During these rare naps, Belial remained unaware that his own body had begun to change further. The ice elements he had absorbed were now part of him.
His dorsal spines, hidden beneath frost, began to glow with a faint icy-blue light, pulsing in sync with his breathing. And yet, he noticed none of it.
As the outer crystal formations in the cave started to run out, he slowly worked his way toward the center, toward the shard.
The magic in the air was growing thicker. The cold became sharper, heavier, like something was pressing against him. And he felt it. The pull.
It wasn't logical. It wasn't something he thought through. His body simply wanted that shard. It was a hunger, not mental, but physical. A biological craving.
Like how Godzilla is drawn toward radiation, or how his kind hungers for mushrooms in moments of instinct. He was being pulled toward it, no question.
But there was a problem. "How am I supposed to get there?" he muttered.
His gaze locked onto the shard again, but the black chains around it formed a tight web, an obvious trap wrapped in mystery.
The first thing that bothered him was how strange and solid this black chain was. Its material was unknown, but it felt unbreakable. He grabbed it with his massive claw and squeezed hard, hard enough to crush a mountain, but nothing happened.
The chain didn't snap or even bend. Even though he hadn't used his full strength, this was Godzilla's power. Steel or any alloy would've crumbled like tofu in his grip, so why didn't this chain even flinch?
Frustrated, he activated the Space Claw. Crackles filled the air as magical lightning burst from his claw in small explosions, lighting up the space, but still, the black chain didn't move.
What the hell was this thing made of? It felt like something on par with Mecha G's armor.
Boom!
Belial opened his mouth, and his throat began glowing with that familiar blue-white energy, the kind that promised nothing but destruction.
From the spikes at his tailbone to the horns on his head, every dorsal fin lit up with a brilliance that even the thickest ice couldn't hide.
A deep humming noise, like a nuclear reactor warming up, echoed through the cave. A low-powered radiation ray shot straight at the chain. The energy surge nearly blew apart the entire cavern.
The sudden heat turned the coldest parts of the ice cave into an inferno. Even the ice that was harder than steel vaporized in a flash.
As he closed his mouth, thick white steam rolled from both sides of his jaw that was the water vapor boiling off from the intense heat.
Crystals had already started forming on the nearby stone walls, barely holding the cave together. But Belial wasn't paying attention to any of that.
His eyes were locked on the chain he'd just blasted. Still intact. Still untouched. Not a single scratch. "What is this thing made of?" he growled.
It wasn't just durable, it had insane resistance to heat too. It didn't even react to the extreme environment around it. If Mecha G had been built from this stuff, things might've gone very differently.
He turned his attention back to the shard imprisoned by the chain. That ice-blue fragment in the center, it was right there. But his claws were too big to reach in and pull it out. The outside was a mess now, but the space inside the chains was perfectly preserved.
This wasn't some ordinary seal. The chain clearly had some ability to block the outside world, maybe even neutralize physical attacks altogether. And that was driving him crazy.
The prize was right in front of him, so close, and yet completely out of reach. The more he stared, the more furious he became.
"..."
Then, he tried something else. He triggered a gravitational tornado, aiming to pull the shard straight out.
Invisible tendrils of gravity spread out from him like phantom limbs, creeping into every small gap the chain couldn't seal off.
Clatter...
The chain trembled slightly. Just for a moment. And that was enough to get his hopes up.
That movement, he felt it. Which meant gravity could affect it! That little shake proved it wasn't entirely immune.
Excitement surged through him. If it could be touched by gravity, then there was a way to break it.
With both claws gripping the chain, he pushed his gravitational tornado to the limit. This time, no holding back.
The power he unleashed was enough to shake the entire mountain, an avalanche rumbled somewhere outside, but Belial didn't care. Even if the mountain collapsed on him, it wouldn't matter.
This was the full force of Space Godzilla's power, focused through his hands. It was strong enough to toss around Heisei G like a ragdoll. And now, all that strength was concentrated on a chain barely as thick as one of his claws.
Finally, something changed. The chain started trembling harder, like it was finally feeling the pressure. The material forming it flickered slightly, as if whatever made it was becoming unstable.
Belial narrowed his eyes and ramped up the force again, compressing the gravitational field tighter and tighter. The air around him distorted. Space itself rippled like disturbed water, faint ghostly wails echoing in the air.
The gravitational force wasn't just shaking one chain anymore, now, all of them were starting to vibrate together. As the gravitational force compressed into a single, sharp point, Belial felt it, faint, but real.
The chain flickered like it had gotten stuck between his claws. Sensing he was close to the breakthrough, he poured in more energy, pushing the gravitational tornado's limits even further.
The gravity focused tighter and tighter on a single spot along the chain. And as anyone knew, when gravity becomes too strong in one point, something terrifying can form, not that Belial could actually create that... yet. But this much was enough.
Bang!!!
"Got it!" With a sound like bursting bubbles, the black chain finally shattered in his claws. All the others broke apart at the same time.
But there was no time to celebrate.
Without the chains binding it anymore, a surge of ancient, frozen energy exploded out, freezing Belial in an instant. A thick, heavy layer of ice sealed over his body.
Just moments ago, the mountain cave had been scorched by radiation and heat, but now it was back to being an icy tomb. And not just any ice, this was the kind that had built up over countless years, buried deep and never released... until now.