Yuurei and Renji were back at it again; they were working hard to make sure that the people living in Talaz Lagaar had the best time they could while they were getting better. He hoped that they were doing enough, and wished there was something that he could truly do to end all of this. He was making his way to the place that they had gone to every time. It was nice that they had a destination to go to though. They knew what to do there, and he was hoping it wouldn’t change.

The two of them would walk through the city that they were in, and it sucked that there was hardly anybody outside this place. It would seem like a lot of people were either in a hospital or were finding themselves quarantined from the world outside. It sucked, but he was hoping that it would end soon.

When they arrived at the location, it would seem like the nurse was waiting for them outside this time. They wondered what was wrong, but figured that they were going to find out. When they approached her they would keep their expression emotionless as they weren’t sure what was the situation.

“Why are you out here nurse?” He asked questioning her motives out here.

She would hear this and she would bow slightly to them. She was glad that they had made it here today because it meant that she could use them for what she needed them for.

“It’s nice that you were able to make it today. We don’t need help in the hospital today, but we do need your help. I need you to come with me as there are a group of people who have fallen sick. We need to retrieve them here and bring them back to the hospital. Can you help with that? Also, is your friend coming to the hospital today too?” She asked waiting for an answer.

Yuurei heard everything that she had said and understood the need for their help. He was fine with doing this, but the last thing she had said made him wonder. He wasn’t sure if Brone would be coming to help, but he could only hope that he would. He would just look behind him and then back at her. He would give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was.

“Yeah, I think he should be coming today. He is always a bit late, but he wouldn’t miss today.” He said to her.

Renji would look around as he wondered if Brone slept in again. It would seem like he was doing that a bit too often and he wasn’t sure why.

The nurse heard him vouch for the dwarf that he would be here, and she was glad to hear this. They needed him as well for this, so that was good.

“Alright we will wait for him and then we will be on our way to the site where they have the sick in.” She said to Yuurei and Renji as they were fine with that.

517

Brone Heavyaxe had been awoken at Gnicholas' first attempt. He then immediately went into the shower and prepared himself for the day. The gnome and Benimaru looked at one another in surprise that the dwarf wasn't giving them any problems, "Everything alright, Brone?" the gnome called from behind the door to the bathroom.

"Aye! Just getting ready so we can help people!" Brone called over the sound of the shower. As the hot water was pelting him, he leaned against the wall, wondering if he's reached his capability when it comes to helping people; he had always been confident in his ability to take up the mantle, especially when others weren't able to, but these last few days have been making him see his weakness, of what he lacked, but luckily the bit of wisdom provided by Benimaru and Gnicholas, the dwarf was able to appreciate the work healers do, despite their physical capabilities. When he had awoken, he made sure to make a beeline to the shower in order to hide his somber expression, but hearing Gnicholas call with concern pretty much told Brone that he didn't manage to hide his expression well enough.

"Well, at least he's up earlier so we don't need to rush" the gnome said as he went to bed and continued reading the newspaper.

"Anything on a cure?" Benimaru asked as he floated about the room.

"No, just more political nonsense" Gnicholas sighed as he flipped through pages. It wouldn't be long before Brone came bursting through the door, causing the hot steam to escape the bathroom and destroy the newspaper, damping it to the point it fell to pieces; the gnome sucked his teeth and went to jump into the cowl of the dwarf's cloak so they could leave as soon as the dwarf was done dressing.

Brone had donned his most comfortable cloths, leaving his armor and weapons behind before they all headed out to the hospital. "It's a nice day" Brone said in order to break the silence between them. Benimaru and Gnicholas looked at one another, wondering if the dwarf was alright since the weather was actually a bit cloudy and slightly humid.

Eventually they reached the hospital, but were confused when they noticed Yuurei, Renji and the nurse who directs them were outside standing in front of the main entrance, "What's going on here?" the dwarf asked as they approached. The nurse then explained the plan was to retrieve patients, which caused Brone to inhale, puffing out his chest. The spirit and the gnome could tell that the dwarf's mood was elevated. Something different for a task today, instead of being inside around the patients, feeling as if he wasn't contributing; it was obvious to them, but they chose to not mention it, but simply agreed to the assignment, "Very well, lead the way" the dwarf said to the nurse.

489

The duo and the nurse were waiting for Brone’s arrival at the hospital. They figured he would show up, but how long would it take? They were hoping that they wouldn’t be waiting for too long and honestly their prayers would be answered. It wouldn’t take long, but they would see the trio making their way over to them. It would bring him to let out a sigh of relief. This was going to be interesting and the nurse would explain everything to him before he suggested she lead the way.

He would smile as the nurse would do just that. She would move around the streets as she knew where she was going. Yuurei and Renji would follow her and wonder how many of them were sick. This was going to be interesting because they would need a quick way to go back and forth. The Seraphim had a way of doing that, but he just needed them to get to the location first.

She knew where she was going and she figured that they would have several long trips with how many of the patients should be there. It wouldn’t take long until things started getting a bit more compacted than it was earlier. They would see tents around an open space within the city and it would seem like there were a lot of people going back and forth. They looked like they were volunteers and it would seem like there were a lot of patients around here.

“When did this all happened?” He asked the nurse.

She looked at him and she would shake her head.

“It happened last night and it seemed like they just kept on showing up.” She said to him as she would continue moving.

She would go to one of the tents with patients and she would look at them.

“If you can carry them back to the hospital that would be the best. It is something that needs to be done, so we can have the nurses in the hospital take them to their rooms.” She said to Yuurei.

The hunter was fine with that as he knew what to do.

“No problem I will bring them to the nurses fast. I just needed to know the location so I can use a door to travel back and forth.” He said to the nurse.

She was confused as she didn’t know what that meant, but he was going to show her. He would pick up a patient that was on a stretcher with one hand and he would walk out of the tent. Renji would use both his hands as he picked a person’s stretcher up and walked out of the tent as well.

Yuurei would walk over to a door and he would use his skeleton key. His destination was the hospital; he would open the door after inserting the key and the door to the hospital would be there. He would go through the door and he would end up at the hospital. He would walk in with the patient in his hands as he put them down for the nurse to handle them. Renji would do the same thing as he would put the patients on the ground. They were surprised Yuurei appeared out of nowhere but would go and take care of the patients.

Yuurei would walk through the door again and he would be back to the place with all the sick patients ready to be transferred.

582|1099

Just as the dwarf asked, the nurse led the way for them. This gave them a chance to explore more of the city, though barely as they would begin to see a number of tents scattered throughout a plaza-like area. Brone understood that the increased amount of patients in such a small amount of time meant they had to temporarily establish an area to gather them, "Aye, this is something I can definitely do" he said as he flexed his muscles.

"Very well, meathead, then put your muscles to work" Gnicholas said.

"I'll support you along the way" Benimaru said as he floated after them, though the gnome and dwarf figured he was kidding since the shield and sword couldn't do anything in this situation.

As they entered one of the tend and the nurse explained the situation, Gnicholas theorized the possibility of what could have happened, "Could it be possible that a wave of a new strain might have washed over the area, spreading faster then the previous? Or could it be that there was a large congregation of people, like a large meeting, that make have caused this spread in this immediate area; do you have any procedures to keep citizens from engaging in such behavior?" the gnome asked the nurse.

Brone wasn't sure what the gnome had said, but that wasn't his immediate job, he knew what he could do and he was good at it. As Yuurei had picked up one of the patients and Renji picking up another with the stretcher itself. The dwarf picked up two stretchers with patients on them; each on his main shoulders while he had his extra two arms supporting the stretchers in order to keep them from tipping. Some of the staff that were helping people were startled for a split second as they saw two extra arms revealed from beneath Brone's cloak.

Gnicholas had hopped out of the cowl of the dwarf's cloak and onto a table within the tent in order to check the documentation that there, hoping to find some answers to what could have caused such an outbreak while the dwarf followed Yuurei and Renji out of the tent.

"Oh this is much easier" Brone chuckled as he walked through a nearby door and saw that they had suddenly appeared in the hospital. He couldn't make heads or tails of how this type of magic worked, but he never cared to try and understand what he called "Here-and-There" magic, so he would followed Yuurei back out the door and make their way back to the tent to continue the job.

440 | 929

The nurse had heard Gnicholas speak to her, and she was surprised by his knowledge. Still, it would seem like it could have been and they were leaning toward the fact that a new strain of the virus had appeared. It was not something they were hoping for, but here they were struggling right now. They were hoping that it would stay on this island and never go anywhere but here. She knew that might not be possible unless they nipped it in the bud. With the outside people coming to help them, one of them was bound to get sick right?

“We do have a protocol, and we have made sure that everybody on this island has been isolated from each other. We made sure that people quarantined themselves as they do not know who might catch the virus. It seems like this might have happened due to a new strain of the virus. We don’t have all the information, but we just need help with this.” She said to Gnicholas.

Yuurei was glad that Brone had followed him through the door as they were going to make this work. The duo had gone to the patients on the ground again. Yuurei would pick up the next stretcher and Renji would do the same thing. They would look over to Gnicholas and smile.

“So any ideas of what’s happening Gnicholas?” He asked wondering what he would say.

Yuurei would move past Brone as he saw that he was using all his arms on this. That was good because it would mean they would get through this quicker.

“Nice it would be cool if I could use my arms like that, but I only got two of them.” He said to Brone.

The Seraphim would walk through the door again and he would end up back at the hospital. He would put the patient down and he would see that the nurses there were on the job as well. They were moving the patients around to where they were going to be taken care of. Renji would come through the door as well as he would put the patient down and he would see that nobody was slacking.

“Hopefully nothing bad happens to them but this. They need to come through this and from there hopefully, we can leave this place.” He said to Yuurei.

The hunter would pat Renji on the head. He knew that the Exceed didn’t like this place as it seemed like he thought this place might have gotten Revy sick.

“Soon, Renji. We got to make sure that we do everything that we could here first.” He said to his friend as they would be back where all the patients were.

The two of them would make their way to them and they would each pick up their own stretcher. Renji was small but stronger than he was. The two of them would look at each other and would start walking to the door that the key was still within. He was sustaining the door from closing, so they could do this smoothly.

518|1617

From what Gnicholas had heard from the nurse, the city was already enacting protocols in order to keep people from spreading the virus, though it seemed it only slowed the spread at best. The gnome adjusted his face mask, making sure he had it properly secured; this was a concerning matter and the thought of any of them possibly bringing the virus back home scared him.

Renji asked the gnome for his input, "Well viruses tend to evolve, not only get stronger to spread faster, or become more dangerous in general, but any remedies or medicine that may have any affect would end up being insignificant as the virus would end up evolving to overcome it" Gnicholas scribbled down onto his own notebook, his thoughts racing, wondering if there was any possible ideas that the higher powers, political, medical, or otherwise, had any plans or ideas that help combat this situation.

"Well this is a terrible situation to be in" Benimaru floated over to the gnome and looked over his shoulder to see if he could make out the scribbles the gnome had marked down, but couldn't.

"Indeed, how envious I am that you don't have a physical body that would suffer this problem" The gnome did his best at making a joke given how stressed he seemed.

"Interesting that I would find myself in a time that not having a body would be my saving grace" The spirit said as he would look around the tent at the patients who suffered at the hands of an unseen enemy, "Speaking of 'saving grace', Yuurei, can you not call upon angelic powers to rid away of this plague?" he asked the seraphim as he had passed by to collect another patient to transport.

Once again, the spirit would point out Yuurei's divine powers and question his capabilities. At this point, even Brone figured that the divine powers were too limited, even for a fully powerful angel, let alone a mortal who received grace, "Such power wouldn't be enough to heal an entire island, Beni" the gnome sighed as he looked over the notes on the staff's clipboard.

"Having more arms aren't just for destroying my enemies faster, but to save people faster too" Brone laughed in reply to Yuurei's comment. The dwarf was too focused on getting the immediate job done instead of dwelling on the heavy reality that was the situation they were in. It was bad and the entire island recognized that, so the only thing they could do was focus on what was possible, so to the dwarf, focusing on ideas that everyone already knew that wouldn't work was a waste of time, but he chose not to voice that concern, since he felt the group needed to keep their spirits up, "Hey, what about if someone made a virus that fights the other virus and just release that?" Brone chuckled as he picked up another two patients before walking out the tent to follow behind Yuurei.

"For all we know, that was probably the intent for this current plague, someone was probably trying to defeat another virus and this one just got out of hand" the gnome barely entertained the dwarf's joke and Brone just scoffed as he walked passed the gnome.

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Renji had heard Gnicholas’s input on the virus fiasco and it would seem to him that if they didn’t nip it in the bud things would get scary and difficult in the future. The Exceed would continue to move through the area as he was helping the sick make their way to the hospital. Yuurei’s key was a life saver and something he was glad that the young man had obtained. Yuurei was moving to one of the patients when he heard Benimaru asking him a question.

The hunter would look at him and he would rub the back of his head. He couldn’t do that, or at least he didn’t know how to do something like that.

“I don’t know if I could do that. I’ve not grown accustomed to my powers, so I’m not sure I could do all that.” He said to Benimaru.

Still, he doubted that his powers would allow him to do something like that. He wasn’t a god, so he figured something like that was not plausible to him.

He would pick up another patient and walk through the door to take them to the hospital. He had heard Brone’s words and he was glad that was how his friend saw things. He put the patient down and he would come back ready to continue his work. The nurse was glad that these two had arrived to help them with this situation. Yuurei would hear Brone’s comment about bringing out another virus. He would nod as he wasn’t sure if it would work, or if something terrible would happen if it did.

Still, he wasn’t knowledgeable when it came to that and he figured he would do what he could do right now. He and Renji would take the next stretcher and would bring the next set of patients into the room. He would place them down as he would see that the nurses were doing their best. This was good and he would continue to move back and forth. It would take some time, but the group would be able to finish bringing all of the patients to the hospital. The nurse would go through the door when all the patients were counted and Yuurei would close the door after everyone was in the hospital. The nurse would thank them for all of their hard work.

393|2010

[exit]

Brone felt bad for the patients who had to be temporarily cared for outside in the mobile tents, but this meant that he could provide assistance that he was good at, so it wasn't a strain on him. One of the nurses who noticed he was moving the patients had offered him water and snacks that they had for the patients but the dwarf turned the offer, "No thank ye, but I appreciate it" it felt nice to know that he was actually providing assistance, but he didn't want to risk slowing down his transport services since the patients seem to need immediate care as far as he could tell.

When he heard Yuurei mention he was still getting use to his powers, Brone thought back to all the battles they were in and how the angelic powers of the Half-elf seem to evolve over time. He had not initially realized it, but now that he thought about it, the vast power he had obtained seem like a well, and he has yet to touch the bottom. Now the question was: how powerful can Yuurei become once he's reached the full potential of the divine grace?

With that thought in mind, Brone figured he needed to continue to get stronger; even with his four arms, great strength, and the arsenal of wondrous weapons, he can fall behind and end up becoming a liability to his team. The enemies they had faced in the past were powerful at the time, but in comparison to who the heroes are now, those enemies are less than flies on the wall, but even so, Brone knew well that there are enemies ahead of them that can pose a great threat. He had never expected to face god-like creatures like the dimensional dragon of lightning, or the Golden Jackal who can warp reality itself. Such beings were powerful in their own right, but if it wasn't for the strength of Brone the Mountain, Kaito the Dragon Slayer, and Yuurei the Warden of Light, then those enemies would have caught destruction in their wake.

"There is much pride swelling within you" Benimaru had followed Brone as he had made his last trip.

"Just deep in thought, thinking about our success" The dwarf smiled as he exited through the dimensional door. Yuurei had closed the door and removed his key.

"I'm glad to have chosen to side with Paradise Dawn then" Benimaru chuckled as they all made their way back to the tent. Brone wanted to point out that it was him who had found and collected the shield and sword, but he kept quiet, realizing there was no need to add that.

"Glad to have ye with us, Beni" Brone smiled. They reached the tent in which the nurse thanked them for their assistance. Gnicholas handed the clipboard back to the nurse and pocketed his own notebook before hopping onto Brone's shoulder. They said their goodbyes before they departed. The day was officially done and the dwarf was glad he was able to fully contribute this time.

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[Exit]