Chapter 178: William's decision
Seeing Alex, Lily quickly asked him to help her comrade. Her body was filled with scars now, with only one hand and leg.
After a few moments, Alex quickly realizes the answer; her life force is so weak that most people would think she's already dead.
Turning his gaze toward Lily, he could see her eyes were wet with tears. "Why are you crying as if she were dead?"
"Because she is dead, it's all my fault…"
"No, she's still alive," Alex says while walking toward them. Holding the woman's only hand, he tries to feel her heartbeat using his thumb.
Alex wants to learn more about her situation so he can choose a suitable medicine to use. But feeling no beat makes Alex's eyes widen.
The woman still has a life force, but her body is cold without any heartbeat. After some thought, Alex decided to give her a red potion with two pills.
The potion will heal the wounds to her body, while the first pill is a ration pill that will give her body many supplements; the purpose of this is for the second pill to work, and it will trigger her body to start producing red blood in steroids.
Lily watches in a daze as she sees Alex pour those medicines into her comrade.
She was sure she had already died; she was not breathing, nor did she have any heartbeat. She had checked a few times to make sure.
A ridiculous thought comes to her mind, 'Can Alex revive the dead? But that doesn't make sense; if he can do that, why did he let Roxy die?"
While she was thinking about this, her comrade's face started returning to its rosy color. It doesn't take long for her heart to start beating again.
"How could you do that?"
"You mistook her as dying; in reality, she is still alive."
"How… I am sure she isn't breathing."
"Her lungs and heart stopped, but that doesn't necessarily mean she was dead. I don't know how, but somehow she can maintain her brain to survive this long, even without any blood circulation."
"Brain? Circulation?" Lily raises her eyebrow.
She knows what a brain is, but she doesn't know what circulation means and how it's related to how her comrade is alive.
"Based on what I know so far, you, Felidaens, have a similar structure to me, a human; as long as your brain remains active, you will stay alive even without breathing or a heartbeat.
In my world, we call this situation' cardiac arrest.'
Normally, they won't survive long since brain cells will start dying quickly after not being supplied with blood and oxygen. But somehow, your friend did it."
Lily feels even more confused after Alex's explanation, but she quickly realizes how her friend survived. "She is a healer in my squad."
"No wonder then, she probably used her ability to protect her brain. But don't expect much, Lily.
We don't know what kind of damage her brain underwent; there could be lingering damage that affects her memories or other functions."
"At the very least, she is alive; that is what really matters. I am sure Sentinel can find a way to cure her if that happens," Lily replies with relief, while Alex doesn't say more.
He doubts Aimu has that capability; even a potion from his world cannot do this, and not even Olivia's ability can heal the brain.
The reason for this is because of how Olivia's ability works. She needs to have an understanding of how the body part works before she can use her ability to heal it.
It's not as magical as she just needs to activate her ability, and everything will heal. Similarly, the red potion cannot recover parts of the brain cells that died.
This makes Alex wonder, if someone can revive a brain-dead cell, then theoretically, aren't they able to revive a person?
He then remembers what Vesa told him before, making him sigh.
His theory is not only plausible, but someone out there has already achieved it. And the result is a different person with the same memories since their soul is not there.
'Just what exactly is a soul?' Alex wonders while they move back to the chariot.
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Despite only having one hand, Lily is still able to carry her friend. She insists on doing it by herself.
Lily still feels guilty about what happened; anything she can do for her comrade makes her feel better. Afterward, she stays with her friend while Alex scours the area.
Unfortunately, he cannot find any other survivors, so from the dozen squad members, only three survive, including Lily.
One is in a coma, while the other is probably with the fairy.
When they return back to the mansion, Lily quickly busies herself, taking care of her friend, while William blocks Alex's path.
He kneels down, making Alex frown.
"Please take me with you," William says with determination in his eyes.
"Stand up first, then we can talk about this."
"No, I will not stand up until you promise me you will allow me to go with you."
"Why do you want to go with me?"
"You say even if we can revive her, there's no guarantee it's really her since the soul is different. Then, I want to find out where the soul goes. I want to find her!"
Many thoughts come to Alex's mind; if he had asked this before, he would have felt William would only be a burden, but now he feels differently.
Not only did William show his capability in a fight, but he was also determined and had goals.
"You want to find her soul? Do you realize how absurd that is?
That means you need to find the reality of creation itself that those far stronger than us don't know."
"No matter how absurd, I need to do this! I need to do everything I can, exhausting every single option. Only then can I accept it," William says while clenching his fist.
While waiting for Alex, he thought of many things, such as how he should live his life from now on and how he could fulfill Roxy's wish. In the end, this is the answer he got.
If he stays here, he knows he will only live like a zombie. Time may make him accept this situation, but he doesn't want it.