Shura grew increasingly disoriented within the closed spatial dimensions of the glass world. Trapped and unable to find a viable exit vector, he swept his senses across the landscape in search of a tactical opening. The domain felt largely vacant, save for two faint, highly concentrated energy signatures flickering in the distant distance.

"Have you discovered something in this world, Shura?" Aji asked smoothly.

Aji instantly recognized that Shura’s spiritual awareness was probing the glass dimension. Having spent twenty long years isolated in this realm, Aji understood every subtle energetic current of the Mirror World far better than anyone else.

"Did you craft this dimension, Bagas? Do you intend to drag anyone you choose into this eternal prison?" Shura demanded, acute suspicion hardening his features.

"I did not create this realm," Aji replied, locking his gaze onto his brother. "I was merely trapped here for two decades. I was locked away after you attempted to assassinate me and murdered my two dearest comrades, Yonan and Ganada, twenty years ago!"

Shura recoiled in genuine shock. A dimension entirely distinct from both the physical plane and the second world? Throughout his long life, he had failed to unravel the deeper mysteries of spatial mechanics, remaining completely ignorant of the Mirror World's existence—while Bagas had been locked away inside its depths for twenty full years.

"One more thing, Shura, just so you understand the full picture," Aji continued calmly. "Two former operatives of the Annihilation Demons, Jonas and Marie, are currently living here. They consciously chose to remain in this realm rather than serve as your thralls or participate in your war against humanity."

Shura’s jaw tightened. So that is why their spiritual links vanished. He had previously assumed they had simply perished on the physical plane, allowing him to siphon their residual parameters. Yet their energy had merely been severed by crossing into this isolated plane.

Rage flared anew within Shura's core. Gathering volatile dark parameters around his vessel, he glared at Aji with burning malice.

"Then you are indeed a persistent pest, Bagas—a blight sent to ruin every design I have ever built! From this moment onward, only one of us shall walk out of this dimension alive. It is either you or me! Prepare to meet your end!"

WOOOOOSH!

Without another word, Shura unsealed the absolute ceiling of his parameters. Saturating his core with the dark magic of the Blood Supreme, a suffocating aura of absolute death enveloped his physical vessel.

"Black Shadow!"

A colossal blade forged entirely from midnight dark magic materialized in Shura’s grip as he blurred forward at terrifying velocity. Aji anticipated the surge; Shura’s dark parameter density had reached an apocalyptic peak, fully fused with the terrifying celestial artifact.

Shura had completely surrendered his soul to the abyss, mutating into a true demon. He bore zero resemblance to the young Shura Aji had known in their youth; decades of spilling innocent blood and harvesting mortal lives had turned him into an abomination.

Carrying the absolute responsibility of humanity's survival, Aji knew Shura could no longer be redeemed. The Demon Lord represented an existential threat to all creation and had to be eradicated permanently, ensuring no future successors could inherit his corrupted legacy.

Unsheathing a brilliant blade of celestial energy from his hand, Aji met the descending strike head-on.

CLANG! BOOM!

The two armaments collided in a deafening shockwave. The relentless pressure of their blows battered the Mirror World, the sonic booms echoing endlessly across the quiet dimension. Pitting light against darkness, they engaged in a god-tier duel devoid of external interference.

Every clash of steel stirred nostalgic memories of their childhood sparring sessions under the watchful eye of Grandfather Mahesa.

Decades had bled away since they first became disciples seventy years ago. Now, in the twilight of their lives, their duel had transcended a simple contest of strength—it was a life-and-death struggle for the fate of existence itself.

Their motives stood in stark contrast. Shura fought to eliminate Aji because the youth represented the sole barrier standing between him and absolute global dominion. Removing Aji was the prerequisite to unlocking an exit from the Mirror World and returning to conquer the physical plane.

Conversely, Aji fought to consign Shura to eternal oblivion, seeking to forge a world of lasting peace free from the shadow of the dark host. Once his mission was complete, Aji could finally rest, deciding whether to embrace a prolonged existence or allow the effects of the Water of Life to naturally fade from his vessel.

Explosions of light and dark aura erupted across every corner of the dimension. One second they traded blows at close quarters; the next, they vanished across tens of miles, colliding again in a distant sector as they read their opponent's energetic resonance with effortless familiarity.

Light clashed against darkness, representing the eternal ideological struggle between the orthodox martial path and the corrupted abyss. Their apocalyptic duel went entirely unnoticed by the physical plane, witnessed by only two spectators hiding miles away within the glass dimension: Jonas and Marie.

Every prophetic vision Jonas had foreseen was unfolding before his eyes. The mystery of the Demon Lord’s sudden disappearance from the battlefield was finally resolved—Aji had dragged Shura into the Mirror World to contain the devastation.

Had they fought on the physical plane, the sheer parameter density of their clash would have leveled the five continents. Aji had intentionally chosen this isolated glass dimension to ensure the survival of the mortal realm.

Jonas and Marie remained in absolute concealment, refusing to intervene. The parameters commanded by Aji and Shura transcended their mortal limits; stepping into their engagement zone would serve as mere suicide.

Let fate decide their outcome. Whichever grandmaster prevailed would dictate the future of existence. Jonas honored the golden rule of non-interference, recognizing that Aji was an anomaly capable of altering destiny itself.

Aji had systematically dismantled the dark army's operational capacity from within, neutralizing the Five Gates and shattering Shura's grand design long before the final battle reached its climax.

Their ongoing strikes threatened to fracture the Mirror World with every exchange. Blurring across distant coordinates, their movements defied ordinary visual tracking, registered only by continuous, cataclysmic detonations.

Unsealing another torrent of midnight dark magic, Shura lunged forward. Aji parried the strike, driving his blade back with absolute authority.

"You have grown remarkably powerful, Shura! Unfortunately, that strength was built upon the stolen lives of murdered innocents!" Aji shouted, pouring unreserved parameter density into his push.

A rolling wall of celestial light hurled Shura backward across the terrain.

Shura refused to yield to the moral argument. To him, seizing power through any available doctrine was justified so long as it achieved the ultimate objective. Weakness invited oppression; therefore, to forge a new world of absolute order, one had to claim the position of supreme ruler through unmatched strength.

That was the foundational law of the universe.

"You orthodox hypocrites always hide behind your self-righteous morals!" Shura roared, parrying an incoming light arc. "You pretend to despise taboo methods, yet your strongest grandmasters routinely oppress the weak! You simply hoard power to govern over mortals yourselves!"

BOOM!

Another violent shockwave detonated between them. As physical trauma accumulated upon their vessels, Aji’s innate cellular regeneration instantly knitted his flesh back together, while Shura’s Blood Supreme core executed rapid tissue restoration.

Ignoring their wounds, they plunged back into the fray.

"Your premise is fundamentally flawed, Shura!" Aji countered, his voice ringing with absolute clarity. "That is why you remain trapped within your own toxic ego—you believe your perspective is infallible, refusing to accept any truth but your own. True strength does not exist to subjugate the weak; it exists to protect them!"

"HIIIIIISSS! HAAAAAA!"

Kicks, punches, and blurring sword strikes merged into a million flashes of lethal energy.

Both combatants were hurled backward by a mutual shockwave. Shura unsealed a final, desperate surge of midnight dark magic, generating thousands of crackling black lightning bolts that converged on Aji from every vector.

"Per perish by my hand, Bagas! Never cross my path again!" Shura screamed, unleashing his ultimate execution strike.

Relying on the blinding velocity of his assassin training, Aji evaded the high-speed lightning arcs, slipping through microscopic gaps in the dark matrix before closing the distance once more.

Blade met blade. Gauntlet clashed against gauntlet.

BLAAAAAM!

The relentless, terminal duel continued without pause, draining their internal parameters to the absolute bone. Shura poured the absolute output of the Blood Supreme into his strikes, while Aji harmonized his vessel with the boundless, unyielding parameters of the Soul Deep artifact and natural mana.

They pushed their bodies past the absolute breaking point, unleashing a level of catastrophic power they had never dared to deploy during their prior engagements.

Miles away, Jonas and Marie were forced to erect dense defensive barriers just to survive the residual shockwaves threatening to tear the glass dimension apart.

Even Jonas could not fathom how long their terminal reserves would sustain this frenzied pace. Stripped of all distraction, the two brothers fought with absolute focus, intent on obliterating their opponent and bringing their century-long conflict to its final, definitive end.