The whole ordeal wasn’t as bad as Elizabeth had thought it would be, honestly, it wasn’t as bad as Alice and Chloe had put it.

  “That isn’t how one’s muscles behave, try it again.” Even if she was getting too many complaints.

  How was Elizabeth supposed to know how one’s muscles behaved? Besides, wasn’t it amazing by itself that she was even capable of returning to a mostly human form by merely using her own Mana?

  That was impressive, at least by Elizabeth’s standards; she was, after all, often accused of being a bimbo. Could a bimbo do this? Could it!

  “Your hair is turning black, goddess, can’t we just return her access to the stupid skill?” Alice complained to the other blonde in the room, not Elizabeth, but Chloe.

  “No, she needs to learn. We told her doing this was bad, so having her remake her body from scratch is the least she should do.” The blonde said plucking some flesh parts from her blouse and throwing them, away from Elizabeth.

  She would need that part!

  Elizabeth wanted to complain, so she focused really hard and pulled, the shadow of the blonde stretched and a mouth manifested, Elizabeth was half tempted at nibbling at the blonde’s ankles.

  But decided against it, if she was to nibble at someone’s feet it would be at Rossie or Rena’s feet.

  “I am….rebuildling….a body….withouth….assistance…..give me…..some…..credit,” The shadow maw spoke slowly, its design wasn’t set up to speak human tongue, if anything it felt awkward, Elizabeth reworked some of the internal, she was probably not going to do this often, but better to do it now than never, she didn’t want to speak like Lily if she could stop it.

  “That is beside the point; you would need to learn to do this later anyway. You depend too much on talent and mana manipulation,” Chloe said shaking her head, “This is important for your development, the System is pulling your constitution up and charm already, you can do whatever you want with the other stats, but if you don’t want the last twenty-seven levels to go into Constitution and Charm, get to work.”

  What?

  Elizabeth did notice that she was feeling more….alive? Pretty? Elizabeth wasn’t sure how to describe it.

  “But then shouldn’t I need to do this with my real body?” Elizabeth asked confused, shouldn’t she do this with her own body? No wait, she was midstep right now wasn’t she? She couldn’t just combust like this.

  “We are doing it with your real body,” Alice said sighing, “This is your real body Elizabeth.”

  What?

  “Did you think it was a projection? You are in a dangerous position, what do you think is your real body?” Chloe said, turning to the pile of melted flesh that wanted to form into the form of a girl.

  What was her body?

  “....The thing I use to move around?” Elizabeth decided to be a smartass and said as much.

  “Correct,” Only for that to backfire, “In your case, that is just what your body is; for Rossaline and Rena, their body is their physical presence within Zaanam.”

  “For your Shadow Armada, their body is the accumulation of mana weaved into a physical form,” Alice said after Chloe, “But for you? Your real body is whatever you are using at the moment, your Soul is too….malleable, be it because of your past or for the skill that is engraved at your center, we don’t know.”

  The what now?

  “Shift?” Elizabeth asked confused, trying to dedicate more energy into returning to normal, “Is it because Shift is my main skill?”

  “That may be part of the reason…try to look at your status for me.” Chloe said shaking her head, Elizabeth’s status?

  “You blocked my access to my skills,” Elizabeth said from the shadows as she attempted to use shadows to weave her form back to normal, she hadn’t thought about doing that, but given the fact that she was using shadows to speak…actually, “Status”

  Might as well try that one too, and to Elizabeth’s surprise…

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  It worked, and….well, nothing much changed besides her level and some of her stats, given that Elizabeth did notice that her status points had been looted too…

  "Didn't you say that I didn't have stats left?" Elizabeth complained, turning to Chloe, "My status points have all been put somewhere, but not that I mind. That was what I would have choosen, if anything I think I could have just dumped all into Int and Wis."

  She still remembered how much Ethan had used to encroach the world, having that much Shadow Mana….it could be useful.

  *Bonk*

  "No, bad Elizabeth. No taking over Zaanam with Shadows," Chloe said narrowing her eyes, "There is a reason to this madness, do you want to be a glass cannon like Mom?"

  Did Elizabeth want that?

  "No," The shadow mouth said as Elizabeth started to pay less and less attention to how she was reforming her body, "But it would be useful, we could overthrow Echidna's control."

  At least Elizabeth didn't think that Echidna would have as much points to distribute as Elizabeth, if we include the fact that Elizabeth had several minions that she could delegate the shadow control…

  Chances were that she could straight up overthrow Echidna from her shadow throne.

  "You think so?" Chloe asked with a smirk on her face.

  "....Do you think we couldn't?" Elizabeth asked; she didn't like the smug face that Chloe had, even if that smug face was Elizabeth's face, with some makeup.

  "I am sure we couldn't," Chloe said shaking her head, as if she had answered the most obvious question, "Echidna IS an old monster, she is almost as old as Papa."

  That….that was true.

  "She was alive when Ethan turned rogue, she was among the first Tainted and also among the first to overcome the taint," Alice said from the side, "At least on this side."

  "How was she on your side?" Elizabeth asked, she…respected Alice's privacy, "If you can answer, if you think it isn't useful for our conversation I don't mind you not answering."

  "....She was at the peak of Shadow Users, in my side Ethan…The Stygian Bane never was born, Ethan retired after the formation of [The League of Justice]. Mother took the helm and taught those that awakened Shadow base power; she directed what we called [Shadow Warriors], while Papa led the [Hero] side." Alice said, summoning a picture of Echidna dressed in what looked clothing similar to that of the [Elementalist]; by that, Elizabeth meant robes, even if her robes stuck to the body, highlighting the body figure. "Papa and the [Heroes] fought close combat while the [Shadow Warriors] fought from afar."

  Wait, right, [Shadow Warriors], but what about the other elements?

  "What about the other type of elements? Did she have [Fire Warriors] too?" Elizabeth asked.

  "There were none, if one didn't awaken Shadow Type powers they awoke physical types. Some of the tinkers did play with elemental-type attacks, but they usually got overwhelmed by Shadow Users since we have the facility of using our element in any environment." Alice answered, shaking her head, "We didn't have other types of elements. Zaanam was a world of Shadows."

  That….was interesting, then why was this version of Zaanam more free with elements?

  "...Mother, she tampered with the local laws?" Elizabeth ventured as her body seemed to be almost ready to finish the return to normal, she…really hadn't paid attention to how she had fixed, but since she wasn't feeling any rejection anymore she allowed the process to continue as it was.

  "Yes, Mom did a number with this world's local laws," Chloe said nodding, "But that is besides the point, the important fact here is that Echidna was able to have total control over a whole world of Shadow Users."

  Yeah, Elizabeth had gotten that part.

  "What do you think this says about her mana manipulation and shadow control, the fact that no one else in that world was able to defeat her?" Chloe said and then pointed at Alice, "That includes our version in that same world, someone who was trained by the very Echidna, who had every advantage."

  "...but she was not me," Elizabeth said back, "Alice may have been our version in that world. But she was and will never be me, she was her own person. When she decided to pick weapons to fight, she grabbed daggers."

  Elizabeth knew of that, she had seen the notifications, the mastery that Alice had over daggers was…well, humbling.

  "When I decided to pick a weapon, it was the two-handed bastard sword or a spear," On the other hand, Elizabeth had gone the opposite; she went for as much damage as possible. "Besides our fighting with shadows is also different, she is an assassin. I am more of a Mage or a Summoner."

  "You mean a Magical Girl," Alice said sighing, "Yes, you are very different, at both of our peaks you would probably came at top too….Unlike you, I was not a genius."

  "Don't compare yourself with her Alice, you are still cuter," Chloe said patting the black haired girl, "Besides, this is more of a thing than a person at this point."

  "Well, that's rude." Elizabeth hissed with her shadow mouth, she couldn't wait to use her mouth again, at least that way the complaint would be more personal, "I'm not a thing, I am a perfectly normal Human being."

  Elizabeth had made sure of that.

  "How many humans are born from eggs?" Chloe asked smirking, "Or for that matter, how many Humans do you think can enter with their real body into the realm of the mind and Divine."

  What?

  "I mean….why wouldn't I be able to enter my own Soul? It's mine." Elizabeth answered, only to stop speaking and think to what Chloe had said, "What do you mean by an egg?"

  What egg?

  "Look at yourself Elizabeth," Chloe said bringing up a small mirror…

  But Elizabeth didn't have eyes, or well, she probably had, and they probably were liquid at this point…or a strip of flesh, she wasn't sure, she hadn't made eyes on the Shadow Maw that she was using to speak because she didn't want to see how she looked as a lump of flesh…but…

  She wasn't feeling her body anymore, or well, she could feel it, but it felt…Normal. She wasn't getting the impressions of wrongness anymore…

  "....If I get traumatized from looking, I'm removing your boobs," Elizabeth said as she focused more Mana into the shadow maw; she gave it form and stretched the figure; if she was going to do it, she might as well do it the whole way. “Shadow Doppelganger.”

  She hadn't used this skill often, or at all. Everytime that she used she had made a new body for someone else, but this time? This time she was focusing all her skill into only making a empty body for her own use.

  She could feel her psyche kind of split its focus in two, one to her original body and the other to this fake one.

  "....What the hell is that?" Elizabeth(Doppelganger) said, pointing with her finger to an object in front of her, an object that her Soul told her it was her body. But …that her logical brain said that it couldn't be.

  "Why, that is you, Elizabeth." Chloe said smirking at Elizabeth (Doppelganger) while taking some steps forward and placing a hand atop the egg, "Can't you see us?"

  Elizabeth….could, closing her eyes and attempting to open her eyes she could indeed see a world in red, and a hand atop what could only be described as a red curtain, but….

  “...that is so wrong,” Elizabeth(Doppelganger) said shaking her head, “How can…are you telling me that I’m a lizard? Is this what you meant by not being a good idea to rush the notifications?"

  Elizabeth didn't know how to feel about it, her body…felt fine, if anything the Shadow Doppelganger felt more alien to her than her actual body, "*Sigh* Why is my body like that? Is it the Syste messing around?"

  "No, the system can influence your body to some degree, but it will never overwrite anything as fundamental as your soul or body," Alice said shaking her head, "Above all, the system wants to respect those aspects."

  "But it didn't mind the idea of mind-zapping me for fifteen years?" Elizabeth (Doppelganger) pointed out, "Or the fact that Ethan snuck into my body and was lurking at the back of my mind while growing up?"

  "The first thing…I don't know, that was more of an issue between whatever deal Alexanders made with Crystal," Alice said shaking her head, "Who knows what that asshole did or promised."

  Truly, Alexanders only caused issues no matter what moment in time they found his influence at.

  "As for the second part... You will find that after some levels of advancement it is harder to influence those below you. Ethan even like that was technically a mortal." Alice said sighing, "Just like how Papa and Mom were mortals."

  "....point taken," Elizabeth (Doppel) said nodding, it was impossible to think about Papa and Mother as mere mortals, their achievements were anything but something a normal Mortal could do.

  But even so, it was hard to stomach, also, speaking of stomaching things...

  "So will you answer what's the deal with the egg?" Elizabeth's voice sounded muffled, not like how she had expected to sound, she half expected for her own voice to sound more as gurgles, since it was coming from an egg.

  Instead...it sounded...Right.

  "That sounded....more normal than I expected?" Elizabeth (Doppel) said she had seen it from the outside, and while it was weird seeing the egg vibrate, it wasn't that.. odd.

  "That's a you problem Elizabeth," Alice said shaking her head, "That is literally you, if you want to do something about it, why not cracking the literal egg?"

  "Not that there was much of an egg to crack to begin with..." Chloe said smirking. "Come out Elizabeth, you have been ready to hatch for quite some time now."

  Elizabeth...did not like the implications of that, so against her better judgment...she tried to get a feeling of her body...But found that...she wasn't quite sure what she was feeling, everything within this stupid egg felt muted.

  She didn't have any problems extending her senses out, hell, she could even roughly get an idea of how big the stupid egg was, and it was big. Big enough that she could probably fit inside...even standing...which she was not sure if she was standing, if she was to guess she was probably not standing...

  Probably...

  "You can do it Elizabeth," Elizabeth(Doppel) sent encouraging words...well, it was Elizabeth sending herself encouraging words, if anything.

  "Here goes nothing..." Elizabeth said and then...she...Pulled.

  She pulled herself first, then with the intent of getting out she punched out, the feeling of the air rushing in and of liquid leaving her egg was the first thing she felt and heard.

  Elizabeth felt the texture of the egg, it was...brittle, and yet strong? She was confident in being able to crush it under her...fingers? She had fingers all right. But something was...off?

  "Test...test...." Elizabeth spoke as she pulled at herself and stretched, as she did so more of the egg crumbled away to give space to her wings and tail. To be honest, Elizabeth was surprised nothing stuck to her crown. If anything, whoever thought wearing a crown was easy had never worn one.

  "Wait, Crown?" Elizabeth (Doppel) said aloud.

  "....Oh....I'm...?" Elizabeth was about to say it but stopped herself, she didn't feel like...The Dragon Empress, but..."What?"

  But this was definitely that particular Shift.

  "What the hell did just happen?" Elizabeth said as she once again turned her focus towards her Doppelganger; she could see herself standing there with a confused face, a pair of dragon wings on her back, tail, crown, killer nails (not claws), and one very uncomfortable-looking dress...

  That somehow didn't make Elizabeth uncomfortable.

  Something was happening and Elizabeth didn't liked it a tiny bit.