I began studying lust magic. Contrast to what I was expecting, most of my study involved reading books and tomes and whatnot. After several months of laborious study, Ivala came to my house.
"Well, well, how have your studies gone?" the succubus asked as I finished reading the final tome in my study room.
"Thrilling," I said flatly. "Though I do expect to throw around some lust bombs by now."
"You're in luck, buddy. It seems you have delved deep enough," Ivala said with a smirk. "Come here."
I stood up. Ivala lunged at me with tremendous speed, her finger striking deep into my heart. "Agh!" I moaned in pain as I was nearly knocked down. "What the hell was that?"
"I was opening your third eye. Faster this way," she said with a smirk. "Now you should be able to begin learning lust spells."
"... huh, okay."
"Nah, just fucking with you. A gentle touch could also open your third eye. It's more fun for me that way."
"Evidently the fun doesn't go both ways."
"Yup. Eh, whatever. Let's begin," she said. "Close your eyes and concentrate. Imagine a jar."
I did so. A jar came up to my mind, half-full with some sort of pinkish goo. "That's your lust energy reserves," Ivala explained. "Same as mana, really."
"But replenished via sexual contact and stimulus instead of being naturally recovered, I see," I said. "Huh. That seems rather onerous. Isn't arcane magic more reliable?"
"Maybe, but emotional spells are stronger than their arcane counterparts," Ivala said. "But yeah, that's why only some branches of emotional magic are used even back in my demon realm. Envy magic, for example, requires you to be jealous all the time, which is kinda shit."
"But they're powerful?"
"Very. Lust magic is actually one of the weaker branches," she said. "But definitely more managable. Anyway, the first spell I want to teach you is called the Eye of Ardor. It's easier to show." She flicked her fingers and Miranda arrived.
"Miranda? What are you doing here?"
"Practical demonstration," Ivala claimed. "Prostitutes are exposed to so much lust that they tend to be slightly more resistant to lust magic. So they make excellent dummies for us to train on."
"Err, yeah, if Miranda is fine with this, it's alright."
"Don't worry, Boss. You've done so much for us, I'm glad to repay," Miranda said. "Er, anything that doesn't involve me being blasted to smithereens."
"Okay, stand still."
Ivala's eyes glowed red. Miranda was completely petrified. Ivala had filled her with lust and making her brain relaxed. So relaxed, in fact, that her body couldn't move at all. "I see ... you're manipulating the brain into extreme sereneness."
"Yes. It should serve as a good disabling spell. Your summoned birds look cool and whatnot, but any mage worth their salt can destroy them pretty easily. Here, you try." Ivala released Miranda from the spell.
"Oh wow," Miranda commented. "That was ... weird. Like I was put in a trance."
I focused my lust energy. My eyes flashed red. Miranda was petrified again for a moment. Yet my control slipped quickly.
"Three seconds. Which translates to fuckall when concerning the enemies you're expected to fight," Ivala noted. "Still, a better start than I expected. Let's continue!"
For months I trained under Ivala. She was ... not very professional, I had to say, but damn was she good at lust magic. I practiced the Eye of Ardor first on Miranda, then on Eliza, and finally on Ivala herself.
"Alright, let's give it another go," Ivala said as we practiced just outside my house.
I closed my eyes, gathered all my lust energy, and focused on Ivala. With a low grunt, I cast the Eye of Ardor. Ivala flinched, but she soon shook my spell off. "That took some effort," she noted with a satisfied grin. "Good. I think you've graduated already."
"Really? It didn't feel like it did anything to you."
"Yeah, but I'm the best lust magic user around," she said. "So unless you fuck up and we end up on opposing sides, you're good. I'm off now. Gotta tell your boss or some shit."
"No need."
"Caitlyn!" I said. The vampire nodded.
"With lust magic in hand, you should be ready to truly venture into the Eldritch Realm," Caitlyn told me. "Come with me. My Master awaits."
We headed for the Tower of Mist. Quickly we breached the bluish portal at the core of the Tower, which brought us to the Eldritch Realm itself. Karl was waiting on some sort of silvery flying disk in front of the fortress. He nudged me to hop on another disk right next to him. I did so.
"Last time, you only glimpsed the Eldritch Realm," he said. "Let's see if this time we can get anything more substantial."
We traversed through the Eldritch Realm. Though the disk provided some shielding (and my half-demonic nature apparently should withstand it better), I still felt a strange chill down my spine. The Eldritch Realm was dark and cold and as we journeyed I saw ruins and peculiar caves and dwellings.
"So, what is this place exactly?" I asked.
"Everything," he replied. "Think of our own world and the demonic world as ships. Then the Eldritch Realm is the ocean. And there are many strange things in the ocean. Many helpful. Many more harmful."
"Those ruins and others ... what are they?"
"No clue. Could be monsters' lairs. Could be treasure vaults. Could be secret laboratories with hidden spells. Could be nothing. The Eldritch Realm is fickle like that," he answered.
"So, you claimed exploring the Eldritch Realm could lead to a lot of benefits," I said.
"Yes. Personal strength, raw and exotic materials, new magical knowledge, and others. There's a reason Phantasma is ahead of other nations in terms of magical advancement."
"Why doesn't anyone else exploit it then?"
"What? You think it's easy?" he asked.
"No, of course not," I said. "But surely other nations have powerful mages who can withstand the Eldritch Realm."
"Sure. If only they could find it and create a portal to breach the veil that separates the world and the Eldritch Realm," he said with a smirk. "Magna is one of the most skilled spatial magic users around, and even she only stumbled upon it as an accident."
"So only Phantasma can exploit the Eldritch Realm?"
"No. A couple years after we first began exploring, it became a pretty open secret, at least among mage guilds," he said. "Thing is that they either deem exploring the Eldritch Realm pointless, have too little resources to do so, or can't breach the veil."