After three full days without eating, drinking, or closing his eyes, Shiro finally completed the treatment conditions. However, Law was still sleeping soundly, with no sign of waking up.
Even though the treatment was over, Shiro felt uneasy for some reason, unable to put his finger on why. It was the first time he'd felt this way.
Perhaps it was also because Law was sleeping so deeply, and with the illness being a headache, it was hard to gauge the result of the treatment.
Shiro didn't wake Law. Knov took him out of the room.
Passing through the doorway into another room, the group led by Machi quickly gathered around.
"How's Law? Still not awake yet?"
Shiro was taken aback for a moment, then replied weakly, "Still sleeping. He should be fine."
"That's good."
Machi and the others breathed a sigh of relief.
They had all finished reading the information written down by Bruna and knew why Law had been sleeping for three days without waking.
But with a fantasy-type healing ability like Shiro's, it should be fine.
While everyone else felt reassured, Ging alone sensed something wrong from Shiro's reply.
It was only when he lacked confidence that Shiro used words like 'should'.
Ging wanted to ask more carefully, but seeing Shiro's exhausted expression and heavy dark circles, he dropped the idea.
Shiro exchanged a few perfunctory words and went to sleep without even eating. Among everyone, he was the only one who hadn't read the information yet.
Time passed, and half a month flew by in the blink of an eye.
During these fifteen days, Knov worked hard to eliminate the entrances and exits set up in the Forest of Medusa, but after nearly twenty days of effort, he wasn't even halfway done.
Additionally, Law still hadn't woken up, having slept for a full eighteen days.
If not for his vital signs being normal, Machi and the others would have wanted to use violent means to wake Law up.
They didn't know how much longer Law would sleep, so all they could do was administer IV fluids regularly every day.
Another ten days passed. Law had slept for a month and still hadn't woken up.
During this time he slept, it was also the time the Skeleton left the group.
After regaining his freedom, the Skeleton chose a route opposite to Law and the others. Having absorbed the silver-haired woman's energy, his physical abilities and powers had become stronger than before, so he easily dealt with any dangers encountered along the way.
The Skeleton had no particular place he wanted to go, nor any clear goal.
As long as he could ensure his survival, anywhere was the same to him.
He wandered aimlessly across a vast grassland. A strong wind blew, pressing the tips of the meter-tall grass into waves that spread into the distance.
'Maybe I should just go back to the underground world...'
For some reason, the Skeleton suddenly felt somewhat unaccustomed to this rootless, drifting existence.
An unfamiliar feeling sprouting from an unknown corner made him want to quickly find a destination.
So, he decided to return to the underground world.
It was a place overrun with Bone Tribes, a region abundant with food. The only thing he might need to be wary of was the Black Brick, whose whereabouts were unknown.
Having decided on his destination, the Skeleton seemed to find motivation and immediately quickened his pace.
His slightly tall and robust frame moved rapidly across the boundless grassland.
After running for about fifteen minutes, the Skeleton seemed to sense something. He looked up, and the red light in his eyes immediately spread.
In the sky ahead, a massive, translucent, umbrella-shaped jellyfish was plummeting downwards.
Through its gelatinous body, one could clearly see a large, unknown bird curled up inside the jellyfish. The bird was equally huge, though not as large as the jellyfish.
Presumably, the unknown bird had been eaten by the jellyfish.
"Couldn't you fly somewhere else?"
Seeing the direction of the jellyfish's 'crash landing', the Skeleton cursed under his breath and quickly ran to one side.
He barely managed to escape the impact zone when the large jellyfish crashed onto the grass with a loud bang.
The ring of air from the impact pushed the Skeleton away, sending him tumbling into dust and smoke mixed with a large amount of grass debris.
After a moment, the Skeleton got up from the grass. The surrounding smoke and dust hadn't yet dispersed, obscuring his vision.
Being pushed back by the air wave alone wouldn't hurt him.
'Did those two monsters take each other out?'
The Skeleton pondered the reason for the jellyfish's crash.
Suddenly, the wind howled, blowing the lingering smoke and dust into the air.
The Skeleton then saw the jellyfish's severely damaged body, and part of the giant unknown bird that had been swallowed had already protruded from the jellyfish's exterior.
Even though the jellyfish and the unknown bird both appeared to be dead, the Skeleton didn't intend to linger any longer.
Even if the unknown bird's wing bones might be a good supplement for him, he didn't want to take the risk.
The Skeleton had just turned around when an explosive sound came from behind.
"Huh?"
The Skeleton whirled around and saw a blood wave mixed with flesh and feathers burst out from the jellyfish's body, more precisely, from the unknown bird's throat.
The astonishingly powerful blood wave flew into the air, then turned into a rain of blood that poured down.
'Is that... Nen?'
The red light in the Skeleton's eyes flickered; he could clearly see the Nen within the blood rain.
'No, it's a person.'
But quickly, the Skeleton saw the true nature of that Nen: a human completely drenched in blood.
Almost without any hesitation, the Skeleton fled in a panic.
No matter who that person was, he didn't want to make contact, not even to exchange a single glance.
Amidst the falling blood rain, the human descending towards the ground clearly noticed the Skeleton running wildly across the grassland.
"A Bone Tribe's member?"
The person muttered to himself. The Nen swirling beneath his feet suddenly transformed into black shadows, moulding itself into two springs.
Twang!
The springs rapidly compressed and then quickly released.
The human then flew over like lightning.
Within mere moments, the human caught up from behind and landed in front of the Skeleton, stopping him.
Startled, the Skeleton braked hastily, instantly entering a battle-ready state as he cautiously eyed the human draped in a robe before him.
"This is my first time seeing a Bone Tribe's member outside the underground world."
The man's tone held a hint of surprise. He gave his body a slight shake, and the blood and flesh fragments clinging to his robe scattered to the ground, revealing the original color… black.
After closely seeing the newcomer's attire, the red light in the Skeleton's eyes slowly intensified. He vaguely recognized the person's identity and couldn't help but exclaim, "Don Freecss!?"
"Oh?"
The human was startled, looking at the Skeleton in surprise.
Seemingly amazed that the other knew his name.
...
Meanwhile, on the New Continent, inside an underground base built beneath a large mountain.
In a bright, enormous room, rows of tubular nutrient tanks over two meters tall were lined up.
Inside each nutrient tank was a child of varying age, frozen in suspended animation.
The older ones were about eight years old, while the smaller ones were... only fist-sized embryos, as if directly extracted from a womb.
Standing in front of one nutrient tank was a tall, robust man. It was Giles, one of the directors of the International Permit Agencies.
At that moment, he was silently watching the blond baby inside the tank.
This baby was Kincaid, who had come back with him.