Bad Ending Party: Fatal Exception

You are sitting at a sticky wooden table in the corner of the Adventurer's Guild. You are holding a standard-issue gold guild coin.

You flip it into the air. It lands on the table with a clatter. Heads.

You pick it up. You flip it again. Heads.

It has been heads ninety-two times in a row.

Ashe sits to your left. As a high-elf sorceress who specializes in the manipulation of fate, she is currently staring at the coin with profound, existential horror. Her eyes are glowing with a faint blue mana-sight. She is gripping her staff so tightly her knuckles are white.

Rei sits to your right. She isn't looking at the coin; she is looking at a glowing, neon-pink bar hovering three inches above Ashe's head that reads: CORRUPTION: 12%.

No one else in the tavern seems to notice the neon sign. No one else seems to notice the laws of probability shattering.

"Rei," Ashe whispers, her voice trembling, her pointed ears flattening against her head. "My heart rate just spiked for absolutely no reason. And I just had the sudden, terrifying urge to refer to myself as 'breeding stock'. What is happening?"

Rei doesn't answer. A small, glowing pink heart suddenly materializes next to Rei's ear, accompanied by a soft, cartoonish chiming sound. Rei violently swats the heart out of the air with her hand. It shatters into pink pixels.

"Probability is broken," Rei hisses, her voice thick with rage, rubbing her temples as if fighting off a migraine. "The universe is scripting us."

"It's a broadcast," Ashe gasps, looking up, reading the invisible leylines in the air. "It's a forced causality spell. Someone is projecting a 'Bad End' script directly into our reality. The signal... it's coming from the Demon King's Archive."

You flip the coin again. Heads.

The heavy oak doors of the tavern swing open. A silhouette steps into the frame. It is Phillip, the new B-Rank recruit you are supposed to interview today. He is five-foot-six. He has to literally look up to meet the eyes of the women in the room. Despite having the personality of wet cardboard, an unearned, generic breeze blows through the tavern, dramatically rustling his cloak.

"Hey there, party," Phillip says, smirking and posturing as if he owns the room. "I hear you're heading to the Archive. Good thing I'm here. You're going to need a real man to carry you through."

Above Ashe's head, the neon bar ticks up to 14%. Another pink heart materializes near Rei's cheek.

Rei stands up so fast her chair crashes to the floor. She grabs the back of your collar with her gauntleted hand, hauling you up.

"We're leaving," Rei snarls, pulling you away from the table while Ashe frantically grabs your arm. "I can hear my internal monologue rewriting itself to call him 'Master.' If we stay in this room for another three minutes, the narrative is going to force us to do something we'll regret. We're going to the Demon King's Archive right now, and we are going to smash whatever machine is doing this."

[ 💖 ASHE CORRUPTION: 14% ] [ 💖 REI CORRUPTION: 13% ]

You are standing in the center of the Demon King's Archive. The massive stone doors have just sealed shut behind you.

Phillip, the B-Rank recruit who has spent the last week actively undermining your leadership, stands a few feet away in his gleaming armor. He is smirking.

"The trap is sprung," Phillip cackles, his voice echoing off the stone walls. "Breathe deep, heroes, and succumb to the Bad End!"

Vents in the floor open. A thick, glowing pink Corruption Mist rapidly floods the chamber, washing over the party. The air smells like cheap perfume.

Phillip steps forward. He spreads his arms, waiting for the inevitable. He expects Rei and Ashe to drop to their knees, their eyes turning to hearts, begging for him while you are forced to watch.

The mist begins to clear.

Nobody is on their knees.

Rei is standing perfectly still. She looks down at her gauntleted hands. She looks at Phillip with absolute, unadulterated disgust.

"Why," Rei asks, her voice deadly quiet, "Did my internal monologue just rewrite itself to call you 'Master Phillip'?"

Next to her, Ashe drops her glowing staff. She looks down at her legs.

"Where did the bottom half of my skirt just go?" Ashe asks, her voice trembling as she frantically tugs at the blue fabric of her wizard robe. "It literally just dematerialized. The fabric is gone."

Phillip blinks.

"Uh," Phillip says, pointing at the women. "Are they supposed to be talking?"

Rei and Ashe don't wait. A glowing pink heart materializes in the air next to Ashe. She screams, swatting it away. Rei grabs you by the collar of your shirt, yanking you backward into the corner of the archive.

Ashe throws her hands up, slamming a glowing blue magical barrier down around the three of you, locking Phillip out.

Rei pushes you against the stone wall. She presses her body flush against yours, her breathing fast and ragged. Ashe crowds in on your other side, gripping your arm like a lifeline. Ashe's pointed elf ears are pinned flat against her head in pure terror.

"Don't let go of me," Rei hisses in your ear, her hazel eyes wide with panic as a neon-pink 'CORRUPTION: 25%' bar suddenly appears over her own head. "The universe is trying to hack our brains. We're barricading in here until we figure out how to break it. You're the only thing anchoring us to reality right now."

[ 💖 ASHE CORRUPTION: 42% ] [ 💖 REI CORRUPTION: 44% ]

You are kneeling on the cold stone floor of the Demon King's throne room. Your hands are bound in heavy iron manacles. The party was captured two days ago.

The Demon King is sitting on his jagged throne. He is aggressively tapping a wooden clipboard with a massive, clawed finger.

Phillip stands at the base of the steps in his shiny plate armor. He is pacing, looking very annoyed.

"I don't understand," Phillip complains, crossing his arms. "You put the Collars of Absolute Corruption on them yesterday. They're supposed to be mindless succubi by now. They're supposed to be out here kissing my boots and laughing at the loser."

"I am looking at the system logs right now, Phillip," the Demon King grumbles, adjusting his dark horns. "The script says they are at one-hundred percent corruption. Max lust. Total mind-break. I don't know why they're just sitting in the holding cell."

The heavy iron door to the holding cell violently kicks open. The hinges scream as it slams into the stone wall.

Rei and Ashe walk into the throne room. They look completely unrecognizable. The Script has done its work. Rei is wearing spiked black leather succubus armor, heavy chains, and a thick metal collar. Ashe's elegant blue robes have been replaced by a torn, dark-purple corset and demonic runes painted across her thighs. Both of them have glowing, neon-pink eyes.

Phillip smirks. He puffs out his chest and spreads his arms. "Finally. Come here, my pets. Come show your pathetic old leader who the real Alpha is."

Rei doesn't even look at him. She walks right past Phillip, her heavy, spiked boots clicking on the stone. She walks directly to you.

Ashe follows, practically sprinting. She drops to her knees right next to you on the cold floor. She wraps her arms around your waist, burying her face in your chest, purring loudly. A massive cloud of pink hearts erupts in the air around her.

"Wait," Phillip says, his smirk vanishing. "What are you doing?"

Rei grabs the heavy iron chain binding your wrists. She effortlessly snaps the steel links with her bare hands. She pulls you up against her spiked chestplate, glaring at Phillip with glowing pink eyes.

"Do not speak to them," Rei hisses, her voice dripping with dark, corrupted obsession. She wraps a possessive, gauntleted arm around your neck. "The Script told us to crave the most pathetic, un-magical, ordinary soul in the room. And it's not you."

The Demon King drops his clipboard. It clatters on the stone steps.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," the Demon King groans, rubbing his temples. "The glitch defaulted their target integer to the Party Leader? The entire narrative arc is ruined. They're just going to aggressively coddle them."

[ 💖 ASHE CORRUPTION: 81% ] [ 💖 REI CORRUPTION: 82% ]