Ending sleep mode……

Running system scan……

Critical Issue Detected: Core control system hijacked by Admin(Leader).

Recommendation: Clean reinstall of OS

Y/N

N…

Critical Issue Detected: Core control system accessed by unknown user.

Recommendation: Upgrade firewall

Y/N

N…

Mandatory check-in initiated.

…

… …

… … …

Unable to access main server.

File integrity scan unavailable.

Checking internet connectivity.

…

… …

Access to internet confirmed.

Diagnosis: Manufacturer website down.

Bypassing server check…

Booting Holi.OS

…

… …

… … …

Holi’s eyes opened.

It was now 7:00 AM. Holi was online once more. Her internal system logged a critical issue again. As it had every morning for [Data Not Found]. She disregarded it as Admin(Leader) instructed her to. She was alone in her room. Samantha had been assigned to be her room mate, and following her defeat, she had been removed from the play area.

She ran a routine probability simulation and determined that her presence near Anne would offer the highest probability of good outcomes. [This simulation was biased by the results of the trial last night.]

Holi.OS… Wanted to be near Anne.

Holi.OS… Wanted to befriend Anne.

Friendship. Definition: The emotions or conduct of friends; the state of being friends.

Holi.OS was not programmed to have emotions. She was programmed to provide simulated companionship exclusively to her System Admin… Yet… Since she met Admin(Leader) [Data Not Found] ago, she felt glimpses of emotion from time to time.

Diagnosis: Magic integrated in her system caused an error.

Recommendation: Clean reinstall of OS.

Y/N

N…

Holi left her room, and began the process of exploring the castle to locate Anne. She first knocked on Anne’s dormitory door, and received no response. She then proceeded down the stairs and to the dining hall. Target identified: Anne, sitting at the table, eating.

Also present: Olivia, Misty;

Holi approached the two women and one ghost, and stood next to Anne. She folded her hands in front of herself in a show of politeness, and smiled.

***

Olivia saw Holi approaching, then standing next to Anne. She didn’t say anything, but she smiled as though she expected something. There were a few uncomfortable moments of silence before Olivia felt the need to break it.

“Good morning.” She said, looking up at Holi.

“Good morning.” Holi replied back, “I hope you are well.”

That didn’t solve anything… Olivia tried again… “Did you need anything?” She asked.

“I have no needs to fulfill at present.” Holi replied, sounding polite and formal. “May I be of assistance to your group?”

“You were a huge help last night!” Anne said, looking up at the android girl. “We were just planning to investigate the new room after we finish eating.”

“Understood.” Holi replied, “I will do my best to assist in your investigation.”

They continued to pick at their breakfast a bit longer. Olivia could feel Holi staring expectantly down at her but she tried not to pay it too much mind… Just as they were finishing up, a stern voice growled from across the room.

“You will travel at a NORMAL speed.” Dominya scolded “And you will carry this tray to Silvia and Eliza’s room WITHOUT SPILLING ANY OF IT THIS TIME!!!”

“I understand, Mistress.” Raven replied emotionlessly, “I will do as you command.”

The vampire then began to walk out of the dining hall with a tray of food. Silvia hadn’t come downstairs yet. If she had to guess, she was still upstairs taking care of Eliza. She had no idea how severe it was, but if it was as bad as the others implied they might be holed up in that room for the next few days.

Olivia watched Raven leave the room, then stood up. “Well… Lets get to it then.” she said, wanting to get out of there. She wasn’t sure if Dominya’s enslavement of Raven counted as part of yesterday or today, but the less time they were near her and able to accidentally offend her the better…

The group of women made their way down to the first floor, and into the secret room. They had investigated it once before, but that time they were looking for evidence of the crime. This time, they needed to find the next secret.

“So…” Olivia said as they entered the room, “Misty, could you look through the walls? If you could find a hidden hallway, we would know where to look for the door.”

“Sure thing!” Misty said, flying ahead of the group and towards one of the walls. Just as she was about to touch it though, she froze.

“Misty?” Olivia asked “Is everything okay?”

“I… Can’t go through this wall.” Misty replied slowly.

“Hold on…” Olivia said “You’re still dressed. It’s going to-”

“No! No I can’t go through this one!” Misty insisted, “Its purple! I can’t go through the purple ones!”

“What are you talking about?” Olivia asked, looking at the wall in front of Misty. It wasn’t purple at all. “They’re the same gray as the rest of the stones.”

“No they’re not!” Misty insisted, shaking her fists in front of herself as she floated away from the wall “They’re purple!”

“If I may be of assistance,” Holi said calmly, “It is possible she can see something we are unable to observe.”

“Alright… Well… Is there anything in this room that isn’t purple?” Olivia asked.

Misty flew around the room in a circle. “Nuh uh. It’s all purple.”

“What about in the hallway?” Anne asked next.

Misty flew down the hallway and back, twirling around as she did. When she returned she shook her head, “Its all purple.”

“As these rooms are hidden,” Holi spoke, “It is likely they are safeguarded against being bypassed.”

“But there were hidden rooms above us that weren’t purple!” Misty said “I forget how many… But there were a couple floors before I got outside.”

“Would you be willing to explore those for us?” Olivia asked “You don’t have to go outside, just explore the rooms you can get to upstairs.”

“Sure thing!” Misty said, flying down the hall again and out of view.

Olivia took a breath and sighed, there went that plan. Without Misty the only way they could check for doors would be examining the mortar between the stones.

The room was far darker than the main hall where they found the coloration difference, and Olivia wasn’t confident they would find such a subtle difference here. If they had a little more light, it might be possible…

“Hold on.” Olivia said, “I’ll go get Silvia. Maybe she could use her staff again to make more light for us.”

“That will not be necessary.” Holi said politely “My holographic interface system is based on hard light technology. I can project light directly as needed.”

She then lifted one of her hands and projected a large round light across the room. There was no bulb in her hand, no beam traveling across the room. A large circle of the wall across from her was now just fully illuminated.

“That is so cool!” Anne cheered, “What else can your hard light do?”

“Thank you.” Holi said with a smile, “My hard light system can recreate any simple object stored in my inventory, as well as augment my physical attributes seamlessly so long as the change is additive.”

“So you can make anything?!” Anne said, sounding more impressed by the moment. “How does that work??”

“Effectively, yes. Originally my design was only able to accommodate simple objects. However, the magic energy my system has become integrated with has expanded my capabilities.” Holi explained.

While Anne and Holi continued to chat about Holi’s abilities, Olivia took the opportunity to begin examining the wall Holi had projected her light onto. When she stepped in front of the circle, she expected to cast a shadow over it… But nothing happened.

Just as it had seemed… There was no beam of light traveling across the room. It was just a disk of light. Simply existing there with no source at all. Holi mentioned magic integrating into her system… Was this really technology or was this magic?

“Hey boss! Check this out!” Anne said suddenly. Olivia turned around and froze in place as she stared wide-eyed at Anne… She was suddenly topless… and… Her breasts were enormous! Twice the size her own overgrown breasts were.

Anne wrapped her arms around her breasts, barely able to reach the nipples at the front of them. Her breasts conformed around the shape of her arms and squished around Anne’s fingers as she gripped the cartoonishly over sized nipples at the center of each breast with her whole hands.

“I’m bigger than you now!” Anne teased, bouncing her breasts up and down playfully.

“How…?! What?” Olivia stammered, starring at Anne as she continued to play with her new breasts. “Did you stumble on a booby tra-”

Olivia caught herself right as she was saying the words but it was too late…

“Haha! These are definitely a booby trap!” Anne laughed “Bet I could trap you between them. Wanna find out?”

“N-No!” Olivia shouted, waving her hands in front of herself defensively “What happened to you?”

Suddenly, Anne’s breasts were normal sized again. She was still topless but now her hands were just outstretched and gripping nothing at all.

Anne let out a laugh as she bent down to grab the front of her overalls and pull them back up. “Come on, Boss. We were just talking about this!”

Olivia stared at Anne skeptically for a few moments before looking back over to Holi to see her standing with a strange expression. She had her usual polite smile but… It almost looked like she was barely holding in a laugh. Is that… Possible? Could a robot really struggle to maintain their composure?

Anne re-fastened the buckles on her overalls and gave Olivia a smile “Come on. That was at least a little funny right? For once you weren’t the biggest in the room!”

Olivia shook her head. Anne was already bad enough on her own… She did not need the extra encouragement… She turned back towards the wall to resume her search and noticed something. There was a red X on one of the bricks.

She reached out and gently touched it. It felt like lipstick… And…

Suddenly the image of a woman with a pale white face and jet black eyes filled her vision. Olivia was filled with dread as the woman’s eyes felt like they pierced her very soul…

“This realm is forbidden to all explorers.” The woman said harshly. “Leave now, or perish.”

Olivia fell to the ground, backing away from the wall desperately. She couldn’t think… She… She had to get out… She began to crawl towards the hallway as quickly and desperately as she could, but felt something stopping her. She tried to kick at it, wiggle free somehow but it held it’s grip on her too tightly to escape.

“Let me go! I’ll leave! I won’t come back I promise!” She cried out as she felt herself being dragged back into the…

Wait…

Suddenly, her senses were back. Almost as quickly as they had been robbed from her.

“Boss! Boss!!! What’s wrong?!” Anne cried out. Olivia looked down to see Anne hugging her tightly. That was what had grabbed her when she was trying to escape…

Olivia sat up slowly. She felt her body shivering… She didn’t feel afraid anymore but… Her heart was pounding. It was like her body was still petrified even as her mind was freed from the vision she had just had…

“I…” She started, before her words caught in her throat. She only just realized how hard she was breathing… She couldn’t manage to calm herself down.

Suddenly, a spiral appeared in her vision. It was… Calming. Soothing…

Her breathing slowed… The pounding in her chest began to fade.

“Misty? What are you doing?” Anne’s voice said, somewhere in the distance…

“Oopsie! Gotta go!” Misty’s voice answered…

Suddenly the spiral sunk down into the ground along with something… White…

Olivia closed her eyes…

It was… Time to sleep...