D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad Chapter 2359 Fire Flower

--- Kat ---

With the devices placed and no further portals found the girls hopped back into the snowy biome. As soon as they did, they came face to face with a snowman. It wasn’t particularly scary looking, but it was posed in such a way as to loom over them... but it was still just a snowman. Even then, it was a touch disturbing because nothing like this had been there before...

Kat was right about that too. It was just outside of the portal... where the cave exit was. Kat wasn’t certain she could slip past it without turning into water and it felt a bit silly to do that just for a snowman, especially when Appoline would need to push through it anyway.

Lily decided not to even bother arguing about this, instead she just summoned her shadows and placed them under the snowman, and moved the entire thing to the side.

Of course, for all that they’d gained new determination... that didn’t mean it wasn’t a more harrowing walk the second time. Moving through the snow with such limited vision right after getting confirmation that something was at work here and not purely an illusion? That set the pair on edge.

The spikes looked a LOT more like teeth when you were on edge, and the occasional sound from snow falling off some ledge or even it crunching oddly under Kat’s weight. It was just so much worse the second time, which perhaps was the point. Grunkle never mentioned how many times he’d gone through this area before the monster showed up. It was possible he took a few trips, especially if he had no enchanted storage objects to keep his devices in. It might have been a long term project. A lot more time to stir up... something.

Yet even with that, nothing real manifested. A tree did get utterly annihilated when Kat threw one of her fans at it thinking something had shown up. There was also the time Lily nearly attacked a pile of snow that collapsed near them. Only the fact she’d have had to tear through Kat’s shirt stopped her from doing so.

By the time the pair made it to the portal they were significantly more frazzled then they were going into the last one. This time, Lily did not complain about the fire resistance potion. She had no patience for this place anymore and was happy to jump into the next area. Where instead of lava caves, it looked more like a mini volcano. Off in the distance was... well it was hard to call it a mountain but it seemed a bit big for a hill.

It spewed for rivers of lava that covered the landscape, looking almost natural like a series of rivers coming down from the mountain peaks. There was a lot more ash around but it wasn’t too serious a coating, just a light dusting especially around the edges of the lava. Some plants were even managing to grow, with those of more standard looking persuasions existing in the parts furthest away from the lava lakes, with more exotic looking plants taking up the river banks.

Or in the case of one tree they could see, simply taking in the whole river of lava. It sucked the lava up as it travelled down the river and deposited it on the other side, noticeably dimmer. With brightly glowing leaves that probably held in a lot of that heat. There didn’t seem to be any fruit that Kat could see and... wait hang on.

Kat glanced off to the side. There was a bunch of flowers that glowed in the centre except... *

Kat and Lily quickly moved over to the flowers.

Lily was out of Kat’s clothing, watching for threats. While it was great that they had some more orbs to tide them over, the chance that something was going to attack them seemed high. These even looked to be two or three hour orbs so it was worth being careful about it. Just at a glance the pair could tell this would keep them safe for days longer if they could claim them.

Kat paused a few feet away and then lightly touched the ground with her foot. It was just ash. No hidden pit traps... yet. Lily readied her shadows while keeping watch on the lava river, ready for something to strike from it. Eventually, after carefully feeling her way over, Kat plucked the first orb and then got ready for something. She was not entirely prepared for the flower to blast her with a stream of concentrated fire.

Kat let out a cough when it finished, her hair now blown backwards and her mouth filled with ash. "Urgh, gross... not deadly for me... but gross..." Kat grumbled as she started to spit out the ash.

With only one chance at this, Lily took things slowly. She also sort of tested things first. Lily picked the loneliest flower and carefully closed a shadow around the orb. She did NOT pull on it just yet. Simply holding onto it for a few seconds to get a feel for it. Then, she extended her shadows once more to the next one. Slowly gripping it once again. Kat followed along, ready to react if necessary but Lily was able to grasp a number of orbs in the flower patch they were looking at. The rest were, hopefully, separated enough that they could do this in a second attempt.

Already Lily was struggling to keep her shadows in place. It was hard not to lose focus and even if she wasn’t doing anything unique with her shadows, the fact that she needed to be so careful, and with a bunch of slightly different angles made it a pain. Still... carefully, Lily readied herself... and then... PULL

She snatched away all the orbs she could, and even as the motion completed Lily could feel herself accidentally crushing two of them. That still meant eight were free and good, but it was galling to notice. Even as a moment later a wave of fire exploded out into the sky to blast away anything that had been nearby.

"I’d call that a success," smiled Kat as she looked over at the remaining orbs.

Lily however, frowned as she transformed and stored the eight away. "Not sure that I agree... I lost two of them..."

Kat shrugged, "Considering I’d have lost a lot more than two? I still consider this a success. Now come on, there’s two more batches I can see right now, and there might be a few more around. I doubt they’d all be right next to the portal after all..."