Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

It was no hard task to get on Linkle's nerves, as the slightest of inconveniences was enough to draw out her anger. But Aradin and his party had done…was unforgivable, especially since they were left under her guidance for the moment. Fuming, the witch scaled the floors of the Spire, her expression brittle and bitter.

Aradin and his people followed not too far behind, but being in this lab turned library infested with people, it was much harder to keep up with a raging witch than any of them could've expected. Almost missing an elevator once or twice as Linkle kept trying to shake them off, the group was too tired from the chase to even enjoy their first-ever elevator rides.

"I can't believe you idiots would do something like this…" Her hands folded tightly, the witch finally glanced back at Aradin and the rest of his party. Staring at June, however, Linkle wore a frustrated scorn. "Couldn't have kept your legs closed until I figured out what the hell is happening with your man?!"

With no answer coming to her lips, June, the pale elf, quickly looked away from Linkle. Shrinking upon herself, her eyes staring at the ascending floor, she tried not to think about what had already happened.

Seeing as the elf had nothing to say, the witch's eyes turned to her man. Glaring daggers on his face, she clicked her tongue as the elevator arrived at the roof of the spire.

"We're gonna talk about what to do with the baby soon, but for now, consider yourself lucky that I have something more important to do." Turning quickly to the opening elevator door, Linkle's gaze crawled up the roof tiles to reach Shamisha working on an elevated platform.

Surrounding her were many different golden and blue apparatuses of triangular shapes. Some are much larger than the others, with grooves and hinges that were meant to lock everything together into a singular machine. Having noticed the presence of the witch and her assumed bodyguards, Shamisha's eyes remained locked on the machinery as she awaited them at the platform.

The sound of the witch's footsteps made her turn and look at her, but instead of the usual neutral expression during their meetings, Linkle was visibly upset, which in turn alarmed the sorceress.

"Is something wrong?"

"Can't talk about it to anyone before Raven's back," holding the truth about the baby in June's belly a secret, Linkle quickly climbed up the platform. Aradin and his party tried to do the same, but with a halting arm, they were stopped from getting too close to them. "Forget about me, what's with those strange machines wandering the streets? I've never seen anything like those in this kingdom."

Eyeing the many parts of the prototype, Linkle tried to judge the progress of the machinery even though they were still separate and incompatible with each other. As for Shamisha, still confused about what was happening with Linkle and her group, she stared blankly at her for a while before moving beside her and watching the apparatus along with her.

"Those crab and bipedal machinas? I don't know, to be honest, never seen Mono creating anything like that even before she had woken up from her slumber." The streets were armed by the other worlder's army; neither Shamisha nor anyone else knew what Mono was planning. "Not like this is the strangest thing that she has done. If anything, having armed guards in the streets might be one of the more mild measures that she has taken to secure the city from criminals."

"Hmm," humming along, Linkle was left even more confused than before, "I guess you're right. Anyways…"

Turning to Shamisha with her hands still folded, Linked leaned on her side and enquired further about the machine.

"How long until the ship is ready?"

With a light squint of her eyes, the sorceress's gaze shifted between the machine and the witch. She wasn't sure how to answer that question as the development of the machina was taking longer than she could've expected.

"I can't say. I'm having trouble integrating all these different protocols together," stretching her left hand forward, her fingers anxiously curled in and out as she tried to keep herself from being consumed by frustration. "Flying is one thing, maintaining balance is another, sucking enough mana from the atmosphere is entirely different too, and worst is your teleportation stone since it uses magic instead of protocols."

"Maybe I should stay here and help after all. We need these ships ready to teleport entire armies into war in just a few months."

"Easier said than done. I'm struggling with a prototype alone, but making a dozen of them as large as the spire?" Glancing sideways at Linkle, Shamisha shook her head in defeat. "I don't think the entirety of Elenaris has enough resources to make them."

"I know a devil who can make it happen," Linkle responded.

"What?"

Fanning her hands, the witch gestured for the socceress to move on from the topic.

"I still make deals with a lot of people beyond what you guys know, and I would prefer to keep it that way." Even though Linkle didn't have to trade her soul to gain something even with the devils, her mystic tone was quite concerning.

"You plan to sell your soul?" Grabbing her by the arm, Shamisha made her turn to look at her face.

"I never sold it and I never plan to…" She wasn't lying, and much like how she'd brought back Aelin without trading a soul, Linkle had a way of getting what she wanted, but it was best for her and everyone else around her not to know how she did so. Jerking her hand out of Shamisha's grip, she tried to bring the topic back to the airships, but before she could, the sound of approaching footsteps came from the elevator door.

To their surprise, nobody seemed to be there, but the footsteps continued inching closer and closer by the second.

"WHO'S THERE?!" Aradin asked, moving in front of his group while they readied themself as well. Looking around and focusing on the sound, he tried to find out how many people were there, but the steps, they echoed in unison, almost as if whoever it was was expecting the group to rely on their ears instead of their vision.

"We're the King's Guard," the voice of an invisible man rumbled through the rooftop. At this point, everyone was prepared to confront the intruders, but then as he said… "And we're here to collect our property!"

The magic in everyone's veins disappeared completely, leaving them defenseless, especially Linkle, perhaps the strongest of the group at the moment.