Becoming a Monster

Chapter 145: Chapter 145: She’s Back

The Queen’s remaining antennae twitched before she swiped in front of herself to cut off the attacker’s approach. The sharp, whip-like movement was meant to easily strike down the target that was foolish enough to attack. Her concentration was barely focused on the target, leaving her surprised when she felt the four strikes hit home when her attack was certain to land.

She wasn’t naive. The Queen, who had been confident in her ability to easily dispatch the new attacker, found herself caught off guard. Her antennae, which should have intercepted the strikes, suddenly shifted off course, allowing the four attacks to land on her wounds. She was stunned; another enemy she believed to be unimportant had given her more trouble than expected.

The Queen’s eyes narrowed in fury as she looked down on the false ”Queen” before her. Her instincts told her that Arachne wasn’t that different from her, a queen of her species, a life form transcending her race to becoming something much more powerful, eventually leading a race more powerful than the original.

However, the title of queen was quickly discarded in the Queen’s mind when she witnessed Arachne being subservient to another species, one that bore the appearance of prey. How could one who called themselves a queen bow to something so inferior?

As Arachne lunged towards her once again, hissing with each movement, the Queen’s disdain only grew. To her, Arachne’s every action was that of a traitor to her kind, someone who had forsaken the natural order for the sake of weakness. The Queen’s fury deepened, and she resolved to obliterate this false Queen, this insult to the title she held dear.

With a hiss of her own, she prepared to meet Arachne’s charge head-on, ready to prove which of them truly deserved to bear the crown.

Now that the Ant Queen had tunneled her undivided attention on Arachne, she was immune to Arachne’s special gaze. The Queen’s will was an unyielding fortress, and her body, now honed with newfound power, was beyond control. With her vigilance fully activated, there was seemingly no force in the world that could sway her resolve.

The two quickly intercepted each other, and the Queen was about to exchange blows. As Arachne’s attacks came at her, the Queen dismissed them, willing to take the strikes, knowing that they lacked the power to bring her down. In return, she prepared to deliver a lethal blow, one that would end this pretender’s life in an instant.

However, just as their attacks were about to land, the Queen’s eyes widened in disbelief as she saw a familiar presence, one she had believed she had already put down, approaching rapidly. Just as she was about to land the fatal blow on Arachne, she instinctively vanished, reappearing several meters away. The ground where she had stood just moments ago erupted with a surge of power as Fenrir, ravaged but far from defeated, replaced her where she initially stood.

Fenrir’s presence was a harrowing sight, his body battered and torn from the earlier battle. The hole in his stomach was closed but not fully healed; yet his aura was nothing short of terrifying. It pulsed with the same intense energy that had emanated from Noah just before his last devastating attack. The Queen, who had been so certain of her dominance, now found herself facing not one, but two relentless opponents, each determined to bring her down.

She couldn’t understand why creatures of their caliber were trying so hard to protect someone that was not their own kind, even more confused by their defiance despite knowing that their overall strength paled in comparison to her own, especially after her recent mutation. And yet, here they stood, battered and bruised, with no intention of backing down.

The Queen’s confusion quickly turned to frustration. She couldn’t comprehend the bond that tied these creatures to Noah, a bond that seemed to transcend logic and self-preservation. Their loyalty, their willingness to sacrifice everything for him, was something she had never encountered in her own ruthless existence. To her, such loyalty was a weakness. Loyalty should only come from servants, and that’s exactly how she soon began to view the two creatures.

”Your existence..” She hissed, ”is nothing more than a disgrace to the natural order. I’ll make sure to kill you and fully exterminate every other creature like you.”

Despite her bone chilling death sentence, both Fenrir and Arachne rushed towards her, their resolve unperturbed to her threats. The Queen quickly processed who she should target first, resolving to fully kill Fenrir, who she viewed as the only one who can actually harm her. But as she prepared to put an end to this farce, a sudden alarm jolted through her. Something was wrong. Her eyes narrowed, quickly inspecting the wounds inflicted by Arachne. Four areas in particular, drew her attention. At first, it was barely noticeable, but with her heightened senses, now honed to supernatural levels, she realized the truth: her wounds were laced with poison. A poison that was slowly, insidiously sapping at her strength.

The realization infuriated her. How could she, the Queen, be so careless as to let such an insignificant threat affect her? Yet, even as she dismissed the idea, she couldn’t deny the growing weakness in her limbs, the slight but undeniable drain on her vitality.

”You dare...!” the Queen spat, her voice trembling with rage. Just like Noah, her thoughts became clouded with envisioning Arachne’s death.

Fenrir and Arachne quickly closed in on her. Fenrirs’ approach was wild, lacking any semblance of forethought. Yet, despite his reckless charge, Arachne was very conscious of her surroundings, turning the seemingly uncoordinated approach into a deadly pincered assault with no room for escape.

Fenrir struck first, a powerful swipe aimed at her midsection, while Arachne shadowed right behind him, waiting for the Queens’ reaction.

Their approach was layered in fail safes, but the Queen quickly proved that strategy against undeniable strength was only a falsehood.

Spurt*

Fenrir’s body jolted from a painful stab right through his heart. The Queen’s antennae extended out before quickly returning to their usual position, showcasing why it was her most deadly weapon in her arsenal.

The blow jolted Fenrir from his rage, his wild charge coming to an abrupt halt, his body crashing face first into the ground now that his heart was almost completely torn through. A wound that would have brought any other creature to an immediate end, but his intense spasms and heavy exaggerated heaves hinted at his struggles to live. His gaze lacked the lifelessness that should be displayed, his claws embedding into the ground, wanting to rise up to continue the fight.

Arachne bore witness to Fenrir’s, but her actions were unwavering as she still braved forward. With both Noah and Fenrir out of the battle, it was now up to her to protect them both, she wasn’t allowed to doubt herself.

The two Queens were determined to put an end to this farce, The Ant Queen assured of her victory. However, as they prepared for their second exchange, an eerie aura interfered with their fight. An aura that transcended everything that they understood about life, a presence more menacing and oppressive than anything they ever imagined. Even the Ant Queen, for the first time, felt true fear. It was only for a moment when that dreaded energy was released, but it was enough to shake her confidence. The battlefield seemed to warp and distort around the source of the fearsome aura, drawing their gazes to the source.

Although the presence only lasted for an instant, both Queens could sense something lurking from within the station.

The eerie silence that followed the burst of energy was almost deafening. The Ant Queen and Arachne, both momentarily paralyzed by the oppressive aura, stared at the slowly opening glass doors. The contrast between the bright daylight outside and the impenetrable darkness inside only heightened the sense of dread.

As the doors creaked open, the darkness within seemed to draw in every shred of light, deepening the oppressive atmosphere. From this inky void, tens of eyes began to materialize, each one scanning the surroundings with a disconcerting, disjointed awareness. The eyes lacked sclera, rather the sclera was just as dark and empty as the abyss, giving the illusion that it wasn’t there. Each eye even lacked a pupil, having only a violet iris that glowed with an eerie intensity.

One eye, after briefly scanning the area, fixed its gaze on Noah, causing the rest to converge on his location. Their collective focus then shifted to the Ant Queen, the eyes narrowing as if assessing their new target.

The Queen’s unease intensified as she became the focus of these unsettling beings. The fear she had felt before now escalated into sheer dread as the eyes studied her with an unrelenting scrutiny.

After a few moments of eerie inspection, the darkness within the doors began to coalesce. The multitude of eyes followed, converging into a dark, shifting silhouette. The entity took on a vaguely humanoid shape, but its features remained indistinguishable, obscured by the dense shadow. Only the eyes remained visible, still glowing with that unsettling violet hue.

Then, an even more unnerving transformation occurred. For every two eyes that made up the entity’s form, a mouth emerged—or perhaps they had always been there, hidden within the darkness. The mouths became noticeable only when the entity began to speak, their voices a dissonant symphony of whispers that seemed to come from every direction at once.

”Interesting....” the entity’s voice gave the illusion of an echo as every mouth said the same thing at once. ”To think there was someone who thought they could take what is rightfully mine. Or is ’mine’ the right word here...They are still my memories so technically she’s me and I’m her, so then that should also mean...”

The entity’s words trailed off into a chaotic murmuring, the mouths constantly opening and closing, as if lost in deep conversation with itself, struggling to fully articulate its thoughts.

No one felt the impulse to belittle her strange antics, let alone disrupt her. The Queen preferred if the entity maintained the same distance and continued to discuss with itself.

But of course, when the entity finally came to the conclusion of her identity, its focus shifted back towards the Queen. ”You’ll be perfect to experiment on....I wonder how much stronger I’ve become.” The entity continued to murmur, eventually taking its first steps outside of the doors, finally revealing itself.

Its appearance was hard to initially digest, but there was someone among the group who instantly discerned who the presence was with one glance, despite his vision still being hazy from his injuries.

”L-Le? Is that really you?”