"You really shouldn't have done that. Enjoy the view."

- Sheogorath, The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles

"I'm surprised you made it this far by yourself. Unfortunately we'll have to cut your little crusade short."

Oberon snapped his fingers. Leafa almost stumbled off her feet as the entire ground shook under the weight of an unseen giant. The forest parted beside them, and in the clearing rose a massive crawling tree with a crude resemblance of a human face carved on its trunk. Its gaping mouth moaned with the souls of the damned, and its hollowed eyes glowed with ghoulish orange embers.

"Well, it was fun meeting you, cutie. But I've got a wedding to get to." Oberon smirked.

As she looked closer at the monster's swaying body, she realized its entire trunk was covered with smaller, even more tortured-looking faces. It was like a giant collective rather than just one massive being. Looking higher up, just about its orange eyes, she could see the creature's HP bar.

Treegion. Level 90.

She was 84. The experience gap made her a little nervous, but she had dealt with worse before. Hiding her anxiety behind smug grin, she scoffed at Oberon's challenge.

"A tree? Do you really think this is going stop me? If you do anything to hurt Kirito or Asuna, I'll make you pay as soon I'm done chopping down this ugly thing!"

"That 'ugly thing' happens to be one of my favorite projects that's been in Beta for some time. He's almost ready for the official release. He just has a couple of minor bugs my staff needs to work out." Oberon said proudly. "Once I have Asuna for myself and I've dealt with Kirito, I'll be ready to unveil my new ambitious changes for Alfheim Online."

He turned away from Leafa and casually stepped into a secret doorway built in the trunk of an old oak tree. He waved at her a final time with the back of his hand.

"I'm so happy I got to meet Kirito's cousin. I'm sure I'll get plenty of valuable playtesting data from you."

He muttered the rest under his breath.

"…whether you like it or not."

The doorway sealed behind him.

Leafa took a deep breath and raised her sword. The creature reacted to her by uncoiling its roots and expelling a barrier of thick, foul-smelling black tree sap around its base.

ALO Game Master Guide 3.2.194 (working draft)

TREEGION: Boss monster. Type: Plant/Undead.

A group of separate beings rose up from the tainted soil. Every detail of their bodies was as black as the sap they had emerged from, but most of them had shapes that mimicked the look of sturdy male Gnomes, Undines, and Spriggans, with a few smaller females thrown in between. Aside from some minor accessories like earrings and hair ornaments, every one of them was completely nude. They hissed and groaned in unison as they slowly advanced toward Leafa.

Leafa dashed into the mob swinging her sword. No matter how hard she swung or where she struck, the tar creatures seemed to be unstoppable. When she severed the arm of one the beasts, it simply grew a new one. When she impaled another through the gut, its wound closed as soon as she pulled out her sword. When she decapitated a third one, it sank into the black oil and rose back up intact less than a minute later.

SUMMON THRALLS: Basic Skill. Type: Necro. Treegion divides its cells into undead thralls. Thralls can be temporarily defeated with well-chained attacks, but will respawn infinitely as they regenerate in the compost.

Leafa leapt on to the shoulders of one of the slow-moving mud monsters and used the extra leverage to reach one of Treegion's lower branches. Treegion shed a few of its giant leaves, making them explode in the air like magic grenades right where Leafa had landed. She was fast enough to dodge out of the way and move toward higher branches, slowly closing in on the giant's carved face. She opened her clear green wings and tried to fly the rest of the way.

Treegion was luring her in.

A bright pink flower, cleverly obscured behind the tree's darker foliage, opened its petals as Leafa got closer to Treegion's mouth. It sprayed at her just before she could attack, smothering her in a cloud of vapor and coating her wings with a damp film. An icon she'd never seen before labeled "PHER." appeared above her own health bar, indicating she had been struck with some sort of status ailment. She almost crashed to the ground in a dizzy frenzy, but she managed to catch a lower branch and pulled herself up.

Her head was numb. Her wings were stiff like glass. Her arms felt like they were too weak to hold her own sword. She rubbed her forehead as she tried to focus on the three blurry Treegion faces spinning violently in her vision.

PHER.: Pheromone status effect, Temporary. 60 second duration. Partial paralysis to all Players exposed. Strength reduced by 50%. Agility reduced by 40%. Intellect reduced by 50%. Luck reduced by 90%. Player characters are now vulnerable to CUL. status.

Just as she managed to balance on her feet, another branch reached down at her and firmly hooked her around the waist. She was roughly pulled upward. When she was high in the Treegion's leaves, that's when she saw the fruit growing in the monster's branches.

Some simply looked normal fruit that had grown too large, but many of them housed shadowy figures that were trying to fight their way out. Leafa's HUD automatically labeled the fruits by type, revealing they were named after the different races of ALO. Undine Oranges, Pooka Pineapples, Cait Sith Kiwis, Gnome Nectarines, and Leprechaun Lemons passed through her vision. Each piece of fruit was just the right size for a single guest.

Then she saw a label that left her terrified: Sylph Strawberries. She was being passed between branches and getting closer to the berries.

The pores on one of the lush red fruits vented open and pulled her in. The inside was filled with warm liquid that kept her suspended. Some of it managed to seep into her nostrils while she was trying to hold her breath, filling her lungs with sugary liquid oxygen. The PHER. at the top of her display changed to CUL. Her entire body began to tingle.

Her sword dissolved into metal dust. Her green dress fizzled away in seconds, stripping her of everything except the braids in her yellow hair.

"What the...?" Suguha said in surprise as she looked down at her own prone virtual body. "I turned all that nasty stuff off!"

CUL.: Cultivation status effect, Incremental. Player character has been contained in placental fruit most inhabitable for their race. Strength reduced to zero. All skills disabled. MAX DAMAGE inflicted on all equipment, Moral Code preferences ignored. Solo Players are safely neutralized and simply need to reach full Cultivation. Group Players can potentially break free with the help of outside party members.

The skin of the strawberry was thin enough so Leafa's nude silhouette was visible on the outside, showcasing her along with all other fresh produce. Her body floated in a dream-like state as Treegion's nectar soaked through her defenseless pink flesh. As she tried to regain her senses, she thought she could hear part of the Flying Battery Zone music from Sonic 3 playing quietly from some faraway place.

Error #45680: Wrong atmospheric BGM playing for Imp, Salamander, and Sylph Cultivation.

Suguha felt a small pinch in the back of her head. It was so minute that she thought she was imagining things. She didn't know her AmuSphere was turning against her, gradually amplifying its microwaves as she struggled to regain control of Leafa. She was like a frog in water that was slowly getting hotter.

Leafa watched the tree from behind her translucent ruby cell. It was systematically pulling pieces of fruit out of its crown and crushing them on the end of a branch shaped like a gnarled hand. It dumped each piece into the swampy compost pit at its roots.

The worst part was each fruit it pulled down contained another living captive. Warriors from every race who had wound up like Leafa, stripped down like newborns and robbed of their ability to fend for themselves, male and female alike. She thought Treegion was only draining their strength to enrich its own compost, and the players it captured would respawn like normal once their embarrassing ordeal was over. She had no idea the real truth would be much more sinister. Oberon wasn't the type to take his enemies lightly.

And sooner or later, it would be her turn in the creature's grip.

At first, she fought it. She kicked and punched until she was exhausted, but the rubbery walls of the oversized strawberry were determined to keep her trapped. After she had basted in its nutrients for what could have been an eternity, she started to lose herself. She gradually forgot she had been reduced to nothing more than a living farm crop. Instead of being trapped in a prison of plant flesh, it felt more like she was resting in a warm hot spring. The "CUL." above her health bar had now changed to "RIPE," but she wasn't sure when that had happened, or what it meant.

The pulse in Suguha's headset was growing stronger. The movement in her fingers gradually slowed down, and her eyelids became so heavy it was a struggle to keep them even halfway open. A tiny bit of drool dripped down the corner of her mouth.

RIPE: When a Player has sufficient time to Cultivate, they enter Ripened status. Permanent effect. Player data is fully unecrypted. Treegion can now use Special Skill: JUICE on target Player. All stats reduced to zero in preparation.

Leafa's HUD informed her when the Treegion's AI switched its Aggro toward her. She was shaken inside her fluid-filled chamber. She heard the loud muffled snap coming from above her as her strawberry was pulled off of its branch. Treegion held her up to his twisted face, inspecting her closely with his hollow orange eyes.

Suguha dropped her controller in her lap and let out a strangely peaceful sigh. She wasn't scared. She didn't want to break out anymore. The AmuSphere made sure she cherished this moment.

Leafa could see the outline of Treegion's massive branches forming a fist around the walls of her fragile cell. She closed her eyes and floated into a fetal position.

JUICE: Special Skill. Physical attack used against RIPE Player characters. Critical Damage: Player HP x 10,000,000,000. Critical Rate: 100%

Treegion's wooden fingers creaked as they squeezed shut. The strawberry was instantly crushed into a thick mess of fruit pulp and Leafa gore, covering the monster's whole arm.

JUICY KILL

SYLPH SMOOTHIES

NO MERCY BONUS

ELFLIMINATED

SQUASH THE BUG

SCANDALOUS DEFEAT

FRUITILICIOUS

COME ON AND SLAM, NOW YOU'RE STRAWBERRY JAM

B-B-B-BRUTAL HARVEST

All of these flashed on the screen as nine identical-sounding battle announcers enthusiastically shouted the lines at the same time. It added an unintended cacophony to Leafa's already horrid demise.

Error #74509: All possible announcements playing simultaneously during Special Death Event for female Sylph characters. Check output algorithm.

The AmuSphere released a short accumulated charge of electricity straight into an already strained blood vessel in Suguha's brain. She slumped lifelessly in her chair with her visor still over her eyes, dead in an instant. Her mouth was frozen in a serene smile.

Treegion's branches began to resonate. It absorbed Leafa's fresh liquefied remains into its dry, thirsty bark like a sponge. The red paste flowed down the veins of the tree, mixing with the unspeakable black sap deep within its roots.

PLUTOSYNTHESIS: Ultimate Skill. Type: Nerve-Necro. Description: xxx.

A single feminine figure rose out of the murk. Leafa giggled ominously as she thrust her ample chest forward and stretched. Her new body was made entirely of the shiny black tar, as if she had been perfectly sculpted from it. She was completely naked except for the faded, swiveled up leaves that braided her black hair.

The nimble Sylph thrall walked out of the pit and took her place beside the rest of her undead brethren. It was exactly as Oberon had planned.