Becoming a Monster

Chapter 154: Chapter 154: Threads of The Fallen

Noah’s supernatural speed and terrifyingly oppressiveness was overwhelming, and yet, Ailetta responded to his aggressiveness with open arms and a loving smile.

”Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.” She continued to smile even as Noah’s spider appendages pierced through her body, his claws frantically clawed at the eyes moving around her, and his teeth tore and mauled with every attention to kill.

It wasn’t that Noah didn’t recognize her; he would never forget her voice, nor her new appearance, despite his current state. However, in his mind, Ailetta had died, the person he loved perished right before his eyes. His despair was real, and what he saw was real. He had chosen to give up everything because he believed he had lost her. And now there was ’something’ trying to impersonate her, making a mockery of the very person that he could even say he loved.

His anger was amplified by the revisited memories of despair, a torment so deep that it twisted his every instinct into an inconsolable rage.

But Ailetta didn’t flinch. Her body, though pierced and torn, reformed almost instantly. Her gelatinous mass absorbed the blows without resistance and without pain. The violet energy within her only swirled faster, reacting to the constant reshaping of her form.

”No matter what you become, no matter what you may think of me, you’ll never be able to leave my side again.” Her eyes took on a dangerously obsessive quality with every word while simultaneously her form began to stick to Noah’s attacks, slowing down his advances, if only slightly.

Each word seemed to enrage Noah further into the abyss, his monstrous form growing increasingly feral with every passing moment. No matter how many times he clawed through her body, she just wouldn’t go down, and now his attacks were being resisted. The imposter could not be allowed to live.

Noah’s ferocious growls grew louder, escalating into a deafening roar that shook the very earth beneath them. The air around him crackled with dark energy as his aura began to take on a tangible form, gathering around his mouth with a menacing intensity. The power building within him foretold of an attack so devastating that it threatened to obliterate anything in its path.

For the first time, Ailetta’s expression shifted. Not to one of fear or apprehension, but to the stern, protective gaze of a mother about to admonish her child.

Just as Noah’s monstrous form began to unleash the destructive energy building within him, Ailetta acted decisively. Her body surged forward, expanding rapidly and blocking out the sun as her form grew, casting an immense shadow over the battlefield. Her presence was overwhelming, a towering figure of ever looming darkness that enveloped Noah in an instant.

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In that moment, the battlefield grew still, the destructive power that had threatened to consume everything had completely dissipated the moment Ailetta fully embraced Noah’s figure.

Not too far away, the others stood frozen, paralyzed from the catastrophic amount of mana radiating from that one attack. Even after minutes passed by no one uttered a word or even dared to move, but all eyes locked on a single point.

In place of where Noah had been, there was now a circular sphere, large enough to encompass two people. Yet, it was clear this was no ordinary sphere. Its surface was marred with unsettling, watchful eyes, including one that was staring unblinkingly in their direction, ensuring there was no misunderstanding about its nature.

Their fear made them unable to move, but the allure of the unknown sphere held them captive, preventing them from even considering retreat despite the recent danger. The terror they felt should have sent them running, yet something about the scene kept them rooted to the spot.

But there was one person who was able to not let their tempting curiosity led them to their deaths. Surprisingly, it was Levi, the one who had the most eager anticipation of seeing Noah transform into a monster.

”I’m sure everyone has questions, I have a few myself after what we just witnessed.” Everyone hesitated, their eyes peaked towards the voices while still trying to maintain vision of the sphere. Levi only gaze Noah and Ailetta one more peering, inscrutable glance before turning to everyone else. His expression was grave, yet composed, his demeanor helped to capture the attention of the others quickly.

”You can all stay here and watch their finale, but I, for one, don’t plan to stick around when all of this is over. Those two are now living in two completely different worlds than us, and the world they live in has no room for the little people like us.”

His words were laced with a heavy truth, a truth that was too burdensome for some of them to bear. Their gazes yet again drifted towards both Noah and Ailetta, their thoughts spiraling down different routes, but in the end, they all reached the same conclusion; Levi was right.

Throughout the entire time they have known Noah, he has always been someone who never tried to mix in with anyone, seeing everyone as a nuisance or a potential enemy. His behavior had only grown more extreme as his monstrous traits became more pronounced. The only time he seemed more, human, was when he was interacting with his monsters or Ailetta. The same could be said for Ailetta; she began to distance herself from them more and more after finally being accepted by Noah.

And now that she has become a monster, a literal monster, her behavior, her presence and her personality had completely changed, becoming even more unsettling than what Noah had previously shown all of the times before. Noah had truly become what he had referred to himself by all this time, and no one there could say with certainty if they could ever feel safe being in his presence, especially after seeing him attack Ailetta!

The students’ mixture of gloomy, pensive and despairing expressions made for a heavy sight, but no one mocked them for it.

In the end, everyone was able to catch their bearings, giving one last look towards the daunting sphere before making their way back to the base to begin a journey where they will have no one else to rely on but each other.

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Meanwhile, Ailetta had found herself in a place that shouldn’t be possible, a place that someone would need a specific skill to reach.

It was a realm shrouded in darkness, illuminated only by the radiating light of an individual’s consciousness, or in layman’s terms, the soul.

This was the first time Ailetta was able to see her soul, yet she wasn’t fazed by what she saw. Her soul was now no different than the god-like entity that blessed her with her new transformation. It wasn’t an ordinary soul; in fact, Noah would even be hard pressed to find any other soul throughout their entire realm. Her soul wasn’t made up of a gaseous energy like the rest. Instead, it was a sphere with a tangible substance, no different than the gelatin make-up of her body.

Her soul closely resembled the sphere her body had contorted into when enveloping Noah. The difference lay in the fact that there was just one massive eye, while the rest of its surface was covered with predatory mouths. The violet, translucent gas within its interior glowed even more brightly than before, while tens no, hundreds of tentacles like appendages stretched from its core, stretching and reaching with seemingly no goal, while the ends of each appendage was attached with an eye just as eerie as its main enlarged one.

As she gazed at her soul, Ailetta couldn’t help comparing it to the unspeakable existence from before. The size was incomparable, and the aura manifesting from her soul was like a flashlight compared to the sun-like intensity of her benefactor.

But when she looked over to Noah’s side, where his soul resided, she realized that his soul was even more monstrous than her own. No....it wasn’t exactly ’his’ soul that she was referring to, but rather the entity that resided over it.

The entity was entirely silhouetted, obscured in a way that prevented her from perceiving its full form. However, the mere threat of its silhouette was enough to convey its immense power and significance. The darkness of its outline alone suggested a potential that far exceeded anything she had previously encountered, even beyond the scale of *****

Aietta’s thoughts momentarily stalled even thinking of her benefactor’s name. But she couldn’t maintain her usual demeanor in the presence of that entity. From its silhouette alone, she could make out a titan-like existence that dwarfed both her and Noah’s souls. Unlike their souls, the silhouette maintained a more defined, through inscrutable, shape.

Just looking at it, the entity was like a grotesque fusion of both Fenrir and Arachne, with each feature exaggerated to the extreme. It was impossible to distinguish where the exoskeleton ended, and the fur began. However, she could make out the many limbs extending from its center, spider limbs, but the ends became massive trunks with terrifying claws at its ends.

But the most disturbing feature was its four eyes, arranged in a manner similar to those of a spider, staring down at her. Each eye resembled a sphere of their own, each depicting a different soul.

Ailetta struggled to maintain her composure in the presence of that being, but that’s when she finally took notice of Noah’s soul. It was a massive violet orb, shifting in different shades, flashing and pulsating with erratic energy. Its surface made it appear as though Noah’s entire soul was going through constant, world ending storms, with each flash of energy creating an eruption of crimson energy that would spread out like ripples. These ripples clashed and merged with the violet energy, only to be submerged beneath it before another ripple would set off and repeat the process.

And unlike any soul that could be found in the first realm, Noah’s soul was encircled by two layers of vibrant, glowing rings of alien language that continued to rotate around him. Each ring encompassed half of his sphere, one rotating along its equator at a vertical rotation, while the other horizontal.

His soul was as mesmerizing as it was forbidding. However, Ailetta wasn’t able to appreciate or scrutinize the details of his soul. Hundreds of long black threads were descending towards Noah’s soul. Tens of them had already tethered themselves to Noah’s soul while she could still make out hundreds more slowly making their descent. The areas affected by the threads would become oppressive shades of black, devouring the vibrant energy within and replacing it with an unsettling stillness.

It was as if the very ’life’ that made up Noah’s soul was being siphoned away, or worse, that monstrous entity was attempting to reshape Noah’s soul into its own. The sight triggered something feral within Ailetta. Where she had once wanted to force Noah to make her his tamed creature, she now felt an overwhelming need to do something more, to ensure he wouldn’t lose himself.