The Dark King – Chapter 56
Virus
Dudian, Sham and Zach looked at the dark blue ball. They were confused. A ball falled out of … a head. It was perfectly spherical. The color was dark blue and it looked beautiful. Obviously it was not result of intracranial tissue sclerosis as it looked like a metal ball.
Only, how could there be a metal in the brain?
Dudian was anxious and doubtful. He didn’t take the initiative to touch it but gentle poked the ball with the dagger. It skid as the blade of the dagger touched it.
“so hard!” Dudian was mesmerized. Infection rate through hard objects was slow. Moreover it wouldn’t penetrate the way liquids did. He had gloves which could isolate. “Simple touch should be okay”, Dudian decided. He moved his hand and picked it up.
The moment he touched the ball he felt a chilling ambiance. The only feeling that came through his finger nerves was cold.
Extreme cold!
He felt like he was holding an ice hockey puck which he just picked from the field. “Is it because of this dark blue ball that the blood and flesh within the undead’s body are frozen?”, thought Dudian.
Coldness spread along his arm. He felt the temperature of the entire arm was rapidly reducing and it became stiff. He picked the dark blue ball with his other arm. Coldness began to pierce through his other arm too. Dudian felt his body becoming chilly, as if he was walking nude in the ‘black snow season’, exposing his body to snow.
“How the hell does it work? My hands are holding it but my whole body feels cold. I could feel the soles of my feet were numb because of the cold. ” Dudian was surprised. First it felt like playing snowballs in the winter. The hand would be cold but body will be warm. But at the moment he felt the chills all over his body, like he was covered by ice blocks all around.
Immediately, he put the dark blue ball on the ground and rubbed his hands with each other. He felt a bit warmer. Soon his stomach gurgled because of hunger. He hasn’t eaten from the moment they have left the giant wall. He put up with forbearance as there were more important matters at hand than a meal. Suddenly, he thought of a reason.
“Heat absorption!” Dudian awoke, “This dark blue ball absorbs heat! It works like the saltpeter of gun powder. It is not just one of the raw materials of the gun powder but could be used in ice making. In this world the alchemists have only mastered the use of saltpeter in making ice but have not found that nitrite mixed saltpeter can explode…”
In case saltpeter is put into small enough amount of water, it will absorb the heat in the water so the water will become ice.
Obviously this dark blue ball had the same endothermic function of saltpeter which was why he felt his body’s temperature decrease. If he holds it in his hand, the ball will absorb the heat along the arm. It won’t stop unless it will absorb all the heat within the body. After the temperature of the body reduces to certain extent, the heart naturally will stop to function.
“No wonder! No wonder the temperature of the undead’s body is so low and so cold. Dark blue ball is the reason. But where does this ball come from? Why would it appear in corpse’s mind? ” Dudian mind was full of curiosity. “If it has colonized its brain…Unlikely…It would need very long time and energy to colonize the brain”
“However the corpse was infected with the virus. Although they are variations but at the end they are humans. They were made up flesh and blood. How a hard object like a metal would grow in the brain? That is also strange,” Dudian was brainstorming.
Suddenly a figure jumped from the stairs into the room. All three of them were shocked and alerted.
They turned to see that it was Mason so they were relieved.
Mason saw that they were alright so he snapped: “You guys scared me. I almost thought that I’ve lost you guys!”
Sham scratching his head: “It was you who scared us! I was watching Dean piercing the undead so I forget to inform you..”
Zach hurried: “You have come down so who is gonna throw the bricks? ”
Macon rolled over his eyes and said: “Of course I’m back. I’m exhausted. Decide who will change me”
Sham was looking at the corpse whose head was beheaded. “I’ll go,” Sham said.
Dudian’s thoughts were interrupted by Mason. He continued to think but he couldn’t find clues. He wouldn’t dwell on this topic anymore, surviving was the most important thing right now. His eyes lit up as he looked over at Mason and Zach: “Come with me as a back up.”
They were in doubts as they couldn’t figure what Dudian wanted to do but still followed him down.
Dudian came downstairs to see the group of undeads were faraway. He sneaked out to the corner and used the dagger to cut the heads of two undeads which were still lying on the ground. Carrying their heads he quickly went into the building. He saw Mason and Zach retreat, so he smiled and said: “Nothing dangerous, they are dead.”
Mason was frightened: “You, when have you become so daring?”
“I’m still adapting.” Dudian replied. Returning to the upper floor, he slipt the second head the way he had done before. Now it was much easier to pierce inside, as the heads of the undeads were ripped apart from the body. As expected, there was another exactly the same dark blue ball inside the head of the undead.
He was going to cut the third head when he thought of a problem. He decided to forgo the previous cutting method. Instead he began to cut through the splits of the skull that had resulted from the free fall. The head slowly broke apart. Soon they saw the full intracranial picture. Most of the brain tissue was frozen. Dark blue ball had sank into the brain in an ovary like place.
However, probably due to the skull crack dark blue ball at the brain tissue was damaged. Dudian carefully rummaged for a while. Soon he came to understand the dark blue ball was in control of the undead’s actions.
The so-called, destruction of the head can kill the body of the undead, were based on two principles. First is to destroy the central nervous system in the head so that the head can not control the body. The second is to destroy the dark blue ball’s connection to the brain.
In simple terms, this dark blue ball somehow connects to the brain through the ovary. So there was no need to cut the head. As long as a strong enough force is applied to its head this dark blue ball will vibrate within the ovary. In case like that it will lose the contact with the ovary’s wall and won’t be able to signal the nervous system to take action. Undead will automatically stop to act. It is same as killing the undead.
Dudian was more puzzled as he understood this point. What was the matter that composed the dark blue ball? Why would grow in undead’s brain? Is it manufactured or triggered by the virus?
Dudian picked up the dark blue ball and began to cover it by fabric. He covered layers over layers so it was wrapped into a large fist-sized ball. He hand two of them to Mason and Zach: “This thing can absorb the body temperature. It will help us to lower the temperature down. You don’t have to hold it as it will absorb the body heat anyway. The best is to put it into the backpack.”
Macon and Zach were surprised to see these wrapped up balls. Mason curious: “What is this?
“I don’t know exactly what this is. However, hunters who kill the undeads will dig out their heads for this thing. It should be very valuable. Otherwise they won’t turn a blind eye on things like gold.”said Dudian. He had seen many all the heads of the undeads had been split but he would have never thought that hunters would split the head to pick this dark blue ball out!
Mason frightened: “Are you sure that hunters kill the undeads for this? ”
“maybe.”