Mutagen

<strong>Day 129 - 6:22 PM - Newton Lake, Veteran's Memorial Park, Oaklyn, Camden County, New Jersey, United States of America</strong>

"Hmm..." Mark turned his head to the side. "Some are still alive, but only you three are the only ones still conscious."

"I presume... It's their turn now."

Mark smiled as he calmly walked towards the unconscious members of the group, led by the white-haired man.

"STOP!" The white-haired man shouted. "Why are you doing all this?! That woman only got hurt! She's not even dead!"

Hearing those words, Mark paused on his steps.

"Then, I'll ask you..." Mark faced the man, tilting his head in confusion. "Why not?"

The elder, the white-haired man, and the red-haired Witch stared at Mark with wide eyes. Regular people, no, even most creatures would not be able to see it. Around Mark, his killing intent was already forming a thick, suffocating aura.

"We are just sitting there peacefully. Until all of you came uninvited."

"Mei'er... She shouldn't have been hurt in the first place. That is if none of you came here. Or at least, you all went on your ways after I told you all to go leave."

"Now, tell me..."

"Why not?"

Feeling Mark's killing intent, the white-haired man and the red-haired Witch concluded that any negotiation could not happen.

Mark was keen on killing them.

There, with resignation in their eyes, the two nodded at each other.

Seeing that gesture and noticing their resignation, Mark realized that these two still had a card left to use despite their already exhausted magical energy reserves. He had no notion of letting them escape.

With a wave of Mark's hand, he sent a large cloud of Miasma to cover the two and their subordinates.

Unfortunately, Mark was already late.

The two clapped their hands together, and their bodies shined brightly. It was the same for their subordinates. In an instant, their bodies turned into beams of lights that fired off towards the sky.

Mark hurriedly controlled the lightning to block the beams of light.

However, the beams of light were too fast. Although Mark managed to hit three, which immediately turned into either ash or corpse, the rest managed to escape through the clouds and fly away.

"Tch."

Mark clicked his tongue. He was too careless to let them escape.

However, if those two were too hesitant to use this escape technique until the last moment, the repercussions of this technique might have been too harsh.

Mark looked at the direction the beams of light flew.

"I'll see you again in the future. That time, I won't let any of you escape again."

That was right. There was no need to mull over the escape of that group. With the hatred between Mark and Auraboros, the chances of not seeing them again were too low.

Now that he had seen this technique, their other members would not be able to use it again in front of him.

Mark turned to the elder.

"You're the last one now. What do you say for yourself?"

The elder glared at Mark.

"An evil creature like you will receive your retribution in the future."

Mark stared at the elder, frozen in shock.

Then...

"Pfft!!! Hahahahahaha!" Mark burst out in laughter. "Shameless! Too shameless! Hahahaha!"

"Can you repeat that? Do you hear yourself? Really?"

Mark's voice, filled with overwhelming ridicule, made the elder's face red with both fury and unacceptable embarrassment.

"I won't deny it. I might be evil." Mark took a deep breath. "A least, I don't make the first move. I rather avoid conflict if I could. I don't hurt innocent people, I don't steal without a legitimate reason, and I always return good intentions. But entitled people like you appear like mushrooms, thinking that you should be respected. Trying to steal what is not yours, treating others like ants, and thinking as if you are above everything else."

"Get off your high horse, you maggot! I don't care what you do to others. But mess with me, or my people... prepare to get the worst treatment from me."

"Do you really think that your sect is any good? The way you talk sounds like you came from some sort of a righteous sect, right?"

"Looking at you and these trashed though," Mark stepped on the corpse of one of the disciples with the elder, causing it to burst open. "I believe that sect of yours is filled with garbage pretending to be humans."

"Y-you!!!"

The elder could not talk properly anymore. The elder's face was as red as a fried octopus because of the ridicule that Mark was giving him and his sect.

To a cultivator, although not all, most of them see their sects as their home.

Many of them would lay their lives than letting their sects be ridiculed.

It was even if the ridicule they were receiving was more of the truth than lies.

"Well, I guess... that's your last words."

Mark smiled.

There, Mark's eyes brightly glowed as it could.

"GAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

The elder was already prepared to be killed. In fact, the elder already blocked his meridians so that even if he received physical torture, he would not feel any pain until he died. However, he never expected to be killed in this way.

"Since you have a high mental fortitude, let's see how much you can handle."

Mark's voice echoed as blood started to flow out of the elder's eyes and ears.

"GAH!! STOP!!! STOP!!!"

The elder wailed, holding his head with both his hands. He felt like his brain was about to burst. However, as the pain was not physical, he would continue to suffer until his consciousness could not handle it anymore.

"BANG! BANG!"

The elder started to give up. He began banging his head on the concrete. Blood trickled on his forehead as he got wounded. But as a cultivator with quite a high cultivation and specialized in close combat, his body was sturdier than others.

Even if he used his head to dig his own grave on the concrete pavement he was kneeling at, he would still be too far from dying.

Finally, the elder gave up.

BOOM!

His body burst into an explosion of flesh and blood.

As it was unexpected, Mark's body was drenched in blood since he stood quite close to the elder.

The glow in Mark's eyes vanished as he stared at the pile of meat that the elder turned into.

"Did he detonate himself?" Mark murmured. "Shouldn't there be some sort of energy build-up and a large explosion like how it is portrayed in novels?"

Mark was confused. In the least, he already vented off most of his anger.

But then...

Mark froze, as the blood that drenched his body glowed.

***

"Damn it!" An old voice echoed. "That demon pushed me to this state..."

It was no other than the elder. He was currently inside a dark space, cursing his fate.

"Damn it!" The elder cursed once more as he checked his semi-transparent body. "Using that technique will not only destroy my body but also damage my spirit. Though I doubt he will find me in here. I just need to wait until my spirit recovers, and I can take over this demon's body."

The Spirit Transfer Technique. It was an evil technique that the elder accidentally found in a tomb and had been practicing in secret. With this technique, he would sacrifice his body and damage his spirit to invade and take over another person's body. However, the target needed to be drenched with the user's blood, and this technique could only be used once. The second time that it was used, it would pulverize the spirit of the user.

Because of that, the target of the technique should be carefully chosen. In the elder's case, however, he had no choice but to use it to escape the suffering. Besides, the target right now was rather good.

The elder then looked around.

"Where am I? Shouldn't I enter that demon's consciousness using that technique?"

"Yeah? You are inside my consciousness."

The elder froze... He heard the demon's voice behind him.

Then, the surroundings became bright, forcing the elder to cover his eyes.

When it regained his sight, he looked around.

It was a paradise.

"Is this heaven?"

The elder murmured.

"Nope. You are inside MY consciousness."

This time, the elder jumped forwards and looked behind him. His eyes turned wide as if he had seen a ghost.

"H-HOW?!"

In front of the elder, Mark stood.

"Why are you asking me when it's you who entered my world?"

Mark replied with a smile. His smile, however, looked like the omen of death for the elder.

That was when the elder realized how f*cked he was.

"Why?! Why do you have a consciousness like this?! Only cultivators that stepped into the levels of deities are known to create a world inside their sea of consciousness! It's impossible!!! This is impossible!!!"

The elder was about to break. Not only Mark had to make him suffer, but Mark was also breaking the rules he knew.

"Now, are you ready to be swallowed by me?"

Mark spoke, making the elder fell the kind of fear he never felt for his whole life.

"You already served yourself in a silver platter, you see?"

Mark said, once more. There, the elder noticed where he was standing.

It was in the middle of a silver platter.

From there, the elder realized. He looked at his hands. He was starting to disintegrate.

"No... NO!!!"

"Fool..."

Mark murmured as he watched the existence of the elder vanish to oblivion.

***

Mark opened his eyes. Who would have thought that an elder proud of his "righteous" sect would resort to an evil technique? Shouldn't they be proud of dying with dignity?

"What a hypocrite."

Mark shook his head. It would take a while before the memories of the elder integrate into his own. However, Mark was not expecting too much. After all, the elder's consciousness was heavily damaged.

"Are you done?"

A voice echoed behind Mark.

He turned around. It was Chimetrice.

It was already past two hours since Mark started to kill the enemies. Chimetrice had long been awake and was watching Mark vent his anger. He had no reason to interfere and just looked after Illia and Mei in case that something unexpected happened.

"Not yet. There's still the last one." Mark replied.

"You better remove that barrier you made. I can pass through, but Illia can't.

Chimetrice pointed at Illia. She was guarding Mei while being trapped in the barrier of Miasma Mark made.

Mark turned to Chimetrice. He made it out of his Miasma without any damage. What a sturdy body this Chimera had. Luckily, he was not an enemy.

Shrugging his shoulders, Mark turned elsewhere. He then approached and picked up an unconscious person.

It was the young girl among the group cultivators.

He had no reason to kill her. She never did anything harmful. However, there was no reason for him to let her go either. After all, she was still among the reasons why Mei was harmed.

Mark lifted the girl, bringing her with him. He then walked with Chimetrice towards Mei and Illia.

As Mark removed the barrier and put down the girl, he shouted.

"Aren't you going to come out now?"

Saying those words, Mark turned towards the bench not far from them.

Chimetrice also turned, alert, and ready to fight.

There, like a ghost, a child appeared, sitting on that bench.

A boy with five eyes. Without a doubt, this boy was an eye, and the one caused the commotion.

"Amazing... How did you find me? Even that Chimera beside you can't tell where I am."

Mark tilted his head.

"Why don't you look around you."

The boy was confused and looked around.

"Hahahaha! No wonder!"

The boy laughed. It was because almost the whole park was already razed to the ground. The walkways were destroyed, and the trees and grass were burned. With all that, however, the bench and the small area around it was unscathed.

Mark then glanced at Chimetrice.

"Let's go together against this one."

"No problem. I already recovered, thanks to you."

Chimetrice replied with a resolute expression.

Sensing Mark's and Chimetrice's intent to fight, the boy hurriedly spoke.

"Wow, wow... Relax, all right? I have no intention of fighting you two. Besides, you won't even be able to touch me if we did."

There was no lie in that. Mark and Chimetrice could not sense the boy at all, even though he already appeared. He was like a ghost. You could feel the chill, but you would not be able to see it unless it showed itself.