Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 545 A Foolish Coup

It had been days since he'd lost his manhood to Asmodia's magic. Unaware still, of how it could even happen, Felix tossed and turned in his bed every night. Anger brewed in his heart, and while Hilma for some obscure reason was willingly helping those who'd done this to him, Astra was still on his side.

Laying in bed beside each other the same day as Raven had gone back to Athenia, the demi-humans conspired to murder the group of heroes while their leader was gone. And the person in their sights? Amedith, the warrior with feminine contour.

"That girl, she's short and flimsy looking. I'm sure we can kidnap her and keep her bound somewhere," Felix whispered to Astra while sitting upright beside her.

Getting up as well, the demi hummed in agreement for she was waiting for a chance to get back at the people who'd wronged her. In her eyes, they were still the only true pack of heroes and even if their god's influence on them was gone, she wanted to boast her own importance and that couldn't happen with the citizens slowly returning to normal.

The circles of healing carved everywhere around town were for sure helping and already the people were returning to their senses. Some had even begun gathering by Erika outside Batimos's church to help her bring down the statues and replace them with another.

"Who do these people think they are anyway? Uprooting everything we'd done here, everything we've worked for!" Grinding her teeth at losing her social status, Astra wanted to eat the faces off of the women in Raven's group. And the first person on mark…"That girl Amedith, we should go get her now. I noticed she doesn't mingle too much with the rest except for that devil girl!"

Nodding back at her, Felix got off the bed and began to dress himself. Doing the same, the two quickly equipped themselves with the necessary equipment before cloaking themself in the dark curtains hanging by the windows. Obscuring their identity, they wasted no time in slipping out of the inn. The crowd of insane zealots still suffering from Batimos's brainwashing helped them get out undetected.

"The castle, Jenna's there too–I heard one of them telling her to guard Jenna as she'd gone insane or some other nonsense," having not seen Jenna since the incident Felix had no clue what kind of effect Batimos' subjugation had had on his crush. She wasn't brainwashed, but the weight of her action and that of her mother, which eventually led to everyone in her town being turned into a zombified slave, had broken her from the inside out.

Unaware of it all, they rushed through dark alleys and crept closer and closer to the shaming halls of the castle. While on their way, the two noticed Erika down a street, coordinating a group carrying a bunch of construction materials towards the dead god's church. Watching the group for a while, the two expected to see them being miserable, but instead in their eyes, the men and women held hope.

No longer affected by their god's perverse magic and free of the keeper's influence, they could see just how wrong they'd been to down the bracelets and doom themselves and their families. Thus, when offered salvation, fresh crops, love, and bounty, without slaving away for their entire lives, they couldn't let such a chance slip.

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A handful of angels of Athenia had already descended on the land and turned themselves into idols or taken over their natural resources. Breathing in them, life, they brought forth fertility and not just in the land, but also in the bodies of the enfeebled men and women.

"It's like they went from our god's influence to another," Felix whispered to Astra, not realizing that one gave them a choice–a fair one, while the other imposed it with the bracelet and forced them to pray to him for as long as they lived.

Being under the same contorted sense of right and wrong, Astra nodded back; assuming that the people were under the influence of another god.

"Forget them, we should go," turning her head back to match Felix's gaze, she pushed him back through the alley in an attempt to rush to the castle while at least the priestess was busy. "The warrior girl should only have the devil with her right now, we just need to find a way to separate them and we can kidnap her without problem so hurry!"

With a renewed sense of urgency, the duo rushed towards the castle. Making sure not to be seen, they kept to the shadows–something that was much easier for Astra being an assassin than for Felix who was a head-on fighter. Even so, making his way deeper and deeper into the castle undetected, they stumbled on whispers that led the two to the infirmary. There, even from afar, they could see Jenna walking around inside with Amedith sitting at the edge of the bed with a little fairy resting on his shoulders.

"There's Jenna, the girl's there too but who is that fairy and where is the devil?" Astra whispered to Felix, but obviously, he had no answer.

"We'll get Jenna out of there later," grabbing Astra by the shoulder, Felix looked sternly into her eyes. "You brought your poison bomb, right? Go ahead, throw it in before the devil joins them."

Nodding in response, Astra–the assassin girl, reached into a pouch dangling by her hips. In it were a handful of tranquilisers and a total of two poison bombs. One to mask an enemy's vision and clog their lungs with smoke until they lose consciousness; and the other to make them bleed their eyes out.

'Jenna is there, I shouldn't use the lethal one…' Taking out the smoke poison bomb, Astra pulled the wick out and quickly charged towards the infirmary. Throwing the bomb in just as a hissing sound emerged from the ball, she slipped back into the shadows, but at that point, Amedith had already noticed someone moving around.

"Who the hell?!" By the time he got off the bed, however, he was assaulted with the puff of smoke burning out of the poison bomb. It clogged his lungs in an instant, but his resistance kicked in the next moment and the effect of the poison was rendered null and void.

Not knowing that he was immune, Astra quickly wore a leather mask on her face and offered one to Felix as well. Once both of them had it on and the sound of Jenna's body hitting the floor echoed down the hall, they charged right into the smoke–unaware that the supposed girl hadn't yet been put down.

"Look for her and get out as quickly as we can!" Felix yelled inside the smoke, his voice was muffled behind the mask, but it was still enough to give away his position. "We'll get Jenna out lat–AGGH!"

As his pained voice echoed inside the room, Astra's eyes widened, but the moment she turned towards him with a gasp, a glowing silver light shot her in the arm and pinned her to the wall behind her.

"GGUAHHH! WH-WHATTT?!" Panting heavily as tears formed in her eyes, she remained barely conscious all the way until Amedith walked in front of her and smacked her unconscious.

'These idiots, what were they thinking?' Though the magus, utterly unimpressed by their attempt to hurt him. Clicking his tongue, however, he was made to ponder some more. 'Do I have to report this to Raven? Ughh…he's gonna kill them if he finds out.'

Knowing full well what their fate would be, the magus decided it was better to keep it a secret, at least for now.