Echidna had a version of the Taint?

  Elizabeth…. didn't know what to do, she would still deliver Chloe's last message even if it killed her of course, that hadn't changed at all. But…. could she punch her still? It was probably going to be more difficult…

  "So? Do you want to skip this part and go straight to saving Amelia?" Jenna asked from the side, pointing at the building where they had arrived, "This will probably still be here, and it's not like they can stop you anyway."

  Jenna obviously was referring to the people who had followed them. Some didn't get the full scope of the message, but those that had started to stalk them all remained at the same distance, roughly half a kilometer away from them.

  The radius of the park they had been to before, did they think that Elizabeth couldn't expand her Domain further away? They were wrong, Elizabeth could probably sink all in Londonium in her Domain if she tried, not that she would, the more she allowed it to spill out, the harder it was to pull it back in.

  Not that this was a debuff or anything, the more her Domain expanded, the more her power grew with it, she knew this for sure, she had noticed how her power increased when she allowed merely five hundred meters around her.

  Actually….

  "Okay….yes, I can do that…" Elizabeth said, nodding; she took a step forward to the building, and before her feet touched the floor, she intoned inwardly, not towards Mordred, Reginald, or anyone inside her Shadow Haven or Terra Nexus.

  No, she intoned towards the deepest part of her Soul, "We need to talk." Towards Alice and Chloe.

  And with that message came the sense of time slowing to a crawl; the world started losing color, turning into shades of gray as a door opened in her sight, Elizabeth continued her step forward, but it was as if she was walking inside water.

  And looking behind her, she saw…her form in her Alice Shift with Rossie and Rena walking beside her.

  Elizabeth looked at herself and she was once again in her blonde form, or well, her original form? It was up to debate what her original form was, but she liked to think this one was. Nonetheless, she turned and walked towards the door, which was shining in golden light.

  As soon as she crossed the threshold, the feeling of the time stopping went away, and she found herself inside the room that Mother had decorated with all her happy memories, the same room that she had dedicated to her Divinity.

  "The room of memories," The voice of a girl said from the side, the pitch was slighty higher than hers, but Elizabeth could see the similar tone to her own.

  "The room we share," The voice of a second girl sounded after, this one was almost the same as Elizabeth, only it was filled with a more hauhty tone.

  If Elizabeth spoke like a rich girl who wanted to laze around, this one was a haughty daughter of a rich family who had been pampered rot from birth.

  "That is a rude way to refer to someone else, as someone who would rot away if given a chance," Chloe said, smirking at Elizabeth.

  "Long time no see," Elizabeth said to the pair of sisters who had entered the room, a blonde girl that looked exactly like Elizabeth, and yet so much more different.

  Unlike Elizabeth, Chloe used makeup and dressed up in quite a gaudy way; if Elizabeth put on cute clothes that were comfortable, Chloe used tight blouses and short, uncomfortable skirts.

  "What did you need, Elizabeth? We assumed it was important since you are about to speak with….her, so we are burning what little resources we have to speak with you." The black-haired girl spoke, Alice. The girl who held memories of an alternate life as the daughter of Echidna.

  "...I need power," Elizabeth said, trying to not think too much about how this must feel to Alice, "As much as you can afford."

  "Why are you asking that of us?" Chloe said from the side, "If you want power go and grind, or eat another one of those stupid gems you haul around."

  That was…actually fair?

  "Unless you want to use our side of the system, there is nothing we can do to help you in that, and while Mom did give us some tips in case you need to do an emergency Apotheosis…" Alice started saying, but Elizabeth had to stop her.

  "Hold on a second, Mother gave you what?" Elizabeth said, stopping her right there, ignoring the fact that Alice had referred to Mother as Mom aside….

  "While she was smothering us, she left some magic circles, formulas and some spell nodes for us, if we need to bail you out of the mortal plane we can do so, your Divinity may break, and you will probably end up as a Fake Goddess, but you will be outside the purview of whatever that was dangerous enough for us to pull the trigger." Chloe said, shrugging, "And whatever hurt you will be within range of Mother and Papa."

  Chloe did refer to Mother as Mother huh…Then why did Alice call her Mom?

  "Yes, we can pull the trigger, that will give you more power than the average S-rank within Zaanam if that is what you want?" Alice said, turning to Elizabeth, and a [Gem] hovered above her hand suddenly. Elizabeth…. couldn't even start to understand what the hell was stored within that thing.

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  "No," Elizabeth said shaking her head and wishing she hadn't seen that thing, she would need to find the memory of that within the Shadow Spire and break it, she felt as if merely remembering that thing was dangerous, "I want you to give me my levels."

  "....What do you mean?" Alice said, pretending to not know what it was about, but Elizabeth could see the obvious nervous ticks from the black-haired girl.

  "My levels, the ones I got from the fight against [The Shadow Tide] and the small spat against Asher, besides whatever achievement goals I got in the last weeks." Elizabeth said raising her fingers as she went through them, "I am sure I should have some stockpiled."

  "....Why can't you be a normal bimbo," Chloe said, sighing, "When did you notice?"

  "I noticed from the start," That was, of course, a lie. Elizabeth hadn't thought about them with all the bullshit that was going around.

  Looking back on it, it was obvious she had achieved great things, and yet no level-up had come? How so?

  Before, they had been kept from her, so Elizabeth hadn't thought much about it. Now, however, Now that she needed power…it was obvious.

  "Why did you keep them from me?" Elizabeth said, turning to both girls, "I know the System did so before when it was being malicious, but….I thought you both were on my side?"

  Alice sighed in defeat, "I told you we should have told her," And turned to Chloe, "See? She did end up noticing, a couple months later true. But she did notice it."

  "....It wouldn't have changed anything, besides we did need those." Chloe said shaking her head, "How do you like the progress that has gone within Terra Nexus."

  And with those words a projection of the planet manifested, atop the image was the Shadow Haven with the different tribes around it, the Fire Salamanders and the Thunder Birbs….

  And…

  "...Is that….a Mesa?" Elizabeth said, zooming in on a part of the map that seemed to be covered in a desert.

  "Yes, that will be the home for the Fire Salamander as soon as we get more Fire-attuned mana and some earth-attuned mana; right now, it is just a desert filled with cracked landmass." Chloe said nodding, then with her finger she zoomed in another part of the map, "Here is where the Thunder Birds will live."

  And the map zoomed into a series of mountains…or what Elizabeth assumed would be mountains, since right now she could barely see the beginning of one and ton of smaller ones forming a circle.

  "The thunder birb will get their settlement in the middle and live atop the mountaintop, or that is the plan anyway; they will get their capital in the middle of the valley of mountains." Chloe said turning to Elizabeth, "Neat right?"

  "I mean, yeah, but what does this…" Elizabeth said turning to the map as she stopped talking and started thinking, something that perhaps she ought to do more if she really wanted to get rid of the bimbo monicker, "....you used my level progression to fuel the advancement?"

  "Not quite…right," Alice said shaking her head, "That is yours and yours alone, the System reinforces the frame of your soul and increases the density overall."

  Was that how she grew in strength? A stronger Soul? That seemed…lackluster, Elizabeth knew her Soul was stronger than average, but was the System really reinforcing it?

  "So? Wouldn't me rushing the levels make it easier for you to work with the advancement of Terra Nova?" Elizabeth was confused, if they weren't using her levels and achievements, what had they done to them.

  "You would think so right?" Chloe said nodding at Elizabeth, "Of course you would think that, I mean… it's obvious, a stronger soul makes a stronger foundation."

  ….Was there something Elizabeth was missing?

  "Of course, the stronger the foundation, the better the building you can put atop, it's obvious, really." Elizabeth said, going with Chloe was saying for now, "I don't get the issue…"

  "*Sigh*" Alice sighed in defeat while Chloe smiled as the cat that finally got the bird, or well, in this case the birb. "That is not good at all. You have experienced what happens when the Soul is stronger than the vessel twice or three times now."

  She had?

  Oh right, the System had stopped her before using as excuse that her progressing in level too fast would end up hurting her, and it was…kind of right? In the end her Soul was sturdy enough and she got away with it…kind of.

  But that was only a one-time thing….?

  "What were the other two occasions?" Elizabeth asked, "I assume one was the system withholding my levels and achievements."

  "First, when you used [Proliferation] the first time," Chloe said, raising one finger and summoning the image of a bloodied and hurt Elizabeth atop a bed as doctors and nurses went through CPR attempting to revive her.

  She could see in the image data of how her body was growing in strength in real time, her stats shifting around and increasing quickly in numbers.

  "That was your System…or well, Alexanders really, attempting to compensate for it and saving you. Really….you would have survived in the end; Alexanders may not have, though." Chloe said shaking her head, "The asshole really couldn't decide what to do, if he had left you to your devices your Soul would have cracked and he could have used that as a way to kickstart his revival….or to move into the circle of transmigration free of all bindings to the mortal plane:"

  "Your foundation was too heavy for the building you had, your soul was too heavy for that body, so your body was forcefully pulled to a level you could survive," Alice said, pulling the image of a house built atop dirt and another built atop solid concrete. "This is a bad example, but it may help somewhat."

  The image of the house built atop dirt was shaken; the building moved along the dirt, and in the end, it didn't fall, "And now, your turn." Alice said as the second image was shaken too, the foundation remained intact, but the vibrations got sent towards the building, the house was linked to the concrete foundation by some strings, and in the end the house ended up tilting and being destroyed.

  "And that is not all!" Chloe said from the side, the house had been destroyed, but she kept sending tremors into the image, as the image shook more and more, the concrete foundation started sinking into the dirt. Soon, the concrete foundation was far into the ground.

  "....So even if the house had survived…" Elizabeth said looking the image, the concrete foundation kept sinking and sinking.

  "The house would have been destroyed nonetheless, since the foundation is too heavy, unless you build all at the same time, a sturdier house," Alice said rewinding the image, instead of a wooden house, this time what was built was a building.

  The image restarted once again and this time as the foundation was sinking, the building was being constructed, taller and taller, Elizabeth recognized the building, it was her Shadow Spire.

  "So you mean that I need to build a stronger house or build at the same pace that my foundation gets reinforced?" Elizabeth said turning to Alice and Chloe.

  "Yes, if you want to increase your level safely, you need to increase the might of your building at the same pace. The problem is that you achieve too much too fast." Alice said shaking her head, "So we stopped you from getting those levels and achievements."

  ….

  "But I still need more power," Elizabeth said, "And besides, my building isn't as weak as you say."

  "You may have a strong building, but tell me this, Elizabeth Starbright," Chloe said, standing in front of Elizabeth, looking down at her, "Do you really think that body you use is strong enough to house the Soul of a God?"

  "Goddess, you mean." Elizabeth said in a joking tone.

  "No," Alice said, shaking her head, "What you have is the soul of a God,"

  "....But Alexanders Soul was purged free of everything, even if I got his vestige, which I didn't get in the end, by the way. Shouldn't it be the Soul of a Dragon instead?" Elizabeth asked.

  "Alexanders was many things," Chloe said, shaking her head, "Normal was not one of them."

  "Fricking Asshole," Elizabeth said shaking her head at that, she couldn't even complain about it, "So I have the Inheritance of a True Dragon…"

  The image of her form as The Dragon Empress formed on the wall.

  "The soul of a God," Alice said afterward Elizabeth, with those words the image of an old man with a platinum hair, Elizabeth hadn't seen that old man before, but she got the impression that it was Alexanders.

  "And the Fate of an Administrator," Chloe added, the words resounding within her head as if it was a sledgehammer to the head, Elizabeth took great amount of effort to see the image that formed, she could barely get the frame of what seemed to be the image of a little kid.

  "Administrator, god and dragon." Chloe said in a more normal tone as the images lost shine, the image of herself as a Dragon Empress now looked like a girl doing cosplay.

  The old man…well, he still looked somewhat dignified, if grim to some degree, lastly she turned to the final image she hadn't been able to process.

  "A kid?" Elizabeth said looking at the last image, it was the image of a little kid, he looked somewhat like Alexa.

  "Alexanders true form, you never got to see him as he was right?" Alice said summoning an image of Alexa near him, it was truly like seeing a pair of twins, "The Twin Brother to Alexa, that was his last Identity as he ascended to the role of administrator. Even if it was to a broken dead world."

  "...I feel like asking what that is, will be something that I'll regret." Elizabeth said turning to Alice and Chloe.

  "If you want to know we can tell you what we think that is," Alice said turning to Chloe.

  "But we aren't entirely sure what it is, we assume it has something to do with the type of work that Papa and Mother do," Chloe said, "So? What will it be?"

  "..... Let's start slow," Elizabeth said, turning to Chloe and Alice. Even if it was risky, Elizabeth would need more power if she stood against Echidna.