The defenders of the martial alliance stared in utter disbelief at Gayatri’s brazen defiance. She had openly provoked the Demon Lord, calling him out by his true name—Shura.

Lao felt his heart leap into his throat; his younger sister had placed her life directly on the line. If Shura turned his personal wrath upon Gayatri, surviving the incoming assault would be an almost impossible ordeal for her.

The dark army surged with collective rage. To hear their sovereign insulted so sharply by a young girl was an intolerable humiliation. Every dark operative brandished their armaments, anticipating that Shura would fly into an unhinged fury and declare an immediate, ruthless charge.

The eight Annihilation Demons flared with murderous malice. Already burning with resentment over the eradication of Jonas and Marie, Gayatri's taunt was the final spark igniting their fury. They prepared to unleash their legions and reduce the defenders to ash. Corrupted dark magic saturated the atmosphere, forcing the orthodox forces to lock into tight defensive formations.

Gayatri had drawn the dark army's absolute wrath onto herself.

Floating high above, Gayatri recognized that if the dark legions launched an immediate, chaotic charge, the alliance would suffer catastrophic casualties. Yet she placed her absolute trust in Aji's tactical directives. Whatever consequences followed, the line had been drawn; the impending clash of supreme parameters was now unavoidable.

"Good... Very good!"

Lord Demon Shura’s voice echoed across the plain, accompanied by a cold, sinister chuckle that caught both armies off-guard.

"The martial alliance has finally cultivated the courage to defy my mandate openly," Shura declared, his voice carrying an icy, controlled edge. "Today, the dark army shall subjugate this world, grinding the righteous sects beneath our boots. Personal insults mean nothing to me; I shall honor my word and grant you the full five minutes."

The dark operatives exchanged baffled glances. Shura was notorious for executing anyone who showed the slightest sign of disrespect. Yet here he sat, completely composed after being insulted by an unknown girl from the Sky Squad.

Shura had reined in his rage, refusing to let his emotions dictate his actions. Gayatri let out a quiet sigh of relief; Aji's psychological assessment had proven spot-on. By provoking Shura directly, she had struck a psychological blow against his composure. Though he appeared calm on the surface, a violent tempest of anger was churning within his core.

Shura was inherently volatile, yet he possessed the discipline to suppress his emotional outbursts if he believed doing so served his grand vision. According to Aji, Shura would strive to project the image of a majestic, unflappable sovereign destined to rule the five continents.

Attempting to appear wise and benevolent while harboring deep-seated malice was Shura's single greatest flaw. Beneath his serene facade lay unbridled rage and insatiable greed. Once his emotional balance was disrupted, his decision-making would deteriorate, replacing structured tactics with erratic, unpredictable commands.

Does Aji truly understand everything about the Demon Lord?

For a long time, Gayatri had quietly marveled at Aji's nature. He operated with a level of wisdom and foresight far beyond his apparent years. She admired not only his god-like parameters and boundless compassion, but also his uncanny ability to calculate every strategic variable with absolute precision.

In that moment, Gayatri recognized that Aji was no ordinary young warrior. He moved like a celestial emissary dispatched from the heavens to guide human civilization through its darkest hour.

Though she had trembled while confronting Shura's crushing aura, Gayatri had stood her ground because Aji had entrusted her with this specific mandate. She was the single operative capable of disrupting Shura's psychological hold over the battlefield, shifting the tactical momentum in favor of the righteous sects.

Today would be etched into history. Win or lose, the realm would remember the young female spellcaster who stood fearlessly before the Demon Lord, shattering his psychological terror with biting truth.

Her bold intervention had completely inverted the atmosphere. What had initially appeared as a helpless, subjugated host was now an energized, defiant army.

The morale of the two hundred thousand defenders surged. If a young female warrior could face the Demon Lord without flinching, why should they cower in fear before the dark army?

Her sharp taunt—comparing the terrifying tyrant to a throwing child throwing a tantrum over sweets—had stripped the dark army of its mythic terror. The dark operatives were no longer invincible monsters; they were merely greedy tyrants demanding what was not theirs.

The fear paralyzing the orthodox ranks evaporated. Re-energized and resolute, the defenders prepared to meet the incoming assault, no longer dreading death on the battlefield.

A radiant surge of internal aura erupted from every cultivator across the front lines. Shura felt the abrupt shift in the atmosphere, realizing his psychological terror had failed to break their spirit.

Recognizing that the five minutes had officially elapsed, Shura slowly raised his right hand. Suppressing his fury for those five long minutes had been an excruciating exercise in self-control. He could no longer afford to maintain a calm facade.

Dark magic swirled around his gauntlet as he issued a silent directive through his spiritual link. The two reanimated figures standing at the vanguard—the husks of Saint Ganada and Saint Yonan—snapped their heads toward the alliance ranks, their dark eyes igniting with corrupted energy as if awakening from an eternal slumber.

Shura intended to crush the alliance's newfound morale in a single stroke. Initially, he had deployed the two saints merely to inspire dread, but now he commanded them to strike directly.

The dark magic bound to the two reanimated grandmasters intensified exponentially, expanding into suffocating aura fields that blanketed the plain. Every combatant—orthodox cultivator and dark operative alike—felt a heavy, crushing pressure radiate from the two legendary figures.

Shura opened his palm, signaling the assault.

The twin husks leaped forward at absolute velocity. The reanimated vessel of Saint Yonan manifested a heavy staff forged from condensed dark magic, while the physical form of Saint Ganada summoned twin, razor-sharp trench daggers wrapped in corrupted aura.

Slamming his dark staff into the earth, the husk of Yonan unleashed a massive seismic shockwave that ruptured the terrain before the gates, throwing the forward alliance ranks off-balance. Simultaneously, the husk of Ganada blurred forward at blinding, high-tier velocity.

Enveloped in a swirling tempest of dark lightning, Ganada's vessel moved like a black thunderbolt across the field. Yet as the alliance grandmasters struggled to stabilize their balance against Yonan's seismic wave, Ganada's husk did not target the ground troops.

It surged straight into the sky, locking its sights directly onto Gayatri!

WOOOOOSH!

The assault was terrifyingly fast. Before Gayatri could fully process the movement, her sensory domain screamed a warning: the reanimated husk of Saint Ganada had materialized just meters before her, its twin dark daggers raised to shred her vessel.

The alliance grandmasters gasped in horror. Though these entities were merely physical husks reanimated by dark magic, their combat parameters matched the legendary capabilities of the living saints recorded in historical archives—the sole difference being the corrupted dark magic fueling their techniques.

The reanimated vessels of Ganada and Yonan commanded parameters equal to their living selves at the absolute peak of their power.

None of the defenders had anticipated that Ganada's husk would bypass the front lines entirely to launch an aerial strike against Gayatri. Shura had explicitly commanded the assassin thrall to execute the girl who had dared insult him.

While Yonan's seismic spellwork pinned the ground troops in place, Ganada's high-speed vector closed in on Gayatri. Left with zero time to execute an evasive maneuver, Gayatri hurriedly erected a localized defensive barrier—a five-meter sphere of high-density wind mana.

The husk of Ganada slammed its twin dark daggers directly into the barrier.

SHATTER!

The defensive sphere broke instantly under the weight of a single strike. Driving through the shattered mana, Ganada's husk raised its daggers for a lethal follow-up.

Suddenly, a series of massive, spinning saw-toothed energy discs cut through the sky, attempting to sever the thrall's vector. It was Lao, deploying his high-yield kinetic discs to cover his sister!

WOOOOOSH!

Four energy discs swirled toward Ganada's husk from four cardinal angles, striking the target simultaneously.

SPLASH!

The kinetic impact detonated, and Lao exhaled, hoping the strike had bought Gayatri enough time to disengage. Yet the saw-toothed discs shattered against empty air—Ganada's husk had already vanished, its movement speed matching the legendary velocity of the living Saint Ganada.

There was no time!

Ganada's husk materialized two meters from Gayatri, executing a high-speed rotational flurry with its twin dark daggers. Caught off-guard, Gayatri couldn't construct another long-range array in time. She channeled her remaining aura into her forearms, bracing for a point-blank impact.

CLANG!

The descending dark daggers were caught in a clean, iron-clad parry!

Gayatri opened her eyes in surprise to see a female figure standing directly before her mid-air, her dual weapons locking Ganada's dark daggers in place.

It was Barsha!

The violent kinetic collision sent shockwaves flaring outward as their opposing aura fields grinding against each other. Glancing over her shoulder, Barsha issued a sharp, calm directive: "Fall back and recalibrate, Gayatri!"

Swiveling back to face the reanimated thrall, Barsha locked eyes with the dark figure, her chest tightening as she confronted the legendary vessel of her own bloodline.

"I am your opponent, Grandfather Ganada!"