"This alliance has already become a tremendous threat to our race." Within the boundless demonic qi that blotted out the sky, the four demon gods led by Karotis stood tall, eyes cold as they watched Chen Chu and his companions vanish over a hundred thousand kilometers away.

None of them entertained the idea of giving chase; they simply couldn't stop their opponents. With the addition of Chen Chu's two time clones, the human alliance now had seven powerful combatants, all of whom had reached at least the late stage of the ancient titan level.

The disparity is simply too great. We couldn't even stall for time. Especially that Chu Batian. Once he ignites his origin and erupts with full power, he alone can confront the four of us head-on with his time-based divine ability.

"This human's growth rate is too dangerous. In the coming war, we must find a way to surround and kill it. Otherwise..." said Beketivi, its voice laced with icy menace.

Karotis and the other three demon gods all nodded slowly. Given Chen Chu's monstrous growth rate and his combat strength that defied realms, if he were given another two or three day-cycles, even the revival of the Primordial Ancestor probably wouldn't be enough to suppress him, especially because of that time-based divine ability. He had once manifested nine clones when he slew the pinnacle great demon king Hamdanman in the Eternal Divine Region.

At the time, those clones had only been at the great demon king level, so Karotis and the others had dismissed them. Now, however, if Chen Chu were to condense nine time clones, each matching the strength of his main body...

Even the imperial rulers like Karotis couldn't help but shudder at the thought. That vision was simply too horrifying.

Thankfully, Chu Batian's time-based divine ability seemed to have significant limitations. As his cultivation increased, so too did the difficulty of condensing additional time clones. Otherwise, if he truly had nine of them now, he alone could overwhelm all of the demon gods.

Boom!

While the four demon gods stood in heavy silence, the dark demonic qi over a span of hundreds of thousands of kilometers quaked. Two terrifying figures descended with immense auras.

Tyretis lowered its head slightly, gazing at the four. Beneath the moonlight, its massive true form of a hundred thousand meters cast a long shadow over the land. "Karotis, where are the humans?"

"They've already left," Karotis replied flatly, voice low. As it spoke, the demonic saber in its hand, radiating a fearsome blood-red light, slowly dissipated as it was stored away.

Tyretis's gaze grew sharp, its voice booming like thunder across the world. "Why didn't you engage them? I stirred the dark principles to alert you of my arrival."

Behind Karotis stood Beketivi, wrapped in sinister black armor and shadowed by massive black bat-like wings. It shook its head slightly. "It's not that we didn't want to fight, but the humans were too powerful this time. We simply couldn't stop them. Before you arrived, Deorus, Livedes, and Hadikasa were all slain in less than a single star-quarter."

"Three demon gods fell? The enemy had a true-spirit-level being?" Even Cardeos, who had remained contemplative after arriving, suddenly turned to face them, startled.

Including the fallen Deorus and others, there had been seven demon gods present, all at least at the middle stage of the ancient titan level. For the enemy to suppress them and kill three in such a short span, they would have needed at least twice as many demon gods, or a true-spirit-level lifeform.

Karotis bitterly smiled. "There was no true-spirit-level being. In fact, they had fewer fighters than we did."

"You're not joking?" Tyretis's eyes exploded with terrifying light.

"This battle today was a well-crafted ambush by the humans. They deliberately leaked news of a time-type primordial treasure, passing it to Deorus through a traitor," Beketivi said grimly. "For Deorus, who possessed a time-based bloodline, that kind of treasure would have been immensely valuable, and could have greatly enhanced its power. Still, Deorus had its suspicions, which is why it informed Livedes and had it call on Karotis to support it..."

Beketivi then laid out the battle's full details. The plan had been simple: isolate and destroy, a classic bait-and-reinforce tactic. Yet the outcome left all of the demon gods stunned. If Deorus had waited for Livedes and the others before entering the Silver Forest Forbidden Zone, four demon gods going in together wouldn't have been picked off one by one. Whether they broke out together or held out until Beketivi and the others arrived, the outcome wouldn't have been so disastrous.

The six demon gods stood silently amid the dark demonic qi. After a moment, Karotis spoke again, expression grave. "Tyretis, I propose we launch the war immediately once the main army arrives. There's nothing left to prepare. We can't give Chu Batian any more time. This human's talent has reached an unimaginable level. Though he's only just broken through to the beginning stage of the demon god level, with those two time clones, even you, with half a foot into the next realm, can't suppress him."

Earlier, both Chen Chu's main body and the time clones had exhibited combat power rivaling the peak of the semi-true-spirit-level, power close to that of a great demon god. In terms of raw strength, they were already on par with Tyretis itself. Without its two true forms merging, Tyretis's power remained stuck at the semi-true-spirit-level. Only when its abyssal and demon god true forms fused could it break through the boundary.

Cardeos, the great demon god, slowly nodded. "This human must die. He's already become our most urgent threat. When the war begins, Karotis, you and the others will hold off the human alliance. Tyretis and I will strike together and kill him instantly."

Tyretis gave a slight nod, its expression solemn. Back when Tyretis had been probing the state of the Primordial Ancestor and expending a trace of its origin to delay the revival, it had sensed that Chu Batian's strength rivaled the limit of the ancient titan level, yet it had paid that no mind. After all, there remained an unbridgeable gulf between the limit of the ancient titan level and its own merged double true forms, which had barely reached the true spirit level.

What it had not expected was that this human's time-based divine ability could already condense clones comparable to the limit of the ancient titan level. These clones were a full level stronger than the ordinary True Demon God Form that had appeared on the battlefield before. If they continued to delay, and that human managed to condense another one of these clones...

At that thought, Tyretis said in a low voice, "We must carefully plan how to annihilate this human."

Now that his strength was close to the true spirit level, even if two demon gods of the same level who were slightly stronger joined forces, wounding and defeating him would be easy, but killing him would still be exceedingly difficult.

This had already been proven when four late-stage and even peak-ancient-titan-level human experts had besieged two middle-stage ancient-titan-level demon gods. If not for Chen Chu's later intervention and Karotis providing a last-moment strike, Livedes would have escaped by self-destructing its true form and detonating a racial weapon.

Across thousands of years of war, the Purgatory True Demons had expanded their territory from nothing to over a hundred million kilometers, wiping out many civilizations like the Alliance of Gods in the process. From these destroyed civilizations, they had collected numerous weapons that could be forged into one-time-use racial weapons once demonized.

Therefore, to truly kill Chu Batian and leave him no chance of escape, even two great demon gods working together would require detailed planning and careful coordination to seal off his many abilities.

Karotis seemed to recall something and looked toward Cardeos. "By the way, one of those who joined the ambush against us was a faerie king, from the race you battled."

"The ones who escaped? It seems that the disappeared members of the Faeries, like the Heavenly Feathered Race, have joined the human alliance." Cardeos nodded slowly.

Tyretis turned its head. "How many of them disappeared?"

Cardeos thought for a moment. "Three faerie kings, and most of their main battle forces. Back then, I assumed they had abandoned their homeland and fled into the vast world. I didn't expect them to join the human alliance. This civilization is indeed unlike any of the alien races we've encountered before."

After centuries of war between the two civilizations, both sides had a clear grasp of each other's mythical-level combatant numbers. The addition or loss of even one would trigger alarm. During the previous war of extinction, so many faerie lords and faerie kings had gone missing that it had immediately drawn the attention of demon gods like Cardeos. Yet the missing members had never reappeared, even after the old Faerie Emperor perished, so Cardeos and the others eventually dismissed the matter.

Karotis's expression grew grim once more. "With the addition of those three faerie kings, the human alliance now has eleven demon-god-level combatants."

The atmosphere turned faintly silent.

"...No need to worry. We still hold the advantage," Tyretis said. "Without that summoned colossal beast posing a threat, as long as Cardeos and I can quickly slay Chu Batian, the humans will still be doomed."

Among the reinforcements that had arrived, the Dark Morro Empire's three great empires had sent seven demon gods. The Ankor Sacred Demon Empire and its allies had dispatched eight. Together with survivors from the last battle—Deorus, Ludius, the Ancestral Court demon god Livedes, and Constantine—the demon god count had added up to nineteen. In contrast, the original human alliance had only eight demon-god-level experts including Chen Chu, making it possible to overwhelm them two-on-one.

What was more, the demon gods on their side were generally at a higher cultivation level. Two great demon gods, four imperial rulers at the peak of the ancient titan level, and several others like Deorus, whose power had reached the late stage of the ancient titan level. It was a formidable lineup.

What they didn't expect was for the humans to strike first. In the few star-hours that Tyetis had been gone, the humans had launched a fierce ambush, killing three demon gods and narrowing the gap between the advanced experts of the two sides. If Deorus had been more cautious, never stepping out of empire territory and standing guard with Karotis in the dark demonic region, then Chen Chu's side would never have succeeded.

"Fool," Tyretis couldn't help cursing aloud at the thought. "Let's go. Soon we will unleash a tide of darkness that will drown everything."

Still, launching a death-match campaign against a civilization alliance only slightly weaker than their own wasn't as simple as issuing a command. There were many preparations to make. For example, gathering the combined strength of all demon gods to guide and move the dark demonic region spanning billions of kilometers, and swallow the world in its wake.

For all demonized creatures, existing within the dark demonic qi empowered by the Primordial Ancestor would increase their strength, recovery, and endurance by a full tier. That included the demon-god-level powerhouses themselves.

At the same time, the dark demonic qi would contaminate and erode the world's transcendent energy, suppressing all principles and laws not of the darkness attribute. As the battle dragged on, the Purgatory Demon Clan's advantage would only grow, until the enemy collapsed completely.

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