The Eclipsed Order

Chapter 217: Chapter 218: The Power of the Eclipse

The following morning, Ares left early.

There was no need to inform anyone about where he was going. The agreement with the Awakening Association had already been settled, and the Seoul S-Rank Gate was now effectively under his control.

He entered the dungeon alone.

The moment he crossed the Gate, the familiar distortion of space disappeared behind him, replaced by the enormous world hidden beyond the dimensional boundary.

By then, Ares was already flying high above the dungeon.

Ares looked toward the shadow beneath him.

"You can come out now."

The darkness beneath his feet moved.

A faint crimson glow appeared within it.

Then the figure of a young woman gradually emerged from his shadow.

She landed beside him and immediately looked around.

The former Abyssal Broodmother had completely abandoned her monstrous appearance.

She now possessed the appearance of a young girl, with long black hair falling around her shoulders, pale skin, crimson eyes, and subtle markings around her eyes that still hinted at her true nature.

She looked around the sky for a moment before turning toward Ares.

"Master."

Ares glanced at her.

"So?"

The girl tilted her head slightly.

"So?"

Ares crossed his arms.

"What exactly are you plotting?"

The girl immediately became nervous.

"Plotting?"

"Yeah."

Ares looked at her calmly.

"You’re supposed to be one of the four bosses ruling this dungeon, yet when we first met, you surrendered without even attempting to fight me seriously."

He paused.

"That doesn’t strike me as something someone in your position would normally do."

The girl’s expression became slightly awkward.

"T-That’s..."

She lowered her gaze.

"How could I fight someone like you?"

Ares raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"My instincts."

She looked back at him.

"They were warning me from the moment I saw you."

Her expression became serious.

"I couldn’t sense your power properly. To me, you appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary human, yet every instinct I possessed was telling me that you were dangerous."

She hesitated.

"I have lived inside this dungeon for a very long time, Master. I’ve encountered countless powerful monsters, including creatures that could easily destroy entire armies."

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"But I’ve never experienced that kind of instinctive fear before."

She lowered her head.

"So how could I possibly fight you?"

Ares remained silent for a moment.

Then he nodded.

"Seems like you’re telling the truth."

The Broodmother quietly exhaled in relief.

Ares looked at her.

"You said you’d work for me, didn’t you?"

A faint smile appeared on his face.

"Yes."

Her answer came immediately.

"Yes, I did."

She placed one hand against her chest.

"I’ll serve you for the rest of my life, Master."

"Good."

Ares nodded.

"Then there’s something I want to ask you."

The Broodmother straightened.

"Of course."

"Do you know why you’re here?"

She blinked.

"You mean why I was brought here?"

"Yes."

The girl looked toward the enormous landscape below them.

"About that..."

She thought for several seconds.

"I don’t know who brought me here."

Ares’s expression became slightly more serious.

"Explain what happened."

"I was inside my chamber."

She looked down.

"I remember sitting near the center of my territory, surrounded by my offspring. Nothing unusual was happening."

She paused.

"Then suddenly, everything went dark."

Ares listened carefully.

"When I opened my eyes again, I was here."

She gestured toward the surrounding landscape.

"I was standing in this dungeon, but it wasn’t my territory anymore."

"You weren’t transported through a Gate?"

"No."

She shook her head.

"I didn’t see anything. There was no portal, no spell, and no warning."

Ares narrowed his eyes.

"Then you don’t know who brought you here."

"No."

She looked slightly troubled.

"I don’t even know why I was chosen."

Ares remained silent.

Then he asked another question.

"What about the other three?"

The Broodmother thought for a moment.

"I can only feel two of them."

"Only two?"

"Yes."

She looked toward the distant regions.

"The Behemoth and the World-Eater Serpent."

Ares nodded.

"And the dragon?"

The Broodmother’s expression changed slightly.

"The dragon is different."

"What do you mean?"

"I saw her wandering outside my territory about a month ago."

Ares’s eyes narrowed.

"She left her chamber?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I don’t know."

The Broodmother shook her head.

"She simply wandered through the eastern region for a while before eventually returning."

"Did she attack anything?"

"No."

"Did she communicate with anyone?"

"Not that I know of."

Ares considered that.

"She simply left her territory and returned?"

"Yes."

She paused.

"I found it strange too."

Ares looked toward the distant horizon.

"Hmm."

For several seconds, he remained silent.

Then he spoke.

"Anyway, we’ll be clearing this place now."

The Broodmother’s eyes widened.

"Clearing?"

"Yes."

She looked at him.

"Does that mean you’re going to kill the other three?"

"Yeah."

Ares answered casually.

The Broodmother stared at him.

For several seconds, she didn’t say anything.

Then she quietly sighed.

"I see."

Ares glanced at her.

"You have something to say?"

"No."

She shook her head quickly.

"Nothing."

Ares narrowed his eyes slightly.

The Broodmother gave an awkward smile.

"Although..."

She hesitated.

"I can understand now why my instincts were telling me to surrender."

Ares raised an eyebrow.

She looked toward him.

"Even I couldn’t sense your true power when we first met. In my perception, you appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary human."

She gave a nervous laugh.

"I’m honestly glad I didn’t attack you seriously."

Ares sighed.

’Because after what happened yesterday...:

Her expression became slightly uncomfortable.

’I think my soul still remembers it.’

Ares looked at her.

"What was that for?"

The Broodmother froze.

"Eek!"

She immediately waved both hands.

"N-Nothing, Master."

Ares stared at her.

She smiled nervously.

"Everything is perfectly fine."

Ares sighed again.

"Let’s just go."

"Yes, Master."

---

Several hours later, the two finally reached the western region.

The landscape changed gradually as they approached.

The forests disappeared.

The smaller mountains became larger.

The ground became increasingly uneven, with enormous ridges of stone extending toward the horizon.

Then Ares stopped.

The Broodmother looked ahead.

At first, she didn’t understand why.

Then she saw it.

The Behemoth.

It was sleeping.

At least, that was what it appeared to be doing.

The enormous creature was lying across an entire mountain range, its colossal body extending farther than either of them could see at first glance.

Ares had already seen its information through True Sight.

But seeing it directly was different.

The scale was overwhelming.

The creature’s body was approximately three hundred meters long, while its massive frame rose nearly one hundred and eighty meters above the ground at its highest point.

Its entire body was covered in stone-like armor.

Enormous plates overlapped across its back, each one resembling a mountain of its own.

Ares remained silent.

The Broodmother stared.

"Now that I see it for the first time..."

She swallowed.

"I can understand why you said this creature was dangerous."

Ares looked toward her.

The Broodmother’s expression became serious.

"I don’t think I could defeat something like that."

"You wouldn’t."

Ares answered calmly.

"Neither physical nor magical attacks would work properly against it."

The Broodmother looked at him.

"Then how are you planning to defeat it, Master?"

Ares narrowed his eyes.

"I’ve already found its weakness."

A particular point existed beneath the creature’s chest.

A dense concentration of seismic energy was continuously circulating around it.

That was the weakness.

Not because the area was physically fragile.

It was the opposite.

The region contained too much energy.

If the energy was disrupted and forced back into the Behemoth’s own core, the resulting reaction would damage the creature from within.

Ares lowered his hand.

"I’ll attack that point."

The Broodmother looked toward him.

"Will it really be enough?"

"It will."

She nodded.

"I trust you."

Ares stepped forward.

The Behemoth’s enormous eye suddenly opened.

The mountain shook.

The creature lifted its head.

Its gaze settled on the two figures standing far below.

Then it roared.

"GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The sound was so powerful that the surrounding mountains trembled.

The Broodmother immediately covered her ears.

Ares remained still.

The Behemoth raised one enormous limb.

Then it struck the ground.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The entire western region shook.

Ares raised one hand.

A barrier appeared.

A vast translucent wall of Eclipse energy formed before him, extending several hundred meters in every direction.

The shockwave struck it.

BOOOOOOM!

The barrier trembled.

The ground behind Ares remained intact.

The Broodmother stared.

The Behemoth struck again.

Another shockwave.

Another explosion.

Another wave of seismic energy.

Ares strengthened the barrier.

The entire western region continued shaking.

The Behemoth’s roar echoed through the mountains as it repeatedly attacked.

"GRRAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Ares remained behind the barrier.

His expression was calm.

He wasn’t trying to overpower the Behemoth.

He was waiting.

Waiting for the exact moment when the creature’s internal energy reached the point he had identified.

Then Ares moved.

The barrier disappeared.

The Broodmother’s eyes widened.

"Master!"

Ares vanished.

He reappeared directly above the Behemoth’s chest.

His hand extended downward.

"Eclipse."

Dark energy pierced through the stone-like armor.

The Behemoth roared.

Ares’s power entered its body.

The creature’s seismic mana immediately surged.

"GRRRRAAAAAAAAH!"

The ground exploded.

Ares remained above it.

His eyes narrowed.

"Found it."

The energy within the Behemoth’s chest began destabilizing.

Ares raised his other hand.

"Collapse."

The internal energy reversed.

The seismic mana that had been circulating through the creature’s body suddenly converged toward the same point.

The Behemoth’s eyes widened.

Its entire body trembled.

The mountains surrounding it began collapsing.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The western region shook violently.

The Broodmother was forced backward by the shockwave.

She raised a barrier around herself.

"A-Amazing!"

The Behemoth roared again.

The sound was deafening.

"GRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Ares remained above it.

He continued manipulating the energy inside its body.

The creature’s stone armor began cracking.

Cracks spread across its enormous body like lightning.

Ares clenched his hand.

The energy collapsed inward.

Then—

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A tremendous explosion erupted from within the Behemoth.

The shockwave spread across the entire region.

Mountains shook.

Stone formations collapsed.

Dust covered the sky.

The Broodmother struggled to remain standing.

"M-Master!"

She could barely see him through the dust.

The explosion finally subsided.

Silence returned.

The dust slowly cleared.

The Behemoth was no longer standing.

Its enormous body had collapsed across the mountains.

Its stone armor was fractured across its chest, while enormous cracks extended throughout the rest of its body.

The creature tried to move.

One enormous limb shifted.

Then stopped.

The Behemoth released one final low growl.

"GRR..."

Then its head fell.

The entire region became silent.

The Broodmother stared.

Her mouth slowly opened.

"W-What the hell..."

She looked toward Ares.

"How did you do that, Master?"

Ares descended toward the ground.

He looked at the fallen Behemoth.

"Even if something is resistant to both physical and magical attacks, that resistance becomes meaningless if the attack is strong enough to overwhelm the resistance itself."

He paused.

"More importantly, the Behemoth’s strength was also its weakness."

The Broodmother listened carefully.

"It was constantly generating and circulating enormous amounts of seismic mana."

Ares looked toward the cracks across its chest.

"I simply forced that energy back into the point where it was being generated."

The Broodmother’s expression changed.

"So you used its own power against it."

"Exactly."

She stared at the Behemoth.

Then she laughed nervously.

"As expected of Master."

Ares glanced at her.

The Broodmother quietly exhaled.

’It’s a good thing I surrendered yesterday.’

’If I’d tried to fight him...’

She remembered the sensation of Ares burning her soul.

Her expression immediately became uncomfortable.

’He would have killed me before I even realized what was happening.’

She shuddered.

Ares looked at her.

"Hmm?"

The Broodmother immediately straightened.

"N-Nothing, Master."

She gave an awkward laugh.

"Hahaha..."

Ares stared at her for another moment before looking away.

"Anyway."

He turned toward the Behemoth.

"There are quite a few things worth taking here."

The Broodmother looked around.

Her eyes widened.

The entire western region was covered in enormous deposits of pure mana crystals.

Not dozens.

Not hundreds.

Thousands.

No.

There were far more than that.

Entire mountainsides were covered in them.

Massive crystal formations rose from the ground like forests of glass, each one containing an extraordinary amount of pure mana.

Some were several meters tall.

Others were larger than houses.

And countless smaller crystals were scattered throughout the surrounding terrain.

The Broodmother stared.

"Master..."

Ares nodded.

"Yes."

He looked across the enormous deposits.

"Even a single one of these could be sold for hundreds of millions of won."

He paused.

"And there are enough here to supply the Order for several years."

The Broodmother looked around in disbelief.

Ares activated his spatial storage.

The nearest crystal formation disappeared.

Then another.

Then another.

The process accelerated.

Entire sections of the western region vanished into Ares’s storage space.

The crystals continued disappearing.

Thousands.

Tens of thousands.

Hundreds of thousands.

Ares didn’t stop.

Every pure mana crystal within reach was collected.

The Broodmother watched silently.

"This is..."

She couldn’t even find the words.

Ares continued.

The Broodmother stared at him.

Ares continued collecting.

The western region gradually became emptier.

The crystal formations disappeared one after another until the surrounding mountains had been stripped of nearly every accessible mana crystal.

Ares finally stopped.

He looked at the empty terrain.

"That should be enough."

Then his gaze shifted toward the Behemoth’s corpse.

Even in death, the creature was still releasing an enormous amount of destructive mana.

The Broodmother stepped closer.

"It’s still leaking power."

"Yes."

Ares approached the corpse.

He placed one hand against the enormous stone armor.

The remaining seismic mana immediately began flowing toward his palm.

The Behemoth’s body trembled slightly.

Ares opened his spatial storage.

The enormous corpse disappeared.

Ares looked at the empty space where the Behemoth had fallen.

"Let’s move."

The Broodmother nodded.

"Yes, Master."

The two disappeared.

Far behind them, the mountains remained silent.

The Behemoth was gone.

And with it, one of the four great powers ruling the S-Rank Gate had finally disappeared from the world.

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