"Flesh eaters?" Asuren bolted upright but Henry grabbed his arm and stopped him from leaving.
"I need your help here."
"Help in what?"
"I gathered more information while scanning these fairies and learned a more effective counter spell," Henry moved out of the chair and the patients watching them became more cautious. "I need to try it out. Will you help me convince just one of these patients?"
"I'm not good at convincing others," Asuren confessed and pointed to a patient nearest to them. "Try that one. You already healed me a plenty of times. I know you will succeed. But if something goes wrong and that fairy turns into a flesh eater, I will not hesitate to kill."
"You will not kill anyone here," Henry smiled and approached the fairy Asuren had pointed.
"Stay away from me!" The patient hurriedly moved away from them but Asuren quickly caught him and put him back to the bed.
"Stay still," Asuren commanded in a chilling voice that alarmed not only the patient in front of him but the rest of the fairies in that room. "This mortal will heal you."
"A mortal will heal me?!" The cursed patient laughed mockingly. "How can an ordinary mortal save me from this flesh eater curse?!"
Asuren glanced at Henry and asked, "Do you need him awake?"
Henry shook his head and Asuren instantly knocked the patient unconscious.The rest of the patients gasped.
"This is for him," Asuren calmed them down. "Just wait and see. He will get better."
The patients were still cautious, but they remained quiet and stayed in their beds.
Henry placed both his hands on the forehead of the unconscious patient. He closed his eyes, and his hands began to glow. He stayed like that for almost an hour and Asuren wondered if he truly was only a mortal or a fairy in disguise.
"Done," Henry pulled his hands away from the unconscious patient and swayed.
"His curse is gone?" Asuren caught him and helped him sit on an empty bed.
Henry nodded with a satisfied smile then lay down comfortably on the mattress.
"Henry! I…" Thea entered the room with a basket filled with herbs in her hands. She froze when she saw Asuren standing and Henry was the one lying in bed. "What happened here?" she put the basket down and looked around the room. "Why do I feel tension in the air?"
"Henry healed that fairy," Asuren pointed at the unconscious patient near them. "Without medicine. Only a counter spell."
"You used your own energy?" Thea was elated yet worried at the same time. "Why do you keep pushing yourself to the limit? Do you want to die?"
"I will not die from exhaustion," Henry beamed wider.
"Princess Thea," one of the anxious patients called. "Did that mortal really healed Lan?"
"Henry is an extraordinary mortal. You can trust him," Thea replied with a proud smile. "He cannot heal all of you right now, but he will share the process with all the healers in this facility."
"But I… I don't think I can wait that long... Princess Thea…" the patient froze. Her terrified eyes turned crimson and her entire body quivered as it transformed into a flesh eater. In the midst of her transformation, a faint green light had had wrapped around her body and swallowed her.
"Gia placed an enchantment in this room," Henry emptied a few bottles of healing potion. "That light had probably brought her to the gates of this village. Let's follow her. I think I can save her."
Asuren released his wings and carried Henry outside the village. Thea quickly followed behind them.
^###########^
"EVERYONE!!! STOP MOVING!!!" Thea bellowed when they stepped outside the village and found the newly turned flesh eater surrounded Gia, Juliann, and a few warriors of General Kali. Most of them already looked drained. Sel and Calix had just arrived.
Fortunately, her request had been heeded. No one moved. She quickly conjured wind gusts and trapped the flesh eater. Asuren let Henry ride at his back so he could easily reach the forehead of the cursed fairy. The healing took almost three hours and he had to borrow a lot of energy from Asuren but Henry did it. The flesh eater returned to its fairy form and fainted in the arms of Thea.
Everyone fell silent. All of them were astonished. A mortal saved a fairy from a powerful ancient curse.
"It worked," Henry breathed with relief before fainting. Asuren almost collapsed with him. His energy had been drained but he managed to stay awake and caught Henry.
Thea was also tired. She had to hold the flesh eater with her wind gusts for three hours after foraging different forests and mountains for more than an hour.
"That fairy is now free from the curse?" Calix was still in awe.
"Yes," Gia smiled after a thorough examination of the unconscious fairy in the arms of Thea. "This fairy is free from the flesh eater curse."
"I told you," Sel closed her hands into a fist and summoned an ice whip. "There is a way to save them," she raised her weapon to attack Asuren but Calix quickly seized her hand.
"Sel, stop this! You know—"
"I know! We had no choice back then!" Sel shrieked before soaring out of the village.
"Let me carry him," Calix took Henry from Asuren and gave his guilt-stricken friend a light pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry about Sel. She will be fine."
"It might take some time," Thea gave the fairy in her arms to one of the village healers. "But Sel will come to understand and accept what happened to Greyleaf. Let's give her a little more time."
^#########^
After a few hours of rest, Henry, assisted by Gia, had shared to the village healers a more detailed lesson about the fastest way to counter the flesh eater curse. It would require a lot of strength but the village healers can certainly do it with the help of the village warriors. Everyone in the village had come to respect Henry. The one that called him a powerless mortal apologized to him a couple of times.
"Our work here is done," Gia beamed joyfully. "Our next stop is Jade Moss Ville. I received reports that there are also a few cases of cursed fairies in that village. How about you, Calix? You were with Riz and Ayhan. Did you find anything related to the boar seal? Is that the reason you came here?"
"We found a few traces," Calix said but he seemed a bit hesitant. "Though we came here to lend a hand in dealing with those cursed fairies turning into flesh eaters, we are glad that it has finally been resolved. We can rejoin Riz and Ayhan in their search. They are in Emerald Wind Forest. Gia, will you take care of Sel?"
"Of course," Gia nodded. "Be careful."
^#############^