Becoming a Monster

Chapter 686: Chapter 685: Trying to Be a Better Monster

Noah and the Seraphim continued rising until they passed the tallest trees, their enormous presences gradually becoming more distant as they climbed higher into the storm.

Yet even after they left the battlefield behind, no one immediately turned toward the enemies still standing across from them. Nearly everyone continued looking toward the sky, watching the two strongest beings among them grow smaller until the heavy rain made it difficult to follow either one.

It was only then that some began to notice what else had left with them.

The Holy Field was disappearing. What remained of its influence was being pulled farther into the sky along with the Seraphim, and the same thing was happening on the other side. Noah’s field had followed him as well, leaving his creatures without the power that had covered them throughout the battle.

“Hah! Look!”

The shout came from Roy’s father, carrying over the rain as the older noble pointed toward Noah’s creatures. Any fear he showed while Noah remained on the battlefield was quickly disappearing now that the Devil was nowhere to be seen.

“Their field is gone! That Demon took his protection with him!” His eyes moved across the creatures standing on the other side, lingering on them with growing confidence before he gestured toward the humans around him. “But ours remains! The Church and God’s servant are still protecting us!”

He was right. Although the Seraphim’s own field had followed it into the sky, the Holy Field created through the Church members and the Virtue still covered their side of the battlefield. The realization only seemed to embolden the noble further, as whatever caution he once held toward Noah’s creatures disappeared with the advantages they had lost.

“What are all of you waiting for? Their master abandoned them, and whatever strength he was giving them is gone! We still have heaven’s power at our side!” Roy’s father practically sneered as he looked across the battlefield. “If there was ever a time to exterminate these monsters, it’s now!”

Thalric looked mildly annoyed as the people’s morale recovered after Gregory Ignivar’s outburst when he had just told them essentially the same thing. But he couldn’t be upset with the results. As long as they were willing to fight, that was good enough.

Although he held no malice toward Noah, the people on his side had made it clear that they wanted him dead, and Thalric no longer had the luxury of remaining between the two sides.

“Soren, Arden, the plan has changed. You two will have to fight at my side, just like old times…”

As he said this, his demeanor changed. Whatever emotion could still be seen on his face disappeared as he looked toward the creatures they would soon have to fight.

Everything he had planned had gone completely astray. Bailey had ruined the opportunity for him to sacrifice himself if that became necessary to preserve what remained of the Guild’s reputation after this was over. And now, with the Demon out of sight, the entire reason he brought Soren with him was gone.

There was no longer any reason to keep either of them removed from the fighting. And Thalirc no longer had the resolve to die for a noble cause, not when everyone still needed him.

“You heard him.” Arden kept his attention on Noah’s creatures as he spoke to Soren. “Looks like the three of us are working together again.”

Soren didn’t answer immediately. His eyes were already moving across the other side, studying each creature in turn as though deciding which of them deserved his attention most.

“It won’t be like old times.”

Thalric and Arden both glanced back towards him.

“Back then, we fought knowing that if we won, it meant we survived.” Soren looked toward the sky after saying what should’ve been the most obvious thing in the world.

“But now… even if we win down here, what chance do we have if that monster up there is still alive?”

Thalric had nothing he could say to that.

He stared toward the sky for several seconds, but no answer came no matter how long he considered the question.

There were too many things happening beyond his control now, and for someone who had spent most of his life preparing for the worst possibilities before they could happen, there was little comfort in realizing that their survival depended on a battle none of them could influence.

“Then we can only hope that God will help us in the end…” Thalric eventually said, his gaze lingering above the trees before returning to the battlefield. “This time.”

The words were enough to surprise both men beside him. Neither Soren nor Arden could remember hearing Thalric place his faith in God when their lives were at risk, but neither questioned what he meant by it. They had known him for far too long to need an explanation.

Nothing else was said between them. All three had survived enough battles to know that fear and uncertainty became useless once there was nothing left they could do about them. Whatever happened above the forest would happen regardless of how much they worried, leaving them to focus on the fight they could actually influence.

Across the battlefield, everyone else seemed to have reached a similar point.

Neither side showed any intention of backing down, yet no one had made the first move. Humans, celestials, demons, and monsters remained where they were as though all of them were waiting for the same thing without anyone needing to say what it was.

For many of the humans, the wait quickly became its own form of torture.

Their earlier confidence had been much easier to maintain when they were looking at Noah’s creatures as a whole. Now that the fighting was about to begin, each of them had to look across the battlefield and decide which monster they were actually willing to stand in front of.

Quite a few of those gazes eventually shifted toward Morvyr’s side. The demon was undoubtedly strong, but was he really as imposing as the monsters Noah had left behind?

Besides, they had enough S-rankers among them that someone could potentially match him in strength. That left the creatures Morvyr brought with him, and compared to everything else they could choose from, those suddenly looked like prime targets.

The rest of the gazes wandered even farther back, toward the creatures gathered deeper within Noah’s side. Most were too distant to clearly make out what they were, but surely anything positioned that far from the front had to be weaker. At least, that was what many of the humans told themselves, and what even more of them desperately hoped.

Now they just needed to find a way to reach them.

—

Everyone had already silently agreed to wait, but that agreement suddenly felt far less certain when the slime woman stepped away from the monsters and began walking forward alone.

The humans immediately became more cautious. No one knew what she intended to do, and after everything they had witnessed from Noah’s side, approaching them alone was enough to make some wonder whether her appearance was hiding strength comparable to the Devil who had just left.

If she was truly dangerous enough to change the battle on her own, they couldn’t see it.

Ailetta could feel their judgment with every step she took, and rather than taking offense, a smile slowly spread across her face.

Even now, people could look at her and see nothing remotely as monstrous as her love. The person she aspired to reach had become something increasingly terrifying with every change he underwent, to the point that his existence alone was enough to make others recognize what he was before he ever attacked them.

Ailetta had spent so long chasing after his shadow, yet that shadow only continued growing larger.

When people looked at Noah, they saw a Devil. When they looked at Fenrir, Bolas, or Kratos, fear often came before any thought of fighting them.

But when they looked at her, why did they never feel the same way?

Softly, Ailetta giggled to herself, finding all of it as amusing as it was enlightening.

“I just need to work harder. How can I call myself a monster if I still haven’t killed a human? You’ll all help me with that, right?”

She was nearly having a conversation with herself, her innocent voice making the meaning behind those words sound even more disturbing to the few people close enough to hear them.

They didn’t have much time to question what she meant before something appeared that finally made them understand that her connection to Noah went far beyond whatever they could see from the outside.

At the center of her chest, something impossible to notice before opened: a giant eye.

Anyone there would assume her eye was closely linked to Noah’s; just moments after it opened, they all felt something invasive affecting them.

For now, it merely made them feel uncomfortable, but that was only because the holy field was suppressing its true effects.

But Ailetta didn’t mind, as she’d already anticipated it. Instead, her aura suddenly flared, around the same time two masses of energy began to surge from the sky.

Under everyone’s gaze, her body soon began to transform before them all.

Her power transcended what it was before by a mile. But somehow, the humans couldn’t pay attention to it.

Instead, no one could take their eyes off the halo manifesting atop her head.