Becoming a Monster

Chapter 511: Chapter 510: Take Me Instead

While Noah and the others were finishing up, someone else was still struggling with the aftermath.

Verkesh hadn’t moved from where he fell; his body still felt heavy from the earlier blow. But it wasn’t the pain that kept him there; it was everything that had just happened.

Ethaniel becoming something else entirely, the power he gained, the way he carried himself as if he was, and yet no longer was the same Ethaniel he once knew.

Then Noah ended it without hesitation. There wasn’t a struggle, and there wasn’t even a moment where it felt like Ethaniel had a chance.

He was simply destroyed.

But even that wasn’t what stayed with him the most, because what came after was something he couldn’t push out of his mind.

The moment Noah stripped his soul from his core.

He could still see it clearly, as if it was happening right in front of him again. No matter how much he tried to focus on anything else, his thoughts kept pulling him back to it.

And then to her.

Gwen.

The image shifted on its own, Ethaniel’s body becoming hers as the same scene played out again without anything holding it back. Her body on the ground, her core in Noah’s hand, her soul being taken just as easily.

His chest tightened as his breath stalled, his fingers pressing into the ground as if that alone could stop what he was seeing.

But it didn’t, and the thought continued without slowing down.

Even as he forced himself to look up, watching the monsters prepare to leave, the image didn’t fade, and neither did the weight behind it.

He knew what he should say and what he should offer.

His life for hers.

It should’ve been simple, and it should’ve been something he could say without hesitation.

But the moment he thought about what would happen after that, his throat closed before a single word could leave him.

"You, tiger creature, it’s about time you left already."

Varkesh flinched at the sound of the voice approaching.

His mouth fumbled over itself, finding the right words to reply escaping him. Meanwhile, Noah looked over to Ailetta with mild confusion.

"When I left, didn’t you explain to him what he was supposed to do?"

"I did... But that was before you came back. Maybe it thought we wouldn’t let it go anymore after witnessing what you just did."

Noah found the excuse to be reasonable enough, but that didn’t change the fact that the tigerkin hadn’t moved at all.

His gaze shifted back to Varkesh, settling on him for a moment longer than necessary as if trying to understand the creature’s sentiment.

"You’re free to leave," he said without a hint of sympathy for what the tigerkin had experienced.

"No one here is going to stop you."

Varkesh’s body tensed slightly, but he still didn’t move, his thoughts stalling at the words as if they hadn’t fully registered.

"But..." Noah’s eyes glistened with a violent thrust of blood lust. "If you hate me for what I’ve done, if you want to seek revenge, then make sure you tell them everything. And come back with them when the time comes... I’ll be waiting."

Varkesh’s throat tightened as his instincts screamed at him to look away.

But he couldn’t bring himself to do it; his eyes locked onto Noah as dread filled him once again at the realization that he held no leverage over them.

The monster didn’t fear their kingdom at all. It didn’t fear the thousands of warriors that could burn this forest to the ground.

Even if the monster could get stronger by consuming its victims’ souls, it still shouldn’t have had the confidence that it was capable of dealing with their army.

Noah was strong, Varkesh had no doubt. Yet even that strength had its limits. And that strength was still incomparable to their strongest.

But as Varkesh thought about it, he also noticed a flaw in his thoughts.

Would the human kingdom believe in the words of a beastkin? Would they send an army for a lone elf? Can they spare their strongest when the Demons have shown more activity than before? Or when the undead were at their doorstep?

And would his own nation believe in the words of someone who left their nation for the one that unjustly antagonized them for so many years?

"I’m sorry, Noah, it seems that we should’ve kept the other one alive. This one is broken..."

Ailetta’s voice carried no mockery, only a quiet observation as her gaze lingered on Varkesh, who had yet to say anything, his expression remaining the same empty, listless stare from before.

Noah didn’t respond immediately, but he didn’t disagree either. There was nothing to gain from forcing a reaction out of him.

"It doesn’t matter. Whether he understands or not will only change the delivery of the message. In the end, we’ll still be ready."

Noah turned without another word, Ailetta following at his side as the two began to leave.

And it was only when Varkesh saw them about to depart that something finally broke.

"WA—WAIT!"

The shout tore out of him as he stumbled forward, his hand immediately flying to his mouth as if trying to force the words back inside.

It wasn’t because Noah and Ailetta had turned back.

It was because he felt it. The gaze of the monster, who had no hesitation in beating him down, locked onto him again.

Varkesh forced himself to steady his breathing, but his thoughts refused to settle, and the words came out anyway, pushed forward by something he couldn’t suppress.

"Th—the other one... the other per—person you spoke of that’s alive..."

His voice wavered, breaking under the stress of what he was about to ask.

"Is it Gwen?"

There was no hesitation after that.

"Is she truly alive?"

The desperation in his voice was impossible to hide, his eyes wide, almost hysterical, because the answer didn’t just matter to him.

It would confirm what he had already prepared himself to do.

Noah didn’t care for the volume of his voice, but the expression Varkesh made drew his attention more than anything else.

There was only one person he had kept alive, and as he recalled, the soul he had taken was also desperate to reach her.

What was so special about her?

He couldn’t understand why the tigerkin was reacting like this now, because even after watching his comrade die right in front of him, and even after everyone else with him had been killed, he had never shown this kind of desperation.

"If you mean the elf, then yes, she’s still alive for now."

Varkesh’s body locked up for only a second before everything he had been holding back finally surfaced.

"Then take me instead!"

His body moved with the words, pushing forward as he tried to crawl toward Noah, but before he could get far, a powerful foot pressed him back into the ground.

His face hit the dirt again, but this time the impact didn’t matter, and he didn’t spare a single thought for who had stopped him.

"Kill me instead and let her live," he forced out, his voice straining as his fingers dug into the ground beneath him. "Let her take my place. She doesn’t deserve such a cruel fate."

Noah considered it, not out of any sentiment toward the tigerkin, but because there was value in what was being offered. If the tiger was willing to give up his life so easily, then that willingness alone made him worth more than the elf under the right circumstances.

Noah had already made plans for her, and it was partly the reason why he hadn’t killed her yet.

Pandora was very close to producing another fruit, and after what happened to Ophis, Noah wanted to make sure that Pandora had another guardian for herself in case he couldn’t succeed in restoring Ophis’s tattered state.

An elf was normally seen as a being closely tied to nature, and from what he had already observed, that distinction wasn’t far from the truth since she was capable of using plant and nature magic.

Because of that, he believed that she would be the perfect candidate to consume the next fruit.

However, he also had to consider whether simply consuming the fruit would instill loyalty.

Ophis had already been subservient before eating the fruit, and that subservience had only deepened after obtaining strength that went beyond her own. There was no certainty that the elf would respond the same way.

That uncertainty forced him to reconsider, because if loyalty couldn’t be guaranteed, then her value became unstable.

In contrast, the tigerkin in front of him had already shown exactly what he was willing to do.

If his attachment was strong enough to make him offer his life without hesitation, then that same attachment could be shaped into something far more reliable.

And if that was the case, then the one with greater value might not be the elf at all.

It might be him.

Seeing that Noah was still hesitating to accept his plea, Varkesh gritted his teeth as he reached for the only bargaining chip he believed he still had.

Even though the fear of Noah seeing through it lingered in the back of his mind.

"If... if you don’t take me, then just kill me now," he forced out, his voice shaking despite everything he tried to suppress. "I won’t go. I won’t do what you want, not unless you let her take my place."