The morning came and Erika was standing before her goddess in her domain. A prison of darkness with a lone silver light illuminating her throne. It was a lonely place, and the priestess could feel an ounce of Athenia's struggle. To stay locked up in a prison, one from which others can walk in and walk right out, almost as if they were teasing her. In no way it could've been a pleasant experience.
"What's wrong with my current appearance that you want to see what I would truly look like?" Athenia asked, her eyes downcast at Erika.
Dazzled as much as she was by Athenia's already radiant skin and her counterparts standing behind her, Erika stepped forward, her hands outstretched for an answer.
"I wanna know who I'm worshiping only then can I in good conscience herald the lost under your wings!" Her mind poisoned with doubts about gods by Helga long ago, the priestess didn't want what happened to the Valkyrie to happen to those who would soon become Athenia's followers. "You want to draw their faith, essentially feed on it for your blessings!
So why shouldn't they at least get to know who you are?"
Moving closer and closer, Erika squeezed her hands on her chest and closed her eyes for a moment. Thinking back to her time as a learning priestess, the first thing that came to her mind was the book of Aphrodite's gospel.
"You have no gospel, no holy book to lead your followers through," opening her eyes back up, she looked right into the goddess's glowing silver eyes. "The least they'll need is an idol, something they can worship without the fear of being misled!"
"The girl's right," Asmodia added, glancing up from the throne steps at Athenia as well.
Getting the goddess' attention on her, she lifted a finger and conjured an image of Aphrodite's book of gospel through her crimson mist.
"That book, as redundant as it was, helped her gain her followers and retain them throughout the years, but now that we want them to direct their faith to you–we're bound to need a replacement." Unable to find any faults in their assessment, Athenia turned her gaze to the front and peered into the darkness.
Pondering what to do for a while, she closed her eyes and the different versions of her melted and spiraled back into her spine. Opening her eyes the moment the different versions disappeared, Athenia got off of her throne and directed her gaze to Erika.
"Unlike mortals, gods live long enough to evolve by themselves; so, this might not be what I look like in a day, a week, maybe even a month or a year, but if this is what you want then…have a taste of a goddess' true splendor." Following her words, a flash of light and darkness emerged through her body.
Like conscious threads brimming with life, they twisted and turned and reached in every possible direction. As radiant as it was abysmal, the goddess of life and death held only a spectral form–one within which laid a core of light dark and gold; so enchanting that despite being nearly blinded by the threads, Erika couldn't look away from the goddess's true body.
Spiraling around each other like twisted iron, the light and the darkness created a frame half dead half alive. Brimming with her mother's blissful bounty on one side and with her father's necrotic emerald on the other, she held salacious curves with supple flesh as well as a bony exterior with nothing but her golden blood surfing through the veins.
Despite the lack of flesh on one side, the veins remained–creating an illusion of half body made of pure gold.
As for her flesh itself, it was fused with light and dark in a perfect balance. Her blood still seamed within its gaps, and a flash of silver glowed in one and in the other her father's resemblance glowed.
"The goddess of Life and Death…" Asmodia was the first to break the silence with a chuckle. She was fascinated by the new appearance even if it wasn't something any sculpture could replicate. "Never thought I would see a god's true nature so up close again."
Turning to Erika to see her reaction as well, Asmodia found the priestess slack jawed on her knees, weeping. She couldn't believe her own eyes and the sight she was witnessing felt too surreal to be true. And yet it was, and she could feel it in the amalgam of light and dark embracing her from every direction, even seeping through her skin to touch her very soul resting deep within.
"That should be enough," just as quickly as her being had unfolded into the cosmic flower of light and dark, it folded right back, leaving only a whiff of what it meant to be a god; still lingering in the air.
Erika, still down on her knees, could feel that phantom touch, but as soon as it retreated–almost plucked forcefully out of her soul and heart, she gasped before lifting herself on her feet and chasing after that touch all the way to her goddess.
But as she came face to face with that radiant being, towering at six and a half feet, the priestess felt herself coming back to her senses and slowly began retreating.
However, with her eyes still glued to the silver radiant in Athenia's gaze, she felt that same draw. It made her wanna chase after it, even jump into her gaze, into those silver eyes to find that divine embrace.
"You should return now before this place alters you, your mind, or the perception of time," but the goddess's decree shattered that hope, and the next thing Erika knew, she was lying in the nun's chambers at the church's dormitory.
Moments after she woke up on those tiles, Erika heard the crying of Tanya's baby in another room. She quickly got up to attend to it, but before she could even move a step, her eyes caught Rowen rushing towards the nursery through the open dorm room door.
'Finally being a good father, isn't he?' Said Asmodia, but the priestess was still lost in thought about Athenia's true appearance, and the only reason she even responded to the crying child was because of pure instincts.
"We should go talk to Darius, I'm sure he'll know who can make that idol." starting to walk towards the door, the only thing on her mind was to get that idol as close to what she saw, even though deep down she knew that wasn't possible.
'She has started to believe, huh? I supposed it was about time.' Thought Asmodia chuckling as her task of leading Erika into being Athenia's loyal became a lot easier.