Belial hesitated, wondering whether to give his friend a couple of cheats or remodel her body into something that could deliver a four-hundred-ton kick. Since she was under his protection, he could not let some random small enemies kill her, as that would be far too embarrassing. He briefly considered simple body modification, then shook his head.
"Forget it. What if her body has some special traits I cannot see? Anyone working for a god should not be as simple as they look." With that, Belial temporarily abandoned the plan to modify Alba's body, reasoning that with her abilities she must have more than one way to strengthen herself, and keeping such a weak physique must be a deliberate choice.
He decided to respect that decision. Still, adding a couple of equipment-style enhancements should be fine. With that on his mental schedule, Belial began thinking about Elvin and the others.
At first, he had rushed over only for the sake of his friend, to save two NPCs. Now it was different. These two could become key figures in expanding his call credit channels. Since they already believed in him, faith worked a lot like pyramid schemes, with one leading to two, and two leading to more.
"Besides, you two can count as Lady Envoy's bodyguards," he said to himself. "You cannot be this weak. You cannot keep summoning me every time." He shook his head, knowing that in his former state he could have assigned a Clone to follow them around all day, but now that was no longer possible.
Their importance to Belial had increased greatly. They were both his cherished source of increased credits and his friend's bodyguards and lifesavers. If he wanted people to work for him, he needed to give them something in return.
"Still, in my current state I cannot do very fine control, and I cannot just shove two chunks of my body into them like before." He frowned slightly. "I need to raise their strength enough to at least trade a few moves with those under an old acquaintance, but what can I even give them now?"
Belial poked his head back into the Translation Pocket and rummaged around for a while, finding nothing suitable to hand out directly. Then he paused, as if remembering something. He turned toward the remains of Radon's brother, who had been almost shattered into Shard by The End.
Those remains were scattered in pieces and usually left piled in this space, untouched by Belial. He thought for a moment, then smiled faintly. "This might actually be just right." He reached out and casually picked up two pieces.
The presence before them did not linger. Just like before, Raina flew up from the pile of corpses, wrapped in a gentle light, then returned to her original state and even showed faint breathing. Bringing someone back from death, the kind of thing that best shows the word miracle, was nothing more than a casual lift of the hand for the being in front of them.
Elvin felt she could almost move again, but she did not dare act freely in front of that presence. She could not help glancing sideways at the current Alba, and there was no mistake. The divine glow surrounding her body already declared her identity.
Earlier, when Elvin had once wondered whether Alba might be some kind of scout, it was because Alba had seemed far too weak. She had even suspected that this person was hiding strength on purpose. Now it seemed unnecessary, and she could only think that Alba had her own reasons.
Thinking back on it now, Elvin found that she was not as shocked as she expected. A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, as if admitting she had been slow to understand. From the beginning to the end, Alba had never really tried to hide it from her.
Clad in White Tier cloth, holding a long hammer, and showing effortless miracles of Holy Light, everything had been obvious. After steadying her breathing, she straightened her posture and pressed her hands together in the simplest and most direct Prayer. It was both an act of faith and of thanks.
It had been like this back then, and it was the same now. When she opened her eyes, she saw two sparks of fire fly from His hand and sink into her own brow and into Raina beside her. Before she could think about what it meant, the presence had already turned away.
He walked slowly toward another place nearby, the largest church within Cathedral City. It was also a key Ritual Array Node. Beneath God's Cathedral, it gathered the souls and Magic of a massive ritual that covered the entire Diocese, calling forth an existence from Abyss.
What an exciting and wonderful thing it was. In short, that church had been turned into a direct large-scale summoning site. Terrifying amounts of Dark Power gathered there, with black clouds swirling overhead like a vortex.
A faint bloody smell mixed within, and countless resentful souls wailed inside. That familiar taste was something Belial knew very well, since he had eaten plenty of it before. And every church that worshiped Dawn, no matter its size, always had a bell enshrined at the top of its tower.
What came next was to finish this mess. He had already received a plan from his own Deadweight Teammates. "I do not really understand White Tier, but as long as I use the hammer that comes with this body to hit the bell once, it is done, right?" "That sounds pretty simple!"
His walking speed could not suddenly become too fast, or he would fly off, but Belial did not think anything could stop him. It would just take a few minutes of walking. He could feel the auras of a few old acquaintances, but he did not care.
Right now, even using Clone required so much trouble because his main body could not exert too much force. Otherwise, he might damage World. Those old acquaintances were different, since they were outside World.
If they behaved and let themselves be pushed back, that would be fine. If not, he would just have to spend more effort, take a detour, and deal with the true culprit directly. With that, the sun that anyone could see began to slowly rotate the halo of Solar Crown.
Vast light surged forth like never before, and sword-like rays easily tore open the curtain of night. The light gathered into a nearly solid giant sphere, rising like a real sun, with a temperature of only about five hundred thousand degrees tightly contained within. Not a trace of it leaked from the surface.
Even so, the pressure and sudden temperature change kicked up a visible wave of White Tier-colored air, swirling around and stirring up a hurricane. Just this sign alone caused all Abyss Cultists still on the surface to vanish in the blinding light. No matter where they were, or what Magic they used to resist, or even if they carried Blessing, they all dissolved.
Countless golden branches swayed and rejoiced without any wind, and golden motes slowly drifted into the sky. Once he could use a bit more strength, Belial started moving. "I will smash that annoying turtle shell into Shard. It really annoys me."
"Eat this, uh, blazing sun flash bomb!" It looked a bit like playing baseball, as Belial used the hammer to bat the massive fireball away. The result was a violent burst of White Tier light.
The already fragile night curtain, damaged by the inner sun, was completely torn apart. Like a geyser, scorching flames and intense White Tier light shot straight into the sky. A smaller but even hotter supernova burst forth, tearing the sky until only White Tier light remained.
There was more than one summoning site. Since the range covered the entire Diocese, some people had other ideas. Instead of going to the densest and best spot at Cathedral City to play some deadly contest, they hid elsewhere to grow in secret.
Belial's search range was not limited to that map, but for now he could not use too much power. He simply drained most of his strength into one big attack. In a dark and deep pit, a sun that should never exist there descended.
The blazing fireball smashed straight through several kilometers of rock. The moment it arrived, extreme heat purified all filth, and the shockwave spread in all directions, lifting soil and stone like flowing water. On the surface, it formed a scene like a volcanic eruption, with magma and other charred matter spewing out, and more than a thousand members of Abyss Cultists were wiped out.
What was strange was that several thousand lucky sacrifices who had been taken along were wrapped in chunks of Crystal. They were also ejected and fell to the ground, yet their bodies were completely unharmed. "Roar!"
A mental roar beyond the material level crossed thousands of kilometers in an instant. Some Abyss Cultists that were too close had their souls shattered on the spot. It was the roar of a being from Abyss.
After all, it had almost stepped out the door when someone threw a massive strike at its doorstep. After roaring once to show its presence, there was nothing else it could do. In the end, it could only be kicked back helplessly.