With the deal now made, Raven and his party were finally ready to leave Elenaris, but before heading off Mono instructed them to go to Elenaria's church first. The goddess apparently had a small gift prepared for them, but they had no clue what it was yet.
Their last trip to Elenaria's church hadn't been too friendly, and since most of the civilians thought of them as Mono's servants, the party wasn't expecting any better treatment. To their surprise, however, the church itself laid empty. Ever since Mono was chosen the servants of Elenaria have taken to a stern reign of labor instead of pure worship.
Only a few days in a week were they seen at the church and that too for a few hours before returning to hunt deviants and criminals throughout the city.
As the party went into the open gates of the church, their eyes laid again on the absurdist nature of her statue. Many hands each holding something different and the crescent moon instead of eyes, they reflected the shimmer of Stellaris, the domain in which she resided, and the arsenal of dead that she carried on her long hanging sleeves.
Parting the lips of her stone idol, the goddess greeted the chosen with a chuckle. She hadn't expected much from them, but after seeing what they were capable of so early in their journey, she too had grown keen for domination through them over the land of other gods.
Athenia had already promised her a partition in any faithful that she captured, however, the longer she waited the more gods might join, making her part in it all–split far too much for her to enjoy anything.
"Come, and I shall rid you of that curse..." Like a siren singing to lure in sailors, the goddess lured the party closer to the front.
Watching them like a hawk as they grew closer, she flicked her finger in the air and shattered the poison immunity rings from their fingers. Then with a deep breath, she leaned closer to their body. Blowing a sweet breeze over them, she washed the effects of the curse as well as uprooted its cause from the very souls of their being.
Libyan's curse was no more, and although its dazzling effect lingered for a while, it didn't last more than a few seconds for the party. However, in that time before Elenaria propped herself back as an idol and let her mind slip back into her body in the heavens for she had yet another promise that needed fulfilling.
As her eyes met Arche's gaze, however, her heart froze once more for she felt like an ant being peered at by a giant.
"What's going on in your head?" Lightly tapping Maine's horns, Arche heaved a sigh and looked at her once more. Frozen solid like an icicle, she was staring back at her wide-eyed even though her eyelids were fluttering to be closed.
'This girl...How did she survive so far?' She wondered, shaking her head.
"Cheer up girl, you're still alive and healthy, there will be enough time for us to miss other monsters in hell," turning her head to the red ruby's surface, Arche decided to make her first demand to get out of the bracelet as well. "OI! I wanna come out now! Dive into a river or something! I've spent enough days in a hole, I'm not gonna spend the rest inside this damned space!"
Looking back down, she turned her attention to Maine for a second before quickly glancing back up.
"And why do you people always wanna fucking work?! What happened to the freedom to enjoy things when you're free!" Demanding something interesting, something that would unburden them of the stress they'd been carrying, Arche hoped that it would help not just her, but Maine as well as the other monster girls to feel a lot better.
On the surface, Raven was thinking the same, especially since their next destination was Athenia before preparing for the ocean.
"I'll have Linkle make one of those shrinking potions for you, but don't expect it to last on your body," Linkle had already told him that no matter what they tried, Arche's body was forever altered, which served as a warning to not abuse the potion of gaintness.
Shrugging those thoughts away, however, he turned to his party members with a tired smile.
"One night and we'll be home for a while," and the news every single one of them couldn't help but smile.