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

--- Lily ---

It didn't take too long to guess where Marigold was. It took a decent amount of extra time for Marigold to get back though. Lily had enough time to move to the other platform, transform back and contemplate life for a bit. When Marigold did come back, her body was covered in black dust from head to toe with only a bit around her eyes in the rough shape of hands clear of the mess.

When Marigold got back she started coughing awkwardly, looking away from Lily while holding her hands to her side. "Are you alright?" asked Lily. 

"I, cough, I'll be alright, cough. Just the dust and shit getting into my mouth and, cough, lungs. It's nothing I can't deal with… just annoying cough. It's not enough of a problem for my regeneration to deal with automatically, and the issue is a keep breathing she shit in cough," Marigold spoke roughly around all the coughing like she'd swallowed a bunch of rocks. Perhaps she had. It seemed to be slowing down and Marigold finished by spitting out a glob of spit that was nearly pure black. 

"There, I should be fine for a little bit," stated Marigold. "Any change to the plan?" 

"Um, the second last platform fucking exploded for some reason so we'll need to make sure you can get across. For myself I'm assuming you can just throw me over, and if you don't want to or can't make a paper bridge for myself. It would be a bit heavy for you so I was thinking of making a rope of paper, or something like that, you can grab onto while I reinforce it," explained Lily. 

"Ah, yeah… I might be able to make a jump like that. It'd be close though, so best stick with your plan. Do you have any spells that can clean me off? I have one, but it only works on blood," said Marigold. 

"Why do you have a spell that only works for blood?!" hissed Lily. 

"Well as regenerator blood, usually my own, regularly gets soaked into my clothes and stuff. It's a bitch and a half to get it all cleaned up afterwards so I learnt the spell to get rid of it. It's technically a blood affinity spell, but I was able to retool it to work with regeneration. Or more accurately, I asked one of the researchers at home to do it and then tested the results to find the best one," explained Marigold. 

"Um… I don't have anything specifically for that, but I do have practice changing the… texture? Texture of my shadow. I might be able to make it sticky and get most of that off," said Lily. 

"Go for it," said Marigold. Lily nodded and gestured for the elf to jump over to her platform. Marigold did so without hesitation and was engulfed in darkness. Lily pushed her mana through her shadow and then gave it a twist before pulling the shadow up and off of Marigold's skin and dropping it down. There was now a ring of dust around Marigold, but the elf herself was mostly clean. 

"Woooh, that was interesting to feel. Probably shouldn't have left my eyes open but… then again it was a unique experience," said Marigold with a slightly dopey smile. "I need to find myself someone with shadow affinity to sleep with in the future. So many fun things would be on the table," 

Lily just sighed and hopped forward, transforming as she did so. Lily wasn't sure she could actually make those jumps in her human form, so it was best not to test her luck, even if she'd respawn at the checkpoint. Lily was able to rush past the next few jumps with Marigold right on her tail. With all of the traps triggered it was easy to go back up, especially with no worries about running your face into a puzzle box. 

Eventually the pair made it to the newly second to last platform and got ready. "I can make this throw easy. Just don't push off and it should be fine," said Marigold. Lily nodded and let herself be scooped up. Thankful that Marigold had let herself be cleaned off. Sure her fur was black and the soot wouldn't have shown up, but that didn't mean she wanted to be covered in the stuff. 

Marigold took a bit of time to line the shot up and then made the throw. Lily landed easily on the golden platform and got to work. Another twist on the paper shield spell, *Man I'm really getting a lot of mileage from this one,* and she found herself with a 'rope' that was closer to a series of interlocking paper tubes that she was actively reinforcing. They stretched down quite a ways, and Lily was confident Marigold could make the jump. 

Marigold hopped in place a little bit, swinging her arms back and forth before putting a finger on her chin and turning around. Lily was a little confused, but when she saw Marigold stop 3 platforms down, she understood. The moment after stopping Marigold had turned back around and was bounding up the platforms gaining speed as she went. The elf slammed her feet into the ground as she made the last jump, going so far as to crack the stone a bit. 

Marigold soared through the air and found herself really close to making it all the way. Lily backed up a bit just as Marigold's hands came down on the lip of the golden platform… just moments before Marigold's entire body slammed into the stone. Momentum was a pain Marigold was experiencing in full. That didn't stop the elf at all though. She managed to climb up with seemingly no trouble. 

Only seemingly because when she was standing on the platform Lily could see that Marigold's face was heavily damaged. It was already knitting back together, but Marigold's nose was broken, her lips had small cuts all over them and her forehead was leaking blood like a faucet. Marigold seemed completely unconcerned with the entire affair. Lily dismissed the paper rope and transformed summoning a smaller piece of paper and wiping away some of the blood, at least around Marigold's eyes as she asked, "So what's the plan? How am I summoning the plane?" 

"Well what are the options, and don't worry about it, I'll be fine," said Marigold. 

"No, I'm going to fuss over you while I explain to keep my hands busy. Now, I can either summon the plane in the air above us, giving us extra speed before we jump on, or I summon it on the platform, hop on myself and let you throw jump off the platform while holding onto the back, you'll need to pull yourself to the front quickly or we'll stall out in the air and fall but it's probably the better option as long as you trust me to keep the paper reinforced," explained Lily. 

"Of course I trust you. It would've been so much easier to screw me over earlier and I've got a checkpoint now," said Marigold easily. "So, summon up this plane," 

Lily shrugged and transformed. If Marigold was going to trust her that was fine. They were past the point where getting betrayed would be that big of an issue in Lily's mind. If Marigold tried to screw her over, Lily would just stop supplying mana to the plane and let them fall. Then Kat could win, and it'd be all over. 

So Lily summoned up the plane. It was a bit big for the platform and was somewhat off-centre as she carefully slid towards the front. She was helped out when Marigold picked up the plane herself and moved it above her head. Lily extended the plane's size slightly in all dimension and then waited for Marigold. 

The elf tested the weight a bit and then glared at the missing platform. With a sigh the elf nodded to herself and then got ready. She walked right up the edge, one foot slightly more than half off already. Bending the knees she shifted her other foot forward and waited, just as she started to fall forward Marigold kicked off the gold platform as hard as possibly sending herself and the plane flying forward. 

As soon as she did so, she could see why Lily had warned her to be fast. The plane was already halfway to tipping over by the time Marigold was lifting herself up. Lily was trying her best, but she needed to save enough mana to keep them afloat, and keep the plane together so Marigold was still running on a time limit. 

With a heave of effort Marigold shot yanked herself up and she quickly shuffled towards the front. She didn't go quite as far forward as Lily, not wanting to 'flatten' the centre of the plane out too much, but she'd reached a point just part the middle and that seemed to be enough. They were flying. Well, gliding really, but that was pretty close in Marigold's mind. So, they were flying.