Kiana Kaslana didn't know much about history. Her knowledge of medieval Europe barely extended to recognizing a few country names, and what she knew of major historical events was scattered and fragmentary.
By studying the history of the Honkai world, she was able to grasp a general outline.
The Black Death occurred during the 13th to 14th centuries.
In this world's Europe, it was now the 15th to 16th century—the age of colonization—and soon to come was the Reformation.
The emergence of the Church of Revelation happened to coincide perfectly with the Reformation era.
Thus, the so-called religious wars became battles between the Church of Revelation and the Crusader Church.
The history of the Honkai world, this world, and her own world were all different.
Similar—but not the same.
Kiana Kaslana only paid attention to the major events, using them to roughly predict this world's possible future.
As for the small details, she ignored them.
After all, these were two different worlds—one governed by Honkai energy, the other by mystical powers.
After creating her Honkai Beasts, Kiana did not immediately send them into battle.
Instead, she continued dispatching squads of zombies to reinforce Rvy's army.
Sensing the growing threat, the Holy Roman Empire behind Iron Maiden, along with several nations tied to the Crusader Church, formed the Crusader Alliance and began to deploy reinforcements.
The Crusader Alliance's combined forces numbered over ten thousand.
The Church of Revelation, on the other hand—counting its zombie troops, willing believers, and commoners—had barely three thousand.
Moreover, those believers and commoners had received almost no training. Their combat ability was questionable at best.
Their commander, Rvy, was a female doctor with no experience leading troops.
From every standpoint—numbers, soldier quality, command experience—a normal analysis would conclude that the Church of Revelation's three thousand could never stand against the Crusader Alliance's ten thousand.
Yet reality told a different story.
The Church of Revelation's three thousand were fighting the Crusader Alliance's ten thousand evenly—and even gaining the upper hand.
No matter what strategies or formations the Crusader commanders employed, the battle reports always showed the same thing:
The Crusader Alliance suffered heavier casualties.
Their commanders were baffled.
How could a ragtag army fight so effectively?
Iron Maiden rode her horse up a hill, a hundred knights following closely behind.
The Church of Revelation's army was divided into two distinct parts: the human contingent and the monsters.
The human soldiers often broke ranks and fled in fear. After many battles, they finally began to gain some experience.
But the monsters—those were born for war. They knew no fear, required neither food nor rest, and would fight until the last one fell.
Iron Maiden drew her knight's single-handed sword, pointing it toward the chaotic battlefield. "Knights! For the Holy Roman Empire—charge!"
In an instant, her cavalry formation surged forward in perfect order, momentum blazing like a storm.
They raised their weapons high and charged from the flank.
With their warhorses' speed, ordinary zombies couldn't hope to outrun them.
The cavalry cut through the ranks of the Church of Revelation's soldiers, mowing them down.
Even the Praetorian zombies could not completely stop the mounted assault.
However, the zombies were not entirely helpless against the cavalry charge.
When the Vigiles saw the knights charging, they gathered Honkai energy into their scythes, dashing forward fearlessly. Sliding low beneath the horses, they sliced open the bellies of the beasts with precise strikes.
The warhorses let out tragic screams as they collapsed, thrashing in agony.
Dozens of mounts were brought down by these suicidal attacks, triggering a chain reaction that slowed the rest of the cavalry.
Without the momentum of their charge, the knights hacked and stabbed from atop their mounts, slashing down at the enemies around them.
Wooo~~
The sound of a retreat horn echoed.
The Crusader Alliance began to withdraw.
Far from the battlefield, Kiana Kaslana sat on the city wall, gazing up at the blue sky. Though she appeared to be daydreaming, her mind was fixed on the battle below.
The flames of war had already been lit.
The Church's crusade against heresy had escalated into a continental war.
"Lady Kiana, they've arrived," Incarnation said, approaching the wall with a group of followers.
The envoys from various nations—mostly from Gaul—had never before been invited onto city walls for a diplomatic meeting.
The Gaulish envoy bowed toward the white-haired girl sitting on the wall, her legs dangling idly. "Honorable Angel, it is my greatest honor to meet you."
Kiana Kaslana lifted her gaze, sweeping it over the group. "If you wish to speak with Me, do not waste My time with useless words."
"Uh... we sincerely invite you to join our Anti-Crusader Alliance," the Gaulish envoy said nervously.
He had heard that the delegation sent by the Holy Roman Empire had been killed by her.
He could not comprehend the being before him with a human mind.
Because she was not human at all.
As for whether she was truly an angel—or something else entirely—he did not know.
"You still fail to understand," Kiana Kaslana said softly as she rose into the air. "I am here to cleanse this world."
She raised her hand, and the Gaulish envoy was lifted into the air by an invisible force.
"You are not qualified to invite Me to join you."
With a flick of her wrist, the envoy was hurled from the wall, landing with a splash in the moat below.
The other envoys couldn't help but swallow hard.
"You have only two choices," Kiana declared coldly. "Surrender... or resist."
"Whether you surrender or resist—"
"I do not care."
Hearing those words, the envoys exchanged uneasy glances. They began to suspect that perhaps this really was an angel sent by God Himself.
They had never encountered anyone so brazen.
Was she planning to fight all of Europe?
As they hurriedly departed, Kiana Kaslana remained seated upon the wall, her gaze calm.
Plague and war—combined with the Church's centuries of spiritual oppression—had already driven the common people to the brink.
All that was needed was a spark, and the masses would ignite.
Every military campaign cost vast sums of money.
And where would that money come from?
Only from squeezing the commoners even harder.
By dragging every nation into the quagmire of war, she would force them to intensify their exploitation of the lower classes.
Then, she would appear as the angelic savior—to rescue them.
Turning embellishment into salvation.
Deepening the psychological gap.
Making it easier to control them.
While stockpiling Honkai Beasts, Kiana Kaslana continued commanding her zombie armies in prolonged attrition warfare.
Her zombies required no supplies—they could outlast any human army.
Currently, she matched the Crusader Alliance's deployments proportionally, sending just enough zombies to make the enemy believe they could still win.
A comforting illusion.
Among the three thousand troops facing the Crusader Alliance, two thousand were zombies.
In addition, she had another three thousand dispersed across different regions.
And in subspace, she had a Seraph-class Honkai Beast squadron—one thousand strong.
Their numbers were still increasing.
A thousand Seraph-class Honkai Beasts, designed as bomber-type combat units, could easily slaughter tens of thousands of human soldiers.
Feudal-era armies could not endure such one-sided massacres. Once morale broke, the soldiers would become lambs awaiting slaughter, utterly incapable of resistance.
With five thousand zombies and a thousand Seraph-class Honkai Beasts, even a slow war of attrition would be enough to conquer all of Europe.