The battlefield no longer sounded like a war.
The earlier clashes had faded into scattered explosions, confused shouting, and distant screams spreading across the island while the enormous golden dome continued sealing itself overhead, its surface glowing faintly like liquid light flowing across the darkened sky.
Nobody moved recklessly anymore. The elder's death had shaken everyone badly enough that even the strongest fighters occasionally glanced upward whenever the dome pulsed.
Near the coastline, dozens of soldiers gathered while unleashing attacks toward the incomplete sections of the barrier. Flames, ice, lightning, and countless techniques collided endlessly against the golden surface, yet none of them produced any visible effect.
Every attack simply disappeared into the dome without causing even the slightest ripple.
"What kind of thing is this?" one man shouted fearfully while stumbling backward. "No formation should be this strong!"
Another Primarch-ranked cultivator gritted his teeth before raising both hands toward the sky. A massive beam of energy shot upward and crashed directly into the dome.
The attack vanished instantly.
Nothing changed.
Panic slowly started spreading afterward.
"This thing is trapping us here!"
"No shit, idiot!"
"Then break it!"
"We've been trying!"
More attacks rained upward uselessly as the barrier continued absorbing everything silently.
Far away, Sigil and Morgan had temporarily stopped fighting, not because either side wanted peace, but because the battlefield itself had become stranger than the war surrounding them.
Sigil floated within the sea of black flames surrounding his body while staring toward the golden dome overhead. His breathing had steadied somewhat after the interruption caused by the ring, allowing fragments of reason to return little by little.
Not enough to erase the grief burning inside him.
Khate's death still lingered within his chest like poison.
But at the very least, he could think clearly again.
And the more he observed the battlefield, the more wrong everything felt.
Morgan remained several hundred meters away, breathing heavily while blood dripped continuously from his wounds. Despite his miserable appearance, relief still lingered faintly within his eyes.
That alone made Sigil uneasy.
"You trapped everyone here," Sigil said coldly.
Morgan laughed weakly before wiping blood from his mouth.
"You still don't understand."
Before Sigil could respond, screams suddenly erupted from below.
Both men looked downward immediately.
A wounded Starborn soldier had collapsed onto his knees while clutching his chest desperately. Nearby soldiers instinctively moved away from him as his skin gradually lost color and faint golden strands slowly rose from his body toward the dome above.
"No… no…"
Blood started leaking from the soldier's nose as his aura weakened visibly.
A healer rushed toward him immediately and covered his body with green light.
"Hold still!"
For a brief moment, the soldier stabilized.
Then the golden strands intensified.
The healer's face changed instantly.
"It's draining him!"
The surrounding soldiers stepped backward in horror as the wounded man attempted to stand again, only for his legs to collapse beneath him almost immediately. His body looked thinner now, weaker, as though something inside him was being hollowed out piece by piece.
Far away, similar scenes slowly began appearing across the battlefield.
At first, the changes were subtle enough to go unnoticed amidst the chaos. But as more people paid attention, the difference became frighteningly clear.
The Starborn clan members weakened faster than everyone else.
Their auras dimmed noticeably while exhaustion spread rapidly through their ranks.
One elder suddenly grabbed another by the arm.
"You feel it too?"
The second elder's expression looked grim.
"My energy…" His voice trailed off weakly.
High above them, the black flames around Sigil flickered again.
This time, he noticed it clearly.
He slowly raised one hand as the flames weakened briefly before stabilizing once more, though the interruption felt unnatural, almost as if something invisible had disrupted their flow.
Sigil's eyes narrowed slightly.
The dome was affecting him too.
Below, panic continued spreading.
"What did Morgan activate?"
"This wasn't part of the plan!"
"You bastard!"
Several enemy soldiers glared furiously toward Morgan after realizing the dome was draining them as well.
"It's attacking us too!" one man shouted hysterically while pointing upward.
Morgan's expression stiffened briefly.
"Shut up," he said coldly.
But the fear had already spread too far.
The moment people realized the dome made no distinction between ally and enemy, the battlefield's fragile trust began collapsing completely.
Another wounded cultivator suddenly rushed upward recklessly.
"I'm not dying here!"
Several nearby figures watched him hopefully as he condensed all his remaining power into a massive spear of lightning before hurling it directly toward the barrier.
Boom.
The attack disappeared into the dome without resistance.
Then golden light spread downward instantly.
The cultivator screamed as his body rapidly shriveled before everyone's eyes. Blood, energy, and vitality were ripped out of him forcefully within seconds, leaving behind a dried corpse that soon crumbled apart into countless golden particles.
The dome absorbed everything.
Silence followed afterward.
This time, the fear weighing over the battlefield became far heavier than before. Nobody attempted escaping again.
Far away, a thin old man slowly lowered his trembling hand while staring upward at the glowing dome. He had remained silent throughout the chaos until now.
"…it's feeding," he whispered.
Several nearby cultivators immediately turned toward him.
The old man's pale face tightened further as he continued staring upward in horror.
"The dome… every death strengthens it."
The surrounding figures froze instantly.
"It absorbs vitality," the old man continued quietly. "Blood. Energy. Perhaps even souls."
Nobody responded. They did not need to.
Above them, the golden dome continued spreading silently across the island skies.