All eyes—Hino Julius, Pyre Julius, Cima Julius, and even Orion's two Demigod neighbors—converged on Orion.

The nine powerful beings stood in silence, waiting for him to cast the die.

If Orion struck, he would burn every bridge with House Julius, potentially drawing the wrath of the Abyssal Ruler himself.

If he didn't, he would be exposed as a paper tiger.

In the future, the Foundry Citadel and the Conquest Legion would be bled dry by endless harassment from other factions. In the Abyss, hesitation and retreat were not seen as prudence; they were seen as blood in the water.

Haa...

The sound of Orion exhaling seemed to echo in the ears of every Demigod present.

"You were the ones who started this war," Orion said, his voice low. "So, I'll be the one to finish it."

He looked up, a bright, sunny smile stretching across his face that didn't reach his cold, dead eyes.

"And war only ends when the enemy is dead, right?"

"WAAAGH!"

The roar shattered the stillness. Orion's physical form dissolved, merging seamlessly with the War Scythe in his hand. A spear of concentrated Void Law materialized, thrusting viciously toward Hino.

Why Hino?

Because the arrogant fool had descended in his True Form. If he died here, he died forever.

"You dare?!"

Three voices bellowed in unison. Hino, Pyre, and Cima struck back simultaneously, their bodies erupting with boundless Abyssal Energy.

Three distinct laws of Divine Power crashed down, creating a shockwave of terrifying magnitude that blasted the War Scythe backward.

But the recoil was exactly what Orion wanted.

He had been standing at the dead center of the trap. His presence there had prevented the Deputy Commander, Arthas, and the others from fully activating the Formation.

The strike was a feint. The retreat was the strategy. By catapulting himself out of the kill zone, he cleared the board for his brothers.

"Ignite!"

At the Deputy Commander's command, boundless Divine Power surged from Arthas, Leonidas, and Alexander.

The entire pocket dimension transformed instantly. It wasn't just hot; the air itself became an incinerator.

It was Divine Fire.

The Deputy Commander had siphoned the raw power of the other three, filtered it through his own mastery, and projected it through the Formation.

While this synthetic flame lacked the absolute purity of the Deputy Commander's own essence, against First Step Demigods like Hino, Pyre, and Cima, it was an extinction-level event.

"No! It's a trap!"

"He used the recoil to escape the Formation!"

"Damn these Undead bastards!"

"Brother Pyre, what do we do?!"

"They actually have the guts to do this?"

Five Demigods, five different reactions of panic and disbelief. The last two voices belonged to Orion's neighbors, who watched in stunned silence.

"Bro, I gotta admit, I thought you might choke," Leonidas's voice projected directly into Orion's ear. Orion had landed safely between Leonidas and Arthas, outside the inferno.

"If I don't fight now, they'll think I'm soft," Orion replied, watching the flames roar. "They'll keep poking, keep testing my bottom line."

He shrugged. "It's like feeding a stray dog scraps hoping it'll go away. It never does. It just brings the pack. The only way to deal with this is to slaughter them until they're too terrified to look in our direction."

He wanted to carve that will—that absolute refusal to yield—into every member of the Conquest Legion and every resident of the Foundry Citadel.

"Hahaha! That's the spirit!" Leonidas laughed. "They say the higher you climb and the older you get, the more cowardly you become. You just broke that curse, brother."

For men like Leonidas and Arthas, that "curse" had been broken eons ago. They were bound by no morals, shackled by no societal norms. They were true to their nature.

"Just sit back and enjoy the show, Bro," Leonidas added. "We don't need to get our hands dirty. The Divine Fire Extinction is a new toy the Deputy Commander cooked up. These Demigods are just the test subjects."

Orion nodded, keeping his senses locked on the enemies trapped within the swirling firestorm. He didn't know the intricacies of the Formation, but he trusted the results.

"When will your True Form be ready?" Arthas's voice suddenly cut into his mind.

"Years, probably," Orion replied telepathically, hiding nothing.

The World Tree was still accumulating its foundation within the Primordial Void. Rushing the process would burn his potential and cripple his future. He wouldn't make that mistake.

"Bro, is there something you need me to do?" Orion asked, sensing the weight behind the question. Arthas had mentioned before that he would need a favor once Orion reached the Demigod rank.

"We'll talk when you emerge," Arthas replied evasively. "For now, prepare to evacuate. Killing these men here... it will definitely wake the Abyssal Ruler."

"A Demigod is a pillar of the world. When they fall, the foundations shake. The Ruler will notice."

Orion gave a subtle nod.

He had already prepared for the worst. If the situation went south, the Conquest Legion and the Foundry Citadel would punch a hole through the world barrier and retreat into the Seventh Layer of the Abyss.

"What the hell is that?" Leonidas exclaimed.

Orion and Arthas snapped their attention back to the center of the Formation.

A structure resembling a volcanic crucible had materialized out of thin air. From its mouth, a pale, ghostly flame was spewing forth.

This pale fire acted like a shield, pushing back the encroaching Divine Fire of the Formation, carving out a sanctuary in the middle of the inferno.

"That... that is a flame of a higher tier than Divine Fire," the Deputy Commander muttered, his brow furrowing. Even he didn't recognize it.

"Allow me to educate you," Pyre Julius's voice echoed from within the crucible, laced with arrogant triumph. "This is the Eternal Flame, evolved from the unquenchable Demon Fire itself!"

"It is the foundation of House Julius in the Abyss. It is our signature."

"It's just a phantom flame. You'll burn all the same eventually," the Deputy Commander scoffed.

As an expert in pyromancy, he saw through the bluff immediately. The flame within the Formation was "Empty Fire"—a projection, not the real thing.

"True, it is but a projection," Pyre Julius admitted with a sinister chuckle. "But the Eternal Flame appearing here, in the Sixth Layer? Its aura acts as a beacon. It will wake Lord Julius."

"When the Lord wakes... you are all dead men."

"Heh heh heh... I can't wait to see the look on your faces."

Pyre's threat hung heavy in the air. The members of the Champions Alliance fell silent.

Even Orion narrowed his eyes, his mind racing for a countermove.

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