It was now the following day, and everyone was in the car. It was perhaps the first time Kat had actually seen Vivian, Sylvie, Callisto, and Lily all in the same place. Of course, the fact this place was a car and that Kat herself took up a large amount of space did cause some issues.
The way they managed to sort it out, was by having Kat sit on the right side of the car, pull her wings in close and make use of the fact that seatbelts have a bit of give, taking up more like the right and centre seat, with Sylvie on her lap, and Lily taking up the left
Initially Vivian had volunteered but Lily pointed out that she needed to direct them if Callisto was to be driving. It was only once they were all on the road and well on their way to the destination that Kat realised there was something wrong with that picture.
"Wait a moment… why didn't we just let Vivian drive?" asked Kat
Sylvie for her part was sleeping, wrapped up in Kat's arms but Lily pulled her head out of the book she was reading and looked at Kat startled having also not realised this detail. As Vivian felt the stares from the back land on her she shrugged and said "Callisto is much better at driving then I am"
Kat narrowed her eyes "I feel like there is a bit more to the story"
"Well, I may or may not have crashed a few cars in my time" said Vivian
"A few" shouted Lily
Vivian shrugged "Look, it's all in the past. I can at least avoid crashing my car now"
"Indeed, if you consider the fact that you drive the same route every day, 5km under the speed limit, choose to walk multiple blocks rather than travel unknown roadways and still can't get good prices on your insurance" said Callisto
"Wait hold on" said Lily "Um, didn't Vivian drive us safely out to the city?"
"Yeah. See Callisto, they said I did well" said Vivian
Kat saw Callisto raise an eyebrow through the review mirror "Are you going to ignore the fact you have to drive along that road perhaps once a week and have travelled along it so many times I've always had to wonder why you never got a house in the city"
Vivian pouted "You know how much I'd hate living there. A day visit is infinitely preferable"
"Even when such visits occur every day of the week for three months?" asked Callisto
"Eugh, don't remind me. You were even so mean as to avoid being my driver when I asked during that last week. It was driving me up the wall" said Vivian elbowing Callisto slightly when she said driving.
Callisto sighed "I had been working on the windmill project that week. Remember? The one you signed me up for because you were too busy while I was also trying to complete my research on those soil samples"
Vivian shivered "Oh… yeah… now I remember why I forbade you from doing chemistry in the house"
Lily and Kat shared a look. *Don't ask.*
##
It was some time later that they pulled into the mountain 'lookout'. Though that was being generous to the structure. It was simply a pad of compacted gravel for parking alongside a rather large flat rock someone had taken the time to carve stairs into.
*This is actually kind of strange now that I look at it.* Kat examined the area surrounding them. *It isn't like the road is in horrid shape. A little despaired, but still very functional. But why haven't they done more with the area?*
"Hey Vivian. Why did they even waste money building a road up here without taking the time to develop the area at all" asked Kat
"Ooh, I actually know this one" Lily chimed in "I was doing some research myself actually and it turns out that the area is technically a nature reserve. The road was being constructed with the plan to develop the area into something more like parkland
"With a special emphasis on stargazing and other night-time activities. The issue was however that the mountain was actually classified as a protected nature reserve by an old gold miner who bought the land and then later lobbied the government
"The thing was, the final few stamps never went through for whatever reason and so the development plan went ahead. That was until a descendant of the old miner found out and provided evidence saying it was actually a nature reserve
"It was really fascinating to see what happened after that. Initially the government claimed the documents must have been fake, but someone on the inside went looking through the archives that had yet to be added to the servers
"In the end, once they found the government copies that were handed over to the courts, the whole case was a wash and the development was halted"
Kat stared opened mouth at Lily "When did you have time to research all that?"
Lily shrugged "Didn't take that long. I just looked up a few details after Callisto mentioned where we were going yesterday. Wasn't hard exactly"
Kat bit the inside of her mouth. *I guess I'd sort of forgotten just how good Lily is at research. She hasn't really found that much out about demons, and before that I guess she was actually working on that present for me*
*When she has a very specific topic, she can find a tonne of details really fast. I wish there was a better job to point her towards where those talents could be properly used.*
While Lily was explaining the history of the place, Kat was moving the boxes Callisto had packed onto the rock. Sylvie was 'helping' by following behind Kat and trying to grab her tail.
Vivian and Callisto were sharing the load of another box. Once everything had been deposited Kat first put energy into her ears. Straining them for any sign of people or perhaps a car engine. Finding nothing she launched herself up into the air to make sure that nobody as in sight.
Enhancing her vision as much as she could, considering the energy she had to provide her wings to keep them functional. Still she managed well enough. Examining the various places the road poked out from the tree line.
Landing Kat spoke to Vivian "Ok so where am I setting up"
Vivian shrugged "Could always do it at the end of the gravelled area" pointing to the other end of the parking lot
Kat frowned "That's hardly 100m's away"
Vivian shrugged again with a bright smile as she handed Kat the box containing the crystal "Look, we can just hide behind the boulder if something goes wrong. It'll be fine"
Kat let out a deep breath. "Ok. I've been worrying myself a bunch since I've been back but I trust you know what you're doing"
"Oh, I have no clue what I'm doing dear, but here is hoping for the best" said Vivian.
Kat sighed and made her way over to the designated area. *Ok system is there anything else I need to know?*
User Kat should be aware that unlike the previous attempt, User Kat is unlikely to feel pain during the process even if something has gone horribly wrong. This is because when ranking up the nerves are dulled to some extent to facilitate restructuring of the body
*What the hell was last time then*
An improper way of ranking up
Kat pursed her lips but didn't direct anymore thoughts towards the system. Opening the books, she saw the ruby once again, the swirling blackness inside along with a faint calling to her.
Kat carefully set the box down, before swiping the gemstone into her hand. The moment she stopped the motion, the gem flashed, and she felt her hand burning. Looking down she saw cracks of all things running along her arms.
As she stood there the cracks continued, like breaking ice, up her arms, and from within leaked a strange mixture of black and purple mist. Once it reached her chest, her horns started to glow. A burning purple light covering Kat.
She swallowed, hoping this was going to be fine. The leaking mist started to change. Where it used to be trying to leak out, it began getting sucked back in. Kat felt her arms swell as they filled with whatever weird energy the black mist was.
She grit her teeth, as new cracks burst forth arcing across her chest and up her neck. Despite this though, she felt fine. As if she didn't have massive fissure's running through her body.
*Ok… this isn't so bad.* Thought Kat.
But as if waiting for a queue a summoning circle appeared below Kat.
*System! What the hell is going on.*
Entity Minor's beacon has been activated in emergency mode
*Oh come on!*