Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World!

The skies above Dimartino are finally clear.

A full day has passed since the battle.

Barns activated the barrier and returned thirty thousand to life.

The Kingdom of Dimartino is now 61,755 strong.

The streets are filled with movement again, not chaos, but coordination. The town square is being scrubbed. Monster blood and ash hosed down by volunteers, children tossing buckets, adults laughing for the first time in weeks. There is music.

Hope.

It's infectious in Dimartino. The trauma of losing King Clancy is beginning to fade, and all anyone can remember is this most recent victory.

A horde of thirty thousand undead, slain and resurrected under the guidance of Barns.

A monstrous Zombie Lord named Corpsie, successfully detained and currently held underground in the police station.

And - the biggest moment of all - Osmond and Maria. The two new heroes of Dimartino. The ones responsible for killing one of the legendary Sentinels - a group of villains they once believed to be infallible now is down one member.

Barns walks through the heart of it all, a cape now tied around his shoulders. Not crimson, not gold—but blue, sapphire, like the waters of Scuttle Island. The color that reminds Barns most of Clancy.

A gift from Maria.

Everyone watches him. Not because he demands it, but because they want to. Because he's the one who brought them back. The one who stood in front of the undead. The one who bled and lost his best friend to fight for the kingdom he now oversees.

He approaches the castle - what remains of it. The east wing is in ruins, held up by the kaiju statue of Clancy. The old throne room is gone. But what the castle represents - the Kingdom of Dimartino - is as strong as ever.

Osmond and Maria flank the steps of the castle. Godrick stands with the Adventurers. Underhill rests a boot on a crate, in full uniform as he taps his foot impatiently. Eldrie nods from his perch nearby, watching over everything with a measured contentment.

A silence falls.

Barns takes the crown offered up by Maria and places it upon his head.

It isn't dramatic. There's no system alert. No magical choir. Just the weight of it. The meaning.

A young girl in the crowd shouts, "LONG LIVE KING BARNS!"

The crowd echoes.

"Long live King Barns!"

And with that, Dimartino has a ruler.

…

Later, in a private chamber deep beneath the police station, Barns, Absalom, and Underhill stand guard cautiously, surrounded by no less than seven police officers assigned to monitor the situation.

The containment field flickers in eerie pulses. Inside it, the empty spacesuit that once held Corpsie floats slightly above the floor. Runes glow beneath it, keeping it locked in place.

No movement. But the monster is clearly inside.

"This SUCKS!" comes a shrill voice from within the suit. "Let me out, King? We can play some more. You can't keep me in here forever, and you can't kill me. So you might as well LET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"

The possessed cosmonaut slams against its constraints, but to no avail. It can't escape - not while the police force's watchful eyes remain on it.

"It will…take me some time…but I can extract the power of Necromancy from it."

"Like HELL you will!" the spacesuit rattles.

Barns nods. The kingly look suits him well.

"No rush, Absalom. Though I don't think I'll be visiting again until you've figured it out. This stupid astronaut has already made me lose enough sleep."

…

Meanwhile, in a quiet grove outside the kingdom, a figure steps from a tear in space.

Edel.

She moves barefoot across the grass, untouched by the wind, her silver hair unbothered by the world around her. The birds scatter, fleeing her unnatural presence. She lifts a hand, and the very air turns dark.

She watches the barrier from afar, her eyes reflecting every death, every life, every soul.

"So the crab truly did it," she murmurs. "An impenetrable barrier. Hmm…"

Behind her, the Bloodhound emerges.

"Franzel failed."

"Of course he did," Edel replies. Her eyes cast themselves skyward. Even from this distance, she can recognize the corpse of her fallen comrade pinned to the top of the barrier. "But he did what I required. The throne is filled. The pieces are aligned. Now, we begin the final game."

She reaches into her robes and removes a blackened bone.

It pulses.

"Emperor Yharan. It would appear your half-brother has ascended the throne of Dimartino. Curious."

…

Back in Dimartino, Barns stands alone in the broken throne room, watching the horizon.

The kingdom breathes. The people are alive.

He rests in his chair. There's a lot to ponder. But for now, he's earned himself a moment of rest.

They all have.

Eldrie leads the efforts to acclimate the new townsfolk to Dimartino, while Maria and Osmond are enjoying their new status as 'heroes' of the Kingdom.

Lives were lost in the battle - many who could not be resurrected, even with Barns' power. But it was not for naught - the kingdom is strong. Stronger than ever.

Quinn the mayor struggles to handle his new responsibilities, and Underhill oversees the monitoring of the evil being known as Corpsie. In the lower levels, Roscoe, still recovering from his injuries, fiddles with Zelia's console in an attempt to make more useful discoveries for the Adventurer Guild.

"Just one other loose end for now…"

Just as Barns thinks it, a figure emerges from the shadows. Cool, calculating, with a sensual aura and a sweet voice. Francois.

"Thinking about a girl, are you?" she says, her red eyes the only thing visible in her shroud of darkness.

"Yeah. Haima."

"Hm. She will be back. I can sense it. She has a very important role to play…as do you, little King."

"Little?"

Francois' eyes lid downward. "Mine is the power of desire itself. You know it as Lust. But it is the power to attain that whichever you want most."

Barns nods. "But it's not Haima I want most…"

"I know. So then why don't you check in your pocket?"

Barns raises an eyebrow before reaching into his pocket.

All he has on him is the small red marble he recovered from Underhill.

"Yeah, what abou-"

As he spoke, the marble began to crack. And from it, a small little red crab pops out.

Barns' eyes open wide. He can't believe what he's seeing - can't understand it.

But it becomes clear in a single moment.

"BARNACLES!"