Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 119: Deception And Joy

It had been an hour after midnight and Amedith and the others had yet to find the exit to the cave. The dusty air lingering all around had settled inside their throat as they finally decided to settle for the night as well. But with nothing to set up camp with, they were forced to lay down on the hard floor or lean against the mossy walls–something needless to say didn't help them in sleeping.

'My magic, it's acting weird.' Thought Erika as she'd become unable to cast the spells that she used to. Instead, like the whispers of lingering spirits she heard voices in her ears that her lips recited on their own. The result of which? A similar spell although unlike her holy magic which was golden, it was a deep shade of crimson red.

Huddled in a corner away from the others, she kept staring at her hands. With just a thought she could turn them into a puff of red clouds that retained their shape yet made her invulnerable to non-magical injuries. Adding further to the power, her cloud body could turn invisible by dissipating into the air around her.

"Status," calling her screen of stats, she scanned through her list of spells. None of what she remembered was anywhere in there, instead in the same archaic language that Asmodia spoke, there were a bunch of new spells listed in there. "I…don't know what these mean, it's beyond my deciphering abilities."

Making her status disappear, she leaned back against the wall once more. The day so far had been quite tiring, yet the curiosity in her heart kept her anxious and didn't let her sleep.

'Should I try something?' She wondered, glancing over to the rest sleeping. Invisibility was surely a boon for her trapping skills, and the thought of trying them out on the monsters–which were far weaker than those in the forest, was possibly her best option to test things out. 'Let's hope none of them wakes up, it was hard enough to convince Amedith to wait until morning to continue the search.'

Convincing herself that she would be fine, Erika got up from the ground and used the ability to turn invisible on her entire body. As she moved quietly past her friends, however, an illusionary clone of her body was left behind pretending to be asleep.

Completely unaware that Amsodia was helping her from within her body, the priestess moved swiftly through the cave in the directions the party hadn't yet charted.

'Use more of your new abilities, give into your curiosity! Give into your mind! Give into your desires and greed!' Taking great pleasure in the priestess's pursuit of her own curiosities, Asmodia seated deep within Erika's mind wanted her to push herself further and further. As seated beside the devil in her body was corruption and malice lurking in her heart.

The desire for more, the desire for power, the very essence of what turns a soldier into a seasoned warrior. Cruelty, it's what drives the machina of war and keeps the world turning. For without it, peace takes over and with enough time in peace, it cripples people with comfort.

Nobody knew this better than the devils, for while they feasted plenty in times of chaos, times of peace were when they ate their belly full.

'But what's the fun in that? I've enough human souls to last me a millennia, but to stroke the flames between demons and gods?' Chuckling to herself, Asmodia felt her heart flooded with glee. 'Oh how the world would burn, and through this vessel I shall have the best view all under the guidance of a god AHahhahaHHAH!'

While she was busy enjoying the slow yet encroaching corruption, Erika was wandering through the cave with her body completely invisible. Phasing through walls, passing undetected under the noses of numerous monsters, as well as being able to float, the priestess was quite amused by her new skills even though she couldn't touch anything in her current state.

Although with her vision having grown a bit reddish in invisible state, made the already dark cave appear even darker.

'Too bad I can't touch anything like this or this could be a great way to get behind the enemy and lay a trap.' Already thinking of ways to incorporate her new skills with her rune trapping skills, Erika raced her mind trying to weigh both the good and the bad from her ability change. So far the changes seemed to weigh more towards the good, but how far was this streak going to go?

"I should try to use some other spells," coming out of invisibility behind a humanoid shade with tree bark skin, Erika quickly ran her finger on its spine and etched a flurry of runes. By the time the shade turned around to look at her, the priestess had already disappeared into nothing.

'Now to get back…' Getting a safe distance away from the monster, Erika activated the runes with a spell.

Lighting up a bright red, the magic burned in it's back quickly gripped the monster's body. Contorting its shape into a ball by breaking its limbs in directions they shouldn't be bent, the runes turned the monster into a ball of rotten meat before it completely turned into dust.

Even though she somehow knew that's what was about to happen, the thought of doing it to something with real flesh, something like a human–made her hands jittery with anxiety.

'Ahaha…' And yet, raising her hand to her face a gentle smile tugged at her lips. 'So easy? Ahaha!'

Unable to contain her laugh, her voice began to echo inside the cave. Her invisibility broken by uttering the sounds of her laughs, Erika was left completely vulnerable. But unlike how she'd felt so far, the curiosity of trying more of her spells on more monsters excited her more than she was scared for her life.

'I wanna try more!' She thought beaming like she'd just discovered magic. Reliant on her friends for offense so far, she'd often been left on the sidelines, but since the change allowed her to effectively heal and use her abilities for sneaky offense, her heart was blooming with a burst of joy.

Continuing to explore her powers more and more, Erika wandered around the cave planting different runes on monsters until it was time for her to return to the group. Keeping her new powers a secret from the others still, she kept her promise to Asmodia and simply continued their search for Mel.