Mutagen

Day 126 - 2:01 PM - Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon

The Great One immediately covered his face with a haze once more. Strange enough, in quite a panicked way.

Even though Mark only saw a short glimpse of that face, it already made him frown deeply. Another thing was the reaction he felt after using his [Emotion Induction] towards The Great One to freeze him. There was something odd that was going on.

"That is not your real body. Why do you have a body of an Eye?"

Mark voiced out as he paused his attacks. That was what he felt. When he used his [Emotion Induction], there was very little response. There was no resistance, yet there was almost no effect. It was like the body was here, but the mind was far away. The only thing that was affected was the connection between the body and the consciousness that was controlling it.

Furthermore, there was that vertical eye.

There was a lot of creatures in mythology with a single eye and even had various shapes and appearance. It was the same for those with multiple to hundreds or thousands of eyes.

But with Mark's experience combined with the memories of Freed, there was something unique about the Eyes sent by an Observer.

No matter what shape they had, how many eyes they had, whether those had tentacles or not, even if they had the intelligence or not, there was one thing that never changed.

Their eyes gave a pressure of dominance to those that stare at it. That pressure that could make everyone with a weak mind give in just by staring at it.

That was one reason that even though they suspected it a bit, they never persecuted Aimee, who had a resemblance to that monster from Freed's world. Instead of dominance, Aimee was more like an animal who lost her home.

On the other hand, that same sliver and pressure of dominance were present on that single eye on The Great One's face.

The Great One also paused after hearing that question.

"I never thought that you already reached the point of learning about the Observers."

There was no pretense in that. Even in the Auraboros, only the founders and a few highest-ranking members knew of this truth about the world.

"Hoh..." The Great One came to a sudden thought. "Someone had been in contact with a reclusive God, I see."

Because of the haze covering his face, no one could tell his expression. Nevertheless, it was no doubt that The Great One was amused.

"Interesting. At first, I'm just trying out this body I newly acquired. But things are getting interesting."

"You call that puppet a body of yours?"

Mark asked.

"Why not? Thanks to you, my spirit is damaged. It will be hard to form a real body any time soon. If you can kill this one, then you deserve to live until we can meet face to face. If not...then this the farthest you can go. It will be an honor to die in the hands of this deity."

The Great One replied in an attitude that did not care for anything. Mark even heard information that should be crucial.

A damaged spirit body was not something that could heal that fast. 

Even gods had to struggle once their spirit was damaged, not to mention a lower deity like The Great One. The gods of creation were not an exemption to that either. They could create unique and spectacular things. But not mend their damaged spirits.

To humans, having a damaged spirit was no different to getting into a comatose state with barely any chance of recovering.

The only once capable of healing someone's spirit was the Gods that reign over Spirits and Souls. In the current time, however, where would they find one?

That was some good news for Mark but came with a piece of bad news as a pair. The Great One already had found his base and was capable of sending his avatars to harass him.

No, from what The Great One said, they could meet face to face after he recreated his body. It could mean that he had no intention of sending more puppets.

Was he testing Mark?

No, there was no reason to.

But then, the realization came.

The Great One did not answer one of his questions. That was why he had a body of an Eye as a puppet. He did that on purpose to hide his true intentions. Mark could tell without a doubt.

With a murderous glint in his eyes, Mark spoke in his mind.

"Jaeya, tell Spera to open a portal at my signal."

There was a cold tone in the message he sent, which made Jaeya, who was inside the base, to falter a bit.

"W-where? Spera asked, the destination."

"Anywhere far from here. If possible, on the opposite side of Earth."

"Anywhere?"

Jaeya tried to confirm.

"I'll repeat. Anywhere far from here."

"O-okay. We got it. We'll wait for your signal."

Mark closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"You don't only have someone with the [Body of Void] but also someone with portals. Now, someone with [Telepathy]. Your place sure is a den of talents. What are you telling them to do?"

Sure enough, The Great One could tell that Mark was communicating with someone from the base. Fortunately, it seemed that he was not able to tap into it.

"I want to ask one last thing." Mark opened his eyes with a serene expression." What kind of deity are you?"

That was one thing that interested Mark. There were deities of elements, of wisdom' and there were also others with minor designations. Yet, he could not tell what The Great One was.

"Me? I'm a Deity of Nothingness. Everything that I lay my hands on will become nothing but dust. From dust where everything started and to dust will everything end."

Hearing those words, no wonder why everything hit from The Great One's attacks disintegrated into dust.

"Did that answer satisfy you?"

The Great One asked as he waved both his hands.

Black clouds came swirling out of his robe, covering a large area. One the other hand, Mark sheathed the [Slicer] and [Divider].

"Ignis, return to the base. Help protect it."

Ignis shivered in frustration. Nevertheless, it followed the order and flew around the cover of clouds back to the base.

"Crimson."

Mark said as a cloud of Miasma materialized around him. The Miasma surged around his body, forming a sinister-looking armor. Eight whips made of blood burst out from his back, forming into black metallic segmented limb-like spears. Together with his two pairs of bat wings, the spears looked sinister.

Still, Mark felt that it was not enough. Even though the body in front of him was nothing but a puppet, its strength was the real deal.

Mark was powerful. But he was still nowhere near a Diety just by his strength alone.

"Release..."

Mark murmured as the black markings on his neck and wrists started to spread all over his body once more. The scleras of his eyes turned black, which emphasized his eyes that were glowing with different colors. His right eye shined bright red while his left eye glowed violet.

As the black markings spread, his body became coated with a thin film of Miasma protecting his body.

Suddenly, Mark moved his head to the side. A string of black clouds passed by at the speed of an anti-materiel bullet.

At that dodge, the voice of The Great One echoed from the clouds once more.

"Different abilities from different beings inside one body. An existence like you definitely should not exist."

As that was said, smaller and even needle-sized vortices appeared from the cluster of black clouds. There were also tornadoes with the same size at the previous once forming above. 

The smaller the attack, the faster it moved. That was why Spera had the time to react to that large-scale attack that The Great One. Nevertheless, these smaller ones could only work for shorter distances before dissipating. That was how Mark observed it as the one he dodged just now dissipated before reaching the ground.

Still, with this many attacks forming at the same time, even though The Great One called this a test, he was keen on killing Mark.

And even if he was not able to, there would be someone else to deal with the aftermath. What a sinister plan.

Telling Mark that they could meet in the future was nothing but a lie to hide The Great One's true intentions.

BOOOOHHHHHOMMMMM!!!

Like missiles from an armada of spaceships, multitudes of swirling clouds flew towards Mark. How many were there? Hundreds? Thousands? Only The Great One could tell.

And all those attacks that could disintegrate matter to dust were all aimed at Mark.

Alone, he was facing an attack that could destroy a whole city in an instant.

Mark's figure blurred, leaving the afterimage of his glowing eyes.

He moved his body around the air, evading each of the attacks that came across his body.

Some faster attacks seemed to hit his body. The moment the attack hit, all was left was an afterimage, and Mark had already appeared at another place.

There were some of the smallest and fastest attacks that grazed Mark's body, but the armor and the film of Miasma protected him. 

As Mark avoided the massive attacks, however, the swirling clouds bent behind him and returned. 

At the same time, the other attacks coming from different directions curved towards him.

From above, behind, right, left, front, and below. Mark was trapped at the center with all the attacks coming towards him. Then, everything picked up speed, trying to give him the finishing blow.

Both Mark's eyes glowed brightly in violet color. His body blurred as the subspace created by him [Shadow Mist Movement] expanded. Adrenaline enhanced his focus. The veins around his eyes glowed red brightly. A burst of red glow covered his body as his blood burned fiercely.

Everything slowed down.

In a blink of an eye, Mark left a trail of bright red light as his body moved. His body was nothing but a red blur as he flew around and in-between the swirling clouds.

He charged towards the black clouds covering the puppet of the Great One.

The swirling clouds that missed their target hit each other. The difference in speed, the direction of rotation, and the trajectory caused the clouds to explode and scatter. 

Those attacks that managed to remain formed continued flying on their trajectory.

Some continued flying towards the sky before dissipating. The majority scattered across the ground, turning everything that was hit to dust.

Some end up flying towards the base. Fortunately, the portal that Spera opened earlier was still there, swallowing most of the stray swirling clouds. As for those remaining, Ignis clad in black flames flew to block while the smaller ones were shot by Mei. The bullets turned to dust, but it destroyed the swirling clouds that already lost their momentum.

Charging forward, Mark scattered a surge of Miasma to intercept many of the swirling clouds coming towards him. 

The clouds were made with energy, but it was too destructive to be swallowed whole. Both the swirling clouds and the surge of Miasma that clashed dissipated into nothing.

Finally, Mark managed to close into the scattered black clouds around the puppet of The Great One.

With his arms stretched out and both hands wide open, a thick burst of Miasma scattered around, enclosing the cloud that The Great One created.

The already darkened sky became even darker.

"NOW! Behind this guy! In the direction that I'm flying to!"

Mark shouted in his mind.

A portal opened behind the thick black cloud as Mark charged into it.

There was a bit of struggle inside the dark cloud, but as Mark enclosed it with Miasma, there was nowhere to run to.

Soon, two figures burst out of the thick clouds. It was Mark who was pushing the puppet of The Great One unto the portal.

Mark was injured. Some areas of his arms, legs, and face already disintegrated into dust. One of his wings was missing, and some parts of his armor were broken. Nevertheless, he used the metal limbs on his back to pierce the body of the puppet tightly.

As fast as he could, Mark flew with the puppet into the portal that only Spera knew where it would lead to.

"Close it! Don't open one after another day!"

That was the last thing they heard from Mark before he entered the portal with the enemy.

As the portal closed, the thick black clouds in the sky dissipated.

With the light of the sun returning, everyone could clearly see the destruction left behind by that battle.

There was almost nothing left in the flatlands around the base anymore, only a few trees that managed to luckily survive. Even the crops and fields that they painstakingly made had already turned to dust.

Seeing this scene made them feel alive. It was good that everyone managed to prepare to protect the base.

Now, they only needed to wait and pray that Mark would be alright.