Chapter 53 Mental Trauma

  Isaac grabbed the two gallons of water that he had in his Inventory and dumped them both out over Lenna’s back and her sword. He then pushed her sword into his Inventory as quickly and gently as he could. Just the brief split second of contact burned his skin. He lowered how much of his power he was feeding Lenna just enough to allow himself to regenerate a trickle of mana. He had no idea what else to do. All of their items were smoldering across the battlefield, the one he really needed, the Ocean in a Bottle, had very obviously exploded as he had seen a white cloud of steam burst high into the air. He couldn’t help extricate Shamesh as the ash was far too hot to touch and had turned as hard as concrete, he couldn’t cool down Lenna as he didn’t have any ice magic or water, and he couldn’t even contact anyone to come help them. All he could do was hope that Catastrophe would show up to bail them out.

  Speaking of things showing up, the undead monstrosities had done so, well, a second one had and the other two were still on their way. The second one was missing an arm and a foot entirely. Its quick but awkward gait had instantly failed as soon as its first full stride into the ash caused the muscles to catch fire. Isaac didn’t stop to watch the undead burn away but instead turned to start running back towards Catastrophe. He only made it three steps before he saw Clark and Jane start flying towards him. “Thank the gods.” Isaac whispered and stopped running. Their flight spell was faster than his run away. He just hoped the two alchemists had a way to fix all of the trio’s current problems.

  Isaac looked lost and worried in equal measure as Jane and Clark touched down. Jane already had a spell in hand before her boots reached the ash-dusted exposed dirt. An orb of pure water was held at the tip of her staff and she pointed it towards Lenna. “Glacial Stream.” She spoke the name of the spell and a jet of ice cold water blasted out and over Lenna. She held it over Lenna for a moment and then pointed it at Shamesh. The ash super cooled and cracked in multiple places. A few chunks of it flaked off over the course of the next ten seconds and then she re-doused Lenna. More steam poured off of the paladin.

  “Hold your breath, my love.” Isaac told his wife a moment before he turned her over so Jane’s ice cold water could continue to cool her down. Isaac felt the death flames that were still flowing through Lenna dim as they sacrificed themselves to heal her through the rapid cooling. Isaac’s hands had blistered from just the act of pushing Lenna onto her back. Luckily he now had at least a trickle of death flames to use on himself.

  Isaac quickly undid the damage on his own fingers and waited for Jane to stop. It was only another few seconds before her shoulders sagged and her spell died out. “That is all I have for you.” She told Isaac. “Clark, help break the tea man out of his ashen coffin.”

  Clark nodded and pulled out a small hammer and an even smaller chisel. “I’ll get as much of him out as I can.” He told Isaac. “Is there anywhere that I need to be extra careful around?”

  “His head.” Isaac told him as he started fiddling with Lenna’s chinstrap. It came undone with practiced ease and he started to slide Lenna’s helmet off. Isaac’s heart sank as her bloodshot eyes stared up at him.

  Lenna coughed and ashy water came out. Then she launched into a coughing fit as more and more of her mental faculties started to come back. Isaac turned her onto her side and started taking apart her armor. It was not a quick process, especially when she was not actively helping, but he would not stop throwing ninety percent of his regeneration rate into her until she told him to stop or she was out of her armor.

  “Isaac.” Lenna wheezed between coughs. “Too much.” She told him. It was only then that he realized that his own power was also causing her a good deal of pain. Her mana pathways were not made to handle so much power, even if the power was more flowing parallel to them than through them. A bit of the power that he was feeding her was being used up just to repair the damage that the power itself was doing. Damage that hurt like all hells.

  Isaac lowered how much he was feeding her until it reached half of his regeneration rate once more, the same amount that he had been giving her while they were fighting King Millen. Speaking of, his Soul Stone now lay on the ground next to her. “Still too much? Too little?” Isaac worriedly asked his wife.

  “Plenty.” She told him. “Too much.” She coughed again. “Quarter.”

  Isaac did as he was told and lowered how much power he was giving her down to a quarter of what she had been receiving. He knew that it was enough to heal minor wounds or keep her energized through a dead sprint but it wasn’t enough to do any more than that. “How’s that?” He questioned his patient.

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  “Fine.” Lenna told him. She finally finished coughing and collapsed back onto her back. “Umbrella?” Isaac had once gotten her a black parasol and had kept it inside of his Inventory so whenever she needed it she would have to go to him. That was before she had gotten her lenses, back when a sun umbrella was much more necessary.

  Isaac smiled and pulled it out of his Inventory. He had never taken it out. It was only a few pounds and if Lenna ever decided that she wanted to eat on the surface without her helmet on it would be necessary. He held it over her head as she lay there on the ash-dusted exposed dirt. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like I got blown up, sent to the hells, fought my way out, got water boarded, and then wrung out like a towel.” She colorfully explained.

  Isaac chuckled and brushed her ashy hair out of her face. “The simple fact that you are feeling well enough to be funny is a blessing in and of itself.” He told her. He looked down at the shadow cast by the parasol, specifically the shadow of the handle that was a bit darker than the rest of it. “Hold this.” He told it and the shadows solidified until the parasol was locked in place over Lenna’s head. “I’m going to get Shamesh out, unless you want me to stay…”

  “No.” Lenna told him. “He must be panicking.”

  “He has been holding up admirably.” Isaac assured her but got to his feet anyway. Clark had given up getting Shamesh’s arms out of the ash and had started working on his ribcage. “But what about your armor?”

  “It’s warm.” Lenna replied. “But cool enough that it just feels like I’m taking a nap in a brick oven.”

  Isaac gave her a flat look and Lenna chuckled but that only caused her to cough out some black sludge. The ash had turned to mostly turned to black sludge but there was nothing that Isaac could do about it. She would need to cough it up or someone with proper healing magic would have to take care of it. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.” She assured him. “Rescue Shamesh and then help me doff this.”

  Isaac nodded and moved to help Clark with Shamesh. Shamesh was not in a good way. He was entirely covered in volcanic concrete inside and out. Almost none of him had been spared and the parts that had been were inconsequential like the middle of the inside of his ribcage. Because Shamesh’s ribs had all turned into plates, there were no gaps between them and thus the ash did not have an easy way in. The same could not be said for his eyeholes.

  After nearly five full minutes of both Isaac and Clark trying to chisel out Shamesh’s eyes, Clark sighed and put his tools down. “Lord Darkness, Magus Shamesh, I think I’ve reached my limits.” He told them both with a sigh. “I know that there is an alchemical compound specifically designed for breaking apart mineral accumulation of the geological variety but I don’t know how it will affect exposed bone.” He went on. “Give me a few minutes to check my library, if it is fine to use on exposed bone, then we should return to our laboratory. It should only take one to two hours to make and then we’ll be able to scrub the ash off with a brush.”

  Isaac nodded. “Alright.” He confirmed. “Shamesh, I’ll be back once I get Lenna out of her armor.”

  “Understood.” Shamesh’s muffled voice echoed out of his ribcage. The spell usually created the sounds in or around his mouth but the ash was so thick that the sound just echoed out of his ribcage after the ash had absorbed a good bit of the sound. ‘I really do not like this.’ He sent his master through their link. ‘Is this what ‘Mental Trauma’ feels like?’ Shamesh asked. ‘Is this what they meant?’

  ‘Yes, and sometimes.’ Isaac replied with as much consoling feelings as he could force through their link. ‘There are plenty of different types of mental traumas but this definitely qualifies.’

  ‘Bad.’ Shamesh sent back and Isaac swayed slightly from the massive amount of general feelings that were sent along with the word. In fact, Isaac wasn’t sure if Shamesh had even sent him a word or if his brain had just made one to help it process what he was suddenly feeling.

  ‘I know buddy, but the best we can do is hope Clark has the right solvent for the job, or at least he can make the right one. If not, then we are going to have to take you home like this. Maybe Jala will have the right compound, if she doesn’t then maybe Alexander can use telekinesis to help us chisel you out. Worst case, we get the girls to help us. Either way, we will get you out as soon as we reasonably can.’ Isaac explained to Shamesh as he knelt down next to Lenna with a frown.

  Lenna could tell that he was talking to Shamesh so she didn’t interrupt him until he was done and his eyes found hers with a smile. “I want to sleep.” She told him. “As soon as I am out of this armor, I want to sleep.”

  Isaac nodded. “Alright.” He told her. He wasn’t going to tell her about the last two undead, one without legs and one with only his right leg and left arm, who were each making their way towards the ashen section of the crater. The one without legs was about to reach it. Isaac watched as it was about to enter the ash but then it stopped itself. Its gaze looked as though it had gained some of its intelligence back as it eyed the battlefield. Its eyes locked onto Lenna who was still being gently washed in death flames. It took a step forwards on its hands but recoiled when one of its hands touched the extremely hot ash and nearly burst into flames. It eyed the field of ash and Isaac watched as its eyes traced a path around the ash in order to get to Lenna. He then saw the other undead, which was doing a horrible imitation of an inchworm, turn slightly so its path would lead it towards Lenna as well. Apparently they could both feel the death flames and were instinctively drawn towards what could put them back together.

  Isaac’s eyes found Jane’s and they both shared a look. Neither of them had a way to deal with the undead in a meaningful way. Jane was out of mana and Isaac could do little more than throw them around. Lenna was out of mana, mental energy, and spiritual energy. Clark was as non-combat of a mage as one could get, and Shamesh was both out of mana and stuck in an ‘ashen coffin’. At least it was only two half dead undead. Isaac just wished that his lantern hadn’t been one of the things blasted into a pile of ash. Not to mention, it was still midmorning and calling upon Lua to send the undead to the beyond was not going to work. They would need a deity that was active during the day, a deity like El’Gra, but none of them had any real connection to the sun deity. The Reaper might be able to help but even then, calling upon The Reaper was nebulous at best. Before that though, Isaac had to figure out how he was going to deal with the almost dead undead. At least he would have around two minutes to deal with the legless one before the inchworm showed up.

  Amaranth Serentia V'Nova Wexler