Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 921: As You Fight The Human God

The nun’s body turned into a white furry coat and rested over Raven’s burning shoulders. Her spirit peeked over from behind him, eyeing her surroundings with her hands wrapped around her ’master’.

”What the fuck are you doing here?!” Wasting no time, Helga charged at the demon general with her spear. ”GET THE FUCK OFF OF HIM!”

Her fist flew past the hero’s body, barely missing the nun. However, adjusting her blow to Moeria’s whispers in her ears, the valkyrie kicked the hero’s leg to trip him. Her leg passed right through his flesh like a cloud of smoke. Improvising further, Helga summoned her ice spear and swung it at once.

Leaping away from the hero to gather herself a little, she watched as the flames on his body consumed the ice trying to coat him in. Screaming still, the hero himself was distracted and consumed with hatred and rage. All the while, the nun decided to speak up and shed some light on the situation.

”One candidate amongst many, I’ve chosen to aid him this once.” An eerie smile takes over the projection of the nun’s spirit. ”His servants wait for him to take the crown, but fear not, for if he refuses, as you might hope and pray he will, ahaha~ We still have other candidates to be our lord. Aurora now amongst them, ahaha~!”

”So it is a selection after all...” Liliyana curses under her breath, frustrated with herself as she never pressed the topic further despite suspecting the same outcome.

”Enough talking,” lifting his shield, Amedith motioned everyone from his party to move behind him. ”You want a fight, we’re gonna give you a fight!”

”Is that so? Ahaha~.”

”A truce?” Kleismeth whispered, her gaze passing over Amedith, Helga, and the angel of life.

None of them was in perfect agreement, but given the looming threat of a demon general and what could be or become the demon lord, there was little room for a fight amongst them. Even so, weapons at the ready, the elves, the priestess, and everyone involved in the situation, with the exception of Evangeline, were reluctant to make the first move.

In their eyes, this raging beast was a part of their family and was now being twisted by some sick curse or magic. Their hesitation eventually led to the rise of another threat. The monster girls were forced out of the monster holding bracelet, and while Mino and Maine remained free of mind, Arche tore through the mansion’s ceiling and unleashed a raging cry.

”Leave the spider to me,” drawing her glowing sword, Evangeline spread her wings and flew right at Arche’s heart. ”Would be a shame to kill you, so go down quietly!”

As her body struck the colossal spider, Arche fell, splitting the left side of the mansion in two. With her ear-piercing cries, the battle had begun, and everyone charged at Raven and the nun. The first blow was swung by Helga, but catching it, the corrupted fae form of the hero simply looked at her through its burning gaze and whispered.

”I remember you, Helga.” A gasp left the valkyrie’s lips before she distanced herself from the hero.

Staring at him while the rest were rushing towards him, she tried to pin that familiar voice. She’d heard it before, long ago. Even before the hero was born, most of the current world was restored to what it is now.

”Nightsilver...How?” Although everyone heard her voice, they tried not to dwell on her words–not now.

The time for explanations will come later, and thus, with Kleismeth on their side, Amedith rammed Raven with his shield while Aria grabbed his legs with conjured undead arms reaching from the ground. Summoning a treant, a colossal honeybear, and a darktooth lion, Melicia pinned Raven further with his back now pressed to the ground.

The treant’s branches rooted the hero on the spot while the bear put its weight on his shoulders. As for the lion, it had its teeth buried deep in Raven’s thighs, although not a drop of blood was coming out of him still. Instead, there was a smile that curved at an awkward angle on his face, and the next thing they knew, the body of the hero had disappeared from under the beasts.

”BEHIND YOU!” Stretching her arm where she sensed a disturbance between dimensions, Kleismeth conjured an astral clone of Amedith with his shield facing the reality tear opening before him. ”GET AWAY FROM THERE!”

Appearing behind Mel, the corrupted hero punched the astral clone, but the strike went through its body as the Nun passed Raven’s fist across its body and struck Mel regardless of the goddess’s attempts to save her.

”ARUGH!” A single strike to the back of her neck, and the elf’s eyes turned white as snow. Crashing against Aria and Amedith, she went limp like a wet towel.

”MOERIA!” Helga screamed at her future sighted companion–someone she expected to have seen the blow coming.

”I’m sorry! But I don’t know what this is! I can’t predict what’s happening with no information or at least a connection with a goddess–” Right as she was about to give up on her future sight, Kleismeth forced her way into Moeria’s mind.

”Use me, then otherworlder!” Making a rising motion with her hands, the goddess summoned astral clones of all who were present, even that of Raven and the nun, lacking the corruption; however, their abilities were bound to be limited. ”I, Kleismeth, daughter of Aphrodite and Orthon, grant you that privilege!”

”NO TIME TO WASTE!” Already back on his feet with his shield guarding Mel while Erika helped her, Amedith screamed out loud while keeping an eye on Raven. ”FIGHT INSTEAD IF YOU CAN TALK!”

Heaving a sigh, he looked right into the corrupted hero’s eyes.

”Isn’t that, brother? Tsk...” In a flash, time seemed to have slowed ten times as much. Arche’s body was still rising from the debris, and the ceiling was slowly falling down on them. Helga was charging at Raven, and Evangeline had her blade all the way in Arche’s neck. ”Let’s see if you can still beat my ass.”

Glancing back on last time, Amedith made sure that Mel had at least regained consciousness. Seeing her struggling with a pained expression, he let go of his shield and, while looking at the hero, relied on something else.

”Bring it on then,” closing his eyes, the warrior channeled the power of his inner magus and stretched his arm towards him. ”Holy chains!”

Binding the hero with holy chains, Amedith froze him in place, but the nun opened another portal between dimensions to free him from the binds.

”Not so fast!” Focusing right at the portal, the warrior screamed. ”HEAVENS’S ARSENAL!”

To his command, the entire arsenal of heavenly weapons began shooting through the portal and striking Raven in the back. For a spell, Helga was surprised to have found Amedith stealing her ability, but that shock did not last long as Moeria screamed in her ears.

”NOW! BEFORE HE BURNS THE CHAINS AWAY!”

Numerous golden arms appeared around Raven’s body as Kleismeth further strengthened Amedith’s hold on the hero. Right before the blows landed, however, a wave of darkness erupted from within the hero and consumed everything around him. Like tentacles made of smoke, his body stretched like an eldritch monster, and everything that it touched, even the walls, the bugs, and the critters, was turned into horrors.

Watching the sight of the burning dark flames reaching for the skies, the soldiers on the docks—still stranded–decided that it was time to leave one way or die one way or the other.

’What the hell is going on there?’ Linkle pondered, her gaze set on the flames as she knew that only Raven amongst those present could command darkness and corruption.

Many doubts appeared in her head, and despite her better judgment, she decided to stay behind and try to be the hero that she warned everyone not to be. As for the mansion–or what had remained of it, was crumbling faster than the soldiers’ resolve to continue fighting in the city. Arche’s fight against Evangeline and everyone else’s against Raven and the nun continued.

’That goddess....she said one of us will die.’ The thought spun in all heads present at the site, wondering for which one of them today will be their last day on Atlaris.