"The Galaxidae is an ancient family mostly composed of erudite and studious people," Evangeline started after a minute or so of silence, "But that is not what you want, is it?"

  Elizabeth of course didn't want to know something as mundane as that, "You know what I mean when I asked about the [Galaxidae], don't play coy with me. You ain't my type." At this, Evangeline smiled.

  The ashen-haired girl took a second or two while she seemed to be meditating on something; Selen, Asher, Magnus, and Lily merely stood there in silence, all watching, waiting for a signal, something to pounce on Elizabeth.

  They got nothing, "I know what you meant yes," Evangeline answered with a demure smile, "The [Galaxidae] are indeed different from the Galaxidae, I would know since I am a daughter that was meant for them. Just like how your…Mother-in-law was once before."

  So Rossie's Mother was indeed like that, Elizabeth, of course, knew that since she had that title stuck to her.

  "They are…not really your enemy, they shouldn't be anyway, they rarely interact with the world at large and the few times they do so is because they are working towards advancing or helping [The World] to the best of their understanding." Was the answer that Evangeline ended giving, "And as you are a [Hero] and while I do not understand why you no longer brandish the title of [Inheritor of the Akashic Records], you should be aligned with [The World] more than anyone else."

  ….Yeah…about that…

  "That is not for you to know," Was the answer that Elizabeth decided to give, "All you need to know is that it is a fact that they attacked me and those that work for me."

  And really, she was annoyed that it was because of them that she had lost both Sebastian and Reginald, even if one had ended up returning to her.

  "So you say…do you have concrete evidence of this…[Attack]?" Selen suddenly said, jumping into the conversation, "If Evangeline says they wouldn't attack you, it means that they would not attack someone aligned with [The World]...or that you are lying for some reason."

  "I don't need to prove to you," Elizabeth answered as she pointed to her shadow, "Reginald, if you would?"

  But decided to do so anyway.

  "As you wish Mistress…Would it be all right if I go to that side Lady Galaxidae?" Reginald asked…for some reason, Elizabeth was half of a mind to pull him forcibly, she had summoned him, he didn't need to ask anyone else for permission to come.

  “[Mistress, think of your plan. If we show our hand and that we are able to pierce their barriers then it may put at risk your escape route….or Lady Rossaline and Lady Rena when they come to your side.]" If not for that hidden message that Reginald sent her way.

  "Lily? Asher?" Evangeline turned to the people that stood at her right and left.

  "....I assume this Reginald is one of your shadow minions?" Asked Lily looking at the shadow that Elizabeth had pointed, Elizabeth could make out the vague form of Reginald standing there waiting patiently. "That one?"

  "Yes, he is my witness. He was the one being attacked and jailed after all." Elizabeth answered.

  "It should be fine, both my Lightning and Lily's Fire can be laced with [Holy] and [Divine] mana, so we should be able to counter his [Shadow] existence very easily." Asher said as he let some of his Lightning discharge from his body.

  For some reason, the Lightning seemed to come from his head and then through his body till it was discharged from his hands. Wasn't that…painful?

  "You may summon him then," Evangeline said turning to Elizabeth. Elizabeth really wanted to summon a few extra ones just to stick it up to them, but she suspected that they might notice the…way she was piercing the apparent barriers that Reginald mentioned.

  Elizabeth hadn't seen any so far.

  "I'm lowering the barrier, summon him on the designated area." Magnus said pointing with a remote to the floor, there Elizabeth saw a circle being drawn by the Mana.

  So there was a barrier after all?

  "Come out, Reginald," Elizabeth said as she extended her shadows into that circle.

  "Greetings, Lady Evangeline and company. This humble one is Reginald, the head butler to our Shadow Mistress," Reginald said as his body climbed out from the shadows as if he had arrived in an elevator.

  "Interesting…I had heard that your summons was special, but I hadn't thought they would be like this…they are…not really tied to [Akasha], and yet they hold a [Soul]?" Evangeline said as her eyes shone in purple light.

  "Abberations is what they are," Selen spoke from the side, "Any soul not tied to [Akasha] is either an Eldtrich aberration or an invader, and any invader not tied to the designs of [Akasha] must be purged."

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "All of those not tied to [Akasha] are bound to be mad or to self-destruction in an attempt to become denizens of [Akasha]," Reginald spoke back to Selen, "I consider myself someone centered and logical. Is my interpretation of one's link to our [World] flawed? Lady Dawnstrike?"

  The what now? People turned mad when not tied to [Akasha]? What is [Akasha] then?

  "....No, you are correct. No [Soul] can survive alone after all, we all must be linked to [The World] or fear be destroyed by those that dwell beyond the veil." Selen said, grumbling, "...Then why can't I detect your link to [The World]? If you are indeed linked, your [Threads] should be visible to my [Eyes]."

  And then Selen's eyes turned into the most…weird thing Elizabeth had ever seen, the eyes opened as if they were a flower, but unlike petals multiple rings with smaller eyes danced across the iris of Selen.

  It was, quite honestly, the most weird and disgusting thing Elizabeth had ever seen, it also made her feel like she would have nightmares, and this was coming from the girl who commanded a legion of the dead and had a dead world for a Soul.

  "That would either mean that you are not to be privy to the designs of [Our World], or that you don't have enough [Authority] to see it." Reginald said with an evil smirk on his dragon face, quite honestly, Elizabeth approved of that comeback.

  "Enough of semantics," Elizabeth said, clapping her hands, "No matter how much I Love seeing Selen being in the wrong, we need to get this over with, I feel as if I have been in the school way longer than I was going to be, Reginald. Stop wasting time and show them."

  "As you command, Mistress," And on that note, Reginald summoned a sphere of shadows that slowly began turning from back to yellow, from yellow to blue.

  From a black inky liquid to an almost gaseous yellow, to a blue liquid.

  The sphere morphed from one state to the next, and on its final transformation, it turned into a hologram. One of something that Elizabeth had seen quite some time ago. A holovideo of the day that Elizabeth woke up her Shadow Powers once again at the MPI.

  "Two years ago, on the day that our Mistress triggered her powers at the MPI, we, the Shadow Legion, got woken up," Reginald started his story at the moment that Elizabeth touched the stupid crystal sphere. "As per the orders we had been given by [The World] we moved as one. I was to be the link between our Mistress and what you refer to as [Akasha]."

  The video showed a blob of shadows dislodging from a bigger sphere of darkness; the small blob of shadows slowly transformed into the prototype shadow dragon that Elizabeth had used at the beginning.

  "While my mission was simple, it was one of the most important ones, so I started my travel. Some people say that the fastest speed is that of the light. But when the light arrives at a place…Shadows were already there." Reginald showed him first on a shadow version of the MPI and the next he was standing around a purple crystal that was dancing on a void of light.

  "My work was both simple and important, I was to become the link between Mistress and [Akasha], but when I was preparing the mana thread to start the link,,,," Reginald said and the holovideo showed him preparing to do such a thing, "They arrived."

  And then, there they were…The figures clad in white robes, "They didn't really say anything or even try to listen to me," Hadn't they gloat or something? Elizabeth was sure they had done so. "Instead they saw the power our Mistress had and wanted it for themselves,"

  Was…was Reginald changing how it had happened?"

  "They sealed me and said that they would replace me, they used some kind of [Skill] to rewrite the memories of [The World] and how our Mistress would remember me, then they corrupted the little essence I had managed to send into [The World] to create a fake version of myself to spy our Mistress." And there, Reginald showed how they created Sebastian.

  And how he was sent to Elizabeth, how she met him, and how she delegated most of what she needed to control the Shadow Legion.

  "All the while, they sealed me and waited for the moment to claim our Mistress power for themselves, for they declared themselves the only worthy of being handed a mission from your [World]." And there Reginald ended the video showcasing the mad laugh of one of the robed entities, making sure the Galaxidae emblem was for them to see.

  Honestly, if Elizabeth didn't know the original version, then she would have believed this one.

  "And how did you escape?" Selen quickly said, "If they were really [Galaxidae], then you wouldn't be able to escape, if you can't pierce or wards then you shouldn't be able to do anything against them.

  Clever girl.

  "I didn't escape by my own means," Reginald answered, "There was an event where [The World] was disrupted on a global scale, you may know it as [The Advent]."

  Reginald fast-forwarded the holovideo and stopped it at that moment, the moment the [World] spasmed for a second, where his cage disappeared for the briefest of moments and where he was able to run away.

  "I used that to return to our Mistress, and found that the impostor had left, I was too weak to speak to our Mistress so I joined the legions of the dead awaiting to be summoned." Reginald showed himself barely arriving at the shadow sphere from where he had left.

  For some reason he wasn't showing any aspect of the Shadow Haven, not that Elizabeth would complain, she didn't want THEM to know about it if possible.

  "I was then summoned a few months ago thanks to luck and circumstances, so I now stand once again at the services of our Mistress." Reginald did a small bow towards Elizabeth.

  "You claim to be born from Shadows, but I can [Taste] the Lightning within you." Asher spoke next, "Explain. You showed us a [Shadow Minion] be captured, but you aren't one."

  …Oh right, Reginald was now attuned to the Lightning birbs…dang it.

  "I started as a [Shadow Sprite] to be precise," Reginald answered, "Then I tiered up to [Shadow Revenant], [Shadow Dragon], [True Essence Dragon] and currently I am attuned to Lightning after our Shadow Mistress had a need to deal with a Pesky man who knew not his place."

  "Ah yes, your encounter with [The Shadow Tide]," Evangeline said nodding, "Good job doing [Hero] work, after that we have categorized you as an anti-hero."

  An anti-what?

  "I am as you said, a [Summon], one of the most talented [Mages] your plane has seen, of course my Mistress is capable of using a different element to channel me." Reginald said turning to Asher, "Surely you don't mean to imply that Mistress is capable of summoning and maintaining multiple entities of several elements within this plane?"

  "We don't know what her talent as a [Hero] may be; we know that she has at least one [Skill] that lets her change how we see her [Status]. Akira had two of those after all, even if his were weaker." Selen said while her eyes glowed with [Divine Mana]. "I see you have an independent mana core that is being fed by the shadows. And inside is indeed changing the quality of the Mana from Shadows to Thunder. So we will accept your statement."

  That... didn't have anything to do with his statement of the [Galaxidae] kidnaping him though?

  "And so this brings up back to the problem at hand," Evangeline said and pointed at the holo projection, her hand flashing in blue light as she ripped it out from Reginald's control, "These people right?"

  "Yes," Elizabeth answered, turning to Evangeline and then going towards Reginald.

  "Would that be all?" Reginald said turning to Elizabeth.

  "You may retire your minion Starbright, you have proven your point." Asher said.

  To which Elizabeth merely nodded to Reginald, he disappeared, sinking back into the shadows. Elizabeth felt the awkwardness from Reginald as he entered the Shadow Haven; it felt closer to him as if the minion was trying to squeeze through a door that he didn't fit in.

  It was possible, but she was sure Reginald hadn't enjoyed it at all.

  "So, what is the deal with those people." Elizabeth said pointing at the projection that Evangeline had ripped out of Reginald, she wasn't even aware that something like that was possible.

  Imitating something that was projected? Sure, even Elizabeth could do that, there was magic for that, one could just use illusion magic and make the whole thing look as if it was happening. But Evangeline hadn't done that.

  No, she quite literally had taken in the image from Reginald and ripped it out and taken control over that.

  "These people...well, they are quite important, here take a look." Evangeline said extending her hand and pulling out the hood from one of the robed figures.

  "....?" Elizabeth couldn't quite believe what she was seeing, Evangeline ripping out a holo projection? She could...maybe understand, maybe with Mana Hacking or some type of Lightning shenanigans with Mana?

  But this?

  "This one is called Astereon Vox, he was one of the first people to fund the [Galaxidae] clan," Evangeline said as she pointed to a man who looked that he was maybe on his thirty?

  He had white hair and his eyes shone in azure light, close as to what Papa had for some moments when he was getting serious.