Chapter 342: Traveling
Chapter 342: Traveling
"This is a lot faster than I expected." Donny couldn\'t help but agree with what Fendis just said because the earth platform they were moving over the mountains on was practically flying. "How long did he say it would take for us to get there?"
"He didn\'t give an exact time but just a few hours at this speed apparently." Most people who were in the Metal Domain had been to the Earth Domain at least once so a few hours was a good speed and they knew it. Depending on the way you were used to getting there this could seem like taking a fabled teleporter.
He wouldn\'t expect any less than this from one of the people assigned to guard the Metal Oracle and it made him hopeful that by the time they got back a lot of the other problems they were having would be solved already.
...
"There you are." Hearing the Temple Head\'s tone Tiff was able to tell she spent too much time talking to Dawn and should have come here sooner. "Sorry, I was catching up with Dawn while eating."
"Forget about it. Me and the Oracle are going to the light Domain, do you want to come with us?" Tiff had to weigh her options for a while before she answered. "No, I\'ll stay here in case Lake comes back." She had more reasons than what she stated to stay here but she did wish to hear what the Oracle had to say once she got to the Light Domain but not enough to go there herself.
"That\'s probably for the best. We\'ll be leaving soon so I\'ll spend the time that\'s left to tell you all the information the oracle has shared with us while you were asleep." Tiff had been expecting this and it was part of the reason she had spent so much time with Dawn who had already told her everything she had missed in the meeting while they were eating. "I had Dawn break the meeting down while we ate."
"In that case I\'ll just tell you the things we didn\'t share with everyone." Hearing that they had more information that they couldn\'t tell everyone, Tiff got ready to hear some upsetting news. "First the group we sent to destroy the barrier is most likely dead and that includes the Metal Temple\'s Head."
"How did they die?" Tiff wasn\'t too surprised but she wanted to know what had happened to them. "We\'re not sure like I said, this is just the most likely situation. The God of Metal said he lost contact with the Metal Temples Head soon after the barrier fell."
Tiff just nodded and hoped that some of them had survived whatever happened. "Now all that\'s left of the people fighting for the Metal Domain are people in a fortress close to the city and the God of Metal plans to use them to strike a peace treaty in a few days to end the situation no matter what he has to give the Demon Lord."
"Does the God of Metal have an idea what the Demon Lord might ask for to end the attack?" Tiff wasn\'t expecting an answer to this but she just wanted to know if the God of Metal had figured out just what he was going to lose for peace. "Just the peace treaty so far but the God of Metal has no real power in the negotiation and the Demon Lord will know it and take advantage of it."
"So you\'re saying anything could happen after the negotiation including the God of Metal becoming an enemy?" When the Temple Head started to nod Tiff realized why the Metal Oracle was being accused of sending a mixed message earlier. She had probably been walking around the fact that the God of Metal was going to be forced to do something he didn\'t want to and was hoping they would stop the Demon Lord before that happened.
"Is there anything else you needed to tell me?" The first two things hadn\'t really been anything to keep quiet about if they had already told everyone about the possible treaty in her opinion so there had to be something else. "Yeah there\'s one more thing."
After the Temple Head said this part there was a pause and it took enough time for her to say the rest that Tiff figured out she wasn\'t going to like what was about to be said. "This is information based on what I know about the God of Light and not from the Oracle in any way so feel free to take it with a grain of salt. I think we\'ll be heading out to war as soon as I get back from the Light Domain because I don\'t think the God of Light is just going to let us waste possibly the last few days we can attack the Demon Lord without trying to find and kill him."
Tiff fully agreed with what the Temple Head said now that she thought about it and understood why this was a big deal. If they were fully mobilized and sent towards the God of Light\'s best guess where the Demon Lord would be, the casualties would be massive for them and the posts they would be abandoning which included most of the Holy Domain.
By the time the surviving members of the Temple returned he wouldn\'t be surprised if most of the Holy Domain had been destroyed or conquered by the demon Lord who they would be unable to attack any longer to reclaim the land without the new treaties the Demon Lord had signed with other gods taking effect.
This made this an all or nothing gamble if it actually ended up happening. "Is that the last thing you have to say?" The Temple Head had started the last statement saying this was the last thing but it felt like she had more to say to Tiff. "No I want you to be ready because if he really decides to go all out that will include the 23 and this will be the most exposed any of you have ever been. Make sure they\'re getting ready the best you can while I\'m gone."
Tiff just nodded to this because she didn\'t think there was really anything she could do to help the others be any more ready than they were already. All of them were more skilled than her even with her fancy new job because she was still yet to get any real benefits from it, not yet completing her first mission.
This made her new position above all the other people here completely empty since she couldn\'t back it up with any real strength so her going to them trying to act like some type of leader would just be sad and would probably make their strained relationship worse.
She wasn\'t going to say this to the Temple Head though because she already had too much to worry about. "I\'ll try my best to see how they all would fair if we are forced to go into a battle outside of land controlled by us."
"Alright, good. I have to go now, make sure you take a bit of time to train. It\'s been a while and being rusty isn\'t good during war." After the Temple Head said this last thing she walked out of the room leaving Tiff alone to think about going to train with the other for the first time in a while.
...
Looking forward, Lake was happy to see his decision to run along the ground to go at his top speed had paid off. He hadn\'t known how far Keldon had been from the last place he was so when he picked to go as fast as he could he still hadn\'t been sure just how much time he would save but now it looked like he was going to get a few hours here before he had to go back.
In a few hours he would have no problems finding something interesting to do here and make the end of his trip worth his time. Coming to a stop a few minutes away from the city to find where the entrance to the city was since there was a giant wall Lake eventually saw a small line of carts going through a gate.
The line didn\'t look too long so Lake didn\'t try to fly into the city in case that was illegal and headed towards the line. Once he got there he realized there was a place for people to go through and went there instead of lining up behind the carts. The line for people was going pretty quick so before long he was standing in front of a guard.
"What\'s your business?" Lake just flashed his Alchemist guild badge instead of coming up with a story. "Alright have a nice evening sir." It had the effect he had hoped for and he was let directly inside the city. Setting Detector to look for a Building owned by the Thieves Guild before picking a street to walk down.