Cycle 23 is the Kingslayer battle stage. The fixed warning chooses the battle plan and immediately unlocks a one-cycle deadline quest; failure or leaving it unassigned ends the run.
Spoiler warning: All newly eligible choices and outcomes are linked below. A route-union entry means the scene can occur on at least one valid history, not that every listed scene can coexist in one playthrough.
Return to the Cycle 22 walkthrough
Recommended Order
- Resolve any forced major intervention before planning the selectable morning.
- Play recruitment returns and corruption returns before scenes that check the current Round Table.
- Clear fixed and delayed story audiences, then resolve the random grievances actually drawn on this route.
- Use afternoon conversations before the Round Table only when their state change helps the assignments you are about to make.
- Assign deadline quests first, repair armor before lethal work, and send only callbacks you want competing for the next cycle’s character slots.
- Continue through every result panel until the first Cycle 24 Tower View appears.
Morning Assembly
Direct story audiences, callbacks, quest results, deaths, and current-cycle injections are assembled before random grievances. Same-character conflicts do not delete a valid delayed scene; they move it to the first later cycle where that character is free.
| Direct audiences before filling | Random grievances added |
|---|---|
| 0 or 1 | 2 or 3 |
| 2 | Exactly 2 |
| 3 | 1 or 2 |
| 4 | Exactly 1 |
| 5 or more | None |
The exact live pool is route-dependent because earlier draws permanently remove wrappers and only a separate location-introduction scene activates a county pack. An Act Three county opening starts its quest chain; it does not activate that county’s random pack by itself.
Fixed and Newly Eligible Audiences
| Scene | Earliest route | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Gwendan’s Kingslayer Intervention | Forced Major Lead In | Reformed Gwendan must be alive and available before the Kingslayer appears. |
| Ursule’s Kingslayer Intervention | Forced Major Lead In | Ursule must be available, have returned from at least one death, and not be highly corrupted. |
| Kingslayer: Before the Storm | Forced Major | This forced confrontation always starts Cycle 23. |
Inherited Route Pool
This stage also carries 4 explicitly linked earlier roots. Their choices are not duplicated here; use the Conditional Audience Choices reference and follow only the entries whose prerequisites your route actually satisfies.
Newly Unlockable Quests
| Quest route | Unlock source | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Facing the Kingslayer: We will mobilise all our forces against you. | Kingslayer: Before the Storm | Choose this plan during the fixed Kingslayer confrontation. Named plans also require that Knight to be recruited and available. |
| Gwendan’s squad facing the Kingslayer: Our brightest knight will chase away your shadow. | Kingslayer: Before the Storm | Choose this plan during the fixed Kingslayer confrontation. Named plans also require that Knight to be recruited and available. |
| Kingslayer purification: By holy ground, you will be purified. | Kingslayer: Before the Storm | Choose this plan during the fixed Kingslayer confrontation. Named plans also require that Knight to be recruited and available. |
| Ursula facing the Kingslayer: Our darkest knight will seal your demise. | Kingslayer: Before the Storm | Choose this plan during the fixed Kingslayer confrontation. Named plans also require that Knight to be recruited and available. |
Earlier Quest Results Reaching This Stage
| Quest route | Knights whose assignment resolves now |
|---|---|
| Oliver’s magic degree: This Academy offers accelerated programs. You could still earn your diploma. | Rufus alone, The Wolf alone, any other single Knight |
Route Warnings
- A delayed audience’s target is a minimum, not a promise. A shared visitor moves the later addition forward until the first free cycle.
- A death removes that Knight’s already scheduled future audiences before the death announcement is added.
- A newly triggered low-affinity departure is checked after the current morning is assembled, so its departure card targets a later cycle.
- County quest openings and county location introductions are different scenes. Only the latter unlocks a county’s random audience pack.
Kingslayer Battle
Choose the plan whose prerequisites you actually satisfy, then assign the resulting battle quest immediately. It has a one-cycle deadline: success opens Act Three at the next transition, while failure or leaving it unassigned ends the run.