If you find mistakes, pls tell, thx. I don't like mistakes.

Also feel free to ask for more background information on the world. I am somehow running out of interesting points regarding the small comments at the beginning of the chapters.

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“

Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, is a medieval Practical Kabbalah grimoire, primarily written in Hebrew and Aramaic, but surviving also in Latin translation, as Liber Razielis Archangeli, in a 13th-century manuscript produced under Alfonso X.

Upon further examination of the book it was found out that its runic alphabet was most likely the first diagram for techno-magic, its symbols highly resembling modern circuit boards.

”

-Mages and their influences on the normals

***Sol, Aether***

***Gideon***

We appear right above the warehouse and Ed's men spread out immediately, searching for entrances. The warehouse itself is surrounded by fields, being located in the agricultural part of the city. Ed's men aren't picky in their choices. Windows and the roof's trapdoor serve as entrances as well as doors. But most of them are creative enough to avoid the obvious offered breaching points and blow their own way inside.

I stay back and wait and with Melan and Cyla while hovering above the warehouse. Ed gave me access to the private network of his battle sprites. This way I can observe the attack from their point of view and go in as soon as Markus is found.

The first few moments of the attack go as planned. Surprised people inside the warehouse are overwhelmed and taken down as they are encountered.

The battle sprite from which I am observing the operations rushes along the ceiling, launching gas grenades with tear gas in all directions and firing its stun gun at targets of opportunity.

Markus managed to woo over twenty people. I am not sure if they are just addicted or genuinely bonded to him.

It's when the first faceless breach the central part of the building that everything goes to hell. My battle sprite reaches the centre of the building and gets its camera eyes on a bloody pentagram on the floor. It's riddled with mad and senseless symbols with Amia lying in the middle.

A man whom I assume to be Markus is standing above her with a glass in his hand. The glass is filled with blood and he looks a little surprised.

But he quickly overcomes his initial shock and pushes his hand into the glass. Then he points his bloody fingers at the battle sprite.

My point of view is disconnected and a blast of blazing energy bursts out of the warehouse, taking a part of it with it. I myself am a little shocked at this display of power. Markus is packing a serious punch.

Switching to another point of view I decide that it's time to intervene. By gaining the exact position of Markus from another sprite I try to teleport myself in a way that severs his head from his body.

But my spell doesn't work. The coordinates keep shifting away from Markus until I realize that the raw power within him causes an interference phenomenon.

That leaves me with no other choice but to go in and risk my own neck. I teleport and appear right behind Markus. Reinforcing my own body with magic I ram my left hand right into his body where his heart should be. My hand pushes completely through, exiting through his chest. Having accomplished that I pull forth a surge of energy to electrocute my opponent.

Cyla appears right next to Amia and the strange feeling of prickling feeling of a thousand needles runs all over my body. Then Cyla teleports once more, taking Amia with her and the strange feeling is gone.

“Noooo!” Markus screams in rage. “You interrupted the ritual.” His body goes into convulsions as I pour more electricity into his body.

It looks well until my opponent's twitching body suddenly turns around, pulling me with him. His elbow impacts my temple and I am flung away, tumbling and breaking through the warehouse's wall.

Vaguely I notice that Markus is jumping after me. So I use a force-spell to divert his path, sending him off course.

My head and my body hurt like hell, but I try to stay focused and use a part of my power to activate a healing spell while I search for the warehouse's power-line. I just dealt a lethal blow to my opponent. At least it should have been lethal. If I use too much of my power inefficiently I may not win this. Healing is one of the traits at which I am no expert.

Markus points his fingers at me, but I already know what I've to expect. His energy beam sears through empty space and I reappear to his left.

Not losing any time I blast him with a thunder bolt and jump to the side as another surge of power turns the field under me to smouldering lava. It carves a deep trench into the ground and I don't fail to notice the excavated power-line which was revealed by the attack.

Markus doesn't even flinch upon being electrocuted with a few thousand volts and I watch in fascination as the wound in his chest starts closing. Regeneration? If that isn't an unfair cheat I don't know what else to say.

Then he rushes forward in an explosion of speed. I realize in dismay that my body can't keep up with my accelerated mind. But just before Markus reaches me he is suddenly accelerated downwards and belly-flops into the field under us.

From the corners of my vision I realize that Melan and Cyla joined in and increased the gravity in an area between me and Markus. When he decided to return the fight to close combat he jumped right into the affected area.

But despite the increased gravity Markus gets up, compressing the dirt under him even further. His hand reaches once more for me and I ready myself to teleport away.

Just when he is about to fire Cyla appears right in front of me and I open my mouth to scream, reaching forward to teleport her with me.

The beam of energy blazes towards us, but bends away upon reaching Cyla's outstretched hands. The energy curves around us and back towards Markus. Black orbs of nothingness appear around Cyla and I realize what she must've done. She created such a strong gravitational effect to even bend space while locating the effect to a limited room.

My hand touches her just as my left foot comes close to one of the orbs and I notice an unhealthy cracking sound. Then I connect to her.

~Pull back! You are overdoing it!~

~I can't. He tried to kill you.~

~You'll kill us both or at least yourself if you overuse your power any further. I could've teleported away, you are overreacting.~

~I didn't think!~

~I'll teleport us away, but you've to drop the gravity magic at the same time.~

~I'll try.~

With a huge effort I teleport us away from the rippling effect of Cyla's artificial singularities. Though I am not really sure if they actually are singularities.

Both of us appear in the field further towards the damaged warehouse and I erect a shield to protect us from the randomly sheering and splitting beams of energy which are created by the combination of Cyla's spell becoming uncontrolled and our opponent's energy beam.

I reach for Cyla's mind and realize that she is completely powered out. Returning that spell on Markus used up all her energy. “Stay down.” I get up and apply a very draining healing spell to my broken leg. The bone snaps back into place and mends. It's a dirty job and will have to be looked at by a real doctor, but the spell is good for emergency repairs.

A body appears from the cloud of smoke and ash where Cyla hit Markus with his own redirected energy blast. At least he didn't take his own magic very well. He is a walking, charred corpse, stumbling forward. But as I watch the burned pieces of his body start falling off, revealing smooth and new skin.

He has the parchments from the video in his hands and is reading from it, completely ignoring his surroundings.

I start running and reach out for the power-line which was unearthed by one of Markus's energy blasts. Then I drink in the power, hurling myself further forward at Markus who is still in the process of healing himself.

Both of us go to the ground and roll through the dirt while I run my energies through his body. As I do so he is doing the same with his pool of power. The fight turns into a mere struggle for power and energy. Converting, manipulating, stealing, using only the raw basics of invoking magic.

It isn't even using magic, just manipulating energies.

His fist impacts my chin, but I barely notice it and retreat to my own reality, treating my body like a tool. Everything is fine as long as the electrical pattern which makes up my consciousness isn't hurt or damaged.

My hand closes around his neck, fingers digging into his skin.

That's when I realize that my hand isn't really a hand any more. It's more like an ethereal surge of electricity and energy. Did I become something like a lightning elemental? Somehow I notice that he experienced a similar transformation. But where I became something that's more on the side of electricity, he seems to consist of plasma and heat. His skin blisters away, revealing light beneath it.

“You won't deny me my power!” He hisses and doubles his efforts in converting my energy to his. I return the favour by severing large junks of his power pool, dispersing them into our surroundings. This form of magical battle is completely new to me, but I get excited nonetheless. Even the pain can't stop me from exploring new possibilities.

I retreat further and further from his attempts at conversion, only striking out when I can steal or cut off more of his energy than he can.

Slowly our bodies return to their normal forms as the energy inside us depletes. My repeated retreats at controlling the power between us make him more confident and he attempts to overwhelm me, coming forth from his pool of power.

That's when I finally sense something else than his raw energy. Previously his real being seemed to be protected by the raw energy within him, but his confidence made him lower his guard.

I retreat once more, condensing my consciousness into a small and dense ball. He greedily jumps at the opportunity to convert even more of my energy into his.

In that moment of distraction I burst forward and dig mental claws into the energy pattern which makes up his true self. A raw mental scream emerges from the depths of his being and he tries to pull back, but I don't let him. When he came forward I got a firm hold on him and like a shark who sensed blood I've no intention of letting go.

Slowly I pull him towards me, separating the energy pattern which holds -him- from his remaining pool of power. It's like reeling in a fish on a rod. The fish already knows that it is caught, but still struggles in futile resistance.

Then I finally have him in my spiritual grasp and start playing with this newly found ability of mine. In a sudden burst of inspiration I disassemble his energy pattern like Lego blocks and put it back together.

This time in a manner that favours all forms of pain and fears, reassembling it with my own sped up perception of time. Then I step back and admire my creation for a small eternity.

But suddenly the energy pattern that's Markus's 'spirit', for the lack of a better term, turns erratic. I reach out, but before I can do anything about it the pattern flat lines and disperses into nothingness, de-naturalizing to a pure, wild state.

Wild and immature rage boils up inside me. He got away! He got away! That was a much too easy death. An eternity of pain isn't enough for someone who hurt Cyla!

Somewhere at the edge of my mind I notice myself prying Markus's dead hand away from my neck. With a burst of energy I rip off the arm which is holding the parchments and start beating him with it.

A stream of curses escapes my lips while blood and bits of flesh fly everywhere. At some point I run out of English ones and use German curses instead, which are even more creative in certain ways. I sometimes revert to German since my adoptive parents spoke it. It's the first language I learned. The sheets of parchment loosen and are flung upwards, dispersing all around us.

Suddenly Melan appears right next to me and gives me a clout with all her weight behind it. “Snap out of it, Gideon!”

The short and sharp pain forces me to turn my attention away from the target of my hate. That causes me to regain my centre and I stop the stream of curses. Blinking, I look up to her and then down at the mangled corpse. My eyes wander to the faceless who are surrounding us in respectful distance and the flying news cameras which are hovering behind them.

I drop the torn off arm and get to my feet, correcting my clothes. “Thanks, Grandma. I guess the mental battle with that monster sent me over the edge.”

“You are sure?” Melan eyes me carefully, looking me up and down. “You aren't hurt, right?”

I try to stretch and rotate my shoulders. “No. Feels just a little uptight and wobbly in my knees, but otherwise fine. Whatever just happened seems to be over.”

“Right. You still have to see a doctor. I think you just had another mutational burst from the battle.” Melan grabs my hand and slides an arm under my shoulder to support me.

“No. What about Cyla?” I ask and try to turn, but my legs simply give out.

Luckily Melan stops me from falling. “She's fine! I've already checked.”

“Ah, good. I think I'll sleep then.” I close my eyes and my consciousness fades away the same moment.

***Sol, Aether***

***Cyla***

It's been three days since the incident and Gideon, Amia and I have been shut away in the hospital since then. They conducted a lot of tests, but finally Ed and a few doctors decided to tell us what happened.

“It's an old forbidden ritual to guide the mutation of the target as well as the parts of a genuine spell-book. The Merseburg incantations were just a few pages from the whole book. The guiding process works by exposing the body to targeted stress.” Ed waves the parchments in his hand. “The really sick part is just that you need a sacrifice. A person with the magical affinities which you want to enhance. It's a really old spell which works with a brute force approach, so it needs something like a template.”

“So we were exposed to this ritual?” I ask, shocked, looking at myself in the mirror. There are black lines circling along my temples and along my neck down to my collarbones in a strange pattern. From my neck they also spread down my spine to form a similar pattern above my butt. They look similar to my mother's mutation and when I exert my power through them I can apparently create small singularities of warped space. Hopefully the ones on my collarbones don't emphasize my cleavage too much and make me look like a slut? No, those tattoos look more demonic than anything else.

“They look cool, Cyla. And sexy! Don't worry.” Gideon gives me a thumbs up which makes me blush.

“Since when am I the one whose thoughts can be read easily?” I ask.

“Since you are ogling yourself in a mirror non-stop!” Amia calls out while playing with her blazing red hair. Her mutation was less troublesome. The only change in appearance was the new hair colour and a heightened affinity for fire-magic. She got away with less drastic changes.

“No. You interrupted the ritual.” Ed takes another look at his report. “I gave the manuscript to the doctors and they took a very close look at it. The first part of the ritual exposes you to a high amount of energy to draw fourth your natural mutation and to prepare for the second step. But Markus never got that far, so everything you have now is your natural skill. Nature given I am afraid.”

“That's nice. So we can go home now? We are already kept captive since three days.” Gideon crosses his arms in front of his chest.

“If you don't feel like turning back to pure energy?” One of the medical personnel asks.

Gideon shakes his head. “Nope. At least not at the moment. I feel very solid. But how did Markus get that strong if it was just the first part of the ritual?”

“The bonding?” Amia asks with a doubtful voice. “Though I didn't expect it to make him that strong.”

“It wasn't the bonding alone.” One of the doctors answers. “I took a close look at his remains, at least at what you've left me. His genetic code implies that he already performed the ritual several times. That's probably also the reason why he decided to leave Earth. With all the mages leaving the planet new sacrifices became very hard to find.”

A shudder runs down my spine. “I don't want to know how many.”

“But I want.” Gideon throws in.

“Impossible to tell.” The doctor answers. “I just know that it must've been many.”

“And that's exactly why this will be safely locked away in a dark and secure place.” Ed waves at us with the manuscript. “I would rather destroy it, but there is no way to tell if there isn't something valuable from old times among these pages. The scientists will have to take a good look at it first.”

I sigh in relief and get up from my seat. “Then let's go home.”

We don't lose any time and hurry back to Gideon's mansion. The front entrance is still a little battered, but that's nothing that could stop us from enjoying our break. Back at home I am finally able to relax.

And there is something else I want to do! I hurry to our bedroom and shed my clothes to put on the thong and cupped bra which he likes so much. A few moments after I am done the door opens and I throw myself onto the bed. Closing my eyes I push out my chest to let my cleavage speak for itself.

“Wow! If that isn't confidence I don't know.” Amia's voice reaches me from the room's entrance.

I open my eyes and jump up. “Amia? What's that supposed to be!?” I stomp towards my friend who is in red undergarments and has a bottle in her hands.

“Can I join in?” She asks with a pleading voice. “I am on withdrawal for three weeks straight and the last three days being locked up in the hospital didn't help.”

My eyes widen. “No! He is mine and I don't know how he would react to what you've in mind!”

“Please! I am not familiar with Aether and picking up a decent guy isn't easy since I don't know any good locations. And I've already shared men with you. Do you remember Angelo and that nature-mage you got the hots for? They were originally my boyfriends.” Amia takes my hand.

“That's something completely different. You didn't intend to marry them!” I try to pry my hand out of hers.

“Is it?” She raises the bottle. “I even brought silicon-oil, I know that you are much too embarrassed to buy it yourself.”

I lick over my lips and reach for the bottle, but she pulls it away. “Ah! What's your answer? I promise that I won't steal him from you.”

Squinting my eyes at her I think long and hard before answering. “You know what I'll do to you if this has any repercussions on my relationship with him?”

Amia salutes me. “It won't! You are the boss!”

I nod and place a hand on my hips, then I look deep into her eyes, a superior smirk on my face. “I am fully intending to make you regret this.”

***Sol, Aether***

***Gideon***

I enter my bedroom and stop. On my bed are two half naked beauties. Are Amia and Cyla having a lesbian encounter? No, Cyla isn't lesbian. I would have read that in her mind. “What's going on?” No, I know! “Where is the camera?”

Cyla gets up and stalks towards me, swaying her hips. “No camera, just two women who need a man.”

“Yes, I see that.” But there has to be a trick to it! That's not how Melan described things to me. What am I supposed to do if my girlfriend actually allows a sidekick!? “I still sense something off. Are you testing my morals because I went nuts on that blood-mage? Because if that's the case I won't fall for it!”

Cyla doesn't answer and kisses me instead, opening her mind to me. Her legs snake around me and I cup her ass to support her. When she is done our lips part. “Do you know what you have to do?”

A grin steals itself onto my face and I recognize the free card I am given. “Oh, you are so evil. I love you.”

I carry her to the bed where Amia is waiting eagerly. Then I pull both of them into a tight embrace while they start getting rid of my clothes. Running my hand over Amia's belly I pull a little spark from her skin while kissing Cyla's neck.

Then I get pushed on my back and Amia gets a bottle from the night table and pours the slippery contents onto us.

I already want to protest against sullying my bed, but Cyla shuts me up by claiming my lips while Amia gets to work on my lower region, guiding my hand between her legs. After a while of caressing her clit I use her weak position to spark her. It results in a scream of pleasure and Amia pulls my hand away to place herself above me. Then she drops her hips onto me and starts grinding hers against mine.

Cyla gets up and turns around to kiss Amia, running sparks of electricity across her body. I follow her lead and grab her chest, moving my fingers between her legs.

Cyla connects her mind to Amia and I join them. Seconds stretch to minutes until all of us shudder in fulfilment. I reach around both of them and claim them in the most primeval way, not holding back on sharing the explosion of my feelings with them. A final thrust into her finishes her off. Amia's eyes turn upwards and she passes out with a gasp while I am still inside her.

“And that's it for someone who believes that she can join in on two telepaths.” Cyla shoves Amia off of me and takes her place, slipping me inside her with her back towards me. “That girl simply didn't know what she got herself into.”

I smile. “That leaves more time for the two of us.” I push Cyla forward and grab her hips, fully intending to use the opportunity of getting rid of three days worth of tension.

.