After an hour of getting my tails cuddled and played with, I decided to undo this huge crater by sacrificing 20 illusion layers. I should start throwing these around because I have way too many of them. The town started to turn back to normal because I stopped circulating nature energy. I wondered if this could help fix the fabric. I got up but Azu was still wrapped in my tails so I just carried her with me. I used nature energy on the dimensional fabric but nothing happened. I guess I was out of ideas.


    The firewall flared up a bit because several little Things tried to get through it but got one shot. At least that is working, I could see beyond the fabric now but it just looked like a void. Normally I wouldn''t get the idea to go in there but the root came from somewhere. I jumped on the root and walked through the [firewall] beyond the fabric. And now for certain, I have left the dimension. I checked my [dimensional anchor]. Everything was ok for now, if I walked back over this root, I would be fine. I covered myself and Azu in a [Frostcloak]. Azu seemed like a kitten playing with a ball of yarn. It seemed like she had no idea what was going on around her. Sometimes she can be such a child, but I guess I’m one too. I decided to disturb her only when I needed her assistance.


    I continued walking over the root. There was only void around me. I went through multiple filters but no matter what I did I couldn''t see further than 10 meters in front of me. I was scared, actually terrified of this situation. There were only 3 things that made me continue doing this. The fact that this root is basically a path, my dimensional anchor, and Azu. I held one of my tails in nervousness as I continued to follow the root. I can''t tell how long I’ve been walking; time seems to pass here but how relevant that is here is to be seen. Azu was still completely absorbed in playing with my tails and being completely wrapped in them so she probably still doesn''t notice what is going on.


    The moment I decided to turn back I saw something that looked like a window. The root came out of this window. Something was up with this. Every step felt heavy and seemed to double my anxiety. I approached the window and looked through it.


    What I saw made me even more anxious. I saw a wall with what looked like a trophy wall. I looked into the room from behind the window, the room seemed to be a long room. It was about 5 meters wide but over 50 meters long and along the walls I could spot different items on display, all with pictures above them.


    I recognized many of these items. They were all ripped-out tails of nine-tail foxes. I clutched the tail I was holding. The pictures all seemed to have the same woman on them, they looked like victory pictures. In front of the window there seemed to be something that looked like a big snow globe, it had a pink broccoli in it and this root seemed to grow out of it. The room also seemed to have 5 more similar-looking snow globes but they had other objects in them. One looked like a jungle, another one was an anchor, they all had strange objects in them.The majority of the ‘trophies’ here were sets of 9 tails but there were also various other items like eyes in jars, golden objects, strange rocks and other objects that were more suitable for a trophy room. I was absolutely terrified.


    Suddenly my intuition told me to drop the intensity of my Elgards eyes to stealth mode. The only time I used this before was to sneak out of my room and to not trigger my sisters because they could tell when I was using my eyes, so that''s why I developed a stealth mode. Seconds after I put my eyes in stealth mode a woman entered the room. I recognized this woman; it was the same woman that was in every picture in this room. She had long black hair, pale white skin and red lips, she was quite beautiful but something told me that her personality is rotten. She seemed to like gold a lot. She was… she was wearing a fancy-looking coat made out of… fur. My instincts told me to run but the fear felt like it petrified me. I clutched the tail I was holding to my chest.


    “That is bizarre, I thought I felt the gaze of Elgards eyes, I must have been mistaken.” She gracefully walked into the room as if she owned the place, I guess she really did. She looked at several of her trophies and seemed to be happy. “But this is convenient, that bitch Chiara ruined my precious coat.” Her fancy coat seemed to be damaged.


    “It is a good thing I have more than enough tails to make a new one!” She laughed and seemed to be proud of herself that she had ‘backup’. She looked at the tails of the foxes she most likely brutally murdered and choose one. “Hmm, let''s see, oh these are the tails of that fox. Rignef, you fool, if you abandoned that spirit, you would have lived but that is fine because you realized that you were better off as my trophy. I will grace you the highest honor of becoming my new coat.” She took the tails off the wall. My fear and anxiety slowly turned into anger.


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    “Hmm let me take the time to remind myself why I am the greatest goddess of Yabia. You put up a good fight, your frost magic was impressive but not as impressive as the softness of your tails, I enjoyed your screams as I ripped these tails out.“ She walked over to a snow globe with the jungle in it.


    “You were one of the most obnoxious spirit foxes I’ve ever fought, sadly I couldn''t kill you so I had to seal you away, I will make another attempt when I run out of tails. What was your name again? Norya, right, just as obnoxious as her mother” She had these monologues in front of most of the trophies that were in the room and then she stopped in from of the snow globe with the pink broccoli. Her face was close which made me highly uncomfortable but it seemed that she couldn''t see me. She looked at the pink broccoli snow globe. Even though she didn''t seem to show much emotion when talking about the other trophies for this one she showed disgust.


    “You made a complete fool out of me; your retainer even banished my favorite pet! I hope you rot in that prison.” That is all she had to say to the pink broccoli snow globe. She continued her routine. She then stopped. “I also need a new robe… she took more tails off the wall. I froze myself to the root to make sure I wouldn''t do something super stupid like attacking her.


    “Hmm, my stock of tails is running low, I haven''t seen any nine-tailed spirit foxes for millennia… I made sure to not drive them to extinction. I won’t be able to enjoy this high-quality fur if I do.” She walked around and looked at the empty spots on the wall where previously the tails were hanging. She then started to laugh.


    “My own ingenuity perplexes me sometimes; I will just have to breed them! male nine-tail foxes are exceedingly rare though…” My anger turned back into fear. She continued her monologue but I had seen enough. I needed to get out of here. I unfroze myself and turned around to start running back when I got met by a hug.


    “I’m sorry you had to go through that…” for the first time I hugged Azu back. “Let''s get out of here.” She picked me up and ran back over to the root. Before we got too far from the root, I put a 5-layered illusion over the pink broccoli snow globe. From how this woman behaved it seemed that the snow globes were prisons, the fact that this root is connected to the snow globe means something. I hope I’m wrong but if this root gets destroyed this snow globe might be able to tell that woman that the prison is broken. I don''t feel like dealing with that dangerous woman. I had a good idea who she might be but I had no proof other than she referred herself to as a goddess.


    She seemed to be quite narcissistic so maybe that was that but she did mention the name of another goddess I have heard the name of before. My mental energy gave out and the fear started to take over my body again and I started to shake. Azu tightened her hold on me and sped up. After a bit, the [firewall] appeared and she jumped out of it.


    “It’s ok now, we''re back safely.“ I was still holding onto my tail and shaking. I got another hug and heard things got blasted away in the background but at this point, I was too busy trying to get this uncontrollable fear under control.


    “I already hated that bitch but to think she had a sick hobby like this! I’m pissed! When I get free, I will make sure she doesn''t get away with this!” I have never heard Azu talk like this but it calmed me down for a bit. “Don’t worry Agnis, I won''t let her get to you, not if I can help it.” I grabbed another tail. Thank you, Azu, just a question, how rare are silver foxes?


    “Please Agnis, you don’t want to hear the answer to that…” All those tails were red, orange, blue, pink, brown, gold or gold brown, one set was black. Even in Hourai, there were hardly any silver foxes only me…


    “I see… well it is as you guessed they are very rare…” I tried to forget what I just witnessed but I couldn''t get it out of my head. I started to realize another reason when 5 years ago my sister tried to make my hair black. I looked at my silver tails. I applied an illusion to them to make them black. “I like them more silver-colored, but I understand why you would do that.” Hey, Azu?


    “Yes, sweetie?” If you ever encounter her and she is wearing a silver coat, can you kill her and find my mother Edea Hourai? Azu hugged me again.


    “She won''t get you I promise!” I spent an hour sorting out my emotions. This was so unlike me; I try to keep my emotions in check.


    I slapped my cheeks. Sorry about that Azu, I’m fine now. She was again playing with my tails but more careful and her mind seemed to be somewhere else. She looked up. Do you by any chance know how to fix this? I pointed at the dimensional fabric that still had a hole in it.


    “I don’t, sorry, this is something only a nine-tailed spirit fox can help you with, I’m sorry…” Don’t worry about it.


    “Are you sure you are, ok? You are still holding your tail; you seem to do that when you''re anxious.” I looked at the black tail that I was holding and let it go. Yeah, I''m fine, thank you. I strengthened the [firewall] a bit more because some Things seem to have slipped through it while we were away. Azu was absentmindedly blasting them so they weren''t causing any problems. I spent the rest of the day with Azu monitoring the hole in the dimensional fabric and the root that was sticking out of it.