Gallo gasped. “I-it's here? Th-the Spirit Fruit is h-here?”

“That's what my intel indicates.” Farn said, regaining a semblance of his composure. But his eyes still shone with excitement and happiness.

Next to him, Aurelie was practically jumping up and down in excitement. She never expected that, after successfully taking care of the problem with Tanor and Planos (Cailysi was too minor to really bother with), she would tumble onto the Spirit Fruit. She truly felt that she'd used up all her luck for the next two years today.

Aurelie and Farn looked at one another, then made their way towards the cave together in unspoken agreement.

But before they entered, Gallo said, “Wait a minute, you guys.”

They turned back and looked at Gallo with annoyance.

“If you don't want to go, Gallo, then please stay here as a lookout. We'll take you back when we get out.” Aurelie said, annoyed. She wanted that fruit, dammit!

Gallo sighed. “I'm coming too. But aren't you guys underestimating the Spirit Fruit? Spirit Beasts are attracted by it as much as humans are. The very fact that there isn't a huge crowd of Spirit Beasts here right now indicates that the Spirit Fruit is being guarded by a very powerful being. We can't go in there unprepared.”

Aurelie nodded. She hadn't known about the part with the Spirit Beasts. But the rest of what Gallo said… She should have known better than to charge into an unknown location without sufficient knowledge. She frowned. What was wrong with her brain? Was she just excited from taking down Tanor and finding the Spirit Fruit? Or was it something else? Suddenly, the cave before her seemed incredibly dangerous…

Farn, too, was frowning. He had known everything Gallo had just said, but had disregarded it in his haste to get to the Spirit Fruit. He knew better than that, though. So why had he done it?

“I know you guys are excited, and I am too. But Aurelie just used up a bit of Spirit Power, and we can cook the wolves and stock up on food. We should only go in when we're at full power.” Gallo reasoned. Again, Aurelie frowned. She should have thought of all this. Why was her logic failing now, of all times?

Carefully thinking about her emotions, Aurelie realized that her primary emotion was excitement. But why was she so excited about something she had practically forgotten about until an hour ago?

So thinking, she immediately fell into her Cultivation Position, simultaneously replenishing her and searching for any outside forces influencing her.

She found it after about ten minutes of probing. An almost imperceptible tendril of red energy was wrapping itself around her brain, slowly soaking into her brain cells.

Terror quickly made it's way through her, but she forced it down, though it was significantly harder than usual. After that, she pulled her Spirit Energy towards her head. Carefully, she separated a molecule sized ball of Spirit Energy from the main force and sent it forward to see how the red energy would react.

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Surprisingly, the red energy got sucked into the ball, and the ball got a bit bigger. But after a short while, all the red energy in the vicinity of the ball of Spirit Power disappeared, and no other energy took its place.

Deeming it safe, Aurelie started a full scale assault on the red energy, absorbing it and growing stronger. She systematically attacked, first fighting the energy in the process of being absorbed, then putting up a barrier to repel any other energy from coming in.

She then gathered the remaining energy, planning to use it to cleanse her brain. Here she stopped for a moment, debating how to go about this. Finally, she settled on doing the same thing the red energy did: letting her brain absorb her Spirit Energy and force the red energy out.

She surrounded a brain cell with her Spirit Power, letting the cell soak up her power. It did so with apparent ease, and soon the red energy within the cell was cleared.

Her experiment having succeeded, Aurelie started to marinate large sections of her brain in Spirit Power. She could feel her head clearing, and her rationality returning. Sighing in relief as the last bit of red energy disappeared, Aurelie scanned her brain for any lingering foreign influence, then finally relaxed. Never once had she forgotten that that entire exchange had taken place in her brain, that the slightest of mistakes could leave her brain dead, or just plain dead.

Opening her eyes, she saw that Gallo was peering at her in concern, while Farn was looking at the cave while tapping his foot in impatience. Noticing that she'd woken up, Gallo heaved a relieved sigh.

“You were cultivating for about three hours! Was the energy consumption from the Martial Technique really so large?” He exclaimed. Shaking her head, Aurelie went to reply, but before she could, Farn said, “Finally. Took you long enough. Let's go now!”, exasperation evident in his tone.

Aurelie beckoned towards Farn. Annoyed, Farn stalked over to her. “What?”

Quickly, Aurelie explained the situation and how she dealt with it. Understanding the importance of what Aurelie said, Farn immediately took up his Cultivation Position, doing as Aurelie had said by staging the two stage assault.

Gallo looked relieved. “Good job on realizing what had happened, Aurelie. I forgot to mention it, but there are some Spirit Fruits which can entice creatures, including humans, to rush towards it madly, disregarding all danger. The closer one is, the worse the effect is. It would have been bad if you guys got more influenced.”

Aurelie nodded, smiling at Gallo. But on the inside, she was analyzing him. Why hadn't the red energy affected him? Why had he still been rational? He himself didn't appear to have noticed the fact that he was different, but was that just an act?

“Why are you staring at me? Is there something in my face?” Gallo asked, raising his hand self-consciously.

Aurelie laughed. “No, there isn't anything there. I was just wondering how you know so much about Spirit Fruits.”

Gallo scratched the back of his head, blushing. “It's just, I'm really interested in Spirit Beasts and Spirit Fruit. I read everything I could about them in the library.”

Aurelie nodded. It was true that the libraries of Meir and Lejus provided a large amount of books for those interested. Aurelie herself had spent hours poring over books, though she had been more interested in the history of Sorainella, and the situation in the country they lived in, which was called Hassil.

Aurelie smiled, and asked Gallo for his opinion on what the Spirit Fruit in the cave could be. Excited, Gallo started to give his opinions and his justification for said opinions.

This discussion continued for half an hour, which was when Farn suddenly turned pale, coughed up a mouthful of black blood, and fainted.