Chapter 200: Mana Sponge.
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The week passed with at least a hiccup a day and everyone having nothing but wholesome fun the entire time, and at the end of it, they all went back to their usual lives, for Usami and her daughter along with Uriyu that was leaving and going back home where she was supervising a whole country by herself while her brother simply needed to be a student for the time being, and her daughter needed to be home-schooled too since after Sol had broken the seal on her mana she had been ding crazy things ever so often that cautioned her mother from having her too exposed to normal people.
Until she learned to keep her powers under control and remain anonymous she was going to be homeschooled by her Usami who had no qualms as she considered it a way to make up for lost time and bond with the enthusiastic and energetic child.
Sara resumed her duties as Sol's shadow, saving him the majority of small matters so he could spend time with Ikaris, Dina and her new friend had gone back to her studies and college, and Arla had assumed a role much like Sara's, she was never too far that Sol would have to call her twice, but far enough that she wouldn't be in anyone's way while she absorbed earth's culture and supervised the house, she had been offered a more active role, but turned it down considering her entire life had been one hectic event after another, to her all of earth was a resort she could freely run around on."
"Sol, dear." Ikaris knocked thrice on the door of his study and pushed it open peeking her head in and smiling as he looked up from his mountain of scrolls and books. "Am I disturbing your hobby again?"
"I'll always drop whatever I'm doing to tend to you, Ikaris." Sol answered doing just that as he dramatically threw the book he was learning from over his shoulder and stood to greet her with a kiss to her cheek.
"Did you need something, or do you just want to spend time with your doting hubby?" He asked and she snickered at the cringe and held his hands reaching up and kissing him while he leaned down to meet her lips.
"A little of both, you may not have noticed it yet, but as I am aware of a single gram of my divine power being used I thought I should tell you after a day of observation." She went somewhat serious after giving a highlight of her visit.
"Is something wrong with your mana?" Sol asked, dropping the humour and light atmosphere completely as he stared down at her seriously.
"No, no, my mana is fine, but it is being drained away very slowly, I started noticing it two nights ago; like single beads of water from a faucet, overtime it might go away or it might get worse before it gets better." She explained.
"Is it...?" Sol placed his hand on her belly as he observed her mana for any abnormalities. "I don't sense anything different about it...unless..."
"Yes, she started using my mana as nourishment, and as a result-"
"Holy shit." Sol pressed his forehead against Ikaris's belly staring with his eyes wide open. "This is incredible, she's already as strong as Arla!" He stared flickering between divine and Godslayer as his excitement leapt through the room.
"Her mana is forming pathways I've never seen before it's like her spiritual and physical selves are one in the same, I don't know what to make of her strength, what the heck is happening inside of you...?" He stopped when Ikaris caught his cheeks and pulled him to stand again, staring at him seriously.
"Honey, I am worried." Ikaris stated, and again his excitement fell and his mood sobered.
The baby was absorbing an unbelievable amount of mana, even with her reserves being what they were she was worried because she still had four months of pregnancy left, if the child was already absorbing this much at five months then there was a chance she would need to remain in constant contact with him by the ninth month to have access to Atla and prevent herself from being drained of all her mana.
What she was calling a slight trickle of mana was equivalent to the amount of mana it required to destroy a small community in one fell swoop and that much was being taken every other second.
"I do not know what to do, there is a chance that keeping it from her might harm her as well." Ikaris shook her head thinking the obvious reaction was going to be blocking her mana from being eaten by the avaricious unborn.
"I already thought about that, what if she took my mana instead?" He suggested, and she nodded in acknowledgement since this was her reason for asking his advice, neither of them or anyone else for that matter had any experience when it came to a divine co celtion of this level, gods do not conceive, at least she knew that with him she would be protected if something went wrong.
"It is worth a try." Ikaris smiled watching the small study they were in start expanding when Sol utilized spacial powers making the inside of the room as large as the estate itself while everywhere on the outside remained unaffected to the point that Arla and Sara who were both in the building didn't even notice, he cleared his table and placed her to sit on it like a doctor and took position beflre her.
"Okay, just a small bit, even smaller than she's taking." Sol concentrated a tiny portion of his divine mana and knelt before Ikaris raising her baggy blouse over her belly and exposing her stretched skin and a slightly concerning amount of visible veins as he could now physically see her mana pathways had changed as well specifically to feed the unborn, he released the portion of mana before her like a fog and watched as the it was absorbed through her skin.
"Oh!" Ikaris laughed at the ticklish sensation when her mana was released for a brief second and the baby grabbed on to Sol's mana and ate it like a treeroot absorbing nourishment before grabbing on to her mana once more. "It worked, for a brief moment it worked!" She clapped her hands and Sol sighed in relief.
"Are you okay, does anything feel different?" He asked and she shook her head.
"It seems she is only interested in absorbing divine mana." Ikaris answered happily and Sol stood and crossed his arms in thought. "Dear?"
"I'm just wondering... The other more potent form of mana I possess, maybe she would require less if I gave that to her, the properties of your own mana are a lot like my Godslayer mana already, but I don't want to end up harming her if it backfires, maybe we should ask outside opinion...?" He suggested, but the goddess shook her head and rejected that idea.
"There is nobody to ask, love." She held her belly and poked herself. "Should we at least try, maybe with more potency she will be satisfied for longer periods and not take as much-"
"Or it could be the opposite and the next time she takes it's a great quantity that endangers you." Sol argued a valid point and Ikaris had to see the reasoning in his words. "If that happens we'll have to leave earth and take you back to Atla immediately.
"It is a risk I am at the very least willing to take then, maybe nothing different happens and she will simply rest again." Ikaris made a counter and Sol sighed.
"This isn't a good idea but I can tell it's one of those wife moments where she won't stop persisting until she's had her way, I don't want to harm her and I hate the idea of an experiment on our unborn child, this goes against my better judgement too, I should not." He conversed with himself on whether it was the right call to make, so instead of doing anything immediately he picked up his phone and called Dina.
[Master,] She answered almost on the first ring even though she was in class. [You never call during my school time, did something important happen?]
"Yes, actually." Sol answered her while he sent a telepathic message to Arla and Sara and mentally summoned Alpha, briefing them on what was happening. "Can you come back right now, I need some council."
Without a moment's hesitation, Arla showed up forst via her teleportation runes left on both him and Ikaris, second to her Sara showed up next through his shadows, and then the air trembled as Dina arrived umtreating the matter as urgently as he sounded serious soaring through the air at speeds nobody could see or hear and coming straight through his window after locking on to their presences; eight miles in five seconds, and that was her trying not to break any barriers and keeping a low profile.
"Alright," Dina greeted Arla and Sara and stopped before Sol and then looked at Ikaris who was sitting patiently on the table with her belly exposed and a worried expression.
"What's going on?"
"We have a mana sponge situation."
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