Realm Lord
Chapter 126: A Plan of Desperation

Chapter 126: A Plan of Desperation

Another blink brought them inside the castle itself, and Arthur was shocked by the transformation in the king’s demeanor. Gone was the composed, gentle father who had read bedtime stories to his daughters. In his place was a man driven by desperation and fear, his voice raised in urgent commands as he shouted at everyone within the castle walls.

"Leave! Everyone must leave immediately!" the king bellowed, his voice echoing through the grand hallways. "Get out now, or I will have you removed by force!"

Arthur watched as servants, guards, and courtiers who had served the royal family faithfully for years were suddenly being expelled from their home with threats of violence if they didn’t comply quickly enough. The king’s eyes were wild with panic and determination, and his hand never moved far from his sword hilt as he supervised the chaotic evacuation.

Through it all, his family—his wife and twin daughters—watched with frightened, confused eyes. They had never seen their husband and father in such a state, and their fear was palpable as they huddled together for comfort. But they remained silent, understanding somehow that this was not the time for questions or protests.

Once the castle had been cleared, the king led his family to the throne room where Arthur had first found himself in this strange experience. It was there that they encountered the familiar empty suits of armor that Arthur and his group had dubbed "the sheepmen" during their own exploration of the castle.

The suits of armor stood in perfect formation, their metal surfaces gleaming despite their apparent emptiness. They stood motionless, yet Arthur could sense an otherworldly presence emanating from them, as if they were waiting for some predetermined signal to spring into action.

Another blink transported Arthur to a scene that filled him with sudden understanding and dread. The king was now positioned in the center of the throne room, surrounded by the sheepmen in a complex ritual formation.

’The king was the magician? This must be the spell put on the castle.’

The realization struck Arthur like lightning. it was the king himself who was the source of the magic, driven by desperation to protect his family through means he didn’t fully understand.

Arthur watched as the King began to chant in a language that predated common speech, his voice taking on harmonics that seemed to resonate with the very stones of the castle. The sheepmen began to move in response, their empty armor clanking softly as they shifted positions according to some predetermined pattern. Energy began to build in the room, crackling between the ritual circles and causing the air itself to shimmer with magical potential.

The next blink brought Arthur to perhaps the most heartbreaking scene yet. The king was lying upon his bed in the royal chambers, the room darkened except for the pale moonlight filtering through heavy curtains. His wife and daughters slept peacefully beside him.

But the king was wide awake, staring blankly up at the ceiling with eyes that reflected his inner torment. Tears streamed down his face in steady rivulets, and his whole body shook with silent sobs. When he finally spoke, his voice was so quiet that even Arthur, experiencing the memory directly, struggled to make out the words.

"I’m sorry," the king whispered into the darkness, the words carrying the weight of a man who knew he had made a terrible mistake but couldn’t see any alternative.

After blinking again, they were awake, and Arthur began to understand the full scope of the king’s desperate plan.

’The king locked his family in the castle with the spell as a way of protecting them!?’

The plan was born from desperation and love, but it was incredibly flawed from the beginning. The king’s mind had been so focused on his singular goal of protecting his family that he had failed to notice the obvious holes in his reasoning. By trapping them within the magical barrier, he had indeed protected them from the immediate threat of the void creatures, but he had also condemned them to an existence that was barely living. And on top of that unless there was some sort of barrier that had faded long before Arthur and the rest arrived, there was nothing but luck stopping things from entering.

Arthur experienced the next few days through the king’s perspective, watching as the royal family attempted to maintain some semblance of normal life within their magical prison. They ate meals together, the daughters played in the gardens, and the king tried to maintain his royal duties even though there was no longer a kingdom to rule. It was a hollow existence, sustained only by the hope that somehow, eventually, the void threat would pass and they could return to their normal lives.

But the king’s flawed plan began to show its first critical weakness when his wife began to fall ill. At first, it seemed like nothing more than a common cold—a slight cough, some fatigue, perhaps a mild fever. The king tended to her personally, bringing her hot soup and staying by her bedside with the devotion of a loving husband.

But after a day or two of this seemingly innocent illness, the symptoms began to change in ways that filled the king with growing horror. The cough became more violent and persistent, and when his wife covered her mouth during a particularly severe fit, her hand came away stained with something that wasn’t quite blood.

It was black.

Arthur watched in mounting dread as dark veins began to sprout around the queen’s body like sinister roots spreading beneath her skin. They started small, barely visible lines around her temples and wrists, but they grew larger and more prominent with each passing hour. Her skin, once as flawless as her husband’s, began to take on a grayish pallor that spoke of something fundamentally wrong occurring within her body.

The horrible truth was impossible to deny: despite all the king’s efforts to protect his family, despite the spell and the desperate sacrifices he had made, corruption had found its way inside their sanctuary.

She was corrupted.

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