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

Chapter 1392 Lily’s Shadow Testing

--- Lily ---

It was the next morning and Lily wasnʼt too happy with the current state of affairs. ”Come on Lily, youʼre the one who wanted me to wake you up for practice,” whispered Kat right next to Lilyʼs ears. An easy thing to do when they were much larger than the human equivalent.

Lily let out a hiss as she swiped in Katʼs direction… but as was the norm she was in her Memphis form, so she simply didnʼt have the reach. ”Donʼt be like that. Iʼm just doing as you asked Lily,”

*Itʼs WAY to early for this nonsense.*

”If you want to sleep thatʼs fine Lily. This is meant to be a bit of a break for us. You can train later if you really want… but you DID ask for this. So Iʼm sticking to my end of the bargain. Until you tell me to go away or get out of bed Iʼm going to continue to pester you,” said Kat.

Lily set out a huff but transformed and held her arms out while making grabbing motions. ”Carry me!” whined Lily.

”You know you could just ask normally instead of exaggerating like this right?” asked Kat as she swept Lily up into a bridal carry for a moment… then realised that the door to their room wouldnʼt be large enough and moved Lily to her shoulder. ”Especially not when I can feel that youʼre not annoyed, even at this,”

”What? No. Iʼm totally annoyed. This indignity wonʼt stand and all that,” said Lily calmly as she used her new position to look at Katʼs ass as best she could. Katʼs wings were in the way, and the kimono Kat always wore wasnʼt helping matters… but Lily didnʼt exactly mind. Imagination was half of the fun.

”I could just strip down naked for you if you want,” said Kat.

”Hey, I meant what my internal dialogue was saying. The imagination part is included in the fun here! Plus Iʼd probably just pass out,” said Lily.

”Youʼve seen me naked before you know,” Kat pointed out.

”Look, itʼs different now. And no, the times Iʼve seen you naked the times you were in my head donʼt count. Even if it was actually you and not just a figment of my imagination itʼs just… different ok,” said Lily.

Kat just shrugged… and then winced immediately after. ”Sorry, I wasnʼt thinking properly,”

”Itʼs fine,” said Lily as they made their way down the stairs. At the desk Mintʼs body was frozen, but it was posed in such a way as to be pointing off to the side. Curious, Kat and Lily turned to follow Mintʼs hand, and saw a sign that had been left out. On it, was the words ʼBe in the cafeteria by 8:00pmʼ with a little figure of Thyme drawn in the corner holding a clock.

”I guess weʼve got out time limit,” said Kat.

”I suppose so… wait why are you putting me down?” Lily grumbled as she was placed on her feet just outside of the inn.

”Well, I plan to go to Burniceʼs practice spot and either spar with her, or if she isnʼt there yet, do some katas until she IS there. I take it youʼd rather be doing something else then just watching me practice?” asked Kat.

Lily had a brief flash of Kat in a martial arts uniform with the front open to show off large amounts of cleavage while slicing her hand through iron rods. *Hot.* ”Urrr… wait I mean. I um… hmm. Ah whatever Iʼm too tired to come up with a good excuse for that.

Iʼd love to watch you practice because as much subconscious just told you, the idea is quite hot… but yeah I want to get some practice of my own in and thereʼs no way Iʼd be able to concentrate with you close by,”

Kat gave a shrug and said, ”Well itʼs up to you. I can take you with me… or you can find a place to practice yourself,”

Lily slumped over and let out a long sigh. ”Urgh, probably best I go off and practice. Though do come and get me if it gets too late. I wouldnʼt want to miss Thymeʼs announcement or whateverʼs going on at 8,”

Kat gave Lily a salute, before dashing into to kiss her girlfriend and sprinting off. Lily smiled at the gesture and then started walking in the opposite direction. As Lily was walking she tried the ʼfirst next stepʼ which was to see if she could do anything with the shadows of other things… and the answer was not really.

At this point, while Lily didnʼt have amazing control over her mana, she had enough control to reach out to the other shadows and do… something. Anything. As Lily walked she started trying to get these shadows to do anything at all. Precision was not the aim, just moving a slight amount wouldʼve been enough… but nothing.

Lily kept trying until suddenly one of the shadows reacted. Lily smiled while stopping in place. Claiming this area to practice with. She reached out to the shadow that had moved again and… nothing. Frowning Lily stared down at the plant that cast the shadow sheʼd managed to move before.

Lily focused a good chunk of her mana at the shadow and tried to force it to move again… but nothing. ”Hmm… what is going on. Iʼm sure that I managed to get it to move before. While I suppose it couldʼve been the wind… Iʼm pretty sure it wasnʼt just that. Hmm…” Lily mumbled aloud.

Lily combed through her mind and it quickly became apparent WHY this shadow had reacted. It hadnʼt done anything… until sheʼd moved passed it and her own shadow had connected to the plants. Carefully, Lily reached out with her own shadow and once they connected she tried to move the plantʼs shadow to see what would happen.

Lily watched with mixed feelings as the plants shadow moved… barely. It swayed as if it was being moved by the wind, but the clear lack of movement on the real plant made it clear what was going on. It felt… almost wrong to be doing things like this. Or perhaps not wrong… but like trying to move sand by the handful instead of using a bucket.

It wasnʼt that she was doing this completely wrong, but it was clearly not the best solution either. *Whatʼs even the point of this? I can massively increase the size of my own shadow so why would I need to manipulate a things shadow so… inefficiently?

Oh sure, I can picture a spell where I can control someone with their shadow… but that would be a specific spell, and likely one thatʼs beyond me as I am right now. The plant isnʼt stirring in the slightest regardless of what Iʼm doing with its shadow… and I canʼt even do much with that.*

Still, it was an idea worth testing a bit. Lily tried to reach up with the plants shadow… but it refused. Glaring at the shadow Lily watched as she manipulated it along the ground… but it refused to lift up at all. *Right… well that sort of makes this feel useless. Can I at least connect to multiple shadows?*

Lily warped her shadow until it looked more like a hand and sent the ʼfingersʼ out to five nearby shadows. Everything connected smoothly and Lily could now move all of the shadows. It wasnʼt much harder then moving just the one actually. *I see… so itʼs actually easy to have them move in concert.

I wonʼt say itʼs easy to move a whole bunch of shadows… but most of that difficulty is present when moving any shadow but your own. Adding more shadows doesnʼt up the difficulty all that much. This has potential…

But until I can work out how to do anything useful with the extra shadows Iʼm not sure how worth it this technique is. At the very least it gives me something to do until eight… but Iʼm just not sure whatʼs the point. Could it perhaps be the key to extending my shadows? I… hmm…

The other shadows clearly feel different. Not only are they harder to control, but that separate control is quite apparent in my mind. Hmm… could I string them together though?* Lily disconnected all but one of the fingers leaving her in control of just two shadows. Her own, and the nearest plantʼs shadow.

From there she, slowly, stretched out the plants shadow as much as it would allow and then tried to push her own shadow out of the other side… only for everything to snap back into place. ”Damn…” grumbled Lily. She tried a few more times to the same result. Yet even still… ”I feel like Iʼm right on the edge of something here.

It doesnʼt work… not as it is… but I feel like there might be something to this technique. Hmm… it seems there is more testing to be done,”