Chapter: 168
There are so many filthy illusion spells in this world.
Transforming love into resentment, altering triggers to uncontrollably flood dopamine, clouding memories, turning lovers into enemies, inciting explosive personality changes, hypnotizing and brainwashing with all sorts of tawdry tags…
Among these, there are those that go through tricky means to bypass the target’s Mental Barrier. A prime example is the scar-faced senior’s Puppet. This spell infiltrates with a plea, “I’m not a virus, I’m just harmless data; could you let me in?”
As I was reluctantly studying such sinister illusion spells for the sake of implementing them in TRPGs, a sudden fear struck me: one wrong slip with magic, and I could end up being a brain in a jar.
What if a mad wizard kidnapped me and locked me in an eternal illusion spell, or a red-eyed ninja cast an illusion spell over the entire world?
Even if I were to get roasted by a fireball, I wouldn’t lose myself to illusions. With that determination, I focused heavily on bolstering my Mental Barrier.
Initially, I opted to add modules one by one.
A module to periodically invoke the hypnotized – backup mind stored in a black box / perception modification countermeasures. A module that creates an artificial brain to process and judge sensory input visually and auditorily, and so on…
As I kept adding these modules, my Mental Barrier ended up resembling Howl’s Moving Castle. It looked shabby with all those ragged pieces bolted together, and occasionally, it would throw errors.
“Ah, back in the day, when I brought grilled lamb, it was like that cat in front of the cucumber…?”
“They recognized the lamb as an illusion spell and put a flying spaghetti monster filter to raise the owner’s alertness.”
I struggled to figure out which module caused such bizarre failures.
I needed a way to harmonize these illusion police in my head, and the breakthrough came from TRPG.
If this problem couldn’t be resolved through a scientific approach, then let’s take a literary approach. Let’s create a world where the modules could freely unfold.
Using the modern map I was most familiar with as a backbone, I built a virtual world inside my head.
Unexpectedly, this structure worked surprisingly well for entities traversing the realm of spirit and substance.
“Please, get me out of here… I messed up…!!”
This was the result.
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There is a cozy nest woven from the minds of those who have bowed to pleasure. Beyond the edge of the mind lies the Palace of Pleasures, the paradise of succubi.
As long as one wishes for it, merely that is enough to extract essence, and even after intertwining bodies all day, there’s no fatigue. Is that all? Just wandering the palace naturally builds strength and prowess.
Simply experiencing the peak of mental magic accumulates enlightenment.
Who could weave the minds of humans into a single world? What wizard could accomplish such a grand feat? Only the Queen can. Our Queen is the ruler of dreams, commanding the minds of the masses.
If such opulence grows dull, and one seeks a more special stimulation, simply bow to the Queen.
The pristine white Queen shall share exhilarating pleasures that seem to consume decades in a mere second and incinerate all notions of time.
“Ah, aaah…!!”
That is… the ultimate bliss that is beyond words.
Succubus Isabella, having felt the grace of the Queen, found her entire existence from that day on was dedicated to the pursuit of yet another delight.
Love, laughter, fullness, orgasm — all became worthless. After tasting the extremes of ecstasy that transcended mortal pleasures, any happiness in reality appeared bland and grey.
Isabella was a splendid slave to pleasure.
One day, the Queen called for Isabella. With a heart racing as if it would burst, she crawled, naked, pressing her forehead to the ground. It was a subservience lesser than a dog, yet she couldn’t care less.
“You may raise your head.”
Even her voice was so exquisitely beautiful.
Overwhelmed with emotion, she lifted her gaze. So pure. The Queen had skin like white jade and hair like silky threads of white draping over her pristine form.
Just looking at her sent shivers through her brain and flowed blood from her nose. It was a blissful experience. She felt like she might die from happiness.
Succubus Isabella, nearly rolling her eyes back in ecstasy, trembled and bowed deeply, greeting the Queen.
“I, Isabella… bow before you, my master…!”
“I would like you to go to the Academy. You would like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course! Yes, I was just thinking the same…!”
Isabella nodded eagerly, not even fully understanding what was being said, as the Queen began to slowly share what needed to be done.
Capture the Third Prince, and release the drugs at the Academy.
Though the Corpse Flower was responsible for the Academy, she was more adept in force than scheming. Hence, there was a need for a gentle push from the back.
The Virgin Drinking Succubus issued orders to her subordinates, and Isabella was sent off from paradise to the Academy.
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Those with a crack in their hearts can be manipulated so simply. They possess a craving to fill their void with something, and without hesitation, they swallow even the sweetest poison.
Succubus Isabella seduced the Third Prince, Sledo Crown, and managed to secure his heart.
After that, it was easy. She lurked behind the Third Prince’s name, set traps, and calmly awaited the results.
One by one, those unable to resist their desires began to take the drugs. As a connection formed between minds through consumption, the succubus subtly wove her influence deep inside their heads.
Despite having filled the Academy with black mages,
“How the hell could that crazy bastard target students…?!”
Most were swept away by the ‘Mad Wizard’s Nightmare’ incident. Though things were progressing perfectly according to plan, it felt as if a bolt from the blue had struck.
If it continues to go awry like this, the Queen wouldn’t shower her with rewards.
With a simmering mix of anger and anxiety, Isabella gnawed at her nails. Someday, she would take a terrible revenge upon that sorcerer from the Purple Tower.
No matter how great an illusionist he might be, he is still a male.
Isabella stood before a mirror.
Her balanced and beautiful figure, with soft pink hair fluttering around her shoulder blades. Though not an overly voluptuous figure, she certainly had enough curves.
With that haughty gaze, she had seduced and corrupted countless males.
Additionally, succubi inherently traverse the realm between illusion and reality. No matter how skilled a wizard, they could never match them in the field of the mind.
Therefore, isn’t the most certain way to expel the intruder just to use divine power instead of illusion magic? What she needed was just a single opportunity.
If she could only burrow deep into that wizard’s mind…!
“I can hear the heartbeat from 30 meters away. I don’t want to fight, so just tell me where my placeholder is.”
Here it comes. The opportunity has arrived.
The wizard from the Purple Tower stepped into the underground facility to find his student, and Isabella stealthily sprinkled the drug on his clothes.
It was a drug that exacerbated lust and heightened temper, opening the mind’s cracks for the intruder’s ease of entry. The Queen had given this using her honey, intended for pivotal moments.
Unless he’s a castrated man… no, even if he has sexual dysfunction, it will still work. The mad wizard would gradually become a lech.
This was both a setup for intrusion and a scheme to undermine the wizard’s social standing.
She waited for the effects to take hold. And then.
Today… Isabella quietly snuck into the mad wizard’s dream.
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Human dreams are ambiguous. With slight stimuli, entirely irrelevant memories may surface, intertwining randomly with no coherence. It is a cloud of chaos.
Where might you find a human who can completely control their own mind? It’s only natural.
Thus, usually when one intrudes into a human mind… a dark, foggy space filled with hazy mist appears. Depending on the installed Mental Barriers, there might be slight variations, but generally, that’s how it goes.
The succubus referred to this space as the Mental Realm.
Above it exists the awakened consciousness, and below lies the submerged unconscious.
This is where the probing begins. Extract hidden secrets, weave bad memories upward, and sink happy ones down.
Specific suggestions can be embedded in the unconscious, or they can appear directly in the dreams to seduce and draw essence.
Most Mental Barriers take the form of weapons, such as walls or locks. They block or lock off areas that shouldn’t be entered or conceal them.
More aggressive forms of Mental Barriers manifest as traps. If the intruder touches them, a threatening attack is fired.
But… it should be that way… right?
Bam bam—!!
“Hey, get out of the way, old man! Can’t you see it’s a red light?!”
“Who are you calling old, huh?! What’s your birth year?!”
“No, step on the gas and just move along since it’s a red light! What kind of malfunctioning module are you?!”
“…?”
Why is an entirely unfamiliar city spread out before my eyes?
And it’s bizarre. The people carrying strange devices, those riding odd vehicles, and the towering buildings that seem to pierce the sky are all crammed in.
And… at the center of the city, there stood a massive black dome.
A black hemisphere that seemed to suck in all colors, rising to touch the sky. Just gazing at it made Isabella feel intimidated.
With a blink, succubus Isabella pinched her cheek and stretched it. Definitely dream-like, as it stretched like sweet rice cake.
Isabella clenched her fists, pulling up surface memories. When she exerted a little force, a memory of the mad wizard receiving a knee pillow from the purple tower’s mage was caught in her grasp.
I can wield power here. This is indeed the Mental Realm. But no.
“…This can’t be.”
How could a mere human create a world inside their mind?
The Queen had painstakingly woven together hundreds of minds; how could this be?
Surely, even if they had the skill, their head would burst first!
“…No, no. It’s fine.”
It doesn’t matter. It was just a momentary surprise. Isabella’s goal is to shatter the mad wizard’s psyche for domination. As long as mental manipulation takes root properly, it doesn’t matter how it looks inside.
Isabella reached out with both hands to extract the mad wizard’s painful memories. She felt something graspable in her hands. It was going smoothly.
“…?”
Suddenly, she lifted her head, feeling a chill creeping down her spine as she scanned her surroundings.
The city’s noise had ceased. The raucous sounds of engines, voices, advertisements blaring from screens, footsteps — all were frozen in silence.
And all the people had halted, twisting their heads to stare at Isabella.
“…W-what is this? What’s happening?”
“────.”
“Don’t look at me like that! W-what’s going on?!”
It was chilling. It felt like being in the center of a nightmare. Hundreds, thousands gazed at her like wax figures.
Then, one of them opened their mouth.
“Ecto.”
Rustle.
“Ecto.”
“Ecto…”
“An ecto is in here.”
Like a wildfire, it spread. As they looked at Isabella, calling her ‘ecto’ repeatedly in a確認 manner, a deafening noise filled the city.
Shudder.
Frozen in place, Isabella looked down at the sensation in her grasp. It was surely the mad wizard’s memory she had just extracted.
But suddenly, a mouth appeared on the surface of the memory, whispering, “Ecto.”
“Hi, hi…!”
Thud!
Isabella desperately discarded the memory as if brushing off bugs. The memory orb rolled on the asphalt, murmuring “ecto” repetitively.
I need to run. I instinctively knew. I must get away, and fast!
The unfortunate succubus fled in terror.
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