The ice element burst out of the mountain's inner structure, pushing past its natural limits. A massive chunk of glowing ice crystal erupted from the mountainside, spreading rapidly over the surface.
The temperature in the surrounding land dropped like a stone. The storm of energy kept expanding, forming a giant ring of frost and cold air that swept over the entire snowfield below.
Inside the cave, the fragment, now freed, started glowing brighter than ever. It pulsed with light and energy, almost like it was alive. Then, as if responding to a distant call, it shot up, trying to escape.
Crack!
"Oh no you don't!"
Belial's claws, still crusted in shimmering ice crystals, burst free from the frozen shell. The space claw activated with a sharp snap, shattering the solid ice casing, and snatched the fragment just before it could fly away.
Then came the light, a blinding flash reflected from the enormous figure breaking out of the ice. Radiation pulsed from his skin and shattered what was left of the ice coating him. Steam erupted again as everything around him instantly melted and vaporized.
From the smoke stepped Belial, massive and relentless. His eyes locked onto the fragment now trapped in his hand.
Despite the numbness from the intense cold and the way his hand ached from the freeze, he refused to let go. He wrapped it tighter within layers of energy fields and spiraling gravity.
Frost quickly spread up his arm, covering the scales, freezing even the veins inside. Ice elements poured into his body, slipping through every gap in his armor-like skin.
The cold was everywhere, his G cells felt it too. But Belial smiled. He didn't loosen his grip.
Instead, he poured more power into the gravitational tornado and space claw, locking the fragment in place. Grayish-white crystals began rising around him, expanding outward, reinforcing his energy field and absorbing the fragment's energy.
The fragment trembled, fighting back by spewing even colder bursts, piercing through his scales and freezing his insides further. But it also gave something else, nutrients.
His body's ice-element organs absorbed it like starving beasts. The energy was shared through his network of crystals, spreading across the terrain.
A layer of thin ice coated them all. But Belial still held on, now more determined than ever, increasing the energy pull like a massive pump.
Roar!
The fragment thrashed again, pulsing violently, its glow fading fast. Even while being crushed by the space claw and buried in freezing storms, it tried one last time to break free, spinning up a violent blizzard right there in the cave.
From within the storm, something began to take shape...
"Nope." In a flash, Belial opened his jaw and swallowed the fragment whole.
Down it went, straight into the blazing furnace of his stomach.
Whatever was forming faded away, dissolved completely before it could even emerge.
It looked insane, swallowing something that dangerous, that cold. Wasn't he worried it'd freeze his insides solid?
Apparently not. He trusted his body, trusted the strength of the G cells. He'd seen it in the movies.
Those things recovered from anything. Afraid of the cold? Space Godzilla?
Don't make him laugh. His stomach could handle anything. Earth, rock, metal, none of it had ever been a problem.
What was one frozen shard?
"Once you're inside, don't think you're getting out."
He locked his internal energy fields tight around the fragment.
Within his body, he could suppress its energy even more effectively. The fragment twitched, now drifting inside the monster's core.
Maybe it hurt. Maybe it was trying to freeze his organs. Too bad.
The atomic reactors inside him blazed to life, pumping out waves of fiery heat. Temperature spiked fast. His G cells were already hard at work, soaking up every drop of energy from the fragment.
If it had been at full power earlier, maybe it could've fought back. But now?
It was drained, used up by the earlier explosion, worn out by Belial's gravity attacks, battered by energy fields. And now it was surrounded by a living furnace.
Belial curled his massive body into a tight ball, wrapping himself in his wings before shutting his eyes. A thin layer of frost quickly formed over his scales.
From the center of his body, cold air spread out freely, turning the cave into a misty, frozen domain. Crystals branching from his body pulsed with power, channeling the icy energy radiating from within.
Inside him, strange crystalline organs continued to grow and evolve, feeding off the cold and giving off even more. It was a cycle, absorb and release, eat and dissolve, until he reached a stable state.
Internally, he was in control. A normal creature would've died the moment their organs started freezing.
But for him? It was just like lying in freezing water.
Unpleasant, sure, but nothing dangerous. His G-cells made him nearly impossible to kill. Even if he lost vital organs, his heart, his brain, or half his body, he could bounce back as long as a few cells survived.
Freezing to death?
That was laughable. Even something as extreme as an absolute zero cannon wouldn't be enough to kill him.
Who would believe such a monster existed?
His real strength wasn't in destruction, it was in the insane vitality and adaptability of his G-cells. He was like a living kaiju straight out of a monster flick.
As for the shard he swallowed, its power was already fading. It was only a fragment, and a battered one at that, beaten down and drained before it even broke free from its prison.
A certain dragon had already devoured most of its energy before the seal broke. Inside that shard, a faint consciousness clung to life, but it was slowly unraveling.
Then, in one final desperate push, it lashed out. It slammed what little it had left against the soul of the beast that had consumed it.
"Damn it, I'm taking you with me…"
SNAP!!!
"What was that sound?"
Even buried in ice and snow, the dragon twitched. His eyelid fluttered slightly, sensing something stir.
Crack.
A line split down the ice shell around him. Then it shattered like an egg. First came a massive pair of wings, wider and more solid than before, then the jagged spines along his back.
Chunks of ice fell like broken glass as Belial rose, powerful limbs lifting his enormous body. The shard's energy had been absorbed, triggering a slight transformation.
He didn't look much different at first glance, but the glow pulsing from his spines had changed, deeper, more alive.
His magical energy had risen again, dragging his physical power up with it. Not that he was ever worried about that, his body had always been more than enough.
He let out a long breath, the air chilling the already frozen cave even more. "Now I just need to finish digesting it," he muttered.