Gayatri charged directly into the incoming barrage, ignoring the continuous volley streaming toward her position. With effortless fluidity, she swept her hands in alternating arcs, deflecting the dark magic projectiles so they veered off course and detonated harmlessly across the landscape below.

Nesia’s eyes widened in disbelief. Her high-yield bombardment was being brushed aside as casually as swatting away pesky insects. Biting her lip in frustration, Nesia amplified her output, doubling the density and volume of her dark projectiles.

In response, Gayatri extended both palms, manifesting a radiant mana shield that absorbed the brunt of Nesia's escalated barrage. Explosions erupted continuously against the glowing barrier, yet Gayatri’s expression remained utterly unbothered.

The light-elemental nano-armor encased around her vessel provided absolute physical and energetic protection, leaving her completely unscathed by the surrounding shockwaves. Refusing to relent, Nesia condensed a massive, rolling dark magic orb and hurled it forward. Gayatri held her defensive array firm, allowing the orb to detonate in a blinding flash.

BLAAAAM!

As the smoke cleared, Nesia gasped in shock. Gayatri remained hovering in mid-air, her light armor without so much as a single scratch. Moments ago, Nesia had marked the young spellcaster as an existential threat to be eliminated before her growth peaked—yet the girl had already achieved an extraordinary breakthrough. Eradicating her will be far more difficult than I anticipated, Nesia realized grimly.

The four pairs of massive, steel-like dark wings extending from Nesia’s back expanded, the tips of their feathers morphing into razor-sharp metallic blades. Flapping her wings, Nesia surged toward Gayatri at high velocity. The heavy wings beat rhythmically, stabilizing her forward charge as she closed the distance.

As Nesia approached, Gayatri channeled her newly refined parameters to manifest a long, luminous light spear, dropping into a balanced combat stance.

Closing to point-blank range, Nesia swept her bladed wings forward, discharging a cloud of dark metallic needles directly at Gayatri.

Gayatri spun her light spear in a rapid defensive wheel, deflecting the dark needles. Controlling the weapon through a thread of linked aura, she allowed the light spear to rotate autonomously around her frame, parrying every incoming projectile with hands-free precision.

Her defensive perimeter held flawlessly. Flapping her wings, Nesia pressed forward into close-quarters combat, swinging all eight of her massive, bladed wings in rapid, alternating strikes aimed at penetrating Gayatri's light armor.

Gayatri proved equally adept in close-range warfare. Despite Nesia's monstrous size and relentless wing flurries—which lashed out like sweeping, dark-magic-infused scythes—Gayatri countered every blade using her light staff.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Steel-like feathers clashed continuously against celestial light. Nesia accelerated her wing passes into an invisible blur, but Gayatri matched her operational velocity stride for stride. Whenever her staff was out of position to block an awkward angle, Gayatri manifested localized magic circles to absorb the kinetic impact.

Frustrated by her inability to pierce Gayatri's domain, Nesia flapped all eight wings and vaulted high into the upper atmosphere. Spreading her bladed wings across the heavens, she expanded her dark aura above Gayatri's position, threatening to engulf the young spellcaster in absolute darkness.

Gayatri looked up, startled by the sheer scale of the spatial array. Drawing upon the combined parameters of the Five Gates, Nesia expanded her dark magic until a suffocating midnight domain swallowed the sky above their sector.

Gayatri found herself trapped inside a isolated dark sphere forged by Nesia's wings—a final, absolute domain designed to force a decisive outcome. The bladed wings formed a seamless, pitch-black wall that sealed off every escape vector, leaving only Gayatri and Nesia's demonized form inside.

Cut off from the physical world, they hovered within the massive black cage. Nesia's wings maintained the boundary, sealing all light and atmospheric connection.

"Today is the day you perish, girl of the Sky Squad," Nesia declared, her distorted voice echoing off the dark interior walls. "It is a pity that your extraordinary talent ends here. Within this sealed domain, your internal parameters are heavily suppressed, and escape is mathematically impossible! Your execution will be swift!"

Gayatri indeed felt a heavy spatial pressure pressing against her core, suppressing her ability to output maximum parameters. Threads of dark magic bound themselves around her light armor like invisible constraints.

"Spare me your speeches, Nesia!" Gayatri countered smoothly. "If you command such absolute power, prove it through action instead of endless boasting!"

Nesia’s temper flared at the sharp mockery. Even Lord Demon Shura had never treated her with such utter disrespect. Infuriated, she prepared to unleash her absolute output to crush the insolent girl once and for all.

Opposite her, Gayatri noted Nesia's rising fury with quiet satisfaction. Whether facing orthodox grandmasters or dark cultists, a combatant who allowed blind anger to govern their mind lost their strategic composure. Fighting while consumed by rage and vengeance introduced fatal blind spots—a vulnerability Gayatri intentionally exploited.

While Gayatri harbored her own desire for justice regarding her parents' tragic deaths, she kept her emotions strictly in check. What was done could not be undone. Today, she fought not out of personal hatred, but to secure lasting peace for the five continents—so no other child would suffer the agony of losing their family to the dark army.

Nesia raised her gauntlets, causing massive dark spikes to erupt from the interior of the black boundary wall. Spikes sprouted from every coordinate, locking their tips onto Gayatri. She utilized the enclosed domain to ensure her target had zero margin to execute an evasive maneuver!

The massive dark spikes surged forward simultaneously from every angle, aiming to impale Gayatri's vessel. Nesia anticipated an immediate, bloody conclusion.

With no escape vectors available, evading was impossible. Yet Nesia’s expectations were shattered as Gayatri chose not to dodge. Instead, Gayatri unleashed a violent, high-density gale of wind magic from her vessel, expanding the storm in a 360-degree radius.

The kinetic shockwave of the gale slammed into the descending dark spikes, shattering the dark constructs to pieces and detonating their dark magic against the boundary wall.

Nesia stared in disbelief as Gayatri dismantled the trap using pure elemental force—maintaining sufficient parameter output to execute high-tier wind magic despite the heavy suppression domain! What is wrong with this girl?!

Before Nesia could process her surprise, a radiant energy signature locked onto her coordinates. Even while maintaining the boundary wall with her wings, Nesia felt the sharp pressure closing in.

A luminous light spear streaked toward Nesia at sound-shattering velocity. Reacting instantly, Nesia manifested a thick dark barrier before her frame to absorb the strike.

CLANG! BOOM!

The light spear detonated against Nesia's dark shield, generating a dense cloud of smoke that momentarily obscured her vision. As the haze dissipated, Gayatri materialized directly before her, brandishing her light staff in a heavy downward execution arc!

CRACK! FLASH!

Gayatri’s eyes narrowed as her staff sliced through empty air just inches from Nesia's shoulder. Nesia had vanished from her position!

Inside the midnight domain, the light nano-armor covering Gayatri's vessel shone with incandescent brilliance, illuminating the pitch-black void like a solitary star.

To evade the point-blank strike, Nesia had forcefully detached her eight bladed wings from her spine, severing her energetic link to the boundary wall. By abandoning her wings, she forfeited the ability to channel fresh dark magic into the black enclosure or trigger further environmental traps.

A flicker of genuine fear touched Nesia's mind. Had she re-established her link to the boundary wall, Gayatri’s speed would have allowed her to strike before the array could charge, potentially shattering Nesia's physical frame. Though her Black Blood cellular regeneration could repair physical trauma, high-speed strikes would continuously disrupt her concentration, making recovery impossible.

Nesia weighed her options carefully. If she dispelled the dark boundary wall entirely, the spatial suppression on Gayatri would lift, allowing the Sky Squad member to deploy her absolute, unreserved parameters—a scenario far more dangerous. She resolved to maintain the dark cage, keeping Gayatri's output constrained.

Crossing her gauntlets before her chest, Nesia drew upon her total remaining dark magic, igniting an unstable, azure-black inferno around her vessel that crackled like dark lightning inside a storm cloud.

Gayatri centered her focus, recognizing that Nesia was preparing a high-yield catastrophic spellwork. Concentrating celestial light within her core, she reinforced her light nano-armor. Though the suppression domain strained her internal output, her defensive armor remained at peak structural stability, fully capable of absorbing heavy damage.

She needed only to withstand this absolute bombardment. The moment Nesia depleted her parameters, Gayatri would execute a swift, decisive counter-attack.

Dense dark smoke and crackling azure lightning wrapped around Nesia's massive frame. Opening her gauntlets wide, the volatile energy pulsed violently, on the verge of total detonation.

Nesia prepared to unleash her absolute output, confident that no mortal vessel could survive the catastrophic heat of her dark flames. Everything inside the boundary wall would be reduced to ash, while the black enclosure kept the explosion contained.

"Crash Black Fire!" Nesia screamed, unleashing the catastrophic inferno. "Eradicate everything!"