Sam sat down on the floor and dangled his legs between the railing of a long balcony on the top storey of the Council’s Hall. The trio observed the central square from there. All the signs of a bloody battle, that happened here four days ago, were already washed away. Ranks of fully equipped soldiers were marching there now.

- That was quick… Ada said with despair – I didn’t expect them to gather a whole army in three days…

- I guess, everything was already prepared… - huffed Sam – Why does it take so long with the ritual?

- That necromancer used powerful and dark magic; it isn’t be easy to defeat it. – explained the little witch.

- Good, that there were enough ingredients for an additional portion of the potion…Now it better work. – Nick rubbed his forehead – We must return and tell others about the army.

- Right, they will be ready to attack as soon as the troops from Terra Ores arrive. – the girl sobbed.

- Don’t worry, we will find a way to stop them. – Nick tried to soothe his friend.

- Sure! El and her pensioner army won’t give up that easily! – Sam nodded.

The trio heard loud voices in the corridor nearing the balcony. A group of elders accompanied by two kids was slowly walking through the gallery.

- Hide! Quickly! Those are elders Kraum and Lui-ko with their grandkids! They must not see you here! – Ada whispered.

Fortunately, the boys had just recently learned a very powerful spell of invisibility. When the group reached the balcony, they could see nobody else except Ada. The little witch bowed her head, the elders bowed their heads as well and walked away, leaving two kids behind.

A boy and a girl in a strict, gray school uniform entered the balcony.

- Andara, my greetings. – the boy bowed.

- My greetings. – repeated the girl in the uniform.

- That’s a good day for Madam Vesti. She will be indeed remembered as the greatest Head of the council of all times. – he said dryly and pretty insincerely.

- Many thanks, Thyme. Yes, my family is happy to release this world from such an enormous danger. – replied Ada.

- My parents are arranging a ball today in the evening to honor our brave warriors. I hope you and your family will attend it. – the girl proudly smiled.

- I am sure, my parents and grandmother won’t miss such an event. However, I am not sure if I can come. I have been feeling myself not that well recently. But thank you for the invitation, Elisa.

- Ah, what a pity. Then we will see you next week, at school. – the girl answered emotionlessly.

The children smiled at each other politely and coldly. Elisa proudly glanced at the marching army, congratulated Ada once again, and the two left.

- Bew! My God, I need to puke! Do you always talk to each other like that? – Sam winced as the twins became visible again.

- Who are they? – Nick asked.

- Oh. Those are my friends. From the Academy.

- Friends? – Sam winced again – You talk like that to friends?

- Yes. We are all from noble families, we must follow etiquette!

- I bet it is veery exciting to have such friends. – the older twin frowned.

- Well… It is…We attend balls of each other’s families, and we also do projects at school…

- Have you ever been to a picnic with your friends? – Sam looked at the girl closely.

- No.

- To cinema?

- No.

- Have you ever played together?

- No… We are nobles, we are not allowed to do such things.

- Should we tell her? – Sam gazed at his brother.

- Ehhh… I don’t know… - the boy frowned again.

- Tell what?

- Nothing. It’s all fine… - Nick replied – But when this stuff is over, we must go to bowling all together once.

- Bow-what? – asked the witch.

- Bowling. You will see. It is a cool game. – Sam smiled.

- Yes. But now we must go. El is waiting for news. – Nick nodded.

The boys cast a disguise spell, and Ada opened a portal straight to Terra Terrorem. El, Deas, and Arcada were already impatiently waiting for their small spies.

- I talked to my father. He said that around fifteen thousand soldiers are already ready for the invasion and five thousand more will join them soon. Altogether there will be around 29 supreme magicians as generals, more than a thousand of the advanced class, three thousand of intermediate, and the rest are basic level magicians. And there will be some fairies. Around two hundred. This time the council decided not to send humans at all, the elders want a quick victory.

- And they all have swards and a lot of guns! Oh! And armors! – added Sam.

- Oh well… - El coughed – We have three supreme at least…

Arcada turned his head away. Even though he knew that Deas was innocent this time and a lot of inhibitors of Terra Terrorem would be cruelly murdered during the invasion, the old wizard still didn’t want to fight together with The Monster above all monsters.

- Do we have three supreme? – the redhead demandingly stared at her teacher.

- Hmm… Yes, you do… - Arcada breathed out loudly.

- Good. Did Jadeite tell you at least approximately when they plan to attack?

- He said as soon as troops from Terra Ores arrive, which means maximum in two days.

Deas closed his eyes, crossed his arms, and shook his head. He has already invited some of his allies, the counts and countesses of Terra Terrorem, to his castle. Among them was the glorious Lady Varana Ferias, the master of Dragons, with her rather useless husband; Lord Jolios Narmias with his family, Lord-recluse Blind Shadow and some others. Those were the strongest magicians at Terra Terrorem, and they were definitely not enough to confront the Nulla army.

- We need more time to complete the ritual. – huffed D.

- Agree. Is a small diversion allowed? – El glanced at Arcada.

- Will anybody die? – big man replied.

- No…. Yes…No, no, maybe… - the young woman shrugged and awkwardly smiled – But we need more time.

- Eh…Okay. Be careful. – sighed the old wizard.

- Got it. Ada, do you know where Iduna placed the arsenal?

- Hmm yes.

- Then you go with me.

- We will go too! – Sam jumped up.

- You know that you usually don’t go to diversion operations with a whole huge crowd, don’t you? – Nick corrected his twin.

- Your brother is right. I would prefer that none of you three takes part in it, so you two are definitely staying here. – Arcada commanded.

- But… - Sam wanted to object.

- Don’t worry. I know how to make use of your useless existence. – Deas interrupted the boy.

- Fine. Ada, rest a little bit. We will go later in the evening. – El patted the girl on her shoulder.

The two necromancers left to check on their new pet in the dungeon. Earlier today they gave the creature an additional portion of the potion and were hoping to see some results. Arcada preferred to stay with the kids. He appreciated their curiosity and diligence. Moreover, staying around children he felt significantly better in this enormous cold castle.

Few days ago, the old wizard organized some sort of a classroom in the library and tried to systemize everything the kids had already learned. Spells, potions, elemental magic, magical creatures, artefacts, and rituals. Arcada tried to clearly delineate all areas of magical sciences. El observed those lessons a couple of times, she herself was still lacking teaching experiences, so seeing a professional at work was quite interesting for her.

The lesson for today was over and it was slowly getting late. Arcada led the children to the dining room. As they were walking through one of many long corridors with large windows, they saw Deas’s guests discussing something in the garden. Ada stopped for a second to take a closer look at the Terrorem nobility. The girl found it very interesting how much those magicians differed from the aristocracy she knew.

All those wizards rose at Terra Terrorem during the reign of Deas. Their families used to be simple peasants during the times of Terra Copia and now they turned into countesses and counts. The little witch noticed that they weren’t as restrained and mannered as the aristocracy back home. The wizards that arrived at D’s castle were all experienced warriors, tempered by hard times. They knew very little about manners, laughed way too loudly while eating, and weren’t scared of dirty work. Ada considered them slightly uneducated and primitive, yet in this short time, she grew to respect the freedom and sincerity with which they expressed their feelings. As for the twins, they simply found those harsh magicians very cool.

Arcada called the girl and all four hurried to the dining room. The old wizard wanted to make sure that nobody remains hungry. Especially because Tarnan promised a completely non-mutated chicken for today.

El was already waiting at the table. To the children’s surprise, she even took a piece of the chicken and ate it. To even bigger surprise, the chicken actually tasted good.

- Is there some trick? – Nick carefully asked.

- Nah… I just brought Tarnan all the ingredients from Terra Maria – shrugged the necromancer.

Deas didn’t appear at the dinner. He was busy developing a war strategy with his allies. The necromancer wanted to hope that finding the real creator of those monstrous animals would stop the council on time, but after all those years he didn’t have the best opinion of the elders.

- Okay, ready to go? Hey, you Timon and Pumbaa! – the redhead pointed at the twins – watch over those two grandpas. I want them to be both alive when we return.

- Oh, I beg you. I have better things to do than dealing with Deas. – huffed Arcada.

In a second El and Ada disappeared in a portal. Soon they were already walking through the streets of the Nulla City. There was already almost nobody outside.

- So, what is your plan? – the little witch asked her friend.

- Well… You won’t like it. – El replied stopping at a sewer hatch – We need to go down.

- Where? – the girl widened her eyes.

- To the sewer.

Ada grimaced. She was ready to do a lot for preventing the war but going down to the sewer was already slightly above her limits.

- Oh, come on, just use Secundo Cutis if you are so scared to get dirty. – chuckled the witch.

Without paying much attention to the girl’s complaints, El opened the hatch and jumped down. Ada had nothing else to do but to follow the young woman. She quickly mumbled the protection spell and carefully climbed down.

Sewer channels were dark and stinky. Smooth stone walls were covered with slime and moss. Something was dripping from the ceiling. El was slowly stepping from one dry spot to another. She didn’t care about the smell but still didn’t want to dive in sewage either. Soon enough the girls heard a loud squeak not far from them. The necromancer turned her head towards the noise and rapidly walked in that direction.

- What are your favorite animals, Ada?

- Hmm… I don’t know. I guess horses and pegasuses. My family keeps a lot of them on our lands.

- I see. Mine are rats. You know, those tiny creatures are actually very strong and clever. And they are much more loyal to their master than many would think.

El finished her phrase as she stepped out in a wider channel. Firstly, the little witch didn’t understand what the necromancer meant but some moments later she felt active swarming under your feet. The girl looked around, she couldn’t see much in the darkness, but she felt that something small and fluffy bumped in her leg.

The redhead lit up the room with a ball of lightning. Now Ada saw that the whole tunnel was filled with hundreds or even thousands of big, dirty rats. They were everywhere: on the ground, on walls even on the ceiling. As the girls entered, small animals instantly turned their sharp little heads towards them. El made few more steps and squatted, picking up a black-and-white fat rat.

- Hi, Moon-Moon. I need a favor from your kind. – the young woman patted the little ball of fur and placed it on her shoulder.

- What do you want to do? – Ada asked.

- I want those babies to make a little bustle in the city. And I want to take some of them to the arsenal. Cover up my magic, nobody should know that I did it.

The plan sounded pretty simple but harmless and effective so the little witch obeyed without any objections. She put the most powerful of disguising spells she knew on El. After that, the necromancer stretched out her hands to the raging sea of rats.

- Naturae Irae! Exitium Undam! – pronounced the young woman.

Immediately all the rats stood up on their hind legs, stared at the witches for a second, and then furiously rushed through the channels squeaking loudly. They were searching for exits from the sewer to flood the city streets.

- Come! We need to hurry to the Council Hall. Show me where the arsenal is. – shouted out El and ran forward through the dark tunnels.

- Maybe we can get there normally? From the surface? – begged the little girl.

- The elders ordered to increase the number of guardians after the recent attack. We won’t be able to get inside unnoticed from the surface.

Ada knew that the necromancer was right, but she desperately wanted to get out of the sewer, especially after meeting a whole army of dirty rats. The girl sobbed and ran after El.

The channels were getting more and more narrow. The girls had to bend over to squeeze through the tiny tunnels. Ada could feel how rats were running between her feet and how they were climbing the walls, touching her shoulders with their long tails and fluffy backs. Now the channels got extremely small. That meant the witches reached their goal. The sewer under the Council Hall was made the way, that no person could walk there. Though that was a very relative mean of safety since all the good wizards were capable of shrinking spells. And both El and Ada were very good wizards. They turned as small as the rats around them and after getting through two sets of iron bars, the girls were already standing in the utility room of the great Council Hall.

The two snicked out to the corridors of a giant building. Ada looked around and led her friend to the rooms that she visited earlier today with her father. Jadeite was so excited about the upcoming war, that he didn’t even notice unusual curiosity of his daughter.

The little witch walked competently along the tangled corridors. She grew up here and was familiar with every corner of the building. Soon enough the two came to a huge iron door, securely locked with a protection spell and a golden locker.

El examined the door carefully and then looked around. She ran her hands along the walls.

- If we break the protection spell, everybody will know that somebody was here. – Ada said thoughtfully.

- Why would we break the spell. – replied the necromancer smiling.

- How else can we enter the arsenal then?

- Oh, we don’t need to enter. We only need to let somebody in.

The young woman squatted and knocked on the wall. The two heard a dull sound.

- Here. Time destroyed the stones inside this wall. All we need is to break the wooden facing.

- Use an impulse spell. Nobody will be able to differentiate it from the rat’s teeth.

El nodded. She whispered the spell, and a powerful smash cracked the wood.

- Okay Moon-Moon. Take your friends and have some fun. – the woman pushed the rat towards the hole.

Ada heard how hundreds of tiny rats’ claws scratched the stone floor of the corridor. An endless river of small fluffy animals rushed to the arsenal.

- Now we must leave. Just the way we came.

- Sewer again?? – the little girl sounded very disappointed.

- Yes. If we teleport from here, the guard will feel our magic.

Once again, El was completely right and Ada had to agree, despite her panic disgust for the dirty place. The girls quietly ran through corridors back to the utility room. They heard guard patrolling the Hall not far from them but each time the two managed to hide from the soldiers around the corner or in another gallery.

The witches were already not far from their destination when they heard an unpleasant low voice:

- Wait! I will check that hall! I think I felt something.

El carefully peeked around the corner. A solder, whom the girls had just successfully avoided, was heading towards them. It was a big, strong wizard with a huge sword in his hands. He turned his head back and shortly gazed at his companion, who remained standing behind him. The second soldier didn’t even look like a soldier that much. It was a short, round man in huge glasses.

- No. Let’s go. There is nothing. – the round man adjusted his glasses.

- I told you! I felt something! – angrily roared the first solder.

- Even if there was something, you already scared them off with your screams… - whispered the man.

This claim didn’t stop the magician. The soldier was quickly nearing the girls. Ada and El looked around. They were standing in a long and straight corridor, there was no place to hide. The two froze. Heavy footsteps were getting closer and closer. Suddenly they heard a loud whack.

- My God! Theodor, you are the most useless person I have ever seen! – the soldier screamed furiously.

El saw how the wizard turned around and hurried to the round man who was lying on the ground.

- What an idiot! Did you stumble over your own foot?

- Sorry… Sorry… - mumbled the man on the ground – My glasses…Where are…

The girls decided not to wait until the soldier returned and quickly walked away. For some time, they could still hear how he was cruelly mocking his companion.

- Theodor… Was it Theodor Plunder? – Ada asked the redhead when they were already in the sewer.

- Hmm, yes. I think it was him. He is a distant relative of your mother, right?

- Yes. And he was always very weak as a magician. Why is he a soldier now?

- I have heard his parents asked Iduna to find a place for him. But seems like he is not very happy to become a warrior.

The witches went quite far from the Council Hall. Before opening a portal they both remained quiet for a second. They heard loud noises coming from the city. Swarms of rats plunged the city into chaos.