Inside Silver Wing Castle, the tense atmosphere threatened to freeze solid. Pope Vincent placed a hand on his comrade's shoulder, a gesture of unshakeable trust.

"The situation outside is critical," he stated, his voice grave. "I will remain to defend Central Aerion and coordinate the overall response. You must go, Alfie."

Alfie offered only a slight, solemn nod in reply. In the next instant, his form erupted into a dazzling sphere of light. It shattered the great hall's dome and soared into the sky like a meteor, leaving a trail of pure light that stretched for kilometers as it streaked toward the besieged city of South Aerion.

The vulture-man did not engage Walter directly; with the advantage of height, he simply maintained his distance, dodging and parrying the attacks from below. Exploiting the gaps between assaults, he continuously flew to different locations, using his horrifying shriek to slaughter more civilians.

The cry was ineffective against Rankers of Rank 4 and above, but it was lethally efficient at eliminating weaker beings. A young mother frantically pulled her small son into an alley, her hands clamped tightly over the little one's ears. But it was useless.

But it was a futile gesture. The shriek from the vulture-fiend above was no mere sound; it was a psychic assault, an invisible drill boring straight into the mind. Agony, sharp as a thousand needles, lanced through her brain. The world blurred, and she felt herself crumple to the ground, only managing to see her son collapse beside her... before darkness swallowed her whole.

From a rooftop, Major General Walter gritted his teeth as he witnessed another neighborhood fall into a deathly silence. To him, the shriek was merely an annoying hiss. But to the common people, it was a death sentence.

"Where are the Griffin and Eagle air squadrons? Why haven't they intercepted him yet?" Walter asked angrily.

"Sir, when the vulture-man attacked, the Griffin and Falcon camps were also ambushed. Both squadrons are being held down," an officer replied.

This information surprised Major General Walter. The Falcon squadron had over 100 soldiers riding great eagles, each at least Rank 3; similarly, the weakest in the Griffin squadron were nearly Rank 4. Yet both units were pinned down, unable to defend South Aerion. The masterminds behind this event were truly meticulous; they possessed both the intelligence and the forces.

The vulture-man was gleefully sowing death among the people below. Suddenly, his Ranker's instinct screamed, a sense of imminent death rushing toward him. He immediately used a dark artifact to create a pair of iron wings that enveloped his body.

"BOOM!"

The sky-rending explosion shattered the iron wings, which rained down to the ground, but the space within them was empty. The vulture-man had managed to use his own ability to escape in the nick of time. His smug, provocative demeanor vanished. Terror replaced it in his widened eyes, and his breath came in ragged, panicked gasps. A moment's hesitation would have meant his true death.

As the smoke and fire from the explosion cleared, a young man was revealed within ; he appeared to be under thirty, yet the divine aura radiating from him suppressed all other beings in South Aerion. Alfie's pristine white robes fluttered in the phantom wind, and the holy halo radiating from him was a miniature sun, banishing the grim, deathly atmosphere that had enveloped the city.

The light was not harsh, but an unwavering warmth. It was a gentle radiance that seeped into the fiber of their beings. It thawed the fear that had frozen their blood; the demonic scream in their minds receded into nothingness, replaced by a profound peace.

The young soldier, who had thought himself dead, was stunned. He realized the piercing headache had subsided, and the hot stream of blood from his ears had stopped flowing. He tremblingly raised a hand to touch his face, then burst into tears, not of fear, but of salvation. Everywhere, groans of pain faded, replaced by sighs of relief, and dazed eyes slowly found life again. They were like withered trees being bathed in a divine rain.

Major General Walter, the supreme commander of South Aerion who had bravely confronted the vulture monster, now placed his right hand over his left breast and bowed respectfully to the Demigod who had just appeared. The mid-level soldiers who had kept their wits about them after the panic, those who had heard of or seen images of Alfie through statues and paintings, also bowed in unison, their eyes filled with reverence and gratitude.

To the low-ranking soldiers and ordinary citizens who had just escaped the scythe of death, the handsome demigod floating in mid-air was no different from a savior god descended from the heavens. With his mere appearance, he had swiftly resolved all the problems that they had been utterly powerless against. The power of a Demigod was truly transcendent.

"Major General Walter," Alfie spoke, his voice deep and steady yet possessing a supreme authority that made no one dare to look him in the eye. "Gather your forces quickly and go suppress the other areas in South Aerion. According to the information I've received, many other districts have also been attacked and are in chaos. They are in dire need of your help, of the army of Zephyros".

"I... I obey, my lord!" Major General Walter stammered in reply. Immediately, he used his full power to quickly scan the battle situation throughout South Aerion, then swiftly redeployed his forces, killing troops to the areas most in need of urgent assistance.

At the scene now, only Alfie remained. The vulture monster, Ipoz, after luckily surviving a fatal blow from the Demigod, sensed the vast gap in their power and didn't dare to linger for another second, frantically fleeing southwest, where the rolling mountain ranges and dense forests could conceal his form.

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Alfie did not give chase immediately. After calming the spirits of the remaining soldiers and citizens, and after giving clear orders to Major General Walter, he slowly adjusted his mindset, preparing for a true hunt.

"Shooting Star".

Without any warning, Alfie transformed into a stream of silver-white light, launching himself forward like a meteor, leaving a trail of light stretching for kilometers, and surpassing the bounds of South Aerion in a flash. His speed was so great that the naked eye could not follow.

The familiar feeling of death once again swept over the fleeing vulture, Ipoz, causing it to scream in terror. He hastily turned around, no longer daring to hold back any strength, unleashing all of his most desperate, life-ending techniques.

"Flaming Wing". A pair of fiery red wings, carrying searing heat, appeared from his back. The wings spread wide then clapped together powerfully, creating a massive fiery shockwave that incinerated and blasted away everything within a hundred-meter radius before him.

Just as he managed to steady himself to assess the situation, to see if his full-power attack could hinder his pursuer, a gentle, elegant voice, yet carrying an incomparable threat, sounded from behind him: "Ipoz Mad Vulture, a monster like you chose this land of Zephyros as your final resting place?".

He spun around in horror. The young man in the white robe, with his gentle holy halo, had been floating there for who knows how long. He had been easily overtaken, despite having a long head start and reacting instantly with a killing blow. The difference in power and speed was too vast to be overcome.

"You… you are… Alfie! Demigod Alfie!" Ipoz's voice trembled, stuttering, his earlier arrogance and bloodlust gone, replaced by utter terror.

"What did you expect when you dared to terrorize Aerion? Slaughter our innocent people, then leave leisurely and safely?" Alfie asked, his voice beginning to turn steely. The pure aether began to radiate from his body, creating an invisible pressure that weighed down the surrounding space.

"Did you think that a nation guarded by three Demigods like Zephyros would have no one to find you, to punish you? Is that the thought of a Rank 6 who has lived for over a hundred years, who has sown disaster everywhere? How could you be so foolish? Or have you become too confident in your own power?".

"Save me! Save me!" The vulture Ipoz seemed to have lost all will to fight. He frantically crushed a deep red gem in his hand. Immediately, a thick red smoke, carrying a blazing flame, enveloped his entire body. From within the smoke, a complex summoning circle, with ancient, mysterious sigils, began to appear, radiating a dark energy.

Alfie would never let the vulture get his way.

"Angel Gauntlet". A fist of pure light, carrying the power of judgment, descended from the heavens straight towards the red smoke. At the same time, from within the summoning circle, a demonic hand with sharp, black claws reached out, blocking Alfie's fist of light. The Demon General, an entity from Inferno, had been summoned.

He was a monster over ten meters tall, with a pair of long, sharp horns on his head that curved backward towards the sky. His body blazed like a furnace, infernal flames licking at his dark, rock-hard skin. His bat-like wings of red fire had a span of over five meters, casting a shadow over a large patch of the sky. In his hand was a battle-axe with a single, monstrously large and sharp blade, its entire body glowing red as if forged in fire, with drops of molten lava still dripping from its edge.

"You weakling! Must you summon me to help you in such a pathetic, disgraceful way?" the Demon General's voice was hoarse, full of contempt as he looked at the trembling Ipoz. He sneered, revealing a set of pointed teeth.

"I, Barbatos, Great General of Inferno and ruler of countless demon legions, will crush a lowly, weak human like you into pieces!". The Demon roared, then swung his battle-axe fiercely. The air within a hundred meters of him suddenly became scorching hot like a furnace. The surrounding grass and trees burst into flames, the ground melted and cracked. A fire infused with the heat of hell coalesced around the axe blade. He then shot it straight at Alfie like a deathly fireball.

"Unfortunately, I have no interest in you, lowly demon," Alfie replied sternly. The moment the Demon General appeared, Alfie had silently activated one of his most his ultimate punishing technique. He slowly brought his hands forward, his left hand above with an open palm and only the thumb folded. The right hand was below, the pinky and ring finger folded, forming a strange, ancient seal.

"Seven Sword of Star". Instantly, from the high heavens, seven swords of light appeared in the sky, each one like a star carrying the judgment of the heavens. Barbatos unleashed his aether, the infernal flame from his body erupting violently, forming a firewall in a desperate attempt to resist. But it was useless. The first sword descended, easily tearing through the firewall like a hot knife through silk.

Barbatos stared in shock as the remaining swords rushed towards him. He tried to raise his battle-axe to defend himself, but two swords had already pierced his bat-like wings, pinning them firmly to the ground. Two more swords pierced his shoulders and legs, neutralizing all resistance. He let out one final roar of pain and helplessness before the last three swords simultaneously pierced his heart and head, the holy power exploding from within, causing his rock-hard body to crack and then dissolve into ash in a eerie silence.

From his arrogant appearance to his annihilation, the entire process took less than thirty seconds. The ten-meter-tall Demon General, so fierce moments before, was reduced to a small, smoldering piece of lava rock. It was the aether core, the essence of his power left behind after death.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH! You bastards!".

Just as the Demon General was annihilated, the vulture Ipoz suddenly screamed in agony. The red smoke surrounding him seemed to thicken, then quickly shrank, becoming only a third of its original size. Without a moment's hesitation, Alfie immediately used his most potent purification spell, "Holy Purity". A stream of pure white light enveloped the shrinking red ball of smoke. But strangely, his purification spell seemed to have no effect. In just a few short seconds, the vulture Ipoz was compressed, turning into a crimson gem that glittered like a ruby, before quickly vanishing into thin air.

"Cleric Square". Alfie reacted with extreme speed, creating a cube of pure light with powerful imprisonment and purification abilities, trying to hold the ruby back. But it was too late; the gem still disappeared right before his eyes, leaving no trace. The lava core of the Demon General had also vanished at some point.

"Damn it! A Fate Link Curse!" Alfie ground his teeth, raw fury finally breaking through his serene composure. The lives of Ipoz and the Demon General Barbatos had been bound by an ancient and sinister curse: The Fate Link Curse.

But the true outrage, the source of his fury, was the sheer sophistication of the enemy's magic. The red smoke that consumed Ipoz, the teleportation that spirited away the resulting ruby and the demon's core, these were not mere spells. They were weaves of such advanced and insidious power that even he, a Rank 7 Demigod, could not stop them or dispel them.

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