[Corruption, Hypnosis]

Being one of Titan's Heroes was hard work. Not just because you had your different sorts of heroics, but you also needed to show up for press releases, you had to do a certain amount of advertising that would make you look like part of the brand, but most importantly... You had to act like you were one of its heroes. And that meant that you boxed yourself in, so to speak.

Not that Infernoble Knight cared that much about that. She was far from the kind of lady that would act according to guidelines. And thanks to her special deal with Obsidious, she was allowed to pass through and ignore a lot of the limits that were placed on her. Granted, it meant that she gained a certain kind of infamy for her extremely self-centered behavior and general harsh way of dealing with Villains, especially since they usually ended up as part of her knightly entourage before long. But that was just how she worked, and she didn't care what others thought about that. It was just what she did. If they wanted to complain about it, she knew exactly where she would stuff their complaints. Right into the hole between her cheeks, that's where.

"Hmph, they think that they have the right to question my methods?" Infernoble Knight said as she slowly removed all of her armor, letting it fall to the floor as she walked into the shower and slowly stretched. She was beyond done with heroics for the day. She wanted nothing more than to just get soaked and relax in the bath. First, she was going to clean herself with one of her intensely hot showers, and then she would rest away inside a nice and temperate bath. It would allow all of the stress that had built up on her body to just vanish, and then she could relax. Especially since it was the weekend soon. She just had one more day to go, then she could relax and ignore her duties for a couple of days.

But as she stepped towards the shower, she couldn't help but feel as if something was wrong. There was... a smell that permeated through the room. Not just here, either. If she were to retrace her steps and go into the rest of her penthouse apartment, she would realize that the smell had permeated through the entire apartment. Somebody had been here. Somebody... familiar.

"What exactly might have tried to penetrate through and discover what kind of private life I lead?" Elizabeth, the girl underneath that Heroic name, slowly glared around her. All while a flame started to form in the palm of her hand. She wasn't about to let her guard down. Not when somebody was trying to aggress on her during a time that was intended to be for her and her alone.

The flames reacted to the smell in the air, quickly burning it all away. And in the process, several droplets started to fall onto the ground below, a sign of a water-based illusion being overpowered by the heat. There was somebody here. Somebody that had deep ties to the sea. Only those that were closely associated with the sea would be able to use this kind of technique. Great, she was dealing with a water freak.

"I'll give you one warning, freak! If you try to fight me with water, you're playing with worse embers than you could've ever imagined! EVEN MY GLARE WILL INCINERATE YOU FROM THE VERY BONE! COME OUT AND REVEAL YOURSELF, YOU'VE TARNISHED MY PRIVATE TIME ALREADY, THE LEAST YOU COULD DO IS OFFER YOUR HEAD TO ME!" Elizabeth was beyond pissed, and the way that the flame in her hand started to rage as she shouted just proved it...

Initially, she didn't get an answer. Of course she wouldn't get an answer. Nobody that was stupid enough to come and try to assassinate her in her own apartment would answer her if they knew what was at risk. And yet she knew that she would be able to make them appear. She just had to nudge them a little, and then...

"RAGE ON, INFERNO! CONSUME MY APARTMENT UNTIL THEY SHOW THEMSELVES!" Elizabeth shouted, and the flame indeed started to rage. Allowing it to consume any water that came its way. Any that would try to hide from her and tried to imply that they were her better.

"Aqua Cage!"

Right up until a cage of the purest kind of water slammed around the inferno in her hand, the intense flow of pure liquid serving to choke out the fire. Not to the point where it would stop raging, but to the point where it couldn't spread. All while the culprit was panting and gasping, as she was forced to reveal that she had been hiding... in the closet where Elizabeth kept all of her spare undies.

Elizabeth's eyes were filled with a fury like nobody would believe. All while she made another flame appear in her other hand. "You have some nerve being a perverse bastard on top of being an assassin. What do you.. say..." She paused, the flame dying out as she realized who had been hiding inside of her closet. "...Sea Serpent. I thought you were better than that." She muttered, her heart sinking a little as she laid her eyes upon a snake she thought she had some amount of respect for.

The serpent crawling out of her closet was around her age. A close friend of her family. But she was forced into exile. Not because of her abilities, and not because of what she had done to Elizabeth. But rather because of the fact that she had been friends with a human. It was that forbidden friendship that meant that she wasn't allowed to the surface any longer. Because she would be contaminated by their beliefs. She would be contaminated by the ones walking around on land...

"Well, it's not like I knew where to hide." The blue-haired Lamia, who was covered from head to toe in a film of pure water that had helped hide her away thanks to the way it made her invisible to the naked eye before it was popped by her need to stop the flames from consuming her, slowly groaned while getting up from her current position on the floor. All while several of those frilly and lacy panties were sticking to her tail, as if she had been trying each and every single one of them on. "But I just wanted to come by and visit a friend. Is that so wrong?"

Elizabeth tried her best to muster up a flame as she looked at the seaborn Lamia, before gritting her teeth and shaking her head as she slowly just sighed. "No, it's not wrong. I just didn't expect to ever see you again, Livia. After you were forced to go back with your clan, I thought we were only able to face each other on the battlefield. As Infernoble Knight and as Sea Serpent. As our forefathers had done so many times before."

"Yeah. So did I." Livia said, quietly taking a moment to remove every single one of the garments that were sticking to her lower half. Completely out of courtesy since she had unintentionally caused them to get drenched. "But it turns out that fighting against your clan's wishes has its benefits. Especially when that very same clan has grown incredibly weak due to a lacking use of their abilities. I discovered this when I was forced to put my skills with a blade to good use, knocking out the generation that was devoted to protecting the clan..."

Elizabeth nodded softly, as she passed by her serpentine friend and picked up the guard that served as part of her flaming blade. Something that she had specifically requested from Obsidious, after constant need to reforge a massive blade during combat. The guard allowed her to just channel her flames into a simpler form, something that allowed her to keep up a constant output. "So you fought back against your clan, and then you came here. For what purpose, exactly? What do you gain from visiting a woman from a family that's fallen by the wayside?"

"Wayside? You mean to tell me-"

"Yes." Elizabeth didn't let her friend finish, as she just grit her teeth and turned back towards her instead to reveal the pain and suffering in her expression. "The rest of the family were killed in an attack by a Villain that was much stronger than the entire Sea Serpent clan. All of them were wiped clean, all except for me. I only escaped by letting my flames die down as much as possible. And then..."

Livia bit her lip as she slowly looked away. "I'm sorry to hear that, Elizabeth. But... I suppose that makes my job so much easier. I hoped that I wouldn't have to deal with your family when I offered this to you..." She muttered, all while she slowly started to glow. All while slowly putting her hands close to her chest...

Only for Elizabeth to point a flaming blade straight at her chest. "You're not trying to overpower me with your waters, are you, Livia? You can't imprison me like you imprisoned my flames. I will break free. And I will burn you to cinders. Even if you were an old friend. I don't plan on ever slowing down. Not while that enemy is still out there. Not while my family still rolls in their graves, waiting for me to avenge them. If you plan to stop me, then I will have to strike you down like the rest."

"I don't wish to stop you. Far from it. I want to help you. But I also want you to help me. Because we need to be together. And I can't let your flame rage on without being under my control." Livia said, all while she twisted her hands around and clamped them down on one another, as if the fingers were the fangs of a viper snapping down on the vulnerable animal that it had been preying on...

Because that's exactly what happened. Elizabeth hadn't realized it, but the water that was still flowing around on the ground or otherwise streaming around after she had forced it into existence with her flames... It wasn't just going to go away. It was going to remain in action. And somebody that was skilled in manipulating water could easily still use it.

Which was why Elizabeth now had two fangs made of water stabbed into her shoulder, as she struggled and gasped and tried her best to fight back against the pained sensation. "Livia... LIVIAAAA...!" She screamed, the fury in her eyes intensifying as she was about to let her flames just consume her for the sake of dealing with the one that had tried to strike her down. There was no way that she was going to let Livia live after this stunt.

But Livia also wasn't going to let her try to fight back. Not while her hands were still active. "I'm sorry, Elizabeth. This is the only way that we can both come out on top. The only way that I can help you." She said, all while a whirlpool started to flow from the hands that started to open up once more. A whirlpool that started to spin just like a hypnotic spiral. Just like the ways that Titan Industries tried to keep their lowest level employees under a strict code of conduct...

Elizabeth tried to fight back against the spiral that was pulling her eyes in. Against the spiral that was trying to pull in her mind. But it was getting harder and harder by the moment. She couldn't think. She could hardly even breathe. It was like she was being forced to drown, just thanks to a bit of water that was pouring forth from a shitty snake's hands. If she could only ignore it and turn on her flames so she could burn it all away. She was this close to dealing with it. This close..!

"Sink, Infernoble Knight." Livia said, as the waters pouring off her formed a set of delicate and ornate armor. The ceremonial armor that every single Sea Serpent wore when they went to war against the ones on the surface. "Sink, so we can see eye to eye. So you can be one with the ones from the depths, just like I can be one with the only landborne woman that matters..."

The fire-fueled Heroine did her best to fight back. But the sweet and almost siren-like words that were pouring through her ears were... Way too much for her to fight back against. Her eyes were growing dimmer and dimmer. All while her body grew limp. Especially as the serpent started to coil around her, making sure that she remained standing despite the fact that all of the muscles in her body had fallen asleep due to the hypnotic spiral sending pure pleasure and relaxation through her. Which not only made her tired, but also served to make her moan subtly...

Sea Serpent smiled softly, especially as she was pulling her dear friend deeper and deeper into a trance. Admittedly, she had always wanted to try this. Elizabeth was always too prideful for her own good. So giving her a taste of the hypnotic abilities that she was born with was the right path forward. It would tame her. It would render her unable to fight back... And most importantly...

"Sink. Sink until your flames become part of the abyss. Sink until your only home is under the waves. With me. With your true heritage..."

It would allow her to make Elizabeth believe that she was much more than a simple human. It would make her able to think that she was a serpent just like Livia. And that was exactly what Elizabeth needed to believe. Being a serpent would fulfill her. Being a serpent would be the path forward...

The more that Elizabeth heard those words from the serpent that had taken control of her mind, the more she was forced to believe it. She was... She was supposed to be part of the abyss. She was supposed to be underneath the waves. Her flames were not meant to illuminate the earth. It was meant to illuminate the depths. To cast light on those that lived underneath the sea.

It was why her flames were currently spreading across her body. Even though she was kept in a trance, her subconsciousness was the thing that ultimately controlled her powers. And if she believed that she needed to be underneath the seas, then she needed to look the part.

Elizabeth let out a pained moan as she felt the flames digging into her. It was like a part of her was being burned away, and she could do nothing to stop it. But she didn't want to stop it. She didn't want to deny her true heritage. Not after the serpent had convinced her that she was meant to be underneath the waves. So she grit her teeth and endured the sensations that were spreading through her. She endured it all, as her body grew weaker and weaker as it absorbed more and more flames...

Right up until she couldn't feel her legs any longer. Because there were no legs. The flames had burned them away. And in their place was a tail forged from that very same flame. A long tail, one that was even longer than Sea Serpent's. So much so that Livia couldn't properly wrap around her, instead just doing her best to cling to her as that flaming tail stretched further and further...

Livia had never seen a tail as large as this one. But she wasn't surprised to see it. In fact, she had almost expected this from her friend. She had a tendency to go overboard. No matter what, she was going to be the very best in any single situation. There was no way around it. It was just how things were going to be with Elizabeth...

Seeing as the tail had fully grown, Sea Serpent saw no point in continuing the transformation, nor did she see a point in continuing the mesmerizing. It was clear that Elizabeth had become part of her world. Part of the abyss. So all she had to do was release it, and then everything would fall into place. All she had to do was that one thing...

She slowly closed her eyes, and she loosened her grip on her friend. Letting her tail grow nice and lax, watching her redheaded friend's gaze slowly fill up with life once more. A life that she thought that she had well and truly taken from her. A life that would be rendered completely useless if she hadn't been careful with her power.

Elizabeth looked at Livia... And she quickly wrapped her brand new tail around her. Even though she had only had it for a few moments, she moved like it was part of her since the day she was born. And with a wicked yet loving smile on her face, she licked her lips. "What's the matter, Livia? Are you afraid of Abyssflame?" She asked, carefully caressing her cheeks as she made sure that Livia couldn't move..."

"N-No. I'm not afraid of you, Elizabeth..." She muttered, all while she started to moan as that long tail squeezed around her. Perhaps she had gone a little overboard. Maybe she had... made her a little too dominant for one that would dwell underneath the sea. After all, she was supposed to be its ruler, and Elizabeth was meant to be at her side...

Elizabeth, now redubbed Abyssflame thanks to her new outlook, chuckled as she squeezed tighter around Sea Serpent. "Then if you do not feel fear, I will make you feel pleasure. As thanks for being by my side all along, my sweet Sea Serpent of the deepest abyss..."

All Livia could do was whimper and gasp, all while Elizabeth made sure that she knew who was in charge of it all...