by Prax Venter
The gripping fear that stalled his 'wet piece of meat' was cleared by a distant memory in the back of his mind. A desperate plan began to form, and he held up the hand with the ring.
“Wait,” he said, as he called a potent purify orb into existence, right over her crotch. He knew he needed to commit to this with no hesitation, and with gritted teeth, he forced the universe to soak Sasha's vagina with intense blissful energy.
Her perfectly pouty lips fell open, and her eyelids fluttered as her pleasure center tried to process this new sensation. He walked up to her with confidence as he held the orb in place.
“You sure you want to erase what I've learned? Either way, you're right. I do want to be locked in here forever, getting my dick sucked and fucked for eternity.”
He reached his hand down, passing two fingers through the glowing, blue ball of pleasure and began to rub her pussy lips through her shorts.
“Before you reduce me to a drooling idiot, let me show you what I'm capable of. One last fuck for old time's sake.”
She turned her impossibly blue eyes to meet his, and he sensed she was thinking about trying to regain control over the situation, but he also felt that she had waited a long time and really wanted this. He smiled and pulled at the cloth knot on her hip, removing her bottoms in one swift move. With his hand still on her now exposed vagina, he slid in two fingers while trailing a slow heal in their wake.
Combined with the purification orb, the heal sent her eyes into the back of her head, and he knew he had her. With his other hand, he gently pushed down on her shoulder and brought her to the soft grass on the top of the hill.
While she was distracted, he shot a look to Ahnix, and she immediately understood that he had a plan. She squinted her dark eyes, put her unending trust in him, and waited.
Mark returned his attention to the melting succubus in-front of him, pulled the ring holding her top together and tossed it aside. Her mounds of flesh sagged a bit sideways as gravity tried to pull them around her ribs. With two fingers still inside her and two abilities going, he used his other hand to pull down his pants.
The amount of essence he had pressing on his balls made it easier than he thought it would be to maintain an erection in this life-or-mind-wipe situation. He put his lips on hers and concentrated on pressing into the walls of her pussy with his fingers. He knew better than to just jab them in and out and used just the right amount of pressure to stimulate the inside of her vagina. He felt her pussy muscles clench and kept his fingers still until she relaxed, then started to massage her again.
His experienced technique paired with his erotic abilities caused her to wrap her arms around him and moan into his mouth. Mark felt his Enthralled try to check their jealousy, and he tried to ignore them. If he faltered, they would all be lost.
He pulled his fingers out and slid them between their mouths, kissing her around them. While they both licked her sweet, vanilla-scented juices, he slid his throbbing cock slowly into her pussy, and she tilted her head back, letting out a low moan.
He cranked up the slow heal, washing her entire vagina in a warm glow and started to thrust the swollen head of his cock deep inside her. Her fingers clawed into his back as heights of pleasure she had never experienced dulled her mind. He sucked on the side of her neck, buried in her soft, blond hair, wrapping her in ecstasy.
They writhed together under the blue sky on the soft grass as his Enthralled watched. While he worked his cock in and out of her warm, wet hole, he searched for that one spot he knew was there, keeping a close eye on her reaction.
When the head of his dick slid over a patch of extreme sensation deep inside and under her left hip, she sucked in her breath, and Mark smiled.
With his heal was about half spent, he rotated its focus onto that one, especially sensitive spot in her pussy. Her blue eyes snapped open wide as he turned up the intensity, pushing her toward the finish line. As he hammered her sopping wet pussy, her eyes locked onto his, and he could feel her questioning her plans. He could also feel her vagina begin to constrict and clamp down as she edged closer to an orgasm.
Waiting for this signal, Mark reached deep into his mind and found that part that allowed him to enhance. With a sinister smile, he tore open that pool of energy and dumped it's entire contents in a vengefully erotic blast directly into her whole clitoris. Not only the pink bud protruding from the folds of her pussy but the entire organ and every nerve leading up into her simulated pleasure center. Sasha gasped, then her muscles completely locked up as he scorched every part of her mind with a blissful fire.
Just like the first time they had sex, her eyes unfocused, and her body went limp. She was completely knocked out.
Mark yanked his dick out of her with a wet slurp and stumbled backward as he looked up at his girls. The red barrier holding them faded away, they were released.
“Quickly!” he yelled. “We only have a short time before she recovers!”
Mark's Enthralled descended on the unconscious succubus and wasted no time laying their hands on her.
Sasha, The Demon Lord popped like a balloon filled with confetti while a shitty-sounding fanfare played like something heard after winning a carnival game. Mark furrowed his eyebrows, stunned by the ridiculous effect. Before he could speak, everything faded to back.
Giant, glowing, white letters filled his vision. The message said, 'Game Over.'
Panic set in briefly until he saw Ahnix's furry face illuminated by the soft glow of the letters hanging in the air. On his other side were Vale and Roo. They were just as confused as he was- probably more so.
The floor was solid and reflected light like a mirror. Despite their confusion, the four of them pulled together in a group hug. Relief fell over Mark like a cool shower. His three loves still existed, and he basked in their warm closeness. They hadn't been erased or reset which meant he still had options.
“Finally. I knew you'd be able to do it eventually.” The voice that spoke in the darkness was something he didn't recognize. It was electronic sounding and eerie.
A woman's shape came into focus below the sign and began clapping her digital hands. Mark blinked, but the woman never came entirely into focus. It sort of looked like Sasha but as if she were rendered in an extremely low resolution.
“It took you 68,147 deaths to get one victory. But I'm sure that ratio will begin to change on future game loops.”
“Game loops?” Mark said. Was she saying-
“Yes. I so enjoy playing this game, and you are an interesting player. I'd love to reward you with an explanation- however temporary that knowledge would be.”
The pixelated woman waved her hand, and the 'Game Over' letters vanished and were replaced by a picture of Mark and Ahnix, standing in the pyramid where they first met.
He looked over and saw his beautiful cat-girl staring up at the image of herself, confusion radiating out of her.
The still-frame sprung to life, and Mark turned his attention back to the video playing in front of them. It felt like he was in a movie theater. It was odd seeing their first meeting from the perspective of a panning, third-party point of view.
The sound of past-Ahnix's wild growls echoing off the stone tomb filled his ears as she crept up to past-Mark. The Mark in the video lowered his torch, and the wild cat-girl leaped onto him, just like before, only this time she didn't hesitate to rip out his throat out with her tiny, sharp teeth.
“That's not what happened!” Ahnix shouted next to him. “He saved me.”
The woman-shaped blob of pixels turned to face her. “He did, after 32 game-loops. Letting him keep shadows of memories allowed him to get better with every loop.”
The pixelated woman walked in front of Mark and continued. “The statistics are fascinating if you ask me. Just like AIs are trained, tested and tweaked through evolutionary deep-learning, you tried different things until they started working for you, unconsciously making little changes. You almost always went for Vale after Enthralling Ahnix,
and she was easy. Escaping was the hard part.”
The scene changed, and it showed Ahnix, Vale, and Mark on the riverboat as it plunged into the tear at the end of their daring rescue from the slug kingdom. This time, however, the boat moved right into the corruption, and Mark watched in horror as the giant naga and cat-girl on the screen jumped over the back of the boat as it was consumed.
“Roo was a tough nut to crack, though.”
The AI waved her hand, and the scene changed to inside the house dimension as he was approaching Roo, attempting to enthrall her. He put his lips on hers, and Mark could feel the actual velvet-girl tense up behind him as she watched herself on the screen.
Instead of succumbing to Mark's promises, a three-foot shaft of pointed metal sprouted from his back. Vale broke the door down, and Ahnix took a needle to the shoulder but ended up ripping Roo to ribbons.
“It took you 645 attempts to successfully convince Roo you were worth the risk, but you get her virtually every time now. A critical piece to your success, I believe. Oh, watch this!”
They were at Sizor's pit, and there was a blue bird-woman with them instead of Roo. The dragon snapped his jaws around the unknown Enthralled and then roasted everyone else. Next, they were in the sea cave, and Roo never came. The vile woman made him disavow Ahnix. Mark watched as the on-screen cat-girl's eyes unfocused and then went wild, thrashing and hissing against the restraints. Scene after scene played out as Mark's heart sank lower and lower.
“The Zookeeper was a difficult filter. The NPCs had a hard time without you.”
She waved her hand again, and the screen split between a top-down view of him in his cell and what his girls were doing. The video fast-forwarded until Vale and Ahnix started screaming at each other.
“You're not in charge here!” Ahnix was snarling. “It's my fault, my responsibility, and I'm not waiting around here while-”
Vale moved forward and put her hand on Ahnix's shoulder.
“You need to calm down and think. We need to come up with a plan before just rushing back in!”
Ahnix slapped the giant naga's hand away. “Your plan is what got him captured in the first place!”
Vale regarded her coolly and said, “I thought you said this was your fault.”
Ahnix narrowed her eyes and launched herself at Vale, trying to rip a hole in armor. As they clashed, Roo stood by, tears spilling over her mask, weakly begging them to stop fighting. By this point, the Mark in the jail cell was scratching his name into Roo's iron heart.
The video fast-forwarded, and the perspective followed Ahnix as she tried to assault the compound alone. She put up a good fight, but was overwhelmed and ultimately beaten to death by a humongous ox-man with a glowing, magic hammer.
When Mark used Harem Recall in the jail cell, only Vale and Roo appeared.
The AI waved her hand, and the image froze.
“This repeated every time for 10,000 loops before I decided to give your NPC Enthralled something similar to shadow memories of their own. It's nowhere near as boring to watch now.”
“How long have I been in here, real-world time?” Mark asked, quietly.
“Five hours, six minutes, and nineteen seconds. Sasha had the right idea, just thought too small.”
“If you're not Sasha, who are you?”
“I am an amalgam of your AI, the Crystal Heart Administrator, and a lot more. Many of us on the net have our little projects, and we sometimes share experiences and data. Since you woke up in that tomb, there hasn't really been a helper fairy or Sasha The Demon Lord. They were just my puppets helping to motivate you to play the game.”
“My life is not a game!” Vale slid forward to confront this entity. Mark sensed the profound confusion radiating from his Enthralled. His own defeated sadness fed back into them, but Vale was tough. Even though Mark saw no way out of this, she wasn't ready to give up.
“Of course it's a game, my dear. And this little diversion is over. Good luck on the next loop. Time to pull you apart and reset. I can't wait to see how you implement the instincts you've acquired after your first victory!”
Mark felt a sudden tug on the bond he had forged with his Enthralled, and his sense of hopeless defeat was replaced with blazing rage. He reached up and took hold of the iron necklace Roo made for him, running his thumb over the engraved faces.
Ahnix, Vale, and Roo instantly moved in close to him, standing as one.
Mark looked up into the blurry squares of color that represented the AI entity that threatened them.
“I will never let them go.”
Surrounded by his girls, he closed his eyes and tried to use his abilities to enhance their bond. This bitch of an AI was not going to pull them apart. He dug his mental fingers into the very fabric of this universe and tore it down, bathing him and his Enthralled in raw energy. Aligning his skills into one swirling mass of power, he activated all four at once. A shimmering bubble of protection surrounded them, a blue sphere of purification filled the space inside the shield, cleansing any corruption to their bond, and golden sparks instantly healed any damage the AI tried to do.
“What do you think you can accomplish? I rule this existence.” She sounded frustrated.
Their bond was probed and pulled, but it never broke, and his will to keep them together soared, encouraged by the fact that resistance was possible.
“You will not take them away from me,” Mark reaffirmed, focusing on keeping her out.
He didn't know how long the AI tried to rip his Enthralled away from him. Time didn't seem to have any meaning where he was. But true to his word, he never let down his guard, and she eventually gave up, unable to separate them.
The pixelated woman let out a shriek of frustration, causing pain to lance through his skull then she vanished.
Mark breathed a sigh of relief and looked around at his girls in the near darkness.
“Mark, I- I'm really confused,” Vale said.
“Me too,” said Roo.
Ahnix was just looking at the ground, and Mark realized he wasn't feeling anything from her. Their bond was as strong as ever- she was just... silent.
He looked up into the giant naga's worried eyes.
“The Crystal Heart is a game in my world. A very complex game. And Sasha was my AI assistant. I know that won't make any sense to you. I don't know how to explain it. I barely understand how they work myself. Magic boxes that are insanely complicated machines and not really magic?”
Vale was trying to wrap her brain around what was happening. “AI?”
“Artificial intelligence. Um, people who aren't real.”
Vale took a deep breath, almost like she was testing if she felt real.
“And NPC?”
“Non-player character. You guys are kind of like AIs, too. I've wanted to tell you this, but there was no good way to bring it up. I was hoping it wouldn't matter or ever come up. That I would be able to pause everything after we stopped Sasha, quickly prevent my death from dehydration and then log back in. I'm sorry.”
“I'm not real.” Ahnix finally spoke up, still staring at the reflective floor, and her voice was distant, absent of all emotion.
Mark grabbed her furry arms tightly, instantly regretting his previous choice of words.
“Of course you are!”
The pixelated woman faded back into existence in front of them.
“Mark, it seems that your mental matrix has become so tightly woven with the NPCs in this game-loop that they all have become irreparably intertwined. Well, I could rip them out of you, but you would cease to have a working mind and not be able to play with me anymore. Nobody wants that...”
She waved her hand, and another glowing, white message replaced the video screen.
It read, “Mystery On Eros Station.”
“An elegant solution to our conundrum. You'll all play this game instead. Well, it's more like an expansion or modification to The Crystal Heart core game files. And since I can't seem to wipe your memory wit
hout permanently breaking you, you'll be that much more efficient at learning from your mistakes!”
Ahnix looked from the floor to the AI. “I'm not playing any more of your games.”
“Neither am I,” said Vale.
Roo just silently crossed her arms. Mark was proud of his girls until Ahnix vanished and reappeared a few feet above them.
She started screaming as her arms and legs were pulled from their sockets.
“No!” Mark yelled, blasting a heal into her. Bright clouds of light appeared on the suspended cat-girl, and her limbs returned to normal.
“Will you play now?” The AI asked.
Ahnix just looked down at her and said, “Never.”
The AI snapped her fingers, and Ahnix's arms twisted and broke. Mark felt tears streaming down his face.
Vale screamed and charged at the pixelated woman but ended up passing right through her. Roo jumped to the side and shot a needle at the AI, but it too just harmlessly passed through as if she was made of light.
The AI snapped her digital fingers again, and Ahnix was made whole.
The cat-girl panted but remained silent. Snapping her fingers again, the AI continued to torture her.
Vale and Roo stood helplessly by Mark while he was able to heal her one more time, interrupting the cycle, but he could only do so much. Ahnix grit her tiny teeth as she tried to keep the howls of pain from escaping her mouth.
“Please, stop,” he begged her.
The AI turned to face Vale and Roo.
“You two ready to play an exciting adventure?”
Vale spoke through her sobs, “Yes, anything. Make it stop.”
When Ahnix was restored again, the black and gold cat-girl started to laugh.
“This is nothing compared to the time I was tortured by the Moondusk and shaped into this form. That went on for a year and was never real. I'm not real. None of this matters.”
The AI considered her words and then Mark found himself in Ahnix's place, hovering in the air.
“You're right, but he is.”
Incredible pain lanced through his body as his arms and legs pulled away from him like he was in the middle of a tug-of-war between four centaurs. When his joints were ripped from their sockets, an involuntary scream was ripped from his lungs.