Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Turning his attention to the front, he walked in through the door and the sound of the welcoming chime jingled right above him. Focusing his eyes on the busy mage at the desk, his head pressed really close to a parchment that he seemed to be working on, Darius seemed focused on work more than ever.

Yet something felt off the moment Raven had walked in, as the scent of a flower was fluttering through the air. It felt enchanting and even attempted to ensnare Raven closer, but being part fae it wasn\'t hard for him to resist the urge. Breezing past the smell, he slowly began walking closer.

Making sure not to make too much noise and disturb Darius out of his trance, but then Raven noticed something that made him break his silence in an instant.

"A ring?" Noticing a rose diamond ring on Darius\'s finger, Raven was left in shock.

"Who?" Slowly lifting his head to the voice, Darius finally looked at his new visitor. His eyes widened at the sight of his friend, and so, quickly jumping off of his desk, he moved around it and got in front of the dark mage. "Raven! When did you get back in Athenia?!"

Pulling him into a hug, Darius patted Raven on the back. However, still confused about the ring, the dark mage had nothing at all to say. That is until he managed to slip out of Darius\'s hand and take a few steps away.

"That ring in your hand," he pointed out, and Darius\'s attention instantly went to it.

"O-oh…" Covering the ring quickly, his cheery expression dropped down. In its place came a slight hint of worry, although that too didn\'t last long as the door leading to the back of his shop cracked slightly open.

Peeking out from behind the door with sleepy eyes, was a horned woman with glowing pink eyes. Her demonic appearance itself didn\'t cause Raven as much worry as the strange resemblance of her face to Darius\'s dead fiance.

Finally, as her eyes adjusted to the light, the woman noticed that Darius wasn\'t alone inside the shop. Shocked by the discovery, she quickly shut the door and locked it from the inside.

"Darius…" Raven called, and the mage slowly turned to him with an anxious look in his eyes. "What the fuck is happening in here?"

"I-I can explain just sit down first, okay?" Gulping his worries, Darius hastily pulled out his chair from the work counter and offered it to Raven. Then without wasting a moment, he rushed towards the door and locked it from the inside before letting down the drapes.

For a moment the room was entirely cast in shadow, but then with a flicker of magic, the lanterns laying around the shop began burning a deep blue flame. Still standing, however, Raven wasn\'t sure what to expect or if he should even sit. The presence of a succubus concerned him, especially since they were said to be sexual leeches that can suck your skills out of the body and use it for themselves.

"A succubus, are you out of your mind Darius?" Grabbing Darius\'s hand as he was about to lean against the table, Raven pulled him closer and glared right into his eyes. "If you needed to blow some stress, you could\'ve just gone to a maze for fuck sake…Hell, I bet the Mistress would\'ve been able to get you a demon girl even just not a succubus if you paid her well!"

Jerking his hand out of Raven\'s grasp, Darius stared back at him for a moment–seemingly on the verge of getting angry himself.

"She\'s not any succubus Raven, you already saw her, didn\'t you?" However, still willing to explain, he urged Raven to take a seat. With a moment of back and forth through their eyes, he managed to convince the dark mage to at least listen to his reasoning. "The witch Linkle, she helped me alright?

We\'ve been in a partnership for a while and she said she\'d need my help soon to ledger some stuff from Elenaris–the same city you\'ve been in apparently."

\'The cave? I guess she can use someone like Darius to help her ledger and experiment with her too.\' Raven concluded as it was the only thing that made sense so far.

"Still, who is that succubus?" He asked, still not sure how the girl came into play in all of this.

The question silenced Darius for a moment, he visibly struggled to get the words out, but then squeezing his chest and taking a deep breath, he looked Raven in the eye and just blurted it out.

"She helped me get my fiance back, but the devil that granted that wish turned her into a succubus," waving his hand anxiously in the air, he kept breathing heavily as he explained the whole situation. "I guess it was his sick way to toy with us, but Linkle said we\'d be fine otherwise since we didn\'t offer him either of our souls."

"Wait a minute, how the hell did Linkle even find her soul?" For a spell, Raven was left confused, but then as Darius kept staring at him with a somber look, it began to make sense. "Don\'t tell me she ended up in hell?"

"Unfortunately, and apparently for her it felt like an eternity of torment," moving around his desk, Darius leaned forward with a relieved sigh. "Even now she wakes up screaming at night, but at least we\'re together now."

Flashing his ring to his friends a gentle smile took over Darius\'s lips.

"This is how I take her everywhere. Linkle made it from a stolen piece of gem that you brought her from the minotaur cave long ago," concluding his explanation, Dairus felt thankful that Raven was no longer freaking out.

"That bitch…" Cursed the mage as well as Mino from inside the bracelet.

"Ahaha, I know she\'s a pain but she\'s one hell of a helper," Darius added, and unsurprisingly even Raven had to agree to his statement.