"—Grow!"
At Selene's command, the crater created by the Eurasian Sky Disaster was covered in solid violet-crimson Honkai crystals.
The folded mountains and compacted land, hammered into shape by the shockwave, began to tremble violently.
The earth split apart inch by inch. From the dense web of cracks, thick Honkai energy surged forth on its own, a violet-crimson luminous torrent shooting straight into the sky, dyeing the heavens a terrifying blood-red.
Hum—hum—!
With the Eurasian continent as the center, the concentration of Honkai energy in the atmosphere continued to rise.
The Astartes warriors and Imperial Auxilia officers standing around Selene felt every cell in their bodies moan in pleasure.
The sensation was like returning home, relaxing and blissful.
The Astartes power armor and the lighter armor worn by human-sized soldiers—crafted from a mixture of orichalcum and Honkai crystals—resonated with the Honkai energy in the air. The various patterns engraved upon the heavy outer plating responded in kind.
The golden double-headed eagle relief on their chests, along with U-shapes, olive branches, blades, shields, skulls, and countless other emblems, shimmered under the violet-crimson glow of Honkai energy, flickering between brightness and shadow.
The energy absorption devices hidden within their power armor backpacks were quietly drawing in the high-density Honkai energy from the air, converting it into stored power.
Through the personal tactical terminals inside their helmets, the Astartes quickly noticed that the energy expended during combat was being replenished at astonishing speed.
There was no doubt that Honkai energy was lethal poison to ordinary humans.
Without protection, infection by Honkai energy would lead most people to a single outcome—becoming the walking dead. Only a rare few, those with unyielding will and great fortune, could endure and evolve.
But clearly, the Astartes warriors, the Imperial Auxilia, and even the citizens of the Empire's core worlds and the earlier-conquered planets did not fall into that category.
For them, Honkai energy was like the scent of their homeland.
Some Astartes even removed their helmets and took deep breaths of the Honkai-laden air.
With Selene overseeing everything from above, and under her modifications and deliberate control, the uncontrolled mutations of Honkai energy within the Empire had always developed in a beneficial direction.
For more than a decade, Selene had continuously calibrated the balance between Honkai energy and civil development, strengthening the Empire's people subtly and imperceptibly.
Do not assume that a mere decade is too short to change anything. It depends on what you compare it to.
Ten years ago, communication devices were mostly flip phones and landlines. Yet after a decade, smartphones with touchscreens had flooded every aspect of daily life.
People suddenly realized that without noticing when it happened, they had become unable to live without their phones. When had they started reaching for them the moment they woke up?
How many years had that gradual influence taken? A few years? A few months?
Humans—or any intelligent species—once accustomed to convenience, find it exceedingly difficult to return to the past.
In a sense, Selene's method was a replica of that process.
Now, for the people of the Empire, obedience to Empress Selene's rule, the expeditions of the Astartes Legions, the "adorable" Honkai Beasts, Honkai energy as a source of power, alien slaves from conquered worlds...
All of it had become utterly ordinary, as commonplace as eating and drinking. If any of those things were to vanish, they would instead feel uneasy and out of place.
If one day, someone were to run up to the citizens of the Empire and declare that they should not obey the Empress, that "kings and nobles are not born ordained," that all life must be cherished, that "freedom, equality, and human rights" should reign, that Honkai Beasts were evil and Honkai itself the incarnation of destruction...
Without first reshaping customs and altering people's ingrained ways of thinking, no major internal crisis would erupt within the Empire. Believe it—there would never be a scenario where a single raised banner would gather followers like clouds.
The "rumormonger" would be treated as a traitor and arrested immediately. Even without official forces stepping in, civilians would suppress such sparks outright if the instigator lacked sufficient strength, trading their head for bounty money.
"Hm?" Selene suddenly recalled that there were still a few natives present—people who had never been nurtured by Honkai energy.
Even though Selene controlled the Honkai energy generated by the planet to prevent malignant mutations, such dense concentrations would undoubtedly be unbearable for them.
Turning to look, she saw that Westcott and Ellen had collapsed to the ground, their bodies trembling as they clutched their chests and gasped for breath, as though trapped in a sauna. Beads of sweat poured ceaselessly down their exposed skin.
As for Elliot and Karen of the Ratatoskr organization, they were not so fortunate. The arrest led by Legion Commander Roboute was no gentle affair.
Severely injured from the outset and then subjected to high-density Honkai energy, Elliot and Karen had already fallen silent.
They were probably not dead yet. "Hmm, squeezing tools dry—cough, the Empire's construction still requires your contributions. You mustn't die."
With a casual motion, Selene drew a circle, isolating the space they occupied, then nodded in satisfaction and returned to her task.
"A new shoot sprouted from the earth."
Hum—hum—!
Screech—!!
The entire land began to quake violently. Twisted patterns, accompanied by flowing brilliance, engraved themselves across the surface.
The once rough and desolate terrain was transformed in an instant, becoming smooth and metallic in texture.
As the fissures widened further, a tender "branch" pierced through the soil.
Then, in the blink of an eye, everyone's vision was blocked by a towering "wall of trees" glowing with violet-crimson light.
"Is this still the Kabbalah Ritual?"
Westcott and Ellen stared blankly at the ever-rising "Kabbalah," unable to speak for a moment.
"No. Now it should be called the Simulation · Imaginary Tree."
Crack—crack—!
As Selene's words fell, the earth seemed to wail. Heavy, muffled impacts resounded throughout heaven and earth.
"That is... has even space been shattered?!" If the Kabbalah Ritual could achieve such an effect with a few modifications, how did I not know?
Westcott watched as the dense branches pierced through the atmosphere, shifting between illusion and reality, shattering space itself and exposing the distorted Neighboring Realm. The sight was overwhelmingly shocking.
In the past, once a Spirit escaped back to the Neighboring Realm, humanity was utterly helpless. Yet now, merely the aftershock of the tree's growth had pierced it open.
Then something even more astonishing occurred. Beneath their feet, the dense Honkai crystals were being rapidly absorbed by the tree. The dust from shattered crystals rose into a monstrous mist tens of thousands of meters high.
Centered upon the growing Simulation · Imaginary Tree, the tranquil waters filling the crater left by the Eurasian Sky Disaster began to surge, churning violently as they rushed toward it.
The violet-crimson "dense mist" in the sky followed the same fate. In the end, not far from the tree, it formed a vortex that pierced straight into the heavens.
Visible to the naked eye, everything violet-crimson within the crater's range was rapidly absorbed.
Rumble—!
Lightning flashed and thunder roared. The earth shook and mountains trembled. At this moment, every living being on the planet felt it more clearly than ever, because the very world they stood upon was violently swaying.
At the center of the Eurasian continent, it was as though the apocalypse had arrived. Beneath Selene's feet, the ground had already been replaced by massive roots.
The surging, colossal roots carried terrifying impact waves as they expanded outward. Everything in their path was destroyed—animals on the plains were swallowed, trees snapped and were uprooted, mountains flattened...
All along the way, everything was annihilated by that overwhelming force.
After a long while, the Simulation · Imaginary Tree finally ceased its growth.
What entered Selene's sight was a "World Tree" that had surpassed the stratosphere and reached into the mesosphere, standing more than fifty thousand meters tall. Its trunk was so vast that no one knew how many people would be required to encircle it.
Its immense canopy covered more than five hundred thousand square kilometers. The reach of its roots was so extensive that they had already burrowed deep into the planet's mantle.
Then, countless Honkai energy particle bubbles—materialized into tangible form—appeared throughout the surrounding region, merging with Selene's domain below to create a vast violet sea that seemed to connect heaven and earth.
Across the firmament were refracted images of the Honkai Dimension's mountains and rivers, as well as star maps of conquered worlds. Brilliant radiance poured forth from them automatically.
Thump!
Thump-thump!
Thump-thump-thump!
...
As the Simulation · Imaginary Tree pulsed like the beating heart of the planet, all humans born in this world felt the passage of time, their bodily sensations, and even their soul-consciousness sink into a hollow void devoid of perception.
The surrounding space-time itself seemed to collapse in an instant.
"This world had something like this?"
Standing seven steps behind Selene, Legion Commander Roboute of the Astartes Thirteenth Legion, the Ultramarines, stared upward in shock.
With just a modification to the Kabbalah Ritual combined with Honkai, it could achieve such an effect?!
The colossal scale of the Simulation · Imaginary Tree was beyond comprehension. It truly resembled the mythological World Tree. What magnitude of Honkai energy supply was required to produce such a terrifying result?
Raising her gaze toward the canopy high above the clouds, Selene willed it—and in an instant, she and the Imperial forces standing around her vanished.
Whoosh!
They reappeared atop the trunk of the Simulation · Imaginary Tree within the mesosphere. Selene gazed into the distance. Beneath her feet lay the human world, and above her head stretched the vastness of cosmic space. No matter how many times she saw it, her heart felt boundlessly open.
Here, leaves as large as ceremonial canopies were no exaggeration—they were an understatement.
The entire First Company of the Ultramarines, the Victrix Guard, brought by Roboute, stood upon a single branch of the Simulation · Imaginary Tree without feeling the slightest crowding.
"Your Majesty, this Simulation · Imaginary Tree seems to be feeding back into us..." Roboute said excitedly from behind her.
Upon reaching the trunk, the increasingly surging vitality emanating from the Simulation · Imaginary Tree allowed Roboute to clearly sense the Honkai energy flowing within his flesh, bones, organs, and blood marrow slowly increasing.
"Correct. As a replica of 'the laws governing the cosmos, the mysteries of the life cycle, the place where all essence and origin are formed,' even as an imitation with a scale of only one, its effects are not to be underestimated."
This world would be completely transformed by Honkai energy. The dense Honkai substance influenced the growth of all life. Whether human, plant, animal, or even mineral, all were subtly benefiting to varying degrees.
In other words, this world would be an excellent recruitment world. Not only could it supply Imperial Auxilia, it could even provide reinforcements for the Astartes themselves.
A world integrating recruitment, forging, resources, and energy into one was something no Astartes Legion could afford to ignore.
Selene stepped to the very center of the Simulation · Imaginary Tree's uppermost trunk and placed her hand against its seemingly rough yet incomparably radiant surface, giving a slight nod.
She paused in faint surprise. She was certain this was her first time touching it, yet the existence composing the Simulation · Imaginary Tree gave her an indescribable sense of familiarity.
The Simulation · Imaginary Tree resembled a vast bubble, formed from tens of billions of smaller bubbles clustered together.
These bubble-like existences seemed to represent the humans of this world. Each bubble represented one person—constantly forming, shattering, reforming, and shattering again, cycling endlessly.
Selene could not help but laugh softly. "Truly low-tier. You, this imitation, can only represent the humans of this world. But the bubbles born and extinguished upon the true Imaginary Tree represent entire worlds."
Tremble... tremble... tremble...
A faint vibration traveled through her fingertips. Like a child acting spoiled, though perhaps it was only imagination, the Simulation · Imaginary Tree seemed to understand her meaning, protesting playfully to its creator—its 'mother.'
"All right, all right. I won't say more. You've only just been born."
Gently stroking its trunk, Selene lifted her head with anticipation in her eyes.
"This is merely a simulated construct rooted in a single world... The true Imaginary Tree rooted in the Sea of Quanta... how magnificent must that be?"
"Um, Your Majesty... about this..."
Within the thin air of the mesosphere, Roboute exhaled white mist. His thickly crafted power-armored fingers intertwined as he spoke somewhat nervously.
"That's enough. As an Astartes Legion Commander, don't be so hesitant. Speak." Selene looked at him with amusement, already having guessed his thoughts.
"Your Majesty, then... does this world belong to our Thirteenth Legion... or will it be reclaimed under direct central authority?" Roboute asked cautiously.
"Do I look like someone who goes back on her word? Like the sort of monarch who squeezes her subjects dry without reward?" Selene scolded with a smile.
"Uh... probably not..."
"Hmm? Then perhaps I should reclaim it under direct central—"
"No! Your Majesty! You are magnanimous, brilliant in strategy, discerning in talent, radiant in beauty, benevolent and harmonious, loving your people as your own—"
Instinctively snapping to attention, Roboute placed a hand over his chest and declared solemnly.
"Mm-hm. I accept your praise." Smiling cheerfully, Selene stepped forward as Roboute promptly dropped to one knee.
Clang, clang, clang!
Tapping on Roboute's gorget, Selene suddenly asked, "Roboute, would you be interested in making this world the capital world of the Thirteenth Legion?"
"Ah?!"