The solid cobblestones of the marketplace began to flow like liquid while maintaining their essential nature as stone. Elsbeth had invoked the Enigma Protocols—theoretical magical frameworks that most practitioners considered too dangerous to attempt even in controlled conditions.

Angelina found herself standing in a sphere of warped reality where conventional magical principles no longer applied. Her carefully structured spells began to unravel as the constants that governed magical force were rewritten by Elsbeth’s enigma field. It was a brilliant tactical manoeuvre—by changing the rules of engagement, Elsbeth had neutralised Angelina’s advantage in traditional magical combat.

But Angelina had not survived years of magical and political warfare by relying solely on tradition. As the Enigma field expanded, she made a calculated decision that would have horrified the conservative leadership of the modern Spire. She opened herself to the forces, not to resist them but to understand them.

The transformation was immediate and spectacular.

Angelina’s carefully maintained appearance—the dignified bearing of a former Reverend Witch—began to shift. Her grey hair darkened to silver, then to black shot through with veins of liquid starlight. Her weathered skin smoothed, revealing the ageless beauty that lay beneath decades of careful magical disguise. Most significantly, her eyes began to glow with an inner light that spoke of powers held in reserve for centuries.

"You want to play with chaos?" Angelina’s voice carried harmonics that resonated in frequencies beyond human hearing. "Let me show you what chaos looked like when the world was young."

She raised both hands toward the roiling sky that had formed above the marketplace, drawing down energies that predated organized magical theory.

This was primal witchcraft—the raw, unstructured power that the first magical practitioners had wielded before the development of formal spellcasting techniques.

It was dangerous, unpredictable, and absolutely devastating in the hands of someone with Angelina’s depth of experience.

All three councilwomen gasped, staring at Angelina.

Even Oceana, high up in the tower, was startled; she muttered, "What is she doing?" Even at this distance, she could tell it was Angelina who was causing the change in the streets.

Lightning struck the marketplace—not natural electricity, but bolts of pure magical force that carried the accumulated wisdom of every storm that had ever raged across the realms.

Each bolt struck the ground around Angelina, creating a perfect circle of glass where the cobblestones had been transformed by the intense magical heat.

Bolts of lightning, which were now in a circle, crackled with a loud boom and illuminated the entire city.

From these impact points, rivers of silver fire began to flow toward Elsbeth, guided by Angelina’s will but powered by forces far older than either witch.

Elsbeth met this assault with her own innovations. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

She began to dance—not the ritualized movements of formal spellcasting, but an improvised choreography that channeled her magic through pure kinetic expression.

Each step, each gesture, each turn of her body created new possibilities within the Enigma field she had established. Her magic became fluid and adaptive, responding to Angelina’s attacks by transforming into whatever form would best counter them.

When the silver fire reached her, Elsbeth spun in place, her movements creating a vortex that caught the magical flames and redirected them upward.

The fire spiralled into the air, forming a twisted spire of silver light that reached toward the clouds. But rather than dissipating, the redirected energy began to rain down as drops of liquid magic—each droplet carrying enough concentrated force to level a building.

Angelina’s response demonstrated why she had once held the highest position in the magical hierarchy.

She gestured once, a simple motion that seemed almost casual.

The falling droplets of silver fire froze in mid-air, suspended by her will. The sight was breathtaking yet terrifying too. Everybody was momentarily halted and watched the sight.

Then, with a second gesture, she transformed them into a cloud of silver butterflies—each one a small miracle of transmutation magic that fluttered around the marketplace in seemingly random patterns.

But the butterflies were not random.

They were components of a larger spell—one so complex that it required dozens of individual elements to function properly.

As they flew, they traced intricate patterns in the air, their flight paths creating a three-dimensional magical mandala that encompassed the entire battle zone.

Elsbeth realized the trap too late.

The Enigma field she had created was being systematically enclosed within Angelina’s mandala. The silver butterflies were mapping every fluctuation in the chaotic energies, learning the patterns that governed even seemingly random phenomena.

Once the mapping was complete, Angelina would be able to predict and counter any spell that emerged from the Enigma field.

Desperate, Elsbeth attempted to collapse her own attack construct.

She began drawing the chaotic energies back into herself, accepting the considerable risk of energy overload in exchange for denying Angelina the chance to complete her encirclement spell.

The convergence of chaotic forces into Elsbeth’s physical form created a spectacular light show. Her body became a prism for magical energy, refracting the chaotic forces into streams of every colour imaginable.

The air around her shimmered with potential, each wave of released energy carrying the possibility of transformation, destruction, or creation.

The pressure increased, and it made people around them shudder, and few were able to stand, shielding themselves.

But the human body, even one enhanced by decades of magical practice, was not designed to serve as a conduit for such raw power.

Elsbeth’s skin began to crack, revealing veins of pure magical energy beneath. Her hair whipped around her as if caught in a hurricane of arcane force. Blood began to seep from her eyes—not crimson blood, but liquid darkness that evaporated into shadow before it could reach the ground.

Angelina recognized the signs of arcane energy overextension.

"It’s not over yet!" Elsbeth snarled, deliberately opening herself to even more chaotic force. "I’ll show you that innovation can triumph over tradition!"

The explosion of arcane energy that followed was visible from miles away.

A pillar of multicoloured light erupted from the marketplace, reaching toward the heavens with such intensity that it temporarily blinded anyone looking directly at it.