Even though the idea of Battle Qi breaking down sounds scary, it shouldn't cause too many problems in theory.
After all, the six main elements from the breakdown are balanced. As long as they stay balanced, no disasters should happen. The only trouble might be the dark elements that caused the breakdown in the first place, besides the earth elements that the portal might use.
"About a week after fighting the monsters, all the soldiers at the base got a strange sickness. Their skin got bad, their bodies worked too fast, and they aged quickly," Reed said.
This confirmed what I thought. I knew dark pollution well. When I went with Selene to Tethys town before entering the Dark Continent, the people there had the same sickness.
"How did the Earth people fix this problem?" Adrian asked, confused. We're in the Earth base now, but there's no sign of dark pollution spreading, except for a bit of dark elements from the portal.
The H-country soldiers don't look sick at all.
"This is the most unbelievable part!" Reed said, tilting her head as she thought hard. After a while, she answered, "The H-country military told me they found a medical expert who could cure this sickness. The expert found out it was caused by a virus from another world that the monsters brought. They made a special medicine to cure it in a short time. All the sick people got better in just a few days. Then the expert made a special spray that kills the virus."
"What! Dark pollution is caused by a virus?" This was shocking news to me! When did Earth experts get so smart that they could fix dark pollution with modern science?
Adrian thought it was unbelievable too. He thought for a bit and then asked, "Can we get a sample of that spray?"
"I already thought of that. The spray isn't restricted, so it's easy to get from the medical room. But there's not much, so each person only gets a small bottle ," Reed said. She took out a small bottle from her storage space.
As I expected, a strong smell of light elements came out. This bottle was full of holy water! But how could an Earth doctor make this?
Could that medical expert actually be Cyrae in disguise?
This weird thought popped into my head. I thought for a bit and asked, "Is there any way I can meet this doctor?"
"Sorry, she's not at this base now! The military hired her as a civilian expert to help study the other world. She should be on the other side of the portal now," Reed said.
"She's in the other world?" I was surprised again. Maybe the guess of the expert being Cyrae was wrong? But how to explain this bottle of holy water? Surely there wasn't another angel hiding on Earth?
The clues suddenly stopped here.
But there was some good news. At least now we knew why the portal didn't close.
The medical expert cleaned up the high amount of dark elements, so the Battle Qi breakdown would stop.
Even though we didn't have a mage who knows earth elements, if Reed's guess is right, the portal should lose its power source soon. It closing is just a matter of time.
All we can do now is going back tomorrow as planned.
After leaving Reed and Irene's room, we were about to reach our own room when we saw Wayne Peng waiting for us.
"We went to the address you gave to pick up your friend, but we couldn't find her. The neighborhood cameras didn't see anyone go in or out." he said right away. Our earlier "teamwork" was pretty good, so he didn't waste time.
"Cyra's not home? She went out?" I was surprised she wasn't just staying home to stream. I suddenly felt a headache coming on.
Raydwin was probably still at school. Cyra has wings, so of course she wouldn't just walk on the ground. The cameras wouldn't catch her. This made things tricky.
I was about to tell Wayne Peng to be patient and wait a bit longer. But then I had a sudden thought about where she might be.
"I need your permission to look up someone's address! Maybe I can find her and bring her back! Of course, I'll need approval to leave the base for a bit!"
Wayne Peng was surprised, but this request wasn't too hard for someone of his rank. He just said, "I'll go apply for you right away!"
After that, things went very smoothly. In less than an hour, I was already flying above where I wanted to go. Since this was a special mission, Adrian didn't come with me.
It was evening now. Below me was a ordinary neighborhood in Shine Metropolitan, a bit different from where I grew up.
This was a relocation housing area, built just a few years ago. It's where Cyrus's family got a new home after their old one was torn down unfairly.
I guessed Cyra might have come here to see her mother. I don't know how she did it, but since we're going back to the other world tomorrow, I thought it's better to find her and take her away soon.
After all, Earth isn't our home anymore. This will also stop the H-country higher-ups from worrying about strong beings from another world living here.
"Huh? No one's home here either?" When I knocked on the door at the address I found, no one answered for a long time.
"That's weird! Did the mother and daughter go shopping?" It's hard to imagine how Cyra would face her parents. I stood at the door talking to myself. Finally, I had to turn invisible and fly up, looking around.
I saw a church nearby earlier. Since Cyra's mother believes in the True Church, maybe they went there.
Luckily, I guessed right this time! Near the church, outside a primary school, I finally saw Cyra among the crowd on the street.
It looked like she and her mother just left the church and were about to go home.
But unlike what I expected, Cyra didn't change to look like her old self. She was using her current face to meet her mother.
"I didn't expect the community volunteer to also believe in the True Church. It's rare to see young people like this now. How wonderful!" I got closer behind them without showing myself and finally understood what was happening from their talk.
"It's nothing! The community learned about you're alone and having a hard time after losing your family. So of course we sent a religious person like me to visit and help you," Cyra said.
She was totally making this up, but she sounded very natural. Clearly, this wasn't the first time she met her mother like this.