Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 527 : A Horrors True Mask

in the form of the mist, elana emerged with just a pair of glowing golden eyes amidst the cloudy flood. taking the curvaceous form of a woman and yet staying just as translucent, she smiled at raven and the others before turning her attention to the keeper nailed to her throne to their front.

"i heard what you want me to do, but are you sure? this will be the only time i ever help you and maybe we'll never meet again once this is over..." her words hung heavy in the air, and although raven was unsure and was inclining towards backing away, he let the decision rest on maria's shoulders.

"yes..." closing her eyes as she moved a step closer to the djinn, the ex-queen took a deep breath, heaved a sigh and then finally opening them again, she nodded at the wish-granting genie. "i'm sure that this is what i want, i want you to help her soul remain pure in her last moment–i know we can't save her, but i also don't want her to die as an irredeemable monster."

continue reading on empire

moving close to her as a cloud, elana gripped maria's hands for a brief moment. looking deep into her eyes, she tried to test something she had doubts about, and sure enough, there was no soul behind those teary eyes. letting go of her, elana turned to the keeper who was still snarling on her throne. moving closer and closer, the djinn grabbed by the hair and with one last look at raven she declared.

"this is it then, our deal ends here–" her words, however, never came to their end; for protruding from the keeper's chest came a glass shard and it pierced through elana's chest. frozen in utter shock, not just the djinn but everyone else glanced down at the glass tearing through not just hers but also maria's chest.

"ahahahahaahaah!" with the screeching laugh of the keeper, the glass shard dissolved into the air, and both the girls fell to the floor–one bleeding from her chest and the other melting into the air.

"shit!" regalia screamed, being the only one not entirely sure of the keeper's influence, she began rushing up the throne steps, and finally, the sound of her approaching footsteps snapped everyone out of their heads as well.

"erika!" quickly turning his head to erika, raven wasted no time in wrapping maria in dark flesh and moved her body close to the priestess. he tried to do the same for elana, but having no physical form the flesh phased through her body and in just a matter of seconds, the djinn had disappeared, whether dead or not? that wasn't yet something they had the liberty to question.

"doing the right fucking thing huh?! see what the fuck happenes when we do that?!" hearing him scream, amedith's eyes widened with shock, all the while the girls were left astounded for they never heard him being so violent towards them. "no wonder helga did what she did in the holy war! and if we wanna win this war, we gotta do the same thing as her! no more sidetracking! no more charity! we're gonna do what we set out to do! destroy the corrupted land and get rid of anyone trying to revive the demon lord!"

the sound of his stomping feet marching the steps echoed in everyone's ears just as sharply as the keeper's screaming had, but this time, they felt not fear but confusion and disappointment.

"who else is gonna help those people in need if we don't?" a bit scared by raven's frenzy, amedith whispered slowly, but the words still landed in raven's ears. his response? a sharp glare and just a few words.

"then fucking leave the party and help them! i don't care about strangers as much as i care about you guys, my friends! my only family!" growling at him and standing firm in place for a moment, raven glared into amedith's eyes until the warrior was forced to look away.

shifting his attention to maria, he quickly rushed over to her while everyone else was still trying to recover from the shock of him being so violent in his speech. but for now, none of it mattered to their leader, for erika couldn't heal maria, for the lack of soul made her a hard patient to treat with holy magic. liliyana's magic helped just a little, and thus they needed someone to treat the wound in her chest in a natural way.

'and i left the necklace back in the inn...fuck!' slamming his fist against the ground, he could feel a few bones shatter under his grip. for a moment all hope was lost, but then came a voice from the other end.

"i can help, just bring her to me!" even though he hadn't lifted his head just yet, relief took over raven and he picked maria up to carry her to this person. "come on, follow me, we need to get her into a room."

it was jenna, one of the false heroes and the only human in their group.