"What do you mean?" Alice asked from her seat; the girl didn't bat an eye at Elizabeth's appearance, which implied that the girl had knew it would happen.

  Elizabeth didn't like that one bit…

  But she wasn't getting angry? Why? She should…or usually The Dragon Empress would get angry, Alice was….well, she wasn't Elizabeth's equal, not in a technicality.

  Alice was her minion, her summon, her Divine Spirit, her follower, and lastly. She was technically her Shift. A skill, a tool, a servant. Elizabeth saw her more like a sister she didn't grew with, and a friend.

  But to the Dragon Empress? Alice was merely a retainer.

  So this? This would have that Shift fuming. But right now, Elizabeth was not…And she should…

  "You know very well what I mean," Elizabeth said blowing some air, wondering if some dragon breath would come out, it did not.

  "Of course I know, but I want you to say it." Alice said, smirking, "I do need to win a bet."

  "Why am I not annoyed at you, you….Or well the me in this form usually is more…" Elizabeth didn't want to elaborate, because it would be admitting quite publically what she knew.

  "A bitch," Chloe said, "The word you want is 'A bitch’ or, well The Bitch."

  "....Thank you Chloe," Elizabeth said sarcastically, amazed at the clarity she was experimenting right now, "But yes, myself in this form is usually drunk in Pride or whatever gem it's at the helm of…"

  Elizabeth said pointing at the crown on her head…only to notice the difference, it wasn't heavy. Or well, it was, but it wasn't Heavy. A flick from her fingers was enough to remove the ornamented crown and for Elizabeth to find…

  "It isn't here?" The crown was empty, it didn't have a single one of her Gems of Sin or the other ones that she had been using to pair them with.

  It didn't have the same open spots either.

  "Exactly," Alice said, nodding, "The problem you had with that one is that you rushed it forward too fast, you are. And excuse the wording, a baby dragon."

  "....I have a pair of reasons that say otherwise," Elizabeth said crossing her arms atop her chest to enfatize the point, "But carry on."

  "That's cute," Alice said shaking her head, "From a Dragon's standard point of view you are but a Hatchling, even Alexanders was over 300 to 500 years old when he became one. And even he would be at least an Adult Dragon… on a normal scale that is."

  Elizabeth couldn't imagine the blonde asshole as an adult, he was too childish for that title to stick to him, also he was an asshole, so that was that.

  "You on the other hand are what? Barely seventeen?" Alice said shaking her head, "And you are already attempting to grab a title. That is the issue, a baby attempting to hold a job will always throw a tantrum."

  "So my problem with The Dragon Empress was the fact that I wasn't mature enough?" Elizabeth asked mildly miffed about that, she…she could have done so much more if this Shift was available…

  "Yes…but not," Chloe said, sighing, "While not using a Gem could make it easier for you…try to cast a spell in that form."

  A spell?

  "Any spell?" Elizabeth asked, and since both girls, nodded she raised a hand and pointed it to the right; there… wasn't really anything, at least yet. A second later a wall materialized almost five hundred meters away, so Elizabeth pointed her aim at that, "In the hopes of getting more mastery over other elements….. Ice Bolt."

  Elizabeth focused her Mana into the water and wind attribute, built the spell matrix, set up the spell nodes within the magic circle, drew the circle and….

  "...what?" Nothing happened, or well, something happened, the magic circle manifested for half a second before combusting in fire, which shouldn't happen when one uses Water and Wind in a spell, so Elizabeth tried it again, "Fire Bolt,"

  This time with the element that manifested, only for….nothing to happen, besides a ball of fire wanting to burn her hand, it didn't. Her scales were quite resistant, and she noticed that Mana seemed to bleed over her scales.

  Fancy.

  "Care to stop messing with my Mana Manipulation? That is quite childish." Elizabeth said turning to Chloe and Alice.

  "See? Pay it up." Chloe said extending her hand.

  "She still didn't throw a childish tantrum, and she wasn't affected by Pride. So what about halfies?" Alice answered shaking her head.

  "You bet on me throwing a tantrum?" Elizabeth asked.

  "Of course we did, we know you." Chloe said smiling at Elizabeth, "I bet that you would throw a tantrum and would blame us for your inability to use spells."

  "And I bet that you wouldn't throw a tantrum and would manage to cast spells," Alice answered next.

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  That… wasn't the type of bet she had expected from them.

  "But to answer the question, we aren't doing anything to you. If anything, we are stabilizing your Mana; that is the reason the fireball didn't envelope your whole body and this room. Not that you would have felt it." Chloe said, shrugging, "The problem you are feeling is the fact that you are trying to use Mortal Magic with the body of a Nascent God."

  "Goddess," Alice corrected, "But yes, your body is making Prana, and you are using methods akin to Mana, so your magic is going nuts."

  "....But The Dragon Empress…" Elizabeth said turning to both girls.

  "She is you, so stop blaming a shift," Alice said seriously, "That is a fast way to cracking your mind."

  "And before you say anything else as an excuse, you did make us." Chloe said raising her hand from the side, as if she was a girl in school, "But as for the question, when you are using The Dragon Empress shift you are mostly using simple manipulation. Your power is great, and that is what makes it more dangerous."

  "So…." Elizabeth said turning to look at her own hands, "I need to learn how to use Prana as a way to use spells if I want to fight using this, and doing so in combat would be…"

  "Stupid," Alice said finishing Elizabeth's words, "Incredibly stupid even, and that is without adding the fact that you are extending your Domain actively trying to subjugate those around, so you would be a living moving Mana Terrorist event."

  "What?" Elizabeth said, turning to Alice and Chloe, "But you look…fine?"

  "We are already your servants Elizabeth, of course we are fine." Alice said, shrugging, "If anything, this only increases our Authority, so thank you."

  "Also, this is already your domain." Chloe added from the side, "If anything you doing this in Zaanam may get Crystal somewhat peeved. Not that she couldn't kick your Domain out if she wanted."

  Right….

  "So…" Elizabeth said, turning to look at the two girls, "What do I do with this?"

  "Well….for starters, try to finish the selection of your status, look to the changes, make sure to remember the feeling…." Alice said raising a finger for each of those and then finally turned to Elizabeth, "And finally shift back into your Mortal form."

  "You can also wake out into Zaanam like that if you want, I assume Rossie and Rena will not mind it." Chloe said from the side waving at Elizabeth, "Jenna may be annoyed and Lily will probably complain something like ……..innefficient….. Or something, but they will not mind it that much."

  Elizabeth nodded, she could see all the girls reacting like that.

  "Echidna, however, will probably smite you the first second your presence descends," Alice said, nodding, "She will probably not even bother to ask you anything, and that would mean Mom and Papa will have to snap you into the divine realm, that would get them into a deficit."

  Elizabeth didn't want that at all. She didn't like the fact that they had ended as Gods tied to Zaanam, and from what she had seen, they didn't like either. Since Papa and Mother didn't partake upon the Prana that they recieved.

  "I kind of get why, but I'm gonna ask nonetheless, why?" Elizabeth could assume that the reason for it was that she would come out blasting her Domain with full power.

  "The Domain, as I'm sure you already know," Alice said, "She will detect it, analyze it. Find the underlying Prana and think you are an outsider."

  A what?

  "Mom told us about them to get us ready to defend you against them," Alice showed a readout of an energy being, "As such, I advise you against showing this as a first."

  That sounded…. Fair.

  "Okay, then let me confirm…." Elizabeth turned to her status screen and… Found the black screen. An annotation to the side stated that she was past the threshold of job change: "So you can level up beyond the level cap?"

  "No, you can't." Alice answered, nursing her head, "You shoved past it because of the experience and your situation. You aren't bound by mortal rules."

  "So...I don't need to pick a new job?" Elizabeth asked confused, she didn't mind it of course. She really hadn't used her Job that much, and now that most of what she was doing was set up from her own mastery over Mana... More so, was there any reason to even pick one at this point?

  "You can certainly...not skip it," Alice said shaking her head, "While I get why you may think so, you are still tied to the local laws of Zaanam, unless you straight up ditch Zaanam?"

  Elizabeth...was tempted, she wouldn't say that she wasn't tempted, but it wasn't quite time yet.

  "So, when do I pick up the new Job? Can I open it right now?" Elizabeth asked, trying to get a feel for the System menu for doing that.

  "You could, but I would suggest you wait a little," Chloe said, shaking her head, "You are about to meet someone who could greatly help you in your new job selection, after all."

  What was Chloe speaking about? She was about to meet with Echidna, someone who Elizabeth wanted to punch in the face for all that she did to Chloe, the original Chloe.

  And also for all that she did to Alice...in another timeline, that this Echidna probably had no way of knowing, and technically was innocent... Elizabeth was still going to punch her nonetheless.

  "You really think that Echidna will help me?" Elizabeth decided to ask since that was the fastest way to solve the question.

  "Not willingly, she probably is aware of the level of effect she will have in the job evolution, but expects the achievement to be diluted by the time you can level up, normally. One wouldn't be able to level twenty levels in one go no matter how much they try." Alice said, nodding, "The expected level cap for you from the school was probably level 55 to level 60."

  There was a level cap they expected from her? Elizabeth knew that they had told them that they would graduate as a Tier A at best. But was that more of a level cap thing? How did they arrived to that metric?

  "Mom also explained this to us," Alice said nodding, "And that you should give her a good scolding in case she went overboard."

  "Papa said that you could name drop them if needed, that Echidna should be able to be able and help them descend if needed." Chloe added from the side, "I would advise against doing so, but if needed, that would be preferable to having them swear more Authority to Zaanam."

  "... I'd rather cripple my ascension." Elizabeth with great gravitas.

  "That isn't a sacrifice for you," Alice pointed out.

  "... Don't mind the details," Elizabeth said waving out, "But really, so you are saying that meeting with Echidna would be a good way to increase the weight or rarity of the job I may get?"

  That was....smart, it was true that Elizabeth had meet with plenty powerfull people, from several of the current members within the [Nine Stars] to literal gods.

  The fact that she was advancing in her path towards ascension...And that she had defeated [Shadow Pact] and was now on her way to meet with Echidna [The Mother of Shadows] would definetly impact in what jobs she could get access to.

  According to Lily, she should pick something that could help her do things she wasn't able to do normally. While making sure she wasn't blocking things she was able to do right now. As her nature was aligned with Shadows, getting anything close related to light or something that was anathema to what she liked to do wouldn't do.

  It would be detrimental if she picked something that straight-up countered her nature, like, for example. She wanted to help and give second chances to those souls that followed her.

  But getting some type of exercise Job that sought to destroy the souls of the damned would be wrong and outright out for her. It would crash too much with what she was and what she wanted to do.

  "So meet Echidna, use that as a way to further get more stuff to increase what I can pick for my third job?" Elizabeth said, looking down at her own hands, "I like it, but first...."

  Elizabeth closed her eyes and placed her right hand atop her heart, she needed to focus, what she needed...

  "What I need is the body that will help me the most at the moment, not the one that I currently wield, but the one I need to use." Elizabeth said letting her words flow out, she was sure that using the body of the Dragon Empress could help her solidify her Inheritance, help her move forward in her path to power, perhaps it could even make easy to deal with her enemies.

  But right now she didn't need that, she needed something else.

  "This while is the perfect body, it isn't what I need." Elizabeth started moving her Mana, or well, her Prana, it was a weird feeling, unlike the Mana she was used to, the Prana was more....dense, and that was something coming from Elizabeth who was used to manipulate denser amounts of Mana already, Prana was more like trying to suddenly move from an steam engine to a Jet. "What I desire is the body that my Mother and Father gave me, so as I pray.....Shift - Elizabeth Starbright."

  Half into finishing that, Elizabeth felt the blubbing within her Core slowly calm down as it shifted from a shining blazing golden flame into a more sedated pace, then slowly cooled down till it returned to the form of a normal Core that was then further divided into the three Cores she had made for her normal Human form.

  Elizabeth felt her body slowly morph as her wings started shrinking into her back, her tail slowly made its way into her waist.

  Her killer nails (Not claws) shrank into normal proportions, her scales started sinking into the flesh.

  She felt the crown of horns slowly sink into her head (And THAT was a weird feeling to experience), ever so slowly she felt her body return to Human, or whatever Elizabeth had for Humanity anyway.

  "Well, that was weird," Elizabeth said stretching and turning to Alice and Chloe who merely looked at her as if nothing was out of order. "Ant reason why I am naked?"

  "I don't know what to say to you, a normal human girl doesn't come with Clothes. Unlike most Dragon's who use their own shed scales as clothing for their humanoid forms." Alice said shrugging.

  "And if you really want clothes you should have some in your Garage, don't look at us as if it's our fault you pervert." Chloe said, shaking her head, "To think I come from that...."

  ....Rude. Not like Elizabeth would have known that she would end up naked when doing this, this hadn't happened before after all! How was she supposed to know?!?!?!?