Caelus looked at Hikari while thinking how he should answer her question.
"I'm not certain if I can cure them. Umm… how to explain? I can see Natural Essence. Natural Essence is a particle around us that has a certain Energy or Mana upon purifying."
"Hm?"
"You'll come to understand Natural Essence once you practice manually filling your Mana or Energy. From what Sanctuary had told me, Natural Essence is everywhere. Right now, I'm seeing it as a light particle around us. I'm not really a good teacher so it would be better to discuss this inside the Sanctuary Shelter."
"To simplify it, Natural Essence is a type of fuel to our mutated body's special powers. For me, I need purified Mana to stack inside my Mana Core. It's the purest type of fuel that was not indicated by the System. Natural Essence has a part of Mana and part Energy. It's poisonous for me to take in Natural Essence with part of Energy, that's why I need to purify it. It works vice-versa if you need Energy instead." Asahi offered the best explanation he could give upon his understanding.
"Yes. And I'm someone who can absorb the impure Natural Essence. Maybe it's the reason why I can sense it more clearly when I scanned the Zombies. I've used my Qi, a Glitch I have,"
*Technically I didn't lie because I know that Qi is something I've had in my main body before.*
"... I can see their living and dead Energies or Manas.
"Hmm… it's confusing to call them that. I'll just call them Living Essence and Dead Essence. The Dead Essences are fighting the Living Essences, that's why they are slowly becoming undead.
"The virus is peculiar as both Mana Users and Energy Users are affected. But the way they affect the User depends on their compatibility with Mana or Energy.
"Actually, we have good news. There has been no real undead here.
"The solution I have is theoretically possible. I'm not sure if it would work. Theoretically, I think I can help with feeding them Living Essence and helping them fight the v-virus…"
Caelus started stammering seeing Hikari's bright eyes focusing on him. He felt he was seeing flowers and light while looking at her. Even her shabby casual jeans and t-shirt looked like something a model would wear.
"... but I'm not sure how to do it quickly. And… ummm… I can only do this one at a time, I'm not sure if I can do this continuously. I might need to rest once in a while. So one month might not be enough."
The more Caelus talked, the more Hikari brightened up. It felt like she finally found her oasis in the desert. Caelus was becoming flustered because of her high expectations and her overpowering beauty.
That and the image of her feeling like his past fiancee was making his thoughts blurry. He felt the memories he had forgotten were slowly surfacing.
Hikari enthusiastically grabbed Caelus' hand. The way she gripped his hands was clear how much hope she was having.
"It would be enough! I know who got the virus first. And the more people we have, the more organized we can be. I'll help as much as I can! Plus, I know these people. We can also try rescuing those strong ones first after the critical one was rescued. This way, we can have more power.
"But yes, it would be tricky to catch them one by one and to hide from them. I know a Safe Zone for humans around here! We used it as our storage and emergency station before this virus got to us. We can get one infected and cure them there!"
"I don't want to sound heartless but we can't be gone for one month. That's too long, you have many people waiting for you to open the shelter…" It was Gouki. Caelus inadvertently looked at the guy, trying to distract himself from his image of Hikari being flowery and bright. Gouki's cool, calm and charming breeze did help Caelus. He knew Gouki was currently weighing the pros and cons.
"Gouki is right… but we can't just leave the people here if we have a solution. If we can save them now, it would be better. If this virus spreads out, then it would also affect us. This is not far at all to our current camp. It would become worse if they travel through the unstable land and get teleported randomly." It was Asahi who was also weighing the pros and cons. Contrasting to Gouki's disposition, Asahi was sunny, bright and twinkling like a ray of light.
In a situation like this, the two actually looked so much alike, even though they give off different auras.
Having calmed down from his distracting memories, Caelus immediately knew what he needed to do.
"Sanctuary, give access to Gouki, Akihiko and Asahi to open up the Sanctuary Shelter once they reach you, you should also guide them on how to make the shelter better.
"As for me, I need to stay here. I'm the only one who knows how to use Qi. I'm the only one who can use both Mana and Energy. If Miya is here, she might be able to help with Energy, but we don't have any connection with her at the moment, she's also far from us."
{Master…]
"It's fine, Sanctuary. I trust them. In addition, you need more Mana to function, right? Having more people would be useful to us too. We can establish our knowledge with this Super Phenomena."
[I understand.]
"Okay. It's settled." Asahi said as his mind seemed to be somewhere else while he was looking at Caelus. Based on Sho's memory, Asahi was scheming something that he thought would be better for him.
*Did the guy notice how I looked at Hikari? But knowing Asahi, he would protect Sho but would still guide the guy. Did he think that being with Hikari would help me with my current inner conflict?*
"I'll leave you here with Hikari, Sho. I need to go back to my people. If I'm not there to meet them, they won't trust Gouki."
"Then it's settled. But first, we would help you with capturing zombies. You can cure them and have more help when we are gone." Gouki said, looking towards Akihiko. Only then Caelus remembered the kid.
"Thank you."
"Thank you." Hikari smiled widely. Her beauty stood out now that her smile was as bright as the sun. Hikari was looking at Caelus affectionately as if she was looking at her younger brother.
Caelus felt beating himself when he remembered he was actually in Sho's body, a damned eighteen year old kid.
Still, in the back of his mind, he could not help knowing that he was older than Sho's age. He might be of the same age as Gouki and Asahi. With his memory slowly coming back, his self was slowly coming back to him too.
***
The five swiftly went to the Safe Zone. There was a 500 cubic meter cave with stock of dry food, wheat and other supplies inside.
It was also big enough space to have their "patients" treated.
But because the cave was open space that was used for storage, they needed an area where they could separate those infected from those going on the curing process and those who are recuperating.
Of course, they should avoid contaminating the supplies.
Since Gouki and Asahi already agreed to help, Hikari brought her courage and asked them to build sectors for sanitary purposes. Being a nurse, she followed standard procedure for infection control.
While the two gathered material, the three–Hikari, Caelus and Akihiko went to grab a zombie to cure.
It was easy since Caelus could use his Qi Cloak to cover their tracks, then Hikari just lured one zombie towards the Safe Zone.
They had little trouble letting the zombie inside the Safe Zone. The zombies weren't detected as human and weren't permitted in the Safe Zone, but after Caelus used the Qi Cloak, they were finally able to let the zombie enter the cave, making them sigh in relief.
While waiting for the "zombie prison" and "treatment room" to be made, Caelus tied the zombie and gagged it to avoid contamination. As Hikari explained, getting bitten by an infected person for five seconds could transfer the infection. They also placed gloves they bought in the Glitch Shop on the hands of the infected to avoid getting scratched while doing treatment.
It was better safe than sorry!
Caelus could not get distracted while trying to cure someone. He also had to be careful. Although Caelus thinks he could easily expel the virus, he still had to be careful because he hadn't treated anyone yet.
Once the zombie was secured, they used a Sleeping Potion that Akihiko took out from his Inventory. He was shocked and glad at the same time that the kid had one hundred pieces of Sleeping Potion.
He wanted to pry, however he knew it was better to be thankful than irritate the kid again.
With the Sleeping Potion in hand, Caelus would have an easier time curing the zombie.
Who is genius enough to transfer energy to someone when that someone keeps on struggling?
Obviously NOT Caelus!