Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 266: A Father’s Love - Part 2

”Sheʼs human too?” One revelation after the other, Athenia was struggling to grasp her own reality. From Helga to Markus and even the mortal immortal, they were all humans and the only people she knew were as powerful as they were.

”I realized the potential they harboured, but a god of death wasnʼt exactly who they wanted to align with from the start. It was Aphrodite who ensnared them with promises that she herself knew were lies,” Murdock expected Athenia to be angry once more but at this point, it seemed her daughter couldnʼt be more disappointed in her mother than she already was.

Instead, with her eyes wandering rampant over the table, she lifted her gaze to ask him a question, one that could solve it all if everything wasnʼt as twisted as it seemed.

”Then what should I do? What am I supposed to do? I want this world of mine to prosper but the gods are leeches that want it all to themselves, but at least Iʼm trying to bring some of them together; in an alliance of sorts, one that doesnʼt involve killing me!”

”Youʼre on the right path, daughter…” Looking back on his own murderous exploits and the countless sacrifices he made on the battlefield, none of it seemed to amount to anything, especially since at last the elder gods were killed.

”I donʼt believe that I am!” Lost like a child struggling to plan her future, Athenia was flailing her arms in frustration to her side the same manner she used to when she was far too young for her to remember.

Unable to hold his laugh, Murdok cackled lightly. His laugh surprised Athenia out of her tantrum as she had no idea why he would be laughing.

”Ahaha…ahaha! AHAHA!” Holding his empty belly, Murdock leaned back into his chair laughing.

”F-father, are you ok–” Before his daughter could check on him, however, an army of undead beyond the grave joined him in his laughter.

Chilled by the voices of thousands, each a warrior on par with Helga, Markus, and easily Razor, felt gravely vulnerable. Slowly as his laughter died, Murdok leaned back forward in his chair and looked into Atheniaʼs eyes, a crimson passion burning in his own.

”The goddess of death shouldnʼt be afraid of it, Athenia!” Screaming at her for once, he jerked himself off of his chair. Flinching back in her seat at the sudden change in his demeanour, Athenia felt herself shrinking in the face of a dead elder god. ”I set you on this path as the new sovereign over death!

And your mother, as abhorrent as she mayʼve been to you, has passed her authority to you as well. Yet do you still struggle to see what calamities youʼre capable of?”

Walking around the table, Murdok grabbed Athenia by her shoulders and pulled her up. Staring deep into her eyes, his teeth cackled once more before he made her realize what price the world shall pay if the other so much as lift a finger against her.

”Nobody shall die if you do, nobody shall be birthed if you do, a Godʼs not just a title Athenia, itʼs the very authority to rule over such duties,” following his words, the goddess was pulled into a vision, a vision of war. Knee deep in blood she was charting through an ocean, but then rose dead–blade in hand and ready to fight their enemies.

A world where the forever spring of Athenia is drowned in blood and Elenaris is rampant with abomination. The undying roam the cities, rotting away yet clinging on to the thread of life, each either drowning in sin or begging for deathʼs cold embrace. Every child a stillborn, every mother a cannibal.

”When a god dies without a successor, so does the authority, leaving a massive hole in the world that can never be filled,” with the blink of an eye, Athenia was back in front of Murdok and having witnessed what would be, she knew that she couldnʼt allow such tragedy.

Even so, she had the same question for her father.

”What am I supposed to do to prevent it?”

A brief pause took over Murdok as he pulled his hands away from her; heʼd realized that she wouldnʼt understand so easily so he decided to ask her a question instead.

”Say,” placing his hand on her head, he caressed her for their time was running thin. ”If I were to tell you there was an arrow coming at you, would you try to dodge it or not?”

”Obviously!”

”And if I wasnʼt there would you simply stand there? Waiting for me to get there even if you knew I couldnʼt?”

”No, but!”

”Youʼve already altered reality twice, Athenia, once by reviving your chosen and the other by conjuring that devil fae, so you should already know that if I tell you what to do, the results youʼre trying to achieve just wouldnʼt be the same.”

”Then why not just tell me how I can prevent that from happening?!” Growing increasingly desperate as her fatherʼs body began to drift into particles of dust, Athenia clutched his sleeves to hold him there forever. However, what had remained of Murdok was about to be extinguished, the undying flame would finally wick out forever.

”Why? Ahaha…” Leaning closer to her face, the lord of death kisses Athenia one last time on her forehead. ”Because thatʼs how I died. Once you were in that prisoner Athenia, I knew the gods would come for you, to groom you to be their tool, but decided to stand guard to protect my little girl until the end of time.”

A god, a creature as present in the past as in the future, Athenia knew that well and it made her fatherʼs last words before disappearing, all the more haunting. Even now, past his death, Murdokʼs past self was fighting against the gods for if he stopped the hands of an elder God could traverse through time to choke the life out of Athenia.

Finally, Razorʼs warning made sense to her. Time wasnʼt a medium to be fiddled with or the consequences would be dire. But right now, none of it mattered to the goddess as with a flicker of her eyelids she found herself back in her prison, her body contorted in a mix of death and life. A perfect balance some would call it, but to her, it was a curse.

Looking back at her wings as she sat hunched over on her throne, she grabbed the white wing and began pulling it off of her body. And although she succeeds in ripping her own wing, the angelic feathers quickly return beside the dark ones.

”I DIDNʼT ASK FOR THIS!!!” Screaming into the void, the goddess kept tearing up her wings. And before long a pool of golden blood was draining down her throne like a river.

Note: Asking after a long time, drop your ideas and theories please! Iʼd love to heat them!