The tendrils sprouting from Denta's mutated torso coalesced into a solid wall of overlapping dark shields. Multi-layered dark magic absorbed the kinetic brunt of Alicia's spellwork, yet the sheer, divine yield of her rainbow arc shattered through his outer guard, tearing into his flesh beneath.

Though Denta blocked the initial strike, the sheer kinetic shockwave breached his defensive parameter, inflicting excruciating internal trauma across his vessel. Gritting his teeth against the agony, the Gatekeeper mobilized his remaining reserves to keep his shield intact.

The sheer volume of damage threatened to tear his body apart. Alicia pushed her output to its absolute ceiling, driving him back step by step.

"HAAAAA!"

Unable to sustain the pressure, Denta made a desperate gamble: he detonated his internal core to shatter his own mutated body, intending to dissolve into mist and reassemble his vessel away from her range while launching a counter-strike.

BOOOOOOM!

Denta's giant frame erupted into countless black fragments, scattering like ash caught in a storm. The sudden blast occurred just as Commander Yarko, Gayatri, and the others closed in to exploit the opening.

The scattered black particles—resembling fragments of volcanic slag—flew toward the far edge of the clearing. At the center of the cloud hovered a massive, beating black heart surrounded by a dense aura barrier.

The floating heart—as large as an adult war-elephant—acted as a gravitational focal point, drawing the surrounding fragments inward to reconstruct Denta's vessel.

The scattered particles condensed around the beating heart, rapidly reforming thirty percent of his mutated body. Recognizing that Denta was attempting to evade their assault through cellular reassembly, Gayatri stepped forward without hesitation.

Focusing her intent, Gayatri materialized twelve high-density energy constructs—humanoid light guardians that plunged toward the partially reassembled Gatekeeper.

Wielding incandescent broadswords, the twelve light constructs rained down slashes upon the reconstructing frame. Their high-frequency aura blades shattered the reattaching particles, delaying Denta's cellular assembly and scattering the fragments once more.

Trapped in a cycle of destruction and reassembly, Denta felt panic take root. He concentrated his dark core to accelerate the reconstruction, yet Gayatri's constructs continuously severed the connective tissue, inflicting relentless agony upon his exposed core.

Alicia seized the moment. With the trident crest glowing brilliantly upon her brow, she leveled her spellsword, weaving a roaring vortex of wind around the blade. Leaping into the air, she surged toward the reforming mass.

Holding her sword in a double-handed grip, Alicia unleashed a whirlwind slash that slammed directly into Denta's incomplete body. The kinetic shockwave scattered his reassembling particles once again, detonating the outer dark shroud.

Exposed amidst the dissipating cloud lay Denta's massive heart, pulsing with a volatile mixture of pitch-black and deep crimson light.

Commander Yarko seized the critical opening. Drawing upon decades of martial mastery, he combined high-tier spellsword techniques with the extreme velocity of Ganada's Ghost Speed—a technique he had refined after observing Aji's movements.

Yarko vanished from sight, blurring into a streak of light aimed directly at Denta's exposed heart.

His velocity caught the surrounding martial artists off guard, bypassing Gayatri and Alicia in a split second as he streaked forward shrouded in a lethal aura barrier.

"HAAAAA!"

His dark core fully depleted, Denta looked up only to see Commander Yarko already penetrating his core boundary. In a fraction of a second, Yarko's spellsword pierced the beating black heart.

CRACK!

Yarko's blade destroyed Denta's core, causing the massive heart to detonate into a cloud of corrupted black blood.

Yarko landed cleanly on the far side of the clearing, executing a high-speed thrust that carried him through the blast radius. Behind him, Denta's remaining particles melted into black sludge, dissolving into harmless vapor as they touched the soil.

Sheathing his blade with a soft click, Commander Yarko regulated his breathing, restoring his internal rhythm. It was over. The dark aura that had suffocated the sector evaporated completely, leaving no trace behind.

Alicia touched down softly, sheathing her spellsword. She let out a long breath, knowing their battle in this sector had concluded. Now, their priority shifted to guiding the surviving cultivators out of the Tulisma Forest safely.

Her hellish conditioning, the celestial essence of the Heart Dragon, and her grandfather Yonan's legacy had borne fruit. Feeling a wave of fatigue, Alicia began regulating her internal core to stabilize her pathways.

The trident crest on her forehead faded. Releasing such a high-yield spellwork had consumed a significant volume of her reserves, even with atmospheric mana assisting her output.

It had been an exhausting clash, yet defeating one of the legendary Five Gates made every drop of effort worthwhile. Alicia had never imagined she would live to face—let alone destroy—a Gatekeeper of the dark army.

Her cultivation had crossed into a new realm. When this war against Shura concluded, Alicia hoped to return home to her mother, restoring her family's honor and standing in the martial world.

Above all, she wished to make Saint Yonan proud, continuing his noble struggle from below.

Nearby, Gayatri dissipated her twelve energy constructs, regulating her internal pathways as her core normalized. The joint effort had paid off, ending Denta's threat for good.

A tear slipped down Gayatri's cheek—a quiet tear of relief. She had taken her first major step toward avenging her parents, who had been murdered by dark cultists years ago.

Their souls could finally rest in peace. With one of the Five Gates destroyed, only Lord Demon Shura remained as the ultimate objective.

Her journey was far from over. Alongside her elder brother Lao, she would fight until every root of the dark army was purged from the world.

The remaining Sky Squad members gathered around Gayatri and Alicia, their expressions relieved. They had secured a monumental victory, saving hundreds of trapped cultivators while destroying a dark general together.

Commander Yarko offered them a warm, proud smile, acknowledging the sheer resolve displayed by the young vanguard.

Aji stepped forward, joining the group with a quiet smile. Standing nearby, Gayatri observed him thoughtfully. Throughout the entire clash against Denta's final form, Aji had held his internal aura in check, watching the Sky Squad fight without intervening.

She realized he was making a deliberate choice.

After his initial duel with Denta, Aji had intentionally stepped back. Gayatri deduced that Aji wanted them to face the Five Gates on their own—confident that their growth was sufficient to achieve victory without his intervention.

What is he preparing for? What final decision has he made for this war?

Gayatri felt certain Aji was harboring a deeper secret—one that would be revealed when Lord Demon Shura finally stepped onto the battlefield. Her intuitive instincts were rarely wrong.

She resolved to keep a close eye on him. Questions lingered in her mind: Was he truly the direct disciple of the Three Legends, or did he carry an entirely independent mandate he preferred to keep hidden?

Meanwhile, inside the subterranean sanctuary...

A tall figure clad in a dark, crimson-trimmed cloak raised his right hand before his face. Opening his palm, he felt two dark aura threads snap and vanish into nonexistence.

It was Shura. He had just felt the complete erasure of Denta and Zagar's life signatures—joining Gultron, whose dark core had been extinguished earlier. With two more Gatekeepers fallen, a massive collision of parameters had clearly transpired inside the Tulisma Forest.

A cruel, unbothered smirk touched Shura's lips. He felt no grief over the deaths of his top generals. The Five Gates had believed themselves indispensable to his campaign, taking pride in their standing at his side.

In truth, Shura cared nothing for them. Whether the Five Gates lived or died was of no consequence to him. Everything was mere entertainment, and Shura cared for no living entity beyond himself.

His absolute objective was the total annihilation of all human life across the five continents, followed by the creation of a new world forged by his own divine power—a realm where no one could defy his mandate, populated entirely by subservient thralls.

Shura turned his gaze toward the two figures standing in the gloom—vessels reconstructed from residual soul fragments he had preserved. Animated by his dark magic, their cores remained bound directly to his will.

It was an exquisite sensation: absolute obedience without a single trace of defiance. The deaths of the Five Gates were merely stepping stones toward placing the entire world within his grasp.

"My grand design approaches completion! Bwahahaha!"

The Demon Lord's thunderous laughter echoed off the cavern walls. Before him, the two reconstructed entities stood with heads bowed, awaiting his command.

They were the very masters who had thwarted so many of his plans in the past. Deploying them against the orthodox alliance would strike absolute terror into the hearts of the righteous sects—a prospect that filled Shura with dark delight.

The time had come to dismantle the world!