Written by Fulgur
Illustrated by Crosschan

Chapter 17

Battle of Island Meneo

I was walking up the hill and I was holding hands with Merta. It was a high hill. In fact, I couldn't see the bottom - or the top. There was just the hill, perpetual and eternal.
Then someone took my other hand. I turned around...
It was Raia. For some reason, the girls didn't see each other. There was just me, going, holding hands with both of them.
Now we were going downhill. Strange, I didn't notice any change of direction... Then there was the tree... Merta and Raia wanted to go around, one on the left, one on the right, pulling me into it. But it wasn't a tree, not really, because it had soft flesh-like bark, and...

"Eeeek!" sounded a yelp and I woke up with a start. Before I could open my eyes, something hit my face, hard.
"What the..." I muttered.
"You pervert!" said Soot and rubbed her knuckles. "Don't touch me when I don't expect it!"
"But you leaned over him," pointed out Grace.
"I just wanted to get my shoes," protested Soot. "How could I know?"
"You did it on purpose," smirked Rosey. "I bet you did."
Soot's face became beet-red.
"Ha! It's true - your face is red!" cried Rosey.
"There will be another red thing if you won't cut it off," muttered Soot darkly.
All the girls were already dressed. It seemed that they decided to let me sleep today.
Wise decision. I appreciated that.
"Breakfast is almost ready!" cried Grace.
I noticed that Linda had completely recovered overnight. Her cat nature really did give her inhuman vigor! She was laughing while she ate. So did other girls.
But not Grace and me. Not Max, either. We shared a dark secret and we couldn't tell the others - it would hurt them badly.

"It's time for me to go," announced Max as the breakfast drew to close. "The business won't wait."
He looked at May. "So, will you..."
She nodded. "Of course. I'm going to help. I mean..."
Ordinary day. Completely ordinary.
At least, it seemed so.
At first.

The darkness was beating on her, choking her. There were spots of light, but every time she tried to grasp them, they were suddenly gone, and there were the cries, those horrible cries...
The girl opened her eyes with a scream.
"That nightmare again?" asked Swarm, calmly. Right now she was in full strength, in a body of an adult woman.
Nyx nodded, exasperated. "I can't get it out of my mind. It's... so lonely..."
"Extinguish such thoughts," said Swarm. "We are never lonely. We have company."
Yes, thought Nyx bitterly, and what a company it is.
Although teleporting on the island would be a matter of instant, for some reason the Queen insisted on using the octahedron. She refused to explain why. But her instructions were clear.
"Maybe she just doesn't care about Raia anymore?" wondered Nyx. "Maybe she just considers her an obstacle now?"
"Cease your babbling!" growled Swarm. "It's not your place to think about those things!"
But whose place it is, then? thought Nyx. I never...
Against her will, she started to slip in her memories. Into the memories she sworn to never remember again.

May was sheepish the whole way to the town. It was partly caused by her embarrassment from yesterday's spanking. Partly, well... she had a lot to think about.
"Cheer up!" smiled Max. "I need a cheerful helper - that always helps the sales!"
"Are you angry with me?" asked May.
"What? Of course not! You got spanked, right?"
"Ye..es..."
"And that's the end of it. That's why it's done. Spank, forgive, and forget, not necessarily in that order."
May sighed. "Yes, but... what if I do something else? You will just spank me again?"
Max nodded. "Yes."
May sighed again. "I'm not too happy with that, you know. I'm not a kid, Max. Sooner or later... it must stop."
Max nodded. "I'm... sorry if I hurt you, May."
"Promise you won't spank me?" said May. "That is... unless I tell you? Maybe that sometimes... sometimes it might help. Not always, though," she added pointedly.
"You are old enough to know better than me when you need a spanking," shrugged Max. "It's a promise."






"Get moving you lazy girl! Move, damn you!"
Nyx blinked. Yes, she all but forgot that voice by now. That is, often she thought she had forgotten it, but it always came back at the least appropriate moment. For a moment Nyx remembered herself, how she used to look: a scrawny girl with eternally scared face. And she remembered the school, for parentless children like her. Not exactly a school, she thought. There was no education. Just work. And spankings. The adults called them "just treatment". But it wasn't just treatment, thought Nyx, it never was...
She didn't deserve all those spankings she got.
But, just maybe, those other people didn't deserve what she did to them, in the end.

"Zack?"
I turned around to face Grace as she was washing the dishes. "Yes?"
She sighed. "I'm... afraid. Last few days, since we fought Spectre, I feel... every time we met one of the Queen's... creatures, it was worse than before. But last time... Zack, that monster killed Soot's family! They won't stop for anything! They are getting stronger and more evil - and what are us?"
"Merta picked up some new tricks, I gathered," I said.
"Merta is..." Grace sighed. "She's a part of the problem. She's... unstable."
"Don't say that!" I cried.
"I'm sorry, Zack, but it's the truth. Merta and Raia... they are fighting. I... I might worsen it, when I called forth Raia. In the end, one of them..."
I gulped. "I don't want either of them to die!"
"Nor me!" cried Grace. "But I have a bad feeling, Zack... very bad feeling..."

"The business is slow today," remarked Max.
"Isn't that a good thing?" challenged May. "It means nobody needs a spanking here, right?"
Max shrugged. "It's not a good thing for me, you know. We as well might..."
Yelling from the downmarket got their attention. They looked up...
An enormous wall of water was rising from the sea, aiming straight for the island.
May quickly looked around. No escape! The wall was curved and was closing on the island from all directions at once!

I jumped as the shadow fell on the land and everything went deathly silent. "What the...?"
Linda burst in the door, closely followed by Soot. "Zack! It's terrible! The... the sky!"
I ran out of the door. And I gasped.
A vast curtain of water was clouding the skies. The house was close to the center of the island and the water flowed until it blocked every single patch of the sky.
Island of Meneo was enclosed in a vast bubble.
"What's happening?" asked Rosey. She tried to go outside but I blocked her.
"It's nothing, Rosey," I said. "Go back like a good little girl."
"What's happening?" she asked again. I could hear genuine fear in her voice.
"Do what he says!" cried Soot. "Please!"
And then, a voice sounded from the forest.
"Greetings from the Queen, Zack."

I turned around. In the gloom of water canopy, I couldn't see anything in the darkness. But then again, I knew who lived in the darkness.
"Nyx!" I cried. "Did you do this?"
"Yes," said the voice. "I did that. I should warn you; if anything happens to me, I lose control - and the water falls. There's more than enough to strip this island down to the bare rock. Noone would survive.
"Why are you here?"
"You know why I am here," sighed Nyx. "To retrieve Raia. Give her to me - and I leave. Don't - and I let the water fall."
"You would kill her as well," I pointed out.
Nyx nodded. "Yes. But you don't understand. The Queen is angry. She... doesn't care anymore. It's just that... I would like to solve this without needless killing."
Her voice was strangely sad.
"Please," she added. "It will be really for the best."
I backed in the house and pulled Grace together with me. "And now we're in trouble," I said.
She just nodded, dully. Trouble, indeed.

When the screaming died out, May realized she's holding onto Max with all her might. She let go.
"Ah... sorry."
"Don't worry," he chuckled. "I don't mind. But just what has happened?"
"I don't know! That's why I got scared!"
At this moment, a black cloud passed through the cupola of water. It drifted down... then changed shape...
A woman was standing there, smirking.
"Swarm," breathed May.

"Zack..." said Grace. "I think..."
"Yes?"
She sighed. "I know you won't like this, but we have to try and awaken Raia. She's the only one with enough power to fight Nyx!"
"No," I shook my head. "I have some power, too. I can beat her!"
"If you do, we will die!" shouted Grace. "No, thanks!" Before I could stop her, she ran to the second room. Where Merta was.
"Come back!" I yelled. "I will do it myself! Don't you dare to do that!"
But Grace yanked Merta out. She seemed to be annoyed.
"What are you doing?" she demanded. "I'm trying to study here!"
"Stuff your studying!" cried Grace. "There's trouble! Let me talk to Raia!!!"
Merta yelped and her body stiffened for a moment. Raia was taking control.
"Grace!" I cried. "You... you..."
Raia opened her eyes.

"Nice place, this one," smirked Swarm. "It would be bad if something happened to it. Like if it was crushed under thousands of tons of water."
"Did you do this?" demanded Max. He seemed quite angry.
"Us? No. This is a work of our associate."
"So - you work for the Queen," said Max. "Am I right?"
"We are bound to her by a common goal," shrugged Swarm. "This is not of your concern."
"Why are you here?" cried May.
Faster than a snake, one of Swarm's arms changed into a tentacle and grasped May's arm.
"We are concerned that the boy may try something foolish. In order to counter that, you will be used as a failsafe," she explained. "If he won't do what we say, we are going to kill you."

"Raia!" cried Grace. "Nyx is out there and..."
"You foolish girl!" barked Raia.
"What's happening here?" asked Soot. She seemed troubled. "Raia? She - she is Raia?"
I noticed that Raia's breathing was shallow. She seemed to be in pain.
"Why? Why did you call me? That girl is... learning. It's harder and harder for me to... to do anything! With every technique she masters, I - I am weaker! I cannot help you in any way, why don't you understand?"
"She says she will wipe out the island if we won't give you to her!" said Grace angrily. "I just thought you might like to know."
"So?" retorted Raia. "Let her do it!"
"Excuse me?"
"I'm not going to live for much longer!" barked Raia. "Nobody would defeat the Queen if she got me. The death of this body will set her back a long way! What's one small island compared to things she could do with me at her bidding? Did you think about that?"
Grace paled. "But... but... I thought..."
"You didn't think, you damned fool, that's the problem! I... I..."
Raia gasped and keeled over. "You... damn you..." she managed to whisper. Then she slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Grace started to cry. "Raia!" She grabbed her and started to shake.
"Grace," I said.
"Let me go! Let me go!"
I slapped her face. She fell silent in shock.
"She won't help us, you heard her!" I cried. "We have to rely on our own powers, that's all! Nyx's weakness is light, we can just... Look, we can defeat her, don't you dare to doubt it! We will survive this! OK?"
Silently, she nodded.
"Where's Rosey and Linda?" asked Soot. "We got to be together, right?"
"I... I don't know..."
I looked in the small room. Linda was hidden under the bed. I tried to talk to her, but the only sound I got out of her was evil hissing. If I ever saw a scared cat, it was her.
Rosey was trembling in the corner. "Soot!" she cried. "What's happening? Are we going to die?"
"No!" I shouted. "We will be OK! We just have to find a way!"
"Who is she?"
"She is..." I hesitated. "A bad girl," I said, in the end.
"Will you give her a spanking?" asked Rosey. The kid was so absolutely serious that despite the situation, I had to laugh.
"Nope, Rosey. That would hardly work."
Back in the main room, I looked at unconscious Merta.
"Just you wait, my Lady," I whispered. "Your Knight will find a way."

"Kill me?" repeated May. The idea seemed ludicrous to her. Kill her? Why would anybody want to kill her?
At the moment, a wooden spoon swished through the air and Max hit the tentacle with full force.
Swarm cried out as she didn't expect an attack.
"You are annoying," she hissed. "We shall dispose of you."
"Let her go," said Max. His usual smile was gone. He was dead serious. Like when he was giving a spanking.
"You have no way to harm us," said Swarm. There was a faint trace of surprise in her voice. "It's stupid to resist... isn't it?"
"I am responsible for this girl," said Max. "She works for me. And I... I... well, it doesn't matter, the point here is that I'm going to protect her!"
"Oh? And how?" smirked Swarm. "As we were saying..."
"Were you saying something... Pauline?" shouted May.
At the sound of the name, Swarm jerked in surprise - and that was all May needed to get rid of her grasp.
But Swarm wasn't the only one surprised by that name.
"Pauline?" repeated Max, puzzled.

When I came back out, with Grace and Rosey looking from behind me, I noticed that the forest is much darker than it used to be. Nyx grew in power. Soot chose to stay in, to watch over Merta.
"Your decision?" she asked. "Will you give her to me - or you would rather choose to die?"
"Why do you want Merta?" shouted Rosey.
"Rosey!" I cried, but Nyx didn't appear to mind.
"It's because she's unique," she explained. "She's the only person the Queen can use."
"Because she's powerful?" challenged Grace.
"No, it's because..." Nyx's voice hesitated. "You see, the Queen is old. Very old. She always lived in the blood of Geomancers, but she never had her own mind - not until Raia came along. She needs Raia to cooperate. Because she's unique."
I outstretched my arm and - just as I expected - the sword was suddenly in my grasp.
"That thing won't work on me, you know," said Nyx. "Even if you could defeat me - what will you do with the water?"
I whispered that sentence.
Nothing happened. It apparently had to be said aloud.
"I won't allow you to take Merta," I said. "Or to harm her. I... I love her."
Grace and Rosey looked up when they heard me. Just in time to see the armor cover my body.
I charged at the heart of the darkness.

"Pauline?" said Max.
"There is no Pauline! We are Swarm!" shrieked Swarm.
Max strode towards her. Swarm looked scared. She could swat him away easily, but somehow, she didn't.
Max looked at her face.
"You grew up," he whispered, "but yes, I can see resemblance. You still look... like her."
"We don't know what you are talking about!" Swarm's shrieks became more agitated. "Go... go away!"
"You remember me, Pauline, don't you?" said Max levelly. "You couldn't forget me, right?"
"Go away!"
A wave of black matter shot from Swarm's chest, pushing Max away. She looked aghast. "You are insane. We don't remember! There was never anything to remember!"
"You know her?" gasped May.
Max turned to her. There were tears in his eyes.
"Pauline was... is... my sister," he said simply.

My sword cut and hacked, but all I could hit were the trees.
"Why are you doing this?" I cried. "Do you have to destroy everything? We are not interested in your Queen, we don't like your power game! Why won't you leave us alone? I just want normal life!"
"Believe me," said Nyx, and her voice sounded incredibly sad. "I never wanted anything else, either. But each of us must play with the cards he - or she - was given."
Suddenly, the darkness was everywhere. It flowed to me, entangled me like a spiderweb and it was cold, freezing, even.
"I don't want to kill you," whispered Nyx. "But... I don't have any choice. I never had. I... I am sorry."
The cold was getting through my armor, and through my bones, chilling, freezing, numbing...
Nyx shrieked. The sound was half pain, half surprise.
"What...?" she gasped.
From the darkness, another man appeared.
He had a sword, but no armor. His chest was pierced by a gaping wound, and his eyes... were just not human. Only red dots in a face of blackness.
"Feltar!" I cried.
"In a way," said the man.

"Your sister? Didn't you say that your sisters were well-behaved?" yelled May.
"You don't understand," shook Max his head. "The Queen... had attacked my family before. I thought Pauline was dead - but now I see she wasn't, she was... taken."
He looked at the panic-stricken face of Swarm. "What did they do to you?" he whispered.
"ENOUGH OF THIS FOOLISHNESS!" yelled Swarm. "DIE!!!"
Tentacle lashed through the air...
And recoiled so it wouldn't touch the item Max held in front of himself.
It was a wooden spoon.
"You might forget me, but I think you remember this spoon?" he said. "Many times, Pauline, I had to use it to explain right and wrong to you. And while you don't remember, your bottom does."
"Absurd," protested Swarm, but her voice was teeming with doubts. "How could I be stopped with mere kitchen utensil?"
"Because in your heart, despite everything, you know you are doing wrong thing," replied Max serenely. "And this spoon is used precisely in order to stop wrongdoing. To teach a lesson."
She said "I", thought May. That looked promising. Maybe...
"I am composite life-form," said Swarm. "Any form of corporal discipline is impossible to use on my body. This is... highly illogical. I can't... I must fulfill my duty..."
Her form flickered. In an instant, she changed in a smaller girl, still with a scared expression.
"We... I... Who am we?" Her language skills tried in vain to cope. She was oscillating between single mind and plurality.

"You are dead!" cried Nyx. "I know you have died!"
"So?" shrugged Feltar. "That didn't stop me before." He raised the sword.
On closer look, it wasn't really a sword. It was a mass of black tendrils, in rough shape of the sword. And the tendrils were uncoiling, hitting the darkness around me and... feeding on it.
"Spectre!" shouted Nyx. "What are you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious?" replied Feltar. "I'm killing you, Nyx. I was always good at killing, you of all people should know that."
"Spectre?" I breathed. Yes, Feltar's body had disappeared... but Spectre?
Thinking about it, it was Feltar who killed - or looked like killed - the original Spectre. But...
"I have a mission from the Queen!" shouted Nyx. "You are going against her will!"
"I know what the Queen is," sneered Spectre/Feltar. "She is a plague, disease waiting to be unleashed. I know she can read minds. I know you have no secrets from her, you are just puppets. But I - I have seen her mind. And it wasn't pretty."
"She gave you life!" shrieked Nyx. She was clearly in great pain. "This is how you repay her?"
"Yes," said Spectre. "Because I never asked for life. It's not worth the effort, trust me on that. After you die, the water will destroy everything. Maybe I can finally rest after that."
"You can't do that to me!" shouted Nyx. "I will..."
The wound in Feltar's chest opened and more tendrils latched themselves into the darkness.
Nyx screamed.
And I... I ran away. I didn't really think I could take sides in this fight.


"Let it go," said Max, urgently. "Let it all go. Try to remember. Pauline, I want to help you."
Swarm grasped her head and shrieked.
Then she exploded.
Myriads of black particles had crisscrossed around the marketplace and coalesced again in a shape of a girl. But this time, she was in pink dress.
"That's right, Pauline," nodded Max encouragingly. "That's you. Now, try to remember me."
"Max...?" said Swarm, hesitantly.
But at that moment, the particles started to buzz incessantly and the form changed.
Now an adult woman with scornful look stood there.
"You really shouldn't try that psychology on her," she said. "She's getting unstable. I have to override her."
"So we meet once again," nodded Max.
"Are you talking about that thing yesterday?" laughed Queen. "That was nothing. That cat had no true power. This girl - she has power."
"You should give my sister back," said Max, calmly. "It's basic courtesy."
The Queen didn't pay any attention to him.
"Nyx is taking too long," she said. "I knew I shouldn't trust that girl!"
She blinked. "She's fighting. Well, I don't care about that. She had outlived her usefulness. Now this body - it has certain... potential."
"Give my sister back," said Max. "Or I'm going to kill you."
"Kill me?" scoffed the Queen. "Hardly. You shouldn't make the threats you can't deliver. The old Geomancers - they were made of different stuff. I quite enjoyed fighting with them. Fighting with you is just sad."
A nasty smile played on her lips.
"This island will die," she said. "I'm going to annihilate it. Try to stop me if you can. I would like to see you stopping my personal little Apocalypse!"

I heard the screams all the way back to the house.
"What happened?" asked Grace.
"Spectre is back!" I cried. "She took Feltar's body - and now she's fighting Nyx!"
"Weren't they on the same side?"
"Apparently they're not anymore!"
"Whoever wins, we're still in trouble," remarked Soot. "We can't even run away!"
That was when Spectre stepped out of the forest.
"I have absorbed Nyx," she announced. "Now it's your turn."

Max smiled. "Why do you think I can't stop you?"
"Excuse me?" Clearly the Queen was puzzled.
Max stepped towards her and took her hand. "Whatever you might be, you are a girl. And there is no girl that I couldn't spank."
"Spank me?"
"Yes."
"You must be insane," said the Queen, coldly. "Not everyone has the same weak spots as you humans. And this body..."
"This body is a body of my sister. And I assure I can spank that quite effectively," said Max. He sat down and pulled her over his lap.
The Queen was livid. I could see her trying to evade his grasp. But for some reason, she couldn't. She should be able to just disperse in particles, but for some reason she couldn't.
"My sisters were well-behaved girls," said Max. "They never made fuss about getting a spanking. They weren't fighting, they weren't trying to talk their way out of it... the body remembers, my dear Queen. It can't put up a fight. Not against me. Not when Pauline knows how badly she needs this spanking."
The particles shifted and the Queen's bottom was suddenly bare.
Ceremoniously, Max plastered his wooden spoon smack-dab in the middle of one cheek.

May has seen - and endured - lots of spankings, but none this strange. The Queen didn't show a slightest trace of any discomfort. She was immobilized, but the spanking wasn't exactly hurting her. The bottom didn't show any marks of strokes. It was like spanking a doll.
She must have gotten over thirty swats, thought May. I would be livid at this point. Yet she simply didn't mind.
But as the spanking continued, there was something - a twitch in the face, incessant shift of the particles...
And suddenly, a kick of legs. The bottom started to redden. The face shifted.
And there was a cry: "Bro, no, please! I'm sorry! So sorry! Please, don't spank me! Ouch!"
Max just shook his head. "Now, Pauline," he smiled. "You should know that such pleading never works with me."
He was sitting there, spanking his sister in the public, and both of them were crying with happiness.

I attacked Spectre, but she easily parried my sword with her own pseudo-weapon.
"Try again," she smirked.
Feltar's form was already indistinctive, disappearing in darkness that oozed from Spectre's body. She absorbed Nyx's powers, I realized. And now...
I attacked again.
She catched my blade, almost leisurely.
"Are you finished?" she asked.
She stared in the water above our heads.
"I can do it at any time," she said. "I can bring doom to all of you."
"I won't let you."
Spectre looked at the speaker.
It was Grace.
"I will stop you," she said. "Because this is still my responsibility."
Spectre struck at her with a tendril. There was a flash of light.
The attack ripped Grace's blouse, but she was unharmed. A strange golden medallion was hanging from her neck.
"Feltar is still alive, somewhere inside you, right?" asked Grace nonchalantly. "Because he never died. He couldn't be killed. Because he's mine."
Suddenly there was a knife, a kitchen knife, in her hand.
"This time," she smiled, "I'm going to do it properly."
She threw the knife. The blade started to shine. It penetrated the cloak of darkness and exactly hit Spectre.
She screamed. Her tendrils shot towards Grace, and although the medaillon did put up a fair fight, it couldn't stop them all.
As Feltar's body collapsed, something flew along the tendrils and into Grace.
I jumped towards her, but it was too late.
To sum it up, there was still the small matter of huge mass of water hanging above us, plus I wasn't sure who will wake up in Merta's body.
Or Grace's, even.

End of Chapter 17

May's Readers' Corner:
OK, nice and cataclysmic and all that, isn't it? I know, it's just one of Fulgur's occasional inspiration flashes - but that damned guy pays no heed to what we want! And, he just has to end it up with a cliffhanger!
But on the flip side - you can enjoy yourself with brand new, never-before published pictures by Crosschan! Oh? You wanted spanking pictures? Too bad for now - but Fulgur claims there will be others (I hope not of my spankings, thank you very much).
Oh well, I guess we have to wait and see. Hopefully, Chapter 18 will come soon - but in case it won't, here's some teaser:

While the fight continues and island is still in danger of being buried under water, Grace and Nyx have to try and escape from the dark tombs of Spectre's mind. Who is Spectre, really, and why she hates Nyx so much? How does the Queen recruit her helpers? And can Pauline/Swarm recover enough of her powers to help in the fight?
Meanwhile, Merta, for the first time in her life, encounters Raia - and learns the horrible truth about her existence. This and more, in Chapter 18, titled "Mindscape".

Await with suspension!
Fulgur

Well, there you have it.
May, signing off!