My deeply embedded honesty forced me to admit that it was so… but it quickly became clear that he did not see us as a threat whatsoever either way.

He sat in the clearing, the weight of his body feeling as if it caused a shockwave through the very ground on which I stood. I was thoroughly soaked as I slipped backwards, that same shockwave splashing the water up before sending it crashing noisily back onto the rocks below.

As if that wasn't enough, before we could present questions to him, Warhammer had questions for us! He asked us why we were there, and I pushed past the burning sensation of fear to admit we’d been looking for him. I explained that researchers in Paradise were keen on learning more about lawless kings, a revelation that seemed to stroke his ego. The shakiness of my voice was canceled out by how loudly I had to shout just for him to hear me!

The questioning went back and forth, and with time, my nerves were eased as his surprisingly mellow personality began to shine through his exterior. Nevertheless, I couldn't shake the feeling of being greatly intimidated. My first question was, "What makes someone a lawless king?"

The gemstone monsters had described them originally as cruel, aggressive monsters that nobody could kill. Warhammer’s definition was quite different– he described lawless kings simply as the strongest monster in any wild district. In fact, he clarified that they hardly functioned as monarchs– each lawless king was left to their own devices and each one functioned very differently from one another.