Chapter 127: As it Crumbles
The sight of those dark veins spreading across his beloved wife’s skin like poisonous roots devastated the king in ways that Arthur could feel echoing through his very soul. Through the monarch’s eyes, Arthur witnessed a man watching his entire world crumble around him, powerless to stop the inexorable advance of corruption.
The king’s understanding of corruption was tragically limited, based more on fearful rumors and incomplete knowledge than on any true comprehension of the void’s insidious nature. What he did understand, however, was terrifying enough: sometimes those affected by corruption underwent horrible transformations, their bodies and minds twisted into monstrous forms that bore little resemblance to the people they had once been. These corrupted beings became creatures of violence and hunger, driven by alien instincts to spread their taint to others.
It was this incomplete knowledge that led the king to make a decision that left even Arthur feeling hollow with its cruel necessity.
Unable to bear the thought of his cherished wife potentially transforming into a monster that might harm their innocent daughters, the king made the most agonizing choice of his life. With tears streaming down his face and his hands shaking with barely controlled emotion, he personally escorted his wife down to the castle’s dungeons—a place that had rarely been used during his peaceful reign, reserved only for the most serious criminals.
Arthur felt the king’s heart breaking as he guided his wife into one of the cells, her weakened form leaning heavily against him for support. She was still beautiful despite the corruption that was slowly claiming her body, her hair now streaked with premature gray and her once-bright eyes dulled by illness and confusion. She didn’t resist as he gently helped her to the simple cot that served as the cell’s only furniture, her trust in her husband remaining absolute even as he prepared to abandon her to this terrible fate.
"I’m sorry," the king whispered as he closed the cell door, the sound of the iron lock clicking into place echoing through the dungeon like a death knell. "I’m so sorry, my love. I just... I can’t risk you hurting the girls. I can’t lose them too."
To ensure that his wife couldn’t escape and potentially threaten their daughters, the king assigned one of the sheepmen to stand guard outside her cell. The empty suit of armor took its position with mechanical precision, its hollow helm turned toward the cell door as it began its eternal vigil. There it would remain, motionless and silent, watching over a woman who had once been the heart and soul of the royal family.
All the king had ever wanted was to protect his family, to keep them safe from the horrors that had consumed his kingdom. But his wife never did transform into the monster he feared she might become. Instead, something far more heartbreaking occurred.
She simply... died.