The void of Void lit up as a new sun rose. A massive oval fireball expanded, casting the huge reflection of Fate. Its golden scales blasted apart and fell away, only to be replaced as new Fate and histories were stitched back on.
"Roar...!"
The damage was real, and it enraged the god. All three heads cried out and focused on a single point. Three mouths opened, spewing dragon lightning far stronger than before, slamming directly into Belial.
It hurt a little, but the priority was clear. Pull that flying sea cucumber down and beat it on the ground. "Get down here!!!"
Darkness formed in his hand, born from extreme gravitational distortion. Under gravity control, he grabbed one neck and, using his absurd weight, hurled it downward. "Eh...?"
It did not go as planned. The thing in his grasp lost substance and vanished, then blinked behind him with Blink and spread its wings. "Shaaa—"
Using its entire body as a radiator, a massive beam of lightning thicker than Belial himself blasted him straight into the center of Sky Island. The ground shook as the beam kept pouring down. A huge cavity burned open with Belial at its center, while Fate poured power into it until a flare erupted.
The expanded Photon Reflection Shield swept across the surface of Sky Island, deflecting all lightning. A Fusion Reaction Beam plus several Charged Particle Cannon slammed back into Fate, exploding on impact as the penetrating shots punched straight through its body. Large golden Shard fragments shattered, another fireball rose, and Fate burst out, only to be intercepted by Belial and raked by a brutal Space Claw.
"Roar...!!!"
Again, the same pattern. Fate hurled another furious dragon lightning star downward, then flung it along its long tail like a pitch, blasting Belial away like a meteor. But then its eyes twitched as pain spread from the claw marks left by Space Claw.
It was only simple high heat and penetrating disintegration at the material level, so why could it hurt something that was almost a concept? Worse still, these wounds were hard to repair. They could only be regrown by consuming power from the Lord, not replaced by cutting Fate timelines like before.
If the usable Fate were a giant net, then every attack from Belial tore a hole straight through it, impossible to mend. Meanwhile, Belial had taken countless conceptual hits and layers of damage erosion, yet he was mostly fine, and his wounds were already healing.
It was like fighting someone who took normal damage but healed fast, while every hit they took was permanent true damage. Strike after strike, burning hot. Once again, that feeling returned, the urge to drop the controller and stop playing altogether.
At this point, giving up was impossible. Besides, they would never believe it, a truly awakened Fate backed by multiple Crimson God could not defeat a Black Dragon that crawled out of some unknown corner of the Material World. Yet the facts were clear: all the earlier conceptual attacks were useless, because the thing on the other side had terrifying offense, defense, and recovery, and it ignored targeting effects entirely, like some absurd fake card designed without shame.
They also remembered another puppet they once used in the Material World, the one that had already been completely burned away from the Fate line. In its final moment, it had erupted with terrifying power and revealed a possible method of fighting. At that moment, they understood.
A deafening roar echoed as Fate's back tore open as if struck by Rend. A phantom Three-Wheel Stone Disc flew out, then manifested behind it as a solemn and ancient Divine Wheel, its countless patterns lighting up before beginning to break apart and reveal a more primitive form.
One thread appeared, then another, then countless threads under Fate's control. They extended from behind its wings into the endless Void, forcing their way into every cell. The sheer number wove into a golden aurora-like curtain behind it, the shroud that covered all things, known as the Web of Fate.
At the same time, blood-red patterns spread and gathered across its body, staining the flawless golden scales with an ominous crimson glow. A massive pressure burst outward from Fate, though it was not true pressure, only the overflow caused by power that was too great for its body to contain.
Flames spread as if a sea of fire ignited behind it. The burning Fate used a brutal method, turning itself into pure power and forcing it all into its body. When it spread its wings, the wingspan nearly doubled, and twisted claw-like extensions formed, radiating blinding light like a burning star.
Another roar shook the surroundings. Fate had figured it out. How do you deal with a disgusting enemy that ignores effects but has overwhelming attack power? The answer was simple, raise your own attack and break it head-on.
It poured even more power into its body, almost constantly burning the Fate threads it controlled. It wasted them recklessly, igniting them just to gain that tiny bit of extra strength. The cost was terrifying, severe backlash from Fate itself, and after this fight it would likely be crippled, but not doing it meant death, so there was no reason to hesitate.
Dragon lightning surged violently over its entire body. With a casual sweep of its massive wings, dozens of dragon lightning strikes, each more terrifying than its earlier full-power attacks, blasted out and instantly pierced and melted the Sky Island formed from the Ruins of Fate. The attack did not stop there, as the lightning twisted and nearly formed another ferocious head, biting into the endless Void and eroding and tearing apart the ant-like Black Dragon before lashing upward toward the Material World like a whip.
"Well, I am almost used to it. This thing really loves breaking its limits," Belial muttered. Because the enemy's combat power had spiked too fast, he could not react in time and only felt his body smash through countless layers.
First came the outer spatial barrier, then unknown depths of rock, magma, and soil far below, enduring a moment of crushing pressure before breaking through to the surface. From the outside, an enormous hollow thousands of meters wide suddenly appeared in an unknown region, as billions of tons of matter vaporized and were thrown skyward, melting from friction-induced heat.
The dragon lightning followed close behind, tearing through space itself like soft clay. It dragged Belial's body across the ground, swinging him back and forth twice and carving out a trench of unknown length. After splitting open several abyss-like Canyon and melting multiple basin-shaped terrains, his body was dragged back into the outer Abyss and Void, where the first thing he saw was Fate lunging at him, wings and claws covering everything in front of it.
Belial did not hold back and released the stockpiled Fusion Reaction Beam he had gathered while being beaten earlier. The close-range explosion blasted Fate away again, buying him a brief moment to prepare, and he grinned. "There is some pressure now, but that is not bad. At least it has the face of a Godzilla rival. If it died as easily as those earlier weaklings, that would be a waste."
He was never worried about whether he could win. Being beaten like this reminded the Lord of something important. "I have been fighting in normal mode for so long that I almost forgot. You are not the only one who can cheat, I think I also have Second Phase."
As he muttered this, Fate had already Blink in front of him, lightning surging over its body as its wings and tail closed in from all directions. Area attacks were not exclusive to one side, as white light erupted from Belial's body in response, releasing an internal radiation burst. He snapped his head up and fired another Fusion Reaction Beam, followed by a tail swing plasma cut that sent Fate flying again.
He opened his mouth wide, electricity surging along the dorsal spines, as a massive magnetic storm ring gathered before him. When it compressed to its limit, it fired as an even stronger Charged Particle Cannon. The beam collided violently with dragon lightning midair, but he did not stop and flapped his wings again, opening his mouth to fire three shots at once.
Fate's wings and torso were pierced by the highly penetrating Charged Particle Cannon, the internal explosions blasting out craters of moderate size. With another roar, it spewed dragon lightning and rushed forward, engaging Belial in close combat. Despite their massive size, their movements were extremely fast, and a Space-charged Detonation Punch wrapped in scorching energy and twisted gravity slammed into one of its heads.
Unwilling to yield, Fate bit down with two heads at once, clamping onto Belial's shoulder and waist. It spread its wings and unleashed dragon lightning like divine punishment. The two crashed back into the material plane, randomly Blinking to different locations, smashing the surroundings until mountains shook and the land overturned under their power.
A scorching heat wave rolled outward, but it caused no real damage to Fate. That alone was not strange, since even stray energy from their fight could easily reach hundreds of thousands of degrees. The problem was that this heat was being sensed directly from inside Belial's body during close combat.