Looking at the young girl in front of her, who was currently eating the brain of a similarly young boy, as well as at the soul that inhabited her body, which was much older than her physical age would have you believe, Beatrice couldn't help but touch her chin, as a suspicious look appeared on her face.
'Was she possessed?' thought Beatrice as she looked at the young girl with an interested look on her face.
Although body possession was very much not perfect, and would have great effects on the person doing the possession, Beatrice was not interested in the being that was possessing, instead, she was much more interested in the little girl that had seemingly been possessed.
In an instant, Beatrice appeared behind 'Alexa' and placed her hand on the latter's head, causing the girl to quickly become unconscious.
After just a few moments, Beatrice had found what she had searching for, the soul of the original host of this body, making her certain that a possession had taken place.
A moment later, Beatrice then turned her attention onto the mage that had done the possessing, only to be disappointed a moment later.
Unlike what Beatrice had expected, the mage that had possessed Alexa, was not actually an Official Mage, and was instead just a mage apprentice.
In fact, she was not even a powerful mage apprentice, being quite pitifully weak in fact, only knowing a few spells.
In just a few moments, the entire life of this mage flashed through Beatrice's eyes, causing Beatrice to click her teeth.
"I almost pity her..." mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the little girl in front of her with a weird expression on her face.
As one might expect, the mage that had possessed Alexa, 'Lady Scythia' had been born, raised, and lived her entire life here on Golwall Island, where both the density of elemental energy, and the number of mages was extremely pitiful.
Unlike Diana, Scythia did not have the opportunity to go to any sort of magic academy, as she was a commoner, and was busy surviving.
By the time Scythia discovered the existence of mages, as well as her talent thanks to a tome she had found in the wilderness, she was already 23 years old, making no magic academy willing to take her in, as her personality had already been formed, and she would not be able to truly feel a sense of belonging to any academy.
As such, to learn magic, Scythia had to rely on the random tome that she had found at random.
Of course, if Scythia had truly found the tome at random, or she had been attracted by it thanks to her elemental affinity, was another question entirely.
Sadly, though, time had already taken its toll on the ancient tome that Scythia had found, making it very incomplete.
As such, the tome had just a few spells in it, including some curses that Scythia had not yet managed to master, as well as a few offensive spells, and finally, a very incomplete body possession spell.
Using these spells as her foundation though, Scythia managed to survive out in the barren wilderness of Golwall island for over forty years, allowing her to become a High Ranking Mage Apprentice at last.
By that time though, thanks to her extremely rough childhood, and the many injuries that Scythia had throughout her life, her body was at it's limit, causing her to take a final risk.
Originally, back in the ancient past, the tome might have had a quite well-made body possession spell, but in the state that Scythia had found it, the spell lacked several important parts, which meant that no sane mage would try to cast it on themselves, as the danger of even complete body possession was extremely high.
In the end, knowing that although her soul still had a lot of time left, her body was nearly dead, Scythia took this risk that had a 99 percent chance of killing her, and searched for someone with at least a sliver of Darkness Affinity, before finding Alexa just as her body was about to collapse.
Somehow, though, it was as if Scythia's risk taking behavior was seen by the gods, who decided to give her a chance to survive, although in not a very good state.
As Scythia's spell was incomplete, it seemed as though a some severe damage had been done to Scythia's soul, which the latter was completely aware of, which led her to the current scene.
After discovering the fact that her soul was losing more and more of its energy every moment, Scythia decided to devour another soul, hoping to use it as a source of energy while she figured out a more permanent solution.
...
In the end, though, Beatrice could see Scythia's future much more clearly than Scythia herself.
Although devouring souls is not necessarily bad, and Beatrice herself had done so, one single word was key when doing something like that.
Moderation.
No matter what Scythia did, her need to devour souls to sustain herself would soon lead to her doom, as her own soul would become muddled by the souls she devoured, and would transform into a monstrosity without any mind of its own, beginning to wander the island, searching for more and more souls to devour.
Even though Beatrice felt quite a bit of pity towards the rather unfortunate mage, an idea suddenly popped up into her mind.
"Letting you live on like this, and not letting you kill yourself by devouring souls could be considered helping you..." mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly swapped the position of Alexa's and Scythia's souls, placing Alexa back in control using her overwhelming raw power.
A moment later, under Beatrice's power, Scythia's soul suddenly became extremely fragile and weak, before shattering into some tiny pieces in Alexa's body.
A few moments later, Beatrice, who felt as though she had found a new apprentice, began helping Alexa devour the pieces of Scythia's soul.