Chapter 110: Eying The Devil

Once everyone arrived back at Linkle's shop, they were greeted by a peculiar bloodlust. It tasted rancid down their throat and yet somehow they knew it wasn't directed at them at all. Even so, having already had an encounter with the devil's work once today, the priestess was far from welcoming about the gauntlets stuck on Aria's hand.

"I told you I'll heal your hand if something breaks, just pull it off!" With rage-squinted eyes, she yelled in the dark elf's face. Grabbing hold of her arms herself, Erika tried to get them off of Aria but was quickly shoved away by the elf. "You know you need to take it off, then why are you making it so difficult!"

"Cause it hurts like hell!" Aria screamed back, folding her arms safely together.

"Demonic or not we should ask Helga about them first before doing anything rash, for all we know taking them off might cause us more trouble than just keeping them on for now," Raven interjected as he got ready to teleport everyone back to the edge of the corrupted forest.

"Yap and yap and yap, can you guys leave already? I have a lot of work to do!" Linkle complained, her dainty little disguise glaring at them from her work desk.

Wasting not a second more, Raven grabbed the necklace in his hand and looked around at everyone. Getting their attention, he had them move closer and put their arms on his shoulders.

"We're going, you don't have to always be so pissy about things," giving Linkle no time to retort Raven activated the necklace, and the next thing they knew the entire party was back by the corrupted forest.

Once the initial haziness of the jump had settled, Raven retrieved the teleportation ring from the ground and put it away. Then while looking around the campsite they were staying in, he tried to spy out where Helga was, but there was still no sign of her anywhere.

'Maybe she'll be back in the morning?' Chalking things up for later, he along with the others simply decided to go even though Erika was apparently not done talking about the demonic gauntlets.

Emerging through the shadows came the mirage of a burning woman, smirking and joyous.

"To call a devil out of her slumber? You sure must be desperate Your Majesty ehehe," chuckling to herself with her mouth covered behind her hand, the glowing silver eyes remained glued to Athenia's body.

"Just do as I say," washing the screen in front with a brush of her hand, Athenia turned her attention to the devil. "As the commanding god, the heavens, the earth, and the Infernal heed my decree, and just like those before me, I intend to make use of every resource I can squeeze to prevent the power balance between the three from toppling."

Giggling again with an ear-piercing voice, the devil's frame disappeared for a moment. Reappearing not seconds later by Athenia's feet, the devil of carnal lust slowly wrapped her hands around the goddess's feet.

"Shaking hands with us devils, not even gods can resist the temptation of our deals, can they?" Looking back down at Athenia's wax-like feet, Asmodia stuck out her tongue and began suckling on her toes one after the other.

'A pain as always.' Thought the goddess, her face contorted in disgust.

"Help my follower to grow stronger, and perhaps I'll throw my brother's carcass in Inferno for you to do whatever it is you please," kicking Asmodia off her feet, Athenia brushed her hand in the air and cast her far away from her prison.

Tired of dealing with the mess of recent days, Athenia leaned her head on the side of her palm. With a sigh, she shook her head, hoping that everything would work out somehow.

'You're supposed to use Athenia, they're part of the heavenly cycle. Without Inferno, heaven means nothing, and without both, the mortal world doesn't exist.' Having made her very first deal with a devil, something the other gods before her were a master of manipulating, the goddess of cunning, was starting to question her abilities.

"Better a devil you know than one you don't," taking solace in the fact that Erika's lost faith would've been exploited by someone or the other, Athenia shut the matter for now and instead moved back on to regaining trust from the other party members.