After everyone had a chance to have an ice cold bath they all felt infinitely refreshed after spending as long as they had in that hellish labyrinth, and with the walls of Ankaji visible on the horizon Alex landed Zenith and everyone happily hurried towards the gate in order find rooms to relax in. Instead however ether were met with sharp eyes guards that were different than the ones they saw before who immediately shouted as soon as they saw them,
"Halt! None are to enter Ankaji right now due to the city being in a state of emergency! We are sorry to say that you need to turn around and go back unless you wish to fall to the sickness like most of the city!" At the guards words everyone except Alex was taken aback as it wasn't too long ago that they were also in the city and it was perfectly fine. While they discussed the new events Alex was thinking of what to say for a bread second before declaring,
"I am the champion of the goddess Gabriel! The goddess decreed in a vision that I must travel to this great desert city, now I see that I am to help your people in your time of need. Tell me, would you send away one who is here due to divine intervention?" The guards were both shocked and suspicious at Alex's words as word of goddess Gabriel had yet to reach Ankaji from Furhen and Ul. After a moment of contemplation one of them said he was going to find their captain, and disappeared within. A moment later they returned with tired yet stern looking man who looked at Alex and said,
"If you're trying to take advantage of our predicament in some way then fuck off before we make you. None of us had ever heard of this "goddess Gabriel" before and we don't need any scam artists trying to make fools of us while our people are dying." As he wasn't too surprised at the response he received Alex didn't even flinch at the mans words, but said instead,
"Sir I can assure you I'm not trying to take advantage of the situation of this great city for my own benefit, and I really do just want to help save the lives of those afflicted as the goddess bid me. Though I understand you're hesitant to trust someone you don't know that's taking orders from a goddess you don't recognize, but no matter your faith there are people dying right now and more will die as long as we stand here and discuss this, please let us in to see the lord!" Though he had to layer on the theatrics a bit, Alex could tell that the captain was starting to waver as he didn't want to be the one to turn away potential help during these hard times, even if their background seemed a bit shady.
"Very well, follow me and I'll take you to the Duke of Ankaji, he will be the one to determine if you'll actually be of use." Without any other words the captain turned around and started walking towards the Dukes manor. Alex led the others as they followed behind, during which Hajime said while keeping his voice quiet enough to not be overheard,
"Is this really alright? Though this is a good propaganda scenario, we don't know anything about this illness or how it spreads." Alex smiled at Hajime's question and answered,
"It's ok, well just go off of what they've already investigated and we should be able to solve it from there. I didn't mention it but I confronted a member of the demon race while in Gruen, with the timing of this there's a fairly good chance he was responsible." After hearing Alex's words Hajime was silent as he started thinking of all possible scenarios this could mean, from poisoning to biological warfare. While he was thinking the captain said,
"We are here, duke Lanzwi should be in his study so I'll escort you there. Be on your best behavior." He added after glancing at both Hajime and Kuroka, the former looking as if he might start a fight the first chance he got, the latter seeming like someone you wouldn't trust around your coin purse, even if she was breathtakingly beautiful. Hajime narrowed his eyes at the look he received, while Kuroka snickered mischievously, causing the captains eye to twitch. They were then led to the study of the person who ruled Ankaji, and came face to face with a man that looked even more haggard than the captain did. He glanced at the group that entered his office and asked,
"And who are these captain?" The captain bowed slightly and replied,
"These people claim to have been sent here at the behest of one 'Goddess Gabriel' to save our people. Though I'm not sure of their intentions or origin, I decided that if someone came to offer help then it would foolish to immediately turn them away." The duke nodded and turned his gaze toward Alex and the rest to scrutinize them, before saying,
"I'm of the same mind, you could be following the God of the demon race for all I care, if you help us we'll be in your debt." Alex nodded seriously at the Dukes words, which perfectly describes just how desperate they were. He then said,
"First you need to tell us everything you know about this illness, how it started, and where it originated of possible. We also have two healers in our group who can see to the patients right away." The duke sighed when Alex asked for the details of what was happening, but when he mentioned having two healers his eyes suddenly lit up with life once more and he asked,
"Are you serious?! Captain please escort them to where the infected are being taken!" The captain nodded and after Alex told them to go, Anne and Kaori followed him along with Shia and Shizuku who went in case they were needed to help. After the four of them left duke Lanzwi started explaining what exactly happened.
Starting a week back several people had gone to the city's healers with the same exact symptoms which led to suspicions of a new illness spreading. However it wasn't until the next day that things took a turn for the worse as the number exploded to several hundred almost instantly, and then the emergency started. It wasn't until the third day when the number grew to the thousands that the source of the problems were found by accident, one of the healers accidentally discovered that the water they were using was contaminated which led to them examining the oasis itself only to find the water tainted. This had only turned an already dire situation into a disaster as it now meant they were not only dealing with what seemed to be a pandemic but was actually poisoning, but now even the lifeline of the entire city was unusable. This was why the duke had even sent his own son to act as an ambassador to the Hairihi kingdom to request help and most importantly, water. He then went on to explain the details of the illness itself, about how it was forcing the magic power in the body to run out of control, and it was a condition that even healing magic was unable to treat more than temporarily. The next part of the Dukes words however made every single member of Alex's group swear under their breath when he said,
"However if the high ranking adventurers were able to recover then we might be able to send them to collect more serene stone, a mineral found in the Grand Gruen Volcano labyrinth that is capable of calming out of control magic power." After hearing that they would have been able to collect the exact item necessary for the people to recover just a day ago everyone was understandably annoyed at the situation, and Alex was a little desperate to find an alternative solution. It was then that Kuroka's tails caught his attention and Alex looked at her curiously. He then recalled that she was able to influence the internal energy in someones body, which was displayed quite often with Koneko in the past.
"Kuroka!" Alex said suddenly, which made everyone jump a little as he nearly shouted. Confused, the nekomata hesitantly asked,
"What is it Alex~Nya?" Alex then said with a bit of excitement,
"You can use senjutsu to manipulate the energy in someone's body right? Try and see if you can use it to treat those who are affected by the illness!" When she heard Alex's idea Kuroka didn't look too thrilled and replied,
"But then I'd have to treat everyone who's affected wouldn't I? That's sounds like too much work~Nya." Though Kuroka would normally sound like she was just being lazy, she would have to treat every person affected one by one when there were literally thousands, this was simply too much work for her alone. Alex however said,
"I'll go and get some help from Asora to lighten the workload, and besides the alternative is going back to Gruen and mining for the serene stone instead!" It was at that moment that Kuroka imagined having to mine the stone in that hellish place for several hours on end simply to collect enough, when instead she could simply sit indoors treating people with a magic array nearby to act like an ac. She then adopted a near desperate expression and said,
"I'll do it so don't send me back to that place~Nyan!" When everyone heard their conversation they similarly adopted a relieved expression as they also had no intention of going back to Gruen anytime soon. Meanwhile the Duke looked dubious that Kuroka would be able to cure those who had been afflicted with the disease as it was impossible for a demihuman to use any kind of magic, even a unique one with three tails. Not wanting to let his people go through some strange technique without knowing what it required he then said,
"Treat my family first. I have taken the some of the limited amount of serene stone we have to keep working during this disaster, but my family has also fallen ill. I want to watch you treat them first before I let you use some technique I've never heard of on my people." Though it could be considered that the Duke was prioritizing his personal interests over that of the masses, it could also be said that if Alex and his group had malicious intentions then he was putting his family in the greatest amount of danger by not using the commoners to test their claims of being able to cure them. Alex nodded at the Dukes words and turned towards Kuroka,
"Go with him and cure his family, I'll go to Asora to get some help." He then turned towards the duke and continued,
"I'm going to use teleportation magic to go somewhere to get some allies to help your people, it'll take about an hour but after I bring them here I want you to lead me to the oasis and we'll see about your water problems." Though there were a few things the duke wanted to discuss, he knew time of the essence and didn't press Alex for details, yet. He then hurriedly led the way to his family's quarters while Alex disappeared with Rias into the mist.