D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2163 The Core of the Issue

Chapter 2163: Chapter 2163 The Core of the Issue

— Kat —

The golem entered the robotic equivalent of shock as it just stared down at its missing hands for a while. Kat decided she needed to make use of that and kicked it hard, causing the golem to fall over. Perhaps it should have been capable of keeping itself upright. Considering how flexible its liquid metal limbs were, and the fact it could walk if it wanted to, a simple step could probably have saved it.

Instead, it crashed down onto the floor and Lily quickly acted. Using two shadow hands she wrapped the legs together bundling them up. The golem of course, tried to retract the metal and Lily reacted immediately by pulling the feet back towards her and then pushing them into the corners. The golem tried to get them back, liquid metal limbs stretching out towards the feet.

For a moment, Kat got ready for the fight to continue… but it seems the golem DID have some limits, or at least, the liquid metal did. It couldn’t stretch all the way over to where Lily had stashed the feet and after about ten seconds of attempts it simply retracted the metal back inside it and remained flat on the floor. Kat glanced at Lily who gave a mental shrug back.

Kat tapped the golem with her foot a few times. It was still on fire… but that seemed to be dimming as well. A glance at its eyes showed that they were still going but the lasers had stopped and it wasn’t currently trying to… do anything. “You know… I was sort of expecting something else? Like… some liquid metal death ball thing? Or perhaps just having that metal transform into hands and feet all by itself…”

Kat tapped the golem a few more times. “Not… whatever this is? Heck I’d have thought begging for its life or simply conceding would be more likely then whatever the heck its doing.”

“Maybe the creators didn’t think it could lose?” asked Lily as she transformed as well. Mostly to see if the golem would respond to that at all… and the answer still seemed to be no.

“But then why isn’t it doing anything? It’s capable of doing at least three things right now, four if you count the water and ice stuff as separate things. The fire might not be useful and it seems to be recognising that but even with just its neck and its eyes it could shoot lasers at either of us just about anywhere in the room… and it’s just not? Why isn’t it complaining?”

“I really have no idea at this point… do you think the door will open?” asked Lily as she started to examine her body. It seemed like this form was fine. Were injuries meant to carry over? Lily couldn’t remember and the smell of burnt hair did linger a bit… but that seemed to just be from, well, the burning hair. Nothing on her humanoid body seemed change. Though the smell was clinging to her still.

Kat poked the golem a few more times before shrugging and heading over to the door. Pulling the handle down… nothing happened. The golem didn’t try to attack her for it either so that was a small plus but… Kat flicked the handle down a few more times. Nothing. Kat tried pulling the door back. Nothing. Kat kicked the door. Still nothing. “Hmmm… ok what’s the plan here?”

Lily slowly made her way over to Kat, stretching a bit as she did so. The pain from that opening salvo where her shadows were snapped, and then later the force of the sonic based attack still lingering, if not in the purely physical realm, the metaphysical one. Her mana felt a bit unsteady. Manageable of course, but not in its ideal state that was for sure. Stretching a bit helped relieve the feeling, or at least take her mind off it.

When Lily got to the door she tried to open it herself, to the expected no success. Though she did get a bit of amusement as she imagined the door opening just because she was the one with her hand on the handle instead of Kat. Still, she had a few more things she could try. Lily let her shadows reach out towards the door… and immediately found a barrier around the cracks.

Except… these felt kind of weak? It wasn’t going to be instant but… Lily applied some more pressure and felt the enchantments were already starting to give. Her shadows turned into a bunch of needles and jammed themselves into the gaps. Lily quickly felt the enchantment give way, as well as heard something popping on the other side of the door. Once it was all broken, she used the door handle again and pushed… only for nothing to happen.

Kat burst out into laughter. Not just at the situation but at the so terribly aggrieved look on Lily’s face. Like she’d just done everything right on a test only for the teacher to return it with a B- or something. “It’s not that funny!” whined Lily.

Which of course caused Kat to burst into further laughter, deliberately allowing herself to fall to the ground to exaggerate thing. Especially as she knew that Lily was having fun with this as well. Despite the aggrieved look on her face, the joy and love pouring across the link made it impossible to worry about it. Eventually, once Kat finished with her laughter, Lily turned back to the door, and sighed. “Of course…”

Lily reached a shadow inside the door gap and ripped the broken metal bar that had been blocking the door from opening. The reason it didn’t work? It had rusted in place and Kat had been too strong. When she’d tried to open the door handle the first time, the broken and rusted internals had simply snapped. The sound had been masked by everything else going on and neither of them had noticed.

Still, it meant that the door was easily able to open and the pair stepped inside. As soon as they did they were both hit by a wave of magic. The source of it was immediately obvious. In the centre of the room was a glowing orb of epic proportions. They were up on a catwalk that circled the rounded edges of the room, and the centre had a few different things there. The orb was just one of them, though the fact that it was completely visible did imply a few things.

Three layers of glass, and likely a number of enchantments, stood between them and the orb itself. With the top and bottom being solid metal structures that stretched into the floor almost like cabling. The main thing distinguishing them was that they seemed to be far too solid for that. Completely inflexible and built into the floor, or perhaps stuck on top of it. There was also glowing panels in the wall, filled with a white substance that provided the light.

“Alright that’s got to be the core… what the heck do we do with it?” asked Kat.

Lily frowned. “I want to say we grab it but I can feel just… SO MUCH mana here in this room that I’m really not sure that’s safe. In fact, I’m not sure it’s even safe to stay in this room too long…”

“Really? Is… what, mana toxicity actually an issue?” asked Kat.

“Look I don’t know but it’s unnaturally thick here and I’m surprised it hasn’t spontaneously manifested into a black hole or something. I’m GUESSING that it’s somehow being funnelled out of the room but I can hardly even sense that much because it’s just so overwhelming standing here. I’m not too worried because of the fact you can’t feel it at all from the outside and it all seems… normal in here so far but it’s a little freaky…” explained Lily.

“Alright… and what’s the problem with just grabbing it?” asked Kat.

“Because it’s putting out so much mana! If it’s not set to automatically stop producing it and you take it out of this containment? It could explode! In fact, that would be my best guess. Probably into all sorts of exotic effects. I’m also really not sure we can even touch it the way it currently is. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s half phased out of reality,” explained Lily.

“Is… that not something you can sense?” asked Kat slowly.

“Once again, too much mana. It’s like… it’s like trying to eavesdrop on a conversation while someone else blasts the stereo at full volume on the other end of the room. Except the conversation you want to hear is actually under the stereo,” countered Lily.

Kat nodded, “Alright that all makes sense… in that case do we go get Furen?”

“I mean… we can but I don’t think she’ll know how to take this out either… she barely knew where it was. Unless that was part of the like… bedtime story stuff that included these things? Then she might, possibly, know,” allowed Lily.