Honkai: Oh No, I’ve Become the Herrscher of Corruption?!

As Enoxia’s words faded, the form of Higokumaru began to shift. Her body grew instantly larger and taller. A grey helmet materialized upon her head, and a layer of crimson armor enveloped her frame. In each hand, she now clutched a slender, purple tachi. Her appearance was now identical to that high-elemental-resistance boss from Honkai Impact 3rd.

Though her form had changed, it was still Higokumaru. Without waiting for a command from Enoxia, she surged forward, her blades aimed at the Herrscher of Death.

The tachi carried a purplish energy edge. With a single slash, they cleanly sliced through the Herrscher’s body. But just as Enoxia had predicted, the moment the wound appeared, it began to heal at a visible rate.

The Herrscher of Death immediately counterattacked, swinging its scythe toward the Herrscher of Sentience. However, much like Enoxia herself, the Herrscher of Sentience could dataize its form. The scythe passed harmlessly straight through her body. Furthermore, as a Divine Key, the Herrscher of Sentience was highly resistant to the Herrscher of Death’s withering aura.

Enoxia couldn’t help but facepalm.
“Higokumaru, you’re the Key of Corruption. This isn’t a turn-based game where you trade blows—you slash once, it slashes back.”

Hearing this, Higokumaru proactively activated a skill. A semi-transparent clone materialized beside her. The clone engaged the Herrscher, providing a distraction, while Higokumaru’s main body seized every opening to gradually inject corrupting energy into the Herrscher of Death. Once the accumulated corrupting energy within the Herrscher surpassed a certain threshold, its body stiffened, pausing briefly.

“Attacks that erode the mind still have some effect on it… It seems my initial judgment wasn’t entirely correct. Chi is dead, but not completely gone. It has retained a faint, vestigial consciousness. This consciousness is utterly incapable of being controlled by the Herrscher’s instincts; it can’t even command its own body… No wonder this walking corpse still possesses the power of [Abundance].”

After deciphering the Herrscher of Death’s condition, Enoxia waved her hand.
“Higokumaru, return.”

Higokumaru immediately shrank back into her small, adorable form and flew back into Enoxia’s body.

Seeing the obstacle gone, the Herrscher of Death brandished its scythe and charged at Enoxia. Unfazed, Enoxia calmly drew back the string of her bow, aiming at the Herrscher’s body.

“There’s no need to come to me so eagerly. I will enter your heart of my own accord.”

She released the bowstring. Like a certain head-launcher, she launched herself forward, piercing into the Herrscher’s body.

Within a realm of chaos, Enoxia quickly located that wisp of a remnant soul. The moment she touched it, a flood of memories rushed into her mind…

[…We traveled far from home, seeking only to establish a new haven. Never did we imagine that upon looking back, our original home would be completely turned to dust and ashes. I know, apart from me… and perhaps Mei, no one else remembers that moment. Of course, our memories weren’t burned away by the Incinerators nor altered by the Fabrication Historians. The reason we can’t recall is simple: fear. Even across untold light-years, the scenes witnessed in that dream were too horrifying, so terrifying that the mind actively chooses to forget…]

[In the 169th year of the Huili Calendar, our war with the Borisin finally reached a temporary stalemate. According to scout reports, the Xianzhou [Cangcheng] was predicted to pass through the Kalbul system within the next 10 years by Xianzhou reckoning. It was a desolate system, barren not only of sustenance but also desperately lacking in other energy sources. Thus, since ancient times, it had been a place no military force contested. Neither we nor other followers of Abundance would ever consider it pastureland.]

[Yet, our Lord, with peerless wisdom, deemed this very place the ideal spot to ambush the Xianzhou [Cangcheng].]

[By the Xianzhou calendar, roughly 600 years had passed since the disastrous defeat of the Wingweavers. They were now mired in a crisis of faith. Although many held the hero who fired that world-shaking arrow 600 years ago as an object of worship, he was, after all, a figure from history. Beyond offering spiritual encouragement, he could give them nothing more.]

[Xianzhou people are undoubtedly pragmatic. If they worshipped Qliphoth, the Aeon of Preservation, obtaining resource support from the Interastral Peace Corporation would clearly be far easier—a tangible benefit right before their eyes. The Interastral Peace Corporation, born in the late stages of the Swarm Disaster, was demonstrably superior to the Xianzhou in every aspect, despite the latter’s mere 4000 years of history.]

[Faced with such a tempting prospect, some voiced opposition. Their reasoning was simple: with excessive contact with the IPC, would the Xianzhou still be the Xianzhou? After all, fellow followers of Qliphoth, like the Market Development Department, had never hesitated to exploit the Architects whenever profit was to be had. Plunder, massacre—every label other factions slapped onto the Abundance followers, they had committed without exception.]

[Weakness is the original sin; power is the truth. So I truly cannot comprehend why the Abundance followers are so universally despised and reviled, their reputations in tatters, when the acts of pillaging and killing are the same. In the eyes of certain species, the methods of acquiring resources are equally barbaric and evil. Why is it that the completely unrelated Interastral Peace Corporation is seen as bringing civilization, freedom, and democracy to the plundered regions?]

[I seem to be digressing, but I must marvel at the cunning and wisdom of our spies, and our race’s innate abilities, which allow even me, billions of light-years away, to understand the internal situation of the Xianzhou.]

[Though I cannot be on the battlefield myself, I believe under our Lord’s great leadership, our people will surely achieve victory. Yet, watching others in the dream savor the various dishes prepared from Xianzhou people is truly a form of torture.]

[But I can confirm this: the Xianzhou’s historical records contain no mention of this war. Because we never actually engaged them.]

[As our ambushing forces entered the Kalbul system, everything was in readiness. Then, a roar echoed from the depths of space. A new Aeon was born.]

[The birth of a new Aeon is a significant event on a cosmic scale, but for a war between two races, it is utterly irrelevant. Because 2000 Amber Eras of history have shown everyone that Aeons never concern themselves with mortals. If a faction were to massacre only members of the Interastral Peace Corporation and the Architects, Qliphoth wouldn’t even glance their way.]

[But… this one exception, this singular anomaly, was encountered by our people. The birth of an Aeon, one innately hostile to followers of Abundance, just before a major battle—no matter how many times one replays the scenario, no one could have predicted this outcome.]

[He drew back his bowstring in the depths of the cosmos. His first arrow was aimed at the Huili star system.]

[No matter how weak an Aeon might be, only another Aeon can possibly withstand their attacks. Under the Aeon’s arrow of light, all of the Huili’s defenses seemed pitiful and laughable. The Huili star system, spanning tens of light-years in radius, was annihilated in an instant. Countless millennia of accumulation, the efforts of innumerable generations of the Huili—wiped from existence by a single thought from Him.]

The Emperor Archer proclaimed his edict with but an arrow of light. It was the destruction of the Huili star system that announced the birth of [The Hunt] to the entire universe.