Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 149: Curing The Symptoms Not The Cause

”An Infernal curse has no way around it…” Done checking up on him, Darius pulled his hand out from the magic circle hovering over Ravenʼs chest. Taking the gloves off as well, he quickly moved around his desk and settled down on his workbench. ”Weʼll need to treat the symptoms until we can find a cure. Not ideal, obviously but I donʼt see a way around it.”

Getting off his seat, Raven leaned forward and lifted Daruisʼ face. Showing him the mana-fused eye, he searched for an answer, no matter how drastic the measures couldʼve been. But no matter how long he peered, there was nothing at the top of Dariusʼ head that could help elevate the curse from his body.

”What the hell are you doing?” Shoving Raven away, Darius stared at him with his nose scrunched up and eyebrows scowled. ”The fuck happened to you all out there?”

Letting his expression slowly lighten up, the inscription mage heaved a tired sigh. Heʼd known Raven for as long as he could remember, yet heʼd seen him so desperate, so aggressive at least towards him or his other friends.

”Forget that,” fanning his hand in front, Raven shook his head trying not to let his desperation get to him. ”Just tell me how I can cure the poison or at least keep it at bay until we can find a way to get rid of the curse.”

Holding his gaze for a while, Dariusʼs lips pushed sideways as he glanced down at the pen and a slip of paper. Picking up the pen, he quickly began to write down runes that could provide immunity to poison. However, usually when used their effect would only last a day or two, but since he couldnʼt travel with the group, Darius had other plans to make it last much longer.

”Take this,” stacking the multiple rune-etched slips, he slipped them closer to Raven. ”Go to Reina, and tell her to fuse the slips into rings. Could be glass or silver, make sure she doesnʼt use iron.”

”Wonʼt the paper burn up?” Raven asked, grabbing the stack of slips.

”Itʼs not paper its hide, if sheʼs careful then there shouldnʼt be any issues, and if youʼre so worried go to the Lifeclover, the witch should be able to make it resistant to heat, although youʼd be visiting her again since she need to activate the slips while theyʼre trapped in metal.”

”A lot of steps just for precaution…” Glancing down at the paper before slowly looking back up at Darius, Raven took a deep breath and heaved a sigh. ”I can only imagine how hard it would be to get rid of this thing entirely.”

”A real pain in the ass for sure, a devil is behind that curse so you either kill that thing by going to Infernal or find another way to get it off of your back,” the first suggestion essentially meaning to die and go to hell, was obviously not something Darius actually wanted Raven to consider, however being transparent with his long time friend was something he had to do.

”Alright then, Iʼll be off,” quickly dropping a pile of gold and turning around to leave, Raven felt Dariusʼ hand tugging him back to face him. Turning to look at the mage standing up from his chair, Raven scowled in confusion not knowing what he had left to say.

”That name, Libyan was it?” Asked Darius, and Raven hesitantly nodded.

”What about it?” He asked as Darius let go of him.

Slowly retreating into his chair the mage seemingly stared at nothing. Sitting in silence for a moment, he glanced back up at Raven and though his lips quivered with uncertainty he told him the meaning of the word heʼd once read off.

”It means ʼA vengeful Survivorʼ, that is if Iʼm not wrong. Besides itʼs not even actually considered a name but rather a title. Iʼd be careful about whoever cursed you because just like the title of a hero, there are many more titles that hold power,” hearing Dariusʼ warning, Raven felt the same way.

None of them ever saw the Lamia queenʼs dead body, and when asked about what happened in there to Erika, she refused to elaborate and simply told them that Libyan was dead.

ʼMaine, she might know something.ʼ Caressing the crimson jewel on his bracelet, he could feel both Mino and Maine present inside. ʼI had to take her to Linkle anyways, so what better timing?ʼ

Taking off from the Enchanted Wand, Raven headed straight for Linkleʼs shop. It almost felt comical going back to where heʼd first landed beside Linkle after the teleportation, whatʼs more? He had to go back and forth between her shop, the blacksmith, and then back to her shop again.

Unless of course, someone else from his party had stayed behind in the Lifeclover instead of doing whatever it was that they needed to do like they always did while visiting.

Despite the poison spreading through their veins, Aria was headed for the blacksmith as always and had plans to meet up with Helga as well. Mel and Erika were off to the church in hopes that someone would know how to get rid of the curse, and if not perhaps the orphans would be happy to see some familiar faces. As for Amedith and Liliyana?

The two had decided to stay behind at the Lifeclover as parading a devil through Athenian streets was bound to end up badly.

Not to mention, ever since the goddess stripped Amedith of his title everyone somehow knew that the new hero was Raven and they scorned at the sight of the failed hero.

ʼHell if I care.ʼ Thought Amedith, sitting on a stool inside Linkleʼs shop staring at Liliyana playing around with the floating vampire head Vlad. Following behind it as the head moved throughout the shop, the devil-child couldnʼt help her curiosity. Knowing little of this world, everything she witnessed in the outdoors she stared at it closely with a giggling smile.

Poking the head on its back, trying to run away from it as it chased her in anger! These were but a few examples of how she was finally enjoying moving her body around.

”Donʼt bite my tail! EKKK!” Biting the heart-tipped tail, Vladʼs undead head finally got payback in the form of the fae-childʼs scream.