The Eastern Front was not just a skirmish. It was massive, full. scale war. When Luna, Velanor, Catherine, and Soltheia marched to the ruined eastern borders, they did not go alone. Seyana had given them command of a massive army. Ten thousand armed Solaris infantry, seasoned border guards, and elite Sylphyros rangers stood in tight formations behind the skewering granite walls Velanor had raised.

Because the mana in the air was too thin for normal soldiers to cast spells, they relied entirely on steel and strength.

THWACK!

A thousand crossbows fired at the exact same time. The thick steel bolts rained down mercilessly into the rolling tide of the Black Mist. They aimed for the joints, pinning the spasming Aberrations to the ground.

Whenever a Black Mist Knight managed to teleport past the initial volley, they were instantly met by a brutal wall of overlapping iron shields and long steel spears.

"Hold the line!" Velanor Banner roared, his voice carrying over the deafening clash of metal. The young earth mage constantly shifted the dirt beneath the soldiers’ boots, creating sudden trenches to trip the shadows and raising small rock barricades to protect his men.

Catherine Sylphyros moved with lethal, elegant grace along the front lines. She didn’t waste her internal core on blizzards. She simply touched the steel tips of the soldiers’ spears, enchanting the metal with a freezing edge of pure ice that shattered the corrupted armor of the knights.

Behind the shield wall, Soltheia and a dozen combat medics worked, dragging wounded soldiers to safety and stitching their wounds before the dark mist could infect their blood. But the army of ten thousand men was only able to fight because of one person.

Luna Zephyros stood at the front of the Vanguard, fully exposed atop the granite wall. His stark white hair blew in the cold wind. His glowing silver cosmic eye was locked on the horizon. He was acting as an invisible shield.

Miles away, the three dark Commanders, the King, the Queen, and the Jack were projecting an aura of pure despair, designed to make the mortal army lose their minds and drop their weapons in terror. But Luna’s passive gravity blocked it. The tiny drop of infinite, primordial mana burning in his left eye created an invisible dome of weight over the human army. It crushed the dark aura, keeping the soldiers’ minds clear and their courage intact.

"They are not moving," Catherine noted quietly, stepping up beside Luna. She looked at the three terrifying silhouettes standing still in the distance. "They are just letting their foot soldiers die."

"They are testing our endurance," Luna replied, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. "They want to see how long I can hold this gravity dome before my brain melts. They think the army will break the second I blink."

Luna offered a faint, arrogant smirk.

"But I don’t plan on blinking anytime soon," the Night Emperor whispered. "Let them wait. We hold the wall."

****

Miles away in the burning south, the demon horde was breaking. The Colosseum Champions, backed by the brutal synergy of Kairos and his father, had turned the valley into a slaughterhouse.

Ignis and Daemon Sylphyros had burned the eastern flank, leaving nothing but piles of charred, black bones. Terravarous had beaten the largest brutes into bloody pulp with his diamond fists. The Dracortis siblings had drowned, and crushed the center of the swarm. The surviving demons were beginning to back away. The starving, feral monsters were feeling fear.

Up on the distant volcanic ridge, the Eight Nightmares watched their army fail.

Seven of the terrifying silhouettes remained still. They did not care about the dying demons, but the largest silhouette had lost its patience. It was a hulking, monstrous mountain of pure muscle. It let out a low growl that shook the bedrock of the valley. It gripped the hilt of its colossal greatsword with one hand. It slowly bent its knees and expeditiously leaped off the ridge.

Down in the valley, Karl abruptly stopped swinging his burning broadsword. The old Zephyros General looked up at the burning red sky. His single dark eye widened.

"Brace yourselves!" Karl roared, his voice filled with genuine urgency. "Get back!"

Kairos looked up. A shadow blotted the red sky. It was falling toward the center of the battlefield, moving with the unstoppable speed of a falling meteor.

BOOM!

The impact was devastating. The massive figure slammed into the rock floor of the valley. The sheer shockwave abruptly erupted outward like a bomb. It pulverized hundreds of demons caught in the blast radius, turning them into bloody mist.

Kairos crossed his arms, digging his boots into the ground, but the shockwave still pushed him staggering backward for twenty feet. Terravarous had to anchor himself with earth magic just to keep from being thrown through the air.

The dark smoke and boiling red dust plumed into the sky, obscuring the crater. The entire battlefield went silent. The surviving demons dropped to their bellies, whining like beaten dogs, pressing their faces into the dirt in terrified submission.

THUD! THUD!

The heavy, thudding footsteps echoed from inside the smoke. The monster slowly walked out of the crater. It was tall, easily standing twelve feet tall. Its body was covered in thick gray skin that looked like hardened iron. Jagged bone spikes protruded violently from its broad shoulders and spine. It wore a rusted dark iron plating strapped across its waist and legs.

It was Dyrroth, The Rumbling Beast. He was a monster of raw strength and dark magic, possessing power equal to Malgreth himself, but the most terrifying thing about him was the weapon he dragged loosely in his right hand. It was a jagged greatsword named Darkikor. The blade was pitch-black. It didn’t reflect the red light of the sky, it ate it. The air around the sword warped and spasmed, consuming the light and radiating an aura of pure destruction. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Dyrroth stopped walking. He slowly rolled his spiked neck, letting out a rumbling exhale that smelled of burnt copper and death. He didn’t watch Arena Champions. He ignored Terravarous, Ignis, and Seyana. His shimmering yellow eyes locked onto Kairos.

Dyrroth could smell it. He could smell the divine holy light pulsing inside Kairos’ blood. He recognized the exact power that had destroyed his vanguard and humiliated his army.

"You smell like the old gods," Dyrroth’s voice was a guttural earthquake that rattled the teeth of everyone in the valley. "You smell like rotting light."

Karl stepped forward, his dark red fire flaring to life around his broadsword. The old General placed himself between the towering demon and his son.

"I don’t care what he smells like, ugly bastard," Karl growled, his lone eye fearless. "You are not taking a single step closer to him."

FLICK!!

Dyrroth didn’t even look at Karl. He simply casually flicked his wrist, swinging Darkikor in a lazy sweep. The massive black sword didn’t physically touch Karl. But the sheer wave of dark magic that erupted from the blade was monstrous.

Karl raised his burning broadsword to block, but the dark magic swallowed his red fire. The heavy impact slammed into the old General like a speeding train. Karl was thrown backward, levitated off his feet, and smashed into a jagged boulder fifty feet away.

"Dad!" Kairos yelled, his heart skipping a beat.

Karl coughed, spitting a mouthful of blood into the dirt, but he slowly pushed himself up on one knee. He was alive, but his leather armor was shattered across his chest.

Dyrroth slowly turned his colossal greatsword, pointing the jagged black tip at Kairos.

"The tiny toys are boring," Dyrroth rumbled, his yellow eyes darting onto Kairos. "You hold the broken law. Show me how hard a god can bleed."

Ignis and Daemon Sylphyros stepped forward, raising their burning swords. Terravarous cracked his diamond fists. The Arena Champions tightened their grips, ready to swarm the warlord together.

"No!" Kairos commanded loudly, his voice carrying the absolute authority of the Primordial Law. The silver light in his eyes flared with a brilliant intensity.

Ignis stopped. Terravarous frowned.

Kairos stepped past the Vanguard Generals. He walked alone toward the towering demon warlord. He held his dull, blackened silver sword firmly in his right hand.

"Kairos, don’t be an idiot!" Ignis yelled, dropping his arrogant tone. "That thing is a General! Its magic is dense! You cannot fight it alone!"

"If you all attack him, his dark sword will eat your magic and cut you in half," Kairos said, never taking his silver eyes off Dyrroth. "He is too fast for your spells, and he is too strong for your armor. You cannot fight him."

Kairos stopped twenty feet away from the Rumbling Beast. He was a tiny, fragile teenage boy standing in front of a twelve foot mountain of dark iron and cursed bone. The size difference was laughable.

But Kairos did not feel small. The divine blood pumping through his veins hummed perfectly. His base 88 Strength and 95 Agility were completely primed. He didn’t have a blue digital screen to tell him the boss’ level or warn him of a fatal attack.

"Hold the horde," Kairos ordered his friends, his voice calm. "Keep Seyana safe. I am going to put this dog back on its leash."

Dyrroth let out a booming laugh that entirely shook the valley. The demon warlord found the mortal’s arrogance hilarious.

"You are going to break, little boy," Dyrroth mocked.

He raised Darkikor high into the burning red sky with both hands. The cursed black blade sucked the light out of the air, plunging the immediate area into a suffocating shadow.

Kairos didn’t banter. He triggered the law in his blood. He blurred into motion, pushing his timeline to the limit. The Conqueror of Time met the Rumbling Beast in the center of the bloody ash.

The brutal one-on-one duel of the southern war had begun.