Chapter 270: What Is That
"Alright go." Hearing Rigbis tell them to go, all of them started to walk out of the fortress. Donny had no idea what he should be looking at since there weren't any obvious enemies but remembering what Rigbis said he wanted to keep his guard up. Just because there wasn't an obvious place for the Demon Worshipers to be hiding didn't mean they weren't close.
Especially here where there were so many people who knew how to control stone with their mana. At any moment a full army could come from the ground even just a few steps from the fortress where no one was reinforcing the ground. Donny wouldn't let something like that happen usually when he had access to infinite Metal mana from the environment but since it was gone and he needed to save his mana for battle he just had to hope it didn't happen like everyone else.
"Start off where they left off." Hearing the order come though the communicator Keel pointed to the building that was their first target and said. "Move forward." It was a short walk to the building and once they were there no new orders came from the fortress so Keel said. "Alright you five are going in first, then all of you follow them in."
Keel had pointed to the obvious choice to make a breach into a building since all five of the people were wearing heavy plate armor. "On it." Watching the five take the door down and enter closely followed by around twenty other people Donny turned his attention to the surrounding city.
It was so quiet with all the major fighting being over so it felt like they were the only living things in the entire city and it was making him wonder what the new population of the Metal Domain would be after this. He was sure there would be a few lower tiers of the city that would be completely abandoned but he really had no way of knowing until this was over and the Temple had a chance to count how many people were still alive.
He was sure a lot of immigrants would head back to the Stone Domain as well so that would lower it even more. It started to make him worry what the future of the Metal Domain would be like after this. Nothing like this had happened for a while but the recovery never went as well as you thought it would even if what had happened was completely over.
People never really felt safe again in a place where half the population had been slaughtered unless they were the people who had done the killing and took over the land from who they killed. It was an especially hard blow to the people of the metal domain since they had grown up hearing how no one could raid their city.
"Donny, would you go in and see what is taking them so long?" Hearing Keel Donny stopped thinking about the Metal Domain and said. "Sure." Walking up the stairs Donny could hear that there didn't seem to be any fighting going on inside but he could hear someone talking somewhere inside so he walked in and went looking for their people.
Once he found a staircase down Donny could tell the voices were coming from down stairs walking down Donny called out. "Is everyone down here?" There were 25 of their people in the building so if they were all down here the basement had to be pretty big. "It sounds like someone is coming down, tell them what's going on."
Donny stopped walking when he heard this because it sounded like there was a chance that something bad was happening downstairs and it wasn't safe to go down there. Seeing a person start to climb the stairs Donny asked. "What's going on?"
"A barrier activated while we were clearing the building and a few of us are trapped." Donny now understood why they were still in the building but had to say. "You should have come to tell us as soon as you could." There were people outside like him who could have helped. "Go tell Keel what's going on in here so he doesn't keep sending people."
After he had given the person the order he walked down to see what was going on. His hopes that this wasn't connected to the Demon Worshipers left him as soon as he saw the color of the barrier and what was in the center of it. It looked like two people sitting back to back but their heads had been fused together somehow and Donny knew something gross like this could have only been done by Demon Worshipers.
Five of their teammates were also inside the barrier but like him they were staring at the thing that was in the center. Wanting to see how they were doing, Donny called out. "How are you doing in there?"
"They don't seem to be able to hear us vice captain." Turning from the five that hadn't reacted at all to look at the person who had said the people inside couldn't hear them he asked. "Have you seen them look away from the thing at all while they had been in there." Donny was starting to think maybe the people inside were in a lot more danger than was obvious.
Demon Worshipers were known for curses and weird shit like this usually had something to do with people getting a sickening curse that no one could save them from. "No, they haven't looked away since we found them." Donny knew there was a chance the people inside were afraid to look away since it could be an enemy but he felt they would be holding their weapons towards it if that was what was happening.
"Alright everyone out of the basement. Go back outside to the rest of the team." Donny wanted to help these five but it wasn't worth the rest of the team so he needed to check with Keel and Rigbis before he did anything. Following behind the other people out of the building Donny saw that Keel was staring at him and got ready for the questions.
"What is going on in there?" Donny was sure the person he had sent out here to tell Kell everything had done their job and Keel just wanted to hear it again from him. "There's some kind of trap inside. Five of the people we sent in are inside of it and they seem to be unresponsive."
Donny was about to tell Keel about the thing that seemed to be the purpose of trapping people when Keel asked. "What is the trap composed of?" Hearing this Donny just said what he was about to say before the question. "There's this thing that looks like two people sitting on the ground back to back but their heads are fused together and it seems to be what is projecting the barrier."
"Do you think it's safe for us to go in and try to save them?" Donny really wanted to say yes but he wanted to be honest. "I think it's probably too late to actually save them since they already seem to be in some type of trance but we might be able to stop whatever is going on inside the barrier if we get it open." Donny knew he was making it sound like there was no hope for the five inside but he really felt this was the case.
"What do you think it is that is happening to them in the barrier?" Donny had already narrowed it down to two things so he told Keel what he had deduced. "My first guess would be some type of curse but this could also just be a way to draw out important people that could take down a barrier like the one in the basement."
Keel took in what he said while nodding and said. "That's very good. Do you think we should head back or just move on to the next building?" Donny could tell Keel was just seeing what he would do as some type of test to make sure he was a good choice for vice captain. "I would head back if it was up to me but you should ask Rigbus for orders."
Donny really didn't want to go back without doing anything but it was a matter of safety and it was his job to get the people in his team back. "Commander."
"What is it? Why have you not moved from the first building yet?"
"We found something and five of our members have been trapped. We would like to head back until it's been investigated."
"Describe what you've found."
"It's some kind of sculpture made from people that is projecting a barrier and we're guessing it's doing something to the five that are trapped because they're not responding."
"Alright head back. We'll talk about what to do once you get back." Once they had given the order to head back to the team Donny turned to Keel and said. "What are the odds that the first building we went into had something like that in it?" The other team had cleared around ten buildings and hadn't had any real problems. "Something was bound to happen eventually and it's good we found out about whatever it was before we split since there could be more of them in the other buildings."
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