Becoming a Monster

Chapter 392: Chapter 392: Disgust, Pity, Respect

Amara was prepared for whatever Noah would do; even if it meant having her soul devoured. Her emotions were a storm, and her mind was drowning in it. If she could, she would beg for Anubis to take over, to do what she couldn’t, to face the creature with the confidence and faith she no longer had.

Yet, as much as she wanted to, she wasn’t able to bring him out into their world. The cost of breaking the bridge that connected hell was to make her soul an anchor to Anubis’s hell to allow him to stand in the world of the living. And to serve as an anchor placed a heavy and dangerous toll on the soul.

Her soul would need time to fully untether itself from hell. If she would try to anchor herself while her soul still was bridged, her soul could possibly open a door from hell permanently. And as a god who sought balance between life and death, Anubis would never allow it. Even if it meant her death, he would choose balance.

It was only the thought of her father’s unwavering trust that gave her the strength to stand in front of her death.

Her eyes remained closed as she awaited her judgment.

But Noah, all this time had the most unreadable expression. If this woman reminded him of his previous naive self, now she reminded him of Ailetta when she was also once human. A person who would so quickly offer up their life for those who didn’t deserve it. For those who wouldn’t do the same if they were in the same position.

His gaze flickered briefly to her followers. Most of them couldn’t look up.

Pathetic.

Noah’s expression hardened. Humans were always like this: the ones who could change the world died protecting those who never would.

At first, Noah was planning to use this moment to get Amara to summon Anubis again. Now, he just wanted all of them to get as far away from him as possible. Or he feared, with a cold certainty, that he might kill them all.

His gaze turned somber as he noticed the kids within the crowd. Something in him tightened and then unclenched. It wasn’t pity, but a rule that was carved into him as his lingering humanity was reshaped into what it had become. He would kill them without remorse if he was forced to, but he would rather not kill those who never had a say in their fate.

They were victims to those who brought them into this world. They had been brought here by choices made for them, and now, they would have to suffer the same consequences for someone else’s actions.

There was no room for selective mercy, because mercy only existed in times of peace, in places where rules meant something and could protect them afterward. If he slaughtered the adults, the children would follow soon after. They wouldn’t last a night in this forest. The beasts out there didn’t care for innocence. And if he sent them all away now, it would only postpone their deaths, slow, cruel deaths.

If he killed them here, at least it would be quick and painless.

Something about that logic made him feel uneasy, but it was the truth. The kind of truth only monsters would accept as if it was common logic. And Noah, with a budding relief, found that he was growing to accept that part of himself.

His stance grew firm. He didn’t take long to come to a decision. "I’m overthinking things..." He thought to himself as he looked at the people the kids clinged to. "I’m not in charge of their lives. Letting them have the chance to live is already a kindness I wouldn’t have received."

Noah opened his mouth. The words that formed were simple, "Take your people and leave now." But his aura said something else. His aura read to the humans as if he was about to pass a verdict rather than grant leniency.

They stiffened. Some even closed their eyes as they already could foresee Amara’s death.

Before Noah could finish, a figure began moving towards them. The sudden movement attracted Kratos who only knew how to be a bodyguard through violence. Kratos’s tail, which was also swaying in the air, suddenly repositioned to strike, but a quick look from Noah was enough to stop the almost certain fatal attack.

Amara’s father flinched, his body instincts were accustomed to what it feels like to be eyed by death. But the feeling came and went so suddenly that he would never know how his life was saved. After that experience, he looked back toward his daughter, walking slower this time with determined steps. He didn’t look angry or afraid, he looked like a man who had already made peace with whatever came next.

"If she must be punished, then punish me as well." He said, before taking his daughter’s hand in his. "I don’t know how much my life is worth, but if I can trade it for hers then I’m also willing."

Noah blinked. The surprise on his face was inexplicable, but real. In a world where death was promised to be agonizing, unbearable, children were easily abandoned, and strangers sacrificed others just to save themselves. But a parent who would die for their child without regret was rarer than mercy. It was almost touching.

Yet, it changed nothing.

Noah’s gaze hardened back into the same even thing it had been before the man spoke. It didn’t remove the selfish annoyance these people represented.

But then, another set of footsteps approached, this one quicker than the man. A girl, barely more than a child, sprinted from the crowd. Her hair was matted, clothes ragged, she was a child that didn’t seem to have been taken proper care of. She slammed to a halt before Noah, breathless, eyes wide with something fierce, as if she didn’t know fear.

"Yo-You have to punish me too!" She screamed.

After her burst, her entire charade caved in. Hurriedly she dove towards Amara and clung to her legs as if to anchor the woman with her own tiny body.

Tears streaked down her face, but her jaws were set, her grip was tighter than what a child should be. Amara’s hands went instinctively to the girl’s head, cradling it. The child’s held-back tears broke into sobs.

Amara didn’t want this, she needed to address Noah to plead for him not to harm the child, but before she could, another child, a boy who just pulled away from both his parents, scrambled forward.

"Don’t hurt them! Please don’t hurt them!" The boy shouted, running directly ahead of Amara as he stood timidly, yet bravely before Noah. The boy would not have approached before, but the young girl was someone that meant a lot to him.

That single act was contagious. One by one, those who had cowered in fear stepped forward. They didn’t rise up in arms; they each left their weapons where they once stood. They all begged Noah to spare Amara, to share whatever consequence she was to bear.

Noah stood paralyzed in the center of it. He had not expected this. It wasn’t as if Noah had never seen humans rise together before; he had. But that was when every one of them was cornered, when desperation made cooperation the only way to survive.

This was different. None of them were fighting for themselves. They were stepping forward for someone else.

This made Noah ponder. Why weren’t humans always like this? Why did he only meet those who could only scheme and betray those who fought their battles? Why did they take advantage of the weak instead of strengthening them?

He wondered when compassion had become something only born from fear. When unity required tragedy to exist. Humans always needed to be

cornered before they remembered what it meant to stand together.

Maybe that’s why they were destined to fall.

That’s when Noah’s gaze fell on the reason that made it possible, and then it clicked. "If it were someone else in her place... would they still rise together?" Noah began to think about the times he was human, and then he thought about the times afterwards. All of his experience when he became what he was and his experience with humans.

Out of all the times he witnessed humans banding together, the good that humans could accomplish. Each time involved one person who could bring them all together.

Someone who carried their fear, their doubts, their sins, and called it hope.

And when that person fell, or when that person wasn’t capable of making the others still see that hope... everything they built with them fell too.

Noah’s gaze lingered on Amara. He didn’t know what he was feeling. It was a mixture of disgust, pity... and respect.

He had seen enough. His entire aura vanished. Those who were sensitive to the change instantly looked towards him. They jumped when his arm extended, shaping into a blade. A sight beyond their imagination. His blade arm cut a long, thin line between them.

"You get one night. Until dawn, as long as you stay here, nobody goes beyond this line. If anyone breaks that line, they die." His arm morphed again, this time stretching nearly endlessly, weaving past them before enveloping Yossef’s body.

"Let this person be a reminder to you all. I’m a monster, and I don’t follow the same rules that you do."