Late at night.
In the shadowy woods outside the camp, a Clawed zombie with cat-like ears moved with agile grace, like a sleek and nimble black cat darting between the trees.
Silently, the Clawed zombie crept up behind a yawning sentry. With a sudden swipe, the soldier collapsed to the ground, letting out a muffled groan before falling still.
Using Honkai energy to enhance its claws, the soldier's armor was as fragile as paper.
One strike was enough to shred both flesh and steel.
After killing him, the Clawed zombie quickly dragged the corpse into the nearby bushes.
Unlike the other Clawed zombies, this one was directly possessed and controlled by the Will of Ruler.
At the moment, both the Will of Ruler and Sirin were each controlling zombies, carrying out an assassination against the Crusader Knights.
Sirin: "I've taken down seven."
Will of Ruler: "Five for me."
Sirin: "Mom, you lost again."
Will of Ruler: "The game's not over yet!"
To the Will of Ruler and Sirin, this new world was like a grand game. Though they couldn't descend freely in person, they could still create zombies and Honkai Beasts to act through them.
Ai Enma and Incarnation had already become pseudo-Herrschers, capable of being controlled like avatars.
Under the Will of Ruler's deliberate influence, humanity in this new world had little to no exposure to or research into Honkai energy.
As long as this situation continued—
the result would be like aliens waging war against cavemen. There would be no contest.
With their full-map vision, the Will of Ruler and Sirin located every sentry, both visible and hidden, within the Crusader camp. They then moved stealthily, eliminating eleven men before anyone noticed.
Then, commanding one hundred and fifty zombies, she charged toward the Crusader Knights' warhorses.
A knight without a horse was nothing more than a heavily armored infantryman.
When the horses were slain, their terrified neighs pierced the night.
"Enemy attack!!"
A panicked scream echoed sharply through the silent camp, instantly waking every sleeping knight. Startled, they reached for their weapons.
Iron Maiden heard the alarm and froze, quickly grabbing her knight's sword and joining the others in formation.
A knight's full armor was cumbersome—difficult to put on or remove. Thus, they usually slept in it.
"Discovered already?"
Sirin looked toward the few knights charging her way. The Clawed zombie she controlled leaned forward, arms pulled back, then turned and sprinted off.
Although she believed she could easily dispatch the armored humans, she remembered what her mother had said:
When facing enemies, always stay cautious.
Never underestimate them.
"Loose! Loose!"
"It's an assassin!"
A knight shouted. Before he could finish, an arrow whistled from the side.
Pssht—the arrow struck his thigh.
He cried out in pain, dropping to one knee.
"Archers! Watch out!"
The others shouted, halting their pursuit and raising their shields, forming a defensive circle. They knew that chasing an assassin without horses would be futile.
"Are you all right?!"
Iron Maiden, protected by two knights, crouched beside the wounded soldier to examine his injury.
The knight looked down at the black arrow piercing through his armor, his voice trembling. "This arrow... is poisoned. My body... it's losing strength..."
"..."
Iron Maiden frowned deeply.
A poisoned black arrow that could pierce armor!
Moments later, the knight collapsed.
Iron Maiden removed his helmet. Purple lines were already spreading across his pale face.
An arrow that could pierce armor... and carried deadly poison!
Those markings...!
Iron Maiden's expression hardened.
The strange Black Death plaguing the land—this had to be related to the Church of Revelation.
Her eyes sharpened, and she stood.
She had joined this campaign mainly to learn how the Church of Revelation treated those infected by the strange Black Death.
But now, what she had just witnessed gave her a bold suspicion.
The Church of Revelation might not only be capable of curing the Black Death—they might have been the ones who spread it.
To unleash such a strange plague, then win people's faith through its cure... what a vile scheme!
Despicable. As filthy as the Church itself.
In Iron Maiden's homeland, many had already been infected by the strange Black Death. If no cure was found soon, her nation would fall.
She had long doubted whether the Church of Revelation truly possessed the power to heal. It could easily be another heretical sect using the disaster to deceive the masses and expand its influence.
But after seeing how they weaponized the plague, how they dared to deploy monstrous troops and assassins with poisoned arrows—
Every sign pointed to one conclusion: the Church of Revelation sought to overthrow the Church, and had the means to do so.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
A volley of arrows rained down from above—some of them flaming.
The knights quickly raised their shields to block. When one of their comrades fell with an arrow through his armor, the others grew even more alert.
After the first volley, only one unlucky knight had been struck by a fire arrow. His scream echoed through the night.
The arrow had pierced his armor and set the man ablaze from within, burning him alive.
Other fire arrows struck the ground, igniting it.
The knights maintained their formation, retreating swiftly to avoid the spreading flames.
Encased in full armor, they could endure short bursts of heat—but not for long.
...
Iron Maiden took cover behind a boulder, glancing at the burning field and the knight who had been cooked alive inside his armor.
There had been nothing nearby that could easily burn—yet the fire had spread anyway.
Magic?
On a treetop, Sirin's Clawed zombie crouched, watching.
She commanded a total of one hundred fifteen zombies, fifty of which were Ranger zombies—and among those, four were Archer-class.
Without Honkai energy reinforcement, the Rangers' arrows couldn't pierce knight armor.
With Honkai enhancement, however, each Ranger could only fire three empowered shots before their internal Honkai reserves were depleted.
If the environment's Honkai density were higher, allowing faster recharge, they could keep firing indefinitely.
Without such conditions, they would lose combat ability after three enhanced volleys.
Sirin: "Mom, how's your side?"
Will of Ruler: "Done. I've taken care of their horses."
Will of Ruler: "But... I'm surrounded."
She directed her Honkai zombies in fierce melee combat against the knights and soldiers.
The knight commander wielded a glowing greatsword, hacking through every foe that approached him.
All around him lay the corpses of warhorses.
Veins bulged on his forehead as fury burned in his eyes.
"Damnable monsters! You dared to kill my horses—you'll pay for this!!"
Roaring, the knight commander cleaved a Vigiles zombie clean in half with one swing.
According to the scouts' reports, the heretical army was still a day's march away.
So why were they already here?!
The knight commander scanned the battlefield, searching for the enemy leader or their spellcaster. Then, he saw one—a twin-bladed, horned figure flash into view, cutting down a soldier in an instant.
He charged forward, sword raised high, and swung.
The Kunoichi zombie drew its twin blades, crossing them just in time to block.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The knight commander unleashed a flurry of strikes, blow after blow, pressing the assault.
The Kunoichi zombie parried each strike, waiting.
When the knight's attacks began to slow, it suddenly switched to offense, slashing horizontally.
The knight met the blow with his greatsword. Their blades collided, sending a shower of sparks through the air.
The Will of Ruler ordered the remaining zombies to break through the encirclement. Her objective was already achieved.
With the horses dead, these knights had no way to retreat.
The Kunoichi zombie flickered behind another soldier and sliced him down with one stroke.
The hundred Honkai zombies trapped inside the encirclement were all melee units, while the Ranger zombies outside continued firing volleys, cutting down ordinary soldiers one after another.
With their coordinated assault, the encirclement quickly collapsed.
Watching the retreating zombies vanish into the night, the knight commander's face darkened.
Iron Maiden was right.
These monsters could truly fight two men to one.
The entire camp burned, littered with corpses—mostly warhorses, then humans, and finally a few zombies.
The Church's knights had fought well.
In the Far East, an ordinary army caught off guard like this would have fallen into chaos immediately.
But these knights had reorganized swiftly and launched an effective counterattack.
Faith truly made soldiers stronger.
After the battle, the tally came in: seventy-five zombies lost, while the Crusader Knights had lost eleven of their own, over a hundred regular soldiers, and nearly all of their warhorses.