Becoming a Monster

Chapter 311: Chapter 311: I Understand Now

The moment Noah began condensing a Manabolt, the air turned heavy and the people who saw Noah as just a strong monster were hit hard by reality.

”You’re Noah,right? Do you not see who’s behind us? We have your parents right here!” It was Burke who responded first. Whatever power that he had hidden from everyone made him feel that everything was in his control. But he didn’t expect this.

Although he heard everyone say Noah was a monster, he didn’t truly believe it. When they said he was powerful, what did that truly mean? Weaklings always needed something to fear, and when they found it, they called it strong.

So what did ”strong” even mean?

He’d thought it was relative. If a weakling called someone strong, were they truly powerful, or simply less weak?

When he heard the stories about Noah, they were stories of when Mark and the others were still unawakened. How could they, who had yet to experience and obtain real strength understand what is strong?

Yet, experiencing just one ability from the supposed monster, the person who was said to be strong, he realized that both cases were true.

For the first time he let his composure slip. He was hiding his secret so well. If he had to defend himself from this attack, that would mean also exposing himself, he couldn’t allow that to happen, not without the necessary strength to back it up.

His hand fumbled towards his chest pocket. If he was going to use one of his trump cards, it’ll have to be now.

His reaction wasn’t that different from many others. The wealthy, arrogant spectators cried in fear, running and pushing each other on the stairs to make it back to the second floor.

However, there was someone there who wasn’t fazed. Vincent stood there with his usual imposing presence. Not once had he shown anyone a particular power of his that can attribute to his current calmness as he watched the attack building with a confidence that hinted that he was still in control.

”Collin!”

Despite the chaotic atmosphere, one of his elitists responded with an alertness that suggested he was prepared to be called.

As the person made his way in front of the crowd, his eyes reflected an eagerness to prove himself. Yet when he finally made his way past everyone, and he was confronted with the mana sphere that was even bigger than before, his body trembled with such ferocity, he believed that the shaking was being caused by tremors in the room.

When Burke saw that person in question that Vincent sent out, his nervousness quickly vanished. Just like Vincent was aware of most of his elite’s unique traits, he also was aware of his.

The person who looked as if a simple strong wind would topple him over, he was someone with a unique trait that was useless when it came to going against zombies, but in situations like this, his worth was immeasurable.

It hasn’t been long since they learned about the development of unique traits and abilities. Traits that are obtained based on the personality that shaped the individual’s core. For Collin, that trait was his envy.

He was no soldier, and he hardly could even be considered useful to society. Yet, that envy to have what others have without having to go through the efforts to attain it, led to him gaining a unique skill that manifested that trait into something great.

The skill, Sin-Eater’s Reversal, was a skill that allowed him to absorb a mana-based ability, mutating the mana throughout his body, making part of the power his own with the cursed power of envy, and then releasing the ability back at the attacker.

True to its trait, it was a very envious ability, one that made Collin from a weak and fragile nobody, into one of Vincent’s elite guards. But like most abilities, this couldn’t be exploited. He couldn’t grow stronger simply by absorbing mana-based attacks. He could only retain a certain number of mana imprints within his body at one time.

Collin swallowed hard when the mana sphere was done condensing into what it was now. The very air around it was almost distorted. strands of mana whipped out like lighting, striking and obliterating everything they touched.

Not once did Noah care about what everyone was doing. His creatures stayed behind him, ready to attack at a moment’s notice. If it wasn’t for the destructive power of Noah’s attack, they may have already launched forward and torn through the crowd.

The moment before he released the attack, his eyes distorted, the aura around him then exploded, an explosion that suddenly made the sphere that was already terrifying in scale, nearly doubled in size. As if his rage ruptured the limits of his own control. But it was the use of undergoing the transition of his skill of wrathful fury, combined with enhancing himself with his own grant lesser magic that caused the instant surge of power.

Once the skill reached its peak, Noah released it without a shred of hesitation. He didn’t want to mince words; he didn’t need his parents to clarify why he was treated the way he was. In fact, he wasn’t thinking at all.

His eyes stared unblinking when he released the attack, a sphere that was possibly his strongest attack he had ever released before.

As Collin witnessed the destructive sphere distorting and ripping a path through the very fabric of the air, he was truly afraid, and yet mixed within that terrifying fear was a distorted eagerness that was twisted by the very curse that gave him power.

Envy.

The deeper the feeling, the bigger the disparity, the greater his craving to possess it.

Collin reached out his hands, veins of dark green energy crawled over his arms, extending throughout his body. His eyes turned nearly pitch black. Only a small dark green orb rested in his eyes, hungrily eyeing the ball of mana.

When the sphere collided into him, there wasn’t an explosion. The scene turned into something completely surreal.

The sphere was suspended in the air, twisting and surging with the same volatile power as before. That same dreadful ball of mana was stopped by Collin’s bare hands, seemingly holding it in place.

Seeing the scene, Vincent’s expression looked condescending to the person that killed his son. He didn’t care how strong this monster was. He was going to make the self-proclaimed monster learn that its individuals who win battles, but armies are the ones who win the war. His line of elites wasn’t necessarily strong, but just like Collin, they each held a unique skill that made them invaluable.

His eyes looked mockingly to Noah, craving for the reaction he was hoping for after Noah fully understood what was about to happen to him. Not only will his guard grow from a shield to a lethal sword. But that attack will soon be released back to Noah at full force.

It wasn’t quite what he wanted. He desired a slow, painful death, but it would still serve his purpose.

But as Vincent was about to indulge in his dark satisfaction, a scream, more unbearable than he ever heard before, was being released. And the source of those screams was Collin.

The sphere was becoming smaller in size, that alone showed that Collin’s ability was working. However, seeing his body was another thing. His veins bulged until they split, bursting through his skin, blood gushed out of his entire body covering him in red.

That very same blood was releasing steam that left the blood bubbling across the surface of his skin.

His body was starting to distort; his hellish screams turned from anguish into unintellectual grunts.

No one was able to notice the deep green jewels in his pitch-black eyes starting to grow stronger, reflecting a crazed desire that conflicted with the pain he was in.

Collin’s consciousness was fading, but something else was taking hold. The mana he absorbed was too chaotic for any normal human to merge with.

If Noah was in his right mind, he would notice the changes taking place through his Nexus eye. The birth of an even darker mana coming into fruition, a mana that almost held a life of its own.

But he would have also noticed small pieces of something, breaking off of the young man’s body, falling down at his feet. That something was his own flesh, and then it was his muscles. In seconds his very bones were breaking down.

In Collin’s last moment, he released a roar that didn’t suit a human being, a roar that made every human behind him turn cold in fear. And then...he crumbled.

As he fell, what was left of the sphere grew distorted, spiraling in a frenzy, flickering as if it was a light whose bulb was faulty.

The confused and horrified could only watch as that sphere visibly became smaller, the mana it was made up of was being released into the air before what was left of it caved in, collapsing without a sound, as if it never existed.

Vincent’s lips parted as if to say something, but no words came. He couldn’t understand what just happened.

Yet he then saw something that finally made his imposing demeanor cracked. He saw Noah in a very familiar poise again, condensing yet another sphere as if the earlier attack was a warm welcome.

It was then he understood why they called Noah a monster.