As the demon fleet surged forward, the formation activated its spatial maze.

Space ahead twisted, pathways bent, planets flickered like mirages, distances stretched into infinity.

Warships that once flew straight found themselves looping back, trapped within corridors of distorted void.

The demon fleet slowed.

Adrian watched from the command hall.

"Spatial displacement holding," Varik reported, "Enemy advance reduced by seventy percent."

One of the demon commanders stepped from his flagship.

His flesh resembled cracked obsidian, violet fire burning in his eyes.

He raised a hand.

Space itself groaned.

The fabric of the maze trembled, folds collapsing under his touch.

With a low snarl, he began tearing through it, his mastery over the Space Concept refined by centuries of battle.

The formation clashed against his essence, screaming as spatial folds collided and tore.

Adrian's jaw tightened. His formation was built from his own advanced galactic comprehension.

But this creature wielded experience that ran deeper than technique.

Experience neutralized theory.

The maze bent, resisted, then split.

A path opened.

Behind the demon commander, Kraxis smiled, wings spreading wide.

"Good. Keep the way open."

The demon fleet howled forward, pouring through the gap.

Inside the Origin Capital, alarms flared red across every interface.

"Outer barrier compromised!"

"The fleet has entered the perimeter!"

Clans that had come to witness the grand opening now watched the void turn black with descending shadows.

Minor clan patriarchs paled, their ships beginning evasive maneuvers.

Adrian's voice echoed through the Origin Net, "Deploy the army."

Thousands of ships opened their hangar bays, releasing squads of Origin Clan soldiers into formation.

Draven's fleet led the charge, blood essence already burning around him.

Kael's forces spread wide, preparing spatial anchor points.

Aurelia positioned herself at the center, her stellar presence a pillar of calm.

The soldiers of the Origin Clan rose to meet the storm.

The demons descended toward them.

Humanoid, yet monstrous. Horns split like branches, dark-veined bodies pulsing with essence, eyes burning with hunger.

Their roars were not wild but synchronized, their movements terrifyingly organized. They struck the first defensive lines.

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Draven charged first, blood essence burning crimson around his twin blades. Every swing painted arcs of crystallized scarlet through the void.

A lesser demon lunged. Draven's blade carved through its torso, blood freezing mid-spray into jagged shards.

"Hold formation!" he roared, his voice cutting through the chaos.

Kael followed next, his space essence rending jagged tears through the battlefield.

Every blink displaced a dozen lesser demons, their bodies sliced apart by invisible edges of folded space.

One appeared behind him. Kael vanished, reappeared above it, and the creature split in half without a sound.

Aurelia moved, bending enemy strikes away. Her space domain folded gracefully, redirecting dozens of energy waves into empty vacuum.

A demon's claw passed through where her throat had been. She smiled faintly as the creature stumbled into its own attack.

And Lucian, silent as shadow, appeared behind lesser demons and slit their throats, his presence vanishing before the bodies even fell.

But for every demon slain, two more filled its place.

The demons came in waves. For every squad that fell, ten more followed.

The Origin soldiers began to falter, formations breaking under relentless pressure.

One soldier was pinned under a claw, armor cracking. Another was ripped apart mid-air, his scream cut short.

"Fall back to anchor point three!" Kael commanded, space folding to extract wounded squads.

Soldiers screamed as talons tore through shields, as blood sprayed across the void.

Then the formation pulsed.

Light rippled through the void, life essence surging outward from it.

A flood of golden-green energy washed over the battlefield, weaving through the blood and fire.

Warriors gasped as their wounds closed. Severed limbs reformed, bone and flesh knitting together in seconds.

A soldier whose arm had been torn off stared as it grew back, fingers flexing experimentally.

For a moment, even the demons paused, uncertain if what they were seeing was possible.

A chorus of disbelief filled the comms.

"The formation… It's healing us!"

"My ribs, they're whole again!"

"How is this—"

Even the watching envoys stood frozen.

Lady Seris pressed her hand against the viewport, eyes wide. "A multi-concept formation…? That's impossible."

Archscribe Morvain, who had been impassive until now, trembled slightly.

His fingers dug into the armrest.

"The mind…" His voice cracked. "He found it. The missing link! The awareness to differentiate between friend and foe!"

His breath came faster, almost frantic.

"I scoured every fragment for centuries, and not one was stable! How!?"

Around the embassies, Stellar Patriarchs exchanged stunned glances.

None spoke.

They were witnessing a rewriting of galactic history.

Watching this, Kraxis laughed, voice booming across the comms. "Enough!"

He commanded, "Commanders, enter the fray!"

Five Demon Commanders launched into the void, streaks of flame, lightning, shadow, corrosion, and gravity trailing behind them.

Each one's domain erupted upon arrival.

The battlefield collapsed under the pressure.

Every Origin soldier fell to one knee under the crushing force.

They were Stellar beings.

Against them, the Origin army of SSS-rank meant little.

Only Aurelia stood, her domain trying to protect and counter.

But she was limited against five stellar demons.

At that instant, the formation countered, erupting with walls of fire and pressure fields of space.

They clashed with the Stellar-level domains, burning even the corrosion of demons, reshaping the battlefield.

It fought as an equal against five Stellar-level beings, an achievement no one thought possible.

But even its brilliance had limits.

The formation began to dim, even the formation could not handle everything, at least not against multiple demons at stellar stage and thousands of SSS-rank at the same time.

The Origin army began to fall back.

...

Inside the Central Tower, Adrian watched the projections ripple red.

Every fiber of his being screamed to move. He knew the formation was not omnipotent, it could not deal with multiple stellar and thousands of SSS-rank demons and also protect and heal his people at the same time.

Kaelith and Seris both tensed, ready to intervene with their fleets.

They exchanged glances. If they didn't act, the Origin Capital may fall.

Adrian stepped forward. "I'm going."

But before he could step into the void, a deep, resonant hum rolled across the system.

From one of the outer planets inside the capital, the sky split open.

A vast pair of wings unfurled across the horizon, stretching wide enough to blot out stars.

Azrael rose slowly into the void.

He had been lying dormant inside his planet, not caring much about even the opening of the capital. All he wanted was peace and safety for his planet.

But now, since he saw demons trying to enter the star system, he stood to defend it.

Azrael's voice cut through the void. "Demons."

He raised his blade, the edges rippling between space and corrosion.

"You should know better."

"This is no place to bare your fangs… at children."

The Demon Commanders turned sharply. Even Kraxis looked up, eyes narrowing.

"That aura… dual essence."

Azrael stepped into the battlefield, space and corrosion essence burning around him.

The demon commanders tensed, but they did not care much. Even before stepping into the capital, Xylos had already sensed some dual essence stellar beings, and they still came to hunt.

They were not afraid, even against a dual-essence stellar.

Their only thought was, a worthy kill had arrived.

Kraxis' grin returned. "Ahh… now the feast begins."

The first Demon Commander lunged forward.