Vincent joins the Battle

Eleanor braced herself, gritting her teeth as the Dread Queen's ear-splitting shriek sliced through the air, her billowing shadowy robes whipping furiously in the unnatural winds of her towering rage. "You insolent fools! Do you wretched cretins realize what you've done?" she screeched, spittle flying from her twisted mouth.

The dark well imploded with a thunderous boom that shook the ground beneath their feet, the swirling vortex spiraling down into infinite oblivion. Shane grinned fiercely, his eyes glinting with hard-won triumph. "Oh yeah, we just smoked your precious Anchor of Darkness! No more demon pals or spooky spells for your wicked self."

But as the last embers dissolved into wisps of acrid smoke, an ominous pulse emerged from the wreckage, like the beating of a hellish heart. To Eleanor's spiraling horror, bony arms grasping and clawing erupted from the rubble, and the witch herself crawled forth, darkness now insidiously fused to her crumbling flesh.

"The price is paid! I shall reap from your very light instead!" the reanimated creature snarled, her voice like shards of obsidian. Before Eleanor could react, shadowy talons shot forth and plunged deep into Shane's mechanical eye with horrific force. He managed only a grunt of surprised pain as those wicked claws scored across his left eye, leaving a ragged gash that instantly welled crimson. Eleanor's stomach dropped as she saw blinding energy pour forth from his ruined eye in searing streams, funneled directly into the insatiable maw of the demonic witch in brutal retaliation.

Laughing now in maniacal, unrestrained ecstasy, the undead horror rose to its full terrible height, engorged with Shane's stolen power coursing through its grotesque form. "Now I shall unmake your pathetic worlds, unravel the fabric of existence itself!" it roared in dark, unspeakable glee.

Aghast, Eleanor realized too late that Oriander's binding enchantments must have tethered Shane's advanced technology to the Dread Queen when the Anchor was destroyed. And that searing light, the miraculous power that allowed him to traverse the veils between realms, now fueled the witch's nightmares anew with accelerated, cosmic potency.

Fingers clenched white-knuckled around her scepter, the thrum of its mystic energy offering cold comfort, Eleanor faced the cackling villain. Shane slumped weakly behind her, the terrible wound inflicted upon him already sapping his strength. But she could feel that same insistent, alien current of magic within her own weapon too, a creeping awareness of the inescapable truth dawning upon her with fresh horror. No matter what eventualities, what victorious or tragic outcomes still awaited across infinite worlds - here, on the scorched plane of Eldoria, it would all end now in cataclysmic finality.

Eleanor's mind raced, thoughts whirling as she desperately grasped for solutions, for any way to save her dearest friend and break this nightmare's vicious cycle before it unmade their worlds in earnest. The empowered witch cackled and gloated over Shane's weakened form, drunk on her rapidly magnifying powers, but Eleanor tuned out the vile taunts. She had to break the siphon somehow before the Queen's corruption and malevolence cascaded outwards in an unstoppable tsunami of darkness.

Then her frantic gaze landed upon them - a huddled, emaciated group of prisoners, their bodies twisted and malformed from enduring the Anchor's insidious corruptions first-hand. Among their pitifully gaunt faces, she recognized one...a small spark of desperate hope flaring within her breast.

"The princess, look!" Eleanor cried urgently, jabbing her finger towards a painfully thin, haunted-looking woman whose matted hair and sunken features momentarily masked her royal lineage. The Dread Queen spun with a snarl of outrage, but Eleanor was already leaping forward, her scepter clutched in both hands and blazing with blinding azure energies.

The beam of coherent magic lanced out, a heaven forged lance of pure light that pierced the shadowy tendril tethering the witch to Shane. With a screech of pain and denial, the dark energies binding and torturing the prisoners were abruptly severed.

"What is this trickery?"

Eleanor braced herself, feet set wide as gritting her teeth hard enough to crack enamel as the Dread Queen's ear-splitting shriek sliced through the air like a white-hot blade. The dark sovereign's billowing shadowy robes whipped furiously in the unnatural winds of her towering, incandescent rage, tendrils of darkness coiling and lashing about her withered form. "You insolent fools! You wretched, insignificant cretins - do you truly realize what you've done?" she screeched, spittle flying from her twisted, lipless mouth as her sunken eyes burned with maddened intensity.

The massive obsidian well at the center of the unhallowed ground imploded with a thunderous boom that shook the very bedrock beneath their feet. Eleanor fought for balance as fissures cracked apart the scorched earth, the swirling vortex of the now-destroyed Anchor spiraling down into infinite oblivion with a sound like some Great Leviathan being violently drained. Shane grinned fiercely, his single remaining eye glinting with hard-won triumph despite the ragged wound oozing blood down his cheek. "Oh yeah, we just smoked your precious Anchor of Darkness, bitch! No more demon pals or spooky spells for your wicked self ever again."

But as the last embers dissolved into wisps of acrid black smoke, an ominous pulse emerged from the wreckage, like the beating of some huge, hellish heart. To Eleanor's spiraling horror, bony arms - grasping, clawing appendages tipped with hooked talons - erupted from the rubble in a spray of shattered stone. And from that scattered detritus, the Dread Queen herself crawled forth, darkness now sickeningly, insidiously fused to her crumbling flesh in an unholy mockery of life.

"The price is paid in full! I shall simply reap from your very light instead, take your precious hope and vigor to refuel my reign!" the reanimated, corrupted creature snarled in a voice like shards of obsidian ground together. Before Eleanor could react or raise her defenses, those shadowy talons shot forth with blurring speed, plunging deep into Shane's mechanical eye with horrific force.

He managed only a strangled grunt of surprised pain as those wicked claws punched through the protective casing and augmented musculature as though it were parchment. Eleanor's stomach dropped out from under her as she saw blinding energy - the ethereal fires that allowed Shane's technological marvel to traverse the cosmic veils between realms - pour forth from his ruined eye in searing streams of blue-white incandescence. The power was funneled directly into the insatiable, gaping maw of the demonic witch in brutal, reckless retaliation.

Laughing now in maniacal, unrestrained ecstasy, her cackling peals shaking the desolate valley, the undead horror rose to its full terrible height, grotesquely engorged with Shane's stolen energies coursing through its malformed, reeking anatomy in pulsating waves. "Now I shall unmake your pathetic worlds, leeches! Unravel the very fabric of existence, all realities, all machinations of your insignificant life-lights!" it roared in dark, unspeakable glee, rancid spittle slick on its perpetual rictus grin.

Aghast, Eleanor realized too late that Oriander's mystic binding enchantments must have tethered Shane's hyper-advanced technology to the Dread Queen when the Anchor was destroyed. That searing light which allowed him to pierce and traverse the cosmic membranes between realms - the miraculous power that brought them here to Eldoria to confront this nightmare - now fueled the corrupted witch's own rapidly amplifying powers with accelerated, cosmic potency. She had intended to sever the Queen's ability to call upon demonic reinforcements, to cut her foul magic off at its source. But instead, their desperate gambit had merely redirected those energies inward, concentrated them into a new, infinitely more devastating form.

Fingers clenched white-knuckled around her scepter until her knuckles ached, Eleanor could feel the insistent thrum of its mystic power, the pulse of its ancient energies offering cold comfort. She faced the cackling villain, every rattling intake of her unnecessary breath a despicable affront to the natural orders. Shane slumped weakly behind her, the terrible wound she had inadvertently enabled already sapping his strength at an alarming rate, his life's blood pooling rapidly. But Eleanor could feel that same alien current of preternatural magic within her own scepter too, a creeping awareness of the inescapable truth dawning upon her with fresh detail.

The Dread Queen thundered, her voice shaking the very foundations. But Eleanor only grinned fiercely back at the corrupted creature, hurrying to help the dishevelled Princess struggle upright.

"The people you chained and drained for your foul Anchor didn't all perish in its destruction - and now they'll bear witness to your eternal fall!" she proclaimed boldly.

All around the furious, momentarily stymied witch, the freed prisoners began to stir, the Anchor's stolen energies and life essences rebounding.