Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party! - Chapter 917: It’s Good To Have Options

While chaos ensued aboard the ship, Raven stared into the blinded gaze of the goddess Kleismeth. She smiled at the impossible choice he was faced with, knowing that sooner or later, he had to admit that he needed her help. And as that time finally came and Raven’s lips parted to speak, her smirk grew ever larger. But not for too long, as Evenagline silenced the hero by placing a hand on his shoulder.

Looking down at him with her head turned to the side, the angel of life stared into the troubled hero’s eyes. Raven stared right back, his gaze reflecting a moment’s reservation towards taking the goddess’s offer.

“I have a question for you, chosen.” Moving her hand off his shoulder, Evangeline inhaled sharply through her nostrils before heaving a sigh. “Those left on the ship and the ones stranded on the docks. Do you trust them?”

“What?” While Raven wasn’t the only one confused by her sudden line of questioning, only he had the presence of mind to question back. “What are you–”

“Answer me.” Grabbing her sword, the angel turned her gaze to the goddess before them. “Do you trust them more than you trust this wicked abomination’s words?”

“What did you say, you filthy feather fuck?!” Kleismeth shot back with her face contorting with rage.

“I only show you the mirror, you abomination to our lord Creator!” Stomping the heel of her weapon against the ground, the angel stepped proudly forward. Towering as ever, she stared right ahead at the inhuman form of Kleismeth. “You failed to control a city while he breathed this world into existence and many like it! I will not have you trample his legacy and defile this world with your self-serving ploys. Today you die, abomination, and the same goes for the god of creation!”

“That is not for you to decide!” Screaming at the top of her lungs, the goddess turned her gaze to Raven. “Do not listen to this idiot. Talking about time long past and some mystic deity who has never set foot on Atlaris himself! What does he know of our struggles? Does he even exist anymore, or did he ever? I give you a simple choice while she feeds you delusion, you hero!”

Looking at Raven from over her shoulder while the goddess glares on, Evangeline asks again.

“Do you trust them? The vessels host a descendant of a hero’s companion, a grieving mother whose child has been kidnapped, a father who bears the weapon of a heroine, a fae vampire who has been chosen by a goddess long ago, a drake, a pair of otherworlders, and countless others on whose shoulders you’ve placed your trust before. Now answer me, do you trust them to take care of themselves? Or are they the damsels who would forever be in need of a rescuer?”

In a moment of silent reflection, Raven stood quiet. Reminding himself of the people on board the ship and those still stranded at the docks. How long could he chase after them every time they got in trouble? How many more enemies will use their lives as leverage against him? If he was ready to die for the cause and so were his closest companions, then… perhaps they too felt the same? And even if not, sooner or later, this tussle was bound to happen.

“Alright,” clenching his fist by his chest, the hero huffed and lifted his chin. “I trust them. They can handle themselves for a while at the very least. In the meantime, we’re gonna finish what we came here for.”

“You’re a greater fool than any foresight could’ve predicted!” Her plans thwarted by one unpredictable angel, Kleismeth hung agape, and a beam of golden light quickly enveloped the room entirely. “Now suffer your delusion!”

Washing over everything and everyone inside that dark room, the light consumed any and all, leaving behind nothing but an empty room. Not even Kleismeth was left behind, each flung into a mirage of their perceived destiny through the goddess’s eyes. And the helm of it all was the goddess herself, predicting and manipulating the strings as the hero and his companions raced through the future that was yet to pass.

To the confusion and delight of the stranded soldiers, however, the goddess’s oppressive aura had lifted off their shoulders. Now the only thing they had to worry about was somehow getting back to the ship and away from the damned docks. Whatever happened in the crystal mansion was not for them to know nor unravel. Thus, heeding the witch’s advice not to try to be a hero, the winged and the magic users finally decided to go ahead and check out what was going on. That too, alongside the colossal figure of the king of crows.

At the same time, an alarm had been raised all over the Trident ships. Every soldier and every able-bodied citizen was trying their best to hold off the mind-controlled enemy. Darius was also just minutes away from casting the scroll of mass binding. The runes had been laid down in his ship, but the rest of the vessels had to rely on their own strength for a while longer before any help came.

All soldiers had taken up arms, even the injured ones–including June and Valentina. It was a matter of life or death, and things appeared to move in slow motion. Every second felt twice as long and every movement heavier than the last. All the while, the heroes had fallen through a slit between the present and the future. Their bodies were plunging through the dark liquid that separated the two into unequal parts.

However, their descent into the slit was far from over. It would be a while before they woke, and for that, the goddess of foresight had to be defeated first. Altering reality itself, Kleismeth had caught the heroes and the angel in the proverbial bottle of the presumed future. Everything from that point onward would reflect the result of their choices, and now was the time for them to wake up and face them before facing them in the real world.

’To expect to fight a god with weapons and fists. How ignorant!’ Thought Kleismeth, her laughter finally wakes up everyone, in a reality that has yet to come and pass.