Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 816: The Candidate Speaks

A deep silver blue shade had taken over his eyes as Raven walked closer to the horror, now face down against the floor. The vampires around the horror snarled at the hero, but with a simple wave of his hand, he struck them out of his way. Silent, he stood in front of the now writhing monster, staring at him from above with his head tilted sideways.

"Separate from the girl," he ordered, and to further everyone’s surprise, the monster’s body instantly separated from the vampiress.

"AUGHHH!!" Screaming as the shade’s body was ripped from the girl, it tried to lift its dark, mist-like head but was instantly stepped on by Raven. "GURHH! GET AWAY!!"

Instead of walking away, however, Raven raised his boots and stomped the horror’s head again.

"Now sever your connection to the others, free everyone from their horror parasites..." Lifting his boot just enough to allow the monster to speak, Raven waited for a moment for the monster to open its mouth to speak. But then, once again, his boots stomped him right in the face. "I am not asking. Do it now!"

Watching it all happen from the background, everyone was stunned at what was happening. The once arrogant horror was doing everything that the hero demanded, but how exactly? Nobody had a clue. However, some didn’t care as getting closer to Ditsy’s to check on her was more important at the moment. Dragging her unconscious body away from the mess Garcia brought her to Erika and begged her to heal while the horror was distracted.

However, a vampire being an undead could not be healed, much less aided in any way by the gathered heroes. And while there were those who could help the vampiress, none of them were present, and even if they were, whether she could even be healed was another mystery entirely.

"Wh–AHHH! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Another scream from the horror was met with another stomp to the face.

"How dare you act on your own, pollute what I have created. You think you know better? But you’re nothing more than a parasite!" Rugged as the scratching of nails against stone, Raven’s voice had changed into an almost demonic screech. "Foul, indignant slave, know your place, you wannabe usurper!"

Holding his hand towards the horror, Raven absorbed it without the need to even touch it. The others watched, utterly confused about what was happening and how he could have done what he’d just done.

"Raven...you okay?" Taking a step forward, Amedith tried to touch his arm.

"Yeah, you sound different," Mel added, getting closer to him as well.

But before the hero could respond, a loud shriek came from the monster holding bracelet on Raven’s arm.

"UGHH! WH-WHA–AGHH! IT HURTS! MY HEADDDD!!!" Arche’s voice echoed throughout the lab, and without even looking behind, Raven threw the bracelet back towards his party.

Frozen with fear and uncertainty, everyone covered their ears for a moment and stared at the bracelet. Gathering some courage after a while, Aria picked the bracelet up and allowed Arche to get outside. Her body being a manageable size, she managed to fit in the lab.

Holding her head and screaming out loud, the reverberation of her voice within her own body was sending all of her spiders crawling outward. Her mouth, her ears, even through the gaps in her many eyelids, the arachnids kept rushing out of her body, and soon enough, they were all over the floor as well as the walls.

"DO SOMETHING!!" Slamming her head against one of the columns, the queen screamed like a banshee. "IT HURTS! IT’S SO MUCH!!"

"What the hell is happening?!" Turning to Erika, Mel searched for any type of answer. "Can you heal her already?!"

"Shut up, let me think!" Quickly putting her golden frames on, the priestess stretched her hand in the arachnid’s direction and tried to cast a healing spell. "OUCH!"

Like a zap, her hand was struck away by something invisible, making her clench it tight with gritted teeth to drown the pain. At the same time, Amedith tried to turn Raven’s body so that he was looking at him, but in that brief moment that their eyes met, what he saw sent a sharp pain through his head before sending him flying.

"AMEDITH!" Grabbing him mid-air by flying in the direction that he’d been flung, Liliyana quickly caught her lover, although it knocked her to the ground along with him.

"STAY AWAY!" Covering his eyes with both of his hands, Raven was acting beyond strange. "STUPID MONSTER THOUGHT THAT HE COULD RUIN OUR PLANS! I’VE WAITED TOO LONG–I’VE INVESTED TOO MUCH TO BE STOPPED BY THE LIKES OF HIM!!"

"What the hell is he talking about?!" Garcia muttered, but as she looked at the others, it became clear that nobody knew what the hell was going on.

"That is enough..." Cutting through the screams of the hero, a portal opened in front of everyone’s eyes. Walking through it were some familiar faces, Razor, Kara, and another whose phantom hand–as large as a human and as pale as a ghost–crawled out of that very portal. "The road to the end of the world is long; you’re not there yet, so let him go!"

"Oh~ Let him have some fun, why must you foul the fun always?" Said a familiar feminine voice from the portal–the owner of the very hand, and the name she went by...

"That’s the nun..." Erika was the first to realize.

"Can someone fucking explain what’s happening?!" Screaming at the top of her lungs, Aria turned to Raven once again. "I’m gonna stop him first and then you’re gonna tell what the hell is happening!"

And so, charging with her heart steeled, the dark elf followed by the rest as soon as she took the first step, was ready to fight her future husband and family. Knocking him out, that was the plan, but fighting him, even with the rest of her party helping her, was easier said than done.

"Oh, splendid, the children are fighting." Laughing with an angelic voice, the nun inserted another hand through the portal and clapped at the entertaining sight. "The first fight of the candidate, I wonder how long before the other has her first as well~ Ehahahah~"

"SHUT UP!" Razor yelled at her, and yet her laughter echoed through the lab. All the while, Aria’s first blow against the hero was finally about to land.