D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2245 What’s Missing?

--- Kat ---

It was nearly twenty-four hours later that things changed. Just before the wards were completely setup a group tried to attack. Emphasis on tried. They clearly had some sort of illusion enchantments to keep them invisible when they opened the door... but Kat had been sitting around in the main area snuggling with Lily. As soon as she heard the door opening, her eye went open... and the illusions were never going to work. It was only after the fight when Kat asked the guards why they hadn’t done anything that she found out about the illusion.

There was also the fact that... once you decide to use demonic fire, the fights somewhat over. Kat simply blasted as much demonic fire as she could manage at the group, leaving behind a bunch of ice statues. These ones cost a lot LESS to freeze solid, so Kat was guessing Thyme was still messing around with things. These guys certainly hadn’t been a high rank so it was easy to dismiss them.

It was only once they were all dealt with that Kat felt like something was off. Lily shared that feeling, though the two guards near the doors did not. Kat checked up on Appoline, both to make sure she wasn’t the source of the problem, and because she had good enough ears that she might be able to hear the issue. Assuming it was a hearing thing. The fact that both Lily and Kat could notice the problem but the guards couldn’t certainly pointed in that direction.

Appoline was laying down in bed, though certainly not sleeping. Her eyes were open and she was just staring at the ceiling. "Um... are you alright?" asked Kat.

"Another investigation into my stress levels?" queried Appoline.

"Well it wasn’t the plan when I walked in here... but seeing you just staring at the ceiling felt wrong so... yes now it is I guess," explained Kat.

"I would not be so worried. I’ve simply run out of ingredients and I’m far too tired to occupy myself with other things. Now, before you bother asking, yes I should sleep but I cannot bring myself to risk it. Especially not after we were attacked AGAIN just moments ago. So I’m resting with my eyes open to help rejuvenate my body somewhat while also ensuring that I do not actually fall asleep," answered Appoline.

Kat’s mouth thinned into a line before glancing down at Lily in her arms. Lily glanced back up and shrugged with two tiny shadow hands. "Right... do you want me to poke at that or move onto the reason I’m here?"

"Probably the latter," Appoline answered.

Kat sighed, "Alright if that’s what you prefer. Though... I can release an aura of calm. It might help with your sleep..."

Appoline cut in. "It would help me get to sleep, but I still do not WANT to be."

"Ok, Ok, no more sleep suggestions. Lily and I were here to see you because something feels off. We can’t work out what that might be, and you were the first person I could think of to spot the difference," explained Kat.

Appoline raised an eyebrow. "Really me?"

Kat shrugged, "Well the guards that are awake didn’t notice anything, and I think Maryland and Vanilla are still asleep. Maybe Carl might have heard something, um, we’re assuming it’s a noise by the way... but I’m not sure if Carl is sleeping or not. I assumed you’d still be awake so we came to see if you’d heard anything odd..."

Appoline sat up a bit, moving her head around as she listened for any odd sounds. "No... I don’t hear anything odd... though now that you’ve brought this to my attention I too feel like something is going on that we should be concerned about. It’s registering as a faint unease... though I mostly felt that way already due to everything else so perhaps I’m not the most reliable witness.

"Hmmmm..." Kat hummed. "Well I’ll leave you to your rest for now then. Let me know if you want me to use my aura for a bit or something." Appoline just grunted and lowered herself back onto the bed proper as Kat headed back out. She glanced around the room, and the guards were hovering around the ice statues.

Not seeing anything else worth investigating, even if that niggling feeling was still strong, Kat went over. "Is there anything you want done with those?" the statues in question were only three strong. They probably couldn’t cover many more people with the illusion enchantment to try and keep things quiet.

The guard shrugged. "I don’t know. The detailing on these is... acceptable I suppose? I’m wondering if Steel might want to know who they are in particular. On the other hand... what if they melt? No reason to keep them around if that’s what’s going to happen."

Kat nodded, "I’m pretty sure they would melt but I can put a bit more demonic fire inside of them everyone now and again... and I think that would keep them frozen?"

The guards shared a look before shrugging. "Do that at least once. We can probably get one of the warders to draw up a face sketch for them all. That’s probably the best medium for it."

"Alright, I’ll add it mostly to the head then," agreed Kat as she took a bit of demonic fire and gently let it drift into the ice. It was absorbed easily so Kat felt like the process would work. Nodding she glanced at them again. "You guys still haven’t seen or heard anything odd?"

"No, Ma’am," stated the guards in tandem.

Kat sighed and moved over to the receptionist desk, putting Lily down and then crouching to match her eye level. "What do you think we should do? Would waking Maryland and Vanilla up be worth it?"

"Alright, I’ll boost it and see what happens," agreed Kat. Focusing her demonic energy on her ears, suddenly she could hear much better. Everyone in the nearby rooms, and even the people doing work in the basement now. There were people sleeping and... Kat paused. She could hear the two guards in the room, plus herself and Lily... and something was wrong with that.

"Something is odd in THIS room..." mumbled Kat. "What am I missing? I can hear everyone breathing..."

The pair of them stopped in that moment. Kat realising what was missing, as Lily realised, now that it was ’said’ that she COULDN’T hear Brook anymore. Kat leapt to the other side of the desk, and looked underneath, half expecting a corpse... but Brook was simply GONE. "WHAT! GUARDS! Brook is gone!" hissed Kat.

The guards jumped away from their positions, paused to look at each other and then one came over to see that... Kat was correct. Brook was gone along with her ropes. "When did this even happen?" the guard asked.

Kat shrugged, "Let me just..." Kat quickly reviewed her memories, before swapping to Lily’s for better sound quality... and yes. It was while the people being frozen alive were screaming. It was hard to tell exactly because picking out steady breathing was a pain with the rest of the noise... but it was easily spotted before, and missing afterwards. "The attack. That’s why they were so weak. They were NEVER meant to get us, just distract us long enough for Brook to escape..."

Appoline appeared in the room, with Maryland and Vanilla joining in not much later. "Hmmm... I wonder. I kept her dosed with sleeping potions. Was she one of the few that have lesser reactions to it and was simply pretending? Did I mess up the dosage? Some sort of antidote? We searched her though..."

Kat glanced at Maryland and asked, "What do we do now? Like... should we be looking for her? Is it likely she teleported far?"

Maryland shrugged, "Not originally... but it’s quite possible to make multiple short jumps, and if one of those was UP out of the underground bunker we’re in? That makes it really hard to follow her. It might not be impossible to track her through the poison... but it won’t be easy. I’m not sure I can suggest it. Not when we’re nearly done securing the place..."

"But how did she escape?" grumbled Kat.

Maryland shrugged, and glanced over at Appoline who also shrugged, but did answer with "I’m not sure. I kept my doses of sleeping potion consistent and she was bound tightly. Not as tight as possible of course, didn’t want her losing limbs... but I couldn’t say. I can’t detect enchanted items after all,"