D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad-Chapter 1306 World on Fire

--- Kat ---

Kat and Lily spent a bit more time going over some of their past adventures until Kat decided it was time to change the topic. "So Burnice have you got any fun stories for us?"

"You do realise that I'm on the same team as Marigold and Vanya right? You didn't forget that?" retorted Burnice.

"Yeah but surely you have your own favourites?" said Kat.

Burnice was about to retort as a thought came to her and she realised Kat was right, "Yes, I suppose I can tell you the story of the crazy pyromancer!"

"Wait," interrupted Kat. "If this is traumatising you don't have to,"

Burnice burst out into laughter, "Oh, oh no, no, it's not traumatising at all, it's pretty funny actually,"

"Yeah I can't believe I forgot about that guy. It's probably funnier then my own story," added Marigold.

"Indeed it might be," said Burnice. "So, to set the scene a bit. We've just been promoted to Rank 2, and one of Marigold's contacts wanted us to go on a mission. There's a farming village at the very edge of elven territory that was having problems with an arsonist. The reports were very mixed, but it should be simple, and if it wasn't, Marigold could call in reinforcements and someone would show up quickly.

"The issue with planning was that the reports were very contradictory. Talk of fields and houses being burnt down… but other reports of the village being fine despite the fire. There was talk about the local school, that was really just an old woman's house where the kids gathered to play, had been burnt down… but the old lady was fine and by all reports was still looking after the kids.

"Our assumption was that some illusionist was harassing people. That probably would've made more sense then what we actually found, but that was the assumption we had going in. The illusions looked real, they were fairly widespread, but that no real damage was being done so it was just a job for adventurers instead of the army. Burning towns down is one thing, but pranking people maliciously is something different.

"So off we go. It takes us a few days of travel to get to the town, we were on that side of the kingdom but it really is right on the edge of our territory so it still took us a while to get there. Eventually, when we got there… we saw a nice quiet town with maybe two dozen buildings… and three of them were on fire.

"Nobody was doing anything about it though. The townsfolk were just ignoring it. Heck, we even saw a family just… walk out of one of the burning houses as casual as could be. So of course we go up to investigate, and the answer we got?"

Marigold jumped in with a gruff old man voice and said, "You can only get scared of the town burning down so many times in a week before it becomes mundane. It's been like this for over a month and not a single person has gotten hurt. Well, except Jerry but that's because he panicked and ran screaming to 'save' the horses. One of them kicked him good they did. He's still recovering from that. Nobodies got burned though." 𝓯𝙧𝒆𝒆𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝓸𝓿𝒆𝓵.𝙘𝓸𝓶

"Yeah that part is something we never figured out. The animals just ignored the fire completely. Our best guess is that the person behind this started with the animals in town, but that's just a guess. We never confirmed it or anything," said Burnice. "So anyway, we started scouting the town. Nobody had anything useful for us, not even after two full days of investigation so we started to look around on our own trying to catch someone in the act.

"Eventually we did. A dark cloaked figure running away from one of the buildings they set on fire. Obviously we chased after them. It was a bit of a run, they were surprisingly good at sprinting but eventually we caught up to them in the middle of a field outside of town… Marigold shouted something…"

"It was STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL thank you very much," informed Marigold…

Just moments before Vanya smacked her hard in the back of the head. "Yeah, and you said it right next to my ears thanks. I'm fine with being trapped here, but if you're going to yell again I'm sitting somewhere else," said Vanya.

"Ah, right sorry. Got it, no screaming outside of sex," said Marigold 'seriously'.

Vanya sighed but didn't bother retorting. Burnice let out a cough to draw attention back to her… and to disguise the laughter. "Right. So after that the dude turns around and says, 'Fools! You've not caught me, I've caught you!' and then sets the nearby field on fire. Just… ludicrous amounts of fire as far as the eye can see… and all of it cold. Vanya you want to take over for a bit?"

"Um… wait why am I telling this story now?" said Vanya as she looked around for help. Burnice shrugged, Burgandy looked confused, Kat and Lily shrugged as well, March gave her a nod and Marigold made a kissy face at her just to stand out in the crowd. "Right… well I was there I suppose, so I can continue.

"So there we were, surrounded by fire, and it was… just that cold. None of the fire was giving of any amount of meaningful heat. Technically it was giving off some… but no more than a nice hot cup of tea on a cold day, and even then, only after it's been sitting for five minutes or more. It was quite pleasant honestly.

"Marigold being Marigold stuck her hand into the fire right next to her… and didn't burn. Not that it was a surprise, but it was Marigold, it's not like sticking her hand into fire that would burn her is too out of character-"

"Hey cauterised wounds are the WORST," said Marigold. "It takes a bit of concentration to heal those. Basic burns just gut pushed off as new stuff grows underneath it, but if it's like a stump or something? That's a bitch and a half to heal. Easier and less mana intensive to just slice that shit off and go gain. So I'm at least a little careful around fire,"

Vanya rolled her eyes, "So it wasn't that out of character for Marigold," continued Vanya ignoring Marigold's pouting face, "When we saw she wasn't burning we took a look at the guy, then back to Marigold, then the guy again, it was all very synched up and impressive, I'm sure.

"He started cackling about how the fire was stuck to her now… and so Marigold just licked her hand sensually until all of the fire was extinguished. The wizard started freaking out at that talking about how 'Lord Hellflame's fire is should not be so easily defeated' and all sorts of other nonsense. So… while he was monologuing Mauve just… walked up beside him and decked him in the face and then all the fire stopped,"

Once the laughter died down Lily had to ask, "So why exactly was the fire so weak?"

"Ah right," said Burnice hopping in. "So, for some reason this guy was really mad at his home town. Not the village we were at, but another place. It's… hard to tell where exactly, he'd clearly lost his mind somewhere along the way and wasn't all there anymore, we just know it wasn't that town.

"He was training to burn down his entire hometown but he was never properly trained so he focused everything he could on creating more and more fire. The idea being, that if he could summon enough fire at once to set alight the whole town, then he'd be able to destroy it even if he was killed afterwards…

"Somewhere along the line he realised that he could summon less fire with more heat, or more fire with less heat, and so he kept summoning fire with less and less heat so he could bring forth more of it with his mana… up until the point it didn't even burn things anymore. Then he kept training until he could cover a few buildings.

"Once he was at that level, he went to attack that village we were at because nobody else was around. He assumed, somewhat rightly, that the attacks wouldn't be dealt with swiftly and he could run away… but he failed to realise that 'one fire' and 'burning' were not the same thing. He thought he was making progress destroying the town, never once noticing that nobody was getting hurt or scared or that he'd 'burned down' some of those buildings multiple times,"

Lily frowned and said. "That… I feel like he had to have been breaking some sort of rule of magic there. Surely you can't just take out the heat to get more fire… and I just… how did he not notice?"

Burnice just shrugged. That sort of thing wasn't really her wheelhouse.