Aurelie and Gallo immediately rushed to Farn’s side, kneeling by his body and calling his name. He didn't respond. Aurelie put her hands on Farn’s shoulders, imitating the position Mrs. Dreslin had taken to scan people for injuries.

She cautiously let a thread of her Spirit Energy flow into Farn's body, circulating it through Farn's veins.

She quickly found the problem. Farn's brain was pulsing with the red energy. It was far thicker than it had been for her. She frowned, then a stricken expression crossed her face as she understood why Farn's condition was so much worse than hers had been.

Gallo had said that she had been fighting the red energy for over three hours. She had put up a shield over herself so that no more energy would come through, but Farn hadn't known to do that. He had been exposed to the strange energy for three hours longer than she had.

The effect of those three hours was astounding. Now, the red energy in Farn's brain was strong enough to fight back against Farn's Spirit Energy, causing a huge battle around Farn's brain. The red energy was beginning to fuse with Farn's blood, too, and that reinforced the red energy embroiled in the battle.

Aurelie let out a vicious curse. She should have let Farn know immediately after she found out about the fact that they were being subtly attacked by a foreign energy. It was her fault things had developed to this stage. Next to her, Gallo looked increasingly worried, wondering what was going on and how Farn was doing. But he kept his mouth shut, not wanting to bother the two of them for fear of breaking their concentration.

The only thing that gave Aurelie hope was that Farn was still fighting, though he was unconscious. In fact, rather than unconscious, it felt more like he had just cut off all his awareness and had focussed all his efforts only into fighting, not paying heed to any other distractions. On top of that, the blood he had coughed up held very strong traces of the energy. It meant that he was, slowly, getting rid of the invading red power.

Wanting to see if she could help him, Aurelie tried to cleanse a portion of his blood which was heading towards his brain. She pulled the string of her Spirit Energy into a ball, and used that to block it.

The red energy in Farn’s blood immediately fought against her, but she kept up the barrier, though she let as much untainted blood as possible flow through the barricade. After all, Farn’s brain still needed oxygen.

She had to take down the barrier soon afterwards, though, because Farn's body began to shake uncontrollably from the vibrations that the second battle caused. Sighing, Aurelie made her Spirit Energy into a mist and made it stick close to Farn’s veins, letting the tainted blood pass through, though there were still some collisions. Aurelie refused to give up on helping her friend, though.

This time, she went to the battle directly.

Aurelie made her small sphere of Spirit Energy approach Farn’s flood of Spirit Energy. She cautiously extended a tendril to judge his reaction to her. When it wasn’t negative, she let her Spirit Energy slip into his, strengthening him. But when she tried to take part in an attack together with him, his Spirit Energy blocked hers. It didn’t take long for her to figure out what he wanted to say.

“‘Stay out of this and let me deal with it by myself’, huh? How stubborn.” She sighed, but there were traces of amusement in her eyes and in her tone. If he could stop her, then he was fine, at least for now. She stretched, and then looked over at Gallo.

“Why are you so pale?” She asked, the amusement in her tone growing stronger.

Gallo ignored that. “How is Farn?” He asked. He truly was pale, and trembling to boot. He looked really scared.

Aurelie smiled, and made her tone gentler. “Farn will be fine, Gallo. He’s just having a bit of trouble with purging the energy I told you about. But he’s winning. He should wake up within three hours.”

Gallo nodded slowly, digesting this.

“Anyhow, I’m really hungry right now. What’s for…” Aurelie looked up at the sky, surprised to see stars. “...Dinner, I guess. My, how time flies.”

Gallo scratched his head. “I made a simple stew, using the wolves’ bodies.” Through there had only been three accessible corpses, there were still a lot of leftover meat. He had also skinned the pelts and set them aside to dry them, so they could sell them at a later date. His nervous energy had been of some use after all.

Aurelie smiled and stood up, once again sending thanks that they were on a journey. She wouldn’t have been able to stomach the food otherwise.

“So, continuing our earlier conversation,” Aurelie said after both she and Gallo had sat down, each with their own respective bowls of soup. “What Fruit do you think we’re dealing with?”

Gallo took an experimental sip of soup and made a face. “I thought more about that while you were taking care of Farn. I’ve narrowed it down to two Fruits, based on the climate here, the location, and the excitation properties of the Fruit. Most Spirit Fruit with the excitation property do it through scent. This energy you talked about is pretty rare. I think it’s either the Umret Fruit or the Pella Fruit. The Umret Fruit lets you gain a stage of cultivation, as well as purifies the energy you already have, strengthening your foundations. The Pella Fruit adds two stages to your cultivation. Of course, there are other possibilities. I don’t actually know the conditions within the cave, and that affects my conclusions.”

Aurelie nodded, thinking. Gallo did the same. The rest of the meal passed in silence.

After washing her bowl and placing it back in her storage ring, Aurelie went back to Farn’s side. She observed where he was now. The second stage of the assault had begun. She frowned as she noticed it was going a lot slower than she thought it would for his Spirit Energy to soak into his brain cells. But it was going well enough, so Aurelie shrugged and moved away a bit, so as to go to quietly cultivate for the night, making sure to periodically check on her friend.