Becoming a Monster

Chapter 678: Chapter 677: Anathema

The sphere above Noah’s hand kept growing through everything that happened, drawing in more mana with every passing moment. Yet under the stunned gazes of those watching him, the raging energy suddenly began to disperse as Noah relinquished control.

Noah paid little attention to their reactions. His thoughts stayed on the familiar calling that came with the changes to his soul, and though this feeling was stronger than anything he had ever felt before, he found no reason to resist it.

He had despised his own weakness for as long as he could remember. Perhaps that hatred had eventually extended toward weakness itself, or maybe his desire to gather the right souls for his creatures came from how much he valued them. Every time they grew stronger, the possibility of someone ever taking them away from him shrank even more.

Noah had no way to know whether those feelings explained the calling or whether his changing existence caused it. What mattered was that he couldn’t view its desires as something separate from his own. In a way, this might’ve been what he truly wanted all along.

Once Noah accepted that, his attention shifted toward what this new change could actually do.

What his soul knew he could do…

Black and violet power poured from his entire body, churning close to him in dense currents threaded with tiny golden specks that were never there before. Their light disappeared within the darker swirls before shining through again as the energy moved around him, never extending more than a short distance from his body.

No one understood what the demon planned to do next. What they did understand, however, was that the rumors were indeed true. The demon could absorb souls and grow stronger, but unfortunately they had to give the demon the soul of one of the strongest beings there just to learn this.

“Impossible!”

The old man who followed Malachi yelled first as he noticed the golden energy mixed within.

Immediately, he believed that what he was seeing was the demon wielding God’s holy power after taking it from the Potentate.

But the one who truly understood what was happening was none other than the voice within Malachi.

“You can’t delay any longer, Malachi. Summon me.”

The urgency in its voice immediately caught Malachi’s attention. It had already made its displeasure with his hesitation clear, but whatever it sensed in the energy surrounding Noah made the situation far more serious.

“If you keep waiting, everyone here is going to die. No… that’s not even the worst thing that could happen anymore. Every person he kills is another soul he could take, and you’ve already seen what happened after he consumed one of God’s servants. If this continues, all you’re doing is giving the Anathema to God more power.”

Malachi understood what an anathema was. Anyone who had devoted themselves to the Church would know the word referred to something deeply condemned by their faith, whether it was a person, belief, or act considered so detestable that it was rejected from everything they stood for.

But the voice hadn’t called Noah an anathema to their faith. It called him an Anathema to God.

“What do you mean, an Anathema to God? I’ve never heard anyone described that way.”

“And you were never supposed to. There are things you were never meant to know, Malachi. Things your Church has no reason to teach because none of you should ever encounter them. You have one standing in front of you now, and instead of doing what I’ve told you, you’re wasting time asking questions that won’t help you survive.”

That only made Malachi want an answer more. He could accept that God possessed knowledge never given to humanity, but the voice wasn’t speaking about some distant secret that had nothing to do with him.

“Then how am I supposed to fight something I know nothing about? You called him an Anathema instead of another devil, so there has to be a reason. What makes him different?”

“Knowing that isn’t going to help you kill him! Look at what’s happening in front of you. How much more do you need to see before you understand why I’m telling you to summon me?”

Malachi couldn’t deny any of that, but one part of the answer stood out. The voice still hadn’t told him what Noah was.

“Is it because he’s a devil?”

“No. If being a devil were enough to make something an Anathema to God, I wouldn’t be wasting time explaining this to you.”

Malachi’s expression tightened. That answer eliminated the only explanation he could’ve reached on his own, while confirming that whatever the voice recognized in Noah went beyond his race.

“Summon me while I can still deal with him. If you refuse, then tell everyone to flee. Those are your choices now. Staying here and continuing to lose people will only give him more souls, and if you let that happen long enough, th-“

Another massive amount of energy erupted from Noah before the voice could finish.

That much power still didn’t explain why its words suddenly stopped. Everything Noah had done since consuming the Potentate only gave the voice more reason to pressure Malachi into acting. What silenced it was the way his mana began taking shape.

It was forming a field.

This wasn’t Noah flooding the area with enough energy to crudely imitate the effects of their Holy Field.

His mana was establishing a field through nearly the same principles used by the celestial being behind Malachi, only without the holy power that should’ve been necessary to create it. What spread across the forest was entirely Noah’s own energy, despite the ability itself belonging to God’s servants.

Noah could accomplish it only because the changes to his soul had also changed how he could influence evolution. Besides using his blood and other souls as a catalyst, he could now use his own soul to affect their existence.

And that influence wasn’t limited to evolving their bodies. It could reach their skills as well, giving Noah another way to strengthen those connected to him.

But this way of strengthening his creatures, of course, came with its own limitations. The strength of the evolution also dictates how much energy it drains from his soul, which changes how long his soul takes to recover before he can use it again.

When it came to his own evolution, however, the process was different. The energy slowly being drawn from his and the other soul cores continued accumulating within his dungeon core for a purpose that had yet to reveal itself, while the residual divine energy already stored within the tree could be used on Noah himself as a catalyst for his own evolutions between his body and his skills.

He chose to use all that divine energy the tree had already stored on his ability, Arcane Dissection.

The skill had already helped Noah better understand the abilities he encountered, breaking them apart until he knew enough about what made them function to reproduce what he learned.

Evolving it strengthened that connection between understanding and replication, allowing him to grasp those principles more completely while giving him far greater freedom in how he used them afterward.

That was what had silenced the voice within Malachi.

To the voice, what Noah had done went far beyond stealing an ability. He had devoured one of God’s servants, taken a skill bestowed upon them by the Heavenly Father, and corrupted it with his own power until something that should’ve represented God’s divinity now carried the essence of a devil.

It was blasphemy of the highest order.

“You filthy abomination…”

The voice no longer bothered hiding its hatred. Malachi felt its presence surge within him as its attention remained fixed on Noah, the anger behind it becoming so intense that its words seemed to struggle against one another to be heard.

“You devour one of His servants and then dare defile a gift bestowed by the Heavenly Father? You take something sacred and fill it with your filth as though you have any right to touch it?!”

Malachi had heard the voice angry before, especially after his refusal to let it descend, but never like this. The composure it normally maintained had almost completely disappeared, and for several moments, it seemed to forget Malachi was even there as it continued raging at a devil who couldn’t hear a single word.

“Anathema… Blasphemer… You should’ve never been allowed to exist long enough to become this!”

Its presence continued thrashing within Malachi until the anger suddenly began to recede. Not because the voice had calmed, but because it had finally reached a decision.

Malachi had already been given enough chances. The voice had warned him, demanded that he fulfill his duty, and even told him exactly what would happen if he continued hesitating. Yet the man carrying the title of one of God’s Faithful had watched the situation deteriorate while refusing the one thing asked of him.

“I expected more from one permitted to call himself one of God’s Faithful. Instead, you’ve proven that the title carries more conviction than the man wearing it.”

Malachi stiffened, but there was nothing in the voice’s tone suggesting it wanted an answer. Its attention had already moved elsewhere, searching through the humans gathered within the Holy Field while deciding what could still be salvaged from their failure.

If Malachi wouldn’t provide it a path into this world, then the voice would have to depend on another angel arriving before Noah progressed any further. There was no guarantee when that would happen, and after what it had just witnessed, waiting without doing anything was no longer acceptable.

There was still another possibility.

Bring the human girl forward and have her summon the Seraphim.

The extra chapters are still coming this week, as promised! I just need a little more time to finish editing. These chapters set up important details for future events, so I want to make sure everything fits together and work out any plot holes before releasing them. The remaining chapters will be up tomorrow!