In theory, the final opponents were mostly down to the Pope and a few remaining Saintess. Many candidates had died in unclear White Tier ways. Even so, Alba could sense how important that position was, and if they could help Raina secure it and guide the Church of Holy Light, maybe disasters like before would stop.
"Will you help us?" she asked, hope flickering in her eyes. "Only a little, when it truly matters," Lilith replied. "I will not carry you all the way. Do not rely on others first."
Alba's light faded again. In the end, she still had to face what looked like a far harder Hell dungeon on her own. "But you do not need to worry," Lilith added. "You have always doubted what we are, the Simulator and that God. I cannot explain much, but because you hold the Sun, as long as you are willing, go ahead without fear."
"We are not trying to harm you. You do have a mission to complete, and you will understand when the time comes. Do not push yourself too hard. Our time is almost up."
"What, you are leaving already? Can you at least explain it clearly?" Alba protested. "Where did this mission even come from? At least tell me the consequences."
She nearly lunged forward, wanting to cling to that enormous White Tier leg, but her body passed straight through as Lilith vanished. "The consequences should not be too severe," her voice lingered. "You will probably regret it, though."
She was thinking of the Twilight and the long wait it would cause for God of Darkness if this failed. As for Alba, holding the Daylight Divine Kingdom and the Sun within it, along with the sleeping form she had seen of Belial, there was no real danger there. Regret only meant someone would have to walk this difficult path again.
"One last thing," Lilith said. "Whether Holy Light or power, it all comes from you. Trust yourself. You will notice more once you arrive. Until next time."
"Wait, I am not a Witch or some god," Alba shouted. "How am I supposed to trust myself like that? And what do you mean by regret?"
She rushed forward and fell through empty space as time and space released their hold. Losing her balance, she tumbled onto the ground. "What happened?" Elvin asked, opening the vehicle door and finding Alba sprawled on the floor with her arms outstretched.
The two of them stared at each other in silence.
"His scale is shrinking. What is going on?" "Maybe it is almost done? It does not really look like it, though. I do not sense any clear manifestation of Laws, so I cannot figure it out either."
Squatting inside World and peering through the breach to the outside, Ham and Bella looked at each other in confusion. Neither of them could tell what was happening to Belial, who was still sleeping through his transformation.
"Judging by the size now, we should be able to go out to the nearby Observation Station and take a closer look, right?" "Maybe we should forget it. What if it suddenly expands again?"
Belial had been sleeping outside for who knew how many days, but time had no meaning inside Void. Inside Belial himself, where Laws was in chaos, time was even harder to judge. Because of that, Ham could not use the internal time flow of World as a reference.
At least one thing was certain. Belial had already entered the next stage. Not long ago, his body suddenly expanded at high speed, and the storm that had already surpassed lunar scale spread violently outward.
In a very short time, it expanded to a scale no smaller than a giant gas planet like Jupiter. The internal energy reactions became far more violent and chaotic. After observing for a while, Ham and the others were forced to retreat back into World, because it was simply impossible to remain outside.
At that point, Belial had already expanded to roughly half the size of the Sun. The terrifying gravity formed by his out-of-control power matrices twisted like a distorted black hole.
After that, the extent of his expansion could no longer be determined, because it was impossible to observe directly. Even throwing out Nanometal would result in it being completely crushed into basic particles before long. If left any longer, not even those particles would remain, fully broken down and absorbed as part of him.
If Belial had not actively moved away from World and gone deeper into Beyond the Void, the outer wall of World would likely have been torn apart by his passive gravity. It would have been like a collapsing black hole, dragging everything into itself.
After that, no one dared to continue observing. From a brief glimpse back then, the direct coverage of Belial had already exceeded twice the size of the Sun. The diameter of his expanding Law Domain was estimated to be no less than ten light years.
It looked like a newborn universe slowly exerting its strength. Something within was breaking free of its restraints and expanding its territory. From the outside, it appeared like a brilliant galaxy filled with countless stars.
Countless stars revolved under gravity around the largest and brightest central star. This familiar cosmic scene left Ham and Bella slightly dazed. It was something that had only existed in a very distant past.
In essence, however, it was nothing more than enormous pure energy and aggregated g-particle perpetual engine arrays forming that view. High-energy reactions occurred constantly within. Even so, Ham felt that their calculations might still be far too conservative.
After analyzing the small sample of energy particles provided by Belial and discovering the nature of his perpetual engine, both of them had complicated expressions. They understood very well what a perpetual engine meant.
What made it worse was that this thing could replicate. It split like cells, and whether before or after splitting, there was no lifespan limit. It would keep splitting endlessly, and after gathering in large numbers, its energy production efficiency would increase even further.
This kind of squared growth was absurd. It would not be strange if one day it expanded to a scale larger than World itself. Yet after observing for another period of time, the two of them vaguely sensed the boundary of Belial's domain.
It seemed he had temporarily reached a certain limit. The scale began to shrink and condense into objects of higher mass. Neither of them dared to study the details, and no one dared to step outside.
The seemingly beautiful galactic scene outside was full of hidden dangers. Even if a real star were thrown in, it would be completely swallowed before long. It might be shaken apart by surging laws and principles at the most fundamental level, or torn into Shard by immense gravity.
In short, the area covered by Belial's main body was an absolute forbidden zone. Even the forging scenes of Divine Kingdom that Ham had seen before had never looked like this.
There was also a small lingering question. What kind of rules did Belial truly control, and once they were fully unified, what kind of Authority would he obtain?
In theory, a hint could be seen from even a single point of Laws within the domain. But there was simply too much outside, too mixed together. Ham's eyes were overwhelmed, and he could not distinguish anything clearly. What could be certain was that this was something unprecedented in all of history.
So what did Belial feel like while sleeping? The answer was that it was not very pleasant. It felt like a body and mind long suppressed, finally running free for a while, only to be forced to actively lock itself back into a narrow cage.
Complete cosmic Laws was an unimaginably vast concept. Everything one could imagine was contained within it, because anything that could be perceived, seen, heard, or thought was only a derivative aspect of it.
The concept of an entire universe was stacked four times over. It was far too enormous, and even Belial could not grasp it all at once. Even after all this time, he had not managed to cover it completely.
That was why he had previously expanded his domain at high speed. Using replication and Crystal multiplication, he built astronomical-scale computing arrays to assist his comprehension and evolution.
Even so, it was still not enough. What he needed now was not just raw energy levels, but a period of stabilization.
If this were his past self, he could have slept without worry. Anyone he knew was unlikely to die of old age. But now he could not do that. He still had things to finish, and he still had another fight ahead.
As mentioned before, there was a cost to what he was doing. He had to relax his focus and stop paying attention to the Mark of Finality. The price was that its volume began to expand rapidly, forcing him to repeatedly slap down the Overlord Ridge every so often as it tried to struggle free.
This made him realize that his time was limited. Before the inevitable future slumber, he had to settle everything properly.