Mutagen

<strong>Day 126 - 2:10 PM - Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon</strong>

Atop the mountain, Yukine and Kouki safely watched the spectacle.

The shocking scene they had watched was enough to make the hair on the back of their necks stand up in fear.

What they saw was not like things they encountered before.

Furthermore, she had just conversed with Mark the previous night, where they mentioned the name of The Great One. And yet, the next day, he came to crash the party.

"No wonder the Oracle said that it is a calamity."

Kouki, the tengu, murmured beside Yukine.

The Great One, the eighth founder of Auraboros, the Deity of Nothingness, those three were among the four titles that he had.

As for the fourth one, from the people of his time, The Great One was called the Black Storm.

There was not much known about the Deity that gave himself the arrogant title of The Great One. And even his origins were obscured. However, there was one thing that Yukine heard from her mother, the Empress. It might just be some hoax or rumor, but it might have some truth in it.

The Great One was neither a creature or a human.

Even so, considering him as a human might not be wrong at all. He was not born as a creature of nature, after all. Instead, he was born as a none existent twin of a human child.

He was not invisible like anyone would imagine. The Great One was born without a solid body. Very similar to formless demons.

That was why even his mother never knew of his existence at all.

When he was born, however, the calamity struck.

The whole village turned to dust.

He was a child, bearing the curse planted unto his mother. It was his destiny to destroy since he was born.

No one knew what happened to him after that.

The next time he appeared was a decade later as he destroyed the place where the curse came. At that time, he finally gained a body of his own with painstaking effort.

And that was when the people noticed him as a calamity called the Black Storm.

Unfortunately, the gods at that time would not let a creature like him grow. They chased him down, gaining his ire.

That ire forced the creature that had no mortal body, to begin with, to grow more powerful.

The Great One, unlike other beings of Earth, was born a Deity. The curse he carried was that strong to give birth to a catastrophic deity.

Those gods managed to kill the physical body he created, but never managed to kill his spirit.

Thus, like what they did to others, they sealed the catastrophe away.

But before the Auraboros formed, the first founder reached out and released the imprisoned disaster.

And now that humans started to go extinct, it seemed he decided to start playing.

"He might be thousands of years old already, but it still felt like he was a child who found a new toy and was trying to show it off."

Yukine murmured as she remembered the attitude that he showed to Mark.

Mark was quite desperate to fight and protect his base, but to The Great One, it was nothing but a game.

The fight here as over and the devastation left by The Great One was quite massive. If the people living in that base were regular people, this was enough to make them struggle.

The crops they planted and soon would be harvesting were all turned to empty fields filled with nothing but blackened dust.

The forest that served as secondary protection of the base from the eyes of many was already gone. The nearest edge was several dozens of meters away.

Luckily, the spring that was the source of water of the base was inside. If not, who knows if the water got contaminated. It was also questionable if the soil basked in this black dust was still arable.

The lingering stench of danger should be enough to make the edible animals stay away. And the magical energy left by the battle might attract infected from who knows where.

After this catastrophe, the base was in for a worse time.

Nevertheless, even though the battle here already finished, it was still ongoing on the other side.

***

Day 126 - 3:10 AM - North Atlantic Ocean

The dark before dawn sky obscured the dark clouds that appeared once more.

They flew above the Atlantic ocean, a place where nothing and no one would be dragged into this battle unknowingly.

It was a good choice of place by Spera. But knows how she had been here in the middle of this ocean before?

Mark stared at the enemy in front of him as the injuries he acquired started to recover.

On the other side, The Great One watched Mark heal as if it was something amusing.

"I seemed you noticed."

The Great One said as he looked around. Nevertheless, there was just amusement in his voice and did not care much whether he was found out or not.

"As if I will try to destroy that body near my base."

Mark replied with a glare.

It was kind of unusual that The Great One kept on obscuring the sky and the face of that body even though were was no need to do so. And thinking about that matter, it became more and more suspicious.

That was when Mark realized.

The Great One was trying to drag his place into the wrath of the Observer.

Everyone who knew called them Observers, but it did not mean that they were able to see everything, especially those detached from the world fate, the ones with the potential to become gods.

Gods had to hide because their godly auras were easily detectable, but those below them, it was not easy even for the observers to locate them immediately. They were only observers and not the god that created the world.

That was where the eyes came in.

The stronger once tend to attack, but how were they Obeservers able to locate those to be attacked in the first place?

That should be where the scouts that served as the sight of the Observer came in. Those that were hard to be seen and detected. Something shaped more like humans.

One of those was the body that The Great One was currently using.

Even though he had gained control over it, the sight that it could give to the Observer must still be there. Once The Great One removed the black clouds or that haze on its face, even his would be seen by the Observer.

And if Mark destroyed it near his base, it was very likely that while the connection would be severed, the location of its death would become revealed to the owner.

None of those should happen.

Mark might be able to obscure himself from that sight because of his Miasma and severed fate, but his base would become exposed to who knows what amount of danger.

Flapping his three remaining wings and the last one that was still healing, Mark released a huge amount of Miasma into the surroundings, trying to overcome even the clouds in the sky.

Of course, The Great One did not just watch. Using the black clouds he was releasing, he scattered his own.

Two waves of black forces collided, each trying their strongest to win against each other.

But to Mark's dismay, it was a tie.

His Miasma could not push forwards anymore that what he was able to.

Mark's Miasma and The Great One's destructive clouds were equal at most. The former could not eat the latter, the latter could not fully destroy the former.

It was a stalemate.

Well, if Mark continued this way.

Finally, Mark's missing wing finished regenerating. He flew at fast speeds once more.

On the other hand, The Great One just hovered in place, but his attacks were fiercer than before.

But then, Mark took something out that he had never used in an actual battle before.

"An Eye for an Eye they said."

Mark murmured.

A crystal hovered in front of him as he flew.

And then...

SHOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!

A blinding beam of light that obscured the night sky shot off.

Even The Great One did not expect it. The beam of light came faster than he could see.

Before he could even react, the body he was currently using disintegrated to nothing.

Nevertheless, the presence of The Great One did not vanish.

"You really have a lot of interesting things, don't you?"

The Great One's voice echoed in Mark's ears. Nevertheless, there was no indication of where it was coming from.

"We will play again in the future. Don't disappoint me. If you don't entertain me like this next time, let's see what reaction your face that lacked expressions will show me as I take that woman as my bride. HAHAHAHA!"

With that evil laugh, the voice of The Great One vanished.

Mark looked at the crystal on his hand, only one use and it was already dim. The power was not something to joke at, but the expenditure was also huge. He did not know how long this would charge up as he only used a little of it before for preparation, but it took two days for a small laser pistol sized beam to recharge.

But it was worth it. For now, he managed to avert the danger from his base.

With the disappearance of The Great One, the clouds that covered the sky started to dissipate.

Seeing that, Mark also fled as fast as he could.

Who knows what would happen here now that the body of the Eye died.

However, Mark did not know where he was right now. The only thing he could do was fly away in a random direction as long as he could get away from this place.

Half an hour later, Mark's premonition came true.

Fifteen figures appeared at the place where the battle took place. All of then had unique features. Most of them were capable of flight while some were swimming underwater.

The only similar features on their bodies, however, there were eyes at places that eyes should not be located.

Each of them was at the level of a deity in strength. Probably, even stronger than The Great One.

If Mark saw this, he would be sure that even the Observer was taking advantage of the outbreak to clean up things he wanted to clean.

It was understandable considering that an organization of non-human creatures surfaced after the outbreak.

The figures scoured the area for anything for who knows long. They were patient just to get any clue of what had happened here. They took a whole day searching without any complaint.

Unfortunately, they found nothing but a sliver of residual energy left by the battle.

Anger was clear on their faces. One of them just had gone missing and suddenly perished. It was a disgrace to them even though the one that died was the weakest among them.

Without any lead as to what happened, they left and went back to their own duties. It was to search for clues as to where the reclusive gods were hiding.

***

While all of that was happening, Mark reached a place he had never been to before.

After the battle, he flew randomly in the west direction, avoiding any suspicious presence. In fact, he detected one that was flying towards the direction where he came from after fifteen minutes.

He did not dare confront the being, however. The guy was emitting a pressure not far from Bathala.

Using the last sliver of the [Photokinesis Mental Crystal], he made himself invisible as he flew just a few inches above the ocean waters.

After another twenty minutes of flying stealthily, he saw a patch of land on the horizon.

And there, he arrived...

At Atlantic City, New Jersey.