D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad-Chapter 1527 - No Steps Forward

--- Kat --- (Later on the same day as 1524 the most recent Lily chapter)

It was late in evening and they'd found no sign of the drake. Kat and Hunter remained at their camp to heal up. It was the best compromise because both needed rest, but if push came to shove Kat could certainly still fight off anything in the area. Not that the monsters had returned yet, Lily couldn't hear anything to indicate they'd already moved back in but better to remain somewhat on guard.

From there, Kamiko, Lily and Bower had all left to try and find traces of the drake. Lily had flown straight to the place the drake had been taken into the bubble and… nothing. The ash had been thrown around a good amount but it all seemed to be from when their group entered the bubble. Lily did keep an eye out for any tracks leading away from the centre but there was nothing she could see.

A better test was when she went back over it with her nose.

The drake didn't have a particularly overt smell, but Lily could remember hints of various things if she thought back to the fight. Lily did regularly feel like she could almost smell the drake. It was very strange… but her instincts were confident that this smell, however weird and not-quite-smell-like it happened to be, was days old at this point.

Now, Lily could admit that simply assuming that meant the drake was only here days ago would be a mistake. It was a time drake after all. So Lily carefully checked the edges of the clearing and could only find traces of the monster along the obvious path, which of course put the final nail in that particular coffin.

While Lily was scouting that out Kamiko and Bower both chose different directions and went to look for any signs of the drake. With no monsters around it was rather easy… even unsatisfying. They continued their search until the sun was sinking below the horizon but they too found nothing to indicate the drake had been around.

They'd covered a good chunk of the area unhidden by the mist by the time they got back.

Kat and Hunter had mostly just relaxed. Kat had tried to mess around with demonic energy but it seemed particularly uncooperative. That might just been the regular shivers of pain though. Hunter did the smarter thing and went to sleep, trusting Kat to keep watch while she recovered. Well, as much as she could recover with a short nap anyway.

When everyone met back up, it was quickly decided to just have leftovers. They also decided to set up another tarp for the ground and spread out some beanbags for everyone. Well, except Hunter but she already had the giant pillow which did about the same job. They quickly sank into their respective beanbags, leftovers in hand, and let out long sighs.

"So… nothing?" asked Kamiko.

"Nothing," agreed Lily.

"Not, a, thing," said Bower.

Kamiko sighed, "I hadn't expected anything else… um… I did check back with D.E.M.O.N.S a few times but it eventually just gave me the equivalent of a disappointed glare,"

"How did it manage that?" asked Lily.

"By reminding me that a time dragon exploding and releasing a bunch of time aspected mana is obviously going to cause issues with looking in on the dimension, and especially with divination of any kind… and like… I get it… but what are we meant to do about it? The drake is probably gone, and we couldn't find a single clue that pointed towards it still existing," grumbled Kamiko.

"This is indeed a tough issue," stated Hunter. "I have encountered a number of situations where our target escaped the first encounter… but in such cases it was much more likely the target in fact survived. I did activate my special ability, the one that gives me challenges in exchange for a relevant power remember? It is still functioning…

"But that doesn't mean anything. I know for a fact the missions will stick around even if the monster is dead. Still, I activated it mostly because I could and it might have been necessary. I could attempt to complete the challenges on offer and see if I am rewarded with a tracking ability?"

"What are the tasks?" asked Kat.

"The first one is to encase myself in the ash produced and meditate on the feeling it produces for two hours. I am… not thrilled with the quest as in my current condition I may not be able to fight off any ill effects properly. Especially as I have some open wounds under my bandages," stated Hunter.

"Wait… do you have to be 'naked' during the process?" asked Kamiko.

"Yes," confirmed Hunter. "The requirements are a bit more verbose, but full body contact is one of the conditions for completion,"

"I say we don't risk it then," said Kat. "If it's not certain to tell us if the drake is even still alive or not… then I don't want to force the issue right now. What are the chances that D.E.M.O.N.S can give us an answer on the state of the drake sometime soon? Hunter do you have any ideas?"

"I'm afraid this is not the sort of thing that comes up often. The more time D.E.M.O.N.S has the more likely we are to get answers. D.E.M.O.N.S could also bring in someone much more powerful to settle the issue for sure, but depending on how powerful a demon they'd need to call upon, it might not happen," explained Hunter.

"Risking the Angels finding out again?" asked Kamiko.

"Indeed," confirmed Hunter.

"Why is that even such a problem?" asked Kat. "Don't get me wrong, I have some general ideas, and it made some sense the first time… but the drake is likely dealt with. Would it really be such an issue if they found out at this point?"

Hunter shrugged, "It is beyond my knowledge to properly speculate. It could be a matter or pride, it could be that should a demon of sufficient power need to be asked it would instead escalate straight to the angels. Perhaps having an angel look for the answer would disrupt other contracts on the planet that are going on at the moment. I cannot say,"

"Wait there are other demons here right now?" asked Lily.

Hunter shrugged again, "I do not know Lily. They clearly have a system in place for regularly summoning demons when necessary but I cannot say how often it becomes such,"

"Wouldn't D.E.M.O.N.S prevent us from asking it questions if there were other demons around?" asked Kat thinking back to the incident with Stan.

Hunter shook her head, "No it only does that when two demons are directly or indirectly competing against each other. Nobody else should be looking for the drake… and even if there was, D.E.M.O.N.S would ignore that particular rule to help us because of the seriousness of the issue. It entirely possible the nearby demons would be drafted into the effort if D.E.M.O.N.S felt it's necessary,"

"Wait that can happen?" asked Lily.

"I have heard so, and been given examples of it happening, but in my decades doing this I've never seen random demons get roped into the hunting mission. I have received reinforcements a few times, but they were always sent in explicitly as reinforcements. I've even been part of a reinforcing team a few times as well," explained Hunter.

"What were those missions like?" asked Kamiko.

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"Most of them are for threats that start spreading in major ways. It is usually not power that causes reinforcements to be summoned. Occasionally it does happen, but in the unlikely event reinforcements are required, it's usually because a swarm of monsters was improperly contained, or the group lacks the ability to properly contain them and doesn't want to take the risk," explained Hunter.

"But doesn't D.E.M.O.N.S look in on things? Why would reinforcements be necessary?" asked Kat.

"D.E.M.O.N.S can't monitor everything all the time Kat. Or well… perhaps it can? Its full capabilities have never been made clear but I know for fact it doesn't monitor everything all the time. Do take note of my earlier statement. Reinforcements are usually for swarms. Perhaps D.E.M.O.N.S missed that one or two would escape the main attack and restart smaller swarms elsewhere that need exterminating.

"It could also be the case that numbers escalated more then projected. Or that it was a mission the group could accomplish had they made proper time, but delays meant that the monsters spread out a bunch before the demons got there. Quite a few possibilities exist for things of this nature," explained Hunter.

"Sorry… I guess… it's just sort of weird for D.E.M.O.N.S to be so obviously fallible. I might not go about asking it questions as much anymore… but it seemed to have all the answers at the start of my journey. Now… now it has nothing for us.

Which, I mean, it wouldn't necessarily have answered such a specific question before but like… I don't know, I just feel like if there was any time for it to have the answers. It would be now," said Kat with a sigh.

"D.E.M.O.N.S is good, but there is a balance Kat. We just seem to be on the poor side of the scales for the moment," stated Hunter.