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

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Kat found herself rolling her feet forward and backward as she dealt with the silence. After Meng’s comment about the elders, Feng had decided to just… not deal with this anymore. He had taken out a sleeping bag and requested entrance to the vault, and Bing had stumbled after him with murmurings of needing to meditate and solidify his foundations. Meng agreed as long as they promised not to interrupt Bodeir, and they agreed.

So that left Kat and Meng, once again, alone in front of the big vault door. There had been a lot of traffic going through it today, and Kat didn’t see it as quite so secure anymore. Thick and imposing it might seem, but apparently it was easily opened from the inside, and on the outside, it wasn’t much harder to gain entrance if you were keyed in.

*Well… I’ve got more than a few questions to ask but it seems like everyone else is taking a break so…* “Did you want to get some sleep?” asked Kat.

Meng shook her head, “No certainly not. I have too many emotions running through me to rest, and even if I did not, my cultivation means I can go a week without sleep before any side effects start cropping up, but even then I can push myself to stay awake for a month before it starts to become a real issue. Right now I have enough things to occupy my mind, and sleep would not come easily to me. Well, not without forcing the issue with techniques, but that just opens up a wholly different can of worms,”

“Well… I don’t need the sleep either, and I do have questions so… I’m going to ask some of them. Starting with the obvious bait right there. Why can’t you use a technique to force yourself to sleep? Clearly they exist,” asked Kat.

“Indeed, they do. The primary issue with many, is that they force the body to rest and fail to allow the mind to rest as well. Many are bastardised versions of techniques designed to render your foes unconscious. They were never for a GOOD sleep, just an instant one. Some more advanced techniques I know are based around sleeping for less time and essentially… speeding up the process of sleep.

“The issues with those techniques is that they REQUIRE you to sleep for specific lengths of time. You cannot wake else the technique backfires and you wake up further exhausted. Something I certainly don’t want to risk. The closest I have to a natural technique for sleep, are sleeping drugs, but the ones I have aren’t really intended for personal use and I’m no alchemist. I can make a select number of common poisons and that’s it,” explained Meng.

.....

“Well, they say the difference between poison and medicine is all in the dosage,” offered Kat.

“I know that intellectually, but I simply don’t have the training. I barely understand how things react to produce the recipes I do know. I cannot simply make up knew ones using only existing stock to get a good result. Using untested sleeping drugs right now seems like a horrible idea,” said Meng.

“Makes sense, I just assumed this would be something that would get researched heavily,” said Kat.

“Oh it is, but most of those investigations were performed in the past. A perfect sleeping technique has been sought after for a long time, but unless you have an innately compatible affinity such as Time, or maybe something really niche like, Sleep or Home there doesn’t seem to be anything just yet. The problem is that techniques of that nature take a lot of time to develop and test so there just ends up being other, more important techniques to investigate,” replied Meng.

“I understand. Next question then?” Meng nodded and Kat continued, “Right so… what did you mean when you said Bing had an epiphany? How is that different from like… a breakthrough or just increasing in power and Rank more normally?”

“That’s a bit of a complicated subject…” said Meng. “It’s more something you know when you see it then something you can just go searching for. It’s… almost like a crystallised moment in time. Think of it like several things all slipping into place at just the right moment. In this case, Bing was acting tune with her cultivation technique, her core beliefs, and she was experiencing an onslaught of emotions.

“Then you must take into account her own comprehension. All of those things can line up quite regularly for people who dedicated themselves to a certain Dao. Just imagine if you had the Dao of a hero, constantly saving people, that rush of emotion, adrenaline, cultivation and cultivator working in step… but such heroes don’t simply find themselves constantly beset by enlightenment.

“It would need to be a meaningful moment. Even the job of a hero can be routine when you repeat the same actions over and over again. What made this moment special was likely a combination of Bing’s understanding of the world shattering, yet reforming stronger then before in a short timeframe, and then being tested on her new understanding of the world right after. Though, that’s just a guess.

“If we knew how to achieve such a state every cultivator would constantly be aiming for it. I’m also not saying Bing is magically over everything that has happened. I mentioned before that I think the real test will come when Bing is forced to confront the lack of love and care Bang has for her head on. While Feng is the one trying to force those answers before we fight, it is likely that he is expecting to be disappointed.

“Bing, despite saying otherwise, likely has not truly understood what it means for Bang to be so… apathetic to her life and desires. I would say he dislikes children, but perhaps it is more accurate to say that he will not take the twin’s interests into consideration at all. That… sort of malicious apathy, at least from their perspective, will hit quite hard. The idea that their father doesn’t, or cannot care about them and never has is something that I suspect will hit them both hard, though Feng will likely deal with it better.

“Not well, but better. Bang will be a more… ‘acceptable’ target for his anger. What is causing such conflicting feelings in Feng at the moment is that he can’t JUST be angry at me. If he was just angry he could scream it out a bit, or attack me for a while and get it all out of his system. Anger is not truly self-reinforcing. Anger is exhausting and keeping that flame burning is a lot of effort… unless you find yourself bursting with so many emotions that feeding them to the flames seems like a less painful option,”

“When we get out of here it’s all going to happen at once isn’t it?” said Kat with a sigh.

“I’m afraid so. I worry, for your sake really, that Bodeir will not be ready to move when Bang arrives. I know not how long the repairs will take, and if he tries to engage us in a fight before we’re ready… I do not what your contract would require you to do. I do not know how Bodeir could remain safe during such a fight,” Meng intoned.

Kat shrugged, “Let that be my problem. I don’t have as much on my shoulders as your family does at the moment. A bit of worry for Bodeir is something I can spare without issue. That was however… dodging the question. Right now we’re in a nice little bubble where the outside world only matters a bit. When it all goes down… everything is going to happen, and it’s all going to hit you three at once,”

“I will likely have no issues. I was trained to kill my partner if ordered, and it has happened a few times in the past. Usually younger recruits that thought they could run away, and didn’t know I was assigned to watch them for treachery. Despite my time in close proximity with my current partner I have no love for them. In fact, if anything, I am less fond of them now then before. I expect to have more problem dealing with how my children will treat me should I be the one to kill Bang then the act itself,” explained Meng.

“Is that something I should be aiming for? The kill?” asked Kat.

“I will not push you to end his life for my own piece of mind. I suspect it might be necessary, and while you a demon, and stronger for it, he is still Rank 4. Unless you have a skill that lends itself well to restraining the person you know as Bang, I doubt your ability to bring him down without death,” said Meng.

Kat nodded slowly, “Indeed, I have similar thoughts,”