The days after that blurred even faster than before, sort of. Elizabeth was just focusing on getting a feel about the change that she had made to herself.

Her heart continued to beat within her chest, and her soul seemed to start to sync ever so slowly to match it. It was a weird feeling, Elizabeth felt more herself than ever. But it wasn't something as mundane as the fact that she was in a body that matched her. Nor was there a thing about her mind being in synch with herself.

It was something more fundamental, and while nothing really changed, neither inside nor outside. It was still something that Elizabeth could sense.

Why could she sense it?

"Any reason why you are playing with shadows instead of making sure everything is in order?" Rossie asked as Elizabeth was moulding a sphere of Shadows with her hands.

"Yes," Elizabeth answered as she attempted to mold the shadows like before.

But now that Elizabeth had changed her Origin, part of her innate instincts about shadow manipulation were gone; it wasn't like Elizabeth was suddenly a worse shadow user.

But something about how she interacted with the shadows had changed, before only thinking about it was enough. Elizabeth always had the shadows move almost at the same time she started thinking. It was as if the mana and the shadows weaved themselves before Elizabeth was even aware.

But now?

"My power seems to have changed more than I thought it would," Elizabeth said, the shadows now needed more input from her.

It wasn't bad, on the contrary, since now the shadows were fully under her command, she could twist and pull at them however she wanted. Unlike before, that Elizabeth kinda let them do as they wanted, now Elizabeth needed to do it all by herself.

It was no longer as cheap as before, but the advantages were obvious to Elizabeth. The fact that she now had full control over them was one, the fact that she could decide if her shadows were strong or weak was another.

She would miss the ease with which she used to weave the shadows with mana all around, but that was her fate as a servant of Zaanam. And let's be honest, Elizabeth was never going to be one, she wouldn't have minded following that path before. But now?

Now that she was at the end of her path?

It was no longer fit for her, she would lose more than she would get, most of the things that she could do with Shadows would not change even after she discarded her previous identity.

But many of the things she could do now would be lost if she lost access to her Heart.

And she would lose it if she decided to fully embrace her previous Origin, for her identity as a Dragon and her identity as The Shadow Weaver were not compatible.

She could be a Shadow Dragon yes, but that was not The Shadow Weaver. Neither was Elizabeth truly a Shadow Dragon; any dragon that took that mantle wouldn't be particularly powerful, not by Elizabeth's standards anyway.

"In a bad way?" Rossie asked worried, "Or not, I am guessing it annoys you if anything?"

"It does not annoy me," Elizabeth said shaking her head as she raised her hand and the sphere of shadows rose with it, "I like it since now I can do this."

Elizabeth spread her awareness into the shadow that was hovering above her hand, and with a force of her will, she twisted it into another type, the sphere of shadows ignited and turned into a small fireball.

"....Eli-Eli, you could already do that before, that's your whole thing with the Shift skill." Rossie said confused.

"Only I didn't use Shift for this," Elizabeth pointed, "This is thanks to pure mana manipulation."

Elizabeth had merely swapped the mana type she was channeling into the orb, then burned away the remnants of Shadow mana that she couldn't disperse. Giving the illusion that she had done as what she did before with Shift.

"And what's the point of this?" Rossie asked, confused, "This feels like a more inefficient way to do something you could do before."

"The point of this," Elizabeth pointed, "Is that before I wasn't able to do this willingly, I can use Shift to do this yes, but Shift is expensive. And while it allows seamless change, it is not this."

It was a very important difference, Shift allowed her to change the fundamental nature, shadows would literally turn into fire, water, wind or earth.

But this? This allowed her Shadows to be used as fuel to become fire, and it would allow her to manipulate the fabric of mana closely. Elizabeth wasn't sure if there was something to this, if it was worth it or not.

She would need to check on it, be it in combat or later, but for now?

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"I'll need to check if it's worth it or not. If nothing else, it will be a nice surprise for people who attempt to seal Shift, they will never see it coming." Elizabeth smirked at the idea, if her enemies checked on her and found out about the way she used Shift, then if they prepared for it be it to sealed, Elizabeth would come with this..."

Not that it would be that effective, or special. Most people should be able to do it with enough mana and patience. Not many would try to do it though, the advantages of knowing multiple mana manipulation skills weren't that good.

Elizabeth, of course, was a special case, as she had both the talent to manipulate mana and the energy to fuel said endeavors.

"And what is the important change besides the fact that you are more limited with Shadows?" Rossie asked confused, "It sounds like you lost power, and your Soul feels...less imposing."

Rossie could sense her... Of course, Rossie could sense Souls. Rossie was good with Soul Magic.

"I sacrificed an aspect of who I was." Elizabeth started her explanation, "Let me..."

And before she continued she sent a message to Rena, who teleported in an instant using their shared Shadow Step, or well, since Rena manifested in a burst of flames, it was closer to Fire Step in this case?

"What's the emergency Eli?" Rena said as she looked around, her hands twitching as if she was ready to pull out a sword at the first need.

"I am explaining something important to Rossie about my Soul and some changes, and so, you need to listen to it too." Elizabeth said shaking her head, "No danger."

"Oh..." Rena said as she powered down her mana. "Okay then, did something change after you integrated Rossie's gem then? You said before that nothing had changed, but I felt something shift."

"Well... For starters, what do you know about Origins?" Elizabeth decided to start with that.

"Hmm...It's something that defines our identity?" Rossie answered first.

"It's... what fuels the source and nature of our powers?" Rena said next.

"Kind of... but no." Elizabeth said shaking her head, "My original Origin was [The Shadow Weaver] and it was defined by Zaanam as a [Seeker of Knowledge]."

"....That is wrong," Rossie said first.

"Yeah... I mean, you did act as the [Shadow Weaver]...sometimes....?" Rena added.

"I know I know, I was never one to actively seek knowledge. I did work as [The Shadow Weaver] as I actively weaved shadows upon Terra Nexus to help those that remained... But my Origin never quite aligned with who I was." Elizabeth said nodding at that, "And here are your Origins."

Rossaline Singh: [Eternal Love], Caretaker of Love

Watanabe Rena: [Graveyard of The Fallen Swords], Knight of the Sword

"...It feels.... fitting." Rossie said first, as she read the description, "If somewhat... grim."

"I like it," Rena said as she read first hers, then Rossie's, "It feels right."

"I think so too," Elizabeth said, nodding, "Rossie who will love unconditionally those she cherishes, Rossie who will take care of those she loves... Even to her own detriment."

Rossie of course, even while she liked to act like she was a bad person, couldn't help but blush at Elizabeth's words.

"Rena who fights even to the end, leaving behind only a graveyard of those that stood against her, a true defender of those she pledged herself to." Elizabeth said then towards Rena.

"I... don't think it was with that meaning my [Graveyard of The Fallen Swords]." Rena said in a low voice.

"And so, why was I put as this." Elizabeth said summoning her own former description. "It does not fit who I am, it fits who I could be though."

Elizabeth then summoned a secondary blue screen, one that showed her identity as Alice Ashcroft. A glimpse to the world from where Alice had been born.

"There I was indeed The Shadow Weaver," Elizabeth said as the image showed the black haired girl fighting with shadows to a degree that Elizabeth never did, instead of independent shadow dragons and weapons, this girl fought with the shadows as an extension of herself.

"So... you changed that?" Rossie asked turning to Elizabeth, "That does not sound..."

"Is it not dangerous?" Rena said worriedly, "This sounds like something primordial, something closely tied to ourselves... You said that we were right in our descriptions, so wouldn't that mean that you changed it, which would change how your power and abilities work?"

"Kind of," Elizabeth said nodding, "But not to the degree that you fear, besides... At worst it only affects some aspects of how our powers are executed."

"How so?" Rossie asked, "... Is that why you were playing with the shadows awkwardly?"

"...It was not that bad." Elizabeth defended herself, "If anything, like I said, I am freer in the execution."

She was not that bad when manipulating the shadows.

"But yes," Elizabeth sighed, "Now I need to give more thought to how I use my powers, unlike before, the shadows are not independent as before."

"I thought that was your Minions at work...?" Rossie said confused, "You did have minions all over the place at all times."

"I mean yeah, but no. The minions were secondary, the shadows always reacted before I put something in motion, the minions merely helped guide it further." Elizabeth said shaking her head, "Now even if my mood changes, I get angry or want to do something, the shadows will not move by themselves. If they move it will be because I myself am moving them."

"So no more Dragon Maws and Evil Dragon eyes?" Rena asked as she narrowed her eyes at one of the shadows nearby. "I liked those...."

Okay....

"Those... weren't as much as my shadow powers, but more like the Sin aspect of my mana leaking into the shadows." Elizabeth had checked, not that she had seen that aspect of her powers rise recently.

"Then, what did you do to yourself?" Rossie said as a few of the health diagnosis spells flashed across Elizabeth's body, "Everything seems in order... And while I don't have a normal metric for your mana channels and density as those change more than you sleep..."

"Here, take a look." Elizabeth said summoning her new status screen with the name and type of her Origin, "It felt right if I am to be honest, besides I needed to include some aspect of my Heart if I wanted it to stick around after we go through the apotheosis."

"...This feels like cheating," Rossie said as she read it once more, "But I guess it does match what you have been doing."

Elizabeth was proud of the change, it worked well to stabilize both her identities as a Shadow Weaver and the rest of her power suit, also the stuff that she needed from the Dragon Heart.

"Will we need to do something?" Rena asked worried, still giving a few reads to the blue status screen, as if she was searching for something she could do to help Elizabeth.

"Not really," Elizabeth said shaking her head, "The change is mostly internal and while it affects some of the things I do, it only really affects the subconscious, in my case..."

"Nothing changes, if anything you will just need to work harder in some aspects," Rossie said nodding, "Your Affinity was not affected, so most of what you could do before you can still do."

Elizabeth... had not really checked that, she just tested if she could use her spells and skills and since both the answer to that question was yes. She just let it at that.

"It feels as if I no longer have training wheels, at worst."Elizabeth said while flexing her mana within her Core.

That was the best example Elizabeth could give to describe the feeling she was having at the moment.

The Shadows (Ironically) felt closer to her than before. If before it felt as if the Shadows answered to her because of her nature, now it felt as if they listened to her because of merit.

It was no longer a relationship of master and servant, but more of give and take. Of equals, of companions... of...

Actually did it change that much? It was more like there was no training wheels, no hand holding for her manipulation of shadows, it was good knowing that the shadows would shelter and care for her before.

But now? Now Elizabeth didn't need the handholding from the shadows (Rossie and Rena didn't count; she would have those handholding no matter what). And who knows, perhaps she could evolve her mastery of shadows in a way that resembled the former relationship she had with the shadows?

Not that she really needed, once the Shadow Dragons returned from the sealed Terra Nexus... Or heck, once she fully finished her Apotheosis and Alice and Chloe returned...

Perhaps Alice could take on the role of managing the shadows in that form?

It would depend on Alice wanting to take that role for herself, but for that, Elizabeth would need to speak with Alice.

"Okay," Rossie said nodding, "Well, I hope that you are sure about that. Because if it devolves into a combat, tomorrow you will have plenty enemies, and being weaker..."

"It's fine Rossie," Rena said from the side, "We are here too... And we are stronger too."

Right.

"Trust me on this one Rossie," Elizabeth said closing her fist and letting some of the mana that she was holding within her body leak, "I am in no way weaker."

Elizabeth would be someone without training wheels for her shadows, but that didn't meant that she was weaker, it just meant that some things she couldn't do before, was no longer blocked from her.

Yes, her Shadows didn't work independently as before. But that would not stop Elizabeth from showing the Italians who was at the top of the pecking order.

They would come to fear Elizabeth as much if not more than they used to fear Papa. At least while Elizabeth remained within Zaanam anyway.

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