If something even more absurd truly existed, it would have been unbelievable. High-level Dragonkin producing hybrids did not seem impossible, but later stages were filled only with mad dragons, so she could not be certain.
"A Black Dragon connected to a high-level Dragonkin can remove the curse on Lyles Edward, but in the end it only hastens its transfer to Nefit," she said. "If things get worse, the only real solution may be to slay the dragon demon that is the bloodline source. But even the Chosen Hero wielding the second sword in the the Lord arc could not do it, so what am I supposed to do?"
As for the first sword of the Chosen Hero, she had thought about it, but it was guarded by the Church of Holy Light. There was no way she could obtain it.
"Let's go. Icelis, we're going to check on the Paraten Empire."
She put the child who was still clutching pastries into the carriage and opened a Paraten Empire newspaper. "Magitech prodigy, Third Prince the Lord develops a miraculous machine that operates without Magic…" "Shocking revelation behind the Third Prince the Lord's outstanding talent…" "New work by the author of Hungry Dragon, Reincarnated as a Prince the Lord and Taken by an Evil Dragon, Volume Two…"
She closed the paper, looked out the window, then opened the Pure White Book. New imprints had appeared inside, containing reports on cutting-edge magitech concepts that looked both fascinating and familiar.
"Humanoid magitech combat units? Interesting. I want to pilot a giant robot too." "Is this Otherworld full of holes? I didn't expect another one to come over now. I hope you really are, because then the butterfly effect might be tied to you, Third Prince the Lord."
"I slept for quite a while… huh?" "Judging by the surroundings, it has only been a few years, right?"
After a rare peaceful sleep, Belial woke up in a daze, and the first thing he felt was hunger, since a large amount of his stored energy had already been consumed. Without even needing to sense it carefully, a slight movement told him that his body had changed a lot compared to before, growing noticeably larger overall. With just a brief check, Belial realized his body length had reached roughly 150 to 160 meters.
His volume had increased by about half compared to his original near hundred-meter size, so feeling a bit unaccustomed was normal. As for hunger, thanks to the large amount of energy provided by kind contributors earlier and the absorption of surrounding matter, it was not too uncomfortable. This level of size growth was still within an acceptable range, since the standard size in the template was over three hundred meters tall, and he was now barely reaching about half of that when fully stretched.
As for weight, it had probably crossed the threshold of one hundred thousand tons in a single step. After all, he was mixed with two other templates and was not something light like plastic, since he was still made of flesh. Even so, the thought still came clearly to mind.
"But I am still a bit hungry…"
His thoughts were still hazy, and his body instinctively fed back to Belial that even at this stage, evolution was not complete. Yes, it was not finished yet. He let out a long yawn and slowly lifted his head as he got up.
Outside, a gigantic mountain stood in a basin, its entire body tinted green like bluish iron and covered in strange crystals that grew like trees at night. The soil here was extremely solid and hard, especially deeper into the mountain, to the point of surpassing alloys. Under the influence of a powerful magnetic field, this area would form continuous thunderstorms during humid seasons, but every bolt of lightning was absorbed by the mountain and turned into nourishment.
Farther away, iron-rich ores were also affected by the magnetic field and floated in the air, forming ring-like structures. Flying monsters that passed through often became dizzy and crashed straight into the ground. This was not an effect caused by Belial or the Lord using Ecological Corrosion, since he usually kept that ability turned off to avoid causing trouble, but rather a result of a small amount of his power leaking out.
At this moment, the strange landform suddenly shook. With Rend carving open a Rift, the earth trembled as tens of millions of tons of soil and rock were lifted by gravitational control. From the Rift that looked like it led straight into the Abyss, a gigantic head emerged.
It was still as ferocious and terrifying as before, but the surface scales were now more distinct and densely arranged. On top of the already thick base, it was as if another layer of armor had been added, while keratin continued to grow around the lips and jaw, forming fang-like structures. Aside from further increasing the negative impression of his face, it also made him look rather old.
The color of the scales was no longer the despair-like pure black of before, but instead looked glazed, reflecting a dull sheen under sunlight. With the enhancement of magnetic abilities, the structure of the scales had changed as well, becoming even more solid and durable under electromagnetic bonding. In fact, his entire body now had the ability to absorb kinetic and thermal energy, and the scales also gained a linked defense, meaning that even targeting a single scale required breaking through the blockbuster-level combined armor.
Because he was still groggy from sleep, Fear Aura was not spread out, yet just looking at him was enough to chill the heart. Another gigantic claw extended outward, and compared to the explosive power it once showed, the muscle outlines looked less sharp but carried a mountain-like heaviness. Both muscle strength and density had increased by more than one level, and under the influence of magnetism, every fiber was thicker and magnetic, allowing even greater force.
His arms were thicker, and when he exerted strength, bulging fibers could be seen on the surface. When the claw touched the ground, it pressed in as easily as pressing tofu, since the disintegration field was not well controlled. Soon, most of his body emerged, and on both sides, Rend opened a fan-shaped blockbuster area, from which a pair of claw-like wings burst forth, their edges like hanging mountain ranges.
A gentle flap no longer felt like tearing apart the sky, but instead carried the heavy weight of heaven collapsing, accompanied by thunder and roaring wind. Then came a light yawn, yet it produced a visible fan-shaped shockwave and a massive ring of sound. A blockbuster-level blank sector was instantly cleared ahead, flattening forests and piercing mountains.
The roaring sound waves crushed the surrounding ground into a thin layer, nearly turning it into a vacuum zone. At the same time, an unintentional low-power ultra-vibration wave reduced everything ahead into basic particles, kicking up blockbuster clouds of dust. The commotion itself was actually quite simple.
There were no dark clouds covering the sky, no thunder drawing fire from the ground, and no blizzards or tornadoes raging. The range of destruction was limited to several dozen kilometers at most. Outside that area, the surrounding ecosystem remained relatively intact, and the nearby monsters were fortunate enough to escape, with most of them surviving.
This was the comfort and calm of waking naturally after a long sleep. The surrounding monsters wished their parents had given them a few extra legs, since that place that ate anything nearby suddenly caused such a disturbance. More importantly, why did a mountain grow legs and stand up?
"A natural wake-up really feels good, but judging by my evolution progress, I still need to find another place to sleep."
Within Belial, the three major templates had fused together, and coordinating their abilities required another round of adjustment through evolution. He had thought that being force-fed by several kind people would finish it in one go, but the rapid increase in size consumed too much energy, leaving the hardware slightly lacking. Still, it was only one last step, and with a bit more energy and another sleep, the internal System transformation would be basically complete.
"But in the end, I am still missing some energy. Who is going to supply that for me?"
Belial looked around and saw that he was in the middle of a forest. From a soul perspective, the ecosystem was in good shape, with plenty of soul presence. With planetary-level abilities, even trees and grass that he could not eat before were now absorbable.
He let out a long roar, and a ring-shaped electromagnetic wave carrying meaningless information spread rapidly outward. The content made no sense, but living beings understood one thing very clearly. In an instant, every monster that could move went mad trying to flee as far as possible, even fish in lakes flapping desperately toward shore.
Everything was driven by a fatal threat rooted deep in instinct, fleeing sky, land, and water alike. But since he felt fairly comfortable and was in a good mood after sleeping, he gave up the idea. "Forget it, doing that does not feel right, and the efficiency is low anyway."
For a moment, it seemed like nothing happened again. One monster failed to react in time and was promptly lifted by fast-reacting grass. The evolution process was stuck in an awkward halfway state, which felt uncomfortable.