This was his stage. Thousands of extras, a dozen main characters, one director, and a very special guest star.
Malrik had sacrificed plenty already, dozens of agents, hundreds of cultists, five key outposts, but it was all worth it for the data he'd gathered. This time, everything had been carefully planned for that dragon.
The creature had grown massive, easily double the size of a normal one. From the shape of its muscles alone, Malrik could tell it weighed several thousand tons.
"Physically enhanced, yet still symmetrical... Impressive," he muttered as he jotted notes.
Based on earlier intel, its physical defense wasn't perfect. Wind magic had breached it once. So he'd cooked up a set of toxic magic formulas, specially designed to slip through the scales and corrode the organs from the inside.
In simulations, it would've worked. And if not, he had backup plans: large-scale ice-based spells. Too bad the Ice Spirit wasn't available, it would've made things much easier.
He turned a page in his notebook. Outside, a blizzard was forming.
Ice-blue clouds swirled above, glowing with a cold, deadly light. Snow whipped through the air in a thick, freezing wind.
Then everything, every creature, every puppet, every soldier, froze. They didn't move.
"…What?" Malrik stared.
He had thought he was prepared. He even had coffee ready for the show. But then, one by one, his puppets stopped responding.
The soul links snapped under the pressure of something far stronger than him.
Even the soulless meat puppets, just sacks of instinct, sent back one last emotion before the connection died.
Fear. True, primal fear.
But how could mindless things feel fear?
Unless... unless the dragon's power reached something deeper. Something buried in the core of all life, their soul.
Malrik froze. His eyes went wide. And then, the blizzard spread.
His coffee froze solid. The world outside turned completely white.
Buildings and towers turned to ice. Skin, bone, armor, everything exposed shattered into powder.
A deathly frost blanketed the battlefield. Snowflakes floated gently, like the closing curtains of a funeral.
Every living thing outside was silenced by the cold. His soul puppets, his traps, his elite team, gone.
One-third of his entire army vanished. All it took was one breath.
BOOM !!!
The blast shook Malrik to the core. The dragon folded its wings and slammed its claws into the wall.
Crash. The stone barrier exploded.
A massive beast, one of Malrik's reinforcements, was pulled out and frozen in the air, mid-scream.
Malrik heard it: the sound of tearing flesh. That was one of the special forces meant to help stop the dragon. It died instantly.
He trembled. His beard was dusted with frost. His lips twitched.
"Dragon… Dragon…"
Then the laughter began. He snapped. His right arm twisted and mutated, crushing his desk and shattering the frozen mug.
His robes were ripped to pieces. A wide, gaping mouth opened on his chest, letting out a broken laugh.
"Haha… Even those mindless freaks could feel my trap?
Was it the puppets? Were they too weak and gave it away?
No, no, it doesn't matter! That was just a warm-up!
I'll give you something better, Advanced Magic, Chain of Erlued!"
All around the city, hidden ritual altar burst to life. They were soaked in blood, linked by twisted souls, powered by sacrifice.
A huge array lit up the sky, a ring-shaped seal glowing brighter and brighter. Magic chains wrapped around the dragon's body, locking it in place. Even the ground cracked beneath the pressure.
This wasn't a simple seal, it was a special cage built to trap a single monster. Not useful in a war, but perfect for catching one overgrown lizard.
And that was only the beginning.
More would follow.
Malrik grinned, eyes burning with madness. This time, the dragon wouldn't escape. The show wasn't over yet.
To be honest, even when Belial was still human in his past life, he wasn't exactly a genius, just a pretty average guy.
Now that he had turned into a giant kaiju-like beast, his brain had evolved into something like a living supercomputer, capable of calculating thousands of things at once. But all that brainpower didn't mean he was wise.
Besides, when you were a monster the size of a building, most problems could be solved by smashing them. And if brute force didn't work? Well, that just meant he needed more of it.
It became a perfect loop, his instincts would suggest overwhelming power, and then his advanced brain would crunch the numbers and agree: yes, smashing was still the best option. Flawless logic.
Looking back on everything he'd done since being reborn, most of it involved doing insanely reckless things that should've gotten him killed. But he kept surviving anyway.
Once, he even shattered the Grim Reaper's metaphorical scythe using nothing but his forehead. Right now, Belial had spotted another city under attack by magical beasts.
Out of habit, he nearly fired a Atomic Breath to wipe the whole area clean, but then he paused. How did he keep showing up at the exact right time?
The answer was simple: beast tide summoning required a huge surge of energy, one that resonated with monsters and stirred them up. That same energy wave would appear as a signal on his system map, guiding him like a compass.
Once he got close enough, the vague signal sharpened into precise red dots, showing exactly where the enemies were hiding.
From high in the air, Belial scanned the battlefield. It looked like a normal war, monsters and humans locked in bloody combat. Nothing seemed off.
Malrik had planned it all very carefully, even letting his puppets fight and die for real just to keep the illusion going. On the surface, it looked completely legit.
But the system map disagreed. It was full of red dots.
"So it's a trap," Belial muttered, narrowing his eyes.
Dozens of red markers dotted the map, some outside the walls, others hidden inside, and even more buried underground. These weren't just enemies, they were designated threats. And oddly enough, some of them were humans.
Usually, red dots only appeared over unique magical beasts or ritual sites. Now they were scattered across both sides, monsters and humans alike, and the two were actively fighting each other.
At the center of it all, the largest red dot sat over the city's command tower, with dozens of red threads branching out from it. That had to be the core, controlling everything else.
The other larger dots were probably sleeping monsters or heavily modified creatures waiting to be activated. Still, putting so many targets in one place just made it easier for him.
"Fine by me. Doesn't matter how many, they'll all die the same."
With a sharp grin, Belial spread his wings wide. Frost crackled through the air as his power surged.
Magic built around him, clouds twisted into spirals above, and elemental energy gathered like a storm.
A low hum rumbled from deep in his chest. His back spikes lit up with a chilling glow. Ice-element mana flooded through his core and throat, compressing into something sharp, refined, and deadly.