Chapter 925

Some more light coercion from Lily later and KatE was quickly building up a shelter for everyone. It wasn’t all that hard, just a bit time consuming. KatE could shape her hands into shovels and dig up the ground quickly. Combine that with a packed ice roof and a mechanical eye for perfection alongside the inability to get bored with mundane tasks? It was over in two hours. Nothing fancy of course, just two rooms with a ceiling just barely high enough to fit Kat standing tall and spread her wings out, but that was enough.

Xiang and Xuena were laid out in one room with Yang watching over them from the corner while Lily and KatE watched over KatH. For all of thirty seconds. Lily wasn’t sure if KatE had been holding the process back, or if the timing was truly coincidental but as soon as KatH was laid down on the packed dirt KatE shuddered and vanished back into KatH. Kat stood up groggily looking around until she met Lily’s eyes and pounced.

Lily was finding herself experiencing the most remarkable sense of déjà vu as Kat’s tongue made its way into her mouth. Not that she was complaining, not at all. Kat didn’t push too far though, simply letting Lily fall back slightly when she could feel Lily struggling for air a bit over the link. Lily let herself melt into Kat’s arms, breathing heavily... from lack of oxygen of course. Nothing else... nope. Her nose was not sensitive enough to smell anything noteworthy. Not at all. “Ah... I... I’ve got the original back right?”

*Hmm... should I be a bit mean?*

“Maaayybbeee” said Kat, letting her voice drop to something husky. Letting the air from her voice slowly pass over Lily’s ears. The poor Memphis felt herself shiver at that, the experience shockingly close to the intensity she experienced. A large part of her mind was shouting ‘who cares me likey’ but the logical part of Lily was being rather pointed about the fact Kat had let her teasing ideas filter through the link. Something that Lily was just now realising had been rather muted during KatE’s antics.

“Is now really the best time for this?” whispered Lily. If her voice was also a bit throaty... well... she’d just pretend she was copying Kat. It did not, of course, have anything to do with how heavy she was breathing or just how much fire there was in the lower half of her body. Nope, she was probably low on demonic energy, a thing Lily herself could never really notice. Yup, had to be that.

“Hmm...” Kat let the hum rumble through her throat causing Lily to shiver again.

.....

“Ok, I want to tack on, why are you being so teasing right now as well?!” grumbled Lily through her own round of purrs. Stupid body betraying her like that.

“To answer your question a bit more seriously...” said Kat as she tightened her hold on Lily, “I think it’s the perfect time. My memories... I can tell which are mine and which are... well KatE I suppose it was established. I also seem to be able to say KatE because of those memories. Um... anyway my point is... they’re a bit disconnected but the last thing I remember as fully me is being a moment away from having my heart ripped out and then watching you try to attack someone not even I could stop.

“I wasn’t scared that I would die in that moment, I was much more worried about the fact Ozen now knew you were hanging around someone. So from my perspective it went right from ‘oh shit what’s going to happen to Lily’ to ‘OMG LILY IS SAFE’ and that’s a hell of a transition. So, yes I did want to kiss you just for that. Though...” Kat trailed off mysteriously until Lily gave Kat a light nip with her sharpened fangs.

Kat let out a small giggle at the attempt and continued, “Alright, alright I’ll keep going. See, I also have all of KatE’s memories, just like... she? I? They? Looks, let’s go with KatE, just like KatE assumed it would work. They have much less running commentary but KatE managed to bundle up a bunch of plans for teasing you and getting enjoyable reactions before disappearing for now,”

Lily let out what sounded like a pained grown all the while the mental connection was broadcasting nothing but joy. Well, that and a hint of confusion, but really that second one wasn’t a surprise or concern. So in the end Lily just sighed and nodded. “So... are you planning on bringing KatE out at some point?”

Kat frowned and let a hand rise to her chest. She let it rest there for a moment as she took in a few careful breaths, her lips twitching into a slight frown. “No... not regularly at least. I don’t know the full extent of it but I can feel what KatE meant when she said things are hollow. I can... I can feel sort of... a gap? My demonic energy is full yet I feel like I’m still missing something. It’s... almost like hunger? It’s a sort of hunger adjacent feeling I guess... hmm...”

Kat tried to come up with the words to properly convey the feeling... before remember she could just send Lily the details across the link. Lily shivered when she received the feeling. It was... an odd sort of haunting hollowness. It was like a gnawing void that was trying to convince everyone it wasn’t something to worry about, and that only made the whole thing more off-putting. “I see... it seems that having KatE around is... not a great idea...”

Kat nodded, “I suspect for most people it’s a final trump card. You pull out... not your soul but... maybe your spirit? You pull out something that is fundamentally part of yourself and use it for combat. It seems a lot more like... a useful glitch that has stuck around rather then an intended feature... if that makes sense? Powerful, certainly. Useful... hmm... likely not so much.

“I’ve got no idea what sort of timeframe I’ll be looking at before I’ll feel safe using KatE for... well anything at all really. I don’t... necessarily mind her actions... but this odd feeling... it doesn’t seem like a good idea to worsening it. I wish I knew if it was related to how long KatE was out, or if it was more dependent on the fact she was out at all. It’s something I’d want to test, and probably show off to everyone back at home... but I’m not sure that it’s really the ‘testing’ kind of ability. More do or die certainly,”

Lily let out a long puff of air as she let her fingers trail against Kat’s back. “I’m not sure... though another thing you might have... remembered? Sure let’s go with that. Another thing you might have remembered is that with KatE out you can’t regenerate demonic energy, most, if not all, of it goes to KatE and apparently only my connection feeding you demonic energy allowed her to stick around so long,”

Kat nodded, “Yes... I suspect that would be a more major issue for most demons... hmm... damn. So much of this really needs proper testing but I just don’t see it being safe. I almost wish I could hear her properly in my head like you. Not always... probably... just... maybe a few questions? Bits of advice?”

Lily shrugged “Can’t say how nice that would be. Did you want to check on the others though?”

Kat nodded and they moved as one to the other room, as soon as Kat stepped a foot in, Yang grumbled from the corner, “Yes I heard everything, even the passionate make-out session,” Lily squeaked and buried her face into Kat’s back. “Oh? Feeling shy? Well too bad, you were the one making out, just a room over... WITH NO DOOR. Seriously, I don’t know how private you thought that conversation was, but I’ll tell you now the answer is that it wasn’t.

“Your damned lucky that I’m the only person conscious enough to know and I’ve got no plans to spread that sort of thing around... but you have to be more aware of stuff like this in the future,”

“Woops?” said Kat with a shrug, rather uncaring about the whole thing. Lily was mostly in agreement... just a bit embarrassed.

Yang however sighed and shook her head, “No. Not ‘woops’. This is serious business Kat. Regardless of if I WANT to know this sort of thing I DO now. I can’t unhear it. People would KILL for a bit of information on unique humans with strange bloodlines. A DEMON with something strange about her? Kat I’d be chased to the ends of the Earth if there was so much as a whisper I knew something.

“Now, Ozen almost certainly doesn’t know enough to tell it was strange, and with his injuries I doubt he’s coming back any time soon... but just... be careful please?”