At the edge of the Rift, a Black Mist Dragon was stuck there, blocking it with its own body. The metal sphere passed directly through the black substance that made up its form and continued flying into the endless Void.
Its speed kept increasing until it reached an extreme level. This place was even more voidlike than outer space, so there was no need to consider friction or similar forces. That was why it could accelerate without concern, with Lilith acting as navigation by following an instinctive trace to find where the main body had passed.
"The scenery here is really strange. The data is a complete mess though, so I will shut it down for now."
While exploring, Bella disabled the analysis scan of the surrounding data midway through. The rules there were utterly unreasonable, beyond the issue of difficulty, to the point of being incomprehensible. Was this the rule chaos caused by those Evil God?
If something like this were released into the world, there was no telling how bad the outcome would be.
The silver-white flying detector moved through a field of resentment and dark red hues without being affected. A special force field emitted from within, along with Belial's lingering power, still allowed it to recognize direction.
Then the detector discovered something. There were large objects, scattered here and there.
"Detecting material with physical existence? So this Void actually has things that exist in a physical sense."
"This is where Belial passed through."
The glowing Lilith spoke as the Magic Staff hummed softly. It was exactly the same as last time, and if nothing unexpected happened, they should be able to extract fragments of past information from it.
The detector drifted over, about half a person tall, flying straight toward a massive block of Crystal floating in Void. Its size was comparable to an entire region of The Continent.
After checking the model analysis sent back, Bella also confirmed that Belial had indeed been here. Otherwise, there would not be something this abstract.
The image analysis of that entire The Continent-sized mass of Crystal showed a chaotic scene. It was Belial chasing behind and kicking a spiky hedgehog covered in thorns. Nearby were several other giant beasts standing on two legs, similar in their back spines, all kicking the ball-like thing on the ground.
What was this supposed to be?
No one knew. Even after spending so much time together, Lilith and Bella could only feel that it was absurdly abstract.
"Could it be that he was too bored here and decided to do some kind of performance art?"
There was nothing here at all, and Bella felt that when someone lost their mind, doing something incomprehensible was not unusual.
"Let's look at the fragment and we will know."
After speaking, Lilith began calling upon the Magic Staff, analyzing the residual power and structural information left by Belial. Once complete, it was transmitted to the detector.
The detector sent the data back to Bella's screen in the original plane of the Lord. Then Ham, Bella, and Lilith all saw another scene.
On a gigantic metal planet, a blockbuster-like ecosystem of Crystal spread continuously like a plague. It chased a rolling sphere that kept tumbling forward. Behind it were the giant beasts they had just seen, different in details but clearly of the same type.
The beasts surrounded the sphere, blasting it with beams while punching and kicking it. Even through the screen, the despair and screams could almost be felt.
"…" "What is this supposed to be?"
Ham rubbed her eyes. From the domain display and the nature of that sphere, was that not the troublesome spiky scar thing? That thing was infamous for one reason only, it was annoying. Attacking its scars was like attacking yourself, so the best solution was to ignore it, since its damage output was not high anyway.
But what was going on here? Those beast constructs were clearly related to Belial. Did he go down there, run into that scar creature, get bored, and start playing soccer with it?
"No, seriously, it is a Crimson one. How can it really be kicked around like a ball?"
Ham almost shouted it out, but swallowed the words when she remembered the other two were present. She could not let anyone know about her embarrassing history of being solo killed by that thing.
In any case, it was not that strange anymore. Given the power Belial had shown before, completely crushing it was not unexpected. One could even say it deserved it.
Lilith and Bella had no objections. They were already used to it and pushed the footage forward to the last scene the detector could capture.
Belial and several other giant beasts surrounded a pit, all of them opening their mouths and charging power. Then the hedgehog that had been kicked around earlier jumped out of the pit.
When it appeared, Mephist clearly showed a wild grin, and the black background behind him rippled. The image flickered again as the Crystal ecosystem covering the entire metal planet abruptly began to shrink, extending massive tentacles that reached the horizon.
A gigantic black head emerged, covering nearly the entire area of The Continent on that side, and then opened its mouth. After an intense flash of light, the image cut out.
"Good. That thing is probably dead now. We can explore with peace of mind."
Ham fell silent again. Her mind was racing, because if she was not mistaken, that planet had been the opponent's manifested domain. From the final scene, it looked like it was eaten directly.
But how was that even eaten? And for that matter, could that kind of thing even be eaten at all?
"That is really strange."
Bella muttered with a frown. "Have I seen this before? It feels familiar somehow. And those various weapons on the planet."
"It is odd for me too. It does not quite match what is recorded in my database. A large part of it should not work anymore, since the corresponding physical formulas are gone, so why does it still function?"
"And that hedgehog also feels a bit familiar."
"Alright, next one. The direction has already been detected."
Ham suddenly shouted impatiently, cutting off Bella's thoughts. She subconsciously continued controlling the detector to fly away from the area. Lilith glanced over and met Ham's eyes, and the latter responded with an awkward smile.
There was no helping it. Sorry, Bella, but I still cannot fully trust you yet. Ham turned her head aside, not quite daring to look.
If at a moment like this, when Belial was not around, Bella remembered what she really was, then everything would be over.
After thinking it through, Ham felt she might need to make some preparations first. She looked off into the distance, toward the direction of Paraten's capital.
A roar shook the air, and before the black shadow with a mouth large enough to swallow all of The Continent, a burst of blazing light suddenly erupted. It spread outward like a small sun, washing everything around it in harsh brightness. A world-shaking explosion followed, tearing a huge hole through the shadow and blasting it backward into the ring-shaped pile of bones behind it.
"I thought you looked pretty scary, but you are even more pathetic than Anguirus." "Why were you pretending? You almost scared me. Good thing I am just a bit stronger."
After a single Space Blast Punch, the being called the Devouring Crimson God was nearly blown in half and sent flying across the ruins of its own Divine Kingdom. Its thoughts were sluggish and broken, as if its mind had not caught up with its body yet. A moment later, the truth landed with a dull clarity, it had just been beaten, and it had almost been beaten to death.
Before it could recover, a massive black shadow rushed in from afar at nearly Blink speed. A claw seized Devouring God and dragged its body hard across the entire ring of bones, sparks and arcs flashing as it scraped along, before flinging it away from the base of its tail. A hot, spiraling Fusion Reaction Beam followed immediately after.
The explosion roared again, and because many sections of the ring-shaped bones had already been affected by the strange Crystal and Ecological Corrosion, the structure was almost blasted clean through. The original followers of the Lord within were torn apart in the blast, bodies ruptured and scattered. Crimson eyes stared at the black Great Dragon charging in from afar, filled with unwilling fury at how much power had already been wasted before this fight.
The thought was cut short when its huge serpentine head was kicked straight into the ground. As it slowly lifted its head again, the black shadow was already hovering in the air before it, eyes, throat, and back glowing with a chilling light of destruction. Fangs parted slightly as a calm voice came out.
"You… um, who are you again?"
Belial had beaten the opponent to the brink of death and still had not figured out what it actually was. Judging by the strength, it was probably some extremely obscure nobody. The snake-like shape and pitch-black body felt faintly familiar, reminding him only of that place called Monster Island, but monsters from the Showa Era period were often abstract in appearance, so it was hard to be sure.