"I am afraid that will not be necessary." The Officer at the Teleportation station said as Elizabeth's eyes fred in azure light. "This roved by [The ars], it is secure as it gets. It will also repel all skills and magic attempting to breach it and the tents of what it has sed."

  The Officer of course looked vinced of this, not that it would stop Elizabeth fr, and trying she did. More than try even.

  Arc of Truth:An ented device blessed by divine Prana, it will detey person being actively affected by any of the Seven Cardinal Virtues and teleport them to a determined location. Any person being affected by any of the seven cardinal sins will be marked and their Mana sampled for sg.

  It will also detey person that has ties to any god or ah any variation of the [Hero] or [Vilin] title, mark such person, ahe information avaible to [The ars].

  This device is endorsed by both [The ars] and The Gaxidae; any attempt at tampering or deceiving it will be met with extra prejudice.

  "Iing…" Elizabeth said as she read the data, but could she deceive it? She didn't know how sensible the threshold for this thing was.

  Teically, the three of them were being affected by [Sin Mana] to some degree. But what could she do?

  Alice:You probably deceive it using your [Layered Safeguard], not that anyone will buy it after what happened with Jenna; date it as needed and grant you barely A-Tier power. As for your wives…robably extend some prote their way. But I would advise you to let the [Hero] title leak, the Awakened version, not the full normal one, of course.

  Alice robably right on this, she had exposed too much to the [Elementalist] and [The Monk], she wasn't sure how much they shared with the other members of the [ars], or if they had etions to the Gaxidae.

  "Eli-Eli? Should we…take the longer route?" Rossie said from the side.

  "Miss, there isn't any other route to return to the MPI, you will be fine…Unless you have something to hide?" The Officer ughed as if it was the fu joke ever, but Elizabeth couldn't be decieved, the man had moved his hand closer to a button under his desk.

  Probably a silent arm.

  And Rena also noticed it as she pced her hand above where her sword would usually hang. Of course, nothing was there, but that didn't matter since Rena could materialize her sword anywhere she wanted.

  "Everything is okay, that thing will not hurt us. I go first if you want-" Elizabeth said smiling at Rossie.

  "I'll go first." Rena however, spoke before she could even take a siep, "Everything will be okay right, Eli?"

  Elizabeth really wao go first, just in case…But Rena was also stubborn like that, and Elizabeth didn't want for her to return to her more… submissive form, well, not in publiyway.

  "Yeah, just step forward and the thing will do all the things on its own, right?" Elizabeth said, turning to the Officer who had rexed his hand over the button.

  "Yes, just step forward and the thing will do all on its own, you don't o do anything. I walk by that thing every day and never have felt anything." The Officer joked.

  She doubted that, but whatever.

  "Okay then," and like that Rena walked across the thing. As Rena took the first step into it, the thing shone like a Christmas tree to Elizabeth's eyes.

  Elizabeth could see more spells blooming around the thing, most of them used [Divine Mana] and [Prana], these hovered all over Rena as she walked acroos the thing. And among them, Elizabeth saarticur strand of Mana that reeked of [Demonia] and was in the form of a slimy tentacle.

  It hovered above Rena, and it took all her self-trol to not bst the thing into oblivion; it just hovered around her and didn't make a siempt to touch Rena, as if it was seeking something but found nothing.

  "Good, good, you are . No arms or anything, see? Who is ?" The Officer said as Rena finished passing by the Arch.

  "I'll go ," Rossie said and before Elizabeth could say anything the pink-haired girl was already ihe stupid thing.

  The same thing happehe only difference was that this time the [Divine Mana] seemed to hover around longer, and the weird slimy tentacle didn't get as close to Rossie, what Elizabeth found infuriating was the fact that one of the magic circles seemed to want to take a sample of Rossie's Mana.

  But as soon as it attempted to do so, Rossie's Mana fred and it erased the strand of Mana that had been taken.

  "Any problem officer?" Rossie asked as she exited the Arch.

  "Hmm…. doesn't seem like." The Officer said, so he really didn't have any idea of what this thing did?

  "Your turn, miss, unless you have something to hide?" The Officer said, his hand h over the stupid button.

  "I am a Shadow Attuned. Will that be a problem?" Elizabeth decided to py the marginalized card.

  Ohat she said in a loud voice, getting stares from everyone around and one particur person wiping out a phoo record the enter. God bless social media warriors for this, it was meaningless but made the Officer think twice about what it said.

  "Of course not, we do not discriminate upon the mana type, we are merely making sure you don't have any dangerous mana type…Not that there are dangerous mana types because they are, but more of their use…of course, shadow type isn't that type as many shadow-attuned heroes and magical girls and guardians have shown." The Officer kept on speaking more and more.

  The news about the defeat of the [Shadow Tide] in the hands of a Shadow Attuned had been distributed around the world. No one said who had do, but most thought it was [Ea] because it obviously was her.

  Not that Elizabeth would say anything about that, not yet either way.

  "Right…Then here goes…." Elizabeth said as she walked forward and as her feet touched the arch floor, all the magiodes activated and started sc her body. None had attempted to breach her mana defenses and look inside her body…yet.

  A sed step made sure all her body was within the Arch, at this point she was seeing more and more iigation spells attempting to dis her mana type.

  So she leaked some shadow mana, it was absorbed, then she sent some lightning mana, it was also absorbed, the same happened with fire and even space. She was half tempted to brandish her [Soul] and [Divine] ones, but decided against that.

  The same could be said about all her [Sin] Mana.

  No, the thing was…, when she was about to exit the Arch, she felt it; one of the spells within the Arch attempted to break into her [Soulscape]. It did the metaphorical equivalent of attempting to lockpick the door.

  And Elizabeth didn't like that, nor did her Soulscape like that.

  What happened went so fast and quick that Elizabeth couldn't help but think it was a reflex a. First, a loud roar resounded from within her Shadow Haven, and then, a mighty thunder came from the camps outside Aqui, followed by the rumble of a volic eruption from the other side outside of Aqui.

  These three soued outwards from Terra Nexus into the empty void surrounding the p and outwards, it was barely restrained by Elizabeth's mastery over space, or at least the sound for the people around them.

  Elizabeth also yered the image of the space above the Arch, so it repeated itself here and there. Why?

  Because as soon as the retaliation from her Soulscape escaped into this reality, the Arch cracked in a few parts. As if it hadn't been able to receive the backsh from what it attempted.

  "So, any problems from me officer?" Elizabeth asked, she hadn't detected any iioween the Ard the Officer, or any device withieleportation station.

  If anything she detected an attempt of a transmission towards the outside, the dire wasn't towards the MPI though, if Elizabeth was guessing right and knew her geography, then it was towards veritalis.

  The current throne of power of the [ars] and the pce where the [Prophet] and the [Warlock] stood guard.

  She… didn't want to deal with them quite yet; they should be allies sihe [Prophet] allegedly worked for her Mother now…a she had also been given the message to not trust Italians.

  What was she supposed to do then? Both the [Prophet] and [The Warlock] lived within their area of influence, hell, she wasn't even sure if they were part of them or not. These people the Italians were like the Saintsworths of old, and the Gaxidae, another family made of people that mao get a slice of the world to trol.

  Only they trolled Veritalis…and probably the same pce that the [Warlock] and [Prophet] lived in…

  Oh god damned fate, they probably were part of them, weren't they?

  Dang it Mother, why did you gave people you don't trust access to yifts?

  "Everything looks good, please proceed towards the teleportation circle, someone will give you more instrus." The Officer said as Elizabeth joined Rena and Rossie.

  "Will anyone else be ing with us?" Elizabeth asked, "As in more people into the teleportation circle?"

  "No, only you are scheduled. I am supposed to prepare the Arch to return back, you were the st oo use this, and we will be getting a new o week." The Officer said as he pulled a lever at the side, and a crystal box desded upon the Arch.

  The gss was bck, so you couldn't make the form of what was inside, but Elizabeth kept her trol over the space even through that box.

  Even though she was no longer able to perceive the Mana within…

  [Space Mana] was broken.

  And Aura pyed around with these things? That girl was dangerous.

  "I see, thank you for the help," Elizabeth said, grabbing Rena and Rossie by their hands and walking towards the teleportation circle.

  "Happy to help, have a fun trip back." The Officer said as they walked away.

  Elizabeth would of course have a fun trip, she had two lovely girlfriends with her. Even if she was going to hell, so long she was with Rossie and Rena, then she would probably have fun…Hell, that might even make it better.

  Either way, they walked towards the teleportation area where they found…

  Circles, magical circles that seemed to pull in Space Mana to prepare for the teleportation. Elizabeth hadn't seen them with these eyes before, but now that she could…They were quite simple.

  Some arrays to funnel space mana, some to twist space, a few extra oo make stable duits between two pces in space, and finally ao cut the e.

  One walked from one pd left on another, all thanks to a hole in space artificially made by the magical circles, quite simple. In cept, at least, the magical circles here were way too overly plex for what they achieved.

  "Watanabe Rena, Rossalina Singh and Elizabeth Starbright?" The Mage besides the magical circle said as he eyed them.

  "Yes." Elizabeth answered, why had her name been st?

  "Good, there was some doubt about if you would even show up. But since you did walk into the circle, we don't have all day." The Mage said as he started pumping Mana into the circle.

  Iing, Elizabeth saw the coordinates engraved into the magical circle, and sure enough they poio the MPI. What she also saw was a sedary set of coordinates uhem, ohat poio…another pce.

  Elizabeth wasn't able to decipher them quite yet and didn't get a ce as the Mana within the circle burhem away as it took them.

  "Aura…Did this…" Elizabeth sent the message to her expert in space manipution.

  "Yes, Mistress, this person is tweaking the teleportation address. Do you wao correct it?" Aura answered within her mind.

  "Redirect us back to the MPI, and if you save the location we would have goo." Elizabeth said, as she felt some of Aura's mana leak into the magical circle.

  It tweaked the smallest parts of it, and Elizabeth couldn't even notice how she had do, but it seemed to work. Since Aura didn't say anything else, Elizabeth let the thing go, and sineither Rena nor Rossie seemed to notiything…

  "Okay, you are about to be teleported, please brace yourself, some people have troubles with long teleportations." The Mage said.

  "It's okay, we have gone before to the MPI using these." Rossie said.

  "And we have experienced long distaeleportation, granted from Camelot to Germania isn't that far…" Rena said from the side.

  "....Teleportation in five, four, three…" The Mage ted down. "The Gaxidae send their regards."

  And in that tuhe Mage said, Rossie's eyes turned sharp at the Mage as she raised her hand towards him, but it was too te.

  "[Soul Destr-]" The spell never mao hit as they got whisked away.

  Only to nd on the MPI.

  "...." To the surprise of Rossie and the fusion of Rena.

  "Did the…did he pyed a prank on us?" Rena said fused as she eyed everyone around. They arrived at ay ptform.

  "I'm sorry…but we must ask you for your identification, arriving to an unautorized teleportation ptaform is a crime-" There was a nervous student ing to them while saying that.

  He was fnked by two other students, the three wielded the emblem of the student disciplinary force.

  "We had been told that we would arrive here, and scheduled our return, here are the papers." Rossie said while bringing out the forms they had been told to fill and send beforehand.

  They included what teleportation circle they would o take and in what they would arrive. The only way someone would know how to tamper with their specific teleportation circle.

  Elizabeth wondered why they didn't tamper with this ooo, she would have dohat, to prevent them from arriving.

  "They tampered with this ooo, Mistress; your lovely, cute, and adorable sexy Space Maiden Aura fixed that for you and teleported you myself here when your trip got derailed," Aura spoke at the back of her mind.

  Cheeky girl.

  "...I see…everything seems to be in order…We-wele back to the Mystic Powers Institute…do you need an escort?" The student said sweating buckets.

  "That will not be necessary, will it Eli-Eli?" Rossie said as she reeled back her magic back; she had a half-casted 'Soul Destroyer' spell, ohat should be highly illegal…

  "No, it will not be necessary; our teachers should be ing to receive us." Elizabeth said, summoning a small shadon scout.

  She hadn't used these that often sihey were closer to mana struct than sapient beings, but in hostile situations…she didn't want to risk the ones she wao turn sapient.

  "Amm….summoning magic is forbidden withieleportation station of the MPI." The mage student said.

  "Good thing that isn't a summoning spell." Elizabeth smirked, "There, Jenna should know we are here. We will go on our way, but thank you."

  Elizabeth took Rossie and Rena's hand and walked past the other students.

  "I'm afraid we must insist." One of the students that fhe mage student said as he pced a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder.

  His Mana…it reeked of sludge.

  "I don't see how that is a problem," Elizabeth answered as she fred her Lightning Mana. "The student cil has no jurisdi over what we do or when. Not unless we broke a rule. Like tampering with a teleportation circle, for example."

  The student that had attempted to grab her shoulder narrowed his eyes at her and removed the hand that had suffered a discharge of her Lightning Mana, he was a good actor, he hadn't flinched.

  "The higher-ups will hear of this." Said the student gring at Elizabeth.

  "So? Will Evangeline be angry?" Elizabeth said back, getting a shudder from the other two. "Because she knows of this, right?"

  Elizabeth got no a that.

  Iing, the Gaxidae issue was turning more and more iing.

  Annouaking a break on the scheduled chapter (23), one will be the 25 instead.

  Have fun in whatever you do on the 24 if you celebrate those dates.

  Been meaning to add breaks to my schedule, so I'm using christmas as an excuse to start adding them slowly lmao.