Spinning his combat staff at a sharp upward angle, Aji generated a high-speed rotational vortex that easily deflected Shura’s incoming assault. The black flames possessed catastrophic parameters; the moment stray embers rebounded off Aji’s defensive shield, they slammed into the earth below, triggering thunderous detonations capable of leveling entire mountain ranges.

Dark fireballs rained down continuously across Aji's sector. Halting his staff's rotation, Aji swept his weapon in a wide arc, intercepting the projectiles. Violent explosions erupted across every vector as Aji batted the black fireballs away.

Realizing the defensive stalemate needed to be broken, Aji manifested a localized mana barrier to shield his front line. Unsheathing his colossal energy spear, he channeled unreserved natural parameters into the shaft, adopting a throwing stance.

While Shura’s dark fireballs continued to hammer his barrier, Aji released the glowing spear with absolute kinetic force.

The projectile tore through the air, instantly obliterating Shura’s incoming dark fireballs in a cascade of brilliant explosions. The energy spear hurtled toward Shura’s position, generating a roaring gale of colliding atmospheric winds and secondary shockwaves along its path.

Shura channeled the full parameters of the Blood Supreme, planting his boots firmly into the earth as he raised his hands to intercept the massive, luminous spear.

A storm of dark magic and black celestial lightning converged on Shura’s gauntlets, clashing directly against the incoming energy spear.

BLAAAAAM!

The energy spear shattered into scattering mana embers. Vaulting through the dissipating fog, Shura drove his fist straight toward Aji.

Refusing to yield, Aji leapt forward, maximizing his parameter output by drawing jagged bolts of lightning down from the upper atmosphere to supercharge his frame.

The divine parameters of their respective artifacts flooded their channels: Shura wielded the absolute parameters of the Blood Supreme, while Aji commanded the limitless natural harmonization of the Soul Deep artifact. The collision of these two monumental energy fields generated one of the most destructive catastrophes in the history of the Mirror World.

Had such a cataclysm occurred on the physical plane, entire continents would have been fractured into dust, and the bedrock of the world would have shattered beneath the strain.

BOOM! KABOOM!

Even hundreds of miles away, Jonas and Marie felt the terrifying shockwave of the detonation, hurling them backward through the air. They were forced to erect dense defensive barriers just to survive the residual kinetic wake. Despite their protective arrays, the shockwave scratched their skin and battered their internal channels.

How can their duel generate collateral damage of this scale? Jonas realized that if the grandmasters had fought on the physical plane, hundreds of thousands of lives would have been incinerated by the mere fringe parameters of their clashes.

Observing the duel entirely through their spiritual domains from a safe distance, Jonas and Marie recognized that the parameters commanded by Aji and Shura transcended mortal boundaries entirely. They knew they could never hope to rival such power.

Jonas tugged Marie’s arm, signaling her to retreat further back. Their continued presence near the sector risked catching them in the absolute annihilation of the world's fate. They could only step back, placing the outcome of creation into the hands of destiny. Whichever grandmaster prevailed would dictate the future of the martial world.

As they withdrew to a safer distance, Jonas revealed a grim truth to Marie: Lord Demon Shura had siphoned the total dark parameters of his entire host, from the fallen Five Gates down to the lowest foot soldiers.

"He has finally unmasked his true face," Jonas said grimly. "My darkest fears have materialized. Shura has transcended baseline limits, absorbing the collective dark magic of his entire army through the Blood Supreme."

Marie gasped. So the remaining Annihilation Demons are truly dead, their parameters forcibly ripped away by Shura. Those dark warlords had originally been granted fragments of power derived from the Blood Supreme, meaning Shura possessed the sovereign authority to recall his loaned energy whenever he pleased.

The grim reality of Shura’s grand design was laid bare: he had never cared about his dark army. He had merely utilized them as disposable instruments to gather souls and refine parameters, paving the way for his final ascension.

"What is Shura's ultimate objective, my love?" Marie asked, her voice laced with dread. Jonas clearly understood more than he had previously let on, having quietly guarded the terrifying secrets of Shura’s psychological profile.

That hidden truth had surfaced when Jonas discussed Shura with the two Sky Squad members prior to Aji escorting them away. Through those revelations, Marie had learned the dark ambitions Shura had kept concealed even from his closest lieutenants.

Jonas had shared those details with Barsha and Alicia so the alliance leadership understood the existential threat they faced, ensuring a unified front against the Demon Lord.

"Shura possesses a singular objective: to elevate himself into a sovereign deity and strip every human of free will, reducing humanity to the status of mindless puppets," Jonas explained as they hurried away from the blast zone. "Every mortal shall act solely under Shura's direct command, ensuring a world completely devoid of conflict and strife. That is Shura’s absolute paradise."

Marie shook her head in disbelief. "But... how can Shura forge such a world? Mortals are not marionettes! They possess desires, free will, and dual natures—the capacity for both good and evil."

She struggled to conceptualize a world where every living human functioned as an unthinking automaton obeying Shura's voice. How could such a dystopian vision ever manifest?

"That is the horrifying catch," Jonas replied grimly. "Shura intends to slaughter every living human across the five continents without exception, utilizing the dark parameters of the Blood Supreme. Once all mortals are dead, he will resurrect their physical vessels as soulless thralls bound to his absolute voice. Though physically animated, they will be entirely dead inside—their physical frames seized by demonic parameters."

Marie felt a chill run down her spine. What manner of madness drives a being to orchestrate the slaughter of every living soul on Earth?

"Does Aji understand the full depth of Shura's nature and his ultimate objective?" Marie asked.

Jonas smiled faintly. "Aji understands Shura far better than you or I ever could. His entire existence is bound to a singular mandate: to stop Shura permanently."

Marie fell silent, continuing her retreat alongside her partner. Aji commanded an intimate comprehension of the Demon Lord that defied explanation, prompting the question of whether he had been chosen by the heavens as an instrument of divine balance.

If so, this terminal duel was written into the fabric of destiny itself—and she and Jonas had been placed in this glass dimension by that very same design.

Pushing those heavy philosophical thoughts aside, Marie focused on surviving the residual shocks reverberating across the Mirror World. They were the sole witnesses to a clash that would remain entirely unknown to the physical plane, where surviving grandmasters and dark operatives remained blissfully unaware of the apocalyptic struggle unfolding in the glass realm.

Meanwhile, outside the grand gateway of Prisma City...

Absolute chaos reigned. The surviving dark operatives no longer possessed the will to fight the orthodox alliance. Surrounded on all sides and stripped of their corrupted dark parameters by Lord Demon Shura’s total recall, they were utterly helpless.

Resistance was entirely futile; continuing the clash meant certain death, compounded by the bitter realization that Shura had utterly betrayed and abandoned them. He had been fully prepared to sacrifice his own loyal army to achieve his personal ascension.

Some dark cultists slumped to the earth in defeated silence, while others dropped their weapons and surrendered unconditionally. They had lost their will to live, stripped of all hope of conquering the world through the power of darkness.

Commander Dasatama instructed the alliance grandmasters to secure the surrendering dark operatives. Prisoners would be spared immediate execution, subjected instead to formal interrogation and sentencing based on the severity of their historical crimes.

For the few dark fanatics who attempted to resist, the alliance deployed decisive force, subduing them swiftly.

The Sky Squad assisted in the mop-up operation. Though a handful of cultists attempted desperate breakouts, their baseline strength had been permanently erased when Shura siphoned their dark magic. Stripped of their parameters, they stood no chance against trained grandmasters and were easily captured.

At the edge of Prisma’s fortified battlements, Gayatri gazed upward into the afternoon sky, trying to sense any lingering residual aura left behind by Aji’s portal. She had zero knowledge of where the gateway had transported Shura and Aji.

Faintly, her refined sensory domain still caught the ghost of Aji’s energetic signature—yet he resided neither on this continent nor within the physical plane. He occupied an entirely distinct spatial dimension.

Her initial deduction pointed toward the Second World—the hidden plane that had sheltered the dark stronghold of the Annihilation Demons.

Yet this anomaly felt entirely different. They were not inside the Second World.

"They are inside the Mirror World, Gayatri."

Gayatri whipped her head around in surprise. It was Alicia.

"We were previously transferred into that dimension alongside Barsha to confront the reanimated saints," Alicia explained calmly. "That realm serves as a mirror reflection of our physical plane. Furthermore, two former operatives of the 10 Annihilation Demons whom Aji relocated there are currently residing in that dimension. They have renounced their dark ways."

"Can you pierce the threshold to that dimension, Alicia?" Gayatri asked urgently, recognizing that Alicia possessed the strongest spatial mastery among the Sky Squad.

"I cannot," Alicia replied with a shake of her head. "That dimension operates on structural laws far too complex for conventional portal spellwork. If it were the Second World, I could force a breach. But the Mirror World is an autonomous glass dimension. Even if that realm suffers total devastation during their duel, it possesses an autonomous restorative property that resets the environment back to pristine condition."

Alicia’s explanation brought a sudden wave of clarity to Gayatri. A world that healed its own destruction—a mirror reflection of reality. To bridge the gap, one had to locate the absolute boundary of the glass dimension.

The edge of the world!

Gayatri realized the truth. The central question remained: How did Aji navigate his way in and out of the Mirror World? Had he truly completed the pilgrimage to the edge of the world?