I met his gaze without flinching. "And if you decide to go all out and fight me here, I won’t stop you. But understand this first, you will lose everything."
I didn’t raise my voice. The meaning behind my words was clear enough. A full clash between us in this place would turn the entire second layer into rubble. Thousands of demons were on this layer. None of them would survive.
That was finally enough to make his rising aura hesitate.
Saleos looked at me properly for the first time. His sharp eyes moved from my face to my posture, then down to my hands. Then they shifted to Knight and Lyrate, both hidden beneath their cloaks, their presence controlled but unmistakably dangerous.
His aura didn’t vanish, but it stopped climbing.
"Where is Dravon?" he asked again, his tone colder now.
I tilted my head slightly. "Why would I know where Dravon is? Or who he is, for that matter?"
That earned me a reaction. A faint tightening around his eyes. A small shift in his stance.
Before he could respond, I spoke again.
"Tell me something, Commander," I said lightly. "Why don’t you look surprised?"
He didn’t answer.
I took another step forward. "Most people panic when they’re dragged off a battlefield in the middle of a war. Most people rage. Or shout. Or attack without thinking."
My eyes stayed locked on his. "But you didn’t react," I said calmly. "That’s the strange part. It almost feels like you expected this to happen."
Saleos did not answer right away. His aura was still there, heavy and dangerous, but it no longer surged forward. It circled him instead, contained, like a blade held just short of a strike.
"Let me guess," I continued, my voice steady. "You underestimated me. You must have thought there was no way a Transcendent sitting in the low three hundreds could do anything to you, a demon who had crossed four hundred. You knew I was watching. You knew I was coming. And you still stayed in place."
I let out a small breath. "That confidence is what brought you here."
For a moment, nothing moved.
Then Saleos nodded.
"Yes," he said plainly. "I underestimated you."
There was no anger in his voice. No pride either. Just honesty.
"You are strong," he continued. "And more importantly... you are unusual."
When he said that word, I felt it. The shift in his thinking. The way his eyes sharpened, with calculation. He was no longer treating me as a reckless intruder. He was reassessing me as a variable.
I nodded once. "That’s fair."
"What’s done is done," I said. "You’re here. That was my goal. Dravon is safe, and he prepared some other place entirely. I chose this place instead."
I gestured around lightly. "This is the top-floor commander room of the second layer. It took effort to isolate it without alerting anyone. But I wanted a place where we could talk without the battlefield breathing down our necks."
Saleos’s gaze flicked briefly around the room. He understood immediately what that meant.
Then his eyes returned to the cocoon beside Lyrate.
"Release Phegor," he said, his tone firm. Not a request.
I shook my head without hesitation.
"No, Commander."
His eyes hardened slightly, but I did not let him speak.
"There’s a reason I went out of my way to bring him here," I continued. "And there’s a reason I sealed him this thoroughly. We will talk first. When we’re done, I’ll explain why he’s here."
For a few seconds, the air between us felt tight.
Then Saleos did something unexpected.
He relaxed.
"You are either very confident," he said slowly, "or very reckless."
I smiled faintly. "Why can’t I be a recklessly confident individual."
His gaze stayed on me, heavy and sharp. "If you’ve brought me here to threaten me, it won’t work. If you’ve brought me here to bargain, you’d better make it worth the risk you just took."
I met his eyes without flinching.
"I didn’t bring you here to threaten you," I said. "And I didn’t bring you here to bargain."
I paused.
"I brought you here to think of ways to permanently close this rift."
"There is only one way, not ways. Remove the Eternal and his towers and we will be in control." He replied.
I met his gaze without backing down.
"That’s the obvious answer," I said calmly. "Kill the Eternal. Break the tower. Everyone here knows that much."
Saleos let out a short, humorless breath. "And yet it hasn’t been done. Not in decades."
"Because every time someone strong enough appears," I replied, "the other side answers with something just as strong. Saints step in, and the battlefield turns into a graveyard. You don’t lose territory but you lose people."
His jaw tightened. He didn’t deny it.
I met his gaze without backing down.
"You think you’re saying something new?" he asked. There was no anger in his voice now, only exhaustion. "We’ve planned assassinations. Coordinated strikes. Sacrificial charges. Every option ends the same way. We fail, and more demons die."
"I know," I said calmly. "From your side, it looks like the rift is untouchable. Like it’s a wall you can only bleed against. But that doesn’t mean it’s invincible."
His eyes sharpened slightly.
"So you’re asking me to gamble," he said. "Again."
"I’m asking you to let me gamble," I corrected. "You don’t need to move a single battalion. I don’t need reinforcements. I don’t need your troops to die for my plan. All I want is access and silence. No interference from your side while we act."
"And after that?" he asked. "What if you fail?"
"Then nothing changes," I replied. "You lose nothing extra. The rift stays where it is, and you go back to holding the line like you’ve been doing for years."
"And if you’re lying?" he said. "If you’re acting on their behalf? If this is just a long play to strike us when we’re blind?"
I let out a slow breath.
"Commander," I said, "if they wanted to crush your forces, they wouldn’t need something this complicated. You know that. I know that. Look at the battlefield. Look at how they play around with your forces. They’re not desperate."
Saleos went silent.
For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The distant hum of the battlefield vibrated through the reinforced walls, a constant reminder of what waited outside.
Finally, he spoke again, his voice lower.
"And you think you can change that."