Isabela shouted at her disciples. “Get out of the vehicles! Now! People are dying while you’re wasting time!” Two people scurried out of the same truck as her, wearing similar white robes as their teacher.

The doors to a couple other trucks swung open, revealing mages wearing different colored robes. “Mrs. Sanchez is right,” said an older man with thoroughly grayed hair in a wizardly green robe. “Hurry up, so we may help more people with our efforts.”

“Yes, Mr. Wildrow!” the disciples yelled, obeying the command of the leader of the Order of Virtue. The mages quickly hurried down the streets filled with abandoned cars. Soon, they encountered a wall of gray mana.

“It’s the work of the devil,” Isabela whispered. “He is tempting us with the sin of sloth.” She snarled, emitting a blinding white aura that pushed back the gray tide. She turned to the two white-robed mages.

“See, my students. Sin cannot stand up to the might of virtue, as long as you stay pure,” she lectured. The young adults looked at her with admiration.

In reality, Isabela’s purity intent was at the same level as the sloth intent within the gray mana. She was merely able to push it back because the sloth mana was spread thin across a significantly wider area.

With the sloth mana dealt with, the mages were able to continue progressing. They passed by pedestrians locked in place by sloth, exorcising specters in a wide range by a combination of intents. Blasts of charity mana from Wildrow and his disciples ejected any specters possessing humans within the entire block, and Isabela’s group purified the ghosts into nothingness.

Charity mana was extremely suited to helping those in need; as such, it allowed even the weakest-willed humans to expel specters. With the sloth mana locking escaping specters from escaping, their inescapable fate was to be destroyed.

***

It took three hours for the Order of Virtue to reach Sarah’s location. She first felt a wave of mana with what felt like altruism intent pulse through her, latching around the specter. When a white aura of purity spread across the ground like the rays of a rising sun, Sarah realized what was happening and ejected the specter with barely an ounce of effort.

The specter was erased from existence the instant it left her body, letting Sarah sign in relief. A minute later, the trappings of sloth mana eased as Sarah fell within Isabela’s protection. She immediately massaged her cheek and other sore parts of her body.

Her squad regrouped and faced the mages of the Order of Virtue. Isabela and a man she didn’t recognize stepped forth.

“I’m Oliver Wildrow, Charity of the Order of Virtue, and its elected leader. This is Isabela Sanchez, Chastity of the Order of Virtue,” he greeted.

“This is elite squad one under command of Colonel Arthur Wright,” their commanding officer replied curtly.

“Remember that the Order of Virtue saved your lives today,” Isabela added. Immediately, Peter sputtered in anger.

“How dare you say that when you arrived so late!” he burst out.

“Peter! Be quiet,” the commander admonished, but even he had a frown on his face. “We would like to move with your group and help,” he continued.

Wildrow smiled. “That would be great,” was all he said. Shortly afterwards, the two groups merged and carried forwards. The soldiers surrounded the mages and Sarah in a protective formation. The mages eyed her curiously for being pushed to the center with them.

“So what’s up with you? I’m Michael, by the way,” one of the green robed mages said to her.

Sarah stared at him blankly. “I don’t know what that means. Sorry, I have some amnesia.”

“Oh,” he said, startled. “I mean, why are you treated different from the other soldiers?”

“I’m the best ki user here, and I developed a healing power,” Sarah replied. Michael gasped.

“No way! That’s so useful!” he said.

Sarah shrugged. She looked at him appraisingly. “Why don’t we exchange numbers?” she asked.

Michael was shocked. “Wha- I- uh, okay, sure!” he stuttered. Sarah whipped out the phone Arthur gave her and recorded Michael’s number.

“Great!” She smiled. “Now, if someone gets hurt, you just have to call me and I’ll do my best to help.” To her surprise, Michael’s face darkened. “Is something wrong?” Sarah asked.

“No, I just misunderstood what you meant,” he mumbled, stalking away.

Sarah didn’t know what upset him. Clearly, sharing phone numbers caused some misunderstanding. It’s probably some gender thing. She moved on and searched for Isabela. The white-robed mage walked briskly at the front of the group, so Sarah had to walk faster to catch up.

“Hello Mrs. Sanchez. I wanted to properly thank you for freeing me. You left before I could say anything,” Sarah offered. The mage briefly glanced at her before continuing forward impassively.

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“I was simply doing my duty as a servant of God,” she said.

Sarah beamed. “Well, I learned how to heal with my ki, so if you ever need help, just contact me.”

This time, Isabela gave her more attention, forming eye contact. “…I’ll do that.”

After spending the rest of the day, the group had combed through all of downtown, slowly spiraling in on the source of sloth mana, an unassuming apartment. It got harder and harder to resist the invasive gray mana the closer the group got, and at the very end everyone was flaring their ki or mana at full strength.

Peter kicked the door down. Inside was the absurd scene of a blood soaked elderly woman hand feeding her adult daughter in a wheelchair.

“Oh thank god, the police are finally here!” the elderly woman cried. “I’ve been calling non-stop for the whole day.” Isabela stormed into the room, brushing past the mother. She came to a stop right in front of Sasha, who appeared to be trying to sleep.

“Cease this work of the devil immediately,” she demanded. Sasha ignored her. Isabela puffed red in anger. Sarah’s mind raced as she connected all the clues she was given.

“Stop, Mrs. Sanchez. I’ll handle it,” she interjected. Sarah stepped forward and took a knee, so that she was face-to-face with Sasha’s closed eyes.

“I’ll get these people to stop bothering you for a day if you retract your mana,” Sarah offered. Immediately, Sasha retracted her sloth mana. The mages instantly released gasps of relief.

“You heard her!” the commanding officer bellowed. “We have enough clean-up to do. Leave this family alone, at least until we’re done.” The group left the unbelievably talented laziness mage, complicated looks in their eyes.

***

The professor had started to refer to himself as The Professor. He deserved at least that much, considering that he had successfully decoded and replicated the specters’ second-tier possession intent within half an hour. Still, he allowed the specter to maintain possession, to study its techniques more.

At the three hour mark, he formed his own tier four control intent, by combining four individual tier one intents. Telekinesis, puppetry, smooth-talking, and hypnosis intents combined into a unified whole. Akon actually struggled slightly to merge the intents, though it didn’t remain a problem for long as he became more familiar with the way mana and intents interacted.

With a tier four control intent, it was trivial to enthrall the specter possessing him and nearby specters until he had an ethereal army at his beckoning.

When the sea of sloth mana engulfed downtown Houston, his control mana easily ripped its effects to shreds.

“Take me to your leader,” he commanded the specters. They obeyed, directing The Professor towards the Legionnaire.

The Legionnaire was superior to normal specters in all manners. The control intent it emanated was at third-tier, instead of normal second-tier. The Professor picked it apart and added the intent to his mental library.

Even its appearance was different. While still invisible to the naked eye, by channeling mana to his eyes Akon could see a foggy specter as a vague silhouette of a humanoid. It floated two feet off the road, and was roughly six feet tall.

“With what audacity do you flaunt my own subordinates directly in front of me?” its voice echoed with an unnatural warble. The Professor had a manic grin on his face.

“Oh, I’m not antagonizing you. I’m not even your enemy. I’m here to help you,” he drawled.

The Legionnaire vibrated in anger. “I would’ve destroyed this city already if not for you enthralling half my army!” It suddenly surged at him, blasting its third-tier control mana in an attempt to possess him.

With a flick of The Professor’s wrist, a sea of specters jumped the Legionnaire, pinning him frozen in the air. With another flick, fourth-tier control mana invaded the Legionnaire’s body, locking down its ethereal body.

“Your plan was idiotic. What did you aim to accomplish with this attack? All you did was give humanity more mages,” Akon sneered. “You will follow my commands, and your race will do much better. In return…”

***

The specter attack on Houston ended with a staggering two hundred civilian deaths, and fifteen soldier deaths. Many, many more lives would have been lost without the massive blanket of sloth mana by Sasha.

The squad had pulled an all-nighter assisting emergency medical services transporting injured civilians to hospitals. In the end, Sarah’s squad regrouped with the Order of Virtue mages in a police station.

The building had been where any newly awoken mages were sent, after being freed from spectral possession. A hundred new human mages sat, dumfounded, in the center of the station. Oliver Wildrow stepped onto a podium.

“I am Oliver Wildrow, leader of the Order of Virtue, the organization of mages that saved you today.” A couple soldiers muttered in discontent. Oliver continued unabashed. “I offer you all my condolences for your traumatic experiences, but also my congratulations. From today onwards, you are mages. Yes, you wield mana, the magical energy that allows you to accomplish superhuman feats.”

“Magic is a gift, but it comes with consequences. People may discriminate against you simply because you are different. Governments worldwide will seek to control you, and embroil you in danger for their benefit. Our Order of Virtue is an international organization that will protect you from such extortions. Most importantly, we will teach you magic, which will allow you to defend yourselves.”

He continued to extol the benefits of joining the group of mages. Sarah leaned over Peter’s shoulder and whispered a question. “Why are we letting him do this?”

“It was the price they gave for helping us in the attack,” he grumbled.

Oliver chose that moment to demonstrate magic. He willed mana to his palm. “Look deep inside your consciousness, and find your mental power. Imagine drawing water from a well, and will it into your palm,” he instructed.

On a whim, Sarah followed his instructions, perhaps as an experiment to find the differences between ki and mana. To her surprise, a chilly stream ran from her brain down to her palm, leaving her hand glowing blue. She looked around, and saw the new mages also with blue palms, though none except Oliver matched her glow in brightness.

The leader of the Order noticed her mana, but continued as if nothing happened. “What you feel is a primal, powerful force. I can teach you how to use it.” By the end of his demonstration, Sarah could tell that the vast majority of the mages were hooked. The U.S. had just doubled its mage count, and instantly all of them were gobbled up by independent, private organizations. Hope was hard to maintain, but Sarah kept it up anyways.

Afterwards, the man approached her. “I see you have magic potential in you as well. We have a position for you, as well, in the Order,” he offered.

Sarah gave a weak smile. “I’ll consider it,” she replied. The shock of her discovery was still ebbing like the tide, and she couldn’t think straight.

I have magic. Now I’m both a ki practitioner and a mage. Was the specter able to adapt my body to mana while we were all locked by the sloth mana?

Sarah’s mind turned to Oliver’s offer. While the idea of joining a secretive mage organization seemed cool, her rational mind offered another cynical perspective.

If I join, they will expect things in return for their teachings. I probably don’t need a teacher; ki and mana intents seem to work very similarly. Plus, I can help more people if I’m a part of the military.

Sarah would never forget how long it took for the mages to arrive at downtown Houston, even if on the outside she appeared thankful for the help.