Thomas Prest: A Simple Magician

Author Note:

Just to make it less confusing, magic is a general term here. Whether one uses holy energy, demonic power, or mana, it does not matter. The result is called magic by me.

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Tom has finished filling the second contract and then approached Natasha, taking her hand and gently dragging her towards Misla's bed.

"Hold the contract." Tom said and Natasha confusedly obeyed and gripped a side of the contract with her fingers.

Tom then pulled Misla's hand from under the sheets, making it weakly clasp the other side of the contract, his fingers that held her hand in place also briefly touching it.

Unlike the contract with Sairaorg, this one was based on a magical signature. There was no way Misla could sign anything in her state so he had to go around that hurdle.

Looking at Natasha, Tom reassuringly smiled and said, "Push a bit of your magic into the contract to establish a connection."

When he felt that Natasha did as she was told, Tom pushed his magic into the contract. Though, he channeled his magic through the hand of Misla Bael, making her a part of it as a bit of her own magic was mixed in.

Normally, this would have never worked. Even a sleeping devil would completely wake up if somebody tried to do this and that would have been the end of that. Only because of Misla's condition was it possible for Tom to go around that hassle.

The deal was established without a hitch and the three magical signatures were accepted, their roles in the deal filled in.

It was amusing. Every being had this thing called self-preservation instinct and with magic added to the equation, such a thing could do really wondrous things. Even to the point of making 'decisions' for its owner based on intentions and subconsciousness.

Magic was not conscious nor did it have sentience. But it could access Misla's brain, and through it, the desires of her subconsciousness.

Naturally, Misla subconsciously desired to be healed.

Hence, the intentions put into Tom's contract were clear to Misla's magic. He deliberately projected the promise of healing.

But Misla could not consciously make a decision. As such, the price was deemed irrelevant by her magic as long as it was within a certain norm that would not bring a detriment to her health.

For example, if somebody tried to enslave her through this method, it would be impossible because Misla's demonic energy would have rejected it.

Knowing there were limits, Tom didn't ask too much from Misla. Well, it wasn't a lot as far as Misla's magic was concerned. If the woman was conscious, Tom had no idea if she would have accepted it.

He only wanted two percent of her magic reserves, causing her to permanently lose them as they would be transferred through the concept of exchange to Tom and Natasha. Of course, since they were humans, the demonic energy would have been 'filtered', for the lack of a better word, back into neutral mana.

This was a calculated move on Tom's part. He couldn't take too much. Losing two percent of demonic energy reserves after being two years in a coma where her demonic energy was working overtime and straining itself to preserve her physical condition sounded somewhat plausible. Thanks to that, her small loss of energy reserves will not seem suspicious.

Nobody ever woke up from the Sleeping Sickness so nobody knew what effect it had on the victims... but Tom couldn't expect people to not put two and two together if he took away fifty percent of her reserves for his services. Not that it would have worked as her magic would have never accepted such an exchange.

Common sense still existed, duh.

On top of getting two percent of Misla's reserves, Tom also wanted two hundred years' worth of life energy from her.

That might have seemed like a lot for humans who usually had only one hundred and fifty years' worth of life energy in their bodies and increasing it was extremely difficult. Hell, for mundane humans, even reaching one hundred years required lifelong effort and luck.

But devils had an advantage in this case. Misla had enough life energy to last ten thousand years. And she already was a few centuries old. The unfair thing was... unlike humans, devils could increase their lifespan by simply getting stronger.

Short-lived species such as humans would find that mouth-watering but for devils, it was just an 'unimportant' detail. After all, there was not one devil who died due to old age yet. With how many wars there were in their history, how violent their society could be for 'commoners', wars between noble houses being a thing, and the fact that even low-rank devils could live for a few millennia...

Devils were not bothered by lifespan. Zekram Bael was one of the very first devils and he was still alive and completely fine. He was barely middle-aged by the devil's standards. It was ridiculous.

Tom started to see a pattern here. A pattern telling him how could the factions from the Biblical Pantheon be so strong to actually have so much influence in the current supernatural world despite actually being one of the youngest ones.

The Biblical God definitely put some special things in the design of his angels like the way their life energy worked. Hence, both Fallen and Devils benefited from it too.

Misla was a high-ranked devil and she had a shitton of life energy available to her. What were two hundred years to her? Just a drop in the bucket. Hence, her demonic energy saw no problem with accepting this part of the deal either.

With the contract established, Tom used the knowledge he gained by scanning the Evil Pieces in tandem with the findings of his Sacred Gear and snapped Misla's soul and body back together with his magic.

It was instantaneous and seemed like something easy... but the amount of technical knowledge one had to have to even think of doing it this way was staggering. No wonder nobody found a solution to this disease yet.

At that moment, Misla opened her eyes wide and gasped for air, awake once more as both the contracts were fulfilled.

Tom felt getting quite a bit of mana and a hundred years' worth of life energy. Frankly, the mana was nothing extraordinary. Tom didn't jump a rank or anything. It did bring him a lot closer to high mid-rank reserves but it was still not enough.

The life energy, on the other hand, now that made Tom excited because he just got an idea of how to use his Sacred Gear to get more benefits from this for barely any effort. Seeing how the life energy of devils worked was a great inspiration for him.

At the same time, Natasha also took a sharp intake of breath as she felt a whole percent of Misla's reserves being stuffed into her, her own meager reserves widening to accommodate all this energy. In just a second, Natasha went from unranked to average low-rank energy levels and the feeling it gave her was exhilarating.

She felt energized and alive... more so due to the hundred years worth of life energy that filled her life energy pool.

But there was something else. Something... destructive.

It didn't want to get out of her or anything. It was fully under her control. She just couldn't help but feel it since it was not there before. She felt as if she suddenly gained a sixth sense that was always on the edge of her mind, refusing to leave.

She instinctively knew that something would happen if she channeled her magic through this feeling and...

It freaked her out a bit. Yet, she remembered the deal Tom made with Sairaorg and how he made her sign it... and it all clicked in her mind.

She turned toward Tom and tugged his hand, "Tom, I feel-" She worriedly started only to be instantly shushed by her partner.

"Not now, Natalia. We will talk about it once we are back at home, okay?" Tom playfully quipped, but his eyes... they almost screamed at her to be quiet. Let's just quietly appreciate the moment, shall we?" Tom nonchalantly continued, gesturing toward the confused Misla and the bawling Sairaorg who was hugging her for dear life.