I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

Jenna arrived calmly, her face still covered in sand here and there. Had she really stuck her head into the dirt? Actually, what kind of strength had she used to make sand in this meadow? Didn't mountains and forests surround this valley?

Had…had she pulverised the dirt and turned into sand? Just by using her head?

Jenna Lewis, such fearsome girl.

"Are we done? We are done, right? Aura said you were done." Jenna said, looking from one side to the other.

"Yes, we are done for now." Rossie answered while eyeing Jenna. After looking her up and down, Rossie nodded and smirked, "Are you done, too, Miss Lewis?"

"Yes, I am so done with this. I can't wait to take vacations. I have only been dealing with you for a day or some, and I already want vacations." Jenna sighed. Everyone deserved Vacations. Perhaps their next trip after dealing with [Shadow Pact] could include some lovely places to spend some time?

Surely Elizabeth had earned that much after everything that happened, granted. Much of this was self-caused, but even so, Rossie and Rena deserved vacations!

"So? What's the plan?" Jenna asked with a tired voice.

"Well, first of all, we will maim [Shadow Pact]." Rossie started the strategic planning by bringing out a [Shadow Pact] plushie[Fake] and with a pair of scissors she cut his hands[Fake]. "For that we have Ren-Ren here."

"While I aim to disarm him." Elizabeth giggled as Rena said that, "I will need Eli and Rossie to make sure he can't attack, so I would love for some cover and perhaps some area denial…?"

Area Denial… she could use some of her [Minions], not sure how effective that would be. She… didn't have that much experience fighting other [Shadow] users. Maybe if she had some practice with other Shadow Aligned….oh…

"Aura? Has [Lunar Shade] woke up?" Elizabeth asked, turning to the purple-haired maid standing against a wall…plotting….

"Yes Mistress, she is eating her breakfast with Miss Luna." Aura answered without missing a beat, was she waiting for this question?

"Luna?" Elizabeth asked, that sounded like a good name for [Lunar Shade] so was she eating with a twin sister called like her or something?

"Ah right, Luna Harmonia…She and this Lexia girl wanted to fight me to save Alice and Elzbeth…or Chloe now I guess." Jenna said with a shrug, "You may remember them as [Law Bringer Sentinel] and [Lunar Shade]."

…the who now?

"...A [Shadow Attuned Magical Girl] who fights using shadow flowers and a blue navy [Magical Girl]?" Jenna said, trying to refresh Elizabeth's memories.

"Eli-Eli? Have you been flirting with other girls?" Rossie asked in a dangerous tone.

"...will you replace us Eli?" And Rena asked with her patented puppy eye attacks.

"Wait, Wait!" Elizabeth said, trying to defend herself. "I have no memories of those girls! This is a set-up! Aura! She did it!"

"That would be the Cute Gothic Lolita Magical Girl and the Big Boing Boing blue-haired Magical Girl," Aura said when Elizabeth tried to point the blame at her.

"Ah," Elizabeth said as the memories hit her. "Yeah….[Lunar Shade]...so that was her?"

"Elizabeth?" Rossie said in a frosty, cold tone that could give you third-degree burns. "Explanations?"

"She is a Gothic Magical Girl that thought my Alice [Shift] was stalking my [Elemental Weaver Shift]." Elizabeth said, "And [Law Bringer Sentinel] was the [Magical Girl] that told us not to fly unregistered in other districts."

"Oh…" Rossie said, "Yeah, I remember them, so you kept in contact?"

"Of course not!" Elizabeth answered almost instantly, "They aren't my type!"

"...And yet you remember them with vague descriptions such as [Cute] and [Big Boing boing]; truly, you are quite good at aligning descriptions, Mistress," Aura smirked evilly.

WHY?!?!?!?!??

Elizabeth needed to find a good excuse, a foolproof way to defend her honor…Anything…

"Cute is justice!" Elizabeth declared. The words jumped at the back of her mind with the memory of Mother screaming those words when Papa wanted to stop Mother from doing something stupid, like wanting to make the new neighbor's daughter a magical girl just because she looked somewhat cute.

 

Oh god, she was becoming her Mother.

 

"...the horror." Elizabeth said as she reflected in her mistakes.

 

"Just keep it on the down side, we don't mind if you spend some time playing around, so long you also Play with us later." Rossie said, such understanding girlfriend...BUT THAT WASN'T THE PROBLEM HERE!

 

SHE WASN'T LIKE MOTHER!

 

"Should I call them?" Aura asked from the back while Elizabeth was fighting with this sudden crisis of identity.

 

"Sure, we may as well meet them if Elizabeth finds them cute," Rossie said before Elizabeth could react. Of course Aura teleported away and returned after a few seconds later.

 

Elizabeth didn't even have time to complain or defend herself since Aura was very efficient when it came to messing with Elizabeth; less than a second later, three girls materialized in front of them. The first one at the front was, of course, Aura. The purple-haired maid was smiling very brightly. "Here they are, Mistress, Lexia Bloodthorn, and Luna Harmonia."

 

 

Behind her stood two girls looking warily at Jenna, which was funny since one of them was also blue-haired. The parallel seemed to end at the hair color.

 

"Elzbeth? Or not...You are Elizabeth, right? What is happening? Where are Elzbeth and Alice?" Elizabeth asked the black-haired girl, and she assumed that this would be [Lunar Shade].

 

"Those are Watanabe Rena and Rossaline Singh, so this must be Elizabeth Starbright." The blue-haired girl was more calm as she seemed to evaluate the location. "You have us at a disadvantage; I assume you all are either [Magical Girls] or [Heroines], but you know our identities already."

 

Right...Why was she even whitelisted by them? Elizabeth could see the [Security Nodes] surrounding the girls and she was whitelisted by them. But she didn't remember ever whitelisting them or being whitelisted by them.

 

"I am more interested in this purple one... and that one... " Luna said, pointing at Aura and Jenna.

 

"I am merely a [Maid] at the service of our Mistress, I do not participate in your...[Plays]." Aura answered with a shrug, "If I was to become one I would be something like-"

 

"[The Maiden of Space] of course." Elizabeth answered before Aura could say anything. "As for Jenna...Want to introduce yourself?"

 

"No." Was the answer that Jenna gave, "They won't believe it trust me, I have gone through this enough times. You can just think of me as a friendly powerful A-Tier [Powered]."

 

The faces both Luna and Lexia made didn't seem to believe that for a second. "Sure...and you three?" Luna said pointing at Elizabeth.

 

"[The Demon Slaying Sword]." Rena answered first, "Or I was going by that one, I will change it soon."

 

Elizabeth couldn't wait to see Rena's new name; she was looking forward to buying that merchandise.

 

"[Sylphie Starheart]." Rossie answered after Rena. "You may not request Healing."

 

Rossie? Shouldn't it be 'You may request Healing'? Either way, both girls didn't seem to mind it too much and turned to Elizabeth.

 

This...would be hard to explain.

 

*Sigh*

 

"Okay....first of all, I need to come clean; I...had some problems with some [Skills] both pre and post-advent," Elizabeth said first.

 

"Yeah, some former powered had the same issues, some [Magical Girls] too. What about it?" Lexia said as her blue eyes seemed to want to peer at Elizabeth's Soul...She...wasn't her type.

 

"What about it she says..." Elizabeth sighed, "Here it is, first I was [Shift - Elemental Weaver]."

 

Elizabeth's body shone in white light as her clothes changed into her old [Elemental Weaver] outfit, "I meet you [Law Bringer Sentinel] like this once."

 

Luna nodded, but was confused nonetheless. "Wasn't that one Elzbeth's...?" She said.

 

"I also meet Lexia as [Shift—Alice]." Elizabeth continued speaking as her body shifted once more. This time, not only his clothes but also her figure and hair changed.

 

"....What?" This time, it was Lexia's turn to be surprised and speechless.

 

"I may have met one of you as [Shift - Shadow Empress]." Elizabeth continued, and this time, her body was covered in shadows, and after half a second, her form had changed into the armored form of [The Shadow Empress]. Her voice had taken a...darker tone, not only cold but also somewhat mechanical and distorted. Really, the ideal tone of voice of a Villainess.

 

"....that is impossible." Luna said as she brought her notepad and went to check, "[Elemental Weaver] - C Tier Magical Girl."

 

And at the side, Lexia also did the same, but her search was for someone else. "[Shadow Empress] - C Tier Villain."

 

"And things only get more weird from this point onwards," Aura said at the back as she brought some popcorn.

 

"....Thank you Aura," Elizabeth said in the dark evil, mechanical voice that this mask came with. "I could make this work because I have a very usefull skill. Doppelganger

."

 

As Elizabeth said that her shadow stretched, and another Elizabeth came from there. This one, while it was exactly like her, her eyes seemed to be empty.

 

" Shift into Elemental Weaver." Elizabeth said as she took her helmet off and it melted into her Shadows, the Doppelganger's clothes changed into that of her Magical Girl Regalia. "And as you can see, I can be in two places at the same time."

 

"Wait, wait a second there!" Luna said interrupting Elizabeth, "So are you a Magical Girl or Villain? Were you a Mage or a Powered?"

 

"Yes." Elizabeth answered mischievously, " I could wield both powers before the System came in, that is another problem we can deal with later."

 

Elizabeth willed it, and a third body manifested; this one was exactly as her [Alice] shift, and Elizabeth transferred the armor to that one, returning her body to her usual blonde form.

 

"So...I had these two alternated identities..." Elizabeth said and while sighing continued, "But after Advent I couldn't access to them, I didn't knew why at the time of course, so since I wanted to continue studying in the MPI I needed a new shift..."

 

"OH GOD THERE ARE MORE?!?!?" Luna screamed while looking around as if to find a fourth blonde.

 

"...The new one didn't run away to live a new life, but nowadays I go by [Shift - Stardust Weaver]." And as a last effort, Elizabeth shifted into her newest shift, the one that included some mechanical components and was closer to an exosuit with frills and skirt than a Magical Girl Regalia. "You can imagine my surprise when I found out my [Shifts] were running around in Germania."

 

"Yeah, we can imagine..." Luna said, looking at the two girls standing there without speaking. "So Alice and Elzbeth..."

 

"My former shifts, they joined back with me already." Elizabeth said, "I didn't kill them or anything, they are now more like Aura."

 

"An evil space maid?" Lexia said from the side.

 

"...Rude." Aura said from the back throwing some popcorn at the black-haired girl.

 

"More like a sapient [Minion] who works from the back managing my stuff." Elizabeth corrected.

 

"[Minion]? That is a [Minion]? Impossible, if you are telling me that is a [Mana Construct]? You need to be at least A-Tier in magical capacity to make something that complex." Lexia said as her eyes shone in azure light "[Spell - Mana Capacity Grade]."

 

Elizabeth felt a mana wave similar to those of the [Appraisal] family type, so she let it wash over her body, it didn't seem like it wanted to take a peek within her [Soulscape], so it should be harmless.

 

"...S-Tier?" Said the gothic lolita, "...didn't our report say you were C-Tier?"

 

"She was S-Tier last year at least...At best she was expected to be low B-Tier." Luna answered from the side bringing what looked like her grades from the MPI.

 

Well yeah... "I had a very...interesting last few months," Elizabeth answered laughing. "Either way, Elzbeth and Alice are back with me and they are fine and happy. I would summon them but...they are somewhat busy at the moment."

 

Or at least she thought they were busy, she wasn't that sure if she could summon them. She guessed that she could if she tried hard enough, but wasn't sure if there would be problems by doing so.

"Yeah, they are busy. They are probably doing something important," Elizabeth said, dismissing the black screen notification. She didn't like the implications, but she didn't have time to deal with them at the moment.

 

"We will take your word for it, not like any of us has experience summoning. The summons usually aren't worth the effort..." Luna said looking at Aura.

 

"Hi~" Only for Aura to cheekily wave at her and move her popcorn farther away from the blue-haired girl.

 

"So? Why do you want us here?" Luna said shaking her head, "You are now among the most powerful mages, at least by Mana's capacity, it seems."

 

"Well we are planning to call [Shadow Pact] here to ambush him, do you have something to offer?" Elizabeth asked, "We are coming up with the plan, so I thought that you two could offer something."

 

Elizabeth had some vague memories of [Lunar Shade] being good with defense, and if the big ass rifle that [Law Bringer Sentinel] used, then she should be a good combination with [Lunar Shade].

 

"....I can cast [Fortress Grade] defense rituals; they should be able to shield something against most A-Tier powerhouses," Lexia answered while looking around as if searching for something. Aura snapped her fingers, and a blackboard with a map of their location materialized. "I could probably Shield this area at my current power level."

 

And there, Lexia drew a circle around the middle, it seemed to cover roughly the size of a small building.

 

It should be enough for their base of operations to be honest.

 

"...I can provide long-range support, but shouldn't we call [The Nine Stars] for this? They deal with these types of problems." Luna answered summoning her [Rifle], "This should give me plenty range, to be honest I don't use its full potential, I based it on [The Sniper]. But since I mostly work in an urban environment, I can't use the rifle at the maximum potential."

 

Well, she could probably help with that right?

 

"We can help with the scouting Lady Luna." Reginald said as she rose from one of the shadows, "We will give provide you with a guide for the set of coordinates we use and provide the weather, wind speed, temperature and all the required data for you to hit your target."

 

"Thank you, Reginald." Elizabeth said to the shadow Butler, usually this would have been Beatrice...

 

"Think nothing of it, Mistress; this was Lady Valkyrie's idea, after all."

 

Reginald said bowing to Elizabeth, "As for Lady Lexia. The [Shadow Haven] will provide any material you require to write or prepare for the ritual casting, including additional [Mages] if needed."

 

"...I will give you a list." Lexia said eyeing warily the shadow butler, "How many of these do you have Elizabeth?"

 

...That was an interesting question, wasn't it?

 

"Reginald?" Elizabeth asked the minion closest to her.

 

"Currently, you have fielded 453 Shadow Dragons; of those, you have 270 that are free for you or your Shadow Council to use." Aura answered with a shrug, "These numbers do not include me, Reginald, Nyx or Beatrice."

 

........What the heck?

 

"Because you are a living being?" Luna asked.

 

"What? Of course not. Because we are leaders of departments. We can't be sent on prolonged missions as easily as those others." Aura answered while taking a sip from a drink...that had materialized from nothing. "And our forces will be used in this yes, here. This is what we have to work with."

...Elizabeth was half sure that Secret Mission was the monitoring mission she had sent to guard Rossie's Sister. But those valuable assets....?

 

"They are exactly who you think they are Mistress." Aura answered.

 

Right, probably Rossie and Rena.

 

"When did they grow so much?" Elizabeth still asked, she...had wanted to summon more yes. But when had they increased in number?

 

"A few weeks ago, you did a number on us. Lady Beatrice was quite busy managing the new flood of Minions while taking care of Mistress Rossaline and Mistress Rena..." Aura said... leaving her words trailing behind.

 

A few weeks ago? Wasn't that when...oh....

 

Right...when she was on her power trip...

 

Beatrice really did deserve better, didn't she... Elizabeth would make sure to fulfill whatever wish the little girl had.

 

"Well, this makes it easier on us. If we can field them as normal summons...Then perhaps we have a higher chance of success... who knows? Maybe after this, you will be offered a spot as the [Tenth Star]." Luna said with a grin on her face, "We can stop [Shadow Pact] from ruining the [Shadow Attuned] image Lexi."

 

It was time to prepare the troops.