A mother…she really claimed that she was her Mother? Not Chloe's Mother…but her? Or well, looking back on it, the message was supposed to be for Chloe Ashcroft…

  So…was Echidna someone who remembered? It was…

  "It is possible isn't it? [Shadow Pact] remembered something too…" Elizabeth sat down and stared at the phrase once again, "....It still makes my blood boil…How much suffering did Alice go through with you…how much did you make Chloe suffer…..hell, not even [Shadow Pact] was safe….and now you turn your claws to me?"

  Elizabeth wanted to laugh, she wanted to cry, she wanted to rage, she wanted to do anything…ANYTHING, but what she needed to do…

  "Let's see what you have for me then…" She needed to read this stupid message. "Whoever you are, wherever you are, whenever you are…We need to speak."

  Well, so far so good, she wasn't sure of who she was, where she was or…when she was? What the heck was she speaking about?

  "I know that you are my Daughter, because I am missing something important, something sacred to me…I have lost half my [Essence]...What the heck are you on about?" Elizabeth continued reading and the more she read the more confused she was.

  She…was aware of how Chloe's body was the perfect suit for her [Soul], since she was supposed to be born from Echidna, the Daughter of Echidna held the perfect body, and the Daughter of Papa (The American Crusader) held the perfect Soul. It was, quite literally, a match made in heaven.

  But was Echidna aware of herself losing something? Actually, was Papa the same? He never complained…or looked weaker, so what was Echidna on?

  "Now, there are two theories available to me...Either you don't know about what I am talking and are a trap set up by someone to get me distracted, or you are aware of what is happening and want to take the other half..." Echidna was so full of herself huh, granted Elizabeth.... wouldn't really mind taking more power away from that crazed woman, if anyone deserved to be knocked down a couple pegs, it was Echidna, "But it matters not, what I need of you is to come to me so I can figure this out, it is enough that my useless son got into that tantrum only to be humiliated by a Lightning Hero of all things."

  So she didn't even think of [Shadow Pact] as successful? The man had made it to S-Rank... And she thought he was useless?

  This woman never changed, nothing was enough to please her.

  At least no matter where one went, some things never changed; what followed were more pleasantries with some know-how about how to get what she wanted within this Shadowed city, and...nothing else.

  Nothing about how to contact her, but the last words at the end were quite interesting, even if bothersome.

  "If after all of this you want to claim the spot of being the Daughter of the Mistress of Shadows, prove your worth and come find me, do not be mistaken. I will look for you too, the clerk who delivered this to you has already informed me about you. I'll give you forty-eight hours to think about what to do...." Elizabeth...of course knew that she felt the shadow pulse going out as soon as the clerk left the room, "...You have that time to think about running away or setting up your defenses, should you want, it will be pointless, at the end of those forty-eight hours you will answers my questions."

  This woman....

  "Mistress? What will have us do?" Mordred spoke within her mind, "Do we prepare the shadow armada?"

  "The Thunder Birds are ready for combat, as are the Fire Salamanders," Reginald spoke next.

  "Both will remain on standby for now; we first need to speak with Jenna and Lily about this," Elizabeth answered, lifting the note and the other stuff that came with it, some papers that claimed to give her some money, some properties, the deed of this bank... Echidna was quite generous... "Did you record the data in these?"

  Elizabeth sent the message towards Mordred.

  "It has been recorded. Do you wish us to reproduce them?" Mordred asked back, "As the documents are wired, I assume you don't wish to keep them. We could probably isolate and purify them with the help of Mistress Aura."

  That was an option, Elizabeth was sure that Aura could probably isolate and remove that, if not, she was sure...

  No wait, that was probably her Pride speaking out again, she couldn't be sure about anything in this moment, she had just seen someone use a version of what she was using to move in an out of her Soulscape.

  These documents had been stored within someone else's Soulscape, meaning these could probably still retain their power if she stored them within her Soulscape, too...

  "[Wrath's Fire]." Elizabeth intoned and focused the power of Wrath into her fire manipulation to destroy them, saying, "Prepare a copy of them, as much as you can without the obvious shadow tampering, of course."

  "It will be done," Mordred answered at once.

  When the fire finished burning, Elizabeth removed the traces with some of the miscellaneous spells that Rossie kept around the apartment. [Erase Evidence] and [Remove Tracks] were quite useful as cleaning spells. Elizabeth wasn't...okay, she knew where Rossie got them, but she wasn't going to blame a girl for having hobbies.

  Everyone needed ways to deal with their stress, and Elizabeth was no one to complain about what a cute girl did in her free time.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Do you wish to register anything within the bank?" The clerk spoke as soon as Elizabeth left the room.

  "No, not at the time. Is there a time limit to register any of the deeds that I got from that safe box?" Elizabeth asked back, if the woman knew about them, then she was aware that Elizabeth was potentially her new boss.

  "There are no time limit, but you will need to register any change brought by any such deed within the safe box. The same goes for any checks or properties that you now own...If you so wish for it we were instructed to allow you to use the same spot that safe box for your personal use." The clerk said summoning again the same safe box as before...

  "Will I be the only user?" Elizabeth asked, that was...convenient.

  "I'm afraid not, there are other articles within that particular safe, but you have been allowed to use a portion of it, should you desire one of our premium safe you will need to pay the full price." The clerk said shaking her head.

  "....and there are no guarantees that I will have an actual isolated safe is there?" Elizabeth said thinking about it, she wasn't sure how they structured the Soulscape of their employees, but she doubted they had as much space as she had.

  While Elizabeth did have actual vaults, she doubted many people had Soulscapes on that scale... Probably Mother? Lily? Jenna? The Monsters at True S-Rank may have those sizes.

  But a random clerk? Doubtful.

  "...I am afraid that we can't answer that question." The clerk said, shaking her head, "That is privileged information, I can guarantee that the objects you entrust us will not touch anyone else, and they will be isolated from other people."

  Right...

  "Mordred, prepare a box, the material should be regular steel, stock a Shadow Scout inside," Elizabeth sent inwardly and raised her left hand at the same time.

  "It's done, are you sure a normal scout will suffice?" Mordred sent back.

  "Yes, I don't want to risk an Assassin for this; a normal Shadow Dragon will suffice...they don't have an advanced Soul, do they?" Elizabeth asked back.

  "No, Mistress, the normal Shadow Scouts have but the possibility of a spark. While most of the evolved variants have ignited said spark." Mordred answered, "That said, any Shadow Dragon will sacrifice themselves for your sake, you only need to ask."

  Of course they would, that was the issue!

  "I want to store this," Elizabeth said shaking her head inwardly, pulling out the box that Mordred had prepared, she made sure to pull it from the [Garage] as a normal [Inventory] skill would.

  "....Do you not wish to store the contents I provided before?" The clerk said, taking the box and looking at Elizabeth.

  "Do you know what was inside the folder you gave me?" Elizabeth asked back with a knowing smirk.

  "...No." The clerk answered.

  "Well, trust me on this. What you gave me is inside there, you may use any skill you wish to confirm I have nothing else on me," Elizabeth said shrugging.

  "...With your permission then." The clerk said, grabbing the box with one hand and pulling the glasses again.

  Elizabeth felt the pulse of mana scour her body, then attempted to poke at her [Garage]. She allowed it to go as far as the [System] side of it, the part where things stood briefly before leaving the Shadow Haven.

  Right now they had a spare of clothes, one for each girl (None was the size of Elizabeth's current form though), and then the mana wave went into the room she had been. There was nothing there anymore, of course.

  "You will not use it to make sure of the contents of the box, I assume, since I expect a degree of privacy." Elizabeth said with a knowing smirk, again, when she felt the mana turn towards the steel box she had given the clerk.

  "...of course not." The clerk said, sighing, "We will store this then."

  Elizabeth felt the mana envelope the box and then...the same feeling she got when she had invaded Akira's Soul. Only this time she could see that the space was more cramped, and...was filled with Shadow entities.

  Elizabeth wasted not even a second recalling her Shadow Dragon and leaving the box empty. The clerk...seemed to have sensed something but said nothing.

  Interesting...

  "Well, I'll return at a later date to finalize the change of ownership from those deeds," Elizabeth said stretching, "I assume you will take charge of that too? Since you have my things."

  "....of course Lady Ashcroft," The woman said turning and walking straight to a door that said 'Staff Only', "We live to serve the Shadow Mistress after all."

  ....Of course they did, fricking cultists. Elizabeth just sighed and walked out, she did notice that there were a couple extra gazes turned in her direction, but she mostly ignored them, of course the most annoying ones where the ones that stared at her from the Shadows...

  So that was how people that was able to feel the Shadows Dragons that lurked inside her shadows felt? At least not many people had noticed as of late, it did help that she was begining to finish more and more of her Shadow Haven...Or well finish Terra Nexus...she really needed to work in that naming scheme one of these days.

  "Welcome back Eli-Eli!" Rossie stood as soon as she noticed Elizabeth coming back; it was quite impressive how her pink-haired girlfriend managed to remain pristine and nonchalant, considering where her hands had been a few seconds ago.

  "Welcome back Eli," Same could be applied to Rena who stood a second later after stretching her blouse into place, she did notice that her red-haired girlfriend seemed to be missing her top under that blouse...

  Goddamnit Rossie.

  "Did you get anything fun?" Jenna asked standing next stretching and casually pointing at one of their new stalkers with her face for a second, "I assume so at least."

  Now...the poor thing that got outed dissapeared sinking into his shadow when Jenna smirked at him, not that Elizabeth minded, but the others remained, did...did they really thought that Jenna only noticed one?

  "Somewhat," Elizabeth said shrugging, "I asked the nice lady to keep the stuff I got when coming out, it was just a letter with some summons that DIDN'T INCLUDE AN ADRESS, and a couple deeds."

  Elizabeth of course didn't mince her words, but...no one seemed to react to them, so she continued, "Anyway, let's move out of here, we are just using empty space...Unless any of you wants to open a bank account?"

  "Why?" Rossie asked first.

  "We don't need it. Besides, I would rather just use whatever you have set up already." Rena said next.

  Of course Elizabeth had set up a bank account at Avalon, or well, a shared bank account for the three of them anyway. They would need to link them as a family account when they...when they....when....WHEN THEY MARRIED!

  Or something. But that was a problem for future Elizabeth! Yes!

  Current Elizabeth didn't need to think about that!

  No sir!

  Current Elizabeth was chill! Chill as....a fire salamander...

  "Amelia pays for my stuff," Jenna said shrugging.

  "....same.....Amelia....runs....the.....company....cards...." Lily said nodding sagely.

  ....Was her childhood friend and one of her new teachers a leech?

  Dang....

  "...now now, don't look at me like that. We are actively working you know, we get salaries and everything, Amelia is just HR and the treasurer." Jenna said, raising her hands in defense of her pitiful honor.

  Poor Amelia she could imagine how many problems her childhood friend caused for her.

  "Come on!" Jenna continued saying as Elizabeth shook her head and walked out of the bank with Rossie and Rena at her side, "We do work for her okay! We are even working right now! Trying to help her with her current issue!"

  Right...The problem that allegedly Elizabeth could fix, how? The heck if she knew. She would ask Aura later to check on it.

  "Right..." Elizabeth only nodded and guided her girlfriends and new girlfriends out. Heh, she could only giggle at the thought, thinking that before, she still had issues with those words and how she used to refer to Rossie. It felt as if it was ages ago.

  Nonetheless, it had helped her arrive to where she was now...Without Rossie.... her path to power would have been so different, perhaps the [Advent] wouldn't have happened like how it did...Or perhaps Elizabeth would have died the first day at school, it was impossible to know. And while she could probably force the issue, she didn't want to do it quite yet.

  Instead, she guided all the girls to one of the parks within this Shadowed city, all the while taking notice of how the shadows around seemed to have minions of all kinds, people lurking in the dark alleys and whatnot.

  She did notice that the park seemed to have more shadows than it should have, considering the time of the day and the sun's position, but that helped her more than anything.

  "So you didn't get anything? Because it sure as hell doesn't feel like that," Jenna said, sitting on a bench near them when Elizabeth decided to stop right in the middle of the park.

  "It was a letter from Echidna directed to her Daughter Chloe Ashcroft," Elizabeth answered.

  "...She remembers?" Jenna asked.

  Of course Jenna remembered Chloe, that didn't surprise Elizabeth, "She doesn't...not quite right anyway. Not like Maximilian did anyway." Elizabeth said shaking her head.

  "Then? What do you want to do? I assume Echidna gave you an address or something? I know you said that she didn't. But since you came here..." Jenna said, turning to Elizabeth, "And what do you want to do with them?"

  This time, only half the shadows trembled; at least this time, it seemed that they had less talented people around; perhaps they sent the less useful ones since they wouldn't be that much of a loss?

  "Well...Echidna asked me to either go to her or wait forty-eight hours...So let's go see this woman." Elizabeth said, smiling evilly as she raised her hand to the skies, "But first... Let's deal with these pests."

  She lowered her hand in one swift motion, and it was time for these heathens to know who their Empress was.