"Start it slow she says…" Alice said sighing, "There is no 'Start it slow' for thins like this."
Well, nothing that Elizabeth could do about it, "I really need the power, there is no two ways about it. Or would you have me stand in front of Echidna like this?" Elizabeth decided to ask Alice. "You know her the most of us, do you think I have hope?"
"No, not in a thousand years," Alice said immediately, "Not with Shadows, not with any element, really. If this Echidna is even a fraction of Mother, she is not something you can defeat."
Well that sounded ominous enough, "What do you mean?" Elizabeth asked, "Is the Taint making her that powerful?"
"The taint?" Alice barked a laugh at that, "No, nothing like that. Mother wasn't powerful because of the taint in my world. If anything that may have made her weaker, no. Her power comes from her summons. Like you, it looks as if she depends heavily on her summons."
Like Elizabeth?
"She doesn't? All I have heard about her seems to imply she fights using summons. If she had such powerful summons, why would she need anything else?" Elizabeth asked, confused.
"Do you fight only with summons?" Alice said back to her.
"No?" Elizabeth answered, "You know that, I fight with elemental manipulation and spell weaving depending of the situation."
"Exactly, even though you have very versatile summons. The shadow armada is powerful by itself, and you can channel spells and skills through them. You could move all your shadow dragons to surround someone without them noticing, then shift them into the element your enemy is weak and blitzkrieg them." Alice said nodding, that…sounded actually like a nasty way of dealing with someone, "But you do not, and this is only using Shadow Dragons, this is not going into the specializations you have, like the Shadow Scouts, Assassins, Knights, Mages, Tanks, Healers….that is without taking into consideration outliers either, like Reginald or Mordred."
….Now that she was mentioning it…
"Or Nyx," Chloe added from the side, "Don't forget about Nyx; he is still there."
"He doesn't count, not while the Shadow Haven and Terra Nova are stabilizing, as an Anchor he can't move around as freely," Alice said dismissing Chloe's statement.
Wait a goddamned second, Anchor?
"What do you mean? Is that why I haven't been able to pull at Nyx?" Elizabeth asked, she had been worried about Nyx, but since the connection was still there she had left it alone. "Because he became an Anchor?"
"You remember how he sank within the Shadow Haven?" Alice asked, Elizabeth remembered that, so she nodded, "Well, he is helping stabilize your Domain, we work from within to help you while he works from the space between us and your Soul, so he can't move around while we are stabilizing, as soon as you finish absorbing the [Gems] he should be able to move around again as freely as before."
…..
"Please don't just eat them like candy, we do need some time to acclimatize, you should be able to eat the next soon enough anyway." Alice said sighing, "Just give us either a warning or think if they are worth it, we still need to deal with [Proliferation] too….we can't just leave it in the armory."
Right….that was a thing that Elizabeth had shoved to the far end….mostly because she didn't want to think too much about it, the thing had almost killed her…twice.
"Well….get on with it," Elizabeth slapping her face and standing up taller, "Give me the first batch."
"It will not matter if it's a batch or not…" Alice said sighing yet once again, "But here, have fun."
The black-haired girl threw an envelope to Elizabeth, it had the words [The Shadow Tide] on them.
Elizabeth… wasn't sure what to think about it.
"What's this?" So she asked.
"The notification and level-ups from that, we labeled them; those are the first ones about that event." Chloe said looking at her hands, not matching Elizabeth's gaze, "Better to keep it in order….it doesn't matter the order in which you open them, the notification will arrive in the same order anyway…"
So she said…Elizabeth saw the envelopes and there were quite the amount around….
"Okay, here goes the first then…." Elizabeth said summoning a letter knife to open the first envelope, as soon as she did a familiar blue-screen manifested in front of her, and with it Elizabeth felt like puking out her breakfast.
Her dinner of the previous day, the midday lunch, the breakfast again…
Everything that she had eaten these few months….
—----
Notice:
You have corrupted 154 people.
Experience awarded.
You have killed 395 people.
Experience awarded.
You have crippled [The Saintess of Healing].
Experience awarded.
You have mentally broken [The Sword Saint].
Experience awarded.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
You have subjugated two party members of a hostile [Hero's Party].
Experience awarded.
…………………………………
—------------------------
The notifications went on and on, going through people who had died, what they had achieved in life, how it would affect the city around, the damages…She had….
Elizabeth was aware of how much damage she had done with that event… Of course she was aware, how could she not be aware? But…but…
"I…." Elizabeth didn't know what to say, so she read the notification, something within her telling her that this was a resumed one.
"....We abridged it as best as we could, as much as it was possible anyway…" Alice said standing up and walking besides Elizabeth, "We can't pull Rossaline or Rena here, sorry about that…but if you need a shoulder to cry we are here for you."
"How do I look at the full list." Elizabeth said, touching the blue screen, the weight of her own hubris weighing down on her, "Tell me."
"Elizabeth…" Alice said shaking her head, "It wasn't your fault….it was a mistake, an accident. You have no fault."
"How-" Elizabeth didn't want to hear that.
"Intent," Chloe spoke, the blonde girl earning herself a glare from Alice, "You sharpen your will, focus it into the mana, and speak what you desire for it to happen, we used [Idea] to abridge it as much as we could, but if you roll out Idea you should be able to unfold it, you are Elizabeth Starbright are you not? As your grandmother would say, Tell mana to bend over and fulfill your desire."
….
"Such a crass way to say it," Elizabeth said, shaking her head, "Show me,"
But even so, she got the Idea, so she focused, she prayed for what she wanted to know, focused her mana as much as she could and said those words. Praying…praying for…
—----------
Notice:
Complete list of defeated entities….
—----------
The list….the list was long….Sadly, Elizabeth's fear were fulfilled in the worst way she could have imagined, the list was sorted by gender and age, first the males and females of age… Then the kids.
So many kids……
They had been near a park….
Elizabeth fell to the floor on her knees as she read the list, every name seared into her mind, she could feel each of them, someone who was innocent, someone whose only sin had been to be near Elizabeth when her hubris finally got the best of her.
Innocent people…
And at the end of the list…
—
Notice:
Souls have been harvested.
—
"....What is this?" Elizabeth said as she felt her heart chilled, "Harvested? Why?"
"....You are aware of what you are becoming, are you not?" Alice asked.
Of course, Elizabeth knew, "I'm walking the path towards apotheosis. The same Papa and Mother walked, I don't mind it. I know that I don't need to take the last step, this is the easiest way to get power so I don't mind walking it." Elizabeth needed that power, at least till she was sure they were safe, but this? "But what does that have anything to do with this?!?!? Why harvested?!?!? What did…What did my stupid bitch lizard self do?!?!?"
"....All [Gods] and [Goddess] have a Domain, they all have something to do with what they did in life and how they wielded their power." Alice started explaining, summoning an image of Mother in her Magical Girl form wielding magic around and giving away gems and staves, the original way she had used to spread magic in zaanam. "Mom birthed modern magic and magical girls, so she became…"
"The [Goddess of Magic] and [The Mother of Magical Girls]," Chloe finished for Alice, summoning an image of the statue of [Odyssey] that Elizabeth had seen before.
"So?" Elizabeth asked.
"Father walked the path of self-improvement, he wielded power to protect those he cared for, and in turn, while the way he achieved power wasn't as widespread as Mom, he still became [Framework], the [God of Family], and a [Anchor] to Zaanam." Alice said turning to Elizabeth, summoning images of her.
Images of Elizabeth as a [Magical Girl], when she first transformed in [The Shadow Weaver], images of when she started going on as [Elemental Weaver], [Stardust Weaver], [Shadow Empress], and even when she was in her [Dragon Empress] form…
Images of her summoning Nyx, summoning Beatrice, Sebastian…Reginald…Mordred…The thunder birds, the fire salamanders…
"What have you done so far?" Alice asked, "What have you been doing from the start with the Shadow Armada?"
"I…have shadow summons?" Elizabeth asked confused, "I ferry around some Shadow Dragons and…oh….oh nononononono, that…THAT ISN'T FAIR!"
Elizabeth now understood that, why she had that…
"That…That wasn't on me!" Elizabeth couldn't believe this, "It was all because of Alexanders!"
"You still accepted them, nurtured them….you gave them a second chance…you gave us a second chance…" Alice said shaking her head, "You didn't need to, you could have let them go, let us go…even now, all it would take is a thought and you could purge both the Shadow Haven and Terra Nexus of all the soul of the damned."
Elizabeth…had never thought about that.
"But you didn't," Chloe said taking one step forward and walking next to Elizabeth, pulling the girl into a bench that hadn't been there before, forcing Elizabeth to sit, and then sitting beside her, "You never thought about it, that you could release all of us, damned souls…."
"...you aren't a soul of the damned… Neither of you are." Elizabeth said in a small voice.
"But we are," Chloe said, shaking her head, "Alice is the soul of a version of you that shouldn't exist; she took form from the fragments that eroded from you…And I am even worse… I'm a projection made up for self-preservation that cannibalized souls of weaker entities….from there."
Chloe pointed at the last line.
"I am birthed from a massacre that came out from a misunderstanding, a mistake, an error…" Chloe said, shaking her head, "Destined to die away and join the circle of transmigration…and the only reason I'm still alive…the only reason I can do something of value is because you wanted to give me a second chance…"
"So…." Elizabeth said taking the words in.
"All you have done so far is collect us broken souls and give us a place to stay, you take in the souls of those in danger, those that no one will help. And give us hope and a place to stay, you nurture the souls of those that have been corrupted and protect us." Alice said, raising her hand to the ceiling, "You, Elizabeth, are someone who protects and nurtures the souls of the dead, then give them a second chance…A chance to do good…A chance to return…You…Are a goddess of death."
"So what do you think your domain is?" Chloe said, turning to look at Elizabeth, her eyes shining in Azure light.
"...I honestly thought it would be Shadows, what with the whole [Shadow Weaver] and what not…" Elizabeth said sheepishly… "But if I'm a Goddess of Death…why can't I sense the souls of those that…. Shouldn't…. shouldn't they hate me?"
"Your domain is currently Death, Shadow, Lightning and Transmigration." Alice said to answer the question, "As for them….we are keeping them safe, they all know it wasn't your intention to kill you. And while most are… amenable to return to the circle of transmigration, some want to help you."
"...they what?" Elizabeth was stunned by that last part, "Wait…I can reincarnate people? Or Transmigrate? Why?"
"The former tainted, they want to help you. When we managed to pull them apart from the Shadow Armada they had already learned about you and what had happened, they know the [Advent] and what happened, and…well….your cultists may have indoctrinated a few." Chloe said sighing, "As for reincarnation-transmigation, we can send them to Zaanam. But controlling who and into what they reincarnate is beyond us. We could control it (Somewhat) if it was within Terra Nexus, but as expected not many want to reincarnate into a race of fire salamanders or retarded birds."
"...they aren't…" Elizabeth wanted to defend the thunder birbs…but they….they weren't the brightest lightbulb in the house. "....send away to Zaanam those that want to go, as for those that want to remain….keep them around, as soon as I can give them actual human…or close enough to human bodies we will."
"Some said they don't mind being Shadow Dragons, Fire Salamanders or Thunder Birds," Alice said raising her hand and waving it, Elizabeth felt a rush of mana get past her and into a purple portal, she also noticed….a sense of loss. As if she had lost something important. "What about them?"
"No to the Shadow Dragons, tell them that they can wait till I finish forming all the pairings for the Sin gems, then they get to pick something." Elizabeth decided, "Also what was…"
"The sense of loss?" Alice said before Elizabeth could ask, "As far as we can tell, the more Souls you have here, the more power you get, what matters is that they are under your authority, so you sending them to another place away from your purview meant losing some of it, if you want easy power…"
"Absolutely not," Elizabeth said before Alice could say it, "No, I don't mind fighting or killing people who antagonize me, but I'm not going to go around nuking cities for power."
"....Well, our estimate says that it would stop being effective after the second city; you can only indoctrinate so many souls before they start noticing a pattern," Chloe said jokingly…Elizabeth hoped it was jokingly anyway.
"Ready for the next one?" Alice asked when they all stopped saying anything for half a minute, Elizabeth still giving it a second read to the list of people, now with some anotations of if they remained or what they had done when they arrived here.
"....Not really…but I will need to go over all of it anyway." Elizabeth said, dismissing the last set of blue screens, "Will it get better?"
"...No," Alice said, shaking her head, "It will get worse, so much worse."
"....You can't get worse than genocide," Elizabeth said in an attempt to joke.
"I'm serious, Elizabeth," Alice said in a serious tone, "These are not only the notifications of things you did, but of things that happened to you, whether you were aware or not."
Elizabeth felt that there was something about how Alice had said that, something that was important, and Elizabeth didn't want to become aware of how important it was.
"How…." Till she understood, "....Things that I did as…."
"Thins you did as The Debauchery Dragonb count too…" Alice said, nodding, "...And things that happened to us."
THOSE TOO?!?!?
"We are you too, the body I used was yours. The system recognized it as yours too. So what happened to me, also count for your achievement list." Alice said, nodding, "So yes, it gets so much worse…"
And with that they put a box in front of Elizabeth, filled with more envelopes, folders, letters…and even a gift box.
Elizabeth….was not looking forward to this.
"Here goes nothing…" Elizabeth said pulling one of those, the words on it changing as soon as she touched it. “[Alice Ashcroft’s Bizzare Adventure]”
She already wanted to return it.
