Becoming a Monster

Chapter 151: Chapter 151: Roles reversed

The Queen’s bravado continued to falter under Noah’s oppressiveness. Deep down she knew, if she allowed him to finish his transformation, then her life would be forfeit.

Her steps grew hesitant, caught between the instinct to flee and the desperate need to strike him down before it was too late. Fear gnawed at her resolve, but then a fleeting thought crystallized into a decision. In battles like this, the one who held the upper hand often found themselves at a critical juncture where a well-timed, decisive blow could turn the tide. She recalled how Noah had managed to destroy three of her limbs during her ascension to a greater power, and how she herself had used the brief respite during the slimes’ merging to accumulate enough power for her next strike.

With this thought in mind, she steeled herself, realizing that hesitation would only seal her doom. She had to act now, before Noah’s transformation reached its completion. But in the back of her mind, she was fully prepared to flee if her attack failed to finish Noah off. Her precious army may hold great value to her; however, her life was more important. If necessary, she would abandon them all, find a new ant colony and dethrone their queen to start anew.

With her resolve set, the ground beneath her cracked under the pressure of her legs, the force of her legs quickly fully exploded, kicking up fragments of the ground behind her.

If she had more time, she would have preferred to use the same ultimate attack that she used against the slime. But from what she had observed, Noah’s transformation was happening too fast! There was no doubt in her mind that she could deal significant damage to Noah if she were able to unleash the ability, but now her only option was physical force. Her lone antenna flowed behind her, ready to flick with the momentum of her speed to cut Noah in half. But she had no intention to stop there; she made the same mistake twice before. This time, she would ensure that he was fully dead, chopping his body into minced sized bits that were small enough she could hold in the palm of her hand.

Within the blink of an eye, the Queen instantly arrived before Noah with no one intending to stop her. Fenrir was finally showing slow, stable breathing, but his eyes were firmly closed; there was no telling when he would ever open them again. Arachne was still encased in her molted skin, her transformation taking much longer than either her or Noah had anticipated. But they also didn’t expect for Ailetta’s fight to end so quickly.

And then there was Ailetta, but she didn’t have any intentions of revealing herself to everyone just yet, observing everything from the shadows. Still, she was able to see everything, and seeing the Queen appear in front of Noah during the time he was at his most vulnerable, didn’t stir the concern one might expect. Instead, she watched with an unsettling smile, and as the Queen unleashed her attack, Ailetta giggled with a mocking connotation to the Queen’s desperate actions.

There were two reasons Ailetta didn’t intervene, despite the gravity of the situation. The first, and less significant reason, was that there wasn’t much she could do to help. Although her earlier display had made her seem invincible, her power heavily depended on the abilities of her slimes, which were most effective in controlling the undead. At times, she had doubted her decision to bind herself to such a power, wondering if she might have been better off contracting with another elemental or even a demon, offering her life and soul for a different kind of power; one that might be more universally useful. But that was not the path she had chosen.

Her abilities, as they stood, synergized well with the man she wanted to fight alongside. As long as she could live out her days by his side, there would always be more opportunities to find bodies to use and experiment with.

Yet, it wasn’t her current limitations that held her back from rushing to Noah’s aid when he appeared to need her the most. What truly stopped her was the fear that her presence might cause Noah to regain the humanity he had finally let go of. She understood that his transformation was critical, and any interference from her might jeopardize what he needed to become.

Despite the apparent risk to Noah’s life, Ailetta never entertained the thought that he was truly in danger. Her unwavering faith in him was soon vindicated as the following scene unfolded, proving that her trust had been rightfully placed.

The Queen’s antenna slashed downwards towards Noah, intending to dissect his body in half before she commenced dismembering his body even further.

But as the attack approached his body, a series of heavy clangs resounded in quick succession, as if a metal object had collided with something of equal structure. The Queen recoiled in shock, her eyes widening as she felt a powerful vibration surge through her antenna, sending shockwaves of resistance back into her own body.

Not once did her gaze move away from his body, so she instantly perceived what blocked her path. Four of Noah’s six spider legs had formed a protective barrier in front of him, but seeing his still estranged state that had still yet to look her way signified that the legs were moving with a will of their own.

The Queen couldn’t process how Noah was able to do this; it wasn’t possible for didn’t parts of their limbs to have sentience of their own. How could she possibly know about one of Noah’s skills; a skill that was always undervalued as he once was before but could now be considered one of his most useful abilities? His skill, ’Sensory Sentience’, was

now fully living up to its name, allowing his body to respond to any perceived danger on its own.
Missing her chance to deliver the lethal blow, this would be the moment the Queen should quickly decide to abandon any desire to continue the battle. However, the act of being thwarted without bothering to give her the attention she rightfully deserved; the Queen felt utterly disrespected. Her value seemed no different than the insignificant small ant she once was, or at least that’s what she perceived to be Noah’s thoughts at the time. And worse yet, despite the threat her presence should have posed, the spider legs remained stationary in their position, not even bothering to attack her after her attempt to kill the person behind them. If Ailetta’s smile had attacked her pride, then Noah’s lack of response attacked her very existence.

Before she was aware of it, the Queen had already tried to bypass Noah’s spider legs for the umpteenth time. Her slashes were barbaric, reflecting her erratic emotions, with each attack aimed solely at causing damage, making it a miracle if a hit did not land. However, with each strike, no matter the angle, all four of Noah’s legs continued to effortlessly parry the attacks, while his remaining two legs continued to support his body.

His legs displayed an eerie sense of coordination, not once was there a time where another leg interfered with the other to block an attack. It was as if each leg had complete confidence in its ability to fend off the attack without a margin of error.

The Queen’s repeated failure finally made her resort to giving everything to destroy Noah. if she were to flee, she doubted that she would have the motivational pride to continue to view herself as a Queen anymore.

”Why won’t you die?!” She screeched, her voice bellowing from the depths of her soul as she stopped her attacks. Her hand quickly raised ahead of her, planning to attack Noah with the very ability he had used against her. In her opinion, it was a fitting end, one that would cancel out the ever-expanding void of uselessness expanding through her.

But as soon as the mana began to stir within her palm, her heart threatened to jolt out of her chest. Noah, who was now in the final stages of his transformation, who had not once cared about anything in his surroundings, suddenly snapped his head towards the Queen. His four eyes completely opened as they all stared at her, his eyes were more haunting than before. His sclera was now completely black, his now vertical iris was the same violet that his pupil once was, while his pupil was replaced with the shiny crimson gem that glowed with a daunting intensity.

The sheer malevolence in his gaze struck the Queen like a physical blow, evoking a visceral, painful vision of death.

If she had felt that she had made mistakes underestimating her opponents before, now, she had truly made the mistake of overestimating her own strength. Doubt on whether to flee or fight was no longer an issue, it was now flee or die.

With that impulse in mind, she could barely put the thought into action when the legs that were defending the entire time finally lunged towards her direction. The speed of his abrupt attack was faster than what her antenna could achieve, leaving her with little room to create distance to avoid the attack. Her wings instantly unfolded behind her, beating so fast that the strain threatened to break her wings at its root, but with her desperation fuelign her actions, she was able to leap back, almost narrowly escaping.

Her left thigh was punctured through, the very leg that she used as her leading leg to give her the push she needed to escape. Having her leg punctured shouldn’t have impacted her action of escaping, but the peculiarities of Noah’s legs clearly indicated who the true hunter was. The edges of his spider-legs each had a sharp jagged indent a few inches away from its pointed bladed structure, causing Noah’s spider leg to not only puncture through the Queen’s leg, but also firmly securing it in place. Everything that had happened has transacted within just a few breaths of time. Even with the brief opening available to her, the Queen’s decisiveness that was fully driven by her fear of death allowed her to make the instant decision of using her antenna to cut off her captured leg to continue her escape.

But frighteningly, the distance she created was the trigger for Noah to personally move. His mind no longer resembled someone with any conscious thoughts; he was no different than an enraged monster.

Instinctively, Noah used every one of his spider appendages to their fullest extent. He placed both of his lowest appendages to the ground, applying pressure to both his own body and his spider legs simultaneously before exploding into a relentless chase to secure his first prey as a true monster.