Becoming a Monster

Chapter 674: Chapter 673: Maybe a Devil Isn’t So Bad

Bailey had originally told herself that she came here to save Paul.

That was still true, but somewhere between seeing Noah again and finally saying everything she had kept buried since their time together, Bailey had been forced to admit that saving Paul was no longer enough.

Even if Noah suddenly agreed to leave him alone, Bailey didn’t believe she could walk away and trust that his decision would last.

She knew how quickly the connections Noah once had with someone could stop mattering after they crossed whatever line he had set for them, and she wasn’t willing to spend the rest of her life wondering whether Paul might eventually give him another reason to change his mind.

More importantly, even if Noah kept his word and never came near Paul again, Bailey couldn’t forgive him for everything she believed he had already done.

“No! You’re not taking him from me!” Bailey cried, no longer caring about how she sounded as she stared at Noah. “I don’t care what you say happened to him or what you think you’ve done for him. Paul is still Paul!”

Saying it aloud only seemed to make Bailey more certain of what she had already decided. At this point, she wasn’t trying to convince Noah that he was responsible for everything that happened between them. She was giving a voice to the reasons she could no longer imagine allowing him to walk away.

“You killed Blake when you stood there and let him die. You killed Ailetta when you turned her into that thing and took the person I knew away from me.” Bailey could barely see Noah through the tears filling her eyes, but she refused to look away. “And I’m not letting you take Paul too.”

Protecting Paul may have been what brought Bailey here, but somewhere along the way, that had stopped being the only reason she needed Noah dead.

Because if someone could somehow guarantee that Noah would never go near Paul again, Bailey still wouldn’t forgive him.

Not for Blake.

Not for Ailetta.

And not for what he had already done to Paul.

Bailey had spent so long placing those losses at Noah’s feet that killing him no longer felt like something she wanted, only because she was afraid of what he might do next. In her mind, it had also become the only punishment left for everything he had already done.

—

The atmosphere between the two sides had already been tense before Bailey began speaking, but by the time she finished, it had become almost suffocating.

No one knew how Noah would respond to everything she had just accused him of, and before anyone could find out, a loud crack of thunder tore through the air.

Blue and gold light filled the sky at the same time, forcing many of them to squint as the thunder struck their ears hard enough to leave some of them ringing. And almost as soon as it passed, the rain that had been threatening to fall finally came down.

Within moments, everyone was caught in a torrential downpour.

Calling what happened ominous didn’t feel like enough. The timing of the storm, Bailey’s accusations, and the fact that two opposing armies were standing in front of each other waiting for the person at the center of it all to respond had aligned so perfectly that it almost felt as though judgment day itself was about to begin.

Even with the auras of God’s servants surrounding them, the hearts of many humans began to waver again. Their presence still helped suppress much of the fear Noah had caused earlier, but there was only so much comfort it could provide when the demon responsible for that fear hadn’t said a single word since Bailey finished.

Noah remained exactly where he was as dark mist continued radiating from his body. Every drop of rain that came close to him disappeared before making contact, leaving him untouched while everyone else was quickly becoming drenched.

What bothered many of them more was the way he continued staring at Bailey.

There was no anger on his face anymore.

At first, it was easy to mistake that lack of a reaction for indifference, but the longer he stared at her, the less accurate that seemed. His eyes didn’t show disappointment, anger, sadness, or even the disgust someone might expect after hearing that a person they once cared about wanted them dead.

There was nothing.

It was almost as though Noah was looking at someone who no longer existed.

“So that’s how it is.”

He spoke quietly enough that the words seemed intended for himself, but even with the rain pouring around them, everyone was still able to hear him.

Before anyone could understand what his response meant, another crack of thunder came from above.

This time, lightning came with it.

A streak of blue and gold struck the ground directly in front of Noah, forcing many of the humans to shield their eyes while others instinctively stumbled back. Even after the lightning disappeared, the place where it struck continued glowing for several seconds as traces of electricity spread through the ground.

Anyone capable of sensing mana could immediately tell there was something wrong with it.

There was far too much mana contained within the lightning for it to have come from a normal storm. Some of the older, more experienced people present couldn’t help but remember the ancient stories of tribulations, when the world itself would send down lightning against those who tried to surpass mortal limits, back when legends depicted races higher than those of today.

A few people couldn’t stop themselves from regretting that it had missed.

Noah didn’t seem to share the same concern as everyone else over how close the lightning had come to hitting him. He barely reacted to it at all before his attention slowly shifted away from Bailey and toward the sky.

His wings spread behind him as he raised both arms out to his sides, almost as though he was openly presenting himself to whatever had just tried to strike him.

“Is this your answer too?”

The question left most of the people present confused, including some of the creatures standing on Noah’s side.

There was no one in the sky for him to speak to.

For the humans, however, it didn’t take long for many of them to reach the same conclusion. They were already standing beside beings sent by their God, and now lightning filled with mana had descended from the sky directly in front of the devil they had come here to kill.

To them, Noah could only be speaking to God.

The thought quickly changed how some of them viewed what had just happened. What initially frightened them became a sign that the Heavenly Father was watching, and the fact that Noah himself seemed to acknowledge His presence gave them another reason to believe that God was on their side.

Ailetta knew they were wrong.

The moment she understood who Noah was actually speaking to, whatever enjoyment she had been getting from Bailey’s words became far less important.

She still hadn’t forgotten what Bailey said about her. Nor had she forgotten the reaction from the part of herself that still considered Bailey a friend. If anything, Ailetta had gained another reason to make sure Bailey suffered before she eventually devoured her.

But that could wait.

Ailetta knew how important what was happening right now could be for Noah, because this wasn’t the first time she had watched him break through one of the barriers he had placed upon himself.

The last time had been when Noah finally stopped trying to hold onto being human and truly accepted becoming a monster.

She had nearly lost her soul trying to bring him back.

Although Ailetta understood Noah far better now than she had back then, that didn’t make what she was seeing any less concerning.

Moments like these were when Noah would break his chains, growing stronger than ever before, but there was no way to know what those chains were actually holding back.

Noah was a monster, a true monster. And only Ailetta understood that, deep down, Noah’s true self was probably worse than any of the labels still being placed on him.

She had been inside his soul. She had seen parts of Noah that no one else had, and more importantly, she knew how much of himself he still kept restrained despite everything he had already become.

Some of those restraints had disappeared over time. Each time Noah accepted something about himself that he had previously refused to accept, another part of him was allowed to surface. So far, those changes had always made him stronger, but strength wasn’t the part Ailetta was worried about.

It was how much less Noah cared about the things that once would’ve stopped him.

His humanity had been one of those chains. His attachment to the people from his old world had been another, even if Bailey had just done everything she could to sever what little remained of it.

Ailetta didn’t know what chain Noah was about to break this time.

And that was what worried her.

They continued to want Noah to become a devil, but Ailetta had already seen enough of what was inside him to wonder whether they understood what they were asking for.

Because what if becoming a devil wasn’t the worst thing Noah was capable of becoming?

We got our first review! So this Friday, I will do a mass release of 5 additional chapters. Make sure if you have any questions or insights that you would like to see in this battle or happen after the battle, to please comment them.