Mutagen



Day 341 - 2:13 PM - Ruins of Harumi, Reclaimed City, Ruins of Tokyo

With the hostilities temporarily ceased, everyone watched the scene outside the barrier unfold.

It might not be the best situation for those who have fallen unconscious due to the presence of the Godly beings that appeared. After all, they were all lying there in the open. However, for the same reason they fell asleep, they were safe. With their arrival, the likelihood of Ariake facing demise in the current situation lowered drastically.

And now, everyone could only stand alert while they watched Mark fight the Serpent God in an otherworldly battle.

***

Outside the barrier, the world was shaking violently.

ROOOOOARRRR!!!

Filled with anger and urgency, the Serpent God roared another stream of elemental attacks against its persistent enemy. It decimated more than half of the tentacles trying to besiege it. A beam of light even tore through the main body of the Giant Blob.

However, the Giant Blob showed no reaction. Its red eyes and drooling mouth faced the Serpent God without any change in expression.

Worse, new tentacles replaced the destroyed ones, shooting from the tainted waters toward the sky and the Serpent God.

Once again, the Serpent God faced hundreds of tentacles around it.

ROOOOAARRR!!!

The Serpent God let out another roar. The magical storm surged violently.

With the increased ferocity of the magical storm, its blowing winds felt like countless swords swirling all around the battlefield.

Ariake's barrier flickered as it clashed with the stronger force from the empowered magical storm. With Amaterasu's instructions, the Priestess, with her remaining powers, enhanced the barrier far more efficiently than before.

Despite the Priestess' dwindling magical energy, the barrier stabilized as it shielded everyone from the blade-like winds from outside.

But the same could not be said for the Giant Blob.

The enhanced magical storm cut its tentacles to pieces. Here and there, the Giant Blob's main body slowly chipped apart.

However, the Giant Blob showed no change in its expression. The magical storm tore its mouth and cut off one of its eyes, but it only wobbled there, staring at the Serpent God.

Its eyes were on nothing else but the Serpent God.

The Serpent God was feeling more and more distraught. As a ferocious beast itself, it knew one rule that animals in any universe and realm would know by instinct.

A predator would never take its eyes away from its prey.

Right now, the Serpent God was no predator. In the eyes of the Giant Blob, it was the prey.

The Serpent God stared back at the Giant Blob in anger.

As a Godly Being and a predatory beast, it could not accept being the prey.

ROOOOARR!!!

The Serpent God soared in the sky, finally free from the siege of the tentacles. It immediately flew in a spiral before its heads, even the injured ones, opened their mouths at a certain point in front of them.

Eight elemental energies converged at one point, creating a white ball of energy that flickered with vibrant colors. Its creation began affecting the world itself as auroras appeared in the sky while violent waves covered the waters.

As the energies gathered, the world began shaking violently. It was not only Japan. Even the nearby countries began to feel the effects of the Serpent God's wrath.

The white sphere flickered with vibrant lights. It was beautiful. However, no one should underestimate its destructiveness.

Inside the barrier, Amaterasu frowned. The incoming attack was nowhere near something the current barrier should be able to defend against. They need to further enhance the barrier at this moment. However, the Priestess was already reaching the bottom of her magical energy reserves.

But as everyone worried about the situation, something unexpected happened.

BOOOM!

The Giant Blob exploded into a cloud-like mist and vanished. Its sudden disappearance immediately emptied the tainted waters around the Reclaimed City, causing water from other sources, such as Sumida River's upstream and Tokyo Bay's outer areas, to violently flood in.

High volumes of water surged while struggling against the magical storm. It also caused the ground around Tokyo Bay to shake.

However, the surging water was the least of the current concerns. It was because the sky suddenly darkened a few moments after the blob's disappearance.

The Serpent God's eyes widened as the attack it was preparing suddenly lost its target. Confused, it began looking around, slowing down the process of the preparation of its attack. When the Serpent God finally noticed the sudden change in lighting, it raised several of its heads and looked up in the sky.

Black mist was gathering in the sky. It was the same black mist that the Giant Blob exploded into.

The Serpent God suddenly felt danger. It shifted its body, aiming the attack it was preparing to the sky.

However, it was a little too late.

The mist turned to liquid, forming a giant blanket of slime in the sky. By the time the Serpent God shifted its aim, the blanket of goo was already falling in its direction.

ROOOARRR!!!

Caught off-guard and unprepared, the Serpent God roared. It had no choice but to fire its attack prematurely onto the slime-like blanket in the sky.

The giant goo-like blanket was falling, and the aurora-like sphere shot into the sky.

At the midpoint, everyone expected a powerful collision.

But just before the collision, the goo-like blanket sprouted the red pair of eyes from before, before its drooling mouth formed right in front of the magical sphere of destruction.

And then, the two collided.

CHOMP!

And the Giant Blob swallowed the bright sphere into its mouth.

BOOOM!

A powerful explosion occurred inside the Giant Blob's body, tearing it apart and splattering its goo all over the place.

Stick rain covered all of Reclaimed City. Many droplets splattered over the barrier in Ariake. Some fell back into the water, while some droplets fell into the flattened areas around the city. Some even fell onto the Serpent God's body. Lastly, the blade-like winds obliterated most of the smaller droplets, erasing them to nothingness.

The Serpent God's eyes lit up in excitement while the eyes of witnesses in Ariake shook in grief.

Was this the end? Did Mark face his demise at this point?

However, among the witnesses, the person who was supposed to be the most worried was calm.

Unlike everyone here, Mei could feel something else.

And all of a sudden, the world shook once again.

It was not an earthquake. It was not the magical storm either.

ROOOOOOAARRRRR!!!

The source of the earthquake was the Serpent God and its sudden wail of misery.

It was already feeling triumphant. The Serpent God knew it destroyed the enemy it felt fear from.

But all of a sudden, the Serpent God was enveloped in excruciating pain.

Its majestic, triumphant pose in the sky vanished in an instant as it fell to the ground without any sign of resistance.

The Serpent God fell on the ruins of Kachidoki, with half of its body to its tail falling into the crater created by Gar'Vlam's explosion.

And after its unceremonious fall, the Serpent God began to flail around. It was worse than before. It looked like a lizard's tail suddenly cut off.

ROOOOARRR!!!

The Serpent God continued flailing. Everything around it became flattened ground. Its roars continued as it struggled with an enemy no one could see.

It was when black goo started emerging from the Serpent God's body. From under its scales, from between its tails, the joints on its necks, and even from the destroyed eye sockets, black goo emerged like sweat.

The Serpent God was oblivious, but the witnesses saw the drops of exploded slime from the Giant Blob scattered around. The drops began moving.

These drops disgustingly squirmed like slugs at first before they floated into small balls of goo and shot toward the Serpent God.

Ignoring the intensity of the magical storm, the balls of goo shot from all over the place, falling like a torrent of rain onto the Serpent God.

The balls of goo began merging while they slowly covered the Serpent God's body.

Seeing what was happening, the Serpent God thrashed its body even more, trying to remove the painful goo trying to cover its body. It was when the goo suddenly sprouted dozens of tentacles that wrapped straight around the Serpent God's body.

Around its necks, between its tails, under and above its scales, and even around its mouths, the tentacles that sprouted violently wrapped around the Serpent God's body.

RRRRRRRRR!!!

The Serpent God tried to fight back. However, it was no longer able to roar its struggles.

And there, a larger part of the blob emerged at the nape of the Serpent God. That part formed the Giant Blob's eyes and drooling mouth.

The Serpent God saw the menacing predator. It immediately squirmed violently. However, it was to no avail.

CHOMP!

The Giant Blob bit onto the back of the neck of the Light-Attribute Head of the Serpent God.

As it felt the bite, the Serpent God panicked. However, aside from the pain it was already feeling, it did not feel anything from the bite at all. After all, not only did the Giant Blob's mouth have no teeth, but the scales of the Serpent God were still sturdy.

The Serpent God began squirming again. It was trying to break free as it thought the Giant Blob's bites could not do anything to it.

But then, the Serpent God felt an excruciating pain it never felt before.

The pain came from the neck the Giant Blob was currently nibbling into.

It looked like the Serpent God had already forgotten something. Or maybe it did not recognize the fact that the blob was a manifestation of [Miasma].

That same [Miasma] managed to corrode the scales on the Serpent God's back before. Now that the [Miasma] transformed into a more powerful and condensed form, it had more strength to corrode the Serpent God's body.

The Giant Blob nibbled on the Serpent God's neck as it struggled in pain. The sturdy scales it was proud of began to chip and crack before its pieces fell off its body.

CRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAKKK!!!

The pain was so much that the Serpent God's mouths managed to break free from their restraints, only to get restrained by more tentacles.

And then, the shocking thing happened.

SNAP!

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

The muffled roars of the Serpent God could not even convey the pain, fear, and struggle as the Giant Blob snapped and tore off the Serpent God's Light-Attribute head.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

The Serpent God's blood splattered. It squirmed and rolled around. But all its actions were to no avail as the Giant Blob spat out the decapitated head somewhere before biting onto the next head.

Everyone watched with complicated expressions as they witnessed the brutality of the Giant Blob.

One after another, it bit, corroded, snapped, and tore the Serpent God's remaining seven heads. And if that was not enough, the Giant Blob's tentacles also made work of the Serpent God's tails in the same manner.

After one head, it was one tail. The incarnation Serpent God felt pain far worse than its true self in the Lost Era.

Back in the Lost Era, it died after being slashed in half by the God of Sea and Storms. It was a swift and momentary death after a fierce battle.

But right now, the incarnation was slowly being torn to pieces.

At the start, the Serpent God resisted as much as it could. But as the Giant Blob tore more of its tails and heads, its resistance weakened over time.

It did not take long. The Serpent God in the ruins of Kachidoki, motionless, with only a long stump left of its body, still restrained by the Giant Blob.

And marking its death, the body of the Serpent God slowly turned to dust before disintegrating into nothingness.

With the source gone, the magical storm came to an abrupt halt. Strong magical energy still lingered in the surroundings, but it was nothing as harmful as before.

And in the place where the Serpent God died, all it left was the Giant Blob wobbling in place.

Slowly, the Giant Blob turned its body. Its menacing red eyes turned toward Ariake.

"Get ready for the worst."

Nineteenth voiced out, feeling the dangerous stare from the Giant Blob.

But to everyone's surprise, someone dashed out of the barrier.

With her wings covered in a rainbow sheen, Mei used her [Psycast] ability, [Flash Step], which turned her into a bright light, moving swiftly in a straight line.

At the same time, the Giant Blob moved toward Ariake.

Right at the northern part of the ruins of Toyosu, Mei hovered in front of the Giant Blob.

And there, Mei opened her arms in front of the Giant Blob.

In response, the Giant Blob opened its mouth before swallowing Mei whole.

Everyone panicked. What was Mei thinking by doing that?

The [Eyes] immediately rushed over. Even the Priestess and the Empress mustered their remaining energy to chase after the [Eyes]. The Goddesses also followed with less urgency in their faces.

But unexpectedly, the Members of Evernight, who should be the most worried, only sighed in resignation.

All of them trusted their leaders. There might be some unexpected factors, but there was one thing they were sure of. Mei might be in deep love, but she was not stupid.

And for some reason, the connection of the two was far stronger than these Gods would expect.

The Members of Evernight watched as their trust and belief showed its proof.

POOOF!!!

The Giant Blob vanished into an explosion of black mist before converging into one point.

And at that converging point, there was Mei, with the barely conscious Mark in her embrace.