“We have dried up death energies inside our bodies,” he seemed to get my silence wrong, “but in a few days here, I’m sure this number will get at least tripled if not more.”

“Cool,” I nodded so he wouldn’t get the wrong idea again.

“Also… If there are big battles out there, we can let our skeletons fight while we train here,” he kept saying, “like this we can increase our strength while training here and by the energy given to us from these skeletons.”

“Right now? It’s all peaceful but… Soon we will get zombies running havoc around my lands.”

“We can deal with these poor creatures,” a weird sigh came from him, making me frown.

This was the first time ever to see someone showing such empathy towards those fierce and bloody violent zombies.

Was he getting the wrong meaning here or what?

“Lord, zombies were originally a race like us,” and just when I was lost in my doubts, he dropped such a bomb to me, “in fact they are similar, a cursed race.”

“No way!!!”

“It’s not those insanely mindless poor things created by the blood of the original zombies, but the real zombies are the race I’m talking about.”

“Go on…” I didn’t believe a single word of what he said. Those filthy and bloody zombies were a race? But it seemed he knew a secret that I didn’t know about them.

He spoke about them in such a way that classified them. In my eyes, zombies were all the same.

There was a higher form of their breed when they controlled towns and cities, creating those cursed dens to bring more of their cursed kind.

But what was the dire in hearing another story, a different one, about them?

I came here after listening to all the stories from the old man, thinking he was mad and such. But eventually things turned out that he wasn’t! And everything he spoke about became reality and true.

“The zombies in the apocalypse are created by the blood fog coming from the original zombies. In each apocalypse, only few will turn to real zombies but… They will die in the end.”

“On our hands?” I asked.

“No, lord, they will die out of their curse,” he sighed in a bitter way again, a reaction that I couldn’t accept when talking about the zombies, “they… Shouldn’t get infected with their blood and instead should get some sort of healing to counter the toxin running through their veins. So when they are born, they’ll get a severe and fierce assault from their blood, ending up dying one by one in the end.”

“This…” I never expected such a thing to happen.

“In fact, with a healing effect around them, many of the zombies will change. The ones you know and hear stories about are just insane thanks to that poison running in their veins. Countering that will result in a different story and breed.”

“You mean… We shall treat them instead of hunting them down? No way!!” I still couldn’t accept what he said.

“Not like that,” and finally he started to speak in a more sane way, “the early waves of zombies must be killed. Their infection isn’t like what the original zombies had.”

“You… Are they confusing me right now…” I honestly said, “if I was going to kill them, then how come you are also expecting me to step in and heal them with potions?”

“Not potions, any potion or even skill won’t help,” he shook his head, adding more to my confusion, “lord, the zombies you are facing can’t be considered ones. They are just a hybrid between races and zombies. But what I’m speaking about is the true zombies found in big settlements in any apocalypse.”

“The zombie dens? No way! This is the true plaque of these zombies!”

“Not if you can uproot such plaque from its roots.”

“Yes, let me go there and rain down hell over their heads! But once a den is created in a place, it won’t go away no matter what! Even burying it won’t help!”

“There is a way,” he was still focused on such a thing, “healing them is the way.”

“Yes, speaking like those crazy folks before the time of the apocalypse, praying is the way.”

“I… Don’t get your point, lord. But what I mean is that each den is created by the real zombie body getting formed underneath. Using healing energy will accelerate the process fast. Instead of using blood of races killed on the hands of those insane hybrids to form their bodies in the wrong way, getting cursed and infected and dying in the end, using healing will purify their impurities and counter their curse, letting them live like what they once were, a mighty race!”

“…”

Well… I had to admit this Tove was really enthusiastic about helping those zombies. I wanted to help them as well, but by killing them and preventing such a disaster from happening.

“Lord, please can you help them? Please?” and as I was looking at him in a weird way, he finally blurted out what I feared him to ask.

“This… I can’t risk the fate of my kingdom on some random theory you got.”

“It’s not! Lord, just listen… All you need is to find a source of a mighty healing energy. Not potions, not healing coming from items, not even healing skills. Just find any pure healing energy, that only can help them.”

“This…” I paused as what he said resonated with something I already had!

“In the apocalypse, and not matter how hard you try, no one can stop these zombies from controlling cities and towns, right?”

Well, Tove got a point here. Even if I did everything in my power, few parts of my kingdom were destined to be doomed with this infestation.

“And?”

“When that happens, you won’t lose a thing by trying my method out, right?”

“What if it backlashes and brings more terrifying zombies to my world?”