Chapter 324: Rods from God

Chapter 324: Rods from God

Daedalus’s ears perked up as he heard the signal. Spot’s song, as well as the subsequent flashes 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 wasn’t exactly something they’d planned for, and he was a little skeptical of what his small friend was asking for. But he trusted Spot’s 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 blasted the ground below him with as much fire as he could before arching back upwards and dropping the heavy rock held in his claws. 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 palace with that, but apparently, it was more important to hit this random Spot on the ground twenty meters out of the city. Oh, well. Gét latest novel chapters on nov(e)lbj/n(.)c/om

He and his rider were now fully exposed, but they’d done their job. Now, he would do as he pleased. They did a strafing run, blasting 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 – 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 splashing, molten, and burning dirt had made it a pretty impressive show of its own.

Archibald pointed out a particularly large group of what appeared to be demons. Daedalus ran over it with another quick layer 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 wasn’t like he could go assist on the front lines without toasting a lot of people on accident.

Before settling down next to the command post, Spot beeped his thanks.

“Of course,” Daedalus nodded. “Though I must admit, I’m a little confused at your request...”

“Yeah, what was that?” Archibald piped up. “We didn’t even hit anything until after.”

After some questioning, Spot explained that they had just collapsed a tunnel that the demons were using to get into the city relatively undetected. Archibald slid off Daedalus's back and brought up a very good point.

“Right. If that’s not it, then I can't imagine we wouldn't have drawn one out by now.”

Void cut in and beeped, explaining 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 uncomfortable with the risk but willing to take it.

“Okay,” Bee finally decided, turning to Tony. “Get Felix and the Nighty Knights ready. We’re going to cut off the problem at its source.”

Archibald raised a hand. “Mind if we come, too? The way I see it, you’ll be in big trouble than we will here if those guys show up.”

Bee nodded gratefully. “If you don’t mind.”

Void chirped that it was coming, 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 blasted 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. Void’s Breath mixed into her combat 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 of combat 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 couldn’t help but worry.