Under extreme heat and explosive force, Fate had its chest blown open again. Flames covered its body as it struggled to repair itself. Then an even stronger gravity pressed down, freezing it for an instant before coronal Heat Ray fired from spines and wings, engulfing it completely.
Belial remarked that his energy output was stronger now, close to performing the kind of feats seen in true Space conditions. His words were calm, almost analytical. He did not slow his assault.
Barely escaping the rising fireball, Fate emerged with its lower body charred black. It began reorganizing itself as faint Rift sounds echoed. Before it could flee far, more Fusion Reaction Beam slammed it from the sky, and Gravity Manipulation dragged it back down.
In that brief exchange, nearly a thousand miles of land had turned into a hellish wasteland. Fate shook its head as a tearing sound echoed from the silhouette behind it, signaling Rend activating. This was a deeper burn of Fate power, with backlash that would be repaid a thousandfold later, but there was no choice now.
After only a few clashes, the injuries it had taken already exceeded everything before combined. Once Belial entered that state, his power was still rising at an increasingly absurd speed. If Fate did not fight desperately now, it would be finished even without being killed outright.
Under further forced extraction, the already stitched and unstable Wheel of Fate erupted with dense Rift. Countless destroyed and denied timelines and Fate threads crushed together, and the wheel was close to collapse. Fate roared in agony as stronger and more chaotic dragon lightning rampaged outward.
A massive ring of pure lightning burst from its wing tips, actually forcing Belial back. The huge outline shattered further into Shard, revealing a broken core that rotated endlessly behind it. Each turn ground vast amounts of time and Fate into fuel, burning without pause.
Wheel of Fate formed an enormous golden wheel that spat destructive golden Gold Rank Lightning Magic. Fate burned as it charged skyward, dyeing everything in a dim golden hue. The sky and ground were swallowed by its ascent.
A colossal golden Magic Array descended like a collapsing sky. Orbital-strike-like bolts of massive Lightning Magic slammed toward the ground. Everything in their path was erased into darkness.
Belial immediately deployed Photon Reflection Shield. Crystal grew rapidly around him as the ground beneath fractured with Rend. Dense lightning was reflected in all directions, filling the sky like a reversed storm.
Lightning flickered along his back spines as the surrounding temperature climbed again. the Lord actively raised his temperature further, and after the shield filtered the attack, traces of golden Lightning Magic were silently absorbed into his body. He lowered his head, cold eyes locking onto the very center of the giant golden Magic Array behind Fate.
Based on earlier information he had been given, destroying that point would end it. He commented that the fight was almost over, though this enemy was indeed difficult to kill. Still, he admitted he had enjoyed it and acknowledged Fate as the strongest opponent he had faced here.
While he charged, Fate continued extracting power and raining lightning down on him. The battle had reached a point where only one would survive. The torrent fell like a heavenly waterfall, burying Belial beneath golden Lightning Magic.
Then something felt wrong. Fate sensed it suddenly, a feeling it could not explain at first. It realized it was danger, a crushing sense of imminent annihilation.
Before it could think further, a deafening explosion erupted ahead. A crimson barrier bloomed within the lightning rain, forming an invisible vortex as the massive Lightning Magic was actively absorbed into Belial's back spines. Power raged inside him, driving his temperature and internal reactions even higher.
Brighter patterns crawled across his body, red and white lightning expanding outward in rings. His right foot pressed into the ground, which had already become a sea of molten magma, yet the shaking was held in place by gravity. Another wave spread from him, turning the reflected Lightning Magic crimson as it blasted the golden torrent aside.
The crimson Great Dragon roared. Unconcealed light flared deep in his throat as sound waves turned into violent vibrations, interrupting Fate's attack and stripping away blockbuster scales. Fate was seized by overwhelming dread.
This was no longer a vague premonition. In that instant, Fate began to rapidly collapse and tear under Rend, its already dim future turning completely gray. The meaning was clear.
It had to flee, no matter the cost. Yet as that thought formed, the golden spatial vortex behind it abruptly closed. Fate spread its wings and canceled all defensive power, exposing itself fully to Belial.
This was not madness. The collapse of countless Fate and timelines, combined with the shattered Wheel of Fate, had created an unbearable burden. The core will of Fate was only a puppet, barely able to control the body before, and now it was too weak.
A voice echoed in its mind. It was another self, Ham, whose will had been suppressed earlier. It told Fate that this chance to die should not be wasted, and that now, Fate itself was the one responsible.
One of Fate's heads suddenly awakened and looked around, especially at the fully charged Belial. It smiled faintly and said goodbye. It openly revealed the core Authority center and urged him to strike there with full force.
Even though Fate suppressed Ham again in the next moment, it was too late. In truth, even if defenses had formed, Belial would not have cared. Layers of protection meant nothing.
He spoke casually, saying that as both planetary and dark, he appreciated the massive energy provided, which had allowed him to charge this move so quickly. He joked that as a Godzilla, absorbing power first before smashing King Ghidorah felt especially satisfying.
Using dark power, Belial endured the attacks while absorbing their energy. With two templates working together, the ultimate move that normally required years of charging was now ready. The Burning Mode Dragon had awakened.
He released all internal restraints. The expanding magnetic storm suddenly collapsed inward, converging on a single point. He called out Magnetic Field Rotation and dark power together, followed by a curse-filled shout naming the anti-matter realm and the Red Lotus Dragon.
In an instant, all color drained from the world. No sound survived, everything washed into red and white. Shadows scattered like sand under overwhelming light.
A red-white pillar of light rose through Void, repainting most of the sky over The Continent. It pierced straight down into the bottomless depths of Abyss and Void.
The Floating City jumped over in a hurry after detecting an unusual reaction, and it was almost lifted by the violent shockwave. Massive energy kept slamming into the outer defensive shield, causing constant alarms across the structure. Even the spatial barrier maintained by Safas could not avoid such terrifying fluctuations, as that power shook both space and matter with ease.
"What is this commotion now?" "Do not ask me. I have no idea either. My detectors were burned out again just now, and if I had not kept our distance farther ahead of time, we would have been blown apart too."
Bella began pouring useless cold water over her own head, steam rising nonstop from her body. All the external detection devices had been burned out by the intense energy and electromagnetic turbulence. Fortunately, the few people aboard Floating City were not ordinary figures, or they would have been wiped out by the aftershock like disposable cannon fodder.
"Ham… how is she?" The blonde, red-eyed Sylvia walked out from inside, using Authority of the Silver Dragon at full power to search for Ham's whereabouts. She found nothing, and a trace of worry remained locked between her brows.
Lilith stepped up to the railing and looked at the outside, where the gigantic red-white pillar of light still stood between heaven and earth like a towering tree. Even she could faintly feel the immense power from earlier. At the very top was an utterly black blockbuster Rift, plunging straight into the Void of the Abyss.
This was not the ordinary world beyond reality, and if nothing unexpected had happened, the root of that pillar should have been Belial. Floating City was now stalled several thousand miles away, unable to advance any further, because centered on Belial was a circular zone turned entirely into a high-temperature hell. The heat released when Red Lotus Dragon struck the demon star Shard had already turned all life in the Arctic Ocean into familiar old acquaintances.
Although Belial was stronger at energy control and utilization, and kept using ice and snow to cool himself down, it still could not be resolved quickly. He also needed to stay in place to repair the unavoidable internal damage caused by the earlier breath attack. He lay inside a massive crater, the result of the recoil from releasing Red Lotus Dragon.
"So tired. It is finally over, let me rest for a bit." Yawning, he focused on regulating his body, lowering his temperature and venting the extreme heat stored inside him. He glanced upward and confirmed that not even ash remained.