After triggering the Honkai Eruption, Kiana Kaslana began searching for humans with the potential to become Herrschers.
Surveying the city of Tokyo, she found nothing but ruin—humans had either turned into zombies, lay dying and waiting to become them, or disintegrated entirely into ash before even completing the transformation.
"Not a single one...?"
Kiana Kaslana was slightly disappointed. These modern humans were far inferior to the suffering, battle-hardened people of Ai Enma's ancient world.
Thinking carefully, she realized the reason.
Honkai energy demanded strong mental fortitude and purity of spirit. In ancient times, harsh survival conditions honed such qualities far more effectively.
The humans of this world simply could not withstand a Honkai Eruption.
"Forget it."
If no Herrscher appeared—then she would just create an Emperor-class Honkai Beast instead.
With the Honkai Eruption engulfing Tokyo, the entire city fell rapidly into ruin. From the lowest-level zombies, Kiana Kaslana gathered the leaking Honkai energy to create Seraph-class and higher-grade Honkai Beasts.
A Seraph-class Honkai Beast could withstand modern small-caliber firearms without injury, though it would still be pierced by large-caliber anti-materiel sniper rounds.
An Emperor-class Honkai Beast—the upper limit of Honkai evolution—required a sustained bombardment by five thousand fully armed soldiers with anti-tank rockets to destroy.
Given the current situation in the Far East, she only needed a steady stream of Seraph-class Beasts to exhaust the human army's remaining missiles and thermal weapon reserves.
After the great war with the Fleet of Fog, humanity's weapon stockpiles had already been heavily depleted.
Knowing those weapons were largely ineffective against the Fleet of Fog, it was impossible for them to continue wasting resources on mass production.
Especially for a maritime nation like the Far East, already starved of resources and trapped under the Fleet of Fog's blockade—with trade and imports cut off—they could hardly afford to waste what little they had.
If they weren't complete fools, they would prioritize developing new weapons capable of countering the Fleet of Fog, not reproducing useless ones.
However, with the sudden appearance of zombies and Honkai Beasts, they would undoubtedly reactivate their old weapon production lines.
Kiana Kaslana divided her numerous Seraph-class Honkai Beasts into small five-member squads and dispatched them across the Far East to wreak havoc.
Gathering too many Seraph-class Beasts in one place was inefficient.
While ordinary bullets couldn't penetrate their defenses, humans still had missiles and heavy weapons—one missile could wipe out an entire cluster of Beasts.
Far too wasteful.
Sending small groups to provoke the Far Eastern army into expending their missiles and shells was the optimal strategy.
Unlike the lenient tactics of the Will of Honkai in Honkai Impact 3rd, Kiana Kaslana—the Will of Ruler—showed no mercy in her operations.
Her Seraph-class Beast squads infiltrated cities and methodically carried out sabotage, releasing Honkai bombs in densely populated areas.
After slaughtering entire crowds with explosions, they would fire volleys of short arrows from their twin wings—ka-ka-ka—killing indiscriminately.
When the human army arrived armed with heavy weaponry, the Honkai Beast squads would scatter, using their small bodies and flight capabilities to swiftly hide among the city's skyscrapers.
Evading the heavily armed soldiers, they would reemerge elsewhere and resume their rampage.
When running low on Honkai energy, they would retreat to concealed areas to recover before continuing their attacks.
They fully exploited their advantages—never charging blindly into direct confrontation with the Far Eastern army.
These Seraph-class Beasts were programmed by Bronya herself.
Having been trained in the military from a young age, she understood perfectly how armies operated.
In urban environments filled with high-rises and civilians, even a single Seraph-class Beast could cause catastrophic casualties.
Human soldiers, restricted by the presence of civilians and the need to minimize property damage, could not fight freely.
Meanwhile, deep beneath the sea...
Inside the Fog submarine I-401.
Upon receiving reports that the Far East was under attack by monsters, Chihaya Gunzou watched footage showing white creatures slaughtering humans, who then rose again as zombie-like corpses.
His expression darkened. Turning to the silver-haired girl kneeling beside him, he asked, "Iona, was this an attack launched by the Fleet of Fog against humanity?"
Iona shook her head. "No... I don't know what those things are—but they weren't created by the Fleet of Fog."
Due to the restrictions of the Naval Code, the Fleet of Fog was forbidden from attacking land targets.
The masked vice-captain, Oribe So, said, "These creatures... I don't think they have anything to do with the Fleet of Fog."
The dark-skinned engineer, Kamikura Kyohei, nodded in agreement. "Yeah, if the Fleet of Fog wanted to attack the mainland, they wouldn't need to start a zombie apocalypse."
"Set course for Yokosuka," Chihaya Gunzou said after a moment of contemplation.
"Understood."
Iona's I-401 moved forward at full speed.
Yokosuka was very close to Tokyo, and numerous Seraph-class Honkai Beasts were currently attacking the residential areas behind the naval base.
The coastal defense cannons could not rotate backward to strike targets behind their line.
Human forces deployed four-legged autonomous assault tanks known as Rock Crabs, along with dozens of helicopters, to strafe the Seraph-class Beasts with machine-gun fire.
Under heavy bombardment from human weaponry, the Seraph-class Beasts were instantly shredded into clouds of violet Honkai energy fragments that quickly dissipated.
After several probing attacks against Yokosuka's defenses, it became apparent that the Seraph-class Beasts were annihilated before they could even approach.
Heavily fortified indeed.
This place.
According to the intelligence she had gathered, it was in Yokosuka that humanity had captured a Fleet of Fog vessel—specifically, the I-401—and where they conducted their analysis and research on it.
In 2054, I-401 had fled with a marine technology student named Chihaya Gunzou.
Now, it was 2056.
The protagonist had been found.
The next step was to decide how to deal with him.
Though labeled a defector by humanity, Chihaya Gunzou was, in truth, still working as an intermediary, taking on commissions from both sides.
As for I-401, her defection from the Fleet of Fog was undeniable.
When it came to handling the protagonist, Kiana Kaslana had no intention of revealing herself.
A single Fog submarine and a lone human could not possibly stop her conquest and cleansing of the Far East.
With the Fog's protection, sending ordinary Honkai Beasts after them would be nothing more than suicide—offering the enemy free experience points.
"Then it's decided... you'll do nicely."
Seeing that no human in the Honkai Eruption had survived long enough to adapt, Kiana Kaslana shifted her focus. She planned to secretly seize control of a Fog vessel—possessing and assimilating it from within.
After a period of observation, she discovered that one of the cruisers from the First Oriental Fleet—a heavy cruiser—had severe mental instability. Its Mental Model showed no emotional response whatsoever, acting purely on preset routines.
A puppet-like Fog vessel.
Though she didn't know why, this one—Maya—was vulnerable and could be taken over.
Manipulating Honkai energy, she carefully infiltrated the malfunctioning heavy cruiser.
A Fog vessel with a functioning Mental Model would immediately sense an intrusion upon losing control, and warn the others.
To avoid unnecessary trouble, Kiana Kaslana moved with utmost caution.
Without alerting any other Fog units, she successfully replaced the consciousness of the heavy cruiser Maya—and connected herself into the Fleet of Fog's quantum communication network.