The Insider System

Chapter 319: Mountainous

After a while Lake assumed they were getting kind of close to the Metal Domains city so he pulled the arrow out again and let it spin. He planned to have them get off of the road and head into the mountains because he didn't want whatever he was doing to get too intertwined with the battle that was probably going on in the city right about now.

He would like it if there were at least some enemies he could use to disappear but if that didn't happen naturally he would just lead them closer to the city until it did. All he would have to say was the dagger was heading in the direction of the city all of a sudden and the people here would think whoever had it was ready to get back to the fight.

"It's directly that way. If there isn't a road in that direction I feel it would be good to get out of the cart now." Lake left the actual decision to the Temple Head after making this recommendation and thankfully a few seconds later she agreed. "Alright." After she said this she knocked on the top of the cart four times and they started to slow down before coming to a stop.

He was about to get out but the Temple Head beat him to it so he just waited until everyone else got out of the cart. As he was stepping out he briefly thought about putting the bag that had the dagger here in the cart but decided there were to many risks in a plan that involved him leading them on a chase where they eventually ended back here at the cart since he was sure the driver would realize almost as soon as they left that the bag had appeared out of nowhere.

It would have been nice if that wasn't a risk though since he could have made it seem Jon had known they were after them and had given the dagger back like he had said he would but hadn't wanted them to catch him for some reason. He also felt there was a chance the guy here would notice him putting the bag in the cart with his magic ears so being caught right away would be just as likely to happen as the driver putting it together right after they walked away.

"Alright Lake, lead the way." Lake got the arrow spinning even though they wouldn't really be using it and started to climb into the mountains that were on the road side. After getting over the first few boulders that had been piled up on the side of the road Lake looked back and asked. "How fast are we as a group?"

It was obvious why he would want to know that since it would be best if they could go as fast as possible. "Don't worry everyone here is above normal limits. Just go however fast you need." Getting the Temple Heads approval to go at his top speed, Lake gave the guy who wasn't really necessary for this mission a look before he took off running.

He had traveled with both the Temple Head and Tiff before so he knew this was a speed they could handle and hoped the other guy couldn't. His tricks would be much more likely to work if he wasn't around and it would allow Lake to focus all of his effort on tricking the Temple Head.

He had kind of failed on their first trip together when she had called him out on hiding his strength so he knew she was capable of seeing through him if he didn't do a good job. This made the fact that if there were two people around putting his lies through the ringer he would be unlikely to get away with what he was doing.

Looking back and seeing the guy still right next to the other people following him, Lake wondered if his thoughts of killing this guy would actually become a reality. It had really been more of a joke when he had first thought of it but Lake knew he would get rid of the other guy if it raised the chances he was able to get through this trip without losing all of his credibility.

...

"Alright everyone gather up." Donny wasn't surprised to hear Rigbis finally give an order for them to get out of the water and come listen to what they would be doing next. "I was hoping the group that dropped the barrier would have noticed us on our way out since we have this." Rigbis was obviously pointing at the golem when he said this. "But for whatever reason it hasn't happened yet so I want us to get a bit further from the city for now."

Donny wanted to ask a question at this point but Rigbis had already started to point to where they would be going. "That mountain over there would make a great place for the golem to take its final form since it would act as a new fortress for the forces that will come to help us take back the Metal Domain. It has enough mana to transform one last time so we need to get moving before this is no longer true."

Hearing Rigbis planned to make them take a new place that they could use to gather the future army that they would need, Donny was more than on board. It was a great plan since they would need an obvious place like a metal fortress on top of a mountain to gather all of the disparate forces that probably wouldn't have a way to talk to each other and gather.

It would be like a beacon that drew everyone in and the fact they didn't have any food would have to wait. The people here were tough so no food wasn't as big of a deal as no water since they could all last at least a few weeks before not eating started to kill them. By then they would have had more than enough time to hunt or send people to bring back food.

"You can get into the air now." Snapping back to reality Donny nodded to Rigbis and went to get the people who had ridden on the formation with him so they could get back up in the air. Once he had them all gathered he and Fendis unsealed the formation before taking off.

As they started to make their way to the mountain Donny wondered how many people back in the city could see the golem walking away from them and what they thought it was. If he wasn't part of this group he would have probably seen the massive golem as some type of savior and expected it to help them so seeing it seemingly run from the fight was probably upsetting.

He just hoped once it transformed and they saw the new fortress overlooking the city they were able to realize they weren't actually trying to run to save themselves while forgetting the people of the Metal Domain. It would also probably give them a target to get to if they tried to run from the city so he could already see a massive amount of people being there before they were even able to get an army together.

This would make them a bigger target since the Demon Worshipers would see the nonfighters amongst them as a way to take the fortress. All they would need to do is get a few of them to switch sides and they would have a repeat of what happened inside the fortress last time but there would be a big difference this time since he was pretty sure last time Rigbis had used the fortress itself as the weapon that cleared the Demon Worshipers out.

With the Fortress out of mana the next time they were infiltrated the only thing that would be able to stop it was them. "A fortress on a mountain is pretty similar to how the Metal Domain started." Donny wasn't sure who had said this throwaway comment but he was kind of moved by this because it was extremely close to when the city was first founded.

The God of metal had sent the original people who followed him out of the Earth Domain to build in the mountains and it was said the God of Metal personally formed all the metal that was used to build the Temple that was the center of the city. In the future once they got through this he wondered if their new fortress would slowly develop into a sister to the original city.

"Where the city is built was really more of a mound to begin with so it's a little different." He knew who said this and gave them a bit of a dirty look for bringing him out of his hopeful thoughts. It was true they had built the now mountainous city in the only real flat area around but they hadn't needed to say that.