All the world's governmental affairs were piled onto Kallen's shoulders.
With constant accumulation of experience, she could grasp the general situation of many matters at a glance.
Handling affairs became increasingly smooth.
Before she even realized it,
Kallen began to radiate a powerful presence from the inside out—one that inspired admiration, reverence, even worship.
This was the real reason Kiana Kaslana had brought her to this world.
The previous Kallen had possessed no aura at all, giving others the impression of being harmless to both humans and animals.
After being tempered in a world filled with mysterious powers, she quickly developed the bearing of someone in a high position—a powerhouse, a leader.
Ordinary humans, once corroded by power, would soon lose themselves. They would begin to believe they were chosen by destiny, that they were extraordinary, and that everyone else ought to obey them.
Kiana Kaslana had gone through such a chuunibyou phase before—but she graduated from it quickly.
Kallen's personality, however, was not so easily changed.
She traveled across the world, working day and night to handle state affairs.
Striving so that ordinary people could live better lives.
She had little personal desire of her own and labored without complaint.
Aside from not being particularly clever and being unfamiliar with handling many complex matters, she was practically born to be a tireless workhorse.
Not knowing how to handle something was easy to fix—just create an artificial intelligence.
Because she frequently appeared before the public and worked on their behalf, Kallen's fame and prestige rose day by day.
Three years later.
One night, Kallen was reviewing annual reports from the governors of each continent on a glowing screen when a dark shadow suddenly flashed past.
Calmly, Kallen shut off the light screen and stood up. A group of assassins dressed in black with demon masks emerged from the shadows before her.
"Who sent you this time?"
"Hmph. You meddle in too many affairs. Today is the day you die."
The assassins drew their weapons and lunged forward.
A shield around Kallen blocked the chaotic barrage of attacks. Though she had long been busy with political matters and rarely fought, her strength was enough to crush every lifeform in this world.
Aside from Kiana Kaslana, she was invincible here.
Assassination attempts like this had happened more than a hundred times already.
Hearing the disturbance, the Imperial Guards quickly arrived. Seeing their failure, the assassins all committed suicide.
"Investigate who sent them."
Watching the scene without a ripple in her heart, Kallen spoke to a guard clad in golden power armor.
"Yes."
The guard, holding a power axe, stood at attention and saluted.
After giving the order, Kallen turned and left.
In truth, there was no need to investigate.
Asking the artificial intelligence would immediately reveal the culprit.
But after serving as planetary ruler for three years, she had learned how to employ people.
Even if there was nothing urgent, subordinates needed tasks. Otherwise, they would start creating trouble of their own.
With her personal strength, she did not need the Imperial Guards for protection. But if every random assassin required her to personally act, once or twice was tolerable. Repeated endlessly, it became irritating.
Like flies.
The Imperial Guards existed precisely to block such annoying flies.
Kallen walked into the courtyard, stopped, and looked up at the starry sky.
From personally handling everything, to now delegating matters to officials below her, her workload had finally begun to decrease significantly.
She now had daily moments of rest.
At that moment, Kiana Kaslana's communication screen popped up, her face appearing upon it.
"Another assassination just now? Are you alright?"
Kiana Kaslana had always kept an eye on Kallen.
"I'm fine. After experiencing it so many times, you get used to it." Kallen shrugged casually.
"Try wiping out nine generations a few times. It reduces the number of flies."
"I'll pass."
Kallen shook her head. She knew her kindness made some people think she was easy to bully.
Two years earlier, when she implemented an AI reform plan to reclaim and redistribute all land, chaos erupted below.
Rebellions broke out everywhere. People killed, looted, burned grain stores. Demons stirred up natural disasters. All kinds of rumors spread.
The largest rumor claimed that she had killed Kiana Kaslana and seized control of the world.
As a result, many rallied under the banner of rebelling for the sake of the Divine Sovereign.
Quite a few commoners actually believed it.
They joined the rebellion.
In the end, it was Kiana Kaslana who stepped in and suppressed everything through force.
From that moment, Kallen offended many and became the target of resentment.
As for why they did not target Kiana Kaslana directly—it was because provoking that one meant nine generations would disappear entirely.
Assassinating Kallen only meant execution for the masterminds if caught.
Between annihilating nine generations and bearing personal responsibility, they could clearly tell which was lighter and which was heavier.
"Your purity as an emperor is still lacking," Kiana Kaslana laughed.
"I was never an emperor to begin with. Nor did I want to be one," Kallen replied speechlessly.
"Do you know why so many humans dream of becoming emperor?"
"Why?"
"They want it for themselves. You're doing it for others. You don't even know how to enjoy the position."
"I think this is fine." Kallen let out a soft sigh.
"I've finished researching time travel in this world."
"Really?"
Kallen's eyes lit up. The reason they had stayed in this world was because it contained many time-related elements—the Bone-Eater's Well, the Windmill of Time, temporal spells, time barriers, and the Tree of Ages.
"Can time travel be used in our world?"
"Probably not. Time travel here originates from the Tree of Ages. Our world never had one."
"I see..."
"I've recorded this world's coordinates. We can move on to the next world."
"By the way, we can mobilize the personnel from this world. It'll make ruling the next one faster and easier."
"You mean that every time we reach a new world, we conquer it?"
"Of course. Otherwise, what's the point of our grand expedition across the myriad worlds?"
Kallen fell silent for a moment before speaking slowly. "Wouldn't that be going too far?"
Kiana Kaslana seemed unconcerned. "Do you think what I want is just a tiny human world?"
"No?"
"How shallow. What I want to conquer is their universe—the entire cosmos. Countless galaxies, countless civilizations. I'm merely using their world as a springboard to enter the universe."
A ripple stirred in Kallen's heart.
So this was the true purpose of ruling a world.
She had only seen this single world.
Kiana Kaslana saw the stars and the sea beyond them.
Compared to the vast universe, a single planet was smaller than dust.
While she had been fixated on one planet and one civilization,
Kiana had already set her sights on the cosmos.
If only Otto had never ruined this child...
Kallen had observed parallel worlds and knew that Sirin could still be guided by Cecilia.
But the Kiana Kaslana of her world—the resurrected, awakened Herrscher of Finality who had destroyed human civilization and surpassed her in every aspect of power and intellect—she was far less certain about.
So far, Kallen only knew that the Kiana of her world, like her parallel counterpart, liked women.
The difference was that in the parallel worlds, Kiana Kaslana only had eyes for Raiden Mei.
The one here simply liked beautiful, clean girls.
Thinking of Kiana's indulgent state in Dreamlike Castle made Kallen's head ache.
Giving herself to her would likely change nothing.
The Kiana of this world was clearly a special variant.
Stronger in every way than her parallel selves—desires included.
"By the way, have you gone out to see the universe beyond our Honkai world?" Kallen asked curiously.
She believed Kiana absolutely had the ability to leave the solar system.
Yet for hundreds of years, she had remained within it, only venturing out after developing the world-travel device.
Surely building a spaceship and leaving the solar system would have been simpler than researching interdimensional traversal.
"Did I ever tell you what lies beyond our universe?"
"What lies there?"
"Aeons. Powerful existences born under the unique rules of our universe. It's different from other worlds. If I leave the solar system, those Aeons will notice me. I'll send you the data. Read it yourself."
Kiana transmitted the information.
"Other universes may also have entities like the Aeons—or even stronger ones."
"If you encounter such beings, avoid them if you can. Normally, they wouldn't care about ants. But we're a bit special. You understand."
"So we let the people of other worlds go ahead and scout for us first."
"Mm."
Kallen nodded.
She could understand Kiana's reasoning. Even if she did not fully approve of every method, rationally speaking, this approach avoided unnecessary risk.
With this world as their foundation, conquering future worlds would proceed much faster.
In the second world—the Resident Evil world—
Astartes in power armor of various colors had already been deployed years earlier, cleansing zombies and obliterating Umbrella's bases.
While conquering other worlds, Kiana Kaslana's stargate construction fleet ventured into space, building gates and outposts near life-bearing or terraformable planets.
The entire empire expanded as though fitted with rocket boosters.
Mass-produced Astartes and knight mechs were sent into other worlds and onto other planets to wage wars of conquest.
Kallen wanted to charge to the front lines as she once had against the Honkai.
But she was no longer that reckless youth.
If she died and Kiana chose not to revive her, what would happen to human civilization in the Honkai world?
She did not fear death.
She feared dying meaninglessly—and causing harm in the process.
Ever since leaving the Honkai world, Kiana Kaslana had begun to truly let herself go.
Arrogant, independent, acting without restraint, and an all-capable Herrscher of Finality.
If no one kept an eye on her, Kallen dared not imagine what she might do.
Kallen's words did not always carry weight—but at least she could still communicate and persuade her.
Most people, Kiana did not even bother listening to.
Beautiful girls were the exception.
A distinctive trait of the Honkai world.
Girls liking girls.
Kallen herself was no different.
Though Kiana listened to beautiful girls, encountering someone like Kaguya—a dangerously charming woman—was its own problem.
...
Technology World.
Under Raiden Mei's persuasion, all nations voluntarily joined the Anti-Magic Alliance.
They had no choice.
Opposing the magical world openly meant at least knowing how you would die.
Opposing the Massive Electric Agency, which secretly controlled the world, meant not even knowing that.
Moreover, joining the Anti-Magic Alliance allowed them to purchase the agency's advanced weaponry.
Why refuse?
The so-called world's leading superpower was nothing before the Massive Electric Agency.
Anti-Entropy's tactical mech series and Schicksal's Divine Machine series, with resources and cooperation from various nations, were mass-produced and sold globally.
Sold, yes—but ultimate control authority remained in Raiden Mei's hands.
Other nations only had usage rights.
Just like drone and missile manufacturers who left backdoors in their exports.
The upper echelons knew this perfectly well. They only wanted to study the technology and see if they could reverse-engineer anything.
Tokyo—the frontline conflict zone against the other world—had been sold to the Massive Electric Agency after the Bone Dragon incident in exchange for Titan mechs.
The other world had gone from a fragrant cake to a burning hot potato.
If not for fierce international opposition to destroying the Gate, some countries would have asked the agency to blow it up entirely.
After the Bone Dragon incident, the Far East government had tried to destroy the Gate.
They failed.
As time passed, the multinational forces stationed in the other world were besieged by large numbers of modified sub-dragons and various summoned creatures, suffering heavy casualties.
Itami and his companions were pursued all the way to the imperial capital.
Inside the palace, the once overwhelming modern army was being hunted by the goddess's minions.
Pina gained a deeper understanding of that goddess.
Even the powerful armies from Itami's world were no match.
"You can rest here. Don't wander. As long as you put down your guns and do nothing, they won't attack you," Pina told the bandaged Itami and the others lying in bed.
"We won't bring trouble to you, will we?" Itami asked anxiously.
"No. I won't have trouble," Pina replied with a faint smile.
"I still have matters to attend to."
"Understood."
After leaving the room, Pina hesitated over whether to inform the goddess.
Harboring them might implicate the entire empire.
That goddess was no benevolent deity.
After a moment's hesitation, she activated the magical mark and contacted Satou Matsuzaka.
"Lady Goddess, I have several soldiers from the other world here."
"Ordinary soldiers? Handle them yourself."
"Understood."
The next day,
Itami and his companions were imprisoned.
Pina neither executed them—nor set them free.