WorldCrafter - Building My Underground Kingdom-Chapter 259: Ben True Powers

The moment Belial’s eyes landed on the pickaxe, his confident expression turned into real shock.

Ben grinned and felt a rush of satisfaction. "Not so confident now, are you?

So what if I don’t understand your authority, I’ll just cut through it with brute force."

He poured his dark aether into the pickaxe’s blade.

Energy crackled around it.

Dark lightning ran along the edge.

The Empyrean Pickaxe trembled in his hands as if it was excited, responding to his power.

Belial quickly summoned another maze of illusions.

Copies of himself appeared in every direction.

Ben did not slow down.

He swung the pickaxe down with a roar and released a crescent-shaped wave of dark aether that tore through every illusion at once.

BOOM.

Belial was thrown backward.

He blocked with crossed arms and slammed into the wall behind him.

The wall shattered into rubble.

Blood dripped from his lips.

For the first time, he looked honestly troubled.

"You... that pickaxe..." Belial growled and forced himself upright.

He glared at Ben. "You think a mere tool can overcome my authority?"

Ben did not give him time to recover.

He rushed forward again.

He swung the Empyrean Pickaxe over and over.

Each strike carved deep cracks into space itself.

Every illusion Belial tried to summon broke the instant it formed, leaving Belial exposed.

"You’re the one who said strength alone wasn’t enough," Ben said.

His eyes were firm. "But it looks like your authority cannot stand against real power."

Belial snarled and sent out waves of illusory blades and chains to block him.

None of them lasted.

The Empyrean Pickaxe shattered them all as if they were made of glass. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Desperation appeared in Belial’s eyes as Ben finally closed in.

Ben let out a fierce cry and swung down with all his strength.

The blow was so strong that it tore the air open.

Belial answered with a savage roar that did not sound human.

Dark aether exploded out of his body.

His illusion barrier shattered like thin glass under the impact.

The released power knocked Ben backward.

He slid to a stop and raised his arm to shield his face from the blinding torrent of energy.

Belial’s elegant, human-like body twisted.

His limbs stretched and bent.

His skin split and peeled away, revealing hard, chitinous armor under it.

His back arched and huge insect wings burst out.

They buzzed with a loud, harsh sound that filled the air.

His handsome face warped into something monstrous.

Mandibles pushed out of his jaws.

His eyes multiplied into hundreds of red, gleaming facets.

The mansion around them collapsed and vanished into darkness.

That darkness moved and reshaped itself.

The surroundings twisted into a strange dimension of shifting mirrors and maze-like corridors.

"This is my true power." Belial’s voice sounded deeper and distorted.

His insect wings vibrated and tore at the air. "Behold the absolute authority, Endless Labyrinth of Reflections."

Ben steadied himself and tightened his grip on the Empyrean Pickaxe.

His eyes burned with focus.

He looked around and understood that he was trapped inside Belial’s personal domain.

Illusion and reality mixed together.

Mirrors multiplied in all directions.

Each surface reflected Belial’s insect form from many angles.

Belial’s monstrous body blurred and moved through the warped space at great speed.

A dozen copies of him appeared and circled Ben.

Each one felt real.

Ben swung the pickaxe again and again.

He shattered one Belial after another, but every destroyed figure reformed right away.

He felt claws rake across his back without warning.

He spun on instinct and slammed the pickaxe into empty air.

There was nothing there.

Blood ran down his back.

Pain spread across his skin.

Belial laughed.

The sound was harsh and buzzing, echoing from every direction. "In my realm, you are powerless.

Can you tell truth from illusion now?"

Ben forced his breathing to calm.

He pushed his dark aether harder.

He ignored the pain and closed his eyes.

He focused on the flows of energy around him.

Illusions could fool his eyes, but with dark aether he believed he could still sense the real body.

He still did not fully understand how Belial had escaped his senses before.

But with the Empyrean Pickaxe gathering and focusing the dark aether, he could now track Belial’s presence.

Compared to Apophis, Belial’s authority was not as overwhelming.

Without warning, Ben turned and slashed the pickaxe through seemingly empty space.

CRACK.

BAM.

Green blood sprayed through the air.

Belial screamed in real pain and pulled back at once.

"You... how?" he hissed.

His twisted face shook with rage.

"I told you," Ben said.

His eyes snapped open.

They were filled with hard resolve. "I don’t care about your illusions.

I’ll cut through everything you have, no matter how deep your labyrinth is."

Belial’s fury spiked.

He called up a storm of mirror-like shards.

Each shard was charged with deadly dark energy.

Thousands of shards shot toward Ben from every angle.

Ben let out a roar and spun the Empyrean Pickaxe around his body.

Dark aether flowed out and formed a whirling barrier.

The shards hit the spinning aura and shattered.

Many of them bounced back toward Belial.

But as they reached him, his figure melted into the reflections again.

His real body stayed hidden.

The mirrors around Ben stretched and moved.

They shifted into an endless corridor lined with reflections of him.

Ben stared for a moment.

Each reflection showed a twisted, nightmarish version of himself that silently mocked him.

"Lost, confused, trapped," Belial’s warped voice said from the shadows. "You cannot escape my domain."

Ben’s eyes went cold. "What a waste of time," he thought.

He lifted the Empyrean Pickaxe high above his head.

He gathered all the dark aether he could into a single point.

"Let’s end this," Ben shouted, and brought the pickaxe down with all his strength. "Shatter."

The impact sent out a massive wave of energy.

It spread through the space and destroyed mirror after mirror.

Belial’s warped dimension split apart.

Cracks in reality opened and spread.

Through those cracks, Belial’s true body appeared.

He was retreating in panic, bleeding.

His insect form was badly damaged and exposed.

Fear filled Belial’s many eyes as Ben walked toward him.

The Empyrean Pickaxe glowed with dark light and raw power overflowed from it.

"Nowhere left to hide, Belial," Ben yelled.

He raised the pickaxe again. "Now choose, die or submit."

"No. I will never be imprisoned again. Ever."

Belial’s voice shook with panic.

His energy rose in a sharp spike.

His body began to swell like a balloon.

"He’s going to blow himself up here?" Ben thought.

This was a serious problem.

They were still above the city.

Until now, most of the damage had been limited to Belial’s domain.

But if Belial really exploded with all that power, half the city would be destroyed with him.