Becoming a Monster

Chapter 156: Chapter 156: Final Stand of The Soul

With her tendrils securing its place on Noah’s soul, Ailetta eagerly worked through the pain. Her soul began to not only integrate with Noah’s but secure a place within his soul as its own.

_______

”You belong to me now, Noah. And I...belong to you...body and soul.”

Ailetta’s now half diminished soul gradually began to retreat from Noah. Her slime appendages that were tethered to his soul, slowly released their hold. But as she distanced herself, her vision contained two different scenes. On one hand, she now looked upon Noah’s soul, a soul that was essentially the same as before, but now, within the blazes of his violet and crimson energy, shimmering white lights began to emerge within the mix, pulsating strongly throughout the areas that were being affected by the entity residing above him.

Those lights radiated with a purifying intensity, eroding the dark patches that encumbered him. And through his notable changes, Ailetta was most pleased with the most visible change of them all.

A large, distinct eye was looking back at her, an eye completely identical to her own. The area around the eye was made up of the same energies surrounding Noah’s soul, but now, a quarter of the surface area of his soul had become a more tangible substance. It was that of an elastic material, a characteristic reminiscent of Ailetta’s gelatin form. If his energy was like the ocean, then the area Ailetta inhabited was its land.

And within that eye, Ailetta shared its vision, watching her other half recede into the distance, since now her soul and the soul within Noah were now one and the same.

She could now feel everything that he felt, while also having the capability to control and manipulate those feelings, which was easier said than done. Any control over Noah’s soul wouldn’t be possible without the necessary strength, but that was never her goal from the start.

”Now, what’s your next move?” Her gaze went towards the entity that was no longer showing any lapse of pain. Its ominous presence seemed to stabilize, as if it no longer harbored a grudge against the earlier attack. Now, it seemed to be recalculating, assessing both Ailetta and Noah, and weighing its options. For a moment, it appeared as though it might lash out, but instead, it sent hundreds of its tiny threads towards them, seemingly probing the newly merged soul to see if it still was able to root its influence.

”Oh no you don’t! As if I would still let you have him.” Aietta’s symbiotic soul began to stretch, influencing the surface of the rest of Noah’s soul and creating a thin but firm membrane that was able to influence the outer surface of his soul. It acted as a protective layer against the threads. Each thread still inevitably attached itself as it anchored down, but instead of attaching directly to Noah’s soul, the threads found themselves latching onto the membrane Ailetta had formed.

Seeing this, Ailetta was pleased, believing she had best the creature. But then her entire soul shook. Her one eye glazed over, and any thoughts circulating in her mind were instantly erased. In their place, she felt power, power so feral and potent that her thoughts were only consumed with the instinct to become one with that power. At the same time, she was filled with that desire, her consciousness began to desire to take over Noah’s soul for her own.

And just as her instincts were prepared to act on those desires, the tendrils stopped. Every single thread unlatched itself from Ailetta, which was followed by a roar from the entity above. It was enraged, its sharp pitch threatened to destroy everything, yet at the same time, the roar held a hint of desperateness.

The roar helped Ailetta’s mind to recover. Dread filled her existence when she was able to recall what she was about to do. The confidence she had to protect Noah was almost entirely snuffed out of her, especially as she realized that what she was about to do was far worse than the actions of the entity.

But before she could reprimand herself for her weakness and seek an alternative, a change occurred in Noah’s soul.

”Noah? Noah, what’s wrong?” Ailetta tried to communicate with Noah’s soul, but there was no response.

”Why is this happening?” she asked herself, fear consuming her as she felt the power of Noah’s soul dwindling. The life of his soul was becoming stagnate, while even the pulsations and the ripples of his once potent energies were now becoming almost lifeless.

At the same time Noah was experiencing the change, the realm began to shake. The darkness that comprised its world began to crack, and violet rays began to shine through the cracks, as if Noah’s existence was on the verge of collapsing.

”You! Why are you doing this?? How does killing him benefit you?” Ailetta raged, but her voice was almost pleading. Her usually quirky personality crumbled at the threat of Noah’s existence ending.

The entity didn’t respond with words of its own. Instead, its threads once again descended down, this time they descended with a speed and urgency unlike before.

Seeing this, Ailetta wanted to interfere again, but then a voice within her mind made her falter.

”Foolish child, we were both wrong...” The entity residing inside her spoke cryptically. ”Your lover and that being are now one and the same. They need to be connected if you want to save him.”

Ailetta dazedly starred as she took in the voice’s words. ”No!” She vehemently denounced the idea. ”How is this any different than what we were trying to stop? Either way, I’ll still lose Noah. There has to be another way. I’d rather both of us die together than let that thing have its way.”

Her declaration fermented within her a resolve that helped to resist her rising fear as she looked defiantly towards the threads, staring death right in the face.

”And this is why I call you foolish, child...” The voice echoed again, resigned in its tone. ”You forget that your soul is split in two. Only this soul will die, but you will still be alive. However, you’ll probably no longer be of much use to me.” A hidden warning was mixed in with the voice’s reminder, leaving Ailetta at a loss of what to do.

Within that momentary distraction, the threads began to latch onto Noah’s soul once more. Upon that realization, Ailetta’s dejected spirit reignited. ’That’s right...” she thought to herself as the Eye attached to Noah’s soul began to sink, its form slowly receding into Noah’s soul. ”Then I’d rather sacrifice this soul to give Noah the strength to fight back.” She vowed to herself; no doubt was left in her mind to her self-sacrifice.

”Even if you were to do that, you would be essentially betraying our deal...If you have no use to me, then I’ll have no choice but to devour the rest of your soul.”

”Then it’s yours! Ailetta retorted fiercely. ”I sacrificed all my soul so I can be by Noah’s side instead of always trailing behind him while he leaves me further behind. If I can sacrifice my soul for him, then obviously I’m prepared to do it again.”

This time, the voice no longer responded. With the entity residing over everything, it was impossible for her to retrieve the half of Ailetta’s soul that had already tethered itself to Noah’s; all she could do now was observe.

As the threads from the entity latched onto Noah’s soul, Ailetta’s resolve was fully set on giving up everything if that meant Noah could live on without succumbing to the entity’s influence.

Her consciousness within her soul began to waver; the link between her two souls were on the brink of being fully disconnected. But just as her soul was almost fully submerged under the clouds of Noah’s energy, she felt a strong resistance pushing her back to the surface.

__________

All this time, since the moment Ailetta had merged her soul with his, Noah’s consciousness was awakened, however he struggled to make sense of everything. He couldn’t understand why he could feel Ailetta’s presence or the feelings of her emotions, which felt so strikingly real.

His soul was once again about to slip into a deep slumber after being disconnected from the entity, unaware that his slumber would lead to his death. At that moment, his very essence was filled with an emotion so potent, so driven that his consciousness could no longer doubt the presence anymore. And through that presence, he felt Ailetta’s resolve, a resolve that filled Noah with a heavy sense of loss and loneliness. The resolve grew stronger as he felt her warmth, which grew more comforting with each passing moment. But Noah rejected it; he could feel that the moment he accepted her warmth, that he would lose her again, he wasn’t going to let that happen.

”Noah?” Ailetta exclaimed after realizing what happened, but her tone was conflicted. Instead of being happy about his awakening, she now feared that Noah would continue to resist her. ”Don’t stop me Noah, I’m doing this for y-”

”I don’t care.” Noah interrupted her, his commanding tone was both filled with an icy touch and yet it was vulnerable. ”From the moment you had got me to finally accept you, your life was no longer your own.”

Following his words, the white of the soul began to pulsate with a blinding luster, however his aura remained in its pitiful state while his turbulent energy remained still.

But a powerful aura was still released, just not from his soul. The two wings of alien symbols began to rotate with a speed so fast that the alien symbols became streaks of green beams of energy. Afterimages of the rings began to appear, forming an illusionary cage with Noah’s soul at its center.

A translucent green energy field then encased Noah’s soul completely, while also firmly holding the entity’s threads in place.

The change provoked a furious roar from the entity. At the cusps of where its threads and the supernatural cage touched, it could feel a heavy suppression, almost as if a limiter was placed on it.

Ailetta couldn’t follow what was going on, but there was someone who did.

”Interesting...your lover is much more interesting than you are, looks like you’ll still be useful to me after all.”

”What? What is it? what did he do?” Ailetta wanted answers, but the voice inside her was no longer willing to speak.

Although she didn’t want to interrupt him, she voiced to Noah, wanting to know if there was anything she could do.

”This guy thinks he owns the place, but with this I’ll become the one who dictates when we benefit from each other.”

”But that’s not telling me an-”

”Le..Wait for me outside.”

”What? What do you mea-”

Each time she tried to get a word out, she was only met with Noah’s firm commanding tone, as if he had everything under his control. And before she was even aware of the possibility, she found herself back into the real world, her form retransition itself from its spherical cell that had entrapped Noah.

She could only watch Noah peacefully lying on the ground. His body, different from the monstrous version he once was. But instead of scrutinizing his features, Ailetta was brooding about what just happened.

”Hmph! I can’t believe you kicked me out.” She seemingly pouted, but the wide smiles of her mouths showed how happy she was to have Noah back.