“He cut out so clean—could it be…”

Dust slid from her sleeves like ash on wind. Yumigawa Senki got it in a heartbeat: he left that decisively to reclaim the shards from each branch.

That black‑robed man’s power and presence rolled like midnight tide, far beyond the riffraff outside the ancient ruin. He had to be Dark Demon’s Grandmaster, or at least a Vice Master.

If shards make a figure like that hurry, Senki thought, then there’s a deep secret coiled behind them, like bait in dark water.

“I’ll see what trick Dark Demon’s playing.”

He might sit at the peak of a Main God, a summit higher than Senki right now. Still, fear never pricked her, only a cool blade of resolve.

She carried the Sacred Life Sword and a trove of Supreme Divine Spirit Medicine, so wounds and expenditure were no burden, like rain on oiled silk.

Her all‑element magic and swordsmanship stood at Divine peak. If she went all out, a fight wasn’t hopeless, like a falcon breaking through storm.

Besides, Yumigawa Nozomi and Elyar stood with her, two steady stars beside the moon.

And if it really couldn’t be won, the Mizumi Clan’s call would draw hands like waves to a beacon—just like this continent‑wide summons against Dark Demon.

Even if he truly was Dark Demon’s Grandmaster, Senki felt little pressure, a mountain’s weight balanced in her chest.

Her confidence came not only from strength like tempered steel, but from the lineage stamped like a crimson seal—Mizumi Clan.

In this world, background often matters more than any blade, like a banner that stills a crowd.

Look at Dark Demon: from one simple call by Senki, their forces on the Eastern Moon Continent were swept like leaves by a typhoon.

“No time to waste. I’ll take Littlesky and Elyar and jump straight to another branch.”

Her voice fell. Her figure folded out of the cavernous, grim chamber, like a candle snuffed by night.

…

Outside the ancient building, it went as expected. Once the black‑robed man took the shards, the barrier, black knights, and black mist thinned and vanished, like fog under dawn.

“Littlesky, map. We need to hit another branch, fast.”

“Qianji Sister?! What happened? Why the rush?”

Senki appeared so sudden that Yumigawa Nozomi, chatting with Elyar, jolted like a sparrow startled from a bough.

“Dark Demon’s branches on the Eastern Moon Continent seem to be hiding something…”

Senki took the map and, while hunting the last four branch sites, sketched out what happened in that chamber, quick as strokes of ink.

“Shards reeking of demonic aura?” Elyar’s fine brows knit in disgust, like silk pinched tight. “The Demon Realm’s gate is on Eastern Moon. Are high‑ranking demons in bed with Dark Demon?”

“I’m thinking the same. But right now we can’t let that man reclaim all the shards.”

“Qianji Sister’s right. We can’t spare that vile Dark Demon! Where to next?” Nozomi clenched her little fist, bold as a bud facing wind.

“Hm. It’s been long enough I can’t tell if he’s done. Let’s go to the farthest branch first.”

“The farthest… I remember it’s on Lihai Island near the Eastern Moon Continent. Riding Ael would take hours.”

“In an emergency we can’t drift there on Ael. We jump.”

Senki rolled up the map and flicked Fengyin, light as a breeze across grass.

“Eh—eh?!”

“Space: Wind of Transmission.”

A cool wind brushed through, like spring over stone, and the three vanished without a trace.

…

Corner a dog, it leaps the wall; corner a rabbit, it bites. Corner people? They fight back to the death.

The first strike hit too sudden, and Dark Demon was caught flat‑footed, like sailors in a squall. When they rallied and adjusted—things were still bad, but it wasn’t a one‑sided slaughter. They began to hit back.

Dark Demon had rooted on the Eastern Moon Continent for centuries, a deep tree with many rings. Even a continent‑wide coalition led by the empires couldn’t just sweep them aside.

Faced with the united purge, the outnumbered Dark Demon had no chance to win. Run? See the crowds red‑eyed with rage, and remember Dark Demon’s punishments for deserters—better to die fighting.

So their people decided to make the empires bleed, even in death, teaching them the purge would exact a price like iron hammered on bone.

With Dark Demon’s death‑charge, casualties rose fast among the imperial armies, like hail beating fields. Adventurers and mercenaries—most numerous—fell in droves.

The generals were shocked and furious, thunderheads gathering over their brows. A near‑certain campaign now chewed through forces. Even if they won, their Emperors’ anger would be hard to soothe.

Under pressure, the generals sheathed contempt and sharpened resolve. They ramped up the offensive, burning out Dark Demon’s strongholds and members, even hidden branches thick with elites, knots far tougher than small posts.

At the branches, armies, adventurers, and mercenaries lost their early edge. Dark Demon used terrain and magical traps to turn the tide and butcher them, rocks shredding waves.

News like that made the Emperors restless, shifting on thrones like coals under silk. Recall troops? They hated losing so much and gaining nothing, when Dark Demon’s hoarded wealth sat inside branches. Pulling back would sour Yumigawa Senki’s view of them.

Not recalling meant losses would swell, and national strength might thin like winter grain. If it became war between the empires and Dark Demon—likely inevitable—they’d have to feed the furnace with more gold.

Forget it, they thought. If we crush Dark Demon on the Eastern Moon Continent and seize their centuries of wealth, the loss is bearable. The Mizumi Clan’s reward isn’t even counted. Senki didn’t promise it outright, but with the Mizumi name, they won’t leave us empty‑handed.

Thinking that, as if sharing a silent signal, the Emperors mobilized more armies, banners unfurling like storm clouds.

Soon the tide turned again. Once the empires got serious, numbers and quality surged, a flood over dikes. Even sheer manpower could blunt the branches.

Dark Demon’s Branch Masters chose not to meet them head‑on. They’d break the enemy piece by piece. They hid members from untouched posts, waiting like wolves in brush to ambush armies, adventurers, and mercenaries.

Losses among imperial forces and civilians grew wider, while Dark Demon stole a breath, an ember refusing to die.

Some extremist members, choking on spite, swarmed into villages and small towns to massacre, venting on innocent lives—a black stain spreading over fields.

Word spread in a flash, lighting fury and fear in common hearts. Generals couldn’t stomach it. They took the field themselves and went all in against Dark Demon, thunder rolling from the ranks.

In short, the purge Yumigawa Senki launched became, inevitably, a war between all powers of the Eastern Moon Continent and Dark Demon, one storm pulling the whole land under.