Three’s a Magic Number

“Truly wonderful offers from all of you.” I bow my head and prepare to make them all mad. “However I am but a **** to the whims of my mistress. If Steelowyn says I am to give these souls to Tan’Hagorath then that is where they must go.”

There was much rumbling and roaring from the princes.

“Oh you poor beaten lamb.” Matrowyn tutted. “Know you can always seek shelter from the wolves in your shepherdess’s carnal embrace.”

“Weak as always.” Grokhan growled

The thief of wonders and the new prince both simply faded away without a word.

Tan’Hagorath mighty cultivator of witches seemed to be fading too. In fact I thought he would vanish all other without collecting his souls, but he managed to stay around, threadbare though his presence was.

“There we go.” Steelowyn growled happily. “Rather ragged with all the bribes you’ve been offering aren’t you?”

The blue orb did not respond, could not respond I suspected. It simply hovered over both the twins and siphoned their souls. He seemed to grow more powerful from the act, but once it was done he too vanished without a word.

“He spoils you.” Steelowyn said contemptuously. “The both of you. Too eager and reckless. I can only hope I instilled some discipline in you when last we met.”

“Certainly some fear, my lord.” I bowed my head.

“Good.” She purred. “We shall meet again very soon, and when we do, you will not deny me.” She proclaimed her will, and then returned me to the physical realm.

I was back in the dungeon with my three soon to be witches. My first goal was to cover Melli and her green skin but that wasn’t nessesary. The purple light from the crystals made it hard to notice the change.

Good.

Because I still needed her there.

My brain was fucked and if just made the girls interested in threesomes. Not ****. If the idea of a three-some did enter their mind it would be with me and Melli. For now their sister wouldn’t even enter the formulation.

I smiled to myself as we walked. This new perk I’d gained was really something. To be able to change a person on my first encounter with them was game changing.

I walked the twins and Melli up to the first chambers. The pots here had been taken into the rest of the dungeon for storage purposes, so it was mostly empty. “Here looks good.” I say leaning against a wall.

They stop and look at me expectingly. “What should we do?”

I wince as my mind scrambles, but an idea comes to me any way. “First you have to be working for me.” I say, bring up the star for them to see. “We can establish that connection by you guys following an order.” I straighten. “Kiss me and Melli!”

Melli gasps, and slaps me on the shoulder.

The two sputter in outrage.

“I’m a really good kisser.” I offer.

“No!” Sapphire folds her arms.

“Aww come on.” I grin. “Just a kiss between you, and your two coworkers.” I hope at least their subconscious picked up on the chaste threesome I was offering.

Ruby looked to her twin. "Come on, we've already come this far. One kiss won't hurt."

Ruby +2 Cp (-23 corruption) 164 total

"Famous last words!" Sapphire crossed her arms and watched her sister approach me. That was surprising but then I remembered that she's probably straight and didn't like the idea of kissing a girl first.

"Tongue or no tongue?" I ask with a grin.

She just rolls her eyes and presses her lips together. I of course, ever the gentleman give her a simple kiss, then physically pass her to Melli. The faster the better. Melli is not quite the gentleman I am, and hungrily kisses Ruby, so much so Ruby has to push her away to get some space.

"Melli." I say giving the girl a disappointed tone, even though I'm quite pleased.

Melli just looks between us all confused and ashamed. Which is exactly where I wanted here. "Sorry."

"There." I say turning to ruby with a smile on my face. "Now that our demonic pact has been sealed with a kiss, you're good to go." I gesture to an empty space in the chamber. "Have at it."

"Just like that?" She raises an eyebrow.

I smile. "I'm nothing if not easy."

I can hear Elizabeth rolling her eyes from wherever she may be.

Ruby shrugs and produces a staff from a pocket dimension, that's a handy little star. She mutters an incantation and shoves her staff forward. "Ice Sickles!"

Again I feel that pull of magic from me to her. She's slightly blown back from the spell, she takes a single step back to brace herself. A Blast of spinning ice crecents fly from her staff along with a cold wind. They fly through the air, slicing and shattering against the cave wall, leaving nasty gouges in the stone.

Ruby gasps, and looks from the damange, to her staff and too me.

"Oh my..." Sapphire says slowly, almost miserably.

"It's real!" Ruby takes a step towards me. "That was...more!" She says with a nervous chuckle. "More sickles, and stronger too! I felt a kickback!" She looked at Melli with starry eyes. "You were right! No wonder you're so incredible!"

Melli seemed to deflate at that, though it was a nice compliment.

"I'm glad you're pleased." Then I remembered something. Tan'Hagorath's generous gift to me. "Hold on." I concentrated and focused on my Stars.

Slot 4: The Witch King- Type: Passive - Effect: Female Magic users under your command Have the strength of their spells increased.

The Witch King - Coven - Form a party of three female spellcasters (2/3)

Damn.

Still a lowly One star until Sapphire gets on board.

"What do you think?" I turned towards the more stubborn of the sister.

"Impressive." She shrugged. "How do you feel?" She looked to her sister.

Ruby looked herself over. "About the same? I mean, powerful! But it's not like it was my power." She points to me. "It was him, i just felt him push through me and all that power came surging through."

Saphire shook her head, looking wonderfully skeptical. I actually thought she was going to leave. All those days walking, and wondering and she was going to hold strong to her dogma, and walk out. Then she sighed. "Is he really a good kisser?"

"No." Ruby giggled. "But Melli is!"

Sapphire +2 Cp (-23 corruption) 166 total

There we go!

Sapphire hiked up her robes and walked towards me. "I just want to see what you can do." She warned me as she leaned in for a kiss.

I decided to be a little less gentle with this one, and pressed myself against her lips.

She gasped and snarled at me, but I was too fast to pass her to Melli to get much trouble for her. Melli was cowled enough by the snarl and planted a small chaste kiss on the girl.

"Wait." I held my hand up. "Before you start I want to check something."

The Witch King- Type: Passive - Effect: Female Magic users under your command Have the strength of their spells increased.

The Witch King - Coven - Form a party of three female spellcasters (3/3)

Ding ding ding!

We have a winner!

Star Upgraded!

The Witch King is now a Rank 2 Star.

Please Attach 1 Rank 1 Star to The Witch King to upgrade.

Okay Elizabeth had kind of explained to me.

When you cultivate a star, it get's more complex. They call it a circuit. A 1 star is a single point on a circuit. When it becomes a 2 star it gains a second point. This second point can be filled with another star and that star will effect the performance of the star all together.

I have to spare stars at the moment.

Monster Slayer, and Scarab Drain. Although they do different things, when you feed them to another star, they are both considered to be Potency nodes. That means they just straight up enhance the power of the original star, nothing fancy needed besides that.

Since I no longer had Vampire bite since Steelowyn had mutated it into this blasted cold curse, I no longer needed a star that made be drain blood better. So that was an easy sacrifice. I focused and pulled it into the other star. I felt a satisfying hum of energy from within my body.

Star Succesfully Upgraded!

The Witch King- Type: Passive - Effect: Female Magic users under your command Have the strength of their spells greatly increased.

Only a single word changed in the whole description... but I liked that change.

Saphire seemed more stubborn than her sister, let's try to impress her.

Even though I finished I stayed there focusing on my star. That was interesting. To fully level up as a 2-star you needed a whole extra set of stars. Stars you could feed to your other stars.

It wasn't just that either.

The stars grew more complicated with each level, and not linearly either. A three star had four slots in total, two of which had to be filled with two stars. A forth star had six slots, the final two of which needed to be three stars. And a five star had a shopping 9 slots, two of which needed to be four stars. It was no wonder the pyramid of star users tapered off so severely. It must take forever to properly grind all that out. Each level you're basically starting all over.

I nod to Sapphire. “Let’s see it.”

She nods back and raises a staff. She does her own en carnation and lifts the staff up. “Ice Spike!” A great pillar of ice suddenly erupted from the ground. This frozen nail was thicker than a man, and taller by half. The room instantly cooled, and little micro spikes bloomed around the original like petals on a rose. Sapphire staggered back in awe at her own work.

Ruby squeaked and jumped up and down. “That’s the biggest one you’ve ever done!”

“That’s a 2 star spell at least!” Melli whooped.

Even I was shaking a bit. The power I was giving these women men was incredible. Hell, I would take them if they didn’t want it.

Generally a battle mage is valued for their flexibility. The tales of a single mage destroying entire armies are the realm of higher ranked star users. Every couple hundred there’s a cataclysmic conflict between nations that bleeds all side of blood, treasure, and stars.

But these girls, fresh in their career now had power.

So long as they obeyed me.

“So here’s the offer.” I say after they cheer and celebrate. “Help me out tomorrow and this power is yours. I have more to offer, but you have to commit more fully to the demon shit for that. If you help me tomorrow, you get this power and I’ll never ask you for anything else again.”

They look surprised. “You’re serious?”

I nod.

“What’s tomorrow?”

“A 3-Star is going to come in and try to kill us.”

“Oh is that all?” Saphire sighed.

Melli sputtered too. “What did you do?”

“Actually nothing this time. She came after me.” I shrug. “It happens when you worship Bellowyn.”

They shake their heads. Understandable. We’re all a bunch of 1-stars.

I hook my finger down the hall. “That lady in there is a 3-star and already beat our foe once. We just need to give her support.”

“If she beat the enemy, why are you still in danger.”

I shrug. “Extraneous circumstances made killing it impractical at the time.”

They nod. Naturally. You can’t just casually dispatch a 3-star.

I the twins split off to talk to eachother. But I could already tell they were decided. Diviners might be more cautious, but not battle mages. Power was their primary virtue. Melli had chosen well.

Melli looked to me nervously. For their souls, or her appetites? I nod towards the twins, and she joins their conversation tipping it to my favor.

I have no idea what she said. No idea what she could have said, but before they even told me I knew their decision.

Ruby +2 Cp (-21 corruption) 168 total

Sapphire +2 Cp (-21 corruption) 170 total