Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

It had been a while since Linkle have had any visitor in her chambers at the dark castle of Elenaris. She was often left to her devices, only to be disturbed by Mono to help her in further implementation of runic facilities throughout her city.

From taps that never ran out to fueling different elements into her automaton army, the queen had Linkle working hard at every corner, trying to make things more efficient with magic.

'Another assignment?' Sitting on her desk, the witch heaved a sigh. She was tired of being bossed around, and had it not been for Mono's promise to help her excavate the Arachne cave, she would've left for Athenia a long-long time ago. 'This bitch better get those advanced automatons ready to handle anything we might come across in that cave…'

Shaking her head, she began skimming through the documents. Most of them were in relation to the heating and cooling issues plaguing the outer rims of Elenaris's circular cityscape.

Linkle knew the interconnectivity being threaded in an elliptical manner, made it a pain to travel from one side of the city to the other, and with more and more houses squeezing the roads, there was a dire need for alternative means of transport.

"Traffic isn't moving well, huh? Why not make use of smaller trains like the one that connects this place to Athenia?" The answer seemed quite simple, but as Linkle read further, she realized what the issue was.

As a note at the very end, Mono had advised against the use of the same. "Multiple trains flying in a magical field could cause terrible accidents, and when they fall out of the skies, it'll only get worse."

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Wrinkling up the document in her hand, Linkle wanted to throw it away. She wasn't made for plannings and legislation, her people fluttered through the stars, the very cosmos their playground, but here she was, trying to figure out how to fix the plumbing, the heating, the cooling, and matters of transportation for creatures that had no clue when the day ends and the night arrives.

"Ahhh!" Screaming her heart out the document, she began ironing its wrinkles with her hand to write her own suggestions. "With the death of thousands, mostly criminals, I advise the queen to rework the sewer system.

Link the drainage pipes that are close into one, and turn the already massive ones into much bigger and sanitary sites for the construction of regular trains that can be used for moving traffic without hogging up any space on the upper levels. Also, I'm done! Keep your machines, I'll only help you once you've helped me first!"

Yelling her heart out, Linkle folded the document and stuffed it back into the envelope in which it had arrived. Resting it to the side for a moment, she placed her head on the desk and closed her eyes. Taking deep breaths while thinking of the alternative to get the devil off her back, one and only one thing revolved around in her head, but…

'If I go that route a war with that bastard will turn inevitable.' Not exactly confident that she could win, Linkle really didn't want to risk the deaths of Raven and his party, especially if she could get the resources out of the cave there would be no reason for a conflict. 'Who am I kidding? That bastard isn't gonna let me go just because I paid my debt off.'

Tapping a finger on the desk with her mind racing through some other way to get out of her situation, she kept coming back to the same thing over and over and again and again. 'A Necroflower', said to bloom on the most treacherous parts of the ocean.

The flower made of bones and the souls of lost sailors, bloomed only once per a thousand years and released the power of countless souls into the ether–creating a haze that stretched far and wide, and enveloping everything in a concentrated necrotic spell.

Bones will rise up from the ocean bed, the sunken ships will fly their way to the surface in search of dead sailors. And if left alone long enough, the spirits trapped within the flower would rule that part of the ocean, killing everyone that sailed into the mist and growing the armies until there were countless more of those ships.

'If only I can get my hand on one…' But the witch wasn't interested in the curse that spored out of the bony petals of the flower, instead, she desired its core to concoct a necrotic potion. One whiff of the stuff was enough to kill an army of lesser devils, and although Tariyaan was a named devil, even he couldn't survive a drop of pure necrotic poison.

'It would be hell in the hells when he dies and his minions will slaughter us at sight. But if I can just get my body back, I'm sure we can handle it.'

Thinking back to a time when she still had control of her real body, a body made of crystals flowing like liquid, tears welled up in her eyes, but wiping it away, she kept her sorrow contained for later.

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"While they mine away at my dress, I have to sit here unable to mine the resources out of that damned cave," she felt like the very gods were making fun of her in some sort of cosmic joke, even so, she held back her anger, for it was reserved for a demon who's not long for this world. "I swear I'll kill him and get the fuck out of this damned place!"

Once a curious adventurer, now a prisoner of this world, there was nothing Linkle wouldn't do to get back to her world and swim through the stars of Stellaris once again. Although being cast and shunned as a witch didn't help her the tiniest bit, as otherwise, her return to the stars would've been as easy as asking Mono to request Elenaria to take her back to the skies.

'I would still lack my body but with enough time swimming in the cosmic sea, it wouldn't be so farfetched to assume that I would grow into something just as splendorous.' Such thoughts often raced through Linkle's mind, but as they came to an end she was hit with reality.

There was no escape, not even if she got her body back, that bridge had been burnt for she was already an outcast amongst cosmic wizards.

'How did I…mess everything up so badly?' She pondered over the thought before returning to work and noticing a letter she'd received from Shamisha.

Unfolding it, the witch took a quick glance across the empty paper. Conjuring fire on her thumb, she ran it under the parchment to reveal the hidden message by the bunny girl.

'Meet me tonight at the spire, I have something to discuss with you and one more person. Don't tell anyone and don't be late because this is important.' The letter was suspicious today the least, but to Linkle anything was better than to spend another night inside the dark castle.