"You... who the hell are you?"
Holess Emperor stared at Zuke with intense wariness.
He had no ability to sense combat power, so the mont he saw Zuke, his first instinct was to consider attacking him and making a run for it.
But with Tatsumaki glaring at him from behind, Holess Emperor didn't dare act recklessly—he already knew he was no match for her.
His frail body was his greatest weakness. If Tatsumaki had wanted him dead earlier, a single telekinetic squeeze would've turned him into paste.
"Holess Emperor, right?"
Zuke studied the man—he looked almost identical to his original counterpart, just an ordinary holess man at first glance.
The biggest difference between Holess Emperor and a typical drifter was his confidence, but after getting beaten down by Tatsumaki, that arrogance was gone from his face.
Now, he really did seem no different from any other vagrant.
But Zuke didn't care. He slowly issued a command:
"Kneel first."
"What?"
Holess Emperor froze, staring at Zuke in confusion.
But soon, horror dawned on him as he realized—his body was moving on its own.
Under Zuke and Tatsumaki's watchful eyes, Holess Emperor's body imdiately dropped to its knees, obeying the order the instant it was given.
In fact, his "What?" only escaped his lips after his knees had already hit the ground.
"Huh?"
Even Tatsumaki, who had been watching from behind, was stunned.
Holess Emperor had been acting defiant just monts ago, yet with a single word from Zuke, he dropped to his knees without hesitation.
And she could clearly see the lingering terror on his face—this wasn't sothing he wanted to do.
"Good. Better than I expected."
Seeing Holess Emperor kneel without the slightest resistance, Zuke nodded in satisfaction.
As expected, once the Monster Association was absorbed into the "King's Army," all its mbers were forcibly bound to recognize him as their "King."
And if he was the "King," then his commands were absolute. None of the Monster Association's mbers could defy his orders.
The "King's Army" ability, obtained through "Black Bird's" assimilation, was now completely different from Iskandar's original Noble Phantasm.
"You... what did you do?! Why can't I—"
Holess Emperor tried to lift his legs, but they remained glued to the floor, completely unresponsive.
Clearly, unless Zuke permitted it, he had no hope of moving them by his own will.
"Stand up."
Sure enough, the mont Zuke spoke, Holess Emperor shot upright—nearly toppling backward from the sudden motion.
But then, driven by fear and defiance, he instinctively raised a hand to attack Zuke.
Yet when he pointed at him, he found he couldn't summon his "Divine Power"—no terrifying energy spheres materialized.
He couldn't take any hostile action against Zuke at all!
"Seems you can't attack , huh?"
Zuke had noticed Holess Emperor's movent—in fact, he'd been monitoring his energy the whole ti.
He hadn't stopped him because he wanted to test whether a mber of the "King's Army" could even attack their "King."
The result was as expected.
Even though Holess Emperor's power ca entirely from the "God" and not himself, he still couldn't activate his so-called "Divine Power."
If it were just combat training, there'd be no issue—but the mont malice entered the equation, the action was forcibly halted.
"Hey! You just tried to attack Zuke, didn't you!?"
Though Holess Emperor's attack never manifested, Tatsumaki—having fought him earlier—instantly recognized the motion.
Frowning, she imdiately pinned him to the ground with her telekinesis, rendering him immobile.
Even if she had her own grievances with Zuke, she wouldn't tolerate soone else trying to kill him.
"Enough. Let him go."
Seeing Holess Emperor crushed pathetically under Tatsumaki's psychic grip, Zuke spoke up.
Truthfully, when Holess Emperor tried to attack him, Zuke had considered just killing him outright.
But Holess Emperor was the only person in the early stages with a direct connection to the "God."
If he died now, what if Zuke lost his chance to encounter the "God" later?
Garou's awakening into "Cosmic Terror Mode" relied entirely on the "God's" influence.
The Boros mission was already a lost cause—he couldn't afford to fail the Garou mission too.
But letting Holess Emperor walk free wasn't an option either—what if he ran away?
Fortunately, despite being a Dragon-level threat, Holess Emperor's body was no different from a normal human's.
That made things simple.
Zuke raised a hand, and a small raven—split off from "Black Bird Requiem"—flew from his fingertip, straight into Holess Emperor's ear.
Against soone with no enhanced physiology, "Black Bird: Lovers" was the easiest thod of control.
---
Before long, Psykos finally regained consciousness from her earlier dazed state.
The mont she woke up and saw Zuke and Tatsumaki standing before her, she instinctively shrank back.
Zuke's earlier "discipline" had been too much—even with her psychic abilities, she couldn't endure that inhuman treatnt.
"Tch."
Tatsumaki clicked her tongue in displeasure upon seeing Psykos' reaction.
Psykos heard it and glanced at her in confusion—for so reason, Tatsumaki's hostility toward her seed even stronger now.
But she had bigger concerns. Compared to Tatsumaki, Zuke was the one who demanded caution.
"Awake? Good. Now work for properly."
Seeing Psykos conscious, Zuke laid out his next orders.
"For now, halt the plans to attack the Hero Association. We'll resu after I've captured a certain soone."
After all, the Hero Association would soon fall under Zuke's control too—he had no interest in watching his own factions weaken each other.
They'd be better off helping him track down Garou sooner.
"But... if we stop attacking the Hero Association, the Monster Association's mbers will grow discontent. Most of them will likely quit."
Psykos hesitated—strangely, she felt she couldn't disobey Zuke's command.
But as the mastermind behind the Monster Association, she still voiced her concerns.
While so monsters had joined for shelter, those were mostly weaklings.
The truly powerful ones had signed up purely out of hatred for the Hero Association.
If they stopped their assault, those monsters would probably leave.
"Quit?"
Zuke smirked coldly—what a joke.
Now that they were part of the "King's Army," did they really think they could just walk away?
To be continued…
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