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

--- Kat --- (One day later)

Kat found herself cursing her calming aura. It was a day later and she knew what Brella had been up to now. She'd been preparing pamphlets. Now, she was in the cryo room with Corela and Meg. Lily and Kamiko were, politely, recommended not to stick around and it wasn't hard to guess why. None of the 'kids' were allowed inside either.

Though a couple had agreed to lead people around.

It was simple in just how horrific it was. Meg was in charge of pointing out those most likely to survive the pods opening… but 'most likely' just meant more than fifty percent. It was the main reason so few people were inside the room. Any who failed to wake up would get a little red x to mark their pods and thrown back inside. Just in case… but Meg was normally rather certain of their fate.

Corela was the stern voice, informing them of what had happened and then directing them to Brella who held the pamphlets. Everyone was given ten minutes to make a decision, and then lead off into one of two waiting areas. They would apparently have around twenty-four hours to make the choice, a bit more if they were let out earlier and a bit less if they were let out late.

The plan was to force the issue tomorrow afternoon. Food had been commandeered and Kamiko had taken it upon herself to be involved in the cooking for them.

For the most part, they were being moved to areas upstairs. Not really letting them get the chance to integrate with the others… not yet. Which… Kat didn't know what her thoughts on the matter were. No, she was here to project her calming aura and ensure that nobody freaked out when they woke up and were told what was going on. It was a nice bit of forward planning.

Didn't stop Kat being horrified when the first person to be awakened simply collapsed onto the ground. Corela tried to catch them, but fumbled slightly and they hit the ground. "Could you not have been bothered?" grumbled Corela as she glared at Meg.

Meg shrugged, "He's dead. No point in saving him any pain,"

"I thought you said he had a good chance to live?" asked Corela.

"As agreed upon he had a greater then fifty percent chance to live, that means he had a chance of dying. I did tell you that while there's a safe way to do this and in theory wake everyone not dead up… I don't know it," explained Meg.

Corela glared down at the now identified corpse. "So is that it then? He's dead and gone?"

Meg nodded, "Yes. The jolt to wake him up simply released his sole instead. There's nothing left in this body. Maybe there's a way to call it back if we act fast… but once again it's not something I know and definitely not something that can be done more than a few minutes afterwards, maybe only a few seconds."

Corela sighed and placed the man back in the cryo-pod and marked it. "Am I doing the right thing here? Should I be waiting to summon up another demon that actually knows what they're doing?"

Meg shrugged, "The problem with that is I have no idea how expensive they'd be. I'm also not sure they'd want to fight their way through the forest if they're so medically inclined,"

"Can't we simply summon them NOW? We aren't exactly lacking in resources," suggested Brella.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Meg shook her head, "I'm afraid not. Restricted summoning until the drake is completely dealt with. I also don't know what the required runes would be for such a summoning. Might need to do some research on it… or ask the church,"

"And then the world will want their cut," cursed Corela.

Kat frowned off from the side. Not saying anything. This had already become a massively more complicated issue just from this one failure. She had no idea what to say… and there likely wasn't anything too say. It was a terrible thing. One could argue the man already had one foot in the grave, but that was the point.

He wasn't quite dead before.

"Brella… do you think I should up the percentage? Only pick people with a higher survival rate?" asked Corela after a few more moments.

Brella thought the question over for a few moments before turning to Meg. "Is it possible to work our way down from most likely to succeed to least likely? Or perhaps based on how much time they have left?"

Meg frowned, crossing her arms over her chest and just genuinely trying to go for a put upon air. "I'm not a miracle worker. My ability doesn't give me an exact percentage on this. I'm basically looking at how weak they are, how strong the connection to their soul is, and then making some educated guesses with what I know.

I have no idea how long any of these people are, and I don't really know how poorly they'll react to the waking.

"Fifty percent was chosen because it's a number I can make a decent guess at. Anything worse then fifty percent really stands out because of just how easy it is to finish them off. Anything higher and things get… muddy. Like, just as an example this next person?" Meg pointed to a pod a couple down. "I can kill them by lightly tapping on the glass just above their eye.

What sort of percentage do I assign to that?

"It's just the one place. Nowhere else seems to have the same weakness… so is that a good result? But it's only a light tap. Two pods further down the woman there?" Meg was now pointing at a scarred woman with a few obvious patches of missing scales, "I'd need to hit her pretty hard to kill her but she's got twice the number of valid places to strike.

At the same time, her pod seems to be falling apart. Not sure where the malfunction started but it might only last another decade unless someone fixes it… does she make the fifty percent cut?"

"Well surely it'd be better to get her out right?" asked Brella.

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"I genuinely don't know," stated Meg firmly. "Maybe all the issues with the pod will mean that waking her up is actually a death sentence. Perhaps it needs to be repaired first… or maybe it's safer to take her out and then repair it. Is she hardy enough to survive? I can't tell! My ability doesn't like to deal with the soul and that's where we are.

I get exceptionally limited information for most of these people but I am trying to work things out for you guys because it's what Hunter wants. If you only want to go for the most likely to live… I can lead you to them. But it'll still be a gamble, and still just my guessing.

"Thing is? If we're trying for better then fifty percent? The ones I'm really certain of? You've got maybe five here… if that," Kat gulped as she looked over the dozens upon dozens of pods. The room was quite packed after all… five was a small number. Granted, Kat knew a good chunk of these people had… already passed on.

She just didn't know quite how many that chunk consisted of. Kamiko hadn't told her and it hadn't come up.

"So… what it's fifty percent or nothing?" asked Brella with a slight growl.

Meg just glared back. "Despite fifty percent being the number I wanted to go with, need I remind you that Corela is actually the one who suggested it first? I just agreed,"

"And I think I had valid reasons for that choice," Corela's sharp voice cut through the tension that was building between Brella and Meg. "Fifty percent, a coin flip. I didn't know if it was worth waiting and leaving anyone behind that we didn't have to is a potential death sentence. I thought, that a fifty percent chance of life was GOOD. I've faced worse odds in my time alive…

"And yet it appears I'd forgotten that just because I regularly win those dice rolls doesn't mean everyone does. I look upon the corpse of a man I KNEW. Not personally perhaps, but I did know him. He had a name, but no family. It is unlikely any will remember but me. His name was Slenta and he is DEAD now because of my actions.

Perhaps he never truly had a chance to live. Perhaps I simply sped up his inevitable demise… but I don't know that for sure. We can't know that for sure.

"Now that I find the choice needs to be made my hands shake. My mind shudders and I feel more morals creaking under the strain. The correct choice here is terribly unclear. We don't have time to hesitate, and yet hesitate I must because the correct answer feels so beyond me at this moment. I would call for a break but I do not know if that will help,"

Kat simply sat in silence. Curse her calming aura and the fact it meant she had to be here in the room for this. Perhaps it was wrong not to witness the choice being made. Wrong to let it simply pass unremarked. But it wasn't as thought Kat could even tell those cryo-pods apart from glass coffins.