Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World!

The next day, Underhill creeps around the throne room, investigating the situation. Nearby, Maria sits at their strategic planning table, still covered in debris from the Sentinel battle.

Underhill ducks, looking into the crab's slightly-open mouth.

"Gods, it's like a whole world in here," he says, barely able to be heard as his echoes bounce off the stone inner walls of Clancy's shell.

"What the hell are you doing?" Maria sneers. "Get out of there. How disrespectful can you be!"

"Just one minute," Underhill shouts, but to her his voice is barely heard. He descends deeper and deeper into the open cavity of the statue, his thirst for adventure consuming him.

"Hmm," he thinks to himself, activating a device on his cane. The tip of his gilded weapon lights up, spreading light throughout the crab shell.

He's in a space so vast it defies reason. The stone shell left behind Clancy is greater than Dimartino castle, and towers over its wreckage. And the insides are completely hollow - an empty husk.

"Gods, I bet we could use this for something…" he thinks to himself, walking forward some distance before something on the ground catches his eye.

Right at his feet rests a small red marble - glowing with a faint sheen of light.

"The hell is this?" he says aloud, picking it up. He turns the marble over in his hand a few times, inspecting it.

He can sense from within there is some great power, though he knows not what. He looks around some more to see if he can find any others, but he only locates the one.

"Is this an egg, big guy?" Underhill chuckles, talking to the hollow shell. "Swallow something you shouldn't have?"

He stares back at the marble. It was illustrious, divine.

He pockets his find. "Well, it's mine now, whatever the hell it is."

He walks out of Clancy's mouth, swinging his cane in an arc. Maria shakes her head in disagreement.

"Done desecrating the King?"

"Now, now, I was just checking it out," Underhill smirks, turning back to the entrance. "The big guy's completely hollow, you know that? Lotta space in there. There's gotta be somethin' we can do with a room that big, eh?"

"Why don't you ask Barns that question?" she hisses.

"Eesh. Yeah, point taken, lady."

He ponders. "Barns is a reasonable businessman. I just need to find the right angle."

As he devises a million-and-one ways to make good economic use of Clancy's husk, Maria slithers out of her chair and walks away, leaving him to his own musings in the hallway.

As she paces down the ruined hallway, Roscoe pokes out of the corner. His arms, still bandaged, hang in splints in front of him like a robot.

"You see Mr. Hero around?" Roscoe asks. "I, uh…have to tell him I've missed training two days in a row…"

Maria looks at the kid in disbelief. "I think he knows," she says, walking away. She curls around the hallway and walks down a flight of stairs, into a more stable part of the castle. Down on this level, it's almost hard to tell that the castle was destroyed at all.

As she turns another corner, she nearly runs into Osmond.

'God damn, can't I be alone anywhere?'

"Oh, my love!" Osmond smiles, racing to her side. "My sweet, beautiful, darling Maria! I've been wondering where you got off to."

"I'm busy."

"O-oh. Right! Of course. My sweet Maria is always so busy…"

She ignores him and continues on her way. He sniffles a bit as he watches her go.

"Well, guess I have no plans for today," the demon sighs, clicking his tongue. "Ah…to have friends…"

He wanders into the castle library - his first time there in a while. He's happy to see it still stands, in excellent shape as always. Maria took exquisite care of this library for the last several years. He couldn't imagine losing it.

Inside, Eldrie is sitting at the large central table, flicking through a book. As he sees Osmond, he rises to his feet and salutes.

"Hello, Sir. If you need the room, I can -"

Osmond shakes his head and flicks his hand. "Stay, stay," he insists, sitting across from him at the table. "We're hardly strangers, don't call me 'Sir'."

"Oh. Of course, Osmond. It's just your wife - girlfriend - whatever she is, usually likes when I call her Ma'am, or Lady Maria, or Princess, or -"

Osmond rolls his tongue and smiles. "Call her whatever you want. She won't mind. And she is my darling fiance! Though she's put off wedding talks for many years, now…"

Eldrie's eyes drift back to his book, turning the page. "I can imagine."

"So what brings you here, Eldrie?" Osmond asks curiously. "Not that I mind. But I don't believe we've crossed paths here before."

"Ah," Eldrie says. "I like reading, but things have been so busy lately. And now that we're in a…lull, I suppose? I had nowhere else to be."

"I'm surprised you aren't enjoying the day with some human friends," Osmond smiles. Loathe as the demon is to admit it, he too yearns for human friends. Outside of Barns' inner circle, he's still a demon, and to many people in Dimartino, he was once their executioner. Didn't make him feel very sociable.

"I suppose I have a kind-of girlfriend," Eldrie smiles to himself. "But friends? Not really. The former vampire with a glowing red eye doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Most people kept away from me even before the eye. Now, it seems like the villagers look at me like I'm a monster."

"I can relate - and I don't imagine I need to explain why."

Eldrie's eyes dart to Osmond's demonic horns. "Yeah."

A moment of silence between the two of them stretches just a second too long - Eldrie breaks it.

"If you need a friend, Osmond, we can hang out anytime. I think after yesterday we all need a friend, huh?"

The demon's face lights up, just like he did when Barns and he became 'bros'.

"Friends. Yes, of course."