Another Vision

The only difference being that instead of being torn as with Noah, the skin of the invader had been burned, giving him a look that was not bloody, but disastrous.

Preparing quickly, the young man had no time for anything but to move as his opponent had once again launched himself at him.

Missing its target, the monster soon tried again and again to attack the young man, who only had room to keep dodging.

They seemed to be at a stalemate, but not wanting to prolong this any longer than necessary, Noah then looked for a way to end the fight quicker, since even though they had moved further away from the complex, it could still get damaged.

The monster's body seemed resilient, so much so that even hitting it with his weapon and his own body being under the effects of the chaos didn't seem to have hurt it that much.

While Noah's blows had an effect, it was the contact with the rope that had really managed to hurt the monster so far, indicating its high resistance to blunt blows.

With this in mind, the young man realized that if he wanted to end this fight soon, he would have to make the most of his increased strength as well as his new weaponry.

Slamming his weapon into the monster's right leg in one of his rare opportunities to counterattack after dodging, Noah then pulled it to the side.

Bam!

A small clang sounded from the monster falling to the ground, its right leg being lifted up thanks to the hanged man's rope still attached to its skin.

Then, with his arm muscles bulging, the young man began to pull his weapon, moving the monster's entire body, building enough momentum to throw it in another direction.

This time, his target wasn't a bush wall like before, a place that while it was going to give him a couple of scratches, it wasn't a good option if he really wanted to hurt the monster.

His first idea had been to simply not let go and beat him to a pulp, but unfortunately, he was not confident that he could finish the monster before it recovered.

Instead, Noah decided to simply not let the monster do anything, beginning with throwing it into the empty pool

Crack!

There was a crunch, but as to whether it was from the pool wall or the monster's bones, it was a hard to tell.

Giving chase to the monster, Noah jumped into the pool not wanting to give it the time to get up before attacking it again with his weapon, on the same leg but in a different area.

His idea was simple, he was going to repeat this process as many times as necessary.

What followed next was a repeat of the previous attack, but this time instead of throwing the monster against the wall of the pool, he threw it against the ground.

This was something that would not be possible even with his arms full of chaos, but thanks to the fact that he now had some degree of control over this, Noah was making the most of it.

As for his torn skin, he didn't know if it was from the adrenaline or the chaos, but he hardly felt it, even when this wound had worsened considerably and the risk of bleeding out was high.

Blow after blow, despite how tough and sturdy the invading monster was, the combination of the concrete, Noah's weapon, and the rope were too much.

Finally, when the monster stopped moving, Noah was about to land the final blow, smashing it one last time against the pool floor.

PUFF

However, with a strange sound, the monster's body turned a gray color and started to deflate before releasing a strange gas, as if it were a balloon that had been punctured. With spasms all over its body, the monster began to shrink more and more at a relatively rapid pace.

Under Noah and Rose's watchful eyes, the monster... stopped being a monster and became nothing more than a gray ball of flesh that was dropping yellowish liquid all over the place.

"..."

The young man was equal parts surprised and confused.

His curiosity acted up again, making him want to approach this ball of flesh, but just as this idea crossed his mind, his left eye showed him a vision forcibly.

In this vision, although it only lasted a couple of seconds, Noah could see how he was approaching the gray mass of flesh, and that the next moment, his body was impaled by spikes.

As soon as the vision was over, without taking a second longer, Noah turned and ran to the edges of the pool, climbing quickly and throwing himself to the ground.

Just then, what he saw in his vision came true.

BOOM!

A small explosion took place right where Noah remembered the mass of flesh had been, with it transforming into some sort of porcupine whose quills dug into all sides of the pool before exploding.

Bits of scorched white skin, flesh and blood flew everywhere, most of this landing on top of the garden.

It was only at this moment that Noah regretted not having been wearing his shirt, as he had little defense against the bits of flesh falling from above.

Waiting a couple more seconds to verify that it was safe, Noah got up from the ground, the first thing he saw was the effect the mass of flesh had had on the inside of the pool after it exploded.

Holes were visible everywhere, especially the place where the mass of flesh had been, reaching a depth that Noah had no doubt was more than enough to pierce his body completely.

"Fuah..."

Letting out a huge sigh of relief, the young man was truly glad that he had not been present when the mass of flesh exploded.

Otherwise, even with his body being under the effects of the chaos, he would have been left as a sieve. An outcome he would not enjoy at all based on previous experiences.

"...You know, now that you have dealt with the invader, you could take the opportunity to continue with your diet, for some totally unknown reason, now the environment is better for it." Rose suddenly said.

Looking sideways at his weapon, Noah decided not to think about the implications behind the woman's words and heeded her.

Luckily, even though the monster and himself had caused havoc in the backyard of the compound, the circle Rose made was intact.

Again sitting cross-legged, the young man then turned his full attention back to the circle, though not before letting Rose treat his wound.

And though the woman was a bit reluctant about this, after the young man's insistence, she had no choice but to heal him.

In that way, both Rose and Noah, despite the interruption they suffered, continued with their previous task.

As for finding out about the origin of the monster that had attacked them, they were in no hurry to do so.

After all, from the moment it appeared, Noah had an available vision that he suppressed, while Rose already had an idea of what had happened.

***

After a couple of hours of pure silence in which the young man had remained inside the circle, the circle itself began to lose its potency.

Simultaneously, the amount of residue of the invading monster that had been left scattered everywhere was also gone, having been absorbed by who knows who or what.

Now Noah's body had returned to normal, without any protruding veins on his body, a product of the young man having slightly improved his control over the chaos as he complied with his diet.

With this, it was clear that Rose's method had indeed proved to be the most beneficial for him.

Seeing that the results were as expected and that there was little point in continuing, the woman then spoke, "That's enough for today, now the attack you suffered in the basement should no longer happen, but if it does, not only will you have me around, but you'll already know how to defend yourself."

"That's reassuring to hear."

Standing up, Noah couldn't help but stretch his body, as it felt heavy and stiff, as well as a bit cold, apparently the earlier blood loss had affected him more than he thought.

Another thing to mention was that Noah's interest in Rose's abilities had increased after he witnessed her healing.

Even though he had seen this before, it was still impressive, since even though one could see slight marks on his arms, comparing them to how they were at the beginning, it was certainly something that would leave more than one hospital in confusion.

"As usual, your luck is pretty good, if that vermin from earlier hadn't shown up, you would have spent all day in the circle, not just a couple of hours." Rose explained.

Just as she had said, even if Noah avoided thinking about it, the reality was that the earlier encounter with the monster had been beneficial to his diet.

And deciding to continue to ignore this because of the implications this had, Noah changed the topic of conversation.

"That thing, is it safe to see its past?" The young man asked.

The reason for his question was due to certain details about the monster, such as it self-destructing when cornered, but in addition and the main thing, was that there was a certain strange feeling that Noah couldn't shake.

While he hadn't felt it at all in the fight due to being so focused in it, now that he was calmer and had had time to process things, it was clear.

Looking down at the spot where it had exploded, Noah spoke, "There was something strange about that monster, it was as if... as if even if I didn't face it, it would have died anyway, as if the life was draining out of its body every moment."

A couple of seconds passed without the young man waiting for a response, with Rose being busy doing something unknown.

"It's safe, but if you want to investigate further, be prepared to see something unpleasant and that might upset you." She replied.

Although she wasn't human in any sense, Rose, by spending time with Noah, had learned certain things about the young man, such as the things that could leave him scarred if treated carelessly.

While it was true that he had already seen horrific scenes involving incredible degrees of violence, it had all been for the sake of survival, with the protagonists of these scenes being monsters that looked like they were straight out of a nightmare.

Instead, what was in the vision was something completely different, showing a scene of pure human cruelty and selfishness.

There was no doubt that this scene was going to be detrimental to his mental state, but despite knowing this, Rose really wasn't going to object.

"...Don't worry, if it's something too strong, I'll just close my eyes."

As Noah finished saying that, he focused his left eye's attention on the sensation that accompanied the invader's arrival.

---

While Noah was busy dealing with the vision of the monster's origin, a certain group responsible for a double homicide had long since retreated from the scene of the crime.

After passing the road again, they had already made their way through the city until they reached their base, which was the warehouse, all under the protection of the night and their leader's necklace.

At all times, silence was something that was present around the group, the atmosphere more than heavy being simply customary in the cult.

For them, there was really no reason to celebrate, for they remained ignorant, ignorant of that truth they so longed for but could not obtain.

This was something that grieved them heavily, being a constant reminder of the reason they were in this world and of their duty to the one who would bring them the truth.

And this was to remain until they died, or until they found the truth, no matter which came first.

Taking their respective places at their base, all the chairs were filled as the leader stepped up to his podium with a clear crystal sphere in his hands.

Normally, for them to be present late at night would mean it was mass time, but this time they were going to do something different.

Although everyone present was part of a cult that had changed them in one way or another, they were still average humans for the most part.

This meant that concepts of emotions still existed for them, for better or worse.

Therefore, keeping the morale of the group high was something not good, but essential.

As for how to keep morale high, that was something the leader was good at, as he had done it several times before.

One of his methods was simple, to show that they had made progress, even if only a little, in their search for the truth.