"Who are you?!" Marie repeated, her voice echoing Jonas’s sharp demand. She rose from her seat beside him, stepping forward as both warlords fixated on the youth casually perched atop the structural beam supporting their grand marquee.

The young warrior leaped down effortlessly, landing softly on the stone floor before them. Jonas and Marie scrutinized his appearance. If he belonged to the righteous alliance, how had he penetrated their heavily guarded compound—surrounded by two hundred thousand dark operatives—without tripping a single alert array?

This was no ordinary cultivator—the realization registered simultaneously in both their minds.

"There is no need for hostility," the youth offered calmly. "I am here to save you both."

Jonas’s eyes narrowed, his patience snapping. Incensed by the intruder's audacity to interrupt his private moments with Marie, his dark core flared. Intruding upon his time with his beloved was a fatal mistake.

Grasping his mid-sized broadsword from the table beside him, Jonas tightened his grip on the hilt, glaring at the youth with cold, lethal intent.

"You die today!" Jonas growled. Dense dark magic coated his steel, swirling toward the blade's tip. Yet just as he prepared to lunge, Marie extended her right arm, intercepting his advance.

"Hold, my love!" Marie said, offering a subtle nod. She turned her sharp gaze back to the youth. "State your name and your purpose here."

Marie was intensely intrigued by the intruder. Though he appeared to be roughly twenty-five years old, he commanded a deep, unmeasurable internal parameter, and his movement lacked any spiritual footprint—evidencing the absolute stealth domain of a peak assassin. He clearly harbored a specific motive, given that he had refrained from launching an ambush.

Moving unhurriedly, the youth walked over to a carved chair opposite their bench and seated himself. Offering a calm, relaxed smile, he looked at the two warlords. He showed not a shred of intimidation, acting as though he were conversing with old friends rather than two of the 10 Annihilation Demons—the supreme field marshals of the dark army.

"My name is Aji," the youth introduced himself smoothly. "I am a warrior of the righteous sects. I came here because I recognized that you two are fundamental exceptions among the Annihilation Demons. I am asking you both to withdraw from the coming war."

Jonas and Marie looked at him in disbelief. The youth named Aji spoke as though he possessed complete knowledge of their standings among the 10 Annihilation Demons and the imminent deployment of their legions.

More surreal still was his request: he was asking them to abandon their oath, stand down, and desert Lord Demon Shura on the eve of battle.

Jonas found it absurd. The youth was a total stranger. Yet a disturbing thought crossed Jonas's mind—did this encounter connect to his fractured visions of the future? Was this enigmatic youth the unidentified entity he had glimpsed in his premonitions?

"I care nothing for your name or your origins, Aji," Marie threatened, her voice dropping an octave. "We stand with Lord Demon Shura to the end. You walked into this sanctuary on your own feet, and you shall not leave it alive!"

A dense veil of dark magic erupted around Marie's frame as she assumed a casting stance. Beside her, Jonas's sword hummed with volatile energy. Aji watched them calmly. He had introduced himself in good faith, resolving that if peaceful negotiations failed, he would eliminate both warlords on the spot using absolute force.

Yet how had Aji located their private quarters on the vast Denad continent in the first place?

A few hours earlier...

"Is the dark army's mobilization truly that massive, Gayatri?" Aji had asked, seeking out Gayatri in the outer courtyard of the portal station. Across the city, emergency calls to arms were being broadcast, summoning every capable cultivator to enlist in the continental defense reserves.

The righteous alliance needed every available blade. They were preparing to defend human civilization itself; should the orthodox forces fall, the world would be transformed into a global slaughterhouse under the dark army's reign.

Lord Demon Shura commanded a terrifying military force. As Gayatri had revealed, hundreds of thousands of dark operatives were unsealing hidden bastions across all five continents simultaneously.

Gayatri elaborated on the energetic anomalies her sensory domain had picked up. Her perception was unique, capable of piercing continental boundaries and oceanic barriers.

Her sensory vision mapped the spatial distribution and directional shifts of distant energy masses whenever large formations mobilized. Though locating exact coordinates across continents carried a margin of error, her overall strategic mapping was exceptionally accurate.

Gayatri explained that several high-density dark signatures had emerged across the five continents, unsealing spatial boundaries to manifest on the physical plane.

However, one specific coordinate registered a concentration of dark magic double the size of any other sector. Furthermore, that specific location contained two supreme, overlapping aura signatures—as if two regional sovereigns were commanding a single base together.

Aji had immediately cross-referenced her description with the confidential lore provided by Saint Ganada regarding the 10 Annihilation Demons. The spatial ruptures Gayatri had detected marked the exact points where the Second World was being unsealed.

The Second World differed fundamentally from the Mirror World. While the Second World functioned as a spatial veil hiding physical entities and aura signatures on the physical plane, the Mirror World was an inverted spatial realm void of human life. Aji had previously deployed the Mirror World—a high-tier spatial technique taught by Saint Yonan—to isolate and eradicate Gatekeeper Gultron during their duel.

Satisfied with Gayatri's report, Aji offered a quiet word of thanks and prepared to depart.

"Are you leaving, Aji?" Gayatri asked, her tone laced with subtle concern. She could feel a sudden, high-density accumulation of aura condensing within Aji's core—a quiet buildup suggesting he was preparing for a major undertaking. As always, his movements were entirely unpredictable; Aji operated alone when executing high-priority mandates.

Gayatri recalled Aji’s earlier remark—that no one would believe him if he claimed to have destroyed the Moon Flower himself. Yet her sensory domain had tracked the atmospheric energy shifts following the artifact's destruction. Commander Dasatama had not expended the massive volume of aura required to obliterate a celestial artifact.

Instead, she had observed Aji's internal core resetting and rapidly recharging its parameters immediately after the event. Gayatri had correctly deduced that Aji had used his own supreme parameters to erase the Moon Flower.

The sole witness to that truth was the God of War, Dasatama.

Aji paused, glancing back at Gayatri as she sat beneath the courtyard awning. "The massive signatures you detected belong to the 10 Annihilation Demons and their standing legions, Gayatri. Shura concealed them behind spatial barriers for twenty years. Now that they have stepped onto the physical plane, open war is upon us."

Aji’s explanation sounded staggering, yet Gayatri knew him well. He never spoke falsely, and every action he undertook served to protect the realm.

He had just named the "10 Annihilation Demons"—a force entirely absent from ancient archives and martial chronicles. They were Shura's supreme strike force, hidden from the world behind spatial veils.

If his words held true, the Four Gates had never represented the dark army's true striking power.

The supreme warlords and the core legions of the Demon Lord belonged to the 10 Annihilation Demons.

This was intelligence unknown to the martial world. Even Gayatri's master, Grandmaster Jinho, had never mentioned the 10 Annihilation Demons during their studies, despite sharing extensive historical lore with her and Lao.

Not even veteran grandmasters who had traveled the five continents possessed this knowledge.

Gazing at him, Gayatri asked, "Why focus on the 10 Annihilation Demons? Is Lord Demon Shura not the ultimate threat?"

Aji glanced back over his shoulder. "You will understand when the final battle begins. I must take my leave now; I should return by nightfall."

He took a step forward.

"Are you... going to fight?" Gayatri asked, stepping after him. Her instincts picked up his combat-ready aura density.

"I am going to reduce Shura's striking capacity beforehand," Aji replied softly.

Before Gayatri could respond, Aji surged into the sky, blurring into a high-speed streak of light aimed directly toward the Denad continent. His velocity was so absolute he seemed to vanish into thin air, leaving Gayatri staring at the empty sky in awe.