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

--- Kat ---

Kat watched as Hunter started to carve out a summoning circle for their reinforcements to use. Apparently that was still necessary even with them already on the mission. The less said about the need for payment the better. Well, that was Kat's thoughts on the matter. Lily clearly didn't agree. "Why are WE paying for reinforcements?"

"Technically we aren't paying anything," cut in Kat. "This was all provided to us for free… but I admit I didn't think we'd be using supplies for something like this,"

"It is baked into the system," stated Hunter. "To summon a demon you need a proper summoning circle as well as adequate payment,"

"Wait… then how do emergency beacons work?" asked Kat. "Because I know for a fact, they can be used to summon someone without paying right that moment… which seems to contradict that,"

"Oh I know that one," said Kamiko. "The beacon itself acts like collateral. The proper metaphysical mechanics were never explained, but basically they can pretend to be a portion of the demon's soul and use that as a weight to summon them instead of the required monetary compensation. It's why there's a backlash when you abuse them too much. It's like putting your soul into debt,"

Kat paled a bit at that bit of info. "That… that seems rather important for people to know… why wasn't this ever explained? Don't get me wrong I don't think I'd have made different choices with my own beacon… but yeah I really feel like it's something I should've known. It also explains why you get more as you get more powerful I guess…"

"Oh, um… it's pretty regularly mentioned in school and stuff. It's… probably not too bad? You can tell when they're being abused before it actually becomes a problem, and forcibly extracting a price is considered 'acceptable punishment' against Summoners who abuse the privilege… but like, they can still be used dozens of times for free before it became a problem," explained Kamiko.

"I was under the impression the margins were smaller…" mumbled Kat.

"Yeah that's intentional but Mum's a doctor so I know the truth. Not meant to tell people about it though. Or well, people who aren't demons. I wouldn't be talking about this if Bower was around," admitted Kamiko.

"Where is he anyway?" asked Kat as she glanced around the clearing they were in.

"He said he wanted to go poke around at the nearby bubbles for some reason. He's got his bangle on though, so it should be fine. Personally, I think he just didn't want to be around to see the summoning circle. Technically we're on official church business and if he found out how to summon demons because of that he'd get in trouble… or so Bower seemed to think," said Kamiko with a shrug.

"Right…" Kat glanced over at Hunter who was mostly done with the circle from the looks of things. "I suppose that makes some sense. Perhaps a touch overly paranoid but fine I guess." Kat paused and then turned to face Hunter, mouth open to ask a question… but decided not to ask until the circle was done. Turning back to Kamiko Kat instead said, "So… do you know how long Bower will be away?"

"He said he'd be at least an hour… and that was about thirty minutes ago so at least that long again," answered Kamiko.

Kat nodded somewhat awkwardly not really sure where to go with the conversation. Lily was more concerned with watching the circle be drawn and Kat didn't want to interrupt either of them for the moment. Kat let out a long puff of air before turning to the first thing she could think of. "So… any progress with your new ability?"

"Nothing new since last evening. I'm still trying to get a feel for it… but I don't really know how to test it without getting injured… and before you volunteer like the dummy I know you are, you'll heal up with you regeneration so it wouldn't be a good test anyway," grumbled Kamiko.

Kat shrugged unrepentant, "I guess you've been listening to Lily complain about that… and I can admit that it was my first thought. What about trying to heal the trees nearby? Scratch them a bit and see if the bubbles work. If they do, you can play around with them a bit without hurting anyone,"

"Huh… that's not a bad idea," mumbled Kamiko as she turned around to the tree she was standing near and sliced a thin line in the bark with her finger and then blew some healing bubbles onto it. Sadly… nothing happened. The bubbles just bounced harmlessly against the tree without healing it at all. "Huh… so that didn't work. I wonder if it's because it's a tree?

The tree is actually dead despite its appearance… or if I just don't know enough about how trees heal?"

"No idea," said Kat with a shrug. "It is your power after all,"

Kamiko pouted, "Have you even worked out what your Rank 4 ability is?"

"Nope," said Kat with another shrug. "Nothing has felt right so far. I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point. Though… how long does it normally take?"

Kamiko gave her own shrug in return, "I dunno. My sisters always made it seem like they knew exactly what they could do the moment they ranked up but I imagine that was just to show off to me instead of the reality. They never once SAID they got it instantly after all. Something I didn't notice when I was younger,"

Kat sighed, "Yeah it's not really eating at me but it would be nice to know. With it confirmed that the drake is still around but that it won't be attacking us anymore… I dunno, I feel like if it was still around I'd be concerned with needing an ability to defend everyone but not knowing how to use it. Now I just sort of feel apathetic about it.

Lily honestly seems more interested in figuring it out then I have been,"

Kamiko was about to say something when Hunter got up brushing herself off and getting everyone's attention. "The circle is done. As we are specifically looking for our assigned reinforcement we must wait until D.E.M.O.N.S sends through the message giving us the go ahead. It shouldn't be too long now,"

"Ah, that's good. Though now that you're not working on delicate linework I was wondering… is learning how to summon other demons worth the time it takes? I mean… I'd never considered it before but now I guess… I don't really know?" asked Kat.

Hunter thought on Kat's question for a moment, letting her tongue slide out a few times to taste the air as she considered it. "I think that depends on you. I would highly suggest finding a time to take the abridged course. The circle I have used now is primarily just for summoning reinforcements that you have already been assigned.

"With a relatively small amount of effort for the benefit it provides you can learn how to draw specifically that circle. As a demon yourself that will cover upwards of ninety percent of the circles you'll find yourself needing to draw. Sadly just copying the circle enough times to be able to do so on command doesn't prepare you for any of the advanced knowledge or nuances to demon summoning.

"In many ways it should not matter as many summoners manage it with much less precise drawings… but from what I know they get significant leeway on such things if the price is high enough. As such I would recommend you either learn to copy that one important circle or accept the need for a large time investment," explained Hunter.

[You know… that could be something to look into together. It's probably best we know how to summon reinforcements and if you have no real interest in learning the finer details past that I could do so for you? From the sounds of things it isn't important too often but as you know I'm always happy to do research. Though… not sure how good I'd be at the drawing things.

Unless I can just project a mental image onto some paper with my magic? I mean that was the idea… but nothing quite so exact as demonic summoning. Hmm…]

Kat smiled as Lily started to go off on her own tangent. Kat didn't mind, it was an interesting idea and certainly something to consider for the future. "Seems we've lost Lily for the time being… so while that's happening is there anything we need to know about our reinforcements?"

Hunter shook her head, "I wasn't informed of any information I would deem relevant. The only thing I can comment on is your earlier remark about the expenses. I can say with certainty that those expenses will be provided alongside whoever is chosen to reinforce us. Not that it is truly our money in this case. Though… now I am wondering how many supplies will be sent along.

We are still quite flush with resources for what should just be a simple find and destroy mission now…"

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