Denta thrust both hands forward, unleashing a sweeping wave of dark magic aimed directly at the joint task force as they exited Alicia's spatial portal. Commander Yarko stepped up to meet the assault, severing the incoming dark wave with a single arc of his spellsword.

Yarko's incandescent blade cut through the dark magic effortlessly. Bounding into the air, Denta unleashed a follow-up bombardment, driving a series of dark energy drills down toward the assembled cultivators. The martial artists scattered across the terrain, dodging the incoming projectiles.

Despite having expended a vast quantity of dark magic to deploy his spatial fog, Denta's reserves remained formidable as one of the Five Gates. Furthermore, his active Demon Transformation continuously provided his core with a steady stream of volatile aura.

Spotting a high-density drill veering directly toward her, Alicia braced her stance, using the tip of her spellsword to construct a localized defensive array. Intercepting the kinetic force of the drill, she redirected the blast harmlessly into an adjacent ridge. As secondary energy beams rained down, Alicia deflected each incoming strike with fluid sword strokes.

Nearby, the rest of the Sky Squad deployed personal aura barriers, absorbing the continuous barrage with practiced ease.

Meanwhile, Gayatri moved with high-speed stealth, positioning herself at a precise angle while maintaining a line of sight on Denta. Aligning both palms toward the hovering Gatekeeper, she focused her intent, preparing to lock his movements in place.

Her sensory perception confirmed that Denta's dark core was significantly depleted compared to the start of the battle. Maintaining the spatial fog array and dimensional boundaries had taken a heavy toll on his stamina. It was the ultimate window to suppress him.

CRACK!

The earth directly beneath Denta's hovering position fractured and bulged. Thick, luminous energy tendrils erupted from the ruptured soil like giant, writhing serpents, shooting upward with immense velocity.

BLAAAAAR!

Dozens of glowing tendrils—each as thick as an ancient tree trunk—shot into the sky. Formed of high-density light aura, the tendrils coiled tightly around Denta's limbs, torso, and wings, locking his frame in a tight energy lattice.

Denta thrashed violently, channeling dark magic into his scale-covered hands to shatter the bindings. Though he snapped several tendrils, fresh ones continuously sprouted from the earth, reinforcing the restraint. It was a high-tier support technique designed to isolate and immobilize high-yield targets.

As Denta labored to break the binding lattice, a massive energy construct materialized in each of the four cardinal directions: East, West, North, and South. Four human-sized energy constructs—forged of brilliant, incandescent light—flanked the Gatekeeper.

Reaching out simultaneously, the four energy constructs clamped their hands onto Denta's shoulders and limbs, locking him in a absolute pincer grip. Already struggling against the tendrils from below, Denta found himself immobilized in mid-air by the four light guardians.

Trapped in the aerial lattice, Denta thrashed in vain, unable to break free.

Standing on a ridge below, Gayatri channeled her total internal parameters into maintaining the high-tier suppression technique. Concentrating her mind, she sustained the continuous root lattice from the earth while simultaneously guiding the four glowing constructs holding Denta mid-air.

Controlling four independent energy constructs while sustaining a ground-tier binding array required absolute focus and immense internal capacity. Gayatri held the complex spellwork together through sheer willpower, demonstrating a level of elemental support mastery that left even veteran grandmasters awestruck.

Commander Yarko looked on in silent admiration, recognizing that her support capabilities had crossed into a realm that exceeded many senior grandmasters of the continent.

Even so, sustaining the high-density suppression against one of the Five Gates placed a monumental strain on Gayatri's vessel. Her frame trembled beneath the kinetic recoil as she locked cores with Denta—a clash between Denta's suffocating dark magic and Gayatri's radiant light aura.

"HAAAAA!"

Gayatri's eyes flared with incandescent light as she pushed her cultivation to its absolute ceiling. An ornate, eight-toothed orb mark ignited across her forehead—the visual mark confirming she had unsealed the peak layer of her internal circles to hold the Gatekeeper in place.

It was a breathtaking display of support mastery. Gayatri held the binding, praying her comrades would seize the critical window to eliminate the dark general.

With Denta locked in a high-density power struggle against Gayatri's binding lattice, the remaining Sky Squad members launched an all-out, synchronized combination assault. Channeling their highest-yield techniques, they surged forward with their respective armaments.

Commander Yarko seized the golden opportunity without hesitation. Surging into the sky, his spellsword radiated a blinding glare as he drew in atmospheric lightning to reinforce his internal core.

Raising his incandescent blade overhead, Yarko leaped to an extreme height, his sword projection piercing the clouds as he descended toward Denta like an absolute executioner.

It was time for judgment!

Trapped in the light lattice, Denta watched the incoming combination assault with blood-red eyes. Bound by Gayatri's high-tier support array, he found himself unable to deploy evasive maneuvers.

To survive the incoming blow, he had to unleash his final, taboo trump card.

Closing his eyes for a split second, Denta detonated his dark core, releasing an absolute shockwave of dark magic in all directions.

WOOOOOSH!

A catastrophic wave of dark energy expanded outward. The intense kinetic blast instantly shattered Gayatri's four light constructs and severed the ground tendrils binding his limbs.

The incoming Sky Squad members and Commander Yarko were caught in the wake of the dark shockwave. The force of the explosion shook the surrounding space as if the sky itself were fracturing, enveloping Denta in a dense, pitch-black shroud of volatile magic.

The kinetic wave repelled the advancing martial artists, forcing Commander Yarko and the Sky Squad to deploy emergency defensive barriers to absorb the shockwave. Their combination strike collided harmlessly against the dense dark shroud surrounding the Gatekeeper.

What was happening?!

"Full Demon Transformation!"

The dense dark clouds swirling around Denta expanded rapidly as his physical vessel mutated and swelled to monstrous proportions. The black smoke dissipated as an gigantic abomination broke through the shroud.

Every warrior present gasped in horror as Denta completed his ultimate Full Demon Transformation—pushing his demonic mutation to its absolute, irreversible ceiling.

It was his ultimate, most dangerous form.

As the dark fog cleared, Denta's fully mutated form stood revealed. His massive body was covered in thick, dark fur, backed by a pair of giant, leathery wings. Though his primary eyes appeared small, his entire torso, arms, and back were covered in hundreds of glowing, unblinking eyeballs.

From his lower limbs to his upper frame, unblinking eyes covered his skin as his massive wings beat against the air, spewing scalding black vapor with every breath. A pair of curved, razor-sharp tusks protruded from his jaws, extending past his skull.

Denta had surrendered his humanity entirely, fusing his vessel with pure demonic magic to become an absolute abomination of the abyss.

Worse still, dozens of thick, intestine-like tendrils—studded with unblinking eyes—erupted from his torso, writhing like living whips. Denta commanded complete control over these writhing tendrils, capable of morphing their tips into organic weaponry at will.

"I will slaughter every last one of you!" a rasping, monstrous voice bellowed from Denta's cavernous jaws. His mutated frame towered over the forest, easily surpassing the height of the tallest ancient trees.

The tendrils extending from his torso morphed into massive, scale-covered arms, slamming down upon the positions occupied by the Sky Squad. The operatives scattered across the terrain, executing high-speed evasive maneuvers as Commander Yarko dodged a heavy sweeping strike.

CRACK! BOOOOOOM!

The tentacle-like limbs lashed out in all directions like an unhinged kraken. Commander Yarko evaded a tree-trunk-sized tendril as it smashed into the soil beside him. Maintaining high mobility, Yarko executed swift counter-slashes, severing several tendrils with his spellsword.

However, the severed tendrils regenerated almost instantaneously, fresh organic tissue sprouting from the stumps to replace the lost limbs. Wrapped in high-density dark magic, the writhing tendrils pulverized everything in their path as the joint task force struggled to hold their ground.

Searching for a flaw in the abomination's defense, the martial artists coordinated their offensive. Commander Yarko extended his spellsword with aura, executing a wide sweeping slash that severed dozens of tendrils across Denta's torso. Seizing the opening, Gayatri materialized a massive light spear—as thick as a tree trunk—and launched a high-velocity projectile barrage that pierced through Denta's mutated chest, leaving gaping holes in his frame.

Aji stepped onto the front line, enveloping his vessel in a dense aura shield as he surged forward. Using his wooden staff to parry incoming tendrils, he closed the distance in a fraction of a second. Shifting his staff to his left hand, Aji condensed his internal core into his right fist, delivering a full-yield strike directly into Denta's massive torso. The force of the impact rattled the abomination's frame, sending the giant monster staggering backward.

BOOOOOOM!

Aji's heavy strike forced Denta back several steps. The Sky Squad immediately followed up: Alicia unleashed a series of crescent sword projections from a distance, targeting the gaping wounds across Denta's staggering frame. The joint combination assault struck Denta simultaneously, triggering a chain reaction of explosive detonations across his mutated body.

BLAAAAAR! BOOOOOOM!

Dense plumes of smoke billowed as Denta crashed onto the scorched earth, the force of his fall shaking the ground. As the smoke cleared, however, Denta pulled himself back up. The dozens of writhing tendrils extending from his body morphed into various organic armaments—broadswords, spears, and barbed scythes forged directly from his mutated flesh.

Enraged, Denta surged forward, swinging his weaponized tendrils in a violent, multi-directional frenzy to cleave the martial artists to pieces.

With a hardened body, high-speed regeneration, and the ability to sprout organic weaponry from any point on his frame, Denta had transformed into a living slaughterhouse.

The unblinking eyes dotting his tendrils granted him absolute 360-degree vision, allowing him to strike at every nearby cultivator with terrifying precision.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The martial artists focused entirely on evasive maneuvers and high-density defensive barriers, coordinating their counter-strikes with absolute precision. Their two months of rigorous conditioning allowed them to draw upon atmospheric mana seamlessly, keeping their core reserves perfectly stable despite the intense pace of the duel.

Now, they needed to isolate a critical vulnerability and unleash an absolute, high-yield finisher to destroy Gatekeeper Denta once and for all.