It was loud. Very loud. Children were playing football, discussing their homework, exchanging their Pokemon cards, and making plans for upcoming weekends. This regular busy life was so contrasting with what the twins had to deal with in the past few days. They both were excited about their “important mission”. Of course, which one of us wouldn’t want to become a hero? But they had never considered at what cost. Now the brothers were standing in the schoolyard, observing their friends and classmates. Everything around had suddenly become so surreal. The boys had very mixed feelings somehow. The school bell rang.

Once during practice, El confessed to the kids: “Sometimes I really dream of having just normal life. Magic may seem to be cool, but sometimes you have to feel and see things you never wanted, and you have to make decisions that you will fear yourself “. The brothers didn’t understand her back then. However, those words came to Nick’s mind again now.

A history teacher was telling something about ancient Romans and their culture. Nick didn’t really pay much attention to the old man’s words. He looked at his classmates who seemed to be so cheerful and carefree. Then the boy gazed at his younger twin sitting at the other end of the class. Sam looked gloomy.

- You know, Louis has invited me to his place to play PS after school. – Nick told his brother during the break – I would have never rejected such an offer before. But how can I go now? We must help others. Even if it gets really dangerous, we must help till the end. And the boys will just play PS meanwhile. Safe and sound.

- Do you think we made a mistake getting involved?

- No. We did everything right. Somebody must be there to protect others. But I understand El now. We will have to make some difficult decisions.

- Maybe. But I think that’s worth it. We got a chance to do something meaningful. I think it’s great. It would be easier and safer not to do anything, but since when are we afraid of difficulties? – Sam declared proudly.

Nick silently nodded.

- By the way, why did Louis invite you and didn’t invite me?

- Probably, because you kicked him last time when you thought he was cheating.

- Okay, fair enough.

The boys had only a few more lessons left. The only time they weren’t together at school was during elective classes. The twins finished their lunch, carefully prepared for all three of the kids by the huge old wizard, and separated for the next two hours. Nick tried to clear his mind a little bit while sewing a new plush bunny and Sam distracted himself with coding at the computer class.

Ada was already at El’s place when the boys returned from school. The door to the redhead’s apartment was slightly open, so the twins carefully looked inside. The whole hallway was filled with boxes. El was standing in the center, holding a long list.

- Yes, it is here… - Ada picked up a small red bottle and placed it in an empty box.

- Good. You two come here and help us. – the young witch pointed at the brothers - Somebody has chosen probably the most intricate spell of all. I promise, if this stuff doesn’t work, Deas himself will become a sacrifice for the next ritual.

It took the group almost an hour to find all the ingredients and artefacts from the list. It took the kids one more hour to pack and prepare it all. El used this time to quickly cook some snacks for the whole team. The young woman knew, Arcada’s range of recipes was limited to pancakes and few variants of omelet and the local gastronomy of Terra Terrorem was not very promising in general.

- Okay, here we have the inventory, some deviled eggs, and corn waffles. Let’s take a bottle of water and we are ready to go. My friends, behold the infamous Terra Terrorem! – declaimed the redhead as she was opening a portal.

The four were standing in the yard of an ancient castle on the top of a hill. The left wing of it was ruined probably by time. Enormous stone blocks were scattered on the slope. The opened inner part of the wing was fully covered with trees and lianas. Those ruins were already occupied by some long, lizard-like creatures. The kids could see them crawling everywhere on the walls. The reptiles had long, ugly heads with huge horns, and their bodies were covered with rare, thin fur.

The right wing of the castle seemed to be slightly renovated and was still inhabited. The children saw light in some of the windows.

The castle was surrounded by high stone walls. In some places, it was also already ruined, and one could see outlines of a small town in the lowlands. The air was dusty. Sand clouds were covering the dim sun, coloring everything around in a sickly yellow color.

The children heard an unpleasant cracking noise above them and stared at the sky. Some giant monsters were flying among sand clouds.

- This Terra is still mostly inhabited by the creations of that dark ritual. They all used to be innocent people, so D couldn’t kill them. Throughout the centuries he has learned how to rule over the remaining humans and monsters here. – explained El.

The children slightly shivered. It was difficult to breathe, dry air was filling their lungs with sand. Ada looked at the wasteland through the hall in the fence. Centuries ago, this lifeless place was called Terra Copia. When El told the trio about this dimension’s past, the girl felt betrayed. She was angry at her grandmother for tainting the honor of their family. Only now, after stepping on the lands of Terra Terrorem, she realized how insignificant the honor of her family was compared to what had happened to this place.

A heavy iron front door of the castle slowly opened, and a small, crooked man hurried towards the group.

- My Lady! Let Tarnan take the load! Let Tarnan take the load! – the small man bowed.

- So, they call you “my lady” here? – Arcada appeared out of nowhere behind his ward.

- Well, let’s say, I’m a frequent guest of honor here. – laughed the redhead.

The man took boxes from El and the boys, gazed at all five with his unproportionally large single eye, and invited them to the castle. The kids carefully examined this strange person. He was as tall as the twins but seemed to be very old. His body was horribly deformed, and some parts of it were covered with slimy squama. He was limping but still walked very fast showing the guests the way to his Lord.

- How have you been, Tarnan? I haven’t seen you for a while. – El kindly smiled at the crooked man.

- Thank You, My Lady. Thank You, My Lady! Tarnan is fine. Tarnan had a little vacation recently and now must deal with all the mess My Lord made in the castle. A lot of work! A lot of work! – the man shook his bald head.

The group entered the main parlor. Deas was sitting on the windowsill reading a book. As always, he looked majestically and gracefully. Over 300 hundred years was indeed more than enough to turn an ordinary peasant and former uneducated slave into an example of pure elegance.

- Arcada! Welcome! Be a guest of honor in my humble house! – he waved his hand and bowed grinning – El, make sure your little pets don’t destroy my antique furniture.

- A half of your house is already destroyed; we can’t do much worse. – huffed Sam.

- We have important things to deal with, no time for such discussions! – Nick said strictly.

Tarnan placed El’s boxes in front of a huge fireplace and bowed. D ordered his butler to bring some tea for the Lady and something for the children. When Tarnan left, the young man opened an old folio, put it on the floor near the fireplace, and stepped back to the windowsill. Being a master of fire magic himself, Deas still preferred cold the most.

- So far, we couldn’t trace the source of magic. We only know that our enemy is a necromancer as only a necromancer can inhale life… - D coughed – Inhale such a perverse form of life in dead bodies. We also know that the animals this necromancer uses for creating those homunculuses were brutally murdered. The magician used memories of their painful deaths to increase their anger. There is a ritual that will allow me and El to awaken their dead consciousness and enter it. Then we will be able to see beyond the death, we will be able to see the moment when they died and, probably, also the one who killed them.

- Hmm… A bad plan, very bad one. I like it. – El raised her eyes at Deas.

- How dangerous will it be for you? – Arcada turned his head to the redhead.

- Not as dangerous as joining the war against Terra Terrorem. – the woman shook her shoulders.

- We need a difficult potion for you two and one for the creature. We are still missing some ingredients. – Ada had already examined the list and everything they brought.

- Yes, we still need Tears of the Prophet and The Grass of the Last Scream. Oh right, and the creature itself. – agreed Deas.

- The Grass can be found at the potion market on Terra Mercatorum. I know this place, I was there with my grandmother once, so I will go! – the little witch shouted out unhesitatingly.

- And we will go with. It is safer when we are together. – Nick added.

His brother nodded and looked at the adults. Arcada’s faced demonstrated a clear “No”.

- It is not too dangerous; we don’t have time to go ourselves and the kiddos need to learn how the harsh world works. – the redhead understood her teacher’s facial expression and tried to reassure him.

- I mean, they are very talented at getting into troubles. – D rolled his eyes – But well, not like I am going to worry about them.

- You go only to the market and back! – the old wizard strictly commanded to the kids.

All three were happy. In the end, so far, the necromancers had to save them twice. Now there was a chance to do something useful in return and kids didn’t want to miss it.

- I will bring you the Tears. It comes from my home Terra, so I will go. – Arcada stroked his mustache.

- I will go with you. Don’t want you to wander around an endless desert alone. – El put her hand on her teacher’s shoulder.

- No, you are supposed to show up at the legion’s meetings! If you keep missing them, it will be too suspicious.

- You shouldn’t go alone, though. Even if it’s your home Terra. – the young woman seemed to be worried about her old friend.

- I won’t. Listra can accompany me. I’m quite convinced, that nothing will happen to two Solisians in their home dimension.

- Good. I need to be here. We had a lot of spies from Nulla City recently. I should keep an eye on them. But as soon as El finds out something about a new attack of those creatures at the legion – Deas looked closely at the witch – tell me, pixy. We will hunt them down together.

- Deal. – the woman smiled.

As promised, Tarnan brought tee and something that reminded candies for kids. He put the tray with cups on the table and groaned.

- So many important guests, My Lord… Does Nulla seriously want to get rid of us? Get rid of us? – he looked closely at his Master with his single eye.

- Don’t worry, my friend. We will find a way to stop them. – D patted his butler on his back.

- Nulla better stop. My Lord didn’t do bad. Didn’t do. – the small man shook his head. – Tarnan will protect our home!

- We all will. – Ada unexpectedly for herself smiled at the crooked ugly man.

No. the Honour of her family meant nothing. No titles and wealth could excuse what Iduna had done. Ada used to be very proud of her noble status. Now for the first time in her life, she felt ashamed of it. Few hours later she was standing in front of her family’s mansion at Nulla Meridianus. El told the little girl to act as if nothing had happened, but it was easier to say than to do.