WorldCrafter - Building My Underground Kingdom-Chapter 194: Ben Decision

Chapter 194: Ben Decision

Lightning cracked across the shattered ground as the knight attaacked. His blade cleaved the air like a thunderbolt, divine energy trailing in its wake, aimed straight for Apophis’s neck.

She didn’t move. Not at first. Then, with the ease of a falling leaf, she tilted her head.

SWOOSH!

The blade missed by a breath. Apophis’s hand flicked outward,

BOOM!

Black liquid surged up from the cracks beneath them, slamming into the knight like a tidal wave. He raised his sword just in time, lightning exploding in a dome around him, the two forces clashing with a screech of pressure that cracked the stone beneath.

Ben stumbled back from the shockwave, eyes wide. The entire airspace trembled from the collision of divine force and abyssal magic.

The knight roared. “I won’t let you corrupt him!”

His feet burned with holy fire as he kicked off the ground again, lightning spiraling down his blade. He struck from above, a meteor of divine fury.

But Apophis raised a single hand. The sky darkened.

CLANG!

His blade stopped cold.

A wall of pure darkness had formed between them, no, not a wall. A veil. rippling like oil on water, pulsing with faces screaming inside it.

Apophis smiled.

“I’m not here to fight, little sword,” she whispered.

Then the veil exploded outward in a shockwave of shadow. The knight was blasted back, tumbling across the broken ground, but he twisted midair, digging his blade into the stone to slow himself. Sparks flew.

He wasn’t done. “Ben, move!” he shouted.

He charged again, faster this time. His body shimmered as sacred runes etched themselves across his armor. Wings of lightning burst from his back, turning him into a streak of gold.

Apophis’s smile finally faded, She raised both arms.

The ground howled.

Dozens, hundreds, of black tendrils erupted like spears from the earth, each one moving unnaturally, weaving, coiling, reaching to crush the incoming knight.

He sliced through the first ten. Then the next. Lightning scorched a path through them, but they kept coming, too many, too fast.

Apophis stepped forward, raising her voice. “You weren’t made to protect him. You were made to keep him blind.”

The knight broke through the tendrils just as one of them wrapped around his leg. He twisted midair, cleaved it, and finally brought his blade down with a cry of fury.

Apophis caught it, With one hand. The impact cratered the ground beneath them. Energy surged like a localized storm, flattening the terrain in a ten-meter radius. But her feet never moved.

Their eyes locked, and she pushed. The knight went flying, crashing into a ridge of bone with a sickening crunch.

Ben stared, frozen. She turned to him again. Crimson eyes calm, voice low. “You see now, Ben? Even your sword fears the truth.”

Ben didn’t answer.

Across the battlefield, the knight groaned, rising shakily from the broken bones. His armor sparked with damaged runes. One of his pauldrons had shattered, and blood leaked from a crack in his side.

Still, he stood, he clutched his blade. Apophis didn’t strike again. She didn’t need to. Instead, she took a step toward Ben.

“I’m not your enemy, Ben,” she said. “You were never their hero. You were their tool.”

She extended her hand.

“Come with me. Let me show you what they’ve hidden. All the truths they buried. The seals. The failed experiments. The others like you.”

Ben’s breath caught. ‘Others like him?’

She saw the flicker in his eyes and pressed on.

“You want freedom?” Her voice was a whisper. “I can give it to you. Not through chains of evolution or tasks from some faceless system. True freedom. The power to choose your path. With your own will.”

Behind him, the knight staggered forward, dragging his blade, teeth clenched.

“Don’t… listen to her…!” he growled, barely standing.

But Apophis didn’t even glance back.

“The choice is yours, Ben.” Her hand remained outstretched. “I won’t force you. That’s their way. Not mine.”

The battlefield was silent. Only the wind moved, carrying ash, carrying tension. Ben stood confused.

But The silence didn’t last. The knight roared, pure rage, raw pain, and lightning exploded from his body in a violent arc.

The ground cracked beneath him as he charged again, this time not with precision, but fury. The air hissed and screamed as divine energy surged like a collapsing star.

Apophis lowered her hand, her gaze hardening. “So be it.”

The sky howled.

A tidal wave of black water burst from beneath her feet, spiraling around her like a vortex of despair. Space bent, the very color of the world bleeding away as reality warped around her.

Ben stepped back instinctively, shielding his eyes as the two titans collided.

BOOM!

The impact shattered the land. The knight’s blade slammed into Apophis’s infernal flame with such force it carved a trench behind him. He pushed forward, wings of lightning roaring behind his back like the wrath of heaven.

Apophis countered with a palm strike. Just a simple motion, but it bent gravity, warping the space around it.

CLANG!

Steel met void. Sparks scattered like shooting stars. She spun, dark tendrils spiraling from her back like a cloak. They lashed at the knight, one wrapping around his leg, another slamming into his chest and sending him skidding across the crater’s edge.

But he didn’t fall. He slammed his blade into the ground, stood, and roared. “You lying bitch!”

Ben watched, heart pounding, as their powers clashed again. ‘So this is the system true power…’

Right now he doesn’t even consider which side to choose, instead he was awed by the level of strength they exert.

The knight attacked again, this time with his entire body covered in radiant script, his voice echoing with the power of a battle prayer long forgotten.

Apophis raised her hand, too slow.

CRACK!

His blade pierced her shoulder, divine lightning ripping through the wound. Blood spilled, not red, but silver-black, glowing like the void between stars.

She didn’t scream, She smiled. And with her other hand, she gripped the blade in her flesh and whispered: “That’s enough.”

A pulse of abyssal power detonated around her like a collapsing star. The knight was flung away, far, far away, vanishing into the distance like a meteor shot from the heavens.

The world fell still. Apophis turned her gaze back to Ben, blood dripping down her pale skin, evaporating into shadow as it touched the ground.

“He’ll be back.” She exhaled slowly. “And next time, I won’t be this merciful.”

Her hand extended again, steady despite the blood.

“So whats your answer Ben?”