Becoming a Monster

Chapter 677: Chapter 676: Heaven Won’t Save You

No one moved to follow God’s warriors as they retreated.

The humans remained where they were, while Noah’s forces made no attempt to close the distance either. Even the two Archons that had stopped their advance retreated to the edge of the Holy Field, leaving the battlefield strangely frozen despite the fight having only just begun.

The only thing that kept the moment from feeling unreal was the muffled screeching still coming from within Noah’s sphere. Every cry that escaped through the raging mana confirmed what everyone had just witnessed: one of God’s warriors had been overwhelmed in a single exchange.

For the humans, that realization struck at the confidence the Church had only just managed to restore. They had entered the battle believing God’s warriors would be the ones capable of confronting the demon, only to watch one disappear into Noah’s attack almost immediately.

Before they could fully process what they had witnessed, a scream erupted from within the Church’s own ranks. Heads turned toward the sound as one of its members collapsed to his knees, his entire body trembling while another agonized cry escaped him.

Dark veins were already spreading across his skin, branching across his face and exposed arms as the flesh around them rapidly deteriorated. Everyone from the Church understood what was happening, but knowing the cost of tethering their souls to God’s warriors hadn’t prepared them for injuries that looked disturbingly similar to demonic corruption.

Several Church members rushed to his side and immediately began healing him, adding even more holy energy to what already filled the field. Their efforts appeared to work at first. The dark veins slowly receded as damaged flesh repaired itself, while the holy water pouring over him helped cleanse the corruption almost as quickly as it appeared.

That balance became harder to maintain as Noah’s sphere continued drawing in mana. The stronger it became, the faster the Potentate trapped within it deteriorated, and the damage transferred through their tether soon began exceeding what the healers could repair. Veins that had only just disappeared spread across the man’s body again, branching farther before the flesh around them could finish healing.

His skin began splitting apart along the spreading corruption, with entire patches blackening before crumbling into ash and washing away in the rain. Holy energy continued restoring whatever it could, only for the newly healed flesh to darken and fall apart seconds later as his screams grew louder.

Eventually, healing him was no longer the only problem. The corruption consuming his body had progressed far enough that the holy energy surrounding him began reacting to the man himself.

Prayers meant to restore his flesh started burning away portions of it instead, while the rain that had helped cleanse the first traces of corruption now purified whatever it touched.

The Church had reached a point where continuing to heal him only exposed him to more of the same energy that was beginning to destroy him.

The Potentate’s deteriorating condition was changing the man faster than their healing could restore him, until there was no longer enough of what the Holy Field recognized as pure for its energy to distinguish him from the corruption consuming his body.

Morvyr stood off to the side just as flabbergasted, though what troubled him was very different from what had shaken the humans. He had followed the entire exchange clearly enough to know what happened, but understanding what he had seen only made it harder to accept how easily Noah had accomplished it.

Was the devil really this strong?

Or was he simply that weak?

Despite Noah not knowing what those beings were, Morvyr understood what they represented almost too well.

Every demon who reached his status or higher was expected to know the identities, strengths, and weaknesses of every one of God’s warriors the humans were capable of calling into their world. Ignorance wasn’t something they could afford when encountering the Church could mean facing any one of them.

And the being Noah had just overwhelmed was one Morvyr would’ve needed everything he had just to fight evenly. Even then, he couldn’t confidently expect to kill it himself. At best, he could hope to injure it badly enough that the damage inflicted upon its summoner eventually became too much for them to survive.

Those warriors were known as Potentates, God’s blades against beings of dark origin. Their abilities were almost entirely devoted to fighting demons and similar creatures, making them far less effective when those same abilities were turned against anything else.

The difference was significant enough that a human comparable to a Potentate in strength could defeat one nine times out of ten. Put a demon of comparable strength in that same fight, and those odds were almost completely reversed.

Yet Noah hadn’t merely overwhelmed one. He had fended off three of them at the same time, stopping two of their attacks without interrupting his own before destroying the third.

The difference between them had never felt more obvious.

—

The Potentate’s screams finally began to fade as the mana caging it grew too violent for even its body to endure. At almost the same moment, the Church member tethered to it gave one final cry before the corruption spreading across his body consumed what little remained.

His deteriorating flesh continued collapsing into ash until even the parts the Church had desperately tried to preserve crumbled away, leaving nothing for their healing to save.

The Potentate followed seconds later. Its physical form broke apart within Noah’s attack, but the soul left behind was untouched by the destruction surrounding it. A portal opened above the battlefield almost immediately, its presence making the destination clear as the soul began rising toward the opening that would return it to Heaven.

Before it could reach the portal, Noah raised his free hand toward the departing soul. Whatever force had been pulling it upward was immediately overcome as he dragged it away from the opening and toward himself instead.

The human features he had revealed before the battle distorted as his jaw dislocated and opened far beyond what its shape should’ve allowed. The Potentate’s soul disappeared into his mouth whole, and Noah’s jaw shifted back into place as he swallowed it in front of everyone watching.

He had no intention of saving that strength for later. If even one of his followers died during this battle while he carried around something that could’ve made him stronger, then keeping the soul for another purpose would become a decision he would regret.

Whatever power the Potentate could give him was more valuable now, while everyone he cared about was still alive to benefit from it.

But strength wasn’t the only reason Noah chose to consume it where everyone could see.

The humans had come here placing their faith in God’s warriors, and Noah wanted them to watch one die before seeing its soul denied the return to Heaven they believed awaited it. By the time he eventually came for them as well, he wanted every person standing across from him to understand that even death will not let them get away from him.

—

The moment the Potentate’s soul was absorbed, another surge of power erupted from Noah. His aura slammed against the Holy Field, and for the briefest moment, the light filling the battlefield flickered.

Within his soul realm, the tree that had become Noah’s dungeon core began growing again. Its branches stretched farther toward his Fallen and vassals while its roots spread toward his tamed creatures, leaving only small gaps between them and the soul cores they had been reaching toward.

Its trunk continued growing upward at the same time. Noah’s soul core had always remained above it, separated from the tree no matter how much it grew, but the power brought by the Potentate’s soul finally allowed the distance between them to disappear.

The moment they touched, energy poured from Noah’s soul core and into the tree. It spread throughout the trunk before something within it began to change, altering the energy before sending it back through the connection it had just formed.

What returned was no longer the same power Noah’s soul core had given it, but an energy directly created by the tree.

The other soul cores began reacting as well. A thin stream of energy was drawn from each of them toward the tree, so faint that the loss was barely noticeable even as the flow continued.

The tree gathered it all within itself, slowly adding to what it had already stored, without giving any indication of what the energy would eventually be used for.

All the while, the small amount of golden energy within the tree slowly grew brighter.

Outside, only moments had passed since Noah swallowed the Potentate’s soul. His eyes glowed as he turned his attention back to the battlefield.

His soul could no longer be considered the same. Not just his soul; his existence had changed after what just happened. He felt as though he was becoming someone else. It was a feeling even stronger than the urges that overtook him whenever it involved making a creature stronger.

Instead, he felt a desire, a calling, not only to devour even more souls, but to collect the ones most suitable for his creatures’ evolution.