The teleportation portal forged jointly by Gayatri and Alicia vibrated violently. What was happening? Ordinarily, once a spatial conduit stabilized and travelers stepped inside, they would immediately bridge across to the exit vector at their destination.

Instead, Alicia and Gayatri found themselves trapped within a bizarre, unstable dimension composed entirely of glowing energetic lines and absolute darkness. The surrounding expanse was blurred and chaotic, buffeted by fierce, rolling shockwaves echoing through the newly entered realm.

"It appears the dimension itself is collapsing, Alicia!" Gayatri called out over the roar.

"Indeed!" Alicia replied. "Every layer of this spatial plane is in utter turmoil."

A faint point of light glimmered at the far end of their trajectory. As the dimensional turbulence intensified, leaving them zero alternative, they accelerated toward the distant gleam, flying at maximum velocity. The light source expanded rapidly, revealing itself as an active spatial threshold.

Chaos had infiltrated the very conduit they had opened. The Mirror World was undergoing a violent, cataclysmic upheaval; they could feel the dimensional floor shaking beneath them like a tectonic earthquake.

Racing closer to the glowing ring, they dove headfirst through the threshold. The moment they emerged on the other side, a scene of absolute devastation greeted their eyes.

Ruination stretched across every horizon. The landscape was shattered and torn apart, as though an apocalyptic judgment had just swept across the glass dimension.

Before them, a human figure vaulted skyward, hurtling toward a titanic, monstrous entity resembling a dragon forged entirely from midnight darkness. The youth delivered a devastating physical blow, driving his fist straight into the creature’s chest.

The strike... it was Aji. He was deploying his absolute parameter output to assail the dark dragon, concentrating every ounce of his remaining strength into a terminal blow directed at the beast's chest cavity.

BLAAAAM!

Alicia and Gayatri stared in stunned speculation: was the entity locked in combat with Aji none other than Lord Demon Shura? It was entirely plausible. Shura had pushed his demonic transformation to the absolute ceiling, mutating his physical vessel into a titanic dark dragon wrapped in thick, impenetrable scales.

Yet Aji’s strike was catastrophic. Fusing his remaining parameters into a concentrated point, he drove his fist clean through the center of the dark dragon’s chest, bursting out through its spine.

It was an absolute, world-shattering execution blow that completely pulverized the dark dragon’s vital core from front to back. Blurring past the carcass, Aji hung suspended in the air a short distance away.

Gayatri and Alicia held their breath, watching in breathless disbelief.

The massive form of the dark dragon began to fracture, starting from the shattered chest cavity before spreading rapidly across its entire frame. In a matter of seconds, the titanic beast dissolved into fine ash, blowing away into nothingness on the wind.

A radiant, glowing crystal drifted briefly into the air where the dragon had vanished. Yet the moment it materialized, the crystal cracked, melted into dust, and evaporated entirely.

SWOOOSH!

A split second later, Aji remained standing tall in the air—before his physical vessel suddenly gave way. He pitched forward, plunging headfirst toward the earth at terrifying velocity. Completely depleted of parameters, his body was utterly unresponsive.

Instantly, a glowing energetic net materialized beneath him, intercepting Aji just meters above the ground. It was Gayatri’s spellcasting matrix at work.

Aji’s body floated safely upon the cushion of light mana generated by Gayatri’s energetic net.

Exchanging a relieved nod, Alicia and Gayatri descended toward Aji, ensuring his suspended form remained secure. Gayatri slowly lowered the energetic net to the earth.

Simultaneously, the surrounding Mirror World began its autonomous restoration; the pulverized landscape knitted itself back together, and lush green meadows rapidly repopulated the earth.

Yet as Gayatri inspected Aji’s vessel, she gasped in shock at the extensive trauma covering his frame.

Alicia, however, remained calm, already familiar with Aji’s unique regenerative trait from the accounts shared by Jonas and Marie inside the Mirror World. They had previously inflicted severe trauma upon Aji during their duel, only to witness his physical vessel restore itself autonomously.

Now, Gayatri and Alicia watched with their own eyes as celestial light flowed across Aji’s wounds.

The extensive trauma began to knit together rapidly. The healing process did not stem from conscious parameter control; rather, Aji’s physical vessel possessed an autonomous biological response, reacting instantly to repair every micro-tear across his skin and muscle tissue.

Gayatri realized that a powerful celestial artifact embedded deep within Aji’s core was orchestrating the rapid cellular restoration. Within moments, Aji’s wounds were completely healed. Though his tunic remained tattered in several places, his eyelids fluttered open, his gaze clearing as he surveyed his surroundings.

Moving with steady coordination, Aji pushed himself up, stepping off the glowing energetic net. Gayatri promptly dissolved the spell matrix, allowing the mana threads to evaporate into harmless embers.

Stepping onto the restored earth, Aji let out a slow breath. Had he successfully eliminated the Demon Lord?

Scanning the sector, he registered zero residual dark aura belonging to Shura. Even the ambient signature of the Blood Supreme had vanished completely, confirming that the celestial artifact had been pulverized into non-existence.

"Did the two of you come here to assist me?" Aji asked, turning to face the two young women standing beside him.

Alicia and Gayatri remained silent for a moment, still struggling to process how the youth before them had survived such catastrophic trauma, single-handedly defeated the Demon Lord, and still stood tall upon the earth.

"Well... you must have endured an incredible ordeal to breach the Mirror World safely," Aji continued, offering a gentle smile. He recognized that they were likely bewildered by the chaotic events that had just unfolded.

He also knew that moments prior, he had been entirely depleted of parameters, saved only by Gayatri’s prompt intervention.

"Sit with me..."

Aji walked over, seating himself upon a large, smooth boulder. The surrounding atmosphere had settled into a serene, cool breeze, and the landscape had completed its total environmental reset. "In a brief moment, we shall have two visitors joining us."

Still slightly baffled by his words, Alicia and Gayatri exchanged glances before taking seats upon adjacent stones. Before either could speak, two figures dropped down from the sky, landing lightly upon the grass nearby.

Stepping forward with respectful permission, Jonas and Marie approached. Having sensed that the terminal cataclysm had finally concluded, they had decided to verify the identity of the grandmaster who had emerged victorious from the Mirror World's greatest duel.

"A magnificent day, is it not?" Aji offered a warm smile, looking sequentially at the four individuals gathered around him.