Duel of Wills

Days had been bleeding together since the arrival of the Madness in Beijing. Days of horror and conflict that could only be considered some of the bloodiest days in the cities recent history. All of this caused by the insanity of a man who had tried to protect the capital, an insanity that was now spreading further and further with the passing second, and the populace was feeling it. Looting, mayhem, and chaos had become the normal over the last few days as the people of Beijing lost their minds and gave into madness. Once mild mannered folk: a friendly neighbor, a mild mannered grocer, or a helpful law enforcement officer quickly turned into the almost the opposite of who they were. Friends became enemies, enemies became friends inside of the miasma as everything was turned on its head, and with that change came the paranoia. Who could be trusted?

Those with the ability to resist or those who had methods to stay sane could not contact the outside world for help and were left holding themselves up in defended locations hoping it will would all blow over. But as the days went by and those that were sane began to lower number and those that were consumed by madness continued to grow, hope began to began to give way to despair.

It would have been fine if the people had only to deal with the madness, but the corpses of the dead were now rising as well. Wandering the streets, attacking those who were effected or not, the dead had risen and with it the chances for survival greatly decreased. While the dead were not that strong alone, in groups they were like a tidal wave caused by a typhoon. The people had no recourse for it, maddened or sane, they were quickly pushed to their brink no matter which side of the coin they were on.

It was why Steiner had arrived in Beijing in the first place.

The Divine Crusader had descended on Beijing in hopes of protecting the people from the masses of the walking dead, but upon arrival had quickly learned of the madness as well. It had been tough for him to gauge which person was effected or not at first, but over time he had at least got used to the tell tale signs of whatever this madness was. He had been doing his part, using the flat of the blade to incapacitate those that were crazy, and using the edge for those that had rose from their eternal rest. And for a while, the hero had managed to avoid going crazy himself. As if by a stroke of luck his willpower had held the whispers of insanity caused by the miasma at bay, allowing him to perform his heroics without risk of losing his mind while doing so, and over the course of time he had been there he had managed to save a few dozen people. Moving them to the border and close to a Lux evacuation zone was all he could really do, as the feeling of what was in the center of the city made even him hesitate.

Steiner was reckless at times, but even he wasn't that crazy to go pushing that far into the interior. Rather he would rely on others to deal with that, he instead would focus on the ground work, and save who he could. That was his role in this story and he would stick to it.

At least that is what he had thought.

But even the strongest of wills couldn't keep the whispers at bay forever and over time the wall that Steiner had built up slowly began to erode. Maybe it was after he had seen a young husband murdering his new wife or perhaps it was the time he had saw a priest stealing from his own flock that had finally triggered the madness to take him, or maybe it had just been the constant barrage from the miasma. All that Steiner knew was that he had snapped, but the worst part? The worst part was that Steiner couldn't stop himself. Over the last few hours, Steiner had become cold. While at first he had differentiated between the dead and the insane, his mind had slowly began dubbing everyone as irredeemable. This way of thinking had him turning the edge to everyone he saw, it didn't matter who it was: insane, dead, or sane. He killed remorselessly and without pause or hesitation.

His whole body acted on the whims of whispers and the desire to purge the corrupted from this city. It was if Steiner's body was a ship and he just a passenger desperately trying to get back into the cockpit to take control while some madman wildly pushed the ship closer to the wall. His body marched solemnly, killing those that came to close, toward the source of all this madness. Beijing would be purged and the infection that was spreading would be stifled, the new pilot had deemed it so, and as such there was no other choice.