Mutagen

Day 152 - 12:09 AM - Mountain Farming Village, Barangay Mabini, Municipality of Viga, Catanduanes

Inside the storm of energy, Lord Seis' large body floated steadily. The spiraling energy was surging towards his body. As it did, his ape-like body was noticeably getting smaller and smaller.

Like Diwata Iraya thought, this ability was something that Lord Seis gained after he inherited the powers of the previous Lord of Demons on this island.

It was an ability that allows Lord Seis to absorb the energy of the dead.

Whether it be humans, Demons, animals, Spirits, or Elementals, it did not matter. It was an ability without too many restrictions.

Unfortunately, Lord Seis could not do it on a large scale until now. If he could, he would have stepped into Deityhood years ago.

However, as shown now, doing it on a large scale would evoke noticeable phenomenons in the surroundings.

The red sky, the energy storm, and even the strong magical fluctuations, just one of it would attract danger towards Lord Seis.

Although a Lower Diety could kill hundreds to thousands of humans in one move, they were still not impervious to current human weaponry.

Besides, the protectors of Earth, the Eyes, would not let it happen.

But now, it did not matter.

Lord Seis might be able to kill Diwata Iraya in a long fight. However, Mark and Mei were also present. Once the three joined forces to fight him, he would be on the losing side.

Thus, before the fight started, he used his strongest card.

With his eyes closed, Lord Seis absorbed the torrential energy. This violent energy that came from more than two thousand Demons and a hundred Spirits and Elementals would be more than enough to make him win this fight. Not to mention that there were also hundreds of insects and Tiyanaks that Legra created.

His whole body felt hot. It was as if Lord Seis was burning and was definitely painful. However, for Lord Seis, it was proof that he was changing.

"Hmm?" But when Lord Seis felt the energy around him, he frowned. "How come that the energy is lower than expected?"

It was strange. After all, Lord Seis had about a hundred high-rank Demons that he sacrificed. But the most important were Legra, Muggur, and the Flame Demon. The magical energy from each of those three was more than the energy of the high-rank Demons combined.

Yet, not only Legra's magical energy was too thin, but he could not feel any shred of energy from Muggur or the Flame Demon.

Lord Seis wanted to know what happened. However, he still needed to focus on absorbing the energy he collected.

Nonetheless, although Lord Seis was still confident that the energy he gathered was enough to win this fight, it was still concerting that a large portion of the energy that was supposed to be his vanished into nothingness.

While he continued to absorb the energy, Lord Seis could not help but smile. He knew that his body was getting smaller the more energy he absorbed. Nonetheless, he was not concerned about his size. Although being a gigantic being had an intimidating appearance, it had a lot of inconvenient points.

Being in an efficient body with an intimidating presence was far better. Besides, the body of Lord Seis becoming smaller was proof that his body was being reconstructed. His muscles were being remodeled to contain this large amount of energy.

There was nothing for Lord Seis to complain about his size changing.

Aside from his size, there were other noticeable changes in his body.

The dark brown fur on the body of Lord Seis was turning grayish white. His ears were becoming pointed. On his forehead, two horns started growing. Even the bones on his body began to distort and protrude out of his body. And although it could not be seen right now, his eyes also changed color to a reddish hue.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, amidst his transformation, Lord Seis sensed something strange.

"Is it just me, or the energy suddenly got thinner?"

Of course, Lord Seis was extremely confused.

With the amount of energy he gathered, it would take him at least thirty minutes to absorb it in the shortest time. If not, and he needed more time, it would take him about an hour or more in the longest.

Because of that, the energy would only get noticeably thinner at the mid-phases of his absorption of this energy storm.

Yet, he had just started taking in this energy, and the energy was already thinning out rapidly.

Lord Seis stimulated his energy absorption. Sure enough, be absorbed energy faster than before. However, it was far slower than he expected.

Finally, Lord Sies could not hold it back anymore. Although it would impact his concentration and speed of absorption, he opened his eyes to look around.

That was when he realized. The energy storm he gathered was already surrounded by black misty fog.

Lord Seis was startled badly.

"What in the world?"

He looked around. That was when he noticed that the black mist was actually slowly eating away the energy storm.

That was when he realized...

"Impossible!" Lord Seis roared. "How come that there's a thick veil of Miasma in this place!"

The emotions of Lord Seis began to rage. This Miasma would definitely mess with his plans.

In the first place, how come that a thick veil of Miasma appeared out of nowhere?

"THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! NO!"

Lord Seis continued to roar as he frantically took in more and more energy into his body. He did not bother to refine it while absorbing. He just gobbled it all into his body.

Unfortunately, it was of no use. The thick veil of Miasma at the energy faster than he could absorb.

Another minute passed. The spiraling energy could not be called a storm any longer. A breeze would even be an exaggeration.

Lord Seis was heavily disgruntled.

The transformation that his body had undergone was far incomplete. From the energy that Lord Seis gathered, he only managed to absorb less than half of it.

The seven-meter tall body that Lord Seis had only shrunk to three meters. His horns grew too short, and the bony thorns and armor on his body did not fully develop.

Nonetheless, the demeanor and pressure that Lord Seis exuded were far different.

Unlike before, where he only looked like a scary gigantic monkey, he definitely looked more like a Demon Lord now.

It was a pity, however. Lord Seis failed to reach Deityhood because of the lack of energy.

Soon, the spiraling energy was entirely consumed.

At the center of the veil of Miasma, Lord Seis flapped his wings, gritting his teeth to the point that his gums bled.

There was no way that Lord Seis could accept this outcome. Finally, he lost his cool.

Without any energy to devour, the Miasma began to recede.

Lord Seis noticed something. The Miasma was receding to a single point instead of scattering as it was supposed to be.

The red eyes of Lord Seis dilated as he stared at the point where the Miasma receded to.

"YOU-! YOU BASTARD!"

Lord Seis roared, causing a shockwave the shook the entire mountain.

It was unbelievable. It should not be possible for a Demon with a physical body to control and absorb Miasma. It was a feat that could only be seen from Formless and Miasmic Demons.

Yet, a Pureblooded Demon with a physical body actually used Miasma to snatch the energy he gathered.

With the evidence in front of him, there was no way that Lord Seis would be able to deny it.

"DIE!!!"

Lord Seis roared as he shot towards Mark below.

BOOOM!!!

A simple punch from Lord Seis the entire hundred-meter terrain around him into ruins. There was a fifty-meter-wide and two-meter deep crater with Lord Seis at the center.

Unfortunately, as if mocking him, his punch did not reach the target like how he did not reach Deityhood.

***

"Whoops."

Mark voiced out as he turned into black mist in front of the punch from Lord Seis.

"This guy... I managed to snatch more energy than he could absorb, but he's still on a different level now."

From the place, Lord Seis floated and up to where Mark stood, it only took a blink of an eye. It was as if Lord Seis moved instantly. Even his punch was too strong to affect a wide area.

"Prepare to fight!"

Mark said as he appeared beside Diwata Iraya.

There was no time for the Diwata to respond. Lord Seis already looked up and opened his mouth. There, a beam as large as an adult arm shot towards Mark.

Like what happened before, Diwata Iraya replied to the attack of Lord Seis in kind. She stretched out her hand and shot a beam of her own.

However...

Diwata Iraya's beam was instantly torn apart and the attack of Lord Seis shot towards the Diwata without any resistance.

Without warning, Mark grabbed Diwata Iraya's shoulder and dragged her out of the way. The two appeared several meters away from where they were before.

"Thank you!"

Diwata Iraya said to Mark. She was a bit nervous as she did not expect that her beam was torn like paper.

"Thank me later! He's coming!"

Mark replied as he pushed away Diwata Iraya.

His eyes glowed from red to violet, watching the incoming figure of Lord Seis. Mark saw that another punch was coming. Thus, he dared try to face it directly.

Adrenaline, [Blood Metal Armor], [Blood Enhancement], Mark poured everything in his right arm as its veins began to glow brightly. He did not forget his wings, also causing them to glow.

Then, Mark shot towards the incoming Lord Seis.

BOOOM!!!

Two fists collided with each other.

A powerful shockwave shook the air, forcing Diwata Iraya to retreat away. Even Berrak that was already circling on his Thunderbird in the sky felt the shockwave from two hundred meters away.

Mark was thrown up to the sky, reaching about three hundred meters before he managed to stabilize his flight.

On the other hand, Lord Seis barely moved from the point of impact.

"Ignorant!" Lord Seis mocked. "Although I don't know how you can control Miasma to snatch the energy that is supposed to be mine, you are crazy to think that you can contend with my strength!"

Of course, Lord Seis was delighted. From that collision, the arm of Mark was ruptured, and some of his bones were broken. The Lord of Demons was not staring at Mark's dangling arm, confident that it would be a liability from this time onwards.

Diwata Iraya turned at Mark. She also thought that he was crazy for clashing with Lord Seis like that. Now, his arm would be unusable.

At the sky, although Berray would not dare say that Mark was crazy, he was confused as to why he would do such action and got injured instead.

But then, the eyes of all the three widened.

"Ignorant? Crazy?" Mark smirked. "I'd rather be called daring instead."

Mark then started stretching his newly regenerated arm. It was as good as it was never injured in the first place.

"But I admit..." Mark's eyes turned serious. "It would be dangerous if I don't go all out."

At his words, the air in the surroundings began to shake.

Mark began to transform into his [Demonic Form].

Fangs, horns, and his hair grew. The markings on his wrists and neck began to cover his whole body, including parts of his face.

Diwata Iraya, Berrak, and even Lord Seis were surprised as Mark did not only reveal his Miasma and absurd regeneration. Now, he even displayed a Demon transformation.

It was not unexpected that the three were surprised. Lord Seis transformed after absorbing that torrential energy. On the other hand, Mark could actually do something similar at will.

But then...

"Huh?"

Mark became confused. He could not help but feel the sensation on his back.

"What the heck."

Now, Mark was also surprised.

Out of nowhere, another pair of wings sprouted on his back during his transformation.

Furthermore, unlike his transformation from before, now, his wings were also covered with black markings like the ones on his body.