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

--- Lily ---

As they entered the tunnel that Lily suspected would lead to the gate, Drl made a gesture for quiet and took off his rather large and heavy boots, leaving him in just socks. From there her quietly walked forward and Lily followed after him just as silently. Perhaps it was her feline instincts, but she was able to match, or perhaps better the volume of her footfalls. She was a bit curious as to why they were doing this…

Until after they'd rounded a few corners and it became obvious why. Two people were hunched over a table playing cards and wearing somewhat shoddy armour. It was impossible to tell what gender either person was but Lily strongly suspected one of them was going to be Dav. As Drl snuck closer… neither reacted. They just kept playing cards as if nothing was wrong right up until Drl stood to his full height and bellowed. "WHAT ARE YOU LAZY SACKS OF SHIT DOING!"

Both people jumped up instantly, though one much more graceful then the other. The figure on the left managed to stand up sideways, swiftly getting to their feet and pick up their weapon that had been leaning against the wall to point at Drl, all in one smooth effortless motion. They would've looked quite professional if not for their partner.

Said partner had tried and failed to immediately jump to their feet just a moment after the first figure. Instead they slammed their knees into the table knocking it up and forward enough that it looked ready to tip over. So they reached forward and ripped it back down… right onto their foot. Now, they did luckily have armour on so they avoided any damage… but really it was just delaying the inevitable.

Unable to be properly put down on the ground the table bounced off the protect foot and slid sideways into the back of the first figure knocking them forward and bit and causing them to drop their weapon to avoid skewering Drl with the pike… which caused the dropped weapon to roll towards the second figure who had almost gotten their bearings. Lily waited with baited breath, ready for it to set off some other comedy of errors but instead it just bumped into their foot. Lily didn't know if she was disappointed or not.

"Uncle!" hissed the more graceful figure. Huh. I would've thought that Drl was the clumsy one. I guess for all that he's lazy he does at least know how to do his job. That or he's gotten caught more than enough times to know how not to knock over the table. "What the heck are you doing here? And why were you trying to scare the shit out of us?"

"Wait that guys your UNCLE?" said the clumsy figure.

"Yes, yes he is. Uncle you might know Crstyl… you've met before I think. Crstyl, this is my uncle Drl and I'm not sure what he's doing here…" grumbled Dav.

"Need to get your eyes checked boy. I'm obviously here because of the demon behind me," Huh. Guess he thinks I'm a demon… close enough I suppose. "she got in and contacted me so we could get the doors open,"

"Wait how did she get in? Can't they have all just come in that way?" asked Dav.

"No, she came in the vents,"

"The vents?! Damn I remember getting told off as a kid for trying to climb down those…"

"For good reason your fool ass would've hit the ground and died. It's a long drop down those,"

"How'd she live then?"

Drl rolled his eyes. "Look nephew, we can have this conversation later if you really want to know the details but the little missy here has her friends waiting out in the cold. Can you get to opening the door?"

"Well… ur…" Dav glanced around. "According to protocol the door can only open if I receive the correct signal," Dav pointed at the wall that showed a blue sigil painted on the wall. "or if the guard captain gives permission, either in person or via written and signed declaration,"

"Don't be an ass Dav. That's an old rule and not one anyone cares about. Besides, it's not like triggering the signal is hard if you know where it is, and we let plenty of people in who don't know about it," said Drl.

"Yeah but that's always been part of the routine checks," said Dav with a shrug.

"You just don't want to open the door you lazy little shit," grumbled Drl.

"How hard it is to turn the crank and release the deadbolt is completely irrelevant to my desire to follow the guard's codebook on the matter," stated Dav. Though, for some 'strange' reason Lily got the impression he was lying.

"I'll bloody open it if I need to you lazy shithead. It's not that hard," said Drl.

"Oh in that case go ahead," announced Dav with a bow of his waist as he stepped to side. Drl rolled his eyes knowing that that had probably been the point of the entire conversation. Drl moved to the wall and pressed a part of the sigil that looked much like the rest to Lily. Except it open up the rock wall nearby revealing a large metallic wheel.

Drl cranked it around and around, and Lily could quickly see the deadbolts in the door retracting. There were three of them total lined up against the door. Each a giant metal bar thicker then her arm. Drl didn't seem to have much trouble moving them but they were huge and even with stuff to help it likely was quite heavy. Lily considered helping… but honestly the wheel was designed for one person and Drl was doing fine.

Once the bolts had retracted the door started to open on its own. Meg didn't bother waiting for it to raise full and simply slipped under the gate and into the tunnel. Hunter followed soon after, and while Lily didn't see it. Kat and Kamiko shared a look of exasperation at the other two.

"You know, I was told never to do that in case the gate broke and crushed you," commented Dav with the same tone of voice one would remark on the weather with. As if this was merely a fact and not a potentially horrific fate.

"Yeah and I'm quite sure that if the gate tries to crush me the gate will break first," stated Meg with a challenging glare. Dav just shrugged. Not his problem. ℞αŊΟᛒЕꞩ

Seeing this Meg followed up with a question, "So anyone know where the Snowy Mountain Mining Company warehouse is? I've got a delivery,"

"Aren't those the guys that had a tunnel collapse three days ago?" asked Crstyl.

"Wait that was them?" asked Drl as he stepped out of the alcove. "I did hear some rumours of a cave in… but I didn't expect the mining companies to be behind it. They're usually a lot more careful considering they're professionals,"

"No um…" Crstyl looked around a bit. "I heard about it because the Silvers were furious. Apparently some teenagers were digging around for fun, one of them is an earth mage and the other a fire mage see and they were 'exploring'. Ended up hitting a gas pocket or something like that and well… the fire mage was the light source.

Everyone except Meg winced. Well, Hunter had vanished at some point so Lily didn't know if Hunter was wincing or not. Still that was… decidedly not good. "Anyone die?" asked Drl.

Crstyl shook her head. "I don't think so? I mean… they were all in a LOT of trouble from what I heard so I'm guessing they were fine? I didn't hear anything about one dying at least…"

Meg cut in, "So is there any other way to get into the warehouse?" Meg got a round of shrugs from everyone. "Real helpful…"

"I think they'd accept the delivery at the headquarters," added Dav, pulling attention to him. Meg made a go-on gesture. "Well I mean… I don't know what exactly you've got on you but if it was rushed here with demons instead of coming through the usual merchants then I imagine they want it pretty bad. They might not have tonnes of space at their offices but they can probably make enough in this instance,"

Meg nodded, "Well that's good enough for me… I've got some questions to ask around. Find out some details. Though…" Meg eyed the trio for a few moments. "Any of you heard about a big crystal? Looks something like this?" Meg pulled out something from her storage ring and projected a hologram of large drake part they'd already destroyed.

Dav flinched at the sight but didn't say anything. Meg glared at him, her eyes starting to sparkle and… was there a bit of demonic fire in them? It was hard to tell what with them being crystals. Dav cracked pretty quickly, though he didn't seem that worried. "Well… it wasn't me but Crazy Curl might have been saying something about the 'biggest damned crystal I ever saw' but well… I'm sure you can guess by the name that I didn't take him too seriously,"

Meg nodded, "Well it seems like we've got two places to visit… where can we find Curl?"

"At 'The Rickety Tavern' it's… well it's a place. If you follow the main road back out the tunnel and turn left right under the light you'll see it," said Dav.

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