This was because Icelis had already escaped the Will Domain. The Fire of Decay now controlled most of the Laws and possessed the core of a valley-wide Magic Array, along with the power gained from countless sacrificed souls. Even with unstable Laws and turmoil inside its body, it continued to repair itself.
A sharp screech burst from the creature's head. Red-black flames, born of real fury, clung to its icy body. It recognized the dragon that had beaten it earlier.
According to the plan of its chosen followers, this dragon was meant to be its vessel for descending into the world. It had even reshaped fragments of Laws with its own power and let the dragon absorb them, hiding its will inside the body. Now, that hidden power and will were completely gone.
It had to be that cursed light.
The evil god's chaotic mind barely sorted through the truth, only to sink deeper into madness. It poured its true power out without restraint, seizing what felt like its closest chance to break free. Claws carrying ice Laws and Authority of Decay raked across the Great Dragon's body, spreading decay while trying to freeze it solid.
"Hmph, not bad."
The pain from that strike was real, though barely counted as damage to Belial. He could only sigh, thinking again that rewards from this strange System were never easy. Still, this thing could actually hurt him.
"But smashing you is enough. Take this!"
He leaned forward, power surging between his claws as he clenched them into fists. A punch carrying over a hundred thousand tons of force smashed straight into the monstrous bird's head. Energy erupted, ice and snow exploding outward as half its head shattered.
The creature repaired itself even as it screamed, beating its wings and releasing a torrent of Freezing Breath. Frost instantly coated Belial's scales, and corrosive ice mixed with decay began invading his flesh. This was not just elemental Laws, but a higher authority.
Belial sensed the difference right away. The cold itself was manageable, but something deeper was wrong. Tissues and cells in the affected areas rapidly released energy, then aged and died.
In simple terms, every hit pierced through defenses and forcibly drained life. Belial stared in disbelief as his own health actually dropped. Inside his body, g-cells rapidly filled the wounds left by Rend, yet the threat was undeniable.
"Interesting. But I don't even know how long my health bar is. Let's see who dies first."
The black Great Dragon roared as light burst from his body. Radiation blasted the charging monster back again and again, and his tail whipped out. A crystalline spear at its tip exploded, blasting a hole through one wing as long-dormant talents stirred.
Their clash shook the entire valley. Under the spread of Belial's Magic, towering white crystal pillars grew around them, gathering energy and feeding it back to him. He had no fear of running dry.
Belial's wings twisted like extra arms, bone spurs stabbing into the monstrous bird's body to pin it against the cliff. He opened his jaws, preparing to fire a beam, when red-black flames suddenly erupted again and blasted him away, breaking his charge.
The shockwaves rattled the whole valley, even causing the cliff where Vann and the others stood to crumble. They fled at once, all badly injured and unable to join the fight. The battle had long passed their limits.
"So this is the dragon you meant, the Black Dragon?" Vann asked, stunned as he stared at the black, terrifying figure below. He had never seen a dragon like this. And this was the one rumored to have swallowed Icelis's fragments?
The more he looked, the more familiar it seemed. He muttered that it looked a lot like a White Dragon. Beside him, Icelis squatted, still afraid of this Black Dragon, even though the monster it fought was once her own body, now mostly taken over by the Fire of Decay.
Watching it felt like seeing herself beaten senseless. Thinking of the true owner beneath that shell, Icelis could not help but laugh bitterly. Then Vann suddenly asked where Fei'er Li was now.
The question made Icelis lower her head. She slammed a fist into the ground, her voice forced out through clenched teeth. She said she did not know if Fei'er Li could come back, since she herself was here.
She realized she had likely been tricked. In the mental domain, Fei'er Li had suddenly seemed far more clever, convincing her to swap positions through a contract. Icelis was to rebuild a body in reality and later summon Fei'er Li back, fighting the Fire of Decay together.
Only after returning did she sense something was wrong. If Fei'er Li could really come back, why did it feel like final words? A weak human could not possibly face an evil god's will.
Vann understood at last. Fei'er Li was still trapped in that hell, facing the evil god alone. The swap had only saved Icelis.
"That's why we're waiting for that dragon," Icelis said softly. If the Great Dragon destroyed her former body, the projected will of the evil god in the mental space would collapse as well. Even then, it was only a chance.
Until that moment, a mortal would have to survive the pursuit of an evil god. That felt impossible. Even she, with Laws, had only managed to flee in panic.
Will it win?
"It will," she said.
For a brief instant, something about Belial changed in the monster's eyes, a faint sense of familiarity it could not grasp. Then a punch exploded without warning, sending its massive body crashing into the cliff. A huge hole opened in its chest.
It should have been able to repair that. It always could. But suddenly, it could not.
The Fire of Decay realized something was missing. The soul will it had projected into the Ice Spirit vessel was gone. Eaten.
Impossible. With its rank, how could a mere mortal do that? Before the thought finished, another punch shattered its focus.
"To be honest, you taste a bit spicy."
Belial pulled back his fist, savoring the aftertaste. He lowered his body as a completely different aura spread from him. Then he lunged again, pinning the creature down with strength that had somehow grown even greater, squeezing ice until Rend cracks spread.
The monstrous bird struggled wildly and blasted a compressed jet of red-black Fire of Decay. Belial ignored it, forcing his jaws open through the flames. He bit down on its shoulder, tearing apart ice-formed muscle and bone.
This was wrong. Not only was its spirit being devoured, even fragments of Laws were missing. One bite had caused irreparable damage and swallowed fragments it had already fused.
For the first time in countless ages, confusion crossed its mind.
Belial chewed the ice, felt the power within, and swallowed it with satisfaction. Subtle changes spread across his massive head, his presence growing more violent and frightening. His pupils paled slightly, blending into the whites of his eyes.
"You keep fixing yourself, which is annoying," he said calmly. "But if you open it, I open it too. That's fair."
The Great Dragon grinned wide and smashed both arms down, Space Claw coiling around them as his wings locked his body in place. The blow collapsed the monster's chest, ice shards flying as it screamed and struggled. Deep inside, the red mission target was finally exposed.
Just before that, a clear sound rang in Belial's mind.
"Ding."
"Analysis complete."
"Dark God of Destruction Godzilla template loading."
When Fei'er Li looked up in the Mindscape and saw the claw of Fire of Decay coming down from above, she could not help recalling a night of forced social drinking that ended in a blackout. She wondered where she had found the resolve to believe she could hold back an Evil God. The thought felt absurd even as it passed through her mind.
"…What kind of confidence did I come from, thinking I could stall an Evil God?"
Behind her, something like an earthquake went off as flames and shattered stone slammed into the protective Holy Light around her body. Fei'er Li could only scramble like an ant, desperately searching for a way out among the ruins. Each step felt smaller than the last as the world shook around her.
A furious roar from Fire of Decay thundered behind her, the massive beast chasing a tiny thing it still had not managed to kill. Flames were whipped forward again and again, herding her toward a corner with no escape. The sound alone made her heart pound.
"This way…"
A faint, gentle female voice seemed to whisper in her mind, or maybe it was just her imagination. Fei'er Li fled into a tunnel formed by collapsed ruins and broken walls, barely squeezing through the gaps. She did not dare look back.
"Goddess, if you can let me run around in here, why not just pull me out directly… ah!"
She nearly tripped, and as she complained under her breath, she noticed that the Holy Light on her body was no longer as steady as before. It flickered at times, dimming without warning. That realization made her steps even more frantic.
Luckily, Fire of Decay was far weaker than it had been at the beginning. That weakness was the only reason an ant like her could keep running at all. Otherwise, even someone who did not die as ash would still be driven into despair and death.