The snow continues to fall heavily on the frozen wasteland near the Crystal Empire. The shadow ball slithers through the air like a slimy fat snake while the sun above is hidden behind snow and dense clouds. Taking a brief moment to stop, the shadow ball reforms back into a man-fox with exactly the same build as Yuuki. Despair's hair is short and in the same style as Yuuki's. His hair is pitch black with a few dark purple streaks in it. Despair's three tails and ears have pitch black fur but instead of ice blue tips they are dark purple like Kiara's. His eyes are also a dark purple. Despair stretches and looks around before looking at himself and sighing deeply. He then snaps his fingers to make a set of clothes, again the same as Yuuki's, appear on his body.

"Much better... Now, where the hell am I?" Despair mumbles to himself. His voice is more refined than Yuuki's like your average British movie bad guy but less British.

Despair holds out his hand and summons a map of Equestria from darkness. Inspecting the map, which shows an arrow of his current location, Despair can see he is somewhere in the frozen north semi near the Crystal Empire.

"Here should be good enough... It's time to set up the base and develop my foothold in this land before I turn my attention to my brother..." Despair disperses the map and looks around.

Picking a spot a little way in the distance, Despair begins gathering pure darkness in his hands making sure he had a sizeable amount before slamming it down onto the ground. The darkness spreads throughout the ground like dark purple cracks in the snow all aiming for the same spot Despair picked out. Once the darkness reaches the spot it spreads out to neatly form a very large dark purple pentagram. Despair smiles widely to himself, his hands still on the ground. Despair then slowly begins to bring his hands back up not changing their position. As he raises his hands the ground begins to shake violently and where the pentagram is drawn a very sinister, evil and malicious version of Yuuki's castle starts to rise from the ground and take form.

"Built from sorrow and sadness. Pain and despair poured into every brick. Come forth and serve your dark master yet again, my dark castle fortress of evil... Durcheinander!" Despair chants as the castle finishes rising from the ground.

The castle is exactly like Yuuki's except very evil, very dark and emits an aura of darkness around it. Despair smiles to himself before falling onto one knee, holding his side as a sharp pain rips through his body like lightning. Despair's breathing becomes very shallow and he spits up blood onto the snow in front of him.

"Fucking worthless new form... Can't even handle a fraction of my power yet... I just need a little more... I need at least one of them to carry this worthless body home..." Despair pants between words before using some more darkness in front of him to make a much smaller dark purple pentagram. As Despair uses his darkness to summon a humanoid figure more pain rips through his body, but he carries on until finished. Once the figure fully forms it takes the shape of a human sized male wearing knight like heavy armour minus the small spikes on the helmet. On the knights back is a long pitch black cape with dark purple on the inside that reaches halfway down his legs. Only his bright glowing blood red eyes can be seen in his helmet.

"Dolor... General of the knight legion for my army... It's... Good to have... You back." Despair sounds in much more pain than before.

Dolor kneels in front of Despair and picks him up over his shoulder, before walking in the direction of the castle. "I know you would protest to this course of action my lord... However, given the circumstances you need to rest in your room as soon as possible. I trust you will brief us all later on the current situation. For now, please save your strength."

Despair didn't plan on arguing so he simply shut his eyes to rest as Dolor carried him inside the castle and up the large staircase in the main chamber. The staircase is like the ones you see in normal castles, they span off to the left and right once you ascend them. Dolor made his way up to the right and quickened his pace.

Despair opened his eyes and looked around him to see he was lying half submerged up to his chest in a soft glowing blue liquid. The room itself is an odd square shape with a blue flamed candle in every corner being the only light source. The pool he lies in is an archway shape with the only surface to walk on being behind him and either side of the pool. There was only one step halfway down the pool at the top edge, after that it went a little deep so you had to swim or float.

"This pathetic weak body... Still this healing liquid should make it adapt more quickly to my darkness." Despair cracks his neck slightly and holds his hand out to the left of him and forms a pentagram on the stone surface.

On the pentagram begins to form a naked female body. Once fully formed the girl has long flowing pink hair which looks like it reaches halfway down her back, a slim figure, with large breasts and a 'perfect' ass. The girl slowly stirs and sits up wiping her eyes in an adorable manner like a cat, her eyes are an emerald green colour.

"Luxure feels like she has been sleeping forever~" The self introduced girl slides over and into the pool of water before practically slithering up to Despair to cuddle him.

"It's a pleasure to have you back Luxure. I'm not sure how good that body is for you, but bathing in this liquid should help adjust it to your dark magic." Despair informs running his fingers through Luxure's silk like hair.

Luxure playfully straddles Despair and cuddles him closer. "Luxure will be fine bathing in here with master. Although you also once told me it's more effective if you are like I am~" Luxure sings as she begins taking off Despairs trench coat. "Plus... Luxure has not been with master in such a long time and Luxure is very eager to 'catch' up with him~" Luxure sings with a want and lust burning flame in her eyes.

Dolor is standing by the grand staircase looking over his newly formed dark longsword and kite shield on his back. Despair is walking down the right side stairs with Luxure close beside him, only this time she is wearing clothes. Luxure wears a witch outfit with a large V down the front and pitch black boots which stop at her knees.

"I see you haven't changed mage general Luxure... I was wondering what was keeping you master, but I should of known better to recall your regular activities." Dolor states with a small chuckle.

Despair smiles and walks over to the main stairs with Luxure to join Dolor. "Is everything prepared for the ritual?" Dolor nods and Despair steps further down the stairs towards the large circle etched into the floor in front of the stairs with a pentagram etched within it. Holding out his hand the etching fills with a bright purple light and begins to glow. The pentagram glows and with everything inside the stone circle falls down into a seemingly endless pit of darkness. After waiting a few seconds a burst of malicious green energy erupts from the hole and forms a swirling dark purple pool like the one out of Hercules.

"Souls of a lost world heed my call, your world has died. It has been plunged into endless ruin and you have all been robbed of your lives as a result. I offer to you now this contract of service... Serve me and I shall grant you another chance at life through joining my army and fighting for me! Do you accept the terms of this contract?!" Despair forms a scroll contract in his hand and holds it out with a quill floating beside it.

Two hands made from green ether slither out of the pool and float up to the contract. One takes the quill while the other seemingly looks the contract over before 'nodding' to its counterpart to sign the line. After the contract is signed it disappears and the hands go back into the pool.

"Very well! Now come forth and form my dark army! Serve me and know life once more!" Despair finishes as the pool springs to life and countless beings of multiple origins begin to climb out of the green pool.

"My lord, these are the citizens from the world Yuuki once lived in, correct?" Dolor questions with a slight cheerful hint.

"Luxure thinks it's fitting to use these swine against him..." Luxure states taking her masters side.

Despair summons another dark purple pentagram near him and brings forth another male figure. The male figure forms another knight who wears slightly more elite armour than Dolor. The knight's eyes are aqua blue and he carries a dark longsword which is sheathed at his side.

"Luxure of the dark mage legion and Kanashimi of the elite knight legion... Both of you are very welcome back into my fold. Kanashimi, I trust you feel well?" Despair asks with a slight flinch.

"I feel well enough, my lord. What is your command for this rabble before us?" Kanashimi asks with a mature, calm tone.

"Please begin leading them to the grand gathering hall and make sure none of them stray. By the time the introduction is concluded the barracks for each of the legions should be built and my army can begin being trained. However, currently I must rest... Please excuse me." Despair heads back up the right side stairs leaving his generals to shepherd the mass of people towards the gathering hall at the back of the complex.

Meanwhile somewhere in the ether...

The cylinder room is the normal way up and the Pegasus within sitting atop his normal chair playing with a set of new dark purple chess pieces to represent Despair's army. The female Unicorn enters the room and takes her seat.

"I take it there is a reason you came back to see me?" The Pegasus asks not taking his eyes off the pieces.

"I come baring a message... The dark fox lord Gimon would like me to relay that he has a plan for Yuuki's alters and will be enacting it soon. He says he knows the risk of failure and encourages faith in his abilities." The Unicorn delivers the message slightly nervous.

"I see... We shall let Gimon have some of his fun, for now. You can stay if you want, I always enjoy your company when we're alone." The Pegasus sighs slightly putting the piece of an elite knight back onto the board. He then walks over to the Unicorn and chuckles slightly. "Shall we play a little game?" A wide smile creeps across the Pegasus' dark mouth.

After resting in the ether pool for a little while Despair is walking through the large facility courtyard which has a wide variety of dark purple and black flowers. Despair stops for a moment by the large fountain in the centre of the garden and throws a summon circle behind him to form another general. This time a giant sized figure equal to two combined berserker's from Gears of War, with the muscle mass to match, begins to rise from the circle. The creature forms hard looking dark purple knight armour all over its body similar to that of a knight heartless from Kingdom Hearts II. The differences being it stands flat on its feet and the armour fits their frame. The armour clad giant kneels to Despair.

"My lord, it has been far too long since I've been able to flex my destructive urges." The creature states looking down.

"Vernichtung, it has been far too long since we last spoke... I now have all my generals and a vast army waiting to be converted. Shall we go?" Despair starts walking towards the very large gathering hall at the back of the facility.

Despair enters the large double doors into the gathering hall which is the size of three aircraft hangers wide and three in length. The hall is packed with people with a gap down the centre leading to a throne at the back on a raised platform. On the platform by the throne is Dolor, Kanashimi and Luxure. Despair begins walking towards the throne looking all around at the multitude of different races. When Despair reaches the throne he sits down and smiles widely as Vernichtung takes his place behind him.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the stage of the world. I do hope you find your new castle accommodation to your liking. In this army there are only four roles for you to play. Within these roles are different weapons and fighting techniques you can use or adopt. To begin, let us introduce the main legion of our dark army." Despair snaps his fingers to make several very large flat screen TV's turn on around the gathering hall, next to the flat screens are speakers to project the voices on the platform.

"Firstly, we have the knight legion. The dark general of pain, Dolor, heads this legion with dignity and honour. Any who join this legion are our army's main fighting force and will provide a range of services. Secondly, is our mage legion. The dark mage of Lust, Luxure, heads this legion. You will provide magical and artillery support for our army. Thirdly, is our elite knights headed by the dark general of absolute sorrow, Kanashimi. You will provide expert battle support and defence for the army and our base. Finally, the most destructive of our units... The titans are the backbone tide turners of the dark army. You will crush, kill, destroy and-" Despair is cut off by a random voice hidden in the crowd.

"Swag!"

Despair smirks just a tiny bit before clearing his throat and carrying on. "Decimate our enemies with extreme prejudice and enthusiasm." Despair finishes his explanation.

Despair stands up and flares out the base of his coat for dramatic effect. "Now, to introduce myself... My name is Despair. To all of you, however, it's 'master or 'my lord'. This meeting will conclude shortly... After it is finished please find the legion barracks you wish to join and go there. You will be trained and tested. If you will excel better in another barracks you will be directed to that legion." Despair finishes his speech to a resounding applause.

Despair begins walking down the gap with Kanashimi. "Kanashimi, I require five knights trained by tonight."

"The occasion, my lord?" Kanashimi asks.

"I'm going to crash a party." Despair states as they exit the hall through the double doors.

Author's Note

For those of you interested in the translations. Luxure is French for lust. Dolor is Latin for pain. Kanashimi is Japanese for sorrow. Durcheinander is German for chaos and finally is Vernichtung which is a German word for destruction. I hope you all liked this Despair chapter and look forward to the next one which will get feisty.