The MPI, it was…ckluster, after everything that Elizabeth had gohrough, the pce just didn't seem that impressive anymore. Not after Elizabeth had seen the full might of her Soulscape, the fact that the pce was so much more than a city.

  It put things in perspective, the fact that her soulscape and was growing made the school....ckluster in the best-case sario.

  Now that they had returned, Elizabeth could see the students milling around, going from css to css, the first-grade students going around doing other things, practig with their magid skills. Or nowadays mostly with their skills since almost no one followed the old style of magic casting.

  Most people dependiirely on their [Magic Circle Skill] and [Magic Skills]. That was...kind of ckluster.

  "What's on your mind, Eli-Eli?" Rossie asked from the side as she noticed Elizabeth looking around.

  "I thought more people would still use magic with magic circles and build their mandas ical circles in the old-fashioned way." Elizabeth answered.

  "Why would they?" Rena jumped from the side, "Even if that works better for them in the end sihey have more trol over what they do, isn't it easier to just get the skill? Granted you have limited number of skills and so from a teical point of view its better to go the old way..."

  That was...probably true, if Elizabeth didn't had such a great trol over her own Mana then she would probably depeirely on her Skill slots, and granted she had that better since she had more slots than the average person.

  Actually, did she evehose skill slots? Not really. She could do most of what she wanted using pure mana manipution, if anything these served more as a pceholder to remind her of what she had going. For example, if she wanted an easy time knowing what she had, a quick peek at her status was all she o know.

  And like that she khat she was only missing Sloth to finish her set of Cardinal Sins!

  ...dang it.

  "I know," Elizabeth answered while sighing, "But even so, it is jarring. Knowing what we know now... Shouldn't we at least attempt to tell them?"

  "It will not work," A voice said from besides them, turning to the voi question they found a woman dressed in bck with a pointed hat. A witch, or in other words, The Witch.

  "Long time no see. I'm gd you all made it ba one piece, it took great effort to vihe cil to let you girls nd in the public teleportation station, but seeing you here it was worth it." Agatha said with a sigh and a small smile on her face.

  So they wahem to nd somewhere else?

  "Where did they want us to nd?" Elizabeth asked fused, sihe circle at the teleportation station had been tampered...

  "They wanted you to nd in their private teleport circle, in the middle of the cil room. Imagine, returning to school to nd in the middle of a unknown pce, besides that site is only accesible to members of the cil, so if something happened we wouldn't know till it was too te." Agatha shook her head at the statement, "Anyway, your teachers should be waiting in the library. Do you o do something?"

  "So the cil huh..." Rossie said thoughtfully.

  Elizabeth feared for them, not them, but for them. The poor bastard had probably sigheir death sentence...

  But then again, she wasn't sure about that, sihe Gaxidae had attempted to kidnap them just after their arrival. Actually...

  "Any reason why they would send up people to escort us?" Elizabeth said, turning to Agatha, "I didn't think they would, and the ohey sent after us were quite rude."

  "Escorts?" Agatha said, frowning, "There shouldn't be ahere to escort you. I'm your escort and I was...deyed...because some students fought...Did you catch their name?"

  So Agatha was their escort who veely got deyed huh, the plot was ihiing.

  "They said they worked for some people called Gaxidae. But when I asked why Evangeline would care, they seemed fused." Elizabeth answered with a shrug, "Did the student president want something?"

  Agatha let out a sigh as if she was dissapointed on something, "Yeah, no. It isn't as much as Evangeli her family. They are… problematic, to say the least." That was an uatement.

  "They attempted to tweak our teleportation, that is beyond problematic." Rossie said from the side, "That is what they did, right Eli-Eli? I felt Aura's mana fre below your feet."

  …Rossie?

  How?

  Aura barely used any of her Mana and tweaked more with her Authority over space using her as a medium, she had used less than a fra of a mote of Mana…

  "...they did what?" Agatha said, stopping iracks; the Mana surrounding her seemed to want te but was being tained within her body. "Are you certain of this?"

  "Yes, the teleportation on our side had an alternate address engraved to use first. Probably they po erase it after we left; I noticed the discrepancy sihe mage oeleportation station told us to be prepared since a long-distaeleport could make us dizzy." Elizabeth answered, "We have used this teleportation before, so I found that weird, and using one of my…not minions, we discovered they wao teleport us oalis dires, so we tweaked it back to the MPI."

  It roblem that Aura was more than a Minion, but Elizabeth didn't feel fortable calling her a servant. The girl deserved better.

  "...I see…" Agatha said, Elizabeth could see the purple-colored Mana wanting to fre in her eyes, and there was a faint trace of a magic circuit within the body of the Witch as if she was about to run and bst someone's head off.

  "And when we arrived at the MPI the sed fre of mana I assume meant that they wao redirect us again?" Rossie said, nodding her head.

  Rossie? How…how sensitive was her nose for Mana?!?!?!?

  "...they did a what now?" Agatha said, barely straining her Mana. "Here? In [My school]?!?!?"

  In her what now?

  "Yes…Actually…Aura, if you could?" Elizabeth said aloud.

  The purple-haired girl teleported in, this time appearing from somewhere above them and nding softly.

  "You called Mistress?" The girl said turning to Elizabeth first, then to Agatha, "Good day to you Teacher."

  "Aurelia?" Agatha said, fetting for a sed the state of mana overload she was self-geing, "You are…alive? No…or yes? [Eyes of the Witch of Certainity]"

  Eyes of the what now?

  Elizabeth saw the eyes of Agatha shift from the usual purple to a dirty yellow, not quite golden in color, but more closer to a washed-out yellow.

  "Aura Di Starbright…No known history, 27-year-old? Then I guess you aren't Aurelia Vitelius… You gave me a scare there, Elizabeth." Agatha said, sighing in relief, "Thought you had desecrated the body of one of your former friends. But I guess Aurelia didn't quite introduce herself, did she…We are still searg for her after all."

  …Aura was 27? That… wasn't quite right, was it? She should be of their age.

  "Well, that was rude, stating out a girl's age as if nothing." Aura said, pouting at Agatha, that face….how could a baby face like Aura be twenty-seven?

  Granted, it wasn't quite that old…(Just barely ten years older than her).

  "Mistress? You thought something rude did you?" Aura said, narrowing her eyes at Elizabeth.

  "Nope, your imagination. Anyway, you expin Agatha what happened?" Elizabeth said rerouting the versation to the important bit, the ohat was making Agatha more and more angry.

  Aura didn't say anything and instead summoned a magical circle to make a proje of the magical circles that they had used to e here.

  "This is the one Mistress, Lady Rena and Lady Rossaline used to e here," Aura made a proje of the first one, "And here are the new coordihey used. They are a rouge set of coordinates, so I assume they po use ane to hijack their teleportation oher end and pull them somewhere else."

  So they didn't even specify the nding area? Quite rude ers these were huh.

  "And the o the MPI?" Agatha said as she took the image and pulled out her phoo snap a picture of it.

  "You aren't going to look at it?" Aura said with a smile on her face.

  "No reason to go, si will not be there anymore, will it? That or they will brio another room and say that it is the one Elizabeth used to arrive." Agatha said shaking her head, "I haven't been able to house as well as I would like."

  house?

  "Correct, they have actually obliterated that part of spad crumbled it into itself, the circle Mistress used should be arouher the fifth pne of hell or the third depending on how you t them." Aura said with a shrug, "As for that circle, here is an image of it."

  Aura then snaped her fingers and the image ged, this time it showed…another depi hly the same, the only thing that ged was the fl and the fact that you could see a part of Rossie's cute foot on the picture.

  "Hmm….the same coordinates?" Agatha said reading the circle.

  Right, read the circle Elizabeth!

  "About the same, this one is less subtle though. It just was desigo yoink Mistress out from here and throw her across the world. Uhe other, this one would let her materialize above Veritalis. I assume they ged subtlety for power sihey would o pierce the defenses of the MPI." Aura said with a smirk, the smile of a cat that just ate the ary.

  "The defenses of the MPI?" Elizabeth asked, "I thought these only applied to ing…"

  And that is what she thought, since she had teleported away from here without much problem…Actually, hadn't her shadons dohe same?

  "...No, Elizabeth, the defenses work both ways; if you mao pierce the wards, you 't use the same way out sihe wards will block that method of intrusion, so you wo routes prepared, one in and o. This one just used a spearhead brute method, they burned all the Mana to make an unstable teleport. It wouldn't be able to nd oarget. That is why they set it up high on the air, so it won't matter at ot you nd." Agatha said shaking her head, "It is a brutish method, and while it would work, it would also strairavelers. So you would end weakend and your mana ay get cracked in the worst case sario."

  "That is correct Mistress, which is why I intervened without waiting for your and. Since we don't want anything bad to happen." Aura nodded, "Also, there are indeed defense wards within the MPI, both in and out. But they are of no worry for us since we don't get caught in their work."

  Aura shamelessly said.

  "...I beg your pardon?" Agatha said, fused, "How could you not get caught in them. Actually, how did you get in?"

  “Well…she teleported here…from…” Elizabeth said, and stopped cold there. Aura had used her Soulscape to arrive, so… "Oh…so since we don't go from one point within Zanaam to another point within Zaanam…"

  "Exactly, we don't fold space within Zaanam, but use a third phese wards work interceptiher the point in within Zaanam and the target point within Zaanam. Sihere is no sedary target point within Zaanam. The wards fail to activate." Aura said with a shrug "Really, they did a good job setting them, sino one is crazy enough to attempt to visit an alternated pne just to bypass a ward. Nor do they have enough Mana to do it."

  But Elizabeth could, since she wasn't actually going to another hostile pne, but to her soulscape.

  But then, couldn't other people do the same?

  "And this works because you are expanding your area of influence using your Minions, since you use them as a means to spread your skills. You are returning to Zaanam not from where you left, but from the pinion is. So really, you were just lucky that your skills allowed it to work like that." Aura said shrugging again, so Elizabeth was lucky huh.

  That was…ve.

  "Wait wait a sed. So Elizabeth is jumping into another pne? How did she eve one of those? Those things are expensive." Agatha said from the side, "Also, how did she even mao hire someone like you? You seem to be either a high B-Tier or a Mid A-Tier mage."

  Aura was that powerful?

  Or weak? That was debatable.

  "She helped me in a time of need, so I'm helping her. Besides, it is fun around." Aura said with a smile, "Was that all you required of me Mistress?"

  "Yeah, thank you Aura." Elizabeth said, and as soon as she said those words, the purple-haired maid teleported away. As if to throw salt into the wound, Elizabeth felt her teleport just outside of the area of influence of the wards.

  And from there she teleported bato the Shadow Haven.

  Cheeky girl…

  "You had some iing time, it seems." Agatha said shaking her head, "Well, I'll use this evidence well and try to expel the remaining members of the cil. The old bastards are getting cocky sihey got some money from [The Prophet] and the Gaxidae."

  So [The Prophet] was indeed in cahoots with the Gaxidae?

  "[The Prophet] is taking i in our school?" Elizabeth asked, that had been…iing, was she a friend or not?

  She khe Gaxidae weren't sihey had been hostile towards Reginald and had attempted to tamper with Sebastian after all, at least that one hadn't been affected…she wasn't sure what they had attempted to do, but the fact that Sebastian decided to fade away instead of remain made her angry.

  "Not so mu our school and more so in some of our students…" Agatha said, turning her eyes to Rossie and Rena. "She found out that some had been…touched by gods."

  …Elizabeth couldn't help but feel her eyes narrow.

  "That bitch dares to covet what is mine?" Elizabeth said almost snarling, narrowing her eyes, "Why?"

  "...that is no way to speak about one of the top [Heroes]...But as to answer your question…She found out from the [Soul Fragments] readouts. They had divine Mana outside from that of known [Gods]. So she wants to analyze their [Soul] and find a way to harhat [Divinity]." Agatha answered, her eyes seemed to shine golden for half a sed, "...Why do I o…Fine!"

  Agatha sighed as if in despair, "[Odyssey the Goddess of Magic] is tellio tell you that the [Soul] of yirlfriends] are protected. That unless an od es, they are safe from tampering from….[These pitiful mbs who don't know how high the mountain they are seeing is.]" Agatha ged at the words. "And that [Should they decide to awake the sleeping dragon, Gatty will be there to help-] The hell I will!, I mean. Of course I will help one of our students, but you are tellio go nuts against a S-Tier!"

  Agatha suddenly stopped reading something and started discussing against the air…

  Was that how it looked when an Oracle was discussing with their Patron God?

  "Hah? What do you mean with…[Eyes of The Witch of Certainity]!" Agatha's eyes shone once more, but this time more strongly.

  Elizabeth felt the familiar Mana of her Mother mixed within those eyes, and before she was able to reason what was happeni a strand of Mana pierce her [Layered Safeguard].

  "Holy Mother of…" Agatha said as she covered her mouth and started agape at Elizabeth, "...So that's why you have beeerih getting photos of her?"

  Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and cmped down on the breach that had pierced her defenses, "That was quite rude Mother." And gred not quite at Agatha, but at the being who she could imagine was giggling like a madman behind Agatha.

  "...Yeah, fine, I'll tell them." Agatha said again, not to Elizabeth, Rena or Rossie, "Yes. That should be just enough…Girls, let's go to my new office. We have some things to discuss."

  And in that hey started walking not towards the main building…. Why the main building?