Edward had the capital to say that. After devouring most of the Rust Iron Dragon, the spatial Laws he wielded through his Clone far surpassed Lilith. Wanting to save the dragon was impossible.
"Hmm? What is this, your pathetic attack?" He saw Lilith standing on the castle wall as layers of Magic Array lit up behind her. A pure white Light Cannon mixed with six elements blasted out.
For the mountain-sized Great Dragon, it was trivial. A single claw caught it head-on. The white torrent stripped scales and flesh, but regeneration far outpaced the damage, and Edward even saw them casually fire another Light Cannon at the Elves's Elfido.
The power was equally pitiful, weak enough to make him want to laugh. He had overestimated them. "You can barely protect yourselves, yet you cling to cheap sympathy. This playtime should end. To avoid delays, please die here."
Facing the charging five-headed Great Dragon, Lilith relaxed after confirming something and looked at them as if they were already dead. What she had just fired was not an attack.
Far away, in the region wrapped in blood-red shattered Shard space and black chains, the Barrier imprisoning Belial suddenly tore open a gap. "Boom!" "Boom!"
Within less than a second, two identical orange-red lightning-wrapped beams were forcibly twisted into spirals and surged out. Carrying a dragon's fury, they slammed toward two targets, the castle in the sky and the Elves's Barrier.
"It is time to end this. I will savor you, and the World Tree as well." Elfido smiled faintly and raised his staff. Below, Grand Elder, pierced by a thorn-wrapped white cross, only glared at him, which Elfido ignored.
The blasphemous angel was drowned in a searing torrent as a fusion reaction Heat Ray vaporized it on the spot. "…Eh?" Both Grand Elder and Luna blinked.
From farther away, Edward barely turned in time to sense the surging energy and heat behind him. A fusion reaction Heat Ray completely engulfed him, swallowing the entire Great Dragon. "…My space, broken so fast. Impossible, even a sanctuary…"
There was no time to upload memories. After the Heat Ray, nothing remained. "I was waiting for coordinate bombardment," Lilith said as she walked to the edge of the castle and looked down.
After confirming not even dust was left, she showed a scornful smile. "Clown, what are you waiting for?"
"Whew, thankfully. I did not expect him to still be able to support us," Bella said, relaxing a little. But she was not fully at ease, since the torn opening in the distance was already closing fast. Given Belial's nature, he should have ripped open the Barrier and crushed those two the moment they appeared.
If he had not come out by now, something was really wrong. "I sensed it just now. The space there is extremely chaotic and almost completely isolated. I also feel more than one presence interfering."
"In short, we can only analyze from the side for now. That thing is impossible for us to break. Let us go check where there are people first." When Lilith tried to move the nearby space, she frowned as the chaos alone made her dizzy.
To be honest, she wanted to pull him out too. But after receiving the message sent by Belial, she held back. "I hope the people over there can help us."
"Did that dragon tell you something? Information, right? Let me see." Bella analyzed the flicker of Magic she received and found it oddly familiar. Although Belial had not learned to speak yet, he often expressed things through simple signals, like orbital bombardment.
Along with the fusion reaction Heat Ray, there was also this message. "I am going to sleep for a bit. No need to bother me for now." "I thought it was something big. Everyone here is a good person, so I do not want to go out yet."
After seeing the Rift close and confirming the two possible ambushers were completely gone, Belial turned back. He looked at the dense strange tentacles and vicious heads around him and cursed as he continued. "Do not just stand there. Keep exploding gold for me!"
"Damn it, I got set up."
He had been enjoying his meal when the ground vanished under his feet, and Belial found himself falling into a space made entirely of blood-red shattered mirrors. Twisted and vague shapes drifted in every direction, some clear and some fading, all carrying a sense of menace. The first thing he felt was strong discomfort, as if his body rejected the place itself.
Beneath his feet lay a black stone disk soaked in blood, its surface glowing with red light. Strange ancient runes lit up one after another, spreading outward from the center into eight directions, forming jagged spires of the High Tower with burning torches on them. When he looked up, the opening above had already been sewn shut.
After blanking out for a second or two, he reacted immediately. Someone had waited until he was eating and dropped a trap on him.
Belial's first instinct was to tear this place apart and drag out whoever was behind it to beat them to death. At that moment, thunder-like roars and strange whispers echoed around him. A massive mountain-like shadow appeared, countless enormous eyes lighting up in the void, tongues stretching out as jaws opened wide with Rend, mixing wails, roars, screams, and sobs into a grotesque display.
Black chains with barbed tips dropped from above, while vicious claws made of pure blood reached out from the chaotic mirrors and grabbed toward Belial. Whatever else could be said, the visual effects were impressive. One look told him this was nothing good.
He ignored them and fired a plasma cutting sweep, his tail swinging as blinding white light burst out. A fan-shaped cutting zone spread from his side, severing tentacles, claws, and distorted shapes in one strike. The black chains were crushed directly into fine fragments.
It did not end there. The severed remains melted into strands of black smoke, rushing in from all directions toward Belial like countless twisted laughing faces. The huge black altar beneath his feet flared with blood-like red light, flames and crimson bursts shooting out as the runes rose into the air and turned into chains.
The chains wove into a dense net and instantly bound the limbs, wings, and neck of the massive Black Dragon. Belial felt annoyed at once and instinctively fired an internal blast, a blazing blue-white shockwave lighting up the thin red space. The warped runes were burned away, but immediately afterward even more runes appeared, flooding in from all sides.
"Are you kidding me, do you ever stop? This is seriously annoying."
Realizing something was wrong, Belial became more serious and scanned his surroundings. Someone had to be operating this from behind the scenes. He released Energy Field to investigate and also used his soul vision, only to find no soul perspectives at all, just strange energy with no concrete form.
The surrounding space lacked the familiar black and white contrast he knew. There was only darkness, extremely dense and pure, allowing no light to exist. Far beyond the limits of this space, he sensed abnormal power pouring in at an absurd scale, accompanied by rolling dark plumes like coal smoke.
"So it's you few idiots pulling strings back there?"
He bared his teeth at several vague figures formed from even denser darkness nearby and fired Spiral Heat Ray without hesitation. One head-like shape opened a mouth with Rend, looking down on the blue-white beam with disdain. It was blown apart into smoke.
When it reformed with a confused look, it finally examined Belial more carefully, and the others reacted as well. Another sweeping blast wiped out several of them again, yet they reformed shortly after. Their thoughts briefly synchronized in shared confusion.
They could not understand how he was hitting them at all. After reaching that shared conclusion, their forms collapsed completely. The dense darkness and strange power making up their bodies surged straight toward Belial.
A vast sea of darkness and blood swallowed him whole, making even his massive body seem small. Then it was his turn to be confused. He spoke aloud, baffled by the result.
"With effects like that, you charge it forever and can't even break my electromagnetic shield. What are you even doing?"
He felt the black-red energy clawing uselessly at his surface defenses, which was almost funny. Still, something felt off, either the real killing move was hidden later, or these things were not ordinary at all. Given the scale of energy and the dramatic visuals, he leaned toward the first option.
"Masters, stop struggling and come over here. It's easier on my side."
Deciding that energy was energy, Mephist steeled himself and opened his mouth. A full blockbuster of red-black airflow was swallowed instantly, along with a large mass of darkness. He did not know what else it was good for, but storing it first was fine.
Once inside his body, the energy resisted a bit. He frowned and punched it twice. It became much quieter.
The swirling vortex around him paused for a moment, then began to surge wildly toward his mouth. They all believed they had found a breakthrough. Guided by the Lord instinct, they pushed their power forward, trying to corrupt him completely as they had done before.