Serik glanced at the remaining guild armies, then at the seven guild masters, elders, and Council members who had come to join them. With Darian, Odran, and himself, they made ten peak Convergence cultivators.
The dome had left them nowhere to run. Darian raised his sword, and the others followed him, gathering essence around them until the air trembled as they spread into a formation.
Each man took a position where Leon’s attacks could cover the others. Leon watched them prepare without moving.
Something inside him had changed since he climbed out of the crater. His essence no longer moved the way it used to. Beneath the familiar lightning, wind, and erosion elements, he felt a deeper connection to erosion, like a new comprehension had taken shape.
He had touched its Law during his breakthrough, but he did not understand it yet as it is just a starting point of comprehending laws.
There is nothing left to hold me back, he thought. Let me see how far this power can go.
The gathered guild masters and council elders attacked, not giving Leon to familiarize with his newfound power.
Darian’s lightning sword came down from above, while Serik and the others struck from every side. Odran charged with fire gathering around both fists, each step splitting the ground beneath him. Their techniques overlapped, closing off every path Leon could take.
Seeing the attacks close in, Leon finally moved.
He raised a hand and a thin current of Erosion spread in front of him. The attacks hit it but did not explode against it.
Instead, their condensed essence began to separate, and whatever held them together crumbled slowly until they scattered into faint particles.
Seeing this, he looked at his palm. He had destroyed techniques with Erosion countless times before, but always by overpowering them. This time he had not used more force, only touched the structure of the technique, and the attacks fell apart on its own.
While Leon was studying new changes, others were closing in. Serik appeared at Leon’s side, crossing his twin blades toward his neck. Leon leaned back and let them pass above him, then struck Serik’s chest with a lightning coated palm, sending him sliding across the ground.
Darian came in right behind him with a slash. Leon caught the edge between two fingers.
Lightning surged along the blade, and before Darian could pull it back, a faint current of Erosion travelled over its surface, and the sword began to crumble apart. Darian let go and jumped back as cracks spread along the edge, and the sword hit the ground and broke.
Odran reached Leon as soon as Darian backed up, his flaming fist aimed at Leon’s side, but Leon turned his shoulder, let the punch slide past, and placed his palm against Odran’s forearm.
The flames started to thin as the erosion spread through Odran’s essence and slowly lost their shape. Odran felt it and pulled away, but the fire around his arm had already weakened to a flicker.
’Not only objects or barriers,’ Leon thought. ’But elements too.’
"Keep attacking!" one of the Council members shouted. "Don’t give him time to breathe!"
They changed their formation. Two of them kept Leon busy at close range, while the others stayed behind, so that each time Leon attacked and other retreated, the next was already coming.
Leon attacked the first one with a pulse of lightning, sending him flying, and crossed the distance between other, and hit him in the chest. The man’s defense shattered, and circulated his erosion in through the cracks.
The essence the man gathered came apart, and he dropped to his knees, unable to circulate his energy. He was still alive, but he would not be able to fight again again.
The others also closed in. Leon spread out his senses before their attacks arrived and studied them.
’I can now perceive the intents and flow behind the attacks now.’
Each technique flowed differently, but every one of them depended on a structure that held its power together. He could sense those points now and let his erosion pass through them.
The attacks collapsed before they could reach him.
At the edge of the battlefield, the watching Convergence cultivators had gone quiet. A clan elder stood among them, his eyes fixed on Leon.
"He has entered Monarch,"one of the experienced elder said.
The cultivator beside him turned. "So that is what this pressure is?"
"The pressure is only part of it." The elder nodded toward the fight. "Look at how those techniques are coming apart. He is not overpowering them. He is taking them apart."
Another cultivator narrowed his eyes as he watched Leon let a attack come close before dismantling it. "Then why is he holding back? He is letting them reach him."
"Because he is testing something," the elder said quietly. "The Erosion Law. He has only just touched it, and he is using their techniques to understand it."
When others heard them, it unsettled them more regarding the guild’s fate. Ten Harmonized Convergence cultivators were fighting for their lives, and Leon was treating their attacks like lessons.
At the side, the imperial envoys kept their officers and scouts close towards the dome edge, and the clan representatives pulled their own people behind them.
Leon had not moved against either group. The clans and imperial scouts sent urgent messages to their headquarters, asking for reinforcements in case something gets worse.
On the battlefield, the guild cultivators were exhausted and scattered.
"We have to combine everything!" one of the guild masters shouted. "Everything we have left!"
Others nodded as directed their essence above the battlefield and merged into one massive technique.
The pressure forced the weaker cultivators to the ground. Those still in the air dropped lower, struggling to stay up, and even the watching Convergence cultivators raised their defenses as the attack came down.
Thin currents of Erosion spread from his hands and entered the technique. He directed towards its structure, searching out the connections that held it together. Then the attack slowly began to break apart. Leon closed his fingers, and the whole combined attack scattered before it could reach him.
Leon then moved before others could recover. Lightning struck around them them and broke their positions, followed by wind currents, throwing several of them off balance. Then came the Erosion, stripping the reinforcement from their weapons and armor one after another.
The remaining guild armies did not advance. The dome kept them from leaving, but Leon never looked their way. They already knew the fight was over.
Leon walked toward the guild leaders scattered across the broken ground. He stopped in front one of them and lifted a finger.
He stopped before the Council members and let the erosion enter the man’s body and directed towards his soul.
His body convulsed as the current tore through his memories, breaking his thoughts apart until he could no longer recognize what was happening to him. Leon withdrew the current before it destroyed the soul completely.
He then continued through the guild officials, testing different depths and applications of the Law. Some resisted through their spiritual defenses, while others tried to protect their souls directly.
But he broke through each of the defenses, and left them alive but unable to recover.
Serik and Odran could offer little resistance. Both had already been weakened by the battle, and Leon’s Erosion soon left them unable to gather their thoughts.
Then, Leon turned towards Darian. He stopped for a moment, studying him.
After a brief pause, he resumed the Erosion.
Darian’s eyes widened, and he jerked against the ground, clutching his head. He tried to jump away, but could barely move.
"Leon..." His voice trembled. "Please..."
Leon didn’t answer or even look at him. He continued the erosion, holding the current in place. Then, Darian’s plea slowly faded.
Only then did Leon withdraw the current, leaving him trembling and unable to rise, turning towards the remaining guild armies.
The dead lay scattered everywhere. He stepped over a banner, over a hand still clenched around a spear, and over a person whose mouth was open as if he had been about to ask a question. The ground sucked his boots as blood stood to the ankle in every step.
Ahead, a few thousand more waited, trembling. They screamed when he raised his hand. He did not hear them. He swung his arm horizontally, and the thread of his law went down in one long arc, enveloping all in a single slash, and a sound of bodies dropping was heard in the distance.
He walked forward again, his hands perfectly steady.
Darian behind him said his name, almost pleading. "Leon. Enough." But he did not turn around.
He continued walking, his gaze fixed on the countless bodies ahead.
With each step, the surroundings slowly began to fade. The bodies, and the distant slopes gradually thinned, as though the entire scene were slipping away.
Leon kept walking. Then he sensed another presence behind him. His steps slowed, and a faint smile appeared on his face as he finally turned around.
"You’re here this early?"