Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

While the hero and his party slept for a week, Kara arrived on her mule to return Razor's belongings. The stopwatch capable of pausing time, she'd borrowed it from Razor and on his request she had used it to show Linkle what was truly happening.

"One of you may not return. Why didn't you just tell them that it would be Libyan who would join their cause and perish and not someone from the party itself?" Holding his hand forward, the mortal immortal requested his watch back. His back leaning to the lone tree of a dainty island, he wanted to be off the place and make his way beyond the nameless city.

"How else was I supposed to add some spice to this adventure?" Smiling, Kara placed the watch on Razor's hand.

Pocketing it quickly, he gave her a curious glance.

"Still holding on to your mother's sass?" He whispered, to which she chuckled before leaning into his arms. Resting her head against his chest, she quietly listened to his heartbeat, all the while his hands wrapped around her.

"Don't blame my mother for everything, I'm partly your blood, don't you remember?" Slipping out of her father's grip, she smiled yet again. "Family reunion aside, I do have a few questions for you."

"Hmm? Like what?" Razor asked, getting off the tree and standing upright.

"Libyan, what else?" Folding her hand behind her body, Kara rocked back and forth with innocent curiosity. "You kept yourself trapped in her prison in that nest of hers before Raven and his crew arrived, did you know how she would help them and that's why you'd been there for all this time?"

"You know I can't answer those questions," folding his hands, Razor glared at her in intimidation, but the only thing that could scare Kara was the spanking of her dark elven mother. However, with her gone long ago in the holy war, she had little to work and thus her smirk refused to budge.

"Fine~ But at least tell me why we had to do this. One of them had to die, why?"

Loosening up a bit at the more broad of a question, Razor heaved a sigh and responded.

"Raven for one is someone who shouldn't have existed in the first place, his soul's mangled with Nightsilver's for who knows what reason. Then there's, Arche–the queen who got revived by the demon lord and turned into a hybrid between a horror and a monster," Kara's eyes widened at the revelation, she'd known about the soul and Arche but hadn't known everything.

"But how does that–"

"I'll tell but you have to keep it a secret." Waiting for a nod from Kara, Razor leaned back against the tree and explained. "Same went for Libyan–she shouldn't have been alive even in hell, and the magus? He was supposed to die along with his mother."@@novelbin@@

"You mean to say someone's orchestrating all of this?" Razor nodded at Kara's question. "But who?"

Curiosity was getting the best of the girl, for although he knew who it was, Razor couldn't risk telling her. Brushing his hand in front of his face, he tried to dismiss the matter and move on.

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"Either way, too many souls that shouldn't be alive are alive, including Liliyana and Will-O." Eyeing a small boat near the island bay, Razor decided to move onto the mainland once their conversation was over. "The elder gods may be dead in our time, but if you push them too much, they won't shy away from breaking every law against time to get here."

Feeling a chill run up her spine to his words, Kara gripped her arms tight. Shaking her head, she squeaked to the chilling wind of the ocean freezing her body further.

"The god of death in particular would be upset, no?" Eyeing his daughter to the question, Razor held his tongue, but the look alone passed the truth to her. "Murdok is orchestrating all of this?! But he's been dead for–"

Realizing the flaw in her words, Kara stopped herself from finishing the sentence.

"Gods never truly die unless their souls are crushed," with the cat out of the bag, it was no use hiding anything. "The battle between the lord of death and the goddess of war ended in a draw, but it drove both of them to grow so weak that their bodies could not hold them any longer. Aphrodite getting injured by the goddess was how it began, Murdok wanted to drive away the goddess that was once an ally, but it was obviously too late."

"And then Aphrodite made that stupid deal with the devil," being a high priestess of Aphrodite, it pained Kara to admit the goddess' fault. And yet, that was the truth. "The reason those two are dead is because of her…"

"Old news, but you should probably take off that gown. Your goddess is no more, not even her soul remains after that deal was struck," Razor advised, and yet with a shake of her head, Kara refused to do so.

Looking up into her father's eyes, she declared.

"She told me to guide her lost flock and help keep her name alive, I have to continue doing that." Her conviction of such a selfish goddess was an enigma to Razor, he was never a devout of any god and even the one he served was only because he had no other path in his life as a soldier.

"Whatever suits you, I guess?" Getting off the tree, Razor began walking towards his rowboat. "Just keep an eye on the heroes, they're pushing the limits of how many dead people could be allowed to live before it pisses off Murdok and the other elder gods."

"I will~" Waving Razor bye, Kara hoped to see him again. But for now, it was time to roam Atlaria and help the lost flock of her dead goddess. The only duty she took to the heart, but in her immortality, how long could she serve Aphrodite before it was time for her to rest?

'You just have to help the heroes until they can achieve their goal, and then, it'll be all over.' Answered the high priestess, hoping to retire once the demon lord had been put to rest again.