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

Chapter 1942: Chapter 1942 Sliding Through Life

— Kat —

Kat cursed as she reformed. She could feel Lily’s panic but there wasn’t any pain… and it was more of a ’oh no we dropped a plate’ rather then a ’we’re all going to die’ type of panic. Kat was more annoyed because at the same time as the wall had tried to crush her, the floor where she’d thrown Hedera and Lily had opened up into a slide. Kat could still see the other side of the path, one she could theoretically take… but it was never a real option.

Kat didn’t have any time to double check with Lily either. The ramp was swiftly closing and Kat needed to get in before it did. Instead of just sliding down, Kat flew through the gap. She tried to go quickly and carefully, but her horns impacted the ’ground’ as she tried to squeeze through. The strange material cracked around her horns even as Kat swapped to water for a few breaths just to make sure she was on the slide. When Kat transformed back she landed smoothly and let the momentum carry her. She was quickly picking up speed.

And spotted a problem. Not long into the slide, it split into three. Which way did you go?!

[No idea. Still rolling. Didn’t even notice there was a split. Let me just…] Kat couldn’t see it but Lily expanded her shadow rapidly, inflating it like it was a beach ball. Lily’s shadow soon clogged the entire tunnel and was, attempting, to keep her in place. She was slowed down, but not stopped. A glance backwards didn’t tell her anything. She could see a left turn behind her… but Lily knew that wasn’t the first turn she’d experienced either. [Nope. No idea. Sorry.]

Kat grit her teeth and just… let the ground take her wherever it wanted. It was probably better to ride the natural flow of the slide and hope it matched up with what Lily had experienced rather then trying to randomly guess. Kat had been mostly expecting to just keep going forward through the middle gap but the slight bend in the floor stent her off to the right, up the wall a slight bit, and then back down, practically shoving her into the left side tunnel.

Kat continued the ride down, glassy blue stone flying past her but there wasn’t yet any side of the other two. Kat could feel roughly where Lily was… but the slides were moving ’forward’ for the most part, with the occasional turn here and there. It meant that Kat had no idea how close she was in truth or if this path was the correct one. *Can you two like, leave a mark for me or something?*

Lily gave a mental nod and turned her shadow claws onto the floor… only to fail to make any real dent. Hissing at the issue got Hedera’s attention. “Are you trying to slow us down?” Lily shook her head at Hedera’s question. Shrugging at the answer, she instead pulled out a knife and stabbed it into the floor. The grinding sound was AWFUL even if Hedera didn’t keep it up for long. One single stab into the ground.

Of course, as if marking their progress was an insult, they immediately rounded the corner and found another split. Lily was ready and paying attention this time. [We’re heading left!]

Kat sent a mental nod of confirmation back towards Lily as she kept up her slide, keeping an eye out for the mark Lily had left on the ground. Ten seconds later, there was still no sign of any mark on the floor… but there was a split in the slide. Shit. Am I on the wrong slide or not? If I took the right one instead of the left Lily went down… would I meet in the middle? Mayb they were on the far right and we could meet up after another left? Or do I just go left because I know for a fact she went that way?

Kat didn’t have long. Her wings were twitching with the desire to open. Just one little flex and she could have as much time as she wanted to decide where to go… and Lily would be getting further away that entire time. Kat grit her teeth… and decided to go left. She didn’t know if it was the correct path, especially when she could feel Lily off a bit further to the right… but Kat didn’t know what to do, and didn’t want to waste time figuring it out.

Soon after sliding into the left tunnel, she was thrown into a corkscrew that spat her out heading right. It… didn’t seem quite right for where Lily was, but perhaps that was just the worry talking. It was a nice long straight away with nothing to worry about.

A direct contrast to what Lily was dealing with further up ahead. Lily could see a rapidly approaching open cavern and their slide did not come with safety rails. Their speed was high, perhaps too high. That safety rails complaint gave her a good idea though. Resting in her spot inside Hedera’s armour, Lily let her shadow morph into two long spindly limbs with wheels on the end.

The pair were launched out of the tunnel and into open slide. The first corner was coming up fast and Lily pushed her shadows into the sides. The wheels awkward to keep in proper form, and needing a little adjusting to roll smoothly… but as they approached the corner and Lily felt them turn with it instead of flying off she knew it was worth it. Lily also sent a quick warning for Kat, to let her know the room was coming.

Kat readied herself. Unlike Lily who was now zooming around corners, Kat was prepared to just glide across the room. Using the momentum she’d built up from the slide to keep her going above top speed while abusing the fact she could fly to cut through the room. So when Kat found something completely different, her heart hit the floor.

*Fuck.*

Instead of a nice open area for her to flex her wings in, Kat found a sheer drop contained within a stony tube. It gave her no freedom and was going to, without fail, send her straight downwards. Kat couldn’t see the bottom yet, and wondered how survivable this was meant to be.

*Do I double back? I can fly so I can just go back to the first split and pick a different direction… unless these tunnels all lead the same place? Shit. Shit. Lily what do you think?*

[Keep going. We still don’t know where we went the first time. If we end up in different places you can backtrack then if it feels like we’re too far away.]

Kat sighed but let herself keep going. As she approached the edge… she’d expected to fall straight off. Instead she slammed into the wall. It didn’t really hurt but it did surprise Kat that she had enough speed for it. As Kat fell down the tunnel, she debated bringing out her wings. It was a bit cramped but there didn’t seem to be anything at the bottom to help…

As Kat was debating, something felt like it latched onto her waist and pulled her back against the slide. As she approached the ground, there was a curve that she was stuck to. This way, she managed to avoid cratering at the bottom of the tunnel, and instead zoomed off at vastly increased speed. *Why was there something so handy for the landing but nothing to stop me from slamming into the wall?*

Kat didn’t get her answer as she was sped off into a series of blades. They were reaching out from inside the walls and seemed to stab in a wave. The one at the front would shoot out first, then as it started to retract the one behind it would launch out. Kat was more worried for what this meant for Lily and Hedera but she’d not received another warning from them. Checking Lily’s vision revealed why. They were still in the open room. The turns were sharper and scarier… but Lily had a system and it was working.

Kat had it similarly easy. A dash of water transformation and she’d be fine… but Kat did also have regeneration and she wanted to test herself a bit. Waiting for the timing, Kat shifted a bit before flapping her wings twice. This was enough to flow her down majorly, and meant she was now in sync with the blades. Before she was going way too fast. Kat wasn’t sure what you were meant to do, but her idea seemed to work.

Kat carefully eyed the blades as she slid along. No reason to get Lily angry at her because she didn’t take the trap carefully. Luckily for her girlfriend, Kat made it through the swarm of knives completely fine. Didn’t even lose a bit of her kimono.