CH950 Thera’s Perspective

Only a week back from what had seemed like the incredibly dull task of helping carry Ben through his days and days of work and Thera already missed it. Sure, it had been hours of long, boring work constantly with nothing to do other than ferry people around, and it had only felt longer thanks to the circlet she’d worn the entire time, but at the very least it had been different. With it done though, she was back to what felt like had been taking up all of her time since the second wave ended, healing people who were still being ferried to the various hospitals across the gate network.

A task which, thankfully, only grew easier with time. There were a few more awakened light and life mages than when that wave had ended and everyone’s level was getting higher too, the healers had almost all had their souls modified to grant them more power, and all of them wore both mana and buff bracelets as well to keep them going. Add in the constant work both adventurers and armies who’d received those same benefits were doing across the globe to clear out what demons there were invading the lands and, even if the work wasn’t close to ending and even if truly dreadful amounts of patients could still be dragged in during bad days, in general, there was improvement.

Even if it doesn’t always feel like it, Thera told herself as she suffered through one of the bad days, her mana passively flooding the building to give all of the other healers an easier time while she went bed to bed, fixing what wounds she found.

“You, stop screaming and let go of that arm already, it’s clearly too late for it,” she told one soldier holding onto his severed limb as his wails only amplified her growing headache before she remembered to mention the part that would actually matter to him. “Which doesn’t matter because I’ll be growing you a new one, so stop struggling already and let me treat you.”

“Bedside manners, Thera,” a different healer mentioned beside her while they worked on their own patient, too focused on their own work to notice as she forcefully held her own down with her magic but not needing to to guess that was what was happening after so much time working together.

“Bedside manners are for patients who don’t make this job harder,” she said back once her patient wasn’t flailing around and, oh-so-subtly breaking the law, used her dark magic to not only ease his pain while she worked but also calmed his mind. A benign enough application of the branch that could still have troubling enough uses for it to be covered by many broader international laws that had to do with controlling another person’s mind that she’d found herself caring less and less about when those same laws would get in the way of how efficiently she could treat a patient, getting a notification going off in her head as she did.

Mmh, going to tell myself that didn’t just happen because Ben’s been putting his authorities on me.

Considering that she herself couldn’t help but view doing such things as somewhat evil even then, it was hard to believe it hadn’t had any effect, but it didn’t matter. With that patient done, she gave some quick orders about the sorts of meals he’d need to eat in the next week to try and compensate for how she’d made his body cannibalize itself for the treatment before basically throwing him out, the spirits that surrounded her having their own commentary.

“Ungrateful.”

“Rude.”

“Enjoyed our princess’s magic without even a thanks.”

“It’s fine,” she told them all back. “Plenty of people don’t have the presence of mind for that sort of thing when they’re bleeding out. I wasn’t exactly polite either.”

She could see the swarm around her playing their little parts as well, light, life, and blessing spirits healing wounds that seemed to interest them and time spirits slowing the effects of injuries down when they seemed bad enough, while other affinities occasionally applying what useful effects they could, no matter how esoteric they might be.

For the new combined affinity spirits especially, seeing their growth had been interesting. Unlike other spirits who’d had eons with their powers, she and the rest got to watch as the new ones fumbled around and figured out the limits of what they were, arriving at their answers surprisingly fast. Even if it was new to them, it was also what they were, magic itself, and it came naturally to them in a way incomparable to any creature of flesh. Combine that with whatever knowledge Ben had bestowed them with in their inception, and each one had the foundation needed for their new natures to blossom.

With only one I need to be worrying about. Thera told herself as she glanced Mora’s way between patients, politely off to the side and out of the way of the chaos filling the room to read one of the many books Ben had made him, acting like he wasn’t distracted at all, even with a different soul spirit whispering in her ear about the magics he was applying to the various healers as they worked.

Despite the best efforts of the staff, hospitals weren’t always the cleanest places, least of all during such times of chaos where cleaning up whatever fluids leaking out of a person had to take priority behind healing the line of them in need but she had seen him react poorly enough to the smell of it from time to time, even if they’d only ever had to leave early from it the once, that she didn’t want to ignore any needs he might have had, even if it just meant getting a few of the smaller spirits to watch him while he stepped outside.

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It seemed he was growing used to his current body, though. A small frown on his face that could have just as easily been mistaken for something in his reading materials, it seemed that everything around them was within the manageable range, at least at the moment. As his guardian though, she couldn’t help but continue to check between patients, just wanting him to be alright.

Still, all of the gore he sees coming here with me, I never would have guessed it would be smells he’d struggle so much with.

It had been surprising enough when she’d learned it but even with that little worry still nagging her, she couldn’t let it distract her. A quick glance making sure he was okay was all that could be spared with a new patient being rushed to her section and even more clearly waiting behind them, demanding her attention as the day ticked on.

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