To a protagonist like Chihaya Gunzou, Kiana Kaslana—as a transmigrator and natural antagonist—was fated to stand against him.
Even without a specialized "anti-protagonist" system rewarding her for killing him, she still made it her goal to eliminate Chihaya Gunzou.
He was an obstacle.
He had to die.
Kiana Kaslana had little interest in this world's human civilization. Her actions served only one purpose—to invade and ultimately claim this universe.
If, in the early stages of her invasion, Chihaya Gunzou managed to unite the Fleet of Fog and resist her advance, the mid and late stages would become troublesome.
That was why, when Chihaya Gunzou allied with Musashi's Fleet of Fog, Kiana's first thought was not to clash head-on with them—but to prioritize cleansing the planet's civilization, even if they seemed relatively harmless.
After years of reading novels and watching anime, she knew how this story would go.
Most likely, she and Musashi would fight to mutual destruction—only for humanity to swoop in at the end and reap the benefits.
Sit atop the mountain and watch the tigers fight.
Then take the spoils.
Not a chance.
If she lost the decisive battle against Musashi, then so be it.
It wasn't the end of the world.
Even if she didn't know the exact plot of this world, it didn't matter to Kiana Kaslana.
She wasn't some side character whose existence revolved around the male lead.
If the story didn't go her way, she'd simply flip the table.
Fleet girls, a harem, saving the world—
With just a general understanding, Kiana could more or less predict how the plot would unfold.
When reading novels or watching anime, she could still immerse herself in the role of the male lead.
But after actually transmigrating?
Unless she'd been reborn as the harem protagonist himself, all sense of immersion vanished instantly.
What would a transmigrator feel upon seeing a harem anime protagonist surrounded by beautiful girls?
...
After confirming Chihaya Gunzou's death multiple times, Kiana Kaslana still marked his status as "possibly deceased."
Kongou found this puzzling—after all, they had examined Chihaya Gunzou's body and ashes hundreds of times.
"Don't you think you're being a bit overly cautious?" Kongou asked, exasperated.
"You don't understand," Kiana replied. "Some people just don't die that easily. Even if they die, they might revive, reincarnate, or possess another body."
Generally speaking, protagonists were notoriously hard to kill.
The deceased Chihaya Gunzou might have been replaced by a decoy created from Yamato, Hyuuga, or Takao's nanomaterials and unknown black technology.
As long as there was even the slightest possibility, Kiana Kaslana would never officially confirm his death.
At the same time, she prepared a contingency plan—just in case Chihaya Gunzou returned from the dead.
"Whatever," Kongou sighed. "Do as you please."
She didn't care anymore. Whether Chihaya Gunzou lived or died was none of her concern.
After dealing with Chihaya Gunzou, Kiana Kaslana brought the Mental Models of Kongou, Kirishima, Haruna, Musashi, I-400, and I-402 into the Houkai Universe.
Their massive ship bodies consumed far too much Honkai energy to transport, and the instability of the dimensional channel posed a serious risk.
It would be far more efficient to rebuild their ships within the Houkai Universe using pure Honkai energy.
Having collected most of the Fog's technology, Kiana Kaslana developed a new idea.
Each time she opened a new world, immense amounts of Honkai energy were wasted through transfer loss and natural dissipation.
It wasn't that she feared waste—she simply hated the idea of wasting so much Honkai energy for nothing in return.
What if, instead of directly transferring raw Honkai energy, she opened a stable channel and converted it into nanomaterials on the other side—constructing machines capable of producing more nanomaterials?
Then, using quantum technology from within the Houkai Universe, she could remotely control those nanomaterials to create autonomous dolls, weapons, and equipment—thus minimizing meaningless energy loss.
After the Fog world, Kiana Kaslana had opened several other worlds. The energy losses in those universes were even more terrifying.
Tens of thousands—hundreds of thousands of Honkai energy units—reduced to mere scraps upon transfer.
How was she supposed to expand new worlds like that?
The early stages demanded massive expenditure, while the later returns were unstable.
Each time, she had to personally monitor the new world. One careless moment, and her early investments could vanish entirely.
By creating humanoid dolls from nanomaterials, she could transfer control of each doll to others, delegating tasks across worlds.
In the world of Hell Girl, the Academy City happened to contain a large number of students possessing Stigmata, all of whom required cultivation and training.
A complete Fourth Crisis Honkai Invasion System began to take shape within Kiana Kaslana's mind.
She started constructing a stellar-scale quantum computer within the Houkai Universe to serve as the central server.
The Valkyrie Simulation Training System from Honkai Impact 3rd served as a reference point.
After several rounds of revisions and improvements, she completed the Honkai Academy Otherworld Simulation Game: Honkai Fantasy, which then entered its internal testing phase.
...
In the world of Hell Girl, technology was advancing at a breathtaking pace—leaping from an ancient agrarian era to the modern electronic age in less than eight years.
Rapid progress came with lingering problems of the old world.
The greatest of these problems was undoubtedly education.
...
Academy City.
Honkai Academy.
The academy had fewer than a hundred students, most of whom had been carefully selected from schools across the world.
Based on comprehensive evaluations, these students generally possessed the potential to become pseudo-Herrschers—or even true Herrschers.
...
In a lakeside villa dormitory—
Kiana Kaslana woke up from her bed.
Beside her lay two girls with similar appearances—one with white hair streaked with blue, and the other with long black hair.
They were sisters from an exorcist family in the Far East. The elder was named Shiryo Tora Ryo, and the younger, Kuroka Tora Ryo—both born with innate spiritual power.
They had been brought back by Incarnation to serve as Kiana's personal attendants.
Because their family had arranged marriages for them, the sisters fled their home and joined the Church of Revelation, becoming nuns.
In this world, that was a common way for women to resist arranged marriages.
Once a woman became a nun of the Church of Revelation—
She was considered a servant of the Lord.
And in this world, who would dare steal from the Lord?
They'd be courting death.
In this world, from birth to death, all was governed by God.
Even those unafraid of death could have their souls cast into Hell for eternal punishment.
...
Kiana Kaslana sat up and rubbed her temples.
She climbed out of bed, opened the window, and took in a deep breath of the cold morning air—it instantly cleared her mind.
"What in the world has Incarnation been teaching them?"
At some point, the ritual for becoming a pseudo-Herrscher had changed.
Now it required an offering of oneself—to receive the approval of an angel.
As for what form that offering took...
Well, that depended on one's personal interpretation.
"Receiving approval" essentially meant one thing—
It was up to Kiana Kaslana whether or not to inject a large amount of Honkai energy into the other person's body.
There was never any real need for... ritualistic acts.
But when it came to Incarnation, during their first encounter, Kiana had emphasized ritual and aesthetics for the sake of fun.
And that, apparently, had led Incarnation to misunderstand something rather significant.