All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 179: Trust the System

Arthur nearly jumped out of his skin as Void zipped down from the skies, two men held aloft with it. The men were immobilized as though by invisible bonds and plopped down face down in the dirt behind the god. Arthur was still gaping when Void gave its customary wave to him. Arthur, in a slight state of shock, actually returned the wave before he realized what he was doing and then gave a slight bow of greeting. "Lord Void. I-"

He cut off, glancing at the two people behind the god. They wriggled ineffectually on the ground. "Ahem. So. What's going on?"

Void pointed to the body, then the two people. Then it let out a series of complicated beeps that Arthur wasn't about to be able to interpret. Still, the message was pretty clear. It seemed like Void thought these men were responsible for poor Walter's death.

Arthur nodded to Void. "So you already knew about this murder, then?"

A clear beep of assent followed. "Well, perhaps you can tell me what happened?"

With that, Void pulled out its customary stone tablet and began engraving away with the terrifying power of light.

***

Bee made her way out of the castle after having an interesting talk with Mary. Here. She found the Nighty Knights waiting for her in an impressive formation. Impressive, at least, for their age. They stood in even rows of Seven wide and five deep. She did some quick counts, realizing that they had 36 members, with Felix standing off to the side.

This was more than she had remembered the initial group having. There were other children in the castle, but they were still only babies and too young to join the Knights’ group yet. Looking around, she saw more new faces, some that she didn't recognize. It seemed that they had taken in even more refugees since she had been gone. As she approached, Felix twitched his face, and the entire group of children snapped a reasonably smart salute.

This stopped Bee up in her tracks. Somehow they had coordinated that. She didn't think that they could have seen Felix's small tell, so how? It was quite impressive.

Standing in front of them, she gave the group a nod. "Hello, everyone. I've been told you are working hard."

"Hello, High Priestess Bee," they chorused back in a bit of discord. There were a few giggles that were quickly silenced by the children next to them poking the offenders quiet.

Felix then called out, "Squad one, present!"

Before Bee could do anything, a file of children marched forward to stand in front of her. Leanne led the group of five members, her chin high and confident. Bee’s eyebrows raised even further.

“Marching” might have been a bit of a strong description of what these children did. They stepped high and stomped down, but they were very much not coordinated. Their steps fell as if there were two different sets of drums playing. Still, they swiveled mostly at the same time to face her.

Leanne took two steps forward and nearly shouted at the Bee. "Ma'am, my first skill is Laser Eyes!"

She stared ahead, waiting for a response. Bee frowned, not having heard of that skill before. “…Laser eyes?" She asked.

"Yes, ma'am. Laser Eyes. See, Ms. Bee! It's really cool when I look at things super hard-" Leanne cut off as she glared at a pile of dirt off to the side of the training yard. Two beams of blue shot from her eyes and blasted into the dirt, scattering it aside. Bee could feel a slight heat, even from the short instant the laser eyes had been active.

She was silent for a long moment.

“...What was that, Leanne?”

“That was my first skill!” The child beamed up at Bee. She tried not to flinch back at the thought of getting lasered herself. “Laser Eyes. It does a little bit of damage. It doesn't really hurt people yet, though. It does give them nasty burns if I glare at them for too long. It's better with wood and stuff that isn’t alive. Especially dirt.”

“I… I see…” Bee tried to focus on the girl’s words, but was still reeling from shock. “And it’s called… Laser Eyes?”

“Yup! That’s what the system said. I sounded it out myself.”“Very… impressive…”

“Thank you, ma'am!" Leanne grinned, apparently indifferent to Bee’s internal crisis. She took two steps back and then turned to the child next to her, then they both started giggling at each other. After a few elbows and shushes, the next boy stepped forward and introduced himself. He also demonstrated his first skill. It wasn't as impressive as laser eyes. But Bee doubted that anything she saw today would match that same first impression on her.

He appeared to have some sort of water manipulation skill. A fine mist of water appeared in front of the boy when he struck out his hand. It flung forward, spraying Bee with stinging droplets. Surprisingly stinging, actually. Reaching up and wiping her forehead, she saw that it hadn't broken skin. But if this was his level one skill and he had decades to practice it… He could get quite impressive.

One by one, the rest stepped forward and showed her their skills. It was hard to tell, but it did feel like the younger children were generally showcasing more impressive abilities. Maybe there was something to her hypothesis.

Still, that was worrying in itself. If getting rare and powerful skills was just a matter of getting levels at an early age… That was not something she was comfortable with. Even if these kids had gotten their levels relatively safely, this could have huge repercussions. Not pleasant ones, either. She could only hope that this was Void’s doing, not an intrinsic property of the system.

Eventually, the first squad returned to the formation, all excited, before the next squad ran out in front of her to continue the demonstration. Each skill was different and unique, but almost all of them had some tinge of her master in them. Whether they were a beam attack like it favored or the ability to remove something dirty or slash something apart with a spinning attack.

Tanu was the leader of the fourth squad, and continuing his tradition, he was not alone. Next to him sat a large wolf. So large that Beatrice didn't initially recognize it as Cliff, the wolf that Tanu had brought back from the woods so long ago. This wolf was significantly larger.

"Well, Cliff, show High Priestess Bee what we can do." The wolf cocked her head at him and flicked an ear before snorting. As she snorted, two small puffs of mist drifted out of its nostrils. Before she could really put her finger on why that mist looked wrong, Cliff opened her mouth and breathed at the ground in front of her. A faint blue color tinged the air.

Immediately, ice started to build up on the dirt in front of her. The longer she breathed, the more it grew. After about ten seconds, the wolf ran out of breath, and the ice had reached about three inches thick. Ears drooping in exhaustion. Cliff sunk to her haunches and whined. Tanu reached up and scratched her chest, praising her for her good effort.

Just when Bee thought she had seen all the kids had to offer, the last child went to demonstrate her skill. It was a young girl, younger than the rest of them. She must have been no more than four years old, maybe even three.

She took a step forward and closed her eyes, looking up to the sky and bringing her hands together at chest level. Her palms met each other, fingers straight and facing upward. A serene expression crossed her face. Then, she scythed one arm down to her side.

For a second, a giant mirage of Void appeared, hanging in the air above her. His claw descended onto the ground, smashing into the dirt, sending rocks and debris billowing out. The cloud completely covered the formation and pelted Bee with bits and pieces that she just barely managed to block with her forearm.

The little girl appeared as the dust settled down, still in her prayer stance, completely untouched by the destruction she had caused. In front of her was a small crater where the impact was looking down from the sky. She met Beatrice's eyes and smiled before babbling. "That was the Void Avatar's claw. Isn't it neat?"

Of all the skills she'd seen today, this was the most Void-like, in some ways. It was also, by far, the most terrifying. To call upon the god's power so directly was way more responsibility than any 3 or 4-year-old should ever have. Regardless, she bit her tongue. She couldn't help but try to accept her master's strange choices that she still wasn't able to understand. Void must have its reasons for doing what it did. If it had gifted this skill to the young girl, then there must be a reason for it. Even if it seemed insane to her.

The last person to introduce his skill was Felix. Before, she had a good idea of what it was, even if it was not too impressive. He stood forward and announced. "I'm Felix. My skill is Voice of the Void. Right now, I can send messages to everyone in my group. It started off with just being one at a time, but now I can kinda broadcast them to all of us."

It was maybe a less immediately powerful skill than the others, but in many ways, it was more useful. Especially for larger engagements, if they ever had them. She certainly hoped they wouldn’t. But knowing the state of the world beyond these walls, she figured they wouldn't be able to accept Void. If that happened, Felix would make an excellent commander in the coming years. He could have control of an entire battlefield.

Hopefully, it would be when he was older. Much older.

—-

Harold and Amy made their way slowly out of the tunnel leading up from Shattermouth. It was a fascinating city, and Harold wished that he had been able to enjoy it more. The infrastructure was carved into the side of slot canyons created by flash flooding. The ancient city had existed for as long as history could recall, yet always held the same people. Supposedly.

The mystery there was almost as intense as the one behind his old castle, if a bit more obscured. The generations of life had slowly expanded the old hallows and had worn away much of the relics. Still, the invisible wards preventing a fall into the chasms below had never failed. But that wasn't the only secret that Shattermouth hid.

Deep in one of its forgotten chambers, one of humanity's oldest foes still slept.

Neither of them spoke as they passed the guards on their way to their next destination. They should have been celebrating. At least, Harold should have been, as the Lieutenant they were looking for seemed undisturbed. But something was wrong.

They hadn't caught anyone following them or watching them. But the area around the wards guarding the Lieutenant was disturbed, and he hadn't been able to get in contact with its protector. It wasn’t entirely necessary to get in contact with the local Jailer, of course. Still, it made Harold uneasy. There were still many reasons why the protector may have been absent though.

It wasn't the end of the world. Technically, just verifying that the Lieutenant was undisturbed and that its ancient protections were still active was enough. Next, they'd move on to the Lieutenant that Harold was most worried about. He could only hope that this one was as undisturbed as the first.