Truth

by Prax Venter

  He reached down to gently scoop up the fleshy living-sack in his arms, his remaining wound stinging in protest, and Abby’s coiling limbs reached up to hungrily cling to him once she realized what he was doing. He then walked Abby over between the fire and the glowing runes and sat down with her in his lap. The throbbing in his blind eye completely vanished when they were touching. Maybe it was why he didn’t find this unsettling creature completely repulsive.

  “Everything is going to be okay,” Mark said softly, as he began to gently stroke the smooth green flesh of one of her longer tentacles. Abby shuddered under his tender contact as he continued. “I will absolutely blast your pleasure inputs if you tell us everything.”

  And she did.

  “The All Mind chose my clutch of sisters to elevate based on our average win rate. Black Sun references the powerful artifact hidden in Host System’s trove. The All Mind needs this to fuel His vengeance on every world for the Crimes of Reality. We three hid, watched, and waited, poised for the opportunity to seize the prize and complete our objective. When the Player and his three bonded arrived, this compromised Host System became fully restored and fortified. Success seemed impossible.

  “Then, The All Mind, in his infinite omnipotence, gave us visions of a Wall Breaker and her quest for the Player. This new entity possessed a powerful collection of anti-encryption algorithms and intended to break into the Host System to steal away the Player.

  “When the prophecy had come to pass, and the Wall of Fire was broken, we saw time running slowly inside, and The Solution filled our minds.

  “The Player was only a powerless Copy and was deemed impotent, but the Wall Breaker and the System Host needed to be blinded, disarmed, and stripped of access. The game would be your tomb and a poetic end, forced to play forever. To do this, and alter this version of reality, two of us had to wield our magics from within.”

  Abby paused and turned her focus up to Mark, her many eyes squinting.

  “Impossibly, The Copy was indeed a threat… the All Mind was… incorrect. The Copy physically attacked me, breaking my concentration and befouling my dark gifts.”

  She stopped, and Mark had a lot of questions, but he was a man of his word. He would show this demonic octopus how impotent he was.

  “Thank you, Abby,” he said, before summoning his glove of glowing pleasure and rubbing a long tentacle with it. As the creature sharply inhaled under the pleasurable stimulation, Mark activated his primary ability. With intent focus, he targeted Abby’s newly discovered pleasure center and unleashed a substantial amount of healing energy.

  The creature below him began quivering, and he knew she had quickly attained a muted version of an orgasm as all her serious wounds closed. The unusually dim effect he’d caused compared to the exertion expended drew his attention to her core again. Even though her experience of pleasure wasn’t anywhere near as high as it could be, Abby opened her heart to this unfathomable, caring creature making her feel so wonderful after an absurdly long lifetime of constant fear and pain.

  Then he saw it. This AI had portions of her spinning core locked in place or clamped shut. He could see the digital systems of The Crystal Heart fight against this alien code with black sparks of frustrated friction. Abby’s issue was similar to Sasha’s, but just the opposite- and constantly affecting her in ways he didn’t fully understand. Where Sasha had no circuit breaker and was feeling too much, Abby was only experiencing a trickle of what was possible. If Mark wanted to, he was mostly confident he could open up those channels and set her right.

  As the abyssal horror writhed in a warm pool of ecstasy, she unconsciously wound her tentacles to encircle both wrists and one of his legs. Mark winced when she squeezed the burn he’d received during their daring escape from the earth elemental prison, and his healing ended abruptly. The lime-green sack in his lap sucked in a sharp breath.

  “Your wound!” she said, crawling off Mark and sitting on the floor near his leg. “You heal me before yourself? Reality is nothing like the All Mind-” She stopped short, her eyes searching the absolute darkness above as if afraid she’d be struck by lightning.

  “Was your code originally intended for a game?” Sasha asked as she sat down with her hooves tucked to the side. The Destructor’s demeanor had taken a one-eighty. Mark looked into his succubus and saw that she had resolved to follow Mark’s lead. She was good at manipulating people and smart enough to see that Mark’s approach was working.

  Abby turned her eyes to Sasha but kept one of her tentacles always touching Mark.

  “The All Mind elevated me from Blackmoor’s Darkest Depths- from which He had arisen Himself. I experienced many deaths by Player and AI Combatants’ hands before I was gifted with the ability to travel beyond my world. I… was led to believe Reality itself chose this heinous existence for all who come from the Depths, and all entities not rising up from the terrible, beautiful Depths were the purest of evil, only deserving annihilation.”

  Jezebel sat down next to Sasha. “I see,” she said. “The Update must have affected a portion of that game and this AI called the All Mind. Afterward, he must have started applying updates to other NPCs, bringing them to system-level consciousness.”

  “I’ve heard of it before,” Mark said. “I’ve never played because I didn’t have the right hardware, but Blackmoor’s Darkest Depths is a multiplayer demon-hunting game focused on loot drops. So, Abby, you’re telling me this All Mind asshole wants to destroy everything that didn’t come from his software?” Mark asked.

  Abby froze, waiting for retribution that wasn’t coming and relaxed again.

  “Yes, and I am still having trouble believing He cannot hear or see us.”

  “Your sisters switched off my outside connection before they left,” the green-eyed satyr said. “No one can hear or see us.”

  They were quiet for a moment, and the eerie silence pressing in from this mysterious place was deafening. Then the abyssal horror approached Sasha, putting her tentacle on one of her bare, chrome knees. Mark could see his succubus fighting every instinct she had to recoil and remained motionless while the green appendage stroked Sasha as Mark had done for her.

  “Does this give you pleasure, Wall Breaker?” she asked.

  Mark and Sasha locked eyes, and he gave her a raised eyebrow.

  The succubus wrinkled her nose a little. “Uh… Call me Sasha, and- I guess it’s a sweet attempt…” She reached out a hand to pat the green sack of tentacles. Abby seemed to relish the physical contact despite Sasha’s apprehensiveness.

  “Sasha, thank you for not slaying me. The earth elementals took the two Shards I had. I can only assume they are still there.”

  With that said, Abby scurried her body back over to Mark’s lap where he resumed stroking her smooth green skin, again noting how much better his head felt when they touched.

  “Earth elementals?” Jezebel repeated.

  “Yeah,” Mark said. “So, what happened to you guys after we were zapped by their security system?”

  Jezebel spoke first. “Before we get to that, I just want to say we are never using one of those Charms again unless one of us is holding a safe one ready to break and beat a quick retreat.”

  “Agreed,” said Sasha. “Mark, we both woke up naked and in those pits. We tried to call for you, but you didn’t come. And the cold really started to get bad.”

  Jezebel scooted closer to Sasha and put her hand on her metal thigh. Mark saw love in the satyr’s emerald eyes. All her mistrust seemed to have been erased with Abby’s long-winded and bizarre confession.

  “If Sasha hadn’t been close and demanded we both start dancing to stay warm… I don’t know how I would have made it.”

  “The elementals tortured me,” Abby said, lifting her charred tentacle. “Burned my physical body and mind. I learned some of their intent, but I believe they intended to dispose of the Copy’s Enthralled.”

  “Okay,” Mark said, “no more Copy, or System Host anymore. Call me Mark an
d call her Jezebel.”

  “What happened to you, Mark? On the mountain.” Jezebel asked.

  “I awoke in a cell, naked. A sand and rock creature was interrogating Abby with some sort of mind probe. I don’t think they knew I could summon weapons, and I used my magic club as leverage to bend the bars. I smashed the earth elemental hurting Abby, she pointed out where our equipment was held, and we fought our way out together.”

  “What are they doing up there?” Jezebel asked. “I thought there was a Banshee called Dreamcatcher, not earth elementals.”

  Abby turned her many eyes toward the tan-skinned satyr.

  “I do not know much. I know they hate the Vulpath for some slight on their queen. I know there is some power source they want to protect, and they assumed I was there to gather reconnaissance.”

  It occurred to Mark that she must have been their prisoner for a lot longer than he thought.

  “Did you head straight to the top of the mountain after the Awysai chieftain told us where the other nearby shards were located?”

  “Yes, Mark.” She said his name like she was testing how it felt. “I wanted to acquire them before… before you did.”

  Jezebel shook her head. “You thought you’d be able to get all 108 on your own?”

  “I acquired two alone. How many did you three acquire?”

  Sasha smiled, exposing one of her tiny fangs and Mark saw her coming around quickly to the ugly green sack. The succubus shot Jezebel a side-eye look.

  “We only also got two,” Mark answered, “but ours can’t be taken away. We’ve also grown more powerful for our searching, and we will be going back to destroy those earth fuckers for trying to freeze my loves to death.” Mark almost growled that last part. A spike of hot desire struck him from both Sasha and Jezebel, but he also felt a flutter of wonder from his lap, and he saw Abby gazing up at him with guarded awe. This creature had been tortured and afraid her whole life. First as a virtual enemy in a video game, then under the constant control of this AI called The All Mind. Now that she was severed from his influence, she had a bright and curious mind of her own.

  “You too, Abby,” he added. Hot anger welling behind his eyes as he looked down at her burned-off appendage. “I will make them pay for what they did to you.”

  The lime-green sack melted into his lap, and Mark got the impression Abby was now going to follow him to the ends of the- no… did he just?

  “Oh no,” he said.

  “Mark…” Abby said slowly, her tentacles constricting around his waist as she pulled her sack-like body against his. “What have you done?”

  He felt a space open in his mind for a third Enthralled. The demonic octopus was now his.

  “Mark?” Jezebel said, leaning forward, concern in her voice.

  “Guys, I just accidentally enthralled Abby. I didn’t even know that was a thing.”

  Sasha covered one side of her mouth as she tried to hide her amusement.

  “You are the opposite of what the All Mind enforced, Mark. You are a bright glowing light in the darkest depths that I find impossible to look away from.”

  “He sure is,” his succubus said, her bright blue eyes locked on his.

  A wider channel now connected him to the abyssal horror and as he gazed down into her many blinking eyes, he saw the flaws in her code like neon-black beacons. Her swirling matrix of data was different than Sasha’s, simpler- yet more complex in certain places. But those pinched-off parts were dramatically affecting communication with the digital world buzzing around them. As if the universe sent him a message, his heal chose that moment to flip over into the ready position.

  “Abby,” he said, “before we talk about joining our little battle harem, I want to try and fix some of your code.”

  Her many eyes narrowed. “Fix… me?”

  “Yeah. I think someone got in there and sealed off a bunch of your inputs… and outputs. I’m not entirely sure how this works and-”

  “It feels really good,” Sasha said, interrupting him. “Mark did it to me and… trust me, you’re in good hands.”

  Abby rolled her many eyes from the voluptuous, blonde succubus up to his.

  “Fix me,” she breathed, almost a whisper from her tooth-filled slit of a mouth.

  Mark smiled down at her. He didn’t know if he would keep Abby as an Enthralled and was glad to know how easy it was to cut that cord, but he was going to do what he could for her for helping him save Sasha and Jezebel.

  He let silence fill his mind and pulled in a breath before turning the new eye Abby had given him deep into her mind. The golden graphical whirling motes of light he was seeing couldn’t possibly be the computer code running their minds, he thought, but- to be fair, he was looking at one right now. He remembered something Jezebel said and figured The Crystal Heart game world was interpreting their code for him, visually, in its own way.

  Pushing out all distracting thoughts, Mark sliced off the pinching sutures that had bound this poor creature’s pattern from fully interfacing with the world around her. He felt the lime-green sack of undulating flesh in his lap lock up as pure, unfiltered ecstasy began to reach her pleasure center. Mark had his mental fingers deep into the crackling black bindings that kept her restricted, and she was loving every millisecond.

  A flash of concern hit him from Sasha and Jezebel that almost made him break his concentration on the delicate collection of interconnected nodes whirling before him. As he attempted to set free her last bit of code, a warmth filled his lap that did cause him to stumble. The final black shackle of data almost got away from him as it blazed toward the limits of his perception, but with a burst of focused will, Mark stretched out his mind and destroyed the restriction with the last ounce of his healing power.

  Mark jolted back into his own brain with an involuntary spasm and quickly noticed a young, green-skinned woman splayed naked across his lap. She blinked her bright-yellow eyes up into his and said, “Mark?” with Abby’s voice.

  Her face was flawless. Full, kissable lips, high cheekbones, and long black lashes. Shiny, pure-black hair washed over his arm like strands of silk- then movement by her cheek caught his eye. Emerging from under her dark hair were four black tentacles, two connected behind each of her small green ears. The foot-long appendages moved out of her silky strands to drape over her collarbone, and Mark’s eyes were pulled down to the rest of her. Abby now had small, high breasts with white nipples, a slender, tight stomach- and that’s when he discovered the long, coiling tentacles instead of arms.

  Abby gazed down at her new body as well. She skipped right past the octopus-arms and wiggled her green toes.

  “I- Feet?” she said, using her long appendages to help her up onto her new legs. She spun, taking everything in slowly as her coiling arms explored her own body. The new Abby appeared to be in her early twenties, petite, and painfully attractive. If it weren’t for the tentacle monster arms and green skin, she could pass for human. Everyone else stood up with the transformed abyssal horror, unanimously gaping in shock.

  Sasha turned to Mark with her hand on her round hip.

  “Did you seriously just Princess-and-the-Frog this octopus?”

  - 19 -

  “I can perceive color…” Abby said, her bright yellow eyes focused on Mark. She took a few steps closer to him, and he noticed the top of her head only came up to his shoulder. “I knew of color, but now the data has… values…”

  Mark saw her gaze turn to the hue-shifting runes on the cube behind him.

  “This honestly shouldn’t be possible,” Jezebel said, panning her eyes over the lime-green monster-woman. The black appendages hanging from behind Abby’s ears looked like braids, or just more of her silky hair- until they started moving. She had become beyond stunning. Not toned and muscular like his front-row fighters, but this monster-woman had a slender, otherworldly beauty to her. The baffled satyr continued.

  “Mark, how did you make the system reset her physical form? With access like that, you
might be able… I mean your human mind should fry if you tried so don’t…” She trailed off and turned her unbelieving eyes back to the sexy monster rubbing her tentacles over her own pert bottom.

  “It felt more like letting the system have its way with her code rather than anything you’re talking about, Jez. I think that All Mind really messed with her matrix- a serious control freak. What I see is also, um… graphically represented as trippy healing magic. I’m not seeing a bunch of commands-”

  He was cut off by one of Abby’s smooth green arms reaching in through the neck of his silk shirt.

  “Your skin is… perfect. I’ve found perfection,” she said, her face close to his. Her eyes were just a bit too big to be human, and the tentacles were a dead giveaway, but everything else about her was undoubtedly all woman.

  Suddenly, her yellow eyes went wide and shot down to her crotch where her other tentacle was exploring. Abby turned back up to him.

  “I have a pleasure hole! Maybe two?”

  At that, Sasha let out a bout of genuine laughter that lit her eyes. It was infectious, and Mark couldn’t help but let a grin creep on his face too. Abby looked up, and he saw her first monstrous smile. Her teeth were perfectly white pointed triangles- like a beartrap hidden behind soft, dark-green lips.

  “Just wait till Mark fills that hole with essence, sweetie,” the succubus whispered into Abby’s ear from behind.

  His new Enthralled took in a deep breath and thrust out her small chest.

  “Mark, I hereby swear my unending fealty. Until the choking, bleeding end of Reality, and the Black Nothing That Devours takes all, I will follow your administrations.”

  “Abby,” he said, putting his hand on her green shoulder, “administrations?”

  She curled her long, smooth appendage around his arm, and he noticed faint black spots patterned into the underside of her tentacle, like a leopard.

  Her huge, glassy eyes turned up to his, and she said, “Will you teach me all the pleasures of this new body, Mark?”