Mutagen

Day 364 - 6:28 PM - Meeting Room, 38th Satellite Settlement, Muria Sacred Fortress, Mount Muria, Kudus Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

Silence permeated within the meeting room as everyone tried to digest the unimaginable things Mark spoke about. Capturing souls and torturing them to get information, none of them thought something like that would be possible.

"Um, excuse me?" General Wijaya's current secretary, Staff Sergeant Intan Cahya, raised her hand. "I don't mean to be offensive, but this talk about capturing souls just sounds too absurd to me. Is that really a soul inside that thing?"

General Wijaya had the same thought. However, he did not have the courage to ask since he did not want to offend Mark, whom they needed cooperation from.

However, the secretary could not hold it back anymore. From the serious conversation about the sudden disappearances turning into a talk about souls and capturing them, Intan could not help but voice out her opinion.

"Intan..."

General Wijaya could only glare at his secretary.

"It's fine, General. I know you also have your doubts," Mark shrugged. "Most people won't believe these things either. In the least, it's not hard for me to prove it."

As Mark said those words, he suddenly put another canister onto the table out of nowhere.

Compared to the previous one, the "soul" inside it was rather pale bluish-green in color and seemed to be wavering out of existence. It was slightly flickering like a flame that was about to die out.

However, as if something flicked the flame, it began to flare up and began pushing itself against the glass of the canister.

"Look at this bug," Mark showed a devilish smile as he saw the soul struggling all of a sudden. "Don't think you will be saved just because General Wijaya is here."

Suddenly getting his name mentioned, General Wijaya could not help but speak out.

"W-what does it have to do with me?"

"This guy is one of your fortress' soldiers. Elite forces, to be exact."

Mark said nonchalantly, making everyone surprised and confused as to why he would have a soldier's soul.

But then, Luna's group realized why.

"Is it one of the intruders?" Luna asked. "Wait. Didn't we catch all of them?"

After the badges began circulation, these past few nights were nowhere peaceful. Several instances of break-ins were detected, and the intruders were all captured. In fact, one of the reasons why General Wijaya was here was to transport the captured criminals to their prisons, where they would slave away and become part of the forced workforce to atone for their crimes.

But as it turned out, not all the intruders were captured alive.

"The ones you caught are the thieves. Their aim is our equipment to create the badges or even just the knowledge of how to make them. That's why I let them be caught alive," Mark explained. "But there is no way I'll leave people aiming to kidnap members of my group alone."

Mark then tapped on the top of the canister containing the wavering soul.

"Why don't we hear it from this guy?"

As Mark tapped the canister, a ghastly voice permeated into everyone's ears.

"General! General! Please! Can you hear me? Please, help me! Please! I beg you! Please, hear me! Please!"

It was a desperate cry for help. It was too ghastly and horrible to hear that it instantly gave everyone shivers up everyone's spine.

"Do I know you?"

General Wijaya gathered his wits and asked.

"Yes! Yes! I'm Pratam Ningrum from the Tontaipur Forces. Our teams worked together in an anti-terrorism exercise years ago. You're a member of the Kopassus at that time."

General Wijaya was surprised to hear those familiar terms. Before he was promoted to his current position, he was a member of the Kopassus, one of the army's special forces and counter-terrorism units. It was impossible for him to remember the names of all soldiers, especially someone who did not have any direct contact with him. However, the name the soul introduced itself with did ring a bell in his mind.

"A soldier like you, a member of the Special Forces, tried to kidnap people?"

The General's secretary could not help but chime in. As a soldier, she admired those from the Special Forces who were able to endure rigorous training and enter the ranks of the elites. However, a member of those strong people she admired was now nothing but the soul of a criminal caught inside a glass container.

"I regret it! I truly regret it! If I knew what we were dealing with... I would not feel tempted by the offer."

"Listen to this bastard," Mark suddenly spoke. "He regrets taking a stupid job and not the job itself. Looks like he needs to be simmered for another few seconds."

"NO! NO! NO! PLEASE NO!" The soul suddenly cried out, flying erratically within the canister. "I ALREADY TOLD YOU EVERYTHING! PLEASE LET ME PASS ON!"

The soul then turned to General Wijaya.

"GENERAL PLEASE! HELP ME! PLEASE!"

The soul was clearly bawling out in desperation. Unfortunately, to the living, all they could see in front of them was a ball of misty flames flying erratically within the canister.

Nonetheless, the tone of desperation in its voice was more than enough how it feared Mark and his words.

"See how fragile a human's soul is?" Mark spoke as if he was a teacher showing an example. "This [Face Wearer's] soul here refuses to talk despite experiencing several times more pain than this soldier's soul. I just said to simmer for a few seconds, and this guy is already freaking out. Remember what I said before? I cooked this other soul here for several days."

No one was able to reply to Mark. There was no need for them to experience it. Just seeing how the captured soul of Pratam freaks out and begs was more than enough for them to realize the meaning of Mark's words.

"Who ordered you to do it?"

General Wijaya asked with a sigh.

"It's General Piliang! It's General Piliang! He ordered us to do this! He ordered us to capture anyone important to the creator of the badges! He wanted to use the victim as a hostage to threaten the person who created the badges!"

The soul immediately answered any question he could answer, wishing that he would be freed if he did.

Unfortunately, even these intruders had no idea what was the true goal of that General Piliang for wanting to threaten the creator of the badges. Was it for him to take over the distribution of the badges? Or maybe he was in cahoots with the [Face Wearers] and wanted to stop the distribution of the badges?

There was nothing to confirm the suspicions, however.

"I figured," General Wijaya said with a frown. "General Piliang had control of most of the remaining Special Forces. He is also in a good relationship with the notorious General Guntur. I already suspected they would make a move on me, but to think they would skip me and go straight here."

There was already a problem with the [Face Wearers] and the mysterious disappearances. Yet, the corrupt did not want to cooperate at all.

"I answered all the questions! Please! Please release me! Let me pass on! Plea-"

The voice of a pleading soul was suddenly cut off as Mark tapped on the canister.

"Sir Mark..."

General Wijaya was about to say something.

"Nope." But Mark immediately replied. "I want to do some experiments later on, but I don't really want to capture innocent souls, you know? It's nice some bugs brought themselves to me."

The way Mark talked right now was making everyone creep out. It looked like he had a screw or two loose. But it also showed how Mark was as merciless to his enemies as he was kind to his allies.

"General..."

The General's secretary felt pity for the captured soldier's soul. However, General Wijaya could only shake his head slightly.

"It's already out of our jurisdiction," General Wijaya decided not to save the pleading soul. "Even I won't tolerate soldiers who stray far from their sworn duty. Consider them as rightful sacrifices for the greater good. We still need Sir Mark's help in our more pressing situation."

It was a hero-like response from General Wijaya. Those may have been soldiers when they were alive, but they were nothing but souls of criminals now. If it would appease Mark and secure his cooperation, General Wijaya would not say anything against it. After all, the fight against the [Face Wearers] was not being led by General Wijaya and his soldiers but by Mark and the Moon Chasers.

Hearing the response of General Wijaya, Mark was also pleased. Of course, he would not mind if the General showed pity to the former soldiers, but it did not mean Mark would comply.

"Are you also going after General Piliang?" Luna suddenly asked Mark. "I know you might be angry, but going against him and the part of the military he controls would be a bad idea."

"I have the same thought," General Wijaya agreed with Luna. "General Piliang had the largest fraction of soldiers in the fortress under him."

But to those concerns, Mark simply showed a simple smile.

"General, I have a question."

Mark replied.

"What is it?"

General Wijaya replied in confusion.

"Can that Piliang and all his soldiers under him kill a [Fog Crawler]?"

Then, there was silence in the room.

That question alone made everyone realize it.

Mark's group may have more power than this fortress' entire military forces.

General Wijaya and the secretary might have doubts. It was the same for Nelia.

However, Luna, Edge, and Limabela had seen that beam of light Mei shot, which tore through the neck and body of the [Fog Crawler]. A single shot of that could probably obliterate the entire Southside Peak.

A single shot of that beam could impair the fortess' military forces.

The three shivered at the thought.

"I guess I don't have to elaborate further."

Mark said as he stored the second canister on the table. The soul of the soldier began to frantically fly around its canister. Unfortunately, no one could help it in its doomed fate.

"So, even if Sir Mark captured a soul of those [Face Wearers], we still have no concrete information about them."

Nelia voiced out, going back to the crux of the issue.

There was no doubt that the [Face Wearers] and the sudden disappearances were tied together. However, there was no other information than that.

"You all sure are thinking too much."

All of a sudden, Melfiss, who was silent all this time, spoke.

"What do you mean?"

Luna asked the little girl.

"I've been listening to you all. So far, these you call [Face Wearers] are creatures who wear the skin of someone's face and pretend to be humans, correct?"

Melfiss asked, and Luna nodded.

"Then, this soldier here said before that the ash they leave after they die is the same as volcanic ash."

Melfiss then asked General Wijaya, and he also gave her a nod.

"Then why are you all thinking further away from those clues? If their bodies are made of volcanic ash, then it's clear where they came from!"

Melfiss said in an exasperated tone.

At this time, Mark spoke.

"I have the same thoughts. The [Face Wearers] didn't come from somewhere else. That's why no one witnessed them escaping out of the fortress."

"What? Then they are all still inside here?"

Edge was surprised.

"Yep," Mark nodded. "As Melfiss said, volcanic ash is the clue. It seems you all didn't know, but Mount Muria is a dormant volcano."

Everyone but Mark and Melfiss looked at each other. None of them were locals, and none of them stepped on this mountain before the apocalypse. It was not surprising that they did not know.

"Are they some sort of supernatural original residents of this mountain?"

Luna voiced out a question.

"What are you talking about?" Melfiss frowned at her owner's question. "This place had no such thing. What do you call this place again? Muria Sacred Fortress? Bah. What is sacred about this place? It is but an old grave for sinners. Sinners are buried in this place, so the flames of the volcano will punish and cleanse their souls. What is sacred about that?"

Melfiss, the oldest one in this group, began to blurt out what she knew about this mountain and, possibly, the origin of the [Face Wearers].

"That's the first time I heard of that," Mark looked interested. "They said this mountain is associated with the origins of Islam. That's why they called this mountain Sacred."

It was the turn for Melfiss to look flabbergasted.

Further discussion and brainstorming were clearly needed in this situation.

Unfortunately...

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Everyone in the meeting room stood up. The sounds of the alarm bells of the 38th Satellite Settlement were clanging frantically.

BAM!

The door of the meeting room swung open.

"Luna! There's [Infected]! An [Infected] Horde!"

Bajing yelled in a hurry.

Just with those words, Luna's group immediately left their seats.

"Get everyone to the walls! Prepare to defend!"

"NO! Not the walls!" Bajing immediately spoke. "The [Infected] Horde is coming from the mountain, not outside! There's at least a thousand of them!"

"What?!"

This time, it was not just Luna's group. Even General Wijaya and his secretary could not believe what they were hearing.

"Why would the [Infected] come from within the fortress?!" General Wijaya voiced out. "Did a breach happen? No! That shouldn't be. If that was the case, the alarm at the top of the mountain should be roaring by now!"

"General," Mark stepped forward and shrugged. "Like Melfiss said, there's no need to think too much."

Mark then continued.

"How many people were suddenly missing again? If those were all [Face Wearers], what about the bodies of the victims? And just like what Melfiss mentioned just now. The [Face Wearers] might originally be from this mountain. This sudden attack just proves her conjecture."

Those words from Mark gave the meeting participants the most awful kind of enlightenment.

The enemies were within the fortress. That was the worst kind of thing for them to hear.