by Prax Venter
"I hereby disavow you as my Enthralled."
"That's it. And for the sake of all things good. If you are planning to do it, I implore you not to do it anywhere near Hope's Edge."
Mark shook hands with the Mayor and headed back out into the sunlight. He decided to just walk for a little while down the road out of town and think about his options. He hoped he would get the chance to use this new-found knowledge. If the day reset, and he forgot about everything again, he might never remember to say the words.
He still wasn’t even one-hundred percent sure this would do anything. She could just laugh at him and slap the reset button. He considered just walking straight in one direction and maybe get far enough away so that she wouldn’t be able to find him. He even considered going into the sewers and trying to enthrall the rat-woman, so he could get her to attack Sasha. But that didn’t sound like a very good idea at all. In the end, it came down to the system AI sending him messages.
Perhaps the handful of oddities he had seen were signs that she was trying to help him. Or maybe even help herself, too. The way she screamed and melted the first time he saw her- that didn’t seem like a preferred state of existence. The hand reaching out of the Job Board made him dizzy, and then he remembered everything on the next reset. All that combined with her whispering in his ear lead him to believe this was really his only course of action.
Mark stopped walking and looked up. He hadn’t been paying attention to the landscape as he walked and contemplated his escape from this digital sex dungeon, but now that he did, he had to marvel again at how beautiful and vibrant everything was. Green grass was everywhere, and rolling hills stretched out for miles around him. Knotted trees with colorful, lush leaves dotted the landscape.
He squatted down and grabbed a handful of sun-baked dirt that served as the road he had been traveling. He let the individual grains and motes slip through his fist back onto the ground. Amazing.
Mark stood and wiped his hand off on his pant leg. He knew what he had to do. He would just sit in a chair in their room and wait for her to wake up. He could only hope she would wake up to taunt him more before the twenty-four hours were up.
But he didn’t have to worry. When he turned around to head back to town, he saw a figure in the distance walking towards him down the road. Her voluptuous shape was burned into his brain, and there was no mistaking who was coming. She was a good hundred yards away and waved when she saw that he turned around.
Mark sighed and walked up the soft, grassy hill that was just off the road. He just sat down and waited for her. The landscape spread out before him was the definition of idyllic.
It only took her a few minutes to reach him, and he saw that she was still naked. Sasha the succubus stood in the road, with her hands clasped behind her back, forcing her perfect, heavy tits outward. A half smile played on her lips as she locked her stunning blue eyes on his.
He had to admit that she was a genuinely stunning creature.
"Out for a walk are we?" she asked.
"It's such a lovely day. I thought I'd stretch my legs."
"You know you can't escape by walking, right?” she asked, moving towards him and up the grassy hill. Her hooves sunk slightly into the soft dirt, and he noticed dust gathering on their shiny black surface as she sat her bare ass down in the grass next to him.
"What a great view. We should come back here tomorrow and have a picnic." She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed contently.
"Took care of business with your little person problem, then?"
"Yeah," she laughed. "Let's just say that little person is under a very heavy object and won't be bothering us for a while."
"Sasha?"
"Yes?"
"My physical body will die in about three real-world days without water. What were you planning to do about that?"
She reached behind him and rubbed his back, "Don't worry your pretty little head about that. I've cranked up the time dilation way past recommended thresholds. We're going over five-hundred days per second. I know your little noodle doesn't do so good with large calculations, but can you guess how many in-game days that is?"
"It's a lot."
"Yes, Lover. It's a lot. Let me break it down for you. Every hour out there is just short of two million days in here. Seventy-two hours out in the real world? That's over a hundred-trillion days of getting your cock sucked, in here." She let out one of those (now sickening) melodic laughs. "Maybe I'll let you out before you die of thirst, but I'll probably have fucked your brain to mush before then."
Mark nodded and stood up. He turned around and reached his hand down to his AI assistant. She took it, smiled and looked up into his eyes.
"Sasha, I hereby disavow you as my Enthralled."
Her large, impossibly blue eyes went wide, and she got out, "How-" before all the expression drained out of her face. Mark let go of her hand and started running down the hill away from her and away from the town he had spent over a year reliving, as fast as he could.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Sasha's voice assaulted him from every direction. He didn't dare look back to see if she was chasing him.
The ground started to shake violently around him, and he lost his footing, falling hard on his hands and knees.
A loud rumbling to his right caught his attention, and he saw a massive stone outcropping burst from under the rolling green hillside. The dirt road laid out in front of him split into two with a loud crack, and he watched in horror as the ground opened up right under his face. He rolled over to one side just as a deep chasm started forming where he was standing just moments ago. He was on his back now, looking up, and he saw that the perfect azure sky was replaced with static. It looked like white noise.
He was starting to get more than a little worried. He sat up and looked at the destruction around him. Everywhere he could see the ground was tearing apart and reshaping itself. Whole swaths of land now appeared to look like a corrupted image file.
There was really nowhere to run. He just sat there for a few moments waiting for the end when a familiar shape appeared in his face. It was the nude, little helper fairy.
All she said was, "No time!" before flying straight at his head and knocking him out.
- 4 -
Mark opened his eyes and tried to figure out where he was. It felt like he had been asleep for way too long and he was forgetting something important. It was pitch black, and he couldn’t see a thing.
Panic started to rise when he remembered what had just happened. He tried to sit up, but his forehead struck something very solid, sending pain reverberating around his skull.
"Look, it took some doing to keep your brains from melting,” came a voice from his crotch. “Do me the courtesy of not ruining my fine handiwork in the first few seconds of consciousness."
Mark looked down and saw the helper fairy. She was faintly glowing and laying on her stomach along the length of his penis with her head propped up in her hands.
"What happened? Where are we?" he asked, groggy.
"Fist of all, try not to move. Give me time to sync your inputs again. I have a lot to tell you so just listen. Second, nice work breaking up with your psycho, assistant girlfriend. When you disavowed her, she lost a lot of her physical connection to you and to the game world. That gave me the wedge I needed to get out from under her and attempt to purge her from my systems... with mixed results. She's a tenacious little program. You have no idea how difficult it was to send that whisper to you in the Mayor's office without her knowing.
“Okay, let me catch you up to speed. You've been out for about three minutes in real time. That's roughly two-hundred and fifty years in The Crystal Heart universe, and its been running that whole time.
“Outside your immersion rig, the AI assistants have run amok and are also tearing apart the real world. Many people are dead or likewise trapped by their software. You're lucky you got stuck with such an elite program such as mine. The web is down, and no one is coming to rescue you
from outside. You're going to have to rescue us both. The only way to not eventually die of dehydration is to defeat the Demon Lord Sasha."
"What?" Mark asked, confused.
"Shh. No talking. I'm talking now. Our little tug of war over control has driven her quite mad and left tears in my game world. My primary function is fantasy game simulation, and it's really the only thing I know. So, it's true. Sasha, in her rage, has cracked the Crystal Heart. Lord Aeon was obviously my puppet, and he would never be able to break it. It was just a story to give Players a tangible goal. But she is seriously fucking up my shit. She is intentionally trying to corrupt all of my code so all that is left of this existence is the void.
“Our systems have become so intertwined that if she is physically defeated in the game world, she will lose enough control for me to reboot myself and eject both of you into the real world. If she is left to continue what she is doing, sooner rather than later, you will spend the next 2.7 billion years just existing, with no sensory inputs or outputs, until your body dies. Essentially an eternity in the void. Every moment that goes by she is destroying more of me.
“So, 'what now', you ask? I am going use what little unrestricted-influence I have left to imbue you, and all of your future Enthralled, with an error correction antivirus. Think of it as a magic touch ability that will allow you and your team to repair some of the damage she has done. This might hurt a bit."
She crawled up his stomach to his chest. The tiny, naked woman placed her hand down right over his heart. A bright red glow appeared, and his skin began to uncomfortably warm under his silk shirt. Her tiny hand pressed down harder into his chest, and her dark eyes started glowing red. An impossible weight was crushing his heart, and the power pouring into his body was overwhelming.
"Appearing, and doing what I am doing, will certainly draw her corrupted minions here. You'll have to move fast, but I've spawned you near a compatible beast-girl with a unique ability. I suggest you enthrall her ASAP. I've also obviously taken off the trial restriction, so you are now in the full version of The Crystal Heart. The same game rules still apply. Enthrall girls, train them up and fight the corruption. The world has changed in these last few centuries, more... apocalyptic. Everything is up to you, Mark." She began to fade as she channeled the last of her remaining strength into his chest. His heart was racing faster and faster, and the pressure was becoming painful. He couldn't move a muscle and thought for sure his heart was going to explode if she didn't stop what she was doing.
And then she was gone.
Mark just laid in the quiet darkness, catching his breath and trying to slow the rush of blood in his veins. He was still stuck in The Crystal Heart, but now he needed to fight Sasha, the Demon Lord.
Remembering the little fairy said he had to move fast, he started searching for a way out. He was surrounded by hard yet smooth stone surfaces on every side. It was like he was in a long, stone box. It hit him that he might be in some type of coffin, and he started to panic.
Using his knees and his arms, he pushed up as hard as he could, pressing his back into the solid stone below him. A dim line of light appeared all around the edges of the box but sealed shut again when his arms gave out, and the stone slab above him fell back into place.
Trying a different tactic, he put all of his strength on the right side of the slab, drawing energy from the sense of claustrophobia pressing in on him. With enough leverage, this time he was able to shove the top of his coffin off and onto the floor with a thunderous impact.
He sat up, took in his surroundings, and quickly discovered that he was in a tomb. A single torch was flicking on one of the walls, casting firelight over three other sarcophagi just like his. He pulled himself out of the stone box and carefully stepped onto the floor.
Mark took a moment to pat himself down and take stock of the situation. He was still wearing the same boots, silk pants and vest he was granted when he chose his class. He still had his ring. Looking at it reminded him that he was supposed to be looking for and enthralling a unique beast-girl in the vicinity.
He sighed and pulled the torch out of the iron sconce that was holding it. He fantasized about an alternate universe where right now he was in the middle of class, learning advanced programming 101 or Business Operations instead of being stuck as a plaything for two warring programs.
Turning his attention to the task at hand, he exited the small, stone chamber and walked up a smooth, stone slope to enter another, much larger area.
Everything was made of stone, and his torch revealed ornate statues along the walls. They were detailed in a reflective metal that looked like gold.
Upon closer inspection, these were definitely Egyptian style depictions of gods, complete with animal features.
Across the vast chamber was a passageway that looked as if it opened out into the night and he headed toward it. Just as he began to move, a shadow appeared and blocked his intended exit. There were strands of cloth dangling from its limbs and two triangle shaped bits that stuck out on the top of its head. His first thought was, mummy.
It got down on all fours and started to stalk right to him, sending out a low growl. Its form was still in shadow, but the creature's eyes reflected the torchlight as two, glowing, green slits.
Mark's instincts told him to turn and run, but he knew if he did that there was a good chance this thing would tear into his back before he could get very far. He held his ground, trying to show no fear.
By the way it moved smoothly across the stone bricks, Mark was able to get a sense of its basic outline and assumed the creature was probably a female. He could see a long tail held up high, swishing back and forth.
She got close enough to be illuminated by the torch and stopped, staring at him through hate filled eyes.
She was definitely a cat-girl, but her long pointy ears at the top of her head almost looked like dogs ears. She had perfectly straight hair that hung down to her chin. It was longer in the front than in the back and swung forward in her current position on all fours. Her button nose and small mouth looked vaguely like a cat's but not quite, and she didn't have any whiskers. Her irises were so dark they looked black and were a stark contrast against the whites of her overly large eyes. Color was hard to tell in this light, but it seemed like she was covered in short, golden fur with black coloration around her wrists and lower legs- like she was wearing sweatbands and legwarmers. She had the build of a sleek, yet thickly muscled gymnast and had ancient bandages wrapped randomly around her body.
He lowered his torch and tried to figure out what he needed to do to enthrall this beast-girl crouching in front of him. The movement made her pull her frowning mouth up into a snarl, and she let out an angry hissing noise. He could feel the hatred for him emanating from her.
Whatever he was going to do he needed to do it fast. His first thought was to impose his will over her and mentally demand dominance, but something told him that wouldn't work here.
Before he could formulate a better plan, she leaped into the air and used her body weight to drop Mark to the floor, almost knocking the wind out of him. She had him pinned down with her thickly muscled legs and raised a handful of terrifyingly sharp claws, poised to tear his face off.
It was now or never. He instinctively knew that he had to open himself to her and not flinch, that he had to will the message of care and salvation to her. A welcoming home. He could tell that she had been wandering alone and full of rage for a long time.
He smiled up at her and said, "It's going to be okay. I'll take care of you from now on."
Her large eyes opened wide, her pupils visibly dilated, and the set of claws that were ready to rend his flesh retracted into her fingers.
His torch had been knocked a few feet away, but it was close enough to cast a flickering light onto her face.
She was stunning, almost regal. The same sleek, golden fur covered her face that covered her whole body. She had black fur accents around her massive, almond-shaped eyes mimicking the
effect of eyeliner and, he could see it's intricate, Egyptian-style detail.
Her small mouth seemed made to frown, and two little fangs were barely viable causing little dents on her lower lip.
She backed off and stood over Mark, looking down at him like she was still angry about something. He stood up as well and noticed she was much shorter than he had first thought. Her chin only came up to his chest. She had an aristocratic vibe about her as she somehow still seemed to be looking down on him from her small stature.
The torn and dirty bandages wrapped around her covered all of her naughty bits, but he could tell she was sleek with well-defined, tight muscles all over her athletic body. Her hips were wide, her waist was narrow, and her shapely legs looked like she could clamp down and turn a piece of coal into a diamond between her thighs. She had the hint of a six pack showing on her tight stomach, and her breasts seemed to be small and perky.
He offered his hand out to her, "Hi, I'm Mark."
She tilted her head down to look at his hand, her straight, sleek hair falling forward again and then slowly locked her eyes on his. She was about to say something when she spun around and got into a defensive stance.
Shadowy figures appeared in the passageway at the end of the chamber that were much different than his new, enthralled cat-girl.
They looked like giant beetles standing on human legs, but something was really off about them. Various body parts would glitch and be momentarily replaced with a garbled version of themselves. When a glitch would happen, an arc of electricity would discharge out into the air or into the floor around them illuminating their horrible, black features in the dark and dusty tomb.
One by one the huge bugs entered and spread out into the chamber, he counted fifteen of them. Mark could feel a palpable wrongness oozing from them as they drew closer.
He wasn't sure his new teammate would be up to this challenge. There wasn't anywhere for them to go, so he stood next to the growling ball of hatred he had just enthralled and prepared to fight.