The more he learned about spell formations, the more refined his attacks became. Even a simple Ice Breath had evolved into a wide-area spell that pulled in surrounding mana, forming a vortex around him.
As the magic compressed tighter, energy rings rippled outward. Arcane symbols formed glowing layers across his body, amplifying, speeding up, and extending his range.
This wasn't a full-power attack, just a test shot. Something light enough to probe for traps but deadly enough to wipe out half a city.
Civilians? Collateral damage? Not his problem. He wasn't holding back.
The glow from his throat lit up the sky, cutting through the clouds. Moisture in the air froze on the spot. The coming blast would trigger days of blizzards, sealing the entire region in ice.
Thousands of soldiers, tens of thousands of monsters, and countless enslaved civilians were about to be erased by the storm.
This was man-made destruction.
With a thought, Belial unleashed the breath. A roaring vortex of ice shot forward like a divine punishment. Just one breath, and tens of thousands were gone.
Not satisfied, he dropped into the chaos, tearing apart puppet soldiers and mutated monsters with frozen claws. Blood, flesh, and bone were shredded and churned into icy sludge, then swallowed whole.
Even the creatures rigged with internal explosives weren't a problem. He froze them first, then crushed them like glass.
There was barely any resistance.
Spiritual connections snapped instantly as undead creatures disintegrated into snow. The leftover force from the blast sent buildings flying and puppet civilians tumbling like dry leaves.
Belial watched calmly as red dots vanished from his map one by one.
Only one large red dot remained.
"So you're still playing games?"
That center dot hadn't moved at all, even after taking the hit. It was just sitting there, like it was waiting for him.
Was it already dead? That would be boring.
He focused on another target, one hidden in the city walls, and dove.
The sky split as he pierced the clouds, wind shrieking in his ears. Lightning sparked along his body, and sonic booms erupted with every movement. White shockwaves rippled behind him as air pressure collapsed in his wake.
From the ground, his glowing silhouette looked like a meteor wrapped in light, slicing through the sky with impossible speed.
By controlling ions and gravity around him, he reduced his weight and pushed his speed past Mach 3. A kaiju flying that fast, what kind of monster was that?
If he flew in circles around the city, the entire place would collapse under the shockwaves alone.
Target locked.
A large red dot inside the city wall.
Belial's body angled downward, claws extended, ready to strike,
BOOM.
The city wall, built from reinforced stone and steel nearly ten meters thick, crumbled like a cracker under a hammer. No resistance. Just clean, brutal impact.
From within the wreckage came a horrible scream.
The target had been one of Malrik's trump cards, a heavily enhanced monster, gold-tier strength, specifically built to take on Belial in close quarters. It looked like a giant armored fish, its body covered in overlapping scale plates designed to absorb shock and distribute damage.
But now? Its armor was shattered. Flesh ripped open. Blood sprayed in arcs.
Even with the wall as a shield and its modified body meant to withstand brutal attacks, it still couldn't survive the sheer power of Belial's dive.
The thing let out a pathetic, broken moan. Belial's claws dug through the rubble like it was soft dirt, grabbing hold of the creature and yanking it from the debris with zero effort.
Its eye, half-hanging from its socket, managed to glance down at its ruined body. And in that moment, something primal kicked in. Real, suffocating fear.
The mental link to Malrik snapped clean. It had been built to restrain the dragon. To latch on and lock him down. But now, as it felt Belial's claws ripping deeper into its body, it realized its fate.
The skin tore first. Then the muscle. Then came the bones. Then the organs.
Rip. Blood poured down in hot waves.
Without any ceremony, Belial flung the twitching corpse aside like trash.
"One down," he muttered.
He turned his gaze toward the ancient fortress at the city's center, the largest red dot still blinking on his map.
If this thing hadn't reacted to the bait…
"Then you can die without regrets."
His voice was cold, his stare colder. He stepped forward.
At that moment, he felt something shift within his energy field, a massive surge of magical power spreading outward. Too many channels to stop. It was activating.
Ritual nodes lit up across the city, linked by glowing lines of power. A huge magic circle appeared in the sky, pulsing with blinding light.
Belial understood it instantly.
Light rings wrapped tightly around his body. Pillars of energy erupted upward like a cage, locking him in and pushing downward with a crushing force.
This wasn't just a trap, it was a full-scale sealing spell.
It even disrupted the elemental flow around him, cutting him off from the ambient mana. Malrik, watching from afar, had realized Belial wasn't just strong, he could influence the very elements around him.
That's what "Chain of Erlued" was designed to stop. It severed his bond with ice-element power, cutting off his biggest advantage.
At the same time, it slammed him with intense gravity, strengthened by blood sacrifices spread throughout the ritual.
The idea was simple: maybe they couldn't destroy him outright, but they could keep him still. Hold him down. Then overwhelm him with a wave of backup monsters.
Malrik had planned for everything. Multiple backup plans. Layers of traps. Failsafes in case anything went wrong.
But there was one thing he didn't account for. This wasn't just a dragon. This was a freak.
Belial stared calmly at the glowing chains wrapped around his limbs.
"This pressure…" he said, almost bored.
He raised a single claw. Not even a flinch.
He looked at the shimmering seals surrounding him, then let his energy field flare outward. His claws sparked with raw, unstable energy, arcs of lightning dancing along their length.
With his energy sensitivity, this whole spell was as fragile as thin glass.
"Too soft," he muttered, and he slashed.
A burst of lightning tore through the air.
The entire spell cracked apart. Light shattered like stained glass in a storm, rupturing outward as his claws detonated the core.
The whole thing collapsed in a heartbeat, ritual nodes vaporized, blood circuits exploded, magical organs turned to ash.
Light surged through the streets as every single ritual site ignited in a fiery chain reaction.
"Impossible!"
Malrik's voice caught in his throat. From the safety of the fortress, he watched in shock as a massive wave of blazing energy surged right toward him.
It hit.
The fortress was torn open from the inside. Stone blasted outward. Half the entire structure came crashing down, black smoke pouring out from the wreckage. Parts of it glowed red-hot, like it had just taken a direct missile hit.
But it wasn't over yet.
"If you died from that, it'd be too easy," Belial said, eyes still locked on the map.