Mutagen

Day 368 - 6:22 PM - Mountain Back, Balong, Pucakwangi, Pati Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

"Gege?"

That single familiar word from Mei caused everyone quite a stir.

The woman before them, who resembled the Night Goddess in her humanoid form, was Mark, according to Mei.

While the Indonesian survivors might be a bit more baffled, the members of Evernight would not doubt Mei in the slightest. Among them, Mei would not mistake Mark for anything else. Moreover, it was not just Mei. Some members, like the little girls and Chaflar, even noticed it.

The person in front of them might have some unexpected appearance, but she was, without a doubt, Mark.

With a shrug, Mark approached everyone. Of course, it made the Indonesian survivors flinch by reflex. They had yet to believe that it was really Mark.

But before anyone else could react, the fastest of everyone present appeared in front of Mark. Abbygale, who had already left her [Valkyrie Armor], rushed towards Mark and jumped into his arms.

Mark caught the little girl without any problem and hugged the little girl. But, unexpectedly, Abbygale pulled away while he carried her. She then stared at his chest with a frown.

"Is it uncomfortable?"

Mark asked.

"I can't hear it."

Abbygale complained while patting Mark's chest.

"So, that's why."

Mark said as he patted Abbygale's head.

Since the day Mark found Abbygale, she showed how she really liked to be in Mark's embrace. Sometimes, she would even fall asleep in his arms. While one reason was that Mark's [Spirit Healing] would make anyone in his embrace feel comfortable, Abbygale had another reason. She really liked listening to the sound of Mark's heartbeat. The sound makes her feel secure.

Unfortunately, with Mark's current appearance, the above-average size of Azra's chest was in the way for Abbygale to comfortably listen to his heartbeat.

The scene of Abbygale patting a beautiful woman's chest made Edge, General Wijaya, and Louis awkward as they looked away by reflex.

"Do you guys really have time to feel awkward?" Mark complained. "We are still surrounded, no?"

That was right. The [Flesh Creatures] were still everywhere. The surprise from Mark's sudden arrival with such an appearance sure took them out of their concentration on the ongoing battle.

But then, they all realized. The [Flesh Creatures] were also silent after Mark arrived. As they looked around, the [Flesh Creatures] only stood in place for some reason.

"What happened?"

Luna asked in confusion.

"It should be because of Sir Mark."

Nelia voiced her assumption.

"Yep," Mark affirmed with a nod. "I mean, anyone would freak out if you saw someone who looks exactly like you, right?"

Everyone immediately understood what Mark implied. Since Mark's current appearance was the same as the Night Goddess, she must have fallen into a confusion-induced stupor along with her minions.

"So, these things are really controlled by her?"

Edge once again asked the question before Mark' appeared.

"I already answered," Mark shrugged. "Yes and no."

Mark then conjured a ball of black flame and chucked it towards one of the [Flesh Creatures].

And then...

KRYYYAAAAAA!!!

The familiar screech was heard, surprising everyone.

That [Flesh Creature] wriggled while wrapped in black flames. Then, a shadow emerged from the creature, which fled into the darkness.

And when the shadow escaped, the [Flesh Creatures] resumed their rampage, which had been temporarily halted by Mark's arrival.

Furthermore, the intensity of their movements felt more aggressive than before.

"These creatures are under the Night Goddess' control to some extent, but most of their actions are by instinct. So, yes and no."

Mark explained.

"Wha-!!!" Edge exclaimed as he raised his shield to block an incoming attack. "You should have given us a warning!"

"It's not like anything changed."

Mark shrugged off the complaint and approached Mei and the others.

"Mei'er, are you okay?"

Mark asked as he glanced at the armor she was wearing. Since she had Oracle out and turned into her armor, it only meant that her usual armor got damaged. And for an armor that could withstand bullets to get damaged, it could only be caused by a powerful attack.

"I'm fine," Mei replied as she stared at Mark's face and then at his body. "But what's with that appearance?"

Mei's voice carried a bit of an interrogative tone.

"Don't worry. I can return to normal anytime," Mark patted Mei's head. "It's just..."

Mark then took out his armor, or what remained of it, which fell to the ground with barely a clang.

Seeing the state of the barely recognizable armor, not only Mei but everyone around felt scared. It was hard to imagine what could have caused it.

"I don't have any armor to use anymore, so I extended the use of this appearance since this dress is made of materialized [Aura of Death]," Mark explained. "As for this appearance, it's not even a transformation, so it's fine."

Mark then turned to Magwayen.

"Haah," Magwayen sighed. "That is a state of perfect possession. It meant that Mark had perfect attunement with a soul he let into his body, allowing him to take on the soul's appearance."

"Then why do you look like the enemy?"

Emika chimed in.

"It's wrong to say that," Mark replied. "It's more accurate to say that the Night Goddess looked like this appearance."

"It's the basis of the Night Goddess' appearance," Mark added, although it just caused more questions to pop up. "I'll explain the details later. We should clean the place first. There's still a lot of these enemies."

Everyone nodded to Mark's words. Everyone moved, continuing the battle. It was except for a few who gathered around Mark.

"Alright, come here."

Mark shrugged as he let Abbygale down and lifted Miracle, who was waiting by his leg.

"Zhiruo, are you okay?"

Mark then asked Feng Zhiruo, who was now sitting on the ground with a pale complexion.

"I'm fine," Feng Zhiruo answered. "But I'm sorry. I don't think I can continue fighting."

"Don't worry. Just guard the others."

Mark nodded as he looked at the unconscious people, including Amihan and Kana.

"Those two gave their best. Spera, too," Mei spoke as she stood beside Mark. "But it's not enough, unfortunately. We were lucky Luna and Edge came in time. Or else, things would have been different in a bad way."

"No. It shouldn't be the case," Mark caressed Mei's hair. "No one's allowed to die today except for our enemies."

"Well then," Mark put Miracle down and patted Iola's head. "You girls protect this place. I need to hunt down the enemy.

"Be careful."

Mei voiced out. Everyone did the same.

"No worries."

Mark then opened his raven wings wide. He then soared to the sky.

All of a sudden, a strong gust of wind hit Mark as a large creature flew to his side.

GRRRR?

Chaflar approached Mark with a question-like tilt of his head.

"Good work," Mark patted the sturdy scales on Chaflar's forehead. "Continue dealing with the flying ones. Don't let them get close to everyone."

GRR!

Chaflar growled in affirmation as he flew away and blew flames onto the incoming flying flesh creatures.

"There sure is a lot."

Mark frowned as he looked down.

There were already several thousand of these flesh creatures littered around the shell of Mountain Back. Yet, there were countless more on the ground.

It would be how it looked like if one were to cut a mountain apart into human-sized pieces.

"What do you plan to do?"

Luna's voice entered Mark's ear. The moonlight pair arrived near Mark.

"What is there to plan?" Mark shrugged. "We only need to destroy all of this mess."

"All of those?" Edge winced as he asked. "Can't we just find the enemy? The shadow earlier, right?"

"It's not that easy, you know?" Mark said. "This would have been the outcome even if you two tried to kill the Night Goddess differently."

""Huh?""

The voices of Luna and Edge overlapped in confusion.

"The physical body of the Night Goddess is a compressed pile of all these corpses, you see?" Mark explained. "One way to kill the Night Goddess was to destroy her body. But if her body is destroyed, the compression will collapse, and all the corpses would pop out."

It was what happened when the body of the Night Goddess was damaged, turning her into a mountain-sized pile of wriggling corpses.

"Another way is to attack the soul of the Night Goddess," Mark continued. "But it will result in the same manner."

"And if the Night Goddess' soul finally got extinguished, all these corpses would not just dissolve, or something. Just like what is happening now, the corpses will come back to "life" and begin rampaging throughout the land."

"That's absurd. How is this even possible?"

Luna voiced her concern.

"Well, it isn't really surprising," Mark shrugged as he let out a deep breath, making Edge look away because the pair of mounds bounced as he did so. "Why do you two think the Deity of Soul Sacrifice picked this time to wake up his created Goddess?"

"Why are you asking?"

Luna asked back, not understanding Mark's question.

"I mean, since one of the goals of Auraboros is to create chaos among humans, why would he choose now when there's barely any human left? Also, there are more souls to sacrifice back then than now. So, why now?"

Luna and Edge fell silent, not knowing the answer.

"The answer is that he was unable to finish the Night Goddess' creation back then. The most crucial material to perfect the Night Goddess only arrived after the apocalypse came."

""Mutagen?""

Luna and Edge's voice overlapped once again as they realized the answer.

"Yup," Mark nodded. "Mutagen had both positive and negative properties, after all. So, while utilizing the properties of Mutagen, the body of the Night Goddess was finally finished. That is why the Night Goddess is created only then."

"Unfortunately," Mark looked down at the [Flesh Creatures] below. "The Night Goddess' body also contained Mutagen's most devastating effect."

"Turning corpses into [Infected]."

Mark added.

""Ah!""

Luna and Edge finally understood.

The [Flesh Creatures] were not just parts of the Night Goddess' body. Each individual was a [Infected] corpse that was reanimated after being freed from the structure and control of the Night Goddess' body.

"But even though they were now just [Infected], they can't be left alone," Mark continued to explain. "As you two saw earlier, these creatures are still under the influence of the Night Goddess. Each of these creatures contained a tinge of her soul.

It meant that even if we managed to destroy the largest part of the soul that we saw earlier, it is still possible for her to resurrect after some time if we let even just one of these creatures escape."

It was a bad piece of news. A really bad one.

"Fortunately," Mark smiled. "These creatures are [Infected]. They won't run away from us if we do not run away from them first. So, I will deal with the soul. You two go deal with the creatures first."

Luna and Edge looked at each other and then at Mark before nodding.

As Mark had said, there was no plan. They only need to eradicate these [Flesh Creatures] in any way they could.

"I'll deal with the ones in the sky first."

Luna volunteered.

"Then, I'll go with the ones on the ground."

Edge then went with the flow.

There, Edge patted the mane of his mount.

"Gaar. Let's do that thing."

"Ruff!"

Gaardenalia excitedly answered Edge.

And then, Edge jumped off from the back of Gaardenalia, allowing him to free fall from the sky.

Mark watched in askance as to what Edge was doing. It was when the Moonlight Guardian chased after the falling Edge before turning into a surge of light and entering Edge's body, transferring to glow to him.

With the glow covering his body, Edge's appearance began changing to a wolf-like form.

It was not wrong to say that Edge was turning into a [Werewolf]. However, it was not completely correct, either.

"Then, let's add this!"

Edge excitedly exclaimed, now also causing confusion to Luna.

To Luna, who now had the memories of the Goddess of Moonlight, she knew that Edge would be able to transform using the Moonlight Guardian's power. But, as Edge continued to transform further, she could not help but feel surprised and confused.

Adding to the silver [Werewolf] appearance he now sported, Edge's body grew larger. His claws became thicker than a wolf's, and his wolf-like ears began growing rounded.

BOOOM!

A large crater appeared in the middle of the sea of [Flesh Creatures]. The impact smashed a few dozen enemies in one go.

And at the center of the crater, Edge stood with the weapons Mark gave him hanging on his back.

Looking at Edge's current appearance, he looked like a humanoid fusion of a wolf and a bear. His silver color and thick mane gave him a regal appearance. Nonetheless, the ferocity of his presence intensified a hundredfold.

ROOOAR!!

Edge roared. A shockwave shook the air, causing damage to the unstable creatures.

While Mark was surprised by the [Werewolf] transformation, Luna was surprised by the [Werebear] side.

It was because the [Werebear] transformation was the second mutation Mark gave Edge. Who would have thought Edge would use it this way?

In any case, it would give Edge more power to deal with the enemies below.

Leaving the sight of Edge in the middle of countless enemies, Mark turned to the forest on the shell of Mountain Back.

"Unfortunately, you can't hide from me."

Mark murmured as he flew towards the forest, leaving Luna to deal with the enemies in the sky.

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