The change wasn't that obvious at first glance, or not for the first second or two. Jenna looked at Elizabeth confused, but Lily seemed to notice it, the ones that knew for sure were Rossie and Rena who smiled.

  "Your will shall be fulfilled," Was the only signal that there would be. First the place was normal only for a second later a shadow spread all over the place.

  Elizabeth was forcefully expanding her Domain into Zaanam, enveloping the shadows all around as she evicted all the people and summons that were inside the shadows she took over, in but a few seconds her tide of shadows had overwhelmed the park, leaving quite a few people stunned looking around them.

  "As for you….kneel," Elizabeth said as the shadows enveloped her body and her armor as the [Shadow Empress] showed up once more, the shadows around them turned into chains that pulled them against the floor, those that were fast enough to attempt to run away or escape were the very few that managed to keep one knee against the floor.

  The rest that wasn't fast enough or was stunned got shoved against the floor face first.

  "Should we change too?" Rossie asked from the side.

  "I mean, she seems to have it," Rena answered walking towards the closest person around and kicking it in the side, "I would rather not deal with these pests,"

  "Understandable. We will be waiting if you need help!" Rossie said from the back and sat on a bench nearby; Elizabeth made sure to make a canopy to shield Rossie and Rena against the sun and left a curtain in case they wanted some privacy.

  “Y-you…..will…..not….get….away….” One of those that had attempted to run away start speaking.

  Elizabeth shadow stepped beside him and pushed his head against the floor, she barely had needed to exert strength, he was that…weak, "I doubt someone will care," Elizabeth said as her armored boot sank his face a few centimeters more against the dirt, she removed her boot and used the shadow chains to pull him out of the dirt into a standing position.

  "Speak, why are you following me," Elizabeth said as she raised the visor of her helmet, letting her crimson red eyes shine fully, "Who is your owner?"

  "*Spit* We found you were someone who got mail from [Echidna], we wanted to make sure if you were one of us or not….it seems you are." The man smirked at Elizabeth as his eyes shone in crimson light too, "See? We are one of you, you didn't need to put this spectacle sister."

  Elizabeth had never felt this much disgust before, she had forgotten that these people were crazy, and had started brandishing those weird cults, she would need to do something about that, "You are useless then," Elizabeth said and shoved some shadows into his mouth to silence him.

  "Put the people with the same type of mana as this one to the right." Elizabeth said aloud and then her shadow chains started moving people around, dragging some less than fortunate against the right as others got shoved to the left.

  To the right stood now a group of people who, as soon as they noticed that the first one had crimson eyes all, started showing those too, cultists the whole of them.

  "You," Elizabeth said, pulling one of the ones that had remained on the left side, "Same question, why are you following me? Who is your owner."

  "*Spit* You-" Elizabeth shoved her gauntlet into the man's mouth, she had tolerated the first one since she was obviously antagonizing them, but the second? What the hell?

  "Don't you have manners?" Elizabeth said as she removed her hand from the gauntlet, leaving the thing shoved inside the man's mouth, which was starting to turn blue, "No, don't answer that; obviously, you have no manners; throw him into the nearest lake."

  Elizabeth felt her mana drop for a few seconds and a catapult was made, the man got loaded into it and a second later he was flying straight out of londonium. Elizabeth did leave a shadow dragon inside his shadow to make sure he survived….the landing; she cared not for what they did after that.

  "You, please don't spit at my face, I swear to god I'll purge your whole cult if you do," Elizabeth said pulling a new person.

  "....We are the loyal followers of the Azure Moon," The new person started speaking, this one was sounded like a woman, at least this one was more polite, was it because she was female? Surely not. It would be stupid and send a weird message to say that all males were rude and the females were polite.

  The real world didn't work like that.

  "Cultists, so? Why are you here." Elizabeth said shaking her head at the ridiculous thoughts that had formed inside there.

  "...We discovered that the holy apostle had finally found one of the targets for her messages and wanted to see what kind of person you were…." The woman said, looking up and down, "Such fine manipulation of shadows…only for you to be corrupted, perhaps there is salvation for you, but the path will be hard."

  ….Salvation? From them? Or with their help? Surely this woman wasn't right in her mind after all?

  "Why do you assume I need salvation?" Elizabeth decided to entertain that line of thought.

  "You are tainted, even after advent….you channel your rage against the injustice in less than useful ways, the evidence is in your eyes, even though the Azure Moon offered us salvation, you still cling to the old ways." The woman said as her eyes started shining in Azure light, "See? The Azure moon is with me, that is proof of my fealty and her blessing."

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  ….Yeah, crazy people.

  "Pitiful….to be in front of the Shadow Goddess and not see it, shall we enlighten them Mistress?" Mordred spoke from within the Shadow Haven.

  "No, have you found anything yet? Also, make sure no Shadow Dragon makes contact with any shadow within Londonium." Elizabeth said to Mordred.

  "First….the Azure thing?" Elizabeth said, focusing on the mana in her eyes, "Merely decoration, see? I can do it too."

  And with a thought, the color of her eyes changed from the crimson red to the Azure fire that formed when she used some of her abilities.

  The woman seemed surprised by it since she opened her mouth, but no words came out, "Secondly, this is all me. I don't need the help of a cult to do it, the red and blue thing…it isn't really that different, the Azure Fire is merely the color of Shadow Mana, and the crimson red is because the mana is unstable."

  Well, it was more because Elizabeth was using it to subvert other things, but they didn't need to know that was an option; it was better if people believed that was only possible with [The ShadowCaster] 's skill.

  Or with Ethan's skills.

  "....A prophet…" The woman said as tears started flowing from her eyes, ".....WE HAVE A PROPHET OF THE AZURE MOON!"

  "Are you blind you quack?!?!?! She had the Crimson Eyes too! She is our Prophet!!" One of the other cultists started screaming from the back.

  "Shut it," Elizabeth said, and the shadows turned into gags that silenced everyone, "I am no prophet of any of you. I just proved that I can change the color of my eyes by using mana! What the hell are you all about!"

  "Amm….Elizabeth?" Jenna said raising her hand from the back, "The color one's eyes changes depends on their mana, just like how Rossaline's eyes turn pink when she lets her mana run rampant or how Rena's eyes turn red when she does the same."

  …I mean…

  Wasn't that more of a [Lust] and [Wrath] thing?

  "Lily's eyes turn white and mine turn blue, but we can't turn them red..or can you Lily?" Jenna said turning to Lily.

  “.....impossible….the…..eyes…..are…..the……door…..into…..the…..soul……can’t…..change…..the…..door…..” Lily said shaking her head.

  What?

  ".....But I can?" Elizabeth said confused, "I mean…look, even yellow…"

  Elizabeth channeled some of her Divine Thunder, and her eyes turned golden. Wait…she channeled…..Divine Thunder…….

  "Oh my god…. It's because the mana I'm channeling…." Elizabeth said sighing, if it was the mana she was channeling then it was no wonder, she hadn't seen anyone else channel as many diverse mana as her, and…well….she had plenty mana variations to go around, she hadn't attempted to channel [Lust] or [Wrath] enough to change her eyes pink or the same hue of red as Rena.

  But…it should be possible?

  She could use Azure and Golden because those were the mana affinities she used the most, Lightning and Shadow. Perhaps when she used more of Rossie's healing or Rena's Fire?

  "Anyway, that is pointless," Elizabeth said, turning to the cultists around her, "The important bit is that I am not your people's prophet, either of you."

  "You are their Goddess!" Rossie suddenly screamed from within the small hut that Elizabeth made for them.

  "No starting any new cult Rossie! You promised!" Elizabeth shouted back playfully.

  "But this one already exists!" Rossie defended herself, they both knew the other was playing around, so it was fine…

  Mostly…

  "Goddess…." At least till the red cultists started crying tears of blood, yuck.

  "Okay, that is enough of you, all of you, fly and cold your heads." Elizabeth said throwing the red cultists into the catapult and sending them away.

  Could throwing away people solve your problems? Of course not, but it worked for Papa, so Elizabeth was going to do it too.

  "As for you…" Elizabeth said turning to the blue cultists.

  "We live to serve Goddess of Shadows," The woman from before said; Elizabeth could feel how she wanted to fall to a knee to pledge her loyalty to her…heck, she could also see the prana that wanted to come from the woman to her.

  "....To the catapult," Elizabeth said nodding.

  "Your will shall be done." The woman said with a crazed smile as she almost wanted to break out of her bonds to run to the catapult.

  "I like that one," Mordred said from within Elizabeth.

  "Of course you do…" Elizabeth said sighing, in that way she had scoured the park from cultists and their summons…actually the summons had attempted to escape by canceling their spell, but Aura had instead pulled the summoners into the trap, so that was fine.

  Elizabeth felt tired from this whole debacle, and walked towards Rossie and Rena, both girls had played around while Elizabeth was showing the heathens to fear a goddess, "I want to be pampered," But Elizabeth also wanted to be pampered.

  "Good job there Eli-Eli," Rossie said pulling into an embrace Elizabeth, her armor dissolving into shadows as soon as she was hugged and the pink-haired girl started patting her head. "So? What did we learn?"

  "That cultists are stupid," Elizabeth said as Rena pulled Elizabeth's body into the bench, now Elizabeth was laid out atop Rena and Rossie's thighs.

  "What else?" Rossie asked, the pink-haired girl was scratching behind Elizabeth's ears as if she was a cat, while Rena massaged her thighs…this was heaven.

  "....the Shadow Mana within the park was following a pattern, it all goes straight to the center and instead of sinking into the floor, it goes up, where it pools and…remains there." Elizabeth said, almost purring from the care of her girlfriends.

  She was being treated as a cat, so she wanted to purr, what was the issue with that?

  "So our next stop?" Rena said, moving towards Elizabeth's feet.

  A quick spell made sure that her feet didn't smell or were sweaty, fast enough that when Rena took Elizabeth's boots nothing was amiss.

  "Heaven….Or that tower, I guess," Elizabeth said, using the shadows to make a mockup map of the city and highlighting the place where the shadow mana pooled.

  "And all of this?" Rossie said motioning around them, the place was suffused with the spilled-out Domain that Elizabeth had pulled from Terra Nexus.

  "It goes back into the bottle, of course," Elizabeth said, pulling the shadow essence that had spilled out back into the shadows; she pulled it in all of it, made sure to leave the mana that she had isolated in peace, and even sent a few streams of it downwards to the core of Zaanam.

  She didn't doubt that the purple girl wanted this mana, but she wondered why she wasn't doing anything about it. If her senses hadn't deceived her, then whoever was pooling the shadow mana was doing it with obvious disregard for what the purple girl wanted.

  And she was the closer thing to a boss that Papa and Mother had, so she ought to be somewhat important.

  "How do you wanna deal with this then Eli-Eli?" Rossie said smiling at Elizabeth, it was a dangerous smile, one that promised untold amount of physical violence against her body…

  The kind of violence that Elizabeth wanted to indulge but needed to wait a couple more months….

  "....we go as a team and deal with it as it goes?" Elizabeth said meekly.

  "Good," Rossie said, nodding, "I was afraid you would ask us to remain outside again."

  ".....I mean….it was needed because the student council was an unknown variable…" Elizabeth said, of course, she didn't mention that her fears steered mostly from the [Of Akasha] title series.

  She wasn't sure what the full list of titles Echidna had, but she doubted they would be that important sounding or useful, if her work was to birth the [Inheritor of Akasha], then she had already screwed that one.

  She doubted [Akasha] would let her keep whatever perks she should had, unlike Papa, Echidna did not fulfill her part of the deal after all.

  "So we march in full combat regalia?" Rena asked from the side, the girl had the hands of a goddess and the fingers of the devil, Elizabeth wanted those fingers to scour her body whole….

  "Yesh….But….when I tell you….Just….prepare your [Shifts].....both the normal…and the….other…..nnnngggg…..ones….” Elizabeth said as she fought to remain aware of their surrounding, but what Rena did with her feet….

  It was certainly not PG-13 at all.

  "Okay then," Rossie said with a bright smile as her hands stopped scratching and toying with her weak spots (At her head), "Let's prepare Ren-Ren."

  "Right," Rena said as her hands left Elizabeth's feet and she helped the now black-haired girl stand.

  Elizabeth wasn't sure what this feeling in her stomach was, this longing that traveled from her waist to her chest…

  "Let's go Eli-Eli, or should I start thinking a nickname for that form?" Rossie said, stopping and tilting her head cutely to the side, "Ali-Ali? Lice? Ace? Li-Li? I could make it work, what do you think about it Li-Li?"

  …..Elizabeth was left high and dry….or well, not quite dry, but she was left there to dry up….

  Was…was this how Rossie felt all the time when Elizabeth followed her in her playful flirting only to stop a few seconds before it was all too far?

  Was this how she felt?

  Was this revenge?

  "What's the matter, Li-Li?" Rossie said to Elizabeth with a knowing smile, "Do you want us to knock it up a few extra degrees?"

  Elizabeth could see it clear as day, the allure behind the pink-haired girl's eyes, the silhouette of the heart hiding within those eyes…

  ".... Let's just go and deal with Echidna…" Elizabeth ended up saying after sighing and cursing her own stupid morals and her stupid useless upbringing… "....I swear to god…if you weren't up there….."

  Elizabeth….would still probably keep her rules even if her Papa wasn't looking down from the heavens…probably…most certainly….

  How long was it? Five months?

  Perhaps….perhaps Beatrice and the Valkyrie girls could have waited a few extra months before bringing her back?

  No?

  Damnit.