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 stant pain and suffering!

  Why had it hurt her so much if those were her memories anyway?

  She would uand it if the memories had been from someone else. Like she would have uood 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 e from ahat had happened when she was five years old, she found out that some vilin had inteo attack her home when her Father and mother weren't around. And in doing so he had ied her with the [Taint].

  Somehow he got away with that, and her parents didn't notice it sihe guy had sneaked fein mana into her already full of fein mana body. They had thought that whatever that [Thing] did trolling her body to deal with the [Vilin] was the reason for the positives in her.

  It didn't help that the [Taint] she got afflicted was too simir to the normal [Taint], what with both ing from the same sourd since she showcased [Shadow] aligned powers...Yeah, her parents thought it was her personal type of [Taint] a it at that.

  Her Mother had built some defeo 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 affli.

  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 e seemed to further prove that. Memories of her Father and Mother marshaling the whole town to aodate 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 sed location to verify their social skills and be instructed in how to trol their [Taint].

  All of those memories five-year-old Elizabeth couldn't uand and thought it was normal...It wasn't.

  She had first line of how her Father had taken trol of the capital of the Uates Federation all on his own and no one could test his legality, and with that power, he isoted the capital. Her Mother worked the logistics of keeping everything ing and going, she hadn't seen her for a week while little.

  But after that? Her childhood retty 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 zed around. It wasn't something as extreme as a sed personality, her mind didn't allow that, was it because of all the mind prote 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 pnes.

  "THAT IS NOT HOW YOU DO IT YOU DIMWICK!" She had arrived at the part of her memories whe 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 ys the road for a divergen the timeline and to the creation of multiple flig plot holes, so she skipped it!

  "ht, 'Let's not speak with pink-haired girls...Oh wait, a pink-haired girl, LET'S FRIG STAND RIGHT TO HER!' " Fun times indeed.

  She had fuing 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 sces and applications. The sed 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, sihe man obviously had the ability to trol lighting in the same way Chloe could. But since she was getting the skill, she wouldn't pin. If anything it was better this way since she doubted getting the same skill two times would dood.

  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 befrahe 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 ied her when she was five didn't want that to dwell within her.

  And after she saw her [Awakening] & [Trigger] she uood why. It would have been awkward to fear your own [Skill], but the brain of Elizabeth robably 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 y 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 uand the value of [Shadows]... That or her previous fear of the darkness wasn't fully settled?

  Who knows, then...She saw herself slowly g for the pink-haired girl, Rosaline.

  All the small details on the day-to-day iions, how she would take care of undry, how she always had her breakfast ready to go... How Rossaline would prepare her lunch if she was supposed to spend more time iernoon at school.

  How the shower was always and ready for her at the end of a long day... How her dinner would be at the table for her when she 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 wheraveled 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 iion with someone in power was...Awful.

  The man abused his authority to try and make it harder for herself, and she even almost lost posure, 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 iion, the pink-haired did so by making her worry about her instead of w 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 irls, so it was more normal for them to develop romantic retionships among themselves.

  Especially with all the death and high stakes sarios they dealt with on a daily basis, also it was easier to deal with someone who uood 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 e 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 particur 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 pce.

  What each building was, what it held...And where it was...

  It was...

  "My whole Soulscape is based upon the [Method of Loc...." She provided her mind and the location of another book within a library shone like a bea and the information flooded into her sind. "The Method of Loci is a way to visualize information and a for ease of access..."

  bining that with a metaphysical maion 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 withiy, 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 ter 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 id a tar-like substance made of shadows and maws, vicious eyes darting from within the liquid.

  She...Would che that ter...Like very very te. When she wasn't within biting distance of that thing.

  "[Soul]" Intoned Elizabeth and the pod that was in front of her started emitting ahereal glow. "[Mind]" In tandem with that, her own body started to resonate.

  And just to make sure... "[Body]" The whole pce trembled.

  Almost as if reality wao ao her call, the space surrounding them vibrated, and for the barest split of a sed, she saw a room. An apartment room simir to the one in her more ret view memories, the pce seemed to look like the one she had arrived i 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 ing 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 someohat was unscious...

  And before she could move or do anything she was yanked back to her body within the [Soulscape]. "I'm unscious...It was obvious...If this isn't my real body but a proje 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 oook care of it, then she robably going to die.

  "[Update the proje, imitate the current state of the body.]" She spoke and the body within the crystal pod shone for a sed before being repced 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 "[Shohic 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 [el] 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 gettier. "What?" A flood of energy bathed her body and slowly but surely her body started rec, "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 eaking to her?

  But she was...No, she is Unscious. 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 thahe 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 fad going all the way into her neck. She didn't o see the crystal body to know what it was or how it was depicted.

  "Tears...Someone is g..." She remembered what Chloe had said before.

  And fog 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 btant 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 ma...Sad.

  There was mencholy 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 [Khat Rossaline's mana shouldn't hurt her.

  Her was the [in] of healing, that was important. That meant something... But she didn't have the right information to know what was wrong. It her, and then as fast as it had e the mana dissipated into her [Soul].

  Leaving her once more alone in this pce, leaving her [Alone] in these desoted ruins.

  The Elizabeth within the crystal pod seemed to gre at her with her closed eyes as if she should know something as if she should do something... Her sickly appearance made it mrim, her eyes g 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 pletely, the emotions weren't there for one. And some of the instincts of the inal Elizabeth seemed to be missing.

  "You wao 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 h the good stuff to yourself." She decred while walking once more towards the crystal pod.

  "Fine, I will it too." She said while fog her mind and the crystal pod opehe door, the body within tio float as if suspended in some mysterious fluid.

  "Merge." She tried speaking that weird nguage. A nothing seemed to e.

  "...Try it you then. That's what I thought." She said to the body within the pod.

  "Amm...Fuse? No. bine?... Eat? Oh, got a rea there." Elizabeth started trying different words.

  Only one seemed to resonate, but she wondered why that one. Within her [Soulscape] a part seemed to resohe 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 extrag the memories and giving them to her.

  "So I o 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 hauer 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 ing within the ruined city, and deep within the basement of the building the shadows lig their lips, viaw 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 nition 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 ihe power over the shadows after all.

  Part of the reason she was wary of that part of herself was that, that robably the reason why the part of her powers that was c the irl was hidden within the basement of the tower.

  She was wary of these powers and that she would bee [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 bck veins, no signs of that supposed [Taiher. Nothing.

  And like that the body of the former Elizabeth got covered in shadows and these shadows pressed into a small gem-like, these were offered to Elizabeth who took in "A Yellohire?"

  She somehow khat if she ate the gem she would end the transferenemories, 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 irl only gave her tastings of memories and ions, 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 Rossalih 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 bck fire seemed to trash and move with her as a storm rained down withiy, 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.

  "Wele back Mistress." A deep voice spoke to her.

  She turo the void 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 opehe door to the outside, "Hahahahah, of course...I'm still here..." Finding once more the ruined city in fmes.

  Only her apartment was normal, creating a stark trast with the rest of the ruined city, only a single apartment normal "That is ihe case Mistress." The bck 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 sort'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 magid trying to use that to patch hers...And of course, since her Soul had just eateher two it was using that to try and accelerate her recuperation...."God dammit Rossie."

  "Indeed Mistress...As for Lord Nyxfyre..." The butler pointed behiowards the building in the middle of the city. "He is sleeping, your [Soul] has yet to stabilize so his fmes are spilling out trying to accelerate the tempering of your [Soulscape]."

  So Nyx was als to help her [Soulscape] beore sturdy?

  "How do I wake up?" She asked then, she o 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 o make it [Yours]."

  "Well, how hard it be." She said looking behind them, she only o spread her influence over the pce. Make sure hers superseded the influence from Alexanders, make sure Nyx wasn't disturbed while he was tempering the pce...

  ht, and make sure to stop Rossie from killing herself, and sp her f to do so when she woke up.

  "Yes...How hard it be..." She would o find a way to do so fast, she could feel the shadows withiy already, so now she only o spread them and take trol.

  "Goddamit," She said.