The sudden detonation of Aji’s high-voltage shockwave webbed across the coastal plain, entangling hundreds of dark operatives within a glowing lattice of lightning tendrils. Bound by the paralyzing currents, the dark cultists froze mid-motion, rendered completely immobile like flies trapped in a massive, shimmering web.

Suspended in the air or locked in their stances on the earth, the dark operatives floated like lifeless cotton beneath the oppressive pressure of Aji’s technique.

Sensing the threat, Jonas lunged through the electrified field, forcing his way toward the center. The paralyzing current continuously restricted his mobility, yet he maneuvered through the voltage with raw, physical determination. Backed by Marie’s continuous telepathic enhancement, he felt no lasting fatigue as Marie closed in right behind him. The two warlords targeted Aji, who remained kneeling on the cracked soil after slamming his right fist into the earth.

Jonas had initially deployed his standing army to overwhelm the intruder, only to watch the youth deploy a wide-radius domain that paralyzed thousands of operatives mid-air. Weaving between their suspended subordinates, Jonas and Marie closed the gap with blinding speed.

Re-energizing his broadsword with dark magic, Jonas analyzed Aji’s extraordinary regeneration. Standard slashing strikes would achieve nothing against an opponent who healed wounds instantly. To ensure an absolute kill, he needed to sever the boy's head cleanly from his shoulders.

Once the head was separated from the torso, the internal core would lose its structural link to the brain, halting the mental directive required to trigger instantaneous recovery.

The same principle applied to high-tier dark practitioners. Severing the head permanently interrupted the cellular repair of their Black Blood regeneration. Decapitation was the single absolute method to extinguish a dark general's life force forever.

Unsealing a fresh surge of dark parameters, Jonas leaped high into the air. Marie watched her lover intently; she knew Jonas was thoroughly fascinated by the stranger. Facing an opponent who commanded such bizarre, absolute parameters had ignited his competitive spirit, driving him to push his limits.

Jonas executed an aerial spin at the peak of his jump, bringing his broadsword down toward Aji. The kinetic output was so intense that the surrounding dark operatives suspended in mid-air were blown backward by the air pressure. The paralyzing lightning lattice binding their limbs shattered beneath the weight of Jonas's descending aura. In the dark night sky, his blade shone as brightly as a striking thunderbolt, its energetic signature picked up by other Annihilation Demons across the continent.

Jonas's sword descended directly toward Aji's neck.

Refusing to back down, Aji drew his dual blades and vaulted upward to meet the strike head-on. Crossing his longsword and trench dagger in an X-formation, he caught Jonas's descending broadsword in a tight scissor lock.

CLANG!

Jonas poured continuous, heavy dark magic into the lock, attempting to drive his heavy blade through Aji's guard. Aji reinforced his dual weapons with high-density light aura, locking Jonas's broadsword in place to neutralize its kinetic momentum.

"HAAAAA!" "HIIIIIAAAA!"

Both warriors drove their internal cores to absolute capacity. The resulting kinetic pressure detonated in continuous shockwaves around them, leveling the nearby terrain. The residual lightning web binding the surrounding dark army dissolved completely, sending thousands of operatives tumbling to the ground as their paralyzing seals shattered.

Regaining control of their bodies, the dark cultists gasped for air, only to be confronted by the terrifying energy storm raging at the center of the camp. Jonas and Aji remained locked in a high-density power struggle.

Observing the stalemate from a distance, Marie reached up to the pins in her hair. Her hairstyle—half left long and flowing, half tied back neatly—was held in place by a pair of long, silver needles. Unfastening the two needles, she held them between her fingers.

Imbuing the silver needles with her absolute maximum dark magic, she flicked her wrists, launching them forward with terrifying velocity.

FLICK!

The two silver needles pierced cleanly into Jonas's back, embedding themselves parallel along his spine. The needles acted as conduits, unlocking a joint dual-cultivation art that merged their two cores into a single, unified entity. Standing far from the clash, Marie adjusted her casting rhythm, enveloping her vessel in a thick, spherical defense barrier that completely isolated her from external interference.

Hovering inside her protective orb with her palms extended, Marie drove her dark magic through the spiritual link into Jonas's spine.

Jonas's eyes flared with brilliant crimson light. High-density dark magic surged through his veins, making his muscle fibers pulse violently. Aji felt the sudden, exponential spike in Jonas's parameters; the pressure radiating from the warlord now matched the terrifying malice of Lord Demon Shura himself. It was a parameter level that transcended mortal limits.

The sheer weight of Jonas's enhanced output overwhelmed Aji's stance. Forced backward, Aji's boots skidded across the terrain, carving two deep trenches into the soil.

Seeing their warlord push the intruder back, ten elite sub-captains serving under Marie seized the opportunity to launch a surprise ambush. Vaulting into the air, the ten high-tier dark cultists charged toward Aji's flank with absolute lethal intent.

Aji glanced sideways at the incoming ambush. He was currently struggling to hold off Jonas's multiplied parameters, yet ten elite sub-commanders were descending upon his exposed rear from above.

Left with no alternative, Aji activated a specialized spellwork.

"Magic Moon!"

Aji's vessel released a blinding burst of radiant energy. It was a high-tier summoning discipline capable of manifesting independent energy constructs from a distance. Even while focusing his core to resist Jonas's terrifying kinetic pressure, Aji maintained the absolute mental focus required to cast complex spatial summoning magic.

Several radiant, humanoid afterimages separated from Aji's back, surging into the air to intercept the ten incoming sub-captains. The elite dark cultists gasped in horror as the glowing figures—identical in form to Aji and wielding energy blades—engaged them mid-air.

To summon ten independent, high-tier energy constructs while holding off a supreme warlord's absolute strength required a level of mental multitasking that defied all martial logic. Was this youth even human? Was he a divine entity descended to the mortal plane?

His parameters were utterly incompreable. He possessed instantaneous regeneration that surpassed dark magic, physical parameters capable of freezing an entire army, and now the ability to summon independent light constructs mid-battle. What other ancient secrets did this stranger harbor?

Jonas's curiosity reached its absolute peak. Facing an opponent who possessed unmeasurable parameters across every discipline, Jonas began to accept that his visions of the future were tied directly to this youth. It was as though Aji had been dispatched by Destiny itself to alter the outcome of the war between the righteous alliance and the dark army.

The ten light constructs engaged Marie's elite sub-captains in a violent aerial duel, their blade strikes detonating across the sky.

With his summons managing the flank, Aji refocused his core entirely on Jonas. Jonas drove his broadsword forward with relentless force, his eyes locked onto Aji's in a fierce visual clash. Sensing a sudden opening, Aji executed a high-speed pivot, slipping past Jonas's guard to sweep his longsword and trench dagger in a multi-directional arc. Jonas parried the counter-attack with instant reflexes, and the two blurred into a high-speed duel, vanishing and reappearing across the field in a series of sonic detonations.

CLANG!CLANG!

Continuous dark energy exploded from the two needles in Jonas's spine, providing a boundless supply of power. Across the field, Marie remained suspended inside her spherical barrier, directing her total internal parameters into Jonas's vessel.

It was the ultimate synthesis of Northern and Southern elemental poles—an absolute energetic resonance that operated like a continuous magnetic circuit. By enclosing herself in an impenetrable defense barrier, Marie channeled her entire spiritual core directly into Jonas, allowing him to fight with their combined parameters.

The needles embedded along Jonas's spine accelerated his perception and physical velocity exponentially, allowing him to track Aji's Ghost Speed and press his advantage. Executing a heavy, aura-infused punch, Jonas bypassed Aji's parrying arc, landing a direct blow that shattered Aji's defensive barrier and launched the youth flying across the camp.

Before Aji could recover mid-air, Jonas blurred forward, intercepting Aji's trajectory at blinding speed. Swinging his broadsword with absolute force, he prepared to bisect the airborne youth. Aji felt the overwhelming weight of Jonas's multiplied parameters—a level of speed and power far beyond the reach of standard grandmasters.

Their dual synthesis was truly formidable. With one partner protected inside an absolute barrier and the other wielding their combined parameters on the field, they operated as two souls controlling a single physical vessel. It was an advanced dual-cultivation technique that could only be executed by two lovers bound by absolute trust and devotion.

Aji knew he possessed the parameters to dismantle their synthesis, yet time was against him. The dark army's global invasion was scheduled to launch the following day, and he could not afford to waste his reserves in a drawn-out duel of attrition.

Seizing a split-second window while Jonas was fully committed to his offensive and his light summons kept the sub-captains occupied, Aji executed a tactical feint.

Channeling high-density atmospheric lightning into his longsword and trench dagger, Aji surged forward as if to meet Jonas's broadsword head-on. Jonas braced his stance, aligning his blade to crush Aji's strike. Yet a fraction of an inch before their weapons collided, Aji executed an abrupt, high-speed directional shift, veering completely off Jonas's attack vector.

Blurring across the field at blinding velocity, Aji targeted Marie—the anchor holding the dual synthesis together. Marie remained in deep meditation within her spherical barrier, her eyes closed as her soul powered Jonas's vessel.

Approaching the protective sphere, Aji coated his dual blades in high-yield light aura, bringing them down in a devastating strike designed to shatter the barrier.

CRACK!

Recognizing Aji's true target, Jonas roared in fury. Realizing the youth intended to eliminate his beloved to break their synthesis, Jonas pursued him at absolute velocity, arriving at the barrier's edge a split second after Aji's blades made contact. Unable to strike Aji directly without risking damage to Marie's barrier, Jonas was forced to check his blow.

"Halt! Do not be a coward!" Jonas bellowed, his dark core flaring wildly.

Aji smiled softly as he held his blades against the barrier. He had verified the truth: their combined parameters relied entirely on Marie's continuous conduit, making her barrier the single key to neutralizing the two supreme warlords.