Chapter 24: Chapter 24 – Healing

After a few minutes of lying uselessly in the back of my car as I cycled divine power through my body to ease the immense pain I was in, I remembered that my car had the Skytower, where my penthouse apartment resided, assigned as its home. Once I recalled this, it was easy enough to give the car new orders to not only take me back to the newly renamed Allur Estate but to also assign it as the car’s home. 

Unfortunately, it took much longer to reach the estate than it would have to my penthouse apartment, but the estate was where Hex was, and with every other resource contained within its warded walls, I knew there was most likely something inside that could she could use to help me with my wounds. Of course, my mother could have also helped with that as she was a 5th-level healer specialising in blood magic but my mother was most likely still working and I was unsure when she would get off work for the night. Since Mum's business was self-made, she also made her own hours and tended to come and go at whatever time suited her whims.

The long drive to the estate came with an unforeseen side effect, in that I ran out of divine power well before reaching the place. As it turned out, emptying one's reserves of divine power came with an ailment, just like emptying a mana pool would. However, instead of the woozy feeling and light headiness that was associated with running out of mana, what I was feeling was a whole lot worse and strangely existential.

I felt cold and empty, like a part of my very being was missing. That feeling brought with it an overwhelming sense of gloom and hopelessness that made me want to curl up into a ball and lament the point of life, but the pain of my horrible burns was doing a surprisingly good job of putting those depressing thoughts aside for the moment.

Like that, I remained laying in agonising pain in the back seat of my car as the car quickly made its way back to the estate. When we finally approached the gates emblazoned with the name "Allur", a name which we had Hex physically alter during the day, the gates opened up by themselves since they could now detect the mana signature of the estate’s master from within the car.

We slowed to a crawl, gradually coming to a stop at the end of the gravel driveway just in time for the front doors of the estate to burst open. From inside one of Hex’s six identical bodies came running out, holding some kind of medical bag in her hands. Since the golem was aware of everything that happened within the estate grounds, which she was responsible for keeping clean and organised, she was no doubt made aware of my injuries the moment we passed through the gates.

"Master, what happened? Do you need me to contact the authorities?" The blue-skinned, white-haired maid asked while simultaneously retrieving a tin canister of medicinal paste from the bag she was carrying, at which point, she began smearing said paste across my blistering burns.

"Ah, fuck!" I groaned as the pressure of the paste being applied brought forth a burst of pain moments before a tingling soothing feeling was left in its wake. "No, authorities Hex."

As dutiful as ever, Hex didn’t question my desire not to call the authorities even though I had been horribly injured. She just continued to apply the paste to my wounds, but they were so prolific that she had to retrieve not one, but two more tins, using up the estate's whole supply of medicinal paste. She’d have to go or send for more later just in case of another emergency.

After a while, every inch of my injuries was covered in the paste and the maid began to wipe them away again, but only in the places where the paste had been sitting for at least a minute because that was the time it took for this handy alchemic concoction to work its magic. Once I was wiped clean of the past, my body was devoid of any signs of the burns I was once suffering from. In its place was fresh, healed skin, albeit it was still a little red and sensitive.

Now that the pain was completely gone, the overwhelming weight of the existential depression brought on by my empty reserves of divine power hit me all at once. All it took was a second for my thoughts to spiral into dark places and for my mind to consider all types of horrid, unimaginable things. The emptiness I felt was beyond anything I had ever felt before, and it was quickly swallowing me up.

Focus on my voice, Alek! Allure spoke up, coaching me through it. You need to ignore that feeling and keep your mind occupied with the here and now until it passes.

I did my best to do as the goddess directed, focusing my attention on her voice and what I could see around me, all the while trying not to think that hard. Unfortunately, this meant that I wasn’t able to respond to her in my head, but had to speak aloud. "Why is this so much worse than it is when I would experience the effects of overusing my mana?"

"I’m sorry, Master. I don’t understand what you're asking?" The nearby maid tilted her head in confusion, assuming that I was talking to her since no one else was around.

"I’m not talking to you, Hex." I spit out my response to her a bit more venomously than I intended, but it wouldn’t really matter as she was just a golem in my mind. 

That’s because divine power is so much more potent than mana, and as such, the ailments that a mortal body experiences once its power reserves have been drained are far worse. Allure explained. In many ways, it’s similar to drug withdrawal, only more existential and only partly physical.

That was bad, but I figured that if this was anything like the symptoms of mana overuse, then it would last for about an hour as my divine power slowly regenerated enough to ease the effects. Even then, I would be very careful about using my divine power for the rest of the day because it normally took a full twenty-four hours for someone’s reserves of mana or divine power to recover naturally after completely draining themselves. 

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Under different circumstances, where someone didn’t overtax their reserves as I had, the time needed to recover a full pool of energy was only twelve hours, but with mana, it was possible to fix an overtaxed mana pool by getting an influx of external mana. I couldn’t help but wonder if the same is true for divine power, so I asked the goddess in my head just that.

Yes, mana and divine power behave similarly in that regard. Unfortunately, although her response told me I was right, it wasn’t that helpful. Where would I have gotten more divine power from? To my knowledge, I was the only one who still possessed this power in the entire world.

There was one thing that occurred to me: the rush of sexual energy that got converted into my divine power whenever I had sex, but that power never actually filled my reserves up. After it finished converting my mana into divine power, it had only ever worked at expanding my capability to store divine power. Still, maybe there was something there, but either way, the goddess was the one to ask.

"Allure, is there any way I can speed up this process? I don’t want to waste my time sitting through this… emptiness." I spoke aloud, still unable to focus my thoughts on anything that wasn’t utterly depressing.

Technically, it is possible for you to redirect the sexual energies you absorb to fill your reserves instead of expanding them, but it's not something you want to get in the habit of doing in situations that aren’t as dire as this one because it's not useful for your long-term growth. Also, this state isn’t really all that hospitable for sex, and you would need to have sex with someone considered alive for it to work. The only one around to have sex with is your maid, and if she is just as you said, a golem, not a person, then it won’t work. But if she is alive then you may have a chance of recovering enough energy to end the ailments you are currently suffering from.

"I guess I’ll just have to take a chance and try it. Worst case scenario and I just have to sit through the hour or so of time left until this goes away as I would have had to anyway." I let out a slight laugh before attempting to get out of the car, where I had been lying the entire time.

As I stood up, I immediately realised why Allure said this state wasn’t hospitable for sex. The emptiness I felt didn’t just apply on a spiritual level but on a physical one too. This was the first time I actually tried to move since overusing my divine power, and it felt like I had not even an ounce of strength left in my muscles. The best I could really do was lean against the side of my car as I slowly slid down until I helplessly lay on the gravel of the driveway.

"Master, are you alright? Do you need assistance?" Asked Hex, who was still standing nearby after she had cleaned up the empty medicinal paste tins and returned the first aid bag back inside. 

"I’ll be fine, I just need you to carry me to a bed and fuck me." I couldn’t help but let out a half-hearted chuckle upon hearing the strange orders I was giving her.

"Master…" Hex hesitated, no doubt finding my orders just as strange. "Are you sure I don’t need to contact anyone? You have been talking to yourself and sex may not be a healthy response to the trauma you endured. Although you may not have any physical injuries left, you could have suffered mental damage that I can do nothing to heal. If you don’t won’t me to send for a psychiatrist or the authorities, then I could notify Mistress Alana through sending."

Looking up at the concerned golem from my position, lying limp on the uncomfortable gravel, I responded to her. "There’s no point in bothering her while she’s working. I just need a lie-down and some sex and I’ll be as good as new. Probably…"

"Very well, as you command, Master." Hex said moments before she set about following her orders and picking me up off the ground.

I figured that since the blue-skinned woman was a golem, that she would be stronger than a normal person, but I didn’t expect just how strong she was. I was basically as light as a feather to her as she easily hoisted me up in a princess carry and took me inside.

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