Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 818: Little Sister

The same night as the outburst by Raven, something was writhing down below. Every man, woman, and child on Atlaris felt the quiver of something shifting underneath them, but as it didn’t last too long, they thought little of it. Returning to their everyday life, they acted as if nothing had happened. But there was one who was more than curious about the phenomenon, and that was none other than Athenia herself.

’What is going on?’ Not only could she not contact her chosen warriors, but she had also felt her entire prison shift its place. Still trapped with Nerva’s skull, however, she was still a prisoner, just a few meters away from wherever her prison was supposed to be.

”You worry too much,” spoke a clone of hers, standing right next to her. ”The heroes are fine and you’ll be okay too, why not work on that alliance that they’ve promised the goddesses instead?”

Having already heard of the promise by words first given to Elenaria and then to her by Cassiopea, Athenia knew about everything that had happened inside the invisible-walled city. However, even then, ever since that shift, she’d been feeling quite uneasy. Something has changed, and that too for the worse, but what exactly was it? The goddess couldn’t tell at all.

”My foresight is failing me,” glancing sideways at her clone, she huffed. ”I can’t tell why that happened. Feels like something went wrong last night, and I don’t even know if everyone inside the city is even alive anymore.”

”As if Fortuna and Mesmerazia wouldn’t pass that message along through Elenaria,” looking down at her master, the clone reasoned further. ”Besides, nobody in that city is strong enough to kill the hero, much less that angelic army that he can now command. Asmodia is with them too, not to mention a potential army of undead as well as woodland creatures.”

”Hmm...” Turning her head back to her front, Athenia pondered the matter some more. ”I suppose you’re right. Amedith is there as well, and his shield should block up to five lethal blows even if someone was in fact there.”

”That’s exactly what I’m saying, no need to worry.”

”I suppose you’re right...” As Athenia’s head remained downcast, she tried to come to terms with the fact that her instincts could be overreacting, but right as she had convinced herself that everything was okay, the clone said something that made her raise an eyebrow.

”You’re smart enough not to be so paranoid.” Her words by themselves weren’t that alarming, but the way she’d talked thus far raised a question in the goddess’s mind. Thus, with a raised eyebrow, Athenia reached forward to grasp her sceptre. A staff of chilling silver and gold running up the spine of the weapon while spiraling around each other. At the tip sat a vertical pair of rings within which a cloud of dark and silver moved about rampantly.

”Who are you?” She asked, and the clone simply blinked.

”I’m your clone,” the clone responded.

But as her response was far from satisfactory, Athenia swung her staff and hit the clone right in its stomach. Falling from the edge of the throne’s steps, the clone fell to the ground with a mild groan of hurt.

Wasting not a second more, the goddess turned into her true burning silver form. Strands of life and death as thick as steel emerged from her body and also formed her body. Pointing her staff with one hand and using her other hand to conjure her ledger of death, Athenia watched as the clone slowly got back up on her feet,

Her hand covered her face, and her eyes barely peeked at her from between the fingers. Smirking to herself, the clone began to laugh out loud before asking her a question.

”How did you know?!” It screeched like chalk scratching across a chalkboard.

Jerking her staffed hand to the side to move her long, dark sleeves away from her body, the goddess stared blankly at the clone through her empty eyesockets.

”You complimented me,” opening her eyes of ethereal gold floating behind the strand of life and death, Athenia smirked a little and reminded this trespasser of who she was before anything else. ”They would throw me into a furnace before they compliment me, trust me, I know those bitches.”

”Ah, well~ I suppose it was worth a try,” smiling still, the clone closed her eyes. Its body slowly began to turn to glittering dust and disappear into the air, and watching it, Athenia wondered what kind of familiar had been sent to her prison and from which rival god. But before she could ask, the clone bowed her head as at the end of a play.

”I will see you again,” looking up again with her body still leaning forward, the clone smiled at the goddess. ”Little sister.”

”What...” Holding her arm forward, Athenia tried to get closer. ”WHO ARE YOU?!”

But by the time she got to the clone, it was already gone, turned into dust.

”Damn it! Who the hell was that?” Drawing her hand closer to her chest, Athenia allowed her godly form to shatter out of existence. Returning to her usual body, she wondered how a god could get inside her prison and then leave so easily as well? ”Maybe they sent a familiar and were possessing its body to talk to me?”

The reasoning made some sense at the very least, but upon returning herself to that strange look in the clone’s eyes, she felt as though she was staring at another god directly. The same as when she’d met Elenaria by possessing her familiar to meet her father’s soul in the sea of stars.

”Who could it be?” She pondered and pondered, but no answer came to her.

’Someone who’s a god and can get inside this prison. Who could it be? It doesn’t matter how insane it sounds. I wanna know, and sister...then they’re related to me.’ At first, Fortuna’s name came to her mind, but since the clone had managed to escape, it was clear that it wasn’t her. ’Then who? Someone that can get in and out as easily as breathing, who could that...’

”No...” As the realization hit her, a gasp escaped her mouth. ”Nerva...It’s her, but how?!”

Trapped within a dead god’s mind, but as she remembers, gods do not die, they simply change forms. And that realization made a chill run up her spine. She’d been watched all this time, from the time she was first trapped in this prison, to the start of the hero’s journey, and even now at this very moment.

Feeling her eyes all over her, Athenia squeezed her arms and tried to fight her panic. But it was of little use, as the goddess of calamity and the end would be watching her, forever and ever.