Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 817: A Fight Amongst Families

"Kneel," right as Aria’s fist was about to make contact with Raven, the hero commanded with a finger jerking downwards, and the elf’s body slammed into the ground as a result. Still holding his head with one hand, his expression contorted with pain. "J-just...Don’t even try!"

"Seems like we have to!" Holding his hand forward, Amedith conjured chains of light and quickly wrapped them around Raven’s body. For a moment, the hero struggled, but then, melting into the shadows, he sprinted through the ground and appeared behind the magus. "What–AGK!"

Before he even realized what had happened, a knock to the back of his neck and his vision flashed all white. Falling to the ground much like Aria, the magus lost consciousness, and while the others were frozen at the sight, a collection of more shadow-type horrors appeared behind them and gave them the same experience as Amedith.

At once, their bodies fell to the ground, and as they settled unconscious, Raven’s head lifted to the screaming Arachne queen. Humming quietly to himself, he stretched one of his hands. Casting a violet mist from within his palm, he engulfed the entirety of Arche’s body within. As the fog made its way through the monster girl’s body, her eyes grew heavy, and her body fell to the ground as well.

As for the rest inside the monster holding jewel, they succumbed to the same mist, for no place was safe from such profane magic. Turning his gaze to the guests next, Raven stared at them blankly until Razor decided to speak up.

"Kara, handle this, will you?"

"Why me?" She asked, frowning.

"Because I can’t meddle in mortal affairs..." Staring right back at his daughter, he held her gaze until she exhaled the air that had been puffed up in her cheeks.

"Fine~" Looking at Raven, who was surprisingly calm after everything that he’d done, Kara raised her staff tipped with a deep blue crystal. "On my mistress’s name, I offer you your grandest slumber!"

Tapping the end of her staff against the floor, the high priestess of Aphrodite used a holy healing spell and put Raven into a deep sleep. Even so, being a mage and due to his resistance to magic, the hero slept upright, almost as if his sleep was the spell had barely worked and could be broken if someone so much as tapped him on the side.

"Always ruining the fun, both father and daughter..." Sounding disappointed, the nun pulled her hands through the portal and went away without another word. What little entertainment the sight had brought her was washed away by the god of time and his daughter, and as always, she had too many places to visit to stay behind for the aftermath.

"How long until they learn the truth?" With everyone either unconscious or gone, Kara looked to her father with questions of her own. "Even though I only know parts of the truth, you should know the whole picture, don’t you, father?"

Staring blankly at his daughter, Razor remained quiet. If he could, he would’ve spoken the truth, revealed all that is there to know, but the rules which he was in charge of implementing prevented him from interfering in the matters of mortals.

"If only things were so simple," taking a deep breath, he addressed Kara directly. "The demon lord, Nerva, the existence of those who should not exist and that infant girl...there’s far too much wrong with this world for me to stay quiet, but a single glance at the past–a glance at those wars when gods walked amongst mortals, interfered with things directly, reminds me why I can never bend the rulers, not even if it helps to do so temporarily because there’s always a hidden cost."

"What about that time back in Lantherem? About you warning them about Aran," Kara shot back, but Razor already had an answer.

"That was different. A warning is nothing compared to the devastating truth that awaits these kids at the end of the world."

Taking a step closer, Kara extended her hand towards Razor.

"Then at least tell me, I wanna know even if I can’t warn them."

Scoffing at her words, Razor broke into a smile.

"You’re a moral too, Kara. And you’re better off as such, I wouldn’t want you to be bound to any gods or their burdens." Turning around, the god of time opened a portal once again. "I would prefer if you dropped your worship of Aphrodite as well, but as you’re stubborn about that matter, consider me stubborn about heavenly laws."

Crossing her arms, the dark elf watched with squinted eyes as her father walked through the portal. As he disappeared, she shook her head and sighed before turning to the mess left behind her.

"Raven ’Phrodite, what the hell are you?" Puzzled by that thought, she stared at his unconscious yet upright body. "A man who shouldn’t exist but does, a man whose parents are unknown even to the gods, and on top of that, you’re host to a speck of Nighsilver’s soul and repel the servants of the demon lord like the opposite sides of a magnet. And yet your affinity towards dark magic and the control of horrors...hmm..."

Heaving a sigh, Kara sealed her lips and decided to keep her thoughts to herself. After all, she had quite a bit of work to do, starting from waking everyone up. But even before that, they had to be carried outside, and while doing so, she would notice the unconscious body of Garcia and the vampiress Ditsy, one of whom had fallen unconscious after the nun in white had graced the place with her presence.

"Cursed by corruption..." Getting to her knees, Kara placed a hand on Ditsy’s pale face. "And a vampire? Poor thing."

Closing her eyes, she used the power of her guidance–the very essence of her travel far and wide in her goddess’ name, and began curing the years of agony and suffering through the girl’s vampiric nature. Had she been awake or even healthy, her bones would’ve collapsed on themselves from the sheer pain, but as her mind was numbed from the constant control by the horror, her defences were down–allowing Kara to heal Ditsy like nobody else ever could, not even Erika.

’I feel as though things are coming to an end,’ during the process of healing, she glanced over at Raven once again. ’Maybe we’ll learn the truth after all, but who knows really.’

Staring at the hero, she felt something within her stir. A whirlpool of anxiety, for it has now happened once, and so it was only a matter of time before the truth about the hero and everything about him was finally out of the bag.

"Hopefully, I will be far away by that time." And with that prayer, she healed the rest. Even so, only a whole night’s rest could wake them up, and by that time, Kara would be gone, and the memories of the incident would be as fuzzy as a nightmare.