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 assu the sa 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 imdiately 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 ti, so it should be fine... but it would help
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 sa way as before, there was still risk involved, and rushing into it wasn’t sothing he normally would’ve done.
But the thought of bringing Ethaniel back within his ho, 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 ti 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 ti.
—
Noah didn’t rush to awaken Ethaniel.
Forcing the man awake just to pry open his mouth wasn’t sothing 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 ti. It wasn’t instinct that led him to that conclusion. This wasn’t the sa 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 imdiately.
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 sa 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 imdiately, 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 ti 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 mont 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 sa effect, he still needed to confirm it.
Seeing that none of them showed the sa restlessness as before brought him so relief. At least, not all of them.
A faint glimr 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 imdiate 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 rembered 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 ti had passed at all. For a mont, 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 co from his physical condition, but from his mana.
It stirred on its own, reacting as if sothing foreign had entered his body. It wasn’t enough to cause imdiate alarm, but enough to make it clear that sothing wasn’t right.
It felt as if his body was instinctively trying to fight sothing off, even if he couldn’t yet understand what it was.
Ethaniel’s focus sharpened imdiately. He wasn’t ignorant. The bitter taste lingering in his mouth, mixed with that faint sweetness, made it clear that sothing had been forced down his throat.
It didn’t imdiately 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 sothing to him was enough.
If the creature in front of him had chosen to do sothing 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 ca upon the bodies first, his gaze lingering only long enough to confirm what he already feared, before shifting again, only to pause when sothing didn’t align with what he expected to see.
"...Roy...?"
The na ca out uncertain, because what stood before him didn’t fully match the image in his mind, and yet there was sothing 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 beca unavoidable.
It was both.
His eyes narrowed slightly, trying to rationalize what he was seeing, but that attempt collapsed the mont the figure’s skin began to split in several places at once.
From those openings, eyes began to erge, 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 imdiately drew the connection to what had been forced into his body monts ago.
’That’s what they’re trying to do to .’
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 outco of failing to understand it was standing right in front of him.
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