Becoming a Monster

Chapter 341: Chapter 341: Beyond the Design

Peace. That was the first thing Noah felt. Peace from the thoughts hiding in the back of his mind that still contemplated if what he was doing was right. The slight fear of the urges that would bubble within him, urges that whispered for him to take actions he wasn’t ready for, things he kept convincing himself were wrong.

Now, there was nothing left within him to fight against.

When he opened his eyes, he came upon the scene of the seraphs kneeling, not from respect, but by force. These seemingly mindless creatures looked towards him in fear, a concept he once believed they were devoid of.

He studied them.

What were they afraid of?

Is it me? Noah sensed their fearful gazes directed towards him. Were they afraid because he broke their illusion? No, he didn’t believe that was the case. Their fear was something deeper than a reaction to his actions alone. It was as if they feared his very existence.

”Noah, you still haven’t realized it yet, have you?”

At the sound of her voice, he turned to see Ailetta standing there. He didn’t think about how she was here when she was supposedly inside of him; with a smile so inviting that Noah almost lost himself in it. He wanted to embrace her, to show how grateful he was just to have her by his side. But he couldn’t ignore the implications of what she said.

”...Realize what exactly?”

She didn’t answer at first. Her gaze fell to his body, eyes drifting slowly, showing admiration, intrigue...lust...

”That you’ve changed...”

Change?

It was then he realised that it wasn’t just clarity he obtained after destroying that false world. His body had changed.

The moment he looked down to his arms his vision became tunneled on shackles that resided on both of his arms. The shackles only covered his wrist. Each cuff was etched thoroughly with pulsing green runes no different from the ones protecting his soul.

As he looked at the cuffs, he didn’t view them as shackles at all. They didn’t restrict his freedom, his powers, or his train of thought. At least the restriction wasn’t noticeable enough for him to feel caged.

In fact, they felt...just right.

The green runes throbbed with a faint rhythm, almost like a heartbeat. His heartbeat. He could only imagine that whatever the cuffs were protecting him from had something to do with the entity inside of him, and their protection was linked to his life. If the runes were protecting his soul, then maybe the cuffs were protecting his body.

Seeing the cuffs made him curious to what other changes surfaced, but before he could check the rest of his body, the sight of his arms made him realize that his physical appearance had changed in more ways than he expected.

His exoskeleton was completely gone. What remained was bare skin; if he could even call it skin. His skin was completely black, no different than the darkness of his slime. And underneath his skin, subtly glowing was violet veins.

Without the exoskeleton, there was no longer a monstrous bulk to his form. His body was refined, a perfected version of himself in a twisted ominous sense.

Now, his urge to see the rest of his body’s changes heightened to the point he no longer cared about the seraphs in front of him.

Subconsciously he created a creature that was unique similar to Ailetta’s abyssal slimes. A circular slime without a mouth, but embedded with one single eye, an eye that Noah found similar to his own, but also different. The violet of his eyes were always vibrant, but the slime’s eye was practically glowing, almost mesmerizing. And in the center of its eye was a pupil that made his own appear ordinary. A pupil that was no different from a planetary star. Noah’s eyes narrowed as he scrutinized it, it was all too familiar, because he had seen it many times before.

The pupil was a combination of shades of three specific colors. Violet, red...and black. These shades spiraled within the slime pupil, moving as if it was alive. And in the very depths of the revolving energies, there lay a pinpoint of white. It was buried within the three constant overlapping energies.

”Is that?” Noah was quick to catch on. His mind entered the soul realm to confirm. And there it was. The slime pupil was an almost exact copy of his soul.

He returned to the real world with a silent breath, though it was now that he realized something else about him was different. A change that was perhaps more startling than the slime’s eye.

Slowly, his hand made its way up to his face. His hand cautiously caressed the area where his mouth should be, only to meet nothing.

No lips, no skin, no warmth. Only a cold, smooth void.

The discovery should’ve made him afraid, should’ve sent his thoughts spiraling in panic, questioning what he had become. But Noah took in the change calmly. In fact, the absence only made him more curious.

His gaze directed towards the slime that hovered in front of him. With just a thought, he connected with it. Through the slime he could feel what it felt, and he could see what it saw.

And when he directed its gaze to his own, he saw himself for what he was.

His face had become something that was beyond what could be described as a human, and... a monster.

Shadow clung to his face. Flesh so dark it consumed the light, creating the illusion of a hole in the world, an endless abyss where a face should be. The features he once wore had been replaced by a haunting silhouette, and in the center of this void were four eyes no different than the eyes reflecting from his slime.

It was as if his body could no longer decide what he was... and so it stopped trying.

But perhaps the truth was more sinister. Perhaps there was no confusion.

Perhaps this darkness was his true face now.

And everything else... was the mask.

That thought should’ve broken him. Once it would have. Once, the idea of losing all semblance of who he once was would’ve sent him clawing through the wreckage of his soul.

But that boy was gone, and the Noah standing in his place wasn’t mourning him.

Noah tilted his head slightly as he studied the rest of himself. His hair was almost as dark as his fast. Threads of shadow shifting freely past his face, disappearing when overlapping with its darkness. The strands shifted, moving without the presence of wind, as if they had a will of their own.

He moved on to the rest of his body. He noticed it when he craned his neck.

It was the same as his wrist. A cuff, bigger than the others, was placed around it. But it didn’t feel stifling at all. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t come up with a clear reason for their existence. But because of the green runes, he comforted himself with his earlier theory.

His torso, as well as the rest of his body was lean now, a body that appeared as if it was sculpted, wrapped in smooth, blackened skin that reflected faintly under the light.

But as he viewed his body, he noticed his naked self. Momentarily he wondered where his clothing disappeared to.

As he thought about the armored exoskeleton he once wore, slime gushed out of every cone of his body. It slid and shifted across his skin, forming individual parts of armor that seamlessly connected with each other to form armor that he envisioned himself having when living through his novels.

And just as easily as he created the armor in a matter of seconds, he felt that he could create any manner of clothing with just a thought. Clothing that would have the same defensive properties as the other, only differing by the amount of mana he inputted.

In fact, he felt that his control over his body was smoother than it ever had been before.

However, there was someone watching him whose gaze was astonished beyond measure. Not of his appearance, and not of his ability to create armor with unnatural grace.

But it was because of the slime he created.

Ailetta stood almost frozen, her human lips parted slightly while her eyes flickered with disbelief. The paralysis lasted only for a moment before she found herself already passing Noah, investigating the slime he created.

”Noah?” She hesitated in her question, but her hesitation was easily noticed, causing Noah to withdraw his self reflection. He looked at her with a questioning gaze as she pointed towards the slime still floating around him.

”How did you make this?”

Noah blinked, looking at the slime floating calmly beside him. He felt as if he was misunderstanding something. Why was she flustered about something so insignificant?

”Of course I can do this if you have this abili.....ty...” His words trailed off, his eyes enlightening as he finally caught on to the implication.

What he did was no different than what Ailetta was always capable of doing. But...Noah doesn’t have the skill, nor was Ailetta still merged with him.

And when he thought about that, really thought about it. He realized...

”Le... I don’t have a system anymore.”