D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2335 Sideways Answers

--- Kat ---

Safe compromise it might have been as a suggestion that didn’t make it easy. The first idea was to have Kat hold Appoline, Lily hold the cauldron and the burner, and let the elf work on the brew they needed that way. Kat and Lily would need to be very careful about their wings, but if they stuck to a pattern it likely would’ve been fine. Alas, before they could even get started they ran into a problem. The cauldron was too heavy for Lily to lift. It didn’t matter how much shadow she used to elongate her wings, it just didn’t work. Perhaps it was a limit to her inherent flight magic, or perhaps she didn’t know how to make the shadow wings work.

So they quickly tested to see if Lily could carry Appoline instead, but that didn’t help. While the cauldron was heavier considering it was a thick metal bucket, Appoline was a grown woman and not exactly light. Especially when you considered that Lily weighed basically nothing and her wings were only designed to support that weight of, basically nothing. Five pounds of cat soaking wet wasn’t enough to offset anything.

So they tried a second idea. Lily would use her shadows to stabilise things, while hooking them onto Kat to let HER carry most of the weight. Though this just brought back the problem of Kat not being able to carry both Appoline and the cauldron at the same time. They fell fairly slowly at least, so there was some consideration to fly up a decent chunk of the way and then slowly fall while Appoline brewed and Kat did her best to support the entire thing.

The problem with that though, was as slow as the fall was, this brew would take at least twenty minutes to make. It wasn’t something Appoline had so much practice with she could smash out in five minutes. They also couldn’t just fall for a while, then store the brew and fly up again before continuing. That would mess with the brewing process and influence it far too strongly.

"Perhaps if I had a week to test things I could engineer a brew that would work with the downtime in a spatial pocket but we don’t have the sort of time nor the extra ingredients for it," Appoline had explained when asked how hard something like that would be. So, that was another idea off the table.

There was some back and forth for a while over what to do next when Lily remembered all the little bits of rock around the portal. They were after all, mostly stable. It would require them to go back upwards... but it didn’t matter if they remained lost, or couldn’t find a portal. They just needed to find a bit of something to use as a platform for Lily to rest her shadows on. Similar in execution to what she was doing before hanging it off Kat... just hopefully more stable. If they found a portal along the way then all the better.

They did eventually find some rocks, though it took a bit of luck and extra time to find a good set. The first wasn’t so much ’rocks’ as it was ’rock’ singular and wasn’t enough. The next few were a bit too far away for everyone’s comfort. Sure Lily could stretch her shadows to connect them all... but it would simply be too much mana to maintain that sort of area longer term.

After that, it was easy enough to spot a bundle close enough together to work. Once identified, they got set up. Lily stretched out her shadows, Appoline set up the equipment and Kat kept watch on their surroundings. It wasn’t quite perfect. The rocks didn’t move completely in sync or simply follow a nice path. They bobbed up and down somewhat, sometimes spinning a bit or performing other annoying manoeuvres...

But what they’d already done was enough for someone like Appoline and she was happy to prove that. Even as Lily did her best to minimise the shifting of the shadow platform and absorb some of the movement Appoline was able to work perfectly fine. Various tilts were accounted for and on more than one occasion she’d simply lock legs with the stand and keep it in place as the shadow underneath it dipped down.

Appoline somehow seemed to be able to read the shifts before they happened, or perhaps watching the cauldron of liquid gave her enough heads up to act on the changes before they became issues. Not that Kat or Lily could tell, but this was far harder then it seemed to be. The constant movement needed to be accounted for, not just to ensure nothing spilled, but in the actual brewing process. Stirring more here, less there. Keeping the core shape different, allowing the ingredients to diffuse in odd patterns that would straighten themselves out after one corner dipped down.

Alas, only Appoline could even recognise the skill and brilliance that it took to keep the whole thing moving and operational, but that was simply the price she paid for being so fantastic. A burden she was long since used to bearing without complaint, thus it simply wasn’t worth mentioning even once the potion was all finished and bottled. It looked a bit like packed diamonds. It wasn’t of course, still a liquid even... but the way it sat in the potion bottle made it look that way.

Once the equipment was stored Appoline hopped back into Kat’s arms and Lily let her shadows collapse, following right after the elf. She was exhausted, having not entirely recovered her mana from the monster fight before and then jumped straight into a fairly significant bit of shadow manipulation meant she was quite close to empty. Perhaps... fifteen percent mana remaining? Not enough to be worried the potion wouldn’t be done in time, but perhaps an indication that they’d rushed into things.

Still the potion was ready and Appoline seemed confident in it. So they headed back down to the edge of the clouds... which was harder to find then you’d think. They couldn’t go too swiftly nor did they want to risk having to drop through the clouds to know where they ended. Still, luckily enough they WERE clouds at the end of the day so things thinned out around the edges, you just had to get close enough to them.

Once in place, Appoline opened the bottle and the clouds in a large area nearby all started to shimmer and crystalise, turning into something that looked a bit like glass as the sparkles inside of it died down. Whatever was actually happening, it gave them an... acceptable view of things. Though not one that was particularly good. Looking around, while there were quite a few bits of land to go for, none looked all that close. It was hard to look too far to the sides, but down below them only had little islands, much, much further below.

As they moved around to get a more complete look at things this sadly seemed to hold true for the other directions as well. The closest thing they had to a ’nearby’ island was one that was kilometres away, but somewhat in the cloud line. It was likely to take them hours to reach it... but Kat at least was still angling for that one over risking a drop. While there were some that weren’t anywhere near that distance downwards... everything was at least a few hundred metres away and that lightning cannon or whatever it had been was still a real worry.

"Alright what’s everyone thinking? I’m thinking either we take that long distance fly over to that island in the distance or head back up and look for a portal," commented Kat.

Appoline shrugged, "I say we just go for the island. At this point we’ve already used up quite a lot of time. I’d say that we might as well take the sure thing at this point. Hopefully there isn’t any monsters, but we’ve got a decent amount of evidence that whatever defences you’re worried about taking you out of the air won’t react while we’re in the clouds so... just keep in the clouds for the most part. Might still have to worry about monsters, but with a good idea of where the island is we might be able to sneak around them, assuming there even is any."

"Surprised you aren’t hoping to see more of them for the potential ingredients they might provide," commented Kat.

Appoline shook her head. "Useful sure... but nothing quite so unique I’d be willing to risk my life over it. They are quite deadly and I don’t have any potions that would allow me to fly. There didn’t seem to be a reason. Not when I have a few to prevent a fall killing me in my storage. That might have to change... pity it’s such a pain in the ass to make potions that provide only a few minutes of flight. Still, once we have solid ground it shall be make next project,"

"Yeah that sounds quite worthwhile. Especially at this height," commented Kat.