WorldCrafter - Building My Underground Kingdom-Chapter 212: Unexpected

Chapter 212: Unexpected

The love Ben felt was real, but not romantic. It was like spotting a rare, legendary character in a game, something powerful, unique, and meant to be his.

That feeling alone was why he made this choice. Otherwise, he would’ve just drained her dark aether dry and left her sealed here forever.

Apophis let out a dry laugh. Her eyes narrowed. “You think you can beat me here? Now?”

“Yes,” Ben replied, his lips curling into a grin.

“You’re panicking, aren’t you? Your focus is split. You’re busy dealing with the system. Otherwise, why even bother talking to me at all?”

Apophis’s aura flared.

In the next instant, she moved, attacking without another word. But her power was completely suppressed now, her strength heavily nerfed.

Dark liquid trailing behind her fists as she struck. But each of her attacks missed, slicing through empty air as Ben effortlessly dodged.

“You’ve slowed down,” he teased, sidestepping another blow and watching as her fist passed harmlessly by his cheek. “I expected more from you.”

She snarled in frustration, her attacks growing wilder.

“You dare mock me?!” Apophis roared, launching a sweeping kick. But Ben merely jumped lightly, landing behind her.

“No,” Ben said calmly, his voice almost gentle. “I’m just stating the obvious.”

Apophis spun around, eyes blazing with fury, but the power around her dimmed even further.

“You’re running out of strength,” Ben pointed out. “How long can you fight on two fronts? Admit it, you’re losing control.”

Her shoulders trembled slightly, betraying her exhaustion. “Silence!” she snapped, but the word lacked force.

Ben smiled knowingly. “This fight’s already over. You just haven’t accepted it yet.”

Apophis’s eyes burned with anger. Her silhouette blurred as dark wings erupted from her back, lashing out like whips.

“I’ll tear you apart!” she screamed.

She rushed him again, faster, fiercer, her fists cloaked in dark energy, her strikes relentless. A barrage of blows came from all directions, each one strong enough to pulverize stone.

But Ben moved . He slipped through the gaps, weaving between her attacks without ever losing that calm grin.

She hurled a chain of black liquid that twisted like a serpent, Ben twisted with it, ducking under, brushing past her shoulder. Her wings swept in, aiming to slice him in half, but he leapt above them, flipping midair, landing behind her with barely a sound.

“Still missing,” Ben said, brushing dust from his sleeve.

“SHUT UP!” Apophis shrieked. Her voice cracked as tendrils of pure aether shoot out from her back, lancing toward him like a dozen spears.

Ben raised one hand. A veil of dark aether pulsed outward, and the tendrils shattered before they could reach him.

“You’re strong,” he admitted, stepping forward, dark light gathering in his eyes. “But this place, it was built to restrain you. Not me.”

Apophis clenched her fists, trembling. Her breath came fast, uneven.

“And every second you fight me here… the system tightens its grip on your true body.”

He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in.

“Keep going, if you want. But you’re not breaking free.”

Apophis roared and charged again, blind with rage, just as he wanted. Ben met her charge head-on this time.

Dark aether surged from his body like a tide, clashing with her mid-air. The impact sent a shockwave rippling across the space, cracking its surface further and launching debris skyward.

Apophis’s fist crashed toward his skull. Ben caught it.

The force pushed him back, his feet carving trails into the broken stone, but he didn’t flinch. His grip tightened, and with a grunt, he twisted her wrist and flung her over his shoulder. She slammed into the ground, carving a deep trench through the obsidian.

She bounced once, flipped midair, and landed on her feet, only to meet Ben’s boot in the gut. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

BOOM!

Her body launched backward, tearing through a jagged spire. Dark aether erupted as she righted herself mid-air, letting out a shriek of rage. Chains burst from her back, thousands of them, writhing like serpents.

Ben’s eyes narrowed. “Now that’s more like it.”

He raised his hand. Dozens of appendage come out from his basck. As the chains converged, they struck with appendage and shattered, each one bursting into flickers of dust.

Then Ben dashed forward, his figure a blur. Apophis barely had time to block.

CRACK!

His elbow smashed into her jaw, then he spun low, sweeping her legs out from under her. As she fell, he opened his hand, dark aether gathered in his palm.

She barely rolled aside before it exploded, the ground behind her vaporizing into a crater.

Still on the defensive, Apophis raised her arms, forming a fiery shield.

Ben punched through it. The shield cracked like glass, and his fist crashed into her chest, sending her flying again.

“Just give up,” he called out, walking toward her fallen form, “you won’t regret coming under me.”

She snarled, rising again, one wing bent, one eye glowing dimmer than before.

“I won’t lose to someone like you,” she spat. “You weakling.”

Ben suddenly appeared right in front of her.

“I’m not a weakling,” he said calmly, before slamming his forehead into hers.

THUD.

Apophis staggered back, dazed. “I’m the one who claimed you.”

And with that, he raised both hands, dark aether coalescing into a chain.

Apophis screamed, her aura flaring wildly, but the symbol didn’t stop descending. It pressed downward, slow and unstoppable, like judgment itself.

Ben’s eyes locked on hers. “You’re mine now.”

The battlefield trembled. Apophis’s body trembled seeing the chain, her teeth grit, her knees buckled, her aura flickering like a dying flame.

But then, all at once… she stopped. Her eyes widened, She smiled.

The aura around her shifted, turning deep, starless black, flecked with gold veins like cracks in the night. The space around her begin to cvrack.

“Finally,” she whispered. “Finally.”

Ben’s pupils contracted. He took a half step back.

“…What did you just do?”

Apophis raised her eyes, filled with contempt..

“You’re very easy to guess, Ben,” she said, rising to her full height “You overestimate the sytem.”

A flash of understanding stabbed through Ben’s mind. The system, its hold on her, it was gone. In the space of their fight, Apophis had subdued it completely.

The Empyrean crystal trembled violently, cracks spiderwebbing outward in midair. The sky above shattered again, and a storm of aether raged around them.

Her voice echoed like a bell of judgment. “You’re not the master anymore.”

Then she moved.

BOOM!

Ben barely raised his arms before her fist collided with him, the impact launching him through the air like a missile. He asked in disbelief, “So You eat the system?”

Apophis appeared above him like a shadow eclipsing the stars.

BAm!

A heel drop slammed into his stomach, pinning him into the stone, which cratered beneath the blow. Before he could recover, a torrent of black liquid descended, swallowing him whole. The liquid warped space itself.

Ben burst out with a shockwave of dark aether, gasping for air, but she was already there, waiting.

A chained spear pierced his shoulder, then another stabbed through his thigh..

“Now it’s time…,” she said, eyes glowing like twin suns, “for you to pay for your foolishness. Know your place mortal.”

She raised both hands, dark aether begin gathering as the space cracked further.

Ben gritted his teeth, eyes flashing.

“…You wanted a fight?”

His dark aether flared wildly, forming a second skin of blazing runes around his body. Blood ran from his mouth, but he stood anyway.

“Then come and get it.”

Even now, Ben didn’t buy it.

There was no way Apophis had beaten the system that easily.

In his mind, it was far more likely she was faking this burst of power, bluffing her way into dominance.

The system wasn’t something that could be crushed mid-battle. It had layers, failsafes. Contingency after contingency.

He remembered what happened the last time he tried to seize control. ‘It tried to self-destruct.’

Meanwhile, outside, The knight’s eyes widened as his grip tightened around his sword.

Apophis’s main body was shrinking, collapsing in on itself at high speed. The chains wrapped around it strained to keep hold, clinging stubbornly even as the form distorted.

All of its eyes were closed, except one. That lone golden eye glowed fiercely, locked directly onto the knight.

His instincts screamed. The system was doing something.

‘No, preparing something.’

It felt like it was gathering every last drop of power, to unleash one final, desperate act of defiance. And it was looking right at him.

‘What is it planning now? Another self-detonation? Or something worse?’

Then, a blast of light. A golden beam erupted from the eye, searing across the battlefield. The knight leapt aside, barely dodging, but this time, the beam followed.

It twisted in the air like it was alive, chasing him, curving behind him like a guided missile.

It twisted in the air like it was alive, curving behind him like a guided missile locked to his soul.

The knight gritted his teeth and pushed his speed, darting across the crumbling sky, but the beam closed in faster. And then he realized, This beam was different. It wasn’t tearing through space like the others.

There was no law of Destruction inside it. If anything… It was, lined with system code, its edges flickering with glyphs