A flaming motorcycle tore through the Wild West, its blazing wheels leaving scorch marks that stretched endlessly across the dusty ground.
Johnny Blaze pulled up to the ruined gates of San Venganza, crashing through without slowing. In the village's central square, the Witch Heart Demon stood, gripping Roxanne's neck. Johnny dismounted, his hellfire fading as he reverted to human form.
The Witch Heart Demon sneered, tightening his hold on Roxanne. "Transform, and she dies. Give me the Contract of San Venganza—now!"
Johnny's hand clenched the chains draped across his chest. He pulled a scroll from his jacket—black wooden shaft, white parchment—and held it up. Instead of handing it over, he faced the Witch Heart Demon. "Let Roxanne go first, or you're not getting this."
The Witch Heart Demon's eyes flicked from Johnny to Roxanne. A blue-black aura swirled in his hand, seeping into her body. Her head and shoulders turned ashen, a deathly chill radiating from her.
"If I release her, you'll turn into the Rider and cause me trouble. Give me the Contract of San Venganza. Once I verify it's real, I'll let her go. I need the contract's undead army, and you'll interfere if I keep her, won't you?"
"I don't trust you," Johnny shot back.
The Witch Heart Demon's smile was cold. He intensified the aura, spreading it across most of Roxanne's body, teetering on the edge of killing her but holding back—for now. "You have to trust me, unless her life means nothing to you."
Roxanne's eyes shut tight. She wanted to live but refused to let Johnny risk himself. Silently, she endured the aura's searing pain, not uttering a sound.
Johnny's resolve cracked at her suffering, but he stayed sharp. Instead of handing over the scroll, he flung it into the air, arcing over Roxanne's head.
Instinctively, the Witch Heart Demon released her neck, snatching the scroll mid-flight. His blue-black aura surged, aiming to engulf Roxanne, but a crystalline barrier—the Mirror Dimension—snapped into place between them, blocking his power.
In a flash, Roxanne's body lifted off the ground, landing on a nearby ruined rooftop in the arms of a female Kamar-Taj mage. The mage whisked her through a portal, vanishing from the scene.
Portals sparked open across the rooftops, and Kamar-Taj mages stepped out, surrounding the square. The Witch Heart Demon realized he'd been ambushed.
He unrolled the scroll, revealing blank parchment, and roared in fury as the fake contract burned to ash in his hands.
"Johnny! You dare trick me?" he bellowed. "I'll kill you, slaughter these Kamar-Taj mages, and torment your woman's soul alongside yours for eternity!"
"You'll have to survive this first!" Johnny shouted.
Flames erupted, and Johnny transformed into the Ghost Rider, yanking his chains and wrapping them around his fists like gauntlets.
He charged the Witch Heart Demon without hesitation.
Boom!
Their collision, fueled by supernatural strength, unleashed a shockwave rivaling the Hulk-Abomination brawl Sebastian had once witnessed. The air itself seemed to explode.
With a guttural roar, the Ghost Rider unleashed a torrent of hellfire, engulfing the Witch Heart Demon. Even he couldn't fully resist Hell's flames. Burns scorched his body, healing rapidly but not fast enough to hide the damage.
As a demon second only to Mephisto in Hell's hierarchy, the Witch Heart Demon could withstand hellfire's searing damage far better than the Earth or Air Demons.
It hurt him, but it wasn't fatal.
A blue-black aura erupted from his body, forming a massive claw that swatted the Ghost Rider away. The impact sent him crashing through a wall, tumbling into the ruins beyond.
The Witch Heart Demon's form shifted, revealing his true demonic visage. His face twisted into a snarling maw of jagged teeth, his body sprouting sharp spines.
His pale skin darkened to blue-black, etched with writhing, twisted patterns. His frame elongated, and tentacle-like strands of hair sprouted from his head, wriggling menacingly behind him.
With a guttural growl, he fixed his glowing red eyes on the Kamar-Taj mages encircling him, finally locking onto the Ancient One and Sebastian, standing atop a ruined house across the square.
"Every demon in Hell claims the Supreme Mage rivals a Lord of Hell," the Witch Heart Demon sneered. "But you're just an ordinary woman in a robe!"
The Ancient One's voice was calm, radiating authority. "Witch Heart Demon, Earth belongs to humanity. As a prince of Hell, you must return to your dimension. This world is not your playground."
"When I conquer Earth and make it my kingdom, I'll return to Hell—to rule both realms!" he roared.
His tentacle-like hair lashed out, shooting toward the Ancient One. A shimmering, intricate magic array of fiery threads materialized before her, deflecting the attack. Simultaneously, the surrounding Kamar-Taj mages formed hand signs in unison, casting a joint spell. Six massive magical arrays flared to life, forming a glowing cube that trapped the Witch Heart Demon.
Within the cube, fiery threads shot out, binding his body and pinning him in place.
The Witch Heart Demon, immobilized, let out a chilling laugh.
"Did you think I was blind to your alliance with the Rider? Did you believe I came alone?"
As his words echoed, a deafening rush of water filled the air.
The moonlit ruins of San Venganza plunged into shadow.
Towering waves surged around the village, rising into the sky and shaping into the colossal, snarling face of a demonic entity, crashing down toward the mages.
Among the three elemental demons, the Water Demon was the most elusive but also the most powerful. His strength peaked in rain or near lakes, rivers, or seas.
Though the Air and Earth Demons held prime territory in New York, they paled compared to the Water Demon's raw might.
A torrent of water crashed down, shattering the Kamar-Taj mages' formation and leveling most of San Venganza's remaining ruins.
The flood swept the mages away, scattering them.
Sebastian transformed into black smoke via Apparition, soaring into the sky to dodge the deluge. The Ancient One conjured a Protego-like barrier around herself, effortlessly deflecting the water's force.
Stronger mages—Casillas, Mordo, Wong, Daniel—cast their own spells, shielding themselves and aiding nearby comrades to stay safe for now.
The Ancient One stepped forward, forming intricate hand signs. Fiery threads shot from her hands, weaving toward every struggling Kamar-Taj mage.
The threads formed glowing shields, repelling the water and helping them break free to regain their footing.
As the flood stabilized, the Witch Heart Demon broke free from his bindings.
Behind him, water coalesced into a towering giant, its gaping maw filled with jagged, liquid teeth. It roared at the Kamar-Taj mages with murderous intent.
Ripples bloomed across the waterlogged ground, spawning dark red and blue-black demons. They snarled at the mages, their bloodthirsty hunger palpable.
Sebastian, swirling as black smoke, eyed the demons below—over ten times the number he'd faced with the Earth Demon. His expression grew grim.
Numbers alone weren't the issue; with Kamar-Taj's mages, the Ancient One, and himself, they could handle quantity. But he sensed several demons with formidable power. Combined with their numbers, this was no simple fight.
The Witch Heart Demon's far stronger than the movie version I remember, Sebastian thought. As Mephisto's creation and Hell's prince, this is his true caliber—a real threat to Mephisto. The film's version was just a hollow title.
Boom!
A ruined house exploded, flames bursting outward, evaporating nearby water in a hiss of steam.
The Ghost Rider strode from the wreckage, gripping a chain wreathed in hellfire. His roar at the Witch Heart Demon and Water Demon echoed with fury, his flames blazing so intensely that Sebastian, high above, felt their heat.
The Ghost Rider, fueled by the Spirit of Vengeance, is no joke, Sebastian noted.
The Rider whipped his flaming chain, ensnaring a half-collapsed house.
Hellfire coated the structure, and with a swing, he hurled it like a meteor toward the Witch Heart Demon and Water Demon.
The Water Demon countered, unleashing a massive water column.
While water couldn't douse hellfire, it blocked the fiery projectile's path. Amid a cloud of steam, the house crashed to the ground, smoldering.
The Witch Heart Demon burst through the steam, charging the Ghost Rider.
Ignoring the hellfire's burn, he seized the Rider's flaming skull and slammed him into the ground. His tentacle-like hair extended, wrapping around nearby boulders and walls, yanking them free and hurling them onto the Ghost Rider.
Rising, the Witch Heart Demon eyed the Rider buried under the rubble. Before he could speak, a hellfire-wreathed chain shot from the debris, coiling around the Witch Heart Demon's neck.
It yanked him into the collapsing stones, shattering them in a cloud of dust.
A moment later, the Witch Heart Demon's right face—flesh burned to bone by hellfire—sailed out of the rubble, punched free by the Ghost Rider.
Bang!
The boulders crumbled, and the Ghost Rider emerged, his path marked by molten lava from melted rock, radiating intense heat. Nearby debris liquefied in seconds, pooling at his feet.
The Witch Heart Demon staggered up, his face rapidly regenerating. Glaring at the hellfire-cloaked Ghost Rider, he bellowed to his demon horde, "All demons, obey! Kill the human mages now!"
The demons roared, charging the regrouped Kamar-Taj mages.
The Ancient One conjured a fan-shaped magical array, sharp as a blade, and led the charge. "Destroy these demons!" she commanded the mages. "Prioritize your safety!"
Her array sliced through two demons' heads in one sweep, carving a path toward the Witch Heart Demon and Water Demon.
The Ghost Rider, spotting her move, surged toward the Witch Heart Demon without a word.
But the Water Demon, signaled by the Witch Heart Demon, acted. Its massive form collapsed into a rushing flood, spreading across the battlefield.
Water from nearby rivers and lakes rose, merging with the Water Demon's essence, forming isolated subspaces that trapped the Kamar-Taj mages, the Ancient One, the Ghost Rider, and Sebastian, who hadn't escaped the watery perimeter.
Sebastian, caught in a subspace, studied the shimmering water curtain overhead and the aquarium-like surroundings.
This pocket dimension differed from the Earth Demon's—it likely required defeating the Water Demon to escape. Unlike the Earth Demon, the Water Demon seemed cunning, unlikely to reveal itself easily.
As Sebastian analyzed, ripples surged across the water curtains.
Demons emerged, grinning wickedly, and closed in on him