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

Chapter 2155: Chapter 2155 Water We Doing? Part 3

--- Kat ---

”That... how is that chest still looking pristine? Why is it there?” asked Furen as the group stared down at the rather noticeable treasure chest underneath the water. It was just sitting suspended over one of the larger pipes that was sucking water down to distribute to other sections of the facility.

”Not sure,” answered Lily so that Kat didn’t have to risk it being a lie. They weren’t totally sure... but the pair had a good guess. *I thought there wasn’t any of these in the city?*

[I mean that was an assumption WE made not a deliberate fact. I’m honestly more surprised we didn’t find one before now, but I suppose it makes enough sense. We should grab it.]

*Alright. Can you reach down with your shadows then?*

[Probably not...]

*What? Why?*

[The current. Remember, my shadows behave a bit more like real things in this magically charged water. I don’t think I have enough leverage to pull the chest up. I’m more likely to be pulled down instead. Even if that wasn’t a worry, I’m just not sure I can reel it in surrounded by water.]

*Ok... so do you want me to try and get it? The current is pretty strong, or at least it seems that way, but I can probably pull myself away if I’m holding the edge and I have the storage bracelet on so I can just shove it in there. You’d need to hold Furen for a bit, or maybe she could walk by herself now. She’s probably recovered.*

[I mean... that seems a bit dangerous. But... hmm... if I... no that will just get me pulled over the edge anyway. WAIT you can turn into water, can’t you just... reform your arm and use that to put the chest away, then transform into water again before reforming on the surface?]

*Lily you should know that’s not how that works. I’m a very specific bit of water. It might look the same as the rest of the water here, but I’m not just ’water’ I’m ’Kat infused water’ and those parts can be sucked away with the current like normal. I can keep myself together if the current isn’t too strong, but that right there IS way too strong.

The reforming hand part MIGHT work except for the fact that the current, as previously mentioned, is really strong so it’d be extremely difficult to do with essentially no practice. Honestly just climbing down is probably safer...*

”What are we waiting for? The core isn’t going to be in that chest, and it seems magically reinforced,” commented Furen.

”Oh, Lily and I were thinking of grabbing it... but we’re not sure how to do so safely,” commented Kat.

”Her shadows can’t grab it?” asked Furen. Kat sighed and Lily explained what she’d already mentally communicated to Kat about her current limitations. Perhaps if there was a way to settle things a bit...

”... wait a minute. Could you freeze the water nearby and then grab the chest?” asked Lily.

Kat stared down at the large amount of water. She had no idea if the fact it was so magical would help or hinder things. Usually the answer would be hinder... but it wasn’t something that could think. It was just water. It was also something that could ’naturally’ turn to ice. ”Let me give it a quick test.”

Kat first let Furen off her back before kneeling down to place her hand on the water and summoned up a bit of demonic fire. Kat kept it burning for a few moments and watched as the ice chunks started to form. Something that was a bit of a surprise considering how much turbulence the water here was generating from the waterfalls and the pipes. Still... it didn’t cost all that much energy to do.

For all that it was brimming with mana, it had no resistance at all to the effect. Still... they weren’t exactly right next to the chest. Kat also wasn’t sure she could freeze enough of the water fast enough. A few more tests followed before a plan solidified. Kat summoned the biggest fireball she could manage while Lily directed her shadows to block the waterfalls so they wanted use up any of the energy.

Kat then, pushed the big glob of fire directly over to the pipe... and let it dropped. The water sizzled and cracked as it froze but Kat simply forced the demonic energy downwards. It was exhausting to work at such a scale, but the pipe quickly started to suck in the ice and it was easy to keep building on things at that point. Of course... this also meant that instead of forming a nice ball of ice around the chest it was just sitting on top of it.

”Alright we need a new plan...” mumbled Kat.

With the plan scrapped they all went back to the drawing board. It was a debate of epic precautions that all ended up with Kat going back to her original plan. Just diving into the water, grabbing the chest and leaving. Lily wasn’t happy. Furen wasn’t happy, and honestly Kat just wanted the whole thing dealt with.

But once the plan was in action it proved to be the correct one. For all that Lily was worried, Kat could swim quite well and the pipe, while huge, wasn’t so large that Kat couldn’t hold onto the edge and lean over to wave her storage bracelet next to the chest. The current was powerful sure... but simply having a place to ground yourself made it easy to deal with. Kat wasn’t sure she could swim through it, but simply moving herself around it was easy.

Getting away entirely was a little harder, but Kat just had to pull herself out of the pipe and then dive a bit deeper to get away. Most of the water being sucked up was getting taken in from the top of the room where the waterfalls kept it fed. The lower stuff was close to completely still.

Now that Kat was close to the ground she could see that it was clearly intended to be at least a little flooded. The pipes were a decent example, but there was some separation, theoretically, between the pipes, waterfalls, and the rest of the area... but she was beginning to think that not all of the waterfalls were meant to be flowing.

The floor was covered in moss in a thick blanket. Kat had originally assumed it was waterlogged carpet or something but the stuff was clearly organic. It seemed like it kept the area clean because you could make out little bits and pieces of dust that got sucked down towards it. Very slowly, and ’sucked’ might be the wrong word but it was cleaned away all the same.

Kat looked at the moss for a while, feeling it was a bit oddly placed... when she noticed that in a few areas she could just barely make out a pathway. Apparently the moss wasn’t quite meant to cover the entire floor. Still, it wasn’t what she was looking for. Kat was hoping to have some indication of where she needed to go or perhaps some sigh that Lily’s monster she’d seen in the water was real... but nothing. So Kat swam upwards, transforming just as she breached the water to avoid needing to pull herself up onto the platform. Kat was sure she could do it, but doing so without knocking everyone else off was another matter.

Kat reformed, dry, and smiled at the other two. ”The water down there is pretty clear. If you wanted to take a look around you could... but I’m still not sure how much time we want to spend looking around here. Do we want to be here overnight for example?”

Furen winced at the idea before shrugging. ”If that’s what it takes,”

Kat gave Lily a glance. [While it might be a bit dangerous... there’s nothing wrong with it in practice. You probably weren’t going to sleep tonight anyway and I can nap in your arms. Furen will be the worst off... but if it’s just one day she’ll probably be fine, especially if we finish up before say, lunchtime. Plus, without Furen around the risk of an attack on the house goes down a fair bit.]

*Those are all fair points but I don’t like the fact that we’d still be down here and we haven’t told anyone that we’re ok. It’s one thing if the plan was always to stay overnight it’s an entirely different thing if we’re stuck here overnight and people are worrying about it.*

[I guess that’s true, but I don’t think they would be too worried...]

*Counterpoint, didn’t we already find one horrific crime against nature here? What if they think we got stuck down here because we found a second one.*

[Ok that’s a good point. In that case, even if we stay overnight we HAVE to be out be early morning just so that nobody comes in looking for us. I’d feel awful if they get hurt because of us like that.]

*Yeah. Though it’s probably only around lunchtime now, so we have time.*

[Yeah. We have time.]