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Elemental magic crackled along Evander’s veins as he closed the distance to Musgrave, the power rushing through him a torrent that made the air shimmer around his body.

He could feel the professor’s corrupt magic pulsing outward in violent waves, the Midnight Obsidian he’d consumed amplifying his already formidable powers to nightmarish proportions.

“You think yourself so righteous, Duke Ravenwood!” Musgrave spat out, pressing his back against the ghastly device he and his lackeys had constructed.

Shadows swirled and coalesced around him and the dark mages at his side.

“What will your precious Queen say when she learns you’ve destroyed the greatest magical advancement of our age? !”

For one gut-wrenching second, Evander wondered if Musgrave knew his secret. He ground his teeth and squashed his trepidation.

“She’ll thank me for ridding the Empire of a monster!” he growled.

He gathered his wind magic and propelled himself forward and upwards just as Musgrave commanded the shadows around him to attack.

Dark tendrils lashed out, seeking to ensnare and strangle him.

Evander sliced through them with blades of concentrated fire and ice, the corrupt magic howling as it disintegrated beneath his elemental assault and the power of the amulet swinging against his chest.

Viggo launched himself from the walkway below, his massive frame moving fluidly through the air. His hands closed on the railing and he swung his body smoothly up and over, the metal platform juddering under his feet as he landed on it with a thud.

Evander alighted beside him, his heart racing.

“We have to get Simmons out of that tank!” Viggo said.

He grabbed one of the dark mages lunging towards him by the collar and hurled him bodily into the mass of shadow creatures attacking the Met officers below them.

Musgrave’s face contorted with rage. “You shall do no such thing! Do you have any idea what we’ve achieved here, you fool? The power we’ve harnessed will?—!”

His words were cut short as Viggo charged into him with the force of a battering ram.

Musgrave went flying sideways and collided with the railing of the walkway with enough force to bend the metal. Something cracked audibly in his ribcage. Blood sprayed from his lips as he coughed, his face contorting with pain and fury.

“You filthy thrall!” he snarled, wiping crimson from his mouth. “How dare you lay hands on me!”

Magic throbbed around Evander as he blocked the path of the dark mages trying to come to Musgrave’s assistance with an array of earth, ice, and fire arrows.

Dread tightened his chest when he glimpsed Simmons’s body convulsing inside the tank.

Whatever magic they’d forcibly injected into him was continuing to spread.

If Musgrave was right, they had precious little time to save him.

“Leon! We need you!” Evander barked across the chamber.

The Frenchman looked up from where he was deflecting shadow creatures with his Nullification Magic . “I’m a bit busy right now, mon cher!” he snapped.

Viggo fisted his hands, his brow furrowed in a heavy scowl. “Evander, what will happen if I crush that tank?”

Evander’s mouth went dry. He clenched his jaw. “I’m not sure.”

Determination brightened the Brute’s face. “He’s going to die anyway if we do nothing.” He headed resolutely towards the walkway leading to Simmons’s tank.

A metallic tang flooded Evander’s nostrils. His head snapped around.

Musgrave’s eyes flared with a corrupt, inky darkness.

Evander’s pulse stuttered when he detected crimson strands within the dark energy growing around the professor’s fingers.

Is that Blood Magic ?!

Musgrave raised his hands and released the torrent of vile magic directly at Viggo.

Evander cursed and barely managed to block it with a barrier of flames and ice.

Musgrave’s companions rallied and launched their own attacks at the Brute.

Relief sang through Evander when the forces they’d unleashed dissipated harmlessly upon contact with Viggo’s skin, his immunity to magic attacks rendering their assault utterly ineffective.

Fear flickered across Musgrave’s face for the first time.

Evander seized the moment and channelled his elemental powers as he advanced towards the professor.

Fire and ice gathered in his palms, the conflicting temperatures creating a crackling distortion in the air.

He unleashed the combined attack not at Musgrave himself, but at the walkway beneath his feet.

Though he wanted nothing more than to question the professor about “ I ,” he knew there would be no negotiating a surrender with the man. Musgrave was too far gone for that.

Musgrave moved as metal warped and twisted beneath him. It gave way before he could make his escape. He screamed as he lost his footing and plummeted towards the darkness below.

Evander cursed when his fall was arrested by a swarm of shadow creatures. The professor’s face was a mask of unhinged rage as he rose amidst them, his body wreathed in corrupt magic.

“Do you think I can be defeated so easily?” he snarled. “I have consumed the gift my master gave me! His power flows through me now!”

Horror twisted Evander’s gut as shadows streaked with crimson extended from Musgrave’s body and lashed out in all directions, striking Met officers and mages with devastating force. Two were thrown over railings, their cries echoing as they fell into the abyss.

Leon barely managed to snatch them with his wind magic, Griffiths and Shaw hanging on to him grimly where he leaned precariously over a railing.

Evander’s heart pounded heavily as he clocked the expressions of the officers and mages scattered around the laboratory. Though many were still standing and fighting bravely, they swayed and trembled from exhaustion from fighting the dark mages and their shadow creatures.

I need to end this!

The elements responded eagerly to his wish as they bubbled and strained inside his chest, begging to be unleashed in their full, devastating glory. The lid he kept on his Archmage powers strained under the violent pressure.

Viggo had reached Simmons’s tank and was taking it apart with his bare hands, metal crumpling as he dismantled it piece by piece.

Musgrave howled in outrage and sent shadowy tendrils converging on the Brute.

“ Enough! ” Evander snarled.

He released the restraints on his powers.

Magic surged through him with such force that it lifted him several inches off the ground.

His skin glowed with an inner light, his eyes transforming into pools of pure elemental energy that shot out pale beams. The air around him began to swirl and crackle, the temperature fluctuating wildly as fire, ice, wind, and earth formed and reformed around his body.

The chamber trembled, dust falling from the ceiling and walls.

Musgrave’s eyes rounded in terror at this display of raw power.

“What—what is this?!”

“This,” Evander said, his voice echoing around the lab as it resonated with devastating elemental force, “is what a true Archmage can do.”

He brought his hands together in a thunderous clap. The resulting shock wave exploded outward, tearing through the chamber with devastating precision. Shadow creatures were obliterated in its path, their corrupt essence purged by the purifying force of Evander’s combined elemental magic.

Musgrave shrieked and attempted to shield himself as the monsters protecting him were ripped away like cobwebs in a gale. He fell into the abyss once more.

Shadows erupted yet again from his body, encasing him in a cocoon of darkness.

“My master will find another way!” he shrieked triumphantly as he began to escape in the inky folds. “Our work will continue!”

Evander’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Not today,” he growled.

He gathered the four elements in his hands, compressed them into a single, devastating spear of pure elemental energy, and hurled it directly at the dark cocoon swallowing Musgrave.

It shattered like glass.

The elemental spear drove straight through the professor’s chest and emerged from his back in a spray of blood and corrupted magic.

He fell silently and was rapidly swallowed by the true darkness of the gulf.

The remaining shadow creatures throughout the chamber began to dissolve, their anchoring force severed with Musgrave’s death. Deprived of their leader, the surviving dark mages were swiftly subdued by the Met officers and mages who surrounded them.

Evander released a shuddering breath and gradually reined in his Archmage powers. The intense glow faded from his skin as he landed lightly on the platform. He swayed a little and steadied himself against the railing.

A powerful arm wrapped around his waist and propped him up.

Evander blinked and stared at Viggo.

“Simmons?!” he mumbled.

“He’s alive.” Viggo turned, his eyes dark with relief.

Solomon and Leon were kneeling beside the unconscious thrall in front of the smashed-up tank. Simmons spluttered and coughed violently as they removed the breathing apparatus from his nose and mouth, some colour returning to his face. Leon covered him with his coat.

The silver lines marking the thrall’s skin faded even as they watched.

Evander’s gaze shifted to the other tanks. He straightened, drawing on his remaining strength.

“Time to take care of the rest.”

Viggo nodded solemnly.