Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World!

"We need to name a new Moderator. Oh, and I’ve been thinking about Weekly Quests too. Something to push you all out of your comfort zone, hehe…"

Zelia covers her mouth with a long strand of hair. "Oh! Where are my manners. I didn’t notice you have a guest with you. Hello, guest!"

Skado waves meekly. "An Administrator in the flesh - theoretically speaking, of course. I never thought I’d meet one." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

He eyes Barns as he speaks, watching the hero carefully.

"Zelia, this is Skado. He, uh…poisons things."

"Oh, now that is a splendid power."

"Let’s just focus here," Barns says, not wanting to get off-track. "You said it, Zelia - we need a new Moderator. As much as I hate to replace Yunie, the whole economy of Dimartino relies on those quests."

"I can handle the quests from here - don’t worry about that. What’s more, Maria is a fine Moderator for Dimartino. No, Barns. We need a Moderator for Ordella."

Barns’ eyes widen.

"To expand my sphere of influence, of course," Zelia smirks. "What, you don’t think I’m doing this all for you, do you?"

Zelia’s voice is callous and uncharacteristically cold. Barns finds it unnerving.

"I’ll leave that up to you to decide. And once you do, that person can offer quests in Ordella as well. For now, just have someone from the Adventurer Guild stop by here once a day and I will provide them with quests. Thank you."

There’s a clicking sound in Zelia’s audio before she speaks again. "Have I satisfactorily answered all of your questions?"

"You’re quite…transactional, today," Barns furrows his brow. Something seems different - or is this how Zelia always acts? Barns is admittedly not in his usual headspace either, with the weight of everything that happened in Ordella still heavy on his shoulders.

"A pleasure to serve you. Good bye, Barnacles."

He stiffens when she says his name. There’s an insidiousness to the way she accentuates the syllables…or is it all in Barns’ head?

As the two men leave, Skado can’t help but remark. "Your Administrator sure is unique, isn’t she?"

"She’s always been so kind. Maybe she’s upset about Yunie’s death and doesn’t know how to express herself…"

’Or maybe it’s something else,’ Barns fears.

Rattled, Barns finds his way back to the first floor of the castle. His next course of action - to find Underhill.

As Barns sets out to locate Maria, she’s also thinking about him from her resting place.

Maria turns in her infirmary bed, a shot of pain shooting through her leg. Her wound had been healed, miraculously - but it still hurt like hell. She faces Osmond, who’s sitting in a chair at her side.

"Still no news from the hero brat, huh?" Maria grumbles, stuffing her face into her pillow.

"Underhill is out looking for him now. It sounds like they were victorious in Ordella."

Maria groans, still in pain. "Well good on them," she responds, her voice bored and flat.

Osmond smiles at his girl, stroking her golden locks as he admires her beauty. "You were incredible, Maria. You saved my life. How did you even know where to find me?"

She peeks out from the blankets. "Tch. As if I would ever let you die. You should know by now, this world bows entirely to me! If I want something, I get it."

"Now, there’s my sweet Maria!" Osmond blushes. Her world-conquering talk always gets him going.

"I never thought pain could be so…unpleasant. And yet that bitch vampire’s teeth sure did a number on me, eh?"

Osmond glances at her leg for just a moment. "To think you could survive such an injury, and Underhill would be able to heal it…yes, Maria, it is truly remarkable. A sign from the heavens - proof that you are destined to do great things, my love. I mean - truly! A human defeated a Master Vampire in single combat! Such a thing is unheard of, my sweet Maria."

"Well, I won’t be doing it again anytime soon, Oz. I used that technique."

Osmond peers at her knowingly. Her ultimate ability - ’Ave Maria’. But as she uses it, she gradually loses her golden plumes. Depending on how hard she pushed herself, it could take months for her power to restore itself fully - longer if her body is dedicated to healing the grievous wound on her leg.

Maria’s passing curiosity leads her to the System menu, where she clicks a few screens simultaneously to cause the System to glitch. From there, she is able to easily access the System Logs. She reviews the most recent messages.

[Progress: 6789/1000000]

"He’s doing well," Maria says, a comforting warmth flooding through her. "Soon we might need an actual government, Oz. Our kingdom has grown large."

"And larger, still. Francois has offered twenty thousand humans to our cause."

"Do you trust her?" Maria asks.

Osmond stares into the distance, looking away from Maria for some time. Not long ago, Osmond saw the contents of Francois’ Memory Stone. He knows more about the vampire than he ever thought he would.

"I trust her completely," Osmond says. With what he knows now, Francois has few secrets to keep from Osmond. And the ties that bind them as ’brother and sister’ go far deeper than he ever imagined.

"My dove, is it alright if I go for a quick walk?" Osmond asks. Maria shoos him away, and he steps outside.

He lets the outside air fill his lungs - there’s still a bit of coolness to the air from the night before, but as surely as the sun rises in the sky, the trademark Dimartino heat would be upon them all soon enough.

He stands outside Underhill’s private infirmary for some time, cursing himself for not being a stronger adversary to Adea. If he had only fought harder, Maria might not have suffered. He resolves himself - he must get stronger, if he is going to protect Maria. He’d dive deeper into his true demonic power, and learn how to control it. This was too close a call.

As he ruminates, he sees a familiar face walking down the street - none other than Barns, with a suspicious stranger in tow. Osmond makes his move - there’s something that must be done, and now is as good a time as any.

"Barnie," he says quickly. "We need to talk privately, right now."