System Programmer - 28 Diana

As he lied crying in Catherine’s arms, Joshua was utterly confused. He had been so enraged he barely remembered what had happened. Doing his best to calm down, he asked Luna to replay his last memories.

A few minutes earlier…

Seeing the woman wink at him in a seductive manner, the thought traversed Joshua’s mind for a second of not running away from her. In response, Luna immediately gave him a small shock, which cleared his mind. He knew for sure know, this blue chick was responsible for his recent trouble. How dare she mess with his mind like that?!

Judging by the woman’s appearance, she clearly wasn’t human. Joshua thought she might be a spirit, but a quick scan of her body proved otherwise, this was a living creature, not a spirit. He could tell her soul was very powerful, but the result of Luna’s analysis revealed that her physical strength was actually pretty weak.

She seemed surprised that her latest move was ineffective as Joshua just stared at her from the office. Not giving up, she gave him a big smile and said:

“I think we might have gotten off the wrong foot. I’m Delila. Forgive me, I already know your name is Joshua. I’ve had my eyes on you since you set foot in the valley. You’re such an interesting individual.”

As she said that, she took a key out of her dress’ pocket and unlocked the door. Joshua considered just dashing through the window, but considering the woman’s weak physic, he ultimately chose to manifest his body. She didn’t seem to realize how he could resist her mental attacks yet. By creating a weapon, he could probably knock her out and interrogate her later once he had regrouped with the rest.

“You’re not from Easa, are you? What are you doing here?” he asked as she was opening the door.

“I found this place by accident a few centuries ago. While most of it was in ruin, after much studying I managed to get some parts of this old facility back up and running. You’re a researcher I presume, you look so smart. Why don’t you stay with me here? We’re sure to make a lot of discoveries if we work together.”

The tone she was using was enchanting, any regular person hearing her speak would probably enter some sort of trance and do everything she asked of them. As for Joshua, he was struggling really hard, but the shocks from Luna were keeping him clear minded. He had to neutralize her quickly. Putting his hands behind his back, he made 2 brass knuckles appear. They were assorted with a basic lightning rune and would shock on hit.

“Really? Tell me more about this place,” he said, buying some time.

By now, the woman was right in front of Joshua. He didn’t really know what she was but he remembered the legend of sirens who drowned sailors seducing them with their beautiful voice before devouring them. He was almost expecting her to suddenly grow large teeth and take a bite out of him. He couldn’t let her do as she pleased with him so he took a step forward and threw a punch at her.

…The attack was so clumsy she easily dodged out of the way and Joshua tripped and fell on the ground. Under normal circumstances, he would never have allowed her to get close to him and would have attacked from a distance. It seemed he wasn’t as immune to her attacks as he thought.

The truth was that while Joshua had indeed come up with a way to counter her sound attacks from a distance, he hadn’t developed methods to protect his other senses yet. Delila’s looks on her own were usually enough to hypnotize someone, her adding body language, her seductive voice, and her unique aroma would drive anyone crazy.

Joshua quickly spun around but before he could stand up, she sat on top of him and caressed his cheek. Touching her victim was one of the most effective ways to seduce them. Barely holding on, Joshua fell a continuous flow of electricity flowing through his body yet was still slowly losing control of his thoughts. As a last desperate act, he bit his lip so hard blood streamed down his mouth.

“Ahhh why do you have to be so mean? I wanted to be your friend!” she started, a fake air of sadness in her voice.

Not saying anything, he weakly pushed her away and crawled back a few steps, which caused Delila to frown.

“I seem to have some trouble convincing you. No matter, when I’m done with this, you’ll be mine to play with,” she said, clearly losing patience.

Joshua almost expected it but she started to sing. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard and he was suddenly filled with the urge to just kneel in front of this woman and swear allegiance to her. Some semblance of his sanity remained though, and he asked Luna to play terrible music. As a result, some disgustingly bad rap started to resonate in his mind. However, this was far from enough, Delila’s song affected directly the target’s soul and soon he stopped resisting entirely.

“Sweet dreams, my dear. Don’t worry you’re going to like it.” he heard before passing out.

Delila’s expression adopted an evil smile as she saw Joshua fall asleep. What came next was her favorite part.

Joshua slowly opened his eyes. For a moment he wondered where he was, but then he recognized the place. It was his home back on Earth. He frowned, how did he get back here? No… why was he thinking that? He never left the place.

He heard some noise to his left and turned his head. A woman was waking up right next to him. It was Catherine. She smiled at him, stood up and suddenly kissed him. Not on the cheek like he was used to, but on his lips. Wait… Catherine was his wife, why wouldn’t she kiss his lips? He was having bizarre dreams lately.

Catherine left the room after telling him she was going to prepare breakfast. A bit confused about the whole situation, he sat there for a few minutes thinking about his recent life. Every time he asked himself a question, almost immediately an answer would pop in his mind, almost as if he was being spoonfed. The main reason for his confusion seemed to be him working very hard lately and being exhausted. Today was a day off and he would use it to rest.

After a few minutes, he joined Catherine in the kitchen. She had grilled some toasts and he sat down at the table and started to smear one with chocolate. That’s when a third figure entered the room, running.

A young girl, about 4 years old ran up to Joshua. She looked like a miniature version of Catherine. She jumped on Joshua’s lap and gave him a hug.

“Daddy! I want some toasts too!” the girl said.

Joshua stopped smearing the one he was holding in his hand and looked at the girl. Slowly, he started to pat her head. A name came to his mind, ‘Diana’, of course, he would name his own daughter after the goddess of the moon, his greatest invention was Luna after all.

Still patting the girl, Joshua suddenly started to laugh loudly.

“What’s so funny, Daddy?” Diana asked.

Joshua looked at her, grabbed the knife that was on the table and slit her throat in one go, under Catherine’s horrified watch.

Catherine just stood there, dumbfounded. Diana just looked at Joshua not understanding what had just happened. From the wound Joshua had created, filthy dark liquid started to pour out, instead of regular blood. He picked some up with his fingers and tasted it. As expected, it was disgusting.

As the girl started to suffocate, he kicked her away and rushed for ‘Catherine’. He jumped on her and started to strangle her.

“HOW DARE YOU IMPERSONATE MY CATHERINE?” he said.

‘Catherine’ struggled for a moment, but soon stopped as a crack in the ground was appearing under her. Seeing the crevasse, Joshua pushed her into it. With tears in his eyes, Joshua saw this whole illusion fall apart.

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Delila enjoyed watching her prey fall deeply into the fantasies she constructed. While she couldn’t read her targets thoughts, she was extremely talented at reading people’s emotions. She could tell the man in front of her was sort of a loner. He also seemed fond of the girl that was using him as a Guardian. Creating a world where they were living together was child’s play for her. She just needed a few basic ideas, and the subject would construct their own little dream, even forming their own answers to any questions they might have. Those dreams would slowly alter the target, making them the perfect slave for her. She had developed a particular guilty pleasure of turning a Soul Guardian against their summoner, which made Joshua such an attractive target. She hadn’t had the pleasure of doing that since the Hydra, a few centuries ago.

While the fantasies could last for days or even years in her target’s mind, usually only a few minutes passed in the real world. Once they awoke, the first thing she asked of them was to describe the dream they had in detail. She, therefore, was leaning over Joshua, waiting for him to wake up. A mere minute had passed since Joshua fell asleep when his body twitched. That was quick! She giggled in anticipation there was always something fascinating about the dreams her targets had. Although, it seemed that for this case, she was in it for more than she could chew.

Joshua had never felt such anger in his life. He had barely become conscious that he jumped on the woman in front of him.

“HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME?” he yelled.

Before she could reply to him, he hit her with his brass knuckles. Over and over. He kept yelling strange questions, which she didn’t understand. She tried to riposte, but Joshua was in such a deranged state that nothing seemed to affect him. His brain had just turned off and his body was hitting her like a machine set on repeat. Delila didn’t understand. How could the dream have failed? No one ever resisted it before!

Indeed, that was a nice way to put it, as Delila was beaten to death, only one thought resonated in her mind.

“I do not understand.”