Mutagen

Day 151 - 11:45 PM - Mountain Farming Village, Barangay Mabini, Municipality of Viga, Catanduanes

The sudden gunshot from Mei made the center of the battlefield silent. It made the rampaging individuals even louder than before.

Legra fell with a gaping hole on her forehead. That fist-sized hole tore through her head from front to back.

And to that sneak attack, Lord Seis' reaction was to, unexpectedly, laugh out loud.

"Pfft! HAHAHAHAHA!" 

Like a madman, the Lord of Demons let out his boisterous laugh.

"As expected of Pureblooded Demons!" Lord Seis turned to Mark and Mei. "The kinds of Demons that see everything else below them! But it's unfortunate. Don't ever think that your sneak attack succeeded!"

At the sky, Mark did not say anything. Everyone saw that Mei's attack hit that old had that was riding that giant grub. However, the old hag's mental fluctuations did not vanish at all. 

If she did die, the mental fluctuations that Mark was sensing would start to wane before vanishing. But it never happened.

It was when the old hag with a broken head stood up.

"Well, that hurt. Kekeke."

Legra's voice sounded bizarre. It was as if there were several of her talking at the same time. There were also grating and snapping sounds in her voice. It was as if her words were not spoken with a human mouth.

Unexpectedly, the torn hole on her head was not bleeding. It was strange. Even a Demon's wound would bleed before turning to ashes after its death. And yet, this woman that appeared to be a human was not.

But then, she raised her hand towards her broken head. At first, it looked like she was trying to touch her wound. However, it was not the case as she put her hand over her head. Her left hand started to lose shape, revealing layers and layers of small maggot-like insects.

One by one, the maggots detached from Legra's hand and began pouring into the gaping hole on her head.

Legra's left hand was slowly reduced to a stump up to a few inches into her wrist. On the other hand, the maggots that filled the hold on her head wriggled into shape.

It took only a few moments, and Legra's head was as good as new.

"It looks like I have to raise more to restore this hand," Legra said, looking at her missing hand before turning to Mark and Mei. "How hateful."

As Legra said those words, dozens of splatting sounds echoed across the battlefield. It sounded like some squishy toy filled with sticky goo that suddenly exploded after being inflated.

However, no one could see what the sounds came from because of the black mist covering the ground.

It did not take long, though, and they saw what created those sounds.

Buzzing sounds echoed as dozens upon dozens of winged-insects as big as three months old baby rose from the black mists. Most of them were still covered with sticky green goo, while some had the skin of worms still stuck on their bodies.

The insects looked bizarre. They had three pairs of dragonfly wings, a body of a wasp, two pairs of hind legs of a beetle, the fore of forelimbs of a mantis, the head of a fly, and the proboscis of a mosquito.

They were hybrid insects bathed in Demonic energy. And sure enough, their bodies were oozing with deadly poison like the Tiyanaks.

"So, it won't be easy, huh."

Mark murmured, staring at the old hag.

A body made of shape-shifting insects was what Legra had. It was no wonder that someone like her, a Mambabarang, was not afraid at all to join the battlefield.

It was very likely that she already left her human body and became a Demonic existence.

At the current situation, Lord Seis smiled even more.

"Since none of you wanted to listen, then let's fight!"

In that declaration, the division of the Demon army was decided.

Lord Seis faced Diwata Iraya.

Legra was already staring at Mark and Mei.

Lastly, Muggur would lead the remaining Demons to slaughter the Spirits and Elementals.

"RAAAAAAHHH!!!"

Lord Seis roared. His muscled body started to bloat and pulse. Oozing with Demonic Energy, his body began to change.

His skin became covered in fur while his face started to contort. His two-meter tall body began to grow larger.

It took just a few seconds. The handsome-looking, buff-bodied Lord Seis turned into a four-meter tall ram-horned creature with monkey-like features, saber-tooth fangs, and batwings with a span of six meters.

With his gigantic appearance, Lord Seis became the ginormous centerpiece of the battlefield.

Lord Seis smiled sinisterly. His red glowing eyes were staring at Diwata Iraya with unfathomable hatred.

On the other hand, Diwata Iraya showed regret after seeing the transformation of Lord Seis.

This was his true appearance and not the other way around. That handsome and muscular human-like body was something he acquired after he became a Demon.

It was the appearance that Diwata Iraya was familiar with.

"Argrellius." Diwata Iraya opened her mouth. "Do we really have to end things like this?"

Diwata Iraya's voice was filled with remorse. She wished that things would have led to this situation where she was going to fight with a former Spirit. Not to mention one of her closest aides in the past.

"If only that incident did not happen."

Diwata Iraya murmured after.

"It's already late, Iraya." Lord Seis replied. "You kept siding with humans, protecting them from my vengeance. Since you kept it that way, I can only kill you!"

ROOAR!

Lord Seis opened his mouth. A beam of black energy fired towards Diwata Iraya.

On the other hand, Diwata Iraya stretched her hands forward. Like Lord Seis, she let out her own energy beam, which clashed with the enemy's Demonic Energy.

The two energies started pushing each other back, trying to overwhelm their opponent.

"Wow, a Beam-O-War."

Mark could not help but comment as he avoided the sting of the insect around him.

BANG! BANG! CLICK! SLASH!

Mei fired her sniper rifle, destroying two insects in her sight. As another tried to attack her from behind, she transformed her sniper rifle into a sword and slashed the attacker.

"Gege, focus."

Mei reprimanded Mark, who was not taking the situation seriously.

"Alright, alright."

Mark shrugged as he waved Ignis, killing several insects around him with both the slash and the sword's black flames.

It could not be helped that Mark got distracted by the display of Diwata Iraya and Lord Seis.

A Beam-O-War was a common trope in every entertainment genre. Whether it be film or literature, even video games, had a fair share of this trope.

Still, seeing the trope happen in front of your eyes was an entirely different experience. Mark, an Otaku, could not help but feel amazed, genuinely.

In any case, it was really not a time to be distracted.

Mark and Mei were currently flying around, surrounded by hundreds of insects, each oozing with poison and flying as fast as bullets.

Because of these insects, Legra alone might be able to eliminate all the Spirits and Elementals on the island. However, that was not possible with Diwata Iraya around.

Both Diwata Iraya and Lord Seis were strong enough to eliminate each other's army. However, because of the same reason, the two leaders were destined to fight each other, leaving the warriors to fight by themselves for the most part.

BOOM!

A shockwave enveloped the whole place, disrupting every battle that was happening.

The beams of energy that Diwata Iraya and Lord Seis continued to release reached their highest point and exploded.

Nonetheless, the two did not stop. Diwata Iraya took the initiative to charge forward, conjuring balls of light with her hands. As she flew, however, the gigantic arm of Lord Seis punched at her.

BAM!

The punch missed, creating a shockwave that uprooted several trees. Diwata Iraya circled around the arm and shot the balls of light towards Lord Seir's chest.

Hitting the body of Lord Sies, the balls of light exploded.

Unfortunately, aside from burnt strands of fur, the lord of Demons was unscathed.

Lord Seis, with his free left hand, tried to grab the Diwata flying in front of him. Fortunately, Diwata Iraya managed to rush under the Demon's arm and wings, circling behind his back.

WHOOM!

The sound of energy being gathered sounded and Diwata Iraya threw a ball of light larger than her body on the back of Lord Seis.

BAM!

Lord Sies' right foot caused the ground to quake as he staggered forwards because of Diwata Iraya's attack. Unfortunately, the Diwata's attack was far from enough to hurt the gigantic Demon.

***

While the two leaders fought, their minions were at a full-blown war. For the most part, they still followed the hit and run strategy that Mark told them to do. However, with the higher-ranked Demons joining the fray, skirmishes could not help but happen as the two sides clashed here and there.

BOOM!

An explosion of flames echoed inside the forest. Flames scattered as the Flame Demon fired balls of flames towards its opponent.

The Flame Demon's opponent... It was no other than the Cursed Armor, Morlkil.

Being a heavy armor, Morlkil could not dodge the balls of flames. Most of the attacks that the Flame Demon hurled at Morlkil hit the target.

However, Morlkil's body was an armor. It could not feel pain or heat. As such, it continued to charge at the Flame Demon without any shred of fear.

The Flame Demon, having low intelligence, just continuously hurled attacks at the Cursed Armor without any thought of retreating. It did not even notice that Morlkil was unaffected by its attacks.

Soon, the Flame Demon was already within the reach of the Cursed Armor's Greatsword.

And there, Morlkil unleased wide slash at the Flame Demon.

Unfortunately, the fog suddenly blurred Morlkil's vision. The Flame Demon vanished in front of it because of the veil of fog. However, the fog did not stop the Cursed Armor's charge. As if waiting for this moment, Morlkil's sword released a faint glow.

SWISH!

The sword slashed through the fog.

"ARGH!"

A pained voice echoed as the wall of fog vanished in front of Morlkil. A few meters away in front, the Flame Demon stood. Beside it was Muggur with his left arm dangling because of a wound.

"You!"

Muggur was definitely surprised at this situation. He was actually wounded while he was in his mist form.

And to respond to Muggur's anger, Morlkil, with his left hand putting the heavy sword on its shoulder, stretched his right arm forward. Pulling its fingers upwards, Muggur was provoking the Mist Demon to a fight.

***

At the sky, Mark and Mei's troubles continued. Well, it was not really called trouble in a sense. Even though the hybrid insects were flying as fast as bullets, Mark and Mei could evade them. If they were about to get hit, Mark would turn into a surge of black mist while Mei would appear somewhere else with a flash of light.

Below, Legra was already frustrated at this situation. She was controlling hundreds of her insects to kill two flying Demons. Yet, not to mention killing them, the insects could not even touch a strand of their hair. And instead, her insects were slowly being reduced by the two.

Like mosquitos clapped in flight, Legra's insects fell one by one. Whether it be Mark's sword or Mei's gun, their attacks could accurately hit their target.

Nonetheless, the situation was a bit annoying.

"There's no end to this, huh?"

Mark grumbled as he slashed three insects in one go. Well, it was not like Mark was not at fault here. He was stalling and not taking it seriously. He knew that since these insects had no thoughts of their own and were being controlled, he only needed to attack Legra below.

In any case, it was not like what Mark was doing was without purpose.

Since the start when Legra did not die from Mei's gunshot, he knew that Legra would not die easily. Thus, with his red glowing eyes, he was purposely making the old hag frustrated.

"ATTACK!"

Legra roared in frustration as she commanded her insects to all attack Mark and Mei at once.

Then, Mark's eyes lit up.

"Found you!"

Mark smiled as he turned to a surge of black mist, charging towards the grub Legra was riding on.