"Now let's give you a proper wardrobe to suit your new look."
Natalie might have misconstrued what Ezraphel meant by this. At best, she thought she would be getting a couple outfits to wear out, like a 'Mamono starter pack' for going out on the town. She realized that wasn't the case when Ezraphel gave her a freaking fashion catalog to go through. And this wasn't a catalog from any of the brands either; oh no, this was a catalog of clothing designs made by Ezraphel herself.
That's right Ezraphel made a fashion catalog, and it wasn't a small thing. The decently dense collection was about as thick as a hardcover notebook and contained detailed hand-drawn design ideas for clothing of all types, including formal, casual, business, and even sleepwear, all of which had Natalie blushing with how risqué some of them were. Clearly, she had ideas of what those clothes would be used for, and Natalie found herself more or less enraptured by the possibilities.
"You designed all of these?" the Wight asked after a long moment.
"Well, I cannot take credit for all of them. I've appropriated a few Mamono fashion choices from my world and redesigned a few things that caught my eye from Earth."
"I can't tell which is which," Natalie commented before flipping a page and recoiled. "Never mind; this is definitely something from out of this world."
Ezraphel went to take a look and said, "Actually, I found the original design while browsing the internet."
"I don't believe you."
"It's the truth."
"Then you must have gone nuts with the redesign."
"Less than you think actually. I'd say I made it more practical."
"You made it more practical?"
They both looked back at the catalog, and Natalie turned it vertical, causing both women to tilt their heads sideways in sync.
"Yeah, no, I can't believe you."
A moment later, a tablet slid into view, showing a vaguely similar dress being worn by someone she could vaguely remember seeing at some point.
"What the fuck?"
Then she saw the words 'Met Gala' in the description and it was as if a light bulb lit up on top of her head.
"Oh," her shoulders slumped, "yeah, that tracks."
"The humans of Earth have an interesting sense of fashion."
"Whoa, don't get it twisted sister!" She pointed at the tablet and said, "this is not fashion. I don't even know what the hell this even is."
"I asked Stanley, and he referred to this particular gala as human narcissism and vanity taken to its dumbest conclusion."
"He's not wrong," Natalie mumbled. "Freaking clown show, I swear."
"It actually reminds me of something similar in the Royal Makai."
"Really?"
"When you have an entire generation of Mamono with more wealth than they know what to do with, political connections that can move entire nations, powers similar to demi-gods, and life spans that measure in centuries, it is quite easy for boredom to set in. When that happens, they tend to stave the boredom away by any means necessary, which does result in events that, in hindsight, are actually quite ridiculous."
"Really? Like what?"
Natalie's eyes then widen as she beholds the Ezraphel's cheeks turning a faint red before she looks away.
"I'd rather not say."
Witnessing Ezraphel of all people not wanting to talk about an aspect of her home life really put things into perspective. Rather than going down that particular rabbit hole Natalie opted to change the subject back to the topic at hand.
"Ahem, so anyway, as much as I like some of these designs," she flipped the page. "I mean, I can't stress enough that I really like these designs, but..."
"But…?" The Lilim urged her to continue.
She bit her bottom lip in frustration "I just cannot see myself wearing some of these without people getting the wrong idea."
"Oh, I wouldn't think you would care for what others thought of you." Ezraphel admitted honestly.
Natalie clicked her tongue "I don't, but I'd rather keep things tasteful, you know? The last thing I need is people wondering if I got an OnlyFans."
The Lilim looked at it for a moment before taking the catalog and flipping the pages "well, in that case, how about this?"
Natalie took the catalog, and her eyes widened "now, that's what I'm talking about."
They spent the next hour or so sifting through the catalog and talking shop, eventually coming to an agreement that would see Natalie receiving a dozen new pieces of clothing over the course of the week. That was frankly an absurd timeframe for tailor-made clothing of assumed high quality with added enchantments to allow said quality to persist, among other effects.
One thing Natalie can't say about Ezraphel is that she wasn't committed to the hobby, which was starting to feel less and less like one the longer she went on about it.
Yet even more absurd was the fact that Ezraphel thought she would be doing this for free.
"Yeah, that's not happening" Natalie immediately vetoed that idea.
"Really, there's no need to pay."
"Ez, you're not going to make me force you to take payment for a clothing commission because I will get Stan involved.
"Yes, there is," Natalie insisted "look, I get that since you're a magical princess you don't really have a clear concept of money."
"That's not true," the Lilim muttered with a frown.
"And Stan is your sugar daddy who spoils you on occasion" Natalie continued.
"Okay, I will concede your point there."
"Good."
"We can speak on the details at a later date. In the meantime, let us move on to the main focus of why we're here."
"Oh, are we finally ready to do magic?"
"In a sense."
The Lilim led Natalie back through the only door in the room; however, rather than ending up in the closet, they ended up walking back into the bedroom.
'Huh?'
*Click*
She turned around to find the door she just walked through, no longer there.
"What?" She pointed a finger and turned to Ezraphel with a question on her tongue, only to pause at seeing the amused expression on her face and slump. "You did that on purpose to get a reaction out of me."
"I have no idea what you mean, Natalie; I simply used a shortcut to save time," she said, gesturing to a door that Natalie knew with certainty wasn't there before.
Her eyes narrowed "why not just take us inside the room itself?"
"Because I imagine the experience would be quite jarring for you."
And with that she opened the door causing Natalie's nonexistent breath to somehow hitch. Beyond the door was not a room but what appeared to be the outside world, which was impossible. By now she already knew it was another type of magic; however, at this moment she cared not for the impossibility of the visage as her full attention was settled on the feeling emanating from beyond the door.
The surrealism only got worse once she entered the area proper.
Stepping through the threshold of that doorway was like stepping into a whole new world. Natalie felt the atmosphere wash over her like a tangible force through her fledgling sixth sense, causing her to startle. Natalie couldn't help but freeze in place as her senses attempted to make sense of what was going on.
She felt a tingle all across every inch of her skin; the mana running through her veins raced, causing the heat within her to throb. Despite not having a pulse, Natalie felt herself panting lightly, though not due to any kind of exertion. Natalie raised a hand to her chest as if to steady her beating heart; however, just as she suspected, there wasn't a single heartbeat to be felt.
"Can you feel it?"
Ezraphel's voice caused Natalie to look startled.
Seeing Lilim's expectant look, Natalie swallowed ineffectually, "I can definitely feel something."
In response, Ezraphel chuckled, "what you are feeling is concentrated demonic energy."
"So that's what that is."
"You are familiar?" Ezraphel observed.
"Sort of," she said, clenching her hand into a fist and feeling the mana coursing through her veins. "It's about the only thing I can feel moving in here, to be honest. I never thought I'd notice the lack of bodily functions in this sort of way."
"Theoretically, you are a corpse whose body is being animated through mana in a way that mimics some human bodily functions but not all."
Natalie mulled over the words for a moment before asking "so I'm guessing there's a point to exposing me to this, or am I reading too much into it?"
"No actually, your body needs to have mana to properly function, and while you can now generate mana naturally through your newly developed mana core, due to its fledgling nature, you won't be able to cast and maintain spells. Since the Earth is barren of mana and without a husband to supply you with spirit energy, you will need to stay in a mana-rich environment to aid in further developing your mana core. The more developed your core, the more you'll be able to produce higher quantities of mana in better quality."
"Okay, but does it have to be here?"
She asked this while glancing at the area, which seemed to come straight out of a dark fantasy movie. They were in an open, plain area surrounded by a forest of black trees topped with purple leaves. The sky was as dark as night, but without a star in sight, and a full red moon was hanging prominently in the sky. That's not even mentioning the thick miasma of what she's certain is demonic energy hanging in the air, almost like a pleasant fog.
"What's wrong with this place?"
"Nothing just," she said, taking the time to inhale, and a pleasant aroma entered her nostril, sending a shiver down her spine and "it's a lot to take in...literally."
"So still 'processing' then?"
Natalie gave her a mock glare "I'll stop doing that as soon as you stop dropping bombs every few minutes."
"Then perhaps we should postpone this session."
"No!" Natalie immediately crossed her arms in an 'X' and said, "We are not putting this off now after you went through all the trouble."
"Well, it's not as if I'll be teaching you to cast spells immediately."
"You won't?"
"Of course not."
"Well, there goes my motivation," Natalie muttered with slumped shoulders.
Rolling her eyes Ezraphel continued, "you need to learn the requisite theory of magic before we can get to that. Not to mention information on the Wight race itself and the role they play in undead society."
"This is starting to sound an awful lot like a school lecture, and I'm not sure I like that."
To her dismay, Ezraphel began rubbing her chin in contemplation "that's not a bad idea."
"Yes, it is." Natalie immediately retorts, but it was too late.
*Snap*
And just like that, they were no longer standing in an open field. Natalie found herself seated behind an unfortunately familiar desk in an even more unfortunately familiar setting: high school.
"Noooo!"
*THWACK*
The loud noise interrupting her Vader-esque shout was followed by Ezraphel's words, "Settle down, student."
Natalie went to give Lilim a piece of her mind, only to end up choking on the words that got stuck in her throat. Ezraphel stood before her with her hair done up in a business bun, wearing a white long-sleeved dress shirt with the top buttons undone to show off the deep plunge of her cleavage, as well as a black lacy bra, a black pencil skirt short enough to show most of her thighs, stockings, and to accentuate her long legs and heels to exaggerate her already exaggerated height.
After observing this, Natalie only had one thing to say.
"What the fuck?" She breathed in disbelief.
"Hmm" the Lilim tilted her head "that's a reaction I would expect from Stanley."
"You…you don't say" Natalie trailed off.
Totally understandable as far as Natalie was concerned.
"Now then…" Ezraphel adjusted the square framed glasses on her face.
*THWACK*
Natalie jumped at that sound again which turned out to be a long ruler Ezraphel used to smack her table.
"Let us begin your education."
Looking up at the taller woman as she loomed over her Natalie could not help but to swallow nervously.
"B-be gentle?"
To that Ezraphel gave her beatific closed eye smile and uttered three words that sealed her fate.
"Nonsense, pressure makes diamonds."
"It also makes rubble" the Wight retorted.
Ezraphel's eyes narrowed "and if you give it a good whipping" she punctuated by slapping the ruler in her palm causing Natalie to jump "cream rises to the top~"
"So does scum."
"…"
Ezraphel said nothing as she stared unblinkingly at the undead woman and Natalie had the distinct feeling that she may have pushed a bit too far with the sass.
"I can see that wit is a familial trait."
"Thank you?"
"But much like with Stanley I shall have you put that tongue to better use."
'Holy shit.'
"I think you're awakening something in me."
Ezraphel's grin was all teeth.