Writetober day 3: Crown

A crown lays heavy on a king. It lays heavy with the sins they commit for their kingdom. For their people who live each day to the fullest, the deeds of their ruler may seem lazy and fueled by greed. Which in most cases might be true.

But not me.

My kingdom have stood for eons and each second of those years I stood with them in turmoil and festivities, and I shall stand with them again for the eternity to come. My people suspect my long life to be a blessing by the goddess. Yet they are wrong.
The truth lays in my crown.
A cursed object of gold that fails to convince me to slaughter my kin and my people. Promising power beyond the goddess and the deepest corners of space. It promises death and rebirth if I simply do as it says, yet I would never take that path, I could never lay harm to the people who I care for and whom depend on me.
even if the crown speaks truth with the ice queen sending her hero and knights, I would not put them to death like the crown ordered me to.
Not because it's offers dont tempt me, but simply because it goes against my values.
I harm them who wish my people and family harm. Not some kid chosen by the queen the ruler of ice and branded with the title of hero. Nor the friends who wished to help their friend and became her knights.
They act on the queens orders but they themselves do not wish us harm. So I shall move my blade with swiftness and capture them as prisoners and release them from the shackles of being a hero. They will work for a year or two but like everyone else, they
will be free to leave.
Be it dragons, magic, folks with strange new technology it doesnt matter. Even if the pain I feel is six times worth thanks to the crowns influence. Hoping that immortality would either make mad or beg it to end me. But my determination for my people burn brighter then any eternal fire.
Ill slay and defeat any foe who shall harm my people.

Today a strange man came to my little kingdom.
A man wished to speak directly to me.
The man was dressed with yellow coat with a colorful embroidered vest underneath, a pair of damaged denims, leather boots with small metal spinners on their heel and a sturdy wide brimmed hat made of old leather. Their hands where covered with blacksmith gloves that seem just a size to big. As the strange man bowed before me I noticed a weird crocked wand on their hip, which through my years I had heard was an invention dubbed as a "revolver".

"Oh king of the mad crown, I come here not to bring you trouble or ask for aid. I have come to grant you aid," the unusually dressed man spoke.

"I was once part of a kingdom who was ruled by a mad king who succumbed to the wishes of the crown. It drove them to become a horrid monster and I see how long you have resisted and fought the crowns delirium. So I wish to aid in it's removal."

"Slay him!" the crown's wicked voice spoke.

I had learnt that whatever the crown asked of me I would do the opposite. So I chose to believe the strange man, of course I wasnt worried about my health, since if nothing in this past eon failed I doubt this man could do much damaged. However, I decided to have my guards tail his moves.

The man explained that the kingdom he hailed from was ruled by the crowns last wearer and it turned their king to a terrifying demon beyond imagination. They forced the people to work for every day of their lives without break, which was worsened with the crown influence leaking to the people. Making their lives unbearably long. Long enough that not even death could spare them. The king would reform their bodies to building blocks for his castle or rearrange their shape to horrid monsters. THos who disobeyed would be eaten and thus live forever in torment inside the kings soul.
He told me that he lost his family and wife them turning to living blocks to be built to the kings castle. He told me that eventually the managed to over power the kings and saw the crown of their head before burning all that was left.
The stranger then told me that they left and wandered the world as an outlaw with what remained of their long life.
So the outlaw had heard of me and my kingdom he scurried to our kingdom in terror of another mad kings rule. Hoping to save whatever was left.

"I wish to perform the same method to remove the crown of you, yet this one to be a more safer way."

I spoke with my advisors and I agreed to his help.
He started with drawing strange circles and burning books whit in them.
He feed me soups of strange herbs and began to study my head.
Those his intentions seemed good, I always caught him staring at the crown, not with the fear of a man who was once oppressed by it. No, he stared at it with longing.
Like someone who had found a part of themselves after such a long time.
So as the day went I grew weary of the stranger, I would expect a man of his history to be weary of the cursed piece of metal on my head, yet as every moment he got closer he seemed to change, to hunger for it.
Even when I offered him dinner, all the outlaw did was stare at my crown with hunger in his eyes.
He told me that all the preparations were made and said that the operation would commence first thing in the morning.

By nightfall the outlaw was erratic and I could still hear his jingling boots constantly walk up and away from my quarters, like if he was standing right outside my door, listening in.
Ignoring him still, I closed my eyes and tried to let the night take me away to the dreamland.

I had yet to fall asleep when I heard it, the creaking of my doors and the jingling of the outlaws boots. I felt his figure cover the pleasant moon light as he towered over me.

"The crown is mine!" he hissed, and plunged a dagger down at my head.

I turned just in time to dodge and I rolled out my bed. The outlaw drew his gun and shot four times.
The first bullet missed and the second one just graced me.
I lunged for my sword and drew it from it's sheath.
I cut the third bullet in twain and deflected the fourth.
I dashed over to him, he fired the last two of his chamber and I dodged and weaved past both, a look of horror shine din his eyes as my blade danced with the moons cold glow. I jumped over my bed and thrust my sword into the outlaws chest.
As the outlaws blood splattered across my bedchambers I let go of my sword and groaned.
Yet before I could react, the outlaws body unravel like a spiral of silk floating in the air. Without hesitation the crown drank it all up and I felt my head ache.

"Now it can finally begin," I heard the crown ragged voice in my head.

I felt my head and the crown grow as one and thus its knowledge poured into my own. The cowboy was not some simple peasant of the old crowns wearer, he was the crowns last king and thus their evil deeds was enough to fuel the crowns mad power and begin the rebirth it had asked.
Despite my begging and pleading to it to keep me human, it refused and my body hit the floor.
Hours pass and I hear the swallows chirp passed my window. I do not need to witness myself to know ive changed. My vision was sharp and expanding past distances I could never before. MKy skin is a grayish hue like stone, it cracks with lines of red veins spreading through my body.
im taller, the crown and my skull has become one red and cray form. My face elongated and spiking up like the crowns sharp edges. I find no eyes on my blank face and I see my body is smooth and tall. Yet I move on.
I dress myself in my royal robes and step to great my kingdom.
I fear not their reactions, they may scream at me in terror or accept me to be the same. They may try to kill me or throw me out.
No matter which, I still live the kingdom I made, and no matter what I shall be here to protect them.
Be it dragons, gods, demons, or former kings of the crown, it doesnt matter.
I shall present my blade to whoever wishes my kingdom ill.