A strong invisible wave of energy hit Sam and made him slide back. His shield didn't work and in the next second another strong wave knocked him down. The boy landed in warm sticky mud. Nick and Ada triumphantly looked at him.

- Okay, enough for today - commanded El - there are, unfortunately, no laundry spells, so you better stop.

The kids had spent a couple of hours practicing and were all already exhausted. Tiredness was blocking their connection to the magic energy, so there was no sense to train further.

- Come here, today we have a tomato tortilla for the dinner and then I'll send you all back home.

After several weeks this phrase sounded a little bit weird to all the kids. They had a place where they were looked after, cared for, taught and nicely fed. And almost every day they had to leave this place and go home. Home, where nobody even noticed their absence pretty much.

Ada looked at her plate. Of course, El was lacking manners and elegance. The necromancer often rolled her eyes talking to the small girl and called her "your majesty" sarcastically. But the redhead wasn't as silly and careless as Ada's grandmother considered her to be.

Today El complimented the small girl's spell technique. It was very unexpected and pleasant. Ada vainly tried to remember, when was the last time she had heard something like that from her parents. Usually, they just went with: “Look at your grandmother! You must work harder to be at least half so great!".

- Next few days you all are staying home. I'll have some important things to do - explained El.

- Is that something with the legion? - Sam asked carefully.

Ada had already told the boys about the upcoming war during one of the training. She mentioned the legion back then.

- Aren't you scared? - asked the small witch.

- Of course, I am. It is normal to be scared. You just should never let your fear take over your life...Otherwise; you'll turn into a horrible thing. Into Ephir - commented the redhead.

Both girls laughed. El moved her eyes to the chessboard. The position of the pieces slightly changed: white rook and bishop were endangered now. The woman decided to save the rook.

The next day El was sent on patrol to Terra Speculum. Some previously unknown monsters had been noticed there. The witch and few other magicians from her team stepped on a roof edge of a tall skyscraper.

- Do you feel them? - a young man looked at El with noticeable disgust.

- No, I don't. - she replied dryly.

The man shivered.

- Horrible. I don't know how the likes of you can create things of that kind - he kept looking at the necromancer with disgust.

- I don't know. Your parents weren't necromancers, but their creation also isn't particularly brilliant... - El shrugged.

- Hey! We must fight monsters! Not each other! - a young woman shouted at those two.

A strong gust of wind scared birds away. El closed her eyes for some time. When she opened them again, they were pitch black.

- Now they are here. - pronounced the redhead and pointed the direction.

All three teleported down to the city streets and ran towards the place where their tonight's targets appeared.

A huge creature smashed at one of El's companions breaking a thick glass wall. The man flew a couple of meters away and smashed into a metal construction of a fountain. The creature jumped on its paws and roared. It looked like an inside-out bear but was at least two times bigger. Its bald skin was covered in some sort of slime and its body was sewed from two or three different pieces of flesh. El could see all the seams and metal rivets.

The creature roared again so loud, that glasses in houses around began to tremble. The necromancer instantly felt an acute headache. Her ears were ringing. The thing that was standing in front of her was violence against life. It was a tortured dead flesh that was forced to relive its horrific death over and over again. Being a necromancer El could feel its pain and its unstoppable rage. This all was too much. The witch fell down on her knees.

- What are you doing there?! - screamed the other magician at here - Get up immediately!

- Are all the humans evacuated? - replied El - Because three more of those are joining the party.

She was right. The magicians heard a loud roar nearby. The redhead managed to get up and grabbed her chain that was wrapped around her waist as a belt. She whipped it on the ground and its knife end painfully scratched the monster. The creature gazed at El and ran towards her. The girl barely managed to roll away to escape the monster's jaws that still managed to leave a deep wound across her back.

- Flammis Inferni! – screamed another magician hitting the ground with her palms.

A flame stream rushed to the monster setting it on fire. The thing jumped out of the flame, looking even uglier than before, and ran to the magicians. All three heard the powerful roar of other monsters once again.

El swung her chain and the cold iron wrapped itself around the thing's paw. She pulled the chain and the massive body fell down breaking a huge window. It stuck with its front paws in the ground, tearing up the asphalt, and crawled towards the necromancer. The girl pulled her chain back releasing the monster's paw and moved few steps back. The creature roared and ran at the witch spitting its acidic saliva around. Another creature, similar to that one, jumped down from the house behind El.

- Ferro Arma! - screamed the redhead.

Both creatures ran at her and were powerfully pushed back by El's shield. The animals landed on the ground and instantly stood up shaking their disgusting heads. One of them tried to attack the witch again. As it reached El, she quickly teleported behind its back and wrapped the chain around its neck.

- Fulgur Percusserit!

A searing electric current ran through the chain. The monster howled from pain and shook its body powerfully, throwing the necromancer down. The girl rolled few meters on the asphalt. She tried to stand up but almost fainted. Another monster moved to her.

El staggered to her feet. She swung her chain again and wrapped it around the neck of one of the monsters. The witch pulled the chain, and the heavy bunch of flesh flew at another creature. She teleported quickly to the things and grabbed their heads.

- Enough of pain. You are free.

Both monsters turned into ashes.

Only now El realized that she was alone. Two of her companions weren't there. The girl looked around. Suddenly she felt a wave of primal horror. She froze for few moments gathering her courage. The necromancer went down the street. Some meters away she found the dead body of another monster. Right near the body, El saw the woman who came with her. The magician was lying on the ground covering a large wound with her hand. The wound was slowly getting bigger, acid was corroding the skin. The woman was already dead.

El's ears started to ring again. She shivered. After few seconds it was all gone, though. Everything. The ringing. The horror. The pain. Even the monsters were all gone. The witch heard a howl and cry not far from here and followed the noise.

The last magician from El's group was sitting on the ground. He was hugging his knees and swaying. The asphalt around him was wet, stress and fear made his body release all the liquids he had inside. As he saw the witch, his howl turned into hysterical laughter. The necromancer sat down on the ground next to the man and looked inside his eyes.

- I'll take you home. Come on. We are getting out of here. - she patted his shoulder.

The portal brought El and the crying man right to the council hall. The elders hurried towards the two.

- My God! - screamed Iduna pointing at the man - Now you see? Only the black eyes of a necromancer are capable of this! Poor boy…Where is the third one?

- She didn't make it. - mumbled El.

- I knew it was HIM! It's time to discuss our invasion of Terra Terrorem! – shouted out the Head of the council.

Iduna didn’t seem to be interested in the poor boy anymore. She vigorously commanded Ephir to schedule the next council meeting. El turned around silently.

- Firstly, deal with this guy. You can bring him to a healer, but I don't think it will work. He's been gone for too long… - she said as she was leaving the hall – And be ready to have hundreds of others like this, if You decide to mess up with HIM.

Arcada caught up with his ward already outside of the building. He carefully examined El's wound.

- It's okay. Will be gone by tomorrow. - she tried to calm him down.

- Are you sure, it wasn't HIM? - he looked closely at the girl.

- Yes.

- Then we are dealing with something nobody has ever faced before... - Arcada's voice was trembling.

- Hey! Big man! You know, you can't protect me my whole life long. - El tried to smile - You saved me back then; you made me strong; you gave me a chance to live a happy life. You've done all you could. Don't torment your conscience even if something happens.

The old magician grabbed his chest. The redhead helped her teacher to stay on his feet.

- We must find out who our enemy is if that's really not HIM. - Arcada closed his eyes.

- Yeah, I have some ideas about it. I'll need your help later.

The wound was indeed gone by the next day. The twins saw how El left for university in the morning. They knew: the witch was busy today again. It was quite boring at home, so after school, the brothers agreed to meet up with Ada.

- We can go to Terra Solitudinis later - said the little girl finishing her gelato - To practice that new attack spell.

- Yes, last time somebody failed it completely. - Nick laughed and looked at his twin.

- This time I won't, though. - huffed Sam.

The trio spent some hours at the riverside practicing their favorite spells. The twins tried their best to show their more experienced friend that they are also worth something: Ada had to dodge few small explosions and a mud ball.

- Okay. We need to rest now otherwise I won’t be able to bring you home. – Ada fell down on the soft grass – At least half an hour, good?

However, a moment later the small witch jumped back on her feet. Something roared in the forest not far from them. There were no animals at Terra Solitudinis who could make such a loud and frightening roar. Something else howled back. The kids heard how branches of trees crackled. It was getting closer and closer to them.

A huge inside-out bear jumped out to the thicket, two smaller creatures, that looked unsuccessful try to sew a scolopendra and a wolf together, followed the first monster. The children froze for a second from fear and then ran up the slope towards the chalet. All three were exhausted and out of breath from running, couple of times Ada and Sam were about to fall. The boys tried to cast some shields. Unfortunately, that slowed the creatures down only for less than a second, and then they kept following the kids.

When the trio was only a few meters away from the house, a sharp silver scythe blade cut into the ground right in front of them. A tall black-haired man grabbed the scythe. He lowered his almost white, completely emotionless but handsome face with delicate features to the kids. In a moment his light blue eyes turned pitch black.

- Deas…- whispered Ada trembling in fear.