I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

She wasn't sure what to do now...She had spent around five hours inside the booth searching all over the net for answers but she hadn't found many that she liked. Shadow Themed heroes? Almost non-existent.

 

Most of the stigma of shadow-type magic made it difficult for a powered with shadow attribute skills to be seen in a good light. Even after all the good that [Shadow Pact] had made into the world!

 

...Not that he was truly a [Hero]...At least not according to most news that was about him on the net. They tagged him mostly as either a [Vigilante] or [Enforcer], but never as a [Hero].

 

That while important, wasn't relevant to her at this moment. There were a few notes about [Shadow Mages]...Or more precisely [Shadow Warlocks] since most mages with access to shadow magic were contracted warlocks. But she didn't need that type of help. Not yet anyway.

 

She hadn't tried to cast [Shadow Magic] since her [Skills] granted her more efficient use of shadows...Even right now she could feel her shadows stretching around the [Library], saturating the shadows around and leaving just a small enough presence of herself...

 

But she was digressing again "Do I really need to...?" Asked herself the blonde while standing from her booth and carrying the books to the return desk.

 

"Do you need help, Miss?" Asked the receptionist bringing her back from her musings.

 

"Oh no, that will be enough...Have a good day." Answered the blonde while walking towards the exit, only now noticing how creepy the Library looked.

 

At some point, it had been deserted and it didn't have guests. Perhaps that was the reason why she had such liberty to scream 'Next' without anyone coming to stop her.

 

She didn't mind it since it worked quite nicely for her and just went to the reception area. There was a choice to make now...Either she went about her day and go to shopping...Or decided to scout the [Villain] her father had pointed her to.

 

A quick look at her watch told her that it was barely midday, so she had still plenty of time till nighttime. Probably the best moment to reach out to a [Shadow Theme Villain], so while walking towards the bathrooms she made sure there wasn't anyone watching her enter.

 

Once inside the blonde stood in front of one of the mirrors and closed her eyes "Focus." Said to herself the girl while thinking about her [Shadow Shift] skill.

 

She just needed part of the skill, she hadn't made the extra [Shifts] yet. So she needed to nudge the skill in the right direction, first by envisioning the change she usually would get by using the skill. She saw inside her mind an image of her [Shadow Empress] persona.

 

A black-haired girl with crimson eyes looked back at her.

 

Then took away the armor she donned leaving her just in her underclothes, a pair of black pants, and a T-shirt. For almost a second she could almost imagine the black-haired girl scowling at her. She didn't dwell too much on that image as she focused on envisioning how that black-haired girl would look if she was dressed in the same outfit she was right now.

 

She needed only the body to change, not the clothes. And while infusing her mana with that [Idea] she intoned "[Shadow Shift]" and the shadows surrounder her body.

 

After half a second they receded leaving behind a black-haired girl with the same clothing as before.

 

"Hmm...not quite red, but more pink-ish?" Said the girl while examining the change, her red eyes looked more as if her usual blue eyes had been fused with the red eyes of this [Shift].

 

"Am I shorter in this form?" Wondered out loud the girl while noticing how her clothes now weren't a good fit as before, her shirt was way looser and the sweet pants looked as if they would fall down at any moment.

 

So doing some quick fixes (Mostly using shadows to fashion a belt) on her sweatpants and shirt (She just tied it on the back to make it a tighter fit) she once again examined herself.

 

"Definitely shorter." Said the girl, now that she was looking closer the shirt no longer showed as much belly as before, also her hair had turned from a ponytail into twin tails...Braided twin tails.

 

She still liked this appearance, not only was it better the more different it was. But she felt quite comfortable, and even if her whole body was totally different, she didn't feel much problem with it. Almost as if she was intended to look like this...

So after taking a Selfie to commemorate the first successful use of a [Skill] outside the description her [Identify] said. She walked to the outside after finding that no one was around since one of her Shadow Dragons reported as such.

She wasn't quite sure how she could understand what they reported...Since Nyx didn't seem able to speak to her like this, but she didn't pay that much attention.

She willed the screen away after picking the [Yes] option, she wouldn't need to focus that much next time she was in need of a quick change... She would, however, need either another [Variation] to adjust her clothing.

 

If this form used a different size of clothing...She would probably need to either use thigh-fitting clothes in her normal wardrobe...Or adapt her [Shift] skill so it could change the size of her stuff.

 

She could probably configure her [Inventory] to make some quick changes on the fly too...

 

"Time to go and explore the city!" Said the girl while shelving the whole problem to the Elizabeth of the future. She didn't have much problems getting into the outside and while her bracelet was the same it now looked more modest on her. It seemed that the color matched her more with black hair than before.

 

So in that manner, the no longer blonde girl walked into the city, she ignored the bus that was arriving and the line of taxis waiting for tourists to deliver and just walked. Soon enough the bustling city gave way to a more urban side, the buildings turned from stores to apartment buildings.

 

One could see kids playing here and there running all around, some had bracelets while others didn't, and none had the same color as hers so she was starting to feel self-conscious of it, so she shoved her hands into the hoodie and kept walking.

 

She noted some people gave her the stinky eye when they didn't see her hands, so storing the thing into her [Inventory] she waved at those people, they quickly waved her back and proceeded to ignore her. Most of them.

 

Some started following when they thought she wasn't paying attention, so she just kept walking following the whims of what she thought would be fun.

 

Soon enough after around two hours of walking without a care in the world the building started to look somewhat more destroyed, streets with missing signs, buildings with broken doors... People playing with skills in the street with bracelets on their hands...

 

The works.

 

And while those people didn't have the metallic bracelet...They did have a cloth bracelet, some that held a kind of gang emblem on it. Other people around walked in the streets with non-descript masks, she even heard a group passing by in a van saying "We will get to the Tofu Burgers soon enough, just settle down!" while shoving a skull-themed mask kid back into his seat.

 

Those looked like fun fellas to have around indeed.

 

But she ignored them as soon as they turned to the right, in the background she could see how they were going towards what looked like a freeway... That ended in an airport?

 

Weird city layout if anything else, but she turned left and kept walking. Her shadows told her how more and more people were following her in the background, she decided to put on her bracelet again since she wasn't sure if they would question her in case she choose to defend herself.

 

Soon enough she walked herself into a dead end though. Just a normal alleyway out of sight surrounded by abandoned buildings.

 

"Well well well, what do we have here?" Said one of the men that had been following her, someone dressed as a gangster with a face mask made out of red clothing.

 

"It looks like a tourist girl that didn't know better bro." Added another man coming from behind him, this one was playing with an iron tube, making a show of how he was bending it.

 

Probably a strongman type of power.

 

"These are dangerous places you have come Missy." Came the voice of a girl from behind those two, and while she had pink hair like Rossie she was wearing some kind of mechanic gloves on her hands, she was splattered all over in mechanic oil and grease.

 

"Hmm...." Hummed Elizabeth while pointing to each one of them with her right hand, making extra sure they saw her bracelet "One, two, three.....four, five...six? Not sure about the sixth one" And pointing at where the other hiding people were in the buildings.

 

"Heh, good enough for the first batch I guess." She said while smiling and raising her right hand towards the sky "Heyo~~" And at this point, she snapped her fingers and made a wall of shadows rise behind those three "Now pay attention, everyone. My name is... not really relevant to you all, what is important is the question you can answer." She started saying while smiling maliciously at them.

 

She flicked some will into her mana and mumbled "[Identify]" Focusing her idea on only reflecting the Level of those three.

And she couldn't help but smile at herself "Hmm...Two High E-Grades and one Lower D-Grade..." She almost felt bad for them when they shuddered at the mention of the power grade they held.

 

"Now now little ones~," Said Elizabeth while playing with one of her braided twin tails, shadows already suffusing almost everything in the alleyway that now was more darker than it should be "Care to answer a few questions of this innocent and harmless tourist?"

 

The answer to her question was the scream "AAAAAAAAHHH" Of the man with the metallic stick who dashed forward and tried to attack the blonde first throwing the metallic weapon towards her and then jumping and making a really telegraphed fist punch towards her.

 

At this the girl couldn't help but smirk, her eyes turning more reddish by the second "That is no way to treat a lady" she said while first summoning a Shadow shield in front of her hand to stop the metallic stick that was flying at her.

 

She grimaced when the impromptu weapon stuck her shield, finding out that the man had quite a boost in strength from his skill, not enough to surpass her boost from her higher stat count. But still...If it hurts it hurts.

 

Then not wanting to risk the man's limits in strength she quickly turned her head sideways to dodge the jab at her and while the man was looking at her as if he didn't understand why she had dodged his attack, she just smiled.

 

And in one swift motion that would make any professional dancer envy her flexibility, she kicked the man in the face with her right foot.

 

Sending him flying straight at one of the empty trash bins near his companions, she did have quite the number on her status. And while she was probably weaker overall than she could be if focused on a few ones. She was still stronger than these people.

 

"Quick sis. I will distract her, you run away and warn the others!" Said the other man while he started generating fire in his hands. She couldn't help but remember the student council girl that also seemed to be a fire manipulator.

 

And that in turn made her remember Selen...That feeling of impotence came back and made her angry. And that wasn't good...For them.

 

The shadows felt the change in her emotions from aloof entertainment to anger, and in turn, responded in kind. Soon enough shadowy weapons started rising from within the shadows.

 

"WAIT WAIT WE SURRENDER!" Screamed the girl while throwing her mechanical gauntlets to the ground and raising her hands after unbuckling her belt.

 

"STAY AWAY!" The other man wasn't as smart as the girl though. Since he started throwing fire at the spears near himself "STAY AWAY YOU MONSTER!" all the while walking backwards towards the shadow wall in the back.

 

"Monster?" Said the girl while walking towards the man that was throwing fireballs at her, she didn't even make any motion to stop them, the shadows moving themself throwing daggers and arrows to intercept them "Me?" Elizabeth asked, at this point her eyes had turned from the pinkish look she had to a full bloody red.

 

"While I'm this cute and you say I'm a monster?" The man for his part was trying to dig with his hands a way to escape, his hands sank into the shadowy wall but held no purchase.

 

Instead, he found himself tied by chains and held in place while Spears rose from the floor and hovered just a few centimeters away from him. "Even when I only wanted to ask a few questions?" Said the black-haired girl "Even though I never did anything to your stupid student council?" She continued speaking, perhaps not noticing how she was projecting the face of the student council on this poor man.

 

"WE WILL ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, LEAVE CARLOS ALONE!" Screamed the other girl almost crying.

 

That was enough to get the attention of Elizabeth, who for a second could almost see the image of Rossie in the girl...Same pink hair, same face full of fear on the floor...

 

Only the fear was directed at her... She looked at her hands and how they were grabbing the man by the neck, at some point a shadowy gauntlet had materialized in her hands, with pointy fingers digging into the man's neck.

 

"See~? That wasn't hard was it~?" Said the girl dismissing the shadowy gauntlet and smiling while the shadows disappeared.

 

"Psycho shadow powereds..." Mumbled the fire-bending man who was nursing his neck while he went to help the other one that was in the trash.

 

For her part Elizabeth choose to ignore him and went towards the pink-haired tinker, she decided to also ignore how the girl trembled when she started walking towards her...Also decided to ignore how the girl seemed to be wary of the shadow Elizabeth was projecting.

 

And how it wasn't projected in the right direction...

 

"So, what do you need?" Asked the girl.

 

Elizabeth for her part first used some of her shadows to give that girl her mechanical gloves and belt. "Just point me towards the local [Shadow Villain]." She said while seeing how that girl donned her gear, it seemed that she felt safer now. Not that it would make a difference.

 

She also pretended to not notice how the fire-bending man was focusing his fire in one of his hands...Nor said nothing when the other man was standing as if ready to run in a tackle towards her.

 

Instead, she focused on how the girl in question did a small almost imperceptible no signal with her head and answered "Just that?" flabbergasted at the question of Elizabeth. "You almost killed Carlos and threw Pedro into a trash can for that?!?" The girl said finally finding some courage and standing up.

 

She even made something with her gloves that started sounding as if they would charge energy to make an attack. But in the end, they whirled down and released the accumulated pressure.

 

"TOURISTS IT'S ALWAYS THE GOD DAMMED TOURISTS!!!" Said the girl while holding her face and screaming into her hands. After a few minutes of screaming and releasing some anger into a poor door (She now knew why there were so many broken doors around) the girl calmed down and continued saying "[Echidna]"

 

And only that. "The boss of [Hydra's Fang]?" Elizabeth asked. The girl just nodded her head.

 

"Yes, the boss of [The Hydra's Fangs]. She searches and takes under her wing all of you psych...All of the powereds with [Shadow] aligned skills..." She said while searching among her pockets for something.

 

"Rumours have it that she even is willing to take [Mages] that got scammed into a contract with demons and evil gods...HERE IT IS!" Said the girl while offering a pamphlet to Elizabeth.

 

It was... mysteriously similar to the one her father had given her "And you carry one of these because...?" Asked the girl while reading it, it held almost the same kind of stuff as the one her father had given her. The only missing spots were the annotation her father had added.

 

"[Echidna] pays us per each referral we give to her gang. "Said the girl while pointing to the back of the pamphlet, there was a QR Code and a small symbol of a red scarf near it. "That is our gang's emblem, her minions will know where to send the money if you end up joining her [Circus]." Said the girl while walking towards her friends.

 

Elizabeth found it amusing how she was trying her hardest to not look back at her "Would that be all?" Asked the girl while standing in front of the pair of men.

 

She was tensing her legs and arms, preparing for a fight, and the pair of men behind her weren't holding better. She almost wanted to poke at them some more, but sadly...She saw her face in one of the reflections of trash around.

 

She finally noticed how her eyes were fully blood red now, and her face had a malevolent smile, that made her think back at how she had reacted. She noticed how the shadows were moving behind the backs of those three. Sneaking under the floor and coming closer to them from angles they couldn't see.

 

She could almost feel a sense of [Hunger] from her shadows, so she clamped down on her emotions "Yep!" And cheerfully answered while forcing her shadows to back down.

 

It was the first time she was having trouble controlling them too, soon enough she felt some extra shadow energy helping her soothe the wild shadows that wanted to encroach on the trio though.

 

And when she looked into one of those shadows that didn't want to answer she found Nyx in it!

 

She knew he was the best!

 

"See you around~," Said the girl while trying to not make it obvious how she was struggling to keep her shadows from going after them.

 

"Hope not you psycho..." Said the fire bender man, who was quickly hit in the head with the mechanical gauntlet of the girl.

 

"Tell [Echidna] the Red Scarfs hope she keeps her part of the deal." Came the voice of the girl who quickly ushered the pair of men away from her, she stayed at the back as if making sure she would not go back on her word.

 

"And I hope she helps you deal with that." Was all the girl said while pointing at one of her wild shadows. It was a persistent one that was being held down by the combined effort of three of her soldiers (The Butler, The Maid, and Nyx).

 

'So she noticed...' Thought the girl while smiling, and if she had noticed she wouldn't need to care about her choice of how to deal with that.

 

"I hope she does too...For the sake of people like your friend." Answered back Elizabeth while sending shadows under her control to fight and absorb the wild shadow, getting it under her control once more.

 

She felt some degree of...Anger...Some feeling closer to ravenous hunger...

 

She wasn't sure what it was "And get your eyes under control, they are shining." Said the girl while walking away "Perhaps get some sunglasses?" She didn't show her back to her.

 

She just walked backward till she was out of sight...Then kept going like that for a few blocks, always keeping her in front of her no matter how many blocks she walked away...

 

At least till she stopped monitoring, since her shadow dragon came back when she was five blocks away.

 

"...Time to look for this [Echidna] then...Hope you are right papa." Mumbled the girl while walking towards her next destination. At least both pamphlets held the same address so the only thing left was deciding which one she would use to gain access...

 

Her Father's...Or The one the girl had given her...