D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2049 Poison Plants
Kat ---
Kat would like to say they reached a compromise. That her explanations of logical reasoning, about how it was ’just a house’ or even ’that it wasn’t real’ if you wanted to consider it from that angle. That ’we’re wasting time’ or perhaps just ’we can help more people if we’re quick’. Perhaps this arguments could’ve worked against a different opponent... but at the end of the day, when Lily wanted something Kat was exceptionally hesitant to deny her. It meant searching the house as swiftly, but thoroughly, as she could manage and they found nothing.
Exiting the domicile, Kat looked to the sky, or rather, as far up as the cloud of poison would allow her to see. "Alright. What’s the plan now? I have no idea where we’ll find Appoline now. Not that I had a great idea before..."
"We could split up?" offered Lily.
Kat grimaced... and looked in both directions. The poison here was fairly settled. It wasn’t obviously expanding out in either direction. There did seem to be more of it slowly flowing from behind the house if anything, but Appoline wasn’t there. Though, perhaps a potion bottle was?
"How about we put a pin in that and look for the source of this poison," countered Kat. Lily nodded along. It wasn’t like she wanted them to split up either. Simply that it might be necessary for them to make good progress. Their new focus didn’t take long to find. Simply running behind the house for about a minute showed them what they needed to find.
The source of the poison, or at least one of them, was clearly visible. It was also clearly guarded. Someone had carved out a large pond and filled it with a green sludge, thinker and darker then the stuff in the air, bordering on black. This was countered by the plans resting in the pond. Each one looked like a thick bulb that hadn’t yet bloomed, though considering what happened next it may be their default state.
Inside was five plants. One in the centre, and four more surrounding that to make a cube. Each bulb pumped like a set of bellows. Sucking up the gunk below them and soon dispersing it all up into the air. A system that might eventually run dry... but even as the water level lowered from violent suction, it soon refilled. The gunk was being replenished somehow when the plants expelled. Perhaps water was being drawn in and discarded, or there was some method to gather water into the pond. Lily’s thoughts immediately went to an underground well that was being siphoned.
The plants were slated for destruction. No sense in leaving something like that in operation... except for the fact that there were guards. Four in total. Three made of slime and one a rather obvious plant trap. The bush surrounded the pond with dozens of spikes everywhere you looked. There were barely any leaves on the poor thing. Looking more like biological barbed wire then a plant in truth. Perhaps it wasn’t sentient...
But the fact the damned thing was obviously breathing in the tainted mist air that was thick around the bulbs was a sign otherwise. It also seemed to wiggle and expand. Tangled ’branches’ thick with spines would sprout out if you looked at it too long. Increasing its mass and making the trek through the bush deadlier. Flying might be an option... but it might also be able to unwind and attack with purpose.
All of that was new, and scary, but the slimes were the real problem. Not overly deadly on the surface of it, the fact that they simply cost so much demonic energy to destroy meant that Kat wasn’t sure she could defeat them all. The bulbs were the same. They weren’t small dainty things to be found on the edge of a stem. They were large, industrial things the size of a cow. Each with enough mass to crush a person when dropped and Kat needed to burn away the entire thing.
The ’cleanse it with fire’ plan seemed optimal until you remember Kat didn’t have normal demonic fire. She had ICE fire. *
Kat let out a long sigh. It would take time. It would arguably delay them more... but it was probably for the best. *