“Good. Now, use it. Draw upon the magic and will it to do your bidding. Shape it into what you need.”
My brow furrowed. He thought I could control allthis? I could barely grasp this concept, let alone begin to believe I would control it.
“You’ve got this,” Rathiel murmured somewhere nearby. Like Levi, his voice was distant.
Our hands touched without me even thinking about it, but I squeezed his hand, using his presence to center me.
“Picture them,” Levi continued. “See your soldiers in your mind. Use your magic and Hell’s resources to give them shape and purpose.”
Shape and purpose. I could do that.
I think.
In my mind, I looked down at the loam and the roots and the pulsing veins of light that webbed through me. I gave a small mental push and began coaxing them outward.
Above me—outside of me—the air stilled. Almost as though Hell had gone quiet with anticipation.
I pictured Korrak first. A towering, broad-shouldered brimlord. The kind of demon who could cleave a boulder in half just by glaring at it. I pictured his flesh made of dark volcanic rock and the molten heat that coursed beneath the surface, giving him fire and life. I pictured his rough, battle-worn horns, curled back in massive arcs.
Calder was next—the smarmy vampire who had always made me laugh. His smile was the first thing to come to mind, his fangs the second. His figure began as a silhouette—slender, ethereal—until the details became clearer. Ash-pale skin. Black armour like melted pitch. Claws.
Varz—my prickly friend who’d thought me nothing more than a princess when we’d first met. I pictured his slitted golden eyes, his honed muscle, but most importantly, his daggers.
“By the… She’s doing it,” came Calyx’s voice, awed.
I sawallthe faces of those I’d commanded, who my father had slaughtered with a single snap of his fingers.
“Don’t stop,” Levi breathed.
I didn’t. But Ididopen my eyes, returning to reality.
The ground beneath my feet had cracked, and a series of fractures webbed outward from where I stood. Chunks of obsidian and brimstone tore free from the crust and rushed toward me like I was a magnet pulling them forward. Magma surged upward from the rift in a thick, writhing wave. Fire ignited from the surrounding geysers and arced toward me. And it all came together in a storm of raw materials, right in front of me, in endless rows of soldiers. Brimlords, sanguinari, netherons, ravagers, vexori, venerath. Even plaguebearers.
“Oh my god,” Eliza whispered, stepping closer to me.
“You’re doing it,” Levi said. “You’re building their bodies.”
Yes, but that was the easiest part.
The rocks collided together, merging into demonic forms. Knees. Ribs. Spines. The battlefield echoed with the sounds of shifting stone and crackling fire as I formed chests, shoulders, arms, legs, hands and feet, heads.
One-by-one, in a glorious display of power, each figure took form. They stood tall, their bodies fused with magma and fire. They were still husks without a soul, but I’d done it. I’d used Hell’s resources to build their bodies.
I stood in awe, stunned by the scene unfolding before us.
I truly hadn’t thought I could do it.
Before me, I saw Sareth, Korrak, Rathgor, Drek’thar. They were all here. Every last soldier. Somehow I had conjured them all from my mind. I knew their names. Their personalities. Their strengths. They were more than weapons. They were my people.
And speaking of weapons—they needed those, plus armour, if I intended them to fight for me, which I very much did. I couldn’t have naked hellspawn running around the realm, as amusing as that would be to watch. I focused my magic and drew on the resources once more. Almost instantly, magma cooled over their bodies in thick, rigid layers, hardening into something between armour and skin. Blades and axes formed from the same molten flow, forged right into their hands.
I couldn’t help it—I closed my eyes, returned to the forest, and laughed. Just once, raw and breathless, and somewhere between triumph and disbelief. The kind of sound one makes when something impossible begins to feelreal.
I had done it.
Me.
But I wasn’t finished yet.
