Belial spread his wings as well. One black, one white, two enormous Great Dragon faced each other and roared.
"What is that!"
After sensing a violent energy surge and seeing a high-level soul warning, Bella finished grabbing data and rushed back. The first thing she saw was the black and white pair of Great Dragon in the distance, and she froze. A moment later, she screamed like a startled animal.
"I think you know better than I do."
Lilith sounded speechless, but the shock was just as clear on her face. The posture being copied was definitely not just for show, and anything kept for a moment like this could not be simple. That thing was clearly meant as a final trump card.
"Oh, right."
Hearing that, Bella came back to her senses and quickly searched her database while running scans. Her expression turned ugly as the results came in. She muttered that the thing was now registered as a combat template, and that in theory Nanomachines had self-iteration programs to adapt in real time, but this level still felt unreal.
She also questioned how all that technology could still be installed when rule loss should have made it unusable. Then she remembered what she had just discovered, and her face went pale. She suggested running away.
"Why, because you do not trust how absurd that guy can be, or because you think your Nanomachines can beat that kind of monster?"
"That is not it. This is not a duel, it is a brawl, and they are doing a shameless two-on-one."
"?"
"Roar!" twice echoed across the field.
Everyone knew that mechanical monsters were known for overwhelming firepower, and this one was no exception. After a brief exchange of roars, it opened its mouth and fired a beam filled with friendly enthusiasm, one that destroyed both soul and matter at the same time. The blast tore through the air without restraint.
Belial answered without backing down, firing a Spiral Heat Ray straight back. The two beams collided head-on, and the released energy blasted a crater hundreds of meters wide into the ground. The shockwaves made the surrounding area shake violently.
The two giants dug into the ground under recoil, triggering Rend beneath their feet. Burning his soul became more painful for Belial, while Ludwig grew calmer and more crazed at the same time, pushing his output even higher. This time, crimson overwhelmed blue-white.
The shrieking destructive beam hit Belial square in the chest and sent him flying. He felt pain bloom there, and specks of blood splashed out. He commented that his defense had been broken in one hit and that this was far from simple.
He could not believe that an attack that burned his soul and erased matter and rules could be taken head-on by that monster. Both of them became far more cautious. Ludwig had known the monster was absurdly tough, but did not expect even rule-based attacks to be resisted so well.
Such attacks were often deadlier than simple physical destruction. Destroying the rule that one plus one equals two would collapse all math and science built on it. Avoiding that would mean creating an entirely new system, which was harder than enduring the blow.
"So I can only switch to lower-level direct mass attacks."
Pure physical destruction was generally effective against things that had not ascended to godhood, though it was far more troublesome. Before he could finish the thought, a shout rang out telling him to take a Corona Beam head-on.
Orange-red lightning-like rays streaked forward. Inside Ludwig, the soul-burning energy furnace surged, and nearby Nanomachines spread rapidly. The material floated up, hardened, and formed a nearly translucent Prism Shield.
The mimicked Photon Reflection Shield could adjust reflective surfaces in real time and combine absorption, diffusion, and reflection into one shield. Even so, it could not hold. The raging heat quickly exceeded the shield's limits, and Ludwig was blasted away, with chest scales and armor showing signs of blockbuster.
As repairs began, the irreparable parts were discarded, and nearby Nanometal was pulled in to patch the damage. Seizing the moment, Belial charged forward and roared, slashing down with Space Claw. Molten metal tore open beneath the strike, and fragments of Shard flew everywhere.
Engines roared inside Ludwig's arms as he accelerated. A kinetic weapon charged with destructive energy fired through his palm, hitting like a pile driver with spinning claws. The massive impact sent Belial skidding backward.
The two enormous beasts grappled at close range. Scales on Ludwig's body stood up, each turning into a high-frequency blade that sliced continuously. Crystalline explosions and phase cuts collided, turning every inch of their bodies into a battlefield.
By now, Belial's energy was clearly draining. Nearby Nanomachines broke down, while Ludwig sprayed out huge clouds of metallic particles. Liquid Nanometal almost coated Belial's surface, suppressing the terrifying heat.
It even tried to invade his body to suppress energy fluctuations and damage internal structures. Belial snorted that the moves were varied and easy to copy, but still not enough. He roared as a shockwave of blazing energy burst outward, burning off the surface Nanometal.
He prepared to fire a close-range Corona Beam, but was suddenly blasted away by a crimson beam. The cannon was built directly into Ludwig's chest, and his wings spread wide. Prismatic panels unfolded, red patterns filling every angle and amplifying energy radiation many times over.
Dozens of thinner crimson beams fired alongside the head and chest the Lord cannons, forming a terrifying net of firepower. Belial instantly raised Photon Reflection Shield, but the shield was riddled with dense Rift in moments. Under the combined fire of the twin the Lord cannons, it finally shattered into Shard.
The barrage slammed directly into his scales, causing blockbuster and charring. Belial barely dodged another incoming the Lord shot. The situation became extremely dangerous.
"Careful!"
Bella hurriedly steered Sky Island aside. The beam that grazed past pierced the outer Nanometal walls, erasing matter outright and destroying the original rules. Distant mountains exploded, and nearly a hundred miles of land was swept into ruin.
"That kind of attack can erase matter directly, and if the rule damage hits us, it is even worse. At that point, we are definitely done."
"Is that the power of the Evil God?"
Lilith had no doubt that even a trace of the aftershock would kill her instantly. An attack that shook Laws itself was on an entirely different level. This was the gap between gods and mortals.
"It is getting dangerous. The Evil God is even burning its high-level soul essence. Just a little leakage like that could create several more world-scale disasters."
"But that dragon is also absurd. Matter erasure and rule attacks barely work, and it is still fighting under all those debuffs from the enemy's ecological domain."
As Lilith frowned, she suddenly received a signal from Belial. He told Bella to prepare the the Lord cannon, because they would need to help soon.
Amid the rain of beams, a wave of white energy spread outward and knocked all the attacks away. It came from Belial's chest, where white patterns from Rend glowed as he opened his jaws. That was the aftershock of elemental fusion being built inside his body.
The fusion reaction's radiant heat blasted out. Ludwig used anti-gravity tech and rule-based gravity control to dodge, but the spreading aftershock still melted one wing and an arm. The city below was far less lucky, as a fan-shaped area was wiped out by the white heat flood.
"You can regenerate, right? How many of these can you take!"
In normal condition, Belial might have struggled, but he was now in an overclocked state that would last a bit longer. He decided to skip a drawn-out fight and go all in. Corona Beam and fusion heat beams rained down relentlessly.
Ludwig kept dodging while controlling nearby Nanomachines to form shields and deflect attacks. His body was riddled with damage, but with endless Nanomachines around, repairs were almost instant. Even so, the pressure kept mounting.
"What a monster. If I keep burning like this, my soul will never recover. I must end you quickly."
After the bombardment, Belial's momentum clearly dropped. Seeing the opening, Ludwig let Nanometal flow and formed a vicious grin. Most of Nanometal was buried underground, and what had been destroyed on the surface was only a fraction.
"Victory will still be mine!"
"Die!"
With a roar, Ludwig unleashed rule suppression. Surrounding nanometal liquefied and solidified into massive blocks, forcibly locking down Belial's limbs. A colossal metal High Tower rose from the ground, forming an inescapable cage.
This time, he poured in not only his own soul-burning energy, but also forcibly drawn souls from the surroundings and all the stored Magic. In a brief charge, his front armor split open with Rend. His wings expanded into a circular acceleration array, and energy spires on his back launched out to form another glowing matrix.
Ribs along his chest and abdomen opened, forming a gigantic accelerated cannon aimed at Belial. Anti-gravity lifted the massive body into the air. The final shout rang out in silence as all transmitting matter was erased.