Cascade

But the twist in her gut told her there was no chance. It would take far more than this. Something about the Magic that sustained her, it needed more and more to keep itself going. The last town of several thousand had barely gotten her this far.

Was their a limit to how much she would need? Did she need so much because something inside her was growing to some critical mass? Or was the Spell that sustained her already fraying apart, needing more Energy just to forestall her own inevitable decay? For once, her power didn't tell her. But whatever the cause, she knew even this city would not be enough.

It would take millions. Tens of millions. Eventually hundreds of millions. She couldn't stop, not until she took as much as there was possible to take, or until she finally reached whatever peak the Magic was craving. Even just standing here, assessing her situation, made the Hunger twist her guts until she fell to the ground and screamed, writhing in the grass at the city's edge.

It hurt. It hurt so much. And even more than the pain, the sheer terror of her demise overwhelmed her. The cold, gnawing need that refused to leave her alone. The Hunger!

What if it didn't stop? Ever? What was she going to do? Was she really ready to consume the whole world?

Kayla looked up to the cityscape, gritting her teeth. A dark pit formed in her core. The lives of these people didn't really mean anything to her. They were her food. She was their predator. But a small kernel of empathy gave her pause. Long enough to know they were just as afraid to die as her.

But that was just nature wasn't it? Everybody died. Everybody had to feed. To drink. To breathe. Did she really care, or was this just the remnant echoes of fear from those she'd consumed already?

She screamed again as she felt her insides threaten to tear. She couldn't stop it. She didn't want to die. She had only just been born, and she didn't want to die!

She banished whatever sliver of regret she had started to feel. Useless emotions wouldn't keep her alive. She glared at the city, and unleashed her power towards it. She didn't hold back. As the warmth of thousands trapped in horrific ecstasy washed over her, she let out a sigh of relief.

So much better. Immediately, she felt warm, safe, and relaxed. She stood tall and casually strolled towards the city. There were so many people here, it would take a while to go through them all.

But just to be sure, she pushed her power a little harder. She puffed up the arousal of every man and woman straight into the redline, most of them losing consciousness before even realizing what was happening. She supposed, if she must kill them all, she could spare them conscious suffering as much as she could manage it.

Then the surge struck her. Just like back in Pandora, the spiral of Energy feedback kicked in. Men radiated their Lust to the woman around them, supercharging the women's Arousal Auras and unconsciously cast Spells, which in turn spiked the men's Lusts higher, which drove the woman's energy higher!

Kayla swayed on her feet as the surge of power nearly bowled her over. She recovered quickly, her ever-starving body adjusting itself to suck in as much power as it could at once. She had been so desperate to feed, she had forgotten the risk of this effect. She could handle it. If anything, it made her feel more charged, more alive than she had yet felt!

This wasn't like back at the facility. There were far, far more people this time, and the effects were quickly going out of control! The Energy was spiraling into a maelstrom! Kayla had to brace herself as even her endless maw was staggered by the sheer, overwhelming force of the Magic!

But her body adapted. Within seconds, she stood tall again, drawing the power into her as if her form were a bottomless pit. She still could not drain it all at once, but she was sucking it down even faster. The Energy around her form was so thick, the very air around her began to glow. Telekinetic force kicked up a windstorm with her body at its center. Higher and higher the Energy grew, and in a great and terrible wave, seven-hundred thousand people had the life crushed out of them. Kayla screamed as the surge of power swelled even higher, forcing her body to adjust and take in as much as it could, before her body burst from the overload!

And then the Energy died. And Kayla was left shaking on the ground, her body glowing and vibrating. After a few moments, she managed to calm herself and get back to her feet. She took a long breath and gazed up at the sun, basking in its rays. For the moment, she felt satiated. But she knew it wouldn't last. Maybe an hour. Maybe less.

If that was what it took, then that's what she would do. Go from city to city. Get as much energy as possible at each, and keep moving, until she was able stop, or was forced to. She looked to the horizon, and cast her senses to the next large settlement. It was only then that she realized the true depth of her error.

She could feel a wave of more Lust Energy already pouring off the horizon. She extended her senses further. Seventy miles away, she found another major city, and everyone within was already writhing in overclocked ecstasy. Kayla blinked in surprise. She hadn't pushed her power that far, had she? She cast her senses further. Lines of Lust Energy and Arousal Auras extended from that city, radiating like a growing web, connecting one settlement to another. Every place the web touched, the spiraling surge of Sex Magic was already overtaking the populace.

Kayla felt a pit in her stomach, a different sort of dread from the hunger. She pieced it together almost instantly.

The women in this city were attuned to the cocks of men in other cities. When their Arousal Auras and Spells had started firing off out of their control, their power had naturally reached out to those more distant men, triggering their bodies to start venting Lust Energy at the enhanced rate. And just like in this city, those men's Energies forcibly triggered the Magic of the women around them, which fed back to the men, which fed back again to the women. And of course, those women's attunements reached to yet more cities and towns further away, creating an omni-directional cascade that rapidly spread the hyper-charged storm of Sex Magic across the entire country. Soon enough, the rest of the world would follow.

The only reason this hadn't happened back at Pandora was that the Barrier had blocked the effect. But this city, of course, had no such Barrier, and the much greater number of people affected had caused the surge to grow too fast. She could see that by the time she had finished feeding here, it had already spread too far to stop it.

The pit in her stomach grew. She knew, immediately, that she had doomed the entire world, and herself with it. All she could do was try to drink in as much of the power as she could, while the rest of the world was still alive to give it. Either she would manage to hit a saturation point that would finally enable to her to survive long term without Lust Energy, or she would be the last victim of her own reckless consumption.

PART TWO: GESTALT

2.1

Brannon moaned as his body's urges finally fought through the haze of sleep to force himself awake. His body was flushed with erotic heat. His cock felt diamond-hard and his balls ached for release! The nipples of his pert breasts were sensually stiff, and his pussy ran free with wet desire--

Hey, wait a minute!

Even as his hands moved to clutch his breast and his cock, he jolted awake with a small feminine gasp! He whipped the sheets off himself and stared down at his... no, his girlfriend's body! His girlfriends body, except she also had his cock, jutting like a throbbing monolith up from where her clitoris should be! And his balls... well, he could feel as though he had testicles, but instead of a sack beneath his dick, he saw two small mounds to either side of his dick, framing the slick slit of his girlfriends pussy. A pussy which demanded he start filling!

He let out a girly mew as his urges broke through his shock, and he quickly grabbed his cock with his right hand, pumping quickly, while he dug his left fingers into his/her sex.

Oooooh, FINALLY! came the soft, honeyed voice of his girlfriend, echoing in his thoughts.

"Damn it, Dini!" he said in her voice, between lustful huffs. "I told you... to quit waking... me up... this way! AAAH!" He/she shuddered as their sensually sensitive body roiled with erotic pressure, and they bucked in the bed as their pussy gushed and their cock clenched! But no semen was forthcoming... the male side of them was being denied, while the female side enjoyed the bliss of climax! If anything, it was as if their pussy was stealing their cock's release!

But it's sooooo fun! was the mental reply. That felt soooo good! Come on, keep going, keep going!

Helpless to disobey the demands of two bodies in heat, Brannon masturbated their shared body with frantic fervor, experiencing the euphoria of multiple female releases, even as he writhed in cruel male denial! She spurred him to keep going, making their shared body writhe and buck and holler and cum/edge in a maddeningly heady state of terrible, wonderful sexual magic!

And then, finally, she was satisfied. With one final, staggering climactic edging, their body floated right off the bed. There was a brilliant flash of light, and their one body became two, and they fell back onto the mattress. Dini, his cute Archmage girlfriend, was shivering in the aftershocks of that wonderful string of climaxes, and giggling with delightedly at her little "prank". Brannon, gasping, was left with the hollow ache of the session's denial, his blue balls demanding release.

"Dini!" he whimpered in his own voice again.

She rolled over and kissed him. "Mmm... such a good boy... I think you do deserve a treat for that!" And she slid lower down, and her mouth enveloped him, and he let out a tremendous shout as his cock started pumping his seed down her throat! He cried out like a girl as she suckled his cock lovingly, her mouth bobbing on the top few inches, her tongue sliding around the head, her lips tightly tugging the underside of the ridge with every bob. After nearly half a minute of pumping all the cum she'd made him build up, she finally left him with a soft pop.

Brannon sagged bonelessly into the bed, a trembling, sweaty mess, and nearly fell back asleep again. Dini, sighing with contentment, slid back up and snuggled against him.

"F-fuck..." he whispered when he could find his breath again.

Dini giggled. "We just did!"

"That trick is still too weird..."

Her hand reached down and clasped his soft, very well satisfied cock. "You really complaining?"

He gave her a wary look. "I guess not." He tilted his head down and kissed her, ignoring the taste of his own spunk in her mouth.

"Mmmm, I suppose I'll accept that answer for now." Dini pulled back and stretched with a cute little grunt, and slid herself out of the bed to get dressed.

Brannon admired her sexy form as she slid her clothes on, and despite the enormous climax he'd just had, his poor, exhausted cock still started to get stiff just looking at her. He knew he was enormously lucky having an Archmage girlfriend who actually took care of him. But sometimes that meant putting up with her sudden impish urges. Still, she had never callously hurt him, despite the fact that Archmages were as close to goddesses as there were in this Sex Mage World. Most such women had whole harems of men they went through like little chewtoys, and their sheer power and influence meant almost no one would challenge their cruelty.

Dini wasn't like that at all. It perhaps helped that she had an especially rare power, even among the supernaturally enhanced Archmages. She called it the Gestalt, the ability to fuse herself with other people, melding their bodies together to share each others senses and feelings. It was thanks to this power that she could even have normal lovers, letting her adjust their bodies while they were fused so that they could withstand her enhanced Sex Magic even when they had comparatively normal sex.

It was likewise, Brannon suspected, why she never truly gave in to the cruelty Sex Magic tempted all women with. Fusing with several men since her empowerment had shown her what it was like, in a way even telepathy couldn't, to be a man in a world where any woman could casually take control of them, use them for sexual fun, and then toss them aside without a thought.

She still put him through intense tease and denial sessions, of course. That's just how sex was these days. But unlike most other women, she always pampered him when they were done. He was a very lucky man indeed.

Dini turned back and smiled at him, easily reading his appreciation. "You'll make me blush," she chided.

"Heaven forbid," he said as he finally got out of bed as well. He came over to her, and they kissed again, intimate warmth passing through them as the Magic let their hearts and minds embrace along with their bodies.

Finally, though, they had to pull away. They both had jobs to get to, after all.

"Try not to let the ladies get carried away trying to pop my shield again," said Dini with a wink.

Brannon laughed. "It was only the one time!"

"Once is all it takes to start an obsession!" she warned. She motioned between them, indicating their bodies and winked. "As you well know."

They laughed, and a few minutes later, they were heading out the door, taking opposite paths. Brannon's job was only a block away, but Dini had to cut through a park to reach her office. She still had some time, so she slowed her pace and took in the cool spring air with a smile. What a great morning! The sun was shining with only a few small clouds, but the air was just cool enough to tame its heat. The birds were chirping. People were walking by with smiles on their faces. She could sense an ambient hum of Lust Energy in the air, the general background of mystic signals that came with living in a city. Thousands of men with varying degrees of blue balls all contributed to a psychic blanket over the whole city, keeping the women healthy and happy.

It was a little fucked up that Sex Magic meant men's sexual suffering brought women so many benefits and so much pleasure, but Dini did her part to not be a tyrant about it. The city wasn't that bad; you had the occasional vindictive or tyrannical woman, but for the most part, the men got to blow their loads somewhat regularly. Seeing as how there were so many people in the city, it wasn't quite as necessary to torment the poor boys to keep the ambient Lust Energy up. Not like out in some of the smaller towns.

Which is why Dini paused and frowned as she sensed a sudden spike in the Energy levels, starting off to the West. She tilted her head as she looked to the distance, staring past the wall of buildings to hone her senses on the signals source. Before she could even focus on where the surge was coming from, the wave of Energy struck her like a runaway truck. Her whole body was alight with a surge of arousal that took her breath away, followed by a pleasure that ripped through her body like a bolt of lightning.

She was completely taken by surprise. The psychic chorus of tens of thousands of high-intensity signals, as if every man in the city were experiencing diamond-hard erections and teased with hundreds of spells at once! Every man was venting Lust Energy like a blast furnace! And all around them, the women were taken completely by surprise! Their Sex Mage senses were flooded with so many signals at such high intensity, their own minds blanked out from the euphoria, as they shuddered violently in a state beyond the most intense climax. Their overcharged bodies bled off Sex Magic with nearly equal force, only serving to further torture the men around them, and enhance their signals!

None of them stood a chance. Even Dini, whose Archmage level power normally let her casually block out the signals of hundreds blue balled of men, managed to resist the crushing wave of Energy for only a mere second. And then, her mind was consumed in the torrent, her body collapsing and spasming in an endless stream of agonizingly intense climaxes.

Before her thoughts dissolved completely into the chaotic whirl of sexual mania, she mentally screamed, reaching out with her power. Instinctively, she sought out those familiar signals, of her boyfriend, of past lovers, even her brother and father, seeking strength in them. Through the roar of Energy, she thought she felt a few familiar sparks, but they were lost just as quickly. She grit her teeth, and pushed with every ounce of her crumbling willpower, blindly reaching, blindly grasping, blindly pulling.

She felt several of the distinct signals suddenly cut off. Not just lost in the chorus, but gone, completely. Fear momentarily cut through the haze, as she sensed, with terrible certainty, that those men's lives were over, as they died in her mystic grasp.

This couldn't be happening! What could have even caused this? How could it possibly be stopped? She reached for them, trying to draw strength from the storm of Energy, to bolster herself with it. But it was too much. Her body was already overloaded with power, and she could take no more! Unless... unless she used her power... and joined her strength with others... maybe she could...

She reached out. She grasped as many as she could. She pulled them to her. But it was already too late. Her senses were scrambling. Her thoughts were fading. She didn't know who she was anymore. She didn't understand what was happening. All she knew was that it hurt and she was going to die and everyone around her was wailing in agony and their minds were boiling away and their bodies were rattling their final breaths and it was too late and they were going to die and she didn't want to die, please, please, someone, anyone make it stop!

Her last thought was a psychic scream that echoed in every still-coherent mind for hundreds of miles, a wordless plea for salvation, before everything faded into blinding white.

2.2

She snapped awake. In the midst of a field of flowers, a small woman found herself lying naked and hot in the afternoon sun. What had happened? What was going on? One moment, she was playing... or had she been jogging... or... making love? Cooking? Cleaning? Doing her taxes? What? What...?

She looked at her hands. Pale skin. She held out at a lock of short hair. A pale pink that didn't look dyed. She patted herself down as she stood. A tight, nubile body, modest breasts, shapely hips.

She looked around herself. She was in the middle of a city. She recognized the park in the city's center; she'd come here hundreds of times a day, walking past the flower beds to reach... no... not... not hundreds... but...

She took a hesitant step forward, moving out of the small patch of flowers, walking over to a nearby building. In the windows reflection, she saw a petite woman, pale skin, short pink hair in a pixie cut, ice-blue eyes, red lips and nails. Around her body was a silken white dress, lined with blue trim.

She leaned forward and stared into her own eyes. Who was she? She had memories, so many memories. Too many. She remembered the city from so many different angles. Thousands of images, thousands of sounds, hundreds of events, millions of moments of time. As if the memories of thousands of lives were rushing through her mind all at once.

She remembered... being a woman. No. Being women. Many women. She remembered being men. She remembered being young. She remembered being old. She remembered being middle aged. But there was something that overwhelmed them all. A single event that seemed to unify each and every lifetime at once...