Becoming a Monster

Chapter 364: Chapter 364: New Breed of War

The forest continued to be bathed in the warmth of the sunlight. It was a feat that was an oddity for those who came from the earth from before.

By now, night should be close to arriving, yet the sun lingered stubbornly in the sky.

Inside the forest, a pair of eyes found the sun to be intriguing.

Ailetta’s many eyes looked curiously around her. Many of her eyes stared inquisitively towards the very same drake from before. The drake didn’t fully retreat into its cave, instead, it resided far enough to where the sun no longer reached each. Its massive silhouette barely hid inside the cave’s shadow.

While her eyes fixed on the drake, her main pair of eyes still looked up towards the sky.

She couldn’t help but theorize. Perhaps time itself had shifted in this merged world. Either they had been drawn into an entirely new realm, or the old world truly had fused with another, expanding in size so that the sun’s light could reach them for longer. The stretching of days and nights could be nothing more than a side effect of that merger... or it could be a sign that something greater was at work.

Ailetta couldn’t say with absolute certainty.

Experiencing the existence of angels and gaining the awareness that ’the’ God still exists, she wouldn’t dismiss anything that she would once deem as impossible.

Her attention shifted when she saw dozens of small slimes coming from the forest in drones. She had seen enough.

With her slimes she was able to reach where Pandora’s barricade once stood. The tethered roots were no longer held together, the spaces between each set of roots were now separated by meters. It wasn’t enough to decipher how much bigger the world actually was, but at least now she could say that world was at least significantly larger than their past one.

And... the existence of Pandora’s rooted wall meant that their old world had truly carried over to this one.

Now, she could only wait. Her gaze drifted to their home where Noah was currently residing. Everyone remained outside to make sure nothing else intruded while Noah accessed the core. Only one of them was needed to keep watch, but after their experience with the drake, they weren’t able to keep calm.

They all felt inadequate in some way. The fight had ended swiftly; by all logic, that should have meant their strength and efforts were more than enough. But the speed of the victory did nothing to ease the sting. Only Eve moved among them without a single crack in her confidence.

Ailetta’s eyes lingered on Eve for a moment longer. The little vampire was circling around Ava, excitedly speaking in "hushed" whispers about her experience merging with her papa, and how awesome Diablo was.

Like before, Ava didn’t show much response. The still soldier wasn’t any better. However, this time was a bit different. As Eve paraded Diablo’s feats, Diablo’s posture seemed to be straighter than before, his eyes blazing with a radiance bore of pride rather than his usual steeled aloofness.

The others, though... Their silence was heavy.

Arachne coldly kept watch on the drake. She was reflecting over her attack, an attack that wasn’t even able to deal even a bit of damage despite her strongest efforts. Even her most prided ability was deemed useless.

It wasn’t merely her uselessness that made her feel indicted. It was the creeping fear that no matter how strong she became, there might always be an enemy that was stronger. Even then, there would always be someone else out of their group who would show signs of growing stronger than she was.

Kratos was no different, but his stare was off. He looked at the drake as if he wanted a redo. He wanted to dive deeper into that feeling he had felt before.

Fenrir was disturbed, but not for the same reasons as the others. His power proved to be invaluable. It was because of his strength that Noah was able to resist the drakes flames.

But was that enough? Was taking a beating all he power was good for?

His thoughts burdened his spirit as he reverted to keeping watch over Dummy. The creature had finally healed and was now in a deep slumber, not a care in the world about the dangers around him.

Ailetta was mindful of all of them. She felt that it was her job to make sure that she was always alert to everyone’s mindset. Not just for their safety, but to hold them together so they could continue to be Noah’s strength and not exist just to hold him back. The weight of duty pressed heavily on her seemingly fragile frame, yet she carried it with quiet determination.

It was this duty that kept her from spiraling in her own sense of loss. She didn’t have the luxury to wallow in self pity, to regret her powerlessness. She understood that their strengths and weaknesses would showcase themselves depending on their opponent. It wouldn’t be the first , nor the last.

What Diablo did couldn’t be repeated against an enemy that relied on brute force. Fenrir’s tenacity would mean nothing against a creature he couldn’t touch. Even though she had major flaws, she sought to use the experience to learn what she needed to improve on, what everyone needed to improve on.

Her eyes scanned the rest of the area around her. Still she had yet to pick up traces of Pandora’s illusionary form. It turned out that Pandora was the most affected of them all.

__________

Within the confines of their home. The room was glowing in spectrums of violet and green. The origin of the light came from the heart that of a vice restlessly of the room.

Noah had attuned himself with the core, spreading his senses to see if there were any changes to the core’s function and if it still had any value now that its supposedly territory had suddenly shifted.

Noah remained perfectly still, his mind intertwined with the pulsating core. The violet and green hues reflected softly on his focus face as his consciousness was no longer fully with his body.

His position was now outside, his form was like a free spirit. No more was he able to gain the same bird’s eye view as before. It was as if something blocked his sights whenever he tried.

For now he could only amount it to the mana, because as he attuned himself with the core, he could feel the overwhelming mana flowing through the entire forest. That same mana was constantly being funneled towards the core.

It was denser than before, richer. But its abundance seemed to not directly reflect what the core was able to absorb.

The core was able to absorb the mana directly. It processed the energy as if it was struggling to break it down into a version that was suitable for its vessel. In this case, the mana was too pure while the core had still yet undergone an upgrade.

The excess mana bled off in faint waves, dispersing back into the forest rather than being utilized. Although it was wasteful, the mana being stored was still more than it could achieve before.

Seeing this, he was struck with an idea. But for now it would have to wait. He wasn’t here just to check the core’s condition, but also assess the vicinity around them.

With just a thought, he willed for the spirit to move. He could already sense mana energies within his territory that were unfamiliar. Energies that weren’t as massive as the drakes, but individually they were still formidable compared to him and his creatures without their enhancements.

... He was expected for "him", as the spirit to move in that direction. Instead, he suddenly found himself already where he wanted to be.

He arrived at a part in the forest where Pandora’s barricade was stripped apart. The greenery was dense with foliage that couldn’t compare with before.

As much as he could bask in the scenery, his attention was directed to three creatures that were slowly trekking through the forest in their direction.

His first thoughts were humans. Their height and the way they moved suggested a heightened intelligence. Because it wasn’t just the three, five other groups of three were spread out in different areas, advancing in the same direction, and in the same pattern. They moved like organized hunters.

He almost couldn’t hide his anger at the thought that even in this supposed new world, the humans here wouldn’t leave him be either.

But then his vision focused more when he finally picked up on the lack of equipment they wore. Their bodies were exposed, showcasing their green to brown skin. Each of them had pointy ears and well-developed muscles.

Noah’s budding frustration turned to utter shock when he compared the creatures to the angry green creatures in fantasy stories.

His shock proceeded to expand into outright disbelief when one of those creatures turned. It was the only creature out of the three that was brown. First its ears twitched. But then suddenly it sprang into a defensive stance as it turned in "Noah’s" direction.

Its mouth frantically moved to alert the others. Noah instinctively wanted to remove himself from the area.

Then he noticed the creature’s eyes looking all around them, as if they couldn’t see him at all.

Noah was relieved, yet now he understood that it wasn’t just the drake that was special in this world.