The MPI, it was…lackluster, after everything that Elizabeth had gone through, the place just didn't seem that impressive anymore. Not after Elizabeth had seen the full might of her Soulscape, the fact that the place was so much more than a city.

  It put things in perspective, the fact that her soulscape was a planet and was growing made the school....lackluster in the best-case scenario.

  Now that they had returned, Elizabeth could see the students milling around, going from class to class, the first-grade students going around doing other things, practicing with their magic and skills. Or nowadays mostly with their skills since almost no one followed the old style of magic casting.

  Most people depending entirely on their [Magic Circle Skill] and [Magic Skills]. That was...kind of lackluster.

  "What's on your mind, Eli-Eli?" Rossie asked from the side as she noticed Elizabeth looking around.

  "I thought more people would still use magic with magic circles and build their mandalas or magical circles in the old-fashioned way." Elizabeth answered.

  "Why would they?" Rena jumped from the side, "Even if that works better for them in the end since they have more control over what they do, isn't it easier to just get the skill? Granted you have limited number of skills and so from a technical point of view its better to go the old way..."

  That was...probably true, if Elizabeth didn't had such a great control over her own Mana then she would probably depend entirely on her Skill slots, and granted she had that better since she had more slots than the average person.

  Actually, did she even need those skill slots? Not really. She could do most of what she wanted using pure mana manipulation, if anything these served more as a placeholder to remind her of what she had going. For example, if she wanted an easy time knowing what she had, a quick peek at her status was all she needed to know.

  And like that she knew that she was only missing Sloth to finish her set of Cardinal Sins!

  ...dang it.

  "I know," Elizabeth answered while sighing, "But even so, it is jarring. Knowing what we know now... Shouldn't we at least attempt to tell them?"

  "It will not work," A voice said from besides them, turning to the voice in question they found a woman dressed in black with a pointed hat. A witch, or in other words, The Witch.

  "Long time no see. I'm glad you all made it back in one piece, it took great effort to convince the council to let you girls land in the public teleportation station, but seeing you here it was worth it." Agatha said with a sigh and a small smile on her face.

  So they wanted them to land somewhere else?

  "Where did they want us to land?" Elizabeth asked confused, since the circle at the teleportation station had been tampered...

  "They wanted you to land in their private teleport circle, in the middle of the Council room. Imagine, returning to school to land in the middle of a unknown place, besides that site is only accesible to members of the council, so if something happened we wouldn't know till it was too late." Agatha shook her head at the statement, "Anyway, your teachers should be waiting in the library. Do you need to do something?"

  "So the council huh..." Rossie said thoughtfully.

  Elizabeth feared for them, not them, but for them. The poor bastard had probably signed their death sentence...

  But then again, she wasn't sure about that, since the Galaxidae had attempted to kidnap them just after their arrival. Actually...

  "Any reason why they would send up people to escort us?" Elizabeth said, turning to Agatha, "I didn't think they would, and the ones they sent after us were quite rude."

  "Escorts?" Agatha said, frowning, "There shouldn't be anyone there to escort you. I'm your escort and I was...delayed...because some students fought...Did you catch their name?"

  So Agatha was their escort who convenientely got delayed huh, the plot was indeed thickening.

  "They said they worked for some people called Galaxidae. But when I asked why Evangeline would care, they seemed confused." Elizabeth answered with a shrug, "Did the student president want something?"

  Agatha let out a sigh as if she was dissapointed on something, "Yeah, no. It isn't as much as Evangeline but her family. They are… problematic, to say the least." That was an understatement.

  "They attempted to tweak our teleportation, that is beyond problematic." Rossie said from the side, "That is what they did, right Eli-Eli? I felt Aura's mana flare below your feet."

  …Rossie?

  How?

  Aura barely used any of her Mana and tweaked more with her Authority over space using her as a medium, she had used less than a fraction of a mote of Mana…

  "...they did what?" Agatha said, stopping in her tracks; the Mana surrounding her seemed to want to rage but was being contained within her body. "Are you certain of this?"

  "Yes, the teleportation on our side had an alternate address engraved to use first. Probably they planned to erase it after we left; I noticed the discrepancy since the mage on the teleportation station told us to be prepared since a long-distance teleport could make us dizzy." Elizabeth answered, "We have used this teleportation before, so I found that weird, and using one of my…not minions, we discovered they wanted to teleport us on Veritalis directions, so we tweaked it back to the MPI."

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  It was a problem that Aura was more than a Minion, but Elizabeth didn't feel comfortable calling her a servant. The girl deserved better.

  "...I see…" Agatha said, Elizabeth could see the purple-colored Mana wanting to flare in her eyes, and there was a faint trace of a magic circuit within the body of the Witch as if she was about to run and blast someone's head off.

  "And when we arrived at the MPI the second flare of mana I assume meant that they wanted to redirect us again?" Rossie said, nodding her head.

  Rossie? How…how sensitive was her nose for Mana?!?!?!?

  "...they did a what now?" Agatha said, barely constraining her Mana. "Here? In [My school]?!?!?"

  In her what now?

  "Yes…Actually…Aura, if you could?" Elizabeth said aloud.

  The purple-haired girl teleported in, this time appearing from somewhere above them and landing softly.

  "You called Mistress?" The girl said turning to Elizabeth first, then to Agatha, "Good day to you Teacher."

  "Aurelia?" Agatha said, forgetting for a second the state of mana overload she was self-generating, "You are…alive? No…or yes? [Eyes of the Witch of Certainity]"

  Eyes of the what now?

  Elizabeth saw the eyes of Agatha shift from the usual purple to a dirty yellow, not quite golden in color, but more closer to a washed-out yellow.

  "Aura Di Starbright…No known history, 27-year-old? Then I guess you aren't Aurelia Vitelius… You gave me a scare there, Elizabeth." Agatha said, sighing in relief, "Thought you had desecrated the body of one of your former classroom friends. But I guess Aurelia didn't quite introduce herself, did she…We are still searching for her after all."

  …Aura was 27? That… wasn't quite right, was it? She should be of their age.

  "Well, that was rude, stating out a girl's age as if nothing." Aura said, pouting at Agatha, that face….how could a baby face like Aura be twenty-seven?

  Granted, it wasn't quite that old…(Just barely ten years older than her).

  "Mistress? You thought something rude did you?" Aura said, narrowing her eyes at Elizabeth.

  "Nope, your imagination. Anyway, can you explain Agatha what happened?" Elizabeth said rerouting the conversation to the important bit, the one that was making Agatha more and more angry.

  Aura didn't say anything and instead summoned a magical circle to make a projection of the magical circles that they had used to come here.

  "This is the one Mistress, Lady Rena and Lady Rossaline used to come here," Aura made a projection of the first one, "And here are the new coordinates they used. They are a rouge set of coordinates, so I assume they planned to use another mage to hijack their teleportation on the other end and pull them somewhere else."

  So they didn't even specify the landing area? Quite rude customers these were huh.

  "And the one at the MPI?" Agatha said as she took the image and pulled out her phone to snap a picture of it.

  "You aren't going to look at it?" Aura said with a smile on her face.

  "No reason to go, since it will not be there anymore, will it? That or they will bring me to another room and say that it is the one Elizabeth used to arrive." Agatha said shaking her head, "I haven't been able to clean house as well as I would like."

  Clean house?

  "Correct, they have actually obliterated that part of space and crumbled it into itself, the circle Mistress used should be around either the fifth plane of hell or the third depending on how you count them." Aura said with a shrug, "As for that circle, here is an image of it."

  Aura then snaped her fingers and the image changed, this time it showed…another depiction of roughly the same, the only thing that changed was the flooring and the fact that you could see a part of Rossie's cute foot on the picture.

  "Hmm….the same coordinates?" Agatha said reading the circle.

  Right, read the circle Elizabeth!

  "About the same, this one is less subtle though. It just was designed to yoink Mistress out from here and throw her across the world. Unlike the other, this one would let her materialize above Veritalis. I assume they changed subtlety for power since they would need to pierce the defenses of the MPI." Aura said with a smirk, the smile of a cat that just ate the canary.

  "The defenses of the MPI?" Elizabeth asked, "I thought these only applied to coming…"

  And that is what she thought, since she had teleported away from here without much problem…Actually, hadn't her shadow dragons done the same?

  "...No, Elizabeth, the defenses work both ways; if you manage to pierce the wards, you can't use the same way out since the wards will block that method of intrusion, so you need two routes prepared, one in and one out. This one just used a spearhead brute method, they burned all the Mana to make an unstable teleport. It wouldn't be able to land on the target. That is why they set it up high on the air, so it won't matter at what spot you land." Agatha said shaking her head, "It is a brutish method, and while it would work, it would also strain the travelers. So you would end weakend and your mana core may get cracked in the worst case scenario."

  "That is correct Mistress, which is why I intervened without waiting for your command. Since we don't want anything bad to happen." Aura nodded, "Also, there are indeed defense wards within the MPI, both in and out. But they are of no worry for us since we don't get caught in their network."

  Aura shamelessly said.

  "...I beg your pardon?" Agatha said, confused, "How could you not get caught in them. Actually, how did you get in?"

  “Well…she teleported here…from…” Elizabeth said, and stopped cold there. Aura had used her Soulscape to arrive, so… "Oh…so since we don't go from one point within Zanaam to another point within Zaanam…"

  "Exactly, we don't fold space within Zaanam, but use a third plane. These wards work intercepting either the point of origin within Zaanam and the target point within Zaanam. Since there is no secondary target point within Zaanam. The wards fail to activate." Aura said with a shrug "Really, they did a good job setting them, since no one is crazy enough to attempt to visit an alternated plane just to bypass a ward. Nor do they have enough Mana to do it."

  But Elizabeth could, since she wasn't actually going to another hostile plane, but to her soulscape.

  But then, couldn't other people do the same?

  "And this works because you are expanding your area of influence using your Minions, since you can use them as a means to spread your skills. You are returning to Zaanam not from where you left, but from the place your Minion is. So really, you were just lucky that your skills allowed it to work like that." Aura said shrugging again, so Elizabeth was lucky huh.

  That was…convenient.

  "Wait wait a second. So Elizabeth is jumping into another plane? How did she even get one of those? Those things are expensive." Agatha said from the side, "Also, how did she even manage to hire someone like you? You seem to be either a high B-Tier or a Mid A-Tier mage."

  Aura was that powerful?

  Or weak? That was debatable.

  "She helped me in a time of need, so I'm helping her. Besides, it is fun around." Aura said with a smile, "Was that all you required of me Mistress?"

  "Yeah, thank you Aura." Elizabeth said, and as soon as she said those words, the purple-haired maid teleported away. As if to throw salt into the wound, Elizabeth felt her teleport just outside of the area of influence of the wards.

  And from there she teleported back into the Shadow Haven.

  Cheeky girl…

  "You had some interesting time, it seems." Agatha said shaking her head, "Well, I'll use this evidence well and try to expel the remaining members of the council. The old bastards are getting cocky since they got some money from [The Prophet] and the Galaxidae."

  So [The Prophet] was indeed in cahoots with the Galaxidae?

  "[The Prophet] is taking interest in our school?" Elizabeth asked, that had been…interesting, was she a friend or not?

  She knew the Galaxidae weren't since they had been hostile towards Reginald and had attempted to tamper with Sebastian after all, at least that one hadn't been affected…she wasn't sure what they had attempted to do, but the fact that Sebastian decided to fade away instead of remain made her angry.

  "Not so much in our school and more so in some of our students…" Agatha said, turning her eyes to Rossie and Rena. "She found out that some had been…touched by gods."

  …Elizabeth couldn't help but feel her eyes narrow.

  "That bitch dares to covet what is mine?" Elizabeth said almost snarling, narrowing her eyes, "Why?"

  "...that is no way to speak about one of the top [Heroes]...But as to answer your question…She found out from the [Soul Fragments] readouts. They had divine Mana outside from that of known [Gods]. So she wants to analyze their [Soul] and find a way to harness that [Divinity]." Agatha answered, her eyes seemed to shine golden for half a second, "...Why do I need to…Fine!"

  Agatha sighed as if in despair, "[Odyssey the Goddess of Magic] is telling me to tell you that the [Soul] of your [Girlfriends] are protected. That unless an outer god comes, they are safe from tampering from….[These pitiful lambs who don't know how high the mountain they are seeing is.]" Agatha cringed at the words. "And that [Should they decide to awake the sleeping dragon, Gatty will be there to help-] The hell I will!, I mean. Of course I will help one of our students, but you are telling her to go nuts against a S-Tier!"

  Agatha suddenly stopped reading something and started discussing against the air…

  Was that how it looked when an Oracle was discussing with their Patron God?

  "Hah? What do you mean with…[Eyes of The Witch of Certainity]!" Agatha's eyes shone once more, but this time more strongly.

  Elizabeth felt the familiar Mana of her Mother mixed within those eyes, and before she was able to reason what was happening felt a strand of Mana pierce her [Layered Safeguard].

  "Holy Mother of…" Agatha said as she covered her mouth and started agape at Elizabeth, "...So that's why you have been pestering me with getting photos of her?"

  Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and clamped down on the breach that had pierced her defenses, "That was quite rude Mother." And glared not quite at Agatha, but at the being who she could imagine was giggling like a madman behind Agatha.

  "...Yeah, fine, I'll tell them." Agatha said again, not to Elizabeth, Rena or Rossie, "Yes. That should be just enough…Girls, let's go to my new office. We have some things to discuss."

  And in that note they started walking not towards the main building…. Why the main building?