With a satisfied grin, Skadi turned around while clicking her tongue repeatedly.

|<You have gained the [Eternal Winter] Skadi’s recognition! All stats have increased by 5!>|

|<You have completed the [Trial of Ancients!] Rewards will be granted!>|

|<You have gained 30000 EXP!>|

|<You have leveled up to 55! You gained 15 Stat Points and 3 Skill Points!>|

|<Your authority over the System has increased! You can now ask questions and converse with the System outside Trials for a second opinion!>|

|<You have gained the PARTY! System! The Party System increases all EXP gained by 25%, allows your spells not to harm friendlies, and shares a majority of the EXP gained going to the lower-level party members!>|

|<You have gained 85 Stat Points and 10 Skill Points!>|

|<As this is a trial related to [Moderators] of the System, you can stay here indefinitely until you wish to leave or the moderators kick you out.>|

Idlying, swiping away the panels, Aella nodded in satisfaction. The Stats were always nice, but she had more stat points than she knew what to do with right now. What interested her was the authority over the System because she could threaten… Negotiate more rewards out of it if she isn’t happy with what she got and the party system.

However, she wasn’t sure who she’d party with because she didn’t trust Seraphina to catch up to her level; at the same time, she did need that girl to grow stronger. It was a very delicate balance she needed to maintain.

“Well, well. Aella. You’ve proven yourself plenty, so I think you deserve this.” Skadi said before manifesting an item in her hand and tossing it over her shoulder to Aella.

“Hmm? This is,” Aella hummed, using [Apprasial] on the item.

|<Key to the realm of Eternal Winter(???)>|

|<Type: ???>|

|<Grade: ???>|

|<An Item(?) created by ??? and ??? to allow visitors in ???>|

“Can’t see it with your [Apprasial?] I’d recommend getting it up to level 3 at least. On that note, I’d recommend getting that [Advent Compass] Skill leveled up ASAP! AHAHAHAHAHA!” Boreas laughed, finally rejoining the conversation.

“It’s a key. It’ll allow you to bring a few people here every once in a while. Since we normally don’t have much to do here aside from watching the events of Earth, make sure you come back and have a game with me sometime. It won’t be so close next time.”

“Heh, you got that right, frosty. See you next time!” Aella called out with a small smile.

|<Would you like to return? Y/N>|

“Yes.”

|<Confirmed. Please note that the trials at levels 75 and 100 might require your Dragon partner, and it is recommended that you tame a second Dragon by that time.>|

…

Sitting happily in the bright morning desert sun, a woman of unmatched beauty sat with her legs dangling off the side of a pyramid while humming, viewing the video of a young fox girl tearing through cloaked men.

“Look, look! Horus. Isn’t this girl adorable?!” She asked her companion, a massive falcon-like dragon.

“KRAWW!” it responded.

The woman nodded in agreement to her Dragon’s nonsensical noise.

“It’s a little hard to tell from the video, but she seems to be of Russian descent. If such a cute girl has decided to take action against those heretics, then I, as the last remaining descendant of Isis, can’t just sit around and do nothing. Call a meeting with the executives of the [Consortium]. We’re finding this Echo girl. Perhaps she will be the catalyst we need to end this hidden war finally.”

…

“Patriarch! Did you see it? A little girl just made a joke of the Lost Sun yesterday afternoon!” A young man of Asian descent ran and spoke with haste.

In front of him was an old man, one far older than even Magnus, yet he still clung to life as the eye of an Eastern Dragon watched over him.

“This One is aware. The result of this battle is irrelevant, however. Observe the movements of this figure. If she can remove the eyesore of the lost sun, our conquest will only come easier.” The old man spoke, his words slow and wise.

…

A pair of Europeans sat in a dark room with the video on the big screen.

“That’s the same girl who the [Children of the Lost Sun] put a bounty on because she interfered in their scheme not long ago, right? It seems those bastards are finally meeting their match, haha!”

“We should make a move. If our two forces join, they’ll reward us greatly, and we can split it. Shall we mobilize our S-rank Dragon Riders?”

The two men, both powerful in their own rights scheme for the future. Those guarding their meeting room only hear the two grown men letting out an evil giggle every so often.

…

At a traditional Japanese temple, a massive cherry blossom tree housed a council of Naturalis, each with their own distinct appearances, some alongside their dragons.

The woman at the center of it all, the apparent leader of this group, a woman no older than 20 with white and black hair and the tail and ears of a tiger, looked at a frozen frame of Aella.

Unlike the others who watched the video, this group had a perfectly clear image of Aella and her group in the park after the confrontation with the cult. They didn’t have audio for some reason, but what they had was still better than everyone else.

“Kami-sama… Our goddess has descended.” The tiger girl stated solemnly, identifying the group members who could be.

“Quickly, get in touch with the [Celestial Scales Academy]! Increase monitoring across the whole country. If the activity of the [Children of the Lost Sun] is picked up, eliminate them without mercy! Go!”

“Yes Byakko-Sama!” The council dispersed, moving to their stations, leaving this Byakko alone.

Once silence reigned in the room, Byakko’s expression changed. The serious act she put up ended as a perverted face full of ecstasy, and debauchery replaced it.

“Kami-sama! Kami-sama! Finally, you descended upon us, Kami-Sama!” She cheered, caressing the image of the black-haired fox.

“If those heretics wronged you, I’ll make sure to wipe them off the face of the planet and protect you for the rest of my life!”

…

“How did you let her spoil our plans three times in just over a week?! Am I the stupid one for having all three of our SS rankers overseeing this project?” A distorted, muffled voice roared over a high-quality monitor.

Marcella, Rowan, and Johnathan, the [Children of the Lost Sun] executives, stood on the other side of the screen.

“We took all the necessary precautions, even sending numerous of our S ranks! Not to mention, all of us were stationed elsewhere searching for the next [Demon Lord Candidate.] Thirdly, what are we supposed to do when a random fox Naturalis with several tails comes out of nowhere and kills over 100 of our guys in such a short time?” Marcella retorted, just as annoyed and angry at their failure as the one they spoke to.

“Oi, Marcella! Calm down, you’re speaking to [The Sun], remember that!” Rowan scoffed.

“No. Her irritation is warranted. My lord, you should calm down as well. Whatever that being is, she managed to deal with my insect clones with ease. She isn’t simple.” Said a second, distinct but still nearly unintelligible voice from the monitor.

The first voice let out an annoyed sigh, “You’re correct. Unfortunately, your failure might spell doom for us or perhaps even the world. We have just as many enemies hidden in the shadows as we do allies. Not to mention, you said that Magnus is backing her. If we’re to assume the worst, those freaks from Japan will also begin to back her due to our failure.” They spoke, mostly saying their thoughts out loud.

“You think a war will start in the open, Sun?” Johnathan inferred.

“It is likely. Give me some time. I’ll think of some countermeasures for now. Focus all of our efforts on our backup plan. I have secured a method to find any new Demon Lord Candidates that will awaken. Even if this Echo character protects the second one, she cannot protect all 13.” The voice responded.

“Yes, Sun!” The three executives answered before cutting off the call.

…

Back to Aella, she hummed as she watched parts of the recordings on her phone.

‘So that’s what those bird-like things were. I didn’t think they’d have such small drones that don’t use magic watching us. I’ll need to be more cautious in the future.’

“Hehe… I expected the event to spread quickly as a warning to those cultists, but this is far more widespread than I thought.” Aella giggled.

“Mhm… How are you going to explain that to your parents? I have to return to work in a few days, so even if I wanted to cover for you, I couldn’t.” Blair asked, pushing the cart as she placed some “Groceries” into her cart.

Plants that she didn’t even know the name of. Aella wanted them, though, so she wasn’t going to question what kind of chemical warfare the little fox would start.

Currently, she, Aella, and Cid were shopping. Seraphina was originally going to come with them but decided to spend some time with Indigo instead.

“Yeah… About that… I don’t care at this point. The worst they can do is disown me, but I doubt that’d happen after the whole Abyss Nest thing.” Aella joked, causing Cid to hug her closely.

“No! They would never disown big sister! She protected people!”

Once again, a small giggle escaped Aella’s mouth. “Yes, yes. And I’ll continue to protect people from that evil cult.”