Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 842: You’ve Made Your Mark

As the night deepened, Raven woke up in a dream. His sight was enveloped in darkness, and yet the lone form of the dark fairy mother peered at him through the abyss. Burning silver and fuming dark, she reached out to his body and touched him by his heart.

"You’ve made your mark," she said, drawing her hand back.

Confused by her words, Raven reached outward and asked back.

"What mark?" Umbra’s lips parted to answer, but as a pair of bony chains came from behind, she pressed them close. Wrapping around her neck, the chains served as a warning–of what and from who? Even that she could not answer. "What’s going on? Why did you bring me here again?"

The chain loosened a little, and Umbra could speak again.

"Enough said, you’ve already done your part and will continue to do so." Staring into his eyes with her burning silver gaze, Umbra’s chest rose, and Raven noticed a dark hand emerging from between her breasts. Reaching for him as her limbs were tightly tied at this point, she touched his skin again. "To see grandchildren, what better gift could a mother ask for? Now, continue to do so, and in time you’ll get to your destiny already written in stone."

"What are you talking about?" Fighting against the unseen hold that kept him suspended mid-air, Raven slapped Umbra’s hand away from him. "Enough of these riddles, if you want to talk, then talk plainly or just don’t! I have enough trouble on my plate, I don’t want you to add more to it!"

Heaving a sigh, Umbra retreated her hand. Eyeing her son still, she contemplated her next words, for every time she tried to say something compromising, the chains around her neck would tighten yet again. Considering her words, Umbra sang in truth.

"I was once a mother of the ferocious and the sickly; my children had wings and flew far and wide. But then came the gods, the high and mighty. My children were slaughtered, and they slaughtered back in kind. Shunned by the sun, they were chased into the night. Stricken with charred skin and their wings torn from their shoulders until none could soar the skies. No more fairies, no more flights, until one of the betrayed chained me to the spine."

With another deep breath, Umbra closed her eyes. The chains had retreated completely at this point, except those around her limbs, keeping her chained to the spine of the world still. As her eyes opened again, she heaved a sigh and spoke before the chains could get back to her.

"Nerva knows, and I helped her in return for this very day!" Her voice rumbled like thunder in the dark, and before Raven knew, out came the chained and dragged her back to the abyss at once. The fairy neither screamed nor said anything else; she’d accepted whatever comes, after all, the goddess of calamity needed her still.

Still trying to wrap his head around everything, Raven felt a sudden pull on his back. Jerking him through a hollow portal in a second, it brought him to a plain where not even darkness existed. The hollowness of oblivion stretched in all directions, and even then, the concept of direction itself made little sense, as there was neither up nor down or light or dark–a true realm where only the feeling of loss existed.

And then came her grasping hand, wrapping round the hero’s soul to encompass it all. Held within her embrace, Raven couldn’t move or utter a word. There was nothing that he could do, and such was the splendour of the goddess who birthed a world.

’It is far too soon for you to know of your destiny. Go now, be set on your path. The world awaits your radiant blooming.’ Compressed within her ethereal fingers, Raven felt a sharp pain coursing through his head, and the next thing he knew, his eyes were opened, and he was sitting at the edge of the bed with Rose, Brenna, and Aerin still sleeping behind him.

Staring at his hands as if he was questioning reality itself, he wondered if he’d dreamt it all. It had to be a dream; otherwise, it made no sense. Umbra never reached out to him if there wasn’t some deal to be made. Even her powers he was essentially borrowing, but thankfully, the price was already paid as a speck of his soul.

’Again, more trouble...’ Dropping his shoulders, he wondered just how much worse things could get. How long will this continue, and what exactly did Umbra’s words mean? The last of the voices was from Nerva, and from the way she’d talked to him, it was clear that she had a plan in place. Perhaps their group was already marching into it, or maybe just maybe, every step that they’d taken was just another part of it. ’We need to end this quickly.’

Lifting his head, Raven took a deep breath and leaned back. Deciding that it had to be over as soon as possible, the end date to conclude it all was pulled further towards the present. The only thing left to do now was to say goodbye and be ready to face death once more. Even if he were to die, the hero wanted to set things up in such a way that the remaining army, along with his companions, could end the demon lord themselves.

And even if they failed, there was one final option. But to confront that possibility, Raven had to turn around and look at the women sleeping behind him.

’If not me or my family, then it will fall on you.’ Speaking to the children whom he hadn’t had yet, he made them a promise which he would never want to break. ’I will put an end to this; it won’t come down to you to end this cycle once and for all.’

With that in mind, Raven decided to get some rest–something he needed far more of than he was getting at the moment.