Chapter 701 - 700: You Can Go Now

Chapter 701: Chapter 700: You Can Go Now

The Seraphim was beginning to wonder if the Devil was right.

It had been created for the sole purpose of carrying out God’s will, yet it was struggling to defeat the very enemy it had been created to destroy.

And that wasn’t the only thing troubling it.

The devil was right. As a celestial being, it should’ve been incapable of experiencing emotions. Fear, doubt, and desires were things that had no place in its existence. There should only be God’s will.

Yet here it was, desperately afraid of failing to accomplish the very purpose it had been created for.

How was that possible?

If God had never intended for it to experience such feelings, then why was it capable of doing so?

And more importantly, if it had been created to destroy God’s enemies, why hadn’t it been given the ability to grow stronger when its current strength proved insufficient?

Was it supposed to continue fighting enemies it couldn’t defeat, knowing that there was nothing it could do to change the outcome?

And what made those questions even more troubling was that the angel’s words seemed to support what the Devil had been suggesting.

Its strength belonged to God. Its purpose belonged to God. Even its existence was something it owed to another.

Yet despite everything it had been given, it still wasn’t enough.

The Seraphim wanted to reject that conclusion. It wanted to believe that its creator had given it everything necessary to fulfill its purpose, and that its inability to defeat the Devil was a failure of its own making.

But if that were true, then how was it supposed to correct that failure?

The angel continued demanding that it destroy the Devil, while Noah’s whispers offered it the very strength it had never been given.

And the longer it listened, the more it began to believe what it had been so desperately trying to deny.

Perhaps...

Perhaps it truly was a defective weapon.

Meanwhile, Noah had begun noticing something strange.

The Seraphim’s reactions weren’t entirely consistent with his words. There were moments when its attention seemed to shift elsewhere, and each time that happened, its desperation would suddenly intensify.

It was almost as though someone else was speaking to it.

Rather than continue exchanging blows, Noah allowed the sword in his hand to dissolve.

The Seraphim saw that moment and believed that an opportunity had finally presented itself. But before its blade could reach him, Noah caught the celestial being by its throat.

His fingers tightened around its neck, but the Seraphim barely registered what had happened.

The suddenness of it had caught the celestial being completely off guard, and by the time it realized that Noah had seized it, the Devil’s grip had already become impossible to break.

But that didn’t mean it was willing to stop fighting.

Several spheres of holy energy immediately began forming around the Seraphim, each one preparing to unleash a concentrated beam of light directly at Noah.

It knew those attacks had accomplished little throughout their confrontation. No matter how many times its holy energy struck the Devil, it had barely managed to injure him.

But this time was different.

With Noah holding it so close, the Seraphim wouldn’t have to worry about its attacks losing any of their power before reaching him. At such a distance, perhaps the concentrated beams would finally be enough to inflict some damage.

Yet just as the spheres were about to release their attacks, something strange happened.

Darkness suddenly appeared within each of them, spreading through the gathered holy energy until the spheres themselves began to lose their shape.

And before the Seraphim could understand what was happening, every one of them collapsed.

Noah barely spared them a glance.

Throughout their confrontation, he had already observed enough of the Seraphim’s attacks to understand how those spheres were formed and what was needed to disrupt them.

And now that the celestial being was so close to him, interfering with that process had become considerably easier.

The dark energy surrounding Noah’s body had already spread throughout the space around him, giving him considerable control over the mana within its reach.

Rather than attempting to destroy the Seraphim’s spells after they were completed, Noah had begun forming spheres of his own dark energy, positioning them so that they almost completely overlapped the celestial being’s own.

And with his own energy being far more powerful, the outcome was hardly surprising.

The Seraphim’s spheres were destroyed before they could finish forming, leaving the celestial being unable to release even a single beam.

Noah then raised the Seraphim until its face was slightly above his own, allowing the eye hovering above his head to stare directly into the celestial being’s eyes.

"There’s someone else speaking to you, isn’t there?"

Under normal circumstances, such a question would’ve been enough to alarm the Seraphim.

Yet the celestial being was so consumed with thoughts of its own inadequacy that it barely reacted. For a brief moment, even its attempts to free itself from Noah’s grasp came to a stop.

However, the same couldn’t be said for the voice that had been speaking to it.

The angel was nearly frightened when she realized that the Devil had somehow become aware of her presence.

But that fear didn’t last long.

After all, her soul wasn’t connected to the Seraphim’s. Regardless of how capable the Devil was at manipulating souls, there was no way for him to reach her through the celestial being.

Her voice could reach its consciousness, but the Seraphim had no means of conveying it aloud. Noah shouldn’t have even known she was there, much less possessed anything he could use to establish a connection to her.

Yet the Devil showed no sign of frustration when neither the angel nor the celestial being responded.

"Why are you hiding behind one of your own instead of fighting me yourself?"

The angel’s thoughts faltered.

Noah studied the Seraphim for a moment, seemingly considering something, before his expression changed.

"Ah, I see now. You’re the reason this weapon has been struggling to make its own decisions."

Darkness began gathering around the Seraphim, spreading across its body as more of its holy energy became corrupted.

The angel immediately attempted to command it to retreat.

"Get away from him! Do not allo-"

Her words suddenly became distorted.

For a moment, the angel couldn’t understand what had happened. She could still sense the Seraphim’s divine energy, and the connection through which she had been issuing commands hadn’t disappeared.

Yet something was interfering with her voice.

"You can go now."

Noah’s words were followed by another surge of darkness, and whatever remained of the angel’s command disappeared before it could reach the Seraphim.

"What?"

The angel immediately tried again.

"Seraphim! Withdraw! You mus-"

But her voice never reached it.

The darkness surrounding the celestial being had become so concentrated that even her attempts to communicate through its consciousness were being intercepted.

And despite how desperately she called out, the Seraphim showed no indication that it could hear her.

Its divine power was still there. The angel could even sense that the celestial being remained alive.

But she could no longer command it.

Meanwhile, the Seraphim’s attention had returned to Noah.

"You’re even more pathetic without someone telling you what to do."

The Devil continued holding it by the neck, showing no intention of releasing his grip.

"A weapon that can only demonstrate its worth when wielded by another will never be stronger than the one wielding it. And if that’s all you’re capable of, then perhaps your creator was right to leave you this way."

Noah paused.

"Let me help you see yourself for what you really are."

His aura suddenly intensified.

Darkness poured from his body, engulfing the Seraphim until the holy radiance surrounding it was almost completely concealed.

Yet despite how much power Noah was releasing, he made no attempt to force the celestial being’s transformation.

Doing so would’ve been easy enough. With the Seraphim already weakened by the corruption spreading throughout its body, Noah could’ve continued pouring his energy into it until whatever resistance remained was completely overwhelmed.

But what would that accomplish?

He would end up with a creature driven by little more than its desire for power, incapable of understanding why it had wanted that strength in the first place.

And Noah had no interest in creating another mindless monster.

If the Seraphim was going to become one of his weapons, then it needed to accept the power being offered to it of its own will.

What Noah wanted was for the celestial being to recognize that the strength it had been given was insufficient, and that there was no reason for it to remain bound by those limitations.

And so, rather than attempting to change the Seraphim directly, his aura began attacking the holy energy that had been restricting its existence.

The darkness continued spreading, gradually eating away at the divine power that had kept the celestial being’s nature intact since its creation.

And as that power weakened, something began happening above its head.

The Seraphim’s halo flickered.

It was only for an instant, but the brilliant ring of holy light had briefly lost its radiance.

Then it flickered again.

This time, a thin crack appeared along its surface.

And as Noah continued pouring his aura into the celestial being, that crack slowly began to spread.