On the Orpris continent, two supreme warlords among the 10 Annihilation Demons gathered inside a secluded war room. They were Hexos and Zero. Carrying his signature double-headed greataxe, the massive, towering Hexos stepped forward to greet Zero.

Zero wore a dark, trailing cloak shaped like a flight mantle over his light armor. His weapon of choice was a long iron staff tipped with a razor-sharp trident. Zero specialized in manipulating dark magic, capable of molding his energy into terrifying, beast-like spectral constructs.

The source of Zero's incredible parameters lay in dark artifacts. He possessed a unique constitution that allowed him to devour and assimilate both artifacts and high-tier medicinal herbs directly into his core. His ability to digest raw, unrefined energy into pure dark magic left the other Annihilation Demons speechless.

Zero was the sole warlord among the ten who possessed total immunity to the volatile backlash of unrefined high-tier herbs and artifacts. Though he had primarily consumed standard artifacts and intermediate herbs over the years, the resulting power boost was immense.

Ordinarily, consuming raw, unneutralized intermediate herbs would trigger severe core backlash, if not outright internal destruction. Yet Zero absorbed these volatile substances effortlessly.

Consequently, his dark output was terrifyingly dense, as he bypassed the need for tedious purification rituals.

Hexos, by contrast, was the ultimate defensive juggernaut. His massive vessel could absorb high-yield kinetic and magical blows without buckling. In fact, among the 10 Annihilation Demons, none had ever managed to withstand a direct strike from Lord Demon Shura—save for Hexos, who had survived a testing strike, albeit sustaining minor injuries.

Hexos's physical resilience far exceeded the defensive limits of his fellow warlords, allowing him to act as an impenetrable vanguard shield. His sole vulnerability lay in his offensive output, which was notably lower than that of his fellow Annihilation Demons.

"Are you prepared, Zero?" Hexos asked, his deep voice reverberating off the stone walls.

"Always, Hexos," Zero replied with a cold smirk. "I have waited twenty long years for this."

The two had convened immediately upon receiving Nesia's high-priority directive. The order instructed them to assemble their standing legions and await deployment. They were to enter a massive spatial gateway and mobilize as a consolidated force.

The primary target of their initial invasion remained known to Shura alone. The 10 Annihilation Demons simply readied their forces; once the spatial portals opened, their massive legions would march through, launching a global war that would shatter the world.

Having aligned their strategies, the two warlords summoned their sub-commanders to organize their respective divisions. Bidding each other farewell, they set off to muster their troops, preparing to converge the moment the spatial gateway opened.

Meanwhile, on the Frost Line continent...

A sleek, agile woman clad in a form-fitting dark bodysuit maneuvered through a subterranean training hall. Her sleek suit highlighted her lithe frame, allowing for silent, fluid movement. She had once reigned as a legendary assassin across the five continents.

No warrior in the dark army was unfamiliar with the fastest operative among the 10 Annihilation Demons: Metri. Her movements were so blazingly fast that the naked eye failed to track her Afterimages. Scholars believed her absolute velocity rivaled that of Saint Ganada in his prime, sitting a mere step below the legendary assassin saint.

Metri sat atop a stone ledge, casually spinning a pair of dual trisulas in her hands. Suddenly, her communication bracer ignited with a dark glow—an incoming high-priority transmission from Shura's chief counselor, Nesia.

Rising fluidly, Metri channeled a thread of dark magic into the artifact. As her energy decoded the array, Nesia's voice echoed clearly within her mind.

"Mobilize immediately, Metri—fleetest among the 10 Annihilation Demons. Lord Demon Shura has completed his synthesis with the celestial artifact, his recovery absolute. The hour has arrived to march and eradicate the martial alliance once and for all."

Metri digested Nesia's message silently. Twenty years had felt like an eternity. She had been forced into hibernation, carefully hiding her presence to avoid detection by the righteous sects' scouting parties.

Shura had strictly forbidden the 10 Annihilation Demons from revealing themselves, knowing that if any warlord were ambushed and captured, the dark army's covert preparations would be exposed prematurely. They had hidden their true parameters far from the awareness of the orthodox academies.

Had a single warlord been captured prior to the appointed hour, the alliance would have rallied to thwart their global conquest.

Yet Metri had always harbored a subtle suspicion toward Shura. To her, the Demon Lord acted as though he genuinely feared the orthodox martial artists. She found it baffling—what was there to fear from mortals whose strength stemmed merely from stubborn willpower and righteous idealism?

Does his caution stem from his clash against the Three Legends twenty years ago? she wondered. Had that battle forced Shura to realize that the righteous sects possessed a latent power capable of threatening the dark army?

The proof was undeniable: Shura had been forced into deep hibernation for two decades just to mend his damaged vessel. That apocalyptic battle remained a mystery to the 10 Annihilation Demons, as they had been denied a role in the engagement. Just like today, they had received mobilization orders twenty years ago.

Yet two days before their legions were scheduled to march, a surprise assault had struck Shura's sanctuary—launched by just three men from the martial alliance. It had dealt a devastating blow to the dark army's timeline.

Metri felt a flicker of anticipation. Are there truly warriors among the righteous sects who command such terrifying strength? She yearned for a thrilling, high-speed duel. Nothing bored her more than facing weak opponents who offered no challenge.

Transmitting her response, Metri confirmed that her legion was fully mobilized, awaiting final coordinates for the initial assault.

Spinning her trisulas, Metri smiled darkly into the shadows, wondering if an opponent capable of matching her velocity would step onto the field.

Elsewhere on the Frost Line continent...

A tall man sat quietly at a wooden desk, leaning his head against his right hand. Resting beside him was a custom broadsword forged to high-tier artifact specifications. He was Alumero, the sole member of the 10 Annihilation Demons granted a specialized armament by Shura himself: the Blade of Death.

The Blade of Death had been crafted by a master dark blacksmith. Its design was unique—a wide, hollow channel ran through the center of the blade, extending from the hilt to the tip along the sharp edge. The elongated opening was noticeably wide, causing many observers to initially dismiss the weapon as impractical.

Even Alumero's fellow warlords had initially doubted the blade's structural integrity.

However, during a formal demonstration, Alumero had silenced every skeptic among the 10 Annihilation Demons.

Grasping the hilt without any elaborate buildup, Alumero had drawn the hollow blade and executed a casual, gentle flick of his wrist. The resulting aura projection had cleanly severed a massive ancient tree trunk dozens of meters away.

It had not cut down merely one or two trees—an entire forest ridge had collapsed from that single, effortless movement. The hollow channel running through the steel acted as an uninhibited conduit, allowing the wielder's internal core to merge with the weapon without kinetic resistance. The Blade of Death operated as a direct, physical extension of Alumero's own body.

Forged from the rarest, most resilient alloys on the continent, the sword achieved absolute synthesis between wielder and steel.

Effortless execution combined with terrifying destructive yield—such was the domain of Alumero, the supreme swordsman of the 10 Annihilation Demons.

The Blade of Death remained resting inside its scabbard as Alumero's communication bracer pulsed with a dark light.

A transmission? Alumero assumed it was a direct directive from Shura's court. Injecting his dark aura into the receiver, he decoded the message, listening as Nesia's voice rang out.

The directive ordered Alumero to mobilize his entire standing legion for global conquest. Yet Alumero had already processed preliminary reports gathered by his personal intelligence scouts operating in the sector.

The intelligence report had stunned him: three of the Four Gates had been slain by orthodox cultivators inside the Tulisma Forest. The forest was situated on the Frost Line continent, a short distance from Alumero's hidden sanctuary.

Alumero was well aware of the large-scale clash that had transpired inside the Tulisma Forest. The reports confirmed that the martial alliance and military defense command possessed extraordinary combat parameters—further amplified by the emergence of a specialized vanguard: the Sky Squad.

However, one particular detail in the intelligence report deeply unsettled Alumero.

According to his elite scouts—high-tier operatives directly under his command—the moment the celestial artifact known as the Moon Flower manifested, every observer on the field had suffered a sudden loss of consciousness, awakening only after the artifact had been completely destroyed and erased.

His scouts were seasoned veterans stationed at a considerable distance, yet even they had been affected by the phenomenon during the Moon Flower's destruction.

That signature... it resembles the ancient freezing domain lost centuries ago, Alumero pondered. A high-density shockwave capable of discharging an electrical wave that paralyzed every living entity within its radius was not a technique easily mastered by ordinary grandmasters.

If the martial alliance truly commanded a cultivator capable of deploying a freezing domain of that scale, the coming war would prove far more challenging for the dark army than anticipated.

History threatened to repeat itself. Twenty years ago, Shura had struggled immensely against the Three Legends. If a new generation had inherited parameters equal to those three legends, the outcome of this global war remained entirely unpredictable.

Anything could happen.

Standing up, Alumero reached out and drew the Blade of Death. The hollow steel hummed softly, as if hungering for battle.

It is time to take the field once more, my blade, Alumero thought with a cold, serene smile. To him, victory or defeat was secondary—discovering a truly worthy opponent was the ultimate beauty of the martial path.