Becoming a Monster

Chapter 342: Chapter 342: Suffocating Devotion

The news caught Ailetta by surprise. It wasn’t necessarily shocking that he lost his system. There was always speculation as to why Noah still had a system despite the obvious signs that he was a monster.

What she found shocking... was how casually he said it.

No panic, no confusion, no desperation in his voice. Just a simple almost absentminded realization.

She stared at him, trying to gauge whether it was acceptance or shock so deep it hadn’t hit him yet.

She didn’t see Noah as someone who depended on the system, as someone so mentally weak that he would fall into despair after losing something that everyone would consider to be a gift that was invaluable.

However, losing the system meant heavy implications, implications that were mere speculations, but if they were true, then she wasn’t sure how Noah would respond.

His obsession with the chest? Would they still drop? Experience points? How would that even work?

And more importantly, the reason they were here... Without the system... what would happen to the gold?

She wanted to understand more. Yet she found her mind tunneling, becoming unfocused. A distant memory was beginning to form, overlapping with her current thoughts.

Her proximity to the seraphs was too close. With Noah’s display of dominance of the creatures, she had forgotten about their presence. And because she never was directly affected by them, she was unaware how their abilities worked.

Because of her false security she couldn’t prepare a way to defend herself. But the moment she felt herself being drowned under the creatures’ effects, her mind suddenly regained clarity.

Her awareness snapped into place. Her senses sharpened in the heat of the moment. She understood that the Seraph’s illusion didn’t simply vanish, but something had intervened. Something was still intervening.

Her eyes lifted to Noah. He was no longer watching her. There was no spoken spell, no gesture. But Ailetta felt it, she could still feel it. A barrier was over her soul, protecting her.

Again, he did something that was outside of his repertoire of skills. How was he doing it? Is it because of the system?

Her mind was spiraling down a rabbit hole of conspiracies. But she couldn’t focus on her thoughts, not yet at least.

Her eyes trailed across his body. Seven tendrils of hardened slime were extending past her. When she followed the tendrils, she saw each Seraph’s body impaled.

Their bodies struggled to break free, grasping around the tendril to pull themselves free.

Ailetta noticed smoke rising from the slime as it seared into the creatures’ aura, slowly spreading across the entrance wound.

If the Seraph’s auras were attempting to purify Noah’s existence, Noah was in turn trying to devour theirs.

Eventually, the Seraphs couldn’t fight back, the moment Noah’s slime enveloped more than half of their bodies, they hung there like broken marionettes.

Only Regina still struggled. A circular distortion materialized around her, energy that closely resembled the earlier Seraphim’s.

Noah’s expression didn’t change. The aura around him simply spiked. In that moment, the slime impaling her branched out suddenly, impaling her in almost ten different locations, spreading more quickly than the others.

In the Seraphs’ last desperate attempt to fight back, the ray of energy shot out in his direction.

Noah had ample time to move. But he just stood there. He didn’t see the attack as a threat at all. Compared to the Seraphim, the attack was no different than a child’s tantrum.

When it struck him, it merely vanished. Only a whisper of smoke curled from the point of impact on his chest.

Noah blinked once, finding it amusing how someone who had held such an impact on his life, now only amounted to this.

The thought of torturing her surfaced. No amount of pain he could unleash upon her could wash away the stain she had inflicted on him.

His eyes dimmed as the thought was erased from his heart. He deeply stared into the last remaining vestige of her existence. In the end, there was no satisfaction to be found. No vindication in taking revenge for his past self who was too weak to fight for himself.

Without blinking, he watched the last moments of the people who were once human, being swallowed up by his slime. Their bodies enveloped in cocoons that gradually diminished in size as the tentacles receded back into his body.

He took a moment to concentrate on breaking down the aura within them, intending on replenishing his mana with their remaining lifeforce.

As the last remnants of the Seraphs disappeared within him, Noah’s body returned to normal. His focus rested on Ailetta, despite looking at her, he was looking within himself, towards the area where her soul resided to ensure the energy that had tried to manipulate her was truly gone.

But while inspecting her soul, his body stiffened. Turning around, he noticed the others. Their expressions towards him were wary, almost fearful.

His companions couldn’t ignore the feeling of being abandoned, feeling as though they meant nothing to the person they dedicated everything towards. None, besides Ailetta understood what Noah had gone through when under the illusion.

Their expressions said everything they couldn’t.

Noah prepared to speak, but stopped. He didn’t believe words were enough to get his point across, to allow them to understand and trust that what they felt before wasn’t his doing... at least not intentionally.

Instead, just like Ailetta, he focused on their individual souls within himself. He wanted them to experience the emotions he carried for them.

He didn’t force it.

Whether they were his tamed creatures, or his vassals, each of them began to share in his emotions. The bond between them resonated deeper than ever before. It bypassed words, reason, fear, pride. They felt the weight of his burden. The fear of losing them, the ache of their isolating and distrustful stares.

Then they also felt his love. It was not the warm or gentle comforting embrace of a family’s love. It was a terrifying, suffocating love that threatened to swallow them...

It wrapped around them like a chain. There was no freedom from it, but neither was there any desire to escape.

In Noah’s own warped way of love, his creature’s wariness was rectified. One by one, the fear in their eyes began to fade.

They stepped closer. Fenrir’s pride was over the moon. The love that Noah held for him was love that was pure, love that a true pack leader showed to his most trusted companions.

Beside him, Kratos walked with indifference, his eyes showing the air of a seasoned general that was devoid of emotions, yet...his tail swayed even more furiously than Fenrir’s own.

Then there was Arachne. Standing motionlessly in a daze, her heart was beating so fast it almost scared her. Noah’s passion, his obsessiveness...all this time she questioned herself, thinking about the words Noah told her.

What did she want?

She wanted Noah’s feelings, his possessive passion to be fully devoted to her. She desired to always share in Noah’s emotions so she could feel his love forever.

Why does she want it?

The question was difficult for her to answer, she didn’t know how to describe the ache in her chest, the butterflies in her stomach, the yearning that made her feel insecure each waking second that she was left to her thoughts.

Noah’s gaze drifted towards her. He didn’t say a word, but the intensity in his eyes was enough to give Arachne the courage to move.

As his companions moved closer to him, Noah noticed an oddity within the group. Kratos was injured. And it wasn’t a simple injury. His leg from his knee down was gone, cauterized at the stump.

Even with his healing ability, Noah doubted he could recover Kratos leg. But there was someone who could.

”Le, fuse with me.” He spoke while holding out his hand.

The request was sudden. Ailetta speechlessly looked towards Noah before looking in his direction to Kratos. The moment she noticed Krato’s injury she knew what Noah was planning.

Despite this, she didn’t react with urgency. Her slow response wasn’t from hesitation, but from the questioning thought as to why they needed to fuse when merging would still help him accomplish what he wanted to do.

Her analyzing gaze softened, giving in to Noah as she placed her hand in his. She burst into energy before entering Noah, leaving his silhouette to take in her form.

What was left was still Noah, but his very presence was domineering.

Noah’s body that was no different than an endless abyss now resembled an infinite cosmos. The pressure of his presence alone should’ve put everyone to their knees, but his energy was being completely contained within him with complete control.

Noah didn’t marvel at his power, four tentacles stretched out across the room, enveloping Fenrir, Kratos, Arachne, and the still non-budging Diablo whose energy was greatly diminished from being exposed to the seraphim’’s holy energy.

His tentacles cradled them in a comforting energy that took away all of their remaining pain, even the residual holy energy that burned at wounds was being healed away.

In Noah’s embrace, all wounds and injuries were being healed.

Kratos, who now knelt in servility, didn’t flinch as the tendril around him glowed the brightest. His stump was rebuilding bone and flesh as if time was being reversed.

Noah continued to stand quietly, taking on their pain to relieve their own.

This was his apology, and his promise. All of them will become stronger.