Becoming a Monster

Chapter 628: Chapter 627: Threatening His Position

Morvyr had far more he wanted to ask.

In truth, the question that left his mouth barely encompassed a fraction of his curiosity.

He had countless questions he wanted to ask, and even more he wanted to say.

But Morvyr wasn’t foolish enough to believe that his curiosity entitled him to any of those answers.

Noah didn’t have to explain anything.

The elf was already aware that he was pushing the limits of what Noah was willing to tolerate. If anything, he was relying on the fact that their earlier conversation had ended on relatively good terms.

Noah had even agreed to allow him to finish asking his questions later.

Morvyr could only hope the devil was still in a good enough mood to keep his word.

His eyes remained fixed on Noah, waiting to see whether he would answer the question he had already asked or simply tell him that it was none of his concern.

“What I did is something I’m not willing to explain,” Noah didn’t hesitate to answer.

Morvyr had already assumed that would be the case. Although he understood, that didn’t lessen his disappointment.

The elf was too invested in this.

Noah had yet to realize just how much this meant to Morvyr. The elf had hidden his main intentions well.

Every question he had asked so far could easily be justified as information he intended to relay back to his Queen. And that was certainly part of the reason he wanted answers.

But underneath that curiosity was something far more personal.

Morvyr wanted to know whether Noah could make him stronger as well.

If Noah had been a regular demon, even an exceptionally powerful one, Morvyr would never have entertained the thought. His pride wouldn’t allow it, and his loyalty toward his Queen was far too great for him to ever consider abandoning her for the sake of his own strength.

But Noah being a devil changed everything.

Morvyr didn’t believe his Queen would consider it a betrayal if he was chosen by a devil and blessed with its power. If anything, returning to her stronger than he had ever been would only increase what he was capable of doing in her service.

Not to mention, being acknowledged and granted power by a devil would only further prove his worth as one of his Queen’s most valuable subordinates.

That was why so many of his questions had revolved around Noah’s connection with his creatures.

He needed to understand what that connection actually demanded from them.

More importantly, his follow-up questions were intended to determine how much independence those creatures retained after forming it.

If accepting Noah’s power meant becoming another subordinate who existed solely to obey the devil, then Morvyr couldn’t accept it. No amount of strength was worth abandoning the Queen he had spent his life serving.

But if he could receive that power while remaining himself…

If he could retain his independence, continue serving his Queen, and use whatever strength Noah gave him to serve her even better than before, then the situation became entirely different.

Morvyr didn’t know what Noah would demand in exchange for something like that.

But there wasn’t much he wouldn’t be willing to offer.

So being denied the information so closely tied to what he desired affected him more than it should have.

Fortunately for him, Noah wasn’t finished speaking.

“Although I won’t answer your questions, you can at least watch what I’m about to do next.”

Morvyr’s eyes immediately brightened, but Noah continued before he could respond.

“But even then, don’t expect me to answer whatever questions you have afterward. I’m already going to show you more than I should when you haven’t reciprocated that same sincerity yet.”

The anticipation that had begun to show in Morvyr’s expression became noticeably restrained after hearing the last part.

As much as he disliked being reminded of it, Noah had a point.

Morvyr had been relentlessly trying to learn more about the devil while remaining extremely selective about what he revealed in return. Even the information he shared about his Queen and their people had been carefully considered beforehand, making sure that nothing he revealed could possibly be used against them.

Noah, on the other hand, was now willing to let him witness something that he clearly considered a secret.

When viewed that way, Morvyr couldn’t reasonably expect anything more.

In fact, Noah’s words gave him something else to consider.

Yet.

The devil hadn’t said that Morvyr hadn’t earned his trust. He said Morvyr hadn’t reciprocated his sincerity yet.

Morvyr couldn’t help lingering on that distinction.

If Noah was willing to reveal this much now, then perhaps the answers Morvyr wanted weren’t completely out of reach. He simply needed to give the devil a reason to trust him with them.

And with the upcoming battle approaching, Morvyr would soon have the perfect opportunity to do exactly that.

However, the more Morvyr thought about the upcoming battle, the more another thought continued to surface.

His intentions when first approaching Noah had been relatively simple. He wanted to understand the devil, establish a relationship that could eventually benefit his people, and if possible, gain an ally powerful enough to support Her Majesty when the need arose.

Morvyr still wanted all of those things.

Yet after everything he had witnessed today, he was beginning to question one part of it.

Would Noah truly be the one supporting them?

Or would there eventually come a time when they needed to support him?

The thought had first appeared so casually that Morvyr barely gave it any attention.

Now it kept returning.

He didn’t know what to make of it yet, nor was he ready to place any real importance on something based almost entirely on instinct.

But every impossible thing Noah accomplished made the thought a little harder to dismiss.

—

Fenrir returned not long afterward with an enormous troll hanging from his jaws.

The creature was large enough that dragging it through the forest had left a trail of disturbed earth behind him, yet Fenrir showed little sign of exhaustion when he finally dropped the corpse near the others.

Trolls weren’t the most appetizing creatures they could’ve hunted, but there was a reason Fenrir had specifically chosen one besides his hatred for trolls.

Their overwhelming vitality made them incredibly filling.

A single troll this size would be enough to satisfy nearly half of everyone gathered here. Fenrir would still have to return to the forest afterward to hunt another, but then again, they still had Otuk’s body. As long as they could bypass his hardened skin, his flesh would fill the others up even faster than the troll he hunted.

The moment he released the troll, however, food was no longer what occupied his thoughts.

Fenrir instinctively searched for Kratos.

It had become natural for the two of them to compare their hunts whenever they returned. What they killed, how difficult it had been, and sometimes even how quickly they had managed to bring it down.

Yet the moment Fenrir found him, his eyes narrowed.

He had already known Noah had grown stronger.

Every creature directly connected to Noah had experienced that growth alongside him. Fenrir had felt the increase himself, along with the changes to Wrathful Fury that occurred while he was away.

What he hadn’t expected was to return and discover that Kratos had undergone such a drastic change in the short time he was gone.

Fenrir remained beside the dead troll as his attention slowly passed over the Kaiju.

The horns and enormous wings were impossible to overlook, along with the crimson light showing between his increasingly darker scales. But Fenrir cared far less about Kratos’s appearance than he did the presence coming from him.

Kratos had become considerably stronger.

He had only recently reclaimed his position as the strongest among Noah’s creatures, and now, after leaving for a single hunt, Kratos had somehow grown enough for Fenrir to question how secure that position actually was.

Kratos didn’t miss Fenrir’s gaze.

The Kaiju rarely did anything that would ruin the image he maintained as Noah’s most loyal and disciplined soldier. Even now, he stood perfectly composed, giving no outward indication that Fenrir’s increasingly intense stare affected him in the slightest.

But when Fenrir’s attention lingered on his new wings, Kratos subtly straightened his back.

Then, without ever looking in Fenrir’s direction, both wings fully extended behind him.

The enormous appendages spread to their full width, making Kratos’s already massive body appear even more imposing.

Fenrir’s eyes sharpened.

Kratos remained completely expressionless, his attention still directed elsewhere as though he had merely decided that now was the perfect time to stretch his new wings.

His tail, however, gave a slow and noticeably satisfied sway behind him.

Fenrir’s claws gradually dug into the ground as he stared at him.

The urge to challenge Kratos right then and there was almost irresistible. Fenrir wanted to see exactly how much stronger the Kaiju had become, and more importantly, remind him which of them still held the position he was so obviously reaching for.

The troll beside him was quickly forgotten.

However, before Fenrir could act on that impulse, his attention shifted toward Noah.

Kratos hadn’t transformed into something like this on his own.

Fenrir had only been gone long enough to hunt for food, yet during that short amount of time, Kratos had undergone a drastic transformation and grown strong enough to make Fenrir question his position.

Noah had to be responsible somehow.

The thought immediately gave Fenrir another reason to suppress his urge to challenge Kratos.

If Noah had given Kratos something while he was away, then Fenrir wanted it too.

Whatever competition existed between them could wait until afterward.