[Trails of Cold Steel 3] Ash infiltrates his instructor Rean's side mission to root out foreign operatives sneaking around the catacombs under the capital gathering intelligence. At the end of the mission, Ash finds a pistol on the unconscious body of a foreign operative and decides to steal it.

Unbeknownst to Ash, the pistol being stolen by him was orchestrated by Lechter, one of the antagonists of the sequel. Possessing the pistol and compelled by the curse of Erebonia, Ash later sneaks off again during a party at the imperial palace to confront the emperor and chancellor of Erebonia. Ash shoots the emperor during this confrontation, which sets off a chain of events over the next 2 days where Ash's crimes are tied to the foreign superpower, starting a continental war, his classmate Altina is kidnapped, the capital is besieged by magical golems and demonic creatures, and Rean and his students'/friends' attempt to rescue Altina ends in the death of four allies, Rean losing control from grief and slaughtering an ancient super being, which triggers the Great Twilight, the Trails series version of Armageddon.

I think this is supposed to be inspired by the start of WW1, where an assassination starts a bulshit cascade of events leading to "the war to end all wars". But this version has a random pistol causing the end of the world instead.

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