The first time that Elizabeth saw Echidna, she was….way weaker than she was now, perhaps level 20 at best? Elizabeth wasn’t sure; the memories of those days were quite blurry, half of it because so many stressful things had happened in those two years and a half… Part of it because the first time it had been Alice and not Elizabeth…

  And more importantly, it had been…the other Elizabeth, the girl that had the taint in her, the girl haunted by Ethan…the girl who had been mind-zapped into being a bimbo, not this Elizabeth….

  Who had allegedly the same memories, albeit a different body….It was murky terrain, her [Shift] made it so that whatever Elizabeth shifted into would become real, so if Elizabeth wanted to shift into her real body, her original body… It would attempt to do so, even if the material was allegedly of better quality.

  Elizabeth wasn’t so sure about that statement, she knew of course, that Chloe’s body(OG Chloe) had a better body (In mana conductivity, Elizabeth had better plot), but was that all? Elizabeth wasn’t so sure.

  Nonetheless, she was meandering; that wasn’t the issue at hand; the issue was Echidna, not the identity crisis that Elizabeth suffered on a daily.

  Echidna, the Mother of Monsters.

  Echidna, The Mother of Shadows.

  Echidna, Eleanore Windsor.

  Echidna, The Mother of Alice.

  Echidna, The Mother of Chloe Ashcroft.

  Echidna….The woman who Elizabeth wanted to punch.

  “Well, well….look what came to me…” The woman’s voice rolled out with the shadows, Elizabeth noticed how the space around them seemed to warp, and soon enough, Elizabeth, Rossie, and Rena were standing at the base of a set of stairs, with the woman with silky black hair looking down on them.

  From the stairs, a deluge of Shadow Mana flooded; each step it went down, some of it condensed into the statues that stood at the sides of the stairs.

  No, not statues…Minions.

  Elizabeth hadn’t quite noticed the first time she had seen them, but now? Now she could see it; each one of those was a Minion, a powerful one. But in a different way from how Elizabeth went around on the minion problem.

  While Elizabeth was happy letting them develop and grow on their own, these were more…mechanical; Elizabeth couldn’t see any spark in them, no sign of anything other than loyal robotic servants.

  “Alice Ashcroft…” Echidna said, pulling a folder from the shadows, “Registered as a Minion for [The Hydra’s Fang] on the eve of the [Advent]....”

  Echidna turned to look at Elizabeth, then back to the folder, “You are registered in our logs as a particularly susceptible victim to the taint and had a schedule of three decontaminations per week…but the [Advent] occurred before your second visit.” Echidna closed the folder and let it drop, it sank into the shadows, “Nothing too weird, most of those serving under the banner of [The Hydra’s Fang] split after [Advent], we respect that.”

  Did they? Elizabeth got the impression that Echidna didn’t like to let go of her servants, at least by how she dealt with the minions she got that impression.

  “What is a wonder, however, is how we didn’t find any data on you for almost two years and a half….now you are what? About to graduate?” Echidna said, turning to Elizabeth, “And you come not only back, but triggering one of my personal search?”

  Her what?

  “You seem confused? Didn’t you know?” Echidna said turning to Elizabeth, the older woman summoning another folder, Elizabeth could barely see the words on it, [Daughter], “You seem confused, so let’s trade questions. For your sake, of course, ask away. I promise to tell the truth, but in exchange, I expect the same from you.”

  Again, with this game? What was with people and this game…First the student council and now Echidna? This reeked of an info dump…

  “Have you been searching for me since [Advent]?” Elizabeth decided to ask.

  “Yes,” Echidna answered easily enough, “My turn, how many offspring do I have?”

  “What?” Elizabeth asked confused back, “The hell are you on?”

  “Answer the question, girl,” Echidna said in a threatening tone, the presence within the room turning oppressive, Elizabeth felt as if the whole place could collapse on them.

  “...Two?” Elizabeth asked confused, “I know of two, Chloe and Maximilian? [The Thunder Queen] and [Shadowpact].”

  “....Good,” Echidna said nodding, “Good girl, your turn.”

  “....Why were you searching for me? Shouldn’t you be searching for Chloe?” Elizabeth said, perhaps she remembered? Like [ShadowPact]?

  “I was searching for the one who was my [Daughter]; I care not for your fake identity, I still don’t know how you managed to forge the identity of this [Chloe Ashcroft], but you can’t deceive me [Alice].” Echidna said, bringing a photo, one of when Elizabeth defeated [ShadowPact].

  “....crap…” Elizabeth said as she saw the picture she was wearing…

  “Is, or is this not you? [Thunder Queen]?” Echidna said smiling at Elizabeth.

  “.....Yes…..” Elizabeth answered, “But that….I was using the gift that Chloe left me, I may be [The Thunder Queen], but I’m not your daughter, nor am I Chloe Ashcroft.”

  “Your question,” Echidna said without minding her.

  “...Why do you think I’m your daughter?” Elizabeth decided to ask, “I think you should know better, how can a Mother forget the face of her daughter?”

  “...You seem to be misunderstanding something,” Echidna said shaking her head while looking down on Elizabeth, like a Mother explaining something obvious to her pitiful daughter, it made Elizabeth angry, “You…I know I didn’t birth you, there is no man on this planet capable of making me pregnant.”

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  What?

  “What about [Shadow Pact]? Maximilian?” Elizabeth said back, wasn’t he her son?

  “Maximilian? Yes, he was born out of my ovules. But that was in vitro fertilization, he was born in a surrogate Mother after my egg was drained of all the extra mana possible.” Echidna said shaking her head, “And even then his father still died, we thought that since the fertilization was a success he could survive the act…”

  What?

  “He did not, but well…he still left me a son, even if said son was a failure.” Echidna said shaking her head, “Pitiful talent, weak attitude, weak mana, weak manipulation…weak, weak, weak…”

  ….[Shadow Pact]? One of the strongest in Zaanam, a member of the [Twelve] was weak?

  “Nothing like you, I know you are my daughter.” Echidna said turning her eyes to Elizabeth, “Or are you not my flesh and blood?”

  No.

  “N-” Elizabeth attempted to answer, but her voice suddenly left her, she was incapalbe of saying no? Why? “...what did you do?!?!?”

  Elizabeth said glaring at Echidna.

  “Nothing much, a simple array, I had some of my people study your fight as soon as your identity was confirmed this morning, you would be surprised how much you can get done as soon as you start tying up the facts that happened around,” Echidna said pulling out more and more folders, from them pulling out photos, images, statements….things that Elizabeth had done, confidential data that confirmed that Elizabeth was both [Elemental Weaver] and [The Shadow Empress], how she had moved from [Elemental Weaver] to [Stardust Weaver]....

  Photos of her fighting [Shadow Pact] using both [Shadow Empress] and [Elemental Weaver]...data that implied that she had [Sin Mana]...

  “This little formation was made up to stimulate [Sin Mana], a fact that people seem to ignore is that while [Sin Mana] is a boon while tamed, some of the adverse effects can’t be removed.” Echidna said letting the image of a magical circle carved on the floor shown, the circle was covered by the shadows soon enough again, “And this one focuses [Pride],”

  “That doesn’t explain why I can’t answer,” Elizabeth said focusing inwardly, sure enough her Pride Mana was stirred, while it wasn’t a problem for now, it seemed to be leaking into her mana, even while she wasn’t benefiting from it.

  “Your Pride is being augmented, and as such. You can’t deny what you are, your self, your blood, your flesh….you can’t deny what it is.” Echidna said smiling down at Elizabeth, “Is that body made from my flesh and blood, or not?”

  “....Yes,” Elizabeth said, grinding her teeth, “But that does not make you my Mother.”

  “....How so? If my flesh and blood went there, why wouldn’t that make you My Daughter.” Echidna said narrowing her eyes at Elizabeth, “Surely by definition, I’m your Mother.”

  “....No, your daughter was Chloe Ashcroft,” Elizabeth said shaking her head. “Chloe spent all her life trying to live up to you, and she failed to do so. And was extremely depressed from that…Enough that she decided to give up her life to let me live….You denying her is wrong.”

  “Semantics,” Echidna said waving her hand at Elizabeth, “It matters not how much you change your identity using Magic or not, you are still my daughter. And will need to live up to those standards.”

  “You aren’t listening!” Elizabeth screamed back at Echidna, “...I was born from Catherine Starlight and Jack Brighton, Chloe was born from you, she is your daughter. I…I am merely using her body.”

  “......I found evidence of those names, but nothing else. No birthplace, no nationality, no age, nothing.” Echidna said, pulling out Elizabeth’s birth certificate, “Their only mention is here, in your birth certificate; under normal situations, that would mean this is a forgery.”

  Elizabeth was honestly surprised that she even found a mention of her parents.

  “But you are implying that this is not forgery; that would mean that you are a skinwalker.” Echidna said, standing up from her throne at the top of the stairs, “And that would, in turn, mean that you murdered my daughter, beat my son within an inch of death….and came straight up to me to tell me so? Why would I let you live then? Alice Ashcroft…if that is even your name?”

  ….That was actually a fair point.

  “Elizabeth,” Elizabeth said, “My name is Elizabeth Starbright.”

  “....So, Elizabeth Starbright, you haven’t answered my question. Why should I let you live? If you are truly who you said you are.” Echidna said, there was some type of….joy? Amusement? something was going on in Echidna’s head.

  “First, I didn’t kill your daughter.” Elizabeth said pulling out the letter that Chloe had given Elizabeth, “Your daughter decided by herself to give her life for me, and asked me to give you this.”

  Echidna stretched her hand and the letter flew straight towards her…Elizabeth didn’t felt Shadow Mana, at all, in that movement, so that was…troubling.

  “Second, [Shadow Pact] earned himself that beating,” Elizabeth would not accept any question about that, “He tormented Alice and Chloe for god knows how much, so he had it coming.”

  “I thought that you said that my alleged daughter Chloe was dead?” Echidna said while opening the letter and reading the contents, “And this letter seems to confirm that…to some degree.”

  “Chloe is….A girl who helped me and had no name asked me to help her pick one, so I picked Choe for her,” Elizabeth said in a lower voice, “So she would honor the memory of the girl who wanted to live a happy life…but couldn’t.”

  “Because of me,” Echidna said nodding, “I assume?”

  “Yes,” Elizabeth said, nodding, “You never acted like a Mother to her, so the fact that you are trying to claim to be my Mother irks me.”

  “....Are you aware of what this letter says?” Echidna said raising the letter, the paper was black, and Elizabeth couldn’t see any letter there.

  “No,” Elizabeth hadn’t tried to peek at the contents, the letter between Chloe and Echidna was a letter from a daughter to her Mother, she didn’t want to be rude, or feel bad for the punch she wanted to give Echidna, “It’s private, so I didn’t attempt to read it.”

  “You wouldn’t be able to, it is encoded,” Echidna said throwing the letter at Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth caught it stretching some shadows from her feet and brought it to her, “...This is black.” And said as much, checking both sides of the letter, “There is nothing here.”

  “It’s encoded. It doesn’t use Shadow Mana, but instead, it was made by engraving words by disrupting the shadow mana from moving,” Echidna said while pulling some of her shadows and manipulating the shadow mana to form words between the weave of the shadows.

  Even while seeing it, Elizabeth wasn’t sure she was able to do something like that….Well, she could probably manage it by ordering her minions to do just that, but it wouldn’t be like what Echidna was doing.

  “...Chloe couldn’t use Shadows, she had Lightning as her power,” Elizabeth said turning to the paper, now that she had said that, Elizabeth noticed….some remmanent Lightning Mana in the letter.

  “I know,” Echidna said, “That girl, Chloe, purified the Shadow Mana within the paper to achieve the same result, a brutish method, but one worked because the result was the same as my encoding…And the cypher she used is privvy only to me and Maximilian…or to be precise, its something I would give to my descendants.”

  “So that means!” Elizabeth said looking at the piece of paper, a snap from Echidna’s finger made the whole thing crumble, before Elizabeth was able to decipher it.

  “Yes,” Echidna said, eyeing Elizabeth, “I believe that Chloe Ashcroft was my daughter.”

  Perfect, part one of Elizabeth’s mission was complete with this.

  “So what?” Echidna asked next, “That doesn’t change the fact that you are my blood and flesh too, and in turn, my Daughter.”

  …..This woman was crazy.

  “No, like I said. My parents…” Elizabeth said nursing a headache.

  “Don’t exist,” Echidna said, cutting Elizabeth, “And you took away my daughter, so you have nonexistent parents, and I lost a daughter.”

  “That does not mean you can just become my Mother,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head, “I don’t even like you.”

  “So what?” Echidna said, smirking, “Max doesn’t like me either, but he still obeys me.”

  …… What was this woman saying?

  “I’m not [Shadow Pact],” Elizabeth said, “I am Elizabeth Starbright.”

  And to make sure her statement was clearly understood, she shifted back to her normal form, her blonde form.

  “I don’t look anything like you,” Elizabeth said, crossing her arms atop her chest to demonstrate that fact, and with one of her hands, she played with her blonde hair; Elizabeth was the exact opposite of Echidna.

  While Echidna was what you could call an Asian beauty (Like Chloe and Alice), Elizabeth was the exact example of what Catherine had been, a gorgeous blonde woman.

  Elizabeth was better endowed than Catherine had been, but that was beside the point.

  “No one will believe that I am your daughter, and before you ask. This IS the body that I was born with.” Elizabeth said preemptively, “I may have received the body of Chloe, but it was used as nourishment to give me back my life when Ethan did the whole [Advent].”

  “....You know of Ethan?” Echidna asked. “...What were you doing in the [Advent]?”

  “I was in the middle of it, Ethan used my body to attempt his Apotheosis,” Elizabeth answered, “If not for…”

  “[Framework] and [Odyssey] stopped him; they ascended to save us from a thousand years under the yoke of [The Stygian Bane].” Echidna said before Elizabeth, “Why would they…”

  “Because that is how a true Mother acts,” Elizbeth said, smirking at Echidna; at least she was smarter enough to find the smaller details, “A true parent does all they can to save their stupid daughters when they make a mistake or are in danger, even if it means doing things they don’t want, or dirtying their hands.”

  Elizabeth would never stop being grateful for what they did, the fact that Mother became something she hated more than anything for Elizabeth? It was hard to top that.

  “....You are the daughter of [Odyssey] and [Framework]....” Echidna said sitting back into her chair, “....My daughter helped [Framework]’s daughter….”

  …..What?

  “....I killed your daughter,” Elizabeth said, “Your daughter died because of me.”

  “So?” Echidna asked back, “She helped [Framework] if she was anything close to useful; she probably did it with tears of happiness.”

  ….She did….but not because she was happy about helping [Framework]’s daughter, but because she wanted Elizabeth to be happy, because Elizabeth had parents that loved her…Unlike Chloe.

  “Shadow Step,” Elizabeth moved before she knew it, before being aware of what she was doing.

  She hadn’t prepared for it, she hadn’t set up the playing field, she hadn’t sent orders to her minions to prepare for combat, hell. She hadn’t even asked Rossie or Rena about if it was the right thing.

  Instead, she merely pulled at the Divinity that she had over Shadows, to replace the control Echidna had over them with hers, to allow herself to change places with someone else’s shadow…

  All so she could re appear in front of Echidna and throw a punch at the older woman.

  “....Are you sure you aren’t my daughter?” Echidna merely asked as Elizabeth’s fist had made contact with the other woman’s face, “Your control over Shadows looks almost Divine, in comparison with this Chloe girl who apologized to me for being born with Lightning Affinity instead of Shadow Affinity.”

  ….That was what Chloe sent?

  “....I had planned to only punch you once,” Elizabeth said, pulling back her fist and pulling at her Shadows to materialize her Claymore, “Change of plans.”

  Elizabeth materialized the armor of [The Shadow Empress] on her body, she didn’t [Shifted] into Alice’s body. It didn’t felt right, she didn’t want to fight using Alice’s body, she didn’t want to fight using the body that was made up to increase her Shadow Affinity, no…

  She wouldn’t fight using the body of [The Shadow Empress], Echidna’s daughter in another world.

  She would fight using the body of Elizabeth Starbright, the daughter of [The American Crusader] and [The Stardust Explorer]. And she would make sure Echidna regretted it.