You can buy this story here: The Trouble With Magic 3
The Trouble With Magic Chapter 3
By MagnusMagneto
Approximately 12,000 words
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[New to the series? No problem! Get caught up here: http://fav.me/data0l0 ] [Disclaimer: Something I’ve been hinting at, but I’ll just explicitly state here – Milo is not a good person. In fact most of the characters in this particular series have what I consider to be real flaws.]1.) Chapter 2 Aftermath
The encounter with Wendy had done a toll on Milo’s emotional state. He knew that somehow, he had the potential to grant someone power equivalent to the fictional character Superman. Or rather… two times as much power – unless that final power-up was just a fever dream of his. And yet, no matter how he tried, Milo was entirely incapable of empowering himself.
Somewhere out there, Wendy was flying around. Exploring the cosmos. Or was she? Maybe she died in space? Maybe she tried her luck with a black hole and was destroyed? Or maybe she encountered an extraterrestrial species and was terrorizing them? What if Wendy found other ways to power herself up even further!? And if Wendy had twice the amount of power that Superman did… His mind raced as he tried to fathom just how strong she really was.
As a fictional character, Superman was often criticized for being too powerful. He could do too much, and writers had to come up with increasingly contrived ways to challenge and endanger him. But Wendy apparently had twice that much power. How could the universe even withstand that much strength? Surely she could destroy the Earth by simply sneezing in its direction…
And yet, Wendy clearly hadn’t destroyed the fabric of reality with her mere existence. Or had she? Milo’s head hurt slightly as he tried to comprehend the implications of his actions. And worse yet, Wendy didn’t even have Superman’s weakness to Kryptonite or Magic. Not that Milo knew if the first would be of any use, and truthfully, it seemed the latter would have been useless even without that resistance.
There were too many variables, too many possibilities, and too many what-ifs. All Milo could do at this point was try to master his powers, and pray that Wendy never bothered to return.
–
The next few days were especially turbulent for Milo. He came to grips with the fact that he truly loved muscular women. There was no way around it. He knew it to be true when he was dating Claire, and Wendy’s ability to effortlessly influence him confirmed it even more. This made Milo reexamine his home life: how Athena kept gaining strength, and Diana seemed to be making good progress too. Wendy had mentioned something – hinting that perhaps he had been inadvertently empowering Athena through his fantasies and self-love sessions.
This was an especially troubling possibility for multiple reasons.
The only solution Milo could come up with was to further explore his magic powers. He needed to fully get a cap on them and understand just what he was capable of, or else he risked creating another Wendy – and this time whoever she was might not be as merciful towards him!
–
Milo did something he hadn’t before: he deliberately practiced his magical abilities. Still afraid of empowering someone else too much, he started off by simply manipulating the elements more. He could summon a small amount of electricity around his fingers, though he quickly learned that he still couldn’t actually touch it without getting hurt. He learned to freeze water on the spot, though creating water was still outside of his grasp. He could even imbue objects with properties: in particular, he made a couple of cups in the room constantly give off a light red glow – even in the dark. Milo was of course careful to make sure that the cups couldn’t grant anyone immense strength by merely holding them…
Wendy was right about another thing: Milo didn’t need to say any words at all to cast his spells. Though he found that a verbal incantation tended to yield a stronger result. For instance: when summoning up his flame spell, audibly saying something, like “Ignis” created a bigger ball of fire than silently summoning it. He had no explanation for this, and part of him wished that Wendy would momentarily return to offer a theory.
–
Over the next two weeks, as Milo focused his efforts on improving himself—magically at least—he noticed that Athena wasn’t growing at the same breakneck speed she had in the past; though she was still gaining strength faster than he could hope to in that timeframe. During the few times that Milo absolutely could not help himself any longer, he thought only about Diana – that beautiful, statuesque step-mother of his. And accordingly, Diana found herself gaining an inch on her biceps over those two weeks.
This experiment seemed to all but confirm that Milo had been ‘leaking’ magical energy to the women of the household, bolstering their muscle-building prowess in the process. And while Milo was currently more comfortable with Diana becoming stronger, as opposed to the vindictive Athena, he was still uncertain what a super-powered version of her would be like. Would she be a fair and firm ruler who brought order over her daughter? Or would she end up growing drunk with power, desperate for more once she discovered its source, like Wendy?
Either way, Milo wasn’t ready to find out.
–
Claire had already made a splash as the “world’s most powerful woman”, dethroning their former teacher, Mrs. Ashmore, of that title. She now had a reality television show, and ample social media presence. Milo knew how Claire handled power – she craved it, but certainly wasn’t going to enslave mankind with it anytime soon. As a result, on the days when Milo’s hormones were too powerful to keep in check, he directed his thoughts to his former girlfriend. And to her delight, Claire found herself able to build muscle at a more agreeable rate.
2.) Athena
After a particularly grueling workout, Athena burst into Milo’s room without knocking. He scrambled to turn off his computer monitor, but his step-sister was able to catch a glimpse of what he was looking at: a picture of a ripped, muscular female bodybuilder. She rolled her eyes, so friggan predictable, she thought to herself, why does he bother with that junk when me and my mother live here? Not that I’m interested in the little creep anyways.
“Athena! What… what are you doing in here?!” He stammered after turning the screen off and turning around to face her.
Athena was donning her workout attire, which was strained against her magnificent form. Despite Milo’s efforts to not empower Athena the past few weeks, she still steadily gained strength and muscle at a supernatural pace. Her muscles were becoming thick and almost block-like in appearance. Of particular note, her upper-body tapered down with a wicked V; wide lats spilled out from her back, and rounded pectorals jut out several inches above her bosom. Even more unsettling for Milo, Athena was truly beginning to resemble her mother in terms of appearance – which was to say that she was becoming more beautiful with each passing week. Her beauty and muscles fed into one another, adding to her sexual power and effortless dominance over her step-brother.
“I need you to do something.” She said.
“Do what?”
She revealed a tape measure in her hand. “Measure.”
“Measure?”
Athena closed the distance. Milo could feel heat radiating off of her form, exacerbated by the exercise she just performed. “Measure my bicep.” She explained.
“Why can’t you just measure it yourself?” Milo retorted.
“I would. But it’s getting too big for me to easily do so.”
“Do you regularly measure your muscles…?” Milo asked.
Athena nodded, “Of course. I do it almost daily.”
That level of narcissism unnerved Milo. Everything about Athena and her personality unnerved him for that matter. She was so cold and calculating – or so it seemed. Cold towards him at any rate. It was like she viewed him as some kind of insect. Actually, Athena’s attitude was kind of alluring in its own right. Milo kind of hated himself for growing a bit aroused by his step-sister’s personality traits.
As stupid as the request was, Milo wanted to stay on Athena’s good side. He agreed to the task, and they got into position. As Athena flexed her arm, Milo’s eyes widened a bit at the deep split that appeared down their center; they were becoming seriously defined – like arms that belonged to someone with muscle maturity developed over a decade, yet Athena was far too young for that. Milo’s hands trembled slightly as they brought the tape around the bicep. The way the muscle bulged and filled up the tape thrilled him. It solidly read a little over 15 inches, threatening to take up more space at any moment. Milo secretly wanted to see it move further, to push the numbers higher… And right then some magic leaked out of Milo and Athena’s arm gained half an inch – bringing the tape to 15 and three-quarter inches.
“Yes!” Athena purred as the number grew; she presumed the pleasurable sensation she felt was from the thrill of witnessing her own impressive measurements.
Athena pumped her arm a few times, desperately trying to get it to read 16 inches. “Come on dammit…” she muttered under her breath. After letting out a frustrated sigh, she reached over, grabbed Milo’s free hand, and yanked it over to her muscle – placing his fingers right on her bicep.
“What’re you doing?” Milo asked nervously.
“Gimme some motivation! Squeeze my bicep!” Athena commanded.
Not wanting to upset the muscle-babe, Milo complied. The muscle was warm and rock-hard, just as he imagined.
“Mmm, that’s right. Come on muscle, get motivated by Milo – show him who’s boss!” Athena chanted in an uncharacteristically childlike manner.
Milo’s mind wandered and surrendered to her desires; a little more magic eked out, ascending Athena’s biceps to 16 inches of circumference.
“YES!” She exclaimed, putting her finger on the tape to ensure it was accurate. “Finally!” she withdrew her arm from Milo’s grasp.
Did Athena know about his abilities!? In the past she had indicated some understanding of the correlation between attention he paid to her and her muscles… though this was far more blatant. And now she had tangibly received a boost firsthand.
Athena spoke again, “I must have been measuring wrong because I was stuck at 15 inches the past few days.” she said with a smirk. “I guess you can be kind of useful when you want to. Good work. I’ll let you get back to, well, you know. Better for you to drool over them than me I guess. Though it is kind of ironic that I’m going to utterly surpass them all, isn’t it? It makes me wonder, is having me as your step-sister a dream come true, or a nightmare?” she shrugged, “Guess you can figure that one out for yourself. I’m off to pump these babies even more. Seeya.” And with that she took off.
Milo internally sighed of relief – it seemed his secret was still hidden for now.
3.) Debra
For better or for worse, Milo wasn’t content with minor elemental manipulation and slowly empowering his ex-girlfriend. He wanted more tangible proof of his abilities; he wanted to know precisely how he could empower people. Or perhaps depower them?
–
Milo was in class. Like usual, he could barely focus, and was fighting the urge to fall asleep. He looked around him, taking stock of his classmates. It was the same as usual. He looked over a particularly beefy male on the football team. His large arms and bristling back brought his shirt to its seams. Milo felt jealousy building within him – all of his attempts to build muscle had been so fruitless, and he couldn’t simply empower himself with magic. It irked Milo that guys like that could lift some weights, build big muscles, and have plenty of girls fawn over him.
It irked Milo so much, he wondered… what if Milo simply…
The jock’s shirt suddenly loosened. His muscles deflated slightly; his shoulders became less bulbous, and his biceps no longer pushed the edges of his sleeves. “Don’t feel so good…” He murmured under his breath, grabbing onto his arms – visibly shocked and horrified that they seemed smaller.
The dark streak within Milo considered going further – to utterly remove all traces of strength from his target; but he ultimately decided against it. He didn’t want to raise too much suspicion, and it’s not like he even really knew the guy.
In fact, guilt began to well up within Milo. He wanted to rectify his mistake, at least a little. Carefully, making sure not to give the guy more than he started with, Milo cast a silent spell to build up his body. Yet… nothing happened?
Milo saw a nearby girl sitting back with her bare legs outstretched. He recalled her name to be Debra. She was, frankly, on the chubby side, and Milo was earnestly surprised she had been bold enough to wear short-shorts. On a lark, he conjured an enchantment to specifically change the fat on her legs into pure muscle. Sure enough, he felt slightly winded, and right before his eyes the flabby, loose flesh began to tauten and tighten.
Debra felt a strange sensation running through her, like she was amped up on caffeine. Her legs in particular were tingling. She reached down and ran her fingers on her gams, resisting the urge to let out a squeal as she realized they were becoming harder. At first she panicked a bit, but as she witnessed the fat that had embarrassed her for so long begin to melt away, she felt a sense of joy wash over her. Regardless of what caused this to happen, Debra wasn’t about to complain.
She looked around the classroom, and fortunately nobody was looking at her, except for… that weird kid. Milo was his name? After they locked eyes, Milo abruptly turned his gaze way.
Milo worried that Debra would suspect something, so he turned his attention back to the male jock he had shrunk. He tried again to rebuild his muscles, but nothing happened.
Curious if he was simply conjuring the wrong spell, Milo looked over at another girl – a blonde with bare arms who was absentmindedly examining her small formless triceps for any imperfections. Milo cast the identical spell he targeted the guy with, and right on cue, he felt a bit winded; within a matter of seconds, small, sizable muscles appeared on the girl’s arms. Her eyes lit up and she flexed them a few times, watching with awe as the muscles danced. She seemed happy enough with the results, so Milo let her be.
More frustrated than benevolent, Milo scanned the room for another target. This time he decided on a small, frail male – one even smaller and frailer than himself. Surely there would be no harm in helping out his fellow weakling. Milo cast the same spell once more, but it was useless. No windedness, and no gains for the unfortunate boy.
Rubbing his temples a bit, Milo returned his attention to Debra. He almost let out a gasp at the sight of her legs. They were incredible now! The once flabby, jiggling deposits of fat were now pure rippling muscle. Her calves in particular made Milo’s eyes pop forward: a huge jutting slab of power that he estimated to be 15 or even 16 inches. Debra also looked more energetic, and she kept reaching down and squeezing her legs, grinning a bit each time; so she surely must have enjoyed her gift.
Despite his ‘good deed’ the girl still had a rather fluffy face, and a visible pouch on her midsection. Milo could also see through her sweatshirt that her arms were quite large but flabby as well. His spell was perhaps too specific, and Milo realized that she would have a physique model’s legs attached to a very mismatched body. Milo could have simply turned the rest of her flab into fab, but that might have caused too much of a scene; he was already on thin ice with the disruptions he had made thus far. Additionally, Milo wanted to further explore his powers. He began mentally formulating a spell – thinking specifically that the rest of the girl’s fat would turn into pure muscle as she slept overnight. But not her breasts, nor any vital fats. And of course, her organs and whatnot would acclimate perfectly to their new body – he didn’t want her heart collapsing as it tried to pump too much blood.
A winded feeling confirmed Milo had successfully cast the spell. Debra felt another surge of energy wash over her. She expected to turn into a muscular amazon on the spot, but was somewhat disappointed to find that her body seemed the same. A quick glance over revealed that Milo was staring intently at her. That was strange… why was it that both she felt that energy he specifically was looking at her like that? Debra shook her head, and presumed he was admiring her gams. While Milo was kind of weird, he wasn’t bad looking per say, and she certainly liked the attention – especially after having been shunned by guys for so long.
For the rest of the class, Milo tried to avoid looking over at Debra.
Things went by without further event.
[This is just the first ~25% of this story! Get the full thing by supporting me on Gumroad!]You can buy this story here: The Trouble With Magic 3