Ch 384: Martial Arts retreat.

"Thank you, Ruo Ruo." smiled Noah as she gave him a cup of tea and sat down. Shuiruo nodded to him, made a cup for herself, and they all sat on several sofas around a low table.

"Did you do that time manipulation thing, Noah?" asked Eve, examining her own smartphone. "I'm not getting a signal."

"I did, so we can take the time to decide what to do." nodded Noah. "Can you tell me more about Hell? He referred to you as his disciples, but I was under the impression that the Mad Scientist kept you prisoners as guinea pigs."

Bing Yao, Qian Mo and Yao Ying looked at Fey, clearly wanting her to lead the conversation and decide how much to tell Noah and the others.

"I won't tell you too much." frowned Fey. "Those were very unpleasant years. Hell was the world's strongest killer, but he wanted at least one disciple. The Mad Scientist found out and contacted him, and they agreed to cooperate."

"Hell would capture kids in which he saw potential, or just random ones, and bring them to HEAVEN, the place where the Mad Scientist performed his experiments. The Mad Scientist would then force us to fight against each other, inject us with drugs, and do all sorts of tests. His goal was to create two individuals who would transcend the limits of humanity."

Fey looked at him with a slightly bitter smile.

"Can you take a guess?"

Noah stared at her for a few seconds and nodded.

"A woman and a man? Eve, and Adam?"

Fey nodded.

"Adam died after one injection too many... The Mad Scientist was quite furious that day, and the next strongest man among us was far from Adam's equal…"

Noah didn't need to be told to understand that this Adam was the fiction's original MC. After all, who else but a monster of Eve's caliber would manage to go through the gauntlet that had protected the Lunar Scourge?

"And Hell?" asked Noah.

"He often came back to Heaven to teach us how to fight, how to kill." shrugged Fey. "But he never saw us as anything but tools. He never treated us with anything but coldness… About three years ago, the Mad Scientist went on a trip for a day, and Hell stayed in HEAVEN to train us. We saw an opportunity and executed our plan… Many of us died before we managed to pin him down, and I slit his throat..."

"Then we ran… For a while, I separated from the others and searched for my mother."

Fey closed her eyes, and her face twisted in pain.

"…She never stopped searching for me. For seven long years, she never stopped. And she was infected by the Isrock virus somewhere. I found her just a month before I had to say goodbye."

Fey angrily wiped a tear that escaped her eyes, and Noah nodded gently, deciding to revive her mother before the day was over.

Shuiruo looked at him, and he made a small nod.

"I returned to the others. Most of them had found their families, too, but they met disappointment, and we reunited together. We survived while staying in back alleys, then I saved Enxi when she was chased by some hitmen. We became friends. I helped her get revenge and got a few other scums out of her way, and she offered us her financial support."

Fey stopped talking, and there was an awkward silence for a few seconds before Bing Yao spoke.

"Noah, the way you killed that man. Are those techniques part of what you can give others?" asked Bing Yao with an intense gaze.

Noah looked around, and could see that the twins and Fey looked very interested as well. He slowly nodded, and used Light Magic to write words and numbers in the air.

Strength: 365

Agility: 538

Perception: 259

Endurance: 422

Magic: 1 000

Charisma: 120

"…Let's talk about the passive body strengthening I provide will all my girls first. This is part of my status. I have one, similar to what all players get inside Mystic Moon."

"Strength is self-evident. Agility increases both my movement and reaction speed. Perception helps me notice details I might have missed otherwise and is useful when pondering about abstract concepts like Space or Time. Endurance boosts my resistance to damage and curses, and reduces recovery time when I get tired or injured. Magic too is self-evident, but also helps me multitask, improves my memory, and resistance to mental attacks. Finally, Charisma improves my attractiveness and eloquence."

"For reference, the base value of each attribute for a fit, healthy human is 10. Every day, me and my subordinates exercise for about fifteen minutes, and we get rewarded with three attribute points to distribute as we see fit. My own attributes are capped at one thousand, while those of my subordinates are capped at five hundred."

"With Soul Contracts, I can bestow half of my attributes to each of my subordinates, meaning that any who reached her five hundred limit in Magic, as an example, will also get five hundred from me, totaling a thousand."

"You're telling us that any of your subordinates will eventually be on an even footing with you, at least where this passive strengthening is concerned." nodded Fey with a gleam in her eyes.

"As far as attributes go, yes. But Lilith gave me a few passive skills to increase their net effect. Still, my subordinates will close most of the gap. And why do I suddenly feel like someone is planning to get some revenge on me?" asked Noah with a smile.

The girls chuckled, and Noah continued.

"Now, what did I use in the fight earlier? Augment to further boost my attributes. I'm sharing it. My shield and sword were made using Item Creation, something I'm also sharing. Ki infusion to boost my blade and shield. That one is something I learned from Luo Hao, and you could start learning it right away, if any of us who already can use it are willing to teach you."

"Flicker, that movement technique, and Hard Light Arsenal that I used just before delivering the lethal blow, are also things I share. The only ability I used that I cannot share is my far-sighting ability. It allowed me to see the darts inside Hell's forearms before he fired them."

"And there's also the abilities you mentioned back then at the restaurant, Immortality, Healing, Immunity to Curses in mind-control, and so on…" nodded Fey.

"Yes, there are those as well." shrugged Noah as he took a sip of his tea.

"…I need this enhancement." sighed Fey. "I'll accept being your woman to obtain it."

"Master…" hesitated Yao Ying.

"You took part in the fight earlier, Ying'er." replied Fey with a gentle, sad smile. "We couldn't do anything. The Mad Scientist and his allies will surely be much stronger than Hell was. We need Noah's strength. But it doesn't have to be all of us. It is fine if you are unwilling. I won't force you."

Yao Ying nodded, her left hand going to her right arm as she remembered how Hell had broken it like a twig. Shuiruo had healed her before going after Hell.

"I am willing, too." nodded Bing Yao as she steeled herself. "Master, what you need to do, we need to do as well. We stand united."

"Well said." nodded Qian Mo as she took her twin sister's hand. "Noah, please do with us the same things you will do with Master."

"I will." nodded Noah. "Thank you for being wiling to entrust yourselves into my hands… And because this fight against Hell also makes me feel like the confrontation with the Mad Scientist will happen soon, I will do something really insane."

"Once you guys are settled inside the dorm, I will charge the Sanctuary with as much of my magic power as possible and spend a little over a year inside. Less than half a day will occur outside. With a thousand days to train myself, I will be able to reach the limit of my Agility Attribute, as well as significantly improve my Strength and Endurance."

"I will stay inside as well." decided Eve. "That will give me time to increase my attributes on top of receiving yours."

"That would be great." smiled Noah. "And think of all the time we'll have to spar against each other and hone our techniques."

"Then I will also stay inside, and my disciple Rin will, too." declared Luo Hao. "We will be able to progress a lot."

"...That wouldn't be a bad idea, I guess." shrugged Rin. "I'm so going to kick Shadow's ass when we get there."

She still blushed a little as she glanced at Noah, and he smiled as he thought back for a second about all the things they had done in her Soul Space.

…

In the end, most of the girls decided to stay and turn this half-day into an intensive martial arts retreat.

They all left the Sanctuary to update the other people at the dorm, and for Fey to contact every member of her group.

And during the first day, Qi Yue chose to reveal herself to them, introducing herself as one of Noah's friends, but saying nothing about her origins and ignoring all questions about it. When Noah later asked her, she shrugged and said that remaining hidden for a year straight would be hard to tolerate, both for herself and Ye Yue.

…

Beta, feeling exhausted, looked around, finding herself in what looked like the Mitsugoshi Company headquarters in the Capital, in the room where she had spent most of the last year writing her novels. She could even see her favorite pen and neatly organized bundles of sheets on her desk.

Beta walked to the desk and picked up those sheets, wondering how detailed the illusion was. She recognized her own writing on the pages, and the text was what she last wrote, before that disastrous operation against the Cult of Diablos and their capture.

"I was expecting that small house in the Kagenou estate." said a man's voice behind her. "I welcome the change."

Beta instantly turned part of her slime suit into a blade and slashed at neck length as she whirled around, already knowing that the gesture was futile, but not wanting to just remain passive. Would that man even die if he was killed in a dream?

Her slime blade was blocked by a raised finger, and suddenly, Beta was completely naked.

Noah, that hateful man she has no choice but to obey now, shook his head at her with amusement.

"You should know better by now, Beta." smiled Noah as Beta hurriedly covered her crotch and breasts with her hands, her face heating up.

"Should I?" countered Beta. "It looks to me like that oath of obedience you forced upon us isn't absolute after all. I was able to attack you just now."

"Yes, you were." nodded Noah. "But I didn't feel any killing intent behind that move, only frustration, and that's likely why the Contract didn't stop you. Am I wrong?"

Beta hesitated for a brief instant, realizing that he was right. But she didn't want to comment on it, since she knew he could see through lies, and she didn't want to admit to already feeling defeated, so she changed the subject.

"How did you make this illusory space so realistic? Do you have spies inside Mitsugoshi?"

"This is your Soul Space, not just an illusion. It feeds on your own memories and inner self to build itself."

"I see…" frowned Beta. "…So what are you going to do to me?"

"I have a game in mind for you. A new training method." smiled Noah. "And you have been voluntold. Put your arms behind your back, Beta, palms against each other."

Beta's arms moved against her will, and she gritted her teeth as her breasts and crotch were exposed on full display. She really hated this. And she tried to hide the fact that her body was growing horny.

After the days of relentless edging, followed by a single orgasm, it couldn't be otherwise. This was a natural reaction from her body, and she knew it. But she still hated it, and above all, she didn't want him to notice!

A large piece of black leather with many straps and buckles appeared in Noah's hands, and he slowly walked behind her.

She felt the leather being slipped up her arms, forcing her elbows closer together. An armbinder, then. Beta had learned the names of many different restraints in the last few days. And all too often, she had experienced them first-hand.

Noah tightly fastened the straps going over Beta's shoulders, then laced it until Beta's shoulders were firmly pressed together. Then more straps were closed around her wrists, and under and above her elbows.

Beta didn't try to struggle against the leather, as she knew just how inescapable the armbinder was.

"The rules of the game are simple, Beta." said Noah with a soft voice as he hugged her loosely from behind, his arms against her waist.

She shuddered as she felt his bulge pressing against her rear.

"I am going to stretch the time we spend in your Soul Space until Sakura and the others come to wake you up. They will train you while you're awake, and as soon as you fall asleep, we will resume our game together."

"Every day we spend here, I will give you an opportunity to confess something. It is fine if you say nothing. It is also fine if you lie. I will not hold it against you. But that will be your only opportunity to speak. Once that opportunity passes, if you utter even a single word, I will gag you until the next day."

"What do you even want me to confess?" frowned Beta, wondering if he was after information on Shadow Garden, or if he was talking about a confession in the romantic sense of the word.

"That's the thing." smiled Noah. "I am not going to tell you. So, feel free to confess anything you want. Meanwhile, I will keep you as my sexy, bound plaything."

His arms tightened around her waist, and Beta shuddered.

"I do not care if it takes hundreds of days until you confess the right thing. I will keep you bound the whole time, and I will keep you… entertained."

"…Like Sakura and the others kept us 'entertained' while we had to watch them break us, one after another?" bitterly asked Beta, paling as she wondered how much longer she could tolerate relentless edging before going mad.

"It won't be as intense. You would go insane, and that isn't the goal." replied Noah as if he could read her mind. "I might edge you here and then, or even use your holes for my own pleasure, but most of the time, rather than keeping you right at the edge, I will keep you… just, horny. Not panting with lust, but definitely flushed with need. So let's get started, and remember about the gag."

Beta bit down an angry retort as his hands left her body for an instant, only for a black leather blindfold to be wrapped over her eyes.

She felt him lift her up, then sit her in her lap, and he hugged her again. But this time, one hand grabbed her right breast and he started slowly massaging it.

Beta gritted her teeth as she tried to think about something else. It worked for a minute, but she still felt her nipples hardening as both of Noah's hands slowly roamed over her body, gently massaging her flesh.

She realized that this slow cooking, if it lasted too long, would be devastating. It was a lot more tolerable than the vibrating latex panties, but she still wouldn't be able to endure forever!

…

After a full day of tormenting his new plaything with nothing more than gentle caresses and massages, Noah had her kneel in front of him and removed the blindfold. He waited a few minutes for her to get used to the room's lighting and for her arousal to cool down.

"This is today's opportunity to confess, Beta." smiled Noah. "You have a few minutes if you wish to do so."

Beta glared at him, and Noah simply waited, mentally counting to 200 seconds.

Beta remained silent.

Noah nodded, put the blindfold back where it belonged, and changed her bondage, wrapping her torso in a black leather harness and fastening black leather cuffs around her wrists, before padlocking the cuffs to the harness's front. Beta could not lower her hands under her breasts.

The gentle massage and groping resumed. Before long, she started protesting in frustration, and Noah added a black ball gag to her bondage.

As Beta protested into her gag, Noah wondered how long it would take her. The confession he wanted was for her to admit that she liked being treated as a plaything, that she had grown to love the feeling of the unyielding restraints, and his hands over her body.

It would take a while. But he was fine with it. Between the Sanctuary's time compression and his ability to stretch each Soul Space session for over two weeks, it would be fine even if Beta took months to arrive at the conclusion he wanted her to reach.

…

"And so, they will join the class. Please welcome them." said the male teacher as he tried to hide his nervousness.

Artoria repressed a sigh and kept a polite smile on her face, standing near the chalkboard with Misaki, Kuroko and Mikoto.

And Mikoto, currently blushing and avoiding everyone's gazes, wasn't wearing the school's standard uniform. She wore a frilly, black and white maid outfit.

But the maid uniform and the red-faced girl wearing it weren't the reasons the students were frozen stiff.

The footage captured by the drone two nights before had already leaked. By now, every student knew that the four new young women standing in front of them were able to fly and kill large Beta strains with giant glowing swords.

"My name is Artoria Pendragon. Please call me Artoria, everyone." smiled Artoria. "We are here to get a crash course on piloting TSFs, but we also look forward to making new friends."

"I am Misaki Shokuhou." said Misaki with her most disarming smile. "And this is my devoted maid Mikoto Misaka, and our friend, Kuroko Shirai. It is nice to meet you all."

The students didn't miss Misaki's inflection on the words 'my devoted maid', and Mikoto's hateful glare. They could even faintly hear her gritting her teeth!

"Judging by your reactions…" continued Misaki with the same smile. "…I imagine most of you saw that video, so you know that we are a bit out of the ordinary. But I promise you that you have nothing to fear from us. We are very friendly people!"

…

Yui Takamura didn't quite know what to think about the four new students who now sat to her right, at the back of the classroom.

They certainly seemed friendly, and they had some kind of natural charisma she found quite attractive, but they also felt a little unapproachable.

As if they were existences above that of normal people, although Yui couldn't fault their behavior as arrogant. It was just that they seemed to be, more, in a subtle way Yui could feel but not describe.

Then came time for the morning break, and Yui steeled herself before turning to Artoria, the closest of them.

The previous day, her father had told them about the four otherworlders, and what was at stakes. Nurturing a good relationship with them would contribute to them sharing some new military technologies that Japan badly needed.

And as the dutiful daughter of the Imperial Japanese Army's Chief of staff, as a member of a family that prided itself in producing a lot of Imperial Guards, the IJA's elite TSF pilots, and as a future pilot who might end up piloting machines benefiting from those new technologies, Yui intended to do her part.

She nodded to Artoria with a smile.

"My name is Yui Takamura. It is a pleasure to meet you all. My father asked me to do everything in my power to help you."

"The pleasure is mutual. Yui Takamura? Are you perhaps the Chief of Staff's daughter?" asked Artoria.

"That is the case." nodded Yui. "If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me."

"Thank you." smiled Artoria. "I think we will take you up on your kind offer, and maybe not just on matters related to Tactical Surface Fighters or beta strains. This world is quite similar to some we visited in many aspects, but this very likeness can also cause us to be blindsided on occasion."

"I heard you came from a parallel Earth." nodded Yui. "And that another Japan exists on that world. Does that mean that there are alternate version of ourselves over there, living different lives?"

"Not as far as we are aware." smiled Misaki. "We never met or heard of alternate selves, and our teams have explored over fifty worlds already. And the differences are larger than what the world 'parallel' might lead you to believe."

"For example, the first one Valhalla visited had the same land masses as here and another Japan, but the year was 2095 or so, and they had solar panels everywhere and self-driving cars, and they also turned magic into a science. They taught to those who had the potential for it in special universities."

"On the other end of the spectrum, another team found itself stranded on a huge island where people lived in medieval conditions and were attacked by shapeshifting monsters that could hide among the population."

"That sounds both wondrous and horrible." nodded Yui. "Can you know in advance what the world you are going to visit is like and choose where to go?"

"We can't." smiled Artoria. "We are chasing after a bunch of monsters, so wherever they go, we follow. However, since finding their precise location usually takes months, we use our free time to help people in trouble while we're at it. Even after we are done with the one hiding in your world and leave, it is quite possible that more members of Valhalla will later return to help bring a definitive end to the Beta threat."

"I understand." nodded Yui. "We will be grateful for any help we can get."

Yui blinked as she noticed that her friends were standing just a few meters away, hesitating, and she gestured for them to go closer with an encouraging smile.

"Please let me introduce you to my friends." smiled Yui as they approached.

…

"Is this a TSF's pilot suit, Aki?" asked Artoria with a raised eyebrow as she glanced at one of Yui's friends, a girl with short brown hair and teal eyes. Artoria held in her hands what looked a lot like a glossy, white latex bodysuit, although the material had a thickness of several millimeters.

The were in a large changing room. The afternoon classes had started, and they were going to use training TSF for some live maneuvering. They weren't going to fire live or blank ammos for now, just learn to move their machines as part of a squad, covering each other's blind spots without colliding against their teammates.

"Ah, yes." nodded Aki Iwami as she started removing her uniform. "They're called Fortified Suits and have two parts, the inner layer is the one you hold, and the outer layer with rigid parts will come over it. There's no zippers, but the neck hole can stretch a lot. You need to be in your underwear to put them on."

"I understand." nodded Artoria as she too started undressing. Besides her, Misaki, Mikoto and Kuroko followed suit.

"Onee-sama, should I help you get into that fortified suit?" asked Kuroko with a perverted tone.

"Back off, Kuroko!" ordered Mikoto with a fed-up tone.

"I appreciate your offer to help, Kuroko-san." smiled Misaki. "And my maid should be more appreciative of it as well. Misaka-san, you will let Kuroko help you into your fortified suit."

"What?" exclaimed Mikoto with widening eyes. "I do not need…"

"Misaka-san, you wish to be a good maid, right? Disobeying your mistress's command will have consequences."

Mikoto shuddered, then swallowed her retort and angrily stripped to her underwear. Kuroko eagerly grabbed Mikoto's inner layer and crouched at her feet, holding the neck hole for Mikoto to insert her leg.

"I've been wondering, Misaki-san." asked Yui with some trepidation. "Is Mikoto-san really your maid? She doesn't seem, very… happy about it."

"Because I'm not." huffed Mikoto.

"Please call me Misaki." said Misaki with a tone that, while polite, still conveyed a clear expectation of compliance.

"Alright, Misaki." nodded Yui.

"Thank you. Mikoto lost a bet, so she's my maid for as long as we are present in your world." grinned Misaki. "It's her fault for being so easily provoked, having a bad poker face when riled up, and for not thinking to ask about the duration until after she lost."

"Oh…"

"You do not need to worry, Yui." shrugged Misaki. "I know not to push things too far. And if she truly dislikes it too much, I won't do anything about it if she simply decides to stop being my maid."

Misaki chuckled at Mikoto. "She will just have to accept being known as someone who doesn't honor her stakes..."

"Who said I was going to cop out?" angrily retorted Mikoto. "I'll endure, and then, I will take my revenge! You just wait!"

"I see." nodded Yui in satisfaction. She could tell that the relationship between Misaki and Mikoto was actually quite good. She did feel a little repulsed by the expression on Kuroko's face as she was slowly pulling the fortified suit up Mikoto's waist, though.

"Those suits are really tight." frowned Mikoto.

"Yes, they are." nodded Kai Shimako, a girl with long black hair tied with a red ribbon and amber eyes. She was another of Yui's friends. "And there's a switch on the nape of the outer layer. When you flip it, both layers will become even tighter."

Artoria finished with the inner layer, secretly appreciating its tightness. She couldn't help but remember all the times she wore a tight latex bodysuit with Akeno, Noah, or some of the others.

The outer layer, a collection of white rigid elements held together by straps of that same latex-like material, only took seconds to put on. After watching how the other students did it, she found the metal tongue behind her neck and flipped it down, and both layers tightened further.

The Fortified Suit really emphasized her large breasts, covered by the shiny, rubbery material. Artoria thought it was decidedly too lewd for a military outfit, but she shrugged it off. If the locals didn't mind it, she wasn't going to say anything about it.

She heard her smartphone make a sound and picked it from her bag. It was a message from Da Vinci, relayed by Chaldea. It contained many attached files. Reading it, Artoria smiled. The files were technical designs that Artoria and the others could use to create the parts for a Maser Vibration Sword, up-scaled to be used by TSFs.

With this, they should have a few prototypes ready for demonstration by the end of the day.