Herta came close by, having stopped her divine prayer. She looked at the now flying foxgirl with a stony expression.

"Curse Dispel!" She chanted one last spell at your vixen after a few seconds.

What looked like a dark aura slowly got pulled out of Ayane, slowly vanishing into nothingness.

As suddenly as the final part of the rite began, it ended. Ayane fell, and luckily you were close enough to catch her before she hit the ground, holding her princess-style.

"Master!" Ayane looked up at you, a faint hint of red on her face. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm good." You felt a little touched that she thought about you before anything else. "What about you?"

"I'm..." She blinked a few times. "Lighter? Everything feels more alive."

You set her down as Herta approaches. A smug smile graced the goddess' lips as Ayane confirmed she was feeling fine, and you made a mental note to 'punish' the goddess for it later.

"What do you mean?" You said to Ayane, wanting to know how your fox is feeling.

"Ah, how to explain..." Ayane seemed to try looking for the right way to say it. "Have you ever had an old wound with a constant, chronic pain? And it's been there for so long and your body is so used to it that you don't realize you have it? Well..." She gets lost in thought.

"Go on." You said.

"It's like that. A heaviness in my soul that I've had since before I can remember has suddenly disappeared. Colors are vibrant, and I feel more... alive." She looks towards nothing, yet from her movements you're sure she just opened her status screen. "Yes, it's gone!" She hugs you. "After all these decades! Master, thank you so much!"

She kisses you. Multiple times. It feels pretty nice.

"Hey, I was just here for emotional support." You said with a grin. "I didn't do much other than be here."

"There's no need to be humble." Ayane chuckled. "You're the most important part of my life— as it should always be."

"Ayane's right. I don't actually care about curing her." Herta said. "If it weren't for you, Master, I would've been fine with just letting her stay with that curse."

"Sounds irresponsible." You raised an eyebrow towards the goddess as your kitsune continued to shower you with kisses.

"Eh, I mean, it's not anything serious like mental corruption." Herta shrugged. "And cursed skills can be managed with lucky artifacts. Don't get me wrong, curses are still bad and I'll dispel them when I get the chance. But a family having unlucky lives is pretty low on the priority list for me." You could only imagine what the 'priorities' Herta had would look like, given how she spent her days craving your 'cruelty'.

Still it was callous of the goddess to say, and it threatened to bring down the mood, but thankfully Ayane was too happy— or too distracted by you— to give Herta's comment any weight.

You decide to return one of the kisses Ayane gave you, keeping it going until she lost her breath.