Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

"Another king dead, the third one this month…" Her eyes gazing down at Athenia, the goddess of mockery was fairly concerned by the sudden rise in the death of royalties. First, it was the king of crows, then Zeil, and finally the old king of the land named after her. It almost felt like a prophecy of doom, one that sounded concerningly similar to Pathfinder's warning.

"Let's hope Milo will be a better king than his mother Maria is a queen."

With the king now finally dead, the queen no longer held any reign. She was a widow and a hurdle for the prince–that is if she decided to fight her claim over the luminated throne. Cast under the hues of stained glass, his wax-like skin was bound to soak its glow, and with it, Athenia hoped that he would soak the wit of a king as well.

'It may be time for me to cast him my blessing.' She pondered, but doing so was bound to draw the attention of Pathfinder; and just like he'd done to Erika, that dead god and the father of Nerva was bound to pursue Milo to abandon Aphrodite and be his own god. 'The hell is that idiot's problem? If it weren't for me his daughter's body would be scorched with holy wars.

I am the only reason the gods aren't overstepping their bounds'

With the facade of omnipotence as the prime god in all of this, Athenia knew she wasn't the strongest or the wisest, but that false notion of absolute control over Nerva–seeded within in the gods was keeping them from latching at each other throats and starting yet another holy war.

Trying to brush past the negatives, she cast her gaze down to her chosen. They were getting themselves ready for the annihilation of the monster clans, and although she wanted to help them, Athenia couldn't see anything from where these clans lived as it was being encircled by a corrupted region.

"Something feels off…" Although her reach spread from Athenia, she'd never come so far as to proactively watch over another kingdom. Even the rest of Atlaria was foreign to her and the only knowledge she had was bare bones since other gods wouldn't like her intrusion on their lands. However, the clans–they were monsters, not devout of any gods. So why couldn't she peer in?

Even though the corrupted region had yet to engulf it all.

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"Something or rather someone is pulling the strings on these ignorant puppets." Said the clone standing beside Athenia.

Glancing to her side, the goddess mused over the thought but couldn't figure out who could bar her from seeing what was going on inside those lands.

"Another god?" She mumbled.

"So close to Elena? I doubt it," her clone responded.

"But what if it is?"

"Then it'd be easier to recruit her against that god."

"Could be a plant by the others."

"I doubt anyone's that much of a fool–well at least maybe Thalos, but he's eternally trapped in our torture prison." Ending the topic with the mention of the shapeshifting wolf god–who'd once foolishly intruded Athenia's prison and tried to kill her, the clone shut the matter for good as neither of them could figure out who it was.

'Unless…' However, there was one more possibility that neither wanted to be true and thus it had gone unmentioned.

A sudden spark of crimson light broke the goddess's chain of thoughts. Turning her attention to the front, she watched a crimson mist figure appear in front of her. It was Asmodia in her ethereal form with her nude body and perky tits swaying around as she walked closer to the goddess while stretching her arms.

"What are you doing here?" Athenia asked, her eyes squinted with doubts.

Sitting sideways on the goddess's throne steps, the devil glanced up at her with a droopy expression on her flickering face.

"It's no fun trying to corrupt someone who's already accepted their natural corruption," yawning for a bit, she rolled her eyes and glanced over to the clone instead. "But don't worry, I'm only here for a bit, thought you'd need company…Seems like I was wrong."

"Off with you then," Athenia suggested, but Asmodia sat there quietly. Musing over something that she'd only recently had time to mull over.

Before her summon by Athenia, she was in a century-long slumber, and before that, she was in the court of the devils being shunned for having loved a goddess. And now, as Erika was thinking on her own and even charting her own corrupt path, she'd had little left to do than ponder the memories of her past lover.

"I hear your thoughts in this plain, you do realize that?" Hearing every bit of Asmodia's agony, did her best to hold back from her mocking nature. But alas, she failed–not because of a lack of empathy, but rather her pride as one of the gods. "You really think she loved you? Don't make me laugh, devil."

A frown took over Asmodia's brows, however, she kept her head lowered as she knew her authority in the heavenly order was now amongst the lowest of the lows. As for Athenia? Tasting her turmoil at the edges of her lips, a crooked smirk took over her.

"A devil and a goddess, what did you think would happen? She used you for pleasure and got put to death because of her foolishness. Or maybe…" Giving her words some time to settle in Amsodia's head, Athenia stabbed her heart with sharp concluding words. "It was your fault, even if she loved you, you knew what would happen to her. A war–through which you survived, but she lost everything she had.

What a true lover you are~ Condemning your partner to die when you've easily avoide–"

"Goddess…" Forcing a smile on her face, Asmodia looked up at Athenia, a moment of uncertainty lingered between the two before the devil spoke further. "I think you sometimes forget that unlike you who was only born during the last holy war, I was born alongside the heavenly order.

Before the elder gods became the elder gods when there was no Nerva, no Andromata, nothing–just us the servants, and the Creator."

Wasting no more time with Athenia, Asmodia drifted like the mist and went back into Erika's body.

'Arrogant bitch.' Thought the goddess with a foul grimace, not realizing the kind of fire she was playing with.