D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2027 Poisonous Presence Part 1
Chapter 2027: Chapter 2027 Poisonous Presence Part 1
— Kat —
Kat and Lily were going to think on the message a bit longer when they managed to detect the sound of faint hissing. They weren’t entirely on alert, but considering their precarious situation they were listening for things. Further consideration was given to smaller sounds. Something going wrong with the potions would be bad and being ready to stop, or even allow, whatever followed was necessary. The hissing was a clear sign something was wrong.
Kat immediately exploded out into water and tried to spread herself as thinly around the room as possible. Lily glanced over at the door out to ensure that it had properly closed after them. Seeing that it was indeed shut properly, Lily flew up into the darkest corner of the room and wrapped herself in shadows. She used them to remain stuck to the wall and pressed against it as tightly as she could manage to ensure no real trace of her existence was visible.
The hissing continued, not stopping at all and Kat tried to pinpoint the sound, but now that she had completely dispersed it was much harder to do so. Needing to rely on hearing through Lily made it difficult because she couldn’t really locate the sound that way. On the other hand, now that they weren’t in complete panic they could tell this wasn’t an isolated thing. The hissing, which had seemed to be coming from a specific direction, was actually dozens if not hundreds of individual objects all hissing at once.
Considering Appoline’s fascination with poison, they’d perhaps triggered a defensive measure of some sort that was going to fill the place with poison. Kat was far more worried for Lily then for herself in that case. They were internally debating if there was even going to be a debate regarding what to do with the sound of a glass jar shattering rang out from the hallway. This was followed up by the sound of someone landing heavily on the shards of glass from the recent drop.
Kat didn’t know if it was worth taking a ’look’. The sounds were coming from the entrance to the secret area and her dispersed form only gave her a good ’look’ at the area around her droplets. Swiftly moving the droplets over there would risk being found and worse, someone was clearly actively looking for something. Appoline was probably on her way. She might not yet have confirmation someone was here, but she was likely under the assumption that something was wrong.
Lily listened intently, flinching back as the sound of banging echoed throughout the room as each and every door in the hallway was flung open such that they slammed into the wall behind them, including the one they were sitting in of course. The crunching of glass underfoot rang out as Appoline started to move. Kat pushed herself further up towards the ceiling. As close as she could get without forming visible droplets on the roof itself. It was hard and Kat thought it was perhaps a bit too bunched up in such a small room.
So Kat carefully moved droplets from the room she was in. They had no range and she had to just pray that Appoline couldn’t notice anything odd as droplets under Kat’s control started to fill the hallway and some of the entrances to the adjacent rooms. Appoline didn’t seem to have noticed, or changed her gate. Lily was listening to the footsteps down the corridor and it was clear that Appoline was checking all of the rooms on her way towards them. There was also… something…
Lily focused on removing her horns so that she could shift in place. Before, she had been pressed upside-down against the corner. Quite awkwardly as well so as to keep her horns from marking the ceiling or preventing her from getting quite so flat. Now however, she needed to double check what she was seeing. Without the horns atop her head she could be right-side-up and take proper stock of what was happening.
The floor was rather notably now covered in a thick mist. It was bright pink in colour… with glitter? [What?]
Lily could hardly believe what she was seeing, but it was like someone had managed to aerosolise a glitter gel pen. Notably though, it wasn’t sticking to any of the floors or walls. Lily could tell that much.
Oh! She’s using it to catch thieves. Probably.
[Right but then why isn’t it sticking to everything? It feels like if you just had clothes on this wouldn’t work.]
I mean… fabric and stone aren’t the same material. Plus, you said it yourself. Alchemy is more of an art then a science so maybe it only works on ’people’ somehow.
[Ok… but why is it just inching along the ground? Wait no. It’s probably to avoid wrecking her potions. Nevermind.]
Regardless of how correct their guesses was, the pink mist globbed into the room. Taking up all the available floorspace and climbing the walls… a bit. It looked like it was going to retract out of the room when another crash went off and another rush of sparkly pink mist flowed into the room, taking up even more space.
Lily could hear Appoline approaching from the hall. Still taking her time to check all of the rooms, but not further crashes were being heard. Her footsteps across the hall seemed… normal. Despite the thick mass of mist, it somehow didn’t seem to be dampening or changing the sound much at all. It looked like it really shouldn’t be working that way. Closer to a floating paste then a mist… but it acted like a mist and seemed to even have a special exception for Appoline herself.
Kat had mostly spread out across a few rooms and was no longer worried about being spotted. This was great. Her vision of the situation however? It was completely shit. Her droplets did not extend down to the floor, in fact it didn’t even extend far enough to get to head height. She was essentially blind to the goings on around her at the moment but with Lily on the lookout she didn’t mind too much. As long as she didn’t get caught.
The pair stayed in place, as room by room Appoline checked things over. Until finally she made it into Lily’s room. Appoline was stunningly beautiful. Tall and full figured in a way that gave Lily a hard time not drooling. Worse, especially in her mind, was the fact her hair was very, very similar in colour to Kat’s own. Appoline also had on a tight, form fitting outfit that arguably was a size or two too small for her.
Appoline had not skipped leg day, and Lily could visible see the muscles getting constricted by her pants. Lily was not sure how mentally prepared she was for when Appoline inevitably turned around and left. The belt around her waist, notably sitting higher than normal to emphasis the hourglass shape and force the eyes downwards was clearly a fashion statement and a place to store her poisons.
Not to say her top was any better. The only reason cleavage wasn’t spilling out of the top was that it covered her completely up to her neck but it was clearly straining against the two cantaloupes on Appoline’s chest. Her face was uncovered, and she had a dash of makeup on. A bit around the eyes, and lips just to really make them pop.
And yet… she didn’t seem to be interacting with the mist at all. It simply swirled around her granting free passage as she made a beeline towards the paper on the table she seemed to have no trouble at all. Lily held her breath for the most part. Breathing as quietly as she could throw her nose as Appoline looked the paper over. Seconds started to tick by. *Do you think she sees anything wrong with it?*
[She shouldn’t. We didn’t even need to pick it up. The only worry is that it shifted when I dashed away to hide… but I don’t think that should matter? You turned into water and I basically just flew straight up. Maybe my wingbeats moved it? I don’t know. I think it should be fine…]
That confirmation didn’t do much to diminish their worries as Appoline studied the paper closer for a few moments before reaching into one of her pouches and pulling out a half-sized potion bottle. Which she carefully dripped over the paper. It lit up a moment later before shining in two different colours that swirled together. Appoline clicked her tongue at the lights but remained in place, for the moment. *Is this good or bad for us? What was that position meant to do? Is the fact that it’s showing two lights indicating there’s two people in the room? Is it missing me or you? Something else?*
[Stop panicking. She clearly poured it on the paper… if I had to guess it’s meant to show how many people have interacted with the paper. Perhaps in a certain frame of time? Because you’d have all the people that helped make it as well if it was too long a span of time.]
*Good thing we didn’t touch it then. Still, she seems wary of the room. Do we do something?*
