This phenomenon almost created another completely different current and small vortex within the massive whirlpool. Belial was like a funnel connected to a bottomless space, constantly absorbing all kinds of dark power and resentment rushing toward him.
First was devouring resentment. With the nature of Diablo and Godzilla, it could give Belial a bit of experience, even though the amount was pitiful, but the sheer volume here was overwhelming.
There was too much. It was impossible to eat it all. Although resentment was as common as weeds by the roadside here, individual scattered amounts were usually too thin.
If Belial casually sipped a bit to pass time, that was fine. But if he treated it as a staple food like the Lord, he would starve to death before it even covered the stamina spent on breathing.
But here, both the density and quantity of resentment were absurd compared to other places. Anguirus and Manda and the others had their own background environments that gathered resentment, but they were nowhere near this level.
And so, an unimagined path opened up.
Isn't it just hard to kill and able to keep spawning monsters to disgust people? The best way to deal with something disgusting is to be equally disgusting back. Since you dare to shove resentment right up to me, then if I take a bite, you really have no one to blame.
"And I was wondering why I ended up here anyway. I was clearly following my teammate's aura at first." "Good grief, I didn't expect you to even impersonate my teammate. That's really nasty. To make up for my emotional damage, I have to eat my fill of you."
After chewing for quite a while, Belial finally noticed the aura on this thing. If his senses were not wrong, it was almost exactly the same as the light he had been tracking. If you really had to point out a difference, it was like the front and back of the same person, barely different at all.
Realizing he had made a mistake, Belial immediately tried to deal with it properly. He already had a plan in mind. If you want to drag this out with me, then I will eat up all the capital you rely on.
You want to hit me with resentment? How dare you. When the time comes, we will see who outlasts who, and if it really comes down to it, I will eat you too. In that regard, you can trust the energy reserves of the three Godzilla backing me up.
The nature of this thing's power was different from what came before. If the others were like small portions of solid rice, then this was more like thin soup with barely anything in it. Its only advantage was that there was an absurd amount of it.
That was fine. He would eat it all the same.
While Belial was eating nonstop, the cocoon at the very center fell into silence. At first, what shocked it was not that Belial had crushed a few dark puppets. Breaking a few Figurine was nothing at all.
What truly felt shocked, and even a little disgusted, was the Lord. To reach this level meant dealing with souls, and no matter which path, it was always about the purest essence of the soul. Watching someone shove huge mouthfuls of resentment and dark power into themselves was not much better than eating filth in a toilet.
At best, it was like secretly eating kitchen slop. Even to a ruler like this, those resentments were pure trash, useful only to disgust enemies. The problem was that no one had ever liked eating trash.
What was even more maddening was that this thing could also swallow dark power at the same rate. After swallowing it, its body expanded, and control could not even be taken back. Sensing that something was very wrong with this opponent, it decided this could not continue.
If this kept going, whether the enemy felt disgusted was unclear, but it was already disgusted enough. Continuing to tangle like this, even with only a one percent chance of disaster, was unacceptable. At the very least, now was not the time to leave this darkness.
With that thought, it struck again. This time, it was no longer a casual blow.
Like a broken moon, large patches of blood-red light suddenly lit up in the deepest darkness. At the center, a fractured sun was held aloft, faintly tinted with Gold Rank. What it reflected was not sunset glow, but something far more destructive.
That concept symbolized the final end of all things. Even a brilliant sun would one day set.
Along with a faint hissing sound from the Lord, a new wave spread out at extreme speed. If before there had only been a trace of purple light, now it had expanded dozens of times over, carrying even stranger Gold Rank-colored specks.
They came densely packed, covering the sky like an airtight net. Though different in color, the same destructive radiance crashed into the endlessly devouring Black Mist Dragon.
The vortex that had been spinning toward the center suddenly fell into chaos across about a third of its area. A massive chunk of darkness was forcibly torn apart by Rend, and the culprit was the huge Black Mist Dragon sent flying backward.
Judging by range alone, that strike could easily run dozens of laps between moons on Earth. It could erase any matter that dared to block it, and a sudden flash of light appeared within this Void.
Belial still had a chunk in his mouth when he was caught off guard by the hit. It hurt quite a bit, and his massive body was wrapped in tremendous force as he was flung backward.
That strange power was not only grinding down the surface scales. On a conceptual level, it was also trying to guide him toward a predetermined end of death and destruction.
Like a whale becoming a whale fall, or a tree turning into charcoal, all life would eventually reach its end. Everything had its final moment.
After delivering that blow, it no longer paid him any attention.
Belial did not feel much beyond a slight itch, like old skin peeling off. After spinning several times, he finally found his bearings and stabilized himself.
After blasting backward twice to cancel out the force, Belial shook his head and looked again toward the Dark Vortex. The incomparably massive vortex rapidly shrank into a tiny point and vanished right in front of him.
It ran away.
He narrowed his eyes slightly and scanned the surroundings within his positive-energy detection range. There were no traces of any other presence.
"Forget it. I won't touch you for now. You're a tough one."
Recalling the strength of that strike made him tense up a little. The first exchange ended there.
Since the other side did not want to fight, and he could not find where it was, and he still had no good solution, Belial chose a simple approach. He would leave it alone.
What else could he do. Based on that one attack, he estimated the opponent's strength. Even if you tied together the three he had fought before, including Anguirus, they would still be beaten soundly.
Going back in to keep eating was no longer realistic. For such a small amount of food, taking more brutal hits while eating was not worth it.
Moreover, his tactic of eating while fighting to thin out the enemy would likely be hindered. He had dared to do it before because all witnesses were dead. Now that one had escaped, that was bad.
After swallowing the last bit in his mouth, Belial returned to a roughly two-hundred-meter Great Dragon form and began thinking about his next steps.
What he did not realize was that it was not after this fight that his existence spread. More accurately, the news had already spread when he killed Anguirus. By the time Manda died, dozens of old monsters had already received the news and grown alert.
Anyone would feel uneasy hearing about it. After so many years, only a few dozen old neighbors were left alive. Who was who, where they lived, and what their aura was like had long been common knowledge.
Then, not long after, one disappeared. That was normal enough. Whether they finally failed to hold on or were taken out by another neighbor, neither was strange. The only regret was not noticing it in time to grab a share.
But when the second one died, someone frowned and sensed something wrong. When Manda also fell, everyone finally confirmed it. Damn it, a werewolf had entered the village.
They immediately began investigating the few among them who might be capable of doing this. Compared to the past, everyone was now old, weak, or injured. To silently take out three in a row meant only a handful could manage it.
A strange conclusion soon emerged. Everyone knew there was a werewolf among them, but they all suspected it was one of their own. Until someone was fully exposed or spoke up, no one dared act alone.
It was not that they had not considered an outsider. The problem was that one of their own was also very likely. As time passed, that possibility only grew stronger, because some would seize this chance to secretly put on a wolf's skin.
After all, outsiders belonged to the world beyond, far away and mostly spent. But those warm, friendly neighbors were right next door.