Conflicting Wills (1/2)
In the next second, the 2 swords start waving themselves around and slashing at the daggers. "DIE!" one of the 2 enemy swords cries out in fury.
One of the other guards' Wills that failed to react fast enough floats around as a small ball of light and calls out weakly, "Bori… I think that's your name…"
One of the other palace guards' Wills turns his blade briefly to his friend floating beside him. "What?" he answers in between parries.
"Bori…," the smaller Will asks, "Why are we fighting? Who are these people? Who are we?"
Bori reaches out with his spirit and grabs his friend before fleeing to the hallway. Knowing he's outmatched and outnumbered, he attempts to flee with his men. "I dunno!" Bori answers back frantically, "I just have the feeling that I'm supposed to defend this place, and that these floating daggers are enemies."
Indeed, these spirit wisps are called "Wills" for a reason; Wills are the spiritual footprints of a spirit's desires and feelings left behind on the world when they pass on.
And so, a chaotic scene ensues as dozens of daggers fly out of the room, chasing after 2 fleeing swords.
"STOP!" Kaalhyme shouts out again at his soldiers, "Leave those 2 alone! They're useless! Just focus on finding our way back to the dining room, so we can unlock the doors and let the rest of our forces out! Also, make sure to avoid the two Brancotte mages!"
A few of the daggers bob chaotically in the air – their version of saluting, and they cry out, "Yes sir!" before turning as one to tear their way through the halls.
Remembering their previous failure, Kaalhyme barks out another order, "Don't kill anyone! Just grab the weapons off their hips. We don't need any more enemy Wills rebelling against us!"
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While Kaalhyme is running about fulfilling his self-imposed duty, a few hundred Wills are squatting in Haalfrin's soul, carefully looking around.
"Bruh," one of the relatively stronger Wills addresses his friends, "You realize the palace is full of more gold than we could possibly want, right?" This particular Will belongs to Halban – one of the crime lords back at the Borin Barony.
One of the other bandit Wills turns to the first with their full attention. "So…," Falkri's Will asks, "we can use this chance to get rich?"
Of course, the bandit Wills have no real way of spending money. As Wills, they only have a vague desire left for them to get money at all costs – no matter who they have to kill.
Some of the other bandit Wills get excited and shouts out, "I don't care if it's dangerous! That stupid spear Will is doing just fine! They're small and nimble… If we change bodies often, then the stupid lawfuls won't be able to catch us!"
"Lawful" is a slang word common among a lot of bandits to describe the guards they have to fight for a living… "Lawful" does sound like "awful", after all.
Only a hundred Wills had followed Kaalhyme out to help Haalfrin escape… but unfortunately… Haalfrin has by far killed more bandits than anything else in his life…
Kaalhyme's forces may have sent the palace into a fit of panic… Now nearly 100x more bandit Wills storm their way out of Haalfrin's soul with only one thing on their minds. "KILL!" "GOLD!" "PRETTY LADIES!" "FUN!!" This is their war song as they march out to battle and pillage.
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King Kanus is running alongside his bodyguards as they sprint through the palace on enchanted legs. They're headed to the west tower, which is the nearest safe spot. After all, the West tower is heavily defended with enchantments, since it's the nexus for the rest of the palace enchantments, and it must be kept safe.
As soon as Kanus and his guards open the door, they find Prince Tallus huddled in a corner with a dozen guards around him.
Not wanting to deal with the whiney Tallus, King Kanus points to the basement trap door and shouts at Tallus, "You! Get down there NOW and don't make a noise!"
It's better to keep the brat out of the way.
Tallus nods quickly, and he ducks into the trap door and climbs down the ladder with his men.
Now that the main nexus room is vacated, the king strides in and has his men shut the doors while he walks up to the main crystal in the center – a large formation about half his height – and he starts activating the enchantments.
The entire tower glows with a brown light, showing that its defenses have been reinforced. Then, the mirrors lining the walls around him begin flickering with various images coming from around the palace.
Kanus then starts studying the surveillance mirrors, wanting to know what exactly is happening outside the safety of his tower.
Throughout many of the halls, a thick black mist is actually visible on the surveillance mirrors. The mirrors are enchanted to see things that normally can't be seen, so this is the first time Kanus is seeing Death Aura in its true form.
Feeling a sense of dread just looking at it, Kanus puts a hand over his mouth in horror and mutters, "I knew he had a fear spell… I didn't know it was this vile looking, though."
In one room, a dozen broomsticks and kitchen knives spontaneously come alive, then routinely slaughter all the cooks and servants.
In the palace armory, literally, thousands of weapons rise from the ground and tear their way through the halls – quickly depopulating his entire palace.
Everywhere King Kanus looks, servants and guards are fleeing in terror and are brutally gored from behind.
Women and children are stabbed in the calves and forcibly dragged into other rooms… and for some reason, the floating weapons are running the flats of their blades along the women's exposed arms… then leave bobbing silently in the air in confusion.
In truth, the bandit Wills only have a vague idea they're supposed to like pretty ladies. Having no memories and no hormones to guide them, the Wills are left to capture the pretty ladies and… leave after not knowing what to do with them.
All the while, palace guards fight with despair in their eyes as they're sliced to ribbons by a hundred cuts.
As more and more deaths occur in the palace, the Death Aura grows even stronger, and it spreads further – allowing the Wills to rampage further and further into the palace.
Oddly enough, most of the flying weapons are tearing expensive, gold-laced curtains from their racks, dislodging the golden candlesticks from their wall mounts, and stuffing valuables onto blankets before tying them up and attempting to carry them away.
To where? No one knows – not even the bandit Wills.
The Wills have no destination in mind; they just know that they want gold, and they need to get somewhere to stash it away.
The only upside to this horrible battle is the 2 Brancotte officers. Those two men are far more formidable than Kanus gave them credit for. With each hand swipe, they grip a flying weapon and crush it in their palms.
One of the officers even appears to be a spirit mage, which means he's able to erase any errant Wills he comes across and permanently put down a floating weapon.
The Alasta King bites his fingernails watching this… then a small smile cracks the side of his mouth. "Well," Kanus thinks, "With all this horrible chaos Haalfrin is causing… this is the perfect excuse to send him to the Pit. He's no longer an honorable soldier, but an uncontrollable butcher. The Threshold Commander can't take him now…"
The king looks to the tower doors and orders his men to triple-check it – just to make sure that nothing can get through. He then has his men seal off all the vents and windows… for so long as he's safe in his tower, everything outside will play out just the way he wants it to.
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Because of the bandit Wills' reckless slaughter, thousands of new Wills rise up and join the chaos.
Most of the new Wills belonged to the fallen servants… and they all flee into various corners and try their best to be forgotten.
On the other hand, the thousands of new guard Wills all look for weapons lying around… and there's plenty. There are far more weapons in the palace than there are Wills willing to fight, after all. The palace guard Wills all instinctually recognize each other, then they band together into tight units.
Pretty soon, a fierce battle is raging in the palace as thousands of weapons shout out in the spiritual language, "Defend the king!" and "Kill the intruders!" while thousands more Wills go crazy howling like ravenous wolves, "No! The gold was rightfully stolen by us!" "Kill the Lawfuls!" "Yaaaaah!"