End of an Era: The Upheaval

The gala to celebrate the ending of the championship games reminded Queen Cadance and King Shining Armor of their wedding ceremony, expansive and opulent, since the entire Crystal Empire joined in on the festivities. The pop of fireworks started early in the morning, and continued throughout the day. The married power couple were constantly barraged by questions and congratulations, especially with the rumors that another war was on the horizon. One between the changelings and ponies, as the cold war turned hot, the rulers on both sides determined to break a deadlock. To spearhead the invasion into the hives, the queen's 'Three Swords' would take point.

The 'First Sword', her husband Shining Armor, the 'Second Sword' a pegasus named Thunder Storm, and the 'Third Sword' another pegasus called Fiery Kickstart. Each of them were in attendance at the Crystal Palace today, with their own skilled and disciplined armies under their command.

Cadance continued to adorn her shiny ceremonial armor, closer to a leotard that sculpted and flaunted her assets, most of her voluptuous breasts, hips, and buttocks on display. She walked with her plume out and her tail hiked with pride, a warm, sensual smile on her snout, her boots ended in heels. She walked arm-in-arm with her husband, also shrouded in muscle-like armor.

Feasts were set out across the tables, which included fancy cakes and wine in bottles. Snack trays were carried by butlers and maids, hand-picked by the queen for their attractiveness, most of them crystal ponies. Guards stood watch all over, stoic and on constant watch for any trouble.

“This day is going to be perfect~,” sang the queen to herself, who bent over in front of her husband to stab a fork into a slice of cake, her heart-shaped pink cheeks bared, with her asscrack barely hidden by a thin layer of her costume as she shook her beautiful butt to the music.

“It sure is!” He was tempted to reach out and take a pinch, but too many eyes were on them.

“Dirty boy~.” She, too, wished he'd chance it. But they'd make up for that later! Especially since they'd partaken in a 'wife-swap' with another married couple, Thunder Storm also present and encased in his own armor, with his own curvaceous pegasus wife Snowy Blizzard in a sultry gown. She shot the pair a sly wink, which they returned with smiles of their own at the rulers.

With a brush of her tail to tickle her hubby's hand, she nibbled at her cake and they made their way over to their secret lovers. “Good to see you, as always. That armor really suits your chivalrous side, Thunder Storm! And Snow Blizzard! Why, that slip is almost scandalous on your delectable flesh!”

“Why-why thank you,” said Snowy with a flush and a small titter.

“You two also look impressive as always,” noted Thunder Storm, who looked them up-and-down.

“We do our best!” Shiny chuckled and thrust out his barrel chest. “Huh, but I've barely seen a hint of Fiery today! Plenty of his men, but usually at this time of year he's obsessed with order!”

“Maybe he's decided to maintain order from behind the scenes this time,” considered Thunder, who'd lowered his voice, but most of their words were lost under the music, an occasional pop of fireworks, and idle chatter around them. “He almost embarrassed us all last year.”

“He meant well,” defended the queen. “Fiery simply...lives up to his namesake at times.”

Snowy nodded. “He's always been a little pushy and stubborn. I never intended to break his heart back in the day, but...” She took her husband's hands. “Thunder is the stallion for me!”

Cadance tittered, and her barely contained breasts shook wildly in her top. “About that. Perhaps he's found a sweetheart of his own? It's hard to pinpoint with everyone around, but love is definitely in the air! I'm sure dozens of new romances have blossomed today!”

“I sure hope so,” said Thunder with a frown. “I hope we never have to cross swords for real.”

“I prevented that last time,” reminded Snowy. “And if I have to, I'll come between you again! Whatever his faults, Fiery would never harm me! And he's very dedicated to our country!”

Shiny sipped at a drink in hand. “True! He's always had our backs on the battlefield. He's also a skilled tactician, who came up with many of our force's formations! United, we're invincible!”

“Almost invincible,” said Thunder. “Let's not tempt fate.” He, too, took a drink of wine.

They continued to make the rounds around the party. It started from dawn and would carry on into the next, before the queen would formally announced her intentions to strike a decisive blow to Queen Chrysalis, backed by her 'Three Swords'...and she'd soon hoped her secret 'Fourth Sword'.

The thestral stallion in question, Night Blade, touched down hand-in-hand with his bat mare wife, Moonflower. Gasps of surprise met the couple at their entrance into the Crystal Empire, and guards rushed onto the scene with a rattle of armor, despite the thestral's ancient sword remained sheathed. Likewise, he came in out-of-date armor, a helmet included which he removed.

“I don't want any trouble,” he implored, and stepped protectively in front of his wife.

Moonflower cried, “It's true! Please, everyone, put away your weapons and let us see the queen!”

Guardsmen, who'd formed a circle around the couple, closed in with the intention to imprison them and ask the queen what should be done with the intruders. Then, a burst of flame hissed above them, with cries from the crows as the soldiers were forced apart by the heat wave.

A mustard stallion pegasus strode onto the scene, his sword unsheathed. “Stand down,” commanded Fiery. “I know who they are and will deal with this. Dismissed.” When a soldier opened his mouth to protest, Fiery stared him down, until he balked, they all saluted, and marched away.

“The rest of you too. Enjoy the party,” he said to the mob with a dismissive wave. Then, he led them away from the revelers to somewhere more private, a small table beneath a tree at a restaurant. “Excuse them. You know there's still so much bad blood between ponies and thestrals.”

“Yes,” lamented Moonflower, who toyed with a flower in her mane. “They treat us like circus freaks!” She, too, wore a dress from ancient times, and a pair of sandals.

“We shouldn't have touched down in the middle of the capital,” the bat stallion said.

“True,” answered Fiery with a clipped nod. “You practically asked for trouble. No doubt you wanted to make a statement. You won't win many friends that way...but you do have my respect.”

Night Blade returned their savior's sudden chuckle, the tension broken. “Well, my wife and I always always did appreciate the theater, in our times. Some of that theatricality must've rubbed off on me. Mostly, I believe it is the quickest way to seek an audience with Cadenza Mi Amore.”

“Just Cadance will do,” said Fiery. “I'll send word her way, once you two settle in.”

“Good to know you still see me as a comrade-in-arms...'Third Sword'.” He offered a hand.

Fiery looked at it but didn't take it. “That remains to be seen, 'old friend'.” He turned his back on the couple. “You ran away from your duties. Hid like a coward. I understand why you did it. You wanted to protect the mare you love. But you'll have to win back your rank...'Fourth Sword'.”

They watched him leave with a mixture of emotions.

Moonflower rubbed her husband's hand. “I'm sorry. Because of me, they think you a coward!”

“Let them all believe what they like,” he answered darkly and squeezed her hand. “I'll always choose my family first. Our little mare included. She inspired us to visit here, after all.”

Moonflower said, “I wonder where Moonlight is, anyway? Or her friends? Guess we'll have to stick around here to stay on the safe side, and wait until Fiery sends someone to fetch us!”

True to his word, Fiery passed on his request to Ocellus, a 'crystal mare maid' that rushed off to find the queen. That left him alone with his two prizes, the twin crystal mare maids Foal-Bearer and Wet Nurse, in their usual uniforms with coral pastel pink manes in bobcuts, their eyes, skin, fur, and tails also in various shades of pink to compliment them. Both of them curtsied in unison.

He smirked at the pair, aware they were alone in a hall, where his firm hands cupped a breast and buttock They squealed in united delight when he wrapped a hand around each waist, scooped them up, and tossed both over each soldier, their skirts flipped and panty-clad asses upraised.

Wet Nurse blushed with titters and whimpered, “S-sir! Someone could see us!”

“Then we'd better put on a nice show,” he chortled, cupping each sister by a buttock, then yanked their panties down, their puckered assholes and pussies wet in anticipation exposed to the cool air.

Foal-Bearer shook her bottom and mused, “Bold as always, sir.” They yelped at a sharp, playful spank on their rumps, as the cutie marks that adorned them, two intertwined female symbols, shimmered in resonance. As such, they shared each other's pain...and pleasure.

Under normal circumstances Fiery wouldn't be Foal-Bearer's type, but her twin's crush on him had enveloped her, as Wet Nurse's romance with him blossomed and they shared in his love. Foal-Bearer once had her heart set on Thunder Storm, but knew it couldn't be with the married stallion.

Now, they slipped into an empty room, where Fiery tossed them onto a spacious bed with a bounce. He locked the door behind him, practically ripped his uniform off while the sisters put on a strip tease. First, came off their uniforms, then they unhooked their bras and let their tits flop out, which smacked and continued to wobble a little while they settled, topped by wide areola.

Then, he flew into bed with them, crushed his lips to their own as he savored the manhandled mares. “Normally, I'd never do this. I should be on watch with my men.”

“Just a little while,” said Wet Nurse, who pressed her heavy tit until it squashed in his palm. “I-I want to bear your foals someday! B-but I understand we're merely common maids-”

“-me too,” decided Foal-Bearer as his other hand sank into her pastel pink buttcheek. “My sister's love for you is clear. And I wouldn't mind sharing the rest of my life with you, or having your foals, should you accept. Of course, we understand if you turn us down, with your position-”

“I'll do it,” he answered with fierce conviction. “I'd already planned to marry you both, when the time came. Once Chrysalis and her minions are dealt with, I'll wed and put foals in you both.” He drew his palms over their flesh, to rest over their abdomens, near their wombs.

Wet Nurse sniffled and wept happy tears that streaked down her cheeks. “Th-thank you sir!”

“Yes,” said Foal-Bearer, affected by her sister's outpour of emotion as she softly cried, too. “I suppose we'd better practice more, for when you knock us up, shouldn't we?” Usually, she let her sister take the first round, but this time she took his horsecock and directed it to her snatch.

They moaned when he sank into her. Surrender to his thrusts, his kisses and caresses, traced the line of his musculature while he rocked Foal-Bearer beneath him each time he pounded her. While he'd become more tender, he still often took them hard and fast, especially with their limited time.

Sweat lined their bodies, and Wet Nurse played with her pussy while she awaited her turn. She could feel his phantom cock carve into her cunt, and his hands wherever he touched her sister.

“I'm close,” he warned her between slams, his teeth clenched and ears flat.

Foal-Bearer cried back, “In-inside! I want to pretend you've knocked us up!” Grunts escaped him when he impaled her balls deep, and exploded directly into her uterus, as his flare had punched past her cervix. The sisters screamed in ecstasy and drenched his crotch as he shot into her.

Her belly swelled under the impacts, her eyes rolled into her head. Finally, he popped out, the last shot unloaded across her belly while she heaved her sweaty tits and her slit leaked out his cum.

“My turn!” Wet Nurse enthusiastically bent over her sister for him, her hands on the headrest and her head craned back, without a need to face a deep blush or the way she smoldered, as her lower holes winked, ready to take his cock like a bitch in heat. “Give it to me, sir! Please~!”

After a harsh slap to her ass which made her whinny, he reared up and mounted her. Still half-hard, he pushed into her twat, parted its slick walls and spat on her asshole, which he thumbed while he railed her senseless. She and Foal-Beare beneath her mewled from his dominant treatment.

In a blur, he worked her over, and his free hand played with one suspended titty while the other swayed each time he knocked her about when he speared her deep. Foal-Bearer twisted her body and squirmed so that she lifted her butt up, her creamed cunt thrust up to her sister's face.

Wet Nurse immediately beset her twin, and feasted on her slutty, slimy snatch, slurped the spunk from its soaked depths. Her own pussy burned with pleasure, as she felt her own phantom tongue worm inside its pink folds, and Fiery's cock carved her up while his thumb mashed her rectum.

“F-fuck! I'm at my limit, sir!” She squeezed and came all over him first.

With another butt slap, he buried himself womb-deep in her too, then exploded inside her. Her stomach bloated below her, Wet Nurse's face also painted all over in her sister's slutty squirts.

The masochistic maid mares mewled when he finished. In unison they asked, “How were we, sir?”

“Good bitches like always,” he teased with a smirk, which they giggled at. “Got to get back. Sorry I can't stay, but I'll make it up to you two later.” He embraced and kissed them both.

“We love you~,” replied the twins in unison, practically glowing after he'd thoroughly wrecked their pussies like he always did. They, too, would have to head back soon, before they were missed.

The sisters reclined face-to-face, their figners linked and their snouts touched. Now that he'd revealed his intention to marry them, their hearts fluttered in a staccato rhythm.

Fiery had already left, but the door creaked open, unnoticed by the sisters. Their fellow maid and friend, Ocellus, watched them from outside the room, her expression forlorn and shadows falling over the twins...the ones she'd soon be forced to betray. She balled up a small, shaky fist.

To communicate with her queen, she'd have to momentarily take her changeling form, thus she slipped out of the building to seek out a designated place another drone would carry her message. This she left in the form of a smell she expelled, which the swarm could use to communicate.

With all them marshaled patrols, it wasn't an easy matter to slip out, but she'd taken the form of Thunder Storm in a flash, approached the soldiers stationed at the gate with a salute they returned, and proclaimed, “I want to check the outside area. Personally. I'll be back in a few minutes.”

“Alone, sir? Should we call for a patrol-”

“No need.” The shape-shifter touched his shoulder with a warm smile. “I won't travel far.” A doubtful look crossed the pair of troopers, but nonetheless the stallions allowed the 'Second Sword' by. No time was wasted on the march outside the Crystal Empire's capital, into a nearby forest.

With distance put between her and civilization, another flash swept over Ocellus when she took her natural form back. A nude, lithe, insect-pony hybrid materialized with gossamer wings and an ethereal curtain of a mane to match, her eyes wide and innocent. At the chosen spot by a tree marked by a smell ponies couldn't perceive, she inhaled her own scent over it in a pink cloud.

“It's done. I-I can't turn back now,” she whispered to herself, as the cool breeze caressed her lean, naked form. After a moment taken to inhale deeply, she shifted into the commander and headed back. Guardsmen allowed 'Thunder Storm' back in, and the shifter headed to the party.

She'd reclaimed her crystal mare maid likeness while unobserved, threw on her uniform (It always proved very uncomfortable and required constant concentration to warp her body into clothes like she'd had to when she mimicked Thunder Storm's armor), and slipped into the celebration like she'd never been absent. Not that anyone seemed to notice, with so many maids about!

She noted a number of faces were currently no-show. Cadance and Shining Armor included, who she suspected had slipped away for a bit of quick and casual 'fun'. They'd all go out with a bang soon, she knew, since the lust she'd collected over the last couple weeks had built up in her, which her system recycled to affect her venom, and she synthesized a far more potent form of aphrodisiac. All she had to do was dissolve it into the food and drinks, then the fun would start...

*****

This was the way it was meant to play out. The fall of the Crystal Empire, which would become a shadow of its current state, ordained by fate. Yet unseen elements complicated matters.

Greenish-hues cast by the hive walls, slimy and fleshy, woven around rocks as the walls appeared to breathe around the spacious labyrinth of caverns deep below the earth. The earth was wet and sucked at the bare feet of Queen Chrysalis, who rose from her daily bath to walk towards the hatchery, her hands raised to sweep a wet waterfall of a mane behind her voluptuous body.

She approached the clutch of Ocellus, each ovum sat in a murky pool amidst a crater, ready to hatch when their mother returned. The father had been some warrior drone Chrysalis executed herself when she claimed the 'Proto Queen', more commonly known as a 'Protoquen's', hive. “Perhaps I was a tad hasty,” she mused. “Perhaps he would have been a worthy treat in bed!”

Yet she couldn't risk a rebellion, and crushed all warriors of a hive she invaded at first chance. Ocellus had wept over her husband, but quickly fallen into her service to preserve her spawn. Her kind were normally docile by nature, until Chrysalis transformed them into her personal army!

Her ear twitched at a muted flutter. “Is that you, my concubines? Show yourself!”

Hooded and robed figures floated into her presence, doused by the shadows. “Greetings, Queen Chrysalis. We're emissaries of our sacred order, who seek an audience with you!”

She hissed at the troika. “How did you infiltrate my hive undetected?”

“You'd be surprised what we're capable of! Do you desire even more power?”

“What do you mean? Tell me quickly, or I'll have your heads!” She flexed her inner muscles, and with a wet slurp from her cunt, 'birthed' out a spike filled with venom, slick and slippery in her palm when she brandished it. Unlike the soft-touch of Ocellus, her bitter poisons could cause paralysis, horrific hallucinations, and would end in excruciation and death. “Who dares address me?”

The three mares cast back their hoods, and their robes fluttered open, their nubile bodies naked beneath the folds. “Trixie Lulamoon, at your service!” She took a theatrical bow. “And these are my sidekicks, Lavender Lace and Fuchsia Blush! We'll come to be known as the 'Cult of the Nemesis'!”

“Never heard of you,” dismissed Chrysalis. “What can you three possibly do for me?”

“Trust us,” mused Trrixie. “Guide us to your throne room, and we'll show you!” Despite her doubts, Chrysalis led them into her chambers, ready to run the stinger through their throats at the first sign of treachery. After all, she hadn't united a number of hives under an iron first by carelessness!

She summoned her concubines, each without a name and reduced to a number, a mix of males and females she'd purposefully made dim-witted and submissive, each beautiful, loyal, service, sensitive and easy to please. They formed a throne for their queen, who sat her wide bare butt down on the back of one propped on all fours, and her feet rested atop another prostrated before her.

While the cultists made their pitch, one of her spy drones returned and exhaled his scent cloud.

Chrysalis inhaled it, her mind like always hit by a series of rapid images that flashed in her skull, which showed the movements of Ocellus, the layout of the Crystal Palace, key players in attendance...when Ocellus enacted her part of the plan, it would prove all too easy to invade!

Trixie offered, “Perhaps a demonstration would help sway you? How valuable is this drone?”

“Replaceable,” decided Chrysalis, who reclined her tilted head on a hand. “Proceed.”

Trixie produced a weapon, a wand carved from a severed unicorn horn. Infused with dark mysticism, it radiated a blackish-purple, which she dispelled into the male drone. He shuddered, twisted, thrown between a series of shapes he'd taken on before...until his musculature expanded, as he toppled onto all fours with a snarl, transformed into a more beast-like creature that flicked his antenna.

“A small taste of what we can do,” assured Trixie. “You don't have to decide now. We'll return later, where we can formally make an alliance! But know that ponies aren't the only enemy out there!”

“You mean the races allied with them? Bah. They're on the other side of Equestria,” she dismissed.

“No,” said Fuchsia Blush. “Races that will be drawn in from alternate worlds.”

“Ones that will help the ponies try and turn the tides,” added Lavender.

“Other worlds? I don't know what you speak of,” said Chrysalis, yet she felt a chill sweep her. “Go, then.” With a united nod, the three robed mares stepped back into the shadows, and appeared to vanish into them. The queen's mind was troubled, as it tried to wrap her head around parallel worlds, which for a moment made her feel so small. So helpless. “No! I won't be a nobody!”

Were it necessary, she'd sacrifice every life there was to make her mark on history...!

*****

The 'Cult of the Nemesis' made its move, to alter the direction of history forever, and assure Equestria's end would be Apocalyptic indeed. Already, with their interference, the cultists assured that reality here would unravel faster, until it eventually collapsed. However, they weren't the only ones that interfered. An interloper who'd lost his world in ancient times intervened.

Grayscale Carnix, founder of the Order of Reapers, meant to be a neutral arbiter that preserved the universal balance. But he could see the threads that connected the multiverse fray.

Gray-robed, the drake's snout peeked out of his thick hood, his leathery-scaled bulk muscular.

Portions of this Equestria would soon start to vanish. Pieces of other planets would make their way here, and with them, refugees from other races, survivors from their own doomed universes. One of these he'd personally saved were a number of Valkyries, soul-collectors on the battlefield.

He'd keep them at hand, ready to be played when the time came. Until then, he employed more 'subtle' means. The moment someone tried to weave a nexus between worlds, he interferfered. Stood upon 'Nocturne's Peak', a mountain capped in packets of snow, his own robed hand perfectly mimicked the hand movements of the witch that walked between worlds.

A slit was drawn in the air, opened to a bluish-white portal that swirled, shimmered, and hummed. From the hole toppled the unicorn that weaved it, Beatrix Belladonna, who were it not for her platinum mane and violet eyes, skin, and fur, could've been a clone of her mother Trixie!

She tumbled head-over heels over into a blanket of snow, wet from her bath and naked. “Oof! What the-” She crawled out of the way, while a couple more fell out behind her.

The witch had been in the middle of a steam bath with friends, while she'd showed off her powers. Never before had her portal sucked her in! And her two closest friends, too!

Cerise Silhouette screamed when she fell, and landed on her butt in the snow, the wind knocked from her. The earth pony mare, with her medium-sized breasts to match the dancer's build, had charcoal black fur and skin, her mane which was usually done up in pigtails down and drenched, hot pink like her soulful eyes. “Ow-owie~!” She sniffled and her palms rubbed her bare buns.

“You okay? Look out!” Beatrix seized Cerise in an aura cast by her horn and moved her.

The last of the bathers was spat out, yet she sailed to safety near them, statuesque and crimson-skinned. Golden eyes surveyed the snowy mountainscape, her silken black locks tossed in the wind as the succubus took in this world with a flick of her spaded tail, her leather wings drawn close to her back, and her arms crossed under her heavy bare breasts. “Another fine mess, sister.”

“H-hey! It was an accident! My powers have never done that before,” defended Beatrix.

Bellatrix Primadonna curled her lip. “Can't you simply step into the portal and send us back? Wait.” She narrowed her eyes at the nexus-between-realities, and noted a subtle flicker and distorted hum.

“It's unstable,” realized Beatrix. “I don't dare open another one, it could collapse this dimension!”

Cerise, who'd recovered her breath, huffed with her cheeks red and her soulful eyes wide. “So that means we're trapped here? Oh no!” She curled up close to herself to keep warm, her nipples stiff.

“I'm certain it's a temporary setback princess,” surmised Bellatrix flatly. “Isn't that so, sister?”

“S-sure. It has to be!” Beatrix tried to work out why her portal malfunctioned, the one that helped cause its instability to force her here, Grayscale Carnifex, unseen as he chuckled at his risky plan. Whoever the architects of the Apocalypse were that used the cultists to break down the multiverse's stability, he could toss his own pawns into the mix, and perhaps create a paradox in his favor...?

Of course, he couldn't let Beatrix return home until she made a mess of the timeline, like always. The other women he accidentally pulled in to aid her were a bonus. And if they all died, oh well...

Cerise shivered and asked, “H-how do we get down this mountain? She concentrated, and the earth mare activated a 'trick' she'd learned thanks to the black magic her father imbued on her before she'd even been born...and a pair of bat wings exploded out of her back in tandem, which Carnifex thought was fitting, since the thestrals of this region had been born on this mountaintop. “I-I don't think I can safely fly down it, now with all these winds!What are we supposed to-”

“Don't blather on,” said Bellatrix curtly with a roll of her eyes. “There must be a way, and I'll find it.” While her nipples were painfully erect too in the cold, she otherwise appeared unbothered by the elements. “I can see a path up ahead. We'll have to take it slow to make our descent.”

“Sounds like a plan,” decided Beatrix, who attempted to wave on a costume, like she usually did...only to have her magic flicker out. In a panic, she tried a number of spells with her hands and horn, but was only able to use her aura, since telekinesis was the first spell most unicorns learned. “Wh-what the-! No! This better not be permanent!” A sudden terror seized her heart.

“You worry too much,” said Bella. “It's probably connected to your portal. I'm sure it will pass.” She opened her palm, and summoned up brimstone wrapped in hellfire that sizzled. “It appears my powers function fine, so I'll take point and protect you both. It's almost nice up here.”

Cerise's teeth clicked. “If-if you say so!” Her leather plume and pink tail wrapped around her. “I'm sorry, but I haven't been on lots of adventures like you two! That debacle where my country was almost conquered, when that eldritch horror that pretended to be a manor swept me up into it, and that's it! I-I know I'm not much of a warrior, but I'll try not to be a burden on you two!”

Beatrix took her hand. “Don't worry! I'll never let anyone hurt you! Never!”

Cerise beamed at her. “Th-thank you!” The three of them started their slow descent, only to a short time later find a bundle of clothes left beneath a rotted tree for them, and weapons stabbed into its dead trunk. Bellatrix raised a skeptical eyebrow, but they couldn't question their luck much.

What choice did they have, but to rely on their unseen benefactor?

They dressed and armed themselves in costumes not too dissimilar from they usually wore, albeit Beatrix's leotard was closer to a unitard, and the same proved true for Cerise's dancer costume. Bellatrix's typical leather bikini was more like a leather catsuit. Cerise took up a spear with ribbons on it, Bellatrix a curved crimson knife that was practically a replica of her own weapon, and Beatrix, who usually didn't carry a melee weapon of any kind, picked up a wand with a low shudder.

“Th-this is...” It was carved from a unicorn's horn and lacquered. A cursed weapon made from a poor, mutilated and slain pony. She was tempted to hurl it off the mountainside.

Yet she could need it to survive! “I'm sorry, whoever you are. I'll try not to let your sacrifice be in vain!” Yet she worried what it meant. The 'Cult of the Nemesis' could be here, somewhere...

Finally, the three of them wrapped up in thick hooded cloaks left to them. Sleet covered the footfalls that trailed down the paths that spiraled around the mountain, and they were forced to proceed quickly, as Cerise used her spear to help support her, and Belklatrix's tail was ready to snake out and seize her companions, were they to slip. Beatrix was thankful she had boots without heels for once. Step-by-step, they undertook a slow march, towards the mountain's bottom.

A paradox would hopefully throw a wrench into the plans of his enemies, Grayscale decided, while the ancient, former executioner observed his pawns on their way down with a wry smile.

Doubtful they'd reached the Crystal Empire in time, when its downfall was scheduled to kick off. Yet surely they'd cross paths with whatever the cultists had in mind in the aftermath...