Mutagen

Day 151 - 11:55 PM - Mountain Farming Village, Barangay Mabini, Municipality of Viga, Catanduanes

Muggur cautiously stared at Mark and Mei. These two Demons appearing here was never a good thing for him.

He wanted to flee.

As a Mist Demon, Muggur had the confidence to be able to escape this deadly situation. He could turn into mist and scatter as if he had never been in this place at all.

Well, that was only if the illusory chains on his ankle were never there.

Muggur was careless when he fought Morlkil. He thought that it was just an ordinary armor that gained sentience. What he did not know... Morlkil was a set of armor worn by a torturer during medieval times.

It was an armor bathed with blood, filled with agony and suffering.

Because of how Morlkil accumulated these emotion-filled energies, it gained this ability. It was a chain that would tie its enemies and slowly drain them of their ability to resist. It was a chain that would not let go of the target unless Morlkil wanted to or if the target died.

There was also another way to dispel these chains. It was when Morlkil's magical energy reserves were emptied. If that happened, Morlkil might also die. Cursed Items became alive and gained sentience due to accumulated energy, and losing all of it could cause its soul to perish. However, it was the most unlikely thing to happen. After all, Morlkil's magical energy was being replenished by the chains.

In other words, there was no escaping these chains.

Of course, there was no way for Muggur and the Flame Demon to know all these things. The two struggled to fight the invincible Morlkil, not knowing that their fates were already sealed.

It might be a long battle since Muggur and the Flame Demon had a lot of magical energy. The two were high-ranked Demons, after all. Nonetheless, they would die soon.

Mark and Mei also did not know that fact. That was why they appeared here to eliminate the possible threat.

When Mark declared his and Mei's arrival, he could not help but turn to Morlkil. Although the Cursed Armor could not talk, he could sense its emotional fluctuations. It actually wanted Mark and Mei to leave and help the others.

It was not hard for Mark to see what was going on. Even though it looked like they were in a stalemate, he could feel the frustration of the Mist Demon in this battle.

And to Morlkil's emotion, Mark shook his head.

"I understand that you can handle this on your own and want us to leave. But we're running out of time."

Mark then took out a phone from his ring and showed the screen to Morlkil, pointing at the time.

They only had five minutes left before midnight.

Morlkil looked at the phone with confusion. It did not understand what Mark was pointing at. After all, there was no way that a cursed armor would learn to read modern human time measurement. In any case, Morlkil understood when Mark said that they were already running out of time.

Thus, Morlkil's empty helmet nodded at Mark.

Muggur, on the other hand, realized that he only needed to stall for time. It was almost midnight. When the clock struck twelve, he would gain more power and possibly, release himself from the illusory chain.

Thus, there was only one thing that Muggur could do.

With a wave of his hand, his figure vanished.

Muggur turned himself into a fog that enveloped the area. The chain was still connected to him, however. It showed the position of the magical energy that was used to materialize his feet. Nonetheless, there was no way for attacks to hit him since his physical body was nonexistent.

The Mist Demon thought he was safe in this form, leaving the Flame Demon to fend for itself.

Mark looked around. It was kind of hard to see the surroundings because of the thick fog. Not only that it obscured everyone's vision, but it also applied some sort of illusion.

It made Mark remember the time they encountered Muggur for the first time when they entered Bato. The fog that enveloped them separated the refugees from his group at that time.

As it appeared, Muggur was trying to do the same. However, it seemed that because his magical energy was spent fighting Morlkil, it was visibly weaker.

Looking around, almost everything was blurry. Mark could not even see too far outside the forest.

This situation, however, made Mark smile.

"Mei'er, deal with that flame guy. But don't kill him. Removing his arms and legs will do."

"Yes."

Mei replied with a nod. Turning her sniper rifle into a sword, her figure flashed towards the struggling Flame Demon.

The Flame Demon felt the sudden danger and turned away from Morlkil. It was when it saw Mei charging at it with her sword. Panicked, the Flame Demon conjured dozens of fist-sized balls of flame. Each ball shot towards Mei at fast speeds consecutively.

Mei's eyes dilated. In front of her, the scene where dozens of fireballs approaching her slowed down.

With a flash of bright light, Mei disappeared before appearing amidst the balls of flames. As the first shots flew past her, the next ones were about to hit her. That was when Mei swung her sword in front, slicing the balls of flame in half.

[Flash Move], then slash. It repeated several times. The range of Mei's teleport-like ability was short. Thus, she could only do it several times until she reached the enemy.

While charging at the Flame Demon, Mei realized that the fog in the surroundings was getting unsteady and wild. However, she did not pay much attention since it was the Flame Demon who was her target.

Seeing that Mei was still unscathed despite the barrage of flames it was firing, the Flame Demon became desperate. It conjured more and more balls of flames of different sizes and shot while retreating backward.

Unfortunately, its movement could not contend with Mei's speed. It did not take long and Mei was already in front of it.

In a last-ditch effort, the Flame Demon summoned a wall of flames in front of it to stop Mei for a bit. It then turned around to escape.

But then, what it saw when it turned around was Mei, halfway through a vertical slash of her sword from above.

"GRROOOAAARR!!!"

The Flame Demon's gargling voice of pain echoed as its left arm was lopped off.

Of course, it did not end there.

Mei followed the initial attack with two more slashes.

BAM!

The limbless torso of the Flame Demon fell to the ground. Instead of blood, oozing flames leaked out of its cut-off stumps.

Of course, the Flame Demon was in a lot of pain. Despite that, it tried to squirm around. Its instinct for survival was kicking in. If it was left like this, it would be able to roll its body away. Well, it would not be able to. The chain that was tied to its bisected limb disappeared before appearing on its neck. There was no way for it to escape.

In any case, it would be troublesome if it managed to roll and squirm to a certain distance. As such, Mei took out two unused swords from her ring. Without hesitation, she stabbed the two shoulders of the Flame Demon and pinned it to the ground.

Mei was done with her work. She then turned to Mark.

Mark stood not far from her. He was stepping on something. It was no one else but Muggur.

***

Mark was hiding his cards as much as possible. And among his cards, the thing he was hiding the most was his Miasma. After all, not everyone was capable of sensing it and could be used as his trump card.

The environment that Muggur created, allowed Mark to freely use his Miasma without the enemies seeing him. And the worst of the situation, it was one of the things that were the most effective on the Mist Demon.

Mark waved his hands. A thin veil of Miasma began to mix with the fog.

Suddenly, the fog became chaotic.

Mark snickered. Although there was no voice, Mark could feel that Muggur was screaming in pain.

Muggur was a Mist Demon. It was a kind of Formless Demon and had a body made up of energy. For something with a body like that, Miasma was the worst thing they could come in contact with, especially the kind of Miasma that Mark controlled.

The fog began to disperse. Muggur was losing control of his own body and began to scatter. If he did not gather this body, he would disperse for eternity.

Thus, Muggur was forced to recreate his physical body, only to fall under Mark's foot.

Unlike before, Muggur's body was incomplete. His arms and legs were not even fully fleshed out. It was the effect of Miasma on Muggur. Parts of his body were eaten away in the short time that he was exposed to the Miasma that Mark released.

"H-How..."

Muggur voiced out. He was already out of energy to retaliate.

The illusory chain of Morlkil drained a lot of his magical energy. Mark's Miasma was even worse.

What Muggur could not understand was how Mark was able to use Miasma while being a Demon with a flesh body.

Looking at Muggur, whose chest was being stepped on, Mark raised his right hand in front of him. The thin veil of Miasma in the surroundings swirled, making a surge of black smoke above Mark's palm. Then, the smoke entered Mark's hand and vanished.

"Sorry, but not telling."

Mark said as he crouched down and grabbed Muggur's head.

Muggur struggled, but it was already futile.

Mark concentrated, and the [Psycrystal] on his wrist began to glow brightly.

"AAAAHHH!!!!"

Muggur panicked. He struggled in fear.

What Mark was doing was far worse than just killing him.

Muggur's body was made up of magical energy. And, of course, it was something that the [Psycrystal] could absorb.

Continuing to struggle, Muggur's body became more and more transparent.

A few seconds later, Muggur vanished without a trace.

The only thing left of Muggur was a crystal that popped out of the [Psycrystal].

When Mark saw the crystal, he was genuinely delighted.

Mark expected some sort of attributed elemental crystal. After all, that was the most common product when Mark was absorbing magical energies from Spirits, Elementals, and Demons.

Yet, the crystal from Muggur was as large as a marble and actually had a misty glowing orb inside it.

It was a magical ability crystal. Of course, there was no way that Mark would not be happy at this unexpected harvest. As for the old hag, it only gave him a blackish red-colored crystal. It was even small. That was why Mark did not expect too much.

On the side, Morlkil looked at Mark with both amazement and fear. Amazed because Mark took care of Muggur fast and without problems. Nonetheless, it was afraid since it was unable to understand how Mark did it.

Well, Mark did his best to hide his Miasma, after all. Only Muggur understood what happened to him.

Not paying attention to Morlkil, Mark approached Mei and her prey. As Mark arrived, he gave the finishing blow on the Flame Demon and absorbed the remnant energy from its body. Unfortunately, all he managed to get was a flame attribute crystal. Well, it was already a good thing since it was a rare item. 

There were only a few fire element magical creatures that they encountered since the start.

BOOOM!!!

Suddenly, a loud boom echoed. Mark and Mei could not help but turn their heads towards the direction it came from.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

That was when they heard the boisterous laugh of Lord Seis.

"It looks like there are only a few of my people are left. How frustrating."

Although Lord Seis said that, he did not appear or sounded frustrated at all.

"It did not matter." Lord Seis declared. "I will make use of their sacrifices!"

Lord Seis roared. The black sky turned red. The surroundings felt eerie.

It was when everyone realized...

Midnight had struck.