Mutagen

<strong>Day 59 – 2:48 PM – Paseo Verde, Diego Cera Ave, Barangay Pulang Lupa Uno, Las Piñas, Metro Manila</strong>

The battle inside the condominium compound took about fifteen minutes. Not because the enemies put up a good fight, but Mark adjusted the control of his abilities bit by bit.

If fact, he was not totally in control. He was barely able to avoid going over his limit. It was because the sight of blood spilling from the bodies of the enemies started to stimulate his predatorial instincts. He even stared smiling under his armor with glee that could be seen in his eyes as blood splattered unto the ground.

Right now, he stood with a menacing aura around him while being surrounded by dismembered bodies of the members of Dark Greed. The blood that spilled on the ground together with the despair and pain on the faces of the decapitated heads rolling everywhere complimented his current appearance very well.

An Armored Devil surrounded by carnage and bloodshed, it was a fitting name for this scene.

"I can't return immediately like this."

Mark said. Something inside him was crying for more blood, but there were no enemies left anymore to kill. He needed to calm himself first before returning. It might just be overthinking. Nevertheless, there was no way he would want to make Mei, and the little girls feel uncomfortable.

With that in mind, he decided to free the imprisoned women first. Everyone in the Dark Greed already died. The only ones left were their three leaders. Of course, their current state could not be described as alive either. Without anyone left on their captors, those women would die there. Being imprisoned indefinitely without food or water would be the cause of it.

Still, there was a chance that they would not die because of that and managed to open their prison on their own. But hordes of infected would have swarmed this place already by then. Especially since the smell of blood already permeated the compound.

Mark would be the indirect cause of their deaths. That was not a good thing.

As such, he flapped his wings and shot off towards the higher floors of the main building. He passed by the window and saw several of the women peeking out. It seemed that they had been watching what was happening below.

When Mark flew near, the women had different expressions. Nevertheless, all of them were scared, except for one person who was staring at him directly, scrutinizing him strictly for some reason.

He stopped in front of the window abruptly, causing several of the women to stumble backward in fear while some slowly retreated inside. It was except for that same woman who was staring at him without fear.

"Make way."

Mark spoke as he slowly transformed his claws into a set of sharp short swords.

The woman immediately backed off after hearing his words.

SHING! SHING! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Mark waved his right arm a few times that caused pieces of metal rebar to fall onto the floor. A few swings and his claws took down the railings blocking the window. There, he flew in.

Looking around, Mark could not help but commend the taste of Gifre's group. For sure, every woman imprisoned here was a beauty. Nevertheless, their taste for women widely varied as there were three pregnant women among the group.

Still, it seemed that aside from their mental and emotional states, their physical states were taken care of properly. In the least, while Dark Greed was greedy, they were not wolves that would toy with people to death. Vem would not have survived to be one of the leaders of this group if that was the case.

Mark walked past the women shivering in fear and towards the door leading to the hallway. With another few waves of his arm, the door reinforced with metal rebars turned into pieces.

With this, there was nothing to do here anymore. For sure, these women already knew what to do afterward.

He walked back to the window he destroyed and was about to leave. Then, he froze. A new mental connection entered his mind. Normal people would not feel it. However, as he already had several mental connections to the [Blood Children] and Chaflar, he had already been sensitive to it.

"Wait!"

Mark heard a voice. It did not enter his ear though but was directly transmitted into his mind.

When he turned his head to find where the voice was coming from, his eyes fell on the woman who had been staring at him for this whole time. This time, however, she looked paler and sweat trickled around the curves of her face.

"Is it you?"

Mark asked and as he suspected, the woman nodded.

Around them, however, the other women, other than fear, felt confused as to why Mark suddenly spoke to that woman.

"I'm sorry for communicating like this." The voice echoed in Mark's head. "I am mute physically."

No wonder. Mark now understood why she had been staring at him all this time. She could not speak so she had to connect herself to Mark mentally to be able to communicate. That would not have been so easy for her though as Mark's mental abilities were on another level. Because of that, she became tired and pale in a short time.

Nevertheless, it was a surprise to find someone like her in this place. Mark was only here to test a few things and harvest a few Mutator abilities. He never thought that he would encounter a Telepath in this place.

"What do you want from me?"

Mark spoke through his mind as well. The woman was surprised at this.

"Don't be mistaken, I'm not a Telepath like you. I'm using the link you made to communicate like this. Just tell me, what do you want."

Mark asked. He was sure that it was not to save everyone here though as for some reason, this woman did not hold sentiment towards the other women here.

"Can you please take me with you? You have a group waiting outside, right?"

"Why? I already opened the door. You all are free to go."

Despite the fact that this woman being a Telepath already made him interested, he still wanted to know.

At that question, the woman looked down while glancing at the other women that already started to slip out of the room.

"They can go together but I don't think that they will let me join them."

There was a huge amount of sadness in her eyes. It seemed that despite all of them being prisoners here, she had been outcasted for some reason. The best proof of it was that the other women started to escape not even bothering about her that was doing a staring contest with Mark.

"Aren't you afraid that I might also use you like a toy?"

"I am afraid." Her body shivered the memories of her experiences in this place flashed in her mind. "But I don't think you are the same as them. You're eyes exude murder than lust."

She then raised the already thin rags she was wearing displaying her bountiful peaks towards Mark.

"See, your eyes didn't even change. In the worst case, you'll kill me but I don't think that death will be bad. Of course, I still want to live. You can utilize me any way you want as long as you don't play with my body. I'm tired of it."

"Aren't you ashamed of doing that?"

Mark asked with both a sigh and a frown. Not only she was doing something that she should not do but she was even smiling.

"Before, maybe..." She replied as she lowered her clothes once more. "But with how many times and many men saw my body and toyed with it, I don't particularly think anything about it anymore."

She then beamed with a smile.

"Maybe, I'm broken already."

Mark shook his head after seeing that smile. As pity enveloped him, the murder in his eyes and aura started to recede.

"You're the very first talkative mute I've ever seen."

He then lowered his body.

"Climb on my back. I'll bring you out of this place."

"Really? Thank you!"

She climbed unto Mark's back without hesitation.

***

With that, Jaeya Agoncillo left the forsaken place she had been imprisoned with the other women from the Dark Greed's collection. She took a gamble to survive and now, she was riding on the devil's back to safety.

Jaeya was a beautiful woman in her early twenties. She married early and four months ago, she was about to become a mother.

However, on the way to the hospital for her childbirth, the ambulance got into an accident. In that accident, she lost her voice. But that was not the worst thing. She lost her husband and the son she was about to give birth to. They died in the accident along with the two nurses that were accompanying them inside the ambulance.

She luckily survived without too many injuries but she suffered depression since then.

The accident caused her to awaken the ability to communicate through her mind but it really did not help with her mental condition and revealing it would do her worse than good.

And when the outbreak came, her house was raided, her husband's parents were killed and she was taken by Dark Greed. Since then, instead of recovering, her mental state became worse.

Furthermore, since she was a mute, despite her appearance, she was not the preference of the members of Dark Greed. They preferred those who would make arousing noises and those that would plead while toyed with them. Because of that, she gained the ire of the other women imprisoned as they were used more than her.

Of course, it was not her fault. The other women just wanted to have something to direct their grievances and she was the unlucky one to receive it.

Amidst the suffering, she snapped. It created the current her. A woman without shame but would do anything to survive.

In order to survive, she would take any gamble. The gamble she took this time was to show her ability and get a contract with the devil. If she did not, she would surely die early.

***

Mark landed back in the temporary encampment of their group. Everyone was surprised to see that Mark in his current form and that he brought someone back.

As Jaeya came down from his back looking curiously at the people Mark returned to, Mark's armor slowly turned into liquid and retreated inside his body.

Then, Mei hurriedly approached Mark with a handkerchief on her hand. She started wiping Mark's face.

"Mei'er?"

Mark was confused.

"Blood."

Mei gently wiped the blood that stained his face.

Hearing that, Mark caressed her head and let her do so. Blood from the people he killed might have slipped into his helmet without him noticing. Since he did not try to absorb anyone's blood while transformed, it was left to dry on his face under the armor and was exposed after the armor was removed.

"Master, who is she?"

Amihan flew near and hid behind Mei while staring at the newcomer. She was still afraid of strangers though she was curious.

"Oh, her. A convenient human radio."

Mark's reply did not clear anything and blurred the circumstances further.

Everyone in Mark's group looked at him in confusion.

The person in question, however, was not speaking but was instead frozen in place. She was widely staring at someone.

That, someone, was also staring at Jaeya.

Calmly the person waved her hand and spoke.

"Auntie."

Abbygale calmly greeted.

That calm voice of the little girl froze everyone in place. Especially Mark who brought Jaeya back because of his interest in her Telepathic ability. Who would have thought that something like this would actually happen?

With the little girl's greeting as the catalyst, tears flowed out of Jaeya's eyes as she ran forwards to embrace the little girl.

Jaeya sobbed silently. Her mouth opened without any voice going out but everyone was sure that she was calling out Abbygale's name.