As Arachne's eyes slowly opened again, the girl felt... lighter than ever before. There was no longer a strong, overwhelming weight over her entire body, making her feel always tired. She felt the touch of her hand over the cold stone bed, and slowly sat down, admiring her surroundings.
Even though Sloth didn't deprive her of any of her senses, it felt like she was finally feeling them completely, for the first ti through her entire life. She looked around her surroundings, the moonlight of Maria's Soulscape, the black soil beneath, the sll of dirt and plants, of nether and chaos.
It was all so new, so surprising, so incredible! She looked around, and then sensed her own body, her own soul, there was no longer anything there, no longer there was an annoying parasite forcing her to sleep, and she didn't feel sleepy anymore either.
"She's awake!" said Lucifer.
"T-The aura she had before, it's completely gone already?!" Partner wondered.
"Arachne! Are you okay?" Nyx wondered, running to see her.
The ritual had already ended, so it was safe to enter the ritual circle for now.
"I-I... I'm fine... Ah, but mama, is she okay?!" Arachne wondered, as she was hugged by Nyx.
"She's fine! Look, she's- she's waking!" Nyx quickly flew with her wings towards her mama after seeing her waking up. "Mama! Are you okay?!"
She jumped over Maria's face, pushing her down.
"Mguh...!"
"N-Nyx! Be more careful with your mother!"
Lucifer ca running to see Maria, Partner too, and also Eraldine, Jonathan, and Nia. The rest of the kids went to check on Arachne, finding out she was completely alright too. Celes was also ready to heal her.
"Maria, are you alright?" Lucifer wondered.
"Mama!" Nyx cried.
"I-I'm fine, you shouldn't worry about ! Worry about Arachne instead, geez," Maria was about to slap Lucifer for not worrying about the child as much as for her. "Is she okay? I ended having to destroy that Sin because it was an annoying piece of shit, but her soul was damaged. I healed it but I don't know if she's okay and-"
As Maria stood up to go see Arachne, the girl had already run towards her, hugging her legs. Maria gasped, quickly lifting her up.
"Arachne! Are you alright? No adverse effects?" Maria wondered, her crimson eyes inspecting the girl's Aura and her Soul.
"I-I'm fine mama... Thank you, sniff..." she was crying while Maria lifted her up.
"Arachne?" wondered Maria.
"Thank you mama... For helping ..." she kept crying. "I never thought how it felt to never feel sleepy... Thank you! Buaaah!"
She ended crying much more than Maria had expected or seen coming, the girl was completely moved by the fact she was no longer cursed.
And Maria couldn't help but smile, laugh, and lift her up.
"You're free, Arachne! You're no longer cursed! That thing is gone, and it will never return, ever again!" she kept giggling.
"Yaaaay! Thank you mama! I'm so happy! I feel like... Like I can do anything now!" she said. "I want to eat a lot, and play with everyone, and explore... And see the world! I will only sleep a bit at night, and I'll spend the rest of the day awake!"
It was sothing so simple anybody gave for granted, but for Arachne, it was a big deal, to be able to finally enjoy her life properly, and not by small glimpses as she woke up for no longer than two hours, sotis even an hour.
But now, she could sleep just six or eight hours, and enjoy the rest of the day awake, no longer feeling forced to sleep, no longer feeling forced to hibernate, Sloth was no longer demanding her things, nor forcing her to do what she didn't wanted to do.
She was free, truly, and completely free!
"Everyone, let's play a ga, anything!"
"Well let's see if you can catch then!"
"I bet you can't!"
"Co on sleepyhead, let's play catch then!"
Arachne started playing with all the kids, as they began running around, she started catching them. Maria watched the scene with a big smile in her face, barely resisting her tears of happiness.
She had been taking care of that girl for a lot of ti now, even more she created her village that she found her, so of course it was very moving to finally see her acting like she wanted, like a child.
"You did an amazing job, Maria! I can't believe it worked so well!" Nia said. "But how did you do it? I thought you wanted to beco the sin's vessel... despite how opposed we were, you were doing it anyways... But I'm relieved it was destroyed, but how did you do that too?" Nia loved asking a lot of questions, despite her age, she was as very curious woman. "Well, it happened when I entered her Soulscape of sorts, the Sin already activated his powers, dragging inside so sort of Nightmare Realm. I couldn't even negotiate with him before he shattered my soul and ate it!" Maria laughed. "So at the end I decided to kill him. I didn't knew it was possible but I did it anyways, seems like it worked. Might do the sa with the other Calamities if I ever find the rest. They're in the other continents, right?"
"YOU WHAT?!"
Everyone panicked and beca euphoric the mont Maria said her soul was shattered and eaten, that was sothing that had never happened to her before!
Well, her soul had been torn apart many tis, even blown up into pieces as a ghost, but it had never perished because of that.
So she had to sit down and explain to everyone how it went, they listened attentively, while asking questions occasionally.
However, once she had fully explained how it went, they felt relieved it was still so sort of "plan" from her, and she didn't just get overpowered out of nowhere.
"Phew, well, I guess it was a good plan then, although you shouldn't be so reckless..."
Eraldine sighed, hugging Maria, and kissing her cheek.
"Y-Yeah, it was my master plan..." Maria looked elsewhere.
The truth was that it wasn't exactly her plan! Sloth ended being much stronger than she
thought and she had to improvise a lot.
However, she didn't want to worry them, so she kept that a secret...
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