Hikaru and Ojjisan sat down, both deep in thought as they tried to process everything that had happened. The world was falling apart, the elemental heads were being killed one by one, and the enemies they were facing seemed impossibly strong. Hikaru clenched his fists. "What's even happening to this world? How can all of the element heads be getting killed so easily?"
Ojjisan nodded grimly. "Yeah… Onkar is dead. Yoru is dead. We keep losing our strongest sorcerers. The enemies we're facing are far beyond anything we've encountered before."
Ojjisan suddenly looked at Hikaru with narrowed eyes. "Wait… how did Yoru die?"
Hikaru met his gaze. "I killed him."
For a brief moment, Ojjisan's eyes widened in suspicion. "You killed Yoru?" He hesitated. "Hikaru… are you sure you're not a traitor?"
Hikaru sighed in frustration. "Come on, Ojjisan. Yoru was the traitor. His final words were, 'Nobody on Earth can defeat my master.' He had already betrayed humanity, and he was working with the aliens. I had no choice but to take him down."
Ojjisan processed Hikaru's words and nodded. "I see… so Yoru was working for someone even stronger. That's bad news for us."
Hikaru took a deep breath. "We need to do something about the zombie disease first. Maybe Yoru knew something about it before he died."
Ojjisan stroked his chin. "Then we need to go back to his base and see if we can find any clues."
Without wasting time, Hikaru focused his energy and activated his teleportation ability. In an instant, they arrived at the dark center where Yoru had been killed. Ojjisan looked around at the destroyed buildings and corpses lying everywhere. "Thank god you have teleportation," he muttered.
They immediately got to work searching for clues. Their first idea was to examine Yoru's blood. Hikaru found a preserved sample on the ground, and Ojjisan took a small syringe of it. "Let's see if his blood has anything to do with the zombie infection," Ojjisan said.
They found a restrained zombie nearby—one that had been tied up before Yoru's death. Carefully, Ojjisan injected a small amount of Yoru's blood into the zombie's system and stepped back to observe.
Minutes passed, but nothing happened. The zombie remained the same, growling and struggling against its restraints. Hikaru sighed. "So much for that idea."
They continued searching Yoru's room, hoping to find notes, scrolls, or any documents that might reveal his secrets. But there was nothing. It was as if Yoru had erased all traces of his work.
Hikaru glanced over at Pepo, who was watching curiously. A thought struck him. "Wait… what if Pepo can cure the zombie disease?"
Ojjisan scratched his head. "You think so?"
"It's worth a try." Hikaru picked up a small zombie that had been trapped in a cage and placed it in front of Pepo. "Try healing it."
Pepo closed its eyes and used its healing magic, a soft glow surrounding the zombie. Hikaru and Ojjisan watched closely, hoping for a miracle.
But after a few seconds, the glow faded, and the zombie remained unchanged. It growled and snapped its jaws at them.
"It didn't work," Ojjisan muttered.
Hikaru frowned, deep in thought. "Then… how did I survive that hybrid bite? If Pepo's healing doesn't work, why didn't I turn into a hybrid?"
Ojjisan's eyes widened. "That's a good question… Maybe the answer lies on the aliens' home planet."
Hikaru nodded. "Yeah, but how do we even get there?"
Ojjisan sighed. "Can't you teleport us?"
Hikaru shook his head. "I can only teleport to places I've already been. And we don't even know the exact location of their planet."
Ojjisan folded his arms. "Then we need to ask one of them."
Just as he spoke, an alien ambushed them, lunging at Hikaru with a powerful punch. Hikaru barely dodged in time, while Ojjisan reacted instantly, summoning a massive thunderbolt to strike the alien down. But before the lightning could hit, Hikaru stepped in. "Wait! We need to question it!"
Ojjisan stopped his attack, and the alien stood there, dazed but alive. They stepped forward, ready to interrogate it.
But as they did, the alien opened its mouth and began speaking in an unfamiliar, garbled language. "Mmmnccgjhvedb bibvcfvbuhvgfg."
Hikaru and Ojjisan looked at each other in confusion.
"…What the hell did it just say?" Hikaru muttered.
Ojjisan sighed. "I have no idea… but we need to find a way to understand it. Otherwise, we'll never reach their planet."
The two of them stood there, faced with a new problem. They had captured an alien, but without a way to understand its language, they were no closer to finding the cure or stopping the invasion.
Hikaru clenched his fists. "We need a solution—fast."