All the Dust that Falls

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 unflappable Amy, who had proven to be an amiable traveling companion 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 didn’t 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 until later 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 didn’t 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 and laid 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 similar 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 similar. 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 the largest objection was the fact that they really didn't have a full mage company 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 undead’s 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 proclamation, 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 minutes later, 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 – 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 several large 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 a laser blast 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 beast’s 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 calculating eyes. He chittered at one of the nearby skeletons, who nodded and signaled one of the columns of the army to start the flanking maneuver. The horde of zombies shuffled forward obligingly.

So far, the opposition he had encountered in this area of the country had been laughable at best. But this more recent arrival of armored men started to really give him trouble. Not that they were particularly 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 the large population 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 success, 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 glanced about in alarm. But as his eyes lifted upward, he froze.

Above him, merely a dozen feet away, floated a sleek black disk. Twin jets of concentrated blue flame 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 disk’s bottom, flanked by a pair of wheels.

Roscoe recognized it. The other elites recognized it, too. Their god had come, and it had come for them.

As they watched, the flames extinguished. A warped mass of absolute darkness, darker than even his own magic, expanded from the disk’s 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 accepted by his god. To be welcomed home.

—-

After the initial shock, the magic died down suddenly. It felt as though a tap had been shut off. The rat’s eyes settled on me and simply stared as I moved forward to consume it. One by one, the skeletons collapsed 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 clatter of bone and metal. They didn’t 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 wasn’t 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 similar combat 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 couldn’t coordinate the flanking maneuvers they had managed just moments before. Soon, the disparity in tactics allowed the group of humans to outstrip them to a slightly comfortable distance, at least enough for them to regroup and start forming a plan.

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.