Chapter 339: Reinforcements
"Donny there are some people who just arrived outside of the fortress apparently." They had expected this to happen so Donny asked Keel. "Do you know if we're allowed to let them in or not?" Keel had been called for a meeting with Rigbis most recently so Keel had a chance to know if they were letting people into the fortress or not.
"We haven't discussed it yet as far as I know but I think there will be a meeting soon because of who's outside." Hearing it was someone with enough status that it might affect their decision making Donny had to know who it was. "Who's outside?"
He had figured it was just going to be people from the city but now he was thinking he was wrong. "The Oracle's guards."
"Her guards, what about her? Is she not with them?" Donny really couldn't see the oracle's guards abandoning her so something bad had to have happened if Keel said no. "I didn't see her but it's possible she will only show herself once they know it's safe to come in." Donny hoped that was the truth but with how the past days had been he didn't think it was going to turn out that way.
"Has Rigbis been told?" Donny was sure Rigbis had ways to be alerted to something like this but he figured Keel or someone else had tried to tell him in person already. "We told the guard outside of Rigbis' room."
Hearing this Donny got himself ready because the meeting could be called at any moment if Rigbis had already been told. A few minutes later they were in front of the room Rigbis held the meeting in but the door was closed and guarded still. "It looks like we're too early."
They still didn't really have anything else to do in the fortress yet so both of them decided to just stay outside the room and wait. There was no guarantee that they would get invited to the meeting if there was one but they might as well be right here just in case.
After some time the door was opened and some of the people Donny knew as Rigbis' council walked out. None of them stopped to say anything to either of them though and while Donny wondered what they were off to do he took advantage of the door being opened and went to walk in.
He half expected the guard to stop him but when that didn't happen Keel joined him in walking through the door. Seeing Rigbis alone at the table Donny thought back to the last time they had met with none of the other people around and wondered what would be said if Keel wasn't with him.
Rigbis hadn't said anything about any other traitors but that didn't mean there wasn't a list that was waiting to be passed on to him. That was a separate matter though so he went ahead and asked about what they were here for. "Have you decided about the people outside already?"
"I sent the others to go get a look at them and if they're real they'll let them in. If they're here they might need our help with something important to the God of Light and I don't want to let them wait." Donny was ok with the decision to let them all in since they were from a more important tier of people to the Temple which made him think they would have real ways to prove who they were that normal members wouldn't have access too.
"In that case we really don't have a reason to be here." After Keel said this Donny started to follow him out of the room because he was right when Rigbis spoke up to stop them. "If you want you can stick around for this. Depending on what they have to say, your presence might come in handy."
Both of them stopped in place as they heard this because being part of the discussions was something they had both been hoping for and now that their opportunity had arrived neither of them had a reason to say no. "Go ahead and take a seat if you're staying."
There were only enough chairs for Rigbis and the people that had been in here but Donny wasn't worried about sitting down because he or Rigbis could make as many chairs as they needed using magic. After a while he heard a large amount of boots on the metal floor coming towards them and assumed the people outside had been let in and were coming this way.
A few seconds later this assumption was proved correct when a large group of people walked into the room. Donny recognized both groups that made up the whole as the people that were always with Rigbis and the guards that protected the Metal Oracle. Seeing the guards themselves was as rare as seeing the Oracle but he had grown up here so he had the pleasure of seeing them on multiple occasions.
This was the first time he was this close though so he was enjoying getting a good look at their armor that he had heard so much about. It was pretty rare to see a fully enchanted set of armor even here in the Metal Domain because it could be expensive and ones as high quality as this were even less frequent since the enchantments held back your ability to work the metal making it harder to increase the level of the item.
Once he had gotten his fill of the armor he looked at the faces of all the guards to see how they looked. He knew he was probably about to hear their story but if the Oracle was dead he felt their faces would look distressed.
People like the guards usually didn't let their situations show on their faces but something like this where they failed their sole purpose would probably break their defenses and he would be able to get a hint at what was about to be said.
Seeing all of them with steel faces Donny was able to calm himself a bit and he got ready to listen to the discussion Rigbis was starting. "It's nice to see you all in good health. I can't say I haven't thought about the Oracle's health a few times during all of this."
Rigbis wasn't the only one who had thought of the people closest to the God of Metal because it felt like they would be the biggest targets for the Demon Worshipers to go after if they really wanted to cripple the Metal Domain and its people's spirit. "That's very kind of you to say and don't worry she is safe. I won't mention where she's gone in case we aren't among only friends but just know it's much better than here."
That was a load off of their minds but it did make him and he was sure the others wonder what had caused the Oracle's guards to leave her side. Even if she was safe they were never meant to leave her side as far as he knew. He didn't feel like he should talk to ask though and he just let the conversation unfold between Rigbis and the newcomers.
"So what business do you have? We're looking for people to join us here in the fortress but we were expecting like normal people from the city, not anyone as important as you all."
"We were planning to head into the city to rejoin those at the Temple but we saw on the way here that this fortress was really the only option we had left." It seemed the Temple had been destroyed while the guards weren't around to see it so they had come here in hopes of finding what was left of the people fighting for the Metal Domain.
"And you just want to join us?" All the guards nodded to this and Donny could tell he wasn't the only one that was surprised that they didn't want anything from them because they all started to exchange looks. After a few seconds where all of their eyes met at least once Rigbis spoke up. "Well we would be fools to turn you away in a situation like this. Please take a seat and we can trade stories of what's happened to us so far."
Donny was excited to know h would get to be a part of a meeting like this and hoped everyone would be open in sharing information because there was still a huge mystery in why any of this had even happened in the backs of their minds and since these men were from the temple he felt like they might now something that hadn't been shared to the people form the Fighters Guild from the beginning.
The Metal Domain had just hired them to kill Demon Worshipers and they really didn't need to know any big secrets to do this job to an acceptable degree but now any new information could be the difference between their victory or ultimate loss.
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