Mutagen

<strong>Day 47 – 2:14 PM – Control Tower, Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Parañaque, Metro Manila</strong>

The temperature inside the room became cold, not in a literal meaning but more in everyone's emotional aspect. Especially for the hooded figures, they felt as if their world had turned around. None of them would ever think or even dared to have negative thoughts about the most respected Great One. Although the Great One was not omnipotent in their eyes, in the least he had the dignity and pride as someone who stood over mortals.

It was way beyond their beliefs to see the Great One behave like this.

The feeling was like they had been betrayed by their creator.

Mark on the other hand felt amused as to how the scene unfolded. Even he did not expect the leader of the enemy to suddenly lose all his composure. However, it he think about it, it was no wonder.

This was the not the first time he heard that question. Even the formless demon he encountered two days ago asked the same thing. The answer however…

He was not sure himself, especially with his current circumstances.

One thing for sure, he already strayed away from being human.

With those thoughts in mind, Mark spoke with a smile hidden behind his mask. Although that smile could not be seen, the ridicule in his voice was obvious.

"Say, you want to retreat. How are going to do that?"

This time, even the Great One froze. It was as what Mark had expected.

Any kind of ritual to call another being from another plain had an opening and closing rites. Like a session of Spirit of the Glass, the opening and closing prayers were required. Not fulfilling those requirements would lead to peril.

A ritual binds the soul of the people doing the ritual and the being they called into the ritual itself. In the case of calling the spirits, the spirit would not be able to go back to the spirit world while the people that called that spirit would be bound to the spirit causing a curse. It caused the haunting events on those people after they failed to close up the ritual.

It was the same with this ritual that was used to beg for blessings from the Great One. An opening and closing rite was required from both sides.

Unlike the opening rites which required a lot of things and preparation, the closing rites only had a single requirement.

All it needed was that all the participants of the opening rites to be present with the exception of the sacrifices.

Mark made it that the closing rites were impossible to be performed.

"You BASTARD!"

The Great One bellowed as he channeled his energy through the portal to attack Mark in full rage.

Thick black clouds surged out of the portal towards Mark. That amount of energy was too large that even the sturdy control tower started to creak and shake.

The hooded figures hurriedly retreated. This scale of attack was not something that they could endure. They should at least step out of the control tower and wait it out.

In their own ways, the hooded figures tried to escape. However, that was when they realized…

"GAAAAAHHAAAAAAA!"

One of the hooded figures that tried to blend into the shadows cried out in pain. He was forced to stop sinking down into the shadow on the floor and fell down. There was no way for him to stand up anymore as from his semi-transparent knee to his feet was already missing.

Stalker morphed into a large bird and tried to fly out of the broken window. Before he was able to however, black smoke surged from outside the control tower blocking the window. Thinking that it was only smoke, he charged out through the wall of smoke.

"GRAAAAAA!!!"

His raspy voice was heard as he fell off the several meters high building. There was no way for him to either fly or even morph back into human form. What he thought as nothing but Black Smoke clung unto his body and started to contaminate his flesh.

With a loud splat, his body laid on the airport grounds with his bones broken. He could not even move as the black smoke started to eat his body. Slowly, his cries alerted the remaining infected in the airport. His wails of pain turned into wails of despair as the infected started to feast on his flesh.

The infected were unlucky however. They soon followed Stalker's steps and became black rotting corroded flesh on the floor due to the contamination of miasma.

Inside the tower, the remaining hooded figures knew that they would not be able to escape this. If the Great One showed fear on the man in front of them, then, it would be even more impossible for them to be able to defeat him.

The spiritual energy the Great One released towards Mark poured in like a dam with its gates broken. However, the latter was facing the surge of energy with just his right arm.

PING! PING! PING!

The spiritual energy was very thick that several crystals appeared in front of Mark in just a few seconds.

Yes, he was using the Great One as a power source to gather more crystals. It was one thing he noticed when he arrived. The energy the enemy was using, although looked similar to miasma, was actually pure spiritual energy. It was out of his expectations but he thought of taking advantage of it.

Ten crystals were immediately created before the Great One incredulously looked at Mark and Mei who were unharmed.

"Done? My turn."

Mark did not wait for any reply and shot his own surge of black smoke towards the portal.

"GRUUUAAAAA!!!"

Everyone held their heads as they heard the scream. Since the voice of the Great One was transmitted directly to their heads, the Great One screaming made everyone feel that their heads were being hammered.

Then…

PUFF! PUFF!

One by one, the remaining hooded figures plopped onto the floor. One ones with ethereal bodies just looked severely weakened but the only one with physical body, the werewolf, vomited a large amount of blood.

"Darn, he escaped."

Mark spoke seeing that the flames on the magic circle started to dim and the smoke around the portal started to scatter.

But Mark was not that bothered with it. He already expected that the most he could do to the guy was to damage his spiritual body severely. The portal was only made for communication and the most it could do was transfer energies both ways. If the enemy forcefully closed the portal, he would not be able to stop him. Of course, forcefully closing the portal would severely injure the Great One. After all, as a Devil, his body was made up of energies rather than an actual physical body. Pretty much like other spirits and elemental beings.

"Mei-er, are you okay?"

Mark asked as he rubbed his temple. That scream was way more effective than the energy attack the enemy released before.

"Hmmhmm… I'm fine. Just a little dizzy."

Mei replied with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry, I have to make you experience this."

"It's fine."

Mark caressed Mei's head. He was almost late to arrive actually.

In the right timeline, Mei rejected the invitation forcing the battle between the survivors, the military and the enemies. In order to escape, the others tried to hold back the enemies but they all ended up being slaughtered. After all, there was no way for them to fight beings that were far from humans.

Before they were able to escape, the two hooded figures that remained hidden pierced the wheels of the vehicle. Without any other choice, the skirmish at the flyover continued. The large bird managed to take away Mei by force and flew her away. However, she struggled too hard that she ended up falling unto the sea of infected below.

Due to the failure of Mei's abduction, the Great One was furious. He ordered the slaughter of everyone that participated in this mission. It included his friends and daughters. After the ritual was concluded, every single one of the hooded figures became cursed and died even before they were able to leave the control tower.

Now however, Mei was alive in his arms.

Mark arrived just when the enemies that planned to abduct Mei went out of the control tower. Without any time to prepare, he approached the flyover while concealing himself using both the miasma and the [Photokinesis Mental Crystal]. Of course, despite that concealment, Mei and Iola still detected him. Iola was understandable but Mei was still a mystery.

He told her the plan and made her go with the enemy. It was to know the reason why they tried to abduct her and why did the enemy revealed too much rage on the supposed failure. Although the reason was surprising, Mark really did not care about it. Mei was Mei even if she did not have the [Body of Void]. Still, it was a good thing because of his condition now.

After he blocked all the possible exits with miasma that was hard to see due to the thick black clouds outside and the information they wanted was revealed, that was when he entered.

"Gege, what are you going to do with them?"

Mei asked while looking at the enemies suffering on the floor.

"Isn't it obvious? They have no worth so I'll kill them. Well, except one I guess."

Mark said as he made a surge of miasma envelop six of the seven enemies left. There was really no use of them in Mark's eyes. Unlike Mutators, their abilities came from their birth and those abilities were also not psychic ones. He could not gain anything from them.

Information? It would be impossible for them to speak. They would surely kill themselves first. It's also possible that they did not know anything at all as lackeys. In any case, they should die just because they laid their hands on Mei even if they were just following orders.

Their horrified and painful screams ensued. The two ghostly figures vanished into thin air while the shadow people scattered like smoke. As for the werewolf, he turned into charred rotten pile of flesh and bones.

Umbra was left horrified and shaking. This was the very first time he felt fear. He saw what happened to his subordinates. This was not just a work of any mortal. He could not understand…

Why did a mortal like this man in front of him able to wield miasma? It was nonsensical.

Umbra who was weakened from the backlash of the ritual stared at Mark and Mei. It was then…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Mark and Mei looked out of the window and saw balls of red light falling from the sky from several directions.

"Flares?"

Mark asked.

"Un… It should be the signal for retreat."

Mei replied.

"Well, it's more reasonable for them to retreat. The portal is already gone but the sky is still covered with thick clouds and below are infected that don't die even if you cut off their heads."

"Odel should be hysterical now."

"Haha, it won't be believable if she's calm after all. We'll just apologize to her later. It's just I can't reveal myself to the military yet."

"Why?"

"Because it won't be fun if the enemies know that bad karma is approaching them."

Mark then turned to Umbra.

"We need to make that senator feel that he won, so Mei'er, you need to hide with me. That guy there will be our messenger."

"Won't he try to betray us?"

"No, I still have a method. Also that devil won't let him go because of the failure so he doesn't have anywhere else to go but escape."

Mark then approached Umbra and sat in front of him.

"You know what you should do right?"

Umbra raised his head and looked at Mark who started to reach to his face. Without warning, Mark made him swallow a ball of miasma as his nonexistent face warped in despair. Now, he had no choice but follow the instructions he was given.