On the cold tiles of Aphrodite's church, Erika spent her night. Her body was aching the moment her eyes opened, yet somehow she was dripped with bliss. The light peeking through the broken windows of the nun's dorm basked her skin in melancholy for a time that had passed long ago.
Turning to her side, she saw a distant door across the room, broken off the hinges and barely held up by a sharp piece of its frame sticking into the ground.
'The children's stay.' It was the very room that had once separated her from the rest of her friends. The priestess's vow had temporarily snipped their attachment; she wasn't allowed to talk to them, even when it was time for them to gather in prayer. 'I hate that place...Maybe I should burn it.'
It was a passing thought at first, but then as she got off the ground, the allure of the vengeful act became harrowingly real. Her steps had a mind of their own, and her lips began breathing a spell, but as it came to cast the spell, she came to her senses for a moment–leading her to abandon the spell.
"I would've burnt it," the voice of a devil speaking from her peripheral, made Erika reconsider burning it still. She let the thought simmer, bathed in its gratifying promise, even clutched her fingers and let out a sizzle of satisfaction through her lips.
However, in the end–she felt empty; for at the end of the promised joy lay the realization.
"Burning the past, won't change it..." With a deep breath she sighed, then opening her curled fingers and eyes, Erika turned to the devil. "You'll still be here, and so will I. I'm just better off accepting it."
The last part of her dialogue struck Asmodia as a bit odd for a while, but as the priestess began marching to the front church building, everything quickly began to make sense. The past didn't need burning, but it had to be left as what it was–the past. Trying to drag it along through wishful thinking or even trying to burn it through contempt was no real solution to the problem.
And so, with that realization, Erika stood before the idol of her dead goddess–one of the many things that was best left in the past.
"Help me, will you?" She requested, her eyes glued to the idol that she would soon dethrone from its spot.
A god who rules his domain rather than tries to expand in all directions–it was a rare sight to behold as even today the elder god's children, including Athenia were doing much the same. Expanding more and more without a care if they could even handle such influence. But warnings against such expansions were Pathfinder's job and not Asmodia's and so she brushed it off the very next breath.
Not long after she'd pocketed the letter, Erika was done putting the idol in the garden with the help of the horned cupids. Returning into the mist of their master, they disappeared, leaving the two to think about how they would replace Aphrodite's idol with that of Athenia.
"So? What's the plan?" Asked Asmodia.
"I have no clue," Erika responded, just as lost about getting a new idol as the devil.
Neither knew Athenia's true appearance or one that she was particularly fond of. For Erika, it was a matter of not enough visit and for Asmodia, the goddess was born much later than her imprisonment.
"I guess I'll go talk to her right now, after all," Asmodia suggested.
"You can just go talk to her any time?" Erika asked, scowling.
Shrugging her shoulders, the devil set rest to Erika's doubt.
"You go find someone who can make her appearance into a statue in the meantime," and with those words, the devil disappeared, leaving Erika to wonder, to whom she should turn for a stone idol of the city's new goddess.
Note: We reached 300 chapters! Can you lovely peeps drop your favourite gif in the comment to celebrate? Plz? XD