What kind of feeling would it be to see a Figurine you molded with your own hands actually come to life one day? Belial felt excited about it. That excitement faded a little when he saw Bella merge back into the core and then turn into a completely different living person, and he clicked his tongue at the realization that it was just an AI wearing a skin.
"I did not expect the Otherworld to have AI too." Having gone through countless works before, Belial quickly figured out the truth behind this Figurine. With even Mechagodzilla showing up, having an AI around did not feel strange at all. Since he was not into cyber idols or becoming a digital serf, his enthusiasm dropped fast.
"So now… how is it?" Lilith looked at Bella, who had stood up again from the ground, her pupils reflecting the red glow of the core energy as she examined herself. Her face could not hold it anymore, and she shouted, "Why do I still look like this after going back into the core?"
Yes, after directly reshaping herself with the core as the main body, Bella was still forcibly locked into an alternate version of Lilith. That made her wonder if she had been contaminated by the Evil God Authority. She even suspected her self-image had been twisted and fixed into Lilith's appearance, though this kind of contamination felt far too strange.
"So, now tell me what use you still have." Lilith tapped her head with the blown-off half of the Magic Staff. "What we are facing is at least one Evil God retainer, maybe even the Evil God itself. Or do you want to run out and deliver a message?"
"No… ha. If that is really the case, I will help you fight them with everything I have." Bella closed her eyes and began searching her databases, though in the current environment most of them no longer applied. "This creature wants to absorb the energy in the core and then directly destroy the physical medium of the Evil God, right?"
"If they want to do something to my other bodies, then the best move is to strike fast and catch them off guard." Compared to recovering her databases, Bella would rather blow up together with the enemy if her main body was already badly contaminated. But right now, there was a better plan than a direct explosion.
Although Bella had forgotten many things due to missing and damaged data, she was certain of one thing. Everything now called a Evil God should really just disappear. Lilith nodded, since she could see that clearly, and from what she knew of that dragon's personality, he would definitely go and settle things head-on.
"If it is about absorbing energy, I actually have a way," Bella said. "I can use higher efficiency to have the Lord actively release energy, but in exchange, could you please not take me apart directly? My processor is still in there!"
The battlefield was covered in scorched trenches and massive craters. The surface had been layered with cooled, solidified rock formed from high-temperature melting, and now this ruined land was being torn apart again by another force as a blockbuster Rift burst open. Gravity Tornado dug large chunks of gray-white metal wreckage out of the ground, remnants of the thoroughly dismembered Mechagodzilla that Belial had destroyed earlier just in case.
Now he had to come back and play the scavenger, picking out parts that could still be used. Bella sat on his shoulder as a commander, already drenched in sweat midway through the work, as many pieces of Nanometal were damaged beyond repair. On the microscopic level, many nanomachines had already melted together under the extreme heat.
Still, if one searched carefully, there were plenty left. As long as there was enough mass, Bella could build a matrix that released energy more efficiently. Relying only on the slow growth of nanomachines from her own core could not keep up, so when Bella asked Lilith where to find more metal, Lilith used a previous coordinate to bring them to this battlefield. Now she finally understood where all that metal she had collected before had come from.
After digging for a while longer, Belial had extracted everything usable. Back then, he had wanted the enemy completely dead, so he had dismembered it thoroughly and even roasted the pieces with Spiral Heat Ray. In the end, only a few thousand tons were left. From the original tens of thousands of tons of Mechagodzilla, this was all that still had active Nanometal.
Bella wiped her forehead, even though as metal she should not really sweat. "This should be enough. Once I go back and analyze it and build the model, I will produce an enhancement plan. It will not take long." The red core separated from Bella's body again, or rather, her main body returned to its true form and then split off a Clone. The location was chosen inside the large crystalline Magic Array that Belial had built underground.
Belial began modifying the existing structure according to the construction diagrams Bella provided. The core was mounted at the center, surrounded by extending Nanometal matrices, and a disc-like structure quickly took shape. Pipes connected to the output ports, and under Bella's the Lord authorization, energy could be drawn out faster in a relatively gentle way.
Although much of the energy stored in the core had already dissipated, it was likely still enough to leave Belial completely full. To ensure that Belial would have enough combat power to wipe out the enemy, Bella shifted her attention to his side once her own core setup was complete. She tugged at Lilith's clothes and said, "So you have materials there, right? Please help me, Miss Lilith!"
Lilith spoke with a look of helplessness. "I already said it. Dragons will not hurt you. Why do you not just do it yourself?" The reason was simple. Bella was scared, and more importantly, those needle-shaped Nanometal could not pierce Belial's body at all. They would instead trigger his passive internal radiation and be destroyed.
Because she needed to test Belial's individual energy absorption limit, taking samples was unavoidable. The samples also had to be biological tissue for separate analysis. So she could only ask Lilith, who had previously scraped quite a bit of material off Belial. Bella felt depressed herself, wondering why Lilith could easily scrape some off with a small knife, while her sturdy Nanometal could not even scratch his skin.
Lilith opened her newly built collection shed. Aside from materials for experiments, it stored some of Belial's blood, scales, and membrane tissue, each carefully preserved. "Um…" Looking at the dark-colored blood in the jars, which seemed to be gently churning, Bella swallowed. "Lilith, could you take it out for me?"
"Idiot, do it yourself. These are just partial tissues." Bella felt uneasy, as her senses warned her that the blood in the jar was not like congealed dead blood at all. It felt extremely alive, as if still flowing through veins.
While checking the situation in her database and detecting a certain possibility, she cautiously extended a thin hand made of liquid metal and gently twisted open the jar lid. "Ow!" The moment the lid came off, the blood inside boiled and formed a claw-like hand that flicked Bella on the forehead under Lilith's shocked gaze.
"I knew it!" "What was that blood just now?" Lilith walked over. Bella covered her forehead, shocked that she could even feel pain, and explained, "That dragon is not as simple as just a divine retainer like you said. My memory just pulled up the explanation."
"On the surface, this is blood that was stripped away, but in reality it is still part of His existence. All blood and scales are the same. Every bit of tissue is Him." "His existence is far higher than you imagine. Simple separation in physical space cannot cut off the connection between body parts." "On the surface, it looks like you removed part of His body, but in truth, He agreed to your request and allowed a part of Himself to stay with you."
"I took it without permission, so this is what happened." In fact, this was probably a light response. At least it passed a first impression check, and since she looked like Lilith, she was subconsciously placed on the friendly side. Otherwise, Bella suspected she could have been killed by a single drop of blood spreading Authority contamination from afar.
"…If it is higher than a divine retainer, then what is it?" Lilith narrowed her eyes, and an unbelievable possibility about Belial surfaced in her mind before she quickly discarded it as too absurd. "I am not completely sure either. Maybe a Clone or something like a descendant," Bella said.
"But the later tests should be handled by you under the Lord authority. That way, He should agree." Bella looked back at the jar of blood with lingering fear.
Ludwig paced back and forth inside the room. He looked gaunt, his eyes dark and frightening, yet carrying a hint of hidden fanaticism. One side of his face, including three eyes in total, had been blinded by searing light, and half his body looked as if it had aged decades in an instant.