CHAPTER XII

"How's your evening?" burning with impatience, Sophie wanted to hear the news as soon as possible. "What did you learn about the attack? Am I still suspected, or maybe the culprit has already been found?"

Sitting on the bed, Lulu told her mentor everything she had learned. Then she showed the button she found at the scene. Lulu also told about the long-dead Margot, whose supposedly restless spirit wandered through the abandoned halls.

"The button is very old, they don't make these now," Sophie carefully studied the find. "And here's Margot. Hmm... strange, she seemed quite alive to me."

"And I mean the same thing!" Lulu agreed with her. "Then why does everyone think she's dead?"

"I don't know, but it's better to meet Margot again!" Sophie handed over the button and got out of bed.

"When will we go to her?" Lulu supported this idea.

"Right now, but I'm going alone," Sophie shook her head. "You will sit here and wait for my return. "

"But you're going to die!" Lulu wrapped her arms around her mentor from behind.

"Let me go, or I..." Sophie tried to resist, but Lulu continued to hold her in her arms. "Okay, we'll go together."

Lulu was delighted and, pulling away, exclaimed:

"You won't regret it. You'll see, together we can deal with this copycat!"

"I'm afraid your efforts are in vain," Sophie said without turning around.

"In vain?" Lulu didn't understand.

"Yes, since your mentor has already died…"

"Wait… You're not Sophie!" Lulu sensed an ominous aura emanating from her mentor.

"Exactly," someone hiding under the guise of Sophie snapped his fingers and caused the surrounding world to plunge into darkness.

"What did you do to her?!"

"It's not her you should be worried about, but it's your sweet soul."

Then Lulu witnessed a sinister laugh, which could only be made by a mad person. And when the laughter ended, Sophie's body began to increase in size, and change shape and form. The image of a man or even an elder appeared before the eyes of the girl. His hunched body was covered with a long gray hoodie decorated with all kinds of amulets made of animal bones. The blue skin, snow-white hair, and curved horns sticking out of the head indicated the demonic origin of the creature.

"But when?" Lulu was lost in guesses because she did not remember at all the moment when she was captured in her possession by a demon.

"I was honored to enter the world of the living! I can finally eat as many people as I want! And no one will stop me!" The demon spoke menacingly. "I am great and mighty…"

"Stop talking! Better turn around and have the honor of meeting my fist!" his monologue was interrupted by an uninvited guest.

It was a Time Lord. Still the same irresistible, in a strict suit and a dazzling smile. Black eyes exuded hatred and malice, and clenched fists were ready for a duel.

"And who are you?" the elder managed to squeeze out of himself, as he immediately received a savory punch in the stomach from the time lord.

"Guess!" he grinned.

Lulu stood to the side - or rather, hung in the void - and watched the duel of two demons. They hit each other with their fists on unprotected parts of the body, slapped, kicked, used dirty tricks, and, finally, bit with their sharp teeth. Their faces were frozen in terrible grimaces, and their tongues spat out dirty curses with portions of saliva.

"Fuck off! What have I done to you?" An old man in a hoodie yelled.

"You have trespassed on my lady's property!" The time demon growled.

"Your lady? Ha, so you're the demon who sold himself to a woman."

"None of your business!" he made a sharp backhand.

The hooded demon missed the attack and exclaimed painfully:

"I can't just let the girl go! My orders are to torture her to death, to suck out all her life force!"

"Who ordered it?"

"You know her."

The moment came when the demon of time grabbed the opponent by the throat with his mighty hands and began to strangle him. He tried to free himself, but he did not have enough strength.

"Tell me, who is she?"

"El..." the elder tried to say, panting. "Elizabeth!"

"Thank you for the recognition, henpecked," the demon of time did not finish off the enemy. He let the opponent out of his hands and kicked him in the ass out of this world.

"I wish you a happy journey!" he laughed. "And tell Elizabeth we'll get to her soon."

"Bonbon?" Lulu suggested since any other demon would hardly have defended her. "If it's you, then help me save Sophie."

"I can't," the man turned to her. " I've done my job and I can't interfere anymore. Only you can save Sophie."

"But where is the truth, and where is the lie? I thought I was with Sophie all this time... but it turns out…"

"Don't worry. I'm a Time Lord and I can do a little trick," he said. "Time can be turned back once… So hurry up."

"Thank you," Lulu could only give him her smile.

He nodded back and snapped his fingers. A moment later, Lulu woke up. Her heart was pounding nervously and clenching with fear. It clearly wanted to run away, hide in the depths of her soul, and no longer stick out from there. But the thought that Sophie could die at any moment made Lulu get up and look around. The girl was in her chambers, and the gloom reigned around. Putting her hands to her chest, Lulu tried to calm her heartbeat somehow:

"Everything will be fine. I will definitely save her!"

Lulu got up from the bed and looked into the closet to make sure that the mentor was not there.

It turns out that Sophie went to the enemy camp alone…

* * *

"Have you decided to go alone?" Bonbon asked his mistress.

"Yes. I can't put Lulu in danger," Sophie replied.

She moved towards the abandoned wing along endless, tangled passages, trying to stay in the shadows, almost merging with the surrounding walls. Hearing and eyesight were constantly in tension, as she did not want to catch the eye of the head of the academy or, even worse, the inquisitor. This fighter with evil spirits scared Sophie a little because he most likely had an excellent magical arsenal and experience in fighting magical creatures.

"Maybe we should drop this case and go home?" the familiar tried to dissuade the hostess from her plan.

"I'm not afraid to die!" Sophie moved forward purposefully. "I need to find this old witch."

"And who would have thought that she was with us so many times and we didn't feel anything."

"Yes," she sighed. "Did you protect Lulu from my sister's henchmen?"

"Sure," he chuckled. "However, because of you, her life will change dramatically."

Sophie stopped and thought:

"I shouldn't have contacted Lulu, but I'm very glad that I met her. She somehow changed me, took over my heart."

"And for that, you rewarded the girl with problems," Bonbon finished his thought.

"I didn't want that," she sighed. "But her blood is so delicious…"

Sophie got into the corridor, which was illuminated by cobwebbed magic lamps and candelabra with candles, immediately stopped and prepared to repel the attack.

"It looks like Margot is expecting us and turned on the light for that," Bonbon chuckled.

"I feel someone's presence, but I can't determine his or her location," Sophie closed her eyes and listened to her inner feelings to catch the invisible magical fields.

A moment later, a fireball flew in her direction, which would have hit the hapless teacher, but Sophie deftly jumped to the side and responded with the spell "Calvarus". The magic skull flew in the direction from which the ball of fire appeared. A small explosion destroyed the supposed enemy, and it turned out to be a protective crystal — a special device that could reproduce spells and bring down their power on uninvited guests.

"Oh, Margot knows how to set high-quality traps," Bonbon commented on the fragments of a once whole crystal lying on the floor.

"What did you expect from the old witch?" Sophie muttered.

"I want to see a gorgeous magical battle with colorful lighting and sound effects."

"I see you were very impressed by the visit to the magic theater," Sophie laughed.

"And not only that. You and Lulu fought well too," the familiar reminded her.

"Yes," she agreed. "I'll miss her, but it's for the best."

Sophie carefully moved along the lighted corridors, defused magical traps, and protective barriers, and tried not to step on the mines that lay on the floor.

"Why not collect mines?" Bonbon was confused. "They might come in handy."

His mistress shook her head:

"No, let them lie. They will detain Krivda and her toads-teachers for some time."

"It is logical, but someone else can please them," the familiar tried to hint to his mistress that besides them there is also the ubiquitous Lulu.

"Nonsense. Lulu's asleep, isn't she?" Sophie stopped, expecting to get an affirmative answer from Bonbon.

"Of course, my lady, of course," the demon brazenly lied.

Soon Sophie reached the music room. And she was not at all surprised that Margot wanted to arrange a duel in this very room, where calm and harmony reigned, contributing to creativity. Opening the door, Sophie ran inside and prepared for battle.

A bent old woman with gray hair, leaning on a wooden staff, stood at the far window. She was wearing a black dress with a frayed floor-length skirt, from under which soft leather shoes peeked out. She greeted her guest without turning around:

"Welcome, Mistress Sophie. How are you?

"It's fine, but it's time for you to retire," she replied angrily.

"Yes, you are very similar to your sister. Just as determined and formidable. Ready to blow up the whole world to achieve her goal," Margot laughed and turned to Sophie.

"Don't you dare mention her!" Sophie exclaimed.

"Why? After all, she loved you with all her heart, and you seem to hate Elizabeth," Margot's lifeless eyes looked at the alchemy teacher.

"I'll never forgive her for what she did to me!"

Margot laughed and took a step forward, leaning more comfortably on her staff:

"It's a gift, not a curse. After all, Lulu accepted you for who you are. So…"

"Lulu has nothing to do with it!" Sophie's face turned purple from the rage bubbling inside.

"No, everything in this world is interconnected. I gave this gift to Elizabeth, and she gave it to you," the old woman laughed. "And Lulu will suffer forever because of her unhappy love in eternal dreams…"

Sophie didn't say anything this time. She shouted the attacking spell "Ignis-Fraccini" and directed its power at Margot. From the red-hot flames that attacked the parquet, it became very light and hot in the music class. The fire devoured everything in its path, turning things into ashes. Sophie succumbed to her dark side, losing the ability to think straight. All she cared about now was revenge, she wanted to destroy the cause of her suffering.

Margot laughed even harder because she was perfectly prepared for a magical duel. Its initiator was an inconspicuous carved staff. At the behest of the hostess, he began to pulse and emit energy waves, slowly spreading in different directions. Through mad laughter, Margot recited the first dark spell in an ancient language that few people knew. Rude phrases and shouts were heard from her mouth. A second later, the flames went out, and a black hole formed on the floor.

A small horned creature with the muzzle of a pig slowly climbed out of the portal. Grunting, the imp took the hatchet from his belt and, raising it over his head, ran at Sophie. She stopped the demon with cold magic, freezing it, and then broke it into small pieces with a stone ball.

Margot applauded her:

"Bravo! And what are you going to do with this creature?"

The new demon that jumped out of the abyss turned out to be twice as big as the first one. His goat-like face with two yellow eyes and a long beard smiled maliciously and showed Sophie his curved teeth. The creature tried to pierce her with a jagged spear made of some black metal. But Sophie repeated the spell combination, and it worked flawlessly again.

"Is that all you have?" Sophie rejoiced in the victory over the demonic creatures. "How pathetic you are, lords of the dark world.

Margot spread her hands:

"I'm sorry I can't amuse you with a good fight. I'm just opening the portal, and no one knows what will come out of it."

"Do not beat about the bush. Get ready to die!" Sophie decided to end this duel but did not notice how another portal formed behind her.

Whitish tentacles appeared from it, similar to the arms and legs of an octopus, the same slippery and with suckers. As Sophie prepared to release an attacking spell, the tentacles wrapped around her leg and yanked her sharply, thereby knocking her to the floor.

"What is it?!" Before Sophie knew it, her body was bound by the sticky and foul-smelling tentacles of an unprecedented demon.

A tangle of constantly moving appendages with one big eye in the middle appeared in intermittent thrust from the funnel, as if it was forcibly pushed out of another world.

"Let me go, you beast!" Sophie tried to resist, but the more she tried to free herself, the more the tentacles squeezed her.

"Oh, tentacle-gripper. It's a pretty rare demon," Margot rejoiced. "What luck to see him at least once in my life."

"Just you wait till I get my hands on you!" Sophie screamed, trying to free herself.

Tentacles, as it turned out, completely obeyed the old lady. She ordered him to lift Sophia up and lean her against the wall of the room. She watched as Margot took off the blanket from the piano and, passing her hand over it, transformed the playing instrument into a real altar for sacrifices. The black monolith with red veins cracks pulsed as if it possessed a heart. The altar smelled of death, and Sophie heard the screams of innocent victims whose lives had once ended on the surface of the altar.

"Great, I think your life will be enough to open a bigger portal and help Elizabeth," Margot laughed.

She turned to Sophie. A small ritual dagger glittered in her hands, ready to pierce flesh and spill scarlet blood on the cold surface of the monolith. Sophie tried to pull away, but the demon held her tightly.

"I told you not to go in here alone," Bonbon's calm voice rang out in Sophie's head.

"Yes," she conceded. "It looks like I'm really a good-for-nothing self-taught witch."

Margot ordered a monster from the dark world to put Sophie on a sacrificial stone. And as soon as he obeyed her decree, Sophie's eyes were able to contemplate the tip of a dagger approaching her. It wanted to pierce where the cursed heart was beating.

For some reason, images from the past began to appear in Sophie's head: most of them were bad, bringing pain and sadness, and a few good ones - joy and happiness. The last thing she remembered was Lulu's charming smile and her perky laugh. That's what she really needed right now.

"I'm sorry, Lulu… I can't be with you," Sophie thought and, closing her eyes, prepared for death.