Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 448 Illusion Disillusion

Walking inside the mansion of the queen, the first thing the party was met with was a hallway lined with identical maids with violet skin. Possessing horns like a devil and a whip-like tail, they seemed to be a mix of something demonic and a demi that none of them had ever met. With mouths that slightly protruded forward like a hound, but not enough to take away from their human form, they were, to say the least, a colorful bunch.

Lifting their heads, they gestured for the party to head up the stairs all at once. Their eyes, their hands, and every moving part of their body were so perfectly in sync those maids could've just as easily been mistaken for a group of identical automatons.

"May our ancestor's spirit guide you well," said the maids, their heads held high in the direction of the open door upstairs.

Staying alert, Raven gestured to Amedith to lead the group for the moment while he slipped back closer to Regalia to ask her about her abilities. Thankfully, Aria was standing not far behind the wolf-girl and so he asked two in the same breath.

"Can you two still use your powers?" Given Aria didn't have a lick of mana in her, Raven expected her to still be able to create her clones and even summon zombies since her necromancy didn't require mana either.

Pretending not to be alarmed, the girls both tried to draw on their skills. For Regalia it was pricking her finger and turning the drawn blood into a dagger, as for Aria the emerald flame in her hand and a clone as a cricket inside her clenched fingers were enough to confirm that her powers still worked.

'Great, at least we have some recourse.'

"These fucking island man..." Raven heaved, sounding very much defeated.

Cackling at his sigh, the queen snapped her finger and changed the scene around them. Now they found themselves moving through the streets of the island, but none of them were on their foot, instead, it was the table itself that was dragging them along.

"It's a mirage to keep these people happy," yet another snap of her fingers and the true nature of the place was finally revealed. Forest and foliage had taken over the entire island, and the mushroom homes were nothing but straw huts. "A strange experiment you can call it by who knows who? Possibly a god or a devil testing whether an illusionary utopia was enough to cripple mortals. My ancestors have kept this illusion going for generations, some idiot long ago had granted that wish; and I'm sure that dead god, Lantherm, had something to do with it."

Letting down the illusions, the queen brought everyone's attention back to her.

"I can't leave this island, none of my people can," leaning forward, her eyes staring into Raven's eyes, the queen smirked deviously as she finished her explanation. "But Lantherm, that body of the dead god–it should not fall in Aran's hands. He has enough treasures as is, and if he had that body, heavens forbid, he'll annihilate us–his perceived enemies."

A whole minute passed as everyone tried to make sense of the jumbled the queen had just uttered. Even so, many failed to make sense of it, as for Raven and a few others, they were barely keeping up with the drama surrounding the islands.

"So let me get this straight..." With those words, Raven began to recount everything that he'd gathered, and although there were a few misunderstandings, the queen of Elanavia finally explained to him just what the hell was going on on these islands!