All the Dust that Falls

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 place 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 place, 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. The commander 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 place, 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 had come to help. I assume you are the Void that she talked about?" The man said with his fist clasped 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 gates lay twisted and warped on the ground nearby.

Inside the city wasn't much better. Many houses had collapsed 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 the last 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 plan 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 plan. I didn't think it would require much more explanation. 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 plans 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 the last couple of days, and not for the better. This assault was uncharacteristic of the commander 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 the commander has taken a large 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 plan 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 quite compelling. 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 place.

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 black 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 light coming 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 black 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 manipulation so they were in a more comfortable 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 more comfortable place, 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 more comfortable and safe.

He backed off, raising his hands. "Uh, well, okay. Just… just follow me. I'll take you to some place 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 black. 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 collapsed 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 a large 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 less comfortable 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 blankets around her, I made sure she was fully covered and in what looked to be a comfortable 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 were comfortable, 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 Manipulation 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 Manipulation 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 the last 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 flavor to it, something marking it as one singular 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. Similar 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.