Here is the English translation for Chapter 157, formatted with clean syntax, polished grammar, and an engaging narrative style tailored for Western fantasy readers, keeping Barsha's identity consistent as a female squad leader:

157. Alicia's Suspicion and Jealousy

Sure enough, the gathered martial artists began packing their belongings, preparing to set out. The time had come to enter Samarkan and make for the central teleportation arrays to return to the city of Prisma. Commander Dasatama, in particular, needed to convene urgently with the continental advisors to discuss the high-density conflict that had transpired inside the forest.

The threat of Lord Demon Shura would soon shake all five continents to their core. A global war, delayed for twenty years, was on the precipice of erupting. Dasatama also remembered Aji's warning—the enigmatic youth had explicitly stated that the dark army's invasion was imminent.

Aji and Gayatri rejoined the Sky Squad, merging into the formation. Unbeknownst to them, as they stepped away from the riverbank, Alicia had been leaning against a nearby tree trunk, overhearing their entire conversation.

Every word had carried clearly to her ears. Joining her fellow vanguard members, Alicia found herself lost in deep thought. She recalled the strange mental weight that had forced her consciousness to drift off moments before the Moon Flower vanished.

Possessing exceptional spellcasting parameters and a high-density mana barrier, Alicia had managed to retain a faint thread of awareness during the event, resisting the mental suppression. In those fleeting moments, she had felt a colossal burst of aura detonate, obliterating the celestial artifact with absolute kinetic force.

The energetic signature was identical to the anomalies she had sensed inside Domai during the initiation trials, as well as during the skirmish at the Golden Crane Academy's blacksmith quarters.

It was the exact same signature. Alicia harbored a growing suspicion that Aji was the architect behind all three events. Yet she lacked concrete proof, and it felt surreal that a young man could command parameters usually associated with grandmasters who had cultivated for decades without pause.

Still, if his claim held true—that he was the sole disciple of the Three Legends, including her own grandfather, Saint Yonan—it was not entirely impossible. Even so, purifying the Heart Dragon and channeling its celestial essence into the Sky Squad was a sacrifice capable of tearing a cultivator's soul to shreds.

Aji remained an absolute enigma. He had personally handed her the ancestral scroll belonging to her grandfather—a document containing Saint Yonan's ultimate, unsealed techniques. How had the youth come into possession of an inheritance meant specifically for her? Was it definitive proof that he truly served as the disciple to her grandfather and the other two legends?

Alicia hoped that she would eventually uncover Aji's true identity. Regardless of his secrets, he had made monumental contributions to the righteous cause. Furthermore, his recent response to Gayatri—that she wouldn't believe him if he claimed to have destroyed the artifact—lingered in her mind.

Did he truly obliterate the Moon Flower with his own hands? While Commander Dasatama's parameters were legendary, destroying a celestial artifact required an unfathomable volume of aura, supreme mental fortitude, and the ability to endure agonizing spiritual backlash.

Celestial artifacts stored immense, volatile energy and resisted physical destruction. Overcoming such an entity required an output greater than the artifact itself. Alicia held deep respect for Dasatama's strength, yet she found it difficult to believe the alliance leader possessed the specific parameters required to erase a celestial artifact from existence.

It remained an unresolved mystery. What troubled her further was the obvious closeness between Aji and Gayatri. Was there something deeper between them? Gayatri had consistently been the closest to Aji among the vanguard. Did they share a special bond?

A sudden pang caught Alicia off guard as she contemplated their dynamic. Was this lingering discomfort... jealousy?

Shaking her head, Alicia forcefully dismissed the thought. She refused to dwell on such petty feelings, even as she admitted to herself that seeing Aji in close quarters with Gayatri irked her slightly. Enough! Refusing to let her mind wander further, she quickened her pace to fall into step with the rest of the unit as they marched toward Samarkan.

The true fate of the Moon Flower remained a secret beyond the comprehension of the martial world—known only to two men, Dasatama and Aji, who held the truth between them.

Dasatama would honor the secret, keeping his word to the youth who had requested his discretion.

Meanwhile, on the Emerald continent...

Hidden far from human civilization, sealed behind an expansive barrier of dark magic, lay a forbidden territory. The realm existed as a pocket space, severed completely from the physical world.

Entry was impossible without the explicit permission of Draudo, Warlord among the 10 Annihilation Demons. Beneath his absolute command stood a standing legion of dark operatives.

Draudo had just received the mobilization directive transmitted by Nesia. Lord Demon Shura had completed his synthesis with the Blood Supreme, and the hour had arrived for the dark army to subjugate the mortal realm.

Draudo viewed the invasion as his prime opportunity to step into the spotlight, eager to demonstrate his refined parameters to his fellow Annihilation Demons. For twenty years, he had systematically built his core reserves by harvesting the souls of orthodox cultivators captured by his patrolling scouts.

Unsolved disappearances of high-tier martial artists had plagued the Emerald continent for decades—the handiwork of Draudo's raiding parties, who dragged their captives back to the sanctuary to feed his dark rituals. Through these sacrifices, Draudo had brought his dark magic to absolute perfection.

As he prepared to assemble his sub-commands, a sudden ripple disturbed the dark barrier surrounding his stronghold.

Draudo's eyes narrowed. An intruder commanding high-density aura had just breached his spatial boundary. Who dares? To bypass my barrier so casually...

Blurring forward, Draudo flashed toward the perimeter array. Standing at the threshold was a tall figure, a pair of mechanical, serrated buzz-saws mounted upon his wrists, spinning continuously like roaring engines.

It was Rukio—another of the 10 Annihilation Demons operating covertly on the Emerald continent. Rukio was widely regarded as the most enigmatic warlord among the ten. Though he commanded a vast force, his legion consisted not of ordinary dark cultists, but of summoned undead constructs.

None dared underestimate Rukio's combat efficiency. While the other Annihilation Demons led legions of living dark cultists, Rukio's dark skeleton horde rivaled any standing army in absolute lethality.

Even Shura held Rukio in high regard. Rukio operated as a lone wolf, yet when deployed in open war, he could summon an endless legion of armored skeletal dreadnoughts animated by high-density dark magic.

"Why have you breached my barrier, Rukio?" Draudo grumbled, disinclined to indulge in pleasantries. He needed to organize his hundred-thousand-strong legion and rendezvous with Shura without delay.

"Still as impatient as ever, Draudo," Rukio remarked with a sinister smirk, crossing his arms. The serrated saws on his wrists clicked together, spinning in tandem as dark magic trailed their rotation. "That is the burden of commanding a living army—you waste so much time managing them."

Rukio's jab struck a nerve. Draudo felt insulted by the insinuation that managing his standing army of a hundred thousand dark cultists was an inefficient burden. Yet he could not deny Rukio's point: Rukio required no logistics or recruitment, capable of summoning an army of dark skeletons instantly.

Rukio personally executed every high-tier cultivator he encountered, using his specialized dark magic to reanimate their corpses as skeletal thralls, swelling the ranks of his undead legion.

It was a grotesque, unique discipline among the 10 Annihilation Demons. Each warlord possessed distinct specializations, yet Rukio's mastery over death and reanimation made him particularly horrifying.

"State your purpose, Rukio! I have no time for mind games!" Draudo demanded, his patience wearing thin.

Rukio's smirk faded, his expression turning cold and serious. "Have you received Nesia's transmission?"

The brief question matched the mobilization sequence Draudo had just processed.

"I assume every Annihilation Demon has received the directive from Lord Shura," Draudo replied, resting his broadsword over his shoulder. The weapon radiated a volatile, sentient pressure—an ego blade. It was the sole sentient weapon among the armaments wielded by the 10 Annihilation Demons.

An ego blade possessed its own living consciousness. Draudo's sword was infamous among the dark generals as a parasitic entity that fed continuously to enhance its sharp edge.

The blade hungered insatiably for fresh human blood and high-tier metal. Consuming enemy weapons served as a sharpener to refine its edge, while draining human blood amplified the dark magic coating the steel.

"Indeed, all ten of us have received the order," Rukio said, his gaze locking onto Draudo. "However... I have detected that four of the Five Gates are already dead."

Draudo froze in shock. Every member of the 10 Annihilation Demons knew Rukio possessed extraordinary sensory perception. If Rukio claimed that four Gatekeepers had been eliminated, who could possibly have slain them?

"Who killed them?!" Draudo asked, a dark suspicion taking root. Had they committed an error, prompting Shura to purge them for a higher purpose? That seemed unlikely.

"They were destroyed by immense, non-dark aura," Rukio explained gravely. "Our enemies command parameters far beyond our initial estimates. It appears the martial alliance spent the last twenty years preparing for our invasion!"

Rukio's warning sank in. His sensory domain had confirmed that the Gatekeepers had fallen to orthodox cultivators, not internal purges. He had come to caution Draudo against arrogance, warning him not to assume the dark army held an absolute advantage.

"Exercise caution, Draudo. The alliance forces are no longer the fractured greenhorns of twenty years ago. Their combat parameters have elevated exponentially."

It was rare for Rukio to offer a serious warning. Having been close companions since their early conditioning, Rukio usually mocked Draudo's methods, making this grave caution all the more alarming.

Has the martial alliance truly built such strength?

Draudo remained unbothered. He had spent the last two decades subjecting his vessel to severe dark conditioning. Rukio might assume he had been idling, but he would soon witness Draudo's refined parameters firsthand.

Smiling, Draudo offered a nod of gratitude for Rukio's warning before turning to assemble his dark legion.

The final war was at hand!