Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 264: Murdok - The Undead Lord

"Are you ready, miss Athenia?" Flying by the goddess's face, Casseopia the messenger nommed on a piece of sweet cracker. Her cheeks were flushed with joy and her body fluttered through the air anxiously waiting for Athenia to be done with.

But the goddess herself wasn't sure if she was ready. To meet a dead god that too her father, felt stranger than fiction yet somehow more surreal than reality. However, it was time, and so getting off her throne, she stretched her finger toward Casseapia. With a smile, the fairy let go of her threat and allowed the goddess to take over her so that her soul could escape the prison temporarily.

With a flash, the exchange was over and as Athenia opened her eyes to the fairy's dainty body, she found herself standing in the middle of a white room with no end in sight. And in the middle of it stood Elenaria, a crescent smile apparent on her glossy violet lips. Adorned with stars, moons, and souls on her attire, the goddess of the night sky beckoned her closer.

"The goddess of death, mockery, and cunning, finally at last free from her prison," smiled Elenaria, the sea of stars in her crescent moon for eyes, encircling in an entrancing pattern. "Never thought I'd see you so up close, the gods are after that neck of yours for the longest time, after all."

Pulling herself out of the trance, Athenia quickly flew closer to the goddess with a slight squint in her eyes.

"They can have my neck when this mess is over, but I doubt my father would allow that to happen," she said, confident in her father's grand ability for foresight.

"Even he died, Athenia…" Moving her hand to her right, Elenaria's fingers wrapped around a doorknob that wasn't present just a moment ago. Twisting it, she turned her attention back to the goddess for one final piece of advice before letting her take over her body. "Now that we're partners in quite a rebellion against the heavens, I'd advise you to sweep that arrogance out of your head.

Because you may be safe in that prison, but the same isn't the case for me or even for your chosen who are intentionally ordered to ruffle the feathers of faith in another god's territory."

Athenia said nothing in response, she simply stared at Elenaria. Not because she didn't care or that the reasoning behind her worry didn't make sense to her, but rather for the simple reason that she wanted to meet her father before conversing about anything else.

Realizing just that, Elenaria bobbed her head up and down and sighed before extending her a finger.

"Now before you take over me, I have one thing to say," slowly pushing the door open to a dark room that stretched for eternity, Elenaria held her finger inches from Casseaopia's body. "My clothes are made of stars and souls, each holding a different story, some good, some horrific, and you're best to ignore the perverts on my panties…"

"Wh-what?" Before she could question the questionable things she'd just heard, Elenaria tapped her finger against Athenia while also moving her body into the dark room.

Once again a flash blinded Athenia for a moment, but the next thing she knew, she was inside the dark room with Elenaria's jewelry clattering loudly with each other with every movement. Glancing down on Elenaria, Athenia was surprised by how restrictive her clothes were.

Not to mention a glance down collar at her open cleavage as well as her belly, she noticed something tingling everywhere but that exposed portion of her body.

'Ugh…I get what she meant by pervert now.' The souls were a bit too excited around her sensitive parts, Athenia wanted to shun the dead once more. But given the situation she was in, she looked past her anger. And instead turning to a beam of light now illuminating her path forward.

At the very end of it was a table sitting under a spotlight, and on one of those chairs around it was a cloaked figure that she couldn't mistake for any other. Dead–although not in the mortal sense, the lord of death himself sat hunched forward on a chair. The armor he once wore was now replaced by a torn cloak, still burning his immortal soul an emerald hew.

"Father…" Her words carried to the man at the end of the light, and as his flaming gaze turned to her, Athenia rushed towards him as if no longer restricted by the weight of countless souls. "Father! It's really you!"

Smiling wide and giggling like a little girl, she flung herself to his waist and wrapped his bony frame in the tightest of embrace. Laughing for a spell before turning to cry, she buried her face against his clothes until his fingers wrapping around her forced her eyes to open in surprise. His touch assured her that the moment was real and not a dream like countless others that she'd had.

"Oh my sweet daughter," caressing her hair as he spoke with a cackle, the lord of the dead nuzzled her even closer. "In all my years of unliving, I've only ever been this joyous on the day that you were born."

Grabbing her by her arms, Murdok lifted Athenia off of her feet. Moving his hand onto her teary cheeks, he quickly brushed them off before caressing her face gently. Leaning into his cold hand, she closed her eyes and simply let the warmth of a parent wash over her body.

"How have you been?" He asked, slowly pulling his hand away.

Opening her eyes back up, she gave off a weak smile before responding.

"I'm…much better now that I've seen you," her smile grew brighter with those words and it only continued growing with Murdok's next string of words.

"You've tanned a bit, been out in the sun too long?" Chuckling at his joke, Athenia took a step back and looked herself over.

"Skinner too, but maybe that's just one of the many things I inherited from you," looking at him as she shot back with a joke of her own, the two looked at each other for a second in silence before laughing together. Athenia with her mouth covered, and Murdok with his cackling laugh.

As their laughs settled, the two decided to sit across each other and spend more time just talking to each other.