The Twelfth Eruption, Grand Entrance

After discussions with Su and the others, the final decision was made: construct three exceptionally large, fortress-style mega-city clusters.

The remaining hundreds of millions of humans would be relocated into these cities.

This was, without a doubt, a monumental undertaking. It would be impossible to complete without the unified effort of everyone.

Therefore, in this current era of shattered order and despair, it was an impossible task – or it would have been.

However, the surviving humans were incredibly proactive.

Upon hearing that their efforts were contributing to the fight against the Honkai, even children barely taller than an adult's leg would proudly carry a brick, adding their small part to the fortress's construction.

The shift from extreme despair to this proactive drive was separated by only a single speech.

The speech given by Lee was broadcast by Su using the Fire Moth' remaining communication systems to all of humanity's current territories.

Though it contained nothing particularly special, no rousing rhetoric or inspiring performance, everyone who heard the broadcast felt the same emotion stirring within them – humanity still had hope.

As long as they persevered, they could definitely defeat the Honkai!

Humanity will never give up; humanity will surely conquer the Honkai!!

"Kalpas isn't just efficient at demolishing bases," Aponia commented, her gaze distant. "He's also much faster than others when working as a construction worker."

At the construction site on the periphery of the Fire Moth' first fortress, Aponia and Lee observed Kalpas in the distance.

He swiftly placed materials that would normally require heavy excavators, single-handedly completing the workload for the entire area.

Letting Kalpas work as a laborer was a bold idea.

However, Lee believed that rather than letting Kalpas sulk alone in his room every day, it was better to have him out doing something.

Taking him to exterminate Honkai beast herds was an option, of course.

But considering Kalpas's fighting style, sending him on missions near human settlements might cause more destruction than the Honkai beasts themselves.

And engaging in combat far away wouldn't have much meaning for humanity at this point.

So, Lee assigned Kalpas to the construction site. After all, there was a critical shortage of manpower everywhere, and Kalpas's manpower was clearly abundant.

However, to prevent this warrior, whose temper was far from good, from causing trouble, he always had to be accompanied by either Aponia or Lee to ensure the smooth progress of construction.

And today, it just so happened that both Lee and Aponia were available, a rare occurrence.

"The plans and blueprints provided by Mei and Vill-V offer impregnable defenses, both internal and external," Aponia murmured, quietly gazing at the massive wall, which was already taking shape.

"If a Herrscher appears inside, it won't be able to escape easily. If it appears outside, it won't be able to break in quickly..."

Under Lee's terrifying 'mobilization' ability, this project, which should have taken years, had rapidly developed a framework.

"It's also equipped with a city-wide monitoring system that will immediately sound an alarm if a Herrscher appears. A truly outstanding work."

"Yeah, after all, they're both geniuses," Lee nodded in agreement.

"But if an incident truly occurs within the city, while it can trap the Herrscher, the people in this city will have nowhere to escape," Aponia lowered her eyes, her voice laced with concern.

" They can only be hunted down, like prey in a net."

"Lee, each of these three cities will eventually house over a hundred million people."

Aponia slowly looked at Lee, her eyes filled with unmistakable melancholy. "The destruction of each city would be a disaster filled with cries and tragedy... Can you truly bear the weight of so many lives?"

"...If only it didn't have to come to that."

Lee didn't answer Aponia's question directly. She simply gazed silently at Kalpas below.

"Thank you for helping me with the previous speech."

"I once thought about imprinting a precept on everyone in the Fire Moth, a precept to never give up hope in fighting the Honkai..." Aponia confessed. "But what you did was far more impressive."

Aponia couldn't help but admire Lee's initiative.

Even with the Core of the Herrscher of Sentience, Lee chose to simultaneously alter the thoughts of the entire remaining human population.

The Herrscher of Sentience used words as a medium for memetic contamination to influence humans, while Lee used her own voice to modify the consciousness of those who heard her speech – she instilled in everyone a psychological suggestion to never give up on resisting the Honkai.

But influencing the minds of hundreds of millions of people simultaneously was something that even the previous Eighth Herrscher had never done, let alone Lee, who was just an artificial Herrscher.

Without Aponia's timely assistance, the mental strain from overuse of her abilities would likely have caused unimaginable harm to Lee.

"I don't want to do this..." Lee slightly lowered her head, her voice soft. "But everything is always unavoidable."

"Unavoidable, is it?" Aponia sighed, a hint of sadness in her tone.

Lee should have had many other, freer options...

If only Lee could be a little more selfish, how wonderful would that be?

"...It's almost time. I need to go check on the situation at Fortress Two. I'll leave Kalpas to you."

Watching Lee leave with a smile, Aponia could only feel regret.

Why could her ability only show her fragments of destiny?

If she could see the entire future, she could surely help Lee resolve many of her troubles.

Unfortunately, things never go as one wishes. The limits of human ability always fall short of their goals.

Herself, Kalpas below...

Humanity's last fortresses were taking shape, and Lee's plan was progressing smoothly day by day.

It wasn't assisting Mei with the Stigmata Project, nor helping Vill-V transform the Fifth Divine Key from a weapon into something like a life-saving capsule, nor even sparring with Kevin and Elysia to increase her strength.

It was about raising affection levels!

All the seeds that Lee could plant and nurture had been sown. Now, it was just a matter of waiting for them to sprout.

But before that – her grand plan to harvest energy still had three targets left to conquer!

Sakura, Rin, and Eden!

Although through accumulated affection and interaction, Lee's affection level with Eden had reached level ten, it wasn't nearly enough – her affection level was ten because that was the maximum, not because it could only display ten.

This meant that the energy Eden could provide when she 'dropped gold' was significantly less than other sheep whose affection had exploded.

This made Lee's heart ache.

But she couldn't find a particularly good opportunity for the time being, so Lee could only temporarily put this rich woman aside.

Therefore, during this period, she had been wholeheartedly focusing on increasing the affection of the Sakura-Rin sisters—more precisely, Rin's affection.

After all, as long as her relationship with Rin was good enough, Sakura would naturally come closer.

Unfortunately, perhaps due to a lack of opportunities, Rin's affection had stopped at level eight and wouldn't budge.

However, unlike Eden, Lee knew that she definitely had a highly effective method to rapidly increase Rin's affection – and today, that opportunity had finally arrived.

To accommodate Lee's overly sensitive hearing, her room didn't have an alarm bell. Instead, it had a quiet and instantly displayable holographic image.

And looking at the words "Herrscher appearance" scrolling before her eyes, and then looking out at the calm city outside the window...

Lee understood.

It was time for the renowned Herrscher of Corruption to make her grand entrance.