It opened its mouth to charge, preparing a far stronger Heat Ray than before. Crimson God struggled desperately, pushing his remaining power and meteors to defend himself. But most of his domain was already under the control of the Space ecological Clone, and the roaring photon storms created an Electromagnetic Pulse-like effect that cut off his control entirely.
There was no suspense left. When the ultimate combat lifeform from Space, the God of Destruction, opened its mouth, death was inevitable. The blazing Heat Ray destroyed every inch of Crimson God's body.
Afterward, it tossed the charred remains away like trash. The soul had already been destroyed, eaten, and digested. This galaxy domain was now completely under control.
Boom. A sun burning with black flames mercilessly scorched the icy Crown below, surrounded by ring-like ruins. Two-thirds of the Divine Kingdom beneath was engulfed in flames, with ice covering less than one-tenth.
The giant ice spider, half of its eight legs severed, was slammed to the ground again. Black flames clung to its body, devouring every inch. The magnificent palace on its back was reduced to charred remains, and unimaginable pain spread through its form.
It watched its body decay in disbelief. This should not have been possible. It thought it had met an old troublesome acquaintance returning in weakness, believing both sides were weakened and that the opponent's Authority would be even worse.
That fire burned others and itself alike, demanding constant souls as fuel. Yet now something was clearly different, with near true damage effects that had not existed before. The winged dragon, wreathed in black flames, roared and raised its wings as the solar outline behind it faded, while the flames burned even stronger.
The final move was an unavoidable flashfire charge. A massive fireball engulfed the remaining Divine Kingdom, burning and destroying everything in a single sweep. Before it could spread further, the flames were drawn back to avoid waste, pulling in the soul, remains, and fragments of Divine Kingdom to be consumed.
Relying on the internal Diablo mechanism to convert resentment into fuel, the dying sun did not go out, only weakened. That was enough. The task was basically complete.
"Since everything is done, I will start eating." "Ah." He spat two shots of Heat Ray to roast the squid skewer in his hand a bit more until it gave off a faint charred smell, and Belial nodded in satisfaction. Then he opened his mouth wide and dug in.
"Analysis is finally done. Uh, this scene feels really familiar."
Still piloting her battered little Flying Probe, Bella chased the traces left by Belial all over the Abyss. After tracking him for quite a while, she finally arrived at the scene. However, when the situation was scanned, analyzed, and converted into a two-dimensional image, what Bella saw at first left her stunned.
"What kind of situation is this again?"
Lilith knew very well that if it were just another scene of Belial blowing apart some random monster, it would no longer stir much reaction in anyone. So if it could make Bella react like this, then it had to be something even stranger. When she looked at the image herself, Lilith seemed to understand at once.
"That thing can really be eaten like barbecue? Wouldn't that mess up your stomach?"
Ham scratched her head, thinking back on the boldest things she had ever done, and realized she had never gone that far. Eating something like that felt even worse than consuming something filled with resentment, which was already disgusting enough. On top of that, it contained all kinds of weird leftovers unique to that Crimson God, such as fragments of Authority, shattered Shard versions of Laws, and other chaotic residues, where even getting close could pollute weaker life forms.
At this point, the situation was already very clear. Belial was having a barbecue. Honestly, those creatures all looked suitable for grilling, and if he did not eat them, it would be a waste. Gorolion barely counted as roasted meat, and the rest looked like seafood, so not eating them would almost be rude.
Since all he needed to do next was wait for the pot of water to stir itself, he might as well enjoy himself. To add a bit of ceremony, he even fashioned a piece of Wire Mesh, then created three Clone to keep him company while eating. Even though food like this had no real taste and only gave him a vague sensation, it still felt pretty good.
With his current level of strength, eating such low-grade stuff no longer boosted him much. In the past, eating one could double his power, but now even several together barely raised it by one step. Maybe after doing this a few more times, he could meet the modest goal of casually fighting ten versions of his former self at once.
"But whatever, barbecue comes first. Even if I can't taste it, it's still fun."
Three large piles of freshly dead ingredients sat nearby, but Belial did not plan to eat them all. Since consuming them barely increased his strength anymore, he might as well save them. Judging from how useful they had been as bait before, they could serve as rare high-end materials later, or as bait again, assuming the fish stayed stupid.
After all, these things were hard to find and very few in number, maybe only dozens total. If he wiped them out completely, they would become a limited edition. While Belial hummed and grilled, the analysis results on Bella's side were finally ready.
"Analysis complete! Once we confirm the peak numbers, we can tell exactly how many unlucky ones died in the Abyss!"
Bella's processor rapidly filtered massive amounts of messy data, extracting what she needed and arranging it into tables. The detector had been running for a long time, and now the data had finally come back. Every death of a Crimson God caused a huge disturbance, and if one truly died, the released power could cover more than half of The Continent.
Compared to the absurd scale of the Abyss itself, that disturbance was still only a small area, which was why data collection took so long. Bella's probes had attached some Nanometal to Belial's Clone, allowing them to gather data. Once analysis was done, they could tell how many Crimson God had died along his path.
"Looks pretty good. In just this short time, twelve have already died. Rounded up, that's about a third of the Abyss Evil God gone."
"Twelve? Even counting Belial's Clone, that should only be seven or eight at most. Wait, did they start fighting each other first?!"
Ham was first shocked, then found it absurd. Even with how outrageous Belial had become, it was impossible for him to take down twelve so quickly. This was not even about combat power anymore, so there had to be another reason.
After putting herself in their mindset, Ham understood. Most likely, they had turned on each other first, which was perfectly normal behavior for them. It was exactly the sort of thing they would do.
"They probably had internal conflict."
"That's what the data suggests. Each probe unit only recorded one such death wave, but the main unit recorded three. That should be the reason."
"Three?"
Ham's eye twitched. Three in such a short time meant Belial's main body had taken on three Crimson God at once and killed them. This was after his power was split into Clone, and each clone had basically soloed one Crimson God, meaning Belial alone accounted for half the total kills.
Wasn't this growth a bit too extreme? She remembered that when he first entered, even in her Fate state, she could still fight him for a while, even if he had the upper hand. Yet after such a short time, his combat power had grown to the point where he could treat ordinary Crimson God like dogs.
This was far from the first time Ham had questioned what Belial really was. None of the ancient beings she remembered matched him, even those who had secretly clawed their way back from death. No one fit.
"Wait. At this growth rate, doesn't that mean Abyss could actually be cleared solo by Belial?"
After thinking it through, Ham realized it was possible. Those trash-tier residents of Abyss would likely be completely crushed by a Belial who kept growing stronger. From the results alone, it seemed very likely.
"That sounds right. Isn't that great? Just push a bit harder and solve everything at once!"
Bella looked genuinely happy. Wasn't it good to deal with all the trouble in one go? Ham's expression darkened, because nearly a third of her old enemies being wiped out was certainly good news. And with all the starving, weakened Crimson God in the Abyss, most of them probably could not beat a Belial who kept getting stronger.
But the problem was that they would fight desperately. Like all living beings, when they realized a massive threat was right in front of them and could end their lives, they would go mad. That was even more true for the already insane Abyss Evil God.