Advancing on the ground reduced the attack surface, since weapons could sprout anywhere, and flying would only make him a target with nowhere to land. That said, the real reason was simpler. Belial just waAnted to be a true monster, pushing forward slowly and smashing everything in his way.
Traps and pits were meant to be stepped on. "As a Heisei Era monster, if I do not blow up a few dozen buildings on entry, does it even count?"
The thrusters on his wings fired briefly as his weight was unsealed. Gravity lift engaged, internal radiation and Space Claw flared, and Belial slammed headfirst into a city wall nearly as tall as himself. The impact shook the ground, yet thanks to the cohesion of Nanomachines, no large chunks of debris flew. There was only pure destruction from heat.
The long-sealed heat on his surface was released in full. Belial shone like a sun, pouring savage light outward as extreme heat and energy surged in all directions. An entire wall collapsed and melted, and the surrounding blockbuster buildings were blasted away and reduced to molten metal.
Even Nanomachines could not survive tens of thousands of degrees in an instant. blockbuster went inert, but it did not end there. With heat roaring across his body, Belial opened his mouth as orange-red currents danced along his dorsal spines.
"Corona Beam!"
A lightning-shaped beam, far stronger than Spiral Heat Ray, lashed out like divine punishment and carved a scorched scar across the sinful city. Towering blockbuster structures and even the High Tower were melted apart from the middle, explosions chaining endlessly as Belial simply turned his head to erase a fan-shaped zone ahead.
The black behemoth, a living inferno, strode into the mismatched silver city. Each casual sweep of claw, wing, or tail shook the ground, crushing buildings and weapon platforms into powder. Technological creations were trampled and erased, vanishing with every motion and every flash of blue-white destruction.
"So this is what it feels like to be a Great Beast. It is really satisfying, and even better, nobody will hold me accountable." "I have plenty of energy anyway. I can spam beams all I want."
Another wave of internal radiation followed by Corona Beam. Ludwig's eyes twitched uncontrollably.
He had underestimated that monster. With the limits he had set, the available weapons could not threaten Belial at all. Even Nanomachines with its excellent energy absorption could not withstand Spiral Heat Ray. Worse still, the overclocked internal radiation attacks destroyed entire swathes of Nanomachines at a time.
Planned traps meant to force out other techniques were destroyed before he even realized it. Even the ecological domain he had built was torn open, nearing collapse as the monster rampaged on, yet the data collection was still incomplete.
There was even a chance that, without a way to threaten the monster, the destruction of all Nanomachines in the city was only a matter of time. "Sometimes, there are beings in this world that cannot be judged by common sense."
Ludwig had heard that phrase when he was still a mortal ant. After ascending as the Crimson God, he had dismissed it, because he himself had become such an existence. Reality, however, had something called relativity. Every domain had such beings, and Ludwig still could not understand how the enemy had bypassed all his traps and fake node signals to precisely eliminate every key point.
Now it was the same. Without deviation, the monster charged straight toward the seed and the main body, as if it knew in advance that they would be there. Ludwig watched helplessly as an important firepower node was swept away by blue-white destruction, and the liquid metal tides meant to restrain the enemy were boiled into molten iron.
One delaying trap after another was crushed with overwhelming force. In Ludwig's view, the data bar was almost full, just a little more. "But I cannot delay anymore. It is about to reach the seed and the main body. I must stop it."
He clenched his teeth. Fine. The final missing data would be filled by himself.
"Hmm? Another strong one?" While happily tearing the city apart, the Teddy Bear-loving Belial turned his head. A structural shift occurred as a huge hangar opened, and a silver-white, red-patterned, ferocious giant spider crawled out.
Its twisted appearance looked like countless dull faces fused together. Thread-like tentacles grew from its mouth, and eight long, sharp legs supported its body. This was Ludwig's former divine body, a spider that controlled silk puppets and dominated countless servants.
"Come. Unfinished red dragon. I will make you..." "What are you rambling about? Finally another monster shows up."
Belial wasted no time and fired a heat beam. Ludwig leapt upward with the spider body to dodge it. That dodge did nothing. Gravity Tornado struck like a mountain, smashing him back to the ground, forcing him to anchor himself with silk and raise thick metal walls.
Belial increased output. A near-Corona Beam level Spiral Heat Ray punched through the wall and blasted straight into the fragile core. He then charged in, grabbed a fallen spider leg, and executed an increasingly practiced shoulder throw, nearly snapping the joint.
"Damn it. The data is still missing a bit." Sharp legs slashed wildly, but they could not break through the surface heat and tough scales, and the metal body continued melting under internal radiation.
To his horror, the monster was growing stronger during the fight. Amid constant energy leakage, destruction, and repair, it was actually evolving. Even if his main body was not combat-oriented, it should not have been beaten to near death in just a few exchanges.
Belial stopped playing around. Space Claw combined with Gravity Tornado crushed several legs, and he lined up a direct Spiral Heat Ray to the face. "No. Just a little more. The data..."
Ludwig wrapped mouth tentacles tightly around Belial's jaws, but it was useless. The leaking Spiral Heat Ray destroyed the silk and pierced straight through the spider body. The form twitched twice, then melted into a pool of molten iron.
"Ha... data collection... complete." "..." "Data complete. Optimal combat model reconstruction in progress."
On the outskirts, Bella and Lilith finally dared to move Sky Island closer. Most of the surrounding Nanomachines and defenses had been destroyed by Belial, so it was relatively safe. "Stop here. This is the maximum effective range while ensuring power. We should stay cautious."
Bella was still uneasy, and Lilith nodded. If Evil God had another hidden move, this distance was safer. "I will go adjust the core near the main body and be ready to fire at any time."
Bella hurried down. Stopping here was not only for safety and range. More importantly, some Nanometal used for data storage was below. Much of the residual data had already been destroyed by Belial, but what if something remained?
With that thought, Bella slipped away quietly, avoiding Lilith's sight. From above, Lilith stared into the distance at Belial and suddenly widened her eyes. "That is... what?"
The other half of the city rose up as liquid Nanometal like mercury, weaving together near Belial to form a skeleton. Having studied Belial for a long time, Lilith knew his body structure well. If she was not mistaken, that skeleton...
"Ah? Another one?" Belial ground his teeth at the final obstacle, annoyed but also curious. After tearing apart four monsters already, what interesting thing could this be?
Then he froze. It looked familiar. "...Huh?"
Familiar to the point of looking into a mirror. "Body data confirmed. Energy response confirmed. Analysis conclusion confirmed." "Updating. Real-time combat model calculation." "Theory feasible. Construction begins."
Ludwig was not a combat specialist. If the Lord hid behind the scenes controlling puppets, then when the Divine Kingdom collapsed, those puppets vanished as well. He could only use incomplete combat models embedded in Nanometal, and due to broken Laws and changed rules in this era, most were unusable.
If the remaining templates could not defeat this monster, then he would make a new one. Only a monster could defeat a monster.
"Now, within this ecological domain, under the rules I have rewritten and overlaid, I can do this." Unnecessary bulky weapons were discarded, construction starting from the base skeleton. Liquid Nanometal formed bio-mimetic muscle fibers, with dense energy receivers erected along the back.
Muscles were layered with buffering, absorption, and radiation layers, then outer armor scales and reflective heat-resistant coating. High-frequency blades grew at the joints. Light-refracting prism plates filled the metal wing frames, a phase cutter was added to the tail tip, and for the core energy source...
"It will be my own burning soul."
Ludwig howled as his ruined crimson soul filled the core, burning fiercely. The immense energy of a high-level soul surged through the entire body. Surface Rend tore open Rift for heat vents, wings glowed red, lights spread across the massive body, and finally ignited in the eyes like a living being awakening, releasing a thunderous roar.
"Roar!"
A friendly opening sonic resonance attack blasted out, finally snapping Belial back to attention. This was something he truly did not expect. To be honest, he had even thought of something like Gigan along the way.
"But pulling out my mechanical version, that I did not expect. Then again, it makes sense." "Having your own mech version is really awesome. But you did not ask me. Now I am definitely charging you a copyright fee."