Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

After a hard day's work, it was time for everyone to retire. But slumber couldn't be long as the morning rays bled through the curtains and kept them all up. Helga especially couldn't rest well in the mansion's guest quarters. Her heart lay elsewhere, split between the monster that they fought not long ago and her daughters.

Pacing through the room, she stared at the floor, her eyes closely following her toes. Neither sound of mind nor of heart, she was perturbed by the ghost of the past. Like a zombie's arm tearing through its buried casket, that burning giant hand had thrashed her into pieces. At the time, she was able to put up a brave front, and what followed the next morning kept her mind off that problem.

But now, as things finally settled, there was no escaping the inevitable confrontation with herself–or so she thought, as the matter was made worse when Raven decided to open her room door and walk right in without waiting for any kind of response. Following him with her gaze, she walked over to her bed and sat on its edge.

Locking the door from the inside, the hero turned to look at her, his back to the doorframe. Exchanging quick glances at each other, the two remained silent for a while longer until finally, Raven decided to speak up.

"We need to talk about the monster that we fought."

Her head dejected to the ground, Helga stared blankly at her feet and nodded.

"Mhnm…" Lifting her head with a weak smile, she chuckled behind closed lips. "I knew you'd ask, I mean I would if I were in your shoes. A giant hand burns and curses everything you know, of course, questions will spiral inside your head."

"So?" Leaning back against the doorframe with crossed arms, Raven nodded back. "Tell me then, who is this Bellona?"

The name made Helga wince and turn her head away from him, yet with a heavy sigh, the valkyrie turned back to face him.

"Bellona, or as her followers called her sometimes, Enyo," taking a deep breath, she swallowed. "The goddess of war, thought to be dead after her final battle with Murdok."

Focusing on the hero's face, Helga blinked a few times and finally managed to regain her composure.

"An elder god, if it wasn't already clear, and if she's alive–" Shaking her head, she took yet another deep breath, "-then we have no chance of winning against her."

Raven's suspicion was right–the so–called monster that they fought was none other than the elder goddess of war. The very same, whose spear was in Helga's possession, but none of what he'd learned still made it clear as to why Shamisha and June were the target and not the valkyrie for that spear.

Contemplating in silence, the warlord could feel Helga's gaze lingering on him heavily. There was a suspense in her eyes, aching for a response from the man who'd taken her place as a general in the eventual holy war that was soon to come. However, Raven's mind wandered elsewhere, for there was much he could do about the problems of now than worry about something that he obviously didn't have enough information on.

'We'll need to put June under constant watch in Athenia, same goes for Shamisha in Elenaris and Mono as well, cause of that walking and talking bomb inside this mansion.' Glancing back at Helga once he was done detangling the mess in his head, Raven's lips parted to speak up, but Helga spoke before him.

"Do you know why I told you to wear that coat?"

"Hmm?" Briefly turning his head to his shoulder to look at his fur coat, Raven shrugged.

As his eyes met hers again, Helga reached through her dimension pocket and pulled out a much darker coat with blood red fur.

"Because I used to," throwing it at her feet, she stared at it. "You're part human too, and this war–it changes us more than any other race. It turns us into monsters of limitless potential, which may sound good on paper, but when you're satisfied with anything and your pursuit is impossible, it takes a heavy toll on your soul and changes us forever."

Closing her eyes, the valkyrie spread her wings wide in an arc. And although surprised by the sudden unveiling, what came next overshadowed the wings. The fur coat flew onto her shoulders on its own and wrapped around her neck like the arms of a devil hanging by the shoulders.

"And I was no different. Remember all those stories about me doing horrendous stuff, maybe this will help you reconcile it with my true image…" As Helga opened her eyes, her body was burned by a layer of amber that quickly whiffed away, yet as it passed over her head, her eyes and her nails, it dyed them in a blood red dye with coarse, dark nails and demonic black eyes.

Only the iris held some color, but instead of her usual hue, it too mimicked the flow of blood.

"This is who I was–a monster of war, and a human–the only race to ever strike fear in the hearts of elder gods." At a loss for words, Raven had no idea how he was supposed to respond, but Helga wasn't waiting for him to do so, as there was much more that she had to say, much more that had to be put into focus after all. "Just look at Erika and how much she has changed, look at yourself even, and now ask yourself. Have the others from your party changed in the same way–does their flesh take another form? Does their mind and soul feel corrupted with a lust for power? You know the answer, and I do too. Even Mono, being just her soul at this point, proved the difference between a human and other races."

"What are you trying to say?" Pulling himself off the doorframe, Raven watched as Helga took her coat off and placed it back into her dimensional pocket. Her body instantly returned to normal, and the moment her eyes opened again, she finally said what she'd been hinting at.

"Elder gods, they have a way to change us into monstrous puppets–we're their clay dolls, waiting for them to be shaped into whatever they deem necessary at the moment." Looking into the hero's eyes, Helga grabbed his hand and pulled him closer. "Elves have long lives, demi-humans their beastly genes, and when a monster mates with a human, their prodigy is born stronger than ever because we are the clean slate from which every other race on Atlaris was molded."

Squeezing Raven's hand, she took a deep breath and added.

"If she's alive, then she won't allow for anyone to live–humans especially. But having fought against her army and witnessed her battle with Murdok, let me say this…" With a gulp, she pulled her man's face closer and just as their lips were touching, she said. "We have no chance against her, that is, unless we have another elder on her side, of which there are none left."

Her fear ran deeper than her words; the death of her daughters was the worst of her nightmares, and having seen the goddess's arm just a night before, she felt like that nightmare was slowly tearing its way into the real world. However, with a tender kiss and an embrace full of love, she tried to make herself forget it all, even if that fleeting comfort only lasted her for just a few minutes.