Mutagen

Day 54 – 12:20 PM – Industrial Area, South District, Bay City Settlement, Parañaque City, Metro Manila

Two voices, one song. The battlefield that was enveloped in destruction and killing intent was suddenly filled with the echoing harmonious melody.

It was a beautiful song that could calm rage and fulfill discontent. The voices behind the song were of the opposite nature. One was lively and mellow while the other was cold and strong. Nevertheless, the two opposing voices alternating the lyrics of the song created strange but attractive harmony that anyone that would hear the song would not help but listen.

Unfortunately, behind the beautiful song, the intent was different. There was no problem with the song. It was because of the voices.

Those that would hear the voices, especially men, would enter a hypnotized state. Being unaware of the surroundings and unaware of their selves, those that entered that state could only follow the intent of the two women singing the song.

***

Shin nodded at Yoko and Tsukiko who stood atop the building quite a distance from the area the two inhuman beings were fighting. It was his idea as he could feel an invisible field that was sucking a certain kind of energy around Gar'Vlam's opponent. As he could not fathom what it was, he made the two girls sing the song away from the scope of that field.

While the two women continued to sing, Shin finally moved forward. It was towards Gar'Vlam who was confused as to what was happening. Due to the flame demon's confusion, all the floating skulls stopped in the air in vigilance ignoring their target that was directly hit by a number of balls of fire and already plummeted to the ground.

"Master Gar'Vlam."

With inhuman speed, Shin traversed the battlefield, jumped over the debris and dodged the walls of flames scattered on the ground. It did not even take a minute and he already called out to the flame demon.

"Who?!"

Gar'Vlam massive body turned around and saw the red robed Shin kneeling on one knee and removed his hood as a sign of respect.

"Fret not Master of Volcanic Flames. I and my comrades are here to assist. This one's name is called Shin."

Shin spoke in a rather different way than normal.

"Who sent you here?"

The flame demon asked.

"Dopp contacted us as an assurance and a way of escape. We are here to bring the remaining survivors away if there was any. Your Arkhēs is also included."

"Bring me back? Are trying to belittle me? A [False Deity?! I won't leave this place until I kill that bastard!"

"I dare not, Master of Volcanic Flames. However, Your Arkhēs seemed to have not noticed but something is affecting your mind and heightening your rage. Your Arkhēs did not even notice that your Arkhēs' strength is waning rather severely."

Hearing that, Gar'Vlam inspected himself for the first time since he used the energy straight from his spirit. Now, he noticed that his body was weakening and the energy he had left already less than half of what he had released earlier. He looked at the floating flaming skulls around him and saw that their movements were way slower than they should have been. This made him shocked.

"This is…"

Gar'Vlam finally realized that he had fallen into something deep without him knowing. If the battle continued further without these people interfering, he would surely lose not because the enemy overpowered him but because he empowered his enemy.

The flame demon could not help but grit his teeth as the thought of how he was played by his enemy came into his mind.

"Where is that bastard now? I saw him fall if I remember correctly. Damn it, my memory is unclear."

He asked with a curse as he looked around.

"He is in that area I presume."

Shin pointed at the northeastern direction about a hundred meters away or so. An area filled with flames and debris from the collapsed buildings.

"I am worried but it seemed that the ability of my companions worked. Your opponent might be unconscious now."

"Hmm? Is it this song? I see. It's the Hypnotism of Sirens."

"Your Arkhēs is right. However, my companions were not pure ones but were just descendants."

"Good. After this, I will reward you and your companions. First, I should kill that bastard before anything else."

"On your lead, Your Arkhēs."

***

On the other side of the battlefield, Mark laid down with his back on the hot ground in the middle of the debris. The cloak he wore was not burned and filled with holes. Even his clothes were burned to a certain degree. Aside from the clothes he wore, his hair long hair that was scattered on the ground was burned here and there. His skin had patches of third degree burns. Several fingers on his left hand had turned into charcoal leaving a bit of flesh remaining around his finger bones. The fall he had also snapped his wings that had the membranes of his wings also burned. The bones on his back also cracked a little. Nevertheless he was still alive and his body already started on healing itself automatically.

If not for the armor he was wearing and the slight resistance the robe he wore had, his body might look worse that what it looked like now.

Luckily, his right hand still held Flam tightly. It caused the flames on the ground to scatter in order to not burn its new Master.

The worst thing right now however, Mark was not moving and was staring blankly towards the sky. His eyes were lifeless. He was surely under the spell the voices carried.

Outside, there was no activity but inside, he was already blaming himself.

"Darn, I'm too careless. Well, good job warding off some of the flames."

Mark complained at himself while commending Flam beside him.

Right now, he was inside his subconscious world. As the hypnotism caused by the song invaded the will on his conscious which was similar to possession, Mark was thrown into this world once more and was unable to come out. Fortunately, the song was unable to fully control his body but his body ended up being an empty shell as long as he was affected by the song.

"I didn't expect some reinforcements that can pass through the wall of miasma I created to isolate the whole area. I wasn't able to detect them either but it seems one of them already met up with that muscle brain demon."

"Master, what are you going to do now?"

Flam asked.

"You are calling me Master willingly now huh?" Mark smirked. "You were too reluctant when I took you earlier."

"You already showed your prowess to me. I'm not really getting a loss if I chose to follow you. That organization is too stuffy anyway. Wait- that's not it! Why are you still so calm! You're just a free kill as you lay down outside!"

"Well, it's not like I don't have a card to play in this condition."

Mark put his hands on the back of his head and sat down after creating an inclined chair behind him. Then, a large monitor appeared in front of him showing what his eyes could see outside.

"Master, what do you…"

Flam was surprised at this and was about to ask but Mark did not let him finish his question as a smaller chair appeared beside him.

"Sit here and relax."

Seeing his new Master's calm demeanor, Flam timidly sat down on the chair facing the monitor. It was then that Mark spoke.

"Flam, tell me. What do you think Mutators are?"

Hearing the strange question, Flam looked at Mark in confusion. Still, he gave the answer he knew that came from both the organization and the reports of the scientists he heard about.

"People who managed to adapt to the strain of Mutagen in their bodies and gained superhuman abilities that was impossible to have before through genetic mutation."

Mark nodded at Flams answer and spoke.

"That is true at one part but also false in another."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. Isn't Mutators just infected that retained their human consciousness?"

Flam opened his mouth at the sudden contradiction but before he could speak a word, he realized that he had nothing to retort it. Then, Mark continued to speak.

"Both the infected, whether mutated or not had superhuman abilities and they know how to use them effectively. They can even use their psychic abilities if they have one. It was the same for Mutators whether they are failed ones or successful ones. The moment they woke up, they had knowledge of their abilities without needing to fully discover it. Another thing is that whether it was a Mutator or an Infected, there are those that retained their humanoid bodies and there are those that barely looked like human at all. There is only one difference between the Infected and Mutators. That is the latter had consciousness and will while the former did not."

Mark and Flam looked at the monitor. They could see the floating skulls starting to surround his body from the sky.

"Master…"

Flam was worried but Mark was still unfazed. He continued speaking.

"Do you know what happens when a Mutator dies with his head intact?"

"They immediately turn into Mutated Infected. But Master! It's really not the time!"

Mark still ignored Flam.

"They turned into mutated infected because they lost their consciousness after dying." Mark then smiled mysteriously. "What will happen if shut off my connection outside leaving the empty body? I won't die since I have this world and I can reconnect my consciousness anytime but don't you want to see what will happen?"

"Master… You…"

Flam's childish large eyes became even wider as he looked at Mark.

"Well, you see. People under hypnosis had their consciousness asleep but the connection is still there that is why what I will do now will never likely to happen to others. Watch."

Mark turned at the monitor.

"Let's give it a keyword or something… I think this will be fine." Mark nodded and muttered with a snap of his finger. "Release."

He muttered and the scene at the monitor shook fiercely.

***

"My skull puppets already found him." Gar'Vlam smirked. "That bastard is really out cold."

"Yes, it should be like that until my companions removes the hypnosis, those that were affected will remain at that state even if they stopped singing. It is strange however but it seems like my companions cannot control his body."

"Just making that bastard unable to move is already enough. Remember that he is able to fight squarely with me. Even if I'm just resurrected, my strength is still comparable to lesser deities."

Gar'Vlam was already satisfied that it was his win even if he needed the assistance of these people from the organization. He only wanted to win and kill the bastard to end a several thousand year battle.

They were just a few dozen meters away and they could already see the enemy's body when…

Slowly, unsteadily and sluggishly, the haggard figure of the enemy stood up.

Seeing that, Shin pressed a device into his ear.

"Yoko! Tsukiko! Did any of you cancel the hypnosis?!"

The one of the voices singing in the background halted as a cold voice replied on the device.

"We didn't. You can hear us singing right? Have you gone deaf?"

"But the target is moving now!"

"What?! Impossible!"

"It's true! Wait, there's something wrong! I'll contact later! Check Spera if she already found Dopp then continue singing!"

"Okay!"

Shin stared gravely at the figure in front of them and readied his sword. On the other hand, Gar'Vlam was looking at the enemy with a strange expression."

"Is that bastard dead? I don't sense any will on him!"

"Your Arkhēs? You don't mean…"

GRRRRRRRRR!!!

The two then heard a very low growl from the enemy who was now staring at the two with his eyes that had two different glows. The right eye was red while the other was violet.

WHHOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

Miasma burst unto the surroundings like water from a dam that had its gates broken. An overwhelming pressure swallowed the two that even the Master of Volcanic Flames, the flame demon, Gar'Vlam, felt the air grew heavy.