Becoming a Monster

Chapter 540 - 539: Negativity is the Root of Individuality

The shaman’s soul had remained completely unmoving within Noah’s Nexus Eye for a long time now.

The endless void had already erased its consciousness. Every soul Noah had absorbed eventually reached the same fate after enough time passed within the Nexus Eye.

Some, faster than others.

Its sense of self disappeared first. Then, eventually, even the awareness of its own existence faded into nothing.

What remained afterward was usually little more than a hollow spiritual remnant to be used as Noah pleased.

But this soul was different.

Its consciousness had disappeared just like the others. But the emotional attachments that kept it "alive" didn’t disappear until its consciousness faded.

The fear, the hatred, and most of all, the despair.

This was the first time Noah had encountered such a thing.

There were souls whose personality traits carried over. Souls like the Ant Queen or the most recent soul, Ethaniel’s.

In those cases, those souls came from sentient creatures, as well as powerful ones with strong wills. Yet Noah understood that even those two souls would have eventually eroded if he had remained exposed to the Nexus Eye for as long as the goblin shamans had.

It was partly for this reason that Noah didn’t want to use the shaman’s soul on any of his main creatures.

They may not be at risk of being taken over by the soul like he was, but he was almost certain their personalities would twist under the strain of so many negative emotions.

For once, Dobby’s expression changed the moment the soul was brought out into the world.

The others couldn’t sense it, but Dobby was nearly being torn apart just from its presence alone. His tattoos activated on instinct the moment the soul emerged from Noah’s Nexus Eye.

As his body naturally absorbed the negative emotions pouring out of him, he simultaneously released them. Otherwise, he would have already begun drowning beneath its darkness.

Dobby didn’t know what Noah intended to do. He didn’t know Noah believed he could become the perfect vessel for the soul.

And yet, Dobby never stepped away.

He accepted it as Noah merged the soul into him.

The moment the soul entered Dobby’s body, the markings across his skin exploded with silver light.

The glow became so intense that it was almost painful to look at directly. Rays of pale light burst from Dobby’s eyes while his body slowly lifted from the ground beneath the pressure of his own mana.

Then the aura around him changed, becoming something worse.

The emotions overflowing from Dobby no longer merely felt heavy. They became tangible enough that everyone around him could feel those emotions pressing on them.

Alexandria’s heart nearly stopped when she saw him suspended in the air like that.

She had witnessed Noah fuse souls into others before. But never like this.

Her body instinctively took a step forward before stopping herself. The closer she went, the more her body pushed against her.

There was nothing she could do.

The moment she realized that, her gaze snapped to Noah, who remained standing directly in front of Dobby, completely undisturbed by the storm of negative emotions swirling around him.

And for the first time in a long while, Alexandria genuinely couldn’t understand him.

Why Dobby?

Out of everyone Noah could have chosen, why him?

Hadn’t Dobby already suffered enough?

At first, Alexandria thought the horrifying pressure spreading through the area came entirely from the soul itself.

But slowly she realized something else.

The emotions surrounding Dobby had become even worse than before.

It didn’t take long for her to understand why. The soul was amplifying everything already inside him.

Every negative emotion.

Every trace of suffering Dobby carried from the others.

Just imagining the suffering he was experiencing right now nearly broke her.

’Are we only seen as tools to be used?’

No matter how she tried to rationalize it, she couldn’t see this as anything else.

Giving Dobby, the one creature constantly tormented by the emotions of others, a soul that would only intensify those feelings, felt just as heartless as it was cruel.

The transformation didn’t stop with Dobby’s aura.

As the soul continued merging into him, the markings etched into his skin continued to glow with a soft incandescent light that didn’t disappear anytime soon.

The glow was just softer than when it was in its active state.

At the same time, Dobby’s physique subtly changed.

His body became leaner and slightly taller yet again, growing another foot.

Everything surrounding him carried an unnatural spiritual weight now.

Even the air itself felt quieter around him.

His facial features sharpened further. His ears lengthened slightly while the loose skin around his face tightened enough to give him a far older appearance than before.

His whiskers also changed.

More strands grew, lengthening until they passed his face, similar to a mustache. They swayed faintly beneath the pressure radiating from his mana.

Everything surrounding him carried an unnatural spiritual weight now.

And despite the unsettling changes, his body didn’t tense at all. Only his face was deeply furrowed.

The emotional aura emanating from Dobby only intensified.

Before it could spread any further, Noah was forced to completely entrap Dobby within his slime, until not a speck of his aura leaked.

From the reactions of those around him, Noah understood that the rest of the transformation needed to remain contained until Dobby regained control over himself again.

Alexandria looked almost dazed the moment Noah sealed Dobby away from everyone else.

It took some time before her thoughts began to return to normal.

At first, she thought she felt overwhelmed.

But gradually, Alexandria realized something far more disturbing.

The thoughts she had moments ago no longer felt entirely her own.

—

She still remembered what had happened.

Her thoughts were full of anger and betrayal, as well as the disgust she felt toward Noah for forcing something so cruel on Dobby.

And then how those very thoughts magically began to be replaced with guilt.

Guilt for the fact that Dobby had accepted this. Just like she accepted Noah’s blood to transform herself, knowing the risk involved.

And then there was fear. Because after witnessing the sheer amount of negativity pouring from him, Alexandria could no longer imagine what his future would be like if this continued.

Yet strangely enough, even those thoughts slowly began slipping away from her.

One moment, she was thinking clearly.

Next, her train of thought vanished entirely before she could even finish it.

Then another thought disappeared.

And another.

Her mind gradually became emptier, no matter how hard she tried to hold onto a single thought long enough to finish it.

Eventually, she reached a point where she couldn’t even properly form one anymore.

Only after Noah completely separated Dobby from the outside world did her mind finally begin stabilizing again.

—

Meanwhile, Noah was focused on what had just happened.

He had never been concerned about Dobby’s negative aura affecting the others.

At least not initially.

The emotional pressure itself was nothing more than a subtle influence.

The real problem was that Dobby had lost control over his latent ability.

His ability to absorb the negative emotions surrounding him had always remained stable before now. Dobby was capable of controlling whose emotions to absorb and how much of them.

But because of the merger with the soul, that restraint disappeared completely.

Now Dobby’s body instinctively drew in every negative emotion around him without distinction.

Noah noticed it with Alexandria first.

At first, he assumed the emotional pressure was influencing her thoughts slightly. Yet even by those standards, the fluctuations in her emotions were far from natural.

Eventually, her expression became completely blank.

Afterward, Noah noticed the same thing happening to the others nearby. Every cat and dog sat there with the same hollow expression as though their thoughts were gradually being stripped away one after another.

That was when Noah finally focused on the subtle prodding against his own soul.

The influence couldn’t bypass his defenses on its own, but the moment Noah intentionally allowed himself to experience it, the full nature of Dobby’s ability immediately became clear to him.

In the end, Noah realized he had underestimated what negative emotions truly were.

Negative emotions were not limited to what he considered sinful.

Doubt, indecision... Even harmless contemplation carried traces of negativity because they were still rooted in uncertainty.

It was impossible for a living creature to possess only positive thoughts.

To have only positive thoughts meant becoming incapable of doubt.

And a creature incapable of doubt could no longer question itself, its actions, or the world around it.

They would become no different from puppets forced to accept everything placed before them without resistance.

Noah’s gaze shifted back toward the massive cocoon of slime surrounding Dobby.

Dobby’s ability was far too dangerous. He had the potential to erode the very thoughts that gave living beings individuality.

Any sane person wouldn’t want to risk it.

But Noah didn’t care.

Any ability, when given enough power, is just as dangerous as any other. What he only cared about was if Dobby could still retain his sanity.

Even so, he didn’t have to worry about that either. Because the moment Dobby merged with the soul, he had become a Fallen.

And any Fallen created by him was forever connected to his soul.