The deafening roar finally faded, and the dizzying, ringing sensation in everyone's heads gradually receded.
The smoke and drifting motes of glowing energy that filled the battlefield slowly settled, allowing the obscured view to clear.
The first sounds to break the silence were the suppressed, pained groans coming from every direction.
Golden Valley Soldiers and students from the River Domain lay scattered across the ground in disarray.
Many of them had been wounded during the dark monster's indiscriminate attacks and in the aftershock of the cataclysmic clash between the two Transcendents. They now endured both the physical pain of their injuries and the dazed shock of survival.
However, as their gazes—whether pained, fearful, or bewildered—all drifted toward the center of the battlefield, every sound seemed to be abruptly choked off by an invisible hand.
