Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

It had been quiet in Athenia's prison for a few weeks. She had nothing to do but watch as her chosen slogged through their mundane lives. What was entertainment for mortals was boredom to a god. Hence when the fairy messenger of Elenaria arrived, she put out a buffet of sweets and watched her for hours the way children watch any form of construction.

"Why were you here again?" She asked, covering her mouth as she yawned.

With numb and tired eyes, she turned her gaze back to the fairy, still devouring every sweet from the massive dining like it would disappear the moment she stopped. Hugging a marshmallow, Cassiopeia twirled through the air and drifted close to Athenia's eyes. Taking a quick bite from the treat before pinching her own cheeks, she giggled with a mouthful before giving the goddess a reply.

"Nothing, my lady simply wanted me to check on you since we hadn't heard from you in a while," pulling her closer to her chest, the fairy turned her body sideways and laid down in the air. Holding the marshmallow between her legs and her mouth, she floated in the air with her body in a U-shape. "But you seem okay so no worries. Even so, my lady, you should visit your followers in Elenaris someday."

Pushing the fairy back with a gentle touch of her finger, Athenia stared at her all dreamy with her mind thinking of nothing in particular.

"I will, for now, it's only the desperate and the sick, but if I act too directly, it would take away from Elenaria's influence too much and too quickly," even in her weary state, the goddess knew not to meddle too much with the faith of another goddess. The people who'd gathered at her church lacked any understanding of what she stood for and yet their desperation had brought them there.

"Not to mention, I haven't finished my book of gospels yet. The lack of a head priest is one thing, but no gospel for the people would lead to heresy calls from those who are overzealous for my blessings."

"Like a witch hunt?" Asked Cassiopeia, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.

"Precisely," though she wasn't against the existence of witches, if her people lacked gospel, they were bound to set them ablaze. "Moreover, I have enough issues in Athenia as is…"

"Why's that?" Cassiopea enquired further.

Shifting her gaze to the side, Athenia crossed her legs and leaned back into her throne. Taking a deep breath, she readied her heart to remind herself of the tiring problems that she'd been facing all week.

"Pathfinder's been trying to invade Milo's dreams to convince him not to establish my religion."

"Who's Milo?" Squinting her eyes, Athenia glanced back at Cassiopeia from the edge of her eyes.

"The new king of my city, a requisite soul for my expanse. Still, a mystery how he's born of an whore paroozing as queen."

"Uhmmm…I don't think he would like for his mother to be called a whore."

Turning back around to face the fairy, rested her hand on her knees and leaned closer to the feathered bulb of pink.

"I don't think he much cares, but that's to be expected from a bright king." That conversation ended with a smile on Athenia's face and a hint of anxiety bubbling in the fairy's head. In the face of countless treats, however, her anxiety melted like butter–especially as she began nomming on a freshly baked piece of bread with a generous spread of, well, butter.

"The fairy likes to interrogate, huh?" Said Athenia's clone as the goddess made her way into a sauna that she'd conjured.

Wrapping a towel tight around her body, the goddess walked into the steaming room and was instantly washed with a soothing sensation all over her body.

"She just likes to talk, it's a fairy's nature to do so," Athenia responded, not at all interested in conspiring.

"I never said it's unusual, but is it wise to tell her everything? Don't we want as much faith and power as possible? Then why hold back from taking from Elenaria's flock?" Walking into the sauna with the goddess, the clone followed Athenia and even sat down beside her on one of the wooden planks.

"Because it is shortsighted and would betray any prospect of negotiation with other gods," taking a look at the clone, Athenia's eyes glared at it for a while. Almost as if questioning if it was truly her who was having such idiotic thoughts.

"You need to grow with me, gain better insight into what must be done for the grand scheme of things and not just a temporary measure to get what's desired in any given situation."

The clone went quiet, she'd been separated from her master since before the meeting with her father. Ever since then, the goddess' perspective has shifted immensely, thus requiring what could be considered a rest by getting back into her master's body.

"Which clone are you anyways?" Asked Athenia, remembering how she once did reset her clones after the meeting.

"The one in charge of your brother's torture…before he killed himself," her words were concerning, but Athenia already knew that her half-brother Thalos had been dead for a while, but how exactly did it happen? She had no right clue.

"How did he do that?" Chapter Find:

"He ate himself until nothing of his body was left…" The clone's response made Athenia's skin crawl with an eerie feeling, but with the shut of her eyes, the clone fused back into Athenia and directly shared her memories instead of just telling her what happened.

Broken beyond repair from the persistent mockery of the clone, the shapeshifting wolf god had torn his chest open. Reaching for his heart and then his very soul–the fool did no other god could do to him, that is touch his soul and crush it to bits.

However, even then, like a hound, his body growled and groaned, and before long–staring from his own genitals, the dogs had eaten his ways until nothing remained.

'So gods can undo their own immortality?' Ponding over the thought, she wondered exactly how she could use that information, but since no immortal can touch the other's soul, the only way she could make use of the information was…'Force a god to kill themselves?'

A window of opportunity had appeared in Athenia's eyes, but like many things, it had to wait for it was her sauna time.