Fortress City.
At this moment, the plaza outside the grand cathedral was crowded with believers and curious onlookers.
Three days ago, the city had been seized by the Church of Revelation. The commoners hadn't even had time to react before the nobles in the castle were all slaughtered.
Just like that, the city had changed hands.
Rumor had it that Bishop Incarnation had single-handedly killed every noble, knight, and guard inside the fortress.
To the commoners, who ruled didn't matter much.
What they worried about was whether the new ruler would raise taxes, steal their food, or start killing indiscriminately.
After a sleepless night filled with fear, their worries were replaced by surprise the next day.
By noon, a public notice had been posted: one-third of the taxes were to be reduced, and several illegal levies imposed by the former nobles were abolished altogether.
Tax cuts! The people were overjoyed.
Incarnation commanded an army of zombies, which required neither money nor resources to sustain. Taxes meant little to her.
Seeing the nobles' indulgent, wasteful, and corrupt lives, she understood now—why the angel had wanted them dead.
The Church preached restraint, self-control, purity, and devotion—all to be offered to God.
Incarnation followed this teaching herself.
Humanity's downfall, she believed, came from their inability to suppress their desires.
"What's going on here?"
A foreign spy unfamiliar with the situation asked a local.
He had come after hearing that the Church of Revelation had taken over the city.
"You don't know?" the man replied excitedly. "The angel is descending!"
The angel's descent?!
The spy narrowed his eyes, glancing toward the raised platform where Incarnation stood in prayer, surrounded by her eerie army of zombies. A sense of unease settled over him.
The Church of Revelation was unlike the old Church.
The Church spent most of its time pretending to perform miracles, preaching everywhere, deceiving the ignorant.
But the Church of Revelation did not preach. Not once.
A newly risen church, yet it made no effort to recruit believers.
And they dared to openly seize the lands of nobles—showing no fear of offending entire kingdoms.
That could only mean one thing.
The Church of Revelation didn't need the support of common believers to stand against nations.
The white-haired female soldiers, all identical in appearance, had appeared from nowhere.
No one knew how many there were.
But he did know one thing—they were growing in number every day.
They did not eat, drink, or sleep, and they fought with inhuman discipline. Some even possessed strange powers.
The Church of Revelation posed a grave threat not only to his country but to all of Europe.
Stretching his neck, the spy peered toward the platform.
He hoped Incarnation was merely putting on a show, like the false miracles of the old Church.
Time ticked by.
Half an hour later—
Incarnation, who had been praying with eyes closed, slowly opened them.
She lifted her head toward the heavens.
Two golden meteors streaked across the sky, their radiant trails gleaming brightly against the blue expanse.
They were descending directly toward her position.
When they reached several dozen meters above the ground, their speed suddenly slowed.
Moments later, the golden meteors transformed into two small girls, gently floating down to the earth.
"My God—it's angels!"
"Real angels!"
"I can see them!"
"They look... rather young, don't they?"
Ignoring the whispers of the crowd and the awe of the believers, Incarnation looked in confusion at the white-haired girl, then at the purple-haired one beside her. Her gaze returned to the white-haired child.
Where was her angel?
The one she had seen in her dreams had been a majestic, divine maiden—not... a little girl.
But the resemblance was unmistakable.
"Do you not recognize me?"
Kiana Kaslana, seeing the confusion in Incarnation's eyes, understood immediately.
In her dream, she had appeared as the Herrscher of Finality—a mature form, not matching her current appearance.
"You are... my angel."
"My power is far too great to descend in full," Kiana said calmly. "I have told you this before."
It was the truth.
Her true body indeed could not descend directly.
"..."
After a brief hesitation, Incarnation accepted the truth—that her divine angel had somehow taken the form of a little girl.
She looked at the purple-haired girl standing beside her.
"This is my lovely little angel, Sirin," Kiana Kaslana introduced.
"..."
Sirin's golden eyes swept over the crowd. Seeing that most of them were adult men, her expression unconsciously filled with disgust and rejection.
The horrors of the Babylon Tower experiments had left her deeply scarred—she loathed all adult men.
If the audience had been made up of kind women or pitiful little girls, her demeanor would have softened. But here, all she felt was revulsion.
Kiana turned to the crowd below the platform, raising one hand to form an OK gesture. Amplifying her voice through Honkai energy, she declared:
"I have descended upon this world for three purposes!"
"Judgment!"
"Judgment!!"
"And more damn Judgment!!!"
"What?!"
Sirin stared at Kiana in disbelief. She hadn't expected her mother to speak like that.
Before she could recover, Kiana continued, her voice booming:
"The Church burns innocent women as witches—should they not be judged? The kings and nobles steal your food and gold—should they not be judged? The sinners who thrive on corruption—should they not be judged?!"
The crowd fell silent for a moment.
Was she saying she would judge not only the Church but also kings and nobles?
Surely not!
People exchanged uneasy glances—until one man suddenly shouted:
"Judgment!"
"Judgment!!"
"Judgment!!!"
...
The chant spread like wildfire. The crowd roared, their excitement rising with every cry.
They looked up at Kiana Kaslana with awe in their eyes.
This was what an angel should be.
"I am Kiana Kaslana," she declared. "I shall shatter the darkness with light!"
"And I proclaim now—every sinner shall be judged!"
She raised both hands, her body bursting into radiant white light. Those who looked directly at her felt as though their eyes would burn.
The spy shielded his gaze, staring at the glowing figure on the stage. So this was the angel of the Church of Revelation?
Such overwhelming presence!
To arrive and immediately declare judgment upon all mankind—
Was she truly an angel? He didn't know.
It didn't matter.
What mattered was whether she could do it.
If what appeared before them had been a phantom angel—ethereal wings, a ghostly image—it would have been easier to dismiss.
But this one was different.
Real. Solid. Terrifying.
Beside her, Sirin covered her face with both hands.
Mom, do you really have to talk like that? Isn't it embarrassing?!
The white light around Kiana faded. Her Honkai reserves were limited—she couldn't maintain the glow for long.
She continued, speaking with serene conviction:
"Your bread shall come. Your milk shall flow. Everything you need shall be provided."
"Judgment Angel!"
"Judgment Angel!!"
"Judgment Angel!!!"
...
As the crowd's ecstatic cheers filled the square, Kiana Kaslana smiled in satisfaction.
Her words were those no one else dared to speak—an open declaration of war against the entire ruling class.
From this moment forward, her propaganda campaign had begun.
Winning the hearts of the people wasn't necessary—she already had her zombies and the coming army of Honkai Beasts.
But still...
Zombies and beasts could be created infinitely as long as she had Honkai energy.
Herrschers, however, were another story.
If one appeared later and turned out to be loyal to humanity, that could become troublesome.
She was, after all, an invader.
So she had to play the part—craft the image of a benevolent angel to prevent any newly awakened Herrschers from opposing her in the name of friendship or justice.
This wasn't the Honkai world.
Humanity here didn't know what she truly was. Pretending to be divine—a savior—was child's play.
Later, she would spread new doctrine: that those blessed with Herrscher power were chosen by God—His daughters, His brides, His sacred vessels.
And if any man gained such power—then he must surely be a devil.