"What are you speaking about right now Elizabeth Starbright?" Rossie's mana flared more and more, Elizabeth could see the mana flaring all over her body as it threatened to overflow.

  Had Rossie also discarded the Mana Manipulation skill like Elizabeth?

  "Identify," Elizabeth silently cast the skill and got the blue screen with the notification about what had changed within Rossie.

  "Think very well your answer right now, Elizabeth Starbright," Rossie said once again, "I have new skills, and I'll use them if needed, damned be this school and all the students within."

  "*Sigh*" Elizabeth couldn't help it; Rossie was too dang cute when she was angry; should she be thinking about how cute the murderous glint in her eyes looked? Probably not.

  Should Elizabeth be worried about how the skills had climbed to level 66 that fast? That meant that either Rossie had already used the skill in the time she got it, or that she was using it right now and the skill mastery was increasing quite fast at that.

  But Elizabeth hadn't seen her kiss or embrace anyone in the time since she had started putting into practice the new teachings they got.

  So what?

  Either way, she would need to explain her case didn't she?

  "I need you all to go to the Shadow Haven for two reasons," Elizabeth said raising her finger, "First of all, if it ends up turning into a fight. I want it to be in our terms, if they are hostile against us chances are they will not allow us to go all together."

  Rena nodded at that, "Yeah, they seemed protective of Evangeline. From what I remember, it makes sense that they would not allow three dangerous individuals within." At least Rena was on her side... "Also, if Evangeline is indeed part of the Galaxidae, she may be able to pierce our infosec skills, so she would be able to perceive that Eli is an S-Tier and we are both A-Tier...at least."

  "Mgnuuu..." Rossie squirmed at Rena's impeccable logic, "And how does that translate into you walking alone into their trap?"

  "Easy; if you are within the Shadow Haven, then I can summon you without them being the wiser." Elizabeth said raising her hand and stopping midway, "Any chances that either of you can lock the space down? To prevent teleportations."

  "....Lock." Lily merely said that and taped the floor with her shoe.

  Elizabeth felt the mana turn stagnant and it was as if no new mana could enter, her space sense couldn't extend further away than the door. And even trying to sense what was on the other side using the keyhole as a means yielded nothing.

  "So we can't teleport in or out now?" Elizabeth asked.

  "Yeah, Lily didn't just block teleportation or space manipulation but locked this place in a node and ripped it out from Zaanam." Jenna said looking around, here eyes shining in Azure light, "It's something like what your Mother did for the base of the [Twelve]."

  She did a what for the what?

  "So?" Rossie said, still fuming, "What's the deal with this?"

  "Rossie, you are a good mage, possibly among the best of our class, right?" Elizabeth asked turning to her girlfriend.

  "Yes," Rossie didn't think about it even for a second, "If we discount you who is a natural genius and the blue-haired sage idiot, then yes."

  "Do you know space-related spells or teleportation ones?" Elizabeth asked with a smile on her face. She had tested it with her own sense of space, and this place was indeed impervious to most of her attempts to meddle with it.

  "Hmph," Rossie merely huffed once, drawing on the air with her finger a magic circle, glyphs, and nodes manually with a line of mana, "Of course, even if my specialty is healing, I studied all the types of spells that I could see being useful at some point. Space Magic being one of those too."

  And sure enough, Rossie was drawing quite the perfect space magic circle, if Elizabeth hadn't checked before she wouldn't be this confident.

  "Well, if you manage to teleport out of here and back in again without using the Shadow Haven then I'll fulfill any one request," Elizabeth said smirking, "And I mean any one request, no limits."

  "...Those words..." Rossie said as the magic circle dissipated and Rossie's eyes turned dangerously sharp, "Do you mean them Eli-Eli?"

  Rena's eyes turned bloodshot, and Jenna took half a step back. What?

  "...of course," Elizabeth said, nodding and feeling her smirk waver.

  "Can I help her?" Rena suddenly said, "I know you offered it to Rossie, but this affects me too."

  "I..guess?" Elizabeth answered, "I don't see a problem with that since you will also wait with Rossie anyway...But...you didn't modify your mana manipulation, did you?"

  "I never had one to begin with," Rena answered raising her hand and... "I see why you were confident on your bet."

  What? Oh right, Rena summoned her swords from a subspace skill right.

  "So, are you taking in the bet anyway?" Elizabeth said recovering some of her confidence.

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  "Of course, if it was me alone then it may be impossible, but I am not alone." Rena said standing besides Rossie. "And we will win this bet."

  Elizabeth felt a shiver go down her back, not because of the declaration of war that Rena had uttered, but by the fact that she did so while pointing at her.

  And Rossie's eyes were razor sharp, not on Elizabeth, not on the space that was being locked, but her eyes with pink hearts were focused on Elizabeth's chest.

  And from time to time they went down her body, as if tasting it.

  "Well, go on then..." Elizabeth said with trembling voice, "Do your best."

  Or worse, Elizabeth wasn't sure what to wish for in the current circumstances.

  "Well, how many attempts do we get?" Rossie said turning to Jenna and Lily.

  "....As....many as....you.....want...." Lily answered with a shrug.

  "Around 10 minutes of attempts, we do have limited time within the MPI before we need to leave, most of the paperwork is already done and this meeting was more of a technicality." Jenna added from the side, "So while I do think Elizabeth is going too far and we should give you plenty of time, we do have a time limit here."

  Nice safe Jenna!

  "It should be enough," Rossie said, making Elizabeth wonder what she planned to do. "Let's start easy then."

  And focusing once more, Rossie closed her eyes and started drawing on the air again, this time however, she went slower. "Rena, prepare yourself I'll need you to help me soon enough, start sharpening your mana."

  Sharpening?

  "Sure, you tell me when." Rena answered and placed her hand at the side of her waist as if she was holding a sword, "And where."

  ...But she couldn't pull her sword from the subspace she used...

  Not unless they taped into the Shadow Haven, but that would mean losing the bet. So Elizabeth wasn't sure what they were planning.

  "Recall," Rossie said as the spell finished forming.

  Elizabeth hadn't expected Rossie to use that one, she had thought she would go for the safer bet, either [Blink], [Teleport] or [Mass Teleport]. Perhaps [Accompany]? Or [Traverse]?

  But Recall?

  That one was barely a teleportation spell, it was closer to a summoning spell than true teleportation.

  Even so, Elizabeth could see why Rossie picked that one, since this one didn't require that much finessing or the like, it merely pulled the caster to a pre designated spot. And Elizabeth of course knew where that would take Rossie back.

  They had designated her Home as the recall spot, in case they didn't want to risk a travel to the Shadow Haven, they would go to her Home in Avalon and then move from there.

  Setting it up like that would be a double cross, people would try to track them down, find their Home and be rained down by Mother's defenses, then in the meanwhile Elizabeth and company would run away into the Shadow Haven and return at a later date, or exit from another place.

  Even so, Elizabeth returned her focus to the present.

  The spell formed as it was obvious it would happen, this was Rossie who we were speaking about, the girl was very good at her magic circles. And if anything Elizabeth had plenty confidence in her girlfriend to probably discover that the skills weren't of use sooner than anyone else.

  If anything, the only reason that Rossie was still using these skills was probably because Elizabeth had them on her status screen. Rossie would never do anything that would put Elizabeth in a bad light, even if that was to Rossie's detriment.

  She was like that.

  "Rena, will you manage even without a sword?" Rossie suddenly asked as she started struggling to keep the magic circle going even when the magic was unable to lock into the coordinates from the other side.

  "No problem here, Rossie," Rena answered as she put more strength into her grip; soon, it almost looked as if the red-haired girl was indeed holding a sword, even though there was nothing there. Nothing besides Mana...

  "Okay, I need you to cut open the space three centimeters behind my magical circle, try to not disrupt the mana." Rossie said as she started pumping more and more mana into the magic circle.

  The thing with using a magic circle instead of a normal spell or a spell node to cast, the spell was less customizable after being cast, but was sturdier.

  Elizabeth only used magical circles with spells she wanted to be extremely sure that remained stable, and would never do so with spells that required a soft touch to keep working.

  Or those that she wanted to change on the way.

  For example, she would never use the magical circle for Shift since that one was a very delicate spell that needed to be updated as it was used. Not all situations were the same; different circumstances would mean that the spell needed to be used differently.

  But if it was about using a magic circle for casting something like [Wind Bullet], then she didn't mind. It was faster using a pre-designed magical circle for that. Also, it allowed her to spam it; there were only so many ways one could use [Wind Bullet] before it became redundant, and it was cheaper to use magic to affix the variables as needed after all.

  "Roger," But all of this was meaningless; the main problem here was the fact that Rena and Rossie seemed convinced that their plan would work, "I only need to cut open space?"

  "Yes, try to not affect my magic circle or the magic within," Rossie answered. Her face was drenched in sweat as she struggled to make the spell continue being stable even in these circumstances.

  "Okay," Rena said closing her eyes, "Draw: Space Sever."

  And as Rena's sword left her mouth, Elizabeth saw something she hadn't expected, and even so, should have expected to happen.

  A phantom sword made out of mana materialized in Rena's hands, and then, in one swift motion, Rena drew the sword and slashed the space between herself. The edge of the sword seemed to sink on empty space and in front of Rossie's magical circle the tip of the sword manifested itself.

  As if the sword it had sank into butter or something only to show up there.

  "...sharp..." Lily merely said that while turning to stare at the tip of the mana blade that Rena had managed to somehow make.

  "...." Even with that done, the spell ended up bursting into nothing as the motes of mana from the magic circle disappeared. And both Rossie and Rena remained in the same spot.

  "Hmm...." Rossie merely said opening and closing her hand, "Well, how much time is left Jenna Lewis?"

  "Around four minutes give or take, I'll let the next one go as long as you can if you start now though." Jenna answered with a shrug.

  As long as she could? Those are dangerous words!

  "Do remember that we are isolated from the outside, and if you can't tap into your personal subspace, then your mana generation is probably on the negatives." Jenna added raising a finger and pointing at Elizabeth, "She will probably be fine, since she generates more mana than she can handle and her body is sturdy enough."

  Then, turning to Rena, "Red-haired girl, on the other hand, uses most of her mana to reinforce her body and doesn't have much expenditure mana-wise." Jenna nodded at this, and Rena slightly blushed, "Besides, she stockpiles most of her mana in the body as far as I can see, so she should be able to survive long enough."

  Then, turning back to Rossie, "You, on the other hand, most of your mana is used to keep you stable, be it by the use of self-mind/soul control or to keep your emotions stable." Jenna glared at Rossie at this point, "So if you are about to fall into mana deprivation the bet is over, I'll seal your mana myself. Now that you are separated from Zaanam, that is something I can do."

  Jenna could do what?

  "...I'll take that into consideration," Rossie didn't seem to care too much about Jenna's threat, "Eli-Eli, I'm taking your V-Card after this, so prepare yourself."

  She was going to take what?

  "Heed my call spirits that reside within my heart, the soul of those who have perished to their carnal desires and those that couldn't hold themselves back..." Rossie suddenly started chanting, Rossie never chants..."...rise one last time, rise and procreate, rise and copulate, rise and increase the might of the blood mana that flows through my veins..."

  The who did what with who?

  "So commands the Mistress of Lust...pierce the barriers and bring the target of my Lust into my embrace." And like that the mana within Rossie started surging out, first it formed blobs of pink colorful mana almost in a gaseous state. Then it slowly started drifting around Rossie's body.

  Elizabeth could almost see it wanting to cling into her girlfriend's skin, as if to throw away her clothes. Or perhaps that was Elizabeth's desire?

  Hard to tell, especially with that sweet-smelling odor that the mana was giving out. Either way, that was beside the point.

  The mana clung to Rossie and slowly, ever so slowly started drifting away from her, first roughly around her, then around Rena...it drifted around as if seeking something.

  Some of it remained near Rena, but the rest started drifting along the place.

  "...wasn't the bet for teleportation?" Elizabeth couldn't help but say aloud.

  As soon as the words left her mouth, however, the change was both fast and swift. The mana shot straight at her and embraced her tightly. How could a mana in vapour form hold this much strength?

  Elizabeth didn't know, but what happened at the end...

  "*Yoink*"

  Elizabeth was pulled straight towards Rossie, not through space, not through multiple-dimensional planes.

  No, the mana merely pulled her toward Rossie's embrace, leaving her head resting on her girlfriend's chest.

  "...." "..."

  "Well...that was a masterful way to use both Mana and Sin Mana," Jenna said from the side, "If Elizabeth had been in another plane it may even have worked..."

  "Really?" Rossie said with her eyes shining brightly.

  "No," Jenna however said that next, "It MAY have worked, but more likely than not it wouldn't have worked, besides this would attempt to take your target to you by any means."

  Yeah, Elizabeth wasn't even able to react before the mana pulled at her.

  "What do you think would have happened if this was during a fight?" Jenna asked seriously, "If Elizabeth was fighting against five powerful Heroes."

  ...

  Yeah, that wouldn't be pretty. Elizabeth's combat style was one of both finesse and brute force, her spells depended on a fine tuning and her strikes had too much brute force. She built the spell with care and then overcharged it just enough to achieve her means.

  Both finesse in the construction and using her outstanding body to supercharge it.

  "Fine...Then it's my defeat, I can't risk Eli-Eli...Not if she does really end in combat," Rossie said sighing while hughing Elizabeth strongly so that she wouldn't leave her embrace, "But your explanation better be good, why would you send us to the Shadow Haven if you think you are going to combat?"

  Okay, it was time to explain her master plan.

  "Okay, but first a demonstration." Elizabeth said raising her hand, "Come Ea!"