For the second time, the zombie felt true pain. Its facial muscles and tissues were ripped away, forcibly torn along with its skin. Its left eye couldn’t escape the physical frame as it was gouged out from its socket, its nerves and muscles ripped from the base.
The result of her attack elicited a sheepish smile, one which a child would make when they knew they did something wrong but hoped the parent wouldn’t notice.
One of her eyes darted toward Noah, sneaking a quick glance. She hoped he wouldn’t lecture her later for not listening to him. The serpent’s core was clearly the better choice. After all, if one attack could cause such damage, and considering her current state was weaker than when she was whole, then there was a high probability her previous strike could pierce through the zombie’s fortified skull.
Just from her glance, she could see that Noah was preoccupied with Arachne’s.....transformation?
"Hmph," she playfully scoffed to herself. "Took her long enough." Ailetta offhandily ridiculed the prideful spider. Her memories weren’t forgotten. She recalled even before she became what she was now, how Arachne was jealous when Noah took in Fenrir’s genes, the possessive glare she held even when he updated those genes after their transformation. She held the same expression when Noah made the decision to take in her slime genes.
Despite knowing that doing so would make Noah stronger, Arachne couldn’t stop her possessive instincts from flaring up. It was always the same; endless struggle between her pride, her jealousy, and her desire to be the one standing closest to Noah, the creature he relied on the most.
Yet, for the first time, that pride had been overcome by the very same desire.
"But...." Ailetta’s eyes flickered excitedly. "I wonder what my genes....’OUR’ genes would awaken in her."
Ailetta uttered loudly from her excitement. There wasn’t an ounce of jealousy in her hurt, nor bitterness for Arachne using her genes to grow stronger. If anything, she was thrilled. If she could, she would hope that Fenrir could gain her genes too. To her, the more competent the creatures around Noah were, the better. Her place in Noah’s heart was already irreplaceable, their bonded soul made sure of that. What mattered to her most, rather than the others personal strength, was the opportunity to witness and analyze how her genes would manifest in someone else.
As a monster, a monster that wasn’t being held back by the system. Ailetta understood that the only limitation was herself. Her imagination wasn’t restricted by anything but her own creativity and understanding of herself. She prided herself when it came to her observational prowess and the ability to dissect what she sees and turn it into insight.
Noah was her prime "subject." His abilities, which differed from hers, only deepened her understanding of her potential and fueled her own growth. She was sure of it, she could tell that despite the abilities granted to her, she could eventually perform the same abilities as Noah. And now that Arachne had taken in her genes, Ailetta was sure that she would have another subject to use to research more material.
Her playful scoff turned into a soft chuckle as she turned her attention back to the battlefield, but one eye remained fixed on Arachne. Her rousing curiosity couldn’t stop her from closely observing every moment of Arachne’s transformation, despite the threat looming in front of her.
"Now that I think about it," she mused, "if I had chosen the serpent’s core from the start, Arachne wouldn’t have had this chance to get stronger. I would also have been forced to merge with both cores without proper preparation..."
Her words were that of reason, but deep down she knew that she was only trying to justify her actions. Noah wouldn’t take her "reasonings" into consideration if she tried to explain because her "reasonings" had one drawback. If she really had considered such a scenario, then she would’ve started off the battle with her halves taking both cores so she could be ready to merge them at a moment’s notice.
"Oh?" Ailetta’s thoughts were immediately halted when she noticed the zombie, the skin on its face dangling from its exposed bloodied skeletal face, she noticed the same disturbing faces from before wriggling within its body, flowing upwards.
"It can even recover from that..." She calmly watched the zombie succumb to one knee, its figure releasing a distinguished growl that never stopped. The seemingly mindless beast seemed different.
Its demeanor changed. The one of many faces that seemed to ascend towards its damaged face no longer advanced. The zombie was aware, an awareness that was higher than most zombies of its stage. Edward was able to retain partial sanity despite being turned into a zombie, however, that last bit of awareness was tainted with his new zombie urges and his own deluded vision of the world. That awareness allowed Edward to understand that he was going to lose. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ NoveI[F]ire.net
Normally, in the face of defeat, one would flee or lash out in reckless desperation. But the warped Edward was different. The many bodies stored within him that were being used to repair the irreplicable damage done to him may not have bestowed him with a skill, but the attributes gained from each consumed body were undeniable. And with each body needing to be used, his body was gradually becoming weaker. It was only a matter of time before he would run out of bodies.
Edwards’ body tensed all over at the thought of losing anymore of the bodies he consumed. Losing a few were fine; even dying was fine, because he was aware of the skill that made him a god among the rest. A skill that led him on his path of consuming humans and led him on his dark path. The skill that was blessed to his brother by the gods. A skill that should’ve gone to him, the one who actually appreciated the madness the world succumbed to. A skill that led him to even consuming his ungrateful brother for.
But it was because of this that led Edward’s demeanor to change. The loss of bodies didn’t just pertain to the loss of his attributes, but potentially his skills.
This led to the question, should he run? Again, Edward held no inkling of the thought of running away. For someone who believed this world was created for him, for someone whose selfish ideology was now further warped to truly believing that everything was now created to be consumed by him, he wasn’t going to flee. The abilities Noah creatures had shown him, their strengths that were able to contend with his own after all of the bodies he has consumed; He was positive beyond a doubt that his power would transcend to unreachable levels if he were able to consume them.
And for that to happen, he needed to die.
A rumbling began to transcend, Fenrir was once again lunging his way towards the zombie for another brutal exchange.
Ailetta too was preparing to attack. She wanted to decipher the mystery of the emerging faces. Her dark cold heart was set on tearing the zombie’s skin apart piece by piece, forcing the zombie to constantly regenerate while she studied the process, or at least until she was ready to merge her two halves.
"Noah!" she shouted, there was a hint of panic within her voice.
"I see it," his reply came back with the same breath Ailetta called his name. While within his transformation, the pupils that made up his secondary vision were less than before. Each missing pupil was now made into a singular eye across his body that allowed him to watch everything transpiring. The zombies’ actions didn’t escape his notice.
The zombie, instead of healing, instead of bracing itself for Fenrir’s strike; the zombie in question raised one of its hands towards its face. Its fist loosened, extending out two of its fingers that it unhesitantly plunged into its now two eyeless sockets. Electricity, enough to surround its entire figure, was now being unleashed within its one hand that directly surged into its head.
"Fenrir! Come here," Noah quickly ordered, his voice wasn’t just commanding, but he had to also use the effects of his bond and his zombie controlling skill to get through to his bloodthirsty wolf. That was one of the drawbacks of leveling up the skill ’Wrathful Fury’. The amplification of the skill was increased, but so was the amount of sanity that was lost.
With experience of the skill already, Noah was prepared for this. His actions immediately reclaim Fenrir of his clarity; however, the wolf was forced to dig its four paws deep into the ground to halt its momentous advance.
The massive wolf looked over to Noah before looking back to the zombie. He was confused by the order, even more confused when he saw the zombie being killed by its own attack. Out of the three bonded creatures, he had yet to know of the zombie’s rebirthing skill.
Seeing Fenrir’s confusion, Noah inwardly nodded to himself instead. He was already satisfied that he was able to quickly dispel Fenrir out of the skill. He doubted Fenrir would ignore his command, at least he was sure he wouldn’t while he was still in his presence.
Knowing what the zombie was attempting to do, the adrenaline pumping through Noah was higher than never before. His gaze swept past Arachne, landing on the aberration of the merged slimes.