"Alert! Alert! Insurrection!"
Shouted Picco, doing his best to keep up his pace. The growling multiplied and one had a semblance of his friend's voice. Nevertheless he ran as fast as he could. He ended up barging in the soldier's cottage, closing the door and blocking it with his body.
Alas, eight out of the ten soldiers were busy, fighting against their brother in arms.
"I thought captain locked the door! You! Come help us!" One said.
"He looked already sick, he may have failed this one task."
In front of them, their captain had bloodshot red eyes, his moves looked lazy but they were full of strength. Each of the eight soldiers held a training bar and pushed the captain against the wall. The high-heated atmosphere emphasised with the sweat spattering their armors.
Their fight lasted for twenty minutes. Their muscles got tired but not their adversary.
"We should aim for the basement! Brace yourselves, we must lock him up!"
Five more minutes and they could breathe a little. Looking at each other, they asked Picco how he ended up helping them.
"I am valiant Picco, I came from the upper quarters. I was looking for my friend in the healer's tent but it seems they've gone mad like the captain. I ran for my life, looking for help, I must say I'm grateful I could make it until now. I can't tell how much people have gone crazy, nor if people heard my plea."
One of the soldiers advanced, his hair had red shades and fleshy nose gave him warrior traits despite his lack of facial air. He stepped forward and spoke with a deep voice.
"I am Jaggar, son of the prisoner. Our archer went to the palace before you arrived. We hope he'll come back soon with reinforcements."
---
Keith, in his room was still unconscious. In the explanation, he sat cross-legged to speak with the anomaly.
"So... How did you die?"
Randi played with his head like a ball. "Really, you're not guessing?" He asked, juggling with it.
"Right. Then how did you enter my place? You're in my mind right now, you should've asked to enter first, the other guy's going to be mad. Do you think we need help to get out of this place? I mean, we are guest here, not captives."
"Why do you keep saying we? There's no one else here."
Keith was out of ideas to keep up the conversation. He asked if he wanted to play some game, any that would help passing time, they ended up playing ball with Randi's agreement and his head.
Outside, Mister Show looked at the scene in the main hall. The king was arguing with his assistant.
"I want the wide bell to ring so hard it breaks! The guards to barricade the palace and close the city's grand gates! Bring me one reason to not panic and a batch of milk buns."
"Great one, if the head of the country panics, it might generate more harm than good.
Chandragupta stared at the cadaver in astonishment. With a gentle kick in the carcass, he spoke to it, doing his best to understand the mystical situation.
"Hey, did you come here for me?" He asked in vain.
Mister Show observed the scene, stuck on the hall's ceiling. Until the idea popped in his mind. He crawled inside the bricks. Through the rock constituting the walls down to the cadaver, making its head first roll back to the main body like a reverse-nightmare. He then used the voice of the missing guard, one that no one was familiar with in the palace.
"Oh, I woke up again~." The voice oozed venom, the throat barely worked, yet the thing spoke clearly. "Finally! A chance to get rid of the king. Whe... Where's my weapon?"
The talking corpse made their mouth instantly dry out. The assistant Kianush unsheathed two swords and offered one handle to the king, not looking away from the newborn monster.
"Can you see it too?" The king asked. "Yes my king, could you head to the back court as fast as possible?" Kianush asked. He awaited for a nod, but the king felt safe, the monster seemed flimsy and had no weapon around him, he took advantage of the situation to ask few questions.
"Why are you attacking my city?"
"We are attacking your city to conquer back territories. We've crossed the white mountains of the east to hallow your unholy land and its measly believers."
This raised more and more questions. A new enemy from the eastern border of his territory? Who's unimaginable threat was all this? How come a religious motive could lead another to kill?
None of those questions mattered to Show, they were part of his plan, chaos was the best occasion to spread more chaos!
Kianush attacked without the king's order. With a feint he slashed forward, cutting again the corpse's head.
Once more, Mister Show glued it together with shadow strands, not paying attention to the black matter leaking from the assistant's sword.
"I must say you are a bad liar. We are already aware of the situation outside, we know you came alone but your allies bloomed like flowers after winter, just after you entered the city." Kianush said. It wasn't much but it was enough for Show to understand the whole situation.
First a cursed corpse, then the panic outside, the ruckus everyone blabbered about. The citizens suffered from it as much as the soldiers.
There was no other source of sorcery aside from himself and Keith back in Kodra. If the lost spirit found his way to the kid, there must've been a link between the two from the beginning. 'Was it the bite? Those few fingers he lost back then? Man, that saliva is gold.' Mister Show thought.
A hundred meters away, the king ran to Keith's room instead of hiding, as asked by Kianush. He wanted to be useful in the battle, he brought his sorcerer against the occult threat.
The kid woke up to the bang noise from the door. He couldn't pursue his conversation nor his child's play with Randi with such commotion.
"Seven! Time to prove yourself worthy! Here, let's go, I'll summarize the situation on our way." Chandragupta said while shoving Keith's wooden mask on his face. He lifted him with a hand and walked as fast as he could toward the hall.
'Who's that fatty?' Asked the new person in Keith's head. The kid chose to ignore the extra anomaly corrupting his thoughts for the moment, unable to listen to the king properly.
The return of the king in the main hall wasn't expected. The thing was beheaded, for the third time, but stood still.
"My king! What-" The assistant was interrupted by his understanding of the king's plan, but was it about to work?
The king felt comfortable enough to come closer to the battleground and put the kid down. He said.
"Go ahead! The thing in front of you can only be born out of magic, curse it! Break its spell! Do something kid!"
Alas the kid had no idea what to do, Show was still absent and the guy talking in his head became louder by the minute.
'Whoa that's my body! Why the hell is it alive without me?' As confused as Keith was, the king and Kianush awaited for either the standing corpse to move or the kid to speak. The undying monster talked first.
"You? What are you doing here?" It said. No emotion leaked from his hardened face, but his voice contained uncertainty and worry. Then it looked up to the ceiling, the towering vaults above his head, strengthening his idea of stalemate with the undead bluff. His last plan failed with the kid's presence, he decided to make him the solution of the problem, hoping to find a loophole with the next unfolding situation.
"Damn it, I am not fighting against this!" The monster said after pointing at Keith. He spread his arms wide and fell backwards. The crash of the head on the red carpet separated it from the body for the last time as a rotten part on the top of the skull let go of a yellowish liquid. The monster was no more, just a corpse staining the royal carpet.
The two men were dumbfounded. Keith had no idea of what happened, but the cool sensation invading his shirt made him aware of the shadow's presence.
Mister Show overwhelmed Randi's spiritual presence on the spot, making him as quiet as his physical body. He said. "Little one, we're back at the top of the palace with this act. Too bad you arrived a little early, I was about to make it even more spectacular!"
Kianush stepped forward and made mincemeat of the corpse, just to be sure. He'd remember this day until his death. Never in his life had he seen an immortal enemy.
When the king came back to his senses, he said.
"That was easier than expected, now time to show you to the others outside!"
An hour and half had passed since Randi appeared in the southern gate. But there was already eighteen persons infected by rats, about forty lifeless carcass and bodies laying in the streets, and six hundred people in sheer panic.