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

--- Hunter ---

Hunter had a frown marring her face when she paused in place. She’d been ’running’ through the slightly inclined tunnels for five minutes at this point, which wasn’t long under normal circumstances but she’d been moving at a good speed. Strdl had slowed her down somewhat but not much and yet there was no sign of the bunker that certainly sounded like it was right beneath the manor. "Ronldo, how long does it take to get to the vault?"

Ronldo shook his head, pretending to wake up as he craned his neck to look at Hunter. "Eh… I want to say five minutes? It’s not that far down. Why do you ask?"

"You cannot immediately see the issue with that statement?" queried Hunter.

"Hey! I’m in a truly great deal of pain right now so my sense of time might not be as perfect as it once was. Minutes could seem like hours you know," retorted Ronldo.

"It has already been five minutes of running," stated Hunter, willing to go along with Ronldo’s nonsense for a little bit.

"Could be you’re a bit slow? I mean… it can’t be easy to run without any legs," sniped Ronldo.

Hunter just rolled her eyes. "Couldn’t come up with something original then? I practically grew up hearing that one,"

"Look, I can’t just come up with my best material at the drop of a hat. Gotta get me warmed up a bit first maybe GIVE ME A HAND to set the mood a bit," retorted Ronldo.

Hunter responded by smacking him over the back of the head… with his severed hand. "You didn’t," whispered Ronldo.

"I did," confirmed Hunter.

"You would really bully a man when he’s down like that?" asked Ronldo.

"When she sees a man I’m sure she’ll be more accommodating you snake… er… I mean…" Strdl went red faced and looked away trying her best not to give into the impulse to slam her head repeatedly into the wall to get the stupid out. "I’m so sorry…"

"Once again. I’ve heard it before," stated Hunter. "Back to the matter at hand. Is there anything you notice that’s off about the tunnel? I can confirm at least that we are not in a closed loop. There is no trace of our scents up ahead but the fact it’s taking so long does indicate there are issues,"

Ronldo shrugged the best he was able trapped in crystals and said, "Look I surveyed this once so that I knew where to go if I had to use it but unlike the other two I didn’t check up on them. If the enchantments or the walls needed reinforcing it was very much not my job,"

Hunter didn’t say anything further, instead she took off back down the tunnel, continuing to sprint for another five minutes before pausing and glancing around once more. They’d made… no visible progress and the vault hadn’t come into view. Everything looked normal at first glance.

The tunnel was pretty barren with flat stone walls and ceiling. The floor had a slight brick patterning to it, but it was only slightly and basically just a visual embellishment the floor wasn’t made of bricks. Hunter had been providing the light with her demonic fire for most of the run but now that they’d stopped a second time she pulled out two lanterns, one for herself and one for Strdl.

Carefully examining the walls with the lantern in hand Hunter managed to work out what was bothering her. It was very slight, but the walls were just barely twisted. Where before they had been proper right angles to the floor they were now just slightly off that mark. Even still… that wouldn’t normally be enough for Hunter. Plenty of places she’d been had poor designers and poorer construction.

Still… even as Hunter ran her hands along the wall she could already tell something else was going on. "Let’s continue. Something is odd here but I cannot quite see it,"

"I bet it’s aliens," said Ronldo.

Strdl glanced at Hunter who was moving back to pick up Ronldo and when Hunter paused for a moment before grabbing hold of the crystal sled, Strdl whacked him in the back of the head for his stupid answer. Then thought for a few moments, "Wait…are aliens really?"

"Sometimes," responded Hunter as she started to move, picking up speed and forcing Strdl to run to keep up. "Not all dimensions have them. Not all dimensions are large enough to have them. Though technically demons are from other dimensions and may count as aliens as well. You have a number of ways to think about it,"

Strdl didn’t know how to respond to that so she kept running in silence. As they continued the changes that seemed to take place earlier in the tunnel were becoming clearer. The once slightly bent walls were starting to twist around and waver. The ground was no longer a smooth path and Strdl was starting to struggle with keeping up. "Um… should we stop?" asked Strdl after one particularly nasty trip. Only the fact Hunter tapped Strdl with her tail kept the other girl from falling over.

"No. It is clear that the area has become distorted in a major way. I suspect that someone was messing the enchantments long before the crystal was added to the manor. I do not know why, perhaps they were lucky or perhaps they simply have an interest in space and time magics. Ronldo, any insight for us?" said Hunter.

"Not particularly. I wasn’t aware that we even had space enchantments down here. Well, besides the few obvious ones…" said Ronldo.

"What do you consider ’the obvious ones’?" asked Hunter.

"Oh… well there’s the expanded pockets for the drawers in the vault alongside a few different enchantments to teleport us elsewhere if things get really bad," answered Ronldo, being completely honest for once. Unlike Hunter who was somewhat used to twisted space the entire area was starting to freak him out. It just… looked and felt unnatural to him. As if someone had let the paint inside a frame remain wet for a long time.

It was something Hunter hardly noted. Alongside the twisting and the waves the stones on the walls had developed an almost gloopy texture if you looked at them in the wrong way as if they were melting wax. To Hunter they seemed normal, for someone of her power this ’small’ but of distortion was easily compensated for by her eyes and brain. The transportation process for jumping between worlds was a much bigger shock to the system.

But for Strdl and Ronldo? It was much worse. Strdl was more concerned about the floor, as someone with legs she was having issues remaining standing. Ronldo, was more concerned about the fact that he could still see the walls melting even with his eyes clothes. The slow movement as things seemed to get worse behind his eyes was a worrying ’sight’. It was better just to keep looking, at least things made a bit of sense then.

"I am unsure if that is sufficient to power all of this. We have destroyed most of the other drake pieces at this point… and simply having one nearby could not have caused all of this…" Hunter was going to keep explaining but paused mid-sentence, sensing something head. She stuck out a hand to stop Strdl in place.

A moment later a tear in space appeared and large stretched appendages that seemed to swap between being hands, tentacles and animated slime for a few seconds. They slammed into the nearby walls causing damage and shaking the tunnel for a few moments before Hunter shot them once, causing them to disappear.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!" shouted Strdl.

"Don’t worry about it," stated Hunter.

"I feel like I’m definitely worrying about it already," retorted Strdl.

"Hey I didn’t even see it but I agree with the police girl. I’m definitely worrying about it," agreed Ronldo.

"It really is better just to not worry about it," stated Hunter as she started moving forward once again.

"WAIT WAIT WAIT, YOU’RE GOING TO DRAG ME WHEVER THAT THING JUST WAS?!" screamed Ronldo

"I told you not to worry about it," stated Hunter with a glare.

"It’s really not helping I’m just getting more worried. What the heck WAS that?!" retorted Ronldo.

Hunter remained silent to Strdl begged, "Please give us some information. I mean… we’ve gotta know what it is to fight it right? You managed to kill it right?"

"No just force it to retreat for now. Best not to think about it," stated Hunter.

"You can’t just leave it like that!" whined Strdl.

"I can and I am," stated Hunter.

"Please,"

"No,"

"PLEASE"

"No,"

"please?"

"No. Stop asking and stop thinking about it. You’re only making it worse," insisted Hunter.

"Wait… I’m making it worse by thinking about it? How in the world am I meant to NOT think about thee horrifying mass of not-tentacles?!" responded Strdl.

A tearing sound echoed down the tunnel from where they’d just come from and Strdl slammed her mouth shut. "I’ll figure something out,"

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