Waller's feet kicked once against empty air as Enchantress held her up like she weighed nothing at all.
The green glow in the witch's eyes brightened until it burned almost white.
"You know," Enchantress whispered, her voice layered and echoing inside Waller's skull, "killing you is so easy. All it takes is a little snap of my fingers, and your neck breaks like dry twigs in winter."
Her grip tightened just enough to make the threat believable.
"But where is the fun in that?" she asked softly, almost bored.
Green arcane magic crawled out of Enchantress's arm like living smoke. It slid across her fingers and seeped into Waller's throat, then into her chest. The energy did not burn at first. It felt cold and invasive, like ice water filling her veins. Waller's body went rigid as the magic pushed deeper, threading through muscle, bone, and nerve.
Waller forced herself to keep eye contact.
The green energy pulsed once inside Waller's chest.
"I curse your soul," Enchantress said, her voice now resonating through the entire red sky. "From this moment forward, every time you hurt or kill someone who doesn't deserve it, every time your actions cause suffering directly or indirectly, you will feel it."
Waller's eyes narrowed despite the pressure crushing her airway.
"You will feel immense pain," Enchantress continued. "Pain so severe that you will beg for death. Pain that will tear through your nerves and grind against your bones. Pain that no doctor can numb and no machine can filter."
The magic flared brighter.
"No modern science or technology will remove this curse. As long as I live, the curse lives inside you."
The energy surged deeper.
Waller gasped as it hit something fundamental inside her. It was not physical. It felt like hooks digging into her mind and anchoring there. For the first time in years, something flickered behind her eyes that almost looked like fear.
Almost.
Enchantress leaned closer until their foreheads nearly touched.
"You believe control makes you righteous," she whispered. "You cage monsters and call it protection. You detonate lives and call it a necessary sacrifice. Now you will carry every scream with you."
The green glow sank fully into Waller's body.
For a heartbeat, everything went silent.
Then it began.
A sharp spike of agony exploded behind Waller's eyes. It felt like molten metal pouring down her spine. Her muscles locked. A strangled sound tore from her throat before she could stop it. The pain spread outward in waves, as if invisible blades were carving through her nerves one by one.
Images flooded her mind.
Task Force Echo recruits signing compliance forms with shaking hands.
Detonator implants sliding into spines under surgical lights.
Families were left behind when operations went wrong.
Not everyone she killed deserved death.
The pain intensified with each memory, feeding on cause and consequence like fuel.
Waller screamed in pain.
Enchantress released her.
Waller hit the dark reflective ground hard, landing on one knee. Her hands braced against the surface as she tried to breathe through the fire tearing through her body. Sweat beaded along her hairline. Her vision blurred, then sharpened again.
The agony lasted only seconds.
It felt like hours.
Then it stopped as suddenly as it began.
Waller stayed where she was, chest rising and falling in controlled rhythm. She forced her breathing steady.
Enchantress floated above her, watching with quiet interest.
"Consider that a sample," she said. "A reminder."
Waller slowly stood.
Her legs trembled once before she locked them firm.
"You think this changes anything?" Waller said, voice rough.
"Yes. It changes everything. You cannot kill me," Enchantress added calmly. "You cannot contain me again. If you attempt to harm me, the curse will answer. If your agents try to harm, the curse will answer. If your choices bring suffering, the curse will answer."
The green haze thickened around them.
"You will either learn restraint," Enchantress finished, "or you will drown in your own consequences."
"Was it John?" Waller asked.
Enchantress's eyes widened a bit.
"Your expression says it all. Hahaha," Waller said with a little laughter that made even Enchantress flinch a bit. Waller never laughs, not even in her dreams. "You thought you were free, but in the end, someone much worse and far more powerful than me holds your reins in his hand. The moment you slip up and trust me, you'll slip up because it's your nature; he'll kill you on the spot. Congratulations, you just got transferred from a regular prison to a hellish prison."
Enchantress threw her head back and laughed.
It was not a pleasant sound. It rolled across the red sky like cracking stone, echoing in layers that did not match the movement of her mouth. The black ground trembled faintly beneath Waller's boots as the sound carried through the warped landscape.
The laughter stopped as suddenly as it had begun.
"You really do believe you see the board clearly," Enchantress said, her voice calmer now, almost conversational. "Just last night we were having this exact discussion with John. He told me you would say something along those lines. He even predicted the tone you would use."
Waller's jaw tightened slightly, though her posture remained rigid.
"He said you would assume I traded one prison for another," Enchantress continued, drifting slowly downward until her bare feet hovered inches above the dark surface. "He said you would try to reframe this as another leash, another set of chains, another power structure you could exploit if you found the right pressure point."
A faint smirk touched her lips.
"He was right about you."
The green haze thickened around them, curling at Waller's ankles like living mist.
"But here is the truth you do not understand," Enchantress continued. "We made a deal... An unbroken magic pact that'd kill the one who breaks it, regardless of their status."
Waller folded her arms again, though her pulse still carried echoes of that curse through her nerves. "Deals with gods rarely favor the mortal," she replied evenly.
Enchantress's eyes flashed.
"He will help me stabilize my unstable power and cleanse the darkness," she said.
Her fingers lifted, green runes spinning slowly around her wrist.
"Once it stabilizes, once the corruption is burned away, June and I will reach perfect synergy. Then I'll be able to manifest myself without possessing her as a separate entity, and she will have access to my power without any limits. Two souls in harmony."
Waller watched her carefully.
"And then?" she asked.
Enchantress's gaze drifted upward toward the red moon.
"Then we will witness my long-lost dream come to life."
The sky pulsed faintly.
"The rise of a magic kingdom. The return of the old ways. A new age where technology no longer strangles the world. Steel towers and surveillance grids replaced by ley lines and living forests. Machines that hum with artificial life becoming relics of a fearful era."
Her eyes lowered back to Waller.
"I will help him achieve that dream."
Waller's jaw tightened.
"You intend to dismantle the global balance," she said. "You are talking about erasing infrastructure that keeps billions alive."
"Your infrastructure keeps billions controlled," Enchantress replied calmly. "Tracked, tagged and conditioned. John understands something you do not. Power can be built without enslaving. Magic can exist without devouring. Kahndaq proves it."
Waller let out a low breath. "You think the world will surrender its infrastructure because you prefer runes to circuits," she said.
Enchantress smiled slowly.
"I think the world bends toward power," she replied. "It always has. Empires rose on steel and gunpowder. Then oil and uranium. Now code and satellites. Magic is simply older than all of it. Besides, what do you think humanity will choose if they were given the option to learn magic or continue to live as they are now?"
"You can't be serious," Waller said. "You're talking about handing magic to the general population like it's a public utility program."
Her eyes locked onto Enchantress without blinking.
"If you give everyone magic, you are effectively turning everyone into metas. What do you think happens then? You think they meditate under moonlight and hold hands in forests?"
Her voice hardened.
"People fight over oil. They fight over borders. They fight over religion and ideology and resources. Give them arcane power and you magnify every one of those conflicts. Someone gets angry, someone gets jealous, someone panics. A spell misfires. A city burns."
She took a deep breath.
"It's like handing every person on Earth a loaded gun and hoping they all suddenly grow wisdom at the same time," Waller continued. "History does not support that optimism."
Enchantress listened without interrupting, her expression unreadable.
Waller pressed on. "You think you can regulate instinct, ambition... fear?"
She stepped forward slightly, ignoring the lingering ache crawling along her spine.
"You create ten thousand sorcerers and you will create ten thousand power struggles. Someone will want more. Someone will want control. Someone will decide they deserve to rule. Earth won't evolve. It'll burn."
Enchantress did not flinch.
"You are afraid," she replied softly. "You assume humanity is defined by its worst impulses because that is the part you built your career around."
Waller's fingers curled slightly, though her expression stayed controlled.
"Everything has already been set into motion," Enchantress said. "You and your mortal mind cannot even begin to comprehend the scale of his grand vision. The Earth, as it stands right now, will not be able to stop them no matter what moves you make."
Waller's eyes widened a fraction.
"Them?" she demanded. "Who are 'them'?"
For the first time, Enchantress did not answer immediately. Her gaze shifted slightly, as if looking past Waller toward something far beyond this twisted landscape.
Waller took one slow step forward.
"Who are 'them'?" she repeated, firmer now.
Enchantress ignored the question entirely.
"Everything John is doing," she said instead, "every alliance, every reform, every magical reinforcement woven into Kahndaq's foundation, is preparation. He is not building a kingdom for ego. He is building a shield. You will know soon enough. I am pretty sure you will change your mind when that moment finally arrives. Until then..."
She raised one hand and flicked her finger.
The red sky folded in on itself like wet paper tearing at the edges. The black ground beneath Waller's boots rippled and bent, pulling the whole landscape inward toward a single vanishing point. Colors bled together into streaks of violent green and crimson. The air grew heavy, pressing against Waller's skin as though the atmosphere itself had decided to squeeze.
Enchantress watched the distortion spread with calm satisfaction. "...You just focus on how you are going to live through the pain."
Reality folded.
It was as if someone changed the TV channel.
Waller gasped as she woke up. She looked around and found herself in a hospital room.
---
..[POWERSTONES AND REVIEWS]...
If you want to read early advance chapters and support me, you can join>:
www.patr eon.com/XcaliburXc
[I have > 14 advance chapters] [No double billing]