Becoming a Monster

Chapter 267: Chapter 267: Revenants Conspiracies

The transformation was taking even longer to finish than Arachne’s had. During the time waiting, no one had taken their eyes off the swirling vortex of mana.

Standing by Noah’s side, Fenrir and Arachne had both gathered in front of him, their hostile figures both staring vigilantly towards the energy. Noah wasn’t able to make them stand down, he knew that it wasn’t necessarily Eve herself that the two viewed with such aggressive intensity, it was the energy itself. It wasn’t just mana; the energy gave the impression of a presence that was clearly felt but not there.

Noah felt the same, in fact, he was the only one that was able to see a silhouette of that very presence within the vortex. His eyes never left the figure, scrutinizing what its identity was.

The longer Noah observed, the more he realized that the silhouette was more than just an abstract manifestation of energy, the silhouette never once looked his way, but he could tell that the figure was observing, inspecting Eve’s body. It was as if the figure was appraising Eve, as though it was deciding something important.

”Noah? Shouldn’t we do something?” Ailetta asked, her gaze fixed in the same direction as the silhouette. Although she wasn’t able to see it, she couldn’t resist using Noah’s Nexus eye to see what Noah was staring at so intently if he wasn’t going to keep her informed.

”....I don’t think we can do anything right now, and we might not need to.” Noah muttered, his gaze traveling from the figure to Eve’s. ”My bond with Eve hasn’t changed at all...whatever that thing is, it shouldn’t be a problem...hopefully.”

Ailetta’s eyes furrowed towards the end, she couldn’t help giving Noah a look over before helplessly shaking her head.

”This is just like you, but...” Her eyes glistened, the thought of losing Eve tugged at the last few sentimental feelings she still held. ”What if sh-”

”Nothing will go wrong,” Noah quickly voiced, his tone was that of a person who had no doubt whatever. But as if on cue, another change occurred.

The grimoire that Eve always kept by her side began to levitate into the air. It continued to float until it reached the front of the invisible figure, and it was then that the figure finally showed a hint of life.

Its hands cusped the suspended grimoire as if it was actually able to physically touch it, and it was that action that seemed to be the trigger that expedited the transformation.

The deathly vortex spun even faster; this time the majority of the mana began to funnel itself into the book while the partial energy that was left was pulled into Eve. The chaotic energy began to stabilize, leaving the others to see what had become of the two.

Eve’s body laid motionless on the ground; from a distance it didn’t seem as if anything had changed about her. It was Diablo who showed the most drastic changes.

The abnormal skeleton now looked even more threatening. No longer was Diablo just a naked depiction of bones. He now easily stood a foot taller than before, while mysteriously its body was adorned with sinisterly gothic pieces of armor that had skulls embedded in its design, while ragged linen seemingly merged with him, giving him a more warrior-like appearance.

From an initial perspective, one was to be made to believe that the armor was magically summoned or created, but as one continued to observe, they would notice that the color of the metal was the same color as his skeletal figure.

His body stood straight and domineering, while around his body, wisp of black fire burned, causing the reflection of the miasmic energy to permanently illuminate his body under the darkness of the night.

In his grasp, Diablo now held a massive physical sword made out of dark metal. Small wisp of energy seeped from the blade, eventually merging back within the weapon. The shield he normally wielded was the only factor that remained unchanged, but because of his new form, the shield now looked like an ordinary sized shield while in his hands.

Despite Diablo’s drastic change, Noah’s gaze only lingered on him for half a breath before he moved towards Eve. All the while, his Nexus Eye remained on the invisible figure still floating in the air while the grimoire continued to absorb the last bit of energy.

Even as Noah made it to Eve’s side, he noticed that the silhouette never turned its attention towards him, as if Noah’s existence meant little to it, or maybe, it was just because the grimoire required its full attention.

Kneeling besides Eve, Noah carefully examined her. Her eyes were completely opened, her gaze locked on the figure entirely as if in a trance. The third eye was no exception, while each eye gave Noah’s presence no sense of acknowledgement.

With her fully opened gaze, besides the extreme paleness of her skin, Noah quickly took notice of her eyes. The white energy that made up her third eye was replaced by an eerie red glow. It was now a cluster of gaseous energy that was made of thousands of wisps of both black and red energy. Her other two eyes were now completely different: one was the same violet hue that shared its connection with Noah, while the other was an intense blood red that was devoid of a pupil.

Noah’s sharp gaze took in the subtle changes to Eve’s appearance, small but significant differences. Yet, his eyes locked onto something peculiar. His hand instinctively reached for her mouth, gently lifting her lip. What he found there sent a jolt through him, a canine, no different from a fang. His thoughts instantly flashed back to the silhouette in the vortex. Only one creature crossed his mind after noticing the two distinct traits: a vampire.

Noah couldn’t understand. If the figure was a vampire and was merely transforming Eve’s body into that of a vampire, then his confusion would be unwarranted. However, it was the figure’s suspicious attention towards the grimoire that was meant for zombies that unsettled him.

Somewhere a deep foreboding began to fill in the doubt in his heart. More and more he began to entertain a theory that didn’t quite make any sense, even now. But the more the figure devoted attention to the book, the more his conspiracy took root.

”Revenants,” a name that Noah couldn’t forget. It was a name that was supposed to be the true labels given to zombies. It was a term that had different meanings, but in the end, the undead met the fundamental essence of a revenant. And what of vampires? vampires were no different than the undead.

”What if zombies were evolving to potentially become vampires all this time?” The more his reasoning began to make sense, the more he felt that he was going away from the truth. None of this would explain the reason for the zombie’s current existence, nor did it clarify situations like Fenrir’s, at least, not in a way he could make sense of at the moment.

It was as if he had pieces to the puzzle, and the more he placed them together it felt as if he was assembling the wrong one entirely.

Noah’s never-ending thoughts were put to an end when Eve’s body finally stirred. Her eyes were still staring into the air, but her body was moving to stand. As she stood up, the grimoire also began to descend, and with it, the silhouette had merged into it.

The book gently floated down while Eve stretched out her hands to catch it, but just as the grimoire was about to land in her hands, its descent stopped, floating magically above her palms.

No contact was made with it before the grimoire released a burst of the same black energy. Its pages flipped endlessly back and forth without a hint of stopping. That energy traveled through the air unbelievably fast, zooming past Noah and continuing to head the direction down the street that they came from.

”Dummy?” Noah questioned, seeing that the destination it was going towards was Dummy, still hunched over a body that was picked almost completely clean. At the last minute, the energy changes its course at the last moment. It maneuvered around the dumbstruck creature, enveloping the skeletal remains, lifting them into the air as it brought it back.

The bones were being infused with the energy as they gathered themselves in front of Eve, eventually reassembling themselves piece by piece. the skulls clicked in place, in rapid time, the appearance of a fully formed skeleton was standing in place.

But it wasn’t just a simple reconstruction. The bones began to merge with each other, each bone melded with one another, eventually the bones began to smooth and round out. They took on the appearance of skin, pure white skin that was still being infused with the dark energy that led its ”skin” to become completely black.

Throughout all of this, only the skeleton’s face was still completely white, but its face held the most abnormal changes. The middle of its forehead cracked open, the cracks forming a line straight down, while another crack formed horizontally halfway in between. As the cracks widened, they twisted, their jagged edges splitting apart to reveal an eye.

At the same time the eye was unraveling, the skeletons’ other two eyes were being filled with something red. It wasn’t the same as Diablo’s red gems, the red in this case was something physical. It was as if the skeleton was gaining actual eyes. The red continued to grow until its entire sockets were filled. By the time they filled, the third eye had fully emerged. Each eye eerily resembling the same as Eve.

As the changes continued, dark lines began to appear at the corners of the jaw, and they stretched outward like veins, extending to the edges of the skull. The changes were subtle at first, but as the lines spread, they were joined by a sharp contraction of the jaw. The once angular face now became sharper, thinner, its features no longer fitting with a typical skeleton.

And by the time its mouth was done stretching, its jaws loosened, exposing the two rows of razor-sharp teeth; and just like Eve, the skeleton had four fangs, much longer, curvier, and more dangerous than Eve’s.

The skeleton’s mouth kept opening and closing, leaving its four fangs exposed. The foreboding in Noah’s heart grew to unprecedented levels as he watched the entire transformation develop.

As he watched the skeletons head eventually begin to sprout thin pieces of sheet white strains of hair from its exposed scalp, his hands twitched dangerously. The idea of destroying the skeleton was overwhelming his mind. He had no other reason to not believe that the skeleton in front of him was the figure from before attempting to revive itself.