Honkai: Oh No, I’ve Become the Herrscher of Corruption?! - Chapter 34

“Hmm? Is it… afraid? What’s happening outside?” Enoxia, hidden within its mind, suddenly sensed its intense emotional shift.

“Well… maybe I should change my approach and read its memories backward. If I want to help the others, I need to keep up with the situation.”

Soon, she had reviewed all its memories—from the moment everyone awoke from their dreams up until now.

“I knew Sirin was weak, but not this weak. That fight was just embarrassing. Once this battle is over, I’ll have to give her some serious training.”

Though its body had been repeatedly destroyed by Sirin, its brain remained unharmed. Moreover, Enoxia wasn’t truly fused with it—she was merely possessing it. No matter how chaotic things got outside, as long as Wang (the creature) didn’t truly die, she would remain unaffected.

“It’s not running away because of the sudden surge of energy threatening to explode it. It’s afraid because it saw… the greatsword form of the Judgment of Shamash?”

Following this memory further back, Enoxia finally found the source of its terror.

When it first arrived on Earth, everything it saw was blanketed in white.

The universe is vast, but survival comes first. For a creature of the Huili race, changing planets just meant finding a new feeding ground.

But just as it was feasting, that man appeared. He had hair as white as the snow beneath him and eyes as blue as the sky. Aside from the strangely shaped greatsword in his hand, there was nothing particularly special about him.

“Ah, fresh prey,” Wang thought, activating its ability to trap the man in an ultra-realistic illusion before devouring him—just as it had always done. This short lifeform was nothing to be concerned about.

As the black mist spread, the man fell into the dream. But… in the blink of an eye, he snapped out of it. There was only one explanation: the moment he entered the dream, he realized it was fake and immediately killed the person he most wanted to see—without a shred of hesitation.

Now it was Wang’s turn to sweat. Still, it remained confident that this creature—less than two meters tall—could do nothing to it.

Yet in the next moment, Wang realized just how foolish that belief was. With a single casual swing of his greatsword, unbearable heat surged through its body—and then, its head was severed.

Though it couldn’t truly die, the sheer terror made it unable to even attempt devouring the attack.

No—it simply couldn’t devour it fast enough. Every time it mustered the courage to try, the greatsword’s slash had already cut, shattered, and pierced its body again. Precisely because it couldn’t die, this “battle”… no, this one-sided execution, turned from a beheading into an endless, torturous dismemberment.

After being sliced apart thousands of times, the man engraved himself—and that greatsword—into its very soul in the most bone-deep way possible. Perhaps infected by its fear, [Chi], who had been connected to it, abruptly severed their mental link. Wang realized: in front of him, it was the prey.

After reducing it to dust ten thousand times over, the man knew that while it was no match for him, he couldn’t truly kill it either. So, in this desolate wasteland, he froze a patch of land and buried it deep underground. If not for Wang accidentally awakening the ability to control ice and gravity, it might have remained there until the end of time.

“Well, it had the misfortune of running into Kevin right off the bat—a man who slaughters Herrschers like they’re vegetables. But if even Kevin couldn’t break the Abundance’s blessing and could only seal it underground, how did Sirin manage it? Did she really just brute-force her way through?”

Wang’s memories didn’t hold a direct answer, but Enoxia pieced together clues from the details.

When Wang awoke from its long slumber, it realized something had changed it. Beyond gaining control over gravity and ice, it inexplicably developed an urge—not just to feed, but to destroy.

“Hmm… Since it became a Herrscher, it must have been altered by the Cocoon. Both Honkai Impact 3rd and Honkai: Star Rail share the same cosmology under the Imaginary Tree–Sea of Quanta framework, meaning their energies ultimately stem from the same source: the Imaginary Energy of the Imaginary Tree. However, since Honkai Impact 3rd’s world exists at the far end of the Imaginary Tree and is enveloped by the Cocoon of Finality, its Imaginary Energy is converted into Honkai Energy. So, fundamentally, Honkai Energy and the Pathstriders’ energy are the same in origin.”

“Does that mean the Paths in Star Rail and the Cocoon function similarly—both acting as converters that transform Imaginary Energy into a different form aligned with their own rules? For example, the Abundance’s rule is to process Imaginary Energy into a force with terrifying regenerative properties. Those who walk the Path of Abundance are simply wielding this converted energy.”

“Based on this, one fact becomes clear: since Wang’s insane regeneration comes from the Abundance Path, that power must inherently contradict the Cocoon’s rules. But Earth is undeniably the Cocoon’s domain. So… during its long imprisonment underground, did the Cocoon partially overwrite the Abundance’s rules, turning its theoretically infinite regeneration into something finite?”

When two opposing energies clash, the stronger one dominates. While each Aeon can influence the entire universe, the Cocoon only affects the solar system. Yet Wang was utterly crushed by Kevin—clearly, they weren’t even in the same league.

Though this was all speculation, it at least explained Wang’s fear. What it truly dreaded was that anyone wielding the Judgment of Shamash might be as strong as Kevin. At that point, even with Herrscher abilities, it could face true annihilation.

Unfortunately for Wang, Kevin was the undisputed strongest in the Previous Era, and he remained the pinnacle of power in the Current Era until his death. Among all Shamash users, Siegfried was indeed second only to Kevin—but the gap between first and second was colossal. Even if Siegfried were given a Herrscher Core, he’d still be nowhere near Kevin’s level.

“Well, looks like we’ve secured a partial victory. Hopefully, this’ll be useful in the final battle.”

While Enoxia sifted through its memories for weaknesses, her corrosive power gnawed at its nerves like termites eating through wood. Facing an enemy stronger than her—but not overwhelmingly so—she proceeded with extreme caution, aiming to subtly influence and even rewrite its consciousness to sway the battle.

But since Wang came from Star Rail, Enoxia couldn’t help but wonder:

“If a self-aware virus like me were to enter the Simulated Universe… what would happen?”