Mutagen

Day 368 - 6:18 PM - Mountain Back, Balong, Pucakwangi, Pati Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

"A-amazing."

General Wijaya could not help but voice out as they all watched the battle between the Night Goddess and the pair of Luna and Edge unfold.

The mountain-sized abomination that the Night Goddess had become. The very same monster that took Amihan and Kana their all, only to end up shaving off the layer of darkness enveloping it.

With only Luna and Edge, the Night Goddess turned into a spectacular explosion of flesh and blood.

"Those two!"

Ellie shouted in excitement. The extraordinary display of the two was not only powerful but also beautiful.

The other leaders of the Moon Chasers were also happy and excited. During the initial phase of this fight, only the members of Evernight were the ones who could keep up against the Night Goddess. But now, Luna and Edge showed similar prowess. It was not like they were competing. However, this situation showed that there was still hope for them to grow.

At the side, Limabela could only sigh. Ever since she began seeing the vision of their death, she started doing things to prevent it. When the vision changed, and she saw Mark within that vision, she took the chance when they first met.

Then, the vision changed once more, becoming unpredictable. All the preparations and everything Limabela did to change the scenario became useless. It caused her to fear the future even more.

But now, Limabela realized. The visions of the future she had were never the fixed outcome. They were just warnings of the possible scenarios. And factors could happen to change it. While most of the things Limabela did might not be able to change the future she saw, there were things she did that threw off such a future.

Limabela's fears were unwarranted.

It was a good thing.

...A good thi...

THOOOOOM!

Along with the explosion of a mountainous amount of flesh and blood, darkness suddenly expanded with the exploding body at its center.

"Enter the barrier, and do not come out!"

At the same time, Magwayen's hurried voice echoed in their minds.

The leaders of the Moon Chasers immediately rushed into Iola's barrier without question. It was the same for General Wijaya and the other members of Mark's group, who were outside the barrier to have a clearer view of the battle.

It was just a millisecond left before everyone managed to enter the barrier. In that instant, everything outside the barrier went dark.

"What is happening?"

Elise voiced out while looking outside the barrier.

Iola's barrier had fire properties, which also caused it to glow. It allowed everyone within the barrier to not lose sight of themselves. However, everything outside appeared to have been swallowed by darkness. They could not even see an inch outside the barrier.

And then, a particular sound entered their ears.

SPLAT! SPLAT SPLAT!

A large amount of splattering sound echoed from outside the barrier.

SPLAT! SIZZLE!

Some even seemed to hit the barrier outside, which caused a sizzling sound to enter their ears.

"This is scary."

Even the lively Emika felt intimidated by the current event.

And then...

GWuaaAA... Mwuu...

Everyone felt goosebumps as eerie moans entered their ears. What was worse was that they could not see anything outside the barrier. They had no way of knowing what was making those eerie moans.

It was when Luna's voice entered their ears.

"[Moonlight Dance: Guidance Flare]."

Luna's echoing voice was then accompanied by flickers of light spreading in the darkness. Like fireflies in the dark, the flickers scattered, giving a bit of light within the pitch-black surroundings.

GUuuUaAaa... SIZZLE!

And those flickers of light reached the barrier, allowing everyone to see a little bit of what was happening outside.

"HIIII!"

Emika screeched in shock as she scampered away from the edge of the barrier.

It was not just Emika. Everyone who got a glimpse of the outside of the barrier inched away from it.

Guuu.... Auaa! SIZZLE!

The moans and the sizzling sounds now made sense.

It was because the barrier was now surrounded by what seemed to be moving clumps of flesh with bits and pieces of barely recognizable body parts.

"What the heck is this?!"

Nelia shouted, feeling extremely repulsed by the creepy scene before them.

"Light bloom!"

Luna's voice echoed. The flickers of light glowed brighter. The surroundings lit up even more, allowing everyone to see further outside.

And the scene just made everyone even more creeped out.

It was not just around the barrier. The trees outside had fleshy creatures clinging around them, moaning and wriggling. Even the cliff walls had fleshy creatures stuck on them, hanging horizontally on those walls.

SPLAT!

Something fell atop the barrier.

"GYAAAA!!!"

Hannah yelped. The thing that fell was straight above her head, and when she looked up, what she saw was the stretched-out face of a woman being burned by Iola's barrier. The woman did not even have a body since all that was around the face was a liquid-like fleshy substance that started to drip around the barrier like honey being poured on a pancake.

"There!"

Ellie pointed at the sky.

There, they were able to see Luna, currently entangled in a battle with flesh-like creatures capable of flight.

SWOOOSH!

A flash of light tore through the darkness. It was Edge atop his mount, attacking the fleshy creatures one after another.

It seemed that the battle they thought was over changed into a far more difficult and bizarre fight.

"WHA!"

General Wijaya suddenly exclaimed. Everyone turned in his direction, only to see him staring out to the southern side of the barrier.

And everyone froze.

There, a ten-meter-high tsunami of viscous blood was coming, about to swallow the barrier whole. Although it appeared to be blood, it felt more like a giant slime-like creature.

Luna and Edge seemed to have realized the predicament the others were facing. However, they were too far away to provide help.

"TSK!"

A shadow charged out of the barrier.

"Zhiruo!"

Mei called out, but Feng Zhiruo did not look back.

With her sword drawn, Feng Zhiruo tore a part of the fleshy creature surrounding the barrier before rushing out to face the incoming blood creature.

"UGH!"

Swallowing the disgust that suddenly filled her throat, Feng Zhiruo made her stance.

"[Azure Dragon Dance!]"

Feng Zhiruo shouted to drown the disgust further as her sword burned with azure flames, which began spreading to cover her body. She then jumped to the blood creature and turned into a surge of azure flames, slashing and burning the blood creature countless times.

SPLASH!

The tsunami of blood stopped in its tracks and poured to the ground with a loud splash. Even though the blood creature was more in a liquid state, the azure flames continued to burn, trying to erase even the last drop.

"URP!"

Feng Zhiruo landed on the ground. However, instead of a triumphant appearance, she ended up releasing the pent-up disgust she felt when she used that technique.

With a sudden feeling of weakness, Feng Zhiruo fell to her knee. Worse, the flesh creatures began to surround her.

"Inaba." "Cavaal."

And two young voices echoed.

""Valkyrie Mode.""

Everyone could not help but step back as they saw the Canine-Feline Golem, Cavaal, and the Giant Rabbit Golem, Inaba, begin to transform. At the same time, Miracle and Abbygale jumped toward the golems.

With a sudden flash of light, the two girls, donning their respective golems as armor, jumped out of the barrier to aid Feng Zhiruo.

"Wawa-what!?"

The weebs were flabbergasted. Just now, they had seen an actual battlesuit transformation. Furthermore, it was two powerful little girls.

"Is that fine?"

Spera asked Mei.

"It's fine," Mei smiled. "I'm going out too."

Mei then clutched the dented part of her armor. It was a bit painful to move with it. Without a choice, she removed the upper armor she wore. And then, she called out.

"Oracle. Please. [Armorize]."

The Crystal Clear Bloodchild, Oracle, jumped out of a rectangle case hanging around the waist part of her armor. She then slithered around Mei's body before forming a crystal armor.

"What about your weapon?"

Spera asked Mei.

"I'll make do with the prototype handguns."

Mei replied, about to take the handguns out of her [Spatial Ring].

"Sadly, I can't hand over mine," Spera sighed. "I'm not really in the best state to fight with weapons right now."

"Well, the weapons Gege made for us are for exclusive use, after all," Mei shrugged. "He said he hasn't found out yet how to make the weapons have multiple owners."

BOOOM!

An explosion occurred outside the barrier. It seemed that Abbygale used the explosive kick ability of her Valkyrie armor. The two sisters succeeded in helping Feng Zhiruo, and the three were now entangled with the flesh creatures.

"I'm going."

Mei then rushed out of the barrier, firing her magical handguns at the distorted faces burning into the surface of Iola's barrier.

SWOOOSH!

A flying flesh creature was about to sweep down towards the barrier. It seemed to be a rather large one. If that collided with the barrier while charging from above, the possibility of it damaging or even destroying the barrier would not be zero.

ROOOAR!!!

Chaflar suddenly roared, making everyone inside the barrier flinch. The Blooddemon Dragon then opened his wings and soared to the sky. With a burst of black flames from his mouth, Chaflar confronted the giant flying flesh creature.

"HAAAHHH..." Ellie let out a loud sigh. "What are we all doing cowering here? Let's go!"

THUMP!

Ellie, shouldering her giant hammer, jumped out with a...

BANG!

Ellie turned a flesh creature into a splatter meat paste with a swing of her hammer.

"Let's go!"

Nelia urged Bajing and Limabela to also join the fight.

With that, the leaders of the Moon Chasers were now all fighting outside the barrier.

"Haah..." Magwayen sighed. "I told them not to go out of the barrier, but oh well."

The situation ended up better than Magwayen expected. It was most likely because of the flickers of light now illuminating the surroundings. Without it, going outside the barrier would be suicide.

WOOOSH!

A surge of light suddenly enveloped the surroundings around the barrier. The flesh creatures in the immediate vicinity evaporated without a trace. It was followed by Luna and Edge arriving.

"Luna! Edge!"

Ellie shouted in glee, welcoming the return of the two.

"Don't shout," Luna flicked Ellie's forehead before turning to the barrier, specifically to her niece, Amisha, who had also fallen unconscious. "Is she okay?"

"There is no need to worry. The girl is fine."

Aephelia, who was now nursing and guarding the unconscious people, calmly replied.

Luna did not recognize Aephelia. However, seeing that the latter was wearing a maid uniform similar to Hannah's, Luna understood that Aephelia must be a member of Mark's group.

"I see, thank you."

Luna thanked Aephelia.

"Is everyone okay?"

Edge asked.

"Not really," Ellie, clutching her forehead, answered Edge. "There's only a few of us left conscious, you see?"

"Do you really have to yap like that?"

Edge sighed.

"That aside, what are these fleshy things?"

Limabela asked, shooting at a nearby flesh creature hanging upside down a nearby tree.

"That's... Those are the pieces of the enemy's body," Luna said with a bit of hesitation. "Sorry, we didn't expect the situation to turn like this when we attempted to kill the enemy that way."

As it turned out, exploding the giant body of the Night Goddess was a bad idea. They thought that it was a giant single body that would stop moving after it was killed. However, it seemed that the corpses that composed that giant body began moving after they were removed from it. It was the same with the bodies from the tentacles, too.

The corpses that formed the giant tentacles began moving on their own after the tentacles were severed from the body.

"What the heck?"

Ellie voiced out everyone's reaction after hearing the explanation.

"Then, are these creatures being controlled by that enemy Goddess?"

General Wijaya asked.

"That's..."

Unfortunately, even Edge and Luna had no answer to that.

Magwayen, too, was not saying anything.

But then, an unexpected answer came from somewhere.

"Yes and no."

A woman's voice entered everyone's ears. And for some odd reason, the voice sounded familiar.

Everyone turned to where the voice came from, and by reflex, almost everyone took a battle stance.

The source of the voice landed before them. It was a woman wearing a gothic battledress. Behind her back were six raven wings. And that familiar face was not something they would forget anytime soon.

Strange. It felt strange.

Luna and Edge had just mentioned that the flesh creatures were the parts of the Night Goddess' body.

Then why?

Why was the Night Goddess standing before them now?

Wait...

Did the Night Goddess speak to them just now? She was like a beast before.

However, contrary to most of them being surprised and hostile, a few reacted differently.

"Grau?"

In the sky, Chaflar growled in confusion.

"Ruff?"

The golden dog, Laelaps, tilted her head for the same reason.

"..."

Aephelia stared incredulously.

"..."

The three sisters were stunned.

"That's..."

Elise was speechless.

"Haah..."

Magwayen sighed as if giving up.

And the hammer hitting the nail...

"Gege?"

Mei called out with a strange expression, not knowing what reaction she should show in this totally unexpected situation.

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