Dozens of them. Hundreds even. Fragments of parchment covered in cramped writing and loose sheets that glowed with arcane symbols. They spiralled around a central point where a massive tome floated, its cover pale and its pages fanning open to reveal secrets that had been hidden for centuries.
Evander’s throat constricted painfully.
Winchester hung suspended nearby, his burned face slack with rapture as he gazed upon the forbidden text. The dark mage’s arms were spread wide, the shadows around him coiling like serpents as he tapped into the ambient power of this impossible space.
“Beautiful,” he breathed. “It’s more beautiful than I ever imagined!”
Evander fought to orient himself, his stomach lurching. He had to stop Winchester from getting his hands on the Codex.
“It’s over!” he shouted, his voice echoing strangely in the endless space. “This monastery is probably surrounded by police and mages right now. You won’t escape from here!”
The dark mage’s head turned slowly, his glowing eyes fixing on Evander with something akin to amusement.
“Over?” Winchester gestured at the swirling fragments around them. “We’ve only just begun. Do you have any idea what this place contains? It’s the complete knowledge of the First Archmage. Every spell, every ritual, every secret of magical theory that has been lost to time!” His voice rose with fervour. “With this power, my master will reshape the world.”
“Your master is a madman,” Evander snarled. “And so are you if you think I’ll let you take that knowledge to him!”
Winchester laughed, an evil sound that echoed through the infinite space.
“Let me? You have no power here, Ice Mage. This is the convergence, created by the first man who wielded magic. Your pitiful elemental tricks are nothing compared to?—”
Evander attacked.
Fire erupted from his palms in a blazing torrent, surprising even him as it cut through the dimensionless void toward Winchester. The dark mage’s eyes widened. He hastily raised a shield of shadows. The flames struck it with enough force to send him tumbling backward through the swirling fragments.
Evander pressed his advantage, following the fire with thick lances of ice that crystallised out of nothing, then a devastating vortex of wind that scattered the floating pages in all directions. He swallowed.
My magic. It’s stronger inside here!
Winchester recovered faster than expected. The hybrid magic he’d inherited from his master erupted around him, forming a dark and crimson sphere that deflected Evander’s attacks and redirected them into the void.
The dark mage’s face contorted with rage behind it.
“You fool! You’ll destroy everything!”
Evander fisted his hands. “That’s the idea.”
He drew deep on his reserves, pulling more power than he’d ever channelled before. The elements responded eagerly, hungrily, as if the ancient magic permeating this space made them happy. Fire and ice spiralled together. Wind and earth merged into a force that bent the very fabric of the dimension around them.
He hurled everything he had at Winchester.
The dark mage met his assault with a roar, his corrupt powers blasting out of him with a pressure that made Evander’s ears throb.
The two forces collided in a cataclysm of light and shadow, sending shockwaves rippling through the convergence. Fragments of the Codex scattered in all directions, some disintegrating entirely as the magical energies tore through them.
“No!” Winchester screamed. “The texts! You’re destroying them!”
Evander didn’t stop. He couldn’t. If Winchester escaped with the Codex, if that knowledge fell into the hands of the man called “I”—
The thought of Ophelia’s vision flashed through his mind, distracting him for an instant. A London decimated by ice. Bodies frozen where they stood. And at the centre of it all, a figure wreathed in power.
Him.
Winchester seized the opening.
Shadows erupted around Evander, wrapping around his limbs and throat like living chains before he could react. He gasped as they tightened, cutting off his air and disrupting his magic.
Winchester advanced through the chaos of scattered fragments, his burned face twisted with triumph.
