Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World!

As the other train screeches into the station, Skado is immediately upon the passengers, shouting in panic before launching into frantic questioning.

"What’s happening!? Why are you here?" he belts out. Every possibility, no matter how grim, feels real in Skado’s mind. He’s breathing heavy and looks like he’s about to have a panic attack.

The passengers rush off the train, huddled together in a close group and trying to get away as quickly as possible.

"Skado!" the conductor cries, looking at the poisoner. "Oh, Skado, it’s horrible! A vampire is attacking the city!"

"What!?" Skado exclaims. "When did this happen!? Why are you here?"

"We’re just trying to get away!" the conductor sobs. "He attacked not an hour ago! It’s chaos up there, stay away!"

Skado turns to his allies, Barns and Osmond. They’re both awake and ready.

"Absolutely not," Skado says, grinding his teeth. "You see these two with me? This is the legendary hero who restored humanity to Dimartino, and his servant! Come on, guys. Let’s go get that vampire."

"Servant?" Osmond says to himself, but he pushes past the comment for now.

Skado presses a few buttons on the train terminal, and it whirs to life. He pulls a long lever and inputs a code - then, the train begins to move along the tracks.

The train starts its horizontal journey before quickly turning upright at a nearly ninety-degree angle as it climbs higher and higher along the plateau’s side. As the train reaches its top speed, Osmond and Barns exchange a look.

"Does it…go any faster?" Barns says, looking out the window. It’s dark, but there’s no way they’re going faster than five miles an hour.

"Er…no," Skado replies. "The fact it can go this speed at all up a vertical cliff is impressive, though. Isn’t it?"

"Yeah, I guess I just feel like there’s…I dunno, a sense of urgency?"

Skado looks out at the front of the train - the highbeams illuminate the darkness ahead of them. "It won’t take more than five minutes. We’ll be there quickly."

Barns nods. It’s more like a fancy elevator than a train, he supposes. Still, it’s their only way up. They’d have to settle.

"To think he found the hidden city…damn it," Skado slams his fist on the side of the train. "How did he even get up there!?"

Osmond offers a possible answer. "His sister, Adea - she was capable of flight, at least after she transformed herself," Osmond recalls. "It makes sense that Adon would be able to as well."

Skado shakes his head. "Impossible. Unless…"

He turns to Osmond. "You didn’t kill Adea, did you? But you found her dead?"

The demon scratches his head. "My sweet Maria finished her off - but yes, I believe she was still alive for some time after the battle. Though her head was severed and chewed on a bit."

"Fuck," Skado winces, running his hands through his hair. "How didn’t I think of this…Adea wasn’t killed by any of you. Her brother killed her and stole her powers. That would explain everything - and it would mean he’s capable of flying."

"Whoa, you mean to tell me Adon killed his own sister?" Barns grimaces. "Just when I thought that scumbag couldn’t get any more evil."

Skado nods. As studied as he is on monsters and vampires, he knows well how they operate. Each vampire is created with one special bloodline ability. From his research, he knew that Adea could transform herself into a winged beast and turn herself into bats. Adon’s power, however, is the creation of barbed thorns that could remotely suck blood.

’Although,’ Skado thinks, ’that still doesn’t explain the unnatural eclipse that occurred in Ordella. Did Adon absorb yet another vampire’s power?’

When they reach the top of the plateau, the train platform is filled with anxious civilians who are trying to escape the vampire. Skado, Barns, and Osmond push past them - though the sight of Osmond only serves to strike greater fear into the gathered crowd.

"Can you, I don’t know, look less demonic?" Skado says frantically as they run along the top of the Chatran Plateau. There are many old-style mansions around, though none of them seem to be occupied. A beautiful historic district, lost to time.

Skado keys open the gaudy front door of a quaint baby-blue mansion and hurries down the stairs into the basement. Barns and Osmond follow closely. As they reach the basement, Skado taps twice on a sealed metal door.

"Euchronia," Skado says through the door.

"What color was the wine at Edo’s Castle?" asks a quiet voice from the other side of the white metal door.

"Damn it, Ben, it’s Skado! We don’t have time for codes!"

The door is quickly opened, and a young, doe-eyed recruit is staring back at them. "We don’t know how it happened," he says. "But the vampire got in through the main entrance somehow! Skado, can you do something?"

The skilled poisoner smirks. "Oh, I can do something alright. Don’t you worry - we’re killing this vampire."

"Sounds like I can come along?" Osmond says.

The boy, Ben, looks at Osmond with fear, but Skado reassures him.

"This is a tamed demon, nothing to worry about," Skado smiles. "Keep your eyes peeled, Ben. Call me the second you see ANYTHING and let the other guards know the demon is with me."

"O-okay, sir!"

The trio rushes down a white hallway and down a long flight of metal stairs. When Skado opens the door at the bottom, Barns and Osmond are absolutely spellbound.

Skado reveals the ’Hidden City’ to them both - a gargantuan, hollow underground space that stretches so low it makes Barns queasy. Around the cylindrical open space, a labyrinth of interconnected passages and buildings rise from the abyss, illuminated by soft orange light.

It’s a thriving, bustling space during the day - but right now it’s the middle of the night, and there’s a vampire visible at the level below them, playing with a young woman’s corpse with sickly delight.

"Adon!" Barns shouts, so loud that his voice echoes throughout the entire city. His fists tremble with anger, and his Silver Rake claws shoot out from his gauntlet.

The vampire hears him from the level below, turning his head and baring his teeth angrily.

"Little boy hero!" Adon calls over the chaos. A defender of the Hidden City attempts to attack Adon, but the vampire flips him over and slits his throat before he can so much as land a single blow.

"I see you’ve come to play! I do hope you’re ready for a show!"