Becoming a Monster

Morvyr's expression tightened as he pushed against the ground, mana coursing through his body as he attempted to force himself back onto his feet.

The pressure on his body was difficult enough to overcome. Yet the moment Morvyr committed himself to rising, the burden on his soul became noticeably heavier.

His arms trembled as he continued pushing, managing to raise one knee from the ground before forcing the other to follow.

Slowly, Morvyr stood.

His posture remained hunched beneath the weight bearing down on him, but he was standing nonetheless.

Then he tasted blood.

Morvyr's tongue brushed against the inside of his mouth as another warm sensation began trickling from one of his ears.

His first instinct was to assume he had pushed himself too far, but something about that didn't feel right. His body was strained, certainly, yet he could still withstand the weight bearing down on it. If anything, now that he had managed to stand, Morvyr was increasingly confident that the physical pressure was something he could resist.

The same couldn't be said for what was happening to his soul.

That burden had only grown worse the harder he fought to remain standing.

Through that difference, Morvyr gradually began to understand what was happening.

The two forms of pressure weren't entirely connected.

Noah's aura was forcing his body downward through sheer weight, but whatever was bearing down on his soul seemed to be responding to his resistance itself.

More specifically, what that resistance represented.

Morvyr was refusing to submit to Noah's existence.

The thought immediately caused something within him to stir.

Was this the natural suppression of a true devil?

Morvyr had already experienced the difference between Noah's aura and that of other powerful beings. Even those considerably stronger than Noah could use their presence to overwhelm someone weaker, but this felt fundamentally different.

His soul wasn't recognizing Noah as stronger.

It was recognizing him as something higher.

Morvyr's expression gradually changed as he began to understand what that meant.

It had nothing to do with loyalty.

The pressure wasn't demanding that he abandon his Queen, nor did Morvyr feel any sudden desire to follow Noah or recognize him as someone with authority over his decisions.

This was something much more instinctive.

A hierarchy between their races.

Noah was a devil.

And despite Morvyr's attempts to resist him, his soul appeared to recognize that distinction even when his conscious mind refused to.

Blood continued gathering inside Morvyr's mouth as he remained standing under Noah's aura. The pain surrounding his soul was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, but as Morvyr focused more closely on what his instincts were telling him, he gradually realized that submission wasn't his only option.

There was another way to make the pressure disappear.

He could reject Noah completely.

The thought wasn't as simple as refusing to acknowledge Noah's superiority. Morvyr was already doing that, and the ailments in his body that he was experiencing from the strain on his soul made the consequences of that choice obvious.

He needed to reject the hierarchy itself.

And instinctively, Morvyr understood what that required.

Kill him.

His eyes widened slightly.

For the first time since Noah released his aura, Morvyr understood the choice his soul was presenting him with.

He could recognize the devil as something racially above himself and submit to that distinction, submitting that Noah's existence had more value than his own.

Or he could reject Noah entirely by recognizing him as an enemy that needed to die.

There was no comfortable position between the two.

Morvyr couldn't acknowledge what Noah was while simultaneously refusing to submit and expecting his soul to remain unaffected. If he wanted to completely disregard the hierarchy being imposed upon him, then his rejection needed to be absolute.

He needed to genuinely want Noah dead.

Morvyr stared at the devil standing across from him.

Nothing happened.

He could imagine fighting Noah. Considering some of their previous interactions, imagining himself striking the devil wasn't particularly difficult either.

But killing him?

No genuine killing intent surfaced.

Morvyr couldn't force himself to see Noah as an enemy merely because his instincts had given him the option. After everything he had witnessed within the territory, and everything he hoped could come from maintaining their relationship, killing the devil was probably one of the furthest things from his mind.

That left him with only one choice.

If this had happened when they first met, accepting that his existence naturally stood beneath Noah's would've been nearly impossible.

But Morvyr had seen too much since then.

He had witnessed what Noah was capable of, and more importantly, what the devil could potentially do for him. Something his Queen, and possibly even the Demon King, couldn't accomplish despite Noah seemingly being capable of doing it with nearly no effort at all.

Compared to genuinely wanting Noah dead, Morvyr found surprisingly little reason to continue rejecting what his soul had already recognized.

So he stopped fighting it.

Whatever hierarchy existed between their existence, Morvyr allowed himself to fully embrace it.

The moment he did, the burden surrounding his soul receded considerably, and the pain that had been building alongside it finally began to lessen.

The tremendous weight pressing against his body hadn't disappeared with it. His legs still strained against the pressure, while mana continued coursing through him to keep himself upright.

But that was manageable.

Without his soul suffering alongside his body, Morvyr felt that he could continue standing against Noah's aura for considerably longer.

More importantly, he could finally think clearly.

Before, he thought the devil was attacking him, or at least trying to warn him to know his place.

However, Noah's aura was too unique for Morvyr to mistake the intentions behind the display once his mind was clear enough to focus on something other than resisting it.

He had asked Noah how strong he was.

Understanding gradually appeared across his face.

This was his answer.

Noah didn't continue with his display.

Despite how effective it might've seemed, or how strong it made him appear, he wasn't entirely happy with the outcome.

It was only now that he realized one of his old abilities hadn't fully disappeared after all. Instead, some portion of it appeared to have become an instinctive part of his existence.

The ability to suppress those who shared the same existence as himself, but whose existence was lesser than his own.

In Noah's case, his existence encompassed tainted beings.

A demon fit that criteria to a T.

Noah wasn't surprised that something like this existed. Noah had already seen similar forms of suppression among creatures sharing the same existence. A sufficiently evolved creature could exert a natural influence over lesser members of its kind, which was part of what made them so effective at leading their own kind.

That was part of how chieftains ruled their clans so effectively, and why having an evolved creature leading them was so valuable.

But although Noah wasn't surprised by the effect itself, he was dissatisfied with the outcome because it basically threw away the entire reason he had done this in the first place.

Wasn't he displaying his strength so Morvyr could discern how strong he currently was?

How could this truly answer that when his strength was being disguised behind a trait that only worked on tainted beings?

Morvyr hadn't just experienced the pressure created by Noah's aura. His own nature had made him vulnerable to an additional form of suppression that had nothing to do with how physically or magically powerful Noah had become.

Humans didn't fall under that category.

If Noah released the same aura against one of the humans coming for him, they wouldn't experience nearly half of what Morvyr just went through. They might feel the physical pressure created by his aura, but their souls wouldn't experience the same suppression.

And that wasn't even considering the humans who wielded holy energy.

If anything, Noah suspected their nature might cause the opposite reaction. Rather than feeling compelled to submit to his existence, their holy energy could naturally resist the tainted aspects of his aura, making Morvyr an even worse example for judging how Noah would fare against them.

Noah stared at Morvyr for a moment, wondering if he should just fight Moryvr so he could see for himself how strong he was.

In the end, seeing the look of admiration in the elf's eyes after what Noah had just put him through, he gave up the thought.

He was about to resume walking again when a soft poof sounded near his side.

"Dobby?"

Noah's eyes narrowed towards the creature's sudden emergence. There should be no other reason that Dobby would come looking for him unless it was something important.

The sage didn't speak in riddles this time as he looked dazedly into the distance before meeting Noah's gaze.

"They are coming." That was all he said.

Morvyr looked in the direction Dobby was staring, but understood nothing.

Noah, meanwhile, grasped the meaning instantly.

The negative intent Dobby sensed was at an all-time high, and as his strength increased, he could finally perceive the movements of those with the strongest evil intentions, as long as they were weak enough for his ability to affect.

The ability was more limited than it seemed. Someone could harbor evil intentions toward the idea of Noah without actually knowing him personally. They might know he was a demon or a monster, but without knowing who he was or even what he looked like, there was little for Dobby's ability to establish a connection with.

But among those approaching was someone whose intentions were directed specifically toward Noah.

That connection was considerably stronger.

For that reason, Dobby could ascertain that they were coming.

However, their movement wasn't the only thing he could sense.

Dobby's cloudy eyes remained fixed on the distance as something gradually became clearer within his mind. Whoever he sensed was relatively weaker than him now, allowing his ability to perceive more than their location and movement.

For the first time, Dobby could make out their image.

The shape was indistinct at first, gradually becoming clearer the longer he focused until the features of a single woman finally emerged.

Someone Noah would know all too well.