Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 76: The Goddess Of Cunning And Mockery

As her duties were done, Athenia blinked her eyes open and found herself back inside Nervaʼs mind. But instead of relief from her mind being back inside the prison, she felt a bitter scorn taking over her contour.

”How long has it been, sister?” Chimed the young man standing in front. As dazzling as Lunaʼs rays, he smiled then smirked, and even dusted his radiant coat as if just being inside that place had tainted his body.

”How do you even stay in this dump?” he asked, adjusting his bright red tie.

Staring at Athenia with his luminous silver eyes, he waited for a response as he combed his bangs to the side. But to his surprise, the goddess of mockery wasnʼt easy to anger, at least not when she had a chance to shatter the ego of her rivals.

Covering her lips with the tip of her fingers, she hid a gentle smile. Yet letting her chuckle slip through, Athenia eventually burst into a fit of laughs. Astounded by her reaction, her half-brother stared at her for a while. However, with each passing laugh, his patience quickly ran out and his shock turned to anger.

”Have you gone insane?!” Walking side to side with his head glued in Atheniaʼs direction like an owl, he kept on pacing in a failed attempt to hide his angst. ”Did the prison rot finally rot your brain?! Answer!”

Letting out a few dying chuckles, Athenia kept up her smile and continued to glare at him. She knew what buttons needed pushing, and exactly when to rub more and more salt to the wounds.

”Oh brother brother~” Pulling herself off the throne, she tried to walk down the steps to match her brother in height.

”Stay there!” Jumping a few steps back, the young man bloomed into a cloud of haze before emerging as an alpha wolf. Baring his teeth with a grunt, his white and silver fur reverberated through the air as if they were charged with electricity in the middle of a storm. ”Donʼt come close!”

”Ughhh…” Scoffing at his warning, Athenia simply rolled her eyes and with a brush of her hand she quickly disappeared and reappeared behind him. ”Youʼre as Naive as always, arenʼt you Thalos?”

Leaning to his ears before his eyes even registered that she was gone, Athenia breathed down his neck and whispered.

”No wonder they sent the weakest god to hunt me down,” as the words registered in his head and his eyes also caught up, Thalos wanted to move away from Athenia, but somehow he felt bound on the very spot.

”What the?!” Only slightly twitching on the spot, the young demi-god was utterly outmatched. Turning his head in rage, he growled at Athenia again. ”What did you do?!”

”Chained a mutt, thatʼs what,” raising her hand, Athenia curled her fingers shut, and as it happened, a chain appeared in her hand–the end of which had Thalosʼs every limb bound.

”YOU!! LET ME–”

”Enough,” snapping her fingers with a yawn, Athenia shut his mouth with chains as well. Then as he was left helpless and boiling with utter rage, she looked at him with the same mocking smile heʼd shown her.

Thrashing about and even trying to free himself, Thalos tried everything he could before his body grew tired. And once he knew it was all futile, the only thing he could do was stare at his sister with a foul look in his eyes.

”Dare to wed with that look, Thalos?” Pulling on the chain, Athenia casually began to wander the eternal dark. Dragging her half-brother around, she felt more pleasure than a perpetual cycle of orgasms. ”I hate to break your heart…mutt, but Iʼm not into wolves, especially not the kind that lost his balls cause he tried to hump another half-sister.”

Glancing back at him from the edge of her eyes, Athenia relished in the agony in that arrogant godʼs eyes. He was angry beyond reason, fuming even, but with the leash in her hands, the young mutt could do nothing but listen to its captor.

”Ahhh, I guess that wasnʼt enough of a deterrent, after all, you seemed to have come to me, havenʼt you?” Creating a clone of herself on the very spot she stood, Athenia let go of the chain from her real body. Walking forward, she left the clone to keep the chain, all the while she got back into her throne.

”Tell me, mutt, do you think they sent you because they think youʼre competent or because youʼre the only god stupid enough to walk into a prison and attempt to kill me?”

The word ʼprisonʼ had Thalosʼs eyes widening once more. Picking on that cue, Athenia found a look of shock as well. Covering the mouth, she displayed concern with a look so somber, that she almost had him fooled had it not been for her next words.

”Youʼre a fucking idiot,” leaning back into her throne, she crossed her legs and heaved a tired sigh. ”They didnʼt tell you so they could use you to kill and have you trapped inside this damned place, and whatʼs more? They relied on your utter incompetence by assuming youʼre too stupid to run the world on your own until one of them finds a way to get inside and swat you like a fly.”

Being unloaded with the bitter truth, Thalos looked around frantically. Anxious and afraid, he wanted to escape the place as soon as possible, however, even as he looked at Athenia in a pleading way, the goddess of mockery didnʼt seem willing to help.

”Oh brother brother~ You think youʼre escaping so soon? No, Iʼm gonna torment you with the most embarrassing memories of your life, Iʼll poke at every insecurity, and what youʼre gonna do? Youʼre just gonna stay there chained like a dog and listen to me as I remind you just how fucking pathetic you are!”

And from that point onward, the goddess of mockery tore through Thalosʼs hide with words sharper than any razor. From the time his betrothed was found in bed with another god, to fabricating stories so convincing that made the listener question his own memories. Athenia left no stone unturned as she tormented him in the past, the present, and the eternal future.

”Mother told me, your father wished to kill you–he said you looked like a bastard, a half-breed between a gnarly beast and a boy. He hated that hide of yours, and no matter how much it shines, even Mother trimmed that fur from time to time, didnʼt she?

Even though, later she only wove a shawl or sweater for the rest of her kids with that very skin of yours.” Smiling ear to ear, Athenia drove the final dagger. ”She didnʼt like that fur on you, but she loved it on us Thalos, even your father did. They just hated you, didnʼt they? Why else would they do that?”

ʼItʼs a lie! Itʼs a lie! Itʼs a lie!” Chanting the same words again and again inside his head, it didnʼt take long for the silver wolf to succumb to never-ending torture.

”Take him away in some corner, where I canʼt see him,” blushing red with excitement, Athenia ordered her clone to take over and to whisper torment into his ear forever and ever.