Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 990: From One Sea Past The Other(Catching Up)

Evangeline was in the middle of choking the life out of a keeper’s eyes when the tridents appeared over her head. Burning the foul beast of countless faces, the monster who’d terrorized Lantherem and the surrounding islands, she held its core within her grip before burning it with pure golden light. A ripple of immense energy rippled through the islands, waving over them like a tsunami made of wind.

When asked why she couldn’t have handed the core over to Linkle or someone else for better use than a gust of wind brushing over the island inhabitants, her answer was simple.

"Not every power needs to see use." Those were the only words she spoke before the tridents left for the docks of Lantherm, taking the angel of life with them, leaving in her stead idols of stone as angelic guardians of the lesser god’s grave.

On Aranuvia, Gallaria’s boarding was a striking contrast to the angel. Her fascination with the tridents and her eagerness to see her students again steered her to the helm. While Raven and a few others welcomed her gladly, Regalia and the Elenarians made no attempts to hide their scorn for the dragoness’s scaly skin.

"Daema I tolerate because he’s an obedient pet to the fox girl, but..." Grimacing at Gallaria from the controls, Regalia scoffed, swatting the air.

"And a good evening to you too, Mistress Krim~." Chuckled the dragoness, amused by the demi-wolf’s scorn toward her. "How fares the lurkers in your head? I’ve heard being a multi-patron warlock can come with a fistful of challenges."

"Gallaria, don’t give her fuel to complain." Lightly slapping the back of his hand against her arm, Raven moved between the two girls before their quarrel could further escalate.

"A little banter wouldn’t hurt," she chuckled, covering her lips.

"Some day, some day, I’m gonna..." Heaving a deep sigh, Regalia stopped herself from completing her thoughts.

She didn’t have to say what she meant either way; everyone in the helm was mostly from Elenaria and thus knew exactly what she wanted to say. Even so, separating the two, Raven gave the order to warp to the next place of interest, Lulualia and Asteradia. The coastal city and the kingdom beyond it have had their troubles as well, but the iron fist of the rebel beastclans, as well as some aid from Athenia’s angels, had cleansed the place of horrors and monsters.

After quickly ensuring that everyone was safe, Raven gave the next order, and that is when they reached Eclanor. There happened the contemplation and the retrieval of the flaming bird, and then came another order, and this time it was to reach the edges of Inktaus. Thankfully, Mercedes and the Twins’ journey to every known territory had left these places with the new teleportation jewels, a landmark for the teleportation mechanism to work; otherwise, who knows whether or not the tridents could find their way to the invisible wall or succumb to the same fate as the lost laborers.

Their stop at Inktaus, however, lasted far longer than those before. The city was affected by the horrors as much as anywhere else, but their intensity wasn’t as severe. The elects, including the judges of both Fortuna and Mesmerazia’s faith, had everything seemingly under control, but that didn’t stop Raven from paying them a visit in their tower as well as the enigmatic underground lab.

Disty was present on his arrival as well as the tour of the lab, and so was Garcia; both had their grievances about the issues born of the horror’s plague. Their people had suffered quite a bit mentally after the previous horror had taken over countless minds. And although they were unaware of it, the effects of that possession were getting clearer by the day.

Some had great lapses in memory; others were hysterical by the mere suggestion of visiting a church. Alas, the matter was to be handled by the elects, and so, after a quick meeting in their council room, the hero departed yet again.

This time, the destination was Alliance, the land by sea where both its natives and the refugees from Eclanor had gathered. Despite their ancestral claim, however, Melenai was given charge of the land along with the council of Eclanor instead of the people of Alliance themselves. Their faith and proclivity for violence had yet to be tested, and until it became clear that no harm would come from them, Melenai intended to keep things that way.

"Kuruon?! Is that–?!" And while the hero remained in the coastal city, Meimei was finally reunited with her pet phoenix. Although, thanks to Beasteria, her size had shrunk to that of a small Tweety–for the sake of convenience and not necessarily burning every place they went. "I missed you so much!"

Standing amidst the ruins of the battle against the gods, Meimei cupped her bird with her magic hands and brushed it against her plum cheeks. A wide smile spread across her lips right after, but instead of admiring the joy on her face, Raven’s attention was stolen by Choux, who’d just walked into the main street from around a corner. Daema followed right after her, having grown quite a bit from the last time the hero had seen him.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

Silently nodding in acknowledgement, she answered.

"Moxy was busy taking care of everyone, so I decided to come down here." Walking up behind Mei, she quickly broke eye contact with Raven and instead placed a hand on the smith’s shoulders. "Come on, I brought Daema; he’ll help us take a better look at the city from above."

Raven’s eyelids narrowed as he noticed a genuine smile on Choux’s lips. She was beaming almost, though her face was still a bit stiff–possibly from her constant downcast expression.

"LOOK!" Hopping around, Mei pushed Kuruon right up by Choux’s face. The heat almost burned the arctic fox’s eyelids, but she managed to jump back just in time. "This is the one I was talking about! My forge partner!"

"Hmm?" Carefully leaning closer, Choux’s expression twisted with apparent confusion. "I thought the bird would be bigger."

"She is!" Choux’s confusion was further deepened by Mei’s words, but it wasn’t long before the two went soaring off on the backs of their winged partners. All the while, with all islands and kingdoms checked on, it was time for Raven to head back to Aurum. And from there, their adventure would resume, finally.