Nearly a year had passed by in the Fae Realm, indicating Audrey's fourth year, and the end of her vacation.
In her time there, she spent more than half a year repairing everything with the Fae Queen, Thalia. For the last half year, she spent her time studying new types of magic, and testing the limits of her [Goddess of Magic] form. Now, she's coming up to tell her temporary farewells to the people of Fae Realm.
"So a festival is going to be held...?" Audrey felt a little iffy after Thalia told her about the festival being dedicated to her, as the Fae Realm's savior. "A year had passed since the cataclysmic attack, we don't intend to celebrate how great you managed to push away the threat to our realm." Audrey looked away as she doesn't really enjoy having people regard to her too much. "Besides, you're the Goddess of Magic. The god that had blessed us with all of the greatness in magic." Audrey stopped complaining as her position as Goddess of Magic was mentioned. "By the way, do you think you would be able to defeat your mentor using that power?" Thalia asked Audrey the question that she was most curious about. Audrey set down the tea on the table and shook her head slowly. "I don't think so, this alone is definitely not enough to fight my mentor. He has full mastery of [Theory Magic], and [Concept Magic]." Audrey looked around and checked if there is anybody eavesdropping using magic. They're currently in Thalia's private quarters, thus there won't be anybody to listen in after Audrey uses noise-cancellation magic. "I trust that you'll be able to keep this a secret Thalia but..." Thalia leaned a little bit forward to listen closely. "My mentor, Draxus is the [Prime Existence]. So it's kind of far-fetched to say that I'd win because I'm a Goddess." "T-The Prime Existence?! What is he doing down here!?" "Well, he's not exactly the Prime Existence, but just one soul out of eight. So he's technically incomplete. But still, his power is phenomenal, not as strong as our Emperor who is revealed to be the [God of Administration]." "Wait... That god is also there? What are they doing in the outside realm?" "The [Prime Existence] is the target. The [God of Dominion] has collected seven, out of eight souls of the Prime Existence, and once he absorbs the essence of my mentor, the entire universe will be controlled by him. His intentions are unknown yet, but I can tell that it's definitely not good to let something like that run freely. My opponent last year, wasn't something to be laughed at either, she directly knew the [God of Dominion] and maybe has gotten a boost of power from him. She could be the third apostle, or just some minion. Having a minion that powerful is definitely alarming though... I have to directly report this to the Emperor." "Wait, so the Prime Existence is the main target? We'd like to offer our hands in assisting your cause." Audrey smiled, as Thalia seemed to have read her mind. "I know that the knowledge of this realm's magic is considered to be [Sacred] but, I'm grateful that you wish to cooperate in the protection of the [Prime Existence]." "By the way, what about the two other Archons? Are they also gods?" Audrey squinted her eyes as she cast her gaze away from Thalia. In her mind, the thought about telling her that the [God of Equivalence], their original creator, was among them. But she decided to just be honest about it. "Yeah, the [God of Cyberspace] and [God of Equivalence]." "O-Our creator?!" "Well, I haven't dueled or trained against him before, but I could tell that he's not somebody I should be dealing with." Audrey and Thalia continued chatting about the Archons and the Emperor, causing a few sneezes in between them who are busy in the outside realm.
The festival that was held for Audrey went pretty normal, she did eat a lot and spoke her farewell to Thalia, the elders, and her teachers. Before leaving, Thalia told Audrey that she will eventually get people to leave the Fae Realm to return to their original home, the outside realm. "What about the [Tree of Knowledge]?" "That, I'll think about it when the time comes." Thalia simply smiled as she gave her answer. "Then, see ya'll soon." With a casual tone, Audrey entered the gateway and finally returned to the outside realm for good. "Alright, now one thing before I go home, how do I explain this?" Audrey pondered about what to do for the explanation, but figured that there was something much more important than making an explanation as she opened a portal directly towards Draxus's office.
"Drax, I challenge you to a duel!" Audrey finally returned to the castle, immediately asking for a fight. "Bold of you to assume I have time for a duel Audrey, though I am a bit free tomorrow so let's hold the duel in that time." Draxus continued to work at a high speed, with Olivia monitoring him. "I've returned by the way." Draxus paused as he felt that Audrey had matured a bit, he looked up and immediately noticed the changes. "Oh? You've grown quite a bit? Seems like there's a time discrepancy in your travel?" "Yep, I've stayed for a total of four years." Draxus placed his hand on his forehead as if enduring a headache already. "And what did you learn?" "Find out in our duel, I'll be giving you your first non-archon solo loss." A crack could be heard after the needless taunting. "Confident are we? Alright then, be prepared for tomorrow, I'll ask Serkyrio to take the control room for this. Rather, you go tell him that will you?" Audrey nodded and immediately left the room to go report to Serkyrio.
"She's certainly grown a lot has she?" Olivia smiled as she remembered the interactions between Draxus and Audrey being too similar to siblings. "If she's grown arrogant, then I'll have to blast her to sense. But she seems to have grown in other aspects as well, so I may have to be careful in the duel tomorrow." Draxus smiled as he felt like Audrey was excited to fight him first thing. "This is something to look forward to."