The Insider System

Chapter 397: The Deal Pt.33

Donny wasn't sure how he could tell that not much time had passed when he opened his eyes but it wasn't really important anymore. Feeling his tongue had been reattached or regrown he knew there was no longer any chance that he would be able to stop the Demon Lord from turning him into something he didn't want because if he tried anything like killing himself again a healer would just come into the room or cage or whatever they had him in this time and heal or revive him.

"He's moving. I think he's awake." Donny could tell before he even looked at where the voice had come from that whoever it was wasn't a Demon Worshiper because they were whispering and opening his eyes he was able to confirm that he was indeed now in a cell with other people.

"Tell him your name. That will make him want to talk to us." Donny wasn't sure about that but it seemed the man closest to him thought it was a good idea because right after he had opened his eyes they introduced themself. "Hey I'm Tod. What's your name?"

Donny could tell that these people were probably going to be his companions until it happened so instead of just staying silent he gave them an answer. "I'm Donny."

"I know him! I know him! He's the Metal one." Like the last the place he was in was too dark to see very well so other than Tod who was right next to him he wasn't able to see the others but the amount of murmurs he was hearing told him there must be a lot of them. "Ooo Metal. That's exciting."

"What's exciting?" Donny didn't say this as aggressively as he wanted because he knew some of the people here had probably been here long enough to go mad and being mean to them was wrong but he honestly didn't understand how someone could be excited about what the Demon Lord had planned for him or anyone that was here.

"You're the first Metal so you'll be going for sure." Donny was about to ask the other voice to clarify what they meant a bit more but Tod got in the way blocking his sight from seeing the others even though he couldn't actually see them anyway. "Ignore them please. I need you to tell me if you've seen my wife before you get taken away."

"Who's your wife?" Donny had met a lot of people over the years so there was a chance that he might have if this guy's wife was someone well known. "She'd be a lady from the Water Domain asking about her husband. She might have had a drawing of me so get a good look and see if I look familiar."

Even though he knew there was no way Tod's wife had been looking for him so long that she had made it all the way to the Metal or Holy Domain, Donny pretended that he was really taking in his face until shaking his head and saying. "I guess she hasn't made it to where I live yet."

"It's too bad they captured you, now you won't be there to tell her I'm alive." Donny was going to let the fact he wouldn't have known Tod was fine had he not been captured stay unsaid but it seemed someone else here was less crazy and rude enough to get the others worked up over such a little thing. "Tod how would he have known you were fine if he hadn't been brought here?"

Watching Tod's face after this was said Donny could tell the man didn't even understand the problem before he opened his mouth and confirmed it. "What do you mean?" This made Donny decide his best options were either to just stop talking or try and speak to the voice that had called out how ridiculous Tod was being even if they seemed kind of bitter and might not be helpful to him just to annoy him.

"Hello, the one who just said that to Tod, would you mind telling me what's going on and who all of you are?" Donny thought he wasn't going to get a response when around ten seconds passed and no one said anything to him but eventually the voice from earlier said. "We're people the Demon Lord wanted for one of his plans but as you can see not all of us actually got used and are just backups in case the ones he picked don't work out correctly."

"And how many people are here?" He had heard only a few people say real words but there were a lot of other voices that were just spewing gibberish or mumbling so he knew it had to be over ten. "We don't know since most of the people here are incapable of giving a straight answer and no one can see everyone to count. My guess is around twenty but who knows if this is the only cell they have people in."

Donny was grateful that the owner of this voice wasn't as spiteful as he had expected and was actually answering his questions and while he had more he figured he should go ahead and ask their name before they went any further into their conversation. "Do you mind telling me your name?"

This question could be considered rude in a normal situation but he couldn't see a reason to keep your name a secret when the Demon Lord had already captured you so he had no problems asking. "Dina and before you ask I'm a woman. I know my voice makes it hard to tell."

She was right when she said it was hard to tell and the only thing he could think of that could make a woman sound like this was that they were dying from dehydration. "When was the last time you had any water?" Now that this thought had passed his mind he hadn't been given any water the entire time they had been bringing him here either so maybe this pattern would continue.

"I don't know. They don't give us any and I've forgotten how long I've been here." There was an obvious question he had about this but he decided to keep his mouth shut because if they just let their prisoners die from no food or water and bring them back to life over and over again he would rather not know. It wasn't like he would be here for very long so just not thinking about these people and what they were going through was for the best.

...

After jumping the wall back into the Holy Domain, Lake had felt something watching him for a while but when he had held up his ring it had gone away. He guessed that was how the God of Light or all the gods kept their enemies from just flying over the wall that surrounded their Domain but it made him wonder what it was that had been watching him.

Was it the God of Light or was it just something that was supposed to keep track of intruders like the marks he placed on people using Marks Of Interest. He felt the fact it had gone away when he held his ring up pointed to it being a Demigod that was in charge of security but he had no way of knowing since Detector hadn't told him anything when he tried to use it to get an answer.

He had eventually moved on from thinking about it and focused on the fact that he was closing in on another town and since it was in the Holy Domain it made him think it might be where he was heading. Thus had been confirmed when the arrow had started to pint down towards the ground again as he passed over the item.

...

Nothing had really happened for the first few hours Tiff had been here but eventually someone had run past her and when she saw an arrow spinning over their hand Tiff instantly knew who it was and almost called out but decided to keep her presence unknown and just watch what Lake was doing here.

...

Right after Lake passed into the center of the town he could tell someone was watching him intently but going after powerful items sometimes meant dealing with powerful people so he didn't worry about it and started to look for where they were. After setting Detector to look for Dark Lord's Chain he saw that it was below him like the last few things had been and used Detector again to see if there were any people around that could kill him.

When the owner of the armor didn't start to glow, Lake made sure they weren't in a group he was a part of using Detector one last time before he used Ghost Touch to slip into the ground. Usually he would have tried sneaking around for a while so they would lose track of him but he was in a hurry this time and was fine if there was a fight.