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

— Kat —

After Meg and Nira’s… discussion Nira started to do a proper examination of Meg. Despite the greed demon’s protest. Nothing was invasive from the looks of things but that didn’t mean Nira was making it comfortable for Meg. Still… she kinda deserved it so Kat just turned to Kamiko and asked, “So what are your plans for the next bit?”

“Ah… well other than shopping with you I think I’ll be practicing a fair bit. Get a feeling for my new ability as well as testing to see how my old ones have changed and improved from the rank up. It’s going to take a bit to get my new strength under control… and Mum was NOT happy about that so… yeah regardless of if I want it or not a lot of training will be in my future,” answered Kamiko.

Kat thought back to the issues Gareth had after overusing his mana and shivered. “So it’s bad then?” Find exclusive stories on empire

“Oh, um… judging by the look on your face you’re thinking about… um… I think you mentioned it happening while you were competing in the island tournament? I don’t remember who it happened to but… not it’s not that bad. At least for us it’s not.

“All of the different higher energy sources react differently to running out… or it’s more accurate to say that the way they accumulate is completely different. Qi is the easiest to explain. It improves the body at a fundamental level, strengthening it over time but not necessarily leaving usable Qi behind. The scary thing for them is their dantain.

“If that gets damaged or destroyed, perhaps from overdrawing it and taking away energy from the ‘engine’ that creates or gathers more then they can never cultivate again. Either they’ll die, or it will cripple them. It’s a bit weird that most of the cultures that use Qi consider this a bug and not a feature.

“Mana is different though. It sort of… ‘soaks’ into things? If Qi changes things fundamentally mana instead encapsulates and enhances. Sure it can cause mutations as well but that’s a separate issue. Mana in the body is like… this is a really bad example but it’s like years of stains building up. Even if you remove all of them the stuff underneath isn’t really the same colour.

“The thing is… like stains you CAN remove it with enough force. That’s what mana deprivation is. It’s ‘easier’ for mana to be pulled from the body and used to cast spells, in fact it’s not all that hard… which is the issue. If you take too much mana from your bodies cells all at once it goes into shock and can sometimes shut down if it’s too used to having mana there.

“That’s why things get worse if it keeps happening and if you’re older can be immediately deadly because your body is just to used to having all that mana. Plus if you keep doing it there less mana buildup every time and if there’s no mana left all all?”

Kamiko drew a line across her neck. “Not good at all. Demonic energy though? It has a few other quirks. It changes us fundamentally at the beginning when our flames come to life. Each rank up is more of a refinement then a true change… but the real difference is that we can’t really exist with no demonic energy at all. It’s unclear if demonic energy has adapted to this or if we have…

“But we literally can’t kill ourselves from exhaustion. We can push past the ‘first barrier’ and collapse completely afterwards, or we can go into that ‘low energy’ mod with no movement except for the most necessary… but that’s it. We don’t have the option for a ‘heroic last stand’ type display. Our bodies and energy simply won’t react to it.

“Now that might seem like a positive and I do honestly consider it one… but there are plenty of stories of demons trying desperately to defend their friends, family, loved ones, trying to use everything they have… and just not being able to. For us we can’t really go down in a blaze of glory. The best we can manage is forcing out body past that point but not our energy,”

“Huh…” mumbled Kat. [I’m quite happy about this information.] Kat laughed slightly. “Seems Lily is happy to hear that. Though… it’s a bit strange?”

Kamiko shrugged, “Perhaps it is for you but it’s just how it’s always been. It’s something I’ve always known and very much ‘just how it is’. Even with the wide range of abilities demons have come across nobody has managed to completely exhaust themselves. Die while on low energy? Sure all the time. But not die from lack of it. Oh, and there’s whatever the Angels use of course but I at least don’t know anything about that,”

“I don’t either,” said Nira as she popped about beside them and pulled Kamiko into another tight hug. “Still, even if it’s not potentially deadly for us the same way it is for other people that doesn’t mean fainting is GOOD for you my dear daughter. We might be more resilient then others but fainting does some damage… well unless you’re like Kat with top tier regeneration,”

Kat smiled back at Nira. “All the better to take knife attacks with!” Kamiko slapped Kat on the back of the head and Lily ‘clawed’ at Kat with her real claws sheathed of course. “See, look at this! I could hardly survive without my regeneration these days,”

Nira stepped away from her daughter, giving Kamiko one last quick pat on the head. “Yes well my daughter does seem to need someone to make sure she doesn’t go too far and I think you for that. I was just coming over to let you know you’re all free to leave if you want. The review board doesn’t have any questions about your performance for the moment and I don’t expect any will come up.

“I’ve still got to check over your friend, Hunter or 23HX443 just in case she’s suffering from any adverse effects, but after that I need to get back to the office. While I’d love to ensure Kamiko gets some training in with my supervision… the fact that I inserted myself as the medical observer for this mission means a bunch of work has piled up for me. Though don’t think that means you can skip out on training. I’ll be having the triplets keep watch over you when they’re free,”

“Wouldn’t dream of it Mum,” sighed Kamiko as Nira headed over to the lamia that had been doing a great impression of blending into the wall.

A few moments after Nira left something occurred to Kat. “So… I almost missed it but how come your mum calls Meg, Meg, and Hunter 23HX443?”

“Um…” Kamiko made a few little noises before shrugging. “I don’t really know? I mean it’s not something I thought to ask about before meeting Hunter even if Mum warned me they can be a bit weird about names. I’d guess she’s just respecting their wishes? Not sure how much she cares about the clan politics of it all…”

Kat glanced over at Nira who was poking a bunch of scales on Hunter, some of which flaked off to reveal new scales underneath. Kat was pretty sure that wasn’t at all how it was meant to work with real snakes but then again when did demon biology ever make all that much sense. “I sort of want to ask… but maybe it would be best to save those sorts of questions for when I visit for the shopping trip…”

“Ah… maybe? I can mention it if you want and Mum will probably try to be around for at least a bit. She complains about work a bunch but the only important things are her surgeries and they are scheduled ages in advance and aren’t all that common. A lot of her other work can be done at home or pushed off onto other people but Mum tries to be a good worker and boss so she does what she can,” responded Kamiko.

“Wait… so is she in charge of people or not?” mumbled Kat.

“Um… both? Um once you get into the weeds with things the medical organisation chart is quite a mess…” answered Kamiko.

“Oh… OH and I’ll need to pick a clan. That always seems to fall by the wayside but will also need deciding upon. Have you got your own thoughts?” asked Kat.

“Um… yeah you should… probably work that out soon. I’ll probably join medical but stick with Contracts. That gives me no real responsibilities, an easy path to leave if I feel like it and with Mum so important it’s unlikely I’ll ever face any real pressure. A bit of an easy answer but… there’s nothing WRONG with it exactly and I do want to heal people so…” admitted Kamiko.

“I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully,” said Kat with a smile as she gave Kamiko a hug, hopefully it would make her less nervous.