Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

\'I-I shouldn\'t think like this!\' Shaking her head to drive away those thoughts, Erika split the front curtains to talk to the coachman.

"Can you please stop by the church?" She requested, her voice all muffled from her racing heart.

The coachman was well aware that commoners weren\'t allowed to visit, and so he tried to ignore Erika–but noticing the insulting gesture, Aria got onto her feet and squeezed the coach\'s shoulder in warning.

"We\'re going there you fucker…" Speaking in the most monotone of voices, she instead let her seriousness reflect through her grip. Near about enough to crush the castle worker\'s shoulder, she was ready to disable his arms in her fury.

"F-Fine!" He screeched, his teeth grinding together in hurt.

Feeling the pain shooting through his mind, he felt like he\'d fall unconscious any moment, but was barely holding on through sheer will alone. Steering the carriage towards the grand cathedral, the coachman despite his wishes led the group to the holy ground.

\'Maybe a visit will help clear my head.\' Erika hoped, though even she knew there was no guarantee it would work.

The others felt pretty much the same, although, to them, the visit would be more about finally crossing a line that the king was barring them from. Being the so-called heroes of the land, the least they deserved was a visit to the grand cathedral after all.

"The holy father won\'t be happy about this," Amedith muttered, thinking back to his bitter encounter with the man.

"Who cares what he thinks? The queen herself is a murderer and the king complacent in those murders," jumping out of the carriage first, Aria turned to Erika to help her down the steps. "If he has anything to say to anyone, maybe he should start with the royal family first?"

Pulling her robe slightly off her ankles, Erika took Aria\'s hand and got off the carriage.

"She\'s right, but forgiveness is a virtue–as long as the queen and the king are both willing to change," with the queen under Raven\'s command, Erika couldn\'t justify any form of attack against the royal, after all, they\'d already given a monster a chance to change and if they couldn\'t the same for them, then her entire party would be a pack of hypocrites.

Getting off one after the others, the rest of the party glanced up the cathedral tower with the idol of Aphrodite beaconed at the top. Held in her hand was a child wrapped in a blanket, however, knowing her dogma the party knew that she had no offspring, and the child was nothing but the personification of this world.

Separated by the goddess\'s will, the world was divided into a total of four contrasting parts. The first of which was Stellaris–the sea of stars, then came Atlaria–the land, and the last of the two were the Infernal and the Divine.

One parted the land with its oceans and the hellish flames bustling underneath its bed, while the other was a place of rest–one that only the most virtuous would ever grace.

"Let\'s be done with this quick," tired of waiting around gawking, Raven led the group inside.

The guards by the gates eyed the group as they approached, but realizing who it was, they were reluctant to stop them without any higher orders. Thus, letting themselves in without any questions for the first time, Raven and his group were met with the dazzling interior of the grand church.

Like a kaleidoscope of stained glass paintings, the walls, the ceilings, and even the doors were all adorned with artistic representations of the goddess\'s grace. From blessing the world with fruitful trees to nurturing the young to grow plum and healthy, there were even some more suggestive depictions of her on the ceiling where she stood bare before a choir of angels groveling at her feet.

"Well well well…" To their surprise, despite the grand hall being empty, a soothing voice trailed into the group\'s ears.

Turning their heads in its direction, they noticed a feathered creature slowly turning visible at the podium. A bloodridden sword in hand, the faceless creature stared at their group with his numerous eyes protruding through what appeared to be a human face unfolded from the very middle.

Much like the head, its rib cage was also turned inside out but instead of a beating heart or flesh, its insides were made of pure crimson crystals. Pale like a ghost with a hunched-over back as well as a long hand that touched the ground, the creature would have easily been mistaken for a monster–had the group not known about the creature already.

"A-an angel?" Muttered Erika, her eyes following the edge of the angel\'s golden sword sticking out of a man in a priest\'s garb. "Ekk!"

Following her gaze, the other noticed the corpse hidden behind the bench at the very top of the communal row. None but one of them knew who it was, and it baffled him beyond reason.

"That\'s the holy father…" Amedith informed, his hand shivering with uncertainty about whether or not to reach for his sword.

"Worry not children, the man has only paid for his sins against the holy mother," despite having no mouth of its own, the creature spoke with more clarity than most other people. The only part that bothered everyone as he spoke, however, were the way his numerous eyes sticking out of its flesh and moving in random directions irrespective of each other.

Drawing his blade out of the priest, the angel held it openly in his hands as if offering someone from the group to take its burden off of him.

"A priest who sullies a child, a man that whispers the word of demons through jealousy and pride, deserves divine punishment just as he\'d basked in the glory of the divine!" Stretching his hands forward with the sword still lying on top, the angel glanced across the group before his eyes landed back on Raven.

"The mother has learned of what you wish to do, and wishes to grant you a tool to rid that vampire of its head."

Watching the angel kneel with the sword held high in both his hands for the taking, a weird sense of deja vu flashed before everyone\'s eyes. The blade that the hero carries was given to him by the priest in the same manner in front of the populi--however, to receive one from an angel was a different level of honor entirely.

"I\'ll get it…" Thinking the blade was for him, Amedith tries to step forward.

"Not you!" The angel screeched, nearly deafening everyone with the resounding waves echoing through the hall. "You\'ve sullied your chance to be a leader! The mother has selected a new chosen!

Raven, the fae child, you may not carry the hero\'s title for the goddess\'s mistake is not one that can be undone, however, it would be you who shall purge all evil from this world, just as you\'d promised her you would in exchange for the gifts she\'d provided you with!"

A shocked gasp escaped through everyone\'s lips, they all knew Amedith hadn\'t been the greatest of leaders, but to hear that the goddess had abandoned her trust in him? That was the final straw…whatever credibility he had would be lost eventually, but for now as Raven made his way towards the podium, none of them could believe that this was happening.