Chapter 144: Virgin Mary

Belial felt a surge of irritation. It was clear that this fellow was inferior to him in strength, yet despite enduring so many of his attacks, he still refused to fall.

"What kind of person are you, anyway?!" Belial roared, unleashing a powerful beam attack in a desperate bid to subdue Yue Longze.

"Deathcium Ray!"

Yue Longze utilized his "Ghost Steps" once more, narrowly dodging the formidable beam. Belial’s Deathcium Ray was incredibly potent, far surpassing the intensity of Zero's Wide Zero Shot. With energy to spare, Belial didn't hesitate; when the first shot missed, he fired again and again. The beams erupted incessantly from his crossed wrists as if they cost nothing, forcing Yue Longze into a desperate struggle for survival. He considered retaliating with a Dark Zeperion Ray, but he held back; he had to conserve his energy. Unlike Belial, he did not possess an inexhaustible reservoir of power.

Having made a breakthrough in his Leo-style martial arts, Yue Longze realized that if he kept pushing, he might achieve even more. "Keep going... the dawn is surely ahead!" he encouraged himself, steeling his resolve. He continued to parry the onslaught, each evasion a brush with death.

Belial grew increasingly ferocious. It was humiliating; he could not capture someone he clearly outmatched. His pride was wounded. Incensed, he channeled his energy into the Giga Battlenizer, which began to pulse with a dark, malevolent light. Belial himself seemed to be enveloped in a suit of black shadow. The atmosphere grew terrifying; nearby magma began to churn, hissing as it evaporated in the air. The entire sky was stained a oppressive, suffocating black. With overwhelming momentum, Belial locked onto Yue Longze once more and swung the heavy Giga Battlenizer with devastating force.

The moment he was locked in the gaze of that terrifying aura, Yue Longze’s heart sank. It was a crushing pressure that left his body unable to move even an inch. He felt as if he had been frozen in place. The dark, heavy weapon loomed larger and larger in his milky-white eyes.

"It seems I've bitten off more than I can chew this time..." Facing the threat of death, a flicker of regret finally surfaced in his heart. Yet, Yue Longze refused to yield; he struggled with every ounce of his being. But his body felt as if it were filled with lead, utterly unresponsive to his commands. "Move, damn it, move!" he roared internally, but it was in vain.

The flower of death was about to bloom. The dirge of the departed was ready to play.

"BOOM!"

The sound reverberated across the heavens, nearly shattering the distant stars. Yet, death did not claim him as he had imagined. Before him stood a sturdy, red back. The surrounding magma was instantly vaporized into nothingness by the sheer intensity of the energy shockwave. Belial’s world-shaking strike had been completely intercepted by this hulking red figure.

"Mother Mary?" Yue Longze whispered instinctively.

"No! It's... Xiao-Ze... Maria!" The sturdy figure turned his head slightly, his fierce, arrogant eyes betraying his identity, his streamlined silver head slugs radiating beauty. It was Zero, transformed into his Strong-Corona Mode. Even for this form, renowned for its brute strength, absorbing Belial’s lethal blow was a taxing feat. With a final, powerful tremor of his massive frame, Zero dispersed the remaining energy of the attack.

Yue Longze exhaled, relief washing over him as he stared at the red figure. "Master Zero, you're still joking at a time like this?"

"Heh." Zero reverted to his base form, turned around, and gave his iconic nose-rub, his tone tinged with feigned arrogance. "I've been watching over you from the shadows just to protect you! Aren't you going to thank me?"

"Alright, alright, I really do owe you my thanks!" Yue Longze’s gratitude was genuine. Even if Belial’s goal had been to capture him alive, that last strike would have surely left him half-dead.

"Zero!" Seeing his all-out attack blocked, Belial froze for a moment before his expression twisted into a snarl at the sight of his familiar foe. His hatred for Zero was absolute. Zero had thwarted him time and again; he was his arch-nemesis.

"Belial, it looks like you've gotten stronger again!" Zero flexed his wrists, eager for the fray.

"You meddlesome pest, you always ruin my plans!" Enraged, Belial lunged, and the two clashed in a fierce battle. Yue Longze stood silently to the side, watching the two combatants as he slowly regained his strength.

Whatever the outcome, he knew he had been saved, and he had managed to make a breakthrough in his cosmic martial arts. Though Belial had grown stronger, the increase was marginal. He trusted that Zero could handle it.

"But... why is everyone so covetous of this body of mine?" Yue Longze pondered. The Kireloid God wanted him, Belial wanted him, Juda was interested in him, and the Reiblood spirit within him had insisted on possessing him above all others. Why? Why had his return to the Land of Light timeline drawn the attention of so many formidable bosses?

Yue Longze did not know that he had been targeted shortly after his very first arrival in this timeline. He had been marked not only by the Reiblood spirit but also by the keen, watchful eye of the Kireloid God the moment he was pulled into the alternate Tiga dimension. When Yue Longze fought the third-generation Kireloid in that dimension, the mysterious "Gates of Hell" had appeared in the sky to grant the enemy greater power. In truth, behind those gates stood the Kireloid God of the Land of Light timeline. He had gathered the power of his kin and combined it with his own, attempting to tear through the barriers of time and space to seize Yue Longze.

Fortunately, the gates were destroyed by Yue Longze, then empowered by Camilla’s strength, which accidentally prevented the Kireloid God’s descent. Otherwise, it would have been a nightmare—a catastrophe that could have spelled the end of the world.