The moment she entered, Chloe felt abyssal darkness pressing down from all directions. Ignoring scale and only considering density, it was even thicker than back then. Despair, fear, and wailing spirits flowed with the darkness toward her, stopping short of invasion but remaining clearly perceptible.
Dying madness, silent despair, and the cries of resentful souls were all mixed in, each just a tiny part of a structure so complex that trying to examine it would drag one into insanity. Then came an immense pressure, not intentionally released, but like the natural force felt deep under the sea. It was simply the result of being surrounded on all sides.
"How could this be, this place is…" Chloe gasped. The Black Iron crown above her head flared, forcibly stabilizing her will. Even so, just existing here nearly crushed her carefully formed avatar, forcing her to rely on the very Demon King power she despised to maintain herself.
The other side had done nothing at all, yet her avatar made of pure abyssal darkness almost got kneaded into the surroundings as a Shard. Chloe's heart sank. There was only darkness here, with no trace of dawn's light, leaving her unsure whether this was an anomaly or if she had arrived too late.
"This is darkness… no," she said quietly. "This is him." As realization struck, deeper blood-red light lit up within the blackness, and the sky itself was torn open with Rend. One, two, three, three pairs of eyes opened.
The surroundings seemed to brighten, though it was only an illusion caused by contrast against even deeper darkness. The surrounding blackness swirled inward, with blood-red patterns crawling across it. A gigantic, ferocious dragon head descended, massive like a mountain, its exact shape unclear.
There was no deliberate aura, yet the pressure increased sharply, a trick of ancient instincts. Three pairs of blood-red eyes narrowed slightly. A vast mouth opened like a bottomless abyss, and though no sound came out, a roar like thunder echoed.
"Hey, who are you, miss?" it said. "Are you here to eat too?" Belial leaned closer, curiously examining her. She had horns, which he liked quite a bit. She had come into his body, looked around, and then just stood there, so he wondered what was going on.
While looking, he noticed a small object floating above her head, like a headpiece. It was sharp and spiky, and he wondered if wearing it hurt. "Wait," he said, "why does this thing feel kind of like the aura of those old guys?"
"You are not some sneaky spy, are you?" Thinking of that, Belial moved closer, narrowing his eyes. "Hey, can you understand me? Who are you?" The enormous Great Dragon let out a deafening roar, nearly scattering Chloe's avatar.
The surrounding pressure and atmosphere shifted clearly. It felt like being thrown into blades and flames, the result of open hostility. Chloe could feel that he was staring directly at her Black Iron crown.
This reaction only appeared after she had used Demon King power, and that gave Chloe a bit of hope. Hostility toward the crown meant he likely recognized what it represented, making him an enemy of the same forces. "Good, you are not completely corrupted," she murmured.
"So I am inside his domain," she realized. "No wonder." She raised her hand to show she meant no harm. "Please calm down. I am here to help you."
"If you feel you cannot withstand the gods' corruption much longer, I can absorb part of the power burden," Chloe said. "I can also weaken the walls of this space. When that happens, you can leave, and I will help draw the attention of the god corrupting you."
After quickly explaining her purpose, she saw that the other side remained still, likely considering it. There were no traces of the gods' lunar marks here, so she believed she had arrived in time. Still, she wondered which god was acting, because if it was one of the strongest, her Clone might not buy much time.
At that moment, Chloe sensed a change in the endless darkness. In the distance, a long opening filled with dense spikes tore open with Rend. No, it was not an opening, it was a mouth.
Large amounts of red and black light, along with abyssal darkness, poured in like a tide. Chloe's pupils shrank as she recognized it as one of the gods' methods of corruption. "It is still in the corruption phase?" she thought. "Which god could it be?"
She focused on the incoming power signatures, since each god's power was distinct. Then she froze. There was not just one presence, but many.
That alone was not impossible, since multiple gods working together to corrupt a single existence had happened before, including to her. But the number of distinct presences she could identify was around fifty-seven. "How many?" she whispered.
Her eyes widened, and a sense of danger struck her. In this atmosphere, the gods might notice her presence. "This is bad," she said softly. Several shadows turned their heads, noticing something, their expressions filled with anger or mockery. That pitiful slave, trying to change something, had already come far too late.
Belial was not fully sure about the other party's identity. This one could very well be a spy sent by those old bastards, yet the moment she arrived, he caught her. Still, what if he was wrong?
The thing on her head was far too obvious, and the dark parts that formed her body were even more telling once he looked closely. That was clearly a blend of power from several of those old bastards, though it also seemed mixed with many other things, leaving Belial uncertain. Another factor was that she looked decent enough, and he was shallow like that, plus she struck a full surrender pose the moment she came in, even if he could not understand what she was saying.
Even so, Belial kept the possibility that she was a traitor who turned sides. "Wait."
He suddenly thought of a very good way to tell. "When it's time to eat, I'll leave her exposed and see how those old bastards react. I'll also feed her a bit and see how she reacts. Wouldn't that make it clear?"
Feeling impressed by his own brilliant idea, Belial praised himself for being so smart. If only the shadows throwing a tantrum over the feeding reacted, that meant little, since they had done plenty of stabbing and open fighting before when he watched. If they joined forces to drive off an enemy, then that would be another faction entirely, and the enemy of an enemy could be a friend.
Then he could watch how this little intruder reacted and roughly tell which side she belonged to. "..."
"...This level of corruption. At least dozens of Abyss Crimson God were involved before?"
Chloe was stunned at first. There had never been a case of dozens of Crimson God acting together, and anything more than this only happened back when they tore open a Rift together.
Even she had never received such treatment, so what right did this have to exist? Her face quickly turned ugly. "This is bad. I can't hold this off."
Not only could she not hold it off, she also understood why Dawn was gone. Even if that one had entered, she would likely have been crushed and extinguished by so much darkness. That goddess had been weakening throughout history, and Dawn's faction had long been suppressed and weakened by the Church of Holy Light.
With so many involved, this existence that looked like a Black Dragon could never endure it. This was the mental and willful pollution of dozens of high gods, a complete qualitative crush. No one understood how terrifying this corrosion was better than Chloe, because even wearing the Crown, she could not last long.
With such a massive investment of power, this Black Dragon would fall into madness at the first moment of contact and become their puppet. That could not be allowed. Absolutely not, especially not now, before the Chosen Hero had appeared and before Irene had come into being.
She no longer hid her presence, and the Black Iron crown appeared above her head again, brighter than ever. The barbs inside the Crown made Chloe grunt in pain, her form wavering as black Rend patterns spread across her face. "Hmph. So what if you noticed? Even if I shorten my time by years, I won't let you succeed!"
Several godly avatars around her had already noticed the intruder and mocked her useless struggle, until the Black Iron Crown split open a white Rift. A massive gate spread out in an instant, tearing through the blood-colored space around it.
The Demon King rose into the air, radiant purple light weaving into black-purple wings behind her, revealing pure destruction. A dark purple glow spread as her domain forced itself open and blocked the raging black-red tide, at the cost of a muffled groan as the Abyss darkness forming her body began to collapse.
This Clone was beyond saving. Chloe knew that over the coming decades, all her remaining ability to interfere with the Material World would be exhausted. Her face grew more haggard as she turned to Belial. "I can only hold this for a moment. Go now. I've torn open a Rift."
"I can only do this much. I absolutely won't…"