All the Dust that Falls

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 as comfortable 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 claustrophobic.

"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 so large 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 a complete lay of my land. To my complete 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 flames 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 black 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 black Stygian metal that absorbed all the light around it. I could feel the photons bending inward to disappear into the blade.

The Black 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 has come. What are you going to do now? There is no more running for you. You're stuck here. Outnumbered and outclassed."

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 account for all six I knew to be there.

I looked around at the three, and just as the black night finished his words, Beatrice and Archibald showed up. A few seconds behind me, they came in, taking flanking positions and readying their weapons: Beatrice with her powerful broom and Archibald with his glowing, ethereal sword. I turned around and sprayed sealant 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."

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With that, I popped out Daedalus from my dustbin. His massive form stretched tall above us, taking up a large 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.

"At last," 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 claws looked to be pointed, sharper, and harder than before, which in itself was quite impressive. His horns were entirely translucent now, compared 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 light landed. 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 plane 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 flame!" The dragon roared in challenge at the flaming 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 particularly keen to fight it, even if I could use echolocation to handle it.

The earth and black 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 regular 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 its companion. "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 black 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 particularly 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.