Bizarre Voyage: Summoning The Fourth Crisis

”The punishment for breaking the law comes from the Iron-faced, and the Iron-faced symbolize coldness and death.” From this, we can easily see that the Gulard Empire’s law is extremely harsh and strictly enforced, striking fear into the hearts of most of its citizens.

And the enforcers of this law are none other than the Iron-faced Warlocks.

If we now look back at the description for the Flower of Drowning monster and the info on the gear it drops, it’s easy to deduce that the act of binding someone to a stone and sinking them into the sea is, in all likelihood, one of the Gulard Empire’s methods of punishment.

I’ve actually been aware of these two pieces of information for a while. The only reason I haven’t released a video is that I couldn’t be completely sure about my theory.

The reason I can post an update today is all thanks to our old friend, Wa Zai. He made a massive contribution this time.

On the seabed behind Exile Island, Wa Zai discovered a truly terrifying place, which we’ll tentatively call the ”Forest of the Dead.”

You can guess what makes this place so horrifying just from the name. Let me give you a simple description: it’s like a street full of hydrogen balloons, but instead of balloons, the strings are tied to corpses sunk to the bottom of the sea...

And it seems the Gulard Empire’s punishments don’t end with death. Instead, their victims’ very Souls are imprisoned for prolonged torment.

For this reason, upon entering the Forest of the Dead, we can hear the ”final words” of many Souls.

We can glean a great deal of information from these last words.

Setting aside the meaningless last words, I’ve compiled four particularly useful quotes.

The first two are a Curse against the Gulard Emperor, Helzaken, and a prayer to ”my omnipotent Lord.”

The key phrases from the next two are ”Iron-faced Warlock, you cruel executioner, I will drag you down with me,” and ”The storm will not cease its reckoning with Gulard.”

All four of these quotes are packed with information.

First is the Emperor of Glade. We’ve learned his name is ”Helzaken,” and this character will probably make an appearance later on.

Second, the executed prisoner prayed to ”my omnipotent Lord.” This likely contradicts the law the Gulard Empire reveres, which is probably the reason for their conviction.

Next is the one cursing the Iron-faced Warlock as an executioner. This allows us to essentially confirm that the appearance of the Flower of Drowning is inextricably linked to the Iron-faced Warlocks.

After all, it’s possible that all the corpses in the waters near Exile Island were sunk by them.

On a related note, in a chest on the Gulard Warship—specifically, the Iron-faced Warlock’s personal chest—the equipment info directly introduced another title: ”Guard Law.” It seems they’re in the same faction as the Iron-faced Warlocks and might appear in the future. I’ll just plant that seed for now.

As for the last quote, it clearly echoes the previously mentioned Master of Storms, essentially confirming the hostile relationship between the two factions.

So, to sum it all up, we’ve pieced together some details about the major power that is the ”Gulard Empire” from these scattered fragments of lore.

This is an Empire built on the Gulard Law and led by Emperor Helzaken. Its laws are harsh, and its control over the entire Empire is absolute.

However, under these harsh laws, there are numerous Lawbreakers. Among them are Believers of other Faiths, as well as unknown Sects stirring restlessly...

So, what kind of Empire is this, really? Its full nature remains a mystery, waiting for us to uncover it through further exploration...

Alright, that’s it for this installment on...

Next time for sure.

After tossing the trash in his hand, Li Miao snapped his laptop shut and put on his virtual reality headset.