Chapter 266: Before the Absolute Power

Chapter 266: Chapter 266: Before the Absolute Power

The Lord of Beasts had poured an enormous portion of his newly evolved power into that attack, directing thousands of mana-forged spears toward a single target with enough precision to eliminate even the slightest chance of escape.

And yet the human had emerged without a scratch.

Ares lifted his gaze toward him, his expression remaining as composed as it had been before the golden spears descended, as though the destruction surrounding him were nothing more than an insignificant disturbance.

"Was that supposed to be your strongest attack, or do you have something more convincing to offer?"

Varkhazan’s expression twisted with disbelief, his golden eyes widening as he struggled to reconcile the devastation he had unleashed with the impossible sight before him.

"Impossible. You were standing directly beneath the formation. There was no time to escape, and no ordinary defense could have withstood the combined force of those spears!"

Ares regarded him for another moment before answering, his tone carrying a faint trace of disappointment.

"You’re making the same mistake again."

Varkhazan’s brows drew together.

"What mistake?"

"You’re assuming that because your attacks are powerful enough to destroy almost anything in this domain, they must also be powerful enough to threaten me."

Ares took one measured step forward, and the pressure of his presence began to spread through the chamber. It was not an uncontrolled eruption of mana, nor was it a violent display intended to intimidate his opponent; instead, it was a quiet, oppressive force that seemed to settle over the battlefield itself, making the ruined throne room feel suddenly insignificant beneath the weight of his existence.

"Those are two entirely different things, Varkhazan."

The monster’s pupils contracted as the invisible pressure pressed against his senses, awakening instincts that had remained dormant throughout his countless years of domination.

He had encountered powerful beings before, fought opponents whose strength surpassed his own, and survived battles that would have reduced lesser creatures to unrecognizable fragments. Yet the presence emanating from Ares was fundamentally different from anything he had experienced, because it did not merely threaten his body or challenge his authority; it forced him to confront the possibility that everything he considered the pinnacle of strength was nothing more than a narrow understanding of a far greater world.

For a fleeting moment, his instincts urged him to retreat.

Varkhazan immediately crushed the impulse beneath his pride.

He was the Lord of Beasts, the ruler whose name had inspired fear throughout this domain for generations, and he refused to allow an unfamiliar human to reduce him to a trembling creature that had forgotten how to fight.

Golden mana gathered around his arms and shoulders, forming successive layers of luminous armor that reinforced his already formidable physique. The shattered floor beneath his feet fractured further as he drew every remaining reserve of strength into his body, while the golden radiance surrounding him intensified until his silhouette resembled a warrior forged from molten sunlight.

"I am the Lord of Beasts!" he roared, his voice reverberating through the devastated chamber. "This domain has bowed before my authority for countless years, and I will not surrender it to an arrogant human who believes himself superior merely because he has survived a few attacks!"

Ares’s expression remained unchanged, and he regarded the enraged monster with the patience of someone listening to a familiar argument that had already exhausted its usefulness.

"Then stop talking about your authority and show me what you can actually do with it."

The words struck Varkhazan’s pride like a direct challenge.

With a thunderous roar, he launched himself forward, his newly evolved body accelerating so violently that the ground beneath his feet collapsed into a sprawling crater. Golden mana converged around his right fist, compressing into a brilliant sphere of destructive energy whose radiance illuminated the surrounding ruins, while the force gathered behind the strike distorted the air and sent fragments of shattered stone spiraling away from his path.

He crossed the distance in an instant.

His fist came hurtling toward Ares’s chest with the full force of his evolved physique behind it, carrying enough concentrated power to pulverize an enormous fortress and reduce everything caught in its path to dust. Rather than relying on speed alone, Varkhazan had synchronized the movement of his entire body with the flow of his mana, concentrating his strength through his hips, shoulders, and arm to deliver a blow that combined overwhelming physical force with the destructive authority of the Lord of Beasts.

Ares did not retreat.

He simply raised his fist.

The two attacks collided.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The impact detonated across the throne room, unleashing a tremendous shock wave that tore through the remaining rubble and sent fragments of stone hurtling toward the distant walls. Golden mana burst outward in a blinding explosion, while the floor beneath the combatants collapsed under the immense force concentrated at the point of contact, carving a deep crater into the already-ruined chamber.

For one brief instant, their fists remained locked together.

Then Varkhazan felt the difference.

The force pressing against his arm did not waver, diminish, or retreat beneath the power of his evolved body; instead, it continued to advance with overwhelming certainty, crushing the golden mana surrounding his knuckles and sending fractures racing through the armor protecting his forearm.

His eyes widened.

Before he could withdraw his arm or reinforce his defenses, Ares’s superior strength overwhelmed the collision entirely.

The resulting impact traveled through Varkhazan’s body, rupturing the defensive mana gathered around his chest and lifting his enormous frame from the ground. His expression contorted as the force hurled him backward, carrying him across the ruined chamber before he smashed through the remnants of his throne platform and crashed into the far wall.

KRAAAAAAASH!

Stone shattered around him, and a massive section of the wall collapsed beneath the impact, burying the Lord of Beasts beneath a cascade of rubble as dust billowed through the chamber.

Ares lowered his fist.

He had not moved from the spot where he had received the attack, nor had his expression changed during the exchange. The ground beneath him had been destroyed by the collision, yet he remained standing at its center without a single injury, his clothes untouched and his breathing as steady as ever.

Beyond the transparent violet barrier, the Hunters stared at the scene in stunned silence.

They had witnessed Varkhazan’s evolution and felt the terrifying pressure that accompanied his transformation, but nothing they had seen prepared them for the sight of the Lord of Beasts being overwhelmed in a direct contest of strength.

Kang Ji-hoon slowly exhaled, his gaze fixed on the man standing alone amid the destruction.

"That was a direct collision, and Tae-ho didn’t even attempt to redirect the force of the attack," he observed, his voice unusually subdued. "He met Varkhazan’s full strength with a single punch and overwhelmed him so completely that the monster couldn’t maintain his footing."

Yoon Ha-eun’s eyes narrowed as she studied the crater beneath Ares’s feet, searching for any indication that he had relied on an unseen defensive ability.

"There was no visible spell, no barrier, and no attempt to evade the attack," she replied. "Whatever power Tae-ho used, he concentrated it directly into the strike, and the difference between their physical capabilities was so overwhelming that Varkhazan’s evolved strength couldn’t compensate for it."

Park Tae-hyun shook his head, still struggling to process what he had witnessed.

"Then what exactly are we supposed to call that? The monster evolved into something that should be beyond the capabilities of an ordinary S-Rank Awakener, and Tae-ho just punched him through a wall as though he were dealing with an opponent several ranks beneath him."

Lee Min-jae gave a strained laugh, although there was little humor in his expression.

"At this point, I’m starting to think that comparing Tae-ho to the rest of us is pointless. We’ve been trying to understand how powerful Varkhazan has become, but we haven’t even come close to understanding how powerful Tae-ho was before this fight began."

Ji-hoon did not disagree.

As South Korea’s only officially designated National Awakener, he understood how extraordinary physical strength could become when reinforced by mana, and he had spent years refining his own combat techniques to maximize the effectiveness of every movement. Yet Ares had demonstrated a level of physical dominance that rendered such comparisons almost meaningless, because he had not needed a complicated technique or a carefully prepared counter to overcome Varkhazan’s attack.

He had simply struck harder.

Inside the ruined chamber, the rubble shifted as Varkhazan forced himself out from beneath the collapsed wall.

His golden armor had fractured across his chest and forearm, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he straightened his back with visible effort. The golden aura surrounding his body flickered erratically before surging once more, but the renewed radiance could no longer conceal the damage he had sustained or the uncertainty that had begun to take root behind his furious expression.

Ares watched him emerge from the debris without displaying the slightest surprise.

"Still standing?" he remarked. "I suppose your body is sturdier than your judgment."

Varkhazan’s face twisted with rage.

"You arrogant bastard! Do you believe that one successful exchange is enough to decide the outcome of this battle?"

"No," Ares answered calmly. "I believe the outcome was decided before you threw that punch. I’m merely giving you enough time to realize it yourself."

Varkhazan’s breathing grew heavier, and the golden mana surrounding him erupted in another violent surge as he struggled to suppress the humiliation threatening to overwhelm his reason.

He had evolved to surpass his former limitations, believing that the transformation would grant him enough power to eliminate any opponent who dared to challenge his rule. Yet every attempt to demonstrate that strength had ended in the same humiliating fashion, with Ares remaining untouched while his own body accumulated injuries.

Still, surrender was inconceivable.

With a furious roar, the Lord of Beasts gathered the remnants of his mana and prepared to attack again, determined to force his opponent to acknowledge the full extent of his power, even if doing so required him to exhaust every fragment of strength left within his body.

Ares merely watched him, his expression as indifferent as ever.

’His evolution has improved his physical capabilities and increased the density of his mana, but he continues to rely on the same fundamental approach to combat,’ Ares observed, assessing the monster’s movements with effortless precision. ’He has become stronger, certainly, but he has mistaken a greater quantity of power for a greater understanding of how to use it. Against an opponent who can read his movements and overwhelm his defenses without exertion, that distinction is decisive.’

Varkhazan lunged forward once more.

Ares waited until the monster entered striking range, then shifted aside by the smallest margin, allowing the incoming fist to pass harmlessly beyond his shoulder. Before Varkhazan could correct his trajectory, Ares drove a short punch into his abdomen, followed by a sharp elbow strike that caught him beneath the jaw and sent his head snapping backward.

The Lord of Beasts stumbled, but Ares was already moving.

He seized Varkhazan’s arm, turned through his hips, and redirected the monster’s momentum into a devastating throw that sent him crashing across the broken floor. Before Varkhazan could regain his footing, Ares closed the distance and delivered a final kick to his chest, launching him into the rubble surrounding the ruined throne.

The impact silenced the chamber.

For several seconds, Varkhazan remained motionless amid the shattered stone, his golden aura flickering weakly around his battered frame.

Ares stood a short distance away, his hands resting casually at his sides as he waited for the Lord of Beasts to make his next decision.

The monster had possessed every advantage he could have reasonably expected from his evolution: overwhelming physical strength, immense reserves of mana, formidable defensive capabilities, and the instincts accumulated through countless battles.

None of them had been enough.

And Ares, having demonstrated the difference between their abilities beyond any possibility of misunderstanding, still showed no indication that he had needed to exert himself.