Chapter 166 - I Will Always Be There For You
-----
Noah\'s consciousness woke up within a completely obscure space.
Through his memories, he remembered this place already, this was the inside of his very soul.
He recalled what he did before going to sleep, how he ate the Lady of the Lake, corrupted Excalibur, ate Merlin\'s soul, and more.
After that, he healed the souls of all his subordinates and his wife, giving them a piece of his own, and then felt incredibly weakened, as if his soul were constantly mutating and bubbling, due to that, he quickly went to sleep, carrying Iris and leaving her at his side.
He immediately felt like his soul had evolved or something, because it felt vast and strong, even this completely black landscape somehow felt more "solid".
He walked through it as he quickly noticed a new presence within.
Alongside the sleeping Blood Progenitor and Pride, who had become weakened after the battle as well and were sleeping soundly, he felt two new presences.
He glared behind him, finding what seemed like the figure of an old man made of ethereal, blue-colored essence, with a long beard and tired eyes.
"Merlin…" said Noah.
The old man was the soul of Merlin, which much like the Blood Progenitor, fused itself with Noah when he ate his soul.
However, against his expectations of the old man barking against him about how horrible he was as a being, the old man began to smile, quickly kneeling and glancing at him with admiration.
"Oh, my King, your presence is way too perfect! I kneel…"
"Hm? You are not angered at me?" asked Noah in disbelief.
"W-Why would I be? You showed me the greatness of your existence, and now, I have been enlightened… No, guided by you!" said Merlin.
"…Is this the same effect that happened to Pride? Then…" muttered Noah, glancing at the other figure at his side.
This was the yellow-colored ethereal figure of a beautiful and voluptuous woman, with long blonde hair and shiny aquamarine eyes, wearing a simple white dress.
She was the Lady of the Lake, or well, a fragment of her divine soul, the "soul" of Excalibur itself, which Noah also devoured.
Similar to the Blood Progenitor, Pride, and Merlin, she emerged like this within his soul.
"You…" said Noah, peering at her.
Noah easily noticed that her face was… similar to Merlin, filled with devotion as if she were glancing at God himself.
"Aahhh~ Master… Such splendorous sight!" she said, quickly kneeling and dragging her sexy body towards Noah, beginning to lick the feet of his ethereal projection.
Noah felt instinctual disgust as he kicked her in the face and threw her away, however, the formerly righteous woman moaned in pleasure, as if she wanted more.
"How unsightly, I would have preferred if you had remained with the same personality as before…" sighed Noah.
"Ah, Lady of the Lake, stop making Noah-sama feel disgusted!" said Merlin, hitting her with his staff, as if the powerful woman was some kind of dog.
"Anyways, you two… I suppose that you have been left hopeless now that I ate you. I have acquired more or less your memories… So there should not be any use on you two, perhaps I should simply make you two disappear…" thought Noah.
"W-Wait, please, we don\'t want to disappear, my lord!" cried the Lady of the Lake.
"W-We can serve you! Please!" said Merlin.
Noah glared at their very consciousness and wills, inspecting them thoroughly, but he found nothing they were hiding, they seemed honest… they were completely brainwashed when he ate them…
"I suppose I could use Merlin to teach everyone Magic easily…" said Noah, as Merlin seemed happy.
"And you…" said Noah, glaring at the Lady of the Lake.
"I can do anything you want!" she said, with puppy eyes while moving her round butt around.
However, Noah found this disgusting.
"Useless whore, you are not good for anything… Disappear from my sight, I feel disgusted by just looking at you," sighed Noah as he waved his hands and began to fragment the Lady of the Lake remnant consciousness.
"W-Waaaait! Annnngggh…! My looooooord…!"
Her body fragmented into golden sand made of ethereal energy and went back to Noah, her remnant consciousness disappearing completely.
Merlin glanced at the Lady of the Lake disappear with his eyes wide open, thanking God that he was not in her place…
"M-My lord, I can begin serving you whenever you desire…" said Merlin.
"Not for now, I have something to do here…" said Noah, leaving Merlin alone as he walked through this darkness.
He recalled that after he woke up, he found that all of his subordinates were greatly weakened, alongside his wife, Iris.
When he saw their souls through his supernatural senses, he realized that they had been reduced greatly, becoming a small as the palm of a hand… he remembered that the souls of his family were rather big, at least the very size of their bodies, so this made him greatly concerned.
For him to be able to fight and devour the Lady of the Lake, they infused their souls and mana into Excalibur, giving him the edge to fight back and the energy needed to finally defeat and eat her. Although he was also helped by the Blood Servant\'s souls and a bit by the Spawn of Azathoth, if it had only been this power alone, he would have not been able to fight back completely.
Seeing their souls so weak, Noah quickly cut large chunks of his soul and gave them to all of his subordinates and Iris too, although this greatly decreased the amount of power he gained from eating the Lady of the Lake and Merlin, it was a fine sacrifice for those that had already sacrificed so much for him to achieve victory.
However, the moment he did so, he felt an even greater connection with his family, and he felt like something else awakened within him.
Something was calling him in here… and he kept walking through this completely pitch-black road.
Suddenly, small figures appeared before his sight.
They seemed humanoid in shape and had varied colors.
As he kept walking, more and more figures were revealed to him.
All the humanoid figures made of different ethereal colors slowly walked towards him, in silence.
He felt an inner connection to them, and as they glanced at him, their devotion to him increased.
"This… These figures are…" muttered Noah, realizing what these figures were.
He began to touch each one, as they suddenly glowed brightly, beginning to become stronger and less timid, as if they were blossoming.
He kept walking and touching these figures, making them blossom like beautiful colorful flowers, illuminating the pitch-black world that was the inside of his soul.
Suddenly, he came into the last figure, shrouded in complete darkness, falling through an abyss made by itself.
Noah squinted his eyes, as he walked near it.
He began to touch it, to caress it.
The darkness fought back against him, but Noah intimidated the darkness and destroyed it, slowly diving into it, grabbing the figure within this abyss, and realizing who it was. Well, he already kind of knew who it was.
He saw what she was seeing, and felt like he needed to hug her as tight as possible.
"Y-You are here…" she said.
"Of course I am. I will always be there for you, no matter what…" said Noah.
-----