Rodger had to wait on the ground for over a minute covered by the bodies of soldiers. The weight on top of him was crushing but he could still breathe. As the soldiers and guards that were not wounded, began moving again, they came over to help remove the wounded soldiers piled on top of him.
When all the wounded soldiers were removed and before he was allowed to get up, he was quickly checked by one of the guards to make sure he had no major wounds that needed healing. He passed the quick check and was pulled back up onto his feet.
“Pahci! Where is that man? Someone go find him,” said Rodger still slightly shaken from what he had seen.
“Right away your majesty!” shouted a guard near the door. The door was slammed open as he ran outside to search for Pachi.
Many of the guards grumbled curses at him for leaving the door open and letting in the cold air.
Rodger was lost to all of this as his mind was now all a mess. He tried to slowly go over everything step by step to process everything so he could understand what it all meant and how it would affect his future life.
The wounded were all moved to the infirmary to receive immediate treatment and some required immediate surgery. The rest began gathering what little remains of the king they could find and put it all into an Urn. While they were cleaning up the mess from the explosion they tried to wash the blood and flesh off of everything.
Rodger was soon shaken out of his stupor as one of the gatehouse doctors started to inspect him thoroughly.
“Here drink this,” said the doctor handing Rodger a wooden cup that had large puffs of steam rising from it.
Rodger took a sip and found it was warmed spice wine. After downing a few more sips he felt his entire body warming up and his muddled brain was chugging along faster.
“You seem to be just fine, your majesty. Just a bit of frayed nerves. Give it some time and I am sure you will be right as rain,” said the doctor as he watched Rodger regain some color in his pale face.
The guardhouse door slammed open, and the previous guard that had left led a disheveled elderly man inside. The old man seemed to be only half awake and was wearing a fur coat over his sleeping clothes.
“Pachi, what has your damned guild created this time!?” asked Rodger.
“What? Oh, Prince, It’s you. Were you the one who ordered this oaf to abduct me from my sleeping quarters? I have no clue what you are babbling about,” said Pachi showing disdain for Rodger. This was how he talked to all but the king and queen.
The nearby soldiers who had heard the man’s words unsheathed their swords and pointed them at him. They all waited to see if Rodger would give the order to cut down Pachi for his insolence.
“Wha…! What is the meaning of this! I am the head of the magic guild in Beorin and the third in command of the whole guild! How dare you point your weapons at me! Prince, your games go too far! I will be taking this up with the king! Where is he? Bring me to the king!” sputtered Pachi.
“You’re speaking to him,” said a guard, whose sword moved closer to the frail-looking man in front of him.
“What?” asked Pachi, as he looked befuddled at the guard that had just spoken.
“Some sort of plague has started to infect people in the capital. What have you done!” asked Rodger more forcefully. He had regained more of his wits and strength back from the warmed spiced wine.
“If you’re talking about what I think you are, it is not us who did it! We did not have any hand in the creation of the [Molten Onyx Necrosis Affliction]!”
“The what?”
“The [Molten Onyx Necrosis Affliction] is what it has been labeled by headquarters in Freopia.”
“You knew about this?!”
“I only found out this morning! Something happened in Fregoldawae and I was going to inform the king tomorrow,” said Pachi.
Rodger glared at the man making him extremely uncomfortable.
“This joke has gone on long enough prince. Where is the king?”
Rodger only pointed to the urn that held the gathered remains of the late King Titus.
He saw the confusion on Pachi’s face and explained, “The late King Titus came back only a short time ago heavily wounded and infected by this [Molten Onyx] plague you spoke of. He exploded and wounded several others after passing everything to me.”
“You let an infected thing like that in here!? Are you trying to kill us all!? Are the wounded in the infirmary? You need to lock it! Don’t let anyone in or out!”
One of the guards had had enough of the insolent guild master and poked him in the rump with the tip of his sword.
“HEEE!” the old man gave an odd shout of pain.
The outside door opened again and several more guards entered the common room that was getting rather cramped with everyone gathering inside.
“I’m surprised you have the guts and brains to insult someone when all you do is sleep,” said Ruth from behind the protection of the many guards that surrounded her and her handmaiden servants who followed behind her.
She pushed through the guards and reached Rodgers’ side.
“Is what you said really true?” she asked.
She already knew the answer as she saw the crown in Rodger’s right hand and the chain necklace in his left hand.
Rodger only nodded his head and pulled her close to him in order to silently comfort her, he knew no words would ease the loss of both parents who had died in such a gruesome way.
“Pachi, how did this plague spread?”
“The headquarters guess that it has something to do with the immortality potions…” said Pachi flinching back from the hard glare that he received from Rodger.
“You will command all your shops in Beorin to immediately stop the sale of such potions!” Rodger turned to a guard near him.
“By order of the king! Take a few others and start clearing the streets of all civilians, inform everyone you see that the immortality potion is outlawed and must be handed over,” he turned to another guard. “Put up a notice and gather a group of soldiers to go door to door informing everyone of this. If anyone is found to still have the potion in two days time they will be hanged.”
The guards saluted Rodger and quickly left the guardhouse to complete the tasks given to them.
“The rest of you man the castle walls and repel anything that gets near. Pachi, how do we clean up this mess?”
“The only method I know of is the holy water from the monasteries. It is not a cure but it will take care of the infected. There may be other ways but I have no other knowledge of it.”
“What are you planning on doing?” asked Ruth.
“I’m going to go and clean up the city,” said Rodger.
***
In front of the castle gates, a fully armored Rodger turned his warhorse around to address the elite castle guard army.
“Remember, those infected by the Molten onyx plague have a stone layer covering their body. You need to use blunt force to smash them apart! Keep your holy water ready to coat your weapons and use it to try and disinfect any wound you received no matter how small it is.”
With that, he turned back around and passed through the castle gates. Beside him rode Silias who still commanded the elite guards and was more than ready to retire, but he had not found the time to do so with so many things popping up needing the elite guard’s attention.
Rodger led the large force down the empty main street in search of the infected. Many frightened citizens hearing the loud noise outside peeked from the cracks of their wooden window shutters to see the large force pass by.
“A large mass of infected has been sighted! Ready your weapons!” shouted Silias as he stood up in his stirrups and pointed towards the infected that were slowly stumbling down the road.
Rodger urged his warhorse into an even faster gallop which everyone else followed suit as they kept pace alongside their new young king.
CRACK! BAM! Neigh!
The bodies of the Infected were sent flying through the air as the heavily armored warhorses crashed into them plowing through. Those not knocked back were crushed underneath the warhorse’s hooves and the blunt weapons of the elite soldiers.
With their charge forward blunted they were now getting bogged down and their momentum forward would soon come to a complete stop and be surrounded if they continued to fight.
“Don’t stop! Push through!” shouted Roger as he saw more and more infected stumbling out of side streets to join the fight.
They urged their warhorses forward as they crushed anything that got near them. They sliced a path of destruction through the infected.
The majority of the elite guards were able to push through but a few at the rear had come to a stop and were quickly surrounded by tens of infected. No matter how much they swung their blunt weapons they could not keep the grabbing hands and mouths away and they were pulled off their mount.
Both horse and man disappeared under the mass of onyx skinned infected and were eaten alive.
They rode down the main street until they reached a large intersection that was now empty of all traffic and did an about-turn.
After a few seconds of reordering themselves, they again urged their mounts forward at a quick pace and charged the infected.
They used this tactic until they had completely cleared the sector of infected. Rodger and the elite soldiers continued to move from one sector of the city to another joining up with the soldiers in the barracks throughout the city.
A whole day and night was spent clearing the streets of any infected. But there were still new cases of infected appearing inside houses where they were locked up with friends and family.
Many more people were killed or eaten by friends and loved ones before the army could come and kill those that were infected.
***
In the castle’s throne room a tired but stern-looking Rodger sat on the throne. He was holding Ruth’s hand, who sat next to him on her own royal seat.
They had been sitting here ever since Rodger had returned from clearing the streets. He had not slept in two days due to fighting, which was followed by the private royal funeral for the dead King and Queen.
Which was in turn followed by every city noble being summoned to the castle to swear their loyalty to the new King and Queen.
The last of the several thousands of city nobles had finally finished their pledges leaving only Rodger and Ruth inside the large torch-lit throne room.
Rodger turned and inspected Ruth who was staring at the doors that the nobles had used to exit the room. He was somewhat relieved at how well she was taking the loss of her parents but was also perturbed by the lack of emotion from her.
“I never knew there were so many of those guys living in the city,” said Ruth.
“That was only the first two tiers of Imperial nobles, they control a decent amount of men under them. There are even more low-class Imperial Knights who will be doing group oath swearing under the supervision of those that were here today. From what I read in recent reports there were several hundred nobles and their families that were completely wiped out because of the plague.”
“Can we afford to pay such a large number of nobles pensions?” asked a curious Ruth.
“Not with the current situation. I will make sure to work them hard in the coming weeks. The prosperous peacetime is over, the weak will soon be weeded out in the coming weeks. It is a good thing that this happened now in the winter months and not the spring or fall where there would be a heavy impact on our food creation. We can not afford to stay locked down for long otherwise the economy will suffer and people will starve to death. The cure must not be worse than the [Molten Onyx] plague,” said Rodger.
“So you are going ahead with the plan then?” asked Ruth.
“Yes, I can not sit here and allow the countryside and other cities of Beorin to be swallowed up by the infected. I will be leading the army out to stomp out any infected we come across. There are already reports of large infected groups roaming around along with many mutated monsters.”
“It seems to me that all you are doing is trying to put out a forest fire with drops of water. What are you going to do if you or your army is infected?”
“I have taken precautions for this. A few Demigods have been hired to help us. We can hire more if we need to,” said Rodger.
“Is that wise to trust such dangerous people?”
“I know it is a risk, but with the current situation, there is little left for me to do other than invite them to help. I hope you will trust me on this.”
“I will.”
“I am relieved to hear that. If I am to get through this I need to rely on your support as my wife and queen.”
“It is only natural that I, as your wife and queen, would support you.”
“I swore an oath to your father to protect you and the country. I will have a large guard force escort you to the northern castle that is far away from the capital city. You will be far safer and away from the large crowds of people who may be infected. The large force of soldiers already there will be able to keep it that way. Before you go you should write to your sister and let her know of your parent’s death.”
“I’m not sure if she would even care to know about it, with the state of her mind, but I will write to her,” said Ruth.
