Mutagen

Day 368 - 5:58 PM - Pudakpajung, Banyumanik, Semarang City, Central Java, Indonesia

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

A loud laughter rang from within the cloud of dust The Great One crashed into.

The cloud of dust began to move strangely. Some of it suddenly disappeared while some particles seemingly melted. It was as if the cloud of dust was under the influence of intense heat.

As the cloud of dust cleared up, it revealed The Great One, laughing in amusement with right hand clasping his forehead while looking up to the sky.

"This is it! Hahahaha!!!"

The Great One continued to laugh. The surroundings around him were getting blurry due to the heat emitted by Shin's body he controlled.

And then, with an audible crack of his neck, as he ended his laugh, multitudes of fireballs appeared around The Great One.

Each fireball was just the size of a fist. However, there should be more than a thousand of these fireballs appearing within an instant.

Mark stared at The Great One without any emotion in his being. Due to him using all his abilities simultaneously, many of the functions deemed unnecessary for this battle ceased. Even the reflex emotional functions he usually showed vanished.

At this moment, Mark was nothing but a fighting machine.

Without a care in the world, The Great One rained his fireballs toward Mark. A destructive rain of fire that could burn entire towns and cities. Each fireball shot at the speed of a bullet, only leaving an instant trail as they flew.

Mark met the incoming attack with his purplish glare. The scene before his eyes blurred as it showed the attacks coming within an instant into the future. He then began dodging the fireballs with minimal movements. Even so, he could feel the extreme heat each fireball contained as they passed close to his body.

If it continued like this, even if he dodged all the fireballs, he would still be melted by the heat alone.

As such, Mark began emitting [Miasma] to cover the surface of his entire body. The [Miasma] came out of his body, slowly creeping to cover it like a symbiote. When the [Miasma] covered the surfaces of his body, armor, and weapon, Mark began looking like a dark creature from the abyss, especially with his eyes glowing purple.

On the other hand, the two other Deities could only frown. Since The Great One stopped caring about the surroundings, even his supposed allies became invisible in his eyes. As such, the two Deities could only fly away since they were also within the scope of The Great One's attack.

***

"Barbaric, as always."

The Deity of Soul Sacrifice remarked as he watched The Great One's attacks after moving some distance away.

"That is just the part of his charm, in a way," The Deity of Warped Beauty responded to the other Deity's remark. "Aren't you going to join in?"

"I'd rather not," The Deity of Soul Sacrifice answered. "I am no combatant. I am an [Alchemist]. I would rather chase after my creation that fled."

"I already told you. This thing surrounding us is preventing me from leaving," The Deity of Warped Beauty shrugged. "If you want to leave early, either you do something about this [Miasma], or you help defeat that kid."

"Impossible," The alchemist shook his head. "I never thought that a mere Pureblood Demon could trap us Deities. But what is more surprising is that this dome of [Miasma] had traces of [Authority]. It is why we are powerless about it."

"Oh?" The Deity of Warped Beauty was surprised. "Are you sure?"

"There is no doubt," The Deity of Soul Sacrifice nodded. "I had to dabble with it while pursuing my goals. I needed the knowledge if I wanted to create a God. I did manage to create an artificial [Authority] for my creation through sacrifices. But I never expect a mere Demon to be able to have his own [Authority]. Even us Deities did not have it."

"I see," The androgynous Deity hummed in understanding. "Then Greaty is telling the truth, huh?"

"What truth?"

The Deity of Soul Sacrifice asked.

"Well, we did not have the ability to see it," The Deity of Warped Beauty said as he pointed at Mark. "But Greaty said that guy is detached from fate. He has the potential to become a God. And so is his wife. This is the major reason Greaty is interested in them."

After hearing the words of the Deity of Warped Beauty, the Deity of Soul Sacrifice stared at Mark with indescribable intent.

Several thousand years. It took the Deity of Soul Sacrifice that long to become a Deity after failing to try and become a God. He then took another several thousand years to the present to create a Goddess, which ended as something flawed.

He sacrificed countless souls, he nearly wiped out all magical creatures and races in this country, and he lost count of all the lives he took in order to reach his goals.

And now, he learned that a mere Demon at an extremely young age had the potential to become something he could not... It was intolerable.

"Hoh?" The Deity of Warped Beauty looked at the other Deity. "Is it envy that I sense? Why not join the fight, then? We can ask Greaty to have you study the body."

"You and your manipulative tactics," The Deity of Soul Sacrifice glared. "But let's say I fell for it this time."

"Finally."

The Deity of Warped Beauty muttered as he watched the Deity of Soul Sacrifice fly towards the battle.

***

The countless rain of fireballs seemed to have no end. Worse, The Great One was purposedly doing it to watch how Mark would last.

There was no winning in only dodging. Waiting for the enemy to use up all their energy was not applicable in this situation.

That was why...

SWOOOOSH!

Mark began moving forward.

Turning into a surge of mist, Mark began swerving across the rain of fireballs.

Seeing that, The Great One excitedly smiled as he waved his hand, sending a surging burst of flames. A tsunami of fire, to be exact. Even in his mist form, there was no way Mark would be able to dodge that without retreating.

Mark exited the mist's subspace to swiftly change his trajectory. It was one of the weaknesses of [Shadow Mist Movement]. While shifting directions was possible in limited angles, abruptly changing to the opposite direction was impossible without exiting the ability.

But as Mark was about to kick the air and flap his wings, Mark's attention shifted as he detected the Deity of Soul Sacrifice coming closer.

Mark then felt a strong pushing force from behind him. The attack was invisible and near impossible to detect, especially in the current situation where most of his attention was on avoiding the fireballs from The Great One.

Without any way to immediately defend against the pushing force, Mark was directly plunged into the tsunami of fire.

"HNNGH!!!"

Mark gritted his teeth as the heat of the flames penetrated the film of [Miasma] covering his body. It even tore through some part of the [Miasma], melting his armor and skin. There was no doubt. The Great One's flames released using Shin's body were far worse than the attacks the barely recovered Gar'Vlam released in Japan.

Experiencing the sensation of getting plunged into a volcano, Mark's [Miasma] surged out, creating another sphere to swallow everything within its wake.

In the blink of an eye, the tsunami of fire vanished, swallowed by the murky darkness of Mark's [Miasma].

And just like before, as if struggling to break free, the sphere unstably shrunk, revealing Mark with his armor melted here and there and parts of his skin scorched black.

"Haahhh."

Mark let out a sigh as blood tentacles began poking out of his skin which sliced off the charred parts one after another, letting his unnatural regeneration speed heal the damage to his body.

And Marks swiftly turned to the side, glaring at the Deity of Soul Sacrifice. The first damage he received was not because of The Great One's persistent attacks but because he was pushed by something. There was only one here who could do such.

It was the [Telekinesis] that the Deity of Soul Sacrifice had.

But before Mark could make a retaliation, The Great One shouted.

"Why are you interfering?"

"You are taking too long. Stop playing."

The Deity of Soul Sacrifice complained, hiding his true intentions.

Mark shrugged. He was not here to hear his enemies banter.

That was why...

Wind exploded behind Mark as he kicked his right foot in the air. He immediately appeared behind the Deity of Soul Sacrifice and sliced his sword horizontally.

CLANG!

The sword let out a sound as it hit an invisible obstacle.

"How tactless."

The Deity of Soul Sacrifice remarked as he glanced at Mark over his shoulder.

"You have no right to say that since you did it first."

Mark responded before black flames exploded out of his sword, trying to swallow the Deity in front of its blade.

"Tsk."

The Deity of Soul Sacrifice retreated. Even his [Telekinesis] would not protect him from such an attack. However, as he retreated, he opened the cloak he wore, revealing a seemingly deep abyss inside.

And from that abyss, creatures emerged.

An eyeball with bat wings and octopus tentacles.

A bird with goat eyes and human lips.

A dragonfly with an infant's head, beetle's limbs, and a lizard's tail.

A moth with a monkey face, squid tentacles, and a pregnant human woman's torso.

Many such abominations came out of the abyss within the Deity of Soul Sacrifice's robes. These were the results of his countless experiments throughout his life. The trials and errors before he created the vessel for his goddess. And now, minions that would lay their lives at his behest.

It was the true terror of the Alchemist Deity. He was neither a religious leader nor a [Telekinetic] practitioner. He was the creator of abominations. These were not [Chimeras] born from fusing parts of the bodies of different creatures. These were creatures created by fusing DNA and tweaking it. From their embryo to their adulthood, these creatures had these abominable bodies.

These were the so-called [Experiemental Homonculus]. Unlike [Chimeras], whose bodies did not seem to blend together, these creatures were different. While having body parts that seemed to have come from different creatures, traits were shared among them.

The eyeball and its body parts had similar skin texture. The moth's body was covered in thin hairs. It was the same for the others. They might look like abominations, but at the least, their bodies did not look like forcibly stitched together.

Even so, it did not make them any less horrifying and disgusting to look at.

"My creations! Confront the foe before me and attack!"

With that command, the creatures all stared at Mark. The feeling of being stared down by hundreds of these stomach-churning monsters gave Mark quite a chill on his back.

"Tch!" A tongue's click was heard on the other side. "I already said not to interfere. Do not say I did not warn you."

The Great One then flicked his fingers. Countless fireballs emerged around him once more. However, there was something different this time. The fireballs did not look like they were just flames. They had a seemingly near-solid but liquid-like core. It was like they were fireballs made of lava or magma.

A rain of [Magma Spheres] and an army of [Experimental Homonculi]. Mark found himself in quite a dangerous predicament.

It seemed that fighting two Deities at the same time was far more difficult than what Mark imagined.

In contrast, fighting with the weakened Gar'Vlam and the newly awakened Yamata-no-Orochi was far easier. And back then, Mark was not alone. He had others fighting with him.

Now, Mark had to tackle this situation by himself.

"I brought this to myself, don't I?"

Mark murmured.

"Are you going to give up?"

A familiar voice echoed inside Mark's mind. It was not Magwayen, of course. It was the mysterious voice that would often appear when Mark went all out with his everything.

This voice never felt unfamiliar to Mark, even though he did not know whose voice it exactly was. But it was not like he had no idea.

Nonetheless, it was not the time.

"Why would I?" Mark answered. "I haven't lost or anything yet. We're just beginning."

Mark took a deep breath. His fighting spirit soared. The markings on his body glowed and expanded. The aura of death loomed around him, surprising even the three Deities.

It was as if the Grim Reaper himself had arrived.