The building was more…mundane than what Elizabeth thought it would be, unlike what she had expected (A fully armed warehouse or office filled to the brim with weapons); this was an office building with paper pushers running all around.

  "Hello, welcome to ShadowNet Incorporated, what can we do for you?" And worse of all, they had a secretary, a woman who looked roughly around 26 to 29 years old? Elizabeth couldn't quite gauge her that well, but she seemed to be on the older side?

  "Yes, hello." Rossie said taking a step forward, "We were wondering if you offered some kind of tour? We are visiting the city after the [Advent] and we didn't recognize the building and thought it must be something new improved by the [System] to some degree."

  The woman smiled and nodded, "We do get that kind of visits, most people don't know why they find our building weird at all, care to throw a guess?" The woman smiled while looking at them, not even stopping working on her keyboard. Could she type without seeing the monitor?

  That was some dedication to her work.

  "Is it the color scheme?" Rena said pointing to one of the walls, "You didn't see as many buildings embracing the full black before."

  Point towards Rena, Elizabeth did notice the building looked black, but it wasn't black. It was coated in shadows, which gave it a black lock.

  "Close, the color does have some degree with some people visiting us, but that isn't it." The woman said smiling while she shook her head.

  "Is it the site?" Rossie said next, "I think this was one of the empty lots post [Advent], the plot lots that people don't know what they were used before for."

  The what? Oh right, Elizabeth did notice that, that some plot lots people didn't know what they were, she…had thought of investigating that…and didn't do it in the end, if she was to guess either it was one of her parent's buildings or it was of the Saintsworths, since they seemed to have been totally purged from Zaanam.

  "Close, so close…but also no." The woman said still smiling, "Care to take a guess Alice?"

  ….Dang it.

  "It's the shadows," Elizabeth said pointing towards the ceiling and pulling, the Shadows weren't hers, but even so she was able to trigger a reaction and pull some of it, it was heavier and harder than she would have liked to admit, "The building being encroached this much with Shadows calls to people weaker to the influence of shadows and probably allures those that are strong too."

  "Correct," The woman said smiling as a pair of doors opened in the far end, "We weren't expecting you, to be honest. Most of those that receive an invitation tend to wait patiently for their turn."

  The paper pushers had disappeared at some point; Elizabeth hadn't quite noticed when or how…

  "It was a variation of Shadow Manipulation and space mana, using the shadows as a medium of course." Aura whispered into her ear.

  "So they used Shadow step?" Elizabeth asked back.

  "....Not that skill…okay yes, it was Shadow Step…Man you Shadow users are bad with names why not Shadow Delve? Or Shadow teleport? Or even Shadow Blink?" Aura complained inside her ear, "The space is weird, it's being constricted and pulled, all the nodes seem to have a connection among themselves, if you walk in…I don't think you will come out from the same place."

  That was…worrying.

  "So?" Elizabeth asked, "I assume there is no issue with me coming since I don't see any armed forces coming my way?"

  The woman shook her head, "Nothing like that, we just weren't expecting you. Most people do try to come, but very few manage to find the right place, among those that do, not many manage to pass the test."

  "Test?" Elizabeth asked, she hadn't been tested…had she? "I didn't feel anyone trying to breach my [Infosec] skills."

  "Nothing like that, we value privacy," The woman at the reception desk said, "The test is to impress me."

  "Impress you?" Elizabeth asked confused, "Why would I need to impress you? Who are you?"

  "I'm no one of importance, but I was tasked by Mistress Eleanore with making sure the unworthy didn't get past this point before their appointed time," The woman said turning to stare at Elizabeth, "We had high hopes for you Miss Chloe, it isn't every day we get a sane Sin Mana user."

  ….dang it.

  "I don't know what you are speaking of," Elizabeth said, pretending to not know, "Also, my name isn't Chloe here."

  And then passed her [Hydra's Fang] ID, glad that she still had it.

  "Alice Ashcroft….It is one of our former IDs…not that they mean much in the new world post [Advent], would you mind being subject to an [Appraisal]?" The woman said pulling a small crystal sphere, why was it always crystal spheres?

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  "Sure," Elizabeth said moving around her [Layered Safeguard] placing the Alice one at the top…and leaving the stats as they were when she was level 50. She wanted to keep some safeguards yet.

  "Starting [Appraisal]," The woman said as the sphere was covered in shadows, a stark contrast with all the other ones, but then again, she was in a capital covered in shadows, so perhaps it was appropriate, "....Alice Ashcroft indeed…interesting…"

  So the woman still didn't believe her?

  "[Truth Confirmation], [Detect Falsehood], [Document evaluation], [Confirm data]," The woman flashed several skills one after the other, all focused both on Elizabeth and into the crystal sphere.

  "...You aren't going to say that I tampered with the thing are you?" Elizabeth said turning to the woman.

  "Of course not, you don't have the correct type of [Job]," The woman said shaking her head, "You would need to have a [Coder] or [Programmer] type of job, that or be a [Servant of Akasha]."

  ………

  "And if so, the sphere would have warned us, no. You are in the clear," The woman said giving Elizabeth a new ID, one that…. didn't have the [Hydra's Fang] emblem, but instead one of Camelot. "Welcome [Shadow Empress] to the brave new world."

  ….Elizbeth… didn't feel particularly welcomed tho?

  "What is this address?" Elizabeth said reading her newest ID card.

  "Your home, of course; we provide apartment housing to all our prominent employees," The woman said, giving Elizabeth a folder, "Here are your paperwork and all the required forms you need to file, along with the address where to file them."

  "I already have a home, and I don't need work." Elizabeth said shaking her head, "Besides what is this? Work adress?"

  There was a work address pointing to this very building.

  "We are short in manpower…or useful manpower anyway, most of the Shadow Users around don't have rare enough jobs, and almost no one kept a pure shadow type job. Your kind is different," The woman said, pointing to Elizabeth, "Those that stuck to the [Shadows] and kept their sanity are rare, rarer those that managed to fully evolve their job while not being influenced by their [Sin]."

  "....I have not sinned," Elizabeth said narrowing her eyes, "Besides, you have still yet to say us who you are."

  "I am….Tristinia Avot," The woman said smiling at Elizabeth, as if that meant something, "I was one of the bearers too, and one of those that couldn't keep both to the shadows or to their Sin."

  The what now?

  "You forsake your [Sin]." Rossie said from the side, "Didn't you?"

  "Yes, quite sharp observation bearer of Lust." The woman, Tristinia said, "I couldn't hold it in, so I forsake it, I never managed to crystalize it, I assume you did?"

  Rossie didn't say anything at that of course, she was not dumb.

  "I suspect you did, that or you have something equally interesting, we suspect you as the bearer of Lust from our investigations, but you have either forsaken it (To which we didn't find anyone come into contact with you to confirm this) or crystalized it." The woman said, turning to Elizabeth, "But it would mean you found someone who could hold it….and my personal theory is that Miss Chloe was the one."

  So Echidna knew of that, of course she did, she didn't have proof though. So if Elizabeth wanted to keep it that way, she would need to keep her Crown of Sin out of any encounter…or summon it without the gems, which would diminish their power….

  Dang it.

  "But we didn't come for that," Rena said from the side, "We came because we had something for Echidna."

  "....Right," Tristinia said turning to Elizabeth, "If you change your opinion, you can file those documents at any moment, for now please put your card in the elevator, it will take you to your appointment."

  Elizabeth nodded and turned to look into the direction of the elevator, it was…kind of small.

  "Can they come with me?" Elizabeth said pointing to Rossie and Rena.

  "They can, but I'll need your tutors to wait in the reception." Tristinia said pointing to Jenna and Lily. "I know they may be peers of Mistress Eleanore, but she asked us for your comprension."

  "That's fine." Jenna said, walking to one of the couches, "Eleanore can keep her secrets, but if something happens to my little sister, I'm punching her."

  “....will…..wait…..for……disciple….” Lily said sitting in the other couch, ".....will…..throw….a…..bullet…..her…..way……if…..she….hurts…….disciple…."

  That was kind of cute, at least Elizabeth would have something to fall back onto.

  "That only applies if she doesn't start it of course," Jenna said smiling at Elizabeth, "If she starts it, then so long Echidna doesn't kill her it will be fine."

  ….DANG IT!

  ".... I'll pass on the message," Tristinia said, picking up the phone.

  "Don't bother with the facade, Echidna hear me already." Jenna said stretching in the couch, "Go on, we will wait."

  Elizabeth nodded to Jenna and Lily and walked to the elevator, she could see how the shadows contorted and moved all around them. Seeking for a breach to infiltrate her shadows…

  Her Shadow Dragons were at hard work, Elizabeth wasn't using her more advanced versions quite yet, keeping the defense mostly to shadow scouts for now. But at least she could have Rossie and Rena, both were being defended too by Shadow Scouts…And Elizabeth sneaked a single Shadow Assassin into each shadow.

  Not that she needed to do so for Rossie, Elizabeth was sure that the Valkyrie order would keep the shadows away from both Rena and Rossie, but even so. Elizabeth didn't want to leave anything to chance.

  "So… what's the plan Eli-Eli?" Rossie said while they stood in the Elevator. Rossie raised her hand and cast a silence field, an isolation field, and anti scrying field. "Do you think this will be enough?"

  "It should be….but my Instincts tell me that some information is leaking," Rena said, looking around, "Is it the Shadows?"

  Elizabeth tried to sense around, and indeed, there was [Something] in the shadows; Elizabeth couldn't get a clear look at it, but as far as she could perceive, the entity was small, smaller than her smallest Shadow Scout.

  Perhaps some kind of rat? Or maybe a Mice? Shadow rat? Shadow Mice? Perhaps a shadow worm?

  Elizabeth wasn't entirely sure about it, but still, "I don't think we are as safe as we could, but as for the plan..." Elizabeth said looking around trying to get a hold of the thing to no avail, "We will remain polite and deliver the letter, as for what Echidna wants from us...well, we will check on it and see if it matches our needs."

  Elizabeth of course meant that the plan was still on about punching Echidna in the face, and making sure there wasn't anything getting in the way was of the utmost importance, obviously Rena and Rossie understood her, right?

  "Okay!" Rossie said, nodding happily at Elizabeth.

  "As you say Eli," Rena added, they continued climbing up in the elevator and soon enough the elevator got them to their destination.

  The top floor, Elizabeth could sense the shadows converging around and a shadow node at the ready at the top. There wasn't anything around that could justify the presence of this much Shadow Mana around.

  So when the elevator door opened and Elizabeth found herself in a Shadow room, she knew that something was up.

  The fact that the room in question had another reception desk was also totally not suspicious at all, as was the fact that the one manning it was a small kid with evil look eyes.

  "Alice Ashcroft I assume?" The small kid say turning to look at Elizabeth, it was at this moment that Elizabeth noticed that there was something odd going with his hair, it was like it was made out of shadow mana? Or something like living shadows? Elizabeth wasn't entirely sure, she had never attempted to do something like that after all.

  "Yes," Elizabeth answered, "And you are? Or will you also not answer?"

  The kid looked at her weirdly, "I'm Karl Ripley." The kid answered, turning to his book, "You were scheduled for an appointment half an hour ago; you are aware that you still have time to finish dealing with whatever you need, right?"

  Elizabeth nodded, "Yes, but we are on a schedule, so I want to deal with this now." Of course, she didn't really have anything better to do, but they didn't need to know that."

  "Right..." Karl said looking to the other two girls, "Are you sure you want them coming? The concentration of Shadow Mana is higher, if they aren't prepared then they may suffer some degree of Shadow Corruption."

  Shadow Corruption?

  "like the mana terrorism event?" Elizabeth asked, reinforcing her Domain over the shadows of Rena and Rossie.

  "Something like that, it could be something as simple as them getting a shadow-type job in their next job evolution or something as bad as what you mentioned," Karl turned to the side and brought one of the bracelets like those that Elizabeth had used before to try and deal with the taint, "These offer some degree of protection, but they were designed for Shadow users, so we don't make any guarantees."

  "That's fine," Elizabeth said, extending her shadows and making sure they enveloped Rossie and Rena, "I will make sure nothing sticks to Rossie or Rena while we are here."

  "....So I guess that's why you got an appointment, and not only the open invitation that Echidna keeps sending," Karl wrote something in the book he had in front of him, "Not that it matters to me, go on then. Echidna awaits for you."

  The door behind Karl opened and Elizabeth noticed a deluge of shadow mana flooding into the room, it tried to overpower the shadows of Elizabeth...but Elizabeth managed to keep her control over the shadows, even if it costed her a great amount of mana, more than she had ever had to expend before.

  It was time to meet Echidna...and punch her.