Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party! - Chapter 915: Last Chance

Knocking out the servants inside the crystal mansion, Raven and his party followed the same path as the envoy before them. Walking in through the massive doors into the darkness, they relied on magic and their shared senses through the mana-fused eye to assess their surroundings.

However, the divine presence of a goddess was enough of a beacon for them to follow and reach the same tent as Valentina. But instead of going in, Raven conjured a giant, corrupted, dark hand and pulled the entire fabric off at once. Revealing to the party the possessed twins holding hands with each other and standing in the nude with smiles on their faces as if they’d been expecting them.

“Alas, you’re here,” extending their opposing hands towards Raven, the goddess beckoned Raven closer. “You have come to kill me. In body and soul, but before you make that mistake, there’s something that you must know.”

“Another manipulation by a desperate goddess,” pulling her ice spear out of her dimension pocket, Helga flipped it in her hands once before stomping its heel on the ground. “Don’t trust her, I’ve seen this before. They all try to talk their way out of death because if she had another way to get rid of us, we wouldn’t be talking in the first place.”

“One of you will die soon.” Cutting through what would’ve been an awkward silence, Kleismeth looked into Raven’s eyes and whispered. “It won’t be by my hand or Oruon, but one you are destined to die soon.”

Looking around at everyone, the goddess’s lips curled into a smirk.

“I can help you prevent it from happening, and all you have to do is let my soul be on your side.” Letting go of the twins’ hands, the goddess in her bare multi-bodied form started walking towards the hero–her hips carrying a seductive sway alongside the usually eye-catching sight of a pair of perky tits bouncing at the twins’ chests. “Kill me in body here and now, I would even let you make love to me through these twins, but leave my soul, and we can work together.”

Grabbing Raven’s hand, she brought it close to her lips. Staring deep into his eyes, Kleismeth let out a chuckle and punctuated her offer with one last sentence.

“Just imagine having a goddess who can predict anything on your side, you would never lose another loved one, and the war against the demon lord is as good as won~.”

“How many of you…” Moving her hand off of him, Raven glanced back at his companions with his eyes squinted sharply. “Expect to live through this whole thing? And I’m not talking about the greater war or the holy war. Here and now, how many of you expect all of us to walk back alive today?”

Not a single member of his party said a word, their gaze set on the twins and their fingers tingling by their weapons. As Raven turned back to the goddess, her faces were locked in shock. Being an immortal herself, she’d always assumed mortality to be the human’s greatest chain; however, what she failed to realize was the very reason why even the god of death, Murdok, feared the human.

“We’re gonna do what we came here to do, and we’re prepared to die for it, you cocky cunt,” spitting at her face, Raven startled her even more before kicking one of the twins right in her chest. “You brought this upon yourself! SO FIGHT!”

Caught off guard, the twin on the left went flying and smacking through the interior of where the tent once used to be. The other, however, readied her magic with great haste while half of her vision was stumbling through the furniture behind her body.

“Cocky bra–” Biting her tongue as Aria kicked the twin in her face, Kleismeth gritted her teeth and tried to grab the barbarian with her hand. However, the moment her arm moved, Mel shot through her wrist, pinning her hand to her bare chest. “ANOTHER FOOL!”

With her mind finally back in the moment, a wave of divine holy aura pushed everyone away from her. The arrow in her wrist was burned, and her other body lifted itself back up on its feet. Taking a few steps back, the twins held hands once more, but this time, unlike the last, there was no chance of them getting separated as their flesh began to fuse together to host the goddess’s whole essence in the coil of the mortal world.

Their feet merged to form golden talons with feathered wings emerging from their heels, their torso broke and bent sideways to form both the goddess’s arms and her many golden wings. Split in half with a fleshy opening in the middle, the goddess’s soul was raised from within the cavity in their bodies. A blindfolded astral head with gold flowing down her translucent cheeks. The entirety of the naked goddess was covered in golden scrolls wrapped over her privates, and the holy words written within burned bright as the sun–illuminating the entirety of the dark place.

Waving her many hands and many wings inwards, Kleismeth balled herself in the fetal position with only her face lifted and looking upfront.

“You have chosen wrongly, hero. Now there’s only death waiting for you. The death of your companions, the death of your wives, and your children. Your soldiers too shall perish, for they are stranded at the docks, and you have no idea what’s happening!”

While her voice echoed in Raven’s head, he quickly tried to contact Linkle. She was responsible for the evacuation. As expected, however, no response came. Kleismeth was blocking all mental contacts except from the mana fused eyes, as its origin was based in corruption and the core of the keepers–the servants of the demon lord.

“They’re fine, you’re lying anyway,” he said, conjuring a blade of darkness in his hands.

“Is that so? Then why is it–” The astral head of the goddess opened up like a flower of flesh blooming into gore. “That Oruon has been quiet all this time? Ahaha~ I knew that fool would be useful even if you refused to accept my offer.”

Within the opened fleshy cavity of the goddess’s head, Raven and his companions saw for the first time through the looking mirror of the gods. It reflected a projection of the docks. Full of soldiers looking into the sky and waiting for the distant tridents to come back to shore. A second later, the image changed, and now the group was looking through the eyes of the commoners of Alliance being escorted to their cells.

If what they were seeing was the truth, then everything had gone as planned, but why then was Kleismeth smiling through her blooming face?

“I am not the only god who can descend upon her followers!” Closing her fleshy petals back into one, she whispered with a finger caressing her own lip. “Your soldiers are stranded on the docks while the followers of Oruon are in your scarcely defended ships. I wonder what will happen when the captives’ minds are taken over by the god of creation. I wonder what he would do to your lovers who are still in those reserve ships?”

“DAMN THESE GODS!” Throwing her spear at the goddess in frustration, Helga cursed out loud. Right before the weapon hit Kleismerg, the goddess of foresight grabbed it with leisurely ease.

“You may not care for your own life, but those on that ship. I know you care for them, and with nobody in those vessels being capable of hosting Athenia, I wonder who could save them? Your goddess can render aid, but unlike me, she can’t be present fully in the flesh.”

Extending her many golden claws outwards, the goddess of foresight made another–perhaps even the last–offer.

“He expects to die, Raven ’Phordite. But unlike him, a suicidal fanatic trying to go out by doing as much damage to his eventual killer as possible, I mean to aid you. As long as you can kill me so that I may live far away from the eyes of the damned council.”

“What’s the point? Whether we kill you or them? It won’t matter if you’re dead!” The hero screamed, feeling anxiety building up from within.

“You will spare my soul while the council will not, and now that I am of flesh, they will have an address to where they must strike!”

Gritting his teeth shut, Raven tightened his grip around his weapon. His mind was racing with what could happen if he didn’t leave now for the ships. The commoners were loaded into the tridents before the soldiers, and now that the soldiers were stranded, they too would perish if a battle were indeed to begin against the goddess. Worse was the possibility of his partners and the families of his numerous companions, even that of some soldiers being onboard, being hurt when Oruon takes over the minds of his followers.

’Damn it all…’ Wincing at the illusion of choice, the hero looked at the smiling face of the goddess. ’I guess I have no choice.’

His fingers twitched by his side as he contemplated for the last time. Whether to trust Kleismeth and risk a betrayal later or fight her and try to get back to the tridents before anyone else gets hurt. Needless to say, whatever he decides would change everything moving forward.