Becoming a Monster

Chapter 529: Chapter 528: What If It Wasn’t Just Ava

The atmosphere remained quiet.

Very few among them truly understood what had just changed within Diablo.

To the others, the transformation simply appeared to be another successful evolution. Kratos and Diablo had become stronger, their appearances had changed, and their mana had grown far more dangerous than before.

But that alone wasn’t unusual anymore.

Fenrir, Arachne, Ailetta, and even several of the others had undergone similar changes after experiencing Noah’s so-called sacred ritual and becoming Fallen. Their bodies had changed. Their mana had changed. Even parts of their personalities had gradually shifted afterward.

To monsters like them, change was natural. Strength always came with transformation.

So while Diablo’s new appearance was imposing, none of them truly grasped the deeper meaning behind it.

Only Noah and Eve clearly sensed it.

From Noah’s perspective, it wasn’t as simple as Diablo’s personality shifting; it was as if something, or someone, had awakened inside of him.

Eve, on the other hand, had a different, yet stronger reaction.

She stared only for a moment, her eyes wide as if she was witnessing something she couldn’t believe.

Ailetta was too busy observing Kratos and Diablo before she saw the little vampire sprinting ahead.

"Papa, Papa!"

Her cries were filled with an unending joy.

Watching her go, Ailetta felt dazed. She knew that Eve was happy for Diablo’s new strength, but it shouldn’t amount to this much joy. And with the amount of time she spent with her, she could tell that this joy was pure.

It made her re-look at Diablo to see what fundamental differences would elicit such a reaction.

However, her head snapped to the side immediately afterward when she sensed emotions that were too... wrong to distinguish. The emotions were a combination of strong negative feelings.

Regret, Love, Hatred, Betrayal. There were so many fluctuating emotions that it was impossible to distinguish them all.

By the time she turned toward the source, all of those emotions had already disappeared.

And at its source was Ava, standing exactly where she always had.

Silent, motionless, not showing even remotely any signs that would give away that it was her.

The skeletal vampire’s crimson eyes remained fixed on Eve and Diablo without the slightest visible change in expression, as though Ailetta had imagined the entire thing.

But Ailetta knew better. She didn’t doubt what she sensed for even a second.

The emotions had been real. Far too intense to mistake for a hallucination. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she continued staring at Ava.

No one truly understood what existed inside the skeletal vampire. Not even Noah.

Ever since her creation, there had always been uncertainty surrounding her existence. Whether the consciousness behind those crimson eyes was truly a newly formed being born alongside Eve’s evolution...

Or whether that ancient dark energy from before had planted a seed of itself inside her long ago.

And if it had... then there was an even more unsettling possibility.

Perhaps it had never been dormant to begin with. It could be waiting, accumulating strength silently from within the shadows of Ava’s soul while observing everything around it.

Yet despite those uncertainties, one thing had always remained undeniable.

Ava genuinely cared about Eve.

That alone was the reason Noah had never taken drastic action against her existence.

Noah understood better than anyone what it meant to coexist with something dangerous within yourself. He also believed Eve wasn’t blind to it either.

Just like him, Eve possessed the ability to feel the intentions and emotions of those connected to her.

Noah even ventured to assume that her connection was even greater than his own. The fact that she could speak to Diablo without actually speaking gave him that belief.

And Noah trusted that when the time eventually came, Eve would make the correct decision herself.

After all, true growth never came from someone else removing your burdens for you.

Sometimes, the only way to truly evolve was to confront the parts of yourself you feared most directly.

And Noah believed Eve’s future evolution would inevitably begin there.

Meanwhile, Ailetta continued staring deeply into Ava’s eyes.

The skeletal vampire remained perfectly still beneath her gaze, completely unbothered by the scrutiny directed toward her. She looked no different than usual.

That cold, detached, almost lifeless creature.

Her indifference was so convincing that anyone else would’ve believed nothing had happened at all.

Ailetta slowly glanced toward Noah instead. Sure enough, his attention had already shifted in their direction as well.

Yet, what irritated her most was the complete lack of surprise on his face.

He wasn’t suspicious at all.

Which meant he already knew far more than he had shared.

Ailetta’s eye twitched slightly.

’I’m absolutely talking to you about this tonight.’

A faint feeling of betrayal rose within her chest.

Not because Noah hid something dangerous from her. But because he apparently had juicy information and somehow never told her about it.

Seeing that look in her eyes, Noah inwardly sighed.

’It’s going to be a long night.’ He thoughtfully said to himself. There were already the changes within his own body that he needed to explain to her eventually.

Those thoughts were quickly pushed aside when his attention returned to Eve and Diablo.

Before Eve even reached him, Diablo had already turned toward her.

And his eyes "spoke" for the first time.

A warmth that Noah had never seen him show before. Truthfully, it was the first true emotion he had ever witnessed from Diablo at all.

But what was more shocking was when he noticed Diablo’s jaw trembling, struggling to open.

Then, with visible difficulty, his mouth slowly parted. Releasing the first word he had ever spoken.

"Eve..." The voice that escaped Diablo’s mouth wasn’t as raspy as one would assume from a skeleton. It was nearly strained, yet hollow. Like someone forcing words out with their final dying breaths despite lacking the air needed to truly speak.

If that wasn’t enough, Diablo proceeded to bend down to welcome Eve into his arms, placing his sword back into his spine.

There was a loud collision as Eve nearly slammed herself into his arms. Whatever pain she incurred was directly transferred to him as she ignored what should have been a painful experience.

"Papa, you’re finally awake!" Eve happily exclaimed. Although the contents of her words made Noah frown.

Eve made it seem as if Diablo, before all of this, was in a state of slumber. But that couldn’t be true.

Despite always standing by her side and rising to protect her, Eve herself would cling to Diablo and speak to him as if he was alive.

Her actions conflicted with her words.

But Noah was slowly unraveling the mystery within moments.

’Does that mean Diablo has been in a subconscious state all this time? Moving on instincts from his love as a doting father?’

He likened the situation as if Diablo being in a coma, yet he was only functioning at an instinctive level, not only due to his parental care, but also because of Eve’s ability. Without her, none of this would have been possible.

His first thought felt as if it was close to the answer, but Noah still felt as if it wasn’t concrete enough.

Diablo had shown multiple times that he could hear and register what was being said to him.

That could still be explained by his earlier theory, but the problem was that Diablo could do that even when he wasn’t in Eve’s presence.

That alone implied there had always been something more within Diablo than simple instinct.

Noah’s gaze lingered on the skeletal guardian while countless possibilities rapidly formed within his mind.

’Had he always possessed awareness, only lacking the ability to properly express it?’

Noah thought hard about each probability, yet there was only one that kept coming back.

He highly began to consider that Diablo’s true self was dormant, and at the same time, the Diablo they had known all this time was the real him as well, but only a subconscious layer of him.

That subconscious layer was close to being an entity in its own right, embodying the true self’s instincts. It was only now that the true self awakened.

The possibility was far-fetched, but it was the only one that felt right to him.

However, there was still an uncertainty, and that doubt stemmed from Ava’s reaction.

Without a doubt, Ava’s intense emotions were being directed towards Diablo.

What he didn’t understand was why.

Diablo was originally a human. Taking into account Eve’s age, he most likely wasn’t even older than 40, let alone Ava, who was probably alive, nearing hundreds if not thousands of years ago.

Noah’s eyes narrowed slightly as he continued observing the interaction between Eve and Diablo.

If Ava truly originated from the ancient consciousness he suspected, then there should have been no reason for her to react so strongly toward someone like Diablo. Their existences shouldn’t have intersected at all.

Unless...

Noah’s thoughts abruptly halted there.

His gaze slowly shifted toward Ava and back to Diablo.

Noah suddenly felt as though he was overlooking something important.

’.... That could be possible too...’

Noah thought of something that was harder to believe than his earlier thoughts, but everything around him was always worse than what it initially appeared to be.

’If Ava could house an ancient soul within her... then what if Diablo was the same?’