The nine hundred and ninety-nine skulls spotted Belasco and, without a word, rushed straight at his back.
Belasco was fully focused on unleashing his trump card and had no attention to spare for his surroundings. Besides, he had never imagined anyone would ambush him. This was his home turf, his territory.
As a result, the first few skulls slipped into Belasco's body without any trouble.
"What's going on?"
Belasco's expression changed, and he hurriedly tried to draw on the Hell Frontier's power. Just then, the Hell Projection Array turned against him, interfering with his connection and preventing him from drawing on that power.
Immediately afterward, all the remaining skulls plunged into Belasco's body. His body rapidly swelled into irregular shapes, like an enormous sack about to burst.
"Aah!"
Belasco let out a piercing scream. Gritting his teeth, he mustered all his power to suppress the skulls inside him.
Unfortunately, his attempt failed. Moments later, a swarm of skulls flew out of Belasco's body, many of them carrying a bone in their mouths.
Stripped of all his bones, Belasco collapsed to the ground like a rag. Just then, a space channel appeared out of nowhere, and Mephisto flew through from the other side and plunged into Belasco's body.
Mephisto quickly seized complete control of Belasco's body. Rising to his feet, he laughed heartily. "The Hell Frontier is mine! Thank you, Belasco."
In the Divine Kingdom.
Mephisto suddenly withdrew all the Shadows of Evil. Marduk's and Belasco's expressions changed dramatically at the same time. Deprived of part of its power, the phantom image became extremely unstable and threatened to collapse at any moment.
"Mephisto, what are you doing?" Marduk roared in shock and fury.
"Backstabbing you, of course. What else?"
Mephisto laughed and vanished into the space channel. Immediately afterward, all the