Mutagen

Chaaya and Huo Long Yue appeared at the southern side of Féth Fíada in the fastest speed as they could. However, they could only click their tongue in frustration as they reached the place.

It had been the second day for this thing to happen, the third day, in fact, including the time they encountered the intelligent sword.

There was someone, or something had broken in and out of the Féth Fíada. And for a mysteriously annoying reason, they could not find the culprit. Not even a trace was left behind, making them unsure of what was happening.

Not only that, but the events were disturbing their plans, horribly, and also made them fear an unknown factor interfering with the things they prepared. Furthermore, the worst thing was that every time the Féth Fíada was disturbed in this manner, the ongoing ritual was being affected. In these past days, they already had quite a few of Tuath Dé fall because of the backfire. Although they should be able to recover in about a day or two, these missing members made the gathering of energy slower and more unstable.

If this continued, the Féth Fíada might get weakened. This event was one of the things they did not want to happen.

But what could they do aside from getting frustrated? The culprit was nowhere to be found at all.

It seemed like they needed to push other measures to guard the perimeters of Féth Fíada.

***

Unbeknownst to them, the culprit was overseeing them from above.

Mark flapped his wings silently above the two enemies that Ignis described to him. Concealed from their eyes using the [Photokinesis Mental Crystal].

He was playing with the enemies at the same time that he was hunting for animals. It was rather unfortunate that both Spera and Ignis had no idea about this mist. From the looks of it, it was some sort of measure from the Inner Circle of Auraboros.

That was why he investigated it a bit yesterday. 

He managed to find the base of the enemy rather easily. It was because they did not bother to hide at all. The more or less two hundred members of Auraboros camped at the Elementary School of Daraitan.

Seeing the school made him remember the people that decided to dwell there. By the looks of it, they were all gone now as Mark could not detect other humans in distress. It was rather unfortunate. Since those people managed to get this far and live this long in this deadly apocalypse, their abilities should be above average. If some were still alive, they could be of use to the base after saving them.

Sadly, there was no way for that to happen as it was Auraboros that they were talking about. If this organization saw humans as livestock, it was even though many of their outer members and subsidiaries were humans. If they could not find a human useful or of value, it was already lucky to be turned into a slave. Dying in their hands was not unexpected. Worse, they would become food for the creatures this organization was rearing.

The base camp was found. Unfortunately, he could only observe from afar. There was a barrier around the school, which Mark did not dare try to touch. He did not know what this thing would do, but most plausibly, it was put to detect intruders. Mark did not want to disturb the enemies as it would implicate his plans, either.

Nevertheless, he managed to find out what was happening every time he or Ignis was making a hole from the mist. Unfortunately, they could not do anything about it and ended up alerting the enemy every time they get out. They could tell Spera to open a portal for them, but since the number of times she could use the Portal in a short time was limited, they better use it for emergencies.

And of course, even though it might affect the plans a bit, Mark found annoying the enemies little by little quite fun. Their frustrated faces were rather comfortable to look at. After all, these same people caused some difficulties for his people. They should also feel the same.

The only thing that Mark was quite wary was the third party.

Every time these two appear, there was a mysterious ent.i.ty tailing them. However, this ent.i.ty had no intent to meddle. Mark could feel that this ent.i.ty had already found him, and he found it too. 

After he watched the two robed figures leave in frustration, Mark turned to another direction. 

There, a white fox with three tails could be seen sitting on a branch of the tree while staring at his direction. It was even though he was still under the effect of [Optical Camouflage]. After a few seconds, the fox turned away and jumped off from the branch, following the two robed figures.

Mark wanted to know what it wanted, but it could wait for some time. Now, he went out to capture animals for a meal for the next days. These past two days, he only scoured around the mountain for animals. However, it seemed that the disturbance in the mountain scared away the animals leaving a few ones.

The worst thing, however, was that he found many mutated infected wandering in the mountains. It was not surprising. The Féth Fíada was like a vortex gathering magical energy. 

And the infected found this kind of energy very attractive. With the amount of energy gathered, it could even attract the more sensitive infected from miles away.

Furthermore, after another month, the infected sure have mutated further.

Many of them already left their humanlike figures from before, turning into total monsters. There were still parts that told that they were previously human. However, without those parts, no one would be able to notice at all.

This time, Mark decided to fly rather far away, probably, near the east coast. Some seafood might be a good thing to eat, considering that they only had animal meat these past three days. The amount of fruit and vegetables they had in store was also dwindling. Unfortunately, Mark could not gather an amount that would be able to satisfy everyone. After all, he had other things to do.

As Mark neared the MarkinInfanta Highway, he had to stop. It was because he saw something rather interesting.

An infected was walking down the slope of the road. Like the other infected, Mark saw that were roaming on the mountains, this was highly disfigured. It was definitely a [Predator Type] infected.

The infected still had a human torso. However, its limbs only had the first segments left. From the elbows and knees, there were no arms or legs. Instead, there were two pairs of scythe-shaped blades made of white bones covered in bloodstains. It ran fast in all fours in a manner like a c.o.c.kroach. It wiggled its body away while running because of the lack of joints on its bladed limbs.

As for its mouth, more than half of its face had been torn apart, allowing its jaws to open up inhumanly wide. Green slightly acidic saliva dripped off from its mouth.

These kinds of infected roamed the mountains now.

To Mark"s measure, many infected had already reached the standard of being a [Level 3 Mutation]. It was the measure used back in Eriellis to measure the strength and capabilities of the infected.

The worst thing, however, on that planet Freed and Aephelia came from, [Level 3 Mutations] only appeared after two years of the outbreak. It meant that the Mutation of the Infected was too fast on Earth for some reason.

Luckily, Mark already made a base in the mountains where the infected found it quite hard to climb. With these infected around, the settlements and survivor bases near the cities should be having a hard time.

Another good thing was that compared to the infected in Eriellis, the infected on Earth was far dumber. The psychic infected had slower growth, but their intelligence was rather high, being able to build enclaves and such after some reached [Level 4]. As for the infected here on Earth, despite their [Level 3] strength, it looked like that their minds only evolved to the same level of predatory animals.

If it was not the case, Earth would definitely be doomed without being able to prepare. Even the organization called Auraboros would not have a good time dealing with the Psychic Infected.

Mark landed near the infected, causing it to notice him immediately. Without pause, the infected charged towards him. His visage then vanished into a black mist, appearing and disappearing at several intervals.

When he appeared standing behind the infected, it fell down. It was not dead yet but was restrained by black metal that restricted the movements of its body. It tried to create loud noises as it tried to wriggle out of its restraints. However, Mark had already appeared in front of it with his [Blood Whip] covering its mouth. The blood then turned into metal blocking its mouth.

Mark checked the thing he caught. This was not for food, of course. He was preparing to deal with the incoming enemies. This infected might not be intelligent but would definitely cause a ruckus if released into the ranks of the enemies.

He was not worried that once it was released, it would attack his base. The infected were attracted to magical energy, after all. It would prioritize the enemies that had much of it than his people that were mostly humans hiding behind the walls.

This infected was not the first one he caught. In fact, there were more than a dozen already.

All of these infected were being trapped outside the walls in the east area. That part was yet to be removed and was still filled with trees. Using the abilities of the Tikbalangs were proven useful there. Furthermore, it would be used to direct the infected Mark caught towards the enemies.

Leaving the newly caught infected in a secure place, Mark continued on his way. He also pa.s.sed by the area where he could see the New Infanta Settlement from afar.

Because of the fog, they had lost contact with the outside world, including radio transmissions. The military there might already be worried, but who told them to worry? Mark was confident that he could deal with the situation. It was just, it was not the right time to serve the dishes yet.

Mark soon reached the Port of Real, the former military settlement here in Quezon Province.

Sure enough, there was nothing but ruins here. Mark managed to see a group of survivors who seemed to be scavenging, but it looked like that their search was rather bad.

Ignoring the group, Mark landed by the port. He pretended to look around the water to see if there was something that he could catch.

However, there was no need to look. A giant evolved eel, about ten meters in length, jumped out of the water. Its two-meter diameter mouth opened up to devour Mark, whole.

 That caused a commotion that alerted the survivors nearby. As the eel jumped several meters in the air, the survivors immediately ran away, thinking that the monster might see them. They did not notice Mark at all.

And then, the eel fell. Dead.

Ignis flew from Mark"s back, stabbing the eel on its forehead midair.

"Now, how am I going to carry this?"

Mark murmured. Even the gemstone Mei traded from Bathala would not be able to store this monster.

In any case, he caught something worth several days of food for the whole base. That was what mattered for now.

***

Two days later, after the frustration cat and mouse events for Chaaya and Huo Long Yue, what they were waiting for finally arrived.

At the center of their camp, the energy was disturbed. Then, black colored lightning cracked the s.p.a.ce open. A very unstable Portal appeared.

Several figures appeared through the Portal, and everyone, including Chaaya and Huo Long Yue, prostrated in respect.