Mutagen

Day ▋▋ - ▋▋:▋▋ ▋▋ - Sylph Kingdom, Dead Territory, Central-Eastern Mountains

The powerful gusts of wind blew as the devastating tornado started to form. The already dried soil of the area began to fly around, making the vision below thickly obscured.

It was as if a sand storm was about to rage cause chaos and devastation.

At the center of the spiraling gusts of wind in the sky, Mark flew. He was looking at the scene below.

This kind of scene was something you could see in disaster movies where a tornado coming from the sky was about to touch the ground. Mark did not expect this kind of thing to happen either.

He already thought of this before and concluded that this blanket of pulsating flesh was an intelligent kind of infected. The fact that it was able to keep all the Sylphs it had infected around it to serve as protection was the evidence.

When the Sylphs divided into two groups, with one to deal with Mark and the other to protect, it proved his suspicions further.

And one last thing, this [Leader Type Alpha] was intelligent and perceptive enough to consider him as a threat. Or else, why would it resort to an attack of a catastrophic scale.

Unfortunately, it was just what Mark wanted.

He already found a way to strengthen Amihan and Aephelia. However, he could not neglect himself either. The was quite unlucky that most of the infected they encountered yesterday gave a very meager amount of Magical Energy for him to absorb.

This time, however, it was surely in the same scale of that Mutated Whale before. He would not pass this opportunity.

And thus...

"All this is mine!"

Mark exclaimed, as a thick cloud of Miasma, exploded on his surroundings. The terrifyingly looking black clouds spread fast, engulfing the tornado in its entirety along with the majority of the Infected Sylphs raging about.

Their growls, roars, and moans were swallowed and vanished into the darkness as their bodies slowly turned to dust.

As the black cloud traveled down to the ground, it started to spin and took slowly took the shape of the tornado.

The Miasma did not just swallow the tornado, it slowly became the tornado itself, swallowing every bit of Magical Energy present in the surroundings.

However, that was not enough.

Mark, inside the black tornado, closed his eyes. He concentrated on sensing any magical fluctuation in his surroundings. Specifically, he was aiming for the magical fluctuation of the Infected Sylphs that was not swallowed by the cloud of Miasma.

One by one, he started to feel them.

The infected Sylphs were somehow staying out of the tornado. It seemed that the carpet of pulsating flesh below detected danger and was trying to keep its protectors alive.

As if Mark would let that go just like that.

From the black colored disaster, multitudes of surges of Miasma burst forth like hundreds of tentacles. All of which directed to the Sylphs that were already returning to guard near their leader.

Unfortunately for them, while they could fly fast, the surges of Miasma moved faster. After all, not only that the infected Sylphs already used up the majority of their energy, but the [Leader Type Alpha] was not a Sylph and could not utilize their abilities effectively.

One after another, the retreating infected Sylphs turned to dust after their bodies were swallowed by the exploding surges of Miasma.

Quite a distance away, Danaya was watching the whole ordeal. She was shocked beyond compare because of the scale of the disastrous scene before her. It was also not wrong to say that she was afraid. Even if she used up all of her energy and sacrificed her existence, she doubted that she would be able to contend with what was happening right now.

"It was no wonder I can't measure his abilities..."

Danaya subconsciously said, as her wide eyes stared at the black tornado.

She had been measuring Mark ever since she saw him. And she realized early on, while she could tell that he was not human, she could not tell how strong he was.

Miasma was kind of a silent killer. It might cause strong fluctuations when being used, especially when it clashed with other energies. But when dormant or purely alone, it was undetectable. Only those races that had more powerful sensing abilities and demonic races that could control Miasma would be able to distinguish it in that state.

This was one of the things that made existences that could control Miasma unpredictable.

What she could not fathom, however, was how Mark was able to control Miasma while having a mortal body. Only the beings that were able to use Miasma were formless demons, demons born of Miasmic Energy, and those that had been corrupted by Miasma.

That was when she remembered Mark's answer when she asked him yesterday about what he was. She concluded that he was half-human and half-demon while neglecting the third choice. He was also something else different from the two.

An Unknown Existence. Something unfathomable that it could break the balance of the plane of existence. He was something that should not exist, and yet, he was existing.

Mark was an Enigma, an Anomaly, and an unfathomable being for Mortals, Demons, and Spirits.

Danaya felt shivers on her back. It was lucky that she was not rash when she arrived yesterday and when she questioned him. She now realized how close to death she might have been.

In the sky, the one-sided battle was still ongoing.

The more than two thousand infected Sylphs were now reduced to about five hundred. And for some reason, the surges of Miasma seemed to avoid a few Sylphs while it targeted others without mercy.

Below, the cloud of mixed sand, dry soil, and dust of dead Sylphs started to calm down. Even the gusts of wind were disappearing. Without the Magical Energy controlling the wind to support its creation, the tornado slowly vanished.

In its place, the tall tower of Miasma stood instead. And slowly, even the Miasma started to gather and shirk into one place.

It did not take too long before Mark and Aephelia could be seen once more. He had both his hands stretched forwards as the Miasma spiraled towards his palms.

Seeing that, Danaya was even more shocked. She could not fathom as to how Mark's mortal body was able to handle such a vast amount of Miasma. Furthermore, what he was absorbing right now was about half more than what he had released.

Mark smiled, feeling the newly absorbed energy in his body. He got quite a harvest. As for the remaining Sylphs that he deliberately allowed to live, it was now their turn.

From his experience yesterday, Spirit Races could give him varying sizes of Crystals even though they came from the same race. And those with larger magical capacity would give the largest ones. That was why he left those for last and would turn them into what he called [Energy Crystals].

Mark then turned to the Sylph on his shoulder, who was waiting for his cue.

"Aephlia, your turn."

"Yes, Master."

Aephelia nodded.

She then flew off from Mark's shoulder. In this battle, she had two roles given to her. 

The first was to choose from the Infected Sylphs in front of her to become her subordinates.

Yesterday, the first [Energy Crystal] given to her gave her three "Slots" for controlling a regular human infected. As Sylphs, one of those slots could hold two. The three Sylphs they captured yesterday for the demonstration was already disposed of. They were just weak ones, and only one of the three gave Mark a crystal.

In Mark's view, it was better to get stronger ones. Unfortunately, Mark had yet to get another clear [Energy Crystal], or she might have at least another slot open.

It did not take long for her, and she picked six of the strongest Sylphs that flew towards her after she controlled them.

As for the remaining ones, Mark charged towards them with a sinister smile.

While Mark was collecting the Sylphs, it was time for Aephelia's next move.

Logan, who was left at the ground, was now standing beside the [Leader Type Alpha]. The fat giant was ignored by the enemy because of the fact that they were both infected. Furthermore, the Alpha's attention was on Mark, which allowed the embodiment of Gluttony to approach without suspicion.

Aephelia then gave the command.

"EAT."

That command made Logan's eyes as if it was glowing with hunger. He opened his large mouth and took a huge chuck out of the pulsating flesh. Of course, that damage was insignificant to the enemy as it slowly healed like how it did when it was feeding the infected Sylphs under its control.

However, that speed of regeneration would be able to catch up to the hungry beast.

Like a gigantic ghost that was not fed for millenniums, Logan gobbled up the body of the [Leader Type Alpha]. It was up to the point that it could not ignore the giant glutton.

It seemed to be confused as to what was happening as it was not attacking Logan. But when a considerable chunk was taken off its body, it started to shiver. A tremor was created from its movements as it moved thousands of its tentacles in anger.

Without a doubt, it now viewed Logan as an enemy.

More than dozens of tentacles pointed at Logan and attacked. The tentacles pierced Logan's body. Logan could have died there. However, not only that Aephelia made him dodge the blow to his head, but the tentacles were not strong enough to pierce Logan's mutated bones.

Since it sensed that Logan was still unharmed, the enemy decided to do its greatest move. It tried to use its tentacles to absorb the liquid inside Logan's body and turn him into a dried corpse.

That was when the horror, struck. The supposed wounds on Logan's body where the tentacles were still stuck, opened up like mouths and started to suck the tentacles into his body instead.

"CROARARACKARARAO!!"

An incomprehensible sound was let out by the carpet of pulsating flesh as it finally sensed danger from Logan. It voluntarily cut off the tentacles being sucked and tried to attack once more.

Its attack ended up futile as the same thing had happened. Furthermore, the more tentacles it used to attack and ended up being sucked into Logan's body, the more its body shrunk.

Finally, Mark was done with the last Sylph. Unfortunately, even with stronger Sylphs, the chance of getting a crystal was not fixed. After absorbing the remaining infected Sylphs, he only got a hundred and fifty-three [Sylph Energy Crystals].

Together with Aephelia, they watched the scene below.

That was when Aephelia froze.

"I something wrong?"

Mark asked as he sensed her emotions.

"Master, look at Logan."

Mark then stared at the fat gluttonous giant, as Aephelia said.

Logan was still ferociously eating while the enemy was panickily retaliating to no avail.

However, Mark and Aephelia noticed that Logan's body was growing larger. Parts of his skin was changing color to an orange hue. The remaining clothes he had got ripped off by the sudden growth and orange-colored armor started to cover his arms, legs, head, and lower body.

Sure enough, Logan was mutating as it continued to eat the enemy.

After a few minutes and as Danaya had met up with the two in the sky, they Logan finish his transformation.

Now, Logan was not eating through his mouth anymore. No, it was correct to say that not from his original mouth. It was because a humongous mouth with several dozens of rows of teeth, grew on his stomach, chomping the enemy in large bites. Furthermore, there were holes in Logan's palms and other parts of his body that were sucking the enemy in as the holes made contact with the enemy.

The struggle between Logan and the [Leader Type Alpha] continued for two more hours. Unfortunately for the enemy, its body was immobile and had no way of escaping. Logan chomped unto its last bit and it finally died.

Seeing that, it showed how hard it was to deal with the enemy if Logan did not mutate. It seemed that it was able to relocate its brain and organs and only died after its last bits were eaten. With its regeneration rate, it would be hard to kill with other means.

Mark could have done it easily with Miasma. However, the remains of the Kingdom of Sylphs would vanish in existence along with the enemy of he did it.

Now, that the enemy was gone, there was no use mulling over it. Thus, he asked Danaya if it was possible to treasure hunt in the ruins while checking that nothing dangerous remained.

Danaya was a bit conflicted. Still, she relented. This place was already a lost cause if Mark was not here anyway. Surely, the Sylphs would not mind.