Bullying consciousness projections meant nothing. If he had any courage, he should face their true bodies directly. Belial scratched his head.
With the strength of this Clone body, he could probably only fight one of them to a draw at best, and that would require slowly wearing them down. It was troublesome. While he was thinking about how to blow them apart, the three Divine Kingdom slammed inward toward Belial at the same time. The clash between domains and rules should have triggered violent changes on an astronomical scale.
Yet none of that happened, or rather, it did happen but only at the edges and not fully. The reason was simple. The three Divine Kingdom did not completely merge, as something had forced itself between them.
Before he could see what it was, the three Crimson God suddenly felt cold sweat surge uncontrollably. Fear rose from deep inside them, like a small creature facing a supreme predator, filling them with instinctive terror. At last, they understood what was happening. At the intersection of the three Divine Kingdom, a gigantic storm hundreds of kilometers wide had forced them apart.
No, not blocked. They were being forced open.
They felt the edges of their Divine Kingdom shaking violently, trembling, and then being blasted into dust. The domains began collapsing inward from the edges, completely out of control. A power and energy fluctuation beyond belief swept through, and in mere moments it crushed across the surface of the Divine Kingdom, nearly wiping everything clean.
Even the true bodies of the Crimson God suffered damage, almost having a layer torn off. They finally understood the true identity of this fear and the reason behind it. Belial began to stretch his body.
Yes, it was that simple. It was like being curled up during sleep, an awkward position to exert force, so he just moved a bit and stretched his arms out. After that, everything became easy.
He used some strength along with Gravity Manipulation and ultra-high-frequency vibrations to force open the edges of the three Divine Kingdom, preventing them from merging, while also pressing down on their Shard. Then he yawned.
"Still not enough. I need to sleep a bit more… zzz."
Belial used a small part of his mind to check his condition. With abundant energy, his evolution speed had greatly increased, but there were simply too many things to coordinate, so he still needed more sleep. The problem still had to be solved though. He rolled over, feeling it was not worth forcing himself awake just to kill three nobodies.
"Then I will just add a bit of difficulty for myself… zzz." "Let me try… sleeping while awake…" "… zzzz."
After a brief sound, his brain shut down again, handing control over to instinctive processes. What he needed now was deterrence, a warning to old acquaintances not to provoke him while he slept. Instantly waking up and killing them outright would not work, since no one would even see how they died.
It was a common scene to display executed criminals at city gates or hang them from trees. There were no ropes here, so the simplest solution was to turn all three Crimson God into sky lanterns. The spreading Gravity Manipulation easily dragged the three Crimson God over, and Ecological Corrosion activated, steadily eating away at their Divine Kingdom and weakening them.
Next came blue flames surging from within his body. He lit a small fire, then used molecular control to ignite the three in a literal physical sense. After tying them together, a massive sky lantern made from three Crimson God was completed.
The process was simple, plain, and boring. It really was not worth waking up for. "Still…"
He glanced around and raised one claw. Beneath it, another expanse of the Void had been completely destroyed, stained in blood-red, with crimson marks symbolizing The End appearing everywhere. The mark was expanding again, and with his current growth, its scale was becoming increasingly absurd. If this continued, the thing he had crushed at Overlord Ridge last time might return.
But that was fine. He could deal with it directly. If he completely killed it this time, maybe this annoying mark would disappear as well. Belial thought so.
"…" "… Hm, ah?"
Dizziness, cold, trembling.
When Alba woke up, her head felt heavy and foggy. She did not open her eyes right away and instead reached out to feel around, confirming the familiar texture of stone bricks rather than a cold carriage. But when she opened her eyes, the ceiling was unfamiliar, a church dome covered in golden branches and leaves, and she immediately felt alarmed.
Visible black miasma drifted through the air, accompanied by faint wails of resentful spirits. The ground was torn open by Rend, Shard stones floated in the air, and broken towers stood frozen in the distance. Fires still burned across the ground with threads of lightning running through them, and elsewhere the land was just as bad, cracked open with lava flowing.
"Am I still alive?"
She picked up her familiar hammer nearby and felt a bit safer. Looking around, Alba recognized the surroundings as resembling the great cathedral. She checked her body and found that aside from feeling like she had just run several thousand meters, there were no serious injuries, only torn clothes and two branches stuck in her hair.
Her first reaction was shock that she had not died. She remembered deciding to perform a sacrificial summoning, then everything going black, and after opening her eyes she was here. "But who did all this…"
"What about Elvin and the others?"
She muttered to herself, gripping the hammer carefully while scanning her surroundings for any movement. "Go…"
"Who is there?!"
She immediately hid behind a marble pillar, only to realize after a moment that the voice seemed to be coming from inside her own head. "Go… knock… go…"
"What is this voice? What do you want me to do? Go where?"
Hearing the familiar tone, Alba froze in realization. That voice was… "Go… ring the bell…"
"Boom!!!"
The ground suddenly split open as Rend activated. Alba subconsciously used Holy Light, and this time a shield formed directly in front of her, deflecting the flying Shard stones. Only then did she notice that the ring on her finger had changed, transforming into a bracelet woven like branches and leaves.
"Who are you!"
Through the dust, she saw a gaunt figure and tensed up. Alba held her hammer tightly. With all her equipment destroyed and her body no stronger than an ordinary person, she could not fight anyone. As the dust cleared, the figure stepped forward without answering. It was not a monster but a human, wrapped in White Tier-colored bandages, tall and skeletal.
Alba paused in surprise. She remembered seeing such attire in old records, belonging to a secret ascetic order from the Twilight side. Were they from the Church of Holy Light? Did that make them one of her own?
That thought vanished instantly when the figure lunged at her and was knocked back by Holy Light. The shockwave alone shattered the church's outer colonnade, blasting an entire wall and stained-glass windows into Shard fragments. It even collapsed a nearby building with ease, and Alba swallowed hard, knowing she would have been torn apart if that hit her directly.
When the figure slowly turned back to face her again, she showed a strained expression. "Why is it always me who gets hurt?"
Alba truly did not understand.
She rolled again to dodge another strike, and the flying shockwave was knocked aside by Holy Barrier. After that, Alba finally accepted the truth and let her last bit of hope die. This was not a misunderstanding at all, the other side really wanted her dead.
"Hey, big brother over there! Why won't you even talk to me? Can't we discuss things properly if there's a problem?"
That shriveled-looking figure held terrifying strength, and every casual blow made the ground shake. This Cathedral was built like a palace complex, with luxurious decoration and solid materials, but in the opponent's hands it felt no sturdier than paper. Alba saw black smoke rise from the other's body like scorched flesh, and after a few attacks the figure was clearly gasping for breath, yet a glow soon surged out and restored them briefly before they charged again.
"That is… Holy Light?"
She sensed it instinctively, and that Holy Light felt different from her own. Something about it was off, like putting the wrong drink into a familiar can, but it still seemed to be Holy Light. The opponent could use Holy Light, and their attire also fit the requirements, so if they really were from Twilight Ascetics, then their identity should be fine.
"Then… is the problem me?"
Given the terrible scene nearby, with a member of Nuns lying there clutching an Elder God Relic, anyone would think she was the suspicious one. Yet if she said the other side was fine, that also felt wrong, because Alba kept sensing something strange about them. It was as if beneath that layer of White Tier cloth there was something far more twisted.
"My Holy Light… well, I'll keep calling it Holy Light. It seems stronger now, and I can make shields, so maybe I can also…"
Holding that thought, Alba glanced at her Bracelet. The gathered Holy Light shield flashed again, and the scattered light condensed into a nearly solid Light Beam.
"Ahhh!"