The being appeared a few metres away, it's half severed head going back to normal at a visibly fast pace. it's regeneration was just as powerful as a vampire's, if not more.
Aldritch was only a bit surprised since that was the first time he had encounter an enemy who could heal themselves. With this development, he wasn't sure how the fight would turn out anymore, not that he was sure before either.
...
While Aldritch faced off with the main body, Helga, Naiha, and Veronica were in a completely different situation.
They had to somehow coordinate themselves and fight against Aldritch, while fending off the negative energy from the malevolent spirits around them, and resisting the will of the great mother struggling to be free.
Unlike what they initially prepared for, their job became a hundred times more difficult after their ritual to revive the great mother came through.
"Is she stable yet?" Veronica asked.
"Not completely yet, hold on just a little longer." Helga responded.
After Helga let go of her end of the support to try and put Naiha back to her senses, Veronica had to be the one to hold and maintain their connection while fighting the increasing will of the great mother over her body.
To conduct the ritual, all three of them were at different locations within the kingdom, Helga sitting in the north region, Naiha sitting in the south-west, and Veronica sitting South-east. In unison, they formed a triangle, which was meant to be the base for the formation.
A second set of witches handling other positions would have made their entire formation even more stable, but with the shortage of manpower, these positions were taken over by special crystals that had been specially prepared for such a scenario. Since those were sub positions within the entire formation, it worked.
The body of the great mother could exist within this formation, and outside the formation its power would wane and disappear rapidly.
As the three of them were in different locations, it took at least a minute and a half for Helga to prepare a teleportation circle to where Naiha was so she could reach her physically.
On arrival after appearing within the spacious single room house that had been prepared for this particular occasion, Helga met a somewhat crazed Naiha.
Apart from her mana that was flaring up and spiraling out of control, Helga could see several spirits around her, what their aim was remained unclear, so Helga could only make guesses.
She developed a somewhat serious and concerned look as she approached Naiha slowly, 'if only Ashire was here...' she thought to herself.
Before attempting anything, she took a few moments to cast several protection spells on herself to make sure of her safety before going any further.
Instead of attempting to communicate with Naiha, Helga took a seat on the ground close to Naiha who was seated on a cushion.
Once again, Helga sat cross legged beside Naiha with some space between both of them. This time Naiha was lying on the floor in the same clothes she had on, a black dress that spotted no other colours.
As Helga got to work, time past gradually as seconds became minutes, and then hours. Helga herself was getting impatient as the process was taking far too long.
After about three hours, she could feel Naiha returning back to her senses and regaining consciousness, at least in that astral world where they were.
"Helga?" Naiha said softly as her eyes struggled to open, almost as though there was some resistance.
'Oh, at long last!'
"Naiha! Hold on, don't be too rash, I'm almost done." Helga said to Naiha once she noticed how she was struggling to bring her eyes open.
All of a sudden, Naiha's eyes came open, widely, as she grabbed Helga by the arm in a tight grip that started to cause some pain, "HELGA!!! HELGA!!! GET OUT! IT'S A TRAP! IT'S A TRAP!!!" Naiha screamed almost at the top of her lungs, sounding a firm warning. Even with all her efforts, it was already too late.
Helga on the other hand was thrown into a momentary confused state as she tried to understand what was going on.
Seeing Helga in such a state, Naiha sprang up into a defensive pose, raising both hands to her side as conjured an instant spell to create a defensive barrier around them.
Not even thinking things further, she immediately tried to contact Veronica, but her magic failed through.
'I can't contact Veronica from this place! Damn it!' She cursed internally.
Helga regained herself in just a moment, questioning Naiha for answers as she couldn't quite understand what was going on.
"Can't you tell by yourself? Look around!" Naiha retorted back, visibly straining her magic to maintain the barrier from seemingly nothing, thin air as far as Helga could see.
"What?" Helga looked around, unable to notice anything amiss as she inspected her surroundings.
It was while she was looking around that she saw a part of Naiha's magic barrier weaken, forming a shapeless hole through the shield barrier. Instead of the normal white background that stretched out for infinity, what came up on the other side of that singular hole was a grotesque monster, one covered in slimy fluids with the face of a gargoyle.
Instinctively almost, without a second thought, Helga forced several hand signs while uttering arcane words, and in a second or two, she conjured a spell, placing her right hand that shone with a dim white hue of magical light that slowly flowed into her body.
In that very instant, the world around her began deconstructing, unfolding a much more dangerous and distasteful environment filled with rocks, lava, and uncountable monsters and atrocious looking creatures.
"Oh... we're in big trouble."