Warrior Jiro looked up to see Alicia hovering in mid-air, having provided the vital fire-elemental follow-up to finalize his ultimate ground-shattering strike.

Jiro offered a grateful smile, and the two shared a silent nod. Without lingering, Alicia reoriented her flight matrix toward the main clash. The front line of the dark army had been pushed a substantial distance back from Prisma City’s grand gates. Deeper within the engagement zone, several members of the Sky Squad were carving a path forward—led by Aji. Alicia channeled wind mana to accelerate her speed, surging ahead to reinforce them.

Gayatri was already providing aerial support. The squad seemed determined to drive a spearhead straight into the heart of the dark army. Unsure of their exact operational goal but recognizing the danger of their isolated push, Alicia realized she needed to join them, using her spellcasting to blast open corridors through the dense dark ranks.

Hovering alongside Aji's spearhead, Alicia kept the dark host clear of Prisma’s gates. What is his ultimate objective here? Suddenly, a detachment of airborne dark operatives unsealed their Demon Transformations, sprouting bat-like wings and lunging at Alicia with dark armaments protruding from their mutated limbs.

Alicia executed fluid aerial evasions. Her refined spellcasting control allowed her to parry the incoming barrage effortlessly. With a flick of her wrist, she deployed localized kinetic shields, deflecting dark magic projectiles with the same precision as a swordsman parrying steel.

BOOM! BOOM!

Channeling high-density mana into her spellsword, Alicia launched a pair of radiant energy arcs. The concentrated blasts struck the airborne cultists head-on, disintegrating their transformed frames in mid-air.

More dark operatives swarmed from all vectors to avenge their fallen comrades. Yet, since her duel against her grandfather’s reanimated thrall inside the Mirror World, Alicia’s spellcasting control had reached an entirely new realm of mastery. It felt as though she had received direct instruction from a legendary saint, elevating her parameter manipulation to incredible heights.

Executing a swift rotational turn, she swept her spellsword in a 360-degree arc, discharging a expanding ring of celestial energy that detonated upon contact with the approaching dark operatives, shredding their physical vessels to pieces.

Descend three meters above the soil, Alicia lowered her altitude to support the ground battle more effectively—specifically assisting Aji and the Sky Squad as they attempted to breach the dark army’s central defense line from within.

The moment her boots hovered near the ground, a dense mass of dark cultists beneath her lunged upward. Alicia manifested a hemispherical mana barrier to lock down her immediate perimeter.

The dark operatives slammed into the glowing barrier, swarming the shield in overwhelming numbers. Before they could breach the array, a blinding streak of kinetic energy swept through the crowd, obliterating the attackers.

It was not a long-range spellwork, but a physical warrior moving at sound-shattering velocity. The high-speed assault shredded the surrounding cultists like a typhoon of invisible blades, leaving dozens of dark operatives collapsing to the earth.

It was Barsha.

The Sky Squad captain dropped into a defensive stance beside Alicia. Scanning the field, Barsha noted that the global alliance was holding the line effectively across all sectors. Reinforced by the fresh columns from the three remaining continents, the orthodox forces were actively pressing the dark host back, pushing their probability of total victory past sixty percent.

"Why did you push this far in, Barsha?" Alicia asked, discharging a long-range energy arc to clear a remaining cluster of dark operatives.

"The alliance armies have secured the main field," Barsha replied smoothly. "I saw that you and Aji were being surrounded deeper in the enemy lines, so I carved a path to reinforce you!"

Alicia nodded in understanding. Like Barsha, she had felt deep concern over why the Sky Squad members were individually risking everything to drive so deep into the dark host.

It defied standard military logic. Ordinarily, vanguard units held the perimeter rather than plunging blindly into an enemy encirclement—unless there was a high-value asset at the center capable of turning the tide of the war.

And the only asset of that magnitude at the heart of the dark army was Lord Demon Shura himself.

They are targeting the Demon Lord! Alicia realized with a shock. Yet such a reckless push was suicidal—unless it was orchestrated by Aji.

Aji had intended to breach the dark ranks alone to reach Shura. However, seeing their leader charge forward, the members of the Sky Squad had thrown themselves into the fray to support him, unknowingly pulling themselves deeper into the dark host's encirclement.

Gayatri was maintaining continuous elemental support for Aji's advance. As squad captain, Barsha had frequently spoken with Aji about his motives for joining their ranks. Aji had never hidden his ultimate goal: the total elimination of Lord Demon Shura.

"It is far too dangerous, Barsha!" Alicia called out, her expression grave. "Aji is trying to force his way to the Demon Lord alone, and the squad is throwing themselves into the fire to clear his path!"

Barsha nodded, confirming Alicia's deduction.

Reaching Shura meant penetrating a dense legion of hundreds of thousands of dark operatives. Attempting such a feat was equivalent to throwing one's life away. Long before reaching the Demon Lord, any grandmaster would suffer acute parameter depletion. No matter how divine Aji’s baseline strength was, if he reached Shura in an exhausted state, the Demon Lord would execute him effortlessly.

Alicia knew she had to halt Aji's reckless push and convince him to fall back into the alliance's main battle line. They needed a calculated, unified strategy to confront Shura, rather than a frantic charge through an entire army.

Accelerating her flight, Alicia closed the distance to Aji and Gayatri. Aji was moving like an absolute storm, brandishing his meteoric broadsword and long dagger with terrifying efficiency. When dark operatives lunged from his left, a effortless flick of his left-hand sword sliced through their armor. When attackers flanked his right, his right-hand dagger bisected two transformed dreadnoughts simultaneously.

His parameter reserves seemed bottomless. Alicia couldn't help but marvel at his flawless precision and relentless operational velocity.

"Aji! Halt this advance and fall back!" Alicia shouted over the roar of battle. "We need a proper strategy before confronting the Demon Lord!"

Aji continued his steady forward march, systematically dismantling every dark operative that crossed his path. Hearing her shout, he glanced over his shoulder while parrying an incoming dark blade.

"There is no time!" Aji shouted back, his voice firm and absolute. "We must eliminate Shura before it is too late!"

He swept his meteoric weapons in a wide arc, the celestial aura coating his blades incinerating a line of demonized cultists.

"Look around you, Aji!" Alicia pleaded, her voice rising in desperation. "More than half of the Sky Squad has followed you into this encirclement! They will all be slaughtered if you keep pushing this blind charge!"

She desperately needed him to see the reality of the situation. Over half of the Sky Squad had plunged into the thickest ranks of the dark army solely to guard his flanks.

The squad members were fully aware of the mortality rate of this push, yet they pressed forward without hesitation, driven by an unshakeable bond to protect one another. They cared nothing for their own safety—only that their comrades survived.

"You must pull back, Aji!" Alicia's tone turned stern. "You might have the parameters to reach Shura, but your comrades will die clearing the path for you! We must regroup with the main alliance!"

Her words struck Aji like a heavy blow.

Pausing his advance, Aji cast his gaze over his shoulder. Almost the entire Sky Squad had drawn into the encirclement, surrounded on all sides by swarming dark cultists simply because they refused to let him fight alone.

Aji tightened his grip on his meteoric dagger, his heart pounding in his chest. He was so close—only a few hundred meters separated him from Lord Demon Shura.

If he failed to eliminate Shura immediately, he feared the Demon Lord would unleash that catastrophic, world-ending power here on this field. Aji could feel it in his soul—Shura's dark core was pulsing, on the verge of detonating a taboo spellwork.

It was the exact nightmare from twenty years ago—the catastrophic explosion that had leveled a continent and forced Ganada and Yonan to sacrifice their lives to shield his core.

He could not allow history to repeat itself. Yet looking at the young warriors of the Sky Squad bleeding around him, he knew they would not survive another minute of this reckless advance.

Damn it! What choice do I make?!

Aji stood frozen amidst the roaring chaos of the battlefield, caught between the urgent need to stop the Demon Lord and the sacred duty to protect the comrades standing beside him.