The Imp and the Sorceress by T. Prince, tk_prince@hotmail.se Nix meets a young, sheltered, arrogant sorceress and magical sparks fly. Some time after the incident with Harmonia the paladin, Nix found herself once again stranded in that dismal world that humanfolk call the Material Plane. So far, her stay here had been the usual thing: long stretches of mind-numbing boredom punctuated by instances of mobs running her out of villages with torches and pitchforks. Of course, this time she really had only brought it on herself. Having dyed herself grey and taken up a seat on the roof of the local Sun Temple, she had managed to pass for a gargoyle for almost three weeks when a prestigious visitor arrived in the village and ruined it all. A Vestal Virgin, no less -- the purest, cleanest and most humorless of all the goody two-shoes types in the kingdom. Only a glimpse of the uncorrupted little maiden in her spotless white veil had been enough for Nix, who knew that this was an opportunity she could not just let slide. A wardrobe malfunction, a girlish squeal and an enthusiastically applied pitchfork later, the mob hunt was on again -- although this time, the imp fled with a smile on her face, knowing that the pious little do-gooder whose chaste, sweet bottom she had just undressed and goosed in front of a large audience would now, despite her best efforts, appear for a long time in dozens of lewd imaginations. And now Nix found herself homeless again. Over the course of the last few days, she had been trudging morosely through swamps and forests, and was just about to go looking for a place to set up camp when she noticed a tall slender structure poking up from beyond a few trees. Upon closer inspection she found that it was an old stone tower, covered with cracks and moss and ivy. "Ten Tartarian ducats says this place hasn't had a tenant in a while," Nix thought to herself, when she suddenly noticed that one of the windows on the bottom floor was hanging open -- and that light was streaming out of it! Growing steadily more curious, she flew up to the window and peeked inside. A crackling fireplace illuminated the strangest room she had ever seen. It was evidently a library or a study, judging from the abundance of books, but it was also a storage room for every outlandish instrument known to man: astronomical clocks, half-finished automatons, tables with beakers and vials filled with bizarre colors and emanating odd fumes, steam-driven machines, whirring clockwork devices, tiny metallic orbs seemingly floating freely in the air, and other things too strange to describe. "Lemme guess," Nix muttered to herself, "whoever lives in this kooky place has got to be A) a wizard, B) powerful as all hell, and C) at LEAST three hundred or so years ol-" Her thoughts were interrupted by a most unexpected sound: the sound of a young woman singing. Well, I guess I was wrong on the last point, the imp thought to herself, when suddenly -- out of the blue -- she had the most brilliant idea. With all this learning collected in one place, surely she should be able to find a spell here that would return her to her native world? Giddy with newfound hope, she jumped in through the window and began to orient herself. The singing was coming from another room, evidently nearby. Nix peeked through the closest doorway, and sure enough -- behind a white curtain (that seemed to float freely in the air) was the silhouette of a naked young woman in the middle of some sort of bathing procedure. An animated bucket repeatedly poured water over her head whilst sponges and brushes brought to life gently scrubbed her body from head to toe. The girl herself had nothing to do except occasionally raise her arms, twist her head and spread her legs to allow easier scrubbing. Well, knowing human women, I'd say she'll be occupied with that for quite a while, Nix thought, and walked back into the study. She began reading the titles of the books in the bookcase, when suddenly the dusty old folio that lay opened on the desk gave up a deafening scream. "What in the BLAZES!?" Nix half-yelled without thinking, ran up to the screaming book and tried to close it, but the book was stronger than she would have had any reason to believe, and so the imp and the tome were engaged in a vicious push-and-pull for about ten seconds, when a voice called out: "Stop it. Book, be quiet." Nix spun around, and came face to face with the girl she had just seen from behind -- now fully clothed and completely dry. She was even younger than Nix would have thought, probably not a day older than seventeen; a slender, fair-skinned creature with lively, intelligent eyes, an upturned little nose, cherry-colored lips and dark hair arranged in an elaborate ringlet. The teenage beauty was dressed like a tomboy, in a short red velvet frock (under which a linen corset could be glimpsed) and black leggings. She moved with a natural grace and could have been mistaken for a young noblewoman if not for the fact that she seemed almost completely uninhibited, and clearly had no manners. "How the hell did you dress so fast?" the imp asked, her mouth hanging agape. "I can move things with my mind. Common cantrip, but that's not important right now," the young woman said. Nix found her casual arrogance somewhat off-putting. "I see," Nix answered. "I suppose I should tell y-" "Not important. Idle chatter bores me. What is your business here?" the girl asked curtly. "That... was actually what I was going to tell you, but yo-" "Do you have business with Papa? He's away on business. You should have knocked. Anyway, I don't have much time for visitors. You're an imp, I see. Are you from the Abyss? What do you need?" "That's... uh... three questions, which one do you want me to-?" "Please, just make your point. I can probably assist you. Do you need magic items? We don't usually sell without prior notice, although we could make an exception for an interplanar visitor like yourself. Do you already know what you want or do you want to look around first?" "wait, yes, I actually know what I want," Nix said. "I want to go back to the Aby-" "Create a portal, then. You should have visited an ordinary magic store instead of coming here to waste my time or Papa's. But I relent. Papa has a book that he uses for planar travel, let me see if I can find it-" Before she had finished her sentence, the young mage had summoned a chair out of thin air, which she then climbed on top of. As she stood rummaging through the bookcases, talking obnoxiously about her father's accomplishments -- and then moving on to her own -- Nix entertained herself by sneaking occasional peeks up the girl's frock. Whenever the self-praising got too tiresome, the imp imagined herself shutting the girl up by jabbing a red hot pitchfork into her shapely derriere, right through her leggings... "Ah, here we are," the teenage sorceress suddenly declared, causing Nix to withdraw from her unwise but oh-so-tempting fantasies. The girl skipped down from the chair and slammed down a ludicrously heavy tome on her desk. "The Complete Manual to Planar Travel," she said, brushing a thick layer of dust off the cover. "Of course, I will have to perform the spell for you, since the process includes the speaking of a magic word which only Papa and myself know, and which is most definitely NOT for sale. I trust you'll under- stand why. Now, how will you pay?" Rats, Nix thought. Time to improvise a little. "Well, it just so happened that I was banished here, so I left all my valuables back in my cave." Dammit, she thought, that sounded way more convincing in my head. "Er... but I have a friend -- a very powerful and wealthy succubus. If you do this favour for me, I will... um... tell her how generous you were, and she'll... repay you ten times the amount!" The sorceress looked at her, without a single identifiable expression on her face. She, then, miraculously, nodded and said: "Fair enough." "Fair enough?" Nix couldn't believe her ears. "So you... agree?" "Well, yes. I have no reason to distrust you. All you need to do is sign this contract." She produced a long, illegible contract and handed Nix a pen. "Mere formality." The imp threw herself over the contract, determined to get this over with as quickly as possible. "Your name is Artemisia?" she read off the contract. "Artemisia Firestar, yes. Sign here as well." Nix did as she was told, but as soon as she had signed the contract twice, Artemisia exploded into giggling. Normally, Nix wouldn't think twice about seeing a teenage girl having a giggling fit, but the timing seemed strange and weirdly ominous. "What's so funny?" the imp asked. "You pathetic little fool!" Artemisia cried between giggles. "Did you really think I was going to be tricked into OPENING A PORTAL for a DEMON? *giggle* No, the contract you signed was a geas contract! You must now obey my every command or die, with no hope of ever being relieved! Serves you right, you little hell-beast!" "I see," Nix muttered, her eyes darkening. "So you're not just an arrogant brat, but you're a duplicitous little bitch too." "Hah! You'll not be so impudent when you hear my first command. Hmm, let's see, what should I have you do?" "By the way, you forgot to mention the one way I could get rid of the geas," Nix added. "I could destroy the contract." "Yes, theoretically you could do that," Artemisia replied, before bursting into another cascade of giggles. "But I have a hard time imagining how you would pull it off." However, Artemisia's giggling soon turned into a shriek when the contract in her hands suddenly burst into flames, and fell to the floor in blackened shreds. Nix coughed. "Oh yes, I forgot to tell you: I know a little magic too," the imp cackled. "You hideous little-!" Artemisia exclaimed, eyes blazing with injured pride over having been so easily tricked. "Do you know how long it took me to enchant that contract? Twelve hours!" "Well, it makes me very happy to know that I've now wasted a whole DAY of your valuable time," Nix retorted. Artemisia looked ready to explode. Evidently the little daddy's girl had never had to deal with not having her way, never mind being insulted to her face, so it all came as something of a shock to her. "You've made a powerful enemy, *imp*. I may be only seventeen, but I know more magic than most sorcerers twice my age. In fact, Papa told me that I may now be as good as the mages at the Academy-" "Did your Papa also tell you that you are a ghastly, stuck-up, toffee-nosed, sheltered, spoiled rotten, pompous, overconfident little brat who ought to have been kicked out on her rear and made to live in the real world long ago? Because what he ought to have said!" That turned out to be the last straw for the hot-tempered little mage, who instantly pronounced a hissing invocation, resulting in the imp being picked up by an invisible force and then flung head-first into a wall. "OOW! That hurts, you little tramp!" Nix yelled, rubbing her head. "Apologize for what you said!" Artemisia yelled out, but a slight blush was begin to spread outward on her cheeks. Perhaps she had secretly realized that there was more than grain of truth to Nix's description of her. "For what? Calling you a ghastly, stuck-up, toffee-n... AY-AY-AY-AY-OW-OW-OW!" This time, the sorceress had summoned forth a thin bolt of lightning that electrocuted Nix, sending her into brief spasms, and also causing her hair to stand on end. "I will say it one more time, and then I will REALLY start causing you pain," the red-faced teenage witch said between gritted teeth. "Now, *apologize*." "All right, then. I apologize for what I said," Nix said, with a defeated sigh. "Your daddy shouldn't have told you that. What he REALLY ought to have done was to take his silly, deluded, insufferable little bitch of a daughter over his knee and give her ass a long, hard and extremely overdue paddling!" This went straight to the heart of Artemisia's easily bruised teenage ego. With an ear-piercing scream of rage she conjured forth a ball of pure energy and threw it at the imp. However, this time, Nix was prepared. She quickly grabbed a mirror from the wall and turned it toward the oncoming projectile, deflecting it back toward its summoner. Artemisia's eyes widened to the size of saucers, and she threw herself onto the floor just in time to dodge the missile, which instead crashed into a nearby wall -- tearing two entire piles of books apart in the process. "So much destruction! Do you think Daddy will be pleased to come home to all this? Not a chance, baby, you're about to be grounded for a month!" Nix taunted her. Enraged, Artemisia turned into a veritable gatling gun of spells, throwing off every enchantment and spell she could think of at the imp, who dodged them all by diving behind a partition and hiding in a corner behind some books. "I'll fry you alive, you little fiend! You're not even a real demon, don't think I don't know that! Imps are the lowest among fiends -- I've read that in a book! And you're probably the lowest among imps too!" Suddenly, Nix discovered a curious object on the floor next to her. It was a wand of black steel with a menacing-looking spiral tip that had fallen out of a cabinet during the sorceress' spell-casting rampage. She recognized the magical rune engraved in the handle as the universal symbol for telekinesis. Nix picked it up while a malicious smile spread on her lips. "I'll send you back to the Abyss in pieces, you abomination! And maybe then your "succubus friend" can patch you together if she's so powerful!" Artemisia cackled. "Speaking of power," Nix said as she stood up and pointed her wand at the arrogant little witch. "Recognize this?" Immediately afterwards, Artemisia floated three feet up in the air and remained suspended there for a while. Fear suddenly blazed up in her lovely big eyes. "W-what's happening?" she stuttered. "Oh, it's just that the tables have turned, sweetheart. I've got you under my spell, as they say," Nix giggled. "This can't be happening! Let me down!" Artemisia cried. "I was planning to do just that." With a twist of the wand, she sent the sorceress plummeting back down, causing her to land gracelessly on her perfect buttocks with a pained "Ooh!". "That hurt! That actually hurt!" the witch yelled in an accusatory voice. "Aaw, did she fall on her wittle butt and it hurt? Wet's make sure it doesn't happen again!" Nix mocked her. She then sent the sorceress flying up to the same height again, but this time angled the wand in the process, causing the teenager to rotate a full revolution until she was hanging upside down with her feet nearly touching the ceiling. This predicament caused the embarrassed girl's frock to fall down past her waist, giving Nix a privileged view of her shapely thighs and pert bottom beneath the black leggings. "Let's see if I can use this to- Oh, I can? Nice!" Nix mumbled to herself as she fidgeted with the wand until she got the desired result -- a slight invisible movement easing up the hem of Artemisia's leggings to expose a hint of fair-skinned buttock. "W-what was that? N-no, you can't-!" the sorceress protested feebly, but to no avail -- the next moment Nix had carefully pulled down (or rather up) the leggings to the girl's ankles, pulled them off and thrown them onto the floor. The young witch reached back her hand and actually squealed when her fingers discovered that the only garment left on her lower body were her flimsy little undershorts -- a frilly tight pair made from white silk that clung intimately to her derriere and soft pubic mound. "Cute butt, honey," the imp chuckled. "Do you ever show it off to the boys like that, or does daddy keep you locked up too much for that sort of thing?" "W-what are you talking about? I don't have time for boys, and no interest either!" Artemisia hissed, her face now completely scarlet. "You mean you've never been touched down there -- *ever*? Never even a little slap on the tush? Or a pinch?" "Of course not! I am a very WELL-BEHAVED young lady," the witch cried out, beside herself with humiliation. "What a waste of a nice piece of ass," Nix mumbled. "But anyway, on to the boobs." She rotated Artemisia's body around in the air and began tugging off her frock. All the while, the sorceress was furiously mouthing invocations with her eyes closed, but she had lost her ability to concentrate, and consequently nothing happened. The embarrassment of her situation had rocked her mental balance and effectively made her unable to cast spells. The red frock fell limply to the floor, and Artemisia had now been reduced to her undergarments. A small white corset that left her navel exposed and pushed up her modest breasts was the only article left on her upper body. "S-stop this at once!" Artemisia commanded, but her voice betrayed her fear. "It is simply wrong! You cannot treat me like this, I am not a... er, that kind of girl!" "Sure you are, honey," Nix snickered. "You were a dirty little bitch back there with the contract and you're a dirty little bitch now. Now watch as I- huh?" The imp shook the wand in her hand, waved it, twisted it. Nothing happened. "Hah! No more charges!" the sorceress exclaimed triumphantly, only to immediately thereafter succumb to natural gravitation and fall headfirst to the floor. "OOWW! My HEEEAAAD!!" Nix threw the wand and immediately began looking around for something else to use. However, Artemisia was soon back on her feet and hungering for revenge. "Take this, you vicious little hell-spawn!" she cried and fired off a massive fireball at her foe. A quarter of the room was engulfed in a fiery inferno. Nix narrowly escaped incineration by throwing herself down on the floor, but a stray flame licked her upturned ass like a skillful lover, and she was up again, screaming and flailing her arms. "AAIIEE!! As a denizen of hell I oughta be used to flames by now, but DAMN that hurt!" the imp wailed. She jumped on top of the desk, grabbed a handful of random scrolls, and then disappeared behind it just in time to dodge another lightning bolt. "Let's see what we've got here," Nix mumbled and unrolled the first scroll. She then read the incantation as quickly as she could, whilst directing every ounce of her mental energy toward the sorceress. Suddenly she became alert to the sensation of having an extra pair of hands, although why she could not say, since her body hardly looked any different. She moved and flexed her invisible hands. Nothing happened. But when she finally decided to steer one of her invisible hands over to the desk and ordered it to pick up a quill, the quill started levitating and rose up to the exact height that she had in mind. "Ghost hands," she mumbled to herself. "This will be fun." Immediately thereafter, Artemisia felt her arms gripped by an invisible power and forced up over her head, where one of the ghost hands gathered her wrists up in one hand and held them stuck. "N-n-no! W-what's going on?" Artemisia whined as the other hand reached down and began to untie her corset. "I'm pretty sure they do whatever I want them to do," Nix chuckled from the other side of the desk. "See?" And here the hand took a momentary break from undressing the sorceress and reached around to give her rear end a frisky pinch. "No, don't- Help! Help!" the young witch shrieked as the ghostly hand removed her corset and exposed her firm seventeen year old breasts to the world -- milky white, perfectly shaped and with immaculate pink nipples. The hand then tip-toed playfully down her belly and began removing her last barrier of physical dignity. Soon the undershorts had slid all the way down to her ankles, and Nix had a perfect view of the dark little triangle between the sorceress's knees and its gently protruding mound. "So you're still a virgin, huh? I feel sorry for you. Hell, at seventeen that cooch must be ready to explode!" Nix steered the ghost hand down between the teenage witch's thighs and touched her gently on the crest of her ripe mons pubis. "Oooohhh," Artemisia moaned as the intimate, forbidden sensation brought her pent-up sexuality to violent life. As Nix began stroking the girl's mound and caress its tender opening, the young witch began shivering and a powerful blush crept onto her cheeks. After a while, some moisture began to seep out from the tight crevice and attach itself to Nix's ghost finger. "What have we here?" Nix cried triumphantly. "Not so proper after all, are we? All this talk about chastity, but as soon as someone rubs your little snatch it starts leaking like a waterfall! You bad, bad girl!" "P-please stop! I c-can't take this much longer," the young witch stuttered, and Nix noticed with glee that the naked girl's nipples were standing on end with confused excitement. "Don't you want a happy ending, honey? Your lips say one thing and your tits say another. Who should I trust?" "Ooohhhh, I c-c-can't, oohhh...!!" the sorceress moaned, but just as her excitement reached a nearly unbearable level, the ghost hands dissolved into nothing as quickly as they had appeared. Artemisia's arms fell back against her sides, and she gasped with a mix of relief and sexual frustration. "Shit! Next weapon!" Nix mumbled, unrolled the next scroll, and slurred her way through the incantation faster than Artemisia could fire off her next spell. A blinding white light flashed across the room, and Nix became conscious of a mighty arctic breeze sweeping in through the windows. When she opened her eyes again, the naked body of the sorceress had been frozen solid in the center of a great, perfectly angular ice block. Her unmoving right hand remained raised mid-conjuration, and her face had been frozen in an expression of appropriate surprise -- eyes wide open and her lips parted to form a lovely red 'O'. Nix took a stroll around the block, admiring the unconventional ice sculpture from every angle. Suddenly finding herself with some unexpected leisure time on her hands, her attention drifted to her surroundings, where a small object lying on a little pedestal caught her eye. A note lay next to it, which read: "Wand for animating inanimate objects -- use with caution!" A few minutes later, Artemisia fell wet and shivering to the floor and remained lying there for a while, teeth clattering and frantically rubbing her arms. "Arte-MI-si-a!" the imp called out. The sorceress looked up in alarm, only to find a pair of living curtains swooping down on her from above like birds of prey. One curtain tied itself around her ankles, whereas the other expertly pulled her wrists behind her back and secured them there. The curtains carried the squirming girl over to the desk and bent her nubile form over it, so that her round, snow white rear-end automatically jutted up to its best advantage. "N-no, please, d-don't spank me!" the sorceress wailed, twisting against her bondage. "I'm not a child! I'm seventeen!" "Oh please," Nix asked as she ran a finger down the tied-up brat's back and down along the gentle crevice of her rump. "If daddy won't do his job, then I'll just have to do it for him!" "B-but I'll be good! I'll do anything you want! Anything, as long as you don't punish me like that, like some little girl!" "But you keep acting like a little girl, so I thought it only right that you should be treated like one," Nix cooed as her finger passed Artemisia's perineum and stopped at the bottom of her engorged slit. "Unless-" "U-u-unless what??" "Unless you give the magic word for the portal spell." "N-no! I couldn't do that! Think of the-" "Well then, young lady, that concludes our negotiations," Nix said and removed her finger. "Time to heat up those frosty buns!" She waved her wand. A large dusty book suddenly eased itself down from a bookshelf and flew over to the tied-up girl, where it positioned itself with the back cover only inches away from Artemisia's nervously shifting backside. On the front cover, large ornate letters spelled: "FOR THE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION OF YOUNG SPELLCASTERS". "N-no, don't-," the sorceress cried, but her protest was silenced by a resounding THWACK! when the massive tome came crashing down on her upturned buttocks. The mighty impact caused her tied-up feet to reflexively curl up against her thighs and brought forth a howling shriek. When the book raised itself back up, two large quickly reddening imprints were spreading outward from the centers of her pasty white buttocks, which were still jiggling from the hit. "YYYEEOOWW! I'm SORRYYYY!!" the young sorceress wailed, but the book soon came down on her defenseless butt again -- THWACK! -- deepening the imprints, and again -- THWACK! -- and again -- THWACK! -- each stroke darkening the color of the chalk white buns -- THWACK! -- from pink -- THWACK! -- to light red -- THWACK! -- to a lovely deep red. Nix was hugely enjoying the show from the comfort of a nearby armchair. She was well used to the pleasure of having humorless do-gooders taken down a peg, but now she was discovering that giving a spoiled, sheltered little daddy's princess her just desserts was just as fun. Only half an hour ago, this toffee-nosed little diva with her "common cantrips" had thought herself to be the queen of the world -- and now she was not only roundly defeated at her own game, but bent over a desk without a stitch left on her body, and getting soundly spanked on her ass with her own course literature. "Hope you're not planning on studying any more magic this year, because sitting down on that butt is gonna be pret-ty painful," Nix chuckled. "I-it's n-not fair! *THWACK!* OOOHHH!! I-I've studied m-magic all m-my life, and y-you- *THWACK!* YYEEOOWW!! You're j-just an imp! This sh-shouldn't be- *THWACK!" OOOOWWW!! -h-h-happening!!" the young witch wailed, tears welling up in her eyes. "Book smarts ain't everything, babe," the imp replied. "Girls like you think they can sail up to the top just by sitting on their butts and studying old parchments, but when they get out in the real world, they've got nothing!" "B-b-but I'm s-smarter than everyone else! *THWACK!* OW-OW-OW! I u-understand M-M-Merlin's Maxim, a-and- *THWACK!* OOOHH!! -and the th-th-thirty-nine laws of magical energy c-c-conversion- *THWACK!* AAAOOHH!!" "Huh," Nix said. "Well, personally I use much simpler theory: hard, flat object applied to naked ass gives rise to pain. And which one of us won again?" *THWACK!* AAIIIEE!! I'LL DO IT! I'LL GIVE YOU THE MAGIC WORD, JUST- *THWACK!* OOOHHH!! JUST DON'T SPANK ME ANY MORE!!" Nix enchanted the planar spellbook and had it hover in front of Artemisia's flushed, tear-stained face so that she could perform the ritual. Whenever the sorceress took too long in pronouncing a word, or seemed hesitant to continue, the other book never failed to come crashing down on her beet red rump again, which unerringly got her back on track. Finally she intoned the magic word, at which point a portal appeared in a mighty flash of light. "Ahh," Nix sighed. "First I get to spank you and now I get to go home. I'd say this day has delivered on just about all accounts!" She looked down on the wand in her hand, then toward the sobbing sorceress, and a mischievous idea for a farewell gesture appeared in her head. She placed her hands on Artemisia's glowing butt cheeks and parted them gently to reveal the small, untouched rosy pink opening between them. "Let's put this where you won't lose it," the imp said, rubbed some saliva onto the tip of the wand, and then inserted the long, thin object into the young woman's rose-colored anus. She slowly pushed it further inside until about half of it had disappeared, at which point she planted a wet splotchy kiss on each of the gasping girl's quivering buttocks and began walking toward the portal. "I-I'll get you for this, imp, j-j-just you wait!" Artemisia yelled in horror and indignation. "When Papa comes home, he will-" "-be VERY upset with your irresponsible behavior, Artemisia," a booming barytone filled in. Both girls turned around and noticed the tall, bearded figure of a man standing in the doorway. His arms were crossed and he looked fiercely upset. "Ohh drat!" Nix chuckled. "You're in trouble NOW." "P-P-Papa?" Artemisia stuttered. Immediately the curtains fell lifeless to the floor and she sprang to her feet, covering her chest with one arm and her visibly moist crotch with the other. "Sh-she did all this, I-I-I had no choice-!" "Silence!" the old mage bellowed. "I know exactly what happened here. Do you not think a wizard of my magnitude has eyes and ears in other places? I just wanted to see how you would handle the situation, and I now come away convinced that the imp is right -- I *have* been too lenient on you." "But P-Papa- OOWW!!" The wizard grabbed his disgrace of a daughter by the ear and began leading her off into another room. The girl was protesting loudly, but her father was not listening. "A wise decision, Sir! And please give the little slut a few extra strokes on the butt for me!" Nix cried out just as she stepped through the portal, and the material world began dissolving around her. The last thing she saw before entering inter-planar space was Artemisia's glowing ass being brusquely arched over a bed, and the black wand raising up from her butthole like a flag erected over newly-conquered territory. THE END