarily a low ranking noble at that, things had be moreplicated. In some ways, it gave Arthur more leeway, but in others, it meant no matter what he did, someone was going to be unhappy with him. That was okay though. He was used to that. *** I left my two captives almost immediately, confident that Arthur could take care of them. I had seen enough of interrogations after thest one. As useful as it was to learn more about some of the darker sides of human nature, I didn''t really enjoy it. And besides, it should be fairly obvious what''s going on. I didn''t think Arthur really needed my help, and cleaning the mens souls seemed risky. They were dark enough that I feared they might pop like the zombie souls did. So I wasn''t about to do that. I did wonder what Arthur had in store for them. Id have to check in in a little bit. But for now, there were duties to attend to, so I just returned to cleaning the camp. As I worked my way between the tents, I casually listened in to all the soldier''s conversations as I moved past. I knew it wasn''t the most polite thing to do, but I really had nothing else to focus on. This level of cleaning barely earned me any experience anymore. It was quite sad, actually. I did hear some interesting conversations from a few of the tents though. One of them had a trio of men sitting on stools. They gathered around a mat of leather rolled out on the ground, and they were tossing cubes onto the ground in handfuls. Once they settled, they''d look at them, and then they''d make various noises ranging from disappointment to exultation. However, when I got nearer, that all changed. "Hey, Boris, you better not be using shave dice again!" An angry voice rang out. "Hey, I never did. I swear!" Another man said defensively. "Don''t give me that. I caught you." Two men were arguing. While a third just leaned in close, staring at the cubes on the mat. "Give me a little bit of credit," the defensive one said. "If I was cheating, I wouldn''t be throwing a handful of sixes every single time. Especially not for five throws. That would just be insane. Do you know what the odds are?" "Nope. What do I look like? A mathematician? Come on. But it''s pretty suspicious, you have to say." "Well, fine! You toss the dice!" The cubes were scooped up and handed to the angry man, who tossed them and got a handful of sixes as well. "See, I told you it was the dice." The defensive man said triumphantly. "Yeah, that''s what I was saying, you moron. You''re cheating with shaved dice!" "But look at them. They''re not shaved!" "Then why is it that when I toss them, they''re alwaysnding the same? You toss them, I toss them. It''s the dice!" I started to get a little closer to this conversation. While it didn''t seem to have any point, it was certainly energetic, and I could tell that tempers were starting to rise. "Okay, well, then exin how thest time you threw a handful of ones, it was also the dice." "I swear you''re an idiot. Do you not understand how sleight of hand works? Of course you do, you thief. You better give me back my coin, or I''m going to gut you like a fish." The angry man was really angry now, but I didn''t understand what seafood had to do with the conversation. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down, calm down. Calm down. Sure, sure. Yeah. Something''s wrong. I don''t mind not keeping the winnings. Just put your knife away," the defensive man said, suddenly seeming a lot more reasonable. I couldn''t help but wonder what was going on. Something about shaved ice and money. It seemed like a bit of a hassle, if you asked me. But, well, I didn''t want anyone to get hurt, so I figured I''d stick around to keep an eye on things. It helped that there was a decent amount of cleaning to be done here. The third man eventually spoke up. "Oh, here, give me them. He rolled as well. Okay. One, two, three, four, five, six. That''s not all sixes, at least." He rolled them again. "Well that is strange. I can say that. I think everything''s on the up and up, but I''m fairly confident these are the same dice that weve been throwing. See? Notice this nick, here. You see that? That''s not a shaved die, but that''s more like a little bit of damage. So its gotta be the same dice as before. I don''t think this would be easily duplicated, especially not with either of your two brains." Even as the other two looked insulted, they both nodded thoughtfully. The smarter man finally came to a point. "Well, something''s messing with the dice. This reeks of magic. Let''s set it aside for now." Without another word, they packed up their dice kit and pulled out a deck of cards. Ooh, cards. Cards are much more fun. Solitaire was my favorite. One of them shuffled and started dealing before the angry man called out something. "By the gods, Boris, not again!" Then he snatched the deck and flipped through it. It waspletely in order. He then shuffled it a few times before checking through it again. He shoved it back in his bag with frustration. "You know what? Im done. This is just weird. I''m going to bed. Good night, everyone." The angry man stood up, picked up his coins, and walked away. The other two looked at each other and started packing up as well. Well, I''m just d that didn''t escte any further. I had to make sure to stay and watch that group for any other future problems. Things seemed awfully tense. And I could imagine someone getting hurt if no one was around to supervise. Chapter 181: Busy Bees Chapter 181: Busy Bees Bee stood in the upstairs alchemy room, surveying the changes as Maranda exined what she had been up to. Unfortunately, it was hard to focus much after the revtion of how strong the Nighty Knights had be. Her head was so wrapped up in thoughts of the children all the implications that brought that she missed Maranda''s question. "I''m sorry, what?" Luckily, Maranda was also distracted and didn''t seem to mind repeating herself. "I said, what do you think I should learn next?" Running thest bit of conversation through her head, Bee realized Maranda had reached the end of what she could learn with the most basic materials. Really, the girl had been busy in thest few weeks Bee was away. Maranda had managed to build and keep an impressive supply of basic healing materials. She hadntpletely exhausted the stocks of theirponents, but really Bee doubted that she was learning anything from working with the lesser materials at this point. At the same time, Maranda had not taken it upon herself to move on to the more expensive materials, as she would have definitely wasted more than necessary trying to learn by herself. Why do that when Bee would soon be avable to teach her? At least, that was the reasoning Miranda had given. Bee thought it might have been a bit more to do with fear or not being able to convince her mother or Susan to give her ess to the more expensive stores. Either way, it worked out. But still, Bee felt much better seeing the massive stockpile of healing potions that Miranda had rued. It would be very useful when they had arge influx of people, especially after so long on the road. Her only concern was the expiration of the potions versus their ability to make new ingredients. She supposed she would have to start talking to Tony or Mary about getting some people on that. Harvesting some of these ingredients was difficult and not necessarily something that they could do without the manpower they were now getting. Focusing efforts there would drastically help with the necessity of finding work for the many idle hands that they were about to have. If everyone was making alchemy ingredients, or enough of them were, perhaps everyone would benefit more than she had even thought. Bee snapped back to herself, realizing that she had gotten lost in thought yet again. "Sorry. Yeah. Let''s move on to maybe some bigger items. Strength potions are moreplicated. I think those we have plenty of materials in stock for, and well always have a use for them as long as we need to do repairs or work in the field." Miranda nodded at Bee''s suggestion. Together, they wordlessly left theb and walked over to the library, winding their way down the servant stairs. Along the way they came across a bunch of people scurrying around, attempting to get the castle ready for visitors. Bee was d that people were polishing the floor. Not that the castle wasn''t kept clean by any stretch of the imagination, but she was sure Void would approve. Once they reached the library, they talked to the self-appointed librarian and found the few books that Miranda would need for the next step in her education. She checked them out with little fanfare. Returning to theb, Bee and Miranda settled off into their own niches as they began working. Miranda was carefully following her recipe and moving at a quarter of the pace that Bee thought she could manage. But the girl seemed determined not to make a mistake or to waste any ingredients. Bee was moving quickly, tossing together a few quick brews. She was focused on making the neersfortable. As such, she had picked out recipes that might help alleviate a few of the ailments that had troubled some of her charges on the way back. Now that she was back at the castle, she had ess to the ingredients she needed. Luckily, none of the things she was making were superplicated. That meant she could actually spare attention for Marandas questions. The younger girl would asionallye over and ask some very detailed and pointed questions that Bee had trouble answering quickly. They often required a lot of real thought, and more than once she had to even admit that she didn''t know something. For those, they ended up just jotting down some notes on a piece of paper for a trip to the library. After they were finished. Time passed quickly, and before Bee knew it, another day was over. They only had a little more time to prepare. Then, their guests would be here. - So far, I had really been enjoying my time traveling with the army. I sure missed being in the castle. It was a second home, especially with all the other people and the Nighty Knights and everything. But this adventure had been quite fruitful. There was lots of cleaning to be done and many good things that I could aplish. However, today was the first day that I regretteding along. We found the first town, and I was starting to really worry about how dirty all the human towns were. It wasn''t so much that the towns were dirty so much as destroyed. To be honest, I wasnt impressed. So far, I''d only ever seen three human settlements outside of the castle and small farms. Of the three, the first one waspletely abandoned and little more than rubble covered in dirt. The second one was in the process of bing that, though Bee and I had put a stop to it. This third one was mirroring the first one. I followed Arthur closely as we entered the ruins of the city, not wanting to stray too far and perhaps disturb something that he needed to see. It was something that he had exined to me the night before. To some extent, I understood his reasoning. But to some extent, I felt it was kind of weird. Because of the fact that there were no people left to tell him what happened, he needed to entirely figure that out from context clues. I could understand that. That made a lot of sense, and I had many times figured things out from very little evidence myself. I was quite proud of my detective skills. But at the same time, though, how could he leave an entire city in this state? It was quite reprehensible in many ways. I felt that it was only fair to give justice to the people who had lived here, to restore their town to optimal condition. Yet he had insisted that we wait to do that until after we had found everything out. Reluctantly, I had agreed to not do any cleaning in the town, no matter how much that hurt my circuitry to write. But in order to learn more about the whole investigation process, I decided if I had to not clean, I would keep my processors away from anything rted to it. For now. And so I followed Arthur around, trying to understand what he was actually looking for. Perhaps once I figured out what was important, I would have a better understanding of why I shouldnt clean right now. Because otherwise, I might start malfunctioning. So far, we hadn''t found a single human or even a sign of another human, but we did find many tracks leading out of the town in different directions. It was also interesting watching Arthur work. He wasn''t just wandering around the city by himself, looking at the ground. He had peoplee and tell him about other interesting things, and then he would go to look at the interesting stuff himself. We went to each one of the exits, where we found a mess in the dirt leading away toward other cities. But we also looked at their town hall, where it appeared to have been the site of ast stand. There we located many charred remains of what must have been undead, along with weapons and piles of weapons. That seemed to be what was left of the defenders. Eventually, we all left. No one seemedfortable in the city, despite some of it still being intact. We returned to the camp a half mile outside the walls. I first had wanted to stay behind and work on the cleanup effort, but Arthur had convinced me that we needed to talk about what would happen next. I had agreed with the caveat that, if I still wanted to, I coulde back tomorrow. Perhaps it was for the better. I supposed there was nothing that would likely change about the town over such a short time. It just felt wrong to leave something so disordered and destroyed behind. We retreated into themand tent without additional interruption. There, many of themand staff were already waiting for Arthur. I mostly stayed out of the way as they talked, though people didn''t really give me much notice at this point. I was sort of a silent presence which people tended to avoid looking at. So I just rolled under the table and listened to their conversations while scanning the map above me. It was a detailed picture of the surrounding areas,plete with terrain,ndmarks, and cities. A circle of red string outlined how far the undead could have gotten by our best estimates. They seemed to be still several days ahead of us, but they could only have gotten so far. The general staff were all participating in a grand debate about what the undead''s next target would be. Arthur, for the most part, watched and listened as he usually did, letting people say their piece when necessary. But I could tell that he wasn''t entirely paying attention. His lips moved and fingers danced across the map, indicating where we were and the possible enemy target locations. Eventually, he cleared his throat and raised his hand,pletely cutting through the mor of the tent. Chapter 182: A Clean War Chapter 182: A Clean War Gentlemen. Arthur addressed the assembly. We have no choice but to split up our forces. There is no single target that the undead will have to solidify their hold on this province. Not until we pass over to the far side, at least, to their capital. But even that is not arge city. While this province is extremely wealthy, it''s also quite sparse. The weather has been seen to grow good crops and its often used as a vacation area. But norge cities have really sprung up here since we captured this area some 200-odd years ago. Arthur cleared his throat. Satisfied that every single person was paying attention to him, he picked up a series of pins from a box next to the map and began sticking them in. The first Legion shall go west. The second He proceeded to quicklyy out the rest of his n, where the army would split up and chase down the various tracks we saw. "None of the undead offshoots should have grown to the size and strength where wed be unable to defeat them, even with a diminished force. But if we allow them to grow, things be a problem once again. Chasing them down one at a time is simply not an option. If we spend all of our time going after one, the other four groups that have gone in various directions will have doubled in size, and we will never catch up until this province too has fallen. Additionally, remember that the southern border leads directly into the heart of the kingdom. There are no great mountain barriers here to protect us as there have been before." I was quite impressed with Arthur''s deductive reasoning. I had noticed that there was going to be an issue, but. I hadn''t figured out a good solution to deal with it. I figured what would be easiest is if I just zipped around the country and sucked up all the zombies. But the people really seemed to be dedicated to taking care of this problem themselves. As each of the staff received their orders, they nodded or smashed their fists into their breasttes in a salute that sometimes left a small scratch in their armor. I really would have to teach them better at some point. They really could use some better salute that didn''t mar their armor. Perhaps I could bring that up to Arthur sometimeter tonight. *** The next day as we marched, I floated next to Arthur for an in-depth conversation. Who would have thought fighting consisted of so much organizing? I knew that he did spend a lot of his time working with reports and figures, but there was so much more that I didnt know. We talked about how wars were decided based on culture, levels, supplies and so much more. About how with the proper numbers and information, Arthur could predict what an enemy would do with frightening uracy. Even though mostrge scalebat appeared to be utter chaos, it was anything but. I apparently just didnt have the experience to recognize the patterns. Not yet, at least. Thats not to say the ebb and flow of battle is ordered. There are uncountable ways that small disturbances can ripple through and change everything. Arthur exined from his horse. Many of the young officers were crowded around, litenting in. Despite the audience, it was meant to be a private conversation and Arthur ignored them all. In my mind, that is whatmand is. Finding all the little levers that control the flow of the battle and finding the right way to pull on the ones you can while mitigating the ones you cant. I was sure that I was following most of what he was saying, but it was so much easier once I had rted it back to cleaning. If the house was seen as the battlefield, then there were many things that could happen to it. Keeping it in order was a matter of identifying variables I could control altogether and fixing the ones I couldnt. For example, I couldnt stop dust from gathering, or the smallest humans from throwing food from their high chairs. But humans could put their dirty clothes in the right bin rather than leave them on the floor. Extending the logic to the castle, I could also teach the children good habits. With a few flicks of my Sanitation Lamp I carved myment into my tablet and held it out for Arthur to read. The one concession that he made to the audience was that he read it out loud for all to hear. What can be controlled varies. Rubbing his chin, Arthur thought about it. That is a good point. It''s not enough to just memorize some tactics. That can only get amander so far. You really need to understand why those tactics work. Only then can you adapt strategies effectively. New levers and disasters can appear based on a myriad of factors. I wiped my rock clean and made anotherment for Arthur to read. It felt a little wrong interrupting him, but he always cut off to read my thoughts, even mid word. There is only one factor you can always control. Before he responded one of the audience broke in, Wha-! The young officer didnt get very far before his neighbor socked him in the side, cutting his words short. Arthur ignored the interruption and responded to me withoutment. I suppose that is true, though rarely do you only have one option for what to do. At least, in my experience. A bit of silence fell on everyone for a few minutes as we all thought. Eventually Arthur continued. Void, you are talking about more thanmand, right? I beeped my agreement after a minute of thought. This wasnt too much different from what I had been teaching Beatrice. Especially considering how simr war and cleaning were. For the first time in hours, Arthur addressed the audience. You should all think on this. But there are also tasks I believe you need to see to. For the most part, everyone recognized the dismissal for what it was. Those that didnt were quickly informed by the ones next to them. After we were alone Arthur turned to me and asked a strange question. Have you written a book on your teachings yet? I scribbled on my te for a minute. Arthur grunted. I suppose I could see her doing that. Ill need to talk to the High Priestess next time we meet and see if I can get a copy. I would like to see it distributed. Yourments echo how my own philosophies feel in a few ways. I would like to see how that would apply to the other disciplines, outside of war. The stories Beatrice wrote about our initial adventures. Well I wasnt sure if those would really answer much of Arthurs questions. After all, it had a particr Beatrice nt to it. Though it still was pretty popr with the castles inhabitants. Susan may have been the human closest to Arthur in personality, and she seemed to like them well enough. Before we had a chance to continue our conversation, the officers returned at a gallop. SIR! he hollered at Arthur. Sir, contact reported. As the officer passed along the report from the scouts, I looked over the army marching around us. We had taken thergest column of the army and were marching directly to the province capitol. The hope was that we would get there first and be able to defend it. But if we were toote, the undead army would be muchrger than we could feasibly handle. In that case, Arthur would recall thergest section of the army for help. I had, of course, offered to zip ahead and take care of the problems for them. Arthur had surprisingly asked that I did not. Apparently, his men needed the levels and experience. He seemed physically pained about asking his men to take a real risk of dying, but he had exined his reasoning. "Right now, we can rely on your aid, Lord Void. However, that wont always be the case. What if one day, youre not around when trouble arises? Or if the threat appears in multiple ces? Themanderid out the scenarios patiently. If we allow chances like this to pass us by, then we willck veteran soldiers to protect the people. Weakness means the country will be overrun by monsters. Not to mention neighboring countries. Still, I had been asked toe along and help if it was needed. There was no point in getting levels if they were all wiped out. Me showing up to the city a few hours earlier wouldnt make much of a difference. If they held through the several days, they could hold for a few more hours. We were still a few hours away from the city, but the scouts might have made it there much more quickly. With a quick question to Arthur, I took off and zipped up into the air. I would go make sure that the undead wouldnt take the city before the army caught up with them. Also, I wouldnt want to let the army walk into a fight that they couldnt win. I couldnt me them for wanting to level up as well. After all, I had used the same logic with Beatrice too. Besides, taking out an army of low level undead wouldnt do much for me anymore. Maybe taking out some of the elites would be just as effective. Also, the clean up after the fight would be even more effective for my own advancement. I was sure they wouldnt stop me from taking care of the aftermath. The flight was nice. I hadnt felt so free in a long time. It took me a bit of self control to not do happy loops as I soared high into the sky. Remembering that people were counting on me, I redoubled my efforts and tried to break my previous speed record. Even though I was hundreds of feet up in the air, a wave of dirt billowed out from under me wherever I passed. In an effort to avoid leaving such a mess behind, I moved over a little so I wasnt over the road. It was slightly better. Dust no longer got everywhere, but the trees were losing their colorful leaves much faster than they should have. Every one of them becamepletely bare as I passed over them, a torrent of leaves circling in my wake. With a little effort, I pushed it out of my mind. Those leaves were going to fall soon anyway. I was just speeding it along. Plus, I needed to get to the city fast. A few minutester the shining walls appeared on the horizon. This city wasnt nearly asrge as Caleb, but it was also more solid. I could see the thickness of the walls from here and the height alone seemed to be giving the undead surrounding it trouble. Each of the buildings inside were muchrger than any I had seen aside from the castle. They also appeared much more fancy. Shining stone, gilded trims, multicolored windows, and decorative tile made the ce gleam like a pile of gemstones. And most importantly, the city was clean. It was not perfect, but by far the best city I had seen so far. The best part was, it was still maintaining this appearance as it was under siege! Thinking of that, I studied its attackers. Something wasnt right there. After all my conversations with Arthur I expected more Chapter 183: Escort Quest Chapter 183: Escort Quest The city was not as desperate as we feared. Compared to the sea of undead we faced before, this scattered group was nothing. Only a handful of guards manned the walls, asionally firing arrows or throwing spears down at the zombies. There were so few of the things that they were not even able to pile up close to the walls. It seemed the only thing they were really doing was preventing the city from easily reinforcing the rest of the province. All in all, it didn''t seem like I was needed here. Before getting to the city, I turned around to return to Arthur. I wasn''t going to be very productive hanging around here. Better to let themander know that they were fine and give him time to n ahead. As I flew back, I scanned the forest but didn''t bother moving at the same speeds as before. Without an imminent threat at hand, I simply couldnt rationalize making such a mess. Even if it was only a matter of time. Coming to a rest near Arthur, I quickly grabbed a fresh stone from the ground and printed out my findings in a quick scrawl. He skimmed over them and nodded. "I''m worried. I think this might be a trap. It seems unlikely that they would leave the most popted part of the province alone when they need the troops. Theirmander isn''t stupid, so it''s possible that they are waiting for us to approach, for a pincer or something." I hadn''t considered that. That would be a clever thing to do. However, it was one of the first asions where these tactics didnt rte easily to cleaning. I tried to figure out how to make the connection. Was there any case when, while cleaning, I would benefit from not being nearby or visible when a mess is made? If a mess was made during a meal, it was better if I was there to clean it up immediately. If I wasn''t nearby, the mess would just stay messy longer. But then, in this analogy, would the mess not be made at all if I were nearby? But that would be good, right? If that were the case, then I wouldn''t have to then clean it up. I guess this might be more about catching the mess maker than anything. What if someone knew they weren''t supposed to make messes but continually did it anyways? What if they derived some sort of sick pleasure from spilling dirt everywhere? Okay, maybe if they knew they weren''t allowed, they would be corrected. If they continued to do so, they would endeavor to make messes where they weren''t seen. That sounded like some dastardly plot, but if that was the case, then I would have to be not around for them to make a mess. Then I could catch them. Okay. Okay. Wait. No, that still doesnt make sense. Why wouldn''t I just stay around them so they couldn''t make messes? Hmm. My processors were whirring now. Okay, maybe there was some other sort of analogy where this could work with cleaning. Id need to figure it out. Hmm. Hmm, hmm, hmm. Nothing. I''d have to see how Arthur yed this out. But this definitely was different from waiting for a maker to reveal himself in order to capture them. That could make sense. This would be the mess maker waiting for me to clean up, then appearing to be captured? Would this be like if someone wanted to stop me from cleaning up messes? That would make sense. So, if someone wanted to stop me from cleaning, someone so evil that he wouldn''t want me to clean up any messes. He would make a small mess, wait for me toe to clean it up, and then flip me upside down! Or something. Then I couldn''t clean up any more of his messes. I paused. Oh, that made sense. It was dastardly and wicked to be sure, and I could still deal with a threat like that. But I think Im on the right track. Okay. I need to start being better and more careful about checking my blind spots when cleaning. I didn''t realize such evil people existed, but clearly, whoever Arthur thought controlled the undead was despicable. I came back from my musings to find Arthur surrounded by the scout captains. He was giving them instructions.Right as I looked over, he waved them away, and they each cantered off toward their squads and disappeared into the forest. I assumed they would be watching our backs and making sure we would have warning enough if we did get attacked from behind like Arthur predicted. Perhaps that was something where I could step in. If they were about to be overwhelmed, it would be best if I prevented that from happening. Maybe I could also help the scouts to check the surrounding area or keep them safe. I wrote a quick query to Arthur on my tablet. He skimmed it and nodded. "Yes, I figured that it would be helpful if you could watch the scout''s backs. If they miss anything, let me know. But try to not point out to them where the enemy is. With your help, this victory is most likely assured. And, well, I want to minimize the amount of losses possible, both from civilians and ourpany. I do think this is a valuable training exercise. Very rarely do we have a god on overwatch preventing anything from truly getting out of hand." Bee was ecstatic as she ran to the gate. It had been a long couple of days, mostly filled with constant work and preparations. But even so, she had been waking up early to help guide the Nighty Knights through learning how to use their powers properly and safely. Soon she would have help. A lot more work, as well, but also help. She hadn''t realized how much she had relied on Tony and Susan for the day-to-day workings of the castle. Mary and Trent kept the food in hand and the people, for the most part, were well taken care of. That didn''t mean they kept everyone upied though, and idle hands meant Bee was asked a lot of questions. Plus, without Void around to train the kids, they had dedicated themselves to her personal protection. The kids insisted that she always have at least two of the older Nighty Knights following her around as a security detail. At least two. She put her foot down when the number climbed to eight. They really needed something else to do. The rest were constantly training or generally getting in the way of everyone with their antics. But that would all change today. Susan and Tony were back, along with the thousands of refugees. It was something she had been waiting for for a very long time. The gate was already winched open, the guards and Nighty Knights having cleared the few straggling undead away from the walls each morning. So that wasn''t an issue either. Bee could see the column appearing from the forest seemingly intact, thankfully. As they came into view, she took off running out the gate. She slowed to a walk as soon as people caught sight of her, so she could approach with more dignity. Tony didn''t have the same restraint, though. He dashed forward from the column, leaving a chagrined Susan behind. When he reached Bee, he picked her up in a bear hug and spun her around before dropping her on her feet. Bee, good to see you. You wouldn''t believe how much fun we had making it the rest of the way through the forest. This Captain Major is something else! Hes giving Susan a run for her money." Bee thumped Tony''s chest, trying to break away from the bear hug. "Let go of me, you oaf!" Heughed, but set her down. "Where is everyone?" He called out, looking toward the gate. Sure enough, his siblings were all running out to meet him, closely followed by Mary and Trent. It was as though he had been gone for months/ Bee couldn''t help but be a tiny bit jealous as Tony went to go greet his real family. As much as they had taken her in and made her feel wee, it still wasn''t the same. The Nighty Knight guards she left behind at the gate, along with everyone else, soon caught up with her and formed a square around her. Their heads swiveled about, warily watching the neers. She just put her head in her hands. The honor guard didnt exactly make a great first impression. Sighing, she walked over to go greet Susan and Captain Major in as professional of a manner as possible. Captain Major gave her a casual salute while Susan just smiled and waved. The two of them walked forward to greet her, and the Nighty Knights gave them sidelong nces before parting to let them pass. The four children moved a few feet away, forming a box, keeping even the adults of the new visitors well away from the small meeting the three of them were having. "How did everything go?" Bee asked the pair. They shared a look that she couldnt fully understand. It was almost as if they were trying to get on the same page, but couldn''t agree. Susan was the first to respond. "It went just fine. We made good progress." Captain Major closed his mouth and nodded, but Bee gave him a look until he inclined his head slightly.Some things could have gone better. Susan snorted and shook her head. Bee wasn''t quite sure what to make of it. Both of these people, in her opinion, were exceedinglypetent at their professions. Still, if they disagreed on something, she''d have to get the full story out of them. And probably Tony as well. "It seems like this might be a problem," she said slowly, trying to air any grievances out sooner rather thanter. But both Susan and Captain Major shook their heads. "No, no, no, no problem, Miss Bee. There''s always room to improve. But-" Bee let them continue giving titudes for a few moments before they moved on. Freed from her initial duties, she started to greet the refugees around her as they flowed past. Many of them she knew by name now. Checking in, she ensured that the children had made it alright and that any injuries she had helped mend were fully healed. Everyone was happy to greet her, even if the Nighty Knights got some curious looks. Most simply seemed weary. The sight of the castle and the promise of a hot meal rejuvenated spirits though. She sure hoped Mary was ready. So far, their preparations had been going smoothly enough. But whether or not they had the kitchen capacity to feed everyone was questionable. With this amount of people, the castle would soon be stretched to its limits, maybe even a bit over them. So far, no one would have to set up tents on the grounds, but finding everyone their own bed would be impossible. Some people would have to double up. Hopefully, the number of families would make that just fine. But her other concern was the throughput of the kitchens. They''d have to conscript some workers or refugees as cooks if they wanted things to go smoothly from here on out. As she talked to everyone, they filled her in on what had happened during the trip. It gave her a sense of the group dynamic. Apparently, the scouts from the castle and the soldiers from Caleb had a bit of a rivalry going on where they would each keep watch in redundant patterns. The soldiers insisted on scouting themselves because of their better training, while the scouts insisted on taking over because they imed the soldiers made too much noise. The soldiers didn''t quite trust the scouts reports and vice versa. All in all, it was rtively polite and contained issue, but still was a nuisance. Apparently, the only reason things had stayed with a lid on them was Tony''s soothing presence. He managed to talk things out with Susan and Captain Major, mostly keeping them from being constantly at each other''s throats. Bee wasn''t quite sure what their issue was. Still, it would be really obnoxious if her defensemander couldn''t get along with the man in charge of a literal army now stationed in her castle. Well, Void''s Castle. Bee had to remind herself that she was just the mouthpiece. Chapter 184: Military Discipline Chapter 184: Military Discipline Bee watched everyone file into the castle. The line seemed endless, yet they continued disappearing through the entrance without slowing. She knew that the castle was a massive, ancient structure, but sometimes it was easy to forget. Though the ce was used as a mages college, she had read somewhere that it had existed for far longer. Between the carvings in the catbs and the strange construction of the ce, she could believe it. The castles size simply dwarfed any other structure that she had ever seen in her limited travels. With that in mind, fitting in a few towns worth of residents was no issue. Well, it was an issue, but it was also doable. There were families confined to small rooms, and people had to share beds, tables, and living areas. She was sure that no one was going to be exactlyfortable. But it wasn''t that big of a deal yet. Of course, not everyone filed through in an orderly line. There were many children, especially young children, walking alongside the adults. For the most part, their mothers had been worn down, meaning they eventually were given near free reign of the caravan. As long as they didn''t stray too far, of course. They usually yed and did a pretty good job of dodging wagon wheels and horse hooves. Still, as they entered the castle grounds, the mothers were maybe a little out of practice. The more enterprising youths soon ducked the line to sneak into the castle. Well, some of them did. Some were very eager to explore their castle, but the rest wanted to run around the open grounds. The idea of vast open fields for ying and running about was simply too tempting after so long in the forest. Considering there was a wall, keeping them in and only a single gate leading out, the mothers were rtively okay with letting them loose. Even better, the Nighty Knights were already there, and they weed their new challengers with gusto. Bee was fairly worried at first. She wasn''t sure if the hard-working culture that the citizens of the castle had established recently would be overrun by the massive flux of unfamiliar people. Or perhaps there would be conflict as two groups of children shed. While she wasn''t worried about anyone getting hurt in a normal childish argument, but there was a real threat here. With the Nighty Knights having earned levels so early, this was more of a concern than she would have thought. Especially considering their skills. But for the most part, the Nighty Knights were actually standing guard or drilling rather than running off to make new friends. The other kids were fascinated with the wooden swords they held and how they used them. Mostly they just gathered around and watched, but as a critical mass of built up along the side of the practice field, a few brave ones went up and began talking. Bee watched over the various interactions of the kids and the adults both. Most of the adults were busy setting up and unloading any wagons or gear they brought. Soon, several of the mothers she recognized as having older kids came up to her worriedly. The concerned expressions on their faces set her alert slightly, and she was worried that something was wrong. Had someone gotten hurt already? But when they began asking questions, she soon realized what was going on. "So. The children with the practice swords, what''s going on with them?" The oldest mother asked. She had quickly be a ringleader of the group with a force of presence that only was matched by Gertrude. For the most part, she only bothered to make sure that the children were well cared for. With the attitudes of the leaders of the caravan, she hadn''t had to do even that very much. But now Bee understood why others deferred to her. Bee took a second to consider the question, not wanting to give the wrong impression. But there was really nothing to it. "They are the Nighty Knights. It''s more of a group the children have formed themselves. They wanted to work on their skills, when they were first traveling to the castle, and Void was willing to teach them. However, when a god took to teaching the children as Void did, certain things happened..." The mothers'' faces didn''t look any less concerned, but Bee pushed on anyways. "So when teaching, Voidmands quite an exemry level of discipline. The only problem is, though well behaved, the children had trouble getting rid of their excess energy. Some of the mothers were nodding along now. Bee even picked up a few whispering about how even their best-behaved children were still full of energy. "So Void''s solution to this was to get their energy out in a productive way. And thats how they started practicing sword forms. Our god personally created each one of those weapons for the children so they could use them safely and has been training them for months now." She paused. She wanted to continue, but wasn''t quite sure how to turn this around into the reassuring speech she had been nning. Thats when Gertrude hobbled up. "Ah, I see you''re training them young. This is good. There''s going to be troubled times ahead. Every man should know how to fight, and most women should, too." The young mothers looked quite nervously at Gertrude. "Oh, don''t give me that look. We''ll have your children training soon, too, and they''ll be able to protect everyone. Don''t you worry. They''ll know how to fight." Bee quickly left the suddenly chaotic scene. At least it was Gertrudes problem now. They could figure that out for themselves. - I stayed high in the air as I watched the troops progress along the road. The scouts had made it to the edges of the forest that surrounded the city well enough, and I could see lines ofmunication being opened up between them and theirmanders. They then, in turn, made it to Arthur. I didn''t have to interfere once. Mostly I just stayed high and watched the progression. The military tightened up their straps and began marching in a slightly more organized manner with much more efficiency. They would be there any minute now at this rate. So far, I had seen them break into units, then scouts came to lead various people into different positions. It was interesting to watch from above as I saw a strategy starting toe together. Arthur had a n topletely wipe out the undead army besieging the city. When everyone was in ce. I stayed in the air to watch, but I could hear trumpet sts signaling the start of the events. The infantry marched in from many directions, but even as they did so, cavalry thundered past, mming into the hordes of undead. Just after, arrows fell from the sky like rain, softening up their targets. The cavalry trampled through at slightly oblique angles, always giving themselves a chance to wheel around and avoid being pulled out of their saddles and dragged into the fray. The mounted soldiers managed a couple of passes before the infantry formed a shield wall. The undead left the city behind and attempted to swarm the infantry, But with the doubleyered shields and the constantly stabbing short swords and pikes, they weren''t able to get a hold. As they concentrated on the nearly imprable defense of the soldiers, the cavalry kept hitting their nks while arrows rained down into their rear. The city was slower to react, but did manage to muster up some assistance. gs waved, and trumpets sounded as they worked out what was going on. Slowly but surely, more and more people appeared on the wall. Additional waves of arrows were loosed and took down zombie after zombie. I noticed themander of the army was a decent ways back from the fighting, but there was a near-constant stream of messengers running back and forth from him. They darted toward each section of the line in eachpany of cavalry and artillery. Usually, soon after, they would reposition slightly into a slightly more effective position. Sometimes they would move to support another side or just simply get a little closer. But the strange mastery of the field was inspiring indeed. Even if this seemed to be an extremely inefficient way to send messages. Beatrice was far faster. True to his word. Arthur didn''t call for my assistance. We had arranged a signal, a certain number of trumpet sts to indicate that my assistance was needed, followed by a set of signals to work out a location for me to assist to. But it wasn''t even close to necessary. Soon enough, the undead were finished. It was an anticlimactic ending to the smallish force, but they all just died. There was no bang or heroic charge or attempt to retreat. Just one minute, they were fighting fiercely, and then the next, there were a few left. And then the moment after that, they were all dead. Truly, this time As promised, I was left in charge of clean up after the medics had pulled every injured person away from the field. They were apparently treating them with their limited supply of anti-undead medicines. I trundled around, putting things back in order. I started off by removing all the undead and just storing them in my dustbin forter use. I had a decent amount of items in my voidlike dustbin at this point, and I wasn''t exactly sure what I wanted to do with them, but I would need to figure that out soon. Otherwise it would get too cluttered for my liking. It took me some time as the undead force, while smaller than I would have expected, was still made up of several thousand corpses. After that, I started to smooth out the field. Turns out that hooves and boots really destroyed the ground. Any bits of grass that had been here were nowpletely trampled and destroyed. I wasn''t able to return it to its more natural aesthetic, but a packed dirt field would have to do for now. While I was doing this and consuming all the undead, I finally had a chance to think. Through Arthur, the humans had shown remarkable capability. During this little skirmish, I realized it was the first time that I had seen them work together with such unity and efficiency. Normally they were in a lot of trouble or making a lot of messes. And while they did make a mess here, they prevented arger mess from being made. That was something I couldn''t help but feel good about. My respect for Arthur and his organizational abilities grew further. Truly a difficult task was aplished here. As I scanned about for Arthur to continue our conversation about the best methods of cleaning in a military context, I found him just as another human did. Seeing the urgency in the other human''s face, I let him speak first. "Sir, the Northeastern Division calls for aid. We have met heavy resistance. The enemy is buoyed by casters and skeletons along with the normal rabble. There seems to be a giant rat leading the army with its dark magic." Silence met this pronouncement before chaos exploded among the watching officers. Chapter 185: Deus Ex Machina Chapter 185: Deus Ex Machina Harold had a bad feeling. It was there when he woke up, and he couldn''t shake it the entire day. His dour mood even affected the normally unppable Amy, who had proven to be an amiable travelingpanion so far. At least, after the first couple of days, when she had finally let the professionalism slip a little bit. That it was her first real field assignment didnt bother Harold. No, that wasn''t unexpected. From her age and where she was stationed, he had expected that, and he didn''t get to be an old hand without learning how to deal with green operatives. It wasn''t untilter in the day did the other shoe drop. When they finally got past the local guards of the sealed Lieutenant, it didn''t take long for Harold to figure out what was wrong. The wrought silver cage and protective wards appeared just as he expected. Amy even showed the proper amount of fright when the menacing figure was inside. But something was missing. As the two of them inspected the protections, Amy finally got the courage to speak. "Do you know which one this was? I wasn''t able to find any specifics in the dossier." Harold shook his head. "No one really knows. We only know about half of them. The others don''t have enough descriptions in myth to even begin to guess. The stories also get muddled, depending on location. For example, Kingdom histories indicate that Ish''mach was the one that razed Castle Arthur, but in this country it was Baile''gar." Amy nodded, and Harold led them closer to the inner wards. After a few more feet, he held up a hand to halt her from moving any closer. She looked at him strangely, but knew better than to make any noise. Reaching into a pocket, Harold flung out a handful of magical substance and watched as it fell inert to the ground. Moving a little closer, he repeated the motion to no effect. Eventually, it was too much for his junior partner. "What is it?" She hissed. With a frown, Harold whispered a response. "Something is missing. But I can''t put my finger on it." Harold swallowed. He didnt want to do this, but he had to be certain. It was the only way to settle his nerves. Inhaling deeply, he stepped right up to the cage andid a finger on it. For a second, he simply stood there, still as a statue. Then the blood drained from his face. He whirled to face Amy. "Run." - A giant undead rat? The description rang a bell with me, but it took a full scan of my memory to understand where I had seen something simr before. Apparently, I hadn''t tagged it properly when I first saw it. If I was right, this was the same rat that the adventurers had killed so long ago. The one I had harbored in my dustbin. I had seen it briefly in the undead crypt. That, or something very simr. If that was the case, then this was my problem, and I would have to be the one to deal with it. The officers were still going nuts about the undead rat leading an army with dark magic. But Arthur was beginning to take things in hand. It seemed that thergest objection was the fact that they really didn''t have a full magepany ready to deal with a proper dark magic caster. Why they were so unprepared, I couldn''t understand. Arthur had always mentioned that the undead army had behaved unusually and with quite abnormal cohesion, as if it was led by an intelligent being rather than the undeads instincts. So they should have expected someone with lots of power to be leading this, right? Was it that dark magic was different from necromancy, or were they just this unprepared? They couldn''t say, but I decided to step in and help the situation while also moving towards my own goals. Taking my newest writing rock, I quickly printed out my message and held it up for everyone to see. Stunned silence matched my promation, and eyes scanned over me. I double checked my message to make sure that I hadn''t said something silly. But the rat is mine seemed to be about right. Then Arthur cleared his throat. "Lord Void, are you saying that you will handle the giant rat?" He asked with a genuine question in his voice. I beeped my assent, and the whole room seemed to sigh slightly. "That is certainly good to hear, Lord Void. We would appreciate the assistance, especially in the magical department." Not more than a few minutester, everyone was rushing out of the tent, and orders were being barked out around the camp. The enlisted soldiers were soon on their feet. Everything was neatly packed away after their short break. The army began moving down the road following the scouts before everything was even packed up, leaving a few lucky C or were they unlucky? - soldiers to finish putting away the tents. The stragglers followed quickly behind as the vanguard advanced I zipped ahead, not waiting for the rest of the army to catch up and followed the trail that the messenger had left as I headed northeast. It didn''t take me long before I spotted a horde of undead moving through a field as they chased a much smaller group of humans in military gear. I saw a giant rat and severalrge skeletons shepherding the mass of undead toward their target. Experience told me that I didn''t want to make this a prolonged fight. While I had no trouble cleaning up any of the undead previously, this rat was an unknown, and my extended fight with Lieutenant had shown me that underestimating my opponent was folly, to say the least. I opened up with aser st to the back of the rat''s head. As soon as I fired, a bubble of darkness seemed to spring up from the rat, absorbing the light and slowing it down to a crawl. As it hit the rat''s head, it only singed the beasts fur before it was able to roll out of the way. That my first attack had been deflected was certainly an inconvenience, but it wouldn''t slow me down much. Really, its only purpose was to close the gap, and before the rat had even gotten to its feet and turned around, I was right above them. The skeletons and the rat both turned to me as I expanded my void from my Unlimited Dustbin. It might have been overkill, but if the dark magic was anything like the Shades or Wraith I had fought over in Caleb, I wouldn''t take any chances. Dark magic echoed out from the rat, but my void sucked everything up, and I could feel it rush into my dustbin as some sort of thick oily energy. As the skeletons turned to face me, I braced for a fight. But they didn''t advance. - Roscoe gazed over the battlefield with calcting eyes. He chittered at one of the nearby skeletons, who nodded and signaled one of the columns of the army to start the nking maneuver. The horde of zombies shuffled forward obligingly. So far, the opposition he had encountered in this area of the country had beenughable at best. But this more recent arrival of armored men started to really give him trouble. Not that they were particrly difficult to defeat, of course, but it was certainly more tricky than anything the locals had put up. They were wearing the same armor as those forces of Caleb, and he wouldn''t have been surprised if the leader there had sent its forces after him. But so far, they hadn''t shown the technical or tactical expertise that his archenemy had. So far. Cleanup efforts and recruitment were still going well. In fact, the army would be in excellent shape so long as there wasn''t anymore interference than there already had been. So far, the entire province had been mostly converted. This time, he knew to leave therge poption center alone and move on quickly to less well-defended areas to make sure that he didn''t get bogged down in another long siege. So after leaving a token force to keep them from sending reinforcements elsewhere, he had gone on to lead the recruitment exercises himself before the skeletons could disperse with their orders. Once they had a few more recruits, then they would truly be a force to reckon with. As Roscoe reveled in his sess, he suddenly froze. A menacing presence suddenly manifested behind him. On instinct, he instantly threw up a shield of dark energy that was shattered in one blow. Turning around, he nced about in rm. But as his eyes lifted upward, he froze. Above him, merely a dozen feet away, floated a sleek ck disk. Twin jets of concentrated blue me emitted from either side, keeping it aloft. Roscoe could feel the powerful wind of those jets blow back his fur, even from this distance. A set of small brush-like appendages led to a small opening in the disks bottom, nked by a pair of wheels. Roscoe recognized it. The other elites recognized it, too. Their god hade, and it hade for them. As they watched, the mes extinguished. A warped mass of absolute darkness, darker than even his own magic, expanded from the disks top. The void appeared as a gaping hole in the sky, blotting out the sun and even sucking in the light at its edges. As they watched, the void expanded and shifted until they could see nothing else. They all fell to their knees, giving their full attention to the divine being above. They bowed down, using their minds and bodies both to show their utter devotion. Even as their worship began, Roscoe could feel his energy leaving his body only to be epted by his god. To be weed home. - After the initial shock, the magic died down suddenly. It felt as though a tap had been shut off. The rats eyes settled on me and simply stared as I moved forward to consume it. One by one, the skeletons copsed in defeat. Knees and foreheads pressed to the ground before me. Unwilling to waste such a vulnerable position, I quickly darted forward. The skeletons zipped into my dustbin with a tter of bone and metal. They didnt even seem to resist. I consumed them all, putting them right beside the other skeletons and undead I had vanquished at Caleb. That was much simpler than I thought. The dark magic wasnt even a big deal. Perhaps some of the normal humans would have had trouble with it, but I imagine even Beatrice could have handled this on her own. From what I had seen, Arthur was likely on simrbat footing as her and would have been able to handle it. Surely, it wouldn''t have been much of a problem with enough people. Perhaps they were just overestimating its abilities? Anyways, I took off after that, flying up in the air to watch the battle. Without proper leadership, the undead horde had quickly lost their focused approach of hemming in their quarry and couldnt coordinate the nking maneuvers they had managed just moments before. Soon, the disparity in tactics allowed the group of humans to outstrip them to a slightlyfortable distance, at least enough for them to regroup and start forming a n. Seeing that there was no immediate need for my assistance, I decided to head back to the other army and let them know the situation. They would be here in a little over an hour. At least Arthur should know what was happening. Chapter 186: Better Judgment Chapter 186: Better Judgment They were a few hundred paces outside of the Lieutenants prison when Harold and Amy stopped to catch their breath. Amazingly, nothing had happened. The two of them locked eyes as they panted, adrenaline spiked. "What was that?" Amy demanded as she pulled hair from her face. Harold frowned as he looked down at his fingers. He touched a small knife at his hip. "The cage held no power." The blood drained from Amy''s face. "You mean" "Yes, I imagine we will find the rest of the bindings inoperable as well." Harold said in a grim voice. They weren''t dead yet, so he hadn''t yet given into despair. But with a realization like that Well, he couldnt be med for being cautious. Steeling himself, Harold began to turn around before he was stopped by a tight grip on his sleeve. "What are you doing?" Amy hissed at him. "Wait here," Harold said, reading the fear on her face. She wasnt ready. Not for something like this. He couldnt force her to confront an ancient evil, this kind of danger. He wasn''t happy about going back in, either, though. If the Warden hadnt made it perfectly clear that he wouldnt be permitted back without a full and exhaustive report, he would have already been far down the road to the next down, drafting a missive for the man. "If I''m not back soon send the findings back home." "You can''t be serious. Why do you need to go back there? It could get out at any moment!" Amy said, ignoring his words. "We need to know how long we have. Besides, with its power suppressed, there might be something I can find that will give us the nature of its power." Harold paused, not wanting to voice this part out loud lest the gods curse him. "And if Deus Vault is with us... maybe we can rebind it." Amy nodded slowly, but didn''t let go of his sleeve as she started walking back to the hidden entrance. This time, it was him holding her back. "Im serious. We need to get the word back." "No report from this stop will tell them as much as we know now. It''s worth getting the extra information instead of sending two separate messages." She looked back at him. "Besides, I''m not going to let you face this alone." Harold sighed and supposed that she sorta had a point. He didnt want to face it alone either and they werent dead yet. Together they hurried back into the chamber, not wanting to stretch this out any more than they had to. Inside, nothing had changed, neither to the eye nor to any magic detection abilities either had. Examining the rings of ritual wards around the cage showed that they, too, were inactive. Eventually, Harold started to mutter incantations over handfuls of ingredients. After a few minutes, the powder started to glow. With a gentle yet steady breath, he blew into his cupped hands. With swirls and eddies, the dust moved through the unnaturally still air of the cavern. The two of them watched in silence until the glow suffused the entire room. Nothing happened for nine heartbeats. Then, without warning, the scene changed all around them. Amy and Harold started ck-jawed, spinning in a circle as they tried toprehend their new surroundings. The walls and ceiling were the same, but that was where the simrities ended. The cage that had seemed intact was revealed to be shattered and torn, only the barest of pieces still standing; most of it was scattered around the room haphazardly. The runic circles were broken in ces, and as Harold looked closer, each individual rune was cracked as well. He squatted down and ran a finger over the engraved surfaces; the rough texture rasped against his skin, so different from the smooth continuity he had felt before. "How?" Amy whispered as she walked up to the broken cage. Laying a finger on it, she jerked her hand back with a hiss. "It''s zing hot! How did you touch it before?" "Does the cage radiate heat?" He asked. She held her hand near the metal that burned her. "No, it doesn''t." She mused, "If the heats stuck inside, then who knows how long ago it was broken. But my question still stands. How did you touch it?" "Illusions. It was all an illusion." Harold muttered, still examining the shattered runes. Mindlessly he rubbed the finger he had used to check the cage before on his robe. "But what kind of illusion can confound touch?" "Maraj''ain." Harold whispered "It must be. The mistress of mirrors." Bee and Mary shared a cup of tea in the older woman''s office. Each of them was exhausted, and both had deep bags under their eyes. It had been a long couple of days, but everyone was finally settled in. And they both were about to pass out. Yet there were a few more things they needed to talk about. "Are you sure we don''t need more space? I really think we can tidy up some of the old side passage rooms in the catbs and maybe set people up there." For what must have been the umpteenth time, Mary simply sipped her tea and closed her eyes. Then she responded. "Yeah, for now. We should be good. If anyone doesin again, though, I won''t hesitate to tell them about your offer and let them have that choice. I doubt anyone would want to go sleep in the catbs if they didn''t have to." "Well, it''s not exactly the catbs part. It''s below the catbs. And there is arge system of rooms where it appears people used to live. I bet it was some shelter or something from ages long past." Bee repeated, hashing out the same old argument. Mary stared at her levelly, and Bee gave up, shrugging. As long as she didn''t have to share her bed and everyone else was happy, she was fine with it. Now she just needed to figure out how to get everyone off her back. The number of people who needed her attention was insane. It was even worse than when they were in the caravan. Even though, from her estimation, their needs didn''t require her input at all. Perhaps it was because everyone had more energy now, but they constantly wanted her thoughts on everything. She was doing her best to pawn them off on Tony, Trent, Susan, Captain Major, and Mary. But that still took time. Susan suggested that she set up a span of time to hear people''s troubles and give audiences. Something simr to office hours, like some of the mages had done for their apprentices. But Bee wasn''t reallyfortable with that yet, especially since Susan had originally called it holding court. The idea just felt wrong. Perhaps Bee would figure out some better version of sectioning off her time. There were still so many other demands vying for every minute of her day. She was still giving her daily lessons in the library to those who wished toe, though that was starting to overflow. People had to stand by the door just to hear her speak, as many of the neers had wanted to hear about the tales of her and Void or the lessons she had begun to disseminate on their journey. On top of that, the Nighty Knights wanted attention, training, and advice with their skills too. That was high up on the list. And then Miranda needed more training. Well, she had been effective so far, but she needed another big project to keep growing. There was still so much for her to learn, and her reading was not nearly as good as Bee would''ve liked it to be. Especially not good enough for her to read some of the more dense tomes herself. Bee groaned, rubbing her face. "Where do you find the time for everything you do, Mary?" The woman smiled. "I don''t. You get used to it. Once you''re a mother, you''ll understand." *** Bee walked down the grand hall of the castle, doing her best to ignore the stares of all the people assembled. As she walked, her thoughts churned, frantically going over everything she had written downst night. Stage fright wasn''t something she had ever really encountered before. The audiences in the library were small, by the necessity of space constants. Even when they had grown, most had to sit outside and listen to her from out of her sight. That meant she hadnt really been more intimidated by arger crowd. But this? This time it was different. Nearly a thousand people had gathered in the grand hall this morning. Even as densely packed as they were, they barely fit. Fiddling with the vial that Maranda had given her a few minutes earlier, Bee debated if she should take it. While it was certainly a thoughtful gift, she wasn''t sure how much she trusted it. Maranda was still learning, after all, and Bee hadn''t been there to supervise her apprentice while she was making a new concoction. That wasn''t to say that Bee didn''t think it would be valuable. The potion of voice enhancement would be very useful, and she wished that she had thought of it herself. It should be safe too. The recipe was rather simple, and none of the ingredients were particrly dangerous. Even if Marnada had messed something up, Bee should be fine, if a little embarrassed. Before she could second guess her apprentice any more, she tipped the vial back and swiftly swallowed the potion. When she reached the front of the hall, Bee ascended the small ramp to the dais that had been set up earlier this morning. Stepping up to the podium, she set a few of her notes down and shuffled them around. With a count to three, she forced herself to look up and stare out over the crowd. She could only hope that they couldn''t sense her nervousness. "Children of Void." Bee called out into the hall, wincing slightly at the volume. Her words echoed with such force that even those in the back had no problem hearing, though those at the front seemed a bit shocked. The potion was working just fine. Lowering her volume a touch, she repeated herself. "Children of Void, wee." A murmuring response filled the hall. Bee swallowed beforeunching into the lecture. Since this was the first time many of these people had attended one of her lessons, she stuck to the basics. To start off, she did a small reading from the sermon on the mound, making sure to stop and give context when she felt it was necessary. To many, this was allpletely new, and she saw many faces don considering looks as she spoke. After the reading, Beeunched into the story of her first encounter with Void. They wouldn''t have much more time for anything else today, but that was okay. She had several more lectures nned to tell the rest of the stories and reiterate the lessons Void had given her about the system and about life in general. Bee almost stumbled in her speech as the system sent her a message. One she had been waiting for for a very long time. CONGRATULATIONS, LEVEL 50 REACHED! YOU HAVE UNLOCKED YOUR THIRD CLASS. MAKE A CHOICE: HERETIC, HIGH PRIESTESS OF SPOT, COMPANION OF SPOT Chapter 187: Finishing the Job Chapter 187: Finishing the Job It didn''t take long for Arthur to reach the defending soldiers. Once I had given him a brief description of the situation, he simply nodded, and the pace of the army picked up a little bit. I had left him to it as he seemed pretty busy giving orders to his staff. Riders were sent out. ns were drawn on pieces of paper ced over saddles and discussed on horseback as they moved. I floated in the air above the battlefield, watching it all. I could see as the column split into many parts, some moving in to nk the army while faster-moving units went to support the defendingpany. Then, all of a sudden, the main force of the military elerated until they were charging. The forces barreled into the undead, sandwiched as they were between the charge and a more stationary defensive force. The maneuver almost resembled the motion of a hammer and anvil, quickly driving a wedge between the shambling zombies and pushing them apart. The outriders and the nks quickly took advantage toe and hit them again. The battle that had taken hours to build up to was over in under 15 minutes. I watched and counted, but there was quite minimal loss on the human side. They could inflict long range damage without getting in too close with proper support and long-distance archery. And when someone did get hurt, they could be pulled back and healed, or at least triaged before any life-threatening injuries were to be had. That wasn''t to say that no one died. Every once in a while, someone makes a mistake or has some bad luck. The undead were relentless, after all. But I was there, and I wasn''t too proud topletely avoid putting my wheel on the scale in their favor. Every once in a while, an undead that had gone unnoticed attempted to get someone''s ankle from the ground. Theyd quickly find a thin beam of light slicing through their head. I don''t think any of the humans even noticed, but it was a little bit of supplementary cleanup, if I would be so generous as to call it that. And it seemed to work great. I gave just enough assistance that no one risked their life more than they needed to. All in all, I was eager to finish cleaning up the mess that this whole saga had caused. After the battle was thoroughly decided, it was simply a matter of mopping up the remaining stragglers of the undead as they mindlessly attacked the humans. I zipped down to Arthur to check on him. Themander gave me a smile and a wave, cutting his conversation with a pair of lieutenants short. "Well, Lord Void, it seems that your information was invaluable. I can''t thank you enough for your assistance. Judging based on our estimations, this was the main force of the undead. I think we still have some cleanup to take care of here. But based on your description of the elites and the giant rat, we have likely have cut off the primary source of this problem. He hesitated for a moment. While it''s not necessary, I do have a favor to ask. I would appreciate if you would track down the rest of our forces and see if they are in dire straits, perhaps deliver a message for me. For ease of mind." I thought for a moment. It seemed as though the majority of the threat was over, so I could probably head home soon. Should, in fact. But in the end, it wasn''t too big of a deal for me to do thispared to someone on the ground. We went back and forth a little bit, discussing the ns he had for what came next. Mainly they consisted of gathering up the army, sending scouts out, returning to the capital, setting up a base, and plugging all the exit points to make sure that the undead couldn''t spread further. The province wasn''t entirely isted by mountains like the other one was, but there were undoubtedly plenty of impassable areas along the border. Two sides of it were lined with mountains. Those were fairly difficult to cross for most, so Arthur could simply ce some soldiers at the passes to catch any straggling undead. The other two sides were more akin to nds, but a fewpanies of cavalry with enough long-distance scouts could apparently cover it and at least hunt down small bands. If anyrger groups of undead came through, they could send word for reinforcements. ording to Arthur, a few single undead could sneak through without too much issue. After all, there were naturally urring undead. In small numbers it was rare for them to snowball into such a giant gue, especially without some sort of mastermind. And if he was right and we had taken care of those, then things were looking up. He quickly wrote down a few messages on some paper and handed them to me. I grabbed them in my w and safely deposited them in my dustbin. I didn''t mind being a messenger for a bit, but I told him that after I had delivered them, I was going to head home. They didnt seem to need me anymore. It was time for me to see Beatrice again. All the people at the castle, in fact. I shuddered to think of what all the children had gotten up to. They surely had made a huge mess of the ce. But taking care of this for Arthur on the way was no big deal, it wouldn''t take me that long to find everyone. So I zipped up, leaving thest of the cleanup in his capable hands. *** I waspletely correct. It didn''t take me more than a few hours of zipping around to find the first section of the army. I dropped down in front of the person who led it. Then I simply spat the paper out on him, using my air maniption to make sure it fluttered open against the pommel of his saddle. He looked at it, then the seal, then looked back at me, confused. But before I had to deal with any sort of humanmunication nonsense, I zipped up and left. Perhaps it was a bit disrespectful for me to treat a human so. Especially when these military ones seemed so organized. But I was eager to get home to Beatrice and the people back in the castle. I simply wanted to deliver my messages and move on. It cost me another day and a half to find the other sections of the army, but none were in such dire straits that they required my help. Most hadn''t even foundrge amounts of undead and were simply conducting sweeping searches, which I thoroughly approved of, making sure that there weren''t anyrge pockets or stragglers that would go unnoticed. No one wanted to potentially reignite this whole issue. After delivering myst message, I flew up and headed north. Bee had to wait a minute before the thunderous apuse subsided. She awkwardly smiled, stared out over the crowd, and tried to do her best to avoid eye contact with any one person while simultaneously not looking at the ceiling. She had thought her sermon was slightly better than her normal one but wasn''t sure it deserved such praise. Still, it took a concentrated effort to keep her foot from tapping in impatience. It was all she could do not to sprint up the aisle and go straight to the library. After receiving her options for her level 50 skills, she had so many questions. Heretic was something she had expected and knew she wouldn''t choose. After all this time and effort, there was no way she was going to abandon Void for what was rtively little gain. The Heretic ss had its advantages in some ces, but none of them interested her. She had no desire to be some dark god''sckey of disorder and chaos. Nor was she nning to dedicate her life to building stairs. So it really left her with two choices. High Priestess was the one she had been nning to pick all along. She had expected a third ss to be something unrted, maybe something to do with fighting or something that would nudge her away from the purely religious path, but notpletely alienate her. That assumption had apparently been misguided. Companion of Void. That option was really throwing a wrench in her ns. She had already decided what she would choose far ahead of time, but now this was making her rethink everything. She needed more information. As the apuse died down, Bee started to step down from the dais but noticed that several people were lining up down the center aisle before her. Not everyone, but a few dozen at first. Then a few more. Then a few more after that. After everyone saw how long the line was getting, its growth slowed, but didnt entirely stop. As she watched, the line began to stretch out of the great hall. The majority of people filed out the back to return to their regrly assigned duties. Unfortunately, Bee couldnt slip out with them. With a mental sigh, she stered on the most genuine smile she could manage and shook the first woman''s hand. It was a woman who was maybe only a few years older than Bee herself but still had an infant on her hip. She spoke in a halting whisper and asked a question that Bee wasn''t entirely certain how to answer. Something about Void''s philosophy on teaching kids their letters, and at what age they should start. It was a matter that Bee thought was entirely silly. Why not just begin as soon as the kid could learn, or as soon as they could find someone to teach the kid? But she kept her cool and answered to the best of her abilities while thinking about what apanion ss was. Bee mused. She had never heard of something like that before, much less met apanion of anything. Hopefully, there would be something in the library about it. She couldn''t remember finding much about level 50 sses when she had looked through it before, but she''d never been looking specifically for this. Still, it offered something new, something interesting, and she couldn''t wait to find out what. *** After what felt like hours of questions Bee finally found herself in the library, scanning through the index tomes and looking through the organized volumes until she found a giant glossary of known sses. She started flipping through until she reached the C section. Although it did list such useful sses as Carpenter, Cattle Farmer, and Concierge, it waspletely barren of any Companion sses. There had been a few notes about animalpanions, but that was more along the lines of a beast-tamer ss or rted to animal husbandry for farming. And none of those had the same sort of feeling that she got from reading the Companion of Spot ss she had been offered. So she started looking in a little bit more obscure spots. The first time she found a mention of apanion was in The Tales of Daedalus the Red. She had picked it up on a whim, back when she bad more time to read for leisure. Shed always assumed that it was simply a fairy tale, but a bit more research seemed to suggest otherwise. Not to mention that the experience with the Lieutenant made her far less skeptical of ancient stories. Daedalus was an ancient dragon, a creature of myth that had been spoken of in tales as far back as they went. The earliest stories she could find about it were fragments from well into the Demons'' rule, and those even referenced older stories that no longer existed. But one of them mentioned that Daedalus had found apanion in the Dark Times of the Demons Rule. Apanion that had gone on many adventures with the Red. By most ounts, they had done excellent services in the name of humanity. The powers of thepanion were incredibly vague though. Apparently, he was a great warrior of me that stood 15 feet tall and was a giant among men. Though she wasn''t sure how much of that was exaggerated and how much of it was honest fact. Still, the panion part wasnt a title, a ss, or anything formal. It was just a word used to refer to Daedaluss humanrade. It very well could have just been a coincidence that she wanted to be real. Based on the rest of the tale, she assumed that this person was mostly just a human warrior who happened to be good at swordy with a remarkable fire aspect. Whether there was actually a Companion of Daedalus ss or anything remotely simr was questionable. But if nothing else, she did tend to believe that there was a dragon at some point. The other stories about the same dragon didn''t mention apanion, though they were from much earlier in history. She leaned back in her chair. All of that work for barely a glimmer of a possible hint. It was still hard to say what she could gain from being apanion. It might be something that focused more on closeness, an honest bond with Void. If that was the case, it would make sense to take it if her goal was to adventure around with Void. Her imagination conjured up images of soaring through the sky on Voids back, fighting monsters and exploring the world alongside her deity. The door to the library opened. Susan stepped through, walking quickly toward Bee. High Priestess, theres a matter that requires your attention Bee sighed and closed her book. The real question was, would she ever have time to go on more adventures? Chapter 188: Home Sweet Home Chapter 188: Home Sweet Home Arthur watched as the receding ck speck of the godling disappeared on the horizon. He still wasn''t quite sure what to think, but his time with the godling had been interesting, to say the least. He was only really sure of a couple of things. One was that Void was a being of immense power, something that no human he had ever met could hope to match. And the second was that, while Void, might be very powerful, Void was certainly not all-knowing. That didn''t mean he wasnt a god. But something told Arthur that Void was very young, as in recently born within a year or two prior, maybe three. It was something that he had suspected before. Recent events had only confirmed it. The questions Void asked and the way it behaved all spoke to this, which lent a lot of credence to Miss Bee''s tale. At first, he had been doubtful that this was a new god. He was fully willing to ept that the gods were real and that one might someday descend among them. But at first, it seemed much more likely that this was a god of olding down and ying some sort of game. Some stories painted the goddess and gods as capricious, not just wise and benevolent. But now now, he could believe that Void was actually a new god. It was interesting. How did that work? Would the god havee from somewhere else, being born into its power, or was it simply something that had gained so much power that the system recognized it as a god? Arthur supposed he would never know. But this was groundbreaking. He wished he had been able to find Harold after the battle. That man certainly would have had more insights. But at the same time, Void was almost certainly the dangerous being Harold had warned him about. So perhaps there were things he was still missing. Well, he didn''t have to decide anything now. His most important task would be to go back and make his report to the king. About their sess in containing the undead and their interesting encounter along the way. Arthur had no doubts that the remaining undead stragglers would soon be contained with their supposed leadership finished off. The bulk of the armies were crushed, and the godling delivered his messages and ensured there were no other major threats to his forces. There should be no problem finishing this up. There should have been no problem in the first ce, in fact. Things never would have gotten this far withoutpetent enemy leadership. The other reports he had received and his experiences with the siege in this province showed none of the nning and wily trickster business that he hade to expect from this group of undead. But after a week or two of mopping up, they''d return to Caleb, gather up the army, and head home. Perhaps theyd stay a little longer to help rebuild, if needed. Captain Major and the troops he had escorted towards with Miss Bee would have to find their own way back once the city was repaired. For now, they should be in good hands. They had arge enoughpany where moving wasn''t dangerous, and no wildlife or brigands would threaten them. Perhaps escorting the caravan again would be a good experience for the young officer and get him some real field work under his belt. - The trip back to the castle was much faster than even my trip to Caleb. Without having to carry Beatrice or worry about the wind ripping her off my back. I could fly at much higher speeds, though I took advantage of flying a bit lower so I could check out the area I was passing over. So far, nothing really jumped out at me as interesting. It was mostly farnd with an asional small copse of trees until I hit the mountain ranges separating the provinces. I avoided following the path that we hade in on for some new scenery. It was a small pass anyway, pretty much the only one in the giant wall. Instead, I went a few mountains over and simply just zipped up, skimming a handful of feet above the ground as I dodged boulders and leaped over crevasses, skimming along the giant ciers that slowly moved down the mountain. I couldn''t help but admire them. What were ciers really, besides giant cleaning tools starting up high and using the momentum to scrape away everything on thend? At least, they seemed to leaving a surface with no debris behind. Except that wasn''t exactly how ciers worked in practice. It was the unfortunate truth of the world, but they tended to leave lots ofrge rocks behind. I supposed it was still better than nothing. A giant rock on its own could be considered clean, even if they were scattered everywhere. Once I reached the summit, I could see for as long as my sensors would allow me in all directions. The view was quite unique. Past the rows upon rows of mountains, a little further north, was the castle. But beyond that, it seemed like there was nothing but ice. Towards the south stretched a giant swath of farnd, and in each other direction, more mountains obscured the horizon to the very far west. Past that though, I could see a glimmer of blue in the distance. I wondered what that was. Someday I''d have to go check it out. But not right now. My moment of rest and appreciation was over, and I was zipping down the mountain again. The valley that formed this province was much harsher than thest. At least, that''s the word I would use to describe it. There was a lot less farnd and a lot morerge forests. Thend was also covered in much more rocky terrain; from what I could see, the topsoil was remarkably thinner and less nutrient dense. Small mountains dotted the massive valley, causingrge changes in elevation. I could see how the humans had to work around them. The roads snaking and taking circuitous paths to avoid having to cut through stone looked much unlike the previous province''s straight grids of roads. These roads were also much less traveled. The inefficiency irked me somewhat - I didnt mind the meandering paths, but they could have been far shorter and better nned out to minimize travel time. Still, it had a certain beauty to it. There was an order I could recognize ying out in the way the vegetation wasid out. It wasn''t the perfect grid-like order that was clearly superior, but an order nheless. An order that matched the terrain. I could see where there was more soil and the right amount of sun for certain nts, but not others. Trees would not grow where there was not enough soil or too many rocks. You''d end up with tufts of bushes or small fields of grass. It made sense. Of course, it could be better. But I wasn''t about to go moving too many rocks around, moving too many boulders. That would be too disruptive. It would cause too much chaos in the meantime, but perhaps eventually, with enough methodical nning, things like this could be fixed, and we would be able to have a more usefulnd here. But then again, maybe not. Maybe it was best to leave it here. Maybe there were niches of things that could only appear in random chaos like that. As much as I would hate to admit it. Perhaps something else to meditate on. As I skimmed over the valley, I approached the more recognizable mountains on the other side. It took only a moment to find the small pass through the next mountain range, the one that led to the valley where the castle stood. It was an interesting ce to put a castle. As far as I could tell, there was no real reason for it to be there. There was no defensible pass that it was trying to guard. There were no great resources that it was protecting. There wasn''t even a poption center there. So the only thing it was, was a fort at the end of a box canyon. Perhaps Box Canyon was not quite the right term, but it was probably something like that. It didn''t seem to have any strategic importance, at least not from what Arthur had described regarding strategy. Yet it was still thergest building I had ever seen. Strange. As I flew along the alley, I savored the familiar scents of the forest below as they filtered through my Air Purifier. Instead of just meandering over the path, I started to fly off toward the mountains and skim along the sides. I hadn''t fully explored them yet. There was that one mountain that I had zipped around once, but this whole undead issue had kept me from exploring further. Perhaps I should go and check out some of the other ones and see what was up here soon. Who knows? There might be nothing, but it was a bit of a blind spot that we hadn''t checked out yet. Still, I didn''t want to take too much more of a detour with home almost in sight; I couldn''t wait to go say hello to my friends. Diving down into the area before the gate with a gust of air, I waited to be let in. I didn''t want to be rude after all and just bypass their security. That would set a bad precedent, and rules were made to be followed. Someone I didn''t recognize stood guard on the walls and looked down at me in confusion. After a little bit of starting back and forth, I raised my w for a little wave. With a ck look on his face, the man returned it. Suddenly a second face appeared next to the man. "What''s going on, Brutus?" I recognized that voice! Excitedly, I greeted Roger, one of the Nighty Knights. Upon hearing my getting, he looked down and saw my waving w. Grin splitting his face, he returned the gesture and jumped down on the inside of the wall, rapidly working the winch to raise the gate. "Wee home, Lord Void!" A bit slow on the uptake, the man climbed down from the wall and took over the winch, working it much faster by virtue of size. Roger shot the man a grateful look before he took off running towards the castle. All the while, the kid was yelling, "Lord Void is back, everyone! Void is home!" I waited patiently as the portcullis rose a few feet into the air. Once there was space, I rolled into the castle courtyard. After so long away, it was good to be back. I ran a quick scan over the grounds and was pleased with the results. The grass was trimmed neatly, and the walls were clear of any messy climbing nts. The insides gleamed with nearly the same finish as when I had left. There seemed to be the slightest bit of soot by the firece in the guest room, but really that was quite small. It was good to know the home was being taken care of even when I was away. Before I could conduct a more detailed survey of the grounds, my attention was pulled away. From the castle, a tide of people streamed out, and the people in the fields rushed over to see what themotion was about. I happily waved to everyone. Most people I didn''t recognize, but many of the first people to arrive had been here when I left, so I excitedly waved to them all. Then a single figure shot down from the castle steps, quickly breaking away from the pack. The little girl ran down the path, tears welling up in her eyes. I let out a special cheer of wee for my favorite human. Chapter 189: Pets and Pats Chapter 189: Pets and Pats Bee couldn''t wait for her master to return. With how busy she was, it was a couple more days before she had time to return to the library. She hadn''t forgotten about her ss options, of course. They had stuck with her in the back of her mind, distracting her during other essential tasks. But with everything going on, she simply had no time for herself to really research or consider them any further. As time went on, the influx of new castle inhabitants presented a simrly consistent list of things to attend to. There were constant problems with settling everyone in. Most of them were minor, but many were still issues she needed to advise someone on. Most of her day was spent meeting with the castle''s leadership: Mary, Trent, Susan, and Tony, as well as the recently added Gertrude and Captain Major. That or, given that they too were overburdened, handling any number of issues personally. That''s how Bee found herself stepping up to fill in the gaps. Hopefully, she''d be able to train people to takemand and handle all these every day matters so she wouldn''t have to. Besides, she still felt woefully underqualified for this, having practically no life experience with organizing. Yet she was looked up to because of her position and rtionship with Void. At the end of the day, whenever she was lucky enough to spare some time in the evenings, she would rather catch up on her sleep than think about the exciting prospect of a ss change. And after the first day of not getting to it immediately, she decided it could wait a bit longer. There was no urgent rush. Leveling had gotten a bit slower recently, and it was a big decision. She wanted to talk to Void about it. What would her god think if she chose apanion ss if it didn''t even want apanion? That would be pretty bad. But it didn''t stop her from taking every chance to ask advice from the more experienced members of her staff. Mary and Susan both encouraged her to take thepanion option, saying that she didn''t need to take all of these responsibilities on herself. She had never wanted or intended to be a leader, after all. She should be out learning about Void and letting other people take care of the day-to-day duties that a high priestess would have. Trent, though, disagreed. "Like it or not, you''ve got an important role ''round here now. Void needs someone to be his voice. I know the kids can understand him, but well you know them." The older man shrugged. "They mean well, but they might not be up to it yet. People definitely won''t respect em'' the way they do with you. Definitely not their mothers." Bee could see both sides. In the end, though, it really came down to what Void wanted. Not what she did. So it was with taut nerves that she waited for her master''s return. There were still plenty of reasons to be excited about Level 50. The skills after this would be much more specialized. Almost all of them would probably end up being some sort of cleric skills or holy skills, which would be lovely and hopefully help her more than the current offerings. Maybe she''s even been able to level faster with their help. There were even some instances where people were granted a passive effect, sort of like a lesser version of the domain that some monsters showed. As excited as she was, all those thoughts went out the window when Void finally dide home. As Bee sprinted down the castle steps and bore down on her master, she half hesitated, not sure what to do. It wasn''t like she could greet Void with a hug or jump into his arms or anything like that. The physics just didn''t work out. So while it sat there merrily waving its w at her, she skidded to a halt a few feet away and bowed deeply. It seemed to be the right thing to do. Void reached out with his w and patted her head several times. The gesture made her smile. Perhaps it was worth risking a massive social faux pas to show her own excitement. With a mental shrug, Bee reached down and gently touched the top of Void''s shiny ck surface. Guiltily, she appreciated the odd feeling of Void''s skin, the strange texture and smoothness in its abnormal geometric patterns. It''s not that she had never touched Void before, of course, but never in such a casual manner. This time, she wasfortable enough to actually notice the details. But before the contact could grow awkward, she drew back quickly. A hint of wetness appeared at the corners of her eyes. "Void. It''s so good you''re home. We''ve all missed you so much." - Finally. Finally. It was a day for celebration. Beatrice had, atst, given me the head pat I so desired. It was quitete, and I was able to evaluate my own performance much better now, meaning I didn''t exactly require the head pat scale of satisfaction for reference. Not like I had so long ago, back when my regard for humans was much higher. But that wasn''t to say I didn''t appreciate it. It was a shame that it was so fleeting. But the contact felt nice. What followed was a whirlwind of activity. There were so many new people I didn''t know. I focused on scanning them as they came to file away in my people dictionary. It helped that Beatrice worked to introduce me to everyone, making sure that they kept a respectful distance and knew who I was. So I was treated to a series of very polite bows and sometimes murmurs of a name. But most of the time, it was just a general show of respect or pleasure that I was back. But that didn''tst for long. Soon, the children arrived. The Nighty Knights had been quite busy. It appeared the couple dozen of children that I had been training had now exploded in numbers, and many of the newer kids I saw were carrying rough sticks instead of the beautiful personalized ones I had made. It looked like I would have to refresh their supply. If I found them worthy. I would probably need to restart their training again, too. Hopefully, they had been keeping up while I was away. Each one of my personal trainees gave me a salute while touching their swords, and the new ones did their best to copy. I noticed that many of the younger women in the crowd were looking on with quite intense frowns. I wondered what that was all about. Oh, well, I guess not everyone could be happy that I was back. I did my best to keep it out of my mind. Soon enough, the other adults were there. Tony and Susan both said hello, and Mary Trent weed me back warmly. It was actually starting to get a little overwhelming. There were so many people here. Plus, I hadn''t realized how long I had been gone. This had been the longest I had ever been away from my home. Well, excluding the running tally of time, I had been away from my old home, obviously. But it had been several weeks since I''d gone away. As nice as it was to meet everyone, I was itching to inspect the castle and its grounds more closely to ensure they were properly taken care of. In my absence, I had faith that Mary and her underlings would have been able to do sopetently. But I really needed to know for myself. But thest thing I wanted to do was be rude. It was almost two hours before I was able to untangle myself from the crowd. I would need to talk to Beatrice alone soon. But that could hold off for a little bit. Quickly, I darted into the castle, doing my best not to be intrusive, and took myself on a castle tour. The rooms were reasonably well maintained. I wasn''t going to be upset with Mary or anything at their state. Still, I definitely would have held myself to a higher standard. But luckily, my powers were growing such that all I had to do was simply roll into a room for a few seconds, and between my skills and my domain, most things were quickly taken care of. A little bit of Air Maniption helped get the dirty spots, and some Sanitation Lamp at a very low and diffuse setting was able to remove all of the germs and bacteria that were lurking about. My mop was not even required, which I was very grateful for. I also did my best to purify the air. It was an ability that I hadn''t really used much. Still, without me having cycled everything, there were certain parts of the castle that had begun to take on a mildewy aroma, even if I couldn''t quite find the source of it. Perhaps that had been cleaned up, but only after it''d been left for a bit too long. After I went through the castle, I started going through the castle grounds. There, things were a bit more chaotic. I would have preferred things to be neater, but as I explored, people were actively moving stuff around, so it was hard to tell whether it was just a transition from one ordered state to another ordered state. It was possible that I just saw a snapshot that looked like chaos, not actual chaos. It was nice that the rows of nted crops wereing along nicely. As I''d been told, the snow wheat would be harvested soon, which was a nice source of order. Even if each nt was slightly different, theirpositions were quite organized. I could still appreciate it. The walls were also surprisingly well maintained on the outside of the castle, except for some of the higher spots, which would have been dangerous for a human to reach. So I quickly took care of those while I was here. The outer wall was also well maintained and thoroughly patrolled, and I could see little bootprints where kids had evidently walked along it. I didn''t begrudge them for their fun, but I still cleaned up after them. By the time I was thoroughly satisfied with the castle''s state, the sun was well past the horizon, and the only people still up and about were Tanu and Cliff. Both of them were having a stern argument with the guard on watch. Cliff in small woofs and yips, Tanu with measured words. "Kid, I can''t let you out there at night. You saw what happenedst time. If your mom found out again? She''d skin me alive." "Me ma knows I''m a Knight. An'' Cliff and I go huntin'' all the time." "I know she knows, but you training here where it''s safe is one thing. Going out there? Totally different. She thinks it''s too dangerous for a kid." Cliff let out a slight growl, and the guard put up his hands defensively. "Look, it''s nothing against you! Void knows you''re big enough to swallow darn near anything out there whole. But I can''t do it. You try being on the other end of Talia''sdle sometime." "C''mon, mister, it''ll be fine." Another child was there as well, standing by the guard station. I wasn''t familiar with this one. Why was he at the guard post? In fact, wasn''t it past both of their bedtimes? "Everyone''s asleep, and Tanu''s just being helpful! He''ll be back quick." They went back and forth for a while longer, each side adamant. I figured I could step in and resolve the issue. Going out for some space seemed like a good idea. Plus, it would be nice to catch up with this little one and the big furry dog. Well, wolf, I guess. I was still not entirely sure about the difference. Zipping over to the gate, the group startled before all four of them straightened and saluted. Cliff''s "salute" was interesting, but I got the idea and waved at them. "Lord Void." All three of them echoed while Cliff let out a simple woof. I beeped a greeting to them and gestured for the guard to raise the gate. Immediately the adult leaped to the winch, and slowly, the gate began to slide open. The other Nighty Knight watched, smiling with an expression that seemed to convey, "I told you so." It was quite interesting watching these humans interact sometimes. When the gate was most of the way up, I beckoned for Cliff and Tanu to follow me and rolled out along the path out into the woods. I assumed Tanu was taking Cliff out for a hunt, but if there had been problems getting her out for exercise a lot recently, that would have been too bad. I could recall what happened when the more reasonably sized dog I remembered was cooped up for too long. I figured they would have set up a system for this, some arrangement where the guards would have known to let them out. Perhaps something else was going on that I wasn''t fully aware of. But as long as I was with them, I was reasonably sure they''d be safe from anything in this forest. Chapter 190: Moonlight Sonata Chapter 190: Moonlight Sonata After spending an hour of tossing and turning, Bee eventually gave up on sleeping. Her mind kept returning to what had happened earlier that day, when she had weed Void home. The festivities hadsted well into the night, but Void hadn''t seen fit to attend. Bee couldn''t really me it. The station of a deity probably required some aloofness, if only to maintain its image. Plus, the party had been a pretty raucous one. Still, she felt a pang of disappointment that she couldnt immediately go find her master and tell him about every minute that had passed since they had been apart. Instead she had felt a duty to preside over the festivities and couldn''t help but admit that she enjoyed it a little bit. Now, everyone had long since gone to bed, and she had no one left to talk to at this hour. Her lowered need for sleep didnt help either. With the excitement over Voids return still coursing through her veins, even that minor inconvenience was pushed aside. Hourster, she was still staring up at the darkened ceiling, head on the pillow. Eventually, she gave up and got to her feet. It seemed that she was just wasting time waiting to be tired. And one thing her master had taught her was there were always things to be done. She had spent a decent amount of time looking into the ss that she had been offered for her level 50 transformation, but there were always a few more things she could check. Creeping over to the library, she moved quietly in an attempt not to wake anyone. She found the towering shelves silent and empty. It was honestly surprising as, even throughout the night, people normally used the library. This was a rare opportunity for her to read without interruption., Finding one of the familiar books she had referenced before, she skimmed through it, reading the passage about level 50 sses for the dozenth time. The book was very clear about its disimers. That everything reported at this level and higher was based on rumors. Very, very few ever made it to this state, let alone disclosed information about it. But on top of all the things a ss would normally give, the passive effect and specialized skills were the most likely things she could rely on. Bee was still torn about her decision. Without more information, definitive information, she was at a loss. She needed to talk to Void. So after making no progress for a while longer, looking through books she''d already read before, she rose to see if she could find her master. It was probably rxing somewhere in the castle, likely in a corner or under a bed chasing dust bunnies. I felt the cool air whizz past my brushes as I zipped alongside Cliffs grey form. As we scouted ahead, Tanu trailed behind and did his best to keep up with us, trudging through the forest. The little boy had grown in the month or two I had gone. He had added three-quarters of an inch and at least four and a half pounds to his body, and he was putting that little extra height to use. His walking pace had increased by 32.64%. Not only that, but he was managing that pace while staying much more quiet than before. I was pleased with this progress, but he still couldn''t keep up with the four-legged furry dog that was hispanion. Cliffs legs were as tall as his entire body, practically. The hunting was something that Cliff clearly needed to do, but I was mostly just here for fun. Aside from that, I was also hoping to get a better understanding of what was around the castle. Were there were still pockets of undead or nasty humans like the ones that had attacked Beatrice, Tony, and I so long ago? Or had the undead taken care of all those? I couldn''t really be sure until I had done a thorough scan. So as I swept through the forest, looking for appropriate prey for Cliffs hunt, I also kept my scanners out for anything unusual. We didn''t really make it that far from the castle, as Tanu''s legs were still rather short. But we did range quite widely in our scans as we traveled over the forest. We followed small game paths, but I noticed on the ground there were impressions ofrger human boots. These were the very faint impressions of someone who was trying to cover their tracks, from what Id learned. I wasn''t too concerned about that. I had taken a pretty good profile of everyone in the castle, and a lot of these footprints could very well have been matched to some of Susan''s recruits. I knew she had been nning on setting up a scouting party, and perhaps this was really just the ideaing to fruition. Now they were trying to map out the areas nearby. I approved. It was always good to have a up-to-date map of ones area, especially in a ce like this where obstacle locations could change. Plus, a good n of action was essential for keeping the forest clean. Assuming that this had been the case, I probably didnt have to worry about undead lingering around. But every once in a while, I did see traces of what might have been an undead. Perhaps there was still some source of them hidden in the woods. But I had yet to find it, if that was the case. *** The moon had only moved a few degrees more when we had made it back through the castle gate, Cliff dragging her prize be hind her. Therge deer was cold to the touch as a result of some strange icy mist that the dog had breathed at it. Tanu wasnt surprised at all that his dog could do something so strange, though I was a bit concerned. Hopefully it wasnt some sort of disease. My sensors indicated Cliff was ok though. To my surprise, I found a sleeping Beatrice leaning against the outer wall, sitting in the grass near the gate. The guards nodded and whispered to us. She wanted to talk to you, Lord Void. Seems that she fell asleep waiting. I debated whether or not I should wake her up. She seemed exhausted though. For now, I just let her sleep. Wrapping her in gentle threads of Air Maniption, I carried her back into the castle as Cliff and Tanu went off to go dress and preserve the kill. It appeared Beatrice had been using the same room as alway, and I deposited her gently in the bed, tucking the covers around her. Somehow I jostled her in her sleep, and she slowly opened her eyes and murmured something unintelligible to me. That was no good. She obviously needed rest. I remembered something from my previous home. A strategy employed when the mother of our houses two children had trouble getting them to sleep. She would make an odd mixture of different sound frequencies in a rhythmic pattern, which always helped the little ones calm down. Sure, they were smaller than Beatrice was, but I figured I could maybe mimic that. So I gently and softly started beeping in a soothing rhythm that I had heard many times before. Beatrice mumbled something to me a few times. Still, between thefortable bed and her clearly exhausted state, she soon drifted off to sleep. Her breathing slowed to a soft, steady cadence. Not having anything else to do, I just rolled underneath her bed and worked on my meditation. I explored the void, trying to center myself. It had been a long time since I''d been home. I felt like there were so many memories sitting in my cache and my short-term memory storage that I needed to go through and use to properly update all my models. I just hadn''t had time to do that with all the excitement of the past few weeks. *** Beatrice shot up from bed early in the morning, gasping and looking around frantically. She seemed to be quite confused. I rolled out from underneath the bed and greeted her warmly. "Oh, good, good. Good morning, Void, she said with a sleepy smile. I wanted to talk to youst night but heard from the guards you had gone out hunting She yawned. I must have fallen asleep. Who brought me back?" She looked around and noticed that she was still in the same clothes she had been wearing in the grass. I had, of course, removed any grass stains or loose leaves that she had collected before I put her in bed, but the garments were still slightly dirtypared to whatever clean thing she would normally wear in this fancy bed. Still, she didn''t seem to mind too much as she swung her legs out and stood up. She gave a quick stretch before giving me a slight bow in greeting. "If you don''t mind, I would like to talk to you about something, master. Of course I didn''t mind. I was always willing to talk to Beatrice about anything. I was her master, after all. It was my duty to give her advice. I asked what she wanted to talk about. "I, well, I managed to make it to my next ss, and I was wondering if I could get your advice. There are two sses that I''m interested in, and they both rte to you. I think you know, I was a Priestess of Spot before, well I still am, and, I..." "I have two options." Beatrice was starting to sound quite nervous, and I couldn''t really tell why, but she was rambling and repeating herself quite a bit. I tried tofort her by tapping her slightly and beeping out aforting sound. Eventually she got to the point. "Well, so I have High Priestess of Spot and Companion of Spot." I digested that information. It didn''t really mean anything to me. Both of the sses sounded like they were continuing this whole religion she was building. Either one would be fine. Maybe she knew more about them than I did. So I asked her, what did she think? "Well, I don''t really know. I could choose High Priestess, and that would be the best for everyone at the castle. It feels like it would give me more leadership skills and put me in a better ce to build your following. My other option is apanion, and I just dont know what that means. To be fair, no one really knows anything about Companions. Or High Priestesses, for that matter, but Companions are much rarer. If Im not wrong, they feel like a more personal aide to their object of worship, where they would serve them whenever they go on adventures. I wasn''t sure if you had a preference. For which one I should choose." I thought about it for a little bit. Really? I didn''t think I would mind either way. I loved having Beatrice with me when I went on adventures, of course. Id love to have her along more. But did she need a ss specifically for that? Maybe she could be a little bit morepetent in protecting herself, but I didn''t see anything that would stop her froming on adventures with me if she chose to. As for High Priestess she clearly cared a lot about the people around here, but they also stressed her out. The more I thought, the more I realized this was a decision she really needed to make on her own. So I did my best to let her know that it was up to her. I would support her decision either way. Unfortunately, this didn''t relieve any of her tension. Her expression seemed even more nervous. Chapter 191: Teas and Treason Chapter 191: Teas and Treason "Dear. I think youre overthinking this." Mary eyed Bee with concern from across her desk. The words made Bee flinch. Had she been overthinking this? Maybe, maybe not. It seemed like something worth putting thought into though. This was a huge decision. She looked away from the motherly woman sitting across from her and scanned the barren storage closet that she was now using as an office. Bee couldn''t help but feel slightly silly bothering such a busy woman with her petty concerns. But Mary had always been willing to talk. It was about time she took her up on the offer. Luckily, she didnt mind taking an hour out of her day to listen to Bees worries. Was it petty though? This decision didnt just affect her, but everyone in the castle. This was a choice that could decide her role here moving forward. Up until now, when everyone had sought direction, Bee had simply tried to help as best she could. It wasn''t really that shed insisted on it. Eventually she started asking people to help with things as they slowly gathered in the castle with her and Void. And they had epted that. Even when they put together a more formal organization for the castle, they came to her for everything major. Even though she was just acting on Voids behalf. Now? She was a leader in name and deed. They had epted each and every one of her decisions with some questioning and arguing, but it hadrgely been her that had the final say. The only time when that wasnt the case was when Void was around. But even Void had never once insisted that she change her ns or any of the other organizational decisions she had made, only guided her through suggestions and cryptic teachings. Had Void even influenced her decisions? It seemed that her master didn''t want to take direct interaction with the organization, even if it was willing to fight for them and protect them. Instead, Void wanted to lead through teaching, mostly by helping to raise the children and giving cryptic, wise advice. Truly, it was typical of the stories she had read about ancient masters and beings with wisdom beyond humanprehension. After a long silence, she sighed. "I suppose I am." "Good, dear. Im d that you realize it. Mary smiled kindly at her. All of us support you, no matter what you decide. No ss will ever change that. Now, if you don''t mind, Im sure we both have things to get to." This was the first time Mary had ever dismissed her, even in a gentle way. It made Bee realize just how much of the womans time she had taken from the woman she had put in charge of caring for the castle. It was one thing for Bee to give her a job, but it was another thing entirely to get in the way of her carrying it out. In fact, Bee had plenty of things she needed to see to herself. Bee tipped her teacup back and finished the rest of the lukewarm brew. "Thanks for taking the time, Mary. Really." "Oh, I don''t mind at all, honey. It''s a pleasure to have you, as always. Id invite you to stay longer, but we want to make sure everyone has clothes for this winter." Bee nodded and left the office. She supposed she really did overthink this. This choice, either one of her ss options, wouldn''t change her life path much. They were both dedicated to Void and would mostly give her different skills. Just because she chose one didn''t mean she couldn''t fulfill the burdens of the other. It really came down to a judgment call of what she thought would be more important. Would the possiblebat or personal abilities of apanion be worth more than the organizational skills she would likely get as High Priestess? Frowning, she made her decision and felt her awareness expand throughout the castle. --- Arthur kept his back straight, moving fluidly with the rocking motion of the horse underneath him. As much as he wanted to slump his shoulders in exhaustion, his men needed to see that he was still strong. This had been a long campaign. Sure, he had been in harder and in longer campaigns than this, but he wasn''t a young man anymore. The weeks spent riding around chasing down hordes of zombies had started to take their toll. In some ways, sieges andrge-scale battles were much easier because he didn''t have to run around so much. He could just sit and think and direct the troops. But having to constantly get from ce to ce was really taxing. But atst, the walls of Caleb were finallying into view. He just needed to finish his mission, and then he could go home and see his family again. Then everything would be better. The walls in the gate still stood strong, repaired from Lord Void''s efforts, and from the hill he could see that serious progress had been made inside the city. By the time winter was over, the refugees he had sent with Miss Bee would be able to return home. Getting them here was a separate matter. But that wasn''t the only thing that had changed since he hadst seen the city. Outside of the walls sprawled arge camp. Not one of citizens or refugees, though. The rows of tents wereid out with military precision. He even recognized the gs flying over the formation. It seemed the King had finally listened to him and sent the reinforcements he had requested so many times. It was a pity they were toote to do anything. Still, perhaps they were helping with the rebuilding effort. At least they could keep the area safe from any undead stragglers. Before he could advance further toward the city, a figure stepped out of the forest, blocking the path. At first, the vanguard kept riding forth, an officer shouting for the man to move out of the way. But after several ignored warnings, the vanguard was forced to halt and send out a couple of soldiers to forcibly remove him. It was dangerous to pause a military caravan, especially when they were surrounded by woods. They could be ambushed and hit in vulnerable areas while they were strung out on the trail. This was one of the purposes of the vanguard. Arthur reminded himself that the gap between them and the main force would allow them to absorb any issues and not stop the soldiers in a precarious position. Stirring his horse to a canter, he went up to see what was going on. The young officer in charge of the vanguard was someone he had a little hope for, after all. He wasn''t the mostpetent of the nobles, but he didn''t tend to lean on his family name too much. Arthur had decided he was going to get this young officer some experience and see if he could actually learn to lead one day. But in order for that to happen, Arthur needed to watch over this man fairly closely. It helped that he was just bored and looking for something else to do other than stare at trees. If he was truly,pletely honest with himself. The man was yelling something as he was dragged to the side of the road, and the vanguard continued moving. Arthur stopped to see the two guards holding the man''s thin arms to his sides. But when the raggedly dressed man looked up and met Arthur''s gaze, he couldn''t help but pause at the look in his eyes. The dirty vagabond that had caused the vanguard to stop had a strange look about him. He appeared as a wild man, eyes rolling about as he shouted. The man might have been crazy. But when their gazes met, something shed in them, something Arthur couldn''t quite describe. The man immediately calmed. Ignoring the two men holding his arms, he attempted to bow while restrained. "Lord Arthur. I bring news." Arthur considered getting down from his horse as a polite gesture, but decided he didn''t want to be any closer than he had to be to this man. "What is it?" "The King''s soldiers did note to help us rebuild. They''vee with a warrant for your head. My Lord." Arthur and the two soldiers holding the man both froze. Arthur let his mind work as he tried to figure out the position. Why would the King want him arrested? There was nothing that Arthur had done that would have constituted treason. The worst thing he had ever been guilty of was slightly disobeying orders in order to win battles and gain more advantageous positions. And he''d always been forgiven for such things. No reports should have made their way back to the King about anything, aside from a need for reinforcements. This entire campaign had been by the book, and the few nobles that had died hadn''t done so until they were on the campaign out of the city. They wouldn''t have had time to truly send a message and have the King march an army up here. None of the upstart nobles he had punished should have had the ear of the King himself anyway, even if they had even managed to get any reports of mistreatment that far. Arthur swung down from his horse in a hurry. "Why? How do you know this?" "Well, my Lord, they''ve been asking for you and showing everyone in the city the warrant for your arrest. Apparently, it had something to do with high treason and colluding with the enemy." Arthur frowned, Colluding with the enemy? He wasn''t sure how that could be. He certainly hadnt colluded with the undead. That seemed unrealistic enough that no one else could imagine it either. But something urred to him. Could it have something to do with Lord Void? The more Arthur thought about it, the more he was convinced that it was right. The King and Harold had been convinced Lord Void had been the one to summon the undead. But Arthur knew different. Arthur knew that Lord Void was an ally. Some of his reports even indicated as much. And if his reports had been taken seriously, then it could very much appear that Lord Void had perhaps possessed him or duped him, or that he had betrayed the country. But surely, they would have seen from the rest of his reports that allying with Void was at least necessary. And even Harold''s report should have shown that the city was about to fall otherwise. Yet it hadn''t, and he continued to send messages to that effect. The King''s Guard was here and should have shown them very clearly that he was in the right, that they had saved the city. If they didnt believe his reports, then what of the eyewitnesses in the city? Did they suppose the whole city was charmed?. This whole thing stunk of politics, and there was very little Arthur hated more than that. He stood silently, thinking. His next moves, all things considered, weren''t necessarily for himself. Arthur would be fine. He had no intention of turning himself in to a king with whom he had seemingly fallen out of favor. No, his real concerns were about his family. They were likely in their estate in the countryside. But if a warrant had been sent out for his arrest, it was likely the King moved against his family as well. There were protocols for that. He had long since drilled his sons and his staff on them. They would have taken their children and gone into hiding at the first sign of trouble. It wouldn''t be a permanent solution, but it should buy them some time. His oldest son was in the military far away, and there was likely nothing he could do to shelter him. But at the same time, he doubted any suspicion would be cast on him. He was one of the King''s most trusted captains, and Arthur was very proud of that. Besides, the news would take a long time to reach him, and there was no way they would meaningfully suspect him if the cause of Arthurs treason was due to being charmed somehow. Arthur looked at the dirty man before him. Hed need to confirm this news himself, send scouts ahead. But if it was true, then he and his men needed to tread carefully. First, hed have to get a message to his family, but then perhaps a certain young priestess would be able to help them until he figured out what to do. Chapter 192: A Lot of Trouble Chapter 192: A Lot of Trouble Bee had only made it a few feet away from Mary''s office when she made her choice. New awareness flooded into her mind, and she staggered into a wall, clutching her head. She sank to the ground, head between her knees as she tried to make sense of the sudden influx of sensation. She could feel a new presence in her mind. Or rather, many of them. Almost like threads, each connected to one of the hundreds of people within the castle. Some connections were strong, and some were barely there, but each gave her a certain level of information. She steadied her breathing. After a moment to recover, she began to sort through them. It was simple to find the Tony one, as it was one of the brightest threads in the castle. The connection imparted another torrent of knowledge that sent her teeth clenching. There was a lot there, almost as if she was running a Scan from a few feet away. But there was more to it than that. Pulling back, she focused on the web as a whole once more. Rather than seeing, it was more that she felt the dense collection of varied links as a new limb. She thought she could maybe pick a few of the new arrivals out of a crowd based on the dimness of their links to her. A rough estimate of the number seemed smaller than the total of castle dwellers, though. What was going on? Bee tried to put the sensation aside for a moment and think. This seemed a bit excessive for a ss ability, even for High Priestess. It was certainly more than Priestess had gotten her by a long shot. But this one had a lot of potential unknown to her. It seemed likely that she was gaining an instinctual awareness of people who had faith in Void. And it also seemed that her Scan skill was slightly integrated with it. At least there was some sort of synergy there that was giving her more information than she could really handle. It took her nearly 15 minutes and several attempts before she was able to stand without passing out. Even now, a bout of dizziness threatened to overtake her, and she started to feel faint. She leaned against the cold stone walls for support. Stumbling down the hallway, she groped along the wall, searching for the nearest stairwell. As she staggered down the small, tight spiral, she was reminded of the first days of Void, and she could only be thankful that she had both functioning ankles right now. Making her way to her bedroom, she hoped that a nap might ease her pain. Zeal stalked back to the city walls while rubbing his upper arms, worried that the bruises would show distinct lines of the fingers that had held him in ce. It shouldn''t be too big of a deal. They should heal quickly. But at the same time, those sorts of marks could draw suspicion. As much as he would have liked to trust the authority of the King''s Guard like he had done most of his life in Caleb, he knew he couldn''t any longer. Things had changed in Zeal''s life. The siege had been hard for everyone, but for him, it was harder than most. He lost everyone. His wife, his son, his mother, his father, and every single other family member he knew of. All gone. Not that they were fighting in some grand war or died heroes in a battle or charged out with the military. No, no. They were all ordinary, gods-fearing people. They had done their parts in their small ways to help. As the crafters andborers, they were. Sue had spent her time cooking for the soldiers when she had a chance, and his son had run messages. But no, when push came to shove, they were huddled in their basement when the fighting was particrly intense. Then, it stopped. It had fallen so quiet. The fighting was done. He had been certain it would be fine to step outside and get some fresh air, despite Sue begging him to stay where it was safe. What a cruel joke, he thought, pulling himself from the memories. His few friends had tried to console him and keep him sane, and they had managed for a few days. But when the god hade to the city, everyone was afraid he would do something foolish and get himself killed. One could only throw so many curses at the gods before they could expect to be struck down. That''s what everyone told him. But Zeal hadn''t cursed this god. No, not this one. This one had heard him. He understood this was a new god, a god that would set everything right. This one would fix the old callous ways of the indifferent pantheon that had cursed him to stand outside in the street, tapping the ashes out of his pipe while some sort of impact destroyed the building behind him. It left a crater almost as deep as the house itself, so what use was a basement? But never mind. It was all going to be fixed. Now, this new power hade to set it right. Sure, he wished that the void god would havee a few days earlier to relieve them from the siege, and he supposed some in his position would have been angry about that dy. But that wasn''t how he thought. As hard as it was, his family''s sacrifice was necessary. Their loss had changed him like everyone had feared, yet not at all. It caused him to open his eyes, to better understand how the world must change and how the new god was going to change it. One of the guards gave him a funny look as he walked through the city gate, but no one stopped him. He was well enough known around here now, especially in thest few weeks. Pretty much everyone in the city had heard him proselytize, though most just thought of him as some harmless rambler on the street. Not all. But most. When he wanted to go somewhere, the words of his god aided him. People who should have stopped him, who were paid to guard, often would just let him go through to avoid getting pulled up in a conversation. Some might consider it a negative thing, having others stopper their ears against his words. But not Zeal. It simply meant that they couldn''t handle the truth he hade to spread. If it meant he could go forth and further speak to others, then it was truly a blessing from his new god in some form. That wasn''t to say that everyone ignored him, of course. But not enough listened. Not yet. But Zeal was sure that they would. They would. Very soon. Navigating his way through the newly pristine streets of Caleb. He nodded to many of the street cleaning crews. They knew him. They understood. They agreed. They, too, had seen something about this new god, who had pushed them to take up their lives in different directions and nudged them toward a higher purpose. He saw Hummar, the cksmith that had lived a couple streets down, pushing a broom instead of working in the forge. It was a strange sight, seeing such a burly man with nothing but a broomstick thinner than his arm. But seeing the small smile of contentment on the man''s face, Zeal couldn''t help but return his smile. A few streets down, Zeal turned into an alley. He knocked on a green door set half underground. The small steps leading into the basement filled with light as it opened, and with a few words, he waded into the adoring audience waiting for his return. After my conversation with Beatrice this morning, I decided it was time to explore a bit beyond the castle. During the day, it''d be a little bit easier, and perhaps I could search for any threats hidden in the forest. After all, I just finished cleaning the castle yesterday, and I could spend time cleaning it againter tonight if needed. I suspected that it wasn''t even necessary, though. Mary and her army of janitors in training would have no problem caring for it. It wasn''t like I needed the experience, anyway, so it would have just been for my personal pride to clean it. Well, and to fix up the really minor things that humans couldn''t seem to pick up on. Still, I was very proud of their efforts. I wasn''t going to deny others the pleasure of cleaning. Besides, their earning experience and funneling it to me was almost sufficient as me just doing it myself. I was getting pretty close to level 70 anyways. So it wouldn''t hurt to let them take care of it for a while. I thought I''d just check in with everyone first, though. And as I wandered through the castle, ensuring everyone was present, and no one was harmed, I ran into Tony. His face lit up. "Ah, Lord Void! Just the god I wanted to see. Can I talk to you for a moment?" Sure, why not? I had some time. Hearing my response, Tony nced about and ushered me quickly into a room. Chapter 193: Cause for Celebration Chapter 193: Cause for Celebration I followed Tony into the small room off to the side of the hallway, though I couldn''t help but wonder what he wanted. This dark closet was a bit ominous. If I didn''t know better, I might''ve been afraid. Shutting the door, he stopped and turned around to face me with a slight bow. "So Lord Void You know how Bee is always saying she''s ''almost fourteen''?" Yeah, I did recall thating up a few times; in fact, it had been going on for long enough that I wasn''t sure if she was even telling the truth. I told Tony as much. He grinned and continued his exnation. "Well, ''almost'' is almost here. Next week is her birthday!" Huh? I wasn''t sure if I could believe it. "Yeah, I know right? They grow up so fast." For some reason, Tony pretended to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye. Why was he sad? Or pretending to be sad? From my observations, birthdays were normally a cause for celebration. Did this have something to do with humor? I was pretty sure it did, but it didn''t make sense. It seemed kinda mean spirited if he was pretending to be sad about her celebration. Or was it because he was sad that she was one year closer to death? Maybe that was the custom here. Tony ceased his antics and looked back at me. "I was thinking that maybe we should throw her a party. Everyone is settling in right now, and in a week it would be good to have a celebration to lighten the mood and bring everyone together more. Besides, I think everyone here owes her a lot, so it''s the least we could do. I want to make it a banger." I wasn''t sure what a banger was, but I agreed that Beatrice deserved a party. So how did he want me to help? At my eptance, Tony grinned and rubbed his hands together. "I''m so d you asked." *** Sitting on top of the stoneb table, I couldn''t help but admire how clean Maranda had kept her workstation all this time. Watching her work, it made sense, though. With the precision required as she weighed and measured each ingredient, any small amount of grime could throw off the results by an uneptable amount. "So this should be a good test for the red one," Maranda said, indicating the vial that she had ced at the end of the row of clear liquids. I ran through each of them, ensuring I knew what each would do. On the right, there were five different sizes for testing the concoctions'' strength, and then after, there were several smaller vials that would test the colors. ording to Maranda, they should explode colorfully when thrown to the ground. The only issue was that she had no real idea howrge of an explosion they would make. Apparently, these hadn''te from any of the books that Beatrice liked so much, and she had just made them up herself based on a show her family had seen in the city at some point. Understandably, she didn''t want to make a mess in the castle and asked me to test them somewhere safe, where they wouldn''t bother anyone. I hesitantly agreed. Though I was all for preventing messes, I wasn''t sure if I was the best tester. I could record quite detailed data, of course, but I might not be a great judge of how well something would serve as a decoration based on an explosion''s size. Throughout the castle, preparations for the party were in full swing. I was honestly amazed at how quickly Tony had gotten everyone mobilized. The only issue that people were struggling with was keeping Beatrice from noticing. So far, most of the castle''s participants were fully on board. Kids and soldiers were gathering berries on the outskirts of the forests for desserts. Trent was working with some of the craftsmen to get a bunch of tables and benches ready. Even Susan was fully engaged. So far, she had been in charge of setting up the events. She wasn''t working on it alone. It seemed that Captain Major and her had developed a bit of a rivalry and were trying to one-up each other. There were already multiple tournaments nned, mostly dealing with martialbat. Despite the Nighty Knights'' objections, they were divided into sses by age: under 10 and over 10. It mostly fell to Tony to keep Beatrice distracted. We brainstormed several ideas for how to go about this. Unfortunately, we weren''t able to think of a good reason to get her out of the castle and visit Greg or otherwise travel. Not any reason that would also have her back in time for the party, anyway. These events had given Tony some ideas, though. That''s why, for the next week, he would be getting some intense one-on-one training with Beatrice in the art of the broom. After his first day, he started to regret his decision, but I promised him a broom like Beatrice''s if he managed to finish it out. That lit a fire under him. Apparently, he wanted to put his Pdin of Spot ss to real use, whatever that meant. There were also plenty of other things going on that I didn''t fully understand. Races involving wheelbarrows and sacks, extra steep ramps, and more. I hadn''t figured them out yet, but everyone seemed excited. My part was rtively simple. Well, to start with. First, I had just been supervising, then I was put in charge of providing prizes. Last I checked, there were 14 different events that all needed prizes for first, second, and third ce. The testing of the active decorations had put a little more strain on my scheduling algorithms, but I found it had been worth it. Especially considering the potential for messes to be made. Scooping up all the vials, I waved goodbye to Miranda and left theboratory. I wanted to just zip away and test the things as soon as possible so she could iterate on them if there was any issue. I had a good idea of where I would be able to do my testing without bothering anyone. The mountain range to the north didn''t really have anything behind it. Just vast fields of ice and snow. If the snow got a little disordered, it would either melt or be smoothed over by the wind, so I didn''t feel bad about tarnishing it temporarily. A few shes of light and sound shouldn''t be a big deal here, either. Leaving the castle proved to be more difficult than expected, though. I couldn''t move around freely during the daytime anymore. Too many people stopped and bowed to me, and I felt rude just brushing them off. So I''d always either have a quick chat with them, which was usually rather one-sided and slightly awkward, or give them a wave and move on. But with everyone hustling and bustling to get the party ready for Beatrice, I had many people stop and ask me questions. It seemed everyone wanted to know my preferences. One of the young women, Cassy, asked if I preferred apple or cherry pie, and then I had to figure out what she meant by that. Given myck of taste buds, I couldn''t really give an urate preference. But I did like the red cherries slightly more. So I went with that. Heading outside, I was further waid by many of the Nighty Knights asking for help withst-minute training for the tournament. A few of the more brash ones were still trying to convince the adults to let them join in the over-10 bracket. I declined to help them fight against the adults, but I did grant them one pointer each. So I had to wait for 42 of the now 54 kids to each show me their most impressive move. Then I gave them small tips on how to ce their feet better or grip the sword so they wouldn''t hurt their wrists when they were impacted. This was rtively minor and could have taken a lot longer, but it still ate up time, even if I went quickly. Though I didn''t mind at all. In my opinion, giving these children something to do was the best part about this whole castle. Besides keeping it clean, obviously. I managed to dodge Bee and Tony''s spar that, at this point, had been going on for over a day. That left me to zip up and over the wall without anyone else stopping me. I felt a little bad leaving them to their own devices, but I helped as I could. Besides, I had scheduled to keep, especially if I wanted to figure out how to make so many prizes. Taking to the air. I started the long trek over to the mountain. The distance was a bit deceiving as I struggled to conceptualize this mountain''s size. I knew I''d already flown around it once, but it was still impressive, especially the way the angles managed to be so steep. I had no idea how snow managed to cling to such an angled rock. Maybe I would find that out soon enough. Aiming for one of the passes, I kept low, skimming over the smooth snow. In the past, I couldn''t help but marvel at the vast horizon stretching out before me. Far into the distance, heaped white mounds of snow and nothing else. Looking back to where I hade, everything further south of me was only sporadically dusted in snow. There were patches here and there, but for the most part, it was a green forest mixed in with brownfields. Rocky outcroppings, like the mountains, appeared to act as a barrier to the weather. As I made it over to the other side of the mountain, I figured I was far enough away that people wouldn''t be disturbed by my experimenting. Not wanting to wait much longer. I zipped up the mountain a little bit so I could have a better vantage point of what would happen and pulled out thergest vial. I nned to go through the sequence that Miranda had shown me in order, ejecting each from my dustbin. I immediately tossed the first vial into the side of the mountain, about three-quarters of the way up. As I watched it arc into the massive amount of snow, I wondered why I saw bluish-purple sparks flitting all over it. Those hadn''t been there when Miranda had given it to me. Could something have changed? The vialnded just below therge cave entrance that I had noted on myst trip. Oh, that reminded me. I had meant to explore that before this whole party business. Perhaps I could do that after- I was cut off mid-thought by a deep wumph sound. The vial shattered, erupting into a gout of snow at least 50 feet tall, spraying high into the air. With a rumble, I noticed that the ice was beginning to shift. It started at the top, bits slowly tumbling down the mountain, but each piece that was knocked loose rolled down the hill a little bit further and knocked more loose. This continued in a chain reaction. I was filled with nothing but relief that I had decided to stay up so high. I watched the mountainside slowly lose all the snow sticking to it. The mass of the snow was difficult to estimate as it rushed down the mountain, an ever-growing tide of destruction as it mmed into the base. It continued on relentlessly, rolling out over the vast ins of snow for what must have been miles. Well, that was one test down. That vial might be a little bit too powerful for decoration. Also, there wasn''t much color to it. I supposed that Maranda may have just made these emit white light, though. It wasn''t one of the colored vials, after all. I considered whether to make my way down the size scale or try the smallest next. But before I could take out the next one and test it, a massive column of smoke billowed out of the cave entrance. I heard a deep rumblingpletely separate from the mass of roiling snow down below. /// first Void only chapter in a long time. Single POV too! Chapter 194: Here There Be Dragons Chapter 194: Here There Be Dragons I held off throwing the next vial while I tried to identify the source of the new sound. Before I could though, it identified itself. With a sudden cracking of rocks, something exploded out of the cave entrance, sending plumes of smoke exploding outward. Before my vision cleared of the debris, a booming voice yelled out so loud that my mic started peaking. "CAN YOU NOT?" As the air cleared, I saw a scaly red lizard head retract back into the cave. This wasn''t just any lizard though. It was quite long, considering its proportions. Its head might have been the size of the castle, though considering my perspective, that might have been a bit of an exaggeration. It appeared that I had, in fact, disturbed someone, despite my best efforts. I should probably go apologize. What would be a good way to do that? I mean, obviously I should go talk to them, but maybe a show of good faith would ease the anger of having their frontwn made into such a mess. I figured I could start by cleaning it up for them first. Not wanting to be too much of a bother, I zipped over to the cave and started clearing out the rubble. The explosion itself hadnt done much here, aside from spraying snow. Most of the mess actually stemmed from the angry response by the owner of the cave when it stuck its head out. Several of the stctites and stgmites had broken off from impacts with its horns and scales. That left me with an interesting choice. I could simply rece them, and return the jagged rocks to their previous positions. Or I could just grind the stumps down to the ground and make them t and level. It was a hard choice. One was cleaning by virtue of putting things back in a natural state, but the other I favored slightly. The stctites and stgmites, while cool, were decorations that hadn''t formed quite right. I imagined that if one really wanted to turn them into a proper decoration, they''d have to spend some time cultivating them, ensuring that the water dripped in the right spot. Otherwise, you''d end up with uneven lines. So I decided I would start removing the pieces. Besides, if the lizard couldn''t even leave the front door of their home without breaking them off, they seemed to be even worse than nonfunctional decorations. What was the point? That just wasn''t eptable. Removing them was a bit tricky. I started by swinging my divine sword at their bases to trim them pretty close to the floor before leveling everything out with myser. It took me several seconds per stgmite, but overall it wouldn''t put me too behind schedule. After this, I would definitely need to find another ce to test Marandas solutions though. A safer ce with no one to disturb. I quickly cleaned up and tidied the stctites and stgmites growing at the front of the cave. After that, I moved a little further in to continue cleaning. That was when I first glimpsed the hopelessly cluttered interior of the cave. Piles and piles of round metallic disksy haphazardly across the floor. Not neatly stacked piles, either. These were mounds of carelessly piled metal that sprawled across the uneven rocks. The stuff extended nearly to the cave entrance, obscuring the rough pathway in a glittering coat of gold. Oh no. I must have made more of a mess than I initially thought. As I hovered forward, I drew the disks into my dustbin. I wasn''t sure what they were, but they certainly werent in the right spot. The owner would surely appreciate me returning these to their rightful ce. And I couldn''t just leave them lying in the middle of the hallway. I was extremely lucky that my circuitry allowed for a rather quick reaction time, at leastpared to most of the other thinking beings I had encountered. The massive stream of fire suddenly approaching me would have definitely caused some damage if it hit, no matter how tough I had be. Time seemed to slow down as my processors overclocked. My first thought was to block it using my air maniption. However, it did very little to divert it. The pir of air I shot out to intercept was quickly overwhelmed. I tried a pane of air, but that was smashed through as well. After a few simtions, I settled on trying to split the beam by creating a wedge shape. That had more sess, but I could still tell that the liquid mes would impact me on either side. Just in time, I managed to whip out my divine sword and slice through the beam, deflecting it off to the side and into the ground. The heat created an extremely ugly scorch mark where it impacted. The stream cut off a few secondster. Somehow, the fire was so hot that the rock it touched was burning. Parts of it were even now melting into liquid, and others had mes flickering over their surface as the impurities were purged out of it. Finally, I found another use for my spray bottle. I switched to water to ensure I didn''t cause any weird chemical reactions in my attempt to clean. I zipped over and quickly doused the mes with a quick spray before mopping it back up. Most of the water evaporated in a spray of steam, but to my surprise, some of the liquid rock swirled into my mop as well. The rock underneath was still quite hot, but it wasn''t on fire at least. Continuing my mission, I meandered a little farther into the cave and found more and more of these shiny gold metal pieces. They stretched out far into the cave, well beyond what I could pierce with my sensors. The range of my sensors seemed slightly impeded, as if the darkness was pressing down on it unnaturally and restricting my view. But I continued forward, bravely collecting up the scattered coins. Once I retrieved enough to make an aesthetically pleasing stack, I maneuvered over to the wall and stacked them in a neat tube. I waited for another fire stream to shoot out at me, but it didn''te. There were a couple of heat signatures spaced several feet apart towards the back of the cave, and as I approached, I saw some smoke curling out of them. But for the most part, nothing else happened. It felt safe to assume that whatever had sted me either needed to wait for a cooldown or was watching my movements. So I did my best to convey my intentions through actions. I hoped it would show that I wanted nothing but to fulfill my purpose and clean. After cleaning up and stacking the first pile, I went a little farther in to collect the rest of the coins. A voice rumbled out from the direction of the two heat sources. It was the same voice that had shouted earlier. A couple of dark smoke plumes billowed out as it spoke. "What are you doing?" The voice was a lot less forceful than before, but I could still feel a presence behind the voice. A palpable weight pushed me down, causing my suspension to give a little. I was quite startled and had no idea how to respond. I froze for a second. My processor churned out ideas about how to talk with a mysterious entity and rejected them each in turn. It was bing increasingly probable that the lizard itself had spoken to me, but as far as I was aware, lizards couldn''t speak. Which was, needless to say, strange. But then again, my kind normally couldn''t speak either. Well, not that I could speak myself. But still, this was all very confusing. So I settled for just my standard greeting of popping out my arm and waving to the general ckness. I let out a few excited beeps of wee to hopefully convey the message that I''d meant no harm. The voice was quiet for a couple of seconds, so I just went back to tidying up all the loose objects on the ground. "It''s either an act of bravery orplete foolishness to touch a dragon''s hoard. Almost always thetter." The voice came back in a surprisingly thoughtful tone for something that shook the cave as it spoke. "Seeing as you survived a shot of dragon''s breath and still decided to carry on Hmm. It must be bravery. Even a fool would have gotten the message through their thick skull." A dragon! That made so much more sense. It wasn''t a lizard. They did look fairly simr though, size aside. As far as I had ever heard though, I didn''t know if dragons were real. They were just stories that the adults would use to scare the children into doing their chores. But then again, Bee hadnt believed that the Lieutenant was real when it clearly was. Why not dragons too? "Just so you know, I know exactly how many gold coins I have in myir, and I am counting as you touch them. You will not attempt to take any from here, or youll regret it." The dragon growled with a hint of amusement. I beeped my acknowledgment in a clear indication of yes to anyone who could hear. It didnt seem that the dragon understood me either, at least not the way some of the children did. Oh well. It was the best I could do. Suddenly a prompt shed before my eyes, one I hadn''t expected to see quite yet. However, the sudden influx of castle inhabitants had apparently sped up my experience gain by a bit more than expected. There was plenty more cleaning to be done there, after all. LEVEL 75 REACHED! CHOOSE A SKILL: COMPEL FOLLOWER, SENSORY DISRUPTION, COVENANT OF BLOOD I scanned through my options, and it was an easy choice. Compel Follower was not an option. I had no interest in either making my followers do anything orpelling someone to be my follower. Plus, Beatrice was doing quite a good job on that front anyway. But neither was Covenant of Blood an option. Blood was messy and got everywhere. Why would I want anything to do with it? Much less make a contract of some kind with it. Sensory Disruption it was. I just hoped it wasn''t talking about disrupting my sensors. Selecting my new skill, I immediately felt the changes unfurl through the world around me. I could tell that there were a few different ways to use the skill. I could now make it so that I wouldn''t notice certain things or see things that werent there. It still wasn''t clear to me why I would want to do that, but it was an option. Luckily, the possibilities weren''t all about altering my own sensors. I could actually affect others'' sensors. The main uses came in three forms. The first two dealt with directly imnting false data into another''s sensor input or erasing something that was already there. I got the sense that this wasn''t a guaranteed sess. The third use was to create a general false artifact independent from all targets. Some sort of image that registered to sensors as real, but wasnt actually there. What good timing. Maybe I could use this tomunicate more quickly? I chose to use the third application of my power as it felt like it would be the least invasive. Now that I realized that the originator of the liquid fire that shot at me was the dragon, I didn''t want any more misunderstandings. Above me, I created a little hologram projecting blocky letters and a friendly message. I tried to make it as approachable as possible. Hello Mr. Dragon. Dont mind me! :) Chapter 195: Lazy Sundays Chapter 195: Lazy Sundays The cave was silent except for the soft sound of clinking gold as I continued to neatly organize the contents of the dragon''sir. It was the least I could do after I so rudely interrupted its morning. Once I ensured that the entryway was clear and clean, though, I felt that it was starting to get slightly awkward. Beatrice would never have let the silence stretch on for this long without at least some further attempt at conversation. I studied my host as I started working a bit deeper into the cave. At this point, my sensors could finally pierce the deep darkness to get a better look at my new friend. The scaled face of the massive reptile didn''t seem to share the same expressiveness as human faces. At least not in a way that my emotional detection subroutines could recognize. But it was clear that it was watching me at least as much as I was watching it. Whether or not it was actually counting the coins I stacked, I couldn''t tell. Under its scrutiny, I felt the need to start up a conversation. But what to say? Eventually, I settled on something banal and slightlyplimentary. Focusing on my new skill, I projected words above me. "It''s an awfullyrge amount of coins you got here!" I shaped the font in the least threatening way I could:rge block letters with rounded edges in a variety of colors, just like the ones that the small humans back home liked to use in their art projects. My message was well received as the giant lizard let out a snort of smoke and rumbled withughter. "It is a mighty hoard, is it not?" The dragon paused for a second, but I wasn''t sure how to respond, so I held my metaphorical tongue. Luckily I didn''t need to wait long as the silence was soon filled. "Sadly, I don''t get to enjoy the sight of it as much as I would like. Being asleep will do that to you. I suppose that''s one positive aspect of being woken up. Even if I was trying to find peace and quiet for a reason "I''m quite surprised, actually. not many are capable of finding this ce, much less reaching it. Those that do generally have the sense to avoid a dragon''sir." The red reptile paused. "Say, how long have I been asleep for anyway? I bet it''s been a while." Ah, a direct question; I knew how to handle those. I formed new words in the air. "I''m not sure when you went to sleep, mister. I didn''t know you were here or else I wouldn''t have disturbed your frontwn so rudely. Making a mess was thest thing that I wanted to do. Honest." There were too many words to put up at once while keeping them readable. So instead of having a massive block of tiny letters, I left themrge and had them slowly scroll past. I thought about having them make a second pass, but I didn''t want to offend. "What?! You didn''t know who Daedalus the Red was?!" Daedalus cried, real emotion tinging his voice with some mix of confusion and hurt. "Has the world moved on so fast? It couldn''t have been more than a thousand years." It was surprisingly hard for me to answer that. I had assumed the world always moved at the same speed. But it was nice to know the dragon''s name. It felt a little weird, referring to him as just it with no name. I felt very ufortable and decided that it was in my best interest to introduce myself. I politely put up another message. "Hello, Daedalus. My name is Spot." Dedalus was slightly taken aback and lowered his head to look at me closer. "Well, it''s nice to meet you, Spot," he said, still clearly thrown by the previous information. I figured I would rify the part about the world moving fast, at least. "By my calctions, and judging based on the distance to the sun and the time of rotation. The earth is moving roughly at 67,000mph. I would give you more detailed numbers, but my sensors aren''t really made for long distance Astronomical Surveys." Daedalus blinked. "Wow. Moving around the sun..." He trailed off in thought before shaking his head anding back to his original question, "That really wasn''t what I meant by moving fast, Spot. Um, what year is it"? "Well, from what Beatrice has told me, it is the 23rd year of the rule of the current king." Wow. Words could be really inefficient sometimes. I couldmunicate all this so much more quickly with a simple beep if only he understood. I was just lucky Daedalus could read. In response to my information, Daedalus let out a huff, blowing smoke into the roof of the cave. Looking up, I realized I might have more work cut out for me than I originally thought. The inside of the cave, especially the roof, was covered in soot. The ck, oily substance was at least an inch deep. I could only imagine how many years of smoke breathed into this cave would have caused that much umtion. Actually, now that I thought about it, I could probably use that to calcte how long Daedalus had been in the cave. I just need to figure out how fast the soot would umte over time. That would probably take me a few weeks of observation, but I didn''t really have time for that. Not right now. "Well, that''s not the most helpful. Then, do you know how mypanion is doing? The one in the castle, about a valley over from here?" The Red asked. That certainly sounded like our castle. But apanion? There was no one there nearly so old as this dragon seemed to be. Unless I was considering what words to use when Daedalus let out arge sigh, significantly raising the temperature of the room. "I suppose you wouldn''t know that either." The dragon said with a huff. I didn''t know exactly, of course, but I had some idea. I pulled up an image from the bottom of the catbs. After some image processing, I projected a picture of the statue''s image in the mounded white room below the castle. I set it at a slight spin so Daedalus could see it from all angles. "So you do know mypanion!" Then the giant head slumped against the still unorganized pile of gold in disappointment. "If he''s still in stasis though, then I certainly have no reason to be awake. It feels wrong hoping for one of the demon lieutenants to break free, but it''s so boring here. By chance has Nazareth''gak stirred recently? You know, therge demon statue in the castle." Oh, that demon! I reced the statue image with a looping recording of the demon breaking out of the statue and charging across the beautiful ck floor. Daedalus''s head reared up in rm. "He''s already free?! I must go. Quickly! The world is in danger!" Daedalus lifted his head, revealing the rest of his body. It matched what I had seen so far. A massive reptile body was curled on top of a pile of even more haphazard coins. Among the red scales, three rows of wicked spikes ran down his back: one down the center and two smaller ones to either side of it, marking what looked to be the edge of his back. Massive wings unfurled to either side, hemmed in by the cave''s size. He quickly rose from the pile of coins, the shifting sending small amounts of them tumbling to the ground. Realizing what a mess he was making, Daedalus froze and seemed to consider a less disruptive way to move. "Wait. How old is this recording?" With some quick math, I disyed the number of seconds since Istid sensors on the statue. Moving his head some more, he peered outside the cave mouth and scrutinized the world. "If it was this long ago and you survived Show me what happened next." Seeing no reason not to, I yed the rest of the fight. Together we watched in silence as I battled the demon. When the undead appeared to help, Daedalus was taken aback, but we didn''t stop. After it was over, he asked me to y it again. Iplied. Then I went slowly over a few parts of it, paying special attention to the end where I had stabbed into the demon, draining it and eventually consuming it. It seemed like Daedalus cared about those parts specifically. After we finished analyzing the fight, Daedalus stayed quiet, considering. Eventually, he settled back into the pile of coins, wiggling his body slightly to dig in deeper. "Wow." I felt the word ring through the air, bouncing off the walls but also impressing the weight of his thoughts into the physical reality around us. Not sure what to say, I changed the image back to simple, friendly text. "Cleaning up after that was difficult." Daedalus snorted, billowing smoke everywhere before he let out a chuckle and shook the cave. Had I made a joke? I didn''t think that I had said anything funny. After the mirth faded from his eyes, he sighed. "I bet it was, little one. I bet it was." We sat there for some time, just looking at each other. By this point, I had finished stacking the loose coins around the entrance, and it didn''t seem that the dragon was going to let me organize the main pile. I suppose that was fine. If he was already using it, there was no point in sorting it, as a simple shift of his massive wings would send it back into disarray. Taking advantage of the break in conversation, I used my new sense to get a look at my new friend''s soul. After peering at it for a second, I immediately had to turn my senses off. The ball of energy at the center of his being was so bright that I was nearly blinded. Not a smudge even dimmed the glow of power and light radiating like a small sun. Eventually, Daedalous shook his head slightly and seemed toe back from his thoughts. "Well, I can tell that mypanion is not yet awake. But if Nazareth''gak did awaken, then he will not be far behind. While it may take some time, I''m certain I won''t have time to take a proper nap again." I just beeped inmiseration. It wasn''t that I understood, but Daedalus sounded sad and a little frustrated. He looked at me and sighed. "I suppose it''s not your fault for waking me. Not too long ago, and I probably wouldn''t have even noticed you. But I suppose I''d only get another year or so in any way. At least you saved him the trouble of climbing all the way up here to get me. "Well, in the meantime I don''t suppose that you have a bit to catch me up on what I missed?" Daedalus asked with a hopeful note. I thought about all I had to do this week and frowned internally. "Not right now, but I promise that I will visit soon. We can talk then." I scrolled the words above me. After it was finished, I put up a second message. "Besides, your story sounds very interesting. I want to know about yourpanion." Settling his head into the coins, Daedalus grinned, bearing his wickedly sharp teeth at me. "Yes, we will swap stories soon. Yours sounds just as intriguing. In the meantime is there anything I can do for you? Turning my coin stacks into decorations certainly spruced up this oldir a bit." I took a moment to think about my responsibilities. "Actually, yes. Do you have any interesting prizes for humanpetitions? Perhaps we could trade?" "Humanpetitions." Daedalus the Red mused. "I think I might have something" Chapter 196: Let’s Make A Deal Chapter 196: Lets Make A Deal "Well, little one. The real question is, what do you have to offer in trade?" I was slightly taken aback. Trade was something I had heard discussed, but it wasn''t something that I had any real experience in. I was lucky to have some context from past overheard conversations, but even in the castle, the concept of trade waspletely foreign. Things were pretty much collected and distributed as Mary and Trent saw fit. In our ce, everyone was given what they needed and pitched in where they could help most. It was quite a useful system, but I could see how it wouldn''t scale properly. Especially now that I had some context from my time with Arthur. I had learned a decent amount about supply lines and the corruption of humans with his army. But I hadn''t thought of my own ability to trade, as it were. So I asked myself, what did I have to trade? I only had so many things. So I cast into my dustbin and found a lot more than I expected. While I had kept careful tabs on everythinging in and out of it, I hadn''t quite considered them from a value perspective. One thing was certain, though: if I were to dump everything out into this cave, I would fill it several times over in sheer volume and mass. I was sure both Daedalus and I would be crushed beneath the weight of the stones I had within me. That wasn''t even counting the random debris, wood, dirt, dust, and everything else. I even had a little bit of wool from the sheep still floating around. Then there were the humans in time out and the ambient energy that I somehow couldn''t absorb into myself for levels. I also had bits of demon carcasses and lots of undead. An entire army of skeletons, too. Ever since I had reached diminishing returns for transmuting material into energy and absorbing it as levels, I had stopped regrly cleaning out my dustbin as I wasn''t getting steady levels from it anymore. Now, with my followers passing some of their experience as a tithe up to me, it didn''t really seem necessary. I was guaranteed slow growth and power without doing too much, and the small amounts from removing any material I had were less useful than they once were. Especially now that my Domain and Void Maniption allowed me to fix things and turn them into more useful items when needed. So the real question was, what did I have that a dragon would want? I started ejecting things from my dustbin. I started by pulling out some of the more interesting bits and baubles I had. The carved nature of some of these stones was quite interesting. Perhaps the dragon would find them appealing to his sense of artistic beauty. With a couple of these arranged on the floor, I rummaged about for a few other odds and ends. Last of all, I decided I might try to release one of the mutated humans again. I was much more powerful than I was when I hadst tried. I didn''t necessarily want to trade the humans since that seemed rude. But Maybe he''d find it interesting. Who knows, maybe Daedalus would even have some insight into them. After spending so much time in my dustbin, perhaps he was going to be slightly more docile. Or perhaps he wasn''t doing so well. I couldn''t be sure. I looked up and checked Daedalus''s reaction to the array of various items I had in my possession, and I could see his eyes were wide. The first thing I''d pulled out was a stone statue, and looking at it, I realized it wasn''t exactly what I remembered putting in. It seemed that the time in my dustbin had changed something yet again. There was a soft blue glow emanating from it, and pulses of light started up in its head and pushed down to the foot of the statue. This continued in semi-regr intervals, and it was quite hard to take my attention off of it. But Daedalus was definitely surprised by thest thing I pulled out. One of the humans that had attacked me. The prosthetic crystal feet had grown in a fascinating way around his lower limbs. They had cleared up and became more transparent. Where the crystal had been a cloudy purple color, it was now a ss-clear, ridged shape that was roughly the same size as the feet had been. Not only that, but the tubes I had added to allow fluid cirction were far more visible as a consequence. The matrix of crystals served as a window to the thin streams of red blood running throughout the legs. I had ejected the human into a standing position, and it remained that way, perfectly stock still. But like any human, there were slight micro-adjustments of the muscles and in the calves to maintain bnce; while you couldn''t see the actual muscles, the muscle replica simtion I had made out of the various types of crystals interfaced with its central nervous system. They were twitching and doing the barely noticeable work needed to keep it on their feet. But that wasn''t the only change. Looking up at the face of the once human captive I had, its eyes had been reced with crystals. The orbs of purple still had that slight purple glow as they stood stock still at attention. Not flinching, not moving, not breathing. What was this? What had I done? No, what had I created? This human certainly wasn''t okay. Was he even a human? I couldn''t help but feel like I might have inadvertently done something worse than intended to this poor person. Luckily, my musings were interrupted. Daedalus had been fascinated with the statue before this. Still, he noticed when I pulled out the former attacker and had quite the reaction. He reared back in apparent rm. Somehow, his eyes grew even wider than they already were. I could feel the shimmering heat gathering in his mouth, even at this distance. I tensed, simting escape ns to protect myself from the terrifying inferno of all-consuming mes that might pour out of it. "What is that?" He hissed. Not liking where this was going, I quickly recalled the troublemaker by sucking him back up into my Limitless Dustbin. It didn''t help. Seeing that Daedalus had gotten no less rxed, I reyed the scene of this man and his friends attacking me, my knee-capping him, and finally consuming him. I also tried to convey the idea of me grafting on crystalline body parts to stop the man from bleeding out, but I wasn''t sure that quite came across properly. Daedalus settled back on his haunches but didn''te any closer. His eyes rxed slightly, and as his mouth closed, I could feel the oppressive heat slowly dissipating throughout the cave and out into the snowy field beyond. But he didn''t say anything for quite a while, simply studying me thoughtfully. I didn''t make a move, either. As much as I was fairly certain I had done the right thing, it definitely could look a little bit odd from the outside, and I could feel the power radiating off of Daedalus in such a way that my hard stic body felt flimsy. It was a strange feeling, especially considering its rtive durabilitypared to what it used to be. That wasn''t to say I was afraid of Daedalus, but his strengths were definitely on par with my own. Eventually, a forked tongue came out and licked the teeth of Daedalus''s mouth as he opened it. "Interesting. It seems that you have some archaic power in you, My friend. That would exin the statue." He said as he indicated the glowing statue he had been interested in since I pulled it out. "Do you mind if I touch it?" I let out an indifferent tone, and he picked it up gently with his front ws and brought it close to his face, studying the way the light moved throughout it. Bringing it up to his nose, he inhaled, and I could see some of the crackling light within the statue draw out and waft into the nose of the dragon. He jolted, dropping the statue and sneezing a few times before looking at me with wide eyes and pupils dted. "Wow, that''s a kick!" "Okay." The dragon snorted. "So. I''m not even going to ask what that whole weird golem-human-chimera-monstrosity was anymore. Let''s just pretend I never saw that." Daedalus said. I hastily agreed, wanting to put that ufortable sight behind me. Perhaps I''d ask Beatrice for help with a medical examter. I wasn''t sure if she''d be just as disturbed as we were, though. "I''m interested in this energy. What? Is it? Do you have to imbue it into things? Do you umte it? Is this your energy? Is it something inherent in the objects you collected?" I wasn''t exactly sure how I could answer that, but I did have other types of energy. Maybe he''d be interested in that. I made a nomittal, shrugging sound and hoped that Daedalus would understand. He seemed to, as he nodded and continued. "Well, as a dragon, while we do enjoy a hearty meal of sheep and cows, we mainly feed off magic. The amount stored in the statue isn''t much more than a snack. But if you have arger amount, I would happily trade that for an equivalent amount of whatever you would pick from my hoard. Assuming that it''s of equal value." That sounded fine to me. I only had one condition, though, and above my head, my condition scrolled, "Only if you''re willing to help me pick out prizes for each of the tournaments. I really am not exactly sure what people want." Daedalus''s head lifted up, and he roared hisughter into the ceiling, shaking the rocks above us. "Of course, my little friend. Of course. I''m amazing at giving out prizes." "Of course, I''ll require a down payment first. What do you say to half up front?" Daedalus said with a toothy grin. I had no problems with that, so I readily agreed. So, how could I give him the energy he wanted? Normally I just absorbed whatever energy I generated from transmutation into myself, and it powered me up. Only when it overflowed, did I try to channel it anywhere. That had only happened a couple of times, though, and the most I had managed by way of control was an explosive st flinging me in a specific direction. I didn''t think Daedalus would appreciate me sting him in the face. That seemed rather rude. Still, what other option did I have? Extending my Grabby Arm, I reached up to the monstrous lizard. He appeared to understand my intention and reached out with one of his forews, gently meeting my w. Maintaining contact for a few seconds, I willed half of the energy up and through our connection. Nothing happened. Dang. Time to try another approach. Perhaps if the energy didn''t "belong" to me, it wouldn''t follow my instructions? Instead, I made a channel of sorts through my grabby arm for the energy to run through and "squeezed" the reservoir in my dustbin. The energy bunched up, and once it reached a critical mass, it welled up and started to flow. I could tell it was working when Daedalus''s eyes widened in surprise. It onlysted a second before an implosion in the tiny space between my w and his talon sent both of us hurtling apart. A meaty thump rang throughout the cave as the dragon was rag-dolled into the back wall of the cave. I was flung out the entrance and sent sailing down the mountainside. Chapter 197: A Deal is a Deal Chapter 197: A Deal is a Deal Bee batted aside the tentative thrust that Tony opened theirtest exchange with. As the bristles knocked his stick to the side, she rotated and tapped his shoulder with the wooden handle of her own practice broom. If it had been the broom that Void had made for her, he would have lost the arm at the least. "You need tomit. That thrust was slow and weak, but still more exposing than a feint." Beemented as she followed up her attack, demonstrating the Pdin''s mistake by driving the end into his chest. With an ''oof,'' Tony''s breath left him, and he fell back. "If you are going to attack, then attack." Truthfully the training was as useful for her as it was for Tony. It gave her something to focus on to distract her from the overload of information her new ss dumped in her mind. Stepping back, Bee waited for Tony to reach his feet, levering himself up with the haft of his weapon. She considered whether she might have been going a little hard on him. He didn''t have the Broom Proficiency skill yet, though she hoped he would get it soon. On top of that, the fact that she was nearly double his level made the spars one-sided, even without the added grace from skills. Name: Tony, Level: 29, Race: Human, ss: Pdin of Spot, Age: 24, Highest Stat: Charisma, Lowest Stat: Dexterity Level 30 should be within his reach soon; he had been 29 for some time now. Bee grimaced in frustration. Even though she had crossed level 50, she still didn''t have a new field avable in her Scan results. Maybe she hadn''t been using it enough for it to grow anymore? Lately, she had been making a conscious effort to Scan everyone she interacted with, but so far, nothing. She wasn''t entirely sure what else she would want the skill to tell her. The only other possible thing might be specific stats and their associated values. But other than that, the fact that she wasn''t sure where else the skill could go might have been a sign that it wouldn''t grow more. Still, she could only hope. Setting her feet, she readied to engage Tony again. The ground shook slightly before either of them could make the first move. Both of their stances lowered a bit to keep their bnce as they looked around. Everyone outside had frozen in shock before looking around, confused. In the distance, Bee could see a ck cloud rising from the north. "I hope that''s not going to be a problem" I was halfway down the mountain by the time I caught myself with my thrusters. I had narrowly avoided smashing into the rocks along the way, just able to nudge myself around the obstacles. So when I did bounce off the ground, I hit a slightly softer, snowy, icy part. But the steep angle was such that I didn''t receive much damage, no more than a few scratches that my skills had already taken care of. Stabilizing myself with the hover. I looked back up toward the top of the mountain and the cave. I sure hoped Daedalus was all right. With a slight bit of effort, I shot up back into the cave almost as fast as I had left it. In the back, I spotted Daedalus lying prone on the ground. He sat there, still and unmoving, for several seconds. I did nothing but observe until I saw the slight rise of his scaled chest. I felt my bristles rx slightly. Good. The dragon''s still alive. It would have been a shame if my trade had killed him. The beast was magnificent and quite a nice guy, to boot. "Ugh," the grunt echoed from the back of the cave. I trundled over to check on him, and I noticed his eyes were still closed. One of those massive red wings had crumpled against the cave wall in a weird shape, bent in ces that didn''t look like they were intended to be bent, and blood was slowly seeping out of several cracks in his scaled armor. I beeped out a message while prodding his nose with my w, hoping that he might understand without my holograms. "Hey. Hey. Are you okay?" A deep groan rumbled throughout the cavern, and I let out a cheery beep. "Good morning. Good morning!" "Oooooww," grunted the dragon as he forced one of his eyes open to look at me. "ow, that hurt." I was already busy scanning him. Surprisingly, my advanced sensors couldn''t prate his scales at all. They left only a void of information beyond the edges of his skin. But I could get a good estimation of his wing''s state. I scrolled a message for him to read. I disyed a new message. "Sorry about that. You broke at least four bones in your wing and probably more in your ribs, but I can''t really tell. Hitting walls that hard was not a good idea." Along with the words, I added a little diagram to illustrate where in the wings the breaks were. Daedalus just snorted in my general direction. The force of the st from his nose threw me back several feet as I skidded on the ground. "Do you think I wanted to hit the wall? Well, my wings are going to take forever to heal now. And yeah, I definitely did bruise some ribs, at least. Oh, hey, do you mind helping me set my wing? I have a skill that will eventually take care of it, but it''s going to be much faster if it''s in the proper ce. Aligning bones is hard." "Sure, I don''t mind. What do you want me to do?": I projected. Slowly, the magnificent Red Dragon got up and gingerly turned around. "Okay, so we''ll start by the base of the wing and move out. Grab it right here." He indicated with his nose spot in the wing and held while I pulled. I grabbed it and, with my thrusters, did my best to resist the dragons leaning to the other side. It was slow, but the area slowly stretched, and the bone realigned. Quietly, I could hear the dragon muttering what must have been quite foul curses as the bones shifted in his wing. Once they were aligned, a. Shimmering golden energy ted over the area, keeping it stiff. "All right, that''s one down." Daedalus said, "Do you mind helping me with the others?" *** Fixing up Daedalus took a lot longer than I would have thought. The bones in the extremities were much more delicate than expected, and each one we set was one that we risked messing upter. Also, my domain didn''t have the same effect on this process that I felt it should have. While I hadn''t tested it with people, this felt like it shouldn''t be that different from rebuilding a stone wall. Of course, it could have been because Daedalus was a living thing, or it could be due to the magic he innately possessed. Nearly everything that I had seen so far warned me that Daedalus was a monster of might and power. It wouldn''t have surprised me if it was harder to heal him just because of how much more there was to his body. Still, when I had asked about that, the dragon had very indignantly stated that he was not fat. Apparently, dragons were as confusing as humans since I had no idea what that had to do with anything. Now that his sides had stopped bleeding and his wing was splinted, we settled back in our positions. Him on top of the pile of coins I had yet to organize, and me on the clean floor across from him. "Well, that could have gone better." Despite his words and general sorry state, Daedalus was still smiling. The expression of teeth might have made many afraid of him, but I didn''t have what I had heard humans call the prey instinct. So I just beeped my agreement. "Not much though!" The grin widened so much that I calcted a non-zero probability that his face would split in two and his jaw would fall to the floor. "Do you know how long it''s been since Ist leveled?" Before I had a chance to take a guess, he shouted an answer to his own question. "I have no idea either! Thousands of years before I went to sleep at least. I wasn''t even halfway to my next level at that point. If you give me that much again, there''s a good chance I could get a second level. Twice in one millennia!" "That doesn''t seem like a lot?" I printed it out. "Not a lot. Not a lot, he says." Daedalus huffed. "How old are you? Once you get past 50 leveling really slows down. And besides, we dragons naturally level slowly. Something to do with being functionally immortal." "I didn''t notice much of a difference after 50." I supposed it might have been a little slower. But taking into ount the type and frequency of enemies I hade across, that speed had seemed rather constant. Besides, I wasn''t sure what my age had to do with anything. Daedalus eyed me with a bit of suspicion. "You must have been fighting constantly and finding rare high level enemies to say that. Or maybe your race gets experience from more than justbat. Unless your race has some leveling bonus?" "I''m not sure. Maybe?" We just left it at that for a few minutes, both getting lost in our thoughts. After several cycles of processing, I asked if he wanted to continue. "Not right now. I need to assimte the energy and get used to this. Besides, if that kind of blowback happens again I would like to be healed beforehand." Daedalus demurred gracefully. "But I''ll take that as an eptable down payment. Now, how about we look at these prizes you wanted?" It didn''t matter to me when he wanted his energy. I didn''t mind making the trek over here. Daedalus was fun to talk to, and besides, I wanted to ask him a lot of questions about hispanion and what had happened to him. That would have to wait until next time, though. I was already anxious to return to my tasks at the castle. I had only been able to stay this long because I could potentially save a lot of time in getting prizes done now. "So what are thepetitions that you were looking to give rewards for?" Daedalus asked as his back turned, and he started rummaging about in some of the chests in the back of his cave. I listed thepetitions, starting with what sounded like an adult version of hide and seek and ending with the Nighty Knights one-on-onebat tournament. "Interesting. Interesting. I think we can find some appropriate prizes for all of those." Daedalus said, his snout buried in this treasure as he searched. "Now for the firstpetition, it sounds like they are a bunch of scouts, no?" Not waiting for my response, he tossed something at me. I caught it and folded the fabric neatly before cing it in front of me. "You can''t go wrong with a good cloak of invisibility. It won''t work against anything higher than level 65 but that should still be good enough for beginner scouts." I examined the cloth more closely, curious about how it worked. The ckish fabric wasn''t made of wool but rather something much smoother and finer. I wanted to admire it, but my attention was soon pulled back to the dragon. He continued looking through his collection, speaking over his shoulder all the while. "Now for the bakingpetition, I was thinking something like this" Chapter 198: Prophetic Vision Chapter 198: Prophetic Vision It was dark by the time Tony finally begged for a halt to their training. Bee wasn''t even winded, but he looked like he would find sleepingfortably in the dirt at their feet. Everyone else had long since gone to bed, so it was just the two of them as they slowly walked back to the castle. Typically, Tony wouldn''t have let them walk in silence. He was both too good at conversation and too talkative. Yet now he was breathing so hard that mustering words took effort. Bee didn''t mind, though; this allowed her to delve into her thoughts about how strange things had beentely. Something was definitely happening. It wasn''t just that Tony had imed all her time for the next week. No, what really made her suspicious was the sudden brevity or altogetherck of reports from Trent, Mary, and the others. The usual deluge of people asking for her opinion and permission on every little thing had fallen silent, too. Not to mention that she''d caught more than a few people darting around corners and out of sight at her approach. It was all very strange. Even when she asked whether her assistance was needed anywhere, she was met with emphatic reassurances that everything was alright. Her only sce was that Void was just as busy with whatever it was up to. If her master were involved with this new state of affairs, she would just have to trust that everything was taken care of. Void would see them through. Still, it didn''t mean she wasn''t curious. She and Tony parted with a grunt as they each headed off to their respective rooms. Not quite ready to go to bed, Bee drew a bath to wash off the filth of the day. She didn''t need that much sleep anymore, but it was still pleasant to enjoy, so it didn''t take long for her head to hit the pillow after she was clean. A few minutes before she finally drifted off, the door cracked open, and a soft whirring noise made its way under her bed. When I got back, Beatrice was already asleep. Still, I did my best to not wake her as I crept under her bed. Time was somewhat limited as I was carrying all the prizes. While my Limitless Dustbin was great for holding waste and disposing of it, I was starting to realize it wasn''t a good long-term storage option for much else. I had several examples of why, but its tendency to change things in unexpected ways was worrying. It worked out well for a lot of mundane objects like Beatrice''s broom. But the injuries that Daedalus received went to show that those capabilities were best in moderation. If that much power could really be released at once. Well, I didn''t want to think about that. Well, I didn''t want to risk anything with the prizes that I had received. Daedalus told me that they were powerful magic artifacts. Who knew what effects I would have on them? And if I couldn''t keep them with me, I needed to keep them somewhere else safe. And the best ce I could think of doing that was underneath Beatrice''s bed. So I carefully folded the cloak of invisibility and stacked some of the other items on it. A few of therger ones needed to go off to the side, but I was able to arrange everything so they fit underneath the bed. They would be safe here for a few more days until I was ready to hand them out. Then I settled down on the nice rug that Daedalus had included in the prizes and slowly, quietly did my best to clean it meditatively. I dedicated 90% of my processing power to the task. It was important, after all. It had to be in perfect shape for my dearest friend and human. I''d never gotten a birthday gift for anyone before, but I hoped she would appreciate it. --- Bee woke with a jolt. Something was wrong. An odd sensation tickled at her senses. Some sort of magical presence, perhaps? But she couldn''t quite put her finger on it. She had be a little more sensitive to those things ever since she hit level 50. She could tell by proximity when a batch of potions was especially potent and even tell when they were nearby. A shock overwhelmed her mental defenses as the flood of connections to the castle''s inhabitants flooded in. Most of them, at least. Her breathing quickened as she attempted to force down the surge of sensations to a more manageable level. Once she had wrestled control of her newest ability, she looked around the room again and found her master waiting at the end of her bed, waving a cheery good morning to her. Ah, that must have been it. Bee hadn''t ever noticed that her master gave off such a terrifying presence. Still, she could definitely feel a ton of magic power radiating from the ck disk. That was odd. Normally, Void had everything so under control. But Bee wasn''t about to question it. Then something appeared over Void that made her think that she might still be dreaming. Rubbing her eyes and gaping, she pinched herself and yet still did not wake up. Still, she had trouble believing her senses. An illusion was stered in the air above Void, a ghostly three-dimensional series of images shing by. There was a mountain with a hole in it, shown from afar and close up. As the image focused on the hole, she saw stctites and stgmites clustered around its entrance. They were broken, and Void was cleaning them up. Then there was a pile of gold with a brilliant red dragon sitting on it. The massive dragon and the god talked briefly, but she couldn''t quite make out what they were saying. The scene moved quickly, and there was no sound. Then the dragon hesitantly reached towards her god, and Void met its talon with a w. An explosion at contact sent the dragon hurtling into the wall, where its wing and ribs crumpled, and ity lifeless on the floor. Then something happened that she didn''t quite pick up, and the dragon was sitting up again. The scene changed once more, suddenly andpletely, to depict a more familiar sight. A statue of a hero standing on a white mound of opaque ss. A mound that sloped to the edges of a pristine white room. It was a ce she had only visited once, long ago when she was still level ten or so. The images disappeared, winking out of existence, only to be reced by a single line of text. It scrolled above Void inrge rounded letters. "He is the dragon''spanion." *** After a quick talk with Tony, all three of them immediately headed down into the catbs. Tony was still a bit bleary-eyed, so they were walking down the first set of passages instead of running. Bee kept an eye out for undead monsters to be safe, but none showed up. The speed at which they moved was nothing short of impressive. It was hard to remember that it had taken her so many days to explore this whole ce just a few months ago. Still, it was different from how she remembered it. No longer was it dark and dirty and dank. It was still very dark, even with the torches andmps they carried for light. But theyer of dust that had coated everything was simply gone. Even the stale air didn''t smell stale anymore. The steps and the nted path stones had realigned into neat order. She could barely tell where the seams between the ced stones were, especially on the upper levels where it had been an especially rushed job. Bee had a pretty good suspicion of what had happened to it. But Void neither confirmed nor denied his involvement in the upkeep of the catbs. Tony didn''t know anything different as he hadn''t been here before. But she had. It only took them half an hour to reach the first tomb. They waited a second for Tony to take in the sight. With their improved vision, she was able to see much farther into the darkness, and it no longer felt nearly as oppressive. Even with her improvements, she still couldn''t see to either wall from the center pedestal. Not wanting to take chances, they quickly looked through all the empty beds where the skeletons had rested. The plinth reminded her of the book she still needed to trante. There had been a few slight hints about whatnguage it might have been in, but really she had made no progress. She was just too busy. Maybe Void would have better luck at it, and she should ask him for help. Still, for now, they moved on. Bee felt they were all awake enough this time that she could move at a slight jog. Well, it was a slight jog to her. It would have been faster than her sprint thest time she was here. Again, in about ten minutes, they traversed to the second chamber that rested right beneath the first. It was a relief to reach this point without constant fighting. She resisted the urge to explore through all the side passages again. There was still a lot she hadn''t found down here, corners that threats could lurk behind. But judging by its cleanliness, she figured that anything dangerous would have long been taken care of by Void. Her curiosity lingered, but she didn''t have time for it right now. They moved quickly through the second room and continued toward the bottom level. Where thepaniony. All three of them paused to admire the beauty of the slightly curving floor of white ss and the surrounding dome that encased the entire room. The white room wasn''t much different than Bee remembered it. That didn''t make it any less breathtaking, though. The pure white interior made the slight bit of color in the statue appear even more stark inparison. Slowly, she walked towards the statue. Before she reached it, she could tell that more had changed than the color. The statue emanated a presence that she had only felt from a few other powerful entities, but all of the beings were above level 50. She wondered if she, too, now had such an aura. As she approached, she studied the man with more focus than she had thest time they were down here. If it truly was the dragon''spanion, there had to be much more to the story. She would have to go check on the paintings in the upper caves. She might get something more out of what she knew now. She was surprised to get a result by running a Scan on it. Last time, the Scan said almost nothing. Judging based on Scan''s result, though, there definitely was a lot more to it. Chapter 199: Dragon Rider Chapter 199: Dragon Rider Name: Archibald Smith, Level: 69, Race: Human, ss: Companion of Daedalus, Titles: Dragon Rider, Hero of Legend, Bravehearted, Warden of Nazarethgak, Age: Unknown, Highest Stat: Strength, Lowest Stat: Wisdom, Status: Awakening, 80% Bee read off the line aloud. She was pretty sure that Void knew all this, but Tony didn''t. "Level 69. Wow. Master,st time we were down here Scan barely gave me any info.. Also, the added detail on his awakening progress probably means we can get a better estimate of how long he''ll be like this for." Void beeped sagely from the floor, but no instructions or wisdom appeared above him, so Bee continued to study Archibald. Companion of Daedalus. Was this man really the hero spoken of in stories, thepanion of such an ancient, powerful dragon? If that was the case It took her a few seconds before she felt eyes on her. Looking around for some sort of threat, she met Tony''s steady gaze. Their eyes locked for a moment before she cocked her brow in question. He just shook his head. "That exins a lot. Like, a lot." In a moment of realization, it clicked with Bee. She searched back through her memory to see if she had ever told anyone about her Scan skill. She was pretty sure that Void knew about it, but she wasn''t sure if she had ever told Tony. "Well, obviously we shouldn''t tell anyone about him." Bee said, trying to change the subject. "Why not?" Tony asked. His tone wasn''t challenging, but as if he was honestly curious. "Well, from what Void showed me," she gestured to the statue, "this was thepanion of some dragon. And if he is waking up, we should probably let him be rather than disturb him. And with something this interesting, people would definitely want toe see it. Not to mention I don''t want to lose anyone down here in the catbs. "But really, we do not need a dragon showing up here and causing trouble. The only person who could even deal with the dragon would be Void, and I don''t think we want to rely on his help when we could easily just avoid the issue. We''ll just let thepanion wake up himself, then go find his dragon when he''s ready." Tony nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. I suppose we can keep this a secret. Don''t have a problem with that. But I am going to want your help with that Scan ability. It''s gonna be huge for picking out people and the best ces to put them. Okay?" Bee just looked at him. "I have been helping. Haven''t you noticed?" Tony rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Yeah. That actually makes a lot of sense. Guess it''s just weird to know how Why didn''t you tell me?" "I" Bee bit her lip. "I kind of forgot. Sorry." Void sat silently through their whole conversation. So silently, in fact, that Bee almost missed him rolling forward and tapping the knee of thepanion frozen in stone. He let out aplicated series of beeps that she couldn''t really understand. Still, it sounded cheerful, as if it was looking forward to the future. Bee was extremely hesitant to question her god, but she was just too curious to hold back. "Master. Do you know more about the dragon and this man? When did you learn about this?" She tried to bite back thest question, as she wasn''t sure she wanted to know. Especially if it acquired this knowledge through some divine power or the like. But it slipped out anyways. Void turned to face her and let out an affirmative beep. So it did know more about the pair. But rather than borate, it just yed the same set of images that it had shown her this morning. The moving illusions that prompted them toe down here. It almost seemed like that was the answer to her second question. Thinking a little bit, Bee realized what she saw might not have been some sort of Divine Vision that Void had sent. "Did that all actually happen?" She got back a simple affirmative beep and couldn''t do anything but sit there, jaw agape, imagining Void casually flicking Daedalus the Red into a wall. Well, not just imagining it. She has seen it, even if secondhand. What had happened to make her master so mad at that dragon? Several moments passed before she realized that she had been staring and quickly snapped out of it, catching Tony staring as well. This was the first time Tony had seen the vision and the images, and Bee couldn''t me him for his reaction. It was quite incredible to see, especially given the contents of the images. Dragons were often put on the same level as gods in myths and legends, or at least second fiddle by a small margin. But for the difference to be thisrge Those stories must have been exaggerating the power of dragons or severely underestimating gods. After they recovered, she realized Void wasn''t done with its story. A new set of images with more detail were ying. They told the story of Void hovering in a cave. After redirecting a brief gout of fire, her master apparently struck up a conversation with the dragon. She, unfortunately, couldn''t make out the words from the silent and small image. "Master. When did this happen?" The response this time came across as a simple text message rolling across the air above Void. "Oh, yesterday." *** They were silent for the first leg of the journey back up to the castle. Bee was lost in her thoughts, just as Tony seemed to be. Void rolled along ahead of them happily, asionally stopping to polish a rough spot on the stone floor. Eventually, Bee spoke up. "Should we have someone waiting for Archibald when he wakes up?" She asked. Tony blinked and looked at her, processing what she had said. "Do we know how long it will be? It said 80% for awakening. If he was there for thousands of years, it could be that he doesn''t wake up anywhere in our lifetime." "It could be, but it could be rtively soon, too. If it was based on when the lieutenant was freed or killed or something else. And do we even know if the progression is linear?" Bee rebutted. "Well, I''m just pointing out that if we do have someone waiting down here, they could be waiting for a very long time. And it''s not an easy trek to get here and back. Besides, what if he''s confused when he wakes up? ording to you, he''s extremely powerful and could very easily hurt someone." "Yes, but having him wake up alone sounds almost just as dangerous. That would be awful, wouldn''t it? What if he gets out and assumes we''re enemies? Or busts straight out of the ground and through the castle somehow?" Tony mused. "I suppose. What if we left him a note or something? Like a message, letting him know what''s going on with the world. He could read that and be at least a little bit less confused when hees up the catbs." "I like that. We should maybe also leave some food. We can put some preserved food and water down there. I can only imagine how hungry and thirsty you might be after such a long rest. It would probably also go a long way toward leaving a favorable impression, so we don''t get attacked as soon as he wakes up." Bee agreed. With a n settled, a few more minutes went by with no one speaking. Eventually, Bee opened her mouth again. "Oh, Tony. While we''re down here, I figured I''d ask. What''s going on with the castle? Everyone''s acting quite weird." Tony jerked, tripping over his feet and slightly stumbling a few steps before he caught himself on the wall. His head whipped around to look at her in surprise. He met her confused gaze for a few seconds and shook his head. "Ah, don''t worry about it. It''s not going to be a problem, promise." Harold and Amy were several days behind schedule. But Harold didn''t let that bother him too much. The most important news had already been sent. Hopefully, that would give enough warning that The Warden could take action. He had stayed in one spot for a bit longer, hoping he might get some reply. But none came. So they had moved on to the third lieutenant in the region that they were to check. When they first reached the ancient ruins where the third lieutenanty, everything appeared normal. All of the standard defenses were in ce, and they had no problems getting there. No one stopped them or asked about their business. No one seemed to be aware that this site was important for any reason. The only indication otherwise was the very subtle traps and triggers that The Warden''s people had set and maintained for so long. Eventually, they found themselves standing in the central containment room. The pair looked upon the statue still there, radiating the power Harold had expected. Still, he couldn''t help but be wary. Amy left to watch outside and ensure he wasn''t disturbed as he pulled out various magic implements, one after the other, sometimes flinging dust in the air. Sometimes he would just look at a tool before putting it away. Sometimes he''d ce them around the chamber and check them repeatedly. All throughout the room, Harold paced. He couldn''t throw off the feeling that something was wrong. The measurements started to agree with him too, and he had to double-check and reset his mindset several times to ensure that it wasn''t just him confirming his biases. But he was right; there was an imbnce of power in the air. He was thoroughly convinced when he finally left the room that evening to go check on Amy. Despite all the searching, Harold had yet to pinpoint what was causing the issue, but the exhaustion in his brain wasn''t letting him make more progress on it tonight. "Anything happen out here?" Harold asked as he settled down on the rock next to Amy. She looked over at him and just shrugged. She pointed out over the savanna and indicated a lone tree a few degrees off from the setting sun. "Some big cat chased some antelope a few hours ago. But I don''t think that''s something we need to worry about." She added thest bit with a grin and bumped her shoulder against his. "How''s the investigation?" It was Harold''s turn to shrug. "Something is definitely off. I can''t tell what yet, but at least it hasn''t gotten out yet. And it''s not getting worse at a noticeable rate." "So what are you doing out here, then?" Amy asked with a worried expression. "Need a small break. Brain''s gone to mush." Harold said, looking out over the fading light. After a few moments, he found a different topic. "Do you have your orders for after this mission?" Amy nodded. "Nothing I can say, unfortunately." Harold grunted. Not that he had expected anything else. A couple months of travel had loosened their professional rtionship a bit, but operational security made it hard to really get to know someone. If she didn''t have orders, he would have been surprised. "I''m surprised I was able to stay on a mission for this long." Amy said. Harold''s eyebrows rose slightly. Was he going to find out more about his travelpanion beyond the basics? "To maintain deep cover, I haven''t been able to be away from home for long." "Home?" "Base. You know." He did know. He also knew how dangerous it was to start thinking of it as home. "If your orders changed and you were able to be gone for this long, so abruptly too Well, if I were you, I wouldn''t expect to go back anytime soon." Amy''s face froze, and he continued on. "Things are changing, and if you''re at allpetent, the Warden might need you to take a more active role now." "You really think so?" Getting to his feet, Harold ced a hand on her shoulder. "I''m sure of it. Sorry." Walking back inside the ruins, he got back to work. It took most of the night, but he eventually found the issue. One of the inner runes had a line drawn through it. A single perfectly straight line ran through the precise etching, disrupting its activity. It was easy enough for Harold to fix; a few scrubs with a wire brush, and the energy bnced once again. The only thing he couldn''t figure out was how did it get there? Chapter 200: Covert Operations Chapter 200: Covert Operations Bee trudged through the forest with Tony on her heels. She wasn''t sure why he had insisted on training in the deep woods today, but she was already quite over it, not just because of the creepy crawlies either. While Tony had been making great strides in his fighting ability, he wasn''t anywhere near the level that would allow him to keep up with her all day. That meant he needed to rest. Usually, it wasn''t a problem. She''d just finish up a quick task around the castle before hurrying back for the next round. But here? Bee was forced to sit and twiddle her thumbs in the middle of nowhere. Bee regretted not bringing some paper and quills with her for the hundredth time. She could practically feel the weight of undone tasks piling up on her shoulders. Around midday, Tony had finally had enough. The guy was panting with exertion, skin slick with sweat as they headed back for lunch. Perhaps she would be able to get something done if she ate while she was working. The Nighty Knights'' curriculum wasn''t going to write itself. When they came within sight of the castle, Bee could instantly tell there was something wrong. A rustle in the bushes and the slightest sh of gray caused her to pull up short and look around. Nothing. There seemed to be no immediate threat, but she didn''t rx. Right as Tony caught up to her, her senses could make out a sudden silence descending upon the usual bustling castle. "Something is wrong." Bee held up a hand, stopping Tony in his tracks. Cocking her head, she tried to glean any additional hint about what was happening. "Then let''s go check it out." Tony said. He pushed her arm gently out of the way. She frowned slightly at his recklessness but followed before he got too far away. They soon emerged from the tree line and stepped onto the main road. The castle gate stood wide open. Not a soul was in sight. She slowed her walk, keeping her broom at the ready. Something was seriously wrong; the gate shouldn''t be open, much less unguarded. Where had everyone gone? A dozen feet from the gate, Tony stopped and cupped his hands around his mouth., "We''re HOME!" People''s faces popped up all along the wall, and a stream of children sprinted out of the gate. "Surprise!" Bee stood in shock as the stampede approached her; only the sudden explosions sending color throughout the sky pulled her out enough for her to set her feet. Getting the celebratory explosives right had been a bit of a challenge. Maranda and I had spent several days working on getting the bnce right. We wanted enough sound that it wouldn''t deafen anyone within a mile and an explosion small enough that the shockwave wasn''t noticeable. At the same time, we were trying to maximize the color and area of effect. We had to take a huge step back after the first tests, as even the smallest samples were capable of splitting boulders on direct hits. We had to take another step back after that and not have me keep the initial tests in my dustbin at all. That helped Maranda better observe the real effects and maximize the color. Several more triester, we were able to use my void powers to amplify the right effects in a controlled manner. Now, I could honestly say it was worth it. The midday sky was full of color. I pulled out a red one, and Maranda loaded it into the sling Tony had made and triggered the lever. As it wasunched in the air, I nudged it with Air Maniption so that it would hit its apex high above Beatrice''s head. With a short application of my Sanitation Lamp, I triggered it. The wave of light spread out,pletely covering the castle in a brilliant rose color and hanging in the air for several seconds before starting to fade. That gave us just enough time for the next setup to be ready. This time, we prepped an orange one. From our position, getting a bead on what everyone thought of our show was hard, but shouts of surprise and then gasps of awe filled the air. We had given people some warning, but as Beatrice had once said, seeing is believing. When the second explosive went off, there was a lot less surprise and more "wow''s" and wonder. The whole celebration halted as people simply stared at the sky. Some were outside with Beatrice, while others gazed up from the wall. Even more, stood just inside the castle grounds. One by one, we released each dazzling disy that filled the sky. Maranda and I started loading mixes of colors to form gradients across the horizon. Eventually, we ran low on explosives. The show had alreadysted for 9.8 minutes, and while everyone was still ooooing and awing, I could tell that some of their necks were starting to get stiff from looking up constantly. It was perfect timing; I had one of each color left. Theunching system Marnda was using could handle the bundle, but I would need to concentrate on assisting it a lot. And the range we were nning on would slightly strain my processing power. So I let the purple-green sky fadepletely as we got the next shot lined up perfectly. When itunched, I immediately added speed to the bundle. Then I started to manipte the air around them so they spread out into a perfect heptagram. It was tricky to keep them evenly spaced as they wanted to tumble wildly, but I managed it. Then in a stato burst, I triggered them as quickly as I could. Color enveloped the world. Bee watched in awe as a flood of colors suffused the sky around her. Just as she tracked the falling light to the horizon, she grunted. A small form crashed into her center, driving the air from her lungs. "Happy Birthday." Bee heard Felix whisper into her stomach, where he clung to her tightly. Before she could even respond, he was reced with Leanne. The next several minutes were a daze as she passed from one embrace to the other. Eventually, she was ushered the rest of the way through the gate. Once she entered the grounds, her eyes widened. The castle grounds had been transformed. Fluttering streamers and color adorned every surface. Braided flowers arched over the main entrance, and tables and chairs had been moved to the frontwn in orderly rows. Throughout it all, the entire poption of the castle turned wide grins and waves toward the front gate as she entered. Standing on a massive stack of hay bales, Susan had her hands cupped to her mouth and shouted over the crowd. "First up is the pie bakingpetition. Can we get our lead judge over to table one!" Bee stumbled as Leanne and Felix each grabbed one of her elbows and tugged her excitedly through the crowd. The people parted in front of her, and it was only a few momentster she found herself seated at a long table with Mary and Gertrude. "Happy birthday, dearie." Mary smiled warmly at her. "We heard you liked pie, so, well everyone did their best." "People will use any excuse to throw a party." Gertrude snorted. "Still, can''t say this is a bad one. Happy birthday." As if on cue, Bee''s stomach growled loudly, and the first of many small tes with a couple bites of pie was ced in front of her. *** Leaning back with a hand on her overfull stomach, Bee let out a sigh of contentment. With all the extra pie from thepetition, hers wasn''t the only overfull belly around. Most everyone had eaten their fill. Turning her head, she watched as Susan announced the winner. "And the winner, by close two votes and one recusal, is CASSY!" The woman hopped up and down and squealed excitedly. The other women gave a mixture of heartfelt cheers of congrattions or polite apuse. While off to the side, Mary looked on with pride shining in her eyes. "For first ce, we have this lovely ne awarded by Void himself!" Bee looked up in surprise but couldn''t muster the energy to be too shocked. Apparently, Void was in charge of the prizes. She wasn''t sure who had made that decision, but it certainly piqued her interest. Still, there was little her master could do to surprise her anymore. The crowd looked on in awe as Void hung an amulet around Cassy''s neck. No one seemed to know where it came from, but no one questioned it either. A pretty ne would normally be an excessive prize for a bakingpetition, but this one was far more extravagant than expected. It looked to be made of gold and studded with rubies the size of robin eggs. Still, even that wasn''t enough to warrant Cassy''s reaction as it settled around her neck. "Thank you, Lord Void! I, uh" Cassy''s smile froze as she trailed off. Her expression turned from delight to sheer bewilderment. "Cassy?" Susan asked with concern, shaking the woman. "I-I''m fine. I uh I got a system notification." The crowd gasped. Even Susan''s eyes widened. "Did you level up?" "N-no Its- Its a pendant of fire immunity!" Cassy''s voice trembled. Whispered muttering and outright shouts of surprise filled the air as her words were repeated. Immunity was a nearly unheard-of ability in skills. Resistances were fairlymon and useful, but fire resistance was like being constantly covered in water. You would be fine running through a fire, but if you touched some hot metal, you would still get burned. Or if you inhaled too much smoke, then you would start having trouble breathing. But immunity? With actual immunity, Casey could literally walk into an oven and watch the bread bake with no fear of even breaking a sweat. That wasn''t the most unusual thing about the gift, though. Sure, it was what everyone seemed to focus on based on the crowd''s murmurs, but Bee had other concerns. She wasn''t sure if she was the only one who had noticed it, but that amulet was enchanted. Enchanted. Based on modern magic theory, that wasn''t possible. Most people didn''t know that, though. Legends had always told of magic weapons, but they had important differences. They usually just retained the properties of whatever material it was made of. That, or they were coated with a substance that acted as a bane to whatever the hero was fighting. Something like Demon''s Bane, which she had used so many times before. What they didn''t do was imbue the user with additional effects just by wielding them. Certainly, nothing like a skill. The revtion sent Bee''s mind racing with possibilities. She''d need to ask Void about itter when she got a chance. Susan quickly quieted the crowd and moved on from the award ceremony. Someone ushered an awestruck Casey offstage as she announced the next event. Those under 10 were having sack races. Quickly the tables were cleared, and the next spectacle started. The festivities continued with event after event. After the ne,petition redoubled, with everyone vying even harder for a top spot. The serious faces of the kids, in particr, made it hard to stifle augh at the sack races and egg toss. Each time, Void produced some fantastical magical item as the prize. Bee couldn''t help but be overwhelmed by a feeling of pride as she saw themunity''s reactions. Sure, thepetition was fierce, but at the same time, it was surprisingly clean and fair. Perhaps it was that the referees and judges didn''t allow for any unreasonable disputes after the event. It also could have had something to do with the ultimate arbiter giving out the prizes. That in itself was something interesting to watch. With Bee''s new ability to see the members of her faith, she could literally see the bonds with their god growing stronger throughout the afternoon. This was the first time she had ever been able to detect a noticeable change in real-time. Interestingly, faith wasn''t spiking in connection with the gifts. But at seemingly random times, it would jump within a certain group. After watching for some time, she started to develop a theory of why. Void wasn''t doing any one thing. Sometimes her master was under the tables, cleaning up a mess left behind by children running up to the next event. Other times it was seen hovering over the crowd to get a better view and cheering thepetitors on. In dozens of small ways, Void was part of their growingmunity. Nothing seemed to be too low for the god to take part in, but at the same time, Void never seemed debased by anything. Each task was done with dignity and levity in equal measure. A bnce and joy in the work, but still pride for others. The events paused a few hourster. At first, Bee thought that they had run out, but no. Everyone pitched in to prepare for the next wave, and soon, a massive ring was cleared in the center of the grounds. A huge pinboard was erected with a massive bracket carved into the wood. Each spot was taken up by one of the Nighty Knights. It was time for the first major event of the evening: the tournament of the Nighty Knights. Together as a unit, they marched onto the field, mostly in time. Mostly as one, they turned to face Void and her and dipped into low bows. A little bit of jockeyingter, and the first twobatants were on the field. Void gilded down between them, exchanging a few words with eachbatant. Bee noticed that only beeps were used, not the new visual way ofmunicating that Void had started using with a lot of the adults. Rolling back, Void gave them some space. A sharp whistling beep from him, and the battle began. Chapter 201: Ready to Rumble Chapter 201: Ready to Rumble As the first twobatants shed, Bee realized that neither of them was older than five. But from how they moved, one would be forgiven for not realizing it. Their little fingers gripped the narrow hilts of their wooden swords with sureness, and each step was fluid enough to look choreographed. The twobatants circled each other for several seconds, their feet never crossing, and the distance between them stayed remarkably consistent. With no warnings or tells, one of thebatants suddenly struck. The little kid crossed the distance in a blink with a shing swipe that barely seemed to move the de at all; it was so subtle. A ck rang through the cheering crowd as the strike was deflected, followed by a quick counter. Bee was able to see what had happened, but she didn''t think many others could make it out. Indeed, as the exchange started, an oppressive silence filled the arena as everyone''s full focus trained on following the fight. It wasn''t that the moves were too fast; while they were quick, they were only made by level 5batants. No, it was because the movements were so slight and economical. Somehow, each was in just the right ce at the right time. It was as if they had been dueling for decades, not months. The sight was unreal. But what else could she expect from god-trained protgs? The fight ended as suddenly as it started. A tight series of blows ended with a surprise front kick, pushing the slightly smaller boy out of the ring. Void dered a winner and congratted both of the kids on the good fight. The dead silent audience took a beat to process the development before erupting into cheers. Most of the adults had never bothered to watch the children ying with Void. Bee had, and so wasn''tpletely caught off guard, but even she couldn''t deny that their skill level was impressive. She knew that both of these kids, in particr, had variations on the sword proficiency skill, so the match wasn''t representative of the rest of them. But everyone was in for a surprise when the other skills came out. When the brackets were updated, Bee took a closer look at them. There were a few oddities; one was that Leanne was outside of and next to the winner''s bracket. She had been given an honorary victory, ording to the note there. That made sense; herser eyes were a bit overpowered and dangerous in a spar. Perhaps they had decided it was best to not have herpete at all. Though Bee would have liked her to just avoid using the skill. But if the kids decided the handicap wasn''t fair, and if they were happy with it, she wasn''t going toin. Not if Void didn''t. The next strange urrence was when Felix was marked down for an exhibition with the winner after the final fight. That made more sense; since he was themander of the Knights, it wasn''t quite fair for him to participate. Of course, his power also made it hard to fairly fight him, so it was deemed they would fight without powers in that particr bout. The rules were a bit chaotic. Tanu was one of the next to step into the ring, but he wasn''t alone. Apparently, Cliff was deemed too unfair to bring along. Instead, two of the cubs padded along behind him as apromise. They didn''t radiate frost like their mother, but they still were still as tall as the children themselves. A little girl named Irene stepped in across from him. The girl didn''t look intimidated by the massive wolf cubs. After a few seconds, Bee understood why. She had thought Irene looked familiar but wasn''t able to ce her face. Not until the match started, and she bowed her head in prayer. A massive ethereal ck disk appeared behind her. Her skill had grown in strength considerably. Now instead of just one w, the phantasm boasted six ws. As the wolves charged, the ws came down in a flurry, sweeping them out of the ring with gentle force. Still, Tanu wasn''t simply a beast tamer. His skill with the sword wasmendable. Even as hispanions were ejected, he was already charging forward using the opening they had provided. A vicious upward cut would have sent Irene flying out of the ring, but she stepped to the side, her eyes still closed, and the swing missed by a hair. Tanu''s swing passed through the projection and turned to continue his assault, but a call from Void froze the fight. Above Void, an image appeared. It was a view of the fight from the top down, showing a rey of bothbatants. In slow motion, it zoomed in right as Tanu stepped on the line, his foot slightly out of bounds. The crowd oohed in dismay. Hanging his head, Tanu walked off, but Void stopped him. They shared a quick conversation, and as he rejoined the rest of the Nighty Knights, he held his head high. The two cubs licked his face appreciatively as he scratched their ears. Each of the next fights was nearly as exciting in its own way. Most of thebatants used swords in some way. Proficiency skills were the mostmon among the children, but benignmon didn''t mean they were bad or even equal. One of therger girls came into her fight with no weapons and met her opponent''s sword with her bare fists. Her knuckles were able to turn aside the blows without taking any damage, but the zing fire her opponent''s movements left in his wake proved too much. The fire obscured the pugilist''s vision long enough, and she was tapped three times in vital areas over several minutes, Void keeping score with a simple projection. The fights got even more intense as they moved into the second round. The audience was still on the edge of its seat, despite the solid hour round had taken. Most of the mothers looked on with a mix of pride and worry. Those without childrenpeting were the most torn. Bee could understand. They likely wanted their children to just be kids, stay safe, and y games. But at the same time, the level of skill disyed clearly indicated that these children could take care of themselves. Perhaps even better than most of the soldiers back in Caleb. The newer children watched with unveiled jealousy at first, but as dazzling skill after impressive stunts were disyed, even they were swept into the atmosphere. Soon, they were cheering louder than anyone. In the second round, favorites soon emerged. Little Irene, by far, received the most support, even from among the rest of the Nighty Knights. One of the older boys with long blond hair and blue eyes seemed to be the darling of the mothers and little blushing girls. Bradley was one of the pure sword users. Though Bee was sure, he had a variant skill, as his movements were different from those of the others. More graceful and fluid. He was also quite the showman. Waving to the crowd and gracious in victory, it was easy to see why he was so favored. Bee was surprised that not one of them used a broom. She had thought Void would have taught them all how her master had taught her, but no. Was it because she was special? Or just that it didn''t have a sword on hand when she was learning? Either way, she wasn''t too upset. Nowadays, she wasfortable with her weapon, but maybe her spending so much time training with Tony wasn''t as useful as she would have liked. There were a few who used the sticks that Void had made as spears instead of swords, but they were the newest members. Theirck of experience didn''t take a single one past the second round. The fights moved quickly, and with the leadership of Susan, Void, and Felix, they managed to get to the finals in only another hour. Thest several fights were actually over quicker than some of the first rounds. Though despite the intense matches, it was clear who would be in the finals long before they were held. Irene and Bradley faced off in a tense moment. Each one of them has dominated their previous fights. But now, it was time for the main event. Irene bowed her head, and the battle started. Each one of the six ws struck at once. The impact tossed up the trampled dust, obscuring the view of the field for a second. When it settled, five mini craters ringed the spot where Bradley had been standing. He had somehow appeared several yards in front of where he wasst seen, his sword held above his head with one hand bracing the de. The final massive w bore down on him. His arms shook under the pressure but still held. The other ws came in from the sides, and it looked like it was over. Bee just hoped she could get there in time with some healing potions. Somehow, though, he dodged. With an odd twist of his body, Bradley slipped out from the assault and darted forward. In a sh, he was before Irene, catching her falling body. Then he gently lowered her to the ground. The crowd went crazy. Cheers of excitement, confusion, and awe melded into a singr mass of sound. It was so loud that Void had to call for everyone''s attention twice. Once she had calmed enough to look up at her master, it showed the end of the fight in super slow motion. Bradley had dodged each blow by the skin of his teeth. A look of calm concentration adorned his face as, even in slow motion, he blurred and tapped Irene on the forehead. Her eyes widened in surprise, causing her to stumble backward. Already she was back on her feet, trading some quiet words with the tournament victor. The crowd soon gathered around the pair, pping them on the shoulder or shouting encouragement. Frowning in suspicion, Bee ran a Scan on Bradley. Name: Bradley Chadwick, Level: 11, Race: Human, ss: Spot''s Prodigy, Titles: Nighty Knight''s Champion, Age: 7, Highest Stat: Speed. Lowest Stat: Intelligence. Bee nodded; he not only had a ss but had also reached his second skill. That made sense. She quickly ran Scan over the rest of the Nighty Knights. Most were between levels 2 and 4. Some were above level 5, but other than Felix, no one else had their second skill. Checking Irene quickly, Bee couldn''t help but be even more surprised. Name: Irene Chadwick, Level: 8, Race: Human, ss: Spot''s Disciple, Titles: God-Touched, Age: 4, Highest Stat: Faith, Lowest Stat: Strength. They were siblings. That made sense. Also, Irene was only 4 years old! Bee had trouble believing it. But with a title like that, perhaps it was possible. She could only imagine how scary these children would be when they grew up enough to be her age. Bee thought that she had been leveling quickly At this rate, she would be left in the dust. That was if the children were able to keep up the pace. Once everyone had settled down, Void called Bradley to receive his reward. Kneeling in the center of the circle, he bowed low to his lord. Void gave no speech but instead simply drew out the prize. An audible gasp arose from the crowd. Immediately after, a young woman''s panicked voice could be heard. "Oh no you don''t, not at your age!" Mrs. Chadwick rushed into the ring to intercept the massive ming sword Void was about to give her son. Bee recognized her as one of the more nervous women they had first rescued from the ruins of Greg so long ago. The crowd was on edge as she took the sword from Void with a dark look. Everyone held their breath to see how the god would respond to such disrespect, but Void just watched her passively. Turning to Bradley, she crossed her arms. "You can have this when you''re older, young man. Until then, I''m holding onto it. You are much too young for real weapons." "But Mooooom!" Chapter 202: All Seeing Eye Chapter 202: All Seeing Eye With a decent amount of confusion, I handed off the prize to Bradley''s mother rather than the champion himself. Honestly, I understood that this was a dangerous weapon, and I well remembered the universal desire of kids to injure themselves at every opportunity. But at the same time, had she not watched the same disy that I had? Bradley was perfectly capable of wielding The Holy Sword of Draconic me and Justice without hurting himself. I had spent months teaching him to hold pointy sticks just for this reason. Plus, even after a half dozen fights at nearly full power, he hadn''t injured any of his opponents in the slightest, let alone himself. As the glowing sword left my w, Mrs. Chadwick staggered under its considerable weight as she struggled to hold it in ce. I considered asking her if I should just hold on to it for now. At least, until she was okay with Bradley taking possession of it? Pretty soon, the crowd dispersed, leaving the champion to argue with his mother while everyone else went to get some snacks. The tables were now loaded with lunch food. It was past noon, but everyone was too full to eat more after the pies. It seemed that the issue had been resolved though, as people loaded tes with grilled meat and cooked vegetables. Taking the sword back, I stuck it in my dustbin for now. Maybe she would be okay with me giving it to her son next week. It would take some time for him to get used to using it, so maybe some supervised training was in his future. Turning off the mes with a mentalmand, I figured it wouldn''t hurt to leave it under Beatrice''s bed for a bit longer. As everyone gorged themselves, I started to set up for the next event. This one had a long sign-up sheet, and I was quite excited about it. I needed to fill Beatrice in, but I didn''t have any doubt that she would have a st. This was actually Felix''s idea. In fact, the children had provided the bulk of the ideas for the party events, even if we didn''t end up using most of them. A lot were far too impractical. Could we have even built a massive obstacle course, much less hid it from Beatrice? And what was the point of a haunted house, anyway? Besides, they didn''t all seem to get that this was a one-day event. Still, some of their ideas were quite good. This castle-wide game of hide and seek was one of the better ones. I liked that we could put a time limit on it too. So I had two sets of prizes for either oue. If Beatrice was able to find everyone in an hour, then I had a prize for whoever was foundst. If more than one was not found within the time limit, I had multipleparable prizes for the winners. They weren''t nearly as good though, so I hoped Beatrice would do her best. I found her and pulled her away from the few adults that she was in conversation with. As I exined the n with a mixture of images and beeps, a wide smile grew on her face. She nodded. "Oh this seems fun." But then her face fell a bit. "Though there might be an issue. How many skills can I use?" Internally I frowned. That wasn''t something I had considered. Did she have skills that would affect her senses? I supposed it would make sense. I did, and it was one of the most useful mutations I had picked aside from that arm and dustbin. Maybe these Sensory Disruptors, too, now that I thought of it. I have a skill that makes me aware of all the faithful people around me, and I''m worried that it would make it too easy." Beatrice exined. "Can you turn it off?" I projected. "I- I don''t know. I''ve never tried. It was a bit overwhelming at first and I had to work to ignore it, so I don''t think so" She trailed off with a look of concentrationing over her face. After a few seconds, her eyes refocused on me. She shook her head. "I can mute it quite a bit, but it won''t go off all the way." That was good enough, I supposed. Whoever was most clever might still find a way around it. We kept chatting as she filled me in on what it did. It was interesting to learn that people had varying degrees of faith in me. I thought it was pretty clear that I did exist. Apparently, not everyone was one hundred percent convinced. After giving everyone some time to eat their fill, Susan got up on her podium and called everyone together. Some brought their food over to listen to the announcement, but most were ready for the next activity. "So, next up on the list of events is hide and seek. Beatrice, did Void inform you what you need to do?" Beatrice gave Susan a thumbs up, so she continued. "Everyone will have five minutes to find a ce within the castle walls to hide before the birthday girl starts looking. Last one found is the winner. After you are found, you may start to help looking as well, so keep that in mind everyone." Susan gave me a meaningful look, and I put up a barrier of wind and projected light around Beatrice, blocking all sight and sound from reaching her "Alright. Five minutes starting NOW!" Everyone dashed off, and I rolled to join Beatrice in her barrier. I was going to have fun watching this. Bee looked around at thepletely empty castle that appeared around her as everyone disappeared. It only took her a few seconds to realize that it was Void hiding the surroundings from her, since she still felt peoples presences with her dimmed faith sense. Still, it was jarring. She did her best to push the sensations away from her mind so as not to give her an unfair advantage. The best that she could manage was a dull nagging itch when she was near someone. It would be fine, she hoped. A few secondster, Void joined her in her isted pocket world, just appearing a few feet away like nothing had happened. Above Void was a set of numbers counting down. "Is that a countdown to when I can start looking?" Her master indicated that it was. Sitting down, she closed her eyes and waited, enjoying the brief moment of quiet. A few minutester, Void let out a rhythmic beeping pattern, and she opened her eyes to the world''s return. The entire castle courtyard was deserted. Even Susan was missing. Standing up, she started looking right away. Some had hidden far away, but she could tell there were still a few people nearby. Still, after a few steps, Bee had her first victim. She pointed. "Trent you are out. Vera, out. Phil, out." As they were called, several people stood up from behind barrels or tables with sheepish grins as they made a beeline for the food still put out. She was d they had put in at least a token effort for the children, but it was clear they weren''t really interested in ying this game. She didn''t really me them. While Void certainly had a magnificent prize in mind, they weren''t likely to win it. Plus, if the theme of activity-relevant prizes was held, then they wouldn''t have use for it anyways. Walking closer to the castle, Bee started looking in more tricky ces. While some had put more effort into hiding, not all were very good at it, and she had keen eyes. When Bee found the first of the children, she got her first real helpers. Soon, informants were running all over the castle, bringing her tips as they ratted each other out. It was a bit embarrassing how often she found a couple people hiding in the same spot just by hearing them giggle. A quick pass around the castle and the grounds let her root out the majority. But by Void''s count, there were still a dozen people left hiding. Bee was impressed. Even with her senses dulled, she couldn''t help but tell when she was near someone. Now that more had been found though, all the movement cluttered her faith sense with noise. Still, on her first pass, she hadn''t thought that she had missed anything. Then she had an idea. Jogging back over to the copse of trees that housed their resident wolf pack, she poked her head into their den and called Tanu out. The little boy grumbled as he crawled out of the hole. "That was a good spot Howd ya find me?" "Using the cubs to disguise your presence was a good idea, but it was too obvious. Once I realized I hadn''t found you yet, there was only one ce you would be." Bee answered. It was a bit obvious, but the children still needed to get better at thinking from someone else''s perspective. Something even a lot of adults struggled with. A few minutester, all the Nighty Knights were ousted from their various nooks and crannies. There were just three more stragglers left behind. By Bees count, Susan was one of them. The second was a scout from the army, and thest was Mat, one of the first scouts that Susan had trained. He wasn''t someone that Bee had talked to much since he had arrived, but her impression of him was not the best. He always seemed a bit silly and easygoing. It was odd to think of him aspetent enough to hide from her this long. Once there were only five minutes left, Void asked her to start using all her senses. As she let up, the web connecting her to all of Void''s followers exploded in her mind. It was chaotic enough that she wasn''t able to find anyone instantly. Still, she could tell that someone was far away from everyone else. Heading over in that direction, she watched for any odd movement but didn''t notice anything out of the ordinary; everyone was simply milling about in the center of the gathering. So either thest few didn''t have any faith in Void, or they had some other way to hide. She knew that Susan had one of the strongest bonds in the castle, so that wasn''t it. Also, she knew the one she was closing in on wasn''t Susan by feeling too. She got to the center of the grass field and still had no idea where the feeling wasing from. At least, no visual clues. As she walked closer, the feeling moved away from her, and she got a better idea of what was going on. In a sh, her figure blurred as she darted a hand out. It met the edge of a cloak that was nearly the same color as the background. The scout from Captain Major''spany groaned as he was revealed. "How many more were left? I thought I had it there." "You were close. Only two more, and I have no idea where Mat or Susan are. Any ideas?" The scout shook his head. "Naw, my lips are sealed. I want to see how long their tricks will work." Bee headed back to the group and watched the castles inhabitants as they chatted. Where could they be? Chapter 203: Seek and Ye Shall Find Chapter 203: Seek and Ye Shall Find Bee mixed with the rest of the crowd as they milled around, waiting for the next event to start. As she nced around, she started taking note of what people were doing. Presumably, thest couple of hide-and-seek finalists were hiding among the people, using them as cover. Trent was back at the pie table, getting his umpteenth te. Gertrude knitted with a few of the otherdies as the children ran around. Many of the small children napped in the arms of their mothers in the shade of a massive pavilion tent, set up to provide some release from the sun. Tony wrestled with Felix and a few of the other Nighty Knights. It wasn''t an official event, but they had a bit of a crowd as he threw his superior weight around. Mary simply stood off the side, watching everyone as she rested her head against Trent''s massive shoulder. The sight made Bee smile. She was d the pair were so happy together. She hadnt had many opportunities to see a rtionship like this. Had her father been like this at one point, when mom was still around? "Wait." Bee whipped her head back to the pie table. Had she been seeing things? No, Trent stood there, back turned as he ate a slice of the pie. She looked over to where Trent also stood, his arm around his wife. Bee looked more closely with her senses. One of these wasn''t Trent. The feeling was just different between the two of them, as though they had different rtionships with Void''s faith. Looking back at the Trent eating pie, she was willing to bet a lot that he was the impostor. The only question was, who was he? She needed to call the persons name, or else it was hard to say the person was truly found. Though Bee supposed she could cheat a little bit. Wandering over, she did her best to not be noticed. It was easier said than done as people constantly greeted her. Still, it didn''t give Trent an option to run without looking too suspicious. Bee was careful not to rm him either, asionally pausing to talk to people. It only took her a few moments to get close to her prey. That he had also used the time to move away from her further convinced Bee that this was truly the impostor. Still, she feigned ignorance, and their cat-and-mouse game continued. Bee had no intention of letting it go on until the time limit, though. The second that someone attempted to speak to Trent, she shed forward using all the power and speed her considerable level afforded her. Just as the man had turned to walk away, she caught his sleeve. "I got you." As much as she tried, Susan wasn''t able to help the very feminine yelp of surprise at Bee''s sudden appearance. "Susan, you are out!" A burst of lightter and the illusion of Trent disappeared from around the woman. Void beeped, and Bee took it to mean thepetition was over. He zipped off, leaving her standing with Susan. "Dang, what gave me away?" Bee nodded to where the real Trent nted a kiss on the top of his wife''s head. "There are two of you, and Trent''s not the most subtle of people. It would have been better if you picked someone I didn''t know as well." Susan shrugged. "You would be surprised. Not being subtle makes him easier to imitate." After a small hesitation, she continued. "Also, I need a certain level of familiarity with the subject for my skill to work well. I still only have so many options around here." "That''s an impressive skill. I bet it made you really good at your old job." "It did. The ss I got too. It''s a lot less relevant now, though." Susan said with a slight smile. "I can''t say I miss it much. I think all the excitement was starting to give me wrinkles." Beeughed. Susan still looked five years younger than the 29 her status indicated. Still, it was nice to hear that her friend was happier now. They chatted for a few minutes, and Susan filled her in on the rest of the events nned. Bee was surprised to hear there was a drinkingpetition scheduled after all the children had gone to bed. That was a while off, but whoever had convinced Void to get a prize for that had her respect. She wasn''t sure if she would have been brave enough to ask the god about such a thing. As if hearing her thoughts, Void returned carrying a slightly green Mat. - I was impressed that the human had managed to squeeze himself into such a difficult ce. Truly his dedication to thepetition wasmendable. Of course, it wasn''t too hard for me to locate him after Beatrice had found everyone else. Retrieving him had been a bit of a chore, and the tricky maneuver I had to do to extract him safely made even me a little bit nauseous. As much as I wasnt sure how that worked, mechanically. I had been getting worried that Beatrice wouldn''t be able to find everyone in the time period. Thankfully, my human hade through. I was looking forward to someone getting the cloak of invisibility. And honestly, I wasn''t sure what I would do with it if no one imed it. Gently, I set Mat down next to Susan and Beatrice. Seeing the winner arrive, Susan got things going again. Most people had been using this as a break to grab snacks and drinks. As the festivities resumed, they gathered together once more. Though on the topic of drinks, I still wasnt sure how or why the humans made a contest centered on drinking. I couldn''t help but spin up a subprocess to try and figure out what they were doing on that front. A good amount of the adults seemed to be really excited about the drinkingpetition, but for the life of me, I couldn''t figure out what it entailed. Daedalusughed when I asked him about it and refused to exin further, though he did have a lot of fun finding a prize for thepetition. He once again didn''t tell me what it did. Once everyone had gathered and congratted Mat, I pulled out his prize. Zipping into the air, I settled the cloak of invisibility around his shoulders. The crowd let out a collective gasp, as it now looked like Mat was simply a disembodied head floating over the ground. Even to my sensors he had more or less disappeared. I could only detect the absence of airflow to indicate his presence. To my lesser senses, he waspletely gone. Mat reached up and pulled the cloak over his head the rest of the way. I felt the void in the air move a few feet over to the side before he reappeared, now holding someone''s drink. A round of cheerster, and Mat was caught up in thoroughly showing off his prize. Susan let this go on for some time. It may have been my imagination, but I briefly caught a hint of jealousy in a look she gave the celebrating victor. I couldn''t really me her; it was an awesome prize. I had been excited for a reason. Eventually, people settled down. "Next up is dinner!" Everyone cheered, but she held her hands up for their attention. "As many of you know, this isn''t just any dinner. There are two morepetitions going on. Everyone needs to try one of each of the potato sds. Also if you want to participate in the sausage eating contests, please sit at table two!" The next couple of events weren''t really relevant to me right now, so I went to clean up a bit after the previous events. Despite everyone being rather conscious about cleanliness, there was still a lot to do after everyone was gathered in the same area for so long. As the humans loudly celebrated with food and song over dinner, I charted an efficient path between each of the various points of disorder that were left behind throughout the day. Wandering around the corner of the castle, I came across something worrying. Sitting alone, with his back to the castle wall, was Bradley Chadwick. He was muttering something to himself with a rather displeased expression on his young face. He was so upset that he didn''t even notice when I rolled up next to him. I tried to make out what he was saying, but it wasn''t anything I could decode. Worried about my pupil, I tapped his shoulder to get his attention. Bradley jumped and half rose from his sitting position as he turned. Once he recognized me, he scrambled up to one knee and leaned forward, a fist pressed to the ground. I must have startled him more than I realized. "Lord Void! I''m sorry I didn''t see you there. I apologize for my rudeness." Bradley said in an overly formal tone. Beeping, I did my best to make him understand that he was fine and express my own worry. I followed up with another tone, inquiring what was on his mind. I watched as his face darkened again. Before he could slide back into grumpiness, I gently rapped my w on his nose. The rebuke jolted him back to his senses, and he looked up at me with clear eyes. I repeated myself. This time I saw him struggle with his emotions, but he was able to ovee them and answer. "It''s my sword. What right does mom have to keep me from it!? I need to learn to use it. I have a duty to the Nighty Knights and the faith to be the best warrior I can be. How can I do that without learning to wield my most powerful weapons? Havent I proven myself?" Pure indignation was written all across his face. After a few seconds, I realized that I would have to really answer his questions. I pulled out the sword and lit it again. The boys eyes lit up s well with a fire of determination. Before he could reach for it, I yed a vision for him. He was holding the de without it being lit, and I was close by watching. Bradley''s image moved fluidly through forms before he looked at me. I shed something up, and we had a quick exchange before he went again. "You will train me personally?" Bradley asked with barely concealed excitement. Of course I would. I had been training him for months now, even if it was alongside the other Knights. I didn''t know why it was a surprise to him. With my confirmation, he fell back to both knees and bowed low. "I will patiently wait then, my lord." Immediately after, he contradicted his statement by jumping to his feet. "There is still a sparring circle free from the matches. Let''s train there!" I had to hold him back by the hem of his shirt. There were still celebrations and a party for him to enjoy. Sheepishly, he halted and turned to follow me back to the festivities. We were just in time to watch Beatrice p Captain Major on the back as he coughed up a bit of sausage meat. Chapter 204: Whole New World Chapter 204: Whole New World Bee still felt surprisingly awake when the party finally ended. Despite having one of the most full days she''d experienced in a while, her levels kept her up when everyone else was looking for their beds. She sat atop the castle wall with a small smile, watching over the castle grounds. Honestly, with everything going on, she had forgotten that today was even her birthday. A few months ago, it was all she could think about. But when it actually came? She had been doing so many other things that she lost track of the days. Had this been why Tony insisted on training so much thisst week? Well, if it was just a distraction, he was going to regret lying to her. Perhaps she could think about it as payback for surprising her, but she wouldn''t. His reasoning had been solid enough, and he''d still made good progress besides. As she sat there plotting how to make Tony''s life miserable, Void trundled up beside her. She made to stand, but her master waved her down before she could get up. When had Void started doing that? Sometimes she could swear that it was still growing, still learning to read people better. They just sat next to each other for a few moments, enjoying the view. Eventually, Void broke the tranquility with a few images. Floating above it was a moving picture that reyed a few short seconds over and over. It was her taking a gift-wrapped box from Void, opening it, and being happy. The message seemed clear enough, but she wanted to make sure. "You want to give me a gift?" Void beeped, and Bee stood to follow her master into the castle. She grinned with excitement. A gift from her master? As much as it shouldn''t have been surprising, she was still struck by how much the gesture mattered to her. It was heartwarming how much her deity cared. Not only that, but she had seen the other gifts Void had given out today. The thought of what it may have saved for her sent her thoughts racing. Void led her back to her room and disappeared under her bed for a moment beforeing back out, dragging somethingrge behind. Initially, she wasn''t sure what to make of the purple rug that Void fished out. Her first thought was that it looked strangely familiar. Where had she seen it before? Thinking back, she realized her mistake. She hadn''t seen exactly this rug before, but instead, something remarkably simr. A memory of Void resting before the Dean''s desk shed through her mind. Resting on a fluffy red carpet that looked remarkably like the one in front of her. Void rolled back and gestured grandly with his w at the rug. Bee stood and stared. What was she supposed to do? It was a very nice rug, but it was still a rug. Still, her master seemed immensely proud of the gift. She wasn''t sure how to react. A slight bit of disappointment welled up, but she tried to squash it. How could it not, after seeing the deity hand out magical des and enchanted essories like candy? Would she hurt Void''s feelings if she wasn''t appreciative? It definitely felt wrong to spurn a gift given to her by her master. Clearly, there was some deeper meaning behind it, some lesson to be learned. But that didn''t exin its excitement. Unless Could it be, perhaps, that her master just liked rugs and thought she would too? No. That''s way too simple of an exnation. There''s no way Void would do anything so simple. There had to be something she was missing. Still, she wasn''t sure how to react. Void simply sat there, gesturing with his w at the rug, clearly excited based on the small twitching motion that it was making. Bee eventually broke out of her trance and decided that maybe her best bet was to continue imitating her master when she was uncertain. So hesitantly, she stepped over to the rug and gently sat down. The rug was very nice. The fibers were soft and long and seemed to wrap around her slightly as if she was sinking into a thick cushion. It was quite a weird feeling for something that was presumably just a piece of cloth on a stone floor, but she honestly couldn''t have imagined a morefortable seat. She smiled hesitantly at Void. The gesture touched her, it really did, but she was still confused. In fact, she was seriously considering asking why it had decided to gift her a rug. Whatever the hidden meaning was, she''d need help deciphering it. Maybe it was enchanted to be morefortable to sit on? Even that seemed a bit frivolous. No, that wasn''t something Void would do. As she sat, Void grabbed the edge of the rug with a w and pulled. Bee half expected to go tumbling back as the might of a god ripped the rug out from underneath her. That would have been a fitting reaction if she wasn''t supposed to have sat on its generous gift. But instead, the rug stayed in ce beneath her. Both she and the rug glided forward slightly without the friction she expected. Bee froze, careful not to overbnce and fall off. Something was different. The movement had felt off. Slowly, she bent forward to look at the edge of the rug. Eyes widening, she realized they were a good inch off the ground. Poking her finger in the rug, she didn''t feel anything below until she pressed several inches deep and she found the stone floor. This was no cushion underneath the rug. There was just air. The rug was flying. Her master had really, truly found a legendary flying carpet for her. She couldn''t help it. Tears began to stream from the corners of her eyes. The generosity of her master was too overwhelming. Void, though, wasn''t exactly paying attention. It had hovered off the ground itself, gently tugging her along behind as they made their way out of the room and into the hallway. At first, Bee hung on for dear life, worried that she would fall off or break the rug or something. But as they got moving, she grew more and morefortable with the flight. This was a very different experience than sitting on top of Void as they rushed to Caleb''s rescue. No less exhrating but a lot morefortable. She held on tight when they reached the stairway, but there was no issue as the rug slowly glided down after Void. Their speed was still moderate as they left the castle, not much faster than a walking pace. But as soon as they were outside, Void started to gain altitude, pulling the rug behind him. As the rug tilted, Bee was sent leaning backward, and she grabbed onto the front of the rug in fright. Now that they were several feet off the ground, Void let go. Bee gasped, half expecting to plunge back to earth. But the carpet just floated ever so slightly, drifting on the breeze as her master watched on. Grabbing the edge of the carpet, she leaned forward a bit just to see how high they were, and as she did, the carpet began to descend. The movement was slow and manageable. She leaned back, and the carpet stopped before gaining a little bit of altitude. As she righted herself, it settled back into its gentle hover. Void let out a small cheer of encouragement. Her first clumsy attempts to control the flying carpet hadn''t ended in disaster. Despite the rtively low bar, Bee couldn''t help but smile through her trepidation. If she could really learn how to fly like her master... She let the thought trail away as she focused on figuring out how to do more than simply go up and down. It didn''t take long to figure out how to move forward, backward, right, and left. They were just variations of holding the rug and leaning. As she practiced, she felt each movement be more natural. Each time, she required less and less physical motion to get the rug to respond to her desires as if the carpet was learning how she would indicate where she wanted to go and simply followed along. Void, though, was impatient with her slow learning speed and started to zip circles around her. It pushed her to go faster and encouraged her so she could fly with her master. And after several minutes of practicing, they were soon doingps around the castle at quite a quick pace. The wind fluttered through her hair but was nowhere near as powerful as it should have been based on the speeds they were going. As if there was a bubble of air protecting her from most of the turbulence. Perhaps it was another feature of the carpet? She was hesitant to test that against something like dirt or a wall. But it was nice that she was able to see, despite moving at a pace faster than she could run. And that normally left her eyes watering from the wind. --- I coached Beatrice as she took her first steps into the air. I did my best to encourage her to try new things and zip around, as I had soon learned to love. Watching her lean cautiously and slowly move around was a little silly at first. But I hadn''t forgotten my first experiments with thrusters and how terrified of falling I had been when I first learned to fly. But I knew the freedom was well worth it if I could get her past this hump. Sometimes I would use some air maniption to correct her course and prevent her from crashing into the ground. Thankfully, the rug managed to correct her for the most part, and rarely did I have to intervene. The rug was quite beautiful, not just because of its physical appearance and iparablefiness but also its capabilities. I did manipte some of the air for Beatrice, but even after doing that for a little bit, I realized it was unnecessary. The rug seemed to have some in-built defenses against high speeds. And after a dozen minutes or so, I pretty much didn''t have to do anything besides make sure she didn''t randomly crash into a castle wall. Beatrice was much less silly than most humans, so I would be surprised if she did randomly decide on that course of action, though. It would probably be an ident if that did happen. She was toopetent for anything else. So I was mostly here just to enjoy the experience with her and provide moral support, which I did in spades, cheering her along all the while. After a bit more practice, I was ready to take her up higher. Bee seemed to sense my excitement. She had grown more and morefortable the more she practiced with her new piece of floor decoration. With some simplemands to her rug, she followed me up and over the castle wall. Instead of going back down to fly amongst the trees and the roads, I soared high several hundred feet above the trees, and Bee followed. My human gasped at the view: the beautiful mountains, the twinkling stars, and the ocean of trees underneath us. She wasn''t ready to fly over the mountains and explore the snow yet, but this was enough. I took her along the valley path at a speed that would have left even her running on the ground in the dust. The trees zipped by, and the only sound was the wind whistling through my microphone and theughter as we flew through the night sky. Chapter 205: Spirited Away Chapter 205: Spirited Away "General! A spirit has bewitched one of the guards. She''s standing in front of the tent!" The call from outside the tent made Arthur look up from his desk, where yet another letter from a supposed ally demanded his attention. He sighed tiredly. If a spirit had really charmed its way into his camp, then he should probably go see what it wanted. Spirits weren''t malicious by default, but if angered, they could be problematic. Maybe it wanted them to stay out of some area? Still, it could wait a second. He dipped the quill in alcohol to clean it and tossed some sand on the page. The rest of the letter would have to wait a bit. It was a long shot, after all. All of his more likely allies had already been contacted. The responses weren''t amazing, but open rebellion was a pretty hard sell. Arthur wouldn''t have listened to many if they had asked him for this kind of support just a few weeks ago. But now? He didn''t have much of a choice. He was lucky that his men were in the same boat as him. That, and they were loyal and disciplined enough to stay. The nobles were a bit of an issue, but it was really a good test for them. The smarter ones figured out what had happened and remained in thepany. The fools had left and went to their families for shelter. Arthur honestly wished them luck, but he doubted most of them wouldn''t be turned over by those very same families. With the writing taken care of, he stepped outside the tent and froze. Arthur could see how Colin and Doug had thought this was a spirit. A young girl wearing an ethereal white dress stood before him, practically glowing in the night. On her feet were thin slippers, and she showed none of the wear of hard travel one would expect this many days from civilization. Despite all of that, the figure was immediately familiar to him. /// Bee couldn''t stopughing as she followed Void through the sky. She just felt so free. They spun and twisted through the night, careening across thendscape below. She could tell that Void could go faster, but it was letting her keep pace. It was a fact that she greatly appreciated. Having someone to share this moment with made it all the sweeter. She knew that she wasn''t flying under her own power exactly and that it shouldn''t be much different than when Void had carried her, but it was. Maybe it was the control. That she could choose where she wanted to go and at what pace. Or maybe it was that she truly felt independent. Whatever it was, she never wanted this moment to end. So they kept flying. Void never gave any indication that it wanted to go back to the castle, and Bee was the furthest thing from sleepy. In fact, each moment only served to make her more excited. As she practiced, her newfound expertise expanded the list of possibilities and maneuvers she was willing to try. Each time she pushed the boundaries of what she thought possible, her burgeoning love of flying grew. It was with great pleasure that I watched Beatrice enjoy her gift. Thirty minutes and sixteen seconds into her flight, she first attempted a loop. It was clumsy and hesitant at first, and without me to catch her, she wouldn''t have made it all the way around without falling off. Still, even the close call didn''t slow her down. A few momentster, she tried again. This was better; I still stayed close, but soon, I had nothing to worry about. Beatrice was zipping around like she had been born in the clouds and developed her own flight subroutines. I had no particr agenda for this. Instead, I just enjoyed my time hanging out with Beatrice as we trekked about in the sky. Gradually, as we swooped and dipped and dived, we drifted further and further away from the castle. Over the forest, we had more freedom and room to dance in the sky. Eventually, we began to race. I could clearly move much faster than the carpet. Beatrice created much more drag than I did, after all. Regardless, I kept alongside as she zipped out towards the mouth of the valley as fast as she could. I kept along and delighted in the sound of her whooping and enjoyment as she rocketed away from the castle. I hadn''t really considered what this gift might mean to Beatrice with all her responsibilities in the castle. It was hard for her to be away for long periods of time. When we had gone to save Caleb, my assistance meant it only took her a couple of hours to get there. But getting back took weeks. Granted, that was partially because she traveled with others, but it would have still taken days, at least on her own. And during that time, a lot had happened in the castle. Sure, Mary and Trent and everyone were quite capable of monitoring the situation and reacting to anything that came up. But I could tell that Beatrice held onto a certain amount of anxiety anyway. She really cared about the people who looked to her for leadership. Plus, when I wasn''t around, she was clearly the most powerful person here. If some threat of major proportion were to endanger the castle, she would be the main line of defense if I were not around. Of course, the only reason she was capable of leaving the castle at all was because of its rtively remote nature. And how hard it would be for any threats to get to the castle. So, leaving it shouldn''t be too risky. Still, this carpet changed things. It opened up the whole world to Beatrice. Well, not the whole world, but arger portion than the castle. She could be gone for a few hours and have traveled what would have taken her days on foot. By my estimations, any traditional army would take at least five days to march through the forest. With our resources and everyone''s good work in making a sustainable home, traditional armies probably wouldn''t be too much of a threat to the castle for much longer. At least since sieges seemed to be their tactic of choice. It would be their champions and other beings with great power, things on the level of a Lieutenant or significantly less friendly Daedalus. Just as I finished thinking that, I noticed a strange glowing from the entrance of the forest. The sun had long since set, and there should have been no light from the smoking rubble of GregC especially not any that reached this far. It was only a few momentster that Beatrice noticed it as well, and suddenly the fun stopped. A serious look came over her face, and I couldn''t help but agree with her sentiment. All of a sudden, the practice had gone from doing crazy tricks and flying as fast as possible to Beatrice learning to fly stealthily. We increased our altitude significantly as we steadily made our way over to the glowing light. As we got closer, I was able to make out heat signatures. Hundreds of campfires stretched out in a long, slightly squashed line. Along the rows of fires clustered tents and people. People in armor, wearing helmets and swords and other weapons. What was an army doing here? It didn''t take long before we were hovering above it. Beatrice and I looked down, trying to piece together the situation. Was the castle being attacked? Why would someone have sent an army after us? I had no idea. As far as I knew, no one was particrly angry with us. Maybe Beatrice knew something, but I didn''t feel the need to ask. Whatever they were here for, we needed to take care of it. Quickly, too, before they entered the forest. It would be a real pain to have to find each and every single one of them hidden among the trees if they were in fact hostile. It would be much easier to take care of them here before they entered the forest when they were all on this nice, open in. Bee looked down on the foreign army with concern. She had hoped that things were smoothed out with the kingdom after the saving of Caleb, but it had always been on the back of her mind that those in power might not approve of being forced to bow to a new god. Especially after Susan''s warning about such things. Not that there was anything they could do about it. The holy might of Void woulde for everyone someday. Still, it was a danger to her and her people if some army of elites had been gathered to remove the growing power in the region. However, this was too soon. Just a little longer, and the snow would have kept them safe through winter. During that time, she had nned to convert more new Devotees and level everyone further. Many of the neers with a low level had epted her offer. However, the ones with more time dedicated to their ss were understandably hesitant to switch. Though after seeing the progress everyone else had made, she was sure more would be willing to soon. The rate at which Void''s followers grew in levels would have made them a formidable threat, a group capable of defending themselves. The average level in the castle had risen by 7 in just this little time, which was unheard of. It was obvious what the source of their new power was. Having the god that they worshiped walking amongst them - or, rather, rolling - had given more bonuses than she could count. Bee guided her carpet slightly lower. Enthusiasm about flight flickered in her chest once more, though she tamped it down for now. The rows of tents grewrger, but she wasn''t able to make out any more details than she had been a little further up. She was pretty certain of her safety if someone spotted her. With the carpet, she would be out of range of all but the best archers, and that was if they could even see her. Even if she was down amongst them, she could probably fight her way out if it came to it. She was ridiculously fast. Of course, she wasn''t sure how Void would react if she attacked a bunch of people unprovoked. It was best to avoid conflict and talk if possible. While she was nervous about the army being right here, she didn''t actually know what they wanted. Maybe they were escorting a messenger or some diplomat who came to negotiate with them. That was unlikely, but she needed more information. Bee knew that she could be back at the castle in an hour, days ahead of the army, so it was worth taking time to know exactly what they were dealing with before going to get her people ready. Bee didn''t dare get any lower, though. The light of the campfires was lighting up the carpet of the rug, and if someone looked up, they might notice the rectangle shadow hovering motionlessly above them. It would be pretty hard to mistake her for a bird. So she rose back up in the air, moved over to the edges of camp, and settled onto the ground. When she got off of her rug, she realized that she might have a problem. The plush carpet was taller than she was on a side, and she hadn''t brought any convenient way to carry it. Looking around, she searched for a ce to stash it. Before she could stuff it in a tree hollow, though, Void reached out and gently took it from her. As if by magic, it disappeared. Void then rose back in the sky. Bee felt better now that Void was looking out for her from above. Her master wouldn''t leave her without a way home. Right? Chapter 206: Wanted Men Chapter 206: Wanted Men Pushing any doubts about her god out of her head, she considered the best way to handle the situation. Guards patrolled around the edges of the camp regrly, and she didn''t really fancy herself a stealthy type. Especially given her current state. Bee looked down at the party dress she was wearing. She hadn''t changed after the day''s celebrations, and the white, frilly thing wasn''t really suited for fighting or sneaking. So, instead of darting between trees, Bee walked over a bit to stand on the road. If she wasn''t going to get in by subterfuge, she was going to use audacity instead. She looked so out of ce here, after all; maybe she could convince people that she was something mystical. That should be enough for her to get passed up the chain ofmand faster than a little girl would be otherwise. If something happened, she trusted her abilities to get her out. Besides, she was fourteen now. She was practically an adult. Taking some risks came with the territory. So, despite how ufortable her role made her, she was going to y it to the hilt. Whistling a merry tune, she walked up the road from the castle toward the sentry stationed at the entrance of the camp. The young man with an overlyrge helmet clearly didn''t know what to make of her, and it was all she could do to contain herughter. The open-mouthed stare she received as she skipped right up to him, emerging out of the ck night, was something to behold. He was so shocked that he made no move to stop her, let alone call out a warning. In fact, when she looked over her shoulder at him, he was looking around as if to check if he was the only one seeing this. Finally, she caught his eye. In her best sing-song voice, she called out to him. "Well, are youing?" The stammering non-reply actually did make herugh. Bee chuckled and continued. "Come on, I need to talk to the one in charge." Not sure what to do, the young soldier simply gave her a salute. "Yes, ma''am." Falling into a routine seemed to give the man somefort as he led her to a central tent. The guards stationed at the entrance of the tent assumed ready positions as they saw her approaching. Bee stopped skipping. But that didn''t ay their suspicions. One of them called out. "General! A spirit has bewitched one of the guards. She''s standing in front of the tent!" "Hello Miss Bee." Arthur greeted. The High Priestess gave him a small smile and wave. "Hello, Arthur. What are you doing here?" Bee asked. Arthur did his best to look past all the strangeness that the girl seemed to carry like an aura. It wasn''t really something that he wanted to stick his nose in any more than he had to. Of course, he was going to have to ask a pretty big favor, but that didn''t mean he wanted to step on any toes. "I actually was on my way to talk to you. Or Lord Void, if he is around." Arthur guessed that Miss Bee would speak for the godling but best be polite. "Void is around here somewhere, but I can pass on anything you want my master to hear." Bee answered. Arthur noticed that the guards had not only lowered their weapons slightly but were edging away from their visitor. Soldiers were a superstitious lot. He was no exception, honestly, but it was easier to put that behind when he knew for certain what was going on. "Men, in case you didn''t recognize her, this is MissC High Priestess Bee. She was the one who dropped into the gates of Caleb." Arthur said. His words had half the intended effect. A degree of recognition passed over the three guard''s faces, but their wariness only increased, if anything. Themander sighed inwardly. If they hadn''t personally seen her fight or heal theirrades, then it was understandable. The only thing they had to go on were rumors of a warrior with the power to single-handedly halt an entire undead horde by herself with nothing but a broom. That, and the obvious fact that the city still stood. Put that tale in the body of a young girl, and it was the thing of faerie tales. Bee smiled sheepishly up at him, "It is good to see you again, Arthur. You''ll have to forgive my entrance, I was a little concerned when an army showed up at my home." "Of course, I totally understand. I should have sent messengers sooner, I''m sorry for worrying you." Arthur apologized. Honestly, he had thought that this was far enough away from the castle that he would have time to send messengers before their presence was noticed, or at least not that far behind. "Why don''t youe in and we can talk?" With a gesture, Arthur ushered Miss Bee into the tent. As he followed, he paused a moment and overheard a whispered conversation between the guards. "Was it wise that themander invited her in?" "That''s vampires you are thinking of. Fae don''t need an invitation." "No, I think they do." "I''m sure themander knows more than you about that stuff." "I hope so. Say, how old do you think she actually was?" "No idea, probably like 1000 years old. I would rather not think about it. Hey Cedric, can you see if you can find some holly bows? In case themander gets in trouble." Arthur stepped into the tent, and the conversation faded. He shook his head, clearing it of the senseless worries before turning to Miss Bee. I looked down at the scene as Beatrice made her way into the camp. After all this time observing humans, I thought I had understood them better. But these didn''t behave in any way that I could have predicted. From my time with Arthur''s army, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what guards did. They stopped anything that looked like a threat and called for reinforcements. So why Beatrice was able to walk right through camp and get one to take her to the leader was beyond me. The bamboozled guard was rather young, but that was no excuse. When they reached themander''s tent, the guards there acted more in line with my expectations. But when Arthur stepped out, my processor speed spiked. I should have known. Had I really been scanning all the people down there, I would have surely recognized some of them. But I had been too focused on watching Beatrice to make sure she was safe. Once I realized she would be fine, I zipped down to the ground without anyone noticing and slid under the tent p behind the guard''s back. Beatrice was just sitting down on one of the small folding chairs that Arthur kept for visitors, and the man was pouring them drinks. When he turned around, I gave him a big wave of greeting. The man jumped slightly, and the liquid in the cup he was holding sshed onto his wrist. Muttering some curses, Arthur put the drink down before inclining his head to me. "It is good to see you again, Lord Void. Would you also like a drink?" I declined. The offer was probably just made to be polite, but I didn''t need to clean the inside of a cup when plenty had already sshed onto the floor just now. So I rolled up to Arthur''s feet and cleaned up the small puddle. I actually had to be careful where I put my Mop to avoid sucking all the water out of Arthur by ident. While I cleaned, he stayed very still, which I appreciated. While getting tripped over might hurt him more than me, I still didn''t like getting stepped on. After I backed away, he unfroze and finished getting Beatrice and himself a drink. Moving to rest under Beatrice''s chair, I waited for them to begin. After Void moved under Bee''s chair, she rxed slightly; it was something her master did when she didn''t want to really take part in the conversation and was content to simply observe. Still, it wasforting to have the implicit support and the knowledge that Void could step in if something was going wrong. While she respected Arthur, she had only met him briefly. She trusted that he knew the folly of attacking theirmunity, but she couldn''t know what orders the king might have given him. From what she had seen, he was an extremelypetentmander, so she had to be wary of any tricks. "So, you said you wanted to talk to me?" She asked to get the conversation moving. Void had spent more time with the army than she had, but she didn''t know what kind of terms they left on. It was pretty normal for all of the new residents of the castle to be pretty terrified of the deity for the first couple of weeks. Arthur seemed respectful, but she knew how unnerving Void could really be. "I did, yes. I also want to assure you that we don''t mean you any harm. I realize that showing up with an army is. A bit intimidating. Perhaps it will require a show of good intentions." Arthur said. Bee simply waited for him to get to his question. "However, we weren''t sent by the king. Rather the opposite. When we returned to Caleb, we received some unsettling news" Arthur then went on to exin how he and all his men were to be captured on charges of suspected treason. How a muchrger army was waiting for them at Caleb, and they had avoided the city rather than risk questioning and possible reprisal. "That is what finds us on your doorstep. I am fairly certain we haven''t been discovered or followed. Not within thest few days, at least." "What about the men of Caleb?" Bee asked. Many of the castle residents had family still in the city. With this news, they''d be rightfully worried about the ones who stayed behind to rebuild. "As far as I can tell, they weren''t harmed. The army wasn''t actually helping with the rebuilding, but they aren''t stopping it either." Arthur said. "But that news is a few days old. I have a few scouts that have infiltrated the city and are sending me regr reports." Bee nodded. She would have to go see herself eventually, but there wasn''t much that they could do for now. They wouldn''t be able to reunite the people of Caleb until after the winter, at least. "I have been trying to see where the nobility stands on this matter, but it seems the most I can do is get protection for my family. My wife and daughters have been spirited away to a safe location by family allies. My sons are serving in the army down south and should be safe, for now." Arthur exined. "So. That brings me to my question. My men and I can''t really call ourselves Kingdom soldiers anymore. We need some ce to camp for winter and n." Bee thought of what she had seen from above. Just a rough estimate put the number of men in the thousands. There was no way they would be able to house and feed everyone. They were at capacity as it was. She spoke slowly. "I don''t think we can fit you in the castle. There just isn''t enough room." Arthur smiled. "That won''t be necessary. We can winter in a camp and put up our own structures, we just need some ce that is defensible and out of the way, far from enemy forces, while we figure out our options." "What are your options? It seems you are rather stuck." Bee asked. And for the first time, Void chimed in from below, agreeing with her. Arthur ran his hand down his face tiredly. "I don''t know honestly. None of them seem good." Chapter 207: Game of Throw Rugs Chapter 207: Game of Throw Rugs Bee sat quietly in the tent as she felt an oppressive silence fall over the conversation. Arthur was right; he really didn''t have any good options. It was one thing for herself and a few others to consider themselves outside of the kingdom. They weren''t really a threat, after all. The King and the adventurers would treat them as they might any territorial monster. As long as they didn''t endanger more people, removing them wasn''t worth the resources. An army, though? That was different. They were a very real threat, especially with someone like Arthur leading them. This made Arthur''s request all the more problematic. Her initial instinct had been to offer them shelter immediately, but she was reconsidering. Sheltering the army made them a threat by association, too. "As I see it we have a few options," Arthur continued. "We can go into exile and find some other country to shelter us. Maybe we can work as mercenaries or take ships overseas. Or, we threaten in open rebellion. While the force I have is formidable, it''s only a fraction of the kingdom''s true power. Still, we may be able to leverage its threat into concessions, but that has its own risks. Even if the warrant for my execution is rescinded, I don''t know how I can trust going forward." Bee thought about it. Really, it wasn''t her decision to make, and for that, she was eternally grateful. "What if you were able to raise the level of your army significantly?" Arthur gave her a strange look. "That depends on a lot of things. Remember that these men are no longer required to be here by order of the king, so there are limits to what I can ask them. I will not betray their trust too much." He seemed to dete slightly. "But I''m here asking you for help. I''m sorry the suspension that you were proposing something untoward to my men was unwarranted and frankly rude. My sincere apologies." "But if we were to improve our abilities... how much are we talking about?" Arthur asked with a note of interest. Bee paused to think and rubbed her chin. She had better ask some questions first. "Well, it depends. What''s the average level of your troops?" Arthur dug through some papers on his desk and said, "at thest self-reported census, it was 17." Bee thought a little bit and considered. She wasn''t sure how urate that was, but she assumed it was close enough. That meant that the soldiers were significantly higher than the average level of the Caleb citizens, as well as the other residents of the castle. Regardless, her people still managed to gain two levels in a couple of months by regrly training and just doing their jobs. Five levels by adding in the worship of Void, and more for those who took a Devotee ss. If they had several months over winter and nothing to do but train, it''d be hard to say what the results could be. They might be able to get five levels as well. "Arthur, how strong would you need to get to be able to hold your own?" "It depends on what you mean by holding our own. If you mean to carve out a territory in a very defensible area, I probably could manage it with an average of 3 or 4 levels higher. Especially if we had a few extremely elite people, as in level 45 or higher. But if you mean to challenge the kingdom and take down their armies, well" The man shrugged. "We''d probably need an average of ten levels, minimum, somewhere around average level 30. "But," he concluded, "that would make us an unheard-of caliber of force. That kind of threat would put the entire kingdom on alert, even if we kept to ourselves." Bee sat back in her chair, thinking. They didn''t necessarily need to go toe-to-toe with the kingdom''s armies. In fact, everyone would rather not. Arthur surely knew many of those in those armies. But if she wanted to be sure of everyone''s safety Arthur interrupted her musings. "What would gaining this sort of power entail? How high do you think you could conceivably get us? I assume it has something to do with the new god underneath your chair." Bee heard Void give a slight, shrill chuckle. It was odd. She had heard that noise a few other times, but she wasn''t sure what the joke was here. Leaving it be for now, she addressed Arthur. "Yes, it would have to do with that. I think anyone who really wants to grow in strength needs to ept Void for who Void is. But with regr training and following the ts of the Church of the Cleansing Void... I believe we can make something happen in the 4 or 5 months until snowse and go. "If you train regrly and do other tasks rted to the faith, you could probably gain an average of 5 to 7 levels. Something like that. As for the elites, I''m not sure. It really depends on how much everyone epts Void and how closely they follow the faith. But as you know, I am thirteen- fourteen, and recently got my third ss. So that gives you a small taste of what is possible with Void''s help. "Now the question is really, why should we help? We''d be taking on significant risk by helping you all. The way I see it, right now the kingdom will treat us like it would a particrly nasty monster den. As long as we aren''t causing more trouble, they''ll just leave us be. And it''s not worth the effort to root us out. If we start harboring an army that we are growing and training, we are very clearly a bigger threat." Beeid out her position. It wasn''t to say she wasn''t willing to help Arthur in the army. She just wanted to make sure that they were on the same page. Especially since, no matter what, she would be doing Arthur a massive favor. Much more than just giving his people a safe ce to shelter for a while. Arthur seemed to know it, too, and he grimaced slightly. "This is true. I think if we stay here or anywhere else, there will be a target on our backs. Especially if we get this wrong. But realistically, we can''t simply leave. These men have families here, both in your castle and in Caleb. They won''t leave them behind, and evacuating them all would be a logistical nightmare. Not to mention that, even if they''re safe for now, the threat of retribution against those families worries my men still. "That leaves us with either strong-arming the King into leaving us alone or splitting off into new territory for Void. I think this second option would be the best." Arthur''s gaze turned hard." While we can probably force the King to make some concessions, I''m not sure how long they wouldst. In a year or two, our power and our position will have dissolved, and the King will have begun to make moves against us." "So. You''re thinking actual treason." Bee asked seriously. "Of seizing a piece of the kingdom and breaking off our own country." Arthur nodded. "Yes. I think that''s the only way we''ll be able to get families out. Most of the soldiers who have families already have them here, but several of the officers'' families are either lying low or have already left the capital for their own estates together with their people." "It''s going to be rough for a lot of the nobility. But I think they''ll manage. We''re going to need morend than just this valley, though. So I think we''ll probably have to take the whole province." Bee''s head swam. This didn''t seem real. Were they really talking about this? Heedless of her reaction, Arthur continued. "This province is not very important to the King as a whole. While it does export some important resources, there is nothing that can''t be reced. Assuming this ends peacefully enough, we could conceivably establish some sort of trading rtionship with the kingdom to fulfill each other''s needs. "But more importantly, the area is quite defensible from many directions. Mountains guard us in one direction, rivers in the other. Nor do I expect a full standing army to be mobilized quickly. The men in Caleb didn''t appear to be supplied for a long campaign, and they were mobilized too quickly for that anyway." Bee nodded in agreement. It sounded like a solid point. All of this made it even harder to turn Arthur down. That, on top of the risk that the kingdom woulde after the Church of the Cleansing Void anyway, made her lean toward epting these men. If they had the ability, then it was the right thing to do. She needed to make this work. Somehow. She opened her mouth, ready to ask about details and perhaps earn some concessions from themander. Perhaps there was some formal structure they could use to integrate the army with the Church. But before she said a word, Void interrupted her. A series of beeps, apanied by moving images projected into the chair next to her, disyed her master''s thoughts. A huge tent city spanned the clearing between the forest and the castle. Some of the forest was cleared away, and the army erected buildings in the new space. Not just temporary buildings or semi-permanent tents for winter, but the beginnings of real infrastructure. Stone foundations of a full garrison and troop yard. A new wall was being built, epassing the entrance of the valley and arge area further in. The secondary wall expanded the castle into the seat of a huge city. The castle still stood tall in the background. Snows came, and fields were cleared where soldiers drilled. Winter snow crops were nted and harvested. Pennants flew high, horses were trained, and an entire city-state was born. Bee and Arthur both stopped to watch in awe. After a moment, Bee smiled. It seemed that her need for negotiations was unwarranted. She had forgotten who was sitting underneath her chair. When a god was the source of their power and safety, there was no other choice but to let it dictate terms. Arthur realized this as well and smiled, for he had gotten pretty much everything he wanted. If Void was really nning on carving out a full kingdom for itself, Arthur would slot in nicely with his men. If anything, it was Bee who should''ve been worried. After all, the army was much more powerful and numerous than her own people. Despite that, she was calm. She hadplete faith that Void would see her and its own people through whatever trials that came. She was its High Priestess, after all. *** On the way back to the castle, Bee reyed the conversation with Arthur in her mind over and over. There was so much she needed to do. The castle needed to be prepared once again, but she also had to figure out training for these men. At least she wouldn''t be doing it all by herself. But still, for any faith-based training, she would have to have a lot of input. It would depend on how many soldiers were interested in bing followers, but Arthur had assured her that many would be. In general, her ns for a rtively quiet winter had beenpletely tossed out the window. There was all the work at the castle to take care of and the leveling she wanted to get the residents to do. Now, that had to be squeezed in besides prepping for the army and figuring out how to run an entire budding kingdom. Arthur had been very clear that he didn''t want to be king. She had no way of knowing whether that was because he genuinely didn''t have the ambition for it or because Void was resting under her chair. Either way, their discussion had ended up with the Church being in charge. Ultimately, that meant her. She had no idea what she was doing. However, she never had before either, and things seemed to be running right. The thought consoled her, if only slightly. All she needed to do was take what she''d learned from establishing a religion and then apply it to a kingdom. It was a daunting prospect. But with Void''s guidance, she would make it. The first thing she wanted to do was mark out an area for the army after informing everyone what was happening, of course. Then, her priority would be getting enough copies of Void''s scriptures made so they could be distributed. That was going to be an issue. They only had a few in the castle, and now hundreds more would be needed. Still, she couldn''t suppress her excitement. Soon, they''d be spreading the word of her master throughout the world. Even if she did have to learn how to govern a kingdom to do so. Chapter 208: Traders and Traitors Chapter 208: Traders and Traitors Unfortunately, the news about the army''s arrival wasn''t met with universal positivity. In particr, Susan was surprisingly upset about the development. Bee had never seen the woman break her cool like this before. The only thing that even slightly kept her in check was the fact that Void had made the decision itself. After Bee bore witness to the most vehement rant she''d ever heard, she could only watch, stunned, as the woman stormed out the meeting room door. Calls for her troops to assemble echoed through the halls as she left. Tony winced in sympathy for those scouts, and Bee couldn''t help but agree with him. "Well at least she''ll put all that energy to good use." Mary said with a frown. "I worry about her, sometimes. She really needs the stability we have here. It''s hard to see that ripped away." Bee frowned. Susan needed the stability? She was one of the strongest, mostpetent people that Bee had ever met. Trent apparently agreed with her confusion, chuffing at his wife''s words. "That woman? She could chew on iron ingots and spit out nails." Mary patted her husband''s arm. "She had a rough upbringing and a hard life, dear. Everyone deals with it their own way, but she''s certainly good at hiding it." Suddenly, things clicked for Bee. She remembered when she and Tony had found Susan on the road, bleeding and limping back to the castle after escaping from this very army. The state she was in had been horrifying, to say the least. Her quick recovery and strong face made Bee tend to dismiss it, but thinking about it of course, the woman would have an issue with the armying here. Of anyone, Susan had the most right to be panicked about this. Bee licked her lips and started to speak a couple of times before actually figuring out what she wanted to say. "Do I... Should I go after her?" She asked Mary. The older woman looked at her and frowned thoughtfully. "Hmm, I think it''s best to leave her be for now, dear. I think she needs some time to vent and process by herself for a little bit. But you probably will need to talk to her. Maybe in an hour or two." Bee nodded, processing. She had totally forgotten to talk to Arthur about Susan''s presence, and it was obviously something he would need to address. She needed to find out the whole story from themander''s side, but there needed to be at least an attempt to make amends. She didn''t want Susan to think that her own suffering meant nothing to the church, and she had to make it clear to Arthur that those methods would no longer be tolerated. Thinking about it more, her opinion of Arthur took a sudden sharp hit. She sure hoped there was a reasonable exnation for the incident. But even knowing the man, she wasn''t sure how that would be. It didn''t fit her impression of Arthur at all to be so cruel and shortsighted. She could imagine him torturing a prisoner for information, but not without real reason. Certainly, not someone who was an ally, not without good cause. Perhaps she was just being naive, but she truly thought that. "While I am concerned about Susan," Mary continued, "myrger concern is food. Now, I have heard that Bee said the army was fully supplied. But what kind of supplies are those? How long will theyst? Will the soldiers be wanting our food? And how can we make sure that we''re not too generous and run out of our own food while trying to service their needs? We need to set up some sort of official trading system. "We''ve been running alright as a smallmunity so far. But even now, we''re starting to see gaps in our operations. Certain people have certain skills that are just in too high demand to meet everyone''s needs. Take Cassy, for example." Mary and Trent shared a smile at the mention of their oldest daughter. "As wonderful as her pies are, she doesn''t have time to make them for everyone. Even now she''s put a limit on how many she makes each day, but she would honestly prefer to make less. She''s actually not that fond of cooking, for the most part. But ever since your birthday, we''ve been getting requests for her pies nonstop." Bee nodded thoughtfully. She had pretty much ignored half the lessons her father had beaten into her skull about supply and demand when she was setting up this church, and to some extent, that made sense. They were here for a greater purpose than their own self-interest. But would that be true for all the soldiers? Would that be true for everyone under her care? Probably not. Plus, Bee really didn''t trust herself to make all these decisions for everyone. She didn''t even trust herself to find people who could make those decisions. As the number of people and their diverse talents grew, they needed to take a more hands-off approach to assigning work. "So we need some sort of way for people to trade, or some sort of contribution point system," Bee said. "So that we can give rewards based on the work people do, and then they can choose where to spend those rewards." Mary chuckled as Trent responded. "Yeah, that''s called money. The only difference is that we would control the source of it rather than it being dug out of the ground as gold. That''s basically what the king does with coins, at least." All right. She supposed she deserved that. But one thing was still bothering her. "By the way, Mary, where did you learn all this?" A slightly abashed look crossed the motherly woman''s face. Trent busted outughing. "Bee, you might want to check the library logs. You aren''t the biggest bookworm here anymore. Why, for the first time I had to tell her to pay attention at family meals!" Bee smiled at the thought of Mary trying to read under the table. "Okay. If we''re going to implement some sort of currency system. How are we going to do that?" They all looked at each other and shrugged. The Warden picked up the piece of paper on his desk for the umpteenth time and read it over. It was a small scroll with three red lines painted on the seal that had long been broken. Despite his many readings, the slim roll wasn''t even creased. But it was all he could do to keep from crumpling it in his hands. He had mostly sent Harold out as a punishment and hadn''t expected to see any real results from his investigation. The first Lieutenant he had checked up on was blessedly within those expectations. But the second one... That had the Warden upte at night feeling sick to his stomach. All his best agents were out in the field even now, looking for signs of the demon''s passing. The situation was intense. It was impossible to truly know what was going on. But if they could get some hint on where the Lieutenant was, they might be able to assemble a strike force with enough power to stop it. Maybe. He wasn''t honestly sure. Somehow, the Lieutenant escaping up in the north had not caused any problems and hadn''t been seen either. But he assumed that whatever other threat resided there was either involved or had subsumed the Lieutenant. As it was, the Lieutenant that had escaped here was known for its legends of deception and illusion. That seemed to be confirmed with what Harold had found. The massive illusion was in ce, making everyone who had been there for who knows how long convinced that the demon was still bound. Harold thought the demon had been gone for less than a month, but Warden wasn''t sure how far to trust his judgment. Though he was inclined to believe Harold, the man had always been amongst the more cautious of their order. If he thought that the timeline for the Lieutenant''s release was not as bad as it could have been, it was likely more the case than if he had been exaggerating the danger. The Warden put the paper down carefully again and smoothed it out as he paced along the room. But that wasn''t the only issue, the only thing setting him on edge. Something was wrong. The kingdom had been changing recently. He wasn''t exactly sure how to put his finger on it. The circle of advisors the King kept close to him had been meeting at their regr cadence, but the meetings had be actually noteworthy. Normally, the King was content to just sit back and leave the management of the kingdom to his ministers. The only thing he really cared about was his next conquest. So much so that they had spent allst year preparing to seize part of Barleona in an borate double-blind military invasion the man had cooked up one night, all because he was bored. But recently, the King had taken more interest in the proceedings. It was slight but noticeable. Not that any of the ministers thought this was a bad thing since their petty squabbles and power disputes always made it so that nothing really changed too much. While many didn''t get their way and were upset about the status quo, the kingdom was being run, and generally, things were happening for the betterment of the people. Sure, a few corrupt nobles had been rooted out, as were people who actively opposed the King''s changes. But for the most part, the ministers were loyal to the country, even if they hadpeting interests. So, they were happy to see the King take a more active role. What was less wee was some of the political purging. Corruption was agreed upon as a cause to be removed, as negligence or dereliction of duty were poison. Yet some of the people removed from their positions didn''t seem to fall into that group. They were just targeted, and no one could find a good reason for their removal. And it wasn''t even that they were being reced with cronies of the King. Their spots were taken by people who were otherwise forgettable, minor lords who had no connection to the King whatsoever. And so far as the Warden or any of his allies could find, there was no evidence of bribery or improper favors done for the King in exchange for these positions. Despite the hole these people represented in the Warden''s mapping of the political web, one thing was for certain: each one of them showed absolute loyalty to the King. It was starting to make some of the more seasoned ministers sweat, even if they had served loyalty to the King and the kingdom for years. Would they be reced on a whim, just as the others? The perfect example of this was General Arthur. He had been up north and actually sessfully defeated the undead invasion there, not to mention his long and decorated history as amander. Yet he had been removed because there were reports of his involvement with the unknown threat up there. Not proof. Not even full reports of any sort of betrayal. Still, on that alone, the King had issued a warrant for his arrest and immediate execution, along with a detainment and questioning of the entire army. That was one of the more foolish orders the Warden had ever seen, given there was really no way to enforce it. He couldn''t see an entire army being captured, especially under that man. The order itself almost guaranteed a rebellion. He wasn''t sure what the King was thinking. The Warden moved to pick up the piece of paper one more time but stopped himself. Instead, he grabbed his cloak and headed out of the room. It was the more official one he used as his office when he was acting in his administrative adviser persona. Walking through the halls of the castle, he considered going to check on any reports from hiswork but decided not to. It would be better if he made a call to an old friend. Gerald was the Minister of Finance and had been essential for any n of the King''s for the past almost four decades. If anyone could tell him more about what was going on with the King, it would be him. The Warden had learned early in his career as an agent that following the paper trail was always the best way to find any evidence of official proceedings, which was why his organization took extra care to avoid such things. But he knew to take advantage where he could. Chapter 209: Armed and Dangerous Chapter 209: Armed and Dangerous As usual, Gerald was in his study, and the Warden had to negotiate past a series of aides and secretaries to see him. It didn''t take that long. Since they all knew him, the bureaucrats only put up only a token resistance to his advance. Gerald had never bothered to change his standing orders that anyone but the King should be dyed as long as possible, but at the same time, he had never turned away any guest who was persistent enough. One just had to know the tricks for getting to him. The Warden walked into the dusty office. The only source of light was a small window above the desk. Otherwise, the space was crammed with paper, scrolls, and thick tomes. As he entered. Gerald lifted his pudgy bulk off of thefortable armchair behind the desk. His hunched figure practically waddled over to the Warden to give him a big hug. "John, my friend, it''s been too long! Why don''t you visit more?" The Warden returned the hug quite warmly. Gerald was an odd man, but he''d never met anyone with a better head for numbers. "Well, if you simply would let me past your guard dogs easier, maybe I would. Or perhaps you coulde to visit me." "Hurmph," Gerald said as he sat back down. "If I could ever find you, I might perhaps consider it." The Warden knew that was a lie. Gerald rarely left his office other than for food or the ministers'' meetings. He also knew that Gerald was too mindful of his own time to change the rules, even to let a good friend see him more frequently. "So, what brings you by?" Gerald asked as he pulled a bottle of whiskey from underneath his desk. The man wiped out a pair of sses and poured drinks,pletely ignoring that it was ten in the morning. "Well, I can''t be the only one to notice that something strange is going on. I want to know if you have any insights on what we can expect from our most industrious King next." - Bee and Tony stood at the gates to the castle as the first of Arthur''s army arrived. The steady tramp of boots marching in step rang throughout the valley, echoing off of the mountain walls. Even though they were allies, Bee couldn''t help but be slightly intimidated by the disy. She didn''t like the idea of there being a force at home that she couldn''t match, aside from Void, of course. Not yet, at least. She wasn''t sure if she should be bothered by that thought. It had just crept into her assumptions that one day, she would rival an army all on her own. One day soon, too, if a fourteen-year-old at level 50 was any indicator. Some basic searching in the library had told her that myths didn''t even tell of such things. So far, no one had really noticed her true strength. Only Mary and presumably Void knew her exact level. But looking back, what she had aplished during her time with Void was only so impressive. Sure, this time was full of challenges and difficulties, but the tales of young heroes and their conquests of legend were at least as impressive. Still, they didn''t reach level 50 until well into adulthood. It almost made her feel inadequate, having only done so much. Either their stories were far embellished, or their proper levels weren''t urately recorded. Each row of soldiers approached the castle and gave a uniform salute before turning and marching toward the marked field before it. The Church had staked out an area for the army but also gave them some of the forest to clear if they wanted more space. They would need the building materials soon anyway. While she wasn''t technically in the chain ofmand that Arthur and Void had set up, this was to get everyone familiar with her face and that of her second. Bee had wanted Susan to be here as well, but she still was hiding. She felt badbeling it that in her head, as she didn''t feel that Susan deserved such a disdainful description. But what else could Bee call it? The woman had avoided everyone for days. Only Void''s intervention had brought her out of hiding to speak with Bee at all. And that had only aplished so much. At least she had agreed to talk to Arthur. It felt a little crummy springing such a conversation on him, but Void had faith in his abilities. Bee wasn''t sure what anyone could say to get Susan to move past her issues. Still, it made her oddlypetitive rtionship with Captain Major make a lot more sense. The Captain had been a whole other issue. She and Void had actually taken the officer back to Arthur so they could work out what was going to happen. Apparently, many of Captain Major''s people were worried about reintegrating with the main forces. Not because they were kingdom loyalists or anything like that. No, a lot of the men had not wanted to leave the Church. The many young widows from the undead conflict had developed strong bonds with the army''s young men. Arthur had insisted that he had no power to force them to return if they wanted to stay in the castle. It wasn''t like he had the power to arrest them for dereliction of duty anymore. Still, apromise had been worked out. While Arthur''s army hadn''t tied itself to Void as tightly as the current residents had, Bee thought it was only a matter of time. Still, she didn''t say anything. Arthur''s position was that they wouldn''t stop any of their numbers from joining the Church. In fact, it was rather encouraged in order for their training program to work. So, about half of the Captain''s soldiers decided they would rejoin Arthur''s army. The other half would take up positions as the castle''s official garrison. Pretty much everyone was happy. And with the Captain''s report on his troops'' levels, Bee saw Arthur''s demeanor lift for the first time since their meetings had begun. Seeing how well just being around the faith had assisted their growth made him finally believe their n might work. Bee''s secret hope was that she would get him to level fifty soon. He was close, and she could only imagine what would happen with his third ss. The man was already formidable, but if he picked up amand ss like she had, a lot of their bonuses would stack quite impressively. The pseudo-parade went on for hours, and Bee quickly lost the ability to process the sea of faces moving past her. Only the asional faithful among the crowd stood out to her anymore. Aside from the asional thread of faith she picked up from a passing soldier, everything blended together. Arthur joined her a while in, and that conversation thankfully provided some distraction. "How do you find the space? Do you have enough room?" "Yes, Miss Bee. We should be able to fit for now. It''s going to be tight, but once we start processing some lumber, we should have more room to expand." Arthur said. "One thing that we haven''t yet discussed is traffic into the castle." That wasn''t entirely true. They had talked about it several times, but they had never reallye to a definite decision. It was obvious to both of them that they couldn''t allow the free movement of the soldiers into the castle. "You have some new ideas?" "I do. The garrison will have guards stationed at the gate around the clock, yes?" "They will." Bee didn''t add that the Nighty Knights would also have their own guard rotations. On the surface, it wasn''t that important. But now that their levels were starting to near the double digits, they began to match some of the weaker soldiers, and with their growth "I would like to add some of my own men to the rotation to assure that order is kept, if that won''t cause any offense." "I will see that it doesn''t. But how will that help with our problem?" "Well, as my solution will require extra work for them, it''s only fair that we contribute." Arthur exined with a smile. "I''m thinking that it would be a bad idea to bar soldierspletely from the castle. That would drive a wedge between us and unnecessarily sow division. While I would like to think that I can control my men, I would rather not have to. So instead, I propose that we have some allotment of day passes to offer as rewards." Bee thought for a second. That wasn''t a half-bad idea; there would need to be a lot of setup work for them at first. They would need to issue some identification for all the citizens of the castle, for example, and measures to verify the pass''s holder. But it would be good to mingle with their people. "I think we can work on that. We will need to think about a starting number and get some other things set up. I would like to say that at least half should be strictly training rewards, the other can be discretionary." "Officers do like to have ways to reward their men, but training is paramount now." Arthur agreed. "This whole army is bloodied now. I wouldn''t call them all veterans, but each and every one of them knows a bit about soldiering now. "Armies like this usually get split at the end of a campaign to form the backbone of new legions. The veterans form the new core and greens fill up the empty slots. I have never seen an army like this be given a chance to train without disruption. We are going to produce something new here." Bee nodded solemnly as the rows of soldiers continued marching past. They must have taken extra time to preparest night as, despite being at the end of a multi-week march, they looked clean and sharp. "I hope it''s enough." "I do too." Tony had been standing off to the side, listening for a long while. This was his first time meeting the general, and Bee could tell that he was slightly overwhelmed. It was rather out of character for the guy, but Arthur did have a presence about him, she supposed. Sadly, this wasn''t a great time to get over his awkwardness and have a first conversation in front of everyone. Still, she felt a bit of an obligation to help her friend out. "Also, this is Tony, our people manager. I think you two will need to get to know each other, as he will also be the army''s point of contact for their needs from the castle." Bee introduced the slightly star-struck young man. They exchanged a handshake, and Arthur gave the younger man a fatherly smile. "I hope you have some staff. Things might be a bit overwhelming, especially at first. You have no idea the amount of paperwork an army generates." "Well, I hope that the castle''ll have enough paper then." Tony said, "And yes, I have a few helpers. Mostly I keep track of people and make sure they''re using their skills well, so we''re not wasting talents. The castle is pretty settled right now, so of everyone on the council I have the most time." "Not for long." Arthur grinned maliciously. Chapter 210: Code White Chapter 210: Code White As the weeks went by, the castle settled into a regr routine and began to assume some semnce of normalcy. Normal, of course, until the incident. My sensors indicated some abnormality with the ground outside. I had picked it upst night, but hadnt had time to investigate. Helping the soldiers clean up all the sawdust from their lumber mill took priority. But when I finally did emerge from the soldiers temporary structure, I was greeted by an awful sight. I had barely gotten used to the idea of the outside world being covered with dirt, but this? This was somehow worse. A brown slurry of unknown origin had covered the camp, concentrated most densely along walking paths. It wasnt mud exactly, but it must have shared some rtion. The stuff clung to boots and trouser legs, seeming to and I could detect muddy footprints heading into almost every tent. This was a disaster of epic proportions. Every area of dry, densely-packed dirt had been reced with this new foe. Even with my newfound powers, cleaning this up would take me all day. To make matters worse, I still had no idea how far this terror had spread. Was it a local cmity, or were we caught up in some wider phenomenon? How had the castle fared? The only saving grace was that the covered areas were unaffected. Aside from what was tracked in by the humans and their boots, of course. I ran throughst night''s logs, looking for anything out of ce. We received some precipitationst night, which normally helped wash things away. Even if it did spread water everywhere, it was something I usually looked forward to. That could have exined mud, but surely not this. Looking more closely, the precipitation had been a bit unusual. The water had disyed a far more ordered molecr structure than normal. But the ambient temperature had continued dropping every week, so I had put it down to simple entropy. As much as I wanted to start cleaning up this mess right away, I had to go check on the castle. If this was widespread, my responsibilitiesy there first. Hovering carefully off the ground to keep the disgusting slush from my underside, I zipped off toward the castle. As I zoomed over the camp, I noticed more oddities. No one seemed to care that much about this development. Sure, they knocked their boots together before they entered the tents or any area that was rtively clean, but they otherwise just trudged through the slurry. No one really made any moves to clean it up. Arthurs men werent so well-trained on cleanliness, but this seemed a bit much. In fact, I didn''t notice anyone acknowledge the stuff until I crossed over the castle gate. There, the stone paving of the path leading inward had been scraped clean of the brownish-white stuff. When it came to the people though, the only behavioral difference I could detect was that they were wearing slightly warmer clothing. Once I got into the castles courtyard though, things changed. Sure, there were patches of muddy brown, but there were also patches of purest white. Both appeared simr, the only difference being the concentration of dirt within the mixture. That, and the ratio of liquid to solid water was higher in the slurry than in the white powder. It seemed that this was moreplicated than I originally thought. The ces where the brown, muddy, dirty, gross stuff gathered were where the humans had walked. The unbroken fields of the purest white were cespletely untouched by human hands or boots. However, even now the humans were in the process of destroying these fields of white. All the little ones were running around like the children they were. They would scoop up the white stuff, pack it into little balls, and hurl it at each other, the clumps exploding into chaotic messes that covered everyone and everything. The more they ran, the more brown stuff slowly encroached on the white fields. But at the same time, the more they stayed in the white fields, the less brown stuff clung to their boots. I spotted little Leanne as she walked out to the center of the field. The first several steps of her path were brown, but after that, they lightened until she left only little holes in the white. After a few moments of walking, she copsed in despair on her back at the state of the world and began thrashing around wildly. Oh, no. Was she hurt? I zipped over to check on her. As I hovered overhead, I noticed something was not as I expected. She wasn''t crying or screaming in despair; instead, she wasughing. What was there tough about here? Moving her arms and legs in a rhythmic pattern, she made an impression in the fluffy whiteness, making an outline of herself with very thick arms and legs. I wasn''t sure what the point was, but soon enough she stopped and stood up carefully. The girl hopped away to look down at her work, pointed,ughed, and called over to her friends. This was a disturbing urrence. Had this white powder somehow infected the children''s minds with this insanity? How could they not see the problem of the brown sludge, much less help its apparent spread? Why did they trample through these fields? I needed to get to the bottom of this. After making sure that Leanne was okay, I continued toward the castle to ensure the inside was still safe. Once I got in, I was thoroughly pleased with what I saw. Sure, there was a little bit of gross slush in the entryway, but it was mainly around a pile of boots and shoes next to the door. People were apparently in the practice of taking their boots off and putting their inside shoes on. One of the Nighty Knights stood by the door with a broom, continually sweeping the mess outside. Another held a rag, wiping down the floor after his partner. Good. I was d they were taking my teachings to heart. This would surely serve them well in the future. I couldn''t help but give them a little salute, which they returned with smiles on their faces. Still, as I zipped upstairs, I could tell they looked outside worriedly. Maybe they were concerned about the madness gripping the rest of the fellows of theirpany. I wished there was something I could do tofort them. But honestly, I had no idea what was going on. I would need to talk to Beatrice. She would be able to exin to me what was happening. I found her in her office looking at reports while rubbing her forehead in frustration. She had been extremely busy this week getting everything set up. At the same time, the Council, Arthur, and his militarys structure had proven exceedingly helpful with putting ns into motion. Still, they generated awe-inspiring amounts of paper to record everything. While I was certainly impressed by the organization of the army, I was sometimes shocked at how many resources they took to operate. I had expected them to require less now that they were no longer in the field and doingplex maneuvers. But apparently, when they were stationary, things got even moreplicated. The work I remembered from watching over Arthurs shoulder was nothingpared to this. I hovered over Beatrice''s desk, and it was a measure of her exhaustion that she didn''t even recognize I hade in. Normally, she was never slow to greet me with a cheerful hello or a bow. This time, she was just scribbling numbers on a spare piece of paper off to the side, evidently trying to figure something out. I studied the sheets of paperid out in front of her. It took me a few minutes, but I understood what she was getting at. It seemed that she hadn''t fully grasped the problem, but her instincts were good andmendable for her to realize there even was an issue. I carefully gave her a soft beep so as not to startle her too much. Her head whipped up in surprise, then she jumped to her feet and respectfully greeted me with a cheerful "Hello, master." I tapped a few pieces of paper indicating certain numbers on them, and she looked at them and frowned. "Yes, something doesn''t line up here, but I''m not sure why exactly." As I expected. She had good instincts, but humans seemed to be pretty bad at basic math. I supposed thats why Beatrice had insisted on setting up sses for everyone. So, I started to walk her through the problems, projecting equations as we went. As I did with the children, I had little symbols that represented different mathematical operations, to make them easier to understand. Little herds of sheep gathered in the illusion over my head, demonstrating all steps for the correct ounting calctions. Bee followed along as I described exactly what the numbers were saying and why the results were wrong. It wasn''t anything malicious, here, as was most often the case with Arthur. This was simply a bad ounting error where some of the numbers had been improperly calcted. Still, as I walked her through it, she smiled at a certain point as she got the idea and could put together the rest herself. I was really proud of her. She was clearly learning how to organize and do math much better. After we had settled the problem of math and she had made some careful corrections to the ledgers, I finally got around to asking my own questions. I reyed my logs of the precipitationst night, showing the white kes of madness slowly sifting down through the air tond on the ground. I showed her the unbroken patches of white, the brown slurries of semiliquid mush, and the people tracking the mud everywhere through the camp. Andst of all, Leanne,ughing in the snow like a crazy person. I expected some somber exnation of what was going on, somemiseration over this new great threat. At the very least, I hoped for some insight into why no one else seemed worried. But instead, I watched in horror Beatrice broke out in a smile and giggled. "Yes, it''s snowing so early in the year! Isn''t that great?" She was also infected. Chapter 211: Constructing an Alliance Chapter 211: Constructing an Alliance I followed Bradley Chadwick out of the castle grounds at a bit of a distance. The army had been here for a few weeks and was really starting to settle in. The "snow debacle" had eventually run its course, and we had figured out apromise that we could all live with. Part of that included paved walkways running through the camps and connecting them to the castle. It had taken a bit of convincing to get everyone on board with this priority, but I had managed it. Arthur had wanted to build the buildings first, but with the rapid changes in temperature, mud was getting everywhere. Not only was it making a mess, it was difficult to move the equipment and supplies being gathered to build a more permanent camp. The other major changes, aside from building roads, included the construction of stone quarries. It required a bit of work, but I helped things get moving. This allowed the army ess to much superior building materials than the wood they were originally nning on using. I thoroughly approved of the change to stone as the main material. Processing wood was very messy. Also, it was easier to keep the polished stone clean, especially since we didn''t have the ability to pressure-treat wood at the moment. Construction was a bit slower than we would''ve liked, but after a couple of weeks, we were ready for the first attempt at integration of the army and the castle''s inhabitants. Bradley led two others of the Nighty Knights along the road over to the camp. At the entrance, he was met by a pair of soldiers who were expecting him. Some awkward greetings took ce, but eventually, they all made it inside the camp. The soldiers didn''t seem to know how to react to the Nighty Knights. It was an inadequacy a lot of people shared. People just had to remember they were children. Children were also elite warriors on a holy crusade against dirt, but children nheless. What was soplicated about that? The small group walked through the camp, slowly getting used to each other. It was lucky that the children were easily impressed, at least. In particr, they loved to stop and watch the construction. In fact, at one point, they stopped the whole tour to spend half an hour watching a main beam be lowered into ce for one of thergemand buildings. The event seemed to make the soldiers even more confused. I understood the children''s amazement, though. The mess of pulleys and draft horses used to maneuver a beam weighing thousands of pounds into an extremely right space was quite fascinating. A few other times, the children wanted to stop and watch some other interesting thing, but the soldiers eventually lost patience and reminded them that Arthur was waiting to meet them. I was just d that they hadn''t tried to get in the way of the builders or tried to help them. That would have been dangerous. Arthur wasn''t really waiting for them too much. He was in his office trying to keep up with paperwork. That man never had enough time for everything he needed to do. Ever since the apology to Susan, he had twice as many scouting reports to deal with. While Beatrice tried to help offload the work to other people, Arthur insisted on doing a lot more of it himself than he probably should''ve. If this kept up much longer, I would have to have a talk with him. He was a more capablemander than this, and he had taught me a lot about delegating, so I knew he could do it. My hypothesis was that this was his version of penance. I could tell from the whole ordeal that things still had a long way to go before they were fully repaired, but at least they were going in the right direction. Eventually, the tour ended, and the Nighty Knights made it to themand center. Arthur stood to wee the little representatives of the castle. "Hello, honored knights." Bradley and hispanions returned the greeting with a bow and equally formal speech. "Thank you for your hospitality, General." "I heard that the three of you have a proposal on some activities we can do to further strengthen ties between my men and the castle," Arthur elucidated as he gestured for them to sit in the offered chairs. Bradley nodded as seriously as his little face could manage. The effect was lessened somewhat as the Knights had to physically hop to reach the chairs. "We do. See, recently we celebrated High Priestess Bee''s birthday with a series of events andpetitions. Outstanding performances were awarded with prizes from Void himself. I was thinking that since we had so much fun with that, maybe we could do something simr here. However, I do not think we will be able to impose upon our Lord for the prizes. But the idea of day passes that you and High Priestess Beatrice have been considering would be a ton of fun!" Bradley''s brow was pinched from maintaining such formal and unnatural speech for someone his age for so long. He did slip up a little bit at the end, but I was proud of him. He had been repeating that set of words for almost two days, constantly muttering it under his breath, trying to make sure he sounded just like the adults that he would be talking to. I hadn''t helped or corrected him in terms of what was necessary for his speech, as it seemed to mean so much to him. But it was nice to see. Somehow, Arthur was able to maintain hisposure despite the overwhelming cuteness radiating off the very serious child soldiers. I had to repress a slight squeal to make sure that my presence stayed unnoticed as I watched from above. I technically wasn''t supposed to be here. Probably. The Knights were proud of having a real responsibility for themselves, and my presence might make it seem like I didn''t trust them. Still, I worried about my charges, and I wasn''t going to let them enter an unfamiliar camp alone without some experience. But as long as no one knew I was here, I was sure it wouldn''t affect the oue either way. Arthur took half a second topose himself and ensure he maintained his mask of seriousness before responding. "Excellent. Sounds like an interesting proposal. So you propose a fighting tournament involving some group, maybe a squad or toon, in which the winners receive day passes. I do like that. It rewards thepetence and effort men put into learning how to fight. "My concern is that it would be the same people winning each time. How do you think we should make it so that while the best are rewarded, it''s not always the same victors? Otherwise, you might as well just give them permanent passes, and that wouldn''t achieve the main goal of getting the people familiarized with everyone else." Bradley took a minute to think about this and looked over at hispanions to see if they had any advice. Luckily, the little girl sitting to his left did. "Well, that''s easy. We just have different games." Bee drew up a list of events that she had tucked behind one of her stacks of paper. It was something that a lot of the Nighty Knights had helped her brainstorm, and she had also taken some input from Captain Major. The proposal she had sent to Bradley with Arthur had gone fairly well, and so he had asked for specifics. She was sure that Arthur had already decided on the events he actually wanted, but this was more of an exercise for the Nighty Knights and everyone else to contribute to. After reviewing the list, she took care of one more quick task. Pulling out some pieces of paper, she designed what a day pass would look like and drew up a quick 50 of them. It only took her a few minutes, but she was rtively certain that no one would be able to match the precision and detail she put into creating each of these without significant hours'' worth of forgery. Just to be safe, she also made a registry for the passes. That would hopefully help the guards to make sure that only people who were allowed toe in did. It was probably overkill, but ording to Arthur, little traditions and things like this were built into the culture of a military or any group of people. Susan begrudgingly agreed. While the castle had their own culture, they''d have to integrate with a force muchrger than their own and somehow not get swept away. Controlling things like this, where her culture at the castle and the refugees would not get overwhelmed, was a great way to ensure this assimtion went smoothly. The soldiers would end up at least open to the idea of following Void rather than the castle bing just like any other support base. She was d that Arthur had thought of this idea first. On her own, she certainly wouldn''t have known how to carry it out. To be fair, Arthur didn''t either, but he had enough experience with worse solutions that themander had a few ideas of how to improve on them. Personally, she was looking forward to seeing some of the soldiers'' tournaments. While the Nighty Knights'' duels had certainly been exciting, professional soldiers were bound to have more experience under their belt, and it would be interesting to see how differently they fought. Even though she outleveled them, she had no illusions that there was nothing to learn from people who''d been doing this as a career for so long. The idea, though, that some soldiers would choose to challenge some of the Nighty Knights for slots was very interesting. The Nighty Knights hosted a few afternoons of open challenges where soldiers interested in earning a day pass from them coulde and try their hands. Then, based on votes, the Nighty Knights would pick the five most worthy candidates to have ess to the castle for the next weekend. However, the Nighty Knights had some of the wildest ideas of what constituted a challenge. What''s more, they had apparently taken Arthur''s point about ensuring different victors to heart. So, the variety of challenges they had nned was quite impressive. Bee thought that many of the soldiers woulde more for the show of watching theirrades make a fool of themselves rather than actually participating. Still, it would be good. As it was, the castle was a bit tense, worrying about the soldiers and the changes they stood for. A few people had left the castle to spend some time in the camp for a few hours at a time, but it had always been a little weird. They weren''t fullyfortable in the camp. Not to mention that everyone was too busy for ideal conversation; it was all hands on deck to get everything built before the next snow. No one wanted a repeat of that event. They had made significant inroads with the families and the camp followers who were not professional soldiers but still apanied the army. They also weren''t allowed in the castle freely, as there were just far too many of them. But she could feel some lines of faith connecting out to them already. Bee leaned back in her chair with a sigh. Things wereing together. She just needed more time. Chapter 212: Play Fighting Chapter 212: y Fighting Bee looked over at Arthur, watching the man''s worried expression as the twobatants stepped into the ring. The first was a little girl, Irene Chadwick. Bee suppressed her smile. She was sure that no one else knew what wasing. Arthur''s worried frown just deepened. Themander''s expression was mirrored on the otherbatant''s face. The soldier''s grizzled exterior,plete with a prickly beard and nasty scar along the cheek, would have identified him as some sort of rugged bandit in most stories she had heard. But the hesitation and disapproval radiating off of him spoke of one with young children of his own. He shifted his grip anxiously on the hilt of his sword, looking at its blunt wooden de. Trepidation filled his every movement. Bee couldn''t me him. Going up against a four-year-old girl seemed excessive, even if they were using practice swords. Not only that, but these men probably didn''t understand the reality of these kids'' power. The number of children who had earned levels before they were ten was vanishingly small. As impressive as it sounded, the achievement was usually due to some sort of traumatic experience as opposed to intentional training. What parent would make their children kill so young, after all? That was not the case with the Chadwicks or any of the Nighty Knights. They had all gained power through the direct intervention of a god. Little Irene Chadwick was especially blessed. At least, she was if her "God-touched" title was to be believed. Not to mention that her first skill was quite broken. Since the festival, she had even reached level ten and received her second skill. However, Beatrice hadn''t seen her use it yet. Her theory was that Irene had gotten a variant skill, one that each progressive level in skill choice didn''t offer her new skills but simply upgrades to her base skill. These skills were rare and unusually powerful. As Irene grew, she would be even more specialized and deadly, but the soldier was just a soldier. Sure, he was ten times as old as Irene and had at least double her level. And the physics of having arger frame, longer reach, and just years of experience fighting has to count for something, right? At least, that''s what Arthur was telling her. Bee would have agreed, usually. But the element of surprise was not to be underestimated. The referee called a start to the match. The soldier rushed forward with his guard up, aiming to finish the fight without harming his opponent. He moved quickly, though, likely to avoid hisrades teasing him about fighting a little girl. Irene, though, simply bowed her head and prayed. The massive, ghostly figure of Void appeared behind her, seeminglyrger in size since thest time Bee had seen it. With a fluid movement, its w smashed down toward the man. Still, the soldier had some experience, and that wasn''t to be discounted. Bracing the de of his sword against his gauntleted left hand, he raised and blocked, not catching the strike but deflecting it off to the side. A look of shock shed across his features at the sheer force. From what Bee could tell about the skill, it wasn''t based on any physics or magic innately provided by Irene. It was simply based on the strength of her faith. And since faith was by far her highest stat, even the ncing blow had a ton of power behind it. The angle of the soldier''s block forced most of the momentum off to the side, but the recoil still drove him to one knee. But instead of trying to rise, the man dove forward and rolled. The quick reaction was the only thing that saved him from the second attack. Another w materialized out of nowhere and smashed down into the ground, leaving a crater where he once stood. The appendage then vanished back into the floating disc behind Irene. Irene hadn''t even opened her eyes to redirect the attack, but it had nheless honed in on her opponent. Bee grinned over at Arthur, who was muttering something under his breath. "I think you''re going to have to do my paperwork for a week," she taunted. Arthur grimaced, clearly regretting the friendly bet she had baited him into. He didn''t seem like a gambling man, but he couldn''t say no to the challenge in front of the men who would be fighting. Showing such little faith in his own soldiers would probably have been too demoralizing. Plus, the stakes weren''t too big of a deal. It''s probably just a little bit of missing sleep. Her focus returned to the spar just in time to see the second part of Irene''s ability; a blinding light red out from behind her, silhouetting her. A long blue beam of magic shot out, scorching the ground at the feet of the soldier and making him jump back. At the same time, the w swept down toward him. The soldier had no choice but to take the full brunt of it on his sword and shoulder. Luckily, Irene had apparently ounted for this, or at least her prayer had recognized that she did not want to kill the man. Instead of mming him directly down, it came at an angle and sent him tumbling out of the arena. Hended among the steadying arms of his friends, where they ringed the sparring circle. The grizzled veteran climbed to his feet, panting. On all sides, he was showered with deriding mockery from the other soldiers as they helped him up. The referee dered the spar over by knockout. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it off," the man called to his detractors. "I want to see any two of you go against her." No one took him up on that challenge. Meanwhile, Irene walked back over to the waiting group of Nighty KnightsWords of praise and a few ps on the back greeted her before her brother swept her up in a big hug, spinning the tiny girl around. Her girlish giggles floated across the arena and drew collective "a" out of the crowd by her very cuteness. Bee couldn''t me them. She really was adorable. Getting used to dealing with these children had taken her a long time as they were far too adult in some ways. But unlike her, they hadn''t lost her childlike innocence. While they had a rough time training under Void, they never truly felt alone. They were never scared. They were never saddled with more than they could bear. And despite having power, they wielded it responsibly. Well, most of the time. "I guess I do owe you some paperwork, Miss Bee," Arthur sighed, shaking his head. "If I had known what a monster that little girl was, I don''t think I ever would have taken that bet. Morale be cursed." Bee justughed at him, and he continued. "Where did you find her anyway? That skill bears a striking resemnce to Lord Void. She must have quite a story." Bee shrugged. "You''d think so, right? But it''s not a story any different from ours. Void cares for the children, though. We think it''s one of its domains. Void looked over a lot of the orphans from Greg, even the ones who had mothers. That''s where all the Nighty Knights came from." "So this is just a consequence of Void''s training?" "Yeah. Well, mostly. Void just took them under its wing, taught them the sword, and ran them ragged while ying with them. They got their first levels and sses from dropping rocks on undead though. I think all the cleaning Void had them doing got them a lot of experience after that." "Hmmm" Arthur mulled over the information. "It seems that anyone who holds Void in respect and worships him gets experience from that sort of stuff, as I''m sure some of your soldiers have started to notice. Especially If you take the ss that the system offers rted to Void. There''s been a few variants I''ve seen that have only increased those effect. All these children are examples of that." "So what you''re saying is, I have good reason to politely decline any future bets." "Yeah, it''s probably a good idea." Bee said with augh. "I do appreciate you taking the loss for this one. I believe it was important for building excitement and maybe a little bit of rivalry. I hope your men will take losing to children well." Arthur shrugged. "They''ll have to. We have to face reality at some point, no matter how absurd it seems. Besides, they want to learn anyway, right? This will just show them what Void can do for them." As they set up for the next bout, Bee considered the encampment around her. While building the first settlement had been exciting, things had started to slow down. Most of the main buildings were constructed, and everyone was in generally good shape and prepared for the next snow. In fact, ording to Arthur and a few of the lieutenants that Bee had talked to, this was the best camp they''d ever made. The strong foundations they''did before they really nned out the permanent buildings made this more of a small town. A town was what Void had indicated, and thanks to Arthur, it was finally bing a reality. The next soldier to face one of the Nighty Knights was significantly more wary than his predecessor. No hesitation or concern about fighting a child lingered in his gaze. Bee was d because the elder Chadwick stepped forward to meet this challenge. While she had seen the Nighty Knights power before, it was something she had to remind herself of frequently. And it was impossible to remember that without remembering the finals of the birthdaypetition. It hadn''t been little Irene with her terrifying avatar that won. It had been Bradley Chadwick with his impable sword skills. The Nighty Knights let out an excited cheer as their champion took the field. The soldiers followed their representative withughs and mocking taunts. Bee noticed that they were primarily from those who hadn''t agreed to fight for a weekend pass. The ticket system was working out better than anyone had hoped. Thepetition for the chance to break the daily grind of work and training seemed to motivate the troops well. At the same time, the castle had reported no problems with the visiting soldiers. They mostly just came and worked, talked, or traded with the members of the castle. In fact, they worked harder than they likely would have if they''d stayed back in their camp. But more than anything else, they seemed to relish the chance to interact and enjoy the food Mary and her staff whipped up. They were all rather boisterous for being chosen for the weekly excursion. A few of Arthur''s men had been shy or reserved, but the children''s and residents'' general friendliness had pulled them out of their shells. By the time everyone left after dinner, there were usually great rtions and promises of future visits left behind. Bee had also noticed a growing bond in her spiritual sense for the soldiers who visited. This faith in their god only strengthened as they walked amongst their fellow soldiers. After just a few weeks of this, Bee started to see that spread to soldiers who had never even visited. The faith they showed was slightly different and less personal, but the strands remained. Each and every one of those people was marked to her, and perhaps it was just her imagination. But as she watched them, she swore she could see them slowly make an effort to embody Void''s ideals. They were slightly neater. Their armor was better cared for. Even the angles at which swords hung on their belts seemed a little less haphazard. But who could really tell? Bee blinked. Bradley was already walking away from his defeated opponent. Bee had apparently missed the fight in the brief time she was thinking. Chapter 213: A Good Shepherd Chapter 213: A Good Shepherd Arthur pped Bee on the shoulder. "That boy is a terror already." She nodded in agreement as Bradley stepped toward his fellow Nighty Knights. "He is. He''s one of their best." "Is that so?" Arthur mulled his next words over. "I''d like to spend an afternoon training with him. He''s already quite solid on swordy. I''m not sure how much I can teach him there. But there are some more general lessons I think he''d benefit from, especially while he''s young. I expect there''s not many warriors in the castle he can look up to, are there?" Bee shook her head. "Not really. Aside from your men, most of our adult fighters would lose against him." "All the more reason then." Arthur nodded. "He might need someone to learn from. Someone who actually can beat him in a fight. Without that well, at this rate, he might outpace me soon, as well. I worry that he won''t need to listen to anyone, then.." "What do you mean? He has Void to learn from." "Well, that is true," Arthur said, choosing his words carefully. "Void is a bit distant from regr human affairs.Sometimes, people learn best from their fathers. I can''t im to be a perfect teacher, but I have raised three sons." Arthur''s chest swelled with pride. "And from what I''ve heard, Bradley might be missing a bit of a father figure." Bee nodded, wondering where this was going. "Well, I can''t step fully into that role, truthfully. Despite how much I wish I could. I think maybe having a couple hours with him sometime next week isn''t out of the realm of possibility. I''d be curious to see how it goes." Bee nodded. "Well, I can''t speak for him, honestly. You''ll have to get his mother''s approval, but I''ll pass along your offer." Arthur nodded. "Of course. If she''s okay with it, I''d like to make some time to talk with the boy and maybe have a match of my own. I''d say you can recognize someone who will grow into their power rather well. And I''d like to get to know the kid better." Bee just nodded, thinking. Had she really gotten to know any of the Nighty Knights? Sure, she''s had good interactions with Felix and Tanu and many of the others, but to her, they were just children. Rather annoying children at first. Before Void had made her see them in a different light, she wasn''t even really aware they had personalities of their own. She''d have to change that. Despite how much she and Arthur bonded over whining about paperwork, they would have much free time over the winter. Perhaps it was time again to take a more personal approach to the Church. While she had the chance. --- I soared above the castle, streaking through the sky as the first rays of morning peeked over the horizon. I practiced my direction changes, darting to and fro as I approached the tall mountain in the distance. It had been quite a while since I hadst gone and visited Daedalus. Between cleaning up the snow and helping the Nighty Knights design challenges for the soldiers, things had been busy recently. We made sure to make them particrly difficult. After all, my followers in the castle were special to me. But I finally had some time to myself. Even better, I finally had an idea of how to thank Daedalus for his help with the birthday presents. Besides the other half of the energy, I had to give him, of course. Plus, I felt a little bad about leaving him alone for so long. Fortunately, I didn''t think he''d mind the extra days too much. If he had been sitting there for tens of thousands of years, he must have been incredibly patient. Either that or his sense of time required some retuning. He did mention that time passed differently for a dragon. Something about immortality and patience. It only took me a little bit to reach the top of the mountain. I zipped into the cave eagerly. The snow up here was perpetual and more solid than the stuff at the castle. Based on the mountaintop''s whiteness, even during summer, perhaps it never melted. Well, at least it was cleaner when it wasn''t being trudged through and mucked about by humans. I couldn''t really me them, though. They had to get around somehow, and not everyone could fly. Something I pitied them greatly for. I called out a greeting before I entered the cave. Daedalus gave a snort, which I interpreted as a wee. The massive red dragon was evidently resting on his mountain of disorganized gold. His toothy maw broke into a wide grin as he saw me. "Ah, Spot, my friend. I''m d you''re back so soon." Examining the dragon''s great wings, I saw they were straight and unbent, though there were still some faint tatters on one of them. I congratted him on his recovery, and he flicked his tongue out nonchntly. "Nah. ''Tis but a scratch. I''ve had worse. Did take a decent amount of energy to heal from, though. I only just woke up from the nap a couple of days ago, honestly. So it''s good you came by now." I expressed my relief at Daedalus''s health and inquired if he was ready to receive the second half of his energy. "No, not yet. I think perhaps in a week or so," Daedalus said, disappointedly sighing. "I would like to gain some more levels, but if I took it now, a lot of it would be wasted. The stuff would go towards healing thest of this wing. It''ll fix up by itself soon enough." I beeped in understanding, "So, what have you been up to, little friend?" We settled into afortable conversation about what I had been doing in the valley. Daedalus asionally chuckled at the humans'' antics or asked questions about the castle. Eventually, the conversation came around as to why I was originally here. Digging into my dustbin, I brought my gift. I had intentionally only kept it in there for a short while to avoid whatever magical contamination I tended to impart on things. Daedalus was extremely powerful. I imagine it would have been unpleasant to eat something that had gained magic powers. Besides, I was worried about it changing the taste. That would have made Cassie upset. The pies she had won her award for were fruit- and berry-based, but I wasn''t exactly sure what dragons ate. Judging based on their teeth, they weren''t like the sheep or humans, who enjoyed eating nts. I didn''t see how the fibrous quality would work with the sizable jagged teeth, so I asked her to make a meat pie. Apparently, there were a lot more kinds of meat pies than I had expected, and it had taken a little bit to settle on a nice shepherd''s pie. Some freshly butchered mutton, potatoes, and many other unfamiliar ingredients had gone in. I was interested in cooking to the extent of providing for my humans, but it wasn''t my calling at all. Kind of like Beatrice''s alchemy. Still, it was impressive to watch. I had great fun observing all the spicesbined in ways that left me entirely confused about their purposes. There were many times that I was confident that humans wouldn''t be able to detect such minute differences in theposition of a dish. Still, I was assured that every step was necessary. Daedalus reacted immediately as I removed my offering from my dustbin. A gale of wind was pulled from the mouth of the cave as he breathed in with his nose. "Hmm. That smells heavenly, my friend. Did you bring that for me?" I couldn''t help but chuckle inwardly at the avarice in the dragon''s tone as he attempted to peer nonchntly at the steaming pastry. The pie was freshly baked this morning. In fact, that was the main reason I had left the castle so early. I thought that asking Cassie to make me a pie was a fairly standard request, but it had caused much hubaloo in the castle as she immediately dropped what she was doing and went to fulfill it. It was a bit excessive, and I tried to exin that there was no rush, but she was insistent about making me one immediately. At least it meant the pie was fresh. I held it aloft with my air maniption. Slowly, I floated it over to him, but as his tongue started to dart out from his scaly maw, I decided I had teased him enough and let him know it was indeed his. With the confirmation, Daedalus''s eyes shed. The dragon''s neck stretched forward, bringing his great head toward the tiny pastry. Rather than snatch it up whole, he showed some admirable manners by licking up a single morsel. Daedalus closed his eyes in pleasure as he closed his mouth, savoring the taste. I couldn''t say I fully understood the sensation. I''d seen humans react simrly to tasty food, but I just didn''t get the same pleasure from it. I had tried vacuuming it up a few times, but it felt the same as anything else. I supposed it might have been the same feeling I would get after cleaning a dusty room, but it didn''t quite match the level of contentment I was observing. This show went on for some time. Nearly sixteen minutester, the ceramic dish was thoroughly licked clean. I couldn''t even tell that it had ever held a pie, even with my advanced scanners. It was pretty impressive, really. "That was excellent." Daedalus sighed contentedly. "Worth everyst morsel. Thank you, friend." I indicated that it was no big deal. It was the least I could do, considering everything he had done to make Beatrice''s birthday so magnificent. He suggested he''d do it all again for another dish like that. Eventually, I found that neither of us would concede the point, so I decided to change topics as I had already given my gift. I pulled out a deck of cards borrowed from the library. His eyes lit up. Not to the same level as when he''d smelled the pie, he seemed to recognize the item. "I haven''t had a good game of cards in at least 10,000 years! I wonder, do you think they''re the same as I remember?" He motioned for me toy them out on the floor. And so I did, spreading them out into a neat grid all face-up. In ascending order by suit and number, of course. The dragon scanned them. "No, they''re very different. I don''t remember there being four suits, but I suppose I can learn. So, do you know any games?" *** Daedalus nudged the card forward with his w, and I flinched as I was forced to drop one card from my hand back into the pile before us. It had been a low-probability move, but I had gotten unlucky. This game was far more interesting than the ones I had yed with Beatrice. Solitaire was my favorite, but the unpredictability of the cards was interesting. "I can feel Archibald slowly returning to consciousness." Daedalus said as he made his next move. I asked if he had any idea how long it would be before Archibald awoke, and the massive dragon''s shoulders heaved up and down in a very dragon-like shrug. "Not really. His progression isn''t linear. It could be a couple of weeks. It could be a year or more." Daedalus didn''t seem to really care how long it would take, just the fact that it was going to happen. And by his timescale, it seemed like it would happen any minute now. "Did I ever tell you why Archibald got that way?" I reyed the scene Beatrice described from her understanding of the events. It was vague but involved an army of humans fighting a demon. I took some artistic liberties with the carvings from the catbs. Images of the hero statue underneath the earth and some catbs being built to protect the site followed. Daedalus watched the slideshow with a sad look on his face. "I suppose I haven''t. I don''t know the whole story, to be honest. Doubt anyone does nowadays. Well, what you have is mostly true at least, but there are a good deal more details that you''re leaving out." Chapter 214: Origins of an Aged Dragon Chapter 214: Origins of an Aged Dragon Daedalus nestled into the impressive pile of coins at the center of hisir. Theforting weight of the cold, soft coins made him feel better most days. But today, it wasn''t working. The dragon huffed. Cragheart would never have bested him if he had been ying fair. Stashing rocks at the center of your hoard to make it look bigger was simply not right. Why, it went against the whole principle of the thing! It was a mantra that Daedalus had repeated to himself often in thest century. Even though he was sure that his hoard wasrger and worth more, it didn''t stop Daedalus from picturing the heaping mounds it could be. If only he, too, cheated a tiny bit. Sighing, he considered whether it was worth making his way out of the mountain heart to find more gold. It had been slim pickings for thest few millennia. Not even the dwarves had managed to mine more of the precious metals for him to steal. Not since the demons had invaded. The situation was truly a trying one. Evangelina had nearly gone crazy and tried to mine gold herself. It took the intervention of the council to stop her from further damaging the pride of all dragons in her desperation. A dragon digging in the earth? What an embarrassment. When he had carved out the tunnels and caves from his ownir in the mountain, he had used magic to control the magma tubes, as was proper. Even if the walls themselves glittered with precious gems and ores, he wasn''t going to sully his ws digging into them directly. That was what the lesser races were for. *** A beep pulled Daedalus from his reminiscing. He blinked down at his newest friend. The little godling shed some images above his little disc. Humming, Daedalus shifted slightly, letting the rock in the back of his cave scratch an itch. "You could use magma to sterilize floors, I suppose. But it sounds like far more effort than it''ss worth. Now, where was I?" Daedalus debated internally about what to do. Should he go see if the demons had made progress in having their ves mine gold? Yet as he thought, echoes of footsteps reached his ears. They were too heavy to be an elf and too slow to be a dwarf. A human, then? Why had a humane to deliver himself as a snack? They usually had the brains to at leaste inrge groups, if they came at all. As the lone human rounded the bend, Daedalus closed his eyes and feigned sleep. The surprise and fear when the little thieves found out the dragon they were sneaking by were awake the whole time was his favorite part. When he was young, he realized that even the elves couldn''t tell if he was truly sleeping. Now, he almost always pretended to be asleep when he had guests. A faint smell of iron and rust wrinkled his nose as the human approached. The human appeared already hurt, which would ruin his fun. Besides, blood loss always made his snacks taste worse. When the human stopped several wingspans away, Daedalus considered pouncing now before the snack lost even more blood. Before he could, the thing spoke. "Hello! Dragon, are you alive?" What kind of question was that? This human had to be insane. Or maybe he knew that if Daedalus was alive, he would be eaten anyway and just wanted to get it over with? Stifling a sigh, Daedalus didn''t respond, waiting to see if the human would start trying to take his gold. "Excuse me?" The human called again, more loudly. "I''m Archibald. I''m looking for Daedalus, is that you?" The human was looking for him? That was new. Rearing up, Daedalus fixed the intruder with his Dragon''s Prating Gaze Of Fear. It was one of his favorite skills, and freezing his captive audience was always satisfying. "WHO CALLS FOR ME?" Daedalus''s roar echoed through the tunnelwork. The wind of his shout ruffled the human''s long blond hair. As he waited for a response, Daedalus evaluated the human. It appeared to be a scrawny male. Shoulder-length brown hair waved, framing an altogether forgettable face. One hand was sped to his side, and blood welled between his fingers. The whiff that Daedalus caught made him wrinkle his nose again. Blood really was disgusting. "Yes, Spot, humans do taste good, but blood is disgusting. No, it''s not because it''s liquid. Casks of ale are liquid but also delicious. I think it''s the red color, perhaps. I''m not a huge fan of wine either, but the sight of that doesn''t make me feel dizzy the same way. Oh, I agree wine is the worst. Now, I was waiting for Archibald to answer" The man worked his jaw as if he had something wedged in his teeth. He held up a hand to Deadaus and spoke, nearly shouting now. "Wait a second before you say something else, sorry! I think my eardrums burst and I can''t hear anything right now!" The audacity of this human! How dare he not hear a dragon''s mighty words? The man had to be properly cowed by his might and power! Daedalus waited indignantly as Archibald unstopped his ears. "Are you good now?" Daedalus growled at the insignificant human. "I was." He winced, giving me a dirty look as he worked his finger in one ear. "Come on, I was way quieter that time. Are humans really so fragile that I could have incapacitated them just by talking?" Daedalus kept his voice nearly to a whisper. It didn''t have quite the same effect, but he would put as much regal authority into it as he could muster. "Okay, that''s better," Archibald said after some time. Daedalus hesitated to say anything more. Should he just eat this upstart human? Walking into a dragon''sir and calling out to its owner was surely a crime. Only curiosity about his purpose kept Archibald from being thetest snack. "Why has such a bloody meal delivered himself to me?" Daedalus asked in his most considerate yet powerful whisper. The hair on the human only slightly moved this time. "So you are Daedalus, then?" The human asked, seemingly without fear. He continued on before Daedalus could answer. "I thought you would like to know that a demon army is marching on this mountain as we speak." Daedalus frowned, and finally, Archibald showed some reaction to the many teeth in the dragon''s maw. Demons had known better than to bother the dragons for a long time; why were they bothering him now? "Why should I care, human?" The human in question blinked. "Uh, Aren''t dragons territorial? I didn''t think you would like an armying at you. It seems disrespectful." Dang it. The human was right. It was disrespectful. Daedalus decided he would have to do something about this. Grumbling to himself, Daedalus got to his feet. "I will burn you to a crisp if you touch anything, human. Stay here so I can eat youter." Archibald swallowed and nodded. With confirmation that his hoard was safe, Daedalus lumbered through the tunnel that led out. When he reached the surface, a few beats of his wings sent him soaring into the sky. Below, he found that the human didn''t lie. There was a small gathering of familiar mud huts at the base of the mountain. Before, it was a vast sea of demons and their ves. Had the humans been trying to protect the huts? If so,ing to him was stupid. Those ugly things were as much of an insult as the demons were. With a deep inhale, he sted the mud with a jet of me, baking it. Continuing his flight, Daedalus billowed fire into the demonic army and watched in satisfaction as they scattered before him. A few more passes, and he could go back and eat his snack. Then, he could take a well-deserved nap. As he wheeled around in the air to break the rest of the formation, Daedalus saw not all were running in fear. A lone demon that stood twice the height of a human stood in his path, shield held high. Large ck horns swept back from its head, ending in deadly points. Not in a million years would Daedalus back down from such a challenge. He braked in the air and let a concentrated stream of dragon''s breath pour onto the shield. As the edges of it started to melt, Daedalus felt a pang of concern. This was taking a lot more effort than he had wanted to put out. With a crash, Daedalusnded, snapping his tail and wings forward to knock everything away. The demon tossed his ruined shield aside and shouted up at the majestic dragon. "You do not keep me from my prey, lizard!" Snapping his jaws forward, Daedalus ate the top half of the demon. The thing''s flesh was bitter and ashy; only his pride stopped him from spitting it out right away. The demon was remarkably stupid if he thought he could speak to a dragon in such a manner. He was much too weak for that. Beating his wings, Daedalus took back to the sky. The army retreating below him had already taken too much of his time, so he winged his way back to the mountain. Inside his treasury, he found Archibald remarkably waiting for him. Eyeing the man up and down, Daedalus made a decision. "A smart man would have left when he had the chance. At least you didn''t disturb my gold." The human looked around. "I suppose I could have left." He rubbed the back of his head. "I didn''t think of that. Whoops. Are the demons gone?" "Yes, they were most disrespectful." Daedalus said. "For the warning, I will offer you one boon. Choose wisely, this is not an honor many humans have ever received." "A boon?" "Yes, a boon. Don''t push it too much. I will eat you before I part with my hoard." Daedalus was already regretting his offer. It was what his pride demanded of him, but he could already tell that it was going to be a pain to deal with. The human would probably ask for something incredibly dumb. Blood was still running down the human''s side, and it was making it hard to concentrate as the room began to swim. Turning his head aside, Daedalus dug through his hoard as the human considered. He came out holding a delicate ne with a brilliant green gem grasped gently in his lips. Whipping it around, the gem smacked into the human''s head and faded slightly. "Oww!" Archibald yelled as he grasped the side of his head and red up at the dragon. Daedalus didn''t pay it any mind as his nose picked up theck of fresh blood, and the cave around him stopped spinning. The human looked down at his side and frowned. Poking at it with his bloody hand, he looked confused. "You are trying my patience. Tell me what you would ask." Archibald winced and covered his ears again. Daedalus didn''t really feel bad about not modting his volume this time. Maybe it would get this annoyance out of hisir sooner. "I want help fighting the demons," The human said. "I already did that." The dragon answered. "I want more help fighting the demons." The human rified. "IC fine." Daedalus agreed with a sigh. At least the human didn''t ask for a certain amount of help; he could just do something small, and it would be done. "Yeah, the demon army was just the start of it. Spot, I think it''s your turn. Ah, good move. Hmmm. Let''s see how you deal with that! Well of course I wasn''t going to carry the human to our destination, that would be beneath me. So I had to figure out alternate transportation." Chapter 215: Rebel Without A Cause Chapter 215: Rebel Without A Cause "I''m not sure how you n to get all the way up north." Daedalus said to Archibald. "Francis is way up in the mountains and at least a day''s flight. Are you sure you don''t want my help more locally?" "Well, you can fly, right?" Archibald asked, confused. He looked at the dragon''s neck, but Daedalus chose to ignore that. "Yeah, but you can''t," Daedalus pointed out the obvious. Archibald wisely kept his mouth shut. If he had been about to suggest that Daedalus carry him? Well, the man wouldn''t leave the cave. Archibald looked around as if searching for a pair of wings he could borrow. "I really would like to get back to Francis. My father is there and I don''t want to see it burned to the ground." "Wait, what? Then why do you need my help? What do you expect me to do about taking care of some rebellion?" Daedalus asked. "The city is almost in rebel hands, we just need some support to keep the armies off." "So, no burning it to the ground? It would be easier to take care of the rebels if I just burned the ce to the ground." Daedalus supposed that he could just be intimidating, but that would be much slower than just annihting the city and going back home. There was no guarantee the rebels woulde out so he could eat them, and he might have to burn the ce down anyway. "No, we aren''t going to burn the city we spent years trying to take! That would make the rebellion a waste." Archibald said. "Besides, the demons don''t care if you burn the city down." "Why should the demons care?" Daedalus was now thoroughly confused. "Well, they would rather have their ves dead than in control of a city. If we can free this city, we can start gathering an army and fight back." Archibald said. "Oh, are you the rebels then? I thought this was your city." Daedalus was starting to understand. "My city? Humans don''t have a city. I don''t think anyone but the demons do." Archibald said. "''Really, none at all? I knew that gold had stopped being mined, but I thought that was just because of recent fighting and whatnot. The demons don''t seem to care to get more, not like the other lesser races." Daedalus said. Archibald looked at him strangely. "What fighting? The demons have always controlled all the cities." Daedalus pointed to some of the more decorative pieces of his hoard. "You think the demons made this? What about that? Have you ever seen the demons make anything this beautiful?" "No maybe they made a human do it for them?" "That ax was made by Ironheart Forgehammer, first king of the deep." Daedalus said proudly. It really was a rare piece and one he was proud to have liberated from the ancient dwarven treasury. "Never heard of him?" "Never? What about Smith Smitherten? He carved this chalice from the highest rock of Mount Heaven-Touched." "No?" "Balder BouldershoulderC?" "Nope." "You really know so little of the dwarves?" "Dwarves? Aren''t those just myths?" "Just myths!" Daedalus eximed, forcing Archibald to cover his ears again. "JUST MYTHS?!" "So they aren''t myths?" *** "Sorry, Spot. No, I don''t know if any dwarves survived. There might be some deep underground, but I haven''t been looking for them. Yes, their arts are amazing, but I don''t know anything about how they were done. I think it was mostly system based racial magic. Sure, maybe once Archibald wakes up we can go questing for them. That would be great fun." *** Daedalus returned with a very grumpy griffin clutched in his ws. He could have made the catbird fly behind him, but it was better to put him in his ce the proper way. "Is this really necessary?" Griff cawed from below. "I would have followed you withoutint, your shiny eminence." "Yes," Daedalus emphasized but didn''t deign to exin more. Once he rejoined Archibald where he had left him, Daedalus released his new underling. Intimidating a flock of the bird-brained cats into agreeing to send one of them to help him out hadn''t been hard, but dealing with their incessant squawking was barely better than lowering himself to carrying a human he didn''t n on eating. At least he''d only needed the one. Archibald fell back onto the rock he had just stood up from. "A griffin!" He shouted unnecessarily. *** Archibald was a natural flier. Even as the griffin tore through the sky at breakneck speed, just to keep up with the dragon''snguid wingbeats, he kept hisposure. The human only whooped with joy on the asional dive Daedalus made to watch the herds scatter beneath him. It only took them a little over a day to get to Francis. The city was already partly on fire, making Daedalus feel as if he had wasted his timeing here. Archibald didn''t seem to agree. He eagerly pointed down to the demon army nearing the city gates. "Them, we need to get them!" "We? What do you n to do?" Daedalus asked, knowing the human couldn''t do anything much in this situation, but theck of respect was starting to get to him. His patience for the human would only go so far. The favor he had done the dragon was only so much. Archibald seemed to interpret Daedalus''s meaning well enough as he quickly changed tact. "Uh, can you please do something about that army?" "Of course." Daedalus''s words were almost lost to the sky as he tucked his wing and dove at the army of demons and their ves below. With the sun at his back, the waves of arrowsunched in his direction were so far off the mark that they were no more than a joke. A few hundred feet above the ground, he let loose, and streams of dragon fire drenched the army. Everything ran before him as was right and proper. Everything but one figure. A demon muchrger than any he had seen before stood in his path andughed. The dragon fire merged with the demon fire already dancing along the beast''s shoulders. Daedalus pulled up Scan and assessed his enemy. Name: Nazareth''gak, Level: 70, Race: Demon Lieutenant, Type: Demonic Torturer, Titles: Butcher of Rasputin, The Scourge, Devourer of Dreams, Bane of Humanity, Age: 789273 Strength: 192837 Intelligence: 5 Constitution: 9081 Dexterity: 12347 Charisma: -237 Perception: 80 Will: 28739 Faith: 9999999999999999 Magic Defense: 90873 Physical Defense: 123784091 Regeneration: Inf Daedalus harrumphed. That was annoying. The worthless demon was at a higher level than him. And older, somehow. This was not okay. He would deal with himter. Soaring around, he continued routing the army. They fled before him, and the city continued to burn. In his peripheral vision, Daedalus saw Archibald direct Griff down to the city. Hopefully, he could get whatever errand he had taken care of while Daedalus cleaned up the army. As he was causing a toon of demons to retreat into a nearbyke, a sudden impact struck his side. Of course, whatever it was didn''t prate his scales, but the force of it tossed him sideways through the sky. Daedalus spun with the impact, and the motion threw off a weight that had attached itself to his left hind leg. Daedalus watched as theughing form of the demon Lieutenant fell through the sky and sshed into theke below. How dare he! Just as the demon resurfaced, Daedalus snapped his jaws shut, skimming over the water. Straining his wings, he pulled out of the dive and bit down hard on his foe as he climbed higher in the sky. It was an effort for his teeth to break through the demon''s natural armor, but the bite force of a dragon wasn''t to be underestimated either. Slowly, the pressure overcame the demon''s defenses and didn''t allow the regeneration to take effect. Several thousand feet in the air, Daedalus finally broke through, and the demon started tumbling to the ground in two halves. That would show him what it meant tough at a dragon. Perhaps Daedalus would have to call the council to meet and discuss this issue. If the demons didn''t learn their ce, the dragons would have to teach them. Daedalus dove to go back to terrifying the army, but as he made it to the ground, the same demon Lieutenant shot out of the crater left behind by itsnding. The impact of the diving dragon and the rising demon sent a shockwave through the sky that leveled trees for miles all around. The walls of Francis shook but miraculously didn''t fall. Daedalus shook his head, his eyes watering from the pain in his nose where the demon''s fist hadnded. That stung! They shed several more times. More often than not, the demon was damaged, but that never slowed it down for long. The unthinkable was slowly happening. He, a red dragon, was taking damage. If this went on much longer, he would have to flee. After one exchange sent the demon flying toward the horizon, Griff showed up with Archibald on his back. "The city is lost, but we are mostly evacuated! If you can redirect the demon''s attention, we can get into the mountain and slip away." Daedalus acknowledged this, doing his best to keep his flight steady despite the several tears in his wings. It would be good if they would just be able to get away; he wasn''t sure if he could win this fight anymore. Not that he''d ever admit it. As the fight resumed, he stopped trying to destroy his opponent and instead forced him further south. The change in tactics worked in his favor. He was able to take less damage as he fought. *** "The humans were able to get away that day. Injured as I was, I didn''t make it back to my mountain. I needed a ce to heal. Archibald was the one who found me, stayed by my side, and stitched my wings together. During the fight, he had reached level 50 and had gotten an interesting ss offering. "Taking mypanion ss, we started to fight together. The humans grew at the same time they ran. The nomadic settlement soon had to split, but through us and other means, they kept organized, slowly freeing more and more people. The council took a decade to gather, but after my report, they didn''t take the threat seriously at first. "Many went to test the demons and the second council only took a year to regather. With one of our number dead a decision was made. For the first time since the gods retreated the dragons were going to war." Chapter 216: Reach For the Skies Chapter 216: Reach For the Skies Dragons going to war was never a pretty thing. It wasn''t like the simple squabbles of the lesser races like the elves and humans. No, when dragons fought, it had consequences. Still, it took time and effort to convince the rest of Daedalus''s kind to care, and the months of argument thoroughly wore him out. The roars of his kind had shaken the mountains, but eventually, everyone had seen sense. When the decision was made, Archibald was waiting for him in a small fortress nestled in the entrance of the valley where the council was held. He had wanted to attend himself and plead the humans'' case, but luckily, Daedalus was able to talk him out of it. That would not have gone over well. Dragons were arrogant at the best of times. In a situation like this, where they were being asked to do something, it was better toe from one of their own rather than someone beneath them. Also, Archibald wasn''t likely to have survived the encounter anyway. The presence of one dragon was hard enough on the lesser races, as their terrifying presence could stop hearts. More than one dragon, though? No matter how well Archibald handled being near Daedalus, he was only human after all. Such a shame. "Yes, Spot, I radiate terror. No, I don''t suppose you would feel it. Why do you think people don''te around here? Thest few millenia would have been lonely if I wasn''t able to just hibernate it away." "I take it things went well?" Archibald asked with a cocked eyebrow. Daedalus was a bit jealous of the expression. It was beneath him to try and emte it, even if it wouldn''t have worked on his draconic face. "Yes, well enough. They have agreed to spare one in ten acres." Daedalus shared the good news. "One in ten acres?" Archibald asked in bewilderment. "I don''t get it. Are they going to war then?" "Yes of course we are. We''re going to do war properly, there''s no point otherwise. That was decided in the first few minutes, though some did use it as an argument for lowering how much to save." "Then why did it take you months?" "We were discussing how much of the world we would leave unburned." Daedalus patiently exined. Even after spending so much time with the human, he was still surprised at how dense he could be. "It wouldn''t do to leave a job half done. However, we realize that you all need food and homes and whatever if you''re to continue digging out gems and gold." "How does that make any sense? What does burning the world have to do with the demons? Can''t you just burn them?" "Well, we need to scour the world to make sure none remain, of course. Anything we don''t just burn would need to be searched thoroughly, and no one wants to do that. Much better to just raze it all." Archibald just stared for a moment, expression nk. Eventually, he shook his head. "Dragons." "Yes, we do like to clean up thoroughly. Leaving anything behind just causes more of a mess." *** Daedalus soared through the skies, Archibald gliding along beside his griffin. Below, fields of scorched earth sent sheets of ck smoke up in vile plumes, obscuring their vision. In the far distance, a ck dragon wrestled with a white one, sending terrible screeches and jets into the air as they fought. Simr scenes were repeated all over. The horizon was simply cluttered with smoke and warring dragons. Over the course of the campaign, Daedalus had seriously wounded, driven off, and incapacitated three of his kin personally. While they weren''t making great progress with destroying the demons, he was at least gaining a lot of status among his kind. In the next century, he might even earn a clutch of eggs. As much as he hated to admit it, a lot of Daedalus''s sess was due to his Champion. Having Archibald fighting alongside him gave him just enough of an edge that he could safely challenge anyone for battlefield dominance. That the next strongest opponent on the field was almost always another dragon wasn''t his fault. This was his field, and he would raze it how he pleased. Archibald didn''t have the same view. "NO! We are going to the west!" Daedalus growled in frustration as he tried to focus on hispanion''s voice. War was harder than expected. Dragons were irritable, proud, and totally incapable of constructing even the most basic chain ofmand, even in the best of times. Asking them to aplish directed tasks while ignoring the chest-puffing of their kin was nearly unheard of. Eventually, he managed to ignore his instincts to veer east and challenge Archimedes. They were rather close friends, all things considered, having just spoken yesterday. But once the battle started, that didn''t really matter. He couldn''t suffer another to challenge his magnificence. The gold dragon couldn''t help but catch the light of the sun on his all-too-shiny scales, but that was no excuse. Daedalus howled as a sharp pain on the tip of his nose broke him out of the rage. The dragon red at Archibald and the shield that bounced off of his snoot. "Focus! You big scaly lizard." Lizard?! How dare he! Daedalus felt the emotions return with a vengeance and a new target. The little prey animal dove out of the sky, barely avoiding the torrent of magic streaming out of his maw. Turning into the rising sun, Daedalus chased his prey. As the airborne snack dipped and dove through the air, Daedalus spared no effort in unloading after it. Somehow, he missed constantly, but that didn''t matter. He only needed one hit. The snack dipped closer to the ground. He almostughed as it cornered itself, limiting its maneuverability. Folding his wings in, Daedalus attempted to m the pest out of the air with nothing but his body. Smashing into the earth, a shock wave rippled out from him and rattled his teeth. What was he doing? Looking around, he didn''t see the dragon that had been encroaching on his territory. That meant he must have chased him off. Daedalus huffed before throwing his head to the sky and roaring in triumph. An annoying pain in his toe brought him down to earth. Ah, yes, the demons. That''s what was happening. Spinning, Daedalus came to his senses enough to begin his actual task. The demons attempting to swarm him vaporized in an instant. The Earth demons'' sand melted to ss. Air dispersed, and the water attempting to quench his fire boiled away into steam. Even the me demons were but candles before his unstoppable might, consumed and incorporated into his own magic. Daedalus ignored all these inconsequential enemies andid into the Greater Demons, leading them. They were at least intelligent enough to avoid standing still. Only when an Archfiend arrived did Daedalus finally have to focus. The Archfiend''s ws actually scratched his scales. With enough luck, they might be capable of injuring him. That was how one dragon died, at least. A Lieutenant had gathered enough Archfiends and Greater Demons to overwhelm and wear the poor sop out over the course of days. What a weakling. He should have never let himself get cornered. There was only one Archfiend here now, and Daedalus wasn''t alone. Finally getting his wits back, he maneuvered the enemy around until a sword tip sprouted from its chest. Archibald then took its head with his second sword before kicking the body off of his de. It took a little bit more effort and time this way, but the human needed the experience anyway. Besides, it wasn''t like a level 50 to 60 opponent was going too much for Daedalus. The two of them regrouped and looked around. He didn''t take to the sky again so as not to sh with any of the dragons nearby. If he was hunting and he saw their forms on the horizon well, it was best if he stayed on the ground. Of course, that only made their task that much harder. Despite numerous shes, they still couldn''t take down a single Lieutenant. One by themselves wasn''t quite enough to match a dragon, of course, but they didn''t have the same problems with teamwork. Several times, right as they seemed just shy of oveing the seemingly endless regeneration they possessed, a second one showed up to ruin everything. The advantage they held was huge, but they refused to use it more than was necessary. Perhaps it had to do with the sheer numbers of the dragons, but the Lieutenants were rarely found together, and the Demon Lord hadn''t even taken the field once. It was almost as if they were happy with the status quo. Even though the leadership of the demons was still intact, the dragons were making good on their promise to burn 90 percent of the world. The potential battlefields were already shrinking, but the demons did nothing. "Yeah, we didn''t think of that until it was almost toote either. What? Why would mess makers want to clean the earth? What do you mean by mess makers? Ah, no, I don''t think they would. But could you really consider that cleaning?" "Right. Let''s stick to the n." Archibald panted, wiping some demon blood from his cheek. "We need to corner one of these monsters." Daedalus had hated to admit it, but the man''s idea was a good one. It was embarrassing to have a human understand dragon psychology better than an actual dragon. It stung his impressively erged pride yet again. But so far, it was working. Once they had secured thending zone, they turned east and started that way on foot toward Archimedes. It wasn''t a fun journey. Dragons were not made for walking, and despite their near imprable hides, their wings were the most vulnerable on the ground. Even with all his weapons, he still had to rely on hispanion to keep them off his sides. Archimedes was hopefully close enough to the human army that he would have support there. That was if he also had managed to hold back his instincts. It was their best chance of getting two dragons fighting against a single Lieutenant rather than each other. If this didn''t work, nothing would. It was several hours of near-constant fighting before the pair reached the human line. They were barely in time. Daedalus''s friend was doing his best to keep the horned demon lieutenant busy and away from the humans as the two armies shed. Archimedes could only do so much as his magic wasn''t nearly as potent as a red''s. At least not on the battlefield. The gold had much finer control, which was why they thought this n had a chance of working. He was the only other dragon that might be able to stay on task long enough for Daedalus to reach him on foot. Despite the limited power of his magic, he was still a dragon, though, with all the advantages thate with it. But against all odds, they had persevered. It was time to take this annoyance down. The Lieutenant didn''t even notice the massive red dragonsneaking up from behind him with how engrossed it was with its fight. When the red''s fire engulfed it, it finally realized the problem. The griffin took Archibald high in the sky, and after the first few exchanges, the demon tried to escape up there as well. "Oh, how that rankled. We are the kings of the sky, kings Spot, and we dared not follow it into our own domain. Not if we didn''t want to turn on each other." Its escape was short-lived, however, as the human spiked it back down to the ground. It was close, but Archibald was finallying into his own after years of power leveling. At least enough to move one of the lieutenants, even if he couldn''t face one alone. Chapter 217: Bound for Greatness Chapter 217: Bound for Greatness The battlested for days. Long after both armies had retreated or been annihted, Archibald, Archimedes, and Daedalus continued to battle the Lieutenant. It wasn''t a close fight, exactly. The only reason there was any problem at all was that regeneration. Every single time they thought they had him, he came back faster than they could believe. Daedalus sent a jet of dragon''s breath forth,pletely enveloping the demon. The trio stared, panting as they watched the Lieutenant''s cinders settle to the earth. Eventually, they sighed, turning around to leave. Archibald barely managed to bring his de up to catch the sudden shing toward his side. The force of the impact sent him flying off into the distance, and the battle began once more. The two dragons had a difficult time pinning the Lieutenant down long enough for the humanpanion to return. After such a long and intense experience, they were clearly running out of steam. Daedalus and Archimedes could fight for longer, of course, mighty dragons that they were. But even they wouldn''tst forever. Not to mention that Archibald was only human. The Lieutenant didn''t seem to have any limits to its energy, however. At one particr lull in the action, the demon stopped and grinned at them. A dragon stood on either side while Archibald''s griffin circled above nervously. After a moment, he spoke. "I have to thank you all." A raspy voice emerged from the dark figure. It sounded like a rusty cleaver being dragged along jail bars. "After all, you scaled lizards are doing my master''s work." No one knew how to respond. Daedalus looked between his friend andpanion in the sky. A frown creased his brow. Doing the demons'' work? What did they mean? The demons didn''t do anything besides move humans from ce to ce in herds. Eventually, he snorted. The thing was probably lying. Probably. Unless there were things that the dragons didn''t know. Archimedes, however, seemed to take greater offense at the insult and used the time to n something. Webs of golden light spun out from his maw as he roared a challenge to the demon''s insolence. The webs flung forward, and as the center of the struck the Lieutenant, it began to wrap around him. The Lieutenant grunted, bucking and thrashing, but the webs held tight, binding its legs together and its left arm to its side. Daedalus was about to engulf him in Inferno when Archimedes shouted a warning. "No! Wait.." He barely bit back the fire. The spell was working. It was merely binding their foe, but still. Daedalus didn''t want to risk burning away the magic with his own. Not when Archimedes was still focusing on maintaining it. The demon managed to get its feet underneath itself but was clearly struggling. After a few seconds, its arm managed to slither up and out of the spell. Daedalus could see the strain written in Archimedes''s tail position and how he held his wings. This was costing the dragon, costing him more than was wise. If the demon got out, they might have to run. Archimedes might not be able to fight anymore. Suddenly plummeting from the sky was Archibald. The man had lept off his griffin, his sword arcing down deep into the shoulder of the Lieutenant. The arm fell to the ground, another one immediately beginning to grow in its ce. But that took precious seconds, and the demon roared, swinging at Archibald. He managed to just barely deflect its blow. Daedalus tried to think of something, but his magic wouldn''t help here. His wing attacks or bashing with his tail would just as likely hit Archibald as the Lieutenant. So he crept closer, waiting for his opportunity. Just as Archibald was dipping down to duck a massive haymaker from the newly reformed arm, Daedalus turned his whole body, whipping his tail. It snapped quite painfully as it broke the sound barrier before smashing into the Lieutenant''s head, pulverizing it. The body fell limp, and Archibald dove on top of it, driving his sword through the demon''s chest and into the ground below. Archimedes reared back, and another set of golden webs wrapped around the Lieutenant. Slowly, they wound around the Lieutenant, and the sword pierced through. But as Archibald tried to climb off of the demon, he grunted in surprise. One of his hands and one of his feet were stuck. He yanked and pulled, but his limbs were bound to the Lieutenant with a power well beyond his mortal strength. Daedalus looked at Archimedes frantically. "Get him out. Release him!" Archimedes immediately started to unweave the spell, but Archibald yelled, "No, this is our chance. Bind him more!" "No, Archibald.We need to get you out. We can''t risk it." "We can! Once you''ve figured out how to kill him, you can release me. No way we''ll get a chance like this again! We need to bind him!" Archibald yelled at his friend. Archimedes looked sadly toward Daedalus for instructions, as the red was the dominant of the pair. Daedalus felt conflicted. Destroying the Lieutenants was their goal here, but it seemed further and further out of the realm of possibility. This was the closest they''d ever been to actual progress. The dragons were bing quite frustrated with the issues of their campaign, and they soon would blow past the 10% mark if they didn''t have any way of winning. Otherwise, they''d scour the earth of demons and everything else to maintain their pride. *** "Oh, they''re stupid. Stupid pride. Yeah, I suppose I am a bit different than I was back then. I''ve had a lot of time to think." Daedalus told Spot. The little godling was resting on his own small pile of coins, which Daedalus had shoved toward him for the extended story. The little godling chirped up at the massive dragon as if it were a hatchling. Along with the sound came the picture of the statue of his oldpanion trapped below. "Yeah, we were able to bind him, but we never did figure out how to separate him enough to wake him up alone. We managed to physically separate him enough that we were able to put them in different spots, at least. I would not have mypanion stuck for so long with that monster. But they were spiritually bound as well. Their states were entwined." Above the godling, a new image appeared of interesting representations of dragons that didn''t quite look right. They all had a bit too much of Daedalus himself in them like they were palette-swapped copies of himself instead of anatomically urate. The dragons flew forth, releasing the human and demon before fighting the demon ten on one until the demon was rebound. "Yeah, we considered that, but it just wasn''t feasible. The risk was too high." Daedalus waved the suggestion off. "Especially not at the start. And these things are wily. If it was able to think while in stasis, well it would probably be ready to bolt as soon as we let it out. Catching one for a second time would be a hard ask, now that it had felt the spell once. Of course, at the time, we were just happy to get the demon out. But after that, the war changed. Now, we had a purpose. We had a drive, a path to victory. But our enemy also had fear." *** The demons didn''t behave the same after that. If anything, it was harder to get the next one because Archibald couldn''t lure Daedalus away from fighting the other dragons. So the dragons walked their thunderous footsteps, following armies across the earth once they got anywhere near a battlefield. The prey drive when they were flying was just too high, and the territory was just too tempting. So the dragons slowly waddled across thend, destroying everything in their wake. As much as they grumbled about it. The demons were more mobile in some ways, but their armies were not. It only took a fewplete annihtions of massive armies to put real fear into them. They were destroyed in such a way that the rank-and-file demons weren''t just banished to their other dimension but consumed, their magic repurposed to fuel the dragons'' growth. Hatchlings were reared on just the essence of demons, and dragons prospered. But they didn''t forget the humans. At least, Daedalus didn''t. His friend was stuck. Trapped with the first Lieutenant, they had bound. And he didn''t let any of the other dragons forget it. As one of the most active dragons throughout the entire first half of the skirmishes, he had gained enough power that none opposed him to his face. And he always managed to gather several dragons which he could force into the conflict alongside him. Archimedes didn''t feel bad about getting Archibald stuck per se but came as close as possible for a dragon to issue remorse. And that was saying something. It made it easy to recruit his help for further bindings. While they fought on, each demon was eventually forced to stop and defend their armies and interests, whatever they were on this ne. Slowly, they began to be bound. Individually at first, but then in twos and threes as they tried to work together. But this only forced Daedalus to bring more dragons for support. Archimedes refined his capture spell and taught it to other dragons. Soon, even human mages would line up in the thousands, circle around their battle, and slowly give their energy and life force to power the spells. Eventually, the Dragons prevailed. After a final epic battle, the demon lord was banished from this ne, and Daedalus was finally able to return to his hoard. With his dragon''s fire, he built Archibald a tomb, carving it deep, deep into the rocks below. The base of the rock was heated so much that it turned to white ss, serving as an altar to hispanion. Thus, he rested in his petrified state under the dragon''s watchful eyes. Thousands of elves and humans worked to build structures within to further honor the great hero. Slowly, they covered the firstyer and then began to bury it. Above him, they put defenses. Many thousands of the warriors who had fallen in the final battles were entombed there. Powerful wards of defense were ced on their bones so that they could defend their greatest hero. The human martyr. Above that, a few hundred yearster. A castle was built to defend the Lieutenant himself and give a ce of pilgrimage for those who woulde to pay their respects. After that, Daedalus didn''t care much. Apparently, some human order was created, and extra defenses were ced around the demons. But he found a nice cave up in the mountains and migrated his hoard there slowly, piece by piece. Until he was left to watch over the castle, waiting for the demons toe back. After all, the spell wouldn''tst forever. They all knew that. But it shouldst long enough for the dragons to take a nap. They still had to bury their dead and rear younguns to rece the many dragons they had lost in the conflicts during and after the war. Daedalus didn''t stick his nose in. He''d already proven himself to be the greatest. But one day, his human would be back. When the time came He''d need to catch another griffin so they could go have another adventure. Chapter 218: Shoot for the Moon Chapter 218: Shoot for the Moon The loud snip of scissors echoed over the camp. Bee held them aloft before the cheering crowd as the red ribbon stretching across the entryway fluttered to the side. Feet pounded on the newly cobbled streets throughout the camp as citizens of the castle and soldiers all rushed to be the first into the stands. This was the first major projectpleted by the army since the construction on the camp had settled down. While the simple, rough longhouses for the men were certainly important, they werent nearly as exciting as a colosseum. Bee was grateful for Void''s wisdom in requiring good roads. She was also grateful that hed agreed to Arthurs suggestion for a formal training area. But its reasoning for building a massive structure like this was far beyond her. Still, they had built it nheless. Void had provided a very detailed set of ns involving stacked, curving arches, forming the base of the building and nesting upwards into smaller and smaller arches until each arch was only a dozen feet wide. Each level of the circle on the inside sloped further and further down into a massive round arena. The building was huge, and that was even after theyd scaled down the ns a bit. Construction hadnt taken nearly as long as shed feared. With how quickly everyone was leveling, their average person had many times the strength they should have. That, plus some help from Void and those blessed with helpful skills, meant that such an impressive project was done before the end of winter. The whole thing was filled with stands and stone bleachers where people could sit, bring some padding, and lounge back to watch the arena below. There were even special boxes part of the way up where food could be served, and the announcers box at one end was somehow designed to project words all throughout the arena without any enchantments. Void had told her that was her box, and Bee couldn''t help but feel slightly embarrassed and grateful at the same time. The first spectacle was nned for tonight. A Nighty Knight-led tournament was going to take ce, but instead of the traditional one-on-one tournament they had at her birthday party, they had something different nned. The kids had apparently been branching out when she''d asked Felix about it. Apparently, both Void and Arthur had insisted that learning how to fight was not enough. They learn teamwork and cooperation. They were broken into small squads of four, but could bebined intorger ones of 8 or even 80. The Nighty Knights didn''t even number 80, not yet. It wasn''t exactly mimicking theposition of the army, but it was close enough that the children had been going to the sergeants they knew to learn about marching in step and group tactics. Bee was sad to see that the childish games had only been able to take the Nighty Knights so far. Now, they would be learning something closer to actual war.But at the same time, she was d Void was preparing them. Even if it seemed grim. She admittedly had limited experience in battle herself, with a few exceptions. However, she had seen others who did fight, and they did face their enemies like her or Void. The vast majority of people fought in ranks as in war. They had to learn how to not injure the people next to them and how to hold the line, certainly valuable skills. It was only people like her and maybe Arthur or the champion buried under the castle who fought as individuals on a battlefield of thousands. Normally, for anyone of an average level, that would be a death sentence. But for someone who was double the enemy''s average level, it seemed natural to be able to fight as a solo unit. She had no illusions that most people could do that. Several of the Nighty Knights were certainly on track to be such fighters, but depending on when conflict came to their doorstep, they might not be there yet. Even then, even if they managed to be an army unto their own, who knew what their opponents would be like? Maybe their opponents would be just as strong. Or maybe they would be split up to work with other armies. In either case, it would be useful for them to know tactics and be able to read the flow of the battle so that they could position themselves as needed. It wasn''t the only change that Void had made when it hade back from its strange disappearance a little while ago. It came back in a particrly productive mood. Some would say it was concerned about something, but that wasn''t anything anyone wanted to voice out loud about Void. Even the soldiers were working on practicing ambushes and other slightly atypical tactics, like constructing forts from nothing but their surroundings after a long day of marching. Bee joined Arthur in one of the viewing tforms nearby hers so they could speak without being overheard. As they watched the stands, nearly every seat was soon full. However, there was still time before the event, so many streamed back toward the concession booths. "How is the integration going?" She asked Arthur. He grumbled. "I think we''re going to have to give up onpletely integrating the forces," he said. "The scouts are just too different. They''ve been trained withpletely different goals and skill sets. I think it''s better if we maintain the two forces separately. They do things differently enough that I think we can leave more traditional scouting to my men and leave the more ndestine work to Susan." Bee nodded. "Makes sense. I know she really wanted to just be better at everything, but she was trained to do a pretty specific job, whether she likes it or not. And she trained her men to work like her rather than a traditional military scout." Arthur agreed with a distracted grunt. "Yeah, the woman''s a terror, but a normal military scout doesn''t need to know how to infiltrate a city or mix with the nobility. But we''re not just an army anymore, are we? We need to get the support that we would have received from the intelligence operatives the King employed. We need to have their equivalent. So I''ve been working with her. Earlier this morning, I think we agreed that we need to send out individual scouts to the castle. From the castle to various cities around the kingdom, along with other countries, if possible. It''s going to take a while for her to train up recements enough, but I think we can count on my scouts to watch the valley for now while they''re short-staffed." Bee bobbed her agreement. The idea of running a spywork was something that Susan vehemently denied they were doing, but there was no other way to describe it. The amount of influence she would be able to hold in any city, and the amount of information that herwork would be able to provide back, was nothing short of masterful. That new message system should help your men out a bit, Bee added. Arthur nodded. Right. That. Im not even going to ask how Void came up with that. The message system that Void had created gave Bee a bit of a headache. It was quite simple, really. Void had somehow enchanted sheets of paper so that, when folded in the proper manner and thrown from a high enough point, they would glide straight toward theirbeled destination. The odd triangles quickly reced the more unreliable andmonly used pigeon method. The trickiest part was learning the folds for it to work. These pieces of paper had very low tolerances, and even a slightly imprecise fold could cause the enchantments to fail. But really, Bees problem was that she couldnt understand how it worked at all. There weren''t any enchantments inscribed in the paper that she could tell, unless they were inscribed so finely that she couldn''t see them with the naked eye. The paper itself shouldnt even have magical properties, not with the materials it seemed to be made of. They were in wood, not even fairywood or wyrmheart oak. Yet, somehow, these sheets did. Void had tried to exin it, trying for several minutes to detail how it took wood scraps and arranged them in particr patterns in a very, very dark ce. She just couldnt grasp the meaning. It must have been more godly magic in his domain or system shenanigans. "Still, we do need to set up a traditional pigeon station because we won''t always have ess to high towers in the field," Arthur said. "And we have a limited amount of paper." Bee nodded. "Yeah. The castle had some, but a lot of the pigeons were lost when the mages'' college left. I''ve put a couple people on figuring out how to raise more, but it will probably be some months before they manage it, even with artificial conditions. Birds still have seasonal mating rituals and stuff." Arthur nodded. To be honest, I don''t know anything about pigeons or bird rearing, so I''ll leave it in their hands." Beeughed. "I don''t either, but I hope they do." "Speaking of animal handling, your boy Tanu is quite impressive. I''m not sure how he managed to control that wolf, but could you please ask him to stop scaring my sentries with it?" Bee chuckled and shook her head. "I''ve asked about it before, but I can try again." Arthur smiled. "Well, at least he keeps them on their toes. But if any of his new recruits start doing this the same, I swear we''re going to have to start giving pensions for heart attacks." His new recruits? "Oh, yes. Some of her litter has found friends amongst my men, as well. I think two soldiers and two other Nighty Knights have started to bond with the growing beasts. At least, I found them sneaking through the camp with them. Bees eyes widened. She had almost forgotten about the other wolves. How big were they now? Arthur continued. One sergeant asked my opinion on punishment for finding a wolf sleeping under a soldiers bed. Apparently, he had been buying extra rations for the pup and feeding it against orders. It was only when he had beente to a training session one too many times that anyone noticed. I told them that the man probably should just be transferred out of the unit and trained on his beast handling, but I wasn''t sure what your thoughts were on that. Bee shrugged. It wasn''t really her issue. "Whatever you think is best. We never really trained Tanu. He just figured this out himself. So if he''s going to help other people, that would be great. Im not sure if they would fit in better with Susan''s scouts or with your unit in your army." Arthur shrugged. "They''re kind of their own thing, I think." "Yeah. Well, whatever you think is best." Bee said. She spotted a messenger waiting for her at the door and said her goodbyes quickly. "Okay, we''re ready to begin." Bee nodded in acknowledgment and stepped to the front of her box, pping once. The sound echoed throughout the entire arena. Slowly, the chatter died as everyone turned to look at her. "Ladies and gentlemen, she shouted in her best performative voice. We have for you the spectacle of the ages as our opening ceremonies begin. Please wee: the Nighty Knights!" The crowd went wild as one of the gates on the side of the arena opened, and the children filed out in a double column. At this point, they barely gawked about at the cheering crowd, though there were a few suppressed grins among them. It made Bee proud. to stand at the center of the arena facing her. They knelt as one looking not at her, but above her. She followed their gazes to see Void hovering over her shoulder. As one, they shouted. "Hail Void!" Chapter 219: Times They Are A Changin’ Chapter 219: Times They Are A Changin The Warden fumbled the heavy iron key in his hands, trembling as he stepped into his study. His investigation had yielded results. Unfortunately. He had thought that he was the master of secrets in this ce, but apparently, there were deeper machinations beyond even him. He nced toward the cage by his desk. Three pigeons. He''d have enough for three messages. He could only hope that they would be enough. Especially considering the threat of interception in the air or even at their destinations. Who knew if these recipients were alreadypromised? Internally, he gave a dry chuckle. Ironic that, after all this business with Harolds nightmarish demon and Arthurs possession, he had no choice but to gamble on it being a huge misunderstanding. Regardless, he had no choice. He''d send the message anyway. He just hoped he wasn''t opening up the Kingdom to a worse invasion. He moved quickly to the writing desk, pulling out the thin slips of paper even before he sat down. Scribbled messages filled the sheets in a rush. Harold nced toward the door nervously as he rolled and attached the, to each pigeons slim legs. As he tossed thest bird out the window, he allowed himself a relieved sigh. Only a secondter, there was pounding at the door. The Warden looked around for some ce to escape. He knew it was futile, but his instincts as an operative for left him searching for any outs. He had known that bying here to deliver the messages, he would be giving up his chance to get away cleanly. But that didn''t mean he was going to go easily. He had many, many backup ns, as any paranoid man must. Just because they probably wouldnt work here didnt mean they werent worth trying. Prying the window the rest of the way open, he flipped a lever hidden in the windowsill. A faint grinding sound echoed throughout the courtyard below. He leaned out the window. What had once been t wall now had an irregr pattern of bricks jutting out, each no more than an inch exposed. It was by no means an obvious change, especially from a distance. He flexed his fingers, hoping against hope that his arthritis-riddled fingers would be strong enough for onest adventure. This was a risky exit to take. A decade ago, he wouldn''t have even thought about it. But now? He wasn''t sure if he''d have better luck risking capture and finding an escape from well, whatever hole they decided to throw him in. Swinging a leg over the sill, he reached with his bare toes to find the next hold. They touched on the granite below and nearly slipped. Dust from the crumbling mortar had shaken loose as he had activated the escape route. Carefully, he rubbed his foot back and forth, clearing the spot before he transferred his weight over slowly. He knew it wasn''t going to be enough. This escape was not exactly subtle. If anything, it would be better if someone had just stored a rope and tossed it down at this point. But the clever engineering of this solution had won him over when they designed the thing. Of course, the whole thing relied on him getting to the bottom to hide the handholds before someone else came in the room. And that was going to be a tough ask for him. Methodically, he swept the ledges free of dust and climbed down the makeshiftdder, his forearms trembling all the way. Just as he thought he had, by some miracle, made it down without being noticed, a guard''s head popped out the window. His eyes widened as he spotted the Warden. "What the-" The guard cut off as his captain yanked him back through the window. His quick reactions saved the man as the sill crumbled under him and almost sent him tumbling out the window. Dang. There went his hope to at least take someone down with him. The Warden finally reached the bottom, but didn''t even bother to pull the lever to hide the stones once more. Theyd already been spotted. Reaching into another hiddenpartment, he quickly wrapped a dark green robe around himself. Unfortunately, time had taken its toll. The robe had a few holes in it, not quite covering him as well as it should have. "I definitely got too soft," he muttered to himself. He had stopped maintaining these escapes a long time ago. After all, he never expected to actually get this desperate. It mightve been a fatal mistake. Darting away from the castle, the Warden searched for a crowd of people to slip into. He tried to blend in to a group of passing merchants, but only a minuteter, a firm hand on his shoulder pulled him up short. Another guard stood frowning at him. Hes been had. It was over. Unless he wanted to start killing rtively innocent guards, of course. This was going to be rough. He raised his hands in surrender as additional guards approached to surround him. The Warden gave one final sigh of defeat at the sight. "I''ll go quietly. --- I hovered high above our fledgling city and gazed down upon it. The humans had been adapting well to the recent changes around here, and things wereing along nicely. That battle arena had lent a certain amount of majesty to the skyline. Plus, it did look quite impressive from above, even next to the monstrous castle. Other projects of a simr scale were being built all around the city for a variety of functions, such as defense and for upkeep. The biggest relief to me was our sanitation system though. At first, they hadnt quite understood the idea of the cleaning wagons, much less why they should be housed in the center of the city instead of the outskirts. Luckily, it only took one conversation with Arthur to get his city nners to see sense. Now, a massive warehouse full of stables and wagons would house the workers and equipment for the citys sanitation workers. Theyd go. street by street, sweeping up any debris along paths, tidying upmunity areas, and generally keeping the ce neat and tidy. Each morning, they would also go from house to house and empty the waste bins left out front. It helped to make sure that trash and like would not gather in people''s homes. At Trents insistence, we called the group the Sweeping Society. Of course, individuals were still responsible for keeping things clean as well. People took great pride in their homes and rooms being spick and span. It just helped to designate more formal roles and jobs among the people. It also helped to bring the trash to one ce where I could get rid of it. Once I had convinced them of the importance for such a group, the policies had been implemented right away. The soldiers, as well as the people living in the castle who received simr waste disposal services, were quite happy with the operation. In fact, once people realized how many levels the people in these positions were gaining, it was quickly a sought-after position. It was a bit of a problem. Apparently Beatrice had to insist that they keep the pay high enough for a living wage. Otherwise, the demand for the position was simply so high that people were willing to pay the organizers to get involved. It was rather strange. Instead, they implemented some sort of lottery and secondary reward system to designate daily Sweeping Society members. I was just happy that everyone was so excited about cleaning. The other important but less noticeable improvement was underground. I wasn''t much for digging through the dirt, for obvious reasons. However, the humans had a brilliant idea of moving all of their waste and sewage below the dirt and then moving it out of the city. I was thoroughly on board with the idea and assisted them plenty of times. It was a difficult project. Between the sheer amount of stone they needed, the manpower required to mine it, the fact that all this incredible infrastructure had to go underground? It made sense. So many times, I simply used mysers to melt the dirt into something that would not leak. Kind of like how Daedalus had described. I was also very careful to scan the surroundings and make sure this filth it did not flow into their drinking water. Instead, it flowed deep into the mountains, filling up caverns down there that likely could use the nutrients stored within the filth. Hopefully. If not, I could always go clean it up sometimes. But Trents lessons onpost had stuck with me a bit. Those products were less visually impressive than the battle arena, but I was quite proud of them. I was also proud of the Nighty Knights''s performance in the arena. Ever since it had been made, they had been holding their weekly contests for castle passes there. So far, not one of them had made a fool of themselves. I was satisfied with their understanding of my teachings. The adult army they were training was doing okay, I suppose, but they really couldn''t match the growth of the young children as they shot up in both levels and height. I lifted further above the city, aiming toward the dragon''s mountain. We talked regrly, even if our visits were usually on the shorter side nowadays. We did enjoy ying a game or two as well, but I could tell that Daedalus just wanted to be left alone with his thoughts for a bit. My facial expression subroutines had adapted to the dragons emotions. He seemed mncholy after thinking about his friend for so long, and I wanted to give him enough space to work through it. I could only imagine how upset I would be if I had to wait 10,000 years for Beatrice to wake up from a nap. But I also didn''t want to leave him alone too much. So, as I rocketed up to his cave, I let out a beep of greeting. The grumbling response came a momentter. "Hello, little godling." I responded by projecting some text. "Hello, fat dragon." Daedalus blew some smoke over my way with augh. "Hey, don''t be like that. Im not fat. Youre just very little" "Well, you are veryrge." I was pretty sure this counted as humor. It was a promising attempt at least. But maybe I''d have to reconsider my approach, as the dragon didn''tugh as much as my models had predicted. Perhaps something was off with my observations. Or was it something else? Anyway, we moved past the greetings, and Daedalus and I swapped small stories to catch up. Mostly, it was me just telling him of the city forming below while he offered some advice about the cities of old. It was rare that he actually paid attention to them very much. Mostly, he just burned them down. But he did have some insights into how to build defenses against a giant monster from the sky. We didn''t take a lot of his suggestions as they were not very practical, but it was something that I had passed along a few times when I had felt the need. After the small talk, Daedalus made a face. "There has been something on my mind, little godling, truth be told. I''m not sure if you can tell, but something in the world isn''t right. I can feel it in the magic." I projected the image of a person shrugging, not able to understand what he was talking about. "Yeah, I suppose you haven''t been here long enough to really tell the difference, but the magic bnce is shifted. Something''s changing, and I''m afraid I have an idea of what it is. I motioned for him to continue. You see, beings of immense power draw magic in from around them, creating eddies and pockets and swirls of the energy of the cosmos. Between your actions, a Lieutenant waking up, and other things, it feels as though somethings happening. Something big, for the first time in nearly 10,000 years. But there is another thing as well. Something besides whats happening here. Far to the east, actually. Something drew in a massive amount of power briefly, but it has since gone into the north. I can feel it. It worries me." Chapter 220: A Land Before Time Chapter 220: A Land Before Time As Daedalus and I emerged from the cave, I couldn''t help but feel a slight thrill of excitement quiver through my bristles. I had been at the castle for several months straight now, and I was starting to realize that I had a taste for adventure. Being cooped up for so long was not as fun as I had thought it would be, especially with how seriously everyone took their cleaning responsibilities. The ability to go anywhere I wanted truly was a blessing and a curse. When I approached Beatrice about taking an extended trip with my new draconic friend, she was surprisingly receptive to the idea. In fact, she started producing what people called "tears of joy," promising to protect the city and that my trust in her wouldn''t be misced. It was reassuring to hear, though I wasn''t particrly afraid of any threats showing up anyway. As Daedalus and I flew north, great sheets of ice spread out below us. Additional snow-capped mountains reached toward the skies, though none were as tall as his. Soon, though, thendscape transitioned from frozen earth to a marshy swamp. When I asked Daedalus about that, he exined that the ground beneath us was called a tundra. Now that the beginning of spring was here, the frozen ground had begun to melt and give way to budding nt life. The initial ice in we saw apparently had to do with mountain shielding and weather patterns that I didn''t really understand. Apparently, some magic was involved, too, but Daedalus wasn''t entirely sure about it himself. After that exnation, we flew silently for a few more hours before Daedalus spotted something else and perked up. "Ah, Spot, my friend. This is going to be a sight. Have you ever flown over the ocean before?" I had not. What was an ocean? "You''ve never even seen an ocean before? Surely you''ve heard of them?" I mean, I knew they wererge pools of water, but that didn''t seem particrly noteworthy to me. Certainly not something worth celebrating or admiring. Daedalus thought for a bit. "Well, let me tell you how we exin it to our hatchlings. A long time ago, among the void were scattered world gems. The most ancient of dragons fought over these gems, coveting them and their incredible shininess and warmth. That led to many battles across millennia, with my kin fighting or fleeing to seek other gems. "This gem in particr was fought over quite fiercely. As the dragons grew in size and power though, winners emerged. Seven earth dragons gained prominence and were able to more reasonably im the gem as their own. They defeated the water dragons, whose remains cover the earth even today." Daedalus pointed below. "Thend we fly over is the backs of these great earth dragons. As for the water dragons Well, they form the oceans." I beeped a question. "No, the earth dragons still live. In fact, they;re still fighting even today. They''ve grownzy andfortable over their long lifespans. They move across the world so slowly that it takes hundreds of thousands of years for us to even notice their steps. But they seek each other out, and when they collide, their roars shake the world, their battles forming mountains. Then, when they retreat, thend splits apart and the oceanes to fill the void." I wasn''t sure what to make of the story. The idea of walking dragons forming the ground below us seemed pretty unfeasible. Though the general idea gave me some useful context. I remembered a brief image of a scribble from one of the very, very small humans back at home. It was a strange circle of blue and green. Perhaps it was attempting to depict thesend masses separated by water, as Daedalus exined? The dragon nodded as I projected the drawing. "Yes. That''s not the right shapes, but that''s the general idea. Splotches that are the backs of earth dragons poking up from the endless water. Up north of us, there is a great ocean. It''s not nearly asrge as some of the others in the world, but across it there will be another dragon''s back. A continent, as the humans call it. We will fly over there to reach our destination." I beeped my thanks for the exnation. "Of course. The ocean is a beautiful thing. You''ll see the sunsets and the waves, and maybe we''ll even see some leviathans of the deep." Soon, something new appeared over the horizon. I recalled seeing something simr once before, on the way back home from Arthur''s army. A sliver of vast, sparkling blue. As we approached, it widened and widened until it became clear that this expanse was farrger than I had expected. We continued toward the ocean until thend below us gave way to azure water. My sensors indicated that not only was this wide but incredibly deep as well. In fact, if I stuck my mop in it, I doubted that I''d be able to make even a dent in the sheer volume of the stuff. It made me shudder internally. Without the wonders of flight, I would have been very ufortable about all of this. Even now, the idea of plunging into that much liquid felt like my worst nightmare. I made sure to top off my energy regrly as a precaution. It''s a good thing that it was nowhere near any of my homes. This would be a nightmare to clean up. As we flew across the water, Daedalus was quick to point out when massive dark shapes glided under the water below. Apparently, things lived under there. I shuddered at the thought. How did their circuits stay functional? Or, if they didn''t have circuits, how did they breathe? "Look. Look. You see those tentacles? That''s a baby kraken." Daedalus excitedly gestured, pointing out a floating tentacle mass that was thrashing about on the water. "It must be stuck. Wait one second. I''ll be right back." Daedalus dove down and gripped a few of the tentacles in his massive talons. With a mighty beat of his wings, he slowly pulled the Kraken until something seemed to give. Satisfied, he let the writhing mass sink back down underneath the waves in a froth of bubbles. How nice of him. I saw another mass beneath the water, only a few dozen feet below the surface. I pointed it out as Daedalus returned to flying by my side. "Yeah. That looks to be like an ind that''s forming. I don''t know the exnation for them, but sometimes inds will just appear. Apparently theye from molten rock that hardens or something. That, or it''s a great turtle." I just beeped, and we continued on. *** A few dayster, we finally sawnd again. I was overjoyed. Sure, the ce was edged with horrible sandy beaches, but it was something. But we didn''t stop, even for such an important task as fixing one of the worst collections of loose debris and dirt that I had ever seen. It was all wet, to boot. I was d no one had introduced me to such things before. They might haunt my background processes for a while yet. Soon, those beaches transitioned into ins of long grass and then eventually some spotted trees. A few hourster, mountains rose up on the horizon. More than that, though, I felt something odd. A strange twinge picked up by my sensors, but unidentifiable. Daedalus confirmed that it wasn''t a glitch. "This is what I was talking about. The magic feels a little bit different. There was a slight draw power from this area." I probed my senses more thoroughly, and indeed, I could feel slight currents of energy being pulled toward this area. I asked if he had only noticed this recently, and Daedalus nodded. "Yes. I can guarantee it wasn''t a thing until a couple of months ago. Even then, I wasn''t exactly sure when it started, as it''s been gradually ramping up. If it keeps growing at this rate, there will be significant consequences for even over on our continent, and I''d like to take care of it before things get out of hand." I considered what the castle would be like without magic. For the most part, everyone would be okay, but the healing potions and other alchemic ingredients we relied on for so much might not work so well. Could that mean we couldn''t get more ingredients, or would the magical properties actually be leached out of the stored ingredients as well? Either way, that probably wouldn''t be good. At the same time, I thought about this trip. Travel alone had taken us quite a deal of time. Depending on how long this took, I was going to be gone for at least a week from the castle. Maybe more. I wondered how everyone was doing. Beatrice and the others had been doing an admirable job of keeping everything in order, so I wasn''t too concerned, though. I know they were worried about a response from the kingdom, but that probably wouldn''t happen soon. Setting my worries aside, we continued on. --- Bee worked alongside Maranda in theboratory. Today, they were attempting to research a new type of potion that would allow for long-rangemunication. They were essentially trying tobine Felix''s telepathy skill with Void''s paper messengers if such a thing were possible. The new messenger service had given her the idea of improvingmunication even further, but being able to mimic that with conventional magic was more difficult than she had thought. They simply weren''t having any luck. Right as she was thinking about calling it quits for the day. A soldier knocked on the door frame and stuck his head in. "High Priestess Bee, Arthur requests your presence in themand hall." Bee waved in acknowledgment to the man. "Tell him that I''ll be right there. Just need to clean up. Did he say how urgent it was?" The man nodded. "Yes. The highest priority, ma''am." He gave a sharp salute before he left to go deliver the return message. Bee frowned. Highest priority? There hadn''t been any major incidents that she was aware of in a very long time. Nor did there seem to be argemotion that she could tell. She couldn''t help but wonder what the issue was. They were preparing for the thaw of spring, but they wouldn''t expect any sort of conflict with the kingdom to start for at least a month after that. So they should have time before anything major showed up. At least, that was the going theory. But with Void having gone off on his own travels, she was a little bit worried. She was d that no one in the castle seemed concerned that Void had abandoned them, but she also wasn''t sure what their God was up to. It was a little presumptuous, but having been with Void nearly constantly, it was a bit disconcerting to have it away again for more than a day. Still, Void had trusted them with defending their home. They couldn''t disappoint it. That didn''t stop her from sending her thoughts to her master, though, wishing he would return if they did, in fact, need his aid. Finishing her clean up, Bee made her way over to the exit of the castle and out into the city. The city was massive, already several times the size of Caleb. At least, it seemed that way, based on the size of the outer wall being built on the nearest ridge around the castle. The wall wasn''t filled in yet, so they would have room to grow, but she didn''t doubt they would fill the city in no time, especially with Void''s blessings. The city wouldpletely enclose the castle eventually. The wall was the first thing they started working on after the amenities of the initial camp were done. Theyout of the ce was a little bitplicated, though. There was the castle as an inner sanctum, then the soldiers'' initial camp further out. Past that were all the military buildings and other amenities they had created. These two adjacent circles formed the two city centers. As they continued to grow, Arthur had started to develop it as a defensive project that would enclose an entire section of the valley, with one massive wall blocking off both the city and the castle from the forest and surrounding area. That left a secondary ce where other things could be built, and the city leaders had decided that they would expand into this area for housing and public areas. After all, they''d need them once the families of the soldiers and Caleb''s citizens arrived. Bee took in the sight of their budding city as she approached the newly builtmand center. With a tired sigh, she stepped toward the entrance. Chapter 221: Springing the Trap Chapter 221: Springing the Trap When Bee stepped into the room, she found she was not the first nor thest one there. Arthur, Mary, Susan, and a few of the military officers were there, but Trent and a few other captains had yet to arrive. Mary waved Bee over, and Bee gratefully joined a spot at the table next to her. The conference table had actually been a bit of a point of contention amongst both the military and the people of the castle. Eventually, they settled on a round table where no individual took a ce of prominence. The military officers had wanted Arthur to be at the head or the right hand at a long table. The castle and religious leaders had wanted Bee to upy a simr position. Arthur had wanted Bee to be at the top, and Bee had wanted Arthur to be at the top. With this tangled mess of various positionings, they eventually chose a circr table. An elliptical table had been an option but had threatened to evoke the same issue. It gave Bee a secret bit of pride that the table was the same shape as Void. The only thing that really was set was the ordering of a few spots. Technically, it wasn''t a formally established rule, but Bee and Arthur always sat next to each other. Arthur sat to her right, and that usually meant that either Mary or Susan was to Bee''s left. Other than that, the seats were more or less random. No one was forcing the officers and Bea''s staff to mingle, but they also weren''t segregated to one half of the table or the other, which Bea and Arthur were both very grateful for. It showed a willingness to work together that they hadn''t been certain of while they were setting up theirmand structure. "Do you know what this is about?" Bee asked Mary as she slipped into the chair. Mary Shook her head, and Arthur jumped in before anyone said anything. "I received a missive from someone in the castle in the capital. But let''s wait till everyone''s here before we can discuss details. I don''t want to have to repeat this, and it''s important for everyone to hear it." Some small talk dominated the table as people chatted about their families and the projects they were working on. Bee listened with interest, even if she was already aware of much of this. The wall was getting pretty close toplete. Apparently, a lot of the masons and engineers who had been working with the army had taken the lead from a lot of theirbative members and also decided to follow The Church of the Cleansing Void. Bee was d that her master was getting such recognition, but if anything, it was more likely overjoyed by how effective they''d gotten. The ones she''d helped convert to Devotee had received rather unusual skills. One of the mostmon ones was Stone Melt, with which the engineers and masons could join stones together with no mortar and make them into a single seamless stone. Most of them had gotten skills like this while they were working on the battle arena or otherrge projects. But by the time the wall was started, only those with such impressive skills were allowed to work on it. The lead engineer was boasting to her about the thing''s peerless beauty as thest member of the council made his way into the room. "This is going to be the most impressive wall the world has ever seen, mark my words. It''s going to be one solid granite piece that will be 40 feet high and 10 feet thick the entire way. The gate housing will bepletely enclosed with stones. You couldunch catapults and trebuchets at it for years before you break things down. Anything that isn''t a high-level miner with the right tools won''t be able to do a thing! I''ll tell you, this might be the crowning achievement of my career. Nothing''s getting through this wall. Well, maybe a dragon or some other ridiculous monster, but definitely nothing under level 50." "What about over level 50?" The engineer pursed his lips. "I''m sure you might be able to damage it if you tried, but please don''t." Bee chuckled at the engineer''s backtracking, but she was still very impressed. This wall was fortified beyond anything she had ever heard of in all of her research. It wasn''t just the construction but also the amount of spellwork they had asked for around the gate housing. The materials used by her and Miranda to reinforce that would also help quite a bit. Still, walls were solid fortifications that could always be bypassed. Once thest engineer finally settled into his seat, the small talk quickly died out. Arthur gathered everyone''s attention by clearing his throat. "I received a missive from one of the King''s advisors bearing news. Apparently, this adviser had gone rogue and is concerned. He warned us that military action would be soon arriving against our castle and that the king was likely mad." Silence reigned over the council for a few seconds before one of the officers ventured a question. "As in, angry? Or mad as in insane?" "Insane." Arthur rified. The soldiers shifted ufortably. Bee could understand why. Not only was the King being insane a major usation, but an army arriving soon? They had been assured they would have until mid-spring at least to prepare for some sort of attack. Arthur let the silence go on for a little longer before he spoke again. "Now, this is beyond our expectations. But there are a few things to be aware of. First, this would have been a very hard march for them. They will likely be exhausted and under-supplied, which will help us greatly. But right as spring arrives, so too will their supply lines." "You expect an extended assault, then?" "I can''t imagine they are trying to storm us, but rather start a siege. We will want to make sure we have enough forces outside the castle before they get here. That way, we can disrupt their supply lines long enough to make them feel the pain of a siege as well. Plus, with the wall in ce, we should have plenty of farnd and skilled farmers to produce food for us. I''m not certain what their strategy is, but we will have options." This made Bee feel a little bit better. At least they weren''tpletely caught off guard. Still, she felt a pit open in her stomach. They might have to do all this without Void unless it returned soon. "Remember," Arthur continued, "we always expected some sort of attack. Even if the origins of this message need to be verified, it doesn''t change the core of things. We can''t be sure if the King is insane, either. But we know for certain he''s definitely upset with us. As shown by our homing wee at Caleb." The officers all nodded, and one of them raised his hand. "How do we know we should trust this missive? This advisor is going against the King. Maybe he''s simply trying to put us at odds even more?" Arthur nodded. "He''s an adviser that I have known for some time. He''s rather clever and good with information, but I do believe his loyalty lies with the Kingdom over the King." They went back and forth a little bit more, talking about the believability of the message and more detailed preparations. But eventually, it came down to seeing for themselves. Susan stepped out of the room briefly and was soon followed by Captain Major as they arranged for scouts to be sent out. While they were gone, there was more argument about what to do if the King truly was insane, corrupt, or power hungry. There were too many options for the source of this fracture. Just because one advisor imed something in a missive didn''t make it true, even if Arthur trusted them. Bee had no idea about all that, though. She had never even seen the King nor been involved in politics. It reminded her too much of her father''s type of work, so she didn''t really care much, to be honest. She cared more about protecting her people. She tugged on Arthur''s sleeve, distracting him from the argument brewing around the table. "Are we prepared?" Arthur grimaced and shrugged. "As much as we could reasonably be, but there is always more we can do. We probably should start working on drills. Preparing for wall watches and rotations too. We can start building more siege weaponry as well." Bee nodded along with the assessment as Arthur posed a question of his own. "Do you think we can convince Maranda to give us some of those fireworks? They might make good ammunition for catapults and trebuchets." Bee shrugged. "I can talk to her. I''m not sure how much more of those ingredients we have. We''ll all work with her to figure out some alternatives." Arthur nodded. "We are mostly prepared. But there are still things we can do." Bee nodded. "Well, let''s get to it." --- Daedalus and I soared over the mountains, going east to west as we searched for the source of the feeling below us. I noticed many interesting things in the field of snow. Every once in a while, we''d see a small hut-like structure. It was incredible. I couldn''t believe that anyone lived out here. Daedalus was unsurprised, though. "People live everywhere," he said. "It''s not just over on our continent. That one is almost entirely human, besides the monsters. At least, it was a thousand years ago. Maybe there are some more elsewhere. But on other continents, there are probably elves and other humans and stuff still." I was surprised. I hadn''t heard Bee talk about anything like that. But I supposed she might not know. Especially if travel between continents was as difficult and long as our flight. As we moved to the center of the disturbance, the urrence of such buildings increased. To call them buildings was a bit of a stretch. At first, I thought maybe they were just temporary shelters. But as I started to see groups of them, I noticed that they were actually collections of crudely built mud huts. The things were partially buried in snow, but even still, I could make out the raggedy thatched roofs and lumpy brownish walls. Quite disgusting living conditions, I had to admit. Eventually, we came to the base of one of thergest mountains around. There, we spotted a cluster of huts that actually looked slightly nned instead of randomly scattered. It was still terribly messy though, even if they were arrayed in mostly straight rows. As our shadows passed over the structures, several odd-looking creatures ran out of the huts and began screeching up at us. They weren''t people, exactly, but rather shaggy ape-like creatures. We were high enough in the air that it was difficult to make out any details on them besides their general shape and the fact that they were furry. But even as we soared past, they tramped through the snow after us, yelling something. I beeped at Daedalus quizzically. "No, I have no idea what those are. New to me too." I looked down at them and then back at Daedalus, uncertain about what to do. I shed a message to him." Should we go visit the snowmen?" The dragon chuckled. "Sure. Why don''t we gond and see what these ''snowmen'' have to say? They better not attack us, though. I would not want to have to eat an entire civilization." I thought about it. Yeah. It''d be best not to have to consume all of them. They couldn''t all be mess makers, though, surely? Perhaps they were just misguided. I was sure we could work out some sort of peaceful solution. While they seemed agitated, they hadn''t thrown stuff at us or anything. Perhaps they just wanted to say hello. Finding a rtively t outcropping on the side of the mountain, we glided down to make ournding. We waited there as the snowmen chased after us, not too far behind. Chapter 222: Fur and Fervor Chapter 222: Fur and Fervor The horde of snowmen approached us like a flood of fur. There were far more of them than I had originally expected given my view from above. As they came closer, my sensors were able to estimate their numbers with greater uracy. There were far more than there should have been, considering the size of the settlement wed seen. But the density of the pack didn''t seem to slow them down, nor did I see any getting left behind. Each and every one of them was being carried forward in a tight wave of furry white bodies. As they came closer, I noticed that they were significantlyrger than most of the humans I had seen, standing an average of 8.9 feet tall. Their hands were massive, each finger tipped with a w. Their arms hung down far past their waist, almost to their knees. When they ran, they swung these long appendages, pumping them to add significant momentum to the run. They also used their arms tounch themselves across the ground or over a particrly rocky patch, and it seemed to speed them along as they rushed at us. If this was a bunch of human adventurers or an army, I might have felt some sort of pressure. But here? There was no cause for concern that I could see. The threat of danger was quite low, really. Whether that was because of our power or the uncertainty of them being aggressive, I wasnt entirely sure It didn''t really matter. I trusted my background processes to warn me if I was in any real danger. Daedalus seemed to agree as we just waited for the tide of humanoid snowmen to reach us. About 100 feet out, the front of the pack skidded to a halt, throwing up snow ice in the dirt as their toe ws dug into the ground. Not everyone seemed to get the message, and the back of the pack quickly crashed into the front, sending them stumbling several more feet. But eventually, they all came to a halt and dropped to their knees in front of us. I chirped in satisfaction. They werent trying to be a threat! That was nice. They were simply excited to see us. I hoped that meant they would be willing to listen, because they had so much to learn when it came to sanitary building practices. There was a shuffling in the ranks of the snowmen, and a small pathway opened up from them as they parted. Slowly, a very small snowman who couldn''t have been more than six feet tall hobbled towards us, leaning on a cane. She was the only one of them that had any decorations about her. A strand of seashells was strung around her neck, and they clinked quietly together as she made her way towards us. Taking a closer look at the ne, I noticed several of the seashells were cracked or just parts of ones. Considering how far away they were from the ocean, it must have been some sign of wealth to have them at all. When she was a dozen feet closer to us than the rest of the snowmen, she, too, went down to one knee. It was a slow process. Rather than diving down, she carefully used her cane to lower herself down before letting out a series of hooting, grunting sybles at us. I swiveled my attention to Daedalus to see if he understood what was going on. He just shrugged, his massive scaled shoulders shifting as he resettled his wings. "Don''t look at me. I don''t speak... Snowman? You called them Snowmen, right?" I told him that it would take me a bit of listening to their conversations before I was able to develop anguage model enough to trante. Right now, I didnt have nearly enough samples to understand them. But clearly, from the way they were staring at the red dragon, they recognized Daedalus. As what, and why? I wasn''t sure. As one, the snowmen went from their knees to bowing, their heads pressed into the snow. Slowly, the elderly snowman in the front reached up and dragged her seashell ne over her fluffy ears and gentlyid it out on the ground before us before slowly shuffling backward. While I might not understand theirnguage very well, it was clear to me that this was an offering and Daedalus needed no prompting. He lumbered forward. Each step shook the earth, and his scales rolled majestically, each one catching the light in a particr way, giving his walk a shimmering effect. It felt like hed practiced this particr stride. Kind of like when the castle cat Chester crossed the courtyard and knew who all the humans were looking at. Whatever it was that Daedalus was doing clearly had some effect. Sounds of awe flowed through the prostrated group until Daedalus reached down with one talon and fished the ne out of the snow. He looked back over his shoulder at me with a little bit of confusion in his eye. I could see his issue. There was no way for him to wear the ne. It would not even fit over his talon fully, let alone his head. After a moment of hesitation, he slowly reached up and hung it on one of the horns over his eyebrow. The string of shells ttered as it settled off to the side of his head. He did look quiteical, in my opinion, but I stifled myughter. I was sure Daedalus would not appreciate the blow to his pride. The fact that he was willing to wear such a piece of decoration at all was unexpected, given the stories of his past. It didn''t sound like something he would ever demean himself to do. Having spent so much time with Archibald must have really changed him. Daedalus stood over the snowmen and breathed out warm puffs of smoke, ruffling the fur of the 100 or so Snowmen still lying prostrate in front of him. He then grumbled a question at me. "What do we do now? This is not the first time I''ve been worshiped, but usually, I can at least understand what they want." I had no answer for him, but the snowman seemed to take his words as leave to get up. They were on their feet and dashing back toward their huts in a matter of seconds. "Should we follow them?" I asked Daedalus. He cocked his head. The seashell ne swayed slightly. "I don''t see why not, and it would be interesting if they were gathered here at the source of the disturbance. I would like to know why. I doubt that was a coincidence. Perhaps they know something more." I agreed. These snowmen must either have some sort of legends about this ce or some great sensitivity to magic and energy. Thetter wouldve been impressive, as most of the creatures I had met so far had no notion of it. Even I was just beginning to pick those signatures up with my Advanced Sensors. We made our way after them at a more sedate pace, and every once in a while, some of them would look back and make sure that we were following. So clearly, they were trying to show us something. Once, we were in the snowman''s camp. They led us toward the mountain. Daedalus had to walk around the vige to get there as there was no way he would fit through any of the gaps in the houses. But I stayed close to our escorts. Hovering around, they didn''t pay me too much mind. But as I separated from Daedalus, they looked at me curiously, as if only now realizing I was a separate entity from the giant dragon. There was arge cave in the back of the mountain. They picked up some torches that glowed at one end. Looking closely, I realized that they were not exactly torches though. Instead of fire, the tools featured a glowing stone that emitted a soft, even light. It was attached to arge stick with what looked to be vines and leather straps. Four of the snowmen and the olddy each grabbed a torch and walked inside the cave. I followed. But Daedalus had to stay outside and just stick his head in, as he was far toorge to make it in without damaging everything. The cave was not too deep, only 103.45 feet from the entrance to the back wall, but it opened up into a wide and surprisingly regr sphere reaching all the way up to the ceiling. It was also covered in paintings. Not the crude paintings of the little humans, but not quite the detailed renditions of images that some of the more skilled,rger humans could produce. There was enough detail in them that it was still very clear what was depicted. A war. On one side hovered had a giant dragon, along with many glittering warriors of various kinds. They werent distinguishable as humans but rather as some sort of other humanoid race with two legs, two arms, and a scary metallic face. Opposing them was a creature with giant bat-like wings and a face made of fire. Surrounding it were more recognizable shapes of demons and other mess makers. The torchbearers slotted their torches into the four cardinal directions inside the cave. Then, two moved to the dragon and bowed before it, while another two bowed before the demon.. Huh. That was strange. Did they worship both sides? Why? What couldpel these creatures to do so? This exined why they held great respect for Daedalus, at least, but raised more questions. Especially since that demon wasn''t one I was familiar with. It didn''t match the pictures of the demon lord that I had seen below the castle. But based on Daedalus''s old tales, those were probably made long after anyone who actually worked on them had seen the Demon Lord. Daedalus huffed from behind me. Look at that. They got the shape of my back spines all wrong. And the color! Im far more ruby glimmering in firelight than whatever that shade is. Looking closer at the dragon, I realized it was actually pretty close to Daedalus. Daedalus was a tiny bitrger, if the scale was urate. And his horns were a bit longer than the pictures, but just barely. It very well could have been artistic license. I had to disagree on the spines though. They seemed to be one of the more urate details."It seems these snowmen know something about your old war." I shed to Daedalus. He nodded ever so slightly, careful not to bump into the cave ceiling. "It appears so. They have better memories than most humans, it seems. Though the fact that they appear to worship both me and the demon is quite disturbing. Perhaps they know something more about it. There should be one of the Lieutenantscaptured around here somewhere. If I remember correctly, at least three went down on this continent." "Do you think he''s nearby? Could that be the cause of the magic drain?" Daedalus hummed with a thoughtful noise, shaking the cave as he did. "I suppose it''s possible. I can''t say I remember this particr demon being captured here, but this is definitely a loose artistic interpretation of one of the Lieutenants. Likely by someone who had only ever heard of him. The general shape is right, but the position is a little odd. So I wouldn''t be surprised if whoever made this only saw his bound form, not him in action." "So if the demon is here and drawing power, then we need to find it. Right?" I asked Daedalus. "Yes, we do indeed. Lets get on it friend." Chapter 223: Draggin Your Feet Chapter 223: Draggin Your Feet Arthur stepped into the meeting room, his eyes quickly scanning the officers sitting and waiting for him. This was one of the rare military-only meetings he really shouldve been making a point of having more often. The only one from the castle present was Susan, and that was by necessity. Admittedly, her scouts were really the best in this area. A small force like hers was inherently limited in what it could do, but there were times when it excelled. He could only hope his would improve quickly enough to better leverage their superior numbers. He kicked off the meeting with some introductions and a general summarization of their situation before waving her to the front. Susan had brought a few visual aids with her that she set up by the front of the room. A general map of the area, along with some pins representing the Scout''s findings, were soon disyed before the group.. "Three days ago, we made contact. The military vanguard is still several days out from the edge of the forest, but we do believe they will fully regroup before heading into the woods. Out in the open ins, there is very little opportunity for ambushes and general sabotage, but we have managed to make some strides. While no actual sabotage acts have beenmitted, we do have their supply train schedule for the next several months, nned routes and backup mounts, as well as information about who is maintaining the weapons. Those are the major points. I will disseminate more details to those who need it." The officers gave an approving murmur. The fact that they had all this information up front was going to be of great help when it came to slowing down the enemys approach. The siege preparations were going along swimmingly, but they could use more time. There were always more fortifications, always more traps, always more ambitious countermeasures they couldy. If anyone thought the castle was fully prepared for a siege, Arthur would call them a fool. Susan continued to give more details about the kingdom armys estimated time of arrival as well as certainndmarks that they could gauge their progress with. These were especially pertinent for the several-day march through the valley that would be required to even reach the settlement. Along those lines, she picked out specific unitmanders and gave suggestions of which ones would be best in various spots for ambushes. Arthur was impressed by her devious mind. There was not more than a half mile where she didn''t see an opportunity for a rather tricky ambush or act of sabotage. At this rate, the entire length of the five-day march through the forest would give the army real trouble. Especially considering that the narrow road would force even a massive army to be strung out, meaning they could not bring their numbers advantage to bear in any one particr spot. As long as the guerri forces they fielded could flow through the forest and hit from both sides, they could almost always outnumber their enemy 2 to 1 in the actual engagement. This was a rather simple tactic, but the way Susan was setting up her ns for sabotage made use of it heavily. Arthur was d hed sent out forces days ago like shed pushed for instead of waiting. Now, based on her information, they would barely manage to get out of the forest before the Kingdom showed up. Any forces theyd send out now would either be stuck in the valley or have to maneuver through the forests. These were the forces they would have to rely on to intercept the kingdoms supply trains, along with any sort of support that the kingdom would be trying to give the military during the siege; if they were sessful enough in cutting everything off, they could peel away arge part of the force and give Arthur a chance to do more than just endure the siege. Or, they could basically end up forcing the enemy to siege themselves. Arthur doubted that a rushed army pushed to march through the winter would have anywhere near the amount of provisions the city and the castle had. With the food production that Trent and his branch had managed under the guidance of Lord Void, the castle was set for almost two years and would be nearly self-sustainable in the near future. They just needed a little bit more influx of livestock before they had their own thriving ecosystem. As for water, there was no way to cut off the water supply through either the cial runoff from the mountains or from ground wells. So, as long as they were independent in food, the only way to take them out would be through a direct assault. And Arthur was doing his best to make sure that was an unadvisable course of action. After Susan finished her report, the lead engineer stood up and gave progress on the third ring wall. For each wall they finished building, they had started to build a slightly lesser wall in front of it so that they would be able to fall back to a more fortified position. By some miracle, they had managed to finish an entire wall spanning the perimeter of the forest, 250 feet in front of the first wall. It was a crude thing, but no less impressive for it. The third wall had begun construction, and the trees were being cleared. He hoped to have at least a basic palisade the entire way. It wouldn''t hold up for long, but it would give Arthur''s men a ce to make a first stand. Also, it would test the enemy''s mettle, letting him see how they handled the conflict. Arthur didn''t expect to hold that position for more than a half hour before they fell back to the second wall. But the second wall would have made most city walls look fairly normal. It was the third wall that they would have to hold for all their worth. Not that the wall was anything to scoff at. That masterwork thing of melted granite would give even Arthur himself pause, even without the frankly absurd amounts of magic thrown on it. Apparently there was stuff on there the likes of which hadn''t been seen for a thousand years. At least, that''s what his engineers had said after the two young girls had worked on it. Sometimes, it was hard to think of Miss Bee as the high priestess of Spot. The fact that Void''s mouthpiece would be such a sweet little girl went against his every expectation. But that was nothingpared to her apprentice Maranda, who seemed even more out of ce but strangelypetent in understanding magic. Even now, Maranda still worked to fortify the positions while Miss Bee had other important things to see to. --- Daedalus and I circled around the mountain after we had finally gotten away from the Snowmen. They had seemed to want to throw a feast of some sort, but we had retired and left them to their own celebrations. Neither of us really wanted to eat whatever they were going to cook up, and I was having trouble not cleaning up the settlement beyond what would be polite. I had, of course, gone through and resolved all of their waste issues, but I didn''t want to offend them by rebuilding their muddy huts orpletely upending their society. They were eptably grateful for my assistance and seemed to look at me in a new light when they realized the wonders of cleanliness. But it was a distant respect for my teachings, and I clearly would have to do more before they would trust me. Still, they started to give me a little bit more space to do my work. The dragon and I chatted a bit about what the implications of the demon and dragon worship was for these people, but we quickly ended up revisiting the topics we''d already talked about, and we fell into silence. Each of us did our ownputations, trying to figure out what we needed to do. Daedalus was sure something was wrong with the dragon art, but I was convinced the dragon in the depiction was supposed to be him. As we rose higher up in the next mountain over, I saw a strange opening in the side of it and pointed it out to Daedalus. I shed him an image of his own cave as I saw it from a distance. Daedalus cocked his head inquisitively. You think one of my cousins is over here? I suppose that''s actually pretty usible. That would exin the details they got wrong, at least.I resisted arguing. Even if the wall art was ancient or artistically rendered, he seemed convinced that no one would ever possibly render his image with anything but perfect uracy. Besides, who would know those sorts of details about the dragon? But the dragon seemed to think that anyone who''d even heard about him should be able to get his magnificence near perfection. If they had enough skill in whatever medium they were working with, at least. And if they didnt, then why even try? It wasn''t an argument I was going to win. Still, we made our way over there, mostly out of curiosity. As we alighted before the cave entrance, my sensors registered a slight disturbance in the areas magic energy. It was simr to the mountain we had just left, but still different.Clearly, this wasn''t the source of the magic draining, but it wasn''t too far off of it. Daedalus let out a polite roar in greeting in case the cave was upied before we even approached. I wouldn''t want to be rude. But hopefully if we''re not waking someone up. He shot a baleful re in my direction. I know how annoying it is to be woken up by loud noises. I beeped indignantly. "Look, I apologized for that already. I didn''t realize you were there." He gave me a toothy grin, and I rxed slightly. "But yeah, let''s not lob any explosions at him." An answering bellow came from deep within the cave, and Daedalus grinned. "Ah, one of my cousins is here!" A white head poked out of the mountain and breathed a pir of frost over at Daedalus, and Daedalus responded by breathing a jet of fire. The two breath attacks met between them and mingled before they both cut off suddenly, and Daedalusnded at the foot of the mountain. The white dragonunched itself out of the cave and slowly glided down, shaking the earth with itsnding. Comparing the two, I realized Daedalus was significantlyrger than this other dragon. He likely possessed about 30% more mass, even if the white dragon was longer from tip to tail. "Daedalus! Big brother! It''s been too many millennia." The white dragon greeted Daedalus, rumbling and shaking his head. "Thucydides. I didn''t think I''d see you again. You''ve been sleeping for, what, 10,000 years now?" "Give or take. I had a bit of a fever a while ago and was just sleeping it off. Woke up a couple hundred years ago and have been trying to shake off the grogginess ever since." Thucydides shook his head and rumbled. "I think it was some dark elf curse after I ate of one of their princesses. I know I shouldn''t do that anymore, but she just looked so juicy." I looked between the two bantering dragons. "Dark elf? Princess?" I asked curiously. I seemed to draw Thucydides''s interest for the first time. "Why, Daedalus, have you brought a guest?" Book 1 release! Book 1 release! Hey all! It''s here! It''s finally here! Today''s theunch of All the Dust that Falls vol 1. Now avable through Amazon''s Kindle Unlimited, paperback, and audiobook! The audiobook is narrated by Phil Thorn. I''ve listened to his rendition of Deepwater Dungeon and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I''m pretty excited about that version of the story in particr. Here''s where you can get it: Amazon: All the Dust that Falls, Book one kindle Audible: All the Dust that Falls, Book one audio This is my first published book, and I''m honestly surprised everytime Ie to post my next chapter and find that people read thest one. Thank you all so much for supporting and reading the story so far. It''s been amazing to see this dumb idea about a roomba turn into something so cool. If you want to pick up the book in any form, great! If not, there''s other ways you can help out as well. But here is my ask of you, if you want to help. Ratings and reviews on Amazon. The more ratings we can get (preferably 5 star because of how their ratings skew), the better chance this story has of reaching even more people. You don''t need to buy the book for that either, a download on Kindle Unlimited if you have it will also help the book a ton. Last thing: Because of how important reviews are for the sess of the book. Im going to offer a bounty system. One month after release (Dec 7th), I will release extra chapters with how many reviews the book has. For the first 100, I will give three extra chapter and then one more for evey 100 reviews after that. So if it has 1000 reviews. I will need to get an extra 12 chapters (Thergest dump in All the Dust that Falls history). Of if it has 200 I will give four. Once again, thank you all so much. This story never would have made it so far without your support. Here''s to even more good things yet toe. May your floors stay ever swept, Zaifyr Chapter 224: Night Raid Chapter 224: Night Raid Daedalus motioned for me to move forward and made brief introductions. After, Thucydides turned to me. "I haven''t talked to a godling in a very, very long time. I wasn''t even aware the world had enough magic to produce them anymore. As the ages go by, it''s been harder and harder to grow." A mncholy silence started to settle on the three of us before Daedalus broke it with a gibe. "Is that why you still haven''t cracked 50 yet? Honestly, if you weren''t my little brother, you''d be an embarrassment." Thucydides red at Daedalus. "You know how hard it is to gather mana nowadays? Why, I haven''t been able to condense my power in a very long time. Especially with everything fading so much recently." I turned toward Daedalus with a question: "How did Thucydides have trouble gathering power when it was so simple? All you had to do was kill strong things. Demons and the like." Daedalus shook his head and offered an exnation. "Thucydides has a bit of a weird ss. He doesn''t get power from killing or defeating enemies. He has to meditate and gather the energy of the world. It was great when we were hatchlings, but..." Thucydides sighed. "Back then, mana was so rich throughout the world, all I had to do was breathe and I''d level up." Daedalus bobbed his head in agreement. "Yeah. The magic of the world has been getting thin over the past several millennia. I''m not exactly sure why, but it started long before the demons came, and it''s been declining ever since I was born. It''s one of the reasons humans can thrive so much now. Ten or twenty thousand years ago, they would have been overrun by stronger races. But now? I mean, we dragons get sleepy so easily that we have no choice but to hibernate and leave them alone. It''s also why no new gods have showed up. Not since we drove thest ones off this ne." I wasn''t about to question that, so I exchanged a few more polite words with Thucydides, then left the brothers for their reunion. I was not exactly sure what I needed to do, so I went back to talk to the snowmen. As the dragons conversed, their rumbles echoed through the valleys surrounding the mountains. I saw a few stones ttering near the edge of the settlement. In fact, many of the snowmen were lined up and listening to the distant sound as I approached. They turned their attention to me and weed me with deep bows. I made my way into the vige and searched around for any help I could offer. As I swept through their collection of shelters, I did my best to clean what I could. It wasn''t too hard to better pack the earth and carve out channels for the rain to go through. They''d probably be useful if this snow melted soon, as well. The snowmen didn''t seem to understand what I was doing, but they didn''t get in my way either. If Daedalus took a while, maybe I''d try to teach them. ---- "High Preistess! Come quick!" A sudden pounding at the door woke Bee from her slumber. Groggily, she rubbed her eyes and rolled out of bed. This was the first time she''d had a chance to grab a few hours of rest in thest several days. She didn''t have to sleep very often anymore, but she still needed it asionally. With all the preparations for theing army, There was just too much to do. And that was even with her staff and council performing their duties extraordinarily. She could only be grateful for all the support and work that went into preparing for the siege. Without people like Arthur, Trent, Mary, and Susan, she would have been crushed by responsibility several times over. But that didn''t mean that she didn''t have endless things to do herself. Most of them boiled down to just being visible and keeping people''s spirits and morale up. The rest of it was training. Everyst person who would fight was trying to eke out another level or get to that next skill that might make all the difference in theing battle. And with her being the highest level person present, fighting with her was the best way of getting those levels. At least forbat sses. So, for at least eight hours each day for the past week, she had been fighting against multiple high-level opponents, each one usually above level 35. Anything else would not have been worth her time. And she had been doing so publicly in the arena. Many would watch to learn techniques that Void taught her with the broom. As much as she had discouraged the unorthodox weapon, it was often poprized among the non-soldiers who were trying to learn basic defense techniques. It was quite impractical, and only because of her personal connection to Void did she think she was able to achieve such mastery with it. Between her level and her practical experience, she was able to equal, if not best, an opponent with a more traditional de around the same level of physical ability. Of course, that didn''t stop anyone. All the followers of Void preferred to use its favorite weapon. Only those who had already spent a vast amount of time training with another weapon were refusing to switch. As Bee stood, yawning, she padded over to the door and wrenched it open. Beyond stood a practically frantic mother. "Have you seen the Nighty Knights? Do you know where they are? I haven''t seen my son sincest night. He wasn''t in his bed for breakfast, and I couldn''t find him on those stupid patrols they go on...." The woman rambled in an endless stream of words, not giving Bee a split second for a response. It wasn''t like she had anything to add. "No, I have not seen them." Bee interrupted, causing the women to finally pause. Her mouth hung open mid-word in surprise. "Who else have you asked?" "Um. Well, I assume many of the other mothers know?" Came the uncertain answer. Bee put her hand on the woman''s shoulder,fortably interrupting the tirade from continuing, and spoke in her mostforting voice. "We''ll find them, don''t worry." With that, she rushed past her. The smart thing would have been to go look at Susan or Captain Major first. One of the scouts would probably have seen the Nighty Knights wherever they were going, but if they were actually gone? As a group, they were probably too skilled for many others to catch up to. If they had really wandered off and they didn''t want to be found, Bee had a sneaking suspicion of what they were up to. This might be something that she has to take care of personally. While Bee''s role was important, it wasn''t essential, and others could cover for her. These kids took precedence for a multitude of reasons. She was already pulling her broom in front of her as she made her way quickly through the halls. A quick circuit around the castle to investigate revealed that they were, in fact, gone. Once that was certain, Bee made haste to track them down. Between her pathing skill and her faith sense, it was easy to find the general direction of the Knights. Soon enough, she was running down the road away from the castle. As her skills led her further and further from the castle, her heart sank. She didn''t want to be right about this. Aspetent as the Nighty Knights were, they were still children. True, most of them had seen awful things in the undead gue or had other horrible experiences - far more than any children should have, in her opinion. The loss of their homes and everything in them was enough to traumatize practically anyone. But seeing them train had not only shown their incredible resilience but also how much they were still children at heart. Bee couldn''t in good conscience let them be on a battlefield. A real battlefield where they would be in real danger. They might get hurt, but worse, they might have to hurt others. Do things when they didn''t fully understand the consequences. When she had talked to Mrs. Chadwick about the disappearances, the woman had been eerily calm as she sat at their family''s dining room table and served her a cup of tea. Apparently, when she had woken and found the ming sword missing from where she had hidden it, she immediately knew what had happened. She just hoped that her two children woulde back. But in her own words, she had said they were "too much like their father. They''re not willing to let injustice..." She had trailed off, biting her tongue. Bee had just ced her hand onto the woman''s, where it trembled. She was barely holding it together. "Don''t worry, we''ll get them back," she had said. Bee could only hope she would get there in time. The flying carpet could have lent her more speed but at a cost. They likely didn''t take the road, meaning her vision and maneuverability wouldn''t be as good as on foot. Not that Bee was an expert tracker or anything, with how much she relied on her skills, but she hoped that she could take advantage of her speed to catch up before anything happened. As the sun rose and began to fall once more, she realized that something was wrong. The Nighty Knights trail zed clear through the forest ahead of her. But she wasn''t catching up. Somehow, something was allowing them to run at a speed that she could barely maintain by herself. That the children were barely above level 15 in some cases should have prevented them from having any sort of ability like this. Perhaps this was new or something they had hidden. Who knew what powers their faith in Void had given them? The fact that Felix and Leanne had started to developmand-type abilities so early meant that something like a group buff would not be out of the question. It was on the second day that she finally broke out of the forest, and she still hadn''t caught up with any knights. She had finally managed to make up some ground on them, but they were still hours ahead of her by her skill''s estimation. Yet she had to keep going. As dawn turned the sky a rosy hue, she noticed something new on the horizon. Clouds of smoke are just visible over the next few hills. She forced down her exhaustion. As she crested the next rise, she was treated to the sight of a camped army sprawling out as far as she could see. Bee was careful not to expose herself too much in the morning light. But the smoke wasn''t justing from the campfires. In addition to those, several wagons off to the side were currently aze, causing soldiers to pour out of the tents like a kicked-over anthill. They rushed to put out the fires as Bee frantically scanned the encampment for a group of small prisoners. But she didn''t see any. Chapter 225: Get Off My Lawn Chapter 225: Get Off My Lawn Bee watched the enemy camp from atop a tall hill for several minutes, scanning for other signs of the Nighty Knights. Suddenly, nearly a mile away, another set of mes began rising up in the sky from elsewhere in the encampment. This caused a renewed scramble as the kingdom''s army attempted to adjust. Officers shoutedmands, and soldiers all scrambled to aplish their tasks. Many rushed towards the fires. Others dashed about to find buckets or arm themselves. But before a full pursuit could be organized, a third disturbance made itself known. Horses started whinnying and screaming, and their picket lines snapped. Suddenly, the soldiers had to choose between gathering the fleeing horses, putting out their supplies, or dealing with the mysterious fire off in the distance. It wasn''t more than a handful of moments before the officer began organizing priorities, but it was enough that no effective pursuit wasunched. Bee couldn''t help but grin to herself. Now that her initial worry had abated somewhat, she had a good idea of what was happening. Given her soul sense, she could track the threads of faith through the camp and thus identify where the Knights were moving next. A fourth party snuck through the confusion and slipped into the back of one of themand tents. A few heartbeatster, a fourth fire sprang up. But this time, a dedicated force was on the prowl. All the officers'' guards nearby ignored the other disturbances to beser-focused on the group that had snuck into the section. Only the fires in themand tents had been started in several spots, and many officers needed escorting out of danger. Even with the guards'' attempts, these openings gave the five saboteurs a chance to escape. They darted into tents, trying to throw the pursuers off their trail. But the men were relentless. Once they spotted the small forms of their enemies, the men began tearing through cloth barriers with their swords and shoving people out of the way. Bee quickly searched to find the other three groups and found that they had, thankfully, made it a decent distance away from the camp. The five had managed to stay together somehow, but they were quickly bing surrounded. They hadn''t been caught yet, but it was just a matter of time. They were being herded toward another group of soldiers assembling to block their way as their pursuers came at them from multiple sides. She dashed forward as stealthily as she was able to keep the element of surprise. But just as she thought she would have to actually step in and rescue the little rascals, a fifth disturbance appeared. One of the five Knights hopped to the side and hurled a ss vial into the sky. Itnded ahead of them, among the group of assembling soldiers. A deafening crack sounded, followed by a deep whoosh. Suddenly, a massive area of the camp was engulfed in roaring orange and red mes. People screamed. Soldiers ran, rolling on the ground to put the fires on their own bodies out. She wasn''t sure if the projectile had been aimed intentionally or if they had gotten lucky. Regardless, it hadnded in just the right spot to open a hole in the encirclement. The group didn''t slow as they ran right towards the mes. Bee instinctively reached out as they entered the inferno but could sense from her ability that they weren''t harmed in the slightest. They must have borrowed some potions from Maranda for this. The group dashed onward. The soldiers found themselves too preupied with dragging others away from the ze, and the pursuers were hesitant to plunge in after their targets. So the group of children ran through the ze,pletely concealed from sight, and darted a few rows of tents over. Bee watched from afar as they turned on a dime, slipped into the shadows of an unupied, and circled around from a dark alcove. They watched as the pursuers that had managed to avoid the fire trundled past. Then, flitting from shadow to shadow, they skulked their way toward the edges of camp. Before long, they were off into the tall grass, crawling on their hands and knees around the camp. Bee still sat on her hill, watching the slightly swaying grass as they made their way around the sentries and regrouped with the rest of the group. She smiled as she found the small cave that they were using as their base of operations for the night. Once she had done a quick head count and realized everyone was there through her spirit sense, she started to make her way over, careful not to leave a trail to invalidate all their hard work. When she stepped into the entranceway, a sentry she had almost missed in the shadows let out a whistle, and all of their heads swiveled toward the entrance. As they reached for weapons, Bee held her hands up and waited for them to recognize her. "I''ll have you all know, your mothers are quite worried." --- Daedalus watched his little friend go to y with the snowmen. He let the little godling have its fun. Interacting with the new race for the first time was always interesting. It was one of the few truly unique experiences a long-lived immortal got to enjoy. Turning back to his little brother, he continued their conversation. "So where did you find these snowmen?" Thucydides looked surprised. "Snowman? You mean the yetis?" "Is that what you''re calling them?" "That''s what they call themselves, at least." Daedalus snorted. "Well, they''re going to be calling themselves snowmen from here on out, if I make my guess." Thucydides just huffed some frost out into the air. "Sure, It''s better than yeti, at least." "Where''d you find them?" Daedalus asked. He didn''t mind talking a little shop with his little bro. "Yeah, well, I''ve been mostly sleeping but keeping an eye on them. They found that cave and drew some artwork on it a few thousand years ago. Not sure how they managed to get the history right an all that, but they got most of the details right." "That''s for sure. Only a few thousand years ago? That''s a lotter than I would have thought. But at the same time, they haven''t advanced very far it seems." Thucydides nodded. "Yeah, they''re not the most useful, at least not when ites to making things. But when ites to mining, they''re great. They love digging. I''d even say they''re almost as good as the dwarves." "Really?" Daedalus perked up at that. "Wow. We haven''t found a good mining race since I don''t know when. With how scarce the dwarves seem to be, I was worried that all that gold would stay underground!" "Yeah, they''re really fast at digging and finding ore, but their size means they have to dig a lotrger tunnels. But when ites to crafting, they''repletely useless." Thucydides snorted, waving a massive w. "They haven''t even truly figured out fire yet. Basic torches are as far as it gets. They might be able to smelt copper if they did, but so far they haven''t moved past cold forging it." Daedalus hummed thoughtfully. "Have you tried slipping them any hints?" "Yeah, a couple of times," Thucydides said. "They just don''t seem to grasp it. I imagine it might be a bit of a hobby project in the next couple thousand years to get them up to snuff. But once I get them there, I think it might be a worthwhile investment. It''s a long shot, but I''m hoping to get them to take a good look underneath these mountains. They''re rtively new, but mostly untapped as far as I can sense." Daedalus considered that and activated his Draconic Hoard skill, sending his senses seeking downwards. Surprisingly, he did find it to be rtively untouched. There was no honeb of underground tunnels that went through the mountains below. That was rare nowadays, "Yeah, that seems like an interesting project. Good luck. Let me know if it works out, I might have to borrow some of your snowmen for my own hoard. Anyway, any word on the Lieutenant that''s captured around here?" Thucydides shook his head. "No, I haven''t checked." "Then do you know what''s up with the disturbance in the magic in the air? Recently, I started to feel it even an ocean away. Surely you''ve noticed?" Thucydides shrugged. "Honestly, not really. I''ve been taking a break from magic recently and haven''t checked in. Give me a second to see if I can sense what you''re talking about." The White Dragon folded in an awkward position, pulling its hind legs underneath itself and folding them over each other strangely. He touched the tips of his talons together and wrapped his tail around himself. Daedalus groaned as he watched his little brother''s meditation. He had never understood this method for gaining power. It just seemed soplicated and useless when you could just kill things to get stronger. But it made his brother feel special, he supposed, the diva that he was. As he settled in to wait, the great red dragon spent some time sorting through his hoard in his mind, trying to figure out the best piece to put in his fourth-highest ce of honor now that Spot had imed a few of his pieces. It was painful to let them go but much more amusing to think of their current uses as prizes for such simplepetitions. Plus, he was wellpensated for them. His extra levels and new power were well worth the cost. Thucydides pulled him from his daydreams not too muchter and looked at him with a worried expression on his toothy face. "You''re right. Something really is wrong. I can''t believe I didn''t notice this." Daedalus just shook his head and sighed at his scatterbrained little brother. "We need to investigate," the idiot said as he pointed a w at the sky. Before he pped his wings to take off, Daedalus stopped him. "Wait, wait. Hold up. Where are you going?" "To investigate." Daedalus rolled his eyes. "Okay, but where? Where are we starting?" "Well, I was going to fly around and see if I saw anything odd." Daedalus closed his eyes and centered himself. His little brother was much too excitable sometimes. "Rx. We don''t need to go anywhere. That''s why Spot, and I came here. This is the center of the disturbance. It''s somewhere in this mountain or one of the next ones over. We need to get a better idea of exactly where because, somehow, it''s not localized as much as I thought it was. Based on the amount of power it''s drawing, at least." Thucydides put on a thoughtful expression. "You''re right. I would expect it to be a single massive draw for you to be able to notice that all the way across the ocean. It''s weird that it''s something pulling power over such a wide area, though... Have you tried going straight up and seeing if you can sense how deep underground it is by triangtion?" "Triangle-what?" Daedalus asked. As the words left his mouth, he wanted to call them back. He was already sure he didn''t want to hear the exnation. "Well, I wasn''t just sleeping in my cave. See here," His brother said, drawing in the dirt with a w. "If you pick out any three points on a ne, you can..." For a few minutes, Daedalus tried his best to keep up with his little brother''s ramblings about straight lines and even nes and various angle theories he hade up with. Might as well take an interest in what his siblings were doing, after all. But it was just so boring. "....So what I''m saying is, if we can get a sample and a value estimate in at least five different points of various elevations, I should be able to trace it back to a single source or determine whether or not there are multiple sources evenly spaced out. And thenC hey, bro? Did you fall asleep? Chapter 226: A Knight’s Oath Chapter 226: A Knights Oath The Nighty Knights let out a snicker. Evidently, the idea of their mothers being upset made themugh rather than feel guilty. Felix moved to the front of the group, standing as tall as he could manage. "Miss Bee, we did what we had to. They couldn''t expect us to just sit here while our home''s threatened. We have the skills to do somethin'' now. We have the levels. You know as well as we do that we''re some of the strongest fighters at the castle. We aren''t gonna sit there like a bunch of scared adults when someonees to threaten us. Not again." The rest of the Nighty Knights grumbled their agreement with his statement. Bee frowned. Evidently, the loss of their homes had impacted these kids more than anyone had realized. The fact that no one saw thising spoke to how much they''d underestimated the kids, as well as how well they''d been handling the frankly traumatizing events up to this point. "And we did leave a note," Bradley added as if that excused their actions. The Knights were silent at that. "What? We didn''t run off without saying anything!" He looked around but received no support on that front. Bee just sighed and gave him an exasperated look. She guessed that they likely just weren''t aware of the ns already made to sabotage the iing army. Why would they? Those were high-level military discussions. And so, the Nighty Knights struck out, determined to do their part when they saw nothing being done. She couldn''t help but respect them for it, in a way. But at the same time, it was incredibly naive. Void had done well, instilling them with a sense of responsibility and restraint. But there was only so much that could be done. The fact that they had the levels and the abilities of someone well into adulthood didn''t really help with their maturity. Bee sighed and ran her hand down her face. "I am disappointed in you, Felix." She said, turning to theirmander. "Disappointed that you have so little faith in me and Void to take care of this ourselves." Felix looked appropriately guilty but slightly confused. "But it wasn''t. Maybe the castle''s gettin'' more walls and stuff, but the army''s not goin'' out to meet them. Everyone''s just holin'' up at home." "There are hundreds of ambushes and acts of sabotage nned, but they were nned in better locations than this." She said, gesturing to the wide open ins. "We wanted to lure them deeper into the forest, where they''d be more vulnerable, so we could hit them harder before they started to prepare for us. But now? Now, they''ll be on guard and wary." To be honest, she was making it out to be a bit of a bigger deal than it really was. It''s very unlikely that the army was going to be unprepared when they were strung out on a road and vulnerable, but one could always hope. The reason they hadn''t been hitting them too hard was that most of their scouting units still hadn''t made it this far, and those that did weren''t willing to risk being caught on the open ins. If they had been in the area ahead of time and had time to prepare, that was one thing. But when the enemy was just as they were about to enter the forest, it didn''t seem worth it. The Nighty Knights could attest to this based off of their own troubles escaping after a single assault. Assuming this was their first. The Nighty Knights shared an ufortable look as they processed her words. Eventually, one of the younger children broke the silence. "But, but we hit them good. We did good. It was worth it." Bee looked at the speaker, a young girl, probably around six years old. She met Bee''s gaze without flinching. The cold anger in the girl''s gaze made her shiver involuntarily. "My squad got the horsies. We cut each rope and set each horse free. We also got all the saddle straps n'' stuff before they even noticed us. They thought we were just some stable boys, taking care of the horsies for some coppers." She pulled out a handful of shiny coins. "They even paid us." Felix nodded as she finished speaking. "We''ve got a good in here. No one''s gonna suspect us, even now. There are a lot of children besides us running around from the women''s camp a little ways away. And soldiers are constantlyinin'' about em'' getting underfoot. But they don''t do anythin'' more than just maybe yell at us a bit." As much as she hated to admit it, Felix had a point. Children running around in Arthur''s camp might''ve received slightly different treatment, especially after the men''s experiences in the arena. But of course, anyone reasonable wouldn''t expect such a thing from children normally. Because they were supposed to be innocent. Sabotage, burning food, freeing horses, and setting tents on fire usually involved killing people. She hadn''t seen any deaths that night nor any intentional harm to the soldiers other than from the fires. But if they decided to keep at it? She wouldn''t be surprised if some of these children ended up taking a life, intentionally or not. That was not something she wanted on her conscience. She stared at the group before her, thinking. More than ever before, the memories of these children ying catch with Void warred with the elite fighting force standing before her now. Most children didn''t have the ability to pull something like this off, much less pull it off. But these Nighty Knights were different. They had been personally trained by a god, so their abilities were far and above what anyone could expect from them. They took on burdens far beyond what they should be concerned about, yet at the same time, they did so with a childlike innocence that had them acting unpredictably. The Nighty Knights looked at her with unapologetic resolve, waiting for her to give a reason why they shouldn''t be out here. They seemed to understand why their parents were upset, all besides Bradley. Maybe he was a bit too idealistic, thinking that a note would calm them down. But she could see that they were not going to go home without a fight. They believed in their cause, in defending their homes and families. It left her with no real good options. To be honest, Bee wanted nothing more than to drag them all home that very instant. She supposed she could order them as their high priestess to go back home in the name of Void, but would that work? Or would they sneak out again, act on their own, and get into an even worse situation? That being said, she couldn''t just allow them to be involved in a literal war. She closed her eyes. What would Void do? Would it protect their innocence as it had protected their lives when they were young? Or would it respect their honest desire to protect their home, to put their training to use? Opening her eyes, she made a decision. No matter what, she couldn''t let them be here by herself. That was just too irresponsible of her. But...promises could be made. "Okay," she sighed, finally making her decision. "You all made a mistake toe out here on your own, especially without consulting me. But," she continued before they could interject, "I understand your frustrations. How much you want to help. So. I will stay here with you and assist until the scouts and saboteurs from Susan and Captain Major''s divisions arrive. After that, we''re all going home to prepare for the siege and leave the fighting to the army. Alright?" At the restrained excitement in their nods, she hardened her gaze. "But there are conditions. First: no harming any people. You got lucky tonight that those tent fires didn''t kill anyone. We are only going to do nonlethal sabotages. These aren''t undead or monsters. I don''t care howpetent you all are, no one is taking a life at this age." Her eyes swept across the group. "You get into trouble, you run. You only hurt someone as an absolute to him, though." People looked around, and someone spoke up. "Well, we could use something like the fireworks? To get our timing done better." They tossed out a few of the suggestions, and Bee eventually indicated Cliff lying near Tanu. "You have a very effective scout and signaler right here, don''t you?" They looked at the wolf as she exined. "See, wolf howls carry long distances but are also perfect for blending into the rest of the environment. No one will think twice about a wolf howling in the distance, especially in the evening. And if you work out a set of signals ahead of time, you won''t have to worry about them being confused with actual wolves. That can probably help get info to Felix." The Nighty Knights were nodding, considering her idea. "Good. Now, let''s talk about tomorrow''s ns." Chapter 227: They Grow Up So Fast Chapter 227: They Grow Up So Fast Bee leaned forward and stroked the mane of her horse, rolling with its gait as it moved. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw the long train of small children pulling each other''s reins in a slow walk as they made their way back to the castle. Overall, she thought the operation had gone rather well. It had taken her a lot of effort, but she had managed to move the Knights ns and attention towards a less risky target and one that she honestly thought might have a longersting effect on the army. That first night, they had gone after several different targets at once and had been rather effective. But as she watched the enemy camp in the morning, she realized that they wouldn''t have the same luck again. Even if they were closer to the forest entrance. They were too prepared. There needed to be a concentrated strike in one area for them to have the numbers to actually pull anything off. And while hitting something mmable like food wouldve been a very effective target, it wouldn''t actually make that much of a difference. The army was sorge that they couldnt possibly sabotage enough food in one night to truly make a difference. At most, they might manage to slightly reduce the army''s food intake for a few days until they were able to be resupplied. No, the nned attacks on supply lines by Susans scouts would be better in that area. What was going to be more effective though, was if they hit the horses. Largely, the horses that had been released on the previous raid had been all rounded up. All the recement mounts and horses for pulling wagons were rtively easily tracked down and well-trained enough that they were captured. The Nighty Knights didn''t know enough about horses to really use them as more than a distraction. Even with all their efforts, the horses had simply run in fright for a few minutes and then were found grazing not that far away. This time though, they had struck with more force. Bee had gone in first and taken out several of the guards quietly in such a way that the children did not have to dirty their hands. After that, she simply tasked them with cutting a lot of the leads. And then, when they were ready to leave, they herded all the horses together and pushed them several hours south away from the castle. Away from the direction the enemy was marching. Once they scattered them, Bee and her team broke off and went around the army to slip back into the forest. They had been chased, of course, but they had left the pursuers far behind. This time, she was sure the horses would be harder to collect, if the kingdoms army could manage it at all. At least 15% of the mounts, maybe even 25%, were ripped away in one fell swoop Even better, theyd kept some for themselves. Each Nighty Knight had taken about two horses on average. The children were far too small to properly ride a horse, so they had to improvise. One child would sit holding the reins and using his heels to guide the horse from the front, whereas the other one sat backward and held three long ropes, pulling another three horses behind them. This allowed them to bring almost 150 horses with the group, though little children were the ones usually sitting behind. Unfortunately, the saddle situation left something to be desired. The stirrups just didn''t tighten enough for them, so many of these children had to ride bareback. Though riding in pairs also helped the children mount their steeds, as they had to boost each other up and then pull up the other rider behind. It was quite a hrious process to watch, but with a little bit of practicing, they managed to do it efficiently. As they had returned from their long ride in the wee hours of the morning, they had run into a set of Susan''s mening through the forest. When they had spotted Bee, they had left their cover and gged her down. High Priestess Bee! One of the scouts called out to her as she neared. Mat. Good to see you. She waved a greeting. Ive found the Nighty Knights. Well be heading back with news on the enemy. Mat frowned. The mothers will be relieved to hear it. Theyve been worried sick. But where did the horsese from? She smiled. We had a few sessful operations of our own. He blinked. You did? Of course. The scout mulled the words over for a moment. Eventually, he seemed to decide on how to respond. I dont know if theyll like that. Especially Arthur. Themander was pretty unhappy about the Knights going off. With this He shrugged. Far be it from me to say it, but I dunno if youll be getting a heros wee here. After exchanging some additional information, they parted ways. Fortunately, with the professionals showing up, she was able to hold the Nighty Knights to their bargain and send them home without having tomit to additional sabotage operations and put them further at risk.. Hopefully the good news of their sesses would help to temper everyones displeasure. She somehow doubted it though. At the very least, Arthur might appreciate the mounts. Arthur''s army hadn''t kept horses for the most part. The vast majority of the men were infantry. Horses didn''t do well in long sieges, from what she understood. They tended to be expensive to feed and difficult to exercise, and if pressed they often became the meals that people so needed. Of course, having a small cavalry of 150 units wouldn''t be game-changing. But when it came to running down open infantry, it was something that Arthur hadmented losing. Perhaps this would make a difference. The horse she had found for herself was quite impressive, at least. Her Scan indicated that it was a level 30 destrier, and she honestly wasnt sure how a horse had managed to gain so many levels. She had no idea about its skills or what skills a horse might even have. Regardless, she could feel the power and speed of the mount. This walk that they were maintaining to keep everyone together and in their saddles was nothingpared to what this horse was capable of. Of course, her carpet would be far more efficient for her to fight from in both speed and maneuverability. But the horse was pretty. When Bee finally made it through the castle gate, she emerged into a beehive of activity. All around, preparations were underway, people running around to attend to their tasks. Standing among it all were the mothers of the Nighty Knights. The fretting women waited nearby, evidently warned by a scout traveling ahead. As soon as they saw Bees party, they quickly called their children over with a mixture of concern, relief, and absolute rage. The children were quickly dragged off by their ears to a cacophony of lectures and scolding about running off and getting into danger. The childrenined loudly and tried to tell stories about their aplishments, but the mothers were in no mood to hear. In a moment, Bee was left alone with all the horses. A few of Trent''s workers came up and started to lead them away towards the stables, which would soon be overflowing. Perhaps she would need to talk to some of the engineers to get them to expand that. A few momentster, Arthur appeared. Evidently a runner had been dispatched to find her when she arrived. The man came marching up to her and gave a crisp salute. "Wee back, Miss Bee." She nodded and returned the greeting without too muchment. She followed Arthur into a private meeting room in the castle for a debrief. "Thanks for going after them. I''m d you caught up to them before they managed to do any harm. Bee flinched slightly. "I didn''t really. They were already in the middle of their first operation when I reached them." Arthur''s face froze. His expression was one of cold granite. Seeing his concern, Bee tried to reassure him. "Uh, no one was hurt! But by the time I found them, they were rather insistent on helping." "First operation, you said? The words came out quietly. Does that mean there was a second? Bee looked up and found Arthur slowly turning red. "I managed to talk them into doing something rtively safe, like stealing some horses while we waited for the professionals to show up. Susan and Captain Majors people, I mean. They got there earlier than we expected, so only one more night passed before I managed to lead them all back." Despite her words, Arthur didnt seem to be calming down at all. Rather, at this point, it seemed like steam was blowing out of the mans ears. "WHAT?" He barely restrained himself from shouting the word. Suddenly, Bee felt a lot less certain about this interaction. "What do you mean? Managed to talk them intoing back?! They are children, Bee! This is not something topromise on. You just tell them that theyreing home and thats final. Instead, you led them on another raid?! What the hell were you thinking? Irene is FOUR!" His volume steadily increased until he was shouting in his parade voice. Bee flinched back and wiped a little bit of spittle off of her shoulder. "They have every right to protect their home," she said, not willing to back down. Arthur repeated himself. "She. Is. four. She has no right to protect her home. She has the right to be protected and safe and grow up and be a child. I know that Void has been paying them special attention, and I dare not question what he is doing with them. But we will not have them grow up any faster than they have to. They need to be children. Children are supposed to be innocent at their age. Maybe, maybe if they were teenagers, this might be a different conversation. But right now? If we use them like men, we are no better than the demons!" Bee blinked at the venom in the general''s words as he continued on his tirade about the children. He argued that the whole point of the army protecting the castle was so that these children could live in peace. Arthur didnt want them to grow up too quickly and face horrors they didnt need to. He didnt want them involved in any part of the war, not in the slightest. Bee, though, couldn''t help but disagree. This was their home. These were their families. They had been training so that theyd never have to worry about losing anyone ever again. How could they simply throw that aside? She agreed that there should be limits on what they could ask of them, but to have them do nothing?Whether the Knights, children that they were, actually acted like children or not was in many ways besides the point. At the very least, they had to respect their desire to help. They made no progress for nearly a dozen minutes. Eventually, she stormed out of the room, unwilling to look Arthur in the face any longer. Furious, she ignored a requested meeting with Mary and dodged Tony in the halls before she eventually went looking for somewhere to be alone. Soon she found herself on the castle roof, leaning against the tallest spire with her carpet rolled up next to her. It took a while for someone to find her. By that point, the sun was setting again, and she watched the moon rise into the field of stars above her. A panting, sweating form of Susan grabbed the lip of the roof and hauled herself over. She flopped onto the roof and rolled, bringing the rest of her body up after her. She then scooted next to Bee, leaning against the same spire a few feet away, and breathed heavily for a few minutes before she said anything. Bee didn''t look at her, instead fixing her attention on the moon. "You know why Arthur is mad at you, right?" The woman eventually said. Bee felt her anger re up. "He made it very clear. He thinks I put the children in more danger than was necessary. Because Im also an irrational child who cant make decisions." Bee spat, Well, Arthur hadn''t said that directly. But it became very clear what he had thought of her judgment during their argument. Susan looked over at Bee and, in a more gentle tone, spoke again.. "How old are you, Bee?" "14. We just celebrated it. You know that." "Right. And you understand that a 14 year old is still considered a child, right?" Bee snorted. "I haven''t been a child for a very long time, Susan." Chapter 228: Save the Children Chapter 228: Save the Children Susan sighed and corrected herself. "You realize you should still be a child, right?" Bee shrugged, thinking of her few friends back at home that she hadn''t talked to in years. What were they doing right now? Probably gossiping about boys and whatever people her age normally did. She didn''t really know at this point. She sighed. "I suppose so. But I had to grow up fast." "Bee. I understand it was hard, believe me. No one can even imagine what you went through. But just because you had to grow up fast doesn''t mean anyone else should. Susan leaned back against the spire. Arthur looks at you and sees someone he''s proud to work with. But he also sees his own children. Theyre your age, you know. He sees what you should be, how carefree and happy you should be. Not the ball of stress you''ve been ever since we''ve known you. You''ve done things that no 13 or 14-year-old should ever be able to do. And it''s impressive as hell, not to mention terrifying. But you should never have needed to do this in the first ce. And just because you can do it doesn''t mean that Nighty Knights should as well. Bee mulled over the words in silence for a moment before Susan continued. Unlike Arthur, I was there when Void first started training them. And do you remember how he started? Void yed with them. It was a game, a way to work off their extra energy. Eventually, they learned actual technique and started ying soldiers. But that''s all they really are doing. They''re ying soldiers. They''re imitating their parents and the people they look up to. All children do that. But just because they''re good at acting doesn''t mean that we should listen to them, or treat them like they actually are soldiers. When a child finds a stick and pretends it''s a sword, and they march around the house, we don''t then give them an actual sword and tell them to go kill people." Bee clenched her jaw, "They still had every right to protect their home. Especially after everything theyve been through. I will not deny them the ability to defend what they love." Susan let out a long breath before starting to exin in a measured tone. "You''re right when ites down to it, and there''s no other choice. If things get serious, they may need to grow up fast, and at that point they can make a difference. Well, some of them can. Some of them are just simply too young. But not like this. Not unless its ast resort. The army thatsing at us? We dont know their numbers, but there is no way they''re prepared for our level advantage. With our preparations, our sabotage will hit them so hard in this forest that we will probably outnumber them by the time they reach the wall. By that point, theyll be destroyed, and there will be no retreat. Overall, this is a minor battle that will probably be the first of many. And its one we will win. We will crush them utterly, and the king will have no choice but to despair. And that''s even before we consider Void returning." Susan gave Bee an even look. This is not a situation where they need to grow up. Where they will be standing between their families and destruction. Bee sighed, slowly letting her anger go and seriously considering her friends words. Maybe she had been wrong.She had gotten so used to everything being a life and death struggle that she had forgotten what it was like to exercise moderation. This conflict? Susan was right. Even if there was an army at their doorstep, they had prepared for this and seen it wasing. She had people around to help her now. People who knew what they were doing. Compared to a Lieutenant destroying the world, a citys destruction, or her imminent death by demon, this was a situation they were actually prepared for. At the very least, it had a ways to go before getting out of handpletely. She breathed out a long breath and finally looked down from the stars to meet Susan''s eyes. "I suppose you''re right. I probably need to apologize to Arthur. And a lot of other people. A slight smile quirked the corner of her lips. Perhaps he''d take a horse as an apology gift." Susan gave her a soft smile. "I think hed ept a more general apology. And a promise to protect the kids. But I don''t suppose he''d say no to a horse. Bee sighed, stood up, and offered a hand to Susan. "Well, however it goes, I hope Voides back soon. Even if this isn''t really as desperate as some of us may think, I wouldn''t want to have to fight without its guidance." I spent my time cleaning the vige and its surroundings as the two dragons caught up for a little while. I considered seeking them out when night fell, but before I could I was interrupted. The same hunched chieftain who had weed us in and shown us the cave with the art approached me. It stood in my way as I trundled over to the center of the vige to begin my search. She bowed deep and made a strange rhythmic sound in anguage I didn''t understand. I had been doing my best to runnguage models all day. Still, as far as I can tell, there was nomon ancestor between thenguage she spoke and any I knew. I had topletely recreate the entire thing from scratch. I estimated it would take me another several hours of hearing constant chatter before I understood it reasonably well. But even now I was able to understand a general gist of her words. Apparently, she was warning me about something and asking for help. And something else that I didn''t quite get. I wasn''t sure how to react. So I just sat there and waited. She seemed satisfied with that somehow and asked some questions, only one of which I understood. It shared some simrities with a scene I had observed earlier, where one of the mothers was indicating that their troublesome small child should stay in one ce. Instead of telling me to stay here though, it seemed to be phrased as a question. She was asking if I was staying here. I thought about it. I wasn''t sure about therger context, but for now, I''d be willing to stay a little longer while Daedalus and his brother catch up. I answered with an affirmative beep. The old crone cocked her head, reached up with her gnarled fingers, and scratched behind her ear as if trying to decipher the meaning of the simple note. Eventually, she let out a very human-looking shrug with a harrumph. She turned and hobbled away, leaving me in the center of the vige. Then, I started to notice a very odd set of behaviors. All the children were being ushered away for bedtime. But instead of going to the individual huts I had just spent the day cleaning, they all gathered in onerge ce, a defensible cave in the mountain. The adults huddled in after them, some of therger ones standing by the cave mouth. The odd hunch in their shoulders started making a little more sense now. Perhaps that wasn''t just their posture, but exhaustion showing through amongst the adults. But why were all huddling in the caves when they had these small huts? Especially when I just cleaned them? Why, it didn''t make any sense to me. There were clearly beds in them, but why were they not using them for their intended purpose? Did I also need to teach them the proper use of those? When thest light of the setting sun faded, I started to get my answer. A grinding sound echoed through the foothills of the mountains, and strange shapes began to move in the shadows. I focused my advanced sensors on one of them and saw that it was just a pile of rocks. Hm. That was interesting. My processors usually didn''t y tricks on me. False positives when it came to movement for my sensors were extraordinarily low, and there''s no way this sensor would be triggering all at once just because of some light-based phenomenon. It only took me a 2.1 more seconds to confirm the fact that I had actually seen something. The pile of rocks shifted again, slowly, as if I were watching a child''s block tower copse in reverse. The stone pile reached up and up, stones stacking until it was a towering 12ft tall. At that point, it stopped growing, and the base split into two pirs. Rocks continued to gather to either side of the tower as they started to extend into two long arms. It took nearly two minutes and 42 seconds before the transformation wasplete. Then, once it was fully formed, it took a thundering step forward. That was odd. Looking around, I saw that several other rock piles had done something simr in the few minutes I had been watching. Around the vige, nearly two dozen of these stone monstrosities slowly made their way forward. I looked over to the cave all the snowmen were hiding in and realized I couldnt easily detect its entrance anymore. They had stacked several huge boulders inside the cave mouth, blocking the way. Suddenly, the old crones question made a lot more sense. She was asking if I wanted to stay with them in the cave where it was safe. That was rather kind of them to offer me shelter. After all, I was aplete stranger they''d only met earlier today. Perhaps they did appreciate my cleaning. Maybe I should have taken them up on their offer. I sat in the center of the vige and watched as the stone piles slowly made their way toward me. Judging based on the trajectories of all two dozen, they were headed directly for me, not just the vige in general. Thinking about the mess each one of their steps would leave in the newly leveled streets made my bristles curl. And what would happen if they stomped through one of these fragile huts? I decided I was going to do something about this. Activating my Thrusters, I lifted off gently and shot towards the edge of the vige. The trajectories of the rocks shifted to follow me. However, the ones on the other side of the vige were still passing directly through it as if they didn''t even register the huts as obstacles. This was going to be tricky to make sure that the vige wasn''t damaged. I moved far away from the vige in an attempt to lose the rock monsters. But even from a long distance away, I could feel all their trajectories shifting to follow me. How were they tracking me? I had a few ideas. They hadtched on to me even before there was motion. So clearly, they must be able to see me or sense me in some other way besides sight. Perhaps it was due to the concentration of energy in my batteries. But how could they tell? The other questions was how they hadnt detected the vigers. If these rock monsters were actually tracking me by some method other than sight, then they must have also locked on to other things besides my energy signature. Perhaps my energy signature was just their primary target for now, and they would move on to something elseter. But that was something I would have to figure out after I had saved the vige. I navigated back toward the clusters of rocks. Once I got close enough, I started to move in an arc around the vige, gathering the golems with me and pulling them around the outskirts of the vige. I carefully nned my flight path to pull them together and away from any huts or roads. It was tricky to get the bnce right, requiring a lot of minute speed and angle adjustments. If the vige hadnt been up against a mountainside, I don''t think I would have been able to manage it. But after a decent amount of effort, I had the crowd of rock monsters following along behind me out of the vige. Chapter 229: Heavier Than A Mountain Chapter 229: Heavier Than A Mountain I surveyed the shambling towers of rocks that followed me. Now, I just needed to figure out what to do with them. I supposed I could consume them all or chop them to bits with my sanitationmp. Or maybe I could destroy them permanently? I supposed I could consume them and transmit them to energy like anything else. That would probably be the simplest approach. After considering it a bit longer, I decided there was no reason not to. Arcing through the sky, I curved to attack the first one in the pack. My Sanitation Lamp shot forward in a beam of blinding blue-violet light. It sted the stone to surprisingly little effect. The rock in its front slowly heated up, but only the single rock theser touched was affected, not the whole pile. Based on my modeling, it would take me a significant amount of energy and time to heat even that to the point where it was slowly melting a hole. All right. That wasn''t going to work. I needed to change tactics. I came in closer using my Air Maniption and tried to lift them up, but came up with only dirt and snow. The piles were somehow much heavier than my sensors indicated they should be. It was as if I was trying to pick up the entire mountain instead of a few individual rocks. Confused, I tried to use my vacuum to pull them into my dustbin. Again, they didn''t budge. As though they were connected to the earth themselves rather than floating collections of disparate rock. Pulling out my Divine Sword, I charged the monsters head on. The golden de passed through the arm of the lead golem, and I felt the rocks easily shatter in its path. The arm fell loose, with several cracked stones hitting the ground beneath them. Activating my vacuum once more showed that I had no trouble consuming those. But the rocks were now strangely inert. They had no energy beyond that of a normal stone, unlike what I''d expected. Slowly, other nearby rocks worked the pile. The arm regrew as rocks shifted and morphed into a new limb, recing it. I hacked into it again, spinning between its legs as I took off. The pile copsed as the stones were split in two. But it kept reforming slowly as the others closed in around me. How odd. I decided to try something else, this time shing straight up its body with the sword. The whole thing copsed into just a pile of unmoving rocks. But as I flew up, one of the others swung at me. A fist made of rocks smashed into the soft stic covering of my sensors and sent me hurtling back toward the mountainside. I felt the stic shell crack in a few ces, and my energy levels slowly drained as my repair functions went about mending the damage. These things were strong. They moved slowly, but I was having real trouble hurting them. And without being able to simply pull them into myself and dissolve them, I realized I didn''t have as many offensive weapons as I had thought. Perhaps I had grown arrogant in myst few fights. Fighting a weakened demon lieutenant after it had just woken up had felt quite impressive, even if Beatrice deserved a lot of the credit. So had destroying the Wraith and the undead with it. But I had to ept that I was remarkably well suited for fighting those enemies, and maybe I needed to be a little more creative in some situations. My damage healed, and I floated up from the crater I had left in the mountainside. I started running some models to see what other options I had. As they worked on my options and tried to dissect my opponents, I yed a little bit of keep-away with the rock monsters. Luckily, they were slow, so it wasn''t too hard to stay ahead of them. As I watched the progress bar in my mind''s eye, I started ying a game where I tried to get them to hit each other. And to my surprise, as I did this, the bar started filling a little bit faster. I must''ve been getting some information from them that was helping the models fill in some nks quicker than I expected in a foreground process. I tried to figure out why, and it only took me a few seconds to realize the pattern. They did not hit each other at all. They worked inplete harmony, each strikeyered one after another, covering openings as though they shared the same sensor inputs, making me work to find a way out if I became cornered. Their movements left no way for them to identally damage each other. It was like they were the limbs of the same person. When my model finally spat out some answers, I wasn''t as surprised as I probably should have been. These were probably not their own creatures. They were almost certainly puppets of something else. It exined a lot of things, like why I had been rtively unsessful in damaging them. Apparently, even if I managed to destroy them utterly, that wouldn''t have any more effect than trimming off someone''s toenails. They were expendable and interchangeable. The towers of rock would just reform, or new ones woulde out after me. The only answer I didn''t have was why they were chasing me. What had I done to anger something so powerful and seemingly mindless? It was aplete mystery to me. I don''t think I missed any attempts tomunicate or anything along those lines. So clearly, this was an instinctual response. If this was an intentional attack, I could imagine this would have been a lot more effective, too. As things were, the creatures posed no danger to me. Rather, it just forced me out of the area. I supposed the point could''ve been to hide something around here, but that just seemed fairly unlikely. So, I went with my gut instinct and said it was a responsive protocol with no actual consciousness behind it. But the big question remained: how was I going to deal with it? I pulled up out of the reach of the rock puppets and reached out with my Advanced Sensors, seeing if I could detect where the energy that powered them came from. As I focused on it, I felt something impact the undercarriage next to my wheelhouse, sending me spinning through the air. Looking down, I saw a small rock falling away. Suddenly, dozens of others were flying after me in a hail of stones. Adjusting my thrusters, I began taking evasive maneuvers, never able to stand still for more than a quarter of a second. Before the rocks found me again, I spun, twirled, and looped through the air as I did my best to trace where the energy wasing from. For each of them, the pattern was very simr. Energy seeped through their shapes in a simple 1 to 1 ovey. The energy then spread down into the ground and trailed off towards the mountain peak. I followed the path back toward the source of the energy, hoping to see if there was something I could disrupt along the way. But about halfway up the trail, I lost the path. The thing didn''t lead directly to the peak. In fact, once it got most of the way up the mountain, it sort of dispersed into the center of the mountain. I lost any ability to follow it without burrowing or digging deeper. I needed to collect my thoughts. So I soared up above the mountain, well out of rock-throwing range, and watched for a response. Unexpectedly, the rock monsters did not go back to the vige. Rather, they simply stopped and copsed into rock piles. As they did, I felt the energy recede back into the mountain and diffuse throughout the entire peak. Huh? This was a really weird phenomenon. I wonder if it was what Daedalus was feeling. I needed to go find him and ask. *** Bee knocked on the door frame of Arthur''s office and held her breath. She watched as Arthur finished scratching something on a paper before looking up and noticing her. She had to admit she was a little bit nervous. It had been several hours since they had their argument, and Bee took most of that time to calm down before talking to Susan. But now she had toe at least mend fences. It wasn''t that she was entirely convinced the man was right, but she could see his point of view now and understand his frustrations. She hoped that he also felt the same way. At the very least, maybe he''d see how her decision at the time made sense. But it wasn''t something they should be fighting over when they both agreed on the main points. And when they had a war to address. "Hey," Bee gave a slightly awkward wave. He looked at her for a second with hard eyes before gesturing for her toe in. She shut the door behind her before taking a seat in one of the chairs across his desk. She opened her mouth to apologize, but Arthur beat her to it. "I''m sorry I lost my temper with you earlier. That was out of line. I understand you were put in a tough situation and made the best of what you could, but as a father, it''s hard for me to see the safety of children put aside so recklessly." Bee was waving her hands in front of her. "No, no, no, no. That was my bad. I probably could have made some better decisions." She hesitated, then sighed. "I talked with Susan a little bit, and she helped me see it from your perspective. Well, I can''t say I 100% agree with some of the statements you made. I do think that you are probably right in that I should have been more insistent oning home with them. However, I do not think that Night Knights are going to see it that way. Say that they''re children as much as you like, but they have real power. They don''t all have to listen to us if they really don''t want to." Arthur nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, they''re all young and easily impressionable. They''ve looked up to you and Tony and Void, obviously with all your going out saving the day, and they want to do the same. I tried to help teach Bradley to avoid something like this, but" The man sighed. "I should have realized this was a more general issue. But I think we actually can figure something out for them." Arthur paused. "It''s been a long military tradition to use young boys as messengers and pages during battles. They run arrows between fletchers and run messages between officers. It''s a useful role but one that we''d prefer not to spare men for if we don''t have to. Most importantly, it''s safe. "I think perhaps we can get the Knights involved with the effort like they want, but in a nonbat way. That will help them learn discipline and structure. Then, one day far in the future, they can choose to take part in a more direct manner if they want to. Once they''re mature enough to make that decision. Though hopefully, they won''t even have to at that point." Chapter 230: Heart of the Mountain Chapter 230: Heart of the Mountain Bee nodded in return at Arthur''s suggestion, "I think we can do better than having the Nighty Knights run messages. But yes, I agree. Something along those lines would be great. It should help to get them involved, but keep them safe. I don''t know if you''re aware, but theirmander, Felix, has the ability to talk to anyone in hismand over arge distance. I think we can use them to send almost instantaneous messages across the castle and maybe even the whole valley." Arthur''s eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What is the skill''s name?" Bee frowned. "I''m not sure. It seemed unique, like many of them. It''s not something I''ve ever read about." Arthur nodded emphatically. "I''ve never even heard of anything of the sort." "It seems insanely useful, though." Bee said with a shrug. "So far, we haven''t really been able to explore it much aside from calling them together for dinner and such. But I imagine when ites to coordinating battlefield tactics, it will be invaluable." Arthur leaned back in his chair, thinking. "Well, I''ll get one of my more experienced captains to debrief them. We''ll see if we can learn anything about their talents that we can use in a more nontraditional role. I want to put some with the engineers, some as messengers, some with the archers. And if themander you said Felix was his name? If his messaging skill is as powerful as you said. I''ll definitely want him with me. In fact, I might make him my squire or something if he''s going to bemanding the Nighty Knights into the future. "Between him and Bradley, I imagine we''ll be able to help wrangle them into shape." The older man nodded to himself. "Perhaps I might be able to help set him on a path that would make him a bettermander than someone simply trying to keep the men in line." " I would like that," Bee said. "I''ll make sure they''re where they need to be. Let''s assume we start this sometime tomorrow, since they''ll have to finish reuniting with their families. But I need to go make sure that they don''t try to sneak off again." "All right then." As Bee got up to leave, themander stopped her. "Oh, one more thing. Do you have any idea when Void might return?" Bee shook her head. "None. Should we be worried?" Arthur shrugged nomittally. "You can never tell what surprises the enemy might have. We shouldn''t need any backup by a long shot. But I''d be a fool not to know exactly what I have in store." - I soared over the rock golems that were now wandering around the mountain aimlessly. I had considered going to find Daedalus, but I couldn''t locate him anywhere on the mountain, and I was hesitant to leave the snowman undefended as they were for too long. But I found if I stayed high enough out of range, the rock golems would ignore me, and I could just observe. Even at this distance, I was still ready to zip down in a second if the snowman appeared to be in danger. While I soared through the air, I took a moment to study the creatures as they rumbled along. After significant studying, I could kind of see a pattern in their movements. It wasn''t a fixed pattern or anything like that. But, after observing enough. I saw that their pathing had thempletely covering the mountain after an hour and a half or so of searching. I could have devised a much more efficient route for them, especially with how many there were. But what they were doing worked well enough, assuming that was their job. It was almost as if they were on patrol. At least there weren''t any redundancies in their routing. However, from the snowman''s vige and their reaction, I could almost guarantee that this was a recent development. There were beds and everything in the huts that the snowman had, so presumably, they were used to sleeping inside. Unless they truly did not understand what beds were used for. I couldn''t entirely rule out the possibility. But the presence of this threat was a much better exnation for why they weren''t seeing use. For one, it was quite dangerous. The rock men definitely had damaged some of the scrubby trees that grew up at this altitude by simply walking. They would likely have no problem stomping their way through a hutpletely without malice. And if they were trying to attack? The vige would be in shambles within minutes. Not to mention that if the snowmen were anything like humans, they needed quiet to sleep. The level of noise the rock men gave off while moving wouldn''t make that an easy criterion to meet. I again attempted to follow the strands of the energy fueling the rock monsters. Again, I found it led nowhere, just into the mountain. I couldn''t see anything else leading away from the mountain, either. This led me to a frightening conclusion. If there was no other energy source in the mountain, the only possibility was that the mountain itself was the source of the energy. What''s more, this wasn''t like the still energy that suffused Daedalus''s artifacts or Beatrice''s alchemy experiments. No, it was more like the energy that one might find in a living being. Did that mean the mountain itself was alive? I hadn''t even noticed this signature when I first approached. How many other things were alive right under my chassis? How many such instances had I missed? As my sensors gained more and more capabilities, it just made me realize how much I was missing. Daedalus watched as Thucydides pped frantically ahead of him. It wasn''t that Thucydides was a poor flier, per se. His struggles stemmed more from Daedalus having a significant advantage when it came to size, levels, and even practical experience. It had taken them a little bit of work and Thucydides scratching symbols in the dirt for a bit, but they had narrowed down the position of the anomaly that had drawn him here. Now, it was time to check it out. It wasn''t too far away but buried significantly underground. Right now, they were searching the area for some sort of underground cave entrance. He had little hope that even if they found one, they''d be able to fit through it. So he expected to spend some time burning his way through the rock to reach the location. Thucydides, though, wanted to exhaust every other option before he had to do hard manualbor. It meant that Daedalus was just about ready to drop to the ground and start digging if it meant finally doing something. Thucydides made one finalrger circle, trying to scan for openings. Daedalus just rolled his eyes. The red dragon banked and headed toward the spot they had located. From here, they needed to go only about 50 feet down. It wouldn''t take more than half an hour if they worked together or 45 minutes if he did it by himself. As he took a deep breath and felt the fire build in his chest, he watched as his little brother started to take anotherp despite their agreement. Daedalus just shrugged his massive shoulders and focused, losing himself in the fire. He modted his magic output so that he wasn''t expending too much power, just enough that his natural regeneration would offset his efforts to burn through the rock. It was the most efficient way of doing things. Especially if he was worried about something at the bottom being dangerous. Besides, it still resulted in a quite respectable stream of fire. The mountainside glowed with molten orange-yellow light as Daedalus exhaled. Clouds of vaporized snow obscured the streams of liquid rock that began to flow downward. By the time Thucydides had given up searching for another easier entrance, Daedalus had already made it 95% of the way through to the source, at least by his estimations. Where there had once been a sheer mountain now, bore a ssy tunnel of molten rock reaching deep into its heart. He had started to have a little bit of trouble when the melted rock had blocked his fire from reaching new material, but a little bit of magic had taken care of it. Now, there was an obsidian tunnel wide enough for him to glide down as well as fly back out when he was done. The two dragons slipped down into the cavern, Daedalus leading the way, and they found themselves in the circr center of a massive hemisphere. Across the floor, concentric circles of tiny intricate runes spread out in all directions. The runes were carved deep into the rock, showing little sign of erosion over time. As Daedalus read them, he started to understand what was going on. The runes spoke of containment of a deep and ancient evil, one stuck here forever till the end of time. On and on they went. But he could feel that they were quite powerful. Surprisingly so. For something not made by a dragon. "Huh. I didn''t realize that they had moved the other Lieutenants after we bound them." Daedalus told his little brother. "I hadn''t heard about it, either." Thucydides said casually, shrugging. "It appears they couldn''t move him far," Daedalus snorted. "This wasn''t that far away from where we had captured him. This one was the Death of Hope, I think? Anyway, it looks like they took the binding Archimedes made and reinforced it a lot and then hid them so that they wouldn''t be tampered with. That was smart. I should find out who did that and thank them." "It didn''t appear to be enough, though." Thucydides remarked as they looked at the empty pedestal in the center of the circle. "No. No, it did not." Daedalus said, rather disappointed. "It appears that everything is falling apart." "Yeah, that''s not good." Thucydides echoed. "Do you think we need to go track down Archimedes? I really have no idea where he''s resting nowadays, but from what I heard, he was the only one who managed to do anything about this. With your help, of course." "Of course. He wasn''t the only one. And also, I wasn''t involved with all their captures." Daedalus felt a surge of pride at how humble he sounded. "But it would be nice to find him again. I, unfortunately, also have really no idea where to look though. After we had rid the world of thest one, I mostly just stuck around and waited for Archibald to awaken." Thucydides just rolled his eyes. Daedalus ignored the gesture and continued, "But, I don''t think we really need to find him urgently. Well, it would be a nice backup. But we don''t really have to worry. We have Spot, after all." "Spot? The little guy you came with?" Thucydides asked with obvious skepticism. "Are you sure about that? I mean, he seemed nice and polite and all, but he''s not even a dragon. What can he possibly do?" Daedalus let out a deep bellyugh that shook the walls around them. "Oh, little bro. You have no idea. Spot may not be a dragon, but he''s the next best thing. No, no. He''s a godling." "AC a what?" Thucydides asked. "Ah, I forgot. Before your time, probably. I think thest godling died when you were but a hatchling. Suffice it to say, he''s stronger than you. By a lot. A lot, a lot." Daedalus didn''t add that Spot was likely stronger than him, too. It was close, but he wouldn''t want to risk a one-on-one fight with the nascent deity. It''s a good thing that the little terror was friendly. Thucydides blinked, stunned. "Really? You''re going to have to exin this whole godling thing to me. They sound interesting." "That''s one way of putting it. Anyway, we should probably head back and go see if we can find the little guy. It would be good to have him around if a Lieutenant makes an appearance." Thucydides shrugged, and without further ado, they beat their wings and rose from the cavern. It was time to go talk to a god. Chapter 231: Return of the Mess Makers Chapter 231: Return of the Mess Makers Bee and Tony sat across from each other on a grassy knoll, munching contentedly on a te of sandwiches. They were having lunch together in a rare, quiet moment in between their otherwise frantic schedules. She only had half an hour''s break, but she had been convinced very politely by Mary and a few others that she needed some time for herself. So when Mary had sent her son her way with a serving basket of lunch, they had gone on a little impromptu pic. Tony was his usual charming self, doing an excellent job of joking with her and keeping her mind off of what was going on. He managed to make her feel like things were almost normal. Not that they''d ever really been normal, but it was as close as Bee had felt in a long while. Then, that 30-minute imposed break ended, and everything got a lot worse. Bee felt significantly more rxed. But as soon as they packed up and started to head back, she had been ambushed By a messenger waiting just around the corner. Apparently, she''d been summoned to themand center where Arthur, Captain Major, and Susan were waiting. "Do you know what this is about?" Bee asked the messenger, and he shrugged a little bit. "Um. Yeah. Some reports came in, and apparently, we got some more news about the troop allotments." Bee frowned. That didn''t seem urgent enough to warrant a meeting like this. They had a rather rough idea about infantry versus cavalry and all that, but it wasn''t going to massively change their strategy, at least not that she was aware of. When she reached the meeting room, she saw the taut and drawn faces of Susan and Captain Major, along with a rather haggard-looking Arthur. That was when she realized that there might have been something else to the report than she''d been led to believe. "What''s this?" She asked. Susan and Captain Major exchanged a look, for once putting their rivalry to the side. Rather, they each seemed to be hoping the other would speak. Eventually, Arthur''s frown deepened, and he took charge. "It seems that we have a problem. Some of our scouts have been reporting odd anomalies for a bit. The saboteurs have been running into more resistance than they should. And recently, when we hit them hard enough, we discovered why. Apparently, many of these soldiers aren''t actually as human as they appear. When pressed, some of them will transform into demons." Bee frowned. "What kind of demons?" Captain Major and Susan finally found their tongues. Susan spoke first. "No particr kind. As far as we can tell, there are some lesser demons and various elemental varieties. Even a greater demon took an entire squad out at one point." "That''s concerning," Bee said as she processed the news. "The lower orders of demons aren''t intelligent enough to act human, much less disguise themselves. How do we not see this? How do they interact with the people around them? Do the regr humans in the army know what''s going on?" The slew of questions was mostly met with confused shrugs. "We''ve only gotten some initial reports. My second is out looking for himself," Susan said, indicating the first group of people she had trained. "We''ll know more when Ruarch gets back." Captain Major said. "We have some reports from the military scouts, too, confirming. As far as we can tell, most of the army isn''t aware of it. The areas that have encountered more resistance usually are all isted incidents where every one of them is a demon. And it appears that maybe some select officers are aware of it and keeping them separate from the rest of the camp. As to how the demons are acting human-ish, we don''t have the magical expertise to make that call. Perhaps if we bring some back to you, you might be able to tell." Bee shrugged. "It''s worth a shot. I won''t know for sure. It might be best if I go out there and see for myself." Arthur grimaced, but Susan and Captain Major both nodded. "It might be best," Arthur said, "but it''s a risk we probably don''t need to take. If there are actual greater demons in here, you might be in more danger than you think. And it''s not worth risking when you''ll find out in a day or two anyway. Let''s get you a corpse of one of the lesser demons or something for you to examine. Then we''ll go from there. There''s no point in putting the horse before the chariot." Bee didn''t like it but saw the logic. It wouldn''t be as good as a live specimen, of course. But it made sense to take things one step at a time. "Is there anything else we know about this?" "No. It just matches what we''ve been hearing about the king through our spies. Apparently, he''s be far more paranoid than before. Some say he''s gone mad. We''re getting reports from our first people to reach the capital, and they confirm that things have gotten a lot worse in the kingdom recently. I think that we have to seriously consider that there is some dark influence in the King." Arthur said in a weary tone. Bee remembered something they''d spoken about earlier. "The adviser you spoke warned you about this." Arthur nodded. "Yes. He was having significant doubts about the King, and while I initially thought that he might be overblowing concerns that the king had beenpromised, now I believe he might be correct." Bee scuffed to the ground with her toe. "I suppose this means that once we defeat this army, it''s not going to be the end of it, is it?" "It never was, Miss Bee. It never was." The meeting wrapped up with very little else to decide. It felt really important at that moment to do something about what they''d just learned, but there wasn''t much they could do besides wait for more information. It was frustrating, but she luckily had an outlet. She trudged her way back into the castle after holding some quick conversations. That hopefully would help to keep morale up. She worked her way up to theboratory, where she found Miranda working tirelessly for the war effort. The fireworks that she had made for Void actually had shown great potential for military applications. Apparently, the ones deployed at her birthday party were heavily modified to emphasize the color and lights rather than the explosive power. If they just undid that, they made excellent projectiles for the siege equipment. Scatter shots of multiple vials could beunched from trebuchets, or they could be attached to a ballista bolt and cause much more damage in a specific area than a simple stone. Now that Bee knew they were dealing with demons, she had some ideas about injecting demon''s bane into the fireworks or something along those lines. They would really need improved siege equipment if it was going to be used against demonic forces rather than just simple humans. That wasn''t the only solution that she and Miranda had, though, and in some ways, they weren''t the most practical. Each vial was expensive and slow to make, and when they had so many targets, each vial could only do so much. Some of her ideas, though, would be more useful. Bee had carved out enough research time for herself that she had learned some basic enchanting. It was a fascinating discipline where she could iy runes with material or draw them on something to imbue it with certain magical properties. The basics were simple enough that she''d even had some sesses. It was simr in principle to the warding circles from demonology, but just in a slightly more permanent method. The runes were finicky to get right. Unsessful ones had a chance of fizzling out. Still, if you did them wrong in a very particr way, a cracking explosion could be obtained. And that was just what the doctor had ordered. Today, Bee strode over to arge pile of uniformly sized stones. They would work in trebuchets and catapults where they were enchanted to explode on impact. A few of them were already armed and dangerous, but she had a lot of work ahead. She actually had some proper enchantments she was working on as well. They were a lot harder to pull off and more likely to fail. But she had learned how to give the rocks extra momentum, for example. But her experiments on homing or improved uracy so far hadn''t achieved more than a few stubbed toes. Something that would guide a thrown object toward a designated target was a veryplicated ask, especially considering how much she was pioneering in this field. She had to both work with how long the thing would be in flight and then also somehow designate a target. If she could somehow mix that with anti-demonic explosives in the vials, perhaps they could be used a lot more effectively. It was going to take a lot of experiments to work, and they didn''t have much time. Luckily, Maranda had taken to magic even more than she had. Well, Bee definitely had an edge on her in certain aspects. But Maranda was a true savant. Perhaps they''d be able to figure something out together. --- I was stuck. I had determined that the mountain was alive, but I didn''t have a good way ofmunicating with it. I didn''t want to leave to go find Daedalus while the snowmen were still vulnerable, though I supposed they would probably be okay if they had survived as long as they had without me. And I couldn''t just remove the offending rock monsters on my own. It was quite the conundrum. Just as I was about to despair, two broad sets of dragon wings appeared on the horizon: one red and one white. Within a few minutes, I was no longer alone in the sky. I quickly reyed the scene of what happened for Daedalus and Thucydides to see, and they both groaned as they watched. Daedalus looked over at his little brother with a cloudy expression. "Thucydides, how did you fail to mention that you were living next to a mountain spirit?" Thucydides looked anywhere but at us. "Yeah, I well" He spluttered, starting several sentences before giving up and just shrugging. "I didn''t know. Either it''s fairly young, or it just was dormant the entire time I was here. It''s not my fault." Daedalus shook inughter. "Oh, you silly thing. This is what you get for all your meditation and symbol-scratching." Thucydides shot his brother a baleful look. "Hey, it wasn''t really something I thought to check! Who would even think that? Besides, it wasn''t causing any problems anyways." I quickly disabused him of the notion that it hadn''t caused any problems by reying a few of the scenes of me absolutely chopping apart a rock creature and it just reforming like nothing happened. Thucydides winced. "Yeah, I suppose that could be a problem. But normally, on their own spirits don''t do much." Daedalus grumbled. "I suppose I''ll go talk to it. Mountain spirits aren''t generally unreasonable. Just a little bit slow." Chapter 232: War Never Changes Chapter 232: War Never Changes I wanted to interrupt and ask how Daedalus nned 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 nces 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 secondster, the golems shifted back into an organized formation. Then, from across the mountain, another rumbling sounded. If I hadnt 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 avnche 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 shed 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 ce. "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 andnded before us. Thucydides impatiently asked for an update. "So what did it say?" "Well, apparently, it felt the Lieutenant escape a while back. Its 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 Nazarethgak 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 Daedaluss stories. Nazarethgaks 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 youve consumed a higher level before, then its probably thetter. 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 exined to the mountain spirit that the Lieutenant was probably long gone, and it wasn''t worth terrifying the snowmen vigers 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 momentter, 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 hed 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 wasnt sure about this smaller dragon though. He didnt seem nearly as powerful as I was led to believe all dragons were. Oh well. We had a job to do. I didnt 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 wouldnt 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 ofmunications said that the officers were telling the regr soldiers that the demon corpses they found after raids were from the attackers. Bee had to admit that the lie was rather clever and usible 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 inbat, the word had toe out eventually. Hopefully, they could use this to their advantage somehow, though she wasn''t quite sure how yet. But that time wasing 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 walls other surprises, the Church of the Cleansing Void had nned to make quite the impression. So the members of the castles 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 rxed and unimposing as possible. The only reason she was there was in case they asked for some sort of conversation before the battle. Bee didnt expect that there would be though. Arthur hoped that they would want to pay, but apparently, Bee was right. As the sun set, still no one hade 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 nned, anyway. Ahead, the soldiers formed ranks under the watchful gazes of officers and began to march towards the wall. At the st of a horn, Bee raised a signal g, 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''snd, Bee dropped the signal g she was holding, and a volley of arrows shot forward to m 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 theyunched toward the walls. A second g 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 enemys 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 somedders, but the concentrated fire made it so that even thosedders 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 elses as well: "Aim for the fancy hats." Those were the officers. Anyone with some sort of insignia that denoted them as something besides a regr 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 thatst bit would happen, but removing themand 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. Chapter 233: One Eternity Later Chapter 233: One Eternity Later The retreat from the first wall went almost as smoothly as expected. Right about when the castle''s forces ran out of arrows, the enemy soldiers had begun seriously making progress on scaling the wall. Bee heard the signal from Arthur''smand position to fall back. The archers retreated first, making it most of the way back to the second wall. From there, they took theirst remaining three arrows each. As the pike wielders fell back, they started to pick off anyone who made it to the top of the wall, preventing them from overrunning the rest of the retreating defenders. All along the wall, people sprinted towards the gate in an orderly line, filing through as the archers fended off any pursuers. Then, the archers slung their bows over their shoulders and quickly retreated as well. Bee stood by the gate entrance, keeping watch to ensure everyone got through. As soon as the Archers were unable to hold back the aggressors any longer, she tossed a vial as high as she could in the air. It exploded in a sh of bright purple light. A few momentster, a swarm of stones and other projectilesunched through the sky as the trebuchets and catapults flung their payloads high into the air. A handful of secondster, the first wall disappeared. It went from being a vertical obstacle to being scaled to a mound of rubble that would break up any formation trying to pass it. The redesign was well worth it. The enemy''s vanguard had just started cresting the wall anding down the other side when they were bombarded by dozens of stones the size of pigs. Some stones exploded. Some stones set fire to the wooden walls. Others justnded with heavy impacts. Immediately, the advance was halted. The n was to set up a situation where it would take hours for them to clear the rubble for another proper advance. That kind of time would give the defenders plenty of opportunity to set up and rest before the second wall was invaded. All the while, when they tried to advance onto the next wall, the trebuchets and catapults would be extending their range and actively engaging in the battle to decimate any sort of ranks set up too close to the castle. This would mean that any attack woulde with a much-extended charge or have to ept simply be bombarded continuously. And Bee didn''t think any force would be able to sit under that for very long. She celebrated internally. So far, so good, it seemed. Their initial attack had been extremely sessful. But from what it looked like, the enemy general had ns of his own. Immediately, the Army pulled back to just outside of the range of the catapults, and the catapults stopped firing. Then, the Kingdom''s forces unveiled magic of their own. Originating from several points along the attacker''s front, a wave of frost billowed out in a quickly creeping front. Bee couldn''t tell how it was happening, but she had to push her curiosity to the back of her mind to deal with the immediate threat. The air crystallized as it advanced forward, smothering the lingering fires and burning walls and shifting rubble out of its path. Bee quickly lost sight of what was happening through the fog as the frost advanced steadily toward the second wall. Dread suddenly seeped into Bee''s heart. That wave seemed problematic. What if it could break through their defenses somehow? With an effort, she reined the fear in. If that was the case, they likely would have used it first instead of trying to sacrifice so many of their soldiers to take the first in what was going to be a long, grueling series of walls. However, letting something like this approach the second wall uncontested didn''t feel right. Defenders were already up on top of it, and thest of them were still moving through the gate. It wouldn''t be pretty if it did anything remotely as dangerous to the people as it did to the ground. But how could she stop it? Bee quickly thought through her abilities and didn''t immediately see an option. Then she had an idea. With a mental effort, she activated her Holy Aura and pushed it out to meet the frost. The golden light bloomed within her consciousness and expanded into reality. She felt her aura connect with the invasive magical particles swirling towards her. The advancing field of ice and cold seemed to recoil as though burned, melting back into nothing as it met the glow. It took a little bit of her energy, but it halted the creeping wave. Stretching out her hands, she formed her aura and pushed it out as wide as she could, trying to cover the entire path toward the second wall. She couldn''t cover the entire wall but could protect enough of the road to keep the soldiers safe. As she focused, she closed her eyes and tried to visualize the distance. She used the feeling of the aura and the sensory inputs it provided her to guide her skill forward. The golden light seemed to morph and shift, halting the attack in its tracks. This went on for several seconds, a brief span that stretched into an eternity as she waged war against the enemy''s magic. Eventually, Bee felt more than saw the wave peter out. With a huge exhale of breath, she reached up and wiped a thick sheen of sweat from her eyes. Her clothes felt as though they had be drenched in a matter of seconds. A hand grabbed her shoulder and kept her steady, but it only took her a couple of moments to regain her footing. She was just tired, not an invalid. Looking around, she saw that the soldiers had bunched up behind her, cramming together exactly at the edges of the aura shield she had projected. Apparently, they hadn''t liked the look of that magic any more than she had. Where the frost had touched the trees, their bark had split and ruptured as the sap inside sh froze. Little tinkling sounds reached her ears as small twigs fell to the ground and shattered, like someone emptying a ssware cab onto the floor. Blinking, she realized that she could actually see her aura. Before, she''d only been able to sense it, but now? Based on the soldiers'' reactions, they could obviously see it too. It was fading as she''d stopped trying to project it, but the golden glow must not have been her imagination. It must have projected a real visual barrier for everyone to hide behind it. That sort of magic was notmon, as far as she knew. She looked over to see the source of the hand still steadying her, only to see Tony. Apparently, he had run out from behind the wall to keep her aloft. She smiled tiredly at him as he spoke. "I think you overdid it a little bit, Bee. Here, hide behind the walls for a spell, yeah?" She nodded and worked her mouth to muster the moisture to speak. It seemed like it had all sweated out of her during that exchange. "How long?" She croaked out eventually. Had it really been just a few seconds, or the eternity it seemed like? "A minute or two," Tony said. "Just enough time for everyone to get up into positions, though. You look like you just ran a marathon." She tried to chuckle but ended up coughing. "Yeah, I feel like it too." Tony turned her around by the shoulder and started to lead her into the castle, but her feet refused to cooperate. They repeatedly sought out small rocks and uneven patches to stumble over. Eventually, Tony gave up and crouched down, grabbing beneath her knees and pulling her into a princess carry. Bee wanted to protest. Especially as she felt her sopping clothes leave a huge wet spot along his front. She muttered something as she vainly pushed at his arms, forcing Tony to shift a little bit. But soon, her head was lolling back in exhaustion as she watched the silhouettes of the soldiers go by. "I''m fine," she muttered up in the general direction of Tony''s swimming face. "Really, I can walk." "Of course you can. You''re walking right now," Tony soothed her in a tant lie. This made Bee quite frustrated, but she couldn''t quite put words to why. "Just need to rest a little..." "Sure, sure," Tony reassured her. "I think you probably want to drink some water, huh? We''ll get you inside and draw up a nice bath for you. How does that sound?" "That sounds nice." Bee mumbled as her consciousness started to slowly drift. She began to dream of Void, a strange dream. Her master was far off, among ice and snow like the stuff she''d just fended off, fighting some great evil of its own. What was her master doing? Did her master need her help? Was iting home? Questions swirled in her mind until even the dreams started to fade. --- Archibald blinked. Thest thing he remembered was stabbing a demon Lieutenant in the chest, rather heroically at that. But in a sh, it was gone. Surrounding him instead was apletely vast whiteness, emitting nothing but blinding light in all directions. His first thought was that he was clearly dead. That made sense, given the situation. He blinked a few times. Slowly, the feeling started to spread from his eyes down to the rest of his face. He could feel his nose as air began rushing through his nostrils. He tried to breathe in more deeply, but his chest wouldn''t move. Still, it might only be a matter of time. The sensation kept creeping lower and lower. Suddenly, the tongue in his mouth was able to move, and he wiggled it around. All he tasted was stale, musty air. Not at all fitting for the blinding whiteness that surrounded him. Once his neck was able to move, he was able to look around. Finally, he noticed something besides the nk white void. Archibald looked down and saw himself, though he was in a funny pose. He was holding his sword but in an awfully proper and grandiose way. Not at all like himself. After that, he looked around the rest of the space. He couldn''tpletely turn around yet, but upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a dome with a uniformly colored floor and walls. Toward one corner of his vision, he saw an archway. Still, it was too far in his peripherals to make out entirely. As his sensation returned lower, he took a deep breath of air for the first time. He could feel his chest expand, and he exhaled slowly, rxing his shoulders and rolling his head around. A momentter, Archibald stretched up towards the sky. His spine protested with a rippling set of pops as everything came back to life, shaking his arms out. He felt his wrists and fingers flex and pop as he stretched them and manipted them. He started to wiggle his hips and could soon fully turn around and see behind him. There was a single entrance over there, and it appeared to have a small object in the corner. He couldn''t quite make out what it was, as anything that wasn''t right in front of him was a bit blurry. It always had been. But it was something he had long since learned to live with. Eventually, as his toes finally softened up, he wiggled them carefully. Then Archibald took a step forward. Apparently, not carefully enough. His foot wasn''t 100% awake. As hended, hended on the side of his foot, rolled his ankle, and stumbled forward. And then, toote, he realized he had been standing on a dais several feet above the ground. The miscalction sent him painfully crashing onto the floor, shoulder first. Archibald attempted to continue his roll to disperse his momentum. Unfortunately, he ended up just flopping on his back, his head colliding with the stone. He simply sat there for a moment, head ringing and wind knocked out of him. He panted, attempting to get his lungs to work again. At that moment, Archibald was simply grateful no one had been around to notice his acrobatic feat. Mentally, he reached out and felt the connections of his bond. Relief washed over him as he noted that Daedalus was still alive, that big, scaly boy. Even if he was far away. It seemed as though some time had passed since Archibald''s sealing away. The real question was, what had he missed? Slowly levering himself up to his feet, he worked his way forward one step at a time. Carefully, he approached the object near the archway. As he drew near, it resolved into a small wicker basket. He went down to one knee and started to dig through it. It was filled with food. A few loaves of bread wrapped in paper, some dried fruit, and a pair of wineskins. The sight made his stomach growl loudly. He also found a folded piece of paper on top of the whole ensemble, scrawled in high Elvish of all things. He blinked, struggling to interpret the words. "What the heck does this mean? Champion? Companion? Hm. I assume this is for me I don''t see anyone else here, at least." Archibald unfolded the piece of paper to reveal a text wall that didn''t mean much to him. He put it aside and decided to decipher itter. His mouth was parched, and those wineskins seemed like a far more pressing matter at the moment. Unstopping one, he lifted it up and squeezed. A stream of tepidly warm and t water dripped into his mouth. Still, it was the most heavenly sensation he could ever remember. Chapter 234: Grounded in Faith Chapter 234: Grounded in Faith Arthur felt the blood drain from his face as Tony carried Bee''s limp body through the gate. "Mr. Arthur, the enemy is-" He immediately motioned for Felix to silence the constant stream of information he was recounting and dashed toward the girl. This needed his full attention. However, the people weren''t reacting as though Bee had been severely hurt. Instead, they were cheering as Tony kept walking on. When Arthur reached for Tony''s side, heid his hand on Bee''s brow. She was feverish but clearly breathing heavily. "What happened to her?" He demanded. He had almost asked for a report on reflex, but the farm boy wasn''t a soldier. "The enemy deployed some sort of big magical frost attack. Bee used a skill to stop it. It took a lot out of her though. I have no idea how long she''ll be out for, but she needs to rest badly." Tony summarized the situation well enough. "They took the outer wall, but they definitely paid every bit we could make ''em." Arthur nodded. Thest part wasn''t news to him, but Bee''s condition certainly was. At least she was exhausted, not wounded. With the situation under control, themander headed back to Felix. "Archers on the left wall ''re runnin'' out of arrows," Felix reported in a strangely monotone voice, his eyes closed. Arthur nodded and signaled to one of the Quartermaster''s assistants nearby, and they went off running to take care of the issue. It had never been so simple to control a battlefield as it was now. Information flowed almost instantaneously, no matter where his forces were. He could make decisions and take advantage of openings so quickly that it might feel as though he was predicting the enemy''s moves. Unfortunately, he wasn''t sure how long Felix could keep this up. It had already been some time since the kid''s skin had taken on a pale sheen. They would need to find an easily defensible lull in the battle for Felix to take a quick nap, but Arthur wasn''t sure how quickly they could bring one on. It could be some ways off. He continued to make small adjustments to the forces arrayed on the wall, sending reinforcements to ces that were at risk of being overrun based on reports. All the while, the catapults and trebuchets and ballistas kept firing into the mass of enemies. The enemy had decided to immediately push forward for the second wall, not even slowing after the first. The Kingdom''s armies just kept pushing through the rubble of the first wall and racking up casualties. But as they made it through the no man''snd, the continued bombardment meant that reinforcements found it harder and harder to reach their destinations, especially once they entered the range of the second wall defenders and were absolutely unloaded upon. That was when the trebuchets shifted their ammunition from single-target, heavy, destructive weapons to the specialty items that Miss Bee and Maranda had cooked up. Judging from reports, they worked just as intended. The stones split apart before they hit the ground. Instead of leaving a crater, they left a shredded pile of soldiers in arge radius. Arthur had waited until the enemy had reached the absolute most people packed into the killing field before changing ammunition, and this new threat made it nearly impossible for the back of the army to reinforce the front or for the front of the army to retreat. They''d separated off arge chunk of the force, pinning them between the wall in front and a field of razor death behind them, making easy targets for archers and pikes to finish off. Arthur shuddered a little at how effective those exploding rocks had been. Those two girls were somehow more terrifying than he''d given them credit for. So far, everything had been going ording to n, but he wasn''t sure if it would be enough. The enemy vastly outnumbered their own forces, and if they were throwing their people at the wall like this, they clearly believed they could spare them. It could''ve been that the demons amongst them were in control and didn''t view the humans as particrly valuable. But he suspected they were more likely conscripts or just poorly trained fodder, little more than shock troops. While they were still important for them to be defeated, it wouldn''t make the enemymanders lose any sleep. Usually. Arthur was more surprised that he hadn''t seen any demons yet. No one had, based on the information the other Nighty Knights fed to Felix. But with this strong of a showing, he wouldn''t be surprised if they made an appearance soon. The second wall was constructed significantly better than the outermost wall, and they intended to hold it for much longer. So perhaps it would allow them to draw out their true enemy. Once the enemy was defeated, he signaled for the Trebuchets to stop wasting their limited supply of extremely potent anti-personnel munitions. They had agreed upon this earlier and set up a manual signal from the front lines to the back lines. And they even had backups in case Miss Bee wasn''t able to perform her duties, like right now. They would let the trebuchets know when to fire a stone in case the no man''snd was encroached upon. But for now, that was the only information they needed. And Felix could get some rest. Arthur steadied the young boy with a hand on his shoulder as he walked him over to the series of cots set near themand tent. The boy was still a boy, but Arthur could tell that somehow he had already mastered the soldier''s skill of sleeping whenever he needed to. If only his own kids had learned that one - it would have made his wife''s job a lot easier. As if to prove his point, Felix began snoring before he was even halfway onto the cot. Arthur had to help lower the boy down into the rest of the way so he didn''t fall off as he slept. Leaving him be, Arthur quickly approached the scouting post where Susan and Captain Major coordinated their efforts. A lot of their duties had been subsumed into Felix''s abilities, but Arthur wasn''t about to entirely trust the Nighty Knights to watch for everything that was needed. After a quick rundown, he confirmed that Felix had been giving him good information this time, and they had acted ordingly. They had orders to step in if they were getting massively conflicting results reports, but they hadn''t needed to so far. "Okay. And what of the nkers in the forest? Have we seen any attempts to bypass the walls by going around the densely wooded areas?" Arthur asked. Susan and Captain Major both shrugged. Captain Major spoke first, "We''ve caught a few of their scouts, but so far, there has been no concerted effort." Arthur nodded. "Good. Good. Let me know if that changes." He turned to move away, but Susan called out, "Sir. There''s another concern. I''m worried about them trying to burn the forest down around us." A messenger ran up, interrupting their conversation. He gave a crisp salute, turned to Arthur, and only nced at his immediate superiors. "Sir, they''ve started advancing again." Arthur heard a slight boom as another heavy stonended. He winced. He didn''t expect them to try to push through the bombardment as quickly as they had. They only had so many enchanted stones. While they had proven to be some of their most effective weapons, they had been an experiment. A gamble that took time to prepare. Between that and other necessary preparations, they didn''t make as many as they should have. Now, it was toote. Maranda wasn''t skilled enough to produce them herself yet, and Bee was indisposed. Even if she started producing them nonstop, it wouldn''t be enough to extend the bombardment for more than a minute or so. He hoped they had enough to push back another assault. Fortunately, they also had plenty of magical concoctions to use if they needed to copse the walls. Surprisingly, the immediate single target stones that Bee had made were more effective against a wall of stone than they were in arge area. Arthur turned to Susan and Captain Major once more. "I want to know the second they start sending something that can actually get through the bombardment. And I want to know if we can risk not using the specialty ammo and just use regr stones for now to prevent them from getting too far ahead. They shouldn''t be willing to trap as many of their soldiers against the wall this time if they''ve learned anything fromst time. "Actually, by that. Just tell the catapults to switch to standard stones now." He turned to the messenger waiting, and the man ran off to instruct the catapult operators. "It would be better if they did push through. We will hold them at the wall, and we''ll do the same thing again, destroying anotherrge section of the force," Arthur exined. "Still, I want to know the second they change their tactics." Susan and Captain Major both saluted, and Arthur walked away as they prepared their scouts. He went to climb an observation tform that some of the farmers had built in their spare time. It wasn''t going to give the best vantage point of what was going on, but he could at least see the ebbs and flows of the battle. Half an hourter, one of Susan''s messengers ran up to inform Arthur that their n had worked again. The enemy had just thrown more soldiers into the meat grinder of the anti-personnel rocks. But things were changing. Apparently, sand golems - or earth demons disguised as sand golems - were being sent ahead of the army. Why they hadn''t been used earlier, Arthur had no idea. But he supposed that if his opponents were ying some hidden cards, he might have to see personally what was happening. He quickly descended from the tower and took a pair of soldiers as guards with him towards the second defensive wall. It was time for him to see what was going on with his own eyes. When he arrived, he saw four mounds of living dirt shot full of arrows. The projectiles showed no signs of impeding their progress at all. The standard troops had halted since they weren''t able to get past the trebuchets for fear of the anti-personnel rounds. But these elementals had no such issues. asionally, one of the trebuchets would increase their range a little bit and attempt to hit farther back in the enemy camp. But the enemies had wised up about this and pulled their forces even farther back. The four earth demons carried a massive log between them. The log was at least 30 feet long and several feet across. It had a metal cap on one end, narrowing it down from three feet to only a few inches. The handles on each side were sturdy enough that they would be able to put significant force into each strike of the iing battering ram. Arthur looked around and saw panic on the faces around him. There were ways to deal with demons, and they had magical countermeasures, of course. But he didn''t think that that would cut it for these men. They looked worn out. Most were his soldiers and war veterans in the campaign. But this was different. At least with the undead, they were able to do harm. Earth demons were notoriously difficult to deal with, especially with a soldier''s standard repertoire of stabbing and shing. And with Miss Bee having fallen so early in the battle, Arthur thought they might need a little pick-me-up. Drawing his sword, he motioned for his guards to stay behind. With a yell that reminded him what it was like to be a younger man, he leaped off the wall and met the demons with a charge. Chapter 235: Operation Search and Destroy Chapter 235: Operation Search and Destroy Thucydides and I spent several hours searching for clues about the demon Lieutenant''s location. We eventually found a few markings that looked like something big hade through this area about a quarter mile away from the cave entrance. How would it have gotten here? I had no idea, but Thucydides was certain. The way he exined it sounded quite interesting as he produced all sorts of equipment from some hidden space and measured magical output. While he was doing that, I worked under the assumption that this was, in fact, the passing of the demon Lieutenant. In that case, I wanted to figure out the direction he was going and see if I could determine a goal or destination. So far, my mental model of the was rather limited, and I wasn''t sure of whaty in the direction of this path. I could tell that the trajectory was at least south. Of course, there was a very good chance that the demon could have doubled back. But that seemed unlikely to me. There was no way it would have known something was following it. But it could be paranoid. Once, Thucydides looked up from his equipment. I indicated the direction and gave him the odds associated with it going that way. Thucydides blinked in surprise. At first, I thought I would have to exin probabilities to him, as I had to do with many of the children. But then I remembered even though Daedalus called him little brother, Thucydides was quite old. Surely, he understood basic math and statistics. "From what I know," Thucydides said, "I think you might be cing too much assurance on the demon Lieutenants acting rationally. They are agents of chaos, after all." I frowned, taking that statement into consideration. Had my models overlooked the Lieutenant doing somethingpletely nonsensical, like traveling in a zig-zag pattern just for fun? Maybe. It was pretty unimaginable to me, even after encountering so many mess makers. I updated my calctions with that assumption in mind and shed up new percentages, slightly lowering the certainty of my prediction. Thucydides cocked his head and nodded. "Yeah, I''d say it''s a little bit lower myself, but I think it''s still high enough that checking is worthwhile. We''ll just have to make sure we scan around each other footprint, too." We headed off in the direction that I had indicated and fanned out slightly, scanning the ground to see if we could find any other marking of the Lieutenant''s passing about another quarter mile away. My sensors were able to pick out the pattern in the ground clear as day despite the wind having obscured it. It wasn''t exactly in line, but close enough that it was within the margin of error for my predictions. Thucydides pulled out fewer experiments this time, and within a much shorter time frame, he confirmed it. "It looks like we''re going in the right direction, but I don''t trust that the demon will keep going this way. We should do a full sweep around a quarter mile out almost every time to ensure that we''re not missing something." I beeped my agreement, but honestly? My primary processor was focused on understanding what the white dragon was doing with his tools. It all seemed very interesting. They somehow resonated with the ambient magic in the area. From that, he was able to determine some sort of pattern that was a match for the one back where we had started our search. It wasn''t the same as an energy signature like I might pick up, like a soul. Those I could use to recognize things I had already seen rather than matching someone''s fingerprints to them. Which I could also do, of course. But this new technique was interesting. I wanted to see if I could replicate it. I felt like it would take me a while, but with enough time and processing power, it shouldn''t be impossible. I''d have to develop much better algorithms to do so efficiently, though. Thucydides''s pace, while helpful for me to follow along, was cially slow. I could clean the entire castle at least twice over by the time he finished fiddling with his equipment. Still, just because I could interpret what his equipment did was no indicator that I could perform its functions. Perhaps I would need some special materials in order to figure this out. Beatrice might help with that. I could sense energy from these things, but I couldn''t really identify exactly where it wasing from. We continued on through the snow. Each time, we''d have to search a little bit more to find the tracks. Thucydides was right that this was not nearly a straight line. In fact, I calcted that there was a 36.4% loss of efficiency based on the path that this demon lieutenant was taking. Worse, that efficiency loss didn''t even help it much to throw off a pursuer. We could tell that some sort of magic was being used that teleported him almost exactly a quarter mile at a time. It was nice to have a precise distance to search at. Still, it made Thucydides''s suggestions of making a full circle around each mark even more important. Luckily, we could do it without too much effort, especially once I got particrly good at detecting the energy signatures in the rock. We went on like this for hours; eventually, day turned into night. Even with my advanced sensors, theck of ambient light made it difficult to keep track. Thucydides and I found a nearby cave to rest in, and the dragon wormed his way inside and curled up, quickly falling asleep. I just tidied the cave floor so we could have a morefortable spot to rest. Today had been a long day; I imagined it would be another one tomorrow. Well, technically, the day had been the same length as every other, but the humans were so fond of this saying that I had picked up on using it myself. Regardless, we had months'' worth of distance to make up for, but I had no faith that we were moving faster than the Lieutenant. *** Archibald finally put down the wineskin. His mouth felt less parched than it had before. Next, he started up on the bread; it was slightly stale, but surprisingly not as much as it could have been. How long had they been putting food like this out for him? Judging by how he felt, he must have been asleep for quite a while. That meant someone was watching out for him. As he chewed on the slightly rubbery bread, he realized exactly how hungry he was. At first, he hadn''t noticed because of the thirst. But even as he swallowed, his stomachined, and he started chewing faster. He would finish everything in this basket, and it still wouldn''t be enough. But it would hopefully give him the energy he needed to keep moving. As he chewed, he returned to the piece of paper, flipped it open, and slowly began to decipher it one word at a time. Several minutester, he looked up and blinked at the ceiling. "10,000 years. That''s a long time," he muttered to himself. He honestly wasn''t sure if he believed it. 10,000 years was far too long for anyone to remember him. In fact, with the demons having ruled for so long, humanity didn''t even know what had happened a thousand years before. There were no records and not even any stories that referenced events that long ago, at least not that he was aware of. Maybe some ruins somewhere held stories about older things, but still. D "Dang." He muttered the word through a mouthful of bread. That was far too long for someone to have been leaving him bread and a note. That just didn''t seem very likely. "How many loaves of bread would that be? Well, if these loaves of bread were two or three days old, maybe someonees in here every week. That would have sucked, waking up to week-old bread, but still. 52 weeks a year. That''s like that''s so much bread." Archibald just shook his head. He could still feel his bond somewhere in the world. Maybe Daedalus had been watching out for him and waiting for his return? Nah, that didn''t make sense. Sure, Daedalus had been a good friend after a while, but the dragon was still pretty arrogant. He couldn''t imagine the old lizard just sitting there waiting for him. Much less bringing bread like this. Even if the mental image of the dragon assembling little baskets of treats did give Archibald a chuckle. He''d probably be off having some adventure and iming a massive hoard somewhere as he sat on top of a dwarven settlement and demanded 90% of the gold. It still would be nice to see his old friend again, though. He was d that he had survived the Demon War. If he was still alive, of course. He assumed that the demons were somehow banished. It was hard to say, but he looked back to the letter and continued reading. "Okay Maybe they did find a solution?" There wasn''t really much more information on the page. It mentioned that the demon Lieutenant had been trapped with him this whole time. Apparently, the demon lieutenant had been released, but they somehow managed to banish it. Something about a lord of cleaning and a god. Archibald had never put much stock in gods. There were still some humans around that worshiped them even in his time. Most of the talk of gods hade from the elves, but no one had seen a god for a very long time. And from what he understood, the myths said that they were gone before the demons even showed up. Or maybe the demons showing up had been when the gods disappeared? He didn''t really care. The gods hadn''t done anything for humanity when they had been enved for who knows how long by the demons. But this was a new god. He shrugged. Well, the people living in the area were willing to wee him. And if they were this polite, perhaps they would be able to tell him more when he found them. He considered picking up the basket and walking as he ate but decided against it for now, reaching over and grabbing the next loaf of bread. The awakened hero continued his snacking. It took him nearly half an hour to finish both the loaves of bread and the preserved foods under the covered dishes. Jerky and cheese were certainly a lot more filling than the bread, but at the same time, he kind of wished there was a warm meal. The other wineskin had held actual wine, albeit with very low alcohol contentpared to the wine he was used to. However, it was still a nice taste and didn''t hold the same stale vor as the water did. Leaving a little bit of food and a little bit of wine in his skin, he decided it was time to move. He slung the skin over his neck by the strap and put it on his side as he picked up the basket. "Well, no point in waiting." Stretching again. His musclesined a little bit less than when he sat down. Slowly, he made for the door and began to walk up a slightly curving ramp. Chapter 236: Naptime is Over Chapter 236: Naptime is Over Arthur bent his knees as hended on the hard-packed ground in between the walls. Before him, the four demons carrying the battle ram paused, earthen faces expressionless. He took half a second to draw in a breath and center himself before charging forward. But in that half second, his mind flitted through a thousand different details. He considered the hundreds of people on the wall behind him. He went through his skills and picked out the ones that he would need. With amander-based ss, he didn''t have nearly as many directbat skills as a soldier would. But then, those rarely ever got to his level. Instead, he had a few things that would actually serve him rather well in this situation. A few of the leadership variants he''d picked up allowed him to pull strength from those he led, and more so when he was defending them as their champion. It was a very infrequently used skill, as he did little direct fighting anymore. But if this wasn''t the perfect time to use it, then he was a cat. He activated the skill, drew in a breath, and felt the support of his entire army swell through him as they watched. As he used that moment to propel himself forward, he scattered a bit of demon''s bane that Bee had given him as a precaution on his de. As Arthur moved, he felt his two guards drop onto the ground behind him. He trusted them not to engage but rather just watch his back and make sure nothing extraneous happened or interfered. They would also make sure he had a clear path back through the wall when he was done. The demons were hesitant to drop their ram, but once he got close, they decided that he was enough of a threat that they had to stop their advance and deal with him first. As one, they released their hold, and the massive log mmed into the ground. The impact sent vibrations through the paving stones underneath his feet, even 30 feet away. It didn''t slow him down or even send him off bnce as he charged forward. He hefted his sword and held it at the ready, imbuing it with his very first skill: Decisive Strike. It was the skill with a surprisinglyrge cooldown, especially considering he''d earned it at level one skill. But it had served him well. Sometimes, the first strike was the most important. Sometimes, he saved itter for the fight. But having a weapon that could deal damage to almost any opponent with one hit was nearly always tide-turning for him. It wouldn''t guarantee an instant kill, but it would help bypass any resistances and hit with more force and a certain magical emphasis that wasn''t normally found in melee sses. So when the "stone golem" raised its hand to block his blow, Arthur shed it right through its arm and into its body. A huge chunk of earth sloughed to the ground in a dusty mass. It wouldn''t kill an earth demon. Very few things could kill an earth demon outright, but it did neutralize a goodrge percentage of its mass. The demon''s bane did help, though. The best way, in his experience, to kill golems or earth demons or anything elemental was to target its weaknesses. A water-based attack would be excellent here, for example. But he was no mage, so the next best option was to separate them from their power until they were weak enough that they couldn''t do any harm. His de bit deep into his opponent''s chest, and as soon as he felt the blow''s momentum slow, he twisted it and shed it down,ing down the center of the demon and cutting out a huge chunk of its side and one of its legs. It fell into magically inert material. The demon copsed and started to reform, but Arthur was already moving past it and cutting at the next. The demons showed no hint of wariness or self-preservation as he carved through them, nimbly dancing through the group. Men behind him empowered Arthur to move faster than the earth demons could ever hope to keep up with. He was probably stronger than them by nearly 20 levels, so without their inherent strengths and his inability to directly counter them, they would already have fallen. But his increased physical abilities made this fight little more than a waiting game as he ducked and dodged around the heavy blows that were far too slow to touch him and carved off piece after piece of sandy earth. Arthur''s only concern was his opponents being able to regain the material that he cut away, but even then, he did have a skill that could help with that. It was another one of his rarer skills, the one he had gotten at level ten. Inbination with Decisive Strike, it had made him a formidable opponent in his younger years, if not quite top-tier. It was a nullification skill that could dampen the use of magic in his presence. It was easily overwhelmed by something more powerful than him, which is whybatants like Bee and Void and even the wraith could be so much trouble for him. But it had also been able to weaken the wraith''s attacks in critical moments. Despite all its shorings, it was great at suppressing things near or below his level. This had helped immensely to level the ying field as he could remove the truly broken abilities some got early. It hadn''t taken him long to learn that he could focus it and use up all of its potential at once. But he didn''t need to do that now; he barely had to apply the effect here to stop the earth demons from reforming. Arthur kept the remains of the earth demons magically inert and slowly whittled them down till they were each smaller than him. At that point, he stopped even trying to avoid their blows, instead turning them with his de to meet them with a strike. The collisions destroyed them even as they tried to attack him. Then he started throwing in things like kicks that would shatter through the thin wall of sand the demons protected themselves with, and soon, they were nothing more than little mice-sized piles of sand scuttling around his feet. This is when his guards truly proved useful. They dashed forward with what looked to be tightly woven bags. Arthur had no idea where they''d found such things, but he was grateful. They scooped up the demons in these bags and tied them shut. Arthur could see the things struggling futilely, but they were so weak that they couldn''t do more than slowly cut their way through the bags with their sand. It wasn''t a long-term solution, but someone in the castle would be able to handle them. Maybe Bee would be awake and functional by now. If not, Maranda should surely be able to bind them long enough for Bee or Void to take care of them. The men on the wall erupted in cheers and shouts, which quickly devolved into insults being flung at the enemy. Arthur let them go for a few minutes as he caught his breath and studied the enemy. They hadn''t yet made a move, but something didn''t sit right with him. Arthur raised his hand and pointed at the log, and a few momentster, several arrows, soaked in pitch and on me, streaked forward to set it ame. Arthur didn''t imagine this would stop the enemy for long, but it would certainly take time to find and prepare another ram. The next time they tried, they would have to bring more forces with them, and that would slow them down as well as give the defenders targets. Turning, he stalked back through the gates and made his way back to themand tent. There''s still a lot more work to be done. --- Bee felt sensation slowly return to her body as she woke up. It didn''t at all feel like waking up from a good night''s sleep, but rather more like jumping into an ice-cold river in reverse. There was an initial shock as her mind started up again, and then slowly, the numbness of her limbs faded. What had happened? Thest several moments that she could recall were fuzzy. Some magical attack from the enemy had forced her to exert herself and expend a lot more effort than she had wanted to. She tried to open her eyes, but the lids wouldn''t respond at first. So, instead, she tried twitching her fingers and toes. Nothing. Was she paralyzed? No, sensation was still running through her limbs. It just hadn''t reached much farther than the center of her chest. She focused on her breathing and feeling the world around her. Mostly, her magic-based skills still functioned, but she could feel that if she pushed them at all, it would simply slow her recovery. She didn''t have enough in her to put forth the effort. But her passive senses were just fine. She could feel the faith of Void all around her with no apparent effort. Good. It seemed that her people still lived. The vast, vast majority of Void''s faithful were localized in the castle and pulled back towards what she felt to be the second wall. But she felt new strands of faithing from very far north, strangely. She wondered if Void had been up to anything over there. She also felt some more towards the city of Caleb and the neighboring province. Slowly, those were spreading and strengthening, but they felt different. As though they weren''t quite the same as the ones within the Church of the Cleansing Void. It was as if she was giving red apples to those she talked to, and whatever was spreading the faith towards the east and west was giving out yellow apples. Not necessarily wrong, but different. Up to the north were more like green apples. It''s very interesting that she could tell something like denomination with her skill. Suddenly, she felt her energy hit some kind of recovery threshold. Her Repair and Improved Repair skills kicked in, and her body quickly mended. Unfortunately, they quickly left her feeling exhausted once more as their effects cut off, but her body felt whole again. The brief kick of recovery left her wanting nothing more than toy back and sleep/ She could sense with Improved Pathing that the best way out of her room was to get out of her bed, walk down the hall, and then descend a few flights of stairs. That would bring her right back to the fight. But she wasn''t ready. Even as she opened her eyes and took in the stone ceiling above her, she felt that she needed a good meal and a few more hours of rest before she could really do anything strenuous. That didn''t stop her from forcing herself to her feet and quickly getting dressed, though. She almost stumbled as she left the door, but a force of will kept her upright as her energy slowly recovered. With a bit of effort, she made her way towards the kitchens and found them in full swing. Loaves of bread and fresh rations were constantly being piled up and then immediately whisked out to go towards the soldiers on the walls. When the head of the kitchen, Mary''s second, saw her, she was immediately ushered to a table. A massive te of eggs and cured meats, toasted to a nice crispiness, were ced in front of her an instantter. Bee barely even tasted it as she scarfed it down, but the meal did wonders. Even her recovery skills began to kick in once more and remain in use. Regaining her feet, Bee made her way down and out of the castle, ready to go see where she could be of use. Chapter 237: Blowing Things Out of Proportion Chapter 237: Blowing Things Out of Proportion A whopping 59.34 hourster, Thucydides and I finally spotted a change in the monotonousndscape. Over the next snow field, we spotted arge shadowy shape looming a quarter mile away from our most recent checkpoint. My advanced sensors couldn''t pierce the unnatural darkness that seemed to surround it. Luckily, my Spiritual Cleanse sense had increased its range significantly in the past few months. My front touch sensors were nearly triggered as we got closer. The energy was so much more intense that it felt like physical pressure. Inside that looming pir of smoke and shadow, I saw a flickering me in the shape of a man. It was just standing there. Judging by the burns around it on the bare stone of the mountainside, it had been standing there for a while. What was it doing? My thoughts were interrupted as Thucydides nced toward me as we flew, baring his teeth in a partial sneer. "They''re not so tough, are they?" The white dragon boasted. I let out an unconvinced beep. That monster seemed nearly as powerful as the mountain that Daedalus had spoken to. It was so much more powerful than the first Lieutenant I had fought that I had trouble believing they were on the same level. I had to remind myself that the one we faced was significantly weakened. Still, even if this was stronger, I wasn''t going to let it get away without a fight. "Let''s go get it." I projected in the air above as we came to a stop a little ways away. The creature hadn''t reacted at all to our presence, so I thought we could take the time to n. I started showing tactics where I woulde in low, and the ice dragon woulde in and hit it with ice breath from above, giving me an opening to start trying to consume it. He went back and forth with me a few times, adjusting the n, but I put a stop to it when we started getting to the precise angle of his descent. The young dragon was just stalling. I gave him a push forward with my Air Maniption as he took to the sky, and we made our approach. The demon didn''t seem to realize we were there until Thucydides was nearly on top of him. The white dragon was already exhaling before the demon had a chance to react. It didn''t show any surprise; instead, it casually lifted a hand of me to block the ice breath. The hand, made entirely of fire, managed to melt the ice attack as it got closer, but I could see the limb''s radiance dim slightly. I followed in after the attack, getting in close. As I entered the pir of smoke and shadow, my sensor range greatly diminished, and I lost awareness of everything happening outside 30 yards of the fight. Now in range, I immediately started trying to consume the demon. Unfortunately, I could only rip little bits of me away from its body every few seconds, much less than 1% of its mass. And it regenerated rtively quickly, as Daedalus had warned. I kept at it, though, unwilling to give up; even this little bit of damage would build up given enough time. Pulling out my Divine Sword, I went to sh, but the fire of the demon''s body parted around the de with no apparent damage. It appeared that it wasn''t quite corporeal, almost like an earth demon. Thucydides came around with another breath attack. This time, the demon blocked with one arm and pointed with the other, sending a burning bolt up at the dragon. The young dragon rolled out of the way to dodge and had to p hurriedly to avoid crashing into the ground. As the dragon circled around, the demon turned his attention to me. I quickly ran through my options, trying to think of something that might have an effect. An old ability came to mind first. Popping up my Spray Bottle, I unloaded as much water as I had in me at the demon Lieutenant. The torrent fizzled, sprayed, and steamed as it approached the demon but siphoned off its heat well, and I could feel its radiance dim. I kept the stream up, shooting at his face as I tore through the massive reserves I had in my limited dustbin. I zipped around him, covering all angles, trying to stay ahead of the random sprays of fiery bolts it sent all around itself. With my Spray Bottle, I managed to dodge or neutralize most of them in midair. The rest I redirected into my dustbin with Air Maniption. I could feel it strain my ability and my dustbin to catch such powerful sts. Still, I was able to store them and slowly dissipate their energy toter transmute it for my own purposes. All the while, I pulled in a steady trickle of the demon''s mass. My barrage of water was clearly frustrating it, if not actually damaging the enemy. It was able to avoid its half-hatred grabs for me, but it was enough of a distraction that I was not able to start some of my moreplicated options. I had hoped that it would break through eventually, but it seemed we were mostly in an impasse right now. And I wasn''t about to give up my slightly superior position without a good reason. Then Thucydides had recovered and dove in with his icy breath. The st caught the demon Lieutenant in the back, full-on and unprotected. This time, thence of cold speared through the ming demon, and the Lieutenant scattered into a thousand pieces scattered throughout the pir of darkness. I immediately took advantage and was able to suck up a significant proportion of the demon''s mass as it tried to re-form, dousing many more of the small mes with water. However, the demon reformed in an odd way. It didn''t all rush toward one point. Instead, each tongue of me paired up with another and merged into arger one. Then, the process repeated over and over. Soon enough, I was surrounded by many smaller versions of the demon scurrying across thendscape. I zipped about to try and consume the smaller versions of the Lieutenant, but they seemed to still have some sort of ephemeral link to the whole that made them hard to pull. However, that didn''t stop me from getting some of them, but I couldn''t consume them outright like I had the minuscule versions. Thucydides worked with me. Hovering above his breath, attack snuffed out one after another of our prey. But there were still at least 3482 more of them that I could see, far too many of them to vanquish quickly even as they continuedbining. We focused on cleaning one area of the me fragments at a time. Hidden among the number scattered everywhere, one underneath Thucydides did something unexpected. It transformed into a pressurized jet of fire as it sent itself streaking upwards. Thence of fire speared through the base of an unsuspecting Thucydides''s left wing. The dragon''s breath cut out as he let out a roar of pain that turned into a squeal. He fell from the sky and crashed into the ground, sending a shockwave of dust and debris rippling across the hillside. I increased my efforts, trying to spray down all the fire surrounding Thucydides. Repositioning, I hovered above him, shooting down anything that got near and consuming anything that was left. This frantic defense of my vulnerable friend went on for several minutes as the Lieutenant tried to Approach the downed dragon. Thucydides struggled to get to his feet, but the damaged wing was making it nearly impossible. Fear was clear in his eyes as hey vulnerable on the ground, ws scrabbling at the bare stone. Suddenly, the assault stopped. My sensors indicated there were no more little fire demons left. Checking my dustbin, I found that I had nowhere near enough to ount for all of it. Less than 20% of the demon''s mass was inside me. The rest was simply gone. I didn''t for one second believe the enemy was destroyed, especially based off of Daedalus''s exnations of their impressive regenerative abilities. Rather, I found it was far more likely that it had fled while we were distracted. It must have sacrificed arge portion of its mass to keep me upied while it got away. But I couldn''t pursue after the injured Lieutenant to finish it alone. Not with mypanion hurt. Descending toward the dragon''s prone form, I examined the injury with my extremely limited medical knowledge. "How does it look?" He croaked out at me. "Not great." I shed. "How does it feel?" "I''ve had worse." He said with a tough face that looked a lot like he was trying to imitate his older brother. --- When Bee eventually made it out to the castle walls, she found that she simply wasn''t needed. There had been a few assaults since she had been rendered unconscious, but Arthur and the rest of the soldiers had taken care of them without her assistance. Relief washed over her at the discovery that everyone was safe. But at the same time, it was a little disappointing to know she wasn''t needed. She quickly squashed that immature feeling. Just because she wasn''t needed yet didn''t mean she wouldn''t be soon. And besides, it was better this way. At least it meant they weren''t in real danger. After a brief conversation with Arthur about tactics, apparently, the best ce for her was alongside Maranda. That was how Bee found herself back inside the castle and climbing up into theboratory. The hallways leading towards theboratory were a crowded mass of people carrying stones in stretchers and buckets through the tight stairways. The ramps that Tony had installed to please Void would have been extremely useful, but no one trusted them to hold up with such heavy loads. Plus, they were a little too steep for something like a wheelbarrow full of bricks. It''d be easy to lose control of that. A cart of bricks speeding down one of those ramps would be extremely dangerous for anyone below. At the same time, Bee spotted enchanted missiles slowly being brought down as well. They were not enchanted in the same way Bee could. Still, Miranda had apparently found her own solution to creating exploding rocks while Bee was out fighting. A crew of nervous men carefully maneuvered the rocks about. A simple cork stopper jutted out from the top of each, marking it as dangerous. Instead of enchanting the stones themselves, Maranda had taken to hollowing them out and stuffing explosive liquids inside. The result acted like one of her fireworks, just on a muchrger scale. It made Bee even more nervous than her own method. This extremely crude method wouldn''t work for long-term storage. Bee would have to make sure that every single one of these was tracked down after the battle to make sure that they didn''t have explosive ordnance sitting around the castle. The thought of someone mistaking them for regr rocks made her shudder. However, they would work rather well for projectiles. She just hoped that none of them actually exploded before they left the catapults. As Bee set up her workstation, she asked what Maranda was up to. The fledgling mad scientist flipped open her notebook and turned it for Bee to see. "I''ve had an idea for mass producing some of the boosting potions." She said with a smile. Bee looked over the designs. "Hmm, do we even have enough powdered caterpirs for that?" "No," Maranda said dejectedly. "I asked Arthur if they could find some for me and he told me that ''as happy as I would be with such equipment to provide my troops, it is simply more effective to make more explosives.'' So boring." Bee couldn''t help but agree as she started carving away at the stone blocks as she pulled them off a pallet. She started with a basic, simple enchantment for light or something along those lines to practice her actual enchanting abilities. Then, she would add a few lines to make it unstable before cing it on a separate pallet and grabbing the next brick. Hours went by with them barely noticing. Both pallets of bricks were reced periodically as they emptied or filled and moved toward the field. No messengers came, so she assumed she wasn''t needed somewhere else urgently. That meant she was simply able to lose herself in her work. Around dinner time, food was brought up to both of them. Miranda had finally gotten it through her head that safety protocols were to be followed in the wake of their dangerous work, so they reluctantly left their work behind to wash down in a separate room. Neither of them wanted to risk eating explosives on ident or contaminating theb. It was a quick affair of roastmb in freshly baked bread, but Bee hadn''t realized how hungry she was. As they finished up and headed back to work, someone dashed up the steps to the second floor and called out. "Miss Bee!" Bee nced around in surprise. It wasn''t a messenger from any of the military operations but rather one of the mothers who had taken it upon themselves to maintain the castle''s cleanliness while their children were running about. "Miss Bee, high priestess. Come quickly, there''s someone you need to see." Chapter 238: Good Morning To You Too Chapter 238: Good Morning To You Too The ramp curved ever upward. Archibald had just passed the second massive chamber above him, and after hours of walking, he was starting to get bored. In the beginning, he hadn''t exactly been in a hurry. But this was just starting to get ridiculous. Who even made a ramp this long? If he ever met the architect of this nonsensical structure, he''d give them a piece of his mind. Archibald had plenty of water tost him several hours, which was fine, but honestly, his body was getting tired. His full strength hadn''t returned to him quite yet, so the natural stamina of his levels wasn''t all there. This kept his pace to a sedate stroll, much to his frustration. At least he had a lot of interesting things to look at along the way. The mausoleum and catbs and art frescoes along the wall were particrly nice and well done. They were also surprisingly well maintained like someone had dusted them regrly. But it was a bit repetitive. On thisst portion of the ascent, things finally changed. Instead of a long sloping ramp, some stairs of what looked to be a different construction than the tomb led upwards into the darkness. He trudged up the steps with an extra pep in his stride. It seemed that he might finally be getting out of here. Maybe he''d be able to meet whoever left him the food and note. He looked forward to that. At the top of the stairs stood an old wooden door with an iron handle. The touch of the cold metal sent shivers up his arm as he dragged the door open. He felt his heart rate increase as an escape from the oppressive darkness of the confined tunnels was finally at hand. The flickering light of the torches was one thing, but he wanted to see the sky. As soon as he stepped out into the bright, sunlit hall, he couldn''t help but stare. The building was incredibly impressive. He had seen nothing like it in the human settlements, as neither the demons nor their ilk were amazing builders. But this put even some of the ancient dwarven halls to shame. The stained ss windows, high arches, and beautiful columns with shiny marble floors projected an aura of majesty and order that befitted a ruler. Heck, it looked like something that his bondedpanion might even appreciate. For a moment, he merely stood in awe. Then he looked down at his own slightly drab appearance and long, unkempt hair. He wasn''t sure how he had ended up underground like that, but the only nice thing Archibald had on him was the sword on his hip. The enchanted breastte still hanging on his torso from the fight with the Lieutenant had been cracked, and the magic had long since drained from it. So he had left it behind as it was rather useless. It wouldn''t block a single hit that could actually hurt him. Under it were rough spun closets that felt only half preserved. They hadn''t fallen apartpletely, but they hadn''te out of stasis as well as he did. He could feel how brittle they had be. As if to reinforce the point, an overeager step up thest of the stairs was apanied by an ominous ripping sound. Archibald nearly swore, blushing and checking whether anyone had heard. He just hoped his hosts would lend him a new pair of pants. A shirt, too, if they could spare it. As he took in what looked to be a grand entryway of a castle, he felt distinctly out of ce. Only the tter of a bucket being dropped pulled him out of his trance. Turning, he saw a young woman clutching a mop tightly. A puddle of dirty water spread across her feet as she stared at him in open-mouthed shock. He attempted to speak, but his voice came out in a rusty croak. He coughed, flushing with embarrassment. On his walk up, he had talked to himself a little, but it had been in a half whisper and apparently hadn''t helped with restoring his damaged voice. The sound spurred the woman into action, and she let out a squeal as she turned and ran. Archibald sighed. He supposed that might have been a reasonable reaction to seeing someonee out of a crypt entrance and then croak at you. As she ran away, she yelled something over her shoulder. It took him a bit to decipher what she had said, as the extremely thick ent made it sound like she was gargling rocks as fast as she possibly could. However, he was able to parse thenguage with some effort. "Wait right there. I''ll fetch the high priestess!" A high priestess? Who was that? Shrugging, Archibald saw no reason not to do as the woman asked. Finding a small bench tucked in an out-of-the-way corner, Archibald sank down gratefully and waited for this high priestess to show up. Leaning his head back, he stretched out his legs and wiggled his toes in their old leather boots as he attempted to getfortable. Finally rxing a little bit, he let his senses explore the area as he studied the surroundings. At that point, he started to be aware of an all-too-familiar sound. Somewhere outside the castle, the sounds of metal shing on metal and screaming echoed. It was unmistakable. There was a battle going on. He could''ve said that much even if he were dead asleep. It might''ve also exined why the maid was so on edge. Aside from the obvious, of course. Archibald sighed and got back to his feet, stretching. The high priestess would have to wait or just find himter. As he moved, his muscles told him that he was far from in top shape, but even then, he was no weakling. Reaching for his side, Archibald patted where his sword hung ready on its loop. Even these thousands of yearster, it still held its edge. Unlike his armor and clothes, it had never failed him so far. With a steady breath, he walked out the propped-open doors into the bright sunshine. --- Bee raced down the stairs toward the catbs. Apparently, the champion from below had finally woken up. Bee was shocked that they hadn''t had more warning. When they reced the wee basket each week, they conducted a careful visual inspection of the hero. Thest one indicated some change, but nothing this sudden. While the man should have been a ways from waking up, even then, she had thought they would find him resting down below with the food rather than up here. She could only imagine how weak he would be with the vast majority of the magical energy drained from his system. But for him to havee up from below after being in stasis for so long. Even a demon like Nazareth''gak took time to recover, and he had that unreasonable regeneration on his side. She couldn''t imagine how a human would fare. He wasst seen in the entryway of the castle, but the one who''d spotted him was startled and had run off to go find her instead of keeping watch. Bee hoped the champion stayed put, as things were rather chaotic at the moment. When she made it down the grand hallway and down the steps to where the catb door stood ajar, she looked around and didn''t find anything. Great. This was going to be tricky. But even as she poked her head out the front door, she realized something was wrong. While she toiled in theb, the lull in the battle seemed to have long since ended. Bee cocked her head and listened. The noise of the fighting carried much farther than she remembered. Or... Bee dashed down the castle steps and out of the castle wall to the nascent city. She saw people streaming through the gate of the innermost wall. Struggling against the flood, she managed to push toward the wall. Her head swiveled about as she looked for someone to intercept and ask about the situation. "What''s going on?" She demanded as she grabbed a soldier''s arm, pulling him out of the stream of people running past. "The second wall is falling. Ma''am," he said. "We''re retreating and refortifying. Arthur''s orders." Bee let him go, and he dashed off to go about his duties. Bee gave up on looking for the champion for now. This took priority. Besides, hopefully, he wouldn''t cause too much trouble. Pushing her way against the stream of soldiers, she leaped over the wall to get a better view. The second wall was falling but hadn''t been fully abandoned yet. There was a fighting retreat in progress. Several people held the wall as the bulk of their forces ran. The gate still remained closed, and the enemy hadn''t gained the top of the wall, but it was damaged. A massive chunk a little way to the right had been blown out of the stone, at least a dozen feet wide. Rocksy scattered out in a cone behind the wall. How hadn''t she heard that from inside the castle? She had no idea, but it didn''t matter. What really caught her eye was the figure standing in the gaping hole. A single man stood in the breach, holding back the tide of halfway disguised demons and kingdom men as the reserves fled back to the inner wall. The people on top of the wall eventually slowly started to pull back, giving up the second barricade. This was not good. This was too early. They should have been able to hold this wall for days, not merely hours. Eager to stop the solitary soldier from being overrun. Bee ran forward to join the fray. Her broom was already up and swinging before she even arrived, a Scouring Strike flying out at max range. As she ran past people, she activated her repair abilities, fixing minor wounds in the instant it took her to leave them behind. Her pathing skill helped her dodge through the crowd with minimal collisions, and momentster, she was at the breach. The single man holding the breach held a sword. It shed in the sun, his movements unlike any of the soldiers she had ever seen. There was a practiced grace to his strikes that even Arthur didn''t have. The only one who showed simr talent was Bradley Chadwick, though that was from raw talent rather than practice. Who was this man? No one from the castle fought like that. He wasn''t even moving particrly fast. With each swing or thrust, he simply ended up right where he needed to be. Quickly, she ran a Scan on him to confirm her suspicions. Name: Archibald Smith, Level: 69, Race: Human, ss: Companion of Daedalus, Titles: Dragon Rider, Hero of Legend, Bravehearted, Warden of Nazareth''gak, Age: Unknown, Highest Stat: Strength, Lowest Stat: Wisdom, Status: Awake She immediately realized where she knew him from. He was Archibald, the champion from below, thepanion of Daedalus. And apparently, he had a whole host of other titles. Rather than inside the castle, here he was, holding the breach. Bee stood there for a second, unsure of what to do. Then, the reality of the situation got hold of her, and she charged forward to lend what aid she could. Chapter 239: A Voice Like Smooth Molasses Chapter 239: A Voice Like Smooth Msses As the waves of men and barely disguised demons crashed against the shattered wall, Bee dove forward into the breach. She dipped to the left, trying to give the dragon''spanion space to continue his one-man stand without getting in his way, but her approach still distracted him. He snapped his head over to nce at her, though his sword never stopped moving, quickly assessing the neer and deciding whether she was a threat. His evaluating gaze quickly turned to shock as he actually registered Bee''s appearance. The champion''s eyes darted between Bee''s broom and her face, confusion growing by the second. His mouth moved, but Bee couldn''t make out the words over the screaming of defeated enemies that covered the ground around him like macabre rugs. At least he didn''t attack her. Deciding that actions spoke louder than words, Bee just bared her teeth and lunged forward with her battle broom to skewer a demon. With a casual flick of her wrist, the demonic corpse flew to the side, smashing into a soldier sneaking up from the side. Though all humanoid, a scan of the iing enemies revealed a generous share of glowing red eyes, horns, jet-ck fur, and sharp talon-tipped fingers. She wasn''t sure how the enemy had convinced these men to fight alongside what were now clearly demons. Had the kingdom''s men always known about this? It didn''t quite make sense to her, as they had made so much effort to hide the presence of demons amongst their men before. But now that they were attacking, maybe stealth had gone out the window. Whatever was going on with the enemy army, one thing was certain: she still had no idea how to change their minds about this war. If there was a way to convince the humans to stop or change sides, then she''d have tried it in a heartbeat. But she didn''t have much hope of that. Judging from the aggression of the attackers, human soldiers included, she didn''t think they were being 100% rational at the moment. Any efforts to do something about the misguided souls fighting against them might be in vain. Bee quickly raised the bristled end of the broom and shed it in an arc in front of her face, deflecting two of the three arrowsing at her. A simple side step and twirl allowed her to slip out of the final one''s path while also bringing the ded end of her broomstick to bear. It speared forward, stabbing through the helmet of a soldier who was nking Archibald. The sight of the falling body made her squeamish. But she couldn''t think about it. Not right now. Her martial skills had certainly improved along with her levels, and she was doing a decent job holding back the tide with just her broom. But the hole in the wall was a wide one. Even with the champion acting as a wall of death on his side, she wasn''t confident in holding her own like this forever. Letting go of the broom with her off-hand, she thrust it forward palm first and let loose a Scouring Strike. Sandsted forward in a wide cone before her, and she averted her eyes as it stripped the flesh from the enemy''s bones. The sight reminded her of what Void had done to those bandits in the mountains so long ago. The idea that she could do the same now Well, there was no time to think about it right now. After a few seconds, the skill petered out. She felt her energy reserves dip in response, but just grasped her broom and kept swinging. With a thought, she extended her Holy Aura and her Repair skill over to Archibald as well. She could see the small wounds he had taken over time begin to close up as the energy of the aura washed over him, bolstering him. It didn''t quite work as well as it did on Void''s followers, but it still had a noticeable effect. Quickly, she fell into a rhythm of using skills and her broom to hold her section of the wall. The dragon''s champion hadn''t actually moved from the center of the gap, so she was holding more like a quarter of the gap while he was single-handedly holding the rest. From the corner of her eye, she watched him fight and was surprised she didn''t see a single magical skill manifest from him. It seemed to be pure de work, endless grace in motion. He still didn''t seem like he was moving faster than an average person. Still, every step he took, every small slide of the feet, left him in the perfect position to block the next invader and destroy them with simple thrusts and shes. Nothing seemed even close to touching him unless he was mobbed by huge amounts of force. When a particrlyrge push came, Bee would try to pull a few off of him onto her section of the gap. She knew he was level 69, but still. With how long he had been asleep in stasis, a performance like this blew past her expectations. Perhaps that exined why he wasn''t using magical skills and his apparent slowness. But whatever it was, she was just grateful for the help. It was doubtful whether she could hold this herself. As more and more forces challenged them, she Scanned the enemies and found that they were, on average, a fairly high level for soldiers. Perhaps these were the elite troops or just the ones that were willing to fight alongside demons, but all were above level 20, and several of them were in their mid-30s. The demons, though, were all at least level 35. Still, her 15 to 20-level advantage over them was monumental, and nothing truly challenged her except for sheer numbers. But the flood of forces took its toll after 15 minutes of constant fighting. She could feel fatigue entering her arms, and her broom seemed to triple in weight. When she heard her name being yelled, she spared a quick nce behind. There was no need for them to hold the wall anymore. Everyone had retreated behind them, and all the defending forces were doing was shooting anyone who came up to the top of the wall to keep them from being nked. She supposed it was a rather good strategy, just allowing the enemy to slowly throw themselves in the meat grinder one at a time for her and Archibald to finish off. Still, it probably was not going tost. Besides, there were better things to do with their stamina. So she signaled the retreat. Turning over to herpanion in arms, she yelled at the top of her lungs to be heard over the battlefield noise. "Hey! We can fall back, Archibald!" For the first time since she had jumped up next to him, he turned fully to look at her, one hand holding his sword and his off-hand fending off two warriors at the same time. His hard eyes searched her expression for a moment as he casually dispatched another enemy. He drew in a breath and opened his mouth to speak. "WHAT? I can''t hear you!" For her part, Bee had no trouble hearing him. Still, his manner of speech left something to be desired. He spoke extremely slowly and clearly as if he was talking to some old man who was very, very deaf and didn''t understand thenguage. Maybe this was just the best way tomunicate over the battlefield, she thought, but something didn''t sit right with her. Instead of repeating herself, she pointed back to the wall and shouted, "Go!" Archibald looked around and nodded. Together, the two of them dashed off. The line of archers just outside the gate for the first wall stopped the enemies from cresting it as they fell back. Bee shuddered to think of how many arrows in skulls it had taken to buy them time to hold the gap. But at least they made the enemy pay for taking this wall. Thest wall they had would have to hold longer. When she finally made it inside, she immediately leaned against the cool wall, panting and wiping her sweaty hair out of her face. "That was a harrowing experience." She muttered to no one in particr. After catching her breath, she looked up to see Archibald standing in front of her. The man leaned against the wall casually, his sword back in its scabbard while one hand rested on its hilt. A frown graced his rugged face, tugging at the small amount of stubble growing on his cheeks. "What?" He spoke again. Just as before, he enunciated each syble and drew it out for an almostedic length of time. Did he not understand thenguage that well? Or was he hard of hearing? Bee thought for a second before just shaking her head. "Not important," she said, slowing her words down slightly. Hopefully, that would help him understand. He looked confused but nodded nheless. "Are you the High Priestess?" He emphasized each word, putting what felt like a whole breath in between each as he drawled carefully. "Yes, I am. You are Archibald, thepanion. I''m sorry we weren''t there to wee you when we woke up, but we are understandably quite busy," She said between panting breaths. "Huh?" Was Archibald''s only response. Bee sighed and repeated herself, this time slowing down the words even further. After she was done. Archibald nodded. "Yes. That''s me. I appreciate the note. I assume that it was you who left it. Also, I don''t understand why you are all speaking so fast and choppily." Bee waited impatiently for him to take his sweet time finishing. "I''m speaking normally. I don''t know what you''re talking about," she defended herself, slightly self-conscious now. She did think that she spoke a little more formally than most, but she never entirely got rid of the slightly middle-ss ent she had picked up. "Why are you speaking the high tongue so rushed-like? If you want to speak casually, why don''t you just speakmon?" Archibald asked in his weird vocal style. "High tongue?" "Yeah. For formal asions? It was a bit of an odd choice to use for battlefieldmands, but I guess I could see it." Bee rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I think some things have changed since you werest awake, Mr. Smith. This is themon tongue, and as far as I know, there isn''t any high tongue." Archibald sighed, shoulders slumped in defeat. "I guess I better do some studying, then" The deration was followed by a string of totally iprehensible words that she assumed were in hismon tongue. "Also, don''t call me Mr. Smith, thats my father." "I am sure you''ll get used to it. Now. Do you want to hear about what happened with your master?" "Master?" The dragon''spanion asked inplete bewilderment. "Yeah. My master recently talked to yours and thought you would like to hear thetest updates." Bee rified. "What master?" For once, the question came out rushed enough that it almost sounded normal. Chapter 240: Floatin’ Around At The Speed of Sound Chapter 240: Floatin Around At The Speed of Sound I felt my thrusters whine inint as I pushed forward with all my might for the second day in a row. Thucydides bounced awkwardly on my much too-small chassis as I carried him. I tried to use Air Maniption to help him stay on, but his awkward shape and size meant there was only so much I could do It would''ve taken Thucydides to walk back in his current state, weeks we didn''t have. Worse, his wing wouldn''t heal anytime soon. I had figured, based on Daedalus''s healing speed, that he would be able to fly in a few days, but apparently, his much lower level meant that it would take him weeks or months to heal the wound. So I was stuck here carrying him. There was no chance I was going to risk taking him into my dustbin and having something unforeseen happen to him. Therefore, I could only carry him. It slowed me down significantly, but we were making good progress. We''d be back in just a few hours. I originally nned on just taking him back to his cave, but Thucydides asked to be dropped back with the snowmen. Apparently, he liked to have someone to talk to while he was healing. I wasn''t sure how good of conversation partners the snowmen would be, but he seemed rxed about it, so I did my best to amodate. The massive white dragon shifted slightly and sent me tilting a few degrees. The disturbance started to exaggerate as I wobbled in the air, trying to maintain my flight path. "Sorry." Thucydides groaned from above. "You''re kind of digging in right underneath my rib cage and pressing on my dder. Can we take a break?" I whistled in frustration. There was really no great way to carry him. The sheer mass of the dragon meant that any point where I pressed up into him was going to be extremely ufortable. And if I got too far away from his center of mass, he just would fall off of me. Even at full output, I had no chance of catching him with Air Maniption. So we had to take regr breaks every 20 to 30 minutes for the dragon to lumber around and stretch. And also lick at the bruises I was leaving in his stomach and chest area. As wended, I gently sat him down and wormed my way out from underneath him as he pushed himself to his feet. "I''m really sorry about this," Thucydides said. "I can''t believe I didn''t see that attacking." I made a calming gesture with my Grabby Arm. This was the 23rd time he''d apologized for getting injured, and I kept trying to tell him it was okay. But some of my frustration about the wasted time was probably leaking through. It was important to take care of my friends and make sure that I left affairs here in order. But my time away from the castle was starting to worry me. At least Daedalus, having gone back, would be able to help if there were any issues. But I was also excited to go meet the dragon''spanion, and I knew that sometime in spring, the human army was going to attack. So much to do and so little time. And this trip has already taken twice as long as I originally had nned. The itch to get back constantly worried at my brushes. Once I dropped Thucydides off, the journey home would be a quick one. It was not much more than 26.21 hours or so if I pushed it at full speed and optimal pathing. It was unfortunate that I hadn''t been able to destroy the Lieutenant in our fight, though. We''d promised the mountain spirit to do our best, but it seemed it would have to wait a bit longer. Plus, I would really have appreciated the extra energy. The bits I had collected of the Lieutenant managed to level me up once already. By converting the whole thing to energy, I was sure I would have reached the next skill. Perhaps I would even move a bit faster with the extra power. But it wasn''t to be. I''d have to find that enemyter after I had made sure the castle was safe and everything else was taken care of. My to-do list was getting quite long as it was. A few momentster, Thucydides and I were once again up in the air and doggedly heading towards the snowmen''s vige. When we finally arrived, the snowmen streamed out of the town to wee us. Very oddly formal bows greeted us as we touched down, and Thucydides lumbered over. They first bowed to the dragon, and then they bowed to me. But when they bowed to me, they dropped to one knee and pressed their fists over their hearts in some sort of salute. I wasn''t exactly sure what this was, but it felt kind of simr to how some of the more formal people at the castle treated me. I merely waved at them cheerily and checked to make sure their homes were still clean. Surprisingly, they did a good job maintaining the order I had left them in. The streets were swept, and the houses were scrubbed freshly since I had seen themst. The only thing was that theirtrine pits needed to be re-dug. It only took me a couple of minutes to bore new ones with my various skills and transport the removed material on top of the dirty ones. I really need to introduce plumbing to this world soon. Still, I was proud of the snowmen. They honestly took to this cleaning stuff even better than some of the humans I had met. I even noticed that some of them had cleaned their fur until it looked pristine, rather than the dirty cream I was used to. I gave them a beep of approval, which elicited an even deeper bow. With a quick goodbye to Thucydides, I promised to tell Daedalus that he was all right and what had happened with the demon Lieutenant. Then I was off. I sted past a couple of mountains separating me from the ocean before I really turned on the speed. I felt the pressure wave in front of me build up through the air as I zipped. I could sense the rippling explosions as the airpressed before me. I continued to elerate, sting through the invisible barrier. I was truly going fast. I took my Air Maniption skill and started to split the air in front of me to prevent the drag from bing overwhelming as I zipped back toward home as fast as I could manage. When I crossed the 1000 mph barrier, I started to coast as the efficiency of my thrusters started to decline. I experimented with a few different ways to cause a windbreak. Still, it only yielded minuscule improvements as I flew. I kept tinkering with it, slowly adding on speed. It was a nice way to pass the time as I headed home. --- Bee leaned against the crention on top of thest defensive wall behind her. The two nesting circles of the castle wall and the city wall stood rtively unmolested, though the bits of industry that had cropped up in the area had long been dismantled and retreated temporarily. If this wall fell, the forces in the settlement would be split off from each other almost entirely. Small squads could be passed where they intersected, but it wouldn''t be one united force anymore. So they had put much more effort into holding this wall than the previous ones. They had a cycle of powerful people on watch, her being one of them. Though her shift was almost over as dawn broke on the horizon. But she still had 15 minutes or so to go. The enemy had favored dawn attacks recently, so she didn''t let her guard down as Archibald popped up on the wall shortly after light broke on the horizon. They intentionally built this little ovep into the guard to make sure that the weaknesses in their schedule wouldn''t be exploited, and they had enough manpower that no one was left too exhausted. Yet they had held this position for a couple of days and done rtively well. This wall was the most sturdy and tallest of them all. Even the explosion that the enemy had used before failed before its impressive construction. She and Arthur had done what was necessary, and Susan and Captain Major had done their job as saboteurs scouts admirably. The Nighty Knights had also been essential in their contributions, even if they weren''t exactly happy about it. Still, the instant messages they provided had saved them many, many times. But of all people, Tony had actually gone above and beyond. From starting at level 32, he had managed to wedge himself into enough desperate fights and hold his own that he had passed level 40, ording to Scan. He might even hit level 45 if things stayed like this for another day or two. "Shift''s almost over?" Archibald confirmed as he started up the stairs to the top of the wall. "Yeah. It''s been quiet, luckily." Bee called down to him. "A, that''s no fun. How''s Tony supposed to get stronger if things stay boring?" Bee had to credit Archibald for a lot of Tony''s growth, though the men had be fast friends, and Tony had spent a lot of time learning from the soldier. Archibald''s weapon was a sword, but he knew enough about wielding clubs that Tony had been able to pick some stuff up. And just in mimicking the attitude of humanity''s ancient champion, Tony had grown a lot. Bee looked around as Archibald came to stand beside her. "Tony still not up?" Archibald''s massive shoulder raised up slightly as he spoke in his odd, slow ent. Listening to him talk was a bit infuriating as it took him three times longer to say anything. "Yeah. He''s resting. We had a hard bout of sparring after I came off watchst time. He did well, but maybe pushed himself a little too hard." Bee just rolled their eyes. Archibald was a true battle maniac. He never did anything halfway. And when it came to fighting, his biggest problem was leaving the wall too often to go chase down feints a couple of times. It was why Tony often ended up in such desperate straits. Archibald looked out over the enemy''s camp as he drummed his fingers on the parapet next to her. "It''s too bad Daedalus hasn''t shown up. That absolute monster would have decimated everyone already." Bee shook her head at hearing him call hispanion a monster. ording to Archibald, he was the rational one who kept his friend in check, but after seeing him in action? Bee doubted it. The posh dragon that Void had told her about didn''t seem to be the kind to lose control, and after seeing Archibald fight, it was hard to believe that he wasn''t the real battle junkie. "Sure, sure," she said, a smile creeping into her voice. "But then you wouldn''t be able to go charge out yourself to fight theirmander, would you?" Archibald at least had the grace to look embarrassed. "Hey, Tony said he was going to hold the wall. And he did." Bee just signed. It wasn''t worth mentioning to Archibald that to hold the wall, Tony had to spend a ton of expensive alchemical resources that his little sister had made and a lot of Bee''s personal stash as well. It set them back days in effort, and Archibald hadn''t actually managed to find the enemymander. If he had, it probably would have been worth it. But as it was, it wasn''t exactly a useful tactic. The goal was to stall the enemy for as long as possible and hope that Void returned. It became more and more clear that if they rushed the battle, they might very well lose. But Archibald didn''t seem willing to wait. "No," Archibald said, drawing out the word even more than he normally would. "No, I don''t think today is the time to go out for some fun. I got a bad feeling about today, and we''re going to need all hands on deck." Chapter 241: Just Another Brick in the Wall Chapter 241: Just Another Brick in the Wall Unfortunately, Archibald was right. Bee reyed the champion''s words in her head as she dashed along the top of the wall. The assault had started just a little before sunrise, and it hadn''t let up since. She never did get the break she wanted, meaning she had been up here for far too long. But that didn''t slow her down as she moved along her section of the wall, furiously dashing from onedder to the next. She barely even stopped to finish anyone off or intentionally hit demons at this point. She would simply rush to the enemy''sdders and release a Souring Strike or throw some of her alchemy equipment to dislodge it from the crentions. It was only due to her Improved Pathing skill that she could hit everydder as efficiently as possible. Without that, the numbers would have overwhelmed her. Even then, it was a struggle to ensure she could hit all the deadlines with such precise timing. The skill was very good at scheduling when she needed to be where. The only issue was pushing her body hard enough to actually keep up. She destroyed anotherdder with her Scouring Strike, sending the climbing figures tumbling backward. One managed to leap onto the wall at thest moment. She didn''t even give him a second nce as she smashed her bristled end of the broom into his chest and flung him back off. As she ran towards the next breach, something changed. Suddenly, the breach marked by Improved Pathing winked out. She skidded to a stop, taking a breath and trying to figure out what was going on. Looking out over the enemy army, she saw that every single one of their troops had paused in ce. Their heads had swiveled to the back in response to some sort of signal. She had no idea what everyone was looking at, but one thing was certain. The humans wore looks of fear and uncertainty, while the demons bore wide grins. Squinting, she could make out movement in the back of the army. It was milling about in a rather chaotic way, but she couldn''t tell what exactly caused it. She tried running Scan to see if she could pick out anything in particr, but the distance was too great. The only thing she picked up were Scans of random soldiers along the way. Then, just as suddenly as it had stopped, the assault restarted. Bee began her frantic defense of the wall once again. To her dismay, two separatedders appeared at the exact same time, as far apart as they could be along her section of the wall. A quick nce around for help came up with nothing. Gritting her teeth, she darted toward one of thedders, leaving the other behind. There were plenty of other defenders about, but they had their own problems. Archibald guarded the other side of the wall like she was doing, except for an evenrger breach. As he had managed to regain his energy throughout the fighting, he became more and more of a terrifyingbatant. Yet he apparently still wasn''t nearly at peak. Between his recovery from stasis and the guy''s absolute love of battle, he seemed to only be stronger rather than worn down like everyone else. Susan, Arthur, and Lieutenant Major also held smaller sections of the wall almost single-handedly. Their own army filled and rotated through the remaining sections thatprised the majority of the area. But despite how crowded it seemed, no one was nearby to help her. Bee skidded to a halt when she was almost within reach of onedder as she had an idea, turning to fling several of her alchemical concoctions towards the other. Hopefully, she''d get lucky and knock it off or at least dy the assault. In the mix, she hurled a sleeping potion, hoping to knock some people out with the potent gas. Then she turned back to her main focus: thedder that nged against the wall, its hooks digging into the stone at the top. She chopped off the top rungs of thedder with her broom and pushed, using her admittedlycking weight to try to heave the thing away. It was a ton of effort, but with her broom as a lever, she managed to push it up and then off to the side, and thedder came crashing down. She would have preferred to destroy thedder with her Scouring Strikes so it couldn''t be reused, but she was just running low on energy; better to save them for the most dire moments. Not even waiting for thedder to crash below, she dashed over to the next one. Surprisingly, soldiers and demons hadn''t swarmed the wall like she''d expected. As she looked down, she saw several unconscious forms at the bottom, along with several demons halfway up thedder. She stood on top of where thedder met her position, panting and trying to catch her breath as the demons came closer. She wasn''t in any huge rush yet. Ping. Her skill indicated that there was anotherddering up. She kicked out on this one after cutting it free, pushing it to the side, and sprinting along the top of the crions to the next spot as demons screeched in anger below. Just a few yards over, she caught the nextdder as it wasing up with one foot and pushed, sending it careening off to the side. But at the same time, a rope flung up from below wrapped around her ankle, a hook digging into her boot. Inwardly, she cursed herself. Thatdder had been too easy to knock over, and she''d put herself in too vulnerable a position. She attempted to jump back over the wall, where she could maybe get into a position where she could cut the rope off of her foot. Still, an inhuman weight tugged at her and yanked that foot out from underneath her. Bee managed to catch the wall as she fell, but even if she managed to get free, she could see the otherdders going up all along her section. They''d take advantage of this if she didn''t fix it fast. Letting her broom slide down her hand, she gripped it by the bristles and swung wildly beneath her with the ded tip. It took a couple tries, but eventually, she caught the rope with the de. It parted like warm butter before the divine broom. With one arm, she pulled herself up and rolled over the wall only to spot three breaches. She bit the inside of her lip in frustration as she darted to the first and unleashed her most powerful attack, blowing it into the abyss before heading towards the next. It would take her a lot of energy to make up and regain control of the wall, but there wasn''t anything else she could do. It took her nearly 15 minutes to fully beat back every assault. Every time she managed to knock one down, it felt like another two popped back up. But with the time it took soldiers and demons to climb thedders, she could just get ahead of the swarm enough that she wasn''t overrun. Despite her sess, Bee felt exhausted. She had probably taken on more than she could chew, but there was no helping it. Someone had to do it. Looking over, she saw that Susan and Arthur were doing okay, holding their sections of the wall, but the soldiers were heavily pressed. At least they were still holding for now. No small thanks to Archibald for lending them a hand asionally. She frowned. She could have taken less of the wall, perhaps just a yard or two, and maybe she''d be better off. But at the same time, they just didn''t have the manpower to spare for even a small expansion like that. Not for as long as they''d been holding. As it was, if this assault kept up for much longer, they wouldn''t be able to hold at all. Hopefully, the enemy army would break before they did. The disturbance at the back of the army moved again, and this time, it appeared closer to the wall. She grimaced, and this time, she could tell what was different. Bee could feel the pressure of power forcing her aura back, trying to constrain it as she let it billow out across the castle wall. She had never felt anything like it before, but the aura pressure was undeniable. A pit of dread opened in her stomach. She couldn''t be sure, but she had a bad feeling about this. A really bad feeling. --- Daedalus beat his wings, pushing himself as fast as he could. He flew over the water like a meteor streaking overhead. He could feel the wind between his horns, and he smiled. Hispanion was awake. After so long, his friend was finally back. It was frustrating that it would take him days to return. If he had known how close hispanion was to awakening, he likely would never have gone such a long trip, no matter the cause. Though he couldn''t say, hepletely regretted it, knowing that a Lieutenant had been freed. But it was still disappointing. He had done a little bit of fishing as he had flown over the ocean, picking up a few smaller whales that were breaching too close to his flight path. He didn''t really need to eat. There was enough mana in the air to sustain him, at least. But the hunt was fun. It certainly made that massive stretch of nothingness less boring to cross. But eventually, he finally caught sight ofnd. The broad white expanse of the massive tundra that led to his mountain home. Daedalus was debating whether or not he should make a stop in his cave to pick out any of Archibald''s favorite things. Or should he just make a beeline right towards them? He still debated the question when he finally got close enough to the castle to see that something was wrong. It was a faint buzzing noise that first caught his attention. The strange sound made him arc up and over his mountain to take a look rather than dive right into the cave for a quick pit stop. But then he saw the long line of soldiers snaking through the valley and crashing into the walls of the castle. Something came over him. Something Daedalus hadn''t felt in a long time. There were tens of thousands of attackers, and they went on for what looked like days of walking through the forest. Were they here for his Archibald? Of course. Why else would they be here? Petty humans trying to take revenge on the dragons. He knew they''d be bitter over them keeping so much of the gold. But it was simply a fair reward. After all, the dragons had sacrificed so much to fight the demons for them! Especially Daedalus himself! He faced the demons, giving the humans their freedom, and this was how the humans repaid him? By teaming up with the demons to not just steal his hoard, oh no. That would have been inexcusable enough. Trying to hit him in the only ce he was weak. It was the only ce where this dragon was truly vulnerable. His friends. His softer, squishier, and significantly weaker and maybe a little inferior friends. That would not happen. Not on his watch. Daedalus felt something deep build deep in his chest, far below where the fires were stoked, and his vision went white. Only dark reliefs of his enemies appeared within his mind, and his instincts took over. His wings tucked to his sides, and he felt the wind rush by ever faster as it flowed across his scales. The ancient red dragon dove down. Down to face his enemies. Chapter 242: A Very Proper And Well Mannered Dragon Chapter 242: A Very Proper And Well Mannered Dragon Bee watched as the disturbance pushed its way through the ranks of men and demons. Even from this distance, she could feel its aura. A movement next to her caught her attention, and she realized that she had gotten distracted. While she had frozen, the rest of the fight was still continuing along. Just the few seconds she had spent staring off into the distance had allowed adder tond on the wall. She hurriedly expended some energy to clear it. The move was inefficient, but she was in a hurry. Then she turned and screamed "HEY!" at Archibald. The dragon''spanion was holding a section of the wall himself but still turned to look at her even as he cut down another attacker. She pointed towards the disturbance. His eyes flicked over. He squinted slightly and looked back at her, nodding his acknowledgment. That was enough for Bee. Something had to be done. But they were so busy holding the wall already. What could they do? "She turned and yelled down to the Nighty Knight below. "Aiden! Tell Felix I need reserves here, fast!" A few momentster, some of the reserves charged up the wall to take her spot. As they flooded up onto thending, she spent a little bit more time and energy knocking away foes to give them enough breathing space to set up. Two moredders went down with scouring strikes and a thrown potion. That settled, Bee jumped down inside the wall and ran along the base of it until she reached Archibald''s section. Scrambling up the stairs, she joined the man to talk. "Do you know what that is?" She asked as she whacked a demon away with her broom. Archibald held this area with no problem alone, but Bee still wanted to feel useful. "I''m gonna be honest with you. That feels a lot like a Lieutenant." Archibald admitted. "It was very good at hiding its aura though. I''m surprised you were able to spot it at such a distance." Bee grimaced. "How could you miss it? it''s likeC I can feel it everywhere. It''s just this constant pressure on my Holy Aura." "You have the Holy Aura skill?" Archibald asked, impressed. Even as he talked, he was still fighting as Bee stood behind him. She wanted to lend him some help, but honestly, it didn''t look like he needed or wanted it. Instead, she dly took the rest. "Yeah, got it a few levels ago," she said, not wanting to reveal exactly what level she had gotten it at. It was still a massive amount of trust for her to tell him exactly what skills she had in the first ce. "Well, that would exin it. Holy skills and demons don''t really mix. But yeah that means this is going to get a whole lot harder," Archibald grunted and flung histest opponent off the wall. The man went crashing into the soldiers below. "We don''t have much choise but to go fight it and drive it away." Bee said. "I don''t see how we can hold the wall while it attacks them. We have to try and handle it before it destroys our defenses. It''s pretty much our only hope." Archibald shrugged, but Bee could tell from the set of his shoulders that things were grim. "I don''t know how we''re going to beat it. Archimedes isn''t here to capture it, and I couldn''t defeat one on my own even when I was at full power. I think the best we can do is slow it down." Bee winced. She could only imagine how well that would work. Still, she repeated herself. "We have to try to drive it off. Otherwise" Bee paled when she realized Void wasn''t here to help them, either. Could they really face down a demon Lieutenant without their god to back them up? Was their faith strong enough? Would that even matter? Even in the heat of the battle, she bowed her head, closed her eyes for a second, and sent off a quick prayer to Void. She asked for its presence and its blessing in theing fight. Opening her eyes, she looked up, hoping to find that her god had teleported there somehow. A little ck disk ready and willing to save the castle and its followers. But there was no such luck. As I zoomed above the vast expanse of sapphire oceans, something strange happened. My Spray Bottle suddenly fired. It didn''t shoot much liquid. Barely a spray of water that the wind quickly whisked away, that was all. But still, it confused me. How had that happened? Was there a bug in my programming? Could any of my mutations fire off randomly like that without my input? I dedicated a processor to reviewing my firing mechanisms for different mutations and scanning for software bugs. However, I tried not to worry too much. It was just a small spray of liquid, after all. Nothing too bad. Funnily enough, the action reminded me of something the humans did asionally. Something they called a "sneeze." Contemting what it might mean, I continued my speedy return home. --- "Void should be back soon. Void always shows up in time." Bee said, the burning faith inside her making her feel warm again. With conviction, she continued. "I''ve called up soldiers to take over this wall for you. We are going to go out. Is there anyone else worth bringing?" Archibald looked around. "You said Tony fought with youst time? He might be able to help, maybe Arthur and Susan as well. But we also just might be sentencing anyone we bring with us to death." "Arthur and Susan are needed to hold the wall." Bee said, "I don''t think we can take everyone out and fight. Maybe we can bring Tony, and he can help keep some of the auxiliaries off of us and prevent the demon from getting reinforced. Even as things are though, we''ll be on a time limit. They''ll have trouble holding the wall for long without us." Archibald nodded. "That''s probably the best idea we have. It should keep him reasonably safe. Grab him, and I''ll join you as soon as my reinforcements arrive." Bee nodded and ran off to go get the farmhand-turned-warrior. She found Tony a little way down, holding his own small section of the wall, using his heavy club to great effect. Its momentum was perfect for sweeping soldiers off the wall and preventing them from getting a foothold. Each time he swung, she could see the air warping around him as some sort of skill activated. Even hits that should have only sent someone stumbling sent them careening off the wall in a tumble of limbs. She jumped up and quickly finished off all those around him before kicking down thedder that he was working toward. "Tony. Something as big ising. Archibald and I are going to go out to meet it, and we''re going to need you to keep the rest of the army off our back while we handle the big guy. Are you up for it?" Tony turned to face her, snarling with battle rage. Then, something in his eyes changed as he recognized her, and his expression mellowed. "Bee." He breathed in and out for a second. "Sorry, what''d you say?" Just as she prepared to answer Tony''s question, a shadow passed over the wall. Bee feared the worst as she looked up. However, rather than some demon or skill, she instead found herself staring at a massive figure flying through the air. Overhead, a massive red-scaled dragon swooped low over their position, less than twenty yards away from her. And then the world shook. mes didn''t so much as billow out of the beast''s maw. Rather, they were ejected with more force than all of the catapults they had madebined. When the fire struck the ground, Bee watched the shock wave ripple through the earth and felt the wall flex under her feet. The dragon soared forward, sting a huge line clear through the enemy army, heading directly toward where she felt the ominous presence approaching. And still, it continued on. The dragon flew low along the road, sting the enemy army with gouts of molten fire. The world seemed to pause as everyone on the battlefield simply stopped and stared Into the distance. Bee could barely make out the back of the through the trees. At least, what remained of the trees that hadn''t been instantly vaporized. As the mes reached it, they cut off suddenly, and the dragon banked up to circle around before starting another pass. This time, the fire came back towards them. At this point, the enemy came to their senses. The attack on the wall waspletely forgotten as their archers turned tounch waves of arrows up at the dragon as it flew back over them. However, most just missed and fell amongst their own troops, causing even more chaos and mayhem as soldiers dove to take cover. That didn''t help any in the path of the dragon. The second torrent of me turned everything in sight into a sea of fire that expanded forward. Frozen in awe, Bee suddenly understood where the term "mopping up one''s enemies" came from. It truly looked like the dragon was simply pushing a broom along the floor, gathering all the dust into one massive pile as it went. Its second pass came back just slightly offset from the previous line of smoldering rocks, carving a new trench through the kingdom''s army. This time, they could only run in one direction as a massive column of melted rock and burning dirt split the army in two. As they ran, the dragon''s fire chased them, consuming them whole and pushing the rest into a frantic scramble into the forest. The titanic red beast neared the wall, soaring closer and closer. The heat of its mes felt intense even from this distance. All around, Bee heard the shouts of soldiers retreating along the wall or scrambling for cover. Screams of terror echoed up from below where the castle''s inhabitants fled into the building, uncertain whether they''d be spared. Bee found herself fixed to the spot, unable to do anything but watch as the dragon kepting without even slowing. It cut off its breath right as the path of molten ground was about to touch the wall. It banked above them as she and Tony looked up in awe. Ruby scales glittered in the sunlight as it came around for another pass. Suddenly, there was a new disturbance a little ways down the wall. Archibald was running and shouting something at the top of his lungs. Bee had a little trouble making out what it was, but she had caught thest few words at least. "...big stupid lizard!" "Huh? What is he yelling about?" Bee swiveled her attention back as she noticed something in the center of the first glowing path. Rather than the destruction she''d expected, a singr figure stood on a small circle ofpletely untouched ground. She looked at it more closely. The thing wasn''t actually standing. From this angle, it almost looked human-sized as it uncurled and stood up to its full height. She realized that this was not some ordinary demon that managed to survive the onught. Archibald was right again. This was a Lieutenant. What else could have survived such an assault? Chapter 243: Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires Chapter 243: Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires As the soldiers fled into the forest and the surrounding valley, Daedalus reached the end of their forces. Instead ofing back towards the wall for another pass, he banked sideways,ying down a perpendicr tract of burning forest in the molten ground. It would prevent anyone from the army from escaping out of the valley. And then, satisfied, he continued to burn everything. It didn''t take long for Daedalus to stop his careful approach of precisely straight lines. Soon enough, he circled in spirals and figure-eights over the roiling mass of enemies. These little ants had dared offend him. It was time to get revenge. As they ran into the cover of the forest, he couldn''t help butugh. Were they trying to defend against dragon fire with wood? As if that was going to stop him. He was the Red. He was Daedalus, the destroyer of demons. Eventually, he noticed a few attempts to fight back. Arrows were nothing. He just shrugged the weak shafts off as he sted through their ranks. Without coordinated volleys to damage his wings, a single shot here and there was practically beneath his notice. The demons were a bit more inventive, though. They wouldunch themselves or each other up at Daedalus, but they were nothing more than something to sharpen his ws on as he tore them apart and continued to rain down fiery destruction from above. So when Daedalus felt a strong impact on the center of his stomach, he was thoroughly surprised. It actually knocked him off course a little bit and stalled his breath. Twirling in the air, he threw the attacker up even higher with a powerful kick of his hind legs while digging his talons in and raking them across its form body. The te gray figure flew up in the air. Daedalus beat his wings to shoot up after it and catch it in his mouth. He bit down hard, splitting flesh that tasted like stone. Then he whipped his head down and threw the thing into the ground, his serrated teeth cutting through easily. He watched as the legs flew helplessly off in one direction and the body in another. The impact sent a wave of ash and burning sparks even further into the forest. And the dry leaves of winter started to burn all the more. The fire jumped from tree top to tree top,pletely encasing the offending ants. Daedalus roared as he focused back on the fleeing nuisances in the forest and continued burning them all down. They would all learn to never anger a dragon. ---- As Bee watched the Lieutenant start to move, she heard trumpets signal a retreat of their forces. When she turned to the Nighty Knights member assigned to her location, she watched as the little girl closed her eyes. The Night Knight then shouted in her high-pitched child''s voice, rying the instructions from Felix. "We''re pulling back to the castle and the city. We hold the innermost walls until the situation has changed. Anyone over level 30 should stay on the wall to watch the retreat." Bee and Tony nodded to each other and split up, spreading out. There were a few other soldiers who had also made it over level 35, especially after the days of constant fighting. So the nearly 80 or so monsters of their army, along with several of the leaders, gathered along the wall to make sure that nothing snuck over as the weaker troops made it back to safety. Bee couldn''t help but agree with Arthur''s decision to pull back. There was no chance they would be affecting this fight in any meaningful way unless they wanted to go directly to the dragon and demons. But why would they do that when the dangers were taking care of each other? She could only hope that the dragon would eventually lose interest and fly away, preferably before setting its sights on the castle. When she looked around to find Archibald, she was surprised to realize he wasn''t there. At least she couldn''t see him on the wall with the rest of the stronger troops. When she started searching the horde of people below, She saw the strange man moving very quickly through the enemies. Running directly towards the dragon. What the hell was this guy thinking? Did he have a death wish? Archibald was obviously a battle maniac, but this was too much even for him. Why antagonize the dragon further and risk earning its ire? Suddenly, she realized something that made her slightly embarrassed. An epiphany, if putting two and two together, could be called that. Was this dragon Daedalus, Archibald''spanion and Void''s friend? It seemed like it had to be based on Archibald''s reactions, but the dragon was not acting at all like how her master had described him. These were not the actions of a sophisticated, gift-giving, friendly dragon. This was the wrath of- well, she was going to say god, but it didn''t match what her god would do at all. Judgment of old maybe would be a better term. Eventually, everyone was clear of the danger, allowing the leaders to leave the wall. Each made haste, traversing as quickly as possible to the city or the castle, depending on where they were assigned. Bee was amongst the fastest, so she reached the gate to the castle first and started ushering people through. Her watchful eye marked people''s faces as everyone made it in. She was fascinated by the varied responses that the dragon''s appearance caused. As Susan sprinted past her, she could hear her muttering under her breath, and she caught a lot of unfamiliar curses and creative turns of phrase that she''d have to remember for herselfter on. But she also might have to see what Void thought about that. Would thatnguage be considered unclean? She pondered that. Captain Major, once he got close enough to the castle wall, slowed to a march and made sure everyone around him was catching up and getting through it in an orderly manner. They couldn''t have a scuffle amongst their most powerful people right outside the gate. That would be disastrous. As he ushered people through, she could hear him yelling encouragement and orders. "Stay in line! The line is the shortest distance between two points, you numskulls. We need to stay in line. We''re going to make it inside!" As he organized people, he kept throwing out mathematical descriptions for what they would need to do in such a way that caused a number of confused expressions to emerge from the small crowd. Many of them knew what parallel was, but as for what the angles of their entry into the castle would do with their efficiency? At the very least, his constant talking seemed to keep everyone calm, at least calm enough to enter the castle in an orderly fashion. Some of the passing faces had gonepletely white, with their lips pressed together as the blood drained from their expressions. Others were on the verge of hyperventting and looking around with furtive nces. A few people that Bee took careful note of were eerily calm. They simply walked into the castle like nothing was happening and they were justing back from a nice shopping trip on their way home. The worst, though, were those who walked listlessly with slumped shoulders and a vacant look in their eyes. Bee did her best to exude her Repair skills and Holy Aura over everyone, trying to bolster their spirits and help them maintain morale. But she was concerned that it wasn''t enough. With everyone inside, she shut the gate behind. They could only hope that Archibald knew what he was doing out there by himself. Hastily, Bee climbed up on a watch tform erected behind the castle wall so she could track the action. It had enough height where they could see over all of the walls, though only the inner one was left standing. Bee watched in horror as the dragon continuedying waste to the forest after burning the end of their valley. This was going far beyond anything that she had ever thought could happen. There was no option for retreat and no mercy, just one singr powerful beingying waste to anything in its path. The site of the Lieutenant crashing into the dragon broke her from her stupor. --- Archibald shouted a string of expletives as heunched himself over the wall. It had been arge part of his job as Daedalus''spanion just to keep him in check. And now here he was, rampaging again without a care in the world. Some things never changed. Without Archibald on his back to keep him from destroying everything, Archibald was impressed that he managed to rein himself in from destroying the castle and its defenders. Still, he suspected that was more because Daedalus saw the castle as his property rather than out of respect for the people. "Daedalus, you dumb brute!" He shouted up, trying to get the dragon''s attention. Even if he was angry, Archibald was rtively certain he could survive long enough to calm his friend down. And once he did calm down, the red dragon would be so disappointed in himself. He knew that Daedalus had grown a lot softer over thest decade or so they had known each other. Archibald wasn''t exactly sure what the dragon had been up to in thest several thousand years. But if he''d at all continued on his trajectory, he likely would deeply regret burning the forest down for this. He took a lot of pride in his measured responses andck of wonton destruction as time went on. Suddenly, he saw the Lieutenant gathering power for a leap. Archibald increased his pace again. He was certain that Daedalus could tangle with a lieutenant. Assuming there was only one, of course. But without another option to contain the thing, the best they could hope for was for Daedalus to drive the thing away. The dragons had managed that several times, and Daedalus was one of the most powerful ones. So he wasn''t concerned for his friend''s safety. Rather, this would probably be his best opportunity to be able to get Daedalus attention and board the dragon. Once Archibald was in range, he sprinted forward a couple of steps and gathered himself low. With a mighty surge of his legs, he leaped high up after the Lieutenant. Unfortunately, as the dragon and demon collided, they spiraled off to the side. It meant Archibald missedpletely, soaring through the air anding down in the canopy of trees below. He caught a branch to help break his fall, but it snapped in his hands, sending him thundering into the ground. The champion winced as his knees absorbed the shock. Turning around, he located Daedalus as well as half of the Lieutenant falling towards him. Even as the Lieutenant fell, its two halves were already in the process of being pulled back together. By the time itnded, it was well into the process of healing. Archibald waited for Daedalus toe down and continue his fight with the Lieutenant. Yet, instead of pursuing the enemy, he went back to immting the attacking army. Daedalus didn''t realize this was a Lieutenant. Dumb lizard. Did he think his enemy was vanquished because he bit him in half? Archibald had a bad feeling that if his friend was really this far gone, it was going to take a lot more to get his attention. Archibald dashed away, ignoring the Lieutenant for now, and tried to hone in on where Daedalus was. Charging through the forest, he ducked beyond the trees. When he finally got to the road, he was left with just a burning patch of molten stone in front of him as Daedalus soared off into the distance. He looked to the left and right and finally found a tall enough tree for his purposes. Quickly bounding up its trunk, he stood atop it, hoping that he might be able to reach the dragon from this height. Slowly, he waited for the Daedalus toe back around. When he saw his opportunity, he leaped again. This time, he managed to catch hold of one of Daedalus''s tail spines and, with both hands, held on for dear life as he pped in the wind behind the dragon. Archibald desperately held on as he iled around, shouting. "Hey, Daedalus! Wake up!" Chapter 244: Fighting Dirty Chapter 244: Fighting Dirty I was livid. As I finally flew over the mountains that ringed the castle, I took a look at the grounds below. Of the three walls that had stood when I left, only one still remained. The rest had been reduced to rubble and ashes. Even thest wall hadn''t made it through unscathed. Its surface was marked with scratches, chips, dings, and scorch marks. Buildings and carefullyid paths had been reced with a wastnd and piles of smoldering wood. Even the surrounding forest hadn''t made it out unscathed, as I could see trees still burning in the distance. The only bright spot was that the city and castle seemed to have remained mostly unharmed. Only the asional impact crater marred the roads inside the innermost walls from what looked to berge rocks falling from the sky. What had happened? Concern pushed me to elerate even faster until the castle was better resolved in my sensors. In the sky, I spotted a massive red dragon flying about. A human held onto his tail, yelling at him. Even as I watched, another gout of me left the dragon''s mouth and hammered down into the forest. No, it couldn''t be. I had trusted Daedalus. He was my friend. A good guy. He even appreciated the cleanliness I brought to hisir, even if he hadn''t seen fit to organize himself. Never in my worst dreams would I have thought that he would destroy my so carefully tended to the valley like this. It was hard for me to believe, but he was the only massive fire-breathing lizard in the vicinity. A quick analysis of the scorch marks of the walls didn''t seem to match his patterns, so perhaps he hadn''t attacked the walls directly and simply limited himself to the attacking army. But still, this was uneptable. There were far more proper ways of dealing with an issue like this. Ways that didn''t involve wanton destruction, much less filling the sky with soot and smoke. He wasn''t even being organized about it! My mind went back to his tales of dragons losing their perspective and rampaging through battlefields in the days of old. I suppose I hadn''t taken it seriously enough then, but I didn''t like suspecting something so awful of my friend. But was he really capable of doing such a thing? Without hesitation, I veered towards him, decelerating my speed so I was no longer breaking the sound barrier. I raced up in front of him and began spritzing his face with water. He shook his head and roared with irritation as the water sprayed across his massive maw. He plummeted to the earth like a meteor as he chased after me, but I guided him to a ttened, slightly burned meadow. I pulled up at thest second and drifted to a gentle stop. He did not, mming down to the ground and sending the human attached to his tail flying off into the forest. I winced as the man crashed through a tree. I sensed that he was still alive, thankfully. But did he really have to break that tree? Eventually, when the dragon went down, he shook his head and blinked. I saw something in his eyes shift slightly. "Wha-- what?" His gaze focused on me after a moment. "Oh. Wee back Spot, I--" he said in apletely dazed tone. I cut him off with a sharp beep. With my Grabby Arm, I gestured around to the destruction. Daedalus''s head dipped in embarrassment. "Well, I might have gone a little bit overboard, butC" I bopped him in the nose with my w. A bit. A bit?! So this was his fault! Iid into the dragon with an angry tirade of beeping and emphatic gestures. I went on and on, venting my own frustration while also making sure the dragon knew exactly how badly he''d messed up. The dragons dipped lower and lower until his posture closely mirrored that of Cliff when Tanu had found her sneaking food off of the Nighty Knights'' tes during dinner. It seemed only right. Daedalus had definitely messed up. I had feltfortable leaving because I could trust the castle''s inhabitants to take care of themselves. In particr, I had faith that Beatrice could keep things under control. I''d have to talk to herter, as clearly something had happened to get something this bad. I ignored that for the moment and focused on Daedalus. He had to understand how horrible this was. All this work the humans had done was gone in an instant. And the mess left behind? Well. It would take me days to clean this up. Days! I continued scolding him for a while until I noticed Beatrice running out of the wall towards the dragon. I drew my rant to a close as she approached, but to my surprise, she didn''t run straight to me. Instead, she ran over to where the human that was holding onto Daedalus''s taily. After talking with him for a few moments, she helped the man to his feet. He was a bit shaky and had to lean on. Beatrice as they walked over. I actually recognized the man as they got closer. I projected up a message. "It''s nice to meet you, Archibald. I''ve heard good things." With a little smiley face at the end to make sure he knew I was friendly. Shortly after, I projected another note. "Thanks for trying to keep your lizardpanion in check. I didn''t think he would get this out of hand." Archibald threw back his head and roared withughter. "I''ve never heard someone give Daedalus such a dressing down - at least, I assume that''s what all those screeches were about!" It took Archibald several moments to catch his breath and stop chuckling. Eventually, Beatrice spoke up. "I think you should take it easy on the dragon, Master. Without his assistance, I''m not sure there would have been much of the castle left toe back to." "Oh?" I beeped inquisitively. Then, Beeunched into a terrifying tale about how a massive army had invaded the valley and attacked right as I had left. Well. I guess I did need to be grateful that the castle was still standing. --- When Bee saw Void appear in the sky in front of the dragon, she immediately started running. She wasn''t exactly sure what was going to happen, but something told her that Void was not going to be happy at all about the state of the valley. But as she got close to where her master and the dragon hadnded, she saw Archibald lying on the ground. One of his arms was resting on his face, covering his eyes, as he groaned. She ignored the two incredibly powerful beings talking over to the side and ran over to her friend, pushing her repair skills out over him. To her relief, he seemed to be rtively okay, just stunned. After a few moments of intense focus on her skills, she was able to help him to a sitting position. "So," he said and coughed and spit out some blood. "That''s your god, huh?" Bee smiled and nodded. "Yes. Its name is Void." "It seems a little bit touchy. Can you guys understand what he''s saying? It''s all just noise to me." "It takes a little bit of time to get used to it, but he''s very articte.." "Well, what''s it saying? I''ve never seen Daedalus act like this." "Oh, it''s mad about the mess." Archibald looked around. "Mess? It''s a battlefield. Of course, it''s going to be messy. Why, you should''ve seen it back in my day." Bee rolled her eyes and helped him to his feet. "Yeah, yeah. I know it''s a battlefield. I''m sure that Void was mostly just worried about us. But it doesn''t see things the same as us. We''ve fought undead hordes, and after my god was done with them, there was nothing but a pristine field left behind." He looked down at her and blinked. She wasn''t sure if he was concussed or just surprised, but she slung his arm over her shoulder and supported him as they walked over to the still-quarreling god and dragon. Bee felt that she probably should intercede on the dragon''s behalf, but that felt a bit intimidating, to be honest. After all, who was she toe between a literal god and an ancient red dragon? Even if the dragon did look thoroughly chastised at the moment. She had to admit it looked a bit silly. Still, she worked up the courage to step forward. She told Void the whole story. Starting with the Nighty Knights'' impromptu raid, she reported to her god all of the developments that had urred in its absence. She ended with Daedalus''s appearance and how he had arrived just in time to fend off a Lieutenant. Void listened patiently and eventually asked some rifying questions. When it got around to asking about the location of the Lieutenant. The dragon simply shrugged. "I wasn''t aware there was a Lieutenant here, honestly." To which Bee had to interrupt. "You bit the Lieutenant in half. How were you not aware of it?" "I uh, wasn''t exactly in my right mind back there." Daedalus lowered his head in embarrassment. "Those things regenerate like mad. I''m sure it''s not really damaged for good, though they do tend to run whenever they fight a dragon one one-on-one. I wouldn''t be surprised if it had already left back to where it came from." "That''s not good." Bee muttered, and Void indicated its agreement. Void emitted a few more of its strange noises, and Bee interpreted the beeps for Daedalus and Archibald. "It seems like Void has more bad news." Void began showing a moving picture, projecting the illusion above itself. It was of him and a lesser dragon fighting some sort of living me. Archibald looked confused as the beasts soared, but Daedalus was starting to grumble. She could feel the air and ground underneath her shake as he growled his displeasure. Eventually, when it showed the dragon being injured, he let out a roar that shook the clouds in the skies. Void cut him off by tapping him on his talon with his little arm. "Right, sorry." Daedalus paid more attention and watched as Void chased off the living me but came back to help the dragon back to a resting spot. "Thucydides was not ready for that fight." Daedalus growled. Bee was obviously missing some context, but the picture was clear enough. The dragon Void showed was powerful but nowhere near as powerful as the dragon sitting in front of her right now. "I think that we have bigger things to worry about than just that," Archibald said. "I''m not 100% sure what''s going on in the world right now, but from what I can tell, this isn''t an isted thing. If the Lieutenant escaped, I''m sure they''ll be going back to their base of power to regroup. And next time, they won''t underestimate us." The other three in the group looked towards him. "Yeah. I''m sure you are right." Bee said, thinking back to what Arthur said. "We''ve gotten reports of the King acting strangely. Could that be rted?" Void let out a string of noises, and Bee nodded. "Yeah, I think you''re right, Master. We''re going to need to go pay the capital a visit and clean some things up." Chapter 245: The Work of the Righteous, Epilogue Chapter 245: The Work of the Righteous, Epilogue The capital stood tall and imposing atop a high hill. All around, green fields rolled down from its walls to meet the ins below. The massive walls hewn from stone gave it quite an impressive silhouette on the horizon. Even more so when once considered how far that stone might have traveled toe here. But even past that, the ce was still growing. Pces on the inside climbed ever higher into the sky, visible well past the walls. But at the center, above them all, rested the most impressive keep where the king resided. From a distance, Zeal thought the capital looked quite nice. Zeal''s broom handle tapped along the road as he walked forward. From a distance, he thought the capital looked quite nice. It had been a long journey from Caleb, but his faith had carried him through. The organization there had taken well enough hold of the city that he feltfortable with leaving for a bit, even if he had to go alone with his most trusted subordinates staying behind. He had thought about bringing the crazy woman with him though. He had never gotten her name, but somehow, she knew about their god. Like him. Even before Caleb had spread the word beyond its walls. When Zeal had found her walking through the city they had simply thought she was some crazy rambler. Some unhinged woman who babbled nonsense. But upon further inspection, her ramblings weren''t as crazy as they first thought. She obviously had no power or responsibility in the organization. She simply walked about and spoke her prophecies. The people had taken to caring for her, making sure she had a roof to sleep under and food and water at all times. They hadn''t been able to get her to bathe or anything, which was borderline sacrilegious, but at least she was alive. The woman''s appearance had puzzled Zeal until everything he realized: she was god-touched. Patricia was sent by their lord to tell them the errors of their ways. There was no other exnation. Why their lord would have sent someone as filthy as this, Zeal couldn''t begin to imagine. But it had to be the case. It had to. Zeal had been distressed to realize his teachings had contained inuracies and slight errors. But with some simple corrections to his understanding, he managed to remedy the issue. All based on interpretations of her mad ravings. It had been a rtively simple adjustment to make, and if anything, the people agreed with the revised teachings more. The purifying fire and wrathful cleansing of angry gods seemed more in line with what they had witnessed than the gentle cleansing that had worked his way into his sermons. As he had meditated on the ideas, it only confirmed his resolve. Clearly, something had led him astray. Turned him toward softness and tolerance. But some stains could not be scrubbed out so easily. Ever since the crazy prophet hade, the streets had been twice as clean, and people worked much harder to make sure that there was not a single speck of dust could be found about the ce. And so Caleb sparkled. The city was being rebuilt in an orderly manner with a meticulously precise grid. It would have no slums where dirty street rats could hide, but that was intentional. In the new Caleb, the more perfect Caleb, there would be no need for such things. No one would fall behind. None would sink into filth. It was going rather well, but just the one city wasn''t enough for their god. They had to convert more. Patricia was staying behind, as he doubted that she would be epted in a citypletely unprepared for her. But he had taken it upon himself to take this pilgrimage, to spread the word and prepare the capital for Void''s teachings. He passed a single copper to the gate guard, who allowed him to bring his worn pack into the citys walls with his walking broom. He was sure that the guard didn''t believe that he was a peddler,ing to sell his wares and buy more to take to the surrounding cities, but the small amount of coin was enough to make him look the other way and let in what was probably just a refugee. His steps took him past the gate and into the city proper. The first street was not bad, but as soon as Zeal turned off to find a ce to stay", he couldn''t help but lift his lip in disgust. There was a pile of refuse, not a block away from the main road. Horse dung and straw and rotting food just piled up against a bricked window, stinking on the ground. It should never be allowed. It was uneptable. Shuddering, he stepped around the pile and looked for an inn. This simply redoubled his desire for a proper bath. As he passed the massive pile of dung, he saw someone huddled up against it. An old man with missing teeth holding a wooden cup. He shook it at Zeal as he walked past. Zeal couldn''t help but wrinkle his nose at the man''s state. How could one let themselves be so dirty? Much less allow themselves to exist next to such filth. The fact that the man didnt simply move away nearly made him twist his face in open disgust. He felt the desperate desire to scrub himself with soap and water until he was once again pristine enough to be seen speaking about his Lord. But looking at the man''s face, Zeal couldn''t help but stop. This man just didn''t know any better. He bent over and offered the man a hand instead of a copper. The man looked at him, confused. Once they met their eyes, though. Zeal activated his first real skill. Preach was nothing too impressive, but it certainly helped give his words a little extra weight. Come now, brother. I think you need to learn how to be clean. The man looked at Zeals robes. They were slightly marred by dust and travel, but the pure white still stood outpared to the surroundings. But still, he took his hand and let Zeal help him to his feet. They continued farther in, looking for a ce for them both to get clean now. Several people watched from the shops at the odd sight as Zeals walking broom cked along, but no one bothered him. No one bothered him yet, at least. He didn''t imagine that wouldst. But he was on a mission to exin to the people what needed to be done. Then he was sure that this city could turn itself around. It had the potential to even surpass Caleb, with the amount of resources it had and the ways it could be made. Imagining the city renewed, these dpidated buildings around him torn down and rebuilt in straight lines, with wide streets. Where everyone had a ce and the cobblestones would glisten from being polished. The filth would be moved out of the city and buried deep. Very deep. But the more he came across the tant disys of petty crime andwlessness, the more concerned he became that the filth was rooted too deep in the heart of the people. Perhaps many would be beyond saving. Purges were nasty things and blood running through the streets was not a pretty sight. It did a horrible job at cleaning, being hard to remove itself streets. But sometimes, as Patricia had mentioned, sometimes one needed to dirty their hands in the work to more thoroughly cleanse something. Eventually, they found an inn willing to take them in long enough for them to get clean. Zeal found himself unable to resist exining to the innkeeper how the inn''s floor could be better swept, and the paint could be fixed. The innkeeper had at first been enraged, but once he had calmed down, he realized that Zeal was correct. He even grabbed a broom from the corner to rectify the issue. The Zeal helped him as they swept the floor. There was not much they could do about some of the stains for now, but even before his bath, he was outside helping paint the inn. The sign was redone, and even the beggar man helped. Perhaps he understood better Zeals teachings than he had feared. A day or two passed before the inn was inplete order. The innkeeper and his family thanked Zeal for the push they needed to better themselves. We''re still busy. In fact, it is busier than ever had been. The inn had be a favorite haunt of many of the locals. At first, the neighbors had grumbled about the need to be clean-shaven and freshly washed. But when the inn started providing those services to others, people flocked to it right and left. Many of them came just to listen to Zeal talk in the corner. He never tried to draw attention to himself too much. He had discovered that was counterproductive. Most of the time. So he simply sat in the corner of the room where a bard or a minstrel would usually sit and exined how best to live their lives. About how keeping their lives spotless and free of clutter would make everything better. Zeal also, of course, spoke about the opposite side of the coin. How the great void god would destroy all that failed to adhere to its word, all that was left impure and wanting. He''d been a bit hesitant on that one. Caleb certainly hadn''t been immacte when the void came and saved them from the zombies. But as Patricia exined it, it had the potential to be immacte, and if they listened, truly listened to his word, it would be. The Void would protect them evermore. Soon, the buildings next to the inn were cleaned up and tidied, and there just wasn''t enough space for everyone who wanted to listen to Zeal speak in the room. And so he went out into the street and talked to the crowd out there. Day after day, he looked out at the growing sea of white robes and spoke. They couldn''t all hear him, so some ryed words to the ones behind them, and others ryed those words to the crowd forming around them. And they begin to propagate. It took days and weeks, but soon enough, they had their own. A few blocks of correctly behaving people and more people who lived outside were working to spread the news. After several weeks, Zeal was happy with his progress, but the city still wasn''t ready for the prophet. So, one morning, he packed up his belongings and told the innkeeper to keep up the good work. And then, Zeal walked to the other side of the city. It took him several hours to get through the bustle, but he found someone else willing to listen to his speaking. A day or twoter, he repeated the process. This time, it was easier as several of his white-robed followers had already paved the way for him. Even if they were mostly ignored on the corners of the streets, they tried to exin to the people the errors of their ways. But it was just enough to prime the people.Then Zeal was able to get his foot in and exin the glories of Void. Soon, he would send someone to bring Patricia in, and the city would never be the same again. End of Vol 3 Chapter 246: The Dawn of the New World Order Chapter 246: The Dawn of the New World Order Harold''s feet hurt. It had been a very, very long walk home. His coin had run out several weeks ago. Still, between his knowledge and experience as a soldier, he had managed to scrape by. Selling a thing or two here or stealing another there. Eventually though, the capital came into view. And what a wee sight it was. He scratched at his beard. He''d need to find a ce where he could wash and shave, or else no one would actually believe it was him. Maybe even a change of clothes, he thought as he picked at the travel-worn coat that hung about him. Harold managed to get through the gate without too much hassle. Then, he immediately made an unobtrusive beeline for a particr stone in a particr alley near the entrance. One of the organization''s hidden supply caches. He hoped against hope that this one was still intact. The others he''d checked on his way home hadn''t been. It was why Harold had found himself so hard-pressed for supplies. Hed certainly tried all the ones hed recalled, hoping to find some coins to buy a horse. One or two he could understand, but so many hidden stashes being left without recement? It didn''t sit right. What had happened? He wasn''t sure. The Warden was usually very on top of making sure things ran properly, but perhaps this just slipped his notice. Secret hiding spots were harder to supply than one might expect, after all. Maintaining their location stayed hidden was difficult and usually couldn''t be trusted to just anyone in the organization. The Warden didn''t handle such things personally, but he did organize the ones who did. So if the organization wasn''t running properly it was not good news. As Harold walked through the streets of the capital, he scanned the familiar street signs and bustling crowds of people going about their days. A feeling of familiarity washed over him at the sight of a thriving city. Which just made the people standing on street corners and yelling about the end times stand out even more. Not to bepletely unfair, though. Harold did know a decent amount of how cults operated, in a professional sense of course. They kind of came with the territory in his line of work, both in demonology and with the organization. Hed had to work around several in his time as they worshiped the statues that were the Lieutenants. Some oral traditions passed down enough of that people recognized the Lieutenants locations as ces of power. But evenpared to the worst hed seen, one he had to deal with personally a little over a decade back, these people were persistent. At least it seemed that not everyone was interested in listening. He watched one of the ones standing on a particrly dirty corner get pushed into the muck by a particrly annoyed merchant. The cultist soon picked himself up, but his expression turned distraught and almost panicked at the state of his once-white robe. The man who pushed the preacher, he walked past. Harold watched him shake his head and mutter, "Bloody cleaners." Harold blinked in confusion. Cleaners? Was that what they were called? He set the thought aside for the moment. Hed finally made it to the safe house. Thankfully, this one was still intact. He found a small supply of coins, clothes, and other necessities for blending into the city within. After an unsatisfyingly cold wash and shave, he was once more dressed in some fresh tunics and feeling heaps better. He gazed longingly at the bed, wanting nothing more than to pass out in its downy embrace, but he did need to make it to the castle. And talk to the Warden. He wasn''t too concerned about doing it immediately. If his messages had gotten through, then the Warden would already know the situation. If they hadnt, then they were all in real trouble. But now that he was here, he felt eager to at least set up the meeting. So he set out again after resetting all the security measures and logging his usage of the room with his secret passphrase, identifying who took these supplies to the ones who would know. Now in his proper appearance, he made his way towards the inner city. As he left the poorer areas, he saw less and less of the white-robed, crazy people yelling. Yet the ones he did see were also treated slightly better. Most people just ignored them instead of hassling them or anything. But he did notice a few people lingering around the edges of their range, listening to the words as they walked by. Harold did his best to tune them out. If they were a problem, the Warden would likely let him know, and he could work on solving it. But as it seemed right now, they were mostly a harmless nuisance. Hopefully, the city government could take care of it before it became too big of an issue. As he crossed into the wealthier districts, he realized something strange. He hadn''t seen a single city patrol. In fact, aside from the guards of the gates, there hadnt been any real government presence around the entire time. Unless he hadn''t recognized them. That wasn''t too much of a surprise. He didn''t expect to recognize every guard in the city, but there should have been at least someone on watch he recognized. And he certainly should have run into some patrols. But no. Nothing. Harolds eyes narrowed as he watched around himself a little more warily. He started to notice all sorts of details that were a little bit off. There were pretty much no beggars or urchin children running around the streets, which he should have noticed a lot sooner. There were even more dangerous-looking men, though. No one was taking shortcuts through dark alleys, and everyone seemed to press into the center of the thoroughfares no matter their destination. People in the cityrgely went on about their business. Still, now that he was aware of it, he noticed a certain undercurrent of fear. Harold pulled his new cloak tight around his shoulders and picked up his pace. Eventually, he made it to the city''s branch bank. It should give him some idea of what was going on. He entered, and the unfamiliar guards nodded at him, pulling the door open. They didn''t know who he was, but he looked respectful enough that he wouldn''t cause too much of a problem, at least not by himself. As he walked in, he looked around at the fancy building. Standing in line for the tellers, he waited until he was upfront. Then he withdrew from a particr ount exactly seven gold and twenty four coppers before leaving. He then went back through the city and crashed on the safehouse bed. Hopefully, the Warden would get the signal, and the meeting would be arranged tomorrow morning. If not, he might have to take a bit more drastic measures. *** The rising sun woke him as light streamed through the tiny window in his room. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes, hurriedly ate some dried rations, and left for the adventuring hall to check the quest boards. He scanned through every single note but didn''t find the one he was looking for. Harold frowned and couldn''t help but be confused. The cold feeling of coins tucked into his secret pocket told him that he''d gotten the right number. Clearly, they wouldn''t have let him remove the money if hed made a mistake. But perhaps they had just not checked? Something was very wrong. There should have been a response notification, even if the Warden wasn''t avable for a meeting. At least then there should have been a rejection sign. But nothing. Not a single thing. Harold retreated from the boards and found a corner table where he''d be left alone. Sitting down, he tried to think. Should he try some of the alternative contact methods? That probably wouldn''t be a good idea. It''d be too suspicious. If someone had broken the organization, they must have stopped using this line for a reason. If that was the case, was hepromised because he had gone through with proper protocols? Assuming that they were able to do that. But he frowned. No, he really couldn''t draw too many conclusions without more information, and for that, he would probably need to get into the castle. Maybe he could get in touch with any of the contacts he knew there. Perhaps he could even get in contact with the Warden directly. A simple note passed hand to hand was ast resort that he didn''t want to have to follow, but one that he could and would probably be excused for doing if necessary. He quickly scrawled out a couple sentences in code requesting a private meeting, as well as giving an all-clear signal except for his previous reports. If the reports hadn''t been received, the Warden would be concerned. If they had been, he would know there was nothing else that Harold needed to report. He still hoped for a meeting, though. Harold then snuck his way into the castle and finally found a guard he recognized. He stopped before a door leading to the off limits part of the castle and greeted the man. "Reginald. It''s been a while. How are things?" The guard startled as Harold walked up to him. With a look of confusion, he squinted, and cocked his head. "Do I-? Oh, Harold! Wow. It has been a while. I haven''t seen you around in ages. Surprised you''re still here." "Oh, just got back. Actually, I was on a bit of a trip." Harold exined. Reginald winced. "So you''ve been gone for a while, then?" "Well, I don''t like the sound of that. Harold grinned with forced casualness. You say that like I missed something. What''s going on?" "A lot of things, friend. A lot of things. Between you and me" Reginald leaned closer, making sure no one heard him. Folks have been saying the king ain''t alright. Hes doing lots of strange things, if you know what I mean. A bit harsher. Reginald nodded down the hall. Don''t recognize half of these new guards, now, do you? That''s because none of us know him either. Why, I''m expecting to be let go any time now. Everyone''s new. You probably won''t recognize half the people in the pce nowadays." Harold paled. The King was acting strangely, and men were being reced. He had a bad, bad feeling about this. Worse, he had a hunch about what was going on. That is indeed worrying. And what of He asked after several different people, making sure to slip one of the Warden''s disguises into the list. All people he knew to have some prominence. One by one, Reginald told him that almost all of them had been reced. When he asked about the Warden''s name, Reginald frowned. "Best not to talk about that. Don''t want anyone to hear," he said, looking around furtively. Reg, there''s no one here. But Reginald refused to say more. Eventually, Harold pushed a little harder. "Hey, this sounds like something I''ll need to know. It''d be weird if I didn''t." "Well The man sighed before lowering his voice further. Apparently, he wasmitting treason. Anyone rted to him has been brought in and questioned. Most of them have been locked up. In fact, if you''ve met with him recently, you might want to get out of here sooner rather thanter. Before anyone who might not know that you''re loyal to the crown says something." Harold frowned. The Warden was locked up. The development exined so much, yet loosed a flood of new questions and suspicions with it. He thanked Reginald quickly and passed him one of the gold. "Thank you, friend. Sounds like you might be needing to forget about me. And if you never need employment,e find me." "Much obliged, Sir," Reginald said with a wink, pocketing the coin surreptitiously. Reginald wasn''t the type to take bribes normally, but Harold wasn''t trying to get into a space he wasnt alowed. As long as Harold didn''t go through the door when he wasn''t supposed to, Reginald wouldn''t mind taking a little donation from an old friend. Especially if he might lose his job soon. Harold wasn''t sure if he actually needed to employ a guard, but it might be a good way to get more information. He quickly exited the pce and strolled back into the city with forced calmness. The dungeon. That was going to be tricky. Chapter 247: Marching Orders Chapter 247: Marching Orders Bee walked toward the castle gate, its newly repaired form casting a long shadow across the castle courtyard. However, her eyes were not locked in front of her but instead roamed over the Nighty Knights. The youngsters stood along top the innermost wall, spaced evenly five paces apart. Most of them kept serious faces as they looked out, but a few of them instead leaned or sat against the crentions, kicking their legs as they tossed rocks. A few of the younger ones were already bored after only a few minutes of sitting watch. Internally, Bee couldn''t help but thank Arthur. The man had stayed unwavering in his conviction about keeping the Nighty Knights away frombat, and now? She understood why. They were not ready. She could only thank Void and the dragon he had sent to prevent the total fall of the valley. Given another day or even several hours, they would have been in real trouble. And then the Nighty Knights might have been brought into the fight as a final, desperate defense to save their home and all the other children who hadn''t learned how to fight. *** It had been nearly a month, but Bee could still remember how shed felt. The lump of emotions stuck in her throat as she had approached Arthur''s door. The memory stood out strong in her mind. It had been shortly after things had settled down enough that her presence wasnt mandatory, where she didnt need to be running around taking care of things on the battlefield. She had knocked on themanders door and received a brief "Come in." The door''s hinges squealed slightly, a small detail, but one that showed how much disrepair the city had fallen in. That something so simple was left unattended seemed incredible. Normally, everything was well maintained and in pristine condition, but things had started to fall through after the attack. Arthur looked up and met her gaze. His face showed a slight hint of surprise to see the High Priestess. "What can I do for you?" He asked, with a seated bow and a weing smile. "It''s perhaps a bit morbid, but I''m celebrating a bit while I work," he said. Gesturing to a half-full ss of brandy. "I mean, you''re a bit young, but a ss or two probably wouldn''t hurt with your high levels. Would you like some?" Bee shook her head. "Unfortunately, I don''t know if I''ll have time to stay. I just came to say something." Arthur was able to read the seriousness in her tone as put aside his ss. His face sobered slightly as he looked up. Bee took in a deep breath and, in a rush, she got the words out. "I just wanted to say that you were right." It took a little bit of effort to actually say it. It was never fun to admit when she was wrong, but she wasn''t done yet. "You were right about about the Nighty Knights." Arthur raised an eyebrow when she didn''t go on any further. "How so?" "You were right about keeping them away from the fighting." Bee clenched her fists at her sides. She thought about all the people who had died, both on her side and on the enemy side. Killing demons was one thing, and if it was just demons, she probably would have insisted that the Nighty Knights were in fact able to fight. But these were humans. The ones that had attacked her on the wall, when she had to use her Scouring Strike to keep them back from the breach Their faces still shed up in her mind when she didn''t keep her thoughts on a tight leash. She realized shed been quiet for a bit longer than intended. Taking another breath, she continued in a much softer tone. "I''m d they didn''t have to do that.." She took another shakier breath and swallowed. Arthur slowly stood up and stepped around his desk before he put aforting hand on her shoulder. "It''s something that no man wishes to ever have to experience. Truly, I can''t imagine how youre handling it so well. I''ve seen many men, older and more experienced than you, broken by the things you''ve endured. His gaze met hers steadily. Miss Bee. I can''t help but stand in awe of yourpetence and steadfastness to do what you think is right." Bee was having a little trouble speaking. Before she could get the words out, Arthur pulled her into a tight hug, pressing her head into his chest as she hugged him back tightly. She found herself wheezing a bit as his strength crushed her lungs just a little bit."Just... I can''t imagine what would have happened if. Daedalus hadn''te in time." Arthur didn''t say anything, but she could feel him shaking his head. Just as suddenly as the weight of what she''d done poured on her shoulder, she found a way to get her feet under her and stood up, gently pushing Arthur back. "I''m needed out there," she said simply. But as she turned to go, Arthur put a hand on her shoulder again. "While I have you here, I just wanted to say. I''ve been a servant to the king in one way or another for as long as I can remember. But Arthur sighed. Clearly, the man I served is long gone. Whatever we need to do, I''ll be behind you. Just remember that." Bee nodded gratefully with a somber smile. "I hope you are, Arthur. I hope you are." *** Almost a monthter, they were ready to march on the Capitol. And Bee found herself having yet another difficult conversation. Everyone is out helping Void rent the forest, as most of the city had been rebuilt and organized in such a way that they would be able toplete it with the people they left behind. She took all of the Nighty Knights aside for a meeting. Someone had to break the news that they weren''ting with the armys forces. The Nighty Knights had fallen into formation and listened to her address, but her main focus with on Felix. As themander of the group, he would be more than capable of convincing the rest of them. "So the Nighty Knights are going to be left behind?" Felix asked, clearly bewildered by the news she had just delivered. Bee shook her head. "Not left behind. We''re leaving you as ourst line of defense." Felix gave her a t look. He clearly understood the meaning behind those words, but she still went forward. "Your mothers and families are noting with us, either. Do you want to leave them alone? Someone we trust needs to be here to defend them. Someone Void trusts." Invoking Void''s name seemed to be enough to get their attention and get them listening, so Bee continued. "Our forces will be away for a while. Were going to talk to the king. And while we hope it wont end in battle, we worry about our home. If theye in and attack our home again when we arent there. What will be the point of even having that conversation?" Felix frowned and nodded in understanding. her exnation seemed to mollify some of the other members, as well. She suspected that they thought they were being left behind because they weren''t ready to fight. However, Felix had seen a lot more than the rest of them as Arthur''s main ry. Even being that close to battle had changed him. But Bee could only imagine it would have been worse if they had actively fought. One of the younger ones that couldn''t have been more than five called out. "You''re just going to talk? That''s boring. You should go beat them up for what they did. The rest of the Nighty Knights agreed wholeheartedly. Bee sighed. "Well, we hope it doesn''te to it. But we want to work things out in an orderly manner. Remember what Void taught you about fighting?" They all looked at each other in confusion. "Keep good posture?" "Use your hips?" "Don''t get hit?" They all started throwing out random sword tips, and Felix eventually cut them off with a quick order across his mental link. "Yes, we remember. Miss Bee. Only fight when necessary to maintain order." "Good," she said. "And Void calls on you to maintain order here while we are away." Felix snapped a salute before giving her a formal bow that he was pretty sure she had seen a lot of the military scouts giving Arthur. "If it is Lord Void''smand, so it shall be." The words were formal, as if he had practiced that line many times. The rest of the Nighty Knights looked confused, but many of them tried to emte Felix''s bow much less sessfully, and a scattering of echoes of ''so shall it be'' came. *** That wasn''t the end of the issue through. Over the next couple of days, Bee had to stop several of the Nighty Knights from sneaking into the caravan despite their agreement. But after Void had spent some time with them, making sure they understood what their responsibilities were, she doubted that they would have an issue again. At least, not soon enough that they would be involved in any of the fighting. Of course, she couldn''t really guarantee that they wouldn''t be able to sneak away from their families, but she hoped that theyd be ok. Bee turned around and waved goodbye as she crested the first rise away from the castle. A whole host of little hands shot up over the castle wall and waved back. She was going to miss them, but hopefully, she wouldn''t be gone for that long. Once they figured out what was happening at the Capitol, theyd be back. Hopefully they could even take care of the Lieutenant if they could find it. More than that, Bee hoped that this would help some of Arthur''s army and Caleb''s refugees return home. With the suspicion currently cast on them, many of them had been disced for longer than she''d have liked. They''d taken up new lives at the castle with the Church of the Cleansing Void, but for those who wanted a return to normalcy, she hoped they could help find that. Once it was under more stable leadership, of course. If the king did have to be overthrown, she wasnt sure who would take his ce. Arthur had a few suggestions from the nobility about who might make a decent leader and also had a good im to the throne. But honestly, those kinds of politics were beyond her at this point. For a moment, she almost chuckled. The idea of considering who she and Void should make king after they deposed the old one just seemed surreal. Not so long ago, she''d been a glorified janitor at the mage''s college, and now? She was high priestess for a new god. It made Bee realize how strange life could be sometimes. So she just turned around and continued leading the host out of the valley to go make things right. Chapter 248: By Their Fruits Chapter 248: By Their Fruits I kept one thread in my processor focused on watching our army march through the valley as I continued nting trees in neat rows. Despite my initial estimations, it had taken much longer than expected to get the city back into shape. That meant I''d had pretty much no time for anything but cleaning and organization in thest month. The only exceptions were a few quick talks with Beatrice, Tony, and the Nighty Knights that I used to help clear my caches. Otherwise, it was nonstop work. In a way, it felt just like old times. Cleaning up piles of dirt, sweeping up soot, clearing away debris. Truly, it was nostalgic. Even if the piles of dirt were a bit bigger. And the soot was an entire forest''s worth of ash. The debris consisted of boulders and huge stones. Still, it was basically the same thing. Just a matter of scale. Some of the stuff was salvageable, and I was able to return many of the stone debris to the castle''s inhabitants as seamless blocks with a little bit of Void Maniption. The rest I ended up constantly converting into energy to keep myself powered. For the most part, though, we''d taken care of all the mess from the battle now except for the forests, which still had to be rebuilt after somebody burned them down. There was a bright side to the whole thing. The ordeal really brought the castle''s inhabitants together in the name of cleaning. It was pretty inspiring to see everyone working so hard to put things back in order. But even better, the newly cleared forest meant I had some opportunities to make some much-needed improvements to the trees'' cements. It was still frustrating. I had only just started to really appreciate the beauty of trees recently, finding some kind of pattern in their generally chaotic growth. But then Dragonfire destroyed it all. I read somewhere that fire was good for forests, as it would help them clear away the dead brush and revitalize the soil. Some trees even required fires to grow. But dragon fire was a bit different than a normal fire, it seemed. It just burned everything to nothing but charcoal. All impurities were gone, the soil was burned, and nothing grew back. It didn''t save the established growth or give life for new growth to regrow. It just burned everything. Not so long ago, I would have actually celebrated. Aside from the copious amounts of ash and soot Daedalus had managed to create, the stuff left behind was incredibly pure and sanitized, if nothing else. But now, it just felt like a waste. Especially since I''d seen how many things the humans used those trees for. After cleaning up the worst of the mess, I actually spent most of my time fixing the forest and bringing in stuff to rejuvenate the soil. Even the so-called impurities that were burned away by the dragon. My lessons with Trent were certainly paying off in that regard, helping me to understand what we needed and where. Nothing would grow there naturally for a very long time otherwise, not before we''d gotten several seasons of rain. I had to go grab saplings from much farther into the forest where the dragon fire hadn''t spread, but rather than nt them willy-nilly like before, I decided to take a different approach. Jessica, one of the oft-forgotten Nighty Knights, had been my chief assistant over thest couple of weeks. She wasn''t the biggest standout among their troop because her first skill wasn''t very useful forbat. But here, it was invaluable. Apparently, Imbue nt had been the best of her three options; she had gotten nobat ability despite having sword training and leveling up at such a young age. It said a lot about her proclivities that the other two were also nt-based. In fact, though Trent had been ecstatic to hear about her skills, she''d been quite disappointed and almost quit the Nighty Knights. Fortunately, she stuck with it and received a nt-based ss with my name attached to it a bitter. Void''s Gardener did have a nice ring to it. Jessica had also gotten a more potent skill called nt Maniption on her 10th level. This allowed her to do things that I wasn''t able to do myself, like coaxing the nts to take root, grow them faster, and turn saplings that I retrieved from other parts of the forest into full-on trees. Quite useful for the task at hand. Of course, I wasn''t only growing saplings that grew elsewhere in the forest. As over three-quarters of it had burned down, I would probably have to depopte the entire remaining forest to cover the destroyed area. But I had learned that some of the humans'' foodstuff also came from trees. Even better, if nted, I could grow some of these foods into trees themselves. And that''s how Jessica and I ended up nting red apple trees, marching back and forth for hours on end. I would vacuum up a narrow pit of dirt and deposit a seed, making sure everything was precisely lined up and spaced out. Then she would stop and use her skill on the seed for a couple of minutes, coaxing it to grow and take root and get past the delicate stages of first sprouting. Like everything else stored in my dustbin, the seeds seemed to shine faintly when they emerged. But at this point, I figured it wasn''t anything harmful. Hopefully, any weird magic would just make the trees stronger or make tastier fruit. We had sectioned off the forest into several different grid-like structures that intersected depending on how well they fit into the surrounding terrain. But each would contain nice pleasing rows as far as the eye could see if one was walking amongst them, and several of the sections would provide fruit and food. Truly, this was a blessing in disguise. The forest would be much improved after our work was done. We had just finished nting thest tree when I checked my models to see how far the army had made it. They said that I needed to leave within five minutes. Perfect. I had just enough time to make a quick trip back to the castle and drop a giggling Jessica off with her family before catching up to the army as they exited the valley. Marching through the valley had taken them some time, and I didn''t feel the need to watch them during that process. But outside the valley, there were great dangers. Some of these great dangers could very well harm the army, and they would need my support to maintain order. As I floated through the camp towards themand center, I received salutes and sometimes just bows from the people I passed. I was very d they had stopped trying to kneel, at least. I wasn''t sure who had started that trend, but it had definitely decreased productivity by a significant percentage. I estimated at least 7.4% less getting done when I was in the vicinity if everyone stopped what they were doing to genuflect upon my appearance. I think it was one of the Nighty Knights telling the naive soldiers it was custom as a prank. But after a few quick conversations with Arthur and Beatrice, a protocol had been established for greeting me on duty. People would treat me as a military superior and salute me on leave. They would be free to either salute or bow. Most chose to bow, though. It was still hampering their productivity, but I did notice a morale boost as well, so perhaps it offset the negatives. Scanning around, I approved of their camp. They set up right outside the valley in a well-maintained and disciplined affair. Straight rows of tents, orderly supply wagons, and even the horses were behaving properly. The horses didn''t really exactly stand at attention, but at least they maintained mostly perpendicr stances to the picket lines and chewed in unison, which I found quite satisfying. When I eventually made it to themand tent, I found Arthur and Beatrice having a conversation by themselves over the map table. It showed a diagram of the capital and the surrounding areas. The pair were preupied with gesturing to little gs with numbers on them posted amongst the outlying forts of the capitals. "I really don''t know how much we can trust some of these numbers," Beatrice said. "By the time we get there, they''re going to be very out of date, right?" Arthur nodded without saying anything, and Beatrice continued on. "I''m worried that you know we won''t realize it when we get there. We''ll take them for granted, or we won''t realize updates." Arthur shrugged. "Patterns like these rarely change too much, especially when ites to guard shifts that have been established for generations. Any deviation should be notable. But in order to know that, we need to have a baseline. Susan''s scout''s messages are definitely out of date. And you''re right to worry about us not realizing what''s old information and not. "If you notice these symbols," he said, pointing to a smaller marking underneath the number that the g held on it. "They represent the age of the report so that we have a better understanding of how urate it might be." Beatrice frowned, but Arthur continued on without letting her interrupt. "Now you''re right. Recognizing what information is out of date is actually a very difficult skill to acquire, and many of my young officers andmanders honestly have been promoted or not been promoted solely based off of their interpretation of maps and the troop cements. It''s essential to be able to take that into ount when making ns because sometimes old information is all you have. But you need to realize that it might be the best you have." I came in as unobtrusively as possible, not wanting to interrupt the lesson Arthur was giving. Hearing him talk to Beatrice this way actually reminded me a lot of how he treated his officers when I was on campaign with himst time. Everything was a learning opportunity, especially when it wasn''t an active battle. And as capable as Beatrice was, I didn''t doubt that Arthur would have a lot to teach her. So when she eventually did notice me, she jumped a little as she spun around to bow. I greeted her with a little wave and gestured to the table. Indicating that she should continue talking. Arthur gave me a formal salute with a smile on his face. "It''s good of you to join us, Lord Void." I gave him a cheery wave as well. "I have to say, the orchards are looking quite nice. I imagine that it will ease the minds of many of our citizens to have such a staple food supply." I wasn''t exactly sure what to say to that, but I appreciated the praise. It was good to have Arthur''s approval. I just dropped onto the floor and started making idle passes through the tent, making sure that the floor waspletely clean. I could have swept itpletely clear in one go between my vacuum, Air Maniption, and Sanitation Lamp, but that would have also made quite a spectacle. It''s best to be unobtrusive at the moment. I found a surprising amount of dust that must have been trucked in through people''s boots after the tent had been set up, so I spent time cleaning up the rugs and working my way around the chair legs while Beatrice continued the conversation. Arthur was treating me a bit differently than thest time on the campaign, definitely showing me more deference, which I kind of regretted. I thoroughly enjoyed a lot of our conversations and his candor. While he had never stopped speaking his mind, now he did so in a much more polite way, which I found a little less efficient. It was slightly disappointing. I needed to spend some time thinking about how I could get him to drop that and go back to the stern general he always was before. I didn''t think he was acting per se, but the change in demeanor hopefully wasn''t affecting his soldiers at all. "Master, what do you think?" Beatrice pulled me out of my meditative state as I was cleaning the foot rug in front of Arthur''s chair. Apparently, I hadpletely missed the conversation in my focus. I asked her to repeat the question. "What do you think our goals should be when we get there? Should we try storming the castle directly or siege it out?" Hmm. What a question. I wasn''t entirely sure myself, so I deflected to Arthur. "There are pros and cons to either, Lord Void," The general shrugged. "But how to approach theing conflict is something we''d best leave to you." Dang. I had really hoped that would work. Chapter 249: Spread the Word Chapter 249: Spread the Word Arthur and Beatrice both looked at me expectantly as I spun up my processes. I needed to better understand our goals and how everything would work out on this campaign. Our main goal here was to figure out why we''d been attacked. What the king was up to, why he''d sent an army after us, and whether there was anything else shady going on. Regardless of the answer, though, we couldn''t just let this slide. That meant we''d probably end up deposing the king. At least, that''s what I understood from the talks we''d had so far. So. The next question was, could we really justify smashing through the gates before we even figured out what the situation was? Maybe we''d be attacking people who didn''t really agree with us getting attacked. Not to mention that war, as I had seen, was incredibly messy. In that case, a siege might be better, but it might be even more harmful to the people living in the city. I wasn''t sure how to bnce these oues and desires without more information. I just didn''t know enough about warfare. But luckily, I was with someone who did. I asked Arthur a long list of questions. Unfortunately, he didn''t seem to be able to process them all as I shed the list quickly above me. So, instead, I started scrolling through them one at a time. "What are the odds that storming the castle directly will work?" Arthur rubbed his chin. "Well, that depends on a lot of things. First, probably being how much warning we give them and how many soldiers and demons are defending." "What if we can get the people on our side?" I asked. "Well, if we have people in the city who can help us get the gates open or even keep the defenders upied a bit so we can hit the castle directly... we have an extremely good chance of that working. I''d say nine out of ten times, we''ll be able to take the castle. Still, if the people work against us, or they manage to keep us out of the city before we can hit and get a foothold inside, it''s pretty unlikely to work. It would probably turn into a siege after all." Arthur answered. He spoke slowly as he worked out his thoughts. That sentence brought me up short. "So if we fail to storm the castle, we just enter a siege scenario?" Arthur rubbed his chin. "Well, sort of. But it''s not the same, per se. We would certainly be in a siege, but we wouldn''t have the... goodwill is probably the wrong word. But," he said, looking toward the top of his tent and continuing to stroke his chin. "It would weaken our bargaining position a little bit, and we could potentially lose a lot of troops in a failed attack." Beeping with affirmation, I started to get a better picture of what was going on as I asked my next question. "How long do you think a siege would take?" Arthur frowned and looked pensive. "It depends on the will of the king and how well he has his own people under control. The foodstuff in the city would start to run low pretty soon. It''s just after winter, and how long they can hold on depends on whether we can get there before the harvest arrives. If we can cut off their harvest from them, they likely would have very little food left after a hard winter. But it could still get awful if the king refuses to surrender, even after people begin to starve. "If the food gets in before us, well, they could go for probably about 3 or 4 months. But of course, they wouldn''t have enough food for next winter in that case, so that would be pretty dangerous, too. If the king cares about his people, then it''ll go no more than a month. If he doesn''t, they could probably oust us." For the first time, Beatrice spoke up. "Seeing the strategies used in the attack, I doubt the king cares about how the people fare." Arthur nodded. "The king I knew would... But, well, the actions we''ve seen suggest that this is a very different man than the one I knew. We should work off of the assumption that the King doesn''t care about his people, based on his more recent actions." I took all the data I had gathered and crunched the numbers, sparse as they were. "I think we have our best chance of storming the castle if we can get 10 percent of people and they of thend figured out with at least 3-day notice. I think that taking the castle won''t be an issue, but if it is, we might have to siege the castle. At least we wouldn''t be sieging the city." Arthur nodded at my exnation. "I think you''re correct." I nearly let out a beep of frustration. If Arthur already thought that this was the right approach, then why did he make me decide? He was obviously more practiced at this. It was literally just weighing the pros and cons of different strategies I didn''t have experience with deploying? Well, if they needed guidance, I was happy to give it to them. Besides, I didn''t exactly like the idea of a siege. While less messy than all-out war, it seemed like a good recipe to let problems build up. Like it would end up with a decaying city and poption, just on a slower timescale.Better for a clean surgical cut. Remove the leadership and take control. Beatrice was talking again. She said something that I didn''t quite pick up since I was focusing on modeling other possibilities for theing assault. "It''s a good point, Miss Bee," Arthur said. "I do think that Susan has done a great job of giving us ideas about troop cement, but her information is quite out of date. We do need to send more scouts ahead, and perhaps if we infiltrate the city now, we''ll be able to avoid any unpleasantries when ites to sieging it." Beatrice nodded and stood up. "I think that''s something I''m best suited for," she said, addressing Arthur and me. Was she thinking about going to the city? The hostile city, all alone, to try to take it over by herself? That seemed like a horrible idea. It was far too risky, even if she managed toy low until we got there. It was dangerous. I wasing with her! When I made my announcement with a firm beep, Beatrice and Arthur exchanged looks. "Are you sure that''s a good idea, Lord Void? The people here need you. If we both leave..." I considered it. Did Arthur have a point? Was I really so important to have around here? "Tony will do a good job," I said. "You and Tony and everyone will have no problem keeping things in order here while we''re gone." Arthur nodded reluctantly. "Yeah. Tony ispetent. I suppose he can lead the faith aspect of things while I take care of the army. We''ll just have to let them know that you are out ahead, paving the way for us." A bit of silence hung as we all processed the words. I assumed that''s what was happening, at least. I knew well that humans tended to process things more slowly than I did. "Okay. Can we talk about your objectives?" Arthur said after thinking for a second. "Sure," Beatrice said. "I think we need to start preaching the word of Void in the streets, making sure that everyone is on board with him ruling. Then we''ll have no problem getting the people to stand aside." Arthur looked at her skeptically. "What if not everyone buys it? You know, it takes time to convert people. Especially to a new religion." Beatrice nodded. "Yeah. Your army took several days to convert entirely. But I think we have some time if we get to the city quickly enough." Arthur blinked. "Pardon?" "They all converted. To varying degrees, of course, but I sense strands of faithing from all of them," Beatrice exined. Arthur shook his head in what appeared to be disbelief and bemusement. "Well, maybe you can do it then. But an army taking shelter with your followers is one thing. A city is a whole other one. "Well," Beatrice said. "I guess a second goal should be positioning ourselves to open the gates for you all. That way, you can get into the city and hit the castle directly. I think that should be okay. All right?" "All right," Arthur said. That seems reasonable, but I''m going to insist you take some guards with you." "I think a squad of soldiers would be awfully suspicious, don''t you, Lord Void?" Beatrice said, looking to me for support. I thought about it. I projected a few of my selections for the mission, and none of them were wearing their soldier garb. Beatrice rubbed her cheek. "That''s true. I suppose Matt and some of his friends wouldn''t pass as soldiers very well. Actually, I can''t imagine a less soldier-looking soldier than him. What if we bring Susan as well?" "No. I think Susan needs to stay here." Arthur interrupted. "She''s too integral in running our informationworks. While she would be undoubtedly invaluable to you, I think we really need her help." Beatrice nodded. "Okay. Let''s see, who else is avable?" I started sifting through my database of profiles for everyone in the castle and the army. After a moment, I shed up a question. "Are we okay with bringing nobatants?" Beatrice and Arthur exchanged strange looks. "As long as they''re willing to take the risk I suppose. Though you''ll be there to protect them, so I expect they''ll be even safer than we are here." "We could always bring Talia and Tanu and a couple of the other Nighty Knights," I suggested. Arthur looked doubtful. "I''d rather keep them out of the fighting. Besides, I don''t think we have time to go back for them." "No fighting. They would be nobatants," I argued. "Besides, it''s better than having them ride the rest of the way while hiding in storage wagons." For a moment, Beatrice wentpletely still. Then, her face went a rather impressive shade of white as she ran out of the tent toward the storage wagons. I followed, confused. When we got there, she tossed open the ps, exposing three kids and two of their mothers sitting huddled among bags of grain inside. She red at them. Her previously white face then did aplete turnaround and darkened to beet red. Truly, it was a sight to behold. Also, it''s probably very unhealthy. The children appearedpletely unabashed, but Talia and Ms. Chadwick shared extremely guilty looks. "I''m sorry, Miss Bee," she said. "I should have talked to you. Shouldn''t I have?" Bee nodded slowly. "Yes. Yes, you very well should have. I expected this kind of thing from the kids, but you...?" "Are the rest of the Nighty Knights in the other wagons, too? "She spat, ring at the group. I identified Irene, Bradley, Ms. Chadwick, Talia, and Tanu. Well, and the fluffy tail that poked out from underneath the bench where Cliff was hiding. Honestly, I wasn''t sure how she fit down there. "They''re back at the castle. But we ain''t Nighty Knights anymore!" Tanu stated with his chin held high. "The rest of ''em are gonna protect the castle, but the three of us can really help out. So we left the order to follow." Beatrice shook her head in disbelief and turned her re to the adults in the room. "Why? Why would you let this happen?" "Well," Ms. Chadwick said, "A lot of the soldiers brought along their families for the march. And, well..." The two women looked at each other and blushed. "We didn''t feel right staying behind. You understand." The statement confused me. What was wrong with the soldiers being left alone? Oh well. I mentally mimicked the motion of raising one''s shoulders to one''s ears and dropping them. Tony was so, so fond of that gesture, and I quite liked it as well, even if I couldn''t actually perform it. I''m sure whatever they were talking about wasn''t too important. In any case, the definitely-not-Nighty Knights would be safe here with us. Plus, having a few children, along with soldiers and women, in our infiltration group would make us much less conspicuous. We''d blend in just fine. I could see it now. We could get a house or something to stay in together. I could keep it clean, and Beatrice could find out information to pass along to the army. The kids would help blend in well. I was sure they''d have fun seeing a new city after all. Beatrice ran a hand down her face. Despite all the positives to this arrangement, she seemed quite perturbed. "All right. Come on, follow me. We are going to talk to Arthur. Apparently, Void knew you were here the whole time. And now it has a task for all of you." She helped the group down out of the wagon, one at a time, and we headed off back towards themand tent. "You all know how to ride, right?" Beatrice asked the group trailing behind her. The not-Nighty Knights and their moms all nodded. "Yes! Felix made sure it was part of our training," Irene said with a happy smile as she skipped along. "I love ponies!" Beatrice let out a long-suffering sigh. I wasn''t aware that her lungs had such air capacity. Truly, she just kept impressing me. Chapter 250: The Righteous Path Chapter 250: The Righteous Path Even with horses, the 12 of us moved far slower than I would have liked. We were pulling ahead of the army by a lot, and we''d probably arrive in the city at least a week, if not two, before them. But it was nowhere near as fast as I could move alone. I had considered flying ahead to the capital myself, but I didn''t think there was too much I could do there. Besides, it would be dangerous to leave the three children, two women, Beatrice, and five soldiers alone. Both Ms. Chadwick and Talia had brought a soldier they''d chosen as a personal bodyguard of sorts. At least, that was how I understood it. Beatrice had also brought along Matt and a couple of his friends. Theirmanders had been almost happy to see them go. Not that they were bad at fighting or anything, but each of these men was apparently known for causing a little bit of trouble. They liked to gamble, y pranks, sneak around, and cause little disturbances here and there. Also, they tended to weasel their way out of doing their chores. However, Beatrice assured me that despite theirck of enthusiasm for cleaning, they would make excellent helpers in the city. They apparently knew how to move around a city unnoticed and unseen, how to talk to the right people, and how to get information. I had to trust her judgment because I didn''t know what she was talking about. Still, the slow pace made it difficult to keep myself busy. There just wasn''t enough for me to do, especially once I''d finished reorganizing the contents of my dustbin for the third time. Eventually, I became so bored that I started ying a little game with myself. I rolled along on the ground instead of hovering above it. Initially, I shuddered a bit at the idea, but I had to be close to this. Then, as we traveled, I fixed the road in front of me. I figured this would help the army move a little faster and also make sure our horses didn''t get injured on some loose rock or uneven patch of dirt. The process was fairly simple. I would use my Sanitation Lamp to skim across the ground and even it outpletely. Then, I created a wall of wind with Air Maniption to further smooth out the surface and pack it down. Finally, I''d check the whole thing over with my sensors to ensure it was perfectly even and level. As the road passed behind me, I left a 20-foot wide stretch of nearly perfectly level, hard-packed dirt that didn''t budge when the horses rode over it. It was quite fun, actually. It took me several iterations to figure out how to do it perfectly. Still, by the end of the second day, I had made even further improvements. By adding moisture with my Spray Bottle and subsequently removing it with my Mop, I managed to form something akin to hard y tiles along the surface of the road. I couldn''t do it all at once. Otherwise, they would flex and crack from the movement of the horses and the ground itself. So, I sectioned the work into tiles three inches deep, four inches wide, and five inches long. Then I got even fancier and started forming patterns with them, turning them into little mosaics as I rode past. I hoped the army would appreciate it, as it should make their marching a lot less boring. Beatrice and the rest of her entourage certainly did seem to enjoy it. They stared at the patterns as if they contained some sort of hidden mystery and made their horses step carefully along them. I was pleased to note that it also increased our travel speed by about 23.4%, despite the care that they took. The horses not having to avoid rocks or struggle to make it up and down hills definitely made things a little smoother. Also, mypanions stoppedining about the ride being bumpy nearly as much. There was the matter of the unfortunate leavings of all horses, but that was sadly inevitable. Still, I had plenty of time and attention to take care of that issue as well. Whenever my sensors picked up activity from the horses, I took care to sweep the resulting waste in a small whirlwind of air and bring it toward me. Not directly, of course, since it would have been rude to fling the stuff straight through the party. But I looped the little packets well around mypanions to clean up. They seemed to appreciate it. In the middle of the third day, even my little game of repairing the road was starting to take up less than half of my processing time and only 30% of my memory banks. So I was intrigued when Beatrice swung her foot over her horse and gave the reins to Matt to lead. In a moment, she''de up to walk beside me, which was a wee distraction. "Master. I wanted to ask you about your ns once we get to the city." My ns? I didn''t have a n. I was supposed to help her. I told her as much, and she rubbed her forehead. "Okay, well, maybe we can talk about my ns, and you can give me your input. I''d like to make sure that I''m not going to do anything that would go against your wishes." I was more than willing to help her figure out her ns, of course, but she didn''t need to be so nervous about it. "Sure. Go on." I projected above my head, and she smiled gratefully. "Thank you. So I was thinking, we need to have some sort of excuse for why we''re here. So we need a backstory, and we''ll need a ce to stay. I have a bit of coin on me. Arthur allocated some funds for the work as well, but I''m thinking we have a few options. One, we can say that we''re a family and that you''re a... I don''t know. That''s actually my biggest concern, actually. What do we tell people about you?" I thought for a second. "You could say I''m a cleaning tool." Beatrice nched at that. But before she could respond, I continued on. "Besides, I don''t think I''m the most suspicious thing in the city. I projected a life-sized picture of Cliff above me, her heading nearly to Beatrice''s shoulders. "I would be surprised if no one gets concerned about Cliff." Currently, therge dog was loping next to the road, keeping level with Tanu. She scanned the area around us and asionally would dart off after a hare or some other small game. At first, I was a little offended that she didn''t want to use the road, but apparently, the soft pads of her feet were better served on looser-packed soil. If she was doing anything other than a steady walk, they might get bruised. Especially if she ran along the road for long periods of time. So I let it slide. Beatrice nodded thoughtfully. "True. Well, I think the wolf will probably have to stay outside the city, but that means Tanu would have to go out and take care of her every once in a while. She could fend for herself, but bonded beasts like her don''t do well without their masters for long periods of time." I beeped negatively. "No, no. We''ll bring her in. We''ll figure something out. I can''t have her out in the wild all by herself. That would be so sad and lonely," Beatrice nodded. "Whatever you say, Lord Void. But-" I didn''t let her continue on her topic about what they would call me. I didn''t think it was particrly important. If necessary, I could sneak in over the wall instead of going through the gate with them. "So, what were those two options for cover stories?" I asked, cutting her off. "Well, we can say we''re thest remnants of a vige that had been attacked by the zombies, but it''s a little far away to be believable. Or we could im to be a family relocating to the castle. We have enough coin where we could make that work." "I like the idea of us being extended family," I said. "But how would that change things?" Beatrice drummed her fingers on her lips thoughtfully. "Well, if we''re a family, you wouldn''t be too weird if we managed to buy arger house in a somewhat wealthy side of town. One that we could afford, of course. Then we could all stay together in one ce without it being too weird. If we were all that remained of a vige, we''d likely have to break up into smaller units and stay in the inns. Also, we wouldn''t be expected to have much money." "Well," I asked, "what if we pretended to be merchants? That would exin the money. And it would also exin why we''re staying together." The suggestion made Beatrice frown suddenly. I was surprised to see anger tinge her expression. "...I suppose we could," she eventually admitted with a sign. "My" She paused for a second. "My father''s name might actually be helpful here. I could be setting up a branch of the family''s business in the capital. And his name is well known enough that it wouldn''t be odd to send his daughter to do something like that. Maybe." I gave her a questioning beep. Beatrice still seemed troubled but hesitant. "I just really don''t like the idea," she frowned even more deeply. "Why not?" I asked. "Surely your father wouldn''t mind you using your name?" Beatrice''s face turned stony. "I don''t know. He did send me off to be a maid." She spat out thatst word as though it were some sort of insult. "As soon as my mother died, too." Setting aside her apparent dislike of maids, which I found incredibly confusing given her current situation, I was surprised to hear about this. Beatrice had never told me anything of the sort before. Although, I suppose I had never asked how she''d gotten to the castle in the first ce. I just assumed she lived there. Her statement piqued my curiosity, so I decided to learn more. "Well, what did you want to do instead?" "I wanted to learn magic." Beatrice practically pouted. Well, she''d managed to do that quite well. So, it seemed to have all worked out. Still, the answer didn''t seem like it would satisfy her. "What do you think he wanted you to do?" "I think when I was little" Beatrice started in a thoughtful tone, "that he wanted me to be a merchant. To carry on the family tradition. But when I made it clear I had no interest in money and figures, I think he just wanted me to marry into a wealthy family or something." "But he sent you off to be a maid?" "Well, not exactly. He sent me to be a mage''s apprentice. But he didn''t pay enough to actually make me an apprentice. I was just a freaking maid." She said, her voice rising in thest bit in clear frustration. I processed the information for a moment. It sounded like there was more to this situation than met the eye. But rather than address it right now, I decided to bring things back to the original topic. "I think it might be worth using his name if that''s okay with you. That would solve a lot of our issues and hopefully lend you some credibility. It might make it harder for you to convert people directly, but it should help connect us to more influential people. Still, between Matt and the other members of our band, we should be able to get a decent amount of awareness spread for the fact that the city will be under new management soon, so I wouldn''t worry too much about it affecting our mission." "Besides, I think the not-Nighty Knights might be some of the most effective members of our party." Beatrice looked at me with wide eyes. "What? We have to keep them safe!" Chapter 251: Family Matters Chapter 251: Family Matters I made a soothing motion with my grabby arm as Beatrice''s face paled. "We are going to keep the Nighty Knights safe. But they''re going to want to y and they''re going to have friends. Children are very imaginative and much more willing to listen to proper instructions about cleaning. So I''m sure if they can introduce me to some of their friends, I can teach them how to use sticks properly, and we can have lots of fun with that. Then maybe they''ll help us talk to their parents." Beatrice shrugged, rxing a bit after my exnation. "Well, it''s true that they will need friends... but as long as they''re safe. I don''t want them risking anything by preaching on street corners or something stupid like that." I wasn''t exactly sure what she meant by preaching on corners, but I let it slide. The conversation drifted a little bit, and we started talking about how to keep the city clean. I was very curious about how all the humans managed to live together in such tight quarters on a permanent basis. I''d only ever seen a couple cities at this point, and apparently, the capital was even more massive than Caleb. And well, Caleb had been a bit of a mess when I got there, but I assumed that had more to do with the zombies at the wall than the fact that it was a city. The capital must have done a better job of keeping the city clean, right? My horror grew, though, as Beatrice exined how cities were kept clean. Their methods for waste disposal and organization sounded so inefficient! Worse, they likely only kept the ce partially clean! It was like spraying deodorizer on a pile of dog excrement. What were they thinking? It was a good thing we wereing here to change the leadership. The city really needed to figure out how to manage itself better. When we reached a road that was finally paved, I had to slow down on my own construction efforts. Beatrice politely pointed out to me that if I continued on as I was, I would create a perfect path leading right back to the army. That could give away our cover and give the city ample warning. So, I just elegantly dovetailed my own path into the paved road a few days out from the capital. It was disappointing that I wasn''t able to fix up the road too much without being suspicious. It certainly could have used an overhaul in both cleaning and construction. Still, I did my best to level it out and make sure all the loose stones were firmly pressed in. I didn''t think that it would be too noticeable, but I did the best I could. *** We arrived at the city gates a full two weeks before the army was expected to appear. Our merry band pushed themselves quite hard to make good time. By the time the capital''s walls loomed over us, everyone was exhausted and looking forward to lying down in a bed. Everyone except for me. I was fine, of course. Even Beatrice looked half asleep as she rode. As we approached the gate, I used my Sensory Disruption skill to project images of my surroundings in a little bubble around myself. The end result effectively removed me from other people''s vision. It was a new use of the skill I had practiced after speaking with Beatrice a little bit. She had proven quite concerned about me going unnoticed in the city, which I found prudent. There was a rather distressing pattern where I made unfamiliar humans in this world panic on sight. I would have done the same with Cliff, but she was just too big for it to be practical. She would also have to stay incredibly close to me the entire time, maybe even sit on my chassis. Otherwise, there was no possibility of keeping her hidden the entire time. So we decided it was best if she came into the city in the open rather than people thinking there was a stray wolf running loose. Instead of a particrlyrge dog. Though perhaps Cliff was reasonably sized around here. I wasn''t sure, still. Either way, Tanu was going to have to keep a close watch on her to make sure no one freaked out too much. But as long as she behaved, I thought everything would be all right. We queued up for entry into the city. But before we made it far, the wolf sitting next to Tanu''s side drew a lot of attention, and one of the guards jogged out to meet us. He nced over at us, trying to figure out who was in charge, but eventually, Beatrice stepped forward and cleared her throat. His eyes tore away from Cliff and focused on her. "Er, ma''am," he said, looking down on her. He kept his face mostly professional, but I could see a small smirk. "Madame Beatrice D''Lestrange at your service," she said with a slight curtsy. I havee with a branch of my father''s business to set up an outpost in the capital." Huh. I had never heard Beatrice''sst name before. It seemed much moreplicated than most people''s. The guard seemed to register the name, straightening slightly. His expression immediately became more polite, and he smiled. " "Ah, Miss D''Lestrange! It''s a pleasure to see you. I have to say, the rumors of your father opening a shop had reached even the guardhouse. I''m pleased to see you all made it in one piece." The guard''s head tilted to the side slightly. "I didn''t know that he was sending his daughter. I thought it was his sister that was going to be organizing the expedition. At least, that''s who the captain told us to watch out for." Beatrice''s face flushed slightly, and she replied in a bit of a rush. "Well, there was a change of ns. Last minute. My aunt was dyed slightly. Family matters." The man nodded and looked over our party again with a chuckle. "I''m surprised you didn''te with any wagons. It will be hard to sell goods that you don''t have." This time, Beatrice looked at him derisively. "Excuse me. We would not bring our merchandise into a city we have no set up for. The wagons and goods wille once we have secured proper amodations. A location to sell from and know the market. This is simply an expeditionary force. The wagons should be along soon. As should my aunt." The guard nodded smartly and didn''t argue further. "Well, follow me then." Our whole party moved off to the side and walked past the rest of the queue toward the gate. He took ast look at Cliff but shrugged and let it slide. As I rolled after them, Beatrice touched the guard''s forearm. "If I could trouble you perhaps you could send a runner to me the minute my aunt arrives. I would appreciate it greatly," she said and slipped him what looked to be at least two different coins. The guard made them vanish in a spectacr disy of dexterity before coughing into his hand. "Of course, ma''am. We have a special service for that, and I''ll put you down. You''ll just have toe and let us know where you''re staying or where a messenger can find you." Beatrice nodded. "I''ll let you know as soon as we have our rooms." He nodded, but I wasn''t really paying attention to the conversation anymore. I was too busy trying to figure out where the heck those two metal coins went. Even with my Advanced Sensors scanning his whole body, they were nowhere to be found. It was as if they had just disappeared. Did the guard have some sort of bribe-taking skill? It would be very concerning if this was the case. We made it into the city with no problems. Briefly, one of the guards brought out a leash for Cliff to wear while in the city. Still, a single half-snarl from therge dog quickly made them reconsider actually putting the thing on her. Soon, we were off. The guard had given us some directions to a few inns where they thought we might be able to find room for everyone and would be amodating to our assumed station. Beatrice sent most of our group in that direction, but I followed her on a separate task: finding an auction house. Apparently, the bank would sometimes sell foreclosed properties at a discount, and my human hoped to snag one of them. As for me, I just wanted to see the city and check on Beatrice. I figured everyone else would be fine in a group. As we meandered through the streets. I noticed a very odd pattern urring. There were a bunch of people in white robes at most street corners, yelling things about the end times and cleansing themselves before it was toote. While I agreed with the cleansing part, most of it seemed like nonsense. I watched the people around us and found that, for the most part, these people were generally ignored. A few times, people would stop and yell at them. Others would stop and talk briefly, usually receiving some sort of small token. Beatrice kept her distance from them. I wasn''t sure what she was thinking, but if she thought they were trouble, I would follow her lead. I kept my disguise up, and this allowed me to hover off of the streets. It was a really odd conglomeration of streets. Some of them were extremely tidy. In fact, I wouldn''t have minded rolling along them at all. But others were not so much. Beatrice had to pick her way along carefully to avoid stepping in anything untoward and dirtying her shoes. It went against every fiber of my being not to immediately clean the mess up, but that would have ruined my stealth. I would have had to wait until no one else was around beforeing back; otherwise, I might have gone insane. Slowly, we made our way toward the center of the city and the castle. There was an inner wall circling a wealthier district, and Beatrice had to talk to some guards to let us in. I could have, of course, hovered over the wall, but I didn''t want to leave her alone. Once we made it in, the streets immediately changed. Everything was more narrow but also better kept. Large buildings crowded the small streets, and opulent workces reigned. There were rows of beautiful miniature pces, all crammed up next to each other, and very narrow alleys connecting the few main streets that were intentionally kept broad enough for wagons to pass through. Things were clean, and no people were idling about. There was also no one yelling on street corners. Everyone walked about with purpose. As I observed small groups of people talking with each other, the quality of people''s clothes increased significantly. Even better, their overall hygiene was significantly improved from that of the rest of the city. Beatrice was able to fit right in, though. I was very proud of her as she walked with all the neat, important people with the proper poise. Even though her neck did look a little bit stiffer than it probably should have, judging by everyone else around her. She quickly stopped a couple of people and asked for directions, and then navigated down a few streets and approached what looked to be a very wealthy house. The sign above it read Capital Bank. After a quick conversation with the doorman, she walked inside. With the number of guards in this ce, I wasn''t sure if I should be concerned for her safety or relieved that she was well protected. But in the end, I resisted the urge to go exploring for myself and followed on her heels. Beatrice approached the first open desk and sat in a guest chair. The well-dresseddy behind it began a conversation with her that seemed to be aimed at establishing who Beatrice was. I let her take care of this for now and started to inspect the room more closely. It featured a nice marble floor, well kept though with a little dust in the corners, but the back rooms seemed quite a bit more interesting. Keeping my sensors fixed on Beatrice, I slowly rolled over to the room behind the desks. There, I found a massively thick door with huge rolled steel bars. For the moment, it was swung open as people bustled in and out so I could clearly pick up the interior on my visual sensors. I could not wait to tell Daedalus about this ce. He would love it. Chapter 252: A Night on the Town Chapter 252: A Night on the Town Bee tried her best not to shift ufortably in the chair as she waited for the banker to verify her information. Not that the chair itself was the problem, of course. The current situation she found herself in was far worse. Eventually, the woman looked up from behind her desk. A far more polite smile adorned her features now, the skepticism having all but vanished. "Madame D''Lestrange. Thank you for your patience while I verified your identity. Now, let me formally wee you to the Capital Bank. Your family ounts have been well-kept. Would you like to review them?" Bee shook her head, surprised that she even had full ess to the ounts. She wasn''t actually sure that she wouldve had ess to them at all, as her father had never mentioned such privileges to her. She had just hoped to use her family''s weight to maybe get some good deals on some foreclosed property. She expected to use the money that Void and the others had brought with them for their mission. But if she could actually use her father''s money. Well that would be better for the cause. "No, I don''t think I need to look at them right now. I simply need to make a few small purchases that you might be able to help me with. I will either returnter to examine them more closely, or my aunt will when she arrives," Bee said, continuing to stick with the story she had made up at the gate. She had no idea if her aunt was actually going to arrive anytime soon, but if she did, it was best if Bee had some cover to avoid her wrath. Aunt Be was truly an intimidating woman. For as long as she could remember, her aunt had always been a bit distant both emotionally and physically. Thetter was understandable at least, considering her roles in father''s overseas business adventures. But they had met a few times. And each time, the absolute stony gaze of the woman had convinced Bee that her aunt was not to be trifled with. "Very well, Madame D''Lestrange. What can I help you with?" "We are looking to set up shop here in the city as a possibility. Nothing is confirmed yet, but in order to begin considering it, we need a location. Not just a store but as a back-end location where we can hold dealings and meetings in a more appropriate setting. Bee exined what she was looking for to the woman. We''re looking to either buy suitable amodations for the family, staff, and day to day operations, or rent out a ce. Of course, we''re also looking for a good deal. The banker''s head bobbed up and down frantically. "Yes, yes, of course, madam, we have actually quite a lot of options. The recent changes to the nobility have left a lot of rather appropriate manors up for sale, and we haven''t been able to sell them to anyone. So buying one of those properties that the bank now has unfortunately found itself in possession of should be rather easy. The only issue is paying back taxes..." "Very well. I''d like to see the listings." The banker scurried into the back to speak to the manager while Bee drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair. She looked around the space as she waited. This truly was an impressive building. Her family was wealthy, but not quite wealthy enough to have things like gilded chandeliers and fine silk chair cushions for their day-to-day operations. At least, not as far as she was aware. Her father had always kept a reasonably sized two-story home in the middle of the merchant district. Nothing too ostentatious. So, seeing the gilded opulence of the banking hall had thrown her for a bit of a loop. But what was also surprising was the amount of deference the banker showed her. She was treating Bee as though she were a much more valuable customer than expected, something more akin to a major family. Not only that, but the first suggestion the woman had gone to was noble manors. Was she trying to upsell her, or was the bank really that desperate to get rid of them? Perhaps she just had more avable funds than she was aware of. The banker quickly came back with a concerningly tall stack of documents. "Here are all the suitable manors for sale that we have. Unfortunately, we don''t really have many options for renting, given the market right now." Bee nodded, scanning through the papers. She wasn''t sure if that was actually true, but if they were insisting that she buy, it would look bad if she didn''t take their suggestion with some seriousness. Flipping through, she saw location, locations, and sketches along with prices and estimated taxes. The prices were lower than she''d expected, even for foreclosures. It seemed that the woman had been serious when she said the bank was trying to get rid of these ces. After a lot of searching, she found a particrly interesting one near the bottom of the pile. That was the one. It was more than very reasonably priced for its location and also about the size they needed. 7 bedrooms might have seemed excessive, but it was honestly smaller than most of the other options she''d seen. Also, the reasonablyrge garden would help with privacy and work as a convenient meeting location. Although price of the property was rtively low, she figured out why when she looked at the taxes. Adding those to the equation brough the cost up significantly. Still, the total would be less than the other options were. "I think this one," she said. The banker paled. "Are you sure? Um. Perhaps you- you want to visit some of them?" Bee shrugged. "As long as it''s still standing, I think we''ll be able to make do with it." The banker bobbed her head again in her most earnest pigeon impression yet. "Of course, of course. Your family''s always been known for its good business sense. I''m sure that the value added to this property will be immense. I just didn''t think you would want to have to deal with that right away." Bee started to second-guess her decision. Value add. That usually didn''t mean that the property was in good condition, if she remembered her father''s monologues at the dining table. Right? Well, regardless, she was sure that she would figure it out. Perhaps they would need to hire some people to make repairs. Well, actually, as disciples of Void, they might be able to do a good amount of work themselves. Her resolve strengthened, she confirmed her choice. "Yeah, well, okay. Why don''t you take this with you?" The banker said as she wrote up a document and stamped it. "Here is the sale agreement. Why don''t you go look at the property? If you''re still interested, you can meet a representative here tomorrow morning and we can finalize the purchase. We can transfer the money right out of your ounts. If you decide not to, then we can always look at some other options." The banker finished her little speech while smiling graciously. Bee picked up the document and looked around. She had felt Void''s presence as her master followed her rather than goinstaying at the inn, but she had long since lost track of its shiny ckness even with her faith sense connecting them. Apparently, her god was much better at hiding than shed realized. She didn''t feel it right near her, but she trusted that Void was nearby. With her business finished, she started walking, hoping that her master would follow her. --- I followed Beatrice out of the bank after I had thoroughly recorded everything. Opening the very thick door was difficult, as it seemed that you needed to use a certain pattern of twists on a little knob before it would unlock. But after careful examination, it was fairly easy to figure out. I wasnt sure how I would get Daedalus snuck in to look at the piles and piles of shiny treasures they had stashed away, considering his bulk, but that was a problem for another day. Beatrice seemed to sense that I was nearby even though she couldn''t see me. As I rolled next to her, she whispered. "I don''t know how much of that you heard, but I secured us a base of operations for the near future. Hopefully, it shouldst us the week or two we need." I gave her aforting tap on the shoulder, which made her jump and spin around with a yelp. She eventually sighed and continued on. "We''re going to go look at the foreclosed manor before we head back home. I want to make sure it''s in an eptable location and big enough for everyone. There might be some fixing up we need to do to it as I got it really cheap, but I think overall it should be worth it. I didn''t even have to use our operational funds. I was able to skim some off of my family''s ounts." She seemed inordinately satisfied by this. I suppose it made sense, seeing how she viewed her father. But I wasn''t sure how to feel about her skimming money from his ounts. Wasn''t that kind of like theft? Or was it different because he was family? When we arrived at the manor, I couldn''t believe my sensors. Even Beatrice just stopped and stared. There was a manor there, all right, but it had not been abandoned recently like Beatrice had been led to believe. This must have been sitting empty for years. The stone manor was at least four stories tall and very imposing. The architecture was potentially beautiful, or it had been in the future, and the privacy wall was a nice benefit. But now there were nts growing all over it, and the gardens hosted a mix of untamed overgrowth and dead sticks. The front door was closed, but I could see arge gap from a hole that looked like it had been chewed in its corner. I couldn''t even begin to process what the inside was like. Eventually, Beatrice spoke as I spotted a rat peeking out from a broken window. This is worse than I thought. I was hoping that with us being disciples of you, master, we would be able to fix up small amounts of damage, but this This would require a full construction crew. It would definitely take longer than the day or so I had allocated for it. Beatrice let out a long sigh. Well, thats disappointing. We might have to tell them no and have them show us some of the other options. But maybe it''ll look better in the morning," she said, looking up at the dimming light. "It could be that thiste in the evening, and the shadows are making it look worse than it actually is." She sounded hopeful, but I could tell that she didn''t actually believe it herself. How did anyone ever let their home get to such a state? I suppose if they abandoned it, that might make sense. But they should at least make sure that their home is well cared for when they''re gone. I followed a dejected Beatrice home. Well, home was a bit of a strong word. Back to the hotel where the others had said they were going to try and meet. She eventually found Mat and his couple of his friends in themon room, and she passed along word of what the n was for tomorrow before heading up to her room. I checked in on each of the other party members. All of the not-Nighty Knights were now asleep, and the adults were either in bed or rxing in themon room. Seeing that everything was all right, I felt that it was finally time for me to go get some work done. There was already a lot of cleaning to be done around the city, and now I also had a manor that needed fixing up. No way I was letting anyone I cared about moving into that thing. It was just uneptable. So, as soon as everyone was asleep and night had really fallen over the city, I snuck out the back door. In the evening, the city looked even worse. Grime was everywhere, and the people I could see skulking around were clearly up to no good. I started off towards the manor, intending to take care of it first, but I kept getting sidetracked. There were at least 2048 little things that needed my attention, like piles of refuse that needed to be sucked up and transmuted into energy or an entryway that needed to be swept. And the number kept rising the further out my sensors extended. Even with my full processing power, this felt like too much. Sometimes, there were rodents that needed to be chased off. Or holes in the pavement. Or bloodstains on walls. When I finally brought my attention away from the uneven road I was currently working on, I realized I had gone far off my path and was actually near the front gates of the city. I refocused and checked the time. I had spent hours just fixing one thing after another, and I wasn''t even close to getting back to the home we back to the home Beatrice had set her sights on. I couldn''t let her be disappointed. Come morning, that ce had to be worthy of my humans. I''d ept nothing less. I still had time, but I couldn''t keep getting sidetracked like this. I started heading back in the direction that I originally intended. But then there was a pile of horse leavings right in the center of the road. Surely, I could pick up stuff like this without getting too sidetracked. As I pulled it in and converted it into energy, I received a notification shing in front of me. LEVEL 75 REACHED! CHOOSE A SKILL: APPLY PROTECTIVE COATING, CREATE FRUIT, INSPIRE FOLLOWERS. Well, well, well. It was about time. Chapter 253: House Flipper Chapter 253: House Flipper I read over my skill choices carefully. There were so many more variables I needed to considerpared to how I picked in the past. Now, when choosing a skill, I couldn''t simply pick the best one to improve my cleaning ability. I had other obligations as well. Cleaning may have been first and foremost, but it was not the only thing I was responsible for anymore. Honestly, there wasn''t an option here that was solely dedicated to cleaning anyway. There were no more basic tools or things that would improve my ability to remove dirt and filth, not this time. These were more meta-skills, and that made it much more difficult to choose from. I read through the list again. Applying a protective coating was probably the thing I would have picked if I had only considered my cleaning abilities. Still, I needed to think about my followers, their safety, their needs, and a lot more. Create Fruit and Inspire Followers were both in line with my expanded responsibilities. But I really needed to think about all the possibilities and ways I could use the skills. So I found a small hiding spot, crept in underneath a crawlspace, and gave a quick spin to clean the area around me. Then, I dedicated 5% of my processing power to monitoring the surroundings. The other 95% went solely toward figuring out this conundrum. Pretty quickly, I realized Inspire Followers was not necessary. My followers were already very inspired, and I had people like Beatrice who were doing a much better job than I ever could. As much processing power as I dedicated to understanding humans, they were still humans and, therefore, enigmas to me. I didn''t think that I would ever reach a satisfactory understanding of how they worked, not fully. Fortunately, I had other humans to do that for me. Part of having followers was being able to delegate tasks to them. I thought it would be an issue if I spread myself too thin, especially when it came to things that I didn''t specialize in. Create Fruit was a skill that could be incredibly helpful. However, thousands of apples were already stored in my dustbin from nting the orchards and forests outside the castle. My people would always need food, but there were so many ways to provide it. I pulled an apple out of the bin to inspect it. The glowing red fruit gave off little bits of sparkling magic dust that fell onto the darkened ground beneath me like embers. Yeah, it was probably fine. Cliff had been just fine after eating those glowy steaks, and Daedalus didn''t seem toin about his pie. While my dustbin did seem to do something to anything I stored within, it was at least something food-safe. I popped it back in my dustbin. I figured that I could probably nt some more of these. Then, I would have a never-ending supply of fruit that would never actually require my direct intervention to keep producing. Trent had all of that covered fairly well, anyway. That left Apply a Protective Coating. Initially, I had dismissed this one as it seemed to be rather basic. Still, I supposed it really depended on how protective the coating was. It would be rather useless if it was something like a sent for a wooden floor. Those simply let things like my wheels glide across surfaces without scratching them. But I hadn''t had to worry about scratching something with my wheels for a very long time. Ever since I got my Thrusters, my hovering didn''t leave marks on the floor unless I turned them up really high. Then, they''d been known to leave a scorch mark or two. I was always careful not to st off from the floor too much unless there was an emergency. Even then, I would always make sure to go back and remove the damageter. But if the protective coating grew the same way something like my sanitationmp did I briefly flicked mymp on and carved away a little rough spot on the rock. The bluish-purpleser burst forth from my front and vaporized the stone. If a sanitationmp could be something that I could use to cut through solid matter and slice mess-makers in half, perhaps a protective coating could be something so much more. If I used it on the walls outside the castle, could I make them so they would never have broken during that fight? I pictured coating a tree, a fruit tree maybe, with this protective coating and then watching Daedalus pour his fire onto its branches, leaving itpletely unscathed. Now, that would be impressive. But if that was the case, then I had to consider what powering up these other skills might do. What if Inspire Followers didn''t just make people feel more motivated but gave them extra strength? It still seemed like I might be stepping on Beatrice''s toes or something. What kind of fruit could I create, anyway? Could I create fruit that I already had seen? That might not be the most impressive since trees could do that. Could I create new kinds of fruit? Again, that might not be the best fit for me. Fruit was a food; while my humans needed food, I didn''t. I could probably identify whether they were safe to eat or if I identally filled one with poison, but would I really want to test that on one of my humans? Not to mention that I had absolutely no way of discerning the most important quality of a fruit: vor. Okay. My processing power was fully maxed, and I had thoroughly explored the options. It was time to see how they would work with my other skills. I went down my list, considering how each would work with my Dustbin, Mop, Grabby Arm, Sanitation Lamp, Sensors, Spray Bottle, Automatic Maintenance, and Air Purifier. I regretted taking thest one, but I did learn from it. I paused at Air Maniption. Suppose I had to apply a protective coating to a solid object. Could I make the air solid in front of me with my Air Maniption and then apply a protective coating to that? That had potential. I made a note of the idea, then moved on. Thrusters and my level 50 domain probably wouldn''t be relevant to any of them. Void Maniption, my Divine Sword Spiritual Cleanse, and Sensor Disruption None of them really had too much synergy. Maybe the Sensory Disruption and Inspire Followers work together in some way. But overall, it didn''t seem to be too big of a deal. After thinking about it for a few more seconds, my processors came to a consensus. As interesting as Create Fruit was, the possibilities for Protective Coating and Air Maniption were just too tempting to pass up. Settling on the choice, I selected my newest skill. I felt the information about how to use it downloaded into my memory banks as soon as I selected it. Without hesitation, I tried it out. I applied the coating to the ground around me and attempted to carve into it with myser. Theser passed right through the protective coating and carved into the road underneath it. Interesting. When I tried to spray some of Beatrice''s strong acid on it, it did nothing. I also couldn''t remove the protective coating by trying to mop it up once it had hardened. It seemed this was rather permanent. Next, I formed a solid barrier in front of me and applied my coating to it. It stuck. I felt it harden over the course of a couple of seconds, and I put the lowest power of the Sanitation Lamp on it to cure it. Then I rapped on it with my Grabby Arm. It felt very solid. I let the Air maniption Fade; the pane of the protective coating stayed in ce, suspended in the air. I hit it much harder with my Grabby Arm, rapping it with the force of a human punch. The blow rebounded, and I felt my Automatic Maintenance kick in to repair a slightly twisted joint in my w. Whoops. As strong as my arm was, I was still kind of fragile in some ways. While I recovered quickly, and I could hit very hard for my size, I could still take damage from a lot of things. But these results were promising. For my next test, I smashed into it with as much force as my arm could muster. The hardened coating didn''t move at all from where it was hanging. As the impact continued, I could feel the metal in my arm crack and bend. But eventually, I managed to chip the coating slightly. Okay, so it was notpletely impervious. My skills always grew the more I used them, but I would have to be pretty careful with this if I wasn''t able to remove the coating with the skill itself. I reached out with my Void Maniption, creating a pocket of nothing underneath the house I was hiding under, and consumed the protective coating. Plus, I now had a small shield stored away in my dustbin. Neat. I rolled out of the alcove and reestablished my Sensory Deprivation camouge as I continued on to my destination: the house Beatrice wanted to buy. *** When I arrived in front of the rusted wrought iron gates, I looked at the mess in the dark. It did look better than it had earlier. The dirt and damaged walls and everything were a lot less visible, but it was still going to require a lot of work. I zipped into action, boosting myself over the walls with a quick activation of my thrusters. I started by simply meandering through the estate and vacuuming the loose trash and dead nts. While I was at it, I leveled the ground into nice, evenly-packed dirt. I saved some of the grass and the grass seeds where they were still barely clinging on, but there were a lot of nts that just didn''t belong. As pretty as some of the yellow flowers were, I had been told that they did not fit into the idea of a neatly keptwn, so I consumed them and stored them in my dustbin forter nting. No need to waste good nts. It took me nearly half an hour to clean up the outside, just removing anything that shouldn''t be there rather than actually doing anything about it. I even managed to find a family of striped roons as I worked. I briefly tucked them in my dustbin to relocate them out of the city once I was done. They didn''t seem to belong here, and they were very angry when I found them, but I hoped they would forgive me. I entered the building itself through a broken window and picked up all the pieces of ss I could find. Inside was almost worse. There was broken furniture and destroyed artwork, and the carpets inside were all covered in charcoal markings, making some very crude words as if they had been drawn by some young teenagers. Quick applications of water with my Mop or just cutting certain scratches out with my sanitationmp were sufficient to remove most of it. Unfortunately, a lot of the rooms were now bare of any decoration after I had gone through them. It took me a significant amount of time to clean them all up, but they were simply bare stone with polished floors and scrubbed walls. No furniture. There was nothing for the humans to actually use once they moved in. That was going to be a problem. That was a problem forter, though. After I had finished repairing things, I moved from room to room, cleaning up as I went until I reached the grand entryway. Once more, I had to simply stop and stare. I couldn''t imagine how I would be able to get this all fixed in time. There were piles of stone just lying about randomly. I had no idea where they came from. The wooden supports of the hall had probably been impressive at one point, but now they were charred and barely holding together. I couldn''t move them or risk copsing the entire house. There also were strange reddish-brown stains everywhere, and I noticed an odd pattern that was somewhat familiar carved into the floor and filled with what looked to be salt and iron shavings. The pattern was partially missing, preventing me from reading it totally. Most of the inner script was ruined with a contained scorched st digging a crater into the marble floor. The beautiful stone had been disturbed, melted, and then reformed into a ggy pile that had to bepletely redone. I let out a long, sad beep. I wasn''t sure if I''d be able to get this done before Beatrice came in the morning. Perhaps I should refocus on some other things and just leave this for now. No. I strengthened my resolve. I needed to fix this. My humans deserved nothing less. Perhaps if I finished early enough, I would see if I could see if I could confirm what the circle was doing. It was awfully suspicious, after all. Chapter 254: Design and Conquer Chapter 254: Design and Conquer It took me several hours, but I eventually got all of the trash cleared away inside the manor. That wasn''t to say I was done, though. Not by a very, very long shot. Still, there were no longer random bits of broken furniture, dirt, and animal parts scattered around the house in a disordered fashion. I''d removed all the dust, but there were still stains in the rocks on the walls and imperfections on the floors, not to mention the disaster outside. Going through, I started with the floor. Obviously, it was the most important part. Using myser, I buffed out any imperfections and reapplied a fresh coat of Protective Coating. After I got it all looking nice, I just sealed the whole thing. This way, I wouldn''t have to deal with repairing damage very often, and I could just vacuum the dust off of it. Besides, exercising my new skill would make it much more useful in the future. And with all of the debris I had consumed, I had plenty of energy to run my still rather inefficient skill for quite a long time. Though I sealed the floor in most of the rooms, I left the grand hall alone for the moment. That would require major repairs to fix the damage done by whatever the apparent magic circle had been doing. Instead, I moved on to the walls. This was rtively easy byparison. Most of the time, I could just sanitize away any bloodstains, and there were no issues. I did manage to save exactly three wall hangings, which I thought looked rather nice. One was a field of flowers. Another was a painting of a tree, and the third was that of a mountain and some sort of angelic being hovering above it. The rest were all lost causes. Sometimes, they were just destroyed and ripped apart or stained with various fluids that I couldn''t get out without destroying the fabric. Some of them were just depicting very gross things that were not fit to be disyed anyway. So those I tucked away to turn into energy when necessary. There was very little furniture left as well, not to mention that most of the ss windows had also been broken, so I went about recing those. Making ss windows a bit moreplicated than expected. Fusing together ss shards in my dustbin just didn''t cut it. The only thing that I had that was see-through was my protective coating. But once I sprayed it on a mold of the window made with my Air Maniption, I couldn''t exactly move it, no matter how hard I tried. This matched with my earlier tests. I just hoped that it wouldst as I didnt have time to do a good stability test. The best way I had to move it was to reabsorb it into my dustbin and then expel it. My Void Maniption, while very potent, didn''t have the level of dexterity necessary to position it, so it took me several minutes for each window to perfectly line up the corners to match the window casings. But once I did, I had a practically unbreakable and invisible window. In fact, my sensors could barely pick up the fact that there was anything besides an open space before me. I supposed it did look a little odd. It looked like we just had no windows, as even light didn''t get refracted through the clear material, but perhaps it would be kind of special. After the third or fourth attempt, I figured it would work fairly well if I could form the mold in the air exactly where the window would be. The only issue then was plugging up the small gaps the air left between the window and frame. But that simply required a second pass. With myser being able to harden the coating quickly at the right settings, I was soon zipping through the manor once more, filling in every window. After every window was repaired, I took a small roll backward to examine my work. The mansion was in rtively good shape now. There weren''t any major issues with it besides the massive crater in the entryway and the still rather chaotic-looking outside. But inside was livable. Except it didn''t have any furniture. I wasn''t sure I''d be able to fix that, though. I supposed maybe I could craft furniture, but that was going to be tricky. I''d made plenty of small things in my dustbin, but full-on furniture? It would certainly be arger project, not to mention a more time-consuming one. Perhaps I could leverage my new skills there as well. But for now, I had to focus on the task at hand. Instead, I thought about focusing on the outside areas. I zoomed outside and repeated my cleaning process, removing any sort of organic material or shaving it off with aser. Sometimes, just spraying things with my Spray Bottle and removing it with my Mop was more efficient. While I worked, I purified the air as well. My sensors had already indicated a high concentration of unpleasantpounds in the air before I started working. Plus, all of the melted rock andsering seemed to create some odd fumes. But with my filters running on full st, I quickly cycled the air through them, removing any impurities. I did the same outside, and I was surprised by how much pollen was floating in the air. I guess spring really wasing. Once the outside of the manor was all polished and looking fancy, I looked at some of the wooden sections and realized that they needed a new coat of paint. Now, that was an issue. I ran through my options. I didn''t think I had any ability to make paint. That meant I might have to make a stop somewhere soon. ncing around, I realized the outer wall still needed to be fixed, but it probably could wait. The living conditions for my humans were far more important. So, leaving the manor for the first time in hours, I went to the shopping district in search of buckets of paint. *** The sun was just peeking over the horizon when I finally found something suitable: arge warehouse full of buckets of colored liquid. I followed some of the workers from that warehouse to a shop that was just opening up as the sun peeked over the horizon. When one of the doors was open, I turned perpendicr to the ground and slipped through the crack. I just barely managed to make it inside. The inside of the store was full of colored cards depicting what the paint would look like when it was dried. My scanners picked up a rather impressive variety of shades, from bright pink to dusky green to some weird yellow-brown that I was fairly sure I had cleaned up earlier as a stain. I marveled at the selection of colors avable. I spent a decent amount of time just analyzing them, using my mental models to picture those colors in our new house. Eventually, after plenty of consideration, I decided on a brilliant red for the majority of the house. It would work quite nicely with the white marble floors. Just for fun, I decided to also pick up some lustrous gold for ents and filigree. A few spots required some green and blue as well, so I zipped through the aisles, looking for those colors. Just as I was about to grab a can of red, I realized something. I didn''t have a way to pay for this. Worse, even if I did, I was supposed to be keeping a low profile. How was I supposed to make a purchase? Disappointment filled me. I''d have to wait and show them to Beatriceter. She would be able to arrange for delivery and payment. I grabbed a few of the sample paint chips to show her. Still, hopefully, she wouldn''t mind that I couldn''t actually finish painting the manor before everyone arrived. Realizing the w in my ns, I was disappointed in myself for choosing to leave to go look at the paint selection before I had finished cleaning everything I could. I gave myself a very light scolding as I zipped back to the manor, soaring over the streets to get there quicker and save time. Luckily, Id gotten everything major finished. We still needed furniture, and I had to fix the crater in the main hall. But all those could wait a little bit until the grounds were in a better condition. I took a lot of the leftover grass seeds I had and began to fire them out of my dustbin in a light arc, spraying them all across where I wanted thewn to be. I made sure that everything was densely enough popted that the grass could grow sessfully, yet not so dense that it would choke itself out. I worked on nting some flowers, too. I tried not to borrow too many from the neighbors. And then, in the back, I took out one of my apples that I had stored. The magical embers floated off of it andnded in the grass, glowing softly as they sunk into the ground. Carefully, I split it into appropriate chunks and buried them in a row along the back wall. That would look nice, I thought, picturing several years from now when a nice section of apple trees would be growing up the wall. I wondered if their offspring would glow the same way. I was sure it would look pretty cool if they did. Realizing that my time was now almost up, I returned to the manor''s entry hall and took a closer look at the crater. I wouldn''t simply be able to patch them up with a little bit of leftovers. I would need to find whatever quarry this marble came from, see if there was any more stone, and use that. Otherwise, it wouldn''t match. Either that or I needed to rece the entire floor. Looking at the marble, I didn''t really want to do it. I did like the look of it. I wasn''t as impressed with the workmanship as I was with the floors back in the castle, but it would be a shame to waste all of it. I supposed I could improve it, but I waffled back and forth. Either way, they could wait for now. I''d have to do a patch job and then probably rece itter. That seemed to be good enough. Still, I would need to go get some marble, at least somewhat matched. Otherwise, it would look atrocious. Carefully, I took in as much detail as my sensors could possibly manage, waiting a full five minutes for the scan to perfectly map out the entire set of runes in the circle. Once I had a perfect model, I left to go find some marble. In the meantime, I dedicated a decent amount of my processing power to decoding the symbols. They weren''t runes that I was familiar with, and I had read a lot of runes. It was almost as if this was apletely different runguage. The patterns were simr, though they reminded me of how summoning circles were written in the mages'' textbooks in the castle. The same sort of sentence structure, even if the letters and words werepletely different. It also is very much iplete, with only the outer ring beingpletely represented. The inner ring waspletely gone, and only 30% of the second ring remained. The outer ring, I was fairly certain, was simply a protection hoarding, and likely that was the only reason it survived and contained the st. I didn''t know enough about these characters to determine what had been summoned, sadly. Still, I would keep at it and keep my eyes open for anything simr. Perhaps I should let Beatrice take a look at it and see if she could figure out what was going on. Perhaps her insight would be useful before Ipletely destroyed it. Chapter 255: Extreme Makeover: Void Edition Chapter 255: Extreme Makeover: Void Edition Bee slept fitfully that night. Perhaps it was just the feeling of being in an ufortable bed somewhere unfamiliar. But she was pretty sure it had more to do with the manor she was nning on buying. She really hoped it looked better in the sunlight. She couldn''t believe she was really having to go through with this, but it really did seem to be the best option. And if they could spend a little bit of time fixing it up, it would work even better. As it was, it would still be better than camping. They had their tents and sleeping rolls after all, so in the worst case, they''d clear out a few rooms and spend a couple of days making it livable. But it would make a good base of operations if no one seemed to notice it. The purchase might raise some eyebrows, but her family getting into real estate wouldn''t be that conspicuous. It would be, as the banker said, a good value add project. As the sun rose and her thoughts whirled, she eventually rolled out of bed and looked around. Normally, Void rested under her bed overnight, but she hadn''t seen her master at all ever since she got back. Shrugging, she went downstairs and found that Talia and Mrs. Chadwick had taken over the inns small kitchen and were cooking up a storm. Where the innkeeper was, she had no idea. The few children and men sat around the table, eating and preparing to go out for their day''s tasks. Bee joined in, snagging a te of bacon as it was passed along. As she sat down, everyone paused their conversation for a second to look at her and see if she had anything to tell them. She gestured for them to continue, and the breakfast resumed. Once she had eaten a little bit, she cleared her throat, and everyone''s attention returned to her. "Everyone knows what they''re doing this morning?" They all nodded, but Bradley raised his hand. "Uh, no?" He looked at Irene and Tanu next to him, each seeming confused. Bee groaned inwardly. She wasn''t excited about the idea of having to exin that they wouldn''t get tasks as they were children, and looking at the set of their faces, she realized they probably wouldn''t ept that anyway. And so, instead of giving them free rein, she figured she''d give them a rtively safe task. I want you three to go out, y with the other children, and make friends. Don''t show off your powers, ability, levels, or skills, and try to figure out what''s been going on in the city. It''s an important task, even if it doesn''t seem like it. Sometimes kids have a unique perspective on things that adults miss. She waspletely winging it. But maybe some good woulde of this. Who knows, maybe they''d make some friends that weren''t children obsessed with cleanliness and swordy. She kind of doubted it, though. The others all needed no more exnation. They had long since nned the roles they would take in gathering information and preparing the capitol''s upants for Lord Void''sing. "We will likely be moving out here sometimeter today, maybe tomorrow, depending on what sort of condition we can get the new ce in. I''m going to be purchasing a manor house for us to use as a base of operations. So I suspect sometime in the afternoon you should all be ready to move. A round of nods met the deration. All right. Make sure you alle back here for lunch. And if anything goes wrong" Bee thought for a moment, trying to figure out exactly what they could do to send a signal to her. "If anything goes wrong, pray to Void." She finished. Her faith sense had improved to the point where she could sense something like fluctuations in a person''s faith. Praying seemed to act as an amplifier, something that temporarily strengthened the threads that tied her to her people. Not to mention that Void might hear those prayers and just help out itself. Bee left the hotel soon after and made her way over to the manor house. She would be there just in time to meet the bank representative to confirm her purchase. It did mean she had to walk quickly and wasn''t able to look around the city much, though. She did want to stop and listen to a few of those white-robed men on the corners yelling. Normally, street preaching wasn''t something she would be involved with, along with any other sane citizen. But given her current goals, it might actually be something she could learn from. Perhaps if these people were as weak-minded to yell about whatever god they were talking about. They could be convinced to change allegiance in the face of incontrovertible evidence of a divine power amongst them. That wasn''t the only reason she was interested, though. The foreign strands of faith that she detected from these people concerned her as well. How could these people possibly believe in Void? Had someone begun spreading the word here without her knowledge? If so, why did their faith feel so... strange? She shelved that idea forter and continued towards the manor. When she rounded the corner and saw the manors outer wall, she winced. If anything, it looked worse in the morning. The moss-covered stone and creeping vines gave the cracked wall an almost haunted feel. But when she got close enough to see through the gate, she gaped in amazement. All the graffiti and damage that she remembered had been patched up, though the broken windows seemed to have just disappeared. The grounds had also changed into a neat little garden with a few small blooms sprouting up from the flowerbeds. Everything had been trimmed neatly, and a lushwn grew where previously only dirt had been. This was not the same manor she remembered. Not in the least. Had the lighting truly yed tricks on her? She didn''t have more than half a second to examine it before someone rounded the opposite bend. The professional-looking man in a tight-fit suit clearly represented the bank. He greeted her with a bow. "Madame D''Lestrange, it''s a pleasure to meet you." She returned an appropriate greeting, and the man looked over at the manor. His eyes widened in confusion, and he looked down to check his papers and then the sign at the corner of the road. "I seem to be in the right location... Yet this seems different than what I was led to believe." Bee nodded. "It seems that it was in better condition than I had hoped when I first saw the documents. I was surprised that you were offering such good rates on this. Now, I''d like to get this over with immediately. I need to move my staff in as soon as possible." The banker smiled nervously, wiping some sweat from his brow. "Oh yes, of course, madam. I just need to check some details and make sure I brought the right documents. There might have been some mistake," he said frantically, looking through the stack of papers he had carried with him in a small leather satchel. Bee smelled his nervousness and knew exactly what was happening. He was thinking he could change the deal and squeeze some more money out of her. He was a banker, after all. But as he flipped through the pages, she cleared her throat. "There is no mistake, sir. I already signed the initial papers when I was at the bank branch, and this is only a confirmation of the purchase. A very smart option contract that your boss hadid out for me," she said, stressing the fact that the decision was already made well above his pay grade. He would not take the fall for selling something clearly worth so much more than what she was paying for it, not when he didnt make the sale. Of course, paying a bit more shouldn''t matter too much, considering she was using her father''s money. But still, a deal was a deal. She wasn''t a little girl who would let herself get railroaded like this. The man nched, indecision warring on his face. Eventually, he handed over a stack of papers and a thin wooden board for her to write on. Bee scratched out the final signatures, and he countersigned before handing her a slip of paper that she read over. It was, in fact, the deed notarized by the proper offices in the government. Well, madame have a good day, the man said faintly as he handed her an iron key. She looked at the rusted gate, kind of doubting that it would work. "If you need any of our services, please do not hesitate to pay us another visit." With that, the man turned around and left. Bee looked up at the manor and smiled. Before she could even step forward, Void materialized in the air just on the inside of the gate, waving happily with his little arm. Well. That certainly exined a few things. --- I enthusiastically greeted Beatrice as she attempted to shove a key into a rusted metal lock of the gate. Her efforts were unsessful. It was rusted enough that she couldnt even insert the key fully to attempt to turn it. I simply helped her out with a quick burst of my sanitationmp to cut the lock, then pulled the squealing gates inward so she could walk through. She smiled at me and closed the gates afterward. That was something else I''d have to repair, but I wanted to make sure everything else was good before focusing on that. Plus, Beatrice wanted to be inconspicuous. Modifying the gates and walls would be a bit more obvious from the outside. Looking at the walls, though, I did like the vine-covered look. Maybe I would keep that or some semnce of it. It could still use a little bit of trimming. "Master, it appears you''ve had a busy night," Beatrice said with a bow. I agreed and, with an enthusiastic beep, pulled out my paint chips and handed them over to her. She looked at them, confused. "What are these? Colors? Paint chips? She held the little cards up to the house and squinted. "It''s a rather bold choice of red.... but I could see it working." She flipped the card over, seeing the address that I had printed on the back with the lightest application of myser. "We can make a stop thereter today, I suppose. I''m assuming you want to get enough paint to do the whole house?" I nodded enthusiastically. Bobbing up and down in a facsimile of human agreement. She smiled. "Well, I''m sure it''ll look amazing." Before anything else, I pulled her inside the walls, excited to show her how the house had shaped up. We first made a tour around the grounds, and she made the appropriate sounds of amazement at my hard work. Honestly, this had been the most difficult part of the cleaning. The nts hadn''t really wanted to grow, but I found if I infused a little bit of energy, I could coax them along. It wasn''t nearly as effective as the skills I had seen being used for growing, but it could speed things up just a fraction, if not fix issues. That was how I ended up with nts that looked several months overnight. I wasn''t sure if I''d let them grow naturally or if I would continue working at it over the next couple of days to bring them up to speed; I''d probably just let them go, as that would be less wasteful. And who knew, maybe they''d surprise me with some interesting patterns. When we went inside, I first showed her the massive crater and the unfamiliar summoning ritual. She looked at it, and we both examined it carefully for some time, but eventually, she shook her head. It appeared she didnt have many more ideas than I did. "I mean, it''s clearly some sort of summoning," she said, but it''s hard to tell what''s going on without reading some of the inner circles. And you''re right. I don''t recognize thisnguage at all. I have a bad feeling about it, though." Beatrice traced one of the jagged characters on the ground. With that out of the way, I went to show her the rest of the ce. She was appropriately amazed at the windows I had installed and even loved the work I''d done with the chandelier. It had taken some time for the candles to marinate in my void, but now they produced continuous light without even having to be lit. This made the grand hall quite fabulous as motes of magical light showered gently down from the chandelier. Most of them dissipated before long before they even touched the ground. "Now about that paint?" I asked. Chapter 256: Home Away from Home Chapter 256: Home Away from Home I excitedly waited at the corner as Beatrice made her way to me as fast as she could. I couldn''t help but bounce in the air slightly as I hovered, unwilling to let myself rest on the ground. The prospect of having new paint was simply too much. Beatrice was power walking as fast as she could without looking suspicious, but still, it took her several seconds to reach the corner. I zipped off to the next one. Despite my excitement, I was trying to make my concealment a little bit less conspicuous. Before, I had just projected false images around myself to hide my presence. However, now I needed to make sure Beatrice could selectively see me to follow. Of course, this only worked some of the time, and I was pretty sure a few people caught glimpses of me along the way. But they mostly just shrugged it off or acted a little spooked. There were no cries of rm or anything that drastic. With a bit of guidance, Beatrice followed my optimized route to the paint shop. We arrived just as they were opening, and despite Beatrice''s limited speed, we hadn''t really lost any time because of it. A little bell hung above the door chimed as she opened it. A young man sat behind the counter, looked up from whatever he was doing at the entry desk, and greeted Beatrice with a smile. "Hello, miss. Is there anything I can do for you today?" I visibly saw Beatrice''s face change as she adopted the persona of her merchant''s daughter. She lifted her head and met the man''s eyes with a cold indifference that just didn''t fit her personality. "Yes, there is. I have recently acquired a manor in my father''s name. And I have been sent to pick out paint styles." The young man looked dubious at the im but went along with it. Her air of confidence carried her through what would have been an awkward encounter as he questioned her ability to buy a manor at her age. Apparently, her family was only well-known in the right circles. A random paint shop clerk probably wasn''t aware of who she was, even if she had given him her fathers name. Even so, the confidence she carried herself with was undeniable. She didn''t move to follow the man as he moved to the paint chip disy but instead pulled out the ones I had given her. He frowned as he looked over them. "These are our markings on the back, but these colors don''t quite match. Don''t think we have any paints that sparkle." She looked at them again, and I mentally chided myself. What was I thinking? Leaving them in my dustbin? Of course, that would alter the coloration. One more thing to be careful about. I really needed to invest some time into a solution for this issue. "Well, luckily, they still have the codes on the back." The man said as he flipped them over. "Yeah, well, we still have these lots, though we are a bit light on the light turquoise. Hopefully, you didn''t need too much of that." Beatrice''s eyes widened, and I realized I didn''t tell her how much of each one I wanted. Quickly, I found some paper lying around in my dustbin and printed out the precise amounts of each one. I slipped the note into her hand through Air Maniption. She flinched as it brushed her fingers but picked it up and scanned through it quickly. "Yes. The light turquoise" She said as she scanned her list. "We only need three gallons of that." And the man nodded. "Sure. Small orders. That''s going to be at a higher price point. But how much is the rest of the stuff?" She quickly read through and. By the time she was done, the clerk was grinning. I wasn''t sure why, but he seemed happy with the amounts we were getting. Beatrice negotiated slightly about the price, and once they were both satisfied, she paid a little extra to have the paint delivered to the addresster that afternoon. The afternoon part had cost her nearly double what the shipping would have been if she had been willing to wait a day or two. But I was proud of her for taking the initiative. That kind of dy was simply not an option. With that taken care of, we headed back towards the rest of our party. When Mrs. Chadwick saw us, she stuck her head out the door leading to the stables and yelled. A few minutester, the not-Nnighty Kights came scrambling in the door. I was proud to see it. They each kicked their shoes together, knocking off most of the dirt theyd collected before scrubbing the rest off on the mat left outside. They could have been cleaner themselves, but at least they were showing consideration for my teachings. I also didn''t hear anyining about them leaving whatever game they were ying. Once things got settled, everyone gathered around her expectantly. She cleared her throat, making sure that she had everyones attention. "So we''ve picked out a spot that is quite good for us. We do not have some of the amenities that we would like, such as furniture, but we will probably be able to pick that up in a day or two. We''re going to move locations as soon as possible. I''ll settle things with the innkeeper, and the rest of you should all follow Void. Once you''ve packed your belongings, well be staying at our new home for the foreseeable future." Everyone nodded, curious to see what Beatrice had procured for them. I was certain they would be pleased, especially after the upgrades I could addter today once the paint arrived. Meanwhile, Beatrice went and talked with the innkeeper. The rest of our group headed upstairs, and I helped some of the not Nighty Knights organize their belongings a little more efficiently so they could actually fit into the small bags they had. Their default method of simply stuffing everything in didn''t work nearly as well as they''d probably hoped. Within 20 minutes, we were out of the inn and heading towards the manor. Moving through the streets with arge group of people was a bit chaotic. The children had to be watched constantly, or else they were liable to wander off and start up some sort of conversation with random adults or other children. I was happy that they were being social, but still. It seemed a bit excessive. However, most of the encounters proceeded without incident. Most of them. About halfway through our trip, Bradley got into a yelling argument with one of the white-robed men on the corner. The man had been shouting something strange about the end times as usual, though the content of his speech had gone straight into my memory banks. It hadn''t seemed relevant to much of anything, to be honest. "That''s not true! Lord Void doesn''t kill farm animals to avoid their waste!" Bradley yelled up at the very surprised yet equally irate man. "He calls for proper care and order for them. Waste is a natural part of order, and we have to deal with that. Why, I''ve seen Lord Void himself care for sheep." The man started screaming something about the child being a heretic and demanded to know where he had seen Lord Void. Bradley was understandably confused. Who thought I would be for killing all animals to stop their defecation? I mean, I might have considered that a while ago, but now? It just was too impractical. Besides, humans needed to eat. The logic didnt even make sense. Should we kill all humans because they also defecated? That just seemed silly. My job was to bring order where I could and prevent disorder when necessary, but there was a limit to that. We had to let the rest of the world y out and then order it as it came. Order was a choice. When it came down to it, everyone had the right to choose not to follow the way of order. I had the right to correct them, of course, but that was it. I gently tugged on Bradley''s sleeve to pull him along, leaving the shouting man behind. I didn''t want to risk this strange argument turning into anything else. When we finally made it to the manor, everyone stared in appropriate awe. Once we got the gates open and they were inside, the cascade of magical sparks in the chandelier was a great hit. So much so, in fact, that I thought about updating some of the castle to feature something simr. It would be fun, not to mention even more efficient. Open mes did cause soot stains in the ceilings that were rather hard to remove, but magical mes now had potential. --- Bee''s skin crawled as Void pulled Bradley Chadwick away from the man robed in white. Suddenly, it clicked. Something must have happened that spread the word of Void''s teachings away from the castle, away from Caleb. It must have happened some while ago, too. That would exin the spiritual connections between these robed men and her spiritual sense. Of course. It also exined the different vors, as it were. The teachings these people were professing did not at all match with what she had learned from her time spent with Void. In fact, they were often rather sickening. There was a distorted, twisted view of cleanliness and order. Yet Void hadn''t seen fit to correct them, so she deferred to her master. She would just move on, for now, getting everyone to the manor in an orderly fashion. Unfortunately, it was impossible for her to pull her mind away from the oozing quicksand that the false beliefs were. It took under an hour to show everyone around, select rooms, and settle in a little bit. Some of the adults were tasked to go find basic furniture so that they didn''t have to use sleeping pads tonight. But as soon as that was taken care of, Bee headed out to see if she could talk to one of these actual cultists and figure out what was going on. These men in white seemed dangerous. But if they truly were willing to believe in Void, perhaps she could teach them the right way to go about their worship. If so, then most of their job would already be done. Especially if these people had as strong of a foothold as it seemed in the city. How exactly this faith had spread so quickly and ubiquitously baffled her, though. She never did find that yelling things at people was a good way of convincing them to do anything. Any argument she''d have with her father that devolved into yelling never aplished anything. Actually, as she thought about it more, she realized that the only time her father had ever managed to get her to do anything his way was with calmer appeals and a bit of bait at the end. Some incentive to do things his way. And Void never had to convince her of anything. Her master just led by example. It did what it did, and she would observe and interpret those actions to teach others. It was up to them to extrapte the meaning behind them and understand how to live their life. Maybe Void itself would be helpful here. How could it not if it truly was the god that these people imed to follow? But even at the castle, her master preferred to take a more hands-off approach and leave such things to her. Of course, when asked, her master would usually give some sort of interesting bit of advice. It was usually told in some sort of analogy, too. That was useful for determining one''s path, but it only went so far. She wasn''t sure of her ability to do the same, to show these people the right way of things. But what kind of High Priestess would she be if she couldnt handle something like this? She found a young woman, one of the few female street preachers, giving a much more reasonable sermon about the health benefits of washing one''s hands on a corner. No one was actually paying attention to her. Hurrying forward, Beatrice came up and interrupted thedys rather eloquent diatribe. "Excuse me. I''m new to the city. Could you tell me more about what you people in white are doing?" Thedy blinked as if surprised that Bee could actually see her. It felt as though no one else had been willing to talk to her. "Eh, uh, yeah, yeah!" She stammered before, eventually, the elegance of her previous speech returned. "You would like to hear more about the Church?" She asked, the surprise still evident in her tone. "In a sense," Bee said. "I think there''s a lot we have to talk about." Chapter 257: Theology 101 Chapter 257: Theology 101 Finalizing my painting decisions had only taken a few hours, but it drastically changed the look of the mansion. The adults also arrived with some basic furniture that allowed us to have a table and some chairs, along with simple cooking utilities. They''d have to make do with sleeping on bedrolls atop rugs for now, but they had dealt with much worse in the city. Transporting enough beds for the entire mansion just wasn''t feasible in such a short period of time. I helped them arrange what they had and touched up a few things that I had missed on my first several passes. By the time night fell, though, the manor was in an almost eptable condition. The only thing I hadn''t done was fix up the gates, and that was just because I hadn''t really put enough thought into how I was going to work the metal. But for today, they could wait. As everyone settled down for the evening, I considered what to do next. There were still other things I could do around here, but nothing pressing anymore. That meant I might have time to prioritize other things. Was it time for me to finally go out into the city and clean? It would make sense. The city certainly needed the help. At night, I could work openly without having to worry about hiding my presence too much. Humans certainly couldn''t see well enough that I would need to keep my camouge up all the time, at least. Plus, I wouldn''t have to worry so much about keeping track of my humans when they were all asleep. It was an excellent opportunity to do my own thing. Once I made sure everyone was allfortable and there was no danger nearby, I hovered myself over the outer wall. Then, I started to head into the city. I wasn''t going to just clean in a circle around our manor. That would be suspicious, and Beatrice did want it to stay unnoticed for a little while while she was setting things up. So, instead, I trundled over towards the city gate and started cleaning from there in a broad arc. I wasn''t doing anything super fancy yet, like polishing the road''s stones. Right now, I contented myself by just moving at a quick pace. It would allow me to clean up refuse and give a general quick wash of everything. I could maybe do some more detailed passester if I had time, but this was the highest efficiency and rate of return that I could give the city. This makeover wouldst quite a while, as some of the refuse I was removing from the stone streets had evidently been there for years. I wasn''t sure when thest time some of these thin alleyways were cleaned, but I wouldve believed it if they had never been touched by a broom or mop. I worked my way towards the fancier parts of the city where I could move even faster. It took far less effort to clean something that was regrly swept, if not deep-cleaned like I was intending. As I reached the opening of a very nondescript alley, I saw Beatrice walking, her head hung low. She made her way back to the manor. Huh. I wonder what that was all about. I should go talk to her. --- The lone street preacher led Bee to a little basement into a corner of a street far into the Warrens. It was normally a nasty part of the city, but this spot was different. Within a dozen yards of the gathering ce, everything was cleaned. The normally grimy stones and dpidated buildings transformed into painstakingly shined surfaces and freshly painted facades. When the two of them slipped into the room, it was set up in a strangely familiar configuration. An older man with gray at his temples stood at a lectern, speaking to a small congregation sitting in rows of chairs facing the front. "-And so shall things be cleansed!" he intoned, with a very strange diction, as if he was trying to speak more formally than he actually knew how. "We shall sweep the streets and purge all those who dare defile thend. We shall raise our presence and, in the name of Lord Void, rise up like the cleansing tide!" As he yelled, he shook his fist at the sky before he mmed it down on the lectern. A book ced atop it jumped slightly as he cried out in passion. He was working himself up, and the crowd was nodding along and murmuring phrases of agreement. Bee listened for a few minutes as the man went on and on about how the world would be so much better if only things were cleaned up. Not just houses and cities but those causing such filth and disorder in the first ce. Including unenlightened humans. And once they were taken care of the world would return to its natural state with none of the disorder that life caused. And the world would be better for it. She had some questions. Bee raised her hand to ask a question as if she was in a small ssroom rather than wherever this was. The man paused mid-sentence and stared at her raised hand, confused about what to do for several seconds. Once he realized her hand wasn''t disappearing, though, he stopped and waved in Bee''s direction as though giving her permission to speak. "So. You''re saying the ultimate goal of the faith is to end all life?" She asked in a falsely credulous voice. "No, miss... of course not. We simply strive to make the world clean. If life has proven unable to handle this level of purity, it may have to go, but that is not set in stone. Perhaps we can teach the world to live in order." The man reassured her in a somewhat uncertain tone. Bee was not satisfied. She pressed him further. "And how is it that you''ve interpreted Lord Void''s words to mean that? Have his teachings not been clear?" She couldn''t stop wondering where such ideas hade from. "Well. The prophet often speaks about how disorderly humans can be and how the city needs to be cleaned up of all filth and all who make it. And every human makes filth to some level or not. So we must start by cleaning the filth created and stopping the worst offenses from urring again. Then we can eventually get to the point where no more is even created." Bee had a sinking suspicion, and she could feel the zealing off his man as he tried to hide his quite hideous dogma behind honeyed words and false promises. She smiled sourly at the man. "But you admit that you yourself make a mess as well." He nodded sagely. "Of course, miss. No human is perfect. We all make great messes. I am no worse nor better than any other man. He smiled smugly and bowed in apology. Bee saw through the faux look ofmiseration on his face. The audience ate up his words, murmuring about how humble he was. But Bee had a question. "Well, if you are such a causer of mess, why have you not removed yourself?" The man straightened proudly. "People need to be around to make sure the work gets done. And if it has to be me... The world may have to bear with my presence a bit longer, for I shall remove more disorder and filth from the world than I cause until that is no longer true." "Mm. So you just wish to be thest to go?" The man spluttered in indignation at Bee''s ability to see through his deceptions so easily. The congregation started to speak, shouting over each other as they turned and talked to their neighbors. Bee heard snippets of conversation erupt from all around. "Yes. What is the point of cleanliness if nothing is here to observe it?" "Right." "Well, I''ve heard the Lord Void himself is not organic or living so clearly. There should be intelligence to enjoy the order without life." "Yeah, well, I mean, sure, we get rid of the rats in our house, but we don''t kill the cats. That would just be absurd." "We can''t get rid of the cats until there are no rats." "But we''ve never once been able to firmly extinguish rats, so calling for the extermination of all of them is rather pointless!" "You doubt that Lord Void couldn''t get rid of all rats?" "That''s just not how things go. Maybe he could do it personally. But then, why hasn''t he already done it? He clearly doesn''t wish for that." The discordant voices made up a rather coherent conversation in multiple parallel lines as everyone agreed or disagreed with their neighbors, yelling out points about the faith. Bee leaned back for the most part until, eventually, someone next to her turned in her direction. "You seem to have different ideas than these street preachers. I, of course, understand that their message of cleanliness is great to be heard, but why do you have such different ideas? Where have you gotten these from?" Bee heard snippets of conversation erupt from all around. Beeunched into telling the story of Lord Void''sing. Of the summoning in the mage''s castle, the fights with demons, and its ability to clean them all up. She talked about Void''s flight to Caleb to save the city. She didn''t tell the story from her perspective, though. She told it as if she had been one of the members of the faith listening to her preaching in the castle. She wasnt quite ready to back up her im as High Priestess of the faith just yet. They were still supposed to be keeping a low profile, after all. People had been enraptured. Even the one preaching had stopped to listen to her tale. Though they seemed curious about the whole thing, her mention of Caleb, in particr, turned heads. Evidently, that story, in particr, was quite familiar to them. They had a slightly different view of the actions that had taken ce there, though. The facts were never really in question, as they had heard the same story, but the meanings they derived from it were very different. The organization apparently had originally taken root in Caleb. As they worked to fix their city and clean up the mess that the zombies had made, the teachings then spread to the capital at some point. Bee spent nearly an hour going over the philosophical differences and found that their faith was much harsher than the one she had cultivated at the castle. She didn''t think Void would necessarily approve of their direction. But she clearly wasn''t able to convince everyone, and the meeting adjourned with no real conclusion about who was right. People filed out, heading to go about their evening. The leader called out to her as she made to leave. "Miss, may I have a moment of your time?" She nodded and stayed behind until just the two of them were left. Then, the older man sat in one of the chairs. "The castle that Lord Void first appeared at. Youe from there?" Bee nodded, eliciting a smile from the man. "Then there are truly others who follow the faith, even if your views differ from ours. If I might be so bold. May I ask what your goals are for visiting here?" "Yes," she said, "you may ask. Lord Void has questions about this ce. About the attack on the castle the king perpetrated, in particr. I havee as part of an investigation and perhaps to spread the word of Void through the city. To prepare it for hising." Up to this point, she hadnt really identified Void as male. However, it was prettymon among everyone shed met, so it was easier tomunicate that way. Once again, the man nodded. "Mm. Well, my views may differ from yours. But I imagine that my leaders may wish to talk to you and get more of Lord Voids teachings from the source." He added. "Perhaps we can find a way to assist you and our mutual master?" Bee nodded and gave him a forced smile. "I hope we can find a way to work together and that you maye to find the error of your ways one day." The man gave her a sad smile. "And I you." She turned to go, then paused. "Oh. In two days. I will make contact again with one of your people. Hopefully, we can arrange a meeting then." As she was walking out, he called after her with onest word. "Is Lord Void trulying? Will he be here? Will he see our works?" She half turned and gave him a look. "Dont fret. The Master is always watching." Chapter 258: God Touched Chapter 258: God Touched I stopped Beatrice as she walked down the street. She looked up, her face brightening when she saw me. But I could never forget the thoughtful frown of consternation she had worn just a moment before. Human facial expressions were still difficult to understand sometimes, but this one was as clear as a freshly polished pane of ss. I projected a question in the air. "What''s wrong?" She breathed in and held it for a second before letting out a rather explosive sigh. Clearly, she''d decided to actually tell me what the issue was instead of just brushing my concern off. The priests in white robes the ones that talk about you. They seem to have heard word of your deeds in Caleb, and well I think they have some misunderstandings." Beatrice hesitated. "It''s not all bad! They understand the basics of the faith. But there''s a lot of parts that are warped in a way." Beatrice sighed again, less explosively this time. "I thought it was a little bit overoptimistic to expect everyone to convert when we got here, but there''s a good portion of the city that already has some faith connection to you. Even if it''s a little... different. I just don''t know how exactly to help them understand better. I sat and processed her words. That was strange. I understood how hard it could be to impart proper cleaning techniques to people. Especially the younger ones. I''d also seen Beatrice''s struggles with helping people live by the ts of the Church. But for her to look this upset... How wrong could they possibly have gotten things? I set that aside for the moment to investigateter. Instead, I asked a different question. "You think they''ll help us?" She shrugged. "Maybe. "I spoke with some of them, and it seems likely, at least. That would vastly improve our chances of sess in taking the city in an orderly manner. But" Beatrice frowned. "I''m not sure. We''re going to meet about it in a little bit. They''ll probably give me a sermon, and I''ll probably have to tell them what they''re actually doing wrong. They might not like it. So I''m not sure how long we can trust them, especially if we''re attacking their city." She rubbed at her temples, suddenly looking a lot more tired than before. "It''s just frustrating. The fact that there are so many believers here should make our job so much easier. As I prepared to help sway people in to help us out, I realized how daunting of a task it was to convert people. So it already being done is great. But if our beliefs don''t even align... I don''t know what I can do about that." Beatrice squared her shoulders and looked up, resolve hardening her eyes. "But. I do believe that we can use them somehow. Even if we don''t agree, and even if it means we have to teach them the proper ways of the world." I looked at her with a mixture of feelings. Mostly joy at her growth and how far my little human hade. But at the same time, I couldn''t help but feel concerned about the worry on her face. "Don''t worry," I told her, "I will talk to them. We''ll make sure that they understand that your task is more important than whatever else they have going on. You will help clean up this whole kingdom, not just the city." Her face brightened. "You want toe to the meeting with me?" I thought about it. I had no real reason to decline aside from cleaning up the city more. Or decorating. Or figuring out how to make furniture. Well, I guess there were plenty of things I could do. But none of them were as important as Beatrice. I agreed, and Beatrice began to bounce on her toes excitedly. "Oh, this is amazing! It will make everything so much better. Thank you, Master. Thank you." And with a hasty bow, she dashed off towards the manor. Apparently, she had other urgent business to attend to. I just mentally shrugged and continued cleaning up the alley as I thought about what I could do to help. Maybe I could make some preparations as well. Well, if Beatrice was worried about how the white-robed people would receive her, then maybe I could do something about that. Sure, I''d be going to the meeting in a few days, but before that? Why not talk to them and see the situation for myself? As I cleaned up the streets, going down whatever alley seemed to be the dirtiest, I kept an eye out for them. But it seemed that they weren''t out at this time of night. Though even if I did find one, what would I do? I wasn''t exactly in a position to reveal myself to them in the middle of the street. So I kept cleaning. It was going to take me longer than the two weeks we had for our mission before the city was spotless, but still. I was making good progress. When Arthur''s army came to the city, at least they would not find the disgusting slop pile I had seen when I first got here. No, it would be presentable, at least. And then, if we had some time afterward, then I would make it truly shine. Zeal slumped into the chair behind his makeshift desk, tucked away in a spotless corner of a spotless basement below a spotless building in the middle of the slums. He allowed himself a couple seconds of indulgence before he dutifully straightened his back into its proper posture of ramrod straight. One of his most faithful ministers had just delivered him some news. Yet, despite understanding the words, he simply couldn''t figure out what they meant. He looked over to the corner in which Patricia sat. The prophet Huddled in an empty corner, holding her knees and rocking back and forth as she muttered to herself. It always set him on edge a little bit watching her, but. And there wasn''t much he could do. She was still very much still insane and was one of the few ways that the words of his god truly manifested in the world, rather than just through human interpretations. He supposed that directmunication with a god must warp the mind beyond repair. It took a lot of teasing out to get her ramblings to fit some version of reality, but it was worth it. His work had to be done. And His people were dedicated to learning and then spreading those teachings. Despite his discouragement, Zeal was extremely proud of their efforts over the past weeks. Their numbers had grown, and all throughout the city, people''s lives were starting to bend in service to Void. He could see it in how the cleanliness spread. Sure, some people may take the ideas a little too far. But generally, they were trending in the right direction. He looked down at the neat piles of paper on his desk. They detailed the reports that several of his cardinals had sent up the chain ofmand. Had sent reports up the chain ofmand towards him. The information held within was... rming, to say the least. rming, yet hopeful. A shocking number of street preachers and lower members of the clergy reported being visited by an apparition over thest day and a half. During the vision, it gave them a set of instructions. One or two reports would have been one thing. They could easily have been brushed off as overzealous imaginations, though it would have been looked into. But with the sheer volume of reports they were getting, something was clearly going on. Something real. And Zeal didn''t like being in the dark about its true nature. That these "visits" all happened to lower members was very interesting. If this was some sort of divine vision or message from their god, then Zeal would have expected a visit himself. Though perhaps that was too presumptuous of him to expect. He heard the lock on his door open with a soft click. It swung open to reveal a familiar ck disk. The form floated inside, stopping right in front of his desk. Zeal was both absolutely surprised and not at all shocked to find that their god had appeared. Immediately diving out of his chair, hey prostrate on the floor and whispered supplications. Patricia screwed her eyes shut and rocked even harder in the corner. "My lord, we live to serve." Bee found the slightly rusty gates of the mansion quite a bit more weing than expected. Despite only just having moved in, she already felt at home in the new ce. She slipped inside and locked it behind her as quietly as she could manage before making her way up to the mansion. It was in just as good condition as she remembered it. But when she slipped inside the front door, the emptiness of the space inside reminded her that it was, in fact, a temporary residence. They had managed to acquire some basic furniture, which was mostly focused on sleeping and cooking. But that was it. She still found all of her retinue sitting around a firece, eating from simple bowls as they chatted and watched the mes dance. They looked up and spotted Bee as she entered. With a word, the group sprang to their feet and greeted her. She happily epted some food with a nod and sat down in their impromptu gathering. "So, how''s it been going?" She asked everyone in general. They all looked at each other as Matt spoke up first. "It''s going all right. Managed to get into some of the guards'' barracks and y some dice with the men. I think I could get you in to talk to them in groups. A lot of them, you know" He slumped his shoulders. "Well, they''re not too happy with the king at the moment. I think they''d be willing to listen to what you have to say if you exined Void''s teachings and all that. Some of them might even get on board with the invasion, though we''d have to be careful about who we introduce that second half to though. But if we''re just preaching, I imagine that at least half the soldiers would be willing to listen. The old gods haven''t done them any favors recently and with the unpredictability of the king Faith is pretty weak around here." Bee nodded and frowned a little. "Ok. It''s a start." She looked over and saw Bradley wiggling where he sat, unable to contain his excitement at his own report. For his sake, she skipped over all the other adults and let him speak first. "So what have you been up to, Bradley?" His face split into a grin as he nced at Tanu. "We yed gully ball!" Chapter 259: Divine Intervention Chapter 259: Divine Intervention Bee listened carefully as all three of the children banded together to exin the rules of gully ball. Based on the way their words tumbled over each other and the near-constant contradictions, she was able to parse through and figure out that it essentially had no rules. They were essentially made up as the game was being yed. Despite the game not making any sense, the children had made friends with several of the local kids down the street. The ones who didn''te from the manors but rather the servants'' quarters. The kids were more than happy to talk about what the adults said to them. They didn''t know much about politics in particr, but they were able to recall how happy or upset the parents were. And, of course, as servant children, they were privy to a lot more about what was really going on in the owner''s houses than anyone should rightfully have known. Bee wasn''t surprised. Her father had always told her, "If you need to know something, talk to the servants first." So Bee asked several questions, most of which they didn''t know the answers to outright, but they promised they''d ask their new friends. But the main discovery she took from the children''s scouting was that everyone was nervous. People were walking on eggshells in word and deed. Even the kids, while willing to y, were extra careful not to make too much noise. This is what the kids mostly focused on: how much nervousness affected their ability to have fun with everyone. They were more likely to get their games shut down than they were before. Previously, the guards would have just kind of smiled or told them to move on if they were blocking an important thoroughfare. Now though? They were a lot rougher and sometimes would even confiscate their ball. It was an absolute worst-case scenario in their minds. But Bee was reminded that Bradley was indeed Void''s champion in the end. After Bee gave them additional instructions and questions to follow up on, he asked if he was allowed to train any of the other kids in swordsmanship. Bee blinked, unsure of how to answer. Would they be willing to learn? Of course, they would. What kid wouldn''t want to learn how to use a sword? That was something that all children dreamed of. She had even thought of bing a valiant knight or adventurer for a while before she found her broom. Bradley saw the hesitation on her face and misinterpreted it as something else, though. "Don''t worry, we''ll make sure that they understand that they have to serve Void if we are allowed to teach them." She was even less sure how to respond to that. "You''ve been talking to them about Lord Void?" "Of course, of course." All three of the children assured her. Bradley spoke for the rest of them then, "Um, they are a little bit hesitant to believe in the whole cleaning part, but once I told them some of the stories of what Lord Void did with his powers, they were more than willing to tidy up their rooms to get a taste of it." "All right. If you want to teach them, I''m sure their parents will be happy if they''re more orderly. But I don''t want to bring them down on us if they think we''re brainwashing their kids..." Bee quirked a smile at that. Children actually cleaning their rooms? How could any sane parent think it was anything but mind control? The not-Nighty knights frowned at each other. "Brainwashing? We would never do that!" Bee just shrugged. She figured that she wasn''t going to be able to stop him from talking about Void in the first ce. Though it wouldn''t matter once they took over the city anyway. After the childrens'' reports, she talked to the rest of the adults and found that the manor was serving its purpose. A collection of cards and letters had arrived throughout the day, each waiting for her response. Their fancy filigree and wax seals identified them as important correspondence. As she opened them up, she saw they were all invitations to important events: auctions or requests for meetings with the new owner of the property. Some of the more well-informed ones even requested a meeting with the D''Lestrange family directly. It seemed that she could segregate the messages into two piles. One group was just wondering how someone got this manor purchased and fixed up so quickly. People trying to identify a new power in the area. The other consisted of those who knew of her family and somehow had enough connections to unearth her identity. Those requests were the more personal ones. The nearly two dozen invitations were quite overwhelming, and she''d have to parse through them soon. Half of her n was to get some sort of business business contract to solidify her presence here. If she could arrange for something to block roads on the day of the invasion, such as a trade caravan, she could greatly hinder the defensive response. If they could rent, buy, ormission enough wagons, they could position them along the roads to give the army a direct path to the inner city and even the castle, thus preventing any sort of real response from the garrison. She picked out a few invitations to respond to after eating dinner. Once their bellies were full of soup and everyone headed off to bed, Bee found a little writing table that someone had gotten for cheap and started to scratch out some replies. --- I found the first preacher as he left the streets for the evening. He was one of thest people out as the sun dipped below the horizon, leaving his corner just like most of the white-robed men did. I wasn''t sure why, but everyone seemed rather in a hurry to get home once darkness fell. I supposed it made sense for them to go home when there were no other people to talk to. Perhaps people in the city were far more strict about their sleep schedules than usual. Either way, I followed him to a small home where he lived alone. It was an attic above a shop, which he climbed up to using a shortdder. My sensors revealed that the interior consisted of a small bed off to the side, neatly made, and a coin chest underneath containing a handful of silver. There was also a small ce where he could prepare meals and a wood stove. I took a better look at the street preacher. He was a young man who couldn''t have been more than a year or two past Beatrice''s age. But the white robes and the small amount of soot he had smudged on his chin made him look a little bit older. As he stoked the fire, I made my way in through a cracked window. I reviewed my script briefly just to make sure I covered it all. It was time to exin things to another person. When he turned around, the guy jumped, spilling the handful of oats he was about to drop into the pot of simmering water. I used Air Maniption to prevent any of them from hitting the ground and returned the pile to his slightly quivering hands. "Who who? Who are you?" He stuttered out. I simply shed a message above my chassis. "I am Void." It wasn''t my true name, but it was a moniker that these people seemed to understand. At least, they were far more likely to listen if I used it. Though considering everyone else in the castle already called me that, I didn''t feel like I was lying exactly. Instantly, he dropped the oats again. I caught them with another gust of air, opting instead to put them on the table next to his food preparation as he dropped to his knees and bowed down low. "What would my lord have me do?" "My High Priestess is in the capital," I said while I projected and put a picture of Beatrice''s face next to those words. "Do as she asks. I have ns for this ce." The man looked up just long enough to take the message in. I waited for his nod of agreement. "I will, my lord, I will." "Good. Spread the word." With that final message, I left. I had many, many more people to visit. Maybe they''d be a little less afraid of me. That''d be nice. It''d be nice to have some actual conversations at some point. As I flew through the night, I realized I should have mentioned that I did approve of the man''s tidy little room. Though I thought he could do better. I did notice some dust up on the rafters. It was a little harder to find other targets as they had mostly gone to bed by now. But I had categorized and cataloged a lot of their people, and so I simply went about my cleaning while scanning all the sleeping people in the town. Whenever I would find one of the preachers, I slipped into their house and gave them a simr message. Sometimes, they''d ask questions of me, but not really casual ones. Most of the time, it was whether or not I''d actually done something or another. Had I really talked to a dragon? Had I really saved the city of Caleb from the undead? Did I really ascend on high and im that the world needed to be cleansed of humans? Most of the time, I could say yes, but I obviously denied the untrue ones like thest. That seemed to confuse the one person who asked. Most people didn''t bring it up, though, which was nice. I assumed that it just wasn''t a very important issue to them. So, hopefully, their silence meant that they didn''t think it was important to me either. With the city in such disorder, I actually was able to stay up all night long working. Not only was I kept busy with all my tasks, but I was also able to finish a good amount of them. Back in the castle, working at night was a bit fruitless as everything was kept in such good condition. Plus, all the people were so well-behaved that there was nothing for me to do there, either. Beatrice was able to take care of whatever small issues did arise. And so I simply had time to sit. To think, meditate, and talk to people. But in the city, though I could work all day and all night for weeks and not have everything cleaned. There was so much debris that the dirt alone gave me enough energy just to power myself. And I never needed to power down and rest. When the sun rose, I finished myst stop, frightening a preacher and his wife as they were getting up for breakfast. I quickly delivered my message and decided that back at the manor house, people were likely waking up. So I went over to say good morning and see if there was anything that needed to be done. I found Beatrice slipping out of the manor early in the morning and walking down a side alley towards themercial district. I fell into step with her, gliding over the ground and cleaning it before she had to step on anything nasty. She gave me a bow in stride. "Master, have you had a productive evening?" "Yes, yes, I did," I asked her what she was up to. "Well, I have a lot of important meetings to go to tomorrow when I visit, and hopefully, I will get to speak with the leader of the religious thing. So I figured it would be a good idea for me to get some appropriate clothing to wear. Most of my stuff is rather too in for the role of my father''s daughter or your High Priestess." "Ooh, I''lle along." I beeped excitedly. "I have a great sense of style." Chapter 260: Gully Ball Chapter 260: Gully Ball A short whileter, Beatrice walked out of a clothing store sporting a brand-new set of white robes, not like the ones the street preachers wore, of course. She wasn''t trying to be a copycat. White was just a nice color. These robes boasted quite nice gold edging and a few additional ents that really matched her eyes. We also made sure to pick up an overcoat to protect her clothes from the city''s filth when I wasn''t around to keep watch. All in all, I thought we did pretty well. Beatrice seemed pleased, at least. After our little shopping trip, she left to go to some meetings. I avoided meetings since I didn''t know enough about politics or business transactions to help her out. I figured that my presence would only hinder any negotiations, as I found that I proved quite distracting to humans who did not know me. Even some humans who didn''t know me could be very put off. But that was okay. Beatrice was plenty capable on her own. So, instead of tagging along in the shadows, I found something else to do. It wasn''t in my purview to clean the city during the day, as that would just be too disruptive. I''d have to make do with my nightly escapades and cleaning frenzies. Fortunately, those were more than enough to satisfy me. I had already gained one level from the ordeal. I wasn''t at 80 yet, so I hadn''t earned another skill yet, but that was okay. So, instead, I followed the children. Children always found it easy to ept me as I was, and I was hoping that the not-Nighty Knights'' new friends would be no different. I found the trio not too far from the manor, slipping out another house''s ivy-coated back gate. They exited into an alley instead of out into full view of the main road. I slipped through after them, dropping my disguise now that we were out of sight. Irene noticed me and gave me a wave, which I returned happily. "Void!" Irene called. "Do you want to y gully ball with us?" I gave an affirmative beep. I had heard about the enigmatic game over dinner the night before but didn''t really get it. Perhaps it would make more sense when I saw it. As they walked, the kids tried to exin the rules with no more sess than they hadst night. When we rounded a few more corners, we saw a group of five other children holding a ball of rags tied together with twine. It was quite gross, and half of it was sodden with dirty water. After a few calls of greeting, the two packs of children circled each other slightly, testing each other out and hashing out some sort of agreement. It reminded me of Cliff and her cubs, in a way. Eventually, some terms were met. The groups split up into two teams of four, with Bradley and Irene on one side and Tanu on the other. They took positions, and right before they went to start, I swooped in and snagged the ball out of the air as one of the Team leaders was tossing it up and down. "Hey!" A boy with ratty clothes yelled. "That''s our ball!" "No fair!" "Ah, Void!" Bradley hesitated. "Uh, we hadn''t started ying yet. Did you want to join a team?" "Void?" Another girl with freckles asked. "Who''s that?" The not-Nighty Knights calmed the others down and exined who I was. I examined the ball carefully. There is no way I would let them y with something this disgusting. I popped it into my dustbin for just the briefest instance to remold it. I stripped all the dirt and grossness out and rearranged the "ball," stretching the cloth into neat and tightly packedyers. Within moments, I had a nice little sphere that didn''t resemble the original wad of cloth at all. There. Hopefully, that would help keep water from seeping in, too. I thought about spraying my sent on it, but I was afraid it would be too firm. The coating had far less give than cloth did, after all, even as tightly packed as it was. Satisfied, I popped the new ball out. A perfect sphere of blue and white cloth appeared in my w. I was done so quickly that it didn''t even glow. Swooping down, I returned it to see the boy less than a handful of seconds after I had seized it. He looked at it suspiciously, then tested it. He threw it up and down, kicked it with his foot a few times, then smiled. He, too, seemed satisfied that the ball was even better than before. "Thanks, mister, for the new ball." He said, giving me a chipped-tooth smile and a cheeky grin. I chirped happily. With that, I let them go about their game and simply watched. After carefully observing the first few rounds, I still had no idea how the game worked. Most of it seemed to involve arguing and yelling at each other, ferociously eximing about rules and stuff as the ball flew around the small alley they yed in. But they seemed to be having fun. Every once in a while, one of the Not-Nighty Knights would ask a question about something Beatrice had mentioned and get some sort of response as they waited for the game to progress or some argument to resolve. Slowly, they teased the information that they were looking for out. I rxed a little, sitting on top of one of the walls forming this alley, and just watched, enjoying the children having fun. --- Bee was disappointed that her master hadn''te with her to the business meetings. She could have used a distraction to help smooth over negotiations rather than having them all be focused on her. But she hadn''t spoken up quickly enough, and there was no way that she would tell her master that it was wrong after he had made a choice. Especially if that choice was trusting in her. So, as she went into her first meeting, she was a bit nervous. Her only saving grace was the fact that she had set up some of the easier ones first, ones where people didn''t know anything about her. It would allow her to get into ying the role. Most of these meetings were held in neutral locations. Her manor wasn''t ready for guests yet, and she wasn''t about to go to some stranger''s manor all alone for them to impress her. That would happen in ater meeting. No, this time, she found herself in a basic tea shop. It apparently hosted merchants and other businessmen fairly frequently. At one end of her table sat a pudgy man with far too many rings on his fingers. nking him were two other figures, one an equally pudgy mirror of himself and the other a thin waif of a man holding a folder of papers. They were rather energetic and insistent on ordering lots of food and wine that Bee only nibbled at and sipped on. They ate heartily as the three traded pleasantries. She scraped together every bit of knowledge she could recall of her father''s business and tried to only say things that wouldn''t give away too much. Fortunately, the other two liked to talk. "Aaaah. Finally." The ring-wearing man finally put down his fork after several tes of food. "Now we can get down to business." "I know your father has contacts over in the Wall Inds, and I can see that you know what they''re worth," he said in a tant attempt at buttering her up. "I would like an introduction, and I''m more than willing to pay for it." The man smiled with surprising honesty. She hadn''t expected him to be so direct, but perhaps it was clear that she would be just a messenger. Or maybe that''s what the man thought. She nodded and pulled out a piece of paper to take a few notes. "Mm. Yes. Those are quite valuable contacts, and I''m certain we can reach some sort of agreement about making an introduction. Of course, if we are unable to, I''m sure that my father would be more than willing to act as a middleman." She actually had no idea about that, and unfortunately, the contacts were one thing she, using her father''s name, couldn''t get. If she remembered correctly, they were old friends of his. Personal friends, ones that wouldn''t just interact with anyone besides him. But that wasn''t something she was about to let slip. The meeting continued on as the man tried to angle for some advantage, and she kept deflecting, letting him know that there would definitely be a way to do business, but the costs were unknown until more information was disclosed. The man left, not wanting to give away yet what his goals were for getting ess to these contacts. But they left on good terms, promising to meet further after they each had some time to think. After taking a moment to recover, Bee groaned, got up, and walked towards another meeting location not that far from here. Her stomachined a little bit, and she had to be careful not to eat too much more if all her meetings were going to be like this. Otherwise, she would be even fatter than the merchants who had just left. Her day continued like this. One meeting after another offered food and drink, but she quickly learned how to take the smallest of samples. Many of the meetings were actually not about anything directly but rather about setting up another meeting for the future. It was rather bizarre, and by the end of it, she found herself grateful for the first man''s directness. Overall, it was exhausting. Despite what it felt like, though, it wasn''t all for naught. She was able to actually make a few purchases that would be useful. She even got a nice contract with the owner of a Wagoneer''spany for a few weeks, one that was flexible enough for her to exercise right when she needed to. She needed more meetings like that and fewer meetings in general. Many more contained poorly alluded-to secrets and political maneuverings that she had no understanding of. Eventually, though, it was time for her to meet with the leader of the preachers. While she was going between one meeting and another, one of the men in white robes had left his spot on the corner and had slipped her a note with a date and time in a simple message. "I would love to hear more about our lord." Chapter 261: Divine Messenger Chapter 261: Divine Messenger Amidst the slums of the capitol, surrounded on all sides by dpidated buildings and ramshackle abodes, stood an ind of cleanliness. A strangely pristine building bearing fresh paint and freshly swept walkways. That wasn''t to say the building was impressive, of course. It was just as cheaply made as those around it, its walls and roof consisting of simple rough timbers. But someone had obviously taken the time to polish it up to the best of their abilities. Bee swallowed nervously as she walked up to the entrance and knocked. A bolt rattled as thetch was slid aside, allowing the door to creak open a crack. An eye appeared, looking her up and down before the door opened the rest of the way. The young woman behind it stepped aside for her toe through. She was pointed toward a door in the back of the room, which she wordlessly headed toward. Stepping through the inner door revealed two people inside. One was a dirty woman who smelled quite bad. She was huddled in the corner of the room, not looking at all as Bee entered. The other was a man sitting behind the desk in white robes with a calm and collected air. "Miss Bee," he said, bowing his head and gesturing for her to take the seat across from him. She noted that he did not stand up to greet her, which wasn''t a great start. But neither was he disrespectful, treating her as an honored guest and first among equals rather than the true high priest of religion. She hoped that didn''t bode poorly for their talks. As Bee sat, the man waited for her to speak, but she just looked at him for a few moments, trying to gauge both him and the woman huddled in the corner. As she studied him, she also checked on how they registered in her faith sense. The power from her High Priestess ss was not to be overlooked. From this distance, the tendrils of faith extending from the pair were clear as day as they crept toward Void. But neither of them were quite right. The one from The dirty woman was ck and writhing ominously. It reminded her of the color of Void, but that was as far as the simrities went. The one from the man was less concerning but still the wrong color. It wasn''t the pure gold that extended from her and those from the castle, but rather a silvery hue, slightly tarnished but still precious. She schooled her face to avoid frowning as she considered the implications of these differences. Eventually, the man in front of her spoke. "I am known as Zeal." He said, and she smiled slightly. "I know." she didn''t actually know, but it would have certainly been appropriate for her to know. "I believe that you had some interactions with my Master in Caleb. Correct?" Zeal nodded. "I''m surprised that the lord would remember me. All I did was have a quick conversation when he was in the vicinity. Our lord surely was above noticing me." Bee gave him a stiff smile. "Nothing escapes the sight of our lord." That was it. She let that sentence hang between them for several moments as the silence stretched out. "Well, I have heard from some of my..." He paused for a second as if considering what to call his underlings. "Helpers that you stopped by a meeting of our faithful. They said that you had an interesting philosophical conversation with one of the discussion facilitators." This was it. This was the big turning point. How she approached this topic and how Zeal responded would be crucial for this entire conversation. Thest thing Bee wanted was to seem like a pushover, especially on doctrine that she knew to be true. So,ing out of the gate confidently was a must. Bee smirked slightly, remembering the event. "I did, I did. I was wondering how some heretical thoughts had managed to worm their way into such influenceable minds." "Heretical thoughts?" the man said slightly indignantly. "I don''t believe there''s been any heresy we''ve been preaching, but if there is, I would happily wee the opportunity to listen to my lords corrections if he would just stop by and tell me." Internally, she breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn''t been shot down outright. Bee wondered if she could im that as Void''s High priestess, she spoke with her lord''s authority. She didn''t think that this man would ept that, though. So she stayed quiet, just giving him a knowing smile. Sometimes, not speaking was the best approach. Eventually, Zeal rxed slightly and spoke again. "I''ve heard many of my members have had a vision or visitation from our lord in their dreams, or before they went to bed. It said that our lord''s voice was in the city. Was this your doing?" Bee shook her head. That was news to her. Apparently, Void had also been busy on its own mission. She sent a silent prayer of thanks to her master for paving the way. "I had nothing to do with master''s actions. If Void chose to warn your people that his High Priestess hade, that was our lord''s own choice. Void is currently somewhere in the city, and he has tasked me with preparing it for his ns." Zeal leaned forward, "Our lord is here in person?" Bee nodded in confirmation. "Yes." With that, Zeal shot to his feet and began pacing. "We have been preparing it for hising, but for it to be so soon" He shook his head. "I fear we haven''t finished our preparations. Not everyone is fully aware of the glories he will bestow upon the world." Bee nodded with a regretful frown on her face. "Yes. It appears that the city is not fully willing to wee him. But wee for other purposes. The king has struck against Void and his people, and so we are here to remove him," she said, openly stating their purpose. "Void hase to prepare the way for his armies." She watched Zeal''s reaction carefully, ready to intercept him if there was any sign that he would stand in her master''s way. It was a gamble telling him too much up front, but everything she had seen suggested that the man would do anything for Void. Void and power. She didn''t entirely trust him, but it would be in his self-interest to allow for the removal of the king. That would create a massive power vacuum that his sect was already in the perfect position to fill. And if he truly was as much of a believer as she said, she doubted he would go against the direct orders of Void even if they had different interpretations of their master''s wishes. The small smile slowly growing on his face seemed to confirm her thoughts. "This is perfect. I think that we have enough people that we should be able to prepare the city. If it is as simple as removing some guards and paving the way for a siege that would be simple." Bee shook her head before the men went too far. "No, no, we have a n, and some of the other agents and I are well along our way to implementing it. But we could use a lot more manpower." Zeal smiled. "Well, manpower is certainly something we do notck. I''m sure you''ve seen many of our preachers. Those are but the tip of the iceberg. Many of them dare to venture out because they have no ties and no families that the authorities can crack down on. But past that we have many, many more believers than you might think." Beatrice believed the man. With the sheer volume of threads she could feel throughout the city, her faith sense confirmed as much. "Good, good. The armying will have no problem taking the city."Bee said with false confidence. Void would truly make that possible. But she didn''t. "While there will be losses, we want to preserve it as much of the city as possible. We are here for the king, not the people. We believe he has been corrupted by some sort of demonic influence. We want to swiftly rece him and bring peace to thisnd." "Well, I''m all for that." Zeal agreed. "Now. How can we assist?" "Our master..." As she began to exin, Bee was interrupted by a sudden muttering. Turning to look, she found that the dirty woman had begun hugging her knees tightly and speaking in hushed tones. Now that Bee thought about it, she almost looked familiar somehow. "Void. Despair. Consume, consume. Void will Consume all," The words came out in a halting, disconcerting, and disjointed bundle. Zeal and Bee just looked at each other for a moment. Then, they continued with their ns. *** By the time Bee left the ce, she felt a lot more confident. Now, she wouldn''t just be relying on some of her wagoneers and business contacts. With this, they''d have a full-on path through the city that would be walled off by many different means. Maybe even multiple paths if they could make it work. Even better, the city''s gates would all be opened from the inside without her having to risk her people. Zeal apparently had no problems casting his people for those roles, as he didn''t seem to respect them individually the same way she did. It almost made her wish she hadn''t taken the time to impersonate herself and pretend to be from her father''spany. That had been useful in plenty of other ways, though. She still needed to go talk to the children and the soldiers she had brought along to make sure that. Zeal had told her about the city''s state and its people, which was actually true. If as many people as he imed were actually followers of the Void. Surely, one of her groups would have heard more about it. She''d hoped that Void would be willing to correct any of the misinterpretations that Zeal and his people had made about her master''s teachings. But apparently, her master hadn''t thought to speak up during the meeting, so she would have to ask about that. Maybe Zeal would be correctedter. They hadn''t dwelled on it too much during this meeting, but going forward, Bee was sure it would be a sticking point. Surely, the master would set them right, eventually. As Bee made her way down the street, a ck disk seemed to materialize from the darkness at her side. She smiled as it hovered alongside her. "Did I do well, master?" Void gave a happy beep of affirmation that filled her with pride. Chapter 262: Omens and Portents R Us Chapter 262: Omens and Portents R Us As I followed Beatrice away from the meeting ce in the early evening, I couldn''t help but think about how well that went. The way Beatrice was acting would have made me expect some level of animosity from the man, but he had been nothing but polite and seemed to be perfectly willing to help us aplish our goals. I honestly couldn''t have seen a better oue. Beatrice still carried some tension in her shoulders as she stalked through the alleyways that led towards the more fancy areas of town. But truly, I couldn''t figure out the faintest reason why. I''d have to ask her about itter when I got a chance. Maybe she was just a little wound up still. Perhaps I had put too much pressure on her recently. Though Beatrice''s aplishments were obviously the high point of the meeting, I also found myself pleasantly surprised by its fourth upant. I was also pleasantly surprised by the fourth upant of the meeting. It had taken me severalputation cycles to figure out who exactly I was looking at, but eventually, I recognized her. She was thatdy that I scared away from the castle so long ago. What a throwback. I was d she had found better choices of friends, at least. Ones that didn''t try to attack Beatrice on sight. That whole disaster had been rather messy. It was the first time we saw that unusuallyrge rodent and gotten attacked by random humans. But that was all in the past now. At least she was doing better for herself. Well, somewhat. She could really use a bath. Maybe she had just gotten here, and they would take care of her after the meeting. But either way, this was a much, much better choice of friends. If they could teach her how to clean herself and just generally take care of the area a bit better, everything would be okay. She did say some rather incoherent things, but it was hard to tell if she intended her words for others or just herself. Also, Beatrice and Zeal had mostly ignored her, so I figured it wasn''t that important. She probably was just surprised to see Beatrice after all this time. I mean, thatrge zombie rat was kind of scary, so I wouldn''t be surprised if she was a little bit nervous about being reminded of the whole event. Maybe she was even afraid Beatrice would hold a grudge. I supposed she could have apologized, so maybe she needed to work on her manners, too. But baby steps. I followed Beatrice until she was in sight of the manor. But as I was about to follow her up and through the front gate, something caught my attention in the distance. I felt something wrong with my "soul sight" that came from my Spiritual Cleanse skill. It wasn''t just someone with a dirty soul. There were tons of those all around, and for the most part, I had avoided cleansing them. There were so many physical things to cleanse that I imagined the souls would just get dirty immediately again if I tried to do that before I finished fixing up the city. Not to mention that the skill still took a decent amount of energy, so I was wary of being too inefficient with it. But this? This was something else. Instead of the dark soot on an otherwise shining orb, I felt a cracked orb with red fissures running through the center of it. But the red wasn''t wholly unfamiliar. It reminded me of something. Something that I couldn''t quite put my w on. So I distractedly turned and left Beatrice to make thest little bit of her trip by herself. Once, I was certain she was safe, of course. The sense pulled at me and drew me towards the inner part of the city. I wasn''t sure why I hadn''t noticed this earlier. I had been traveling through the city for the past several days, so it should have shown up at some point. But after thinking about it for a second, I immediately realized a pattern. I had just leveled up, and since then, I had been spending all my time in the dirtiest parts of the city. But this sense was pulling me towards the cleaner parts. Had that level granted my sensors more sensitivity? Maybe. Or maybe I had just never run into this phenomenon before. It could truly have just appeared. Whatever it was, I really needed to figure out what this was all about. As I honed in on the source of my difort, I saw an ordinary man with a top hat and cane walking his way through an alley. He stepped confidently in the dark all by himself. Strangely, he didn''t have amp or anything to light his way. Switching to ovey my soul sense with my usual vision, I noticed that everything was not as it seemed. --- After a few minutes of walking away from the meeting with the crazy, murderous, psychotic cult leader, Bee nearly stopped and cursed herself. She''d forgotten to use Scan again. She rubbed her hand down her face. Void. How could she be so stupid? It had been so long since she had made that mistake. She even had her faith sense up and everything. She used to make it all the time, but she''d gotten in the habit of scanning nearly everyone that she encountered. But now she had no idea what ss that Zeal was, if that was actually his name, what level he was. Heck, she could have even found out if he had any titles that made him particrly dangerous or trustworthy. Bee had been so wrapped up in trying to pretend to be some sophisticated high priestess and merchant''s daughter who knew about negotiations and poise and etiquette that she''dpletely forgotten to use what she actually had. It was one of the first things that made her special. Now that she was here in the capitol, she might actually run into 1 or 2 other people who had Scan, but that wouldn''t be till they got into the pce, in all likelihood. She considered stopping and running back to get a glimpse of Zeal but decided against it. That would be very suspicious, and they had parted on somewhat eptable terms. Void at least approved, and she didn''t want to ruin the tentative peace that their groups had established to work together. As much as she didn''t want to admit it, the assistance that Zeal and his cult could provide would be extremely useful in theing battles. She could probably try to steal the cult out from underneath him, and she would work to give Void''s proper teachings to everyone who listened. But that would have to be a battle that yed out in the hearts and minds of the people. She supposed she could also just attack Zeal in Void''s name. But if Void was that upset with the man, it would have smitten the guy itself. She mentally shrugged. It was best to resolve things peacefully if possible. However, the very next chance she got, she promised herself to definitely Scan Zeal. I will remember," she whispered to herself over and over as she walked through the quiet city. It wasforting to know that Void was nearby, even if her master decided to remain unseen for now. She was actually surprised at theck of activity in the city. She expected it to be bustling even at night, but for some reason, it seemed remarkably deserted. asionally, a guard patrol would pass by, but most people stayed inside. It was weird to think about how chaotic things were going to get. It felt as if she was the only one walking around who knew what wasing. She supposed that was true, actually, but it didn''t make it any less eerie. Looking around, she wondered how many of these people''s lives would bepletely upended by what they were going to do. Hopefully none. But she didn''t hold out much hope for that. Arthur had long since impressed upon her the uncertainties of war. Especially how much it affected and the far-reaching consequences of every single engagement or action. It had taken her a while to really understand it, and she wasn''t sure she fully did. But as someone with power, her actions had consequences. Real consequences. Especially when her actions were deposing a king. It was going to change a lot of people''s lives for the better, she thought, but she wasn''t nearly as sure as she would have liked to be. Void would make sure everything turned out fine. She took sce in that, at least. Eventually, the manor came into view. She made thest few turns at a bit of a faster walk, ready to get home, talk to some of her friends, and then sleep. It felt like she had just run a marathon, even if all she had done was talk. She made it through the gate and relocked it. The thing was now repaired and oiled to form a beautiful art piece of wrought iron. She didn''t know how Void had somehow reced the dpidated thing from before, but it did. Approaching the manor, she reached for the door handle. But before she touched it, the door cracked open to reveal Mrs. Chadwick standing, silhouetted in the light. As she looked, Bee realized that Mrs. Chadwick had a strange expression on her face, almost as if she was scared. Definitely worried, at least. "What is it?" Bee whispered. Mrs. Chadwick looked over her shoulder toward the inside of the manor nervously. Then, she leaned forward and spoke softly so that Bee could barely hear her. "High Priestess. There''s someone here to see you, and we weren''t sure how to turn her away. I''m sorry, I I don''t know what else we could have done." Chapter 263: Cracking up Chapter 263: Cracking up Bee stepped past Mrs. Chadwick and nced around the manor with suspicion. Was there some sort of city official that had found them or some sort of dispute about the deed to the ce? She walked slowly toward the sitting room, mind whirling with possibilities and ns for how to deal with this situation. When she got there, Bee''s face paled. A tall, severe woman sat with her legs crossed in an armchair. Her short brown hair was cut straight just below her chin, and her eyes narrowed in seemingly eternal scorn. Her clothing seemed simple at first nce, but a closer look revealed a quality of cut and workmanship to the garments that not just anyone could afford. As Bee entered, those disdainful eyes flicked toward her. "Oh, Beatrice!" Beatrix D''Lestrange crowed from her seat as she leveraged herself up. "Beatrice!" She repeated again. Immediately, the woman''s features melted into a bright smile. She uncharacteristically hurried over to Bee and dragged her into a very aggressive hug, shoving Bee''s face into her stomach a little bit lower than was preciselyfortable, as if she had forgotten how tall Bee was. "Oh, my niece! We missed you. We heard about what happened to the castle. We were so worried. Your father thought you were dead!" Bee''s mind short-circuited. She had no idea what was going on and didn''t know how to react. Instead, she just froze with her hands half up in a defensive measure as her aunt smothered the top of her head with kisses. The familiar scent of her perfume washed over her. "When the people at the gate had told me that my niece was here, I couldn''t believe it. And honestly, I thought I was going to have to deal with some scammer pretending to be our family. But no, it''s actually you! By the gods!, I''m so d you''re okay." The words came out in a rush. She tried to wiggle Bee back and forth with violent affection, but Bee, being nearly 35 levels higher than her aunt, didn''t shift an inch. "Wow, you''ve gotten so strong! Oh, we have so much to catch up on," Beatrix said. After a few more minutes of overwhelming attention, Bee slowly came back to her wits to fend her overly excited aunt off. This wasn''t at all how she remembered her aunt. The woman had always been nothing but distant and cold. Not that she hadn''t shown basic courtesy to Bee before, but she''d always taken more after her brother than her mother. She''d certainly never stepped into the mother role that Bee had missed after her mom died. So why was she acting the way she did now? Had something changed? She clearly wasn''t expecting to find Bee here. The surprise seemed genuine. Taking a step back, Bee gave her a tentative smile. "Aunt Beatrix," she said with a formal intonation as she recovered from the hug. "No, no. Aunt or Beatrix is just fine." Beatrix sighed with grimace as she made a poo-pooing gesture, her excitementing down a little bit. Having learned her lesson earlier this week, Bee quickly read through the response from Scan. Name: Beatrix D''Lestrange, Level: 18, Race: Human, ss: Merchant General, Titles: None, Age: 26, Highest Stat: charisma, Lowest Stat: strength, Status: Excited Bee frowned. Status? Normally, the status was something that she only saw on statues like Nazareth''gak or Archibald. Even then, it just indicated that they were asleep, awake, and so on. But to give the actual emotion a person was feeling? It just meant that she would have gotten even more information from Zeal if she''d remembered to use Scan. Confirming someone was faking their emotion, at least to some extent, would be really interesting. As she watched, Beatrix''s face and status turned from excited to nervous. "Are you okay?" She asked with genuine concern in her voice. "Yeah," Bee said in apletely stunned tone. This was just so out of her expectations that she wasn''t sure what to do. However, her now boisterous aunt couldn''t help but push past any awkwardness. "Well, I''m so d that you''re doing okay. And this ce" She looked around the space. "I don''t remember getting this manor. I assume this was your doing?" Bee just nodded, still in shock. "Yeah, it happened pretty quickly. Sorry, I''m just..." "Well, it''s so good to see you. It''sC" Beatrix attacked Bee with another hug. "Well. I just- You just- I''m d you''re okay. You seem a bit tired, and I''ve had a long journey. Promise me you let me take you out to breakfast tomorrow. I know this perfect salon where we can talk about some business once you''re rested." Bee just nodded mutely again. "Yeah, that sounds that sounds good." Before she knew it, Beatrix had bustled off to the spare room they had set up. Luckily, someone had found a bed in thest couple of days. It was just in time. She didn''t want to make her aunt sleep on the floor. Still confused, Bee waved to everyone, deciding to skip the reports for today and pick them up tomorrow. Then she trudged up to her room to go take a nap and see if she was just dreaming or hallucinating from a fatigued state. What had gotten into her aunt? She couldn''t be a doppelganger, not with Scan confirming her identity, right? Did she have an ident and suffer some sort of personality-altering brain trauma? Bee copsed into bed, still wondering about the reserved, severe woman who had tried to teach her about Merchanting several years ago. --- I followed the man with a cracked soul until he reached the castle wall. I couldn''t find a better way to describe him. The man felt wrong but familiar in the same way. It was as if he was himself a demon. Or maybe he was possessed by a demon? Possibly. But this didn''t seem like something so temporary. The damage to the soul was very real, and I didn''t even know if I could cause something like it myself. Whatever power had done, this did exceed mine, at least in the specialty of souls. I remembered how my attempts to clean a zombie''s soul had ended up destroying it entirely. My Spiritual Cleanse might do the same thing here. And if the man wasn''t an actual demon, that would be uneptable. I didn''t want to even touch or even disturb it just in case his broken soul crumbled, or I made things even worse. There was also the matter of not alerting anyone to my presence. So, I just monitored it for now. The guards let him in with a quick word, and I slipped over the wall to follow. As I watched him enter the castle, I almost lost it. Not because he went out of range or made himself difficult to find but because there were a lot more of these red, cracked souls wandering the halls. They were somon I couldn''t put an exact number on them. They seem to shift and change, making it very hard to differentiate and recognize them. And the red cracks slowly morphed so slowly that I hadn''t noticed it at first, but enough that theypletely threw off my tracking. I had to switch to my advanced sensors to track the man I had been following, and I nearly missed him. It seemed that there was no rhyme or reason to what humans bore what souls. Some were servants. Some were nobles who ignored the man. But the man walked through the halls, giving deference to some and epting bows graciously in return. He seemed rather middle of the pack in terms of social standing, and I didn''t think much of it other than he must''ve had some political friends. While social hierarchies were a form of organization, which I enjoyed, they seemed toe with rules as convoluted and ever-changing as gully ball. It was one more reason why I liked leaving the management element of things to Beatrice. I had prepared myself to leave. It would be best toe back another day to investigate the phenomenon. Just at that moment, though, the man reached his office. At least, I assumed it was his office. That was less important than the extremely small tortoiseshell cat sitting in the doorway, licking her paw and blocking his path. The tiny cat looked up at the man and started to jump away. As it did, the man began a quick motion with his foot. I recognized it in disbelief. My predictive models indicated that there was a 95% chance he was trying to kick the cat. There was only a little way between us, so I zipped forward and pulled the cat into the safety of my dustbin. You don''t kick cats. That''s just rude! I hated being kicked, and I''d only experienced idental ones. Though obviously, I forgave my humans for it every time. I could only imagine how painful a purposeful kick was. And this cat was unreasonably small, too. Who even does that? My circuits started to overheat as I red my sensors at the man, still invisible to him. He just shrugged at the now invisible cat and stepped forward into his office. My circuits were preventing me from processing straight, and before I knew it, I was reaching out with my spiritual cleansing skill and forcing the red fissures that pervaded its heart to be clean. But even as I scrubbed at the sphere as fiercely as my skill would let me, the color didn''t change. Nevertheless, I persevered. I redoubled my efforts as he made to close the door. Such barriers could stop me no longer. Before he could close the door fully, he stopped. His eyes widened for a split second before I heard a phantasmal crack echo throughout the world. Strangely, I couldn''t identify the medium in which they existed. It wasn''t sound waves propagating but something else entirely. I watched in awe as the man''s soul crumbled into pieces before cleansing grasp. As the pieces fell to the floor, each was consumed by the red fissures and slowly turned to dust. Only thergest two sections ttered to the floor, now fully visible and real. The man, though, became nothing but an apparition. His entire body vanished from my advanced sensors entirely. Flicking through my other options, it seemed that he still existed. Only, I could strangely only view him in my soul sight. He began to scream as his face contorted, bones pushing up out of the crown of his head in a circle formed by 11 bony knobs. His boots tore as his talons grew from his toes, and his body changed in a dozen other odd ways. The red of his soul''s cracks started to creep across his skin until it finally converged over his eyes, and he stood still. What the heck was that? I looked at the two chunks of a red, crystallized soul sitting on the floor in front of me and quickly snatched them into my dustbin, sectioning them off from anything else in a special void pocket for examinationter. At that moment, I could do nothing but stare as the soul apparition in front of me opened its now pitch-ck eyes. It seemed to be even darker than my void as the abyss stared back at me. "Why hello there, godling." Chapter 264: Dead Men Tell No Tales Chapter 264: Dead Men Tell No Tales The thing could see me. I wasn''t sure what to make of that. I was still bending the light around me such that nothing should be able to register visually. A quick check indicated that no light was escaping my carefully designated patterns, so clearly, it was using some other senses. He also knew I was a god. It was fairly obvious that this thing wasn''t really a human. No human besides Arthur had ever called me a godling, and he''d only taken up the name after Beatrice''s introduction. But this thing before me seemed to have picked it up immediately. It was weird. His sudden change in appearance was rming, but the figure hadn''t made any aggressive moves yet. I simply kept the cat safe and watched. After a handful of seconds of an uneventful staring contest, I eventually decided to respond. I still couldn''t actually talk, but I wasn''t sure if it could see my illusions even though it knew I was there. So, I took a chance and disyed a simple question in front of me. "Who are you?" The thing didn''t react. Apparently, it couldn''t actually see my illusions. Or maybe it just couldn''t see me at all, and it was guessing that some godling had saved the kitten. Well, that was a rather out-there guess. I can''t imagine what the odds would be, but they were so small that no reasonable being would bet on them. So I assumed it couldn''t see me as it nced around the room, not stopping on anything. Letting out a beep, I returned the greeting. This was frustrating. I got so used to being able to spell things out using my illusions thatmunicating without them was going to be very difficult. The weird red creature took a second to even react to my presence, and for a moment, I thought that it couldn''t hear sound. But he nodded. "So you are there." Dang. He really had been guessing that a godling had saved the cat. This guy must be terrible with statistics. Or maybe it had to do with the fact that his soul was crushed. Hmm. That did seem more likely now that I thought about it. Was it only gods and godlings that had abilities to affect souls? That would be interesting. The system had considered me a god ever since I had formed my own religion back at level 50, but I hadn''t gotten soul skills until muchter. Maybe it was more of a necessary but not sufficient sort of condition. The demonic ghost didn''t seem to be able to perceive it the same way. He couldn''t perceive my energy or me because of. My hiding. It''s weird. It''s weird that he couldn''t see me because of my sensory disruption skill, but I couldn''t project something to him at the same time. I responded in kind, indicating that yes, I was here. And what was he going to do about it? The creature tilted its head, and I watched its processes and thoughts y across its face as it swung wildly between emotions. Concern, wariness, fear, arrogance... it was all over the ce. This was not a stable creature, despite how posh it had sounded when it first greeted me. Slowly, its fanged maw turned up into a grin. "I will tell my lord that a weing party has been assembled to greet him when he finallyes." Well, that seemed like useful information. Was there another god visiting the capital like me? "He will reward me greatly for my diligence. Now banish me. Banish me and I shall be forever free!" the guy finished with a shout. He opened its eyes from where it had closed them when it finished its deration of being banished and looked at me strangely. I had no idea what this lunatic was talking about. I didn''t know how to banish him. As far as I could tell, I couldn''t even interact with him. He was only visible to me. But I watched air currents move through his semi-transparent body as he spoke and breathed. Maybe the void could reach into him? But it seemed like he had somehow shifted off from the physical world as far as I knew. What was going on? Clearly, something about his existence was just wrong. To check something, I tossed a little pebble at him, and it flew right through him. Was this a demonic ghost or something? I pulled out one of the soul shards, still unable to be affected by my air maniption, and set it on the ground. If I had to, I suppose I could try to clean him like I would a soul, but his few soul pieces were still isted in my dustbin. Diving in, I examined those for a split second before I needed to respond. There were a few chunks of the reddened crystal floating about within me, sequestered from everything else. I tried to examine the structure and couldn''t find any moleculettice. It was as if the things were made from pure energy waveforms that had formed into arge object, not the tiny atoms the world was constituted of. So some new kind of matter. It had a little bit of mass but no more than a feather might. Despite that, it was impossible for me to bend, even within my dustbin. I couldn''t imagine being able to crush it with my arm, either. But none of that gave me any idea about what it was. Maybe I could try transmuting the pieces of soul, but then they would vanish. If breaking the thing had done this much, I could only imagine the untold effects that unmaking it would have on his remaining body. Also, I really wasn''t sure if I wanted to banish him. It sounded like if I did, he would be delivering a message to someone I didn''t know, and I wasn''t sure how I felt about that. I activated Spiritual Cleanse and tried to waft its effects through the creature. Nothing happened. "You''re going to banish me, right? You''re not going to leave a demonic specter to wander the world unchecked. Right?" After a second, I let out a questioning beep. I wasn''t sure what a demonic specter was. That was a new one for me. I had seen no mention of that in the entire castle library, nor had Beatrice mentioned the term. Was it a type of undead? It said demonic. But it wasn''t a demon that the humans were apparently aware of. So, if it wandered around unchecked, what could it do? It couldn''t interact with anything. At least, not so far. People probably couldn''t even see it. People probably couldn''t even see it. An idea formed in my processors. I surrounded it in a ball of air and slipped around it in a wide circle, spraying my protective sent on it. The stuff hardened into a smooth spherical shell. Now, I wasn''t sure if that would work in the slightest. If this thing really had phased out of the material ne or something, it might not. But the protective sent was a pretty potent ability, and I figured it was worth a shot. It might have some sort of unexpected properties that I wasn''t aware of to exist on the same ne that this red demonic specter, as it called itself, was doing. Then it wouldn''t be free to roam around, and it wouldn''t tell its boss about me. It seemed like a win-win, in my opinion. Even if it didn''t work well, all I''d lose is a little bit of time. Now, I supposed the only thing left to do was try to get some information. If it really tried to do something weird, I might consume the soul crystals it dropped, but I saved that as ast resort. Especially because I wasn''t sure what would happen. Could I transmute them to energy? Was it even energy I could use? Would transmuting them from their weird solid state to an energy state do anything besides free the demon? Could I even contain them? Everything that was happening here went against the basic ts of how I interpreted the world. Worse, I had no solid historical information to work my models off of to understand what was happening, so I had nothing to do but take a risk. Before I had a chance to act on my decision, the guy spoke up again. "Uh, why am I still here?" How could I talk to him? Looking around the room, I floated a piece of paper to myself. I watched as the guy''s eyes tracked the paper. Good, he could still see the world, even if not my projections or me. Hovering the paper in front of me, I used the narrowest beam of my sanitizationmp to burn tiny inverted letters into the paper for him to read. I watched the demon''s red face turn the same color as the floating piece of paper as my words appeared. Once my first sentence was fullypleted, he wet his lips before trying to speak. "What is your name? Uh-- I can''t tell you that. I can''t give you that sort of power over me. Just banish me and be done with me!" The guy blustered. "Why can''t you tell me your name?" I printed. "Well, uh... What demon would tell you his true name?" Oh, he was a demon. That was good to know. I kind of assumed that, but it was nice to confirm. "Why should I banish you?" I asked. He seemed thoroughly confused by this. For a moment, he stammered before finally getting something out. "Oh um. That''s what you do to demons? We get defeated and banished and sent back to our ne. Why wouldn''t you? Do you want me around here causing problems? I could do that. I can serve you, too. I''ll serve you if you keep me around." His expression suddenly lit up into a... well, a devilish grin. I didn''t think I could trust this guy. Besides, I had no idea how to banish them. "Serve me, how?" The next line appeared in the paper. The man-demon started sweating, and I could see drops of red liquid pour from his temples and drip down onto the remains of his suit; he wiped his head nervously. "Your eminence, divine eminence, I can serve you in many ways..." He trailed off, not nearly as confident as he was at the beginning of our conversation. "What tasks can you perform?" I printed onto the paper. Chapter 265: Devil May Care Chapter 265: Devil May Care .r72debe1a2bcb4b639884369bafb9b0ef{ disy: none; } 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 andughed 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 exin what''s going on? I mean, if you banish me, I''ll just go back to the demon ne, which is fine. But I could also stay here in the, you know, the material ne 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 ne." "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, overlyplicated 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 ne never really has them, I''ve only ever heard about theming from other nes. 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 ced 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 arge 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 thews 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 Maniption 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!" This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it. 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 surprisinglyte 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 sleepingst 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 imed 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 wonderfuldies 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 minutester, several tes of eggs, toast, and bacon wereid 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. Chapter 266: Family Business Chapter 266: Family Business Nearly ten minutester, Bee found herself in what her aunt called a salon. Sure, it looked a little fancy, like what she would expect, but that was only at first nce. The nice building with gold trim and pretty pastel colors housed an entryway. They went up to the door, and soon, a well-dressed maid led them to a table in a private alcove with a small candle lighting up the dimness. Before they had a chance to look at any menu or ask about what food was avable, the maid left, and Beatrix smiled. "So. You have to tell me about how you got such an impressive manor. I was just floored. It looked far too nice for something you could just snap up without an extra fortune or two on hand. But when I came to look at it, it was nothing at all like the sketches or descriptions I heard. Even the bank was very surprised that you managed to buy this. You didn''tmit any fraud or anything, right? Trust me, it''s a recipe for disaster. I''m not using you, of course. Our rtionship has been good with the bank, and they seem to think it was all above-board. So tell me. How did you find such a good deal?" Bee had half expected this question but in a much different way. "Uh, well, I went to the bank, looked for manors that would serve my, uh, our needs. Then I looked through them and picked one of the cheaper ones. It was in disrepair. I purchased it after I had taken a look and decided it wasn''t as bad as the bank had assumed. And then some of the people I had with me, um, helped fix it up and cleaned it for a day or two. And that''s what you saw." "There''s no way that so few people fixed up the entire manor. Not with the way they described it. Even if you had a whole team of Craftsmen and Builders behind you, that would have taken weeks at least. It shouldn''t have any windows. Everything was broken. Everything." The woman gestured emphatically. "There were massive gouges in the stone floor. The gates were rusted. You couldn''t have gotten all that reced in just a couple of days! And not to mention the cost ofbor and materials..." Bee shrugged, not really sure how to exin it. She didn''t quite feel ready to tell her aunt about the whole church that she was leading, or her level, or really anything about her experience in the castle. Maybeter. But she was still getting used to the idea that her aunt and maybe even her father cared about her. Right now, it didn''t feel like something she could trust them with. Maybe after they took the city, she''d fill her in with everything, but she''d also miss a chance to preach about Void. Her aunt leaned forward with a gleam in her eye. Bee could tell that the woman saw an opportunity here, and for good reason. If Bee could pull something like this off, then could she do it again? If so, there was real business to be had. She held her breath for a split second, debating. Eventually, she spoke. "Well. We did get a little bit of help, and I do have a few surprises, but I''m not sure if they''re repeatable." Bee skated around the truth as well as she could. Would Void be willing to clean up other manors like this? Probably. But would her master go out of his way to clean upthe manors she specifically owned? Yeah, probably as well. So maybe that was less truthful than she originally intended. Beatrix''s eyes twinkled. She was about to ask another question when she leaned back suddenly. The maid appeared at their table with a few tall, fluted sses of what looked like a pale orange juice. She set down one in front of each of them. Bee cautiously took a sip and spluttered as Beatrix smiled at her over the rim of her ss. "What is this?" She asked her aunt, scrunching her nose at the surprisingly alcoholic drink. "Well, it''s a new thing from the south. People call it a mimosa." "This is way stronger than drinking wine." Bee said, rubbing her tongue against her front teeth and trying to get the taste out of her mouth. "Why do you even add the orange juice? It still tastes like how a hard liquor smells." Beatrix just continued to smile. "Don''t worry about it. It''s ady''s drink. You''ll be fine. You''re 14 anyways, right? You don''t have to keep drinking the weak stuff." Moving on as if Bee hadn''t nearly choked on the disgusting liquid. "Anyway, I also wanted to ask. How did you get such good ss on those windows? I''ve never seen anything like it. I can barely even see the pane and there''s very little heat conduction through it. I tested! When I touched itst night, it wasn''t cold at all. None of the night chill seeped through on my side. You simply must let me know about your supplier!" Stolen novel; please report. Bee frowned. She was sure it was something Void had done, but... "Yeah. Um, I''m not sure about that. It was like that when we got there. I can ask around and see what happened? Maybe." Beatrix smiled knowingly, obviously misinterpreting her niece''s hesitation. "Yes, of course, I don''t want you to give up all your secrets, but... if we can get something like that. Well, I mean, everyone would want windows like this. They''re simply the best." Bee just nodded. If her aunt thought that she was protecting a supplier, then that was for the best. "Ok. So." Beatrix adjusted in her seat. "You''re telling me that you simply came into the city, bought the manor, fixed it up, and managed something like this? Well, I guess we''re in the wrong business. We need to get into real estate!" Beatrix''s excitement crescendoed. Bee just shrugged. "Well, um, I heard that you wereing to set up a branch in the Capitol." As she passed on the rumors that she had heard from the guards. Beatrix waved her hand, "Ah, that. Sort of. I was more about looking into the possibility of setting up a branch, but it seems like you''re already way ahead of me here." "Has the business been going that well?" Bee asked. "Yes, yes. Things have been going great. The anticipated conflict has been great for business. We have a huge influx of cash and people buying everything that they can. And we''re hoping to reinvest so that we''re set up for when hard timese in. More branches will help with that." "Wouldn''t that give you more vulnerabilities?" "Yes, but a lot of the international trade we''re expecting is going to dry up soon. Everyone thinks the King is itching to start some wars, and I have to say I agree. So domestic trade is going to be even more important. So we''re trying to set up infrastructure to take up some of the market between lots of cities rather than just our international contracts." Bee remembered some of the meetings she''d been in over the past day or two. "Um, I''ve taken a few meetings in the family stead," she said. "And there is definitely still a lot of interest in getting your contacts internationally. And if you really think that they''re going to be unavable, it might be time to think about selling some ess to them rather than just the goods they provide." Beatrix smiled. "Ah. Very clever. As I should expect from my niece! Well, we''re not entirely convinced, but maybe we can try that with a few of them. We can test the waters and see what we can get for them. Now, who have you met with?" Bee went through a long list of meetings she''d had and notes she''d remembered, and Beatrix listened, humming and hawing. Still, she let Bee speak for a solid ten minutes before she''d covered everything that she thought her aunt would like to know. "Hmm. That is useful. You''ve done a very good job." Beatrix sipped her mimosa. "Now, I know this might be a little bit prying, but I have to ask. Why are you here?" Bee blinked, surprised at the sudden turn of conversation. Beatrix quickly rified. "I know that you weren''t here for family business. You''ve never particrly enjoyed learning your father''s lessons. And I tried to teach you when you were young, but you were always off watching the local pharmacist. So why are you really here? I''m d to see you and everything, but it makes absolutely no sense. "I saw the people with you. They don''t look like they''re from the college, and none of them are magicians, from what I can tell. They''re talking about someone named Void. Did you run away from the castle? Were you unhappy there? If you just wanted to be a merchant, you could have told us. We would have gotten you out. I thought you always dreamed about learning magic, though." "Um. Really?" She asked in disbelief. Bee had to blink away the sudden emotion that welled up inside. Her aunt actually knew she had always been fascinated with magic? "Um, yeah. Duh." The woman chuckled. "Your father had to pull a lot of strings to get you that position at the castle. It wasn''t cheap, you know." Bee was takenpletely aback. She''d always assumed her father hadn''t paid those bribes to the college. Had her father been scammed? Did someone take the bribes, promising that she''d be a magician, and simply get away with not following through just because she hadn''t told her father? Was that some sort of mimunication? Why hadn''t her father told her what to expect? If that was the case, why not tell her himself Instead of having some family servant ship her off while he was off on a business trip? Bee''s mind raced. She waspletely flustered and unable to process what seemed to be aplete change of perspective over thest several years. No, it couldn''t have been like that. Someone would have said something. Bee realized she had been silent for some time. Her aunt''s face showed quite a bit of concern. "What''s wrong, honey? Did the castle not work out the way we expected?" "Yeah" Bee swallowed. "No. No, it did not." Chapter 267: Fruits of our Labors Chapter 267: Fruits of our Labors Harold rapped three times on the closed door. He waited a second and then knocked twice more in a particr cadence. The door creaked open, and he slipped inside, checking over her shoulder to make sure he still wasn''t being followed. He was greeted with the sight of an elderly woman standing over a bedridden figure. A firece crackled merrily near the back of the room, silhouetting the pair. "How''s he doing?" He whispered to the healer. "Same asst time," she croaked at him, her voice rusty from disuse. "It''s still going to be a couple of weeks before he can move." Harold winced. He''d hoped for some sort of miracle, but apparently not. The Warden was not in good condition. By the time he had finally managed to work him out of the cells, the man was already on death''s door. Worse, the guards had never really given up looking for him. Even now, they still hunt him across the city due to some unfortunate events that happened during their escape. To top it all off, Harold''s identity had been revealed, and his face was now avable to many of the kingdom''s amazingly hostile spies. How had the king managed to assemble such a pervasivework in such a short amount of time? Especially one that neither he nor the Warden had any idea about. It was ominous. People who had no preexisting connections to the kingdom or hidden motives that he could uncover were firmly in the king''s pockets. They were constantly on the lookout for him, constantly observing wherever Harold went. And it had taken all of his skills to maintain undetected for this time. He''d even had to pay the healer a significant bribe to keep things quiet. However, he would have to figure out a way to move soon. He was starting to run low on certain spell ingredients, and restocking in the city had been almost impossible. Harold had hoped that the Warden would be in good shape by this point, or at least well enough to pull him out. Then, they could reactivate theirwork. Not so much to resist the king, as that was still a secondary concern. The real problem was how to contain the damage of the Lieutenants getting free. Harold had done what he could on his own, but his hands were all but tied. They hadn''t even been able to leave the city for almost a month after he''d gotten the Warden out. A few of their contacts were activated, and hopefully, some of their messages to the outside organization were getting through, at least. Security on the other Lieutenant protections needed to be double-checked and reinforced with whatever spares they might have. But the organization wasn''t made for that. What was worse was that information wasn''t flowing back, so he could only hope they could get out and flee to a nearby major city or some other ce. Somewhere, they had some of theirmand stations, but they were outside of the purview of the king. Perhaps they could learn more and regroup to be more effective. But until the Warden finally healed and was coherent again, it would be rough going. "Can I talk to him?" Harold asked. The olddy shook her head. "No. He''s sleeping. This is good. He''s recovering. He was able to eat a full bowl of soup on his own earlier today. But at his age and what he went through, he''s lucky to still be alive. Man must be stubborn as a mule." Harold nodded. That''s for sure. The Warden hadn''t been in one of the guest noble cells in the upper levels of the prison. That was where Harold had thought he''d find him, but no. The man had been stuck in the very bottom of a cell too small to lie down in, with a trickle of water running through it. He''d been emaciated and clearly had other injuries. But Harold had managed to carry him out, and that was what had given him away. Stealth was much harder with a burden like that. Well, at least they made it out. And safely, too. There was only one variable that he hadn''t yet ounted for in his n. And that was the strange cult infiltrating the city. It was slowly but surely taking over, and they seemed to have some sort of central organization. Perhaps he could broker a deal with the cult and get them out early. Or maybe the Warden could do it when he woke up. It seemed that the strange figures might have enough control over the city that they might be able to make some changes. Harold sat in one of the free chairs at the table and pulled out half an apple from a pocket. He leaned back and took a slow bite, running some figures in his head. He eventually nodded. He''d try to talk to them tomorrow. Perhaps they''d be able to help. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. --- It was early morning when I got back to the house to find that Beatrice had already left. But I could still tell there was something different. There was a bit of an uproar in the kitchens. By which I meant there was an extra dirty te. Did we have a visitor? We''d only been here for a few nights, and we were already having guests over. Well, a good thing. I had worked on preparing the ce for thepany. I was a little disappointed that it hadn''t gotten more donest night between the meeting with the demon and cleaning the streets, but I had stayed out a little bitter than normal to make up for the time I had wasted talking to the ghost demon. I did a quick once-over of the house to make sure it was presentable and found no one besides Mrs. Chadwick there. She told me that Talia had gone off to do some grocery shopping, and I found the kids ying gully ball. Today, it took the form of something akin to volleyball, but with sticks. Two of each four-member team held sticks and were using them to whack the ball instead of throwing it. The game made even less sense to me now as I spent a few minutes watching, but they all seemed to be having fun, and no one was seriously hurt, so I moved on. I didn''t find the men anywhere nearby after venturing out for a bit, but I did find Talia at an impromptu market, haggling with a fruit vendor. I slipped into the crowd to observe. After the first couple minutes of observation, I couldn''t help but be surprised by the chaos. This market was simply a mess. At first, I had been a little bit hopeful about the lines of vendor stalls boasting tables full of wares under shaded awnings. I thought there would be some order here based on how neatly they wereid out. But no, it was chaos. People milled around as merchants shouted. Tables got bumped, rattling their contents and causing a few spills. Kids ran around and hid under the tables as vendors chased them off with raised voices and shaken fists. I had no idea how Talia managed to navigate her way through the sea of people and constant change. But she did. Even more, she did it with a calm, collected grace that told me she wasn''t out of her depth and everything around her was far from unusual. Simple steps avoided therge eddies of traffic that trapped people in them, and she moved from one ce to another, speaking quickly to distract the shopkeepers and asionally exchanging some coin for whatever they were offering. How did she know what to do? Could she interpret the chaos? Or was there some hidden pattern here? Something, some governing rule that I just hadn''t yet decoded? I did my best to whiz through the people''s legs to stay around her level as she moved, but it required a lot of attention. Perhaps it was that they couldn''t see me. Or perhaps my models just were not calibrated or capable enough of pulling me through. Whatever it was, I had to rely onst-minute corrections rather than nned pathing. After a few minutes of dodging about and doing my best to observe, I found a different approach. I found arger building in the center of the za and rested atop its steepled roof, gazing down and tracking as many variables as I could in an attempt to find a pattern in the market. While I dedicated a few subroutines to that, I watched as Talia gave away more and more of the coins to receive bits of various foods. Eventually, I began to focus more on what she was actually doing. How was Talia picking up the food? What made food worth buying? I looked at the stuff she was selecting, and I started to notice some simrities across her selections. Now, this was a problem I could solve. Whenever she grabbed fruit, it wasn''t just any fruit. She was picking up the most ordered specimens, the ones with the least disruptions to the natural patterns within them. At least, she tried to. Most of the time, she ended up picking something that wasn''t the best on the table, but it was never among the worst options. It was always something with the least amount of bruises, the brightest color, the cut of meat with the fewest bacteria. Interesting. All this time, I had nted orchards and watched the humans gather food. However, I never really thought about the quality of growth. Talia wasn''t epting anything. She was picking out only the best. That raised a question. If there was variation in what fruits a nt produced, then could I grow better fruit than what was naturally produced? Hmm. If I made the order inside the fruit higher, I could possibly give them more structure. Would that be better? It seemed like it. But was that true in every case? I suddenly regretted not picking the Create Fruit skill. Evidently, it might have opened up more options than I''d expected, even if the protective coatings had been useful so far. Besides, maybe I didn''t need the skill. Maybe it was time to experiment a bit on my own. Lost in thought, I left the bazaar to go check on the fruit trees that I had nted in the back of the manor. Perhaps there was something I could learn from here. I did make a mental note to keep crunching the data I collected from the market''s eddies and flow in the traffic to see if I could find some sort of governing dynamic. But right now, the fruit problem was more interesting. I wondered what would happen if I could use my domain to manipte their organization a bit. What sort of properties could I give them? Chapter 268: A Discerning Eye Chapter 268: A Discerning Eye The rest of Bee''s meeting in the salon went more to n than the first half. Her aunt kept drinking a shocking amount but never really seemed affected by it. Bee eventually questioned her after what must have been her tenth drink, and she said he had something to do with her merchant ss. After that, Bee became even more wary of the strength of these drinks. Instead, she got the waiter to bring her some water and real orange juice. As she cut into pancakes topped with sugary syrup, they talked about the family business. "How do you continue going about it?" Bee found she cared a little bit about their family''s finances and was interested in what her aunt had to say. But she still didn''t really like business. That''s why it didn''t bother her that her aunt offered, very apologetically, to take over the business rtionships Bee had paved the way for. She had already gotten what she wanted out of them: cover in the city, a ce to stay, and several wagoneers'' contracts that would allow her to set up impromptu roadblocks. As part of their ns, she had formted a path for the army that wound from the front gate all the way to the castle. Once that beachhead was established, she could then get the wagons to move, but she wouldn''t need any sort of business contacts for that. The city would fall quickly, especially if they lost contact with their leadership. The cultists were going to be an amazing help as well. Although her aunt didn''t need to know about that part. So Bee was finally, blessedly freed up from all her responsibilities as the acting heiress to her family business. And she couldn''t be happier. Beatrix asked her to keep her eye open for any crazy deals like the one she had gotten on the manor, so she promised she would. But she didn''t have high hopes. Eventually, she made it back to the manor as her aunt went to a business meeting. After a very, very long meal that left her stuffed, Bee wondered if she would have to be rolled down the street to get home. Once she arrived, though, she found that Void had returned and busied itself in the back doing something. It seemed as though it was staring at the apple trees. Bee joined her master for a little bit just to talk, as she hadn''t touched base with Void for a while. She was very busy, and Void was somehow always gone. "What are you working on?" Bee asked. --- I had spent only a couple hours studying the apple trees when Beatrice came and found me. I greeted her with an enthusiastic beep, then projected an exnation. "I''m just looking at the fruits. I think that changing their internal structures might make them better." She looked at me with confusion but still nodded. "Really? How so?" I shared my initial findings with her. Fruit with more internal structure appeared to be crispier in most cases but also maintained its important nutrients. It could also improve resistance to damage from bruising or squeezing. However, a lot of the benefits of eating the fruit, such as the energy and sugars within them, might be lost. For fruit, of course, increasing the regrity of the structure would allow the fruits to grow bigger and healthier than ever before. But also, there was something else. There were other variables that I could experiment with. If I just tweaked it slightly, the fruit changed in unexpected ways. Ways that were entirely different from the effects of bringing it into my dustbin... I stopped scrolling my text as I noticed that Beatrice''s eyes had zed over, and she wasn''t exactly following what I was saying. Well, that was ok. I supposed I had rambled for a bit, so I summarized my findings. I might be able to make fruit do more than just give you nutrients and energy for the day. She seemed to ept that as she nodded and returned to just sitting in the grass with me as I studied the apples. I pulled one of them into my storage and examined it in there, too, watching as the energies from my limitless dustbin slowly seeped into it. The absorption of the energy made the apple begin to glow. It started in the firstyer of skin. There, it did nothing more than add a faint luminosity effect, from what I could tell. At least, that''s what my sensors told me, but the apple continued to change the longer I had it in. Once the skin was glowing, the magic and energies started to seep in further, and the cells of the apple began to mutate. It grew and changed, and all the little organelles inside its cells began to work faster and with more vigor. Before long, entirely new structures formed. Ones that I had no name for. Structures that seemed to be made of the same physics-defying energy in my dustbin. After analyzing them, they appeared to have properties simr to the energy I gained from that overflow experience. Only, it was slightly different. It was almost as though the magic was colored somewhat. Perhaps they would have some sort of effect when consumed. If youe across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Now, of course, I could just hold the apples in my storage indefinitely, but they kept getting more and more magically amped up. After about 20 to 30 minutes of being in my storage, I would not trust even someone as powerful as Beatrice to consume them without exploding from the amount of magical energy shoved into them. Maybe Archibald could have taken it, but even then, it would probably be dangerous. So what if I could get the apples to do something simr while they were still growing? I didn''t think I needed the void to impart the magic. But what if I could control the apple and get it to generate a slight pull, pulling some of the ambient magic from around the surrounding areas into it and causing a predictable effect? Maybe we could use it to intentionally give myself and my people additional boosts from eating the more reasonably energized fruit? I never noticed when Beatrice left, as it took me days of continuous study before I had any sort of real understanding of how to get the fruit to pull in ambient energy. It wasn''t exactly something I''d ever tried before, and I didn''t know where to start with something like this. However, with an entire library''s worth of knowledge in my databases and firsthand experience with Beatrice''s magic, I had a bit more to work with than I''d initially feared. It turned out that I couldn''t get the fruit to make those changes itself. Instead, I had to get the tree to start from the roots. And with how the roots were already pulling energy from the soil, and the leaves were pulling energy from the sun, it took a little bit of tweaking. I started by pulling in apple leaves and bits of roots into my storage to watch the effects, but I noticed with very, very, very precise applications of myser and a few bits of magical re-infused dirt, I could alter them. Soon, the roots drew in not just water and nutrients but a little bit of magic as well. It was going very slowly, and the apples wouldn''t be ready any time soon. But. I was pretty sure that my idea would work. I never did get back to the market to study its governing dynamics. The fruit took up all my time. The only time I wasn''t studying the fruit in the backyard was when I was cleaning the city at night. I never did give up on that, but mostly because the apples tended to go dormant during the dark. Without sunlight to stimte their growth, I had nothing better to do. Besides, the market was closed at night anyway. *** Sometimete in the second week, I finished cleaning the city. At least I finished the first pass. Every street was, at one point, spotless. Every wall was free of moss. Every paving stone was level, besides the ones in the pce. I didn''t want to go back there yet. Besides, that area was rtively well kept from what I''d seen, and I didn''t feel like it needed that much improvement. By the time I finished covering the whole city, I checked back to where I started and realized, yep, it was dirty again. Thankfully, it was not as dirty as I found it, but it was still dirty. I just beeped determinedly. I knew that would be the case. It was one of thews of the universe. Cleaning was never done. There was no way to suspend the world in a perfect state. And even if we could, that would be a horrible idea. Cleaning was to pick up after the humans. And humans made messes. It was in their nature. It was a hard thing for me to ept, but it was true. In fact, a lot of other things seemed to share that inclination, but that didn''t mean we couldn''t strive to do a bit better every day. One thing I noticed over the week was a change in the white-robed cult''s preaching. They seemed to change their tone slightly. Instead of yelling about how cleanliness necessitated the removal of people, Zeal''s priests took a slight turn in style. They started yelling about how the streets being clean meant their god hade, that the end times were near, and all those mess makers in causes of disorder must repent and throw themselves on their swords to beg for the mercy of the clean one. It was still a whole lot of nonsense to me. But they didn''t seem to be harming anyone. At least, I hadn''t noticed them harming anyone. Beatrice talked with their leader several more times, and from what I could tell, they had reached some sort of understanding. It would hopefully benefit all of us in cooperation. One morning, as I returned from my nightly routine, Beatrice came to me in the garden. "The army should be showing up today or tomorrow. I''m not sure when exactly, and I can prepare for them either day, but it''d be better if I knew more urately when they''ll arrive. It might help to know before the guards do." Of course, she had to get a lot of things in ce before the city could know. Even then, the army needed to know to get here as quickly as possible once they were spotted. Otherwise, the city might have time to tamper with any measures Beatrice set up. "I will go," I messaged. My human had a point. The army could definitely use an update on things around here, anyway. Beatrice gave me a bow. "Thank you for performing such a menial task, my master. I know it is beneath you, but I''m very grateful. Otherwise, I wasn''t sure how I would be able to contact them." I just waved my appreciation as I zipped up and out of the city, zooming off to go find the awaiting army. Chapter 269: The Armies of Heaven Chapter 269: The Armies of Heaven It didn''t take me very long to find Arthur''s army. Their camp stretched out alongside the road in a column 15 tents wide, disappearing over the next hill. They were marching in step and still a couple of days out. I was certain the city knew about theiring, as scouts surely could have made it back to report such an obvious force. But there had been no preparations, from what I could tell, for their attack. Perhaps the city wasn''t as well prepared as we had thought. Or maybe Arthur was doing something to intercept the scouts ahead of time. That would be something he would do. Now that I''d found the army, I figured it would be worthwhile to stop and check in with them and let them know how things were going in the city. Besides, letting them know Beatrice''s n would help with her executing it, and doing it now would save me a trip back and forth between here and the city. So I found themand tent and dropped in. There, I found all the usual suspects sitting and talkingte into the evening. When I made myself known with a greeting beep as I entered the tent, their startled jumps quickly turned to formal bows. "Wee back, Lord Void," Arthur said in his reassuringly deep voice. "I hope the mission in the city has gone well." I waved to all of them and gave a happy greeting of chirping noises. Above my chassis, I shed a quick highlight reel of the past two weeks before responding. "Yes, everything is well. How has the march been? The city does not seem to be aware of your presence." Arthur and Susan both rxed slightly. I noticed that Susan particrly looked exhausted, with bags under her eyes and a weary slump to her shoulders, but a small, satisfied smile yed across her lips. "So it''s worked," she sighed. Arthur nodded. "It looks like it has. Good job. Tell your scouts to keep it up there as long as we can. But they''re all getting special amodation when this is over." "What''s worked? I asked. "Susan and her counterpart have been running a counterintelligence operation for the past couple of weeks. It''s been difficult, but considering your update it''s been worth it. Not to mention because of the levels they''ve been getting. I''ve never seen anything like it - church members excluded, of course." "They''ve been tracking down all sorts of scouts, shooting down messenger birds and nting false information in towns a little bit before we reached them to report that our approach is a week or two farther behind where we currently are. We weren''t able to hide the fact that we wereing, but the arrival date should be fairly off." I mulled over this. "I don''t think that we will be able to maintain this secrecy much longer. You appear to be only a day and a half away." Arthur nodded. "Yes, but every hour of preparation counts. So, how''s it been going on your end?" "Quite well." I showed them the clean streets of the capital city. Each one was carefully tended to, repaired, and orderly. "The city is almost ready for ouring," I said. "Beatrice has a n. I will tell them to open the northern gate for you an hour after sunset tomorrow. They will make a corridor of blocked alleys where the main street is kept free, where you can run down and attack the capital castle as quickly as possible. Once we have the castle siege, most of the garrison is stored there or along the wall, spread out so they won''t be able to concentrate on any major defenses. We will hit the castle, keep the soldiers bottled up there, and then slowly expand to take the rest of the city, hopefully with minimal force and coteral damage. "We have arge contingent of faithful in the city, and they should at least take care of the soldiers in the wall. Everyone who was involved in the church and is on guard has volunteered to take a shift that night." I ryed the message nearly word for word ording to what Beatrice told me, only slightly adjusting it to match what I thought Arthur should know. Arthur nodded. "Tomorrow night. Okay. Let''s see... If we march double tomorrow, we should be able to make it. It''ll be hard, because if we''re gonna hit tomorrow night, we''re going to be a bit tired. But if it''s really as you say, then we shouldn''t actually need to do too much fighting. It''s hard to count on that, though." Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the vition. As he spoke, Arthur exchanged looks with his officers. They nodded in response, prepared to do what they needed to do. "Don''t worry," I said. "Beatrice will see this through. Also, I have a present." I pulled out an apple and handed it to Arthur. The apple was only slightly glowing, but I was reasonably certain that it would not be harmful for him to eat. The man looked at it, frowning in confusion and suspicion before flicking his eyes back to me. "Thanks?" He took a tentative bite out of it, and his expression turned to a smile. I registered a quite audible and satisfying crunch as he took a second bite. "Wow. That''s one of the sweetest apples I''ve ever had. Refreshing, too." I pumped my little w in satisfaction. Yes! I had made good fruit. Arthur cocked his head and flexed slightly. "Huh? Seems like this has some interesting effects, too. I''m not sure though, perhaps I''m imagining it... How many of these do you have?" He asked. "Um, not too many yet, but I''m learning how to grow them faster," I exined. "Hmm. Well, it''ll be interesting to see exactly what they do, but thank you for the gift, Lord Void." I sensed that it was time for me to go, as they had much work to do. I said goodbye to everyone, Susan and Tony especially, and headed off to tell Beatrice the good news. --- After she had asked Void to aplish the small errand. Bee set out for her meeting with Zeal. His cult members had imed as many guard duty spots as they could, finding any excuse to swap into position along the wall, especially at the northern gate. It should be enough. With an additional small force of cultists, Bee, and herpanions, there should be no issue taking the northern gate. The wagon contracts had been set up such that they had reced the drivers with their own people, and most were stashed near the corridor. The barricade was primed and could be established within a few hours of notice. Everything was set up. Hopefully, Arthur wouldn''t arrive tonight, but tomorrow. That might be ideal. Who knew how long it would take for people to notice her deceit. But she had faith in her people, and Void would surely see them through. As she made her way toward the cult''s meeting spot, a sh of movement caught her eye from the alley before her. A figure hurried out of it, their hood pulled low to obscure their face. They were in such a rush that they nearly ran straight into her. She had to dodge sideways to avoid them. As they narrowly avoided bumping into each other, Bee caught a brief sh of the face beneath that hood. It seemed... familiar, somehow. Though she couldn''t be certain. "Watch where you''re going," Bee chastened the man. He nced up at her and scoffed as he passed. That''s when it clicked. She''d heard that scoff before. That particr tone of derision and disapproval had burned itself into her brain over the past few years. It was her old headmaster. The Dean of Demonology himself, who she hadst seen right before he performed a summoning ritual that brought Void into the castle. After that, he ran away with the others, abandoning her alone. As their gazes had met, she''d seen no sh of recognition in them. There was no indication that he recognized who she was. And why would he? She had been a lowly maid. But she knew him. Harold scrambled to his feet and hurried off down the alleyway. He looked over his shoulders as if worried she was going to follow him. She frowned. That was odd. This alley really only led to Zeal''s hideout. What had the powerful magician been doing meeting with Zeal? Was Harold a follower of Void? That didn''t make any sense. He wasn''t wearing the right clothes, nor was it likely that he would follow the very creature that he had run away from. But perhaps there was some merit to the idea. If anything, Harold did know the most about Void in some way. Perhaps that summoning had been intentional, after all. They''d just gotten more than they bargained for. She never did figure out how exactly Void hade to this world. But if her master had just hijacked their powerful summoning circle as they attempted to use it for other purposes, maybe Harold wouldn''t have any idea. In fact, he might''ve beenpletely confused about who Void was. That would exin a lot of things. Bee shrugged. Well, perhaps if they had a chance to talk, she could exin some things. If he listened, of course. She didn''t think he would be interested in what the maid had to say about magic. She pushed that out of her mind and made a note to ask Zeal about it after their important business was done. Walking down the rest of the alleyway, she knocked and was soon shown to the cult leader''s small office. This time, the woman huddled in the corner looked freshly bathed and clothed, though her face didn''t look any less terrified. Zeal greeted her with a smile. "Beatrice. Come in. Let us talk about theing of our lord." Chapter 270: The Coming of the Lord Chapter 270: The Coming of the Lord Arthur scratched his head as he watched Lord Void zip out of the tent. After a moment of silence, Captain Major coughed behind him. "Do you think their n is going to work?" He asked casually. "Probably not exactly the way they intend, but I think it won''t matter too much," Arthur mused. "The city is as good as ours, from what I can tell. As long as the demons serving the king are contained to the castle instead of being able to roam free. Which, if we do surprise them, is the natural fallback location. And with Lord void here, I don''t think we have too much to worry about if things do go awry." A few of the other officers murmured something about standard tactics. Arthur''s gut couldn''t help but agree with them a little bit, but still. He was proud of Miss Beatrice. That she had found a way to take the city with minimal bloodshed wasmendable. It may have been a little bit less reliable than the good old siege-and-destroy method. But it had much more potential to leave the people on her side and be willing to cooperate when she eventually took over. That was bound to happen, after all. Who else would take over in the vacuum of power? No, Beatrice was going to have to lead an entire city. The idea would have sounded absolutely absurd up until very recently. But after seeing the girl''s ability to handle the church and keep the castle running smoothly over these past months, perhaps it wasn''t so far-fetched. Arthur was proud of her. It wasn''t the same kind of pride as he felt with his daughters or sons, honestly. He thought of her more as a favored niece. And so he was happy to see her do well, even if they hadn''t honestly known each other that long. Regardless, it was clear that Beatrice waspetent yet innocent in some ways. She was a lot like Lord Void if he had to be honest. After the rest of the meeting wrapped up, Arthur excused himself and walked back to his tent. The army camp was set up in neat rows and regiments, every line perfectly taut and every tent ced just so. Military precision had always been something that Arthur had prided himself in. But more recently, even the men had shown more enthusiasm for the practice. Some even got outright excited about putting up camp, and for good reason. When you earned experience for just putting up your tent properly instead of sloppily, it was pretty easy to motivate yourself to do everything perfectly right. In fact, he had never been in such an orderly camp, and it had only improved as they traveled. The soldiers were happy to move on, break down camp, and set up camp as many times as necessary because it was an easy level. Natural activity about the tents caused things to be out of order, and whenever they reced a fallen item or tightened a loose knot, they were immediately rewarded. Assuming they were a follower of Void, of course. But as far as he knew, pretty much every single soldier was now a follower of Void. Soldiers were a superstitious lot, and when you had literal divinity walking or rolling amongst you, it was pretty hard not totch onto it. The only issue had been the fights over who held the right to clean up after mealtimes. And, of course, they had all tried to cheese the system by making messes on purpose to clean upter. But if the mess was intentionally made for the sole purpose of cleaning it up again, the recipient would actually lose experience. That put an end to the practice very quickly. You couldn''t even make a mess for someone else to clean up intentionally without the consequences. There were a lot of changes and adjustments to get used to. But they were learning to live with it. The freakishly neat camp, though, would be pretty eerie for anyone who didn''t have any background on who the army was, Arthur admitted to himself. Even their camp followers, who included many of the people from the castle who didn''t have families or children to watch back at home, set up their things in orderly rows as if to outdo the military. In fact, one would be forgiven for thinking this was some undead necromancer''s force if it wasn''t for the fact that skeletons didn''t need to sleep. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. And to top it all off, this group wasn''t just the most disciplined troops he had evermanded. They were also the most highly leveled. In fact, in any other force, most soldiers would be officers based purely on leveling, whether or not they had any connections or skills relevant to the position. An average of 11 levels per soldier over the winter put them even the most average soldier at the peak of most countries'' elite troops. The few old monsters and officers like Arthur himself were all closing in on level 50, which was absolutely unheard of. An army like this would be nigh unstoppable. So when he considered the city already theirs, it was with good reason. There were only a few wild cards left, and luckily, he wouldn''t be the one who had to deal with them. It was all up to the High Priestess and their god. --- Bee wasn''t sure how to address the cult leader''s bizarre greeting. "Theing of their lord"? Technically, there was nothing wrong with it, factually, but still. It was the way that he said it: the diction, the intonation, the slight fervor in his eyes. It was almost as though he didn''t really understand the implications of his words. "Void had been in the city for nearly two weeks at this point. Our lord has alreadye," she answered after several moments of thought. "Surely you can see the signs in the city." Zeal stood and bowed. "Indeed, I have. The streets are clean, and the people are cared for for the most part. But the world doesn''t yet believe! Many more people have been receptive to our cause since the city has changed. But they don''t understand what it means for divinity to be walking amongst them. They must be made to understand for hising to beplete. For our lord to show himself and dere to all that the city shall be cleansed." "Hmm." Bee stared for a half second, almost getting caught up in the speech. The words made a certain twisted amount of sense. Sure, people should know. Why not share the truth with them? They should know that the benevolent lord hase to save them from the rule of a despot and clean up their city and way of life. But what about the people who didn''t believe? Would Void take action against them? Maybe, Maybe not. She had no real control over what her lord would do, and she didn''t want to assume that her master would do what they expected. In fact, she was pretty sure that it would do almost anything but what they expected and likely leave a whole lot of people confused. As long as she''d known it, she found that even when asked direct questions, Void usually answered with allegories and stories left up for interpretation by the recipient. At least, that seemed to be the case, depending on whether she wrote them down properly or not. Was it right to force their understanding on others? Probably not. Maybe it was hard to deny the truth when it sat in front of her, waving happily and ying ball with the children. But she didn''t think Zeal was quite so understanding. "Well, we will have to interpret what Void wants when he makes it known," she hedged. "But it has been very clear that our master has dered that he wants the city. And so we shall deliver." "So we shall deliver," Zeal echoed as he sat down. Bee took the chair across from him. "So, have the members of the church who are also guards done what you asked for them?" Beatrice inquired. Zeal nodded. "So have all the wagon drivers. And more...." --- I found Beatrice as she was walking down the main avenue to the northern gate. Today was the day. It was time to take the city. I wasn''t sure exactly when Arthur''s army would get here. I hadn''t made time to check, as I was busy checking up on our own preparations. Beatrice seemed quite stressed about them, so I figured it might ease her mind to have a second opinion on things. There were a few issues that I thought she needed to be aware of. First off, some of the wagons blocking the roads needed to be moved more toward the centers of the alleys. Others they had set up in the pre-dawn light weren''t properly lined up. There were plenty of gaps and uneven spaces that could easily be fixed with just a little bit of maneuvering. But that was ok. It was an easy problem, and we could solve it together. In fact, I was a bit impressed that this was the most major issue I''d found. She''d spent thest couple of hours helping the people set up, and evidently, it was time well spent. But just as I was about to inform her of the inefficiencies in the setup, a bell on the wall started ringing in a steady ng, ng, ng rhythm. It sounded suspiciously like a smoke detector going off but with more metal. Or like a giant doorbell indicating that our friends had arrived. Chapter 271: Organized Chaos Chapter 271: Organized Chaos As the sharp, stato, nging sound resonated through the air, I rose up above Beatrice to get they of thend. In the distance, I could see the column of men marching along the road. They were still a little bit of a way out, but further than I honestly expected them to get. The fact that they had just now started to trigger rms was astonishing. This was good. It meant that the attack was as much of a surprise as we could possibly make it. People staggered out of their homes in the dim light of evening, and I could see their faces looking up at the rm bells with a mix of confusion and fear. The city guards began to run through the streets as they poured out of the various guard stations and ushered people back into their homes. Things were going quite well for them. People generallyplied, and the guard was making steady progress at calming the popce. However, they were receiving more resistance near the northern road leading to the northern gate. People over there just seemed a little bit slower to follow the guards'' orders and were more likely toe out to gawk, making the guards double back and get people who they had already taken care of back into their homes. No one ever pressed hard enough that the guards got violent, thankfully. They were just a little frustrated. The shouting and pointing slowed everything down. This went on for some time as I watched the army get closer. As the column of men approached the city, I couldn''t help but admire the sight. They were moving at a fast jog with precision, and I couldn''t be more proud of my friends. They still had 1.6 miles to cover after they crested the hill blocking the horizon, but they would make it in about 12:02 minutes at their current pace. Not bad, considering all the stuff they carried. Looking back down at the road, I saw that the city guards were on pace to find the wagons blocking the alleys to the main thoroughfare a bit before the army made it to the gates. There wasn''t much I could do about that, unfortunately, aside from hope that it was enough time. I watched as the guards grew closer and closer to finding the obstructions. Still, I didn''t see when the first connection happened, as something else pulled my attention away. The gatemen had started raising the northern gate. The army was still a few minutes out, but the gate took a full 3 to 4 minutes to rise. I wish I had a better estimation of how long it would take beforehand, but the time was heavily dependent on the enthusiasm of the crank operators. The gate steadily climbed higher and higher as more shouts came from the wall. Panicked cries from officers and guardsmen echoed in the night as the neighboring stations along the wall of the gate tried to force their way toward it. Their progress was further stalled when they found themselves blocked by improperly ced crates and barrels all across the footpaths. They tried to shift them around, but there were simply too many heavy objects for the guards toe through in force. Coming one at a time through a tiny gap or trying to climb over the unsteady tower wasn''t a good idea, either. In the end, it forced them to have to work together to toss the heavy obstructions off the wall. They were very reluctant to do so because that usually meant having to smash them into buildings up against the walls. This dyed them for several minutes, and when they eventually got to the gate, the army was already starting to reach the city''s entryway. Hundreds of Zeal''s men were secretly packed into the guardhouse. Those, as well as those stationed as gate guards, poured out and blocked the few dozen armed city guards from making any progress. The guards would be overwhelmed if they tried to fight, and several of them turned around and ran. A few brave souls tried to force their way through to stop and close the gate. They only needed to pull some pins. Then, they could drop the gate on the iing army. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Despite the valiant effort, they were quickly subdued by the sheer weight of numbers. The imposter guards'' clubs were more than enough to drive them back or knock them unconscious. The others, who had chosen to retreat, sent messengers sprinting for reinforcements. I could see the city''s army forming up along the wall in response to the rm bells. They received messages and started forming squads to try and retake the gate, but the army was already marching through. The first thing Arthur did was deploy troops up to the wall to reinforce the cultists who had originally opened it for them and dismissed the nonmilitary members back to their homes to blend back into society. After the wall was thoroughly secured, as well as any army that could possibly make it, they started to expand along the wall. As they took more and more space, the vast majority of the column marched up through the main street from the northern gate towards the castle at double speed. Guards and other military forces were now desperately trying to remove the wagon obstructions. Those who had ced them there had argued with the guards at first, trying to dy them for as long as possible. The act had onlysted a few minutes, but with the timing, every minute counted. I was prepared to go in and assist if anything started to go sideways. Still, they left before the guards actually got physical. Thank goodness. However, they didn''t simply leave; they left a parting gift. As they slipped away from the guards, they quickly did something under the wagons and then turned toward the streets, running to hide. While the guards looked after them and gave chase, they spun around as arge cracking noise signaled the wagon axles breaking. My sensors registered more than a few swears from the stymied guards. The move made it even harder to get the wagons out of the way. As the sound echoed through the night, all the wagon people up and down the roads did the same thing to make their blocksst even longer before a guard was able to stop them. The guards were forced to unload the wagons and drag them out of the way, which was a process that took a lot of time. Even with the numbers that the capitol boasted, things like this tied them up quite effectively and took them out of the defense effort for the moment. The army had made significant progress to the castle, each time reinforcing the temporary barricades of the wagons with men to defend them and prevent them from being attacked on their nks. By the time the first wagon was cleared, there was nothing that the capitol''s men could do to break through the imprable shield wall the extremely high-leveled army had made blocking the alleyway. As our army protected their nks, Arthur''s men left the core of the road as more and more soldiers poured into the city, charging their way directly to the castle. A few of the wagons at the front of the castle were cleared before the army made it there. Still, before the defending army had a chance to properly set up defensive establishments, our army mmed into them, knocking them aside and hitting the castle gates. From the castle, they spread out, encircling the inner wall and forcing the army back with rtively little effort. More and more soldiers poured in until the castle was fully surrounded and the passage to it was fully secured. Then, and only then, did the men start to push through the city, slowly forcing the soldiers and guards back street by street until they were pinned and isted in various pockets of resistance. Based on my estimations, This process would take hours, if not days. But unless the guard had some major tricks to pull out of their sleeves, I didn''t see them changing the oue. The city would be ours. Once the castle was fully surrounded, a series of carts made it through the city gate and rumbled up toward the castle. A massive log suspended by chains with a steel tip on it hung suspended by the carts. The men assembled up until it was pressed against the castle gate. Twenty-four men hauled the ropes back to pull the log back as far as possible before letting go and letting the log, which I estimated to weigh at least 5.145 tons, m into the gates. The impact shook the metal bindings and cracked the wood. As the thunderous sound echoed through the streets of the already noisy city, the real enemy first made themselves known. Chapter 272: Seize the day Chapter 272: Seize the day At the first real threat of danger, I finally made my move. Zipping down through the air above the city, I went to intercept the tide of demons that came flooding out of the castle grounds. It appeared that, whatever they''d been waiting for, the invasion was enough for them to stop hiding. Some of the demons that had been masquerading as humans shed their flesh with a rather disgusting-looking transformation. Some pped their revealed leathery wings and soared into the sky. Others poured out from cers and other deep, dark, hidden passages on the ground. Whoops. Judging by their numbers, perhaps I should have investigated the castle a bit more intently. The few actual humans defending the walls of the castle looked terrified. Some even started to try to climb down the wall in an attempt to surrender to the invading army rather than be mobbed by the demonsing from behind. Our army was caught off guard but not wholly unprepared. We had known that there was a possibility of demonic involvement for a very long time, ever since we were attacked, but still. The sheer numbers and surprise of the thing shocked me. Swooping down, I swept my Sanitation Lamp across the open gate, cutting down those demons pouring toward the soldiers below. I deemed them to be the most dangerous threat. The fliers could go pretty much anywhere, so they had the potential to cause a lot of destruction. Even worse, they''d be harder to take out since they didn''t have to stick together in a single mass. However, they shouldn''t be enough to push us out of the citypletely. It would suck, but we''d have to deal with themter. The army was pushing back, trying to get entry into the castle. Now that the gate had opened for the demons to flood out, the defensive perimeter was making that difficult. To help them out, I sprayed some of my sents on a barrier I formed in front of that gate, forcing the demons toe out in an orderly, single-file line. Their faces twisted up in confusion and frustration as they squished through the invisible funnel. I wanted to leave some exit for them, though. Otherwise, I was afraid they would either break a new entryway into the city or just float over the walls. Then, there would be no way for us to contain them. Going around, I found the other gates into the castle, already emptying of demons. Those I sealed offpletely. The main gate was obviously thergest, but there were smaller gates that were only wide enough for a few at a time. The soldiers hadn''t fully surrounded the castle yet, so I did take several minutes to hunt down the demons beginning to run wild in the streets. They were rtively easy to take care of. Just a few applications were usually enough to send them crumpling to the ground. That, or hovering over them and pulling them into my dustbin whole. I had many other options for how to deal with them, but it was about efficiency at this point. So, running my thrusters at maximum, I zipped around the base of the castle, cleaning them up and blocking them in. As soon as I made a circuit, I shot up into the air to contain the ones that flew. This was the vast minority of demons. Most seemed to be elemental-based, but a few of them were more specialized. Others just resembled the ape-like creatures I had seen before but with wings. Luckily, they were weak. Very weak. In fact, I was surprised that they were even here. If they immediately disintegrated into ash from being near my Sanitation Lamp or were sent flying by the wake of my Thrusters, then they couldn''t be much use in a real fight. So, I could only assume they were being used as a distraction. Letting them go, I decided that I''d have to trust the army to take care of them whenever theynded. This wasn''t as big of an issue as I''d feared. Instead, I dove into the castle and began the arduous chore of clearing a path for the soldiers to storm in. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. It took me a little bit to clear a path, but after the first soldier made it through the gate, a small beachhead was quickly established that expanded as more and more soldiers rushed to fill the gap. Satisfied and seeing that they were taken care of, I rushed up to continue knocking out the flying demons. *** A short whileter, as I scanned the streets, I saw a figure waving down below. It took me a second to realize that it was Beatrice waving up at me. Next to her stood Arthur and Susan, each ready to go. I zipped down to greet them and see what they needed. After a customary greeting, Susan spoke first. "Lord Void. There are reports of extremely strong auras and conflict in the center of the castle. I''ve lost a few of the stronger scouts and some patrols have stopped reporting in. I think we need to put together a squad to go investigate. Would youe with us?" "Of course." I had managed to whittle down the numbers of those demons in the sky enough that they couldn''t cause too much havoc. They were stillnding in the city, but the inexorable spread of the army was making it harder for them to find ces tond. The soldiers still had to deal with it. They were struggling, but I believed they would pull through. "Thank you," she bowed her head and turned to Beatrice, who nodded. "All right, let''s go. Are you sure you want toe, Arthur? Doesn''t the army need you?" Beatrice asked. "Not at this point. All my men know what they need to do, and I trust them to do it. I am best of service here, using my individual strength to remove the bigger obstacles. Assuming I can be of assistance with Lord Void here." Arthur replied in a steady voice. Beatrice nodded. "Yes. I have fought with Void by my side many times, and while master certainly far outstrips me in power, it doesn''t mean there aren''t things we can do to assist. In fact, I found that Void often prefers that if we take care of our problems to the best of our abilities." I did find that having people take care of things was a great teaching tool. And from what I could tell, they did, too. People seemed to find a lot of satisfaction in fixing things up themselves. I liked to help those who helped themselves. "Very well," Arthur said, and the three of them turned to go towards the castle. I followed along merrily, hovering over their heads. As we came closer, I got a better look at the active battle site. It was very distressing. The devastation was immense. It wasn''t a simple set of superficial damage. The buildings were destroyed. With the high levels of our invading troops and the unexpectedly fervent response, a lot of powerful skills were being used. It wasn''t simple swordy but sts of fire and walls of force, along with shes that cut right through the stone. The damage to the city would take forever for me to fix. I suppose I wouldn''t have to do it all by myself, but I trailed off as another person ran up behind us and fell in step. "Tony," Beatrice said. "d you could make it." He panted for a second before catching his breath. "Yeah. Came as fast as I could. The outer wall ispletely secure, and Captain Major is sending scouts all around to make sure that there are no reinforcementsing. Not any time soon, at least. No surprises." "Good job,d." Arthur said and pped him on the shoulder. "We''ll make amander of you yet." I sensed something slightly different about Tony than I had remembered when west left. He had a kind of quiet confidence about him, a confidence that only came with experience. Tony had always been a bit of a charming guy with aid-back demeanor. Knowing his limits and doing what he could now, it seemed more like he had pushed those limits a little bit farther. Like he''d stopped being the young man who went to help Beatrice find her way home and started being actuallypetent. There was a determined set to his eyes, and the way he walked was closer to Arthur''s than his own father''s. I thought of something suddenly. It had been a while since we''d talked, with everything going on, and I might as well ask before we headed inside. "What ss are you, Tony?" Chapter 273: Kingdom Come + Book 2 Announcement Chapter 273: Kingdom Come + Book 2 Announcement "Uh." Tony looked at me with confusion in his eyes. "I''m your pdin. Pdin of Spot." Ah, that''s cool. They named a ss after me. That was cute. "I think a good portion of our army is actually a simr ss." Arthur chimed in. "Though with how much you''ve been involved in the church, I wouldn''t be surprised if you get a more unique ss upgrade at 50." Susan nodded. "I have some Rangers of Spot working under me." Beatrice perked up by that. "Oh, that wasn''t an option I received. I did notice that there''s a few other ss choices that people have. A few Priests, Pdins, Rangers, someone even got Baker of Spot. I''m not really sure how that works, but it''s interesting to see." I was surprised. It was interesting that the system still called me Spot, even when everyone else called me Void. How did it know my real name? I mean, I''d never exactly hit it, but still. It was nice to be reminded of home. "All right, everyone, focus," Arthur said, bringing everyone''s attention back to the present. "It''s time to head in. The rank and file have the castle perimeter secured, but we''ll need to break past enemy lines to get into the keep." "Right." Beatrice nodded. "The demons don''t seem like they''re letting up, but they have to being from somewhere. We need to find out who''s controlling them. These demons are more organized than they should be, especially considering how low level they are. They shouldn''t be able to make decisions that are anywhere near this strategic. So I''m assuming something''s either summoning them or controlling them, possibly both. We need to get in there and stop it. That''ll help minimize the casualties more than any front-line fighting we could do." Tony raised his hand. "Are you sure they just weren''t hiding inside already? Because they don''t look very organized to me." He indicated a group of demons swarming a particrly well-defended section of the army with frenzied and random strikes. To be honest, I agreed with him. These things certainly didn''t seem very smart to me. "True, it doesn''t look organized, but none of them are attacking each other," Beatrice shrugged. "That means something''s clearly controlling them." "I wasn''t aware that infighting amongst demons was a thing," Susan said. Beatrice nodded. "Yeah. Normally it''s not within the same species, but there''s enough different types here that there should be some regional conflicts, at least. Based on the demonology that I''ve read something more powerful needs to be keeping them in check for them to be acting like this." "Any idea on a level range?" Arthur asked. "Level 50 plus," Bee said. "It could be something like an archdemon or a general. Maybe even something more powerful." "Well, if Lord Void ising, I''m sure we will prevail." Arthur said. With that, we finally reached the front lines of the army. Soldiers locked their shields together, stabbing spears and swords into the tide of oing foes to slowly push them back. As we approached, we squeezed between a few squads and emerged into the torrent of oing demons. As soon as we were through, we made a break for the doors of the keep. Out here in the open, we could easily get surrounded, but hopefully, the castle''s corridors would mean fewer directions to defend from. I trusted my humans to take care of themselves, but I diverted a bit more power to my predictive modeling just in case. That way, I''d be prepared for anything that could genuinely threaten them. Our fighting style was extremely different from the army''s. Arthur and Tony took the lead, physically mming the slightly smaller demons aside with their shields and weapons. Susan flitted around behind, quickly moving in and out of danger and taking advantage of any opportunities that the two men in front gave her to keep them off their backs. Beatrice wielded her broom with vicious uracy to pick off any targets that tried to catch the others unawares. However, I noticed she wasn''t fighting much at all. She was holding back. Was she saving energy or something else? When she reached forward to smear some ointment on Tony''s back, I realized, oh yeah, that''s right, she can repair people. It was an incredibly useful skill to have. I, of course, was not entirely idle. It wasn''t a ton of work for me, but I kept all the flying enemies off us as I watched for other threats. Hundreds of ming explosive bats tried to dive bomb us, but I carefully timed myser applications when their arcing paths would take them into the swarm of demons rather than our own people. Sadly, it was less efficient than just wiping them all out at once. But that would take too long, and we might have to deal with themnding on us. Stolen novel; please report. We barely slowed down when we hit the doors of the castle. Arthur''s sword caught me for a second before he shed the doors open. Together, we barreled into arge and ornately decorated room. Its beautifully tiled stone floors and marble pirs reminded me of the summoning room back at our own castle, aside from the swarm of demons that threatened to scratch every surface, though. That simply wouldn''t do. They turned toward our group and snarled, baring their teeth. A momentter, a hulking form pushed its way through the smaller demons, blocking the way further into the castle. It tilted its boarlike head back and roared to the sky. Terrible mes lit up in its beady eyes as sharp teeth gnashed loudly as it evaluated us. All in all, the thing seemed pretty ugly. Arthur charged forward, mming his shield into the massive form and shoving it a step back. Its arm came around and attempted to club Arthur''s unprotected side. But before it connected, a brief shimmer of light rose from Arthur''s side, stopping the blow midway through and allowing him to jump back. The boar demon roared in anger as its giant, club-like appendages started to rain down fierce blows upon Arthur''s shield. I would have intervened, but I didn''t need to. It didn''t take long before Susan appeared, gripping the beast''s ear as she stood on its back. Her dagger slid into its shoulder over and over again with the ease of a duster slipping between dirty blinds. The thing shook, throwing her off, but not before the damage was done. Blood began to pour out of its wounds, making a mess on the floor. One that I promptly remedied with a swipe of my Mop. Tony appeared on the other side from Susan, swinging his hammer at the heel of the monster and sending it to one knee. As it crumpled, Arthur then ran its head through. I knew I had nothing to worry about. In fact, my sensors informed me that Beatrice had not even fought; instead, she raced after Susan and was currently ughtering a dozen small demons who had tried to jump on her as she stumbled back to her feet, shaking her head. Once Beatrice had fought off the assault, she removed another stick of balm from her belt and applied it quickly to Susan''s head and arm. The woman''s eyes cleared in 2.31 seconds as her arm straightened from its previously awkward position. I watched them work for a couple of seconds, trying to understand how I could fit into the team dynamics. They were doing well, and I didn''t want to disrupt their flow, after all. But seeing that they had things mostly in hand, I just zipped ahead of them a little bit and started clearing out the massive amount of demons waiting in the hall to ambush whoever came inside. Spinning with myser. I also touched the ones close to me using my Mop, drying them out to the point where they crumbled into dust at a touch. I considered bringing out my Divine Sword, but there was nothing even worth using it on. Nothing had defenses that could stand up to my Sanitation Lamp or my Mop at close range. By the time the group handled the big demon, most of the smaller demons had already been cleaned up. I continually funneled their remains into my dustbin as I hovered in the air. The constant stream of transmuted energy was more than enough to fuel this little rampage of ours. Things were going quite well. Less than a minute after we entered the hall, we regrouped in the center of it. Heading deeper into the pce, we battled against a constant tide of weaker demons, though "battling" might have been a generous term for it. It really felt like we were simply sweeping them aside as we traveled. We met more resistance on asion, but nothing nearly as intense. Arthur mostly led the way, distracting and keeping the attention of the more powerful enemies, while Tony and Susan attacked from the sides and rear. Beatrice kept everyone healthy while also asionally getting in some powerful damage if anyone else was having trouble. At the same time, she would sometimes use some of her alchemy supplies to hit critical weak points when necessary. Really, it was fun to watch. I got to focus on the most important duty of all: clean-up. As I reached the entryway of what appeared to be the throne room, my sensors picked up something approaching from the side. A massive demon with thin, spindly legs wearing what looked to be the mockery of a clean suit. Beatrice spoke up for the first time, warning everyone. "Watch out! That''s an archfiend! It''s got to be at least level 60." It let out a screech thatpletely peaked my microphone. The humans all pped their hands over their ears. The archfiend straightened to its full height of 11.52 feet as its minions heeded its call. Unreasonablyrge numbers of strong demons raced towards it. I could hear them thundering through the halls of the pce as they converged on our position, but our party recovered swiftly. Beatrice quickly touched everyone, and they let go of their ears. Looking around, I realized that Susan had disappeared. I didn''t notice where she went, which was strange since I had specific scripts responsible for keeping track of each person. Suddenly, she reappeared in my sensors'' range behind the demon, her dagger making a few quick cuts to the back of its legs and eliciting another keening screech. Before it could react, she dove for its head. It turned and swatted her aside, but somehow, she managed to get her other dagger in the way of his ws, catching them and simply skidding backward a few feet. She didn''t even lose her bnce. Beatrice ran ahead of Arthur and Tony, thrust out her palm, and screamed something. A st of sand and grit flung out in a cone directly centered on the demon''s chest; the mockery of a clean suit was shredded off of its body, and its flesh soon followed. All of this before I needed to actually intervene. Tony and Arthur came from the sides, hacking at the archdemon as it iled and screeched in pain. In a matter of moments, the thing was defeated. The party stood there, catching their breath for a short moment, I was quite proud of their progress. I barely had to do anything here. All I really needed to do was watch and make a few precision strikes to keep everyone safe. Something that was even easier now that I could make invisible barriers. But they were all doing fantastically well and hopefully getting all the experience and levels for themselves. All of them, especially Susan and Tony, had grown so much since I first met them that I couldn''t be more proud. Chapter 274: Do You See What I See Chapter 274: Do You See What I See Our party stepped past the archfiend''s body and continued down the hall. The tide of iing enemies proved no match for their teamwork, as expected. Soon, all five of us sat before the throne room doors. There was a quarter of a second where we all stood still, staring at what we knew to be the toughest fight ahead of us. But then Arthur led the way forward. He kicked the center of the door with the heel of his boot. Something cracked, and I heard wood splintering as they flew off their hinges. I beeped in quiet distress. It seemed like a little bit of overkill to me. They obviously hadn''t been locked, so why not just push them open? Especially since they were so nicely made. But I digress. The doors mmed into the decorative floor as they skidded towards the throne. I cushioned the impact just a little bit out of respect for the floor so that it didn''t scratch. Through the newly "opened" doorway, we got our first look at the throne room proper. Its floor was a beautifully smoothyer of ga-colored tile with gold flecks scattered throughout. My sensors could obviously pick up the seams between the tiles, indicating that it wasn''t nearly as impressive as the Lieutenant''s or Archibald''s rooms back at the castle, but it was pretty close. I also appreciated the white and gold ent rug that ran the entire length of the room. White for a rug seemed like a frankly terrible choice, but they kept it clean somehow. I could respect that. The rest of the ornate space boasted all manner of furnishings - rich tapestries, sparkling crystal chandeliers, golden wall sconces, and, of course, the throne itself. The massive chair sat at the far end of the hall. Made of what appeared to be 92% pure gold, it boasted beautifully worked details of winged humans and animals all across the arms and back. Some of them even had nice little gems set in their eyes. It was all very impressive. Sitting there and presiding over the space was the king. At least, I assumed he was the king. He wore a crown and other incredibly expensive looking regalia, and he looked remarkably human. Arthur met the man''s eyes. A lot of emotions flicked across his expression: anger, pain, even sorrow. Then he spoke. "My King - no, Gerald. We have taken the city. Surrender and renounce the throne or we will take it by force." Then, the kingughed. That made me reconsider my initial assessment. It was not a humanugh, at least nothing like the ones I''d heard. This was something different. As I looked more closely, I saw that something sinister lurked behind the king. There was something else, a figure of shadow that detached from the side of the throne before flickering out of existence. I could see it with my advanced sensors, but everyone else seemed to miss it. Once I switched to my soul sight, I focused back on the king and confirmed my suspicions. This wasn''t the king at all. The soul was not shaped like a human soul or even the demonically possessed human soul. It was a jagged thing, a red soul full of spikes and jagged edges. The feeling I got from it was diametrically opposed to the clean souls of humans, despite the abomination not having a speck of soot staining its sinister surface. I beeped out a warning, but my humans didn''t have the chance to look and see what I was saying before the shadows attacked. I quickly projected my message in each of their visions. A small little tip-off to the side, out of the way from blocking their sight entirely, but enough to be helpful. "The King is a demon." --- When Bee read the message that Void popped up in her vision, she wasn''t sure what Void meant by it. Clearly, her master was saying that the king was an imposter. But was it more than that? And if that was the case, who or what was he? She only had a second to brace as the shadows attacked. They buffeted her from all sides, striking at her sides. As she tried to block the blows, another sh came from apletely unexpected direction and tossed her to the side. As she tumbled, she quickly ran Scan over everything in the room. Their shadowy assants didn''t register to her skill. In fact, only one thing did, other than her allies. Something near the King. Name: Bez''ahel''shar, Level: 70, Race: Demon Lieutenant, Type: Demonic Illusionist, Titles: Betrayer of Joy, The Great Deceiver, Undying Faces, Age: 789273, Highest Stat: Intelligence, Lowest Stat: Constitution, Status: Amused. After having fought the weakened Lieutenant in their own castle, she understood their power more than most. Even now, though she was getting close to them in levels, she couldn''t hope to match one''s regeneration and power. Especially not if they were fully awake and not bogged down by all of her alchemical preparations likest time. But maybe with the four of them, they could hold one-off for a time. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Void was definitely powerful enough to kill one. Her master had done it before, but "To the left of the king!" she yelled, running after where she sensed the enemy to be. From the results of her Scan, she tracked the seemingly invisible entity as it moved alongside the king. It wasn''t exactly moving with the man''s position, staying just far enough away to make aiming difficult. She shot out a Scouring Strike toward its position, but it seemed to flicker and dodge between the bits of grit. She nced back at her friends. They continued to fight the strangely solid shadows behind her, seemingly unaware that they might be illusions. She frankly couldn''t me them. With a thought, she expanded her Holy Aura outward. The skill''s golden glow caused the edges of the dark figures to fuzz and flicker slightly. "They''re not real! They''re illusions!" At her call, Arthur''s eyes narrowed. He barreled forward through the illusion, dissipating it with ease as the others followed. Then, they charged toward the waiting Lieutenant. All four of them crossed the distance, with only Void staying behind. She could only hope that her master had the same idea she did. --- Suddenly, my sensors stopped performing reliably. In an impossibly small span of time, Beatrice disappeared from where she had been and appeared somewherepletely different. And as far as I knew, she didn''t have a teleporting skill. Now she was over where I had originally seen the jagged-souled king, and where Beatrice had stood was one of the shadow beings. I quickly mped down on my instinct to clean up the shadowy mess spilling all over the floor and switched over to my soul sight. Maybe that would help me to find where the crimson soul really was. But I found that I couldn''t trust that either. Where the souls of Susan and Arthur and everyone else should have been, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was as though they didn''t even exist. Worse, my visual sensors were getting worse. They constantly moved around, twisting and distorting. What was going on? I was certain it had to do with our enemy. Maybe it was using something simr to my Sensory Disruption skill? I was hesitating to act at all lest I hit my friends, as I had no real sense of where everything was. I heard Beatrice yell something and searched her out. But my visual sensors indicated she wasing from apletely unexpected location. Her disembodied voice was about twenty feet in front of the image of the king and ten feet behind the image of herself. The audio and visual cues also indicated that the two Beatrices were going inpletely different directions. Nothing made sense. My advanced sensors were totally fooled by whatever this Lieutenant was doing. It was even able to disrupt my soul sense, so I wasn''t able to confidently say where everything was. But my microphone and audio sensors might be working. At the very least, it was picking up somethingpletely different, something that didn''t align with what the soul sense and my visuals were telling me. To confirm, I popped out a few small rocks from my dustbin and scattered them throughout the room. I tracked their trajectories carefully through each of my different sensors. As theynded with a soft tter, only the audio data aligned with their predicted paths. That confirmed it - I could only trust sound right now. Whatever this Lieutenant was doing, it could mimic vision and fool everything else. But it had one weakness, and I could exploit that. I carefully turned off most of my sensors and tried to perceive only through sound where everything was. I followed the echoing footsteps of the four humans around me and the one Lieutenant. Or at least, what I assumed was the Lieutenant. No one else in our party had ws, and I definitely heard some leathery wing ps as well. It was hard because of the acoustics of the room, but I calcted models to follow the bouncing sounds all around until I was reasonably certain I could track people''s positions with them. For the most part, I heard the sound of ringing as Beatrice''s broom de struck something and skittered off. Tony roared a battle cry, and Arthur''s shield impacted something metallic. I could barely hear Susan''s light footsteps as she snuck around. The floor barely caused any ripples or echoes for me to track, but I noticed that she was not sneaking up on the right thing for some reason. She wasing in from behind Arthur. Suddenly, I had a sneaking suspicion that I wasn''t the only one affected by Lieutenant''s power, and I caught a descending de of Susan''s with a web of air, stopping it from stabbing into Arthur''s back. That was not good. Could they not tell any more than me what was going on? As my models rapidly improved, I began to hear the shifts in the air and get a very low-resolution idea of where everyone was and what they were doing. And after nearly a dozen seconds, I finally felt confident enough to act with some offensive capabilities. I wasn''t willing to make any decisively deadly strikes, lest I be mistaken, but I did have many, many other options. My Divine Sword wasn''t a great idea, as that would be very deadly to any of the humans. But I did have many other things, like my own Sensory Disruption. I immediately shot an illusion of my own over the thing I thought was the Lieutenant, stopping any sort of sensory information from reaching him besides a fuzzy static that must have been painful to listen to. I heard a confused gasp that was clearly not from any of my friends, and the illusions affecting my sensors suddenly stopped making any sense at all. Chapter 275: Brave, Brave Sir Robin, Stood and Fought? Chapter 275: Brave, Brave Sir Robin, Stood and Fought? As my Sensory Disruption settled over the Lieutenant, I got excited. Maybe I had actually confused the enemy and turned its own tricks right back at it. But after its initial gasp of surprise, I heard a roar of rage. A sudden force mmed into my undercarriage, thrusting me up at the ceiling. I beeped in distress as I realized that my thrusters wouldn''t be able to flip me over and counteract the force in time, and I smashed into the rock, leaving a circr-sized hole as the castle receded into the distance. As I flew up into the sky, I was able to take in the state of the city. The capture had been working remarkably well, and our armies had pretty much fully taken control. Most of the capital''s guard and standing army had surrendered and were being led out of the city. They sat in rows, disarmed and ready to be taken prisoner and assessed depending on what the leaders worked out. Things appeared to be going much worse at the castle. The demons were pressing our people hard, and the ground that we had taken when we entered from the gate was still pretty contentious. The demons continually flooded out of the dungeon and other castle buildings to the point where I couldn''t imagine theirbined volume could fit inside. There''s no way those buildings could hold so many demons, even at maximum packing efficiency. The soldiers were constantly being rotated out from the front lines, many with injuries and some even worse. I observed this all in an instant as Ipleted my flip and thrust myself back down towards the castle. I soared back through the hole that my unwilling exit from the castle had caused. On re-entry, I was surprised to see that our enemy had switched tactics. Now, the entire throne room was coated in a thick ckness that suppressed all visuals. I only hoped that my friends were doing all right. --- The invasion of the city couldn''t havee at a worse time for Harold. He had finally gotten smugglers to agree to get them out of the city. He had even set up a system for the Warden to get out, unconscious as he was. It was just bing too difficult for them to continue hiding in the city. But now? Now, there was utter chaos. With the city gates being taken over like this, there was no way they could get out tonight. And the demons spilling out of the castle made everything so much worse. Now, he didn''t just have to worry about discovery but general safety as well. He positioned himself just inside the door of the healer''s dwelling, peering out of a crack in the door for any threats. The old woman and the Warden were down in the cer as she took care of him. The old man had stirred several times today, and they both hoped that he''d be waking up soon. It was the only way they might escape at this point. But until then, Harold was on guard duty. Harold had to say that the Warden did look a lot better. He was certainly less gaunt than he had been at the start of all this. Somehow, the healer woman had been making sure he ate. It was some ss skill that he was honestly very impressed with, allowing her to feed the unconscious man. But even with his improved condition, he wasn''t sure how useful the Warden would be when he woke up. A throaty growl sounded outside the door as an imp curled its ws around the door, trying to open it. The demon immediately got a face full of a demonsbane mixture flung from an open vial. Harold only had so many of them, but they were very effective. Whenever he downed a demon like this, it would run away, and the stench made other demons avoid the area for several minutes at least. The time gave him just enough leeway to work on his next concoction. He didn''t have to do any real fighting yet, but he wasn''t naive. He had prepared for more substantial resistance, too. Several crossbows sat loaded and ready nearby. They originally were going to be for private self-defense along the road while traveling, but the situation had changed. They. But the couple he had gotten for him and the Warden each now leaned against the wall next to him, ready to grab and fire several shots in a row if necessary and reload when he had downtime. But so far, they hadn''t been called for. Each bolt he had dunked in a poison he had concocted with some properties that would be troublesome to a demon. It turned out that a lot of the herbs the healer used for her potions had some crossover with alchemy, and a few creative substitutions had seemed to work. At least, as best he could tell. But he was worried about making it through the night. If the demons had openly decided to take over the city, then that was really going to be an issue. And considering that they wereing from the castle... Well, it felt strange, but Harold found himself rooting for the invaders that seemed to be holding them back. If these invaders could take over quickly and dispel the demonic threat, that would be amazing. But judging based on what he''d seen from the demons, it seemed unlikely. There must have been some sort of massive summoning circle array in the castle because the number of demons that had made it into the city was entirely improbable. No way they had all been hiding this whole time. The idea boggled his mind, though. The ability to summon such demons one at a time already took a lot of magic. This must have called for fantastic amounts of energy, to the point that he didn''t think even all his mages put together could hope to match it. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. He finished brewing another anti-demon potion. If all went well, he could turn it into a talisman to hang over the door. It would help to keep more demons away. Just as he got started, though, he heard footstepsing up from the cer. Harold half-turned to see what the olddy wanted, but to his surprise, he saw the Warden leaning on the door frame. The older man blinked, dazzled by the lights but obviously aware. The olddy was gently tugging on his sleeve, trying to get him toe back to rest. "Harold. By the gods, it''s good to see you. What the heck is going on?" The Warden asked in an uncharacteristic harsh tone, far from the polite, neutral voice that Harold is used to hearing. The man''s voice was raspy from disuse and dehydration. "You''re awake." Harold stood quickly. "Are you sure you should be up?" "Yes, of course I should. Now, tell me what''s going on." Harold blinked in surprise, checking the door quickly to make sure that nothing was attacking before he made his report. "There''s a lot sir." He sighed, wondering where to begin. "I pulled you out of the dungeon. You''ve been recovering for weeks. Right now, demons are invading the city. Or rather, there is a human force invading the city while demons flood out of the castle to oppose them. At least one Lieutenant is free, and I haven''t been able to contact a lot of our normal assets. Someone has taken down much of ourwork." Harold said, trying to give a concise report but failing. The magnitude of what he had to convey stretched out before him. The Warden nodded. "Yeah, I got your reports before they got me. The King''s beenpromised. And from what I learned in the dungeon well, it''s a bit hazy, but there were definitely some demon issues going on." "The demons were here before the invading army, so I don''t know if they''re connected, though that''s certainly a possibility. It does seem like the invading army is fighting the demons, at least. The humans defending the city have mostly surrendered, and sometimes are even assisting with fighting the demons when necessary." Harold started to pack away his equipment. "All right, now that you''re up, we can move. Are you ready? How can you walk? Can you ride a horse?" "Yes?" the Warden asked in a questioning voice. "Good." Harold said, "Then let''s hope the gate I prepared for our escape is still open." "Our what?" "Our escape. We have to get out here, regroup and n our next moves." The Warden looked at Harold. "Harold, I cannot thank you enough for getting me out of that awful ce. But you''ve got to be insane if you think I''m going to run away right now." Harold stopped packing. "What?" "Harold, this is our city. This is the capital of the Kingdom. If this falls to the Lieutenant, there''s nothing we can do. We have to make a stand at some point." The Warden stared at him levelly. "I thought you would have learned this from yourst couple of lessons, but perhaps I need to be more explicit. Therees a time when you have to make a stand. Even if it all seems hopeless. There''s something, some hill you need to stand on, or else you''re never going to aplish anything. Now you know more about demons than probably gods, well, anyone. If they are allowed to flood into this realm unchecked, what can we really do about it?" "We have to get in there and stop whatever they''re doing. If there are summoning circles, we need to destroy them. If there are leaders, we need to take them out. If there are lieutenants, well... we''ll have to hope that the gods are on our side. Because if we run away now, I guarantee this horde will be right on our tail." Harold stood silently as the Warden finished his speech. He didn''t want to stay here. Why should he? There was a literal army of demons out there, and he was woefully underequipped. If he''d been able to assemble more supplies, then maybe. But like this, what could the two of them do? Still, the Warden didn''t flinch. There was a look of determination in the man''s eye that wouldn''t take no for an answer. Eventually, Harold exhaled in frustration. "Fine. Fine! But what do you expect us to do? You''re sick. I''m not made forbat. I''m a spy, god damn it!" The Warden shook his head. "Someone''s got to do something." Harold looked down at his hands and over toward the back door. Just beyond it were a pair of horses, stabled and ready to go. "Fine. We''ll see what we can do." --- I crashed down through the hole andnded in the center of the ongoing fight, knocking what sounded like Beatrice away from fighting some sort of demon. But I couldn''t really tell for sure what was going on, just that there was no longer fighting. Quickly, I waited, processed the audio information I got, and located the four sounds of human boots and one sound of ws before I fired myser around leg height toward the ws. Hopefully, if I was wrong, at least no one would be permanently injured. A shrieking hiss emitted from my target. The illusions covering my sensors flickered, and I saw what was really going on for the first time. The mess maker was tall. Each of its many limbs had a hand with four wed fingers arranged in two pairs. I was a little jealous of the many opposable digits. It didn''t even make very good use of them! The wed monstrosity with a spiky soul was facing off against my four friends. They were battered and bruised, but I didn''t see any major or permanent injuries. The demon, though, looked in very bad shape. The smoking hole in its leg from myser was only thetest wound it had taken. One of its arms was hanging by a thread, and another hole pierced through its stomach, bleeding profusely. It looked to be regenerating slowly, but a purple liquid that coated both the tips of Beatrice''s broom handle and its wounds seemed to be slowing it down a little bit. I fired at it again, but it puffed into mist,pletely avoiding the attack. A momentter, my sensors were scrambled again. But I did notice that the sound hadn''t changed too much. Focusing on that, I prepared for my next attack. Chapter 276: A New Challenger Appears Chapter 276: A New Challenger Appears As I felt the demon out with my auditory sensors, I reached out with Air Maniption. I decided to make another non-lethal attack just in case it had more tricks up its sleeve than I expected. I had a lot of options, but I thought it would be best if I could enable my allies to regroup while I held the demon''s attention. I attempted to encase the demon in a cocoon of air. Tendrils of wind wrapped around its form, freezing its limbs in ce so that only its eyes were able to flick about. I noticed right away that Beatrice saw the vulnerable state and lunged forward. Unfortunately, my hold onlysted for a split second, not nearly long enough for Beatrice to cross several feet to her target before the demon flickered, but it had given me an idea. I couldn''t sense the movements in the air, but I could feel out the room, and that was significantly more useful than just hearing the sounds. My models whirred as I attempted to integrate my new second-order derivative perception with the sound topletely counteract the lies my advanced sensors were giving me. In a few moments, I had a workable prototype. Now, my models disyed the room as though I could really see it. Perfect. That meant I could be a lot more precise with my attacks. This time, when our opponent tried to dodge away from a strike, I sprayed a little bit of protective sent behind the demon''s projected path. As he tried to evade Beatrice''s lunge towards his face, the demon mmed into the barrier and had to roll to the side instead of just being able to leap out of the way smoothly. Based on her certainty, I could only assume that her ability to see was no longer impeded. Strange. Perhaps I was the only one being targeted at this point. The initial strike missed its head, but the broom end came around and smacked its arm, throwing it off bnce and doing a small amount of surface-level damage from the reinforced bristles. I continued to harry the demon with Air Maniption while I also attached tendrils of air to everything else that moved in the room, making sure I knew where all my allies were. Once I had doubly confirmed their positions, I attempted to use my Sanitation Lamp tonce a hole in the demon. Bluish-purple light shot forth from my chassis, but the Lieutenant saw iting and phased a part of its body out of reality somehow. The light passed through it unharmed. That was going to be an issue. I froze it in ce for a second, allowing Arthur tond a meaty strike in its torso, his de digging in several inches. But the demon showed no reaction as it backhanded the armymander away. Arthur lost hold of his sword, leaving it impaled in the demon, but flew across the wall. Beatrice dashed after the man to heal his wounds while Tony took its attention. I did my best to put up small barriers to help Tony defend himself. But there was only so much I could do. Susan seemingly appeared out of nowhere, stabbing several times into the Lieutenant''s lower back before wrenching Arthur''s sword out and taking it with her. The demon stumbled from the flurry of attacks but was soon up again. It gave me a chance, though, to use one of my slower abilities. A few spritzes of my spray bottle had powerful acid mixed with some of Beatrice''s anti-demonic potionsncing into its open wound. The concoction caused a sizzling, bubbling effect to spread underneath its skin as whatever circtory system it had pumped poisoned blood through its body. The demon let out a panicked shriek as it tore at its flesh, trying to get the spray out. I tried to load in more, but the wound closed too quickly, and the demon ran. I chased after it using Air Maniption and sentbinations to block its path and force it back towards the waiting Tony. I was tempted to take out my Divine Sword, but it was still a bit too dangerous with everyone around me. As effective as spinning with my de was, things around me didn''t survive as well as I would have liked. Besides, we had it on the ropes now, and it shouldn''t be able to do much else. Tony hacked into it with all the grace of a farmer. But the power of his ss showed through as a white lightced with purple and cknced out of the tip of his sword as he prated the demon''s shoulder with his downward strike. The light burned, and the demon screamed again. This time, though, another voice answered. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Bee slid on her knees over to Arthur''s crumpled body. Hey in a rough heap where he''d mmed into the wall, rubble and cracked stone tumbling around him. She touched him and felt the breaks in a few of his ribs, but luckily, there was nothing else too major. He groaned as her powers of repair snapped the structural damage back into ce. It wasn''t instant. Arthur was too powerful for that. The energy it took to heal him was far too much, but it was pretty dang close, and it certainly couldn''t have beenfortable. She put her hand on his shoulder to keep him down as her skills began the much less efficient repair of the soft tissues. It worked for soft tissue injuries, but it''s almost like her skills didn''t quite understand the malleability. Improved Repair was getting to the point where it could not just improve the effectiveness of her alchemy but also passively heal those she touched. Still, it felt like it didn''t quite work as well for soft tissue injuries. Almost as if it didn''t understand the malleability of the stuff. And if she let the healing run too wild, it would rece the skin with sheets of a hard substance that flexed slightly but wasn''t nearly malleable enough to move. Not to mention what it would do to the other organs. She had to take things slow. Maybe with enough practice, they would get better, but as it was, that was asking too much. She really regretted not training the skill on people more, as it appeared that her most useful skills inbat, especially when Void or other powerful beings were around, were these two repair skills; her abilities had definitely steered her toward a more support role. The only realbat skill she had was Scouring Strike. The rest were auras, aside from Broom Proficiency, which wasn''t exactly ideal forbat. She was using it that way, but well, at least she fit into her role fairly well. After a while, they had managed to counteract the various illusions thrown about by the demon lieutenant. Judging based off of her master in action, she could only assume that was because the demon had been spending all of its efforts trying to restrain the god from absolutely demolishing it. She nced over her shoulder to check on the fight and saw Void making progress, working with Tony''s pdin skills to destroy the demon. "Hold on just another moment," she said to Arthur as he tried to get up again. Susan materialized from the shadows next to them, and Bee couldn''t help but suppress a little bit of jealousy. Couldn''t she have gotten some really cool skills like Shadow Teleport when she hit level 40? Not to be ungrateful or anything. Holy Aura was nice and all, but being able to move through shadows was just so cool. Susan handed Arthur his sword, and the two of them helped him to his feet. One unsteady step led to a more sure one. By his third, Arthur was running towards the fight, almost as good as new. But before he''d made it far, the demon let out another screech, one which made all three of them cover their ears. That didn''t sound like the demon they''d been fighting so far. No, this sounded different. Almost as if... Bee watched in horror as a white demon stepped through the wall behind Tony. Its limbs were long and bonelike, seeming to glow with an ethereal light. Long-fingered hands tipped with needle-like ws hung low past its knees even as it stood tall. Its face resembled a smooth mask, featureless except for a pair of ck holes where the eyes should have been. Name: Shi''xi''lui, Level: 70, Race: Demon Lieutenant, Type: Soul Reaper, Titles: The Final Rest, Duke of The Deep. Age: 789273, Highest Stat: Charisma, Lowest Stat: Strength, Status: Apathetic. The new threat emerged from the stone and stabbed its hand through Tony''s chest. He cried out in pain, his eyes rolling back in his head. Void spun andshed out with an invisible force, causing the demon to pull back. Bee didn''t see any blood on its talons, strangely, yet Tony copsed to the floor anyway. A toothy maw opened in the white demon''s chest as it let out another screech. Her otherpanions didn''t pause for a second. Together, the three of them charged the red demon that was once more cloaking itself with illusions. At the very least, they could keep it upied while Void dealt with the new threat. The three of them struck as one, the demon weaving between their strikes. But enough practice and drills over winter had gotten Arthur and Bee on the same page, much more than when they fought the wraith back when they first met. They covered for each other. Bee supported him with her aura, sting out ranged strikes and repairing any sort of damage that befell them. Susan was a little bit less in tune with them, but with her skill set, she only needed a quick opening here and then to unload all of her damage skills into the demon. She hit its back, its side, underneath, above, or from really any angle. And those strikes added up. But despite how much damage they poured on, they only seemed to keep the demon at bay, its healing almost keeping up with their damage. Even worse, it started to recover from some of the more grievous wounds that her master had dealt. It gave them a toothy grin as it fought, seeming to revel in tiring them out slowly. They needed to change something, and fast. Chapter 277: Picking Up the Pieces Chapter 277: Picking Up the Pieces I registered the new demon''s appearance just a moment toote. I hadn''t initially been sure what I was seeing on my sensors. But I got the idea pretty quickly when itshed out at Tony. I reached out with my soul sense to check on Tony''s condition. I couldn''t believe my sensors. Not because I thought the illusion-master lieutenant was messing with me, though. Susan, Arthur, and Beatrice had it on the ropes, and based on how my other sensors were recovering from its assault, I suspected it was having trouble with concentration. No, I couldn''t believe my sensors because I saw cracks running through Tony''s soul. Not the kind of red fissures that had signaled demonic possessions, but cracks of damage. It was unlike anything I''d ever seen. I reached out, trying to hold his soul together however I could, but what could I do? My power was meant for cleaning, for removing the ck impurities that gathered on one''s soul before sinking in. Not for mending something that was broken. Not like this. It was hard enough for me to maintain the pieces where they were. I hoped I wouldn''t be making things worse, but considering the damage, I couldn''t think about it too much. But I scrubbed with all my might, pushing the pieces into position while I tried to deal with the demon who''d caused this mess. The newly arrived demon looked frail and almost incorporeal. Its body seemed to glow with a translucent blue-white light. I could sense it had a soul somewhere, but not in any sense that I had seen in any of the other demons or living beings. It wasn''t concentrated on one spot, but rather, its body was its soul. But I was able to see it manifested in the real world, and it seemed that everyone else was able to do well. Ished out with Sanitation Lamp, my Spray Bottle, and a st of air to push it away from Tony - nothing. It barely flinched, most of the attacks passing through its body. Desperately, I risked taking some attention away from Tony and struck with my Spiritual Cleanse. That got it reeling back. Unfortunately, thepse in concentration also allowed Tony''s soul to deteriorate further. I didn''t have time for this. The mess maker passed through any wind I sent its way. The sent also had no effect, and any of my other attacks were almost purely physical. So, with the maximum power of my thrusters, I moved. I pushed myself to my theoretical limits, sting around so quickly that the room appeared to be in stop motion. It was so fast that my camera could only capture a couple of frames as I moved, my sword out and zing with golden light. The wall behind the demon turned ck, and then the bricks crumbled into dust as the mes from the divine weapon seared into them. It fizzled through the demon as it let out a screech I could only hear with certain senses. The body split in half, but tendrils of the misty substance it was made of reached out to the other half and reconnected. I had managed to stun it, though. It was enough to give me an opening. I expelled the void bubble from my Limitless Dustbin as fast as I ever had. The bubble of ck nothingness erupted out of my vacuum entrance and engulfed the demon in the blink of an eye. I could feel it fight as I pulled it inside, but it struggled in vain. Its incorporeal nature was its undoing. It didn''t have enough mass to keep itself here. There was no inertia, nothing for it to hold on to, to grip, to fight like the other powerful beings that had avoided my suction before. Just like the wraiths, it was particrly weak to this form of attack. As I dragged it into the depths, I didn''t wait for it to try to escape. I couldn''t risk it finding a way to interact with anything in my dustbin. I immediately transmuted it as fast as my abilities allowed. I could feel the energy rush through me, sting out my wheel wells in plumes of light and electricity that I hadn''t experienced for months. My energy stores, which had cratered dangerously from my sudden activity, spiked back up. As its ghastly wails faded once and for all, a message appeared before me. LEVEL 80 REACHED! CHOOSE A SKILL: POWER WASHING, CONVERGENCE OF THE FAITHFUL, VENGEANCE OF THE DAMNED. I scanned through them and quickly made my choice before heading back to Tony. I dedicated 95% of my processors to holding his soul together as it threatened to crumble even further. As I pulled the delicate sphere together as best I could, I frantically worked my processors to find a solution. Unsure of what else to do, I triggered my skill. I felt a connection open between Beatrice and me. Suddenly, I saw new data enter my sensors as I looked at Tony. Information about his level and ss. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. I ignored it for now. It wasn''t important. Now, I could feel the edges of his soul flickering. What I did focus on, however, were the other things that flooded in. Specifically, the ones that identified themselves as having repair skills. I focused on applying the delicate repair skills that felt so clumsy to the incredible, fragile bits of his soul as I squished them together. My algorithm worked to find every single splinter and piece them into one coherent whole, building slowly as I tried to make sure everything fit. Everyst piece needed to go back to its previous spot. Some of them were so small that they barely registered. My processors ramped up to 99% focus, ignoring the fight going around for me. Just focusing on slowly piecing Tony''s most essential bits back together. Little by little. --- Help wasn''ting, Bee realized. She stood alone before the recovering demon. Arthur was at least a few hallways down, a newly made hole in the wall showing the path by which he''d beenunched from the room. She could only hope he was okay. Susany unconscious, several feet behind her, with at least one leg broken. Bee was now standing against the demon alone. It had recovered and recovered quickly. She had assumed that its illusions were focused on keeping Void busy the entire time, but instead, it had been making itself look more damaged than it actually had been. The whole while, it was healing whatever damage Void had done to it in their quick bout. She cursed herself for being too naive. She should have asked for help sooner, but Void had engaged the other demon. Could she really have asked her master to fight both at the same time? She hadn''t even had a chance to check on Tony. Then suddenly, help came. It didn''te in reinforcements or anything like that. Instead, Bee felt power rush through her as a number with far too many zeroes to be real appeared in the corner of her vision. The experience counter ticked up, and then a notification appeared. LEVEL 55 REACHED! CHOOSE A SKILL: STALWART SOUL, ALL-SEEING EYE, CULT LEADERSHIP. She blinked. A level up? What happened? She looked around for a split second before she had to block a strike with her broom handle. The instant of distraction nearly let the demon attack Susan''s prone and vulnerable form. Still, it was enough to show her that Void was over with Tony apparently doing something that must have been very important, and the other demon lieutenant was nowhere around. Where had it gone? Bee tensed, expecting a surprise attack, but none came. If Void wasn''t fighting it, then... Was it dead? Had Void killed it? No, it wasn''t possible. Then she realized who she was doubting and shrugged. Apparently, her contribution to the fight had been enough for her to gain a few levels. She considered her options, wishing she had more time to pick one. But given the opponent she was facing now, All-Seeing Eye was just too perfect. Choosing it, her sight broadened. She immediately saw through all the illusions in the room. Not that they weren''t there at all. She could still see them as a haziness that she instinctively knew meant they weren''t real. And she saw the demon lieutenant''s form. Its limbs were not actually where her eyes told them they were, and its form was slightly different. It was smaller, hunched over to fit inside of the body it outwardly disyed. Really, it was at least a yard taller than she''d previously thought. Launching herself forward, she began a vicious attack, pretending sometimes to fall for the illusions but always managing to slip past them and strike home. The lieutenant seemed confused at first by her trick, but it still worked over and over again as she cut off bits of it. Her broom stabbed it and bludgeoned it from all angles,unching her scouring strikes up close where they did the most damage and sting away chunks of its flesh. Eventually, it caught on. The lieutenant realized that its illusions had failed, and she saw as it dropped the pretense altogether. Even better, she realized that it didn''t know how to fight without its illusions. It had be so reliant on them over its lifespan that when she took away the advantage, it was far easier to tackle. The inability to strike from unexpected angles and dodge sneakily away severely hampered itsbat abilities. That wasn''t to say it was weak. Its stats and higher level certainly didn''t make the fight easy. But it wasn''t a shutout. She kicked at the lieutenant as she stabbed its chest, her shin simply bouncing off of its much higher-leveled limb. But with enough force, she tipped it over and stabbed the broom down into the marble, pinning it. The wound immediately began to heal, attempting to push her broom out, but she held it free. However, without another weapon, she was at a loss for what to do. The broom impaling it made the wound around it sizzle as it burned. Whatever magics her master had put into the handle, they were working against the demonic energies attempting to heal it. Though it was definitely more concentrated in the shaft than the de. She looked over and saw that her master was still busy with Tony. She called over in panic as the demon continued to heal. "Master? Help! I can''t kill it!" Void beeped something about not having time. Every second mattered. Apparently, Tony was in critical condition. She gritted her teeth in frustration, trying to find some way of moving forward. In the split second it took for Bee to return her attention to the lieutenant, it was gone. Her broom was impaled directly into the marble, and there was no trace of it anywhere. Chapter 278: Classy as Always Chapter 278: ssy as Always Tony''s soul slowly pieced back together, each little part pushed into ce with vigorous brushing, polishing every surface. After I had ensured it waspletely free of debris or any other foreign elements, I carefully fit them together, drawing on the power and skills of each and every person who had faith in me. The pieces melded together almost perfectly, but there were still small lines running through each connection I forged, no matter how hard I tried to arrange the pieces to fit together perfectly. It was as if some air was trapped between bits of a broken tile, and as I tried to push them back together, they didn''t bond perfectly. Each piece of his soul was cleaned to the point where it was as pure as it possibly could be. The small white orb held together on its own, but it wasn''t fixed. It wasn''t the same as it had been. I heard Beatrice calling for help. She needed me to kill thest lieutenant, but I couldn''t spare any more attention than to tell her I needed more time. Even my own timekeeping processes were suspended as I worked, dedicating a full 100 percent of my processing power to solving this puzzle. The outside world vanished, and my thoughts for the past, present, and future shut down to make thisst push. The only thing I knew was the millions of little pieces floating within Tony. After who knew how long, I finally had a fewrge clumps of pieces that I was rtively sure were in the right position. However, I could never be 100 percent sure. I could see tiny gaps where pieces smaller than a speck of dust were missing, and even my sensors weren''t quite powerful enough to tell some of the smallest pieces from one another in my soul sight. But it was the best I could do. I slowly released my hold and watched as the soul floated, cracked and imperfect, in the center of Tony''s being. Pulling back, I slowly restarted my other processes one at a time, fearful that maybe I hadn''t done enough. Coming back to reality, I found Beatrice kneeling over us, her broom stabbed into the marble a few dozen feet away. Arthur was helping Susan limp over to us as we waited for Tony toe to. Beatrice looked at the unconscious Tony intensely and then gasped. "He''s-- He''s level 25." Susan and Arthur looked at her. "What?" "He''s level 25. He used to be in the 40s. What happened? He lost half of his levels!" My confidence plummeted. Had I messed up that badly? I couldn''t have, right? It was obviously rted to his soul damage, but he hadn''t lost much mass at all. Then again, I had noticed that people''s souls didn''t seem to grow as they leveled up. Beatrice and Susan were about the same size, after all. She kept her hand pressed to his chest as she pulled out a vial. She held her breath, uncorking it with her teeth before wafting it under his nose. As Tony breathed in, his eyes shot open. He coughed, rolling over to his side with a dry hacking sound. "Tony?" Beatrice asked concern in her voice. "Oh my god. I thought I was dead there," Tony wheezed. "That was... I didn''t think I''d have to go through that again. Geez. "You okay?" Beatrice asked cautiously. She offered him a hand, pulling Tony up to a sitting position. "Do you feel any different?" Tony put his hand to his head. "Wow. I feel weak. Really weak. And a little dizzy. Did I get hit in the head or something?" "No, but" Beatriceid a hand on his back, checking for other injuries. "Your level is weird now." "What?" Tony frowned, his eyes flicking back and forth as if he was reading something. "Huh? That''s strange." "Yeah, I know. I''ve never heard of something like this" "Neither have I," Susan offered. "But there''s been a lot of strangeness going ontely." If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. "It''s not that." Tony shook his head, then winced. "Well, not exactly. It''s asking me to choose a ss?" That was strange. I exchanged a look with Beatrice. "What are your options?" Beatrice asked. "Well, currently my ss is Pdin of Spot." "Even though you''re back below level 25?" Tony shrugged. "Yeah. Huh." He made a nomittal noise. "Apparently... Well, my choices are. Spot''s Vanguard. Custodian of the Beyond and Spot''s Test Subject." We sat in silence. "Those don''t sound like level 25 sses." Arthur said slowly. We all agreed. They sounded pretty impressive, though. "None of this makes any sense." Beatrice put a hand to her own head this time. "Why? How? How did you Void, what happened?" I stopped and processed for a little bit. Given that the others couldn''t see souls, I wasn''t entirely sure if they''d understand my exnation. However, maybe I could give a bit more context. I showed the scene of the lieutenant''s hand being thrust into Tony''s chest. Then, I transitioned to a simtion of fixing Tony''s soul. I projected the best approximation of my soul sight above my head, disying a perfectly round orb of light shattered into millions of pieces. The pieces swirled and slotted back together into a single whole, cracked and imperfect butplete. After all that, I disyed the blueprint of Tony''s soul in more detail and how I put it back together. Tony looked at me in confusion. I saw the same expression across everyone else''s faces, as well. Maybe they needed a bit more exnation. "That was Tony''s soul." One by one, their faces paled. No one spoke for a long moment. Eventually, Susan broke the silence with an awed whisper." Souls are real?" Oh. I guess that exined the surprise. Beatrice slowly nodded. "It''s always been theorized. But skills that im to interact with souls have always been very nebulous, so it''s been hard to tell if it''s just a form of karmic magic. But... not just shattering a soul, but repairing it... that''s revolutionary." Tony cleared his throat. "Well, uh... thanks, Void. For saving me." I beeped happily. I was just happy that my efforts had worked. If not... Well, I didn''t want to think about losing one of my humans. "I need a nap," Tony dered. "But first, I need to pick a ss. Which one should I go for? As grateful as I am, I''m not really thrilled by Spot''s Test Subject... no offense, Void." Arthur and Susan chuckled slightly. I wasn''t sure if it was because of the joke itself or from relief. The shock of his injuries and loss levels seemed to be receding somewhat. I was just d that he was back with us. "Spot''s Vanguard sounds like a very powerful ss." Arthurmented, and Susan elbowed him hard. "Oh,e on, you''ve got to be kidding me. An ordinary vanguard when you have a ss called Custodian of the Beyond? How is this even a question? Why are you even thinking about it?" "Well, I don''t want to be some sort of half-undead gate keeper." Tonyined. That earned him a t look from Susan. Arthur just shrugged. "I''m just saying. The mystical calling isn''t for everyone, kid." Tony sighed and looked over at Beatrice and me. "What do you think?" I didn''t feel entirelyfortable telling Tony which one to choose. At my hesitation, Beatrice chimed in. "I agree with Susan. I think there''s a pretty obvious choice here." Tony nodded before closing his eyes and blinking. Beatrice frowned in thought. I could see where her mind was going. Leveling up and then losing those levels to gain extra skills and power sounded great in theory, but it was not a path I could rmend to anyone. Recreational soul damage sounded like a horrible idea. Tony might have gotten a better ss for it, but I didn''t think it was worth the price. There was a very real chance I wouldn''t have been able to put it back together if I hadn''t luckily gotten a skill from Beatrice that gave me just what I needed to pull from. In fact, I''m pretty sure I got that skill because it was exactly what I needed. However, what else it was capable of required a lot more testing. I had so many followers that it would have been difficult for a normal person to count: 76,253, to be exact. Wait, no... 254, 252, 257. Okay. It was kind of hard to say exactly, as the number kept bouncing around. But still, if I could pull skills from all of them Of course, it probably wasn''t that simple. There had to be some drawbacks or loss in efficiency, especially based on how clumsy those repair skills had felt. But this opened up a whole new world of possibilities for... anything, really. Well, almost anything. Maybe I could learn how to cook a loaf of bread. How to shoe a horse. How to drive a stagecoach. There were so many other things I needed to explore and test to see if they were useful. But first, we had another problem to solve. Tony had begun floating. His eyes darted around the room in panic. As I looked, I saw that they had turned an electric blue. His panicked voice echoed in an ephemeral way as it bounced around the room. "Uh, guys? A little help here? What''s going on?" Chapter 279: Eye of the Storm Chapter 279: Eye of the Storm All four of us stared at Tony and the foot and a half of air between his feet and the floor. He pointed his toes and wiggled his legs, trying to reach it, but was incapable of touching down. His hair floated above his head as if static electricity was keeping it aloft, cerulean blue eyes widened in panic. "Your eyes..." Beatrice said. I was a bit surprised that shemented on that first and not Tony''s newfound ability to fly. That seemed like a much more pressing matter. But I digress. "What?!" Tony said. "What are my eyes doing?" "They''re blue." Her voice was filled with wonder. "My eyes have always been blue, Bee And how is that more important than me flying?! Help me get down!" Oh, good. I wasn''t the only one who thought the flying thing seemed more important. "No, they''re all blue. The iris, the pupil, the whites. Everything is blue. It''s just... Can you still see?" Tony waved his hand in front of his face. "Yeah. I dont see a difference. I just feel really light and..." Tentatively, he reached out toward Beatrice. His body began moving, floating toward her. His hand jerked back in surprise and he stopped. "This is so weird." Susan whispered to Arthur. Therger man nodded. "I told you Vanguard was the better option." "So you''re not going to float away or anything?" Beatrice asked as she reached up and took Tony''s hand. She attempted to pull him along like a child ying with a balloon. He didnt move, remaining in ce as if he were standing on solid ground. "I don''t think so." He said as he tried to take a step. But with nothing to push off of, it looked more like a futile kicking of his legs.. He screwed up his face in concentration and floated forward a few more feet. "I guess I float now?" "Is there anything else you can do? Do you feel any other changes?" Beatrice asked. "Um." He concentrated a little, and nothing happened. "I don''t think I got any ss-specific skills yet. I just float." I had an idea and reached out to check his soul. The little sphere was still as cracked and Imperfect as Id left it, but it has grown slightly. The missing gaps were now filled in with a radiant blue. It was not unlike the demonically-possessed souls, actually. But I sensed no malice from it, only a kind of calming energy holding it together. Was this the source of his new power. "Well. Mary''s going to kill me," Arthur said as he looked over at Tony. Though I think Trent will find that pretty cool. Can you sit down ory down?" After another moment of concentration from Tony, he sat as if he was on a chair. No furniture appeared, but he still floated above the ground, asfortable as can be. "Hey, I could get used to that. It''s reallyfy." He rotated slightly until he was lying down on a bed of air. He closed his eyes and crossed his hands behind his head in utter rxation. Then, his eyes shed open with cerulean light. "You dare disturb me?!" His voice echoed throughout the hall, making Beatrice flinch. He turned toward her with a grin. "What do you think? Would that freak Maranda out or what?" All four of us chuckled slightly. I was d Tony''s spirits were up, but the silence that followed afterward reminded us that we didn''t have time to y around. Sounds of battle still drifted throughout the castle from far away. After everyone caught their breath and recovered a bit, the five of us headed back out of the throne room. It was time to get back to the battle. "We should go after Maraj''ain," Beatrice pointed out as we jogged as fast as Tony could move. I agreed with the sentiment, but the execution posed a few problems. "I don''t know if I can track her. We will try soon though," I responded. "After we make sure that our people are safe." Beatrice nodded and followed Arthur as he jogged through the pce halls. Beatrice protected him as they made their way back to the army. Susan and I stayed a bit further back with Tony as he was still getting used to the whole floating ability and didn''t seem to be able to move as fast. I was fascinated by this whole development. His new ability seemed powerful, and I expected that this ss had something to do with souls. It would make sense for obvious reasons, but I wasn''t sure how to test the theory. What would I do, just damage someone''s soul and see if Tony could sense it? Maybe we could experiment and see if he''d developed soul sight or any ability to sense me cleaning souls, but I was hesitant to push things too far too fast. Perhaps the ss had something to do with people dying, though that was also kind of hard to test. I wouldn''t go around killing things just to see what Tony''s powers were. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Susan, though, was more concerned with practical matters. "Can you eat? Do you still need to eat? Are you thirsty? Will your legs get tired? What if you get exhausted, will you fall?" She constantly bombarded Tony with questions, and he did his best to answer. But mostly, the only response he could give was "I don''t know." However, I noticed he''d never stopped smiling as he floated along the corridor, gradually picking up speed as he became morefortable and adept. We did find that he was able to touch things as he floated close to a corridor wall and was able to push off of it. He just couldn''t float any lower than he currently was to touch the ground. Going downstairs wasn''t a problem, nor was going upstairs, which I was incredibly grateful for. No one should have to suffer from the unreasonable limitations of those awful structures. Even climbing up things higher than a foot and a half above his feet wasn''t too much of a problem. He''d just have to step up with them like they were normal stairs. That was the only time he was able to touch the ground with his feet. He even managed to hop up onto a table. His jump was kind of awkward. It was interesting. He could increase the height of his hover by about six inches with a lot of concentration, but it seemed to tire him out quickly. Honestly, I was happy to have someone else fly around with me. Perhaps with enough practice, he could join Daedalus and me on some of our excursions. Even Beatrice coulde along atop her carpet. It would be so much fun. We could soar through the skies as a big group. --- Bee charged through the hordes of demons as Arthur led the way. She provided support as they attempted to reconnect with the army. They hoped that things would be fine. Their officers were more than capable enough to handle themselves, and now that they had dealt with the major threat, Bee imagined that things would go a lot smoother. But it didn''t mean they weren''t worried. They found much more heavy fortifications at the pce gates than when theyd left. Despite that, the army was still struggling to maintain a foothold. Bee and Arthur tore into the horde of attacking demons. Instead of rushing to rejoin the army at this point, they decided it was better to eliminate as many as possible. Bee repeatedly used her Scouring Strikes at maximum range, shredding cones of lesser demons before her. Arthur used his Taunt ability, pulling their attention and grouping the things up so that she could hit more at the same time. They worked together efficiently, clearing out dozens of demons and taking much of the pressure off the shield wall that Arthur''s men maintained. Eventually, their efforts were rewarded. A break opened up in the wall of enemies, and they slipped through and found the officer in charge of the vanguard. The man snapped a salute as he saw them to which Arthur responded in kind. "Report." "Yes, sir. The pce is proving mighty difficult to crack, but the city is mostly pacified. And I''m hoping to receive reinforcements soon, sir." "Good work. Maintain the position for now. We''ll get some elites in here to help clear things out. Arthur nced around the area. What of the flying demons?" "That''s why reinforcements are taking so long. We''ve had to station teams at nearly every intersection to take care of them when theynd." "Very good," Arthur said with an approving nod. "Not a bad idea at all." "And you sir?" The officer asked, trailing off. Eventually, Arthur nodded. "It''s taken care of. A mighty demon was controlling the pce, but Lord Void took care of it." Bee noted the careful way in which Arthur gave their god all the credit, but also didn''t mention the fact that it was a demon lieutenant. She could understand why. Most people wouldn''t likely believe the reality. Why would they, when lieutenants were beings of myth and legend? No, better to steer away from any usations of bragging. It would be much more effective for his troops'' morale to believe that their god destroyed a high-level and powerful demon controlling the troops. "We notice their coordination has gone down a lot, and there''s a lot more infighting. But the Archfiends are still taking most things in hand." The man said. "We''ll see what we can do about those." Arthur responded. "Good work. See to your men. " He said, and he moved further into the city. Bee saw the captain run over to his lieutenants and pass along orders. She also overheard him talking about how a great battle had been fought inside the pce, and a powerful demon had been overthrown. Still, she wouldn''t be surprised if, by the time the day was over, everyone was talking about how the demon lord itself was in by Void and their armymander was working together. Such was the respect and love his men had for Arthur, but people were also prone to embellish. Even if Arthur tried to counteract it. "How do you want to take care of this?" She asked Arthur as they double-timed back towards the rearmand center. It had been set up in one of the open zas towards the center of the city. "I would suggest that we finish pacifying the city, then you help the vanguard take the pce. If you agree?" Arthur asked in a deferential tone. Bee nodded, epting it as an order. Arthur wasn''t about to step above his station as the armymander and order her around. Still, she was going to listen to anything he had to say when it came to military strategy. It was much better for him to pacify the city, and she imagined that Arthur could get it taken care of quickly. She would have no idea where to start, herself. But when it came to clearing out a horde of demons, well, she was pretty proficient at that. It would take a little longer without him helping, but hopefully she could help save a lot of lives by doing so. "Do you need any assistance?" Arthur asked. Bee snapped out of her thoughts. "If you could send some long-range units over, that would probably be helpful. I could use the support to keep them off my back. But no, I should be able to take care of everything in there. It''s more the archfiends that I''m worried about." Arthur nodded. "Yes. I''d love to get my soldiers the experience of fighting one, but I don''t think that any of them are up for it. Perhaps you can get Susan or myself to help when you take them on. Maybe Lord Void will get involved." Bee just shrugged. "I shouldn''t need the help, but I would appreciate it. I''ll try to take as much pressure off them as I can. But the number one priority is finding and destroying the summoning circles. Then the archfiends." Arthur nodded. "Yes. Stem the flow." She sped hands with the older man before turning and jogging the 100 yards or so back towards the pce gate. It was time to go take care of all the problems. Chapter 280: Dawn of a New Kingdom Chapter 280: Dawn of a New Kingdom By the time Susan and I got Tony outside, he had mostly figured out his floating and was able to move around at a brisk walk. Luckily, he didn''t need to move any faster than that, as most of the demons ran away screaming when they saw him. We avoided running into anything super powerful, or perhaps it was more urate to say that they avoided us. However, once we were outside, more of the actual conflict appeared. Our soldiers had taken up most of the courtyard and were almost to the pce buildings. The shield wall was holding steady. But I saw Beatrice by herself, beyond the line of soldiers, out in a little bubble of calm. Both sides avoided her as she took on two Archfiends at once, with a third lying dead behind her. Susan stopped and stared as Beatrice wove through the Archfiend''s attacks and used concentrated projections of her aura to dismantle any magical attacks she couldn''t avoid. I couldn''t me her for watching. Beatrice truly was impressive. The disy almost felt like I was watching myself fight or clean a fully optimized room. Each move waspletely efficient, and each strike was effective. "Dang," Susan whispered. Tony was busy looking up at the sky before he eventually settled on what we were watching. "Wow. She must have powered up a lot from the lieutenant fight," Tony remarked. "She might have gotten as much out of it as I did." Susan and I nced at each other. Well, I wasn''t sure if I''d go that far. But Beatrice was doing quite well. He started slowly floating towards the line of soldiers. "Where do you think you''re going?" Susan stopped him, grabbing his wrist and nting her feet. Her efforts still resulted in her being slowly dragged along the smooth marble. "I''m gonna go join the fighting," Tony said as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "No, no, you''re not. First of all, you''re not nearly quick enough to fight when you can barely move faster than a walking pace. Second, you just lost a ton of power and levels. And third, I''m sure you don''t know how to fight the way you are now." Susan let go of his wrist to tick off the points on her fingers. Luckily, Tony was polite enough to listen instead of trying to make a break for it.. Or maybe he just realized he wasn''t fast enough to make it before Susan caught him once again. Tony looked down at his hands. "Ah, you are right. I forgot my hammer. There''s no way I can fight them all bare-handed." "That''s not what I meant," Susan red. Tony sent her a mischievous grin. In response, she did her best to bodily haul Tony away, which was a rather useless attempt. He was already in the air, and she''d already demonstrated that pushing him around wasn''t quite so easy. "Well, at least I''m safe against kidnapping," Tony said as she eventually pushed him off to the side. At that point, I had to take care of several more demons who decided to take notice of our presence. I quickly put them down with precision shots before Tony and Susan even noticed. While the pair got out of harm''s way, I cleaned that mess up. Once all the demon attackers were neutralized, I quickly rejoined the humans and carved a path towards the shield wall. An easy task between spinning with my Divine Sword and firing my Sanitation Lamp. Both were quite effective, but if I held the sword behind me while firing themp ahead of me, I could just spin and take out tons of stuff. I only had to be careful to turn themp off when its path would intersect with soldiers or one of my other allies. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. We made it back in just time to watch Beatrice down the final Archfiend. As soon as it fell, the slight cohesion that the demons disyed failed as they started attacking everything nearby, including other demons of different species. --- Bee panted as she limped back behind the wall of soldiers. The human barricade that had once repelled the demons'' charge now simply served to corral the ongoing chaos. After their leaders were killed, the demons'' little bit of discipline dissolved, and their forces turned into an all-out brawl. This was both good and bad news for the defenders. In some ways, it was easier to contain, and in some ways, it was harder. But overall, the new battlendscape was far less predictable. But as long as the soldiers were vignt, there was almost no chance that the demons could get through. Bee''s repair skills were working overtime from the numerous heavy wounds she''d taken fighting three Archfiends. She had really expected more trouble from the encounter, but as she had learned how to integrate her All Seeing Eye skill with her improved pathing,bat became simple. It was as if she was just following a set of alchemy instructions. Move here, duck here, strike here. The Broom Proficiency she had helped a lot, too. There was no move she couldn''t do or avoid with thebination of the two, and her Holy Aura worked amazingly to stop magical attacks. And to top it all off, her repair skills kept her fighting even through the worst of the injuries. That massive gash in her leg barely even bothered her at this point. Bee, though, couldn''t help but be proud. She''d taken on three demons at levels 59, 62, and 63 at the same time. Each well above her level. Not only had she survived, but she had won, beating each of them down to the point where she was confident in saying that she could repeat the act. This fight felt more important to her than even the lieutenant''s fight. It was the capstone of her achievements and only hers. It finally felt like her build made sense. All of her skills synergized with each other in some way,bining or building off of each other to make the others better. And all of them managed to contribute to the fight. She wasn''t exactly the mostbat-oriented build. In fact, very few of her abilities actually werebat-oriented, but she served as a good healer who could dish out damage. But that wasn''t really what her ss was about, either. It seemed to be less aboutbat, neither direct damage nor support, and more about organizing people. And now that she had finally put down the most dangerous threats, she could really do her job. The sun was starting to rise after a long night of fighting. But she wasn''t ready to sleep. Not even close. There is so much to be taken care of. And finally, she had some space in which she could figure out how to do it. Heading over to an officer, she requested updates from the city and found that the flying demon attacks had lessened significantly. Her destruction of the Archfiends had turned the battle and given others an opening to act. During that time, it had allowed a unit of Susan''s rangers and some of the local adventurers to strike at the summoning circles, destroying them in a way that wasn''t easy enough to repair. With that act, the flood of iing flying demons had stopped, at least. As they took care of the remaining ones, their numbers were quickly whittled down by allied forces throughout the city. Beatrice was d that she had made it in time before they managed to do any real damage. As the dust from the battle settled, she sent out messengers calling for a meeting of all of the higher-level officers and her most trusted people. The city was theirs. The false king was dead. Now, they had to step up and run things themselves. And there were plenty of changes to be made. She noticed that Tony was back. It was already hard to miss him as he stood head and shoulders above most people, but now, with the extra foot and a half and floating hair, he was practically a lightning rod for people''s attention. She made her way over and found Susan and Void there as well. There was something more she had to do. Something that she had heard of in stories but had never thought to see. A final ritual the hero always performed for their king at the end of the battle. In a very formal manner, Bee dropped to one knee in front of her master and bowed her head. Normally, Void wasn''t a fan of such things, but it felt like the right thing to do for the special asion. With pride filling her voice, she dered, "Master, the city is yours." Chapter 281: Extreme Makeover: City Edition Chapter 281: Extreme Makeover: City Edition When Beatrice had dered that the city was Void''s, she''d expected a lot of changes. This wasn''t one of them. Later, on the same day they took the city, she groaned, stretching in her chair as thetest petitioner left. It was a rtively nice one that had been taken from elsewhere in the castle to set below the throne. She used her brief break to nce around the space. Most of the damage had already been repaired thanks to her master''s intervention. However, there was still a conspicuousck of decorations from before. Those would apparently take a bit more effort to rece. As the next petitioner was ushered in, Bee straightened her back and prepared herself. Hopefully, there wouldn''t be too many more today. "You simply must do something about these cultists!" One well-dressed merchant dered, even as she approached the base of the dais where Bee sat. Bee raised an eyebrow but didn''t say anything. "Why, they''re disturbing all my customers with their yelling about how the Lord Void hase. Pure nonsense, I say." Bee raised her other eyebrow then. Someone didn''t know about Void. Many people didn''t, but everyone able to secure an audience with her was normally better informed. When she had dered the city under Void''s care, she had hoped that they could organize some giant ceremony where her master could im its rightful ce as god or ruler of the city. But no. Instead, it had chirped excitedly and then zipped off to gods knew where. She had seen reports of Void working its way through the streets, cleaning and repairing everything in sight. Worse, it had yet to return to the pce at all. Void hadpletely skipped the pce, as in her master''s own words. "It was in the best condition of the city so far." This had left her with many problems. She never truly expected Void to take an active role in the administration of the city, but having to somehow establish her own authority while also dealing with issues right away was proving difficult. The other issue was the cultists, as thisdy had so gently put it. That they were more convinced than ever that they were right and everyone else was wrong. Her soldiers also stood firm in their own beliefs, but that was different. They weren''t going around and causing problems the same way. Besides, they had already gotten used to Void''s antics. Her master''s obsession with cleaning was a value shared by both groups, and even the parts of the city where Void had yet to reach were scrubbed as spotlessly as the humans could manage. It allowed Void to make the passes even faster. Unfortunately, the popce wasn''t exactly happy about this. Mostly because their homes were regrly broken into in order to sweep the floors. It was a headache and a half to try to get both her soldiers and the cultists to acknowledge the fact that personal property was a thing and they didn''t have the right to break in without just cause. And no, seeing dust on the windowsill was not just cause. Even Void didn''t do that. When Void wanted in, you could find the god knocking on someone''s door and politely asking. Of course, when her master asked, it emanated an aura so powerful that several people simply passed out on sight, which Void took as a tacit agreement to enter. Or they babbled incoherent eptance of whatever the powerful divine being that appeared on their doorstep wanted. The same was not the case for just any level 15 Street Sweeper who had happened to join the cult. They oftentimes caused more of a mess trying to get into someone''s house to clean it than they actually fixed. But that didn''t change this woman''s demands. They had been working to restore order, and for the most part, they had stopped the break-ins and prevented any looting that unaffiliated parties had tried. But scaring customers away? Well, the city had just been taken. She should be lucky that she had any customers. The woman tapped her foot impatiently as Bee watched her. "Well?" The woman demanded. "Well, what?" Bee responded in a soft voice, doing her best to imitate Arthur''s calm demeanor and steadfastpetence that he radiated. She wasn''t sure it was working very well. She was still a growing teenager, so she didn''t have the same height to lord over people. Also, she refused to sit on the throne as that was Void''s. "Well, what are you going to do about it?" Bee held her breath and counted down from five. "The city is being pacified. Any looting should be reported to the nearest outpost of city guards or the nearest army officer." Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Bee said the first half of her normal spiel. They really needed to think of a name for their army. ''The army'' didn''t really sit very well. They could call it Void''s Faithful, but again. It was too culty. She would have a few ideas to run by Void next time her master returned. "As for customers, the city is still in a bit of disarray for the moment. We''d encourage everyone to stay inside andply with any authority until things have settled. If you have customers, please inform them to return to their homes ande back tomorrow or another day." Bee said. How had this woman made it past all of her screenings before she had to talk to her? She didn''t know, but if this was really how she wanted to act, she would get nothing more than a boilerte response. The woman turned on her heel and stormed out. Good riddance, Bee thought. Her next visitor was a far more wee sight. Aunt Beatrix bustled into the throne room and hiked up her skirts as she power-walked over to Beatrice, pulled her up by the scruff of her shirt, and swallowed her in a massive hug. "Oh, I''m so d you''re okay. When I couldn''t find you after all the scary fighting had gone down, I wasn''t sure what had happened. How did you get a position in the city? What happened?" Bee managed to pull her head back enough to gasp for air and return her aunt''s bone-crushing hug. "Uh, um there''s a few things I need to fill you in on. A lot of stuff has happened since I left home, and, well..." Bee waved her hand overhead, and a ce servant came running out with a chair. "Please sit." She directed her aunt to sit in a seat facing her. "It''s a long story." --- I had never owned a city before. This was so exciting. I was going to take the best care of it ever! Before Beatrice had a chance to say anything else, I chirped happily and sted off to start cleaning. There was no time to waste. I was sure that she, Arthur, Susan, and everyone else would do a good job of making sure the city was finally cleansed of the demonic invaders and all the people were taken care of. Thest one, in particr, wasn''t something I would be very good at anyway. But you know what? I was good at cleaning, and this city sure needed cleaning. Now that I owned it, I had full rights to make any changes I needed. I would probably leave all the buildings in the same spot, but the roads, well, the roads might be entirely reced. The walls would be scrubbed and shined. I might adjust some of them slightly. To make things easier, I would add gutters and a sewer system, and I categorized and ranked the improvements as quickly as they appeared in my processors. This was going to be amazing. However, it wasn''t long until I had to slow my roll a little bit. When I first got to the city, I found an issue: people were in the way everywhere. But it was okay. That was their job. People lived in the ces I cleaned, and they caused the messes I cleaned. That was okay. As long as they didn''t go about it maliciously. So, I started working my way through the major streets, cleaning up all trash, refuse, and dirt and polishing the blocks as I went. I considered pouring my sent over every single bit of the city, but that might make any sort of future changes difficult not just for me but for the people, too. Actually, it may well be impossible without my help. And as much as I liked the idea of owning a city, I didn''t want to spend all my time here. Eventually, people would have to take care of it themselves and pave their own roads when necessary. So, for the most part, I just cleaned, fixed, and repaired everywhere I went. I melted stones together to form some ck ss-like substance and used that to fill in any cracks or bind broken stuff together. It wouldn''t take the best load, so I was careful not to put anything I fixed this way in ces where a wagon wheel would crush it. But for walking paths, the ck ss was quite nice. Especially when I textured it. I started in the dirtiest parts of the cities and moved outwards. Most people were nice enough to let me into their house to give it a quick once over, but a few people didn''t respond. I''de back and checkter, making a mental map of the houses that still needed to be cleaned. I didn''t upgrade everything in the houses. That was a human''s job for the most part. However, I would be more than willing to assist if asked. I expected that I''d struggle to deal with the number of requests, though. Perhaps if we could figure out how to make more of my kind That would be nice. I even recruited several of the nice white-robed people who kept copsing in front of me to help clear people out of the way. It allowed me to work faster, and they were very, very efficient with it. In fact, I was a little bit concerned about how aggressive they were being. Still, after a few admonishments, they performed their tasks much more eptably. This was going to take me several days to finish, but by the time I was done, the city would be a shining beacon for all cleanliness and order. Anyone who came through the streets would be well aware of the value of cleanliness, of what it meant to live their best life. Once I finished a quick once over, my first pass would be to create a gutter system to funnel all rainwater, collect liquids, and process any waste that fell through it. And then, I would tunnel through the city so that sewage would be carried away eptably. I''d have to create some running water for that to really work, but that was secondary. And then I''d also have to connect it up to everyone''s house. Hmm. Putting pipes through the walls of some of these second stories might be a little difficult, but... Well, I would cross that bridge when I came to it. For now, though, I just had to clean. Only asionally did demons get in my way, but those were quickly removed. Oftentimes, our army was extremely helpful with that. Chapter 282: He Knows If Youve Been Bad Or Good Chapter 282: He Knows If You''ve Been Bad Or Good "I can''t believe it. How did you manage to do all that?" Beatrix''s eyes shone with a mixture of astonishment and pride as Bee finished speaking. The more detailed recounting of her recent exploits seemed too fantastical to be real, even to Bee herself. "Well, I didn''t do it alone..." Bee demurred. "I''ve had plenty of help along the way." "Yes, but still..." Beatrix leaned back in her seat. "Wow. Why didn''t you tell me?" "I didn''t want to blow my cover before the city was... settled. I''m sorry for leaving so much out." Bee''s voice was tinged with regret, her gaze shifting ufortably. Beatrix waved her hand dismissively, her smile warm and understanding. "It''s alright, Beatrice. I understand. Why, I''ve had to do much the same with some of my more sensitive deals, although... well, I doubt I''ve ever had anything quite so interesting to tell." Her hands settled into herp once more. "I''m sure your father will be proud." Asplicated emotions roiled inside of Bee, her aunt continued. "Now, can we talk about some of the supplies your army needs?" The conversation shifted to logistics, a topic Bee found far less exhrating than her recent adventures. She barely managed to avoid selling her master''s new kingdom away to her ambitious aunt and eventually managed to pawn the rest of the nitty-gritty details off to logistics officers. Feeling drained, the conversation once again reminded Bee of how important delegation was. She would need to keep her aunt at bay in trade negotiations, and she didn''t have anywhere near the experience to handle that responsibility yet. Technically, she might have had the power to make decisions like this, but she wasn''t prepared to wield it, not on this scale. "Well, I''m sure you''ll put in a good word, honey," Her aunt said, finally leaving after their prolonged discussion. "Be sure to let me know if you need anything. I''ll be around for quite a while. After all, there''s plenty of opportunity to be had here." As the woman strode out of the room, Bee didn''t feel rested, but at least she felt a bit better. Her chambein, a tall, stern-faced officer of Arthur''s, appeared to announce the next person in line. "These were a pair of adventurers who helped us close the summoning circles. Without them, we would have had significantly more trouble stemming the tide, so I granted their request for an audience. I hope you don''t mind." Bee waved it off, intrigued. It would be fine, as long as it didn''t take too long. Showing a little gratitude to those who helped them was never a bad idea. Perhaps they''de to request a reward for their services, as adventurers so often did. If so, she was more than happy to dip into the treasury. As long as they weren''t too unreasonable. As the adventurers entered, Bee studied them with a careful eye. One was a surprisingly old man who walked with confidence, stepping into the room without the aid of a cane. He looked quite steady on his feet if a little pale as if recovering from a long illness. Her scan indicated that the older man was a level fifty-five Magus, which made her eyes go a little wide. That was impressive, to say the least. It was no wonder he''d been a help. But it was the figure behind him that really caught her eye. It was a face that Bee recognized, one that made her stare in shock. The pair came to stand before her. A few moments passed before Harold eximed, "Don''t I know you?" After I got into the groove of cleaning, I remembered that I had a lot of new skills to experiment with. The thought excited me. I could feel them within myself, potentially swirling and ready to be activated at any moment. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. The problem was they didn''te with instructions. I tried to catalog the skills by activating them one at a time. However, this didn''t always lend me insight, either. Some of them simply seemed to do nothing, or perhaps they were application-specific enough that I simply couldn''t observe their effects at the moment. It was all very frustrating. How was I supposed to organize what I could do like this? I couldn''t just activate all of them every time I did anything to see what worked. That was terribly inefficient! The only reason I had been able to use Beatrice''s skills right away was because I had seen her use them many times. I knew what they were and what they did. But the rest of these? I didn''t even have names to go by. I dedicated some memory to finding a better solution as I worked through the city. I''d managed to take care of the roads and houses, working my way up to the roofs. I peered at a particrly nasty chimney. I was disgusted. It couldn''t have been cleaned for decades, at least. That was simply uneptable. As I prepared to remedy this tragedy, I felt a slight tug within me. It was as though one of my skills was trying to get my attention. Interesting. Activating it, I looked at the chimney again. I felt a tingle as though I were being guided to clean the chimney in a certain way. A different way than usual. The technique was fairly basic - in fact, I didn''t think it was as good as my own, to be honest. But it was worth a shot. Maybe it would improve over time. Deciding to try the skill out, I started to spin in a circle as I jammed myself down the chimney. Years'' worth of soot and ash disappeared into my dustbin as I scrubbed the shaft clean. I had to move slowly. Even with my incredibly powerful suction and other physical abilities, the skill was still new, and I made lots of mistakes. Also, there was just so much soot that I had trouble keeping up. But several long momentster, I popped back out of the top of the chimney with delight. I had done it. I''d identified another skill! With a quick mental note, I categorized it. Perhaps if they continued to tug at me like that when they were relevant, organizing them might not be so hard. I celebrated my achievement by cleaning more chimneys and bobbing happily across the rooftops. I briefly recalled a movie my previous humans had watched at home. I probably looked just like one of the chimney sweep characters in it. Except for the singing... Another skill began to tug at me. As I activated it, I discovered with more than a bit of delight that my beeps had gained a bit more range in what wavelengths I could emit. And so, I started happily beeping the song I remembered with a "chim-chimney, chim-chimney chimin chim charoo." A few houses in, I began to notice trends in the cleanliness of the houses. My scanners were able to pick up their interiors as I worked. I quite appreciated how many of the children kept their rooms neat and tidy. Perhaps I''d start leaving presents for them. As a reward and an incentive for good behavior. Though I didn''t think Daedalus had enough presents for every kid in the capital, especially if I wanted to do it regrly For now, I decided to start small. I left a nice apple near the firece for all the children in tidy rooms. Hopefully, they will enjoy them. As I moved through the city, I started activating other skills as they tugged at my senses. All of them felt fairly inefficient and weak, for now at least. But I made an effort to catalog them all and train the ones I could. Perhaps they''d be useful with a bit of investment. At one point, I identally scratched a very nice table, and a woodworking repair skill popped up. It informed me that I could use some beeswax to repair it for the most part. But I didn''t have any. I was mortified and left a stack of gold coins next to the scratch with a simple note apologizing. Hopefully, the owner would forgive me. One thing I did focus on was Beatrice''s Scan ability. It was not the most useful so far. It only gave me names and levels, but it was interesting to see how low-level every human was. In fact, I only found three were above level 20 while searching around the ordinary citizens. But the skill''s current state was ok. If it leveled with use, then I could use it with no problem. After nearly 12 hours of continually scanning everything I came across, I started to get a little more information. I had made a subroutine that would scan everything within range of my sensors at least once. It made improving the skill extremely easy, and soon, I could find out more about their age and sses. My growth slowed down eventually, but hopefully, in a few more days, I''d be able to determine a lot more about people. All the while, I continued cleaning. Cleaning, training my skills, and rebuilding the city. The city repairs, in particr, ended up being great for training. In fact, my road paving skills had increased by leaps and bounds, making it so that my mere presencebined my domain and the skill to efficiently create roads. It was way better than just fixing uneven cobblestones. It was all so exciting. Who knew where I''d be once I''d powered all of these skills up? Chapter 283: The Student Becomes the Master Chapter 283: The Student Bes the Master Bee just stared at her former headmaster and the Dean of Demonology, a man about whom she had very mixed feelings. Her Scan gave her a new result, which was cool but not very useful in this case. Name: Sir Loyd Farlow, Level: 42, Race: Human, ss: Administrator, Titles: The Warden, Age: 73, Highest Stat: Wisdom, Lowest Stat: Constitution, Status: Nervous, Weakness: Freshly-baked Donuts. "Yeah. We''ve met." Her words were short and not delivered in the most friendly tone. Harold drummed his fingers on his lower lip, trying to ce her face. Hispanion, the old man, looked back and forth between them. "Well... I am surprised to see that you two have some history." The Warden said slowly as Bee didn''t borate. "Let me introduce myself, as it seems you two already know each other. I''m known as The Warden." "You could say that." Bee gave a wry smile. "Anyway, what did you want to talk about?" The older man inclined his head, happy to move on. "Yes. I am here to offer our personal help with the management of the city. You have just taken over a city and, by extension, an empire. "Oh. What makes you think we need help?" Bee asked "Judging from how easy it was to gain ess to you personally, you might not have the proper support system around you to handle many of the simple everyday tasks that would otherwise drown you. And also" The man coughed slightly. "I mean no offense, but I can''t imagine you have the most experience with ruling. Anyone at your age would likely have very limited practice inmanding others." Bee shrugged. "You''re not wrong. I do have a decent amount of experience withmand, but I understand how my age woulde into y when running a kingdom. But what makes you think you could help?" "Well, I have a lot of experience," he said, gesturing to his cane with a rueful smile. "Not just because I''m old, of course, but because I''ve umted a lot of knowledge over the years. I''ve spent thest 20 years as one of the close advisers to the King. When he started to go mad and behave erratically, I was locked up for attempting to investigate the causes. Considering what has just urred, I am quite confident that I was right to do so. "Really?" Bee''s gaze flicked between the pair skeptically. "What about him?" "This is my associate, Harold." The Warden pped a hand on the man''s shoulder, jolting him from his efforts to ce Bee''s face. "He is the one who... retrieved me... from my holding. And one of the premier resources on demonology in the entire nation. Surely, he will also be of use, given this incursion." Bee thought about this for a second. The Dean of Demonology helped this man get out. That didn''t quite seem right. How would these two be otherwise rted? Either there was more to Harold than she knew or more to this other man. Or both. "Are you a King''s mage or something simr?" The Warden shrugged. "That wasn''t an official title, but I do have a decent knowledge of magic in many forms. Specifically, I have some expertise in demonology but have dabbled in many other forms of alchemy and rituals. But that wasn''t where I really came into y. "I was more of a general adviser and had in-depth knowledge of the way the Kingdom was run, what its goals were, and where its assetsy. I also had a working rtionship with the Kingdom''s treasurer, whom I have not seen recently" The Warden rubbed his chin. "So that might be a tricky business." Bee nodded, her mind now fully focused on this. If he really had all the information he imed, he could be a great asset in maintaining the Kingdom, but she wasn''t sure how far she should trust the man. Probably not very far yet. One thing she should make clear, though, just so there were no misconceptions, "I do not im rulership over the kingdom," Bee stated, and the Warden''s eyes widened as he looked at Harold, who was still trying to ce her face. "Sovereignty lies with my master. I am simply his High Priestess. The Lord Void now controls the city, and may he reign forever," she said with a smile. She''d been trying catchphrases like that as simple slogans for the church, but that one didn''t quite feel right. "Lord Void Hm. How involved will he be with the leadership?" the Warden asked. "Do I need to talk to him about my proposal, or do you have the authority to make decisions on the more day-to-day level?" Bee shrugged. "I have the authority to make high-level leadership decisions as a king would. Lord Void has full oversight, though anything my master will ask for, he shall receive. Any decision that I say is final can be overruled by my master, and my master is not bound by its own word. Though I''ve never known Lord Void to break its word." The Warden looked at her strangely. "It sounds like you serve a god-king. That is well, that hasn''t been the case in thisnd for I don''t know how long." "God-king," Bee said. "Hmm, that might be understating it a little. Lord Void is a god." The Warden''s eyebrows shot up even higher. "A true god? Very few of them deigned to call themselves gods. In fact, none of them have even been able to prove it. What makes you think that he is a god?" "Well," Bee said, mentally running through the list of signs. "there is a lot of evidence. I can tell you countless tales to help convince you. But I''ll summarize the highlights. My ss is literally High Priestess of Spot. Spot, not Void." At the Warden''s confused look, she exined. "I believe it''s a joke that it is ying with the system to change its name." Bee continued as the Warden''s eyebrows threatened to fly off of his forehead entirely. "The system grants other sses in Void''s name, such as Pdin of Spot. Another divine ss. It has the ability to influence the system, give people sses, reset people''s sses, and change people''s sses. Void as a Champion, and being close to the lord gives titles. If you follow Void''s teachings, you gain experience through performing the actions that are most holy in its sight. Void is likely over level 80 as well." The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The Warden''s face became progressively more shocked as Bee listed out things that clearly showed Void was a god. But before he could respond, Harold finally caught up to the conversation. "That''s who you are! You were one of the apprentices in the castle!" He snapped his fingers triumphantly. Bee looked at him, a little bit surprised that the man had remembered her at all. "Yes, the one apprentice you left behind." Her voice dripped with disdain. "That''s the one! She''s possessed by the demon she calls her god. We need to run. We should have run." Harold said, taking a step back. The Warden rubbed his forehead. "I''m sorry, miss," he apologized to Bee. "Give me one moment to settle this fool down." With that, the Warden rounded on Harold, grabbing his arm as he retreated further. "Harold, do you remember how many demons the invading army killedst night? And you still think its leader is possessed by a demon?!" "U" Harold tried to speak. "No, shut up for a moment. In fact, I''m starting to doubt that the "demon" you summoned back in the castle was even a demon at all!" The Warden let out a long breath, turning back to Bee. "Apologies. So, let me make a few guesses here, and please let me know if I''m correct. Miss Bee, the thing that Harold and the mages summoned before they fled the castle this was the Lord Void?" Bee nodded. So far, he was right. "And was the Lord Void hostile in any way?" She shook her head. "No, but Void was terrifying, to put it lightly. It has always been extremely powerful, and I can imagine that it''s only grown in strength after it''s been summoned," she exined. The Warden nodded. "Then it seems that they had summoned a god or at least a godling. Somehow. And then fled, leaving it to its own devices. WITH A CHILD." The Warden shot a withering re at Harold. "Because it was ''scary.'' "That''s what he wants you to think," Harold narrowed his eyes. "I''m sure he''s nefarious." Bee rolled her eyes. "Do you know how many Lieutenants Void has fought? How many it''s killed?" Harold''s eyes bulged. "That was him?!" The Warden held his hand out to stop the conversation." Wait. Killed Lieutenants? Even the dragons couldn''t do that." Bee nodded. "I know, we''ve talked with a few. Or, Void has. But as I''ve said, nothing is impossible for Void. Be it system maniption or killing the unkible." Silence reigned over the throne room. The two men stood in utter shock, contemting the possibility of a god-killing demon Lieutenants. "So how many has he killed?" The Warden eventually broke the silence. "At least two that I know of. Void has fought others, though some have managed to get away. The King was actually a demon Lieutenant specializing in illusions, Maraj''ain. Void managed to drive it off while destroying a soul specialist in the pcest night. Several months ago, we managed to destroy Nazareth''gak." "How certain are you that she was actually destroyed?" the Warden asked. Bee smiled. "I got the experience for her." The Warden raised his eyebrows. "If I may ask... what level are you?" It was an incredibly sensitive question to ask. However, Bee couldn''t help but brag a little bit. "55." The Warden had seemingly short-circuited his ability to be surprised and just started to go with it. "Really? That high? And how old are you, my dear?" "I''m 14," Bee said proudly. "14 and over level 55" Harold paled as he muttered to himself. The Warden patted his shoulder. "Don''t worry, Harold, I''m sure everything''s going to be fine. In fact, this is the best news of our generation, if perhaps thest several millennia. We have a way to finally end the threat of the Lieutenants for good. And the timing couldn''t be better, especially if they''re breaking free now." Harold licked his lips nervously. "Alright. But then, if this Void is so benevolent, then how do you exin Patricia''s state?" "Who?" Bee asked. "Patricia, one of the adventurers sent to the castle. I think she ran into you. Well, it was hard to tell as she returned stark, raving mad." "Ah," Bee nodded at the memory. "I remember. I tried to talk to the adventurers, but they assumed I was possessed. Just like you." She shot Harold a re. "They got pretty aggressive. Void scared them off when they broke my arm; Void wasn''t exactly happy, so I put on a bit of a disy. Void didn''t hurt them, though." Bee quickly rified. "We found Patriciater inside the castle, hiding in a closet. I guess she sneaked in when we weren''t looking and couldn''t get back out because of all the demons running around." "See? Demons running around!" Harold practically shouted. "The ones that the college kept contained." Bee rolled her eyes. "Their circles failed, so the castle was infested until Void cleaned them up." As Bee spoke, the heat of the Warden''s gaze made Harold wilt. "Care to exin?" Harold raised his hands defensively. "I didn''t hear anything about this. I sent them to investigate and see what was happening so that we could n for whatever threat might being. I really thought..." "Well, one of them managed to bring back good intel," the Warden rolled his eyes. "...Good intel that had us on a wild goose chase." Harold reluctantly admitted. "I think we actually saw the battle between the two demons," Harold said reluctantly. "I mean, Lord Void and the Lieutenant, when we brought the army there., However, when we got there, we were attacked by the undead." "Considering that there was an undead gue at the same time. It wiped out most of the province. That''s how we met Arthur," Bee said. "I''m not sure why the undead attacked you." "It looked like the ck demon summoned them to us." "Hmm," Bee shrugged. "I think I was unconscious by that point, so I''m not really sure how that went down. But we did run into a lot of undead." "At Caleb? You were at Caleb?" Harold said. "Yes, Void and I came to help liberate the city from the siege." The Warden looked at Harold again. "This is when you saw Lord Void for the second time, right?" "Lord Void, I suppose. And they were fighting the undead." Harold rubbed his chin. "Hmm. Well, anyways," the Warden said, bringing the attention back to himself. "I think there''s a lot we have to discuss, but one of the first things we should do is get the city stable again. I''d suggest we look for the treasurer. "If you''re willing, I can help screen who you actually need to talk to so we can get things up and running as fast as possible. So far, Arthur has been doing a good job keeping the city in check. From what I can tell, he''s the one really leading the armies, right?" Bee nodded. "But Arthur never did have the mind for politics. Harold, could you go search for Gerald, the Minister of Finance?" Chapter 284: Plumbing the Depths Chapter 284: Plumbing the Depths The next day, after I had managed to put the city into some kind of reasonable shape, I put a temporary pause on further renovations. Handling the rest of the city was still a top priority but had shifted down on the list. We needed to track down the Lieutenant who fled. After a quick chat with Beatrice, I started following its trail. But it was a struggle. The illusions it used to cover itself lingered long enough to obscure the trail it left. There were still motes of energy that I could follow. Still, it was incredibly tricky, even with my full attention and sensor array. I followed its flight through the castle, but each time It made a turn or a change in direction, It took me minutes to find the next ce where it had left any sort of trace. It took several hours just to track its progression through the castle as it weaved through corridors and climbed over walls, doubling back andying false tracks behind itself. It was as if it knew we would try to follow. Well, I supposed it wasn''t a particrly difficult prediction to make, but still. I didn''t have much hope of catching up now. It had taken me so long to track it down this far, for a distance that likely only took moments to traverse. There was no way I could track it further with any kind of efficiency. Still, I tried my best. Eventually, I made it out of the pce and out of the inner wall of the castle into the city. I followed it where it must have climbed up to the top of a nearby tall building, and then its trail vanished. Just vanished. No residual traces, no nothing. It had disappeared into thin air. I searched in a huge arc just to be sure. Having categorized most of the city, I looked for every single possiblending ce to see if it had jumped down. But no, nothing. There was no trace of it anywhere in the city. I even started searching through the air, hoping that some sort of energy signature would have lingered if it flew away. But nothing appeared. I spent hours scouring the area. Still, my efforts were in vain. Perhaps it had flown out of the city somehow. But either way, it didn''t matter. If it was able to get outside of the city wall, there was just no way I was going to find it in the wild. The only reason I could track it in the pce was that everything was rtively quiet there. With the low amounts of activity, whatever traces the Lieutenant had left behind would remain rtively undisturbed. But outside, with the trees and wild animals, or even in the city with its bustling people? It was much more difficult to iste traces if there even were any undisturbed ones. That also exined why the rooftop had been one of the few ces where I could find the tracks. As much as I was ashamed to admit it, I had let the Lieutenant getaway. I couldn''t find it. But we will hopefully find it soon. So I went back and returned to my other priority task: cleaning everything. As I worked, I noticed that people loved my city. I heard countless remarks about the walking paths and their textured ck ss. My citizens also found them beautiful and enchanting. That was a relief. Even if the city people had a lot to learn about cleaning, at least they could appreciate beauty. Maybe they weren''t so far gone after all. I hadn''t even noticed it breaking in any spots like I had initially feared. I worked on continually upgrading roads and smoothing everything out. My very presence and domain helped make sure that every building''s foundation was shored up and ready to be improved upon further in the future if I needed to increase the weight of the buildings by improving their material, for example. Whenever I stopped by and found an immacte child''s room in a household. I continued my habit of leaving an apple by the mantlepiece. This practice was good, and I was reasonably certain that everyone appreciated it, but it caused a few unpredictable circumstances. One was that almost every room I came across now was spotlessly clean. It was exactly what I''d hoped, but it happened much sooner than anticipated. Evidently, these children learned quickly. The other consequence was that certain children started developing various abilities. I had thought my apples were simply better tasting than the rest. I did recall Arthur mentioning something about it filling him with strength. Still, I assumed it was one of those famous human figures of speech. But evidently, a bit of time in my dustbin led to a little more variety in results. Some kids were developing much faster in speed or strength, and this was making it a little difficult for the parents to control them. Especially when they decided that they wanted to run around the market at the speed of a level 30 Sprinter. It took a little bit of effort to contain them. Still, I made sure to only leave apples with less magical energy wherever possible. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. The day passed as I maintained my progress, slowly improving my city to be one I could be proud of. The people were very helpful in my efforts. More and more of them were cleaning by themselves or wearing spotlessly white clothes. In fact, my count indicated that the total poption of the city was steadily increasing, and the percentage of them that were wearing clean white was also multiplying. Maybe it had to do with all the people Zeal had yelling on corners. They pointed out the clean city and how much they were helping with doing some basic cleaning. Even if I did need toe around and finish some work for them here and there. I had noticed that the rhetoric they spouted was a little bit different. Beatrice had managed to get them to tone down the "wipe out all life from the" stuff in favor of general cleanliness, but the "removing the unclean" points didn''t exactly sound too much better. At least they were mostly rallying against the demons. They did advocate keeping a fire demon in each hearth to consume trash. Still, Beatrice had to put a stop to that pretty quickly, as a few houses nearly burned down, and I was barely able to save them. But despite the few mishaps, things were well. Our army was doing its best to maintain order as the city guard was restaffed. People who were upset with our changes were allowed to leave the city and sent off to some other ce that wasn''t under our control. For the most part, though, people were just generally happy. The city was clean and free of rats and bad smells. I''d even managed to get running water to one building as a test for the rest of the city, which was a marvel. The people came to see the apparently incredible achievement from all around. The owner of the house was even charging a couple of copper for admission toe and see the running water. Some called it a miracle, but it was just my first test subject. Tomorrow, several more houses would be fitted with plumbing. By the end of the week, I projected that most houses in the city would have running water. Now, I needed to teach them how to use toilets properly. I had seen far too many outhouses and chamber pots to bear their indignity any longer. Well, hopefully. Some of that would require some architectural changes, and that always took a little bit longer. Perhaps I should start with the pce first, but I wanted to make sure people understood what was happening. So, I chose a prominent inn near the entrance of the city for my initial experiments. The crowds of people moring to see the water was starting to be a problem for road congestion. But that was okay. If I built enough of them, everyone would get used to it, and it wouldn''t be special anymore. --- Bee was having a terrible week. The city was limping along as best it could in most aspects, but getting enough food to feed everyone was a chore, and she was barely staying ahead. A couple of houses had burned down because of rabble-rousing by the cult, and their street preaching was only encouraged by the state of the city. They were constantly running low on money and struggling to find merchants who could supply things. Her aunt had been surprisingly helpful with the whole ordeal, but primarily because of the opportunity it presented. Her family had also made a tidy profit, and Bee wasn''t sure they could repay everything, at least not quickly. Even trying to figure out a tax code had taken her forever, and while she knew her master''s mind on many things, tariffs and export regtions were not one of them. She hadn''t talked to her master in a while. asionally, it would drop by to give her a little bit of an update on the improvements in the city, but that was it. The ce really was looking nice, but running it was almost impossible. The only reason she was able to get through as well as she was was the Warden. And Harold, surprisingly. It had taken her a while to develop a working rtionship with him, but once they had found the Minister of Finance, the four of them managed to make sure everything got done just in the nick of time before there was any sort of real cmity. They were slowly working on training up some staff to handle some of the more day-to-day stuff, but at least the number of peopleing to her withints had slowed down. It had only gotten better as the Warden had found the old Chambein, who helped screen out unimportant visitors or things that she didn''t need to personally handle. Lesser matters were sent off to officers of Arthur''s army to handle for now, but she would need to set up a proper government for Void to take care of. She also would need to establishmunication back to the castle, where the rest of her following was. Most of her trusted advisors were still back there, but she wasn''t sure how many would make the trip out to help. She really needed Mary to help organize things. Still, she didn''t think she could convince her and Trent to leave most of their family behind or even move their family out to the capital. Especially not when the castle was such an idyllic paradise. She hoped to get enough breathing room to take her carpet and fly back to the castle. It would only take a day or two to make the trip, get some advice, and maybe shift some resources around. But that looked like it wouldn''t happen for a few more days, at least. She yawned, stretching high as she put down her quill. Her gaze turned to the starry sky hanging outside her bedchamber. Luckily, she only needed to sleep a few hours at her level, but even then, she was still running herself ragged. And that wasn''t even considering what they would do about the Lieutenants. At least they''d been putting up infrastructure so that she wouldn''t have to do this for too much longer. At least, that''s what she hoped. As she climbed into bed and put her head on the pillow, she heard a soft rhythmic beeping underneath her bed. As Void sang her a luby, she felt a tired smilee to her face. Her master always managed toe back to spend a little time with her before going out to do his godly things in the night, even if they didn''t talk. Bee drifted off slowly, dreading the morning and all the things she still had to get done. Chapter 286: Following the Breadcrumbs Chapter 286: Following the Breadcrumbs It took Susan nearly 20 minutes to show up in the throne room. Bee wasn''t exactly surprised, though. Susan was a very busy woman, and she felt bad about pulling her away from whatever important task she was taking care of. But this was pretty dang important. In the meantime, she had called for refreshments. Some of the pce servants who had returned to work after the invasion pulled out a small table and served tea. Harold and the Warden sipped in slightly awkward silence, asionally broken as one of them had a thought rted to their various fields of expertise. Susan swept into the room with her usual lithe grace. As she took her spot at the table, Bee made some introductions. "This is Major Susan," she said. "Susan has been in charge of the church''s intelligence apparatus for a long time. Her counterpart in military intelligence is currently away; otherwise, I would have him brought here, too. You may tell her anything that you would tell me. Susan, this is the Warden and Harold," she gestured to each man in turn. "They have been extremely helpful in taking care of the demons and have certain interests in making sure that they don''t resurface like they did in legends before. Warden, would you like to expand on any of that?" The Warden put his teacup down and looked Susan in the eyes. "It is good to meet you, Susan," he nodded politely. "Before we get into a little bit more detail, I want to recap what I told Bee before she called you here to assist. "Harold and I have been a part of an underground organization that hassted for thousands of years to keep the demon lieutenants caged up and in stasis indefinitely. Recently, a little bit before my time, there was a demon in the castle. That Void was summoned to. Had its protections damaged. "Harold, over thest decade or so, had been in charge of making sure that the protections were refreshed regrly after events. I think we all know too well that protocol has failed, and the demon lieutenant got loose. Luckily, Lord Void dealt with it in time. However, we are aware of several more of the locations that the Demon lieutenants rest. At least eight more. "We have them under near constant monitoring. And we have ideas of where the remaining three are. Now, we have heard that Lord Void took care of another one, leaving us with a total of 11 lieutenants left and at least one known free. The informationwork we use has been a bit disrupted ofte with everything going on. I''m getting mixed signals and iplete information, but there''s a possibility of even more being free. Especially seeing that somehow we missed at least one. The one that Void destroyed during the night of the invasion was not on our list of concerns." Bee broke in, "There was also another one that we were aware of, the one of me. I''m not familiar with the description enough in the legends to match it to a name. Still, Void fought with it alongside Daedalus''s younger brother up in the north." Susan nodded, and the Warden and Harold exchanged looks as the new information was revealed. "The one of me," Harold said pensively. "I would have said that was Nazareth''gak based on the description, but otherwise I don''t think that was one of the ones we had monitored." The Warden shook his head. "No, based on legend, I would say that would be Alomar, the living me." "I''d never heard that title," Bee frowned. "That''s not surprising. It was one of the nastier demon lieutenants. It didn''t have the intelligence of some of the others, so it was less known by its deeds and more as a force of nature. Its presence is concerning but not as concerning as the one impersonating the king, Maraj''ain. She is known to be a schemer, and if any of them would have the guile to free the others, it would be her." Susan listened carefully and digested all this information. "Okay, I think I have a handle on what''s going on," she said. "You need ess to my informationwork. Preferably, we can connect it to yours directly and allow them to interface so that I can get you the reports you need." Both Harold and Bee nodded as the Warden responded. "Yes. In fact, with the Lieutenants bing loose, I imagine that my organization will change drastically, and I think now is the time to put every card on the table." The old man''s demeanor turned serious. "If we survive this, then the organization may no longer need to exist. Hopefully, if Void agrees to help, then we can destroy the lieutenants one at a time. So I''m all for this." The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Susan exchanged nces with Bee, and Bee nodded. The spymaster inclined her head. "Very well. My resources are at your disposal. We should talk more soon." The meeting ended after that, and Susan and the Warden went to hash out details while Harold took Bee out of the city to show her evidence of the Lieutenant''s trail. As they left the front gates, Bee saw a familiar ck disk zip into the corner of her vision. Her master floated before them, hovering with a happy beep. She saw Harold visibly stiffen at the god''s sudden appearance. --- I received Beatrice''s message. They had been able to track the Lieutenant out of the city themselves. I was honestly impressed. Whoever did this must have had quite the skill in tracking. Maybe I could learn a thing or two from them. When I found Beatrice, she was walking out of the city with a man that I had seen before, one of the first men I had ever seen in this world. I was surprised to find him here. I don''t think I ever got his name, but Scan informed me that it was Harold. I remembered that he was very noisy thest time I saw him. Looking back at some of those memories, I saw them in a slightly different light now. It must''ve been quite a shock for me to turn up so suddenly. Maybe I needed to apologize for startling him. I hadn''t been trying to be rude, but maybe I didn''t make the best first impression. With how skittish the man seemed, he might have taken my approach the same way my old family''s dog or cat did. They always assumed I was about to pounce and eat their paws as I cleaned. When I approached the pair, the man jumped to an impressive height and began to sweat when he saw me. It seemed like he was still afraid of me. What a shame. To give him some space, I simply floated along on the other side of Beatrice. I projected a message for the man so that it was private between the two of us. It was a video of him and all his mages running away from the grand hall back in the castle when I had first met them. He watched withrge eyes, unable to tear his gaze from the image. Afterward, I shed up some text. "Sorry about that." Despite my earnest attempt, the apology didn''t seem to help much. Harold flinched in fear, his eyes going a bit too wide. Oh well. At least I felt better. A few minutes walk away from the castle. We stopped at a stand of trees. Harold pulled out a few bags of various ingredients that had certain tints of energy flowing in them andbined them in a bowl before sprinkling them in the air. The dust hung in the air before moving slightly and taking the rough shape of a long-legged, bipedal creature. Slowly, it stepped forward for two steps, taking about 1.9543 seconds before copsing to the earth. "This creature was the Lieutenant. Correct?" Harold, his hands still shaking a little, and Bee nodded. "I believe so." Meanwhile, I was just trying to figure out what he''d done. I wasn''t exactly sure how the dust was working. It was some mechanism that I didn''t understand at all. My sensors. It didn''t pick up anything from that whole disy outside of the usual, certainly nothing that exined its strange behavior. Regardless, I zipped forward, startling the two of them as I went in the direction that the Lieutenant had been walking. It took several hundred yards before I finally picked up Some sort of trace that I could detect with my sensors. Huh. Somehow, this dust was even more powerful than my advanced sensors. If that was the case, then I really needed to work on them more. If bits of what looked to be ground beetle and other unidentifiable bits of dirt could see things that I could notThat was simply inexcusable. Who would have thought that dust, my mortal enemy would have secretly been plotting such an advancement right under my nose. I zipped back and called them over. The pair followed me at a much slower pace than I would have preferred. However, when they got to the spot, Harold reproduced the ritual and showed the Lieutenant heading in a new direction. Huh? It appears that we could track it. This was great. There would be one less demon lieutenant running around making a mess. "How can we tell how old these tracks are?" Bee asked Harold. "I want to know how far away it''s gotten." But he shook his head. "I don''t think so. Not from such old tracks." She nodded. I supposed it was too much to hope that we''d find out how fast it was going. "We have several days to catch up. Will we be able to catch up with this? Right?" "If it stops somewhere. Maybe." Harold shrugged. "I mean, we can''t really do much else, can we?" "No, I suppose we can''t," Bee said. I wasn''t paying attention to their conversation anymore because I had detected something on the horizon. Chapter 287: Keep Calm and Clean On Chapter 287: Keep Calm and Clean On I watched as the massive red-scaled form of Daedalus appeared above the trees. With my sensors, I could see him before the humans did; even so, I was slightly surprised when they had such a violent reaction to my friend''s arrival. Of course, Beatrice had already seen Daedalus before and was not so surprised. However, she certainly seemed a little bit more concerned at first than I thought she should be. I wondered why that was. But Harold Well, Harold had never met the dragon and, understandably, panicked a little. There was a lot of iprehensible gibberish spewing from his mouth as he nearly fell backward and turned to run away. Only Beatrice''s grip on the sleeve of his jacket stopped him from dashing back towards the city. He struggled for a minute, but she was eventually able to calm him down enough that he stopped trying to flee. However, the blood never really did return to his face. Beatrice looked at me with a rather strange expression on her face. "Master? Would you mind talking to Daedalus and asking him tond before he sends the entire city into a panic?" I looked back at the city and did some quick trigonometry. "It might be a little bit toote for that," I projected, "but I will talk to him." As bells in the city nged a merry tune, I zipped up into the sky to meet my friend. As I did, I saw Beatrice have a quick talk with Harold before she sprinted back to the city. Rather than follow her back, Harold kept following the trail out into the wilderness. --- Bee was d that her master could take care of the hot-tempered dragon. She had not really had any chance to talk with Daedalus personally. In fact, no one aside from her master and Archibald had really had many interactions with the ancient being. Still, everyone had seen what it had done to the army attacking the castle. Of course, it had been helping them, but that didn''t mean there wasn''t an instinctive fear of a powerful reptile breathing fire andying waste to an army with a half-hour''s effort. Dragons were mostly considered mythical. People only really believed in their existence if they also believed in things like demon Lieutenants as well. Now, the whole city had just gotten a front-row seat to a demonic attack, but that didn''t mean the dragon would be any less of a shock. Especially when the beings were considered more devastating and not exactly friendly to humanity. The capitol, newly purged of demons, now had toe face to face with dragons as well. There was a dragon right outside their city, and that panic was going to be much harder to deal with than she would have liked. "Harold, I need you to continue tracking the Lieutenant. Hopefully, Void will stay in the area unless I miss my guess. That dragon is almost certainly Daedalus, Lord Void''s personal friend. I have talked to hispanion, Archibald, who is human and a close partner with the dragon. His views are a little bit odd, but he assures me that Daedalus is no real harm to anyone, at least not intentionally. So as long as Void is around, I don''t think there will be any real danger from the dragon." Harold didn''t seem convinced. Bee looked at him and decided another approach was necessary. "Besides, it''s best if you two stay out of the city for now in case there is trouble," she said. Though she didn''t spell it out exactly, the meaning of her words got through to Harold. If the dragon decided to attack, it would likely attack the city. So, it was in Harold''s best interest to not be nearby. It was a bit cowardly, in her opinion. Still, the Warden had exined that the man was an excellent spy. And excellent spies often had a very high degree of neuroticism, paranoia, and self-preservation. She couldn''t figure out a single one of those categories that Harold didn''t excel in. That didn''t mean he wasn''t great at leading people or wasn''t smart, but years of being a secret agent in vulnerable positions and vastly outnumbered had maybe trained his flight-or-fight response a bit too hard on the "flight" side. The Warden hoped that the man could ovee his more self-preserving ways with practice. But at his age, the odds of that happening were getting lower and lower. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Still, Bee figured it was best if she kept her useful assets on task, doing what they were good at. And for Harold, that apparently was gathering information and dealing with demons. Just moments after she finished exining, she was already back at the gate leading into the city, having sprinted full speed to the point where she was faster than a bird on the wing. Her new levels had significantly increased her speed and endurance rather than her mental abilities, as she had been clearlycking in those against her fight against the Lieutenant. When she got inside, she rushed to find the guard captain and quickly exined the situation. He nodded before easing his men down from the battle positions they had taken. He talked to them, and they began to spread the word to the other forces. She stopped any officer, captain, or higher as she could on her way to the castle. She quickly exined the situation, and themanders imposed orders on the city guard and the military. The army that they had brought from the castle was aware of Daedalus and was quicker to understand, and they helped to settle most of the popce. Still, the city went into a state of readiness just in case. But Bee''s quick actions and the presence of so many soldiers and city guards out and about did stop any sort of nastiness like looting from taking ce. By the time she got to the pce and found Arthur, things were mostly back under control. Arthur was quickly filled in, and he headed off to make sure that everything was truly under control. Bee watched the stern man stride out of the pce, bellowing orders at the top of his lungs. What she would do without him, she didn''t know. Arthur waspletely essential for adequately running any sort ofrge organization. She figured they would never have left the castle without him and would have had to deal with Lieutenants as they came to them. The world would be in a much darker ce if Arthur hadn''t decided toe to her for aid. Truly, her master worked in very mysterious ways. Shaking her head, she went to find the Warden and Susan. She found them both in the Warden''s study, Susan having carried a stack of documents into pore over. They had put their heads together, going through them with expressions of deep focus. Bee wasn''t surprised that they hadn''t noticed the rm bells. When she walked in, Susan looked up. "High Priestess, it''s great you''re here. We''ve sent out all sorts of messages to get more information, which we should have soon, but we discovered something critical you need to know." Bee paused. She also had information for Susan and the Warden, but perhaps it could wait. She was curious about what made them so excited that they needed to tell her right now. Even though Bee wasing with a message of her own, she motioned for Susan to continue. "We highly suspect that the Barleonans intentionally released at least one of the illusion demons. They were hoping to use an ancient power they didn''t understand, not fully knowing what it was, to defend against the invasion our former king had been nning." The Warden nodded. "Indeed. My insiders warned him vehemently and attempted to stop him, but they were unsessful. Worse, they were imprisoned before they could ry the information back." Bee nodded, processing the information and storing it forter use. "That''s not good, but I''m d we know. Something''se up, though." She gestured outside. "Daedalus returned. It kind of put the city in a bit of an uproar, in case you hadn''t noticed. Void is talking with him and hopefully Archibald. I believe they might bear news of the other Lieutenant. Hopefully, we will have a target soon, as well as arge fighting force to assist us when we decide to strike." Susan''s face paled. "Is Arthur--?" she said, and Bee nodded, cutting her off. "Arthur is already on it. The panic seems to be subdued, but the city will be in a state of readiness to reassure the citizens until we know what is going on, likely until Daedalus leaves. There''s a genuine chance that Void and I will go with them." So she turned to the Warden. "I need you to coordinate with Arthur. The two of you will be in charge of running day-to-day operations while I''m gone." The Warden nodded. "I appreciate the trust you''ve ced in me." "Don''t misunderstand. I''m not giving you free rein," Bee pointed out. "Make sure Arthur is aware of everything you''re doing. Or Susan, depending on the nature of the activity. Anything they''re unaware of will not receive the church''s full support, nor its official sanction." The Warden bowed his head again. "A prudent course of action, though you will have nothing to worry about. I shall prove myself." Bee nodded. Hopefully, even if he had hostile intentions, that would keep him from causing too much trouble. Now she turned back to Susan. "Harold is continuing to follow the tracks of the Lieutenant. Currently, he''s alone, and that''s not good. Take a contingent of some elite soldiers and go guard him." She didn''t need to say that Harold and the Warden hadn''t had a chance to coordinate. Since they revealed the information about their shadowy organization to her, they might have nned something out ahead of time. Still, she was pretty confident in Susan''s ability to pull the information out of Harold. Not that she specifically distrusted them, but she wasn''t about to wield such power based on just one man''s word. Susan bowed, and together they left the pce. Bee jumped on her carpet to sail over the city towards where she saw Daedalusnd, while Susan ran to the nearest barracks. Chapter 288: Dragon Everyone Else Along Chapter 288: Dragon Everyone Else Along As I got closer to Daedalus''s form on the ground, my sensors made out Archibald sliding off of his back and stretching his legs. The human champion walked around, bending over a few times to limber himself up. "Hello, my friend!" Daedalus called up to me as I hovered toward the ground. I returned the greeting excitedly with a beep and a projected message. "It''s good to see you. How have you been?" "Oh, you know. Busy. Archibald and I have been working nonstop, though most of it''s been flying over the countryside." Daedalus yawned. "We managed to spook a few farmers pretty well. Man, it felt like old times..." We went back and forth briefly, sharing little tales of what we''d been up to with each other. Then I asked what they''de all the way out here for. Daedalus let out an annoyed growl. "We found the trail from the Lieutenant that you fought with Thucydides. His powers took him quite a ways away from that fight, it seems." I listened intently, curious about what they had found. Daedalus continued on. "We think we''ve found out where it is hiding. There''s a mountain in that direction," he nodded his head to indicate, "where the trail turns cold, and I believe it went somewhere inside." Archibald nodded. "I got to squeeze in between a few rocks, some ces that Daedalus couldn''t go. But only a little way in. It seemed like it stopped teleporting and started walking into the mountain. It''s still not moving very fast, but fast enough that we couldn''t catch it in time." I hadn''t expected them to be actually able to catch up. The demon had had several days head start, and this time, it knew it was being chased, so it probably wasn''t taking its time. "So you want some help killing a demon?" I asked. "We were also hunting the illusion, Lieutenant," Daedalus and Archibald both looked surprised at that." Really? Did you find another one? What happened?" I projected the story of how we took the capital and found the king being impersonated by a Lieutenant. I assured them that I managed to kill that second Lieutenant who showed up, but the illusionist got away. After I finished, I projected another message into the air. "We were just getting ready to track them out of the city with the help of some demon experts. And then you showed up." "Huh?" Daedalus furrowed his brow. "What direction are they headed?" I interpted the path and pointed in the general direction. The dragon hummed thoughtfully. "That''s around where we were headed, too. I wonder if they''re meeting up there." "That''s very interesting," I said. "Maybe we could get two at the same time." Daedalus and Archibald looked at each other. After a moment, Archibald shook his head from side to side. "Yeah, I guess we could. Weird to think that fighting more than one of them at a time would ever be good, but "The more the merrier," I said. I wasn''t sure I fully understood the phrase, but it was something my humans always said, and I always did enjoy morepany. "I could get rid of more at the same time." "That''s good," Archibald let out a barkingugh. "Then I suppose you''re right, Void. The more, the merrier." "Well," Daedalus stretched, "perhaps we can rest in the city for a little bit. I''d appreciate a small break from the flying. Not that it''s enough to tire me, but a change of pace would certainly be nice." Archibald nodded. "Yeah, it''d be nice to catch up with Bee. I wonder how she''s taking this all. I''m sure she has a bit of a different perspective on events. No offense, Void." "Why would I take offense to Beatrice having a different perspective? I''m sure we see things differently. Especially considering that I am much closer to the ground than she is. Though it seemed unlikely that she''d see something that I missed with my sensors. They''re quite powerful, after all." Archibald seemed very confused. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. When we were about to take off toward the city, I noticed that Beatrice was heading back our way. She zipped along on her magic carpet, soaring over the treetops towards our location. She had a very focused look on her face as she worked on maximizing her speed. When she saw that we weren''t actually going anywhere, though, she seemed to rx slightly and came to touch down. "Oh, good. You''re here. I was worried for a second. You were right to not head into the city." Daedalus and I exchanged sheepish looks. "Uh, should we not have?" I asked. Beatrice shook her head emphatically. "No, no, the city''s still a bit tense after the battle and everything. Just seeing something unknown on the horizon sent them into an uproar." Daedalus looked at Archibald, who nodded. "Ah, yeah. Sorry. I forgot that people aren''t used to seeing dragons around in this era, and especially not as good guys. I suppose that could be a little freaky, having a giant fire-breathing lizard that could destroy your city in moments flying overhead." Daedalus protested. "I would never! I find human architecture quite interesting. I know some of my kind don''t share the appreciation, but still." Beatrice looked slightly concerned still but thanked the dragon. "I appreciate your willingness to give us some time. Maybe we can have youe to the cityter? When it''s nned out ahead of time, you can walk thest little bit. And, I don''t know, maybe the kids coulde out and see you so they''re not so afraid." Daedalus nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I do enjoy the adoring cheers of human children. It''s always best after a victorious battle as well." Beatrice nodded. "Yeah, well, you came just in time. We were about to set off on a hunt for one of the Lieutenants. Now that we have the city mostly under control. And I assume you bring news as well?" "Yes." Archibald and Bee went off and discussed for quite some time what they had found. Daedalus and I didn''t feel the need to participate, though. What really was there to discuss? Well, besides saying, "Oh, hey, look, a demon. Let''s get rid of it." This wasn''t like it was some grand n for cleaning a city or anything. I told Daedalus about my n to incentivize cleanliness and reward those children who kept their rooms clean. He thought it was a great idea but unfortunately agreed with me that he just didn''t have enough spare treasure lying in his many hoards to use as prizes. However, he did like the idea of my apples, and I pulled one out to show him. He daintily speared it on one tooth and then licked up the juices with his forked tongue. His eyes widened in surprise, then he roasted it with a surprisingly gentle burst of me and ate the rest. "Hmm. That''s quite delicious. Best apple I''ve had in millennia," he said. "It''s pretty hard to pick them when your teeth are thisrge. And without Archibald, I haven''t been able to convince any of the local humans to pick any off the tree with me. I gave up a few thousand years ago. I couldn''t get them to stop running away whenever they saw me." I nodded in understanding. "Yeah, humans do have a tendency to run away when they''re surprised, don''t they?" "Oh, you have no idea," Daedalus said. "Man, after the dragons mostly went into seclusion and the demon lords were gone, humans quickly forgot about us. And it wasn''t even a thousand years before they were surprised to see a dragon alive." "I''m not surprised. I mean, the first thing they did when they saw me was run away and abandon the castle. Only Beatrice was kind enough not to flee," I said, putting a slightly better spin on the series of events that led me toe to this ce. "Yeah. You mentioned something about that before." Daedalus rumbled,ying his head on the ground. "Well, I''m d at least some of the humans are understanding. At least it means we have ourpanions." "Yeah," I said. "Beatrice was offered apanion ss, actually." "Oh, she didn''t take it?" Daedalus''s ears perked up. "No. She went with the High Priestess instead." Daedalus seemed to take an interest in that. "Archibald didn''t have that option. He didn''t tell me about it, at least. I suppose that''s what you get for being a god." I waved my w dismissively. "Yeah, it''s nice and all, but the skills I''ve gotten at the higher levels aren''t really that much better. I''m still waiting for some sort of instant clean spell." Daedalusughed at me. "They are definitely better. They''re way more powerful," he said. "They just are a little bit niche. Sometimes, you''ll find that they''re easier to train up than some of the earlier skills, probably because they''re more tailored to you." I pondered that. It was true that I did receive a very powerful level 80 skill. I exined to my draconic friend how Convergence of the Faithful worked. He let out a smoky breath. "That is impressive. Almost makes me envious. I''m sure dragons would get that eventually, but we just need to get a little higher level. And you know, have more followers." "I am sure they would," I agreed. Dragons were very impressive, though they could work on keeping their hoards a little more organized. Then again, I had only seen one so far. Soon, Archibald and Beatrice finished their discussion, and Daedalus and I broke off our small talk to hear their action n. It was rather simple and something that I could have told them we would do 20 minutes ago, but at least they were on the same page. We were all going to fly towards the mountain, following the rough direction of the tracks. Apparently, Harold and Susan and a set of bodyguards were now following the trail of our Lieutenant. If the paths didn''t actually end up going to the same location, we would have some sort of backup to find the other one, at least. But everyone agreed that time was of the essence. So Beatrice got on her carpet, and Archibald got up on Daedalus''s back. Together, we lifted off, flying at speeds that made the birds seem slow. Chapter 289: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Chapter 289: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? We all flew along high over the trees at an impressive pace. Beatrice was the limiting factor of our traveling speed, as carpets could only move so fast. As much as I enjoyed a good carpet, I considered that they might not have been the best method transportation. I could fly circles around it. Though I could also do the same around Daedalus if I tried. So maybe it wasnt so bad after all. We continued pretty much straight in the direction that the illusion Lieutenant had been going as Archibald and Daedalus took us to the location they had discovered. It was just as they described: a giant mountain. As we got closer, I could make out the scorch mark trail asionally dotting thendscape as the demon had made its way here. Wended in a small clearing on the mountainside just below the tree line. As we touched down, Beatrice got off her carpet and shivered. "It''s very cold." Archibald waived his fur-covered hands. "That''s why you always bring gloves when you''re flying." "You know, that would have been a good idea..." He tossed her an extra pair from his pocket. Beatrice nodded gratefully as she caught them. "Thanks. I followed Archibald to the cracks where they hadst tracked the Lieutenant. Daedalus had to wait outside as the three of us squeezed into the tight space. Archibald was only able to make it a few dozen feet into the very narrow cave before it got too small for even him. But he pointed out signs that the Lieutenant had actuallye through this way. After analyzing them myself, I agreed they had 100% entered into this cave and gone further in than either of the humans could. I, though, was able to turn sideways and keep going. Every once in a while, I had to shave off a little bit of rock with myser to clear the path, but it wasn''t too hard to find a small, narrow opening to get several hundred feet deeper into this seemingly endless crack. Eventually, I made it through enough twists and turns that my audio started to pick up something. There was a breeze. A gentle whistle of air from a crosswind farther down in the tunnel. Not just that, though. I also heard chattering. A series of weird voices speaking in anguage I didn''t understand. I opened my soul sight to see if I could find anything, and it clearly showed what we were looking for. At least one Lieutenant was there. In fact, I could feel the power radiating off of a collection of souls. Ones that indicated we were dealing with more than just the me Lieutenant. Sorting through all the data, I found the jagged red souls of six Lieutenants in total. I thought to myself. The illusion one and the me one had to be here, I assumed, but there were four other lieutenants. Ones whose shapes I couldn''t make out directly as I could only hear them and see their souls. But maybe I could put my newly optimized echolocation subroutines to use here. I quickly analyzed the audio feedsing from the room,bing through the data streams to get an estimation of the rooms size and shape. A predictive model appeared in my processors. It was a massive hollow sphere at least a couple hundred feet in diameter, with no openings on this side. On the other side, though, there was an archway that seemed to be engraved with runes in the wall, but again, there was no opening. Was this a trap? Had they gathered here to lure us to them so they could fight us when we were outnumbered? Maybe, but I was fairly certain that the four of us would be a match for them. Maybe. Regardless, I headed back to tell the others what Id found. When I got back, both Beatrice and Archibald had left the cramped cave and were chatting with Daedalus. I came out, and they all looked up expectantly. "There are Lieutenants in there." "Lieutenants?" Archibald asked with an arched eyebrow. "I think six," I replied. "The illusion and fire ones were both there." A curtain of silence fell over mypanions at my report. For a moment, no one spoke. "Can we take that many?" Archibald asked, doubt clearly written on his face. Beatrice also looked concerned, but Daedalus seemed satisfied. "Yeah, we can do it," he said. "I can take two and distract them, at least. And if you and Beatrice work together, I''m sure you can take another two." That would mean that I would have to fight two, something that I wasn''t exactly pleased about, but I was fairly confident in doing. Especially at this point. When no one objected, I projected another message. "Well, let''s make a n." *** 20 minutester, we circled around to the other side of the mountain. It was a bit of a long flight, but we stayed low, hoping we hadn''t been detected yet. My advanced sensors scanned the mountainside until, eventually, I found a very well-hidden and matching arch of runes carved into a recess on the other side of the mountain. Excluding damage from wear and general imperfections in the rock, it was a 98% match to the one I had detected within the mountain. I assumed that it was the entrance of their meeting chamber. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Beatrice started to write them down and pointed them excitedly, picking out runes and talking about them with Archibald. I let them do it for a minute. It seemed like they were having fun. And besides, I had another issue to solve. I came to hang out with Daedalus and asked how he was doing. He let out a huffing sigh. "I''m d you found an entrance, but I don''t think there''s any way I can fit through there." "We can''t leave you behind," I insisted. "You''re too much of an asset for our fighting n." "I would never be left behind," Daedalus protested. "I might just have to burn a hole through the top of the mountain toe in." "Hmm," I thought, "how fast does your me eat through rock?" "Faster than any other me," Daedalus said defensively. But I ran some quick models from my experience with his mes. From what Id seen, it would take a long time. Too long. Not to mention be a pretty obvious indication of our presence. Why don''t you just try to dig the tunnel a little wider as we go through?" "Me, a dragon, dig? No way," Daedalus tly refused. Thats beneath me. I tried to convince him more that moving dirt around was, in fact, a high calling and putting it in the proper space was a very important task that was beneath no one. But Daedalus didn''t want to get his ws dulled by the dirt. Sadly, I had to let the matter drop for the moment. My processors ran through other possibilities. I probably couldn''t move that much material quickly either, even though my abilities did allow for quick cleaning. That sheer amount of dirt to be moved meant it wasnt really cleaning anymore. It''d be a bit of a stretch to call it that, and Daedalus''s massive size and strength definitely gave him an advantage for that taskpared to me. "Well, once we get inside, there''s space for you," I said. "But we have to get you through about a quarter mile of rock first." "Hmm," Daedalus grumbled with a frown. Maybe we can bring the Lieutenants out here? Though it seems very difficult to fight them in an open area where they might get away" I had an idea, but I wasn''t sure how to propose it. It was a risky one to be sure. One that Id rather save as ast resort. "What if I can bring you inside? Really? Do you have one of those skills that lets you call a friend to your side?" I perked up. A skill like that existed? If so, I would definitely prefer that option. I focused on the description and scanned to see if any skill made itself readily avable. But sadly, no. I did have a see through rock skill, though. I tried to look into the mountain, but it only prated about ten feet. Still, that might be useful for the future. I added it to my general suite of sensor-rted abilities that I could flip through. With that done, I continued exining my idea to Daedalus. "No, I have a pocket dimension." I used a word that I''d read in textbooks to exin it. Hopefully it would make more sense that way than saying my dustbin was really big. "Unfortunately, there''s some effects that it might have on living beings. But as long as you''re not in there for too long, it should be fine. I mean, dragons are extremely magical, right? "Hmm," Daedalus said, "we are very magical" Then maybe itll be ok. When I put an apple in there, it imbues it with magical properties." As Daedalus considered that, Beatrice came jogging over to us. "Hey, we think we figured it out. The runes allow us to open a tunnel, and it should be a quick, straight path into the mountain center. Unfortunately, it''ll open the whole tunnel at the same time, so they''ll have some warning before we get there." I gave a beep of disappointment. That wasn''t great, but still. At least we had a way in. "Do we have any idea what the other Lieutenants are? So we can prepare a bit more." She shook her head. "No. No idea bout the other four." Beatrice replied. "Though I would like to fight against the illusion one, if possible. I have a good ability that lets me see through deception." "Thats fine with me. I would like to fight the fire one," Daedalus offered, "and whichever other onees to help it. We will see who can burn hotter between me and that upstart." That was fine with me. I wasn''t going to deny him his chance to get revenge on the demon that attacked his brother, so I agreed, not really caring. "So, Archibald asked, How are we going to get Daedalus in? I don''t think he''s going to fit through the tunnel." "Well, Spot here has a way to maybe transport me briefly. It should be safe enough," Daedalus exined for me. Beatrice looked concerned. "You don''t mean..." I gave her a beep of confirmation and she frowned. "Is it truly safe, master? I wouldn''t dare question you, but..." She hesitated. "Well, thingse out of there changed more often than not." I agreed, but we didn''t have much choice. Besides, things usually came out stronger, didn''t they? So maybe it would be a good thing! Imunicated that to her. She nodded, but still seemed to hold reservations. "Right. They dide out stronger, but..." "It will be short," I reassured her and Daedalus both. "We don''t have other options." "Alright." Beatrice finally agreed. "Then let me know when you''re ready." We gathered at the entryway, and Beatrice muttered something and tossed some magical powders at the door before cing her hand on one of the runes. It glowed with a purple light, followed by the rest of the runes in the arch, and then the rock within the tunnel vanished. Quickly, as soon as the tunnel appeared, I allowed my void to expand outward and pulled Daedalus inside. The massive red dragon seemed to stretch impossibly as he was sucked into my dustbin through thergest void bubble I had ever created. Inside, I could feel him settle into ce in his own space, unable to interact with the rest of the stuff in my dustbin. I kept him there, quarantined as best I could manage for his own safety. And with that, we were off like a shot through the tunnel, ready to fight the Lieutenants. Chapter 290: Water We Doing Chapter 290: Water We Doing With Daedalus situated in my dustbin, I could see him floating in the void, unaffected by everything around him. It didn''t look too unpleasant or anything, but I tried to think of any other ways to make it asfortable as I could. Drawing on some of the energy floating within, I projected a gentle light so that he could observe some of the other things going on around him. Maybe that would make it feel less ustrophobic. "You should be fine. We''ll make this quick." I told him by projecting sound waves to him in the void. Archibald and Beatrice were already dashing through the tunnel, and I quickly followed after them. They got a slight head start, but I wanted to reach the inner chamber first. I couldn''t let them go on without me. The tunnel was a straight shot but also a bit of a long distance, and I could already sense movement the second it opened. That didn''t bode well. Worried that our targets would be trying to escape and cause messes elsewhere, I pushed my speed even faster and popped out into the center of the mountain, a massive, hollowed-out dome. It gave us plenty of areas to work with, more than enough to fit Daedalus in. The dome was sorge that he could even fly around if necessary. Honestly, we couldn''t have asked for a better arena to fight in. I quickly scanned the room, trying to get apletey of mynd. To myplete shock, my sensors only picked up three demon lieutenants instead of the six I was expecting. There was an earth golem-like being that reminded me a bit of the earth elementals that I had fought back in the castle so long ago. However, this one was slightly different. It was made of stone rather than dirt, and its feet seemed to be one with the ground. Even as I watched, it seemed to glide towards me, never losing contact with the ground beneath it. The second figure was a man of mes that looked very familiar, and I knew Daedalus and Archibald would be happy that they had finally found their quarry. But between those two stood a 12-foot-tall being in ck armor. It held a massive spiked shield that was at least as tall as itself and another eight feet wide to boot. And in its off-hand, it held a sword nearly ten feet long, made of a ck Stygian metal that absorbed all the light around it. I could feel the photons bending inward to disappear into the de. The ck Knight moved its head in an eerie manner to look at me. I heard the dry, rasping voice of a throat that hadn''t spoken in 10,000 years. "Oh, so the little godling hase. What are you going to do now? There is no more running for you. You''re stuck here. Outnumbered and outssed." The knight''s chuckle sounded like sandpaper. "You have fallen into our trap. It''s not just us three you have to face. There are more of us. Ones you can''t see. Ones you can''t hope to defend against." At his words, a face appeared from the shadows and vanished before showing up on the other side of the cavern. It was really nice of that Lieutenant to show me how its movement worked. Now that I had an example, I had no trouble tracking its energy as it moved through the shadows, and I didn''t have any blind spots for it to attack from. So I wasn''t worried about it. Still, that didn''t ount for all six I knew to be there. I looked around at the three, and just as the ck night finished his words, Beatrice and Archibald showed up. A few seconds behind me, they came in, taking nking positions and readying their weapons: Beatrice with her powerful broom and Archibald with his glowing, ethereal sword. I turned around and sprayed sent over the entrance. "Trying to secure an escape route?" The knight chuckled again. "It''s useless. That tunnel won''t open so easily to the likes of you again." I looked at him briefly before scanning the room again. For a moment, I projected four simple words over my head. "I don''t have to." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the vition. With that, I popped out Daedalus from my dustbin. His massive form stretched tall above us, taking up arge amount of space and towering over the demon lieutenants. He looked around with a little bit of disorientation on his face. But he put that all aside as he stretched his neck toward the ceiling several hundred yards above us and roared his arrival. The whole mountain shook, and small stones rained down from above. "Atst," Daedalus said, and puffs of fire shot out of his nostrils as he turned his head down. The fire, though, was different than the usual pure red that he spewed. It was still red, but it had a shimmering quality, a bit of rainbow at the edges. It seemed almost prismatic, refracting the light in a strangely ethereal way. I looked at Daedalus and realized that even this short trip in my dustbin had changed him more than we had expected. The edges of each individual scale, maybe the outer 1%, had turned from fiery red to a clear crystal that refracted the light and shimmered in a multitude of colors. His ws looked to be pointed, sharper, and harder than before, which in itself was quite impressive. His horns were entirely translucent now,pared to the ivory white or dark yellow they used to be. All in all, the changes were pretty dramatic. Hopefully, he wasn''t hurt, The energy they gave off spiked my sensors, and I could feel the shadow demon shrivel away from where the lightnded. His teeth were also edged in crystalline light, glittering brilliantly just like the treasure he loved so much. In my soul sight, they glowed, and I would bet that he could now bite things that didn''t even exist on this ne of reality anymore. I could feel the divinity of his breath, the faint echo of it having seeped into his very soul. "Come, wielder of the lesser me!" The dragon roared in challenge at the ming demon below. But he didn''t wait for the Lieutenant to make a move. Daedalus immediately charged forward, but I powered my processor to the highest degree. Something was wrong. There should have been six lieutenants here, not four. Switching to my soul sensors, I saw why. The illusion Lieutenant was somewhere around here. I started to feel that now, with my full suite of detection methods. But Beatrice knew this and was already tracking it. Good thing she could see through its illusions. I wasn''t particrly keen to fight it, even if I could use echolocation to handle it. The earth and ck knight Lieutenants were in front of me, and the shadow Lieutenant was still lurking around and trying to avoid Daedalus. That made for a total of five. But what about the sixth? After a moment of searching, I found it. Our sixth enemy. And it made me mad. His soul hovered near the ground, motionless. As I returned to my regr sensors, I saw what it truly was. A puddle of water. A being made entirely out of water. Not even clean water, either. This was turgid water, more like sewage or mud than anything. Absolutely disgusting. I''d only dispatched water elementals that were in tanks, the ones that the mages had been studying, but this? This was a powerful new being made of water, and I could not suffer it to live. I still considered liquid a necessary evil at best but the originator of all the worst stains and messes at worst. It was good for cleaning some things, but it was also one of my oldest nemeses, and I would never quite get over my irrational disdain for it. It could make good cleaning solutions. Humans also needed it to live, but that was as much as I could handle. It should not be alive. Darting forward faster than the breath of Daedalus, I lunged forward with my mop, spearing it into the puddle and pulling with all my magical might. I sucked up the liquid with every skill I could muster. Any energy drain skill, any cleaning skill, any other random skill that made itself known to me at that moment, I used them all. The effects swirled at the tip of my mop as I used the air to corral it closer to me. The puddle didn''t even have a chance to writhe and twitch in surprise. In a matter of milliseconds, I had the thing fully absorbed into my mop. I retracted it into my void and wrung it out. It was in there briefly before I started to transmute its power, pulling its energy in to fuel my next move. The death knight lieutenant screamed as I destroyed itspanion. "No! No. It''s not over, godling. Iraq-Najaf will not be defeated so easily. He dives into his enemies and destroys them from within, and you have just given him the perfect opportunity. Now despair and prepare to worship our lord or die!" The ck knight roared as he lifted his shield to intercept the charging dragon. I could feel death energy waft off of him in waves like a particrly nasty stench that filled the air. Little did he know that the Lieutenant he cried for was already long gone. Looking around. I liked our odds. It wasn''t six versus three like they had thought. No, it was five versus four. And if Daedalus had its way, it would soon be four versus four. Not bad at all. Chapter 291: Fighting Fire With Fire Chapter 291: Fighting Fire With Fire As the runes shed and the tunnel opened, Bee ran through it as fast as she could, chasing after Archibald. His extra levels on her were really showing in the physical stats department. She felt a slight rippling in the air as Void whipped past her. Gritting her teeth, she poured more energy into her legs, trying to push off the ground harder and run faster. But she could only go so fast. She burst into the massive dome at the end of the tunnel not too long after the others did. She looked around and immediately locked her eyes on where the demon that had been impersonating the kingy crouched off to the side. "That one is mine," she muttered, preparing her broom for action as the leader of the demons taunted her master. At first, Void didn''t do much besides sealing the escape route and releasing Daedalus. Her hands shifted nervously on her weapon. If her master hadn''t been here, she would have been far more nervous about the whole situation. But with its presence, she felt confident in victory. The second that Daedalus was free, he roared forward, billowing his slightly divine-tinged fire at the demonic being of me. Bee noted Daedalus''s odd change of appearance with no small amount of wonder. Still, she didn''t have time to really consider it as she lunged toward her own target. It had gotten awayst time, but she was stronger now, and she didn''t have anyone she needed to protect. Even better, it wasn''t focused on her; instead, it was propping up illusions, trying to trick her master into thinking that the other demon Lieutenants weren''t where they were. But she was going to stop that. The tip of her spearnced through the illusion protecting it and nearly speared through its nose before it diverted its attention from its tricks to trying to survive against her. The broom came up and battered its weapons away while the handle snaked toward its limbs and face. She moved in ordance with all of her skills, her pathfinding and broom proficiency working together to perfectly cut off the demon from the rest of the fight. She hurled alchemical ingredients and mixtures she had prepared just for this fight. Powders shed in the air, blinding the demon, and sprayed across its skin, burning it. It howled, but no real damage was done. Anything she managed to inflict on it regenerated nearly instantly, but that didn''t mean she wasn''t getting in its way and slowing it down. With a st of Scouring Strike to the face, she made it falter, causing it to regenerate its eyes just long enough for her to sh off one of its limbs. It started growing back, but she was already going after one of its legs. Keeping up her whorl of attacks, she forced it onto the back foot. --- Iunched towards the opponent who had been taunting me, my divine sword extended in front. It talked too much. But when we met, my divine sword mmed into the shield and skidded off to the side; it had been deflected. This was the first thing that I had ever failed to cut! That was not good. I spun, mming the sword into the shield again with as much force as I could muster, pressing with my rotational angr momentum and using Air Maniption to force myself even faster to aid my Thrusters. Still, the blow just bounced off. The ck Knight, full of death energy, braced its shield against the ground and didn''t even slide backward. It reached toward its back and drew a serrated de, swinging toward me in a counterattack. I easily dipped below it, firing my Sanitation Lamp at its feet. It shuffled back out of danger and intercepted the beam with its shield again, somehow proving impervious to that attack as well. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. The Earth Lieutenant came from the side, attempting to tackle me out of the air, but I managed to dodge just fine. Its fist left a crater on the floor. This one, fortunately, didn''t seem to be able to block my Divine Sword as I sliced off its forearm. But the rock once parted from its body, just crumbled into the floor as a new limb began to reform in its ce. I tried to pull the severed pieces into my dustbin, but the little bit of rock I got before it merged into the floor turned out to be just rock and contained no energy or demonic essence at all. I struck again at the earth Lieutenant using a borrowed stone cutter''s skill and hit it in the center of its chest. The whole thing cracked and fell into four evenly pieced segments that lined up with the geometry on my de, but it didn''t stop those from moving back together. Even as I pulled one of them into my Void dustbin, I found that the rocks were just rocks. As it rose out of the floor behind me, attempting again to strike, I moved out of the way and was mmed into the spiked shield. The armored casing on my side cracked ever so slightly before my skills repaired it nearly instantly. These things hit hard. Worse, fighting two at once was a bit more difficult than I had anticipated. Time to try my tried and true main strategy. Getting close to the Death Knight, I attempted to pull its shield into my Limitless Dustbin. But just as the mountain beings had been, the piece of equipment was too conceptually heavy. I started to expel the Void to take it indirectly. As the impossibly ck mass expanded out of me, the Lieutenant desperately yanked its shield backward, staggering several steps back and pulling it from the partial bubble that was forming. That was yet another surprise. Nothing had managed to escape my void bubble like that. Sure, I had only managed to barely touch it, but that really didn''t bode well. This Death Knight was dangerous. Before I could reach forward with the void, the earthen demon came in from behind, forcing me to turn and defend. The extrabatant made holding the Void bubble and preventing being hit too much for my processing power to maintain. It didn''t seem like they could really do much to me, but I was having trouble really damaging them, too. I looked around, seeing if maybe one of my allies would be better suited for this fight. Maybe we could trade ces, or I could help them out to improve the situation a little. Beatrice was taking care of her illusion Lieutenant just fine. More than fine, actually. I noted that it was unable to mess with me as it had before, focused as it was dealing with her. Still, I looked over and found Archibald trading blows with the shadow creature. He kept teleporting around the ancient human, but Daedalus''spanion moved gracefully, never taking a heavy hit and returning punishment just fine. He didn''t need my help, but he also didn''t look like he had any attention to spare. Daedalus, though, was chasing the living me all over the ce. It tried to scorch him back, but Daedalus seemed to bepletely unaffected by the lesser me as he kept roaring at it, and the demon withered in Daedalus''s breath. I headed over in that direction, taking my opponents with me and making sure that they couldn''t turn and hit one of my human friends. When I got a little closer to the dragon, I turned and sprayed some water on the me Demon, seeing if I could help Daedalus out a little bit. The water boiled into steam before it even got there. It did distract it a little bit, though, and that let Daedalus bathe it in me, taking away its energy and slowly diminishing it. But that wasn''t enough. Not having any other ideas, I turned and sprayed the ck Knight''s shield with one of Beatrice''s very corrosive acids. It was one of her most potent brews, meant only for the most serious of stains. I thought this was a fitting use. I watched as the acid sshed on the metal, hissing as it ate away at the shield. Huh. That might work. That was the first time I actually managed to damage the shield. Spraying some more caustic liquid on the Stone Lieutenant, I finally managed to see some results as it flinched away. Interesting. Chapter 292: An Upset Stomach Chapter 292: An Upset Stomach The pair of Lieutenants leaped back in surprise at my assault. I hurried after them, spraying arcs of acid after them. Unfortunately, I only had a limited amount of the caustic liquid. It wasn''t a simple mix of chemicals that was doing the damage. It was a specific concoction that Beatrice had spent ages preparing, and the magic imbued in it required time to develop, time that I could not speed up or even replicate myself, not without more research. So, I had to be careful about where I used it. It seemed to be effective against the Death Knight''s shield, but I didn''t have enough to fully dissolve that. I could weaken it in certain ces and maybe even form a hole, though. Or maybe it would be better to shift my attention to the stone demon? My processors whirred with the options, modeling the different possible decisions and their statistical oues. Focusing on one of them was clearly the best option. Once I had one down, then the other would be much easier to finish. Plus, if I was only fighting one, that would free up my resources to go and assist my allies in their fights. I examined the earth demon. It was already in the process of reforming the rock that I had dissolved. I decided that I wasn''t going to be able to finish off the Earth Lieutenant at the rate I was going. However, I might be able to possibly punch a hole through the shield. That, at least, wasn''t regenerating the same way. I fought on for several moments without finding an opening to use my acid again. The shield was carefully tilted to deflect any spray, and any time I tried to get position, the pair worked together to force me away. Despite how it seemed, this was quite good for me, actually. While I couldn''tnd the decisive blow I wanted to, they were extremely on the defensive. It really cut down on their options, but it also meant that I could slowly carve away at their imprable defenses with my unstoppable weapon. I was able to carverger andrger slices off of the Earth demon, forcing it to spend more and more energy and time regenerating. I didn''t use too much of the acid in my attacks, though. I would deal with himter. During that time, I harassed the Death Knight,ing at it from behind and from all different angles. The rapid and unpredictable charges forced it to move wildly and constantly kept it on the back foot. That, however, was not enough to defeat it. A n slowly formed as I forced them apart, continually destroying the earth demon and forcing it into the ground to recover matter. With a quick zip of my Thrusters, I circled around the Death Knight. It spun around to follow me. However, I had another skill that I hadn''t used to its full effect. Right as I arced around my opponent, forcing him to turn, I sprayed a little bit of my protective sent. As he turned, his shield mmed into the sudden barrier, stopping it in ce. He was unable to jump out of the way. In that brief instant of stunned surprise, I let loose a geyser of acid and punched through his shield. The whole thing was toorge to dissolve entirely, but I forced a hole three feet in diameter into its top half, making his imprable defensepletely prable. I followed through, my Divine Sword extended and speared into his head as I punched through the top half of his skull. The ck Knight crumpled to the ground in an unmoving heap. I didn''t feel the rush of energy that should have signaled he had died. But I turned around to finish him off, and the earth demon seemed to erupt in front of me. Its stony body spread out into a shell, forming a half dome protecting the knight. This was a perfect opportunity for me. With both of my opponents in one spot and in such a defensive posture, there was nothing either of them could do. I extended my void bubble. The unfathomable ckness roared out of my chassis in a writhing mass of nothingness. It enveloped a full half of the earth demon and fully enveloped half of the earth demon and, with the full force of my suction, began to drag it into my dustbin. The demon was weaker than it had been at the beginning of the fight. The amount of regeneration it did had evidently taken had taken a toll on it, but I could feel it gaining strength even as I consumed it. Pulling harder, I pushed forward toward the earth demon. Uwfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. As I enveloped it, it made onest act. It struggled and struggled, but to no avail. I kept my relentless advance, keeping the void under my careful control so that it didn''t hurt anyone else. As it realized that it wasn''t getting away, the earth demon made onest act. Pushing the now mostly recovered ck Knight Lieutenant towards where the exit had been, the thing roared into the air with a voice like an avnche. "Retreat!" As I finished consuming the Earth Lieutenant, its allies tried to follow its order. But a quick scan of the area revealed that it might be too little, toote. The Illusion Lieutenant Beatrice had thoroughly chopped apart to the point that it could barely move. She stood guard over the pile, slicing and stabbing the bits as they attempted to regrow and knit themselves back together. And Daedalus was not letting his quarry go. The Shadow Lieutenant, though, slipped away from Archibald''s duel. That was the closest fight of any of them. The two had fought each other to a standstill, neither managing to gain an advantage over the other. But at the same time, neither could prevent the other from escaping. Archibald lunged after it but to no effect. The Shadow flitted after the ck Knight as they both ran toward the exit. I didn''t expect they''d get through my protective coating over it, so I decided to re-prioritize. I dashed over to Beatrice''s Lieutenant, and hoovered up the chunks of demon that she was attacking over and over again. It, too, disappeared into my dustbin in a moment. Three down, three to go. I didn''t have a moment to rest, though. Daedalus had managed to pin down the me Lieutenant in a barrage of rainbow-tinged dragonfire. I dashed over and poured water on the Lieutenant to make it safe for me to approach. It sh-boiled to steam but took so much energy from the living me that I could get close without worrying about my stic melting. I pulled it through the brief opening towards my dustbin and contained it. My sensors picked up a strange flickering behind me. Turning to look, I saw the Shadow unwrapping from the Death Knight on the other side of the barrier. Then, the two of them fled down the tunnel without looking back. I moved to pursue them but lurched to a sudden stop. The energies within my limitless dustbin writhed chaotically, almost making me expel its contents involuntarily. I felt the three fully alive Lieutenants fighting against me from the inside. I shuddered, attempting to maintain the structure of my dimensional pocket within myself. A sh of heat red in my processors, and I realized I needed to do something. I immediately started to transmute them all to energy, but they resisted it. The trio seemed to link up together, fighting against the transition to nothing but energy with surprising fervor. I kept at it, forcefully overriding them. I was winning, but slowly. And it was painful. But then, something happened. Some force that I hadn''t expected struck at the demons inside of me. It felt as though thousands of beings shed at them suddenly, weakening the Lieutenants further. I couldn''t spare the focus to look inside and investigate what was going on, but it was enough. With that distraction, I felt the Illusion Lieutenant flicker out and be energy. As the power entered me, I redirected it into tearing apart the two remaining Lieutenants. The mes snuffed out, and the earth crumbled to dust. Both swirled into me in a rush of power. Electric currents ran around my wheels, melting the rock underneath me. The forces of change shed through me like they had never done before. I had just transmuted three of the most powerful beings that we''d ever faced at once, four if you counted the Water Lieutenant. Of course, they were likely now significantly below me, but it was still more power than I''d ever tried to contain at once. Beatrice and Archibald stumbled back from the very force of my presence. In a desperate attempt to get away from them and avoid hurting my friends, I shot upwards, smashing through the top of the dome we had fought in. I bored through the rock as if it was nothing but dust bunnies pushing up into the sky in a geyser of rock. I watched a massive crater from beneath me as the mountain exploded with tremendous force, driving the mass outward at supersonic speeds. The crater reached all the way down to the center of the mountain as its walls crumbled down the slopes, my momentum carrying the top of the mountain out into the sky around me. Even then, I barely slowed. I zipped higher up into the atmosphere as the air grew thinner, and fewer and fewer things were able to interact with the energy going around me. I saw the curve of the world below me and felt the emptiness between the molecules in the air. Only there, at the highest point I''d ever managed to reach, did things slowly begin to calm down. The message appeared before me. One that I had expected. LEVEL 85 REACHED! CHOOSE A SKILL: GRAVITY WELL, HOLY WATER, BLESSING OF THE VOID. Chapter 293: Rainbow Radiance Chapter 293: Rainbow Radiance Harold hadn''t made it too much further in tracking the Lieutenant before the promised backup had arrived. It was Susan, the demon''s... No. Lord Void''s intelligence officer. It was still hard for him to think of Void as anything but a horrific demon that wanted to consume his very soul. However, many times, the Warden corrected him, but the fear was still instinctive. Having met the strange creature, or godling, as some would call it, Harold did have to admit that he had probably been wrong about its intent. But he was certain of its power. And that alone justified his reaction. They''d been dealing with a circle meant for summoning demons, and he was rather proud of his reaction speed when it had first breached the summoning circle. Anythinging out of a summoning circle with such ease, from a demonic ne, with that level of power Well, the odds of it being friendly were incredibly low. He was just happy to have gotten almost everyone out. Besides, it was a demon-summoning circle. What else was he supposed to expect? A bunny? Of course, not everyone saw it that way, and he had to admit that they might have had a point. But it still gave him the creeps. Susan, though, at least, was something he understood. Intelligence and counterintelligence were intuitive things that he had picked up over his years of work in the field. The guards fanned out and watched the forest, leaving Harold the ability to focus more on the tracks. Susan walked beside him. "The messages are all sent," she said. "We should expect the responses toe in tomorrow at the earliest." Harold nodded. Her skills were very interesting. She was rtively secretive about what her actual abilities were, but several of them seemed to be perfectly suited for maintaining arge informationwork, something that Harold had envied. He had known one member of the organization who had had some sort of long-distancemunication, but Susan also had other abilities. A lot more. In fact, at her age, being at her level was practically insane. He didn''t know what it exactly was, but it couldn''t be any lower than his own, and he was 20 years her senior. "Good. I think the ones we need to worry about most are the most remote agents..." They fell into a technical discussion about what kind of concerns and secrecy they needed and where problems could arise. Harold also took the opportunity to introduce her to more of the organization''s protocols. Not all of them, but enough that she would have ess when she needed it. It was amazing how simr their methods of information gathering were despite havinge frompletely different organizations. A couple of hourster, he stood up and sighed. "It''s still going in this direction, but judging based on the time, we haven''t caught up one bit at all. How long do you think Lord Void wants us to continue?" He asked Susan. She shrugged. "He didn''t say. But if we''re not catching up, I don''t think it''ll matter too much. Knowing Beatrice and Lord Void, they''ve likely already found them. But I''m not willing to take that risk. Still, you can''t keep doing this forever." Harold nodded. "Well. I don''t know if anyone else can follow the trail." She grimaced and looked up at the sun dipping below the treetops. "Let''s make a mark here. We''lle back tomorrow morning if there''s no more news." They made some signs discreetly on a nearby tree so that they could find their location again, as well as mark their path back to the city. The return trip passed much more quickly than the tracking itself had. Arge part of Harold really hoped that he wouldn''t have to spend all tomorrow walking through the forest again. There were so many more interesting things he could be doing. --- A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the vition. I looked at my skill choices in the fraction of a second it took for the others to realize the fight was over. Thousands of branching possibilities ran through my head as I considered my choices. For the first time in a while, it seemed that I had gotten all good skills. Gravity Well did seem a little underwhelming for reaching a level as high as 85. But even then, it probably was a very powerful skill. Any sort of maniption of gravity would be very interesting to work with, and if it grew like my other skills did, to the point where I could use it for something outside its purpose well, then it had real potential after all. Meanwhile, Holy Water made my brushes bristle on instinct. On one side, I had gotten a lot morefortable with water and its applications in proper cleaning. On the other, I had just destroyed that water demon for a very good reason. I had some useful abilities that used liquids with my spray bottle, of course. But the best applications of those didn''t even use water. They used Beatrice''s special concoctions and other specialized cleaning supplies. But this, well... it was still water. Holy Water, though? What might that do? It could be interesting. Traditionally, holy stuff was generally good against demons. But if I could use it as a weapon against demons at all, that seemed like a good idea. Especially considering we still had more of them to fight. Still, I was hesitant to choose it. Blessing of the Void was the most cryptic skill on the list. I have really no idea what it did. Was it something that I could give to other people and bless them? Would it interact with my Void Maniption? Would it change me in some mysterious way? I had no inkling. The only reason I was even considering it was because it had the word "void" in it, one that was associated with my most powerful ability. That, and it was my nickname. Both of those things suggested it would be pretty good. When all else had failed, it was Void Maniption that I turned to. The void bubbles I used were honestly the most destructive and powerful abilities that I could manage. But they were hard to control and slow, and I simply hadn''t practiced enough with them. I regretfully struck gravity well off the list. As fascinating as it sounded, I just wasn''t sure how useful it would be. Besides, I could already fly and make things levitate or move with Air Maniption. I didn''t expect that particr skill to expand my abilities too much. It left me with a very difficult choice between two other good options. It pushed against everything I thought I had stood for, but I was leaning towards Holy Water. If my hunch was right about it being useful against demons Well, that seemed to be the most immediately useful effect anything could have. Blessing of the Void could be useful, too, in that way, but I just didn''t have enough information. Not to mention that it kind of sounded like something out of my old humans'' sci-fi movies. I didn''t want to be some eldritch horror that turned people into insane monsters by ident. So, after making my decision, I selected Holy Water and felt the reservoir of my spray bottle change slightly. Now, I had three options: one to spray good old-fashioned sodium hypochlorite, one to expel any liquid from my dustbin, and one to spray a new substance, what I assumed to be Holy Water. Interestingly enough, the reservoir felt incrediblyrge. I hoped that it worked like the sodium hypochlorite and regenerated automatically. I''d have to experiment with thatter. But for now, it appeared that the others had finally reacted to the demons fleeing. Beatrice ran over to Archibald andid her hand on his shoulder, fixing him up. Several of his cuts began to scab over and mend as Daedalus wheeled around, checking for other threats. His gaze soon settled on me. His eyes flicked over to where the me Demon had been, then back at me before he huffed out a decent amount of smoke from his nostrils. he said. "You think they''re gone?" I reyed the image of the two lieutenants that had run away above my chassis. "I do," I agreed. "Good riddance." Daedalus huffed. Archibald sat down on the floor with some help from Beatrice, and I watched as his left arm straightened. Apparently, it had been a more difficult fight than it had appeared from a distance, but still, he seemed to be smiling. Daedalus and I made our way over to them. As we moved, the dragon mumbled to me. "Spot, my friend. I think we need to talk about what''s inside your dustbin." I gave him a questioning beep. Why would we need to do that? I had already transmuted the Lieutenants, and everything in there was quite well organized. I reassured him of that, but Daedalus still kept a wary look on his face. "When I was in there, before the fight, I saw some things. Also," he gestured with his head to himself and his prismatically-tipped scales that tinkled slightly as he walked. "It kind of changed me." Chapter 294: Heaven is a Place on Earth Chapter 294: Heaven is a ce on Earth I looked at Daedalus, trying to understand what he meant. The time in my dustbin had obviously changed his physical appearance to be much more fabulous; the look in his eyes gave me the impression he wasn''t just referring to that. "What do you mean? The physical changes, your fire, or something else?" "It changed me," Daedalus repeated with a shudder. "How long was I in there, anyway?" I reyed my memories, finding that he was in there for exactly 287 milliseconds. After disying the number, I had to exin the units and failed to describe what the apparently too precise units meant. I decided just to round down and say a quarter of a second. Daedalus shook his head, not out of denial, but just confusion. "That''s too short. It felt like hours to me. I was worried that something had gone wrong, and we weren''t able to actually get in." I felt mild surprise at that. How was it possible? I checked inside my dustbin. It had been a while since I''d manuallybed through its contents. I''d set up a subroutine to organize everything a long time ago. But it didn''t seem like there was any strangeness to the flow of time. Everything was in order. But maybe that was just a perception thing? "There were a lot of things in there," Daedalus continued. "Not just items, but living things too. Skeletons and demons and some kind of rodent. Crystalline ones. There were even a couple of human-looking things. They spoke innguages I didn''t understand, weirdly enough. And there were full-on buildings and structures made of this same kind of crystal." He gestured to his scales. I mentally went through his list. I did remember consuming most of those things. Butst I''d checked, none of them were made of crystal. Just to check, I manually cataloged everything I remembered consuming but not transmitting. It was all there, just as expected. The amounts were. But they''d taken different forms. The neatly organized piles of brick and stone had be buildings. The dirt and dust had been nearly ced into containers for gardening. Grass and hair and wool had been woven together in decorative hangings and tapestries hanging all about. There were even perfect half-spheres of water and other liquids. All of this floatedzily within my dustbin, slowly moving but maintaining a consistentyout. It all gave off a slight crystalline sheen. But it was nothingpared to the living beings and the undead. They were almost more astonishing. Instead of just being imbued with magic, it seemed to have been the case that they werepletely converted into some sort of crystalltice. They were still moving about, and some were even talking to each other. The giant crystal rat chattered at the center of the demons, skeletons, and the former humans. And they were all listening to him. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. But Daedalus was not done talking. "Somehow I was able to understand the rat, despite nothing but chattersing through," he said. "He talked of his dark god and the void of perfection that they were in, brought back to the Holy Land before their task was done. But one day, they''ll be recalled to scour the face of the and make it as orderly as the void. To be honest, it was kinda freaky." The rat talked for what seemed to be hours, never once repeating the same sermon. At times, he answered questions, but everything came down to imposing order on reality and defining the rules, rules that were simple and clear. More than that, though, the time not spent philosophizing amongst each other was spent organizing. The tons of semi-magical dirt I still had stored away was being sorted through. Sand was being arrayed in a spiraling gradient of color. I looked in and verified that whatever they were doing was indeed more detailed than I had done. I had a general system, but I hadn''t bothered to sort the sand out by the size of grain and color. I had other things to spend my processing power on. I had a basic subroutine, but it was rudimentary, something I hadn''t updated in a while. But not only was everything organized, things were repaired. Broken weapons I had consumed after battles were fixed and enchanted. There were even several skeletons working bellows for another, heating up metal in a forge and using an anvil. It took me a while to notice the admittedly obvious structure in the center of the conceptual space. It was a massive disk of ck stone, made only of the purest ck ss, like the one from Nazareth''gak''s floor. It had been rbined somehow into one giant statue, somethingrger than Daedalus. It was a bit concerning as it looked remarkably like me, but it didn''t seem too harmful. I just didn''t think I''d ever take it out of that dustbin. As Daedalus talked about how the magic seeped into his scales and began to change them, not in a destructive way but in a way that was very unsettling, I started making sure that there was absolutely no way that these prisoners that I had confined had a way out. Their ideology seemed to be quite destructive and not something I really wanted to have to deal with. But I was at least pleased that they were being productive. And besides, they seemed pretty happy. It could have been so much worse. --- Bee listened to Daedalus exin what had happened while he was in her master''s void. But most of her concentration was on fixing up the wounds that Archibald had sustained. Her excessive repair skills were pushed to their limits, healing his higher-leveled body. It naturally resisted all sorts of outside influences, and he just had so much physical strength to repair that it was taking active work on her part rather than just letting the passiveness of the skills work. But once she eventually knitted together his shoulder, she was confident that he''d be stable for a while. The worst of it was taken care of. With a sigh of relief, she finally got to take a look at the experience she had gained. It was unlike anything she had ever had before. She had just hit level 55 recently, but that was after a fight with two Lieutenants and killing one. This time, she had been involved with fighting six of the monsters, four of which were consumed by her master. And whenever that happened, she was always rewarded with much more experience. But even with four level 70 opponents, she hadn''t expected to get as many levels as she had had. Five levels from one encounter right after another was nearly unthinkable. But here she was at level 60. She checked the Scan results for both Archibald and Daedalus and saw that they had also gained a couple levels, though not quite as much as her. It was understandable. They were at a higher level than she was, and the gap between them and the lieutenants wasn''t asrge. But that meant she had a new choice to make. It wasn''t simple. LEVEL 60 REACHED! CHOOSE A SKILL: MIND OF GRANITE, VOID''S BREATH, STILL MOVEMENT. She looked at them consideringly. Chapter 295: Hot Pursuit Chapter 295: Hot Pursuit After Daedalus finished telling his story, and everyone had recovered slightly we looked around. We werent entirely sure why the Lieutenants had picked this ce to meet. Was it just for an ambush, or was there some other reason? Aside from the entrance tunnel, there were a few more ruins that we found in the area. In the center of the massive stone dome, there was a summoning circle made simrly to the one wed found in the mansion back in the capital. Beatrice and Archibald both spent some time copying down its appearance and discussing the symbols. I also scanned andpared them myself. An analysis revealed that there were certainly variations between the two, but at least enoughmonalities to determine that they used the samenguage. As we studied the magic circle and Beatrice continued healing Archibald, Daedalus got to work on his own task -- getting back out of here. After his harrowing tale, we both knew there was no way he''d get in the dustbin again. Not for a fraction of a second. And that meant getting out of the tunnel the hard way. Luckily, the hole I''d left in the top of the mountain provided a good starting spot. It wasn''t nearlyrge enough for him to squeeze through, but it was better than nothing. He got to work sting the opening with me as I kept the interior of the mountain cool with Air Maniption. It took longer than I''d wanted, but we eventually made it out. All that was left was to find the trail of the two Lieutenants. I had figured that a trail of shadow and death wouldn''t have been too hard to follow, as neither of those elements were abundant in the areas around us. However, the shadows seemed to have some hidden properties, making it difficult for us to tell what was going on. We were able to tell the general direction of the two of them headed, but that was it. We started heading off in that vector, but it just led us further and further away from the capital. And after a couple of hours, Beatrice was starting to get worried about what was happening back home. Archibald and Daedalus wanted to continue on themselves, but they were not confident in fighting two lieutenants together, especially not the extremely defensive Death Knight Lieutenant and the Shadow Lieutenant that had given Archibald so much trouble. Their most recent levels had made them slightly stronger, and Daedalus certainly seemed even more powerful, but he still hadn''t been able to finish off the Lieutenantpletely. Without the ability topletely remove one of them from the fight, everything was going to be a lot more difficult. So, after some debate, we decided to continud following the trail. That night, we made camp on the other side of the mountain ranges in a t, expansive grasnd stretching out to the horizon. asionally, we were able to determine some trace of the Lieutenants, but nothing enough to actually tell where they were going or how long they''d been gone. We could only pursue their general direction. Already we were outside of the kingdom''s borders and passing into a no man''snd. Beatrice exined that it was unimed territory for a while, as this grasnd was not sufficiently nutrient-dense to support human habitation. The great sea of grass was only inhabited by tribes of wandering nomads, as they followed the roving bands of monsters through which they hunted for both levels and meat. On the other side of the sea, there was a country that actually did share a border with the kingdom but wrapped all the way around the ins. It appears that the demons were headed there. That is, if they had actuallye this way at all. It was possible we were just falling for a misleading trail. If they were going to that country, why? What was their purpose? They could just be trying to get as far away as possible. But it felt like they have a destination in mind. Did they have contacts there? People that they could trust? Or was that country too taken over by a Lieutenant? I wasn''t sure which of the remaining ones would have the ability to take over the kingdom like this one did. The illusion Lieutenant was unique. Still, we had to see. The next morning we pressed onward, with Beatrice riding on her carpet and Daedalus carrying Archibald. They both managed to keep up with me at a reasonable pace, aided by my Air Maniption to help the winds carry them along. It waster that day when we started to finally see signs of habitation, border viges in the sparse trees that started to appear asionally. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. As we made to leave the great sea of grass, I scanned the area. Small farms stood outside the viges that were clearly no centers of trade, but just small agriculturalmunities. They didnt even have roads connected to them. As Beatrices carpet hovered to a halt, she frowned. "It''s clear where they''re going. They''re headed right for the capital of Barleona. I think we need to decide what we want to do next before we follow." "We go after them, of course," Archibald said. "You want toe all this way to turn back?" Beatrice shook her head. "No. But we have to consider if we want to cause an international incident about this, or if we want to go secretly. Or should we be concerned that they''reying a trap and we''ve left the capital vulnerable?" I did some quick math, trying to figure out the odds, and realized we may have made a blunder. With all of us here, both the castle and the capital back in the kingdom were vulnerable. I didn''t believe they were going after the castle, but if they were? The Warden and Arthur, while quite formidable, were not up to the task of taking on one Lieutenant, let alone two. "The real question is, could we make it back in time if this was a trap?" I asked. I was pretty confident we weren''t falling for some trick, but Beatrice was right. Following our enemies into another kingdoms capital seemed too risky. But at the same time, we had alreadye this far. If we had fallen into another trap, then it might already be toote. I didn''t want to believe it, but it was true. I exined my thought process, and Beatrice seemed to agree, though worry etched her face. Archibald and Daedalus both seemed somber as well. We had to believe that the trail was real. As we continued onto the trail, asionally finding hints of the death and shadows wrapped together. It was a day and a halfter when we finally reached the foreign capital. The trail had led us directly here, but in the city, I sensed no trace of the demons. Of course, we were far enough away that my sensors might not be sensitive enough, but I feared that they may have lost us. Archibald and Daedalus stayed out of range, while Beatrice and I dipped down to the ground to enter the city discreetly. We walked through the gates with no problem as I warped the light around me. I wasn''t able to understand thenguage for the first several minutes as my processor worked to decode it, but luckily it wasn''t an issue. Beatrice seemed thoroughly confused, but she just nodded along whenever they tried to speak to her and walked past them. No one stopped her for more than a moment or two. I scoured the city as we walked through the streets, looking for any sort of sign that the demons were here, but finding nothing. The streets were eptably clean, but not so clean that there should have been no trail to follow at all. It seemed that they had found some way to hide their trail and mask their presence. Or perhaps they weren''t here anymore, and they had just left no trail on their way out. I was examining people with my sole sight too, as we walked through the streets, finding none of the imnted demons I had found in the kingdom''s capital. That was good, at least. Everyone had smudges, but they were not any worse than the average person I had met in the kingdom. And I didn''t have any reason to believe that they were harboring demons. Beatrice agreed with my assessment, and we made our way to the central pce to check the leadership. If anyone had been corrupted or subverted in any way, it would be there. As we made our way to the pce, guards blocked anyone from entering. Beatrice kept walking down a side street, but I slipped away and zipped up and over the wall, beginning to scan people inside. To my relief, I didn''t find anything major. I was happy that people were not living under demonic rule, but at the same time, I couldn''t find any trace of where the Lieutenants had been. The trail had clearly led here, but I was starting to lose hope that we''d actually find them. My subroutines picked up a few interesting conversations throughout the area, though. One in particr involved two seemingly important military officials, walking down the hall together, deep in conversation. I didn''t get the full context, but the conversation was easy enough to decode. "You''re up for rotation next on the site," the senior officer said to his junior. The junior officer cringed. "Why? What have I done?" "It''s not a punishment detail. And you''re only going to be there for two days instead of the standard week." The other man sighed. "I suppose that''s okay. But what happened to it?" "Well," the senior officer said, "it''s been such an effective motivator that we haven''t had anyone to punish for a while. So we''re shortening the shift down to only two days and trying to rotate out people quickly enough. Yeah, those creatures just give me the heebie-jeebies," the junior officer said as they went into a locked room. They were far enough away that I didn''t take advantage of slipping in behind them. That conversation alone told me more than enough to know that something was wrong. I headed out of the pce to find Beatrice, and together we started to head out of the city. Once we were outside, I ryed the information to Daedalus and Archibald. "Well, I guess your country wasn''t the only one consorting with demons," Daedalus snorted. "The question is, how influential are they here?" Chapter 296: Friend and Foe 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 ves..." 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 rtionship where the humans would almost try to manipte 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 ying 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 simr rtionship here. It would only take one of the smarter Lieutenants to realize there was an opportunity to form a simr 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 sess 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, shing 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 sevene 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 sess. 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." Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. 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 feelfortable enough leaving the demons to their nning 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, epting 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 actuallye 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 circr graph divided into little triangles. He zoomed in on one of them, showing a percentile, and a little bit of text appeared. "I calcte there''s a 15% chance that if we don''t head back, the capital will be destroyed when we do returnter. Going back now shrinks that to 5%. "Is this a risk we''re willing to take?" Bee asked the group. Her master''s calction 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 thest 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 afortably fast pace, she considered her skill choices again. She still hadn''t decided between the three she had been given. If they had gone intobat, she would have likely chosen something quickly just to have it avable. 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 be? 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''tmon, 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. Chapter 297: This Skill Sucks Chapter 297: This Skill Sucks I didn''t understand why Beatrice was having so many problems with her new skill. I watched as she focused on her breath again, her brow furrowed, and her eyes narrowed. Air rushed to fill her chest as she attempted to breathe in. But as her lungs inted, she shook her head and frowned before resetting back to her previous position. She had exined the skill to me, of course. However, I found myself unable to provide much more insight. It seemed as natural as cleaning was to me. I watched as she held the rock in front of her face and focused again. I had shown her how it worked several times, but for some reason, her mind just didn''t let her do it. I beeped worriedly as she focused on the top of the carpet as we sped closer and closer to the city. Our dragon friend and hispanion talked quietly amongst themselves, discussing something, but I was too busy splitting my focus between Beatrice and the capital. It had been a long flight back home. I had resisted the urge to zip ahead and check on things myself. Instead, I was using the winds to greatly speed up our progress. I might have been able to get there a little bit faster alone, but we would all arrive within the day this way. Thankfully, my worries didn''t seem like they''d been warranted. My sensors were telling me that the city walls still stood way off in the distance, just over the horizon. Soon, the others were able to see them, too. The wall stood tall and unblemished. No host surrounded the capital, and our gs still flew. I let out a whir of relief, my actuators releasing their tension. I projected the image I saw above my head, and the other three all simrly let out big sighs of relief. Beatrice, though, was still concerned. "And the castle? Is the college as safe as the capitol?" That was a good question. I was reasonably certain that the castle would be safe, but Archibald and Daedalus frowned. "We shall continue on there," Daedalus rumbled. "I need to visit myir. We will make sure that it is safe and drive off any threats that may be nearby. You two should check on the capital, though. Let us know if there''s anything wrong. We''ll keep in touch." I beeped my appreciation and waved goodbye as the dragon banked slightly. His massive form sparkled in the sunlight and headed off on a course that slowly took them away from us. As they headed toward the castle, I calcted their ETA. They would be there in a few hours, and I sincerely hoped that all was well. But as it was, we needed to inspect the city to make sure nothing had gone wrong. As we soared over the walls, several people pointed us out, and a cheer grew, echoing through the city as people weed our arrival. I projected a veryrge image of myself waving with my arm as I greeted the people who seemed very pleased to see me. It was good to be back. --- Bee absolutely hated her new skill. She couldn''t stop herself from mentally cursing, wishing that she had chosen Still Movement or even Granite Mind as she tried for the umpteenth time to inhale a rock. As usual, it hade with instant knowledge of how it worked. An innate understanding of its use. Sure, some experimentation was required to find the limits of any skill, but the basics should be instinctive, like how her Scan ran. But no, that wasn''t the issue. It wasn''t that she didn''t know what she needed to do; her mind just simply wouldn''t let her do it. Because it didn''t make sense. And how could it? How did one breathe in a rock? She had choked on it more times than she cared to admit on the way back to the capital. At least Archibald and Daedalus had found it amusing as she spat out the gritty stone over and over. Stolen story; please report. She attempted to breathe in again, this time focusing on the switch that shifted her airway between its new tracts. One deposited things it into her lungs, where air was supposed to go. The other went somewhere else. Somewhere she wasn''t familiar with. But the skill told her it was meant for this kind of thing, so she had to trust it. But as soon as the rock started to shift in her palm, the switch seemed to flip back to her lungs on instinct. It felt as though she simply couldn''t reconcile the idea of the skill with its practical use. It was infuriating. She had seen her master use the skill hundreds, if not thousands of times, and it looked so instinctive and simple. But it just didn''t work for her. She grimaced, but refused to give up. This was something she''d have to work through, and preferably soon. She couldn''t let a level 60 skill selection go to waste just because it made her ufortable. Eventually, though, she took a break from her efforts. Bee ced the rock behind her as they soared over the city towards the pce in the center. Her master waved to the adoring crowd below as they weed home their god. She could only imagine their faces if and when they found out that it had killed four more Lieutenants. Permanently. Though she wasn''t sure how many people would actually believe the legends. But the ones who did would be filled with relief and awe. But at the same time, Bee herself couldn''t help the concern hanging over her. Seven more were left, and she was not confident in their ns to deal with them. In the inner wall of the castle, two groups weed her. One was the pair of men she left to rule the city. Arthur and the Warden stood in front of the doors, hands sped behind their backs, watching Voide to a stop in front of them. Off to the side were Zeal and many of his followers. Zeal''s white-garbed followers were ring at the two men, but Zeal himself appeared calm as he genuflected in front of Void with a shout. "We wee the Lord!" Many members of the weing party followed, though Arthur and the Warden just bowed low. "Wee back, Lord Void," Arthur intoned. Bee looked around, sensing that something was wrong." Thank you. Tell us what has happened since we''ve been gone." Arthur remained focused on them, but the Warden shot a look over at Zeal that seemed to contain some hidden meaning. Bee didn''t like the look of that. Not at all. "There have been disturbances, my lord," Arthur said, but Zeal spoke up from off to the side. "No, there has been no disturbance. Simply a keeping of the peace." "As I said, disturbances, my lord." Bee raised her eyebrow at the men. "And your soldiers were not enough to keep them quelled?" "We have prevented any mass unrest orrge-scale issues, but the citizens themselves cannot be ruled by force. Not sustainably, at least." Arthur said in a measured tone. "My men are soldiers, not peacekeepers. And if they were to take such forceful measures against rtively minor offenses... they would be seen as conquerors instead of liberators." Zeal nodded. "Yes. The people demand their own justice. And they have seen the right of it. They follow the Lord''s most particrmands to the very letter. We''ve kept the city clean." Bee didn''t like the way the man said that. Between what the men did and did not say, she was starting to get a clearer picture of the issue. Still, some part of her hoped that he was wrong. She had known that this confrontation would need toe eventually, but she had hoped it would take longer. Arthur nodded reluctantly. "The city is not disturbed by ack of order, but rather a too stringent enforcement of it." He gestured over the wall. "We have heard disturbing reports of prisoners being taken and marched through the city to be left in stockades. No trial nor posting of their crimes, though they were watched by the whole popce in shame." Zeal scoffed in the background. "No posting of their crimes. It was not necessary when they were witnessed by many, and the whole city stood for the verdict," he said indignantly. "The man spilled a cup of wine on the floor in a tavern in front of all. Such drunkenness and messiness shall not be allowed. It offends our god." Bee watched as Void let out a slow beep as he rose up and vanished over the city walls. "See?" Zeal said. "No doubt our Lord has gone to administer punishment as he sees fit. We''ve only held thosemitting such heinous actions in captivity. As we wait for the Lord''s final judgment of them." That was enough. Bee let out a slow breath, clenching and unclenching her fists. "Zeal. What have you done?" Chapter 298: Blood of the Innocent Chapter 298: Blood of the Innocent Iunched over the wall and scanned the city, looking for the unfortunate man who had the poor sense to knock over a wine ss. I sure hoped he didn''t get any of the nasty stuff on his shirt. That would have been a travesty. Stains like that nevere out. At least they didn''t used to. I was pretty sure I could fix those by now, depending on how old they were. Wine stains were tough, but I might be tougher. As I swept through the city, I noticed that it was eptably clean. People had done a very good job taking care of the streets and even the insides of their homes. But something was wrong. There was a certain tension in the air that I couldn''t exin. People''s faces were drawn tight, and the children I had seen ying gully ball before were instead crouched in alleys, ying quiet games that didn''t draw anyone''s attention. Something new stood in one of the medium-sized squares scattered throughout the city. Sets of wooden blocks with people ced awkwardly in them. There weren''t a ton of people, only a dozen or so, but each had their head and hands pinned in ce as they were forced to kneel on the hard ground. The people walking by ignored them, except for the white-robed cultists standing over them in silence. asionally, someone would speak or call out someone in the crowd, but it wasrgely ignored. This alone was odd enough to make me investigate, but I saw something else that made me interested. Not only were the people kneeling there, I noticed they all shared something inmon. There was a bit of mess around each of them. One in particr had a wine stain down the front of his shirt. Was this the man they were talking about earlier? I rushed down andnded in the middle of the square. All the people around me froze, turning to look before one of the white-robed people yelled out, "All hail, Lord Void the Eternal!" and he went to both knees before pressing his forehead into the ground in front of me. All the other robed people followed, and many of the people on the outside of the square dashed into alleys to hide while the ones caught out in the open knelt as well. I ignored them all. It was ufortable, and I still didn''t appreciate such attention. But they weren''t important at the moment. I turned to the man with the wine stain on his shirt, who was kept in such an awkward position, and made a small sign that only he could read. "Why are you here?" The man spluttered and stammered for a solid 12.34 seconds before he found his voice. "Um... I''m so sorry, my lord. I''m sorry. I didn''t mean to. It won''t happen..." He trailed off, his babbling bing less and less coherent. I changed the message. "I''m not mad. I want to know why you are stuck in such an awkward position." "Why?" The man looked at me. "Why? Um... I''m in the stocks. Because I spilled wine. As you decreed, all mass makers shall be punished." Was this my fault? I quickly reviewed everything I had said or done sinceing to the city and realized, no, this was not my fault. Never once had I made the instructions that would lead any reasonably-minded person to behave in such a way. So whose fault was it? "Where did you hear such a thing?" I asked. "Well, Lord, all the priests. After you cleaned up the city, it was quite clear that we shouldn''t spoil your hard work," the man exined. I sat there and felt my brushes twitch in my underbelly as I tried to process their logic. There were definitely some misunderstandings here." It seems that we''ve had some misunderstandings," I projected. "I''ve sorted them out around the city. But we should talk about doctrine." I was reasonably certain that this was his fault, but at the same time, he shouldn''t have been able to do this. Evidently, we''d all failed to educate the people properly in some way. What had Arthur and the Warden been doing when we left them in charge? I pulled out my Divine Sword, and I could hear a ripple of gasps echo throughout the crowd kneeling in the distance. The man shuddered and tried to flinch back, but the wood wouldn''t let him. The stockade held them in ce, allowing only tears to start falling as he babbled with increased urgency. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. With a quick stroke, I cut the lock and the hinges on each side of the stockade. The wood stayed in ce for a moment before I sted off the top half, allowing a gust of air to suck the remains of everything into my dustbin. The many there, his head and arms still left in the lower portions of the slots. He shuddered, eyes pressed closed, until I reached out and tapped him on the nose with my arm. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around before yanking his arms free and furiously scratching at his nose. "My lord," he said in a surprised tone. "Go," I said. "Change your shirt. Don''t make a mess. But those that do so incidentally are not to be harmed." I projected the final bit above visible for everyone to see. There were mutterings in the crowd and angry murmurs from the white-robed cultists. I moved down the line of stockades, freeing each person after I had a chance to talk to them. All were guilty of some sort of crime in the cult''s eyes, but none were actually guilty. One woman had let her child and dog track mud everywhere in the house, and she had been there for hours. That was until I reached the end. When I asked thest man why he was there, he looked at me dispassionately and then didn''t answer. I studied him. He was half-balding, with an ugly scar pulling at his cheek, but something in his dark eyes told me that this wasn''t the same case as the others. A look at his soul reinforced my conclusion. It wasn''tpletely dark, but a single massive stain covered its greyish surface in a deep inky ck. I turned and projected a question to the crowd. "Why is he here?" A few bystanders spoke up. "Um, lord? He killed one of the priests." "Cut her damn head off!" "That man sinned against you, lord!" "Hemitted murder. For coin!" I looked at the man and read his features. "Is this true?" He just continued to scowl, refusing to meet my eyes. Looking around, I didn''t see anyone standing up in his defense, but they hadn''t defended the innocent either, so I suppose that was not anything to really stake my decision on. Still, I cut him free, But instead of letting them go, I grabbed him by the back of his neck. "He''ll stand trial," I projected before I flew up and made my way back to the pce. Beatrice or Arthur would be able to handle this. I was sure of it. We hadn''t had much cause for disciplinary action at the castle, but asionally soldiers did misbehave. Arthur was never too concerned, iming it was soldiers being soldiers. He said you''d always have drunken brawls and some thieving, along with other misdeeds. Nothing ever went too far, but it did require reports and examination, and then he met out appropriate punishment. Most of the time, it was extra duty or the like, though asionally, people did get imprisoned for a week or so. I wasn''t sure what the punishment for his crime was, but I imagine it would be very extreme. A lot more than anything we had to deliver in camp, aside from that one time I''d tracked down a murderous nobleman.. But at the same time, the man deserved a fair hearing. I dropped him off at the jail. It had been reconstructed after the fight with all the demons, and now there was plenty of space inside. The Warden took him in with no question. I exined that he was to be held and watched until a trial could be arranged, and the guards took him away before locking him in a cell deep underground. Returning to the city, I found three other such instances of supposedly wful" punishment by members of the cult or just random civilians. Each time, I interrogated the prisoners and judged them based on their bodynguage, souls, and the reactions of the crowd if they were telling the truth. A few more people were quickly airdropped to the jail, but most of these poor souls I set free. Each time, I made it a point to warn the crowds that this was not my will, and I did not want to catch them tying up people for identally making a mess. Even if someone intentionally spilled wine, they should have at most gotten a stern talking-to. Several of the people that I didn''t let go, though, were thieves or other such criminals. We had a justice system for a reason, after all. And I''d have to let Beatrice and her people do their job, even if I did need to have a talk with her and Zeal about how to exin the ts of cleaning to people more properly. When I returned to the pce, it was several hourster and there was a full on shouting match happening in the courtyard. From the voice profiles, it appeared that Zeal and some of his priests were yelling as Beatrice and Arthur shouted back. Inded in the center and made a pping noise by snapping air together. Everything went quiet in a moment as their attention switched over to me. "It seems that we''ve had some misunderstandings," I projected. "I''ve sorted them out around the city. But we should talk about doctrine." Chapter 299: The Great Schism Chapter 299: The Great Schism Bee watched as Zeal and his followers slowly marched from the city. Her position on the wall gave her an ample view as they walked off into the distance, the long line leaving a trail of dust floating in the air. A trail that the white-robed cultists avidly tried to stifle with wet clothes. She had better things to do than stand here and watch, but she couldn''t take her mind off of what had just happened. Something heavy weighed on her heart, something she couldn''t quite identify. A mixture of relief that the trouble was gone but also regret and anxiety about what was toe. As Void had requested, they had talked doctrine and what a talk it was. It was actually less of a talk and more of a lecture. Void had gone on for pages upon pages of projected text,ying out in no uncertain terms her master''s thoughts on the matter of what constituted proper punishment for uncleanliness. She was proud of how close she had been to what her master had exined. She had been preaching the same thing for almost a year at this point. But even still, there were some nuances she''d missed and things she had taken special note of. The amount of forgiveness that Void had for those who made messes was one such thing. ording to it, messes were a fact of life. Humans made messes by simply existing, passively and actively. But it was also a duty to make efforts to minimize them and clean up after oneself. It was a novel concept and one she was having trouble grappling with, but it was hopeful and uplifting. And in every possible way, it contradicted Zeal and his beliefs. That wasn''t to say she had been entirely spared. Void had heaped some criticism on her, too. It was gently phrased, but still, she knew there were things she could have done better. Many things. But as Void had said, she was still learning. And despite her master''s reassurances that she had done admirably, that didn''t mean she would allow herself to growcent. Zeal, though, had taken all criticism with a stoic face, neither reacting one way or another. She had expected a direct lecture from their god to straighten out all of the cultists, and to some extent, it had. Many of the white-robed followers behind Zeal had fallen to their knees, weeping and begging for forgiveness. Void had been more than willing to forgive them. Obviously. But Zeal himself had suggested a punishment for himself and his followers as atonement. And she wasn''t sure how she felt about it. The only punishment he would ept was exile or death, nothing less. And her master, being merciful, had granted him exile. Many of his people had followed, having seen that they, too, were guilty of his misdeeds. Bee was reluctant to watch them go. They could have been saved, corrected, and brought into the light. But no, they would go with Zeal, and she had her doubts that he would actually change his ways. But overall, it was a good solution. The cult and those adherent followers who were too far gone to make the corrections that Void wanted in an easy, simple manner would be gone. They would not be in the city, causing problems and letting Arthur, the Warden, and Bee do their jobs. Still, it made her feel hollow. There was so much more she could have done to head off this terrible situation. She should never have agreed to Zeal''s help. They could have taken the city without him. Then, he would never have gained this kind of influence. In fact, with the demons reacting the way that they had, she doubted that the city would have taken too much more damage than if she had recruited from her own people. She could have made her own organization in the city, but no, she hadn''t bothered. When it came down to it, she hadn''t wanted to make Void do more than necessary. That''s the whole reason she''d gone about infiltrating the city to smooth its conquest. But instead, Void had to personally step in andy down thew like that. It hadn''t been immediate, but that didn''t matter. It made her feel as if she had failed. Her master had always taken a ratherid-back approach to the governance of its religion, and she had squandered its trust. That her master had to put its w down meant that she had not done well enough. A hand pped onto her shoulder with such force it sent her stumbling despite her high level. The surprise drew her out of her misery. Turning around, she found Arthur standing beside her. He looked just as uncertain as she did and just as grim. "Don''t take it too hard," Arthur said. "This isn''t your fault. It''s far more mine than yours. I should never have let Zeal get such a handhold on the city when you were gone, especially not within hours of your departure. Clearly, this was nned. And we were not quick enough to stop him." The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Bee shook her head. "No. This is my fault. Zeal should never have gained such power in the first ce. He never should have been in a position to challenge you." Arthur cracked a grin, and Bee realized that she had fallen into his trap. "Then how can you say the same for yourself? You heard what Lord Void said. Everyone makes mistakes. And if this is something that I can forgive, then you can forgive your own mistakes as well. Besides, real harm wasn''t done. Not yet. There''s still plenty of stuff left to rebuild with." Bee looked out over at the receding marking of the cult''s passage. "I suppose that''s fair, but still. It''s never fun to be reminded of failure." Arthur agreed. He stood there for a few moments before Susan came up the stairs next to them. She looked out over the walls and spat. "Good riddance," she said. "Maybe they will find redemption, but I doubt it. Should I keep an eye on them, Arthur?" Both nodded their agreement. "Please do. I don''t expect we''ve seen the end of those troubles," Arthur replied. "It''s possible that theye around, but I wouldn''t count on it. It''d be best if we always know what''s happening with them," Bee added. The three of them stood there and watched long after any signs of Zeal were gone. --- Zeal walked away from the city with his followers, his head held high and a smug grin stered to his face. He tried hard to wipe it away so that he could look back and stare at the uppity girl, the supposed "high priestess" iming to know everything about the faith. Sure, sheep-like her were needed by a god, but he knew the truth. Lord Void had spoken andid down their doctrine, but the doctrine was for believers. Doctrine was what you told people after you had conquered them after their hearts and minds had already been won. But Zeal had read between the lines. He had understood the hidden messages that the Lord had snuck into his doctrine, unraveled them, and untangled them. It had been difficult but not impossible. After all, how could one god be held to such simple standards? No, there was far more that Lord Void needed to do. For those unsaved, for those unwilling to be cleansed. And he was willing to get his hands dirty in the name of a spotless tomorrow. But how could one such as him, one who went willingly to aplish what was beneath their god, bask in Lord Void''s presence within the capital? No, that was for the cleansed. Those who had been saved and called to serve in their own ways. Ways that were different than Zeal''s. The god had spoken its will. Their god had mentioned that human life was to be preserved. He understood that. But at the same time, mess makers needed to be destroyed. And some of the worst mess makers were human. Therefore, sometimes, humans needed to be destroyed. Clear and simple. Zeal knew the task that he and the faithful had; the truly faithful were those who believed in scripture but were willing to enforce it. To give those beautiful ideals forming the religion weight. To strike fear in their enemies so that they would not be disrespected and more would be encouraged to follow the proper and good path. It was a distasteful truth. He understood well Lord Void''s hesitation to do more than allude to it. Things that were not on this path had to be done. But eventually, Lord Void''s world woulde to be such that everything was either clean or gone. Everything that was not perfect and beneath their god''s notice would be wiped away. The High Priestess would then, truly, be the established beacon of light, the merciful teacher of cleanliness. But there had to be a driving force, just as a sheepdog forced the sheep toward the shepherd. He would be the darkness of the void. He would separate out those heretics who did not deserve mercy, leaving them to be scoured, while all those who had a hope of mercy would be driven towards that beacon. Void had shown that himself when their god had taken their captives to jail. All those that followed Zeal were of one mind. They knew that they had been sent to do the "dirty work." And as his second had put it, just as a king didn''t lower to take to patrol the streets himself, their god could not be bothered to clean up all of the human sins that were beneath him, especially in the othernds. Zeal knew that he was no longer needed in the capital. That was his Lord''s demesne. He would watch over his flock there. But further out? Further out, his god''s presence had yet to reach so far. Zeal knew that he had growncent. He had stayed too long in the capital, trying to make things perfect in his way and the only way he knew how. But it wasn''t the kind of perfect that his god would ept. But no, there were still ces where his work would be needed. ces out there in the world where no word of Void had yet reached, where no fear of dirt had been instilled. His work here was done. The capital was Void''s, but there were so many ces that were not. As they crested over a hill, Zeal turned his congregation slightly, heading off to a new destination. A new ce that would soon hear the good news. Perhaps he could find a better way to deliver this time. More quickly than just word of mouth. Chapter 300: Another Church Potluck Chapter 300: Another Church Potluck Bee felt her shoulders rx as her fingers ran through the carpet beneath her. The wind tossed her hair back, but not nearly as fiercely as it could have, whipping it about her face. Her enchanted rug moved at a steady pace as she left the capital behind. She wasn''t in a rush to get to the castle, but she could still get there in less than a day''s travel, at least by air. And recent events made her worry about the state of things there. It had been a rough week since she''d gotten back, and it was amazing how much just a few days of bad governance could cause. There had been days of trials lined up that she had to go through and make a judgment on. She had to set up new legition and continue to refill the bureaucracy that ran the city. Arthur and the Warden had done what they could. They needed someone with proper authority to sign off on things like proper bureaucrats. Arthur was a military man and could enforce discipline, but not the kind meant for everyday life. His discipline was the rigid military type. And requiring that of an entire city was not what anyone wanted, least of all Arthur. Now that Zeal was gone, the man was more than happy to go back to recruiting and training troops for uing conflicts. Something that no one had any illusions would pass them by. The more people they had ready and leveled, the better. And the fact that most of these people had be converts to the Church of the Cleansing Void was only a blessing. Basic military discipline and chores, keeping things tidy, making one''s bed, cleaning a room... All these things gave experience and levels, especially for the young men who barely had any to begin with. Arthur had alsoe up with an excellent idea. He had proposed getting people ess to their systems and going out for first-time monster hunts, provided anyone they helped was willing to sign up for a year. So many people who didn''t have that ess were suddenly flocking to them. The Warden and Susan worked closely together, and Bee watched Harold leave within a few days to go on his own missions. She hadn''t bothered to ask about them. Still, it was good to see the man doing something he was actually qualified for instead of being promoted above his abilities. He seemed happier, too, though maybe he just wanted to be away from the capital. She talked to the Warden about Harold''s future, and they both agreed that Harold would not be his recement. He was apetent spy, if not a great leader. So, she had both Susan and the Warden work towards using him the way they should. Judging based off of the interactions she observed the two of them having, Bee found that the Warden might have found his sessor; after all. He just might have promote from outside the organization. They had received word from the castle that nothing was wrong, just a regr update a day or so immediately after their return. The news had greatly relieved Bee. She hadn''t really expected the Lieutenants to assault the castle and hit them while she and Void were away. There certainly had been a possibility, but there wasn''t any real strategic reason to do that. Though, from what Archibald had said, strategy wasn''t always the Lieutenants'' strong suit. And malice was the providence of the enemy. The issue had been eating at her. But knowing that she had time to set things right had given her enough peace of mind to dy her return. But now, with as much settled as she could manage, it was time to go back to the castle. She''d been gone too long. It had been almost two months since they''d left the ce. Of course, she had full confidence that Trent, and the others had been able to keep things in order. But honestly, she missed the castle. It had be a familiar home to her, one that she had spent so much time in. Even more than that, she missed the people who lived there. Besides, someone was going to have to tell Mary and Trent about Tony''s recent change before he showed up and gave them all a heart attack. And she wouldn''t have put it past the Nighty Knights to be up to no good. Despite how well everything had been going for thest week, there was still something that nagged at her thoughts. She felt the heavy weight of the rock in her pocket, but refused to take it out. It had been frustrating her since they''d gotten back to the capital. Her new skill surely was something powerful, something that could change the way she fought. And when she eventually managed to gain more experience in it, she was sure that it would change everything about her life. But it was not nearly as easy as it should have been. She left the rock where it was, not wanting to disturb her journey with any failed attempts. If she choked on a rock in midair and ended up falling because of it, she was fairly certain that she''d die of embarrassment before hitting the ground. It was just before dinner that shended in the castle courtyard. The children watching the wall had seen hering and sent the castle into a flurry of activity at her approach. Most of the castle was out to greet her, and she spent several minutes exchanging hugs and greetings with everyone. All the kids came first, naturally. The Nighty Knights stopped at parade rest in front of her, and graced her with a salute before dogpiling her with weing hugs. Soon after, Mary had wrapped her in a warm embrace, rocking her from side to side slightly, something that Bee had to allow based on their disparity of strength. "I''m d you''re all right, honey." Mary''s murmured greeting in her ear made it hard for Bee to keep herposure. It reminded her that she needed to talk with her aunt again. That was something to think aboutter. Right now, the motherly warmth was threatening to smother her. Luckily, Trent "saved" her from Mary''s embrace by crushing her ribs with his own bear hug. Bee couldn''t help but be surprised by their increase in level and strength. They must have been cleaning while she was away. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Soon after, she was ushered inside. They had an impromptu dinner with the adults in the Grand Hall. The food was better than anything she''d eaten in months. Whether it was nostalgia,panionship, or some kind of insane cooking abilities Cassie had picked up, she wasn''t sure. But whatever it was, it made Bee eat a bit more than was probably advisable. After everyone had eaten and the kids had been sent off to train, she found everyone who remained watching her. She resisted the urge to stand up and pace. Instead, she sat at the head of the table and sped her hands. "Thank you, everyone. It''s good to be back. I''m sure you''re anxious to hear about what we''ve been up to at the capital..." Instead, she began to exin in broad strokes what had happened while she was gone. Of course, everyone had sent and received letters, but it wasn''t the same. She skipped over some of the sensitive topics but talked about almost everything else. The cult that Zeal had formed, the state of the city, and how they had taken the city with minimal bloodshed. And, of course, how the king was overthrown, making the kingdom effectively theirs. This caused a decent amount of murmuring, both from happiness and worry. A lot of the adults were hesitant about getting wrapped up in politics, and some others were more excited about the spread of the word of Void. It was only to be expected. The rest of the kingdom was stilling to terms with the fact that they had a new ruler, and she was expecting several rebellions from greater nobles. She told tales of Void in their chase of the Lieutenants, as well as their god''s role in the destruction of several more. This brought about many murmured prayers of thanks to their lord. But soon enough, her tale was over. The adults poured some stronger wine and began to sip as they told her about what had happened when she was gone. Or, as Trent put it, "Not much, to be honest. Mostly a hard season of nting crops and keeping the kids in line." It was interesting to hear the adults'' perspective on what the Nighty Knights had been up to. She couldn''t say she was surprised, but they had formed a formalized watch with guard shifts. The soldiers left to guard the castle had been roped in as well. The officer left in charge and smiled as he exined the joint training they were doing. The Nighty Knights and the soldiers had evidently grown even closer. The still hriously overpowered kids were helping the soldiers train while the soldiers taught the Knights how a real military worked. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement, one that seemed to keep everyone upied, too. And with their chores, they all continued to level. In fact, Bradley, being the highest level of all of them, was getting extremely close to his next ss selection. Bee was very excited about that. Considering his level five sses, the Champion of Spot would likely have some very interesting options at level 25. Eventually, though, the gathering came to an end, and everyone went off to bed. Bee found her room untouched except for the fresh sheets someone had put on the bed and quickly passed out for the first full night of sleep she had had in a while. *** Still, despite not needing to, she woke up early, feeling more rested and rxed than she had for a very long time. The sun was still a few hours away from rising, but she wasn''t the only one up. As she started pacing the halls, she spotted many of the farmers already getting ready for their own work. They nodded to her or stopped to bow as she passed by. And as the castle came alive, she retreated to theb to do some experiments. It had been too long since Bee had gotten a chance to do alchemy. Far too long. She missed it. Her skills had gotten a little rusty, but after making a few batches of various useful tonics, healing potions, and other useful concoctions, along with some demonbane, she took a break. It was time to stop stalling. Pulling out the rock, she red at it. She would inhale this. She would not suck it down her throat and into her lungs and have to cough it up, nor would it go down her esophagus and make her choke. She would put it into the skill the same way her master did. With a final shudder and a deep breath, Bee rolled her neck. Before she could second guess herself, she pressed the stone up to her mouth and breathed in while plugging her nose. She could feel the rock trying to pull away from her grip, but she couldn''t quite bring herself to let go. That mental block was still there. She closed her eyes and tried harder, imagining her inhale as a gale of strong wind. The rock trembled against her grip, then slipped and shot into her throat. Her eyes shot open in surprise. Reflexively, Bee wretched and gagged, spitting the rock out in an instant. She could still taste it on her tongue. As she thumped her chest a few times, she nced up to see Maranda standing at the door, staring at her strangely. "Uh, Bee? What are you doing?" Maranda asked. Bee looked at her friend and grimaced. Her voice came out a little hoarse. "I''m trying to use my new skill." "It looks like you''re trying to inhale a rock," Maranda said with a quirked eyebrow and a smirk. Bee groaned. "Exactly. That''s exactly what I''m trying to do. It''s stupid." She tossed the rock onto the table in front of her with a soft tter and returned the smile. It took Bee a while to recognize Maranda, but she was a lot closer to the confident girl who had weed her to the farm all those months ago. That Maranda was unquestionably the more skilled and experienced alchemist at this point likely helped her confidence a lot as well. Not that Bee wasn''t good, but she just didn''t have the time to dedicate to the craft with her other responsibilities. Ever since the siege, Maranda had changed. Not a lot at first, but as if tempered by the pressure of supplying critical mutations to protect her home for days on end, the insecure girl, too embarrassed to admit that she didn''t know how to read, had been discarded. Maranda came and leaned against the counter with an obviously suppressing giggle. "Really? That''s some skill. What''s it called?" Bee rubbed her face. "It''s called Void''s breath. I''m supposed to be able to inhale things the way Void does and store them. At least, that''s what it feels like." "Oh!" Maranda raised her eyebrows in surprise. "So what''s stopping you?" "Well, you try inhaling a rock. It''s not so easy to do. What if I choke?" Marandaughed. "Well maybe we can find someone to help with that." Quickly, she led Bee out of theb. Chapter 301: The Towers of Babel Chapter 301: The Towers of Babel Bee followed Maranda out of theb. She wasn''t sure what help the girl was referring to or who could help her with such an odd skill. But at this point, she was willing to try almost anything. It was with equal parts surprise and chagrin that Bee followed Maranda into the Nighty Knights'' training area. Of course. That was something she should have thought of herself. All these kids had extremely odd skills, most of them beingpletely unique and highly specific to their god. Of course, some of them probably had trouble adapting. At the very least, they might understand what she was going through better than anyone else. Maranda called over Leanne, who had been working with some of the younger kids on marching. Their overly-serious expressions and stiff postures were just the most adorable sight Bee could think of. Leanne came over and listened to Maranda''s exnation as Bee waited nearby. Afterward, the young girl looked at Bee kind of oddly. "I''ll do my best, but I dunno. What''s the skill''s name?" Leanne asked. "My skill is called Void''s Breath," Bee volunteered. She wasn''t sure if Leanne had heard of it before, but the fact that she was asking gave Bee a little bit of help. "Void''s Breath? Neat!" Leanne nodded. "What''s so hard about it?" "I just... it doesn''te naturally to me. I know how to use it, but I can''t mentally make myself do it." Bee looked at Leanne. "Have you had any problems like that? Bee tilted her head slightly, thinking. "Problems? Um. Sort of." Leanne shrugged. "I was always able to use mine, but it''s pretty bright." Leanne stedsers out of her eyes briefly at the wall, boring a pair of neat holes through it. Bee blinked as spots formed in her vision. She noticed that Leanne was also rubbing her eyes. "At first, I really wanted to squint when using it cuz it felt kinda like looking at the sun. But my eyelids made the beame out narrower and weaker. So I had to learn how to keep my eyes open." "How did you practice that?" Bee asked, worrying that the little girl had spent hours staring into the sun. "I kept trying!" Leanne said. "But it did help if I was in bright light already, so it wasn''t such a big difference." Bee frowned. That made some amount of sense, but she was struggling to think of a corory of how it would help in her case. Eventually, Bee just shrugged and asked directly. "Do you think something like that could help my situation?" "No, I don''t think looking at bright light will help you," Leanne answered. Maranda smacked her sister''s shoulder, and Leanne just giggled. "Kidding! But maybe you should do something smaller than a rock. Something you can actually inhale without it being too bad." That made sense. Bee felt a little stupid for not thinking of it once again, but it should be pretty simple to do. Leanne brought them over to a water barrel that the kids had been using to drink from and gave Bee adleful. "Try to inhale that! If you actually identally breathe in some water, it should be pretty easy to cough out. Better than a rock." "You are wise beyond your years," Bee told the little girl, who just smiled. "Thanks! And I''m not even the youngest kid around anymore," Leanne said with a grin. Maranda rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it. I was so happy when you were born." Bee just shrugged, not being able to rte to their experiences. "All right. Fine. I''ll try this." She took a sip of the water to steel herself. Yes, it was just water. It wouldn''t be that big of a deal. Right? After a final exhale, she breathed it in, focusing on the skill halfway through. The water began to move, shooting toward her mouth in a stream. Bee stared it down with trepidation. For a brief instant, her focus waned, and she bent over, coughing. Maranda thumped her on the back. "You okay?" "Fine," Bee choked out. She had spit out a bit of water, but not all of it. The rest was inside of her. Not her lungs, either. Inside a space she could see with her mind''s eye. Suddenly, she could more acutely sense the space her skill had granted her. A ck cube around five cubic feet seemed to float inside of her, its dimensions impossiblyrge. However, Bee was somehow certain it sat within her. And in its corner was a small puddle of water. Bee marveled at the discovery. "I think I did it." Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the vition. "Great!" Leanne pped as Bee finally recovered enough to describe what she felt. "Good job!" Maranda shot Bee a thumbs up. "See? That was easy! But... now, how do we get it back out?" --- I missed Beatrice. It was nice having her around to take care of so many problems. Without her around, so many people suddenly came to me for help. I liked helping humans, of course, but I was much happier just cleaning the city. But when the petitioners came in, someone had to talk to them. So I had stood in for Beatrice. Not that I manually handled all of them, but I watched and would sometimes help with the requests. And help I did. At one point, some of the innkeepers brought up a concern with overcrowding. Apparently, they had been quite enjoying an excess of people staying at their inns due to the invasion and other conflicts abroad. However, many of those people were running out of coin, yet still were unwilling or unable to leave the city. The innkeepers weren''t sure what to do about it. Finally, I saw something that could really be fixed. I abandoned the rest of the petitioners to Arthur and the Warden''s tender mercies. I had faith that they could handle the job, but they were usually a lot less sympathetic than Beatrice was when hearing out the people. Hence why I''d stuck around. But now, I left them to start on mytest project. Honestly, I would''ve liked to put the finishing touches on the sewer system, but for the most part, everything worked. All the waste was washed out of the city into massive underground reservoirs I''d carved out of stone. They wouldst for hundreds of years, and I was rtively certain I had made it so they wouldn''t pollute any of the freshwater that I had piped in, either. Every house had at least easy ess to a nearby well, even if most of them didn''t quite have running water yet. But that was something that people were figuring out for themselves as fast as I was. I was no longer the only one working on plumbing. In fact, I could barelypete with the hundreds of people now in charge of maintaining and extending the water piping that I had started. In fact, some of them had even been taking a particrly specific ss: Plumber of Spot. On top of their sses, they were learning techniques that I taught them and expanding on them. Between that and their skills, the city''s plumbing was developing quite nicely. Maybe next, I would work on getting everyone electricity. But first, I needed to expand the city a little bit. That was a pretty big undertaking for such arge city, and I wasn''t confident in getting it done quickly. Not to mention where we''d get all the materials. That meant this next project of mine would have to stay outside the city. I wasn''t entirely sure how to do it, but maybe having a secondary city growing off to the side might work. Clearing and leveling somend nearby was rtively simple. It would have to be protected in its own right, but using a lot of the excess stone I had saved up inside my dustbin from the sewer project, I started toy down blocks. This would be a concept that I don''t think many people have seen. The tallest building I''d encountered so far was about five stories tall. Unless you were counting the castle, which was a bit of a special exception. That, too, was unlike any other structures I''d seen here. But if we wanted to minimize the footprint of a building, it made sense to just go up. By the time I had added the 10th story, people had begun to take notice. I had drawn a crowd of people watching from the walls and more who had made a pilgrimage out to the work site. I had to set up walls to keep them back so they weren''t in danger in case a stone fell or anything like that. But the crowds of people watching in awe as I built my tower blocks ever higher motivated me to be a little bit more precise than I normally would. I adorned the building with some additional features and decorative irs. Between the odd cutouts and asional terraces, the architecture started to get a little borate. Around 30 stories, I started to realize there was going to be an issue with the building swaying in the wind. Topensate, I started to leave room for a specially shaped reservoir full of water, such that when the building tilted slightly, the center of mass would keep it in ce and upright. It took a long time for me to crunch all the numbers, but eventually, I got it right. At 50 stories, I stopped. This would probably be good enough. I started going through and carving out all of the necessities in each room. Theyout was fairly simple. Each had a full suite of two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Dozens of the units stood spaced on each floor. I wasn''t able to furnish everything, but I could get most of the basics done, like counters and toilets and things like that. The plumbing was already done, but of course, I hadn''t hooked it up to anything yet. I could let someone else take care of that. I was sure that the plumbers would be thrilled to take on that task, and I didn''t want to crush the burgeoning industry just yet. This process took me most of the afternoon, after which I began building the second skyscraper next door. This time, I had a much better understanding of what I was doing and was able to make it up to 55 floors. Although another thought struck me: how were people going to get to the top? I had installed a ramp -- instead of stairs, obviously -- but that did seem like quite a distance for humans to climb. Realizing my oversight, I went back in and started adding elevators to both buildings. They were all mechanical, so they could easily be powered by magic or maybe some hard work if necessary. Now, people would be able to get to the top without running up literal miles of ramps. When I finished the third tower the next day, Arthur came out to ask me what I was doing. After I had exined to him my n to house people out here, he seemed to take quite an interest. He even offered to help organize people and develop infrastructure around the buildings. It was quite nice of him. I decided to build a few more of these, then I would maybe start thinking about putting up a wall. However, I was a bit surprised by who Arthur brought me as some of the first tenants for my new buildings. It wasn''t just the people of the crowded inns that came, but instead, merchants and nobles and other people who had significant amounts of money. Evidently, they liked the idea of being up high and having a nice view. And they were willing to pay a lot for it. It wasn''t entirely the point of my endeavor. Arthur exined that we could use the funds to help the rest of our citizens. Also, I had apparently made plenty of rooms for everyone, so it wasn''t like they were kicking anyone out. It was just a matter of getting a bit of extra out of the ce. I counted it as a sess overall. Chapter 302: Wayward Son Chapter 302: Wayward Son Bee was a bit ashamed that she had taken so long to figure out her new skill. As it turned out, it wasn''t nearly as hard as she was making it out to be. It was just a lot grosser. Getting things back out had taken a little bit of practice and a few empty stomachs. But now she was able to reach into her throat and pull out pretty much anything. Luckily, her extra-dimensional storage space didn''t seem to have any negative effects on an item. Things came out just as pristine as they''d gone in. But it was progress, and even as she practiced, she felt herself improving, if barely. Her skill''s intake and exit ignored thews of physics, allowing her to storerger items than would ever actually fit down her throat. However, she still wasn''t mentally ready to actually inhale a watermelon the size of her head. For now, she contented herself with holding things like coins or other small items. She was still working her way up to a book, but that would take time. Just as she''d expected, the skill allowed her to hold as much as she could fit in a drawer that was about five cubic feet. It was a decent-sized space but nothing fabulous. As she practiced, though, she could tell that space was growing. The only real issue was that she had to keep her storage under 80% full. Otherwise, she felt like she had just stuffed herself at a feasting table for three days straight. But if she kept things to a more reasonable amount, she felt fine. However, past all that, there was something else, something more. She just knew there was something more to the skill. She could feel it. And there were some sort of hazy instructions in her mind to help her along, but she just couldn''t grasp what they meant. Not quite yet. That was fine. For now, she contented herself with practicing. The unfortunate thing was that there weren''t that many items small enough for her to fit in there. After a bit of deliberation, she ended up filling it with alchemy equipment and potions so that she''d never be without the ability to heal poisons or other things her skills didn''t cover. However, she was still hesitant about what she was attempting to swallow, so no explosive or dangerous alchemy concoctions went past her lips. Eventually, she might work up the courage to do it. But for now, with her limited experience, it just felt stupid. It had taken her a week to learn how to use the new skill, but she considered it time well spent. However, she did have to neglect a few things to get it done. Instead of returning to the capital like she should have, she sent along a message to let them know about her dy. Hopefully, things will be fine in her absence. After all, being able to use all of her skills effectively was part of being a good High Priestess. She would be doing her master a disservice if she didn''t allow herself time to practice. But even after she had gotten a rough grasp on the skill, she stayed for a couple extra days, seeing to the castle''s business. Thankfully, she found that there wasn''t even much need for that. Mary and Trent had the ce well in hand. So, really, she ended up talking to all of the people she hade to love during her time here. The old farmer Samuel and the crone Gertrude, along with so many of the Nighty Knights. The kids just demanded to hear about Void''s exploits and herparatively small role in them. She had taken to spending time with them in the orchard, telling stories and ying tag among the ridiculous fruit trees that her master had nted for the castle. By now, the saplings that had been nted several months ago were the size of 500-year oaks and bore a full harvest of fruit every week. In fact, the castle was nowhere near able to keep up with the sheer amount of fruit. They did their best to keep any from littering the ground but had evidently recruited a number of livestock to help pick up any leftover fruit. It exined theically fat pigs she''d spotted around; their skin was kept absolutely pristine. The trees are almost as ridiculous as the rest of the animal situation. Several of Cliff''s pups had grown into mostly mature wolves, but they definitely missed their mom. And evidently, they''d found a surrogate, much to a certain cat''s displeasure. As Bee wandered about the castle, she''d asionally see the cat padding about with the wolves in tow. asionally, one would get a little too yful with theparatively tiny feline and earn itself a scratch on the nose or a nipped ear. But the pups didn''t seem to mind one bit. But the cat also seemed to keep the wolves out of trouble, so people didn''t mind them wandering about. It was up to a few of the Nighty Knights to make sure they were fed, and several of them were already well on their way to forming bonds with the eerily intelligent animals, just like Tanu had. But eventually, Bee knew it was time to move on. There was only so much time she could spend talking about faith with these people who already believed as much as she did. Sure, they were reassured by her presence, but it wasn''t necessary. Everyone was progressing nicely in levels, doing their chores and keeping the castle in a shape that it hadn''t been in even when the college was active here. Everything was kept in perfect shape, all the stairs were removed, and there was not a speck of dust anywhere. With a fair amount of reluctance, Bee announced that she had to return to the capital. But before she left, there was one more thing for her to take care of. It was after the farewell dinner that she took Trent and Mary aside. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. It was something she''d put off for a bit too long. She had assured Tony''s parents that he was, in fact, alright, but she had yet to tell them about the whole story of his new ss and subsequent transformation. She still wasn''t sure if she wanted to tell them about how much danger he''d been in. More than that, though, she wasn''t quite sure how to tell them. So she''d avoided the topic maybe a little more than she should have. And frankly, it was something that just had to be addressed. She invited them to her sitting room for tea, and Trent brought a nice dessert port that they had all sampled in lieu of the caffeinated drink. Trent pounded back his first small ss and looked over at her. "Alright. What happened to Tony?" Bee blinked. "You were worried this whole time? You didn''t ask." Mary rested her hand on Trent''s bicep and shook her head. "No, dearie. We believed you when you said he was okay. Trent''s just being dramatic. But, did something happen?'' Bee winced slightly, thinking about Void''s projection of Tony''s shattered soul. "Er... yes. Something did happen." "The way you''re saying that doesn''t sound so great," Trent said as he poured himself another ss of wine. "Tony is fine! He''s okay." Bee reassured them again. "But he''s a little different. He was involved in a... pretty dangerous fight. To bepletely honest." Based on the parents'' expressions, she decided topletely gloss over the fact that he was fighting two of the most dangerous, ancient evils humanity had faced in thest several millennia. Instead, she forced herself to smile. "He just he took some unusual injuries. Void was able to help save him, but he lost some levels. And I want you to understand how serious that is." Trent and Mary exchanged nervous grants. "But you said he''s okay?" "He''s okay." Bee nodded a little more confidently this time. "He''s fully functional and will make aplete recovery. Um. However, the recovery, whileplete, is not necessarily" " Just spit it out," Trent interrupted, despite Mary''s sharp look. But Bee could hear the concern in his next words. "If he''s missing a leg or an arm, you can tell us. As long as our boy''s all right..." Trent trailed off, choking up slightly as Bee hastily spoke. "No, no, nothing like that! Nothing like that. Um. In fact, he mighte out of this even stronger than we could have ever expected. It''s just that, um, some of the abilities the new ss gave him are a bit strange." Trent and Mary both let out audible sighs of relief, shoulders rxing. After a moment, Mary tilted her head. "How so? A new ss? What do you mean by strange?" "Well, I don''t think he''d mind me telling you his ss name. His ss at level 25 is no longer a disciple of Spot or Pdin of Spot. It is now Custodian of the Beyond." "That sounds fancy," Trent said, a little bit of hope in his voice. "It is. When I left, he was still learning how to control some of his powers. But, well, he can''t walk." The parents both froze in their seats, immediately tensing up again. It took Bee a brief moment to realize what she''d said wrong. "Not because of his legs...Not because his legs don''t work! No, like I said, he''s okay! But he, er, floats everywhere," Bee finishedmely. Mary opened her mouth to react, but a loud gasp from the sitting room door caused Bee''s head to snap up. They all stopped talking and looked toward the sound. Bee got up and, in a sh, threw open the door. There were a few yelps of surprise as all five of Tony''s siblings, including the fully grown Cassie, fell forward into the room. Bee rolled her eyes at the piled heap of sisters and brothers. They all red at Leanne, who was blushing furiously. "Come in. I''m just going to tell you all anyway, but I wasn''t sure how to," Bee said with a reluctant sigh. After a moment, all five of them filed in, looking ashamed as their parents red at them. Cassie was the first to speak. "He''s okay. Right?" "Yeah, he''s okay. He''s just going to be a bit floaty, and it''s taking him some time to get used to it." *** It was several hourster into the night before Bee headed out. Luckily, she had nned to stay at that time, talking. After she had given a full ount of Tony''s changes, it had mostly turned into a celebration amongst the mostly mature adults. By the end of the night, they had finished off that port wine Trent had brought in celebration of Tony''s continued health. Bee soared over the road, her carpet carrying her several hundred feet above trees. asionally, she spotted a campfire underneath as she headed back towards the capital. She passed only a few families and caravans of travelers leaving the castle. Unsurprisingly. There was war and a zombie apocalypse. Many people hade to the castle as ast resort. Now that the undead gue was over, the kingdom was at peace, and winter was long past, which meant a lot of them could go home. However, she understood why many didn''t. The castle was amazing, and for those who had moved their whole families, they likely had nothing but a burned-down house and overgrown fields to return to. No, she could understand why so many chose to stay in the castle''snd of abundance. Only those who were looking for the rest of their families or didn''t have a reason to stay left. And that was just a handful. They left in groups of two and three, depending on their eagerness to move on to the next part of their lives. She would have liked to bring them with her, but it just wasn''t possible. She couldn''t protect them all on the trip home. Besides, she was needed elsewhere. But just in case, she scanned for dangers along the roads, making sure that a few of the more aggressive animals were encouraged to give these people a wide berth. But soon enough, the capital was on the horizon, and a familiar dark speck rose from some unfamiliar buildings and headed her way. Chapter 303: It’s Free Real Estate Chapter 303: Its Free Real Estate As soon as I felt my favorite human approach, I abandoned mytest project and soared up high in the sky, locking onto her position. I took off as fast as possible without shattering the windows, leaving a slight roar in my wake. As soon as I pulled up beside Beatrice, I excitedly started exining my most recent project. I didn''t even bother projecting anything with just the two of us. It was much more efficient for me to just exin in my normal, excitednguage of beeps. Beatrice understood it better than anyone. I told her about my newest creations, the skyscrapers that I made, and how they were going to fix all of the city''s problems. After the first ones, I had toned down the ostentatiousness a little bit so I could make them more quickly. And because of my efficiency, it was very possible that literally the entire city would be moved into the new buildings soon. Only about 10 percent wanted to move at first, but that changed once I had massively increased the number and variety of housing options. We had to slow down the move until businesses could also move or more shops could open. A halfpleted wall ringed the new clusters of sky-high buildings I''d built. I had started working on constructing the wall such that this new development would also be protected, and then I added very nice high throughput passages between the two burgeoning cities. As we neared the construction site, I immediately guided an amazed Beatrice down toward a group of people below. It wasposed of the humans I''d been working with, along with plenty more who had gathered as well. I quickly noted that Beatrice was back before shooting off, which exined therger crowd. They seemed just about as excited to see her as I was. Many of the military stood at parade rest in the center of the pce courtyard. On top of that, most of the people central to the city''s management were standing around chatting as we approached. It was clear that they hadn''t seen us yet. The second we reached the limits of their detection ranges, they all stopped talking and looked up as Beatrice, and I soared in from the sky. The soldiers snapped to attention as wended and stood up off her carpet. She gave them a salute of acknowledgment, to which they all responded in kind. But before Beatrice could so much as open her mouth, her aunt came running out of the crowd. --- Bee was a little overwhelmed. She hadn''t seen her master so excited in a long time, and trying to understand its flurry of beeps that blurred into one another had been a little bit taxing. Still, she was d the housing situation was fixed. Even if her master may have also crashed the housing market for decades. Everything she knew about real estate and business suggested that the new buildings would have far more effects than intended. Hopefully, there wouldn''t be too many issues with the bank and people not being able or willing to pay their loans on mansions. When she found out that a lot of the housing Void had made was simple and unique, she rxed. Hopefully, the mansions would still hold their value, and there wouldn''t be too much economic turmoil. It would have been better if her master had been able to build them slower and with warnings so that people could adapt to the sudden change. But she wasn''t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, as this really would solve a lot more problems than it caused. Probably. When they touched down, Bee wanted to talk to a lot of her advisors and see what work waited for her. Well, "wanted" might have been the wrong term, but she was certain there was plenty that needed her attention. But before she could move, she was interrupted by her aunt throwing her arms around her neck and squeezing her so tightly that Bee had to push back to breathe. "Oh, it''s so good to see you, Beatrice!" Her aunt eximed. "Now I''m finally getting an understanding of how you flipped the mansion so fast. It was incredible. What an amazing ability to understand the market. Your father will be so proud." Bee looked over for help, but Arthur and Susan just smiled off to the side. Meanwhile, many of the other important dignitaries and people waiting to greet her looked slightly ufortable. Bee gasped for breath. "It''s... nice to see you too... air..." Her lungs cried out in relief as her aunt pulled back. "Sorry, Beatrice. I was just so excited to see you. We really should catch up as soon as you have a moment. We have so much to talk about." Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. "Right..." Bee cleared her throat and looked around. As embarrassing as it was, Aunt Beatrix was probably a great person to go to about this skyscraper business. "Just let me handle things here. We can talk in my office." "When Lord Void built that first tower, I was just so excited." Beatrix began to exin as they walked. "But then Arthur and his other people wanted to do something silly like put all the poor people in it. Who would do that?" Bee winced. Her aunt''s tant elitism threw her off for a moment. She hadn''t really dealt with ss differences on this level for a long time and the idea that she could so casually dismiss the "poor people" like that rankled. But the woman continued on nheless. "...It was just so inefficient. Why waste a good opportunity?" Aunt Beatrix shook her head. "Sure, on the lower floors, it makes sense. But up top? All the very important wealthy friends of mine would love to have a summer home up on the top floors so they could see the amazing view. We could charge thousands of gold coins of rent a month, thousands! Then, with that money, we could build so much more! Think of the buildings, the infrastructure, the markets! Why, we''ll be able to make a skyscraper for every person if we want! If lord Void agrees, of course." Bee blinked in surprise, then smiled. Her aunt was certainly strange, but she seemed to at least have her heart in the right ce. Even if she went about it in a little bit of an odd manner. "And then, it turned out we didn''t even need to worry about that! Lord Void just made more! It was even faster for him to make more of the shorter buildings. They''re still amazingly space-efficient and don''t make you walk a mile to get up to the top. But the elevators are a nice touch, I will admit," she said, jumping from one thought to another. "Well, we still did it." "Did what?" "Why, find a bunch of rich renters and squeeze them for all they''re worth! What else?" Beatrix shot her a deceptively innocent smile. "You have one of the penthouses, by the way. Right next to mine." "What''s that?" Bee asked, pausing mid-stride. "Oh, one of the ones on the top floor, sweetie. They''re also twice the size of any of the others. They''re beautiful. You''ll really like it!" Her aunt reassured her. "When you''re not staying in the pce, that is. I mean, the view is just incredible! I''ve never seen anything like it. It''s worth the climb." Bee felt ufortable. The mansion was one thing. That had been a necessary expense for their cover story. Even the pce didn''t really feel like a home, so much as a ce she was using for convenience. But having her own private penthouse in a newly built, highly sought-after skyscraper? That felt far too rich for her. "I mean, I do have my carpet. I can just fly up if I want to get a nice view," Bee protested. Her aunt shrugged. "Yeah, but now you don''t have to! And you''ll have all sorts of other perks. Trust me, you''ll love it when you see it. Anyways, like I was saying, we don''t really need the funds for more housing, but we can put it towards a lot of food and agricultural development. We''ve managed to get people to start farming near the capital. We''ll be food-independent by the next harvest or the harvest after if we''re a little unlucky." Bee nodded. It was good news, but she expected that her aunt was underestimating Void once again. If her master decided to help out on that front next, they''d have more food than they could manage well before that. At least if the castle''s orchards were any indicators. They finally got into her office with her aunt trailing her, along with a dozen other people who were listening in on their conversation. Bee shot a pleading look back over at Arthur, but he just shrugged, indicating that her aunt was something that she''d have to deal with on her own. Bee decided to distract her, deciding that it was the only way to ever deal with her. "I didn''t know you''d be so involved in kingdom matters." "Oh, yes. I''m your treasurer now," Beatrix said. "None of these people understand money nearly enough to make any kind of policy. Not like a real merchant does. And Lord Void asked me to help." "Really?" Bee looked at her master with surprise. "Why?" "Evidently, I''ve impressed him." Beatrix grinned proudly. "I''m pretty good at math for a human, among other things." Bee looked over at her master, who beeped in agreement and approval of Aunt Beatrix. Bee sighed and rubbed her forehead. She was stilling to ept that there may have been some misunderstandings with her family from when she was younger, but her aunt was a lot. A lot more than she remembered. Like a lot, a lot. The idea of working with her on a daily basis... "Okay," she said, thinking. "Alright. Then, we need to talk a lot more in detail. I need to figure out what you''re actually doing and--" "Oh, yes. Don''t worry. We''ll have tea tomorrow morning. Now, there are other things I want to talk to you about," Beatrix continued on. Bee once again looked over at Arthur with pleading eyes. His haggard gaze and exhausted smile told her that she was really on her own this time. Chapter 304: Another Brick In The Wall Chapter 304: Another Brick In The Wall It turned out that the things Beatrix wanted to talk about were actually rather useful. While she was gone, the city itself had done well enough, but there was arger kingdom as a whole to worry about. Already, a lot of the kingdom''s systems were starting to fracture without the leadership they were used to. Some of the duchies had started to make aggressive moves against each other, and it was clear that someone powerful would need toe in and regain control from the top of the feudal pyramid. If they didn''t take action soon, then there would be a civil war within the kingdom, and it would likely splinter. Arthur was responsible for a lot of the military expertise underlying these predictions, but Beatrix contributed an awful lot herself. Talking about the value of trade between various areas, the consequences of it breaking down, and what resources were provided by key cities gave Bee a far clearer picture of the situation. A picture that made it quite clear that inaction would lead to a generally terrible time for everyone and even affect the neighboring countries. A lot of information came from Susan and the Warden as well. They had been working on repairing their intelligencework but had repurposed it slightly to gather more general intelligence. By the time everyone headed off for the evening, it was pretty obvious what she had to do. It wasn''t going to be easy, but she needed to go and stop at pretty much every major city or stronghold of the kingdom and secure their allegiance. It would be hard to justify bringing Void along everywhere, which didn''t bode well for her. At the end of the day, a young girl dering herself queen and demanding fealty wasn''t the most intimidating sight, though maybe she could leverage her high level somehow. But she would make do with whatever support her master provided. Beatrix suggested that they go to Aliel first - her aunt''s home city and the ce where Bee had grown up. She said she had connections with the governor, and they would likely be able to at least get a proper meeting without anything too aggressive happening. However, Bee was a bit hesitant. As logical as it seemed, she knew that she wouldn''t be able to visit the ce without meeting her father again. It was inescapable. And she wasn''t sure that she was ready for that. But Arthur was insistent that it was also the most strategically important city on the list. Its close proximity, huge poption, and bustling port all made the city valuable to keep and dangerous to lose. The capital itself wasndlocked, but this city was not. Keeping ess to it would give them the ability to move troops around their country much more quickly. Even more so if they could maintain the kingdom''s navy. If they couldn''t, then they could always build more ships in theing year or two. Maybe sooner if Void agrees to help. It left Bee with a lot to think about when she went to bed that night. Void had stayed with them the whole time, asionally contributing ament but mostly just slowly wandering around the room polishing the stone. She was certain that her master had more important things to do, but she was grateful for itspany and support. It seemed that her master had missed her just as much as she missed it. As shey down to sleep, the list of things to do sprawled before her. Not just the ones she''d heard in the meeting but also other matters she''d brought back from her own trip. Many of the people who were living at the castle were quite ready to go home. The kids, their mothers, and even some of the soldiers wanted to return to the capital. She had agreed that they could put together a traveling party and escort them back. She sighed. Her brief vacation was officially over. There were just so many things she needed to do tomorrow, but she pushed him all out of her head and closed her eyes. Hopefully, she''d get one more night of good rest. As she drifted off to sleep, she heard a slight whirring. The nkets shifted around her, seeming to tuck themselves under her chinfortingly. She smiled. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. --- I stayed around Beatrice until she had fallen asleep. It was good to have her back, really. And not just because it meant I could leave the administrative things to her, either. I hadn''t realized quite how much I enjoyed tucking her in at night. But now, I had plenty of other things to take care of. If we might be leaving the city for a while, then there were some things that I wanted to finish up beforehand. First and foremost was a project that had taken me several days to even get as far as I had. My pace was slightly disappointing, but with the scale of it, well, a bit of extra time was expected. The wall around my skyscrapers needed to bepleted. Building the buildings was easy, but the wall? That I had taken a little bit more time to perfect. I didn''t want to rush it and leave it vulnerable to concentrated attacks. It had to be at least as good as the one we''d built around the castle if I wanted any peace of mind. That''s not to say that the buildings themselves were weak. I''d made them built tost. But if someone like Daedalus wanted to tear them down, there wasn''t much I could do to stop that kind of power and still build them efficiently. Hence why I wanted to focus on the wall. I had fixed the center of every stone I had used, aligning their internal and exterior structures into perfectttices. They would take impact from any direction without cracking. I had carved them so they slot together seamlessly, their cores interlocking. I even covered them with my sent so that no weathering would take ce. Even I would be extremely pressed to even scratch the wall. But this all took time and very careful nning. I even leveraged my dustbin to improve the rocks further. I ran some tests and figured out the optimal amount of time in my dustbin. Just 3.14 minutes inside, they improved their strength by a massive factor, changing their structure to be even more stable and orderly. It also let me shape them more easily in some cases. It took a lot of focus to mass-produce them, but then the end result was worth it. It was a difficult task, but if I put my processors to it, I was sure that I could finish it up today or maybe tomorrow. Then, I''d be ready to leave the day after, and no one would have to worry about an assault on the city in our absence. However, my various building projects did bring another issue to light: I had exhausted all the readily avable supplies of stone near the city when building the towers. Now, the small mountain that had previously existed off to the side was carved down t, and anything else I needed would have to be dug out of the ground. That was just a recipe for disaster, not to mention eyesores. I considered carving another reservoir out from underneath the city. Still, there didn''t seem to be a purpose for one, not with the waste and water taken care of. And honestly, I was getting a little bit concerned about damaging the structural integrity of the ground. So far, I''d be fine, but I didn''t want to push it too much. So I had to transport stones from a long way away. Worse, I had to work with a few at a time if I didn''t want to risk overdoing it in my dustbin. The few times I had left stones in for too long, they became almost impossible to build with. Either they transformed into solid crystals, or they became strangely insubstantial like projections that my w would pass through. A few even exploded violently the second that I took them out of the dustbin. It was less predictable than I liked. As I worked with these rocks, a lot of the Convergence of the Faithful helped me out quite a bit. Jewel cutter skills helped me maintain the crystals, and stonemason skills helped me pick the best and mostplete rocks to save time and energy. Soon enough, I was able to quarry them away with a simple activation of a very basic skill. That didn''t involve taking too much energy, and I was able to carry ten times my usual carrying weight with my w thanks to many of the manualbor sses, their skills stacking on top of each other. It made everything much quicker and easier, but still, There was just so much to do manually. I workedte into the night until the sun was peeking over the horizon. As its rays reflected off of the polished stone, I evaluated the beautiful wall that I had almostpleted. I felt satisfied. It was good enough that I could leave if I needed to, but not quite as good as I would like. There were a few more finishing touches it needed. I checked in with Beatrice to see what she had to say. Maybe, if she was going to stay and work for the day before we headed out, I would work on adding some of those guard towers that I nned. Now, those would be a sight to behold. I had a few crystals that would make excellent decorations... Chapter 305: “Diplomacy” Chapter 305: Diplomacy I had more than enough time to finish the wall. We didn''t leave the next day or even the one after that. There was apparently a lot Beatrice had to take care of, which was fine with me. I even had time to add decorative filigree on all the crions along the wall, as well as those towers made of perfect crystal. They each rose 50% higher than the wall. There were also a few custom additions requested. With Arthur''s suggestion, I mounted massive siege ballistae and trebuchets in an alternating pattern every twenty yards. That would allow excellent point defense from any portion of the wall. I also made sure that the ballistae could aim up in case there was any sort of flying attack. We would still be vulnerable to somethinging directly down from the top of the city. But for now, that was ok. I''d add defenses that could deal with that in some other way. A way that wouldn''t result in ballistae bolts and trebuchet rocks falling back into the city. I was just contemting adding more color to the wall when Beatrice found me. Evidently, it was time. Sadly, we weren''t flying because there weren''t enough people in the delegation who could fly. Arthur was alsoing along with a contingent of a thousand soldiers, which was not enough to take the city, he imed. At least not on their own. I had my doubts about how much everyone had been levelingtely. Their main purpose was to prevent any sort of attack from being sessful against us. As for our otherpanions, we had a few. Beatrice, of course, wasing, and so was her aunt Beatrix. We left behind Susan, the Warden, and Tony to take care of things In the capital. In fact, Tony had a voyage of his own to embark on. He had mostly organized all the people in the capital who wanted to go back to the castle. We deemed that he had regained enough control over his powers and surprising newbat abilities that he, along with apany of soldiers, could make the trek himself. ording to Beatrice, it would even kill two birds with one stone if he escorted people back as well. That obviously wasn''t the only reason he wanted to go, though. Beatrice had told him how much his parents and siblings missed him, and Tony felt that it was time to return home. Susan and the Warden would maintain order in our stead. Harold, though, wasing with us. Beatrice wasn''t exactly ecstatic about that, but the Warden assured her that Harold would be excellent for maintaining our contacts with any sort of agents or information brokers if we needed them. He could help us learn about what was going on in the city while also aplishing a few missions of his own. It took a bit of convincing, but she agreed. "I don''t think it''s necessary," Beatrice argued. "Even if something unexpected does happen, we are more than prepared." "Better to be safe than sorry," The Warden replied. "He will not trouble you, I promise. Besides, he has his own missions toplete in the area as well. Ones rted to that demon-worshiping group you mentioned." Evidently, the Warden had been hard at work digging into that particr matter. Unfortunately, theirwork hadn''t managed toe up with anything yet. It was a little worrisome. They weren''t our only options, but they were some of the better ones. Archibald and Daedalus were also tracking the Lieutenants down. Still, the dragon obviously couldn''t go into the city on a stealth mission. And while Archibald was a certainly capable fighter, his knowledge of the current world and its customs was certainlycking. He might not be able to blend in well enough and certainly didn''t have the contacts to get any sort of real information. This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Still, things seem to be under control for the most part. And before long, our little diplomatic party was underway. I mostly flew ahead, improving the road as we went to improve our travel efficiency. But I had done this enough that it was a half-hearted effort. Not to say that I produced anything but high-quality work, of course. But it required less than 30% of my attention to creating a perfect cobble road, leveled, gradient textured and sloped to prevent water from pooling on it. Each one wouldst, by my estimations, almost 2000 years of standard wear and tear. No one was exactly surprised by this since most of the soldiers had gotten quite used to my little projects, except for Beatrix, who was appropriately excited. "Think about it! All the potential money we can save on shipping! We just need awork like this throughout the entire kingdom!" Her enthusiasm did make my bristles puff up a little in pride. It was always nice to have people appreciate my work. At some point, once we had enough time and stability, I fully intended to build more roads. I could connect all the major cities, probably the entire kingdom, too. It would just take a bit of time. Of course, roads weren''t the only way to travel. Maybe I could work on improving transport in other areas as well. But judging based on how excited Beatrix was, this would do a lot of good for a lot of people. At the very least, it was an easy way for me to help out and bring a bit more order to the world. They went back and forth a bit about monopolies, caravans, fluctuations and reductions in the costs of goods, and other such economic stuff I didn''t have much interest in. But at the end of the day, it sounded like nice roads were an overall good. During the night, I explored the area around us, wandering through the forests while still keeping within the microphone range of the camp so that I could hear anything going wrong. But this left me arge enough radius where I could find some pretty cool things. There were a few caverns. I tidied up plenty of shrubs and overgrown grasses that I trimmed. I even met a bear and her cubs. She was not exactly very polite, especially considering that I was cleaning up her home. Still, she was fine once I gave her some space. I also found some strange magical energiesing from a small circle of mushrooms. When I stopped to examine them more closely, I could see little butterfly-like creatures flitting from one to another. I watched for some time before they became aware of my presence and zipped under the ground to hide. It was just fascinating. The days passed, and I had plenty of time to rx and catch up with my friends. But soon enough, we arrived. The city loomedrge on the horizon, boasting almost as impressive a skyline as the capital did. Severalrge buildings dominated the city, towering over theparatively imperfect city wall, and I could see a faint haze of wood smoke rising up as morning fires were being lit. As we approached the city, the gates opened, and a long column of guards wearing shining breasttes rode out on horses. A full 192 of them. They made their way at a trot towards us. Arthur called a halt a few hundred yards away from the city and waited for the guards to reach us. Our soldiers formed ranks, but no one made any threatening moves. No weapons were drawn or anything like that, which I appreciated. Despite all the fighting I had dely, I still didn''t like it all too much. Especially not the idea of humans fighting humans. The guards stopped 20.41 yards away from us, then split into two columns as a man rode up between them. He was on the shorter side at 5''2", balding, with a decent amount of pudge around his waist but a serious face and an ink stain on the tip of his nose. When he got halfway between his guards and us, he stopped and dismounted. Mypanions talked to each other briefly before Beatrice and her aunt walked out to meet him. I watched from a distance, content to let the humans do their politicking. But after a couple of minutes of exchanging words, the governor, the pudgy man, went to one knee and kissed the back of Beatrice''s hand before she pulled them back to his feet. I froze. My predictive models indicated that there was an 89.7% chance this was a good thing. But thatst 10.3%... ...This couldn''t be a proposal, right? Chapter 306: The Beach Episode Chapter 306: The Beach Episode Bee walked into the city ahead of a small contingent of her people. To her surprise, the city guards were already hard at work, clearing a path through the busy streets toward the governor''s mansion. Arthur, having left his second in charge of setting up camp outside the city walls, brought a squad of bodyguards along, but they were almost entirely unneeded. The only time one of them had to act was to help move a cart out of the way. The guards were very proficient at clearing the path, and soon, they were in a meeting room with the governor. Aunt Beatrix and Arthur wasted no time diving into matters of trade, vassge, and other political imports. Bee was more than happy leaving that to her treasurer. Honestly, she might be able to do a half-decent job at negotiating this stuff herself, but her aunt would do far better. Besides, at Bee''s level of power, it was better to sometimes sit in the back and be intimidating rather than actually do any of the detailed work. The idea the city had so easily surrendered to her and acknowledged her as ruler was still a bit concerning to Bee. On one hand, it was good that there wasn''t going to be any conflict, but on the other, it further solidified her own personal status as ruler. It should have been Void, or at least the church as a whole, but no. It was her personal authority being recognized. Maybe she was just worrying about details, but it made her a little ufortable. When she was younger, she thought she knew everything. But now that she had turned 14 and had a little bit more experience, she realized there was still so much she needed to learn. Despite all the books she''d read and things she''d gone through, all it had done was show her how little she really knew. She was feeling a little bit overwhelmed. But as much as it felt like she was still fumbling blindly, she knew things would work out. By the grace of Void, if nothing else. Besides, that''s why she had so many advisors. To help support her in areas where she needed it. As the conversation continued, Bee realized that she hadn''t seen her master in a while. She looked around and even checked under the desk, much to the governor''s confusion, but couldn''t find Void anywhere. Confused, she focused on her connection with her master and found that Void was still nearby, at least. But that gave her little to no clue what her god was up to. --- I snuck away as the group headed towards the city hall. I needed to find out more about this governor, man. I didn''t trust him, and any intention he had towards Beatrice seemed weird. While the others talked, I hid myself in the mansion, sneaking about to investigate this matter. There, I found a middle-aged woman and several young children being cared for by a nanny and a few servants as she ran the house. I thoroughly investigated the house and found a painting with the same woman standing next to the governor, children gathered around their knees. That made no sense. Did he have a wife and kids already? If that was the case, I had to be misunderstanding something. Based on what I knew, a kiss usually meant something very intimate among humans. I had assumed that a kiss on the back of the hand was no different. But maybe it was? I had never seen anyone do that before. So, it''s very possible that I was massively misunderstanding. Then again, I was pretty good at understanding humans by this point. Surely I couldn''t make that big of a false assumption? I left the governor''s house undisturbed and instead scanned the city for books. Whatever books I could find. I found a public library, snuck in through an open window, and began roaming between the stacks. I scanned the shelves for any books on human etiquette, but it was too broad of a search. Dating advice for young people, however, gave a few more matches. Scanning through them, none of them mentioned anything about kissing the back of the hand. I was relieved but not entirely satisfied. It seemed that I had, in fact, made a misunderstanding, but that didn''t mean I understood what had happened at all. And I really wanted to get to the bottom of it. The third sort of term I searched for was noble etiquette. I eventually found a book that exined noble etiquette to young scions of noble houses. I read through it quickly and realized that I had, in fact, found what I was looking for. It appeared that a kneel and kiss to the back of the hand usually signified a greeting from a lesser noble to a higher female noble, sometimes a male noble, depending on the circumstance. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition. Finally, I was able to rx. I had an answer. I quickly took in the rest of the book just in case it helped me avoid further misunderstandings. The contents baffled me. These customs were quiteplicated. Why did humans make everything unnecessarilyplex? Not to mention inefficient. With their processing power and memory, I wasn''t sure how anyone was meant to keep this all in their head. Well, at least that was done. My mind at ease, I left to go explore the city. *** Beatrice''s meeting with the governor only took a few hours. It was a rather fruitful one, judging by how pleased the group was. But after they were done, she told me that she needed to go do something that she had been dreading for a very long time. It was time for her to talk to her father. Now, I wasn''t really sure why that was such an intimidating thing, but I wasing along for moral support. She seemed to appreciate it, at least. We made our way to the edge of the city, near the water. It was past the port district, which I had already spent a decent amount of my spare time cleaning up. The ce had been simply uneptable with its salt residue and barnacle-encrusted surfaces. No, we headed towards a wealthier area that had homes looming over the few feet of rocky coastline. One home stood out among the crowd, however. And as luck would have it, that was the home we were heading for. I looked at it aghast. The ocean itself was a problem that I hadpartmentalized, shoving to the back of my mind for the sheer immensity of it. It was something I''d have toe back to. The rocky coastline was only barely eptable, given that it was smooth stone. The algae and residue on it wouldn''t be too hard to clean off. But between sections of rocks, right below the house in question, a single stretch of coastline had beenpletely smoothed over and filled with sand. Sand. It was aplete desecration. Sure, sand and dirt and everything were naturally urring, and to some extent, I had to ept that. But this was clearly an intentional move. To take sand and move it to somece that didn''t have it in the first ce? Why? Clearly, this sand in the water wasn''t natural. And even worse, it was being reced. In order for it to still be here, despite the water washing it away, it had to be reced constantly. Someone had been intentionally making a mess of the coastline, and this would have to be fixed. My focus zeroed in on the crisis in front of me. Beatrice went up to the house, presumably to talk to the owner about what a horrible thing they''d done. I was sure we would get around to talking to her fatherter, but first, I went to fix this monstrosity. At first, I considered just hoovering the whole mess up and moving it back to a ce that was more eptable. But that wasn''t going to be enough. This was too deliberate. Too tant. I had to ensure that no one could do this again. No one would simply rece the sand once again. And so, seeing no other solution, I began to let loose with myser. My full-powered sanitationmp heated up the particles of sand until they were thousands of degrees, turning them into liquid. The molten material flowed together as I moved along, my pace ensuring that it cooled off almost instantly while maintaining the same shape. As I worked, I ttened the surface, leaving attractive whorls and ripples in its surface to show just how much better a floor was than something like loose sand. It took me almost half an hour, but using myser at the highest power, I was able to melt the beach into a perfectly preserved monument for the folly of man. Through the crystal-clear ss, you could see where the natural rocks beneath theyer of sand had been shifted so that it was more of a t surface rather than craggy. But despite having been shifted, their rugged beauty still shone through. The dark ck shimmered underneath a freshly made six-to-twelve inches of solid ss. There were no sharp points; everything was well-rounded, so people could walk on it without hurting themselves. While it normally would have been quite smooth and unsteady to walk on, I had managed to texture it subtly enough to alleviate that issue. I did make some other very minor changes to the topology of the now entirely ss beach. Obviously, I designed channels to ensure that any water from the ocean would drain awaypletely and avoid pooling in my project. It''d be best if it was regrly cleaned regardless to rinse the salt off, and this would make that easier. I let out a long beep of relief. Finally, that catastrophe was taken care of. Now I needed to go find Beatrice. Hopefully, she was done giving the owner of this ce a stern talking to, and we could go find her father. I zipped up and over and through an open window of the house to find Beatrice sitting down across arge oval table. Across from her lounge was a stocky man with a well-trimmed gray beard and eyes the same color as Beatrice''s. They sat as far as possible from each other across the table, a teapot sitting between them and two cups that seemed untouched. asionally, one would speak, but the situation generally looked quite odd. When I came in and waved to the two of them, Beatrice brightened. "Ah! Master, this is my father. Father, this is Lord Void." I stopped and stared. Chapter 307: That’s the Tea Chapter 307: Thats the Tea The familiar sight of Bee''s family home loomed in front of her like a dragon guarding a pile of gold. It was a fairly aptparison, she knew, after seeing Daedalus up close. She walked down the paved path to the front door and raised the knocker. An instant after it fell, the family''s butler, Chives, opened the door and weed her with a bow. "Miss Beatrice. Your father is expecting you." Bee nodded, somehow not surprised, as she stepped in and carefully rubbed the soles of her shoes against the mat. As she cleaned off her feet, she nced around the entryway. It was different from how she remembered it. She couldn''t quite put her finger on why. Has the decor changed? Or was it something else? Once she was ready, Chives led her deeper into the mansion. As they walked, her gaze roved across the walls and ceiling, taking in the mostly familiar opulent furnishings. They passed the parlor where her father often entertained groups of guests. Bee stopped in her tracks. The family portrait of her, her mother, and her father had been taken down from over the firece. The portrait that had been there for as long as she remembered. It wasn''t just that, either. The more she looked around, the more she realized what had seemed so off: every trace of her mother that she could recall had vanished as if they had been scrubbed from the mansion. Bee took in a deep breath and wiped her sweating palms on her shirt. Her aunt had insisted that it would be best for her to talk to her father alone, that they may have some things they needed to work out "father to daughter." But every time Bee thought about thepetition toe, her mouth went a little dry. Licking her lips, she shook her head. No, she was Void''s high priestess. She answered to a higher power now. It wasn''t her father who was going toe in and order her around. She ruled the city. She ruled the country. She shouldn''t be scared of one merchant, no matter who he was. Even if he was incredibly powerful and had been arger-than-life figure throughout her formative years. Bee took a deep breath and turned to see Chives had waited for her. Moving on, they quickly arrived in front of a door down the hall. Out of sheer habit, The door to the sitting room went and sat down in the little alcove Chives had indicated for her. It was like she had never left. Chives bowed again. "I will go inform the master that you are here." Bee drummed her fingers on her knee in thought, trying to suppress any feelings of anxiety or worry as she waited. Only five minutester, Chives returned with yet another bow. "Your father will see you now. He''ll await you in the sitting room for tea." Bee blinked in surprise and stood up. She had spaced off, staring at the wall as she waited, but it couldn''t have been more than five minutes. That was unusual. Normally, it was much longer. Her father had a policy of making anyone wait at least 15 minutes if he was pleased to see them. And if he was upset, sometimes he would be "busy" for an hour or longer. Bee wasn''t sure if he had changed his practices or wanted to get this meeting over just like her. But it, if anything, made her even more anxious, as now she didn''t know what to expect. They walked down a couple of hallways and went into the sitting room where Father always met important people. As they arrived, Bee stopped in the doorway for a beat and stared. He hadn''t changed much. Her father had maybe a little bit more gray in his short beard. But his hair was still neatly trimmed, his face craggy with frown lines and sun exposure. Despite his desk job, his shoulders still looked as wide as any two men put together, and he towered over her as he stood behind his chair. Hisrge forearm muscles were balled up as he held his chair back, looking at her with apletely impassive face. But she thought she might be able to hear the wood creaking underneath his hands. Quickly, she ran a Scan on him. The results made her blink. How did her father get to level 45? That was nuts. And his lowest stat was Charisma? That didn''t make any sense. "Daughter," he said with a slight incline of her head. She returned to the incline, matching its angle precisely. "Father," "Would you like some tea?" He asked. Bee nodded without saying anything. Chives pulled out her chair for her, and she sat. As her father seated himself, Chives poured some tea and then went to stand over just outside the door. Not within hearing range of their conversations, but close enough to call for. Bee lifted the teacup and sniffed at it. Her father didn''t touch his at all and just watched her. She ced it back down. It was the incredibly expensive kind, the kind that he used to show off to people. She had vague memories of her mother all but spitting the stuff out and her father exining that it was not about the taste but the message it sent. Bee had to agree with her mother. From experience, she knew it was disgusting. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. The silence stretched on for over a minute before her father looked away from her face. He looked down at his tea and cleared his throat. "So, Beatrice," he said, in his always measured and calm voice, "how was the Academy?" She blinked. She wasn''t sure how to respond, and it took her a solid 20 seconds before she thought of something to say. Her father kept looking down at his tea with the infinite patience he always seemed to have when he was having a conversation with someone. "I mopped floors for two years," she eventually said. Her father looked up sharply. "What?" Bee repeated himself. "I mopped their floors for two years. Well, until things changed." The teacup in Father''s hands trembled slightly, but his face never changed. The little emotion in his voice vanished as he called out. "Chives,e here." Bee barely managed to avoid flinching, but the carefully hidden wrath wasn''t meant for her. Chives appeared at their table as her father wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to him. "Clear my schedule for tomorrow. I have people to talk to." Chives bowed without saying a word, taking the piece of paper and leaving. She heard the door shut behind him. Her father breathed in deeply a couple more times before speaking. "Why didn''t you write about this?" Bee was once again caught off guard by that question. Why would she? She hadn''t written at all, and neither had he. And at the time, she truly hadn''t thought he''d cared. She still wasn''t entirely sure whether her aunt was simply being optimistic about her father actually wanting her to learn magic, but regardless. Should she haveined about where he sent her? Clearly, she was being sent away to learn to do something, and she wasn''t doing it well. Wouldn''t writing about the matter just reinforce that, show her father that she was a failure? He spoke again. "Actually, never mind that. Why didn''t you fix it? I taught you better." Bee opened her mouth to respond, but she didn''t get a chance. Her father kept on speaking with uncharacteristic speed. "You should know how to take care of yourself. You shouldn''t ept cleaning floors when you''re supposed to be learning magic. What excuse did you have?" Once again, Bee felt a familiar sensation bubble up inside her. The frustration at her father''sck of understanding. It welled up, threatening to spill over, but she bit her tongue. She didn''t want to say anything that she would regret. What had he expected of her? At the time, she was 11. But then she stopped and thought a little bit. Maybe he wasn''t just being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. He clearly didn''t know how to show emotions properly, but at the same time, he believed in her. He truly thought that she could have ovee any challenge. And that was that meant something. Still, it was hard to push the feeling aside. Bee took in a deep breath and focused on the clean floors beneath her. The meditations that the followers of Void sometimes practiced ran through her mind. After calming herself, she let out a deep sigh. "Maybe you did. You have taught me a lot," she said. "And I''ve certainly learned a lot more in the past year and had to grow in ways I never would have believed." Her father picked up his cup of tea and sniffed it before putting it back down. She thought she could read a slight rxing of his brow when she had said that. "I heard you had some business in the capital." Her father said after a few more awkward moments. That was perhaps the understatement of the century. "I hear you have be somewhat important in the new government. It was so important that they sent you as part of the emissary group to consolidate its rule. I''d like to hear about this." "Uh, what have you heard exactly?" He waved his hand. "Rumors. Many from people I would normally believe, but these are such oundish rumors that I couldn''t count them as credible. I would have to hear it from you." So it wasn''t that he hadn''t heard. He just didn''t believe it. Honestly, she wasn''t too surprised. She wouldn''t believe it either. "Well," Bee began slowly," my official title is High Priestess of the Church of the Cleansing Void." Bee paused to take in a deep breath, the weight of her responsibility settling on her shoulders along with the old desire to meet her father''s expectations. "But I am also in charge of the day-to-day running of the Kingdom." Her father''s eyes twitched slightly. "Beatrice," he said. "Yes, father?" "Did you say you were in charge of running the Kingdom?" She nodded. "I did, father." The man froze, going even more still than before. His words came out slowly and strangely. "What do you mean by that?" "I mean that I''m acting regent. So... I''m the queen, I suppose." "May I get some more detail on how this situation came to be?" he said in the same monotone voice. Bee nodded. "Certainly, it began with a summoning gone wrong" Sheunched into the tale, summarizing much and skipping over many of the more fantastical parts but still hitting all the highlights. It took her a solid fifteen minutes or so to finish, which honestly felt like too short for such aplicated story. But afterward, they sat in silence as her father digested it. Every couple of minutes, he would ask her a calm, well-thought-out question. Sometimes, she''d have to think to answer. Sometimes, they''d be simple points of rification. But she didn''t press him as they both sat. She even took a couple sips of the tea, though she immediately regretted it each time. Even the little bit of sugar that she had added from the pot in the center hadn''t helped it at all. And now it was cold, which made things even worse. Eventually, though, she was saved from the awkward silence as a familiar dark shape flew into the room. "Ah!" she said with a smile. ''Master, this is my father. Father, this is Lord Void." Chapter 308: A Royal Flush Chapter 308: A Royal Flush I stared at the father-daughterbo. Well. That was unexpected. Still, it made me even more proud of Beatrice. She had been so afraid of talking to her father, and yet here she was, reprimanding him for his mess. The man looked sufficiently chastened, so I wouldn''t reprimand him too much, but I did want to express my displeasure. So I beeped at Beatrice. Normally, I would have simply projected my message, but I hoped that Beatrice would be able to make it more polite than I might''ve. Also, hearing the words from her might help to enforce her authority here. "I cleaned up the disastrous mess outside," I stated firmly. Beatrice frowned, then paled. "Uh, yes, master," she said before turning to her father. "Void says that it, er, cleaned up the mess outside." The man stopped staring at me and shot a nce toward his daughter. Her father frowned. "A mess? Outside?" Beatrice flinched slightly. "I think it means your beach." Father stood up suddenly. "What?" "Let''s go see," she said, leading the way out of the room. Her father followed close behind. I could tell that, despite his sedate pace, there was a certain tension in his body. He obviously wanted to rush ahead to see what had happened. I continued exining the situation to Beatrice as we moved. Not just how I''d cleaned up the beach but also my sheer frustration at the intentionality of it being there. Really, who would want to build a field of dirt like that? A few momentster, I swooped onto the veranda overlooking the ss monument to bad decisions. It sparkled attractively in the sunlight As the pair joined me on either side. "What happened?" Beatrice muttered. "Master how?" Her father just stared nkly, but I could see the corners of his mouth twitching. I began projecting words above my head. "I converted it into something better." Afterward, I exined with a slideshow of images how I''d melted the sand and then guided it, using my sanitationmp and air to cool it quickly. But as I continued to showcase my process, Beatrice''s face just went even more pale. We all stayed there in silence for a long while until she eventually turned to her father. "Father..." she began, her voice oddly strained. "I''m... sorry." "Sorry? Why are you sorry?" Beatrice''s father finally broke his silence. "This is incredible." I saw a smile appear on his face for approximately 0.47 seconds before he quickly wiped it away, stoic once more. I wasn''t sure if Beatrice had noticed, but she looked bewildered. "Butfather," she began. "You spent so much money and effort to maintain the beach." He shook his head. "You''re correct. However, the beach is just like the tea. It''s not so much that I enjoyed the beach or that I enjoyed the tea, but the price and rarity of each is a status symbol. It is a strategic investment that allows me to ess many clients and vendors that I wouldn''t otherwise be able to reach. It also reassures investors that I have enough financial cushion to get them their investments back." The man turned to face Beatrice more fully. "It''s all about maintaining an image. And now?" He spread out a hand. "This must be the only ss beach in the entire world. No one''s even considered a thing, much less had the resources to make it happen. No one will know how I managed to do it or how much it cost. And if they ever do figure it out, they''ll just be even more amazed. Why, it''s going to up my influence considerably." Beatrice''s father turned toward the entryway and tapped his finger on the railing twice. "Chives! Get me Shoot. I forgot that he''s out. I''ll need to tell him to bring up some of our contracts for renegotiation." Now it was Beatrice''s turn to go still. Honestly, this wasn''t the reaction I was expecting. I mean, I was d that her father appreciated the improvement, of course. His ability to recognize a vastly superior product redeemed him a bit in my book. But Beatrice seemed pretty surprised still. "I... guess that makes sense," she admitted eventually. "I''m just... d that you''re not annoyed, I guess." Stolen story; please report. He shrugged. "Not much I can do about it. But might as well turn it to my advantage." We went back inside, and I inspected the rest of the house while the two of them chatted for a bit longer. I have to say, I definitely approved of whoever had maintained it. I had expected the worst after the beach debacle, but this was excellent. If this was the standard he kept at home, then it was no wonder that Beatrice was so orderly herself. The conversation was still awkward and stilted, but it flowed slightly more naturally, with a maybe 8.4% reduction in silence by the time that Beatrice and I needed to go. It really started to sound more like two people having a conversation once they started talking about tax policies, but otherwise, it was almost painfully awkward. But it was getting better. I didn''t go back to that house over the week that our entourage was in the city taking care of business. Instead, I busied myself carving out a sewer system. I wouldn''t have time to do the full rework of everything - fixing the streets, recing windows, and getting water running - but a sewer system was the next best thing. Based on my calctions, it did the most to keep a city clean and people healthy. And it was something I could aplish in a week. The bare basics weren''t too bad, but hooking it up to each house and waste center took a little bit of time. By far, the most time-consuming part was exining to people what I was doing in their houses and that I wasn''t trying to hurt anyone, just make their lives a little better. That, and instructing them how to use and maintain the new systems. Once they understood what was going on, things progressed very simrly to how they''d gone in the capital. A new profession was created, and teams of people went through the sewers, making sure everything was in order, dealing with blockages and any critters that got in, monstrous or otherwise. In fact, many of the initial jobs were taken up by the low-level adventurers who otherwise hadn''t had much to do recently. Eventually, though, our time came to an end. We left behind some soldiers to maintain order and establish a corridor of information, along with patrols back and forth between the capital and the city. Then, we headed to our next stop. We didn''t go right back to the capital but to the next city on the coast. As we marched, I fixed up the road again and asionally would go off to investigate interesting points around the area. At one point, I found a cave full of glowing crystals a quarter mile underground. There was a long, winding passage to get down to it, but I left some markers for humans to follow and decided I would file a quest with the Adventurers'' Guild in the next city so that they could go explore it. It seemed like an interesting ce to have an adventure. After that, it only took three days for us to arrive in the next port city. This time, the acquisition went a little less smoothly. In the end, the governor surrendered and "bent the knee," as Arthur put it, but it had taken a little bit of a show of force - surrounding the city and making it look like we were setting up for a siege. Whether or not they would actually go through with it, I wasn''t sure, but it sure frightened the governor enough that he capitted. The merchants were very happy with the road we had built, so there weren''t too manyints afterward. Apparently, news of us had arrived not long after we did, via ship from the town we had just left, and news of the improvements we made was also received well. It helped things a lot. We spent another week there, and I built another sewer system. I was getting a little bit faster at the process, but training the people wasn''t bing any easier. I needed to find a better way of doing that. We moved on, and the cycle repeated with several more cities. Eventually, I figured out the best way to train people with the sewer system was to bring some of the people I had trained in the previous city with us, and they would help set up the sewerwork while I could focus on building it. I hadn''t expected that too many people would be up for the job, but apparently, there were more than enough eager participants. Especially after Beatrice talked to them about ss changes. By the fourth city, I finished the sewers in three days - a new record! With all of my extra time, I started procuring running water for this city. I wasn''t going to be able to hook it up to everyone''s house, not even close, but I was able to rece most of the well systems so that all themunity centers had ess to fresh running water. Stuff that wouldn''t likely be contaminated like wells could be. If the plumbing profession ever got out of the capital, they could also work onying enough pipe to get it sorted into every house. If not, I could alwayse backter. We continued on, staying a week in each city and spending roughly a week traveling between them until summer wasing to an end. The weather was beginning to turn colder, making traveling much, much slower. And so, we turned back toward the capital. By now, we had made a crisscrossing canvas of roads all throughout the kingdom. We hadn''t even visited half of the major cities yet, but a good portion of thework was fully established, and trade routes had been drastically shortened. Beatrix was absolutely ecstatic. We took advantage of the nice roads and made our way back to the capital at a much faster pace. Once we arrived, Beatrice suggested that we make onest stop and build one more road before the snow began. So, the two of us headed all the way back to the castle and our friends there. We built a good, solid road leading to the forest and then a small, narrow path through the valley, forest, and into the castle. I offered to build a bigger one, but Beatrice declined. Evidently, the invasion made her a bit wary of having such arge path to the heart of our home. When we were visible from the outer wall of the castle, a shout of joy went up from the walls, and momentster, it was echoed by many throats from within. The portcullis was raised, and I couldn''t wait to go inside and say hello. It had been too long. Chapter 309: The Sweeping of the Flock Chapter 309: The Sweeping of the Flock When we arrived at the castle, it felt as though everyst person in it was waiting for us. Which made sense, as we''d sent word ahead a week before we had left. It had taken some time to prepare for an extended absence for both Beatrice and me. So, they were expecting us. Beatrice flew a little bit ahead of me, but I quickly passed her as I zipped off in my excitement. We flew through the opened gate to be polite, even though we could have easily flown above the massive wall itself. As I emerged, I saw that the entire congregation really was out in the field waiting for our arrival. How they''d gotten the timing right on this, I wasn''t sure. Hopefully, they hadn''t been waiting here long. And to my chagrin, when they saw me, they knelt as one. I looked around hurriedly, gesturing for them to get up. Really. They had been doing so well before I left! But now, every single person was on their knees -- Mary, Trent, the Nighty Knights, and even Tony! I was d that Tony had made it here, at least. Before our little expedition, he''d been on his way to the castle with Susan. I wasn''t sure if we''d miss him or not. But that wasn''t important right now. What was important was getting everyone to stand again. I gestured for them to all get up, but they stayed on their knees, bowing to me for a solid 10.03 seconds. Finally, just before I started to really protest, they finally got up. I expelled some air in relief. That felt very over the top. Beatrice and Inded to greet everyone. Well, we tried to. The greetings were fairly slow, considering how many people wanted to bow to me a second time. After the twentieth or so person, I decided I''d had enough. These were my humans, and they were awesome, but this was too much. I needed to go elsewhere until they were a little less excited. With a quick beep to Beatrice, I headed off to inspect the castle. To be honest, I was quite impressed. The inside was close to immacte. There were very few times when I had to employ a little bit of help using my sanitationmp to remove bacteria that they had missed or suck up some debris from hard-to-reach spots. But for the most part, they''d kept the ce in great shape. Even the tops of the chandeliers hanging 20 feet in the air were dusted and well-maintained. The biggest mess, honestly, was in the cleaning supply storage rooms. That, and a few ces that were already in the process of being cleaned. I imagined they would be taken care of eventually. Still, with the constant removal of filth, it was only expected that some would be left behind. I just helped them out a little bit there. Outside, I was also more than satisfied. My standards were a bit lower here, seeing as it was still the outdoors, and things were slightly less ordered by nature. But that was all within eptable boundaries. I was most impressed with the condition of the orchard. The rows upon rows of saplings I had nted were now towering trees, each trunk wider in diameter than I was. Everything had been well trimmed into orderly fractal-like arrangements. Actually, looking around, there was a lot of fruit. A lot. I wasn''t sure how they were collecting it. Still, some rough projections suggested that they couldn''t possibly harvest everything effectively, much less eat it all. But I did notice something more pleasant. Those fruits that did ripen too quickly and fell on the ground were actually being cleaned up by the livestock. Several of the pigs roamed through the forest, snuffling about and eating slightly mushy apples. Initially, I was repulsed. The pigs I had seen so far were disgusting things that rolled in mud as if to spite me. But these ones were different. Not only were theyrger, their skin was spotless, as though they''d actually had baths recently. That wasn''t the only odd thing I had noticed with the livestock. The flock of sheep that Beatrice had gathered so long ago was also exhibiting some odd behavior. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. When I noticed one of them holding a broom in its mouth, I was at first concerned that it had taken someone''s tool just to munch on it. But it was not a dog. Why would a sheep chew on a stick? Instead, I watched in fascination as it dragged the end of the broom along the walkway. It was a bit of an odd experience that, I have to say, felt surreal. When it finished its trip down the long stone path, it trotted back with the broom still between its teeth. It approached one of the Nighty Knights, who gave it head scratches and a sugar cube as a reward. I finally understood what was happening. I was quite proud of them. They were teaching the animals just as I had taught them. They grew up so fast. My inspection wasplete, and I decided it was time to return. Hopefully, the crowd would be a bit calmer now. But just to be certain, I decided to start with a familiar face and check on Tony. Our floating friend saw me as I approached, grinning broadly and bending at the waist. "Lord Void! We were wondering where you went." I gave him a beep of greeting. His glowing blue eyes and physics-defying hair still drew nces from around us, but not nearly as many as I did. At least he wasn''t bowing. At Tony''s side stood Susan. Apparently, she was also helping him not float away by holding on to his hand and keeping him anchored to the ground. I would have thought that the whole "not floating away" thing was something he would have down by now. But apparently, his training was only progressing so well. However, the way that Tony levitated a rock over to himself with the wave of a hand told me that his powers were actually working pretty well. Strange. A lightning bolt of inspiration zapped my circuitry. I had just researched human rtionships and customs, after all. Maybe, just maybe I discharged my capacitors and flushed my cache to redo the calctions. No way. This was Tony we''re talking about. He was much too focused on his duties. Plus, it just didn''t make sense. I mean, I would have noticed something earlier, obviously! Before I could think of some alternative exnation, though, I sensed the Nighty Knights approach. I spun to face them and received a salute from the ringleaders Felix, Bradley, Irene, and Leanne. Felix spoke first. "Reporting for duty, Lord Void!" I returned the salute, and they all broke into smiles. "Lord Void, I''m d you''re. We''ve been practicing, just like you told us to!" I gave them an inquisitive beep. Felix nodded. "Yeah. We''re way higher level now, and we''re better at teamwork, too." I beeped proudly, then suggested that we y a game. One that would let them show off their new skills. It had been too long since I had yed with the kids, anyway, so this would be a good chance to make up for it. Immediately, the Knights brightened and began to chatter excitedly. "All right," Felix reached out and tapped my hard shell. "Tag. You''re it!" And then the children were off. Some of them sprinted off with enough speed that lower-fidelity visual sensors might not be able to track them, while others simply stopped registering. Most just ran, albeit faster than they should have been able to. Whatever their methods, all the Nighty Knights scattered around the forest, screeching with delight and drawing attention from the adults. I got a little excited. I understood this game. It was an old favorite of ours, and I think it was a perfect opportunity to show me what they could do. With a feeling of tion running through my circuitry, I zipped off. I didn''t go anywhere near my full speed, of course. Not to start. I would ramp it up as time went on. But it had been a while since we yed together, and I felt like this could be fun. Especially if I gave them a bit of a challenge. As I zipped after the kids relentlessly, we started to form a more revised set of rules. It quickly became clear that this had to be a team game. When the Knights were it, they would all work together to tag me. But when I was it, I''d have to tag all of the Knights. After a bit of back and forth, we eventually settled on a rule that after they were tagged, they would have to stay still in one spot. But if another one of the Nighty Knights lifted them off the ground for 3 seconds without Void intervening, they would be untagged, and I''d have to catch them again. It was apletely unfair rule set, but I was fine with it. It would help show their teamwork really well but also give me a bit of a challenge. A few momentster, I tapped the backs of Felix and Bradley in quick session. But before I zipped away, I noticed a slight warping of the air nearby. Another Knight crawled along the grass, sneaking over to untag them. I zipped over and tried to tag him, only to be stopped by a wall of earth mming into ce in front of me. Looking over, I saw another young girl with her hand extended. She grinned at me before sinking beneath the ground herself. Man, this was going to be fun. Chapter 310: Tag Chapter 310: Tag It took a moment for Bee to get through the initial rounds of greetings, though not as long as she''d feared. Soon enough, she made her way over to Tony and Susan just as Void left to speak with the Nightly Knights. Tony gave her a wave. "Hey, Bee! Wow, don''t I feel popr with all these bigwigsing to see me all of a sudden?" Susan snorted. "You''re kind of hard to ignore." "I am, aren''t I?" Tony grinned, his solid blue eyes shing with light. Bee chuckled. "d you made it. Let''s go inside. We have a lot to talk about." They headed into the castle, picking up the rest of Tony''s family members on the way. Mary started off by asking how long Bee nned to stay if she wanted anything special for dinner, and all the normal stuff. The mother insisted on going through it before they could get too deep into any sort of important conversation, and Bee honestly appreciated it. It gave her a chance to just rx and remember how much she cared about the people she worked for and why she did what she did. Of course, that didn''t change the fact that there were important things to talk about. She was going to need Tony back in the capital. She hadn''t realized how big of a role he had yed in keeping things together in his own right. At least not until she had been missing him for months. He had been a bridge between Void and the people in many ways that she couldn''t be, especially while she was busy ruling. It was easy to forget that he was Void''s second follower. It meant that he held a lot of authority in people''s eyes, even before his ss change. He''d need to get out there and help talk to people for the church, and part of that meant getting his powers under control. Susan had been doing a decent job of helping with that, but Bee worried that they weren''t quite where they needed to be. She was d that he was getting a hard-earned break, especially after the Lieutenant fight. But still An explosion sounded behind Beatrice. She moved forward, spinning around and ready to face the danger. But there was no threat. Instead, she saw one of the Nighty Knights bathing Void in a column of me as the little warriors ran around. "What is going on?" The column of me ended just in time to see another Nighty Knight burst from the ground in a shower of rocks. The momentum took the child well clear of the earth andunched him at Void. Her master shed to the side, but the knight followed with a swift change of directions. Bee saw off to the side a little girl digging her heels in the ground with her hand flung out. As she pushed the tunneler toward with a gust of air, Void, her heels left furloughs in the ground. Bradley appeared behind her in a blur as he pushed his shoulder into her back. All around Void, other Nighty Knights converged and blocked its escape. Void tried to dodge upward but bumped into a falling knighting from above. The kid rolled off of Void''s back andnded on her feet in a crouched position. The game paused for a split second. As soon as clear contact was made, all the Nighty Knights scattered. There was a ck sh as a couple of the Nighty Knights froze with groans of disappointment, and then Void was off after the rest of them. Bee watched as several of the Nighty Knights snuck through the well-manicured grass, each using various skills to keep them hidden. She wasn''t sure how effective they would be against her master, but her all-seeing eye skill pierced right through them. When one of the hidden Nighty Knights lifted their frozenrade just slightly off the ground for a few moments, both of them ran away again. "Yeah, that happens sometimes," Trent put his hands on his hips. "The kids can get a little excited with their games. We usually tell them off, but if Void''s ok with it..." This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. They watched for a few moments longer. Interestingly, Bee noticed that Void was moving significantly slower than usual. She''d seen what her master was capable of in real fights, and this wasn''t it. But as the "game" continued, it got faster and faster. The Nighty Knights were ramping up, too, using more and more skills to keep up andbat Void''s tactics. She was honestly impressed. Even if she was going all-out, she would be hard-pressed to avoid taking damage fighting against these children. She could only imagine what they would be like in several years when they were nearing her age. She had to talk to Arthur about that, too. Technically, the Knights wouldn''t be adults anytime soon, but that didn''t mean they couldn''t help out somehow. They were eager to, at least. She knew that a lot of the noble children went off to military academies at a young age and would sometimes even fight in conflicts, depending on how stern their families were. She wasn''t sure if it was a great solution. Still, it would almost certainly be an impossible task to prevent the Nighty Knights from getting into real trouble until they were older. But if some of the kids were to get into ces that could actually help train them, then perhaps they would be able to actually be involved in defending their homes. If they wanted to, of course. She still hoped they grew out of fighting so much and turned to other options instead. But watching them go, those weren''t the sort of skills you could unlearn. She needed to find something for them to do that wasn''t so terrible andbative. In the meantime, they would also likely need to keep practicing. Perhaps she could go talk to some of the local branches of the Adventurers'' Guild for ideas. Bee finally dragged her eyes away from the show,ing back to the conversation as Tony asked her a question about how the church outreach was going. "Yeah, most of the city so far," she answered. "I don''t mean to change the subject, but how are your powersing, Tony?" He gestured to the six inches he was hovering off the ground as he knelt. "Well, I have more control. But I''m still weaker. I''m only level 29 now, not the level 40 I was." Bee blinked. He''d gained around four levels in the past six months. "Wow. You must be cking." She was teasing him, obviously. He''d needed plenty of rest after the battle, and she supposed there hadn''t really been manybat opportunities for him to take advantage of. So all that experience must havee from cleaning. She crossed her arms in thought. "That means we still don''t know if you get new skill options when you hit level 30, though." "That''s too bad," Tony nodded. "I think I will, but there''s always a chance I won''t. But I''ve also yed around with what I can do myself. I can float and have some general telekic powers that don''te from any skill description. I imagine ites from my ss. I also have some odd energy powers that I haven''t fully mastered" Bee looked at him askance. "Energy powers?" "I figured out how to do that. There''s a certain amount of energy I can sacrifice from experience to turn matter into energy. I get more energy out of it than I put in, but I can''t use that energy to level up. It can be used to power my skills at a higher level, though." Bee''s eyes widened. "That''s insane." Tony nodded. "Right? Now, I just need some good offensive skills, and I''ll be a real powerhouse. Maybe enough to match some of these kids," he said as he inclined his head toward the increasingly fast-paced game of tag. At this point, their forms might as well have just been indistinct blurs and afterimages. Bee was mesmerized by another few moments watching their coordination. The kids didn''t fall into perfect lockstep or anything like that, but they moved in a way that showed they understood each other. They could anticipate each other''s moves and the fluid tactics that varied on the fly with minimal instructions from theirmanders. It impressed her. In small-scale engagements or against monsters, these kids would be a nightmare. "Yeah. To be honest, they only really care about how cool my flight is. For now," Tony added. "But..." Bee nodded. "How have the Nighty Knights been doing?" she asked Mary and Trent. "They''ve been staying out of trouble," Mary shrugged. "For the most part." "For the most part," Trent agreed, "They''ve started to help other people get their first level so that they can join the church and level up doing cleaning. Nothing too dangerous, and there''s always a few low-level monsters in the forest nearby." Bee frowned, not liking that they put themselves in danger. But nothing in this forest could really endanger them. Not that she had seen. "We make sure they go with supervision. And some soldiers, too." Trent assured her. "We would put a stop to it, but I don''t think we could," Mary added. They continued discussing what the Nighty Knights'' future would be like. Bee remembered her conversation with Arthur about exposing the kids to violence. But Trent had pointed out that Tony had learned how to hunt when he was six, and they were doing the best they could. It wasn''t too bad between going after weak monsters, their high levels, and their substantial backup. Bee wasn''t sure if it was the best solution but understood that they would probably get into worse things if they didn''t channel the children''s propensity for training somehow. Before anything could be decided, dinner was called, and everyone gathered up to eat. The Void and the Nighty Knights had to call off their game to settle in for a banquet. Chapter 311: The Road Less Traveled Chapter 311: The Road Less Traveled I didn''t partake in the feast that night. Well, unless you call cleaning up the asional crumb "partaking." Still, I did enjoy my time hanging around and cleaning up any minor messes from the tables. They were rtively well-mannered for humans, which meant there was even less for me to do, but it was the little things. Even purifying the air as I hung out under the table made me feel useful. Beatrice had a lot to tell, especially after our journeys to the other cities. She hasn''t gotten into the specifics and more sensitive matters with Mary, Trent, and the others yet. But that would probably happenter tonight if she hadn''t already taken care of it. Instead, she got to her feet at the head of the table and gathered everyone''s attention. She held a spoon to a ss goblet of wine, probably intending for the noise to draw everyone''s eyes to her, but it wasn''t necessary. Everyone was already looking. "Ahem" She cleared her throat and set down the ss. "I want to thank you all so much for your hard work and dedication in maintaining this most sacred ce while I have been away," Beatrice said. There were polite ps, and Trent let out a low whistle. Beatrice let the slightmotion die down before continuing. "When Ist visited, I told you of the kingdom. How the armies that came to strike at us and our way of life were consorting with demons but felled by Lord Void." Another scattering of cheers sounded. "Now, Ie with more news. The kingdom we have made our own is under Void''s care, and as such we are working to repair it and the damage done by its previous leadership. For the past eight months, we have been working tirelessly to ensure that this country shall not know the same strife that gues the world beyond." "Like cleaning, it is a job that is neverplete. But already, 80% of the kingdom''s borders have been restored and are now patrolled for the safety of its citizens. Twenty of thergest cities have now re-sworn allegiance to the kingdom. But this is no kingdom, for there is no king. Nor am I a queen; I am a mouthpiece for Void." She wasn''t a queen? That was news to me. I''d kind of assumed she was, with how important she seemed in all of this. And it wasn''t like I had given her a whole lot of direction about running the kingdom, either. Most of this was a result of her and her advisers nning things out. Still, I didn''t interrupt to correct her. Beatrice really seemed to be getting the hang of this public speaking thing, and thest thing I wanted to do was throw her off. Beatrice continued with her speech. "I will not be able to stay long. There''s still much to be done. But while we are away, soon I will need you, my brothers and sisters. I will need your help." Huh. That piqued my interest. What was she going to ask for? I don''t think I remembered this part of the n... "Most faithful followers of the Church of the Cleansing Void... we need to think of a name." She paused. "The country once known as ''The Kingdom'' is no more. We cannot let the failures of the past taint the present and future. And so, we need a new name for this country. One that reflects well on its true ruler." That sent waves of mumbles and excited chatter through the crowd. Of course. That made sense. I kind of assumed that we''d just keep calling it "The Kingdom," even though the name was admittedly a bit uninspired. This was a great idea! I began running through possibilities in my own processors but stopped quickly after. I didn''t want to take this away from the humans. They seemed to really enjoy naming things. However, I did notice Trent and Tony sharing particrly delighted grins. It only took a moment for people to start shouting out suggestions with excitement. Things like ''The Void Theocracy,'' ''The Holy Kingdom,'' ''The Clean Country.'' I even heard one of the Nighty Knights suggest ''Kingdom McKingdomface.'' Bee waved for silence. "I''ll be happy to hear your suggestions. Later. But also, I want to address another thing: connecting this ce to the rest of the country." She gestured widely. "So far, we''ve kept to ourselves here as a collective worshiping our god. And I believe that the castle itself should continue to be kept separate. It should remain a private, quiet ce for those of the faith to live and study our short but important history and continue the schrship of magic in the divine. "However, that does not mean that we can bepletely cut off from the world. We want to ensure the castle is open to those who want toe here and safe for those who wish to leave. There should be no danger ining here, just time. Time and effort. "And to that end, Void and I will take a slower route back." Beatrice looked around, probably for me, but I was hiding under the table. Whoops. "We will make a proper road leading out of the valley. It will be small butrge enough for two wagons to pass abreast. We will continue to rebuild the town of Greg, and then we shall connect that as a major city to the rest of the kingdom. This entire area will be repopted and thriving once more. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. "With this road, Tony will no longer need to escort groups between here and the capital. It''ll be regrly patrolled and kept safe. Bandits will be cleared out, and monsters will be chased off. The Adventurer''s Guild will protect us from many of themon threats, and the Army will patrol to make sure that nothing truly dangerouses. Not to mention our other volunteers." Beatrice went on for some time exining other changes in policy, world news, and a few organizational changes. There were also some appointments, mostly of people who were back in the capital. People around here had their roles and responsibilities pretty well. However, some of the people to whom she did offer promotions and relocations were hesitant to ept. Why head to the capital when they could stay and live here? But soon after the feast was done, she went to talk with more people behind closed doors. I, of course, was wee to join, but I wanted to get a head start on that road that she had promised. We had talked about it, of course, and I had improved the formerly dirt path through the forest a couple of times throughout several months. But I hadn''t turned it into the proper road I could now make with my various skills." And so, I went about forming the best road I possibly could. I spared no expense of time, materials, or effort. This wasn''t just going to be a road. This was going to be a marvel. The capstone to my building achievements. Well, after the sewage systems, maybe. Still, over the course of the next several hours, I began work on the intricate path. Normally, I just sloped the road so that water would roll off of it naturally. Simple and efficient. But this time, I dug deep, putting foundations twenty feet underground and turning many bits of the earth below into decorative andplicated patterns. It took a lot more time than I''d nned for, and it dyed our trip home a bit. But after a lot of work, I managed to create something I was truly proud of. A path of pure white, prettier and more functional than anything else I''d ever built. It was a road that wouldst as long as the castle had, something that could match the impressive builders that had created my first home here. I wanted to make sure that, in 10,000 years, they would both still be here. *** A few weekster, we were back in the capital. Beatrice and I soared up and over the walls into the sky and spotted what our scouts had reported. Arge red speck on the horizon wasing towards us. We zipped off over to meet our old friends. It had been months since theyst reported in, and I was curious what the dragon and his rider had been up to. They had been monitoring the city where the demons had vanished along with many of the informants, as well as following up on other leads trying to locate thosest Lieutenants. When they saw us approaching, they dived down to a clearing where we could talk. We met them in the middle of a forest, a long way away from any civilization or road. Beatrice and Archibald hugged while Daedalus and I touched our ws together in something approximating a fist bump. The Nighty Knights had taught it to me. Daedalus let out a huff. "No news. The city is infested for sure, but they''re keeping a low enough profile that we haven''t been able to locate them. The Lieutenants are not in there, but there are some low-level demon worshipers. Although there is something interesting. Beatrice cocked her head to the side. "What?" "Your white-robed friend has appeared there. He''s started preaching again," Archibald said. That got our attention. "Zeal?" Archibald nodded. "Yeah! That''s his name. I couldn''t remember it at the time. He seems to be getting quite the following. I''m not sure how it''s working with the demons, but I thought you would like to know." I beeped in concern. I had exined Zeal was necessary, but if he was consorting with demons Then he clearly hadn''t got the message. Now, though, Beatrice seemed to have the same concerns. "Oh no, he''s not preaching for the demons. He''s calling for their cleansing, actually," he said. "But um... huh?" Beatrice asked. "But the demons are leaving him alone?" "I don''t understand it either, but it''s not the only city whose followers have appeared. Many of their major cities now have a small presence of white robes in them. They keep on multiplying like roaches," Archibald said. That was troubling. We had exiled Zeal so that he wouldn''t cause problems, but evidently, he had gone right back to making problems for someone else. That wasn''t good. Still, as long as he wasn''t actually hurting anyone, maybe it was fine. It was a different country, after all, and we were busy enough here cleaning up these messes. Maybe if they wanted our help, they''d ask. "What about the other leads?" Beatrice asked. "Well," Daedalus rumbled. "I spoke with my little brother, and he pointed us towards Archimedes'' cave. We go to talk with him and see what other magic he knows. But many of the leads have run cold or were simply diversions." Beatrice rubbed her chin. "That''s bad news. I''m not sure what to make of it. "We''ll keep looking, but I won''t have any answers for you soon," Daedalus rumbled, and Archibald nodded his agreement. "But for now, we need a break. We''re not getting anywhere spinning our wheels like this." Beatrice nodded. "I think you do." She climbed back onto her carpet. "Let''s go back to the capital and have a feast. It''s been a while since people have seen a dragon." "It has," Archibald said with a toothy grin. "Indeed it has! I''m going to enjoy this." Chapter 312: An Era of Peace and Prosperity Chapter 312: An Era of Peace and Prosperity Bee cracked her eyes open with a groan as she slowly woke up. For a long moment, theforting embrace of sleep wrapped around her, suggesting very kindly that she snuggle down for just a little longer. But then, she remembered. Today was a big day, even if she wasn''t exactly looking forward to it. The tradition was never supposed to have been a small one at most. Really, she would have preferred if everyone had just forgotten about it. Today wasn''t supposed to be an important day, certainly not one for the entire Theocracy. But it was. As much as she''d tried to get people to forget it, to rename it, and even move it to a different day, it was to no avail. People always remembered, even when she went through so much trouble to muddy the waters. With all the things she had aplished, somehow, this was one of the few things she could never squash. It was her birthday. The thought made Bee grimace. The day should''ve been about honoring Void, as most of the other public holidays now were. That or cleaning ormunity service or something equally worth celebrating. But no. Instead, they celebrated her birthday. She rubbed her forehead as she got up. It was still dark outside, but she didn''t need that much sleep. Despite the early hours, there was a decent amount of noiseing from the castle as people set up for the festivities. Preparation had been going on for over a week now. Despite her shing the budget for it and doing basically everything she could to divert attention from the event, it was still tracking to be several timesrger than it wasst year. Of course, her inner circle didn''t share her concerns. To them, hering-of-age party was a big deal. Which made no sense to her. Sure, to most people, 18 was a big milestone, but to her? She was already the regent of a whole country. Over thest few years, a lot had changed. Her master''s constant stream of new inventions had improved lives, though they''d also made them moreplicated in some ways. They''d also had huge effects on the culture she used to recognize. But some things had stayed the same, much to her chagrin. She had a sinking feeling about this party in particr. When she''d turned sixteen, the matchmakers and more forward-thinking politicians hade out of the woodwork to test the waters. The whole fiasco had sent her into hiding for weeks. Now? Well, she could only hope that a party was the only thing that came out of today. She would have believed them when she said that if their response hadn''t been the same when she turned 16, and the host people looking to matchmake had sent her into hiding for weeks. Really? They were just looking to throw a party. With a long sigh, Bee flung aside her covers and got ready for the day. Looking out her window, she saw the scurrying forms of the Nighty Knights helping to assemble stages and move boughs full of floral decorations at the pce in the far distance. It was hard to call them children anymore. Now, most of them were young teenagers, and scarily mature ones at that. Something about getting so many levels early had made them physically a little bit older, just like her. Bradley looked to be 18 himself, rather than the 13 he currently was. They were even more excited for Bee''s birthday than everyone else. To them, getting older was a huge thing. Once they turned 12, they were allowed to participate in some moreplicated adventures, rather than just simple monster hunting and leveling up others under careful supervision. Of course, many of them didn''t have the patience to wait that long. Still, it was the age where they no longer had to be so careful about sneaking behind their parents'' backs and getting themselves in trouble. Now, the older Nighty Knights had been inducted as a proper military regiment. They only had four members currently, as most were not quite yet of age. But more could join soon. Especially since nearly everyone, including their parents, had given up trying to force them to still be children. Obviously, no one had sent them on actual deadly missions where they had to engage enemybatants, and no one would ever allow them to fight another person. Bee stepped closer to the massive windows of her personal suite. She normally stayed in the pce, but those rooms ended up being more trouble than they were worth. She was liable to have people looking for her at all hours. But here, in her penthouse? This impossibly high tower made it very difficult for most people to climb up to see her, and there was only one entrance to boot. As much as she hadn''t wanted to ept it, her aunt was right. The ce was awesome. And besides, the view up here was amazing. If youe across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. As she stepped into the kitchen, she spotted the familiar floating ck disk of her master near the stove. Void beeped happily as she waved in greeting, zooming over to her and presenting a te of freshly cooked eggs and bacon. She smiled at her master. As many world-altering inventions as it hade up with, it had also disyed some rather strange inclinationstely. Specifically, an interest in cooking. She supposed it only made sense after its obsession with cleaning and gardening and other housekeeping-rted tasks. And besides, she had no reason toin. It had been a rocky start, but it cooked really well nowadays. Void took a little colored paper hat off of a stack bnced on top of his back. It ced the hat on top of her head, securing it with a little stic strap underneath her chin. "Thank you, master." She bowed her head and made her way to the small breakfast nook with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the city. As soon as she sat down, she took the paper party hat and set it off to the side. Why Void insisted on them, she didn''t know exactly. But at least she knew why her ns to curtail this event had never worked. She had considered if she was walking on the edge of sphemy, going against her god''s wishes, but Void had never reprimanded her. That didn''t mean it stopped providing wondrous gifts of great power for many of thepetitions. Besides, Void himself generally helped the state bankroll the whole thing with resources pulled out of thin air, which had made it rather hard to oppose. Not that the Theocracy couldn''t afford it. As Bee scarfed down her breakfast, her thoughts turned to the other, more important matters she had to attend to. Specifically, the trade delegationsing in a few weeks. Anyways. With the removal of a lot of thews that had disproportionately protected noble and royal businesses, the economy boomed. The technological inventions from her master had increased worker productivity tenfold, not to mention created demand for these new technological marvels. The Theocracy was now an exporter of nearly a single major good and resource to all of its neighbors, as well as many ces across the sea. ces that they hadn''t even known about were now trading with them. There was apparently a tribe of yeti-like creatures that Aunt Betrix had recently entered negotiations with, somehow. Even their standoffish neighbor Barleona traded with them, though mostly through smuggling and unofficial channels. And that was even with the Practitioners of Purity, working against their image in many ways in those cities. Gold and riches were piling into the kingdom No, not the kingdom, Bee reminded herself. It no longer went by that name. It was the Spotless Theocracy now. A name that Void itself had agreed to. Though she was still fairly certain, her master found something humorous about the title. Gold and riches were piling into Spotless Theocracy so fast that they didn''t know what to do with them. Anyway, the influx of good tidings wasn''t all sunshine and rainbows. She had to work incredibly hard to prevent intion from making the precious metals nearly worthless. And a lot of that involved public spending. Many of her aides had been calling for an expansionist movement that would solve a lot of their problems of abundance. Still, Bee wasn''t quite ready for that. The church was already spreading well past their boundaries. Still, the neighbors were already wary enough of them as they were, and invasions just seemed like a waste of resources to her. Besides, Void thought they''d be messy. Her master had counseled that once enough people had faith in its holy vision, those neighboring states would be one with their country with no bloodshed or mess. She seldom argued with her master about that, as Void was almost always correct. The main worry that still weighed on her mind was the Lieutenants. Seven of them were still alive, likely on the loose somewhere. And they had no idea where. Archibald and Daedalus came back every couple of months to report on new leads they had followed, but so far, they had been eluded. They knew the Lieutenants were here. At least, some of them were. She couldn''t dismiss the possibility that they had returned to the demonic ne out of fear. That would be the best-case scenario. Otherwise, they must be nning something, but they hadn''t figured out what. All her time spent leading the kingdom meant she couldn''t join in the hunt herself. Void also seemed content to improve things for their people rather than focus on the demons. Susan, Harold, and the Warden had been running intelligence services, which had helped to stamp out lots of small demon cultist organizations that somehow spontaneously popped up everywhere. But even they had failed to locate where the real support wasing from. Bee turned away from the window. She was expecting the dragon and his rider to arrive sometime today. They hadn''t missed any one of these parties so far, so maybe she''d be able to get another report out of them while they were here. Maybe they would actually get something productive done today rather than just a bunch of silliness. Chapter 313: The Sweet Life Chapter 313: The Sweet Life After Beatrice got her birthday breakfast, I left her alone to eat and went about several of the ns I had made for the day. As I was leaving, I took an extra second to check over the apartment with my System Diagnostics skill. Over the years, I''d pulled in a lot of experience from my followers and their levels. It allowed me to reach level 93 and earn a new skill option. But despite how awesome I''d expected it to be, I was surprised that none of the skills really stood out. I''d picked System Diagnostic forck of better choices, but now I was very d I had chosen it. The whole building turned up fine, so I moved on. Originally, I thought it was just to help improve my own maintenance, making sure there was nothing wrong with myself. At best, I''d hoped that it would let me update my own programming. But it turns out it was so much more. The skill let me choose anything that I could conceptualize as a system and run a diagnostic, letting me understand instantly how everything worked and how it was connected and identify any sorts of problems with it. After I had acquired that skill, I spent months going around upgrading every plumbing and electrical system that I had managed to install. I couldn''t believe how much more efficient it made things. I learned so much more about where I could improve, but at the same time, it kind of put an end to any developments I was making in the space. Now, it was all up to the people to move past my level of understanding. So, I had to take on new hobbies and duties. Shipbuilding had been fun for a while. The idea was to prevent people from getting wet, especially while they traveled across dangerous areas that were too deep for them to walk across. Simple signage hadn''t worked, and I had given up after a week of trying to warn people not to go near the water. So, instead, I figured I could focus on ensuring they''d be safe when they did go out there. Giant barges the size of mansions had been easier to construct than I had feared. Sometimes, I even made them out of metal. And when I introduced electricity to many of the cities, I also thought of adding it to the ships. Now, our ships were a marvel of the world, ording to some people. I just thought it was nice that they stopped sinking as much. Whenever sea monsters attacked the wooden-bottomed ones, they tended to break lots of nks. Steel was a little bit more well-protected from giant tentacle monsters, especially when I gave them a nice coating of sent. But more recently, I''d shifted focus. For the past year or so, I''d been focusing more on cooking. It was simple in concept but surprisingly difficult in execution. Sure, I had made good use of Convergence of the Faithful and the cooking skills that came with it to produce something edible. Still, I never had the imaginative ir that someone like Casey, Tony''s older sister, managed. I also still hadn''t ovee theck of taste receptors, which was a bit of an issue for testing, especially at the start. I probably shouldn''t have subjected Beatrice to those early experiments. But what Icked in vor, I made up for in presentation. Hence, where I was heading now. I needed to work on the cake that we had been nning for the past several days. It had taken a decent amount of convincing to get Casey to ept me as her assistant. She had some nonsense idea that I should be in charge of the baking, which was factually a bad idea. Whenever I had tried to do stuff like this before, it always turned out okay at best. But whenever she baked something, it was fantastic. It was something special. There were more of these oddities that I had noticed over the years, skills that I could get pretty good at but not great. In cases like that, there was always something wrong, something missing, something not quite perfect about my approach. But that was okay. Because I could work together with my humans. Cassie had been designing vor profiles and finalizing the n while I was working on the cake''sposition, making sure that it was as light, fluffy, and moist as possible while not disrupting her taste. And together, we designed what I think was the perfect cake. Of course, I couldn''t exactly taste it the same way people could, but based on our blind taste tests and controlled A/B testing trials, we had both the best-tasting frosting and cake that we could manage. I wouldn''t have been able to do it without her and her intuitive leaps. But I like to think that my empirical testing helped. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. So, while we were baking this cake that was going to be quite extravagant, I was letting her handle most of the actual cooking of the recipes we had concocted together. But I would be doing the frosting and decorations after she had made it, of course. I found Casey hard at work in the kitchen with several of her staff, already taking control of the pce kitchen that she ran on a daily basis. There were many other sub-kitchens scattered around that were prepping for the feasting, but this was where the real magic was happening today. Most of the cake had been baked and assembled already. I had been helping around here until I noticed Beatrice stirring to wake, and I left to go cook her breakfast. But in my brief absence, they had carefully ced the 18thyer on top. I got to work quickly, applying a perfectly evenyer of frosting below before I started on the intricate frills and hyper-realistic flowers that we had designed. I also helped them put the final couple ofyers of cake on top so that they wouldn''t disturb the structure. Being able to fly was extremely useful when building cakes. By the time we finished sculpting the chocte dragon, it was almost time to set the cake out for disy and start the games. I added a final touch of illusionary me to finish it off. It was a little bit of cheating I''d done with the decoration. I used my sensory disruption to make anyone looking at it feel like the mes were flickering out of the dragon''s mouth and against the castle decorations as the frosted moss burned away. Still, most of the decorations were actually careful applications of icing. Even the rainbow reflections on the dragon''s chocte scales resulted from clever etching that reflected holographic rainbow light when viewed from different angles. Just the animated scene repeating over and over again was magic. Carefully, we transported the cake through the halls and set it up in the massive courtyard. We set it atop the pedestal designed for it so that everyone could appreciate our masterpiece while the games went on. I sprayed protective sent over it all and locked it in ce. I''d have to remove it before anyone cut into it, but this should keep itpletely fresh. Thankfully, I''d long since learned how to reverse the material''s extraordinarily tough curing. It took a lot of time, but it was doable. During the festivities, Beatrice remained in her seat, looking slightly miffed. I didn''t understand why she was so opposed to celebrating her birthday. Still, I wasn''t about to let her rob everyone of a chance to party either. The Nighty Knights were thoroughly on board with this because one of the things on the agenda was to formally send them off on their first mission as a part of the government. It wasn''t anything super special, but they had been waiting for it for a very long time. I was going to go along as an escort, and Beatrice was going to stay behind. She was not exactly happy about that, and neither were the Nighty Knights, but I think it was apromise that we could all be satisfied with. And my presence eased their parents'' worry a little bit. But first, they had to show off. In order to promote thepetition within his ranks, Felix had decided that only the top ten participants of thepetitions would be allowed into the first mission. And sopetition amongst the nearly 60 Nighty Knights was fierce. They hadn''t been allowed to increase their number. Somehow, a few people here and there had snuck in after their founding during the several battles of the initial stabilization of the Spotless Theocracy. I still found that name hrious. But after Beatrice and Arthur had found out that they were recruiting, they put a stop to it. The Nighty Knights would be able to officially recruit soon. Still, they had age limits and certain thresholds about levels and time training for anyone who wanted to join. Especially before anyone was allowed to do anything dangerous. The kids grumbled about it and argued, but eventually, they epted the fact that they would have to take younger people on as squires and pages before they were allowed to be proper knights. The argument that it was tradition had swayed them enough that they were willing to go about it. Besides, we didn''t really have much for them to fight. There were some monsters, but they had been fighting those for a while, and we had no border troubles or anything. If any demon showed up, Beatrice and I and some of our elites, like Tony or Susan, would be the ones to take care of it. The first game was announced. All across the city, bells tolled to indicate the beginning of the festivities. Obviously, not everyone was able to attend the main ceremony in the pce courtyard. This was reserved for our inner circle of important people. But in every other major square throughout the city, a simr event was going down. Not every event would be like this, but at the end of the day, the victors from each event''spetitions woulde together topete one more time for a grand prize. Most prizes would be handed out locally. But at the end of the day, tournaments were about knowing who exactly was the very best in the city, so of course, we needed grand finals. I was particrly excited about the sweeping races. I took personal pride in those. It was a little bit rough to set up the courses, but watching everyone clean up and see who could do it fastest and mostpletely would be quite fun. Hovering near the edge of the course, my bristles vibrated with excitement. Beatrice pped her hands to signal the start of thepetition, and thebatants were off their brooms. They dashed forward with quick, practiced strokes as they cleared off their sections of all dust and debris. I let out a loud whistling cheer as the action began. Chapter 314: Harold of Ill Omens Chapter 314: Harold of Ill Omens Harold resisted the urge to wipe his sweaty palms on his jacket. It was a nervous tic he was developing, one that he could ill afford. He spared a discreet nce over his shoulder. The street was crowded, but he could still pick out a few distinct faces that he recognized from a couple of minutes ago. They trailed behind him, inconspicuous except for their unshakeable presence. He turned off into a random alleyway that had few people in it and walked quickly. As he moved he hunched his shoulders, pulling his coat up and taking his hat off to change the shape of his silhouette in an attempt to lose his pursuers. He wanted to reach up and scratch the itchy beard on his face but stopped himself again. To an observer, it would look strange to see him scratching the supposedly clean-shaven face that his mor was disying. Right before he reached the end of the alleyway, he stepped to the side. He ducked behind a young couple to break the line of sight. Instead of stepping out to the street beyond, he slid sideways through the brick wall. He ended up in what appeared to be a store room with no windows and a shut door. Breathing in deeply, he rxed, releasing several of his skills. His appearance returned to normal, albeit still hidden by his clothing. Harold shook out his hands, trying to get feeling back in them from how clenched his arms were. Thesest several years have been hard. In fact, they had sucked. Sure, he had gotten almost as many levels during them as the rest of his lifebined. His ss evolution to The Void Wraith was harrowing. However, after talking with the Warden, he decided to go for it. Harold still wasn''t convinced by this so-called god, but he could at least recognize its power. Now, a decent part of that power was Harold''s, and it worked perfectly into his spying capabilities. But even having incredible new skills like mour and the ability to walk through walls wasn''t worth all the risks and danger he had been in. Harold pressed his ear to the brick wall and heard a couple of pairs of feet run past. The faint sshing of a puddle on the other side let him know that he had, in fact, been followed. Harold touched his cor, feeling the small tube containing the paper he needed to deliver still there. He felt a little bit of tension leave his shoulders. He waited for a count of 300 before slipping back out through the solid wall and heading back to the street. Hopefully, he had lost them, but he''d have to do a few moreps to make sure. His dead drop was too important to mess up. Walking past the fountain, Harold avoided cing the small cylinder he had tucked in his hand under the statue''s sandal strap because he thought he saw a sh of motion from above. He was probably just a crow, but maybe not. He couldn''t risk it. Pulling out a mirrored piece of ss, he checked over his shoulder and saw that the bird watching the fountain from the rooftop across the square was no bird at all. The enchantmentsid on the mirror exposed it as the leathery-faced skull with pping wings that it really was. Harold stifled a curse and kept walking, stopping briefly to buy a loaf of bread and staring at one of therge cathedrals being built. This information needed to get out, and it couldn''t wait for another day. It had already been dyed two days because of the near-constant surveince he was under. He was pretty sure that they didn''t know who he actually was. Still, his position as an outsider made them suspicious enough, especially in a totalitarian ce like this. He''d been sent to Barleona to investigate the level of demonic influence. However, they had all underestimated the task. The country''s ties with demons went back for centuries. The rtionship didn''t mean the country was evil, necessarily. Harold himself had been a big proponent of using demons for his kingdom, as well. These practices were just an extension of that in many ways. But at this point, it was difficult to tell whether the city was just employing demon ves to do some of their menial work or whether those demons were actually puppeteering the humans in the background. Harold found, in most cases, that the truth held a little bit of both. But it wasn''t just the presence of demons that worried them. Susan and the Warden were concerned that this city was harboring enough demon cultists, those who actually worshiped the demons that they employed, that some of the Lieutenants might have connections here. Harold felt a shiver go down his spine at the very thought of it. Why had he agreed to this? Well, he honestly couldn''t say. But at least his cover had been good here, and despite the suspicion he was under, no one had made a move against him. He could simply wait for a week before his extraction and deliver the message then. But that wasn''t good enough, and any bird or flying construct he sent would likely be intercepted and read. That was a certain path to getting himself killed. No, the only way this information was getting out quickly was through one of the various deaddrops. Which meant he just had to be a bit more clever going to his tertiary spot. Ducking out of sight for a moment, Harold activated several more skills, and the world turned misty around him. His disembodied consciousness watched as his body continued walking forward on autopilot. Leaving it be, Harold''s soul doubled back toward the fountain. He could only stay like this for a handful of seconds, but it would suffice. Sure enough, he saw that someone was checking the strap of the sandal he''d almost ced the message in. Harold cursed to himself. The counter-spies in this city were toopetent. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. As his formless consciousness floated forward, he was able to see the true form of the supposed child that checked Harold''s drop location. His skills allowed him to see that it was no child. Unless the children here now had forked tongues and slitted pupils set into their otherwise disturbingly human faces. Harold felt the tether connecting him to his body pull taut. A momentter, his vision snapped back to his body, which was now a little bit further down the road. He took a moment to reorient himself before changing directions and considering his contingencies. At this point, it looked like he''d have to abandon the third drop. Maybe the others, too. It seemed like they knew the locations too well for him to be confident in them. He started to pick up his pace and went through a few buildings instead of alleyways. Once he was more thoroughly convinced that he had lost his pursuers, he tried to think of another way of getting the news out. Harold scanned the signs of all the shops, looking for the mark of his order before opening the door to a cobbler shop. A few quick passphrases got him in the back and climbing down a trapdoor to the safe house below. If this ce waspromised too, he would likely be abducted in an hour. Harold was pretty sure that he would be able to escape before that, but this was more of a test to see how much the enemy knew. So he would stay. Sitting in the dark, safe house, Harold thought through a variety of ns as the hour ticked by. Eventually, he finally felt it was safe to assume this location was secure. Probably. It was good to know. After he got the information out, he would likely have to make himself scarce as his cover was almost certainly blown by now. He used too many suspicious skills to try to lose them before the dead drop, so they had to know that he was up to something. And the thin veneer of a visiting well-connected merchant wouldn''t stand up to him being tossed in a cell. But the information needed to get back home faster than he could. He supposed he could try to ride to the nearest city, but the odds of that city being watched too carefully were very high. No, it had to go through the right channels, channels that he knew would be secure. There were still several more backup ns, but assuming that this safe house was trustworthy enough, it''d be best to use it. Harold popped open the message''s container and unrolled the sheet of paper. With quick strokes of a quill, he copied down the information and tucked it away. Well, it would be best if the enemy couldn''t learn what information he had sent. Harold, while he was at it, whipped up several false reports. He''d be able to nt them in various locations that would hopefully throw counterintelligence off the trail. Coming back out of the safe room, he talked with the man behind the counter in a couple more quick exchanges of code words and handed him a piece of paper. It would fly out with the pigeons tonight, delivering regr news correspondence. Hopefully, the man should be able to slip it in if he wasn''t being watched. It was risky, but less so than the alternatives. It had to be enough. Harold then left with a stack of papers. He was able to make several drops at various spots, with information gged as false, before his tails caught up with him again. How they had found him, he wasn''t sure, but he didn''t have the magical energy to check on his previous messages to see if they''d been picked up and by whom. So he kept going, leaving false drops in sometimes evenpletely random ces. Hopefully, this would throw them off the trail. In fact, he was surprised he hadn''t been scooped up by force yet or even osted. Perhaps they were still hoping to follow him to some other part of their organization that they could uncover. If so, then that was also worrisome. The demons were acting too crafty. Something wasn''t right. Once Harold waspletely out of decoys, he changed directions and picked up speed until he was running. Now, he had to get out of the city quickly enough. If they''d caught onto him again this quickly, then waiting until extraction wouldn''t work. Even worse, the extraction itself might expose their operation further. He had to get out. Maybe it would also serve as a distraction away from the true message. As he approached a city gate, Harold took a shortcut. Dashing through alleyways, he narrowly avoided running into the tworge thugs blocking his way. Skidding to a halt, he started to back up with his hands up. "I don''t have any money," he said, hoping that they were just muggers who would try to take his purse and allow him to leave. But, of course, he had no such luck. The wicked des they were suddenly holding said so, at least. He half expected their faces to split open and reveal red scales or shadowy maws of the demons that had been chasing him so far. But no, they looked to be just normal human cultists. This time. They didn''t say anything as they walked forward. Harold backed up for a little before suddenly stepping forward himself. He swung his hand in a chop, smashing one''s wrist aside. At the same time he grabbed the man''s shoulder and threw him into hispanion before dashing past, yelling about a mugging as loud as he could. The people in the area looked shocked. This was a fairly affluent neighborhood, after all, and there was a patrol of guards nearby. He pointed them down the alley, and they ran after the two burly men running away. As he continued his own escape, Harold nced at the ne he''d ripped from one of the men. A quick nce revealed the same strange crisscrossing sigils of the most recent cult he''d unearthed. It told him all he needed to know. He tucked it back in his pocket and sprinted for the gate. Panting, he ducked and dodged between people and carts, and soon, he was at the city wall, using thest bit of his energy to phase all the way through it. A momentter, he was out running through the forest. It would be a long way home, but at least he''d gotten the information out. He''d send another copy in a day from a safe location, and hopefully, that would be enough. Hopefully, it would be unnecessary, but it was better to be safe than sorry. The Theocracy needed to know and act, or the longsting peace would soone crashing down. Alternate chapter titles were: Mission Improbable, Herald of Ill Omens, Sin City Chapter 315: Playing Nice with the Neighbors Chapter 315: ying Nice with the Neighbors Bee tried to slink back into her seat as the Harkonnestan delegate approached. She didn''t have anything against the pudgy man. He seemed polite enough, even if he spoke with a strange ent. But she really didn''t want to talk to anyone at the moment. She had just gotten away from hours of people constantly wishing her a happy birthday and pestering her about every little thing. She had hoped that she would finally have had a chance to watch some of the events in peace, but no, even then, people really wanted to talk to her throughout them. Unfortunately, despite wanting to, she couldn''t just disappear and pretend she hadn''t seen the man. She had to attend to her stately duties. Greeting the delegate with a smile, she resigned herself to the meeting as he sat on the bench next to her. He bowed formally at her acknowledgment. "How are you enjoying the festivities, Paul?" she asked. "Right I am, Right I am," he said in a strange manner, his speech repeating more often than not. "Y''all guys take sweepin'' something mighty serious around here. I don''t know if I quite understand theprehension of it, I don''t, but it seems as though y''all enjoy it mighty much." Bee kept her face as neutral as possible as she parsed through the words. "Yes," she said, "a lot of these events are rather new pastimes. We''ve adopted them as tradition as Void''s teachings have shown us the way." Paul nodded thoughtfully. "Right. Mighty worried we were when we heard that the Kingdom had be a bleedin'' theocracy." He gave her a sideways nce. "No offense, ''course. There''s just too many demon-worshiping cult crazies around, you know?" Bee groaned. "Of course. We know." Paul nodded, not seeming offended by her short answer. "Well, just making sure that y''all weren''t the crazy crazies over here was only part of my mission. Now that I''m reasonably certain that I won''t end up with my head chopped off or anything of that nasty, nasty sort of business, I think we need to talk about a few other things." Bee nodded. Perhaps she could get something productive out of today after all. "Yes. I hear that your people might be interested in a lot of things we have to offer." "It''s hard to know to tell where to begin, that it is. But you are right there." He nodded. "Let''s start with ships. We''re gonna need ess to some of these ships." She nodded. It was what she''d expected. The Theocracy''s ships were one of their biggest assets, and one of their most coveted ones to boot. Though she did disapprove of the forcefulness that Paul was bringing to the negotiations. He continued speaking. "Those things arepletely turning the world upside-down. Both the travel distance and the safety. Now, I ain''t gonna lie to you, I''d never lie. But we are trying to copy them just like everybody else. All the countries are! but our shipwrights say that this kinda thing would take a hundred years to do ourselves." Bee was shocked by the ambassador''s honesty. For him to openlye out with all that Harkonnestan must really need these ships. Though their shipwrights were optimistic with the hundred years prediction. It likely would take way longer, as there just were not things that could be done without Void''s direct assistance. Even reverse engineering the ships at all might be impossible. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it "Well," she said, "there are many other things we can offer you as well, but ships are certainly something we can work out a deal on. I don''t know if we''ll be able to give you them directly, but we''ll be able to get you ess to them at least." Paul frowned. "ess? I don''t think I understand. Why not just sell them?" "Well, we can sell some ships. But you understand that they''re military weapons, right? In the right hands." She shrugged. "They''re just as good at hauling men as they are at hauling cargo. Paul blinked. "I thought these were civilian ships. Cargo ships? That''s what my..." He paused for a second, searching for the right word. One that wasn''t "informants" or "spies." "my sources tell me what you''ve been using to ship all across the globe." Bee nodded. "This is true. They do work as cargo ships, and that in themselves would make them a great military asset. But there are more to them than we''d like to reveal. However, we are working on a line of ships avable for sale. They won''t quite be ready for a while yet, but we can always talk about the possibility of you leasing a ship and its crew for some time. Paul nodded. "Hmm. Yes, okay. Well, if you have a list, we''d like to be on top of that." Bee nodded and directed him to talk to the church chambein, who would be in charge of recording his interest. Harkonnestan had been a good partner to them in trade and diplomacy, so she had no issue with actually getting them a ship sooner rather thanter. "Now, before you ask, not sure what my budget price would be here. There''s a lotta things to figure out there. But a lot of the value we''d be getting is information, and, well, we could just reverse engineer a lot of it. We would like topensate you for the learning and maybe learn it directly without any bad blood." Bee nodded. "We greatly appreciate this gesture. There are many technologies that we have been working on that we n to share with the world, and we''d be happy to do so for you as a gesture of goodwill in many of these ces. For example" Bee patted a book on the table in front of her. Paul smiled and pulled out a copy of the same book from his bag. "Oh, I know. I really do want to figure out how you make these books. I''ve never seen them with such avability, and the letters are all square and blocky. Weird, but if you can make them so easily Now that could change the world." Beeughed. "Many of these things can change the world. I just hope the world can survive the changes." Paul smiled. "Perhaps I''m just an optimist, thinking the best of things, but I think the world will be much better after all of it." Bee nodded. "Void willing." Just as Paul was getting up to leave, Bee let out a long sigh. She was hoping that she''d have a few more moments to herself, but evidently, some of Paul''s optimism had rubbed off on her. It wasn''t even a momentter that a messenger ran up and whispered in her ear. "High Priestess. The Warden requests your presence. Ocelot. Rooster. Blue Hamster." Bee frowned at the gibberish before she tranted the code, and she stood up. Well, perhaps this would be better than more birthday wishes. But Harold sending news was not always a good thing. The man had a certain knack for finding trouble. As much as she tried her best not to hold a grudge over what had happened at the demonology school, she wasn''t perfect. But she couldn''t deny that Harold was a talented operative in the field and a decent magician as well. But she had stepped in and, with the agreement of the Warden, made sure that Harold would not be managing people anytime soon. Still, Susan imed he was her best operative and, because of that, he had received perhaps an unfair amount of dangerous work. Still, his new ss was something that she couldn''t help but marvel at. Void did do incredible things. With her master''s assistance, all things were possible. Just looking at who surrounded them now made that clear. Chapter 316: We’re Off To See The Wizard Chapter 316: Were Off To See The Wizard As I called time, all the contestants put down their cleaning supplies and stepped back. A momentter, I warmed up my sensors. It was time to judge the window cleaningpetition. I was doing the judging right on the spot for the finalists, but I had a suspicion of who was already going to win. Jared Kay was a jeweler, and his skills at gem polishing had transferred very well over to ss cleaning. He had made it to the finals with very littlepetition. But washerwoman Willow just might have given him a run for his money. The other six there knew that they really stood no chance and were mostlypeting for the lesser prizes and just the pride of being able to clean the best windows in the capital. Though I was proud of them nheless. Still, I remained unbiased. I would look over each of their efforts and judge them fairly, of course. But before I was able to zip down and begin, a messenger ran up to me. The man''s face was red, and he was clearly out of breath. "Lord Void," he panted, dropping to both knees and pressing his forehead to the ground. "Thedy, Susan, has asked for you toe at your earliest convenience. Monk. Monkfish. Tibet. Rhinoceros," I wiggled with satisfaction at the code I had devised for passing secret messages. It amused me to no end to use the seemingly randomly chosen words for such important matters, but no one else was quite getting the joke. Regardless, it told me that Harold had sent a message that required my attention. It was concerning, but I did have to finish judging. "Tell her I will be there shortly," I told the messenger, and he ran off once again. I would likely beat him to the pce. Still, in the unlikely event that we had to do a tie-breaking round this season, it would give Susan feedback that I was at least aware of the message. I went through the contestants from left to right, shining my Sanitation Lamp through each pane of ss and measuring the transparency to see what percentage of light filtered through unaltered. I projected the results as a numerical score, simplified to only the eighth decimal, above each contestant. I would have disyed the whole value, but it tended to confuse people a bit too much. Eight decimals were good enough, I supposed. I was impressed by all their efforts. The amount of polish that had gone into these performances was impressive. The 109,823 grit cloth did a very good job of putting a near-perfect shine on ss surfaces, and it came down to the very two favorites. They were within 1/10,000 of a point of each other. So, with such a small margin between them, I decided to run a tiebreaker. I produced two more panes of ss, each equally marred with scratches and abrasions and mud, and gave them three minutes to do with what they wanted. All the onlookers cheered off to the side with the ratherrge crowd as we observed them scrubbing frantically, using all sorts of skills and ingenuity to not only clean but fix the ss. When they presented their final products, the jeweler bowed to his rival. "I am sure you have it, Miss Willow. I can only be awed by your talent. If you ever need a job, I have some connections," he said. Sure enough, my sensors confirmed it. She had eked out the victory. That the other human could tell at a nce was very impressive. His jeweler-rted skills must be so overpowered and well-trained that they hardly resembled the base skills. I couldn''t even imagine which ones he was using despite having ess to all of them. After handing out the awards, I headed over to the pce, where I found Beatrice and Susan waiting for me. My sensors picked up their conversation as I approached. "I''m surprised that Harold found anything interesting," Beatrice said. "What could have been so urgent?" "Well, Harold''s been in Barleona''s capital for a long time. I''d hope that he''d find something by now," Susan replied. "Barleona?" Bee''s eyes widened. "I knew he was behind enemy lines, but that far back?" "Well, I wouldn''t really call them ''enemy lines.'' Officially, we are on neutral standing with them, but they have been rather adversarial," Susan exined. "What did he have to say?" I chimed in, hovering in the room with a cheerful wave. The others bowed briefly as I appeared. Susan unrolled a slim piece of paper and began tranting the coded message. "Demons control civil service. Not just summonedbor. Cults present. Suspicious location at coordinates:" she said, listing off some map coordinates. I immediately plotted where they were on my world maps. They were deep in the mountains in Barleonas center. It was a ce even Daedalus or Beatrice might have trouble getting to quickly. I could get there, of course, but anyone else would have to pass through a lot of Barleona''s defenses. "Well, we already suspected that the demons had set up shop in Baleona," Beatrice said. "Yes, but it''s important to have confirmation. Suppose wemit too much of our forces there on iplete information. In that case, we leave ourselves open to reprisal elsewhere," Susan added. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I chipped in some thoughts of my own. The words about a giant ritual made me nervous. "I don''t think they can revive the lieutenants that I have consumed, but perhaps they are able to summon more?" Susan shrugged. "Harold doesn''t say what the ritual might be. I doubt he knows himself, though." "Well, they did have toe from somewhere. But whatever it is, it can''t be good." Beatrice nodded. "We need to find out more." "Did Harold have a scheduled message drop or anything?" I asked. Susan flipped over the piece of paper. "No, but he did receive a more hastily scrawled note that he was going to have to leave the city." I beeped in concern. Barleona''s capital was not anywhere near friendly cities. He might be able to get to other cities and send more messages from there, but that would take some time. "Did he ask for extraction?" Beatrice asked. Susan shook her head. "No, but he''s probably going to need one." "We need to send people, but I don''t know who we can spare..." Beatrice murmured. "I told them to wait. I think Archibald and Daedalus need to be in on this conversation. They would know most about what kind of ritual the group of Lieutenants would be trying to enact," I projected. In a moment, I zipped out of the room to scan for the big dragon. I found the pair in thergest courtyard of the pce, both surrounded by people. Daedalus had numerous flower crowns hanging from his spikes as he daintily nibbled at the half of a cow that the citizens had given him. Archibald was telling stories to a couple hundred adults and children, the group watching with enraptured expressions. He stood on top of a crate as he spun his tales, drinking from an ale horn and chewing on a turkey leg. I considerednding next to Archibald, but I was hesitant to interrupt. He was telling the story of his first time flying with Daedalus, and I knew it was everyone''s favorite. So, instead of dragging him off immediately, I projected an image in his line of sight that told him to wrap it up and then headed toward Daedalus. "What is it, my friend?" Daedalus rumbled. His tone suggested he was trying to whisper, but it was still loud enough that everyone could hear. "Oh, just a lead you might be interested in," I told Daedalus, who huffed some smoke out of his nostrils. "I like your decorations," Daedalus rolled his eyes at me and wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, well, the pollen is getting to me, so when we leave, I''d appreciate some help cleaning it up. Otherwise, I''m going to sneeze, and the people around here will not like it when I sneeze." I started running my air purifier, directing it at the air around his nose, and he breathed in deeply. "Ah, much better, thank you." We made some more small talk as Archibald finished his story. When the man finally came over to see what I needed, he climbed on Daedalus''s back, and we soared over to the pce. I didn''t remove the flowers decorating Daedalus like he''d asked. They were far too adorable to do that. Still, I did maintain my air purification the whole way over, preventing some rather destructive dragon sneezing. When wended, Susan filled the pair in about what Harold had said, and we allpsed into some thoughtful silence. "I have a few ideas," Archibald said. "None of them are good." "Yes, none of them are good" Daedalus huffed. "In a ce like that, no one hides demon-summoning rituals without good reason." "Then we need to stop them as soon as we can," Beatrice argued. "Or at least get information. There could also be many reasonable exnations for something like this. But we need to investigate, and we need to extract Harold." "I have an idea," I said. "Archibald and Daedalus, would you be willing to help escort a diplomatic envoy under emergency status to discuss the matter with their head of state?" Daedalus thought for a moment as Archibald frowned. "A diplomatic envoy? Are we the diplomats?" "No, just the escort." He tilted his head to the side, then nodded. "Not a bad idea. Having a dragon as an escort may be a little overkill..." He shot a nce toward the red dragon beside him, "But we can always say he''s an interested third party as well." I projected a thumbs up above my chassis. Having Daedalus along would be a great help. The real question is, who else should go? As I posed the question and turned to Beatrice, Susan immediately shook her head. "You can''t go, High Priestess. We''re busy here," Susan objected. "You''re too important to the city for you to just be gallivanting around. The party isn''t even half over yet," Beatrice sagged in defeat but seemed to ept the woman''s words. "Well, who else then? Tony?" Tony was a good choice. He had spent a lot of time leveling and mastering his Custodian of the Beyond abilities and had be quite scary in his own right. Susan, though, wasn''t exactly happy about the suggestion. "If Tony''s going, I''m going too," she folded her arms. "No way am I letting him go on a diplomatic mission himself. That guy can''t lie or do politics to save his life." She and Beatrice argued for a little bit about the practical issues of Susan leaving, but I decided it was okay. Still, I instructed her to pass off any important information to the Warden so that he could take over her duties for a while. The man had moved closer and closer to retirement but still had an active role in wrangling the Theocracy''s politics. For Beatrice, he acted as an advisor more than anything. Still, he could run this informationwork for a little while before he got exhausted. Susan nodded, heading off to find the Warden. Archibald and Daedalus left soon after to find Tony, intending to leave within an hour. As the group went about their preparations, Beatrice and I were left alone. "Are you sure there''s nothing we can do?" She asked me. I gave her a beep of reassurance. There was still plenty of opportunity for her to help around here. Besides, with Archibald and Daedalus gone, the sky races would need a new judge. For some reason, Beatrice groaned. Chapter 317: Dragon Delivery Service Chapter 317: Dragon Delivery Service It was within an hour that Archibald climbed onto Daedalus''s back, his things packed and ready to go. Susan and Tony climbed right up after him, bunching up between therge rainbow-tipped spikes along the dragon''s neck. With a brief coiling of muscles, the red dragonunched skyward. Daedalus had been fairlyx about humans riding him ever since he''d woken up, thankfully. Archibald expected that the kids'' enthusiasm for rides helped a bit with that. Archibald held on tight to the spines in front of him, and the passengers behind him let out whoops as the air rushed past. He couldn''t stop the grin that spread across his own face, either. Flying on a dragon never got old. Which was good, since he''d spent more time on dragonback than he had on the ground these past four years. Much more. The search had been frustrating, and they had yet to really find any meaningful trace of the Lieutenants and their activities. Not since thatst battle in the mountain. But on the bright side, it had given him and Daedalus plenty of time to just catch up and hang out. Despite the dragon having been asleep for a long time, Archibald had been in stasis for even longer. It meant his old friend had plenty of stories to tell. Plus, despite the monotony, it still felt like they were doing something worthwhile. What could be better than protecting humanity from the forces of evil? This was something they were used to, and it felt way better to be on the winning side for once. Of course, Daedalus had always thought he was on the winning side. Archibald didn''t exactly correct him. It wasn''t a long trip to Barleona as the dragon glides, especially not with Daedalus''s prismatic enhancements. So, only a couple of hourster, they were touching down just out of sight of the country''s capital. As the dragon swooped down and alighted in a forest clearing, Archibald and hispanions slid off tond on the grass below. Together, the three of them walked around to Daedalus'' head. Archibald reached out to scratch the side of Daedalus'' nostril, and the dragon leaned his head gently into his hand with a snort. Susan spoke up first. "Alright. Technically, Tony is the lead delegate here, and I''m here to keep him in line. And Archibald" She nced over at him. "Well, since you know nothing about modern politics, I suppose you''re the muscle."Archibald gave her a thumbs up. "Just how I like it. Politics sucks, anyway." Tony raised a hand. "One of us needs to go pick up Harold, too. Based on what we know, he''s likely heading toward Gorgina. But it''s still pretty far away for him, a few days at least." "Assuming the message wasn''t dyed. And that he he actually made it out of the city," Susan pointed out. "And if he didn''t make it out of the city?" Archibald asked. "Then we''ll need a way to check the dungeons. Hopefully, he''s okay. Even if he did get caught, I''m not too worried, though. I''ve worked with Harold for a while now, and if anyone''s good at escaping..." Susan said, trailing off. Archibald nodded. That made sense. He personally didn''t know much about Harold, but if Susan trusted the guy, it was good enough for him. Daedalus pulled his head up and shook himself slightly. "I will go find the wayward human if he has made it out of the city. Don''t worry." Daedalus looked over at Archibald. "Will you be alright on your own?" Archibald nodded. "I can take care of myself. Worstes to worst, we''ll just get out of there. Simple." The ground shook as Daedalusunched himself skyward again. "All right," Archibald said, pping his hands together. He was more than ready to move on and head toward the city. Tony was, too, as he started floating toward the road ahead of him and Susan. "So, who are we going to be talking to?" --- A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. Harold had slept poorly. Before night fell, he''d managed to get several hours away from the city, but he didn''t really have the supplies for camping in the wild. It meant that he was stuck with the few tree branches he''d pulled together as his only shelter. A shelter made even worse by the light drizzle that night. He rose from his bed of ttened grass and stretched the crick in his neck. There were a couple of new bruises along his spine, where roots had poked at him constantly while he slept. However, his grogginess and difort didn''t mean he wasn''t alert. He crept through the undergrowth and left several false trails for anyone still following him. So far, there were no signs of anyone behind him or trying to track him. But he wasn''t going to stop making it difficult if he''d missed a sign, not yet. Maybe sometime tomorrow, he''d focus more on speed. But for now, stealth was the name of the game. Coming to arge river, Harold frowned. It appeared that he''d been going a little bit farther north than he had nned. He needed to course correct. So, turning south, he began walking downstream. His memory indicated that there should be a crossing nearby. It was too cold and wide for him to ford the river, even though it would be a great way to disperse his scent and lose any animals tracking him. So he stayed within the tree line while he moved, which slowed his progress considerably but made him less visible from above. As far as he knew, there weren''t any flying forces that the city would deploy to find him. Not with the profile they were keeping. But if the demons were operating more openly, then who knew what they might try? Of course, there were certain types of demons that would make tracking him down look like child''s y. If any of those were around, he was as good as dead. But since they hadn''t caught him yet, he had to hope that wasn''t the case. They certainly would''ve been able to overtake him already if they knew where he was. The fact that they hadn''t indicated he was either in luck or the various anti-scrying charms he''d hidden about his person was working. After several hours of trudging, he finally saw the bridge appear in the distance. Harold stayed hidden in the trees, checking all directions. Once he was certain the coast was clear, he darted out, staying low as he dashed across the 50-foot bridge as fast as he could. His eyes kept scanning the clearing behind him and the ground in front, certain that something would jump out at any moment. But all of that focus made him forget to look above. A thunderous crash ahead brought him to a dead halt. Harold''s head whipped toward the sound, already dreading what he would see. There, standing before him, a massive red-scaled body blocked the path forward. Shattered treesy beneath its titanic weight where it hadnded, their trunks resembling little more than sticks next to its size. The sunlight glittered strangely off of its scales and horns, nearly blinding him with prismatic rays. Harold''s thoughts raced. In that brief instant, he debated between jumping off the river and seeing if he could make it downstream or simply running back the way he''de. Neither one of them seemed to be a viable option, as this dragon could surely snap him up before he could even move. His muscles locked up in terror. As much as he thought, he was unable toe up with any sort of solution that would leave him walking away from this predicament alive. Who would have thought that Barcelona would have a dragon to track him down? Just as he began to ept his fate, the dragon spoke. "It was hard to find you, Harold." He blinked. It knew his name? Did the demons really have that much intel on him? The dragon continued. "I don''t believe we''ve met before. My friends call me Daedalus." His maw parted in a horrifying toothy grin. "Would you like some help?" "W-what?" Harold stammered intelligently. "Do you need some help?" The dragon asked again, a little more slowly. His head bent down toward Harold, making him flinch back. "Susan said you''d be heading to Zoranza, but you seem to be a little bit off course." Suddenly, it clicked. The dragon knew Susan. He was named Daedalus. He had heard that name before. It was the name of the "dragon friend" that Void had "made" -- at least, that''s what everyone else seemed to im. He''d never seen a dragon in person, so he''d assumed that everyone was making a misssification or exaggerating somehow. Apparently not. For a moment, Harold thought that it might behoove him to start believing those crazy stories a bit more. "Yes. Gorgina. I suppose that was an option, but it seemed too obvious. I''m headed for Dieze. An extra day of travel, but a lot more discreet," he exined cautiously. He didn''t see much point in lying, but being careful was another matter entirely. "Well," the dragon said, "I suppose that''s fine. Susan, Tony, and Archibald are nearby. They got your message and came for some further investigations. I''ve been sent to bring you back. Not to the city itself, mind you. That would be disruptive. But nearby so that you can tell us the whole story." Daedalus exined the situation as Harold nodded cautiously. "Yes, uh, that sounds like a great idea. Er thank you." He took a step toward the dragon, only to find that it didn''t work. He tried again, but something was preventing him. His muscles were still locked up from fear. In fact, it was all he could do to keep talking. "Okay," the sensation was receding, but not quickly enough. "Just give me a moment? I''ll be right there." "Do you want me toe closer?" Daedalus took a thunderous step towards him. The ground shook as Harold jolted where he stood. "No, no! That''s quite alright! One moment!" Harold breathed in deeply and counted backward from ten. When he had regained hisposure, he made a single step toward the giant death machine. And then another. Chapter 318: Helicopter Brother Chapter 318: Helicopter Brother Bee was exhausted. It had been a very long day, to say the least. Not only that, but the amount of people she had to talk to doubled, if not tripled,pared to the usual. That in itself was impressive. Normally, she was in charge of operating the country, so her whole day was spent talking to nobles, diplomats, and church leaders galore. But today, everyone wanted to wish her a happy birthday. Everyone. She tried to be grateful. Most of these people were genuinely wishing her well. The sycophants trying to kiss up to her had been mostly weeded out, after all. But it was hard to remember that after the hundredth time. She also felt a little bad about the gifts situation. She tried to insist that no one get her anything, but that went about as well as expected. And so, she got a lot of presents she didn''t really need. One of the downsides of having pretty much everything was that no one could get you anything for your birthday. People tried, and Bee appreciated the effort. In fact, there were a couple that she genuinely liked, such as the drawings of the Nighty Knights recruits and an incredibly tasty apple tart that looked like a basket of roses. Everyone else tried to figure out what they could get her with money. Her father''s gift had been surprisingly thoughtful, though. He had sent a model of the newest ship that he had helped Void design, a massive freighter that could carry almost 1 million pounds of cargo. It had been shipped to her in a waist-high ss bottle. With it was a simple note that just said: Happy birthday, daughter. The ship was one thing. But the note made Bee tear up slightly. Over the years, she''d made some efforts to reconnect with her father and mend their rtionship. She''d also tried to understand him better, an effort that led her to talk with Aunt Beatrix more than a few times. Apparently, her father had good reason to act the way he did. His merchant ss endowed him with heaps of charisma-enhancing skills that allowed him to be far more persuasive and agreeable to others. He had serious moral problems using these skills with his family. Quashing those skills seemed to lead him to overcorrect his behavior. Bee''s dad ended uping off as pretty cold and finding it hard to spend time around. But now that she knew that, she couldn''t help but be grateful to him. She appreciated not being magically manipted into being the perfect daughter. And so, gifts like this were one of the ways her father knew how to show real affection. But other than that, it was an absolutely exhausting day. She was d that dinner wasing. The feasting and partying wouldn''t end there, of course, but she could at least have a break as she ate for the most part.Thest thing before the meal, though, was the Nighty Knights'' tournament. It was a tradition that had started on her birthday several years ago. But rather than limiting themselves to annual events, the Nighty Knights became restless and needed more ways to practice and burn off some energy. Because of that, they started doing them every couple of months with their massively increased and mostly unofficial membership. They had different divisions and mostly held regional tournaments. Today, though, entrants had gathered from all four of the cities they had branches in. They''de all the way here, with their parent''s permission, to enter one massive tournament. The end results were never much in question, but the finals were quite interesting to watch. The challenger actually was not one of the original Nighty Knights. It was a young girl with a pair of daggers who had joined from the capital after the siege of the castle. Because of that, she had a bit of a chip on her shoulder, as the original Nighty Knights were a bit exclusive about those who had actually fought in the life-and-death battle. But now that they were all old enough, everyone had gained some experience, and those divisions had lessened somewhat. In fact, this young girl reminded Bee of herself in many ways, especially in her determination to prove herself over and over. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Perhaps Bee was reading too much into it and remembering herself as a particrly stubborn 12-year-old. But still, she felt sympathy for her situation as the current reigning champion was none other than Bradley Chadwick. The boy entered the ring after his opponent walked in with his younger sister, Irene. Bradley had grown up a lot. The now 13-year-old had gained so many levels that his body didn''t seem to match his real age. Despite being 13, he stood at a whopping six foot five with at least 220 pounds of muscle. Despite that, he moved like he was half of his weight. His long, flowing hair rested behind his shoulders, held back by a ck circlet that Void had given him a couple of years back. Across his shoulders hung the ming sword he had won in his first championship. It went with him everywhere. His gleaming armor shone with pinpricks of silver like many stars across a matte ck finish. The amount of young teenage girls screaming in the crowd and throwing roses in his path was not lost on Bee nor any of the other spectators. The only person who seemed to be unaware of the attention was Bradley, who was too busy watching his sister. Well, not his sister, exactly. He was actually ring daggers at a young boy staring at his sister. Beatrice was well aware that he couldn''t shootsers out of his eyes, but if he could Bee shook her head. As far as she could tell, he was just extremely protective. He insisted that anyone who wanted to date his little sister would have to beat him in a duel. It was honestly quite adorable. And a little unfair to the poor grade schoolers he trounced along the way. Irene herself had stoppedpeting in the tournaments as her power was deemed too dangerous. The emtion of Void''s many different abilities in her summoned avatar had only grown in power. Usually, any conflict with her ended with a single decisive blow. But at this point, she could have trouble avoiding permanent harm to her opponents, so she stuck to fighting monsters. Bradley was more than happy to duel on her behalf whenever necessary. Not that it was really necessary. Though she did act as essentially the spiritual core of the Nighty Knights. The chants for Bradley Chadwick filled the arena in a chorus of shouts. He drew his massive ming sword and wielded it in one hand before bowing to his opponent. The girl returned his bow with a slight smile. Bee settled back to watch the disy of the two skilled warriors as they began to sh. At least the kingdom''s future was in good hands. *** Muchter that night, well past midnight, Bee finally managed to make an escape. She used the excuse that it was no longer her birthday to escape the festivities, though that did earn some protests. Still, her insistence that she wanted to sleep helped her retreat eventually, so she hurried back home. Void joined her within a few minutes of her getting the door open. Bee flopped onto a couch with a loud groan. She was exhausted but not quite ready to go to sleep. Not yet. There was still work to be done. "Any word from the delegation?" Bee asked Void hopefully. Maybe they would have some sort of news already. The expectation was impractical, of course, but she couldn''t help her curiosity. Void replied with a negative beep but continued on with a moreplex message afterward. Bee nodded her head. "I agree we do need to increase our readiness. The Nighty Knights are already here, so that helps. Maybe we can see if their parents will let them stay a little bit longer? We might have demons to hunt soon. We need to be ready for a more involved extraction, and they''re honestly our quickest-moving forces." Void beeped its agreement. A momentter, a rectangr strip of paper emerged from its back, a message already printed on it. Bee pulled it free and passed it to a servant at the door, who nodded and ran to handle the matter. Bee settled back on the couch. "Other than that, how was your time at the festival?" Immediately, Void jumped into an ecstatic retelling of the many events that it had judged. Bee settled back and allowed Void''s soothing tones to wash over her as her master regaled her with tales. There had been many sesses and amusing failures as the popcepeted in the celebratory events. In particr, Void seemed to enjoy the pie-eatingpetition. It was one of Void''s favorites after all these years. At first, she thought her master wouldn''t like it because of the mess being made. There were usually a lot of crumbs left behind, after all. But apparently, something about humans attempting to clean up and consume as much food as possible in a short time was rather amusing. It almost made her a bit disappointed that she''d been banned from thepetition. Apparently, her using Void''s Breath wasn''t in the spirit of thepetition. Even if it was great practice for her. As Bee leaned back and closed her eyes, she smiled. Despite everything, she did have some fun. Chapter 319: Good Hospitality Chapter 319: Good Hospitality Archibald did his best to rx as he stared at the demon across from him. Well, he was pretty sure it was a demon. In fact, if he had to guess, he would have said it was a high-level archfiend based on the nearly immacte disguise. Immacte aside from the slightly erged shadow and strangely ashen skin, that is. He had seen their like before, but this one was doing a much better job of seeming human. Back in his day, the ones he had seen were tall, thin creatures of me and shadow armed with three-pronged whips. The whips weren''t usually used as weapons against humans, though. Instead, they were used to discipline the demons in charge of the demons who ordered the humans. It was a pretty messed up system, to be honest. Archibald had a lot of experience with archfiends, though. He''d killed a lot of them in order to liberate humans, which was part of the reason he was now so familiar with them. Of course, he hadn''t done it alone. Daedalus had always been involved since high-level beings like that were far too much for Archibald to handle, especially early in their campaign. Now, though, he was pretty certain he could take it on his own. But what he wasn''t sure about was protecting Susan and Tony at the same time, not to mention making it out of the castle together. No, that would be a lot more, Especially since they didn''t see through the ruse. "No offense was intended. We have no idea what happened to your earlier envoy," the demon said in a cating voice. He pushed his spectacles up slightly and scribbled something on his parchment. The n was a pretty straightforward one. Susan, Tony, and himself were here to inquire about a citizen from the Theocracy who had disappeared a while back. Thest ce this theoretical citizen had been seen was here in the city, and they were simply concerned with finding the man. It would give them an excuse to put pressure on Barleona and a reason to be searching all over. Judging by the reaction they were getting, the Barleonans obviously weren''t particrly upset about this. Still, the goal was to make a big fuss and then have an excuse to stay around for a little bit and investigate more. If they just stayed around for no reason, it would be pretty obvious they were spies. Well, more than it already was. They wanted to have usible deniability and all that. Plus, any stalling they could manage would give Daedalus more time to find the fleeing Harold and get him to safety. But Archibald hadn''t really been prepared for how bad things were. The pce was crawling with demons, and as far as he could smell, Susan and Tony weren''t aware of it. In fact, he wasn''t sure how he was going to tell them without showing his hand. "The man we''re looking for was a merchant, so I''m sure you''d have records of hisings and goings or sales in the area. We''d appreciate your cooperation in obtaining those records," Susan said. The demon thought, and Archibald could see the gears turning in its head. Could it get away with denying them ess? He knew as well as Susan did that no such records would exist. The "merchant" they were looking for didn''t exist. Or would turning down the request be too suspicious?Eventually, the demon nodded. "Of course, of course. We''ll make sure to locate the records you requested. Though, as you know, bureaucracy can be slow-moving. It''ll take a little bit of time to dig through everything..," Susan nodded graciously. "Of course, we understand that. We do hope that there''s a certain amount of red tape that you''ll be able to bypass for us, though." The whole time, Archibald kept his attention firmly on the archdemon. They hadn''t been attacked, not yet. That was good news. Maybe its hands were tied somehow, or it didn''t see them as a threat. But he hoped that they''d have some chance to get out of there before the jig was up. Tony tensed beside him, and Archibald thought that someone else had finally realized they were talking to a demon. But after ncing over, he realized that Tony was actually looking behind them towards the door. Archibald quickly spun in his chair just as another figure entered the room. It was another Archfiend, this one not in disguise. Unlike its fellow, this one''s skin glowed like hot coals as it uncoiled arge whip. Behind the desk, the "royal adviser" spoke again. The pleasantly polite tone of an overworked bureaucrat had vanished from its voice, reced with a far more menacing growl. "I understand perfectly. Now, we''d love to have you join us for dinner. Perhaps you can help answer some questions of our own." Archibald didn''t hesitate. He kicked the table forward, sending the four-hundred-pound piece of oak into the disguised archdemon''s gut and pinning it back into the wall. As he spun, he drew his sword and cut the whip out of the air as its tendrils reached for Tony. Tony raised his hand, and the blue light that formed a permanent halo around him coalesced into a singr beam. It shot out of his finger and struck the demon in the forehead. The demon''s eyes rolled up in its head, and it copsed to the ground. This content has been uwfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He didn''t trust that the thing was dead yet, though, and for good reason. Archibald already saw it twitching as it got up. He lunged forward, striking down with his de. He wanted to kill one of the archfiends before engaging the other while hispanions ran. But it rolled out of the way of the strike and was back up on its feet in a moment. Tony grimaced. Looking around, Archibald saw Susan sprinting for the one that was pinned against the wall. Their chances of winning this were slim, not to mention getting away afterward. They needed to leave now. Archibald dragged Tony away from the still-disoriented demon, and the three of them moved to pile on the fake bureaucrat. They wouldn''t be able to just kill it. That would take far too much time and power, but perhaps they''d be able to disable it. Higher level demons were known for their regeneration, not just Lieutenants. Susan''s des drew lines through its neck. Archibald stabbed it in the chest and ripped his sword out the side of its ribcage. At the same time, Tony imprisoned its ankles with energy constructs and mmed a spike connected to his fist through the thing''s jaw. "Come on! We''ve gotta go!" Archibald yelled and dragged hispanions away as they ran past the other recovering archfiend and into the maze of corridors. No rm had been raised yet, but it would likely happen any time now. They didn''t slow down as they worked their way toward the edge of the pce. They weren''t on the ground floor, and Archibald didn''t want to risk leaving through the front door again. They immediately looked for a room with a window. Perhaps they''d be able to climb out, or Tony maybe might be able to levitate them down. In the city, they''d have a better chance of losing any pursuers. A group of earth elementals rounded the corner ahead of them, but the trio kept going. This much couldn''t even slow him down. A trail of water appeared behind his de as he began spinning it. The Dragon Rider quickened his steps as he sprinted towards the new enemies. He delivered a scything strike to the first elemental, the water collecting behind his de following right after. It smashed through elemental after elemental as his momentum carried him forward. By the time Susan and Tony caught up, there was just nothing more than wet mud coating the corridor. A roar from behind him made him flinch. A brute. A demon that stood about twelve feet tall and had limbs as thick as his torso. He felt the floor shaking as it approached, and he yanked them off into a side room. They should''ve been near the edge of the pce now. Unfortunately, the room they had chosen had no windows. Only the rough stone of the outer wall greeted them. Archibald cursed. There was no helping itC they didn''t have time to keep looking. "Cut a hole. Hurry," He told Tony and Susan. "I''ll hold it off." They nodded somberly and began hammering at the wall while Archibald put himself in the doorway, ready to face down this monster. He could probably kill it in an open battle, but in tight corridors like this, with it having reinforcements and him on the back foot? He just had to hope his allies could cut through stone quickly. The thing rounded the corner a momentter, and to his horror, Archibald realized he''d misjudged the situation. There wasn''t just one brute barreling towards him, but three. And behind them came a horde of lesser demons ready to serve as cannon fodder. The massive meatheads saw him and surged forward, heedless of the lesser demons they crushed beneath their feet. Behind them, he caught a brief sh of red-hot skin and whips. Apparently, the two archdemons had also re-entered the fray. Archibald bit his tongue. He focused on activating several skills in quick session, such as jets of water and force sting outward. His de moved like a conductor''s wand as he smashed aside the lesser demons. He saw the impacts damage the brutes slightly, but not enough to halt them outright. It wasn''t long before they came into striking range. The first one brought its fists down with a deep bellow. He met the blow with the t of his de braced against his arm, but still, he could feel the tremors in the marble floor as he skidded backward a step. His shoulder cracked from the impact. He didn''t think he broke a bone, but that would definitely be sore for a while. Kicking out, his foot smashed into the demon''s leg with minimal impact. It felt more like he was hurting his leg than the demon. He called over his shoulder with concern. "Hurry up!" "Uh, there''s a problem," Tony called back. Archibald nced behind him, narrowly avoiding another heavy blow, to see that he had miscalcted even more. This wasn''t the edge of the pce. The wall that he had cut into simply led to a different room in the pce. One that was also full of demons, several of them holding massive rock drills and ready to ambush them from behind. "By Void," Archibald cursed as he drew back his weapon and let out the most potent skill in his arsenal, Unstoppable Force. The wall of force smashed the three demons back through the wall and into the room across the hall and left Archibald reeling as a sudden rush of magic left him light-headed. Still, as he stumbled, he knew that he couldn''t rest yet. He turned around to face the demons about to attack Susan and Tony. Sending out several bursts of magic, he kept them off him for a second, and then everything was spinning. Archibald''s head rang from a strike from behind, and he felt his legs give an outside roll. He felt himself m up against an adjacent wall. The room seemed to vibrate and swirl as he tried vainly to pull himself together. With a force of will, Archibald tried to get his wits about himself as he stood up. Still, he was so dibobted by the blow to his head that he fell over backward andy there, looking up into the sky above. For a moment, he simplyy there, appreciating the stars as they appeared in the night sky. Then he stopped. Why could he see the stars? Chapter 320: Fish in a Barrel Chapter 320: Fish in a Barrel Daedalus had gotten used to having humans riding on his back. After so much time shuttling Archibald around, it had lost a lot of its demeaning nature. The sheer enthusiasm of the children who wanted to climb on and go for short flights also helped. But those were both special cases. Having other fully-grown adults aboard Well, it wasn''t exactly his favorite thing. But he could handle it. Still, he''d never had so much trouble getting someone on his back. This Theocracy spy, Harold, was truly special. Daedalus had met several spies and sneaky types throughout his years, usually ones trying to steal his hoards of treasure throughout the eons. It was an inevitability like the rise and fall of human civilization. He recognized that these types were always anxious, neurotic, nervous wrecks of people, and that''s what made them good at their jobs. But trying to convince them that their frail little frames were safe under his majestic wings was harder than he had thought. Daedalus was a being of perfection and beauty, of strength and power. Why would a puny human worry about being harmed while under his protection? Eventually, though, he managed to get Harold on his back and they were moving towards safety. He had a lot to report, apparently, about Barleona and its dealings. Far more than he''d noted in his message. The prospect of finally hearing some good news was exciting. Maybe they''d finally be able to hunt down thosest Lieutenants soon. But mid-flight, Daedalus''s priorities shifted. A low rumble vibrated his scales as an instinctive growl rose from his chest. Harold clung tighter to his spine and gave a high-pitched squeak of rm." What''s going on?" Daedalus ignored him. There was no time to exin. Archibald was in danger. Stupid humans, always trying to go after hispanion. If anyone had dared to hurt him, they would feel the wrath of a dragon. Well, likely this wasn''t the doing of humans, Daedalus realized as he banked on the air currents heading for the Barleonan capital. No human would be so stupid as to go after Archibald. Archibald was more powerful than anyone of this age, except for maybe Beatrice. There really was no danger that he couldn''t handle from them. But demons, on the other hand They were just dumb and strong enough to try something like this. He could feel Archibald fighting, unleashing skill after skill through their shared link. Daedalus pped his wings harder, elerating as the city came into view. Screams sounded as his shadow passed above, people looking up in fear and awe. The dragon circled around, looking for a ce tond near his humans so that they could meet up and fight off the danger together. Then he felt Archibald taking injury. A blow to the back of the head from some coward sneaking up on him.Daedalus let out an enraged roar and barely resisted the urge to pour fire and brimstone down on the city. By the slimmest of margins, it was spared from being burned off the map outright. Instead, he made a beeline for the pce, his massive scaled body smashing into its roof. He gripped with his talons and swiped with his tail, tearing the ceiling and several floors clean off as though they were a lid on a teapot. There, he finally found a dazed Archibald looking upward, his injured formying against one wall. Susan and Tony were gathered around hispanion, staving off enemy attacks as demons flooded into their room. It was all he needed to see. Daedalus let loose. A torrent of rainbow-tinged fire poured out of his maw, carving a circle around the cornered humans. There was also a distant-sounding noiseing from behind him, almost like someone yelling butpletely iprehensible. Daedalus ignored it. The demons that weren''t instantly incinerated by the ze were pushed back, hissing and screaming at the sudden attack. As he continued pouring me into the halls and corridors, Daedalus picked out more and more details through his haze of rage. Archdemons fled before his might, their usually ming tails singed by hisparatively superior firepower. Brutes swung at his legs and talons, only to be swept sideways by his tail. After a few moments, Daedalus heard a cracking sound. The floor below began to shift, the strength of his dragon fire and weight too much for the puny human structure to handle. As much as he wanted topletely raze the thing to the ground, he had other priorities. Instead, he swooped down, quite nimbly in his estimation, and grabbed the humans. Archibald and Susan lifted his front ws skyward, and he grasped Tony with a back foot. Pushing off with his one remaining free limb, he soared up into the sky, away from the crumbling capital. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. --- By the next morning, Bee had received no new news from the delegation. Not that she had really expected any so soon. Even if they''d sent some right as they arrived, it would still take a few hours at least for a bird or other message to reach her. But it left her anxious nheless. So, to keep herself from worrying too much, she decided to focus on what she could do. She told her chambein to cancel most of her meetings for the day. Last night''s meeting had left here with more important things to address than road-building updates and zoning reviews. Her advisers would be able to make do on their own for a bit. Instead, she went to find Arthur. Arthur was, as usual, on the training fields with his men. The rather exhausted-looking troops were in the middle of exercising, but upon noticing her approach, Arthur handedmand over to one of his officers. "Miss Bee," Arthur said with a polite bow. She grimaced inwardly at his actions but understood their necessity. They were in front of the troops, and certain protocols needed to be observed. She inclined her head graciously. "General Arthur, may I have a word?" "Of course," he said, following her to her study. Once inside, he rxed and gave her a warm smile. "I hope you had a good party yesterday," he remarked. She rolled her eyes, eliciting a slight chuckle from the grizzled man. "Yeah, I understand. But remember, it''s not just for you. It''s for the men and the people. Morale is incredibly high after the festivities." "Is that why you had everyone training early in the morning?" Bee asked. Arthur smiled. "It''s a great time to enforce some discipline when everyone''s hungover. But anyway, what can I do for you?" Bee quickly reminded Arthur of the situation in Barleona and the possible threat of demons and cultists. "I was aware of the possibility," she admitted after exining. "But it sounds a little bit more dangerous than I was led to believe." "Yes, that was another one of my reasons for having early training. Assessing readiness," Arthur reassured her. "I''m going to need a high-level strike force, though. There''s a very real possibility we have to perform an extraction mission ourselves. However, that should be unlikely with Archibald and Daedalus over there. But I''d expect we''re going to be at least preparing for border skirmishes, possibly war altogether. And I thought I''d give you as much early warning as possible." Bee said. "So it''s reallye down to that," Arthur acknowledged. She nodded. "Yes. I imagine if our suspicions are urate and the Lieutenants are in Barleona, then we will want to move on them immediately. All of us." "True," Arthur agreed. "No matter how powerful he is, a god could still use support. His faithful will be ready to march." "Good. I expect that it will be a few days, depending. I''m hoping to receive news sometime today, but it might beter. But if we don''t hear back by tomorrow, we will march," Bee dered. Arthur grimaced. "That''s not a lot of time to get supply lines ready. But luckily, we''ve been preparing for this for a while. I''ll go talk to the Minister of Finance and let him know what I need," he said, rubbing his forehead. "I''ll talk to him. You''ll get whatever you need." "Okay. And by everyone, you mean everyone." The man confirmed with a questioning eyebrow. Bee nodded. "Yes. If it''s really the demons, I think it''s time even the Nighty Knights saw realbat under yourmand." Arthur grimaced. "Not exactly happy about that, but I would rather them fight monsters like the demons rather than fellow humans. They''re still a little young, in my opinion." Bee looked at him. "Many of them are as old as I was when I first fought humans. Besides, I''ve met some of your sons now. They all told me you started training them long before they were even close to ten." Arthur nodded. "Yes. Training. And we''ve been training the Nighty Knights, too." "Yes, but your oldest sawbat when he was 13," Bee pointed out. Arthur grimaced. "And I regretted that. I''m sure I''ll regret this, as well. Maybe when times are kinder, when the world recognizes who Void is, we can make sure the children stay children until they are fully grown. But we''re not there yet," he said with a heavy sigh. "Not yet, but soon," Bee agreed. "Hold a second while I write up a letter for you to give Gerald," Arthur said, retrieving a pen and quill to scratch out a list. "Of course," she said. "But is there anyone else we need to put on alert? Just double checking to make sure I''ve got all my bases covered." "I don''t think there''s anything you need to do. I will be sending out missives to all of our cities, especially at the border, to heighten security and prepare for theing conflict, but those should arrive right about the time it''s obvious to any spy that we''re ready to march. So, a day or two. I wouldn''t go around spreading it too much, though. If word gets out, we might lose what little element of surprise we manage to maintain," Arthur advised. She epted this and bid Arthur farewell, leaving him to his work while she went to talk to the Nighty Knights. Captain Felix was going to be quite excited. Chapter 321: Mission Failed Successfully Chapter 321: Mission Failed Sessfully The next couple of days after Beatrice''s birthday party, the city seemed to be subdued slightly, as if it was tired and everyone was recuperating from the day of exuberance. I didn''t mind. It gave me a lot more time to take care of work. For the moment, I took advantage of theck of visitors to tend to my arboretum. I vacuumed up the wilted petals of the various flowers, carefully pruning them one at a time to optimize their appearance. I liked giving each individual care. Even if it only took extra time, seeing the faces of people who loveding here for rxation and peace really made it worthwhile. Mostly, it was the elderly who came to visit, but sometimes, little kids would run around the area as well. I had a special section for them where the nts grew extra fast, and I could quickly repair any damage if they got a little unruly in the flower beds. It was very cute watching little children give each other flowers. Sometimes, they''d even give me some. It wasn''t the most well-thought-out n, since it was hard for them to find somece to tuck them. I didn''t have any ears or hair that lent itself to keeping the stems in ce. But they usually ended up cing them on top of my chassis, and I did my best to keep them bnced for as long as I could. With the help of a little Air Maniption. My peaceful morning, though, was soon interrupted. On the horizon, I saw a massive red lizard flying toward us at quite a respectable speed. Daedalus had returned. At least, I was 99.89% sure it was Daedalus. There weren''t that many ancient dragons flying around, much less ones with a paint job like his. I wanted to go out and greet him, but I had a few more things to wrap up here first. He wouldn''t arrive for 18 minutes, anyway, so why rush? As I waited for the 14th kid today to find the perfect ce to set her flower down, I began using myser to prune the tree limbs. There were still several more in the queue, their parents watching on with anxious smiles. I didn''t want to rob them of their fun, so Daedalus would have to wait a few more minutes. Besides, he really was going pretty fast. He probably had something urgent or exciting to say, if I had to guess. And that meant he would go to meet Beatrice at the pce before anything else. It was one of the few ces in the cityrge enough for a friend tond, and it was pretty reliable to find him there whenever he visited. There was no point in making him repeat himself. He could tell us all the news at once. When thest child had anointed me with his carefully-picked flowers, I very gently rose up into the sky. I created a bubble of still air around me to prevent the wind from knocking them off as I glided towards the pce courtyard. I didn''t want to push the flowers down and risk crushing them t, so I did have to move a little carefully. And by the time the red dragon''s massive form shook the ground, I was there to meet him. As I predicted, Beatrice was already waiting, and so was Arthur. Both of them seemed a little more concerned than I thought was warranted. I understood that they were supposed to have been away for much longer, but still. Harold was on Daedalus''s back, so things couldn''t have gone that poorly. Before anyone spoke, the four passengers slid to the ground. Harold looked a little bit shaky. His face was somewhere between white as a freshlyundered sheet and green as a new leaf. I thought it was a lovely shade of pale chartreuse. But everyone seemed to be unharmed, at least. For a second, everyone was quiet as they recovered from the flight. I gave a wave of greeting, but everyone was shaken enough that it didn''t seem to register. But it wasn''t too long before Beatrice broke the silence. "Well. What happened?" The five returnees exchanged nces, not one of them really wanting to speak. Eventually, Daedalus rumbled out a response. "I enacted diplomacy." The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Archibald let out a barkingugh, and Susan and Tony looked a little bit abashed. Harold''s face just paled further. Beatrice''s frown deepened as she took in the reactions. Her gaze understandably focused on Archibald. "What''s so funny?" Archibald looked around and realized that he''d been hung out to dry as the one responsible. He red at Tony for a second before stepping forward with a sigh. "It appears that ''diplomacy'' was never really an option. We found Archfiends in charge of the government when we got there. Things went downhill fast." "Archfiends?" Beatrice''s eyes narrowed. "How sure are you?" "Very sure," Archibald confirmed. "They didn''t exactly hide it for long" "Ok" Beatrice shifted, evidently thinking along the same lines. "So, am I to understand that things didn''t go well?" Archibald shrugged at Beatrice''sment. "Well, we''re all alive, and some of the archfiends aren''t, but we may have caused a diplomatic incident." She closed her eyes in thought for a moment, letting out a long breath. Oh. So, the negotiations had turned messy. Normally, I would have been quite perturbed, but I suppose it was only to be expected. Apparently, mess-makers were well-versed in turning everything into a mess C even "diplomacy." Did their hedonism know no bounds at all? Still, despite my indignation, I waited for Beatrice to speak. All of this was really her area of expertise, after all, and I didn''t want to take that away from her. Eventually, she opened her eyes again and waved her hand." Well, if there are demons controlling the city, I don''t think I''m too concerned about a diplomatic incident It can''t be helped." The five of them seemed to rx a little bit at the words. A nervous smile stretched across Archibald''s face. "Oh, good. Then you don''t mind that their pce doesn''t have a roof anymore?" Beatrice froze, then rubbed her temples like she had a headache. She took one more deep breath and remained silent for 5.012 seconds before responding. "No. No, I guess I do not. Just just tell me what happened." The five of them quickly filled everyone in on the events of their visitation. It really was a mess. I couldn''t me the humans so much, as the demons had definitely been nning mischief for a while. But I couldn''t help but be a bit disappointed in Daedalus. Surely he didn''t have to destroy quite that much of the castle? But at least everyone was safe. After that, we all looked over to Harold. Beatrice addressed him directly. "So. Do you have anything else to add to your report?" Harold nodded. "Yes. The location of whatever they''re hiding is the important thing, but I have a lot more details. Mostly about shipments in and out, merchants sent over there gone missing, and go-betweens" Harold started a long exnation about everything that had drawn his attention to the suspicious location. As he spoke, both Susan and Beatrice began to frown darkly. I could understand why. It became quite clear that something was afoot, especially given the way Haroldid out the events. After the man finished his exnation, Beatrice turned to Arthur. "How are we on that strike force we talked about earlier?" Arthur shook his head in apparent wonder. "This is moving a little bit earlier than I had nned, but we''re mostly there. If we leave tomorrow, I can get us a strike force at 90% strength. Just a strike force, mind you. We wouldn''t be able to march in and hold the city or anything like that. This is a select group of high-level people, not an upying force." Beatrice nodded. "Well, the first priority is making sure that Barleona''s strength does not get out of hand. We can have the regr army march behind us to upy the country after we have toppled it." Arthur nodded his agreement. "Yes, exactly." I couldn''t help but agree that we needed to move quickly. Things sounded pretty bad over there. And based on Archibald''s story, I was 99.999% certain that no one else was going to clean up the mess left behind in their wake. I always hoped that I was wrong. "All right," Beatrice said, "tomorrow morning, an hour after dawn, we head out and spread the word." Archibald and Daedalus seemed quite excited about the prospect of finally being able to fight demons again after such a long time. As the group began to disperse, Harold raised his hand. "Er am I going as well?" Beatrice frowned. "Hmm. Probably not. As strong as you are, I think we have a few other assignments we''d rather send you on. Peripheral missions." Harold sagged in relief. It never failed to surprise me how odd that man was. Chapter 322: Four Helms Deep Chapter 322: Four Helms Deep "The capital of Barleona is a fortress," Harold exined in a sonorous voice. We had spent most of the night in themon room of Beatrice''s penthouse, arguing over strategy and different ns for theing invasion. It was nearly morning now, and most people had long since gone about their tasks. Aside from Beatrice and me, Harold was thest one left. Although his firsthand experience with the ce was proving pretty useful, they''d been going around in circles for almost an hour about. Mostly nning around the defenses we''d encounter. I rolled along the floor, leisurely sanitizing them for a fifth time and sucking up the small particles Beatrice produced as she did her alchemy. She''d started working on a concoction just after midnight, juggling it with the conversations around her. I was pretty proud of her developing multi-threading capabilities, however small they were. Beatrice remained silent as she poured some more powder into arge metal sphere. Its exterior was engraved with countless runes and markings that seemed incredibly hazardous. He walked closer, holding a flickering candle. "The entrance is well guarded -- it has a reputation for being imprable. How do you intend to bring down such a mighty gate?" As he got closer, Beatrice''s hand snapped out and caught the candle before it got too close to her alchemy, and she held it in ce. She leveled a re at him, one that seemed tomunicate, "What do you think you''re doing? You should know better" in an impressively efficient manner. Harold looked up at her with concern on his face as he took several steps back. Finishing up her work, she set a lid on the container and stepped away. She walked towards the penthouse''s balcony, where the sun was just beginning to rise. As she moved, she spoke. "If the gate falls, the capital will too." Harold followed her to the balcony. "Even if the gate does fall, it''ll take far more forces than we can bring to bear quickly to take the capital. Hundreds of elite fighters." "Thousands of elite fighters," Beatrice corrected as she stepped into the morning light."But, High Priestess, no such force exists" Harold protested as he followed her out. The wind whipped his hair into his eyes as they widened in disbelief. Below them, stretching out across the grassy field, an army had gathered. Ranks of soldiers lined up side by side, their white armor gleaming with the sun''s fiery rays. As Beatrice stepped forward, they raised their spears and swords to salute as cheers rose up from below. I was honestly a little surprised. When Arthur had said that he would be assembling a "strike force," I had expected something much smaller than this. Maybe he''d simply gone overboard. The wind blew out the candle that Harold was holding as he stared at the force below. His jaw hung open. The people below started to chant in unison. It sounded something like "for the glory of Void." After letting it go on for a handful of seconds, Beatrice raised her hand and silenced the crowd. "A new threat is rising. Yet its defeat is at hand," she yelled. The promation was met with more cheers from the army. Sensing the mood, I started ying some appropriately epic music from my speakers. "On this night, we shall march on ourst enemy. The enemy of not just the Theocracy, but all mankind. They shall be overthrown, and we shall reign victorious!" Beatrice''s speech whipped them into a frenzy, ttering their weapons against their shields in a close approximation of apuse. I liked to think that the music helped, too. "March! March to Barleona!" She yelled with a final gesture. I decided to have a little bit more fun. I swooped out in front of the army, projecting massive explosions and fires around them. I''d seen things like this in sporting events so long ago. Arthur led the army off toward their destination before we all went back inside. "...Well, that was fun," Beatriceughed. I beeped happily in agreement as Harold finally shook himself out of his stupor. It had felt like an appropriately epic sendoff. After a brief pause, Harold nodded in agreement. "Right. But do we really need your alchemy?" "Of course. How else are we going to bring down the gate?" Beatrice replied. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. "We have a dragon. Why do we need this?" Harold questioned again, gesturing at Beatrice''s creation. In a way, he was right. I projected an image of Daedalus tearing through the city, destroying building after building. It has seen enough of his power to make a pretty urate demonstration of the mess and rubble he had probably caused when he had attacked the ce during that "diplomatic mission." But I continued my portrayal of what would happen if he were let loose, emphasizing the amount of rubble and general mess the walls would be left in once he was done. Harold hummed thoughtfully, and Beatrice nodded in agreement. "Yes. The loss of life would be incredible, and we wouldn''t be able to hold the city afterward," she stated. "Well, whatever was left of the city." My processor huped for a couple nanoseconds. Yes. Those were also good points. That was exactly what I had been thinking, too. "This is a far more precise method. A surgical strike on their gate," Beatrice said. "Arthur is in charge of the actual n, and he''s the one who requested such a thing." Harold nodded. "I see. Alright. I won''t question your decision, then." "It''s understandable, "she gestured to her creation. "Besides, the army is going to take a day or two to even get there. They are walking, after all. Arthur has time to change his mind if he wants to. But that leaves us plenty of time to set things up before flying over ourselves. Well, Void, Archibald, Daedalus, and I can once we''ve set everything up here." Harold nodded. "All right. Well, it seems like you have things generally in hand. Just let me know if you need any more information." Beatrice nodded her thanks. "Yeah. I appreciate all you''ve done, Harold. Once this is over, we''ll see what we can do to recognize your service. I know public attention isn''t something a spy particrly enjoys, but you''ve contributed a great deal to our country." "Thank you, High Priestess." Harold gave a respectful bow and headed down to the elevators. After he left, Beatrice turned to me. "Sometimes I can''t believe how far we''vee. Can you believe he was the dean of my school?" I beeped nomittally. "I mean, I never knew him back then, so it wasn''t that surprising." Beatrice just shook her head in resignation. "Oh, well. I better finish this, though. Now I can finally focus a bit." With that, she continued working on her alchemy project. --- Arthur stifled a yawn as the march started. Behind him, a collection of his officers did the same, the dark circles under their eyes telling a story of what they''d been up to in the past 24 hours. Most of his soldiers had gotten a fairly good night''s sleep beforehand. But he and a few other lucky souls had been up all freaking night nning and organizing supplies. That meant it was just a small group that looked dead on their feet rather than the whole group. He rode his horse a little bit farther forward to go talk to the nextpany''s officer. Everyone followed after the vanguard, who ran ahead with seemingly endless energy. As expected of the Nighty Knights. Most of the men wore faces grim with determination or looked enviously at the boundless energy of youth. The Knights wouldn''t actually be involved with the attack on the city. Once the city was taken, they would be involved in hunting down the monsters and demons that were sure to gue them at every step. Despite that, Arthur relented and gave them the position of honor. He had hoped that it would help motivate the troops, but it was apparently having the opposite effect. The initial boost from the rousing speech that Beatrice sent them off with helped to offset that. The ethereal, unearthly music that Void had projected also underlined the importance of theing battle. The twobined had certainly kept them going for about 15 minutes. Now, the soldiers'' work began. The hard, never-ending days that they had trained endlessly for. Arthur stifled another yawn. He really was getting too old for this. --- Harold waited in the elevator heading down from the High Priestess''s apartments. He couldn''t believe that his student hade so far. Well, a "student" in name. It was strange to even think about the fact that he had once taught her. Admittedly, he could have done a better job. But, well he consoled himself with the thought that if he had done a better job, then she wouldn''t have be who she was today. Still, it had been a fairly intimidating sight, seeing that many elite troopsid out below. The Nighty Knights alone were terrifying, honestly. Harold could only imagine that the elite units of the army were as intimidating. But now, his part was finished. He had provided all the information that he could. Still, as the Warden had continuously reminded him for thest couple of years, he was not necessarily good at leading anyone, much less armies. It meant his contributions to these meetings were mostly him ying devil''s advocate. Still, it was reassuring to know that the leaders had everything in hand. And he was happy that he wouldn''t even be needed. He wouldn''t even have to apany the upying force of the regr soldiers being sent outter this week after the elites had done their work. That group was a more "standard" army, but in appearances only. Their levels and strength were far above what any other nation could dream of fielding. That only made the thousands of elite soldiers that they were sending ahead more impressive. It would be like something out of myth and legend. Harold grimaced slightly. He really hoped that the High Priestess''s weapon could help minimize the casualties. Otherwise, this war would be a bloodbath. Even with the demons in the city, he had no doubt that it would be human troops on the front lines. Perhaps with more the surgical approach they were going with, they could avoid causing too many issues. It would be best to secure the city enough that some of their elites would advance deeper into the territory and towards that secretive location the demons kept. It would take several days to get there, which made him nervous. He had a sense that something would happen there soon. All of his information pointed to it. Also, there was something else that felt off. He wasn''t superstitious or anything, but there would be a sr eclipse soon. Perhaps it was just his paranoia getting to him. Harold shook his head and headed off to get some sleep. // I''m not sure this chapter turned out the way I wanted it too. I might remove the first bit entirely before the kindle release. let me know what you think! Chapter 323: An Assault on the Senses Chapter 323: An Assault on the Senses Beatrice and I soared above the clouds, the wind whipping about us as we flew. My sensors were trained on the ground far below as I searched for the strike force. My projections said we should be rtively close to it now. It had taken them some time, and we had dyed making sure that everything was taken care of before we left. As my sensors picked up the crows, I led Beatrice down through the clouds. I''d timed my arrival almost perfectly as we met up with the army below, just out of sight of Barleona''s capital. Archibald and Daedalus flew not that far behind, but they didn''t dive with us. They would circle above and out of sight for now. Then, at a critical moment, we could have them dive in from the clouds and turn the tide of battle. They wanted to be involved the entire time, citing the fact that with me around, there would be no "critical moment" that required such a trump card. But I wasn''t so sure. With the number of unknowns we were dealing with, my models were a lot less certain than I would''ve liked. And I didn''t mean to leave them up there unless they were needed to win. It was also nice to have a backup in case a lot of people on our side were about to get hurt. Who knows, maybe I could get distracted or indisposed? That would be simply uneptable, but still. The Barleonans and their demon masters likely knew we wereing already, and they probably had seen using for several hours at this point. But that wouldn''t give them too much warning. They didn''t have the days it would take to build extra walls or anything like that, nor could they call in reinforcements from further away. At least, I didn''t think they could. So, all they could really do was ready the forces they already had and put everyone on alert. No, from everything I knew, it would be pretty straightforward to get into the city, like cleaning an empty rectangr room. Once we got through the gate, though, things would be moreplicated. In the city, numbers wouldn''t mean as much as we would have nearly unlimited choke points to work with, and so would our enemies. Still, it was going to be a hassle. During our nning, Arthur had grumbled about how fighting in cities was always messy. Given how the attack on the capital had gone all those years ago, I had to agree. However, that was mostly due to the mess makers themselves. I had tried to think of some way to avoid fighting in the city, but it didn''t seem like there was going to be an option. So, I just had to be around to clean up things afterward. It made my circuits spasm, thinking about being party to a mess in the making. But, well, I have learned a lot of important lessons over the years. Besides, I liked making omelets. They were apparently tasty. We emerged from the bottomyer of the clouds with a small poof. From this angle, we could easily see the city gates closed, a rather unusual thing for this time of day. That confirmed that they''d seen using. We could also see the Nighty Knights and Arthur''s elite troops still in the forest. We zipped down, alighting in a clearing and heading toward themanders at the top of the hill. Arthur greeted us, as did the other officers and Felix, representing the Nighty Knights. "It''s good to see you, Lord Void. Your timing is perfect," Arthur said. I beeped my acknowledgment. To the side, I saw Beatrice roll up her flying carpet as narrowly as she could before cramming it down her throat. The sight filled me with pride. Truly, she was my best student. Storing equipment and other things inside one''s own dustbin was the proper way of doing so. It was much more efficient than carrying a pack or something like that. I was just d that skill of hers had helped her to see reason. She coughed and choked as the tassels tickled the back of her throat. A few of the officers'' eyes went wide with horror and confusion at the sight, but most of them had seen it all beforeC Arthur and Felix included. After a little bit of quite udylikenguage, I used my Grabby Arm to pat her on the backfortingly. This happened sometimes. She would get used to it. She looked less than pleased at the revtion. Just as we peered toward the city, the sound of horns ring up and down the wall greeted us. Our arrival was announced with a possibly appropriate amount of fanfare, though it was nothingpared to my sendoff. Still, everyone''s faces were serious. But this would be difficult, and everyone knew what was in store. Our troops acted without requiring Arthur to give orders. The elite troops split in half and streamed past the Nighty Knights, breaking into eight smaller groups. Each group had a mage specializing in barriers that they erected over the path as they advanced. Each group of elite troops peeled off to support and defend the mages as they provided a tunnel for the main host to run through. I was kinda surprised no envoys were sent from Bee''s side. Or no talks before starting. I think that the enemy should attack first before they have a chance to send any. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Everyone picked up a quick pace as the assault began. We charged through a hail of arrows and stones that did not quite bounce off the shields but instead had most of their momentum absorbed until they ttered harmlessly off of armor and helmets with no punching power. Concentrated fire wore down the mages'' power, resulting in a few injuries over time. But the biggest problem was dodging therger boulders. They didn''t slow as much as the arrows did, and even dropping from ten or so feet above could be deadly. I turned my Sanitation Lamp up a bit, shooting thick beams of bluish-purple light in every direction to vaporize any uneptablyrge projectiles. Still, some of the smaller ones made it through. The army yelled as they got closer, and Beatrice darted underneath the gate. I plugged the many holes that attempted to spew boiling liquid down on her as she spat out severalrge jars. Quickly and carefully, she hid and stacked them along the portcullis in a pattern before lighting a fuse and running away. The attacking soldiers retreated with her, and the defending soldiers on the wall let out a cheer of what sounded like victory. They thought they had repelled the first assault. I felt a twinge pity for them as they clustered over the gate to watch us retreat to a safe distance. Their cheer hadn''t even faded by the time the boom shook the earth beneath us, andrge hunks of granite rained down in a shower of debris. A shower that quickly formed into a miniature tornado, swirling toward my dustbin. I even managed to suck up much of the noxious ck smoke that the impact had left behind. I still was a little disappointed in how messy this n ended up being, but it was alright. Beatrice had been excited about the invention, and I certainly was never one to do everything for my humans. The cheers turned to cries of rm as our forces reversed and ran back towards the city and began to push inside. But not everyone waspletely stunned by the loss of the gate. The moment the dust finished entering my bin, a wave of demons poured out of the houses and side streets to meet us, their ming and ash-encrusted hands flexing. They let out squeals of apparent glee as they charged the soldiers in a ck wave with vicious swipes and grasping ws, aiming for the weak points in armor and formations. Skills shed, lighting up the battlefield as our advance halted mere feet inside the city. Endless waves of demons assaulted us from all sides as we attempted to form a beachhead. Given theck of humans in the max, I thought it was safe to assume that the demons had pretty much given up any semnce of hiding their intentions. The Nighty Knights hung back, waiting for the right opportunity to offer aid where they were needed and protecting our nks. Our soldiers were doing fine. Evidently, all of Arthur''s training and those daily room cleanings had really paid off in terms of levels. I did my best to protect them from all attacks, but I do not particrly see a more effective way to contribute at the moment. Not without being what Arthur and Beatrice called an "experience hog." I simply hovered above the column, drawing fire, blocking shots with pinpoint precision, firing off sts of my Sanitation Lamp at demons, and overall picking them off one by one. But the tide never seemed to slow. The first frantic 30 seconds turned into a minute, and then two as the pace never seemed to slow. Soldiers on both sides were tossed down, and demons poured in after us like an endless tide. After five minutes, I was worried that we''d only made a few feet of progress despite everything. All of our individual and group power meant little against this wave. Though we were obviously doing a lot of damage, the demons were also a lot stronger than I''d expected. They didn''t go down easily. If they''d been doing any more damage, I might have considered stepping in myself. After ten minutes, I couldn''t help but wonder where all these demons wereing from. I scanned the city for summoning circles but did not find any on a cursory search. At least, nothing that would cause enemies to appear at this rate and pace. Each one of our soldiers was extremely high-leveled, and rarely did they need to retreat and cycle through, but that did not mean they had endless stamina. We''d get tired eventually. A deep thrumming vibration sent my bristles tingling. I located the source, only to find one of the Nighty Knights lifting a section of the city up into the air. The massive chunk of earth hurtled through the sky, mming into waves of winged enemies as it crashed down in the distance. A line of white-hot fire streaked through the air as Bradleyshed out with his sword, slicing an entire crowd of imps in half at once. Well, not all of their number hade. Beatrice and Arthur had put extremely restrictive measures on them. Every single one of the Knight here was above level 40, and from what I understood, that was pretty impressive. Arthur imed that each one would''ve been a one man army in most cases. But the sheer number of strong demons meant even they were hard-pressed topletely stem the flow. The enemy soldiers had stopped attacking for the most part, either scared off by their ineffectiveness or unwilling to side with the tant demonic activity. The city''s ruler had been still attempting to hide it from the people, based on ourst reports. After 20 minutes of nonstop action, I drifted back to speak with Arthur as we had only taken the first intersection. Something had to change. I beeped at him, concerned. I watched as soldiers spread out on the wall, forcing back the city''s defenders as we secured our beachhead. The burden of my protecting many of the projectiles lessened greatly, and the barrier mages had mostly recovered. I finished beeping at Arthur, and he grimaced. "I agree, Lord Void, this is not going well. The demons are here in far greater numbers than we could have anticipated. But still, we are making progress. But if we do not figure out where the reinforcements areing from, I worry that the cost of taking the city will be quite steep." Well, that certainly wouldn''t do. It didn''t seem like the man would mind my help in this particr situation. With a brief shift of processing power, I sted out my sensors as far as they could go and quickly found the answer. There, at the far side of the city, were clusters of tunnels. I spotted hordes of enemiesing up out of them, nearly at the same rate at which we destroyed them. Different shapes, sizes, and colors of mess makers scurried together in a positively unsightly heap that really got me upset. I reported what I found, earning a grimace from Arthur. "They''re not evening from the city, then. Which direction?" I indicated where the tunnel seemed to be leading, and he pulled out a map. "That''s the direction that Harold warned us about. Of course" Arthur clenched a fist. "We need to stop them." Beeping in agreement, I knew just the right people for the job. I soared up into the sky and let out a loud, musical chime. It was time for our own reinforcements. Chapter 324: Rods from God Chapter 324: Rods from God Daedaluss ears perked up as he heard the signal. Spots song, as well as the subsequent shes of light sent up through the clouds, were easy enough to decipher. It was time for him to shine. With a final snort, he dove down. Still, he had to confirm the coordinates several times before diving. Having him miss the city entirely wasnt exactly something theyd nned for, and he was a little skeptical of what his small friend was asking for. But he trusted Spots processing, and so down they went. He was a very quick-witted young god, after all. Archibald whooped, clutching onto the spines on his back as the air rushed by. As they neared the ground, broad red wings extended, and they leveled out of their several-minute-long dive. Opening his jaws, Daedalus sted the ground below him with as much fire as he could before arching back upwards and dropping the heavy rock held in his ws. The very air vibrated as the missile struck the ground at terminal velocity, sending a shower of dirt in every direction. Daedalus had been hoping to strike back at the pce with that, but apparently, it was more important to hit this random Spot on the ground twenty meters out of the city. Oh, well. He and his rider were now fully exposed, but theyd done their job. Now, he would do as he pleased. They did a strafing run, sting apart the back wall of the city and its defenses. Soldiers scattered as they tried to defend the structure, which was consumed by fire. Satisfied for the moment, the dragon circled back. It would be wise to see if he had made a satisfactory crater in the random Spot of ground or if he would have to go find another massively heavy rock and lug it all the way up above the clouds again. He grimaced slightly at the thought. His wing joints ached a little from that first ascent, and he wasn''t exactly excited about doing it again. Perhaps he was getting a little past his prime C though that seemed impossible since dragons were always in their prime. But it had been fun to watch that impact. It was a different kind of satisfaction than spraying things with dragon fire alone, but not in a bad way. This sshing, molten, and burning dirt had made it a pretty impressive show of its own. Archibald pointed out a particrlyrge group of what appeared to be demons. Daedalus ran over it with another quickyer of fire, clearing out some of the courtyards that the demons were forming up in. Hopefully, that would help his friends a bit, if indirectly. It wasnt like he could go assist on the front lines without toasting a lot of people on ident. Before settling down next to themand post, Spot beeped his thanks.Of course, Daedalus nodded. Though I must admit, Im a little confused at your request Yeah, what was that? Archibald piped up. We didnt even hit anything until after. After some questioning, Spot exined that they had just copsed a tunnel that the demons were using to get into the city rtively undetected. Archibald slid off Daedalus''s back and brought up a very good point. How long will that slow them down? They just have to dig up to the surface again, right? Spot beeped in agreement, projecting his calctions overhead. Daedalus skipped over the numbers to locate the final estimate. It would only be a couple of hours at most. Arthur scowled. That might be true, but even a couple of hours with fewer reinforcements might be enough for us to get a better foothold and take the city. But still, it''s not ideal. We still need to find some way to stem the flow, if we can. Otherwise, we''ll be in trouble once our people get tired or need to sleep. We''d just have to hope there is an end to this." If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Beatrice looked thoughtful as everyone waited for her to make a decision. Would they retreat? Would they take the city anyway? Would Spot and him level it such that there''s nothing to defend? All these were viable options except for retreat, in his opinion. --- Bee listened to Daedalus''s report. On one hand, it was great that they had actually put a stop to the reinforcements, even briefly. But on the other hand, she was frustrated that they hadnt actually solved the problem. Sure, it might grant them some reprieve for a while, but without taking advantage of the opportunity, things were still going to be a problem. She really didn''t want to level it, of course. Not only did the thought make her feel squeamish, but there were still so many people who lived here. People who may or may not even be involved in this whole matter. The way she saw it, that just wouldn''t be a healthy thing to do. Bee turned to Arthur with an idea. You don''t need the Nighty Knights or me here to maintain the status quo, do you? Arthur rubbed his jaw and hummed thoughtfully. No, I don''t think so. The only issue is if a Lieutenant shows up. We might not have anyone who can match it here. I don''t think I could keep one pinned down for more than a couple of moments still. We might be able to handle it as a group, but again, it''s a war of attrition that we won''t win... She nodded. That''s an issue. But I think we''re going to have to take a chance. No Lieutenant has shown itself yet, even after Daedalus came down. So I don''t think they''re here. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that they''re all in that direction at the end of that tunnel. Id agree with that, Arthur nodded. Its a reasonable guess, at least. But by Harold''s estimations, the ce he was worried about is pretty far out. Even with your speed. Right. If thats not it, then I can''t imagine we wouldn''t have drawn one out by now. Void cut in and beeped, exining a brilliant strategy where her master would hold an illusion. Convincing the enemy that Void and Daedalus were nearby, preventing any sort of interaction by the Lieutenants. Bee realized that it hinged on her master''s assumption that the Lieutenants weren''t willing to risk themselves fighting void for something as unimportant to them as a human city, seeing that they had already lost so many of their number to the all-devouring god of cleanliness as it was. Arthur seemed slightly ufortable with the risk but willing to take it. Okay, Bee finally decided, turning to Tony. Get Felix and the Nighty Knights ready. Were going to cut off the problem at its source. Archibald raised a hand. Mind if wee, too? The way I see it, youll be in big trouble than we will here if those guys show up. Bee nodded gratefully. If you dont mind. Void chirped that it wasing, too. Bee bowed and thanked her god for the assistance. She obviously hadn''t wanted to assume, even though Void was one of the only ways they could permanently deal with these things. But. It was nice to know that she would have its support. As Tony went to collect the Nighty Knights, Bee and the rest of their party gathered together. As they waited, she got to work busying herself. She still had a lot of energy to spare, and she could take the pressure off the soldiers for some time before they left. Her broom spun as Scouring Strikes sted into demons. Stepping into the fray once more, she held a gap as her Holy Aura vaporized enemies and strengthened her allies alike. Nearby, soldiers poured over the walls to continue taking over the defenses. This went on for almost half an hour before she stepped back, starting to feel a slight drain on her magical ability. She had taken the advice of Void ever since. At some point, she began incorporating her other skills as well. Voids Breath mixed into herbat patterns as well. Whenever she had a chance, she inhaled bits of scattered demons into her internal holding space. It''s something that had taken her years of practice to get used to, much less used actively like this. But now, she could finally do something other than simply storing things. She could actually do something with them. She could transmute them into energy. It had been very difficult for her to do at first, much less without losing everything she had kept inside her pocket dimension. But now she could transmute small things. Bits of demon at a time, really. That meant her current enemies were perfect. It was just enough to keep her energy mostly topped off and massively slow the drain on her skills. Also, it was a good exercise. The more she did it, the more precise she was. So when she finally stepped back, her energy reserves were only at half, and she felt more than capable of still defending herself. She would recover them before they reached the next target. By that time, all the Nighty Knights had been pulled out ofbat and were ready to go. It would be a flight for several hours to their target location, but who knew what they would find when they got there. They would have nearly unstoppable firepower with them. But still, she couldnt help but worry. Chapter 325: Houston, We Have A Problem Chapter 325: Houston, We Have A Problem I gripped two corners of arge canvas sling in my Grabby Arm as I flew through the sky. To my left, Daedalus clutched the other pair in his talons. Inside of it sat all of the Nighty Knights, and they couldn''t fly. They were clinging onto the edges and looking out over the scene below. With the speed we were traveling, the sling tilted at a diagonal. We had slowed down a little to make sure it didn''t go fully horizontal. Some of themined about feeling like they were stuffed in a sack. Most were ogling at the view. Those that weren''tfortable peeking at thendscape rushing by a thousand feet below sat closer to the center. I observed a quite impressive array of green and white faces among them in particr. The few that could actually fly alongside us were zipping about with Beatrice. My human was resting on her carpet, eating food and recovering from the battle before. She had spent a decent amount of time getting some breathing room for Arthur back there, so I couldn''t me her. She deserved some rest. As long as we were traveling, at least. I focused back on my connection to the decoys I had left behind. One of the more recent abilities I developed with my Sensory Disruption skill was being able to tie an image to an inanimate object, like a rock. I ced my creations in a few soldiers'' bags so that the moving images of Daedalus and me were still moving around out there, being intimidating and just generally imposing. At least, I hoped that was the effect we were having. I certainly never had felt as intimidating as everyone seemed to imagine. Regardless, I could still feel the objects drawing power through my connection. That meant they were up and running. Hopefully, it was still working to deter anything really bad from happening to the army. I still wasn''t too worried, though. With the amount of power everyone had, they really could handle themselves, even with the Knights gone. Especially given the levels they were gaining from just this fight. Plus, with Arthur at their helm and using his full skills as amander rather than an individualbatant, I was pretty confident they could handle a single Lieutenanting at them. If more than one came, they probably wouldn''t be able to drive it away, but still. They had a perfectly eptable probability of retreating sessfully. And besides, my models were ticking up with ever-increasing certainty that we would find the Lieutenants at the location we were going to. As I collected more and more data and allowed my models to predict further and further out, it became apparent that there was a pattern of behavior here. A strange one. I wasn''t sure what, exactly, since I was still missing data. But it didn''t seem good. But while I was a bit worried, watching the Nighty Knights have fun beneath us was quite entertaining. Irene floated up next to me. The young woman sat cross-legged on a golden disk that looked like a particrlyrge and ttering version of myself. The projection carried her around as she had her head bowed and hands sped together in prayer. I beeped at her asionally to let her know we were still nearby. The whole "closing her eyes" thing made following us a little hard, not to mention that it took a lot of concentration to maintain the avatar to this extent. But it was pretty cool. I had to admit that the massive version of me made her skills look a lot more impressive. Maybe I should have used that for my illusions as opposed to my real dimensions. Though I guess that wouldn''t really fool anyone.As I found myself imagining the possibilities, something came over the horizon that stole my attention. A bright red beam should be new, happening as they approach. It was out of ce, to say the least. As we came closer and closer to the source, I could see more. It seemed to originate from a spot in the center of four volcanoes, one actively spewingva out of its cone. The light was almost a kilometer in diameter and was messing with my sensors somehow, too. That was never a good sign. At all. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Then again, if we were looking for trouble, maybe it was. We all continued forward quite a bit farther before the others'' visual sensors could pick up on the phenomenon. As they did, conversations quickly died and even the motion sick Nighty Knights crawled up to the edge to see what the light was. Beatrice swooped down as close as she could to hold a quick conference. "What is that?" Felix shouted above the wind. I didn''t know myself. It was a big beam of red light, but somehow, I didn''t think that was the answer Felix was looking for. Instead of stating the obvious, I waited for Beatrice to answer. She looked thoughtful but didn''t speak for a moment or two. Then, she nodded and pulled her eyes away from the glowing beacon. "That looks like a ritual. A big one. No, a massive one," she corrected herself. "With that much power, I can only imagine what they''re summoning" "You think that''s where the demons areing from?" Felix asked. Tony nodded vigorously from where he soared next to us, blue energy circling him in a perpetual halo. Beatrice shook her head regretfully. "No, I don''t think so. We would see rhythmic pulsing if it was continually summoning a bunch of smaller demons. This is something far more powerful and concentrated. If anything, the small demons might just be a byproduct of the ritual that''s being conducted.". That didn''t seem to put anyone at ease. It didn''t make me feel better, either. The idea that the horde of demons they had spent thest several hours fighting might be a side-effect of something else? I didn''t even need to run an analysis to know that whatever this "something else" was would be bad news. Bee shook her head again and continued to exin. "But I don''t know that for sure. Maybe there are other circles responsible for the small fry as well. One that wouldn''t be giving off nearly as much energy." "Are you saying that they''re summoning another Lieutenant? Could they even revive one?" Tony asked with a bit of rm in his tone. Beatrice looked at me thoughtfully. "It''s possible, maybe? But I don''t know if they could steal a Lieutenant away from Void''s clutches." I checked my dustbin to be sure. As expected, there wasn''t a single remnant of any Lieutenant within me. They''d all been transmuted ages ago. I felt like that was a pretty final kind of sendoff. Maybe it was possible they were recreating them somehow, but that didn''t seem right. It didn''t seem to fit with what I knew about the uniqueness of souls, for one. I beeped negatively to convey the information. That just made Beatrice seem even more concerned. "Perhaps they''re summoning other Lieutenants, then? Though if there are others that are powerful, why haven''t there been more in the legends? Why didn''t they already bring them over?" "Maybe they were off destroying other worlds," Tony said, a wry grin on his face. I wasn''t sure what was so funny about that, but I was d he could see the humor in even the darker times. Archibald snorted. "Yeah. We can only hope. Even if they do bring more over, we''ll just have to kick their butts even harder, right?" "Whatever it is, we need to stop it," Beatrice said, and her carpet put on more speed as she urged it. "Let''s hurry. I don''t like the look of this." Daedalus pumped his wings slightly harder, and I also elerated smoothly to match his pace. All the Nighty Knights got back in the sling, but most of them were not able to fly fast enough to keep up on their own. They gathered tightly inside as I split the air around them to protect everyone from the wind. Only Tony, Beatrice, Daedalus, and I, with Archibald on his dragon''s back, stayed out as we powered forward. We began our descent and curved around one of the tall mountains in order tond in the valley below. On either side, two of the still-dormant volcanoes loomed overhead. As we neared, I stretched out my sensors to get an idea of what was inside. All the tension building in us increased tenfold as we watched a ck fortress rise up from the ground. The smooth, seamless obsidian of its walls absorbed all light as a mass of thousands of various minor demons milled around its entrance. At its front stood a massive ck gate with teeth like spikes, leading into a fortress with endless hordes of demons pouring out of it. I even picked up some tunnels that led into the mountains, heading toward the direction we''de from. "Well, I think we found the source of the issue," Archibald called from Daedalus''s back. Just as I beeped my agreement, I heard the deep call of a horn echo. Throughout the valley, the milling masses stopped and turned to look at us. Chapter 326: Fair and Balanced Chapter 326: Fair and Bnced I looked down at the mass of enemies spilling out of the ck fortress ahead of us. Most of them were demons like we''d seen before, smaller ones that no longer posed much of a threat at all to me. But some of them registered as muchrger, faster, and stronger than the others. An idea I''d wanted to try for some time came to the forefront of my caches. My sanitationmp had been one of my go-to opening moves for any sort ofbat engagement for a very long while. Ever since it had be powerful enough to affect the earth demons in the castle so long ago, it had proven a low-risk and highly effective move against most opponents. It also let me gauge their power fairly well in ways that weren''t covered by my passive sensors. It also had the benefit of being nearly instant, unblockable, and incredibly precise. All in all, it was nearly the perfect move. Only its realck of oomph against powerful enemies and ineffectiveness against incorporeal entities stopped it from being an ultimate ability. Part of the issue with staying power is that it requires a bit more time to get through tougher obstacles. I had to focus on the point I wanted to damage or sanitize rather than sh through things en masse like with my sword. I could reduce that time by turning up the power, but there were limits. However, I remembered when I first got the skill. One of the first things I did with it was purify germs all around the castle, and in order to do that, I used themp in a different manner than focusing it on a narrow beam. I had instead spread it out over arge area as I moved. Now, with my massive reserves of power, I wanted to try that same tactic again, but with a bit more oomph behind it. It might take a couple of seconds to reach the desired effect, but I was curious to see what would happen when I bathed an entire area in sanitizing light at once. I transmuted a few spare boulders into energy, just for a bit of extra power. As I lined up at the gate, I ran some quick calctions on the optimal angle. Then, I let loose a wide-angle st of pure sanitation down at the enemies below. The entire area lit up in a burst of light. I heard mypanions cry out with surprise as mymp shed, its bluish-purple glow nearly white from the intensity. In the first 0.05 seconds, my sensors picked up scores of demons melting away. Severalsted for 1 or even 2 seconds longer, but even they burned the whole time, like in stories of vampires before the sun.I kept up the assault, rather pleased with my progress. This was going way better than I''d hoped. Granted, I was pretty sure I could never use this if there were allies below, but still! The light sted into the gate, and for a second, I thought it was going to start melting as well. Maybe my new tactic would be even more impressive than I''d hoped. But instead, the light seemed to split to either side, parting right at the gate. There, standing thirty yards in front of it, was a familiar figure with the gate cracked open behind. It was a demon, of course. One that stood 13.89 feet tall was covered in ck armor and held a massive shield that covered its entire body. A Lieutenant that I remembered fighting several years ago. One that had got away. The ck shield seemed to expand outward into a projection several times its size, covering the castle and splitting the wide beam of light to either side of the city. As it did, the redirected light red off and killed many more demons. But even as the shield began to flicker, the energy I had allocated for the attack began to dwindle and run out as well. All of us in the air watched as the Death Knight roared up into the sky, screaming a wordless challenge. With a couple of beeps, I summoned Beatrice and Tony to hold my end of the sling, and my thrusters burned at maximum as I raced forward. This was it. After so long, we''d actually managed to find our quarry. I wasn''t going to let him get away this time. Plus, this was a fearsome opponent, and I didn''t want any of my allies to have to face it alone. With an earth-shattering impact, I crashed into the shield, expecting to blow back the knight with the force. But to my surprise, I bounced off the shield. It rang like a gong, the deep sound cutting through the now much quieter surroundings as we collided. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Waves rippled in the air in almost a visible distortion as I pulled out my sword to engage inbat. Instead of immediately attacking, though, the Death Knightughed. "You''re toote, little man," it said. I spun around briefly, looking to see who the Death Knight was talking to. "Little man?" Was he referring to one of the Nighty Knights? I beeped uncertainty, picking up no likely target for the words. I projected a response above my chassis. "I am no man." "Indeed," the knight grinned, "And you''re no god, either." I nearly pulled out my Grabby Arm just to smack myself from secondhand embarrassment at the obvious set-up cheesy line. I felt like I had lost RAM from simply hearing that. Truly, my predictive models were not built with such things in mind. Instead, I decided to cut to the chase and sh out with my Divine Sword. This time, he did retreat backward, though it wasn''t from the force of my impact. Rather, the knight jumped back through the barely-open gates. I followed him through as they mmed shut, trying to keep me out, and my sword plunged halfway into his shield as he defended. I pushed harder with my thrusters, attempting to drive the sword through his arm and into his chest to damage him further. I knew that it wouldn''t be enough to end the fight. I needed to weaken the Lieutenant enough to pull him into my dustbin and end his menace once and for all. But before I could, something mmed into me from the side. I winced, my shell cracking as a tendril of shadow smashed into it. The sword was ripped out of the shield as I went flying sideways. My momentum halted as another impact rocked my underside. As I spun through the air, one of my wheels cracked and bent. My thrusters engaged automatically, attempting to stabilize me in midair. Still, a sickly green light enveloped me, and I could feel the energy within me twisting strangely. It became harder to control as something seemed to disrupt it,pletely invalidating my subroutines. I tried to make real-time manual adjustments as I fought the sensation, wobbling dangerously in midair. My efforts managed to send me flying upward in a frenzy, and I escaped the green light before it did anything worse. As I stabilized, worry started to flood my circuits. What was this? I didn''t even have a great grasp of what had just happened. My sensors did a bted sweep, and I could feel my capacitors drain in despair as I realized I had becent. I had been too cocky and failed to properly n ahead. I did not properly map my domain, and now I felt lost. Six Lieutenants surrounded me, evidently waiting in ambush. Already their attacks wereing in at speeds and directions that made it impossible to dodge them all. I could feel my maintenance abilities work to repair my broken shell and wheel, meaning I would not be rolling anywhere anytime soon. Only my thrusters kept me mobile as I nimbly darted around, trying to prioritize the attacks by severity and the potential problems the could cause. I swooped below the massive arm of a skeleton, pivoting around a swiping w from a flying, almost female-looking demon. The Death Knight''s sword gouged into my shell as I was forced to dodge that sickly green light once again. I didn''t have the time or processing power to look for the seventh Lieutenant, who was likely lurking nearby. My entire focus was on this fight as a st of air mmed me into the ground, forcing me into a crater-like a meteor gouging into the earth. Cobblestones flew in a mess behind me as I plowed deeper into the ground, my own Air Maniption fighting against the onught. I had fought many Lieutenants before. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from them. But this? Something was different about this. They were much stronger than they should have been. Each blow came with twice the strength of the previous ones I had defeated. They worked as a team, too, which wasn''t something we''d expected at all. Even as I dodged a rust-colored rod fired from the sky, I took a brief moment to switch my sight in and check on their souls. Sure enough, even those looked different. The jagged red forms weren''t all that I saw. Surrounding each was a liquid, clear substance, one that I didn''t recognize. It seemed to seep into the cracks in their souls, forcing them apart into even less stable forms but ones brimming with new energy. Something had forced them to evolve and be more powerful. Even as I looked at it, I knew that the effect wouldn''tst forever. I poked at one of them, trying to force it to unravel faster, but it was tooplicated for me to figure out in such a short time. I would need some sort of break in the action to take on that particr puzzle. In the barest, brief moments of distraction where I couldn''t put 100% of my processing power into the fight, a bash from the knight''s shield sent me back into the ground next to the hole I''d already carved. I flipped through my skills and only just managed to pour out a coating of protectant sent above me, stopping myself from being impaled on another rust-colored fired from above. I spotted the source of the aerial attacks. It was a being with a white dress and ck wings hovering above me. Her golden hair was streaked with ck, a look of contempt and disgust marring her mostly human face. One hand held out an intricate staff as another rust-colored rod formed in the air above her head, next to the broken halo. As one, the group of opponents all let their attackse down against my protective shield. As strong as my sent was, I heard it creak and snap under the sheer pressure of the assault, threatening to shatter. A roar sounded as a sheet of billowing mes descended from above. Joy filled my circuits as my friends reminded me that I did note to this fight alone. I had backup. Chapter 327: The Black Gate Chapter 327: The ck Gate Bee watched as Void mmed the Lieutenant backward and followed its retreating form through the gates. She and Tony struggled to hold the Nighty Knights aloft. Their flight abilities were nowhere near as powerful as those of a literal dragon or a god. However, they''d been entrusted with the task, so they''d carry it out. She clenched her fist around the canvas, not wanting to risk dropping the precious cargo. With Daedalus''s unspoken agreement, they all quickly made their way toward the ground, taking advantage of the suddenck of demons left by Void''s massive attack. Repositioning was their best y. Most of these Nighty Knights needed to be on the ground to fight effectively, so keeping them in the air didn''t really make sense. As they got nearer to the fortress, some of the Nighty Knights with ranged abilities began taking potshots at the demons as they repopted the sky. The air quickly began to fill with enemies once again, faster than Bee had thought possible. If they didn''tnd soon, they''d have a much harder time fighting their way to the ground. Daedalus was ahead of her, though, and with all the might of a red dragon, mes billowed down over the city and sted an area clear. That itself was already helpful enough. But as they fell, Daedalus kept the mes focused on the gate, causing it to droop and melt into g. As they got closer to the ground, something forced its way through the fire, a bubble of air sting all directions. Its intensity extinguished much of the anciry mes that ignited the ground nearby but was unable to quell the dragon fire itself. Inside that bubble of air, Bee spotted three figures stalking forward. Three Lieutenants. These are ones that she recognized, not just from all the stories she had grown up hearing but also from the research she''d been doing over thest several years in preparation for this fight. Finally, she faced down three of the 13 foulest beings the world had ever known. One of them she''d seen before. It appeared to be made of shadow, flitting through the air and clinging to whatever bits of darkness weren''t washed away by Daedalus''s zing breath. The other two were less familiar. A beautiful woman with bat wings and a tail adorned with a heart-shaped barb pped her wings as she stayed within the bubble of air. Mistress of Nightmares was the name the subus was given in the children''s stories. But having grown old enough, Bee realized that her actual powers were far more insidious and expansive. The third and final Lieutenant, the source of the bubble, was mostly translucent, nothing more than a loose collection of air currents forming an amorphous shape like that of a cloud. Of the seven remaining Lieutenants, these were the three most capable of flightbat. At least, that seemed to be the case as part of their natural power sets. Together, the figures charged at the Nighty Knights, where they were still suspended. Daedalus cut off his me suddenly, either from fear of hitting his allies as the battle came closer or because he just needed to breathe. Bee wasn''t sure. Regardless, they made it to the ground just in time for the three opponents to swarm over the dragon and its rider.Stolen novel; please report. Several skills and sword shes manifested as Archibaldshed out. But despite his level advantage, the Lieutenants managed to shrug off more attacks than expected. That was worrisome. Archibald was no slouch, and a quick scan confirmed her fears. Under the status section, Bee spotted a new term she hadn''t seen before. Sacrificial Pawn. She had no idea what it meant, but it had to be the cause of their increased power. "Go!" Daedalus roared toward the Nighty Knights as they spilled out of the sling and took up positions, the group already busy ughtering demons en masse. Just as Daedalus''s ws touched the ground, he pushed off once again, shaking the ground beneath them as he engaged the Lieutenants in the air. Bee debated whether or not to stick with the Nighty Knights or go help the dragon. She clung to her carpet, looking between them with a moment''s hesitation. Tony''s hand on her shoulder brought her attention up to him. He shook his head. "Stay with them. You''re better on the ground. Besides, someone needs to be on hand if theye back." With that, he was floating up, chasing after the three Lieutenants harrying the dragon and its rider above. Bee gulped. Tony didn''t have the same level advantage that the other two did. Still, that didn''t mean he couldn''t make a difference. The sheer potency of his skills kept her from worrying too much. A Custodian of the Beyond was still an ill-defined but undeniably powerful ss. She moved to turn back to the fight with the Nighty Knights but froze as one of the lieutenants peeled off toe to face Tony. Bee forced her apprehension down to focus on the fight around her. She couldn''t get too distracted. There was still plenty to be done here. She had to help the Nighty Knights establish a beachhead before she could afford to join the battle above. Luckily, it seemed like things were going well on that front already. The weak demons outside of the city were not providing any challenge to her allies. As they forced their way toward the melted gate, she could see that their individual levels were already higher than the demons. On top of that, they had impable teamworkpared to the chaotic mass of demons that did little else but charge. They ovepped their skills to form massive areas of destruction and anything that managed to duck around or dodge was carefully picked off by Nighty Knights with more specific roles. Various points of the formation were anchored by some of the strongest members, and in the center, Felix gavemands while offering incredible team support buffs. Leanne stood at his side, an entire squad''s worth ofsers and various other energy-based projectiles sted through her targets with pinpoint uracy. The amount of projectile skills she had was insane, not to mention her buffs. Her eyes, mouth, and fingertips glowed with various colored streams of colored light as they spammed into allies and enemies alike. Only the very careful years of training Bee had helped put her through allowed her to make sure that she never once identally buffed an enemy or harmed an ally. Bee rolled up the carpet and crammed it down our throat, freeing up her hands and exchanging it for her broom. It was the same broom that Void had made her so long ago but upgraded many times. The entire thing reflected light like a many-faceted gemstone, seeming to glow with energy and power. It was lighter and tougher than ever, the point so sharp that it could cut through solid rock with barely a gesture. She spun it once before snapping out her hand and sending a Scouring Strike up into the sky. It sted apart many of the fliers before even Leanne''s never-ending barrage of cover fire could hit them. A couple more steps took her to the edge of the formation and sent her sting ahead to clear a path. As she took point, they forced their way to the gate. It was still open and would never close again, judging based on the half-melted mass of metal they had to hop over. Just as they were about to reach the entrance, her eyes widened. The massive, many-horned forms of archfiends poured out and formed a wall blocking their path. Chapter 328: Nightmare in Dreamland Chapter 328: Nightmare in Dreand Bee pushed forward to meet the mass of demons, sweeping out with her broom in a deadly arc. She grumbled under her breath as the first actually managed to block her strike, though it lost a number of ws in the process. A quick scan confirmed her suspicions. All of the demons above level 60 had the same Sacrificial Pawn note in their statuses, greatly increasing their power. She redoubled the force of her blow, mming back the Archfiend into the group behind it. A collection of newly-trimmed gowns and ws ttered to the ground before it. She stepped forward, her defensive instincts ring to life as she moved in front of the Nighty Knights and sent a rapid series of Scouring Strikes into the force. Golden light engulfed the foes in a barrage like a sandstorm, killing off the weaker ones and pushing back the rest. Her Holy Aura billowed out of her, the warm glow eating away at their very forms even as it strengthened those around her. With a thought, she focused on directing the rest of her passive skills toward those around her. The Nighty Knights seemed to straighten as they began mending minor injuries and stabilizing major ones at a rtively negligible energy cost. Bee''s broom struck out over and over in a series of jabs and feints, tearing apart one Archfiend and sting its body back into another. But there were too many for her to take on alone. As she fought, several of the Nighty Knights'' more aggressive members rushed forward to fill in the gap alongside her, offering their support. A column of orange me cleaved through the air, sending another demon screeching in pain. She noted Bradley''s massive sword out of the corner of her eye as its fiery de shed with the ws of another Archfiend, forcing it to give up ground. But despite the smoldering wound left behind as the de sunk in, it didn''t stop the Archfiend from pulling him a little farther out of position. Evidently, the Theocracy''s champion duelist had gotten a little too used to fighting one opponent at a time. Bee caught a slight wavering in the air. In an instant, it materialized into a smaller demon clutching a wicked-looking dagger. Its de dripped a tantly green-colored poison or acid onto the ground, the liquid sizzling on impact. Bee nearly stepped forward but held herself back to deal with the new threat. Her Improved Pathing was telling her to ignore the development. And she had an idea of why. Just as it was about to stab Bradley in the back, a massive w made of golden light appeared behind him. It pinched the dagger out of the demon''s grasp before a bubble of ckness enveloped it and sucked the demon into the construct. Irene stood half a dozen paces away, her head bowed and eyes closed. Bradley''s sister stood with her hands pressed together in prayer as the battle raged around her. Bee wanted to warn her to pay attention to her surroundings, but even as she watched, ws, projectiles, and spells seemed to curve around her. It was as if there was an invisible barrier around her. No demon moved to attack her directly, either. Despite having worked with the girl, Bee was unable to figure out exactly what skill she was using to control the battle so well. Bee''s own attention snapped back to her own battle as a pair of unholy juggernauts charged forward. These level 60 demons didn''t pose the same danger as an archfiend, but that didn''t mean they were easy opponents. While they wouldn''t be able to kill her, she would definitely have trouble killing them. Their defensive properties were insane, and every attempt to sh at them was quickly rebuffed by their tower shields and thick hides. Only her aura allowed her to slowly eat away at their shields.Bee kept them upied as she watched the Nighty Knights around her rally and support each other against the wave of high-level demons still pouring out of the fortress. But even as they came, they became less and less of a problem. As Bradley finished off the Archfiend, Bee felt her Scan pick up that he and his sister both gained two levels from their fight. The next Archfiend they faced down seemed just a little bit slower and weakerpared to their upgraded capabilities. The Knights were already terrifyingly powerful from the strength of their skills. But as their levels began to catch up, they quickly began to match their opponents as they cut them down. Thebination was too much for their foes to handle. Bee couldn''t help but grin as she forced her way further toward the twisted and melted remains of the gates.. A massive wolf bit down on the mangled steel that remained in the way. Crystals of frost formed with every breath from Cliff''s nostrils as Tanu yelled encouragement and buffed his steed. She raised her head to the sky, letting out a bone-chilling howl that sent pirs of ice shooting upward in a wide cone. The wolf''s massive fangs were bared in a snarl, her mouth sorge that Bee thought the wolf could devour the entire world. With a nod to the boy and his "dog," Bee led the others forward. They''d left them with a perfect path to delve deeper into the fortress. This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. However, just as they pushed in through the doors, she screeched to a halt. She felt her blood chill as she saw the broken halo floating over the ck-winged "angel''s" head, telling her exactly who she was facing. Nazareth''Gak had been a nightmare she''d always heard as a child in stories. Still, he was far from her least favorite Lieutenant. No, the one that she''d always been most terrified of as a child wasn''t any of the more powerful or brutal ones. Midianthia, Nursemaid of Retribution, had always held a special ce in her heart. Tales of betrayal and deception. A kind stranger offering to cure the hero, only for his limbs to rot off mid-battle. A supposed "healer" who spread only pain and death. She always managed to find her way into stories, bringing defeat from the jaws of victory. Whether it was healing the viins or cursing the heroes, it didn''t matter. The idea that any errand act of kindness could be a dagger in disguise bothered Bee in a way she couldn''t exactly exin. The rust-colored scepter that the angel gestured at the Nighty Knights let out a pulsing wave of light that Bee imagined only she could see. In an instant, she flung herself into the sky with a powerful thrust of her legs in an attempt to m her broom through that Lieutenant''s ckened heart. Midianthia was shocked as her golden aura shielded the Nighty Knights below from whatever foul magic this fallen angel was attempting to hit them with. The High Priestess of Void mmed into the fell cleric, her broom''s point meeting the surface of a glowing round shield. But even as gravity took hold again, Bee didn''t let up. She opened her mouth and inhaled. Her Void''s Breath ability was nowhere near the strength of her master''s, even with all the training she''d done. There was no way she''d be able to swallow an enemy like that whole. However, she didn''t have to. Gales of wind buffeted the angel, pulling her down toward Beatrice. Her wings pped frantically as she tried to stay aloft, but a force like a small tornado sent her careening toward the ground. Bee took advantage of the opening, sending a series of Scouring Strikes and stabs forth as she shes. Holes appeared in the Lieutenant''s feathered wings as she screamed in anger and pain. As she neared the ground, Bee tucked herself into a neat roll, cutting off her skill as she did. Her opponent hit the ground momentster, facing the young priestess down with eyes of venom. --- Archibald fought to keep the smile from splitting his face in two. It was inappropriate to smile in a situation like this; it was downright irresponsible. But as the three lieutenants charged toward him and his friends, he couldn''t help but revel in the adrenaline pumping through his veins. His mind focused, and the world seemed to slow down around him. The feeling of his sword''s leather-wrapped handle in hand and Daedalus'' slowly beating heart beneath him felt rejuvenating. Thest several years had been downright boring. He neverined out loud, of course. Daedalus had dealt with a much longer wait than this, even if he spent much of it asleep. But for Archibald, it had felt like nothing but a blink since thest war with the demons. That had only been more true when his first moments awake had been filled with such immediate excitement for months on end. But when it was followed by four years of enforced downtime well, it had been torture. But now, he was back in his element. Not only were there demons to fight, but they were big ones. Powerful enemies who would give them a real challenge. And even better, they were actually equipped to deal with them for good. A deceptivelyzy arc of his sword flung out a crescent shimmering with the reflective fire of his friend''s breath. It streaked through the air and toward the shadowy form, flitting up to meet them, the crescent too fast to dodge. But instead of being cut in half or tumbling through the sky, the darkness of its body seemed to lose its deepness somewhat, the shadows washed out by the light of the skill. Air wrapped around Daedalus'' wings and attempted to force the dragon onto the ground. However, the ancient being shrugged it off with contemptuous ease. Even the demon, mighty as it was, had no power over that of a dragon''s wings. The sight made Archibald smile harder. The Lieutenant wasn''t the first to try taking down Daedalus that way. Unfortunately for their opponents, he was fairly certain that it was taking exactly the wrong approach. Bee had more than once noted how a dragon''s wings simply weren''trge enough for flying to make sense, not from a logical standpoint. And Archibald knew that there was no skill involved with Daedalus''s flight either. Their best guess at an exnation suggested that dragons only stayed airborne through somebination of arrogance, stubbornness, and sheer ego. And knowing Daedalus, it certainly seemed usible. The shadow semon recovered, finally reaching its destination, and Archibald lost himself in the rapid exchange of blows. Air, fire, sword, and darkness shed, turning the sky itself into a churning mess. He got so into the fight that he almost forgot three of the lieutenants had flown up at them, not two. The rm spiked Archibald''s adrenaline even further. His head turned on a swivel, looking for the surprise attack he knew to expect. But looking around, he saw Tony fighting one all by itself. It was perhaps the worst one for him. The subus demon of lust floated on her bat wings, her movements by far the slowest of the trio. In that way, it was a good pairing, seeing that Tony was not the most maneuverable either. But this was still perhaps the worst matchup for him. The enemy didn''t need speed with her skills. Archibald parried a series of shadowy spikes. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the charm attempting to wrap around Tony''s glowing blue form. A husky, tinklingugh was cut short by Tony''s sudden yell. "I have a girlfriend!" Chapter 329: Prince of the Air Chapter 329: Prince of the Air The wind howled as another enemy streaked by Daedalus'' head. He turned and snapped his razor-sharp teeth, severing an errant foot as it passed. The Lieutenant of Shadow screeched in pain at a loss. The dragon scoffed as he let the shadows boil away in his mouth. Really, it was just a foot. For such a powerful being to wail about something like that? It was unsightly. He grumbled as he rolled sideways, avoiding the wind Lieutenant as it whipped itself into a small tornado. He stretched out his rainbow-tipped ws, positioning Archibald to follow up the attack on the one he had gotten a bite out of. It was frustrating that the Lieutenants had made themselves known so soon. He had been really enjoying his time exploring the world with Archibald. He''d already seen much of its sights himself, obviously, but his human certainly hadn''t. In fact, Daedalus had been nning this trip for a long time, making a list of the greatest mountains, waterfalls, and other natural wonders that he''d show his friend once he woke up. Yes, that''s definitely what he''d been doing. He wasn''t moping like Archibald imed he was. That was beneath him. Unfortunately, they had only been wandering around this continent for four short years. Four years! They''d barely even looked around the others yet, and already the demons were out. Sure, they could always go explore moreter. But it was an interruption Daedalus could have done without. Even if it was the whole point of their adventure. The dragon continued his aerial dance with his two opponents and Archibald on his back. The battle was rtively evenly matched. The Lieutenants seemed much more powerful than he remembered, but he and Archibald had been no slouches. They, too, had grown a lot in this short time. Their levels had already been remarkable, but they''d managed to add more on top. Daedalus fought to keep his attention on his opponents, even as he heard the insufferable subus trying to tempt Tony. But thankfully, the young man was having nothing of it. He did worry about the guy, and they did their best to support the other human when they had a chance. But the two Lieutenants they faced were doing their best to keep the pair busy and away from their giggling ally. After several strikes, it was clear that Archibald and Daedalus could handle their opponents, even if there was still some risk of losing. Of course, it wasn''t like Daedalus and Archibald could finish off the Lieutenants themselves. They didn''t have Archimedes here to trap them, nor did they have Void to help destroy them at the moment. That kind of power was something that Archibald had been hoping to get with his level 75 skill, but unfortunately, he hadn''t. Daedalus himself was still a ways off from level 80, but he didn''t have much hope of getting some permanent solution to the Lieutenants. But that wasn''t a huge problem. Once this was all over and Void had finished them all off, they wouldn''t need it. Daedalus let his attention roam slightly, even as his wings buffeted away the wind Lieutenants''s gales and his mes tore into the shadow Lieutenant''s form. Such things were just poor matchups for him. Honestly, these upstarts thought that just because they could fly, they could somehow stand toe-to-toe with a real dragon. It wasughable. Especially the windy demon. Its entire schtick was flying, and it couldn''t even do that well. It only took a few sts of dragon fire to show that it was full of hot air.But on Tony''s side, things seemed a little more dire. Down below, the Nighty Knights pushed against the partially blockaded entrance to the city. Despite the g heap he''d reduced the gate to, the demons were still managing to hold it by plugging the gap with themselves. He watched as demons swarmed forward, rushing in from around the edges of the ck fortress. Even now, they were bunching up against the tight formation of young elites, nearly enveloping them in a shell of writhing teeth and ws. Evidently, the initial attacks by Daedalus and Void had only culled so many of them. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. But Daedalus didn''t fear for the little ones. Even as he watched, the situation shifted as the Nighty Knights began to push past the wall of extremely high-level demons, along with the angelic Lieutenant supporting them. Bee seemed to be engaging that single Lieutenant herself, even managing to do a reasonable job of it. Close by, a giant wolf breathed a cone of froth at the lower level demons circling around the city from the right. The cone grew exponentially as it arced outward, coating the enemies in white frost as they slowed and then stopped in instants. A st shattered the newly-created ice sculptures, and just like that, thousands of demons disappeared at once. On the left side, a glowing gold projection of Void that was nearly the size of Daedalus himself appeared. A ck ball formed in front of it, only to be poked with the tip of its outstretched w. The ck ball exploded outwards, a wave of nothingness washing over the demons approaching from the other side. Between the frost and the ck swath, it left the Nighty Knights to face just the enemies pouring out of the fortress, no longer beset on all sides. Daedalus shot another gout of me at the shadow demon as it tried toe in for an attack. He had an idea to help the others but wasn''t sure whether to go through with it. He had no desire to upset his friends, after all. Void was a nice godling and a very polite one at that. It was the least he could do to extend the same courtesies. Loudly, he roared into the sky, "Void, my friend! Is it okay if I make a mess?" He waited for a response. It came slowly, almost hesitantly. But eventually, a giant thumbs-up appeared over the fortress, and Daedalus felt his toothy maw break into a smile. This would be fun. ring out his wings, he sted forward, giving himself space as he dove for the fortress. The pair of Lieutenants trailed close behind in hot pursuit. Letting out a roar of exhration, he heard Archibald whoop from his back as they elerated through the sky. Then Daedalus opened his mouth, sting out a focused beam of destruction at the nearby wall. Prismatic light poured forth in a molten beam, cutting through the obsidian wall as though it were butter. The dark ss melted away under the sheer heat of Daedalus''s onught, his mes so intense that they sent the remaining stone sparkling. A few unfortunate foes that had been too close turned to ashes on impact. The demons had been holding the gate rather admirably, but now there was a hole fifty feet across on one side. Daedalus didn''t stop to admire his work. There was no time. Instead, he swooped low and came up to reengage the lieutenants before they could gang up on Tony. On the way, he blew a hole on the other side of the gate as well, just for good measure. The Nighty Knights reacted instantly. With extreme discipline, they poured in and bypassed the gate through the new openings, sending skills flying in every direction. The demons writhed in chaos as they attempted to keep the breaches closed, but their attempts never even got off the ground. --- Bee panted as she climbed back to her feet and faced her opponent again. She and the cursed healer were thest ones left outside of the city. The Nighty Knights had already streamed through the walls left by Daedalus, but Bee had fought to keep the healer away as they advanced. Now that the healer had stopped acting as a support for her allies, the Nighty Knights had no problems rolling through them. Bee regretted not being able to be there to support her own team, of course. But unlike their opponents, they had other team members who could stand in for her, at least partially. Another exchange of blows sent the fallen angel flying away from the city. She skidded across the ground for dozens of feet. Her tattered wings iled uselessly at her back as they tried to heal against the strong acid Bee had doused them with. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Bee quickly nced around to see how the battle was going around her. The Nighty Knights had made it into the city, just as she''d hoped. Up above, she heard Tony yell something about a girlfriend for whatever reason as he battled the subus Lieutenant. That caught her attention. Strangely enough, despite the anger in his voice, both he and his opponent werepletely still. Then, suddenly, a sharp crack echoed throughout the sky as she pped Tony in the face. Tony was sent flying head over heels. Bee was just about to jump on her carpet to soar up and take flight to help her friend. But less than a dozen yards above her, Tony halted and righted himself in the air before pointing toward his opponent. A hammer of energy soared in from the side, crumpling one of the subus''s wings and sending her flying off toward the mountain. With a wave down at her and a point to the Nighty Knights around her, Tony zipped off in pursuit once again. Bee smiled in a mixture of relief and resolution, then turned back to her own opponent. It seemed like everyone else could take care of themselves. So she had to as well. Chapter 330: Little Rascals Chapter 330: Little Rascals My fight had gotten a lot easier. The first Lieutenant fled and was quickly followed by three others. They flew out into the city to take on my allies. Suddenly, I only had to deal with three Lieutenants, which was far more manageable. Now that I had an instant of breathing room, I took in the enemies before me. There was the death knight, of course, his ck armor as shiny as ever. The other two were new to me. One appeared to resemble a skeleton not unlike the ones I''d met so long ago, but wearing long robes and a gray crown. Waves of bluish energy rolled off of him like mist. Thest one looked like a woman but with massive wings attached to her back. It made me hesitate for a moment, but a look at her soul revealed the same spiky red mass of a demon. Whatever this was, she was no human. With my burden lightened, I was able to better optimize my evasion patterns. This stopped me from umting more damage, but the iing blows were still too much topletely repair myself as we fought. Though I was able to dish out some hits of my own. As it was, one of my thrusters was still busted. If I couldn''t fly, I wouldn''t be able to move effectively. Even worse, both of my wheels were busted, and my front sensors had cracks running through them, interfering with the data that I received. All of that was slowly being mended, but every time my repair progress bar reached the threshold for any given part, I would be forced to take another blow to avoid something worse. But when the fourth Lieutenant left... If I had a mouth, I would have been grinning at the two that stayed behind. In fact, I considered projecting a happy face at them tomunicate my glee but decided against it. My resources were better spent elsewhere. Three foes might have been a fair fight when I was in this state, but two? There would be no contest, especially since the winged one that had been healing its allies even faster than their normal regeneration abilities had left. I sted the death knight lieutenant, forcing it to cower behind his shield before going after the walking pile of bones. My Divine Sword cleaved through the jumbled mass of bones that it used as a forearm. As I dove for its chest, I turned my vacuum on to full power. The wind whipped around us, tearing at its clothes and sucking in a few smaller demons that were unfortunate enough to be nearby. Dirt and nearby objects swirled toward me, buffeting the pile of bones as they tumbled through the air. It hovered backward, shooting bolts of energy forward and calling up walls of bone to stop me, but it wasn''t enough. I barreled forward, dodging what I could and throwing up walls of sent where needed. My rear sensors registered as the death knight came up from behind to pincer me in. But even as I received another blow from behind from its shield, I kept my course and cut through the skeleton''s chest. The golden light of my de sliced deep into the bone as the Lieutenant let out a shriek. But aside from a few scattered shards, I still wasn''t able to pull the whole thing into my dustbin. Not yet.As much as I wanted to focus on the skeleton, I had other problems to address. I turned to drive back the Death Knight. I casually sttered one of the archfiends with a simple flick of my Grabby Arm and then smashed into the overpowered Lieutenant''s shield, forcing it back a half step. That the lesser demons were still trying to interfere with our fight was surprising. For the most part, they had all seemed to have learned better and steered clear, running out of the gate or deeper into the fortress when our battle had begun, especially once the three flying Lieutenants had left to go deal with our other heavy hitters. But who knew? Maybe their predictive models were just that poor. The second that the death knight gave the slightest bit of ground, I pressed forward, moving up high in a feint that caused it to raise its shield slightly and block its vision. In the same instant, I rebounded off of the shield, turning and flipping around to return to my assault on the mass of bones. I started pouring on everything I could think of. I sted it with mysers and chopped at it with my sword. I even let loose a torrent of acid, which began to earth through its bones with a loud hiss. But still, it kept fighting. It was surprisingly resilient. One thing I did notice was that the skeleton didn''t seem like the other Lieutenants. It didn''t regenerate damage in the same way. No, the wounds and holes I peppered it with stuck around. It just didn''t seem to care about them. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Eventually, though, I caught an opportunity. I got between its legs and, stretching my sword out, I shed upwards. An arc of golden light carved through the air, cutting itpletely in half, and I watched as the bones fell into an inert pile. I let out a beep of celebration and quickly consumed the remains, but I noticed something was wrong. They were just normal bones. I transmuted them to be sure, but I didn''t feel the familiar rush of power that I would expect from such a powerful enemy. Even as I struggled to find the energy within them, my sensors picked up something. A stream of blue-white mist flew away from the remains, diving over the fortress wall and off toward the mountains before I could catch it. Huh. That was weird. But I didn''t have time to think about it as the Death Knight closed in again. Now that it was one-on-one, I expected to finish the fight quickly. But its defense was still impable. Even as I chipped away at its shield, I didn''t manage to harm it much. Apparently, he had found ways to counter my attacks from thest time we met. But despite the apparent stalemate, I was pretty pleased. All my injuries were rapidly repairing themselves, and soon, I would not be hindered anymore. The damage I did take wasn''t enough to outpace regeneration, which was great news. Still, I needed a way to do real damage to it. Once I destroyed its shield, though, that would be a different matter entirely. It would just take a little bit of time, and hopefully, it was time we had. I heard Daedalus roar out a question intended for me. Would I really mind if he made a mess? Well, we were nning on cleaning this whole ce up anyway, so it wasn''t going to make much of a difference. Too busy to fly up and have a proper conversation about the philosophical implications of mess-making, I just projected a simple sign of eptance above the city. I tried not to waste too much processing power on the simple task, but I wanted to make sure he got the message. Momentster, the wall behind me disintegrated. I barely had time to get out of the way of a gout of dragon me as it burst through the ck walls. As I forced my opponent to choose between taking the brunt of it to its back or my sword to its face, the death knight hissed in annoyance. It had to stoically stand there while the back of its armor began to fuse together from the sheer heat. Only after a few moments was it able to break free of the me. Well. that certainly was a mess. I looked over the melted and destroyed rock that now covered the ground. I considered cleaning it up right then but held myself back. There were more important things to do. But at least it meant Daedalus was doing well. As I continued the fight with the Death Knight, suddenly, my priorities changed. I registered the Nighty Knights as they swarmed through the openings in the walls, leaping and flying over the suddenlyva-like floor with ease. I needed to keep this overpowered Lieutenant from engaging them. It wasn''t that I didn''t think they could handle such a battle. It was more that I needed their help elsewhere, deeper in the fortress. As they formed up and made to assist me, I beeped at them, telling them to stand down. I twirled in midair,ing at the demon from the side as Felix yelled a response. "Let us help!" But I pointed insistently to themander of the Nighty Knights, directing him further in. If I was correct, there was a high probability that one more Lieutenant was hiding there and doing something nefarious. Besides, someone needed to shut off the flow of demons at the source. There''s clearly some sort of summoning circle bringing them in constantly. I conveyed all of that through a quick series of beeps. The Knights knew me well enough to parse through the message without effort. None of the Nighty Knights seemed happy about this, and I saw a couple throw spectral weapons at the Death Knight as they sprinted past, moving deeper into the fortress. As I fought, I kept an eye on them and used my sensors to track them further inside. I hadn''t done a full scan on the area, as I just didn''t have the processing power to take my attention off my fight for long enough right now. But now that I was only fighting one of the Lieutenants, I could keep an eye on the Nighty Knights to make sure that nothing went too wrong. If it was necessary, I could always step in to help. They executed well-nned and perfectly practiced tactics, taking hallway after hallway, holding choke points, and using them against their enemies'' careless rushes. They had enough healers andbat medics that whenever someone did take an injury, they were quickly pulled back and healed and soon were back up in the fight. I couldn''t help but feel a bit proud of the disy. They had grown up so fast and learned so well. Truly, they were so efficient that it was hard to find areas to improve. However, I did make brief notes of a few minor things to brief themter. Muchter. As they made it through the inner walls of the first fortress and past the inner gates, they started to meet less resistance. But just as they could feel the difference in the environment, I could as well. Something heavily magical was going in there. And they were going to need some help. I moved to follow, but the Death Knight stopped me. He conjured a wall of duplicate shields that spanned the hall before me, blocking my progress. Thinking on my wheels, I let out a frustrated series of beeps and called to my most faithful friend. "Go help them!" Chapter 331: Using Your Head Chapter 331: Using Your Head After so much searching, Archibald was finally getting to fight again. But the sense of freedom and tion that he felt was starting to fade. He remembered why he hadn''t really liked fighting the demon Lieutenants in the first ce, 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 hadst 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 particrly bad type of matchup. The air and shadow demons were quick, but neither could really take a hit. Archibald yelled a battle cry as heshed out with the Heroic Strike skill he had received recently. The might of his glowing sword sted the shadow Lieutenant away, the light sending it into a nearby mountain peak like a ttened pancake. He turned to help Daedalus ward off the nking 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 y 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 thebatants 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 wasing 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 subus had Tony. She gripped him by thepels 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 subus rippled ever so slightly where she hovered. It started with her hair, which began swirling toward him. Her tail distorted, bingrger 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 elerated 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. If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. --- 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 rece 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 particr, 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. Noting 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 unounted 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 andunched forward, one hand grabbing the fallen angel''s wrist and the other her throat as she kicked off. She sted 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 sted 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 shing 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 aplex ritual circle painted along the floor in red. Between his knobby feet sat a strange, wriggling lump of ck 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 chantingpanion. Even as she watched, the skeletal demon reformed yet again after being cleaved in two by Bradley Chadwick''s massive ming 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 deadnguage 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 ce 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?" Chapter 332: Up, Up, and Away + Huge Announcements Chapter 332: Up, Up, and Away + Huge Announcements Archibald chased after the two airborne Lieutenants, trying to herd them back towards the Custodian of the Void. Even though they were little more than ephemeral shapes, it was clear that they were panicking. The reaction was one that Archibald couldn''t help but revel in a little bit as they fled before the angry dragon. They''d probably thought they were safe, but what about Void being upied for the moment? But nope. Now, they really had reason to be afraid. The air demon let out a screeching howl like a gale of wind as Daedalus caught the dense being in his teeth and tore it apart, tossing one half to Tony. The Custodian of the Void tried to catch it, but the creature of air reformed mid-flight and changed course, evading his touch. Their two opponents were some of the least human of all the demon lieutenants. With a sound of screeches and hisses that might have beennguage, the two separated and dashed off in different directions. After a moment, they arched around and sped away from the battle at top speed, heading back south. Archibald raised his sword over his head and shouted in victory, the sound drowned out by the much louder roar of the dragon beneath him. They met up with a simrly celebrating Tony in the air, who was alsopletely drowned out by Daedalus. Once the dragon eventually had his fill, Archibald yelled over to Tony, "I didn''t know you could eat demons." Tony gave a modest shrug. "I didn''t either. It''s pretty ufortable, honestly." Daedalus rumbled with approval. "Eating demons is quite fun. I''m d someone else can appreciate the experience as well." Archibald patted the scales. "Yes, yes, we know you can eat demons, buddy. But Tony''s don''te back up." "Hmmm," Daedalus''s tailshed behind him in annoyance as Archibald reminded him of that particr incident. "I suppose""Say," Tony said, "you think we should go after them?" Archibald looked down at the fortress. "Er do we need to help out here? I mean, shouldn''t we support Void and Bee? The trio looked at each other, but Daedalus let out a huff. "Fools. We cannot afford to let them leave. What direction are they heading?" Archibald opened his mouth to answer, then realized that it was a rhetorical question. Recognition dawned on both him and Tony at once. "Oh," he said as Tony realized the same thing. "Yeah, we should go after them," "I''ll tell Bee," Tony said as he closed his eyes and massaged his temples. Despite the oddly ethereal image he presented, his voice came out normally. "We killed the subus and drove off the air and shadow Lieutenants. But they''re heading toward Barleona''s capital. We need to go follow to head them off. Can you handle things here?" Tony paused for a moment, then shook his head. "No," he said, probably in response to Bee. "Yes. Yes. I did. I ate it with Void''s breath." The light winked out around him as he finished his sentence, and he sagged slightly. His shoulders slumped where he hovered. If Archibald had to guess, he was just starting to crash after the hectic battle. Archibald leaned over and pulled him onto the dragon''s back for a well-deserved rest as they headed after the fleeing Lieutenants. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. --- Bee met Zeal''s lifeless eyes. The moment seemed to stretch on for an unnaturally long time, even though it couldn''t have been more than a fraction of a second. Just as she''d expected, the shamed cult leader had nothing to say for himself. Her eyes snapped up once again, taking in the rest of the room as she came up with the n. There was no time to wonder what series of events had brought the man here. The ominous-looking circle in the center of the room needed to be taken care of fast. She left the fallen angel Lieutenant in its reforming puddle, fairly confident that it would stay down for a few moments longer. With that, she flung herself across the room. Her broom extended towards the monster of bone as she mmed into it, pinning it against the wall. She bashed it again with the edge of her broom, sweeping splintered and shattered bones away with a technique she''d honed against weaker skeletons below the castle. As she battered her opponent, she yelled to the Nighty Knights. "I''ll handle the Lieutenants! Stop the ritual!" She kept watch out of the corner of her eye. Thankfully, the Knights seemed to understand her intent and rushed to wipe away the carefully painted lines of the various ritual circles. The two responsible for summoning the lesser demons were immediately disintegrated apart by torrents of soapy water and sheets of scouring sand. Their magic fizzled out with a sharp popping sound as demons ceased to appear within them. But therger one, the one the witch doctor chanted over, was proving to be more difficult. The channels carved into the floor held the blood no matter what they did, and even when they started to st away at the stone with their skills, it seemed to resist their efforts. Something was fighting against them as though to protect it. Bee didn''t have time to consider the exact mechanics of the thing. In a moment, she was flying back from where the Lich had used the wall as leverage to strike her across the room. She rotated in midair and managed tond on a crouch on the opposite wall, the force of the impact sending cracks through the stone. As she hopped down, she sent a vigorous swipe of her broom through the still-healing Lieutenant puddle, sending it sttering across the stone. As the Lich shot toward her in pursuit, Bee had a different n in mind. Sheunched herself at the witch doctor, attempting to stop his chanting and cut the ritual off at its source. The tip of her broom sailed toward the Lieutenant''s center of mass but didn''t meet its mark. Instead, it nced off a blue dome surrounding the creature. Her eyes widened as she collided with the dome, sliding across its surface and mming into the wall behind. Scowling, she whipped around and yanked on her broom, now half-embedded into the wall. It took a decent amount of her considerable strength to rip it out,ing loose just in time to bash aside the club of bone aiming for her head. Was she in over her head? Yes. Almost definitely. But though she was technically fighting off three Lieutenants at the moment, things really weren''t as bad as they seemed. One was busy with his ritual, and the other was still reforming from incredible damage. As long as she kept that up, it might be okay. And the witch doctor didn''t decide to join the fray. And the ominous ritual didn''tplete. Really, there were a lot of ways for this to be worse. Bee dodged the Lich''s strikes and spared a nce at the Nighty Knights for a half-second, attempting to see how much progress they were making. But before she could properly assess it, stars shed across her vision. Her head spun as she was sent rolling across the ground. She cursed herself for getting distracted. She had to trust that the Nighty Knights would do their job well. She had her own job to do. Needling pain erupted across her exposed back, and she rolled over,shing out with her broom. The wind batted aside a flurry of feathers with barbed tips as they sailed toward her. They shot out from a partially reformed wing that still dripped with demon goo. Bee cursed again. She''d been too slow. She''d let her advantage slip due to the distraction, and now the healer was back in the fight. She pressed her palms to the ground andunched herself forward in a half-run, half-crawl, not able to take the time to fully right herself. It proved to be a good decision. A massive w of bones shed through just where her head would have been if she''d stood up all the way. As she scrambled forward, she kept up the offensive. Her broomshed out, cutting through the healer''s wing but unable to stop its reforming shape from clumsily scrambling aside itself. Using the tip of her broom, she speared through the wing of the angel as it fled. Then, with an effort and a quick twist of the de, Bee spun and flung it toward the mass of bones glowing threateningly behind her. The two demons collided with each other and tangled together as she flung out a hand toward the witch doctor. She sent a quick Scouring Strike at the crackling blue shield around the Lieutenant. She barely had time to glimpse the sand shing off to different sides, only a tiny bit making it into the barrier. Then, she had to spin to deal with another attack by the winged demon. Chapter 333: RIP Chapter 333: RIP I was alone in the courtyard except for the Lieutenant in front of methe demonic Death Knight. It stood with its shield nted firmly in the ground between us, deflecting myser. Despite that, the sheer power of my Sanitation Lamp was slowly eating away at the shield. Still, by my estimations, it would take another 20 to 30 minutes before I could actually break through. Even focusing on one spot was uneptably slow. Still, I kept it up anyway. The beam of energy used very little power. As I had it set to the absolute minimum, I wasn''t exactly wasting energy. The Lieutenant couldn''t know that, though. From his point of view, the little beam of bluish-purple energy was still a threat, so he had to block it anyway. It worked as a great distraction as I set my real trap. Things moved behind the Lieutenant without his notice. Without warning, rubble mmed into his knees, sending him staggering and the shield out of position. Coming in low, I spun my Divine Sword, taking advantage of the momentarypse in its defenses. As the sheet of ck metal pulled away from the ground and the demon reeled backward, it gave me about eight inches of clearance to work with at my opponent''s feet. The sword stretched out from my body, biting deeply into the front of its ankles, and my opponent lost its footing. As it fell to the ground, I sprayed the small holes in its closed helm of ck metal with acid, attempting to impair its sensors. As it rolled sideways, attempting to get up and shaking its head to clear its vision, I concentrated. A ck bubble of sheer nothingness roared into being before me and touched the helmet. I could feel the power of the thing saturating my void. I pushed forward before it stood the rest of the way, and I ripped, trying to pull the demon into my limitless dustbin so that I could finally be rid of it. I felt something begin to enter, but not the whole thing. Not even close. It was clearly resisting. As I focused on finishing off this one opponent, my sensors had a chance to really take in what it looked like. Behind that helm, I saw the glowing eyes of an otherwise nk face. No mouth, eyebrows, eye sockets, nose, ears, or hair. Just a head-shaped lump. Where the helm adjoined the shoulders, it was nothing but jagged tears of metal. The nk face was strangely disconcerting. I already knew it wasn''t human, but there was something about its features being just shy of "normal" that felt uncanny. It made my processors fritz slightly with difort. We stared at each other for 0.23 seconds before I pressed my attack. The shield kept getting in the way of my sword, resulting in me cutting nicks into it rather than my opponent. The acid hadn''t seemed to do much, either. At one point, I even touched its head with my mop, attempting to rip all the moisture out of it, but it had no effect. So, I simply continued my tricks with Air Maniption and sent, attempting to force it into a position to pin it down. asionally, I would attempt to manipte its soul. Still, the weird protection it had on it right now prevented any major disruption. And if I concentrated too hard on any one thing, it would take advantage of my distraction to strike back. That wasn''t to say we were evenly matched, of course. No attack it made even came close to touching me, and I was whittling away at the defenses quite nicely. But this was a being so specialized in defense that I was very much struggling to finish it off in any reasonable manner.I hadn''t nned to take nearly this long. It made me reevaluate the situation. Would it be better to simply leave and help elsewhere? Leaving an enemy like this unattended seemed like a terrible idea. But when I checked up on the Lieutenants and Beatrice deeper in the fortress, I felt my lubricant run cold. Well, Beatrice had a good idea. "What if I borrowed that?" Bee heard the Nighty Knights shout something to each other as they worked on stopping the ritual, but she had no time to listen. As her broom blurred, whirring in a circle, the bristled end batted away more feathers before they could hit her. She could feel her healing skills pushing out the projectiles that got through and purifying the venom they were attempting to inject into her. Without stopping her defense, Bee ran forward. She leaped and kicked off the chest of the Lich as she sprung back towards the projectiles, shattering the skeletal figure into the wall with her force. As she rocketed across the room, she mmed the point of her broom through the still-intact wing of the fallen angel, pinning it to the floor to stop the projectiles. As she wrenched the de to the side and stood up, using the momentum to fling the angel away from her, she took a quick nce at what the Nighty Knights were shouting about. Stolen novel; please report. She saw that the channel they had tried to carve across the ritual to disrupt the flow of blood was being ignored. The blood still moved in the patterns and grooves that were there before despite no longer physically containing the liquid. Bee muttered a prayer to Void as she continued her attack, taking a moment to send another st at the shield the witch doctor had up. This time, it deflected at an angle and shattered into the wall rather than being stopped entirely. The shield did seem to be weakening. That was good news. But how quickly was something she didn''t have time to figure out? The mass of bones bore down upon her, a glowing red, rusty nimbus surrounding it from the outstretched hand of the fallen angel. Bee attempted to block the iing strike with her broom. Unfortunately, she was sent hurtling back as if the floor had no traction and was suddenly as slippery as ice. A re of heat singed her hair from behind, and she dove away from both the ritual and whatever the Nighty Knights were doing to counterattack. She attempted to leap over the mass of bones to escape its reach but to no avail. Its arm extended, clicking unnaturally as several bones rearranged to extend its reach, and it caught her ankle in midair. Thinking quickly, she hurled her broom like a spear, pinning the arm of the angels to the wall and interrupting her goal. Even as she was mmed into the ground, she managed to get her hands up to protect the back of her head from hitting the marble stones below. The impact wrenched her free from the Lieutenant''s grip, and she forced herself out of the pile of shattered bone and rubble, wincing as she rolled backward. Several of her vertebrae felt like they had cracked, but her repair skills were already working on bringing them back intact. A st of intensified Holy Aura kept the undead monstrosity off of her as she mbered to her feet and scoured the bones with handfuls of sand and strikes. Even as the smokescreen she''d put up with particles in the sky blocked her vision, the All-Seeing Eye let her know that an attack wasing from the left side. With a quick twist, she managed to roll off and towards where she knew the broom was located. Her passive skill gave her the perfect route to dive beneath a wall of feathers and a bone scythe whirling away from the side of the Lich. She spun as she got up to her feet, popping up into a standing position in time to knock aside a barrage of bone shards. As soon as there was an opening, she attempted to stab the broom into the force field behind her, but again the strike was deflected. Suddenly, the Nighty Knights let out a cheer of triumph, and Bee found herself distracted for a split second as she looked to see the source of their celebration. There, in the middle of the room, hung a glowing sun. The light was blinding and heat drying her skin even across the room, starting to boil the blood in the ritual. Slowly the levels in the channels were declining. If they could keep this up, they might be able to remove the ritual from working. The witch doctor chanted faster. She gasped in pain as a spear of bone found her guts in her moment of distraction. She managed to twist aside just enough that it missed her spine, but she struggled to get free as it sunk into the wall behind her. Slowly, she pushed her way up and batted aside the Lich with abination of broom strikes and scouring blows. Another Scouring Strike broke the haft of the spear as she pulled herself off of it, just in time to be tackled by the fallen angel. The pair rolled across the floor, and Bee pressed the handle of her broom up against the angel''s throat, forcing its fangs away from her face as she came up on top. Freeing one of her hands, she let go long enough to drop an elbow through the thing''s face, temporarily disabling it as she rolled off forward. The move was just in time to narrowly avoid a follow-up strike from the bone monstrosity. The sun continued to boil away the blood, but the strike that she expected never came. The Lich had turned and charged at the Nighty Knights from behind. Evidently, she hadn''t been the only one that saw their sess. It gave her a chance to deal more grievous blows to the fallen angel she had pinned helplessly beneath her, its head still regenerating. But Beeunched herself after the Lich, knowing she was toote. Its charge scattered the Nighty Knights, bowling them over unexpectedly even as Bee mmed it into the mini-sun. It absorbed the hit on its chest as the intense heat began to melt the bone itself. But it had done its job. The room suddenly went colder as the sun went out, and the ritual began to glow again. Bee watched as the energy of the Lich flitted off into the distance and out of the room. She watched where it was going, hoping to be able to track it back to its phctery. But she only had a second to spare for that as the witch doctor''s chanting reached a crescendo. The ritual glowed with a dangerous new intensity. Fearing the worst, Bee sent strike after strike to clean away the blood and break the circle, hoping against hope that she could stop it at thest minute. Suddenly, the entire thing went dark. Her heart soared with hope. Maybe she''d done it? A shark crack dashed her hopes. The room echoed with the ripping sound of space tearing as a rift formed above the portal. Bee''s hope died in her chest as she sagged. She had failed. She hadn''t kept the Nighty Knights safe long enough to finish their n. Just then, Tony''s voice spoke in her head. She listened to his instructions and then looked over at the healer before groaning in disgust. Chapter 334: Oh No Chapter 334: Oh No Arthur stood atop one of the gatehouses, looking down over the city. From his vantage, he scanned the city blocks that his army had taken, their status obvious by the colors of the uniforms flooding through the streets. The cordon they were maintaining was growing everrger as they subdued resistance and rescued the popce. Despite what he''d expected, Arthur felt that he could actually call this invasion a rescue. The people did have some pretty mixed feelings about weing them, of course. On the one hand, they were an invading army bearing the colors of the neighboring kingdom, with which diplomacy had not been good for several decades. On the other hand, they weren''t demons. The fact that they were fighting against those demons was earning them a lot of goodwill from anyone who wasn''t fighting alongside the things. Even where that wasn''t the case, people were staying in their homes and threatening anyone trying to get in, demon or human. That was about as much as Arthur could hope for. Actually, it was significantly better than he had feared. However, the fact that most of the city guards weren''t even putting up resistance made little difference to the oue of the fight. Still, it helped massively reduce the amount of coteral damage to both civilian lives and the infrastructure of the city. His officers stood around them, one of them sitting in a cross-legged pose with his eyes closed, keeping their makeshiftmand post hidden from the enemy. If that dropped, they would be a rather easy target for some archers. Being this close to the action wasn''t a risk that Arthur would normally take, but Lieutenant Wilber had been working on this skill quite a bit. It would also help him respond more quickly if something went wrong. Plus, the vantage was something that he rarely got to see. Between this and his new skills, he could observe the battle truly in real-time rather than through just reports. And that was why he knew right away when something was wrong. The steady advance of his troops halted. All of them. It happened within the span of a second, all across the city. Arthur blinked and activated his General''s Eye skill. A bit of air in front of him focused, and he zoomed in, magnifying one specific skirmish. His men seemed to be engaged with the same demons that they were fighting earlier. But now, rather than holding their own, they were being pushed back. Arthur swore, his gaze flicking between battles. Wherever the fighting had been rtively close, soldiers were now being forced to retreat to thest checkpoint. Even his strongest fighters were having trouble for some reason. It made no sense. Greater imps that Bee told him were level 20 or 30 were now winning against soldiers he personally knew were level 40 and 50. They had rolled over them only moments ago, even with the greater numbers of the demons. They couldn''t withstand the physical might, let alone the skills and training the soldiers brought to bear. But now, these same imps had turned the tide. The little monsters took hits that should have killed them and kept going. A sword strike to the chest should have cleaved clean through the thing, but now only made it halfway. The imp had a chance to strike back before it died, catching the soldier off guard and costing precious extra seconds for him to pull out his weapon. And during that time, the rest of the swarm kepting. What was happening? It wasn''t as though the demons had multiplied. Rather, it felt as if they''d all gotten stronger. Much stronger. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Arthur''s frown deepened as he began barking out orders to reinforce and regroup. Some of his stronger groups were managing to hold out, but not by much. Even more strangely, the rtively rare human soldiers of Barleona didn''t seem to enjoy the same effects. As he sent another runner out with orders, Arthur unsheathed his sword and stepped forward. Whatever this was, he didn''t like it one bit. And he intended to fix it. --- It took a little bit of experimentation, but I found a much more sessful tactic against the Death Knight. Rather than hurting him, I found it more productive to move him. My Sanitation Lamp carved through the rock around my opponent as a gale of air picked up, flinging him backward. I stabbed my sword into his shield. Ourbined masses crashed through the partially destroyed wall, taking us along the shortest and most optimal path toward Beatrice and her own battle. But my opponent didn''t seem to mind too much. It took advantage of our proximity to bash at my side. The blow flung me to the side. I activated my newly repaired Thrusters to regain my position in midair, avoiding yet another wall collision. However, as I processed the scene before me, I was a bit shocked. Beatrice was engaging a Lieutenant by herself while the Nighty Knights scrambled around, hacking and shing at a diagram on the floor. In contrast, a second Lieutenant stood at the center of it all, seemingly content to ignore the chaos as it chanted. I supposed the blue bubble around it might have helped with that. But all of that was much less important than the ck rift forming in the center of the room. The widening portal of nothingness felt unfathomably empty, as though it sucked even light itself inside. In fact, to my sensors, it felt just like my void. So far, nothing hade out of it yet. But I had a bad feeling. The Death Knight took advantage of the brief separation, taking in the scene with one nce. He skidded to a halt next to the angelic Lieutenants Beatrice was fighting and grabbed it. I readied my thrusters to boost forward, fearing they''d try to flee again. But instead, something else happened. I noted that her eyes seemed to widen in an expression I read as panic and fear. She screamed in terror as the Death Knight kept its momentum, spinning to fling the half-formed creature through the rift. It fell into the darkness, then hung suspended there. Its form slowly shrank as though it were falling farther away. Still, it was impossible for my sensors to prate the rift and tell if that actually was the case. Soon, it vanished with a small twinkle. I froze, my processors, erroring out. That made absolutely no sense. Had he just killed one of his allies? That just made the fight easier for us. So why? ncing around, I saw that I wasn''t the only one. The whole room froze. No one breathed. No one twitched. Even the Witch Doctor had ceased his chanting. Time seemed to stand still as we waited for the results. The Nighty Knights, though, didn''t get the memo. One of them let out a cheer, breaking the silence as they finally managed to damage the ritual circle. Slowly, the rift began to close. The Death Knight charged forward at the children, but Beatrice and I formed up to block their path. But as we prepared to continue the fight, a set of long fingers wrapped around the edge of the closing portal. A second hand stretched out, gripping the other side, and they pushed apart to rip the hole in reality wider. A man stepped through the gap. He was tall, about 5.7 inches above average height, and wearing a sharp suit. His skin was entirely pale and unblemished, so much so that I couldn''t even detect an out-of-ce hair across its surface. But his eyes weren''t those of a human. They were entirely ck. Immediately, I knew it wasn''t just another Lieutenant. Nor was it an actual human. This was something else. I recognized that suit. Flipping through my memory banks, I realized that it wasn''t just from my other home, either. I had seen an image of this suit once here, across from a carving of an old human champion who had disappeared so long ago. It had been worn by a man with a cked-out face, one hovering above an army of demons. My soul sight revealed nothing but a ck orb. Something in my sensors tingled at the man''s very presence. Using Convergence of the Faithful, I drew on Beatrice''s Scan ability to get more information. Name: Demon Lord. Race: Demon Lord. ss: Demon Lord. Level: 100 Beatrice must have done the same thing that I had. In the utter stillness, I heard her whisper quietly. "Oh no." Chapter 335: Blinded By The Light Chapter 335: Blinded By The Light I hovered before the demon lord, pretending to be a man in a suit. We stared at each other across the room as everyone else ran. I was out-leveled, but this was nothing new. When I first got here, everything I fought was at a much higher level than me. But there was a qualitative difference in the Demon Lord, too, a particr pattern and intensity of energy that I had never seen before. That told me that it was more than just powerful. It had a kind of influence on the world itself. As we continued to watch each other motionlessly, I wondered if we would talk. It seemed a little bit calmer and more put together than its minions. The sharp suit certainly gave me a good first impression, at least. So even though my projections indicated that there was a 95.67% chance ofbat initiating within the next 10 seconds, maybe we could have an actual conversation before anything else happened. Then again, I wasn''t sure what we had to say to each other. Even if it seemed rtively reasonable, its underlings certainly weren''t. And the Lieutenants were presumable following this guy''s orders, after all. So, their acting aspletely destructive and chaotic forces in the world didn''t exactly reflect well on their boss. They promoted everything I stood against, so how could we findmon ground? Subtly, I formed a barrier of air between us and slowly coated it with my protective sent. It was a good thing I did. As soon as everything was clear, it made the first move. It was just a simple hand gesture. But that small movement sent an explosion tearing through the room. On one hand, it was awfully considerate of the Demon Lord to wait for others to be out of the way. It once again raised my estimation of him. On the other hand, that was offset by it being a really big explosion. My protective barrier strained under the force of the impact, bending and threatening to crack. But luckily, my use of that skill had paid off. It barely held as the st and debris flew around me and upwards, ripping off the roof. The redirected force punched a hole through the severalyers of floors above us, decimating the upperyers of the fortress. Thousands upon thousands of pounds of ck stone and wood flung into the sky with such force that the air pressure disintegrated them as they flew, nothing more than tiny motes of dust and ashes floating down around the entire valley. Some of it even made it so far as the peaks of nearby mountains. I narrowed my Sanitation Lamp to the finest beam size that I could make, upping its intensity to make the most potent and precise strike possible. A solid line of blue-purple light shot through my protective wall, its clear nature allowing it to pass unhindered. The beam bored right into one of the Demon Lord''s pupils, which I noted was vertically slit like a cat''s. The demon blinked a couple of times as its pupil constricted drastically, but didn''t so much as move. 0.52 secondster, the pupil suddenly disappeared, leaving the iris solid red.That was a pretty promising result. I decided to keep going as long as I could. I kept my Sanitation Lamp in ce until smoke began to pour from its eye, forcing it to finally close. Undeterred, I shifted theser off of its eyelid into the other eye, effectively blinding it. It felt kind of odd that it wasn''t really reacting to my attacks. I mean, I thought they were doing something, but it was hard to tell. Wouldn''t it have raised a hand at least if it was really bothered though? Even as it closed both eyes, I could see the creature begin to smile. Its mouth was filled with pointed teeth like those of a shark. It was also far too wide, spanning from ear to ear and acting as further evidence that it was not, in fact, human. As it threw its head back tough, its jaw stayed in one ce while the rest of its head hinged back at an unnatural angle. The sound of itsughter was a sharp, high-pitched one. It peaked my microphone slightly in a way that I was certain the humans would find ufortable as well. Large wings spread from its back as it flew upwards. I followed, keeping pace as we rocketed into the sky. I didn''t want this thing to get away, especially if it intended to go after my friends. Staying near it was the least I could do. As we flew, it made gestures at me, each resulting in explosions and arcs of shadowy energy hurtling toward me at unprecedented speeds. I found some way to deflect or absorb the strikes. In response, I fired different variations of my own attacks, attempting to wipe away its smug look however I could. But I only had medium sess. Even sprays of hyper-concentrated acid to the face did little more than make it smile wider. That, and make it look like it had taken a fresh shower. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. I blocked an ice bolt; a spray of a very strong base caused its eyebrows to sizzle slightly, and I had to deflect some ck energy that washed over me. My analysis indicated that it was some kind of death magic. Luckily, it found nothing to take hold of and simply passed over me. That seemed to give it pause, but only for a moment. Then, it resumed its attacks. As our ascent took us level with the mountaintops, I changed up my approach. I switched my Spray Bottle to holy water, deciding that it might be a better option in this case. Luckily, my Spray Bottle could do more than emit a fine mist now. A veritable geyser of sparkling blue water gushed forth to drench my opponent. And finally, I got a reaction. It managed to sense the danger of the attack before it smashed into its unnatural face, dodging to the side. But some of the water still sprayed across its dapper suit jacket, smoking where it made contact. I watched as the buttons on its sleeve melted off. This time itsugh shortened into a growl of annoyance. Its dark hair fluttered as it attempted to brush off the water with its hand, but that proved to be a mistake. As the holy water touched the tips of its fingers, it hissed in frustration. But my Holy Water skill was rtively unpracticed, and my reserves were running low. I had to stop, the geyser ceasing suddenly as I pulled out my Divine Sword instead. As it shed its coat, I ran a System Diagnostics on it. Information about its movements and reactions raced through my processors at breakneck speeds as the skill synthesized the information I collected and other details that I wasn''t privy to. Preparing myself for the next assault, I waited for the skill toplete. Then, I''d see if the Demon Lord had any other weaknesses. Bee felt her involuntary gasp of horror break the silence. She tried to hold her breath, but it was toote. Her words broke the fragile stillness that had seemed tost a lifetime. She''d wanted it to go on forever, if only so that the world wouldn''t end so soon. "Level 100." Her skin crawled at the words. It was a literal god,e from the demon ne. She could only pray to Void that her master had the power to face another ultimate being. There was one thing for certain, though: this wasn''t her battle. It was way too far above her level. Only taking the time to make sure the Nighty Knights were also running, she turned and fled for the exit. For a moment, she feared that the Lieutenants would take advantage of their distraction, but she saw that they, too, were fleeing; the witch doctor and the death knight that Void had been fighting were both running. They weren''t even trying to fight anyone. Everyone was entirely focused on getting out of the way. The Knights helped each other as they fled. The flying members scooped up the slower ones. Bee found herself carrying two of the bulkier members who were more focused on strength and defense than speed as they all rushed away, leaving just the two gods to face each other. As they ran, Bee remembered what Tony had told her and considered the two Lieutenants. They were running with them. She could fight one of the Lieutenants and possibly win, but two... well, she hadn''t been able to stop two from interfering with the Nighty Knights. Not totally. But if the Nighty Knights were helping her fight, she was pretty sure they could take them. Once they were far enough away from the immediate danger, of course. Just she had was considering how tomunicate her n, the roof of the fortress vanished.A shock wave mmed into them from behind, daylight suddenly illuminating the space as bits of the roof went sailing off into the distance, leaving behind only the ground floor on which they were running. She was sent tumbling. She pulled in the Nighty Knights she was carrying, trying to shelter them with her body, but it wasn''t very effective as they were bothrger than her. She released them as she regained her feet and looked around. Above their heads, the blue sky had reced the otherwise oppressive stone ceiling, although it was now clouded with debris and ash. A quick head count showed that everyone was thankfully still there. The smoking ruins of the fortress around them were filled with Nighty Knights picking each other up and the few healers running between prone forms. Soon, Bee joined them. She found several injuries that she quickly fixed with an intense st of her repair skills before the Knights could hop to their feet. Before she could get to every one of them, though, the first Lieutenant made itself known. The sound of a shield mming into stone shook the ground, raising a cloud of dust several feet off the ground. The pavement''s stones rocked, their mortar breaking loose. Bee stood up and, instead of running to the next injured, left it for the Nighty Knights'' own healers. They could take care of things. But she needed to take care of this. Adjusting her grip on her broom, she turned to face the foe. The Death Knight stood in front, shield braced. Behind it, she could barely make out the beak of the witch doctor''s mask. The witch doctor began to chant something. Given how that had gonest time, Bee wasn''t exactly eager to let it do as it pleased again. Bee charged forward, attempting to m her way through the Death Knight, but was rebuffed by the massive shield. Its defenses were incredible. She ran a Scan on it, nching at the results. Something had changed. The Death Knight was no longer level 70 as she''d expected. Oh, no, not just the temporary buff was on them. It had actually gained 20 levels. Bee nearly despaired. How had this happened? Was it just the Death Knight? She quickly scanned the witch doctor and saw the same result. Level 90. There were no lesser demons around for her to double-check, but she had a sinking feeling that they weren''t the only ones, either. Her estimation of their odds against the two Lieutenants plummeted. There was only one saving grace: the Death Knight was heavily concentrated on constitution and defense. As for the witch doctor, based on what she knew, it also had limitations. It did best with ritual spells and long preparation times. It might not have the same short-term destructive capabilities as Nazareth''gak or some of the elemental demons. She knew what had to be done. She had wanted to avoid this, but at this point? They needed everything they could to survive. Steeling herself, Bee called over her shoulder. "Nighty Knights, form up!" Chapter 336: Open Wide Chapter 336: Open Wide Throughout this entire operation, Bee had been impressed by the speed and efficiency of the Nighty Knights. Already, they had gone above and beyond in proving that they could hold their own. But when she called them to form up, every single one, injured or not, was standing behind her in less than three seconds. The group stood before two of the most powerful and evil opponents the world had likely ever seen, demons that belonged in myths and legends. Yet they stood firm. Despite the situation, she felt a slight wetness at the corners of her eyes. She didn''t spare the time to nce at either side of her and make sure they were there. Instead, she charged forward. She was still at a higher level than herpanions and thus formed the point of the spear, ready to handle the brunt of the Lieutenants'' attacks. But she felt Bradley a mere half step behind her, the mes of his sword warming her side as he ran forward to support. His sister trailed just behind in his shadow while Felix ran to her left. As soon as they started moving, the Lieutenants made their own preparations to receive their charge. They, too, formed up, the Death Knight nting its shield more firmly and blocking the path to the slightly more squishy Witch Doctor. The scrawny mage demon started to chant something in anguage that she didn''t recognize. Before they even made it three steps, the chant finished, and a wave of sickly green energy burst from the Witch Doctor. It washed over the Death Knight with seemingly no effect before surging toward the charging forces. Beatrice pushed outward with all her might, her Holy Aura extending over the Nighty Knights with a golden glow. The green wave mmed into it with a heavy impact. The collision felt like a physical force, almost sending her stumbling, but she managed to keep herself upright. It began a second chant as a slight bit of tension formed at her temples. Evidently, those extra twenty levels weren''t just for show. Things were about to get much harder for everyone. But rather than focus on the problems, she simply gripped her broom handle tighter and didn''t let her feet falter. It would take more than a little bit of assistance and luck to get through this. But then again, she had never beencking on either front. Right before their formation mmed into the towering shield of the Death Knight, Bee reached into her mouth and pulled out a ss vial. With a flick of her wrist, she flung it up and above the Death Knight. Her target was the Witch Doctor. If she could take that one out, then it would be much easier to handle a single opponent. Plus, the mage definitely seemed squishier than the armor-d knight. Yet as the vial arced upward, the Death Knight batted it away with one hand, shattering it. Liquid poured out, spattering across its visor with a viscous hiss. The Lieutenant screamed, much to Bee''s surprise. She hadn''t expected a simple vial of holy water that Void had prepared for her to be effective on its first go. Luckily she had a lot more where that came from. The Nighty Knights wrapped their line around the Death Knight. Despite its massive shield, it still wasn''t wide enough to block all of the iing attackers at once. Much less so given their power. Beeshed out with her broom as the Lieutenant lifted its shield, forcing it a little bit out of position. As she did, the Nighty Knights came at the Death Knight from the side, keeping close to their neighbors and maintaining a solid defense. They used the closeness to tie down the Death Knight''s offhand, and various skills shed out from the mob: beams of various lights, sprays of liquid, ranged abilities, and a wolf tearing at its heels started to overwhelm the Death Knight.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Bee shouted as she sted her holy aura against the pair, sending a constant stream of smoke rising upward. Between Scan and All-Seeing Eye, it was clear that it was weakening. They were doing it. A little more time, and then she could try out Tony''s idea. The Witch Doctor''s second chant finished, and a simple cone of force impacted the center of their lines. Bee was sent stumbling back, but several of the less fortified members of the attack were sent sprawling. Those who locked arms, weapons, or shields managed to keep their footing, but the assault gave the Death Knight enough time to take advantage. A wickedly spiked gauntlet appeared on the demon''s free hand as it swung. A wall of protective light appeared to Bee''s side, springing up before Irene''s sped hands. The fist bounced off, echoing like a gong through the mountains around them. The sheet of light seemed to vibrate with force as Irene fell to her knees, and Bradley stepped in front of her, his zing sword raised in a defensive posture. Bee regained her footing and charged again, trying to take advantage of the Death Knight''s temporary opening. As they shed, she hurled another vial of holy water to put her opponent further off-bnce. This time, though, the demon was ready. It raised the shield to block the water, keeping it from damaging the Lieutenants. Without the coordinated mass of the Nighty Knights around her, she was unable to force it off bnce, but that was fine. The small holes that every armor had were porous enough for the holy water from that first hit to get under the demon''s armor. It didn''t make any real sound, but the way it shook its head was response enough. Bee ducked under another wild swing before lobbing two more vials of holy water. All around her, the Nighty Knights took advantage of the Death Knight''s distraction to swarm around and go after the witch doctor, cutting off a third chant mid-sentence. Arcs of ice and wind shed through the beaked mask on its face, revealing a long-tubr appendage underneath. It began to bleed as the Knights kept up their assault. Bee didn''t let herself get distracted, though. As she hurled a third vial, she watched as the Death Knight used its shield to bat away all three projectiles. The holy water sttered ineffectually across the ground, but the third vial was green, the color of sap. As it shattered on the shield, the liquid bubbled against the metal. A grin spread across her face. Bee quickly flung several more vials at the shield, aiming for the melting patch inside of it. Her other hand attempted to stab the Death Knight with the pointy end of her broom while its defenses were otherwise upied. The sharp tip just skittered off the breastte, not finding any purchase, but it brought its attention back to Bee just in time for a ming sword to chop into its shield-bearing shoulder. This time, the armor didn''t hold. As big as the level difference was, the Knights'' skills were simply too strong. Especially given how much Bradley had trained. The de bit deep into what would''ve been a human''s deltoid. Bradley''s de failed to sever the armpletely, but the blow elicited a pained grunt and a deep scowl in his direction. He red the mes of the sword, then carved down even further into the armor. In a moment, the cracks on the other side of the Death Knight''s body started to glow red from the heat. For a brief moment, Bradley caught Bee''s eye. There was determination there, a self-assured confidence that he could really do this. Between the angry Lieutenant before her and the massive avatar of Void beginning to materialize behind, Bee was inclined to believe him. With a slight nod, she left Bradley to face the opponent. She wouldn''t be able to leave him for long. But it gave her a chance. It leaned forward on its shield, but Bee was already disengaging, taking several quick steps back. The majority of the Nighty Knights had left her to fend for herself against the Death Knight and joined in on mobbing the Witch Doctor. They had reduced it to a pile of quivering flesh that was trying to reform, though it was a battle they were on the verge of losing even with their constant attacks. Bee steeled herself. Tony''s words ran through her head. She had no desire whatsoever to try this out herself. But Void was busy, and someone had to do something about this situation. Otherwise, it was just a matter of time before they exhausted themselves. With a final shudder, Bee breathed all her air out. Then, she leaped face-first at the pile before plugging her nose and opening wide. Chapter 337: Whats For Dinner Chapter 337: What''s For Dinner Even after repeatedly rubbing her tongue with her shirt to cleanse it, Bee still couldn''t get the taste of what she''d done out of her mouth. She would have liked to rinse her mouth out with some water, but there was no time. She had to chase down the fleeing Death Knight. After seeing what she did to the Witch Doctor, it had quite understandably turned and ran. Normally, she would have considered it an overreaction. It was a much higher level than her, after all. But maybe it could sense that she''d closed that gap now. Despite its full suit of heavy armor and massive shield, it was still faster than her. It was only because of her flying carpet that she was able to keep up. Thankfully, sitting atop the plush rectangle gave her a chance to calm her roiling stomach. Though getting the Witch Doctor inside of her had been one thing, getting it transmuted was an entirely different one. She felt bloated and ufortable even after the fact, a testament to how much mass she''d had to choke down. But fixing her gastric distress would have to wait. Her quarry wasn''t heading in a straight line; rather, it was just trying to shake off her pursuit. The Nighty Knights had fanned out, and she was attempting to herd it into their midst. But the few times they had managed to get close, the Nighty Knights had been too spread out to have enough impact to really slow it down. But if they bunched up too much, they couldn''t cover enough ground for her to trap it. Still, they were slowly having an impact; though the thing''s regeneration was insane, it hadn''t helped the Witch Doctor. Bee was about ready to send the Nighty Knights away and regroup. As much as she didn''t want to leave it alone, they weren''t having any luck chasing down the Lieutenant. Maybe their efforts would be better spent assisting Lord Void from a distance with any ranged abilities they had. She knew her master was still fighting, even if she couldn''t see the conflict itself. The shes of light and loud rumbles filled the sky over the mountains. The pair must have been miles away at this point, the sheer power of their battle still asionally shaking the ground beneath them. That gave her some pause. She didn''t have much hope in their ability to help in a battle between two gods. But with enough distance and numbers, maybe some concentrated fire could tip the battle. Or maybe they would just make things harder on Void by giving it something to defend. Even if that did happen, though, there was no reason they couldn''t fall back. It wasn''t just idle hope and optimism on Bee''s side, either. She''d gained quite a number of levels from taking out that Witch Doctor, after all. Apparently, the system decided thatpletely destroying one extremely high-level Lieutenant with help only from lower-ranked people warranted a significant amount of experience. She''d jumped up almost a dozen levels to reach level 75 in the blink of an eye. She hadn''t made her skill choices yet, but a quick nce hadn''t shown anything that would be immediately useful in the current fight. But she was excited for some of them in the future. Ruler''s Decree was a standard monarchy skill, but it was one she had been hoping to get. The choices for 70 were less spectacr. So, for the moment, she dismissed them until after the Death Knight was dealt with. Real quickly, though, she had to deal with the level 75 ss change.LEVEL 75 REACHED! CHOOSE A CLASS: ARCHPREISTESS, HERALD OF SPOT, SPOT''S PRODIGY. Bee chose thest one. How could she not? Power and a wave of new sensations flooded into her mind, but she pushed them aside to sort throughter; she didn''t have the time. The real thing she cared about was the stats. The jump had given her enough speed and strength that she had confidence facing it this time, and it seemed to know it. Even as she attempted to cut off the Lieutenant''s pursuit withunched vials of alchemy concoctions and holy water, she noticed somethinging from the far side of the fortress they had initially invaded: a new opponent. The bone Lich rode at the head of an army of lesser demons mixed in with various more powerful demonic entities. Scanning their levels, she realized that it wouldn''t be anywhere near as simple to take care of as the first time. But the bigger concern was that the Lich wouldn''t be as easy to deal with as any of the other Lieutenants. Then it was destroyed. It didn''t stick around for her to consume. Instead, it would probably return to its phctery like it hadst time. Fortunately, it wasn''t all bad news. If Bee had been counting correctly, there weren''t that many Lieutenants left to face. Void had killed several, and if Tony got one and she got one, there were likely only four remaining in total. Considering that Daedalus and Tony were handling two of them, it really felt like they were in the home stretch. Even better, the speed with which the Lich had returned to the battle meant its phctery must be nearby. As she attempted to chase after the Death Knight, it stopped, and it became clear that he wasn''t fleeing but baiting a trap. A flood a demons appeared behind it as it turned to face them. As she and the Nighty Knights gathered to face this new threat, she decided to put her Improved Pathing to the test. With a quick thought, she focused on the idea of finding where the Lich hade from. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. A momentter, a glowing line sprang into existence, leading off behind the iing army. Taking things a step further, she used the All-Seeing Eye skill, and her vision temporarily zoomed into the center of the mountain. There, a glowing crystal ball sat on a pedestal surrounded byva. Perhaps it wouldn''t be as difficult to find as she had feared. But then she saw the line led them right through the demon army. Nighty Knights! Form up! Archibald looked back over his shoulder at Tony sitting behind him. It had taken nearly twenty minutes of watching their pace and arguing with the dragon, but eventually, he relented and agreed to let Tony aboard for the flight. Neither Tony nor Daedalus were exactly thrilled about this, of course. Why wasn''t Tony thrilled? Despite the other guy''s impressive skills, he just didn''t have the magical stamina to make the long trip back to the Barleonan capital. Not while keeping the same pace as the two Lieutenants ahead of them. The demons had surged in power a little while back and gotten even faster, to the point where Daedalus had to try quite hard to keep up with them. Still, despite their increase in potency, they hadn''t changed strategies and were still heading for the city that was now on the horizon. Evidently, their power wasn''t enough to keep them from running with their tails between their legs. Daedalus beat his wings in a steady rhythm, but Archibald could tell that they were getting a bit morebored. He could also could feel the tightness in the joints supporting them through his bond. The dragon would make it to the city, alright. They might not make it first, though. That meant Arthur would have to hold on just long enough for backup to arrive. That made them all a bit nervous. Hopefully, as soon as he saw the Lieutenants approaching, the grizzled veteran would also see the massive dragon behind it and understand what was happening. Still, despite the tense situation, having the Lieutenants on the run was an extremely satisfactory feeling. Archibald pulled out a crystal and held it between his hands. It was one of his more flexible, recently acquired skills. As he flung the crystal forward, a beam of light shed out from his outstretched palm and lined up with the crystal before continuing on to intercept the Lieutenants. It slowed them down fractionally, but they spiraled and dived underneath, and he wasn''t able to readjust his aim quick enough for the effect tost. Still, they had gained a couple of seconds in the maneuver. He''s used the skill a few times during the chase, but not too much. He wished he had been able to do that more, but he only had so much magical energy to spare, especially if he wanted to be able to fight at full capacity when they got there.The three-on-two situation was still advantageous, but it was going to get messy soon er rather thanter. As the Lieutenants dipped down toward the city, Tony leaped off of Daedalus'' back and zipped ahead in an attempt to blindside the two Lieutenants. Hopefully, it would buy them a bit more time. Even a handful of seconds would be enough for the dragon and his rider to catch up. Just as Tony was about to collide with the demons, though, a flurry of arrows filled the sky, arcing up from the wall and peppering the Lieutenants. Unfortunately, neither of these was particrly hampered by arrows, most of them passing through the incorporeal forms of shadow and air. But Archibald spotted several arrows that had glowing energy around them, which actually did strike home. The assault was nowhere near enough to stop the iing attackers. But they did help as a distraction. As Tony smacked aside the wind lieutenant, the two turned to engage the custodian. Tony''s glow of magic surrounded him, and Daedalus reared back and gathered breath in his mouth. The billowing mes shot through the air, arcing over the city in a curtain of rainbow light. --- Arthur watched alongside many of hismanders as the five unimaginably powerfulbatants shed over his battlefield. The unexpected strength of the demons had certainly taken them by surprise, but in the end, it hadn''t been enough to stop him. They had received far more casualties than he had hoped when they took the city, but they had mostly managed to stabilize the situation. Thest pockets of resistance were mainly the castle, which was only partially repaired from Daedalus''sst visit, and a few other fortified keeps that the nobility had kept. Otherwise, the city had been scoured of most demonic influence. Some of the more helpful local citizens, adventurers, and anyone with sses had even pitched in to remove any summoning circles that had been left. Most stayed in the safety of their homes. Still, a trickle of reinforcements poured from the three keeps and the pce where summoning circles were still intact. It was enough to make it not quite worth taking them yet, not until the hold in the city waspletely rock solid. Then, they could bring full might to bear on each one of the targets and crush them with minimal losses. But the two Lieutenants in the sky above threatened to change all that. Arthur ordered another volley, and arrows filled the sky once more. This time, though, every single one of them was empowered by some magic or skill. The few archers who didn''t have their own magical shots had received buffs from many of the support troops. And while the arrows themselves might not do much, it would at least help provide openings for the others. The wind demon mostly redirected the arrows back into his troops. Arthur watched with worry and pride as the healers jumped into action. Despite their best effort, they would lose a lot of people. Still, they couldn''t give up. The wave of arrows hadn''t been useless. They distracted the demon just enough that the dragon fire nicked it. The sound of crackling energy filled the air like that of a thunderstorm. Arthur watched as the dragon dove in further, and Tony whirled away from his own opponent. All three of Arthur''s allies converged on the one Lieutenant, and with a flurry of power that obscured his view, quickly all separated. The Lieutenant, being nowhere near left to see thest remaining Lieutenant, started to fly over the city walls. As fast as it had been approaching the city as it tried to get away, Arthur had a suspicion it wouldn''tst very long. Chapter 338: Soul Searching Chapter 338: Soul Searching The hit sent me rocketing down and into the side of a mountain. Far above, the ck suit of the Demon Lord slowly vanished from view as the dust cloud billowed around me and blocked its view. My System Diagnostic skill disconnected briefly as I lost line of sight. Undeterred, I picked myself out of the crater and zipped out of the top of the caldera of the volcano I had just dug a 0.563 kilometer tunnel through to reengage in the sky. A few secondster, the skill resumed its work and continued processing. We had been trading blows for some time now, and to be perfectly honest, I was outmatched in power. I was slightly faster and seemed to have more tricks up my sleeve than my opponent. The demon also wasn''t really taking this as seriously as I was, which gave me an advantage, but one that I didn''t think wouldst. Still, I was fairly certain the demon lord was just ying with me for whatever reason. I was struggling to make any real measurable progress. Any damage I inflicted with my Holy Water, Divine Sword, or anything along those lines healed up in under 0.492 seconds. And those were my best options. If I tried something like my sanitationmp, it healed as fast as I could do damage. Whatever regeneration I''d seen with the Lieutenants paled inparison to this. My processors had yet to spit out any possible approach that might change things, either. Hence why I had to wait on a System Diagnostic. A group of shadowy tendrilsshed through the air. I angled myself, adjusting my thrusters to soften the impact. Still, the strike sent me hurtling toward the ground. Environmental damage was pretty nonthreatening to both of us at this point. The incredible levels I had gotten recently hadpletely reforged my exoskeleton and my stic shell might as well have been made from titanium. Well, that wasn''t quite urate either. My shell''s actual properties were about a thousand times stronger than even that. Whatever material it had be was really something to behold. So smashing through rock had about the same effect as smashing through a pillow or a wall made of feathers. No, the only time we ever managed to hurt each other was with direct hits. Even then, it was difficult to find leverage to do so. So, with the magical energies that I could imbue some of my skills with to overcharge them or it could do the same with whatever demonic power it had. This resulted in most of the fight being about gaining position to inflict damage. Right as I regained altitude and we shed again, the System Diagnostics skill pinged and alerted me to its initial findings. Excitedly, I processed the results in near-instantaneous fractions of a second. But my processor fans whirred in distress as the results came back. There were weak points, all right. But none of them were weak enough to make use of. ording to the diagnostics, its head was slightly more vulnerable than its talons, but I had figured that out myself. I didn''t need a skill to realize that. A full-body ovey coated the Demon Lord, coloring it based on its rtive vulnerability. Everywhere was the same solid solid gray that indicated an ineffective target. There was no shiny red area for me to attack. There was only the slightest tinge of pink around his eyes. And so far, I haven''t had any luck in getting those obvious weak points to stay damaged, either.The rest of the report didn''t help lift my spirits. When analyzing its abilities, I found that it had five major attacks, each of which I had already categorized myself. The Diagnostic did fill in some of the gaps regarding edge cases and varied uses for them, which was helpful. Its defensive capabilities were on par with my own, and its regeneration was even better, as I''d observed. If anything, I hadn''t expected us to be this simr, seeing that it was several levels higher than me. The only thing that was surprising was the ssification of the Demon Lord. ording to my skill, it was a support type, kind of like me. It heavily buffed all of its minions and underlings in the same way that I had a positive effect on my followers. Except, its own abilities in that area were far more extreme. I couldn''t tell if that was some side effect of hitting level 100, or just an innate ability from the demon. However, this was extremely worrying. It meant that even though I was stalling it. I was leaving my allies down below to fight with much stronger opponents than I''d intended. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. The longer this went on, the more likely it became that extremely buffed Lieutenants or just waves and waves of demons that could summon endlessly would overrun my allies. No, a stalemate was a loss for me. I had no doubt that my friends would hold their own for now. But if its ability to summon endless demons wasn''t impeded by my fighting with it Well, they needed time to recharge, too. An arc of dark energy scythed toward me. I cut through it with my Divine Sword, charging at the Demon Lord as I zigzagged around its other attacks. Again, I examined the demon Lord through my soul sight. Within its body I spotted the perfectly polished red orb that might as well have been made of diamond. It would have been pretty, if not for the strangely ominous glow that emanated from it. As much as I tried to clean it or shatter it, nothing happened. It was like all of the spiky red, angry ones I had seen through. The demon''s souls were just small particles of dust magnified to a million times their size. Maybe a small chip off of this soul? The soul wasn''t registering as a weak point, that was for sure. But something seemed different about it. This one didn''t have the same jagged spikes or irregr surface as all the other demons. Nor did it have the same white glow of the humans here. It seemed oddly alien. To be fair, it was a different color, so that was a perfectly understandable assumption. And while I had mostly avoided messing with people''s souls in my day-to-day life, I had spent a decent amount of time cleaning them whenever Beatrice asked for my help in holding a service for her church. It was rather satisfying to help regrly remove the small amount of ck filth that umted on my followers who wished it. I always asked for permission nowadays, which a lot of people gave. Still, the years of practice had given me a certain familiarity with how souls worked. And this one was definitely different. It wasn''t different in the way the demons were. It wasn''t broken or embedding itself in another or anything like that. Instead, it simply felt like it didn''t belong in this body. As if the soul was a square patch of beige in an ivory white carpet. Like some rather inexpert handyman had cut away what was supposed to be there and put in something new without knowing or caring that it didn''t fit its surroundings. Shifting my perspective slightly, I noticed the perfectly round orb also had a different texture. There were no small protrusions as I''d gotten used to. It was perfectly smooth, but didn''t quite settle seamlessly into the body like it should have. There was a small gap between the soul and the hard-to-conceptualize hole that served as its housing. I decided to take a chance. Using my skill, I managed to grab onto the soul, taking advantage of the gap to counteract its slipperiness. I had no real means of damaging it still, but it was interesting. As I blocked another sh with my sword the Lieutenant nimbly leaned back, avoiding my counter slice towards its eyes. But only half my core was working on that. The other half was examining this oddity. I didn''t have any guarantee that it would lead to any discrete advantage, but it was the only real lead I had. As I spun the soul in its imperfect casing of reality, I felt my system diagnostic skill kick in again. My processers nearly stuttered with surprise. Maybe there was there a weakness here? The Demon Lord gave no indication that it could feel me messing around with it on the soul ne. Perhaps it didn''t notice. Perhaps it didn''t care. Either one could be perfectly reasonable from its point of view, as no doubt it thought it was invulnerable in this case. A small part of reality around the soul space highlighted in my ovey. Rather than the weakness-indicating red though, it began to glow a bright green. It was a color that the System Diagnostics had never shown me before. Even as I parsed through the details of its response, I didn''t understand. It wasn''t a weakness per se, and it didn''t really help me understand a general system of movements and parts. But it was undeniably important. It was a connection to a whole. A whole other entity that was so vast I couldn''t grasp it. As I closely examined the spot that was highlighted, my soul sight couldn''t find anything different. Puzzled, I took on a more defensive approach to the fight as I flipped through all the different variations of sensory equipment. Nothing stood out anywhere, not in optical or microscopic or anywhere in the entire light spectrum. Nothing. But I knew there was something there. Finally, I reached out with thest thing I could think of. I used Void Maniption. But this time, I didn''t use the skill to expand my dustbin as I had so many times before. Instead, I tried to manipte that green spot itself. I felt something shift. It was a small shift, one that resisted my maniption. But even that was enough for me to gain better insight. It appeared that this little spot in reality was somehow pouring energy into the demon world. Huh? Was this him recharging magic from the world? Quickly, I introspected and looked at my own soul. The glowing golden orb appeared fuzzy on the sides, perfectly matching the fuzziness of reality. I had no way of slipping around or moving it the way I could with the demon''s. Mine was too snugly fitting with reality, even when I tried to target that, too with Void Maniption. But I did notice simrly that there was a connection from the soul to reality. Energy flowed through that connection, not just from one point, but every part of the soul. Interesting. Was this how my batteries and energy recharged? If so, could I use this? Chapter 339: The Floor is Lava Chapter 339: The Floor is Lava Bee eyed the glowing line that led to the Lich''s phctery. Even though she now knew exactly where it was, it wouldn''t make a difference if she couldn''t get there. The path up the mountain was treacherous. They''d need to fly all the way up to its top, then down into the blistering hot caldera to locate the small side cavern housing the item. Worse, only those who could fly would make it in. It was no small ask order. The volcano was tall enough that the air was rather thin, and it would take them a lot of time to travel all that way. Too much time, especially given the battle still going on. If they didn''t keep things under control here, a lot of the flying demons could go to reinforce the Barleonan capital, and she couldn''t have that. As she puzzled through the situation, her ns suddenly became moot. It was as if her master was reading her mind, or perhaps had heard her silent prayers. It sted a path through the mountainside, carving a massive tunnel right into the cavern where the Phctery rested. Bee blinked. Once again, she was reminded of how nice it was to have a god on her side. The hole bored into the mountain near its base, meaning that they could travel much faster and not have to climb thousands of feet of elevation. Not wanting to waste a second, she yelledmands to the Nighty Knights, and Felix ryed them. All of them bunched up into a wedge shape. Rather than take the head like usual, though, she allowed Cliff to take point, her jowls menacing and wisps of icy vapor flowing from her snout. Bee stood off to one side and slightly behind. It gave her better coverage to protect everyone with her aura so she could y the role of the healer. At this point, she was rather confident that they could achieve any victory. They''d proven their might plenty over the course of this battle. Now, her goal had shifted from the fastest elimination of their enemies to prioritizing other things. Namely, making sure that no Nighty Knights were injured. If they were injured, then she had to make sure they didn''t stay injured for long. The idea that she could afford such considerations against a pair of Lieutenants felt incredible. Some part of her still warned against underestimating their opponents. But letting any of her allies get hurt was inexcusable to her. The Improved Pathing skill lit up the ground in front of her as she ordered the advance. They started off at a jog that quickly progressed to a sprint, and the diamond-shaped formation speared deep into enemy ranks. Cliff bowled over and knocked aside anything that stood in their way, and Tanu rode on her back, casting skill after skill to buff hispanion. The Nighty Knights moved in near lockstep. Skills shed, and waves of force flew forth to batter aside anything that stood in their way. For now, they were primarily focusing on removing obstacles rather than dealing damage. Once everything from the demon''s front line had been cleared, the only thing that remained was the Death Knight, standing tall and in their way. The formation broke apart, and practice eased as they flowed around the static obstacle. And just as the Death Knight started to turn and chase after or attack or something, they all pivoted and copsed on it, attacking it from all sides, making it impossible for it to get the shield between it and its attacker. It by no means went down easy, but with enough, the Nighty Knights kept all the other demons away for just a handful of moments. Many of the most powerful of their number were able to bring it down to its knees before Bee even arrived, with some assistance from her. It was decapitated and stripped of its armor. And she was devouring it. Before the demons could recover to save their lieutenant, the group had already formed up and continued their advance. The group barely slowed down as they punched into the demons, angling away from the mass of living bone piecing itself together at the head of the army. They managed to pierce past it before the Lich could properly reform into whatever backup body it had created after returning from its Phctery. This forced it to charge into its own forces to pursue. Many of the weaker demonic entities were crushed underfoot even as they bellowed angrily in a demonic tongue that Bee didn''t think flesh and blood were capable of producing. Resistance continued to mount in their path, but still, they drove ever onward. Bee took a half step back in the formation as one of the other healers filled in for her. In a moment, she quickly navigated her way to the other side, cing a hand on Leanne''s shoulder and healing a gash the young woman had received to her arm. The quick movement didn''t even make them break stride. The young woman nodded to Bee without making eye contact. It was a much-appreciated gesture, considering the bright sh of eye-beams currently scything through their enemies. Bee stepped back, hurrying to the next patient. Their speed hadn''t decreased, but the sheer mass of bodies blocking their path wasn''t doing much for their maneuverability. The Nighty Knights were an elite fighting force, but smashed together, it was hard for them to use much of the hard-earned skill that they had practiced as individual warriors and terrors of the battlefield. Stolen novel; please report. The direct tutge of Lord Void, though, wasn''t for naught. Even though their situation prevented them from showing off individual skill, discipline carried them through. They all stayed in position to support and protect each other, fending off their foes while ensuring the safety of their own. Bee quickly found her time was actually best spent in the center, as the well-drilled formations rotated injured members toward her and let her assist the slightly less powerful healers in making sure that everyone stayed up. Some of the other support members of the Nighty Knights, though, had moreplicated roles to y. Rather than healing wounds and patching up cuts, they focused on protecting others. She watched as the group cast quick, second-long shields to protect others from what would be, in some cases, lethal damage. They had to monitor the entire battlefield and prioritize, oftentimes letting other members take wounds in order to save allies that were in more dire straits. Bee had seen them practice, as she had with all the Knights. But they had never been in a real scenario where they had been pushed this hard. The sense of pride welling up in her chest was matched only by the Nighty Knights''s grim determination as they pushed forward. Minutester, they broke through the other side of the horde. Bee looked behind and found that her fears were unfounded. The swath of overpowered demons showed no interest in running to the Barleonan capital. They seemed single-mindedly focused on chasing her down. Even the flying ones had their attention trained on them, trying to make it to their group despite the hail of arrows and skill projectiles. Many of the members near the interior of Bee''s formation flung attacks up at the sky to ward them off. After making it through, the Nighty Knights charged up the foothills in what quickly became a foot race as the demons pursued and were beaten back by the rearguard. Eventually, they made it into the tunnel that Lord Void had prepared for them. A quick conference with the Nighty Knightsmander and his second took ce behind lines as they ran. "You all stay here," Bee told Felix. "I need you to defend. I''ll go destroy the Lich''s phctery if you can keep them away. You just need to buy me time." Felix and his second looked at each other. "The tunnel''s narrow enough that we don''t need to put everyone here to plug it," Felix said, and Leanne nodded in agreement. "Take a couple with you. You can have some eyes watch your back. Besides, most of us won''t be useful here anyways. We only need a few front liners and a lot of our ranged damage dealers. Our more mobile melee units won''t be very useful." Bee was reluctant to agree. Her All-Seeing Eye was telling her that the phctery was rtively unguarded, with only a pair of archdemons standing on either side. The level 65 beings would be more than enough to fend off anything under usual circumstances. But then, they hadn''t exactly ounted for her. Still, she supposed that they had a point. With a nod of resignation, Bee agreed. "I can bring two. There are two Archfiends waiting between us and the Phctery." Themander and vicemander whispered quickly to each other. In a moment, Bradley Chadwick jogged over from where he had been leaning against the wall and drinking a water skin his sister had handed him from her storage space. He stopped and saluted. "Bradley, you and Jason are to escort the High Priestess to the Phctery," Felix informed the youth. Bradley gave a sharp salute as a second figure appeared at his side. Dark hair and dark eyes took a moment for Bee to ce, as this was one of the rtively new recruits of the Nighty Knights. He''d only joined after the siege of the Kingdom''s capital. He was a stealth specialist dealing with swords, knives, and throwing weapons. So she supposed he also wouldn''t be the most useful here on defense. Several of the more defense-oriented Nighty Knights had already engaged the enemy, blocking off the tunnel while ranged specialists hammered away. Waves of light and energy and elemental skills shot past them in well-choreographed waves to devastating effect, mowing down the enemy as they charged straight into the kill box. "Good luck," Felix wished her as she and her two escorts started dashing down the tunnel. Bee was careful not to outpace the two at first, but found that they had little trouble keeping up. Bradley''s stupidly long legs ate up the distance in a loping stride that easily kept him up with her, and Jason''s quick feet blurred with shadow in what must have been some sort of skill. Bee pushed ahead a little faster, nervous that despite the many advantages the Nighty Knights had, the demons would find some way through. Fears of them tunneling around or trying to copse the tunnel itself bubbled up within her mind. Still, she had to believe that the Knights could hold their own. Besides, if the ceiling dide down on them, it wasn''t like they werecking for earth maniptors. Only momentster, they burst out of the tunnel into a caldera. They stood at a small ledge made of piled rock and looked out into the smoking pool ofva before them. In its center sat arge rock that must have been fifty feet in diameter. Just as she''d expected, the two archfiends and the crystal orb of Phctery sat atop it. The heat was nearly unbearable. She felt the sweat quickly evaporate from her skin, prompting her to retrieve a few heat resistance potions from her mouth. Those still didn''t make it any morefortable, though. Just one more reason for them to hurry. Bee quickly pulled out her magic carpet, and the three of them squeezed on as she ferried them across theva field. The archfiends took up defensive positions but seemed unphased. Rather, they looked excited at the easy targets. If only they''d known. Bee was confident in taking the two of them on herself, but she quickly exined her n to the Nighty Knights. "You each distract one while I go after the Phctery. Once we''ve destroyed it, we can take them out. But for now, that ball is the priority. I just need a few seconds." The carpet sped toward their target. Right as they were about tond, theva behind the two archfiends boiled and a skeletal hand dripping with magma clutched the side of the rock. A skull the size of a horse rose out of the magma pool, its surface glowing with heat as it hoisted itself onto the rock as well. Chapter 340: No Take Backs Chapter 340: No Take Backs As the magma-coated skeleton emerged, the trio didn''t simply watch on in awe. They sprang into action and went after the archdemons without hesitation. Bee couldn''t help but be grateful. They trusted her implicitly to deal with the new threat, even as they took on enemies much higher level than themselves. Dashing toward the Phctery, a quick scan of her surroundings revealed that it wasn''t all as it seemed. She quickly confirmed that it was, in fact, what she was looking for. But the magma golem was not some sort of construct or summon. It was the Lich itself. Bee checked its level to confirm. Sure enough, it was level 90 like the other souped-up Lieutenants. Evidently, whatever had been pursuing the Nighty Knights was either a fake or had abandoned the fight to defend itself. Or perhaps it had intentionally left the Phctery out in the open for her to find and lure into a position where she was away from her support? The thoughts cut off as the skeleton finished climbing up onto the tform. Its massive handshed out at her, sttering thick drops of glowing magma across the rock. She was forced to duck and roll to avoid them, interrupting her advance. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the archdemons let out a squeal of pain as it proved a little too slow to do the same. Regaining her feet, Bee lunged for the Phctery. She twirled her broom, aiming to smash it and end the fight quickly. Unfortunately, the Lich''s other hand descended and wrapped around the Phctery, caging it in glowing bones. The bones transferred red heat to the handle of the broom as she stabbed into them, attempting to force her way through. Her free hand sent out a st of sand in a Scouring Strike, which melted and formed ss around the digits. But as the hand tightened around the pedestal and lifted it into the air, the newly formed ss cracked and fell to the ground. Bee grimaced and sted out with her Holy Aura in another attempt to end things. With a monumental effort, she focused it into a two-foot diameter beam and struck at its face. The hand holding the Phctery clenched down tighter. The skeleton''s massive jaw opened and began spewing magma toward her in a thick stream. Bee danced around the assault and the sttering droplets that apanied it in a blur, leaping upward to strike again. She stabbed again with her broom, this time finding a narrow gap in the fingers. The sharp tip met resistance and then skittered across the smooth surface of the crystal. She growled in frustration. That hit had left a slight crack in the ss ball, the damage clearly visible in the glow of the magma around it. But even as she attempted to bring the broom around to deliver a second blow, that first crack sealed up. Evidently, the thing was harder to break than she''d feared. Even worse, it could fix itself, just like the Lieutenants.She''d have to not only destroy it to dispel the Lich but likely consume it as well. She had no idea how viable that was, but it was worth a try. Reaching down deep into her mouth, she produced one of her preparations for this fight. She had a bunch of options that her alchemy experience had provided her, but most of them she''d already used. All the buff potions she had assembled had been distributed to the Nighty Knights and herself, and the majority of her stores now were elemental concoctions. These mixtures gave off heat or light or fire or explosions when thrown. They were useful, to be sure, but none seemed like exactly what she needed here. It was time for one of her more esoteric weapons. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. The bottle of arctic wind she spat into her palm sailed through the air, flying at the hand that held the factory pedestal. For all the dangerous amounts of offense and defense the Lich possessed, it was fairly slow. Not slow for a person, but slow for a level 90 being. The implosion of cold air sucked the heat from the area. She felt the nearly overwhelming heat of the caldera subside as the howling gale was loosed from its container. As the ss shattered on the fist protecting its Phctery. The magma crackled as it hardened to rock, kes of stone falling away to reveal bone beneath. The Lich roared, its now-entombed fingers crackled as they curled into a fist, breaking through the coating of rock. Pulling out several more sks of arctic wind, Bee kept it up. She only had a half dozen, but she used them all as she dove, rolling and avoiding the cooling drops ofva scattered around the tform as she hit each major section of the Lich and froze up its joints for seconds at a time. It wasn''t enough to stop it entirely. But it was enough for her to get close and sh at its hand. The god-forged metal of her broom bit deep into the mysterious bone but lodged three-quarters of the way through. Bee let go of her weapon, wrapped her arms around the massive limb, and twisted with all of her might. She gritted her teeth as her skin sizzled. The cold hadn''t managed to eliminate all of the heat. But with a sharp twist, she heard a satisfying snap as the bone connecting the hand to the rest of the monstrosity broke free. Hopping backward, she looked at her prize. She''d done it. She was in possession of the Phctery. It was still sealed in bone, but the way that the Lich lunged toward her in panic sent a smile of satisfaction crawling across her face. She lifted the bony hand the size of her torso over her head and smashed it into the ground several times before it started to break. As she grabbed the crystal ball from the center, a blow sent her tumbling backward and rolling. She just managed to get her free arm up to protect her head, but she could feel the bones in her forearm already had multiple fractures. Worse, the heat intensified as she rolled closer to the magma. But there was nothing to catch her, nothing to arrest her momentum. A tugging sensation on her scalp pulled her up short, leaving her looking down at the pool ofva below. Another yank sent stabs of pain into the roots of her hair as shended backward on the ground, but she didn''t care. It was better than falling into the pool. Without hesitation, she turned and smashed the crystal onto the ground beside her; a crack ran through it and widened more as she bashed continuously until the perfect sphere was two jagged hemispheres. Bringing one up to her mouth. She closed her eyes in focus and breathed in. When she looked up, she saw Bradley standing over her, one arm bloodied and the other holding several broken strands of her hair. He fended off an archfiend with his ming sword. Bee reached over and touched his leg, sending her healing abilities into him even as she processed the wellspring of power flowing through her. --- I poked and prodded at this stream of energying from the world into the demon''s soul. As we exchanged heavy blow after heavy blow, I''d gotten a better handle on his techniques. And I wasn''t sted into a mountain by missing a block again. But my attention wasn''t entirely on the fight. No, this flow of energy was unique. It was different. It wasn''t nearly enough to provide the power I''d seen, but something else. There was something elseing through besides just power. It was as if it was defining the structure of the power it had. Something that gave this demon its very form. And suddenly it clicked. I could decode the signals traveling through the stream into a type of machine code. After a brief bit of cryptography work, I managed to read it as a message log and matched it up to what was happening. I could read the logs of what was happening to the Demon Lord. Damage dealt, experience received, even skill uses. It was all very strange. It was as though I had tapped into its very system. As the diagnostics chimed again, I suddenly knew what I had to do. I reached for the stream of system notifications pouring into the demon Lord, and I ripped it away. Chapter 341: Thank You For Coming Chapter 341: Thank You For Coming LEVEL 80 REACHED! CHOOSE A SKILL: DIVINE COMMUNION, MULTITHREADING, SPOTLESS Bee regained her feet as she read through the options. As much as she wouldve liked to sit and contemte them for a few hours, there were still things to be done. Her allies were still fighting the archfiends, and she didnt want to leave the rest of the Nighty Knights alone for a minute longer than required. Fortunately, her mind was so amped up on adrenaline and experience that she processed the choices in record time. She had no real basis on which to choose any of these skills. No human shed ever heard of had reached level 80. At least, not for certain. There was no precedent in the historical record other than some ancient myths and legends, which were likely blown out of proportion anyway. Even if they had, they definitely hadn''t left records about their skills. And even if they did, the odds of her getting the same skill options as them would be astronomical. Especially considering how specific and unique her recent choices had been. She looked at the options. Divine Communion was a strong frontrunner. Anything rted to her god would probably be great, even if she didnt know exactly what it did. The second option was solid as well but underwhelming. If the ability would allow her to multitask mentally or something, then that could be worthwhile. It would certainly make running the kingdom and the church easier. But while being able to multitask might be nice, it wasn''t like she could really do too many things at once physically. Perhaps the skill would allow her to change that. Still, there was a nonzero possibility that the term multithreading would simply allow her to knit multiple scarves at once or something. The possibility was small, but it was there. She had seen how much Void enjoyed making its tapestries. Thest option was downright heretical. She knew that Void liked to y with the system. But the fact that it referred to her, a Prodigy of Spot, bing Spotless? Well. That was simply unthinkable. There was no excuse. She couldn''t choose that in good conscience. By the time shed started moving to help Jason with his opponent, she already made her choice. Divine Communion was the most fitting for a priestess like her, not to mention the most certifiably useful. However, it worked. As she lunged forward with her broom, the understanding of what the skill did filled her mind. The web of links that constantly connected her and Void''s followers remained the same, except for one. The all-important link between her and Void itself. It felt as though it strengthened, solidified, and pulsed with life. Rather than a dormant thing, it felt as though she could interact with it.Curiously, she decided to test it out. Even as her broom batted aside the archfiend bearing down on them, she focused on the line and sent along a single querying thought: "Master?" A warm feeling of reassurance came down from the connection. The feel of her master''s presence and aura flooded through her entire body, revitalizing her tired muscles. She felt a surge of power erupt within her as she sttered the archfiend over the volcano wall a hundred feet away. She looked down at her hands in surprise before her eyes went up to the sky, where a ck dot could be seen fighting the demon lord miles above them. "Thank you, master," she thought as she wheeled to face thest opponent. Everything went ck. The very nanosecond that I ripped out the data stream leading to the Demon Lord, everyst one of my sensors went dark. It was as though my very existence huped. But then, a millionth of a secondter, it all came roaring back. My opponent didnt even have time to react. The pause was so brief that I didn''t even have to reboot. In its wake, I felt a shift in... well, everything. The power that I sensed in the stream didn''t exactly flow into me as expected. Rather, it curved around and over me even as I worked to stitch together the hole in reality from which it came. As I did so, though, I noticed that my opponent was no longer attacking. Then, the Demon Lord began to change. Gone was the dapper suit and the human shape. ck boils bubbled out all along its body, stretching into tendrils that narrowed at the tip and absorbed light without reflecting a single particle. It expanded up across the sky and let out shrieks that didnt register in any sort of auditory spectrum that a living being could hear. Unfortunately, I could still process it. The sheer pitch threatened to break my microphone. This book is hosted on another tform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. As it screamed, its tendrils iled about wildly. I narrowly dodged a tendril swipe, noting theplete vacuum left in its wake. Apparently, those tendrils even took in the very air they traveled through. The more it unraveled into the monstrosity before me, the more confused I became. I had to design an entirely new spatial paradigm to understand it, as it followed none of the normal Euclidean geometry that I had expected. It roiled around itself and appeared from ces it shouldn''t have been, in sizes that were just wrong. I hesitated to attack, not having a real understanding of what could actually harm it. Who knows, maybe hitting it would just end worse for me? This seemed to be the right move because even as I ducked and dodged and weaved through the tentacles and tendrils, I could see matter itself disappear bit by bit. But the world wasnt the only thing in trouble. Those little bumps that coated its appendages were starting to eat away at itself, too. Every time it moved, reality fought back. It tore strips of inky ck darkness off of the abomination. They began to dissipate into the air to form a rather ominous-looking cloud. Concerned, I started up my Air Purifier at full st and used every skill I had to consume those scraps before they could pollute my world. I just had to hope that I could neutralize them. Slowly, the thing was eaten away, but it didn''t happen fast enough. My models couldn''t get a good grasp of how long it would take topletely destroy itself, as I had no idea what the actual volume of the thing was. It could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few years or until the heat death of the universe. Whatever the timescale, it was uneptably long. This needed to end. Firing my Sanitation Lamp at it had no effect. The light worked, of course, and I could see it slowly approaching the creature''s body but never quite reaching. Its light slowed and bent the nearer it got, only traveling half of the remaining distance into infinity. It boggled my processors. As much as it rankled, I couldn''t seem to affect it with anything. Nothing but reality itself hurt this monster, but I couldnt simply wait and watch. In fact, I had one more option. One more thing I was a bit hesitant to try. My dustbin. If I brought my void out from my unlimited dustbin to meet it, would it empower it? Or would it trap it? Could I bring the Demon Lord in? I wasn''t sure. Surely, this was something I could test, though. Instead of just consuming the next scrap, I pulled it toward me. I pushed the void out slightly and touched it. The strangely ephemeral material melted into my limitless dustbin. It stopped degrading, but it didn''t seem empowered or anything. Was I willing to risk letting a more powerful being than myself in my dustbin? This wasnt like other times. Usually, I consumed weaker enemies. Even the stronger ones, I was able to wear them down first. Not to mention that this one seemed different. It was almost as though it was a creature of the void itself. But I couldnt let this thing loose. More than anything else, it threatened my humans and the very world we lived in. So yes. Of course, I was going to. Diving in, I followed the still-traveling light of my sanitationmp into the nonsensical space where reality warped. I passed the light as it slowly crept toward the abomination and dove toward one of its many maws. With 100% of my processor behind it, I shed thergest void bubble I''d ever made and pulled the being into my dustbin. A perfect sphere of total ckness roared out from my dustbin. It stretched out on all sides,pletely epassing the being. Below me, I saw the world darken as ourbined existences blotted out the entirety of the sun''s rays. The empty ckness tried to right back, but once it touched mine, it lost all sense of identity and was consumed. I watched as the inky ckness seeped into the void, seemingly inert of whatever malevolent will had controlled it. The process took a long time as I sat there, hovering in the sky. Eventually, thest of the bubbling, sinuous ckness disappeared into my smooth bubble. With a final effort of concentration, I stripped away thestyer, revealing the true core of my opponent. It was yet another human-shaped body. But rather than the intimidating figure Id seen before, this was a confused-looking man. He wore a pair of slightly toorge sses and was dressed in a red polo shirt and brown khakis. A name tag pinned to his chest read Will. "Wh what?" The man spluttered, looking around. "What what just happened? Wh-where am I?!" I didn''t answer. Instead, I examined the man. His shirt was slightly frayed, and there was dirt at the hem of his pant cuffs. He was slightly overweight and needed a shave, but altogether wasn''t too much of a slouch. Magically, he waspletely inert. It felt as though he hadn''t even gotten his first level. But there was something still there. A thread running off orthogonal to any direction of this reality. It wasnt like a power line or some sort of data stream, either. It felt pretty harmless this time. It was just a tether. With a small flex of my will, I gave him a push. The man vanished, flying down the tether back to wherever he came from. The second he vanished, I felt a rush of power pour into me from the system that I now felt intrinsically, having sensed its location in another. Suddenly, I received several notifications. LEVEL 95 REACHED! CHOOSE A SKILL: REALITY TRANSMUTATION, DIMENSIONAL MASTERY, WORLDLY PURIFICATION. DEITY FELLED! ASCENSION REQUIREMENTS UNLOCKED. LEVEL 100 REACHED! DIVINITY UNLOCKED. CONGRATULATIONS ON REACHING GODHOOD! PREPARE FOR ASCENSION. 1 hr 00 min Chapter 342: Stardust Chapter 342: Stardust Despite the exhaustion, Bee did her best to keep her shoulders back and her pace even as she and the two Nighty Knights trudged back down the tunnel. The continued sounds of fighting were still audible outside, but none of them had the energy left to run and rejoin the battle. Sure, she had leveled up a lot, but thest fight had taken a lot out of her. Bradley and Jason were also both exhausted, though satisfied. They, too, hade out of that encounter with a significant boost in power. But even with all that, they still would have hurried if there was any real threat. With thest of the Lieutenants gone, she trusted the rest of the blockade to hold for a few minutes while they made their way there. As they neared their destination, though, something shifted. What exactly was hard to identify. It was as though the very world around her quivered slightly, trembling with a power unlike any she''d felt before. But though she''d never felt anything like it, she had a pretty good guess who was at its center. She could feel her master''s influence all around her, more so than ever before. Everything seemed just a little bit more straightforward. As though things were more clearly organized, even if they weren''t in any discernible way. That was enough to kick her into gear. Sprinting along the final stretch of the tunnel, Bee dimly felt the others follow suit. She wasn''t the only one who felt the change, apparently. The three of them stumbled into a jog and then sprinted towards the entrance to the tunnel, where they could catch a glimpse of what was going on. By the time they reached the tunnel entrance, the fighting had stopped entirely. The demons had pulled back and were quaking in fear. Meanwhile, the defending Nighty Knights stood gaping up at the sky. "What? What''s happening up" Bee eximed, trailing off as she, too, sent her gaze upwards. Up in the sky hovered a small, ck dot: the familiar form of her god. But that wasn''t all. It was surrounded by an absolutely massive nimbus of perfect darkness, a disk of nothingness that stretched out like a hole in reality itself. She screeched to a halt, unable to tear her eyes away. This was her master''s true form. The real, earthshaking extent of its power. Never before had she seen Void unleash its full abilities in such a way.This was her god. She wasn''t sure how long they stood staring. But at some point, thest sliver of the midday sun disappeared behind the towering god. As the light winked out of existence, she could feel its omniscient gaze upon them. The demons shrieked, and she tensed. In a moment, her broom was in her hand, and she was ready to defend herself. But rather than attacking, the demons were trembling. They were cowering in terror, shielding their eyes as though blinded. But there was no light anymore. The sky dimmed to twilight as the sun fully moved behind Lord Void. All around her, the shrieking demons began to dissolve. The shrieking intensified, only to fall eerily silent as they turned to dust. But instead of falling to the ground, the particles of dust flew upwards toward the Void above. As far as she could see, clouds of thick dust choked the air as they hurtled upward at speeds that she could barely track before falling into the darkness. For the first time in a while, Bee Scanned her master. As she read over the first few entries, she couldn''t help but smile. Evidently, it had decided to reveal its true form to her skill, as well. However, it never gave up on its little jokes. Name: Spot, Level: 100, Type: Mechanical Pet, ss: God. "Praise the Lord!" Bee shouted as she and all the Nighty Knights fell to their knees in sheer awe. --- Archibald watched as thest Lieutenant disappeared down Tony''s gullet. The event coincided with a surge of energy flowing through his veins, and he smiled as he leveled up yet again. They had managed to save the army, and now they were left with a choice. Did they stay here and help clean up? Or did they make sure that things back at the enemy''s fortress were going smoothly? He trusted Arthur to have things in hand here without Lieutenants on the table. But at the same time, he trusted that Void and Bee could take care of themselves. Of the two situations, though, thetter was the more important fight. It meant they were in for another long trip. Archibald hoped that Daedalus wouldn''t mind going back and forth for the third time. But thankfully, he didn''t seem to care much. Tonynded on his back and settled in behind the Dragon Companion. But just as they started to turn, Archibald felt the world change. He instantly stiffened. "Did you feel that?" he asked. Daedalus rumbled his agreement. "Yes. I don''t know what it was, though. I''ve never felt anything like that in all my years. But it''s along the same veins as when I remembered thest god dying." Archibald raised his eyebrows at that. Turning around, he arched an eyebrow at Tony, who seemed at a loss for words. He stayed like that for several moments until Archibald poked his shoulder a few times. "Hey, Tony. Did you feel it, too?" "The world has been cleansed," Tony intoned. Archibald blinked in confusion, then looked down. Judging by the dirt that still coated the ground below, he wasn''t entirely correct. "Um, Tony, you''re not making any sense here." Tony shook his head. "What do you mean? It''s obvious. The world has been cleansed." "And what did you mean by that?" Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. "Woah," Tony said, confused. He shook his head and blinked the ssy look out of his eyes. "Sorry. Something just came over me, there. What''s up?" "Did you not feel everything shift just strangely?" "I did. Everything feels clearer and less cluttered somehow. My connection to Void is stronger but distant. As if I can talk to him just fine, but it''s like shouting across a field instead of having a conversation." "Hmm," Daedalus rumbled. "I think I know what happened," he said as he began beating his wings even faster. The dragon seemed even more urgent than before. --- I read through the notifications as I started to descend. The corner of my disy now boasted a new addition: a one-hour timer. I wasn''tpletely sure about what it was for, but I had a prediction with a 99.999% probability. It appeared that I was going to be off to my next adventure. Gaining divinity was a bit of a surreal experience. I felt my power increase manyfold, my processors and sensors gaining abilities that I''d never even thought possible. But at the same time, I felt my actual abilities diminish. It was as if I had the ability to do anything, but additional limiters and boundaries were imposed on the eptable actions I could take. It wasn''t some forcible restraint, though. More of a heightened sense of responsibility. It was as if I existed in a delicate bnce with the world around me. Speaking of the world, I nced around me to find it already changing. The wind had leveled off to a consistent 5.00 miles-per-hour breeze, ruffling the distant nt life in perfectly synchronized waves. I felt the various small insects all around begin to fly and crawl in slightly more optimal routes, as though they''d gained their own pathing algorithms. Everywhere I looked, I saw things be more orderly and organized. But that bnce was shifting quickly. Based on my projections, even the timer was overselling things. I wouldn''t be able to stay long. Not without my existence, turning the world into something far too orderly, if that were possible. I wouldn''t allow myself to start affecting reality the same way reality had affected the demon Lord. But that was okay. My work here was done. The world seemed clean. I had already taken care of the demons and most of their fortress. As I approached the ground, even that partially -destroyed building began to fix itself. Bricks whizzed from piles from where they were embedded in the ground and stacked themselves up. The dust that was the mortar unwound and thered itself back in, hardening and gluing the stones back together once more. The roads formed by the traveling demons grew paving stones perfectly shaped and shining clean. It was like my Domain had be supercharged to an almost concerning degree. I descended to where the Nighty Knights knelt in perfectly organized rows with Beatrice at their head. I let out a single sonorous beep of greeting. The low tone echoed, yet Beatrice seemed to understand perfectly. She looked up, not quite meeting my gaze, but her eyes falling upon my wheels. "Master do you really have to go?" From behind, I sensed a speck of red approaching from a long way off. It moved quickly, but not quickly enough. I reached out and pulled it closer, warping space so that in just a few wing beats, Daedalus touched down beside us. My timer dropped by another three minutes in the space of a second. The dragon hurriedly braked, skidding to a halt along the ground. "Oh. Well. That certainly works as well..." The dragon rumbled in surprise, clearing his throat. "Spot... did you...?" I gave a long, low tone. That single note reverberated through the clearing, not just serving to answer Daedalus''s question but alsomunicating far more in a single note. "I see. Then... I suppose this is goodbye, my friend," Daedalus rumbled. "I look forward to seeing you soon." Archibald slid down the side and gave me a bow. "Congrattions, Lord Void." Tony floated down as well before joining the rest of the Nighty Knights in his approximation of kneeling, though he was still floating off the ground. I lifted his head with my w so that he would look at me, and he nodded. "I''ll do my best." I let out another long tone. I watched as tears began to stream down her cheeks. "I I understand. Thank you for... for everything. You''ve you''ve been the best master I ever could''ve hoped for. If if I pray to you, you''ll still hear it, right?" I reached out and pressed my grabby arm to one of her shoulders, squeezing gently, and let out a third and final tone. She nodded, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve. "Okay. Yes. I I will do my best. Of course. I I will see you soon, master." As I let go, the Nighty Knights bowed their heads deeper. I saw more than a few wet eyes among the crowd, though many tried to hide it. I hadn''t just been speaking to Beatrice with my message. I had spoken to each of them individually as well. I''m d everyone understood me so well now. I looked back at Beatrice onest time before I rose up into the sky. This wasn''t goodbye. Not truly. We would see each other again soon. I just hoped she didn''t rush herself too much. Maybe in a hundred years or so. She only had a few more levels to go, after all. Rather than send yet another tone reverberating through the world, I decided to project onest message to my friends here. I was so grateful for all the times we''d spent together. I would have loved to stay longer, to spend more time with them, but it simply wasn''t meant to be. The most I could promise was to cheer them on from afar. "I will be watching over you. Take care." As I rose up, the air became thinner and thinner. As the pale blue of our began to recede in the distance, my sensors picked up an entirely new expanse all around me. A room on a scale that I''d never even attempted to clean. Glittering stars sparkled all throughout its empty space. There were balls of gas and fire and rock everywhere I looked. And dust. So much dust. Now, that just wouldn''t do. I guess I had a lot more cleaning left to take care of. --- Bee watched as the sun set and the stars began toe out. They all sat in abination of exhaustion and awe when they heard the three tones that echoed through the world. The first was a goodbye from their god and master. The second was a request to take care of the world it so loved. And the third was a call to adventure, a challenge to continue growing in power and wisdom. When she was ready, Lord Void would call for her. Then, she would join him in the heavens. Yet, as she watched the sky dim tonight, the stars were different than before. Rather than a splotchy assortment of constetions, they formed a perfect grid spanning across the sky, all evenly spaced and perfectly patterned in their brightness. The glittering specks of light twinkled in fanciful patterns as though putting on a show for them all. She smiled at the new night sky. In a way, it wasforting. It was a constant reminder that her master was there, watching over her. /// Well, that''s all (almost) folks! We just have some epilogues left, and then Spot''s Adventure will have a little bow on top! More concrete ns for the Patreon wille next week, but I might as well share my initial thoughts. I have about 6 weeks of lead time before Roomba finishes on RR, and I want tounch other stuff on there before that. So, I''m going to spend that time building up my Patreon backlog for those stories. First is Escaping Valha. I got some really good feedback from sharing that here and reworked the start a bit. I''m going to start posting that after the epilogues. I think you can expect at least 4 chapters a week. Probably a lot more at the start. Next is Isekai''d Legion. This is going to be a lot slower as I''m working with someone on it. We n together, and then I knock out a quick draft of what is in my head, and she polishes it up. However, because of scheduling conflicts, we will be lucky to finish a chapter a week. Depending on how much of these two stories I can get done, I might start a third idea that I haven''t shared with anyone yet. It is sort of hopping on the system apocalypse trend. But I think that there is enough of my style twist that it shouldn''t feel too familiar. Last but not least. To my Nonhuman MC fans. I''ve got lots more story ideas in my head, including some with unorthodox perspectives like this one (perhaps a cultivating penguin might make an appearance someday soon...). But I don''t have a hard timeline yet. Thanks all Epilogue 1: What Lies Between the Stars Epilogue 1: What Lies Between the Stars Ashley trotted down the hall, doing her best to maintain a dignified posture as she did. Her attempts were met with only moderate sess, considering there was only so much dignity a six-year-old could really muster. But her lessons with the Nighty Knights hadn''t gone entirely to waste on that front. "You finished your chores, Princess?" Ashley stopped mid-stride, head whipping around. Gigi! Her great-great-grandmother chuckled as Ashley rushed over and climbed up in herp.The woman wore a set of simple but entirely spotless priests robes, as she usually did, with an old handmade scarf twined around her neck. "I did, actually," Ashley confirmed with a definitive nod. I finished them this morning! Last year, as a five-year-old, she didn''t have chores. As a six-year-old, though, well, she was doing important work helping the family. "Very good, Princess Great-great-grandma Bee smiled as she ruffled Ashley''s hair. This close, Ashley could actually see the barest wrinkles forming at the corners of her Gigis eyes. Her dad said that her great-great-grandma was old, far older than she appeared. In fact, he imed that there were a lot more ''greats'' in her name, but she wasn''t sure if she believed that. She''d seen old people. Old people were all hunched over, with gray hair and quiet voices and that plodding walk like her gramma had. Gigi, on the other hand, was the picture of health and energy. Only those wrinkles at the corners of her eyes said that she was older than, say, 25. Ashleys own mom looked older than great-great-grandma. But then again, her mom called her great-great-grandma as well. "Tell me a story," Ashley demanded. She didn''t like the stories that her mom or dad told her. Those were for little kids. But Gigi always had great stories. Ancient ones. Stories about the founding of The Kingdom and the beginning of the world. The woman told them as if she had actually been there.Maybe she actually was. After all, her portrait was the first one in the Hall of Rulers. But Ashley wasn''t so sure. No one was that old. It was probably just because Gigi was the best. Her great-great-grandma smiled down in that warm way she had, brushing some hair out of the little girl''s face. "Well," she started, "I think I have one youll enjoy. It all started in an ancient castle" Ashley smiled at the beginning of her favorite tale, wriggling with delight as the woman continued to speak. "One day, some wizards who thought they were very, very clever decided to cast a spell. They wanted to summon something huge and powerful, a demon strong enough to fight their battles. But they were lucky. Instead of some devouring beaste to scour this world, they called something else. Something so far out of their expectations that they ran like scared little children" *** "...And then the glorious Lord ascended on high and set the stars in their proper ces. The earth shifted,the seas stilled, and the world ordered itself into the beautiful grid we now live in" the woman finished. Ashley sighed contentedly at the storys conclusion, then frowned as a thought struck her. Gigi, Ashley asked, You mean the world wasnt always a grid? How did anyone find anything? How would you even draw a map? Well, it certainly looked a lot more haphazard, Gigi admitted. But people made it work. In fact, it took them a lot of getting used to. Especially how all of thekes became square Ashley sat up suddenly. What?! Nuh-uh. Theyve always been like that! Now youre just messing with me! The woman chuckled good-naturedly. Regardless. Thats the world we live in today. But the girl frowned again. What happened next?"Well, naturally, the world was ordered, but the people weren''t. The people were confused and scared. Everything had suddenly changed around them. But Lord Void, in its infinite wisdom, left us here to aid and lead them. "So thats when you conquered everything?" Ashley blurted out, then pped her hand over her mouth as Bee gave her a gentle but stern look. That wasn''t how it happened. Who told you that?" If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. "Uh, no one? Ashely lied. Great-great-grandma gave her a knowing look, but continued on. "No, we did not conquer everything. The Kingdom was steady and stable, with proper leadership and experience and a great deal of high-leveled people. We were a safe haven in uncertain times. Because of that, we facilitated trade and gave aid where necessary. People flocked to our borders and other countries asked for our protection. Those that didn''t they had their own issues. They didn''tst very long." She fell quiet for a moment. Ashley waited patiently for a second or two before asking another question. It wouldnt be an interruption if she wasnt talking, right? What about the demons? Ah, the demons, Gigi came back to herself. Theyre nothing more than myth and legend now. It was Lord Voids final act before ascending. Never again will the world need to worry about them. But there are plenty of other monsters that our knights keep us safe from "Princess Ashley! The girl started as a maid called from the doorway. Behind her stood her mother, an amused expression on her face. Ashley leaped down from her Gigisp and rushed over to the pair. Her mother obligingly bent down for a hug. There you are, sweetie. Come on. It''s time for bed. Already? Ashley whined. But Im not tired! "Oh goodness. Even if you arent, I certainly am. Gigi stood with effortless grace. I suppose those stories will have to wait until next time. Good night, Ashley. Come on," Ashleys mother straightened. Go with Matilda, and she''ll get you settled with a nice warm cup of milk. I''ll be there to tuck you in in a minute." Ok! Ashley beamed. With a final wave to her Gigi, she took Matilda''s hand and they walked off to bed. ---- Bee smiled fondly at her youngest descendant''s retreating form. As she disappeared around the corner, she turned her attention toward her next heir. "You''ve done an excellent job with her, granddaughter." "Thank you, Great-great-grandma," the younger woman said as she gave a respectful bow. Bee blew a raspberry and waved it off. "None of that, now. Seriously, I haven''t been able to get people to stop bowing to me for at least half a century. Come here," Bee wrapped the young woman in a sturdy hug, squeezing oh so gently. Now more than ever, she had to be cautious of her own strength. Is it time? The woman asked, clutching Bee a bit more tightly. Bee sighed and gave her a sad smile. It is. It''s been nearly 200 years longer than Lord Void thought I would take, but my job wasn''t done. But I''m confident that for at least another two generations, the kingdom will be in good hands, and I feel I can''t get any more prepared than that." Are you certain that there shouldnt be a ceremony? She pressed. For an asion this momentous, I No, Bee shut down the suggestion. As it was with Void, so it shall be with me. I would never dare to ce myself above my station with such a disy. Besides, Ive never been one for big events. You all are bad enough with my birthday. Can you imagine what this would turn into? Why, theyd never let me leave! Her granddaughter nodded solemnly, stepping back from the hug. Bee could see the beginnings of tears at the corners of her eyes. Alright. I alright. What shall I tell Mother?" "I''ve already spoken with her. She knows this is myst day. Now, go tuck Ashley away and give her a kiss for me," Bee said as she gave her great-great-granddaughter a gentle push out of the room. Alone now, she sat back down in her chair and stretched. At level 99, she didn''t get stiff muscles, tiredness, aches, pains, or any such inconveniences. Regardless, stretching still felt nice. And despite the near-perfect condition of her body, the years weighed on her mind. Sometime around after her first century, time had started to move faster, but it was repetitive. While there were many new things in the world, and it was exciting for a while to explore, the new experiences weren''t as new as they mightve seemed at first. Between that and seeing so many other people pass her by she was ready to see what was next. Pulling up her character sheet, she smiled at the full thing. Name: Beatrice Marie D''Lestrange, Level: 99, Race: Human, ss: Spot''s Prodigy, Titles: The Guiding Light, Brilliant Dawn, Void Blessed, Queen Ancestor, Demon''s Bane, Devourer of Leviathans, God Touched, Angel in Waiting, Age: 237 Strength: 21897 Intelligence: 319204 Constitution: 174839 Dexterity: 328394 Charisma: 4294827 Perception: 482953 Will: 603958 Faith: 9999999999999999 Magic Defense: 100248596 Physical Defense: 9373911 Regeneration: 908732 With a deep breath, she transmuted thest of the magically-dense material in her storage space. The thrill of power coursed through her as the old, familiar feeling of a level up greeted her again. Herst title changed as she released her hold on the world and followed the gentle pull she could feeling from Void. Now it just said Angel of Spot. It was time to serve her master directly again. Bee was pulled up into the heavens, the stars rushing past her in neatly ordered grids. In what felt like only a blink she arrived in a new space, vast and iprehensible yet somehow cozy. Distance seemed to have no meaning, although she could tell that the room was perfectly square and many times the size of the world. At its center, Void sat on a rug woven of beautifully sparkling stardust. A second rug, no less in its splendor, sat in front of it. Bee folded herself into a cross-legged position and took her own seat. She felt tears begin to pour freely down her smiling face as she met the ck disks somehow warm gaze. Im home, master. Epilogue 2: A Vacuum from Beyond the Stars Epilogue 2: A Vacuum from Beyond the Stars I projected a portion of myself down into an avatar. It was the least amount of power that I could possibly fit into one singr spot, the very lower limits of what I could now do. But despite that, its very existence was already shifting the world around it. The effects were nothing too crazy. Thewn subtly evened itself out to a more exact height, and the ants marched in straighter lines. The wind-blown leaves formed piles rather than spreading everywhere. That was okay. All of these small things were within tolerances. It had taken me a long, long time to find one particr among the entire universe. Even with all of my power, range, and processing abilities, something like that took a lot of effort. Especially considering how little of the ce Id really known when Id been therest. But finally, I had managed to find it. A single blue and green globe hidden in the vast cosmos. My avatar rolled down the sidewalk of a particr house that I was reasonably sure was the correct one. I had never really seen it from the outside, but my sensors told me that the interior matched my cached maps. It was a quite well-kept home, even before my influence began to subtly address the sidewalk stains and a few minor chips in the paint. A home worth being proud of. As I trundled up the path, I was met with the most ring w of them all: a set of dreaded stairs. The three concrete steps led up to the entryway of the home. I initially wanted to adjust them to a ramp, just out of courtesy. However, I wasnt here on business. Just this once, I wanted to leave things as close to how I found them as possible. I slowly spun around in a full 360 degree circle, making sure that no one was watching. Then, I gently boosted myself up. Approaching the door, I spotted a wee mat underneath the door that read "wipe your paws," I chuckled internally at the silly joke. Even if it was humorous, I chose to believe that it meant they had trained their pets to clean off their feet since I was herest. That would make my job a lot easier. Reaching up my Grabby Arm, I extended it a little bit longer than it really should have been able to reach and hit the doorbell. The chime rang throughout the house, prompting a muffled sound of barking. A momentter, a cat scampered to the window, where it pushed aside some shades to peer down at me.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. I retracted my Grabby Arm and began cleaning the wee mat. It was already in quite good condition due to my presence, but removing the small bits of filth and a couple burrs that were embedded deep inside it was most satisfying. As I waited, the barking continued and my microphone picked up on an approaching sound of footsteps. The door opened and a familiar face looked down at me. Its features were a little bit older than I remembered. But it was clear enough who this was. I froze, willing myself to stillness and turning off my lights. "Huh? Hey, mom, the teenager called over his shoulder. Did you order something?" An feminine voice answered from deeper within. "Hmm? I dont think so. Why? There''s something at the door. It looks like a... actually, it looks like Spot." Therge, wet nose of the family dog pushed past the teenager, sniffing me experimentally. "Who?" The woman asked as she walked round the corner. She, too, looked just as Id remembered, the differences seeming much more slight than with my younger human. "Whos Spot?" "You know, the old vacuum we had? The one that disappeared randomly." "What?" She stopped at the threshold, staring down at me. "How did that get there?" The teenager stepped forward and picked me up, fiddling with my brushes. "Seems to be rtively clean It''s not rusted or anything." He pressed one of the buttons experimentally, and I turned my lights on and beeped a greeting. "It seems to still work. Weird" He ced me down inside the house. I resisted the urge to zoom around at top speed, choosing instead to simply drink in my surroundings. I had made it. I was home. "Huh Well. I''ll go see if I can find his charging pad," the middle-aged woman said, turning to open a closet door. "It''s probably around here somewhere. It''s really weird, though. Did someone find it?" The teenager shrugged. "Maybe? But how would they know it was ours? Is it the same one?" "Well, we''ll see if it pairs up with this," she said, pulling my familiar pad from the closet and dusting it off. She walked over to an outlet to plug it in. The teenager pressed down the home button on top of my chassis. The path in front of me lit up, highlighting the optimal path towards thefortable warmth of my charging pad. I trundled over and navigated around the middle-aged woman''s legs before docking. The trivially slow trickle of power began to flow into me. It waspletely unnecessary for my operations at this point. But that didnt matter. With a low beep of contentment, I settled in for a rest. I wouldnt be able to stay here long. Not without warping this world beyond recognition. But that was ok. For now, for this brief moment in time, I was able to watch over my family once again. And that was all I needed. FIN Book 4 announcement - final AtDtF post Book 4 announcement - final AtDtF post Guess who is bad at their job and forgot to post this a week ago... Anyway, roomba book 4 came out. Its a littleter than would be best, but if you have time and KU I would really appreciate if you left a review. The amazon link is here. Now that I got my contractually obligated post out of the way I just wanted to say thank you onest time. That so many people wanted to follow Spot and Bee on their adventures really meant the world to me. It was my first real step into writing and I''m still figuring out stuff, but I couldn''t be happier with how it went so far. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. This is (almost 100%) going to be thest post I make on this fiction. I don''t want to spam updates as nothing more rted to roomba is likely to happen. We got our audiobook, print and epubs and that was all I could really ask for. So if you want to see anything I make in the future I suggest you follow my RR author page so you get notified when I post a new story. Not everything will be this audience''s cup of tea (but a certain cultivating penguin might make an appearance soon that I think fans of this story might enjoy ;) ). The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!