Party

"Basically, hypnosis is good for crowd control," noted Adam. "Getting ordinary folks to forget about us so that people don't know there are demons floating around, but not to try and mind control real threats. Still, no wonder I could go twenty two years without ever knowing you all even existed."

"Indeed," said Leila. "All demons, no, all inhuman kind is careful to not disturb humans too much. Humans themselves may be weak little creatures, but together, they can scrap together quite the troublesome hunters from the Church or the Court."

"The Church, as in like, Sunday mass, knock on doors and asking 'do you believe our lord and savior' kind of Church?" asked Adam.

"Yes, I think so," nodded Leila, though by her expression, Adam could tell she had little idea about stereotypes revolving around church going people. "They are the Holy See of the accursed Messiah whose light burns opposite to the shadows of demon kind."

"And the Court?" asked Adam.

"Mages," said Leila. "The greatest governing body of mages is known as the Court of Keys. They usually only hunt monsters, but they are not beyond facing demons as well. The Church and the Court toe a thin line between conflict and trust between each other, for the Church has played much a role in killing many mages and vice versa, but when it comes to exterminating threats non-humans, they will always side together."

"How many mages and church people are there, you figure? Here in this city?" said Adam.

"Not many," said Leila. "Mana in the Overworld, the realm of humans, is thin: that is the price of humanity abandoning faith in their gods and pursuing technology and progress over magic and mystery.

Only a few are capable of wielding it, and they do so with secrecy so that they do not thin out what precious little mana is left. This city is quite rich in magical energy, for untouched nature still abounds through it, but I would be surprised to see more than a few mages, if any at all."

"Got it," said Adam. "Looks to me then we have to be careful, but there's some wiggle room to have a tiny bit of fun."

"Fun? What do you have in mind, darling?" said Leila, curious. "I am quite interested in human 'fun' now that you have introduced me to such lovely human magics like 'cooking' and 'clothing'."

"Just something small I've always wanted to try," Adam reached out and grasped Leila's hand, causing her to blush, and he led her out of the forest towards the houses that boomed out music.

==

Adam stood outside a large two story house that positively shook with the amount of people and loudness of music bumping inside of it. A long line of half dressed girls and gel-haired guys ran down the entrance of the door, waiting to get into the house to join the party.

In a college town like Rockhold, most parties were not held by bars or clubs, but student owned houses. Specifically, student 'organizations' known as fraternities that were basically just a bunch of jocks and rich guys pooling their money to live in one house they could utterly trash with parties every weekend.

Throughout his entire college career, Adam had never, ever managed to get into a large house party like this because his presence actively deterred women, and it was one thing he had always wanted to try mostly to just see what it was like.

Adam doubted he would like it, it was just not his type of thing, but hey, people said that going to one of these parties was something you should always do before graduation, so why the hell not.

"What is this?" said Leila as she peered at the line of girls shivering in the cold, wearing skimpy clothing despite the weather to look as good as possible. "Men and bare women filing together into a single domain. Is this some human ritual of lust that I know not of?"

"No, nothing dramatic like that. It's just a place where young people can make irresponsible decisions with the help of plenty of alcohol and drugs," said Adam. He shrugged. "Guess you could call that a ritual of some kind."

Leila sniffed the air and licked her lips. "There is quite the concentration of lust inside of there. Tempting to drain, but-,"

She cozied up to Adam's side, hugging his arm. "Darling's scent and touch is more nourishing than anything these pathetic mortals can ever offer me."

"This is mostly a testing ground for my hypnosis," said Adam.

"How so?" asked Leila.

"Parties like this, parties run by rich kids using daddy's money to act like god's gift to this earth, are practically breeding grounds for assholes. I figure I can see how effective my hypnosis is with them, because from my experience, I always get kicked out of these.

Annnd here we go, test subject number one-,"

Adam and Leila were at the back of the rather long line, but a guy from within the house, noticeable by a tight white shirt marked with Greek letters signifying his fraternity, roamed up and down the line, picking out girls to bring into the house while rejecting guys, even if the guys were obviously their boyfriends.

Some of these girls even left their boyfriends to get into the party, and Adam just shook his head at that sorry sight.

As the guy made his way to the back of the line, Leila tightened her hand around Adam's.

"What is it, Leila?" said Adam.

"Greek letters on his person. Is he a mage?" whispered Leila, concerned.

"No, far from it. I doubt the guy is passing his classes, let alone practicing any magic," said Adam, though he noted that Greek lettering could signify magic in some way.

The guy stopped when he saw Leila and came up to her with a wide smile while totally ignoring Adam. He looked good in a really generic way, like he was made in an assembly line with decent but no outstanding traits.

"Hey, haven't seen you around before," said the man to Leila, obviously trying to cozy up to her.

"…" Leila did not respond to the man, not even registering his existence in the same way she would not register an ant crawling on the ground.

"My name's Chad, by the way," said the guy, utterly undeterred. "You want to skip the line? Y'know, considering how cold it is out here. I can get you something to drink too, if you want." He smiled suggestively. "Or if you want something else-"

"Oh, you were addressing me?" Leila's lip twitched, and though her expression was calm, Adam could sense her killing intent. For a half second, he thought she was just going to swipe at the guy and slice his throat apart, but she took a more…diplomatic approach.

"On your knees, mongrel," said Leila, her voice echoing with hypnotic power.

The man immediately fell down to his knees on the dirt. It had rained the night before, so the dirt was muddy, caking on his jeans.

A small commotion occurred as people ahead of the line saw Chad suddenly get on his knees. A few people started to point and laugh.

"Now you can stay there for a hundred years," said Leila.

Adam put a hand on Leila's shoulder, calming her so that she would not let her temper get the better of her and escalate this situation further.

Plus, Adam was here to practice his own hypnosis, though it was amusing and touching to see Leila using her own powers for his sake.

"Hold up, let me try," said Adam. "Hey, Chad, that was your name, right? Ridiculously stereotypical, but I guess stereotypes do come from some shred of truth. Take a look at me."

Chad looked up, his body completely not in his control. He looked shocked and afraid.

"I'll be a little nicer than my fiancée here and take your offer," said Adam, smiling. His voice started to echo as he used his own hypnotic suggestion. "How about you take both my fiancée and I into the house.

Pour us both a drink, too, while you're at it. Oh and once you're done with that, why don't you go to your room, take a nice nap, and forget all about us."

"I understand," said Chad robotically. He stood up, bowed to Adam and Leila, and waved them forward like VIP guests.

The line murmured among themselves as they saw Adam and Leila walk forwards, hands together and standing tall, both of them looking so outstanding that they seemed utterly out of this world. Adam could sense quite a few eyes on Leila, and so he imitated her, loosing some of his own killing intent.

Adam's aura was less refined, and he overshot how much magical energy he put out. He put out so much that every guy in the immediate area froze up and widened their eyes, their breathing stopping as pressure crushed their lungs, as if they could see death looming right before them.

"Oh, darling, I do so like it when you are so protective over me," said Leila as she saw the men suffocating. "But you will have to practice fluxing your aura a bit. It was a little too much for these little mortals to handle."

"You're right. At least I got some practice in," said Adam, feeling surprisingly okay with causing discomfort and pain to people, though he did not feel any particular pleasure in it either.

He felt so...removed from them, and in a way, it made sense: he was not really human anymore.

Adam sighed, cleared his head of anger, and his magical aura tapered down, letting the men in the line breath again.

Before Adam and Leila entered the house, Leila turned around, curtsied to the crowd, and spoke with her voice echoing. "Sorry to disturb your little gathering. Do forget about us and continue scurrying on with all of this, whatever it is."

With that, Adam and Leila went inside, and the crowd blinked several times, wondering what had just happened, their memories erased, though soon enough, they got back into the groove of making small talk with each other while trying to get back into the house as if nothing had ever happened.