Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

As Maine finally woke up, she found herself back in the monster holding jewel with the rest of the monster girls. But instead of being on Raven's wrist, the bracelet now rested in Erika's hands. Their master was gone, dropping everyone who wasn't fit for combat back at Athenia with the help of teleportation.

Razor's warning had been brief, but the severity of his words had him worried about the coming battles. Of course, neither Moxy nor Reina were willing to go back, but giving them no choice was the only choice Raven had. Linkle, however, remained a liability with the devil's visiting the group every once in a while.

Afraid that her presence might trigger something in Maine again, Raven had stored the Lamia inside the jewel. Only after getting out of the jewel was Maine possessed by Libyan, thus assuming something was blocking the devil of tenacity from doing it while she was inside, he made a blind yet worthwhile bet.

"The viper wakes."

"Shut up, Arche!" Moving an arm in front of the Arcahne's mouth, Mino helped Main to slowly get off her back and sit straight.

Struggling, Maine somehow managed to sit upright. Grabbing her head, she tried to make the main go away, but nothing seemed to work. Her tail refused to turn into legs, and her ability to turn poison into its own ale refused to work. Her scale had turned a rainbow shade like her mother, and the powers gained by eating others–were stripped away by Libyan while she'd possessed her.

She'd devoured her own daughter in more ways than one. An ostentatious pride filled her lungs as she pushed Mino away, but knowing something was wrong with Maine, the minotaur girl didn't complain. Instead, slowly approaching her, she tried to reason with her friend.

"Are you okay? I'm not gonna hurt you, you know…" Jerking her head towards Mino, Maine hissed with her tongue out before trying to snatch a bite of her nose. Thankfully, Arche moved the tip of her nail between the two to act as a shield from the Lamia's attack.

Maine still leapt to bite the nail, but the moment Arche's poison touched her lip, her mouth burned with a sizzle, forcing her to get away. Not stopping there, Archne used her nail to flick Maine back unconscious.

"Wh-what happened?!" It all happened so quickly, that Mino hadn't a clue what Arche had just done. Collecting herself and looking to the front she found Maine lying on the ground with her tongue huffing as she slept. Her lips were coated with a white burnt substance and a massive scar ran through her chest that ran through her left breast. "What the hell did you do that for?!"

Staring up at Arche's face, Mino moved closer and punched the Arachne to the side.

"I helped her calm down, something you couldn't do…" Lowering her body and crawling forward with her arms, Archne stopped by Maine and lowered her nail onto her chest. Then while Mino complained and even warned her to get away, the back of her hand began to sweat blood. "I'm gonna fix her so shut up."

Turning the droplets into small spiders full of her own immuno-capabilities, she had them bite Maine's wounds close and continuously help her improve by pumping her full of antibodies. Although unaware of what she was doing, Mino still struggled to get her off of Maine, but as the spiders began to close the wound, she decided to back away for the moment.

"What exactly are you doing?" She asked, lost in the complexity of the process.

"Healing her the same way I healed my soldiers," staring at the Lamia's body, however, Arche couldn't help but wonder something sinister. "Let's hope she wakes up as our Maine and not the murder monster that she was just now."

Lifting her head, Mino stared at Arche–still confused as to what exactly she was trying to say.

"If she's not her then what?"

"Hmm? Considering her body can absorb powers, if my spiders can somehow transfer my abilities to her as well…" Turning her head without even completing her sentence, Archne looked at Mino until the minotaur queen finally understood what she meant.

A gasp marked the moment of her realization.

"A monster girl with your powers without the size problem," whispering to herself, Mino realized just how problematic that could get.

Thus with great interest, the two sat back and watched the spiders working together to keep the wounds closed, heal them, and even pump essential liquids into the Lamia's body. What the little critters didn't realize, however, was the difference between an Archne and a Lamia and kept feeding more energy into Maine than they otherwise should've.

'I may have made a mistake, but that's how I learn.'

Arachne told her, a bit terrified of the possibility of a Maine-sized her. Her worries, however, quickly subsided as the spiders ran out of fuel and disappeared, right as Maine woke up again, but this time without that cranky murderous nature.

"I'm gonna take some of the rainbow scales of hers as a gift," the queen mumbled before letting out a yawn and leaving the rest to Mino.

"I feel like a chariot ran over my head…" Still feeling head pain despite her body being full of energy, Maine grabbed her head and sat on her shifted human legs.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Moving closer, with caution this time, Mino got her calm before telling her everything that had happened and the revelation Raven had about Libyan. At first, Maine laughed it off, thinking it was a joke, but with Mino refusing to budge, her eyes widened and she was forced to hold her tears. Dead she may have been, but Maine loved her mother–she was cruel but not to her or her twin sister. That was enough to make her curl up and cry as long as possible without hurting her throat.

Even as she was done, that night the lamia slept with a heavy heart thinking of her mother, all the while Raven and the others got ready to leave Lantherem for another island. Razor was gone a moment after he'd warned Raven. He couldn't stay behind as he was already late by a whole three seconds.

To warn the queen of Elanavia, to gain her trust and her help fight the forces of Aran–the King of Aranuvia, to avoid annihilation of Lantherem at the hands of the witch hunter, there was far too much at stake, considering there was a possibility of utter annihilation of the Raven and his party along with that island. At least, that's what Choux was hoping for, and with the help she had from her rifle that wasn't such a far-off proposition.