
Elizabeth had poured her heart and soul into her cosmic
vessel, re-imagining the concept of a starship in a way
that was only possible due to magic. She'd wanted something
both fast and powerful, something luxurious at the same time
that it was useful. Above all, she had wanted to make sure that
as she stepped out into the great unknown, she would be kept
safe. She needn't have bothered. From what she could tell, she
could have explored the universe in an enchanted coracle
and been just fine. Instead, she had built an absolute marvel
of magical engineering that was way, way overspecced for the
job. Despite that, or maybe even because of it, she was quite
proud of her ship.

The main body of her ship was a pocket dimension ten times the
size of the one she had built under her house. The beating heart
of the magic that powered her ship was inside the pocket dimension,
and all the heavy duty enchantment was protected inside it. It
was connected to the material plane by a collection of pylons.
Differing in size and ability, the pylons were all crafted from
heavily enchanted steel.

Five were spheres the size of minivans meant purely to serve as
anchors. They were covered in defense and stealth enchantments.
One was at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, one was under miles
of rock in the Andes, and the other three had been scattered on
randomized trajectories in deep space.

Another twenty were much smaller spheres the size of softballs
with contained FTL movement enchantments that could efficiently
warp space to fly through the void. They were equipped with
stealth and sensory enchantments to make them well suited to
their roll as enforcer. She'd also made five pylons with similar
enchantments that additionally contained heavy duty offense
spell arrays, and two that were essentially spacefaring artillery
platforms capable of blasting enchanted 155mm shells across
light minutes.

She'd rounded out her fleet with two more pylons. One was a navel
piercing for herself and one was a tiny ring she had threaded
through the fabric of one of Fred's cups. All of the pylons could
serve as entry points for her for Fred to the main pocket dimension,
so these last two pylons served as emergency escape hatches, though
Elizabeth had quickly found that just being able to pop into her
house at any time was pretty useful, though at first the fact that
she needed to exit at a different pylon unless she left her piercing behind
could be annoying. She'd fixed the problem by making a dime sized
disk pylon she could drop before entering her pocket dimension.

After she had finished her ship, she had eagerly sent the starfaring
pylons forth, having them home in on any planets with magical signatures.
Shortly after leaving earth her probes had had to force their way
through some sort of spacial distortion. She would have been hard
pressed to deal with it if she didn't have so much raw power.
She had been excited at the time, thinking that it was a sign
of entering a higher level environment, but the disturbance
had soon calmed down and she had since come to realize
that Earth was just isolated in the eye of a spacial storm.
When her probes had finally arrived, what she had found
had been... disappointing. Most of the local arm of the galaxy
was even less advanced than Earth magically, and they were almost
uniformly technically primitive in comparison with her homeworld.
There were a few planets with some more advanced magic, but they
didn't rise far above Earth's level. Certainly not by enough to
bridge the gap between the other mages of Earth and Elizabeth.

The other thing that was strange about the local galaxy was that
the magic system employed seemed to be entirely different. It
was shared by most of the planets in the area, and seemed almost
entirely focused on combat magic. It had a great emphasis on
physical enhancement magic, and focused on closer range spells
that incorporated martial arts techniques in a blend
that Elizabeth was unused to. The practitioners in the
area had the same sort of mana cores that the mages of Earth
had, though they called their "spirit cores" and mana "spirit energy".
Rather than referring to different levels of cores as circles,
they called them "refinements," but it was pretty much the same thing.
Their system bore some resemblance to systems that had been prevalent
in Asia before the western standard system of magic came to predominate
on Earth.

After sending her probes to scout out the area for a while, Elizabeth
realized she would probably have to range further afield if she wanted
to find something that would really catch her interest. She was already
sending a few probes towards Andromeda and a few towards the galactic
core, but it would take them a while to make any headway. In the mean
time she figured it was time to step out into the local galaxy and
take in the sights. She might not be able to gain much magically speaking,
but she could at least take the chance to use it as a training opportunity
for Fred. He'd done an admirable job of mastering sensory magic, but
he had hit a bottleneck in his growth at the eighth circle, and she
wanted to get him to take on another field. Mastering new fields of
magic helped stabilize control over ones core and build the purity of
power required in order to spark a new circle. Elizabeth had chosen
battle magic to be Fred's secondary school of magic. A few years
ago, she might have offered him the choice, but by this point their
relationship had fully settled into the pattern of owner and possession.
Fred regarded himself as essentially a sort of enchanted item, and
though Elizabeth hadn't seen him that way at first, she had come
around to treating him that way.

After some consideration, she had found a world that would be
decent training for Fred. It was on the more powerful side for
the local area, not that that was saying much, and she had discovered
an event that seemed like a good place for him to get started.
There was a tournament held between some powerful clans to
give their younger generation a chance to exchange pointers.
That was the official line, though Elizabeth was sure there was
a vicious power struggle going on under the surface. It was
restricted to practitioners under the age of 25, and since
Elizabeth herself was 25 she figured she could enter the
open bracket for itinerant cultivators, which was what
mages were called in the galactic magic system.

In the wider galaxy, the sorts of large bureaucracies and governments
that existed on Earth seemed quite rare. Instead, the prevailing
order seemed to be a sort of feudal system where powerful clans,
courts, sects, and schools held sway over their local area and
dominated through might. Physical borders seemed to be porous,
with powerful forces tolerating myriad smaller forces vying
beneath them so long as they paid tribute. Law seemed almost
entirely absent, and when it was present, the powerful could brush
it aside with a flick of their sleeves. Safety was to be found
in the strength of your clan or, occasionally, in the benevolence
of a powerful figure whose interests aligned, however temporarily,
with tranquility in a particular area.

Now, Elizabeth stood in her bedroom in her leather armor, her
chestnut hair in a thick braid that reached the small of her back,
her hellgate hoop earrings dangling from her ears, and a pair of
heavily enchanted revolvers strapped to her powerful thighs. The
handle of a short sword protruded above her left shoulder. Like
her cosmic vessel, it was probably overkill, but one could never
be too prepared. She activated the pylon lying in stealth in
an alleyway near the tournament grounds and appeared
beneath it.

When she walked out of the ally, she immediately drew attention.
At 5'10" she was taller than average compared to even the
galactic men, if only just, and her facial features differed
from their significantly. They were pretty familiar to her,
looking pretty typically east Asian, but evidently she was
much more exotic looking to them because she immediately
overheard people asking their companions what kind of demon
race she belonged to. The most common reply she heard was
that she was a succubus, though some people admitted they
didn't know. She didn't hear anyone who realized she was
an ordinary human, but when she saw the number of non-human
people walking around she realized she couldn't really blame
anyone. While most people on the streets were human, there
were a handful of people with animal heads in view, and one
man who had a second set of smaller eyes on his forehead.

*Now this is the alien shit I was expecting,* Fred said, mentally
pointing at the four eyed man. *Whooo! We're in space!* He
continued to scan their surroundings excitedly with his sensors.
*Why does space look like imperial China though?* He mentally
indicated the upward curving eves on most of the buildings.
Elizabeth smiled internally at his excitement and made
her way towards the sign up location for the tournament.

The line to sign up was long, and she figured she would
be there for a while, but as she approached the line there
was a ripple of movement as people took notice of her.
"Who is this fairy?" the assembled cultivators began
asking one another.

*What fairy? Are they calling you that?* Fred asked.

*I think that's how they describe a beautiful woman,*
Elizabeth explained.

*A little weird, but they're not wrong,*

*How can I trust you, you don't even have eyes?* she
replied with mock mental derisiveness.

She started heading towards the back of the line, when
a handsome youth towards the front suddenly called out,
"Fairy, come join me in line, you'll be able to check
in faster!"

Before she could even respond, a youth a few spots ahead
of him snorted and said derisively, "Yang Bo, do you even
know the esteemed Fairy? Why would she bother with a trash
like you? Fairy, I'm further ahead in line, join me and
you can check in even faster!"

The first youth responded with outrage, "Yin Fu! You've
gone to far!"

Yin Fu laughed, "why should I care what a trash like you
thinks?"

Yang Bo grabbed his sword, "you're so brave when we are
in line and will lose our chance to compete if we fight.
Is hiding behind the rules all you know how to do?"

Yin Fu's face darkened, "you!"

"If you're a man, fight with me outside the town after
we sign up!"

"Good, good, good!" Yin Fu agreed.

*Ummm, did you just get two randos to fight a duel over
you just by showing up?* Fred asked. *Space is awesome.*

*I'm sure they had some sort of beef before hand, I'm
probably just an excuse,* Elizabeth replied. Just as
she said that though, yet a third youth called out to
her, "Esteemed Fairy, might we know your name?"

"Sure, I'm Marsh Elizabeth," she gave him a smile.

"So it is Fairy Marsh," he nodded.

The whole crowd seemed to have been straining their
enhanced ears to listen in because they began muttering
to one another, "Have you heard of the Marsh clan?"
"What kind of a name is that?" "Do you think it's a
fake name so she can compete anonymously?"

"Fairy Marsh, would you like to take my place in line?
I'm sure a lady such as you has many things to attend
and does not wish to stand in the sun for too long."
He was standing nearly at the front of the line,
even closer to the front than Yin Fu.

*Wow, they're like, falling all over themselves for you,
this is great!* Fred mentally laughed.

"Thank you..."

"Oh, I'm just a wandering cultivator, Chen Zixin."

"Well, in that case, thank you Chen Zixin," she smiled.
The male cultivators in the back of the line glowered
at Chen Zixin for finding favor with the beautiful
newcomer, while the female cultivators glowered at
Elizabeth in jealousy. None of them had elicited
such a reaction, but just because she had flawless
skin, an exotic face, and a body designed for sin
the boys were fighting over her as soon as she arrived.

"You can't cut in line!" One of the female cultivators
suddenly called out, her face stormy.

"Don't worry younger sister Jingxiao, Fairy Marsh is
not cutting. I am giving up my place for her," Chen
Zixin explained.

Zhou Jingxiao wanted to continue objecting, but there
was really nothing she could say to that.

Just as it seemed like things would die down, a fresh
ripple spread through the line. A pair of pretty girls
and a young man began walking confidently along the
line, clearly intending to walk right up to the
registration desk and cut the whole thing. The expressions
of the cultivators waiting in line darkened, but what
could they do. That was Mo An and Tai Hua, both followers
of Lu Bingbing. The Lu clan was one of the great clans
sponsoring the competition, and while Lu Bingbing didn't
need to bother signing up, her followers did. That didn't
mean that were going to tolerate standing in line with
the rabble though.

*What the hell? They're just gonna cut this whole line!?!*
Fred said indignantly.

*It looks that way. Just let it go, no one else is saying
anything, they're probably some sort of bigshots. I guess
this is just how things are in space.*

*That's such bullshit," Fred complained, but he was content
to settle down. Once Elizabeth had spoken on something, it
was decided as far as he was concerned.

Her sentient bra's mind was an open book to Elizabeth, so
she could easily see that he was still indignant on her
behalf, *this is supposed to be a training trip for you,
so I can start trouble if you want me to put them in their
place. You have to do all the fighting if it comes to that
though.*

*Really? Let's do it then!* Fred was enthusiastic to see
Elizabeth put them in their place. He was happy to stomp
people on her behalf, though it wouldn't be as much fun
as watching his sexy owner dominate people herself.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing? Are you blind?
Do you need a dog's eye to see?" Elizabeth said in the
tonal language spoken throughout the local galactic
area. She had been able to learn it through her probes, but
she wasn't entirely up on all the idioms yet. She was pretty
sure that the word dog would make anything more insulting
though.

The chattering in the line stopped, and one of the girls
turned to glare at Elizabeth. She curled her lip with contempt.
Before she could say anything, the young man beside her
stepped forward with his hands behind his back and his chin
in the air, the picture of arrogance. "Kowtow six times to
younger sister An, and I'll consider letting you live."

*Seriously? They go right to death threats?*

*Well I was pretty insulting. I'm a little surprised too.
Everyone is so hot headed here. At least bandits in the dungeon
back home are doing it to rob you.* Out loud, she said,
"No matter who you are, you're going to follow the rules
today. There's nothing more annoying than a dog who thinks
he is above the rules."

The young man's face darkened. This wandering cultivator was really
too beautiful. He had been planning on offering her to his older
cousin after he humiliated her in public for her impudence. Now
he would have to kill her or be seen going back on his threat.
It was such a waste. "When you get to the underworld, you can
tell them that Hong Chen sent you."

*Can I deal with this prick Mistress?* Fred asked.

*Yeah, go for it,*

Hong Chen was about to launch one of his devastating
Ice Tiger Palms at Elizabeth when he felt a sudden
vicious mental attack. "Soul cultivator!" he exclaimed
in surprise as iron hard mental fingers wormed their
way through his defenses. He held out for a few seconds,
not through his own efforts, but merely because Fred was
playing around with him a little. Fred was an eighth
circle wizard in his own right, and Hong Chen was far
weaker than him. On top of that, Fred's skills when it
came to mental combat far outstripped his target. When
he had finished playing around, he suddenly pierced
into the core of Hong Chen's mind and prevented him
from resisting as he cast a shrink spell on the overwhelmed
cultivator. A fraction of a second after Hong Chen had
been shrunken down to about two centimeters in height,
he teleported him inside Elizabeth's armor.

Hong Chen felt himself appear in a warm dark void
before he fell down to into a crevasse of warm
flesh. His body was immediately swallowed up, getting
overwhelmed and crushed by the massive hills of
flesh on either side. Before he could get oriented,
a telekinetic force took hold of him and he was
dragged under, sliding along the side of one
of the mounds until he was firmly sandwiched
between it and a taught expanse of fabric. The
mound of flesh was directly above him, and his body
strained to handle the crushing weight. If he had
not strengthened his body with spirit energy, the situation
would have been far more dire.

He had no idea where he was or what was going on, but
his cultivation had been fully sealed. He lay there in confusion
for a moment, before the mental presence which had fully
penetrated his mind placed the knowledge of where he was
in his mind. He had been shrunken down to get crushed
beneath the breasts of the wandering cultivator he had
offended. He felt some sort of spirit tool activate
somewhere above him and a strange power take hold of
him. A resonance began building between himself and
the massive breast above him. The presence in his
mind began making changes that it made no secret were
meant to prepare him to be consumed by the heavy tit
above him.

Outside the crowd was shocked. It looked like Hong Chen
had been about to launch a technique when he had just...
disappeared. What had happened to him?

"What did you do?" One of the girls demanded.

"Me? I didn't do anything." Elizabeth laughed. She truly
had no sympathy for a piece of work like Hong Chen who
would try to kill her over something so petty. "He must
have gotten scared and fled like a dog with a teleportation
token or something."

The girl's face darkened. This wandering cultivator was
beautiful, but she had such a foul mouth. Didn't it ruin
her image? "You clearly attacked him!"

"What do you mean? I was clearly just standing here.
I didn't make a move." It was technically true. Her bra had.
Elizabeth turned to the crowd, "you all saw didn't you?
Anyone who agrees with this yappy bitch just speak up now.
If you saw me make a move, just speak up."

People looked at the person next to one another. This beautiful
stranger was clearly not simple, but at the same time Mo An
was one of Lu Bingbing's followers, and they definitely
couldn't afford to anger the Lu clan. Even if Elizabeth had
some sort of terrifying background, how far away was her
backing? Even a dragon cannot defeat a snake in its nest
after all.

"Well, I did-" one of the people in line behind Elizabeth began
to speak up when they suddenly felt a vicious mental attack
that blasted through their their defenses instantly. It was skilled
enough that it didn't do any damage, but it would be easy
for the attacker to leave them comatose for months or
years. *Think very carefully about how you
finish this sentence,* Fred purred mentally. "I didn't see
anything. Fairy Marsh didn't do anything." He finished.
Everyone present could clearly feel the energy fluctuations
of the ongoing mental attack. A terrified silence settled
over the crowd.

"You don't know who you've offended today! I'm a follower of
the Lu clan! You'll regret this!"

Elizabeth chuckled, "you're too scared so you just throw around
the name of your dog pack. I shouldn't have expected anything
else from a bunch of greenhouse flowers."

Mo An's face twitched with rage, "Marsh Elizabeth!" She
screamed and drew her sword, releasing a rapid slash that
rocketed towards Elizabeth. It was probably supposed to
keep flying and cut her in half, but Fred used his
time affinity to both increase the amount of time it
took to make forward progress and increase the rate
at which it decayed. It only managed to get a meter
away from Mo An's blade before dispersing in a puff
of spirit energy. Before Mo An could follow up the
attack she disappeared as well. Fred got her settled
in beneath the breast that wasn't already occupied with
consuming Hong Chen and mentally informed her of her
situation, enjoying the way the arrogant young miss
mentally thrashed and struggled to escape from her
fate.

Tai Hua, the one remaining member of the group that
had attempted to cut, decisively turned around and fled.
Mo An and Hong Chen were both fifth refinement, and she
was only forth refinement. If they had been so easily
dealt with by Elizabeth, she stood no chance. Now, she
her priority was to inform the Lu clan of what happened.
The elders would be able to deal with Elizabeth.

The few cultivators in line in front of Elizabeth all
yielded their places to the voluptuous stranger, not
wanting to offend someone who was willing to so brazenly
take on the great clans. Elizabeth happily took them
up on it. It wasn't cutting if they willingly gave up
their positions to her.

Elder Long Jun had been watching the whole display impassively.
Technically, Elizabeth should be disqualified for fighting
in the line, but he was an elder of the Long clan, so anyone
making trouble for the Lu clan was alright in his book.
He would let her in and see how things developed. Who knew,
maybe if she was powerful enough to cause trouble for the
Lu clan the Long clan could fish in muddy water and make
some gains in Green Birch City.

"Name?" he asked when she arrived in front of him.

"Marsh Elizabeth,"

"I'm going to test your age with the bone needle now," he
explained.

Elizabeth held out her arm and he stabbed into her forearm
with a long needle, jabbing down to the bone. "18 years
old," he noted.

*Huh, I guess my eternal physique can fool that needle thingy.*
Elizabeth commented to Fred. She was really 25 years old in
wall clock time and much older than that when you considered
time acceleration.

A murmur spread through the crowd. She was only 18 and already
that powerful?

"Cultivation level?" Elder Long Jun asked.

"Eighth refinement," Elizabeth said casually, releasing her
aura in a carefully calibrated way so she would seem like a
normal eighth circle witch. If her age had shocked people,
the news of her cultivation level did so even more. Eighth
refinement was the level of the elders of the great clans.
She had chosen it because Fred was eighth circle, but
based on the reaction, she felt some disappointment.
How was Fred going to get any training in this tournament,
when eighth refinement was obviously incredibly impressive
for participants in the tournament. Oh well, it had turned
into a bit of a sightseeing trip after all.

After she registered, she walked away, feeling the gaze of
everyone on her as she did. She was about to return to her
cosmic vessel, when she decided that if she was gonna do
the tourist thing she might as well get a room somewhere.
She had to ask around a bit, before ending up in some place
called the Phoenix Pavilion. They accepted gold in exchange
for an opulent suite. She set up a few wards and changed
out of her armor. From what she could tell, wearing it had
been entirely overkill, but she planned on continuing to wear
it until she got a better feel for things.

=================================================================

Much to Fred's annoyance, the Lu clan hadn't shown up in the
middle of the night for him to turn into fodder for his owner's
hungry breasts. Hopefully they would misbehave enough that
she would let him grab them soon. It had been so annoying
having to wait for the occasional bandit attack, and the
little morsels had dried up entirely when Elizabeth dedicated
herself to building the cosmic vessel rather than gathering
ingredients. Now it seemed that the galaxy was full of people
who were willing to push things too far. Elizabeth had even
joined in on the fun, being just as provocative as he would
have been in order to stir things up. Alas, the Lu clan seemed
to be a bunch of cowards.

Elizabeth made her way to the tournament grounds, where one of
the clan elders explained that the tournament would proceed
in single elimination style. The outsiders would contend for
32 spots and then the young scions of the Long, Lu, and Gu
clans would be seeded in to form a starting bracket of
64 slots. The first two days would be rapid-fire matches
between the outsiders, held on a large number of elevated
rings. Anyone knocked out of the ring would lose, or matches
could stop when one combatant yielded. Killing was discouraged,
but there would be no penalty for doing so.

*They're so brutal,* Fred commented.

*Yeah, seems like space is a rough place. Kinda the wild west.*
Elizabeth agreed.

When it was Elizabeth's turn, she walked up on a ring. She cast
a form fitting shield on herself, but otherwise just stood
there. She'd already told Fred that she wouldn't do anything
besides maintain the shield and that if her opponent landed
a solid blow on the shield she would yield immediately.
A girl in a green robe hopped up onto the ring opposite her,
and the Gu clan elder who was running this ring shouted
"begin!"

The girl drew two sword catchers from within her robe and
looked like she was about to launch a technique, when
Fred punched through her mental defenses in a lightning
fast assault. *No leaning on mind magic after this one,*
she told him. Then seeing that he had planned to make her
crawl over and kiss Elizabeth's boots before surrendering,
she said, *actually, let's start that right now. Let her
go.*

*Spoilsport,* Fred complained before letting the girl
go. He was about to launch a barrage of seeking magic
missiles when her eyes widened and she sheathed her
weapons, cupping her hands and bowing. "I've lost."

Elizabeth bowed in response and left the pedestal.
There were a lot of matches going on, so not that many
people noticed, but a few did take note of the instant
result.

Fred blasted her next opponent off the pedestal with
a single magic missile launched the moment the referee
allowed them to begin. To the onlookers, it seemed
as if Elizabeth hadn't done anything. Almost none of
the techniques the galactics performed could be done
without any motion. Western standard magic had a much
greater economy of motion, and Fred had been forced
by necessity to forgo even that. He was casting at
his full power, but to galactic eyes it seemed like
Elizabeth was so contemptuous of her opponents that
she was using much weaker motion free techniques just
because she could.

By the time they made it through the entire outsider
bracket, everyone was talking about the voluptuous
light eyed stranger who hadn't made a single real
move to get through the ranks. Anyone who didn't
know she was an eighth refinement cultivator at
the start of the process, had definitely heard by
the end of things.

===============================================================

That evening, Elizabeth was eating a multi-course meal
in one of the local restaurants when Fred reached out to
her mentally, *Mistress, the locals are fighting over you!*

*Oh? Show me,* she commanded.

Eagerly, he shared the senses of one of his magical sensors
with her. *That's Lu Bingbing, the boss of those dickheads
you absorbed earlier,* he mentally indicated a beautiful girl
with a slim figure. There was an ugly expression on her face
as she listened to some young men talk loudly at the table
next to her. *From what I can tell, this is a banquet for
all the major clans before the tournament. I don't think they
like one another that much.*

"Lin'er, have you ever heard anything so shameless?"




// Elizabeth breezes through the tournament. She sees one
// member of the Gu clan toying with an opponent before
// killing them, not allowing them to surrender, so she
// kills them when they meet up in the bracket.

// Lu Bingbing shows up in the middle of the night with a
// bunch of retainers.

