Becoming a Monster

Chapter 627: Chapter 626: Rewriting the Rules

A little time had passed since Bolas’s outburst.

By then, the misunderstanding had already been cleared up.

Although judging by the way Bolas continued staring at the pair folded behind his back, the drakes’ anger still hadn’t subsided.

And even after understanding what actually happened, Noah couldn’t deny that the drake had a reason to be upset with him.

Noah looked toward Bolas with a trace of pity in his eyes. He understood the drake well enough to know that the wings had meant far more to him than another ability.

Bolas had spent most of his life without them. Decades of his life had been spent feeling inferior without them.

Then Noah had finally given him the ability to fly. Only to unintentionally take it away again.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Noah now stood in front of him with a pair of authentic draconic wings of his own.

Even unintentionally, Bolas felt insulted; every twitch of Noah’s wings felt as though Noah was gloating that he had taken his away.

Technically, his changes were responsible for what happened. It was the only reason he felt enough sympathy to want to apologize. But at the same time, he didn’t know exactly what to apologize for.

Neither of them had become weaker because of it. The ability they shared was considerably stronger now than it had been before.

Looking at Bolas’s eyes, however, Noah could already tell that Bolas didn’t care much for it.

If someone offered Bolas the choice between everything he had gained and getting his wings back, Noah wasn’t entirely confident about which one the drake would choose.

And that alone told him how little pointing out the benefits would help.

–

“What did you say? I swear on my ancestors that I will bite you if you are messing with me.”

Most of Bolas’s earlier anger had disappeared the moment Noah mentioned the possibility of getting his wings back. What remained was overshadowed by an eagerness that the drake was doing a poor job of hiding.

“I said that there’s still a chance that you can get your wings back. But the chances are sm-“

“I don’t care about the chances. Just tell me how.”

Noah was about to speak, but then he noticed Morvyr drawing closer.

His hesitation was obvious.

If he gave out his blood now, it would be impossible for Morvyr not to understand the implications of that when he saw all of his creatures suddenly becoming stronger. There was even the slight possibility that they would mutate.

If he didn’t want him seeing his secrets, he would either have to tell him to take his creatures and leave, then come back after he was done, or wait till after the battle so he could do it after Morvyr left on his own.

Neither option sat well with Noah.

Making Morvyr leave now would only give the elf even more questions when he returned. And if Noah not only forced them away, but continued vaguely answering everything Morvyr asked, there was no telling how much effort the elf would actually be willing to put into the upcoming battle.

At the same time, Noah needed to make all of his creatures as strong as possible before that battle began. Delaying their growth simply to hide his abilities could result in deaths that otherwise could’ve been avoided.

It didn’t take Noah long to decide.

If he didn’t want to answer Morvyr’s questions, then he could at least afford to let him see some of the answers for himself. That way, whenever Noah eventually decided to entertain his curiosity, the elf wouldn’t be starting from complete ignorance, and Noah could still decide exactly how much he was willing to explain.

More importantly, Morvyr would be less likely to hold it against him whenever Noah refused to answer certain questions. Allowing him to witness this much already showed a degree of trust; the elf would simply have to accept that there were still things Noah intended to keep to himself.

Noah proceeded to tell Bolas how he could possibly obtain his wings. He didn’t go into much detail with Morvyr nearby, but the moment Bolas learned that he would have to receive Noah’s blood again, the drake became surprisingly cooperative.

He didn’t even argue when Noah told him to gather everyone so he could finish with all of them at once.

Bolas immediately ran off, shouting at the top of his lungs for everyone to gather.

With the drake gone, Noah finally had the opportunity to properly take in the changes Diablo, Ava, and Kratos had recently undergone.

Honestly, he was surprised when he saw Diablo’s shield. The wonders of how each monster experienced unique mutations and evolutions fascinated him to no end. He was beginning to enjoy these experiences as much as he enjoyed growing stronger himself.

The skeletal warrior obtained an ability that he had never considered ever being a skill. Whenever Diablo obtained a weapon, he could claim it as his own before drawing it into a personal armory connected directly to his soul.

However, simply storing weapons wasn’t what made the ability so interesting.

Anything Diablo claimed would be corrupted by his mana, transforming it into an unholy weapon suited specifically for him. Its existing traits would become stronger during the process, while the weapon itself would develop an additional ability based on its original purpose and characteristics.

There were very few weapons that were completely immune to being claimed, either.

Sentient weapons and those spiritually bound to another owner could resist him, but that resistance depended on the strength of the soul opposing his own. As long as Diablo’s soul was stronger, he could overpower that connection and claim the weapon anyway.

Noah’s attention returned to the massive shield.

Its transformation was the first example of what that could accomplish.

The shield already possessed the ability to draw incoming physical attacks toward itself.

After becoming an unholy weapon, that ability had become considerably stronger. Its influence could now extend farther, while the strength of its pull had increased alongside it.

But that wasn’t all it gained.

The shield could now redirect magical attacks toward itself as well. As long as an attack entered its range and wasn’t powerful enough to overwhelm the ability, its trajectory would be forcibly altered toward the shield.

A small portion of the mana contained within those attacks would then be absorbed. That stolen mana was drawn toward the enormous skull covering the front of the shield, feeding the green flames burning within its mouth.

Noah could already imagine how useful the ability would become once Diablo obtained more powerful weapons.

But as surprising as his change was, Diablo wasn’t the one who caught Noah’s attention the most.

His gaze shifted toward Kratos.

The Kaiju was the one who surprised him the most.

His physical changes were far more exaggerated than Eve’s, despite both of them being affected through the same connection. However, after Noah thought about it, the difference made sense.

Eve was still fundamentally a vampire, rather than just a simple revenant, while Kratos’s bloodline was closer to a hybrid between a Kaiju and a revenant. Any changes brought about through Eve were naturally going to manifest differently in a creature whose body and bloodline were already considerably more monstrous-looking than her own.

Noah was about to examine those changes more closely when he noticed someone approaching from the side.

Morvyr had finally reached him.

The moment their gazes met, the elf’s body visibly shook. The feeling barely lasted a second, but in that brief moment he became certain.

Noah had become undeniably stronger.

He had already sensed it after the recent outburst and when he saw Noah’s new devil traits that weren’t there before. But standing this close made the difference impossible to mistake.

Morvyr instinctively looked past him.

His gaze searched the entrance of Noah’s residence, hoping to catch even the smallest glimpse of what could’ve possibly allowed Noah to become stronger while causing one creature after another to suddenly undergo changes of their own.

Unfortunately, there was nothing to see. The entrance had already been sealed again.

Morvyr stared at it for several moments. A suspicion he had previously dismissed returned.

Is it the dungeon core?

Before, Morvyr hadn’t seriously considered it. Dungeon cores were mysterious, and their capabilities could vary drastically. Six dungeon cores had already proven that they were powerful enough to create kingdoms of their own.

But after everything he had seen so far, to attribute all of it to a single dungeon core seemed unreasonable.

Now he wasn’t so sure.

In fact, Morvyr was beginning to find that explanation easier to accept than the alternative.

He could convince himself that the devil had brought a dungeon core from his original world, one far more powerful and possessing functions that no dungeon core in their world could possibly replicate.

He would rather believe that than accept a single being was capable of accomplishing all of this.

Noah had been upfront when he called himself a devil.

But he never said he was The Devil himself.

Because at this point, Morvyr felt as though he was watching a being rewrite the very laws of their world.

His gaze finally returned to Noah.

“Devil…” Morvyr struggled to keep the disbelief from his voice. “What did you do?”