The work had taken more energy than Elizabeth thought, the issue wasn't how much destruction or things she needed to deal with, but the fact that the things she had to affect were more intrinsically tied to the planet than she had expected.

The thing was... She wasn't sure she would have enough Mana to do it in one go, for the first time... She wasn't sure she could save herself from the mana burn feeling.

"How do I get around this..." Elizabeth said as she watched the projection of Terra Nexus. "Any ideas Mordred?"

Elizabeth wasn't quite sure, she was sure she could either fix the tide problem, the atmosphere problem or something along those lines.

"I would suggest fixing the issue with the atmosphere first, that ought to help with the most immediate issues." Mordred said something in line with what Elizabeth was thinking. "But if not, you can ask your other high-class servants."

The others? Who else... Ah, Aura was it? She did have some good ideas from time to time.

"Aura," Elizabeth said calling upon her most powerful minion... or former minion?

"Hello Mistress," Aura said popping into existence from nowhere, all she made was a ripple in space and materialized in here as if nothing was wrong with that. "Hmm....Yeah, you don't like that much different..."

Aura also didn't look different, at least to Elizabeth's senses, if anything, she looked more mundane than before. Whenever she summoned Aura, she always seemed to have this edge around her, as if there was a hidden monster beneath the surface.

It was part of the reason why she didn't summon her that often, and whenever she did, she also always went with whatever play or game Aura was making.

"You look more mundane too," Elizabeth decided to poke at the problem head-on, "What's the deal with that?"

"Yeah well..." Aura said scratching the back of her head while shrugging, "Nothing much to it, I am tied to you. As all the other minions were, so when you took this last step and finished the Seven Series Dragon Heart. Well... My existence was tied back and settled down with Terra Nexus."

Elizabeth... got nothing out of that.

"To make it simpler, I am at the peak of power of what your World can hold." Aura said shrugging, "At the core of it, you have your Shadow Dragon - Nyx as an anchor."

Elizabeth nodded at that, she felt as if Nyx could wake up at any moment now, and at the same time, she got the feeling that the more he allowed it to rest, the better.

"So you made me less powerful, but as you grow in power, I will return to my peak," Aura said shrugging, "I am enjoying being quite mortal and squishy again, also not having to watch and parse all the paralel worlds around, having to worry that I would trip and land in another world like the stupid [Traveler] you picked."

That was... quite heavier than she thought.

"I'm sorry for your loss...?" Elizabeth said quite confused, Aura said it in a way that implied that she was happy with it. But with that girl one would never know for sure.

"Yeah, it's more like an issue for you," Aura said shrugging and looking at the projection of Terra Nexus, "The thing is... I am happy like this, but I will not be able to peek at you and your girlfriends going at it anymore. I am not like your Mother who doesn't mind slamming headfirst into a barrier."

So it was indeed Mother the one that attempted to peek at them midway... Or was it that she was unable to see and wanted to take a closer look?

"Okay..." Elizabeth said nodding, not that she was going to ask for those kinds of services, not after she had done the deed, tasted, licked, and fondled every square meter of Rossie and Rena. "But I didn't call you for that, I want your help with this."

"Nothing I can do about it, you will need to ask... Sana for that," Aura said folding quicker than a corrupt officer whose bodycam had been turned On all this time.

"I want your advice, not for you to solve the issue, you have already done enough with those asteroids." Elizabeth said, shaking her head at the quick dismissal of responsibility from Aura, "I know you were more powerful than you ever said, surely you have seen other people attempting to do what I want. How did they solve it? Or what made them fail?"

Aura stopped and thought, actually started thinking about the issue while looking at the projection of Terra Nexus.

"First, what you want to do is indeed not something new; there have been some gods and goddesses who have tried it before, be it because they thought that they were special or wanted to save their planet." Aura admitted to Elizabeth, "And they all failed because of the same issue, there wasn't enough Time."

Damned hell.

"So I need to find time? How the hell am I supposed to get more time? I am rushing ahead because I don't have enough time as it is!" Elizabeth said as she voiced her problems.

"Hmm....Eli..... we are here..." Rossie mumbled in her sleep, "You aren't... alone..."

"But you do have that Mistress," Aura said smirking, "Time I mean."

What?

"You said the issue was of Time, how can I have it when they don't?" Elizabeth asked confused, "So you mean I can take my time?"

"Absolutely not." Aura laughed, "Terra Nexus will implode in the next month or so if you don't fix the continental drift, but if you focus on that, the surface will be cooked because they don't have an atmosphere."

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Aura said highlighting those two issues on the projection.

"The flying ocean will help prevent the worst of it, but it will boil eventually and turn into a magnifying glass. I told your... pet here about that, but they insisted we get them the stupid asteroids. And Sana wanted to be helpful..." Aura said shrugging.

"We needed the water, besides, if we didn't get it, we would die of dehydration." Mordred said sighing, "We didn't expect living would cause this many issues."

"That is life," Aura added with some mirth in her voice, "It sucks, doesn't?"

"Then how is that I have Time?" Elizabeth grumbled again, "I certainly don't have enough Mana to fix both issues at the same time."

"You don't," Aura said nodding at the statement, "And yet you do."

"I will murder you Aura," Elizabeth warned.

"You Mistress, have made your foundation using the seven cardinal sins." Aura stated as a projection of her Crown of Sin manifested atop Terra Nexus' projection, "And to stabilize them, you added a flavor to each Sin, meaning you have fourteen pillars upon which your powers are based."

Elizabeth nodded at that, it hadn't been her intention, nor Alexanders original intention, he probably had attempted to counteract the influence of each Sin with its virtue.

But in a planet doomed finding virtues was not as easy as finding Sins. Ergo, he was doomed to fail.

"Yes," Elizabeth said nodding, "What does that-"

"And it is exactly that," Aura said smiling, "You have full control of every element that made your Heart and your Crown, and what was one of those elements?"

"Time," Elizabeth said calling upon that gem, "But... this... using this wouldn't be enough, would it?"

"Of course not, but you don't have only one element at hand." Aura said shaking her head, "What was the last one you fused?"

"Divinity?" Elizabeth asked, "... So you say... I mix Time with Divinity?"

"I say that you use a combination of all your Gems, not only those two." Aura said shaking her head, "It is still part of your Domain, it is still part of your soul."

Aura pointed at Elizabeth's chest, "As long as it's part of you, even if you aren't quite a [Goddess] at the moment, you have as much mastery over it."

"I do?" Elizabeth asked back, she of course knew that she had more freedom to wield and do as she wished, but she assumed that advantage would fade away when Terra Nexus made it to real space.

"For now," Aura said nodding, "When that fully materializes into real space, when it is fully a World, then you will only recover that when you finish your Apotheosis."

"So...the problem is time again." Elizabeth sighed in defeat, "Even if I can use the Time Gem, I will not have enough time to refuel my mana."

"That is where you are wrong again," Aura said, shaking her head, "Please repeat after me: 'Mira, you stupid brat who can't understand simple math, move your bony ass here.' "

....

"Mira, come forth." Elizabeth decided to not repeat that verbatim, and while Aura tched at that, she didn't comment further.

"Did you call Mistre- I knew there was a smell here." Mira said as she materialized, "What can I do for you?"

"Is it possible to lock in Terra Nexus in a time sphere before it fully comes into real space if Sana and I help you?" Aura said before Elizabeth could say anything.

"... Yes," Mira said after narrowing her eyes and thinking for barely a second, "It is possible if we do it within the next hour or so, Terra Nexus slowed the teleportation into real space since Mistress was missing the last Gem, but now that she has it, as soon as that finish fusing into Mistress, then Terra Nexus will return to real space."

"But?" Elizabeth asked, she felt that there should be a but in there.

"But... I am unsure of how long this would end up needing," Mira said sighing and looking at Terra Nexus, "The Time Sphere would be linked to the hag's magic, so I wouldn't be able to break it out."

"And since my barrier would be tied to the trap's spell, Terra Nexus would be isolated, you will not be able to call any of the normal former minions out. Hell, I doubt many of the superior ones would be able to come out. For one I doubt that Sana would be able to." Aura said adding to Mira's explanation.

"So... I make this and give myself enough time then?" Elizabeth said nodding, "But then what? I would need to return every time my mana is refilled?"

"Not quite..." Aura said turning to Mira, "Do whatever you want to this thing."

And then with a swift movement of her hand, Aura threw a sphere of space mana to Mira, who catched and spat a blob of mana into it. As the mana fused with Aura's barrier, the thing shone in purple light... And that was that.

"Here Mistress, cast a spell inside this." Mira said offering the sphere to Elizabeth. The same sphere that she had just spat on...

Yuck...

"Fire Ball...?" Elizabeth intoned and summoned a normal fire spell inside it, "... It doesn't cost me mana...?"

Elizabeth didn't feel a drain of mana, not that she felt them normally, but she could see the mana going down and being refilled, this time? Nothing.

"And for my next trick..." Aura said plucking at the sphere and with some struggle, unraveling it.

As soon as the barrier collapsed, Elizabeth felt the drain of her mana leave her body, it wasn't much, and if she hadn't been paying attention she would have probably not felt it. But she had been paying attention.

"So the mana loss is only felt when the barrier ends?" Elizabeth asked, "Then why not use this as an attack?"

She was, after all, going to fight soon.

"Sure, if you want to experience mana burn, mana dry and want to burn your life force." Aura said sarcastically, "The mana isn't stockpiled or anything, the drain will come, and if you didn't notice it... Breaking one of these is hard, I could do it because the amount of mana used at the creation was small, besides it was designed like that."

"That will not be the case if we do this for Terra Nexus," Mira spoke next, "The barrier we will make will need to hold Terra Nexus for centuries if not millennia, we will need to make it sturdy enough. Besides, it will need to cover not only Terra Nexus, but the closer solar system, lest we destabilize the whole solar system."

Great, so it would be a grand barrier...

"Will the other planets be fine? Won't their gods or goddesses find trouble with us doing this?" Elizabeth asked unsure, she... had been made aware that planets even desolated ones, could house living gods after all.

"Not really?" Aura said confused, "I mean, they are small fry. So this helps them if anything."

"Yeah," Mira said nodding afterwards, "Besides they will also get some mana and civilization from this, so it's a good deal for them."

"Right..." Elizabeth was still unsure about it. "How do we do it then?"

"Easy, Sana come out darling," Aura said beckoning behind her.

"Mom... Mistress..." The smaller Aura, or well, the daughter of Aura, said, hiding behind Aura, "What can I do to help?"

"Is she...suddenly shy?" Elizabeth asked bewildered.

"It's your aura Mistress, you aren't restraining it well at the moment, besides behind you is...quite the mess." Aura said shaking her head, "It's fine Sana, the Mistress will never force herself on anyone, and if she does you tell me and I'll make sure to bonk her."

"Okay," Sana said, nodding behind Aura, "I'll do my best..."

....Elizabeth was being framed!

"Now... I need you to get all the space foxes you can and set them up in this order..." Aura started speaking with the younger girl, who in turn summoned a horde of space foxes behind her and they started setting up, not only around Terra Nexus, but around the whole solar system.

"As for me..." Mira said whistling, a snake after the next coming from behind her back, "Set up a barrier around Terra Nexus, then spread to the local gravity pool and the outskirts of the solar system."

The serpents nodded and started vanishing.

"Last warning Mistress, you will have the option to stay inside the barrier, do not take it." Mira said in a serious tone, "You will have a couple of days to finish your work, at best it will be six days, at the worst you may remain one extra day, but do not stay more than seven days."

"What would happen then?" Elizabeth asked, unsure of what the deal was. Wouldn't it be better to spend the time within the barrier? More time to train and whatnot.

"You will remain inside for the untold millennia the barrier takes to break, and when it does, all the mana you spent inside will be requisitioned from you." Aura said from behind as Sana was nowhere to be seen, "What do you think will happen to you then?"

"... If it's all the mana I used for millennia... I will probably not be able to pay it." Elizabeth said as her face blanched at the idea, "Noted... get in, do what you need, get out. Then farm mana to ensure I don't die from whatever I do in those six days?"

"Not exactly..." Aura said shaking her head, "You will need to get into your role as Goddess. Which means that you will need to impress upon the inhabitants your role."

"Why?" Elizabeth asked, she didn't... she didn't really want to be that. "Any reason?"

"They will worship you, whether you want or not," Mira said, adding to Aura's argument, "Better that it's on your terms. Besides, any Prana generated in the locked time will become nourishment, which could potentially cancel the mana expenditure you make."

"Then why don't people do this more often?" Elizabeth asked confused yet again.

"Because not many retain their sanity when using Sin as a means to achieve apotheosis." Aura shrugged, "Trust me, people try it all the time. I think there was only one guy that managed to do it, the Lord of Original Sin or something edgy like that."

"Well, good thing I didn't try to take that name." Elizabeth said laughing awkwardly, unsaid was that she didn't like the sound of [The Lady of Original Sin].

But with that out of the way, "I'm ready." Elizabeth closed her eyes and prepared for what was next, a week of fixing Terra Nexus....

"Wait, can you... ensure Rossie and Rena don't notice my absence?" Elizabeth said turning back, "I don't want them to wake up without me around."

"It's fine, for us it will be as if you went in and out." Mira said, smiling at Elizabeth, "Remember, the time will be incredibly slow for the first seconds, that is why you need to come in and out within a week, after that the barrier will close and time will normalize."

Great.

More time shenanigans...

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