5 Chapter 5

The next day, after a short breakfast of apples and a slice of goat cheese, it was time to test out his spirit vision, as he called it. He willed his magicka to his eyes, causing them to glow an eerie blue. In his hand was a rabbit that he had caught earlier.

He would experiment on its spirit using magicka, or more specifically, the alteration property.

He grabbed the rabbit by its scruff. Even though his eyes could see its spirit, his hands could still touch its body.

'By gathering mana in one eye, I can see both its body and spirit overlapping,' he thought, feeling a slight dizziness from the double vision. 'Hella mentioned the ritual to combine both a woman and a bird was not without its own problems which end up disfiguring the individual.'

A dark thought flashed in his mind. To cut up the rabbit's soul. Leave a few scars so that he could discover a spell that can heal spirits.

He stared at his hand for a few seconds and thought.

If Magicka was this easy to control, why couldn't Hella figure it out sooner? Was he different?

The other witch's words rang in his head.

Creating spells was an extremely difficult process, more so the more complicated the spell was.

'I'll think about this later.'

He gathered his magicka into his hands, willing it to be of the destruction type. Once again, the euphoria of obliteration and domination entered his mind, taking him several seconds before he could resist its temptation.

'Now then, how to damage a spirit...'

He willed his mana into his finger and thought of a knife, or something similar.

'Cut, sever, spirit, scar, burn, touch...'

The magicka swirled in Desmond's hand, listening to its owner's request. It shook for a brief pause before completely stopping its motion, then...reversed. As it did, a small blue speck ignited at the center of the spiral, before spreading and eventually, converting it. Magicka by itself was a blueish color but the one in Desmond's hand was now a ghastly pale blue.

The rabbit squirmed, shrieking as its instincts kicked in. In its eyes, Desmond was no longer a predator of the flesh, but of the spirit. Something that it knew was much worse.

'This feels...different.'

A small flame had ignited on his fingertip with a pale blue tendril flickering just above. Its liveliness and characteristics from before changed from destruction and chaos to...cold eternal death.

-

" r̵͖͔̗̝̝̭̂*̸̣̠̜̣͈͈͎̗̐́̏̐͂͋̈́̆̌̀́̈́̔͠͠t̸̛̬̖̲̜͓͐̒̃͛̏͛́̈́̚͝͠u̷̢͍̜̲͇͔̮̺͔͉͓̾͗̚*̶̗̝̖͌n̵͕̮̩͚̪̗͙͕̼͍̤͖̰̒̀̊̄̎͜͝ ̵̧̤̟̟̟͔̠̞͚̳̝̦̋̋́̈ͅť̵̛̳̪̪͉̐̄̂̊̃̃̈́̚͠͝ơ̶̼̾̈́̃̈́̔ ̷̡̯̜͈̬̟̞̙̋ş̷̪̘̩̳͔̩̤͉͇̜͉̘̌̆̋̆͠ĭ̶̻̓͂͑̀̀̈*̶̞̥͎͖͉̍̀ͅh̵̨̨̛͉̜̯͚͈̤̞͇͐̌̈̀̊͛̆͐͛̀̾͆̚*̶̻̫̘͍͈̰͖̲̈ͅs̶͖̤̗̀́ "

-

"Huh? What was that?"

An unnatural and almost distant-like whisper suddenly sounded in his ear, followed by a long silence. There was no one outside his tent, but he did feel like he was being watched, then vanishing as quickly as it came.

'It...must have been the wind.'

Returning to the rabbit, he inched his finger closer causing the rabbit to shake madly. As the pale fire touched the rabbit, it stopped squirming.

"It stopped moving? Is it dead? No, a...spiritual paralysis?"

Desmond felt he could alter the shape of the soul fire on his finger to any shape, so he willed it into a tip of a knife, then, with a flick, he made a small cut on the rabbit's spirit before pulling back. It looked like an ordinary wound but Desmond knew it wasn't. Somehow, he felt that if he set the rabbit free, it would die in a few days.

When he stared at the spot without using his spirit vision, he saw a black diseased area.

'The rabbit would turn into a soulless husk in a few days if not mended.

After canceling the flame, he channeled his mana once more, voicing out his command, this time for restoration. Since he knew how to harm a spirit, creating a spell to repair one came fast to him.

His hand rested on the damaged area and he voiced his will.

'Spirit, restore, mend'

Just as how it happened before, the soft yellow glow of his mana turned this time into a deep ocean blue. It felt refreshing.

He chuckled at the critter. "Your lucky I can create spells from thin air. Ah, no, wait. I'm the one who harmed you in the first place. Sorry about this little guy."

The vibrant mana flowed into the rabbit, and without delay, the tear on its spirit quickly mended.

It was now time to see Hella.

****

"Hella, I've got great news!"

Desmond knocked on the door and several footsteps later the door creaked open.

"Oh? That was quick," The matriarch said with a smile, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were the son of Magnus, judging by your speed."

"I'm serious. I really did come up with something, or, well, something similar. I'd like to try it on you."

"Hah. very well. Come in."

Hella walked over to her bedside and sat down, staring at the young Breton. She looked extremely sensual, like a milf waiting for her lover on the bed.

"Er, ahem. I'm now going to activate my spirit vision and take a look at the damages."

It was time.

He poured his magicka into his eyes altering their properties to see spirit visages. He focused on Hella whose soul began to manifest before him, starting with an outline.

But something was off.

Her appearance shifted and turned, as if trying to take shape but couldn't. It was a multitude of mismatched shapes that couldn't stay a complete picture.

'This isn't right. Why isn't it working? Maybe if I pour more magicka into it.'

As he doubled his magicka expenditure, her form finally started to take shape but was still swiveling around like mad.

'What in the...what's going on? Is my spell broken...wait, what was that!'

It was a fleeting moment! If he hadn't been so focused and concentrated, he wouldn't have noticed the foreign magicka in the corner of his vision.

'What is this? This doesn't feel like my mana.'

He closed his eyes and locked onto the spell, following its source until he found it hidden away in the corner of his mind. From there, it took the shape of a tall voluptuous statue in a lewd pose holding a flower on her head.

'This is definitely a spell. And by the feeling it's giving, it's doing something to my senses. But where did it come from?'

A wave of irritation welled up inside him and without a second thought, he slammed his mana into it, crumbling it to dust, not expecting it to be so fragile.

Sensing the foreign magicka vanish, he opened his eyes.

'That was odd. I wonder what it was.'

As he turned his attention back to Hella, his eyes almost popped out of his sockets.

"..."

"H...Hella?"

The creature sitting on the bed stared back at him, tilting its head.

"yes? What is it?"

Its voice was throaty, and almost demonic, as if two entities were speaking at the same time. It had the appearance of an old woman, a very frightening old woman that looked to be half bird. It could only be described as nightmarish.

Several thoughts sprung into his head that instant.

That spell he broke was keeping him from seeing this creature's true form. It made her beautiful to the point where it seemed unnatural.

His body shivered.

He wanted to run!

He needed to get out!

This thing was not human!

Then he remembered that he hugged her and even had lewd thoughts about her, or what he thought was her.

"Are you alright, Desmond? You look a little pale."

"I'm..." His voice was caught in his throat.

How should he respond? He couldn't. There were no words to say to this bizarre situation.

He took a gulp and felt his hands getting sweaty.

But then something welled up from inside of him. The more he stared the more he felt a particular emotion. Not disgust, or anger, or fear.

It was Pity.

The creature, no, Hella looked pitiful sitting across from him. Alone. Even though she was a Matriarch of the foresworn, none of them followed her out of loyalty but out of reverence for her power. Easily replaceable by a stronger contender.

Desmond bowed his head, sighing to himself.

'No. I have to look at what's inside. I don't what's going on, but I'm going to accomplish what I came here to do.'

He stepped toward Hella, who seemed to get smaller as he got closer. He heard her raspy gasping of breath every time she breathed, almost labored. This further reinforced his decision.

He turned on his spirit vision, and before him was Hella's soul, or what was left of it.

'This...is all wrong.'

Her spirit looked as if someone had mashed a bunch of puzzle pieces together that weren't supposed to fit, causing the end product to just barely work. Whatever ritual was performed to cause this, certainly wasn't entirely proper.

'I think I can fix this. If I can somehow alter her spirit, her physical form might follow suit.'

He channeled his magicka into his hands getting ready to cast a spell.

"What are you doing?" Hella asked, sounding worried.

"Hella. I can see your spirit. It looks as if someone mashed you and a Raven together haphazardly without so much as a thought."

The hagraven's eyes went wide. "You...you can really see it? Truly?"

"Yes. And I'm going to fix it. I'm certain I can reform you back into a human. Although I don't know about your power."

Hella couldn't believe what she was hearing. She noticed the slight fluctuations of Magicka coming out of the young Bretons body but she didn't know what spell it was. It felt like Alteration but different.

Was he truly capable of such feats? Should she trust him?

It hasn't even been a week since he was here and they've only met a handful of times, but it was those times that she felt closest emotionally to another being.

"I...trust you with this task."

Desmond cast his restore spirit spell. It washed over Hella but did nothing.

'Of course, it didn't work. It's only meant to restore a damaged spirit. Hers isn't technically damaged, just disfigured.'

After a quick thought, he started to modify his restore spirit into a new spell, willing his magicka to take on the attributes of modification. To his surprise, the initial property changed from restoration to alteration.

'Ah, I'm an idiot. It's Alteration. I'm modifying not restoring.'

Desmond didn't realize this, but he was getting closer and closer to playing God. This was on another level of power that he wouldn't realize until much later.

'Yes...I feel it now. Perfection, beauty. Spirit Molding. Idealism.'

The spell was beginning to take shape, causing his hand to turn into a solid gold color. His eyes continued to burn with an eerie pale blue causing Hella to look on with increased nervousness.

Desmond then winced in pain. His mind was getting strained due to the stress of the spell as it was far too powerful for him to maintain for long.

On Hella's body, golden outlines gently flowed across her until they landed on the surface of her spirit.

On instinct, Desmond knew what to do. With his right hand, he began tracing the outlines, forming a pleasant feminine human shape. His left hand moved on its own, guiding the golden strings while he painted with his right.

'Yes. And this goes here. Get rid of this. '

Slowly, like a painter bringing a canvas to life, Hella's spirit was starting to take on a more feminine, human figure. It was considerably less bird and more woman.

Hella's eyes were closed as she felt something surreal course through her body. It felt to her like floating on a warm cloud while being massaged by a hundred hands.

Desmond's eyes bled while his hands started to go numb.

'Almost there...and...done!'

And with that, he quickly undid all of his spells. He staggered backward, feeling the strain and overuse of Magicka get ahold of him.

Hella opened her eyes, waking up from her dream of hazy comfort. The first thing she noticed was that she was no longer hunched back when she found herself sitting completely straight. She also could no longer see the long bird-like nose that usually filled her vision.

"Did it work?"

She brought her hands up to her face, causing her to gasp.

They were normal human arms, with delicate womanly hands. Her skin was also a rosy pink with a tinge of light freckles.

She hurriedly stood up but then slightly staggered. Now that she was taller, her balance was slightly off. She hobbled over to her hand mirror and held it in front.

"I...Is this me?"

She was at a loss for words. What stared back was a stunning woman with lush Raven black hair that reached her middle back, dark glittering eyes, a straight delicate nose with a feminine square jaw.

The spell Desmond had cast had given her the figure of her original body with hints of Raven-like elements such as her deep eyes, black lustrous hair, and overall aura she exuded. He also unknowingly added some of her illusionary body to the mix.

Peering downward, she saw that her breasts had grown back and that her ass was now nice and plump.

"We're they always this big?"

Putting that aside, she felt that she still possessed her power, if anything, it had actually grown a bit.

She channeled her magicka, feeling another hidden energy laying dormant. Tapping into that, and with a fluttering spark, she sprouted a pair of ebony wings made entirely of mana from her back. It extended several feet from either side of her, giving her an ethereal charm.

"Ahh...I feel the power coursing me..Mmm" she moaned raising her head back.

She then remembered the young Breton who was the cause of her miraculous change.

"Desmond, I-ah!"

But the young Breton was seen lying on the floor unconscious, sapped of his magicka and his body pale from overuse.