A hundred miles from the ruins, Emery stood at the edge of a quiet valley, his gaze fixed on the distant battlefield.

Klea had told him of her plan, though she had deliberately left out many of the details. She had insisted that everything was thoroughly prepared and had urged him not to interrupt his cultivation for a matter she believed she could handle herself.

Still, after what had happened to Gwen, Emery found it impossible to remain completely detached.

He had taken a brief pause from his seclusion, choosing instead to observe the battle from afar without revealing his presence.

Typhon stood beside him, equally silent until the pillar of violet flame erupted across the battlefield.

As the Starflame swallowed Klea whole, the Qilin hybrid’s expression tightened.

"She’s in trouble," Typhon said, "We’re still not making a move?"

Emery closed his eyes for a brief moment before calmly shaking his head.

###

At the heart of the ruins, the masked man laughed.

He had watched the Starflame engulf the woman completely. He had seen the Fey lion charge desperately to save her, only to be driven back by the overwhelming heat. And when the violet inferno finally subsided, nothing remained except a charred figure lying motionless upon the shattered stone.

With leisurely confidence, he approached the body.

Then he stopped.

The corpse was not Klea.

It was a hybrid woman, two horns curling backward from her brow. Her flesh was scorched black, her robes burned to cinders, yet a faint breath still escaped her lips.

Livi.

The Baphomet had been entrusted with a single duty.

Protect Klea.

She had failed once before—on another terrible day—and that failure had haunted her ever since. When the killing flame descended, she had not hesitated. In a heartbeat, shadow magic exchanged her position with Klea’s, placing herself directly in the Starflame’s path.

Fortunately, the shadow movement allowed her to narrowly avoided the heart of the blast. Even so, the expanding Starflame still swept over her body with devastating force. Had it struck her directly, not even her formidable physique would have survived.

Instead, her natural resistance to fire, and monstrous vitality allowed her to endure the remaining force of the attack.

Badly wounded.

But alive.

"...Tch."

The masked man clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"So irritating."

His divine sense immediately swept across the battlefield, searching for his true target.

Instead—

BAAAM!!

A colossal metallic fist crashed into the side of his face, sending him hurtling through the air like a cannonball.

The attacker was no cultivator.

It was a humanoid construct forged from pale celestial alloy, ancient golden runes blazing across every plate of its body as the unmistakable pressure of a Three Cosmos existence rolled outward.

The Super Golem.

Another of Klea’s hidden trump cards.

She had concealed it throughout the entire battle, waiting patiently for the one moment it would inflict the greatest possible damage.

That moment had finally arrived.

The masked man had not only charged headfirst into her prepared formation, but he had also exhausted his power to activate the Stardust Lantern.

For the first time since the battle began, his momentum had broken.

And Klea was ready to capitalize on that opening.

Six flags around the battlefield blazed with radiant light as Klea complete her final stroke, creating an advanced tier 7 formation.

Walls of spirit light rose around the masked man while layers of binding seals throttled his cultivation to a fraction of its former strength. Within the formation, lighting, wind and ice elements were enhanced by the presence of Klea’s Aeons, striking relentlessly from every direction and denying him even a moment to recover.

Suppressed on every side, he could no longer evade the Super Golem’s relentless barrage of crushing blows.

Before he could regain his footing, Kayelin leapt into the formation.

Golden claws and iron fists moved in perfect harmony with the golem’s attacks, battering him from opposite directions. Each strike landed with enough force to shake the entire formation, driving the masked man steadily backward until, under the combined assault, he was forced down onto one knee.

"ARGHHH!!! YOU BIxxH!!"

A furious roar exploded from his throat.

Abandoning all restraint, he unleashed his hidden strength.

Crimson cosmic energy erupted from his body in every direction as a colossal giant of living magma rose around him, shattering the formation through sheer brute force.

The escape came at a terrible price, consuming a tremendous portion of his remaining cosmic reserves in a single, desperate burst.

When the smoke finally cleared, he saw exactly what those precious minutes had cost him.

One of his two Three Cosmos subordinates had already been trapped within Soltz’s forest of churning earthen spears. Bound hand and foot, the Syndicate master struggled in vain before the Marquess’s silver spear descended in a single flawless arc.

Blood splattered the sky as his head fell.

One of the Syndicate’s three cosmos experts...

Dead.

For a brief moment, the masked man froze, caught between vengeance and retreat.

Then the heavens darkened.

Warships emerged through the smoke in disciplined formation, their black hulls bearing the unmistakable banners of the Earth Faction.

Before the defenders could even react, more fleets broke through the clouds.

One bore the banners of the Zodiac Faction, another carried the unfamiliar insignia of the insectoid clans, at their head descended Fjolnir, roaring as wave after wave of Magus reinforcements poured onto the battlefield behind him.

In the space of a single breath, the balance of the battle collapsed completely.

The masked man’s burning gaze snapped toward Klea, hatred blazing behind his mask.

"You..."

His voice trembled with murderous fury.

"I will remember this."

He turned to flee.

"You’re not escaping!!"

Klea’s hands were already moving as restriction arrays blossomed through the air, layered one upon another while dozens of binding talismans sealed every direction of escape, forming a tightening net around him.

It wasn’t enough.

Displaying a movement technique worthy of the secret organization head, he dissolved into a pillar of crimson light before collapsing into a single point of brilliance. In the next instant, he slipped through every seal as though they were nothing more than painted illusions and vanished into the distance.

Klea stared at the empty sky, her brows knitting together in a slight frown.

Then she let the irritation go, and turned to finish the work in front of her.

Several minutes later,

Nearly a third of the Valmont and Korrath forces lay dead across the ruins, while the survivors broke and scattered, many throwing down their weapons in surrender.

The Syndicate’s second Three Cosmos master was cornered and captured, only to ignite his own core, dying in a final crimson flash.

Fortunately, the devastating explosion was contained through the combined efforts of Soltz and the Marquess.

The Dawn faction had paid a heavy price, losing nearly ten percent of its forces. Yet among all the fallen, none was more precious than their own leader.

The princess.

Seraphine’s wound had been fatal from the moment her trusted aide’s blade pierced her back, and somewhere amid the chaos of the battle, the fate she had spent her entire life trying to outrun finally caught up with her.

###

Hundreds of miles away, the masked man streaked across the night like a burning comet.

He was wounded, his reserves all but spent, but he was alive — and ahead of him, hidden in a fold of dark cloud, waited the vessel that would carry him clear of the planet.

He never reached it.

A breeze stirred the clouds before him, gentle at first, then crushing. A figure descended on the wind — horned, scaled, draconic, his cultivation no shallower than the masked man’s own.

Typhon.

The two clashed in the open sky, fire against fire. But the masked man was a candle burned to its stub, and against a fresh Three Cosmos in his condition he could manage barely a dozen exchanges before his guard began to break. Cornered, desperate, he raised the Stardust Lantern for one final, desperate strike—

But his body froze.

A cold, silent pressure clamped down over his soul, and a figure stepped through a tear in space behind him.

Emery.

[Spectral Gaze]

With his enhanced mental power, the soul strike successfully seized the masked man mid-motion, locking every muscle, and before he could shake free,

Typhon was upon him.

One blazing palm strike after another crashed into his body like falling mountains, each blow shattering what little resistance remained until, at last, the exhausted Syndicate master collapsed.

Defeated.

Bound.

His mask finally cracked apart, revealing the face that had hidden beneath it all this time.

Emery let out a slow breath.

A faint smile crossed his face as he looked down at the captured man.

"...This should make her happy."

Hours later, Emery waited inside Neo Terra Palace for Klea’s return.

When she finally arrived, she came bearing complete victory.

The Syndicate had been routed.

The Valmont and Korrath houses had been brought to heel.

And Emery was already prepared for a good suprised for her, the Syndicate’s leader now sat imprisoned beneath Neo Terra.

However,

Klea had barely taken two steps into the great hall before she suddenly covered her mouth and bent forward.

She vomited.

"What happened?"

Emery was at her side in an instant, every trace of calm vanishing. His spirit sense swept over her body while his hands hovered uncertainly, searching desperately for signs of hidden injuries.

She took a slow breath and straightened, wiping the corner of her mouth.

To Emery’s complete bewilderment...

She was smiling.

Only faintly.

"It seems..." she said softly, "...I have a good news of my own"

Emery froze.

Klea looked up at him.

This time, the smile reached her eyes.

"I’m pregnant."

"...."

####

Author’s Note

Chapter 3000 concludes the month of June.

Wow! I never imagined we would reach this milestone. It’s all thanks to your continuous support.

To celebrate this, I’ve prepared a little surprise as well. I’ll be sharing it in a few days, with a teaser revealed in the comments below.

Once again, I’d like to express my sincere gratitude. I hope this journey has been an enjoyable read for all of you. I look forward to sharing many more Chapters with you in the months ahead.