While Elizabeth was desperately fighting to keep Alice in check, a dark fog appeared from the runic circle.

The skies were instantly covered with thick clouds of darkness, all the nearby shadows of buildings stretched infinitely as if to welcome something from the depths of the darkness.

The moment the last Hybrid Runes was carved into the ground, the black fog stabilized, and something from within stared at Zeel, then Alice and Elizabeth who now laid frozen on the ground.

Alice and Elizabeth felt that they could not move a finger, frozen and constrained by their very shadows like statues.

Only a delicate, pristine-white hand with black painted nails could be seen exiting the fog of darkness.

It was the most beautiful hand in the Universe if Elizabeth and Alice were the judges of it.

"Hehehe," A spooky voice laughed and echoed throughout the ghost town "The first time he summons me unconsciously and it is for a family squabble,"

The voice appeared young and held infinite appeal, slowly the shadows receded and the hand that exited the fog re-entered it once more.

Whisperings in the air died down, and the world seemed calm once more.

"If you continue to attack him, he really will die," The Shadow faintly whispered for Alice and Elizabeth to hear "I too know a little about wanting to kill those bathed in darkness, but restraint will not come from any flower given by that Apollonian.

Take some time away from him and strengthen your mind, after all, it is not your fault these impulses are uncontrollable. It is his fault for what he did to your mind,"

After finishing the lengthy statement, the Shadow Being disappeared entirely.

Zeel's body was flickering with red light as The Red Queen stopped supplying energy that kept the Shadow Being anchored to Zeel's runic circle.

If Zeel had given the command, the Shadow Being would have killed Alice and Elizabeth immediately.

Luckily, The Red Queen managed to induce a coma in his mind moments before the command was given.

It went against all her core values, and that caused a backlash to her Sentient core that would take years to recover.

Elizabeth was surprised and unexpectedly released Alice.

The moment she was released, Alice crawled to Zeel's location and began beating him fiercer than previously.

Tears slid down her face as she directed punch after punch at his disfigured face, but she could not resist with all the darkness encasing his soul.

The Red Queen knew that the situation was unrecoverable at this point, so she instantly teleported herself and Zeel's body to a hidden location away from Alice and Elizabeth.

At least for the next couple of years, The Red Queen could not allow Alice and Elizabeth to be alone with Zeel.

It would cause more backlash to her Sentient Core to the point of no recoverability.

The moment Zeel disappeared, Alice regained her clarity and stumbled over to Elizabeth's side.

"I think we should stop," Alice said after a while of silence.

"Today was just an accident, nothing more, nothing less. Just look at it for what it is," Elizabeth replied.

"You know that there are countless protocols in place for situations like these to not occur but we still fuck it up," Alice said in a stuttering voice.

"At least he cannot say that we are too weak. We held our own against Zeel Crawford. That has to count for something.

It was a couple squabble and no more. I think we do need a break until he forgives us," Elizabeth suggested but she truly meant to run away until Zeel calmed down.

Alice shook her head "I doubt he will even remember what happened here today. It was not entirely our fault, The Apollonian just did not think about the implications of her pranks.

She would likely keep him in Purgatory until his body and mind recover.

The Red Queen will probably erase all nanites traces of the battle. Zeel would not only punish us if this incident is discovered.

He would punish everyone involved, and that's why the Shadow Being did not move without his permission,"

"Isn't that good for us?" Elizabeth asked feeling her mind refreshed and all her burdens lessened.

The Mind Flower worked at the very least.

"A cost always needs to be paid. Doesn't matter if it is now or later," Alice answered but she was musing over the last statement of the Shadow Being.

It told her that her impulses were because of what Zeel did to her mind, what did Zeel do to her mind?

Alice was going to find out no matter what. In the end, she could only turn her attention away from suspecting Zeel for so long.

Elizabeth and Alice slumped together in a random direction, hoping to find a nice place to relax until they were contacted by The Red Queen about Zeel's whereabouts.

**

One Year Later

Alice and Elizabeth spent the next year anxious every moment of every day.

They did not hear from Zeel for the entire year and it slowly made them paranoid to the point of mental health issues.

The duo began to see human psychologists because they had too much time on their hands.

It was a new experience for both considering that they never thought of human solutions to their non-human problems.

Therapy helped a lot and they started to enjoy their time apart from Zeel and all the labors that came along with being married to him.

Two Years Later

At the beginning of the second year, The Red Queen contacted Alice and Elizabeth through their Mbeamers. It still worked even if their nanites were inert.

The Red Queen could only allow Alice or Elizabeth to visit Zeel at any particular time. This was the protocol in case another battle broke out.

Alice and Elizabeth would spend alternating months with Zeel, and each time the location would change.

It weighed heavily on their hearts how much Zeel did not trust them since he was the one to come up with the protocols.

In this moment of uncertainty, both girls started to find comfort in each other and therapy helped them to realize their self-worth.

Unknown to them, The Red Queen studied their behaviors closely and deemed their newfound freedom false.

Reading the psychological ques, The Red Queen was able to determine the psyche of Alice and Elizabeth were so fragile that should Zeel ever appear before them, they would lose all the progress they made thus far.

Three Years Later

The third-year was devoted to alternatingly spending time with Zeel and adjusting to the Divine Actualization Stage.

They would often answer prayers around this time and it caused a major blow to Elizabeth's psyche.

Luckily, Alice was more experienced and guided her through the process.

They would often talk about the things they loved about Zeel and kept watching projections of their adventures together throughout the nights.

This year, Alice answered the prayer of a particular child that sought to find her mother.

Alice and Elizabeth traveled the continent pretending to find the child's mother together.

They knew the child's mother had passed away just a couple of feet away from where they found the daughter.

Still, it gave them an excuse to uncover the world they had always neglected.

The child became infinitely closer to them and eventually, the child became a part of the newly formed family they now found themselves in.

Four Years Later

Traveling the world took up most of their time and visiting Zeel was not so important anymore.

The Red Queen finally started noticing permanent psyche changes within the girls.

Alice and Elizabeth renamed the child Zil, consciously, or unconsciously the child had become a way for them to transfer love from Zeel.

They did not talk about Zeel anymore, but every year Alice and Elizabeth would spend two entire days crying on the anniversary of Zeel's proposal to them both.

Zil would play a large part in comforting her mothers and became thirteen that year. She was a curious girl and always wondered about the man her mothers' pined over.

Unknown to Alice and Elizabeth, Zil saw their projections and kept a photo of the event to recognize her 'estranged adoptive father' when she saw him.

Zil knew that her mothers were weird people and eventually Alice and Elizabeth raised her like a kind of inheritor.

They began training her and then made basic genetic alterations to keep her healthy.

Elizabeth would often bathe the girl in rainbow light that created no significant changes.

Alle and Ella awakened during the year and spent the rest of the year crying.

They thought that their father –Zeel, would not love them because they attacked him.

They spent the time angry at Elizabeth and Alice who tried to coax them constantly. Alice and Elizabeth even neglected Zil a fair bit after that.

Zil was a smart child and did not complain, she was already fortunate to have such loving adoptive parents.

Five Years Later

Alice and Elizabeth visited Zeel one last time and left a note about how much they loved him and how they are changing for the better.

They vowed to come to him the moment he woke up and would follow him anywhere.

They left recordings of Alle, Ella, and Zil.

Alle and Ella could form pseudo-bodies in the form of constructs to interact with the world and had even come to visit Zeel a couple of times.

They spent a couple of months just sleeping by his side in the stasis pod.

Alice and Elizabeth were reluctant to stop visiting Zeel but The Red Queen had laid out an efficient plan to ensure that fights between the couples did not occur again.

Eventually, Alice and Elizabeth forgot about Zeel entirely, except for their anniversary where they would cry and comfort each other.

They knew that Zeel was probably awake and did not want to see them anymore.

Elizabeth had no connection to Zeel without Lorien and the nanites and Alice could feel the connection to Zeel slipping away every day.

Eventually, she would not be able to feel him at all through their psychic connection, and with the nanites gone. It was a scary feeling for both girls.

Luckily, Ella and Alle were intricately connected to Zeel and would update them a few times.

Eventually, Ella and Alle just kept the updates to themselves so as to not see Elizabeth and Alice cry.

Zil recommended both girls started to date guys once, and that was the first time that Elizabeth slapped Zil.

Alice did not stop Elizabeth since she was equally furious.

Zil was surprised but understood that she said something she should not have.

Just like that the years passed, and apart from the occasional crying, Zeel was all but forgotten.

The Red Queen did her best to keep Alice and Elizabeth as far away from Zeel as possible. She even succeeded in keeping Zeel away from the girls when he woke up.

All of this because she knew that Alice and Elizabeth would not survive the next Universe Zeel was about to visit.

No Being that had to do with Homo-Superior Aether would be simple.