Having come up with the plan, Caelus executed it without a pause.
He scanned the zombie's body over and over again. Figuring out which were the active Qi Waypoints of the zombies. Upon seeing them, he then let the Purified Energy enter the Waypoint. This way, the process of guiding the Purified Energy was faster than before, letting the Living Essence become stronger against more Dead Essence enemies.
This continued for quite some time, he didn't even notice when Asahi and Gouki came back or when they started building things around them. Caelus was too immersed in understanding the Natural Essence, Energies, Living Essence and Dead Essence.
Living Essence, were the Life Essence of humans. This Living Essence is what makes humans have strength, these Essences affect their will.
It was different from what Caelus was using.
It wasn't unlike his Qi Energies.
But still, those Living Essence could be strengthened by the Purified Energy or Mana. On Caelus' experience and understanding, his Living Essences were enriched with Natural Essence making him go through some sort of evolution.
That's why he could handle both Energy and Mana.
As for the Dead Essence, they were like viruses, bad bacterias or poisons. Essentially they do the same. They multiply and are bad for the body. The more they multiply, the more the body host dies. In this case, they were still living, but if the Living Essence all died, then the human which had lost all will would be considered dead. Even if he went to insert Purified Energy or Mana, he wouldn't be able to revive the human.
If there's no more will, then it would turn into an empty shell.
It was like a braindead patient, but worse.
It felt too profound, he was awed the more he understood everything. He was getting enlightened by the minute.
But honestly, Caelus felt that he knew those already. That he just forgot. That they were memories locked inside his original self.
After roughly four hours, Caelus heaved a sigh.
It was a success!
He slumped on the hard rock floor and laughed.
"Hahaha! I-I did it!"
He was tired. But he also knew he had to bring the good news to Hikari who was patiently waiting. He wanted to share the excitement with someone. He was incredibly happy.
Who wouldn't be happy to save another life?
He had long forgotten it because of his encounter with the mythical creature and what happened with Alpha. But now, he remembered what it felt like saving someone's life. He saved someone with his own hands. With his own abilities. It wasn't like when he saved those who almost became slaves of Dragon Riders.
He fought together with someone who wanted to live… and he saved him.
He looked at Hikari with glee in his eyes. He now understood why Hikari took up nursing. It is exhilarating to be able to save someone's life.
"Y-you did it?! Oh God! Thank you! Thank you! We have hope in saving everyone! We have hope of stopping the virus!" Hikari was very glad. She even held Caelus' hand and shook them madly. If they didn't have a semi-conservative culture, she might've hugged and kissed him.
"Congrats. We'll do our best to create a fence so the zombies won't go out of the area. We'll lure them close to here. That way, you can save more and more. With more people, you can also do this systematically." Asahi said while smiling.
It was clear Asahi was proud of Sho's achievement. He was indeed happy because Sho felt so lost before. But now, it seems some of the clouds hovering over his mind vanished. He felt good leaving Sho for a while with Hikari. He also quickly judged that Hikari has a good character and would do Sho good now that he couldn't guide him to this sudden change of world.
Asahi was aware of how much change Sho had gone through. He wanted to be the one to guide him considering how he was indebted to Sho's father. Yet, Sho didn't want to open up with him. He could even feel the kid trying to distance himself away from him.
Looking at how Sho changed, Asahi knew that he still needed time to adjust with the changing world. And Hikari would be a good comparison on Sho's choice of path. He knew that Hikari was someone who was kind hearted but was not stupid enough not to know what needed to be done.
It was the best choice to leave Sho to Hikari.
"Then it's settled. We'll just create a fence around here and leave towards the Sanctuary Shelter. When you're done here, you can follow back. If you need help, you can just inform Sanctuary. It would naturally inform us if it's important." Gouki immediately went out of the cave.
"I don't like you. But good job on this." Akihiko snorted and followed after Gouki.
"Take care, Sho. This place would do you good. Stay and think about your future. Hikari would be able to help you with this. Take your time and sort everything out. You don't need to be too rushed as you have us with you." Asahi said, patting Caelus' head before going out of the cave.
Caelus was left speechless. He was appalled at being treated as a kid, but at the same time, he felt something warm inside his heart. It wasn't because of Sho's memories, he felt it was because of the true him. He felt touched with Asahi's care even knowing the care wasn't for him but for the original Sho.
He suddenly wondered if the real him also had someone like that.
The blurry image of his fiancee slowly surfaced in his mind. Her kind smile. Her teasing eyes. Her playful attitude.
He was slowly remembering them.
A stabbing pain in his heart felt like the answer to his question.
He knew that he "had" people like that before. But now… there's no one.
He instinctively knew it even if he didn't see those nightmares.
Truth is, although he wanted to gain his memories, he was afraid. He knew that something would break inside him if he would rush to gain his memories. He understood why the System had to lock his memories away. And knowing how painful his experiences might be, he was not in a hurry to find out all his memories.
He was more afraid of finding out how a monster he had turned into. He still could not forget how he had fought with Ros'Lous before. He felt like a veteran killer. And those thoughts that surfaced in his mind. Destruction to everything…
He was afraid of the real him.
Yet, now that he was seeing memories of his fiancee, he was feeling complicated. He felt he needed to know the people he had cherished. He needed to know what type of person he was. He needed to be himself, not someone who acted because he was injected with someone else's memories. Not someone who acted because he knew his past self.
He wanted to find out his own path.
Him without all the nightmarish experiences he had. Him without being influenced by anything.
He shook his head. Now was not the time for this. There were many pressing matters in front of him. For now, he needed to save as many as he could.
"Hikari, if it's possible, can you identify who can help us? If they're not in the prison Asahi and Gouki created, we can fetch them. We really need to hasten our pace if we want to save everyone. I've cured one in four hours, I think it would not be enough to save everyone if I keep this pace. I need people to help us around here."
"I understand. Can you also teach me what you did?" Hikari asked as her eyes twinkled like stars.
Looking at her, Caelus could not help feel he was getting a closure he didn't get before.
He knew Hikari was not his fiancee, but there was a part of him that was healing…
***
Outside the Safe Zone where Hikari and Sho were, three figures were leisurely hopping over tree after tree. Although the zombies below them heard something above them, whenever they looked up, they saw nothing.
Confused, they just gave up and wandered aimlessly.
"Why do you always patronize that idiot?" Akihiko's voice sounded.
Asahi was shocked about the kid.
Obviously, he noticed how Akihiko didn't think too good about Sho, but he didn't know that Akihiko would brazenly call Sho idiot while he was listening. He was both amused and confused at the little kid. He looked like someone from middle school. Because of what Akihiko said, Asahi realized that the kid was in his rebellious stage. Having taken care of Sho when he was young, he knows his ways with kids.
"I'm not patronizing him." It was Gouki who Akihiko asked the question.
"You are! You shouldn't care about him. He's stupid. He jumps up with every situation he could. He would just die early." Akihiko said in disdain.
"Exactly. He reminds me of someone who's not here anymore."
Asahi was amazed.
He didn't know that Gouki could talk a lot. But it seemed with Akihiko, he was talkative. He didn't even need to intervene with the two who were talking. He knew the two just disregarded him as an air. They didn't care about him or his relationship with Sho.
"Who?"
"My twin brother. He was also an idiot. That's why he died young."
With that the three became silent once more.
Asahi couldn't help but think differently about Gouki, while Akihiko had a weird look on his face.