Necromancer, but pre-collapse civilization

　"Well……"

　Upon hearing Yae Sakura's extremely faint voice, Kallen could no longer suppress her emotions.

　Without hesitation, she rushed forward and embraced the cherry-haired shrine maiden tightly.

　"Karen?"

　"Sakura! You're finally awake!"

　Carefully supporting Yae Sakura's back, Kallen helped her sit up, her eyes filled with concern and joy.

　"Sakura, how are you feeling now? Is anything bothering you?"

　"I'm sorry... Karen... It's all my fault..."

　Reaching out, her fingertips gently brushed against Kalena's cheeks, which were grimy from the previous battle. Yae Sakura's voice was weak, but every word was filled with deep apology and self-reproach.

　Feeling the cool touch on her face, Karen could no longer hold back her tears, which streamed down her face.

　"No! Sakura! This isn't your fault!"

　However, at this touching moment when the lilies were blooming, Sakura interrupted their conversation in an almost indifferent tone.

　"Karen, don't forget the promise you made."

　After saying that, she felt a slight stirring in her heart. Relying on her authority as the supreme commander of the undead legion's conquest of this world, she decisively issued an order to summon the ghost dragon that had been lurking deep within the [Empty Bamboo Forest] to come and greet them.

　Undead units are absolutely obedient to necromancers.

　Therefore, even though Sakura only had the command authority granted by Moros and was not the necromancer herself, Ghost Dragon still carried out her orders without fail.

　Sakura didn't have to wait long; in just a minute or two, a cold and powerful aura swept in like a tide, permeating the entire Yae Shrine, causing both Kallen and Sakura to involuntarily feel a pressure from the depths of their souls.

　Before they could fully comprehend the source of this aura, a deep and majestic dragon roar suddenly erupted, echoing throughout the entire Yae Shrine.

　"Roar!!!"

　With this dragon's roar, the roof of the main hall of the Yae Shrine, which was already teetering on the brink of collapse due to the previous battle, finally could not withstand the force and was violently torn apart.

　Against the backdrop of shattered rubble and broken wooden beams, a pair of ferocious skeletal dragon claws, shrouded in thick black mist, easily pierced through the roof and appeared before them.

　Just like cutting butter with a hot knife, these dragon claws effortlessly tore the roof of the shrine's main hall apart with a single burst of force.

　"!!!"

　Upon seeing the enormous and ferocious demon dragon before them, both Kallen and Yae Sakura couldn't help but widen their eyes in astonishment.

　Despite having faced and dealt with numerous Honkai Beasts, they are still quite formidable against a massive and menacing Honkai Beast like the Ghost Dragon.

　They had never encountered beasts before.

　Yes, while the size of the Emperor-class Honkai Beast is not small, it still pales in comparison to the Ghost Dragon.

　and……

　Even the Emperor-class Honkai Beasts ultimately lacked that terrifying dragon's might.

　Even though the dragon's might is distorted, its strength is still very weak compared to that of a normal dragon.

　But a dragon's might is a dragon's might; its deterrent effect on creatures encountered for the first time remains as obvious and as strong as ever.

　This is also why Sakura sent Kiryu on this trip.

　She wanted Karen to realize that the price she would pay for breaking her promise would be unacceptable.

　Noticing the shock and awe in Kallen's eyes, Sakura nodded to herself.

　She knew that Karen had deeply grasped this point and would not easily break the agreement again.

　Without hesitation, she took Rin, who had already become the core of the Herrscher, and together they stepped onto the back of the demon dragon.

　Admittedly, the dark mist formed from the scattered death magic on Ghost Dragon's body is a deadly threat to ordinary people.

　However, for Sakura and Rin, this level of death magic corruption was like a gentle breeze, something they could completely ignore.

　Upon receiving Sakura's takeoff command, Guilong let out a deep roar.

　The pair of tattered skeletal dragon wings, shrouded in dark mist, suddenly flapped, propelling its massive body, with a wingspan of nearly two hundred meters, into the air, soaring straight into the sky.

　It was only at this moment that Rin finally spoke, asking Sakura why she was asked to return Yae Sakura's body to Kallen and Yae Sakura.

　When asked by Rin, Sakura had no intention of hiding anything.

　She frankly revealed to the lawyer, who had recently slaughtered hundreds of villagers, the reasons for making this decision.

　"Rin, I made a promise to Yae Sakura to help her break free from the shackles of her predetermined fate. And I don't want to take her away from this bubble of world we inhabit..."

　As she spoke, she turned her head and gently looked at Rin, who had already become the core of a Herrscher.

　"Rin, do you know? Every world bubble is unique. They are like bubbles in the universe, carrying their own stories and destinies. Yae Sakura belongs to this world bubble. Her destiny and her bonds are here. Taking her away would undoubtedly be a destruction of this world bubble."

　Listening quietly to Sakura's narration, Rinna's heart, which had once been filled with murderous intent, became unusually calm at this moment.

　"So, you chose to return that body to them, both to protect this world and to uphold your promise to Yae Sakura?"

　"Yes, bell."

　Smiling and nodding, Yingjie, the cherry-haired girl, had a longing and anticipation for the future shining in her light purple eyes.

　"Since you've decided to leave this world with me, I naturally won't hold back any information about our upcoming journey or Lord Moros..."

　As Sakura recounted the various precautions to take after leaving, and Moros gave a brief account of his deeds, Rin couldn't help but feel an immense anticipation for her new life.

　The few bits of information gleaned from Sakura's narration were enough for Rin to realize that the necromancer was definitely not someone like Dr. Mei who valued human civilization highly.

　In other words, he might take a more tolerant and permissive attitude towards Suzu's plan for revenge against human civilization.

　This is undoubtedly crucial for Ling.

Chapter 816 The Return Journey and the Differences Between Sisters

　The Ghost Dragon's flight speed is comparable to that of first-generation jet fighters such as the F-86 and MiG-15 on Earth.

　Thanks to this almost dreamlike speed for people in the Muromachi period, in just over ten minutes, Sakura and Rin, who had left Yae Sakura's body and transformed into the core of the Herrscher, arrived above Komoro Castle, the capital of the Shinano region.

　Looking down from the clouds, this once bustling and prosperous town of Shinano is now shrouded in an inescapable sense of tragedy.

　Two full days have passed since the undead legion captured Little Zhu City, but the passage of time has not diminished the sorrow here; on the contrary, it has made everything even more somber and desolate.

　On the streets, corpses piled up like mountains, blocking the roads of the market, and blood flowed like rivers, staining the bluestone roads a dark red.

　The air was thick with a suffocating stench of decay and death, making even the simplest breath incredibly difficult.

　On the building, the wooden window frames were broken beyond recognition, and the dark windows resembled the gaping maw of a monster, devouring the light and hope of the past.

　The doors creaked and groaned in the wind, a sound like the low murmur of ghosts, telling of the tragic fate that this city had suffered.

　Led by the Great Lich, the undead soldiers moved back and forth among the ruins, expressionlessly scavenging for any usable resources.

　Precious metals such as gold and silver, rare resources such as gemstones and sulfur, and even widely used magical materials such as corpses and souls...

　As long as these resources can create value, the undead

　The soldiers would collect them without hesitation.

　After all, Moros's ultimate goal in launching this war of conquest was to plunder the resources of this world bubble.

　He didn't have the means to easily extract energy from the entire world bubble like Sa did, so he could only rely on this relatively primitive and inefficient method of resource collection to seize the world bubble's resources.

　In that case, the undead soldiers who were absolutely obedient to the necromancer's orders would naturally plunder every corner of every city they conquered.

　Silently gazing at all this, Sakura's pale purple eyes were filled with indifference and helplessness.

　As the supreme commander of the undead legion's conquest of this world, she was acutely aware of the cruelty and ruthlessness of this war.

　However, Sakura also knew clearly that she had to bear this heavy responsibility.

　In order for her and Rinna's peaceful and beautiful life to continue for a long time, Sakura must carry out every order given by the necromancer without fail.

　Even though those orders were accompanied by a strong stench of blood.

　Not only Sakura, but also Rin, the twelfth Herrscher of the former civilization and the Herrscher of Erosion, keenly sensed the deathly silence of the city below.

　Although she had returned Yae Sakura's body to Kallen and Yae Sakura and was no longer attached to any body, merely maintaining the state of a Herrscher core, with her immense strength, sensing the situation of the town below the Ghost Dragon was still a piece of cake for her.

　Witnessing the small town of Moro, now a dead city, and recalling Sakura's earlier words about the undead army's conquest of Hinohmoto, Rin felt an indescribable joy welling up inside her.

　Indeed, she is now a Herrscher wielding the power of [Erosion], possessing extraordinary strength.

　But in the previous era, which was 50,000 years ago, when she was first identified as a Herrscher, she was just an ordinary girl with slightly better adaptability to Honkai energy.

　At that time, she clearly had no intention of being an enemy of humanity, yet she was still imprisoned by the highest authority at the time—the Moth of Fire, an organization that had replaced the United Nations in managing human civilization—in the name of protecting humanity, and was even brutally tortured and killed by the guards who were watching over her.

　This harrowing experience instilled in her a deep resentment and disgust for the human civilization of this era.

　Now, feeling the deathly silence of the city below, the mountains of corpses, the rivers of blood, and the stench of decay and death in the air, were like a grand carnival to her.

　She could clearly sense the lingering struggle, pain, and despair in Xiaozhucheng, but none of it mattered to her.

　In Rin's eyes, all of humanity's suffering is self-inflicted, a consequence of their fear and rejection of the Herrscher and the Honkai.

　She was captivated by the tragedy brought about by the undead army, reveling in the collapse and destruction of human civilization.

　This was driven by both her instincts as a Herrscher and the pleasure derived from satisfying her deep hatred for human civilization.

　However, even though she was filled with such emotions, Rin still took Sakura's feelings into consideration.

　After being lost in thought for a while, she broke the silence and spoke in a relaxed and cheerful tone.

　"Sister, didn't you say you were going to take me to Heian-kyo? Let's go."

　Upon hearing this, Sakura slowly withdrew her gaze from the desolate city and turned to look at the Herrscher core—Rin—floating beside her, as black as an abyss.

　A complex emotion flashed across those pale purple eyes.

　With Sakura's formidable strength, which had almost reached the realm of demigods, she naturally and keenly sensed the undisguised joy in Rin's words.

　However, she ultimately couldn't be like Ling, treating the loss of over 100,000 innocent lives in Xiaozhucheng as a trivial pastime or entertainment.

　Despite being the most outstanding assassin of the previous civilization, the ace of the Poison Chrysalis Squad, and having blood on her hands, Sakura held an extremely high respect for the value of life.

　She was unwilling to take someone's life unless absolutely necessary.

　This deep respect for life filled her with an indescribable heaviness and sorrow when faced with such a tragic situation.

　However, this heaviness and sorrow could not overshadow the emotion in her heart.

　With her keen senses, Sakura was naturally able to perceive that Rin was comforting herself in her own unique way.

　Therefore, Sakura responded to Rin's request without hesitation.

　Upon receiving Sakura's command, the demon dragon once again flapped its tattered dragon wings, carrying Sakura and Rin through layers of clouds and mist, speeding eastward toward Heian-kyo.

　As the Ghost Dragon and its two passengers departed, the gloom over Little Zhu City seemed to dissipate gently with the breeze, but the profound sorrow and despair remained, like a brand, forever etched onto this land.

　On the way to Heian-kyo, Sakura and Rin remained silent, each lost in their own thoughts.

　Sakura is thinking about how to command the undead army more effectively and reduce unnecessary killing.

　As for Ling, she was savoring what she had just seen.

　Everything, the hatred and disgust for human civilization in my heart, became more profound with each recollection.

　Finally, as the first rays of dawn pierced through the thick clouds and shone on the dilapidated walls of Heian-kyo, the demon dragon landed in an open area outside the city.

Chapter 817 The Fall of Japan

　As the largest and most prosperous city in Japan, Heian-kyo still boasts many stunning sights worth exploring, even though it suffered considerable damage in the previous battle where the undead army conquered the city.

　Thanks to the spells cast by the great liches, the stench of rotting corpses and the strong smell of blood from the mass killings have been effectively eliminated.

　Therefore, apart from the streets still stained dark red with blood and the chilling atmosphere brought about by the deathly gloom caused by the sudden loss of countless lives, Heian-kyo has now almost completely reproduced the appearance of a Japanese city from the Muromachi period.

　Although the city is now deserted.

　However, for Rin, who has always harbored a deep aversion to human civilization, the secluded and tranquil Heian-kyo was precisely the place that best suited her unique aesthetic tastes.

　Strolling through the once bustling market, now so quiet it seemed as if time itself had stood still, a complex, indescribable expression flickered in Sakura's pale purple eyes.

　Just two days ago, she had personally set foot here and experienced the vitality and energy contained in every inch of the land and every breath of air.

　At that time, this place was still a prosperous and thriving place, with shops lining the streets, bustling with traffic, and full of noise and excitement.

　But now, with the merciless slaughter of the undead legion, this place has become part of this desolate city, no longer the bustling and prosperous place it once was.

　On the contrary, Rin, who was floating beside Sakura in the form of a Herrscher core, was happily and lightly moving between the shops in the market.

　Although she has lost the body she inhabited, as the Herrscher of Corruption, she can still freely manipulate the power of [Corruption] to generate Corruption Mist, thereby flexibly moving her Herrscher Core.