Becoming a Monster

Chapter 668: Chapter 667: Targeted Match Up

The two opposing groups stood across from one another, neither making the first move.

Noah watched as the last of them stopped behind the summoned beings leading the army. Despite summoning so many creatures made by their God, they left a considerable stretch of forest between the two sides, each taking the opportunity to judge their enemy.

He could clearly make out Bailey’s and Varkesh’s reactions when they saw him.

The beastkin nervously looked toward him before sneaking several glances at the man beside him, eventually giving Noah an almost pleading look.

It may not have been obvious at a glance, but Noah understood what Varkesh was trying to tell him. He wanted Noah to know that he hadn’t changed his mind now that the humans were finally here. He feared the man standing beside him, and that was the only reason he hadn’t moved to Noah’s side yet.

Noah gave no indication of whether he understood.

And then there was Bailey.

The girl had been all fire and fury from a distance. Yet now, the moment she saw Noah’s gaze land on her and felt that sudden burst of killing intent, she immediately hid behind the person beside her.

Seeing that reaction nearly made Noah smile.

After coming all this way to kill him, apparently Bailey wasn’t nearly as eager to face him now that they were standing across from one another.

But neither of them held his attention for long.

He had far more important things to worry about.

In fact, there were eight.

Seven holy beings had taken positions near the front of the human army, their bodies radiating enough holy energy that it was impossible to ignore them.

Two were beings that Noah had encountered not too long ago, the Archons.

Only after telling Morvyr about the one he killed previously did he learn the being’s name. From how the elf reacted, the Archon was one of the holy beings the most common church could summon.

Obviously, since stronger summoners summoned these entities, they would be more powerful than what he’d faced before, but at atleast the foundation of how they fought was nearly the same. This left Noah more focused on the ones he’d never seen before, as he focused on the other five standing alongside the Archons.

All five looked exactly alike.

Each possessed a large humanoid body covered almost entirely in layers of white armor lined with gold. Pointed helms concealed their faces, while two massive white wings extended from their backs and rings of golden light remained suspended behind them.

The weapons they carried were just as difficult to overlook. Each held a long-bladed polearm with a haft nearly as imposing as the blade itself, both covered in the same golden radiance traveling across portions of their armor.

Noah couldn’t tell much about how they fought from that alone. The length of their weapons gave them plenty of reach, but the large blades appeared just as capable of being swung as they were thrust forward.

However, Noah could immediately recognize one difference between them and the Archons.

The holy energy surrounding their weapons was considerably more intense.

The Archons’ weapons carried holy energy as well, but compared to the five unfamiliar beings, the difference was obvious. Their long-bladed weapons were practically saturated in it, enough that Noah could see the radiance continuously gathering around the blades rather than merely coating them.

Whether that meant their weapons were more important to the way they fought, or if it was just a natural difference between the two types of holy beings, Noah couldn’t tell yet.

Either way, the five gave him considerably more to think about than the Archons.

Noah had already assumed there were more types of holy beings than the two he’d encountered before. After fighting both a Seraphim and an Archon, it would’ve been strange to believe those were the only creatures Heaven had at its disposal.

He just hadn’t known what any of the others were until now.

And judging by the final holy being among the humans, the five weren’t the only new type he would be learning about today.

Unlike the seven standing at the front of the army, the last one remained farther back, directly behind the blind human Noah noticed earlier.

That placement immediately made him pay closer attention to both of them.

Morvyr had already given Noah descriptions of the two humans he believed were the strongest among the army. One was Thalric, the Guild Master Noah already knew about; the other was Malachi, a blind member of the Church whose strength Morvyr placed at about the same level.

Which meant the identity of the man in front of the strange holy being wasn’t particularly difficult to figure out.

More importantly, if Noah understood how these summonings worked correctly, its position behind the human, Malachi, most likely meant he was the one responsible for bringing it here.

That made the difference between it and the other holy beings something Noah needed to watch more closely than the rest.

Its appearance alone already separated it from the other two types. Rather than the heavy armor worn by the five unfamiliar warriors, it possessed a tall, slender frame draped in flowing white fabric trimmed with gold. Four large feathered wings extended from its back, while several golden rings surrounded different portions of its body.

It was difficult to believe that difference was meaningless.

Malachi was supposedly one of the two strongest humans here, yet out of everyone who called upon God’s creatures, he appeared to be the only one who brought something completely different.

Did that mean this type required someone stronger to call upon it?

Or had Malachi chosen it because whatever it could do was more useful to him than the beings standing at the front?

Noah had no way of knowing yet, but either possibility made the creature worth paying closer attention to.

At the very least, he was fairly certain it was the most special of the three types the humans brought.

Whether that also made it the strongest was something else entirely.

Noah activated his Nexus Eye, deciding there was little point in guessing when he could at least try to better understand the entities that could change the battle’s direction.

His attention moved between the five unfamiliar beings and the two Archons beside them, as he tried to peer deeper into each one.

Unfortunately, even though his had grown considerably stronger since his encounter with the Archon, his Nexus Eye still couldn’t pierce through the veil of any of God’s creatures.

Their skills, along with any special traits they possessed, remained completely hidden from his eye. Given how crucial this battle would be for him and his creatures’ livelihood, Noah couldn’t deny the result was disappointing, but he didn’t let it affect him for long.

If something like Morvyr’s ring could still keep Noah from seeing the elf’s traits, then it wasn’t hard to believe that creatures sent directly from Heaven would have even better ways to hide themselves from abilities like his.

Besides, his Nexus Eye wasn’t completely useless against them anymore.

Even if their skills and traits remained hidden, Noah could finally understand their strength much more clearly.

Strangely enough, the Archons were stronger.

Noah’s attention moved between the two types again to make sure he wasn’t mistaken. Yet no matter how closely he examined them, the result remained the same. Although Morvyr described Archons as one of the more common creatures the Church could summon, the strength Noah sensed in the two surpassed what he felt from each of the five unfamiliar beings.

Normally, Noah wouldn’t have found that particularly strange. Being more common didn’t necessarily make something weaker, and he knew far too little about Heaven’s creatures to assume their hierarchy worked that way.

The wings were what made him question it.

Neither Archon possessed any, while two massive white wings extended from the backs of all five unfamiliar beings.

Even Noah knew the number of wings an angel possessed represented its rank. He’d felt that difference himself when facing the Seraphim, so if Heaven placed enough importance on wings for an angel’s rank to be reflected by them, it seemed reasonable to assume more wings should accompany greater strength.

Yet the beings standing before him showed the exact opposite.

The five possessed wings, while the wingless Archons were physically stronger.

Noah would’ve spent more time questioning this discrepancy if his Nexus Eye hadn’t finally enabled him to understand what he’d noticed about their weapons earlier.

The veil surrounding God’s creatures still prevented him from seeing what lay within them, but the energy they released beyond it was another matter. Especially when so much of that energy was being condensed around the weapons in their hands.

Before using Nexus Eye, Noah could already feel that the holy energy surrounding the five weapons was more intense than what covered the Archons’ weapons.

He hadn’t understood why that difference made them feel so much more dangerous when the entities wielding them were actually weaker.

Now that he could examine the energy itself more closely, he finally began to understand.

The Archons’ weapons carried the same kind of holy energy Noah had already experienced before. Against a corrupted being like him, they naturally purified the demonic energy they touched, damaging him in the process because the two energies were complete opposites.

The energy surrounding the other five weapons took that natural advantage even further.

If Noah had to compare the two, then the Archons’ weapons were meant to purify, while these felt closer to something meant for exorcism.

Rather than holy energy being dangerous to Noah simply because of what he was, everything he could sense from these weapons made him believe their energy had been refined specifically to become even more destructive toward beings like him.

Perceiving it through his Nexus Eye made Noah feel the threat of that energy more than normal.

Whatever that energy was, it was more focused on dealing with beings like him than beings using any other holy energy.

Now that he knew how dangerous those beings could be, he still couldn’t rest easy when he didn’t understand what the entity in the back, whom he deemed the most crucial of the others, could do.