Sam (♀) and Sam (♂) read "Subjugation Tournament" by Gambio: The Rise of Skywanker

A shadow slumped against the entrance to the tent. A big shadow. Furry at the edges. The tent leaned alarmingly as whatever it was just outside pressed its weight against it. Then, after an eternity, it began to snore.

"Well, we're fucked," Sam (♀) whispered. "And not in the 'hey, take a deep breath, let's experiment' kind of fucked."

"Well, since we're apparently trapped, let's finish this fucking review," Sam (♂) whispered back. "When last we left off, Mari Beta was literally signing his soul away."

00:45 AM
Cassandra

"Amazing," Sam (♀) whispered. "It took hundreds of chapters, but Gambio finally identified a POV shift."

"So, instead of this being Mari training under 100x gravity, the girls in the harem are going to get drunk and/or try to help him," Sam (♂) said. "Because this isn't a long enough story, apparently. We need more narrative build-up."

Cackle

"The humor rather dissipates some of the tension carefully built-up so far," Sam (♀) said. "But it is very much Gambio's style to show how clever and/or silly their characters are."

"Hypnosis", I stared at Hebi-san with a blank look on my face. "That is your solution?"
We retreated back to the master bedroom for this and Hebi-san gave a short nod. "Turning you into our obedient thrall will increase your fighting ability tremendously."

"They tried this before," Sam (♂) noted. "It worked until his legs stopped working."

Ye must been of a japping spirit!

"Does Gambio know that's a racist slur?" Sam (♀) said.

"Always hard to tell," Sam (♂) replied.

“Sir...begging your pardon for asking, but I do wonder, are you aware of your own potential?”

"It feels like Mari is the Gifted Program kid, but the only one who actually sees that wants to eat his soul," Sam (♀) observed.

What queer bedfellows.

"Not gonna lie, a version of this story played straight where we follow a defeated galmon dealing with finding their place in the slowly-growing harem of an aspirant champion and discovering her lesbian desires sounds good right now," Sam (♂) said.

"A commentator commented that this isn't how statistics work, to which I say: the math is all narrative bullshit anyway, let Gambio have their fun," Sam (♀) said.

“Can tell. Am certain.”, Aiju assured me. And then she looked me in the eyes. “So, Mari. Losing not allowed ok?”
I nodded determined and hugged her. “O-Of course! tThere is no way I will lose now, Aiju!”

"Awww," the Sams said in unison.

-via the Goddess
I feel stupid to even write this down, but according to some holy scripture mumbo jumbo the Goddess Alice is capable of not only destroy a Dark Lord but the Demon King himself with the snap of a finger. If the church is to be believed all the holy weapons were bestowed to humanity by the Goddess. Superstitious rubbish. There hasn’t been a single record of a Dark Lord ever be destroyed by divine intervention.

"I might have missed some worldbuilding," Sam (♂) said.

"Most of these are red herrings, anyway," Sam (♀) noted.

Why do they always have to come in when I’m on the toilet!

"I mean, that's literally the only time he isn't training," Sam (♂) said.

It fires magic bullets

"Might be fun to do a version of this tournament that was gunslingers," Sam (♀) mused. "Ice bullets, tracking bullets, zombies who have to be shot through the head to die..."

BLIP BLIP DI BA DU!

"I can't tell if that's a sapphic episode just because this is nominally an erotic CHYOA site, or if it's plot-relevant," Sam (♂) said. "Wouldn't put either past Gambio, honestly."

Due to our superior skill, we have unlocked hypnosis 2. With this magnificent power not even a fool as foolishly foolish as Mari Beta will be able to make a botch of it.

"Accidentally plot-relevant, then," Sam (♀) said. "I know this is all a big build up to a final fight scene where readers are expecting a challenge and then things turn out much worse than they planned, because that's Gambio's style, but okay."

At age twelve her physical strength was a match for any adult. At her fourteen birthday one of her rivals ambushed Minerva with fifteen men. On the same night, a bloodied Minerva would show up at her rivals private quarter, slaughter her way through twenty more guards and rape her rival to dead.
“Should have send all at once” she famously said.

"Might have made that 18," Sam (♂) said. "Just for the legalities."

Besides, would be a shame to ruin his girlish charm.

"While it is a long, slow build-up, you can't say that Gambio doesn't go in for the character development," Sam (♀) said. "Although it makes me wonder if it might hit different if Mari's level-up was tied to feminization."

"Gambio would do something where different aspects of the body were developed differently, and characters could over-level their breasts to the point that they became a problem," Sam (♂) said.

Only two of the towers are left now.

"...man, not even a little joke," Sam (♀) said.

This isn’t some heroic fantasy and Daddy isn’t the Hero.

"I kinda want one branch to have Sanakia actually find the Holy Blade Nikkou and Mari uses it to win the fight, because honestly that would be more satisfying than whatever is actually going to happen. She tries hard, dammit!" Sam (♂) said.

“Good job, boy. But playtime’s over.”

"I know we're struggling to come up with proper criticism and commentary, but it has been a long review, a lot of build-up, stakes clearly defined, characters clearly characterized," Sam (♀) said. "So there's a degree of basic satisfaction in that. Gambio took their time getting here, and that effort has to be commended."

“Is this a final form kind of thing? Because I loathe when my opponents pull that.”

"Has a point. Minerva should have gone full power and killed Mari ASAP," Sam (♂) said. "As it is, changing the rules mid-fight is a bit disappointing."

"We should have expected it, though," Sam (♀) said.

“YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!!”

"I can't remember, were Mari's parents married?" Sam (♂) asked.

"I'm going to assume that they were married before they had his sister," Sam (♀) said. "But yeah, anyway, this was slightly telegraphed."

“Dark Lord Ithere?”

"I should not be surprised that this ended up with feminization, of sort, and yet somehow I am," Sam (♂) said.

And just like that, Dark Lord Minerva was holding a siesta.

"The epic highs and lows of high school football," Sam (♀) sighed.

“You don’t scare us, unclean one! The Dark Lord will purge you! Like she did with that other filthy whore!”, their leader spoke with fanatic zeal. “Have no fear! We are on the side of justice! We are the chosen ones! You vile abomination will answer for your crimes!”

"Sex work might be legal in this setting, but it is not respected," Sam (♂) said.

“Never mind your secret plan. I think I just finish you now.”

"Minerva is finally where the audience was about five chapters ago," Sam (♀) said.

I started to sob as my bladder relieved itself

"Would have been funny if she was so desperate for liquid she dropped down to drink the pee," Sam (♂) said. "But, don't want to give Gambio ideas."

It went about halfway down her neck before Minerva started heaving and retched it all back out again, covering my face with it.

"Fun fact: you can drink about a pint of blood before you throw up," Sam (♀) said. "Ask me how I know!"

“Good job, winning, will suck dick later.”

"You know, at the point that your slave tournament is attracting fighters of the caliber of a Dark Lord, whom you cannot affect or control, maybe it's time to pack it in," Sam (♂) said. "I mean, you think about it. This whole contest was a mess."

“Instead of torturing.”, Sylphid clarified further. “You could have simply flipped Handsome over and pleasured his butt.”
I...didn’t even consider that.

"Sequel: Pegging Tournament. Contestants take rounds pounding each other in the ass," Sam (♀) said. "But, don't want to give Gambio ideas."

“Sounds like some lawyer lingo mumbo jumbo gibberish to me.”

"This is going to have more endings than Lord of the Rings," Sam (♂) sighed. "Not that we should complain. Gambio's pretty much earned the right to tie up all the loose plot threads."

“Do not falter on the finish line now, Mr. Beta.”

"So if Femto and Mari had won by the original plan, and Mari had trained to his level cap, would that have made him BetaMax?" Sam (♀) said.

“Damn straight, bossman, you just beat the final boss! Now it’s orgy time!”

"Narrative imperative. Hero wins, gets laid," Sam (♂) nodded approvingly. "Although technically this would be a reverse-gangbang scenario, unless some of the girls are having sex with each other."

“Don’t apologize to me! Apologize to the money!”

"Oh, right. He wanted the money for something," Sam (♀) said. "Kind of lost track of that for a bit."

It seems my real battle had only just begun.

"Still amazed he has balls after all of this," Sam (♂) said. "Could have gone the whole Amber Princess route."

“Say! McGarnagel! Have you figured out who your sister is?”
It was all I could do to prevent myself from wincing. “I got news from my brother but...no.”

"He has a brother?" Sam (♀) asked.

"I am not reading back to try and figure out his family tree," Sam (♂) said. "Besides, he's about to get a bunch of kits."

Well, it was less a grave and more an acknowledgment of her existence.

"That's called a cenotaph," Sam (♀) said.

And we can breed the male one?

"Summon a zinc elemental, Mari's going to need supplements," Sam (♂) said dryly.

And that is a wrap! Thank you all for sticking with me on this long journey.
I started working on this project three years ago with the intention of creating a tournament story, not just any tournament story but a massive one, and most importantly one with a conclusion. Because of this, I did not start publishing until two years into the process. By that point the whole story was already written from start to finish.

"Hats off to Gambio, for as much as we bitch about the lack of sex scenes and the inherently silly character and all the typos and misspellings, and...ah..." Sam (♀) blinked. "What was I saying?"

"Good job," Sam (♂) said. "And now..."

The Sams grew quiet.

The rain had stopped.

There was the sound of a zipper.

A figure loomed, silhouetted against the dawning sun. A pair of axes in her hands, a furry mantle that might have come from a bear on her broad shoulders.

"And now," the figure said. "There's no more room in hell. And I can walk the Earth once more—"

The Sams screamed. For a very long time. Because no story is ever, truly, over. Not if you want it to go on.