Time…such a wonderful thing, it was thanks to Time that one could spend Time meaningfully, it was Time that allowed one to enjoy your date with your hot and lustful pink girlfriend… It was Time that allowed you to spend Time with your red-haired goddess of a girlfriend…

It was Time that allowed you to mature and grow old…or old enough to get past behind the pesky eighteen birthday. Without Time, you wouldn't be able to legally marry your girlfriends and start your adult life with two wonderful wives…

Without Time…what would be the meaning of spending time? You couldn't. Time works like that.

"Time doesn't work like that," Even if the blonde super genious tinkerer that made a new whole subset of skill users said otherwise, Elizabeth had spent the good part of a week trying to understand the [Time Gem] that Michael had left for her, and Amelia was the only one who had some understanding of Time.

Why Amelia? Well… Let's go in order shall we?

"I don't deal with that aspectual magic, I deal with Life, Soul and Mind," Was what Rossie, her cute, lovely and adorable girlfriend answered.

"I cut things, I may be able to cut Time…But I don't know how to manipulate, perceive it or do anything with it." Was the answer of her hot, smoking (Quite literally) sexy red-haired girlfriend said next, wasn't it adorable? She could cut Time even!

What? One couldn't cut an aspect of reality? Of course you can do it, if Rena says she can, then she can. That's how the world works. No use getting hung up on that, Rena was the Sword Saint after all.

"I don't understand Time as a magic or skill, and none of my [Echoes] ever went in that direction, as soon as one tries to do that, they always vanish from the reservoir, so I stay away from it, lest I lose most of my power." Jenna her blue-haired childhood friend said.

"Mistress, I am The Maiden of Space, not of Time. Space and Time may match in most works of fiction, but in reality it is very hard to master the two at the same Time, you can either teleport or manipulate Time. You need to focus in one to excell, I doubt you will ever be as good as me with the mindset you put yourself through," Was the answer of the rude purple-haired maid.

"I am with Mom in that one Mistress, you may have talent…But to be a master of Space…you would need to change your view of the world first…I assume the same will be for Time," Added from the side the priestess fox girl. Neither Sana or Aura had been helpful in this.

"....Time…..is…..not…..lineal…..it's…..a……wobbly…..bubbly…..ball……" Lily had answered…to some degree, but whatever she was saying didn't sound quite right, so Elizabeth moved on.

That meant that her only answer was Amelia…And the minions.

She didn't have many minions that specialized in Time quite yet. Perhaps Iroha? The Owl dealt with death, and what was Time but death?

No? Guess not, the owl girl didn't quite show around unless summoned specifically, as in…Elizabeth needed to actively summon her, unlike how the other minions came as soon as their name was called and Elizabeth poked at them for attention.

With the owl girl, she actually needed to pull at her to get attention, and Elizabeth got the impression that she wasn't pulling the main body but a projection, that was a very weird minion kind of hive mind thing.

But well, she was happy so long the owl girl was happy, wherever she was and whatever she was doing.

Now the only issue that Elizabeth had, was how to deal with Time?

"Do I really need to understand it though?" Elizabeth asked, she hadn't needed that much of an understanding with the other gems, she didn't need to dwell in Pride or Wrath, she didn't even ponder about Gluttony.

Perhaps she had some understanding about Greed and Sloth already?

"Yes," Amelia answered immediately. "You may have no idea of how dangerous what you are doing is, but I do. And what you have achieved can only be described as a series of lucky events, most would have been consumed by their Sins already, hell… Most of the ones that dwell in Space only focus in Space for a reasons."

"That is true," Aura said from the side, "I was told to focus only on space before when learning magic."

"I don't think I could even focus on other elements either, Space is already dangerous as is," Sana also nodded from the side, "Better to do this right."

How was it that everyone was on the same side for this only?

"Fine, but then this may take some time." Elizabeth sighed, the idea of understanding Time was new, Elizabeth didn't think she would need to worry about learning about the sins.

Envy seemed pretty self-explanatory, even if she wasn't a jealous type of girl, she was very chill. She was the chillest, totally not jealous at all, no sir. She was a mature kind of gall.

You acted like a normal reasonable human, you didn't get vaporized by dragon breath.

What was mature and reasonable human behaviour?

Simple, you didn't fantasize about her girlfriends, you didn't oogle her hot, cute, sexy, adorable, and beautiful girlfriends.

You acted like a mature member of society.

Simple right?

Elizabeth didn't see any problem with how she went about things. Did that make her someone who would bear Envy? Probably not.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

She didn't think so anyway, if anything she was closer to sloth....probably...maybe.

She wanted to think, but that wasn't the issue, not anymore, since she already had all the sin gems, if anything it was weird the fact that she had needed to materialize pride all by herself, everyone knew she wasn't a prideful kind of girl...

Okay she was, she had already learned about that she was prideful, no two ways about it. It wasn't something pretty, but it was part of who Elizabeth was.

Even if Elizabeth herself thought most of it came from Alexanders, but even if it was true, it wasn't something she could fix, not unless she reincarnated again...but she would not be doing that. And if she did, she doubted she would go about ti as how Alexanders went.

There was something about how the [Heroes] went about it that felt better, not that she was saying they did good, most of them were assholes from what she was seeing, and the very few with reedeming qualities was it because they were either cute, hot, pretty or her girlfriends.

Also Michael or something. That one was okay-ish, Elizabeth wouldn't have minded him becoming part of their friend group, she was also sure that Rossie and Rena would have warmed up to him at some point, even if they didn't seem to want to. Elizabeth knew that Rossie and Rena were good girls, so they would have ended up accepting. Even if they acted like they wouldn't.

"So long you get it right, take as much time as needed," Amelia said nodding, "After you get it right, you will have more time to make it up."

"How does Time magic even work?" Elizabeth asked, turning to Lily, Aura, and Amelia, she didn't turn to Jenna since that one was more skill-based as far as she had seen.

"Not like you think, you can't rewind or anything like that." Aura was the one to answer, "It just allows you to interface with Time, something closer to what Lady Jenna does."

Something closer to what Jenna did?

"But I don't dwell with Time..." Jenna answered, "My skill lets me peek at alternate realities and incarnate them here."

"Exactly," Amelia pointed out, "Alternated realities, what do you think creates them?"

"....Gods playing around?" Jenna asked, "Probably some [World] testing out other outcomes."

"Choices?" Elizabeth said after thinking for a few seconds, "Quantum entanglement was it? I feel like my [Knowledge] skill is screaming that at me anyway."

"How can a mere choice spawn a whole new reality?" Jenna scoffed at Elizabeth's answer.

"That is probably the closest we have to truth," Amelia said, nodding, "Some scientists do things like you, Elizabeth, choices are what spawn new realities. Some become more prominent than others, not all choices spawn a new reality."

Jenna turned to Aura and Sana at that point, "some help with the examples please?"

"Sure," Sana said snapping her fingers and materializing a line made from mana in front of Amelia.

"This line represents us here, our current reality," Amelia said, "Now if I flip a coin, going by the multiverse theory, two lines would spawn. One where the coin falls heads and one where the coin lands tails."

And as stated, the line divided in two, "Now this is a stupid way of seeing the theory if quantum realities, since it makes no sense for a new reality to be spawn by such a small difference, what probably happens is that there is some quantum entaglement where two realities overlap, and unless the second reality separates enough in action or weight, then it won't stabilize..."

The second line started fizzling up and ended up fusing back with the first.

"Now...if the difference is bigger though?" Amelia said pointing at Elizabeth, "Let's say for example, someone who can affect the whole world by their own existence decided to change how they went about something. For example...instead of collecting sins they picked out virtues?"

The line changed and rewound, it showed a picture of Elizabeth with the seven current Sin Gems at the top, and at the bottom, the second line showed her surrounded by seven glistening white-ish gems.

The top Elizabeth was wearing her Dragon Empress shift, while the bottom one was wearing a white dress...

"Aura," Elizabeth said to her ever loyal and annoying maid.

"Yes Mistress?" Aura answered at once, bowing slightly.

"Get me a dress like that one." Elizabeth said without turning to look at the maid, "Within the next week, if possible."

"As you wish," Aura said before disappearing.

"So, since in this example I picked up Virtues, my whole powerset changed, and since the effect I have in the world is bigger than a mere coin flip you say there is a reality where I wield Virtues instead of sins?" Elizabeth asked looking at the second picture, to be honest, Elizabeth couldn't imagine herself like that.

It wasn't Anathema to who she was, but she couldn't imagine herself stabilizing Rossie's lust without taking in said gem...Perhaps that Elizabeth would use the opposite Virtue and change Rossie's lust into Temperance?

...A Rossie who wasn't lustful? What would even be the point? Was that even Rossie? Would she even have pink hair?

Elizabeth didn't see the reason for doing it. Was it the healthy way of doing it? Maybe.

But as a wisened sage once said...

She can make me so much worse......

"Yeah," Amelia said nodding to Elizabeth, "This makes more sense, even if they are gods and entities of infathomable power, they can't waste mana or energy willy-nilly. So stabilizing these alternate realities makes more sense. Just like how there isn't an Echo of Jenna who prefers to put each sock and shoe first instead of putting both socks and then putting on both shoes. It makes no sense to create a whole new reality for something so simple."

"So if choices are what makes these...what does Time have to do with it?" Elizabeth asked next, they were supposedly talking about those right?

"Well, as far as I can tell, your new mastery over Time (If you achieve it) will allow you to perceive how those events will unfold, it will not be the gift of prophecy, but it will help. Also, you may be able to create time bubbles where time doesn't pass for you or those near you. We think that is what [The Traveler] did to allegedly teleport around." Amelia shrugged while showing a picture of Elizabeth with some weird bubble around her.

"So [The Traveler]...quite literally traveled around instead of teleporting?" Elizabeth asked dumbfounded, "That is the most stupid way to stick to a lie to hide their power."

"He...isn't a very bright man either," Amelia sighed, "Even if he looks smart, it is part of his heritage."

"His heritage?" Sana asked from the side as she dismissed all the projections she had been doing to help Amelia with her presentation.

"He is a Saintsworths, Arthur Saintsworths [The Traveler] and right now [The Man out of Time]," Amelia said sighing.

"Ah yeah, that explains it." Elizabeth also nodded, "I knew there was something off in that status screen I saw three years ago. But it was too buggy and I didn't know better at the time."

"You saw it three years ago?" Jenna asked surprised, "But [Advent]..."

"Ah right, you didn't know right?" Elizabeth said sheepishly, "My original skill that I got when I got to the school...It was [The System]."

"The system?" Jenna asked confused, "Wasn't it [Shadow Manipulation] and [Magick] what you got?"

"No, or well. Yes," Elizabeth scratched the back of her head, "How to explain it...I got a status screen with skills, Shadow Manipulation, Identify...some skills got added automatically. I could manipulate shadows since it was one of the skills I got from the start, but the main thing was the [System]."

"You got it...before anyone else?" Amelia said narrowing her eyes, "How?"

"Don't know what to tell you, ask [The World]." Elizabeth said shrugging, "As far as I can tell, the original plan was for me to spread it, since the second skill I got was [Proliferation]."

To demonstrate that, Elizabeth summoned a strand of her [Ravenous Shadow]. "This thing here...it has been powered down and is now more tame after being fused with [Greed]. But it is still dangerous...the first time I tried to use it to see what it did it almost killed me." And well, it also brought her closer to Rossie, so in a way, Elizabeth was thankful for it.

"...Please store that [Eldritch] abomination." Jenna said shuddering, she had stood and was in a combat position ready for anything.

"Will do." Elizabeth said storing it back, "So...If I need to go all study and what not...I will probably need more time to learn these new mana types right."

And god knows how much time she would waste on it, "So what are you all going to do."

"Well-" Rossie was about to speak when the sound suddenly got cut.

".....going.....to......a......training......arc...." Lily spoke first, "......you.....will.....do......too...."

"We will go and get them in form, as far as I can see Rossaline and Rena grew in power, but they aren't acclimating fast enough, their mana is a mess. And it is probably only in order because they are being helped by you." Jenna added nodding, "You will need to cut that."

"....I am not doing it in bad faith." Elizabeth said, she was aware that Rossie and Rena's levels were tied to her now, as she grew, they grew with her, "...And I don't know how much I can lose this."

"Do it all you can, but we are taking them with us." Jenna said, "Amelia is coming too."

"...I am?" Amelia asked surprised.

"You are taking Rena, Lily is taking Rossaline...And I am standing guard while Elizabeth experiments with [Time]." Jenna said sighing, "I am probably the only one that will survive if some of that quantum bullshit leaks out."

"....right....I do not want to be hit by quantum entanglement after escaping from a space node." Amelia said nodding, "Well...are you ready to learn about skills Sword girl?"

"....Will I be more helpful for Eli?" Jenna merely asked.

"Yeah, probably. I may not be a physical skill user, but I still know a trick or two," Amelia said nodding.

".....let's.....go......to.....train......your......mind....and......soul...." And with that Lily teleported away with Rossie in tow, the girl had been screaming speaking and moving around trying to say something, but at no moment had her voice managed to speak, not even the script she tried to do with magic had worked.

That was one interesting spell...or skill... With Lily one could never know for sure.

It was in that way that Rossie, Rena, Lily and Amelia teleported away, at some point Aura and Sana did too, leaving Elizabeth alone with Jenna.

"Let's move," Jenna said, "I know of a place where you can train in peace."

And like that, Elizabeth and Jenna also left the apartment. It wasn't a home, by any stretch of the word, but Elizabeth still felt homesick; she hadn't been able to stay in a spot for any length of time lately.

Perhaps when she got around fussing Time with Envy she could spend some quality time in a single spot?

But whatever it ended, as Lily said, it was time for a training montage.

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