Belial was a bit confused. He had not even picked up the coins himself, and they were already jumping into his bag. Was this a trap? But when he noticed the rushing Magic, elements, and even experience mixed in, his eyes lit up at once.
So this was where his experience pack was. A trap? What trap, this was clearly a reward stage. He also dug up a familiar feeling from memory. These fragments differed in shape and size, but the Magic and aura were the same.
"Oh, is this not the thing I ate when I first arrived? Why are there so many?" Individually they were far weaker than the one he first consumed, but they were clearly the same kind. He had once thought it was something rare, maybe a fragment of some great being. Now it seemed this was a local specialty.
Food at his mouth, why would he not eat it. Belial immediately began absorbing them, Magic pouring into his body, while the Blessed Power hidden inside slipped in quietly. Any lingering mental will was crushed instantly by the overwhelming energy and pressure inside him, severing the connection before it could act.
Belial sensed that these Magic Array were actively drawing fragment power and feeding it to him. This was clearly arranged on purpose, which meant this was part of a trap. What, were they trying to stuff him until he burst? "I do not mind, and it is a bit slow."
He clearly despised the speed of these Magic Array. Compared to Energy Field, they were far too weak. He expanded his own Energy Field, and the massive Magic and pressure within crushed the spell structures outright.
The fragments hanging in midair trembled and seemed to try to gather toward a direction. But the covering Energy Field locked each fragment firmly and began extracting them in a brutal, terrifying way. If before it was like drawing blood with a needle, now it was like stripping every bone and piece of flesh clean, tearing out not just Magic but even the pure elements that made up the fragments themselves.
Everything was swallowed into the greedy dragon's mouth. Back then, he had needed to swallow that large fragment, restrain Energy Field, and wait to digest it. Now his size and energy were far beyond that time, multiple times stronger.
It was like replacing a thin pipe with a powerful pump, sucking up both water and fish at a mad speed. "Hm?"
Sensing the connection breaking, the observing Salva frowned. The Blessed Power mixed into those magic spirit fragments had been meant to stir the emotions of the Great Dragon and cause a clash with the rampaging Ice Spirit. But it was crushed by mental pressure the moment it entered the body, leaving no trace.
"That is a bit absurd… what exactly are you?" He soon noticed that one part of the spell he arranged had been destroyed. At first he thought the Great Dragon had realized his intent and deliberately broken it. But something felt off.
Those fragments seemed to have been pulled into a powerful Magic domain, extracting power at a rate far more extreme than the original Magic Array. Salva twitched at the corner of his mouth. "…Fine, this makes it even better. A clash between you and the Ice Spirit is now inevitable."
The Ice Spirit would soon notice where another part of its fragments had gone, and would definitely move toward them due to aggregation. Once they met, the Ice Spirit would fight the Great Dragon over reclaiming the fragments, letting Salva watch from the sidelines. The plan was going smoothly.
"Wait, what is going on now…" Salva was startled again. The aura of the fragments around the Great Dragon had completely vanished. How was that possible? Even if the Magic was drained, the fragments themselves should still remain. Those were part of the essence of the Ice Spirit.
Destroyed? He rejected that idea immediately. Those fragments carried traces of Laws, a manifestation of world essence itself. How could they be destroyed? The only explanation was that the Great Dragon had hidden their information or covered them with another Laws.
And that was not all. The position of the Great Dragon within his Magic Array perception began to change. "The dragon… is moving toward the Ice Spirit?"
His eyes slowly widened.
In another part of the valley, the battlefield was already buried under ice and snow. The now smaller Dotleivy and that Gold Rank member of the Wolfguard were there, with the latter riding on the former and dodging constantly. Fight? There was no way to fight at all.
Even with only partial recovery, the Laws power controlled by Icelis was far beyond what a normal Gold Rank could handle. Fighting an ice elemental spirit like Dotleivy that shared the same ice Laws was no different from bullying. The only thing they could do was keep running and buy time.
Her true body was sealed within icy ribs, massive ice bone wings spread wide. The ice sword connected to the bone tail stabbing out from her back again and again. Each strike was raw damage to the Wolfguard and rule-based damage to Dotleivy, making direct combat impossible.
Although the attack frequency was somehow much lower than before, one hit still meant death or serious injury. But once the gap reached a certain point, running could no longer be called escaping, only delaying death.
The icy construct around Icelis mutated again, extending a headless spine that lifted into the air. It lunged down like a bird of prey. They tried to dodge as before, but in the blink of an eye they realized the ground beneath them had already frozen solid without them noticing.
"It is over… when did that happen!" Their pupils shrank as Icelis closed in, all escape routes erased in an instant.
At the same moment, Icelis, trapped within the icy ribs, seemed to shudder. A trace of fear appeared on her face, different from before, like a child being tapped on the head. Even her massive frozen body stalled briefly, and marks of Rend appeared on ribs that had been immune to all attacks.
What was going on?
"…Just in time!" A path was torn open through the ice by sharp Battle Aura claws. Vann burst through from behind a huge rock wall, grabbed one dog and one person, and dashed away. "My lord… Vann." "Vann, you are here. Icelis is very wrong right now."
"I can tell… this is trouble." Reaching the top of the canyon cliff, Vann set them down, took a breath, and pointed into the distance. "You go guard the sleeping Fei'er Li now."
The person and the dog looked at each other, then at Vann. He just smiled back. "She is trying to pull Icelis back. None of you are in good shape, so stay there."
He then turned, his expression completely serious, and jumped off the cliff without hesitation. His feet hit the ground as he faced the massive ice construct that had regained focus, exhaling cold air. "Until everything returns to normal, I will hold back this little girl trapped in a nightmare."
"The Great Beast Total Attack template is being analyzed. Please wait."
"Nice!"
Belial almost jumped in place. Once the analysis finished, the power of Space G, Power of Destruction, and two cheat-level abilities working together would make him untouchable. This was easily the biggest gain since arriving in this awful place.
He had just swallowed more than ten fragments and harvested another wave of Magic. The ice-condensing organs inside his body were clearly enjoying it, and once this batch was digested, the power of Freezing Breath was expected to rise again. Right now, he honestly felt that villains were pretty great.
They died obediently, dropped rewards, handed over the final experience pack, unlocked God of Destruction, and even came with a free bonus. That was almost polite. If there were more villains like this, then once he grew into a complete Great Beast form, he would happily fire a Corona Beam at anyone.
His strength rose again, and Belial roughly estimated that after growing a bit more, he might be able to try spitting out a youth version of Corona Beam. This was the value of raw numbers, no extra buffs, no side effects, just a simple and brutal doubling of power compared to Spiral Heat Ray. There was a certain clean beauty to it.
"Hmm… should I go inside and take a look?"
Belial glanced toward the depths of Canyon. Cold air was spilling out in all directions, and even with his vision, he could see waves of combat coming from within. It was probably the trap that the recently deceased small-time villain wanted him to step into.
Knowing it was a trap raised a simple question. Should he still step in anyway? Taking the benefits and leaving sounded fine too. Once God of Destruction finished loading and he had more room to survive, coming back later to see what was going on would not be a bad idea.
Facing the unknown meant he should stay cautious. That was what he thought, at least until just now.
Belial checked the loading bar of System again and noticed that a new line had appeared without a sound. It read something like "Acquire… ?%^… 0/1, unlock… 'Great Beast total… thousand…'" as usual, a pile of garbled text and an unclear objective.