Eleanor braced herself as the Dread Queen shrieked, her shadowy robes billowing in rage. "You fools! Do you realize what you've done?"
The dark well imploded with a thunderous boom, the vortex spiraling into oblivion. Shane grinned fiercely. "Oh yeah, we just smoked your Anchor of Darkness! No more demon pals or spooky spells for you."
But as the last embers dissolved, an ominous pulse emerged from the wreckage. To Eleanor's horror, bony arms grasping, the witch crawled forth, darkness now fused to her crumbling flesh.
"The price is paid! I shall reap from your light instead!" the creature snarled. Before Eleanor could react, shadowy talons had plunged into Shane's mechanical eye. She managed to scratch him across his left eye just slightly. He screamed as blinding energy poured forth from his eye, funneled into the witch in retaliation.
Laughing maniacally, the undead horror rose, engorged with stolen power. "Now I shall unmake your worlds!"
Aghast, Eleanor realized Oriander's enchantments must have bound Shane's tech to the Dread Queen when the Anchor was destroyed. And that light now fueled her nightmares anew.
Gripping her scepter, Eleanor faced the cackling villain, Shane keeling weakly behind. But she felt that same magical current within her own mystic weapon too, realizing the truth with dawning dread. No matter what came next for Eldoria and their realms, it ended now!
Eleanor's mind raced, grasping for options while the empowered witch gloated over a weakened Shane. She had to break the siphon somehow before this nightmare unmade their worlds.
Then she spotted them - a huddled group of prisoners corrupted by the Anchor's destruction. Among their gaunt faces, one seemed familiar...
"The princess, look!" Eleanor cried, spying their companion's long lost sister. The witch spun with a snarl as Eleanor leapt, scepter blazing. Her beam pierced the dark tether, freeing the captives from the spell work.
"What is this?" the Dread Queen thundered. Eleanor grinned fiercely, helping Vincent's sister stand.
"The people you chained for your Anchor didn't all perish - now they'll see you fall!" Around the witch, the freed prisoners stirred, the Anchor's energy returning to its unwilling hosts.
Howling in fury, the Dread Queen tore loose her ill-gotten gains from Shane, unleashing them as a roiling wave of shadows. But as that darkness cascaded forth, it met the rising light of those newly awoken souls with a resplendent clash.
"No more will you torment our people!" Eleanor shouted above the growing noise. Behind her, Vincent flung magic to shield his sister and the weakened Shane. Scepters raised together, the companions slowly turned back the witch's tide of shadows. Face melting in disbelief, the villain fell mute - only to be engulfed by her own rebelling spell work.
With a deafening explosion, pure light erupted where the witch had thrashed, surging upwards to pierce the contaminated sky. Squinting, Eleanor barely made out the limp figure left crumbling to dust when that brilliant wave eventually rolled back.
At long last, the Dread Queen's reign had ended.
As the last traces of the witch's malignance faded, Eleanor finally lowered her scepter, exhausted but exhilarated. Around the collapsed citadel, freed captives embraced, scorched earth already healing.
Then came a joyous shout - "Illyria!" Vincent rushed to sweep up a cloaked girl with his sister's face, half-carrying her hastily to Eleanor's side.
"My friend, may I present Princess Illyria, stolen from her father's palace these long years past," he declared fervently. The girl swept back her hood, revealing the royal mark upon her brow which had likely doomed her to the Anchor's drain.
"The King will wish to lavish lands and fortunes upon you all for his daughter's return," Illyria added breathlessly, taking Eleanor's hands. "Eldoria's long night has ended forever thanks to your courage this day."
But Eleanor blinked wearily as she helped Shane stand, their mission's toll still heavy upon his mechanical eye. "Seeing your people safe and this place healing is reward enough," she answered gently. "As for us..."
She gazed upwards towards the site of their desperate inter-realm portal, feeling the anxious press of their still imperiled home calling her back. Shane gripped her shoulder, resolve renewed. "We've still got one last witch to burn there too, partner."
Illyria's brow creased in concern, but Eleanor squeezed her shoulder in consolation. Wherever Xavier and their friends still battled across the void, she and Shane would soon return to end the shadowy ambitions threatening their world as well - no matter the cost to them now.
"Lead your people back into the light, Your Highness," Eleanor instructed the surviving princess after a quick farewell embrace. "And know we shall do the same for ours."