Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

However, with her mission to eradicate her own clan accomplished, she didn't see any reason to keep fighting.

'I need to tell them…' Walking out of the torture tent, Lilith glanced over to the hero's party sitting around a campfire. Wiping the blood, or rather smearing it on her face, she began walking towards the group, her eyes set on Raven's back. 'But before that.'

The first to notice the approaching elf was Aria, and with the sudden shift in her attention, everyone quickly followed her eyes right after. Stopping right by the party's leader, Lilith flit a smile on her dark lips. She was thankful, and it reflected in her eyes. Murdering the chieftain with her own hands, she felt a soul-deep sapling sprout up with joy.

"Thanks for…" Puckering her lips, she extended her hand towards Raven. The mage spared no time to shake her hand before letting her continue. "I really needed that, and now, I think you guys need to know something too."

Pulling her hand back, she began undoing her light leather armor starting from the shoulder pads. Then off came the gloves, then the chainmail underneath her initial armor, and finally as she stood there panting for a moment in nothing but a white shirt, Lilith glanced across everyone before reaching down and pulling off the shirt as well.

Caught off guard by the sudden undressing, everyone looked at her with shock. But the very next moment as her fly-like clear wings stretched open from her sides, their shock turned to a mix of confusion and disgust.

'Another tit-ling elf, huh?' Perhaps not everyone as Erika was tired of being surrounded by near-flat-chested elves.

"Those wings, they…" Stretching a viscous slime with their unfolding arch, the wings were akin to the viscera of a crushed bug. Even Raven couldn't help but feel uncomfortable just looking at them, but manipulating his emotions, he completed what he had to say. "They look, strange?"

"I know…" With a sigh, Lilith stretched her hand towards Raven once more. "Care to join me on a flight? I wanna tell you something."

Shifting her eyes to the others momentarily, her lips quivered for a moment and her eyes quickly darted back to Raven.

"I didn't wanna tell anyone but if I have to, I have a secret that I want you to know, and then relay it to your friends," holding her hand still, she stared sternly into Raven's eyes until he finally grabbed and took her hand. "It'll only be a few minutes I promise."

And with that, the two took to the air, Lilith with her own parasitic wings and Raven with conjured ones made of the shadows under the moonlight. As they flew together into the open sky, unhindered in the direction of the full moon, Lilith's back was cast in shadow, and yet her pulsing organs could clearly be seen through the parasitic slime growing on her back.

It had taken the form of her body but was slowly stretching its influence in every direction–ensuring that Lilith had little to no chance of getting rid of it surgically without losing essential organs.

'Linkle, maybe she…' Reminded of the witch having a client whose son needed curing from something dire, Raven wondered if she could fix something like the parasite as well. But the more he looked at how deep the organs had been affected, the more his hopes dwindled.

"Lilith, I think we should–" Before he could suggest a visit, however, Lilith turned around and placed a finger on his lips.

Suspended in the air as if hooked to the sky, the elf's body turned glistening and radiant. Laying in the dead center of the distant moon, she reflected a divine charm much like a goddess or a messenger angel.

"I'm gonna die soon," those somber words broke Raven's chain of thoughts. For a spell, he couldn't believe his ears, but the damage he'd seen convinced him on its own.

"How long do you have?" He asked, moving her finger off his lips.

With a frown, he continued to look at her for answers, but instead of replying, she moved closer to him and wrapped her hands around him. She knew that she didn't have long, so she didn't waste a second more needlessly worrying about the inevitable. Instead, squeezing the warm body of the mage, her chest still bare; she took long deep breaths to allow herself to feel alive in that moment.

"Lilith you have to tell me," Raven demanded, his hands slowly attempting to get her away.

But holding on tight, the radiant elf glanced up at him with teary eyes.

"Just…let me hold you–the person who helped me do what I wanted before dying," gulping as tears began to flow, she took yet another deep breath. "None of this would've been possible without you and your friends, and I'm sorry, but just do me one last favor and let me hold you tonight."

Shaking his head at her words, Raven looked to the skies and then the moon behind Lilith. He couldn't believe this was happening and that too so suddenly. And even in his arms, he could feel her grip slowly losing strength; only further solidifying that she wouldn't survive for more than a few minutes.

Looking back, he expected to see her crying again, but to his surprise on that teary face, he saw but a flicker of a smile.

"Why are you smiling?" He asked.

Chuckling for a moment, Lilith squeezed him tight once more and spoke her last words.

"Because I know you're gonna finish the rest of the job," and then it happened.

Her eyes lost their light, her hands slipped out from Raven's sides, and her body began to fall through the skies. But before she could crash the parasite took over and resumed flight. Getting some distance between him and the zombified body of the elf, Raven watched as Lilith's head raised from the ground and looked at him slack jawed through her renewed jelly-like eyes.

The creature clattered her teeth mindlessly and her limbs swung like a pendulum, all the while her body turned more and more into a slimy parasite.

"I'm sorry…" For once, even though he hated the weapons, Raven conjured the rifle and raised it to obliterate the monster. "If you'd only told us sooner maybe we could've but–"

Cutting his own words short, Raven powered up a shot with every ounce of mana that he could conjure.

"Now I can have no mercy." And with those words, he pulled the trigger.