"I told you that we needed to tell Elizabeth that he no longer had those skills..." Her hubby grumbled at the side. It wasn't her [Whole] hubby, of course, most of him was busy holding together the world or whatever. But it was a very [BIG] part of him.
"I mean, she was going to deal with him anyway, and how was I supposed to know that the [Fragment] I left in Aetheria had met him?" She answered with a frown, today her hair was long and silky with the smell of a thousand constellations going supernova. Advantages of [Godhood], who would have thought she wouldn't actually get a hoodie with the [Godhood]?
Had she known she would eventually make that last step she would have ascended in that realm that granted hoodies with the apotheosis...
"I told you that leaving that [Fragment] of yourself behind was a mistake, even if it eventually ran out of mana. You really shouldn't be leaving that kind of thing behind." Hubby always complained about that part, had she known it would be like this...Well, she would still have told him about that part of her.
The part of [Catherine Saintsworths] that she ripped apart and made into a [Simulacrum]. She had needed to do that, lest she turn into what she hated. That part was designed to be the [Demon Queen], she still could summon that part of her of course, it had grown back...
Her [Origin] wasn't that easy to break, nor easy to transform. Not then, not now.
She could still feel it pulsing at the back of her [Godhood], still waiting for her to call upon it, for her to embrace her true self...Even if she despised it with so much hate, even after she had torn apart it to pieces.
At the end of the day she was still the same, not [Catherine Starlight - The Ethereal Traveler] but [Catherine Saintsworths - The Guardian of Life], her [Origin] was the same, even if she managed to hide it under the [Space] attribute, at the end of the day her [Magic] was one attuned to keep and protect those under her banner.
It was made so that the [Hero] she was supposed to serve would survive and keep the world safe. Not that the [Bastard] did a good job, he abused them all and then got angry when she wanted to return home.
"Cath?" Hubby's hand landed on her shoulder, "Are you okay? Did this [Bug] bring bad memories? I can summon my whole self and deal with it if you want."
She was tempted to say yes to it, but no. Elizabeth needed to deal with this, she had awakened something troublesome and this was as good as a chance for her to learn about it. She hated the fact that she needed to go through all of it.
But "No, Eli-Eli needs to deal with this, it is an important life lesson. She needs to know her own limits, what she can do, and what she shouldn't do...And it is better if she learns them while doing it against something that has no redeemable factors." It would hurt her daughter, and she may hate them should she find that they knew that they didn't warn her about what this step would cause.
But they were [Gods] now, and as such, they never had been so limited in what they could do upon the material plane. At least till they managed to free themselves from these shackles.
Their new boss didn't want them around that much either way, that [Woman] had only accepted their ascension since it was better for them than Ethan, and this would make fair the situation in the [World]. She still liked to think that her [Status] in the new world would have been fun to read.
How does one translate a [Soul] with as many different systems affecting it as hers? And then there was hubby, how would the [System] react to him, someone that broke past the limit with a mortal body and a single [Skill].
His was as close to his [Origin] as one could get without basking on it, and even then he was still purifying his body, soul, and mind more and more.
Her shining beacon of hope, the only reason she ever dreamed of a happy life [Jack Brighton - The Bulwark of The World], when they ascended and she was able to see her husband for how what he truly was, she finally understood why she always felt safe with him.
It wasn't because he was powerful, nor how adorably clumsy he acted when inviting her to a date so many years ago, it was his [Origin], what made him who he was. It was the promise that should she accept being part of his [World], then she would be safe.
That her [World] would never be taken from her again, she could relinquish the crafted [Origin] she put atop her cracked soul, she could allow herself to [Heal] and be the same silly girl who was summoned to another world to [Heal] a dying world.
Should she [Wish] for it, Jack would make the [World] bend on his knees and make her dream come true, and...she had been tempted, but at the end of the day, that was the dream of Catherine Saintsworths, the silly blonde girl that got a tragic end, killed her friends and was [The Destroyer of Worlds].
"She will be fine," Her hubby said, "She is strong like me, and probably as smart as you."
...Okay, she may need to send a divine intervention message to that pink-haired girl, she was a psycho, and a stalker, and was probably crazier than her [Demon Queen] persona, but she was someone who wanted the best for Elizabeth. So she would do, maybe if she told her to flush their lovely [Oath] with healing mana?
No, Elizabeth was currently in that [Bug]'s [Soulscape], the mana would leak into him and give it away. She wasn't sure how Elizabeth had managed to swipe that Aurelia girl's soul into her service, but that girl was doing a fine job keeping the [Bug] busy.
"Cath, she will be fine." And then she felt the [World] shift, as the presence of her husband flooded the divine plane. She even heard a sigh from the [World] as they got an annoyed mana pulse sent their way. "She has plenty of help from those [Revenants] she keeps around. Case in point."
The big screen they used to look into the mortal world split a small screen focusing on the Aurelia girl, or what she had been at some point. Right now she was a [Doppelganger] inhabiting a copy of Elizabeth, not that she was doing a good job of it, with all her mana turning the lovely blonde of their daughter into purple dotted with stars...
She would make a note to try that look later.
"She did manage to integrate that girl quite well..." Aurelia Vitelius, the [Maiden of Space], she was the answer the [World] had created as a companion to Elizabeth, someone that would help her advance and would cover the weakness of Elizabeth. She was supposed to be able to help her at any time.
And what had happened? She got killed by the pink-haired girl for sharing the room with Elizabeth, then her [Soul] still under the command of the [World] hadn't moved on the circle of transmigration, and Elizabeth instead of helping her move forward in life had [Assimilated] her into her service.
The girl was scary effective, whatever those souls saw in her [Shadow Haven] must be good, to her it just looked like the ruined capital city of her former world...
"And now she is deep within the [Soulscape] of her enemy, her plan is gutsy if nothing else. To steal the part of [The Knight of the sword] that the [Bug] keeps in his [Soul]." Hubby said. And that was one way to do it, especially since Elizabeth didn't have any talent in [Soul] magic. Her Girlfriend may be able to do it, but that red-haired girl wouldn't survive the intervention.
Her soul was even more fragile than hers after her original [Origin-shift], and that girl didn't have a way to restore her [Soul]. And while some [Love] may be able to fix that soul, if her current [Love] wasn't reciprocated?
She was stuck there, or at least till her daughter saved the girl and she formally joined her cohort. " I can't wait till she finds out that she will not be able to release Rena or she dies." Elizabeth wasn't a fan of her plan to keep Magical Girls as a hobby, and here she was, making a harem full of broken girls. It was enough to make a grown woman who liked to gush over magical girls cry.
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"The problem will be if the [Bug] finds out before she has been able to finish," Hubby said focusing the main camera back on Elizabeth, while also splitting another small screen towards the bug in question.
Suzuki Akira, formerly known as [Edward Smith] or how she knew him for what he was [The Depraved Tyrant], his [Origin] was truly corrupted beyond reason, and he had managed to twist his [Hero] blessing to do this kind of deeds. She had seen plenty of twisted and outright depraved [Heroes] across the multiple worlds.
Some had been twisted into what they became after being betrayed.
Some had been brought low by treachery and deceit, only to rise above those and implement justice.
Some had twisted their [Blessings] to make what they wanted.
Most? Most abused their new power to fulfill their fantasies, the most common [Power Fantasy] setting that other people had found about in common stories. She had found it hilarious how most of those worlds leaked into other planes as mere [Stories], it was an innovative way for [Gods] to harvest some extra [faith] from other places.
She wasn't sure if she would ever let the data from this one leak like that, but as far as she was capable she would try and prevent it, imagine, people reading about her adorable daughter and her private time with her girlfriend and future new girlfriend.
No no, a girl deserved her private time. At least for now, she would manage to take a peek at her daughter kissing her girlfriend at some point.
"Cath, stop trying to get into Liz's private time. Would you want her to peek at us?" Hubby asked, why yes. She wouldn't mind her daughter looking at her kissing him.
Really, why would she? She was a looker, her hubby was a looker, what was to hide?
"Catherine, no [Odyssey] let our daughter have some privacy unless she wants to share. No peeking." Hubby said while using her new [True Name].
...He was so hot when he was angy like that.
"Fineeee, but as soon as I get permission from one of her future wives I'm taking it and you can't take away my recordings!" She of course would get it, eventually. Maybe not from the main wife, that psycho would probably try to steal her [Divinity]... Or something like that, she wasn't sure her position as [Mother of Elizabeth] would be enough to stop her from that.
The second wife...
"Do you think Rena will want to be my apostle?" She asked her hubby, and he only grunted. His dismissal grunt that is.
"Impossible." Came the monotone voice of their boss.
"Oh, she speaks! Jack, it's the end of the world! She speaks!" Jack as always didn't react to her antics besides raising an eyebrow. It was way funnier when she had a whole group of Magical Girls to hype her up, but she didn't have nearly enough [Allowance] to transform them into familiars (Yet).
"Greetings [Akasha]." Hubby has always shown respect to their [Overlord], she was irked that he would bow to someone else, but she understood why he did it. She was, after all, still the sole responsible for the [World] they lived in.
And so long she didn't cross the line with Elizabeth, she didn't mind that she held the reins over their lives. Granted, she had tiptoed the line when she tried to strip their daughter of one of her pets. Not that it would make her less powerful, but that lizard wasn't the reason she could do what she did.
It would make it harder for her to manage her little [Revenant] army of course, but she was already incubating a [Daughter] that could take up that role, and if that wasn't enough, the [Space Maiden] was probably a good enough replacement for managing some of the load.
"So? Do you also want to watch Eli-Eli squish that [Bug]?" She would try to be polite, but she was annoyed that this girl didn't let her descend, "Who do you think will try to stop her first? The [Teachers]? The [Board]? Or maybe the [Student Council]?"
The first one wanted a future S-Tier classers, the second one just wanted a new [Hero] that wasn't aligned with the [Nine Stars], after the Italians took over they wanted to pursue their own agenda.
Jack had even laughed when they did that, with all that they used to hate how he ran the [Twelve], they now had someone more interested in politics and they hated it. It had been poetic.
"Squish." The purple-haired woman said and made a motion with her hand towards the [Bug].
She couldn't help but smile at that, "Exactly, Eli-Eli should just squish that bug, but you see...he still has some of that [Blessing] from his former employer, anyway we could...you know...[Remove] it?" She had tried that of course, hubby too. But they hadn't been able to tamper with it.
Part of it because it was on his [Soul], deeply embedded with his [Origin]. It was the reason they had granted Elizabeth their own [Blessing] and [Titles], since it was hard to remove once granted. And it would prevent further attempts at her from other deities should they even try.
"Impossible.Not mine." The girl answered back.
"Come on Cryssy....I know you can do it, you are the big honcho here! I haven't seen one of your [Type] before and I have traveled plenty!" She still got the shivers when they ascended and found her waiting.
Her presence, and the place they landed...[THAT] had been worrisome to see, this half-mute girl was imposing, granted part of it was because they had [Ascended] under her blessing and in her [World]. But still, she had been half sure that they would be able to deal with her.
It was the first time she had been so wrong, they still could run away of course, she had a few tricks about that, and since neither she nor hubby were [Tainted] by the [Faith] they got, they could always throw away their [Divine Bodies] and return to the mortal coil.
"Sacrifice, [Shard], break,[Connection].Only,if,Elizabeth,dead." The girl said back at her.
It took her a few minutes to process that, "I [Respect] you for what you do, giving life to the world, making it so it works..." Hubby started speaking, only for [Framework] to finish for him, "So I will ask this, you saying that if we [Sacrifice] Elizabeth's [Soul] you will remove his blessing and allow us to smite him?"
He...she...Did she want them to destroy the world?
"Or are you saying that if Elizabeth dies, you will sacrifice a [Shard] to break the [Connection] between the [Pest] and his blessing?" After saying that Hubby raised a hand and catched something.
She only noticed after hubby [Crushed] that, it had been an icicle covered in stardust. A look from him took her back and she noticed how around them the world had [Shifted], they no longer were standing in the [Divine Plane] as before, they stood in the [ROOT].
The place where their [Divine Cores] were tucked in under that purple girl care, and the place where their [Divinity] was at the strongest.
She was in her [Odyssey] regalia, magic circles pulsing around with multiple spells at the ready, all fueled by her [Prana], had she lost control of herself and attacked Crystal?
Yikes.
Better to ask for forgiveness from the big honcho, "You better explain yourself Cryssy, I may not be able to kill you. But if Elizabeth dies because of you [I WILL BATHE THIS WORLD WITH THE BLOOD OF ALL THE SAPIENT OR SENTIENT LIFE I CAN FIND AND MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR A THOUSAND YEARS]." Nailed it.
"*sigh* Troublesome, Idiots." Their boss and the literal metaphysical manifestation of [The World] sighed and snapped her fingers, there in front of them materialized a purple fragment of a crystal.
It didn't have any mana on it, nor did it seem important enough, really, it looked more like a rock than anything. "Fragment, World, Sister." She said pointing at the thing. Then summoning another screen with a blonde little girl she said "Fragment, Shattered, Sister."
...Wasn't that the little girl that Alexanders had in a testing tube when they went to visit him for help?
She had found later that their former world had collapsed thanks to some experiments the idiot had done with Mana....."... That is a fragment of your sister, a [World]." She said while pointing at the purple crystal, "And that is a [Shattered fragment] of my [Home World], or as you put it, your [Sister]."
"You will sacrifice the fragment of one of your [Sisters] to save Elizabeth should she die?" Asked Hubby as his form changed back to normal. She too felt the [Prana] within her body calm down and power down to her more mundane form.
"Yes.Promised, sister, take care, Elizabeth." Crystal said as they got summoned back to their little corner of the [Divine Plane].
The part where they spent time living as if nothing had happened, occasionally peeking at Elizabeth. "So... The dead girl Alexanders kept around was more important than we thought?" She said to hubby.
"Your cousin either killed a being above [Gods] or managed to clone one. Either way, if he survived we may need to [Kill him]." Hubby was so hot when he wanted to murder people.
No wait, focus Catherine!
"I mean, I didn't feel any [Mana] from that girl, and he did say that time that she was dead...Maybe he managed to clone a body of [The World] of my [Home World] by dumb luck?" She didn't think Alexanders had survived, Elizabeth had his [Soul], well it wasn't [His] anymore, she didn't have anything of him besides some remnant [Mana] that had turned into [Skills].
While he was a cockroach, he wasn't that good that two [Gods] and whatever Crystal was couldn't find him and squish him for good.
"Either way, if he survived or not. That girl obviously survived the death of her world...So if she was [Akasha]'s sister, it means she also can survive this world's [Death]." Hubby pointed, that...that was a problem.
"Maybe she wasn't like Cryssy...She didn't have purple hair!" If Crystal could survive without the world...They had fewer ways to deal with her.
"I doubt one's hair color dictates if they are part of [The World] or not. Chances are that your idiot cousin got one of your family members and injected him with a distilled serum of the world's manifestation." Hubby said.
No way, not even the [Saintsworths] were that crazy, "I...don't think Alexanders would do that... Even like he was, he still was somewhat sane...for a Saintsworths... Maybe she wasn't a [Human]? I wasn't that important among them, but there were rumors of [Bio-Weapons]. Maybe she was one?" That was more probable than Alexanders injecting random Saintsworths with motes from a [World-Core].
At least Crystal was smart enough to hide her [World-Core] within the [Soulscape] of the planet, it was still accessible with the right [Skillset] as [Ethan] had done before. But after their ascension, they would need to get past her wards and hubby to get to it.
"Either way, we gotta thank that girl. If she isn't dead we should grant her [Divine Protection]." Hubby said, did he want her to get jealous?
Granted that little girl was the most bea...
"[Mind Protection], [Mind Cleanse], [Psychic Hazard Cleanse], [Soul Hazard Cleanse]." She cast the spell one after the other, then looked at the [Memory] of that girl.
That little girl...wasn't ugly, she was cute all right, but whatever she had going on made her think that somehow was the most cute and beautiful little girl in the multiverse, and that was too much.
The most cute little girl in the multiverse ought to be Elizabeth when she was a baby!
Then maybe herself as [Odyssey] if she ever went into age-play. But that girl?
"Cath? Something the matter?" Hubby asked.
Oh right, "What do you think about her?" She asked her hubby, if she needed to know if he was the victim of the cognito hazard.
"She is a little girl, what do you want me to say about her? Do you want to add her to your collection? She isn't a Magical Girl." Hubby asked confused.
Right, he had that thing in his [Origin] that made him hard to influence. "Nah, she doesn't have the right vibe for a [Magical Girl], besides, chances are she is dead. Alexanders said she died at least. And Cryssy didn't seem to imply that she was alive. She did use an image of her dead after all."
And besides, should she be alive, she would need to keep her away from hubby, if she had a [Cognito Hazard] that made people think she was cute or pretty...She didn't want to think about what she would grow into later.
Maybe she would need to prepare and deal with her? But she seemed to want to help Elizabeth...She would ask Elizabeth later about that, for now, she needed to watch what she would do now.
Elizabeth was about to finally move on towards the [Core] of that [Soulscape]. "Get me the popcorn Jack, this seems to be about to get to the good part."
Really, ascending had its perks sometimes, she could eat without having to use [Magic] to keep her figure slim!
And she didn't need to worry about her skin! Granted she hadn't needed to do either in decades thanks to her [Shift], but she still had a [Body] before that was susceptible to this! Now she didn't even have to worry about that!