On the way to the Quarantomb, we had to deal with Morphean Mushrooms, Flythons, and the usual suspects of Chariot Chappies and Sluggers. And when we'd finally arrived at the tomb, we went inside after opening the door with the special key to find the wall had been broken apart on the inside.
"As expected, the seal keeping the contagion at bay has been busted, most likely during the earthquake we had. We need to find the source," Phlegming said as we went through the hole and I could feel it. The stench of the Ragin' Contagion was nearby. And not only that, but the door was open and there were, get this, ONLY Metal Slimes around! And they looked to be spooked by our presence, as expected.
"Metal Slimes? How long have these guys been in here?" Pavo asked as I noted that Dillon was about to prepare his blade and I simply looked at him with a frown.
"No, no, no. We can't waste any time chasing after slimes. We need to find the contagion," I said, him frowning and holstering his blade once more as another Metal Slime emerged... a Metal KING Slime! And it was from the western area.
"The contagion... in the room ahead... be careful. It killed the other monsters... around with its toxic breath..." the metallic king said, me nodding as I then looked at the others with seriousness.
"You guys wait out here while I go in alone. I'll let out a loud, nonsensical word whenever I've weakened him, okay?" I said, them nodding at that. I then simply went into the room with the broken jar and proceeded to look around.
"Mister contagion, I command you to come out of your hiding place and face me right now!" I said angrily. And when I did, the contagion simply formed itself directly in front of the pot... and seeing it in person, with the looks of 3D Dragon Quest cutscenes? It looked horribly disgusting. Smelled like it, too!
"Yer lookin' fer me, pardner? Cus I can smell tons'a sicknesses in ya'll! I'll be glad to take 'em and continue with the ragin'!" the sentient sickness said in the most stereotypical cowboy accent ever. I simply complied and breathed a giant exhale of breath at the contagion, him then laughing... at first... but after a bit, he then started to feel it. "WHAT?! Antibodies?! Ya'll tricked me! Oogh, I'ma gonna rage all over yer little face! Ragin'! RAGIN'! RRAAAGGIINN'!" the contagion shouted angrily as I then shouted the nonsensical word back at the others.
"PENNSYLVANIA!" I shouted, them all then rushing in and brandishing their weapons as well as Phlegming being protected by our team members in case the contagion tried to attack.
"Ya'll are gonna pay for makin' me weaker with them ding durned antibodies, ya punk! Time to melt some skulls!" he shouted as I then simply attacked with a sword swing, the contagion then gasping as I managed to slice through a part of its body. "WHAT?! I felt that?! Ya'll are gunna pay fer that!" the contagion shouted as it then tried to send parts of its body into my nose and I then simply let him. And when i did, I then felt the disease inside of me. He was trying to kill me with the contagion. But my immune system was more powerful, as it managed to kill off the disease as well as immediately make an antibody for it!
"Time to kill the source with a taste of its own medicine!" I smirked as I then rushed the contagion and coughed very loudly at it! The contagion hissed as everyone in the group started to attack afterwards. They made sure the contagion was getting more pain along with the new antibodies working on the disease! And after roughly 20 attacks, the contagion started to have some of its body start to vanish from thin air! And it looked to be increasing at a rapid pace!
"N-NO! NO! I'm the Ragin' Contagion! I'm never gonna stop the Ragin'! The Ragin'... the... raaggginn'..." the contagion gasped before all of it evaporated into nothingness, including the eyes as well as the soul... wait... soul?
"How the hell did that sentient sickness have a soul?" Crux asked in confusion.
"I have no idea. But I can no longer smell the sickness in the air... and it seems that my body was able to resist it and develop antibodies extremely fast... you think it might be because of us being a Celestrian, my having a ton of antibodies to multiple diseases, or a mixture of both?" I asked.
"If you ask me, I'd think it was a combination... nevertheless, I'm thankful for your assistance. Now Catarrhina and the others in the town should be safe. But just to be safe, I'm going to do a bit more exploring around here to make sure there is no more danger around," Phlegming said... and it was then that a Metal Slime cautiously jumped over to us and clanked to get our attention.
"Um... there remains one danger... that disease was created from the soul... of a ruthless monster king. His conscious... remains deep in this goomb... he can only revive to life if he remembers who he is... we must never remember goo he was... if we do, he will destroy all," the metal slime said as I looked at the others and I simply nodded.
"Thanks for telling us that, little guy. And so you know, I'd never be caught hurting any monster unless they attacked me first," I admitted to the metallic goo.
"Really?... That makes me happy..." the Metal Slime smiled at us.
"I think that, now that we know what not to do here, we should head back to town to see how Catarrhina is doing," Veronica said, me hoping dearly that she wouldn't have gotten killed regardless.
"I'll accompany you, then," Phlegming said as we then left the Quarantomb and we warped over to Coffinwell with a chimaera wing. We then went straight for Catarrhina's house. I braced myself for the worst as I opened the door... and when I went inside, I saw that Catarrhina was actually alive and well... but she looked to be troubled by something.
"Catarrhina! Are you okay?" Phlegming asked as he went to her and the green-haired girl looked at him with shyness.
"U-Um... Doctor Phlegming... s-something happened..." the green-haired girl said... but it did not sound at all like Catarrhina. In fact... it sounded a lot like someone else. Someone I knew from MY WORLD!
"Wait... you're... you're not Catarrhina, are you?" I asked, the girl looking at me and shaking her head.
"No... I am not... something happened that is terrible... you may want to sit down for this, Phlegming," she said, the doctor looking concerned and very worried as he sat down on the bed and she sighed. "Mere seconds before the contagion was killed... it snuffed out Catarrhina's life, specifically to spite you... her spirit and mind is not in the body that's currently speaking with you..." the girl said, Phlegming looking like he'd been punched in the gut and he started to tear up. "I am named Carly Bunsen, and as for how I am inside of Catarrhina's body, I was always inside of it since the incident of the earthquake, I just stayed silent... mainly because I couldn't speak to anyone but her," she said with a sigh.
And when she said that, Phlegming fell to his knees and started to cry while I looked at the new host of Catarrhina's body with worry. Why?
"So... you also got sent to this world, cousin?" I asked, the group and Phlegming looking at me in surprise as Carly sighed.
"Yes, but I hate how this turned out... only by an innocent girl's death was I able to become myself... and even then, I hate that the contagion specifically killed Catarrhina out of spite..." she said... and it was only then that I noted one other thing. The sun had finally set and it was now nighttime... and as I thought would happen, the moment the moon appeared, I saw the spirit of the dead girl appear right next to Carly, her looking at Catarrhina and then looking at the sobbing Phlegming.
"Drake, you can see her too, right? Now that it's night?" she asked, me looking to Catarrhina and her looking at me with a smile.
"Um... yeah... how can you see her, though?" I asked.
"Because she and I were one in the same, of course I can see her spirit..." Carly smiled as Phlegming then looked at her in surprise.
"Y-You're... you're saying Catarrhina is with us?..." he asked, me then simply holding onto his arm, wondering if that would make it so that he could see her. And when I did, he gasped when he saw the spirit of his beloved.
"Catarrhina!" he shouted as he got off the ground and I simply continued to hold onto his arm as he then approached his wife with tears in his eyes and tried to touch her... and I was surprised that he was able to touch her face.
"Phlegmy... I wanted to let you know something," Catarrhina said with a smile, that making the doctor listen intently. "Though I may have been killed, your efforts along with Drake and his group saved many others... shortly after you left, the disease began to infect everyone else in the town. It sensed that some of the citizens were healed, so it set out to infect all of them at the same time... but because of the disease's destruction, the only one it managed to kill was myself... I want you to go around the town and speak to the people. See how they're all doing and how many lives you helped to save," she smiled warmly, me looking at the doctor and him then drying his tears with his arm sleeve.
"Okay, my love... I'll do that... but... what do I say to father-in-law?" he asked in concern, Catarrhina smiling at that.
"I already had Carly tell father and the rest of the town what happened to us. They agreed to have a small town meeting tomorrow in the morning to give me a funeral service, just without a body to be buried... and I also had Carly tell father that, though I died, everyone else survived. He holds no grudge against you, only the contagion," she said, me smiling at how kind one girl could possibly be.
"I understand... but... doing this will mean that you'll go to the other side, right?" Phlegming asked.
"I may have no more regrets and I'll initially go to heaven... but I'll always come back to watch over you, my love. Not even death can separate my love for you," she said, me smirking at that as I then grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil (that were around in this timeline) and proceeded to write that down.
"Um... what are you doing, Drake?" Keira asked.
"Noting down her words so I can use it for poetry at a later date," I said, that making Pavo smack her face. Again.
"Ugh, you're even worse than Crux is," she frowned at me.
After this, we went all over the town (minus the mayor's house) and had Phlegming meet all the people that were afflicted by the Ragin' Contagion, which included the husband of the bunny girl, the father and mother of the sick little girl, the priest and nun at the church, the different shopkeepers, and even the one manning the inn. After this, Phlegming had us return to his lab and I held onto his hand so he could see Catarrhina.
"I see now why you wanted me to see the citizens of the town, Catarrhina. To teach me that there are people out there that actually care about me... thank you," he said with a smile as Catarrhina nodded and gave him a kiss... and once she did so, her body started to glow very bright.
"It looks like I'm off to heaven now... don't worry, my Phlegmy. I'll come back to visit regularly. Anytime you feel a gust of wind indoors, just know that I'm always watching over you," Catarrhina smiled, Phlegming nodding with tears in his eyes.
"I will always love you, my darling," he said, before the caring girl in the green hair glowed brighter than any of the spirits thus far and, in its place, a huge hunk of Benevolescence appeared, it being as big as Stella's entire body when she was in her normal size!
"Oh my... that's the biggest hunk of Benevolescence my eyes have ever seen! This should be more than enough to power the Starflight Express!" Stella gawked at it.
"That means that Catarrhina was one with a pure heart. Those that are pure-hearted give way bigger chunks of Benevolescence than normal mortals," Crux said. I then looked at the others with seriousness.
"I'd say it's high time we get to the Starflight Express so we can get to the Observatory," I smiled... before Keira spoke up.
"Wait, what about the reward? The mayor said he had a reward for us, right?" she asked as Carly smirked at that.
"The only reward he would've given you is a feather headband. He admitted that to me when I told him about Catarrhina," she said. "But as for me... I think that I will join you on your adventures... it wouldn't really do too well to be here when I'm not the same person as Catarrhina. You agree, right, doctor?" she asked, him smiling at that.
"Just promise you can come back and visit at times? And don't get into trouble, okay?" he said, Carly simply giving him a handshake and nodding.
"I will... it's the least I can do for you, letting you see your wife's face, even if it's me and not her," she said.
"If we're done with the sappy-flappy stuff, I say we get going to the Starflight so we can go back home!" Stella said with a cheer.
"The fairy is right, we should get going," Dillon said, us then bidding farewells to Phlegming and leaving Coffinwell to go on the trek to the Starflight (as well as getting a couple other chunks of Benevolescence that were lining the streets from the other citizens). It was going to be close to the time to speak with Apus Major... and I definitely had to ask Crux if I could tell him what had happened.