Helen did not feel unusual nor too excited during Alison’s demonstration. After all, her grandma also used magic for the chores all the time. But when her eyes fell onto the catalyst stone, a sudden hoarse voice of a woman resounded in her head.

“ry… ury and tch it…” was what it said.

Helen looked left and right only to see there was no one who tried to talk to her, thus she just ignored it as she thought it was just her brain playing her. Yet, the voice bothered her the second time, then, with clearer words.

“Hurry and fetch it…”

Now Helen knew it was not her imagination. Yes, there was a Telepathic Magic, but it will not be possible if the user was not within the sight of the recipient.

A feeling of unrest grew within Helen. Her eyes started to dart around, trying to figure out what was going on.

Amidst the confusion, Helen decided to just follow the voice’s instruction anyway. She thought that by taking the catalyst stone, her worries will go away.

‘Yes!’ She grasped the stone tightly in her hand.

Nothing special happened.

Maybe the paranoia finally took the better of her, but the lively classroom slowly fell silent until all she could hear was her own heartbeat.

That was when her fear reached another peak.

“Ca-”

Before she could reach out to her friend, a huge magical field appeared out of nowhere and extended to as far as the eye can see.

There was nothing of the expected shockwave. However, the flocks of birds that flew in the sky suddenly stopped flapping their wings, whereas all the people in the class stopped moving.

Helen saw that the world had turned black and white as an invisible force seemed to keep everything around her from moving.

The time has stopped!

Helen too, could no longer move her body, only her eyes could. Weirdly enough, she was the only one with colors in this state.

Suddenly, a spatial distortion appeared on one corner of the wall. From within it, a three meters tall, stick-like humanoid aberration came into existence.

It was made out of small black particles that moved around its body. Its two feet were that of a bird, whereas its two clawed hands were long enough to reach the ground.

The aberration has no fixed head, however. Only a mass of dense black particles were in its place.

Helen found her heart missing a beat and cold sweat drenched her back. The feeling of vulnerability overwhelmed her as she hoped that whatever it is, was just passing through.

Alas, reality was often disappointing. The creature jerked its “neck” toward Helen. Directly showing a line of tens of bloody beads, which seemed to be its eyes.

Helen’s mind went blank, she had lost her reasoning as she started to desperately call for help. Unfortunately, only whimpering sounds came out of her throat as she could not open her mouth.

Even if she could scream, nothing else seemed to move anyway.

“Hoo…” a deformed red maw parted open on the creature’s chest. Its voice sounded like a trailing white noise of a broken tape.

The creature walked closer to Helen, dragging its long claws while doing so. Every step it took caused Helen’s heart to palpitate.

“A hatchling of the Mistis Hamlet… this far away... what a rare finding…”

At this point, the creature was so close that their face almost touched. Furthermore, Helen noticed that her breath was getting visible as heat rapidly leaving her body rapidly.

It was so sudden that she found it hurtful to even breathe properly.

Her breath hastened, while tears poured down from the corner of her eyes. She firmly believed that she was going to die, yet what could a child like her do in front of such terror.

“There is... no need to cry…” the creature extended its hand towards Helen’s face and layer of frost started to appear on her cheek.

But before it could touch Helen’s skin, a sudden power burst out from around her.

“UAAARRGH!” the burst of magical shockwave did not leave the creature unscathed, its right arm was disintegrated as it fell on its knees.

The creature looked up and noticed that streams blinding light appeared from behind the girl in front of it. A majestic figure bathed in light slowly revealed herself as she descended from heaven.

Wherever the light reached, the cold energy will be thwarted away, every inch of it contained enough power to threaten the creature’s very existence.

“Azatoth, you should be reminded of the covenant!” A stern woman's voice resounded. “Are you planning to wage a war?!”

“Huhuhu… if it wasn't her highness… the Golden Empress herself…” The creature stood up then dramatically bending its waist.

“I was just teasing her...” It flailed its non-existent right arm. “Look… I was the one who got hurt here… it really hurt you know...”

“Done playing around?” The woman did not soften her tone.

“Hah! You can't take a joke... as always!” the black particles on its head moved to its damaged arm, and instantly, it recovered like nothing happened.

“I will be leaving then…” the creature turned toward the opposite wall of the classroom. Before it left, it took another glance at Helen. “I feel like we will meet again little girl… you are quite… unusual!”

“SCRAM!” The light around the woman suddenly increased in intensity as if threatening to scorch the creature to ashes.

“Fine… fine… huhuhu…”

Passing the spatial distortion, the creature finally disappeared from their sight. By then, Helen was able to move her body again.

But before she could utter a word, the figure in light move to her front and pull Helen tightly into her embrace.

“My child, mother finally get to see you.”