Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 982: Where Did It Go?

Having escaped under everyone’s noses from Aurum, Athenia fought the horrors and the keepers plaguing the different kingdoms and islands. For the most part, Evangeline and her forces were enough, but they were far too spread out in the middle of the eastern half of Atlaris to reach the kingdom of Athenia just yet. Confident that the place would still stand whether she lent her aid or not, the angel of life fought valiantly for the islands–all the while, her reigning goddess had just concluded her fight against a high-level keeper.

Crushing its core, Athenia stared at her metallic hand. Cold and empty, the feeling traveled from the tip of her fingers to the ironcore within her chest. A metallic taste swirled in her mouth, not because of her bodily configuration but rather from the chilling thought that had crossed her mind.

’Where did it go?’ When her head lifted, she stared in front of her at the empty plot of land stripped of vegetation and the expected mound of the minotaur cave that used to be there. Her plan had been to visit the place, as any keeper around Athenia was bound to make the dungeon its nest. To her surprise, however, the dungeon was no longer there; only the keeper was what she found in the middle of the thicket.

"Was it ever here?" She asked herself, holding her hand forward to create a projection of what she remembered.

Erecting the mirage of a dungeon, she walked inside and began scanning the place from within. Making her way towards the place where Mino was found by Raven. Upon her arrival there, she was reminded of yet another tiny little detail about monsters and beasts.

"Her nightmares are the monsters..." Athenia’s expression soured further as Nerva’s ploy appeared to be getting deeper than she’d ever expected. This place, this dungeon. Did it even exist back then, or had she too fallen victim to the dead god’s manipulations? But what of the minotaurs? What of Mino? She thought. Only to come up with a plausible answer just moments later.

’The queen before Mino, she mated with a human. But what about the queen and the minotaurs? Were they Nerva’s pawns? The first string in her web of manipulation?’ While Mino couldn’t be Nerva’s creation, the same couldn’t be said for the long-dead queen and minotaurs. ’And what the fuck was a high-level dungeon doing so close to Athenia, anyway? We’ve never had that problem before; only dark elves were the issues.’

The mass migration to Athenia of the elven tribes, both dark elves and the fair, was a well-documented record in history, and if it were to be taken just as it was written, then most dark elves were dead, and the remaining were welcomed into Athenia with grand prejudice. Horrors may have driven them out of the forest, but there have never been any reports of minotaurs rampaging about before then...

"Did she really think that far back?" Frustration boiled within her and her mind raced to her earliest thoughts. She’s been free of her time-binding spell for a while, and Nerva has had aeons to prepare for the world of the world. Which only made her further question how much she had influenced everything. Was her own spell breaking and setting her free also part of Nerva’s design? And what did the goddess of calamities gain from the minotaur cave ordeal?

Questions upon questions piled on top of Athenia’s head, and yet there were no signs of any answers. The best she could assume was pushing Raven-her son-to become the hero in place of Amedith, but was his death really necessary to prove the magus’s incompetence as the leader of their group?

Snapping herself out of her mind, she looked around at the illusion once more. If such a thing could make her question everything, then what chance did the mortals have against Nerva’s trickery? With that in mind, she decided to reconstruct the illusion into a perfect replica of the dungeon as she remembered it.

’Nobody else has to know.’ There was enough doubt in the hero’s group already going around; adding more confusion to the mix couldn’t possibly end well. ’That bitch...This is probably what she meant when she mentioned the group having never been inside this dungeon. Fuck...’

Unraveling Nerva would take far too long, and as a goddess no more than a hundred years old in waking years, Athenia lacked the mental fortitude to understand it all. Although her excellent foresight–inherited from her father’s necrotic poison–rivalled that of the dead goddess, experience was the only thing she truly lacked.

"Atlaris!" Closing her eyes, she raised both of her hands above her head. A shower of silver blades danced around her elegant frame, forming multitudes of white magic circles. "Your mistress commands you! This memory, this structure, I will it to be and so you shall listen!"

Opening her eyes slowly, the goddess drew a long, deep breath and commanded the very world to bend to her will. Part of her soul still left in Nerva’s dead mind gave her control of Atlaris as long as her faithful took for her whatever new land they conquered or allied.

"O’spirit of the world, Atlaria and Atlaris. Be you neither man nor woman, not mortal nor immortal; your divine mistress has spoken, so bend and fulfill your duty."

Erupting through the ground, a mound of earth rose under Athenia’s feet. Its shape and size shifted the terrain around it before filling the gap in the soil with what had been emptied from within itself to form walls and paths. Replicating everything from Athenia’s memory itself, the world had answered its mistress’ call. Bending its knees and performing its expected duty.

By the time the changes would settle, the hero would’ve arrived in Athenia for an entirely different business. However, even if for some reason he decided to go and look at the dungeon, what he would find would be exactly what he expected. All thanks to Athenia, deciding what’s best for his journey further ahead.