Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 465 Scattered Minds - Part 1

"Is he gonna be okay?" Standing beside Linkle as she checked on Raven, a look of terror had taken over Mel. The sudden burst of energy sending Raven away from Choux and the mere fact that he lost consciousness even though the blast itself wasn't that big–had her and the rest of the party heavily concerned. And for some odd reason, the Djinn girls were present and seemingly worried in his room as well.

"He's fine for the most part..." Even Linkle was puzzled as to what exactly could knock out such a resilient man in an instant. Staring at his unconscious face, she was hesitant for a moment, but recognizing that there was no saving her without saving him, she conjured one of the live-giving necklaces and put it around Raven's neck.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"What's that?" Seraphim asked from the doorway while glaring at Linkle's back.

"A charm to ward off evil spirit," Turning her head to the djinn, Linkle stared back at her for a while in warning. "Why are you two here anyway? We're gonna arrive at the island soon to get some rest like your brother."

Ignore her, however, the sisters stayed by their door–their minds and bodies strangely attached to Raven. As for the others, Aria, Amedith, Liliyana and even Regalia were patiently waiting for them to get out so that they could talk about what they were meant to do when the ship arrived at Lantherem. Only one night's time is all it would take to get there and the party had already gone through half of it.

"Linkle, if you wouldn't mind accompanying me outside for a moment?" Kicking herself off the wall, Regalia moved closer behind the witch. With Raven unconscious and the others having no experience leading a group, she had decided to step up and the first thing on her list to do was catch Linkle up to speed about what was happening and also ask her some questions.

"Sh-shit!" Handing the necklace back to Linkle, Regalia quickly drew the power of her patron to heal herself. Being a warlock of an ocean deity, she wasn't meant to hold any holy relics and that pain shooting through her palm was to her proof enough of the necklaces' divinity. "I'll be fucking damned, that thing...How did you–"

"I don't know why Athenia decided to give it to me, but if I had to wild guess–it's probably because the party's getting into too much trouble because of me," making the clear necklace go away, Linkle held only the dark one in her hand. Letting in hang between her and the general, she stared at its dark glimmer and whispered. "If I can just bring this to the hells not even Tariyaan can survive its power unscratched."

"Unscratched?" The word didn't exactly inspire confidence in Regalia. Folding her hand, she leaned against the walls of the ship with visible doubt apparent in her expression. "It won't kill him or you're not confident that it will kill him?"

"Only one way to find out really," as if she'd already thought about being asked that question, Linkle didn't wait a second to respond. To distract from the topic at hand, she finally decided to ask her what was the deal with the Djinns and how the party was supposed to handle them.

As Regalia began clueing her in on Raven's plan from start to finish, a cloud of smoke rose in front of Maria's eyes. She didn't notice it at first, but as the smoke began filling her lungs, the ex-queen was sent out of the cabin coughing a lung.

"FI–FISH!" She screamed, angry at the dead fish even though she was the one who'd burned it on the grill. With her coughing and yelling out so loud, her illusion was gone and eventually the party decided to station someone else on the grill or they'd starve to death on this journey to Lantherem.