All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 327: The Black Gate

Chapter 327: The Black Gate

Bee watched as Void slammed 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 sudden lack of demons left by Void's massive attack. Repositioning was their best play. 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 repopulated the sky. The air quickly began to fill with enemies once again, faster than Bee had thought possible. If they didn't land 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, flames billowed down over the city and blasted an area clear. That itself was already helpful enough. But as they fell, Daedalus kept the flames focused on the gate, causing it to droop and melt into slag.

As they got closer to the ground, something forced its way through the fire, a bubble of air blasting all directions. Its intensity extinguished much of the ancillary flames 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 the last 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 blazing breath. The other two were less familiar.

A beautiful woman with bat wings and a tail adorned with a heart-shaped barb flapped her wings as she stayed within the bubble of air. Mistress of Nightmares was the name the succubus 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 flight combat. 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 flame 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.

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Several skills and sword flashes manifested as Archibald lashed 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 slaughtering demons en masse. Just as Daedalus's claws 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 they come 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 class. She moved to turn back to the fight with the Nighty Knights but froze as one of the lieutenants peeled off to come 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 impeccable teamwork compared to the chaotic mass of demons that did little else but charge. They overlapped 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 gave commands while offering incredible team support buffs. Leanne stood at his side, an entire squad's worth of lasers and various other energy-based projectiles blasted through her targets with pinpoint accuracy.

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 accidentally 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 blasted 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 blasting 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.