September the 3rd, 2018
Planet Earth/Midgard
Mercer Island
Pocket Dimension
06:00 AM

Cassandra woke up excited today and quickly got out of bed; today was the day her big sister was coming back! Humming happily, the little redhead walked up to the bathroom connected to the bedroom and began to do her morning ablutions. Normally she would prepare for the new elementary school that recently opened in the pocket realm.

Forty minutes later, Cassandra left the bathroom while brushing her hair; casting a hairdressing spell her hair instantly styled in twintails that made her even cuter. She was aware of her effect on other people, so she really took care to be as adorable looking and disarming as possible.

From her wardrobe a red sundress floated toward her, the little girl raised her arms in the air and the dress automatically put itself on her, the same for her undies. Cassandra loved magic, it made everything so simple in her life. She levitated and her white socks with red stars patterns and ruby red shoes put themselves on her feet in turn.

Cassandra twirled on herself and she stopped while looking at herself in the wardrobe’s mirror. “I miss Elissa, my hairstyle just isn’t the same without her touch.” The little girl whined as she pulled on her twintails.

Elissa was so good at everything she wanted to do, that Cassandra wanted to emulate her; she wanted her sister back already. The little girl decided that when her sister came back that she wouldn't let her go again, *Maybe I can negotiate with mom, and live in the tower like Elissa?*

Snort. *Right, mom will say no. She can be so mean…*

Turning toward the desk that Elissa had left for her, Cassandra went to look for her disaster proof smartphone, made her school bag that was at the foot of the wardrobe float to her and put her wallet in her jonc bracelet. It was a mithril bracelet set with three sapphires that served as a focus for her sorcery and also enchanted to store her items. It had the same storage capacity as Elissa’s spatial toe ring, the size of a palace.

Cassandra looked at the time on her smartphone, 06:45 AM. Her eyes widened causing her to teleport immediately into the kitchen and found herself hit by a ladle aimed for her forehead.

“Ouch! Mrs Bell, it hurts!” Cassandra cried out as she held onto her forehead.

The Brownie stared disapprovingly at Cassandra, her ladle pointed at the little girl like a weapon. Mrs Bell was the brownie of the Von Braun family and took her job of keeping them fed and presentable very seriously.

“Fool girl, you are late!” She shouted at the girl.

Cassandra lowered her eyes, stepping back from the female brownie. “I’m sorry, I was preparing mysel-”

But Mrs Bell cut her off. “Silence, now go eat girl.” The Brownie pointed at the table with a lot of food on it.

With Cassandra’s special physiology she needed at least six thousand calories three times a day. Mrs Bell feared the day the young girl would enter puberty as untold amounts of food would need to be prepared for her, she had thought that with the eldest girl, Elissa, away this trend would disappear for a while but suddenly Cassandra needed to eat more food.

“Yes, Mrs Bell.” Cassandra nodded.

Sitting on her resizeable chair, Cassandra took stock of breakfast: strawberry pancakes, eggs, bacon, milk and chocolate muesli and orange juice from the Fae Orchard located in this pocket dimension. A large serving that could feed three people at least. The little girl began to dig in slowly. Cassandra couldn’t eat fast as Mrs Bell’s piercing eyes were on her.

The Brownie was the same height as her, with a more voluptuous body and heavy breast, she was also a ginger with freckles on her face. She would be beautiful if she didn’t always look so severe. Mrs Bell was also two hundred years old, age was deceptive when it comes to the Fae.

Cassandra didn’t like her daily life being this regulated, she longed to have fun for once; she lamented the fact that Elissa wasn’t here to have fun with her while eating. The little girl felt alone and, with her parents always being busy, was feeling neglected.

It took Cassandra thirty minutes to finish everything, she was full to bursting and was slowly sipping on her orange juice. It was her favorite so she didn’t just inhale it.

Pwah. Cassandra put the heavy mug on the reinforced table, slapped her stomach and stood up from her seat to go to school. She almost forgot her school bag. With her keen hearing, Cassandra heard the door of the porch open. Heavy booted metallic feet resonated in her ears. The little girl went to see who was at the manor’s entrance and froze where she stood.

The woman was tall and wore a silver and white armor, her helmet had pretty white and golden wings on each side of it. But what made this person familiar were her gem-like green eyes and face.

“Eli?” Cassandra tilted her head as she looked at the newcomer.

A beautiful smile that Cassandra was familiar with blossomed on that woman’s face. “Don’t you recognize me little tyke?”

Cassandra squealed, moved at the speed of a missile and tackled Elissa. The platinum blonde didn’t even flinch, nor step back when she caught her; nestling her head in the crook of her sister’s neck, Cassandra hugged Elissa with all her strength.

They stayed like this for three minutes before Cassandra opened her eyes and noticed her sister’s new hair color. “You… what did you do to your hair?”

Elissa stopped smiling, looking awkward. “Hum, this is a long story.”

To be honest, Elissa was still not accustomed to the new changes of her body, being blonde despite feeling like a redhead in her mind’s eye perturbed her.

“But… I have school, so I guess we will see each other this afternoon.” Cassandra sounded sad at the prospect. Her sister was finally back and she had to go the boring school when she could catch up with Elissa. 

The young woman felt ambiguous at the news. “Mom is letting you go to school?” Elissa moved Cassandra on her hips to look at her face to face.

Cassandra nodded and gave to her sister a sunny smile. “Yesh, finally.”

Elissa laughed evilly. “That’s too bad, because I am taking you with me.”

Cassandra felt that Elissa had changed, yes she was taller and even more beautiful; but it was in the way she carried herself, she reminded her of a mix of her aunty Gadhiss and her mother. The armor was new, and her sister was still in the guise of an elf. If Cassandra focused really hard she could see through the glamour Elissa was disguised under.

The little girl was bothered by it and took the choker-necklace from Elissa by teleporting it into her hand. Elissa after two months finally took human form, her eyes gleamed in happiness and she kissed her sister on the cheek.

For once Cassandra didn’t want to listen to her mother’s instruction and decided to stay with her sister and asked Elissa,  “Where do you want to take me?”

Elissa’s smile was blinding when she said, “My new Queendom, and my big tower slash palace.”

With a hand, Elissa conjured an illusion showing Aryther with the Lutrinians and Dragon Fang Tower surrounded by Dragonfall Forest, her skyship in the sky and her dragons.

“Wow.” Cassandra looked transfixed by the images.

The little illusory show concluded on a good note with Hekate’s secret temple, Cassandra shook with excitement, making Elissa smile.

Elissa added, “As I am the Queen of those places, you are now a Princess too!”

At this she opened her eyes wide, Cassandra said in a little voice, “You remembered.”

It was a promise they had made to each other, they would conquer somewhere and become princesses and she would have all the ice cream and sweets she wanted. 

“Of course, I always keep my promises little Tyke; now let us go to your bedroom, we will take some of your things as you’ll have to stay with me for a while.” Elissa said as she put Cassandra on the ground.

“Yeah!” Cassandra said, her little fist in the air, she turned and ran, going up the stairs at high speed.

Elissa giggled at her sister and followed her.

 

---

 

45 minutes earlier
Mount Meager, Canada
Runeflow the Silver’s lair

Runeflow was suddenly woken up from his slumber, his hoard of gold under him not even making a sound as he lifted his long serpentine head. A disturbance in the Aether near him alerted him and the silver dragon was surprised to see an antique skyship arriving in Midgard’s atmosphere. With a thought he zoomed in on the skyship with the crystal scrying pool under him.

The silver dragon felt someone trying to contact him through telepathy, this familiar mental touch was instantly recognizable. It was the biggest dragoness ever, she had golden scales that gleamed under the light of her crystal lair. It was Gadhiss the Dragon Matriarch of Midgard.

<My love. What can I do for you?> Runeflow said smoothly, showing her the gleaming silver scales of his neck.

Between him and Gadhiss it was a perpetual seduction, they have been mated for thousands of years. Dragon males and females needed space and to have respective territories to not chafe in the company of each other; it could turn deadly as they were from a territorial species. Fortunately they had communication magic and could speak and talk dirty to each other.

Though Gadhiss as the Dragon Matriarch often called Runeflow to do things for her.

<Ru, did you feel that disturbance in the aether?>

<I was about to call you about it. It’s an ancient skyship, something the dwarves would create.>

Gadhiss looked annoyed as she said, <You should go see who it is, kill them if they are invaders.>

<Yes, my love.> Runeflow bowed his head to his mate.

When the silver dragon looked back at her, the dragoness had a twinkle in her eyes and lustfully said, <Come and see me when you are done, it is time to start another brood.>

With elation and thoughts of love filling his mind, Runeflow nodded to his mate and teleported from his lair to the sky above Mount Meager. Beating his powerful wings, he flew at hypersonic speed toward the skyship that had appeared.

The landscape underneath him quickly turned from mountainous to plains and finally to the ocean; dragons were naturally inclined to fly fast and hard with the help of magic. Wind resistance or G-Forces meant nothing to them as they could also fly in space and travel from world to world with the strength of their minds. Following the mana signature of the events of the portal opening, Runeflow bothered to cloak himself from view of those pesky humans toys in orbit that spy everywhere.

Runeflow snorted in annoyance, the portal was finally closed and the skyship was flying toward land; the dragon swiftly placed himself in its trajectory. However, the sight before him shocked him as almost instantly through previously hidden apertures at the sides and front of the ship cannons and turrets emerged and began to fire at him. Runeflow dove low avoiding being hit by an elemental energy blast.

<YOU DARE?!> Runeflow roared.

He let go of his cloak and his formidable bulk expanded as he took on his combat form and was as big as the Eiffel Tower. A white aura surrounding him, the silver dragon was about to unleash his breath when everything changed yet again.

<Uncle?> A familiar voice reached his mind, he would recognize that mental touch anywhere.

Runeflow’s mind froze for a moment before he confirmed who it was, <Little Doll?>

A ball of lightning appeared before him and expanded into a two meter high portal, from it appeared a young blonde woman with green eyes, she wore exquisite elven armor. The golden and divine aura around her showed her to be his Goddaughter; though the blue wings were new.

<Uncle.> Elissa bowed slightly in the air.

Runeflow squinted his eyes to focus on the little hatchling. <Elissa weren’t you supposed to come through…>

A portal in the pocket realm of her sorceress mother. But if she was here, it meant that the little hatchling ran into trouble as usual. It had always worried him how this little one wasn’t able to stay still and have a quiet day without something happening as though the Norns had cursed her.

Averting her eyes from his, Elissa answered with a mumbled, <There were... special circumstances, Uncle Rune.>

Thanks to his powerful hearing he heard her.

*Yes, just as usual.* The dragon snorted white flame from his nose.

<Fine, you better go back to your mother and next time don’t attack me this way.> Runeflow said.

He didn’t like how he was attacked just now, the energy and power of his goddaughter’s skyship were powerful enough to wound him. As she looked at him, Elissa had the decency to look sheepish.

The breeze blew her hair that was trapped by her Valkyrie helmet, <Sorry, one of my crew panicked. We came from Svartalfheim and the last dragon there almost killed us.>

Runeflow’s anger flared at this statement, someone of his kind attacked his goddaughter?! Energy crackled from his wings as he said almost conversationally, <Oh? Do I have to go teach him or her a lesson?>

<No need Uncle Rune, I killed her myself.> He heard the draconic like growl coming from his goddaughter, it surprised him.

He found her changed, she was not the innocent hatchling that used to sleep on his back anymore. Sniffing her, he smelled the thick bloody odor coming from her. Yes, Elissa had been blooded and had killed, her magical aura had also grown.

Like a proud father he said, <That’s my Little Doll.>

The dragon stopped glowing and beat his wings terminating the levitation spell that kept him in the air.

<I must leave, it was good seeing you agai->

The loud noise from jet engines came from behind Runeflow, turning his head and with his powerful eyes he noticed four human toys coming toward them. *What were they called again? Jiets?*

Silver and gun gray colored flying craft passed them, Elissa shook her head as she saw the vehicles of war turn toward them. She already sensed their intention, with the incident with Gadhiss eight months ago there was no way the Air Force wasn’t going to attack them on sight.

<Leave them to me Little Doll, go back home.> Runeflow said as he flew toward the flying contraptions.

His tone and threatening stances brooked no argument.

Elissa didn’t seem to want to tangle with the machines, saluted him and said, <Yes, Uncle. Tell Aunty Gadhiss that I love her.>

Elissa teleported back to her skyship, Runeflow saw it then advance toward land and completely disappear from his eyes as it gradually became transparent to his magical senses. The dragon opened his eyes wide at that, this ship was clearly was more powerful than he believed.

Just as the fighter jets launched their missiles, Runeflow snorted and just beat his wings creating a shockwave that stopped them and made them explode.

<Still playing with toys, humans.> He sent telepathically into the minds of the humans in their steel cocoons.

Another volley of missiles came at him at great speed, some of the other war machines fired their railguns at the dragon who was suddenly pelted by the annoying pellets. They had no effect of course but they still scratched his beautiful silver scales. That angered him, he had to go see his mate later and he couldn’t not look his best.

<BEGONE.> Runeflow bellowed as he glared at the fighter jets.

Powerful winds suddenly blew all around the flying warmachines and they were all inside a localized hurricane bigger than an F5 tornado. Before any of the planes crashed into each other the pilots ejected themselves, Runeflow forcefully terminated his spell making the tornado disappear; he smiled as he saw the planes all crash into each other, creating explosions all around him.

The Dragon came back to his most economical form becoming the size of a Boeing A850 and then left, not realizing the panic he had created all around the world.

 

---

 

El Paso County, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Peterson Air Force Base
NORAD

Everyone was panicking, the military personnel at the consoles watching the fight were now busy trying to do damage control as they saw the gigantic lifeform disappear from their radars and satellites’ view. General Moss couldn’t believe that such things could happen, but with the reveal of the supernatural beings living alongside them he chose to swallow the bitter pill.

He was on the direct line to the president at his desk in the command center. Each of his aides looked at him with trepidation as he spoke.

“No Mr. President, we have no idea how such a creature appeared out of the blue.” The general began to sweat.

One of his aides, a petite but sporty blonde in uniform approached him and held a paper tissue to him, he looked at her and gratefully nodded. He began to dab himself with the tissue. Then the president asked him about what the Assembly had to say for itself.

“The Assembly? Not the League?” General Moss was Pro League as it had been founded by a military man and the greatest hero, Major Freedom.

He didn’t understand why everyone was jumping ship, now that this new organization came onto the international scene. The president began to tell him to sod off with his Pro League prattle and to contact them as they seemed to know dragons as they had seen in their first announcement.

“Yes, I saw that they had a dragon with them too.” The General closed his eyes as he remembered that a similar creature had been on TV and breathing fire.

He didn’t trust the Assembly, every attempt at spying on them had failed; they couldn’t even place their own people inside the organization as the criteria for entering it were almost impossible. He guessed that it was an in-house kind of operation but backed by a foreign power, thankfully they answered to an oversight committee. The General though didn’t trust it either as they clearly believed in the spiel that Tesla had sold them.

Stubbornly the General said, “But it is still an unknown organiza-’

However, his ultimate superior decided that he was being an idiot and ordered him to call the Assembly. “Yes, Mr. President, I will do my best .”

The general brutally hung up the phone. “Shit!”

Everyone around him looked at him with apprehension in their eyes, others clearly didn’t envy him as his position was untenable at the moment. Seeing a flying creature as big as an Aircraft Carrier had shaken them to their core. General Moss called for everyone to calm down and then the command center went silent. All those intelligence officers and member of the Defense Command stared at him, waiting for orders.

Moss sighed and then bellowed, “Someone get me the Assembly on the phone.”

One of the officers charged with communications two consoles away said, “Sir, yes Sir!” And turned to his console and began to compose the special number for the Assembly whose HQ was located in New York.

The call went through but it wasn’t audio only, it was a video call to the current acting leader of the Assembly, Crusader. Nikola Tesla was absent and god only knew where, some rumor said that he was in space. On the private screen on his desk, General Moss saw the face of a man he didn’t like, someone who didn’t care about national sovereignty.

He wore a black armor and a winged helmet hiding his face completely. Behind him was a shelf filled with weapons of all sorts.

“Crusader.” General Moss said between his teeth.

Crusader rose his chin and with an almost friendly voice said, “General, this is a surprise.”

He and the General had met before over an invasion of Merpeople who tried to invade Okinawa in the nineties. The people of the sea had wanted to take the island as to have a base on land and in retaliation for polluting their undersea kingdom after a special weapon was tested. Crusader had neutralized the Navy assets to stop further hostilities.

Since then General Moss resented the man as he didn’t respect anything, or things that should be run by the government or the League. Crusader had been intervening in war torn countries as of late and put down those he perceived as the problem. Warlords, Tyrants. The man should have been arrested and put away long ago for his meddling but no one had tried.

General Moss didn’t know how he did it, but some kind of pressure or blackmail must be going on. As he stared at the armored man, the General couldn’t help but feel mistrust and hate toward him.

General Moss said, “I wouldn’t have called you if the situation wasn’t dire.”

Crusader leaned forward. “Does it have any relation to the dragon that appeared ten minutes ago?”

“You already know?!” The old General was surprised, then he realized that he shouldn’t be.

Tesla had resources that even the USA could only dream of possessing; technologies so dangerous that he didn’t distribute them to anyone.

“Ah! Told you, Zaika. They would be the cause.” A feminine voice said from behind Crusader.

The armored hero looked to the side and not at his screen. “I know Seli, but let’s wait for their version of what happened.”

The giggle of a woman rang and pissed the General off, he knew exactly who it was that was mocking the military.

“As you can see general, we already know that a dragon and a UFO appeared in our atmosphere, my father’s long range sensors can scan massive distances, at least a quarter of the solar system.” There was a smile in Crusader’s smug voice.

The general sat on his chair, not quite angry but... irritated. Even though Moss couldn’t see Crusader’s face, he could feel how mocking the man was being. To a superpowered vigilante like him, the way the armed forces had been behaving as of late must have been a comedy show.

“Lemme guess, you fired first?” Crusader asked.

With an expression that could only be described as a stiff upper lip, Moss said, “We saw what type of damage such a creature could inflict if we didn’t chase it.”

Moss was clearly speaking about what happened in Italy, Rome was devastated by a golden dragon that made their navy and army a complete joke. But after fighting the Silver one, the general was thinking that maybe there was nothing to be done against such creatures with conventional weapons.

Crusader stopped moving and did something that Moss would have never thought he would, he sighed and didn’t mock him. “I will let you in on something General, I think that the Assembly should have been less secretive about the composition of its ranks.”

The armored vigilante began with, “You see general, Earth's history is longer than we were told…”

Crusader began to narrate the true history of the world, about elves, gods, dragons, superhumans and magic users. How the world was divided up by pantheons of gods even now; dragons having sliced up the Earth into territories and about how World War II made it so that after the persecutions enacted by Christianity and Islam, the supernatural world’s leaders had chosen to take a more active approach into the affairs of the world.

“We have not been good caretakers of this world, General; the true owners of this planet have taken a dim view about our fouling it. The most important one, the Italians met her, she’s the golden dragon Gadhiss the dragon Matriarch of Midgard.” Crusader dropped a bomb on Moss.

General Moss didn’t think the vigilante was joking, after all those creatures existed all over the world and thanks to the Assembly, magical creatures and beings were coming out of the woodwork. Humans were no longer the top of the food chain, still they were more numerous; until someone would point out that they all had mastery of magic and abilities granted by their races that not everyone could match.

The old general thought about this dragon matriarch, and what was Midgard?

“Midgard?” Moss asked.

Crusader waved as he said, “The ancient and current name of good ol’ Earth.”

“The dragons, what about them?” Moss didn’t know what to think, Crusader told him that dragons were everywhere on Earth, just hidden. That they were also an interstellar species, as if those aliens who invaded them the last time weren’t enough.

*But why didn’t they help when it happened?* Then he realized why. *We persecuted them with our religions. Why should they care about what happens to us.*

Crusader continued. “Each time, it was us humans who attacked them. If it happens a third time I am afraid that all out war will be declared, and it does make matters even more important that we humans fired on two of the leaders of the dragons, the silver one is called Runeflow, Gadhiss’ mate and the most powerful draconic magic user on the planet.”

The general deflated and leaned back in his chair. “How fucked are we?”

Someone giggled in the background of the Crusader’s screen.

“Like being naked in tundra in winter, comrade general.” The feminine voice of the woman not on screen piped up.

Crusader rose from his seat. “I think the Assembly will need to mediate between the world’s governments and the dragons.”

Crusader slightly bowed his head. “Now, I must go, it was a pleasure to see you General.”

“Wai-” The conversation simply went dead, the armored vigilante had killed it.

Holding his head in his hands, Moss angishly said, “Shit, how do I tell the president about this?”

 

---

Mercer Island Airspace
Tesla Academy
07:00 AM

Elissa looked at the pyramid that was the academy on the main screen. She was happily humming a song as she watched this nostalgic view. There were students mingling already and the academy staff was working to keep the peace. Trees and ponds were added to the gardens surrounding the academy’s facilities, Elissa liked how it had changed.

The symbol of the Superhuman League consisting of a laurel crown surrounding the silhouette of a human being with stars in the background was replaced by another one; the letter A capitalized with runic symbols representing each of the species on Earth: Fae, Dwarves, Elves, Merpeople, Dragons and Humans. The symbol of the Assembly.

*It looks more cozy and accepting than before.* She thought.

There was clearly more than humans who could enter the academy now, but Elissa wouldn’t be surprised if now Daphne Snow wasn’t swamped with more students than before.

“This is a really beautiful place.” Elissa’s wife said.

Dicinna looked interested by what she was seeing. It wasn’t solely her who was eyeing the academy’s ground.

Elissa giggled. “I know right? Say Dicinna, do you speak English?”

The dark elf shook her head negatively. “English? No, I don’t speak Midgardian.”

Elissa looked at her with eyes wide, she couldn’t believe that Dicinna thought that people on Earth had a unified language. *This might become a problem…*

“Ok…” Elissa said a bit down, but she suddenly brightened up when an idea struck her. She called out to the one she knew could help, “ZHAER can you do anything about it?”

[Certainly your Grace, I can upload the language in the mind of your companions who don’t know English.] Said the skyship’s intelligence.

“Then you have my permission to proceed.” Elissa gave the hologram a beautiful smile.

[British, Australian or American English?] Asked ZHAER with its usual search for precision.

Elissa raised an eyebrow. “American, please.” Then a gleam of playfulness could be seen in her verdant orbs. *But do give the Aussie English language to Ocima and Dicinna. It sounds sexier and suits them well.*

The AI chuckled at his Captain’s thought. [American English is being uploaded into the crew’s minds.]

Dicinna held her head in her hands, as if she was having a big headache, the rest of the crew except for Reinatiel mimicked her. Elissa rose from her command chair and with a snap of her fingers, her armor was glamoured into something else, the same uniform she had been wearing in Daphne Snow. She conjured an illusion of herself before her.

*This looks rather too sexy, I’ve really grown up.* Elissa told herself as she saw her bountiful chest straining her white shirt.

Her eyes narrowed as she saw that she had forgotten the thigh high knee socks, she modified her glamour and the illusion immediately changed too, showing black high knee socks, she also lengthened her skirt by about five centimeters and changed her mary dukes for ankle high steel tipped boots. Thanks to the hairdressing magic that Reinatiel taught her she colored her hair vermillion red in a waterfall braid style.

“The glamour should hold for a day.” Elissa said out loud.

“Nodicea! My Clan Hold for painkillers!” Ocima shouted as she tightly held onto the piloting wheel.

“I am with you, sister.” Dicinna said in a subdued manner.

All around the bridge, Elissa listened as her crew was complaining about the learning process. The young Queen stared at Reinatiel who had a smile plastered on her face as she watched her fellow members, her eyes fell on Elissa and she winked at her.

[Language upload complete, your Grace.]

Elissa clapped her hands. “Thank you ZHAER, this is a good job as usual.”

[I strive for efficiency.] The intelligence smugly said his catchphrase as usual.

Elissa walked up to her wife, healed her headache and massaged her temples, until Dicinna had her nose in Elissa deep neckline. The dark elf made her wife step back from her and inspected her with a critical eye.

“Elissa what are you wearing?! That is so unladylike!” Dicinna shouted.

The view of her wife in such a short black skirt and tight white shirt was a sinful vision. Ocima turned from the viewing screen and was outraged too. It was the first time the body of another woman had made her blush this way, now she understood why her sister was so obsessed with her new wife.

Elissa twirled on herself and raised a bit of her skirt but no one could see her panties or anything. “Huh? This is the uniform that I wore at school.”

Dicinna quickly rose from her seat and took her wife by the hand, with her free one on her green tie and pulled Elissa to herself. They were nose to nose and with a cold tone Dicinna said, “I’m not letting you go down like that…”

Aroused by Dicinna’s angry face, Elissa averted her eyes. “Hum… I don’t have a choice, you know? Dicinna be reasonable.”

Reinatiel as usual decided to intervene to make the situation better for Elissa. “Mistress maybe she’s right, that shirt is barely holding on as it is.”

The demoness knew how much Elissa had changed, she was now in the body of an adult; Ancient Humans always reached their peak at sixteen and their aging slowed to a crawl as most of them could live for five hundred years.

Elissa looked at herself again and relented, “Fine, but I don’t know what I should put on to make it look more conservative.”

“Can’t you add a little something?” Ocima asked helpfully.

Elissa shrugged. “Maybe.” Then she remembered that she could just put on something like a jacket as it wasn’t forbidden by the academy’s rules. “Oh! I know what!”

A long sleeved black leather biker jacket appeared on her and she zipped it up. “What about now?”

Dicinna gulped as she stared at her wife with her face darkening, a clear sign that she reddened. “I think we need to find Dawn right away and then go back to our bedchamber and get to know each other…”

“Pervert!” Elissa mock said in outrage, as she put her hand protectively before her.

Ocima couldn’t believe how lewd her sister had become, the rest of the crew on the bridge just chuckled at them. Syndanelyn in particular who had come back from the engine room was amused by the levity of her Queen.

Two minutes later, Dicinna, Reinatiel and Elissa teleported with Dimension Door before the entrance of the Tesla Academy. Her goal was simple today, to bring Danny and the rest of her friends back with her; Dawn, Sarah, Tabitha and Cassandra in the pocket realm were also her most sought after targets. The group’s arrival didn’t go unnoticed as they walked through the gates.

Dicinna and Reinatiel wore a more conservative uniform, it was only on Elissa that it had looked sinful as she was the tallest of them on the ship. The dark elf was getting irritated as people looked at them, this uniform was showing off too much of her body; as for Reinatiel she just became unnoticed thanks to her demonic ability to play on the senses of others.

Elissa was speaking on her CLO, arranging a meeting with her friends; they had accepted to meet her at the highly controlled portal between the Academy and the Magic School. At the portal generator located in the plaza, it was guarded by a detachment of Tesla gynoid in heavy armor and wearing futuristic looking weapons. The three saw an enormous queue composed of diverse races and species. Dryads, Unicorns, Magic users and Elves.

“We wait here.” Elissa stopped under the shadow of a tree, where Danny had told her to wait for her group.

Dicinna played with her braid, leaning against the tall Cherry blossom tree, she stared at her wife who looked really eager to meet her friends again. The dark elf was a bit jealous of the fact that Elissa needed her previous friends, she had hoped that her and sister’s company would assuage any sense of loneliness her wife felt.

Dicinna decided to ask Elissa about it, as she certainly must feel her apprehension and jealousy through their bond. “Are you sure, my love? That you want your friends with you, I mean.”

Elissa turned to the elven woman, an enthusiastic expression etched on her face. “Danny and her girls are the most powerful girls I know after you and Ocima; I want to bring Emilia and Jamie with us too, I promised them help.”

The dark elf didn’t know who each of those people were, but they seemed to have made a good impression on her wife. She had noticed how Elissa attracted competent people in her orbit, she never built shallow friendships, preferring to take care of her friends as if they were family. It was even more blatant when she thought of Elissa’s treatment toward Brunhilda.

Dicinna smiled at that. “So, going to Midgard is basically to collect your own allies to build our Queendom?”

“Yes.” But that wasn’t all, she wanted to get Cassandra and Dawn back.

The dark elf heaved a sigh and walked up to her wife. “How do you plan to make them give up everything? Their life, their parents and come with you.”

Face to face with her wife, Elissa put a hand on Dicinna’s cheek, stroking it and pecking her on the lips she said, “Easily.”

With a beautiful smile Elissa turned away from Dicinna and looked toward the entrance of the school dorms; boys and girls exiting them to start the day. “My friends are just like me, they are attracted to Power.” Elissa shrugged. “Danny wants to be the strongest and her followers are the same. Emilia and Jamie want to raise from their station in life and Donovan is in love with Danny.”

The young Queen’s eyes focused on a group of people at the entranceway, three blondes, two black girls and a young man walked up to her. They looked happy as they recognized her.

“Ah, speaking of the devil.” Elissa said as she saw the blonde girl at the fore of the group run at super speed toward her.

“Eli!” Danny Sparks said as she tackle-hugged her friend.

Elissa caught the young woman who had lightning crackle around her and hugged her fiercely. “Danny!”

Danny then realized something. Elissa wasn’t that much taller than her before but now she had to raise her head to look at her face and… her body seemed more solid and curvy than before. It made Danny blush but she expressed her findings excitedly.

“Oh my god, what happened to you? You have changed so much.” Danny shouted.

She knew that some girls went through changes at some point in time to attain womanhood but this was like seeing years of them happening to her friend.

“Elissa you are so tall now!” Erika Harmon, Danny’s right hand said with an appreciative glance to the girl she considered her true leader. The blonde haired girl though didn’t like how slutty her uniform looked it seemed to be two sizes shorter on her.

Carolyn Pierce the third blonde in the group giggled at that. “She’s also sexier.” She said appreciatively.

“I agree.” Said Donovan whose gaze roved over Elissa glued to his girlfriend.

Until he noticed someone behind their friend who gazed at him with annoyance. It was one of those dark elves that he had learned to recognize; they were everywhere in the USA now, not bothering to glamour themselves anymore. Her piercing gaze made him step back so much that he bumped into Jamie who couldn’t stop looking at Elissa as if frozen.

“Jamie?” Donovan asked. “Is there something wrong.”

She was shaking, awed and scared. “Elissa.”

Hearing her name being called, Elissa let go of Danny. “Jamie!”

Elissa walked up to the petite black girl and tried to hug her but she stepped back and batted away Elissa hands and said, “No don’t touch me…”

Elissa looked hurt, and asked. “Is there something wrong?”

“H-how? H-how do you do it?” Jamie was terrified.

Elissa was beyond what she would call an Omega ranked super now. Jamie felt it, she could kill them all and no one in this part of the continent could stop her.

“Do what?” Elissa frowned and tilted her head.

Jamie looked annoyed now. “You keep getting stronger!” She pointed her finger at the big breasted redhead. “The last time we saw each other your power was blinding, like a nuke going off and razing everything in its path. But now…”

She gulped for effect and finished by saying, “It’s the same as looking at the sun.”

The group of friends kept silent at that, Danny looked at Elissa and felt defeated again. Her friend kept getting stronger and left her behind by a big margin, Erika and Carolyn stared at Elissa as if it was the first time they saw her. Donovan didn’t care, Elissa was Elissa. She was the first person to give him a chance and didn’t judge him by his appearance, it was thanks to her that he had an awesome school life, he owed her.

Elissa emitted a nervous laugh. “Oh, a lot of things happened darling. But first stop using your power, please. Now look at me without your sensor ability.”

Jamie closed her eyes and turned her power off, the light and aura around Elissa disappeared. “Okay.”

Elissa quickly came to hug her. “You have nothing to fear from me, Jamie. We are friends, I would never hurt you; didn’t I promise to always looking out for you when we buried the hatchet?”

Jamie smiled at that, and hugged her back. “Yes, you never lied to us.”

Elissa raised her head while still hugging her petite friend and said aloud to all the others. “And I won’t start now, you are all my friends. You are in fact the first who didn’t approach me for my looks or my power. And… and I needed that. I’m never letting you go, you hear?”

Danny shook away any feeling of envy and inadequacy, the others smiled at the declaration and nodded.

“Group hug!” Erika announced.

Everyone did just that and hugged Elissa. Dicinna now understood, those are Elissa’s first true friends, people with powers like her who have come to like her as a person. But she doubted that all of them would accept what she had become. A ruthless ruler, a benevolent tyrant.

*Only time will tell.* Dicinna said, snorting.

Coughing after letting go of the group hug, Danny said, “So, it’s back to school…”

“Wait, there’s a more important thing we must know, Elissa who is that?” Donovan pointed toward Dicinna.

The dark elf smiled and walked up to the group, as it was finally time to introduce her. All the girls appraised her, judged her and found themselves envious of her figure and beautiful assets. Donovan tried to not stare at her.

Elissa let go of everyone and went to place herself at Dicinna’s side and interlaced their hands. “This is part of the long story I have to tell you, guys.”

Danny frowned at this, Elissa was normally with Dawn; but she seemed to be close to this young woman at her side. She hoped that Elissa wasn’t cheating on the poor space mage. Similar thoughts were going through the minds of the group.

“Do we have the time?” Emilia asked as she looked at Danny.

It was almost time for school to start after all.

Cough. “I have an offer for you Danny, for you girls and Don too.”

“I feel that you are going to give us a life changing one.” Erika said, her precog ability tingling.

Erika had always possessed the ability to foresee possible futures and observe what may happen. Though as knowledge of the future invariably caused that future to change, her visions of the future were subject to frequent shifting. While not being able to select futures or travel through time, Erika’s  visions may assist in possible courses of action.

She was having one right now and smiled, she saw herself become so strong and powerful that it made her giddy. Danny stared at Erika who looked really keen suddenly. Danny’s eyes turned to Elissa yet again, whatever her offer was, it seemed to be something good.

Erika perceived that this was a key moment in her fate and that of her friends.

“But first, I want to ask you, do you trust me?” Elissa asked everyone.

“I would follow you to hell, girl.” Danny said without hesitation.

Erika and Carolyn nodded, Donovan just smiled; Emilia and Jamie said yes.

“Good. ZHAER teleport us to the Stateroom, please.” Elissa ordered aloud.

Danny frowned. “Who-”

And they were all teleported to the Weatherlight.

 

---

 

Weatherlight, Stateroom
Above the Pocket Realm
Mercer Island

Dicinna watched as everyone sat at the table, Danny was on the other side of Elissa who was at the head of the table and looking at her with hostility. Her two followers were doing the same at her side; Donovan and the other darker skinned girls were on the left. Reinatiel and Ocima were far to the other part of the table looking awkward at all those new people getting on board.

“Ok, we are all here now Eli.” Danny said as she leaned in her chair.

The young woman was already in love with this floating ship, as it was richly decorated and cozy inside. She would have liked to have a tour of it.

“Tell us about this offer you have for us, please.” Erika asked.

Elissa hesitated for a moment, but as placed the flat of her hands on the table, she said, “This is simple.” 

Sighing she continued to speak. “I created a Queendom, I have obtained lands on another planet called Svartalfheim. I was sent there by my mother for training but I was so getting into it that I have people depending on me now.”

Everyone kept silent as they digested this information, their friend visited another planet and became a queen. But that was immaterial to them, what they really wanted to know was who was the elf at Elissa's side.

Danny pointed her finger at Dicinna. “Ok, who is she?”

Her gaze was cold, however it didn't seem to make the dark elf shrink or anything, to the contrary Dicinna chuckled at her.

“This is Dicinna, my wife.” Elissa said nonchalantly.

It was as if a bomb had gone off in the stateroom, the voices of Elissa's friends echoing off the wooden panels.

“Wife?!” Donovan stood up, shocked.

Elissa nodded. “Yes.”

Danny frowned, looking from Elissa to Dicinna. “What about Dawn? Did you…”

Elissa heaved another sigh, letting go of the glamour disguising her armor and hair. “This is really complicated, Danny. Let me finish ok?”

Everyone had a different expression as they saw the changes that Elissa had gone through, she looked regal, controlled and elegant. Danny wished she could pull the same aura of power as her friend to command respect.

“Fair enough, please enlighten us.” Danny said.

Elissa smiled at the blonde girl. “Let me tell you the truth about something that’s really important about me. I wasn’t born on Earth, I am from a world called Phantasia.”

And she told them everything about her arrival on Earth and why they had to flee their homeworld. That she discovered who she was thanks to her genetic memories and the Goddess of her people who in fact was her most ancient relative. That her family wasn’t her real family, that Dicinna and Dawn were her soulmates. As she was about to heap more information upon them, Donovan the handsome black young man interrupted her.

No one was saying anything at Elissa’s revelation, some looked stunned, others trying to accept it. They had a hard time doing so. Elissa wasn’t a liar, she valued honor and integrity; no one could call her on it and treat her as if she was mad.

Donovan raised his hand and Elissa stopped talking. “Back up, you mean to say that you are some sort of demigoddess and that meeting Dawn and this Dark elf hottie was preordained?”

Elissa looked warmly at her wife and simply said, “Yep.”

Dicinna threw some bedroom eyes at Elissa. The dark elf reverted to her silent self when she was around people she didn’t know, and didn’t want to say anything to mess up her wife’s narrative, as she did a good job of explaining anyway.

After taking a long moment to let the story sink in, Danny understood, but all those changes happening made her awkward, she was already thinking that Dawn was going to be furious and heartbroken. “Fine, this could explain the ship and the changes about you.”

“But we need to keep going to school.” Carolyn said.

They couldn’t just join Elissa in her adventure, they now understood that she wasn’t staying on Earth and going back to her new planet. But she loved them so much that she wanted them at her side to help her; Carolyn was flattered, though she had to think about her future.

Elissa rose from her stiff backed chair and said, “Girls, Don. What I am offering you, it's a one time offer. You see there's a prophecy concerning me, I must retake my homeworld and destroy a demon lord…”

It was so silent in the room that you could hear a pin drop. With the revelation of magic and supernatural beings existing, a lot of myths and legends resurfaced and people have begun to rethink what they knew about the world. Elves, and Dragons existed and they also knew about Sarah Jordan being half demon… They believed Elissa and it scared them.

Danny spoke for everyone when she leaned forward to Elissa and said, “Shit, one of those? Is there some kind of unique ring to destroy?”

Thanks to human folklore and active imaginations, things such as games, fantasy novels and movies existed and the rise of a demon or dark lord threatening the peace of the little people was a common theme.

Dicinna was amused by how Elissa’s friends took everything in stride, not once doubting her.

“Not at all, just an army of demons to destroy and the big poobah to murder. He killed my real dad, imprisoned my real mom, you know.” This was the first time everyone was exposed to what could be called bloodlust. But it disappeared instantly when Elissa took control of herself again.

Everyone felt sympathy for their friend, a Princess in exile and a Queen with a mission. Danny’s group looked at each other and nodded.

The blonde girl then turned her face toward Elissa whose face seemed neutral right now. Not letting them see the pain that was clearly in her eyes. Danny asked herself if there was an indirect way to help their friend.

“Great, is there no way to…” She was about to ask using guile and deceit when she was interrupted by the young Queen.

Elissa shook her head. “Nope, no Eagles to help or Uber sorcerer to facilitate everything. Well, normally I would be it.” That wasn’t exactly true, but Elissa didn’t trust Malicia or Heracles anymore and didn’t consider them helpers.

Emilia looked at her friend, revealed Princess. “This is a lot to absorb, Eli.”

Looking at the beautiful black girl, Elissa nodded. She didn’t dismiss her opinion, after all she was basically asking them to sacrifice their futures to hook onto the her bandwagon. “The thing is that I am asking you because you are my friends, yes.”

Elissa continued her sales pitch. “But, I am not asking without giving you an incentive for your help. I plan to make you stronger, at the level of my people at least. Because to be honest, superhumans from this planet are weak.”

Everyone around the table knew how powerful Elissa was, if only they had but ten percent of her current power level they would be a force to be reckoned with. This was becoming interesting for all the parties involved; Erika’s eyes practically screamed to everyone to fucking accept as she knew this was actually the best deal of their life.

Smiling, Elissa told them, “Remember? How strong my adoptive father is? Donovan you could be as powerful as him, Danny you could have control over your powers at the same level as mine.”

Donovan Sims was a powerful young man, he knew how to control his power now and he knew what he had to offer as a future hero, but having a bigger opportunity to become as powerful as Spartan? He had already made his choice.

Danny noticed that just by looking at him. “What do you mean like you?” The electricity manipulator asked.

Elissa looked at them conspiratorially and sat on her black chair, and said, “I... discovered how to safely trigger Superhuman physiology and powers. And I want to reawaken you to Ancient Human status artificially.”

Silence ensued at this declaration; Danny’s hands shook as she realized what her friend was now capable of. Jamie and Emilia hand touched in reassurance and thought that maybe, just maybe having met Elissa was the best thing to have ever happened to them. Carolyn pinched Erika to tell her to tell Danny to accept.

Erika was Danny’s advisor, as she was the precog she was invaluable to the electricity manipulator. “Danny accept, this is a turning point in our fates. She's not joking.”

Elissa and Dicinna smiled at them, this was an offer for their betterment, certainly they would be embroiled in the turmoil of war, but they seemed to all accept. It took another ten minutes for Danny to decide, after all this wasn’t a decision to take lightly.

“Okay, fine. We will follow you.” Danny said after deliberating the pros and cons as she rose from her chair and crossed her arms.

Elissa clapped her hand in happiness. “Great, now go back to your dorms and take everything in your wardrobe.”

Turning to her handmaiden she asked, “Reinatiel store all their things in your space, please”

Reinatiel bowed to her, her hair spilling free from her hairdo. “As you wish mistress.”

“ZHAER teleport them to their dorms.” Elissa ordered.

She was full of hope for the future now that she knew that her friends were with her. The training opportunity and their awakening promised to be hard, but she would make them as awesome as herself.

[Certainly, your Grace.] The ship’s intelligence acknowledged.

Danny and co disappeared in pillars of light, having chosen their path and decided to link it to Elissa’s.

 

---

 

Princess Tower
07:45 AM

Dawn was suffering, with Elissa not being there she felt deprived of love and empty inside. She didn’t feel like going anywhere, even to school. After everything she was subjected to this last summer, she was owed a break. The space mage was laying on her bed right now, looking at pictures of Elissa and herself on her Augmented Reality HUD.

Elissa and her kissing, them splashing water on themselves in the bathroom, or them hugging while surrounded by Tsarra, Tabs and Sarah. Her girlfriend was supposed to arrive right now, she knew she would come see her directly, so she made the snap decision of not going to the school ceremony to welcome the new students.

*It’s going to be boring anyway.*

The asian girl looked at the broken things in her bedroom, there had been a new change in her; she hoped that it would make her closer to her girlfriend. Dawn had become a superhuman when she had been training under Malicia and had received her new weapon, Carnwennan a legendary dagger with the magical power to shroud its user in shadows. The space mage had also discovered that she had basically become an assassin type with this power, and the shadow also augmented the damage of the blade and her darkness magic.

“I wish Elissa was here.” Dawn said sadly.

Her bedroom’s ceiling light was suddenly turned on, and Dawn shielded her eyes from it. She had darkened her room because she didn’t feel like being in the light.

Dawn heard a familiar giggle. “You rang?”

She rose from her bed and sat to see an armored platinum blonde woman. “...”

“Dawn.” The tone was filled with love, yearning and other feelings that rolled over the asian girl.

She recognized this voice and this face, even though she was taller and with a different hair color. At an inhuman speed, Dawn threw herself at Elissa and tackled her. “You are here! You are real!”

“Mochiron, watashi no ai (Of course, my love).” Elissa said in japanese.

Dawn inspected Elissa and felt her up. “But… you’ve changed.”

“Well, certain things happened to me that I need to tell you.” Elissa smiled, she hoped Dawn was going to understand, but she didn’t plan to tell her she’s married yet.

Hekate put her in this situation, and she was damned if she wasn’t going to get her out of it. *I will bring her to the Majestic Temple.*

The secret underwater temple dedicated to Hekate, it was where she and Dicinna wanted to bond with Dawn.

“All good things, right?” The asian girl asked.

Elissa froze in her embrace. “Not all, but some are going to change your life Dawn.” She said sadly.

“Dawn, my love. Do you trust me?” The armored young woman asked.

Her eyes directly stared into Dawn’s.

“Totally.” Was the instant answer.

Elissa’s smile blossomed. “If I told you to elope with me, would you do it?”

Dawn froze as the word ‘elope’ rang in her mind, she asked herself if her girlfriend didn’t misuse it.

The asian girl looked at the verdant eyed beauty. “Elissa?”

Elissa sighed and put her girlfriend on the bed and sat at her side. “Dawn, I’ve learned that my life has been a lie. That my mother isn’t my real one, that she has lied to me and manipulated me.”

Dawn looked stunned and not knowing what to say just holding onto her girlfriend’s arm to support her. Elissa sobbed, letting go of the lid she had kept on her feelings. She let herself become vulnerable to her first love and the young woman who without question accepted her.

The asian girl held her girlfriend and stayed like this with her for another ten minutes. After that, Elissa retook control of herself, wiping away her tears; her momentary weakness was as if it was a brief mirage.

As she looked at a worried Dawn she decided to tell the truth to Dawn. “I am building my own home now, and I want you to come with me, as I don’t plan to return to Earth, ever.”

Dawn panicked, but she stayed stoic at the news. “Elissa… are you sure?”

The young woman just smiled at Dawn, nodded and said, “Dawn, come with me please? I love you, I cannot live without you.”

Dawn had already made her decision, she was going with Elissa. But something else was nagging at her and she decided to ask. “What about your sister? You love her.”

There was no way Elissa was going to give up on her sister. It seemed that there was nothing to fear as Elissa put a hand on Dawn’s shoulder to reassure her, “I already took her, she’s waiting on my Skyship.”

“A sky…” With eyes wide open, Dawn looked at her girlfriend. “Really?”

Skyships were great ships capable of moving from planet to planet. A way to travel to the higher planes and the Yggdrasil, at least that was what she learned from the sanctum books.

“Come with me, please?” Elissa pleaded, her eyes were begging the asian girl.

Dawn didn’t care about school, she loved Elissa so much that it didn’t matter to her that she was maybe ruining her academic future. Knowing Elissa like she did, she wouldn’t be surprised that she conquered somewhere and became Queen or something, she trusted her girlfriend to provide for them. Seeing the mithril armor that she wore, Dawn had no doubt that Elissa was rich and able to support them.

“Ok, I-I will come.” Dawn said.

Elissa beamed and then kissed her, a kiss full of need, passion and love; so much so that it curled Dawn’s toes as she gave into it. 

[Your Grace, I must remind you about not taking too much time.] ZHAER reminded Elissa through the neural network.

Elissa froze at the interruption. Dawn looked put out by the obvious pause in their heavy makeout session. “What’s wrong, honey?”

Elissa swiftly rose from the bed and said, “We must be faster, the longer I am in the Pocket dimension, the higher the risk of Malicia finding me and keeping me here.”

Dawn felt the urgency of the situation suddenly. “Right, ok I’m going to take every-”

Elissa shook her head and looked around the bedroom. “Don’t bother, I’m going to put everything you own in my spatial ring. I must do the same for Tabitha and my things.”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Dawn said.

They began to systematically store everything in Elissa’s spatial ring, it took twenty minutes to empty the bedroom. Then Elissa proceeded to do the same for her and Tabitha’s room. She didn’t do it for Sarah as she weighed the pros and cons to bring her with them.

She couldn’t do that to Doctor Jordan, take her daughter away after she just discovered her center and was more happy than anything. But today she was taking everything she owned, her familiars, her sister, her girlfriend and vehicles. It dawned on Elissa that she needed artefacts and books from the Sanctum to start her Queendom, she couldn’t not know about some things from Phantasia.

*I am still a student of Magic, I will steal everything I can on the magic of my homeworld and the Magitek too, the Sanctum is the repository of all the knowledge of my Goddess.* She thought.

“Everything is here, Elissa. Shall we leave now?” Dawn had taken the time to change into a light-armored bodysuit with an enchanted black cloak with silver trim at the hem.

“You look so badass.” Elissa said as she suddenly felt aroused.

Dawn shyly twirled on herself. “Yes, I know. I had it made this summer.”

“I’m so totally going to fuck you when we get married.” Elissa said.

But she avoided saying how she was going to share the bed with Dicinna. Elissa was aware that she was doing something bad, but she wanted to bring Dawn to Hekate to let the Goddess explain what was really going on.

“Already? When?” Dawn was feeling nervous, this was a big commitment and they were barely sixteen years old.

Elissa walked up to her future wife. “I’m going to put a ring on your finger, yes.”

They hugged, and huskily Dawn said, “Ok.”

Their lips touched, their tongues dueled and their love for each other cemented. After two minutes they came out for air and Dawn said,  “Let’s leave.”

 

---

 

Weatherlight, Captain’s Cabin
08:35 AM

Cassandra had just finished summoning her familiar, Lady Christine; the cat looked around herself and found herself surrounded by two pseudodragons and fearfully made herself as big as possible by arching her back and raising her tail. To Cassandra, the black pseudodragon didn’t seem impressed at all and completely ignored the white furred feline.

The white one continued to sleep on its plush blue cushion at Elissa’s feet. Cassandra thought that those two dragons were dangerous, so she crouched and took Lady Christine in her arms and stroked her fur.

Cassandra and Elissa were in the captain’s cabin, the walls surrounding them were white and black strangely looking like laminate panels. A skylight that could be covered by asking ZHAER was on the ceiling, permitting them to see the blue sky. There was a bed as soft as an Yggdrasil leaf, a bathroom with a toilet and shower located in a linked compartment; a study with a desk and shelves were right by the bed. Near the wardrobe there was a weapon cabinet where the captain could store his weapons.

Elissa had already used it to store all the weapons she had stolen or won throughout her fights on Svartalfheim.

“Eli, since when did you get two new familiars?” Cassandra asked.

The little girl didn’t think her sister would waste two slots for two little useless creatures. Cassandra’s instincts told her that those two pseudodragons were scary, they may have a scarier giant form.

“I met them on my new planet and made them mine, they were wounded by bad elves and I had to bring them back to health and since then we have been together.” Elissa said as she continued to trace her glowing finger in the air.

Cassandra didn’t like that. “What about Crowy, Ravi and Chun-Li?”

All those changes and her sister was acting different; through her mage vision the little girl knew it wasn’t an imposter but really Elissa, though she was taller and more beautiful. She was also more powerful, almost to the level of their mother.

Elissa huffed at Cassandra’s line of questioning, she was busy tracing a summoning array with her mana into the air. It was a magical circle with Norse runes and Phantasian scripts. “I’m going to get them, right now.”

“Ah okay.” Cassandra said as she beamed at that.

Elissa looked at her annoyance. “Let me work, Cassie.”

“Sure, sis.” The little girl went to sit on Elissa’s bed, put Lady Christine at her side and watched her sister work.

What Cassandra didn’t know was that Elissa counted her friend Tabitha as her familiar too. Something she counted to fix when she got ahold of her, the catgirl didn’t need to be enslaved to her will. She hated that moment when Malicia had forced her into enslaving her own friend, at the time it had seemed like a good compromise to letting her friend go back on the streets.

Elissa was finally done with the magical circle, Gram appeared in her hand and she focused her magic into her spell and used her sword as a focus to amplify it.

“Call Familiars.” Elissa whispered.

Gram’s blade flashed blue with light. Immediately, four silhouettes appeared before Elissa; they had different forms and mass. A humanoid one, two bird-like ones and a quadruped one. Elissa was pleased to see that the spell was working.

The summoning was completed as the transferred beings appeared in full view. The catgirl, Tabitha only wore a skirt with a cloth wrap covering her perky breasts; Crowy and Ravi opened their wings wide and looked at Elissa, then quickly flew onto her pauldrons, recognizing their mistress. Chun-Li, the Shiba Inu simply tried to tackle her mommy, fortunately Elissa caught her and let her dog lick her profusely.

As for Tabitha, she stood unmoving as she watched the platinum blonde before her. She sniffed the air and a familiar smell layered with draconic and a je ne sais quoi laced in it. The catgirl didn’t know at the time that she was picking up on the smell of divinity.

“Elissa?” Tabitha asked tentatively.

Elissa beamed a smile at the catgirl and shouted before letting go of her dog and glomping her friend. “Tabs!”

She sniffed Elissa’s hair, then put her arms around her friend. “It’s really you? Hmm, you smell different… but there’s this fresh smell of snow under the sunlight undertone I could recognize anywhere.”

Elissa chuckled at that, Tabitha was a special friend; she was half instinct and half intelligence. “I didn’t know you were this intimate with my… body odor.”

The catgirl rolled her eyes and let go of Elissa to flip her long red hair behind her. “I am half cat, what did you expect?”

The young Queen looked more attentively at Tabitha, she was the same height as her, her feline green eyes had more yellow in them; her musculature had become more toned and obvious and her long red hair reach her backside, her tail was bushier than before. She was as beautiful as before, but looked less soft, Tabitha was sharp like a predator who spent most of her life surviving the wild.

“Damn, Tabs I missed you.” Elissa came to hug her friend again.

Tabitha held tighter to her best friend. “It’s been two years for me. I missed you too.”

They let go of each other again, Tabitha looked around the cabin and said, “We are not in the portal room.”

Tabitha’s senses told her they were not firmly on the ground, the ground was subtly shifting and she could hear the thrum of some kind of engine.

A sad smile appeared on Elissa’s face. “You noticed, you are on my skyship the Weatherlight, we are flying over the Pocket Dimension.”

Just by listening to Elissa’s tone, Tabitha knew that something had happened to her and felt her distress. Taking her friend’s hand, the catgirl asked, “Is there something wrong?”

For a moment, Elissa let go of her facade. She took Tabitha’s clawed hand in hers. “Oh, Tabs there’s so much going on right now. I need to catch you up on the happenings of the last three months.”

The catgirl slowly blinked at Elissa’s sad tone with high and erect ears. “Sure, but first I need clothes.”

She didn’t know what had happened but she would be there for her friend. But first she wanted to put clothes on and take a well deserved bath with soap and hair care products. Cats were selfish and self-centered, but her human intellect made it so that Tabitha took care of and protected the people that made her life easier.

Elissa was basically a sister to her at this point. Tabitha stretched herself, voluntarily exposing herself, showing Elissa that she didn’t feel threatened and was at ease with her.

“Don’t worry I took your things from the tower and placed them in your new personal cabin.” Elissa said.

But the young Queen doubted that anything Tabitha owned would be her size anymore, just like herself, the catgirl had changed physically. More a woman than a girl now. Elissa’s announcement about her having stored her things somewhere else than their dorm tower took Tabitha aback.

Tabitha’s ears and tails were erect in alert. “Elissa? Why…”

Elissa waved her off and took one of her hand and was about to leave. “I will tell you everything while we are moving.”

Cough. “Eli you forgot all about me.” Cassandra interrupted.

“The little one is here too?” Tabitha asked Elissa as she watched the little redhead pout shamelessly.

Elissa sighed. “Cassie come with us okay?”

Happily, Cassandra left her sister’s bed and jumped on Elissa’s back. “Kay.”

 

---

 

Pocket Dimension
Sanctum
12:02 AM

Elissa stood at the entrance to the sanctum, she recalled how much time she spent in the library and the sort of gallery they had where artefacts from her homeworld were displayed. The cavernous space was now less in her eyes than before, through her enhanced mage sight Elissa could see the magical stairs made of solidified mana and mana elevators as if they were a normal part of the construction.

Her mage sight constantly On, Elissa didn’t feel any loss of stamina; it meant that she had mastered the spell and the expenditure had become rather negligible. She walked without fear toward the precipice and placed her feet onto the solidified mana steps one after another until she reached the spirit librarian. She was at an ivory desk, reading a book about the baroque era of Phantasia.

Elissa waved at her, she nodded. She wouldn’t if she knew what she was about to do. *This is a raid.*

It took her five minutes to navigate toward the floor dedicated to the central memory crystal that organized the entire sanctum. The gates recognizing her opened wide;  It was a circular room with artistically carved silver walls. A ten meters diamond shaped crystal was at the center of the room on a silver pedestal.

Elissa smiled, raised a gauntleted hand and sent a golden ray of pure mana at  the crystal; now connected to the heart of the Sanctum, the young girl asked the intelligence to bring her grimoires of sorcery.

{Access Denied.} A feminine voice told her.

“I see, nothing is that simple. Are you sure that you want to deny me, Sanctum?”

{You are not the administrator.}

“Very well.” Elissa said as she took her Dragontooth dagger, took off her right gauntlet and nicked her index finger and splashed the diamond crystal.

As the blood ran down the crystal, it began to glow gold and to be absorbed into the crystal. The crystalline formation glowed blue and a hologram in the form of a hand shone.

Elissa smiled, placed her hand on the solid mana-hologram and said, “Override, I am Elissa Shaera Snow Phantasia. Heir to the Phantasian throne.”

{Please, give me the passcode.}

“Hekate guide us. Hekate teach us. Hekate protects us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours.” She said in Phantasian.

{Passcode Accepted. How can I serve your Imperial Highness?}

Elissa grinned triumphantly as she felt a connection with the intelligence inside the crystal. “I want the knowledge and magic that could help me setup a Phantasian colony on a suitable planet; Could you also assemble every magic tome and grimoire from beginner to master sorcerer and mage for starting an imperial library?”

She had now the level of access only an administrator could enjoy, before she was just a user.

{Processing…}

Elissa didn’t see any books appear magically at her feet, and told herself that maybe there was a problem. But what happened next assuaged her fears. {Request Granted. A shard of the Sanctum will be granted to you, your Imperial Highness.}

“What will it do?” Elissa asked, frowning.

{It will link you to this unit, thankfully, distance does not matter.} It felt almost sarcastic, but Elissa thought that this intelligence was clearly beyond such things.

*It’s even better! No need to steal any books! I will have a direct connection to the repository now.* Elissa gushed.

A drawer under the pedestal holding the crystal in place, inside there was a silver leaf armlet with a blue crystal set beautifully. Elissa picked it up with her naked left hand and gazed at it, the accessory melted in her palm and fused with her skin until it snaked onto her arm and settled on it; Elissa felt a brief burn.

“What?” She screamed. But the pain faded instantly.

{Bonding Process complete. You are now linked to Sanctum.} Said the intelligence, satisfied.

Elissa shrugged. “Well, ok.”

Before her eyes, solid holographic window using her own mana scrolled up and down as Sanctum tested their connection. Thanks to her Ancient Human physiology, Elissa could read everything happening. Now she understood why Malicia was so powerful, she had a linked grimoire with her all the time. *Ok, maybe it’s one of the reasons.*

{Is there anything else I can do for you?} Sanctum seemed happy to serve.

Elissa thought quickly about something, then an idea hit her. “Yes, Sanctum. Can you bring me all the artefacts that aren’t cursed and could be useful to me in defending my colony?”

{Weapons, Healing Chamber, Protective devices…}

A holographic screen made of solid mada appeared before Elissa and information scrolled down. Elissa followed everything with her eyes and smiled, *yes I can use everything the intelligence is showing me.*

“Bring all of them to me, Sanctum. You and me are going to have a long and fruitful relationship.” Elissa smirked.

Special containers appeared at Elissa’s feet, some of them made from Mithril or precious wood; Some were too big and Elissa had to keep putting them in her spatial ring. It continued for over one hour before Sanctum was finally done with the task Elissa had given her.

“Finally. I am ready to build my Queendom.” Elissa whispered. There was one of the weapons that interested her particularly. An elemental whip enchanted to be indestructible and to inflict pain.

The young Queen was about to give another order to Sanctum when she was interrupted.

{Your Imperial Highness?}

“Yes, Sanctum?” Elissa said as she was arranging the gear and equipment in her spatial ring.

{Look behind you.}

Elissa was finally aware that someone was behind her, the dark magic and demonic aura told her who it was. The young Queen turned slowly to find her adoptive mother before her.

“Daphne?” Malicia called out to her.

For the first time Elissa saw weakness in her adoptive mother’s eyes, longing and and tears. Elissa said nothing as Malicia lunged at her and hugged her. She didn’t dare move and let the Dae make her own assumptions.

 

---

 

Sanctum
Portal Room

Malicia stood unmoving before the tear in reality waiting for her girl to come back to them, she hoped that she hadn’t changed too much. Three months in an environment rich in cosmic energy should have done her good.

The Dae remembered the first days of her little girl as she had toddled after her trying to mimic her as she had thrown spell after spell in the elemental chamber to train herself. Or the way she had absorbed everything she had been taught at great speed; Malicia had had to turn her interests to Alchemy to not let her gain in power too much. Everything that she had done, she had had to slow her down as Malicia had wished for her to have a normal childhood.

When Cassandra had been born, Elissa’s interest in magic and alchemy had become secondary as she had decided to become a good older sister and to not burden Malicia as she provided for them. Elissa was her daughter in all the ways that counted but blood, but she still had her destiny to fulfill. It hurt Malicia to throw her little girl to the tides of fate like this but after sixteen years and time being their enemy, the sorceress had caved; and decided to let one of her little treasures grow as she was meant to.

Malicia had decided to send her to a planet with the correct environment where she could thrive but still be sharpened into the warrior that she knew someone of the Snow Bloodline could become.

*Elissa is so powerful, she has the potential to surpass Daphne or the Dread Empress Ersha. I taught her everything I knew, politics, the art of trading, how to wage war and win. She was a sponge and learned everything I had to offer, I can’t believe Daphne wanted her to become a mere… Healer.* Malicia chuckled at that.

Malicia looked at the time on her Augmented Reality HUD, it was midday and Elissa wasn’t there yet. The Dae tapped her foot on the floor paneling in annoyance. She had a meeting with Tesla concerning his Magitek technology that could help protect their assets and school. Already the Corvinus Council was snooping everywhere as they took in more and more people in her territory.

All those downtrodden and people they didn’t want to associate with, she took them in; sheltered them, fed them and taught them the wonders of the science of magic. The Pocket dimension had to be enlarged thrice. 

*Mayhap it is time to create another.* Malicia told herself.

There was a location she coveted, one with a Major Nexus, it was in the same state the pocket dimension was in. Unfortunately, it was already occupied by a mage family. One of the seven biggest pure bloods in the Americas. The Cornwalls.

*Not for long. I will give them a choice, to leave or die.* Malicia licked her lips.

With her already well trained mages and warrior army she planned to take them out, she wanted to do everything by the book. Send them a warning that she coveted their land and Nexus, send a warning to the Corvinus Council to not butt in and ask the Dragon Ruler Runeflow to cover up the fight with a force barrier enchanted for silence.

Malicia had always wanted to pick a fight with the Corvinus council, those pesky primitives had wanted to force their rules on her; her, a Queen of the Faerie Dells! Immortals had long memories, past slights and new ones would be paid in blood.

As the Dae schemed while waiting for her daughter, she was alerted by the security she put on some artefacts and equipment she had fabricated within the Sanctum’s workshop. Malicia was already in movement when she located where everything was being transported. She teleported in a hurry when she discovered that it was in the heart of the Sanctum.

She was about to fire an eldritch bolt at the intruder when she stopped cold as she recognized this silhouette, this back and that particular shade of platinum blonde hair. It was a woman in white and silver armor, she moved with grace as she made all the box appearing before her disappear into a spatial storage device.

All of a sudden the intruder froze, and turned toward Malicia. Oh so slowly she did and Malicia’s mind went blank as this familiar face elicited diverse emotions in herself. “Daphne?”

Malicia dashed to the blonde and hugged her as tightly as she could, they stayed like this for another minutes and the demoness tried to ascertain that she was not hallucinating and let go to see her even more closely and put her hand on her face.

“Daphne!” She called out, those were the same face, the same eyes; she was about to kiss her when she was stopped by the object of her longing.

Elissa pushed Malicia away from her and said, “I am sorry mom, but I am not Daphne.”

It was like a slap to the face, hearing Elissa’s voice coming from this clone of her lover.

Now that she had come to her senses again, Malicia saw the clear differences between Daphne and Elissa, their magic signatures were similar but different. Their armors were completely different, Elissa’s was of elven make while the Daphne’s was a magitek one.

“E-Elissa?” Malicia said as she stepped back from her returned daughter.

Malicia didn’t know what to think, the portal to Svartalfheim wasn’t even disturbed, and she had waited before it for three days. “You-what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be coming through the portal? How are you here?!”

Elissa tilted her head, put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Isn’t it obvious? I am taking my birthright.”

Elissa had taken everything she could from the Sanctum’s store, now she was ready to build her Queendom with the portable workshop and other equipment Sanctum had provided her.

To rub salt in the wound Elissa added. “I’ve come back through my own means, why should I trust anything coming from a liar like you?”

It was as if Elissa had punched her, her words and her expression full of anger and contempt for her. Then she understood, she understood why her darling daughter was acting this way and the fact that she had come back changed as if she was another person...

“You know.” Malicia said matter-of-factly.

Elissa nodded emotionlessly. “Yes, I know who I truly am.”

Heir of the Snow Phantasia bloodline, Imperial Princess of a defeated Empire, child of prophecy, Demigoddess; but also Malicia’s daughter, Cassandra’s elder sister. She was a myriad of things to other people close to her.

Malicia composed herself, sadness etched in her eyes. She wanted to hug her daughter and plead for forgiveness but her Dae upbringing and her pride made her say, “I won’t-I won’t apologize for what I’ve done, everything that I did it was for you.”

The sorceress waited as Elissa stared at her with cold eyes, her pale face not letting Malicia divine at the emotions brewing through her daughter. It was surprising to Malicia; before, she could read her like a book, thanks to her demonic bloodline and empathy ability. However, she felt nothing coming from Elissa.

Elissa finally opened her mouth, her eyes peering at Malicia. “I know. However, you kept me weak and starved, lied to me by omission.”

Malicia looked down, not able to look at those verdant eyes drilling into hers with anger. This was the first time that such a thing happened between them, this role reversal. Usually it was Malicia who had the power in the room. They stayed like this for another minute before Elissa dropped another bomb. “I spoke to Mother Daphne.”

Malicia quickly lifted her head and looked at Elissa and said, “What?! When?!”

Elissa crossed her arms under her breastplate. “In the Dreamscape, she was so beautiful; I could literally feel all the love she had for me. And mom, she’s angry with you.”

“No.” Malicia said pitifully as she closed her eyes.

Daphne was surely angry at her, because Elissa didn’t even know who she was, what her position was. It had been a matter of time, and Malicia should have told her everything before sending her for training. In fact she should have gone with her to Svartalfheim.

“Yes.” Elissa said.

Silence stretched again, the two Queens stared at each other. This was strange, Malicia waited for Elissa to lashing out at her, or send magical curses or try to beat her; but none of those things happened. Her current actions also told her that she wasn’t here for long that she would cut her out of her life. After all, she was stealing things from the Sanctum.

“I intend to go free her when I am ready.” Elissa said as she walked up to Malicia.

The sorceress nodded, she would be punished and expected Daphne to not be lenient. “I will come with you, I will deliver myself at her feet.”

Elissa shrugged. “Sure you will.” Then she looked at Malicia from head to toe and continued to say with a sneer on her face, “But I don’t trust a liar like you at my side.”

Malicia closed her eyes, tears falling them. “Elissa? I just… I wanted to give you a childhood free from worry.”

It was part of a plea and a recognition of her faults and bad decisions. Malicia walked up to her and tried to hug her but Elissa teleported to the entrance.

With resentment Elissa turned to her adoptive mother. “I saw mom’s memory of your meeting, how Queen Mab your mother was forced to leave you at the tender mercies of the Phantasian court, how you met mother Daphne.”

Shaking with rage, Elissa continued. “I understand why you did it, why you kept me ignorant. I know you were afraid for me and a bit for Cassandra. But again, truth be told you wasted my time, precious time that could have been used for me to get stronger than I am today!!”

“Mother Daphne is fighting for her life at all times through the Ruler’s Sleep! She’s attacked day and night!” Elissa’s magical aura flared, filling the room.

Malicia was swiftly pushed back by the violent surge of magical energy, she was really astonished by Elissa’s growth. However, this wasn’t enough to keep her pinned down; Malicia unleashed her own magical energy. The two forces collided, creating a shockwave. The Sanctum’s heart manifested a force field to protect itself.

Elissa calmed herself down, her aura finally settling; her adoptive mother doing the same as she saw Elissa sighing heavily and let go.

“Mom.” Elissa said.

Malicia walked up to her daughter and was about to touch her when a wind wall knocked her back against the pedestal shrouded in a force-field. “Elissa, please we can speak and…”

The young Queen shook her head. A stubborn glint appeared in Malicia’s eyes as she realized that Elissa wouldn’t be swayed by words.

“I'm always gonna love you, no matter what.” Elissa said as she looked with emotion at Malicia who shut up at that. She loved Elissa too, sixteen years of taking care of the daughter of her soulmate couldn’t just be shoved to the side like this after all.

Though, Elissa wasn’t done speaking. “No matter what happens. You're my mom and I’ll always consider you my blood. You're one of the best things in my life. But, until you stop being such a manipulative bitch, you ain't gonna have me in yours.”

Elissa teleported out of the Sanctum’s heart with crack of electricity. Malicia recognized the spell it was Dimension Door, something she had never taught Elissa. Frantically, Malicia teleported to the Sanctum’s entrance, knowing that her daughter was going to go through there. She was right, as just as she appeared she saw the platinum blonde pass through the portal entrance.

“Elissa!”

The sorceress ran and entered the space maelstrom and exited into the garden of the Von Braun Manor; looking around her she saw no one, then she looked at the sky and saw someone flying. It was Elissa, she had big blue wings; Malicia was bewildered by them, but not for long.

Manifesting her own black wings she began to chase Elissa. She rapidly gained on her winged daughter but Elissa saw her and went faster; frowning, Malicia raised her speed and prepared a force spell bubble to stop her from going any further.

Launching the spell, Malicia was surprised to see that her daughter deflected it with a wing, she then saw her summon her Godly Sword and point it at her and a beam of golden lightning zapped toward her. Banking right, Malicia avoided it and launched another force bubble. Suddenly, the sky became cloudy and Elissa stopped running away and hovered in the sky.

Malicia stopped, doing the same. “Elissa we can talk it over, please don’t leave!”

Elissa’s verdant gaze blazed, glowing with power. “You should just let me go!”

Malicia didn’t even have to think about it, letting go of her first treasure? “NEVER!!”

Elissa shook her head, made her sword twirl in her right hand and made her Dragontooth of Lareth appear in her free hand. “Tssk, a fight it will be, then.”

Malicia had felt the full power of her daughter earlier and she knew that she was powerful now, but not enough to threaten her or even triumph over her. “You’ll lose and I am going to put you under house arrest!”

Elissa snorted at that. “You still think that this is teenage rebellion? I will show you.”

The cloudy sky darkened even further, the wind picked up and it began to rain torrentially; Malicia didn’t expect such powerful Storm magic from her daughter.

“Lightning Bullet.” The space between Malicia and Elissa filled with soccer ball sized lightning spheres.

Malicia put herself in a defensive stance and conjured a magical force-field around herself just as the spheres turned into beams of light and came crashing down at many times the speed of sound against her defense. She gritted her teeth and endured the assault; someone less powerful would have already been turned into cinder by such a spell.

In a sense, Elissa respected her power, knowing that it would take this much even to slow her down.

“Ice Bullet.” Malicia heard Elissa chant.

The assault wasn’t done yet, the lightning spheres were still striking at her shield but that wasn’t all, rays of frost assailed her too. As her shield was being covered in ice, Malicia saw Elissa smile tauntingly at her and beat her wings to leave the scene.

*No! You won’t leave me!* Malicia cried out in her heart.

She unleashed her magical aura and it was so dense that she erased the spells left there to attack her. Elissa turned and saw it happen, with astonishment in her eyes. Malicia beat her wings and entered into pursuit again to follow her.

“Stop!” Malicia shouted at the fleeing Elissa.

“Freezing sphere!” Elissa shouted, and two spheres of ice zipped toward Malicia.

“Black Fire!” Malicia chanted and then a bolt of black fire launched from Malicia’s hand and engulfed the two spheres.

Yet again it was erased, they arrived at the entrance of the pocket dimension; Elissa landed at the side of Dawn, Cassandra and a dark elf that Malicia didn’t know.

“Quick, flee to the ship! I am going to stall her!” Malicia heard Elissa say.

The dark elf snapped her fingers and a red portal opened, it was the size of a Torii in diameter. Malicia landed and faced Elissa who placed herself between her and the portal. Cassandra looked at the two of them, lost in what she should be doing. Dawn was the first to pass through the red portal.

“Cassandra you stay right there!” Malicia commanded.

“Sorry, mommy. Elissa promised to show me her new Queendom and… you lied to her, that’s bad.” Cassandra waved and passed the red portal.

“NO!” She launched herself toward the spatial tear but was stopped by Elissa who lunged at her and kicked her to the side.

Malicia teleported into the air and bled the momentum of the impact, then tried to bypass Elissa to enter the portal. However, it wasn’t meant to be as a hand caught one of Malicia’s legs and slammed her on the ground.

“Argh.” The impact created a little crater.

Elissa took no pleasure in doing that to Malicia. “Sorry, mom.”

Malicia’s eyes glowed with full force. “You…”

Malicia’s reason and concern for Elissa went out of the window, seeing Cassandra leave as well broke her heart. As Elissa held onto her adoptive mother, a black and yellow-green aura surrounded her. Elissa felt as if  she was burned and let go.

Malicia stood upright suddenly as if gravity had no hold on her. “Delay me, huh?”

“Yes.” Elissa nodded.

“I see, I’m going to beat you within an inch of your life, Elissa. Then I will take care of that Dawn hussy and that dark elf; and get your sister back.” Malicia’s aura flared.

Elissa did the same, Gram boosted her power but it wasn’t enough. Malicia’s full power dwarfed hers and she literally covered the sky with her magical energy. The platinum blonde was pushed back as Malicia strode predatorily toward her; in her hands each of her Ebolythe swords appeared, crackling with darkness and purple lightning arcs.

“Flame blade.” Elissa said as she held onto Lareth that gained a flaming blade the same size as Gram’s.

The two women then lunged at each other, blades clashing; Elissa found herself kicked with surprising force to the side and impacted the white fence separating the road from the woods, destroying it. In their surroundings countless Fae creatures began to evacuate as they felt the powerful shockwaves of power colliding. Elissa rolled with the impact and when she lifted her head she saw no one before her; her instincts told her to duck to the side.

Malicia was behind her, about to stab her in the back; the young Queen dodged. But felt when a curse applied itself on her, it was destined to slow her down. Gram erased it. Elissa chanted and buffed herself with Wind Step and dashed to Malicia and blasted her with a Lightning Bolt.

With a pillar of black fire, Malicia neutralized the elemental attack and teleported again, with a roundhouse kick to Elissa’s face, the sorceress sent her sliding against a tree. Malicia conjured a veritable sea of black fire bolts and launched them at Elissa. The young woman planted her sword in the ground and a bright blue light surrounded her.

Elissa put everything she had in what she was about to do, a gigantic pillar of blue light instantly expanded from her sword and destroyed the land as if it ate through it, ravaging the woods and ground as it created a crater around the epicenter. Malicia got caught in it and disappeared from view.

It lasted for thirty seconds, the pillar was so tall and bright that everyone in the pocket dimension saw it. They could feel its power as if it was just before them. Students, teachers, staff and inhabitants stopped what they were doing as they felt the aftershocks of the fight.

Malicia walked unperturbed through the destructive blue energy toward its epicenter, surrounded by a sheet of dark power not even scratched. Elissa looked in astonishment and fear as she saw Malicia advance toward, black and green aura about to be unleashed; as she waved her hand the same thing happened, a black pillar expanded from her body and ate through Elissa’s. When it reached the young Queen, she found herself burning and holding on so as to not be sent flying.

Her strength failed her as Malicia overpowered her, the young woman let go of Gram and was sent careening into the nearest tree trunk that broke on impact. Elissa slid to a stop one hundred meters further away. The sorceress teleported to her and slammed a heeled boot onto Elissa’s face.

“You have disappointed me, Elissa. Is this that meager power that gave you the temerity to try to fight me?”

Elissa caught her adoptive mother’s leg below the knee, forced herself to look at her even with her boot on her face and said, “It was all a decoy.”

And then Malicia felt Elissa’s mana insert itself into her body and weaving itself into a restraining curse. She cried out as if someone was pouring lava into her veins. Falling onto the ground, weak, Malicia writhed in pain.

She couldn’t believe it, Elissa cursed her? *It had been just a moment of inattention and how long had she been preparing this?*

Elissa stood up with difficulty and limped up to her adoptive mother. And sat at her side, they stayed in silence for five minutes as Malicia was still feeling the curse restraining her spiritual veins. For a being of magic such as Malicia this was painful, she couldn’t even move.

The young woman took her phone out and called Heracles. He answered the call on the first ring. “Darling! You are finally here!”

Elissa laughed throatilly. “Hello Dad, I am happy to hear you.”

“Are you ok? I hear you panting.” Heracles asked, there was concern in his tone.

Battling Malicia had taken everything from her, and again, her level of power wasn’t enough to even scratch her. Elissa won by guile and deceit in this all out fight.

Elissa breathed in, then breathed out. “Dad, I just had a fight with mom.”

There was some jangling from the other end and Heracles asked, “Wait, what for?!”

Chuckling Elissa said, “Dad, Heracles. I know you aren’t my real Dad.”

“Oh.” Silence.

Elissa didn’t begrudge him. But a lot of different feelings welled up inside her. The man kept treating her like his daughter, going through with Malicia’s plan because he was such a whipped man. 

Still, she said, “But it’s okay, I love you. It doesn’t matter, can I still be your little girl?”

“You know…” Heracles simply stated.

“Yes.” Elissa nodded.

Heracles sighed and decided to mediate. “Elissa, whatever Malicia did. It was for you, Achilles and I tried to force her to tell you but she wouldn’t listen…”

“It’s okay, I know how she is.”

“Elissa what happened? Is Malicia… okay?”

Elissa chuckled. “Yes, she is okay. We had a big fight, she won. But I put a curse on her, the same she used to deprive me of my magic.”

“Goddess! Elissa, that is torture for a Dae.” He said in a shocked tone.

Elissa nodded as she put her hand on her mom and diagnosed her. “I know.”

She was suffering, and her body was shaking as it didn’t receive all the mana that it needed for her supernatural bodily functions to work as they should.

Heracles wasn’t used to this cold and emotionless tone in Elissa’s voice. “You don’t… care?”

Malicia looked at her daughter, whimpering, she couldn’t believe that she had been bested in such a way. However, she was proud of her and at the same time angry of being neutralized this way.

Elissa sighed. “I do, but this is my vengeance. Come take care of her, I need to leave for Svartalfheim. Dad, I doubt we will see each other anymore, I just wanted to tell you that I love you but I also hate you. Goodbye.”

“Wait Eli! I-” He was about to say, but Elissa hung up.

Elissa stood up, and wiped the bottom of her armor. Malicia caught her left ankle, “Please don’t leave. I love you.”

The young woman pried her ankle from Malicia’s weakened grip, she stood over her adoptive mother and said, “I could kill you right now. It would take two spells and you would cease to exist.”

Malicia believed her, but she knew her daughter wouldn’t. As if to show how right she was, Elissa continued to speak.

“But you are my mom, so I will show you mercy. I am not in a good headspace right now, come seek me when you decide to stop being such a manipulative bitch, ok?” Elissa crouched and kissed Malicia on the forehead.

And then she disappeared in a crack of lightning.

“Elissa!” Malicia cried.

Her daughter was gone, Cassandra too. And now she realized how everything could have been handled, this was the price extracted for all her lies and deceit. Malicia sobbed as she asked herself if her adoptive progeny would forgive her one day. 

Rain continued to pour out of the sky. It was a really sad day as a family found itself shattered by lies and a prophecy.

---

A/N: As I am not a monster, I'm giving you this christmas gift of chapter 44. I am writing chapter 45 as we speak but it's a super long one so bear with me, you won't be seeing it till the tenth of January or so. So what did you think of the chapter? Comment and tell me about it!