Gabriel led Kirito into a darkened, circular room whose walls were made up of flickering streams of data. In the middle floated two glass columns in which Sinon and Leafa were held. They were conscious, but their avatars were fixed by digital shackles that kept their movements to a minimum. Leafa, whose Terran avatar glowed almost unreal in this light, fought desperately against her bonds. The tight, green silk armor emphasized her every escape-inhibiting movement, while Sinon, pale and with eyes wide with fright, held his breath silently.
"Look at her, Kazuto," Gabriel whispered, placing his hands on Kirito's shoulders. He felt Kirito's body immediately go into a guard position, ready to receive the next impulse. "They cling to the lie that you once were. They believe they must be saved. But we know better, don't we?" Kirito stared at the two women. His gaze was no longer that of the protector. It was the look of a beast of prey trained to please its master. Through the Fluctlight fusion, he felt Gabriel's dark curiosity and cruel hunger. He knew what Gabriel wanted even before he said a word.
Gabriel loosened the barrier of the columns. The two women slumped to the ground, unable to escape. "Kirito kun?" breathed Leafa, her voice trembling. She saw his blank stare, the way he stood so close to Gabriel as if he were a part of him. "What... What did they do to you? Please, come back to us!" Gabriel smiled thinly. He didn't give Kirito a verbal command. He thought only of the pain of betrayal and the sweetness of total submission. Like a shadow, Kirito glided towards the two of them. He ignored Sinon and headed straight for Leafa. He didn't grab her roughly, but stroked her hair almost tenderly, just as Gabriel had done with him. Leafa froze under his touch.
"It's not pain, Suguha," Kirito said, and his voice sounded like an echo of Gabriel's velvety bass. "It's the truth. I've resisted who I really am for so long. Gabriel showed me that we don't have to fight. We just have to... ." He forced her to look at him. "Look at me. Am I unhappy? No. I'm finally complete. And you... You've always longed for it, too, haven't you? That someone takes the burden off your shoulders. That you don't have to be the strong warrior anymore."
Sinon tried to intervene, but Kirito raised only one hand, and a system-generated pressure held her in place. "Wait, Shino. You're next. But first she has to understand." Kirito bent down to Leafa, his lips close to her ear, his hand sliding over her back, searching for the delicate skin beneath the armor. Gabriel stood directly behind Kirito, his presence like a dark curtain that swallowed up all light. "Help her, Kazuto," Gabriel whispered silently into Kirito's mind. "Show her the ecstasy of the task."
Kirito began to manipulate Leafa's Fluctlight directly, using the same filters that Gabriel had used on him. He used his intimacy and trust as a weapon. "Remember the feeling when we flew... this dropping... this is what Gabriel offers us. An eternal weightlessness of the will." Leafa began to cry, but under the influence of Kirito's touch and the system-controlled suggestion, her resistance changed. Her body began to tremble, no longer just from fear, but from a terrible, induced arousal that she couldn't classify.
"Gabriel is our God here," Kirito whispered, looking back over his shoulder to his master to seek his confirmation. Gabriel nodded imperceptibly. "He gives us what we really need. Not love, but possession." Sinon watched in horror as Kirito, her hero, her anchor, now actively worked to pull his own sister into the same abyss in which he himself was trapped. And worst of all, Kirito did it with a devotion and a premonition of Gabriel's desires that was absolutely perfect. Gabriel stepped forward and put his hand on Kirito's head, while he had already got Leafa so far that she put her head back and closed her eyes, ready for the "healing".
"You are an excellent tool, Kazuto," Gabriel said aloud. "Do you see how she gives herself to you because she feels that you are already a part of me? Together we will reforge them all." Gabriel gave a short signal, and two system drones seized the trembling Leafa. She was roughly dragged out of the room, her cries for her brother echoing in the cold corridors of the Ocean Turtle as she was taken to a deeper, damp chamber. There, in the absolute darkness, pulsed a huge, slimy organism, a tentacle monster that Gabriel had created from the darkest nightmare data of the Underworld. It was still asleep, but the presence of Leafa's warm Fluctlight already made the first tentacles twitch lazily. But Gabriel did not take his eyes off the main stage. His focus was on Sinon and his new masterpiece: Kirito.
"It's yours, Kazuto," Gabriel whispered. "Show her that her will is only an illusion. Break the bow before you reforge the archer." Kirito stepped up to Sinon. His gaze was fixed, his pupils dilated. He did not reach for his sword. He reached for the system controls that Gabriel had unlocked for him. With a slow, almost ritualistic movement, he forced Sinon onto his back. She was fixed to the ground by the digital shackles, her legs spread, her arms stretched above her head. "Kirito... please... don't do that..." Sinon pleaded. Her voice broke when she saw the unnatural coldness in his eyes. "You still don't understand, Shino," Kirito said quietly. He knelt between her knees. "You're fighting against a feeling that you actually want. I'm just helping you open the barriers."
He laid his hands flat on her stomach. Immediately, purple lines of data lit up on her skin. Kirito activated stimulus stimulation, a direct manipulation of the pain centers and the pleasure receptors of her Fluctlight. At first it was only a slight tingling sensation that ran over Sinon's skin, but Kirito turned the virtual knob relentlessly up. A shrill scream escaped her throat as a wave of artificial heat and electrifying intensity rushed through her body. Every fiber of her being was overstimulated at the same time. It wasn't pain in the classic sense, but a sensory overkill that swept over her mind like a tidal wave.
"Do you feel that?" Kirito whispered, slowly sliding his hands higher, over her waist until he touched the fabric of her skimpy avatar. "This is the truth of your body. He answers me, Shino. He responds to Gabriel through me." Sinon's body reared up. Her breath came in short, choppy bursts. Her eyes rolled as the stimulation drove her to the brink of madness. Kirito manipulated the frequencies so precisely that Sinon was in a state between extreme agony and an all-consuming, artificially created ecstasy.
Gabriel stepped closer, his hand resting heavily on Kirito's shoulder, as if he wanted to channel the stream of manipulation right through him. "Look at her, Kazuto. How it squirms. It is like an instrument waiting to be played. Listen to their rhythm." Kirito intensified the stimulation. He now used both hands to fuel Sinon's most sensitive nerve points with digital impulses. He bent over her, his lips almost against her ear as he watched her resistance crumble under the sheer weight of the stimuli.
"Give up, Shino," he murmured. "Let go of pride. You are no longer a heroine. You're just a fluctlight, eager to be used by us. Say it... tell me how much you enjoy this shame." Tears of absolute overwhelm rolled down Sinon's cheeks. Her mind struggled desperately against the flood of stimuli, but her body betrayed her. The artificially induced arousal was so strong that she could hardly think clearly. She looked at Kirito, her former savior, and saw in him only the personification of overwhelm that she could not escape. Gabriel smiled contentedly. "Excellent. It breaks. As soon as she is completely subdued, we will take her to your sister. She is to watch as Leafa is received by my creation in the chamber. This will finally tear the last bond of their old identity."
Kirito gradually increased the frequency of system manipulation. The space around her seemed to pulsate in an unnatural, violet light, while Sinon literally melted under his hands. The stimulation was now so intense that her nerve pathways could no longer send clear signals to her brain. Pain, pleasure, cold, and heat merged into a single, deafening noise in her Fluctlight. Minutes became hours, hours an eternity of insensitivity to the outside world. Sinon stared at the ceiling, her eyes wide open, but completely empty. The bright blue of her iris looked dim, as if the light behind it had gone out. Her body only twitched weakly at the rhythmic discharges that Kirito directed directly into her digital spine.
"Do you see that, Gabriel?" Kirito whispered without taking his eyes off her. His voice was completely emotionless. "She's no longer there. Only the meat and the data remain."
Gabriel stepped behind Kirito and put both hands on his shoulders. "Complete it. Untie the shackles. If she follows you without hesitation, she's ours." Kirito deactivated the digital shackles. Sinon did not slump. Like a marionette whose strings were being taught, she remained lying in an unnatural, hollow posture. Kirito reached out and gently touched her cheek. Sinon instinctively turned his head to his hand, like a flower that turns to the sun, or an animal that knows only the charm of the master. "Come on, Shino," Kirito ordered quietly.
Without a word, without the slightest spark of resistance in her eyes, she rose. Their movements were wooden, their will completely eroded. She stood naked and defenseless in front of him, her former dignity as a legendary sniper had given way to total, apathetic devotion. She followed Kirito blindly as he led her out of the bright room into the dark bowels of the facility. They reached the sealed chamber. The air here was thick and smelled of ozone and damp earth. In the middle, on a stone pedestal, lay Leafa. She was still unconscious, her Terran avatar glowing faintly in the dim light. Around the pedestal slithered thick, pulsating outgrowths, the tentacle monster, a mass of dark flesh and slimy gripping arms that chuckled quietly in deep sleep.
Kirito stopped at the edge of the podium and held Sinon tightly by the arm. "Look at them, Shino. That's your girlfriend. Your sister. And you will watch her awaken." Sinon stared at Leafa, but nothing moved in her eyes. No pity, no fear. She had reached the end of her journey. She leaned her head on Kirito's shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her waist to position her as a witness to her own shame.
It happened at that moment of Sinon's total surrender. A deep, rumbling vibration shook the floor of the chamber. The slimy outgrowths began to move jerkily. A large, yellow eye opened in the middle of the meat mass and fixed the unconscious leafa. The tentacles unfolded with a smacking sound, looking for warmth and life. Gabriel stepped out of the shadows behind Kirito and Sinon, a triumphant smile on his lips. "The case is complete. The hunt begins."
The monster wrapped the first, thick tentacle around Leafa's ankle. The touch was cold and slimy, and you could see how Leafa's avatar began to tremble under the alien influence as she was slowly torn from her unconsciousness, straight into a nightmare. Kirito knew no mercy anymore. Under Gabriel's watchful eyes and the relentless pressure of system manipulation, he drove the stimulation into areas beyond what was humanly bearable. He put his hands on Sinon's temples while the digital impulses fed directly into her Fluctlight.
Sinon's world began to fray. The reality of the Ocean Turtle, the fear for her friends, even her own self, everything was washed away by an infinite, artificially created tidal wave of sensations. Her body no longer trembled with resistance, but only vibrated at an unnatural frequency. Her cries had ceased; what remained was a hoarse gasp, which finally turned into rhythmic, mechanical breathing. "Look at her, Kazuto," Gabriel whispered behind him. "The moment when the soul gives up and only the shell reacts." Kirito took his hands away. The purple data lines on Sinon's skin faded, but she didn't move. She lay there, her limbs heavy, her gaze fixed on the ceiling. Her eyes, once so clear and determined, were now wide and completely empty. When Kirito whispered her name, there was no flash of recognition. She was immersed in a deep, sensory apathy. Time no longer existed for her, only the next stimulus, the next command. "Get up," Kirito ordered coldly.
Like a remote-controlled doll, Sinon rose. Her movements were somnambulistic, without any sign of self-will. She stood naked and defenseless in front of him, her arms hanging limply at her sides. She no longer waited for rescue; she was just waiting for the lead. Kirito reached for her hand. Her skin was hot from the previous stimulation, but she didn't flinch. He led them out of the brightly lit laboratory room into the dark corridor that led deep into the bowels of the facility. Gabriel followed them like a shadow, the faint echo of his footsteps the only sound in the silence. They reached the sealed chamber. When the heavy steel door slid open, cold, musty air flowed towards them. The room was shrouded in almost complete darkness, with only a faint, pulsating glow in the middle illuminating the scene.
There, on a stone hill, lay Leafa. Her Terran avatar looked fragile in the darkness. She breathed calmly, trapped in a deep, artificial sleep, completely unaware of the fate that awaited her. Below her, in the shadows of the pedestal, rested a huge, slimy mass. It was the Tentacle Monster, a nightmare of flesh and data, whose countless gripping arms lay motionless on the ground like dead snakes. Kirito led Sinon right to the edge of the podium. He let go of her hand and put his arm around her waist to keep her stable. Sinon leaned against him without will.
Her gaze fell on Leafa, but there were no tears, no cry of horror. To them, Leafa was just an object in the dark. "It is now complete," Gabriel stated with satisfaction. "The archer has fallen. The will is extinguished." At that very moment, when Sinon's last remnant of inner resistance was replaced by total apathy, it happened. A deep, rumbling sound, like an underground earthquake, came from the creature beneath Leafa. The tentacle monster awoke. A huge, cloudy eye opened in the middle of the slimy mass and fixed the sleeping leafa. The tentacles began to bend and unfold, greedily groping for the warmth of the innocent fluctlight above them. The smacking sound of damp flesh on stone filled the chamber.
Leafa began to become restless. Her eyelids twitched as the first, sticky tentacle slowly wrapped itself around her ankle, pulling her out of the realm of dreams and back into cruel reality. Sinon stood next to her, held by Kirito, watching with her blank eyes as her friend was engulfed in the darkness. The awakening of Leafa was not a sudden shock, but a slow, agonizing slide into a distorted reality. The sticky cold on her ankles and the heavy, ozone-rich air made her open her eyes. Her first glance fell on the vaulted ceiling of the chamber, but immediately she felt the massive pressure on her body. The monster's slimy, pulsating tentacles had already wrapped tightly around her limbs. They fixed her wrists and spread her legs wide apart as the creature vibrated greedily beneath her. "Onii chan...?" she croaked, her voice weak and full of incredulous hope. Kirito didn't react with warmth. He stepped closer to the platform, the apathetic Sinon firmly in his grip. With an imperious movement, he forced Sinon to bend over the bound Leafa. He grabbed Sinon's hands and placed them on Leafa's temples like cold vices, so that their faces were only inches apart.
"Look at her, Suguha," Kirito said in a voice as dead as Sinon's gaze. "Look what has become of your proud comrade." Leafa stared into Sinon's eyes. She was looking for a sparkle, for the familiar fire of the sniper, for fear or at least a spark of pity. But there was nothing. Sinon's blue iris was cloudy, the pupils unnaturally dilated and rigid. She didn't even blink as she pressed Leafa's head into the stone ground. It was as if Leafa was looking into an endless, dark abyss. At that moment she understood: Sinon was no longer there. Only the shell remained, a tool in Kirito's hands. "No... Sinon... please..." Leafa sobbed as the first wave of stimulation raced through her body. The monster began its work. The tentacles were covered with microscopic suction cups that directly intervened in the nerve pathways of Leafa's avatar. They specifically sought out the most sensitive areas, whirled and pressed with a precision that was only possible through system commands.
Leafa reared up, her body trembling under the sudden flood of artificial pleasure. But just at the moment when her mind was about to plunge into the redemptive abyss of orgasm, the monster's movements stopped abruptly. The heat inside remained, a burning, unbearable tension that could not drain away. Gabriel stepped to the side of the podium and watched the spectacle with scientific interest. "The system will deny her any climax, Kazuto. We will keep them in this state of total excitement for days. Her brain will cry out for redemption, but the only answer she will get is the emptiness in Sinon's eyes and your coldness."
Kirito bent lower, his lips directly against Leafa's ear, while Sinon continued to fix her face rigidly. "You will lie here, Sugu. Hours, days. You'll beg for the monster to complete you, but it won't happen. And every time you open your eyes, you'll see that Sinon won't help you. Because she doesn't want it anymore. Because she doesn't feel anything anymore." Tears rolled down Leafa's cheeks and moistened Sinon's numb fingers. The monster resumed its rhythmic, agonizingly slow movements, driving the arousal to the boiling point again, only to drop it cruelly again at the last moment.
Leafa looked up at her brother, the desperation in her gaze heartbreaking. But Kirito only looked through her as he pressed Sinon against her even harder. The days of agony had only just begun, and Leafa's faith in her brother began to crumble slowly but steadily under the constant pressure of denied salvation and Sinon's apathetic presence. The chamber was filled with the rhythmic, moist smack of the tentacles that wound around Leafa's body like living shadows. The bluish light of the monitors cast harsh shadows on the gruesome tableau.
Kirito stood behind the kneeling Sinon and held her wrists tightly. He brought her hands to Leafa's face like those of a lifeless doll. Sinon's fingers, once nimble and precise on her weapon, now felt cold and strange to Leafa as they encircled her cheeks and fixed her head relentlessly. "Look at her, Suguha," Kirito whispered, a voice that had lost all human warmth. "Look at the end of your pride."
Leafa, her body quivering under the tentacles' incessant, cruelly precise grip, was forced to look directly into Sinon's eyes. She desperately searched for a sign of consciousness, for the familiar sparkle of the sniper she called her friend. But what she found was a bottomless, black emptiness. Sinon's eyes were wide open, but they reflected nothing, no pity, no agony, not even his own identity. She was just a biological apparatus that obeyed Kirito's touch." Sinon... please... say what...", Leafa gasped. Her body was stretched to the point of tearing.
The monster's tentacles worked with a malevolent efficiency. They knew every nerve point of their Terran avatar. They drove the excitement into Leafa's body into regions beyond bearability. Her mind cried out for release, for the one moment of letting go, but the system was merciless. Every time she reached the peak, when her body was about to flee into the liberating orgasm, the stimulation stopped abruptly or turned into a stabbing, cold stimulus. It was psychophysical torture. The pressure inside her continued to build, an unbearable heat that found no outlet. "She won't answer, Leafa," Kirito said as he pressed Sinon against her even harder. "She's already where you'll be soon. Beyond hope. Beyond me."
Hours passed that felt like eternity to Leafa. The time in the chamber lost its meaning. The only clock was the pulsation of the tentacles and the rigid, dead face of Sinon in front of her. Every time Leafa tried to close her eyes from exhaustion, Kirito jerked her head up again through Sinon's hands. "You mustn't look away," he ordered coldly. Gabriel Miller watched the scene from the gallery, a satisfied smile on his lips. He watched as Leafa slowly began to break inside. The faith in her brother, who once drove her, was poisoned by the constant refusal of physical salvation and the image of the fallen Kiritos. Day one passed in a fog of unfinished sensations and the staring gaze of the apathetic Sinon. On day two, Leafa began to beg for mercy, no longer for rescue, but only for the monster to finally "let her go". But Kirito remained unmoved. He was the anchor of her torment, and Sinon was the mirror of her own future.
Leafa looked into the emptiness of Sinon's eyes and recognized her own fate in it. The hope that her Onii chan would save her faded with each time the tentacles drove her to the brink of madness again, only to keep her there in limbo. The third day in the interrogation chamber dawned, but for Leafa light existed only as a stabbing pain behind her eyelids. The artificial atmosphere of the Underworld was impregnated with the smell of ozone, sweat and the sweet rot of the monster that still held it in its relentless grip.
Leafa was at the end of her strength. Her neck muscles were stiff with cramps, as Sinon's hands, guided by Kirito's iron grip, did not let her head slide to the side for a second. In her delirium, Leafa began to change. Her mind, unable to withstand the constant sensory overload and the simultaneous refusal of salvation, sought a way out in mimicry. Her own eyes began to take on the dull, lifeless blue of Sinon's gaze. She tried to escape her consciousness into the same void in which Sinon was trapped. If she didn't feel anything anymore, she could no longer be tormented.
But Kirito noticed the dwindling of her focus. "No, Sugu," he whispered, pressing Sinon's cold fingers hard against her temples. "You can't disappear. You have to remain a witness." The betrayal of the senses: The monster intensified its movements. The tentacles penetrated deeper into the sensory interfaces of their avatar. Through Gabriel Miller's system manipulation, Leafa's own voice began to betray her. She heard herself screaming, but there were no more calls for help.
In a distorted echo of herself, she began to thrust obscenities against her own soul, imploring her brother to call him "Master," and begging Sinon to finally make her as hollow and empty as she herself was. She hated her body, which trembled at the beast's touch, and she hated her mind, which still clung to the memory of "old" Kirito. Kirito's final gesture: Suddenly, the monster stopped. The tentacles remained rigid, but did not let go of Leafa. The tension in her body was so great that she could hardly breathe; she was literally on the brink of a mad breakdown. Kirito finally released Sinon's hands from her face. The sniper stopped like a switched off machine, her arms limp at her sides, her gaze fixed on space. Kirito took a step forward, right next to Gabriel, who was following the data on his terminal with a predatory smile.
"The monster was just the tool to wear you down, Suguha," Kirito said coldly. He put one hand on her quivering heart, while Gabriel grabbed her head on the other side. "The redemption you so desperately crave... the discharge you've been longing for days... it does not belong to the creature. And it's not yours." Leafa looked up at them with tearful eyes. At that moment, she finally gave up hope for her brother. The man in front of her was not Kazuto. He was something else, something darker. Gabriel nodded to Kirito. "Now. Let's show her that her entire existence consists only of what we are willing to give her." In a cruel synchrony, both men intervened directly in the system log of their fluctlight. While the monster ramped up physical stimulation to the maximum, it was Kirito and Gabriel's commands that broke the dam. The final discharge of stimuli did not come as an act of mercy, but as a total overwhelm by her tormentors. It was a moment of total, painful ecstasy, which Leafa felt not as a liberation, but as the final sealing of her captivity.
When the discharge was over, and Leafa's body hung limp in the tentacles, her eyes were just as empty as Sinon's. She stared at the ceiling while Kirito and Gabriel stood above her, the new architects of her broken world. The abyss did not open all at once, but centimeter by centimeter as time scorched into a tough, agonizing mass in the dark chamber of the Underworld. Here is the detailed chronicle of Leafa's demise over three days:
On the first day, the warrior's fire was still burning in Leafa. Despite the slimy tentacles that wrapped around her body like lustful vipers, she searched for the brother she loved. But Kirito was no longer there. In its place stood a shadow with cold eyes, which pushed the apathetic Sinon in front of her like a life-size mannequin. Sinon's hands, which had once operated the trigger of the Hecate II so confidently, felt like dead flesh as they fixed on Féta's head. "Look at her, Suguha," Kirito ordered. "Look in her for the friend you knew. Search until you understand that there is nothing left."
The monster's tentacles began their work. With mathematical precision, they stimulated every nerve point. Leafa bit her lips bloody to keep from moaning, but her body betrayed her. Every time the wave of pleasure reached its peak, when her mind was about to flee into the unconsciousness of an orgasm, the system pulled her back. The stimulation stopped abruptly or was transformed into a stabbing, icy impulse. The pressure in her abdomen built up like a painful glow that couldn't find an outlet.
The second day was marked by total exhaustion. Leafa could no longer keep her eyelids open under her own power; it was Sinon's cold fingers that pushed her eyelids upwards so that she couldn't break eye contact. Time lost its structure. There was only the rhythmic smacking of the tentacles and the unbearable, pent-up pressure inside them. Leafa began to hallucinate. She no longer saw Sinon as a prisoner, but as a state of peace. In the absolute emptiness of Sinon's eyes, there seemed to be no more pain.
Kirito increased the psychological pressure. He whispered in her ear how much he enjoyed watching her agony as the monster drove her incessantly to the threshold. The refusal of physical salvation became a psychological torture: her entire being was concentrated only on the one moment of letting go that was denied her. She began to negotiate with the monster in her mind, to beg it, but the beast was only an extension of Kirito's and Gabriel's will.
On the third day, Leafa was just a shell. Her resistance had shrunk to a whimpering plea. The total surrender: In a desperate attempt to escape the pain, Leafa began to imitate Sinon's gaze. Her eyes stared, the sparkle of the Leafa who had fought for freedom faded. She tried to bury her soul deep inside herself to become a "living doll," just like Sinon. But Kirito didn't let that happen. Every time she threatened to slip into apathy, the monster intensified the stimulation so brutally that she was torn back to reality by a moment of shock.
The betrayal of the senses: Gabriel Miller stepped out of the shadows and changed the system parameters. Suddenly, it was no longer Leafa's will that controlled her voice. Her own mouth began to form words that poisoned her soul. "Please... make me empty... make me like Sinon..." she heard herself say. She screamed obscenities against her own origins and against the name "Kazuto" while begging Sinon to show her how to cease to exist. Her senses led her to believe that torment was her only raison d'être.
As the third day drew to a close, Kirito stopped the movement of the tentacles. The silence in the chamber was almost more deafening than the screams before. Leafa trembled so violently that her teeth chattered. The pressure inside her was now so enormous that she thought she was tearing apart inside. Kirito released Sinon's hands from her face. The sniper took a step back, motionless as a statue. Kirito and Gabriel approached Leafa at the same time. They placed their hands on the control surfaces of the system, which were directly connected to Leafa's nervous system.
"You've been waiting for this moment for three days, Suguha," Kirito said with a dark, almost tender cruelty. "But you will never associate this moment with the memory of your brother. You will only connect him with us." In a synchronized gesture, they overwrote the blocking protocols. The discharge of stimuli that now came over Leafa was no longer a natural reaction; it was a digital flood that was manually triggered by Gabriel and Kirito. It was a huge, painful wave of ecstasy that finally extinguished Leafa's mind. It was not an act of love or redemption, but the final marking of their claim to ownership.
When it was over, Leafa hung lifeless in the shackles of the monster. Her gaze was completely blank, an exact copy of Sinon's dead stare. The warrior had died; what remained was an instrument waiting to be reprogrammed. Kirito leaned over and whispered, "Well, Suguha... tell Sinon how grateful you are that she showed you the way." Leafa moved her lips. What is the first word to burst out of the emptiness of their new existence? "Ki... ri.... to.."
The name echoed like the echo of a broken bell through the stuffy air of the chamber. It was no longer a call for help. It was not a plea to the brother she had once known. It was the first word of a slave who recognizes the name of her creator and destroyer. Kirito didn't move. He enjoyed the hollow resonance in her voice. The syllables were heavy, laden with the weight of the previous three days, and they sounded as flat and lifeless as the words Sinon had spoken in the first hours of her captivity.
"Kirito..." he repeated softly, almost tenderly, as he slid his hand from her heart to her chin. He forced her to lift her head a little further, so that her blank gaze fell directly on the motionless Sinon. "Yes, Suguha. I'm here. And I gave you what you wanted. Redemption. The collapse. The emptiness." Gabriel Miller stepped behind Leafa and laid his hands on her trembling shoulders. He looked at a small monitor on his wrist that showed the Fluctlight waves. "The identity matrix is unstable enough," he stated with expert coldness. "She is looking for a new anchor. She looks at the sniper and no longer sees her as a victim, but as a role model."
Kirito nodded. "Do you see her, Sugu?" he whispered, gently pressing her chin in Sinon's direction. "Look at Sinon. She didn't fight. She just let the pain and pleasure flow through her until there was nothing left of Shino Asada. She is perfect now. She is calm. And you... You're just like them now." Leafa's lips quivered. A single drop of saliva ran from the corner of her mouth as her eyes, now a dull, broken blue, tried to fix Sinon. The sniper still stood there, her arms limp, her mind lost somewhere in an infinite darkness.
"Thank you, Suguha," Kirito ordered again, this time with a harder note in his voice. "Thank her for showing you how to stop being a person. Thank her for keeping the seat next to me warm for you." Leafa inhaled tremblingly. The monster behind her began to slowly withdraw its tentacles as if its work was done. The sudden withdrawal of physical presence almost made her fall forward, but Kirito's grip held her tight. "Dan... Ke...", she croaked. The voice sounded like dry leaves rubbing against stone. "Thank you... Sinon..."
A cruel smile spread across Kirito's face. He let go of her chin and took a step back to look at the picture: two of the strongest warriors in the Underworld, now nothing more than hollow vessels that only existed through his will and Gabriel's technology. "Do you hear that, Gabriel?" Kirito asked, without taking his eyes off the two women. "She's ready." Gabriel nodded and activated a sequence on his terminal. "The dubbing begins. From now on, their Fluctlights will correspond with each other. What one feels, the other will reflect. A perfect pair of servants."
Kirito stepped between the two women and put an arm around their shoulders. Leafa instinctively leaned her head against his chest, while Sinon did the same on the other side. Both stared into space, their souls trapped in an eternal, artificial twilight. "What will be our first task for you, Gabriel?" Kirito asked with a look that no longer possessed humanity. "Should we send them against the last remnants of the resistance so that their friends can see what has become of their heroines?" A cruel sparkle of genius came into Kirito's eyes when he heard the words. He bowed his head and looked at the two women at his side. Leafa and Sinon, once the unshakable pillars of his world, now the instruments of his total domination. "Perfect," Kirito whispered. "There is no greater anguish than to feel hope, only to find that that hope has already rotted."
Gabriel Miller stepped in front of the two women. He opened an interface in the air and began to fine-tune the Fluctlight parameters. "I will put a 'surface mask' over their consciousness. To the untrained eye, even to someone with the system authority of Stacia, they will look traumatized, exhausted, and broken. But deep down, the core of their loyalty will be yours alone, Kirito. I'm going to install a trigger." "And what will this trigger be?" Kirito asked interested. "A word from you," Gabriel answered. "Or simply the moment when Asuna thinks she has won back her friends. As soon as she feels safe, the mask will fall." Kirito stepped in front of Sinon. He gently stroked her cheek, which felt cold and lifeless. "Do you hear me, Sinon? You will go to her. You'll tell her how horrible it was. You'll cry when you need to. But in your heart you will only bear my name." Sinon's eyes flickered briefly, a mechanical echo of her old soul. "Yes... Kirito... all for you..."
Then he turned to his sister. He tore a piece of her already battered robe to give the appearance of a hard fight and escape. "And you, Sugu... you will play the role of the desperate sister. You'll tell Asuna that I'm lost... that I sacrificed myself to save you. That will break her heart even before you give the final blow." Leafa bowed her head, a single, meaningless tear running down her face, a pure product of Fluctlight manipulation. "I'll tell her... Onii sama... I will lead them to you. A few hours later, in the twilight wasteland of the Dark Territory, not far from the human army camp. Asuna, in her shining armor as the goddess Stacia, stood on a rock and looked anxiously into the darkness. The battle had been devastating, and the loss of Kirito, Leafa, and Sinon weighed heavily on her soul. Her heart felt like lead. "Asuna sama!" shouted a soldier excitedly. "Up there! Two figures... they come from the direction of Gabriel's fortress!" Asuna's heart skipped a beat. She activated her ability to fly and raced towards the two figures, who stumbled laboriously through the black sand. As she approached, a stifled cry escaped her.
"Leafa! Sinon!" The two women looked terrible. Their armor was tattered, their faces dirty and smeared with tears. Leafa slumped the moment Asuna touched the ground. Sinon stood swaying, his gaze fixed on the ground. "Oh God... no..." Asuna sobbed and wrapped her arms around Leafa as she pulled Sinon to her. "You live... you're back..." Leafa clawed at Asuna's robe. Her body trembled violently. "Asuna san... he... he is..." she managed in a brittle voice. "Shh, everything's fine, I've got you," Asuna whispered, tears of relief in her eyes. She didn't notice the unnatural coldness in Sinon's gaze as she laid her head on Asuna's shoulder. She didn't notice how synchronized the two women's breaths were. "We must... tell you something...", Sinon whispered softly in Asuna's ear. Her voice was completely flat, every emotion in it seemed like a rehearsed melody.
Asuna broke away a bit to look at her. "What is it? Where is Kirito kun?" Leafa raised her head. The trembling had stopped. Her gaze was suddenly clear, but in a way that made Asuna's blood run cold. A gentle, almost pitying smile appeared on Leafa's lips. "He's not lost, Asuna san," Leafa said calmly. "He just... the truth." Asuna froze. "The... Truth?" Sinon took a step back, her posture suddenly becoming upright and militarily precise. "That there is no reason to fight. That the pain stops when you just surrender." Asuna took a step back, horror reflected in her eyes. "What... What are you talking about? What have they done to you?" At that moment, Leafa and Sinon's eyes lit up in an unnatural, dark purple, the sign of Gabriel's intervention.
"We are here to take you home, Asuna," Leafa said, holding out her hand, not like a sister, but like a mistress giving an order. "Kirito-kun is waiting for you. He has reserved a place for you... right between us." Asuna looked around desperately, but she was alone with the two shells of her former friends.
Asuna backed away until her back touched the cold, rugged rock of a cliff. The radiant aura of the goddess Stacia flickered nervously, like a candle in the approaching storm. Before her stood Leafa and Sinon, not like enemies drawing the sword, but like two messengers of a dark peace.
"Asuna san... why are you shaking so much?" Leafa asked in a voice so soft that it sounded almost loving. She took a slow step towards Asuna. "You seem so tired. The burden of carrying the whole world on your shoulders... the weight of the hope of all men... it must tear you apart inside." "Stop it!" Asuna shouted, her voice breaking. "That's not you! Gabriel did something to you... Kirito would never allow that" "Kirito kun is the one who freed us," Sinon interrupted her calmly. She approached from the other side and cut off Asuna's escape route. Her eyes, once so sharp, focused, were now like two deep, dark lakes in which every individuality had drowned. "He has given us the greatest gift there is: freedom from ourselves." Sinon raised her hand and stroked Asuna's cheek almost tenderly. Asuna tried to pull her head away, but Leafa's hand rested gently but with unnatural force on her shoulder.
"Do you remember the pain, Asuna?" whispered Sinon. "The constant fear of losing someone? The doubts as to whether you are strong enough? All of this is... away. The moment I put my will in his hands, there was silence. A wonderful, perfect silence." Leafa tilted her head and looked deep into Asuna's eyes. "It's so easy, Asuna san. You just have to stop fighting. You just have to say 'yes'.
Kirito kun is waiting for you. He loves you so much that he has reserved this space between us for you. We will be three parts of a single whole. No more jealousy, no more loneliness, no more pain." Asuna felt her breathing become shallower. The words of the two seeped into her soul like poison. It was not the violence that frightened them, but the absolute conviction with which they spoke. They sounded happy. Happy in a horrible, dehumanized way. "Imagine..." Leafa continued, stepping even closer so that her breath brushed Asuna's face. ... never having to make a decision again. Never again to bear responsibility for the lives of others. You will only exist to please him. And in his gaze you will find your only truth. Isn't that what you've always wanted? To be one with him? To be completely and completely?"
"No... that's not love... that's slavery!" Asuna squeezed out, but her legs felt heavy as lead. Sinon smiled a small, pitying smile. "Call it what you want. We call it peace. Look at us, Asuna. We don't suffer. We are perfect. And you're so... empty. So alone in your freedom." The two women were now so close to her that Asuna could feel her body heat. They formed a cage of flesh and soft voices. "Come with us, Asuna," they whispered almost synchronously. "Let the goddess die so that the woman can finally rest. He's waiting for you... his heart is now so big that it can devour us all."
Asuna felt tears of despair running down her cheeks. Her grip on her sword loosened. The psychological barrier she had so laboriously maintained began to crumble under the rhythmic whispers of her best friends.