D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

--- Kat ---

Kat and Kamiko were working on dinner, or lunch, or whatever was appropriate. Nobody was all that hungry but it was something to do with their hands and regardless of what time it actually was… food was always nice to have around. They were aiming for something that took a while to be finished because of the whole ’not that hungry’ thing and to keep themselves busy longer when Meg spoke up. "You know, I was sort of expecting an ’I told you so’ before this point,"

Kat was confused for a few moments before glancing at Kamiko to see her shrug. It took Lily pointing out mentally that travelling straight to the town had been Meg’s idea from over in her little corner where she was working on spells. Kat thought about an appropriate response for a few seconds before deciding a unique one would be best. "Is that really something you thought we’d do?"

Meg considered the question for a few moments, even bringing out her water bottle to sip on it a bit… though Kat was pretty sure the bottle was just acting as a prop. Kat noticed Meg wasn’t actually consuming any water, instead she’d placed her tongue over the cap… for some reason? There was infinite water so it’s not like it was going to be wasted.

"I guess I was just relying on good old pattern recognition rather then working on my internal model of you all. Honestly now you’ve pointed it out… you guys all suck at complaining. Pretty sure I could’ve smacked you guys around a bit ’by accident’ and you still wouldn’t care… or…no…" Meg paused and glanced around. "I could get away with it if it was Kat and the damage looked accidental enough,"

Lily stepped out of her nook and transformed to say, "You don’t think I’d be annoyed with that?"

"Oh sure you would be, but you’d just complain to Kat mentally, Kat would assume it was an accident and not a big deal, and then you’d drop it because Kat wasn’t ’really hurt’ even though you know her sense of pain is completely fucked. Which… is pretty normal when it comes to regenerators. Normally takes a bit longer unless they’re a masochist though," answered Meg.

Lily frowned at Meg’s statement… but thought it was probably true. So with a sigh she just returned to her Memphis form and went back to working on her spells a bit. Kamiko glanced between them both for a few moments before saying, "Is that why you haven’t been messing with us too much?"

"Can you really say that Kamiko?" asked Kat.

Kamiko just waved Kat off and looked at Meg. "Oh? What are you insinuating?" asked the greed demon in question.

"Well… just…" Kamiko thought about mentioning her suspicions regarding the Church incident but decided it was best to just… not. Instead she pivoted to… "I guess most other demons are more prideful and stuff? Like… they’d call you out for making them feel small? But I feel like that a whole bunch and I’m not sure Kat cares and Lily… well she… urr… no offence but she gets to fade into the background and pretend to be a familiar?"

Meg shrugged, "Eh maybe. Lil Sis being around is definitely saving you all from the worst parts of my personality. Honestly not sure how much your lack of reaction has to do with it. I didn’t notice I’d been so light on… and I guess I can keep it that way. If it felt right before it’s probably still correct going forward,"

Kat notably did not wipe away any sweat. Existent or non. Kamiko had been playing with fire a bit there and it was an easy way to get Meg’s more… inventive attention back on them. Though it seemed they were able to dodge that fate. For now at least. How long it would remain the case now that Meg was more aware of her current attitude remained to be seen.

Deciding to distract everyone, and because it had sort of come up… vaguely, Kat asked, "So what’s with the snow? I imagine it wasn’t expected? But why was it so sharp?"

"I am somewhat unsure," admitted Meg for some reason… only to turn to Hunter with big curious eyes answering that question. How much Meg truly understood was up for debate but it was clear she wanted Hunter to show off.

Hunter glared back at Meg for a few moments which did nothing to dampen Meg’s smile. "I am not all that sure either admittedly… if the snow was so deadly even at lower levels the caravans wouldn’t be so calm. Even if this was an occasional thing they’d be much more worried about camping out. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Instead we are left to infer that it is either an altitude issue or a monster is behind it in some way. I personally suspect it to be a monster of some kind or an exceptionally rare seasonal event at such altitudes. I am not certain why it is that way, but I noticed a lack of the larger mushrooms in this area so I would assume it is a regular thing," explained Hunter.

"Huh… I just thought that there wasn’t any around because it was windy…" mumbled Kat.

"There could be an element of that as well I suppose but many trees in magical areas are able to adapt to exceptional winds. Usually, they attempt to harvest the energy of the wind for their own purposes. Mushrooms can as well… but with the large variety of what seem to be the same, or at least connected species the fact that none of the larger variants exist up here means that the ice is a common enough thing to be avoided, but not so common it can be adapted to,"

"Couldn’t it just be a new thing then?" asked Kat. "Like… if the ’big monster’ that might be under the mountains is getting stronger it could be making the snowstorms up here deadlier?"

"Possible, but that would be monster involvement would it not?" offered Hunter.

Kat shrugged pretty sure that wasn’t what Hunter meant originally but decided not to press. Instead she turned to Meg. "So… do you agree with that?"

"Obviously," said Meg with a nod.

Kat rolled her eyes. "So is there anything more specific we should be worried about? Should we be waiting the weather out? Digging through the rock? Should I go out personally to look for the monster and either kill it or report back?" Kat felt a sharp glare coming from Lily but she ignored it.

"I do not think that is necessary… yet," stated Hunter.

"Oooh, brutal Lil Sis," laughed Meg.

"I do not wish to subject Kat to pain that she need not bear… but if we end up trapped for an extended period of time investigation might be required. While the cuts are not deep and Kamiko is capable of patching them extended exposure could be a major issue and I do not believe our rings contain suitably protective clothing," stated Hunter.

"Hmm… yeah I don’t think they do. It’s not like I’m all that bothered, probably something I’d have suggested myself if you didn’t but I am surprised you suggested it," said Meg.

"I may be… softer then usual with this team 23HX502" Meg pouted at Hunter’s words, "but I have never been overly soft under normal circumstances and I know how to complete a mission. In the absolute worst case scenario we can all pull out the shields and sprint down the mountainside. We can likely exit the effected area before too long unless a monster is the cause and decides to chase us… but then we’d know,"

Your next journey awaits at empire

"I can probably provide some better protection, at least temporary," announced Lily from the side. Kat hadn’t noticed her girlfriend transforming, but considering she also had a chair out she was probably remaining human for a while.

"Can you keep up with the expense?" asked Meg.

Lily shrugged "I could make the attempt at least. Do a few tests if things are looking dicey. We’d probably need to stay close so that I have the mana for it… but I think a shadow shield would work pretty well against a lot of weak projectiles? Especially if I made it thick enough,"

"Is that what you have been working on?" asked Hunter.

Lily nodded, "Yeah. I’ve been trying to sort of… make my paper shield spell into a shadow one but it’s not really working. So it’ll probably be less a shadow shield SPELL and more of just raw shadow manipulation. It’s… not as cheap as I’d want it to be in comparison to paper honestly. Paper is surprisingly cheap to do stuff with as long as you’re not summoning the paper but even then it’s not too bad… shadow magic seems to work best when you can keep it on the ground. Stretching it up and around us won’t be impossible, but it will be costly… I think anyway,"