Surrounded by demons, with dark clouds looming overhead.
Gelman looked up, taking in each figure one by one.
Morel really hadn't been wrong. "There are five Four Heavenly Kings" was perfectly normal.
At the bottom right of the broad, long stone steps floated a one-eyed demon with curved horns.
It was powerfully built, its body covered in long, thick fur like a yak's.
"A one-eyed demon that sought to rule over all. But every being that formed a contract with it has died, and its wings have been completely broken..."
Most of those present recognized it as the Guardian Spirit Beast of the late Ninth Prince, Halkenburg.
Halkenburg had been a very radical and extreme man.
At first, he'd refused to take part in the Succession War. Later, he decided he wanted to become the heir. Only a few bullets had passed between those two points.
First, he threatened his biological father, King Nasubi, demanding that he end the bloody Succession War.
But King Nasubi had told him plainly that once the Succession War began, he could no longer decide when it would end.
Halkenburg didn't believe such baseless words. So he raised his pistol and shot at King Nasubi.
He wanted to kill King Nasubi and force the Succession War to end.
In fact, King Nasubi really did die from that shot. The Succession War wouldn't end—instead, its violence would escalate dramatically.
King Nasubi's presence had always suppressed the infighting between the heirs. Otherwise, before the colonial voyage began, more than just Fourth Prince Tserriednich would surely have died.
If King Nasubi really were gone, order throughout BW1 would collapse completely.
Halkenburg couldn't possibly control the situation, and the other princes, who had all been eyeing the throne, would never accept "regicide" Halkenburg as king.
Great Chaos would break