The knowledge of Luigi being safe and sound eased the fears in Mario's heart. Who knows what would've happened if a Folded Soldier or King Olly himself found him first? Mario did not want to deal with another Mr. L fiasco.
It was about time for Mario and the Terrans to explore the greater world. The Red Streamer stretched off into the distance; if they follow the streamer, they could find its source and destroy it. This was surprisingly straight-forward compared to other arbitrary artifacts of power Mario hunted for on his previous adventures.
However, the party first visited Rhodes Island's landship, which easily dwarfed the airships used by Bowser's army in size. It was literally a small city on wheels, which included farms, movie theaters, shopping districts, and more. There was even some familar brands from the Mushroom Kingdom that Mario could recognize.
"Oh my!" Olivia was overwhelmed with all the sights. "This landship is way bigger on the inside. And look at all these stores!"
"It's part of our policy. If you can provide anything of value to Rhodes Island, you will be accepted as part of the company. We even treat Oripathy or any other diseases for free." Amiya explained.
"That's pretty generous of your company. I wonder why there are so many Toad run businesses here?"
"Most the denizens of Toad Town evacuated to the landship after those paper mache monsters attacked. It's honestly amazing that many of them started to open up stores and such here. They already setup a fiat exchange system so we can easily exchange our LMD for their currency."
"I didn't understand that last part, but it sounds good to me!"
The Toads in the shopping district noticed Mario and his crew, and started to swarm him like a celebrity. They encouraged him to buy their wares, but since Mario was feeling nice, he bought some items and weaponry. They even had weaponry designed for Amiya and Blaze.
"What in the world is this weapon?" Blaze pointed to a metallic looking chainsaw.
"It's the latest in Mushroom Kingdom weaponry, the Hurl-Saw!" The Toad running the store explained. "You can throw it pretty far due to its reduced size. Just be sure not to chop off your arms, though."
"A throwable chainsaw? That should come in handy." Blaze paid the Toad in LMD.
The group's final stop was the medical wards where patients with serious cases of Oripathy were treated. They looked strikingly similar to modern hospitals, even including an MRI machine.
"So this is what a hospital looks like." Olivia spoke in a downer tone. "So all there Terrans are infected with... Oripathy?"
"We do our best to slow down the infection." Amiya sighed. She glanced at a young girl with goat-like horns and a fiery dress, who lay asleep on a bed. "But Oripathy has a 100% mortality rate. Nobody has ever completely recovered from Oripathy in the history of Terra. When we did check ups on the Toads and other Mushroom Kingdom creatures, we didn't find a single gram of Origium in their bodies."
"And is this a good thing?"
"It's one of our biggest breakthroughs yet." A small, hopeful smile grew on Amiya's face. "Wildlife from the rest of the Terran confident has evolved to be resistant to Oripathy, but something within the Toads completely repelled Origium crystals. We were worried about our Operators spreading the infection in the Mushroom Kingdom, but our clinical tests proved that their bodies a nearly immune to Oripathy. We did similar studies on our creatures we found within Toad Town, such as the Goombas, and had similar results."
"That's a relief. It completely slipped my mind that the Terrans could've passed a dangerous illness to you Mario. Sorry!" Mario shrugged. He had a Doctor's P.H.D., afterall.
"What does this Oripathy do, exactly?"
"It varies between individuals, but the most reoccurring side effects is chronic pain that can last for hours at a time. In more severe cases, it causes people to lose their hearing, sight, and even their minds."
"Whoa, that sounds really terrible." Olivia gasped. She then noticed the young goat-girl, who showed almost no signs of life. "Oh my, is she one of the infected?"
Amiya and Blaze flinched at her last words. It was most likely a more derogatory term where they came from.
"Ms Eyjafialla is one of our more serious patients. She's a hard working individual, but Eyjafialla's been out cold after our Operators repelled the first wave. She must have overexerted herself defending Toad Town..."
Olivia floated over to girl, and lightly touched her face. "Miss Eyja... I'll just call you that if you mind. I hope you get better soon!" No response from from the goat girl. "Is there physical signs of this disease? I expected red spots or something more obvious."
"Her case is more internalized. Oripathy usually causes dark crystals to form on your body." Amiya explained.
"I'll show you what it looks like, but it's different for each individual." Blaze rolled up one of her sleeves. A geometric formation of pitch black crystals covered most of her forearm.
"Whoa!" Olivia exclaimed, catching the Feline off guard. "That actually looks pretty cool Blaze! Too bad you say it's part of that awful disease."
"Nobody has ever called this disease pretty, Olivia." Blaze chuckled lightly. "You have no idea what happens to Infected outside of this landship..."
Mario noticed something extremely concerning about those crystals. Not the fact that they were literally consuming Blaze's body, but the fact that he saw a brief glimpse of the Shadow Queen on the Origium, smiling smugly as if to tell the plumber, "I'm back." However, Mario didn't have enough evidence to be sure that she returned, and he didn't want to burden his Operators with too much.
"Looks like we have many things to handle, Mario." Olivia snapped Mario out of his thoughts. "We have to hunt down that red streamer, but we also have to figure out how to cure that crystal disease. Maybe we could start with Miss Eyja? I know she looks so frail, but I have a feeling that Eyja would be a very powerful partner during battle."
The party left Rhodes Island with a new goal in mind. The Toads held the key to potentially curing the horrific disease known as Oripathy, but much more testing needed to be done. Thankfully, with all the Toads scattered about due to the Folded Soldiers, Rhodes Island had many test subjects.
Picnic Road had plenty of these Toads, who were folded up to blend in with the floral surroundings. It was nothing a sharp eye couldn't miss, though.
Sadly, Mario and his operators were sidetracked due to issues the local Koopa Troopas had.
"The door to the Earth Vellumental temple is sealed!" One of the panicking told Mario. "No one can get inside to pay tribute..." The Koopa, realizing that Mario had Terrans with him, changed his tune. "The Earth Vellumental now accepts tribute in the form of LMD, if you foreigners seek Shellvation!"
"Geeze, the Mushroom Kingdom is full of these hustling types." Blaze shook her head. "I'm a little light on cash, but we will gladly help you open that door."
"The door to the Earth Vellumental temple will only open once all five holy shell stones are placed in their receptacles. You're surely caplible of this endeavor, right?"
"This treasure hunt shouldn't be too bad. But why can't you simply find these stones?"
"Ma'am, we are just Koopa Troopas. Do you expect us to slowly walk into that thieving heathen, for example?" The second Koopa joked.
"Don't beat yourselves up, with a little training..."
"Nevermind. Find the Shell Stones quickly! And that joke makes more sense with context..."
The party promptly defeated the Folded Soldier and claimed the Shell Stone. Conveniently, the next stone was being sold in an auction run by a Monty mole. The bidders were those Reunion grunts Mario remembered from the castle incident. The mere sight of the Rhodes Island operators terrified the soldiers, and didn't offer up much competition for the stone.
The next stones were further up the mountain. The Terran's abilities proved to be just as useful as Mario's older partners, such as Blaze chopping down Non-sapient) trees to reveal useful items. Without much trouble, all of the Shell Stones were retrieved.
On the very top of the mountain was a tower designed for sightseeing, Outlook Tower. The streamer ended at the top of the tower, but a large mound of stone lifted its entrance off the ground.
"Who on earth put the door up so high?" Olivia gazed up at the imposing structure. "Even I can't float that high; how will you guys get in?"
"I'm sensing Arts from that magic circle." Amiya pointed out the turtle shaped magic circle nearby. "Maybe it can summon something that can lower the earth, Miss Olivia."
"Wait... Earth! Thanks for reminding me! I'm afraid my brother may had used it to summon the Earth Vellumental and raise the tower out of reach. But since its still here, maybe we can summon it and remove this roadblock. Guess we should head back to the temple first to track it down."
As the group headed down Outlook Mountain, many thoughts swirled in Amiya's head. It seems that the Mushroom Kingdom actually worshipped the gods, while religion was a rare sight in Terra. Gods did indeed exist (One literally works at their company for pete's sake) but they weren't as interested in tribute. It was very strange to Amiya that the Mushroom Kingdom became a very different place compared to the rest of the continent. They practiced self isolation like Iberia, but the lands seemed way better off than that cultist infested wasteland, without a trace of the horrors of Oripathy. She should be happy about this revelation, but Amiya had a nagging feeling that this was a dire warning for the rest of Terra. She noticed Mario's reaction to Blaze's Oripathy, and it wasn't due to a discriminatory fear of the infected. It was as if he recognized an old foe of his, lurking within Rhodes most trusted Operators...
No, She knew it couldn't be true, She read his mind and found no evidence that he knew Her Majesty. She wished that this knowledge could've been brushed off, but there was a good chance he met Her Majesty, but then she should've saw Her in his mind... It was always a much more... fiendish queen in his point of view.
She had to tell somebody. But anything relating to Her Majesty was highly classified, and could only be discussed between herself, Kal'tsit, and the Doctor. But Kal'tsit was another one of those Folded freaks, and the Doctor was...
"Amiya?"
Olivia's voice snapped the Cactus out of her thoughts. They were back at the Vellumental temple already?
"You didn't respond the first few times I called. I was really worried you lost your hearing or something."
"Sorry, I... Was distracted."
"The mountains do look pretty, so I can understand is all the colors blend in and make you go cross eyed. Let's head into the Earth Vellumental temple and see if it will lend us a hand!"
She knew the world was in deep trouble. Even deeper then Olly's or the Reunion's schemes. She realized on that fateful day, when that dagger was plunged into her body, was the true betrayal in the era of Babel.