Myds6

Eventually, the steadily rising wind turned into a whirlwind, which picked up the nine sorceresses

and sucked them spinning and screaming up into the air.

but the powerful wind instantly drowned out her voice, and the elevation of her arms only caused her gown to flutter upwards even higher, giving the whole assembly an unobstructed view of her lush, ebony- colored bush.

Suddenly, a burst of wind flooded the clearing, extinguishing the bonfire and sending every sorceress's gown flying up in her incredulous face. Sibylla raised her hands to begin an incantation

"IT WAS A DECENT IDEA AND IT AMUSED ME GREATLY. STILL, ALLOW ME TO "DIVERT" YOUR PLANS BEFORE YOU CREATE AS MUCH UNNECESSARY TROUBLE AS YOUR ARROGANT SISTER DID."

"I HAVE HAD MY EYES ON YOU OBNOXIOUS LITTLE TROUBLEMAKERS EVER SINCE YOU WERE BORN. I FOLLOW YOUR EVERY MOVE. I HEAR YOUR EVERY WORD. BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME -- I HEARD YOU WERE PLANNING A LITTLE *AMBUSH*..."

"AND WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT I WON'T BE SUSPECTING IT THE MOST?" a deafening voice boomed across the vale, sending a swarm of ravens darting from the treetops in cawing alarm. "Wh-what? How... how is this possible?" Sibylla asked, trying to locate the source of the voice.

"Once we attract the interest of a powerful lord of the Abyss, we can ambush the dragon in his course between heaven and earth, just when he suspects it the least..."

"Only this: Since we know that our enemies have friends in high places -- VERY high places indeed," the sorceress rolled her eyes heavenwards, "why not attack on both fronts? Let us... ahem... divert the attention of that pesky dragon in his heavenly realm while our terrestrial forces make short work of the Easterners down on Earth..."

"And how do you suggest we do that?"

"What exactly are you proposing?" asked Belladonna.

"That is true. But what *WE* can do is learn from Sister Mariana's mistakes," Sibylla continued with a wicked smile.

"You are wrong, Sister Belladonna," Sibylla replied. "Her mistake was not that she was weak. Her mistake was that she did not anticipate that the East had allied itself with an even more powerful entity: a dragon."

"No one could have anticipated that," a slender sorceress in a plain white gown named Astra the Skywatcher, replied gloomily.

Sibylla of the Black Marshes was her name, and her powers were rumoured to be nearly equal to those of Mariana LeFoy, with whom she had had a long-simmering rivalry. The sorceress walked in a circle around the bonfire that had been lit in the center of the dark meadow, burrowing her cold eyes into each of her sisters while the flames illuminated the strange, mystical silver patterns on her form-fitting sapphire-colored gown, which clung tight to her round breasts, broad hips and well-delineated, attractive

"Sister Mariana was weak," another sorceress -- a seductive, silver-haired conjuress by the name of Belladonna Thornwood -- said, shaking her head. "She consorted with powerful demons and acquired knowledge of secrets that could destroy the whole world, and yet she couldn't defend herself against three mere swordswomen."

A ravishing raven-haired maid stepped forth, silencing the murmurs around.

Far to the West, the remaining nine sorceresses of the Misty Isles had gathered in a shadowy meadow to debate the recent happenings in the East. The complete and utter humiliation of the most powerful of their kin had left its mark on the sisterhood, and there were many frowns on the faces in attendance.

The legend does not tell of their continued strivings, but it was rumoured that all three of the warriors lived out their lives in still seclusion and happiness.

but with characteristic Eastern discipline, the three exchanged simply bows and went separate ways.

Their meeting was not without a twinge of melancholy

Ophelia's severed blond braid, Callipygia's chainmail thong, the magical container that Mariana's genie had been entrapped in (Wei-Ling had since released the magical creature as a reward for his help), as well as the magical items that Wei-Ling had received from the dragon, and which the trio had used to repel the supernatural forces that had threatened to tear the whole physical universe asunder.

Wei-Ling, Shiori and Nergui met for a last time in front of the newly inaugurated Memorial to the Three Swords

a single-room chamber containing the principal artifacts from the glorious victory: the valkyrie sword and shield, containing the cunningly entrapped spirits of the fourteen valkyries from Valhalla, the broken hilt and shards of the dread Feycalibur,

Tale of the Three Swords near its end

all the while pleading for her subjects to come back and rescue her.

Screaming and bawling with embarrassment, the queen-regent dropped the fragile pretense that had launched her half-hearted expedition to begin with and began to run in the direction of her fleeing army, one hand covering her plump breasts and another rubbing her sore rear end,

leaving the spoiled monarch completely naked except for her tiny silk bloomers, which were too small to contain her sizeable royal derriere anyway.

To make matters even worse, standing up caused her gown to catch stuck on a branch, so that by the time she was back on her feet her clothes had been ripped clean off her body

which eventually resulted in the queen-regent being thrown ignominiously out of her saddle like a rookie cowgirl, to a painful landing on her pampered royal butt.

"N-no, stay together...! Everyone stay together!" the queen-regent commanded feebly, but her troops were already scattering like flies around her.

Even her horse seemed to be sensing the suicidal quality of the mission it had been unwillingly dragged into, since it began to jump around like mad

where everyone could see the broken-off top of her black wand peeking out

Last shot of Mariana

tied up with her arms and legs spread out wide and her back facing outwards

Finally, and most conspicuously, the sorceress Mariana LeFoy was located in the center of the banner,

so that her front was facing outwards, and a shocked murmur passed through the crowd when they saw that the knight's erect, pink nipples and exposed snatch had been refitted with marking rings for a cow.

On the bottom of the center pole, Ophelia the White (minus her signature braid!) had been tied-up

and Vittoria the duchess were dangling upside down, and their faces were brown after weeks of staring into the dust and dirt torn up by the six thousand feet

On the bottom of the banner, Isabel the high priestess

and Leocadia the Purple

hung suspended in wedgies from a horizontal mast, all four of them sobbing like children.

Alexia the Blue,

Helena the Green

Rowena the Black,

Instantly below, four of the West's most prized knights

On the top of the banner, Sif the shieldmaiden

and Callipygia the Amazon hung suspended by their arms and legs on each side of the proudly flying flags of China, Japan and the Mongol Khanate.

But the strangeness of these sights paled in comparison to what came next:

a massive wooden banner raised up on three separate poles -- requiring no fewer than six carriers