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

Chapter 2032: Chapter 2032 Last of the Poison

— Kat —

[FOUND IT!] Lily’s jubilant shout echoed across their connection. Kat grinned and floated up into the air, immediately ditching her annoying investigation in the corridor. A quick shift to get rid of all the glitter and… Kat frowned, looking down at herself. She’d swapped back and forth between formed. She’d pushed all the glitter out. That HAD worked before… so why was there still glitter in her outfit?

*Hang on, just a second.*

Kat transformed once again, focused and… failed to find any glitter. Despite the fact she KNEW there was some in her outfit. Kat sent her water form into a frenzy and pushed out the glitter that she could feel. Annoyingly, that was just the glitter from the nearby bubbles being added back to her form temporarily. When Kat was back to normal, her clothes STILL HAD GLITTER. Kat quickly threw off her outfit and dismissed it before summoning it back on her body once again.

*Why do I still have glitter on my clothes?*

[Um… it’s magic glitter?]

*Yeah but it didn’t seem to be a problem when I was made out of water.*

[I don’t know? Maybe it like… conceptually marks your clothes for a bit or something? Perhaps it didn’t have anything proper to latch onto.]

*Dammit. This shit better not get us caught… *

Kat grumbled as she moved down the hallway and transformed into water to get through the door. On the other side, she found Lily right at the back of the room. She was standing smugly beside the shelves, about a third of the way across the back wall. It had… unpleasant looking and smelling stuff on it. As pleased as Lily looked with herself, the smell was clearly not something she was a fan of.

Still, as happy as Lily seemed… there wasn’t any obvious exit that Kat could see. When that question appeared in her mind though, Lily just gave a smug grin back. “Alright, I’m here, what have you found?”

“Well, this gunk right here,” Lily pointed to a particularly nasty looking patch of… tongues? Kat wasn’t quite sure that was right but it was the closest thing she could think of. Looking closer revealed it was probably a plant still, but it was long, red, bumpy, and damp. It looked like someone had ripped out a bunch of tongues and then dumped them in the basket. The main reason for her not thinking they were real tongues was the shape. It was tapered on both ends and seemed… like it might be a seed pod of some kind?

“Yeah it’s gross, but focus,” stated Lily, bringing Kat’s thoughts back to the moment. “If I reach down into the bottom of this basked… Lily pressed a finger down through the mess of ’tongues’ grimacing as she did so. There was a firm click when Lily’s hand reached the bottom though.

“Then at the same time I reach over to this other basket…” Lily’s other hand reached down a shelf and to vastly different type of ingredient. This one looked like rose buds almost. The main difference was the smell. Kat’s sense of smell wasn’t the best, especially not compared to Lily’s but even she could tell that the flowers, despite looking nice, were one of the worst smelling ingredients because it was like a punch to the face. It had a defined direction. Still, once Lily’s finger hit the hidden button there was another quick and the shelving on the left wall moved up into the ceiling… along with the wall behind it.

“Quick, it doesn’t stay open long,” said Lily as she dashed for the exit.

Kat of course, followed her immediately. “Sure we don’t want to explore other options?”

“My hands smell awful and it’s going to cling to me for ages. The glitter feels like it’s looking at me, and overall I just want OUT of this place,” grumbled Lily. Kat leaned over and kissed her girlfriend on the cheek. They were still running but it wasn’t close to their full speed. Not with Kat’s limitation. It meant they could tell what was going on quite well.

The tunnel they were running through had uneven grounding and was very thin. Their wasn’t many spots they could run side by side. Instead, Lily would usually take the lead. Kat didn’t mind at all and neither did Lily, this was just the order they’d entered into the tunnel with and they weren’t worried about anything they might find. Until her girlfriend got a face full of spiderweb. Sure it didn’t hurt but… “Blegh, urgh, it’s in my nose…” grumbled Lily.

“Oh stop for a moment then, and let me get it,” sighed Kat. Lily slowed down almost immediately and pushed her face forward towards Kat with her eyes clothes. If it wasn’t for the fact her lips were firmly in place, Kat might’ve thought Lily was asking for a kiss. Carefully placing her fingers on the silk strands Kat started to gently pull them away from her girlfriend. The thin strands couldn’t always support the additional weight of all the other silk attached to them, so Kat was rapidly plucking the silk away in bunches.

Once Lily was clean, she gave her a slight kiss and looked around. They were in… a mine shaft? “Did we teleport anywhere?” asked Kat.

“No, or well… not after the first time. The hidden passage wasn’t a warp tunnel or anything. This is just where the hideout actually is,” explained Lily.

“Right… do we know WHERE we are then?” asked Kat.

“No particularly? I mean, I’d guess we’re in a mineshaft on Digger land but it’s not like this looks particularly professional. I mean, it’s just a cave at the moment,” grumbled Lily.

“Then why guess it’s a mineshaft?” asked Kat.

“Because I don’t see how else she could’ve made something like this. My guess is that we’re underground and that some Digger Appoline is friends with built the place in an offshoot of an abandoned tunnel. I don’t think it’d still be active because then they might find her secret base while digging and that’d be a whole heap of problems,” explained Lily.

“Alright… and how worried about monsters do you think we should be?” asked Kat.

“Not very? I mean… it’s a closed system. Theoretically… and if this WAS a way outside I don’t think Appoline would risk setting up here. Unless this is her majorly secret exit for running away? Hmm…” Lily frowned at the idea. “If this does lead us outside will we even be able to get back in?”

“Yes, but perhaps not without damaging the city…” admitted Kat. “Anyway, the webbing is all off so let’s move on.” Kat finished her statement with a kiss to the top of Lily’s head.

“Alright but you can run in front of me,” pouted Lily. Kat laughed but didn’t complain. Unlike Lily, the webs wouldn’t be able to stick to her problem and besides, Kat would happily take a bit of spiderweb to the face if it made her girlfriend happy.

The pair continued along the tunnel for quite some time. Their speed increasing even as the space shrank slightly. Eventually they made it to a proper mineshaft, though not before being blocked by a small crack for the moment. The wall didn’t seem like it could allow for a person to sneak through… but Appoline probably had some potions for that. Or perhaps thought that in the worst case scenario she could use her strength to break open a path. For Kat and Lily, they had their transformations.

Once inside the mine proper, it was easy to guess where the exit was, to an extent anyway. The ground was gently sloped and heading upwards was easy enough. The problem came when the tunnels splintered into dozens. Whoever was digging had clearly gone out of their way to find any ore veins, and followed those until they’d run dry. In fact, it’s possible that the ’tunnel’ to the secret exit was actually made from a thin vein of ore harvested with magic.

Plenty of other such tunnels were visible. Though it seemed that for the most part if there were bigger chunks of ore an entire branch would follow along after it. What this meant, was that ’simply heading upwards’ wasn’t always the best path. Sometimes you’d end up at a dead end despite that, but usually a second or third attempt at the ’highest’ path would get them moving again.

When the scent of fresh air started to reach the pair, Kat sent a mental poke towards Lily. *What’s the plan? Do we just rush out as we are? Or should we try to be a bit sneaky about it. I don’t see light streaming down, but we could be a few corners away from the exit still.*

[Might as well take this quietly. No sense in risking anything. They might not be looking for us, but if someone makes a not of it and that gets back to Appoline we could be found out.]

*Alright. Let’s keep it sneaky.*