Ch 386: Litany of horrors.

Asagi let out a satisfied sigh after the door closed on Noah, Aether and Fujino, then glanced at the security camera in the corner.

Less than a minute later, the door opened, and her younger sister Sakura entered.

"It all went well, I see." nodded Sakura as she took a seat near Asagi.

"It did." nodded Asagi. "He didn't ask for anything unreasonable. He didn't even ask about his salary."

"It probably doesn't matter to him. If he wants money, he only has to ask, and the government will hand over billions." shrugged Sakura. "Do you think he has a clue?"

"If so, he's hiding it well." replied Asagi. "Or maybe our motives are so evident to him that he didn't see a reason to mention them."

"Even if he realizes later that we fooled him, what can he do about it? Give us some extra-hard training when our turn comes? I'm down for it." snorted Sakura.

"Anjou is certain Noah, while being into BDSM relationships, is neither a cold-blooded murderer nor a sadist. I believe he is right. We'll be fine." nodded Asagi. "And it's not like he won't benefit, or we're betraying him."

"Some people would see it as us trying to baby-trap him." frowned Sakura. "That counts as a pretty big betrayal."

"Not if we get his agreement before any of us actually becomes pregnant." replied Asagi as she shook her head. "We tie him to us first, and we can have that talk once he is too emotionally attached to say no."

…

"I must say that I wasn't expecting you to start with a date." smiled Fujino.

They were in the Gosha Village, a city in all but name, and waiting for their order to be fulfilled.

After leaving Asagi's office, Noah asked Fujino and Aether for good dating spots in the village, and they agreed to go to a crepe stand.

"You can consider it as information gathering." shrugged Noah. "To formulate a proper training plan, I need to know more about you, Fujino, and about the Hybrids' methods… What I saw during the rescue a few days ago only seemed to include the kind of cruel treatment normal criminals can display, aside from the hybrids having non-human bodies. And there's another reason."

"Another one?" asked Aether.

"The goal is both to grant my future students some resistance to the things the hybrids might do to them via exposure, and to give them more reasons to stay on the human side, right? I do not want to just use sexual pleasure to anchor them to our side. I will also shower them with affection and forge emotional bonds."

"I see." smiled Aether as she took a small notebook from a pocket on her belt and started scribbling on it. "You want to have a romantic relationship with them, starting with Fujino. If you can pull it off, that will certainly add a powerful motivation for the captured Taimanins to endure and return. But having a loving relationship with someone while subjecting them to hard BDSM will certainly be a challenge…"

"Ah… Is that a confession?" asked Fujino with a slight blush. "If so, I'm sorry, but…"

She stopped as Noah shook his head.

"That isn't one. We barely met after all." replied Noah. "I will admit that I find you very attractive. Who wouldn't? But I am not really the kind to fall in love at first sight. Proper love takes time."

"Customers, your order is ready." called out the stand owner, a middle-aged woman with short black hair whose blue eyes missed nothing. Noah was willing to bet that she was a former Taimanin.

"Thank you very much." smiled Noah as he paid for the crepes and distributed them to Fujino and Aether.

"Let's sit around that table in the corner." suggested Fujino, and Noah nodded. The stand owner had installed a dozen small tables and twice that many chairs. Half were occupied, mostly with students from Gosha Academy, judging by their uniforms.

And Noah didn't need to use Promise to be aware that he was the focus of their conversation, being the 'spirit' who helped Japan fend off the British, the man who rescued a number of captured Taimanins, and a new face in the reclusive village. They were at least polite enough not to stare at him, and that was enough for him.

He took a chair from a nearby unoccupied table and offered it to Aether, who nodded thanks at him, then sat and took a bite of his raspberry and strawberry crepe.

"Let's start with the unpleasant stuff first, if you would." suggested Noah. "What can you tell me about the Hybrids' methods to enslave a captured Taimanin? I have witnessed scenes involving bondage, humiliation, and rape. Aphrodisiacs and brainwashing magic were mentioned earlier. But there is obviously more to it."

"I will begin with the mind-alteration techniques." nodded Aether.

"Sorting from relatively benign to outright vile, there are modified Noh Masks or Oni Masks incorporating some magic inhibitors that suppresses the wearer's emotions. The Hybrids rarely use them, and a few Taimanins find them useful during missions."

Noah nodded, as he could see how useful suppressing one's emotions could be in combat.

"Next are Hypno Apps." shrugged Aether. "Brainwashing programs disguised as normal applications on someone's smartphone. They bring a person to a suggestible state and make it difficult for them to resist following instructions."

"As far as brainwashing goes, the effect is pretty weak. It rarely works on experienced Taimanins, and strong-willed civilians will not fall into that state even if they do not immediately notice anything strange with the app. We rarely encounter those apps because the Hybrids we fight generally prefer more sadistic and efficient methods."

"Then, there are the Flesh Rooms." said Aether with obvious distaste. "More like caves, really. Caves whose walls, floor and ceiling are made of red, pulsating flesh. I am not sure if they really counts as a mind-altering technique, but I may as well mention those."

"They are organic abominations resulting from some Hybrids' experiments. To date, we found three of them, one inside a basement in Japan, and two in caves deep in the Land of Dragons. Captured women are brought inside Flesh Rooms where their limbs will be swallowed by the mass of flesh, immobilizing them. The Flesh Room will occasionally form tentacles or masks and feed its victims with nutrient-rich fluids, and at times stimulate them, but will mostly leave them alone otherwise."

"The victims will generally be fine if they are quickly rescued, but there is a real risk they might go insane if they spend weeks or even months with their bodies partially embedded into a wall of flesh." said Fujino.

"And the Hybrids will just let those captives inside the Flesh Room, like they are in some kind of perverted storage?" asked Noah with a raised eyebrow.

"No." sighed Aether. "Sometimes, the Flesh Room will be used like a brothel to reward their human collaborators. Other times, they will physically alter the victims' bodies so they can give birth to any kind of Hybrids. We will circle back to that when speaking about body alterations… Next should be the Lewd Crests and Magical Contracts."

"Lewd Crests are magic tattoos, generally placed on a woman's crotch. They are a crude but effective form of Magical Contract, and at the same time can be a pre-requisite for some more advanced and comprehensive Magical Contracts."

"The effect of a Lewd Crest can vary a lot." explained Aether. "Some are purely cosmetic, like a symbol of ownership. Others serve as pregnancy test and will glow when their wearer becomes pregnant. Most of those used by Hybrids increase the wearer's lust. The very worst of them are the Hypno Slave Seals. They plunge their victims into a permanent trance state and will make them obey the one the Crest designates as their master."

"…Alright." sighed Noah. "I guess it is time for me to disclose something. Over the last few years, I collected many abilities of my own, and not all of them are related to combat. I have a Crest ability of my own. It increases the wearer's libido to a significant but not crippling extent and will evolve over time. As long as it doesn't reach its final form, the Crest will disappear after fifteen days, without leaving secondary effects behind."

"And if it reaches its final form?" frowned Fujino.

"Then the Crest doesn't expire anymore." replied Noah.

"We already know." nodded Aether. "We saw the one on Mai's body. She told us that its evolution was part of what let you communicate in her dreams, and that the enhanced libido was easy to control, and the Crest was harmless."

"That is the case." lied Noah.

He certainly was going to give Mai a big reward. It seemed she had threaded a fine line between telling the Taimanins enough to get their interest and hiding enough to keep it.

For a second, he wondered how much the last perk of a fully evolved Crest, giving it's wearer a desire to gather more women and see them marked with more Crests, had factored in her thinking.

"And you said the crest evolves? What are the conditions for it?"

"Whenever I have sex with a woman, I can decide to create the Crest, or refresh its duration if one is already present. And it will be fully evolved after the hundredth time I refresh it. Whether you wish for the Crest to be part of what we will do is up to you, Fujino."

"We need to study this, Fujino." said Aether as she turned to her colleague.

"…I agree." nodded Fujino. "As long as it is temporary, I don't mind trying it. It does sound like a fairly innocuous one."

"Next on the vile scale, Magical Contracts in general tend to be more complex, and they are very common among Hybrids. They routinely use Magical Contracts even between themselves, to enforce temporary obedience as payment for services, or to make up for a lack of mutual trust when making deals." continued Aether. "You could say that the Hybrid society is using Magical Contracts as its foundation, creating order out of chaos… They require both parties to be willing and for a third party to stand as witness.

"A Hybrid woman named Arcela is quite notorious for being a high-ranking arbitrator." nodded Fujino. "Some say even gods would be afraid of the consequences of breaking her Magical Contracts... If you could use your teleportation to find her and take her out, it would deal a significant blow to the Hybrid society."

"…I will keep that in mind." frowned Noah. "At this point, I do not know enough about Hybrids and their society to determine if it would be a good idea. There is something to be said about not kicking a hornet's nest. Maybe once an adequate number of Taimanins benefit from the enhancement I can provide. Are all Hybrids even evil?"

"No, many of them aren't." admitted Fujino.

"Returning to the details of Magical Contracts…" sighed Aether. "Their effect vary greatly depending on how they are redacted, but they aren't brainwashing tools. They work by enforcing consequences for violating terms. For example, a Slave Contract might give the slave excruciating pain if she disobeys the master, or even make an associated Crest explode if the slave goes more than a kilometer away from the master."

"I see." nodded Noah.

"Next is a staple, brainwashing machines. They typically are large devices made to restrain a Taimanin and feature a virtual reality helmet that will make the Taimanin watch countless scenes of women being dominated and raped. The Hybrids will often add aphrodisiacs to enhance the effect of the VR brainwashing, and they also might alter the captive's body while the brainwashing device is working on their mind."

"Things like increasing the bust sizes of their captives?" asked Noah, and both Aether and Fujino nodded. "I noticed that many Taimanins and Exorcists I saw seem to be quite… gifted in that regard."

"Many of us were captured at least once before." shrugged Fujino. "And the modification goes as far as changing our DNA, insuring that most of our descendants will be girls and that they too will have large breasts."

"I see." nodded Noah.

"That brainwashing method is only moderately effective when the captives are subjected to it for days on end. The Hybrids mostly use it to soften their captive's initial resistance before switching to other forms of slave training, and we developed counter-brainwashing techniques here in the village to undo it."

"I am glad to hear it. Please tell me this is it for the mind alteration methods." hoped Noah.

"If only." sighed Fujino. "What Aether told you about are only the things that can either be fairly minor things, or that we can undo without too much difficulty. What comes next is way worse."

"Meat Vessels are large pods of flesh full of tentacles. When a woman is placed inside, the tentacles will wrap around her body while the pod closes, plunging her into darkness. The tentacles constantly secrete a strong aphrodisiac, and they will immerse the woman into orgasm hell. She will go mad or catatonic in short order if not quickly rescued.

Noah winced as he thought about the two rubber tentacle pods he himself had created a while ago. At least he hadn't used aphrodisiacs and had strictly limited the time per session. They were still used by some of his girls on occasion, but Noah had set them up so that the tentacles would go limp after giving them four orgasms.

"That leaves Possession and Dark Seeds. I do not know which is worse." sighed Fujino.

"The Dark Seeds are definitely the worst." nodded Aether. "A helmet is put on the captive's head, looking similar to a brainwashing helmet, but different. That helmet will implant near the brain's stem an organic Seed that will grow and extend all over the body. Surgical removal is impossible once the Seed had time to grow."

"What does it do?" asked Noah.

"The Seed is linked to a physical remote." replied Aether. "That remote has five buttons with different colors."

"The red one will inflict excruciating pain."

"The blue one will make the host lose consciousness, and the remote's holder can control the body like a puppet with vocal commands."

"The Yellow button causes the seed to excrete love chemicals that will make it very difficult even for a strong-willed host to disobey the master, even though they are fully aware of what has been done to them."

"The Green button is similar but will plunge the host into a lustful state."

"And the Black button, will trigger a petrification curse. The host's skin and tissues harden to the point of rigidity and take a grayish stone-like appearance. And the host is kept alive and conscious by the curse, indefinitely."

"All we can do for those who have been implanted with a Dark Seed is kill their masters and secure the remotes." sighed Fujino. "We have them under lock and key. As long as no one get their hands on them, they can resume a normal life."

"Are there people suffering from that petrification curse inside the village? I have yet to find a curse I couldn't dispel."

Noah would likely be able to safely remove the Dark Seeds as well, but if the affected women already could live more or less normally, that could wait a day or two.

"I believe there are several." nodded Aether. "I will ask Asagi about it later today, when I deliver my first report."

"Alright… how bad is Possession?" asked Noah.

"It is as the name implies." said Fujino. "Some Hybrids are able to use a high-level Yanling Spell to create a partial copy of their soul and implant it into a captive once their mental resistance has been weakened. The victim has almost no chances to resist before their soul is consumed, and the copy gets uncontested control of the body."

"However, due to the hybrid nature of the soul, or maybe because the Yanling spell is flawed, the body will mutate in short order. Red growths will appear on the skin in spots and will often form tentacles. That is why a Possessed can be identified with a glance, and why Hybrids do not often resort to Possession."

"So the Possessed can only be killed? The Soul is gone?" asked Noah to confirm, and both Aether and Fujino nodded.

Noah lowered his gaze to the crepe in his hand and sighed.

"Maybe a date involving food was a bad idea after all... And you haven't even listed the body modifications."

"Do you want us to continue? To get it over with?" asked Fujino, and Noah nodded.

"Yes, please. Let's get the horror behind us."

"There are six… no, seven types of body modifications Hybrids use. The first is simple medical modification. It can be used to enhance one aspect of one's body like strength or toughness, cure impotence, or enlarge specific body parts. Like breasts and cocks. Pushed to its extreme, it can lead to humans being transformed into Hybrids by inserting DNA material from another Hybrid and doing some other changes."

"The second way is the Super Soldier treatment. It aims to increase all combat aspects of the subject, but carries a risk of mutation similar to Possession."

"Then, there is petrification, complete or partial. Hybrids use this as punishment or to create… decorations."

"One kind of body modification that is frequently used is to make the captives into breeders, able to give birth to children from almost all kinds of Hybrids. Those body modification also dramatically increases milk production."

Aether paused, and Fujino took over.

"Next is the Dollification Process." said Fujino with a wince. "Something they typically reserve for Taimanins who resist their other methods long enough for them to lose patience... It's a quadruple amputation. Sometimes, they will replace the lost limbs with prosthetics. Most often, they won't."

"As earlier, if you have recovered agents who suffered this fate, please bring me to them." nodded Noah. "I can regrow limbs easily."

"Asu…" started Aether before cutting herself off. "No, I shouldn't speak about something private like this without her approval, but I know someone who had her limbs amputated. But I do not know if she would be willing to lose her prosthetics. I will ask her later."

Noah nodded, and Fujino cleared her throat.

"Moving on, the next disgusting thing is personality extraction."

"Personality extraction?" exclaimed Noah, unsure he heard correctly.

"A vile Yanling Spell that literally melts part of the victim's brain. It is an execution method the Hybrids reserve for failed slaves who are deemed hopeless for further training. All that remains after a Personality Extraction is a mass of instincts and drives. Like zombies from movies, but without the biting and infectious aspects. After this treatment, they can only be used as toys or decorations."

"And the last one is something that Hybrids use almost as often as they enlarge their captives' breasts." sighed Aether. "They call it 'Slave Body modification' or 'Lewd Remodeling'."

"To create perfect slaves, they use various drugs to enhance sexual sensitivity, endurance, and production of natural lubricants. It can be done with needles, body oils or other tools. The whole body becomes an erogenous zone. A normal person can be driven mad by such a treatment, and even the most strong-willed Taimanins are at risk of being turned into slaves because of Lewd Remodeling."

"Those we rescued after they underwent this Lewd Remodeling routinely use numbing drugs and get their arousal under control by practicing regular masturbation." nodded Aether. "But there is no cure for Lewd Remodeling."

"Wait, Aether, we forgot the Heretical Acupuncture." exclaimed Fujino.

"Ah, yes, there is that too." nodded Aether. "We only saw two cases, because it takes some very specialized knowledge that the typical Hybrid criminal won't have access to, and the process takes more time and effort than Lewd Remodeling. The captive's body will be pierced by hundreds of thin metal needles connected to wires. The wires will provide electrical currents providing either pain or pleasure for days or even weeks, to condition the captive's mind into obeying the master."

"Over time, the obedience due to fear of pain turns into a submissive streak, and this becomes very hard to undo. In the two cases we encountered, the Hybrids forced the women into obedience using this process, then made them accept slave contracts to cement their fate."

Noah nodded, deep in thought. This Lewd Remodeling probably was something he could treat… But he didn't really want to, at least not immediately. This sounded interesting enough that he wanted experience sex with a woman like this at least once before he did something about it. Instead…

Noah started to imagine a latex bodysuit imbued with numbing properties. Something that would adequately solve those women's issues, while also making them used to latex wear…

"I understand." nodded Noah. "To train Taimanins to endure such aggressive methods, we really can't do things half-way. Although the number of them being captured should dramatically fall once they benefit from my abilities."

"We hope so." nodded Fujino. "Although there are times when we deliberately let ourselves be captured to infiltrate Hybrid cities in the Lands of Dragons."

"That sounds insane to me, considering all you just told me." winced Noah.

"That is our duty." shrugged Fujino. "To fight off the infiltration of human society by the Hybrids, we need to collect information on both sides of the fence, so to speak. If that means dozens of Taimanins or Exorcists falling into slavery every year, even some of them turning enemies, that is a price we are willing to pay."

"…Dozens every year?" frowned Noah.

"We recover most of them." nodded Aether. "The number of Taimanins we can't rescue, rescue too late for them to recover, or turn into enemies is somewhere around six or eight per year."

Noah nodded, thinking that the conflict between criminal Hybrids and the Yamata-no-Orochi sounded almost like an informal, symbiotic relationship, with both Taimanins and Hybrids getting what they wanted out of their covert war.

But then again, you could probably say this for any agency working in intelligence.

"I've had my dose of depressing information for today." smiled Noah. "How about we talk about you, Fujino? And I'm sure you must have questions about me as well."

"We sure do." chuckled Fujino. "How did you become so strong? Rumors say you're a Spirit, but from the little information we have about you, you aren't actually one…"

"I am not. I was actually just a normal human five years ago. An accountant in a large company, in the America of a parallel world. Then my boss, the CEO's daughter, started to treat me as her personal gofer, unloading her work on me, and I didn't stand it…"

For almost an hour, Noah and the two women talked about various subjects that didn't have anything to do with Hybrids or training.

Then Noah's phone rang. The call came from Chisato, and Noah excused himself for a moment to create yet another verbal contract.

…

Alpha opened her eyes. She was standing in front of the small house at the back of the Kagenou estate.

But she couldn't possibly be there, so she understood. She was in that Soul Space Epsilon and the others had mentioned. She frowned as she looked around, not managing to find any flaw in the illusion.

And as she turned her head, she found Noah standing a few meters away from her, considering her with a thoughtful expression.

"Hello, Alpha." nodded Noah.

Alpha felt tempted to turn some of her slime suit into a blade and attempt a surprise attack, but would that even do anything? Would he die in the real world if he died here?

Lately, her decisions hadn't been the best.

"Why are we here?" sighed Alpha. "You already forced me to swear loyalty to you. I am truly trapped now. What more could you possibly want?"

"I want you, Alpha." smiled Noah. "Not just your body or your obedience. I want all of you. And now I am going to do the work to earn what I want."

"You can force yourself on my body, but you will never have my heart!" declared Alpha.

Noah snorted in amusement.

"I heard that before. Many times. What makes you think you are different from the girls who now eagerly look forward to their next time with me in their Soul Space? Don't bother answering, we have better things to do than engage in a verbal joust."

A white leather sofa appeared behind him, and he sat down without looking at it.

"Come and take a seat, Alpha. I'm not touching you tonight, so don't worry."

Alpha hesitated for a second, then sighed and sat on the sofa on Noah's left, keeping as much distance as she could.

"My girls told me that you sleep better these days. It seems I guessed right. Being powerless did you some good."

"You have the audacity of claiming the near constant torture and humiliation is making my life better?" fumed Alpha to cover her shame.

It was true. Being tied up paradoxically made her feel more relaxed. It had taken her a few nights to realize it, and she had tried to hide it from Sakura and the others, but when they asked her from time to time, she hadn't been able to hide that realization from them.

She wasn't sure if Sakura's previous explanation, about being bound making her free from responsibility, was the true reason, but it didn't change the reality of what she felt when she was left alone in her cell.

"No. You are conflating the edging and the bondage. They are separate." shrugged Noah. "Edging you until you gave in was necessary for us to meet. Now, things will be easier for you."

"What did you do to Beta, Delta and the others?" asked Alpha.

"Beta is experiencing long periods of massages and light petting, with a few orgasms here and there, all while being bound in some way." replied Noah. "It's only a matter of time before she comes to love it. Pleasure is insidious like that. No one can stop themselves from wanting more, not for long."

"Delta has probably realized that I am likely stronger than Shadow by now, and my promise to revive her dead mother went a long way. She hasn't started to ask me to give her kids yet, but she now enjoys our times together. I haven't had sex with her yet, only some petting, but that's coming soon. But let's stop speaking about others. This is about you."

Alpha sighed before asking.

"So how are you going to torture me?"

"Is torture even necessary at this point?" asked Noah with a raised eyebrow. "You should realize by now that Shadow Garden is going to be absorbed into Valhalla. You have seen how strong my girls are, how easily we can grab Shadow Garden members, and how fast we can turn them into loyal Valhalla members."

"If Chisato, Sakura and the others decide to organize into teams of two or three and make captured Shadow Garden members go through what they did to you, and the newly trained girls do the same, considering the Sanctuary's time compression, it probably wouldn't take a month outside before at least 80% of Shadow Garden is taken over."

Alpha clenched her fists as she wanted to retort, but she too had done the calculations many times over, and they always had pointed at the same conclusion. A rapid takeover of Shadow Garden.

"Not if Shadow defeats you." glared Alpha. "You do not know how strong he truly is. He never went all-out."

"No, I don't." nodded Noah. "And I do find that uncertainty a little frustrating. But I do know a few things. For example, his swordsmanship. Do you know why he is a much better swordsman than just about everyone else?"

"I guess you're about to tell me."

"I am." chuckled Noah. "Cid reincarnated into his world with the memories of his previous life intact. A previous life that happened in another world where magic doesn't exist, and where he devoted himself to becoming the world's strongest by training in many different martial arts."

"Now, that other world is quite different from yours. Among other things, swordsmanship has become a sport, not a matter of national security, due to guns being more efficient. Swordsmen over there meet their counterparts from other countries to compete, comparing their own styles. They have done so for at least two or three centuries. Do you understand the implications?"

Alpha frowned as she considered it. In the Midgar Kingdom, sharing swordsmanship style was considered treason, because it could lead other nations to learn the flaws of your own fighting style. It was the same for the surrounding nations.

But in another world where magic didn't exist, swords wouldn't be able to compare with guns. So guns would become a soldier's default weapon, and swordsmanship would end up relegated as a relic of the past. It would make sense then for it to become something like a sport, and for experts from multiples nations to meet and spar against each other.

"It's a crucible." realized Alpha. "They would gradually borrow from each other and refine their style."

"Exactly." nodded Noah. "Modern swordsmen over there have gone a long way to eliminate useless movements or improve their footing, among other things. Their style has become a lot less flashy, but more efficient and harder to counter. And that is what Shadow learned."

"I have done something a little differently." shrugged Noah. "I used the Sanctuary's time compression and my ability to experience several days worth of time every night to train. I trained under Scathach. I trained under Okita. I trained under Luo Hao. I trained under Artoria. I trained under Olivier, Lily and Freya. And many more. All of them great experts whose swordsmanship exceed those of the humans living in Shadow's previous world."

"By now, I have accumulated several hundreds of thousands of hours of sparring against people who could be considered some of the greatest swordsmen of their respective worlds, and slowly developed my own style. A style I am still slowly refining. So I am asking you. Do you think Shadow is a better swordsman than I am?"

"…E-Even if you are, magic power is important." retorted Alpha, feeling less confident and hating herself for it. "Magic power determines how fast you can move and how strong your blows are, and…"

Alpha flinched as she felt magic power erupt from Noah. It was massive, on a scale similar to Shadow's. She couldn't determine if this power was stronger or not. All she could say was that it was much stronger than her own.

Noah lowered his magic power and shrugged.

"I also have a few nasty surprises in store for Shadow. For example, the anti-magic runes Chisato and the others use to stop you from using your own magic power. That will go a long way to counter Shadow's slime suit by disrupting his control over it."

"Then there's the sensory manipulation stuff. Alpha, are you able to read your opponents' killing intent and predict their moves?"

"…Sometimes, not always." frowned Alpha.

"Killing intent isn't some kind of mystical force." nodded Noah. "It's a collection of tells that we perceive subconsciously. The movements of the opponent's eyes, their footing, the contraction of their shoulder muscles, and so on. All the little hints allowing us to predict what the enemy will do next."

"I am now experienced enough to suppress those hints, or even better, to mix false hints with real ones to mislead strong opponents and create openings. And I sparred against people who could do the same."

"Shadow, who never had to face an opponent of that level, hasn't learned to distrust his ability to read killing intent. Another reason I will defeat him… Assuming I fight him after all."

"Assuming you fight him after all? What do you mean?" frowned Alpha.

"Rin trained a lot since I revived her, and she has become quite strong." smiled Noah. "She's close to my level. She wants a round two against Shadow, and let's just say she can be quite convincing when she puts her mind to it."

"…Shadow will still find a way to defeat you." insisted Alpha.

"Do you hear your own voice, Alpha?" smiled Noah. "You're trying to convince yourself right now."

Alpha wanted to retort, but he was right.

"You're insufferable!"

"But for better or worse, you're stuck with me in your head for a long, long time… It's not that bad, you know?" shrugged Noah. "Shadow Garden's members will be happy. They will save lives and deliver justice on a weekly basis, which has to be a more fulfilling role than what Shadow Garden currently does. The Cult of Diablos won't be able to resist Valhalla. It will be destroyed within weeks of us coming, if not before."

"And once everyone learns that Valhalla members can cure victims of Possession and know where to find us, no one will ever be abandoned by their families again."

Alpha flinched again.

"That's a low blow." accused Alpha. "You know we were abandoned, and you're using that pain against me."

It seemed she hit a nerve, as Noah leaned toward her slightly, his smile gone and his eyes narrowing.

"…I am only informing you of something me and the girls decided, because we can do it, and it's the right thing to do. You may call me a pervert all you want. You may even accuse me of thinking that some of the girls we will save might end up joining Valhalla. That would be true enough. But don't you dare suggest I only see them as pawns to convince you to join."

Alpha was the first to lower her gaze.

"That isn't what I am thinking." sighed Alpha. "But you are trying to convince me to give up on resisting, and you have to know that this is a sensitive matter to all of us."

"I know." nodded Noah as he leaned back. "… I am going to give you a choice, Alpha. Two options to choose from. In the first, I follow my original plan and pamper you while keeping you bound, like I do with Beta. It won't be very long before you come to love it, too. Once you reach that point, it won't be hard for me to worm my way into your heart and occupy a greater place in it than Shadow."

"…And the second option?" asked Alpha with a worried tone. She was worried because she could very well see his first option succeeding, with the way her mind was already reacting to bondage. And she was worried that the alternative might be worse.

"I will not subject you to any training whatsoever and ask the girls to stop keeping you bound with physical restraints. I will, however, give you orders forcing you to obey Chisato or Sakura and stop you from running away. You will not be forced to help us capture and train the other members of Shadow Garden. And while we will keep meeting every time you fall sleep, I will not have sex with you or touch you in any sexual meaning. I will wait until you ask for it yourself."

"…What is your angle with this?" frowned Alpha after a few seconds. "You have to know that I would choose the latter."

"I am betting on the possibility that after you see Beta, Delta, Epsilon and the others so happy to be mine, while you do not enjoy the same happiness, your frustration will grow and grow until you decide you want in."

"And I am betting on my ability to slowly seduce you the normal way, without using physical pleasure or tools. It will take more time, but we have plenty, and that is also fun in its own way."

"We'll see about that." glared Alpha. "You underestimate the strength of my feelings for Shadow…"

"I take is you choose the second option, then?" asked Noah, and Alpha nodded.

"Very well. Then I am giving you the following orders, Alpha. You will obey commands from Chisato, Takina, Scathach, Shuuko, Kanna or Emi as if they came from me. You will not contact any member of Shadow Garden outside of the Sanctuary without their permission. You will not attempt to escape. And if you find any loophole in my orders allowing you to act against Valhalla, you will inform Chisato as soon as possible and let her close that loophole rather than exploit it."

"What if they order me to act against Shadow Garden?"

"I will ask them not to, at least not when this is related to capture and training. Be sure to tell them about our agreement first thing tomorrow, because it will take a day for knowledge of what is happening here to reach the other Soul Shards."

Alpha nodded, already trying to find a flaw in his orders that might allow her to escape. Although the order around loopholes would make it extraordinarily difficult.

Noah snorted at her like he could guess what she was thinking about.

"Well then, I think we'll leave it at that for tonight. I'll see you tomorrow. Good night, Alpha."

Alpha didn't answer, and Noah disappeared. Seconds later, she felt drowsy. She tried to resist it, but it was too strong, and she fell sleep.