"You... who the hell are you?"
Homeless Emperor stared at Zuke with intense wariness.
He had no ability to sense combat power, so the moment 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, Homeless 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.
"Homeless Emperor, right?"
Zuke studied the man—he looked almost identical to his original counterpart, just an ordinary homeless man at first glance.
The biggest difference between Homeless 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?"
Homeless 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, Homeless Emperor's body immediately 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.
Homeless Emperor had been acting defiant just moments 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 something he wanted to do.
"Good. Better than I expected."
Seeing Homeless 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 members 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 members 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—"
Homeless 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 moment Zuke spoke, Homeless 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 me, huh?"
Zuke had noticed Homeless Emperor's movement—in fact, he'd been monitoring his energy the whole time.
He hadn't stopped him because he wanted to test whether a member of the "King's Army" could even attack their "King."
The result was as expected.
Even though Homeless Emperor's power came 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 moment malice entered the equation, the action was forcibly halted.
"Hey! You just tried to attack Zuke, didn't you!?"
Though Homeless Emperor's attack never manifested, Tatsumaki—having fought him earlier—instantly recognized the motion.
Frowning, she immediately pinned him to the ground with her telekinesis, rendering him immobile.
Even if she had her own grievances with Zuke, she wouldn't tolerate someone else trying to kill him.
"Enough. Let him go."
Seeing Homeless Emperor crushed pathetically under Tatsumaki's psychic grip, Zuke spoke up.
Truthfully, when Homeless Emperor tried to attack him, Zuke had considered just killing him outright.
But Homeless 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 Homeless Emperor walk free wasn't an option either—what if he ran away?
Fortunately, despite being a Dragon-level threat, Homeless 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 Homeless Emperor's ear.
Against someone with no enhanced physiology, "Black Bird: Lovers" was the easiest method of control.
---
Before long, Psykos finally regained consciousness from her earlier dazed state.
The moment 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 treatment.
"Tch."
Tatsumaki clicked her tongue in displeasure upon seeing Psykos' reaction.
Psykos heard it and glanced at her in confusion—for some reason, Tatsumaki's hostility toward her seemed even stronger now.
But she had bigger concerns. Compared to Tatsumaki, Zuke was the one who demanded caution.
"Awake? Good. Now work for me properly."
Seeing Psykos conscious, Zuke laid out his next orders.
"For now, halt the plans to attack the Hero Association. We'll resume after I've captured a certain someone."
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 members 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 some 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…