As all sides made their final preparations for the decisive battle...
The Shadow Sect awoke to news that struck like an earthquake.
Fulghor—the towering War General ..came charging toward the main headquarters where Gehrman was stationed.
He was not alone.
Abraham accompanied him.
The latter looked deeply unsettled. And likewise... the War General of the Shadow Sect carried visible tension in his expression.
It took only seconds for that unease to spread through everyone present.
"Frey has disappeared. There’s no trace of him."
Abraham spoke first.
Fulghor followed immediately after.
"Gehrman... you felt it too, didn’t you?"
The blue-eyed man sat there, surrounded by the greatest heroes of humanity and the most influential figures.
The Pantheon delegation was present as well. All of them had been preparing their next move.
But everything came to a halt the moment they sensed it from afar.
"Violent aura eruptions... an overwhelming amount..."
"That... is Thanatos’ aura. Without question."
Fulghor’s voice carried certainty.
"Thanatos is fighting someone. And that someone is most likely—"
"Frey." Gehrman completed the sentence, fully understanding what Fulghor implied.
But from his expression—his reaction— Fulghor realized something crucial.
Gehrman had not known.
"You weren’t the one who sent him?"
Gehrman shook his head.
"I did not."
Which meant ..
Frey had moved entirely on his own... without informing anyone.
"What the hell is he thinking?!" shouted Nova Starlight, fury evident in his voice.
"He moves alone now, when we need him the most? And didn’t you say that this so-called Thanatos stands at the peak of SSS rank?!"
Nova’s words deepened the frowns around the room.
"The very peak of SSS. We’re talking about the seventh stage here. Frey Starlight only recently broke through the first. He’ll be annihilated if he fights him!" added Inver Sunlight.
"We must go and save him immediately!"
Many of humanity’s heroes urged the same .. insisting they rush to Frey’s aid at any cost.
But...
No response came from the Shadow Sect’s side.
They remained silent for a moment.
"What’s wrong with you? Why is none of you saying anything?!" Nova shouted again, stunned by the Shadow Sect’s cold composure.
What Fulghor said next, however, silenced everyone .. and worsened the crisis.
"Frey Starlight... I don’t know when he learned how to do it, but he erected a barrier around the battlefield where he’s fighting Thanatos."
"And what of it?!"
Fulghor paused briefly before answering.
"The barrier is powerful. He did it deliberately ..to delay our detection of the violent aura fluctuations from their clash."
He exhaled slowly.
"And I suspect he meant to prevent the demon side from interfering as well."
"In other words..." Fulghor’s tone deepened.
"Since we’ve now detected their auras... then most likely..."
Gehrman finished the thought.
"The battle has already ended. The result has been decided."
That was what truly chilled their hearts.
Especially Abraham Starlight, whose clenched fist nearly burst with force.
"If we go now," Gehrman continued calmly, "we will find nothing but a ruined battlefield... devastation... the victor... and the corpse of the defeated."
Silence followed.
Many swallowed hard, a dreadful feeling settling over them.
"You’re telling me... we can do nothing?" someone asked hoarsely.
"That is correct," Gehrman affirmed.
For once, the blue-eyed man appeared unsettled.
Despite all his knowledge...
Despite everything he possessed...
He had not foreseen this.
"Frey Starlight..."
Gehrman thought.
’That young man is not a fool. He knows full well that Thanatos is stronger. Even if he obtained a new world-breaking ability... victory against a peak-stage warrior like that is nearly impossible.’
’So... why?’
Why would Frey make such a reckless decision alone .. without consulting anyone?
He had left them no choice.
No room to act.
"I do not understand you humans... nor you fighters of the Shadow Sect."
A new voice joined them.
It was the Dragon Emperor .. kalameet.
He spoke arrogantly, arms crossed over his chest.
"Frey Starlight is a warrior who chose his battle and went to fight it of his own will. Why, then, do I see you lamenting here?"
kalameet stepped forward, gesturing toward the direction from which the overwhelming aura had erupted.
"You place great hopes upon him... yet you do not trust him enough to believe he can survive a single battle."
His golden gaze swept across them.
"If that is the extent of your faith in him... then I see no hope in the coming war."
His words struck deep.
And once he finished speaking ..
kalameet slowly rose into the air.
Fulghor called out to him.
"What are you planning to do?"
"Is it not obvious?" kalameet replied coolly.
"I will go and see with my own eyes."
Kalameet spoke before continuing ..
"I will witness the outcome of the battle chosen by the one called... Frey Starlight. I had intended to meet him regardless."
Seeing the Dragon Emperor move to depart, many present immediately followed.
Foremost among them were Abraham and Fulghor, both expressing their intent to go as well.
"What you said was not wrong, Dragon Emperor," Fulghor said calmly. "We have no choice but to trust him... and what he is capable of."
Golden power flared around Fulghor as he enveloped those present within his aura, lifting them all at once.
"Let us go... and witness with our own eyes the battle he chose."
In an instant ..
They shot into the sky at astonishing speed. Fulghor adjusted their course and led them toward the former lands of the Empire... toward the exact location where Frey Starlight and Thanatos Adamos had clashed.
With every passing second, the expressions on their faces grew heavier.
Especially Abraham Starlight.
’He was with me... right beside me... yet I failed to perceive his intent. I failed to understand why he vanished...’
He blamed himself .. for never truly being able to understand his son.
But he suppressed the guilt.
And chose to believe in him instead.
Yet mere seconds later ..
That faith wavered.
And turned into dread.
Why?
Because they saw it.
They saw the battlefield from afar ..
Staring at it with eyes that nearly burst from their sockets.
All of them silently asked the same question.
"Is that... truly a battlefield?"
It was a fair question.
Because it did not look like one.
Before them ..
A colossal maelstrom had formed.
A massive vortex that had swallowed not only the capital, Belgrade...
But the entire Empire.
Blue lightning crackled violently through it—dark and thunderous.
Interwoven with it was a sinister violet storm.
"An Aura Tempest..." Gehrman murmured, narrowing his eyes.
It was a natural phenomenon .. born from the deafening clash of two transcendental auras that exceeded all limits.
Using his golden aura as protection, Fulghor pierced through the storm, enduring the roaring bolts of aura-lightning.
Moments later ..
They emerged on the other side.
And what greeted them...
Left them speechless.
"The Empire... has been completely destroyed..."
An entire continent ..
Shattered.
The surrounding seas had erupted into chaos, swallowing what remained from all directions.
The Empire was no longer a landmass ..
But scattered islands, torn apart by the sheer violence of the blows exchanged by those who had fought here.
One island after another sank beneath merciless waves, devoured by the raging ocean trapped within the colossal vortex.
The delegation of the Shadow Sect advanced deeper into that inferno.
All of them stunned.
Unable to utter a single word.
Now ..
There was only one thing they wished to know.
The result.
Who had won?
Who had fallen?
After such devastation ..
After such ruin ..
Who was still standing?
For a fleeting moment, a horrifying image crossed their minds.
A nightmare none of them wished to witness.
Thanatos... standing triumphant.
And beside him ..
Frey Starlight.
Reduced to nothing more than a corpse.
An obedient servant.
The thought alone was suffocating.
But soon ..
They finally reached the heart of it.
And learned the truth they had come for.
There ..
Amid a single fragment of land encircled entirely by the raging sea ..
The ocean’s demonic waters dared not approach that specific spot.
As though they feared it.
As though they respected the one standing upon it.
The warriors of the Shadow Sect descended there ..
Eyes wide.
Breaths halted.
Mouths nearly falling open ...
As they beheld the victor of that massacre.