Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 883: In The Cradle Of The Undying Mother

In death’s cradle, Nerva nursed the elf’s daughter in her arms. The little girl suckled on her finger that dripped pure darkness, and the liquid nourished her like no other. Born from the curse of dark water, there could’ve been no greater nourishment for her than to be fed by corruption’s mother.

Watching the girl cooing and turning in her arms and clinging onto her hands, a smile crept up the lips of Nerva. A chuckle escaped right after, and her gaze shifted to another part of her eternally dark home in the very bowels of her world, she noticed minute little embryos alongside one other infant who had grown more than the rest.

Still living and sucking nourishment from their birthmothers, the children were detached from the bodies of their mortal mothers, and yet the bond of their souls was still drawing from them. Eleven of these children, amongst the dozen others, drew Nerva’s attention the most. They were still soul-bound to their mothers, and thanks to her hold on her world, the mother’s bodies were still to provide them with food and everything else.

Only after their birth–that is to say, full development as they were already severed from their mother’s flesh–would the women be free of this phantom pregnancy, although whether they realized that they were still, in a twisted way, pregnant remained to be seen.

”To have so many grandchildren...” Reaching outward, the chains around Nerva’s colossal arms shifted a little, and its clang was felt as countless tremors in the overworld. ”How fortunate I am. But you shall stay with me, children, for the world is about to be painted with blood, and I can’t have you dying before you’ve bloomed into your fullest potential.”

Like a cluster of Marbles, she gathered their bodies and souls and slowly moved them into her chest. Phasing through her pale skin, the children were safely put away within the goddess’s dead body–the only place which no god will dare attack directly, for it would spell the end of the world. That is, if they could even find the damned place to strike her with enough precision.

At the end of her profane gesture, she turned her attention back to Aurora. The girl who shall bring forth the final challenge, the girl who shall take up the mantle and do what her world requires. A sacrifice born from duty and laid on a shoulder as strong as an adult pinky. The very thought was sombre, and yet it failed to meet the heart of the goddess.

”The lord of demons and horrors,” moving her hand across the sleeping child’s body, Nerva smiled yet again. ”The final test, you will greet him at the end of the world, my daughter. There, you must guide him to his final duty.”

A sudden itch along her neck raised the goddess’s alarm. Closing her eyes, she tried to hone in on her senses and figure out what was going on. The presence of another god in her mind, Razor, had just left Athenia’s prison. In a moment’s time, she figured out the reason for his visit and everything that the two had said to each other.

’Guidance...’ As her eyes opened, Nerva thought back to a time before the birth of Atlaris. There in the void of nothingness and the great expanse of space, she remembered a conversation with the chosen of hisself and the creator of all that is, all that will be, and all that has ever existed across the stretch of space and time. ’The Creator. You devil, where are you?’

The visage of a pale young man dressed in an equally white suit and tie came into the goddess’s memory. Crossed legs and a white table in front of him, and his leaned back posture with crossed legs flashed onto her eyelids. One of his many faces, he wore and smiled at the goddess as they discussed the acquisition of a celestial star to become host to a new world of her making.

The Creator had simply breathed the star into existence that later became the sun of Atlaris. And with his permission, the goddess began her then loving journey of making children, alas, that time did not last. Having foreseen such an ordeal, perhaps, the Creator had instilled her world with a few grand rulers and creatures that even she could not control.

True angels, true devils, born alongside Atlaris, they served the Creator’s will to this day and ensured that no god, not even Nerva, could cross the invisible rules set by him. For him, they will sacrifice everything and all, even the very world itself. But with Nerva’s intentions aligning with the latter, such angels and the devils had quietly decided to aid the living, whether through the goodness of heart or through their hunger for power and exploitation.

”I would crumble the chains that you have set on my bones, Creator.” Looking up into the darkness, a smirk took over her lips. ”Once your beloved child and now you have forsaken me, but one day I shall have my heart’s fill whether you are here or have abandoned this world, after all.”

Bound to her world by her own will, in a way, Nerva had trapped herself to the soil of Atlaris, that too was herself. The celestial sea of stars and planets, it was far beyond her reach at the moment. However, the moment death graces her, she could once more soar amidst their brilliance–at least for a while before the void of nothingness takes her and her children to an ever so peaceful and eternal slumber.

”Now then,” bringing her attention back to June’s daughter, Nerva lifted her in her arms and whispered close to her ear. ”Time to get you some servants. What would you like first, daughter? Something shiny to clad your soon-to-be adult body in? Or maybe a fleet of the most horrendous terrors that shall do your bidding? Answer me.”

Although asleep in the goddess’s arm, the pull of Aurora’s destiny roused her from her sleep. Her body changed and grew in a matter of a few seconds, and the next thing she knew, she was standing on her own without any stumble or trembling. Taking the form of a decade-old child, her eyes glistered with mischief as she cast her gaze to the enormous deity before her.

”Who are you?” She asked, her head curiously tilted.

In response, Nerva simply laughed until eventually it was time to ready the little girl for the corrupted throne that she would soon inherit.