Conflicting Wills (2/2)

The thousands of blades slam into each other over and over so hard that the ground cracks when they miss, and the blades start to snap.

…And with the Death aura being so thick, most of the Wills recover from having their vessels shattered… and they go to find new weapons.

Of course, with the gradual damage they're receiving, most of the Wills are intelligent enough to abandon their steel bodies just before they break – thus avoiding suffering damage to their spirits.

… And so, tens of thousands of shattered and bent weapons soon litter the blood-soaked floors. As soon as one weapon falls in defeat, another rises up from the ground to take its place.

Unfortunately for the bandits, the palace guards are far more organized than they are, they're better trained, and they have an instinctual grasp of the palace layout. Gradually, the bandits lose ground.

Soon enough, the fierce battle has consumed all the weapons in the palace and the bandit Wills are mostly left disembodied or broken… but this is only the part where things get even more chaotic.

Wills can only possess objects they were attached to in life. Since all of the people Haalfrin kills are fighters, naturally, they've all been possessing weapons this whole time.

However… the bandits have another particular obsession that most of the other Wills just don't have…

With no more swords for them to possess, the bandit Wills dive into golden vases, expensive clothes, and diamond necklaces. "Move MOVE!" the crime lord Falkri screams out to his former Algori Syndicate subordinates. "Forget about killing the Lawfuls! Just get away with all the treasure you can get! We'll… do a lot of cool things with this money… but you have to be alive…? Yeah. You have to be alive to spend it!"

Many of the other bandit chiefs around shout out similar orders… and pretty soon, literal metric tons of treasure flies out the palace windows of their own accord.

Out of their own pure greed, many of the bandit Wills throw their golden bodies out the window, leave their vessels lying on the ground, fly back into the palace, and grab more treasure. Their own lingering feelings won't allow them to leave with any less than what they think they can get away with.

Meanwhile, a huge crowd of civilians are gathering at the walls.

Since the Aura doesn't extend over the palace walls, the bandits can't aim very well when they throw their loot over.

Hence, the confused civilians look up and see gold and jewels rain from the sky in random places, while sparkly, rich clothing flutters pathetically in the air, and while vases and decorative pots smash into the ground and shatter into countless pieces.

Most of the civilians know these things come from the palace, so they don't dare touch the loot. However, once a few reckless people start reaching for the gold and get away without consequence, it becomes a chaotic mess as the people scramble to get away with the treasure first.

…And all the while, the guard captain Wills point their sabers at the fleeing brigands and command, "Don't let them get away into the city! We can't let our kingdom be humiliated like this!"

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Kalkass – the spirit mage among the Brancotte visitors – is batting aside floating weapons left and right with his comrade behind him. "What're we going to do?" he asks anxiously as they make their way through the corpse-ridden halls.

His captain frowns, then points up. "None of this chaos will end unless we catch the spirit mage responsible for this." The captain pauses to think before adding, "I'll stay down here and keep fighting. You should use your spiritual sight to find the center of the Death Aura."

Kalkass solutes his captain, then invokes a quick flying spell to shoot up into the sky.

Now that Officer Kalkass has a clear vantage point, he reaches out with his massive spirit, and he touches all the Wills down below. Since he's a living person, communicating with hostile spirits like this is a delicate process – hence, why he had to get away from the fighting and focus on the spell.

As soon as he reaches out, he hears thousands of different emotions – all filled with rage, determination, or terror. What's worse is that all these emotions are pointed in different directions, making the scene very chaotic to the mage.

All the voices are screaming for so many different things that Kalkass is forced to cut off the spell before it ruins his mind. He stares down at the palace with confusion written in his eyes. "What…?"

Wills don't have as much to consider as living people, so they don't have the same verbal filter normal people have. So, all the Wills are strangely chatty as they shout out whatever they're feeling all the time. Kalkass hears this as emotional outbursts, and it's a little too much for him.

Normal, living people would normally just yelp and grunt every now and then – only opening their mouths when coordinating with their allies.

The Wills down below, however, are constantly spouting out the most useless information as they impulsively express their intense emotions.

If they want you to die, they'll shout, "Die!" If they're hurt, they'll shout, "Ow! That hurts!" Previously stoic men in life will cry like babies in their Will forms, as their emotions are nakedly displayed.

Kalkass looks at all of this, and realization slowly dawns on him. "These floating Weapons… they're the lingering Wills of the dead!"

Realizing this breaks Kalkass's worldview. He's learned his spirit craft personally from some of the otherworldly tribes Brancotte is friendly with. Their spirit magic is by far the most advanced between both worlds.

Kalkass had always learned that Wills are just mindless, spiritual footprints… These Wills, however, seem to be alive in their own right.

…What kind of monstrously powerful spirit mage can do something like this?

Frankly, despite the atrocities many of these Wills are enacting, Commander Fisco of the Threshold may want to keep Haalfrin for his unique abilities.

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While Kalkass is looking for the heart of the issue, his companion is running through the halls, crushing every Will he comes across.

Unlike Kalkass, the other officer can't tell friend from foe. All the Wills look the same to him, so he's indiscriminately destroying both Bandit and Guard Wills.

The bandits and guards both feel the loss and danger coming from this powerful mage, and they glare hatefully at the man.

The bandit Wills think the powerful mage is trying to take all the loot for himself, while the guard Wills think he's one of the invaders, who must therefore die.

One of the Guard Captains looks over at one of the bandit chiefs, and he calls out, "Stop! We'll all die if that monster isn't stopped. How about we take care of him before we continue fighting?"

The bandit chief thinks for a moment before nodding his blade up and down. "Agreed! If we work together, that man won't stand a chance."

Just as the Brancotte officer crushes a random, possessed potlid, he hears an eerie silence. Before, the sound of clanging weapons and random objects is deafening as all the floating weapons attack each other.

However, the Threshold captain looks up warily as he sees hundreds of daggers, swords, and armor pieces slowly turn to face him.

Loud explosions crash just where the captain was just a moment ago, as 4 random chairs slam onto the ground and shatter themselves apart.

The captain doesn't even have time to cast another offensive spell before he has to dodge again… and again.

His body-strengthening spell is still on, so he breaks apart any flying weapon he can get his hands on.

…Just when he leaps away just far enough to gather up a large ball of energy, he smiles in elation as he sets it off on the room full of flying weapons…

He pauses to rest for a moment – breathing heavily, and he looks over the destroyed room.

Before he even has time to celebrate his small victory, he hears an ominous rumbling sound, then a deafening booming and crashing sound.

Since spirits and Wills can communicate instantly with anything their spirit threads are touching… every single guard and bandit in the palace has been notified of the plan to gang up on the Threshold officer.

The captain only had a few moments to catch his breath because over 5000 Wills were gathering around his room – on the floors above, beneath, and on all sides.

Only once the captain is completely surrounded do the Wills issue their attack. As one, they all rip through the walls, ceiling, and windows.

…And the captain barely even has time to scream before thousands and thousands of weapons descend upon him like a black cloud and shred him into meat paste.

As for the captain's Will that rises from his corpse, he has no emotional attachment to the battle here. He's not from Alasta, so the palace being in ruins has nothing to do with him. He only fought before because there was no reason not to.

…The largest desire remaining in the Threshold captain is his desire to do what's best for the Threshold, as well as protect his men.

Feeling that he has something to protect here in the palace, the captain's Will darts invisibly into the ceiling and disappears in his quest to search for his companion.