Four more orange-cored commanders nearby leave their posts, flying through the air just above the desert's rising and falling dunes toward the last known point of the downed knights and the source of the distress transmission from minutes ago.

The thirteen monstrous purple eyes floating above the edge of the abyss blink simultaneously again as Luna speaks to Arie, while they run past their previous prey.

"More of those Orange Demons are on the way, and dozens of reds are coming into view. They're building structures in Sector 1..."

"Keep sending me their exact locations and weak points. I can handle a few more of them." Arie responds, drawing back more arrows now laced with small threads of orange from the last commander's core.

Dozens of rapid-fire shots go off in the dead of night with pinpoint accuracy, thanks to the eyes of the chimera above.

Paralyzing poison spreads through the Demonic Commanders before they even realize they've been hit, as Arie uses his Mythic Grade Stealth skill to disappear from their senses and attack from their blind spots.

"I'm hit—"

"Need more backup, send—mo—"

"I can't see... I can't move—"

"General—"

Bleak messages echo through the transmission device in the general's helmet on the way as one commander after another is taken out by a mysterious demonic force from the abyss.

—

From afar, I watch as the high-level yellow core bends space around him as he rockets through the air.

Luna's eyes in the sky sense it as it approaches, and I watch Arie charge up another set of arrows and let them fly as a long-range attack to test this approaching opponent's strength.

The first two bounce off, as expected; however, the third and most powerful arrow, imbued with orange threads from four commanders, does the same, heading toward the general's chestplate and disintegrating the instant it makes impact.

Clear shock and awe ripple through the two of them.

Taking on Demons that are naturally stronger than any humans of the same level is a feat in its own right.

They've even faced Demons with Divine Energy of the second rank, the orange core, without forming their own divine cores.

They've grown incredibly strong, but taking on a Demon on the verge of transitioning to a True Core without any divine energy would be absurd.

My gaze tracks the surrounding desert area to pinpoint dungeons I could teleport to in order to intervene, but the General has its sights set on them, and their impact time will be well before I can get between them.

The closest dungeon point I could access is still hundreds of kilometers away.

My gaze shifts to the Vermillion family head, but he still just stares at the throne, uninterested in the battle.

Then, I take a deep breath and open up a telepathy channel between myself, Arie, and Luna while pressing a few buttons on my system interface.

"Welcome back, you two. Don't go getting yourselves killed on the day you finally decide to return."

I add Arie as the third General and send a message to him as he pulls back three more arrows, and the yellow-glowing Demon draws its sword back, preparing a long-range attack to take the two of them out in a single strike.

"Open up your status before you take the shot. I got you a coming-home present."

Arie's eyes widen at the long-range telepathy channel from me, one of the last things he expected in the moment, but he mentally checks his status, struck with even more surprise.

His expression turns focused and calculated moments later, and the Demon that approaches sends a crescent of dense Demonic Soul Energy tethered with yellow divine threads their way.

It carves out the desert on all sides, leaving a hole hundreds of meters deep from its aura alone as it gets too close to the ground.

Luna's eyes blink, then disappear, but Arie grins and speaks out loud.

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"Stand behind me; don't worry, I've got this..."

His base stats rise as 1% of over 6.2 million links of loyalty flood into his system, and his greater archer form naturally grows larger.

The General sends a transmission back to his leader right after he swings.

"They're taken care of, as requested. We've lost four commanders, though, it will—"

But he stops mid-sentence as Arie's aura expands and erupts with a deadly pressure hundreds of times stronger than it was seconds ago.

He releases all three of his arrows in a single shot, the two weaker white and purple ones spinning in front of the darker shot as they collide with the Demon's slash.

The night sky lights up in a purple and yellow flash as massive amounts of desert are decimated, and the two front arrows explode, splitting and weakening the demonic slash.

Two halves of the attack separate to opposite sides of the Archer and the Wind Mage, carving out the desert and leaving them on a small elevated level of sand while Arie's final arrow, shrouded in darkness and concealed by his stealth skill, rips through the open air.

There's a second explosion of light and divine radiation as it hits the Demon's chestplate right where his last attack did, but this time shattering it to pieces and piercing through, spreading the strongest dose of an Ascended Demon Scorpion's Poisonous Essence through its bloodstream in an instant.

—

While in any other circumstance, I would be happy about this outcome, there is a large looming fear that makes me yell through our link.

"Now fall back! You have no idea what you're dealing with here... That Demon is child's play compared to what you're walking into right now. Do not even stop to drain its Soul Energy. Run!"

As these words enter their minds, the air pressure through the entire Dark Continent shifts, and a dreadful demonic voice replies, forcefully adding itself to our link.

"Don't think you can kill my men and leave so easily..."

The Vermillion Family head disappears into thin air, traveling hundreds of kilometers before I can even blink, reappearing above the fallen general right in front of Arie.

I instantly reply.

"They're not dead... Let's settle this before we do something impossible to take back. "

The Demon shifts its gaze toward me, still thousands of kilometers away, and sends another wave of intimidation just like before.

"You have no right to negotiate. Die, human."

This time, I'm prepared to receive it, activating my power-borrowing perk from my rising emperor's domain, and pull 5% without thinking twice, drawing tens of millions of stat points per stat in an instant, taking the mental attack on without batting an eye.

Ember's stats and mana control rocket upward as well, thanks to our link, and Abby reactivates her Immortal form to withstand the new mana control aura blasting out of me, making the air and desert below vibrate for hundreds of kilometers without even sending out an attack.

The Demon's gaze tightens, and I feel it send another burst my way, this one even stronger than before.

My initial instincts are surprise mixed with fear, as the realization dawns that this Demon was still holding back.

I pull another 5% of stats, increasing the total amount borrowed to 10%, and when this second wave hits me, I'm glad I did so.

My head rings and pounds as pins and needles fill all my senses, but I stare forward without moving a muscle.

I get ready to steal every single stat available, but the Demon grins, showing me his sharp white teeth—the first bit of emotion I've seen out of this noble entity that isn't dread or anger.

He looks toward Arie and Luna, then back to me, sending a message in the same dreadful tone.

"Five minutes. I want all my men in the same condition you met them, back up and working, and we're even. You're not as weak as I thought. You will be useful once this world is mine. It would be a shame to kill a powerful soldier."

As these words enter my mind, I'm temporarily put at ease, allowing me to use my full perception to focus only on the situation at hand, and I realize that the 10% of stats and mana control I've taken has led to catastrophic events.

For over 500 km in every direction from me, a domineering aura radiates, that would easily knock out any yellow core.

Even in the Crimson City, over 2,000 kilometers away, and in the 8 Great Regions, over 5,000 kilometers away, a heavy pressure is felt, and many weaker hunters feel light-headed, while others are woken up in the dead of night by the eerie sensation of killing intent. Everyone on this side of the world holds their breath, realizing something big is happening.

It's mostly directed forward at the Demon, but others are caught in the crossfire without me even realizing it.

Ember suppresses his aura, shielding Abby, as even in her Immortal form, it's quite dangerous to be this close to me right now.

My eyes widen, and I force my aura to retreat behind my purple barrier, allowing everyone to breathe.

Then I send a message back.

"We'll get it done."

The Demon disappears, then reappears back in his original spot in front of the other yellow cores, crosses his arms, and looks at the throne with an unbothered gaze, but sends me a private word of warning.

"You and I both know if we fought here, no one would survive. This small world cannot handle it. As much as I want to put you in your place, it would cost me 60 million humans in the process. Let us save this dispute for inside the throne—assuming that Redgrave fellow doesn't kill you first. Thirty hours remain."

He forcefully severs the link and stares ahead.

I want to ask him what he meant by that last statement about one of the big three, but his mind is an unbreakable fortress that I can't breach to ask.

So my attention shifts elsewhere, thinking about the area my aura just reached, affecting millions of people, and the fact that I could still increase it by taking 20% more stats if I wanted. Then, I picture what an attack using that kind of power would produce...

It leads me to think about whether or not that Demon was even using its full power, and I lean toward no because of the fact that I still couldn't get a single reading on its status while borrowing 10%.

Before I can think any further, messages from allies come streaming into my head from all over the nations as they felt that wave.

I block them all out and send messages to Arie, Luna, Abby, and Ember.

"This isn't the welcome back party I expected to host for you two, but at least it's interesting. Five minutes to heal them, here's the plan—"

I explain the plan while airstepping over to Ember, powering down to my base form but keeping all my borrowed stats, and hopping on his back.

Abby gets on behind me and holds on tight while the purple barrier envelops us both.

With a flap of Ember's wings, we fly toward the Abyss.