Zhang Lei was dead, and the death of such a high-ranking prince sent a wave of unease rippling through the royal heirs.
No one here is an idiot. Did Zhang Lei really die just because he "insulted his ancestors"?
What utter nonsense.
Even if that were true—would Zhang Lei really be dumb enough to insult the royal lineage right in front of King Nasubi?
There had to be something else going on. Something deeper.
So, when the photo of Zhang Lei's corpse reached each prince, there was a moment of silent tension… then, all at once, the sparks of conflict reignited.
...
The first flashpoint came between the First Prince Benjamin and the Ninth Prince Halkenburg.
The immediate cause? Halkenburg killed off private soldiers Benjamin had secretly planted in his territory.
But the real story was something else entirely.
After his audience with King Nasubi, the Ninth Prince awakened a new Nen ability—The Boy Who Shoots the Arrow: Grimmel the Dissonance.
The ability works like this: using the aura of individuals marked by his Guardian Spirit Beast, Halkenburg creates a spiritual arrow. He forms a bow from his own aura and fires the arrow at a target. The arrow can bypass all physical and Nen-based defenses. When it strikes, it suppresses the target's consciousness, and the mind of one randomly selected marked individual—potentially even Halkenburg himself—is injected into the target's body, effectively taking control.
The possessed individual collapses unconscious, with all vitals normal. Once the body dies, the possessor souls safely return to their original hosts.
Benjamin, unaware of this hidden ability, had his soldiers' bodies hijacked during a critical moment. The losses were significant.
Enraged by the humiliation and his inability to counter the unfamiliar power, Benjamin ignored Captain Balsamilco's warnings and launched a full-on assault against Halkenburg.
Their battle raged, intense and wild, threatening to spiral into complete chaos—and drag more princes into the fray.
...
But Halkenburg, now awakened and understanding the value of alliances, didn't stand alone. He reached out to his half-siblings: the Second Prince Camilla, the Fifth Prince Tubeppa, and the Seventh Prince Luzurus.
All four shared the same mother: Queen Duazul, a high-ranking queen whose influence had once made their private forces formidable.
However, Queen Duazul's distant and aloof nature had shaped each of her children differently. Their personal ambitions and ideologies diverged sharply.
The most extreme example? Camilla.
Willful. Arrogant. Ruthless.
She once brazenly declared in front of her mother that she planned to kill Benjamin first—then her own brother, Halkenburg. She didn't ask for permission.
She gave orders.
With that kind of temperament, Camilla immediately refused Halkenburg's offer of cooperation. She had no interest in allying with either side. In fact, she was more than happy to let her two greatest rivals destroy each other.
Less competition meant fewer obstacles on her own path to the throne.
...
Tubeppa, by contrast, was far more calculating. She accepted Halkenburg's invitation for talks, but made it clear she wouldn't just fall into line. She had ambitions of her own.
Eventually, Fourth Prince Tserriednich joined the discussions, and a tentative alliance began to form. Together, they began to shift their focus toward a new common enemy—Benjamin.
Though Tserriednich and Benjamin shared a mother, his hatred for his older brother rivaled even Camilla's.
Luzurus, at first, didn't want to get involved at all. But in a competition this brutal, no prince ranked in the top ten could remain neutral forever—unless they were as bizarre and untouchable as Tyson.
After a reminder from Ronnel, and some private deliberation, Luzurus made his move.
...
Meanwhile, Benjamin remained as stubborn and arrogant as ever. He refused to join or create any alliances.
This quickly polarized the royal succession war into two distinct power blocs: Halkenburg's faction versus Benjamin's loyalists.
This rising tension made the remaining middle and lower-ranking princes, including the Tenth Prince, increasingly nervous. They expected a brutal war to erupt at any moment between the two dominant forces.
But to everyone's surprise, instead of attacking each other, the two factions reached a quiet, chilling consensus:
Camilla had to go.
In a succession war, neutrality is a weakness. And self-centered recklessness is a death sentence. Camilla had made herself a target by refusing to pick a side.
Everyone could see that if she gained too much power unchecked, she'd become a catastrophic threat.
And so, Camilla quickly paid the price for her arrogance and short-sightedness.
Despite her own formidable abilities and influence, she was swiftly overwhelmed under the joint siege launched by both Benjamin's and Halkenburg's forces.
...
She did awaken a Nen ability tied to her guardian beast mid-battle—but it was no use.
Benjamin was willing to pay a heavy price to take her down.
While Benjamin's forces crushed her on the outside, Halkenburg made his move from within.
Using The Boy Who Shoots the Arrow: Grimmel the Dissonance, he had his followers possess Camilla's body—then committed suicide while in her form.
Technically, it was Camilla who pulled the trigger.
And because it was "suicide," her Nen ability, Cat's Name, which activates only when she's killed by someone else, never triggered.
Camilla died with wide-open eyes—killed by Halkenburg, through her own hand.
...
The coordinated elimination of the Second Prince by the 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 9th Princes sent a shockwave through the entire first floor.
Most had expected the lower-ranked princes to die off first, one by one, while the top contenders bided their time.
But after Salé-salé fell, then Zhang Lei, Camilla's death marked the first major shift in the war among the upper princes.
And nothing would ever be the same.
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Fanfic is completed on patreon.com/FanficsHub (799 chapters in total)