He could feel that after merging with the God of Destruction, his stats had risen, especially his health. Even so, the forced health drain from these flames was annoying. The Rift in the sky seemed closer and closer as the space between it and Belial kept burning away. "And I can't even leave this area. Interesting."
Belial tried fleeing in extreme directions, but no matter where he went, the distance kept shrinking. This proved he was being specifically targeted. Whether he ran, flew, or changed direction, the opposite space would be burned away. It was petty, but after being killed once, that was expected. Next time, he would make sure to finish things harder so no one else got a revival match.
"Fine. If you want a rematch, I'll beat you back down again!" With a deep breath, the massive black Great Dragon spread its wings, faced the Rift torn open by the evil god, and let out a deafening roar. The closer he got, the fiercer the flames became, empowered by the countless souls and memories already burned.
Belial himself was also tougher now. He ignored the flames entirely, beating his wings as the storm they carried blew the fire away. Just as he was about to reach the Rift, a huge mass of ice suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Huh?" "Where did this come from? Never mind!" With his hard head, he decided to just smash through it.
After crashing through layers of ice, Belial caught a glimpse of a small girl who had been dragged in by accident, with ice-blue hair that felt strangely familiar. It did not seem troublesome, so Belial used Gravity Tornado to grab the girl in his hand. Lacking finesse, he wrapped her in a simple gravity sphere and hurled her far back toward the ground, far enough to leave the danger zone.
Then he turned and flew straight into the rift. "Now let me see if you win this rematch." Inside the rift, Belial did not immediately see his enemy, instead plunging into a realm filled with madness, fire, endless broken things, and decay without end.
A dying sun hung in the sky, leaking dried blood and pulsing weakly. Countless souls were burned here without end, yet they brought no vitality, only hastened the march toward death. This place was saturated with Laws unlike those of the outside world, along with higher authorities. This was a divine kingdom, a tumor of the world.
What happens when an ordinary being falls into a divine kingdom is hard to say. Instant death, assimilation, distortion, or nothing at all are all possible, usually depending on the the Lord's own authority. The divine kingdom of the Fire of Decay was especially hostile to mortal life. Even the physical Laws that made up a body could be shaken apart, with atoms gone and fundamental forces erased before decay claimed everything.
Belial was fine. Or rather, even if something happened, the environment simply could not affect him. It was more accurate to say it could not affect something like him at all. The dying sun in the sky slowly opened its eyes, eager, stretching its wings and baring its claws.
The intruder into its own domain was noticed instantly, but the rules on that body were shockingly rigid. The divine kingdom's nature alone could not erode the complete high-level rules inexplicably covering Belial, so he retained his form and even had time to look around. Then his gaze met the sun in the sky.
After entering, Belial noticed broken blockbuster everywhere, existing in structures beyond common understanding. For a while, it was hard to find anything that could even be called matter. Raging flames, supernova-like bursts, dying ancient trees, and countless signs of decay filled the land. Through Wraith Constitution, what stood out most to him was the ground beneath his feet, which felt like sand.
"These are not sand. Are they souls? No, memories?" They seemed like leftovers after being burned. He looked around and saw a desert stretching endlessly in every direction.
A warning sense made him look up at the sky. Like a shell cracking open, the sun's blazing contents spilled out, with Fire of Decay flowing along the edges of its wings like molten lava, finally revealing its true form. Its appearance was surprisingly simple, clad in black-red armor and skin like stone, with molten patterns flowing through countless Crack.
Large plates covered its neck, pierced with vents spewing flame and sharp protrusions. Its twin horns stretched straight back and curved slightly at the tips like a goat's, while a wide, sharp mouth breathed fire. Its wings were vast, clawed like a pterosaur, spread in a curved arc like a radiant corona. Bone spines lined its tail, its hind legs bent with reverse joints, each joint tipped with glowing molten spikes.
Like a star at the end of its life, the inevitable end after burning everything, the Fire of Decay descended from the sun's shell. In real-world terms, it stood over a hundred meters tall, with a wingspan so wide that each flap stirred black-red firestorms. The Evil God was decayed to the brink of death, yet after burning vast soul sacrifices, it forced out a form made to crush lesser beings.
Even in this weakened state, it was confident it could still overwhelm mortal insects. Within its divine kingdom, its own rules would prevail. It spread its wings and roared, proclaiming decay.
"Roar!" The scream shook the heavens. Belial stared, stunned.
It was not the dramatic entrance that surprised him. The power did catch him a bit, since this was clearly far stronger than the fake ice construct he had fought in the valley. This was likely the toughest fight he had ever faced.
What shocked him most was the creature's appearance. "Well, now I get why you're fighting me. No wonder!" The Great Dragon rubbed his claws excitedly, more thrilled than afraid.
All those features together meant only one thing. A giant red pterosaur that used fire. "So it really is you!"
"I never thought I'd meet an old friend in the Otherworld!" The Black Dragon opened its mouth wide, revealing thicker fangs as its aura turned violent and dark. Energy Field flared open, lightning raging and wild winds surging, while the battlefield of flame was eroded and reshaped, sprouting patches of white crystal.
"Come on!" Belial bared a savage grin. "Rodan!"
The Soul Desert was covered in ground burned to ash, and within Divine Kingdom of the Fire of Decay, the aftershocks of two massive beasts clashing churned the already fragile Laws of the area. Neither of them opened with flashy techniques, instead closing the distance in an instant and tearing into each other in the most primitive kind of close combat. Even so, the leaked energy and flying flames blasted the surroundings full of holes.
Divine authority and Laws shed all mystery and turned into raw violence, and on the scorched land of the Soul Desert, every collision briefly gave birth to a dying sun. The brightest moment of a star is its supernova, and the endless light and heat made it hard for Belial to even keep his eyes open. First of all, Belial had to admit that this Rodan was the strongest opponent he had met since transmigrating.
That body was over a hundred meters long even by Rodan standards, with a wingspan several times larger, and a weight so terrifying that a single stomp could literally shake the land. It could also breathe and control flames, but both its power and range far surpassed anything before, and this was still the home field of the opponent's the Lord. Mephist could clearly feel a constant invisible pressure bearing down on him.
Its close combat was no joke either, with flames wrapped around its claws that could directly force damage on Belial without regard for defense. The strength bursting from that enormous body was enough to genuinely surprise him and make him feel pressured. The two beasts roared at each other, one in rage and one in irritation.
"Shut up, Rodan!" Tens of thousands of tons of force, wrapped in surging energy, slammed down as Space Claw struck the chest of Fire of Decay, forcing it back a step. Using the recoil, Belial did not linger and immediately fired a Spiral Heat Ray.
The blue-white beam cut across the land, but the usually unstoppable Spiral Heat Ray only blasted a wound in Fire of Decay that leaked flames as thick as blood. That was not the end of it. Belial kept firing without pause, mocking as he attacked.
Fire of Decay beat its flaming wings and shot into the sky, stirring the flames above into a vortex, yet two more Spiral Heat Ray beams smashed into its broad wings mid-flight. The Crystal Domain around Belial had begun to show results, drawing in the leftover power of Fire of Decay's divine kingdom and feeding it back to him. The Ice Element-based Freezing Breath had no use here, as any breath would quickly disperse, so he redirected the Ice Element in his freezing organs to circulate and cool his own body.