Human emotion, combined with idealistic power—it was never as simple as one plus one equals two.
Take Puella Magi Madoka Magica, for example. Ordinary magical girls who could barely destroy a city somehow produced beings like Madokami and Devil Homura—entities at a multiversal scale.
From the current situation, it seemed that Honkai energy caused a qualitative transformation in those who possessed spiritual power.
Incarnation's Kotodama, fused with Honkai energy, could now affect reality itself. A single phrase could change the weather across an entire region—if she said, "Let there be rain," rain would fall.
What was once merely an ability to influence the minds of ordinary people through speech had evolved into the power to alter reality itself.
One more step, and her words would truly shape existence.
Even the Will of Ruler was astonished by such exponential growth.
Ai Enma's Hell, meanwhile, directly targeted souls—she could extract and imprison any soul at will. To all living beings with souls, she was the ultimate predator.
Magicians, onmyoji, yokai, vengeful spirits—none could resist Ai Enma's current power.
Their souls were taken effortlessly.
The compatibility between spirit users and Honkai energy was alarmingly high.
This troubled the Will of Ruler.
She couldn't afford to trigger a full-scale Honkai Eruption to accelerate her descent.
Such an event would expose far too many to Honkai energy—and the more people involved, the more unpredictable the outcome.
She might end up creating several formidable enemies in the process.
It was undeniable—the more humans used Honkai energy, the faster her descent would progress.
But if they gained the ability to resist her... she could easily be repelled the moment she arrived.
All her efforts would be for nothing.
It always played out that way in anime and films.
The conclusion? Develop quietly.
No recklessness.
Stay patient.
After all, she had more than enough time.
Her true body could slowly infiltrate and assimilate this universe.
The Will of Ruler concentrated Honkai energy into Incarnation and Ai Enma, carefully ensuring none leaked into the outside world.
Once she sent Kiana Kaslana through and stabilized the passage, the entire world would effectively belong to her.
From there, she could use this planet as an anchor to begin invading the entire universe.
Each day, the Will of Ruler met with Incarnation in dreams, infusing her with more Honkai energy.
With both Incarnation and Ai Enma serving as anchors, all that remained was to subjugate and control the rest of the world.
As the Honkai energy within her body grew, Incarnation gradually transcended humanity.
She no longer needed food or water—her existence now resembled that of a Honkai lifeform.
With more energy flowing through her each day, Incarnation could summon new zombies daily.
She kept some behind as guards, while the rest were handed over to Rvy for deployment.
At the training grounds, over a thousand fully armed soldiers had gathered.
The zombies stood together, while the human believers-turned-soldiers formed their own ranks.
Rvy stood at the front.
Not long ago, her forces numbered fewer than a hundred.
In the past few days, more believers had joined, and Incarnation had been constantly sending her more zombies.
The zombies came equipped with their own weapons and possessed physical defenses far surpassing those of humans.
Still, Rvy reinforced them by having them don light armor.
After all, the weapons and equipment were all created by Incarnation—brought into existence through words and materials gathered by the people.
Not to use them would be a waste.
This army lacked only one thing—real combat experience.
Through Incarnation, the Will of Ruler issued her command to Rvy: take the initiative and eliminate the Church's crusading knights.
Under normal circumstances, such a move—an inexperienced force launching a proactive assault against the Church's veteran knights—would be sheer madness.
Even if the numbers were roughly equal, even with four thousand new recruits, they would normally be crushed.
But Rvy did not hesitate to obey Incarnation's order.
Leading five hundred zombies and five hundred new recruits, she marched out to annihilate the Church's heretic-hunting crusade.
She held no blind confidence about the war with the Church.
Over the past days, she had learned that the angel's soldiers required no direct command. They could coordinate and fight seamlessly on their own.
Once they identified the enemy, they would automatically form battle formations and engage.
Rvy and her recruits merely needed to follow behind them—to clean up the battlefield.
Rvy's army of over a thousand set out on their march.
As soon as they left the town, the Church's heretic-hunting crusaders' scouts spotted them.
The scouts immediately mounted their horses and galloped back to report.
The Will of Ruler noticed them—but chose not to intervene.
So what if they knew?
If they wanted to set an ambush, let them.
It wasn't as if she didn't know where they were.
If they hid in the woods to ambush, she would simply have the Archer-class zombies rain flaming arrows down and burn them alive.
The five hundred zombies under Rvy's command were all being subtly micro-controlled by the Will of Ruler. In addition, she had another three hundred zombies marching separately toward the Church's crusader force.
As for the five hundred fresh recruits, the Will of Ruler never intended to rely on them in battle against the Church's knights.
Eight hundred Honkai zombies against one thousand Church knights—the advantage was hers.
And she had endless reinforcements waiting behind.
There was no chance of losing.
Riding her horse, Rvy glanced back at the neatly arranged zombie troops, then at the somewhat disorganized ranks of new recruits.
From Incarnation, she had received the enemy's full intelligence.
The crusading knights numbered one thousand.
If not for half her army being the angel's soldiers, she knew that with her understanding of knightly combat, these raw recruits—barely trained for a few days—would stand no chance, no matter how many there were.
Crusader Camp.
The knight commander listened to the returning scout's report, his expression filled with disbelief.
These heretical cultists hadn't fled—instead, they dared to march straight toward them?
Who gave them that courage!
When he heard that half of the enemy force consisted of so-called angelic soldiers, his face darkened.
In his eyes, "angel soldiers" were nothing more than abominations—witch-spawned monsters or cursed creations.
He had fought many such creatures before: werewolves, vampires, ghouls. Some had been terrifyingly powerful; others, pitifully weak.
He had no idea which type these new heretical monsters would be.
He himself possessed divine power—but his men did not.
If those monsters were too strong, the casualties could be immense.
"Iron Maiden, Bishop—what do you make of this?"
The knight commander turned to the two individuals beside him: a gray-haired girl in an off-shoulder outfit, and an elderly man in a white robe.
"Half of them are cultists—they pose little threat. I fail to see the point of bringing them along," Iron Maiden replied coldly.
She was a duke's daughter, a saint within the Church, born with spiritual power.
"Those people may be fodder—or sacrifices for the monsters," the white-robed bishop sighed.
Vampires could heal by drinking blood, temporarily boosting their strength.
Half monsters, half powerless recruits—it seemed obvious to him that the latter were simply sustenance for the former.
The knight commander nodded in agreement.
"So, the Church of Revelation intends to defeat us with just five hundred of their creatures?"
Iron Maiden suddenly regretted coming along.
Everyone knew the knights' strength—especially the elite crusaders of the Church, who were far superior to ordinary knights.
To attack with five hundred against a thousand implied that the enemy believed their monsters could each take down two knights.
Thinking that way, these monsters might not be so weak after all.
She had no desire to die in such a remote, backwater place.
The knight commander stroked his chin. When he first received this mission, he had assumed it would be simple—just another routine heretic purge, like countless others before.
But judging from the Church of Revelation's response, this would be a much tougher battle.
Still, there was only one way to find out.
At worst, they could retreat.
But to turn back without even fighting?
That would be too great a shame.
Their mission target—Sister Incarnation—was said to be extremely powerful. This force of a thousand had been assembled specifically to deal with her.
None of them had expected that she would be capable of creating monsters of her own.