Leaving the cave in a state of disarray, Raven finally walked out of its entrance after an entire day had passed. He knew he could've easily used the teleportation ring to go outside, but hunting the remaining Arachnes left in every corner of the cave had deterred him from using the easy way out.
His party members who were anxiously waiting for him outside quickly rushed over to greet him, and before he could even mutter a word, Mel wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. So did Aria, while Erika watched over heaving a relieved sigh.
"Took you long enough!" Complained the fair elf her hands beating on Raven's chest.
Seeing her acting so childish a smile crept up Raven's lips before he took a step away from the duo of elves.
"So what happened inside?" Asked Amedith, standing at the back of the group alongside Liliyana.
"I smell something strange on him…" Liliyana added, catching the hint of both Umbra as well as the dark fae form.
What confused her more, was the fact that the essence of those powers was only lingering in him as most of it had either only been used or reeked into the atmosphere.
"I'll explain in a bit, but first we should set up camp and listen to what the queen has to say," nobody understood what Raven meant by those words, especially since the queen was being carried in the jewel and hadn't walked out behind him.
"What do you mean queen?" Erika asked, her eyes squinting in confusion.
"It's a long story so just follow me," and with that Raven and his party began searching for an appropriate spot for the night. Soon enough the queen would be questioned about the deal between her and the centaur king, but before that Athenia who'd only just realized what had happened was trying to process everything.
All alone and sitting at a dining table with an exquisite line of dishes lying in front, she was about to dig into a relaxing meal but the hint of Tatiana Umbra caught her attention.
'Who?' She wondered, even she had no clue what kind of power had been bestowed down on Raven, and who was behind this blessing. It was fairy in nature for sure, but the very presence of Umbra as well as the other fairy mother chained to the spine of this world, was a mystery even to her.
And as if that wasn't enough to disturb her peace, she sensed something peculiar down in her own kingdom. Summoning the seeing glass, she peered down at Maria and her children attending the dead king's funeral. To her surprise, however, there was no grand ceremony and only those close to the king were present at his site of burial.
'The king's death is no secret, so why is this idiot doing this?' The answer came to Athenia the very next moment. 'Money? She doesn't want to spend anything on his passing.'
"What he saw in her is beyond me, this woman can be nothing but a whore to power," she muttered, swiping her hands to check in on the others.
The first person she looked for was Markus–the dark knight. Coincidently he was meeting up with Helga–the other person Athenia wanted to check up on. Both of them seemed to discuss something important, however, for some reason, Athenia couldn't overhear their conversation.
'Some form of magic?' She pondered before washing the glass away with yet another sway of her hands. The speed at which things have been progressing has been quite difficult for even her to catch up to. Sometimes, nothing happened for days, but then out of nowhere pieces on the chessboard would begin jumping all over the place.
"Father would've known what to do…" She whispered, her appetite ruined.
While the goddess decided to take another nap, down on Atlaris the queen of Arache was letting out every ounce of information that she had. The other monster girls had forced their way out, as the insides of that supposed infinite jewel were getting quite cramped.
"The centaurs can control the horrors?" The thought alone was wild to Raven.
Being able to control those mindless creatures, sounded near impossible.
"They made a deal with someone else too, I don't know who but that person helps them control the corrupted parasites," the queen added further, her voice as monotone as possible from the effect of the hypnosis.
"And what the hell did you get out of it?" Raven pushed her further.
"Stronger soldiers infected soldiers in return for my hive's obedience, I intended to kill the centaurs with sheer growing numbers, but then you came in…" Taking a brief pause as her senses slowly began to return, the queen felt more and more like herself once again.
"That and apparently the centaurs were using our hives to test out these parasites, same with the wings that he sent to the leader of the elves."
'Testing your lethal equipment on your enemies by disguising it as aid…' It didn't take long for Raven to figure out the centaur king's line of thinking. He was using the other clans for the experimentation knowing full well that the parasites were not ready to be used on his own army.
But then came the question, did he know that even if the other clans grew powerful from the parasites, they still couldn't defeat his army? 'And who is this man helping them to control the horrors?'
There were far too many questions popping up in Raven's head and not enough answers. Even more pressing, his party had countless questions for him as well. The first one of them being how he managed to clear up the entire hive of Arachnes and even capture their queen. But with both Erika and Aria keeping secrets about their powers, he too held it hostage until they decided to tell the truth as well.
"Fine, I'll speak first," Erika was the first to break, and not long after her, Aria revealed the truth about the tome as well.
By the time their conversation was over, it was already late at night. Angels, devils, and tome belong to a dead god, even a meeting with a fairy whose identity still remains a secret even to their goddess, there was so much progress and so many questions yet to be answered. Leaving the untangling of those topics for another time, the party decided to rest up for the night.
For most, it would've meant a good night's sleep, but after the adrenaline-fueled adventure, Raven was ready to drown himself in pussy all night.
Note: Amelia X Raven Coming Right up! XD