The Eclipsed Order

Chapter 127: Chapter 127: The Power of a God

Hmm.

Where am I going, anyway?

Ares looked down from the sky as he flew above the mountains, the wind passing quietly around him while the vast landscape stretched endlessly beneath his feet.

He had originally intended to return look around the kingdom.

At least, that had been the plan.

Somehow, however, he had changed direction several times without really paying attention.

"I suppose I’ll decide when I get there."

He shrugged and continued flying.

There wasn’t any particular reason to hurry.

Then, while casually spreading his senses across the surrounding area, he felt something strange.

Ares stopped in midair.

His expression changed slightly.

"...What is that?"

Far in the distance, somewhere beyond the mountains, there was an unfamiliar presence.

It wasn’t particularly strong.

But the energy itself was unmistakable.

Corrupted.

Ares narrowed his eyes.

"That’s the same energy as those creatures."

He had encountered corrupted beings several times recently.

The energy inside them had always been similar, but this was different.

Denser.

More concentrated.

And whatever was producing it was hiding extremely well.

Ares smiled faintly.

"Well, I suppose I’ve found where I’m going."

Without wasting another second, he disappeared from the sky.

Several minutes later, Ares arrived above a massive mountain.

He looked around.

There was nothing unusual at first.

Just cliffs, trees, and several layers of rocky terrain.

But his senses told him otherwise.

"It’s here."

He descended toward the upper section of the mountain.

A large opening was hidden between several enormous rocks, almost completely concealed from anyone approaching from below.

Ares landed in front of it.

The moment his feet touched the ground, he felt the corrupted energy flowing from inside.

"...So this is the source."

He stepped into the cave.

The passage was narrow at first, but after walking for several minutes, it suddenly opened into a massive underground chamber.

Ares stopped.

"Well..."

The place was much larger than he had expected.

The walls had been carved into several interconnected sections, with passages leading deeper into the mountain.

Metal cages were arranged along one side of the chamber.

Inside them were monsters.

Some were unconscious.

Others were chained down, their bodies covered in dark veins and signs of corruption.

Ares’s expression became slightly colder.

He looked around.

"So they’re keeping them here."

Further inside the chamber, several people wearing dark-red robes were gathered around a large stone table.

Their robes were covered with strange markings that extended from the shoulders across their backs and partially around their heads, almost concealing their faces beneath the dark patterns.

One of them was speaking.

"The corruption continues to spread."

Another looked toward the cages.

"The specimens are adapting faster than anticipated."

A third man shook his head.

"That is irrelevant. The important thing is that the special specimen continues to evolve."

"The more it consumes, the greater its growth becomes."

A woman standing near the center of the group spoke quietly.

"At this rate, it is only a matter of time before it becomes a true calamity."

Another nodded.

"Once it reaches the next stage, even the kingdoms will be unable to contain it."

"And when that happens..."

The man smiled.

"We will finally have the weapon we need."

Ares listened from the entrance.

He stared at them for several seconds.

Then he sighed.

"Seriously?"

Every head in the chamber turned.

Ares stood there with one hand behind his head.

"You’re really planning to create a calamity monster?"

Silence.

One of the robed men stared at him.

"Who are you?"

Another immediately drew his weapon.

"How did he get inside?"

The first man pointed toward Ares.

"Kill him."

Several of them immediately raised their hands.

"Darkness that devours the light..."

"Answer the call of the abyss..."

"Let the cursed earth swallow—"

Ares flicked his finger.

The entire chamber shook.

BOOOOM!

A violent wave of black energy erupted from beneath the floor.

The dark-robed men were thrown off balance.

"What?!"

Before any of them could recover, an enormous pressure descended upon the chamber.

Ares’s expression remained completely calm.

A strange shadow spread beneath his feet.

The air itself seemed to become heavier.

One of the men tried to move.

His legs refused to respond.

"W-What is this?!"

Another attempted to cast a spell.

Nothing happened.

Ares raised his hand slightly.

The shadows beneath them twisted.

An invisible force wrapped around every one of the robed men, pressing their bodies toward the ground.

It wasn’t merely restraint.

It felt as though an ocean had been placed above them.

Their bodies trembled under the pressure.

"Ugh..."

"What... kind of power..."

One of them struggled to raise his head.

"This is... gravitational magic..."

Ares looked at him.

"Partly."

He smiled.

"The rest is something you don’t need to understand."

One of the men clenched his teeth.

"Who... are you?"

Ares walked casually toward them.

"And what exactly are you doing in a place like this?"

His gaze moved toward the cages.

"You seem to be scheming something rather unpleasant."

The robed men exchanged desperate glances.

Then one of them suddenly shouted.

"Open the cages!"

Ares stopped.

"...Hmm?"

The man slammed his hand against the stone floor.

A magic circle immediately appeared.

The locks on the cages began opening one after another.

CLANK!

CLANK!

CLANK!

Ares looked around.

"Ah."

He sighed.

"So that’s the plan."

The cages opened completely.

Dozens of corrupted creatures emerged.

They immediately turned toward Ares.

A Blightfang lunged first.

Its body moved with incredible speed, its sharpened senses allowing it to track even the slightest movement.

Ares didn’t move.

The creature’s claws stopped inches from his face.

Ares tilted his head.

Then he raised his hand.

A black blade appeared in his grasp.

The Eclipse Eater.

The relic Draven had given him.

Ares swung once.

SHING!

The Blightfang fell.

A Rotclaw attacked from behind.

Ares turned.

SLASH!

Its corrupted claws were severed before the creature even realized he had moved.

A Blackhide charged directly toward him.

Its massive body shook the ground with every step.

Ares stepped aside.

The creature passed him.

He swung backward.

SHING!

A clean cut opened across its body.

A Bloodmaw rushed from the opposite direction.

Ares disappeared.

Then reappeared behind it.

Another slash.

A Dreadhorn lowered its enormous horns and charged.

Ares sighed.

"You’re all rather persistent."

He vanished again.

The creature passed through empty air.

Then—

Silence.

The corrupted monsters remained frozen in place.

Ares stood among them with his eyes closed.

The robed men stared.

"What...?"

One of them looked around.

Ares opened his eyes.

The world had stopped.

Not completely.

Only within a certain area.

Time itself had been suspended around the creatures.

The monsters were still in the middle of their attacks, but they had become nothing more than motionless statues.

Ares quietly walked between them.

Eclipse Eater moved through his hand.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

He didn’t rush.

There was no need.

Each strike was precise.

Each movement consumed almost no energy.

When he finally stopped, he lowered the sword.

Time resumed.

SLASH.

The creatures fell apart almost simultaneously.

Dozens of bodies collapsed across the chamber.

The dark-robed men stared in horror.

One of them could barely speak.

"I-Impossible..."

Ares turned toward him.

"What?"

"What kind of speed was that?"

Ares smiled faintly.

"Speed? That was a speed of light."

He looked at the fallen creatures.

"I wasn’t moving very quickly."

The man’s expression became even more terrified.

He understood.

Ares hadn’t been moving quickly.

He had simply stopped time.

Ares looked back toward the robed men.

"Now, let’s talk."

One of them trembled.

"You..."

Ares tilted his head.

"I heard everything you were discussing."

His gaze became colder.

"You’re trying to create a calamity monster by feeding humans and monsters to it."

No one answered.

Ares sighed.

"That’s unfortunate."

The man forced a smile.

"You may have defeated those creatures, but you won’t leave this place alive."

Ares raised an eyebrow.

"Is that so?"

"You don’t understand what you’re dealing with."

The man’s smile became increasingly twisted.

"Even if you are stronger than us, there is something here that you cannot defeat."

He raised his hand.

The chamber suddenly shook.

A massive roar echoed from deeper within the mountain.

ROOOOOOOAR!

The sound alone caused dust to fall from the ceiling.

Ares looked toward the darkness.

"...That’s probably it."

The robed man laughed.

"That’s right."

Something enormous emerged from the passage.

Its body was gigantic.

Eight meters tall.

Its shoulders were wider than several people standing side by side, while layers of corrupted flesh covered its entire body.

The creature’s muscles continued shifting beneath its skin.

Even as Ares watched, new masses of flesh slowly formed along its arms and chest.

The man raised both arms proudly.

"Behold!"

The creature took another step.

THOOM.

The ground trembled.

"This is a higher-level corrupted being."

Another step.

THOOM.

"Every time it consumes living creatures, its body grows stronger."

The creature opened its mouth and released another roar.

ROOOOAR!

"We have fed it nearly twenty humans already."

The man laughed.

"Do you understand now? No matter how powerful you are, you cannot defeat something like this!"

Ares looked at the Flesh Titan.

Then at the man.

"Twenty?"

The man’s smile widened.

"Yes."

Ares quietly turned Eclipse Eater in his hand.

"That’s more than enough."

He flicked his finger.

The world changed.

The chamber disappeared.

The mountain disappeared.

The robed men found themselves standing in an endless black space.

There was no ceiling.

No floor.

No horizon.

Only darkness extending in every direction.

Ares floated before them.

The Flesh Titan remained below him, still growling and preparing to attack.

Ares looked down at them.

"Eclipse Infinite Domain."

The words echoed through the darkness.

The robed men looked around in confusion.

"W-Where are we?"

Ares raised one hand.

"Behold."

His voice became strangely calm.

"The power that lies beyond the limits of mortal existence."

The darkness around him began to move.

"Within this domain, the strength you once understood as absolute is nothing more than a fragment of what I possess."

His eyes slowly opened.

"And for every life you sacrificed..."

The darkness behind him expanded.

"...for every human you offered to that creature..."

A massive aura descended.

"...and for every monster you deliberately turned into a tool for your own ambitions..."

The pressure became overwhelming.

"You will experience the weight of those deaths."

The robed men began trembling.

One of them stared at Ares.

"W-What are you saying?"

Ares looked directly at him.

"You wanted to create something that would make others experience fear."

A faint smile appeared.

"So experience it yourselves."

Ares raised his hand.

The darkness changed.

It was no longer the empty void that had surrounded them moments earlier. Something far more terrifying began to emerge from every direction at once, as though the domain itself had awakened and the darkness had become the vessel for an immeasurable amount of power.

The power of the Fifteen-Tailed Fox erupted throughout the domain.

Flames spread across the darkness like an endless sea, their heat distorting the space around them, while enormous pillars of ice formed in the distance before shattering into countless fragments. Lightning descended from above in violent flashes, each strike illuminating the entire domain for an instant before disappearing back into the darkness. Blades of wind tore through the void with enough force to split the surrounding space, while waves of shadow and light intertwined with one another, creating an overwhelming storm of opposing forces.

And that was only the beginning.

Gravity suddenly became distorted.

The space beneath the cultists collapsed inward as an invisible pressure crushed down upon them, while the air around them became unbearably dense. Their bodies were dragged toward the ground, only for another force to violently pull them upward before throwing them through the darkness.

"Wh-What is this?!"

One of the cultists screamed as he desperately tried to cast a defensive spell.

The moment his magic appeared, it was swallowed by the overwhelming energy surrounding them.

"No!"

He raised both hands.

A barrier formed around his body.

For a brief moment, it held.

Then the barrier cracked.

CRACK.

His eyes widened.

"No... impossible..."

The barrier shattered completely.

BOOOOOOM!

A torrent of flames, lightning, and compressed magical energy crashed into the cultists simultaneously.

Their bodies were thrown through the darkness.

They screamed as the immense force tore through them, yet before their consciousness could fade, the domain reconstructed their bodies completely.

The pain did not disappear.

The damage disappeared.

There was a difference.

Their bodies were restored to the exact state they had been in before the attack, while their memories of the pain remained perfectly intact.

Then the next wave came.

There was no time to recover.

No opportunity to escape.

No possibility of dying.

The darkness erupted once again.

KRAAAASH!

Lightning pierced through their bodies.

BOOOOM!

Flames engulfed them.

WHOOOOM!

A crushing wave of gravity slammed them into the ground.

Before they could even understand what had happened, their bodies were restored.

Then it happened again.

And again.

And again.

"STOP!"

One of them screamed desperately.

"PLEASE, STOP!"

His voice was immediately swallowed by another explosion.

BOOOOM!

"I’M SORRY!"

CRAAASH!

"WE’LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING!"

THOOOOM!

Their voices gradually became nothing more than desperate screams echoing throughout the endless domain.

They begged.

They cursed.

They promised to reveal every secret they possessed.

They offered the locations of every laboratory, every member of their organization, every person above them.

None of it mattered.

The domain did not recognize surrender.

It did not recognize mercy.

Every time their bodies reached the point where death should have come, the power of the domain simply returned them to life, restoring every wound while leaving their memories untouched.

They died.

They returned.

They died again.

They returned again.

Hundreds of times.

Perhaps thousands.

Time itself had become meaningless inside the domain.

A single moment of suffering could stretch into what felt like an eternity, while every sensation remained painfully clear.

They couldn’t faint.

They couldn’t lose their minds.

They couldn’t escape into unconsciousness.

Even when their minds desperately sought some way to shut themselves away from the pain, the domain denied them that final refuge.

Ares stood above them in complete silence.

His clothes weren’t even disturbed by the violent storm surrounding him.

The countless forms of energy that filled the domain obeyed him without resistance, moving around his body as though the entire space existed solely according to his will.

He looked down at the cultists.

Their screams echoed beneath him.

Their bodies continued being destroyed and restored.

Yet Ares’s expression remained completely calm.

"You wanted power."

His voice carried effortlessly through the chaos.

"You wanted to turn living beings into nothing more than resources."

The storm intensified behind him.

"You took humans, fed them to monsters, and treated their suffering as nothing more than another step toward your goal."

Ares slowly raised one hand.

The entire domain trembled.

Every form of energy suddenly stopped.

For a single instant, complete silence filled the darkness.

Then Ares looked down at them.

"So now..."

His eyes opened slightly.

"...you will experience what you so casually inflicted upon others."

His hand lowered.

The storm erupted again.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The darkness swallowed their screams.

And the punishment continued.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Until they could no longer distinguish one death from the next.

Eventually, Ares lowered his hand.

The storm disappeared.

The endless darkness faded.

The mountain chamber returned.

The robed men collapsed where they stood.

They were alive.

Barely.

Their bodies were trembling uncontrollably, their breathing ragged and uneven, their minds struggling to comprehend the fact that they were once again standing in the same chamber.

Ares looked at them.

"Hmm."

He tilted his head.

"That was quite a view."

No one answered.

They couldn’t.

Ares laughed.

A loud, genuine laugh echoed throughout the chamber.

"HAHAHAHA!"

The remaining robed men flinched at the sound.

Ares approached them slowly.

"Do you want more?"

They immediately shook their heads.

"N-No..."

"Please..."

"We’ll tell you everything..."

Ares stopped in front of one of them.

"Everything?"

"Yes..."

The man’s voice trembled.

"We’ll tell you... everything..."

Ares crouched down.

"Then let’s see what you know."

He placed two fingers against the man’s forehead.

The man’s eyes widened.

"W-Wait..."

"AAAAAAARGH."

Ares entered his mind.

Images began appearing.

Laboratories.

Transport routes.

Hidden facilities.

Groups of people wearing the same dark-red robes.

Experiments.

Human captives.

Monster specimens.

And behind all of it, a much larger organization.

Ares slowly withdrew his hand.

"So there are more of you."

The man stared at him.

"Please..."

Ares looked around the chamber.

"You’re not simply researchers."

He glanced toward the cages.

"You’re a cult."

The man swallowed.

"We... serve the higher ones..."

"I see."

Ares stood.

"Then I’ll deal with them later."

The man’s expression changed.

"Later...?"

Ares smiled.

"For now, you still have something to experience."

The man immediately panicked.

"W-Wait!"

Ares flicked his finger.

Space folded around the surviving cultists.

A separate dimension opened beneath them.

They disappeared into it.

Their screams immediately echoed from within.

"NO!"

"PLEASE!"

"SPARE US!"

Ares calmly watched.

Inside that isolated space, the cultists would remain alive for ten days.

They would be hunted by the creatures they had helped create.

Their bodies would recover whenever they were injured.

Their minds would remain completely awake.

They would neither die nor lose consciousness.

Every wound would heal.

Every cycle would begin again.

Ares looked at the dimensional prison.

"Ten days."

He smiled faintly.

"After that, we’ll see what remains of your courage."

The dimensional space closed.

The screams faded into silence.

Ares turned away.

He looked through the remaining sections of the underground facility.

There were more cages.

More equipment.

More evidence.

He walked slowly through the corridors.

"So this place wasn’t just a laboratory."

He stopped before another chamber.

Several empty cages stood inside.

Ares’s expression darkened.

"They were raising monsters..."

He looked toward the discarded restraints.

"...and feeding them humans."

He remained silent for a moment.

Then he sighed.

"Well."

A faint smile returned.

"At least I avenged them."

Ares looked down at his hand.

He could still feel the immense power he had released.

"Using that much power..."

He flexed his fingers.

"Even if it was only around twenty percent, feeling it directly is still something else."

He looked toward the dark ceiling.

Ares laughed quietly.

"So I really am a god now, aren’t I?"

He shook his head.

"That’s going to take some getting used to."

With that, Ares turned toward the deeper part of the facility.

There were still more rooms to search.

And judging from what he had already seen...

This place was only one piece of something much larger.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!