For a time, even the holy city of Dawn fell, and only after paying a huge price was the situation stabilized. But it was already too late. That mixed power entered the world's cycle and kept reincarnating among Demonkind. Later, after she shattered Fate and was forced into slumber, they activated the defense mechanism known as Holy Sword and created the Chosen Hero.
"That is Chloe, and your story," she said. "While you were killing that Demon King, Dawn was the one taking shifts and enduring the pollution. Even if her Authority can keep refreshing itself, she must be close to madness by now."
Safas's lips trembled as he tugged at his beard. Ham was not a great storyteller, but the weight of it all was clear. Gods of the past were dead or insane, leaving only Fate and Dawn barely holding the line to keep the world alive. What more could be said?
And following that logic, the one bearing this burden now was Chloe. Was she forced into it, or did she have no other choice? Drink poison to quench thirst, or die outright, neither was easy.
"Now you understand," Ham said. "Chloe knows the truth. A Chosen Hero has not reached godhood, but she is different. She is not only corrupted into a Demon King, she has also become the final gatekeeper of that Rift and a relay keeping the world alive."
She turned her head and clicked her tongue, no longer looking like a child. "And the Rift is not simple. Those Evil God have never given up on tearing the world open again. Demon King is both their pawn and the gatekeeper, leading to two outcomes."
"One is that the world is destroyed under the ravages of Demon King, reopening the Rift. The other is what you want to do, completely destroy the Rift and the Crown. That would open it instantly, and Demon King would no longer matter."
She admitted she had even considered taking over the shift herself, but the reality was worse than she imagined. The moment Chloe removed the Crown, her soul would be swallowed and the Rift would open immediately. The world would fall, and dozens of starving mad beings would rush out to feast.
After finishing, Ham collapsed onto the sofa, limp like a half-dead fish, staring at Safas with a complicated look. "That is the truth. Do you regret hearing it?"
He did regret it, yet he was glad he knew. Either keep someone imprisoned to extend the world's life, or release all the lunatics inside and let the world end. That was the reality. Even with Belial as an unexpected variable, Ham knew it could not fundamentally change things.
At best, Belial could prop up this cycle that was sliding toward despair. Killing all the Crimson God in Abyss was considered, even pooling all resources to raise a single overwhelming force, but it was pointless. The goal was to preserve the world itself, not just win a fight. Belial had defeated Fate, but that was only one. There were dozens more in Abyss, many stronger than Ham's Fate form.
Even if Belial could kill one or several, he could not withstand dozens at once. And if it came to that, victory would mean nothing, because the world would already be in ruins. With that thought, both of them lay there in silence, uncertain even of what Dawn planned by charging straight into Abyss.
At least some things were better. Three of the four major rulers of Abyss were gone, leaving only Elfido. For reasons tied to the lost Gold Rank and matters involving the Church of Holy Light and the maintenance of the sun, that one could not be killed.
Feeling low, Ham decided to go out and look for Mephist to lift her mood. His strange spell collection probably still held many interesting things she had not seen. Just as she stood up, someone spoke.
"You mean the dragon? He just went out." "Where did he go?"
Ham paused and looked at Bella, who shrugged. "He flew around Demonkind, flattened the place, and then flew into the Rift he blasted open with a breath attack."
"…Where did you say he flew into?" Her first thought was why he would fly into a Spatial Rift, an empty place with nothing in it. Then she realized the truth. That was not a Rift. It was the Void torn open by Dawn with Rend, leading straight to Abyss.
A few days earlier than the present moment, the timeline needs to be pushed back a bit. After Belial killed King Ghidorah and finished resting, he decided to find something to do. He first threw several newly established projects to Bella for calculation, then helped her roughly modify the robot framework of Floating City before flying off toward a place he had passed before.
Demon Territory. While flying, Belial spoke as if to himself, saying that everyone knew he was fair and impartial. He clearly remembered that not long ago, to save two people, he had wiped out over a hundred million of those wretched races.
He also remembered the several thousand slaves he encountered mid-flight who were being hunted again. Likewise, he remembered that the ones he killed back then were only from part of the territory. Since he was so fair and just, Belial naturally could not stand this situation and planned to fairly deal with those same breeds in the other territories as well.
How could he allow those filthy creatures to continue living in the world? Now was the time to save everyone from them. The reason was simple, first because he sincerely felt these things should not be alive at all, just like no one likes a stick used to stir filth.
Second, because he smelled a lot of familiar scents on them. Combined with what he had seen before, it was obvious that this was the source of faith power for those old acquaintances in this world. Since they were still materials that annoyed him, why keep them around?
Was he supposed to leave them alive for the holidays? He had always been someone who corrected his mistakes, and earlier his hand had been too light, which led to the tragedy of slaves being hunted again. Now he naturally had to make up for that error.
After blowing apart King Ghidorah, his power rose another step. Although he had not looted much from the familiar foes he fought recently, his ability to use power in unconventional ways had improved by more than one level. This was especially true after being infused with that golden force and after finishing the fight with King Ghidorah.
In the sky, a patch of black shadow spanning several thousand to over ten thousand meters suddenly appeared, with a texture like rock wool. It split apart again and again like a mass of dark clouds under Rend. One black mist Great Dragon after another, each over a hundred meters long, flew out with red light flashing at the corners of their eyes.
They let out silent roars and, driven by storms and flames, rushed toward the horizon. By imitating King Ghidorah's earlier use of Clone, he split his own body with Rend into over a hundred parts. Each carried a portion of his power to efficiently sweep and clear the map.
Each one held only about one percent of his strength, which could barely be called decent. However, combined with his spells and various system abilities, they could snowball and create all kinds of disaster-level effects for clearing terrain. Precision was not needed, because all he wanted was to kill everything.
The process did not take much time, because Belial no longer needed to personally travel everywhere. These small Clone could use Spatial Magic to directly Teleportation to the general target regions. Belial knew a bit about spatial methods, and the old man in Floating City also seemed quite familiar with them.
After borrowing some spells from that man, Belial happily began full-map Teleportation to open up the fog of war. Soon after, a ghostly phenomenon rapidly occurred across The Continent. In various locations, people witnessed the same impossible scene.
On one battlefield front, everyone looked up at the sky that had suddenly turned pitch black. Then they all turned to their own mages, who raised their hands in denial. An unknown chill ran through them, and they gave awkward but polite smiles.
Just by sensing it, they knew the scale of that power was terrifying. If they had that ability, they would have wiped out the enemy long ago. Then everyone present felt a fear and pressure rising from within, armor frosting over as their hands began to tremble.
Some could barely hold their swords. A cold wind abruptly began to blow, frost forming even on beards, and body heat was eaten away bit by bit by something unseen. Even their most basic cells seemed to scream only one thing, telling them to run.
Two red points appeared in the sky as something massive took shape within the raging vortex of clouds. A huge head emerged and opened its mouth, icy blue light gathering inside. A low roar followed as the clouds were torn open into a Rift.
Like divine punishment, the ice-blue breath swept across the entire battlefield in an instant. The strongest targets were wiped out first, and the remaining energy spread into a terrifying cold current. Everything it passed was buried in frost and snow.