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

--- Kat ---

Kat and Lily shared a look of concern. *Ok this is potentially a bigger issue then I thought it would be. I'm not saying that I want to skip out or anything… but will you be ok if you come along?*

[Kat I will be fine. From the sounds of things whatever hatches from the egg will be mindless and I trust you to protect me from something like that. Though… I do have to wonder why it took so long to 'gestate' I suppose?]

*Good question…* "We both still have a lot of questions…" started Kat.

"Well that is what I'm here for," Miznark cut in to say.

"Right… so we were wondering why it took so long for the egg to hatch?" asked Kat.

Miznark shrugged, "Who can say. There are all sorts of guesses but nobody really knows. I can share them of course. Um… so the favourite guess is that there just wasn't enough powerful life around. Something so corrupted by demonic energy needs a lot of fuel to burn if it wants to get stronger.

"Now most don't… but this drake seems like the type of thing that is going to push higher rather than just lash out at it's starting Rank. Something you probably don't know, is that demonically corrupted stuff like this drake? They can forcibly increase their rank by consuming other powerful lifeforms.

"It's not something you can do without corruption, and even for the corrupted entity in question it's still not a good idea… they just don't know that. See, when you absorb lifeforce like that? Eventually you just explode," Miznark said, adding in a shadow explosion over on of their hands for emphasis.

"Now this is very much not a good thing for us because it'd be a large explosion, one that not only has the chance to blow up the planet, but spread a bunch of demonic energy around. So yeah really not something we want to encourage.

"Ok where was I? Yes the 'why now'. The top guess is that there is now a sufficient amount of 'strong' lifeforms around for it to devour. Possibly enough for it to get to the point it can devour the planet if it was left unchecked.

You won't have to worry too much, it'll still take time to build up to that point, but you at least have an idea of what could happen if we left it unchecked for a decade or so. Trust me, we're trying to be on top of this whole thing.

"Second best guess? The drake was damage in the explosion and it took this long for it to heal. Demonic energy, especially wild stuff like this? Horrible for healing. You normally need an ability or two to help filter things out. Very rare to get healing demonic flames.

"In this case? If you follow that train of thought, the dragon was basically dead and the energy inside it wasn't having that. Crazy it may be, but everything wants to find a way to survive. So it sucked up as much energy as it could from inside the egg keeping it safe until it reached the point it was 'healthy' for a given definition of the word, and then broke out to cause terror and what not.

"Third idea? The egg was dormant for some reason, perhaps the fact its parent was dead… then sometime recently something happened to reactivate it. Perhaps one of Kamiko's missions took her near enough it sensed more demonic energy, perhaps it fell into some lava and that gave it a boost. It's very hard to tell from outside of the dimension,"

"Hey that's a question… why not have someone more powerful go in and just deal with it? You said before that if we failed someone else would be called in didn't you?" asked Lily.

Miznark nodded, "Ok, reasonable question there. We've got a few reasons. The first is the worry that something like this will happen again. If a planet has had one corruption outbreak it tends to get more in the future.

We're not sure if the dimension, or the planet is adapting to allow it to happen… or if the corruption weakens the film between dimensions and allows demonic energy from outside to enter in…

"Could be any number of reasons. It's not my department and not something I've looked into too much. Whatever the case, the worry is we send someone at Rank 5, or a team of 4's? Then we risk destroying one calamity and causing another one down the line. That's not even getting into the danger, and the cost, of pulling in someone even stronger.

Remember, the Angels send us to deal with this shit because they can't without overkill. They're just that strong.

"Rank 3 was determined to be the best mix of 'not too much power' and 'enough power to put the thing down' but we'll admit it's a gamble. Especially with the Rank 2 along. That's why we'll have an observer assigned to you the whole time. They'll be watching the team's vitals from outside of the dimension and pull you out a bit more promptly then if D.E.M.O.N.S was left in charge.

"Don't get me wrong, this is a dangerous and important mission but we are taking steps to ensure that you survive if you fail… and if so? Well we might need to accept destroying the planet as an acceptable casualty. Don't worry, we can evacuate the people, we've got protocols for that… but they won't be happy with us for destroying their homes,"

* I hadn't even considered that…* "Wait, why are you sending Kamiko again?" asked Kat.

"First off we can fudge the numbers on the summoning circle if she goes," explained Miznark "If she doesn't go, we need to pay the cost for sending extra people. Next is she knows the area, at least somewhat and the people trust her. Third we want to keep things on the down low. No sense in riling up the locals by sending in what's clearly a kill-squad.

So Kamiko will lead, pretend Hunter is a friend of you both as well, and that you're around to relax on the kill mission they're providing.

"Then there's the treaty issues. If we weren't fudging the summoning we'd have to actually inform the Angels about the operation and we've got all sorts of reasons not to want to do that. It's a massive pain just… interacting with those things and even if we get one of the better ones?

We'll have to call in someone powerful enough to just TALK to the Angels without using a messenger, or risking someone frying from a particularly heated glare. So yeah… really hoping to avoid that sort of attention,"

*It sounds like avoiding Angel notice is the biggest reason for dragging Kamiko along. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It would be nice to spend some time with her… but this will put her in danger. As much as they might argue that it's safe… unless. Who do you think will be watching our vitals?*

[It's gotta be Nira right? I mean, she's got the skills for it… and if she's hooked up to something to help boost that… I can't see how Nira would allow any of this to go on without her being involved, and if she's the watcher she's got the final say to keep her daughter alive, well and the rest of us hopefully as well.]

*Yeah… sounds like it. I wonder if we can ask? Or would it be best not to let on our suspicions.*

[Probably best not to mention it for now. We can always ask Nira herself] For some reason, that triggered a thought in Kat. "Question… how soon are we meant to leave for this mission?"

"Likely tomorrow or the day after depending on when everything is finalised," answered Miznark.

*Really not what I wanted to hear… on the other hand it's literally the end of the world. Not mine, but still.* Kat let out a sigh. She still had questions, but they didn't seem as important as the ones she'd already asked. Even cycling through quite a few of them Kat could see they would lead to mostly irrelevant answers, or 'I don't know' as the answer. Still Kat had to try a few.

"So we're expected to go in and kill this thing… how dangerous is it?"

"We're not really sure…" admitted Miznark. "We've got calculations and historical data to back things up, but the real issue is any special abilities it might have. We suspect, that by the time you three find it, the drake in question shall be newly Rank 3 or at the top of Rank 2. Something you should be able to deal with… unless it has a powerful ability but there's no way to know,"

"Why is this 'a drake or dragon'" asked Lily. "Surely you would know?"

"By technical definition a drake is a close relative of true dragons and is defined by its lack of sentience. We personally suspect that the egg in question WAS a dragon egg, but with all the demonic energy corrupting it there's no way it's sentient anymore, even if it might have had the chance to be originally,"