Becoming a Monster

Chapter 504: Chapter 503: Anything But That

The tigerkin forced his vision to steady, straining his eyes as he watched Noah.

Whatever Noah was about to do... he had to see it.

Because whatever happened to Ethaniel here... He would have to assume the same would be done to Gwen if she really was alive.

His jaw tightened at the thought. He was powerless to do anything. But for her, he was willing to do whatever he could.

—

Noah had already moved a short distance away from the others, Ethaniel’s unconscious body dragged along by tendrils before being lifted and held in place.

Even without turning, he could feel their attention on him.

"I don’t want any of you getting close," he suddenly said, his gaze remaining on Ethaniel. "Just in case what happened before happens again."

The atmosphere immediately grew tense. He felt it in the shift of their presence alone.

Even Ailetta.

"Relax," Noah added, his voice lowering slightly as he directed the next words to Ailetta. "It’ll be just like what we did at the prison. I’m not doing that with my blood this time, so it should be fine... but it would help me if you made sure nothing else happens."

Only then did he glance back, his eyes settling briefly on Arachne and Fenrir. The two were the strongest out of the rest of them, and they have fed on his blood the longest. Of them all, they should have the minimal reaction to it.

"You two as well. Don’t let anything go wrong."

There was no hesitation in either of them as their vigilance rose.

With that said, Noah turned fully back to Ethaniel, his attention narrowing as everything else faded from focus.

At first, he considered waiting.

Even without imbuing his blood the same way as before, there was still risk involved, and rushing into it wasn’t something he normally would’ve done.

But the thought of bringing Ethaniel back within his home, even temporarily, didn’t sit right with him.

Not after everything that had happened.

So he didn’t wait.

From a distance, Ailetta watched just as closely, her gaze fixed on Noah. Unlike the tense caution of the others watching, her expression was a deep interest.

The creation that stood by her side, waiting to be plucked for Noah, held no interest in her mind like what was about to happen.

She hadn’t forgotten what had happened the last time they tested this.

Noah’s blood back then was more zombie than anything else, causing him to create a unique zombie.

Now it was different. Noah’s blood was far from being considered part zombie. In fact, she couldn’t say "what" exactly Noah would be categorized as anymore.

If she had to put it into words, then the closest thing would be a monster created from one’s true self.

So now she couldn’t wait to see just what type of monster his blood would create this time.

—

Noah didn’t rush to awaken Ethaniel.

Forcing the man awake just to pry open his mouth wasn’t something he cared to deal with. Adjusting his jaw was simple enough.

A slight shift of the tendrils, and the man’s mouth opened just enough.

That only left one thing.

His blood.

Noah didn’t believe a single drop would be enough this time. It wasn’t instinct that led him to that conclusion. This wasn’t the same as before.

The woman back then had already been on the edge of death, her body weak enough that even a small amount of his blood could take root almost immediately.

Ethaniel was different.

Even in this state, his body still held strength, and the little amount of mana he still possessed running through his veins was significantly more condensed than what she had.

And more importantly, he didn’t know if the people’s constitution of this world could even be affected.

If Noah used too little, then the process could take far longer than expected.

It could simply be rejected, leaving him with nothing but the conclusion that his blood no longer carried the same transformative properties it once did.

So he didn’t take that chance. A tendril moved, positioning itself just at the entrance of Ethaniel’s mouth.

Then Noah released a steady stream.

A mouthful’s worth of blood was forced down his throat in one forced motion. It caused Ethaniel’s body to react immediately, forcing him to awaken.

A violent gag forced its way out of him as his eyes snapped open, his chest convulsing as he tried to breathe. The first thing he saw was Noah standing directly in front of him.

His mind didn’t have time to process it; his airways were still blocked as he choked.

Saliva and blood spilled from his mouth as he coughed, his body struggling to expel what had already been forced down. Instinct took over as he tried to reach for his throat.

Pain shot through his arms the moment he moved.

For a brief second, he had forgotten. His limbs weren’t just injured; they were broken beyond use.

As Ethaniel continued to cough up whatever he could, Noah shifted his gaze to his creatures. Even if he said that his blood shouldn’t have the same effect, he still needed to confirm it.

Seeing that none of them showed the same restlessness as before brought him some relief. At least, not all of them.

A faint glimmer reflected in Eve’s eyes, a subtle, envious hunger that hadn’t disappeared. The effects of his blood didn’t matter to her. His blood would always be enticing.

When the coughing finally died down, Noah turned his attention back to Ethaniel. His Nexus Eye glowed faintly as he observed him, checking for any immediate changes to his mana while his own gaze followed every reaction with scrutiny.

Only after Ethaniel could finally breathe did his thoughts begin to catch up. The last thing he remembered was Noah catching him before he lost consciousness.

And waking up again with Noah directly in front of him made it feel as if no time had passed at all. For a moment, he believed they were still in the air, that everything was simply continuing from where it left off.

But as his eyes naturally moved, scanning his surroundings and trying to calculate what he could do, that thought quickly fell apart.

They were back.

Back to where it all began.

As he looked around more carefully, trying to piece together what had happened, he began to feel a strange sensation within his body. It was faint, barely noticeable at first, but it was there. The change didn’t come from his physical condition, but from his mana.

It stirred on its own, reacting as if something foreign had entered his body. It wasn’t enough to cause immediate alarm, but enough to make it clear that something wasn’t right.

It felt as if his body was instinctively trying to fight something off, even if he couldn’t yet understand what it was.

Ethaniel’s focus sharpened immediately. He wasn’t ignorant. The bitter taste lingering in his mouth, mixed with that faint sweetness, made it clear that something had been forced down his throat.

It didn’t immediately register as blood because Noah’s blood was different compared to any other life form. Without enough understanding, it would be nearly impossible to recognize it for what it truly was.

But he didn’t need to understand what it was. Just knowing that they had done something to him was enough.

If the creature in front of him had chosen to do something like that instead of killing him, then whatever it was, no matter how insignificant it felt right now, had to be understood.

As his gaze shifted again, more focused now as he searched the figures around Noah, his eyes moved with instinctive awareness of his plight.

Yet, even as he observed, his mind was subconsciously searching for those he had left behind.

He came upon the bodies first, his gaze lingering only long enough to confirm what he already feared, before shifting again, only to pause when something didn’t align with what he expected to see.

"...Roy...?"

The name came out uncertain, because what stood before him didn’t fully match the image in his mind, and yet there was something familiar about it that made it impossible to dismiss.

"...Samuel...?"

His voice faltered as he tried to make sense of it, because it wasn’t one or the other, and the longer he looked, the more that realization became unavoidable.

It was both.

His eyes narrowed slightly, trying to rationalize what he was seeing, but that attempt collapsed the moment the figure’s skin began to split in several places at once.

From those openings, eyes began to emerge, blinking independently as they adjusted, followed by mouths that tore through the flesh in unnatural shapes, stretching into twisted expressions that didn’t belong to anything human.

Ethaniel’s eyes widened as the truth was uncovered without needing to be explained.

Their bodies were used to turn them into monsters.

The realization sent his thoughts into disarray, not just because of what had been done to them, but because of what it implied for him.

His mind immediately drew the connection to what had been forced into his body moments ago.

’That’s what they’re trying to do to me.’

His breathing grew uneven as panic began to set in again, his focus turning inward as he tried to understand what was happening inside him.

Whatever they had forced into his system could not be ignored, not when the outcome of failing to understand it was standing right in front of him.