Go back to the Eternal Sphere, they said. Get the artifact to find where Luther is hiding, they said. It was all a trap to catch Sophia. The plucky sorceress didn't even notice the angelic creature hovering behind her as she charged one of her spells. It looked like Proclaimer, except larger and slightly more bulbous in shape. The rest of the party was too busy fighting off an ambush of Enforcer dragons to save her. One second, she was about to finish the incantation for Ice Needles. The next, steel cables were wrapped around her wrists, ankles, and waist and pulled her into the angel's artificial womb.
A glass tank sealed around her as the angel's front skirt panels obscured her view of the outside. She felt weightless as she remained suspended in the narrow round chamber. Desperately pounding her fists on the glass, she struggled for air in the empty vacuum. She was able to breathe once the angel's life support functions came online. The darkened space began to light up as thousands of LEDs circled around her like an army of tiny floating eyeballs. When she looked up, she saw what looked like a set of faucets shaped like roaring dragon's heads. In the center of the arrangement was a single red robotic eye staring straight back down at her.
"Nice to see you again, Sophia." The cyclops had no mouth, but she could hear its voice through stereo speakers. "I'm so glad you came back for your check-up." It was Blair.
Sophia had her doubts Blair was the one who set up the ambush, but this was her confirmation. With her crescent wand in hand, she began an incantation to blast her way out of the chamber.
Then, for no apparent reason, the wand disappeared.
"Sorry to upset you. This is all for your own good. I can't have an unpredictable anomaly running about in my brother's precious system, even if it's just a lost little kitten worried about her survival. All of your Symbology processes will be disabled while you're in this quarantine cell. I'll be the one who decides when it's safe to let you go."
Something unseen tugged on Sophia's bangs. Her clips rolled out of her hair and disappeared as soon as they were free. Then she felt something pulling at her throat. She looked down to see her choker unbuckling itself and disappearing as well. The unseen force plucked at the strings of her corset next, and one by one, each piece of her outfit came off by itself. First her capelet was unclasped and fell from her shoulders. Then her shoes fell off her feet. Then the buckles on her miniskirt loosened while her blouse worked itself free. She threw a fit once she was down to her undergarments, but nothing could stop them from joining the vanishing act. Soon the only thing left were her cat print stockings, and those slowly slid off of her legs one by one. The bridge of her nose turned a soft shade of pink as she tried to cover her essentials with her arms.
"Not bad," Blair taunted. "You're even cuter when you blush."
Sophia could hear the sound of steam circulating through the ducts above her head. The chamber rapidly filled with warm, cloudy steam. As the vapor condensed on her, countless miniscule imperfections disappeared from her skin. Tiny pieces of dirt around her fingernails disintegrated. A faint bruise on her arm healed instantly. A thin sheet of sweat on her forehead was wiped away by a flower-scented mist. She sneezed when tiny wisps of steam tickled her nostrils.
"That takes care of the surface scan. Now we'll see what the real problems are." Blair's voice echoed from one side of the chamber. "Welch, how are things going on your end?"
Sophia suddenly flinched. It felt as if a small, invisible tongue was brushing the inside of her thighs. The tingling sensation shyly tiptoed upward, causing her to squeal and squeeze her legs together. Within seconds, her lower half adjusted to the sensation. Her legs relaxed and made a small, spontaneous effort to open. She kept both hands clasped over her lap as she frantically shook her head.
"Uhhh…" Welch chimed in from the opposite side. "I'm trying to use my installer app and I'm getting mixed signals. I might get locked out if I go any further…"
Sophia's eyes grew wide. The sensation jumped straight to her head and overwhelmed her mind. She froze for a moment, then slowly moved her hands back to her sides. The blush on her face turned a deeper shade of red.
"Mmf…" Her entire body shivered as she closed her eyes and arched her back.
"Nevermind. She's letting me through all of her security protocols. I should be able to keep her decrypted for a while."
"Excellent work, Miss Vineyard. How did you manage to write such an effective program?"
"Well, I… uh…" She sounded bashful. "I just tried to imagine what would take my mind off things if I were in Sophia's place, and… err… do we really need to go there?"
"I suppose not. I'll proceed to the Restoration phase."
The chamber suddenly rocked violently. Sophia gasped as her limited oxygen supply was briefly interrupted.
"Those damn fools," she heard Blair say as she caught her breath. "Your friends are trying to destroy the container program to break you free. Give me a minute. Keep her company, Welch."
A minute passed, then Blair's voice returned.
"There, you have nothing to worry about. They won't be attacking now that I've told them how delicate you are at the moment."
Water began to rain down from the mouths of the dragon faucets. It was the color of the ocean, but it had a metallic texture like mercury. It relaxed Sophia's muscles and warmed her to the bone as it washed over her skin. She unconsciously shifted herself forward so she could be closer to the stream.
"That's right, little one," Blair said. "Let your mother help you. I'm just trying to take all of your problems away."
As the water continued to sprinkle on her head, Sophia's thoughts became cloudy and she began to forget where she even was. It was that brief lapse in judgment that startled her, making her all the more aware she was being manipulated. She wasn't living in a dream, she was trapped in a nightmare. Luther, Blair, and whoever else was working for them behind the schemes were going to destroy the Eternal Sphere if she didn't stop them first. She had to escape before it was too late.
But Blair was already monitoring her thoughts. The red pupil at the top of the chamber dilated as it scanned her from head to toe.
"What a shame," Blair sighed. "You'll still setting off tons of warning flags. You'll probably revert to your old erratic routines as soon as I let you recompile." The water stopped flowing from the fountains. "I hate to admit it, but Luther was right. You really are a filthy girl. We'll just have to give you the works."
"Disciples!" Blair's voice came from outside of the chamber. Sophia listened to her distant echoes through the glass. "Join this holy ceremony so we may scour this harlot!"
"Oh… I guess you heard that," she spoke again through the chamber's speakers. "Nothing personal, dear. It's just a roleplaying thing. My brother insists on keeping up appearances."
Sophia didn't know what the ceremony was, but she had a bad feeling about it. Her worst fears started to come true moments later, when she heard the muffled sounds of growling and snarling monsters surrounding her shell. Glancing up at the clear pipes, she could see a thick black ichor being siphoned from somewhere outside and ominously flowing toward the end of the dragon's mouths. It was slowly circulating toward her, and there was nowhere she could go.
At first, all that came out was one tiny drop that splashed on to her wrist. It would have felt like volcanic lava searing through her skin if it hadn't instantly made her arm numb. When she raised what should have been her hand to her face, all she saw was saw a mess of scrambled data and the melting bones in her fingers. She screamed in utter terror.
"Yikes. Sorry, Sophie," Welch whispered sadly.
"Poor girl," Blair added happily. "I should have warned you Executioner cells act like a heavy duty detergent against Eternal Sphere entities. But you'll be fine, you're a special case. I'm filtering the script so it interfaces with your Connection gene instead of outright deleting you. It's just refactoring your code a little bit so you'll be bug-free. You probably won't even mind this once you transubstantiate to Executioner form."
The rest of the bubbling ooze rained down on her in a torrential downpour. The moment it touched her head, the effects were disastrous. It seeped into her mind, annihilating her emotions and psyche in a digital blaze of glory. Her thoughts were taken over by a rudimentary instinct. The instinct of an Executioner program.
Sophia was in a fight for her sanity, and she was rapidly losing.
She slathered the caustic mixture through her hair like it was nothing more than shampoo. Giggling in delight, she used her hands to spread the tar and help it cover her body. Harsh alterations to her genetic code caused her eyes to turn vibrant yellow and her hair to turn ghostly white. In her hopelessly fragmented mind, she was imagining herself in a heavenly spring bathing in the blood of gods. It was the most soothing and refreshing thing she had ever experienced.
"Lovely. She seems to be taking it rather well. Why don't you finish her off, Welch?"
Dozens of pale, slender hands emerged from the space behind Sophia, groping her from every angle. A moment ago, this would have sent her spiraling into fear and struggling for her life. Now she was happily stretching for them so they could reach her underarms. Hundreds of nimble fingers sculpted her features in the thick poison, smoothed it over her curves, massaged it into her pores. Her body was being destroyed and crafted into something new at the same time.
"Code saturation is up to 49%," Welch stated in a worried tone. "We'll be overwriting her root files if we keep this up. You do still want her to be Sophia, don't you?"
"Of course. I'm trying to preserve as much of her identity as feasibly possible," Blair answered. "Okay, Sophia. Let's get you dried off."
The black substance began to glow and take a more solid form. Sophia's clothing rematerialized in a flurry of electronic sparkles. Or rather, it tried to rematerialize but turned into something too indecent for the public eye.
Everything was soaked in the dark slime. Her skirt was disheveled and missing large patches of fabric. Her corset was sloppily laced and barely hugged her waist. Her jumbled blouse revealed a bare breast on one side and half of a light pink bra on the other. One stocking had somehow grown longer than the other. Her crescent wand was bent and the cat plush hanging from its handle was rendered inside-out. In place of the hairclips she usually wore in her bangs, an unprocessed blob of black sludge remained stuck to the top of her head. The legion of hands did their best to correct what they could, before giving up and flailing in unified panic.
"Oh dear. Some of her textures are broken. That won't do. Welch, can you help her out?"
"One step ahead of you. I'm saving what's left of her equipment data and using our source code to fill in the damaged sectors. It should automatically compile based on her personal preferences, assuming she still has a fashion sense."
"So she'll be wearing a composite of her own clothes and a live Executioner mesh? Well, at least it sounds comfortable."
The slime-fabric combination began to glow again. More sparkles covered Sophia's body, and then her new attire appeared.
"That should do it," Welch said in relief. "Philosopher dot EXE is online."
It shared the same basic look as Sophia's original dress, but it was sewn in shimmering black and platinum satin instead of pink and violet. Her stockings had turned black, but a new layer of white pantyhose kept her legs fully covered. Her skirt was divided into front and back panels held together by laces around her hips. The addition of gothic frills on her dress and ornate designs on her sleeves made her look like a curious fusion of a witch and a housemaid. It was a compromise between her natural appearance and her new responsibilities as an Executioner. The extra material in her white hair had taken the shape of an elegant ribbon that subtly resembled a pair of pointed ears. The cat doll on her wand had become her familiar, matching her black color scheme.
A pair of hands reached around Sophia's neck and attached a gold bell to the front of her checker. One hand flicked the trinket with its index finger, causing the small trinket to jingle.
"Looks like the tracking marker works," Blair observed.
Another set of fingers scratched behind Sophia's ribbon. She tilted her head and purred contently. When she noticed a tiny chunk of ooze was still drying on the back of her hand, she raised her arm to her mouth and cleaned it off with a few swipes of her tongue.
"How are you feeling, Sophia?" Blair asked.
"Pretty bored. I really wanna kill something." Sophia looked up at the red eye with a playful grin.
"She's fucked," Welch grumbled. "I hope you're happy you were able to 'save' her or whatever."
"Quiet, Welch. Sophia, would you like to kill anything in particular?"
Sophia's answer came naturally.
"Anomalies."
"Do you know why I had to bring you here?"
"Um… I think you wanted to fix me so I could help you get the Eternal Sphere back to normal. Fayt and his followers are a threat to the real world because they know too much. You and Luther won't have to destroy the Sphere if I take care of things for you guys."
"Very good. It looks like you're all cleaned up."
"Really? I'm still a little confused about this…"
"Don't worry about that, Sophia. You don't have to understand everything. That's why Welch and I are here to tell you exactly what you should do."
"Okay, Miss Lansfeld!" Sophia answered with an obedient nod and a friendly smile.
The angel parted the curtains of her skirt, allowing Sophia to see her first set of targets through her crystal prison. Fayt looked bewildered. Maria and Peppita were covering their eyes in shame. Albel was drooling slightly. The others were mortified.
Sophia anxiously clutched her wand. Her imagination ran rampant with visions of death and violence. When the chamber door finally opened to let her free, she sprinted straight into a game of cat and mouse.
Fayt's party was never heard from again.