I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

"[Shadow Graveyard!]"

 

She heard the hunk call in that deep guttural voice the man had, around him the shadows started quivering as much as her legs right now, and soon with a flex of will all the shadows spread around the floor covering everything in a thick covering of inky dark condensed shadow, it made her remember her shadows from good old times when she was [The Shadowcaster]. Good times.

 

“Hhmm…. If you want me to get covered in your Sticky liquid you only needed to ask.” Said Elizabeth in a playful tone, the hunk for his part ignored her.

 

Maybe he was a virgin?

 

“[You will answer, where is My Sister?]” [Shadow Pact] said while raising his right hand in her direction.

 

Wait, [Shadow Pact]? He was called [Shadow Pact]?

 

What kind of sill….”Oh right, dodge.” Suddenly her body got yanked backwards and up away from the spot she had been before, covering her exposed legs now you could see an intricate net of shadows extending from her waist downwards, and in her upper torso, a chain-like shirt now stood instead of the previous tank top she had been wearing.

 

“Fish nets and a mesh shirt?” Wondered aloud Elizabeth while looking downwards at her own body, of course, her modesty was protected since a black brassier was covering her chest showcasing the goods.

 

The hunk didn’t seem to mind her though, “[Shadow Spear Barrage.]” And instead raised his hand in a motion towards her, instantly the inky substance covering the floor boiled and spat a barrage of shadowy spears that flew towards her.

 

She didn’t react that much besides a smirk while her body was yanked all around weaving between the dangerous spears, “Hmm…Am I not your type?” Wondered aloud the girl, she was good-looking, and she was exposing quite a good amount of skin for her standards.

 

No wait, fishnet tights? Check

 

Mesh shirt that showed her brassier? Check.

 

A mini skirt that didn’t cover that much? Check.

 

High-heels? Check.

 

Skin-tight gloves that go to her elbow? Check.

 

“Am I a whore?” Mused to herself Elizabeth, she was dressed as one if nothing else.

 

She could remember how much she used to admonish the secretaries that worked for [The Twelve] for their miniskirt and tight shirts…That were in reality blouses now that she thought about it…Why had she thought those were shirts? She used to be such a hardass about that too… The poor girls couldn’t even use makeup under her command!

 

“[Shadow Chains!]” Came the voice from the hunk while she was deep in introspection.

 

The shadow spears she had dodged before exploded into chains that darted straight towards her, she in turn just huffed and continued yanking her body to dodge the chains one after another…She wouldn’t mind getting tied by one of them “If you get me into your bed I wouldn’t mind getting tagged… But you aren’t going to do that are you?” and said as much Elizabeth.

 

“Come up and play with us [Shadow Puppet].” Ugh…The cringe…She would reword her [Key phrase], and as soon as the words left her mouth a blob of shadows rose from her shoulder, there stood a small puppet made of inky black wood-like texture.

 

The little puppet stood at attention for half a second and with some flourish it jumped away from her, the little puppet seemed to make the hunk stop for a second, but he refocused his attention on her, and she could feel his gaze licking (not really) her body…

 

That was a mistake…He should be undressing her with her eyes, instead, he only limited his attention to seeing how she was moving around while giving nominal quick looks towards her [Puppet], it was a good plan. He was leading her into a trap, she could see the shadows sneaking around creating a web that would ultimately snare her in.

 

“They don’t teach you well how to fight against true [Shadow] users do they Darling ♥?” Elizabeth said while she stood in the middle of a circle of shadow chains that constantly moved around and closed into her ever so slowly.

 

There wasn’t enough space around them for her body to fit through, even if she was quite small (Not in the important bits mind you), adorable and flexible, but… “[Shadow Travel]” and then faster than the hunk could react the shadows covered her whole body leaving behind only her (Very good looking) silhouette, the hunk for his part reacted fast enough.

 

He commanded the chains to shoot straight at her body, but since she was already covered in shadows with the fishnet tights and mesh shirt… The shadows only needed to fill the missing spots, and as such the swap was done faster than he could react. From the look, it seemed that he had a fairly average spread of status since he didn’t seem to be that fast in his shadow manipulation.

 

“Hmm…Are you perhaps a jack-of-all-trades?” Wondered Elizabeth appearing where her puppet had been before.

 

“[That shouldn’t be possible, you weren’t connected to the World’s shadow]” Said the hunk with a cute frown on his face, how did she know he had a cute frown?

 

She heard the tone, and that was a frowning tone, and since it was the hunk, of course, it would be cute!

 

“Don’t worry your cute little head from that, you see…I’m [The Shadowcaster]…Or [The Stygian Bane] depending on who you ask.” She said with some flourish, pretending to ignore how the shadow chains didn’t let go of her shadow puppet.

 

She also pretended to not notice how she was imagining her body being bound by those same shadows…Or how the rest of the shadow chains seemed to be sneaking below the inky shadow mass towards her new position. “And as such… I have better tricks, there was only one girl that came close to me in [Shadows] and she never looked my way…Preferred the lanky Jacky boy for some reason.” Grumbled Elizabeth remembering a black-haired Asian beauty…

 

That somehow didn’t look as appealing now in her memories as before, but why would she like a woman anyway? She was a healthy girl after all!

 

“Anyway!” She coughed into her hand, “My point is…I’m [special] so is [My Circus]!” She said and from her shoulders, hands, and legs started crawling out puppets one after the other by the time 18 had come out… She remembered… “Oh wait…Hmmm ♥” And a pair jumped out from her chest, the little puppets sinking their hands in her breasts to pull themselves out of her, making her let out a moan from the stimulation.

 

“Sorry about that…” Said sheepishly Elizabeth blushing a little, while she was dressing as a whore, there was a time in place for everything! Like in tied in the bed of a motel in a few hours!

 

…………

 

“[…]” The hunk didn’t seem impressed by her performance, and instead raised his hands towards her “[Shadow Barrage]” And shot her with a deluge of shadow arrows.

 

This time, however, her puppets summoned swords and shields to parry the attack, “Now now, I was patient enough and you didn’t seem to Man up and go for it…So don’t mind me if I do ♥.” Smirked Elizabeth while licking her lips, her red eyes shining as her mana flared in her veins and fueled her puppets, whose eyes in turn brightened up red.

 

One after the other started descending into the inky shadow mass that was in the floor, and when they landed the shadows seemed to solidify, making the hunk grunt, his stance seemed to waver for a second before he centered himself once more.

 

It seemed he hadn’t expected her to contest the [Shadows], maybe he was expecting her to dispel them? But why would she?

 

He had worked the mana to summon so much [Shadow]…And he had Pumped his mana into it, she would just Gobble up with gusto, “Thank you for the meal ♥” And her shadow puppet did just that, they all sank their shadow sword into the inky mass.

 

It seemed the hunk had noticed what she was planning to do, as he started to try and reel in his [Domain], but she wouldn’t let him go that easy “How did you say…Oh right… [Shadow Barrage]” she said while calling upon the Image of what he had did before with his attack, she molded her mana and extended shadows from behind her back and from there, she shot a barrage of shadow spears against him.

 

These weren’t as well constructed as the ones he had used, but they would do the work, if nothing else they would be more [Dense], “Now let’s see…[Identify]” she said while focusing the mana in her eyes to see the status of the hunk.

Well…Wasn’t that interesting? The hunk wasn’t after all, a jack-of-all-trades. He seemed to be focused mostly on strength and speed, so perhaps an assassin?

 

This explained why his manipulation of shadows was so…[Amateur], he wasn’t quite a [Glass Cannon] and she sure as hell hoped he wasn’t a one-shot cannon, but he was almost 60 levels above her!

 

He shouldn’t be having so much trouble against her! But instead here he was trying to get her into submission using [Shadows]! Instead of using his strong and very well-built arms…He could get her in a Submission hold before she was able to blink and ♥♥♥.

 

…No wait, he only had one skill with [shadow] in its name…how the hell was he using Shadows like this then?

 

“[Identify – Eternal Vow]” She intoned, making the hunk stop, she felt killing intent coming her way, and that only made her shiver a little, but she mostly ignored it. Instead, she focused on the blue screen that showed up.

“[What did you do?]” Asked Maximilian who seemed to want to glare at her.

 

Oh…Was he shy?

 

“Nothing, just perused your info, Max… So you are that stuck-up bitch’s son huh…” Said Elizabeth before stopping herself.

 

“Wait what?” Said aloud the girl, “Why did I call her stuck up?” She said while going through her memory at the old camp for [The Twelve]. Every single memory of her interactions with her, somehow the feeling she got from them was different.

 

While she hadn’t minded her reactions as Ethan, somehow how she acted and ignored her irked her, who did she think she was for ignoring her?!?

 

The bitch.

 

“Well, ain’t that interesting, it seems I hate your mom.” Said Elizabeth with a nod, “I liked her as a male, but as a female, it seems that I don’t deal well with rejection…You will not reject me will you Max…will you?”

 

“[If you know who my mother is…Then you really aren’t Elizabeth…]” Max said with a small laugh, he then took off his mask showing his face, and ooooh man, he had all the right looks too!

 

Even those blue eyes of his…Wait, what?

 

“Blue eyes?” Said Elizabeth looking at the hunk, that shouldn’t…”That isn’t possible, my [Taint] should have spread to everyone under this [Planet]!” Elizabeth said while dropping straight to the floor.

 

All the shadows around her solidified and then cracked with red wisps of energy running through them as if she were at the center of a web. Max didn’t seem to care too much, “And if you aren’t Elizabeth…Then you are using her appearance for some reason, it matters not who you are, or if you truly are the Stygian Bane.” He said while throwing his mask away only for it to dissolve away.

 

“Tell me…did you do something to a blonde thunder-aligned Heroine?” He asked, his voice no longer distorted into a deeper tone, but still made her shiver with his tone, also she could feel him build up his mana or something, but that wasn’t important right now! JUST LOOK AT THAT FACE ♥!

 

“Hmm…The chick that was wearing a wig?” Asked Elizabeth remembering the girl she had fought for a few seconds after waking up in this body.

 

That made Max’s eyes to sharpen a little, that dangerous look…Yeah, she could get used to him looking at her like that. “So this was your sister?” He once more narrowed his eyes when she summoned a window made of shadows that projected an image of the girl.

 

She was projecting her intent into the mana construct that was the [Status] skill Alexanders had left in this body, in that was a projection of the girl tied by shadows, she was in one of the positions she wanted the hunk to put her, so yeah…The girl was showing quite a good amount of skin.

 

“[I make this promise…Placing my skill at stake…I will put you down.]” His words built in his throat and somehow came into the world with a [Weight] to them. “[And I will rescue my Sister from your claws.]”

 

And in that, she felt something coiling around her [heart], a quick look into her mana stream showed that around her presence was a [Weight] of something trying to press down on her, following that mana she found a connection to Max forming.

 

Somehow it was almost as if [The World] had approved of that little oath.

 

“Tch…[You] had to mess with me again…” Spat Elizabeth turning her attention once more towards Maximilian Windsor…[The Keeper of Secrets].

 

She wasn’t worried too much, he had been dangerous with his attacks if only because his mana was more dense, but even so she still could toy with him any day, why in her heyday he wouldn’t be able to win against her prime in stamina!

 

…That would be a problem if she had still her old body’s stamina…At least that wasn’t the case…But then again if she had her old body then she wouldn’t want to nail this hunk, would she?

 

Was she gay before? No wait…Was she now?

 

She didn’t get a reaction from looking at women or thinking about them…And she definitely got a reaction from the hunk…But…She was…She was a girl, right?

 

Was her soul female? But she used to be a man…No wait…Was the identity tied to the soul or the body?

 

“You think too much.” Was all she could hear before she felt something strike her in the abdomen, her shadows acted in a second solidifying the area of impact to try and disperse the impact across her body to minimize the damage. And the shadows in her back tried to reinforce her back before it hit a building.

 

She managed to negate plenty of the damage, and her shadows protected her from the debris of the building she crashed into, who even throws a lady into a building?!?

 

Rude!

 

Elizabeth wasn’t even out of the building when “We can stop whenever you want.” The voice of Max came once more and she felt another impact to her abdomen, this time instead of a jab the punch was upwards.

 

Sending her through the ceiling of the building (It had two floors, she counted) into the open sky, unlike the last time she hadn’t managed to negate as much damage, part of the mesh shirt had been destroyed and it was just barely holding in place. And while flying into the sky she felt something…

 

It wasn’t a warm feeling in her nether region like before, nothing so pleasant (Or not that much anyway), but something building up from her belly, she tried to raise one hand into her mouth “*bleergh*” she spat blood into her hands.

 

Oh.

 

So that did really happen in the real world. A look into her [Status] showed that she had a few ruptured organs and her hp seemed to be going down, a quick pulse of her mana sent a few shadow strands into her internals to staunch the bleeding. She also put a [Puppet] in charge of her internal wounds with enough mana to work for.

 

After fixing that and trying to wipe her mouth she turned downwards searching for Max, she would need to up her game at this…While she didn’t mind playing rough…She wasn’t a pushover!

 

“Ready to surrender? I will let you go if you give me my sister and explain why you are pretending to be Elizabeth.” Came the voice of Max from behind her.

 

She quickly formed a pair of shadow wings in her back and flapped them to get some distance “Darling, you shouldn’t scare a girl ♥.” She said turning back only to see Max standing in the air right in front of her!

 

How?!?

 

He didn’t even have manipulation skills! Or a fly Skill!

 

“Don’t test my patience.” Was what he said, she was about to say something but the words couldn’t come out of her mouth. “Release my sister.”

 

Why you ask?

 

Well…”h..a…r…d…e…r…” Maximilian had grabbed her by the throat and was currently squishing it.

 

Quite hard at that actually…Since she was starting to have trouble getting Oxygen into her lungs…And somehow the man’s mana was preventing her from manipulating shadows!

 

His paltry manipulation was overriding hers! She was about even lose control over the shadows that made her clothing…Her fishnet tights had already turned back into the skirt (The normal length) of a school uniform….

 

Her mesh shirt had turned back into a blouse & blazer pair that was of the same color as the skirt…

 

Her lovely tiara was melting away and turning into an obsidian bracelet in her right hand…One that somehow annoyed her for some reason, and the worst of it all?

 

The fact that her skill’s effect ended hadn’t annoyed her that much, she could turn it all back in a second after all, the problem was Max didn’t even seem troubled by the fact that he wasn’t looking at her (almost)naked body!

 

“[Shadow Pact]…No, since you don’t have a mask on I guess that I should call you Maximilian. I really hope you have a good reason to attack this [Civilian].” Said an annoying voice from her past.

 

This made Max release some strength in his grip (Not enough to escape) to allow her to breathe in the lovely, lovely oxygen (And more importantly the carbon dioxide that Max was expelling). “Sir, this pretender took hostage my sister…Please don’t interfere.” Said Max to the interloper.

 

She also started “Yeah, don’t butt in you…” And turned her head to look at the annoying face of…”…Oh… Hello daddy ♥” The ripped form of one of his former subordinates.

 

Former Private Jack Ashcroft… Then when the second iteration of the Twelve was created. Former Sergeant First Class Jackson Brighton… The American Crusader…The father of Elizabeth Starbright…

 

And right now…The most delicious-looking man she had seen in all her life, the absolute unit of muscles, looks, and appearance in the whole world. She was too busy licking the body of his former subordinate with her eyes when she felt a spike of mana drive into her mind, one whom she fought with her shadow defenses as best as she could, sadly…That mana left her body before she could do anything.

 

“It is her, but something is going on, my defenses are gone and her [Soulscape] seems fractured.” Came the voice of a woman, she turned her eyes towards that.

 

Wondering what she would find herself thinking…”Hello Catherine.” Nothing, no lust, no [desire]…Just…Disappointing and annoyance.

 

That was the woman who brought Magic to this world by teaching a group of girls about magic…Catherine Starlight, the woman who gave her so many troubles with her band of Magical Girls…

 

The woman that was at the head of all the problems she had to deal with as [The Shadowcaster] since they didn’t heel to the government.

 

The parents of Elizabeth had arrived…Wonder if Jack could convince Max for a trio?