Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Even gods can be cowards, and amongst them, the name Pathfinder came ever on top. Dead like his daughter Nerva, he lived–or rather refused to let go of life by trapping himself in between the day and night. Through memories and dreams, he moved, spewing doubts in the hearts of the faithful. His daughter will never be a playground for kids trying to play god, or at least that's what he thought and hoped to achieve through his disruptive acts.

Alone in his quest to defend his daughter's dignity, he had moved along from being a god of night and day to a spectre of what he once was. But as that hand reached for him from beyond time and dimension, he latched onto it and garnered the help of otherworlders to strike at the shackles with which Athenia and Elenaria had hold of his daughter.

'You have my blessings and my gift. Do not disappoint me.' He thought to himself in the darkness of the unbeing. And then…he opened that damned portal, leading an army in the heart of Elenaria's city.

Pouring into Mono's lab and marching under their hooded leader, the army of metal and controlled minds scoured the place in search of the land's ruler. Mono Aurarelia and Avarice were their targets, ideally, the leader of their army had hoped that the iron queen had yet to be revived from her expected slumber.

But as the army descended through the lab with their leader at the helm, along with her bodyguard, the sound of someone hammering metal finally gave away at least someone's position. Smiling a blood red smile, the hooded lady adorned with dark leather and skin-tight metal armor, hushed her soldiers behind her.

"Avarice, with me. Everyone else, stay the fuck where you are," she ordered and the army followed without question.

Descending the steps in silence with only the blue eye automatons as her company, the woman moved closer and closer to the deepest part of the lab. Upon getting to the foot of the staircase, she reached for the rusted metal door and gently pulled it open. The creaking sound from it almost made her fear that they were caught, but upon noticing the queen of the land working with her head looking down at the table, her smile returned.

"Always a hard worker, what can I say…" Lifting her gaze as she slowly continued to sneak closer to the queen, the woman's eyes brightened to the gargantuan automaton towering over the laboratory's roof. "Well fuck me, seems like I'm always a madwoman no matter what world, ahaha~"

The laugh, it finally gave away the woman's attempt to sneak up on Mono. Quickly lifting herself to her feet, she aimed her arm at the intruders as her palm opened up into a cannon capable of shooting pure magical energy.

"Who the hell are you?" Looking between the two intruders, it didn't take long for Mono to realize what was happening. "Avarice and someone with a palatable taste for fashion…"

Focusing on the hooded lady as she took the hood off, the two announced each other's names at the same time.

"Mono Aurarelia…" And although there was a sense of camaraderie between the two, Mono didn't let her cannon arm waver.

"Why are you here? And how in the hells did you get here?" Slowly approaching her with her gloved hands held in front of her chest, the otherworlder shortened the distance one step at a time as she answered in a whisper.

"Gods, they exist beyond time and dimensions, don't they?" Chuckling to herself, she licked her cherry red lips and pressed her head to the cannon. "I had help from one such god, he's as much of a loser here as he is there, but turns out even in this world and mine, they both want the same stuff."

"And what's that?" Charging the cannon a little, Mono squinted her eyes. "You're gonna tell me or not?"

Rolling her eyes with a laugh, the otherworlder turned her head to look at Avarice and beckoned her closer. The heat behind her head from the cannon burned even more as she did so, but that didn't stop her from turning back around and facing Mono face-first.

"To protect his daughter and be his only guardian in her death–that's all," shaking her head, the otherworlder smiled brightly at Mono. "No more perpetual war against the forces of evil, no more holy wars, no more gods, no more devils to make deals with and no magic at all. That's what he wants, and I would be a rotten-tongued liar if I told that's exactly what I don't want."

Shifting her gaze between the two intruders while also keeping up with the conversation, Mono lifted her other hand as well and aimed it right at the Avarice clone's head. Charging both of them just enough to shoot them at a moment's notice, she stared at her clone and pressed ahead.

"Get to the point, why are you here?"

"Aha!" Placing her hand at the rim of the cannon, the otherworlder smiled and began caressing Mono's hand in an almost sensual manner. "I'm here for you and a handful of others who are going to help me bring back my ruined world."

Wincing at the woman's touch, Mono was very much inclined to either pull her hand away or shoot the shot to blow her head off. But before she could do a thing, the clone of hers from another world looked at Avarice, smiling, and the automaton's eyes began burning a deep blue hue. For a moment, Mono didn't notice–as the Avarice clone, unlike how she'd built her version, followed a blueish theme instead of a deep red. But then, it happened, forcing her to notice.

"Wh-what…what's happening?" Feeling lightheaded, the queen stumbled on her leg and took a few steps back to compose herself. The cannons had already lost their magic, and everything about her body, with the exception of the Ironcore that ran on her soul's energy, began quickly shutting off. "Go-gods dammit…Gr-Grace! Helpp–"

Falling to the ground with her vision beyond blurry, Mono watched as her clone moved beside her and squatted next to her face. Grabbing the queen's face, she looked her in the eye and whispered.

"No mana no work?" Clicking her tongue continuously as if mocking this world's counterpart of her, the clone slapped Mono's face and shoved it into the ground. "Seems like I'm the madder of the mad woman's club."

As her laughter echoed through the lab, Mono finally lost consciousness. However, alive through her soul in the near-indestructible iron core, she lay in hibernation just as she had before waking up inside Avarice long ago.

"Well…" As for her clone, she quickly got up to her feet and turned to Avarice. "Take the core out of her body and keep it on your person. I don't want her waking up while I'm pretending to be the queen."

Nodding to her master's command, Avarice did as she was told. In the meantime, knowing there wasn't much time left before Elanaria gets suspicious, the Mono from the otherworld decided to hide her army as piles of scrap in the same room where Aurarelia had been hiding for centuries.

'Such bland clothes, and she called my taste palatable?' Not exactly thrilled by the flashy attire of the queen, the clone reluctantly decided to change while the Pathfinder from her world and this one kept the gods from noticing what was really happening in the city. 'Bear with it for a while. We'll be gone as soon as we get our hands on those two…'

The hero and one another she planned to kidnap and take to her world, but for what reason exactly, and why? Nobody in this world knew, not even the god who was instinctively helping her.