Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls

by thatguyvex

Episode 165: Divine Maelstrom

Episode 165: Divine Maelstrom

When Rainbow Dash reached the Treasury she immediately noticed that the illusions Trixie had been maintaining of her friends had vanished, and that Starlight Glimmer and Tempest Shadow both were no longer on the top deck. That set off alarm bells in her head even more than the fluctuating lights and magic shielding encompassing the ship. She wasted no time in rushing inside, and in typical Dash fashion was zipping to the bridge faster than most could bat an eyelash.

There she found a distraught Grubber getting stared down by a very crimson faced Tempest who was busy shouting while Starlight Glimmer was at the bridge’s command chair, trying to simultaneously talk into the communication system.

“What do you mean that damned prisoner stole the sirens!?” Tempest roared, “How did the fishhead get out!?”

“How am I supposed to know, chief?” Grubber said, backing away slightly, paws up defensively, “Weren’t me that stuffed him in that room with all that magical warding or whatever. Ask the purple one over there.”

“I’m really more of a very light lavender than purple,” Starlight said, not looking up as she used her magic to twist a few dials and knobs on the com console, “Hello!? Seaspray? Can you hear me? Can anypony hear me? Dang it, how do I connect to the engine room?”

“What in the hayfeathers is happening here?” Rainbow Dash demanded, striding in and interposing herself between Grubber and Tempest. For her part, Tempest backed off, but her face remained a veined visage of high stress as she gestured around the bridge as if the problem should have been obvious.

“While we were focused outside the ship, seems like that sahuagin you guys were keeping prisoner busted out and somehow nabbed those two siren sisters. Apparently getting abducted on the regular is practically a hobby for them!”

“Whoa, hold up, Ulgriv did that?” Dash asked, “Like... how? Dude’s not exactly the flank kicking sort, so how’d he force two sirens who are twice his size to go anywhere, especially with Seaspray here? He was here, right?”

“Look, I’m trying to explain that,” Grubber said, eyeing Tempest, “If somepony would stop yelling at me to give me a chance to get a word in.”

Tempest took a very deep breath and let it out in a steam whistled before biting out the words, “Fine. Sorry. Go ahead.”

“So, like, the fish guy wasn’t acting normal. He was glowing with weird light and talking in an echoing female voice, and just straight up teleported the siren chicks away like that!” he snapped his fingers for emphasis, “And this was right on top of our powre system going haywire and us losing contact with Wavecrest in the engine room. That Admiral bird went flying off to check on Wavecrest.”

“He teleported them...” Starlight said, then her eyes flashed with insight, “Charybdis! She projected herself to Aqualania, so she probably projected herself here, too. Twilight and Wavecrest warded Ulgriv’s room specifically to fend off against such a thing, not just to keep him there physically. Must not have been enough.”

“Clearly,” Tempest said, glancing at the flickering consoles of the weapons stations, “How bad is the engine problem?”

“Weapons half down, shields going on and off, and wouldn’t shock my tail off if the engines were also seriously underpowered if not outright offline,” Grubber said.

“Doesn’t matter. Is Wavecrest alright?” Rainbow Dash asked, approaching Starlight, who looked at the pegasus with clear worry furrowing her brow.

“I don’t know. I didn’t get an answer form the engine room-”

“To anyone on the bridge, I need assistance in medical immediately!” shouted Admiral Seasprays voice suddenly from the com system, “Lady Wavecrest is severely wounded! She’s been stabbed, and is losing a lot of blood. I’m taking her to the medical bay right now but I’m not sure I have the skills to save her. Please, anyone respond!”

“We hear you, Admiral,” Starlight said into the com, “I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

“Do you have medical skills?” asked Seaspray, to which Starlight gulped with visible nerves wracking her as she stammered back.

“N-not extensively. I mean, I know a spell or two, but magical healing is kind of...”

“Inefficient, I know. I’ll take whatever I can get. Please hurry, I don’t know how long Lady Wavecrest will last in her current condition.”

“I’m already on my way,” Starlight said, turning and making to gallop out of the bridge.

“Hold up, what do we do if the sahuagin attack while we’re in this state?” asked Tempest, to which Starlight didn’t break stride or look back.

“I don’t know! Figure it out!”

Then she was gone and Tempest was left rubbing her temple while glancing between Grubber and Rainbow Dash. “Well, this just keeps getting better. Grubber, get on the helm and see if you can get this crate moving.”

“Uh, on it chief!” Grubber said, waddling to the helm and strapping himself into the chair, at which point he flipped a few switches and grabbed at the throttle, “You do realize I have no idea how to pilot this thing, right?”

“If you can just get us moving forward that’s better than nothing,” said Dash, turning to Tempest and gesturing at the captain’s chair, “Look, I took out the three champions. I don’t think the regular warriors are going to do much to get in our way, and if they do, I can take care of them. Right now my friends will need backup. I won’t abandon you guys to deal with things here alone, but the Treasury needs to get into Rift Mouth now.”

“No objection here,” said Tempest, “We can’t use weapons, but as long as we can move, we can ram our way through whatever gets in the way. If you keep fighting like what I saw out there, no much the sahuagin can do to stop us unless they’re hiding some serious firepower in that fortress. Grubber, you getting anything out of the engines?”

There was a brief lurch in the vessel as the Treasury started to move forward, albeit far more slowly than usual. Grubber looked back with a quick thumbs up before he started wrestling with the helm controls. “Looks like we’ve upgraded from stationary target to drunken whale speed, chief. We won’t get there fast, but we’ll get there, assuming nothing decides to try and blow us up or board us.”

Looking around the bridge again, Rainbow Dash blinked, “Hey, where’s Trixie?”

As if in answer there was a scratching noise from the com and a clearing of a feminine throat, “Ahem, the Punctual and Practical Trixie decided to make herself supremely useful and has entered the engine room in lieu of Wavecrest’s unfortunate condition. Seeing as I’m the only other unicorn around who spent any time in here, I shall... umm... try to fix things down here. I think. There’s quite a few things sparking and fizzing, but Trixie shall remain undaunted.”

“Oh, great, the stage magician is now our only hope to fix a complex arcane engine built by seaponies centuries ago,” Tempest groaned under her breath, “Trixie, if you blow us up, I am forever going to latch my vengeful spirit onto you and make both our afterlives a pain in the flank.”

“Pfft, oh ye of little faith or tact. Fear not, for I, Trixie, shall rise to this- OUCH! Hey, stupid sparking cable electrified me! Aww, now my mane is all fizzy. Maybe if I just hit it with this pipe...?”

“We’re doomed,” Tempest said flatly.

Rainbow Dash coughed politely, “Well, good luck to you Trixie. And you, Tempest. I’ll just, uh, head outside and make sure no nasty sahuagin board the ship.”

She didn’t like it, but she didn’t see any other choice. Sure with her incredible speed she could easily swim right past the sahuagin fortress and whatever lay beyond to go find her friends. In her Inheritor form she could actually sense them to a degree, her friend’s magical and spiritual presences. If she wanted to, she could be by their sides in ten seconds flat. Probably faster.

But that would mean abandoning the Treasury and every soul upon it. If the sahaugin did decide to attack while the ship was vulnerable, Dash wasn’t sure those aboard would survive against the fishmen’s vast numbers. The only real choice was to protect the ship as it made its own way into Rift Mouth, however slow that process might be.

She knew it was right to stay, but it was torture to do so as she went back to the top deck to stand watch as the ship began it’s slow course towards the sahaugin fortress and the vast cavern beyond that would lead to the city. That feeling of supreme anxiety only worsened in Rainbow Dash’s heart as she felt the magical energies of her friends spike upward suddenly and the pegasus instinctively knew what was happening.

The final battle had begun, and she wasn’t there where her friends needed her.

----------

Within the blood hued darkness of Charybdis’ abyssal lair, a suffusion of many colored lights flashed boldly and shoved aside the gloom. Five luminous columns of magical might soared up through the depths, shocking the sahuagin shamans who were both struggling to keep the portal ritual going, and those led by Divistus who had not yet realized their “ambush” had been bypassed. These flares of arcane power only gradually died down, flowing into the nimbus lights surrounding the five freshly transformed mares who now confronted Charybdis.

Twilight Sparkle, in her many pondered plans for this clash, had considered a few scenarios where she and her friends tried to fight without using the Relics immediately, instead holding those powers in reserve. She had dismissed this notion early in her planning for the simple fact that she saw zero tactical benefit to holding back against an opponent who’d already proven sufficiently dangerous to warrant all the power they had to bring to bear. Her objective was still to capture Charybdis, if possible, but she had no delusion that this was going to take anything less than her and her friend’s full ability, focus, and strength.

The moment the change into their newly empowered Inheritor forms was complete, there was no further grandstanding or banter to be had. They’d already agreed on a general set of tactics, even accounting for Rainbow Dash not being present as their main distraction. As such the five mares immediately all burst into motion the moment they felt the power of their Relics fully take form in their bodies. The intensive, if admittedly limited group training they had done during the journey from Aqualania to the Abyss had familiarized them with their powers sufficiently that they all had a much stronger grasp of what they could do now.

Pinkie Pie and Rarity were on defense.

The first thing Pinkie did was strike up a magnificent tune of inspiring music that belted forth from her lute and was further amplified by the horns on her back as she shot upward to a point where she could easily spot any other motion on the field of battle. This music, empowered by the magic now surging inside Pinkie, filled each of her friends with a soaring rush of enhanced physical and arcane ability. More importantly, the music also filled the water with waves of sound that Pinkie Pie could use to sense any motion Charybdis and her friends made, which would in turn make her job much easier.

Indeed, as the mares went into motion, Charybdis’ sea serpent heads let out hideous shrikes of bloodlust and both her right and left head started to dart towards targets, specifically Twilight and Applejack; perhaps figuring those two represented the most direct physical threats. However the moment those heads went into motion, Pinkie’s hooves slammed harsh chords form her lute which generated sharp strings of solidified sound that then snaked around one of the heads and yanked it off course.

Meanwhile the other head found itself assaulted by a dancing barrage of swirling chakrams as Rarity swam by in a flash of speed. Each chakram’s poison was a thing of magical nature, and Rarity could adjust the dosage from each chakram depending on the intensity of the desired effect or the resistance of her foe. She’d expected Charybdis would be highly resistant to low doses of poison, given the sea witch’s monstrous form, so she’d adjusted power from the other chakrams specifically to empower the one bearing the blue poison; which was designed to paralyze a target’s movements. Even now she kept the black poison chakram close, not using it yet, but the blue one near exploded with a burst of unnaturally glowing blue liquid as it cut across the sea serpent head’s snout.

The head sized up and bellowed, not quite entirely freezing in place, but clearly affected as it shuddered and struggled to move.

Even the impressive toxins or arcane ballads of another age will only slow me down. I’ve spent centuries making this body all but immortal. Relic or no, I’m not going down so easily!

Charybdis’ words were followed by the eyes along her fleshy flanks all squirming in their sockets as heated pale light filled them, and blood squelched from their edges. The blood then sizzled as what appeared to be pulsating wisps of eldritch pale light shot out of the eyes, like tiny darting piranha. These wisps formed swarms that then rushed at Twilight and her friends, most of them focused on Twilight herself.

Twilight had advanced straight at Charybdis, and with her mace now transformed into it’s staff shape, she leveled it ahead of her and drew upon her massive pool of magic. Space warped before her, filling the water with a sheen of void-black starfield. At the same time she began forming a magical circle between her wings, beginning the spell to summon forth her Sphaera Astralis.

The swarm of unnatural wisps hammered into her field of starstuff, and Twilight felt them get lost in the void... however, the wisps were incredibly fast and agile and several managed to dart around her shield and still seek her out. Upon impact she felt the incense sting as the wisps tried to burn holes not only through her, but directly assaulted her metaphysical makeup. She bit back a yelp at the searing sensation that went beyond flesh and bone, but struck at her very core. Fortunately each wisp didn’t pack a great deal of punch and the potent resistance of her own magic, along with the rather sturdy and magically reinforced dress that came with her transformed state, reduced a lot of the wisps’ impact.

Her friends fared varying degrees of better or worse under the swarming wisps’ assault, which Twilight had mentally dubbed ‘Soul Stingers’ for lack of a better term for the attack.

Fluttershy seemed quite able to cleave through many of the Soul Stingers with her shield, the blood red armor she wore tanking the worst of the wisps that got through. Like Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy had swam up, but had also gone forward, angling to strike at Charybdis’ from above. Through the torrent of the wisp swarm that had come for her, Fluttershy darted down in a streak of pink, yellow, and red that saw her using her shield to cut a red line directly down the right flank of Charybdis’ line of flesh and eyes. Blood spewed into the deep, and the red flow went right into Fluttershy’s shield and covered her in a sanguine glow.

Twilight wasn’t sure how much power Fluttershy could drain from Charybdis, but the mare’s job was to be the skirmisher of the group, acting as a constant distraction that’d force Charybdis to start paying attention, otherwise continue to lose vital energy and magic to Fluttershy’s vampiric shield and armor.

Applejack, in Apple Family fashion, bulldozed right through the swarm of Soul Stingers that had come for her. The mare had neither subtly or care for well being in her brazen actions, cocking back her massive, dark iron shillelagh as wisps peppered her from all sides. Applejack just roared through the pain and her armor began to bubble the water around her as it turned up the heat. Twilight could feel the cold waters turn hotter from Applejack’s magic, and the farm mare shot forward, just as planned, in a meteoric spin that targeted Charybdis’ main head directly.

Charybdis’ single, giant eye fixated on Applejack, quite disbelievingly as the mare moved fast as a bolt from the heavens and proceeded to deliver an uppercut swing with her metal club straight to the jaw of Charybdis’ center head.

Applejack’s task was, quite simply, direct assault. Everypony else would make the openings or defend, and Applejack would use that to hammer, and hammer, and hammer Charybdis’ defenses until the monstrosity’s shell cracked. And given the way Charybdis’ entire bulk of most likely several tens of thousands of tons and goliath size reeled back from the blow, Applejack was well suited to her task.

This left Twilight as the central point of the group, able to go on offense, defense, or distract as needed, with her main goal being to coordinate her friend’s efforts. If Rainbow Dash showed up on time, she’d join Applejack on offense, but in the meantime Twilight figured her best bet was to provide that role herself until otherwise needed.

With her magical circle completed, far faster than she’d pulled it off the first time, Twilight enacted the High Magic spell and summoned forth her Sphaera Astralis. In a glittering, gleaming blaze of cosmic light, the brilliant Astral Sphere appeared above Twilight and she wasted not a second in swimming right behind it and leveling her horn at Charybdis’ head that Applejack had just smacked.

“Let us find out if you’re half the ‘divine’ being you pretend to be,” Twilight said under her breath as her horn lit up with a blinding point of swirling purple light, and she fired a beam of unrestrained magic straight into her Astral Sphere. There, the magical energies were amplified as a light shot through a microscope, and came out the other side in a flood of power.

Charybdis saw the thick beam of power coming at her and her massive eye turned towards it, her voice booming.

Do not make light of me!

Pulsations of white and black magic flowed across the back of her nautilus-like main body and coalesced down the length of her serpentine neck until a burning sphere of intermixed darkness and light formed at the center of her eye. The eight tentacles around the eye all fixed forward like spears, and shot amplifying arcs of power into the sphere before it exploded outward in a twisting beam of light and dark.

Charybdis’ beam collided with Twilight’s, and all the Abyss shook with the impact. Before the blinding strobe of light from the exploding beams of energy even started to fade, Twilight was already making use of the moment to move herself and her Astral Sphere to a new position, utilizing Ictu, or “Blink” as the spell technique was called. The spell’s frictionless telekinetic bubble could move her around as fast as a Flash Step, and was faster and more energy efficient than teleportation. Yes, teleporting had its own advantages, but for quick repositioning or evading, Blink was a spell Twilight knew she was going to get a lot of mileage out of.

Now positioned below Charybdis, Twilight split her Astral Sphere, creating a smaller version that she sent down towards the remains of the vast bronze dome she saw below her. She recognized part of Bastion Gnosis, and knew that if Charybdis had a part of herself down there, as was evidenced by the sickly pale umbilical dangling down from her beastly form, then the witch couldn’t be up to any good. At the same moment she sent the smaller sparkling Astral Sphere down towards the opening into Bastion Gnosis, Twilight was already conjuring another set of spells. Waving her staff above her, the black orb of void magic at the end of the staff expelled a quartet of what looked like long rods of magic that gleamed like starfields.

These rods shot up with the same speed Twilight used for Blink. Each one was actually a compressed gravitational field that on impact would start crushing their target with increased gravity. Charybdis was so large that Twilight figured it couldn’t take that much extra gravity to render her immobile.

Unfortunately Charybdis’ defenses extended beyond merely a tough hide and egotistical claims of immortality. Bursts of ruby light appeared as Twilight’s rods struck a bubble-like barrier that was shot through with jagged, dark sigils. An arcane shield that, by Twilight’s guess, was one of several protective anti-magic layers. Her friend’s physical attacks could get through, but Charybdis had planned for countering direct use of magic on her. Still, Twilight was no slouch in terms of magical skill, and a glance was enough to show her the barriers Charybdis was using had limited layers and likely had equally limited triggering mechanisms. She’d crack it, if she had enough time to work out the method.

Charybdis, of course, wasn’t about to remain a stationary target now that battle was joined. Her initial efforts at counter attack having been foiled, the leviathan beast that was once a seapony princess moved with impressive speed for her titanic size. The waters churned with powerful currents as Charybdis moved back, and the countless tentacles beneath her mutated body all writhed to life and extended to unnatural lengths around her.

I know centuries of magical arts long lost to ponykind. I shall be glad to demonstrate the fruits of my endless studies.

Dozens, then scores, then near a hundred magical circles of every conceivable color instantly took shape amid the flailing tentacle tips. Some circles were large enough to require multiple tentacles to form, while others just focused upon one, by either way neither Twilight or any of her friends lacked for having twenty or more spells pointed their way before Charybdis unleashed a maelstrom of arcane fury.

Before Twilight knew it, she was making full use of Blink and relying on her Astral Sphere to weave between a warp in the waters around her that looked as if multiple translucent pony faces that then screamed in such volume that the sonic energy of it likely would have snapped bones. Her Astral Sphere acted as a buffer against the sound waves as Twilight Blinked upwards, then had to immediately flicker in another direction to keep from being hit by a scything beam of ink blackness that smelled of such rot, even underwater, that it nearly made her gag.

She saw Applejack using her shillelagh to smash beams and spheres of magic away from her, but one such sphere undulated like a living piece of flesh and opened up into a drooling mouth of teeth that shot a chain from it’s depths to wrap around Applejack’s waist and start trying to drag her in. With a disgusted look on her face, Applejack shoved her shillelagh into the living spell and channeled magic into the weapon, heating it up to a point that even steel would melt before it. The fleshy sphere of magic bubbled and boiled until it burst, but by then Applejack was already having to dodge another set of the grotesque spheres that were cast her way.

To the credit of Pinkie Pie, her music didn’t skip a beat as she was assaulted by what looked like a summoned host of spectral predatory fish that had bony heads with singularly large, chomping beaks. One tried to bite at her just as Pinkie ducked, getting a bit of her mane in the process. Yet as it did so, a jolt of magic almost like electricity zapped the specter, and Pinkie spun past another pair of snapping teeth as she played a rising crescendo in her music that formed sound into the shape of chopping axe heads around her. These blades of sound cut around in arcs to sever through several specters, giving Pinkie room to bounce free of the swarm.

For Rarity a wave of ghastly red blood-like energy came at her, spreading out to try and encompass the mare. Judging from the way the water around the wave hissed and bubbled, the wave was at the very least violently caustic, possibly just as poisonous as anything Rarity had among her chakrams. Yet Rarity didn’t flinch back from the attack, instead her expression hardened like a marble statue as she sighed and said, “Well, if I must.”

She arrayed five of her chakrams around her in a protective circle, and sent only one out to fly in a graceful arc into the red wave. It was the chakram that trailed black liquid, and Rarity guided in a dizzying pattern of hundreds of cuts amid the oncoming wave of crimson magic. In a matter of seconds there was a strange noise, like the tearing of wet, rotted wood. Then the wave of magic fell apart in shreds, its frayed edges peeling away like flecks of melting snow.

Twilight knew Rarity didn’t like talking about that chakram, and was not keen to use it, for the poison that coated it was Zosimos’ most deadly creation; the Nevermore Toxin. It could break down and rot to the core any material, physical or magical, that it touched. On living flesh it was agonizing in its destructive process, although slow acting, so impractical in combat save as a means to simply deliver torturous death to those you didn’t wish to kill quickly. On spells it destroyed the magic itself, eating it away from the inside out. It was a poison meant solely for destruction and pain, and Rarity found it’s very existence abhorrent, even if it did have some potential uses. Worse than it’s nature was that it left behind a terribly toxic byproduct that lingered well after the poison’s use, a black sludge that could never be cleaned by anything short of the most powerful of cleansing or healing magics. For one who valued the beauty in the world, using something so ugly was an painful act for Rarity, but this was a battle they could not afford to lose.

Among Twilight’s friends, Fluttershy got the second largest concentration of spells thrown her way by Charybdis. Perhaps because Charybdis realized how dangerous Fluttershy’s ability to gradually drain her power was. There was nothing remotely fancy or special about the methodology behind the spells Charybdis sent at the mare, filling the waters around Fluttershy in a dark bloom of intermixed white and black explosions of destructive magic. Yet rather than go on the defensive and hide behind her shield, Fluttershy’s eyes narrowed and she became a line of speed, soaring in through the storm that battered her armor and flesh. Even as the explosions of magic damaged her, Fluttershy flew through the pain and started slashing along Charybdis’ tentacles with every piece of her sharpened armor. Edges that went beyond razor sharp severed tentacle after tentacle, until they were falling down to the seafloor like leaves.

Blood flowed into Fluttershy’s shield, and Charybdis roared as she focused a stronger sphere of swirling darkness and light and threw it at the mare. Fluttershy, her body rimmed in blood red light, held her shield out then and took the blast directly, momentarily vanishing amid the twin colors of the exploding sphere. Yet then there was a chattering noise, and a streaking of dozens of red lights flew outward... bats, formed of pure red. These bats then hovered around Fluttershy herself, who was encompassed in what looked to be a black cape that dropped downward far beyond her height, until it unfurled into the shape of two ink black bat wings that were layered over her pegasus wings like solid shadows. Her eyes glowed ever more crimson red, and she now had pronounced fangs jutting from her lips. Her shield shifted slightly, curved, foot long blades sprouting from along its rim.

“I am feeling very cross right now,” Fluttershy declared simply, before, joined by her flock of magical bats, she used her now pitch black bat wings to resume her flashing assault upon Charybdis seemingly endless tentacles. Both her now bladed shield and her wings joined in with the numerous bladed joints of her armor, turning the mare into a flying blender. She tore through a dozen tentacles before a disturbance to her left caught her attention and Fluttershy raised her shield just in time.

Charybdis’ left serpent head had snapped around and twisted at an unnatural angle and shot forward with thunderous force, smashing into Fluttershy with the kind of force that’d break down castle walls. Not done, the flesh on the serpent’s brow wriggled and split open, revealing a smaller version of Charybdis’ central eye, which then shot out a stream of Soul Stingers directly at Fluttershy as the head whipped around and flung her towards the rift’s nearest wall.

Stung by the barrage, Fluttershy was briefly dazed, but caught herself just before she impacted, spreading her wings to cushion the blow as she slammed into the rock wall and cratered into the stone a good half dozen feet.

“Uh-oh, Flutters you alright down there?” Pinkie Pie chirped, flashing over in a blaze of pink motion. Fluttershy winced a bit, but pulled herself from the hole she’d made in the wall.

“I think so. Those tiny wisps hurt more than the wall did.”

“Speaking of those nasties, there’s more incoming,” Pinkie noted as a fresh wave of Soul Stingers were fired out of Charybdis’ left head like an unending swarm of bees. Pinkie licked her lips and cracked a smile, hoof raising above the strings of her silver lute, “But I know just the tune to adjust their attitude!”

For a moment the swelling, inspirational music that pipped from the horns on her back changed as Pinkie’s hooves shredded upon the lute’s strings. A harsh, discordant, yet somehow still deeply rhythmic beat of electric noise shot forth, and the water in front of Pinkie started to ripple with concussive pulsations of sound that then took the shape of... tiny alligators? It was like Pinkie’s music was shaping into a set of sonic puppets, shaped conspicuously like a certain pet alligator of the certain pink menace. The small army of sound puppets rushed into the swarm of Soul Stingers and each one acted like a missile of explosive sound magic, halting the wisps in their tracks.

“I got this, you get back to whacking tentacles!” Pinkie told Fluttershy with a wink, and Fluttershy responded with a smiling nod, her bat wings enclosing her like a cloak before she shot off in a shadowy bolt of motion. Her red bats surrounded her and they snapped crimson fangs into any wisps that got past Pinkie’s defenses as Fluttershy charged back into the fray.

Meanwhile Applejack was still busy evading spheres of macabre summoned flesh that formed huge chains to try and catch her to drag into their maws, but ever on the offensive Applejack bounced among them like a pinball, her club wailing upon each one in turn with volcanic force. Yet this did keep her occupied from attacking Charybdis’ main body, and Rarity was too busy herself to go help Applejack get clear, for Charybdis’ right head had focused upon the mare with its own forehead eye open and glowing with deep purple light.

That black toxin... that substance is too dangerous even for one like me to think of using, yet you didn’t hesitate. Do you have any idea the damage it could do if you didn’t contain it?

An arcane crest flared from the eye, then half a dozen pulsating, spiked masses of flesh shot out, homing in on Rarity. The mare gave the strange, seemingly living spheres of pale red flesh a nauseated look before she sent forth her red chakram, which spun in a circular pattern so fast it looked as if it’d split into a dozen blades as it cut into the writhing flesh masses.

“Only too aware, which is why I will never use it unless given no choice. I hardly need lecturing on such a matter from the likes of you.”

The crimson poison from the chakram tore through the flesh, causing it to bubble and fester. This was Zosimos’ first creation, before the Nevermore Toxin. The Sanguine Kiss was a lesser prototype to what the Nevermore would become, causing a target to be struck by blistering internal heat, but limited in how fast it spread and designed to be non-lethal in smaller doses. Still an unpleasant thing to use, but with none of the far more questionable drawbacks of its more deadly cousin.

Rarity had figured a few slices would stop those fleshy masses quickly, but even as those strange spheres pulsated and bubbled from the poison, each one burst in a way that was clearly of their own design, for as they did each one spat a storm of bone-like spikes. Indeed, these were like living mines conjured from Charybdis’ flesh with blood magic. Rarity had to surround herself in a shining fence of chakram slashes to keep the bone spikes, hundreds of them, from impaling her. A few got through, but fortunately the diamond hard scales of crystal, both visible on her limbs, but also the ones hidden under her white fur, were able to keep her from being too badly harmed.

Still, Charybdis was keeping her occupied, much as she’d been doing with the rest of the mares.

This left her central head to focus entirely on Twilight.

For her part, Twilight had enacted defenses of her own, surrounding herself in a triple layer of glowing purple shields. She knew Charybdis could break through these, but this was only a stalling tactic to give her a free couple of seconds to check on her second Astral Sphere that she’d sent down into Bastion Gnosis. With a simple viewing and audio clairaudience spell she’d created a link to that second sphere within her main sphere which generated an actual moving picture with real time sound of what the second sphere was encountering.

She saw an image of the once glorious alicorn settlement's interior now given over to darkness and eons of decay. Still the brass shone through the silt and muck. Twilight felt a deep twinge of regret in her mind, Astra’s memories seeing her fallen home and weeping for the ages of lost knowledge, and the remembrance of endless hours spent in blissful magical research. Yet she had no time to consider such things now and focused entirely on where the pale umbilical cord went, watching intently as her Astral Sphere descended in search of the organic cord’s end point.

That was until a glow of sickly black magic surrounded the second Astral Sphere and gripped it, spinning it around until it faced... a seapony? No, the mutated features showed this for being a part of Charybdis. Was this her original body, a piece of it, stuck at the end of that monstrous cord like a fleshy sock puppet? The eyes of Charybdis danced madly as she threw a hoof out towards two struggling figures suspended around a giant pearl of incandescent white. Red magical power flowed from Charybdis’ hoof to the two figures, who’s cries Twilight recognized immediately.

“Sonata! Aria!”

Don’t sound so concerned, Princess. I’m barely hurting them, and am only shaving off a little bit of their souls. You and your friends think you’re fighting me on even terms right now? Perhaps, but in a few moments I’ll have Domare’s power to add atop the wealth of magic Gaia Everfree has gifted me from the human world! My portal grows ever larger, so in short time I’ll have all the power I need to end this farce, enter the human world, and finally open up a whole new era for two worlds. Now stop interfering and either die already, or give up, I don’t care which.

Twilight tried to command her second Astral Sphere to break free of Charybdis’ grip, but whatever magic Charybdis was using was potent enough to at least slow the sphere’s movements considerably. The sphere’s analytical properties at least gave Twilight the chance to grasp some of the nature of Charybdis’ magic, confirming to her that nearly equal parts traditional arcane magic and soul energy were infused in the witch’s spells. However something else also caught Twilight’s attention. Charybdis had mentioned getting a boost of magical power from someone named... Gaia Everfree?

She’d felt something oddly off and familiar before about the magic she was sensing from Charybdis, and now that her Astral Sphere was providing her a detailed look at that magic she was starting to see it. The signature was cloaked by Charybdis’ own darkened magic, unnatural blood spells, and the soul energy she was drawing out of herself, but even then the current of purer magic beneath was unmistakable.

It seemed impossible, but the magic Charybdis had been fueled with from the human world was unmistakably aligned with that of Harmony. Or at least, a rawer, primal form of it. But how? Where had this energy come from? Why was it in the human world, and how had this Gaia Everfree person gotten a hold of it to then transfer to Charybdis?

No wonder Charybdis had the power to put up such a fight while simultaneously enacting the portal ritual and try another ritual to bond with Domare’s Relic. She’d gotten siphoned power directly from one of the single most powerful magical sources Twilight was aware of. If she did succeed in unlocking Domare’s power as well...

Twilight didn’t let herself consider the possibility of defeat. Whatever Charybdis did, whatever power she decided to steal like a petty thief, Twilight and her friends were going to bring her down!

All of this had only taken a few seconds to happen, which was enough time for Charybdis’ central head to charge up another massive blast of combined white and black magical energy at the iris of her humongous eye. Twilight felt the power build up coming, but her own anger was flaring up once more as she turned to face the coalescing sphere of destructive eldritch power aimed at her. It was high time to demonstrate to Charybdis she was not the only master of magic around here.

Charybdis’ blast fired, the sea witch supremely confident her power would eventually overwhelm Twilight’s layers of shields. Only Twilight didn’t rely on those shields. She instead spun her staff in a circle and shot out a stream of purple energy from her horn. A magical circle, near thirty meters wide, wove itself in innumerable complex sigils before her. Charybdis’ devastating sphere of power struck the magic circle Twilight had conjured, which was then revealed to be a gate. The moment the energy blast hit the circle, eight smaller gates formed of similar magic circles appeared above Charybdis’ body, and the explosive sphere of white and dark energy was absorbed into the main gate then transferred to the eight smaller gates to transform into a rain of diffused, raw magic energy that hammered down on Charybdis. As Twilight had suspected, Charybdis’ defensive barriers weren’t calibrated to protect against her own magic, allowing the bolts of power to slam fully into her body with no interference.

Charybdis let out a pained roar, her eye glaring at Twilight, who flared her wings out and leveled her staff at Charybdis.

“All you have is stolen power!” Twilight shouted, “And you don’t even use it that cleverly. Even if you do steal more from a Relic, you’re still going to lose today.”

Despite the rain of her own power blasting marks and holes across her huge body, Charybdis remained undaunted, and even laughed bitterly at Twilight’s words.

You think Domare is like that little Astra you got power from? No, Domare was among the highest ranks. A peer to Eos and Iah. Once I have her power... this playful skirmish will be over. And look, my portal opens, even as you bleat your pointless taunts.

Twilight’s gaze was drawn upward, where around a hundred meters above the potent light of the ritual’s energies had been ever steadily intensifying. Now she saw that the portal, the torn hole in the weave of worlds, was significantly larger. Indeed, it was almost large enough that Charybdis could squeeze through her thick hulk of a body, although not quite yet. The water around the portal was swirling about as water from a different world’s ocean poured in and mixed with that of the Abyss. And through the portal Twilight could see... some kind of brighter lit underwater canyon?

She couldn’t get a very good look, but there were flashes of light coming from that side of the portal, and the sound of some large creature groaning in both anger and apparent pain. Twilight saw streaks of acidic green light shooting across the waters of the human world, and brilliant crimson spheres firing back in response, all stemming from a colossal squid that was trying to swat down or magically blast a swiftly moving human figure who stood amid a summoned cube of air.

What in the world was going on up there? The giant squid had to have been a Kraken, but who was the man bearing a golden staff capped with rings? Was he a Soul Reaper?

Twilight had no time to extensively ponder this as Charybdis began to rise towards the portal, her voice booming in the darkness.

Lusca, keep the portal open!

Lusca? Must have been the name of the Kraken. Charybdis’s many tentacles undulated as she started to force her massive form upward towards the widening portal. Twilight’s mind raced. They couldn’t just let her go through! If she closed the portal from the other side, there’d be nothing Twilight or her friends could do to stop her at that point!

“Girls, don’t let her get any closer to the portal!” she shouted, and immediately set to work in conjuring a swath of new gravity rods, generating an array of around twenty of them in a sweeping semi-circle before her. Now that she’d had the Astral Sphere analyze Charybdis’ magic to a degree, and seen the proof that Charybdis protective barriers didn’t defense against that magic, Twilight was able to modify her gravity rods with a thin coating that simulated Charybdis’ magic signature.

This time when she cast out the barrage of gravity rods in a sequential burst, the projectiles weren’t immediately stopped by the layers of anti-magic spells protecting Charybdis. The rods impacted at various points of Charybdis body, and on impact the rods emitted a wavering field of purple so dark it was nearly black, and Charybdis shuddered as gravity started to multiply upon her body. Shockingly she still rose upward, empowered by insane physical and arcane force, but it was slow going now due to Twilight’s spells, which in turn bought her friends time to act.

Rarity moved like a blue shooting star, the gleam of her crystal scales glinting off of magical light pouring from her horn as she launched her chakrams at Charybdis’ left head. Save for the black, all the other colors cut crisscrossing patterns over the serpent head, leaving deep furrows in mutated aquatic flesh. Sickened, paralyzed, and burdened with overheating, melting flesh, the head writhed, but Charybdis stubbornly continued to rise.

With her red bats swirling around her, Fluttershy landed upon Charybdis’ right head and spun her whole body around like a saw, her shield, bladed armor, and sharp bat wings all cutting as one to drain fountains of blood from carved flesh. Yet even as this blood drained into Fluttershy, Charybdis retaliated with a blaze of dark, lightning-like power that surged over her body and shocked anything near it, including Fluttershy and Rarity, who both were knocked back by the field of black energy.

Pinkie Pie bounced to the beat of her music and the tune she played brought together the sound constructs shaped like her pet alligator to all coalesce together into one big, buzzing form that rammed into Charybdis’ side and burst in a shockwave of sound that must have wracked every inch of the bloated leviathan’s form. Still Charybdis rose, tentacles flinging explosive spells of force at Pinkie, forcing her to zip about to evade them.

Barreling through a similar barrage of spells that Charybdis sent her way, Applejack took the hits and the water around her boiled fiercely from the heat her armor and shillelagh generated. She swam to get ahead of Charybdis and brought her club down hard upon the center of the massive nautilus shell protecting Charybdis’ main body. A boom like the smashing of a church bell rang out in the waters, and Charybdis’ entire form jolted and bucked under the impact. In that same moment, all of the dark lightning-like energy Charybdis was exuding from her body became focused on the exact point Applejack was at, and smashed into the mare with a blotted out burst of darkness. Applejack was thrown back in a stunned tumble, and Charybdis continued to stubbornly rise.

Twilight was torn between trying to stop Charybdis’ main body, or going down into Bastion Gnosis to try to stop her seapony remains from completing the task of using Aria and Sonata to unlock the Eye of the Sea. She wasn’t sure if Charybdis could complete that ritual if she went through the portal, but perhaps that was what the umbilical cord was for?

If she severed that cord, what would happen? Twilight hadn’t done that yet because there was no guarantee that’d halt Charybdis, or wouldn’t have some unforeseen backlash. For all she knew if Charybdis lost control of her ritual it’d end up hurting the siren sisters in some irrevocable way.

I can’t risk it. Have to stop Charybdis at the portal. The portal... can I risk collapsing it?

Astra’s specialty was spatial magic and the arcane element tied to the very nature of space and the stars. Portals were, in effect, a specialty of that brand of magic. It could be a dangerous and volatile magic, as space tended to resist being bent and twisted for things like gates, portals, rifts, and the like. That was why they were so magic intensive. It took an incredible amount of energy to actually control the effects of those spells, and the bigger the spell the more complicated the ritual needed.

Disrupting such rituals wasn’t actually that easy, given the amount of magic needed to enact them tended to also make those rituals resistant to interference, at least once they got going. And Twilight could tell this ritual had so much raw power put into it that to disrupt it she’d need to strike with a fairly incredible amount of arcane force herself. There was also no real telling what the repercussions would be, once she did so. For all she knew the portal would explode like a miniature black hole and take out everything in the immediate vicinity. Rift Mouth might not survive.

No, I can do this. I have Astra’s memories inside me and no alicorn besides her father knew the magic of space like she did. Please Astra, help me...

Taking a deep breath, Twilight delved into the wealth of knowledge Astra’s memories granted her. In the span of the few seconds Charybdis was using to reach the portal, Twilight reviewed Astra’s centuries of magical research and practice and applied that to what she saw of the portal’s ritual circle. There had to be a way to disrupt it while ensuring no significant fallout.

Yet it looked as if she wouldn’t make it in time! Charybdis had gotten to the portal’s threshold, the first of her long, slimy tentacles creeping up through the plane between Equestria and the human world...

Then Twilight heard a man’s loud and boisterous voice coming from the other side of the portal.

“Ah ah ah, we’ve got quite enough tentacle laden issues here already, so I’ll have to ask you to come knocking another day. Bakudo Number Ninety Four: Kami no Tenohira Kyozetsu!” (God’s Palm Rejection)

In a flare of light a pair of gigantic, ghostly palms slapped together like they were forming a prayer in front of the portal. Then the palms, each larger than a dragon, slammed down together to block the portal with concussive force that knocked Charybdis down. Not far, admittedly, and the mutant sea witch’s three serpent heads let out a chilling set of roars as she slammed them against the palms.

Oh piss off you arrogant Soul Reapers! Your so-called ‘Kido’ will not hold me back for more than a minute!

Twilight let out a relieved laugh. Whether Charybdis could break the Kido barrier that the Soul Reaper (whoever it was) on the other side of the portal put up was no longer relevant, for it had granted Twilight the extra few seconds she needed. With Astra’s expertise she called forth her Astral Sphere to float before her and charged up a brilliant and bright lance of lavender magic that she cast through the sphere. The lance of precise power shot out of the sphere enhanced like the world’s largest arcane scalpel, and with focused power this lance cut through specific portions of the portal’s ritual spell that surrounded it like an anchoring.

In a drowning flash a white light bloomed from vast quantities of previously controlled magic now burning out all at once. Yet because Twilight had been exacting in the portion of the ritual she’d targeted, she’d in effect created a directed outlet for all of that energy that suddenly was no longer bound to the creation of the portal. Charybdis’ titanic form wheeled towards the eruption of magic, casting out streams of power from her many eyes in an attempt to bind the ritual once more, but it was a futile effort given that once a ritual was this badly disrupted there was really no way to salvage it.

No, damn you! You ignorant, immature little brats do NOT get to ruin this much invested time, effort, and suffering! I will not ALLOW it!

Yet despite her thundering words, the ritual circle continued to bleed magic energy in a blinding series of flaring white bursts, until finally in one last explosive burst of flooding light the portal itself collapsed in on itself, imploding to a single pinprick of light and cutting off the portal to the human world as it vanished. Charybdis’ abyssal lair became flooded mostly dark once more, save for the sanguine glow of the red runes carved into Bastion Gnosis, and Charybdis floated there for a stunned second, unmoving.

That did not last long, however, before all three of her serpent heads let out frozen howls of anger as her body churned the waters in its speed to round upon Twilight and the other mares. Black and white surging arcs of arcane power coursed over her as the sea witch’s power spiked with her fraying emotional state, her booming words tinged murderous.

You think you just accomplished something, you mentally minute muppets!? I’m still fueled by the power Gaia siphoned from those stupid stones for me, and once I have drained Domare’s Relic dry, I’ll be able to open that portal again. And you all...Ohoho, children, you’d best pray to me that I can dredge up enough mercy to make your ends painless. Relatively speaking.

“Yeash, lady, didn’t anypony ever tell you stress is no good for your health?” Pinkie Pie said, strumming her lute, “Want me to play you a relaxing bit of soft jazz?”

Charybdis responded by instantly firing three consecutive beams of dark destructive magic force straight at Pinkie from the eyes of her three serpent heads. Pinkie made a slight ‘eep!’ noise as she dipped away from the ungainly attack in a pink streak, ending up floating next to Applejack, who signed and elbowed Pinkie lightly.

“Pinks, she’s madder n’ a Timberwolf at a lawn ornament sale already. Don’t think no amount o’ music is soothin’ this savage bi...er, bad lady.”

“I don’t think we’re in a PG show anymore, Applejack, so you can say it here,” Pinkie said, “She’s totally a raging bi-”

“Be on guard girls!” Twilight interrupted, not out of any concern for language but because there really wasn’t any time for banter, “She’s doing something to Aria and Sonata down in that ruin! She has Domare’s Relic, the Eye of the Sea, down there.”

“Then we’d best stop her, shouldn’t we?” Rarity said.

“I’ll take care of that if you girls can keep her busy for a little longer,” Twilight said, to which Fluttershy appeared next to her in a blink of motion, still glowing with an aura of blood red light from the energy she’d been absorbing. It was a tad disturbing to Twilight to see that Fluttershy’s visage was so focused and intently predatory, like looking at the face of a cat about to pounce on a mouse.

“Go, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, “I can smell Rainbow Dash. She’s getting closer. We have this under control. Including them.”

Them? Twilight looked up as Fluttershy gestured with her shield, and she spotted that there were now quite a number of sahuagin swimming down towards them from further up in the rift. She saw that by the various bone carved fetishes, staves, and sacrificial knives that the sahuagin bore that these were the shamans that had been helping Charybdis with the portal ritual. She thought she recognized one of them as the same shaman who’d been in Aqualania as well, Divistus.

From the sahuagin went up a loud, joined warble of outrage and dismay, many of them seeing the wounds on their Deep Mistress and erupting with hateful cries towards the surfacers that dared harm their goddess. Twilight didn’t like the idea of leaving her friends for even a second to deal with both the cohort of angry shamans and an even more enraged Charybdis, but she had to get down into Bastion Gnosis to try something, anything to stop her from finishing the process of unlocking the Eye of the Sea.

Giving her friends one last hopeful nod, Twilight turned and swam down towards the opening into Bastion Gnosis, and heard the echoing noises of battle explode behind her as her friends charged back into the fray. She sincerely hoped that Fluttershy was right and that Rainbow Dash was on her way, for they would sorely need her help if Twilight couldn’t stop Charybdis from claiming Domare’s power.

----------

Flash Sentry was getting used to making use of Flash Step while underwater. It took up more spiritual pressure, but he found that by extending the burst of reiatsu in a circular pattern it made it easier to traverse the dense water at a speed similar to what he could achieve in air.

With Kochi Yojinbo released to Shikai form he had plenty of reiatsu to spare and more importantly his power to mirror his presence in multiple locations was allowing him to make short work of the sahaugin warriors that were guarding the slaves. While the sahuagin were on alert, none of them were really prepared to have a pegasus turned seapony who was actually a Soul Reaper to instantly appear behind them and smack the flat of a tonfa blade into their skulls. He had dropped ten of them before the rest even realized they were under attack.

Even after the sahuagin guards understood that a threat was among them, Flash just kept flickering form spot to spot, appearing in multiple places at once so that with every swing of his tonfa three or four sahuagin found themselves knocked senseless. The seapony slaves, and even some sahaugin who were working alongside them, all looked utterly confused and bewildered as Flash moved among the guards like a whirlwind. By the time the last guard fell in a floating, unconscious heap, Flash was earning the stares of some several hundred slaves who looked less enthused by the situation and more frightened.

Grinning in embarrassment and quickly trying to give off a disarming air, Flash Sentry raised a hoof and said, “O-okay folks, no need for alarm. I’m one of the good guys, and I’m here to free you.”

“Free...?” it was one of the sahaugin workers who spoke, and Flash really wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that some of the apparent slaves were sahaugin themselves. Or were they slaves?

“You’re not one of us.” This was said by one of the seaponies, an old stallion whose fins were frayed and whose eyes, despite the faded nature of his rose hued mane, remained sharp. “No seapony has wings. Who are you?”

“Flash Sentry. Look it’s a long story, but I’m here with others who are trying to stop Charybdis-”

“The Deep Mistress!?” shouted one of the sahuagin workers, “Impossible. Who would dare?”

“Uhhh...” Flash glanced at the elder seapony, whom several of the other seapony slaves had gathered near. “Look, quick question, but what’s the deal here? You lot are slaves in need of freeing, right?”

“We are,” said the old seapony, and he jutted his head towards the sahuagin workers, who were cautiously gathering near as well, “This lot too, in a sense, although their ‘slavery’ is one formed of different bindings than ours.” He held up a hoof with a shark-leather cord attaching him to a stone that gave him a range of work amid the algae farm that surrounded them, “My kind are bound physically, them by faith. Every sahuagin who works alongside us has committed some manner of crime in their society, but rather than execution, it is common practice for them to serve their ‘atonement’ as workers alongside us slaves.”

“T-this one is an enemy of the Deep Mistress...” whispered one of the other sahuagin workers, “If we defeat him, will she look upon us in favor once more?”

“Do not be foolish,” hissed another, “You saw him dispatch so many strong warriors with such ease, yes? Let us not anger this strange soft kin, Deep Mistress’ favor or not.”

Flash gave the sahuagin a flat look, readying his tonfa blade, “Any of you want to try me, feel free. I’m here to free anyone who wants to go free. You plan to interfere with that, you can join the guards in taking head trauma induced naps.”

He counted perhaps two or three dozen sahaugin workers among the slave force, and it didn’t look like any of them had the stomach to try making a move on him, faith or no faith. There were dark murmurs among them, but not a one of the fish men made a move while Flash started going among the numerous seapony slaves and cutting the cords that bound them to their work areas. It still took agonizingly long minutes, for while he could hear distant echoes of booming underwater thunder that indicated the battle taking place between Charybdis and the mares from Ponyville, his spiritual senses gave him a much clearer notion of the shape of events.

Now that Charybdis was fighting he could sense her magic more clearly. Well, not clearly, per se, for magic still felt a lot like a bizarre buzz that filled the world around him, but Flash had become skilled enough at sifting through that buzz that he could gauge the strength of most magical signatures now nearly as well as he could spiritual powers. The sensations he was getting from the girls fighting Charybdis was like feeling a battle between multiple Captains. It was hard to tell who was really stronger just on the sensations, but Charybdis’ power had a distinctly dense and darkly unwieldy nature to it that reminded him a little of the few times he’d sensed Captain Cheese Sandwich unleash his Zanpaktou, and Flash knew Cheese Sandwich was among the upper tier of the Captains. It felt to him like Twilight and her friends were, combined, still stronger, but it was a close enough thing that he had to imagine the battle was tipping back and forth on a razor edge.

And oddly, for a moment, Flash thought he felt another Soul Reaper’s spiritual pressure over there. Powerful, too, easily Captain level. It hadn’t been there long, but who was that? Flash hadn’t recognized it.

“I don’t know what’s brought you here, or who your friends are,” said the old seapony stallion, rubbing his arms now that they were free of the cord. He looked off to the direction of the distant booms of the battle, “But do you honestly think something like these blasted sahuagin’s goddess can be beaten?”

“Whether she can or not doesn’t change that this is likely your only chance to escape from here,” Flash said, raising his voice so all the slaves could hear him, “If you want freedom, this is it! Once I’m done cutting all of your bonds, I’ll lead you out of here! Stick close to me and I promise I’ll do all in my power to see you to safety!”

His plan was to get them to the Treasury, as once on board the ship they’d be about as safe as safe could be short of fleeing the Abyss entirely, but given how many ocean beasts still filled the Abyss’ labyrinthine depths Flash felt better about the slaves being on the ship rather than leaving them to try and run off on their own. It took another minute or two, but he was able to free what he counted to near three hundred slaves, a third of which had been in the mine tunnels, but fortunately could be swiftly brought out with the help of already freed slaves.

“Got a name?” he asked the old timer.

“Forgot it years ago,” the stallion said, his withered eyes of a deep blue color gaining a sad light, “Was taken when I was a child. Known this quarry and farm my whole life. The slaves and guards alike just call me Tatter.” He raised and waved his frayed and tattered seapony tail to indicate the reason behind the name. “Got damaged when I was caught. Had to work twice as hard as any other slave to convince the fish bastards I was too good a worker to send to the shamans for sacrifice.”

“Tatter,” said one of the other slaves, several of which had recovered weapons from the fallen guards, “We killing these chum suckers or what?”

Flash noticed that many of the slaves were giving the sahuagin workers and the unconscious guards... less than friendly looks. Downright violently murderous, in fact.

Oh hell, he thought and quickly Flash Stepped between them and the now frightened looking sahuagin workers. “Hold up! You guys don’t have time for this.”

“I’ve been here five spirits-damned years!” growled one slave, now brandishing a stolen trident with fresh rage boiling in her eyes, “I watched them slaughter my husband when he tried to defend our home. I haven’t seen my children since, and I don’t even know if they’re still alive!”

“We’ve got time to gut a few of these ugly sahuagin monsters before fleeing,” said another seapony with a missing eye, “They deserve it after everything they’ve taken from us! Monsters!”

Similar cries of vengeful bloodlust rose up among the slaves, and Flash Sentry saw one seapony level a harpoon at an unconscious guard and make to throw it. Flash moved in an instant, slicing the harpoon in half, and startling the slaves backwards for a moment. He created copies of himself in several other places to form a line between the freed slaves and sahuagin, and spoke in a louder voice, trying his best to draw upon his memories of Captain Celestia to give off that voice of calm, caring, but strong authority.

“I understand each of you has reasons to hate the sahuagin. I don’t expect you to let go of that, and I’m not asking you to. What I am telling you is that right here, right now, your freedom is more important than vengeance. I was tasked with getting all of you out of here alive, and in the name of Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria I will keep to that duty, even if I have to personally knock out and haul away each and every single one of you.”

The seaponies wavered, and then Tatter swam forward, and turned to join Flash Sentry in staring down his companions, “Listen up! Any of you who have family waiting for you better be thinking of them right now, and any of you that don’t, think about how good freedom is going to taste anyway. This kid is right. We don’t have time for slitting throats and gutting bellies right now. We can get payback on the sahuagin another day, but only if we’re alive and free to do it.”

This seemed to quell the immediate desire for violence, although Flash wasn’t blind to the withering hatred with which many of the seaponies still looked upon their now former captors. He felt an internal gut punch in realizing the overwhelming likelihood that even if his friends won the day over Charybdis, that the rift between seapony and sahuagin just wasn’t going to go away any time soon. And, to a degree, he saw a reflection of the animosity present between Soul Society, the Hollows, and the Quincy.

More powerful than any Espada, Sternritter, of Captain, seemed to be the endless specter of hate that infected the heart of every individual wrapped up in generations of conflict. How did one even begin to figure out how to unravel it all?

Way above his paygrade, but he was determined to remain ever at the side of one who might have the best chance of finding an answer.

“Okay then,” he said, “Now that we’re all on the same page, I need all of you to follow me. A group this big can’t really sneak past anything, but there’s a ship on the other side of the fortress leading out of Rift Mouth. If we can rush past it and get to that ship, you should be safe.”

“Ship? What ship!?” stammered one seapony, while Tatter gave him a sidelong look.

“You think we can just float on by that fortress, kid? That place is a death trap, filled to the brim with an army of these bloodthirsty fishfaces. Now I’ve seen you showing off some impressive power, wherever you got it from, but even you couldn’t-”

Tatter’s objections were drowned out by a sudden and significant tremor that ran through the ground, and a crashing echo that came from much closer and the opposite direction from the spot that Flash knew the battle with Charybdis was taking place. Curious, Flash swam up a few dozen meters to get a better view as he sensed a new magical and spiritual presence approaching from... the direction of the fortress!?

His questions were soon answered by the sight of flickering but bright searchlights, mounted at the bow of the Treasury. The ship moved into view at the end of the quarry’s canyon, and Flash let out a short whoop of joy. Looked like Rainbow Dash and the others had broken through! Not that he really doubted the speedster would take down those sahuagin champions, but it was good to see confirmation. However, now that he was looking at the Treasury he couldn't help but notice that the ship’s lights and shields were flashing on and off rather erratically. Had the ship been damaged? It also wasn’t moving as fast as he remembered, although that might have just been Admiral Seaspray being cautious.

Either way, their ride had come to them, rather than the other way around.

“See, ship.” Flash said, pointing, “Tatter, help me get everypony on board, quick!”

“Heh, no need to ask me twice. Didn’t live this long to go questioning the ocean’s blessings when her spirits decide to grant them,” Tatter said, and shouted to his fellow slaves, “Well what are you all floating there gawking for!? You see where we need to go to get freedom, so get swimming, and keep swimming until you’re safe in the belly of that metal beast!”

The slaves hardly needed further prompting, and like a big school of fish the seaponies all swam up in a multi-colored school and made right for the Treasury. Flash swam above them, keeping a close eye out for any further sahuagin warriors that might be lurking about. He did spot a number of sahuagin civilians swimming around the main canyon of Rift Mouth, many of them pointing at the Treasury in surprised awe.

Once he and the slaves got close to the ship, Flash saw a burst of blue motion come right for him form the deck of the ship, and instantly Rainbow Dash, still in her transformed Inheritor state, was in front of him. She looked frazzled but still fresh, as if her own fight hadn’t left her too winded or wounded. Indeed aside from the anxiety writ plain on her petite face, Dash looked fine, but she started talking mile a minute the second she saw Flash.

“HeyFlashcoolyou’rehere! Gottagotothegirlsfastnow! Shipismessedupbutshouldgetyouallout! Kaybye!”

And before he could so much as open his mouth halfway to ask “Huh?” or “What?” she was gone in another streak of blinding blue. He couldn’t even fully trace her motions, only sensing her energy flying off at unbelievable speed towards where Charybdis was.

“Eeeegh...okay, didn’t understand any of that, but at least she’s going where she needs to be,” he muttered, then noticed that the cargo bay hatch on the bottom of the Treasury was opening up. And, oddly, rather than Admiral Seaspray’s voice it was Tempest Shadows voice that suddenly spoke over the ship’s external com system.

“Everypony who’s tired of being here, get aboard now. That means you too, on the double, Flash Sentry. Wavecrest is bleeding out in the medical bay and we’re hoping your Kido spells will work better than two idiots who don’t know anything about medical crap.”

Wavecrest!? Flash didn’t need further prompting, moving well ahead of Tatter and the slaves as they started to swim into the cargo bay.

----------

Seared awake by a feeling that was at once both scalding and energizing, Rezarra opened her mouth in a wordless shout and jolted up in the water. Her senses were scrambled by pain and she lashed out, catching something firm and scaled with her talon. She smelled blood, both hers and others, and she shook herself while grasping for her weapon. Finding it’s familiar grip on her hand, she readied herself to strike again, only for her blurred vision to finally clear and show that she was surrounded not by enemies, but by warriors of her own kind. Among them were several of the shamans assigned to the fortress, ritual knives in hand as they drew their own blood to call forth invigorating magic at the drain of their own souls. The blood transmuted into streams of burning light that had been flowing into her, and while such magic could not restore all of her injuries save the most surface level ones, it could invigorate her beyond such petty pains.

Nearby Rezarra saw other shamans working upon Berokar and Morgawr’s bodies, although she was the first to awaken, it seemed. Beyond the milling pod of warriors, she saw the fortress at the cavern entrance to Rift Mouth. It was still occupied, but she saw that at least one of the spires had fallen, and more importantly, there was no sign of the surface invader’s ship.

Growling, she reached out to the nearest warrior and grabbed him by the throat, “Rrrr, where is it!? Where did the surfacer’s cursed ship go!?”

The warrior did not struggle against her grip, even as her talons pressed down on his throat, and he said, “It has entered Rift Mouth, honored chosen. When you and the others fell, the blue monster returned to its ship, and soon after it made for the cavern.”

“And you let it go?” Rezarra asked pointedly, to which one of the shamans, the eldest among them, floated forward and answered in the warrior’s stead.

“We fought, great Rezarra, but were no match for a creature that was able to defeat the likes of you, Berokar, and Morgawr all at once. Even if the ship did not fire upon us, that one surface beast was such that even our shaman spells did nothing to slow her down.”

Rezarra hissed, and was sorely tempted to take out her angered frustrations upon those gathered near her, but some measure of self control did remain and she released the warrior. It would be pointless to punish those for failing to do what she herself could not. Numbers would be meaningless against a creature like that Rainbow Dash. Only the might of the Deep Mistress herself stood a chance.

“How long have we been unconscious? What is happening in Rift Mouth?” she demanded.

“Not long, chosen,” said the shaman, “We spared no effort of blood and soul to revive you, and it has been a matter of some minutes, no more than ten or fifteen.”

“Still too long! Rift Mouth? The Deep Mistress?”

“I have sent warriors to scout the path of the surfacer ship, but they have not yet reported back. I know not what is occurring, only that I can feel the great magics being used by my fellow shamans and the Deep Mistress herself,” the shaman replied, hesitantly, Rezarra noticed.

“And what can your shaman senses glean?” she pressed, teeth barred. The shaman shuddered in nervous fear for a moment before mustering his courage.

“I sense great disturbances among our Deep Mistress’ magics. Something... presses her sorely,” he said, his voice having a hollow disbelief in it, as if the very notion that anything could ‘press’ Charybdis was simply beyond imagining. Rezarra felt similarly, but she had also just fought Rainbow Dash and sadly knew full well how potent these surface foes were, now. If a whole group of them fought the Deep Mistress, was it possible for even the divine power of the sahuagin’s savior to be eclipsed?

“Get them up, fast,” she said, nodding towards her fellow champions.

Berokar was about as injured as she was, but she’d always known he had a weaker constitution, comparatively speaking, so she wasn’t surprised she’d awoken before him. Morgawr was stronger than her, but his wounds were deeper, and he’d clearly lost more blood if one were to judge by the pallid color of his skin and scales. It took minutes more before life stirred in either of them.

“Uggnn... how humiliating,” Berokar groused as he rubbed his head and looked at the crater that Rainbow Dash had created when he’d driven them all into the sea bed. “One more inch and I’d have slit that cocky surface wench’s throat.”

“Hmph, sure you would have,” Rezarra said, floating over to Morgawr, who was breathing gradually more steady as the remaining shamans all concentrated their spells of integration upon him. There was no healing fully the extent of his injuries. Not after both his previous beating and this one. It was possible Morgawr might never be able to fight again as he once did, but that was not Rezarra’s concern.

When Morgawr’s bulbous eyes lit up with wakefulness he did not seem confused, and stated without even first moving, “She needs us. Our Deep Mistress needs us.”

“Morgawr?” Rezarra said, but Morgawr, despite his body twitching from unhealed wounds, bolted upright and gripped her shoulder tightly. His eyes shone with fervor, his skin hot to the touch.

“I hear her cries, Rezarra. She is... in need. Do you not feel it? You are chosen as well, both of you! Open your souls to her, and feel our Deep Mistress’ call!”

Rezarra glanced at Berokar, who simply shrugged at her. Both knew that the Deep Mistress shared a connection with her favored champions, the chosen able to receive her gifts through that link and hear her words. Technically the connection did go both ways, but no chosen was so brazen as to open it on their own, without permission. Yet somehow Morgawr seemed to have opened his link, and knew something now that they did not. Although she was hesitant, there was a burning certainty in Morgwar’s steel gaze that caused Rezarra to do what she had never tried before, and looked within herself. She reached within to the point in her soul where Charybdis had, years ago, infused Rezarra with a magical conduit that mirrored the tattoos carved into her very skin.

Opening that link was like opening a window to a sudden floodplain of light and boiling water. Rezarra nearly cried out at the sudden wash of sensations, emotions, and unfamiliar senses. Charybdis could keep such a door shut if she wanted, but it was as if Charybdis was too distracted to pay attention to doing so, and Rezarra quickly discovered why.

Pain, anger, fear, all of it bubbling together amid an ancient, bottomless desperation and resolve. Charybdis, the Deep Mistress, was doing battle with the surfacers... and she was losing. Rezarra felt it as clearly as she could read any battle she herself was fighting. Charybdis was putting up a potent struggle, throwing all she had at her foes, but their might rivaled hers and they outnumbered her. Rezarra could all but sense the rancor from the Deep Mistress’ plan to open the portal being foiled, yet also a heated focus upon finishing another ritual to unlock... some kind of new power? She couldn’t parse all of Charybdis’ thoughts, but knew her goddess was being backed into a corner. Yet somehow more striking than that unnerving revelation was that Charybdis was drowning in such a vast sea of desperate fear and focused determination that it felt like madness.

What was all of this?

“Our goddess is in pain, and she needs our help,” Morgawr answered, his link with the Deep Mistress as much allowing him to feel Rezarra much as she was Charybdis.

Berokar looked utterly flabbergasted, mouth gaping, “Impossible. These feelings make no sense. How can any make a goddess fear?”

“Focus, Berokar. The surfacers use stolen power to challenge her, and our Deep Mistress has split her power between rituals and battling these foes who so sorely outnumber her.” Morgawr looked at both of them with eyes like spears, “Even if our own power is meager next to hers, we must go to her and do what must be done to ensure her victory. For if she falls... all of our race falls with her.”

“What do you propose, half dead as you are?” Berokar demanded, “We failed. We fought and failed! What good are we to the Deep Mistress now, especially against monsters who can challenge her so directly?”

“I hate agreeing with Berokar, but he is right. What can we possibly do now, Morgawr? Your injuries are so great you can hardly move, you may not even survive reaching our Deep Mistress, let alone aid her in any way,” Rezarra said. Morgawr turned from them, ignoring the way his barely closed wounds were already opening up again to bleed as he began to swim towards the cavern to Rift Mouth.

“I shall survive long enough,” he said, “Long enough to return to our Deep Mistress the faith she has given us. Come with me, or remain behind, but either way, I go to her.”

----------

Ulgriv was as uncertain as ever, adrift amid events with no sense of himself any longer save for one thing; he wished to pray.

Down in the depths of the Deep Mistress’ lair he saw flashes of otherworldly light and heard the roars of conflict. Divistus and led the shamans down to fight at Charybdis’ side, and Ulgriv, no shaman, barely a warrior, had been told to remain behind and “keep watch”. No doubt Divistus and the other senior shamans saw him as little more than a nuisance. A part of Ulgriv was tempted to go back down into the Deep Mistress’ rift anyway, if only to see... to see for himself how this all ended.

His hand gripped his pendant of Charybdis’ eye so tightly he almost bled from it. His heart was filled with prayer, for that was at this moment all he thought he had to offer the situation. He prayed for the Deep Mistress’ victory, yet also... for her mercy, so that she might spare the surfacers once the battle was done. He prayed for all of his people, and even, just a little, for foolish soft kin like Wavecrest, whom he was uncertain was still alive. Whom he was uncertain how much he still hated. Or at least, what good any of that hate actually did.

To his core he still believed the sahuagin had a right to a brighter future, and to defend themselves and avenge suffering caused to them. He believed that Charybdis was their salvation, even if some small part of him wondered if all she had done was solely for the sahuagin’s benefit. Despite this, he prayed, for he’d lived his whole life believing that to do so was more than a mere gesture, but a sincere expression for the world one wished to see come to pass. And he still wanted a world where the sahuagin did not live in the dark of the Abyss, but swam in the light of warmer, more prosperous waters, ever guided by the one who had seen fit to protect and guide them all those many centuries.

But he still knew, one way or another, things couldn’t be that simple or easy. There was pain, and blood, to come. The conflict could not end without a victor, and Ulgriv could but watch and pray despite knowing that no matter the outcome, things would never be the same for him or his people again.

----------

Inside Bastion Gnosis, Twilight wasted no time in calling her second Astral Sphere back to join the main one. It was still gripped in a telekinetic field of Charybdis’ magic, but now that Twilight had analyzed it, she was able to calibrate her Astral Sphere to slip through. Doing so would alert Charybdis to Twilight coming, but chances were she already knew, for the pale creature dangling at the end of the ugly umbilical of flesh was one and the same to the hulking sea beast that still battled Twilight’s friends outside.

The small Astral Sphere flew up to her like a gleaming cannonball, and was absorbed right into it’s larger parent as Twilight swam straight down into the cavernous, dome-shaped main chamber of Bastion Gnosis’ lobby area. Flashes of Astra’s memory greeted her, but Twilight cast aside the warm and familiar images to gain laser focus upon the disturbing form she saw waiting for her at the bottom of the room.

Charybdis’ seapony body was only somewhat recognizable as something once equine, and Twilight felt her stomach lurch as pale eyes turned up to meet her and Charybdis smiled in welcome. When she spoke it was not with the booming, all encompassing voice her monstrous body used, but an almost normal female voice, shockingly bookish and almost mousy in tone despite the confidence, madness, and anger that tainted it into something harsh.

“Must be disorienting to be ‘back’ here, isn’t it Twilight Sparkle? Or is it at all Astra still in there, clogging up your mind like mold?”

Charybdis’ words were joined by a gesture. Her right hoof was still shoving beams of coiling red light into both Aria and Sonata, who were bound by magical fields in the center of the room. Meanwhile Charybdis’ left hoof pointed at Twilight, and blood tore itself free of marble flesh and drew symbols in the water. Twilight prepared herself as skeletal eels forged of arcane black bones flew out of Charybdis’ conjuring and came at her with lightning speeds.

The Astral Sphere acted automatically for defense, interposing itself between Twilight and the eels, halting one, while the other two zipped both up and down to try and get at Twilight from above and below. She used the black orb at the end of her staff to smack aside one, the void energy of the orb all but erasing the skeleton’s head, while she shot a beam of violet magic down from her horn at the other one. The beam blasted the skeleton in half, but before Twilight could celebrate both it and the one who's had she’d snapped off with her staff came flying back at her. The skeletal eels reformed almost instantly, like the damage done to them was being played in reverse.

Twilight dodged back as teeth that blazed with white flames snapped at her. Eyes flashing with light of their own, Twilight’s horn burned with a cosmic darkness of deep blue and lavender as she summoned a small storm of spatial shards that she launched like a field of broken glass.

The Astral Sphere had already been analyzing the spell based on the eel skeleton it had captured inside it, and Twilight grasped the spell’s structure quickly. They were essentially living disintegration spells, designed to break down whatever they bit, and could be reformed from any physical damage dealt to them. However, the spell matrix had weak points, and Twilight’s space shards targeted those points to sever the spell’s connection to their caster. The shards cut right through those points, causing the skeletons to evaporate into clouds of dark motes.

“Not bad. That sphere of yours is a real irritant,” Charybdis admitted, “Although once I defeat you, perhaps I’ll leave you alive if you agree to teach it to me? Wouldn’t that be fun? We could have a slumber party and swap spell knowledge. You might make a halfway decent apprentice if you dropped the holier than thou attitude.”

“Did you seriously just tell me to drop the attitude?” Twilight asked, already charging up a fresh set of spells as she teleported down in front of Charybdis, eyes still burning white. She formed a set of spell manacles, interlaced with an exterior layer of anti-magic binding. The purple chains then were sent flying at Charybdis. If Twilight could bind her up with them, the anti-magic element of the spell ought to at least disrupt the witch’s power, perhaps enough to stop the ritual being enacted on the two sirens. Twilight could hear Sonata and Aria’s cries of pain, both writhing in their bonds. It only fueled Twilight further to take Charybdis down.

Charybdis defended herself by drawing forth more blood from her body, this time flying from her eyes. It formed immediately into one of those massive flesh spheres with a devouring mouth, which proceeded to chomp down on the chains Twilight had summoned. Although it couldn’t seem to bite through them entirely, it was able to stall them from reaching Charybdis, who in turn swam up above the flesh sphere before coming straight at Twilight. The move somewhat surprised Twilight, who hadn’t expected Charybdis to move into melee range. The reason was evident enough when Charybdis’ blood sparked with maligned dark energies and formed a swirling rod of intermixed black and white light, like some kind of eldritch energy saber.

Twilight reacted more on Astra’s instincts than her own, raising her void staff and turning it in several deft twists to deflect Charybdis’ magic blade, each clash eliciting a buzz of colliding energies. Twilight immediately called down her Astral Sphere and broke it into four smaller spheres, having them rush at Charybdis from behind as she used Blink to zip back so she was now between Aria and Sonata, and consequently right next to the Eye of the Sea.

Domare’s Relic all but vibrated with the latent power within, and Twilight saw that Charybdis had attached some manner of brass medallion upon the huge white pearl. Within the medallion was a sliver of red crystal, and Twilight knew she must be looking at a piece of Adagio’s siren gem, one that contained a fragment of the eldest siren’s soul. Energy from Aria and Sonata was slowly streaming into recesses next to that sliver of red crystal, and Twilight felt the power within the Eye of the Sea growing more intense.

Charybdis was a pale white dart, dodging Twilight’s Astral Spheres that tried to catch her limbs and bind them. All the while she taunted, “You must be thinking of trying to take the medallion off, or remove Adagio’s soul yourself. I assure you doing either may have unforeseen dire effects on poor Sonata and sharp tongued Aria. Will you risk it, Twilight Sparkle? You came to save them, did you not?”

“F-forget about us!” Aria grunted past teeth clenched in pain, “Destroy that thing, Twilight! Before she...aaarggh!”

Twilight hesitated, rushing through possible actions in her mind. Interfering without knowing full well the details of the magic involved could indeed do unpredictable things and possibly do great harm to the sirens, or Twilight herself for that matter. Yet could she afford not to? No, she just had to beat Charybdis. If she could take this part of the sea witch’s body down, then that would end the ritual in the safest way as it’d just remove the power source for it, rather than cut off any other portion mid-ritual. She could then use the Astral Sphere to analyze the Relic, the medallion, and how Adagio’s soul was fused to it in order to find the safest method of removal.

In the moment Twilight took to consider that, Charybdis hurled her energy blade at Twilight, which spun in a strobing disc. Twilight felt it coming due to her Astral Sphere’s providing warning, but she still caught the edge of the blade as she flickered upwards with Blink. The blade took a burning line of hide from her left shoulder, and Twilight clenched her teeth against the pain as she reared around and fired off a beam of magic. However, rather than target Charybdis directly, she shot it into one of her Astral Spheres, which then amplified and shot the beam out again, also into another Astral Sphere. The beam shot back and forth in a mind bending pattern between the four Astral Spheres, which in turn kept moving to make the beams’ trajectory impossible to tell.

Charybdis wheeled about, summoning another energy blade as she tried and failed to follow the path of Twilight’s dizzying beam, which after zipping between the Astral Sphere’s scores of times in seconds, it came flying out and smacking Charybdis right in the face. The amplified beam of magic drilled Charybdis into the floor with a stunned cry, and Twilight gestured with her staff. A set of gravity rods were formed in the air above Charybdis and smashed down, six in total, in a tight circle around her. The water quivered as massive streams of gravity hit Charybdis, crushing her down, along with the metallic floor of Bastion Gnosis, which slowly began to buckle as well.

Groaning, Charybdis, with impressive, if insane strength began to push herself up, hateful eyes lancing at Twilight.

“Still trying to capture me, Princess? Do you think I’ll give up? Surrender to you?”

“I’d prefer it if you did,” Twilight said simply, her voice dry, tired, still angry, but somehow still... hopeful, “There’s no way I can let you go free after all you’ve done, but I never wanted to kill you or anycreature else. I just want this madness of yours to end.”

A bubbling bark of laughter rushed from Charybdis as raw red energies poured off of her and she still rose, despite the hefty gravity weighing her down. “I keep telling you, its not madness. The alicorns trying to repair the Cycle? That was madness. The Cycle is a joke. A dead end. A monstrosity! It erases everything an individual is before farting their soul back into some random new life, no memory or sense of self left intact! What’s the point, Twilight Sparkle!? Tell me that! What is the point of living if when we die there’s nothing of us left! Why love, when you’ll never see the ones you love again!? Why have friends, when the memory of them dies with you!? What’s even the point of reincarnating if you retain nothing from life to life!?”

Twilight shook her head, Astra’s memories surfacing upon Charybdis’ words, not quite complete, but strong in their imagery. Astra had studied the Cycle long and hard when seeking a means to repair it with the Spirit of Harmony, and she knew some of what Charybdis said was... true, from a very warped point of view.

“You don’t understand it, Charybdis. The Cycle prepares souls to live again, and some memory, most memory, is left behind, yes. But that isn’t all there is to it!”

“Spare me the lecture, I know damned well that alicorns thought souls retained something after death, but I think they proved they were idiots with their wars and worship. Nothing there to trust.”

“And what of you?” Twilight shot back, arraying her Astral Sphere back into a singular form and moving it towards Charybdis, “You let yourself be worshiped like a goddess when we both know your nothing of the sort. You led the sahuagin into more violence and bloodshed, when at any time you could have built a bridge of peace with the seapony tribes!”

“Oh please, the seaponies would’ve looked at me the same as my poor sahuagin children, as monsters. Any overture of peace would’ve been met with blood, and I wasn’t naïve enough to waste lives that way. As for letting them worship me, well, why not? I just said I don’t give a crap about the Cycle. The only reason I see the alicorns as failures is because they never tended to their worshippers as well as they should have. At least I try to fulfill my end of that covenant. I’ve never once betrayed the sahuagin’s faith in me... and I won’t now that I’m this close to fulfilling my dreams and theirs!”

Twilight had heard enough, and slammed the Astral Sphere down, fully intending to keep Charybdis locked up in it until she and her friends could defeat her main body outside Bastion Gnosis. However Charybdis’ back erupted with blood, and a torrent of raw magic energy formed a grasping set of octopus tentacles formed of crackling ruby energy that encapsulated the Astral Sphere and bound it tightly. Still, it looked to be taking up a lot of Charybdis’ remaining strain to do so, and the energy stream she was sending into Aria and Sonata was faltering.

“Almost...I’m almost there...” Charybdis said, “Mother... Scylla, just a little more... my children, my champions, help me...”

Was Charybdis... praying? It almost sounded like it, but Twilight couldn’t let that distract her. Charybdis looked ready to pass out, so one more good blast ought to do the trick. Twilight began to charge up a potent stunning bolt in her horn, purple light flashing at it’s tip, when suddenly she felt a rise in Charybdis’ energy. Black and white light pulsated around her as Charybdis’ eyes widened, power pouring into her from... where!?

----------

“It is time for us to give back what was granted in good faith,” Morgawr intoned.

He stood at the precipice of the rift. Next to him Rezarra and Berokar floated, talons clasped together. Strangely, and unexpectedly to the three champions, the young warrior Ulgriv was nearby, kneeling in prayer of his own. Morgawr had heard the voice of the Deep Mistress, who had begun speaking to them as soon as they got close to the rift. He knew Ulgriv, despite his failings and fears, had remained loyal to the Deep Mistress.

Now, there was just one last act to perform.

You do not have to do this. the Deep Mistress’ voice said in their souls, I do not know if I can preserve you afterward as I have others.

It matters not, Deep Mistress. We have your power within us, and have fought tirelessly for you ever since you chose us. Our flesh is battered, nearly broken. Since your power can no longer let our bodies fight for you, let our souls instead serve, in sacrifice.

Morgawr’s response was echoed by Rezarra and Berokar, who both had agreed to Morgawr’s plan, even if the result would be their deaths. Morgawr felt their emotions through the shared link to Charybdis. Rezarra was resolute, if oddly wistful, thinking of her younger days hunting. Berokar was annoyed with himself more than fearful, simply regretting he didn’t get to kill one surfacer yet. Morgawr was simply... calm within. He too regretted his failures, but in giving up his power and soul to the Deep Mistress, he believed he could atone.

Oddly, he felt Charybdis’ own regret.

It looks like there’s no other way. I need just a little more power. I am sorry, my champions. A goddess shouldn’t be in need of help, it’s supposed to work the other way around.

Morgawr didn’t so much smile as simply twitch his lips in a fond manner, Do not say such things. We serve you, and you in turn guide and protect us. Ever has that been our mutual pledge, Charybdis. You have given your all to us, it is only right we do so in turn. Now, our souls for you, Deep Mistress.

And he felt her draw upon them all. He felt her grip upon all of the power she’d infused him, Rezarra, and Berokar with, and pulled it forth. His soul bent with it, as ingrained in that power as the tattoos upon his flesh were ingrained with scale and skin. Morgawr did not know if his soul would remain after the draining, or if he’d find warmth in the bosom of the Deep Mistress, and he did not care. He was willing to make this sacrifice for her to rise, and his people along with it.

----------

Twilight had no idea where this power was coming from, and she didn’t have much time to react, either. It all happened in the span of seconds. She tried to fire a bolt of energy at Charybdis, but it was swallowed up by the growing aura of magic that was pooling out of her like some distortion in space.

The stream of red magic that was going into the sirens suddenly flared, and Twilight heard a roar of noise, along with a crystalline snapping sound. Two small fragments of light went from Sonata and Aria and into the medallion upon the Eye of the Sea. The second that happened a pillar of blood red light rose up from the pearl, and a complex circle of geometric patterns appeared around it. On the Relic’s surface the symbol of shining silver manacles became visible, only to break like glass an instant later.

“Oh no,” Twilight breathed, just before the pearl of Domare’s Relic flew like a bullet right into Charybdis, embedding itself inside the seapony witch’s chest.

The moment that happened, raw light and darkness both rushed out of Charybdis’ eyes, and the mare’s mouth twisted in an open grin of awe.

“It’s mine,” was all she said before her body and the fleshy umbilical both snapped up, magical energy pouring off of her so strongly that it ripped right through the gravity holding her down before Twilight’s Astral Sphere could break through the power holding it back.

Twilight was left gaping as Aria and Sonata, both groaning in pain, floated out of now absent magical bonds. Before she could start thinking of a new plan, the entirety of Bastion Gnosis, and perhaps all of the Abyss, began to shake.

A new Inheritor was about to appear in the world.

Author's Note:

Twilight must be a little cross with me for having the enemy get a boost from the power of friendship, but it's really more an example of Charybdis making use of the very faith-based energy transfer that marked the ancient alicorns reign. Still, this is in keeping with traditional JRPG final boss methodology. There's always at least one big transformation before the end.

At any rate, I do hope you folks are continuing to enjoy the story, and I thank you all for reading. As always I highly appreciate any and all comments, questions, or critiques. 'Till next time.

Comments

[MSie95]

If Charybdis absorbs the power of Domare's relic, she might also absorb her memories. Which might make momentarily her vulnerable.

[Fan Fantasy]

Damn. Hell of a chapter and hell of a cliffhanger to leave it on for the next two weeks!!!! So far this has honestly been one of my favorite fights in the whole story. Keep up the good work.

[Spellflame]

11277345
Nothing said the artifact has to like the thief
Especially with what she is doing

[Charedfirescale]

She was never meant to have that power or those memories it will destroy her mentally I think

[sailing101]

She’ll be stricken with the knowledge of exactly why the cycle of reincarnation is better than any alternative in the irrefutable manner of being a firsthand eyewitness. The mental dissonance will likely do a number on her already precarious sanity.

[Thought Prism]

Oh dang, the champions and Ulgriv just offered themselves up to her. Add on the relic, and suddenly things are about to get much harder for the 'surfacers'.

[Fan Fantasy]

7129683
Sorry to start the long forgotten music conversation again lol. This is coming way out of left field, especially since this is neither a Japanese and/or anime song, but I feel like Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin fits well with this story too. At least with the Starlight Glimmer associated arcs. The first verse reminds me a lot of her and her fight to get to the Soul Queen Palace.