The void between worlds had no ground, only drifting islands of black glass suspended in violet fog. The Witch of Grim stood at the center of the largest shard, silver hair whipping like living blades, eyes frozen ash fixed on the two women who dared defy her. Kara and Tany floated opposite, feet never touching stone, power crackling around them in silver and gold coronas.
The Witch raised both hands. Shadows coalesced into a thousand screaming faces that lunged forward.
Kara's voice rang clear and unafraid.
"Lux aeterna disrumpatur!"
White fire exploded from her palms, a radiant sphere that swallowed the screaming shades and shattered them into glittering dust.
Tany spun her hands once, runes flaring emerald. "Vincula inferni, frange!"
Chains of molten iron erupted from the void, wrapping the Witch's wrists and ankles, yanking her arms wide. The Witch snarled and flexed. The chains shattered into rust that rained upward.
The Witch laughed, voice layered with centuries of graves. "Mortem vobis dabo."
A tidal wave of black liquid death surged toward them, faces of the drowned pressing against its surface.
Kara and Tany moved as one.
Kara slammed her hands together. "Speculum animae!"
A mirror of pure light appeared before them, reflecting the death wave back doubled. The Witch twisted aside at the last instant; the spell carved a canyon through three floating islands behind her.
Tany leapt forward, raising her hands once more. "Gladius caeli, descende!"
A blade of golden lightning twenty feet long materialized above the Witch and plunged downward. The Witch flicked one finger.
"Negare."
The lightning reversed, spearing toward Tany. Kara stepped in front, arms wide.
"Sanguis meus, scutum esto!"
Her own blood leapt from her veins, forming a crimson shield that caught the lightning and hurled it into the void in a thunderclap that cracked the glass beneath their feet.
The Witch's smile thinned. She spread her arms and the dimension folded. Islands slammed together, forcing Kara and Tany back-to-back. Gravity inverted; shards became spears that stabbed from every direction.
Tany spun herself around in a blazing circle.
"Tempus mora!"
Everything slowed to syrup. Spears hung inches away. Tany grabbed Kara's hand and pulled her through the frozen storm.
Time snapped back.
They landed on the Witch's island, close enough to see the frost in her eyes.
Kara pressed both palms to the glass.
"Cor meum, terra esto!"
The entire island erupted upward in a pillar of white stone and living vines that wrapped the Witch like a cocoon. Roots punched through shadow-flesh, seeking the heart.
The Witch screamed. "Exsanguis!"
Every vine withered instantly, crumbling to ash. She reached out and seized Kara by the throat with invisible force, lifting her high. Black veins crawled across Kara's skin.
Tany's voice cut like a blade. "Redde quod rapuisti!"
A lance of pure gold light punched through the Witch's chest from behind, bursting out the front in a spray of black ichor. The grip on Kara shattered. Kara dropped, gasping, and rolled clear.
The Witch turned, wound already closing.
"Parvae mures," she hissed. She clapped once.
The void tore open into a maw of teeth and eyes. Gravity vanished entirely. All three women tumbled toward the hungry dark.
Kara and Tany locked hands mid-fall.
Together, voices braided into one perfect chord: "Lumen aeternum, porta claude!"
A ring of blinding white fire exploded outward from their joined hands, sealing the maw, burning away the teeth, slamming the void shut with a sound like the dimension itself seemed to scream.
They landed hard on a new island of solid light, chests heaving, blood dripping from noses and ears, but still standing.
The Witch hovered opposite, hair singed, one arm hanging useless, yet smiling wider than ever.
"Delicious," she whispered. "Again."
Kara wiped blood from her lip and smiled back, small and fierce.
Tany flipped her hair, emerald runes blazing brighter.
The void trembled as the next spell began to form on their tongues.
The Witch of Grim flexed her remaining hand and the way a spider tests a broken leg. Black frost spiraled from her fingertips, crystallizing the air itself into razor petals that spun toward Kara and Tany like a storm of glass locusts.
Kara planted her feet on the island of light.
"Flamma sancta, consurge!"
A wall of silver-white fire roared up in front of them, swallowing every petal. The flames did not burn the void; they purified it, turning black frost into harmless snow that drifted upward and vanished.
Tany leapt through the fire unscathed, staff blazing. "Ferrum caelorum, iugulate!"
Ten thousand golden spears materialized in the air above the Witch and rained down in a solid column of death. The Witch raised her ruined arm. "Reflectere omnia."
Every spear reversed mid-flight, screaming back toward Tany. Kara stepped forward, palms open. "Sanguis meus, vorax esto!"
Her blood leapt from her veins again, this time forming a crimson serpent that coiled around the spear storm and devoured every shaft in explosions of molten gold. The serpent grew fat on the magic, then lunged at the Witch, jaws wide enough to swallow moons.
The Witch snarled and punched straight through the serpent's head. "Disperge."
The serpent burst into crimson mist that rained harmlessly. In the same motion the Witch flicked her wrist. A lance of pure shadow punched through Kara's left shoulder, pinning her to the island of light. Kara screamed once, the sound raw and furious.
Tany's eyes flashed emerald fire. "Redemptio carnis!"
The shadow lance shattered into black butterflies that burned away before they touched the ground. Kara ripped free, blood streaming, and slammed both hands together. "Corona solis, descende!"
A crown of living sunlight formed above the Witch and slammed downward, burning away layers of shadow-flesh, exposing raw bone and screaming mouths beneath. The Witch howled, hair igniting, skin sloughing in sheets.
She answered by tearing open her own chest. "Legio mea, surge!"
Thousands of shadow-wraiths poured from the wound, every soul she had ever devoured, now clawing toward Kara and Tany with hunger older than stars.
Tany flicked her wrist. "Exorcizamus vos, immundissimi spiritus!"
The wheel exploded outward in a ring of holy fire that incinerated the front ranks of wraiths and forced the rest shrieking back into the Witch's chest. The wound sealed.
POP!
Kara rose, blood dripping from her shoulder, eyes glowing pure white. "Ultio mea est."
She reached into her own chest and pulled out her still-beating heart. The organ blazed like a star. She crushed it in her fist. Blood became light, light became a spear of pure judgment that punched straight through the Witch's sternum and out her back, lifting the ancient creature off the island entirely.
The Witch hung impaled in the void, mouth working soundlessly, shadows peeling away from her bones like burning paper.
Tany stepped beside Kara, staff planted like a standard. "Finis coronat opus."
Together they spoke the final words, voices braided into one perfect chord that shook the dimension to its roots: "Innomine lucis aeternae, perire."
The spear detonated.
White fire consumed everything: the Witch, the islands, the void itself. When the light faded, only a single shard of black glass remained, floating in gentle silver mist.
Kara and Tany stood upon it, burned, bleeding, alive.
The Witch of Grim was gone...was she?