Page 37 of Witch Queen

It was becoming clear that one side was defending the city that rose in the midst of the otherwise barren terrain.

Mae scanned the battleground with a guarded look. She seemed much calmer than Vlad felt.

Then again, Na Ri was born in the Underworld.

“Brim, do you know what’s happening?” Mae asked the fox tensely.

Brimstone transformed,Containenlarging to accommodate his growing size. They stared.

“Is it me or is he bigger than usual?” Cortes said.

Popo’s gaze dropped. “Whoa, look at the size of his?—!”

“My demonic powers are stronger in this realm,” Brimstone interrupted, towering over them, “hence my true physical manifestation.” He looked at Mae. “You, my witch, are infinitely stronger here than you are on Earth.” His crimson gaze switched to Vlad. “And so are you, son of Ilmon.”

Vlad’s throat tightened. “Is that why I’m feeling strange?” He touched his belly. “Like there’s some kind of fire in me?!”

A hot feeling had ignited within him since they’d materialized in the Underworld. It was expanding at a speed that made his insides churn. In its wake came a sense of potency he’d never experienced before.

His bond with Tarang thrummed with the same formidable energy.

“You should both stop resisting it.” The nine-tailed fox nudged Tarang gently with his snout before straightening and looking out across the battlefield. “As for what we are witnessing, it appears we have found the reason for the Soul Reaper queen’s disappearance.”

They followed his gaze. Mae sucked in air.

Alicia Calvarro carved the heads off a score of ten-foot-tall demons where she fought not far from a bridge that led to the gates of the city. Her black cloak fluttered around her skeletal form and her giant scythe dripped with the blood of the enemies she had felled.

A chill danced down Vlad’s spine when he spotted the allies who fought alongside the Reaper queen. They were hard to miss.

Each ruby-eyed, demonic figurehead was as big and as powerful looking as Barquiel. The enormous monsters they rode stamped on lesser fiends and beasts, the helldragons among them decimating entire hordes of the enemy as they spewed jets of black-tinged flames from their wicked jaws.

But the figure that captured his attention was a female demon with inky wings and an enormous spear whose shaft was made of dozens of hissing, black vipers the width of his arm. She moved like a Goddess of death across the battle ground, her lone figure blurring and her weapon and fists and feet raining damnation on all those she struck.

“Is that Astarte?!” Mae gasped.

“Yes. That is Astaroth, the Great Duke of Hell. She was the Goddess Astarte before she fell from Heaven. The ones fighting alongside her are Leaders of the Grigori. They too were once powerful Heavenly beings.” Brimstone’s eyes flashed. “It seems we are to be called to battle sooner than we anticipated, my witch. We must assist?—”

A shadow engulfed them. They looked up.

Bile burned the back of Vlad’s throat.

A pair of snarling helldragons was plummeting toward them.

Mae cursed and hastily maneuveredContain.

The falling beasts missed them by inches, the monsters’ passage sucking the magic sphere into a powerful downdraft before Mae stabilized it.

The helldragons carved a giant depression in the ground when they crash-landed.

The smaller, purple beast slipped out from under its enemy’s body and batted it with a thick, horned tail. The green helldragon screeched as the barbs raked its face and left eye. The purple beast sank its teeth into its foe’s wing with a mighty growl and ripped a jagged tear in the upper pinion.

The green helldragon opened its jaws on a fireball that seared Vlad’s vision. He blinked in time to see the purple helldragon jump aside nimbly and charge the enemy.

It headbutted the green helldragon violently in the chest and sent it stumbling and rolling to the ground. The green helldragon shook its head dazedly before climbing unsteadily to its feet. A fireball struck it straight in the face. The wounded party whirled around and took flight, one wing drooping.

“And there’s more where that came from, scumbag!” the purple helldragon shouted after its enemy.

“Shit,” Cortes mumbled. “It can talk?!”

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