Becoming a Monster

Chapter 500: Chapter 499: Left Alive for a Reason

The web didn’t just cover his mouth.

It spread across his face and sealed everything from his nose down to his chin, tightening enough to cut off his air completely.

The sudden loss of air sent a sharp spike of panic through his body, his chest tightening as his lungs reacted instinctively, but even as that instinct threatened to take hold, he forced it down before it could control him.

He had come too close to death too many times to freeze now.

Even with his breathing cut off and Noah already closing the distance, his thoughts moved, pushing past the pressure building in his chest as he searched for anything that could give him even the smallest opening.

Trying to remove the web right now was pointless, and trying to outpace Noah directly was no longer an option.

So instead, he chose something far more reckless.

He raised his hand and began to form the same fire spell as before, shaping it just enough to take form, but this time, he had no intention of completing it as he forced more mana into it than it could sustain before it could even stabilize.

Fire surged outward in a sudden flare as the structure collapsed, the light bursting across the space between them as heat followed behind it, catching along whatever it could reach.

The backlash tore into him at the same time, unstable mana lashing against his own body as the fire burned across his arm and side without distinction.

Within that brief moment where the flare swallowed everything in light and heat, he attempted to cover himself within a veil of magic once again. It wasn’t a perfect concealment, and under normal circumstances it never would have worked this close.

The drake might have been able to sense his presence, but it was too far away to interfere.

If he could disappear for even a moment, if he could slip past Noah’s immediate perception, then there was still a chance he could live.

His eyes stung from the flare, but he was certain that Noah hadn’t covered his eyes the way he had.

He didn’t need perfect sight to maneuver past the massive trees.

He needed to move fast, and as his back turned to flee, he forced himself forward while pushing through the searing injuries left behind by the flames. His body was almost fully enveloped within his veil, though the areas still aflame were harder to conceal as the fire clung to him.

But just as he turned and began to move, he felt something catch onto him.

While soft originally. It wrapped around all four of his limbs before hardening instantly. The pressure tightened as whatever held him crushed down without restraint.

Ethaniel screamed in response, only for the sound to be reduced to muffled noise behind the web sealing his mouth, the pain accumulating alongside the rising terror as his heart rate increased.

His body instinctively tried to draw in breath it couldn’t take, each failed attempt only making it worse.

He managed to turn his head just enough to see Noah, who was connected to the bindings that held him in place.

The flare seemed to have done nothing to him. His eyes remained closed, whilst any damage he might’ve sustained was either healed or barely enough to be noticeable.

He wondered how Noah could see him, past the flames, despite closing his eyes. However, the thought was answered the moment he laid eyes on the lone eye centered in the monster’s chest, locked onto him.

The last thing Ethaniel recalled seeing was Noah sending out blobs of slime in separate directions, each one landing where the flames had begun to spread through the forest, before everything went dark.

—

”No—Noah?”

Bolas had been watching quietly from within the cover of the broken trees as Noah cleaned up the aftermath.

His slimes had been purposely infused with miasma to absorb the remnant mana within the flames.

Because without mana, the fire would barely sustain itself, and while it might burn through grass, the trees of this world weren’t so easily reduced by something as simple as ordinary fire.

It was only when Noah finished binding the human’s arms and legs and began to leave without saying anything that Bolas finally worked up the courage to call out to him.

He couldn’t ignore the feeling that something had been off about Noah from the moment he arrived.

While he knew it wasn’t because his strength had grown again, since Bolas had already realized that when he felt Noah’s power surge back in the cave without any clear cause, there was still something else that didn’t sit right with him.

Noah didn’t feel like the Noah he was used to. His very aura felt distant and unapproachable, and even from where he stood, Bolas felt a hesitation he had never experienced before.

After seeing Noah about to leave without even acknowledging him, that hesitation twisted into something heavier.

There was no doubt that Noah knew he was there.

Bolas could only assume that the coldness was directed at him and his failure to protect their home.

After hearing Bolas call out to him, Noah paused midair, his wings unmoving as he simply hovered in place before turning his head slightly in Bolas’ direction.

The moment their eyes met, that coldness deepened to the point where Noah’s stare made it feel as if Bolas’ internal flames would freeze over.

That alone was enough for Bolas to become certain that Noah was furious, and even though he knew it wasn’t his fault, that certainty still pushed against his pride.

Being seen as someone who had failed, even indirectly, was something he could not accept.

Even though he knew that it wasn’t his fault, he felt the need to explain himself.

”You should’ve seen it, right? It wasn’t my fault. Your underling attacked before I could, and if I interfered then—”

”I know.”

Bolas’ words were cut short by Noah’s reply, and while the answer should have reassured him, it only made the pressure in his chest grow heavier.

If Noah already understood what had happened, then the look he was getting had nothing to do with misunderstanding, and that made it worse.

What Bolas didn’t realize was the conflict that was taking place within Noah himself, because even though Noah understood that Bolas wasn’t at fault.

He knew that the damage would’ve been far worse if he hadn’t stepped in, especially with Pandora involved and her stubbornness only worsening when she was enraged.

However, his emotions didn’t follow that same line of reasoning.

A single human had been able to enter their home and act freely, and Noah had left Bolas behind because he trusted him to prevent exactly that.

Even though he knew that the situation could have been worse, that knowledge wasn’t enough to stop the feeling from settling in.

Rather than say something he might regret in that moment, Noah chose to leave. He decided that it would be better to distance himself until he could sort through what he was feeling and return later with a clearer mind.

After venting his frustration on the one responsible, he would make sure to apologize to Bolas properly.

Bolas could only watch as Noah disappeared from view, a heavy weight settling in his chest as the distance between them felt far greater than it should’ve been.

He didn’t move right away, and instead closed his eyes, not just to think, but to focus on the connection he shared with Noah.

His connection wasn’t as clear as the one Ailetta had, but it still allowed him to sense Noah’s surface-level emotions and, at times, something deeper depending on how strong that emotion was.

Bolas was able to sense so many pent-up negative emotions, each one dominating the others in a rotating faction.

It was impossible to know what the emotion itself was being directed to, but just the conflict itself was enough to allow Bolas to see that the problem wasn’t himself.

That alone was enough for him for now.

Afterward, the forest sounded with more trees breaking down as he struggled to climb back up.

—

Ailetta and the others were busy piling the bodies together.

This time, under Ailetta’s instructions, they didn’t remove the cores from the corpses.

She already knew what Noah had planned since the start of the fight.

It was better to keep the cores in their bodies so Noah could decide what to do with them. And having a face to connect the abilities with would make it easier.

At least that’s what she told herself. After sensing the conflict he was going through, she wanted to make sure that he didn’t have to worry about anything else.

While they were now waiting for Noah, they didn’t have to stand idle for too long before they looked in a random direction, where Noah suddenly appeared.

When he landed, they all focused on him for a tad longer than normal before their attention shifted to the person he tossed on the floor.

Some of them seemed to recall the mage who had left to chase after Ophis. Other than the recognition, they didn’t react too strongly.

However, what little hope the tigerkin had was crushed.

He had allowed himself to believe that Ethaniel had saved Gwen, and he would return to see both of them alive.

The first thing he noticed was that Ethaniel was still breathing. His eyes snapped to Noah in scrutiny.

Just what was he planning to do with him?