Mutagen

<strong>Day ▋▋▋ - ▋▋:59 PM - Kingdom of Black Duendes, Spirit Dimension</strong>

The scorched street, walls, and buildings burnt and engulfed by the flames of darkness.

The ashes and dust of beings of the night littered the streets, blown by the cold breeze of midnight.

The bodies of the mortals that littered the ground, looking at the sky with face dawned of satisfaction.

These mortals might have died, but it was also their release. In the least, they died fighting, not cowering.

Among the inhabitants of this small Kingdom...

The Duendes, the Demons, the other races, and the human slaves, all had died but a few. However, all the other races that managed to survive long had fled.

And in the middle of the raging flames of darkness, only a few human slaves remained. All of them sat on the ground, tired, injured, hungry, and lost. After all the suffering, the sadness, the despair, these slaves finally achieved freedom. But now that they had it, none of them knew what they should do next.

Escape? Leave this place? But after that, what? This dimension was filled with danger. A few of them, humans, that were heavily malnourished and injured would not last long in the wilderness of this dimension.

Going home? Where? To Earth? How? None of them even knew whether they would be able to live their lives here. If they did manage to get back, would they be able to go back to their old lives?

All of them were lost, not knowing what to do.

"Hmmm... There's only nine left, huh."

That was when the slaves turned their heads as they heard the voice nearby. At first, they thought that it was an enemy. But as they saw the man that started this bloody battle, they all relaxed. It was not like they were not wary of the man. It was just that even if the man wanted to do anything to them, there was no way for them to do anything to retaliate.

Nine weakened humans, against the being that destroyed this place in a few hours? Only a fool would start a fight against this man.

In the least, this man let them take revenge into their hands. If he wanted to take their lives at this moment like the others that were engulfed in flames, they would not resist.

The slaves were tired. If there was no decent future for them, they would rather die here. Unfortunately, like most people, they were afraid of taking their own lives.

It was when they noticed, the man was not alone. They did remember that during the battle, they saw several people, even children, fight the Demons. That, however, was from a distance and thought that they were all Demons.

Now, however, they could not help but look at this group.

Aside from the wings and the sinister-looking armor, the man was a human. The little girls and the beautiful woman beside him also appeared to be human.

But then, humans that were too powerful to be able to trample over this place into ruin was quite unbelievable.

The man then approached them. All they did was stare in silence. Not only were they tired, but it was better to stay silent than accidentally offend this Godly being.

Unexpectedly, the man just passed by the ones nearest to him and approached a pair of male slaves. The older man was quite heavily injured with a claw wound that almost sliced his entire left forearm. The man's bones were even exposed if not for the younger man desperately tying the injury with the torn cloth they had that was already heavily soaked with blood.

The man stared at the two slaves for a bit. He seemed to be checking the wound, or maybe, another thing.

To the shock of the slaves, the man stretched his hand forwards, and a small black hole appeared in front of him. His hand entered the black hole for a few seconds, and when he pulled his hand out, he was already holding a sealed test tube with a questionable-liquid in it.

That was when he spoke to the two.

"Use this. Make him drink it."

The man said as he offered the test tube to the wounded slave.

The younger slave hesitated whether he would accept it for the old man or not.

"It's for his wound. Take it or he will die from blood loss sooner or later."

The man urged, and his words made the younger slave take the test tube. It was better to gamble than to let the older man die. The older slave drank the contents of the test tube, and miraculously, the bleeding slowly stopped. The wound was still there, but it seemed that it healed to some extent.

Due to this act, the slaves started to look at the man with hope. Perhaps, just perhaps, he was not like the Demons that enslaved them.

But then, after the old slave drank the miraculous medicine, the man that gave it started to return to his group, thwarting their hopes away.

However, the man spoke once more.

"If you people still want to live, follow me. I don't mind bringing you all back to Earth, though it might not be the Earth that you all know anymore."

Without waiting for any reply, the man walked away.

The slaves were confused about what he meant by his words. However, they wanted to live. They wanted to go home. That was all that mattered.

***

Mark walked back with the girls. The slaves were slowly following behind them.

It might be faster to just fly back to the castle where the others were waiting. However, Mark wanted to see the remains of the town as well as find things that might interest him.

And along the way, Mark would wave Ignis, absorbing the black flames that it unleashed before. These flames were special and under their control. It was better if the black flames were contained to find things in the rubble easier.

Unfortunately, there were very few things to collect. A lot were either burned or damaged by the battle. Aside from the weapons and armor of the soldiers that were left on the ground after they turned to dust, Mark only took a few items that looked stran-interesting.

What made Mark happy was how he was able to extract magical energy from the dead bodies that did not turn to dust after they died. Although it was not too much, a few crystals were still valuable.

They arrived back at the castle with the nine slaves in tow. Sure enough, they were quite surprised to see Edzel and Pearl. Compared to the whole group, these teens were the ones that appeared human the most. Well, they were human, technically, and Edzel had yet to awaken his father's blood.

Aside from the members of the group, another person was waiting. It was no other than Il'vella, who already resigned to her fate as a prisoner. Well, she did not want to die, and all she could do was to behave.

As for the other Queens, they were not present. They were already given their freedom and they were all preparing to return to their homes, or at least, try to find them. By the looks of it, they would be traveling together for safety.

Actually, they could travel together with Mark's group. However, they rather not. They were all afraid of Mark, especially he caused the destruction of this place with only a small group in tow.

'

Those things aside, Mark had one last thing to do in this place.

"Prepare for the night while we scout the place one more time. We will leave in the morning. "

Mark said as he led the three girls, Mei, and Amihan away.

They were going back to the secret room where the Queens hid before with the other people of the castle. It was because that place was also the hidden treasury where the most valuable things of the Black Duendes were stored.

It was quite a hassle to go down a long flight of stairs. Fortunately, like the Stone Fortress, the Black Duendes used glowing stones to illuminate the place.

It did not take long and they reached the chamber where they fought the Princes and Princesses. The dust and blood were still fresh, together with a few bodies of dead Demons that remained.

Leaving that chamber, they faced a door deep inside it. Unfortunately, they were immediately stopped by something.

"Gege, the door smeed to be sealed with magic."

Mei said, looking at the door that was about three meters tall with exquisite design.

This door was obviously the treasury that even the Queens were not allowed to enter.

"Let's try this."

Mark said as he touched the door.

CRACKLE!

A strong electric charge entered Mark's body.

"KYAA!!"

Amihan, who was sitting on Mark's shoulder cried out as she flew instantly while massaging her bottom.

"MASTER! Why would you do that?!"

Amihan complained.

"My bad," Mark snickered. "You all get away first. I'll try to destroy this seal.

Amihan, with her numbed bottom, flew away instantly. Mei and the three girls also retreated.

And there, Mark sent a surge of Miasma unto the door.

CRACKLE!!!

Surges of electricity spread out like lightning from the door as it tried to resist the Miasma that Mark was using to break it.

However, its resistance was not enough for the Miasma that started to absorb it.

CRASH!!!

With a loud sound of glass breaking, the magical seal of the door was broken.

"Alright, let's go."

Mark called the girls as he pushed the doors open. It was unexpectedly heavy, and he had to enhance his in order to open the door enough to let everyone inside.

And there, Mark and his group were quite amazed.

Bars of gold was piled up on one side. This might worth several million if sold back then before the outbreak. Now, however, these gold bars were worthless.

Fortunately, there were other things, and the most valuable ones were on display.

First was the heads of monsters that Mark had never seen before. Like how hunters would display the heads of their game, the heads of the magical animals were hanged on the walls the same way.

And, of course, this was of no value to Mark, and they had to continue on.

The displays were quite interesting. There were exquisitely made swords and armor. There were even some that were imbued with magical properties. A good example was one armor that could create a magical barrier to its wearer. There were also some magical weapons. Unfortunately, none of the swords were on par with Ignis.

For now, however, this equipment did not matter. Not only Mark but the girls were also paying attention to something else.

At the furthest end of the treasury, there was a huge humanoid figure. Of course, it was not an enemy, and Mark's group approached it. It was huge with its four-meter height.

With a body made of an unknown metal, the hulking humanoid figure looked like a statue.

But for Mark, it was not a statue. Definitely not.

"A golem, huh?"

Mark said as he knocked on the metal legs of the figure.

That was right, it was a golem. Looking at its strange design, the magical carvings on its armor, and even the sensation where it seemed to be able to channel magical energy in its body.

Unfortunately, the golem was not moving.

For something like this to be stored here and not deployed for something else, this thing might be broken.

Mark looked around the golem and noticed the stack of papers that was placed near the broken golem.

And to say, Mark was right. The papers had something to do with the golem.

The magic circles that were engraved inside its body, the missing parts needed, and even its origins were written.

Unexpectedly, this golem was already fixed by the Black Duendes. However, they were lacking one thing to make it move.

The Black Duendes did not have a core that would serve as the golem's brain and allow it to move.