The purpose of a bell was simply to mark time. To ring at sunrise, to remind those still asleep that the long night had ended. Dawn had just begun to show, and the sun was about to arrive.
Under the sun, the lingering darkness was completely driven away. Some cold remained, but this place no longer belonged to night, and things once frozen in time returned to their original state. Those who had closed their eyes stirred, hearing the distant bell and feeling the light wash over their souls.
As the bell finished ringing, Alba felt dizzy again, this time for real. The strain on her body and mind was too much, and she finally collapsed, closing her eyes in true sleep. Staying up all night was just too tiring.
Her breathing became even and calm. When Elvin rushed over, he saw only Alba lying there asleep. He carefully picked her up, and as he flew out, he saw the ruined surroundings restored, including those who had not yet awakened.
This was not time reversing, but everything returning to its starting point. Lynna took a delicate pocket watch from her intact Spatial Ring and checked the time. It was just right.
The day had returned to early morning, just before six, when the sun was gentle and newly risen. Many people were already waking from the bell's sound. Elvin glanced at Alba's sleeping face and said she looked very tired.
Lynna came over, looked as well, and lowered her voice in agreement. She really did look exhausted. For now, it was better not to disturb her and let her sleep a little longer.
After sensing that his backup plan had been triggered, Belial did not care at all and lazily rolled over. When the Great Dragon turned its body, it stirred a completely different kind of massive surge, with pale blue energy waves that felt almost solid rolling like tides. The density was so high that it blurred the line between reality and nothingness.
Enormous thunderclouds churned within the Void, and from time to time they burst with flashes as bright as sunlight. After sleeping for a short while, Belial had grown even larger. At this point he needed to stay farther away from the outer boundary of the World, or else even without the strengthening effect of the Mark of Finality, the unconscious pressure of his sheer mass would be enough to grind space into Shards.
Belial remained half asleep and half awake as he thought to himself. "Direct killing power is a lot worse, but staying alive should be more than enough." "I did not expect the useless mechanics of the Thousand-Year Dragon King to actually come in handy right now. Interesting."
He could vaguely sense that power had been activated, though whether it had claimed any actual kills was unclear. That detail did not really matter to him. There was no way he would just leave without doing anything, especially after remembering the few cheat-like boosts he had handed out earlier.
In the past, Belial's way of adding boosts was limited to physical modification or stuffing a few pieces of his own tissue Shards into someone. This time, however, the other party's body was made entirely of pure Holy Light, so he did not dare touch it. He was afraid that a careless poke might break the person into Shards on the spot.
With the Mark of Finality now on him, those old methods were not realistic anyway. That was why he had flown out immediately after finishing the fight and recalled the earlier Clone as well. Left with no better option, he began thinking about other ways to stay connected from the inside, until his thoughts drifted to the Thousand-Year Dragon King.
Only then did he realize that this thing was not affected by the annoying suppression of the Mark of Finality. Maybe it was because the two templates were not fully merged, which led to this loophole. "If Godzilla killed you, what does that have to do with my King Ghidorah?"
At first, this discovery made him happy, but the follow-up quickly dampened his mood. Using and manifesting the power of King Ghidorah burned through his already limited call credit. He barely had enough credit to talk normally, so spending it all just to let King Ghidorah go out for a joyride was not realistic.
Then another thought struck him. King Ghidorah charged call credit, yes, but it did not have to be his own. Someone else's would work too, especially if that person had ties to a place rich in faith. Toss it over there and it would be like connecting directly to their network, borrowing it once in a while to stretch its legs.
Looking at the two idle heads, Belial stuffed one of them in. Inside his friend's book, he placed a head of the Thousand-Year Dragon King. Most of the time it would remain asleep, but with enough faith-processed Holy Light, waking it temporarily would not be a problem, and it even came with passive protection.
"It is not my best Godzilla skill set, but the Thousand-Year Dragon King." "Against a bunch of nobodies, that is more than enough." "As for everyday fights, do I not still have my two Pal?"
He planned it carefully. For routine battles, the two Pal could handle things, and if that failed, the Thousand-Year Dragon King would step in. If even that could not hold, he would simply change locations and handle it personally.
Because of their proximity, the Thousand-Year Dragon King could also use the two Pal as anchors to collect some faith-based Holy Light. That would let it build up a bit of call credit and take a big bite out of the supply. After all, those benefits were not given to him for free, and he had already issued a small order to help spread belief.
As long as more people believed in him, it did not need to be many, just enough to cover daily chatting costs. That alone would make Belial's life much more comfortable. Trading one thing for three like this was a huge profit.
"What surprises me is that someone still dared to stir up trouble." "Did they not see those three sky lanterns over there that still have not gone out?"
Belial turned his head to look at the torches he had set up in the distant Void. They were three souls bound together, burning and wailing without end, releasing flames filled with resentment and Dark Power. Those were the Crimson God, whose bodies and Divine Kingdom had already been crushed into Shards and kneaded into a fire basin.
To make sure they behaved as fuel instead of escaping through death, Belial showed what he considered kindness. While keeping them burning constantly, he tore their souls into Shards and ground them down until they could not even organize coherent thought. In that state, even the idea of suicide could not form.
They were forced to feel every step as everything they were burned into ash. All their memories and grudges burned along with them, with no escape. If there had been a suicide button, it would have been smashed long ago, but Belial had removed it in advance.
The wailing from the flames spread deep into the Abyssal Void, drawing the attention of nearly all surviving Crimson God after that great battle. After peeking at what was going on, every single one of them immediately retreated. The shared thought was simple: this was terrifying, and they locked their doors and hid, praying through Prayer that the huge figure would not break in with an axe.
Facing three of them bundled together and burned as sky lanterns, anyone singled out knew they would not survive. With his strengthened Energy Field field and perception, Belial noticed the ripples calm down and went back to sleep. He truly did not expect that someone would still dare to act under his nose.
"Did they not see those sky lanterns?" "Should I grab a few more and burn them to make things brighter?"
While he debated whether disturbing his precious sleep to fetch more Crimson God was worth it, he sensed something unusual. A gigantic head tens of kilometers across slowly lifted from his coiled body, and his half-lidded eyes opened just a slit, glowing red.
Blue White Tier energy waves spread from around him like solid tides, rolling outward layer by layer. The range was enormous, and the expansion speed was just as extreme. In a short time, it was enough to cover an area on the scale of the entire Earth-Moon System, creating a phenomenon of astronomical magnitude.
It looked like a vast blue universe dotted with pale White Tier stars. Yet black wisps seeped in, thick Dark Power gathering along the outer edge of the World. "Another energy spike has been detected," someone reported. "This time, Belial's largest wave is about level twelve. What is he doing? Why is the the Lord making such a big move?"
Floating in the Void, the Observation Station deployed its shields. Bella worked on repairing sensors destroyed by the violent fluctuations while running Reorganization on the new data. Any targeted use of that level of energy would have wiped out even a Observation Station made of Nanometal.
Yet this wave was spreading outward instead. "It should be probing," she said. "It is coming, just as expected."