She was on the ground nursing a headache, a headache that was almost as bad as if a monkey had drummed her head like bongos all night...For a week.
At least she now knew who she was and how she had ended here...And it only took her a month of constant pain and suffering!
Why had it hurt her so much if those were her memories anyway?
She would understand it if the memories had been from someone else. Like she would have understood if she had suffered a headache when the skills and talents of Alexanders got shoved her way.
Or when Chloe's practice with her [Thunder] skill got shoved her way, but to be this badly hurt by her own memories?
That was nuts!
Most of her headaches had come from an event that had happened when she was five years old, she found out that some villain had intended to attack her home when her Father and mother weren't around. And in doing so he had infected her with the [Taint].
Somehow he got away with that, and her parents didn't notice it since the guy had sneaked foregein mana into her already full of foregein mana body. They had thought that whatever that [Thing] did controlling her body to deal with the [Villain] was the reason for the positives in her.
It didn't help that the [Taint] she got afflicted was too similar to the normal [Taint], what with both coming from the same source and since she showcased [Shadow] aligned powers...Yeah, her parents thought it was her personal type of [Taint] and left it at that.
Her Mother had built some defenses to prevent tampering with her after the event, not that they would do anything since she was already afflicted. If anything it made it more difficult for people to notice her affliction.
And she couldn't be angry at her Mother, the woman had done her best and tried to prevent further problems, and her memories of the years to come seemed to further prove that. Memories of her Father and Mother marshaling the whole town to accommodate her.
How no one was allowed to even utter the word [Taint], how all of those who held shadow-aligned skills would be moved to a second location to verify their social skills and be instructed in how to control their [Taint].
All of those memories five-year-old Elizabeth couldn't understand and thought it was normal...It wasn't.
She had first line of how her Father had taken control of the capital of the United States Federation all on his own and no one could contest his legality, and with that power, he isolated the capital. Her Mother worked the logistics of keeping everything coming and going, she hadn't seen her for a week while little.
But after that? Her childhood was pretty average. Nothing special happened, she tried to make friends (No one said no to her), went to some birthdays...But no one seemed to want her around.
Little girl Elizabeth seemed to notice that and instead folded inwards, creating a perfect persona for herself to deal with the social aspects of her life, and the true Elizabeth lazed around. It wasn't something as extreme as a second personality, her mind didn't allow that, was it because of all the mind protection spells her mother casted?
Was it because she wasn't built like that? Who could tell?
She for one couldn't. What she could do was marvel at her memories, "WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?!?" And scream to the nine hells, seven heavens, and three void planes.
"THAT IS NOT HOW YOU DO IT YOU DIMWICK!" She had arrived at the part of her memories when she got to the school.
It had been a fun time perusing her past memories, and probably one of the best moments to do a childhood arc.
But that way lays the road for a divergence in the timeline and to the creation of multiple conflicting plot holes, so she skipped it!
"Oh right, 'Let's not speak with pink-haired girls...Oh wait, a pink-haired girl, LET'S FRICKING STAND RIGHT TO HER!' " Fun times indeed.
She had fun berating Elizabeth, even if she was taking in all her memories and in turn, being molded by her experiences, she wasn't sure if she should qualify as Elizabeth Starbright.
For one, her base was different, she had extra baggage going with her, that is. The first was obvious, Alexanders, she had now the [Talent] of that man, both in general sciences and applications. The second was Chloe, she had now the know-how and the [Skill] to use [Thunder] aligned skills.
She wasn't sure why she didn't get that from Alexanders, since the man obviously had the ability to control lighting in the same way Chloe could. But since she was getting the skill, she wouldn't complain. If anything it was better this way since she doubted getting the same skill two times would do her good.
And now after the experiences she had in the ruined city and her finding out about her soul heritage...She was now finding out about her past as Elizabeth...
And how dimwitted almost brain-dead she had been before, granted the memories she had were...Weird.
They sometimes stopped, sometimes blurred...And there was this one instance when she had seen fourteen-year-old Elizabeth do the exact same thing for two hours.
She was trying to write a report about nightmares and would always start writing the same phrase before her eyes turned red and she threw away the paper. "[I fear the shadows.]" Whatever entity had infected her when she was five didn't want that to dwell within her.
And after she saw her [Awakening] & [Trigger] she understood why. It would have been awkward to fear your own [Skill], but the brain of Elizabeth was probably mush by the point she arrived at school as a side effect.
And then...The first half of a year at school started going by, a few time skips here and there, a showcase of herself abusing the naivety of a [Hero] called Akira for some reason...
Then herself as a [Magical Girl] being trashed by someone who was using the right magic... Why was Elizabeth not using her signature magic?
Probably the brain of her previous self was too damaged to understand the value of [Shadows]... That or her previous fear of the darkness wasn't fully settled?
Who knows, then...She saw herself slowly caring for the pink-haired girl, Rosaline.
All the small details on the day-to-day interactions, how she would take care of laundry, how she always had her breakfast ready to go... How Rossaline would prepare her lunch if she was supposed to spend more time in the afternoon at school.
How the shower was always clean and ready for her at the end of a long day... How her dinner would be at the table for her when she needed it the most.
How while the girl liked to flirt with her, she would never go beyond the bare minimum Elizabeth could tolerate, all the small details pilled up when you watched your life in front of your eyes at high speed.
Then it came the day when they traveled to the outside world, she saw herself being amazed by the sights and marveling in synch with the Elizabeth from the memories, the world was bright...
Till it wasn't.
The first interaction with someone in power was...Awful.
The man abused his authority to try and make it harder for herself, and she even almost lost composure, if not for Rossaline being with her she would have probably murdered the man, but the pink-haired girl worked in soothing her.
And while that wasn't her intention, the pink-haired did so by making her worry about her instead of worrying about herself, previous Elizabeth was dense. Really [Dense].
She could see the signs as clear as day, the girl wanted her for more than mere friendship, and she wasn't sure why the previous Elizabeth hadn't noticed it.
Was it the boiling crab metaphor? She didn't notice it because she was slowly being herded towards that.
Had she only noticed it because she could see it happening at a fast pace?
She wasn't sure and didn't mind that much.
"She is cute, even if creepy." That was her verdict.
She could see it by herself, and while they both were women... Well...Magic was a thing. And Magical Girls usually spent more time with other girls, so it was more normal for them to develop romantic relationships among themselves.
Especially with all the death and high stakes scenarios they dealt with on a daily basis, also it was easier to deal with someone who understood what you went by against to deal with a [Man] that couldn't hold his fragile ego against the amounts of powers that a [Magical Girl] could deal.
And...why was she justifying it so much? And from where had those theories come from?
A mental prod into her memories found a file in the part of her brain that was Alexanders' talents...The man had read a thesis about this at some point in his life...
What kind of life was that?
Also, since when could she access it like that?
She had a clear memory of where that particular book was in a certain library within her [Soul]...Within this ruined city...
Oh...
"This ruined city is [My Soulscape] isn't..." She could [Feel] the whole place.
What each building was, what it held...And where it was...
It was...
"My whole Soulscape is based upon the [Method of Loci]...." She provided her mind and the location of another book within a library shone like a beacon and the information flooded into her conscious mind. "The Method of Loci is a way to visualize information and organize it for ease of access..."
Combining that with a metaphysical manifestation of the soul...
"This is...Broken..." It would allow her physical access to anything within her soul. "[Talent]" A building lit up within her mind.
It was ruined like everything within the city, but its foundation had been reinforced, she could feel the new parts added and how it was sturdier than ever.
"[Skill]" The building at the center of the city lit up, she could see how three parts of it had lit in different colors, within the basement one floor shone in azure light while the other was golden in color...
And Deeper within the building within a test chamber laid a tar-like substance made of shadows and maws, vicious eyes darting from within the liquid.
She...Would check on that later...Like very very late. When she wasn't within biting distance of that thing.
"[Soul]" Intoned Elizabeth and the pod that was in front of her started emitting an ethereal glow. "[Mind]" In tandem with that, her own body started to resonate.
And just to make sure... "[Body]" The whole place trembled.
Almost as if reality wanted to answer to her call, the space surrounding them vibrated, and for the barest split of a second, she saw a room. An apartment room similar to the one in her more recent view memories, the place seemed to look like the one she had arrived in the last memory with Rossie.
The one where they would spend their time during the midterms, but the difference was there, for one she was in a hospital bed, a couple of IV drips feeding into her.
And a tube was coming out of her nose and going straight into a bag at the side.
'Nasogastric Tube' The information appeared within her mind.
A way to feed someone that was unconscious...
And before she could move or do anything she was yanked back to her body within the [Soulscape]. "I'm unconscious...It was obvious...If this isn't my real body but a projection within a Soulscape my body should be outside..."
She didn't think about that, not because the idea escaped her, but because the premise about her body being in the real world...Was scary, if she wasn't taking care of it...If no one took care of it, then she was probably going to die.
"[Update the projection, imitate the current state of the body.]" She spoke and the body within the crystal pod shone for a second before being replaced with another one.
This time the Elizabeth within was dressed in a hospital gown, both arms had IV drips fed into them, and a tube was leaving from her nose...And another one [Foley catether] a voice within her mind fed her the information about the other extra tube that was installed in her body.
This was dangerous "[Show graphic with current body status]" She spoke again, the body in the crystal pod started bleeding from her nose, but she didn't mind it.
She just fed mana into the [Channel] that was feeding the information and saw the fed update. Her body was suffering from mild dehydration and anemia. Some of her muscles had weakened and it seemed that her kidney was arriving at dangerous levels of toxicity.
And then...
Her body's problems started getting better. "What?" A flood of energy bathed her body and slowly but surely her body started recovering, "What is happening?"
Elizabeth wondered what had caused this, she wasn't doing anything "I......ack......ow..........s.........ur......ay?" She almost could hear the voice of someone.
"gry?.....rite.......ood....." Someone was speaking to her?
But she was...No, she is Unconscious. Who was it?
Her Mother?
Her Father?
"ve....u.....me.....ck...." And then she felt the warm mote of light form and go into her face.
She felt it more clearly than ever, a warm feeling in her cheek. More clearly than ever the form, the feeling...
It was a kiss...
A very warm kiss, followed by a cold feeling into her face, a feeling of something cold dripping into her face and going all the way into her neck. She didn't need to see the crystal body to know what it was or how it was depicted.
"Tears...Someone is crying..." She remembered what Chloe had said before.
And focusing inwardly she searched for the warm feeling, the [Mana] that had flooded into her, now that she knew how to, she soon enough found it. The energy trying to patch up her [Soul].
The healing energy that slowly but surely was doing its best to help her wake up, to help her smooth her travels, the reason why even though it should be a more traumatic event the fusing of her soul, mind, and body... It wasn't, granted she had suffered, she was terrified of some of the memories she had seen, the blatant mind tampering she suffered at the hands of that mysterious figure.
But this energy had soothed her, protected her, safeguarded her... It had promised her that everything would be okay...
And she felt a warmth within her chest, a feeling of love, a feeling of care...And at the same time, the mana felt...Sad.
There was melancholy and longing, but there was hurt, her mana was straining, that wasn't right, Magic shouldn't be like that. She wasn't sure how or why, but she [Knew] that Rossaline's mana shouldn't hurt her.
Her was the [Origin] of healing, that was important. That meant something... But she didn't have the right information to know what was wrong. It nagged at her, and then as fast as it had come the mana dissipated into her [Soul].
Leaving her once more alone in this place, leaving her [Alone] in these desolated ruins.
The Elizabeth within the crystal pod seemed to glare at her with her closed eyes as if she should know something as if she should do something... Her sickly appearance made it more grim, her eyes crying blood, she had a nosebleed and a line of blood was leaking from her ears and mouth.
Had she strained her when she [Spoke]?
She wasn't sure what had been that, but it felt ...Right?
Like her soul had spoken and the world acquiesced to her Will. The memories she had merely left her right after one of her first shadow tantrums, but some memories hadn't parsed as well, for one she wasn't sure all of them got to her completely, the emotions weren't there for one. And some of the instincts of the original Elizabeth seemed to be missing.
"You want me to hurry up huh..." Elizabeth spoke to her copy within the crystal pod. The other blonde girl didn't answer, but the silence seemed to speak to her. She could see how there was a mark of a kiss on the cheek of the girl within the crystal, how her hand seemed to grab onto something that wasn't there.
Was Rossaline's hand holding her in the real world?
"Fine, but you will have to give me all of it if we are to finish this fast, stop hoarding the good stuff to yourself." She declared while walking once more towards the crystal pod.
"Fine, I will commit too." She said while focusing her mind and the crystal pod opened the door, the body within continued to float as if suspended in some mysterious fluid.
"Merge." She tried speaking that weird language. And yet nothing seemed to come.
"...Try it you then. That's what I thought." She said to the body within the pod.
"Amm...Fuse? No. Combine?... Eat? Oh, got a reaction there." Elizabeth started trying different words.
Only one seemed to resonate, but she wondered why that one. Within her [Soulscape] a part seemed to resonate, the part within the basement full of shadow maws. A quick ping within the ruined city seemed to imply that it was that part of her the responsible for extracting the memories and giving them to her.
"So I need to feed you...Goddamit Alexanders even after dead you make problems for me..." Elizabeth said while looking at her former self.
"Okay, this will hurt you more to you than to me, so don't say I didn't warn you." And the body within didn't answer, but she knew what the girl would say. "Yeah sure, I will end up having your memories anyway so the trauma will probably haunt me later on...But we already have plenty of that anyway. What is a little extra."
She smirked at herself, quite literally. And raising her hand and grabbing the same hand that Rossaline was holding in the real world she looked to her former body.
She could already feel the mana churning within the ruined city, and deep within the basement of the building the shadows licking their lips, vicious maw smiling malevolly.
"Hope you are right...[Devour]" Intoned Elizabeth, the words resonating within her soul and the shadows around her answering her call.
Slowly and surely her shadow expanded and tendrils started to climb the body within the pod, the girl opened her eyes and she finally saw a small midget of recognition within the girl as she looked at her.
"Thank you." She said, her voice raspy "And sorry."
The girl said as the shadows covered her, in her blue eyes she saw herself reflected, she had expected to see herself with crimson eyes. In the memories she had perused Elizabeth always had red eyes when she invoked the power over the shadows after all.
Part of the reason she was wary of that part of herself was that, that was probably the reason why the part of her powers that was covering the other girl was hidden within the basement of the tower.
She was wary of these powers and that she would become [Tainted] once more. But at that moment in the eyes of the other Elizabeth, she saw herself reflected.
She didn't have red eyes right now, instead, she had blue eyes like always, the only difference?
Her eyes held an azure fire within them.
There wasn't any red on her, no crimson veins, no black veins, no signs of that supposed [Taint] either. Nothing.
And like that the body of the former Elizabeth got covered in shadows and these shadows compressed into a small gem-like, these were offered to Elizabeth who took in "A Yellow Sapphire?"
She somehow knew that if she ate the gem she would end the transference of memories, feelings, emotions, and everything that was the older Elizabeth. That the gem was the true [Vestige] of her former self.
This would be the first one she would get fully, Alexanders didn't allow his former self to leak into her, he passed his [Talent] and [Knowledge] but that was it. Chloe only allowed her [Practice] and [Skill] to move to her.
And finally... Elizabeth's Vestige, the other girl only gave her tastings of memories and no emotions, she would have probably allowed her to decide what to take after all the memories leaked into her. But when she felt the mana of Rossaline both girls, former Elizabeth and Current had decided to do this.
So she grabbed the gem of emotions and memories and gulped the thing. A deluge of emotions and memories flooded her as she screamed and the whole ruined city seemed to shake with her.
The burning black fire seemed to trash and move with her as a storm rained down within the city, she wasn't sure how long she had screamed nor at what moment she passed out.
But when she opened her eyes once more she wasn't in the basement where the former Elizabeth had been, instead she was in a bed. Her bed.
"Welcome back Mistress." A deep voice spoke to her.
She turned to the voice and found a dragon-like being dressed in a butler outfit "Sebastian?" she spoke aloud.
The thing spoke? No wait...She knew him? It?
Suddenly her mind seemed to awake as all the information flooded her, she rushed out of the bed she had been in "ROSSIE?!?" rummaging across the whole apartment finding nothing.
And then she opened the door to the outside, "Hahahahah, of course...I'm still here..." Finding once more the ruined city in flames.
Only her apartment was normal, creating a stark contrast with the rest of the ruined city, only a single apartment normal "That is indeed the case Mistress." The black butler spoke.
"Where is Beato?" She asked the butler, "And Nyx? And since when do you speak?"
"The Head Maid is trying to slow down Lady Consort's Mana Infusion, to try and slow down her [Soul Decay]." The butler said that was it.
The reason she had felt the mana was wrong, Rossie was breaking down her Soul with her magic and trying to use that to patch hers...And of course, since her Soul had just eaten the other two it was using that to try and accelerate her recuperation...."God dammit Rossie."
"Indeed Mistress...As for Lord Nyxfyre..." The butler pointed behind her, towards the building in the middle of the city. "He is sleeping, your [Soul] has yet to stabilize so his flames are spilling out trying to accelerate the tempering of your [Soulscape]."
So Nyx was also trying to help her [Soulscape] become more sturdy?
"How do I wake up?" She asked then, she needed to stop Rossie from doing stupid s#it.
"You already know how to Mistress. This is your [Soulscape]." Sebastian said pointing behind them to the apartment. "And that is what Master Alexanders left for you, you only need to make it [Yours]."
"Well, how hard can it be." She said looking behind them, she only needed to spread her influence over the place. Make sure hers superseded the influence from Alexanders, make sure Nyx wasn't disturbed while he was tempering the place...
Oh right, and make sure to stop Rossie from killing herself, and slap her for trying to do so when she woke up.
"Yes...How hard can it be..." She would need to find a way to do so fast, she could feel the shadows within the city already, so now she only needed to spread them and take control.
"Goddamit," She said.
She was on the ground nursing a headache, a headache that was almost as bad as if a monkey had drummed her head like bongos all night...For a week.
At least she now knew who she was and how she had ended here...And it only took her a month of constant pain and suffering!
Why had it hurt her so much if those were her memories anyway?
She would understand it if the memories had been from someone else. Like she would have understood if she had suffered a headache when the skills and talents of Alexanders got shoved her way.
Or when Chloe's practice with her [Thunder] skill got shoved her way, but to be this badly hurt by her own memories?
That was nuts!
Most of her headaches had come from an event that had happened when she was five years old, she found out that some villain had intended to attack her home when her Father and mother weren't around. And in doing so he had infected her with the [Taint].
Somehow he got away with that, and her parents didn't notice it since the guy had sneaked foregein mana into her already full of foregein mana body. They had thought that whatever that [Thing] did controlling her body to deal with the [Villain] was the reason for the positives in her.
It didn't help that the [Taint] she got afflicted was too similar to the normal [Taint], what with both coming from the same source and since she showcased [Shadow] aligned powers...Yeah, her parents thought it was her personal type of [Taint] and left it at that.
Her Mother had built some defenses to prevent tampering with her after the event, not that they would do anything since she was already afflicted. If anything it made it more difficult for people to notice her affliction.
And she couldn't be angry at her Mother, the woman had done her best and tried to prevent further problems, and her memories of the years to come seemed to further prove that. Memories of her Father and Mother marshaling the whole town to accommodate her.
How no one was allowed to even utter the word [Taint], how all of those who held shadow-aligned skills would be moved to a second location to verify their social skills and be instructed in how to control their [Taint].
All of those memories five-year-old Elizabeth couldn't understand and thought it was normal...It wasn't.
She had first line of how her Father had taken control of the capital of the United States Federation all on his own and no one could contest his legality, and with that power, he isolated the capital. Her Mother worked the logistics of keeping everything coming and going, she hadn't seen her for a week while little.
But after that? Her childhood was pretty average. Nothing special happened, she tried to make friends (No one said no to her), went to some birthdays...But no one seemed to want her around.
Little girl Elizabeth seemed to notice that and instead folded inwards, creating a perfect persona for herself to deal with the social aspects of her life, and the true Elizabeth lazed around. It wasn't something as extreme as a second personality, her mind didn't allow that, was it because of all the mind protection spells her mother casted?
Was it because she wasn't built like that? Who could tell?
She for one couldn't. What she could do was marvel at her memories, "WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?!?" And scream to the nine hells, seven heavens, and three void planes.
"THAT IS NOT HOW YOU DO IT YOU DIMWICK!" She had arrived at the part of her memories when she got to the school.
It had been a fun time perusing her past memories, and probably one of the best moments to do a childhood arc.
But that way lays the road for a divergence in the timeline and to the creation of multiple conflicting plot holes, so she skipped it!
"Oh right, 'Let's not speak with pink-haired girls...Oh wait, a pink-haired girl, LET'S FRICKING STAND RIGHT TO HER!' " Fun times indeed.
She had fun berating Elizabeth, even if she was taking in all her memories and in turn, being molded by her experiences, she wasn't sure if she should qualify as Elizabeth Starbright.
For one, her base was different, she had extra baggage going with her, that is. The first was obvious, Alexanders, she had now the [Talent] of that man, both in general sciences and applications. The second was Chloe, she had now the know-how and the [Skill] to use [Thunder] aligned skills.
She wasn't sure why she didn't get that from Alexanders, since the man obviously had the ability to control lighting in the same way Chloe could. But since she was getting the skill, she wouldn't complain. If anything it was better this way since she doubted getting the same skill two times would do her good.
And now after the experiences she had in the ruined city and her finding out about her soul heritage...She was now finding out about her past as Elizabeth...
And how dimwitted almost brain-dead she had been before, granted the memories she had were...Weird.
They sometimes stopped, sometimes blurred...And there was this one instance when she had seen fourteen-year-old Elizabeth do the exact same thing for two hours.
She was trying to write a report about nightmares and would always start writing the same phrase before her eyes turned red and she threw away the paper. "[I fear the shadows.]" Whatever entity had infected her when she was five didn't want that to dwell within her.
And after she saw her [Awakening] & [Trigger] she understood why. It would have been awkward to fear your own [Skill], but the brain of Elizabeth was probably mush by the point she arrived at school as a side effect.
And then...The first half of a year at school started going by, a few time skips here and there, a showcase of herself abusing the naivety of a [Hero] called Akira for some reason...
Then herself as a [Magical Girl] being trashed by someone who was using the right magic... Why was Elizabeth not using her signature magic?
Probably the brain of her previous self was too damaged to understand the value of [Shadows]... That or her previous fear of the darkness wasn't fully settled?
Who knows, then...She saw herself slowly caring for the pink-haired girl, Rosaline.
All the small details on the day-to-day interactions, how she would take care of laundry, how she always had her breakfast ready to go... How Rossaline would prepare her lunch if she was supposed to spend more time in the afternoon at school.
How the shower was always clean and ready for her at the end of a long day... How her dinner would be at the table for her when she needed it the most.
How while the girl liked to flirt with her, she would never go beyond the bare minimum Elizabeth could tolerate, all the small details pilled up when you watched your life in front of your eyes at high speed.
Then it came the day when they traveled to the outside world, she saw herself being amazed by the sights and marveling in synch with the Elizabeth from the memories, the world was bright...
Till it wasn't.
The first interaction with someone in power was...Awful.
The man abused his authority to try and make it harder for herself, and she even almost lost composure, if not for Rossaline being with her she would have probably murdered the man, but the pink-haired girl worked in soothing her.
And while that wasn't her intention, the pink-haired did so by making her worry about her instead of worrying about herself, previous Elizabeth was dense. Really [Dense].
She could see the signs as clear as day, the girl wanted her for more than mere friendship, and she wasn't sure why the previous Elizabeth hadn't noticed it.
Was it the boiling crab metaphor? She didn't notice it because she was slowly being herded towards that.
Had she only noticed it because she could see it happening at a fast pace?
She wasn't sure and didn't mind that much.
"She is cute, even if creepy." That was her verdict.
She could see it by herself, and while they both were women... Well...Magic was a thing. And Magical Girls usually spent more time with other girls, so it was more normal for them to develop romantic relationships among themselves.
Especially with all the death and high stakes scenarios they dealt with on a daily basis, also it was easier to deal with someone who understood what you went by against to deal with a [Man] that couldn't hold his fragile ego against the amounts of powers that a [Magical Girl] could deal.
And...why was she justifying it so much? And from where had those theories come from?
A mental prod into her memories found a file in the part of her brain that was Alexanders' talents...The man had read a thesis about this at some point in his life...
What kind of life was that?
Also, since when could she access it like that?
She had a clear memory of where that particular book was in a certain library within her [Soul]...Within this ruined city...
Oh...
"This ruined city is [My Soulscape] isn't..." She could [Feel] the whole place.
What each building was, what it held...And where it was...
It was...
"My whole Soulscape is based upon the [Method of Loci]...." She provided her mind and the location of another book within a library shone like a beacon and the information flooded into her conscious mind. "The Method of Loci is a way to visualize information and organize it for ease of access..."
Combining that with a metaphysical manifestation of the soul...
"This is...Broken..." It would allow her physical access to anything within her soul. "[Talent]" A building lit up within her mind.
It was ruined like everything within the city, but its foundation had been reinforced, she could feel the new parts added and how it was sturdier than ever.
"[Skill]" The building at the center of the city lit up, she could see how three parts of it had lit in different colors, within the basement one floor shone in azure light while the other was golden in color...
And Deeper within the building within a test chamber laid a tar-like substance made of shadows and maws, vicious eyes darting from within the liquid.
She...Would check on that later...Like very very late. When she wasn't within biting distance of that thing.
"[Soul]" Intoned Elizabeth and the pod that was in front of her started emitting an ethereal glow. "[Mind]" In tandem with that, her own body started to resonate.
And just to make sure... "[Body]" The whole place trembled.
Almost as if reality wanted to answer to her call, the space surrounding them vibrated, and for the barest split of a second, she saw a room. An apartment room similar to the one in her more recent view memories, the place seemed to look like the one she had arrived in the last memory with Rossie.
The one where they would spend their time during the midterms, but the difference was there, for one she was in a hospital bed, a couple of IV drips feeding into her.
And a tube was coming out of her nose and going straight into a bag at the side.
'Nasogastric Tube' The information appeared within her mind.
A way to feed someone that was unconscious...
And before she could move or do anything she was yanked back to her body within the [Soulscape]. "I'm unconscious...It was obvious...If this isn't my real body but a projection within a Soulscape my body should be outside..."
She didn't think about that, not because the idea escaped her, but because the premise about her body being in the real world...Was scary, if she wasn't taking care of it...If no one took care of it, then she was probably going to die.
"[Update the projection, imitate the current state of the body.]" She spoke and the body within the crystal pod shone for a second before being replaced with another one.
This time the Elizabeth within was dressed in a hospital gown, both arms had IV drips fed into them, and a tube was leaving from her nose...And another one [Foley catether] a voice within her mind fed her the information about the other extra tube that was installed in her body.
This was dangerous "[Show graphic with current body status]" She spoke again, the body in the crystal pod started bleeding from her nose, but she didn't mind it.
She just fed mana into the [Channel] that was feeding the information and saw the fed update. Her body was suffering from mild dehydration and anemia. Some of her muscles had weakened and it seemed that her kidney was arriving at dangerous levels of toxicity.
And then...
Her body's problems started getting better. "What?" A flood of energy bathed her body and slowly but surely her body started recovering, "What is happening?"
Elizabeth wondered what had caused this, she wasn't doing anything "I......ack......ow..........s.........ur......ay?" She almost could hear the voice of someone.
"gry?.....rite.......ood....." Someone was speaking to her?
But she was...No, she is Unconscious. Who was it?
Her Mother?
Her Father?
"ve....u.....me.....ck...." And then she felt the warm mote of light form and go into her face.
She felt it more clearly than ever, a warm feeling in her cheek. More clearly than ever the form, the feeling...
It was a kiss...
A very warm kiss, followed by a cold feeling into her face, a feeling of something cold dripping into her face and going all the way into her neck. She didn't need to see the crystal body to know what it was or how it was depicted.
"Tears...Someone is crying..." She remembered what Chloe had said before.
And focusing inwardly she searched for the warm feeling, the [Mana] that had flooded into her, now that she knew how to, she soon enough found it. The energy trying to patch up her [Soul].
The healing energy that slowly but surely was doing its best to help her wake up, to help her smooth her travels, the reason why even though it should be a more traumatic event the fusing of her soul, mind, and body... It wasn't, granted she had suffered, she was terrified of some of the memories she had seen, the blatant mind tampering she suffered at the hands of that mysterious figure.
But this energy had soothed her, protected her, safeguarded her... It had promised her that everything would be okay...
And she felt a warmth within her chest, a feeling of love, a feeling of care...And at the same time, the mana felt...Sad.
There was melancholy and longing, but there was hurt, her mana was straining, that wasn't right, Magic shouldn't be like that. She wasn't sure how or why, but she [Knew] that Rossaline's mana shouldn't hurt her.
Her was the [Origin] of healing, that was important. That meant something... But she didn't have the right information to know what was wrong. It nagged at her, and then as fast as it had come the mana dissipated into her [Soul].
Leaving her once more alone in this place, leaving her [Alone] in these desolated ruins.
The Elizabeth within the crystal pod seemed to glare at her with her closed eyes as if she should know something as if she should do something... Her sickly appearance made it more grim, her eyes crying blood, she had a nosebleed and a line of blood was leaking from her ears and mouth.
Had she strained her when she [Spoke]?
She wasn't sure what had been that, but it felt ...Right?
Like her soul had spoken and the world acquiesced to her Will. The memories she had merely left her right after one of her first shadow tantrums, but some memories hadn't parsed as well, for one she wasn't sure all of them got to her completely, the emotions weren't there for one. And some of the instincts of the original Elizabeth seemed to be missing.
"You want me to hurry up huh..." Elizabeth spoke to her copy within the crystal pod. The other blonde girl didn't answer, but the silence seemed to speak to her. She could see how there was a mark of a kiss on the cheek of the girl within the crystal, how her hand seemed to grab onto something that wasn't there.
Was Rossaline's hand holding her in the real world?
"Fine, but you will have to give me all of it if we are to finish this fast, stop hoarding the good stuff to yourself." She declared while walking once more towards the crystal pod.
"Fine, I will commit too." She said while focusing her mind and the crystal pod opened the door, the body within continued to float as if suspended in some mysterious fluid.
"Merge." She tried speaking that weird language. And yet nothing seemed to come.
"...Try it you then. That's what I thought." She said to the body within the pod.
"Amm...Fuse? No. Combine?... Eat? Oh, got a reaction there." Elizabeth started trying different words.
Only one seemed to resonate, but she wondered why that one. Within her [Soulscape] a part seemed to resonate, the part within the basement full of shadow maws. A quick ping within the ruined city seemed to imply that it was that part of her the responsible for extracting the memories and giving them to her.
"So I need to feed you...Goddamit Alexanders even after dead you make problems for me..." Elizabeth said while looking at her former self.
"Okay, this will hurt you more to you than to me, so don't say I didn't warn you." And the body within didn't answer, but she knew what the girl would say. "Yeah sure, I will end up having your memories anyway so the trauma will probably haunt me later on...But we already have plenty of that anyway. What is a little extra."
She smirked at herself, quite literally. And raising her hand and grabbing the same hand that Rossaline was holding in the real world she looked to her former body.
She could already feel the mana churning within the ruined city, and deep within the basement of the building the shadows licking their lips, vicious maw smiling malevolly.
"Hope you are right...[Devour]" Intoned Elizabeth, the words resonating within her soul and the shadows around her answering her call.
Slowly and surely her shadow expanded and tendrils started to climb the body within the pod, the girl opened her eyes and she finally saw a small midget of recognition within the girl as she looked at her.
"Thank you." She said, her voice raspy "And sorry."
The girl said as the shadows covered her, in her blue eyes she saw herself reflected, she had expected to see herself with crimson eyes. In the memories she had perused Elizabeth always had red eyes when she invoked the power over the shadows after all.
Part of the reason she was wary of that part of herself was that, that was probably the reason why the part of her powers that was covering the other girl was hidden within the basement of the tower.
She was wary of these powers and that she would become [Tainted] once more. But at that moment in the eyes of the other Elizabeth, she saw herself reflected.
She didn't have red eyes right now, instead, she had blue eyes like always, the only difference?
Her eyes held an azure fire within them.
There wasn't any red on her, no crimson veins, no black veins, no signs of that supposed [Taint] either. Nothing.
And like that the body of the former Elizabeth got covered in shadows and these shadows compressed into a small gem-like, these were offered to Elizabeth who took in "A Yellow Sapphire?"
She somehow knew that if she ate the gem she would end the transference of memories, feelings, emotions, and everything that was the older Elizabeth. That the gem was the true [Vestige] of her former self.
This would be the first one she would get fully, Alexanders didn't allow his former self to leak into her, he passed his [Talent] and [Knowledge] but that was it. Chloe only allowed her [Practice] and [Skill] to move to her.
And finally... Elizabeth's Vestige, the other girl only gave her tastings of memories and no emotions, she would have probably allowed her to decide what to take after all the memories leaked into her. But when she felt the mana of Rossaline both girls, former Elizabeth and Current had decided to do this.
So she grabbed the gem of emotions and memories and gulped the thing. A deluge of emotions and memories flooded her as she screamed and the whole ruined city seemed to shake with her.
The burning black fire seemed to trash and move with her as a storm rained down within the city, she wasn't sure how long she had screamed nor at what moment she passed out.
But when she opened her eyes once more she wasn't in the basement where the former Elizabeth had been, instead she was in a bed. Her bed.
"Welcome back Mistress." A deep voice spoke to her.
She turned to the voice and found a dragon-like being dressed in a butler outfit "Sebastian?" she spoke aloud.
The thing spoke? No wait...She knew him? It?
Suddenly her mind seemed to awake as all the information flooded her, she rushed out of the bed she had been in "ROSSIE?!?" rummaging across the whole apartment finding nothing.
And then she opened the door to the outside, "Hahahahah, of course...I'm still here..." Finding once more the ruined city in flames.
Only her apartment was normal, creating a stark contrast with the rest of the ruined city, only a single apartment normal "That is indeed the case Mistress." The black butler spoke.
"Where is Beato?" She asked the butler, "And Nyx? And since when do you speak?"
"The Head Maid is trying to slow down Lady Consort's Mana Infusion, to try and slow down her [Soul Decay]." The butler said that was it.
The reason she had felt the mana was wrong, Rossie was breaking down her Soul with her magic and trying to use that to patch hers...And of course, since her Soul had just eaten the other two it was using that to try and accelerate her recuperation...."God dammit Rossie."
"Indeed Mistress...As for Lord Nyxfyre..." The butler pointed behind her, towards the building in the middle of the city. "He is sleeping, your [Soul] has yet to stabilize so his flames are spilling out trying to accelerate the tempering of your [Soulscape]."
So Nyx was also trying to help her [Soulscape] become more sturdy?
"How do I wake up?" She asked then, she needed to stop Rossie from doing stupid s#it.
"You already know how to Mistress. This is your [Soulscape]." Sebastian said pointing behind them to the apartment. "And that is what Master Alexanders left for you, you only need to make it [Yours]."
"Well, how hard can it be." She said looking behind them, she only needed to spread her influence over the place. Make sure hers superseded the influence from Alexanders, make sure Nyx wasn't disturbed while he was tempering the place...
Oh right, and make sure to stop Rossie from killing herself, and slap her for trying to do so when she woke up.
"Yes...How hard can it be..." She would need to find a way to do so fast, she could feel the shadows within the city already, so now she only needed to spread them and take control.
"Goddamit," She said.
