And the time of change has come.

The Ancient Stone Wolf walked serenely on the mountain side, eyeing from his position on the still snowed in woods the new greening valley bellow. His Grey eyes betrayed no emotion, the old and solitary magical beast simply taking in the new change in the seasons, confident in the immutable truth that there weren't many animals in the region capable of threatening it outside the damn ranchers in the summer.

He yawned his massive mouth, and shook his dull grey coat to shake off the last of the snow, the last lethargy of hibernation washing out. He started running down the mountain side at a good pace, eager to eat for the first time in months, when he sensed something coming from behind. The wolf had barely any time to process what it was seeing when a stream of stone in the form of a lance hit his left leg with full ****, breaking his knee and making it yelp in pain before a red thing hit its head and a powerful Light Explosion caved his face in, dropping it into the ground in pain. It could barely move, consumed with pain when a second Stone Lance pierced through its exposed skull, putting it out of its misery.

Damaskinos stood above his prey, his arm regenerating in real time back into position, his eyes opened but his teeth gritted. He flexed the freshly regenerated hand, before infusing his claws with fire and getting to work.

Much had changed since the start of Fall and the passage of Winter, and this new Spring brought with it much for him to think about. Melanoche decided to make the most out of the civil war, breaking the Forces of Darkness into 3 separate kingdoms, with Orchid The Fox leading her newest Foxfire Empire in the East. She has brokered a truce with the Light Kingdoms on her border, who eagerly wait for her to self destruct fighting her rivals. with little knowledge that a phony war is ongoing within the Dark. Our rivals believe our forces partitioned, with little inkling that it has become a giant farming exercise to rebuild our fallen high rank strength by funneling EXP into promising prospects. Mundus has been invaluable in this regard, and it is always our pleasure to see as far as it is known the Light Gods have no idea the actual Dungeon Mother Frame survived their usurpation of her world, thinking she is just a minor but powerful Dungeon Frame under the control of the Dark Sisters.

Pandemonium is in the middle. under real time Darwinian pressure to get their act together with the Wasp Empress on one side and Orchid on the other. Melanoche still considers Reala an unworthy annoyance, mad at the previous Demon King for cuddling her daughter, but she is learning to take on her mothers role. With a lot of screaming and tantrums in between. Lots of tantrums.

In the West, the Wasp Hive reign supreme on a furious reproductive demon wave against Pandemonium in the middle and the Light forces to the North, that their higher ranks hit diminishing returns of little concern as long as the waves keep coming. They work as a wonderful lightning rod against the 2 other factions that might actually return into being credible threats to Light supremacy, if all keep going well.

Halicarnassus has been doing her work well, and the Light Kingdoms are now full of second children sent crusading in the borderlands returning to the realm of their parents with nothing to lose and a lot of new found power to harness against their heir apparent older siblings. Blood, intrigue and rising risk of civil war were all in vogue all over the Light Lands, for the war was all but won and the chickens are coming home to roost. Elmira, the sisters bless her soul, was their biggest ally in fomenting such unrest as she breaks the eggs necessary to seat herself in the Cardinal position, no law, morals or ethics spared trying to put her war allies in high places to **** the Vatican to recognize a Dark Elf as a member of the ruling council. She doesn't realize she is buying a war with the Pope, but none but the gods have been alive for long enough to understand the Immortal Pope hates her Kind more than he loves Lights unity.

The other Saintesses are MIA or at home, but the expectation is that at least one of them will show up to make a dent on the Wasp Hive at some point. The Imp sighed. He really should have taken Melanoches offer to spawn near the frontlines. He laid down on the snow, the massive wolf all but consumed. He opened his stats, looking at the fat 99 on cap for his sorcerer levels, 99 on cap for his imp levels, and the ever bugged # on his priest levels. The time had come for his evolution, and it couldn't come a minute later.