As the golden light spread across the Island, Sigil's brows furrowed.
For a brief moment, he thought it was poison. Some large scale technique meant to weaken the Starborns before the real assault began. But the thought disappeared almost immediately.
If it were poison, why weren't the enemies affected?
Morgan was ruthless, yes, but not to the point of sacrificing his own forces together with the Starborns. There was no panic among the invading army either. Some of them even looked relieved after the golden light touched them.
Sigil's eyes narrowed.
Then he noticed something else.
The blue barrier surrounding Morgan had disappeared.
Morgan's face had become noticeably paler than before, his breathing slightly heavier. It was subtle, something most people would never notice in the middle of a battlefield, but Sigil saw it clearly.
Whatever the golden ring was doing, it was draining even Morgan himself.
That realization made Sigil's expression sink further.
For Morgan to willingly pay such a price, the effects of that light would not be simple.
Far below them, the battle continued.
But slowly, almost invisibly at first, something began to change.
Orion's battle had already flattened half the ridge.
The ground around them was covered in cracks and scorched marks from repeated lightning strikes. Large chunks of earth had been torn out completely, leaving behind deep pits and collapsed stone walls.
For the first time in a long while, Orion was enjoying himself.
No.
Enjoying was too mild a word.
A grin rested on his face as blue lightning flickered across his body. The speed at which he moved forced afterimages to remain behind him for brief moments before fading.
Opposite him, the large man wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and laughed.
"Ferocious," he said honestly. "As expected of Sigil's right hand man."
The man rolled his shoulders before gripping the massive curved blade tighter.
"If Morgan hadn't specifically ordered me to stop you, I doubt anyone else here could."
Orion remained silent.
Lightning crackled around him while he absorbed energy from the surroundings, restoring the losses from their earlier clashes. His eyes remained calm, focused entirely on the enemy before him.
The body cultivator was troublesome.
Every lightning strike that should have crippled an ordinary fighter only slowed the man slightly. His body was absurdly durable, reinforced by both earth energy and pure physical cultivation. Orion had pierced through his defenses multiple times already, yet the man continued fighting as though pain barely registered to him.
Then the golden light reached them.
It swept across the battlefield like flowing dust, covering the ridge in seconds.
The body cultivator frowned at first, instinctively stepping back.
But moments later, understanding flashed across his face.
A huge grin spread across it.
"So it has started."
Orion immediately noticed the abnormality.
The golden particles drifting through the air were gathering toward him unnaturally, attaching themselves to his body no matter how much lightning he released.
Blue arcs exploded outward from him violently.
The nearby ground shattered.
But the golden particles ignored the lightning completely.
Orion's grin disappeared.
The body cultivator saw the reaction and laughed loudly.
"So even monsters like you can feel fear."
Orion ignored him.
Lightning snakes burst from his arms instead, dozens of them twisting through the air with sharp hissing sounds before rushing toward the enemy.
At the same time, Orion raised his other hand.
A spear made entirely from condensed lightning slowly formed above his palm, radiating a violent white-blue glow that made the surrounding air tremble.
The body cultivator's expression changed slightly.
He slammed his foot into the ground.
Huge walls of earth erupted upward, intercepting the lightning snakes as explosions echoed across the ridge. Dust and shattered rock filled the air immediately afterward.
But Orion didn't stop.
More snakes formed continuously from his left hand while the spear above his right grew denser and brighter as its color slowly shifted from blue to white.
The smile on the large man's face faded completely.
Without hesitation, he raised both hands.
The earth around Orion exploded upward.
Massive spear-like stone projections erupted from below and intertwined rapidly, attempting to trap him inside a giant cage of compressed rock.
But Orion vanished.
A thunderclap echoed across the battlefield.
He reappeared hundreds of meters away almost instantly, standing above a broken stone pillar while continuing to condense the spear.
The body cultivator's eyes twitched.
Fast.
Far too fast.
Even after fighting for this long, Orion still hadn't fully unleashed his speed.
But Orion himself was no longer focused entirely on the battle.
Something felt wrong.
The lightning spear in his hand flickered briefly.
A tiny flicker.
Small enough that nobody else would notice it.
But Orion noticed.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
As he continued absorbing energy from the surroundings, he realized the recovery speed had become slower. The difference was small, but for someone like Orion, even a slight disruption was impossible to ignore.
For the first time since the battle started, Orion spoke.
"Impossible."
The body cultivator laughed.
"So you can talk after all."
He immediately rushed forward, trying to pressure Orion before the technique fully stabilized.
The ground behind him exploded apart with every step.
Orion ignored him.
The white lightning spear had only finished forming halfway, unstable arcs of electricity tearing through the air around it wildly.
Normally, he would never release a technique this incomplete.
But something about the golden light made him unwilling to delay further.
Without hesitation, Orion threw the spear.
The world flashed white.
The body cultivator's instincts screamed.
He crossed both arms and summoned layer after layer of compressed earth in front of himself.
The spear collided.
For a single second, everything became silent.
Then the ridge disappeared.
A terrifying explosion swallowed the entire area as white lightning erupted outward violently, tearing through stone, earth, and air alike. Huge cracks spread across the battlefield while nearby soldiers from both sides were forced to retreat from the shockwave.
When the light faded slightly, the body cultivator could be seen kneeling within a massive crater.
Blood dripped heavily from both arms.
One side of his armor had been completely destroyed.
Yet he was still alive.
He slowly lifted his head and laughed weakly.
"Now that's more like it..."
Orion stared at him silently.
But his attention was no longer fully here.
Across the battlefield, things were changing.
One of the Starborn arrays in the distance flickered for a brief moment before stabilizing again.
Another activated slower than it should have.
A squad of Starborn soldiers that had been overwhelming their enemies moments ago suddenly found themselves getting pushed back.
Not defeated.
Not yet.
But slower.
A woman from the array division frowned while pressing both hands against a formation plate.
"Why is the energy circulation weakening?"
No one answered her.
Above the battlefield, the golden particles continued drifting silently through the island.