The ruler of the mipedian went to the dungeon. It had been two days since the interrogation began and they got nothing out of the metalist yet.

Theb-Saar knew progress would be slow. His tribe knew how to make any tribes talk in a short time. He knew where it hurts and what would make them talk. Every creature had a weakness, and every tribe generally had a similar weakness.

They were best at dealing with danians, who were their nemesis.

The king of the mipedian pushed that aside. He thought back to the previous reports he got for the first two days. They tried to torture him, but the metalist was resilient. He never said his name yet.

His jailers and the interrogators had no idea how the body of a metalist worked and how it would react to a blade on the flesh, or when the hand was burned. They had no antennas to partially cut and turned them a bit mentally unstable like the danians. It was all tried and see what would happen.

The reports indicated that the prisoner knew how to hide when they got close to his weakness. The face remained neutral and barely changed when they moved to each part of the body.

Theb-Saar reached the door that led to the torture room in the dungeon. It was a place no human ever reached. If they did, many wouldn't want anything to do with his tribe. He opened the door and walked inside.

Chapter 60: A Bit Of Progress

Theb-Saar could see the work of his interrogators. The metalist was strapped on a chair. There was a small pool of oil on the floor. The body was covered with scraps, dent and the ten fingers were broken and bent into different directions.

Despite that, the prisoner didn't seem broken or tormented at all. He glanced at the king, "Welcome to my room," he painfully said.

The creature saw the clear mental strength of the prisoner. He nodded, "Yes. It is your room for now. It might not be if you decide to talk," Theb-Saar knew he wouldn't get an answer just from that.

"I am good here right now. I won't be here forever anyway," he smirked a bit.

"You are gone and the metalists are forming a plan to locate and rescue you?" the mipedian kind asked as he crossed his arms. His back rested against the wall and waited for the answer.

"Of course, this is predictable," he replied to the lizard. He glanced at the side, "Of course, you want to know where Peyton is so you can rescue him. Sorry to say, but I have nothing to say."

"Don't try to joke. It will not ease the pain you are going through," the king replied.

"King Theb-Saar. I will not say anything that will go against my king. No matter what you do to me."

"We just having find where it hurts. Then, we will find out how we can break you. We still have enough time to figure this out."

"You think you can do that? I'm sure you won't find anything in time," the metalist chuckled a bit as he looked in the red eyes of the blue creature, "You never dealt with a creature made of metal flesh like me."

"Indeed. We are learning about you and taken notes of everything. You are the first and probably won't be the last. You were caught quite easily by my soldiers. I think you will speak quite easily when we found the right way to make you talk," he turned around and made a few steps away from the prisoner, "As I said, it's only a matter of time and we have enough, before anyone could try to get you out of our claws. Don't you agree?" he turned around and locked his gaze in the metalist. He got a bit of an idea how to get what he wanted from the creature, but he had to be calm and subtle.

"I don't. It is only a matter of time. You brought me to your own dungeon," the metalist replied. He had a small smug on his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it. His smug expression was gone and he offered a neutral one.

Theb-Saar wondered what went in the mind of the creature. He could already guess that he intended to mock him, but changed idea. Whatever it was, it might have something to do with the dungeon. Unless it was something else unrelated, "You wanted to say something?"

"No. It's nothing important."

He guessed he almost slipped up something, "Now. What can you tell me about your king? He did come in person to kidnap Peyton and I have a feeling he might have hurt the boy to obtain what he wants. Which I already have an idea what it is," he walked around the prisoner. He broke eye contact as he circled the metalist.

"King Titanium didn't hurt Peyton, if you are wondering about that. I won't let you tarnish my king's name with some lies or wrong supposition," he growled.

"Like when he just felt on the ground when he came to kidnap Peyton?" he commented on the report he got. He smirked a bit in a mocking manner. Even if he didn't intent to mock Titanium, he wanted to get an answer out of the other creature.

"What?" he confusingly asked. The prisoner frowned and thought a bit about it. He wasn't that surprise that his king could just drop on the ground with his cape on the way. Still, he bit his tongue. He felt a bit of anger when he realised the mocking smirk. He couldn't answer that question. He took a deep breath and kept himself in control. He could see what Theb-Saar tried to do. He tried to make him talk. To play with his emotions. He knew the king was dangerous and double his guard, "You got to try better than that," he said.

The king knew that the metalist read his intention. He noticed it the moment he forced himself to calm down and avoided losing control of his emotions. He wanted to make him talk by pushing him to anger. Angry creatures often had a loosen tongue than one who was calm and in control. He was behind the metalist. He crossed his arms and rested his back against the wall, "Indeed," he knew he had to play with the emotion of the creature another way. They were many ways to do that. Some that he might blindsided the creature.

"You won't break me Theb-Saar," the creature warned.

"You know my name, but I don't know yours," he commented.

The prisoner chuckled, "I won't tell you my name either."

"I will ask a few things," Theb-Saar had no intention to physically torture the creature. He didn't train to do such act and as a king, it was something he shouldn't lower to do himself. He took a few steps to the right of the creature, "And maybe you will answer, willingly."

"You can try, but I won't answer anything," the metalist replied. He closed his eyes a bit and sighed quietly. He knew that whatever the king would do, it wouldn't work. He would escape very soon. He tried to move his fingers, but it hurt too much. They were broken and twisted in angles it shouldn't ever be. He looked at them. The pain was tolerable and easy to endure. He trained to resist torture for a long time and it paid off. He took a deep breath and tried to look at the creature. He couldn't see him yet, outside of his field of view.

The blue mipedian then asked, "Tell me. Is your kingdom on the continent?" he already knew the answer.

"Maybe yes, maybe no," the prisoner replied.

"You seem pretty good at keeping this a secret," Theb-Saar commented with a hint of frustration in his voice. He closed his eyes and walked in front of the prisoner. He turned his back at him, before he opened his eyes and turned around, "But not good enough. Next question, how is Peyton?"

"I already told you that Peyton isn't hurt and neither his parents. The family is together and fine," he suspiciously replied.

"I expected you to say something else," the mipedian replied as he took a few steps to the left. His red eyes didn't leave the metalist eyes. He closed his eyes and went on, "Why did you take Peyton? You do realise that he is my friend and it would put my tribe against yours. Unless you were expecting that those consequences wouldn't come. Which you are facing right now," he growled quietly as he approached the creature. He towered over the metalist in search of an answer.

"You will have to ask my king for such answer."

"You still know the answer," came the quick reply.

The creature glanced down as a smug appeared on his face It was clear in his mind that the king struggled to find a way to make him talk. He then raised his gaze and looked at the lizard, "Maybe yes. Maybe no. I won't say anything anyway."

"There must be something about going to the Cothica," he saw the expression on the prisoner changed a bit, as he didn't except his response to his non-answer, "Are you planning to cause havoc as you did in the past? Enslaving the humans. Which is the reason you were sent to Perim? And then you live into hiding, in fear of us?"

The metalist bit his lips. He knew where this was going. The creature provoked him. Still, he wouldn't talk.

Theb-Saar went on without showing any emotion. He sounded like he just gave facts, "You were exile from the Cothica. You think you deserve to return there?" He got no answer. He went on, "You think you are above us, but you are just seen as creatures by the humans now. You are not even habitants of the Cothica."

The prisoner growled as he tried to remain calm. He knew those were lies.

"Humans have no idea who you are, until you decided to stop hiding anymore," he crossed his arms and glanced at the side, "When you kidnapped Peyton, it says a lot about you and king Titanium, since you didn't ask him to come with you willingly."

The metalist snapped, "That says nothing about us! We didn't kidnap him! We brought him to our island and-" he froze when he realised what he just said. His eyes turned a bit dull. He had no idea how bad it would be as he said too much.

"This confirms that you brought Peyton and his parents against his will. We know that already. And you said an Island. That cuts a lot of locations to search you know. Not on the continent, but on the islands," he didn't say they already knew it was not on the continent. Neither that they already knew it was away from the islands of the elementalists. He let out a small smile, "You won't say anything anymore," he noticed the prisoner just ignored him and thought about what he just had done, "I will leave. It will be easier to make you talk, now that you said something," he left the room and closed the door behind him.

It wasn't much, but it was progress. It was just, as the human said, a domino effect. The prisoner said one small thing, but it will be easier to extract more intel from him now.

What he got wasn't much, but it confirmed that they were more on the south part of the ocean.

AC: This is the end of this chapter.

Next: A Chance.

Tom waited for the moment to get a clue for the first fragment of the Jewel of the Cothica, his chance came.