Mutagen

Day 152 - 12:25 AM - Mountain Farming Village, Barangay Mabini, Municipality of Viga, Catanduanes

The Lord of Demons in Catanduanes was killed. The only thing left was to clean the remaining filth on this island.

However, Mark was not in the mood or state to do all that immediately.

Amidst the destroyed battlefield, Mark sat with his back on ruined debris.

His energy was drained, and his body had yet to fully heal. It seemed that his injuries were too heavy for his absurd regeneration rate to take quite a lot of time to heal him.

And to say, it was not wrong. If anyone else was in Mark's current state, they would have died at the moment they received such injuries. The fortunate thing was that Mark's main ability as a Mutator was his blood. Even with his severe injuries, he would not get heavy internal bleeding and would still circulate his blood as much as he could. He would not suffer from unintended blood loss either.

What Mark did was another suicidal move. Even so, there was no other choice if they wanted to end the fight quickly and stop Lord Seis from escaping unscathed.

Well, Lord Seis still managed to escape. However, he was in the state where a single stab from Ignis managed to take his life.

Mark's self-inflicted injuries were not for naught.

Nonetheless, Mei and Amihan surely hated to see Mark in this state. It could not be helped, though. It was the only way.

Besides, Mark succeeded in killing the greatest threat.

At the side, Diwata Iraya, Berrak, and Morlkil were standing guard. At Mark's current state, it was better not to move him around too much. They already saw his absurd healing ability and knew that they only needed to wait for a bit longer.

"This guy is not turning to dust, huh?"

Mark said, turning his head to the body of Lord Seis lying on the ground.

"It likely would not." Diwata Iraya shook her head. "He became a Demon with a refined body. Besides, before he was a Demon, he is a Manangilaw. He is not a creature that had a body made of magical energy."

That was true. After hearing the story from Diwata Iraya, it was not surprising that Lord Seis' body would not turn to dust, unlike others.

Sadly, though...

It was very likely that his wife and child's bodies were used for more experimentation after their deaths. It was not even surprising if their skins were preserved and stuffed with things to display somewhere.

"What are we going to do with this body, though? Bury it?"

Mark asked.

"Wait!" Berrak interjected. "This might be disrespectful to the dead, but we should at least get his blood. The blood of near Deityhood Demon will be a lot useful in many things."

"Don't think that it's disrespectful." Mark turned to Berrak. "His story might be pitiful, but he's still an enemy. Even if he chopped him to pieces and feed his guts to animals, no one will question us because of the things he did."

Mark's words made Diwata Iraya nod slightly. Compared to everyone here, she was the one who knew most of the things that happened on this island. And to say, what Mark said was already light considering the sins that Lord Seis committed.

Forcing humans to turn into Demons.

Making countless children into Feral Demons and spreading them throughout the island.

Using human females as breeders for their Demonic Creatures.

There was a lot more.

But even so, humans were the ones that started everything. That was a fact that no one would be able to deny.

And to say...

Diwata Iraya had a part in it too since she was one of the reasons Lord Seis, no, Argrellius, embraced the inheritance of the previous Lord of Demons.

While Mark was talking about the body, Mei and Amihan were a bit confused.

Normally, before talking about disposing of the body, Mark would, without a word, try to see if he could get something out of the body using the [PsyCrystal]. Yet, he had not done so.

It was strange.

The two were about to ask Mark about it when they saw Mark having his index finger in front of his lips while looking at them.

Mark was telling them not to ask anything. At least, not for now.

"Then, take his blood," Mark told Berrak and then asked. "Would his body have no other uses?"

"We better dispose of it, really," Berrak answered while scratching his head. "If possible, we should burn it to ashes than burying it."

"Hmm?"

Mark tilted his head in askance.

"Just burying it might give access to insects and animals to eat his remains," Berrak explained. "A body of a Demon in his stage will likely turn animals into Feral and Demonic ones. It can also cause a Poisonous Miasma to scatter in the surroundings while his body rotted. And to say... his body will not rot for decades. That's more than enough to turn half of this island into a land of death. Magical methods of disposing of a body as this exists. Some Chinese guys can use this body to make some kind of pills. There are also burial methods that used sealing magic."

"And you knew none of those."

Mark stated the fact, and Berrak could only nod.

"You can all leave the burial to me." Diwata Iraya spoke. "I can purify his remains and put guards into the burial site. It will prevent Poisonous Miasma from appearing and avoid animals from eating his body."

Berrak turned to the Diwata, scratching his head. How could he forget that they had someone with pure-nature inclined magical energy?

"Then, we'll leave it to you once we're done with his body," Mark said to Diwata Iraya before turning to Berrak. "You should start draining his blood already."

"Yes!"

Berrak replied with an excited look. He never had the opportunity to get valuable material like this for his entire life. There was no way that he would not be happy.

As Mark already gave permission, Berrak then bit his hand, letting it bleed. He then drew some magical patterns on the body of Lord Seis.

Everyone watched him with askance. Berrak was only supposed to get blood from the dead body. What was he doing?

Sensing everyone's gaze, Berrak explained further.

"It's some magic that will drain blood from the body without waiting for a long time. Usually, I use this to drain blood from animals when I'm staying on a mountain."

It was not surprising. Berrak was a summoner that needed to contract magical animals. He would spend a lot of time in the mountains, and he had to provide himself food for sustenance. The meat of animals not drained of their blood had a bad stench and was not too tasty to eat.

As Berrak explained, he began to chant.

And then, the magic circle he drew began to glow.

Like what Berrak explained, blood began to seep out of the pores on the dead body. It began to float above the magic circle.

However, while concentrating, it seemed that Berrak was being drained of his energy too.

"Sh*t. Draining blood from this guy is too hard. I will have to do this several times!"

As it appeared. Berrak was having a hard time. It was a body of a near Deityhood Demon, after all. Not just some animal he hunted in the mountains. The difference between the strength of Berrak and Lord Seis made it hard for the Berrak to do his job.

While Berrak was doing his intended work, Mark suddenly glanced to the side of his eyes. He did not move his head, but it appeared that he was paying attention to the direction behind him.

Finally, Mark showed a relaxed expression.

"Darn, they finally left," Mark said. "Aren't they satisfied with me using Miasma. It looks like they wanted to know more. They should mind their own business. No, I guess this is business to them."

"Gege?" Mei tilted her head. "There is someone watching?"

Mei then looked around. Her eyes dilated. She was definitely zooming in her sight in the general direction that Mark paid attention to.

"Don't look anymore. They already left."

Mark patted her head.

"Enemies?"

Amihan asked.

"Not entirely." Mark shrugged. "Right now, trading partners, I think."

Everyone was confused about what Mark was talking about. However, it was clear that someone was watching during all this time.

Mark took a deep breath. For now, there was no threat left to pay attention to. It would have been fine if it was Val Flora that was watching in the shadows. However, although Mark recognized the presence of that guy watching them, he never saw him in person. It would be hard to gauge his intentions for watching the battle. However, it would be bad if Mark made a move on that guy. After all, it was one of Val Flora's companions on this island.

Without the threat, Mark finally did his work.

Berrak took out a glass bottle from his backpack. He then let the floating blood of Lord Seis enter the bottle, filling a third of it. Berrak then took a break. He was drained of his magical energy.

After Berrak went out of the way, Mark began to use the [PsyChristal] on the guy.

Everyone watched the spectacle of the energy of Lord Seis being sucked into Mark's wrist.

Unexpectedly, everyone felt a heavy pressure when Mark began.

Sure enough. Lord Seis was not entirely dead. It was only his body that died. But the inheritance of the Lord of Demons prevented him from passing on entirely. Although it was in a state of dormant sleep, his soul was still trapped inside his body.

"Tsk." Mark clicked his tongue. "It's good that I did this. If we just let his body get buried like this, he might get up again in the future."

It might be where the stories of Lords of Demons being sealed after their death came about. It was because it was not an actual death, and they might rise again in the future if they were only buried normally.

And in this state, burning the body was out of the question. It might end up turning Lord Seis into a Demonic Ghost in the future, waiting for another creature to receive the inheritance of the Lord of Demons.

However, it was the end of this chain. It was because of the existence of the [Psycrystal].

The magical energy was being drained by Mark, causing a small storm. Sure enough, the energy from a near Deityhood being was immense.

CRACKLE!

As Mark squeezed out the last bit of energy from the body, the [PsyCrystal] let out an electrifying sound.

A crystal was formed, floating in front of Mark. It was a clear-colored crystal. However, the orb inside it was pitch black, causing the crystal to reflect the same color.

Furthermore, it had an ominous aura around it. It was an ability reflecting the strength of Lord Seis and his previous predecessors.

In any case, this ability was not Mark's.

With a smile, Mark grabbed the crystal. Unexpectedly, it struggled in Mark's grasp. It was not the first time that a crystal behaved like it had a will of its own.

The first was when Mark took the ability to call storms. The second was when he took the ability of the Oracle.

This was the third time.

The crystal was struggling violently. Mark, who was still injured, was having a hard time not letting it go.

Thus, Mark tried to subdue it by force.

Miasma covered the hand that was grasping the crystal. Unexpectedly, it reacted. It stopped behaving violently. Instead, it shivered fiercely inside Mark's palm.

The crystal was afraid of Miasma.

"Don't struggle anymore if you don't want to vanish from existence."

Mark threatened. 

Unexpectedly, the crystal stopped resisting as if it understood Mark's threat. Before it actually tried to escape once more, Mark stored it inside the [PsyCrystal].

As Mark did, the ties between the crystal and Lord Seis were severed. From the dead body of Lord Seis, a greenish orb of light floated before vanishing.

The soul of Lord Seis was freed, enabling him to reunite with his family in the afterlife.

Was it a good ending?

Not exactly.

CRACK!!!

Suddenly, the sound of glass cracking was heard from above.

Everyone was alarmed and looked up.

"Sh*t."

Mark could not help but curse.

It might have been a bit late. However, it seemed that the battle here caused the Dimension Barrier to collapse a bit. They could see holes in the sky.

But then...

A familiar childish voice echoed.

"What the heck is happening here! It's not time for this yet!!!"

An eight-year-old-looking girl bellowed in the sky. Her three vertical eyes were not something that Mark, Mei, and Amihan would forget. But then, they noticed that she was not alone. Beside her was a familiar old man, wearing old Filipino traditional clothes.

Sure enough, the three were surprised.

Why in the world was Bathala together with Fourth, The Embodiment of Amusement?