I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

[The Traveler] stood there in silence as Elizabeth looked at him, measuring him, she felt him brush over most of his skills, even his title skills. As if wanting to ensure they were there.

Elizabeth allowed it, she didn't feel him activate or prod any of his skills. And while she could prevent him from using them, she wasn't able to use them for herself, if that was possible she would have kicked him out away or something.

Instead she was here, dealing with him, perhaps Rossie and or Rena's hate of men was sticking to her? Nah, it was probably the fact that the man had been the reason why Rossie almost broke up with Elizabeth, yes. Elizabeth was not at the wrong here.

"First...what do you know about who you want to speak with?" Arthur asked first as he settled down and sat down into the couch, "What do you really know about [The Prophet], [The Warlock] and [The Elementalist]?"

"The first are what my parents called the Italians," Elizabeth started, she still wasn't quite sure why italians or what made them italians, as far as she knew there weren't any other people calling themselves like that, "As for [The Elementalist]... Well, he is a politician from Izanami and someone who wanted to scout me a few months ago?"

Elizabeth hadn't checked on him more after that; life had been somewhat busy, and she hadn't planned to go to Izanami anytime soon, but why did he matter?

"Well, these are your main worries if you want to live a happy life away without having to worry about other people messing with you." Arthur said summoning three pictures, she knew the people in the pictures, she had seen them, both in the news and in the folders she got before about [The Twelve], "First is [The Prophet], Lucia di' Medici. She is the main brains and who plans and leads their organization."

Elizabeth knew of her, she was one of the first Magical Girls that Mother uplifted, and also one of the very few that she decided to not train or deal with, and for someone to outweird Mother...well, that was an achievement in on itself.

It was part of the reason Mother didn't delved too much into the female harem thing, Father wasn't weird or anything about Mother's female harem option. So long she didn't get into a relationship with another Man, Father was happy with letting Mother mess around as much as she wanted.

And so, the fact that Mother never got an actual female harem was thanks to that woman...or so she found out in one of the books that Mother left for her in the secret room.

Perhaps a warning from her before she went to deal with the Italians?

"Secondly, [The Elementalist] Oda Ryuuji and his pet bodyguard, [The Beast Master] Joseph Von Cavendish." [The Traveler] said summoning the next pair.

Elizabeth still didn't see the issue with these two last ones, as far as she knew...[The Beast Master] would help them right? Jenna had said that he would, so why would that be an issue?

"Before you even think of saying something smart ass as..." Arthur started saying, only to stop speaking for a second as Elizabeth glared at the Saintsworths, "...someone as prepared as you, you probably are thinking that since your friend [The Juggernaut] said that she would deliver letters and he was probably on the list, then it means he is an ally."

"Yes," Elizabeth said nodding, "I was thinking just that, Jenna wouldn't invite him if he wasn't an ally, so why would it matter if [The Elementalist] is a potential enemy?"

"Because [The Beast Master] is the closest one to being an actual worthy rival of [The American Crusader], and that man is also an underling of [The Elementalist], should Oda Ryuuji decree you a target of subjugation...well, how much do you know about [The Beast Master] not second-grade information, that you actually can confirm for yourself." Arthur asked.

And well, honestly, "Not much?" Elizabeth said shrugging, "I have been told tidbits of them, some data pre [Advent] and rumors, but even so, if they weren't a threat to Papa why would they be to me?"

"...Are you serious?" Arthur asked, sighing, "This is....you aren't a little girl anymore, just because they couldn't defeat your parents...Tell me this Elizabeth Starbright, are you able to defeat your parents at their prime?"

"....No?" Elizabeth didn't think so, not now anyway, perhaps....perhaps she could disrupt Mother's spell casting? She was more...rigid with most of her magic for combat...

At least till Mother started fighting for real, using her actual combat style and not the flashy style she used to defeat villains and whatnot anyway.

"So if you can't defeat your parents, why would you think someone who also CAN'T defeat them would be easier?" Arthur asked, "The mere fact that they can't defeat them but are alive is proof of how powerful they are."

....

"That is a very good point," Elizabeth said, nodding at the [Traveler], "Counterpoint, they don't think I am a threat to them."

"Counterpoint? At least you aren't a brute like your parents," Arthur said nodding at her, Elizabeth couldn't help but feel somewhat proud at the fact that she was being recognized for being something else than a bimbo. "But sadly, this does not apply to this particular case."

What?

"Why not?" Elizabeth asked, confused, "Why would they fear someone like me? As far as they know I am a nobody, right?"

"Wrong," Arthur said shaking his head, "To [The Prophet] you are a blank spot more than likely, someone she should not know or fear. And yet...you showed in her face, or will show in her face."

"...So? At best I'll be an insect that doesn't know her place, till I show her that I am worthy of being respected anyway." Elizabeth said, pointing out her original plan.

"Exactly," Arthur nodded at Elizabeth, "You will be in a place that no insect can arrive at, and yet you claim that she should underestimate? Why do you think I am this confident that you will need me?"

"Where is she?" Elizabeth decided to ask, if he was that confident...then surely was in some place that usually would be not available.

"In a sealed space, not made out of normal or real space. No [Space Manipulation] will be able to pierce it," Arthur said smirking, "It was a special space made out by turning Nightmares and dreams into solid, constructed with the bricks made of a thousand innocent souls weaved together by the most devious and unholy Demons that you could summon."

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"...Nightmares...And dreams?" Elizabeth said repeating afterwards, "Echidna? Echidna built it? Then I should be able to pierce it, if it was made using Shadows..."

"You aren't listening," [The Traveler] said shaking his head, "It was built using Nightmares and dreams, built with the souls weaved together by Demons. It is no physical space, it isn't even a Soulscape anymore, it's closer to...A Divine Domain."

....What?

"I beg you...pardon?" Elizabeth said trying her best to not look at her chest, or at her heart for that matter, "...[The Prophet]...Has a Divine Domain...And...you can pierce it?"

That...made no sense?

How? How had a normal human achieved that?!?!?

She...she had the souls of a billion dead humans and a whole literal dead planet, plus the remnants Echo of an actual Dragon's Soul as a base, and even like that, it took Elizabeth almost eighteen years plus five to six Sin Gems to achieve it.

And even that, it was almost a fluke!

And [The Prophet] made one?!?!?

"Yes," Arthur Saintsworths said nodding to Elizabeth, "Because most of the former [Twelve] or well, realistically, the [Nine] helped make it."

"...Oh yeah, that makes sense, that neither Papa or Mother would help with something like that." Elizabeth said, nodding, "So wait...The other Nine? Even Jenna?"

"[The Nine Stars], Jenna isn't one of them remember?" Arthur said shaking his head, " The souls were collected by [The Prophet], the demon used to weave them together was acquired by [The Warlock], then with the help of [The Elementalist] the original spell matrix was built, [The Beast Master] helped stabilize it providing the materials from some of his captures, nothing helps as much as using Kaiju blood and flesh to make a ritual."

...That...sounded like more dangerous than Elizabeth thought it was possible.

"Then with the calculation from [The Tinkerer] and some help from saved up talismans from [The Monk], we prepared the spell matrix, [The Sniper] provided with the perfect launching platform..." Arthur continued speaking.

"Wait a goddamned second, Lily?" Elizabeth said pointing out, "I know she is a sorcerer, but how the hell did Lily helped in this part? Shouldn't she is in the ritual making?"

"I mean, it was an option, but no one else could pierce the dimensional walls between the material and immaterial, and since Jenna wasn't an option..." Arthur said, shrugging, "Anyway, all that was left was to secure the construct in place so [Echidna] could work her magic, which is where I come from."

"You froze it?" Elizabeth asked, she already knew the answer.

"Yes, I froze it down while Echidna made it into a pseudo-Divine Domain, it is frozen in time by my [Chrono Anchor] and [Temporal Stasis] skills," Arthur said looking proud at himself, "I needed to use my full skill set to achieve it, even like that, with the help of the other members of [The Nine Stars] it was hard work."

"Wait a goddamned second," Elizabeth said, raising a hand, "Weren't you trapped outside time? How did you do all of this? No way Mother and Papa would allow you all to do this, and this sounds like it was done post [Advent]."

"I mean...I just did," Arthur said, shrugging, "What do you think I was doing while you spoke with Jenna? I even rushed back to tell you that I would manage to get your meeting with [The Prophet]."

...

"You just did that?" Elizabeth asked, feeling her blood pressure rise, "...Why? If you knew I wanted to meet her, why did you make it harder?"

"Because I needed a reason so you didn't throw me away?" Arthur said smirking.

Elizabeth, of course, would not take that lying down and raised her hand, shadows rising and the skills on him locking out.

"Wait wait!" Arthur said, raising his hands in surrender, "To be honest...I had already done it!"

"What?" Elizabeth asked, glaring at the man.

"From the moment I returned to Zaanam I felt the existence of this new time anchor, which mean that it was something that had happened, I didn't went out of my way to do this." Arthur said hurriedly as the Shadow Spears continued dancing around his neck, "I had to do it, time has a way to resolve itself, if I didn't do it. Someone else would do it, and then [The Prophet] would truly be out of your reach!"

"Solve itself?" Elizabeth asked as the shadows retracted, "Meaning? Some other [Time] user would do it? Why wouldn't that be better for me? Wouldn't that make it easier for me to get them? Since I wouldn't need to deal with you?"

"Quite the opposite." Arthur said straightening, "Other [Time] users would not be able to escape [The Prophet] and [The Warlock] pursuers."

"...Pursuers?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes, after I made that. They tried to lock me down. Echidna, of course, didn't raise a finger to help me, and the other members of [The Nine Stars] weren't able to reach there without help. So they couldn't help me either." Arthur said, sighing, "It is the reason I was outside time waiting for you to let me in. They have been searching for me the last three years since the [Advent], but they couldn't find me, ironically, that is the reason why Jenna and Amelia found out I was stuck like that. Since they noticed the Italians searching for me and not finding me."

"...So...Time solves itself. You helped make that pseudo-divine domain, and so the Italians want to incarcerate you, but you were out of time, so Jenna and Amelia ended up wanting to help you.." Elizabeth recounted the events, "And in turn, that meant I had to bring you back, but doing so meant that you needed to help me, and to do that, you went out of your way to find out why I needed your help, and in turn, created this very scenario."

"Yes," Arthur said nodding his head at the resume, "Time solves itself, something I made in the present affected my past, but that ensured my future."

"Time travel sounds like a headache and a half," Elizabeth said nursing her head, "Fine, so I need you to pierce this time lock then?"

"Yes," Arthur said, nodding vigorously, "The time anchor will only answer to me."

"Counterpoint, break the time anchor, unlock the frozen time and let the problem solve itself." Elizabeth said, raising a finger, "From my personal experience, it hurts like a bitch and will probably kill anyone near [The Prophet], meaning we would deal with the Italians and anyone who is loyal to them."

"Aaaand there is, you are your parent's daughter," Arthur said pointing his finger at Elizabeth, "As for the answer, first. Your friend Jenna would be sad, she had a very nice friendship with [The Warlock]."

"...She what?" Elizabeth said, confused, then remembered that one time Jenna had asked her to go easy on him, "...Fine...freeze time, I rescue the blue-horned guy, and then you nuke [The Prophet]."

"That could work, and would probably destroy half the planet," Arthur said nodding, "I mean, we could teleport her to Izanami and deal that way with [The Elementalist], so long you are confident in your ability to deal with a human with the proportional strength of a thousand Kaijuu."

"....Why would it destroy half the planet? No way [The Prophet] has a pseudo-divine domain that big." Elizabeth grumbled.

"No, it is not, probably is as big as a stadium if anything." Arthur said nodding, "But the issue here is about mass and energy, if you summon that much mass and energy in a place that already has something..."

"Ah." Elizabeth said now as understanding bloomed into her mind, "Yeah....Sana did say that the local space around Terra Nexus was now one planet short...I thought it was because she had nuked a planet when moving it...But if it was because of the side effect of teleporting a planet..."

"Yes, while [The Prophet] is smaller both in size, assets and divine domain." Arthur said smirking at Elizabeth, "The materialization of such a construct, one made by taking on the souls of victims, would create a cataclysm as if the materials try to return to their owner and find nothing, they would probably...I don't know, I don't deal with souls and magic, but I assume they would go against the one that did that to them?"

Elizabeth hadn't had that problem with the Shadow Dragons, but she assumed as much, perhaps if her Shadow Dragons ever rebelled...what would happen to her?

They moved to the real world by using her as a medium, if she lost access to her Soulscape, to her soul...to the source of some of her power...

Because the Shadow Dragons weren't even all her power, a good portion yes, but most of her power came from her actual body, affinity to the elements (Shadows and Lightning mostly), the soul aspect of her power was secondary.

But yeah, she could imagine the souls going rampant and destroying everything, and if they had the source of their problems near...that is to say, [The Prophet].

"I imagine they would try to get their just revenge, if [The Prophet] and [The Warlock] didn't perish there, they would release all the power against them. And then go after the other member of the [Nine Stars]." Elizabeth answered, "And you all would..."

"[The Monk] and [The Elementalist] are specialists in how to deal with those types of issues," Arthur answered, "And everyone else has ways to deal with those types of issues, I for one am basically immortal, you can't actually kill me since I am a fixed point in time."

"...Care to take a bet on that?" Elizabeth smirked at the man.

"If you want to test it, but all you would manage to do will be kill me, another version of me from another time will take my place." Arthur said shrugging, "Like for example, how sure are you that this is the same version you have been speaking with is living the same day from the one you brought me back to Zaanam?"

"...because you said so?" Elizabeth pointed out.

"I said I just came from doing the time anchor within [The Prophet], and even if I did indeed went to do that after you asked me to leave...I could have left and do my thing and return to this point. Nothing is sure with time travelers, time does have a way to resolve itself. By the way, do you even understand what [Fixed in time] means?" Arthur said smiling to Elizabeth.

"That you...no wait...Then...do you know when you will die? And that is why you are sure I will not kill you?" Elizabeth asked.

"I know I will die, not how or when, some versions of myself that are traveling further in the time stream are aware of it. But we all work toward the same goal, so they keep telling me to not worry about it. But yes, I may be immortal, but even immortal die." Arthur said gravely, "And I know something, you Elizabeth Starbright, will not be who will kill me."

"...You just know how to ruin a girl's hopes." Elizabeth sighed, "Fine, you can stay around...And as long as you work for me, your death is forbidden, don't think I won't know, I'll make sure Iroha keeps and eye on you."

"...Whatever you say [Oh Goddess of Shadows]," Arthur said doing a mock bow to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth shuddered as she felt the stream of Prana wanting to go to her, and she involuntarily slapped it away, throwing it to Alice and Chloe to deal with; she did not want to even know what that man thought of her when he prayed.

Elizabeth really needed to deal with that prana and apotheosis thing.

But for now? For now, she was waiting for Jenna to return with the news about the wedding location. With some luck she would give great news, such as 'We don't have to worry about [The Beast Master] turning into an enemy.'

A girl could dream.