Mutagen

<strong>Day ▋▋▋ - ▋▋:▋1 PM - Black Duende Territory, Spirit Dimension</strong>

The sun had set about two hours ago. And now the surroundings were very dark for most people to be able to traverse the forest-covered mountains.

For Demons and creatures of the dark, however, it was the best time to roam around freely.

And Mark was not an exception to this.

Mark patrolled around the cave and securing that there was not a single threat nearby. He then returned to tell everyone about his plans while he grabbed a bite of dinner.

"I'm going to scout the situation. Teremillio, you're coming with me this time."

Mark said, slurping some cup noodles.

"Okay."

Teremillio agreed without hesitation. His wives were worried, but at least they understood the reason as to why Mark needed him.

Their target was Teremillio's homeland. No one in this group other than him was familiar with its structure. Of course, for the long time that he left that place, some things were bound to change. At least, he would know which areas they needed to check.

After eating dinner, Mark made another round of patrol before bringing Teremillio away.

Everyone that was left was worried about the two. It was not surprising since Mark and Teremillio would infiltrate the enemy base.

In any case, this was not the actual rescue mission. The goal of the infiltration was to scout the situation first. Of course, if it was possible to snatch away Teremillio's mother in one go, why not?

Still, Mark told Mei to pay attention to her ring. He would contact her if things went awry.

"Okay, you ready?"

Mark asked Teremillio, who was now sitting on his shoulder.

"Why do you have to ask, of course! Not!"

Teremillio grumbled. Who would be ready in this situation? Several decades had already passed since he left his homeland. No one would be ready to return by being forced because of the current circumstances. He just had no choice. To secure the safety of her mother in the now crumbling world, he needed to return and take her away.

Among his family members, his mother was the only one that treated him as a family. The others more or less bullied him for being a halfbreed, although it was their father who was at fault.

Mark did not say anything else as he opened his wings and soared towards the night sky. Teremillio's insecurities were suddenly blown away as he held onto Mark's clothes tightly.

"Hey! I almost fell! I'm not like Amihan who can fly!"

"Then, hold on tighter. It's not my problem if you fall for being careless. Also, close your mouth if you don't want to bite your tongue."

Teremillio wanted to complain some more, but as Mark accelerated further, he almost bit his tongue.

After leaving the area that was filled with poisonous plants, Mark and Teremillio entered the airspace above the mountain.

"Should I land?"

Mark asked. Even though it was already night time, Mark was not confident that no one would see them in the sky.

"Fly until midway the mountain. Our kingdom usually had detection magic deployed around our kingdom. It's more clustered at the foot of the mountain. This way, our kingdom can monitor who and how many people entered and exit the mountains. The Black Duendes have a lot of enemies. They are always cautious."

Mark followed Teremillio's instructions. He even flew as high as he could so that he would be hard to see from below.

It did not take long, and they landed where Teremillio said they should.

So far, there were no problems.

From there, they continued on foot. Unexpectedly, there were people roaming the mountain. And all of them were...

"Demons huh."

Mark murmured as patrols entered his range of detection.

They had to carefully thread up the mountain, and avoiding the patrols was not that easy. If not for Mark being able to detect them, they might have been caught already.

With all the trouble they had been through, they finally reached the other side of the mountain where they would be able to see the Kingdom of Black Duendes.

And there it was, situated in the middle of a valley encircled by several mountains.

"Is this how should it look like?"

Mark asked Teremillio, but no reply came from the Duende. It seemed that Teremillio did not expect this either.

The Kingdom of Black Duendes measured about the size of a large town, or maybe, a small city. As the Stone Fortress was also large itself, the size was not the issue. The problem was the appearance. A description that would perfectly fit its appearance was a Demon City in fantasy novels. It was medieval-like with a gothic twist.

The whole place was surrounded by tall walls, and at the center of the town was a huge tree wrapped around a castle made of stone. It was quite a sight.

However, looking at Teremillio's expression, it was not like this when he left this place in the past.

Then, it just meant that the whole structure of the town was influenced by the Demons, not only during the apocalypse. To fully develop a large town into something else was not easy. It should have taken several years.

It meant that even before the apocalypse, there was already cooperation between the Black Duendes and the Demons.

And it was not a good piece of news.

"Now, what are we going to do next?"

Mark murmured, observing the town inside the valley.

"Huuu, haaa..." Teremillio took a deep breath. "Let me."

At Teremillio's words, he started chanting a language unrecognizable to Mark. An then, he snapped his fingers.

But...

"Nothing happened?"

Mark said, looking around and at himself. All he noticed was Teremillio's magical energy enveloping their bodies.

"I cast it on us. You won't see anything." Teremillio replied. He seemed to want to look smug but he had not recovered from the shock yet. "It's magic to change our appearance to the eyes of others who see us. It will be easier for us to enter like this and we can't really show our faces either."

"So, you have something like this all along."

Mark said, still trying to see if he could spot any change at all.

"I'm still a Black Duende, alright? We are masters of trickery and illusions."

"No, what I mean is you that you have something like this but never used it before."

Those words made Teremillio glare at Mark.

"It's a kind of magic with a lot of limitations, you know that? I can't just cast it whenever I wanted." The Duende grumbled. "Also you need to release more of your demonic presence. I made you appear like a traveling Demon. As for me, I look like a bird on your shoulder so I won't talk too much."

"Will this be enough? We didn't pass through the foot of the mountain, remember?"

Mark reminded Teremillio.

"I'm not sure but it should be fine as long as we don't encounter warriors or those that are monitoring the detection magic."

"Okay then, that's what you said. If this fails, it's all on you."

"Hey!"

The two bantered as they stealthily approached the vicinity of the town.

As expected, it was hard to infiltrate the place without getting noticed. Not only the warriors of the Black Duendes were atop the walls, but there were also some lower Demons roaming outside. Even using his [Shadow Mist Movement] would not guarantee a safe infiltration at this point.

Carefully, Mark and Teremillio circled around the town, trying to find an easier way in. Actually, Mark was already tempted to use the [Photokinesis Mental Crystal]. However, it was likely to cause more harm since the enemies were not humans but Duendes and Demons.

They had no choice but to be patient, unfortunately.

Finally, after an entire two hours of lurking and sneaking, they managed to find a lightly guarded area all the way on the south side of the Kingdom of Black Duendes.

It was entirely the opposite direction of where Mark's group came from.

Nevertheless...

"It's strange. Why are there fewer guards here than other areas?"

Mark whispered.

"Maybe, this area is not important at all?"

What Teremillio said was the same as what Mark had in mind. However, if they were protecting this place, it was quite odd that they would not designate the same number of people to guard this area.

Nevertheless, it was a good opportunity for Mark and Teremillio to sneak inside.

They monitored the movements of the guard for a bit from afar. After finding the right timing, they decided to scale the walls and move in.

But then...

"Ugh!"

Mark fell on his knees. They were not even close enough to the wall for the guards to spot them.

"Hey! What's wrong?!"

Teremillio panicked as he looked at Mark.

Mark was holding his head in pain. His face even looked pale despite the darkness.

Sadness, loneliness, fear, anger, pain, despair... All of these emotions in condensed form came entering Mark's mind like a tsunami. The feeling was even worse than the time that Elise's mind had gone chaotic.

"Hey!"

Teremillio called out once more as Mark was not responding to him.

"Don't shout, you idiot!" Mark growled at Teremillio. "Just shut up and wait until I get used to this."

Mark then dragged his body somewhere else that was hidden from the guards on top of the walls. Even so, he did not retreat back as he tried to get accustomed to these condensed negative emotions.

Now, Mark understood why there were fewer guards in this area.

This place was not that important nor the things that were inside. After all, it seemed that this place was where...

The human slaves were being kept in custody.

Mark would never mistake it. That flood of emotions that entered his mind just now was definitely emotional fluctuations that came from humans.

And there was not only a few. There must be a few hundred people being held in this place.

Just how much suffering had they experienced to have negative emotions that were enough to make Mark fall on his knees?

It was no wonder that there were a few guards here. These few guards were enough to handle the human slaves and if the infected attacked in this area, they could use the slaves as a meatshield.

"Let's go."

Mark said after ten minutes of adjusting himself to the suffocating emotional pressure. If he was any weaker of an Empath compared to now and if he did not have this unique trait as a mutator, that flood of emotional energy could have driven him insane already.

As the gap between the patrolling guards widened, Mark turned into a surge of black mist with Teremillio and they swooped up the walls and into the town.

And here, the awful scene was all spread out for Mark's and Teremillio's eyes to see.

Sure enough, this was the area where human slaves were being kept.

However, were they inside houses? Or at least, cages?

No.

The humans were being kept in a large cramped pigpen reeking of both pee and feces. There was not even enough space to lie down to sleep and if there was, what they would end up lying down on was their own secretions.

It was an awful situation that could make anyone puke at a slight glance.

As Mark stared at this scene, the despair that was entering his head became clear and understandable.

Mark's eyes were on the verge of glowing red. He wanted to kill. Tear everything to pieces. It was not because of the scene before him but the negative emotions that continued to flood his mind started to affect him.

The only thing he could do was to clench his chest.

"Teremillio, let's get out of this place, quick."

Mark said as he took his attention away from the pigpen. He was not here for these people. However, if a chance came, he might free them from their suffering...

In the least painful way.