a Witch strikes

They stocked up heavily before leaving the stadium city — water, dried meat, medical salves, and whatever else Dehya and Yelan judged necessary for the road ahead. Mualani waited at the main gate, still essentially nude save for her blue bows and stripes, bouncing on her heels with open excitement. Mavuika saw them off in person. The Archon’s newest biker onesie was already zipped so low the pull sat just above the soft upper curve of her cunt; her breasts hung free and her expression was bright with residual satisfaction and future expectation.

“Bring my champions back burning,” she called after them. “And don’t die.”

They walked for several hours under Mualani’s cheerful lead. The land gradually shifted from open volcanic slopes into greener, more broken terrain. Conversation stayed light. Rosaria’s red stone caught the light with every step. Aether’s singed eyebrows had become a running joke.

Then the world changed.

There was no visible flash, no sound, no obvious distortion — only the sudden, bone-deep certainty that something had been laid over reality like a thin, imperfect filter. The uncanny feeling hit every woman in the pride at the same instant. Blades, bows, and catalysts were in hand before conscious thought finished forming. Formations tightened. Eyes scanned every shadow.

Everyone except Cloud Retainer.

The adeptus merely narrowed her eyes and looked profoundly, personally annoyed, as though someone had just tracked mud across a floor she had spent centuries keeping clean.

A tall figure approached at a leisurely stroll from the treeline, red eyes gleaming beneath the wide brim of a hat. The posture was relaxed. The intent was not.

Dehya’s mouth opened on pure combat reflex.

“Left flank, two—!”

The rest of the warning died as the disabilities landed.

Shenhe went very still. A faint, startled blush colored her cheeks. Every face she looked at — Mualani, Lisa, even the distant rocks — wore Aether’s features and directed the same soft, charming, unmistakably flirty smile straight at her. She swallowed and did not raise her polearm.

Rosaria turned a spectacular, uniform beet red from throat to hairline. Whatever the figure had done forced a continuous, crystal-clear playback of every private word, every whispered confession, every soft sound she and Aether had exchanged in the candlelit room the night before. The loop ran without mercy. She could neither speak nor look anyone in the eye.

Dehya made a choked sound. The heavy, concentrated scent of Aether — pure male, hormone-thick, the exact signature her newly claimed instincts now recognized as mate — slammed into her so hard her knees buckled. A visible squirt of fluid hit the dirt between her bare feet before she could lock her legs.

Yelan’s hydro constructs simply refused to answer. The ropes she tried to form dissolved into useless mist. A low, mocking awareness pressed against her thoughts: You fell for the one cock you were only supposed to protect. Her jaw clenched hard enough to hurt.

Ganyu made a tiny, mortified noise and looked as though she wanted the ground to open and swallow her whole. A translucent, perfectly accurate specter of Morax stood a few paces away, arms folded, calmly and at length commenting on her complete lack of clothing and the practical implications of traveling as a permanent nude breeding cow. Her cowbell gave one miserable little jingle.

Only Lisa and Cloud Retainer remained fully unaffected.

Lisa’s mouth curved in a slow, resigned smile. Cloud Retainer’s expression of annoyance deepened into something close to long-suffering recognition.

the Women strolled into the middle of the disabled group as if she were simply out for a pleasant afternoon walk.

One hand rested on her hip. A light, wordless little tune hummed between her lips. She looked completely unconcerned by the drawn weapons, the hostile stances, or the fact that half the pride was currently suffering under highly personalized mental and physical interference. Her red eyes danced with open amusement beneath the wide brim of her hat.

Cloud Retainer’s voice cut through the tension, dry and deeply familiar.

“This one means no harm… but one cannot say she means any good either. Isn’t that accurate, Alice?”

Alice’s smile widened. She gave a small, deflective little wave of her fingers.

“Oh, you know me. I got bored keeping the Fatui out of Mondstadt — they stopped being interesting test subjects after the first dozen. I decided I wanted to see the fabled man himself. The one who makes Archons pulse and entire nations blush. Can you blame me?”

Aether barely had time to process the name before his pants simply ceased to exist. One moment the fabric was there; the next it had dissolved into nothing, leaving him bare from the waist down in the middle of the path. Alice circled him once, slow and teasing, like a scholar examining a newly acquired specimen. Then she reached out and dragged a single fingertip along the underside of his cock — base to tip — in one light, almost curious stroke.

That was all it took.

Orgasm slammed into him with the force of a command rather than a climax. His body locked, cock throbbing hard as thick ropes of cum erupted in a continuous, forced stream that lasted a full minute. It did not feel bad — there was pleasure, heat, the usual rush — but underneath it sat the unmistakable sensation of something external simply deciding he would empty himself. Alice held a large glass jar ready and caught every pulse with cheerful precision, angling his cock so not a drop was wasted.

When the last spurt left him she corked the jar, gave it a satisfied little shake, and beamed.

“Lovely quality. Thank you for the sample.”

Without further explanation, fanfare, or lingering, Alice turned on her heel and strolled back the way she had come, humming the same light tune, the filled jar tucked under one arm. The filter over reality lifted as she left. Weapons answered their owners again. The personalized torments faded.

The pride was left standing in the sudden ordinary sunlight, utterly defeated, with Aether still half-hard and dripping and the faint scent of his own forced release hanging in the air.

Mualani blinked.

“…What just happened?”

Cloud Retainer pinched the bridge of her nose and looked older than she had in centuries.

“Alice happened.”