Arpious of the Planes

[HP: 581/700  MP: 359/500  SP: 284/500]

"*munch* *munch* *munch* Huh? *munch* *munch* *munch*  I didn't get mana sickness?" I mutter to myself.

"When you drop to 0 for your mana, you aren't guaranteed to get mana sickness. Even though it is common, it's not a 100 percent chance… I'd say it's about 60 percent," Amelia explains.

"I see… well, at least I'm alive,"

"...Is Mistress tired?" Bella asks.

"*munch* *munch* Nah, I just woke up, but Anna, on the other hand, doesn't seem so well. Does she need healing, or is she already dead?"

I swallowed the chewed-up food as soon as Amelia opened her mouth.

"We already did the emergency treatment, but request that you use your sacred white fire on her larger injuries such as her missing arm," Amelia requests, bowing her head slightly even though I was right below her.

[Ancient Fire Magic: Ichimei]

A white fire spread across my body and Annas' body, filling us with a warmth that slowly calmed us down. I even started to feel sleepy once again, so I moved the incoming wooden spoon out of my face and turned my head to the side.

"I'm going to sleep again… make sure to remove the leaves and vines that are around her missing arm so her arm can grow back. You don't need to worry about blood loss as Ichimei will help with that," I say.

"As you wish," Both of my maids respond.

"Make sure not to wake me up unless it's an emergency as well," I say before drifting off.

[Day 75]

"Is it the next day?" I ask Amelia, who was currently talking with Bella and a healed Anna.

Judging from the dim golden glow that came through the hallway of the massive arch with still rushing clear liquid, it looked to be about dawn or dusk.

"Oh, you're awake. It is currently the morning… you have slept so long that my legs have already fallen asleep," Amelia says with a smile as I try to move my body.

Hehehe… Finally, I can move again- shit.

I sat up too quickly, so my legs, which had taken a beating and were quite tight, instantly made me fall flat on my face.

But even as my maids offered to give me help, I smashed my palms into the smooth stone floor and lifted myself. There was no way I was going to get help for such a simple task.

After a few minutes of struggling to stand up, I finally straightened my back and used my arms as support to keep myself up.

"If I may be so rude to ask, how did this happen to Mistress? Isn't your white fire supposed to heal all wounds no matter how bad they were?" Anna asks as she readies up a small stone pot of what I assumed to be gargoyle soup.

"It can heal all wounds, but I guess it can't release the built-up tension that happened with my forbidden magic… I honestly thought it was all-powerful, but I guess everything has its limits," I respond, trying to walk forward.

"I see…"

"Oh yeah, were there any wounds related to petrification on Anna or just flesh wounds?" I ask Bella who was supporting me from the side as I walked forward.

"Petrification? What's petrification?" Bella responds, tilting her head slightly before catching me as I stumbled over.

"For fucks sake, I can't even… *sigh*... Petrification is when parts of your body or wherever the petrifaction is being directed, starts turning to stone,"

"Ah, there is something like that, but we haven't touched it as we were unaware of what might happen if something goes wrong," Bella responds.

"Wait, really! Show it to me quick!" I shout, stumbling over to Anna, who stepped forward.

I sat down right before her as she was still standing, taking off her frilly maid dress and heels.

Her garter belt, underwear, and bra were revealed, but there was no way my love was going to sway from just this, so I closely inspected the wound that was patched up with vines and leaves.

The wound was right below her lowest right rib, which from what I could remember, nothing significant was there, so she was safe for now.

"Take it off," I order.

"Y-Yes, Mistress," Anna responds, slightly embarrassed by me staring so intently at her naked body… which wasn't my intention, but it just came with the process.

As she unraveled the vines that tightly held the leaves against the wound, I saw a glimpse of petrified skin. And just as the leaves fell off, I started to wonder where they got all these materials.

"Where did you get all this stuff?" I ask my maids while taking a closer inspection at the 3-inch piece of petrified skin.

"I brought a bunch of emergency supplies in my bag just in case this happened," Bella responds.

"Is this everything you have,"

"Indeed,"

"I see… well, at least we can cook this disgusting meat," I mutter, accepting the hot bowl of gargoyle soup from Amelia which was warmed up through [Fire Magic].

Obviously, Bella was the one who cooked it as she is the only one with a fire-related skill.

"Okay… I don't have the right tools to check how deep the petrification went, so we might have to carve it out with one of your soul equipment," I say the last part while eyeing my other maids who stood next to me, waiting to receive an order.

As I bring the wooden spoon filled with gargoyle soup to my mouth, I touch the petrified wound to see if it hurts.

"*munch* *munch* Does it hurt?" I ask, slightly pressing the petrified skin.

Anna shakes her head side to side, so I press even harder while looking back up at Anna.

She shakes her head side to side once again.

We repeated this process until I pressed so hard that the petrified skin actually cracked, so I began to peel the flaky pieces of stone skin away.

"If it hurts, just say so, so I can know if something is injured… well, except for the side of your stomach, of course," I say.

The peeling process was extremely satisfying, like peeling dried glue from your skin or ripping off the protective plastic on the window of your new pc.

"Ow!" Anna shouts, just barely holding back the urge to flick my hand away from her wound.

"Oh, this hurts?" I say, pressing one more time on what seemed to be the last piece of flaky skin.

Anna nods her head while biting down on the side of her hand to try and redirect the pain.

I had torn away so many layers that it looked like there was a dent in the side of her stomach which would seem nauseating to the normal person.

"Okay, one of you summon your sword. We need to carve out this piece… I'm pretty sure you're feeling injured flesh under this petrified skin as this technically counts as dead skin… but since I'm not a qualified healer and I don't really know what I'm doing, we're just going to carve all of it out, okay?" I ask while smiling at Anna, who was horrified by my words.

"M-Mistress, I believe it is fine. You don't need to go through all this work for me- EEK!" Anna shouts as Bella hands me her soul equipment.

I chose Bella's over Amelia's because this could help with cauterizing part of the wound, which will help with any more blood loss… but of course, if it cauterizes too much, I won't be able to regrow the wound, so I just need to make sure I don't leave the sword in one spot for too long.

"Uhhhh… make sure she doesn't bite down into her hand anymore… have her bite down into something else like her maid dress," I say as I started to check the sharpness of the blade with my fingertip.

As soon as I pressed it against my finger, it instantly drew blood even with my high defense, so I knew this would be a "clean" operation.

Amelia picked up Anna's dropped maid dress and handed it to her, which she instantly started to bite down onto.

Slowly, I carved out a large chunk from the side of her stomach while trying to avoid where I assumed any vital organs were.

And I didn't even have to look up at Anna to see that she was in pain as her body started to shake and muffled screams could be heard.

…

"Almost done… almost done…."

"Mistress, I can't do it anymore," Anna whines through tears as she slowly reaches her hand towards Bella's soul equipment.

But before she could even touch it, I grabbed it with my free hand and held it tightly.

"And… Done!" I say, instantly burning the carved-out flesh with Amaterasu and immediately applying Ichimei right after.

The wound started to regrow, and the slight leakage of blood was slowly leaving.

The pain that Anna had felt just moments ago was gone, causing her to fall onto her butt, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Change back into your clothes, and we'll remain here for one more day before leaving, okay?"

"As you wish," Bella and Amelia respond.

"HUFF HUFF HUFF… A-as you wish. HUFF HUFF HUFF…" Anna responds after my other two maids.

I need to loosen up my muscles, so maybe a massage will do.