NOVGO.NET Chapter 2031 Poisonous Escape Part 2
Chapter 2031: Chapter 2031 Poisonous Escape Part 2
— Kat —
Kat reformed in the middle of the hallway with her wings outstretched to keep her off the glitter that hung around the ground. Except… it wasn’t just that. The final potion had clearly changed things. The doors had all grown into their frames, and what wasn’t obvious from the inside was that they’d not jut expanded but also gained a number of vines that grew along the wall. In addition to that, the glitter on the floor didn’t seem like just a fashion hazard anymore.
It had finally turned into a liquid, and not a calm one either. It churned and roiled beneath Kat’s feat, bubbles of glitter often rose up before popping into a shower of impressive sparks. It was an interesting defensive system, and Kat returned herself to water form to avoid getting splashed. The glitter was boiling hot, and while not necessarily deadly for someone with her resistances, and likely not Lily’s either it wouldn’t be fun for your average Rank 2. Worse, the bubbles seemed random so glitter could spray against you at any time.
Kat wasn’t even entirely sure that Lily would be ’safe’ in the corridor. More than one bubble had gone off near her as she considered the best course of action. Glitter had gathered in her water form and while it was easy to identify it was ’not-water’ and push it away Lily would need to think of something else. Perhaps an orb of darkness following her?
Kat’s brief glance around the place hadn’t shown her anything else worth noting before she’d transformed back and limited her view. The exit was presumably still there but getting out was still a question of finding whatever secret exit Appoline had. [Can you stretch out or something so you make a shadow on the roof? I plan to swap up there then make a platform below me.]
*Can do.* The swap went cleanly, as when you’re mentally connected timing things like that is barely a problem. Lily managed to quickly bring her own wings out and Kat’s watery form caught the shower of glitter from the bubbles below them. Lily soon had a shadow platform as well, keeping her up and out of the way. It was stretched across the hall and anchored to the two doors. A bit costly on mana, but not too bad.
*Alright what’s the plan?*
[Let’s get closer to the exit. I’ll see what it feels like to my senses when I’m closer… but right now it seems to be firmly shut, so I don’t think we can just sneak through it.] Lily moved along by shifting her shadow from door to door. It was a bit more of a pain then she’d expected because while Lily could stretch her shadow between three doors, four was a bit much. She simply couldn’t stretch her shadow that far.
Instead, she had to move her shadow by connecting and relinquishing her connections to various doors. Shifting forward along one side of the room at a time. Kat was able to just float over but her ’vision’ didn’t point out any obvious latches she could use to escape. When Lily caught up, she sealed off the exit and Kat was able to transform without risk. Holding onto the ladder Kat summoned up a bit of demonic fire so they could see properly.
“Can you see anything?” asked Kat as she started to poke at the bricks. Starting with the ones closest to the… hatch? Wall? Kat wasn’t quite sure if the ceiling was something you could move or not.
[Nothing is standing out to me so far and my space sense tells me this place is sealed tight. We’re definitely going to need some sort of switch or trigger to open it up. Well that or an alternate entrance.]
*What’s the bet it’s under the glitter?*
[No… unless? But no… hmm… ok walk me through your thought process.]
Well, Appoline presumably knows where the exit is. It’s main purpose is for HER to escape should someone else lock her in the trunk. Assuming it even exists. In that case, if she suspects that there’s anyone hiding in here, wouldn’t it be best to seal the secondary exit without making it look like you did? If you don’t know to look for it… then it might as well not be there.
[Ok, I see where you’re going with that.] Lily recalled the corridor. She might be safe up here, but that was limited by her mana. It’d last for a few hours at this rate, but not quite forever. The glittery mass was beautiful in a way… but absolutely NOT something she wanted stuck in her fur. Getting it cleared away to find an exit… was going to be a tall asked.
[How would we even find something like that? Surely it’s not going to just be directly over the exit but where else would it be? It doesn’t need to be obvious either… and the switch might be in one of the side rooms. Rooms we might not be able to get into without damage.]
*Store room perhaps? The basic one on the end here? I doubt Appoline would want to wreck all of her ingredients, even if they’re lower rarity.*
[Hmm… a bit close to the exit but alright. Let’s have a look. I’ll see what I can feel out.]
Lily moved herself over to the door at the end of the hallway hiding the ingredients and then thought about how to best go about this. Kat just pushed the idea of a snow plough towards her and Lily got the idea. [It’s going to drain my mana a bit more than I want… but…] Lily summoned up a plough shaped shadow and lowered it into the glitter. Her intent was to simply push it all out of the way then seal the area.
Instead, the plough started to fizzle as it touched the glitter. Lily frowned and pushed it down harder but instead of solidifying the extra mana just made the entire thing shatter. Lily yelped, nearly falling out of the air from the shock to her system as her shadow snapped back to normal. Kat cradled her in a bubble of water and shielded her from the glitter. *What happened?*
[It’s not JUST glitter. It’s also a mana disruptor. As soon as my shadows started to touch it they freaked out.]
*Surely it has to be temporary then? No way something like that would be cheap…*
[I’m not sure. It’s also probably why I can’t feel any sort of secret exit underneath it all. The glitter must be messing with my space sense somewhat as well.]
*Ok this is just getting ridiculous. Can I just bash down the exit?*
[No. It’s not connected to anything at the moment.]
*DAMMIT. Why does this shit feel like a trap just for us?*
[Perhaps it IS. This might be something Appoline made up after hearing of us?]
*I don’t think we’ve really showed off all that much in the city… but you could be right. I guess I’ll go feel around in the glitter. I know I can force it out of my water form.*
[Hang on. Let’s get into the storage room first. I can check that, while you search the glitter.]
*Giving me the shit job?*
[You suggested it!]
*I know. I’m just giving you grief. Let me just…* Kat felt around for a while and found a gap for them to pass through. Kat slowly made her way through first to give a good shadow for Lily to swap with. Once Lily was inside, Kat made her way back out and growled at the glitter. There was nothing for it though. Allowing her wings to stop moving Kat dropped down into the glitter.
It felt like she was in the ocean, and the glitter was taking the place of sand. Though it was comfortably warm to her senses, which was a nice plus. Diving under the glitter Kat found it was a bit of an awkward height. A bit too much to just crawl around on her knees looking for any sort of seem. On the other hand, there wasn’t enough water for her to swim through it. Not really.
*Dammit do I just turn into water and try to find a crack somewhere? I don’t like defaulting to that as the solution to all of my problems… and I also realise that I’m being dumb. If there WAS an obvious exit to find, then the glitter would surely be flowing that way. Except… maybe it was?*
Kat stood back up and shook off the glitter as best she could. Which didn’t do anything about most of it, but it made her feel better. Kat took to the air and tried to look at the glitter wholistically. The nearby stuff had been agitated by her passing and she’d need some time for it to calm down. The rest of the tunnel was fairly calm, but a few spots warranted checking.
The first thing she found was just a door that hadn’t sealed all the way. More glitter was filling the room… the same with the second bit of movement she saw. And the third. This was going to be repetitive wasn’t it?