A frown formed as Fate sensed something wrong and tried to pull away. Before it could, a giant claw formed by Gravity Manipulation grabbed its tail and slammed it back to the ground. "So you noticed? Fine, the timing is about right," Belial said coldly. "It is about time for you to die."
He stopped hiding it as Rend-likeCrack spread across his body, molten patterns flowing through the gaps in his muscles. His dark scales took on a reddish, pale glow under extreme heat. He exhaled a breath nearing two hundred thousand degrees, red light flaring across his body like a furnace, his surface temperature surpassing that of the sun.
It was only a rise in surface temperature, yet an ominous feeling crept in. Fate could not understand it, until Belial opened his mouth and fired another Charged Particle Cannon. Fate barely blocked with its wings, but this shot was far more destructive, and even grazing contact caused chain reactions that made its body collapse inblockbuster.
"What is going on?" Confusion returned as it stared at the red-hot form before it. This state was different from what it had observed in past Fate line memories during battles with Ludwig. Both involved higher temperatures, but this felt decisively different.
As it hesitated, Belial's temperature continued to climb, breaking past one hundred thousand degrees in moments and still rising. The heat waves melted everything around them, mountains and rivers alike, turning the land into a sea of fire. "This is enough. Let us stop the temperature here," he said, exhaling a visible white-hot breath.
He turned his head slightly and looked at Fate hovering cautiously above him. "Honestly, I should thank you. That guy helped speed it up a bit, but close combat and taking hits builds heat much faster." He smiled. "So, as repayment, you can die now."
Fate watched him without blinking, until he opened his mouth again to fire. This time, the red-white magnetic storm ring gathered at his lips and was fired directly from his mouth. A massive shockwave erupted outward, throwing up hundred-meter-high waves of lava.
There was no expected damage, because it was far worse. By the time Fate realized it, half its wing had been shredded into fragments, its tail partially torn open to the bone. In the distance, streaks of red Charged Particle Cannon pierced and tore apart most of the sky, continuing far beyond.
"This state probably cannot be called Burning Mode. Call it crimson or burning, maybe," Belial said calmly. "In any case, it is very different from ordinary Burning Mode. Even I did not expect stacking Gen Urobuchi's form with other templates would turn out like this."
He recalled how Gen Urobuchi briefly displayed this form in the second part when destroying the Nanomachines City. It was an alternative use of an ability, accelerating molecular motion to raise temperature rapidly, once used to melt and destroy a nanometal city. In his view, true Burning Mode was more like core meltdown and internal energy runaway, while this was simply a different application.
Moreover, the template's true Red Lotus Form had more to it, including unlocking unlimited Heat Ray, regarded as the strongest skill of the Heisei Era. The difference was like burning your life in two completely different ways, similar in cost but vastly different in result. He had deliberately taken hits in close combat to speed up this process, so the result was his current state.
"Anyway, I have Second Phase active now," Belial said. "How does it feel?" As he spoke, his wings beat violently, erupting in blinding white light that blasted a huge crater into the ground as he chased after Fate. He followed up with a brutal Space-charged Detonation Punch.
A tragic roar rang out as Fate was smashed back into the Abyss and Void like a catastrophic explosion. Belial pursued without hesitation. The situation had reversed, and now it was his turn to use Second Phase.
Belial kept his surface temperature at around two hundred thousand degrees, a level he had calculated as high output while still remaining inside a safety range that would not become truly irreversible. He was not afraid of detonating on the spot after entering Burning Mode. If the Lord were afraid of exploding, it would have blown an entire world apart, even one far larger than Earth.
The problem was that no one knew how absurd the power of this fourfold hybrid would be once unleashed, and the radiation spilling out would definitely turn the people of Otherworld into a batch of wild monsters. He did not want to open his eyes and find that the Otherworld instance had turned into Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters. That was why this planet skill, similar to Burning Mode, was a very good choice.
If he were a pure planetary plant construct, it would be useless to him. But he also carried biological reactors formed by fusing other Godzilla, which changed everything. It was effectively a planetary template acting as a switch to actively trigger the power of other templates under the Lord.
After suppressing his strength for so long and now actively burning it to release himself, Belial needed time to adapt to the power this state brought. He spoke calmly, saying that he should first test how much damage Fusion Reaction Beam could deal in this state.
A crimson glow spread over his body as he flew past, melting all surrounding matter into burning magma. In Void, with Night Dragon watching, he fixed his gaze on the slender figure in the distance beating golden Gold Rank wings and opened his mouth to fire a blazing white Heat Ray. The beam tore through space in a straight line.
Sensing the heat behind it, Fate instantly cut loose countless Clone drawn from past timelines. They densely filled the area, each one almost indistinguishable from the true body, clearly meant to evade the attack. The Void filled with overlapping figures in an instant.
Belial did not bother trying to identify the real one. The distance was close enough, and inside Void energy spread evenly in all directions anyway. A massive white fireball rose in the distance, burning most of the Clone to ash as the true body partially melted and flew out in a miserable state.
Its thoughts felt numb. It had already lost count of how many times things had gone wrong today. Its power had not increased, it had only raised its temperature, yet the opponent had suddenly become this strong.
The damage from heat itself was secondary. What truly hurt was the efficient use of Authority and Laws. Even swimming through a star would not compare, because the real danger was the damage to the soul and divine body, with every casual strike dealing true damage.
This could not continue. Running would only lead to more punishment, so it had to rely on its Blink mobility and try to reposition. With that thought, Fate beat its wings and produced more illusions ahead, while the real body blinked behind Belial and created another cluster of Clone at close range.
All of the clones opened their mouths at once. Thousands of bolts of dragon lightning surged forward like a tidal wave, every strike real and stacking together into an inescapable net. The sky was completely sealed.
Belial roared that trading damage like this was meaningless, because Fate could not outlast him. He detonated an enhanced internal blast, smashing through the net and triggering chained explosions that erased many Clone. At the same time, multiple electromagnetic acceleration rings appeared around his mouth.
With a thunderous crash and a roar, several Charged Particle Cannon fired at once. They pierced the clone he judged most likely to be real, while the true body took five shots head-on, one wing shattered into Shard as it spiraled down into the ruins of Void. Its howl echoed through the Void.
Belial charged in before it could stabilize. He controlled immense gravity and delivered a brutal kick, sending the body flying again. Claws locked tight around Fate as he drove forward, blasting it at point-blank range with Fusion Reaction Beam while ramming it through space.
The space connecting Abyss, Void, and the world barrier was torn open again. Amid flying Shard fragments, both figures were driven deep underground. A moment later, the surface erupted with a deafening impact.
The ground collapsed, the shock felt hundreds of miles away. A towering mountain range was reduced to ash across an entire segment. A pillar of fire shot skyward as magma and black obsidian floated unnaturally, and a black-and-gold Gold Rank meteor burst back to the surface.
Otherworld was truly vast, able to withstand this level of destruction. Belial dragged Fate back above ground with a savage grin, grabbed its long tail, and hurled it in an over-the-shoulder throw. The golden body flew nearly a kilometer before flashing, adjusting its posture, and carving a trench dozens of kilometers long with its claws.
Before it could rise, Belial was already there. His terrifying roar landed with a violent shockwave, and Fate felt crushing pain in its torso as its body was blown backward again. The impact sent it tumbling through the air.
Belial evaluated calmly that the burst of close combat skills, as well as temperature, had clearly increased. The multipliers were higher than before, which was acceptable. His tone was almost satisfied.