She paused before asking the final question. "So, do you think He is a Crimson God?"
Was Belial actually a Crimson God? It was impossible not to suspect it, because that level of combat power was not something an ordinary Demigod could have. Even earlier than this, Safas had already heard that Belial casually killed multiple Demigod along the way, and even wielded key Authority. Before that, he had even displayed a special space highly similar to Divine Kingdom, and the god-blessed Lilith had shown a sacred stance in that small city.
He looked like everything at once. If you said he was an Orthodox God, there was no faith source to be seen, and he also devoured souls. If you called him a Crimson God, he only ate the outer resentful memories of souls, like eating sunflower seed shells and leaving the kernel, and Dawn had even let the Lord step in to help. If you said he was neither, he still clearly possessed both Authority and Divine Kingdom, and was unreasonably strong, using them with ease rather than like something he picked up by chance.
These two things were basically personal exclusive weapons. Even others at the same level would see a huge drop in power if they tried to use them. When he asked Chloe, even his former companions could not understand what he truly was. He could kindly travel deep into Demonkind for two little girls, and also slaughter hundreds of millions of lives for reasons no one understood, making him very hard to judge.
"Uh… about that, I also cannot really understand him. He devours souls, but only eats the outer resentment and never touches the inner core of the soul."
"That is not something good. It is like residue left after burning, it only piles up and never dissolves. Yet he only eats that kind of thing, and honestly, it is already surprising that he has not turned into some kind of madman."
Facing Safas saying things that were almost the same as saying nothing, Lily did not complain. She simply nodded lightly in agreement, because her own thoughts were not much different. There were too many mysteries around that dragon, and solving one only revealed another complicated riddle underneath.
"In that case, you do not need to dig into what he really is for now. To be honest, it might not be that important."
Lilith stood up, and the conversation had basically reached its end. "In the future, just go and understand him directly. There is no need to sit here talking with me."
"Go and understand… him?"
Right after Lilith stood up, before she could do anything else, a world-shaking explosion sounded outside. The violent shockwave even made the entire Floating City tremble slightly.
"What happened?"
Safas looked completely confused. Could it be an enemy attack? That was impossible, since nothing in Abyss should have that kind of ability. He then looked at Lilith's face, which had turned as dark as the bottom of a pot, and sighed. Without saying a word, she grabbed the nearby Magic Staff and rushed out.
"Stay here for now."
After throwing that line behind her, she directly activated Spatial Magic and Teleportation to leave, only leaving behind a stunned Safas. During the Teleportation descent, Lilith suddenly realized she had ignored something important. She had actually let Belial and Bella, two troublemakers, stay together without keeping a close eye on them.
She knew the defensive performance of Floating City very well. Even if someone outside used Magic Fusion Bomb like rain, there was no way it would cause that much commotion. So that earthquake-like explosion just now had to mean those two had done something unbelievable again.
Sure enough, when she reached the lower level, Lilith saw that the lush green grass from before was gone. What remained was a blockbuster of scorched earth, and Belial was hurriedly repairing it.
"The movement just now was too big… haha."
With an explosion-style hairstyle, Bella sat on Belial's shoulder, her face twitching awkwardly. After the recent changes, her expressions were much harder to control. Fortunately, her abilities had improved a lot, so repairing the terrain was fast, and Belial managed to restore the grass before Lilith landed, trying to pretend nothing had happened.
But Lilith still charged over with the Magic Staff and swung it with swift, sharp movements. This Magic Staff was extremely handy in her hands, whether for casting spells or hitting people. She did not hit Belial, because that would have been pointless, but aimed at Bella on his shoulder and pulled back a little at the last moment, knocking her lightly on the head.
"What are you messing with again…"
"It hurts!!!"
Lilith was startled by the sudden gopher-like scream before she could even react. She saw Bella clutch her head and roll down from the shoulder onto Belial's palm, completely ignoring appearances. She then rolled around while holding her head, crying exaggerated streams of tears like a cartoon, making Lilith's face grow even darker.
"Stop fooling around. What happened this time? That explosion just now was obviously your doing."
"And did you not turn off your pain sensors a long time ago? What are you pretending for now?"
Lilith looked helplessly at Bella, who finally climbed up from the palm, tears still hanging at the corners of her eyes. "This time is different… we did a small experiment just now, and turning off pain shielding did nothing. It really hurt."
"…Well, to be honest, it did not hurt that much. Maybe it is because this is the first time I have truly felt pain?"
As she thought about it, Bella quickly wiped away the tears and squatted down to think. Lilith felt that the conversation was completely off track, because what did she mean by the first time truly feeling pain. Had she not been hit on the head plenty of times before?
"So can you honestly explain what you two did just now? Even Floating City was shaking. Are you not afraid of blowing it apart?"
Lilith also landed on the palm, and Bella stood up. Her attention, however, was fixed on her own hands as she kept clenching them, speaking calmly. "Nothing much. Belial and I were modifying my body, and we almost blew up my core."
"Oh, so it was just your core… do you even hear what you are saying? Your core? Almost exploded?"
Lilith felt she had still underestimated the two of them. The core was something she knew very well, an energy storage and output source so powerful that it could once push Belial into an overclocked state. That thing was normally installed in Bella's chest, so its importance went without saying.
"What were you even thinking? I can accept other nonsense, but if that core explodes, do you know what will happen? Even you would be gone!"
This time Lilith was truly angry and rushed over to grab Bella by the ear. "Do not twist my ear… it hurts! Wuu… and this pain feels different from being hit on the head. So pain really comes in different kinds?"
Bella again acted in an exaggerated way, almost crying again, but soon fell into strange contemplation. Even Lilith could clearly tell something was off about her state.
"Did something happen to you? Tell me honestly, you are not usually like this."
Before, when Bella caused trouble and got punished, she would at most put on a show. She was never like this, and Lilith felt there was some subtle difference, even if she could not describe it.
"Open that special view of yours and take a look at me. Right now… honestly, I did not expect that when my Reactor opened, this would be what was inside."
"That special view" naturally referred to Lilith's elevated visual field after crystallization by Crystal, which allowed her to see souls, Magic elements, and deeper layers of existence. She activated it and carefully examined Bella from head to toe.
First, the internal mechanical structure of the Nanometal had clearly changed a lot. It looked like a black tree had taken root inside, with dense roots spreading throughout the body. "You mean this change? No, that does not feel right."
She looked again from start to finish. Aside from the greatly increased energy reactions and the altered internal structure, everything else seemed normal, from the base Nanometal framework to the soul, with no abnormalities.
"Wait."
She realized she had overlooked something ordinary. Lilith rubbed her eyes, then snapped her head back to look again. Still uncertain, she checked once more.
"A soul? You have this!? Where did it come from!?"
Lily almost screamed out of control. She stared at the familiar soul light inside Bella's body, with only faint gray-white memories on the outside, but the core was unmistakable. That was a real soul.
Previously, Bella existed as an AI. After spending so much time together, Lilith roughly understood what kind of being she was and had only sighed at how advanced ancient technology was. Now, her worldview was completely shaken. Could ancient technology really create a soul, or was it something else?
Her thoughts spiraled in confusion, and whenever this happened, Lilith immediately turned her gaze to the nearest prime suspect. Belial turned his head away and said nothing.
"…Fine, I will ask you instead."