Michael used True Extraction Essence on the 2512 Numbers he had killed and collected. The corpse pile was massive and looked like the remains of a devil's ritual, but not even a full hour passed before Michael was done extracting the SoulStar Fragments, Soultrait Symbols, Memory Orbs, and the like.

He collected more than 5,000 Memory Orbs with which he could focus on the Blood Incursion and the Numbers' memories related to it. Michael was ready to consume all 5,000 Memory Orbs and learn as much about the Blood Incursion, its effects, and how it affected the body, mind, and soul after it was in effect for a long duration. Michael was curious and didn't have to worry about being negatively affected by the memories. He had the Needle of the Lost Memories to use if something went wrong.

However, before he consumed the Memory Orbs, Michael collected the SoulStar Fragments and Soultrait Symbols. He managed to procure 2,000 SoulStar Fragments using the True Extraction Essence. The probability of extracting a Soultrait was much higher than it used to be. That was Michael's greatest fortune, especially when extracting SoulStar Fragments.

Extraction was an 8-Star Soultrait at this point, and its Essence, combined with the active Cursed Seal - and Major Seal - increased the mass of SoulStar Fragments he could extract at a time. Meanwhile, Greater Enhancement accelerated the process.

That was how Michael ended up procuring 5,150,000 SoulStar Fragments from the Numbers. The majority of Numbers were Tier-4 High Awakened, but there were many Tier-5 and Tier-6 powerhouses among the corpses. Michael went on and beyond to kill as many Numbers as possible and procured a massive fortune.

Five million SoulStar Fragments were enough to upgrade some of his Soultrait Symbols to 8-Star and push the rest of his Soultraits to 7-Star, but Michael didn't rush anything. He had to strengthen Zeke and Kaleb's souls if he wanted to get rid of Blood Incursion soon.

He stored the SoulStar Fragments first and put the Soultrait Symbols away. After that, Michael consumed the Memory Orbs while allowing the Beast God Curses to watch the Numbers' memories.

5,000 Memory Orbs weren't consumed and digested quickly, but Michael was in no rush. He spent the next few days on the Memory Orbs. There was no need for any sleep as he entered a dream-like state while watching the deceased's memories. Once he and his Curses digested the last Memory Orb, Michael used the Needle of the Lost Memories to remove all unnecessary memories before going through the important pieces a second time. [You should watch the memories of Xax Lerion, Meliodas Nimbus, Phillip Kesh,...,...,... a third and maybe fourth time.] Jormungandr said when Michael was done with the second rewatching. He groaned, but since Jomungandr was serious, Michael followed the advice of the World Serpent.

Michael rewatched their memories again and noticed what Jormungandr must have seen the first or second time.

"You think it won't be possible to revert them to their original state because too much time has passed? But others don't have the same resources as we have!"

[Others will never be able to succeed, but we have good chances. Our chances of reverting everything to normal are close to zero, yet because we have so many resources others will never have access to, we might be able to get rid of the Blood Incursion. You will have to compromise. Either you kill them trying to return everything to how it used to be, or you grasp the opportunity to get rid of Blood Incursion. The latter will destroy a lot, but we can reduce the damage to a minimum if we're patient and meticulous. That will require lots of resources, but it should be possible.]

"Do you support Jormungandr's opinion, Fenrir?" Michael asked, feeling conflicted. If possible, he would love to get his friends back. He hoped they would be just like they used to be. However, Michael was also unwilling to harm his friends intentionally, knowing they wouldn't recuperate from the damage he'd caused.

[Jormungandr is very optimistic about this. Until now, we didn't even know the exact name and effects of the method the Supreme Human Alliance uses to brainwash unwilling human targets into devout believers of the Supreme Human Alliance's beliefs. Most devout believers would kill themselves long before anyone could contain and question them. Yet, you did it in a far more simplistic way than I expected to be possible. Still, rescuing your friends won't be easy. We studied them intently for a while now, but I'm still not confident. It should be possible to rescue your friends, but they will sustain some damage. Even strengthening their Souls using SoulStar Fragments alone won't be enough. There has to be moreor you'll have to invest a lot more to prepare them for the worst.]

Michael paled a little but nodded. He didn't like where this was going, but it wasn't like he would give up. It was way too late to give up now.

"Okay What can we do then?" Michael asked, his eyes glimmering with determination.

**

Experimenting.

They had to do that because nobody had cleansed the Blood Incursion before. It was everyone's first time, and they had to find a loophole to start with.

Killing the numbers affected by the incursion was much easier than spending weeks or months experimenting, but it wasn't like killing Zeke, and Kaleb would bring them back to him. He didn't want them to end like the other Numbers.

He and the Beast God Curses worked hard. They first strengthened Zeke and Kaleb's Soul, spending hundreds of thousands of SoulStar Fragments. The procedure was slow because He had to use Insert to channel the SoulStar Fragments inside his friends while the advanced healing serum kept them in a coma. As they strengthened Zeke and Kaleb's Soul, they also worked on their minds. They strengthened their minds while slowly working on their brains and minds using curse power and layers of Greater Enhancement on River of Vigor to create the most potent healing serum. Slowly, the curse power altered their minds while the highly potent healing serum healed all potential damages.

It took a few experiments until the trio discovered a specific way to alter the mind without informing the soul that something had changed. It seemed tricky at first, but the solution was a lot more simplistic. They were still in a coma, and the soul and mind had thus a much harder time communicating. He and the Beast God Curses made it even harder for them to communicate.

The soul was kept busy growing stronger by fragments while the Beast God Curses altered the mind. Several months passed in the blink of an eye. A few experiments failed, but each failure pushed them closer to a solution. After a few months passed, their souls were strong enough. Michael started using the needle to remove all unwanted memories before they cut a portion of their souls out of their bodies.

This step was the most dangerous, and Michael's nearly died. If not for their drastic countermeasure, the situation would have gone south, and both Zeke and Kaleb would have died.

Fortunately, they succeeded. More or less.