Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 343: Like Sand Slipping Through Fingers

Late at night Linkle finally awakened. She wasn't happy with what happened at the cave, after all, just setting everything for the excavation had taken her two weeks of quarrel with the council members.

Greed had driven them mad as they lusted for something they didn't even understand, and while they and their families rested leisurely at their mansions, the ones left to do everything were Linkle and the slaves and the servants.

The contractor was there only to collect payment and to act as eyes for the councilmen so Linkle couldn't falsify the records about the extracted items.

"I wanna poke his eyes in…" She muttered, sitting upright on the patient's table.

"Won't help," Raven responded from his chair in the corner.

Their faces flickering under the light of the open glass-less lamps, the two stared at each other for half a minute. Neither could fault the other for wanting to do something about the situation, but going back into the cave underprepared again–was obviously out of the question.

"We're gonna need a demon's help," skipping greetings and pleasantries, Linkle began addressing the crux of their problem. "I need those magical items inside that cave, Raven, I need them!"

Squeezing her fist tight enough to make it quiver, Linkle stared at him, her face contorted with anger. However, knowing what she was insinuating, the mage moved his head from left to right to convey his disagreement.

"You already made a deal with one and lost your true body, and now you wanna rely on the same monster who has taken it away from you?" He couldn't make sense of why she would even consider such an option. Getting off the chair, Raven shut his eyes, took a deep breath and then addressed the witch again.

"There has to be an alternative answer, Linkle, or do you wanna give more to this devil than you already have?"

Chewing angrily on the inside of her mouth, the witch huffed and puffed, teetering at her wit's end. She had waited long enough but now she had a chance to correct everything, but again a problem descended in front of her like an iron wall.

"I wanna kill this bastard so badly if only I had her…" Staring into nothing at all, Linkle kept talking to herself through whispered words.

Raven couldn't make much of what she was saying, that is until he moved closer and she glanced up to match up his eyes.

"Help me get my body back and I'll help you with whatever free of charge," that offer had already been made, but Raven didn't wanna remind Linkle of that as her disgruntled state led him to believe that she could do something stupid if he didn't stop her.

"Halfway through the ocean between Elenaris and the land over, that's where we need to be right?" He asked, trying to confirm where his deal with Linkle was supposed to take place.

Nodding back at him, the witch slipped off the table, her body still bare since her clothes were far too wet and nothing would fit on her thanks to her girthy hips. Even so, unbothered by Raven getting a look at her assets, she heaved a relieved sigh when her feet landed on solid ground and not some muddy interior of a pond.

"Once there I can open a portal to the safer parts of hells, otherwise we'd be burnt to a crisp before we even step a foot in there without dying first," raising her hand and stretching her upper body backwards away from Raven's eyes, she felt her ribs crack and her skin properly stretching underneath her breasts.

"Mhnmm…" Letting go of the stretch with a sigh, she turned around and looked back into Raven's eyes. For a moment she noticed his eyes focused on her lower end, possibly admiring her butt squeezing together stretch before she turned to face him. "Eyes up here."

With those words, she snapped her fingers and conjured a new pair of clothes that had no glimmer, no glister, just plain fabric that hugged her body tight. And although she'd tried to hide her assets, the magic worked in such a way that every inch of skin, muscles, and curves were further accentuated. Especially a slight bump over her womb with a sudden dip between her thigh over the fabric.

A perfect match for her body, easily executable but far too exposing.

But for now, she didn't care to seem proper.

"Do we have a deal then?" She asked, holding her hand forward.

"Obviously," Raven responded before shaking her hand.

Time was slipping like sand between Linkle's fingers, but she didn't want to lose hope, not after coming this far. However, the plan to extract the items from the cave had to be put on hold, and in the meantime, she could figure out how to clean it up while also planning to kill the demon who was holding her real body captive.

"Now care to tell me why you're in this mess? And what exactly is this body of yours and why does that demon want to keep it captive?" Linkle's grip on Raven's hand loosened to his questions, she knew there was no longer an escape, and if she wanted to keep his trust she had to explain to him everything that she'd been through.

From the stars of Stellaris to Atlarian land, and even the hells where she eventually ventured, it must lay bare or she would risk losing his trust.

"Fine…I'll tell you everything, but first get me to the ocean and we'll talk and you can make up your mind," stretching her luck one last time, she wanted to explain everything to him but not now as her mind was far from clear. Even so, she didn't leave him completely hanging, and the moment her hand and his parted, she showed him a brief vision of infernal and her body.

"There, that's why he wants my body as his prisoner."

Like a tower of glass, gems, minerals and iron, Raven witnessed a colony living under the spiraling seams of a giantess' dress. Too blinding to look up and too majestic to look away from, it left him in a state of awe, and by the time that vision fled him, Linkle was already gone.

'Damn it, where did she go?' He wondered, but that night she didn't wanna be found, nothing could change that, not even the hero's rampant curiosity.