D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2260 Tree View

--- Kat ---

Kat glared down at the beautiful flower field of EVIL unsure what to do about it. Her leg had healed up fine but it still wasn’t a fun experience. The weirdest part was that it didn’t even hurt properly. Not the way she expected it to. You’d think having such a major tendon chewed on would be horrifically painful... and it just wasn’t. Oh sure it hurt, but compared to so many of the other attacks Kat had taken it was disturbingly tame from a pain standpoint. The fact it forced her leg to spasm was the far more worrying part.

"Alright... so I don’t like this much at all. What the heck do we do? Do we head for the mountain? I honestly have no good idea of how far away it is. The thing is huge so we could be a week or an hour out..." grumbled Kat.

"Those rabbits probably make quite useful ingredients for potions that speed you up in some way," commented Appoline with a disturbing amount of intrigue in her voice.

Lily hopped off of Kat so she could transform on a lower branch just to counter that claim, "Yeah and they’re also really deadly. They’re fast, know how to burrow, and the entire place is practically infested with the buggers. I don’t know how far it extends but I can still hear a few moving around us even now. That’s just the ones I hear MOVING. I have no idea how much are resting or whatnot."

"Huh, the flowers here must be unusually potent. Despite looking quite ordinary I don’t know that they could support a large population of rabbits on their own... actually what DO they normally eat?" pondered Appoline.

"You don’t know?" asked Kat.

Appoline shook her head. "No all the rabbits I’ve seen were kept as family pets or farmed for food. All of their food is castoffs from something else but I obviously don’t know if that’s the standard."

"Well normal rabbits eat all sorts of plants. It’s mostly grasses, but also some flowers, and particularly flower buds. Though considering the static charge they might also eat lightning? The sun is shining and the place is beautiful to look at... but does it STAY that way? In fact... how IS the sun shining. Unless... it’s not the sun?" pondered Lily.

Appoline opened her mouth to say something before frowning and shifting her head to look above the canopy. Lily was right. Up above them was the mountain blocking a considerable amount of the skyline with the clouds surrounding it doing more of the same and mist walls on the sides. Appoline was used to being in dome so the lights oddities weren’t too strange...

Kat and Lily had similarly spent days in a place where the dome itself was the light source. Sure it shifted a bit, especially right near the beginning and end of the day... but the whole dome was the light not just some random bright spot. So... what was casting the shadows? "Is it the pillar? I... hmm... that seems odd. It doesn’t seem to be casting the correct shadows for that on everything but I’m not sure what else it could be..."

"I don’t know," grumbled Lily. "It’s just super unsettling now that I’ve noticed it. The shadows here are weird... though I don’t think they’re effecting my magic? I haven’t noticed anything off with it for the moment but I suppose that’s no long term promise..."

"I didn’t even consider that could be a problem..." Kat mused as she held her hand up to see about the shadows... but the tree was blocking most of them and... hmm... did it give off its on small suite of shadows from the purple lines? Kat thought they were just sparkling not glowing but perhaps...

That’s when Kat heard a crunching sound. For a moment, Kat thought the branch had started to snap but when she turned towards it she found Appoline... with one of the leaves in her mouth. "What?" asked Appoline as she crunched down on it again. When she bit into the leaf the ’crunching’ sound seemed to actually be the separated bits sparking at each other for some reason.

"Appoline... is that safe?" asked Kat hesitantly.

"I mean... it only hurts a bit and I have a good deal of resistance to poisons. And health potions of course," explained Appoline.

"Is... is it healthy to rely on those so often?" asked Kat.

"There is a limit but I’m not so stupid as to abuse that limit... much," offered Appoline.

Kat sighed and went to look away... when she heard the crunch again. "STOP EATING THEM!" hissed Kat.

"They taste kinda nice though!" retorted Appoline. Kat paused and glanced over at the leaves... only for Lily to smack her in the back of the head with a shadow.

"Don’t you start. I can already see light burns around Appoline’s mouth," grumbled Lily.

"I’d heal," countered Kat. Lily just glared, making full use of her slitted eyes to give the action some extra malice. "Fine, I won’t eat the lightning leaves even if they are tasty..."

Lily shook her head. "I am surrounded by c- idiots. I’m surrounded by idiots."

Kat raised an eyebrow at her... before shrugging and turning back to Appoline. "So what do they taste like?"

"It’s kinda how you’d imagine lightning would taste if it was a candy. Those purple lines are super bitter but the sap from the rest of it are really sweet and when you keep it on your mouth it sort of dances on your tongue. Very interesting eating experience. Would not recommend to anyone below Rank 2 though..." explained Appoline.

"Huh... probably wouldn’t hurt me much if at all..." began Kat.

Lily bopped her on the back of head with another shadow hand. "No. Once again. No. Also, killer rabbits? Remember those? They are still a problem unless we want to just fly away from the place."

"Is there a reason we don’t?" asked Kat. "I’ve already proven I can fly while carrying you and another person. Is there a reason not to fly?"

Lily pointed up into the sky and... there faintly shadowed against the clouds Kat could make out some sort of monster. Actually, the more Kat looked the more she thought whatever it was lived IN the clouds, or perhaps was made up of them? They were really high up and even enhancing her vision with demonic energy it was hard to see the details. Still, Lily’s point was made. Flying ran the risk of them being dive bombed.

"Alright so... are we more scared of mystery birds or rabbits? Actually hang on..." Kat popped her head up and started to look around. Back the way they came the flower meadow continued for as far as she could see, with rolling hills and the mist wall blocking her vision eventually.

Looking the other side, Kat saw that eventually the trees banded together into a forest of some sort, but that was also quite a distance away. Until you got there, it was mostly just lone trees like the one they were resting in currently until you got to the forest proper. Of course, behind them was the mist wall and ahead was the mountain. No surprise there. Kat popped her head back down into the trees and relayed what she’d seen.

"Well, what is your goal anyway?" asked Appoline. "I’m here for the plants and animals of course... but I’m not sure you mentioned it to me directly what you’re doing. I was there when Hedera said you should try to win instead of... destroying something but I don’t know what that something is."

"Oh," intoned Kat. "I thought it had come up. Well, allegedly, there are several pieces of this ancient... circle? Let’s just call it a relic. If we find enough pieces to put it back together, and note apparently there are extra copies, then we can ’win’ the major game we’re currently playing with the person who sent us here."

Appoline nodded. "I see... are there any clues as to where those pieces might be?"

"Nope," answered Kat.

"Well that’s hardly useful. I suppose there’s a high chance that there’s one piece at the very top of the mountain... and perhaps rushing towards it would be a decent goal. On the other hand, the mountain is in giant pieces so there’s no clue easy way to make it up there. I’d also bet there is some sort of protection to stop you simply flying up there. So... I’d suggest either the forest, as it’s a notable landmark, or we simply start heading upwards.

"Do any of the nearby broken bits of mountain look particularly noteworthy? That could be a good place to start. A town would be better, but with what Weaver said I’m not sure anyone would still be living here..."

Kat eyed Appoline for a few moments. "Are you just suggesting that we go to the forest because it’s likely to be packed with ingredients?"

"Counterpoint, despite my earlier statements it seems this entire place is packed with ingredients. I hardly need to manipulate you to go in any particular direction. The mountain itself is sure to be fascinating on an ecological level, and the potions I can get from the rabbits might be useful for speeding up our progress. We can go anywhere," countered Appoline.