Becoming a Monster

Chapter 325: Chapter 325: The Cursed Tree

While Regina was slowly being surrounded by the Hollows, those cursed remnants of humanity, doomed to eternal suffering, the angel could no longer bear witness to her downfall.

Something else had seized her attention. Something far more urgent.

Behind her, the divine fluctuations had grown unstable, violent, even. The energy rolling off the Seraphim was no longer just radiant. It was pervasive, a divine storm that would leave a permanent mark wherever it transcended.

This, she realized, was more important than mourning her mistake.

Regina was already lost.

But the Seraphim... The Seraphim was her only chance at redemption.

If it could carry out its judgment... if it could annihilate the devil before its holy radiance fully took root in the mortal realm, then maybe, just maybe, the Father would forgive her. The summoning, the transgression, the desecration of both realms, perhaps even that could be wiped clean under the light of divine justice.

She could finally see hope again, her hands clasped in front of her as she silently prayed. Yet, during the time she was wishing for a miracle, a dreadful feeling took hold of her. Her body froze in place as her instincts were telling her something far more sinister than even Noah was locked onto her presence, fixated.

The power of that presence was weak, infinitely weaker than the devil that was not confronting the Seraphim. Yet that presence became her entire priority. Because, It was a presence that felt too familiar, and yet the familiarity gave rise to fear, true fear.

She had felt this presence once before, a long time ago when she was able to venture to the deeper parts of heaven where she was first baptized. In the outer edge of the divine garden, locked away by God himself. The cursed tree to have been said to have locked away an evil spirit, the first of its kind, and one that could even threaten the almighty creator.

That tree contained seals made by God himself to prevent the immortal creature inside of it from ever escaping, but even with the seals, none were allowed to approach it. None dared to. Just being near the border of its aura for a prolonged time could corrupt the average angel. Even the Archangels weren’t exempted from its malicious influence.

She remembered how she felt her soul being devoured just teetering on the edge of its boundary.

And that presence was here, and every moment she felt that presence gaining momentum.

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Mysteriously, the Seraphim was unaware of the festering malignant presence, as if the presence was able to mask its vengeful, hungering aura.

And Noah was no different. He wasn’t oblivious to the new energy; to him, the energy held no significance as it does with the angel, especially when that energy didn’t hold a candle compared to the enemy he was facing.

He faced an opponent that was nothing short of perfection. A being that lacked any weakness, a creature purely created for battle, a perfect soldier.

The Seraphim was a creature that didn’t belong in this world. Its very existence defied reason. When Noah merged with Ailetta, his strength had surged, an amplification of two powers becoming more than the sum of their parts.

But the same could not be said for the Seraphim.

It hadn’t simply combined with something else; it had ascended. Without warning, it summoned seven rings, each ring composed of seven orbs, glowing with holy destruction.

If Noah and Ailetta’s fusion could be seen as one plus one becoming two, then the Seraphim’s fusion was something far greater, a leap to five, impossible by all natural laws. The disparity in their power was staggering.

As the Seraphim prepared to unleash its attack, an act of divine annihilation that dwarfed anything Noah had ever conjured, the crushing oppression of its aura descended. It became a living hell, suffocating Noah and his creatures, attempting to erode their will to fight before the battle had even begun.

Despite the overwhelming disparity, Noah wasn’t going to give up, not when his family’s life was at stake. His body worked like a hive mind, waves of tentacles not only sprouted from his body, but also the remaining domain he had pooled around him. These appendages shot out to his creatures while the others were rotated in front of him, positioned in a way that they formed a circle the size of his body.

A hand reached out, one that suddenly materialized his staff that was instantly flooded with mana to unleash its ability to upgrade not only his but also all of his connected creatures’ abilities by two.

With this buff, his body glowed in different shades as he empowered himself more than he ever had before. But once wasn’t enough.

The light spiked again, a second overwhelming surge finally empowered him just enough to forcibly diminish the Seraphim’s divine energy that continued to threaten their existence. The same surge cascaded into his creatures, empowering them enough to withstand the ”hellish” energy that continued to burn at their body and soul.

Through his merger with Ailetta, mana was no longer a barrier. Both of their magical attributes became a huge reservoir that contained enough mana to empty out his normal reserves at least four times.

His desperate actions continued. Thirteen tentacles formed in front of him; each one began to release a dangerous energy that formed in the center of the circle. The energy was extremely concentrated but not controlled, instantly turning into a vortex of unrestrained power.

Noah wasn’t surprised, nor did he falter. He didn’t have the luxury of fear.

A third hand emerged from his body as he placed two palms near the turbulent energy. The moment he began to pour and intentionally manipulate the energy, the turret of energy transformed, then exploded outward into a size much larger than he had ever created before. It towered over his body. He didn’t know if this could damage the seraphim, let alone if the attack could thwart the beams of energy that was about to be released upon them. But it would have to be enough.

”Arachne, come!” Noah’s voice shouted behind him.

Fenrir and Kratos froze mid-step, their resolve faltering for a moment. Had they misheard? Why call only her? They were ready to lay down their lives at his side, and yet—

Arachne didn’t hesitate.

She moved the instant her name was called. She didn’t need to understand. She didn’t even care. Her instincts screamed that Noah was in danger, her skill’s constant alarm making her heart tremble with urgency. That was enough.

Noah would’ve preferred not to face a creature like the Seraphim alone, but the truth was harsh. None of them, not even Fenrir, could survive this confrontation individually. Their strength, no matter how loyal or ferocious, was rendered meaningless against something that denied their existence simply by standing there. If they remained, he would spend more energy protecting them than fighting back.

The moment Arachne arrived by his side; her body was suddenly covered in a white veil of energy. The veil quickly embodied her entire figure until she became no different than the figure of white energy that quickly was absorbed into him.

His new skill ’Living Archive’ instantly took effect as he stored Arachne into him. He didn’t gain her mana, nor did he gain any enhancements to his strength, but that was irrelevant to the skill’s true uses.

The moment Arachne’s essence joined his, his form that was already created in a visage of devil overlord, now had become more solidified in its form. Slime turned into a glistening set of armor that seemed to even absorb the Seraphim’s holy light.

Then it happened.

A violet glow radiated from the countless eyes formed by the slime that long coated his domain.

That same energy enveloped the seraphim. However, it only functioned to form a thin layer around its already potent barrier that was always surrounding it. It wasn’t able to break through the barrier. But it didn’t need to. The layer grew smaller, not by a lot, but the effect showed.

It wasn’t able to interrupt the seraphim’s attack; it barely did anything as the 49 energy balls only dimmed slightly.

However, the impact of the spell wasn’t the seraphim, it was Noah.

What Noah gained from the seraphim wasn’t a portion of its magical properties, but its spirit. And the moment he received the backlash from absorbing it, the energy ball nearly doubled in size in an instant. The influx proved just how much spirit the creature had compared to Noah’s own.

The power Noah gained propelled him to finish the attack just in time. The barrage of divine beams descended. Each beam homed in on him as if they were locked onto his every position, all threatening to wipe him from existence.

Noah responded in kind, releasing the giant planetary sphere.

And before the two powers clashed, Noah activated wrathful fury, along with two skills that formed a barrier around every part of him, including his domain.

His domain stirred, before rising up as if it became a wall that nearly reached the ceiling. He never planned for his attack to harm the creature, he just needed to understand the Seraphim’s power.

If he could survive, then that meant one thing. He still has a chance to win.