Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Walking inside the mansion of the queen, the first thing the party was met with was a hallway lined with identical maids with violet skin. Possessing horns like a devil and a whip-like tail, they seemed to be a mix of something demonic and a demi that none of them had ever met. With mouths that slightly protruded forward like a hound, but not enough to take away from their human form, they were, to say the least, a colorful bunch.

Lifting their heads, they gestured for the party to head up the stairs all at once. Their eyes, their hands, and every moving part of their body were so perfectly in sync those maids could've just as easily been mistaken for a group of identical automatons.

"May our ancestor's spirit guide you well," said the maids, their heads held high in the direction of the open door upstairs.

Staying alert, Raven gestured to Amedith to lead the group for the moment while he slipped back closer to Regalia to ask her about her abilities. Thankfully, Aria was standing not far behind the wolf-girl and so he asked two in the same breath.

"Can you two still use your powers?" Given Aria didn't have a lick of mana in her, Raven expected her to still be able to create her clones and even summon zombies since her necromancy didn't require mana either.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Pretending not to be alarmed, the girls both tried to draw on their skills. For Regalia it was pricking her finger and turning the drawn blood into a dagger, as for Aria the emerald flame in her hand and a clone as a cricket inside her clenched fingers were enough to confirm that her powers still worked.

'Great, at least we have some recourse.'

Thought Raven as he entered the room right behind Amedith and a few others. A flash of light washed over them all, nearly blinding them for a moment, but as it settled, they found identical horned women wearing laced dresses with exposed bellies and a lot of shining particles scattered everywhere.

Pulling them forward to what appeared to be a dining room, she smiled at the men and the women and led them to their chairs. With each step, their waist belt jingled in sync–attributing the already eerie situation further alarm.

"Finally here~ My heroes," the woman chuckled as she let go of the party and pulled them a chair, all at once. Gesturing for them to take a seat, she smiled and watched until each one of them decided to settle. Once seated, the women gathered at the head of the table and merged into one-like smiles merging into one. "Now there, shall we relax a bit with wine and dine? Or would you guys prefer it if we just got down to business?"

"Who are you exactly?" Leaning forward in his chair, Raven nudged Aria on one side and Regalia on the other from under the table. His eyes still fixed on the woman sitting across from him, he pretended nothing was going on while he pushed her to reveal more information about herself. "Seems like you know everything about us, even sent those soldiers to get us the moment we arrived. Why don't you extend the same courtesy and tell us who you are and what it is that you want from us?"

Expecting the woman to already know about the Aranuvian fleets at this point, Raven skipped that explanation and instead focused on knowing the woman better. After all, if she knew exactly when they would arrive, chances were that she already knew why they were arriving as well.

Looking around with a smile on her face, the djinn admired the group's vigilance. She knew they saw her as a threat, they saw the whole island as a threat, and if the words of messengers were to be trusted, they saw every single island under the sun as a threat after they'd gone through back at Lantherm's island.

Eventually, as her smile dropped, darkness took over the room. A pretentious lamp illuminated the djinn from above as she finally began to whisper conspiratorially.

"I'm Queen Elana the Seventh, the ruler spirit of this island and many surrounding it," following her words, light returned to the world, but instead of being in a mansion, the party found themselves surrounded by flora. "Everything on this island is an illusion, except for the people–they're as real as you, but most of them must never leave this island."

"These fucking island man…" Raven heaved, sounding very much defeated.

Cackling at his sigh, the queen snapped her finger and changed the scene around them. Now they found themselves moving through the streets of the island, but none of them were on their foot, instead, it was the table itself that was dragging them along.

"It's a mirage to keep these people happy," yet another snap of her fingers and the true nature of the place was finally revealed. Forest and foliage had taken over the entire island, and the mushroom homes were nothing but straw huts. "A strange experiment you can call it by who knows who? Possibly a god or a devil testing whether an illusionary utopia was enough to cripple mortals. My ancestors have kept this illusion going for generations, some idiot long ago had granted that wish; and I'm sure that dead god, Lantherm, had something to do with it."

Letting down the illusions, the queen brought everyone's attention back to her.

"I can't leave this island, none of my people can," leaning forward, her eyes staring into Raven's eyes, the queen smirked deviously as she finished her explanation. "But Lantherm, that body of the dead god–it should not fall in Aran's hands. He has enough treasures as is, and if he had that body, heavens forbid, he'll annihilate us–his perceived enemies."

A whole minute passed as everyone tried to make sense of the jumbled the queen had just uttered. Even so, many failed to make sense of it, as for Raven and a few others, they were barely keeping up with the drama surrounding the islands.

"So let me get this straight…" With those words, Raven began to recount everything that he'd gathered, and although there were a few misunderstandings, the queen of Elanavia finally explained to him just what the hell was going on on these islands!