Becoming a Monster

Chapter 664: Chapter 663: Stop Trying to Understand Them

Of course, he understood what it meant to transform. His confusion came from the fact that Noah had directed the command toward creatures Morvyr already considered incredibly powerful.

Just how much stronger could they become?

Morvyr had spent enough time inside Noah’s territory to understand that appearances could be deceiving when it came to the creatures living here. Even now, he doubted he had seen everything most of them were capable of, but there was a considerable difference between hiding a few abilities and having an entirely different form they hadn’t shown him.

His gaze swiveled toward the creatures gathered beside Noah as he tried to figure out which of them the command had been directed toward.

Was it only one of them?

Two?

Or could all of them transform?

Considering everything Morvyr had witnessed since entering Noah’s territory, he wasn’t willing to dismiss the last possibility as easily as he normally would’ve.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to keep guessing for long. Four creatures soon stood out from the rest as their bodies began changing at almost the exact same time.

Morvyr’s gaze moved between them, trying to take in each transformation as it happened.

He recognized all four creatures by now. Fenrir, Arachne, Kratos, and then there was the smallest among them, Eve.

To be honest, Morvyr was surprised by all four, but Eve quickly became the one who confused him the most.

Seeing one creature merge with another was already unusual, but Morvyr had heard of it before. In fact, some of the strongest enemies demons faced were known for doing exactly that.

Seraphims were commonly summoned onto battlefields with power comparable to the generals, and when it came to the two strongest generals, the Church often summoned two different Seraphims and had them fuse to face them.

Even Morvyr could do something similar with his plant beast.

However, every example Morvyr knew of had one thing in common.

The creatures that merged were almost always the same species.

Morvyr thought he already understood a bit about each of the devil’s creatures. He’d met a few vampires; the demons even had one as a general, so he could recognize one easy enough if he came across one.

Even then, he had never heard of one being able to temporarily merge with an undead, let alone merge with a creature at all.

“What exactly is she?” Morvyr couldn’t hold back the question.

The longer he remained around Noah, the more Morvyr found himself asking similar questions. And the more he realized his questions were meaningless.

Seeing the horns and tail on Eve should’ve already told him that the vampire before him couldn’t be viewed through the lens of the vampires he knew.

His emotions calmed considerably once he accepted that fact as he continued to watch.

Yet the longer he watched, the more he felt his sense of reality being challenged by one of the devil’s followers.

He wasn’t prepared when Eve’s aura changed qualitatively, revealing a more mature devilish woman floating slightly in the air after the dark mist subsided.

Her cold beauty alone was enough to stun him, but her aura made his mind go numb.

The mana that quietly dispersed after she finished her transformation was one thing, but now he could clearly feel that this new Eve’s aura felt even darker than the devil’s own.

What was more mind-boggling were the wings that appeared on her back. Two huge pairs of wings.

The pair above the others were giant bat-like wings. This didn’t strike Morvyr as odd; it was the black pair beneath them that gradually drew more of his attention.

At first, Morvyr couldn’t understand why.

There was nothing particularly strange about a devil having black feathered wings. If their appearance was the only thing bothering him, Morvyr would’ve already dismissed it as another trait Eve had gained through her connection to Noah.

Anyone who had encountered an angel before would understand.

Seeing one was enough to never forget the presence surrounding their wings. It was difficult to properly describe, because it wasn’t their size or appearance that created the feeling. Their wings possessed a grandeur of their own, naturally filling anyone who looked upon them with a sense of awe.

And somehow, Morvyr was experiencing that exact same sensation now.

His attention became completely fixed on finding out what Eve was. With his full focus on learning more about her, it was natural that he noticed the halo-shaped rings around her eyes.

For a woman whose mana now felt even darker than Noah’s, the contradictions left Morvyr struggling to understand anything that he was experiencing.

It took him a moment to remember to breathe. Only then did he regain enough clarity to think things through.

He recalled how, after taking Otuk’s soul, not even a day later, one of the devil’s creatures had an aura resembling his dead soldier.

Morvyr then thought back to what the devil had told him before: how he and the angels were lifetime enemies.

Putting the two together, Morvyr couldn’t help but wonder if the devil had somehow managed to take an angel’s soul.

The possibility caused his earlier confusion to quickly give way to something closer to admiration.

Killing an angel was already an achievement worthy of respect among demons, but stripping away its soul afterward was something else entirely. If Morvyr’s assumption was right, Noah had taken the soul of one of their greatest enemies and somehow used it to strengthen one of his own creatures.

The more Morvyr considered the possibility, the more fervent his emotions became. There was something almost glorious about imagining an angel suffering such a fate, especially when the result was now floating in front of him with its former power twisted into something so demonic.

Morvyr didn’t know whether his assumption was right, but he desperately wanted it to be.

With his earlier hesitation replaced by excitement, Morvyr finally pulled his attention away from Eve. He had become so focused on understanding what she was that the other transformations had nearly escaped his attention, and now that they were finishing, his gaze quickly moved toward the others to see what had changed.

Instinctively, his focus was set on wanting to understand how strong one of the devil’s strongest would become after their transformation.

Naturally, that meant observing both Arachne’s and Fenrir’s new forms.

But even with that intention, he found himself staring at another creature.

It was a creature that he hadn’t seen before. One that didn’t resemble any of the devil’s creatures that had been there before.

Only because another creature was missing could Morvyr identify the new monster.

Kratos.

The monster grew nearly twice as tall, and its frame nearly doubled in size. Pale scales had spread across much of Kratos’s body, forming thick layers over a physique that had become considerably more monstrous. His wings had grown with him, stretching far wider than before, while behind him was a massive tail nearly twice the length of his entire body.

Even his head had changed enough that Morvyr struggled to find much resemblance to the creature he remembered. More horns surrounded the massive pair curving above him, while his face had taken on the appearance of an armored skull.

Yet none of those changes explained the uneasiness Morvyr felt as he looked at him.

Something about Kratos made his instincts continuously warn him of danger. It wasn’t his aura; Morvyr could sense other creatures nearby whose presences were clearly stronger. Even knowing that did nothing to ease the feeling.

The longer Morvyr stared, the more uncomfortable that realization became. He was a prideful demon, and admitting that he would rather avoid an opponent didn’t come easily to him. Yet if someone forced him to choose between fighting Kratos or any of the other creatures standing beside Noah, Morvyr already knew his answer.

He would take his chances with the others.

Whatever his instincts sensed about Kratos, Morvyr had no desire to find out whether they were right.

Morvyr looked somewhat unsteadily toward the last two creatures, hoping their transformations weren’t quite as exaggerated.

He had already noticed how dramatically their presences had changed, but at least when his attention settled on Fenrir and Arachne, neither gave him the same inexplicable sense of danger as Kratos.

That did little to diminish how fearsome they had become.

The flames covering Fenrir had grown considerably wilder, permanently flaring outward from several parts of his body and making it difficult to imagine anyone getting close without being burned. What little exposed skin Morvyr remembered was gone too, replaced by hardened plates with molten veins glowing between them, while his claws and fangs grew dangerously long.

Compared to him, Arachne’s transformation was surprisingly simple.

Slime had spread across her face before hardening into a mask, leaving narrow openings for her many eyes. Her armor became far more elaborate, gaining a dramatic flair that made her already imposing appearance seem more befitting of the queen she considered herself to be. The final change came when a crown formed atop her head.

Her appearance might’ve changed the least, but her presence certainly hadn’t.

Morvyr could feel it towering over nearly everyone around them. Among those gathered outside the territory, only Bolas and the devils possessed presences stronger than Arachne’s.

Somehow, the Spider Queen had become one of the strongest beings standing there.