I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

After returning to Zaanam and landing on that lake shore, Elizabeth and company had spent a few minutes ensuring they were all in top condition. Elizabeth for one hadn’t stretched her legs in quite some time. Well, she had stretched legs, just not her Human legs.

 

Rossie and Rena likewise had stayed stuck in those tubes for god knows how long. So while both girls didn’t seem to see the reason, they had accepted that they should probably make sure their bodies were okay.

 

Even if they had mostly agreed to calm down Elizabeth, who had threatened to force them into doing stretches using her skill [Shadow Puppetter].

 

Elizabeth was half sure that Rossie had thought about rebelling only for the sake of feeling her body be controlled, but at the end of the day, both girls had accepted. Even if to make Rena join Elizabeth had needed to make a second [Ring] with the skill embedded in it…

 

Then, she linked the ring to an extra ring she was now wearing on her left hand. She had thought about linking both rings into the same ring, but it felt…wrong.

 

The ring she was wearing on her right hand was the one she had gotten after proposing to Rossie. After all, it was sacred, the culmination of her relationship with her girlfriend. Tying another pledge to it felt…wrong.

 

…

 

……

 

Had she just proposed to Rena?

 

“Eli…I know you just gave me this one… But I was talking with Rossie.” Rena started saying while Elizabeth was inwardly cursing the bimbo powers she had summoned just a few minutes ago.

 

“Yes?” Elizabeth answered, fearing for what the red-haired girl had spoken with her pink-haired psychotic girlfriend. Was Elizabeth in trouble?

 

Rossie never quite warmed up to Rena. Well, she didn’t murder her on their first night together, and she hadn’t glared at her too much lately. So Elizabeth had thought they had become friends at last!

 

Rossie knew Elizabeth liked Rena, and the blonde planned for her eighteenth birthday to be a private beach party with both girls on an isolated island…

 

But now had she messed up? Would she need to fish the red-haired soul and try to summon her back like how she had done with Aura? She would need a new Doppelganger…No wait, wouldn’t that mean that Elizabeth would be….doing it with herself?

 

That was….kinda hot actually, she would be kissing herself while also kissing her girlfriend, while her girlfriend would be kissing her and then also kissing her…

 

“Elizabeth?” Rena asked snapping her fingers.

 

“Yesh!” Elizabeth answered without thinking. She would start preparing the Doppelganger post haste.

 

“So it can be done?” Rena asked.

 

“Of course, I will do my best!” Elizabeth answered. No wait. How did Rena know her plan? “I’m sorry. What was that you asked?”

 

“I asked if you could make a ring that worked like these but for me and Rossie, we came to the conclusion that it is needed if we are to…progress on this relationship.” Rena said, “Whatever form it takes, the problem we suffered before makes it clear. While my body could withstand it and be okay, my mind couldn’t.”

 

“And while my mind could survive the impact, my body was simply too weak.” Rossie added on the other end, “So like you said, any relationship between lovers must be of equals, we must cover the other weakness.”

 

“So if it happens again, I want Rossie to be able to wield my body as needed. Even if my mind fails, my body will help the three of us,” Rena said, nodding as if it were the most natural thing.

 

“And should the need arise, I want Rena to be able to puppeteer my body using her instincts, so that I can focus on casting magic while she weaves me through attacks that I wouldn’t be able to dodge.” Rossie answered at the side.

 

Both girls nodded at each other and shook hands.

 

“So please, Eli, make a third set of rings, one that allows Rossie and me to use each other's bodies as needed,” Rena said, turning to Elizabeth.

 

“I too ask this, Eli-Eli. We don’t want to be a burden. And besides, should it be needed, we will be able to respond more calmly if we know that we have each other’s back,” Rossie said, supporting this new part of their relationship.

 

“....I so love you both,” Elizabeth answered as she weaved her Shadows. “Sure we can do it, I hope they aren’t needed for such a thing, but I will make the most lovely and pretty Engagement Rings for you both!”

 

“...Engagement Rings aren’t supposed to give you full control over someone else’s body!” Jenna screamed at the back, but Elizabeth ignored her. “Also, those things sound more like cursed rings!”

 

Yeah, Elizabeth would ignore those comments.

 

She wouldn’t let anything tarnish this romantic moment where her girlfriends pledged their vows to each other!

 

She now only needed to take a picture!

 

Oh right, the rings! She needed to make them rings!

 

How did one even [Link] two people using a [Skill] that was supposed only to work one way? She had already stretched the thing when she granted Rossie control over her body, and that only worked because she used the skill like that…

 

Ughh….”Ah! I got an Idea!” Elizabeth said loud without thinking and started using Idea.

 

Elizabeth took a deep breath and focused on her purest Mana, that small puddle that remained at the back of her Soul. The one that hadn’t quite dried yet, fed by a slow but constant stream that leaked from her Shadow Haven. Did it have a name? Of course, but Elizabeth wouldn’t think about it. Nor what it meant.

 

For she had more important things to do right now, “This is a vow, a promise, a pledge, a show of love.” Elizabeth started weaving the sacred mana pulling in from ℌ𝔢𝔯 𝔚𝔬𝔯𝔩𝔡 into [This World].

 

The pressure of it made the things around them [̷T̷̷r̷̷e̷̷m̷̷b̷̷l̷̷e̷], but Elizabeth cared not for it. “This is the sign of a sacred union between those that I love, making the relationship that was one who cared for the other two, into one where all three care for each other.” Elizabeth couldn’t feel more prouder.

 

“Make this the symbol of Pure Love.” Elizabeth’s words twisted the Mana into a solid obsidian ring. “Make this the symbol of this pledge.”

 

This singular obsidian ring had a Gem atop it. But with a flick of Elizabeth’s will the ring split into two. Each with a half of the gem.

 

“Make this the thread that turns two into three, for we all will be together till the end of [This World] and perhaps, beyond it.” Elizabeth finished her chant.

 

And as the puddle of Mana dried she felt the mana leave.

 

And with it, a sudden…dizziness…and….sleep. What was the deal with the sky turning into grass anyway?

 

—-------------------------------------------

 

“What the hell do you mean with that?!?!?” Elizabeth woke up to the screams of Jenna, “IF YOU KNOW ELIZABETH DOES STUPID THINGS WHY DID YOU ASK HER FOR SOMETHING LIKE THAT THEN?!?!?!?”

 

Was she angry at someone? Couldn’t she scream at them away from her? She wanted to sleep!

 

“We didn’t think she would faint!” Rossie answered calmly, “Besides, she is fine. Her mana signature isn’t strained, and her [Soul] is stable.”

 

“My [Instincts] also tell me she is okay.” Rena also added, “Besides…We thought she would just make a third pair of rings and join them with the pair she had made before between herself and ours.”

 

Wait, what was the problem again?

 

“Well, OBVIOUSLY she didn’t!” Jenna said sarcastically.

 

“... we noticed.” Rossie answered back. Why wasn’t she fighting more anyway? That wasn’t the same Rossie she knew and loved! “We are aware that this was our mistake. We knew…this could happen in the future, that is why we tried to do it now instead of later.”

 

What?

 

“We didn’t want her to grow a stockpile, we wanted Elizabeth to use Mana or her Shadows…” Rena added at the side, “We didn’t know she would have enough [Prana] to make…these wonderful gifts.”

 

Heheheheheheh, they liked her gifts.

 

“I swear to [My Hero], why did he even ask me to look after her if he was going to give her access to [Prana].” Jenna grumbled.

 

“That wasn’t [Framework]’s [Prana]” Rossie said quickly.

 

Right, you tell them Rossie!

 

“It was blue, it shone, and it made something that is impossible to make. Just look at those things!” Jenna said back.

 

Elizabeth was getting very curious about what she had done to make such a fuss. She was also ignoring the word [Prana]; she did not want to think about that!

 

“Morning~” So she walked out of the simple tent they had made for her. “What do we have for breakfast?”

 

Elizabeth asked as she saw the other three girls sitting at a wooden and stone table near a firepit, where some kind of soup was simmering.

 

“Morning Eli-Eli, we have boar soup.” Rossie said standing and summoning a set of bowls which she used to serve four portions, one for each girl. “Did you have a good sleep?”

 

Her always lovely pink-haired girlfriend said as she smiled and placed the bowls on the table, in her right hand? She had an obsidian ring with an azure gem which seemed to shine with yellow colors if the light hit in the right angle.

 

The ring that symbolized the union between Elizabeth and Rossaline.

 

On her left hand, however…Elizabeth found another ring. This one, while also primarily obsidian in color, had some pink finishes with some golden decorations, and the gem, instead of being azure, was a ruby that seemed to hold a frozen flame.

 

Elizabeth wasn’t envious at all of the more ornate and fancy ring. No sir.

 

“Good Morning Eli. “ Rena waved at her, “I hope you slept well.”

 

Same as with Rossie, the right hand had a ring exactly the same as the one Rossie had, the left hand however…that was another story altogether, the design was the same as Rossie’s one, obsidian ring with golden - pink decorations, the gem however, instead of having a frozen flame. It had a pink pulsating orb.

 

Elizabeth turned to look down at her hands. Both her rings hadn’t changed that much. Both were obsidian in color, and the gems reflected who they connected to: a pink jewel on her right hand and a ruby on her left hand.

 

“I wanted fancy rings too…” Elizabeth lamented with a sigh.

 

“....Please don’t try to do that again, you scared the living hell out of me.” Jenna said facepalming, “Also, if someone asks, you got those as a gift from a traveling cleric. He blessed your union or some bullshit. Don’t even try to tell them you made them.”

 

What? Why?

 

“You still make that dumbfounded face while confused huh.” Jenna smiled at her, “Those fancy rings you made are [Holy Relics], if a [High Priest] or a [Cardinal] sees them they will either accuse you of being a [Thief] or try to take them from you.”

 

They would die.

 

“Aaand you are angry. Don’t look at me. I’m just telling you what would happen.” Jenna raised her hands in the internationally approved surrender pose. “They are chock full of [Prana], and they are so stupidly durable that it's a joke. And all they do is allow you three to play a puppet show using each other's bodies!”

 

Jenna sighed as she spoke, then looked at each girl one by one, her eyes shone in azure light and sighed again, “Okay, I’m over it.” The girl nodded and Elizabeth felt some kind of [Mana Tendril] brush over her skin.

 

Elizabeth’s eyes turned into her Dragon Eyes and noticed that the tendril came from Jenna, and while it wasn’t like it had been as the first tendril that came from Rena seeking salvation, it wasn’t like Rossie who sought submission.

 

Instead it was a tendril of someone who wanted to shake hands as equals.

 

“Let’s start again.” Jenna smiled, stood and walked over to the other side of the table, she was now standing in front of Elizabeth. “Long time no see Elizabeth, I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Jenna Lewis. We used to hang around when growing up.”

 

Jenna seemed almost…normal. Instead of a woman with nearly as much mana as Papa and an armada of over a thousand [Heroic Spirits] behind her…As if she was instead an old friend.

 

Elizabeth’s Dragon eyes

, faded away leaving only her normal Human eyes.

 

“Long time no see Jenna, of course I remember you. We are Best Friends Forever after all.” Elizabeth answered standing up and hugging the other girl.

 

As her skin made contact with Jenna, she felt the [Mana Thread] snap into place. It wasn’t a relationship of [Love], neither was one of [Slavery], [Domination] or [Lust]. It was…[Friendship].

 

Honest [Friendship], it had opportunity to grow into other things of course, but this?

 

At this moment? It was merely the rekindling of an old friendship between two girls. Elizabeth relished in the connection and felt the [Mana] within her [Soulscape] shift ever so slowly. Turning away from mere [Mana] into Mana, as if a missing piece had just landed in the correct spot.

 

“Hnng….” Jenna moaned as the hug ended. “Sorry about that. I got weird [Mana] feedback. It happens sometimes when I touch someone who has one too many [Echoes] going around.”

 

….Right, Elizabeth had quite a few of those didn’t she?

 

“So, I know I’m the new one here, but if I am to stay around, I need some information. Can we start with what is your deal with these things ?” Jenna said pointing at Elizabeth’s shadow, “They have been nibbling at the outer edges of my [Shadow] for some time now. They seem harmless enough, but are you starving them or something?”

 

….Elizabeth turned to look down and sure enough, she could see one of her [Assassins] trying to worm into Jenna’s shadow.

 

“Beatrice?” Elizabeth said aloud.

 

“Yes, Mistress?” The little maid materialized herself from a portal. It was a change of pace, as she usually manifested a body of shadows and then turned that into her body. Why had she chosen to come outside Elizabeth’s Soulscape like Aura?

 

“What is the deal with that one?” Elizabeth asked pointing at the [Assassin], who didn’t seem to mind the fact that he had been found out.

 

“Well, Lady Jenna had been deemed a hostile target till a few hours ago. So some [Minions] got deployed to deal with her, that one was chosen to act as a distraction for the more stealthy ones. And we do need him to keep going till an indeterminate amount of time till the real operative can finish its mission and return.” Beatrice answered, the [Shadow Dragon - Assassin] nibbling at Jenna’s shadow turned to look at Elizabeth and nodded too, before returning to nibbling at the shadow.

 

“...So they say.” Elizabeth said turning to Jenna.

 

“I mean…I kind of get it…but I guess it’s fine since they aren’t hurting anyone?” Jenna wondered while summoning into herself a new [Echo], Elizabeth could taste the flavor or [Shadows] from that one. “Here, take something to drink too.”

 

And with…an ease that made Elizabeth wonder what she had been doing all this time, Jenna made a bowl out of shadows, within her shadow, for the Shadow Assassin to drink. Which he did, SOMEHOW.

 

“And the other ones? You did imply that you had ‘A Billion’ more.” Jenna said with a smirk as she did a tone similar to what a stuck-up rich girl would use while speaking.

 

“Please tell me I didn’t sound like that.” Elizabeth cringed at the pantomime.

 

“Of course not Eli,” Rena chimed at the side, “You sounded cool.”

 

“And Sexy,” Rossie added, “You sounded so sexy that I regretted not leaving a recorder.”

 

….

 

“Weren’t both of you in Zaanam?” Elizabeth asked at both girls.

 

“Yeah, but Beatrice told us how the things were going.” Rossie answered first.

 

“That is how we knew we needed to be ready to either reverse summon ourselves back there, or try to summon you back to Zaanam.” Rena added.

 

“Right….” Elizabeth said, eyeing suspiciously at Beatrice, at what moment did the little girl have enough time to relay that information? “Well, it’s quite simple. The Shadow Dragon Legion are a gift….”

 

“more like an undesreved penitence.” Beatrice mumbled.

 

“They are something I was given by those that came before us.” Elizabeth continued, “ They are the lost souls of a dead world, they are made of those that refused to just wait for death, so they fought…and when everything was lost… When the end came, they still fought back for a second chance.”

 

Elizabeth summoned a projection of Terra Invicta using her shadows.

 

“This is [Terra Invicta], and the Shadow Armada are the people that died there.” Elizabeth said, hoping that Jenna didn’t ask why this projection looked exactly like her Soulscape.

 

“And you have them because…?” Jenna said, eyeing the projection and Elizabeth’s shadow. “Did [Your Father] give them to you? Catherine?”

 

….should she throw them under the bus?

 

Pretend they were the cause?

 

It was so tempting….

 

“They are an Inheritance from my Mother’s side of the family.” At the end she decided to settle for the easy way out, she…didn’t really want to go over the complexities of the fact that she had inherited powers from her past life, nor how said past life was a Male blonde asshole which wasn’t that smart and somehow ended at the top of the world, turned into a True Dragon and god knows what else the asshole did in the background.

 

Better to keep it simple.

 

“So your mother family just had a planet's worth of souls lying around, and you ended up with it, huh?” Jenna said, narrowing her eyes. " It seems…convenient.”

 

“Anyone on my Mother’s side could have awakened that; those with the [Saintsworth]’s blood always had that option.” Elizabeth said nodding at that, of course she hadn’t [known] that before the last safeguard Alexanders left told her so, “Also it isn’t convenient, I did get turned into a giant lizard who almost killed the love of her life…twice…in a row.”

 

“Right, sorry about that.” Jenna apologized. “If I had been around sooner, we might have managed to solve that without risking your…. girlfriend's life…and your other girlfriend’s life.”

 

“Yeah it’s okay, like Mother used to say, what doesn’t horribly cripple your soul makes you stronger.” Elizabeth had never appreciated that one before. Of course she hadn’t been almost assimilated into her own soul by a facet of her own [Sin] before.

 

Live and learn.

 

“Okay, then next one….Who the hell is Chloe Ashcroft and why are Echidna and Shadow Pact so focused on her? And why did you rename Elzbeth like that?” Jenna asked next.

 

“Wait didn’t you keep the memories from pre advent?” Elizabeth asked, confused.

 

“Of course I did, but that does not mean that I knew all the important people. I was busy running around killing monsters or helping other people. Besides…I wasn’t that….mature pre advent. So I ignored things that didn’t affect me.” Jenna said embarrassed.

 

So…how does a girl explain who Chloe Ashcroft is…

 

“Chloe Ashcroft is….or was the girl who was supposed to be the daughter of Jack Ashcroft and Eleanore Ashcroft.” So Elizabeth started by what she knew and the [Memories] that Chloe had left her.