Becoming a Monster

Chapter 343: Chapter 343: Freedom Lies in the Soul

Around the same time Noah healed his creatures, Mark and Isabelle were finally recovering from the energy that attempted to invade their bodies.

The others crowded around them in worry. No one understood what they went through, nor did they understand the consequences of what would’ve happened if they had succumbed to that invasive energy.

Their faces were pale, the threat of that energy was draining on both their bodies and souls. Suspiciously, they were unnaturally quiet.

Mark’s mind was in conflict. He felt the energy changing him, giving him power but also implanting a will that was not his own. That will was changing what he believed was a hero.

Mark found himself struggling with his own thoughts. He wanted to reject a will that wasn’t his own, even though it was also the cause of his distress. The version of a hero that the will showed him felt like what a hero was supposed to be. A hero that was impartial to what he believed was right, but made choices based on what was right for the world.

The hero it showed him didn’t act out in emotion. That hero was beyond bias, beyond fear, beyond love. A true hero.

And that terrified Mark.

His eyes wandered to the people around him, and then his sister. If he desired to be that hero, could he throw away his love for his sister? His compassion for his friends? Could he ever sacrifice their happiness and their livelihood for the balance of the world?

His gaze then went towards Isabelle. She looked shaken and quiet, as if lost in a world that no one else could see. Her eyes, normally sharp and cold, were distant, unfocused. Mark knew that look. He felt that same emptiness trying to settle in his own chest.

Isabelle, meanwhile, remained oblivious to those around her. In her mind, she could hear someone speaking, a whisper that she couldn’t quite grasp. Yet, despite not being able to make out the whispers, the voice belonging to them made her feel oddly secure. The voice was comforting in a way that disarmed her entirely. It didn’t feel demanding, it didn’t force itself upon her. Instead, the whispers came when she was ready to listen.

She couldn’t tell whether the voice was part of her or something outside of her.

For a moment, Isabelle felt peace. And she realized that peace was wrong.

She finally looked up, and saw the others watching her. They questioned her, worried about her. But Mark was more worried about what she experienced.

And for reasons she couldn’t explain, she was afraid to tell them about the voice. Not because they would worry about her, but because she didn’t want them to say that the voice in her mind was wrong to have.

Mark’s eyes lingered on her, filled with a quiet concern and a determination to learn about her situation later. If she was remotely going through the same ordeal as him, then he had every right to be worried about her.

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Far above the realms of Earth, the Divine Being watched. Their expression hardened, the abnormality drifted away from fate once again. Again, their plans were disrupted.

The Being was not upset at all. Their respect for Noah grew. Simply ridding themselves of the system they bestowed wasn’t enough to gain their admiration. It was because Noah no longer relied on their power. Noah had outgrown his mortal self, he accepted his past flaws and overcame them. Most importantly, he accepted his inner calling.

What people defined as unique skills, unique traits, they were so much more than a simple power up.

They were reflections, the mirror image of one’s soul, shaped by one’s deepest truths. When someone receives power from their inner truth, they receive the key to unleash their fullest potential.

However, the Divine Being never believed that humans of mortal Earth would ever unlock that key on their own. Because unlocking that key would also mean shedding themselves from the safeguard of the system.

A structure to nudge, mold and help control a power that their mortal mind, body and soul wasn’t meant to understand.

It wasn’t meant to make them the most powerful, to make humans the dominant species. It was there to offer them the power to grow, to live. Because even the power of their strongest would never amount to the powers of creatures and beings who lived for centuries in a world of mana.

But Noah was able to break down that system. And by accomplishing this feat on his own, the benefits would be more revealing than those who were capable of achieving the same feat. Because they would lose the structure that had supported them before they were capable of standing on their own.

By the time Noah learned to run, the others would finally gain the strength to crawl.

To the Divine Being, the fact a mortal could do so, given the time constraints was unprecedented. So much so that they felt the need to award Noah for such a feat.

But now came their conundrum, how could they award Noah when they no longer have the system?

Despite being all powerful, the Divine Being still had to follow rules, rules that weren’t just decided by themselves. They were laws that governed the balance between free will and divine intervention.

Creating the system was already the pinnacle of outside intervention. Given power and strength through the system based on merits. Any other direct aid, especially to one who had served their ties from it, would risk unraveling the balance that was needed to sustain life’s existence.

So the Divine Being stood still...Contemplating.

They thought what Noah desired most...Power.

They then thought about what Noah cared about the most... His family.

Then finally they thought about what Noah despised the most...Human nature.

And so, the Divine Being had to come up with the most optimal reward that could be given based on these factors. And with a mind that perceived time as waves of possibilities, the Divine Being saw every outcome that could stem from each path.

They saw the Noah who accepted power blindly without effort, falling into depravity, consumed with and tainted by that power.

They saw Noah who clung too tightly to his family, smothering them, sheltering them, preventing them from growing until he eventually lost them because they were too weak to stand on their own.

Then they saw Noah who waged war on all of humanity and against the being who created them, becoming a monster that was no different than a beast.

Each vision aged, crumbled, and rebuilt itself under the Divine Being’s gaze. But there was one path where the outcome defied prediction, a path paved by Noah himself, a path built by adversity and hardship, a path that would either lead to a future shaped by his own hands or a world that would quickly erase him from existence altogether.

To place someone intentionally on this path would ordinarily be considered far from a gift, it would be cruelty disguised as a blessing. And yet for Noah, it was the only reward that fit.

So the Divine Being reached their decision, awaiting the moment Noah could receive the gift they set for him. And now, they had to witness and unearth other potential epitomes of humanity. To see who, if any, could bring as much change, or excitement as Noah.

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Back to present

Noah stood separated from Ailetta. Standing behind him were the rest of his creatures. They all stood quietly, observantly, as the tension between Noah and the person in front of him was silently facing one another.

Noah’s gaze was overbearing. There was no malice in his eyes, but the scrutiny reflecting within the pearls of his soul was too much for a little vampire to bear.

Eve had finally returned. While Ava was predominantly in control of their body as the foundation of their merger, in the end, Eve’s connection to Noah’s soul made it impossible for Ava to truly take over.

In the moment that Noah connected his soul to the companions connected to him, fully bathing them with his distorted love, Eve urged Ava to rush to Noah’s side.

The two were still merged when they arrived in front of Noah, but the moment Noah laid eyes on them, Ava’s soul shuddered. As powerful and mysterious as the origin of her existence was, her current soul couldn’t withstand the weight of Noah’s presence.

For the second time since Ava’s existence, she showed a trace of a true sentience.

Fearing Noah’s reaction, she initiated the unmerging of the two, releasing a familiar miasma that swallowed them briefly, separating into two conscious balls of essence; one large and one small. From that swirling storm, both Eve and Ava emerged.

Ava stood away from Eve with a notable distance, her eyes vigilant set on Noah, conscious of making sure she had a respectable boundary after what she did.

Behind Eve, Diablo stood behind her, his eyes burning with purpose again.

Then there was Eve. Her eyes flickered nervously, barely able to maintain Noah’s gaze, redirecting to the ground whenever she felt the urge to approach him.

Noah didn’t immediately pacify the girl’s worries. He had to be sure, if the Eve in front of him had been changed in any way by Ava.

Because residing in Eve’s third eye, the very one that was centered in the religious symbol on her forehead, a golden halo formed around her crimson pupil.