Fulghor, the War General of the Shadow Sect, clearly wanted to join the fight—but his current condition wouldn’t allow it.
"I can tell you’ve burned through all your aura fighting the Third-Rank Demoness," Gehrman observed sharply.
Fulghor nodded as Gehrman climbed onto his shoulder and they moved away together.
"I’m sorry, old friend. If you hadn’t given me half your power, this wouldn’t have happened," Gehrman said.
"There’s no need to apologize," Fulghor replied calmly. "My power contributed to the fall of the Fourth-Rank High Demon, Wesker. That alone is reason enough to give you my full strength .. let alone half."
Hearing that, Gehrman let out a quiet breath of relief as he stood atop Fulghor’s shoulder.
Slowly, he turned to look back at the battlefield behind them.
Frey Starlight was running in the opposite direction, carrying his family .. Abraham and Ada.
Because Amon’s Transparent World restricted his teleportation, Frey was forced to physically run beyond its range before he could use long-distance teleportation again. Within the domain, he could only teleport short distances inside the barrier itself.
That was why Frey had no choice but to run—carrying his family while cutting down corpses with his sword at the same time.
Despite the dire situation, Frey remained composed. His emotions barely showed anymore.
Watching this, Gehrman realized something had changed within Frey.
Then ..
At that moment, as Gehrman watched Frey’s retreating back ..
Frey turned around.
His heightened senses pierced through distance and chaos, locking onto Gehrman’s gaze .. clear proof of how much Frey Starlight had grown.
Gehrman’s blue eyes met Frey’s dark ones.
A few silent seconds passed.
Then, simultaneously, the two nodded to each other.
Perhaps for the first time, they stood on equal footing.
No longer a manipulative engineer and a naïve human ..
But two true warriors, fighting the same war.
And so, the Shadow Sect withdrew from the battlefield, leaving behind the newly emerged third party to sow chaos alongside the demons.
In time, this entire conflict would become a legendary event ..
The War of Shadows.
...
...
...
Time continued to move forward.
Events did not stop.
A full day passed since the battle’s end—and its consequences sent shockwaves across the world.
News spread everywhere at a terrifying pace .. not only across Earth, but throughout the greater world itself.
The most important reports could be summarized as follows:
The Shadow Sect has returned, launching a devastating battle against the High Demons.
The outcome was staggering.
Its most notable aftermath:
The Shadow Sect successfully killed the Thirteenth-Rank High Demon, Geppetto .. one of the demons’ most crucial weapons of war.
The Shadow Sect succeeded in killing one of the Top Ten High Demons .. specifically, the Tenth Rank, the War General of the Demons... Zibar, bearer of the Soul of Reincarnation.
This news alone struck like a thunderbolt, sending shockwaves across the world. It had been many long years since anyone had managed to kill even a single member of the Ten High Demons.
But the truly shocking news... came immediately after.
Under the leadership of Saint Gehrman, who had returned to the battlefield, the Shadow Sect also succeeded in killing the Fourth High Rank—Wesker, bearer of the King’s Eye.
The shock from this revelation caused the entire world to erupt—yet it did not end there.
Thanatos had been freed.
One of the Original Soul Bearers had reappeared upon Planet Earth.
All of these reports arrived within a single day .. and the war on Earth was still ongoing.
These were events that shook the entire world to its core .. especially the news of Wesker’s fall.
---
Golmara — Home of the Ghouls
News of the Fourth High Rank’s death reached the ears of an ancient monster.
A being with four arms and a body of dark crimson flesh ..
The third among the Seven Great Powers...
The Ghoul King, Radagon.
"That despicable creature... Wesker... is dead?"
The King of Ghouls looked stunned .. unable to believe it ..
having personally fought that demon before and failed to kill him.
---
At the same time—
Lucaria, the land of mages isolated from the world, also learned of the news.
Yet the sorcerers ignored it, maintaining their isolation and refusing to involve themselves with the outside world.
Unlike them ..
The news caught the attention of a man who had recently entered the Seven Great Powers,
currently holding the Fifth Rank ...
Sieghart, the Ascendant Prodigy.
"Planet Earth? I’ve never heard of it before..."
That was his initial reaction.
But once he learned what had occurred there ..
The Ascendant Prodigy altered the course of his journey, setting his sights on a new destination.
...
...
...
The news continued to spread ..
yet it failed to reach the ears of Midir, the First of the Seven Great Powers,
or Orested, the Second ...
both of whom had already moved toward the mysterious continent that had appeared in the middle of the cosmos.
That event alone was monumental.
And now, the news from Earth only further escalated the tension across the entire world.
"What in the world is happening?"
That was the question on everyone’s lips.
The emergence of the mysterious continent had drawn countless great powers,
and a massive war was inevitable there—
with demons and numerous other races invading the land simultaneously.
At the same time ..
A brutal war erupted in a distant corner of the universe,
on a fragile planet called Earth ..
a war that brought together the ancient Shadow Sect and the High Demons, greatly increasing its gravity.
After a long era of peace and calm ..
It seemed that the age of war had returned.
Yet the world did not realize at the time
that what was about to follow would surpass everything that came before ..
that the coming catastrophe would sweep over them all,
without warning...
and without mercy.
...
...
...
The Day After the Battle
(The hour the announcement of Wesker’s death was made)
The battle between Amon and Thanatos ended without a decisive outcome after Neto intervened.
The fight continued for a long time, but Thanatos was unable to kill his opponents due to the absence of his greatest weapon—the Death Soul—and the lack of powerful corpses within his arsenal.
His individual strength was terrifying ..
But it was not enough to defeat Amon and Nito together.
The battle ultimately ended with all parties withdrawing,
after a vast portion of the Empire was utterly destroyed.
The demon faction settled within Ultras Continent.
As for Thanatos, he claimed the Empire as his own territory
and began building a new army from the corpses there ..
preparing for his true return.
In response, the Shadow Sect evacuated as many humans as possible, guiding them toward the east.
Despite saving large numbers of Imperial citizens, many still fell into Thanatos’ hands ..
He had become a third independent force in the conflict on Earth.
The Shadow Sect established itself in the east ..
in what was once known as the Eastern Nightmare Lands.
Thus, Planet Earth was now divided into three opposing sides,
their escalating war destined to unleash ever greater destruction.