"Is this how things usually go here?" Dmitry asked, watching the cold angel and the fiery demoness argue about something. Konrad wasn't sure what the current reason was, but—
When did they ever need one, anyway?
"You saw nothing yet," he grunted, pinching his nose as he settled on the cushions.
"Well, there are four hotties so far. I wouldn't say that's nothing," the Captain grinned, eyes following the retreating Eyna. "And, like, is her eye color even real?!" he whispered.
"It is, yes," he nodded. "And her hair's all natural, too."
As was her dark skin, her gentle curves, the bright smile when things went right, and—
Hmm.
He couldn't even picture anymore how emaciated and broken she was when they first met.
And it wasn't even that long ago, but things had changed a lot.
"She's stunning, though the freckled one's cute, too. And scary," Dmitry said, still using English and keeping his voice low. "But not as scary as the blonde and the brunette, haha."
As if that brunette couldn't understand it, or read his mind from the start.
But now that he thought about it—
Dmitry could speak the local tongue, huh?
He shouldn't have been here in the first place, but—
To transfer him back when they had to lay low, and their jumping-off point was so irradiated?
Ugh. What a mess Konrad had made again.
His head was still spinning after that earlier discussion. He somehow blundered his way back with Strelok, but for what? They couldn't even fight Lucifer anymore, and—
They wanted him to act nice and show off his good side to avoid punishment?!
Like, come on.
Could they be any more vague about what he should have done?
As if his parents asked him to behave before Christmas. Not like he knew them in his second life. And in the first one—wait. Did this world even have Christmas at all?
'Is that what you should be thinking about now?' the parallel brain scoffed, interrupting him.
Ugh. She was right.
Konrad had to get down to work as soon as he could, somehow.
And since he was already talking to Dmitry, he might as well have started with him.
"Sorry, but I can't bring you home right now, or anytime soon," he admitted. "I know there's the war going on, but as you can see—we have our hands full as it is. And now I even have to—"
"That's fine," the Captain claimed, patting his shoulder. "You legit saved the world back there."
And might have damned his own by irradiating the Heavens in the process.
"I do hope the rest of those guys made it out alive, though," Dmitry added. "That Major Degtyarev was a major pain in the ass, but he was actually a decent guy."
Crap. He never even thought—
'They did, in fact, get out,' Paula offered before Konrad spiralled out of control. 'The Major, the Corporal, Yuri, and the aircrews they rescued were between Block 4 and the Dome at the time.'
"Hah," the Captain laughed. "Imagine their faces. They look back, and it's all gone."
Yeah. Sounded better than them exploding into a radioactive fireball instead.
And it also seemed like his parallel brain still broadcast the info to whoever she wanted to.
Konrad had to keep an eye on that and rein her in somehow, but—
If she kept all her earlier abilities, he couldn't underestimate her, either.
She used healing, possession, and her original cast a Teleportation Bubble once, so—
'Yeah. Hate to disappoint, but things have flipped around here,' Paula said, her voice a little depressed. 'My healing was more of a psionic pain suppression trick, and I can no longer use it.'
"What?" Konrad asked, both suspicious and relieved. "What can you use, then?"
'Anything you do. Things that I based on those Psy Emissions are a bust in Kasserlane.'
"And your mana?" he probed further, eyes shifting around the room.
How come his wives didn't even comment on her magic?
'I keep telling you, Miss Origin shared her essence with you and her brother alone. I hold nothing. I'm a mere memory now—and without the Psy, I can't even leave your vessel.'
Well, this still seemed much more than a memory to him, but—
'I expelled all the corrupted mana during the fight in the CNPP,' she explained. 'And as for what she channelled through me and into you, most went into that magic circle back then.'
Oh. So he didn't actually inherit anything.
That was a bit disappointing, but at least he didn't have to live with a curse, either.
'You're not paying attention,' the voice complained, as if sighing in his mind. 'I said the mana went into that spell, but you should know better than I do how to recover that over time.'
"Wait, what?" Konrad asked, eyes wide.
"What, what?" Dmitry jumped, too. And that's when he realised he no longer lounged on those cushions but was standing in the middle of his office.
But for a little longer, he didn't care about the outside world.
He turned his mind inwards, scanning his own body as if his vessel had become too unfamiliar.
His pool was almost empty, as he would expect after teleporting a huge building across worlds.
But even that 'almost empty' felt like a sea of mana was still ready for his use.
In his usual units—he hadn't measured his essence for a long time—it had to be about five hundred points? Which should have been half of all he could hold at once, but—
Now it felt like a mere drop in the ocean.
"How much mana did Lady Origin have in the first place?" Konrad asked, struggling to comprehend the change. "I mean, how much could she even contain in that mangled body?"
'With your numbers?' Paula asked, sounding annoyed. 'Ugh. I don't know. Two or three? Four?'
"Four what?" he demanded. "She had four times my mana?!"
That sounded insane, even if he had to share that with Strelok, but—
'No, stupid, 'course not,' the voice laughed him off. 'But it's hard to calculate the exact amount when your measurement is so small-scale.'
Small scale? He based it on a certain fire spell he even struggled with early on.
Summoning a flame the size of a candle and feeding it with his essence for one minute.
Sure, it seemed trivial now, but—
"Give me a rough estimate at least," Konrad said, trying to curb his excitement. "When I entered the Zone, I had about a thousand. So compared to that, how much did she have?"
Paula thought in silence for a while.
By then, Lily and Gabrielle abandoned their arguments too and gathered around him.
'Yeah. Even if I base it off that,' she noted. 'I'd still say somewhere between two and three.'
Okay. That was a little less, but even two thousand extra mana would have been huge.
'You're a funny guy. I'm still not talking about thousands, though,' Paula pointed out.
And suggested a number that might as well have broken his mind.
"Konny boy?" Lily asked, poking him with a finger. "You alright?"
He couldn't answer.
He passed out, trying to process the info.