Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World!

"I haven’t seen Eldrie since yesterday afternoon. Why, is something wrong?"

Those words hit Barns deeply. Suddenly, Yunie wasn’t just ’not around’. Now, two of their citizens were missing.

"Maria, we need to find Eldrie right away. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?"

She’s surprised by the panic in Barns’ voice. "Tell me what happened."

"Yesterday, Yunie and Eldrie were seen heading to town together, but it sounds like nobody has seen either of them since. She didn’t show up to work. Sounds like Eldrie didn’t either."

Maria furrows her brow, vexed. "Don’t tell me…" she says aloud, her doubts bubbling up to the surface. "Do you think his memories returned?"

"Anything’s possible. We need to find them. Now."

Maria agrees, gathering her things together. She was doing some more reading in the library, but this took precedent.

"And where’s Osmond?"

Maria winces. "He is…also missing," she says. "But I don’t think he’s involved in any of this. From what I gather, he must have learned something from the Memory Stone and went to investigate."

"By himself? That’s insane!" Barns objects.

Maria shakes her head. "He wouldn’t have gone to Ordella by himself. Which means he’s somewhere in Dimartino - or perhaps even at the Pale Court."

"The Pale Court? Why would he -"

Maria clears her throat, interrupting him. "Listen, I know Oz. He would never do something on his own unless it were absolutely urgent."

Barns takes a deep breath. "What a disaster of a morning this is turning out to be. Anyone else missing I should know about?"

"Your crab missed his morning shift taking requests from the people, but I filled in for him. He’s fine - for the record. Seems like he just had a late night."

"Alright. Gather everyone you can. I want everyone looking for Yunie. I’m heading back to town to see what I can learn."

Maria nods. "I’ll have Zelia send you a message if I learn anything."

They split, and Barns rushes to Dimartino’s town in record time. His first stop is the police headquarters - maybe they can actually be useful for once.

"Underhill, I need to put out an APB or whatever it’s called," Barns says, talking over the cute receptionist at the front desk.

"We don’t do that around here, but you can use the public broadcast if you need to get something off your chest, big guy."

"We have two missing people. Yunie and Eldrie. You gonna help with that?"

Underhill’s face shifts from callous to contemplative in an instance. "Yunie, you say?"

Underhill turns to the receptionist. "Go make an announcement, why don’t ya?"

The woman nods and scurries out to the broadcast tower. Underhill sits on her desk and whips out a knife, playing with it as he thinks out loud.

"Yunie’s a nice gal. Would hate to imagine somethin’ untoward happening to her. We got any leads?"

"She came to town yesterday afternoon with Eldrie. From what I can tell, nobody has seen either of them since."

"Tch. I’ll have the boys get on it. They’ve been stir-crazy, my man. If we hear anything, we’ll put an announcement out just for you."

"Thanks, Underhill."

The two chat for a while, discussing possible places to search…

…

Elsewhere, in the Pale Court:

Osmond stands outside the Vampire Lily - the white, smooth stone lair of Francois Lauren Villeteux - as it begins to pry open. Osmond notes a soothing melody coming from within - the sound of a wistful harp.

"Osmond. I’ve been expecting you."

The voice rings from inside the chamber. Osmond narrows his eyes as he steps through the threshold, into Francois’ inner sanctum.

"I was hoping you’d bring the boy," she muses from the back of the room as she strums a grand harp, plucking a mysterious and experimental tune.

"There’s no time for that, Francois. You know why I’m here."

She glances over to him and smiles, but doesn’t stop playing. Her eerie melody hits a crescendo.

"Francois."

She stops - right as he grows insistent, her song comes to a graceful end. She floats gracefully up off the stool onto her feet.

"I saw what the Lord of the Apocalypse gave you. Your Memory Stone - all of it."

"Ooh, yes I believed you would," she says, her words like honey, her distinct accent coming through on every harsh consonant. "But you don’t want to talk about ’the good old days’, do you Osmond?"

"Oh, we have plenty to talk about," Osmond growls. "But you’re right. Francois. A Master Vampire’s weakness - you can only be killed by blood relatives."

She gives him a sinister smirk. "And now you know why that particular secret is not one I mind you knowing." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Osmond narrows his eyes. Francois was a manufactured person - just like him. She didn’t HAVE blood relatives.

"So you’re immortal," Osmond says out loud, hardly believing the words. "And you sent Barns and I on a fool’s errand. We’re not blood relatives of Adea or Adon."

"I see you are only halfway there," Francois shakes her head and clicks her tongue. When she’s alone with Osmond, she has no reason to keep up her lustful act. She glares at him with all the conceit and bitterness she can muster.

"Adea and Adon murdered every single family member they had, and burned them to ash. They kept that urn as a memento. And not even the ’Silver Rake’ weapon is enough to kill a Master Vampire. No. It must be a blood relative."

"It was a suicide mission, and you knew it," Osmond sighs. "I can’t believe it, Francois. For a moment, I thought you might actually have seen reason."

"I can assure you, I am not just trying to kill you all. I would have done it myself."

"Then explain it, Francois! That’s why I’m here."

"Little Osmond, I kept those ashes hidden away for a reason. The twins did not know I had them."

"We would use the ashes as a weapon? Adon and Adea are strong vampires, we can’t just blow ash in their face and expect them to die!"

"Extract the bone fragments for arrowheads. Mix them in gunpowder. Coat your swords in them. Anything. Once Adea and Adon come into contact with them, they will become immediately invulnerable. And if all else fails, well then I suppose you could have them kill each other. I have given you everything you need, Osmond. Your people will just have to figure it out."

A moment of silence, before Francois speaks one more time.

"And once you do, you’ll figure out a way to kill me."