"Could it be Tartarus?!"
Linking it with the spacetime fluctuation that had just appeared, Yuzhou finally understood.
The Celebro Alien had clearly been eliminated by his own hands before—yet now, traces of it had surfaced again. The explanation was obvious.
It had to be Tartarus.
In the original timeline, Tartarus had never appeared on this Earth at all. He was not mentioned even once. Yet now, he had forcefully inserted himself into this world.
After thinking it through, Yuzhou arrived at only one plausible conclusion.
Tartarus had dragged a Celebro from a parallel universe back with him—
—and released it onto this Earth.
As for why Celebro had chosen Riku as its target instead of Belial himself, the reason was just as clear.
What Celebro wanted was the Dark Belial Medal.
Not the medal of a Belial who had already been purified.
Riku still carried the genetic remnants of Dark Belial within him.
Belial's expression darkened as he saw Riku being completely suppressed. His clawed hands lashed out without hesitation.
Slash—slash—slash!
In a flash, the pile of AI robots pinning Riku down were torn apart, their bodies shredded into fragments that scattered across the ground.
The convenience store owner stood frozen in shock.
What kind of monsters were these people?!
And what were these robots?!
And what kind of lunatic tears robots apart with their bare hands?!
No one had time to explain.
Because in the next instant, they realized something was wrong.
The Riku who had been crushed beneath the robots—
—had vanished, dissolving into streams of data.
"Geed?!"
Belial rushed forward, frantically scanning the area, but Riku was nowhere to be found.
"Belial, calm down!" Yuzhou said quickly. "I think I know where Riku was taken!"
Belial forced himself to steady his breathing.
Riku was everything to him now.
If anything happened to his son, Belial would make whoever was responsible pay in blood.
"Where did they take him?" Belial asked, suppressing his rage.
"They escaped through a spatial transfer," Yuzhou replied. "But we can still track them."
Turning to the man beside him, Yuzhou spoke decisively.
"Juggler. Take several of those robot bodies back to STORAGE. Have Yuka analyse them. She'll be able to pinpoint Riku's location."
"Understood."
Juggler nodded solemnly, hoisted a robot carcass over his shoulder, and vanished in a burst of black light.
"All we need to do now," Yuzhou said, "is wait for the results—then we strike their nest."
To reassure Belial, Yuzhou paused, then reached into his coat and took out a blank Ultra Medal.
"Belial," he said seriously, "could you lend me your power? We may need it when facing Tartarus."
Belial was in no mood for experiments, but at the mention of Tartarus, he accepted the medal without hesitation and infused it with his energy.
A brilliant flash erupted.
Belial's image appeared clearly on the medal's surface.
"Thank you," Yuzhou said, accepting it. Borrowing power deserved respect.
As he held the completed medal, Yuzhou was already considering how best to use it.
Moments later, black light flared nearby.
Juggler had returned.
"We've found their hideout," he said curtly.
No further explanation was needed.
Abandoned Commercial District
Riku was bound to a metal chair, countless tubes and data cables connected to his head and body.
This was Celebro's creation—
—a device designed to extract high-purity genetic material.
"High-purity Belial factor confirmed."
"Beginning extraction of Belial genes."
The emotionless mechanical voice echoed through the dark, decaying structure.
Riku was still conscious.
The moment he heard those words, his heart sank.
"They're… extracting my father's genes?!"
He strained against his restraints, but the bindings had been specifically designed by Celebro for him. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't break free.
"Stop it!" Riku shouted. "My father is not something you can exploit at will!"
The extraction device above his head lit up.
Red fluid flowed through the transparent tubes—
—Belial's genetic essence.
Agony tore through Riku's body.
He screamed, veins bulging as Belial's shadowy visage faintly surfaced across his face. His limbs convulsed violently.
Before long, a container filled with crimson extract was complete.
Riku lost consciousness.
Hidden in the darkness, Celebro—no, the possessed Kaburagi, watched silently. One eye glowed blood red as he lifted the vial, examining it carefully.
Returning to the shadowed chamber, dim green light flickered around him as he poured the extracted genes into a medal-forging device.
Then, he added an orange-yellow crystal.
A Demon Splinter.
The machine whirred.
Clack.
A black-violet medal slid out from the base.
He picked it up slowly.
This—
—was the Dark Belial Medal.
And it did not crumble into particles.
That meant only one thing.
The experiment had succeeded.
This medal was stable.
Permanent.
Yuzhou, Juggler, and Belial stormed into the abandoned building and immediately freed Riku from the chair.
"They were after my father's medal," Riku said weakly after regaining consciousness, glancing at Belial.
"My medal?" Belial frowned. "Then why didn't they come for me?"
"Because what they want," Yuzhou said quietly, "is the medal of Dark Belial."
Belial scoffed.
"Do they really think my darkened self was that powerful?"
He straightened, confidence burning in his eyes.
"Purified or not, I am stronger now than I ever was."
That strength came from relentless self-reinforcement—an artificial Plasma Spark he had commissioned on the Moon, absorbing light energy daily.
Unseen by them, in the shadows—
"Begin the experiment."
The possessed Kaburagi raised a red Z Riser and pulled the trigger.
In the original timeline, he had possessed a proper one.
Here, it had been taken by Yuzhou and given to Juggler.
So Celebro had simply built a new one.
The experiment—
—had officially begun.