Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!-Chapter 643: Walking Into The City

The morning had just hit a few hours, and Raven heard the voice of the goddess in his ears. Pulled off the bed from beside Helga, he began getting himself ready as what he'd heard from Athenia sounded quite serious. Using his mental link, he woke up everyone else and ordered them to gather in the main hall in a few minutes and be ready to leave the mansion at once.

As he was getting ready, however, shifting at the edge of the bed, trying to get his leather boots on, he felt Helga rolling towards and in an instant he knew that she was awake. Her finger had barely touched his back as he got up and jerked his dark fur jacket higher up on his shoulders. Then, as he turned around to look at the valkyrie, she was already lifting herself off of her back with her eyes digging daggers deep into his face.

"Where?" She asked, squinting.

Already, she knew that something was wrong. She'd felt this lingering tension far too much in her prime. Sitting upright, she awaited an answer with a razor-sharp gaze. And although Raven would've preferred not to involve her, he decided to speak the truth to her instead.

"Both Athenia and Elenaria couldn't see into Elenaris for a while. I'm heading out with a few of my group to check on the place while you and the others are going to stay here and protect the city in case of another attack by our enemy."

"Elenaris, huh?" Looking dreamily over to her knees, Helga curled her legs closer to her chest. Thinking in silence, she lifted her head after a while as Raven's expression turned to worry. "I'll come too, my daughters can stay behind in my place. Better to leave them where Markus is if I'm planning to leave them for a while."

"You don't have to come…" A bit surprised by the sudden interest in tagging along, Raven didn't really know what to think. Had she finally flipped her heart? He doubted it to a degree, and to a degree, he was right.

Getting off the bed, Helga shook her body for just a second, and a silver armor made of circular beads covered the major parts of her body. Even under the mail-armor, a layer of leather was wrapped around her body. Her thighs and torso were covered completely, meanwhile her hands were gloved in blood-soaked bandages.

Quite impressed by the quick change act, Raven almost wanted to ask her to teach him how to do it. But with an important mission at hand, he decided to move that to the back of his head, and instead of trying to talk Helga out of accompanying him, he decided to brief her on what little information Athenia had given him.

"The goddesses suspect another god's doing, possibly someone from the council. And if so, we might as well take a god-killer with us." Nudging her on the side, Raven smiled at the valkyrie, and she smiled right back.

Quickly getting the rest of the equipment on him, he led the valkyrie to the hall and met up with the rest of the party. Everyone except Erika was present as the priestess was still busy bringing back the citizens that she'd sunk into the hells. Which, of course, became a cause for concern since no other high priestess was present in the city if the need arose out of nowhere.

"Amedith and Liliyana, you two are coming with me." Standing in the middle of the crowd that he had gathered, Raven quickly began assigning everyone their duties. "Regalia and the djinn sisters, you three are going to teleport to the island cities and the others to tighten security–we have no idea whether this enemy can attack those places as well, so it's better to be safe than sorry."

"Wait! What about us?!" Melicia asked, squinting with an angered pout.

Glancing between her and Aria, both of whom could summon numerous monsters to aid them in a fight against numerous enemies, Raven explained exactly what he had in mind for them.

"I want you to stay here. Spread your summons throughout the city and keep a tight watch on everyone, including the civilians. We don't want to be caught off guard by some spy, especially not in a time like this."

As he looked around some more, Amelia and Ophelia came into view. The two diplomats of house 'Phordite, and thus it only made sense to send them out with some diplomacy.

"Have the king alerted. Mino and the other two should be by the castle and helping with the repairs, you won't have anything to worry about, but just in case–stay close to them and take everyone else, especially that little girl Choux, with you. She can help you guys defend the city if it comes down to it."

Lastly, glancing over to the butler, Tan, Raven ordered him to warn others like Linkle, Darius, and the girls he was close with. For the most part, everyone was still inside the mansion, but those like the trio of milfs, Red Madam, and a handful of others still needed the head up, however unnecessary it might be in case nothing happened while Raven was gone.

"Now that's done, let's head out." Urging everyone that he was taking with him to get closer, Raven clenched his teleportation necklace and got himself ready to face whatever it was that they might find there. "Stay on guard and don't stray far from each other, we don't know what we might face there."

"Not my first time walking into unknown territories, but sure," Helga murmured, and the next thing they knew, a flash of blue light consumed them completely.

It was like any other teleportation, but unlike any other time, the destination that the party landed on was far from where the ring should've been. The dark sand beach, their knees were dipped in water. Needless to say, Mono wasn't there, and neither was her ring–or at least it shouldn't have been. Then what exactly was happening?

"I guess we're walking into the city, huh…" Clicking his tongue, Raven turned towards the distant city walls and hoped that whatever was happening in there won't add more to their already confused state. But of course, that would've been too easy.