One of the search parties descended into the crater, spreading across the broken ground.
The Guild Council had ordered them to begin from the center and search the surrounding area. The surviving forces remained beyond the crater, while the scouts and other clans watched from the edges of the battlefield.
The ground was still unstable. There were some broken stone, shifting beneath their feet, and in several places the heat had fused the rocks and mud, making the ground uneven.
They scattered the debris and the deeper cracks, looking for anything that might have remained of Leon.
The first group reached the lowest part of the crater. Their leader raised a hand to signal the others to spread out, but one of the cultivators stopped and turned toward the center.
Nothing appeared to be moving there, yet his spiritual essence had begun to slow. He tried to circulate it again, but only felt an unfamiliar weight pressing against his body.
"Something is wron-"
A huge pressure struck before he could finish. His knees hit the ground, and the others around him staggered. Several tried to retreat, but their bodies could barely move.
One reached for his spiritual weapon, but failed to wield it, while another forced out a warning to the other groups behind but his voice never came.
Their consciousness vanished under the overwhelming pressure before any of them could even let out a scream, and their auras disappeared and none of them moved again.
The search party behind them stopped. Its leader looked toward the center, trying to sense what had happened.
But before he could make sense of what happened, the same pressure hit them. He immediately pulled his essence around his body, but it offered no protection. Their consciousness vanished beneath the pressure, and their auras faded with them.
From the outside of the crater, the disappearance of so many auras did not go unnoticed.
A few of the stronger cultivators extended their senses toward the fallen search parties, but pulled them back almost immediately as a sharp pain followed through their consciousness.
The ground parted as a faint current of spiritual essence rose from beneath the rubble, and dust rolled outward as a man emerged from below.
Leon’s clothes were torn and darkened with blood and dust. His body still had some marks of the battle, but the exhaustion that had weighed on him before was gone.
He looked across the battlefield, taking in the scattered guild forces and the visitors gathered beyond them. The three surviving masters felt the change at once.
During the battle, Leon’s aura had surged whenever he pushed his exhausted body beyond its limits. They had learned to read those fluctuations and find openings between his attacks.
Now there was no fluctuation. His essence had settled into a different state, and the pressure around him was heavy even if he was standing still.
Darian’s hand tightened around his sword. Serik gripped his damaged twin blades into a firmer grip, while Odran stared at Leon without moving.
They had seen him disappear beneath the final attack and searched the crater for a while without finding any traces of him. Yet he was standing in front of them now.
Most of the visitors could not understand what they were sensing. Their spiritual essence was being forced down, and some struggled to remain standing. A few had to brace themselves against the ground.
Among the visitors, only the Convergence cultivators seemed to understand the change.
A clan elder who had been watching from the ridge took an involuntary step back. He had felt Leon’s strength before the final attack and recognized that the aura before him no longer belonged to a Convergence cultivator.
"He has crossed the threshold, and stepped into the next stage," he said quietly.
A nearby Convergence cultivator looked at him, then back at Leon. He did not question him. The others who had reached Convergence had also sensed the same change, while those below that stage could not read it.
Other lower stage cultivators saw the elder step back and the three guild masters remain still, but had no way to understand what had happened.
They only felt the pressure bearing down on them. Some tried to reinforce their bodies with essence, but its flow kept breaking before it could settle. Others dropped from the air, unable to maintain their flight, and looked toward the stronger cultivators for an explanation.
Near the crater, Leon raised one hand.
The ground around the whole battlefield trembled, as a barrier started to rise. It spread outward in a wide circle, passing the broken forest and the ruined cities before curving into the sky, sealing the entire area beneath a dome.
Those closest to the boundary of the dome tried to get through before it closed. One cultivator rushed forward and struck it with his shoulder, but the impact threw him backward. Another gathered his essence and attacked the barrier, but the force dispersed against its surface without leaving a mark.
A few who had already taken flight changed direction and climbed higher, only to find the dome extending above them, without a visible gap.
The imperial scouts who had been positioned near the guild lines moved toward the edge. One of them pressed his palm against it, then tried to force a path through with his spiritual essence. The barrier rippled but remained intact.
"It’s sealed," he said.
The clan representatives looked toward their scouts. They had come to observe the aftermath, not to be trapped inside it. Those who had remained on the outer ridges found that the barrier had closed behind them as well. No group had been left outside its boundary.
An imperial representative stepped forward. "We came here only to observe what happened. Our people have taken no part in this conflict. Why have you trapped us here?"
A clan envoy beside him spoke, restraining his anger. "Our scouts are among those inside. We have no involvement in your dispute with the guilds. Release them and let us leave."
Leon did not answer. His attention remained on the guild forces.
The imperial representative again spoke, glancing toward the barrier. "We have no intention of interfering with you. But the Empire will not ignore harm to its people."
Before anyone could speak again, a guild cultivator at the front stepped forward. He looked from Leon to the surviving masters, then gathered the essence left in his body and formed a spiritual spear. With a shout, he launched it toward Leon, who simply lifted his hand.
A thin current of Erosion met the weapon. Its condensed essence began to crumble, breaking apart layer by layer until the spear vanished before reaching him.
The current continued forward and touched the cultivator. The Erosion passed through his armor and stripped away the body beneath, layer by layer, until the man dissolved into a fine, bone colored mist. The wind carried blew him across the broken ground.
The guild cultivators near him stepped back. The commander behind them looked toward the guild masters, waiting for an order. Darian did not raise his sword, and Serik’s blades remained at his sides. Without a signal from them, the soldiers held their positions.
Those who had questioned Leon fell silent. They had seen powerful cultivators die before, but the man had not been struck down by a weapon or overwhelmed by a visible attack. His spiritual spear had vanished first, followed by the man himself, leaving nothing behind to recover.
The clan envoys stared at the place where his body had been. One of his scouts moved forward, but the envoy caught his arm.
"Do not," he said quietly.
The imperial representative’s expression had hardened. He no longer tried to approach Leon. Instead, he turned to the officers beside him and ordered them to keep their people back.
"We acknowledge your strength," he said. " So I request you to not involve those who have come here as observers."
The imperial officers stayed close to their representative, while the clan envoy moved in front of his scouts.
Serik’s grip on his twin blade was weakening. "Darian."
"I know," Darian replied.
"He has crossed the threshold," Serik said as his hands were trembling. "We should find a way to leave immediately."
Serik glanced at the remaining guild armies, then at the other guild masters and Council members who had joined them.
Seven more had arrived, bringing their number to ten. All of them were at peak Convergence, yet no one moved. They watched Leon in silence, aware that even their combined strength might not be enough.
Darian’s eyes never left Leon. He had expected rage, perhaps questions about Mira and Lyra. Instead, Leon offered only silence.
And that silence left Darian heavy inside, that he couldn’t explain, so he had nothing to tell him. Leon’s gaze finally settled on the new arrivals.
Serik tightened his grip on his blades, while Odran shifted his stance. With no other choice, the three masters steadied themselves and prepared for a battle they knew they could not win.