Page 88 of Witch Queen

But it was the indomitable power Vlad demonstrated that made Mae’s pulse quicken. The incubus brought entire troops of hideous monsters to their knees with his sheer demonic will before finishing them off with his blades and the energy bombs Ilmon had taught him to use, Tarang delivering the death blow to many with his claws and fangs.

Mae swallowed.Damn. We would never have gotten this strong had we not gone to Hell.

I don’t know about that, my witch.Brimstone stopped and gazed at her, his crimson eyes bright with affection even across the distance.You could even give Azazel a run for his money right now.

Mae blinked.Really?!

Really,Brimstone huffed.Now, how about you show these fools the power of the Witch Queen?

Mae smiled faintly. She took a shallow breath and guided the magic bubbling inside her veins into her next spells. The power she unleashed detonated across the park with a force that made her allies cry out in surprise and the monsters attacking them scream.

“Negate!Purge!Decimate!”

The first two spells robbed the ghouls and devils of the demonic energy powering their bodies and the black magic controlling their minds.Decimatecrackled violently above her head as it sent out deadly currents next, the black and crimson arcs snaking through the air to reduce the enemy to ash. It took a moment for her to make out those still standing in the aftermath of her devastating attack.

Mae lowered her brows.

The only creatures who’d resisted her spells were the abominations Vedran had put together from the dead bodies of the humans, fiends, and hellbeasts he had killed.

Her frown deepened when she detected the dark cores inside them. The soul orbs throbbed with malevolence, powering the creatures with a continuous supply of black magic faster thanPurgecould consume it.

Looks like he put those things inside them to counter my magic.

“Shame you didn’t know about this spell, asshole,” she muttered darkly.

Magic whipped her clothes and hair into a frenzy as she voiced the first incantation Azazel had taught her and Na Ri.

“DECAY!”

The air thickened, the sharp rise in pressure driving many to clutch their heads and drop to their knees.

Mae’s heart thudded wildly against her ribs at the crimson light that bloomed into life around her and rolled across the landscape. Laced with black and white magic, the tide uprooted bushes, bowed trees, and made water surge violently across the lakes and ponds in the park.

The chimeras screeched, the spell destroying their cores and the vile stitches keeping their bodies together.Decayconsumed their dead flesh until all that was left were wispy, black clouds that faded into nothingness.

The end came so suddenly that even Mae blinked. A deafening silence fell across Central Park in the wake of the enemy’s downfall. Her chest shuddered, not so much because she was out of breath as because the magic she had just wielded defied the laws of this world.

Mae’s pulse was still racing when she floated to the ground. Vlad and Cortes joined her.

The incubus’s eyes glittered.

“That was pretty incredible,” he said quietly.

“Yeah, remind me never to piss you off,” Cortes grunted.

Mae smiled faintly. “You guys weren’t so bad yourselves.”

“Mae!” someone shouted.

They turned.

Abraham was running across the park, Bryony following in Rambrog’s arms. Mae’s eyes widened at the sight of the sorcerer behind them.

“Oscar!” Vlad hissed.

His knuckles blanched on his demonic blades.

Mae couldn’t take her eyes off the black magic sorcerer. He looked…different. She startled when she realized what it was about him that had changed.

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