Becoming a Monster

Chapter 244: Chapter 244: Eve and Ailetta’s Deal

As soon as they left the forest, there was a noticeable amount of zombies around the area already. Unlike humans, who were smart enough to not make a lot of noise at night, the creatures within the forest were not as cautious, their screeches and foraging for food at night continued to attract the attention of nearby undead.

With that being said, the constant sounds should have become a beacon, drawing a massive amount of them in. And yet, the amount of zombies wasn’t comparable to the common sense of how many should actually be there. The reason didn’t escape Noah, for zombies, their only goal was to eat and feed on humans, at least that was the common consequence he had gathered over the last few days.

Their behavior made sense to him, zombies originated from humans, and their cores were only corrupted essence of their former selves, making other human cores exactly fertilizer for their growth. There may be more to it than Noah was aware of, but the limited information was enough for him to understand the current scene.

His eyes roamed the surrounding streets, nearly fifty different zombies were spread out. Some idled aimlessly, their movements slow and purposeless, as though they were trapped in an endless loop of their undead existence. Others, however, were far more animated, their heads snapping toward the sounds emanating from the forest. Their movements erratic, not able to pinpoint where the noise was coming from or which direction of noise to focus on.

Yet, for some reason, they never entered the forest.

Noah narrowed his eyes at this peculiar behavior. The forest should have been a perfect lure for them. ”Strange,” he muttered under his breath. He turned to look at the forest with a different perspective. His Nexus eyes glowing brighter than before in an attempt to uncover this mystery. And yet all he saw was the small tendrils of mana emitting from each and every tree.

With his curious mind, once he noticed the peculiarities he was sure to decipher enough information from what he had to come up with his own theories, right or wrong about the situation. His thoughts were already turning in high gear when his eyes picked up on the movements of something in the air, closing in close to the ground, but not in their direction. The movement quenched his budding curiosity temporarily, the identity of what the thing was much more important than his questions.

From the spread of the creature’s figure, he could instantly tell it was a bird. The size of it was massive, and yet it wasn’t what grabbed his attention. Even now, as he saw the bird swooping down, he couldn’t pick up on the sounds of its wings. Its descent went unnoticed, even by his own creatures until its figure approached into eyesight.

Noah watched in a somewhat daze, looking at the only features that exemplified its silhouette, its large yellow beady eyes that left nothing out of its gaze. The bird that Noah identified as an evolved owl seemed to sense his gaze, its eyes darted towards Noah, but its descent continued unfettered.

The prey it had in its sights didn’t stand a chance, what was more intriguing was the fact that its prey happened to be one of the zombies prowling the streets, a small zombie, but a zombie that had clearly evolved. A guttered growl was picked up from the zombie the moment its body was snatched by talons that were as large as Eve’s body before the sound of the zombies’ instinctive cries disappeared along with the owl, returning towards the forest.

”I don’t recall seeing any birds in the forest when we were there.” Ailetta, although surprised by the sudden event, was even more curious about her sudden revelation.

Unlike her, Fenrir remained motionless, his gaze locked on the forest where the owl had vanished. His eyes glinted with frustration; the thought of prey being stolen right before his eyes visibly unsettling him. His claws dug into the ground as he growled low, though he made no move to pursue.

”Spiders,” Instead of Noah having to clarify, one word from Arachne was able to clear up Ailetta’s thoughts. Currently, Arachne wasn’t in a mood to provide an in-depth explanation, her mood was somber, and her body was now completely tense. She prided herself on her awareness, yet the owl had escaped her notice until it had already claimed its prize. Although she believed that her ability would be able to sense it if it targeted her or Noah, what about the others?

While the others found the sudden event to be food for thought, someone else didn’t forget the reason for their outing.

”Come!” The cheerful glee from Eve brought their attention towards her. The silver glow within her eyes was shining ever so brightly. All this time her attention was only set on the zombies in the surrounding area, her thoughts were fully centered on the deal she made with Ailetta. As long as she helped her big sister get easy kills, she was promised a portion of Ailetta’s share of cores when Noah turned them into enriched delicacies. Her mouth subconsciously watered at the thought as the zombies in the vicinity came towards them, forgetting about the most important part of their deal.

”Grrr...” The dazed smile on her face grew as the zombies closed in, but then the little zombie saw someone stepping in front of her. Seeing who it was, Eve’s face scrunched up, her little mouth snarling instinctively, showcasing her small cannibalistic teeth. ”Big meanie, they’re mine!”

Despite the absurdity of her outburst, the towering ball of fur that stood before her, actually froze in his tracks. His sharp eyes glanced back at her, a low growl rumbling in his throat, though he didn’t move a muscle closer to the prey.

For all his primal instincts and overwhelming strength, there was an unspoken rule he and Arachne had lived by since they first followed Noah: My kill, my meal. It was a mantra ingrained deeply into their newfound lives, almost like scripture in their quietly burgeoning faith, with Noah as their undisputed deity. Breaking such a rule, even for something as trivial as a few zombies, seemed almost sacrilegious.

Fenrir’s tail flicked once, his restraint evident in his posture as he slowly stepped aside, giving the little zombie her space.

Eve smirked, her chest puffing out proudly at her victory. ”Hmph!” She snorted, though her supposed demeanor was retaliated with an even stronger snort from Fenrir, his sharp gust of air exhaled from his nose caused the little zombie to stagger forward. Her motor skills still weren’t the best, one of the cruxes of being a zombie, her arms weirdly flailed, leaving her to almost fall if it wasn’t for Ailetta who caught her with an extended tentacle.

”Hey!” she whined, spinning around to glare at him, her cheeks indignantly puffed up.

Fenrir looked down at the little zombie, his glowing eyes narrowing with what could only be described as amusement. His lips twitched, exposing just a hint of his terrifyingly sharp teeth, and for a moment, it seemed like the monstrous wolf was...grinning.

”Now, now,” Ailetta squeezed at Eve’s cheeks, reverting the pent-up zombie’s frustration. ”Don’t forget what we discussed.” As her tentacle morphed into a hand now slightly ruffled Eve’s hair. Eve instantly quieted down after those words, watching Ailetta as she took a step forward. Her body began to bubble and stretch in every direction, within seconds, tens of slime’s separated from her, each displaying their rows of sharp chattering teeth. Their eyes instinctively gazed towards Ailetta, seemingly seeking her approval before they diverge towards the hurdled cluster of zombies.

Noah watched intently, he was unsure what Ailetta was planning, believing that the slimes were only useful for controlling corpses. He assumed the slimes were going to attempt to take control of the zombies despite being ”alive”, but his theory was squashed the moment the first slime reached the first zombie. Its slime visage approached the zombies head, slightly hovering around it, its actions were as if it was sizing it enough before the unexpected occurred. Its small eerie mouth stretched, expanding to the point that almost its entire slime body was a mouth. And without falter, it bit into the zombie’s head.

Ding*

Its teeth easily penetrated through the zombie’s head, but as it attempted to breach through its skull, its teeth were met with resistance. The scene was different from when the mouths would rip through creatures during the times they were in the process of controlling a corpse. During those times, the corpse body and mana was supplying the slime with enough strength to not only apply pressure but to also empower its terrifying teeth to eat through almost anything.

But as they were now, without the appropriate support of a corpse or the additional supply of Ailetta’s mana, the slime’s teeth could only repeatedly chip away at the zombie’s skull before it could penetrate through it. The same scene was happening with the others. The moment one of the slimes succeeded, it would then proceed to merge with the current corpse, using this opportunity to merge with another corpse, and then another.

In the end, Ailetta was left with not one entity created from the merger of her babies, but two. Judging from the slime abomination’s appearance, it was clear to Noah what Ailetta planned with Eve.