ACT VII: Crescento, the Eager Part 3: Questionable Actions

Crescento patiently waited down in the Underworld's financial district, waiting for Duke Reficul Roachley - second cousin to the ruling Lucitors - to meet with him. After learning that the monsters were holding their own election to appoint a queen, the king sprang into action to ensure that this turn of events would not endanger the lives of innocent Mewmans. With some inspiration from General Loveberry, he had concocted a scheme to have a harmless candidate become the new queen of the monsters; one that he could easily manipulate and control.

At last, Duke Roachley arrived to discuss business. Crescento explained that he needed an artifact that could disguise a Mewman as a monster. That way, he could lead a group into the Forest of Certain Death without being detected. He also explained that the Great Book of Magic held no secrets of how he could perform such a task himself, and so needed an alternative source of magic. Once Crescento finished his proposition, Roachley thought about how to take advantage of the situation.

"Yes, your highness, I can do it… in exchange for a little compensation."

"Certainly." Crescento nodded as he took out his checkbook. "How many zeros should I write down?"

"Oh, no. You misunderstand, Crescento." Duke Roachley shook his head. "I am not interested in money. It is power that I crave. You see, I've noticed that your son seems very healthy. In exchange for my services, would you be interested in an arranged marriage with my daughter Jane?"

Crescento was left speechless; Roachley was asking for his son's future for his services. But if he did possess a way to help the Mewman monarchy control the monsters, he couldn't refuse. "Show me the artifact first." He decided.

"Certainly." Roachley snapped his fingers with a grin. Five medallions suddenly appeared in a burst of hellfire. "These medallions are cursed with the blood of my great-great-grandfather. And so long as one of them rests around your neck…" To demonstrate, Roachley slipped one of the medallions over his head, and immediately transformed into a mirror-image of the Mewman king. "... can make you look like anything you want. So… do we have a deal?"

A few hours later, Crescento returned to his kingdom with five medallions in his grip. Making haste, he called for an emergency meeting of the other delegates. Once they were all gathered, Crescento demonstrated the power of the medallions by using one to disguise himself as a frogman. He explained that they would all take the forms of different monster species, find a candidate that would be tame enough to form a peaceful alliance with Mewni, and systematically trick the other monsters into voting for her. But while Eric was already fully onboard with the plan, the others were wary of such an idea. The queen, in particular, was most upset.

"So, let me get this straight." Samantha scowled. "You want to use demon magic to disguise ourselves as monsters, sneak into the Forest of Certain Death, integrate with real monsters, convince them to elect an incompetent monster as their queen, all so we can control the monsters through deceit?"

"Well, does anyone have a better idea?" Crescento asked. Despite all of his friends raising their hands, his smile hadn't faded. "I didn't think so!"

"Wait a minute, a demon wouldn't just give you those medallions without something in return." Samantha's glare hardened. "Cres, what did you pay him?"

Crescento broke out into a cold sweat. "Uh… I may have promised him that Ryan would… marry his daughter."

Samantha's jaw went slack at her king's words. She knew she should have been surprised that Crescento was willing to sacrifice their son's happiness for the sake of political control, but somehow she wasn't. "I want a divorce." She sneered.

Crescento was shocked. "What? Sam, you can't be serious."

"I am." To prove her point, Samantha took off her crown and threw it at Crescento's feet.

The other delegates watched as the former queen stormed out of the room. Eric was the only one bold enough to speak up. "Cres? Do you… wanna go talk to her?"

"Forget it." Crescento huffed and placed his medallion back around his neck, transforming into a frogman once again. "We've got work to do."

On the way to the Forest of Certain Death, Crescento used Regiis Solum Lacrimae to erase his thoughts about Samantha and her desertion. The other delegates put on their medallions and their disguises activated. After a few more minutes of traveling, the group came upon a small village. As they passed a warrior's guild, Eric sheepishly waved. Much to his relief, the warriors waved back in a friendly manner.

"Okay, I guess the medallions are working." He breathed a sigh of relief. "Either that or I just make a very convincing conjoinicon."

Eventually, the group came upon a tavern where they finally found a poster of the three candidates for the title of monster queen. There was a kappa named Kalipsica. "Hmm… no. Kappa's are too unpredictable." Crescento thought to himself. The second candidate was a slime. "Ugh, absolutely not!" And the last candidate was a bat-creature. Crescento read through her qualifications; she was significantly younger than the other candidates, she was more concerned with setting up alternative food sources than bothering Mewmans, and she was by far the most unpopular vote. "Now, we're getting somewhere."

Just then, a bear-monster walked out of the tavern and spotted the group. "Hey, Sudora's inside if you want to ask about her policies."

Crescento looked back down at the poster, and saw that the bat-creature was indeed named Sudora. "Thank you, sir!" The group went inside and immediately went over to the future queen of their choice. "Excuse me, ma'am? Are you Sudora?"

The bat-creature looked up from her drink, revealing the dark rings beneath her eyes. "Are you from Xenex's people?"

"No."

"Then yes." She sighed and took another sip. "Sorry, but between dealing with Xenex's supporters, trying to keep my election committee together, and this fucking headache, I don't have time for autographs."

"Oh, no. You misunderstand." Crescento took a seat across from her. "I want to help your campaign. I believe that if we work together, you and your family will be in power for a very long time."

Just as he'd hoped, Crescento's silver tongue worked its charms and Sudora was fully invested in what he had to say. She took him and the other disguised delegates back to her hut to meet her committee; among them was a frogwoman, a slime, and a rock-creature. The trio were busily making posters, buttons, and other campaign memorabilia. After introductions were out of the way, Crescento got straight to work.

"So, what major problems could we handle?" He asked.

The rock-creature held up a hand. "Well, we need more meat supplies. But we can't grow meat on trees… can you?"

"Uh, no." Eric shook his head as he studied a map on the wall. He snapped his fingers as inspiration struck him. "Hey, I've got an idea; there's a river that cuts straight through the forest that connects to the Mewman sea. We could, uh, easily influence fish to swim this way."

"Or you could influence them." Crescento thought as he winked at his friend's brilliant plan. "Okay, that settles that. What else? What could we do that no one else can?"

"Well, there is one thing, but… no, it's too dangerous." The slime gargled.

"What? What's on your mind?"

"We could try to stop… the Loveberry." A horrified gasp echoed around the room.

"The what?" Crescento arched an eyebrow.

"The Loveberry." The slime repeated, shivering in fear. The other monsters scanned the room, as if they were afraid that the mere mention of his name would summon him. "The only Solarian warrior to kill one thousand monsters single-handedly!"

"The worst part of it is that he's lasted so long!" The rock creature grumbled. "We've tried luring him into traps, outnumbering him, burning him, stabbing him, drowning him, poisoning him, cutting off his head, but nothing works! His skin can't be cut! His bones can't be broken! That Mewman is practically invincible!"

"About twenty years ago, we gave up trying to kill him." The female frog monster spoke up. "After all, Mewmans typically don't live longer than eighty years. So, we'd hoped that if we could just wait it out long enough, he'd eventually just grow old and-"

"DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!" The monsters all shouted in unison, startling the disguised politicians.

"... but he hasn't even aged." The slime slumped back into his seat with a melancholy expression. "I mean, like, at all. He just grew that stupid beard!"

"Yes, it would seem that whatever spell the Monster Carver used to transform Loveberry into that hulking behemoth also had the adverse side effect of halting his aging process." The frogwoman nodded. "Thankfully, Loveberry is the only one like that."

Crescento smiled as he made his way towards Sudora. "What if I told you that if you focus on making the Forest of Certain Death a sovereign nation and stay away from Mewni, we can ensure that you will go down as the queen who kept the Loveberry away?"

Sudora seemed intrigued. "Hmmm… well, that still doesn't help me with Xenex's popularity."

"Don't worry, leave her to me." Crescento smiled, darkly.

Later that night, Crescento returned to his castle with a happy pep in his step. The other delegates were exhausted from the day's work and went home for the evening, but Eric wanted to make sure Crescento got home safely. As they entered the palace, the mer-man noticed Crescento suddenly looked troubled. "You okay, man?" He asked. "You look a little stressed for someone who's well on their way to getting monsters off our backs."

"Huh?" Crescento blinked. "Oh, sorry, I just… I feel like I forgot something.

Just then, Ryan showed up, pointing at his wrist. "Hey, dad? This red thread suddenly appeared on my wrist and I can't get it off."

Crescento gulped, nervously. "Uh… we need to talk."

Months passed, and it was time for the monsters to have their first debate. Thanks to Crescento's help, Sudora had won over much of the monster hordes, but Xenex's popularity remained consistent. According to Crescento's calculations, the kappa would win by a landslide if he didn't take immediate action. At last, the debate night came and Xenex and Crescento were nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?" Sudora asked, nervously. "I'm the first one up but he's got my speech!"

"I'm sure he's on his way. I'll go look for him." Eric insisted. The mer-man hurried away from the monster horde; he didn't like being around monsters without Crescento. After a few minutes of searching, he heard heavy breathing coming from behind the bushes. What he saw next haunted him for years to come. Crescento stood over a decapitated kappa, her blood staining his sword and tunic. "What the fuck did you do?!"

"What I had to!" Crescento breathed heavily as he wiped the blood from his clothes and discarded the sword. "Xenex was getting too popular! If the monsters elected her, they could have started the war all over again!"

"I can't do this anymore." Eric replied, shakily. The mer-man stepped away from Crescento. "You've changed, Cres. I-I mean, you were always pretty cutthroat when it came to getting what you wanted, but right now, I don't even recognize you."

Crescento glared as he wiped the blood off of his outfit. "You knew what I was willing to do to protect Mewni, Eric."

"No, I didn't." Eric held his head in shock, trying to process everything. "I thought… I didn't want this! I thought we were just going to forge some votes! I didn't think you'd actually be willing to kill Sudora's political rivals! You can't just do this to people!"

"Yes, I can!" Crescento snapped. "I have to do this! This is the only way to keep Mewni safe! If one of those warmongers gets elected to be queen, we could be facing another war! And maybe one that lasts far longer than Solarius' fifteen-year campaign! By eliminating the threats before they become a problem-"

"No!" Eric begged. "There have to be limits! Even on us! Especially on us! Is this what you want your legacy to be?!"

"My legacy will be what I decide it to be!" Crescento arrogantly declared. "History will see me as the king who managed to protect Mewni from the monsters without a single Mewman being killed! And everyone will know that you helped us get there!" The mer-man had heard enough. He lifted the medallion over his head and threw it at Crescento's feet before turning around. "Where are you going?!"

"I'm going home. Back to the Waterfolk Iles." Eric decided. "Like I said, I can't do this anymore. I thought I could help you, but I think you want people to fear you more than anything. And that's not what I want. So go ahead with your plans and agendas. Just leave me out of it. Protect Mewni if you want… and when you're ready to settle down… you'll know where to find me."

Crescento cried, angrily, as he watched his best friend walk away towards the wharf. "Fine! Go! I don't… I-I don't need you! I don't need anybody!" Once again, the king of Mewni placed his fingers against his temple and recited the spell. "Regiis Solum Lacrimae! Regiis Solum Lacrimae! Regiis Solum Lacrimae!" Crescento threaded his fingers through multiple strings this time, and violently pulled them all out at once. His mind felt as if it were on fire, but it was worth it in the end; he would never be able to focus on his master plan if he was fixated on losing the man he cared most about.

Once he caught his breath, Crescento reactivated his disguise and made his way back into the Forest of Certain Death. The bat-creature was waiting for him by the stage. "Where have you been?" She hissed, irritably.

"Tipping the scales in your favor." He grumbled back. "You'll be happy to know that Xenex is no longer running for queen."

That night, Sudora gave a rousing speech to the monsters gathered before her. With the notes Crescento provided her, Sudora promised to form a treaty with the king of Mewni to label the Forest as sovereign territory that was not to be disturbed by any Mewman. In return, the monsters would form an official government, vowing never to invade Mewni.

By the time Prince Ryan inherited the throne, the monsters elected Sudora to be their new queen. As Crescento hoped, the bat creature kept the monster hordes under control and away from Mewni's border. However, Crescento was only concerned with finding Eric. Now that Mewni was safe, he only wanted to see his best friend again. Traveling to Mewni's wharf, he purchased an address book of the Waterfolk Iles, only to find that fifty-six individuals named Kelpbottom lived within the underwater kingdom.

"I'm never going to see him again." Crescento said to himself, dejectedly. The former king shook his head in anger. "No! No, I will! I just have to focus! Regiis Solum Lacrimae!" Once again, Crescento placed his fingers against his temple and pulled the negative thoughts out of his head. But this time, instead of pain, he felt dizzy.

Just then, Ryan burst through the door with an infuriated expression. "Seriously, dad?! This is where you've been?!" He fumed. "You missed my graduation! You missed my marriage that you forced me into! And now you can't even be bothered to come to my coronation?!"

Crescento had noticed his son's arrival, but he couldn't hear a word he said. His head was spinning as his vision clouded. The recently retired king leaned against the wall, clumsily trying to make his way towards the new king. "The spell…" He thought. "Something's wrong… with the spell…"

"Dad?" Ryan's expression softened as he watched his father stumble about. A feeling of dread built up in Ryan's chest as he reached out. "D-dad…?"

"I don't… I don't feel so good…" Crescento managed to breathe out those last words before collapsing to the ground.

"DAD!"

To Be Continued!

Author's notes: Please read and review!