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

Chapter 2055: Chapter 2055 A Tents Moment

— Kat —

The slime turned out not to be an issue. Kat and Lily had been expecting it to go crazy without someone to control it… but instead it simply went from what they thought of as its standard configuration of a stretched-out slime that was angry at everything… to a smaller compact spherical blob. It made no move to attack or change position. If Kat didn’t know any better, she’d think it was completely harmless. Still, without it making any aggressive moves they could turn to the actual problem.

Fake Appoline wasn’t very happy about her position and she was trying to bite and claw her way out of Lily’s shadows. It wasn’t very effective. She had no feet for leverage and it wasn’t like biting into the shadow hands hurt Lily. Not with normal teeth anyway. Still, it was a bit annoying so Lily started to cover Appoline’s face entirely with shadows and increase the viscosity. ’Appoline’s’ struggles intensified as she tried to rip the shadows from her face but it was useless. It simply made her waste more oxygen and energy. Soon, she was unconscious and unmoving. Lily kept the hold for a few extra seconds before allowing ’Appoline’ to breath again and she seemed to actually be unconscious.

*Bit brutal perhaps?*

[Well what else was I going to do? I could tell you were considering chocking her out as well and I don’t trust my control enough to whack her over the head and have that knock her out. Sure it was perhaps mildly traumatising but it was the safer way I could manage.]

*Fair enough. What should we do with the slime?*

[Seems like ’not our problem’ if I’m honest. If anyone asks we can just say that trying to kill it ran the risk of it going on a rampage. With it seemingly docile, and perhaps controllable by other people, I see no reason to go poking at it. Unless you think you can take it out in one shot?]

*No. It’s still a bit too big. I could certainly get a good chunk of it if I was inside the thing but I don’t think I’d produce enough demonic fire to get all of it. Sure the thing looks smaller but that’s the same amount of slime as before.*

[There you go then. Let’s take this idiot outside and find out what the new plan is.]

Kat nodded, getting ready to transport everyone. Lily tried a few configurations but found that simply raising ’Appoline’ up above them made for the smoothest flight experience. Soon Kat was moving through the mist at speed. After a few minutes though, she realised that she didn’t NEED to stick inside of it. At least, that’s what Kat thought. An issue soon presented itself as she kept rising higher and higher in an attempt to get out of the mist.

*Shouldn’t we be out of this mist?*

[Well… the bulbs were going for a while. I guess we keep going up? I don’t feel any spatial changes.]

Kat shrugged and kept flying. It was another few minutes of travelling upwards and forwards when a loud ’Thunk’ ran out. Kat stopped, confused at the sound. She didn’t feel like she’d hit anything but it was very close by. *Lily why are you feeling embarrassed? Am I missing something obvious?*

[Appoline just smacked her head into the roof…]

*Oh. Um… that’s a bit of a problem. I didn’t realise the poison had reached that high. Do we care otherwise?*

[Not really? I mostly feel embarrassed because I probably shouldn’t have let it happen. Still you make a good point. We don’t like her and the impact probably wasn’t that hard…]

Kat shrugged and started to descend, slightly anyway. No sense in slamming the fake’s head into the ceiling more than once. They didn’t want Ramor to think they’d brutalised the prisoner after all. It was a touch annoying that there was no way to get there any faster. Now that they were finished with the task, or at least had something to show off it was a boring flight. No reason to scan for traps when no arial monsters had shown up before. No reason to look for the culprit when the real Appoline might never have been there. At least the flight was calm after the slight hiccup.

Kat almost felt like coughing when they breached through the last of the mist. The air was so much clearer now she didn’t have to worry about it. Kat took a few deep breaths and even found herself exhaling green smoke afterwards. *That can’t be good.* A few more deep breaths and the smoke was all gone. Lily tried the same thing… and interestingly enough had no discolouration in her breath. Kat didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.

[Well I feel fine. Not even a sniffle.]

*I suppose I’ll just have to trust that.* Sadly, while Kat had initially assumed she would be done once exiting the mist, it only took her a few moments to realise she wasn’t anywhere near the main tents that Ramor was set up in. Letting out another long sigh, that thankfully didn’t produce any further unique colours, Kat started the much shorter trip over to Ramor’s base. The poison seemed to be in the same spot it always was, even if it had climbed up the invisible wall keeping it in quite a distance.

Kat landed in front of the command tent and was gestured inside. Ramor was there, along with a few researcher looking types and Lin. As soon as Lin noticed who Kat was holding, she clicked her tongue. Guess she can already tell what the issue is. Kat sighed and dumped waited for Lily to dump the unconscious woman in a corner. “Kat and Lily returning from a hunt. We have… the culprit. Sort of…”

“What do you mean sort of? And was it really necessary to remove her legs?” asked Ramor. Only to get Lin’s giggle as the first response. Ramor slowly turned to the laughing woman and glared at her. “What?”

“That’s no Appoline,” answered Lin.

“She looks exactly like the pictures I’ve seen, except the missing legs of course,” countered Ramor.

Lin sighed, “Yes, and what you seem to be missing, and Kat has already figured out… this is just someone disguised as Appoline. They likely used the disguise potion she was working on with that collaborator for the change. I’m surprised it’s lasted so long… and I wonder if some unique techniques were used to ensure that she thinks she’s actually Appoline…”

“Then where is the real one?” growled Ramor.

Kat and Lin gave matching shrugs. Seeing this Kat explained, “This Appoline, if we even want to call her that, was destroying large chunks of the city with the slime here. I think she was going to try and make a break for the guards to destroy the barrier keeping the mist in, but that’s just a guess. She was a pain to destroy and the slime is still technically around just not really doing anything. The bulbs are mostly dealt with by the way. Not entirely sure we got all of them but most for sure.”

Ramor sighed, “That’s… not ideal.” Ramor quickly shook his head to correct himself. “Sorry, you did a good job taking her down and I’m glad you did… just now I’m wondering if the compass we had set up to determine her location was ever pointing to the real one, or if it was just this fake. It’s not any more accurate now she’s in front of me, so I’m hoping it’s still tracking the real one but I’ll need to call in some people to check that…”

Ramor let out another long sigh. “I’m not even sure we can properly convict her now. If we find her I’m certain we can at least keep her occupied for a time but with such a potion out and about? Appoline can easily claim that she was framed, and seeing as we know at least one other person can make the potion it would be hard to prove she made this one. Worse, with her lab destroyed in this nonsense… assuming it was… then there will be remarkably little evidence for anything. Unless you have some suggestions Lin?”

“Not really,” admitted Lin. “I’m not entirely sure she’s responsible either with this new information. Oh I’m absolutely livid of course, but… well it wasn’t exactly in character for her to freak out like this. Without knowing if she actually cracked, or if someone else is taking advantage of the fact we were looking into her its hard to say what the next move is.”

“Well, how out of character IS it?” asked Ramor.

Lin shrugged, “I already said I don’t know and I meant it. Sure Appoline has been pressured before. By me, by her obligations, by her family, but it’s not like her main lab has ever been threatened in such a major way before. If the city had confiscated everything and ensured she could never get any of it back. Not that I’m saying you’d have done that, but it was on the table. Well… that’s the sort of thing that can break a woman. I’m just not sure if it did.”

Kat sighed, “Well what now? Is the poison actually receding? Should I still be looking for Appoline?”

Ramor groaned. He didn’t want to answer any of those questions right now. “Give me ten minutes to talk to some people…”