In the night sky—
Ai Enma hovered in midair, her crimson eyes gazing down upon the bandit fortress below, now engulfed in flames.
There were just over a hundred bandits, most of them ordinary men armed with simple blades and crude weapons.
Under the scythes of the Vigiles, their lives were easily harvested.
Only the bandit leader held a special blade—one capable of slaying several zombies.
The world had entered an age of decline, an era devoid of law.
Mysticism had faded, while technology had yet to rise.
It would still be four hundred years before the dawn of modern civilization.
With the invasion of Honkai, few forces remained that could resist her.
Of course, in such a primitive world, the undeveloped civilization severely restricted her ability to transmit Honkai energy.
When Honkai energy was limited, so was her strength.
A blade that kills too many people becomes special? she mused.
Ai Enma issued a command to the Archer positioned behind her army.
A white-haired girl with a single ponytail, clad in red attire and long boots, wearing an eyepatch and holding a bow, nocked a flaming arrow and fired it into the sky.
The arrow traced a beautiful arc through the night, landing near the bandit leader. Though it didn't strike him directly, it burst into a blaze upon impact, igniting the ground around him.
Having seen such weapons before, the bandit leader swiftly dashed out of the flames' reach and rolled across the ground to extinguish the fire on his clothes.
"Rangers—attack."
Ai Enma continued issuing orders to her Ranger unit.
Thirty white-haired, single-ponytailed girls, dressed in black with long boots, eyepatches, and bows, fired volleys of arrows toward the bandit leader's position.
His physical strength and reaction speed, enhanced by the cursed blade, far surpassed ordinary humans.
Half-crouched, he swung his sword with precision, deflecting and cutting down the incoming arrows.
Yet one arrow slipped through, piercing his knee.
He gritted his teeth and endured the pain, his eyes reflecting the burning chaos of the fortress around him.
Then—he turned and ran.
These demon women! The bandit leader was both terrified and furious. He had no idea what was happening—these fearless female monsters had suddenly appeared in his camp, killing everyone without a word.
Escape!
He had to get out!
Ai Enma watched him limp into the dark forest below. She had already marked him with her power—she could kill him whenever she wished.
Descending from the air, she landed lightly upon the scorched earth.
By then, the Vigiles had piled the corpses of the slain bandits into a mound.
Ai Enma raised her hand, consuming the souls she had gathered, and used Honkai energy to perform substitution upon the corpses.
The bandits' bodies vanished, replaced by thirty Vigiles and twenty Rangers emerging from a black vortex.
Using pure Honkai energy to corrupt humans into zombies had an extremely low success rate.
And spending vast amounts of energy to create a single Honkai Beast wasn't cost-effective.
So, she pondered ways to manufacture Honkai creatures more efficiently.
Eventually, she discovered the answer: by altering the application of her own power.
By consuming souls and manipulating Honkai energy, she could replace unfit flesh with compatible material, then reconstruct it.
In essence, humans—and all matter—were indistinguishable at the level of fundamental particles.
Using the finest zombie as a template, the Will of Ruler could, through the expenditure of souls and Honkai energy, perform transmutation—replacing ordinary matter with that capable of transforming into zombies, vastly improving production efficiency.
Substituting unfit flesh with material capable of withstanding Honkai energy was the most energy-efficient approach.
With enough Honkai energy and souls, even ordinary soil could be transmuted into whatever material she desired.
The Will of Ruler employed templates from the Honkai Impact 3rd world's zombies as blueprints for replication.
At present, she had several classes: Vigiles, Praetorian, Ranger, Archer, Ninja, Kunoichi, Clawed, and Wraith.
The Vigiles and Praetorian were short-haired girls wielding scythes—frontline melee units.
The Ranger and Archer were long-range units equipped with bows.
The Ninja, Kunoichi, and Clawed were elite melee specialists—adept at parrying, countering, and striking with lethal precision.
The Wraith served as support units—they could heal allies, restrict enemy movement with silk threads, and inflict various negative effects.
Combined with the diverse Honkai Beasts under her command, her forces were already sufficient.
However, due to the shortage of Honkai energy, the newly created Vigiles and Rangers were in an extremely weakened state, with barely any Honkai energy left within them.
They needed time to recover a certain amount of Honkai energy before they could move or fight.
If left alone, it would take about seven days for them to fully recharge.
Food? Honkai creatures didn't need such things.
As long as there was enough Honkai energy, her forces could grow endlessly, like a necromancer snowballing their army—the more they fought, the more soldiers they gained.
The only issue was that these zombies had no combat experience. Without her direct command, the Rangers—who wielded bows—might even walk up to an enemy's face before firing.
It was like training battle AI—she had to drill them constantly.
"Little Ai, take half of the functional zombies and head toward nearby inhabited areas. Continue training and improve their performance metrics."
The Will of Ruler relinquished control of the body, issuing the command.
"Yes."
Ai Enma showed no emotion whatsoever—like a perfectly crafted doll.
Obeying orders, she led 130 Vigiles, 50 Rangers, one Archer, 20 Clawed, and 10 Wraith to sweep through the surrounding human settlements.
...
At this point, Ai Enma was little more than an emotionless automaton, doing only as commanded.
Victims of feudal superstition—there were still many in this world.
In a world where mystical forces truly existed, it was hard to say whether such "superstition" was even false.
The Will of Ruler had already observed the existence of tsukumogami, yokai, vengeful spirits, and gods.
Some rituals were indeed real.
In Ai Enma's home village, they worshiped a mountain god—but she hadn't seen any mountain deity, only that spider with a human face.
That creature was a god of Hell.
It had been secretly observing Ai Enma for a long time.
Even now, the human-faced spider occasionally appeared near her.
At one point, it even popped up to ask her whether she thought she was wrong.
Wrong, your mother.
The Will of Ruler had no patience for the spider and burned it again without hesitation.
If her Honkai energy transmission weren't limited, she would have invaded the spider's Hell long ago.
Sooner or later, she planned to descend there and erase it completely.
Such arrogance—daring to challenge her, the god of an entire universe.
Did it really think it was strong?
Dare to say I'm wrong?
If a strong one declares that one plus one equals three, then it is three.
Anyone claiming otherwise is simply wrong—a weakling's error.
To change such a truth, one must become stronger still.
And clearly, the human-faced spider was not stronger—it was nothing but a small fry.
With Ai Enma as her anchor, the interdimensional channel between universes grew increasingly stable. The amount of Honkai energy she could send through was rising steadily.
It wouldn't be long before she could send Kiana Kaslana into this world—and seize complete control.