Faced with the predatory gaze of the Master of Space, the entire battlefield was petrified. No one dared to breathe loudly or make any unnecessary move.
The silence was deafening, and as seconds turned into minutes, everyone broke out in a cold sweat until Khaled's voice cut through the tension:
"There's not much to say, other than to clarify some facts. You are all already dead, but I'll give a chance only to the one who can clarify what happened at the time of my wife's death. Whoever tells me what they witnessed will be spared and will be under my protection; the rest will die here."
The absurdity of his words left everyone dumbfounded. Master or not, Khaled was declaring his defiance not only to two armies but to two city-states! A single man, powerful yet still a man, challenged two great powers without blinking.
It was a fact that cultivators were the powerful "immortals," but there were records of battalion coordination to suppress and kill cultivators. They were problematic, but not invincible. And as for the Master level, for a common person, it was all the same.
Pulled from their stupor by the absurdity of the declaration, the soldiers of both armies tightly gripped their weapons. Swords were unsheathed, shields were raised, and a feeling of ferocity began to take over everyone. The cornered beast is always the most dangerous, and they were ready to prove that point.
"Oh, you will really resist? Impressive. In respect for your bravery, I will exterminate you without pain," Khaled declared, surprised. Resolute, he raised his right hand above his head. Dark gray tendrils emerged from the chasm, drawn to the raised hand of their master. At a staggering speed, a sphere of spatial energy took shape in the battlefield sky.
The sensation coming from the sphere was of a still lake, exuding tranquility. But with a movement of Khaled's hand, the sphere undulated, distorting the space around it. A dimensional corridor was opened, and faster than the blink of an eye, the sphere reached the middle of the meeting point of the two armies. Bodies from the carnage of a few minutes ago, which were still lying on the ground, were instantly swallowed along with the soldiers who were caught off guard.
The sphere distorted fabrics, bones, flesh, and living soldiers in a terrifying silence. Until it exploded at high speed, without any sound, distorting not only the remaining soldiers at the explosion's epicenter but everyone who was unlucky enough to be in the path of the destruction wave. The power of the attack was so intense that in the zone of effect, the fabric of spatiotemporal reality was twisted and contorted.
An extremely dark and chaotic gray zone took shape. Everyone on the attack's periphery broke out in a cold sweat, some throwing up everything they had eaten. Others, unable to hold their fragile nerves, relieved themselves right there.
A membrane of red energy protected the remaining Gofer soldiers along with the command tent, while a membrane of yellow energy protected the peripheral Yam soldiers, as well as their generals and commanders.
The barriers dangerously undulated, threatening to break and expose everyone to the horror of the absolute nothingness created by the sphere's explosion.
"Well, well, what do we have here? Most worthy Masters of Fire and Earth, not only do you honor us with your presences but you also display your skills before someone as lowly as me." Khaled said ironically, looking at the two masters who saved what was left of the two armies and were forced to reveal themselves at the edges of the Valley.
"You've gone too far, boy! We understand your pain, but if you think the Council of Masters and Migdal will sit by and watch you massacre innocents, you are sorely mistaken!" bellowed Elyahu, the Master of Fire, known for being a thoughtful and patient man. But today his posture was that of a beast ready for the slaughter.
"I only have one thing to ask you, you decrepit old man. Where was the council when my wife needed it? Where were Migdal and your Grand Masters when she was dying like a dog in the battlefield mud?! There's only one explanation for such silence from all of you at the moment she needed to be saved... You planned everything, and Migdal gave the green light! Do you deny it?" Khaled trembled with hatred while bellowing his suspicions.
"There's nothing to deny. Everything you said is correct." Shrugging and smiling, Adamah, the Master of Earth, confessed from the other side of the battlefield, terrifying everyone.
Soldiers, commanders, and nobles found themselves thrust into a plot of gods. Suddenly the void in the center of the battlefield wasn't so frightening anymore... not as much as a mortal duel between Masters.