Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World!

As Barns steps through the north gate of Dimartino, he sees Roscoe waiting for him, hopeful. The boy has no idea what’s coming.

Roscoe’s eyes light up as Barns approaches. "Did you find my sister?"

Skado keeps his distance behind. This is not a conversation he needs to inject himself into.

Barns clears his throat. It tightens, choking his words.

"Can we go inside? I’d rather talk sitting down."

"Just tell me where Yunie is!"

The hero blinks. If this is part of the job description, being a legendary hero is tougher than it seems. If only killing monsters and saving the world were enough.

"Roscoe…Yunie died fighting the Master Vampire Adon."

How could a kingdom so bright in contrast to the dark world around them suddenly seem so devoid of color? The once vibrant colors of fruit growing on trees now seem pale.

Verdant foliage gives way to dying brown leaves chewed to bits by ravenous insects.

Air that once carried on it a song of freedom and change now stings, bitter cold for this time of year. Unpleasant.

Clouds form in the sky above, growing darker.

It’s all Barns can pay attention to, because looking at Roscoe is too much for him to bear.

The boy falls to his knees, then collapses forward onto his elbows, forehead pressed against the stone. Then, he screams. A broken scream that shatters the serenity of the moment. He wails in sorrow, sobbing and banging his fists into the stony ground until they bleed.

Barns stares past the boy at the castle. The mighty stone fortress seemed as if it were plucked from the pages of a fantasy novel the first time he laid eyes upon it. Now, the cracking sun-bleached stone bears a certain drab ugliness.

"HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN!?" Roscoe screams. "WHY! WHY! WE JUST FOUND EACH OTHER AGAIN!"

Barns still cannot look at the boy. Tears stream down his face, and finding the right words is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Skado steps forward, seeing how devoid of hope the two young men standing with him are. It’s a small comfort, but he feels like he knows what to say.

"Young man. Your sister is gone, but she is not forgotten. Let her memory become your strength, not your weakness."

Roscoe gasps. His eyes tremble upward from the gravel, looking at Skado as if noticing him for the first time.

"Who are you? What do you know?" he says, teary-eyed and defeated. Skado’s expression softens, though something else flickers in his gaze. A glint of sly cunning, like he’s memorizing this moment.

"I am someone who lost my entire family when I was no older than you. Someone who cast aside valuable years in grief - someone who lived long enough to regret not becoming stronger sooner, so that I may have stopped even one more person from suffering my same fate."

Barns reaches his hand out to Roscoe and helps the boy up. He pats him on the head, ruffling his hair.

"Come on, let’s get you inside, okay?"

Barns leads Roscoe through the entryway to the castle. He has other things he needs to accomplish today, but it doesn’t feel right leaving Roscoe all alone like this. Thankfully, he sees someone walking by as he enters the castle.

"Oh, hello!" Barns calls, waving down the woman. The former queen of Dimartino, and Barns’ biological mother, turns to face the group.

"Hello, Hero. I hope you are well. Please, excuse me…"

"Mom. Or..whatever you want to be called. Please don’t go. I need a favor."

The woman stops in her tracks, visibly bothered. She turns slowly toward him and tilts her head.

"This is Roscoe."

The woman scrunches her nose. "Yes, I have seen him around many times. What of it?"

"Can you…look after him today, for me?"

"I can look after myself," Roscoe says flatly.

Barns shakes his head. "I don’t want you alone today, Ros. By my authority as legendary hero, I simply gotta insist."

Roscoe sniffles - some warmth returning to him. It has been a long time since anyone called him ’Ros’. It was a childhood nickname he’d almost forgotten about.

The former queen bows her head. "I would be glad to look after the boy for as long as he needs."

Barns squeezes Roscoe’s shoulder and pushes him forward. Part of him already sees Roscoe as a younger brother he never had. "Thank you. Make sure he gets plenty of rest, okay? I’ll be back whenever I can."

As the former queen escorts Roscoe to the kitchen, Barns looks at Skado one more time.

"There’s one other task I need to check off while we’re in the castle. Seems like Zelia and I need to have a little chat."

"Z-Zelia?" Skado asks. He plays ignorant, but it seems almost as if he recognizes the name.

"Yeah, she’s our ’Administrator’," Barns says, not noticing Skado’s suspicious response. "Sorry to drag you around like this. I’m sure you’re eager to get back home."

Skado shakes his head as they walk down into the basement of the castle. "I collect information for a living, Barns. I quite enjoy this tour through your civilization."

"I thought you said you were a poisoner?" Barns smirks as they enter the system control room. Skado’s eyes dart around in a crazed manner, as he absorbs every little detail.

"Could anyone be a poisoner without also being a conduit of information?" Skado wonders aloud. "Something just fine to a human could be anathema to a vampire."

The poisoner continues monologuing - the opportunity to talk about his interests transforms him as he devolves into his bookish fascinations. "Ah, here is a wonderful example. Through my studies, I learned that goblins have a similar constitution to humans - though with a tragically weak immune system. It was my idea to capture one and infect it with syphilis - then we let it run back home. The infection spread through their entire population. Barns, nobody has seen a goblin where I’m from in years. The syphilis tore through each and every one of them."

Skado seems a little too happy talking about this. "Ah, and the kobolds…they need to hydrate their skin every few hours, or they begin to crack and blister. Imagine their surprise when all the water sources near my city became infected with a parasite that simply loves to burrow into a kobold’s tender flesh…"

The conversation is interrupted when the large screen in front of them flashes on, and Zelia stares back. "Welcome back, ’Legendary Hero’. Now, let’s talk about the future."