Countless demon hunters wearing mysterious masks suddenly appeared from the darkness like countless stars, moving as swiftly as leopards.
Seeing this, the Second Prince, now transformed into a minotaur demon, felt his mind buzz violently, as if a deafening roar had exploded inside his head.
His crimson eyes swept across the surroundings, passing over each demon hunter holding all kinds of strange weapons.
In the end, they locked firmly onto the woman standing at the center of the group.
She wore a mask covered in complicated patterns, but her unmistakable silver hair immediately made everyone present feel a sense of familiarity.
Combined with what Viktor had just said, her identity was revealed.
"The... the Queen?"
A noble muttered her identity in disbelief.
'This... this couldn't be right!'
'The Queen?'
The surrounding nobles all widened their eyes and looked at each other.
'The Queen... Is a demon hunter?'
Their minds went blank. None of them had ever imagined such a thing.
Even the usually calm and steady First Prince stood frozen in shock.
His eyes lost focus as he stared blankly at Claudia slowly walking toward them.
The First Prince remembered seeing Claudia in the royal capital not long ago.
Unlike Owiser, he valued his family deeply.
At that time, his mother, Claudia, had been taking a walk in the garden.
Surrounded by flowers and fluttering butterflies, she had looked graceful, noble, gentle, and dignified. That image had stayed deeply in his memory.
But now, his mother looked like a completely different person.
Although he had not seen her for a long time...
The kindness and gentleness she once had were completely gone, replaced by a cold killing intent.
The silver spear in her hand looked like an enraged dragon.
It seemed ready to burst from her grip at any moment and tear the demon before her into countless pieces.
Looking through the mask, the First Prince stared at the eyes that were visible.
He could never mistake them.
They were his mother Claudia's eyes.
But the crimson eye on the other half of her face filled him with a feeling of unfamiliarity and fear unlike anything he had ever known.
He slowly turned his head and looked at Viktor again.
At that moment, Albany finally seemed to understand.
Viktor had long noticed the demon inside Owiser.
That was why he had been stalling for time, making sure the knights could evacuate the nearby civilians.
At the same time, he had steadily provoked Owiser's anger, drawing out the demon inside him completely.
Until their mother, the Queen, appeared.
To deliver Owiser's final judgment.
Claudia gripped her spear with both hands and spun it several times.
The cold spearhead traced bright arcs through the air.
The crimson eye hidden beneath her mask flashed with a faint red light.
She slowly raised her head and locked eyes with Owiser, who had become a gigantic minotaur demon.
The moment their eyes met, Owiser's crimson pupils shrank.
His trembling voice rang out like the tolling of a chaotic bell.
The giant minotaur demon spoke with a trembling voice as the deep bell-like sound echoed around them.
"Mo... Mother?"
The moment he spoke that word, every doubt in everyone's heart disappeared.
The nobles stared with wide eyes. Even Liya and Gwen in the distance heard it clearly.
That settled it.
Who could have imagined that Emperor's wife, Queen Claudia, was actually a demon hunter?
Owiser couldn't understand it.
Albany couldn't understand it.
Neither could the nobles.
No wonder.
Maybe this explained why Queen Claudia had been away from the royal capital for more than ten years.
She had actually left the Empire to hunt demons.
But now, an even more frightening thought slowly rose in the minds of the nobles.
Everything happening now seemed like a perfectly planned coincidence.
The exact moment Owiser became a demon happened to match the moment Queen Claudia appeared as a demon hunter.
It was as if someone had carefully arranged the whole thing.
And the person behind it...
At that moment, everyone's eyes turned to Viktor.
If this entire chain of events was treated as a mission, then Viktor was undoubtedly the one carrying it out.
Now every condition had been fulfilled.
The Second Prince's connection with demons had been exposed, and from this point on, the royal family would deal with him personally.
Especially at this critical moment in the struggle over the throne.
The Second Prince's actions had been completely revealed.
He no longer had the right to compete for the throne.
High above, the minotaur demon hidden among the clouds finally came to his senses.
He reached out one huge hand from the clouds and covered his head.
His crimson eyes were gradually hidden behind that giant hand, and the sky fell into silent darkness.
If anyone could have seen his eyes, they would have noticed...
The Second Prince's eyes were shaking nonstop.
"No... What did I just do?"
"I was provoked into losing my temper?"
At last, the Second Prince realized how serious the situation was.
As deep doubt filled his mind, he finally understood that those three demons had never intended to fight him.
Their punches and kicks.
Their mocking words.
Even their greedy betrayal.
Everything had been aimed at the same goal.
To lure him into a carefully prepared trap.
The Sloth Demon had made his thoughts slow and heavy.
The Greed Demon had magnified his desires to the limit.
And the Wrath Demon had been the key, constantly fueling his anger until he could no longer stay calm.
Just as planned, the three demons had successfully bought enough time for the royal family to arrive in person.
Everything had completely destroyed the carefully prepared plan of the Second Prince.
His original plan had been to appear after the Greed Demon created chaos.
Then, in the middle of that chaos, he would control the demon and kill his elder brother on the spot.
For the throne, the Second Prince would stop at nothing.
He didn't even mind the nobles discovering his connection with demons.
Because as long as he could control them, those demons were nothing more than his power.
He wanted to display that power before the nobles and prove that he, Owiser, could command demons to do anything.
Power beyond anyone else's.
Most importantly, only he could do it.
Because he was a prince.
When a prince no longer cared about appearances, he could act without restraint.
Not even Viktor could touch him.
That was what his uncle, Leopold, had taught him.
But he never should have summoned the demonic power inside himself.
He never should have revealed his demon form.
And he especially should never have let the royal family witness it.
Because what he had done was no longer simply working with demons.
The moment everyone saw Owiser transform into a demon, they realized something.
Owiser was trying to become one with a demon.
Controlling a demon...
And becoming a demon...
Those were two different things.
It was true that, other than the royal family, no one else could touch him.
But members of the royal family were different.
Especially when the one standing before him was his own mother, a demon hunter.
Owiser had just opened his mouth.
Before he could say another word...
Countless flashes of silver burst out like stars.
The daggers thrown by the demon hunters struck the ground around the minotaur's feet with perfect accuracy, and white patterns quickly spread between them.
The patterns connected together and gradually formed an enormous rune array.
The next second, a transparent barrier shot up from the ground.
Countless dazzling snowflakes rose against the airflow around the barrier, forming a pure white vortex.
The enormous cage separated all the nobles and elves from the battlefield, leaving only the demon hidden beneath the clouds trapped inside.
Ripples spread through the space around the transparent barrier as countless pale chains extended from them.
They wrapped tightly around the giant demon's arms, forcing them apart.
In the end, he could only watch helplessly as both arms were completely restrained.
More chains wrapped around his enormous head and forcibly dragged him down from the clouds.
As waves of weakness washed over him, the Second Prince became more and more miserable and shouted from high above, "No... don't!"
The moment the words left his mouth, half of his enormous body was pulled out from the clouds, completely wrapped in chains.
The chains seemed to treat the clouds as the walls of a prison, pinning him firmly in the sky.
Countless silver daggers flew from the demon hunters' hands like a torrential storm, mercilessly piercing the minotaur's massive body.
Black blood, as dark as ink, slowly flowed from each wound.
As the blood continued to drain away, the Second Prince felt his strength rapidly fading.
It was as if the demonic power inside him was constantly being pulled away and stripped from him.
The pain was unbearable.
It felt as though countless nails were being driven deep beneath his fingernails.
As time passed, the pain only grew worse.
Finally, he could no longer endure it and cried out, "Uncle, save..."
Before he could finish speaking, a long silver spear shot up from the ground, drawing a brilliant arc through the air.
Puchi!
In the blink of an eye, the dragon-like silver spear pierced through the upper and lower jaws of the minotaur demon, pinning them tightly shut.
From that moment on, the Second Prince could no longer make a sound.
Claudia still held the posture she had used to throw the spear.
After confirming the hit, she slowly straightened her body, twisted her waist slightly, and calmly walked toward the demon.
As she passed Viktor, he glanced at her and asked softly, "Your Majesty, do you need any help?"
Without turning around, Claudia kept her eyes fixed on the Second Prince and replied calmly, "No. This is our family matter."
As she spoke, a cold light flashed through her eyes.
With a gentle flick of her arm, five silvery droplets seemed to fall from it.
They slid into her palm, turned into five mercury spears, and were firmly gripped in her hand.
Finally, the crimson eye on Claudia's face burned with a blazing light.
Looking at the demon in the sky, she slowly said, "A disobedient child... it's time to be taught a lesson."