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

Chapter 1527: Chapter 1527 No Steps Forward

--- Kat --- (Later on the same day as 1524 the most recent Lily chapter)

It was late in evening and they'd found no sign of the drake. Kat and Hunter remained at their camp to heal up. It was the best compromise because both needed rest, but if push came to shove Kat could certainly still fight off anything in the area. Not that the monsters had returned yet, Lily couldn't hear anything to indicate they'd already moved back in but better to remain somewhat on guard.

From there, Kamiko, Lily and Bower had all left to try and find traces of the drake. Lily had flown straight to the place the drake had been taken into the bubble and... nothing. The ash had been thrown around a good amount but it all seemed to be from when their group entered the bubble. Lily did keep an eye out for any tracks leading away from the centre but there was nothing she could see.

A better test was when she went back over it with her nose.

The drake didn't have a particularly overt smell, but Lily could remember hints of various things if she thought back to the fight. Lily did regularly feel like she could almost smell the drake. It was very strange... but her instincts were confident that this smell, however weird and not-quite-smell-like it happened to be, was days old at this point.

Now, Lily could admit that simply assuming that meant the drake was only here days ago would be a mistake. It was a time drake after all. So Lily carefully checked the edges of the clearing and could only find traces of the monster along the obvious path, which of course put the final nail in that particular coffin.

While Lily was scouting that out Kamiko and Bower both chose different directions and went to look for any signs of the drake. With no monsters around it was rather easy... even unsatisfying. They continued their search until the sun was sinking below the horizon but they too found nothing to indicate the drake had been around.

They'd covered a good chunk of the area unhidden by the mist by the time they got back.

Kat and Hunter had mostly just relaxed. Kat had tried to mess around with demonic energy but it seemed particularly uncooperative. That might just been the regular shivers of pain though. Hunter did the smarter thing and went to sleep, trusting Kat to keep watch while she recovered. Well, as much as she could recover with a short nap anyway.

When everyone met back up, it was quickly decided to just have leftovers. They also decided to set up another tarp for the ground and spread out some beanbags for everyone. Well, except Hunter but she already had the giant pillow which did about the same job. They quickly sank into their respective beanbags, leftovers in hand, and let out long sighs.

"So... nothing?" asked Kamiko.

"Nothing," agreed Lily.

"Not, a, thing," said Bower.

Kamiko sighed, "I hadn't expected anything else... um... I did check back with D.E.M.O.N.S a few times but it eventually just gave me the equivalent of a disappointed glare,"

Hunter shrugged again, "I do not know Lily. They clearly have a system in place for regularly summoning demons when necessary but I cannot say how often it becomes such,"

"Wouldn't D.E.M.O.N.S prevent us from asking it questions if there were other demons around?" asked Kat thinking back to the incident with Stan.

Hunter shook her head, "No it only does that when two demons are directly or indirectly competing against each other. Nobody else should be looking for the drake... and even if there was, D.E.M.O.N.S would ignore that particular rule to help us because of the seriousness of the issue. It entirely possible the nearby demons would be drafted into the effort if D.E.M.O.N.S felt it's necessary,"

"Wait that can happen?" asked Lily.

"I have heard so, and been given examples of it happening, but in my decades doing this I've never seen random demons get roped into the hunting mission. I have received reinforcements a few times, but they were always sent in explicitly as reinforcements. I've even been part of a reinforcing team a few times as well," explained Hunter.

"What were those missions like?" asked Kamiko.

"Most of them are for threats that start spreading in major ways. It is usually not power that causes reinforcements to be summoned. Occasionally it does happen, but in the unlikely event reinforcements are required, it's usually because a swarm of monsters was improperly contained, or the group lacks the ability to properly contain them and doesn't want to take the risk," explained Hunter.

"But doesn't D.E.M.O.N.S look in on things? Why would reinforcements be necessary?" asked Kat.

"D.E.M.O.N.S can't monitor everything all the time Kat. Or well... perhaps it can? Its full capabilities have never been made clear but I know for fact it doesn't monitor everything all the time. Do take note of my earlier statement. Reinforcements are usually for swarms. Perhaps D.E.M.O.N.S missed that one or two would escape the main attack and restart smaller swarms elsewhere that need exterminating.

"It could also be the case that numbers escalated more then projected. Or that it was a mission the group could accomplish had they made proper time, but delays meant that the monsters spread out a bunch before the demons got there. Quite a few possibilities exist for things of this nature," explained Hunter.

"Sorry... I guess... it's just sort of weird for D.E.M.O.N.S to be so obviously fallible. I might not go about asking it questions as much anymore... but it seemed to have all the answers at the start of my journey. Now... now it has nothing for us.

Which, I mean, it wouldn't necessarily have answered such a specific question before but like... I don't know, I just feel like if there was any time for it to have the answers. It would be now," said Kat with a sigh.

"D.E.M.O.N.S is good, but there is a balance Kat. We just seem to be on the poor side of the scales for the moment," stated Hunter.