The bombardment on the dome never stopped, and warning bells rang through the Sect.
I watched the awesome display of power with wide eyes despite knowing every single person on the other side tried to kill me. Well, not me in particular, but the inhabitants of the Sect in general.
“Move!” Someone shouted and I saw a guy make his way through the crowd and run back towards the personal homes of the Core Sect. Worried for his family? Maybe.
That woke me up from my daze and I rushed in the opposite way, towards the edge of the barrier. Anyone on the other side was dead, there was no helping them. But it was in the middle of the day, so many were inside the Inner Sect, working. If the attack happened in the middle of the night, the consequences would have been much worse.
Still, after I reached the barrier and came to a sudden stop, I felt Souls flood my being. There were dozens of them, all of them the weak, Mortal Souls, with just a few of them in the early levels of Cultivation.
I lifted off the ground, flying along the edge, disregarding the no-fly rule, and drawing in all those dead Souls like a human vacuum cleaner.
Never let a good tragedy go to waste, right? That’s how the politics back on Earth worked. Despicable, but they had a point. Nobody needed those Souls anymore, so why not take them for myself? They were going to fall apart in mere minutes anyway and turn into Base Qi. It was better that I took them.
And so I did. I flew at great speed around the outer edges of the Sect, only stopping momentarily whenever I reached a former village to absorb the Soul Essence there. The dead Souls were quickly falling apart due to their weak nature, so I had to be quick.
Disappointingly, after only a few minutes, the feast was done and I barely managed to absorb a fraction of the dead. I devoured the Essence and wiped everything from the Souls. The memory and thoughts of the young and weak served no purpose.
I returned back to the Core Sect and noticed another, smaller barrier covering it. What once used to be just a border turned into a proper wall of energy. As I touched it, I realized I could pass straight through.
[Oh, the badges work for this as well?] I murmured and pushed through. I felt a tingling sensation cover my body for a second, and then I came out on the other side.
Core Disciples stood to the side, and a whole bunch of Elders were already gathering on the ground. More of them flew from all over the Sect and joined the group. I noticed a few Grand Elders standing in the sky, keeping watch, and soon there had to be thousands of Cultivators in the Spirit Realm, waiting for something.
The Grand Elders shouted orders and the mass of people split into five roughly equal groups, each of them led by one Grand Elder.
They then all rose into the sky at once, and a barrier formed around each of them. Some of them even transformed. Among the thunderous sound of constant bombardment, roars of beasts sounded out as they turned into giant monsters.
I saw a few Wyrms, massive serpents with blade-like fangs, bears of all kinds, elemental tigers sparkling with lightning and flames, and even a buff mountain goat as large as a house.
An Elder-turned-Drake burst into the sky with its scales on fire and a hawk flew beside it, releasing sharp cries of rage. The cacophony of sounds was like a flood, and a Giant, nearly ten meters tall, with the characteristics of a Shadowbeast, ran at the helm with a massive battleaxe in his hands.
He was one of the Grand Elders who transformed into his battle form.
The war cries from hundreds of warriors drowned out the sounds of explosions, and like one, they flew into the sky and burst through the barrier.
Almost immediately the loud booms stopped, replaced by whole different kinds of sounds.
Lightning split the sky and thousands of swords flew, with flames and magic around them.
Avatars of beasts and men clashed in the skies, making the earth beneath them tremble. Massive giants of energy struck out with cataclysmic forces, producing sonic booms just by the movements of their limbs alone.
Mystic Arts of all colors, shapes, and sizes created a chaotic environment, and with the crowd of enemies in their way, accuracy was disregarded and replaced with the sheer volume and power of magic.
I could just watch in awe as clouds of blood formed above us and crimson rain began to fall, with pieces of blackened bodies and broken gear. It was like all the armies of the Earth clashed at once, the explosions and booms covering the sky to the horizon.
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Dust and debris rose from the ground as stray balls of chaotic Qi missed their target, carpet-bombing the land around the barrier, with even more landing on top of it.
It was a war like no other. My eyes were wide as saucers as a colossal beast fell from the skies and seamlessly passed through the layer of protective Qi, smashing a few houses beneath it as it landed on the ground with a boom. It was one of the Elders, and he was hurt. And by that, I mean hurt.
It was some kind of weird lizard creature he was merged with, but with extremely long limbs and a thin body. Anyway, those limbs, though thick as tree trunks, were broken and slashed, and bleeding all over. A massive hole on his chest was still smoldering from heat, and embers were still visible inside where his bones once used to be.
Yet he was still alive. His still-beating heart was exposed to the air while his charred lungs struggled to draw breath.
I thought for sure he was about to die, but then he suddenly opened his eyes and roared, and steam exploded from his pores. Qi swirled around him like a hurricane and he stood up, his wounds closing at lightning speed and his flesh regrowing like the damage was never there in the first place.
He roared defiantly and jumped off the ground, leaving a crater where he once stood, and flew back into battle, though noticeably smaller than before.
[Burning Essence to heal…] I gasped. Those guys really were crazy. Judging by the size change, he must have used up nearly 20% of his gathered mass. That was decades, maybe even close to a century of effort and accumulation, gone, just like that!
But then the Sword Cultivators began raining down. At first just one or two, but then pieces of them began falling like rain. Hands, legs, heads… Mangled organs and white bones began falling down, striking against the barrier and slowly sliding down as their blood painted the world red.
Then I felt something stir in my mind and woke up from my stupor. I disregarded all rules and regulations, and flew up. I flew to the edge of the barrier, to the spot closest to battle, and just stood there.
I closed my eyes and emptied my mind, letting the feelings wash away, as I prepared. And then I felt it. First came one, then another, then five more, then a dozen.
Dozens of Souls, one after the other, were dragged into my Sea of Consciousness, some of them kicking and screaming, to be devoured. So much food, so little time.
I let my Soul loose and the world turned into a blur.
The fresh Soul Essence, the unlimited energies feeding my Soul, they just kept coming. All of that destruction, all of that malice, I experienced it all through the eyes of another. Of countless others. All that pain, regret, anger, rage, fear… I experienced it all, and it didn’t budge me.
[More… MORE!] I roared and a swirling torrent of Qi formed around me as I struggled to contain the feeling of a hundred different Souls.
I felt something breaking inside me, things collapsing, but it just wasn’t enough. I had tasted blood, and I needed MORE.
I transformed. My size increased and my scales grew, thick and nearly completely black. My size increased again and horns pushed into the sky from my forehead. I grew again, the energies flowing into me, the blood of the fallen painting my body red.
Before I knew it, my size increased tenfold, yet it still kept expanding, and before I realized it, I stood in the open, above the barrier, exposed to the elements.
Harsh winds blew, with deadly Qi inside it, cutting and slicing through my flesh, yet I felt none of it. I just roared as my Soul continued to consume and expand, the Divine threads getting stretched with it. Excess energy spilled over, and my Sea of Consciousness expanded as well, transforming to sustain the massive energy influx.
Things just happened on their own as I continued to grow and expand, the vortex around me grinding the bodies into a bloody paste that I too devoured, drinking it like it was a nectar of the gods.
Some of the enemy forces noticed my glorious form and tried to stop me. But then wings grew from my back, all leathery at first, but then they sprouted flames and massive spikes grew on my tail. My thick, meaty tail, thicker than the weaklings that tried to take me down.
I flicked it to the side, smashing through the barriers of those who tried to attack me. Yet they just kept coming.
I clenched my fists and growled. My teeth were swords, my claws were spears! My breath, a destructive hurricane!
[BURN!]
As the words left my dragonified maw, so did an Arcane Blast, powered by a great part of my Qi. The blaze spread, taking the ants by surprise, burning them alight, like torches on a winter’s night.
They screamed and ran, but I chased.
With a single powerful flap of my wings, I was upon them. I tore them apart. My claws, longer than their puny swords, pierced through them, and in a swift motion, I bit off their head. One of them cried in fear as I crushed his hand, his thin bones easily cracking under my grip. I tore him in half and then swallowed him whole. They were but children compared to my magnificent form!
Weak Spirit Realm Cultivators, every single one of them!
But then, a being of pure energy clashed into me and I turned, madness and rage on my mind. It was the Avatar. The Avatar of some old man. Weak! My eyes burned and my body roared with power! In the middle of battle, I had inexhaustible Qi!
The density of energy around me was off the charts! All that death, all those spells, and magic, the very air was thick with Qi! It was so much, I had to push it away, blasting it out through my eyes and mouth, Arcane Blaze and Blast at the same time, at full power.
It was so much, I couldn’t hold it all! So what if my body strained? So what if my flesh burned?! I was immune! I was going to destroy the weak old man so utterly, not even ashes would remain!
[HAHAHA-!]
And then something struck me, struck my mind, struck my face, struck my body and Soul. In but a moment I was cut, my limbs severed, my body torn, and my head, my precious face, split in two.
I crashed into the ground, digging deep ravines into the soil. And as I looked back at the sky, full of colors, full of bright oranges and blues, my body broken, my limbs crushed, and my spirit torn, I saw that old man, that old, weak, puny man, looking down on me. And he grinned.
The bastard.