After temporarily parting with her companions, Erika made her way to Aphrodite church. Upon getting there, however, she instantly regretted her decision. The place rested empty with not a nun in sight, even the children who used to play in the backyard were nowhere to be seen. The blood offering to the devil had truly killed the church with little hope of it recovering to its former glory.
'Dust and silence, is that all that's left here?' The goddess of bounty was long dead, and now it appears that her church was dead as well. Yet the bounty of Athenia flourishes still, and so in honor of the dead goddess, Erika got to her knees and prayed to her idol. 'May our trees bore sweet fruits, may our crops be plenty, our men honorable and our women flowing with bounty.'
"She's dead, Erika." Appearing in her misty form beside her, Asmodia folded her arms while looking at Aphrodite's idol.
A stack of hay in one hand, a child suckling on her breast in the other, she wore a radiant smile–blinding enough to any devils out of her church. Had she been alive that is, as now the statute was nothing more than rock sculpture.
Opening her eyes to look at the devil, Erika slowly lifted herself up and glanced at her sideways. Her hands still joined in prayer, she held out hope that praying would help her mind settle if not reach the dead goddess.
"I don't much care if she's dead, her blessings are still plenty in Athenia," the ever spring clad the kingdom in a warm blanket of nourishing, ensuring the health of every creature, and tree as well as feed.
"Why are we here anyway? Just to pay her homage?" Not exactly fond of elder gods, Asmodia's mouth curled with a foul taste. She wanted them to leave as soon as possible, but unfortunately for her Erika had different plans.
The devil's contour fell the instant she was asked that question. The mention of Aphrodite's name reminded her of the cruel fate the gods had subjected to her and her lover. However, having come to terms with her loss, she shut her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself down before speaking.
"Don't lump all devils together, Erika. Only the weaker ones are subservient, it's in our nature to hunger for power, and deals with gods are just one way we maintain our standing in the heavenly order," lacking astute understanding of the heavenly works, Erika let her mind brush past Asmodia's rambling.
Instead, forcing on the cleaning at last, she reached into her magic abilities not in any way related to Asmodia. Well-versed in water-based magic, her work was made easy, but even so, the scrubbing and draining were gonna take a massive toll on her body.
And while she struggled through the cleaning process, far away from the church, Aria had finally arrived at the blacksmith. Holding the blood gauntlet in hand, she was there to return them just as Helga had before her.
She'd thought about keeping them still, however, her reliance on them had been holding her back recently, and so letting them go she wanted to work with a regular pair that didn't cripple her by sucking too much blood by the end of the fight.
'Let's hope she can make me a good pair with these while we're staying in the city.' Holding another bag in her hand filled with scraps of dark metal that the centaurs used, she was hoping Reina could work her magic and turn them into something more useful.
But being metallurged for defensive properties rather than offense, she knew things could get a bit tricky as the metal itself was an enigma amongst many.
"Welp, gotta try anyway!" Crossing her fingers, Aria stepped into the store regardless, hoping to both pay off Reina for past fixes and convince her to work on an unknown metal.