"..."
The Theater of Domination fell into silence.
The Herrscher of Dominance were utterly bewildered—they had never encountered people like these before.
In the past, everyone they met had been ordinary members of humanity—workers, sculptors, designers, students, doctors, scientists, and so on. Most had suffered repeated failures in life, sinking into despair.
Once the Herrscher of Dominance breached their mental defenses, these people willingly joined them, becoming puppets.
Some possessed stronger wills and took a little longer to break, but once inside the Theater of Domination, no one had ever walked away unscathed.
Even a moment of doubt was enough for the Herrscher of Dominance's power to seep in and seize control.
But these two... were different. Strange.
"I'll teach you natives a simple sociological theory," Grey said, clearing her throat.
"Specific circumstances determine what is considered moral. If one possesses the ability to define those circumstances, then ethics and morality are nothing more than clay in one's hands—malleable at will."
"What?..."
The puppets froze for a second.
Clack-clack-clack—
Gudako unrolled a scroll and pulled out a massive red-and-white mecha, jumping straight into the Strelizia.
"That's right! You're absolutely correct!! Humans are selfish, greedy, violent, and shameless—and I'm one of them!!! Which is why I'm going to wipe you all out!!"
Zzzzt—BOOM!!!
A searing torrent of energy burst forth from Strelizia's spear, obliterating the puppets in the stands.
"???"
The Herrscher of Dominance were clearly not prepared for the two lunatics to just flip the table immediately, plunging everything into chaos.
"You're killing innocent people!"
The puppet judge on the podium let out a shrill laugh, spinning its head once before speaking in a mocking tone.
"Do you know who they once were? They were ordinary humans who suffered under this cruel world—that's why they became one of us."
"Look— that puppet whose head you just blasted off? He was a poor forty-year-old man, recently laid off and dying of illness... and you just killed him."
"And that one you cut in half? He was a poor student, a survivor of the First Honkai..."
It tried to make them empathize—to feel, to experience the despair and negativity that once consumed every human soul here.
"What, are you trying to guilt-trip us?!"
Gudako raised her hand and fired another high-energy laser, blowing the puppet into pieces.
"What's wrong? You don't like it?"
"Please, we're enemies. What, did you expect me to have tea and chat with you instead? Hurry up and kneel—I'll make it quick."
"Otherwise, I'll throw you all into the Synaptic Lathe. Hmph, you might actually have decent processing power."
"???"
The Herrscher of Dominance realized something was wrong.
You can't morally manipulate someone who has no moral compass to begin with. These two were completely immune to that—nothing like Kiana.
Clack-clack-clack—
Countless puppets lit up their weapons and charged at the pair in swarms.
"Mass assault? Please, even Icarus alone could clean you all up."
Grey shrugged.
"Still, mowing the lawn is kind of fun."
Zzzzt—
Grey's combat style was strange and unpredictable. She could create any kind of weapon she wanted on a whim.
Sometimes she used ship rigging, sometimes missiles. On impulse, she'd even conjure dual monomolecular blades, slicing puppets into flying parts.
Gudako, piloting Strelizia, fought like an Astartes beating down goblins—one casual slap could turn a cluster of puppets into a pile of broken components.
Their attacks couldn't even scratch the mecha.
Before long, a mountain of shattered puppet remains piled up beneath their feet.
Severed limbs, splintered torsos, rolling heads—all scattered across the battlefield.
"Useless!!"
"Useless, heeheehee... As long as human malice exists, we will never vanish!!"
The Herrscher of Dominance laughed manically as more puppets surged forward like an endless tide.
Thousands—tens of thousands... the entire Theater of Domination was filled with dense ranks of puppets, joints creaking and clattering endlessly.
"Seriously?"
Grey blinked, pretending to think.
"Then why don't we just wipe out all the humans? Hey, hello? Any free Angeloid units available? Need a hand here."
"???"
The Herrscher of Dominance could tell she was seriously considering it.
Too evil. Too chaotic.
How could someone like this even exist?!
"Wait, no—our power is fading!!!"
Before long, they realized something even worse.
In the real world, Sophon had already pinpointed their exact coordinates and was leading the Angeloid units on a systematic house-to-house purge.
They had thought themselves well hidden within human society—but no matter how deep they buried themselves, or how clever their disguises, it made no difference.
"Quickly! We must end this fast! Kill them first, then deal with the ones outside!!"
"Die! Die!! Heeheeheehee—"
The wounded puppets began fusing together, piece by piece. From their broken bodies, an enormous mechanical construct slowly took shape.
Some puppets became its fingers and joints, others their armor plating.
Layer by layer, the mass assembled itself like a grotesque combination machine.
BOOM!!—
The giant construct took a step, and the ground quaked.
Its hands, still connected to countless puppets, screeched and rattled as they lunged toward the two intruders.
"You call that engineering? Pathetic! A mob is still just a mob."
Step—
CLANG!!!
Strelizia stepped forward, its shield intercepting the construct's strike.
BOOM—
The spear in its hand pierced straight through the monster's chest.
At first, the amalgamation regenerated endlessly.
But as Sophon and the Angeloid units advanced through the real world, purging the puppets one by one, the regeneration slowed.
And eventually, no matter how many times they tried to reform, it was meaningless.
Because their opponents weren't human—one was a mecha, the other a nanomachine lifeform.
The difference in power was simply too vast. Exhaustion tactics were pointless.
After a few desperate exchanges, despair began to spread among the puppets.
"Can we really win against something like this?"
"They... they're monsters."
"Why? Why do beings like this exist?!..."
Their shrill, maddening cries echoed through the shattered theater.
"Tch, that's it? Done already? Strelizia hasn't even used one percent of its power."
BOOM—
The spear struck once more, driving straight into the machine's core.
"Detonate."
With a single word—
BOOOOOOM!!!—
An immense surge of energy erupted outward. The compressed dark matter and Honkai energy inside detonated simultaneously.
Vmmm—
The violent explosion blew the entire roof off the Theater of Domination, reducing most of the building to dust.
Clack—
Only one puppet remained, kneeling on the floor, trembling, glaring up at the towering mecha.
"You... who are you... why... how could this be..."
"Power. That's the only reason for kingship."
Gudako added with a smirk.
"Collect the spoils."
Grey waved her hand, dispatching several nanobot drones to clean up the battlefield.
At the same time, she opened a communication link with Setsuna.
"Report, Commander. Operation successful."
"The enemy attempted to morally criticize us, so we responded with physical criticism instead. Our method proved superior—yay."
...
With the Theater of Domination collapsing into ruin, the battle on Earth quickly came to an end.
Unlike the original timeline, where Kiana had won over the Herrscher of Dominance through conviction, Grey and Gudako had taken the far more straightforward route of physical annihilation.
Under Sophon's precise coordination, the Angeloids wiped out the remnants of the Herrscher of Dominance down to the last puppet.
Clack—
Before long, a small shuttle docked at the space station.
The nanobot directed the Angeloids to drag in the remains of the defeated horde.
"Tch, what a disappointment. These things are trash—barely worthy of being displayed as trophies. No research value whatsoever."
"That's it? That's it?"
Gudako looked both thrilled and incredulous.
"That Herrscher was way too weak! When they merged into that big mecha, I thought we were getting a cool, intense Gundam battle~"
"But it was over in, what, two hits? A mob is still a mob. I think even an Apostle would've lasted longer."
"..."
Cecilia and Cheng Lixue exchanged uneasy glances.
After witnessing the Herrscher of Dominance' tactics firsthand, none of them were sure they could've survived in that theater. Even if they won the fight, they would've been crushed mentally long before that.
Once dragged into the Theater of Domination, it was nearly impossible not to fall prey to the puppets' twisted logic. One moment of doubt was all it took to lose oneself.
Only these two, utterly devoid of moral restraint, could've ended things so brutally and efficiently.
"I... am impressed," Kallen sighed.
Faced with the same accusations—being called murderers or monsters for creating Kiana using the Herrscher of the Void's Core—her instinct would've been to argue logically, to justify her actions, to prove her good intentions.
But Grey and Gudako thought differently: Personal attack? Then I'll just kill all of you—no one left to accuse me.
"At an interstellar scale, talking to me about morality is meaningless. I threw that away into a cluster black hole fifty-six thousand epochs ago."
The nanobot stretched lazily and handed Setsuna an object.
"Here, the Herrscher of Dominance Core—ripped straight from the mob."
"Technically, the Herrscher of Dominance's Core was divided among all their puppets. When they fused into that giant construct, their cores must've merged as well."
"We moved too fast, though, so a few small fragments might've escaped fusion. They're scattered around, but it shouldn't affect overall performance."
Setsuna took it, examining the Core closely.
Tesla, Einstein, and the others immediately gathered around him.
Unlike the hollow husk from the original story—stolen and abused by Otto—this one was freshly taken, intact, and complete.
"Fascinating. The Herrscher of Dominance was created specifically to counter Herrschers who rebelled against Honkai. Her authority was meant to suppress and control them."
"If she hadn't split into a thousand weak bodies—if she existed as a single entity—her power would likely surpass that of most Herrschers."
Setsuna unfolded his Herrscher Core Drive Module and installed the seventh Core into it.
Vmmm—
[Herrscher Core loading...]
[Herrscher of Dominance Core: Installed.]
Suddenly, he felt a strange sensation—as if countless streams of tangible malice were rushing into his mind.
The Core of Dominance carried with it all the darkest, most despairing emotions of humanity. Anyone who touched it risked being assimilated.
"Is this because it was physically destroyed without purification by Kiana? The malice of the world itself?"
Setsuna exhaled sharply and brought up the Eternal Snowfall's control interface.
[Initiating purification sequence... separating target energies...]
Whoosh—
"Eh? Commander, you—"
Before anyone could finish their sentence, the world around him shifted.
As the others shouted in alarm, Setsuna blinked—and suddenly found himself standing in a strange, unfamiliar place.
The sky and earth were drenched in a void-like violet hue. The oppressive atmosphere pressed down heavily, littered with ruins and fragments of broken puppets.
"The Theater of Domination?"
"There's still a surviving Herrscher of Dominance? One strong enough to pull me in here?"
He was genuinely surprised. For something to drag him in, here, from the space station, under full observation—it made no sense.
No way the Herrscher of Dominance had that kind of power.
The mob was gone, and with Sophon's pinpoint tracking, there would be no survivors.
Whoosh—
Setsuna took a few steps forward, raising a hand as he tried to probe the surrounding energy.
The tangible force drifting through the void stirred at his will.
"Hm? ..."
"No, something's off."
He frowned slightly and tried again to control that strange energy.
Before his eyes, the Theater of Domination—flattened earlier by Grey and Gudako—began rapidly rebuilding itself.
The wreckage disintegrated into dust, Honkai energy swirling back into place, reconstructing the foundations and walls at a pace visible to the naked eye.
Stairs, stage, domes, murals, candles—all of it came together piece by piece, until the magnificent theater stood whole once more, as if nothing had ever happened.
Inside, it was silent and empty. The puppets destroyed in battle had vanished entirely, erased without a trace.
And with every shift of his thoughts, the building's interior began to subtly change in response.
"So that's how it is..."
Setsuna realized the truth.
No one had dragged him in—by merging with the Herrscher of Dominance's Core, he was now the master of this space.
The Theater of Domination had once been an extension of the Herrscher of Dominance. Now that they were gone, ownership of the realm had passed to the one who absorbed their Core.
"Tch, so this is basically a personal reality marble? A DIY version where I can shape it however I want?"
He looked around. Though the place had been wrecked, with the Herrscher of Reason's authority, restoring it was child's play.
The void around him stretched infinitely—he could, if he wished, use his Herrscher of Reason power to build an entire kingdom independent of the world outside.
But remnants of the Herrscher of Dominance lingered. The atmosphere still carried a suffocating sense of despair.
Their existence had been rooted in humanity's darkest emotions, and even if it couldn't affect him, staying here too long was... unpleasant.
"Maybe I should purify the Core again... or add something extra in here?" he mused.
He started considering possible uses for this new space.
"Could I drag people in for a private duel? Hmm, kind of redundant..."
The whole "theater duel" setup of the Herrscher of Dominance wasn't really his style.
Like Grey and Gudako, he preferred physical criticism—truth delivered through the Eternal Snowfall's main cannon.
Dragging people in just to beat them up felt inefficient.
"Still, outside of combat, it might make a decent pocket dimension—an isolated space I can expand or invite others into..."
After thinking it over, he decided it was worth keeping and developing further.
Using his Herrscher of Reason power, he refurbished the entire realm.
With a thought—
Whoosh—
He exited the Theater of Domination.
"Commander?!"
"You disappeared for a moment—what happened?!"
Everyone rushed over in alarm.
"Nothing serious. Just... inherited the Herrscher of Dominance's leftovers."
Setsuna smiled lightly.
"Now I've got my own little pocket dimension—great for private talks. Oh, and I can technically steal other Herrscher powers now..."
His eyes flicked toward Senti.
"What?!"
Senti yelped, clutching herself and darting behind Jingwei.
"You're not thinking of stealing my power, are you? Old fossil, help me—!!"
"..."
She had a lingering trauma when it came to Setsuna. During early experiments to extract the Herrscher of Sentience's power, she'd nearly had her consciousness erased.
One more push back then, and he could've taken her authority completely.
"Relax, I'm kidding."
Setsuna tapped her lightly on the head.
The power of Dominance had many uses beyond seizing other Herrscher abilities.
It could also forcibly control ordinary humans—turning them into living puppets, like the Herrscher of Dominance once did.
But that didn't interest him. Managing mortals was Sophon and the Angeloids' job; no need for him to micromanage.
"That's the end of this Honkai incident."
"Mm... Humanity hasn't noticed anything yet. They still believe no Herrscher emerged this time," Grey reported.
"They're scratching their heads, wondering what happened."
"Wait—then that means we now have seven... no, nine Herrscher Cores total, counting the Herrscher of Sentience and Kiana," Einstein calculated aloud.
"Originally, using six Herrscher Cores to simulate Finality was still a stretch," Tesla added, scanning the holo-display. "But now that we've got the Dominance Core, we're definitely ready."
They ran a quick set of simulations, their faces lighting up.
"The success rate is now 100%. Even if Honkai tries to send another gatekeeper to stop us, there aren't any Herrschers left to use."
"Well... if we had to guess, the next one up would be... the Herrscher of Corruption?"
Setsuna thought for a moment.
If that happened, he'd give her a proper lesson.
After all, he just so happened to have a Corruption Core from the Previous Era—perfect for a test run.
"Whatever happens, the advantage is mine."
—
—
40 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon:
Patreon.com/DaoOfHeaven