WorldCrafter - Building My Underground Kingdom-Chapter 193: Truth or Lie?

Chapter 193: Truth or Lie?

“Hahaha, I love that gaze.”

Apophis let out a sultry chuckle, her voice like silk soaked in poison. Her palm drifted forward, fingers reaching for Ben’s face.

But this time, Ben moved. He caught her wrist midair.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Apophis’s rosy lips curled into a wider smile, unbothered. If she wanted to break free, she clearly could. But she didn’t.

Instead, she leaned closer, their faces now just inches apart.

“If someone kidnapped you from your home,” she whispered, “tore you from everything you knew, experimented on your body, your mind… and you had the power to make them regret it, would you run back home? Or would you make damn sure they suffered first?”

Ben’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t know if she was lying, twisting the truth, or planting seeds of doubt. But he wanted to hear more.

“Of course I’d make them pay,” he said, his tone steady. “But I heard… you killed innocents. That’s not justice.”

Apophis laughed again, soft and mocking.

“Oh Ben… how do you know what you heard is true?” she asked, voice mixing between teasing and cruel.

“You think the ones holding your leash told you everything? C’mon… you’re not that naive, are you?”

Her free hand hovered near his chest, not touching, just close enough to feel her heat.

“They call us daemons. But who told you that word first? Who wrote that story?”

She leaned in, eyes glowing.

“What if I told you the real monsters… are the ones who summoned you here?”

Apophis’s voice dropped to a whisper.

“‘Daemon’… it’s just a label. A convenient lie they feed you. A word to make you stop thinking.”

She slowly pulled her hand from Ben’s grasp, not with force, but with fluid grace like mist slipping through fingers.

“Each of us came from a different world, Ben. Some from places of light, others from shadow. But we all share one thing, power. Enough that this world feared us the moment we arrived.”

She stepped around him, circling slowly.

“And just like you, we arrived with something… attached. You call it a system. A way to grow stronger.”

Her smile twisted. “But ours? Ours shackled us. Bound our strength. While it try to take our power.”

Ben stiffened.

Apophis tilted her head, her hair flowing like ink in water.

“Where do you think your system gets the power to perform such miracles? Hm? To bend space? Freeze time? Resurrect you from death? Create a whole new species?”

She raised a finger, tapping it lightly against his chest.

“Each one of those wonders comes at a cost. Not yours. Ours.”

Ben’s thoughts churned. ‘It makes sense…’

But he still didn’t trust her. So far, all she had were accusations and no proof. He didn’t care much about who’s right or wrong anyway, what mattered was knowing the truth. That was the only way he could decide how to act.

He opened his mouth to respond, but Apophis wasn’t finished.

“Your guideline probably told you your mission is to kill all of us, to protect this world.”

Her voice dripped with bitter amusement.

“But that’s a lie, Ben. They’re using you… just like they used me.”

Ben’s gaze sharpened.

“What do you mean?”

Apophis leaned in.

“Where do you think I learned to speak like this? To tempt, to manipulate?”

She smiled, but there was no humor in it.

“I learned it from them.”

Ben tensed. “What are you saying?”

Her next words fell like a blade.

“You’re an experiment, Ben. A container. They’re testing whether you can hold our power, so they can copy it for themselves.”

Ben’s jaw tightened.

‘An experiment? A container?’

He’d heard lies before. Half-truths. Manipulations. But something in Apophis’s voice make him want to trust her.

“You’re saying, we the traveler were part of their experiment?”

His tone was cold. But underneath, a flicker of doubt start growing in his heart. This would mean both the crusader and templar where nothing more than another layer of facade to achieve thier goal.

The goal never change, to create the ultimate being, the strongest creature.

Apophis didn’t press closer this time. She stood still, watching him with a pained gaze.

“Yes. They needed a vessel strong enough to hold what they couldn’t control.”

Ben’s fists clenched.’ No. That can’t be all.’

The system had turned him into a Hive Sovereign. It gave him the power to evolve without limit, using a skill called Consume. Both abilities… eerily aligned with the goal she just described.

“If they want to replicate your power, why not just kill you and take it?” he asked.

Apophis’s smile twisted.

“They tried. But most of us aren’t so easily destroyed. So they sealed us. Weakened us. Then waited for a traveler strong enough to kill us.”

She stepped forward again.

“One that would gather all our power before they harvest it.”

Ben’s heart beat louder in his chest.

But he remembered something: the system never told him to consume daemon-class entities. In fact, it warned him against it.

Still…

What if that warning wasn’t out of morality… but strategy?

What if it was just waiting? Preparing him? Strengthening his body until it was finally strong enough to absorb even them?

Apophis whispered,

“How many times did your system ‘evolve’ after killing something you didn’t understand?”

Ben didn’t even need to think. ‘Always.’

A pulse of pressure slammed the air, crack!

The lightning barrier flared. In the distance, the knight came crashing back through the black tides, blade glowing, armor cracked.

“Ben! Don’t listen to her!” he shouted, eyes blazing with fury.

“She’s twisting the truth! The system chose you for a reason, don’t let her poison your mind!”

Apophis didn’t even look his way. Her gaze stayed locked on Ben’s.

“And now your guidelines comes crawling back.”

Her voice turned cold.

“You can pretend the chains don’t exist. But deep down, you know right? You’re forced to fight us.”

Ben said nothing. But what she said, was a fact.

He hadn’t agreed to come here. He hadn’t been offered a choice.

One day, he simply found himself in this world. Alone. No answers. No explanation.

It would’ve been different if someone had asked, if he had said yes.

But this…?

His eyes narrowed.

The knight landed in front of him, boots cracking against the broken ground. Lightning sparked across his blade as he raised it toward Apophis.

But this time, Ben noticed something different in his stance. Panic!