Chapter 25

Due to the fact that we were returning in the late afternoon, there was a thick fog around the house. As a result, I strengthened my SE body just in case. As soon as SE improved my eyesight... I saw something very strange... Miss Raske's shadow was completely different. 

The shadow looked like something deformed that did not belong to any person. Legs and arms twisted at an unnatural angle, all this was complemented by hair floating as if in water. 

"Adam, is something wrong?" Beatrice asked me. 

After that, Elske, who was walking in front of us, also noticed me, and at the moment when she turned around, I saw two white dots in the place where blue eyes once stood. When I saw this, I tried not to show any signs of surprise. After all, if she suspects something... it will be bad for me already. 

"No, I was just thinking about the differences between Britain and these lands." 

Elske just smiled and said: 

"I would not say that there is a big difference." 

"Mom, have you been to Britain?" 

Elske clearly wanted to say something in the affirmative, but very quickly pulled herself together and said: 

"That's what I've heard, at least." 

"I see, I was just wondering when you would have time to stay in Britain," Beatrice said with a smile. 

As I heard, Beatrice's mother got pregnant with her at a pretty young age. And based on Beatrice's words, her mother spent all her time with the family. At the same time, Elske's recent rhetoric suggested that the proposal was based on experience. For an experience that Elske couldn't have. 

The rest of the way passed without talking, but I no longer cleaned the SE, but on the contrary, I was ready for any attack. 

As soon as we got pretty close to the house, I was able to see what was happening near this very house. And the picture was very scary... Hundreds of people in white robes, most of whom were women. 

Among them, I saw... Another Elite, all of them watching our every move, but not getting any closer. It was as if something was holding them back. Beatrice certainly didn't see all these women, but the one who pretended to be Elska... She couldn't help but see them. 

And the fact that this creature was pretending to be Elske was understandable. This was indicated by such facts as the eyes, the shadow, and the behavior of the woman in general. 

"Mom, did something amuse you?" 

Beatrice's question literally pulled me out of my thoughts, and I could see how Elske was looking at another Elske. The smile of the non-Elske was... malicious, as if she was enjoying the suffering that Elske was experiencing. 

"I remembered an old joke from Hans," the one who pretended to be Beatrice's mother answered with a smile. 

"Mrs. Raske, can Beatrice and I talk before we start?" 

The woman only nodded after thinking about it: 

"Just for a little while." 

"OK," I smiled already. 

Beatrice, who did not understand what was going on, just blinked in disbelief. But as soon as everything was decided, I grabbed her hands and went up to the room. 

"Adam, what happened?!" Beatrice hissed as we entered the room. 

While I was looking around, the girl was wondering what the hell was going on. 

"Everything seems to be in order," I concluded as soon as I finished the examination. 

"What's okay? Adam, can you tell me what's going on?" Beatrice asked, who was slightly stressed by my actions. 

It was very difficult to tell what I saw... But it would be a mistake not to tell. Not knowing where to start, I was silent for a couple of seconds: 

"Beatrice, do you remember saying that... Has your mom changed since your grandmother died?" 

"Yes," Beatrice said, looking at me in disbelief. 

"Yeah... Of course, Adam chose the beginning..." 

"I know how it sounds... But your mother is no longer your mother from that moment on. And I'm not talking about a mental state that could well have changed since the death of a loved one. And something much more terrifying..." 

Seeing the girl's incredulous look and the incipient doubts about my sanity... 

"In this world, besides the usual things that you are used to, there is something much more mysterious," at this moment, SE pulled out his balls. "As for example, like this." 

The girl, who saw the crimson flashes of energy that took the shape of a ball, stared. The shock that was sealed in the girl's gaze would have been enough for three people. 

"Give me time to realize this," Beatrice said slowly, clutching her head. 

"Of course, I understand how much this breaks the reality that is familiar to you." 

Beatrice no longer heard me and began to think hard. After a few long minutes, she resigned herself: 

"Well, in this world... there is something similar. But what is it?" 

I smiled mirthlessly: 

"Magic. And I am, as you might understand, a novice magician." 

"I see," Beatrice simply said. 

"I thought it would be difficult to accept?" I couldn't resist asking. 

The girl smiled mirthlessly and said: 

"Everything that happened up to this day... It seemed to tell me that there was something unusual in our world." 

Apparently, all those nightmares that happened to her... Reality could not explain all that horror in the smallest details. 

"I see... In that case, let's move on to your mother... Or rather, pretending to be her..." 

"What are you talking about?" 

"Haa... Do you remember those days when it seemed to you that someone was standing outside the house?" 

"Let's say..." 

"Well, how should I tell you... The one who was watching over you was Elske." 

"What?" 

"Something has taken over your mother's body." 

"You're kidding, Adam..." Beatrice said, not believing my words. 

But apparently understanding something, she began to cry and asked: 

"How is this possible?" 

The horror that gripped the girl was quite understandable... After all, accepting the fact that some entity is sitting and pretending to be your mother... 

"Is this even possible?" Beatrice asked me hopefully. 

She hoped to hear "No" because it would be easier to realize the new reality. 

"Yes, there are many creatures in this world capable of such a thing," I answered her with a sad smile. 

My words seemed to take the core of the girl's soul out of her; she literally weakened before my eyes. 

"How is that?.." She said, kneeling down. 

I didn't know how to cheer her up in such a situation, and I just put my hand on her shoulder as a sign of support. The girl spoke after a few minutes of silence: 

"How can we destroy that creature?" 

"Leave it to me." 

At the same moment, I heard the sound of the door opening... After that, the sounds of footsteps heavier than Elske's were heard below. 

"I had to wait a long time for you..." Elska said with displeasure. 

"We apologize for the wait... Mrs. Hel." A rough male voice sounded. 

No one said anything for a couple of minutes, and I had already decided that this was a banal mistake, when suddenly a non-Elska spoke: 

"I forgive you. Let's get this case over with." 

"Okay, where exactly is Beatrice?" A completely different voice asked. 

"Upstairs, heh, with a guy." 

"Do you think that a guy is interested in a girl?" - a third unfamiliar voice. 

"It is quite possible." 

"Do I need to be careful with him?" 

"Preferably. Still, we don't want someone else to be interested in this place?" 

"OK." 

After that, four bodies began to move around the house. What I heard did not surprise me so much because this very conversation gave answers to what the hell is going on here. 

"Adam, did something else happen?" Beatrice asked, bringing me out of my thoughts again. 

Her worried face instantly forced her to come up with the nearest plan of action. 

"Beatrice, we don't have much time... Four people are coming up to us, one of whom is the entity that pretends to be your mother. And the three remaining are her subordinates. So you need to hide." 

I said all this while looking straight into her eyes. The girl, after looking at me for a couple of seconds and seeing something, nodded decisively. After that, the girl went to a rather expected place, but there she is unlikely to interfere with me. 

"Heh, the closet is..." 

By this point, the sounds of footsteps were much closer and even without an enhanced body, the owners of these steps could be heard. 

"Honey, are you all there already?" "Mrs. Hel" asked in Elske's voice. 

But Beatrice did not answer in any way, and apparently the one who was standing on the other side, having understood something, said: 

"I need your help." - at that moment, the door handle began to twitch. 

Meanwhile, I had already created four DE balls, roughly figuring out where to aim. 

"Eh... I didn't want to do that." 

BAM 

The door flew out of its hinges with a bang and four bodies came forward. Three of them were wearing a strange mask of either a bull or a cow. The mask had the same mark as the girl who played Hel at the performance... And the same signs were inside this house. 

Elske was standing behind them with a satisfied smile on her face: 

"Oh, Adam. Where's Beatrice?" 

"Don't you care, Hel?" 

At the same moment, four sparks outside my body literally destroyed three of them. But I did not feel any increase in the reserve or the number of sparks. 

"Hm... Strange." 

The woman who was hiding under the guise of Elske clicked her tongue in displeasure: 

"And what does Adam mean by that?" - completely white eyes were a little scary, but compared to the afterlife... 

"Heh, I was wondering what the hell was going on here... And it turns out to be an ordinary witch who once decided to live longer." 

While I was saying this, I felt the mental pressure on my shields. And it was worth saying that for the first second my occlumency shields held up well. However, in the very next second, I began to feel that the shields would soon break. So I had to turn on DE again, and at that moment the mental pressure disappeared. 

Hela didn't have anything wrong with me, her eyes widened for a second, but she came to her senses pretty quickly: 

"You're scaring me, Adam." The woman pretended to exclaim, then pulled out a knife from somewhere. "What are you going to do now?" 

I thought for a moment that she would attack me and prepared three sparks. But here, too, she surprised me. After all, this woman put a knife to my throat in front of my eyes and said: 

"Voor Moloch!" - and made a vertical incision. 

The ritual suicide knocked me out of my rut for a minute, but the bony fingers coming out of the vertical wound instantly brought me back to my senses. 

I had no desire to wait until this thing got out of Elske's body to the end and started bombing this body with my SE. The first 3 seemed to destroy numerous barriers. But the 4th shell hit exactly the target, and the whole room was filled with a screech of incredible proportions. 

"Hm... Is that all?" 

As soon as I hit that bony hand, the attempts to get out of the Box stopped. But to expect that it was all stupid, because in the very next second something pulled me down. 

"What the?!" - I only managed to exclaim falling. 

As expected, a bony hand was holding onto my leg, and a carcass began to climb out from under the bed... The same bony, or to be more precise, a mummified body. Her withered face was decorated with a sign as if carved into the skin, and her white eyes looked as if through me. 

"Moloch, veni, et perdere inimicum tuum." - this monster spoke.