Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 821: On Open Soil Again

After a long time, Raven and his party had finally set foot outside the city walls. Standing on the other end of the desert, they stared into the horizon with the outline of a ruined land visible at the very end. Beyond that lay the ocean once more, beckoning another voyage through the hell’s sea–not exactly something any one of them looked forward to.

Included amongst the onlookers were Garcia and Ditsy. Standing under an umbrella to hide the vampiress from the sun, it was the elf’s first time setting foot outside the city. The air felt heavy in her lungs, and the way the desert ripped moisture out of them left her throat and her chest feeling a little itchy.

”So, when are we leaving?” She asked, looking at Raven’s back.

The hero, however, kept staring into the distance and not because of the peculiar view of the ruins up ahead, but rather due to the fact that his mind was directly connected with Athenia at the moment, as was everyone else’s in his group.

Standing still, they could feel a tension in their connection to the goddess. Almost as if something had her unnerved, and the silence shared between them didn’t make things any better.

’Just...do as you see fit. I have some other matters to look at.’ Unsure whether the party could do anything to help ease her anxiety, Athenia severed the connection, and severed she did, for not even Erika could reach out to her even when she tried.

The group hadn’t had a chance to talk about what had happened with Raven, and with their goddess sounding just as troubled, their minds raced through the worst of possibilities. Alas, what came to their mental rescue were the words carried by a dainty fairy’s lips. Hearing her talking in their head, they listened closely.

’I’m Cassiopea, my mistress Elenaria’s familiar.’ There was a strange jingling sound accompanied by each and every one of her words. ’Someone apparently had managed to invade your goddess’s prison, so please don’t talk to her for a while, as the invader could still be listening to your conversation. You can relay anything that you might need to talk about to me instead!

”What do you mean someone invaded her prison?” Raven asked verbally.

Garcia and Ditsy were still watching as the group remained mostly quiet, although their expressions had tightened up quite a bit.

’I...I’m allowed to say who. I’m sorry, but please believe me, your goddess is handling it.’ Cassiopea tried to convince them, but the jitter in her words was far from a good sign. And since everyone’s anxiety had grown quite a bit, they wanted to know more, and thus Erika wasted no time in trying to force her way into Athenia’s prison.

Holding her hand forward, she reached inside herself to call upon Asmodia. The devil lent her her strength, and in the blink of an eye, a portal the size of a needle opened before her. Pressing her finger against the portal, she split her flesh from her consciousness, and the next thing she knew, her mind was inside of Athenia’s prison.

Looking around, she was shocked to find numerous clones of her goddess rummaging through what appeared to be well-kept document folders–or at least they were well kept until the clones decided to throw the pile everywhere.

”What’s going on?” She asked, but received no answer.

Surveying her surroundings some more, she noticed her goddess’s throne buried under a pile of torn paper. Tearing even more, the true body of Athenia kept rummaging through the documents that her clones had been bringing her, and yet nothing seemed to ease the wrinkles across her forehead.

”UGH! THIS IS ALL JUNK!” Too much documentation of every event in the past was making the process of finding more about Nerva quite difficult. ”A thousand years of documentation and not a word on that woman?”

Though Nerva was part sister to Athenia, the two had never had the chance to meet each other. In fact, most gods never met her, for she was there even before the birth of her mother. On her body, the gods fought the wars, and then she was born. Truly a being unconstrained by the shackles of space and time, and an enigma of which barely anything was known.

”Damn you, Nerva...” Athenia cursed, not realizing that Erika had walked up to the foot of her throne.

”Nerva, is that who invaded this place?”

”What?” Realizing that someone was there, Athenia cast her gaze down at her followers and was left absolutely stunned. ”When did you come here?!”

Parting from Erika’s body, Asmodia walked up the steps of the throne and sat by Athenia’s feet while looking up.

”Just now, after we learned that someone invaded your prison, and from the sounds of it,” grabbing the feet of the goddess, Asmodia started caressing them with her fingers. ”It sounds like she has made a return, that goddess of calamity; Nexa Nuva Nerva.”

With a light chuckle, Asmodia looked back at Erika.

”How long will you hide it from them? The truth of this world? I know I have secrets, secrets that even you are unaware of, but in time all must be revealed, and this feels like one of those times.” Looking up at Athenia again, Asmodia brought her face closer to the goddess’s feet and kissed them. ”Wouldn’t you agree?”

”Get off my feet,” shaking her feet, Athenia pulled them away from the horny devil. ”And as for you barging in here without permission!”

Staring at Erika, Athenia wanted to lash out, but then she was reminded of who she was–the only person who had never lost faith in her, not even once. Holding her tongue, she turned her head away and bit on her thumbnail.

”Tck...I suppose, I can’t keep avoiding this now, can I?” Slowly turning her head back at Erika, Athenia leaned forward and asked. ”So tell me, how would you feel if I told you that everything in Atlaris is meant to rot?”

”I, I would feel horrible.”

”And that is why we’ve hidden this secret for so long. Remember that as I tell you everything that I know about this goddess of Calamanity—the mother of Atlaris, our world, and everything in it...”

And so began the unveiling, but before Athenia could reveal it all, the others had all to be brought into her prison.