Heaven, Earth, Me

Yasenia placed a hand between her legs to lower her skirt and then crouched down in front of one of the small beasts. The first thing that they needed to understand was how or why these little golden fur balls could stop or wanted to stop that ritual. "Hm… So, why are you so against the trial, little one?"

Evelyn snorted with a smile. "Why ask them? It's not like they can understa-"

"Isn't it obvious why?"

Evelyn's smiling face froze as everyone else searched for the origin of the squeaky voice. Yasenia blinked a few times, her golden eyes looking adorably confused. "You can talk?"

The small rodent turned its head, its black beady eyes observing the dragoness. "Of course we can! Also, you are all quite rude, eh? Trying to search for all of us as if we are prizes hiding for you to collect or something."

Yasenia scratched her cheek and coughed. "Ahem. Sorry for attacking you."

The rodent shook its head wisely. "Don't worry. You were protecting your mate. That's why I didn't attack you when that armored woman stopped you. I also need to apologize. I overreacted because I was sleeping and didn't expect someone to come so close to me."

Everyone looked at Yasenia and the rodent with weird expressions. 'They can talk…? Also, why has Yasenia accepted that fact so quickly and naturally!?'

The small rodent jumped up and landed on Yasenia's shoulders. Yasenia blinked and extended her finger, poking the round body of the furry creature. 'Oh… Soft and squishy… It must taste good as a snack.'

The mouse felt a strange chill when the reptilian golden eyes observed it, but he ignored it. "Either way. Why are all of you here?"

Andrea decided to approach and talk. She cleared her throat before cupping her fists once. "Hello, powerful beast. We are here to take the trial. I am the main trial taker, so I want to ask how we can continue and fulfill the conditions that the Sun God gave us."

"Oh! So you are trial takers!" The little mouse nodded twice. 

Evelyn asked, confused. "Do people that are not trial takers come here?"

The golden mouse looked at Evelyn and squeaked confidently. "No!"

Everyone felt their lips twitch. 'Then why did you act surprised!?'

Still, who knows how many years this poor beast has been stuck in this same room. Therefore, they decided to be lenient with their judgment. Yasenia poked the mouse twice and urged him a little. "You should answer, little mouse."

The mouse blinked, his adorable beady eyes gaining a touch of realization. "Right. The trial." The mouse jumped onto Yasenia's head and went up on his back limbs, standing up like a human. 

Yasenia's beauty and the adorable golden mouse standing proudly on her head made such an endearing image that some of the maids had taken out recording devices to take a long array of photos. "You…!" The mouse pointed at Andrea and coughed. "What's your name?"

Andrea's eyebrow twitched again, but she managed to answer formally. "It is Andrea, senior."

"Andrea! Beautiful name!" The mouse nodded a few times. "What we want is something difficult! Something that will appease us and allow you to commit the unholy [Dawn Of Nova Sol] ritual!"

Andrea frowned at those words. "Unholy…? Why is it so? What's this ritual about, in the first place?"

The mouse sighed, his cute little face gaining an expression of someone who was looking at a far past. "The [Dawn Of Nova Sol]... This ritual… I have forgotten what it was for."

Evelyn took a step forward, pushing up her sleeves. "I am going to beat this mouse up!"

Kali grabbed her limbs with a wry smile. "Resist, Evelyn! Resist the- Cecile!?"

Cecile was drawing her bow, about to release an arrow. Fylia coughed and used one of her front limbs to push down the bow. "Patience, Cecile."

The mouse sighed, looking around. He stomped twice on Yasenia's head and commented in his squeaky voice. "Your friends have as little patience as you do."

Yasenia's tail twitched, but she managed to resist the impulse when she remembered how strong this little beast truly was. Andrea asked, her voice surprisingly managing to keep being formal. "Um. Senior, since you don't remember, why not ask the rest? There are another 6 of your race in the room, right?"

Andrea looked sideways, and the mouse followed her gaze. "Oh… Well." The mouse's tone became slightly melancholic. "They all have lost the ability to communicate as I do. Now, they are just beasts without complex thoughts that act when I do. I don't know why, but it started the first time the [Dawn Of Nova Sol] was completed. I am sure of it."

Everyone became silent and frowned. Andrea asked, curious. "Hm… Can't we heal them somehow? Is it an affliction of the soul or body?"

"I am unsure." The mouse shook his head. "Either way, the trial is related to that. You need to heal one of them from this strange affliction and allow them to think and act like I do again. Once you do that, I'll consider this trial as successful."

Kali asked, confused. "If we find the solution to heal one of them, we should be able to heal all of them, right?"

The mouse sighed. "That's where you are wrong. Each of them is an individual, and the same affliction doesn't affect them the same way. What works for one might worsen it for the other."

Yasenia reached above her head, gently picking up the beast between her hands. The mouse looked at Yasenia's veiled face and heard her mellow and pleasant voice. "Well, we can do something like that. However, if we see that we are able to heal more than one of them, we will. I hope you don't kick us out once we are done with the first one."

The mouse paused and looked closely at the dragoness with his beady eyes. Then, he squeaked seriously. "Okay."

The dragoness nodded and placed him on Andrea's shoulder. "Andrea won't be able to help in this, so stay with her." Looking around, she smirked. "Well, girls. We have a mouse family to save. Let's get to work." 

"Understood!"

Yasenia organized everything. "Pick all of them and line them up. Number them as well from Mouse 1 to Mouse 6. I don't want all of you to work on different ones. We'll work together on each mouse for one day. If we find nothing, we move to the next. If we find a clue, we continue on that one until we hit a wall. Once we hit that block, we move on. Our priority is to heal one of them! Valeria, you will be leading the entire operation from now on."

Valeria smiled as she crouched and gently picked one of the little mice. "Sure. Let's see what we can do and why this ritual does this to them."

Tatyana crossed her arms and frowned slightly. "It will be difficult. We know nothing about [Dawn Of Nova Sol]. If we could see it at least once, we would be able to heal them much easier. We are shooting in the dark right now and hoping we hit the cure."

Valeria placed the little mouse on the first bed and gently bopped its nose. "Well, let's hope we are lucky enough. If not, Andrea won't get what she needs from this place."

And so, they started testing. Their tests used all their accumulated knowledge to test for soul and physical defects.

Looking at them, the defects were not clear or even apparent at all. The mice looked perfectly healthy. Even after they had finished the first six days, examining each of the mice closely, they found nothing wrong.

Kali patted her chin, her eyes showing a touch of frustration. "No test works on them. They all come back as negative. Outwardly and inwardly, they look completely healthy." 

Yasenia looked at Valeria and asked, confused. "Any idea? Are these mice a spirit-based species, perhaps? Or has a part of them been separated like what happened to Fylia?"

Fylia interrupted at this time. "That's not the case. I can feel that they are whole. I would bet my life on it. However, it is true that, after observing them for this week, I feel like there is a strange link between each other."

Valeria blinked and tapped her chin. "...Link? What type of link? Soul Link? Spiritual Link?"

Fylia shook her Qilin head, her ten eyes gaining a touch of bafflement as she answered. "A Physical Link."

Valeria's eyebrows gently creased. "Physical? That's not possible unless they are…" Valeria paused and looked at the mice again closely. "Andrea. Come here with the talking mouse."

Andrea stepped forward and approached Valeria. "What's wrong?" 

Valeria looked at the mouse on Andrea's shoulder closely. "Hm…" 

Kali saw Valeria's pondering gaze and asked, confused. "Why is it not possible? And what were you about to say?"

Valeria lifted one hand. "Wait one moment, Kali. Let me think about this, I really don't want to make baseless accusations." 

Valeria picked the mouse on Andrea's shoulder and then placed all of them in the same bed. The seven identical mice looked upward and tilted their heads simultaneously. Valeria smiled. "Aha~. They are not seven different beasts. They are one beast that has been divided into multiple bodies. Like Fylia, but instead of separating soul and body, they were quite literally chopped into seven pieces and reformed as they are."

The girls felt their eyes widening to the extremes. Kali stuttered. "How!? That should not be possible!"

"Indeed. However, I think that this mouse's constitution makes it possible. Perhaps they are always in groups because, well, they are a single creature that has been divided into one group. It might've been a development so that survival is more possible. For example, even if six parts of it die, the last one can survive to adulthood and create a whole new being. Different parts of itself can perhaps have progeny as well, increasing their numbers much faster than they increase [Individuals], so to speak."

Evelyn placed her fingers on her temples. "That's… Crazy." 

The small mouse raised its head and looked at Valeria with a confused expression. "That shouldn't be possible. How is it that they could talk before, then?" 

Valeria looked at the mouse that could speak and asked with a smile. "Could you speak when they did?"

The mouse opened its little mouth, but then, it shut it. Valeria chuckled and smiled. "There is no cure and we see them as healthy because… Well, they are. There is nothing to heal."

"That's incredible."

A man's voice reached them from the side, and they saw the Sun God looking at them with a smile. "That's entirely correct." The mouse's expression twisted slightly when it saw the Sun God and was about to rush at him. However, the Sun God snapped his fingers, and the seven mice fell down as if they were puppets whose strings had been cut. 

Andrea frowned. "What did you do?"

The Sun God smiled. "I erased their memory of the answer. The trial is to pacify them or, well, defeat them in a fight. However, defeating these little critters in a fight needs actual Transcendent Realm strength. Without an intent domain, it is a lost battle. They are also the creatures that fuel [Dawn Of Nova Sol] with their strength."

The Sun God pointed around and smiled. "This entire trial is [Dawn Of Nova Sol]. When I reset all the damage you girls have done, they are the source of that energy and power. Now, follow me, Andrea. There is a dragon for you to tame."

The girls opened and closed their mouths. However, they really could do nothing about this situation for now. So, they followed behind the Sun God with slightly clenched fists.