Becoming a Monster

Chapter 659: Chapter 658: The Shadows Have Eyes

Varkesh was worried that the demon wouldn’t be ready for what was coming. Even if Noah expected the humans to attack him, that didn’t mean he knew what day they would come, when they would arrive, or who would be among them.

The humans also believed their chances of success on this mission were higher than ever. As far as they knew, nothing had alerted the demon to their approach.

However, little did they know that deeper within the forest, their target was already waiting for them.

Noah’s creatures had gathered outside the barricade, joined by Morvyr and his forces. None of them seemed particularly concerned by the storm steadily worsening overhead.

Their gathering had a much more noticeable effect on the rest of the forest.

Many of the wild creatures that had fought so desperately for a place within Pandora’s shelters were beginning to abandon them. Some fled deeper into the territory, while others seemed content putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the powerful beings now gathered near the barricade.

Even the worsening weather wasn’t enough to convince them to stay.

The winds had grown strong enough to send branches whipping violently through the canopy, while deafening rumbles of thunder continued rolling across the sky.

It was the exact kind of weather that had driven many of these creatures toward Noah’s territory in the first place, yet whatever safety the shelters offered apparently wasn’t worth remaining this close to so many powerful beings.

Noah paid little attention to those fleeing.

Fenrir was already struggling to remain still, his attention repeatedly shifting toward the direction their enemies were expected to come from.

Kratos wasn’t much different. Both seemed far more eager than concerned, and judging by the anticipation they made little effort to hide, the only thing keeping either of them from hunting down Noah’s enemies themselves was the fact that Noah had chosen to wait for them here.

Morvyr’s forces were considerably more cautious.

Most had already drawn their weapons, not because they could see or hear anything approaching, but precisely because they couldn’t.

They had been told the enemy was finally coming, and with no sign of that enemy anywhere beyond the barricade, none of them knew whether they were waiting for an army still some distance away or one already close enough to attack.

Morvyr understood their unease.

He watched another group of wild creatures disappear between the trees, then returned his attention to Noah. Unlike his men, Morvyr had no reason to question whether the humans were actually advancing toward them.

The Queen had already informed him that their own attack on Ashenveil was about to commence. For that plan to have reached this stage, Thalric and the army accompanying him had to have already left the city.

What Morvyr didn’t understand was how Noah could possibly know exactly where that army was.

No, that wasn’t entirely right.

Morvyr’s gaze shifted toward the creature standing beside the devil.

Dobby remained perfectly still, his eyes closed while the markings covering his body gave off their faint glow. Morvyr had already realized that the strange creature was where Noah had gotten his warning from. What he hadn’t figured out was how Dobby’s ability worked.

Was it some form of clairvoyance? Or did the demon have his own informants in the city, and Dobby was the medium for their communication?

If it was the former, then that information needed to reach his Queen as soon as Morvyr returned.

Perhaps knowing what the creature was capable of would also make Her Majesty less inclined to attempt anything untoward against the devil.

Morvyr knew her interest in Noah hadn’t disappeared, but there was a considerable difference between making plans against someone in secret and doing so when one of the creatures at his side might be capable of sensing those plans before they were put into action.

Unfortunately, Morvyr still didn’t know whether Dobby could actually do that.

“Are you certain they’re this close?”

Morvyr asked Noah, trying to hide the skepticism in his voice.

Of course, he only asked Noah to see if he would ask Dobby again. If Dobby could even sense where they were in the forest, then Moryvr would learn that there was definitely no informant, and the answer was most likely what he feared.

Noah’s head turned; however, the direction wasn’t to Dobby, but to one of his mistresses.

Arachne’s eyes were glowing with a weird luster, and her gaze was slightly unfocused on what was in front of her.

Noah silently observed her, not rushing to interrupt her focus. Instead, he studied the glow in her eyes before looking towards a distant tree.

An ethereal dark violet creature sat on a branch, looking in the same direction the humans were coming from.

It was a spider, barely six inches long and small enough to fit across an adult’s hand. Its narrow body was somewhat transparent, with parts of its carapace blending into the surrounding darkness. Even the edges of its long, thin legs became difficult to distinguish whenever they crossed into a shadow.

The only features that stood out clearly were the multiple eyes covering its head, each glowing with a faint violet light, similar to the light in Arachne’s eyes.

And farther ahead, there were more.

Some clung beneath branches while others remained motionless between leaves or against darkened trunks, their partially transparent bodies making them surprisingly difficult to distinguish from the shadows around them. If not for the mana visible through his Nexus Eye, Noah’s gaze might’ve passed over several without ever realizing they were there.

These same spiders are the reason why Noah had turned to her instead of Dobby. Dobby could warn him when someone with malicious intentions was approaching, but now that the humans had entered their territory, Arachne could provide far more detailed information on their numbers, positions, and what they were doing.

And she could do that all because of those small spiders.

Still, the sight of the small spiders made Noah glance behind Arachne, his attention focusing on one of the newest additions to their family.

Umbra.

Both she and Atlas had emerged from their cocoons much quicker than Arachne had from hers, but the process had still changed their forms and strengthened them considerably.

Umbra’s transformation was especially noticeable. Her lower body had grown larger, and the dark plates covering her abdomen had become denser and more pronounced. All of her legs had changed as well. They were longer than before, but it was their sharpness that stood out the most.

Each limb gradually narrowed as it extended away from her body, ending in a point sharp enough that even the legs supporting her weight looked more like weapons.

The new pair rising above the others took that change even further. They towered over her body before curving downward on either side, their inner edges forming long violet blades that resembled a pair of enormous scythes.

But perhaps the strangest change was the webbing.

Even while Umbra wasn’t actively using it, thin strands of web were always loosely layered around her body. They stretched between her limbs, crossed behind her upper body, and hung from portions of her carapace without ever seeming to restrict her movement.

Some strands remained taut while others sagged around her, leaving Umbra permanently surrounded by a loose network of her own silk.

It made it seem less like webbing and more like something that had become a natural part of her.

Noah had never received a direct answer from Arachne, so even now he wasn’t sure how he should view the spider that was indirectly his child.

And it was all because his spider Queen didn’t realize the implications until he had brought it up.

Arachne had always felt more connected to Umbra than the rest of her brood. What she hadn’t considered was what that connection meant when Umbra had been born from one of her eggs after being imprinted with Noah’s essence.

The moment Noah questioned whether that technically made Umbra their child, Arachne had become flustered and, for once, seemed completely unsure of what to tell him.

Her different natures didn’t seem to agree on the situation. To the spider in her, producing offspring was natural and hardly something that required this much thought. But the other parts of Arachne had grown to view family and children far more intimately, making it much harder for her to dismiss the idea that she and Noah had created one together so casually.

Eventually, Noah accepted that Arachne wouldn’t answer until she understood her own feelings. They could figure out exactly what Umbra was to them after everything here was over.

Although Noah was beginning to suspect that, at least for him, there wouldn’t be much left to figure out.

Every time he looked at Umbra, it became a little harder not to think of her as his own.

This time, he had deliberately avoided naming the creature after some powerful being from his old world. After everything he had learned about the significance names could carry, he saw little reason to potentially burden her with one. Instead, he chose something considerably safer.

Umbra.

The name had come from her dark, matte exterior, but it also suited what Noah hoped she would eventually become. Unlike Atlas and the other soldiers Arachne had created, Noah wanted Umbra to focus less on direct combat and more on the areas he believed Arachne’s forces needed most.

Assassination and information gathering.

The tiny spiders scattered throughout the forest were already proving how useful the latter could be.

They weren’t an ability Arachne had gained from her evolution. Every one of them had been created by Umbra, living constructs formed entirely from her mana and connected directly to her sight. Umbra could see everything they saw, no matter how far apart they were, effectively letting her observe several locations at once.

More importantly, that connection didn’t end with her.

As one of Arachne’s loyal guardians, Umbra could share her vision with her queen, and with it, the sight of every mana spider she had created.

Right now, that meant Arachne wasn’t limited to watching the humans from a single pair of eyes.

She could watch them from all of them.