A Feast

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.

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 wa