[M] Just a Kabbalah Angel Wings (Holey & Kris)

[Holeypaladin]

Reaching out, Albertus conjured forth his staff, deflecting aside a claw attack of the succubus in front of him. Now that he had discovered her true nature, the feathery black wings were replaced by bat-like versions of the same, and horns began to sproud from her head. Her clothes faded entirely, revealing a barbed tail and and overly erotic body.

"Sham'aim!" the wizard called out to the seraph who he knew was right next to him in bed, however his words were only met by the cackle of the succubus before him.

"Your little feathered friend can't help you here," the succubus hissed, "I've already taken measures to ensure we remain... undisturbed. Only a Guardian could break through my warding... and that bird of yours has never been able to guard anything..."

"Fine then," the wizard muttered, "I'll take care of you myself. Bafarshan cayosin!" The Draconic incantation caused a blade of fire to form at the tip of his staff, effectively transforming it into a polearm, which he sliced at the succubus, burning off the tips of her claws as she attempted to deflect it aside. The demon gazed at him with some degree of amazement.

"Powerful enough to hurt break through my illusion... and I even broke a nail," she said batting her eyelashes. "I definitely wouldn't want to face you in the material realm... but unfortunately for you, mortal wizard, this is a realm in which I have all the power." With her words, Albertus soon realized that his staff had transformed into a venomous snake, which bit him, injecting some form of toxic poison into his veins.

"Cheater..." he murmured, trying to summon forth enough energy to purge the toxin, but it seemed the toxin was of a nature as to render his magic difficult to access. It was all he could do to defend against a barrage of falling meteors that fell all around him as the night mare cackled delightfully. What had once been a replica of his bedroom was quickly becoming a disastrous ruin.

Just as it seemed like he wouldn't be able to endure another strike, however, someone else appeared next to him, blasting the succubus with a bolt of energy and raising a barrier to protect against the barrage of magical assault. "Hmph..." the succubus muttered, "Using the slave girl to circumvent my barrier. Clever girl..."

Hissing at the archangel, she said, "Clever or not, you're still not a Guardian... I don't need to explain myself to the likes of you. Now be a good little feather and die, would you?" She began to focus a beam of dark energy against the barrier in order to blow a hole through it.

Gripping at the naked body of the beautiful angel, Albertus said, "Poison... cure it... then we can kill this slut..." While he wasn't sure what the succubus meant about "using the slave girl," there were more important matters to deal with... such as destroying this intruder who dares to disguise herself as Sham'aim.

[Kris]

The angel realized soon enough how true the word of the demoness rang. Albertus and his follow human mages were guardians, where she as she was now, could not master any needed skills. To fight here in such terms will be impossible. She was limited in the dream world.

As the attack came, she deflected it with her strong barrier, but as Albertus was getting weaker, so did her influence in his mind world.

"We need to get rid of the poison, but I cannot simply cast a spell here and do it. We will need some time to ourselves as I treat you. There must be few sanctuaries within your mind, places where your subconscious blocked access. Disturbing memories which normally will not be easy to penetrate- Ironically enough, those will be the places to hide from demons capable of entering the mind and dreams"

Sham'aim attached her forehead to Albertus's, "Forgive me, I will force my way into a dark memory, you may feel uncomfortable, but this will be the only way to give me some time to heal you".

"BLASTED!", the succubus cried after them, her talon of a hand reached to attack, but the two were gone before she could strike, "I WILL FIND YOU!", she screeched at the top of her lungs, "YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER"

***

They both found themselves within a semi lit room, with a lot of weird devices that reeked of blood. Albertus seemed uneasy, but the angel was far more focused on his wound. She made him lean against the cold marbles of the floor as she began to lean down and suck on the poison.

"What is this place?", she asked as she spitted out something and returned to suck again.

[Holeypaladin]

As he felt the poison coursing through his veins, Albertus was grateful that the Seraph was present to shield him from the offensive magic of the succubus. He silently cursed his mistake. How had a single succubus managed to get the best of them like this? Ordinarily he should have been able to destroy ten such succubi without much difficulty... and there was no saying how many the angel should have been able to destroy.

And to have trouble in his own dream, where he should have the home field advantage, was even worse. He heard the words spoken by the angel, and in his own outrage, he gave a nod, thinking up a place where he could go to recover... and a way to turn the nature of the dream world against the slut who had dared assault him in this manner.

"Alright..." he said, "One moment then..." Thinking of the best place he could think of, he decided to hide from the mare within a different nightmare... one he recalled from a ways back. The scenery faded around them, and was replaced by a gruesome scene from a different dimension, which had been a recurring nightmare for some time before the wizard had repressed and sealed it.

He found it odd how she placed her head to his wound in order to suck out the poison rather than simply using restorative magic to cure it, but the thought occurred that she might not be very well versed in restorative magics if she primarily relied on offensive magic. After all, angels were immune to poison, so they had no particular reason to cure it.

Being aware of his question, the mage replied, "This is... the realm of Inferno. Where wicked souls are tortured repeatedly until they are transformed to cruel abominations. I had the unfortunate experience of viewing this realm from the perspective of a mortal in my studies of Conjuration magic... and it was enough to make me shun the concept of summoning devils."

Gazing at the angel, he summoned forth his own energy in order to recover from the injury. "It won't be long until she finds us... but we can defeat her pretty easily. All we need to do is destroy her physical form... that'll sever the source of her power. Should she remain in my head... she'll be weak enough to defeat quite easily. Wake up, my beautiful Sham'aim, and step through the portal I am about to conjure."

With that, he traced the source of his mental intrusion back to its source, and in both dream and real world, he conjured the words, "Obsule ekess vakatow, Helriel." As he spoke these words, he gently pushed Sham'aim out of his head to wake her up as a portal formed next to his bed leading to the location from which Helriel was attacking him... just in time for the succubus' dream projection to show up in Albertus' nightmare in Inferno to see him alone and unguarded.

[Kris]

Sham'aim awoke with a startle. She looked down and watched the pained expression on the man she began to care so deeply for, and for a moment she felt so powerless.

"Err... my head".

Martha had awaken just then.

Seeing the scared expression upon the angel and the sleeping master made the young woman be very worried, "That didn't work!", she said grabbing the angels by her shoulders, "Why didn't it work?!", she shook her.

Sham'aim regained her senses, "The nightmare is far too powerful in dreams. Whoever is that aiming for Adon Albertus' life, he is clearly a very powerful mage to summon a creature such as her"

"Her?", Martha asked confused.

"A nightmare demon, also known as Lilith or a succubus... and an extremely powerful one"

"Do something!", Martha pleaded.

"I will... I just need to locate her formed body and... ",Sham'aim sensed something glowing within the girl, a vile energy. She closed her eyes to track the source better, and realized the sensation was extremely familiar, "Oh no... so that's how she got in!"

The panicked girl looked worried, "what is it?"

"She used you as her anchor to get inside... You will have to find her... just focus... you know where her true body is..."

"How can I know something like that?!"

"She used you as a host, and not that long ago, her energy trails are still with you, you can find her... just focus..."

The young woman was confused but decided to do as the angel ordered her. A minute passed before the girl screamed, "I know where she is!".

"Good, let's go!", the angel cried.

"Wait!", Martha said, "At least put some cloths!"

"No time!", she said grabbing the girl by the hand, leading her outside the room, leaving the master's body exposed with an open door.

They followed into the hall, finding a very hidden corner in one of the back rooms where the demoness energy was coming from, "Go now, child... I shall smite her... protect yourself".

Sham'aim was so upset, that without even realizing how, a sword formed within her hands. She recalled the sight of it, a special sword capable of forming fire and thunder attacks. She knew, somehow, that long ago she was forced to use it to drive away a human couple from a very lovely looking garden...

Without even fully recalling the image of the memory she stormed with her sword, and spread her wings, hitting the demoness head on.

[Holeypaladin]

Even as Sham'aim faded from his dream, the familiar form of the scantily clad succubus began to materialize not far from him. Glancing around the area, Helriel remarked, "So, you thought you could hide from me here, of all places? Not my preferred circle of Inferno, but close enough to home." She smirked as she noted the portal. "So you sent your angel away to find me? Too bad," she waved, causing the portal to flicker and fade away. Albertus frowned, hoping Sham'aim could find another way to locate this succubus.

The chains began to animate, and Albertus dodged aside to avoid being shackled by the torture devices littering the chamber. "Oh, be a good dear and simply lie still, won't you?" the succubus said with a giggle. "Wouldn't you like to enjoy some pleasure before you die?" She lifted her breasts up to accentuate them as her hand slid between her thighs.

"Not interested in slutty whores," remarked the wizard, flinging a ball of ice at the succubus which she managed to deflect aside. He quickly thought back to some of the University classes on oneiromancy. While he usually used magecraft instead of sorcery, given the circumstances, his magecraft wasn't working properly, and he'd need to use some oneiromancy to stay alive long enough for Sham'aim to deal with her mortal form.

From what he recalled, the fabric of the dream world could be reshaped not according to logic or reason, but through emotion and abstract identities. A single puddle could turn into a lake, a few trees into a forest, and so on. Though he didn't have the experience that Helriel had in such manipulation of the dream world, hopefully at least it would buy him some time.

"Catch me if you can," he said before stepping into a shadow, soon finding himself in one of many alleys in the Imperial City. He began to navigate the familiar alleys, soon hearing a familiar giggle from behind him. Ducking swiftly, claws tore through the rocky building, leaving deep cuts which seemed to burn with the fires of inferno.

"I do love when they play hard to get," the voice remarked. Though he was certain he knew this terrain better than the succubus, she still seemed to be lurking around every corner, and it was all he could do to use the familiar streets to prevent her from ensnaring him. As he met a dead end where they should be none, he turned to face the succubus.

"Give up already?" she said teasingly, slowly advancing on him, only to run into a glass wall that kept her away from him. "Clever boy..." she said, "But humans have a natural fear of heights, do they not?" The city, suspended on an earth mote which hovered high over the surface of the world, soon began plummeting to the ground, and Albertus found himself in a free fall. Reaching out his arms like wings, he began to maneuver similar to a bird to avoid the succubus as she used her own wings to pursue him. "It's over..." she said, "Give it up."

"It is over..." said the wizard, grasping the clawed hands of the succubus. "For you." With that, a celestial blade of fire and thunder severed her demonic head from her body, as her mortal form was decapitated by Sham'aim in the real world. Albertus then woke up, glancing around the room and noting that he was the only one present. "She could have at least closed the door," he muttered as he pulled a robe over his exposed body.

[Kris]

"Where is she?", echoed a voice in the dark chamber.

"She is safe", said the angel slowly, pacing across the dark room.

"She is summoned, how can she be safe?", hissed the voice back.

"My lady, I assure you that-!"

"Habel", said the woman, "You may have become a mortal's dog, but my sister is far stronger to become like you. To be used as a tool for those humans... I find the idea in itself disgusting".

The woman's voice was coming from a big bucket of water, each time she talk the water swayed some.

She was known as Yam, the strongest angel that controlled the raging water and the depths. The little sister of Sham'aim.

"Lady, please".

"Why do you take sides in this war? we never took sides to begin with... remember the last time Sister was summoned... how hurt she was?"

"I remember, but-!"

"Shush... no more talks... your master is drawing closer... we shall speak soon, Chrub"

The door opened slowly as the grand minster drew in, followed by another minster with angel of his own.

"Master Elishama!", Habel bowed.

"Forgive me for disturbing you, Habel, but I need to call upon your skills at once"

"What is it?"

"Reports we have indicate that brother Albertus had been attacked tonight!".

The angel gasped as his eyes widen. Every member of the Zionist order wore a gem that symbolize his or her tribe. They were called the stones of "Husen", and by wearing them, the grand priest would always tell if something bad happened to one of his 12 followers that were in charge of a clan. But reports of such strong attacks were almost unheard of... unless Albertus got too careless.

Which was probably hard to blame him for, if his idea of what he did with Sham'aim came to pass...

Still, for anyone to be this brave to go directly for a minster... Someone knew where Sham'aim was, and was after her life... or maybe it was lord Albertus that was targeted?

"The council must know-!"

"They already know", said the other minster, Zecharia who pet the shoulders of the angel beside him, "Bat-Kol has already announced a meeting"

Kol was the angel of the inner voice. A very high level angel who had the ability of telepathy to great distances, and she could ensnare few people in a long distance conversation.

"Go and get him if you will!"

"It will be done", said Habel as he teleported both himself and his minster, Elishama to Albertus' estate.

[Holeypaladin]

While waiting for Sham'aim to return, Albertus dressed himself in his traditional Imperial wizard attire. He was about to head for the door to check on the rest of his household when the familiar forms of Habel and Elishama appeared in his room. Blinking a moment, he glanced at the two. "How did you...?" he began, then realized what it was. "The stone..."

He didn't know why he, a foreigner, had managed to become the head of one of the twelve clans of Zion. Perhaps it was a necessity in order to establish sufficient trust and position among the Elders for a proper exchange of magical secrets between the two. Or perhaps it was because his clan, Zebulun, was a nuissance to the Levi authorities with their constant attempts at rebellion, and they decided to punish them by putting Albertus in charge of ensuring their loyalty.

Regardless, they had arrived a bit late to do much. "I'm fine..." he said. "A succubus attempted to assassinate me, but Sham'aim terminated her while she was still in my dream. Her spirit will likely be forced to wander for quite some time now as it was severed across two different planes at the time of her death, so it's unlikely we'll hear from her within the next millennium."

---

The warlock cursed as he felt his connection with the succubus severed. Helriel was the most powerful summoned sex demon he had ever seen, and he was quite proud of his ability to conjure and bind such a fiend. Still, all was not lost... she was a mere tool, after all. No longer required to devote a portion of his power to controlling the murderous slut, he could now summon something else... or perhaps several other such somethings.

Another assault on the wizard's dream would have been a terrible idea, as he was sure to ensure that his dream world was an impenetrable fortress of wards from now on, and a frontal assault wouldn't do much good either. The wizard's weakness was in his heart... the fact that he cared for others, rather than using them as tools the way men of power should. Perhaps the servant, Martha, could serve as decent bait to lure the wizard into an ambush...

With ideas of malice in his mind, he began to plot his next conjuration ritual.

[Kris]

“Hold on right there!”.

Sham’aim was surprised to see Martha calling her. She was sure the last thing the girl will want to do is talk to her.

“What is the matter? the demoness has has been vanquished. For now anyway”, Sham’aim knew that when a spiritual creature such as herself bears great hold in reality (meaning someone is aware of its presents or continue to revive it in memory or writing) said creature would never truly disappear. So they were safe… but only for the time being.

“The minster is here”.

“Yes, I’m aware, I would have very much like to inform him of the situation and-!”

“You don’t get it do you!?”

The angel gave her a puzzled expression.

“Make your wings disappear and follow me”, Martha said pulling the angel by her hands.

***

The next thing to happen was that sham’aim has been forced to sit on a chair as Martha give her different attires to wear. Most of them didn’t fit, for the angel was bustier and taller than the girl, but Martha took a needle and started to work on adjustments.

“I’m not doing it for you… I just don’t want the master to be embarrassed that is all..”, Seeing a lady exposed was something Martha considered to be extremly shameful. She decided that since Albertus had little idea of women’s clothing that she should take this task upon herself. Beside, even though she still saw her as a rival of love, she couldn’t ignore the fact that she had saved both her master and her own life.

“You said I’d owe you- Is there something on your mind?”, Sham’aim asked.

Martha started to pick up the angel’s hair in long braids. She really didn’t want to do it, but she simply found herself doing it. Her mother was very passive and after being beating so much she would have often set lifeless like a doll. If her father would have come home and saw the house in a mass, or his wife not at her best he would have a fit of rage. So there she was, taking care of the angel as though she was her mother. Old habits die hard it seems.

“I would have require you to leave the master alone, but I am sure that will only cause him sorrow… that is why I want you to get back at my father… I want you to punish him… make him suffer”, The girl continue to work on Sham’aim’s hair.

“That’s a very nagative wish, Martha”, Sham’aim said dropping her gaze.

“I don’t care… I want him to suffer. He used to be the high head of the Simeon tribe. He really lost it when the high council gave his rank to a high ranking mage. It began to be a common thing. It happened to the Lord as well, as he was giving a tribe leader rank of Zebulun himself”

Sham’aim was all dressed now, wearing delicate ivory cloths and maiden like style of hair to match, she got up gracefully, her wings within her body, and she dared not to draw them out as to not rip the clothes, “I will consider this”, she said, but deep down inside she hoped she could have found a way to avoid this task. An action of injustice was not something she was willing to do… despite the fact she saw in the girl’s vision how horrible her father was.

***

Elishama tapped his cane on the floor, “I insist”, he said again, “Join us to a meeting with the rest of the council members. They need to be informed of this attack, you cannot just call it off… Such high rank mare is not something to take lightly, especially not with the war raging against us”

It was then that Sham’aim joined the others, “Adon Albertus”, she said slowly, “Is there a trouble?”

[Holeypaladin]

Albertus was of a mind to handle the attack from the night mare on his own. There was the matter of dealing with the warlock who summoned her, of course, but there were ways to track him down. The last thing he wanted to do was involve the council with this matter. They were allies in name, sure, but he honestly didn't like them very much at all. The problems with having a hereditary caste system were similar to the problems of having a hereditary nobility... they simply got too full of themselves and tended not to care so much for the welfare of the commoners.

Compared to some other civilizations he knew of, Zion had an extremely traditional method. A tribal caste system which dated back thousands of years, having never advanced in some areas while having advanced to incredible lengths in others, such as their knowledge of conjuration and artificing. "I'll be fine..." he attempted to assure the minister, "I'm a war wizard, so I'm no stranger to dealing with threats."

Nevertheless, the insistence of the minister was relentless, so it was all he could do to give a sigh and a nod as Sham’aim joined them. Gazing at the angel for a time, the mage noted that she looked... quite different indeed than she had before. "Wow..." he said to her. "You look... different. But good." He made his way over to her side and wrapped an arm around her, squeezing her a bit closer.

"You just dealt with the trouble..." he said to her. "And you were amazing. But now the council thinks this is a pretty serious threat and want me to attend their meeting..." Stroking her back where her wings normally were, he said, "Won't you come with me?" Though he appreciated her outfit, he figured it needed to be altered somewhat so that she could use her wings when necessary. Plus, he liked them a lot.

[Kris]

"Of course Adon", the angel felt his hands wrapping around her, and even though her wings were concealed within her, she still felt a similar sensation as though he pet them directly. He must have thought about it, or aim for it, a thing which made her fluster, even though she didn't understood why it made her feel so.

She tried to recall of such meeting, and was able to remember that she was once brought before such a gathering before, but those memories were still somewhat gone to her- it seems her memory has yet to fully return, but she did recall that the other angels had black wings, like she did at some point.

The thought of this scared her. The idea that she had been used for ungodliness causes was terrifying.

"My lady", said the handsome angel, "I shall explain the details for you. In said meeting a representative of each tribe, or two, will appear with their guardians, or summoned being. We shall present the case to them, inform that that a hostile attack is attempting a risk at the lives of the ministers, even though we both know they probably aim at either yourself, my lady, or your master, lord Albertus, it is essential to present the case as a reason of fear among all of the tribes. As it stands now, you are a very important being. They must never learn who you truly are, as I fear some of the tribes may use it to rebel…"

"Oh, that's horrible", Sham'aim said, looking very unsettled. It was slowly becoming more clearer to her, how much of a big role she was playing, and how in fact, she was so powerless still.

"Fear not, my lady", the angel smiled softly, "It will go well. The ministers will surely understand that they are all at risk, if we play our cards right. They will give each other more resources and work together… this will actually be a good cause of gathering, for once…"

Elishama looked at Albertus, "I request you personally to behave. Don't bite into their words. Trust me, I know how some of them can be irksome, but this is important. They must never understand who your angel truly is. Maybe it is best she kept her wings hidden. I know one of them has an angel capable of sensing an aura of another. We need to be careful on the meeting, you see- And yet, it can also be a good opportunity. It's clear to see there is a dark plot against Zion, but let's not cause inner conflicts to cause harm and to hasten the attack on us".

Habel began to channel his energies as he bent time and space to create magical portal.

"I don't think I ever mentioned it to you, Albertus, but Habel is capable of teleporting and creating holes in time and space. The sensation of going through such portal is very weird at first… but bear with it", Elishama grinned.