Mutagen

<strong>Day 29 – 12:00 AM – Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon</strong>

Mark's room within the crevice of the mountain was not that large. It was just a three meters by three meters and only had a stone bed covered with a thin mattress, a table made of cut stone wit [Blood Meta] frame, a small side table cabinet and a crib. On the table, an unlit gas lap could be seen along with the messy pieces of papers drawn with weapon designs and other stuff. Inside the crib was the sleeping Miracle together with the other [Blood Children] except for Merlot and Ruby that was with Nicole and Hallie.

Amihan on the other hand was sleeping on a pillow placed on the side table cabinet that was placed beside the crib. It was her specified sleeping space. Beside her pillow, there was a smaller soft cushion where the two [Physical Crystals] he created from the airplane incident containing Melanie's and Melinda's mutation abilities. Both crystals were place there safely and in sight since the [PsyCrystal] in Mark's wrist could not be used yet to store them.

After scribbling on those papers, he slept early and tomorrow, he planned to make those weapons he designed. Before he would leave to the eastern areas, he needed to ensure that the base was fully defended. At least, against evolved beasts and common mutated infected. That was why he racked his brains with all his experience in designing and making working cosplay props in his sideline job.

He did not expect that at this moment, he would be jolted awake with a head splitting pain. Mark held his head with both hands while his body started to drip sweat. In terms of pain resistance, his body had quite of a high level and still, the pain he felt even made him sweat and was totally on a different level. Back in Mall, he felt the backlash of the prolonged usage of adrenaline and felt pain all over his body. This time, take all those pain and concentrate it in his brain. That was how painful he felt.

Yet, he just gritted his teeth and did not scream. He must endure while his eyes had a tint of expectation. Back in his subconscious world when he was talking with Freed, the latter already warned him about this happening. It was due to the fact that Mark was inheriting a rather powerful ability while already having another and also a strong one at that. In another term, it could be said as stuffing two large steamed buns in the mouth of an infant yet to celebrate his first birthday.

Differently, both psychic abilities were not hindered in physical aspects and thus, after the abilities consolidate with his mind, it would be fine. However, as there was a third uncontrolled ability, even though it would not affect the consolidation, it would heighten the level of pain during the initial phase.

As for why it happened a long time after he woke up in this mountain range, it was because of the thin psychic energy in the air in most parts of the Earth. In eastern fantasy ideologies, Earth was not a good place to cultivate in. Even though there were spots and places in the world where this energy was abundant, Mark was currently away from them. In fact, for the consolidation to happen this time was already too short and Freed said that in normal circumstances, it would take several months and in the slowest, several years.

Fortunately, the [Mutagen] and the [PsyPathogen] had too much of similarities and could be said that came from the same origin. Due to that, [Mutagen] helped hasten the consolidation to just more than a weak. However, his psychic abilities would still be in a weakened state after this and needed to some time to recover. During the recovery, it would also give him time to train his new abilities.

The pain in his head and the consolidation of the two abilities however did not only affect him. The [Blood Children] in the crib and even Miracle who was sleeping were all shivering. For sure, even Merlot and Ruby that was not here were the same. They all had mental connections with Mark and could sense the pain he was feeling and was sharing a tint of it from him. Even though it was just a small part, it should be enough to make these infants cry in pain if they were able to.

"GAH!"

Mark suddenly spat an audible gasp as the pain suddenly intensified. It made him stood up from his bed and tried to find his way out to get painkillers. However, he was already disoriented. Aside from the place being dark, even if there was light, he would only see blurry images. He could not even think clearly and made his way to the first source of light he saw and tried to grab them. Unfortunately, he lost balance and instead of grabbing the source of light, he accidentally pushed it off and fell somewhere before the source of light vanished.

Amihan was also jolted awake from the commotion. Since it was dark, she could not see anything but she could feel that disturbance in the air. She hurriedly flew towards the direction of the table and tried to light up the gas lamp even though it was rather hard for her to do so because of her small body. However, before she could even do so, she saw small flashes of light coming from the floor making her turn her head.

She became shocked. The flashes of light looked like small threads of lightning and those threads of lightning was flashing around Mark's body sprawled on the floor and was still clutching his head in pain.

"My Lord! Are you ok? My Lord!"

Amihan shouted and tried to approach but the threads of lightning prevented her from doing so. She could even feel the painful and tingling sensation on her skin even though she was not that close from Mark.

"Haa… I'm… Fine." Mark forced a few words while enduring the pain. "It… won't… last… long…"

Mark said that he was fine but Amihan did not believe it. The pain was obvious in his face that could now be seen due to the constant flashing light. However, she could not do anything but watch. She wanted to call for the others but Mark stopped her with a single no.

On the other hand, the females in the women's quarters were awakened due to Hallie and Nicole who worried for the state of the [Blood Children] with them. They really liked the little critters and took special care of them considering the fact that these creatures were in fact, poor infants with non-human bodies. For Merlot and Ruby to show this strange state, Hallie and Nicole could not help but panic.

"Boss should know what to do with it right?"

Jollene suggested. Even though she was afraid and could not stand slimy things, she was still worried since these little critters were important to everyone.

"If these two are like these, the others could be the same right?"

Trisha also spoke.

"All right, let's go."

Hallie said while Nicole nodded. The two picked up the shivering [Blood Children] in their arms and ran outside with Jollene and Trisha following behind.

BAM! ROAR! CRACKLE!

The group of women had just stepped out of their quarters when they heard loud sounds coming from the sky. Together with it were the sounds of panicked animals in the forest as they all scattered away.

Looking up, the four women saw the spiraling clouds in the darkened sky. Constant flashes of lightning appear moving from cloud to cloud while the roaring thunder followed shortly. They felt terrified as the center of the spiral was actually suspended above their base.

The roaring of thunder woke up the men from the other house and also saw the state of the sky. The men could not help but freeze in shock and awe at that spectacular scene. Huey saw the group of women also outside.

"Everyone get back inside!"

Huey's shout awakened everyone from their stupor and they all ran back inside the houses.

It was a spectacular scene but also dangerous. Who knows when the lighting would strike down to the ground? Standing outside in the open was suicide.

BAM!

As they thought of it, the impact something hitting the ground along with a bright flash of light was seen from their windows.

"Is anyone here experiencing a lightning tribulation?"

Hallie voiced out as the watched the scene from the window.

As she said that, she turned to Nicole and the latter did the same. They all saw everyone out aside from one person and that person had all the mysteries around him from the legendary Sylph to these [Blood Children]. Who knows if he was also a cultivator that only existed in Wuxia and Xianxia novels? A lot of things that did not exist in the past norm were happening anyway. The two girls that knew a lot would not be surprised if other things out of the norm appeared. Still, the two were worried about Merlot and Ruby that they embraced in their arms.

***

In Bay City, four people were jolted into going out in the middle of the night. The first two was Mei and Iola. Mei had a subtle connection with Mark and could feel a disturbance in it. Iola on the other hand felt the fluctuations of the [PsyCrystal] awakening while she was also disturbed but the strong psychic fluctuations coming from the east.

At the Bay City Laboratories, Professor Issach Co stared confusedly at Nia and Allen as his two adoptive children and assistants ran out of the laboratory to stare at the night sky with disturbed expressions.

BAM!

Several flashes of lightning travelled across the world in a fast speed accompanied by a loud roar of thunder.

Many witnessed the strange phenomenon. The survivors, the infected, the evolved animals and even the races that supposed to only exist in legends, stories, folklore and mythologies, they all witness that strange phenomenon before the flashes converged in the eastern part of the globe.

Some viewed it as a bad omen while some thought nothing of it but a strange phenomenon that happened. There were also some that said that it was the wrath of the creator and everyone should repent. There was one group however that saw it as a sign and hurriedly followed the direction where the lightning went to. And to the infected, they became attracted to the energy that converged to the east and followed with fervor until they lost its direction.

***

If Freed was able to see this, he would have cursed a lot. It was very far from what he expected. Back in his world, a poor girl was bitten by and infected and gained ability she did not know how to use. Using that ability, she captured a psychic ability from a psychic mutant and accidentaly absorbed the ability causing her too much pain. She almost died from pain but she overcame it and became one of the rare dual ability psychics. She became the right hand of the King and called herself with the name Keeper.

There was no world shaking disturbance like this at all. But Mark's existence was not normal by any means. He was someone who was not bound by destiny anymore and someone that could affect other's destiny severely. He was both an Evolver and a Mutator and also a Psychic with two abilities. Not to mention that he was already a mutated entity even before the outbreak started. With both [Mutagen] and [PsyPathogen] being compatible with his body, his future endeavors would not just be few.

Mark gaining the Psychic King's ability might have angered or gained the heaven's approval.

No, this time, it was an approval. The lightning that flew around the world formed a ball of electricity in the center of the spiraling clouds.

The [PsyCrystal] on Mark's wrist glowed with bright light that enveloped the whole dark room. At the same time, the ball of lightning flew down striking the top of the crevice before vanishing in between the minute spaces in the rocks and made their way inside Mark's room.

Amihan could not help but fly backwards in fear while covering her eyes. She faintly saw the streaks of electricity seeping from the walls and ceiling got absorbed by the crystal on Mark's wrist before turning into a crystal ball about the size of a marble.

At that time, the pressure vanished along with the streaks of light. Following that, the [Psycrystal] dimmed along with darkness and silence pervaded the room once more. The spiraling clouds at the sky stopped and became a normal blanket of clouds in the night sky.

Outside the base however, two large creatures came. Attracted by the energy, these two creatures ran ferociously through the encompassing mountains. These two were the two mutated infected that led the horde in the Barrio of Barangay Daraitan and they were here as predators.