Of course, the principle behind firearms was simply using explosions to generate kinetic energy that propelled bullets toward a target.
As long as a substitute for gunpowder could be found—something that could explode or generate kinetic force—it was still possible to create guns.
"Is this an update?"
After absorbing the nanomaterial, Aisha saw a panel appear before her—an update window with a progress bar.
The bar jumped from one percent to seven, then fifty, and finally to one hundred.
Update complete! The interface flickered, and a new icon appeared.
Aisha tapped it, revealing a Magic Skill Tree.
First Tier: Magic Arrow, Invisibility, Cleanse, Water Creation, Tier-1 Dead Summoning, Tier-1 Monster Summoning, Direction Sense.
Second Tier: Silence, Shockwave, Minor Healing, Tier-2 Angel Summoning, Temperature Control, Acid Bolt, Group Direction Sense, Low-level Strength Enhancement, Low-level Agility Enhancement.
Third Tier: Thunder Strike, Fireball, Lightning Orb, Dimensional Shift, Flight, Tier-3 Dead Creation, Tier-3 Angel Summoning, Tier-3 Beast Summoning, Slow, Hot Spring, Ice Orb, One-Sided Duel, Acceleration, Sunlight, Holy Light.
Everything beyond the Fourth Tier remained pitch-black and unselectable.
Kiana Kaslana, who had long studied spiritual power, found through analysis that magic had a direct and strong correlation with the soul.
That didn't mean those without souls couldn't use magic.
For instance, magical tools—soulless objects—could still activate spells.
Some required the user's own mana, while others functioned independently.
The magic skill tree she designed operated on a similar principle to how magic devices released spells.
A nanomaterial body could itself act as an artifact engraved with magic circles, runes, and incantations.
Due to the immaturity of the technology, for now, each magic skill could only be unlocked individually—and each consumed Honkai energy.
As part of her experiment, Kiana Kaslana had granted only one Honkai Energy Crystal to each Honkai squad leader.
She didn't even give one to herself.
First, Second, and Third Tier spells could each be unlocked once.
Originally, the First Tier contained many trivial spells, but she omitted the useless ones from the tree—things like Minor Mental Defense or Anti-Evil Protection.
Their bodies were no different from soulless puppets—what need had they for mental defenses?
"What are you looking at?"
Mushoku Kika retracted her sniper rifle and noticed Aisha staring intently at something, curiosity in her eyes.
Aisha didn't respond; her full attention was on the screen before her.
After scanning through the First Tier spell descriptions, she decided to try one.
Selecting Water Creation, a strange energy surged within her.
She lifted her hand—and a sphere of water materialized out of thin air, hovering above her palm.
"So many magic skills," Mushoku Kika murmured, coming over. Seeing the magic tree on Aisha's panel, she opened her own interface—but found nothing similar.
"Kiana, do you have this magic system on your panel?"
"Nope," Kiana Kaslana shook her head.
"What's going on?"
Mushoku Kika opened the squad chat.
"Does anyone else have this?"
She sent a screenshot.
A reply came quickly.
"Our captains have it. Lady Sirin said it's an early test version, distributed only to ten squad leaders. We'll get access later."
"Captain privilege."
...
Satisfied with the answer, Mushoku Kika closed the chat.
"What now? Do we keep attacking cities, or stay around this one for a while?"
"Let's see what the others do first."
Aisha wanted to develop quietly, but given how other Honkai squads behaved, that was nearly impossible.
With their first batch of nanomaterial, they could already create weapons and equipment powerful enough to crush ninety-nine percent of this world's humans.
However, in this multi-race world, humans were among the weakest species.
Hundreds of years ago—before the Six Great Gods and the Eight Greed Kings—humans could only serve as slaves and food for the stronger races.
Opening the world map, Aisha examined it carefully.
The Re-Estize Kingdom was located in the mid-western region of the continent's northwest corner—surrounded by mountains on three sides and the sea on two, a naturally defensible position.
To the east lay the Baharuth Empire, to the south the Slane Theocracy, and to the north the Argland Council State—forming a geographical triangle of three nations encircling it.
"This place…"
Aisha's gaze fell upon a city marked on the map—E-Rantel, located in the kingdom's eastern region, not far from the southern edge of the Great Forest of Tob.
It was a vital strategic point at the border between the kingdom, empire, and theocracy—serving as the frontline in the kingdom-empire wars.
Nearby lay the Katz Plains, where undead were known to appear frequently.
She had a feeling that place would soon become very lively.
"Iron Maiden… it's her again."
According to the map, the city had already been taken over by Iron Maiden's Honkai squad.
Aisha's eyes deepened in thought.
When it came to work enthusiasm, Iron Maiden was well-known as the most relentless of all—the "queen of overachievers."
E-Rantel's location was of major military importance to both the kingdom and the empire—but for beings like them, who could fly freely and ignore terrain, such things meant little.
Iron Maiden must be planning something by occupying that fortress city.
Whatever.
That had nothing to do with her.
Time passed quietly.
During that time, Kiana Kaslana collected a vast amount of intelligence from all the Honkai squads.
The empire and the kingdom had taken different approaches toward the players.
The empire sought to recruit these suddenly-appearing powerhouses to work for them.
After one Honkai squad caused massive destruction in the imperial capital—resulting in heavy casualties but ultimately repelling the empire's army—the emperor realized their terrifying might.
Thus, the Sixth Emperor of Bahas had no desire to make enemies of them.
However, most Honkai squads couldn't be bothered to even entertain negotiations.
If they wanted to discuss terms, they needed strength—and by now, the squads had already gauged this world's military capabilities.
Aside from a handful of individually powerful beings, the average kingdom and empire forces were weaker than the modern armies of the zombie world.
They had no leverage to bargain with.
The kingdom, hoping to reclaim its lost cities and destroy the Honkai squads, sent an army of fifty thousand to subjugate them.
But that force was mostly made up of conscripted militia—their combat effectiveness was laughable.
While this world's humans were indeed stronger than those of other worlds, ordinary militiamen were still limited.
The fifty-thousand-strong royal army was utterly annihilated by Iron Maiden's Honkai squad—more than half were killed or crippled.
And realizing there were still forty-two such powerful squads remaining…
The kingdom completely lost its nerve.
...
Outpost base.
After analyzing the world's magic, Kiana Kaslana attempted to merge Honkai energy into mana, corrupting and contaminating the magical system.
By distorting reality itself, she altered the outpost's surrounding area, transforming it into a special zone.
This zone could create something from nothing—continuously generating Honkai energy and automatically producing zombies and Honkai Beasts.
Much like how the undead were formed.
Those automatically generated zombies and Honkai Beasts had an average strength equivalent to level 30 in this world's system.
"As expected of a magic world… even the source of Honkai energy here makes no sense to me."
In a scientific world, there was a law of conservation of energy, but here, energy simply appeared from nothing.
Even the lowest-class undead skeletons could move indefinitely as long as they weren't destroyed.
Kiana Kaslana couldn't understand it, but through the analysis and calculations of her astral quantum computer, she learned how to use her Honkai energy to corrode and reshape this world's magic.
The zombies and Honkai Beasts generated each day were packaged and evenly distributed among ten Honkai squads.
Each Honkai squad could receive fifty Vigiles, ten Seraph-class Honkai Beasts, and one Knight-class Honkai Beast per week.
Vigiles were level 30, Seraph-class Honkai Beasts level 35, and Knight-class Honkai Beasts level 40.
A five-member Honkai squad could easily conquer an entire city, but without obedient subordinates to manage things, it was difficult for them to maintain control.
Conquering a city was easy; managing it was troublesome.
Kiana Kaslana, being by Aisha's side, understood this well.
Most of the ten cities captured by the Honkai squads had turned into lawless metropolises.
Crimes occurred constantly.
The main issue causing such chaos was the lack of capable personnel.
They had to handle and supervise everything personally—the workload was infuriating.
In the world of Ai Enma, there were plenty of people to work, and government positions required exams, assisted by artificial intelligence for oversight—far more efficient.
With the addition of zombies and Honkai Beasts, along with the astral quantum computer managing them, most monster attacks and urban crimes were swiftly handled.
Each Honkai squad then established new laws and abolished slavery.
Those who disobeyed were simply executed.
Some problems might be difficult to solve, but eliminating the ones who raised them was easy.
As for so-called public opinion—irrelevant.
"The people's support" and "those who win hearts win the world"—those were ideas for mortal rulers of ordinary worlds.
For transcendents, overwhelming strength decided everything. If one couldn't achieve that, it simply meant they weren't strong enough.
The Bone King had not yet arrived, but Kiana Kaslana planned to unify this world first.
When he did appear, she intended to give him quite the surprise.
...
E-Rantel.
Grand Guesthouse.
Located in the city center, it was the most magnificent building in the capital—once opened only for the king or guests of equal standing.
Now, it served as the residence of the Iron Maiden Honkai Squad.
Iron Maiden lazily lay sprawled across the bed. "This world really is fascinating—filled with magic users everywhere, and even skeletons that can move after death."
She glanced toward the elegant, white-haired, red-eyed noblewoman sitting on the sofa, sipping tea. "Sylpheria, if I remember correctly—you're a ghost, right?"
"Why do you ask?"
Sylpheria frowned. She was born with powerful spiritual energy, but after being branded a witch and taking her own life, she became a ghost.
"No reason. I'm just curious how the ghosts from our world differ from this world's undead."
"I don't know."
"Actually, I find you quite fascinating."
"Don't go prying into others' business."
"We're not strangers. What's wrong with getting to know each other better?"
Iron Maiden rested her cheek on her hand. Sylpheria, with her white hair, reminded her of her beloved Lady Kiana.
"I heard you have a daughter—mind introducing me?"
She actually had two daughters, though both were adopted.
"That's none of your concern."
Sylpheria clearly didn't want to continue that topic.
"Alright then! Fine, back to business. The kingdom here is a mess—no understanding of basic magic, contemptuous of magical power, and plagued by internal strife."
"With our current strength, taking down the entire kingdom would be easy."
"But for us, a mortal nation holds little value."
To Iron Maiden, this kingdom was no different from the decaying feudal nations of the old mortal era in her original world.
She had long lost interest in such mundane realms.
"Your real target is the other races."
"Pretty much."
Iron Maiden smiled faintly.
The elves in the Great Forest of Evasha at the northwestern edge of the continent were what truly intrigued her.
Humans, elves, dwarves, and similar races were collectively known as the humanoid races in this world, while those with forms greatly differing from humans were called demi-humans, and beings like the undead or slimes were categorized as heteromorphs.
"I'm heading out for a bit."
Iron Maiden rolled off the bed and left the room.
As she strolled through the streets, she contemplated her next move.
She noticed the way people looked at her—with reverence and fear.
A Seraph-class Honkai Beast patrol soared overhead.
While walking, Iron Maiden spotted a familiar figure approaching.
"Kiana, you're here."
"Aisha, didn't Mushoku Kika come with you?"
The two had arranged to travel together through the Theocracy toward the Great Forest of Evasha.
"She's not interested in elves."
Kiana Kaslana shrugged.
"Perfect then. The two of us will go together."
Iron Maiden smiled, looking forward to the journey ahead.
The two constructed their own flight devices and ascended into the sky, heading toward the Great Forest of Evasha.
They soon reached the border of the Slane Theocracy—a nation that exalted humanity above all else, rejecting all non-human races.
Currently, it was at war with the elven kingdom.
"Kiana, do you think people of this country would see us as humanoids or heteromorphs?"
"Not sure," Kiana Kaslana replied casually. "But judging by their standards, we'd probably be lumped in with the heteromorphs."
"Then let's show them how strong heteromorphs can be." A playful smirk curved Iron Maiden's lips.
The Slane Theocracy was far stronger than the kingdom or empire.
As the two crossed its skies, they were intercepted by a swarm of summoned angels.
"Should we fly higher or cut through them?" Kiana asked.
"Cut through them."
A black scythe appeared in Iron Maiden's hand as she darted forward, diving into the group of battle angels.
Those low-grade summoned angels were mowed down like autumn leaves under her black blade.