Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Moments after the horror had been killed, Raven had woken up everyone and gathered them at the deck of the ship.

Touching each and every one of them, he tried to draw corruption out of their bodies as a way to ensure that the horror wasn't hiding as one of their friends, but when not a single one of them responded to the draw of corruption, he explained to them everything that he'd felt, touched, and seen.

"That doesn't sound right," being the first to speak up after Raven's explanation was over, Regalia drew everyone's attention to her. "My patron lives in this ocean, they wouldn't allow a horror to so much as touch this ship. I've sailed plenty of times for war against other kingdoms, and nothing of the sort ever happened, we only encountered monsters, not horrors."

A warlock contracted with an ocean deity slumbering deep within these waters, Regalia couldn't take Raven's explanation at face value. Lifting her head, she looked him in the eyes, and although she knew he wouldn't lie to her, something just didn't feel right.

"Can you still use your powers?" Linkle interjected, a finger curiously resting under her chin.

"What? Of course, I can!" Without a moment's delay, Regalia dug into her paws and drew her own blood. Pouring her mana into the stream, she quickly turned the liquid into a dagger. "See? I can still use them, no problem!"

Her demonstration only further stroked their confusion. Regalia, however, wasn't the only person who shouldn't have been affected by the horror's illusion. Thanks to Asmodia Erika should've been fine and the same went for Linkle and Liliyana. One because of her nature and the other her ability, and yet nobody but Raven has seen through that illusion.

"Hmm, then the only other thing I can think of is either your patron's powers have waned or whoever this creature was being aided by a power greater than your patron," deducing to the best of her ability given the circumstance, Linkle tried to make sense of the situation but even then the party was left with a mystery.

"How about we all eat first and then worry about this…horror?" Walking out from under the helm where the kitchen was situated, Moxy opened the door wide and set the smell of grilled fish free into the open. Turning to the mouth-watering smell, everyone looked to their chief as she faintly smiled back at them.

"We're all tired, and trying to solve a puzzle while you're tired will only give you headaches, not answer."

The embarrassing grumble from their bellies made the girls blush and agree to Moxy's offer before doing anything else. In the meantime, Raven ventured down inside the ship to check up on its hull. The sight where the colossal rock had collided had not a single scratch on it, which in turn only made him question his own sanity.

"Hey, you okay?" Hearing Maria's voice from behind, the mage was shocked to find her coming down the steps behind him. As his eyes turned to the plate in her hand, Raven was clued in as to why she was there, and no longer felt anything out of the ordinary. Even so, having felt something strange about his body language, Maria decided to ask. "You think this could be an illusion too?"

Blinking his eyes at the mention of the root cause of his worry, Raven looked up at Maria and nodded his head lightly. Squinting her eyes, she was made to wonder the same. However, being trained to become a succubus illusionist, Maria quickly managed to find a way to test things.

Holding one of the plates towards Raven, she moved the other behind her. Confused by her actions, the mage stared at her for a while before she motioned him to take the plate. The moment he did, Maria dropped her own plate behind her. Its clatter echoed inside the dark room, and Raven was left to wonder exactly what she was trying to do.

"You heard that, right?" She asked.

"Of course," Raven replied. Read latest stories on empire

Smiling at his answer, Maria moved closer to him and quickly grabbed the plate from his hand, placed it on the wooden box next to them. Wrapping her hands around his shoulders, she smiled some more before finally explaining.

"In an illusion, you can't hear what you can't see because the illusion itself relies on your perception, thus…" Stabbing the back of Raven's neck with a fish bone that she'd swiped off her plate before dropping it, Maria watched him flinch and look at her confused again. "See? You didn't know I had that bone, so you shouldn't have felt it but you did."

Putting everything together, Raven was finally able to make sense of the situation. Shaking his head at the realization that he was out of that illusion, he took a deep breath and heaved a sigh.

"Asmodia's teaching you well," he said, looking at her with a smile.

"She's a bitch who likes to poke me where it hurts every time she can," pressing her lips together, Maria shook her head for a moment as well. "But otherwise yeah, she's a great teacher. Makes you wish she wasn't such an ass so you can like her more. Anyways…"

Turning her attention back to Raven, Maria moved her hands onto his chest and moved her body even closer. With their noses touching each other, she chuckled before speaking up again.

"How about a reward for helping you figure things out? I'm still that greedy bitch after all, I need the attention," smirking with devious intentions reflecting in her eyes, Maria moved her mouth closer until their lips were touching but weren't exactly kissing each other. "If you still have doubts, maybe this will help clear them~"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

As soon as her sentence came to an end, Raven pulled her body into a tight hug and pressed their lips together into a kiss. Quickly moving his hands down her spine and squeezing her ass, the mage was ready to give Maria her reward while the others upstairs, ran into yet another, but not as deadly of a problem.

However, it wasn't anything they had to alarm their leader for, and thus Raven had more than enough time to make love to his women before having to check on the happenings on the surface.

Note: Things are gonna get more extreme, more sexual, more abusive, more degrading, more aggressive, and overall more complex and exciting. Expect the best of the worst, and please read the warnings and be prepared!