What's Stronger?
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With an undertone of gleeful madness and childish curiosity, the scientifical and unstable mind of the foreigner was rushed - "So… what would be the process? Brain mapping samples can't be transferred directly onto bio-organic structures, but brain impulses can be sent to machines as pings. Yet this is not that case since you seem to want a permanent transferal. The synaptic connections would have to rearrange, so I'd like to hear your hypothesis of a method for this".
A wave of uncertainty drift over the succubus' voluptuous frame.- "You have been touched by 'the madness'... "
Arias pupils dilated and her irises glowed with digital static interference. - "Yes. It felt good. VERY good" - A pleasured shudder crawled down her spine as the darkness seeped further into her clothes due to the surrounding light.- "Better than any drug. Something you can't get enough of."
"And yet you survived. "- The succubus moved in closer to appraise Aria. No one had ever survived the madness. If they didn't kill themselves, they got killed by anything else in horrible or stupid ways.- "Better than I take over you. You shall be glad about it….So why don't you succumb to my embrace? "- She caressed Aria's chest, roughly cupping one breast with a long clawed hand- "Perhaps….there might be a small part of you to exist on afterwards so".
The foreigner hardly reacted to the groping hand but she examined the claws, they were long, sharp and dark, looking like a crystal stiletto that protruded from her copy's fingertips- "If you explain, I might consider it. You were going after Alice weren't you?"
The succubus ignored the question for the moment and with a flick of her jeweled wrist, Aria's clothes were torn to shreds by tendrils of light under the succubus hungry gaze, leaving the foreigner in just rags over her minimal underwear. Yet Aria merely showed a mostly annoyed expression over the slightest of surprise.
"The other foreigner... Expected her I did. Surely an easier but not entertaining prey. No matter. A foreigner is a foreigner, and I've been here long enough to get hungry;even the small flame of growing desire for love or despair in your heart shall serve. "
The copy put her hand between Aria's legs and fondled the mercenary's crotch. Aria didn't even shifted in her restraints. She just hissed lightly in a warning way.
"Oh, how sad it was when I was overwhelmed by those moths. How undignified when they used my essence to create this place; but I am mighty and powerful and I 'survived' by myself in the dream they wanted to create. But I'm hungry and a foreigner here is the perfect chance to posses a new body. "- The dopplegangers hand trailed up to touch the foreigner's breasts -" A body that will be gloated and beloved by everyone. All doing my bidding and loving me unconditionally, while I play and use them all them."
This actions didn't scare Aria. They annoyed her. After all that had happened to her, this didn't even compared.- "You think that just because they want to fuck my body they won't mind killing you?" - The mercenary sneered disdainfully. This was nothing.
Baffled, the creature retreated her touch for a moment in order to observe the outsider's lack of fear.-"Are you expecting someone to save you ?" - Perhaps this foreigner simply had complete confidence that some Role holder would come and save her?- "Some heroic Knight in shining armor?"
"The Knight I know doesn't wear armor and he is the one in need of being saved " -Aria said as her mind drifted to Ace - (" If I were to die here….what would happen to him? Would this creature get him? Or would he manage to kill the demoness and escape?... No, he'd probably fuck her and then kill her. And if he escapes after killing the foreigner here… Will he keep wandering Wonderland with no purpose and be even more possessive of Julius? Or if this creature's plans came to effect and she ensnared the mortician, would Ace go mad and kill himself or would he kill Julius first? …") - Aria reckoned she didn't like any of those possibilities. He might be a fucking pain in the ass sometimes with his warped logic and even worse sense of direction, but he was a fun pain in the ass and she at least held some respect, maybe even appreciation for the dork. -" He would first kill me than save my sorry hide".
"I wonder what such holder would say if he heard such disdainful words" - The succubus laughed merrily, as if someone had told her a humorous joke. - 'Holders killing a second foreigner? Preposterous.' - She moved her face closer to Aria and avoided a bite to the nose- "A second foreigner, the rare miraculous chance of winning a game when they had failed once."- She shook her head - "You are so innocent to think this, to diminish the raging desire in their clocks. Just imagine all the frustration of competing and losing a first game and then be given the chance and hope to win again, all the power of the first game doubled and added to the second… all the craving and longing now that they've seen and maybe even tasted the 'love of a foreigner'.- She bit her lower lips and then got down to lick Aria's belly- " And one of them specially out to kill you? Hardly."
"Yuck…"- Aria's disgusted face remained initially impassive but soon the corner of her lips raised into the mock of a sardonic smile. - "Their craves and desires are mere instincts to them. Nothing but the urges set by the game."- She sneered again -"Just dogs wanting to mate with the available bitch."- More or less shrugging her shoulder , she lowered the volume of her voice -" And you know what? The strongest of them wants me dead because I hurt the only one he cares about a couple time changes ago." -By now, Aria had realized that the succubus had no idea about Ace being here too. And Ace would not be fooled by this creature. In the remote case that the merc didn't defeated the demoness first, as long as Julius could get hurt, Ace would make sure that this creature wouldn't succeed.. And even if that failed, she had already sent the proper directives to Aegis and activate her 'mercy' charge. Her last resource. With sureness she spoke. - "But instincts or not, they are still capable of thinking. After the first game that they lost, they would rather kill the core of the problem than take the risk of losing again in a game they know they can't win."
"Oh, How cruel. Denying them any chance."- The succubus laughed lightly and hugged herself- "Far better for me. They'll be so eager and desperate… but tell me. What does the holders mean to you then? Usable lovers? Toys? Or something more? I'll need to impersonate you for a while after all."
Completely unaware that certain knight had been watching, Aria replied with all her brutal and honest sincerity- "Nothing. They have used me and I have used them. They are at much stepping stones to achieve whatever my goal may be at the moment, or just obstacles to get away from. Perhaps the occasional test subjects but more often dogs wanting my bones or dangers to get away from. Sometimes fun but always seeking to make use of me. " - Aria's cold smile was mocking and self-sardonic. - "Want an example? There's this guy, handsome like all holders are designed to be, quite mental but pretty fun to be around. He tried getting me and a certain depressive bluenette into a trio… or rather he tried using me to con the other guy into a duo with him. See? Just wanting to use me one way or another."
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Back in the control room, Ace's smile was feral. The fight Aria vs Aria looked hot and had been cool at the beginning; when Aria let herself be caught he surprised himself when he almost went to searching for her. However, the demon's question made him stay and listen. It was cute that Aria was so confused, but her answers had not been entirely of his liking.
"So Ari doesn't think I'm serious about her or OUR trio?"
The sincerity in Aria's tone had been despicable. Maybe she really didn't love anyo…. A new image flashed in the other screen and Ace's attention was immediately dragged to the vision of younger Aria fighting alongside a man that looked like a somewhat dorky version of a younger Jericho Bermuda. Aria was completely aloof yet utterly relaxed around that man, and the way they were engaging in missions was something Ace hadn't seen. The screen showed them fighting in complete synchronization, perfectly adapted to each other with unconditional trust. Their teamwork was was amazing, but so were their other interactions. Ace hated seeing those. The guy opened the beers and she passed him some food, he cleaned the weapons and she sang while checking the ammunition. She typed in her machines and he hugged her from behind without her shunning him as he set her over his lap and kissed the back of her neck...
The executioner's red eyes flickered and his smile was faint. - "Liar, liar, Ari. You CAN love."
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Aria of course would have deny such a presumptuous thing, but she was currently busy dealing with a depraved demoness who was waltzing around her captive.
"Perhaps I can have fun with you first and extract as much of those lovely foreigner emotions as you can provide. And once I'm released from this place..." -She concentrated and smirked-" Perhaps I'll start off with that gloomy mortician and his loyal, wayward lapdog? They seem to fit enough to be an appetizer until I hunger for more."
Aria's eyes narrowed. She tried moving but the tendrils increased their holding force on her limbs. Why had the demon mention specifically that dreaded duo?
The Succubus licked her lips and moved behind Aria, grabbing the merc's breasts from behind she set her jaw over her captive's shoulder. -"Maybe I can't read minds like the worm, but I can read what passes as your heart, and those two affected you so."
Aria hit her head at the side to strike the succubus's face. - " Those two are the cause that I'm in this fucking mess! The Clockmaker and his damned hound are the most troublesome bastards I've ever met."
The succubus retreated with a grunt while holding her nose. She hadn't expected that hit. Aria however, let her frustrations explode.
"That idiot mortician isn't even paranoid as fuck about the clocks or me! He hasn't given the coffee I make him a grade past 94%! And while I usually don't give a damn about it, a little feedback wouldn't kill him! He loses track of time when he's supposed to be in charge of it, he can't just say what he wants off the bat and his stupid narrowed brows expression when he refuses to say what he wants is bothersome. I hope he get wrinkles out of that! He's got old-fashioned pajamas that would put a grandmother to shame, he has hair prettier than most girls, and that makes no sense, damn bishi boy! and... !"
The succubus stared at her.
"And the damn hound you mention…. Ggrrr…. He's even more "#$%& frustrating! That obnoxious happy laugh of him when things are deadly serious grate my damned nerves. He gets in the way of my business and chases me around like the hound he is, and I haven't been in shape to make my escape. Why must he be so #$%(/& good at everything!? URGGH! The idiot also forgot my dried apples or any healthy snacks whenever he went shopping as much as my gummi candies…"
As Aria continued growling her rant, the succubus giggled and then started to laugh.
"... He he has tried to kill me multiple times, and if that wasn't enough, he didn't even let me kill that bear so I'd know what the meat tastes like!..." -By now Aria was breathing hard and her cheeks were slightly flustered -" It's useless to be around them when one of them betrayed whatever little trust and chance I would ever give, and the other would get a f**** kick out of killing or torturing me because I hurt his poor master. I'm fucking tired of the damned Game in this side of the mirror! "
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The demoness was not the only one having a kick out of listening to her cute snap. Ace was laughing annoyingly loud while the merc's voice continued listing all of his and Julius's faults. For once she was saying what she truly felt, and that was a huge improvement in their relationship. However, he had seen enough, and with a last chuckle, he got up and swiftly slashed the screens. No one else was allowed to taunt her. Not a silly impersonator, much less her own past. Having pieced together the order of her adventures in her world, he knew that she had been some sort of youth diplomat, survive an attack by using that dark armor. Went into hiding and became a successful mercenary with a bunch of the 'improvements' of her body. Became partners with that 'not the dodo' dude that disappeared from her life while she continued before getting captured and further 'improved' , until she violently escaped to finish whatever mission remained engraved in the back of the biomechanical hull that she ended up being.
She didn't need any reminder of her past and Ace wasn't going to wait anymore to get her back. The only thing she needed to know was that she would be going back to the tower with him one way or another; prepare one of her delicious +90 points coffee and let herself be loved and pampered. She undoubtedly had many adventures, but the only ones she ought to have now were with him.
"It wouldn't be knightly if I don't take this chance to save the half naked damsel"- Ace smiled eagerly while taking a left turn on the corridor.
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"DAMN THEM! DAMN THOSE IRRITATING, F**** BASTARDS WHO DON'T KNOW THE WORD 'NO'! I've tried. I've tried and tried to push those idiots out of my damn way but they refuse to leave me alone and continue on my way! Don't they fucking get that my game doesn't need or want them? I'm not a fucking consolation prize! I belong to no one but myself! They can't 'win' me, chingada madre! They wished for a foreigner that wouldn't love any other player. We'll they got what they asked for, a damn foreigner that can't love at all. Why can't they get that fact to their /&%$## heads?!
The succubus hugged her from behind again and rubbed herself over Aria when the rant finished. - "Awwe… You're such a cute foreigner! It will be delightful when I make them beg for attention. They want you so much, but you can't even acknowledge it"- She giggled.
With the succubus contact, Aria's shadow increased in size below. The merc held back her smirk and used the chance to sent some signals to her A.I.-"You, know. Compared to you, Nightmare is a disappointment of an incubus. You at least play the part of a fiend."
"Nightmare!" - The succubus sneered coldly and flew in front of Aria, crossing her arms and making her chest stick out and almost overflow from the small clothes. -"He'll be the first one destroyed. I'll have everyone rip him apart. He has had enough time on the stage. It's time for a new actor to step up and make their performance."
¬_¬ Aria raised an eyebrow - "You probably don't even need to try. He's possibly going to collapse on his own anyways."
"He is an improper rule of the dream realm. Such an unfit incubus holder of a role; going hungry and deterring his own power! He doesn't allow himself to know what it feels like to be pleasured or to give pleasure. He lets his faithful assassin do all of the dirty work, and he breaks the rules for a woman he knows will never love him when there are plenty to satisfy his desires. "
"Seems like you know him pretty well and don't like him that much, do you? One would think you'd go for the ''allies' that put you here."- Aria ignored this lady's animosity towards Nightmare. The succubus had been defeated or tricked by the someone, most likely the same faction that had orchestrated the coordinated attack. That was important piece.
"The fools that trapped my essence within my clock are not my allies"- The succubus said in a sneer.-" I will end them once I'm out."
(" An essence trapped within a clock? ") - Aria remained silent as her gaze examined the succubus in more detail. -("Rather than been killed, she was somehow trapped within her own clock in order to provide a stable source for this dream trapt.")- Forming an hypothesis of this was hard; but an precedence outline was viable. -(" As a dream demon, in order to escape or prolong her dead, she hid in this pseudo dream that is partly in the dream realm because 'reality' laws don't apply in a dream. And to waste her essence, she is only controlling the neuralgic core of the trap, this chamber. That's why she doesn't have control or knowledge of what happens beyond here.")
The succubus smiled and trailed her hands over Aria's torso and down to her belly. -"When I have your body, I'll have them all pleasure me until I suck them dry." - She smirked, implying how she would feed from their carnal desires and actions.
"You plan to use the guys as sex toys only?"- Aria ignored the need to facepalm. -"That's dull" - Without real objectives but molest the holders, that plan was just plain stupid. However, the faction that captured the demoness probably had plans on their own for the taken foreigner's body. - ("But how can a body be taken over?") -That was the other layout for a theory - (" If the 'mind' of a foreigner in this place could be destroyed, and a similar enough 'form' could be created, then the synaptic pattern perhaps would be deemed compatible by the brain when the dream ended, and the new neural structure could overlap the synaptic patterns...") - A ping in her spine interrupted her reasoning. Aria's plan had been received by Aegis.
"Dull? Oh you've been so neglected by them." - The succubus mocked and approached, ready to end this already. -"I will correct that!"
As soon as the succubus touched Aria again, the merc's shadow extended as much as possible to reach the succubus's own shadow and increase in size, expanding into a long line between flower's below and then rotating like a grass cutter to slice the flora and cause more shadows to form from the flying flora.
"What!?"
During the moment the succubus realized what was going on, the shadows retreated to Aria and crawled over her limbs to cut the restraining light tendrils while also becoming cuffs around her and the demoness's ankle. The doppelganger tried to fly away, but Aria grabbed her and punched her nose, causing a satisfactory cracking sound.
The cut-off flowers started dying and losing their glow, making the shadows stronger enough to expand and continue cutting down more flowers while Aria went down and dirty into hand to hand combat with the doppelganger. In retaliation, the succubus's hair animated with it's own lit glow and tried to grapple Aria. -"You'll die in pleasure!"
Aria's eyes flickered green as she cracked a dark chuckle when her shadows engulfed her body like a dark prism that diluted the light and its effects causing the succubus's hair to go back to normal.
"What are you!?"
The succubus tried to flap away, but while cuffed by the ankle the outsider finally trapped her in an intimate embrace as they both struggled in the air. The foreigner twisted and crawled on the demoness back, and by soundly breaking a wing she forced her double to drop down to the floor.
"A creature such are you? Are you really human!?" - The succubus nails elongated into long claws that tried to scratch out Aria's eyes, but Aria grabbed the outstretched fingers and twisted them to break the fingers.
"I don't know anymore. But it's not as if it matters" - The mercenary casually applied more pressure to break also the wrists, and then the elbows while her opponent shrieked in pain as her limbs twisted at odd angles. The rest of the flowers died and the darkness returned towards Aria and crawled over her body to materialize her armor. - "Y´know what? I figured it out. I can beat you here. "- Aria's maddened laugh joined the succubus screeches - "This place is more your remaining essence than a real part of the dream realm. Dream demons are part dreams, and what happens here is real for you. "
"Loneliness...will destroy you. Until there is nothing left, and your very existence is forgotten. That...is truly more terrifying than having a bullet put in your pretty head." - The succubus screeched and spat at her.-
"Destruction is nothing compared to much of what I've already experienced."- Like a predator Aria crawled on top of the succubus in all fours so that her shadow was cast above the demoness. - 'Loneliness? Ha, mejor sola que mal acompañada' ('Better alone that in bad company')"
"You're not that different from me! We're both monsters, and we follow our desires until there's nothing left." - Now the demon was in panic at the void behind the outsider's eyes.
"What is worse? What is stronger? A dragon or a dragon slayer? a monster or a monster hunter? A pitiful demoness or a demon vanquisher? I have no desires, will, or goal anymore." - Aria set her hand over the demoness chest and used the electric discharge from her gloves to cause the creature's clock to become an electromagnet while still inside it's owner. - "I have nothing to lose and nothing to gain."
The succubus twisted and screamed in pain.- "Your numbness !…Urrgghhh! Being void from experiencing pleasure or any other emotions! Youre such a monstrous construct, nothing more than a machine in a flesh body."
With an icy cold shudder, Aria cut off the electric flow and set her palms over the fallen's shoulders-"The ghost in the shell? Maybe, but then again, I really don't give a crap. "- Aria opened more her eyes and gave a sadistic smile. - "I'm not letting you take over my body for something so meaningless as sex. You wanted to get penetrated, didn't you?"
The shadow casting from Aria's body over the succubus transfigured into piercing arrows that in synchrony impaled the succubus body everywhere except for the only area where the demoness's ticking clock of a heart was supposed to be.
"AAAHHHHHHH!"
Aria smirked and lowered until there were only a few centimeters between both females. The mercenary knew that if this damned annoyance died here, her afterimage would have forever wander until it was dissolved by the dimension or be absorbed into the nightmare realm, but the merc had other ideas.
"I learned this trick when I completed the Jabberwocky. You'll serve for something useful. Who knows, it might serve for further research. "- Aria's eyes flickered as she examined the spectrum The rules of reality didn't apply here. It was all possibilities and so was she. Concentrating into the mana flow as her shadow slowly engulfed her fallen opponent, Aria began gathering the energy to infuse the succubus's clock by eroding the demoness's existence and form.
Blood ran down the corners of the succubus's lips as she began disappearing- "Stop, I beg of you!"
"Don't you know that the only mercy I have is in the word 'mercenary'? - Aria snapped her fingers and more shadows formed a guillotine's blade above the succubus neck. Aria moved swiftly aside when the device came down and decapitate her copy, whose head rolled to see her own body dissolving and even got enough time to realize that her essence was being casted over what physically remained of her. A ring made from her own melted clock, forged by those who trapped her here.
Grabbing the ring and putting it on her finger, Aria examined it. It was a golden bangle with silvertone edges and engraved inscriptions in unknown lettering designs that ran from and to the central jewel that was encrusted at the same level of the metal. -"A pseudo -relic? " - This was new but she already had the layout for her hypothesis. If the clock was damaged the person died, but if it was the other way around, the person was dissolved or trapped inside the clock before the clock was damaged, perhaps the clock could be manipulated. Even for her this was surprising, however she didn't got time to ponder on it, because without the succubus sustaining this place, this dream began disintegrating.
Aria didn't have time to experiment with whatever power the ring possessed, but this being a dream, partially created by her, she could at least influence herself. Good thing she had experience thanks to her liminality state. By creating some misty wings like the ones the succubus had, and with a lance in her hands just in case any enemy remained, Aria flew above past the glowing clouds that made the chamber's ceiling and up towards a high balcony that seemed like the entrance to the platform that led to the tower Ace was supposed to be.
Briefly wondering where Nightmare could be since he hadn't appeared in a while, Aria landed and entered the platform. It was a stony terrace. And what she saw in the center made her stop with her eyes wide.
Right in the middle of the platform, Ace was impaling a foe. But it wasn't any foe. The tip of the knave's sword protruded out of the back of the corpse whose form was that of Andrick Jeloudov, Aria's partner and closest thing to loved one back in her old world.
Upon seeing this, Aria dropped her weapon. Her heart raced, her ribs hurt and her stomach clenched. She felt herself going distant as all sensations dulled. It felt as if something had been taken from her, something that used to keep the balance well and served her to held at bay the exhausting weigh of life. The little spring that always catapulted her back on track despise whatever may have come her way. Whatever that had been, it simply wasn't there anymore.
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The noise of the blade caused the knave to turn her way and drop the corpse to the floor. -"Hi my fair dame; as a knight I got rid of this foe in your name."- With a cherished smile, Ace held his hand towards her with soft and confident eyes before flashing his characteristic grin. - "I won't hand you over to anyone. Not even your past. I want to monopolize you. Even if you die... I don't want anyone else to have you."
Not bothering to answer him, Aria's frozen gaze focused on the fallen corpse. Just as the weapon she had dropped, it began dissolving into a mass of darkness. She looked away, tightly closing her eyes while taking deep breaths and chewing at her lip. For a few moments she didn't move, but her shadow moved on it's own in the form of tendrils across the floor, devouring the discarded weapon and reaching for the dissolving corpse that was diffusing into some unknown and inhuman form.
Ace observed her intently and awaited for her actions.-"I think I might love you. Thus I'm not letting you go, and I'm taking away anything that may take your attention from me." -He then smiled at her with the same goofy grin that he hoped would irritate the hell out of her. - "Of course, Julius is the exception since we both love him! So I'm taking you back to the tower, and I'll do you things to you that will get your attention back on me."
Barely aware that Ace had spoken, Aria reached for the dog tags that Aegis used them for it's collar in the real world but that here hung freely from her neck, before she blankly gazed in Ace's direction. Extending her hand towards him she snapped her fingers and the crawling shadows retreated to her like inky fog that wormed over her body and covered her completely. Without moving her lips, a monotone digitally distorted voice came from her neck speakers as she looked down and sighed. -"...In the end, this was inevitable."
Dark foggy mist swirled over the mercenary and formed a thicker but skinnier version of her suit with a full dark visor covering her face, transforming her outer appearance into a shadowy silhouette that blurred into fog without any distinguishable traits, while over her extended hand a long black blade was created and pointed at the knight.
"I'll kill you here and then I will have one less problem when I wake up."
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Does anyone else thinks Julius pajamas look bad on him? XD
But what do you think is stronger? A dragon or a dragon slayer? A monster or a monster hunter? Love or despair? Lust or care? Memories or knowledge? A knight or an executioner?
What do you think? was this chapter too much?
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Super thanks to Allora22701, Sleeping Moon, Sour-Mochi, dukezinnia, Kat,ChickenAtSchool, Big Ham and Guest . It would have been hard to keep this going without them.
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