Becoming a Monster

Chapter 492: Chapter 491: Beyond a Ruler

"What are you planning this time?"

Within his soul, staring towards a being that was akin to a godlike existence. A being that had taken on every aspect Noah had gained and made the changes into an abomination of power.

Noah didn’t show the fear that one might expect.

There was always caution towards the entity. But that caution was also layered in a skewed respect.

Noah wouldn’t forget that, although the entity planned to take over his soul, he also wouldn’t have made it this far without it. His companions, his future aspirations.

The entity was the reason for it all.

However, acknowledging that didn’t change what was inevitable between them.

At some point, one of them would take everything from the other. And Noah had no intention of being the one who lost.

The entity’s glare didn’t change, nor did it give heed to Noah’s question.

To its blatant disregard for him, Noah didn’t take it to heart. Since the day it unintentionally revealed its plan, it had avoided any attempt at conversation.

Noah wasn’t sure if the entity believed Noah’s existence to be beneath it, or it viewed Noah as a form of cattle, merely being prepped for slaughter.

However, Noah would like to believe that the being was just afraid that Noah would learn more about it.

—

Seeing that he wasn’t going to gain anything, Noah no longer had a reason to stay. Trying to uncover what the tree meant to it wouldn’t be learned so quickly, and there were still things that he needed to accomplish.

Just as he had given up, he sensed "something" leave his core.

There was no confusion about what that something was. However, Noah was shocked nonetheless.

The creature that was created by the entity but birthed by his soul, his soul spawn, had finally shown interest in something else other than sleeping.

Just like the entity, Noah had also tried communicating with this spawn before, but it had always been to no avail.

He was certain that the spawn could understand him, because the two were nearly the same being. What Noah could feel, the spawn could sense, and that connection worked both ways without fail.

The silence had never been a matter of inability, because Noah had always known that the spawn could understand him.

He didn’t need to guess how it felt either. The anger had always been there.

It wasn’t malicious anger. If it were, Noah would’ve long tried to find a way to deal with the spawn, even if it was tied to him. What he felt was more like the attitude of a child throwing a tantrum, refusing to acknowledge you.

What he didn’t know was the reason behind it.

There was only one explanation that made sense to him.

The soul spawn had been given awareness, yet it had never been allowed to act on it. It remained within his soul, able to perceive everything through him, yet never able to experience any of it for itself.

It had been shown what it meant to exist, to live within a body, and to move freely in the world, only for that chance to be taken away before it could ever reach it.

It was no different than a caged creature that had been allowed to see what freedom looked like, just to be confined again without ever being let out.

If that was the reason, then Noah could understand why it had ignored him for so long, and he could understand why that anger had never faded.

So even now, as the being left his core and began to drift downward toward the tree, Noah didn’t try to stop it.

He didn’t know if he should interfere, and he didn’t know if this was something the entity had planned from the beginning.

But he did know that the two were connected. If it were about to do something that could cause him harm, he would sense it the moment the intention took root.

He watched as the soul spawn finally reached the base of the tree. It marveled at the sight of it after not seeing anything different within Noah’s realm for so long.

It went to touch the tree’s trunk, hesitating the moment its hand was just inches away from it. Because just as Noah’s soul was tied to the dungeon, it also meant it had a connection to it as well.

He watched as the soul spawn finally reached the base of the tree, and after being surrounded by nothing but the same unchanging space for so long, even this small change was enough to draw its full attention.

It approached the tree slowly, its gaze fixed on it as if trying to understand what it was looking at, and when it reached out, its hand stopped just inches away from the trunk.

There was hesitation, not because it feared the tree, but because it could feel something from it that it had never felt before.

Just as Noah’s soul was tied to the dungeon, the spawn could sense that it shared that same connection, and the moment it came close, that link became clear.

There was a sense of kindred between the two, and the life within the tree could be felt clearly as it continued to grow, making the spawn hesitate.

That feeling changed something within it, because instead of returning to Noah’s core like it always had, it chose to remain where it was.

Its attention shifted from Noah entirely as its curiosity took over, and it began to move along the ground, following each individual root as if trying to understand where they led and what they were connected to.

Noah could feel that its mood had changed, because whatever had frustrated it before was no longer directed toward him.

Seeing that, Noah didn’t remain within his soul any longer, and he withdrew his awareness before returning his consciousness to the world outside.

The moment he opened his eyes, every creature around him was already looking toward him, and it was clear that something had changed.

They could feel his strength.

No, it wasn’t something they simply sensed, because his spiritual aura pressed down on all of them equally, forcing their bodies to react without a chance to understand what happened.

It wasn’t violent, but it was overwhelming, and one by one, they were brought to their knees by its presence, unable to resist it.

Even some of his strongest creatures weren’t exempt from it, because the pressure did not differentiate between them.

The only ones who didn’t fully succumb were Ailetta, Eve, and Ava, but even for them, it wasn’t because they resisted it through strength alone.

The aura itself wasn’t something that forced them down in the same way, because it carried something else within it.

It felt like the presence of a ruler.

It wasn’t simply pressure, but something that made their very souls feel as if they should bow.

Ailetta had always seen Noah as her king, and although she had even imagined him becoming something greater, her imagination went so far as to want him to be a god.

The role she held for him went beyond that, because she stood beside him as his lover rather than beneath him.

Eve didn’t see him as a ruler at all, because to her, he was still the one who protected her, the one she relied on, her doting big brother, and that view didn’t change even now.

And then there was Ava, whose thoughts remained unreadable, because the fact that she didn’t bow meant either she saw Noah as something different, or she believed, deep down, that her own existence stood above his.

Everyone else had no such conflict, because to them, Noah was something to follow without question.

He was their ruler.

Their king.

Among them, the tiger beastkin found itself struggling the most, because although his body had already dropped to his knees, his mind had not followed in the same way.

There was no part of him that willingly saw Noah in the same regard as the others, yet his instincts told him something entirely different.

Those instincts felt inferior to Noah’s soul, and at the same time, they felt drawn to it, as if something within him was recognizing a truth he didn’t understand.

He felt as if the life he had been living and the role he had been playing were not what they were meant to be.

Meanwhile, Noah took a quick glance around him. He could slightly understand what had happened as he quickly reined in his aura.

His gaze narrowed as it settled on Ava. The creature was a complete enigma. But he wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t affected. He would never forget the presence behind that vortex of energy from that one drop of blood.

If one drop held such an aura from a dead being, then the full might of that being could barely be imagined.

He looked at Eve, his expression was that of someone who could sympathize with the other. The two held a weird connection with powerful beings. He just hoped hers wasn’t trying to take her over as his was.

He took in a deep breath before extending a hand to the vampire. Before he acknowledged their captive, he was going to at least bring back Diablo.

"Come on, Eve. Let’s wake up your Dad first."