Chapter 707 - 706: One Last Selfish Wish

Chapter 707: Chapter 706: One Last Selfish Wish

Ailetta had seen hope again.

With Noah having already given her permission to eliminate the remaining enemies, she saw little reason to let such an opportunity slip away.

Of course, one problem remained.

She understood Noah best, and when he said kill everyone, she knew he didn’t mean everyone.

Ailetta knew perfectly well that not everyone here fell into the category of an enemy, especially those who had just appeared.

Paul, for instance, already belonged to him.

Whatever feelings Ailetta might have toward him, or lack thereof, she knew Noah hadn’t given her permission to decide his fate.

And then there was Ishii.

As far as Ailetta knew, Noah had never held anything against the man. If anything, Ishii was probably the only one among them whom she would even consider sparing. And that was only because she clearly remembered how Ishii had always been on Noah’s side, regardless of what he heard or experienced.

But even that came with conditions.

He would have to willingly become one of Noah’s creatures and, more importantly, show the same loyalty and admiration for Noah he had back then.

Anything less, and Ailetta saw little reason to treat him differently from the others.

Unfortunately, knowing that she wasn’t supposed to kill certain individuals didn’t make her any less interested in doing so.

And that was precisely why she hoped Noah wouldn’t discover what she was considering.

After all, she wasn’t foolish enough to believe he would approve of her using his orders as an excuse to settle her own grievances. She also knew that when it came to the few humans within that group, if they were going to be killed, he would want to do it himself.

But as long as he remained occupied with his battle, perhaps she could deal with the matter before he had an opportunity to interfere.

At least, she hoped.

She was fully conscious of their connection as those thoughts slipped by, knowing that Noah wouldn’t let such strong thoughts of hers slip by. But strangely, he was silent.

He was preoccupied with the angel ascending towards him, but this was a different kind of silence. It was one where, consciously, she could tell he knew what she was thinking of doing, and yet he used the time to observe her, judging her.

Even with their connection open, she couldn’t tell what exactly he was judging her for...

But if he wasn’t going to stop her, then that meant she could kill them, right?

Despite believing there would be no obstacles in her way, Ailetta found herself freezing in her tracks.

Because even as she considered how to take advantage of the situation, another emotion was beginning to interfere with her thoughts.

Concern.

It was an emotion Ailetta had no reason to feel toward anyone besides Noah, especially when she was already imagining how satisfying it would be to finally rid herself of the sole weakness holding her back from being able to fully support him.

Yet the feeling was unmistakable.

And the more she thought about killing them, the stronger it became.

Ailetta knew exactly where it was coming from.

The very soul she’s trying to rid herself of.

Until now, it had remained relatively submissive, rarely doing more than expressing emotions that Ailetta could easily disregard.

But after witnessing Bailey being stabbed through the heart, something had changed.

The soul had been forced to watch someone it cared about suffer what should’ve been a fatal injury, and before it could even come to terms with what had happened, Ailetta was already considering killing the others.

The very people the soul still considered its dear friends.

And unlike what had happened to Bailey, their deaths would come at the hands of the very monster that was essentially itself.

Naturally, the soul wasn’t willing to accept that possibility, and its growing concern was becoming increasingly difficult for Ailetta to ignore.

Under different circumstances, that might’ve been good news.

After all, the more intense the soul’s emotions became, the more exposed it would become. And Ailetta needed the soul to emerge if she was ever going to have an opportunity to devour it once and for all.

But drawing the soul out was only part of the process.

For Ailetta to devour it, the soul would also need to lose its sense of self, allowing her to overwhelm what remained of its resistance.

And given how strongly the soul had reacted to what happened to Bailey, Ailetta had every reason to believe that she was finally getting close to accomplishing that.

In fact, the soul had already emerged to such an extent that she no longer needed to kill anyone else to achieve what she had wanted all along.

Unfortunately, there was a problem.

Although the soul was undoubtedly overwhelmed by its emotions, it wasn’t losing its sense of self. In fact, the soul’s determination had only grown stronger.

And perhaps that shouldn’t have been so surprising.

After all, when it chose to abandon its humanity, it had been willing to remain dormant within Ailetta, experiencing the world through her eyes while watching the consequences of the decision it had made.

And until now, it had genuinely believed that decision was the right one.

She could now fight alongside Noah and his creatures, expressing herself more openly than she ever would’ve dared to before. And now that they were so much stronger, they were finally in a position to begin building a home of their own.

Everything she had witnessed felt like an accomplishment that would’ve been impossible had she remained human.

And if the price of that happiness was spending the rest of her existence as a silent observer, gradually fading away until nothing remained of her, then she had been willing to accept it.

She had even come to terms with the possibility that she would never see her friends again.

It was a lonely existence, but one she had chosen for herself.

And despite everything, she hadn’t regretted that choice.

At least, not until now.

What made the situation even more difficult was that the soul understood exactly why Ailetta wanted to kill them.

Ailetta had never concealed her desire to devour the soul residing within her, and threatening her friends was merely another attempt to draw it out.

But there was something Ailetta hadn’t fully understood.

Although the soul had accepted that her existence would eventually come to an end, that didn’t mean she had stopped looking forward to what the future might bring.

She still wanted to see how far Noah would go, what would become of the home they had begun building, and whether everything they had endured would eventually amount to something worthwhile.

And more than anything, she wanted to see Noah genuinely happy.

Even if it could only experience those things through Ailetta’s eyes, it wanted to remain until the very end.

And perhaps that was why the realization that followed was so painful.

It could prevent Ailetta from killing its friends.

All it had to do was surrender.

If it allowed itself to be devoured, Ailetta would have no reason to continue pursuing them for the sake of drawing her out.

Considering that it had already resigned itself to eventually fading away, shouldn’t that have been an easy decision?

Yet when confronted with the possibility of disappearing before witnessing any of the things it had been looking forward to, it discovered that it wasn’t nearly as prepared for it as it had believed.

Was it really so wrong to want that much for itself?

Perhaps it was selfish, but after surrendering everything else, it had hoped it could at least hold on to that one desire.

Unfortunately, that desire became much harder to justify when it knew Ailetta was willing to kill its friends because of it.

After all, the soul understood that there were limits to what it could do for them. If something happened to them, it would’ve been saddened by their deaths, but it couldn’t possibly protect them from every danger they might encounter.

But this was different.

If Ailetta killed them only because it refused to surrender itself, wouldn’t that mean their deaths were ultimately its own fault?

How could it possibly accept that?

If remaining dormant meant allowing the monster it had willingly become to kill the people it still cared about, then perhaps it was time it reconsidered that decision.

If surrendering itself to the current Ailetta wasn’t an option, there was only one thing left for it to do.

And judging by the resistance the current Ailetta could feel growing within her, the soul had already begun acting on that decision.

What should’ve been an opportunity to finally devour the soul was becoming something considerably more troublesome.

After all, Ailetta wasn’t the only one who had been growing stronger.

As two souls inhabiting the same body, the strength she had accumulated hadn’t benefited her alone. The other soul had continued growing alongside her, even while remaining submissive.

And now, rather than allowing its emotions to weaken it, the soul was using that accumulated strength to actively struggle against Ailetta for control of the body it had once given up on.

Of course, that didn’t mean the two were equally matched.

Ailetta still possessed the advantage in almost every regard.

But there was a considerable difference between devouring a soul that had lost its sense of self and attempting to overpower one whose determination to survive had become stronger than ever.