"So this is everyone?" The Timekeeper's critical eye swept across the room as she placed her palms against the table. "Are you sure you checked the sign Slade?"
"Trust me, I tried."
Shaking my head, the Messenger patted her comrades shoulder.
"It's no use Timekeeper, even if time were to rewind, it doesn't change the fact that they've all been killed, you made sure to see for yourself."
The Queen's distorted voice echoed across the small room.
"Pardon me for a moment, but did you just say that the other cell sealers have been slain?"
And there I was, sitting in a corner watching this occur as the Queen was being tended to by two servants.
The last one was sitting right next to me holding a dagger causing a brief sense of dissonance in me since I couldn't recall which one of the servants used the dagger.
But moving on from the unidentifiable subtly threatening Servant sat next to me with a dagger pointed at my waist that would cause a debilitating wound, the room the meeting was held in wasn't a particularly large one.
Held in the middle of the Fishing Port, Stilt Village, the still standing structure placed over murky waters was surprisingly clean when I had entered it.
I thought that the Messenger and Timekeeper who had come here before me had a hand in that, but as it turns out, it was just left alone during the outbreak.
Not much use holding meetings over finances and trade if there was no trade to be had in the first place.
It also seemed to have been ignored by other time loopers due to the fact that it doesn't have anything valuable to be looted at the very start of each loop.
So it was clean.
But moving on from the seeming cleanliness of the Meeting Room, the content of their conversation was of concern.
"So. To summarise. Of the five sections of Boss Cell which we had further split into ten parts to seal and protect them ourselves, hiding the boss cell from each other in the off chance that we got greedy for the power within-"
The Queen's grip around the chair broke it's armrest.
"-Only the four of us still live, leaving 3 Boss cells in unknown hands? Am I getting that correct?"
"Two Actually."
"Pardon?"
"Slade over here, the one who brought you here has a Boss cell of his own that he had retrieved from a vampire."
I waved.
"..."
Pausing at the sight, the Queen seemed set on saying something but shook her head and spoke of something else.
"That doesn't change the fact of the matter, over half of the Boss Cell Sealers had died, and it wasn't until this man brought it up to the two of you that it came to our attention that they were being hunted for the boss cells in their possession."
The Queen's voice distorted dangerously.
"It's only now that we know that someone out there is capable enough to kill us and skillful enough to timebreak our wounds has appeared."
"Not really."
"Pardon?"
Turning to look at me, the Timekeeper bluntly spoke "Explain."
Crossing my arms, my hand reached into space and retrieved a glowing orange purple cored orb bursting with tangible power as an indiscernible weight pressed down on everyone present.
Briefly pausing but shrugging off the sudden discomfort, I continued.
"This particular ugly core of malaise I tore out the chest of a vampire Count, now how I did that is a long story-"
Raising up to the light and causing it to shift and refract strangely, a story of how I had come to find Dracule the Vampire Count came out of my mouth unbidden.
"-But in the end, if it weren't for him definitely being under the influence of insanity, I doubt that I could've taken him."
"..." The Timekeeper's fingers tapped against the table before she opened her mouth. "...And how does this help us?"
"Simple, the people who took the Boss Cells are several."
I raised my hand and brought down two fingers. "For the time being, two of the five boss cells are still currently in our possession."
I brought down another finger. "After slaying the Vampire Count, that number is raised to three."
"This leaves us with two whole boss cells that are left." I raised my two fingers causing the silent Messenger to chime in curiously.
"And how does this aide us in our current predicament where we do not know who our enemy is?"
"Counterpoint. Enemies. And Simple. Power"
I pulled down both of my fingers and raised the Boss cell in my hands like a trophy.
"Now I don't know how long you guys have been holding your halves of the boss cell under seal for the sake of my sanity, but I do know that when put together, the Boss cell is an extremely potent power source."
"A power source that could drive you mad sure, but in the end, if you didn't care about the dangers, the possible strength that it can bring you is..." My mind recalled the fight before and after Count Dracula transformed into the green monster.
"Roughly five fold."
"Now why am I saying this?" I raised two fingers again. "If the one who had slain your comrades implanted two boss cells into their body through some means..."
"-Then they would've come to take the Boss Cell from us already without hiding." The Messenger finished, a smile covering her face as her Red Snake Tail shook lightly. "That's a new perspective."
The Timekeeper crossed her arms. "But that's under the assumption that they even know where we are in the first place."
"To be fair, unless you guys are literally doing everything you can to hide, I'm pretty sure it's hard to hide that extremely eye catching sealing ritual you three do every end of the month."
The Timekeeper raised her hand to speak only to stop and lower their hand before raising it again.
"Then what about the assumption that they couldn't take the power of putting a Boss Cell into their body? It's an extremely dangerous endeavor."
"I don't know, I for one would've searched for a way to safely integrate the power of the Boss Cell into my body before adding the addition of another volatile power source that could kill me."
"Also, if they're putting a literal plague into their body, I doubt that they're as concerned about safety as we are." I added as an afterthought.
"Insanity"
"They're not pretending to be sane in the slightest."
Shaking her head and falling silent, the Messenger took this as their chance to open their mouth.
"...Now that the topic of the Boss cells have been covered, can we talk about the cure for the malaise?"
Five pairs of eyes looked at her as if she were insane while a pair of orange eyes stared at this entire scene in complete befuddlement.
'Isn't it a given to think about a cure for the malaise?' I briefly thought before the Servant besides me broke their silence making m ears perk up.
Would I find out who the mystery servant was?
"Do you think that's even possible Messenger? You've seen the Alchemist driven to death by the disease just like I did, if that man couldn't find a cure, then I doubt anyone else can."
Nope, just recalled that they all sound exactly the same.
If it weren't for the fact that they all wielded extremely distinct weaponry, I doubt I would've been able to tell them apart.
But moving on.
Staring at the Servant wielding a dagger showing off mild animosity and reluctance, the Messenger instead silently pulled out a large scroll from within their nun's robe.
Eyes now focusing on the scroll and not her face hidden in shadow, the Messenger spoke.
"Before the Alchemist Died like that, he theorized that with five boss cells, the creation of the cure could be possible."
"..."
"..."
"..."x3
"???"
I was the confused one if you didn't know.
Looking at the Messenger for some more answers, the Messenger continued by first addressing the Queen.
"For your information Queen of the Kingdom, the time spell that had been cast by the Timekeeper is in the midst of failing and thus I am grasping for straws."
"I... What?"
Voice becoming clear for that brief instant, the Messenger continued as if she hadn't just shook the woman's whole two island wide world.
"To elaborate on my statement, this may be our only chance in discovering a cure for the malaise."
She shook the scroll
"Even if it seems impossible, if we don't try it, there is a high chance that the time bubble would collapse in on itself if it isn't dispelled, tearing us and the whole world as we know it apart in an unending nightmare we relive every single moment of our lives without ever being able to change it.
The Queen rubbed her hands all over their black mask, stress emanating from her every movement.
"..."
She raised her eyes.
"What's the cure?"
+++
Ok...
It took me this long to notice, but apparently every single one of the important npc's of the game Dead cells
Also jet lag has fooked with my sense of time since I'm writing this at midnight after waking up at 16:00 and sleeping at 16:00
I slept for one whole freaking day.
Tree