9 Let the Games Begin
The was an oppressive silence within the carriage, other than the rocking of it and the clopping of the hooves of the horses pulling it on the stone road, there was no noise within it.
But what could be said, discussed, or even be mentioned after that humiliating episode a few minutes ago that Lady Tremaine and her daughters suffered at the hands of that…
That thing!
He obviously couldn't be called human.
Lady Tremaine reasoned within her mind as she felt her beloved cat curl deeper into her arms.
Even her caresses that usually soothed him didn't work this time.
This made her gently bite red lips as her cold eyes had a rare glow of sympathy for a split second as she looked at the feline shivering ever intensely, before being replaced by the normal cold and indifferent light that was usually there.
That thing was something that she had never faced before, well not almost. For she remembers once when she was very young, naïve and curious about the world, she stumbled into a wild bear.
Its ferocity, might, and terror was too much for the younger her! She remembers its cold, hungry, and predator eyes that reflected her terror-stricken and frozen face, its towering stance that covered the entire sky in her sight. Its thundering roar seemed to make her little world tremble!
She felt powerless, small and oh so very… weak.
A feeling she has hated ever since, but as a normal human what could she do, to gain power and no longer know weakness?
It was at that time that she learned of another path and it was also the time she was saved and coincidentally by the current king, who at that time was a prince.
He slew the beast, ordered his guards to take it back home and she knows that it has become a rug.
That moment turned everything her younger self knew, and the hunger for power grew within her, her dream to become royalty as they were powerful and it became an obsession, an obsession that caused her to… do things.
Clenching her fist tightly, one could see a cunning and calculative look in her eyes, the sinister light grew with intensity as she seemed to be coming at the zenith of her plans!
She thought and thought hard, she didn't want to end things like this, to be publically humiliated, by her little scullery maid, much less by a stranger and made to run for her life like a dog!
No!
There has to be a way, Madonna, think!
'That it!'
She held back the urge to shout at the top of her lungs, as a cold sneer reach up her face, making the creases on both her cheeks deepen and her face look diabolical.
Whatever she cooked up in her twisted mind was so sinister that the air about her was felt by everyone within the carriage, the cat on her laps felt it faster and it cried out slightly as it was nearest, the oppressive air about his mistress was dark, not as scary as that monster, but dark.
The call of her beloved feline made her snap back and instantly reign in her emotions, it was good because her daughters looked at her with confusion, but she ignored them as she focused on him.
"Hush, now my little one." She stroked him gently as she cooed at him, it was better now that he was active again.
"Mother?" Her daughter called out, not being able to stand it any longer.
"Hmm?" Lady Tremaine responded as she looked at her youngest who called out to her.
Her black eyes blinked with confusion at everything that has happened while her red hair bobbed about gently due to the movement of the carriage. There weren't a lot of noticeable features about her at all.
Even Lady Tremaine who looked at her daughter couldn't but find her own daughters as… plain.
"Yes, Anastasia?" Asked Lady Tremaine while she continued to pat Lucifer.
Drizella also set up straight to listen to their mother, what they went through was the most shameful thing ever, with her being one that was close to their mother's personality, she understood that things were far from over given her mother's way of doing things.
So she couldn't help but open her mouth, "What are we going to do about what happened? As well as that slutty maid that has caught the attention of that… That man." She said with a blush 0n her cheeks, not quite being able to properly insult Dominic.
Sure he was scary as a monster, but there was so much more to him, especially his looks, and boy she wanted him!
Lady Tremaine raised her eyebrow at this, she could see that her daughters were quite smitten by his looks, heck even she felt her aged and somewhat rusty loins get a little moist, he was one fine specimen, not to mention that subtle archaic air about him.
If her plans went well, she will have to give him a go. Perhaps only he could make this old lady feel young again.
Not like she plans on being identified as old in the very near future!
"Hmm…" She hummed while her face remained the same despite the dark machinations in her mind before she continued.
"For now, you two will do nothing. I on the other hand will be busy and will leave home for a day, after that the two of you will help me with something so special and very important in get us revenge and power."
Her tone got darker and darker with each sentence, so much so that her eyes glowed a sinister emerald light as she gazed at her two daughters with a hidden dark glow when she ended her sentence.
"Oh, look we are home." Lady Tremaine suddenly called, breaking the diabolical atmosphere she had created.
The two sisters were very happy that something was going to be done, but they couldn't help but tremble to their cores knowing that they were going to be involved, it was not that they didn't want to help.
But it was the manner in which their mother told them, it was kind of... evil.
"Off, you two go." Lady Tremaine said, snapping them back to their senses as they robotically got off while she remained in the carriage.
"Now, you two best behave until I return. While I estimate will be by around this time tomorrow." She spoke to them through the carriage window before tapping the door as the carriage driver got the message and drove away leaving the two in the dust still not believing at what was happening.
Lady Tremaine didn't care that she suddenly just abandoned her daughters, at the moment they were of no use to her.
But soon enough they will.
They say that a tiger will not even devour its cubs, but the same could never be said about a scorpion.
And Lady Tremaine was a very deadly and venomous scorpion.
==
About a hundred miles deeper into the forest from where Dominic first appeared into this world, one would see a range of mountains that casted a dark and gloomy shadow upon the nearby forest, that and they seemed to seep darkness and evil, causing the sky over this mountain range to be covered by massive dark and sinister clouds of different shades of green and black.
If one was above average in terms of sheer will, and have not fled at the mere sight and presence of the atmosphere of these mountain ranges, they would see that there was a ruined castle atop one of the tallest mountains.
This was the Forbidden Mountain.
The mere name would deter and would be adventure at heart from even stepping into these mountains, and if that didn't the layers of dangers within it would be enough to end anyone foolish enough to step into it from; the terrain, deadly insects and plants, the patrolling guards and lastly the terrain.
The guards as per the atmosphere were not in the least normal, but consisted of trolls, goblins and ogres that would all devour the flesh of anyone that dared to come, but they never wondered beyond the lands of their realm fortunately.
The terrain was wicked and perilous without a doubt, having claimed even more lives than the patrolling guards, for it too claimed the lives of the patrolling guards.
But at this moment there wasn't a single shadow of a guard about, only a strange, gloomy silence that made the place even more gloomy and dark than it always was.
For there was a reason for this behaviour.
From one of the windows that were so dark that they seemed to swallow one's soul, though at this moment there was a flickering of light, a green light that cast strange and haunting shadows on the interior walks.
One of these shadows kept moving back and forth, it would stop for a moment before carrying on again, it made strange gestures with what seemed like arms and hands as if arguing with something.
Though there was a feature that made them stand out, they stood out enough to scare even the bravest of men just by looking at this shadow and not even meeting the owner, and that was a pair of curved horns.
They made the shadow look even more demonic and menacing as if the devil had ascended into the world and was making great evil plans about world domination and its impending doom and torture beneath its claws!
But, should they look at the owner of this shadow, they would be so dumbfounded at the scene before them with their jaws falling straight to the cold and hard floor.
For there it was, or more specifically, there she was; a tall and slender female, but her skin was pale green, her narrow face had an icy elegance to it, a dark kind of beauty with a shapely figure beneath her black and purple robe.
She emitted a powerful presence that would freeze the most normal of souls just with a glance, or would usually.
Because at this time, her slender eyebrows were farrowed deeply and not in anger or hatred, but in confusion, frustration and… fear?
Making her form, though still proud and tall, seemed a little smaller, and if one looked closely they would see it tremble slightly as if she felt a chill up her spine on occasion.
And she did.
The moment she would dare think of that moment, that moment even if only a few hours ago when it happened.
She was merely working on a potion, well, a poison anyway like usual while thinking that it was almost time for the curse she has placed on that little princess to start reacting and it will be activated within a few more weeks at last!
With such happy thoughts she carried on making her most deadly of potions, but it didn't last long before a dreadful and devastating might fell upon her very being and soul
It rendered her weak, helpless, immobile and… submissive.
To think that she, the most powerful of fairies would feel such a feeling known as submissive!
Before she would cut out the tongue of whoever would dare say that to her and shove it down their throats.
But here and now, her body and soul still felt that lingering effects of what that sheer presence did to her.
And she hated it, hated it so very much!
What happened to her magic, her essence, and might that was of dragon?!
Wasn't she supposed to stand tall even before gods?!
To think that there would be a being capable of making her feel like this was mind-blowing as well as frightening!
But the most important thing now was to think of ways to destroy that thing, she was sure she could find it with a couple of tracing spells, but the problem was that she was also sure that the moment she did that, it would also find her.
And if it did that right now, she was so sure that she would be finished. Not to mention that the might she felt earlier was not even directed at her!
"Argh! What to do!? What to do!?" She paced back and forth with her hands raised into the air before rubbing her horns, yes, horns on her head that made her look as if she was a beautiful she-devil.
Or perhaps it was a headdress.
Not that it currently mattered, for she, Maleficent, felt so helpless and weak for the first time in her life, and not even the moment she was born!
Sure she was rejected, feared, and excluded from a lot of the things by her kind growing up, but she ignored that and grew not to care, well not to care that much anyway.
But this, this was different!
"Damn it! Do I have to rely on that seafood to get a few rare ingredients and artifacts that might help against it?!" Maleficent grit her teeth for a moment, as her yellow eyes dimmed for a moment.
She closed her eyes for a second making her appear very pitiful, delicate, and desolate.
But that was only for a split second before it was replaced with her normal demeanor.
"Diablo!" She called.
Instantly a large black raven flew in and settled upon her shoulder, its black eyes stared at its mistress for a moment before releasing a small cry as it rubbed itself on her cheek.
It and the rest of its mistress' minions also felt that presence, but for some reason its mistress was struck the worst causing her to be unstable for the past few hours, now that she was back to normal it was happy and wished to do anything for her to feel better.
Feeling the raven's black feathers on her cheek, she smiled gently for a moment before she walked to the nearby table of her study that was full of writing material and sat there as she prepared to write a letter.
Using a special feather pen, she sat there for a few minutes and once she was done, she reached for her staff, it was golden with a lime green ball on top of it.
With a wave towards the letter, the ball started to glow and soon swirls akin to a brewing storm started to spin within it, it didn't brew for long for in a flash of green lightning it struck the letter making it vanish leaving behind a soot black spot.
Not that it was disintegrated, but instead it had been delivered to the receiver.
And she damn hoped that octopus would reply otherwise she will be making calamari with her tentacles and feed it to her minions!
==
With a large smile on her that looked menacing, soon everything will be in place and she will have her power and most importantly her revenge!
Her short white hair danced a little gently in the water as she looked down to see a green flash of light descend on her cosmetics table, with a curious look her grey eyes squinted as she gently reached for it, she could feel the warmth of the paper on her lavender skin, and it was proof that this was someone with great talent in making to make it appear as such.
Only few beings on this planet had such power, and they had to have even greater talent in dark magic power too for other types can't penetrate the defenses of her place.
She than took it and it began;
Dear Ursula…
Looking at its contents she could help but laugh out loud, so much so that it made her two eels stare at her with perplexed gazes from the outside her home, this place that was her exile.
But not for long, for things were going to be better soon, just as planned.
After all, Triton's seventh little daughter had just asked to be human, all because of… Love.
She loathed the mere word but if it was going to bring her to want she wanted and more, she was going to start liking it very much.
After all, the little princess was going to fail and Triton is going to do anything to save her, absolutely anything at all!
What was the guarantee to this thought one might ask?
Well at first she wanted to just take away the little princess' voice and have her fight to get that 'beloved prince' of hers to fall for her. He will kiss her and she would get back her voice, and they will live happily ever after~
Argh! The cheesy romance in such a setting almost made her want to throw up the shrimps she just ate.
But, it was at this moment she felt a voice inside her head saying that this was too easy.
For that little princess was blessed with looks, she had the blood of gods running through her after all, and with the batting of her eyelashes and a smile of her lips would hook any man, she was a mermaid after all.
So why not take her looks, her beauty, and added another curse upon her, one that was very nasty and very impossible to break.
And to break it she would have to be kissed by one that was truly in love with her to an insane amount bordering obsession, the one that loves her must even be willing to burn this world to the ground just for her.
Hah!
She can't help but sneer at the sickness of the curse, what was even more hilarious was the look of passion on that little mermaid princess's face to think that she would be loved like that and didn't hesitate to agree.
Pfft!
As if there was going to be a person or being that would love the current her.
Heh, only a person already obsessed with her can see her true self. Not like there is a being like that on this world, not even on the surface where she would go for the first time!
Now she was very plain looking and mute.
So yeah, her plans are 100% in the bag. Oh how things were looking up.
Ursula couldn't hold her smile as one of her tentacles danced gently behind her as she thought about the letter this fairy that always dressed up as a dragon sent.
'Hmm, perhaps it is best to send them to her, after all, it is good to have a backup plan.'
With that she got to working on the reply as well as gather the materials ordered.
==
A pair of green eyes icily gazed at a pair of figures that vanished into the distance, just beyond the castle wall and over into the forest.
They belonged to a beautiful face that had a serene and unfeeling look, the pale skin had a supple and youthful look with a faint blush on both cheeks making the succulent red lips stand out most prominently, just above her green eyes were a pair of seemingly penciled-on eyebrows.
She had a very slender figure below her long sleeved purple gown, a red belt was tied around her snake like waist, on her head was a golden crown with 5 spikes on the front and a jewel on the tip of the of the middle and the tallest spike, though her head was covered by a black balaclava covering her ears, neck and hair leaving her face exposed.
Her features and royal attire help create a stunning image of a beautiful Queen. Though what was on the inside made her one of the evilest beings alive!
Her venomous gaze continued to linger in the empty distance seemingly lost in thought, just as she was about to delve deeper into the dark pit known as her mind a pair of strong and warm hands snaked around her shoulders and waist, breaking her contemplations as a look of satisfaction made its way on her face.
A tall figure appeared from behind her and brought her, suddenly a thick head of short brown hair made its way around her shoulders and rest on the crook of her neck, with this figure being taller than the Queen it had to bend a little, there it started planted slow and gentle kisses that slowly took the Queen's breath away, just as the Queen was about to be drawn deeper into the intimate touches, caresses and kisses, the figure pulled away while spinning the Queen around.
The sudden action made her yelp in surprise, and there she face a handsome young man, his short brown hair had short fringes over his forehead, he wore a royal blue sleeveless tunic with gold trim and a cream-colored belt where one could see a dagger in a sheath.
Beneath this outfit was a white long-sleeved shirt, bluish grey pants, and cream-colored boots with light brown folded cuffs.
His bearing was very charming, very handsome and very princely.
Of course, that's until they gazed into his eyes, they were blue, but that was if one looked at them directly, for should they gaze at it from another angle they would see that it had various shades of green making the originally charming and handsome prince look more mystical and devilishly handsome, a trait that the Queen seemed to have fallen for since.
Evident to her staring into this orbs that held the darkest of dark that even she had no choice but to look up to.
"I don't want you to have such a gloomy look, Grimhilde." A magnificent voice came out from the prince's mouth and looked at her with a gentle and loving look as he gently caresses her warm cheek.
Not waiting for her to reply he pulled it back and with a twist he turned to walk out of the royal bed room, not before turning and giving her a look as he said,
"Wait for me my beloved, soon you will be the Fairest of the Land!" With that he shut the door and left, the Queen still dazed heard the sound of horse hooves on the castle floor and turned once more towards the window, this time there was no venomous gaze but one that was calm, gentle and… happier.
There she saw the prince wave his blue feathered beret at her before shooting off in the direction of the two figures from earlier.
With a sigh she elegantly went to sit down in front of her mirror and stared at her reflection, for a split second she almost questioned herself about what she had done, if there might be consequences of letting a demon that was imprison in that mirror possess that young prince.
No.
There was no regret and she will be damned if she didn't do it again if it helped her accomplish her goals!
Her goal and dreams of being the fairest in the land!
==
It felt it the moment when that powerful might descended in its world, it was too busy trying to recover the alterations that presence had to its realms, to think that that little realm that drifted and attached itself to its realms would produce such a creature was beyond its reasoning and calculations that were created to ensure that all its realms ran their courses and destinies.
And now the moment it turned to fix the after-effects of that being for a moment across multiple realities and realms that there would be more chaos this creature would cause to its creations and realities, just by taking one of its 13 main pillars that held one domain of all its realms, well not completely any.
But still, it was enough to cause massive disruptions! Sure there are about 20 of them in total but these 13 were the fundamental ones!
For one it had to rewrite many pasts to best remove this invader that was on a path to plunder and steal away its pillars, but now there was no time to bother about spilled milk, or half spilled milk in this case as it was time to recover that pillar back, thankfully it was only the second pillar and not the first one.
It had primordial ancient gods, mighty gods, demons, and monsters in its arsenal, but to move them all towards such a small but very important domain to fix a small crack was overkill as well as dangerous to everything.
But all was not lost, it just needed to send the best for the job right now, after all, to get back a princess from a dragon without fail required one being, a knight in shining armor, who was also...
Her Prince Charming.
==
Just then a pair of brown eyes snapped open, they shone a majestic radiance as well as intelligence, though they seemed a little hazy for a moment.
They then cleared afterward, in them shone a little light that made the brown eyebrows furrow on the handsome and fair face.
"I need to see that girl today." A charming, strong but gentle voice said.
He was not sure why, but he felt a little agitated, especially after that nightmare that involved him losing someone very dear to him.
And for some reason, that image of that maiden he saw once when he was out hunting and had decided to befriend in his disguised form couldn't help but come into mind.
'Yeah, I really need to go out into the village, get some air and hang out with her a little, that would get me back into my usual mood.'
With that, he got ready to get his disguise.
Though he and all of the beings in this universe were none wiser of the battle of a universe against a single being.
The stage has been set into two parts; the paths altered and shifted readily to break and chase out an invader on one side or on another, an invader that is on the path of plunder and domination of what it wants without relent.
So as the great Warmasters and lords have always said,
Let the games… begin!
===
Phew! Still alive folks!
This chapter was long, but hopefully a little enlightening.
Am not completely back yet, but will drop every now and then, so while you guys wait do check out my newest release; A Void Dweller's Relaxing Life in Canterlot City! It's the Equestria Girls Harem, so do enjoy it and see you guys soon.
Also here
Crazed signing out for now!
