Becoming a Monster

Chapter 486: Chapter 485: The Cost of Sin

Her gaze lifted, and the moment her eyes landed on Noah and the archon, something surged within her.

The same wrath returned, rising instantly as it threatened to overwhelm her, yet unlike before, it did not take control.

Her third eye glistened as mana gathered around her and formed a thin, ethereal layer that expanded outward before splitting cleanly to either side of her body, giving form to two separate figures.

On one side stood Diablo in his transformed state as if he were individually merged with Eve. The other side stood Ava, showing the previous predatory vampire just prior to that.

Their bodies resembled the very nature of her illusory forms. But if one looked closely, one would see they were no longer illusions; their forms had shadows of their own, and the grass under them flattened from their weight.

The moment their forms stabilized, all three of them moved at once.

—

Noah and the archon’s clash intensified as Arachne entered the fight, shifting the balance that had previously remained locked between the two.

The original plan had been to fuse and overwhelm the archon through a complete shift in power, but without the time needed to do so, they were forced to adapt in the middle of combat and fight alongside one another instead of becoming one.

Arachne did not slow as she entered the battlefield, her limbs striking forward immediately to pressure the archon from an angle it could not ignore, while Noah continued his assault from the front to prevent it from redirecting its full attention.

For the first time since the fight began, the archon was forced to divide its focus between multiple threats that couldn’t easily be handled like Eve.

And although its movements remained just as mechanically calculated, the flawless control it had maintained until now began to show the slightest strain.

Noah wouldn’t risk Arachne becoming the target of the archon’s sword. He forgave any sort of caution, molding his sword back to perfect condition and with even more mana to resist the holy mana.

His appendages were merely used as bait to keep the archon from thinking it was safe to change targets. In the span of a few seconds that the two fought together, the archon had finally taken direct damage.

It could only put up so many barriers, and attempting to fend off nearly thirteen different lines of attack at once meant that even something that functioned like a war machine could not remain perfect.

The first few strikes landed along its side, with another cutting across its back, yet instead of blood or visible damage, the areas that were struck darkened into dense masses that clung to its form. Those masses released smoke at a rate far faster than anything they had seen before.

Within five seconds, every trace of it was gone. It was almost effortless how quickly the archon was able to purify it.

What’s more, the archon’s movements didn’t falter even slightly, as if the damage never registered.

However, something had changed.

It no longer intended to continue the fight in front of them.

To their astonishment, the archon began to retreat.

Neither Noah nor Arachne understood its intention, and before either of them could react, the holy field that had smothered the battlefield from the very beginning suddenly dissipated.

The suffocating pressure vanished, replaced by air that felt lighter, clearer, and almost unfamiliar after being suppressed for so long.

It was a change they had not realized they needed until it was gone.

Even so, neither of them relaxed.

Their attention snapped toward the direction the archon had moved.

Noah realized the archon’s true intentions the moment he looked to see who was on the other end.

At that moment, he made a promise to himself.

He will eradicate everything related to dealing with God.

—

The cleric was still standing... barely.

His body visibly trembled as he struggled to remain upright, and his breathing had grown ragged to the point where each inhale sounded like it might be his last. The color had drained from his face entirely, leaving behind a hollow expression that no longer carried the same conviction it once did.

Everything he had fought for had already been lost.

Those he had tried to protect were gone, and those who remained were not far from meeting the same fate.

For a brief moment, there was nothing left in his eyes.

Until he witnessed the scene that he would carry with him until the end.

His comrade of decades, the man who had stood beside him through countless battles, was being devoured alive, and what he saw was not a quick death, nor a merciful one, but something drawn out, something that made it clear just how powerless they had become.

Instead of breaking him, the sight steadied him.

Something returned to his eyes, not hope, but resolve, and his failing body followed that shift as he forced himself to remain upright.

"That’s right," he thought, the realization forming slowly but without hesitation, as his resolve anchored itself completely.

"These evil beings must die. Even if it costs me everything, I will see it through."

His resolve was not born from ignorance, nor from desperation alone, but from understanding. He knew exactly what would happen if he failed, and he chose to continue regardless.

He had already seen the archon fighting against the two monsters. The likelihood that he would fail to even banish one of those creatures was low.

Even then, seeing the archon hold its ground against such evil beings gave the cleric a faint hope that a miracle would happen.

When the archon was struck, and the damage appeared to never register, that should have been the miracle he needed.

Instead, his body gave out.

His legs failed him, and he dropped to one knee as pain tore through him instantly, originating from the exact same three points where the archon had been struck.

Physically, his body showed no external wounds, yet beneath his clothing, the flesh at those points had already begun to change, and even without seeing it, he could feel the difference, because it did not feel like his body anymore.

The pain he could deal with. In his mind, the pain only meant he was still alive; the same couldn’t be said for the others.

The problem was that the pain wasn’t the real issue.

It was ’why’ he was feeling it in the first place.

To bind himself to an entity born from sin meant that the price demanded from him would take that same form, and through that connection, the damage did not remain with the archon but was carried back to him.

Sin was the bridge that connected them, and when the archon was wounded, that damage did not disappear, but instead transferred directly to the summoner, manifesting through that same sin.

His soul was becoming tainted by that sin, slowly making him into a being of sin itself.

And it was not limited to his soul.

Where the damage had been reflected, his skin had transformed into something rigid and unnatural, taking on the texture and appearance of marble. The change was as if his body was being rewritten.

If Noah had seen it, he would have recognized it immediately.

It was the same material that turned Regina into a monster.

A form born from divine judgment. A monster of God.

—

The cleric forced himself to move.

Slowly, he pushed against the ground and tried to stand again. It felt as though he would collapse again before he could even stand. Even so, he pushed through it, forcing himself upright inch by inch.

He wanted to carry out his resolve to the end. He wanted to witness how these beings would react when one of their own was struck down by the will of God.

And as he looked up, he witnessed the archon retreating.

Shock took hold of him instantly.

He had already accepted death, and he had been prepared to perish alongside the warrior sent to him, believing that even in defeat, one of God’s enemies would be judged and destroyed.

For a being of such purpose to retreat was unthinkable.

It bordered on blasphemy.

Yet the thought itself twisted against him just as quickly, because to doubt a warrior granted to him by God was a greater sin.

He said nothing. If there was meaning behind its actions, then he would bear witness to it until the very end.

Not long after, before he understood the archon’s objective, he felt it.

A presence so dark and so evil, suddenly manifested. The mana within his body churned violently in response.

Hatred rose within him without reason, as if something deep within his very being rejected that presence. At the same time, fear followed.

The two emotions overlapped completely, clashing within him until he could no longer tell where one ended and the other began, and as that conflict settled into something he could not control, his gaze shifted toward the source, and that was when he saw Eve.

"Impossible..."