Mutagen

Day 67 - 9:36 PM - C.I.C.M, Ortigas Avenue Extension, Taytay, Rizal

Mark held the handle with both hands as searing flames covered the long wavy blade of the sword. Saying that it was searing was nothing but a context. In truth, Mark could not feel any heat coming from those flames.

Nevertheless, Mark could tell that these flames had an unimaginable temperature. It was because he could see the blade turning red. These flames gave him the feeling that these flames were trying to temper the blade.

The flames them bloomed further causing the darkened forest to become illuminated. It was as if the sun suddenly appeared over the forest. Due to this light, the monster below could not help but take a step back.

Like the blade of the sword, a wavy line made of these flames circled Mark.

As the wavy flame completed a circle around Mark, he knew that it was the time for him to start.

Thus, he closed his eyes.

As Flam said, he needed to concentrate on the sword in his hand as if linking his mind to it.

While doing that, Mark let his left hand go of the sword. He then used his right hand to place the sword horizontally with its flat side facing him. Then, his left hand was stretched towards the blade and pressed his palm unto it. The bright flames covered his hand. Nevertheless, nothing harmful happened to it.

With that, he opened his mouth.

"This sword on my hand. A sword made for torture and slaughter. A sword that bathed with the blood of the innocents. A sword that took away their precious lives. A sword birthed with a soul in exchange for the unjust sacrifices."

Mark then rotated the sword making on side of its double-sided blade face his palm.

SHIIIK!

Mark pressed his palm on the blade. Without controlling his blood, the blood flowed normally unto the blade. He then pulled both hands away from each other causing the entirety of the blade to be covered in blood.

"Become my sword. A sword that will stay by my side till the end of this life."

Together with the blade, the blood that was covered in flames started to glow.

"And I decla-"

BADUM! BADUM!

Mark's eyes abruptly opened without finishing his chant.

That was weird because he was not supposed to open it until he gave the sword its name.

Flam could not help but shiver as he realized that the naming ritual would fail. A naming ritual could only be done once for any person. If this failed, Mark would never be able to undergo the same ritual no matter how both of them wanted to.

BADUM! BADUM!

Furthermore, it would give severe repercussions to the person doing the ritual. Dying abruptly could be one of those. It was already lucky if the person became a cripple.

BADUM! BADUM!

Flam then noticed something.

Normal, Red and Violet. Mark's eyes alternated in color at a very fast speed that looked like he was glitched. It was until a black tint from the sides of his eyes slowly covered Mark's eyes.

BADUM! BADUM!

The black markings on Mark's body started to grow. The black markings that appeared on his body after he absorbed the Deity of Bloodshed drew sinister-looking symbols all over his arms, back, legs and face. Despite being black in color, it was releasing a faint reddish glow.

Mark's hair started to grow once more. Now, with blood-colored highlights here and there.

BADUM! BADUM!

Loud sounds of heartbeat continued to echo in the forest.

Mark who now had a blank expression opened his mouth.

"Misery, Agony, Torture, Slaughter, Death... Thy sins committed deemed thy worthy. "

Flam shivered even more. Mark's voice not only changed, but it also sounded like four voices were echoing together. Furthermore, he spoke incomprehensibly while releasing a demonic aura around him.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Miasma suddenly surged covering Flam. Then, from Mark's both hands that were touching Flam, blood flowed out. Both Miasma and Blood mixed together as it covered Flam's body.

"Fire, Blood, and Darkness."

Flames then surged back from Flam causing Mark's body to be covered with it. However, while covered in flames, there was no change in Mark's state.

Flam was scared. Not only that he was being invaded with energies that did not belong to him. His own energy was being sucked into Mark's body.

"Reshape and Create."

Four voices echoed at the same time and declared.

Flam's body started to change as both miasma and blood entering its body. Its blade turned black with red veins glowing on it. Furthermore, a metal inner blade with saw-like teeth was created in the middle of its blade and was connected to its handguard.

At the same time, the flames covering Mark's body were absorbed by him causing his eyes to release an orange glow until the black color concentrated on Mark's pupils. Flames then surged from Mark's wings reshaping it into a wing with veins of flame combined with the veins of red glowing blood.

At that moment, Mark's seemed to have snapped out of his trance. However, even though his consciousness already returned. He still behaved oddly.

He spoke in a clear voice.

"The curse that brought your soul into existence, will now free you from its binds. This is the night of your birth."

Flam started to feel the overflowing power inside it.

"Unbound by the curse, thee are no longer a cursed sword."

Clouds in the sky started to gather swirling in an ominous manner.

Braches of lightning webbed through the clouds as if welcoming the birth of a powerful treasure.

Mark then threw Flam who was still covered in miasma towards the sky.

THHOOOM!!!

A thick branch of lightning struck Flam before the lightning branched downward. The branched lighting struck the ground and trees.

"Thy name will be Ignis Tenebris! The Demon Sword of Black Flames!"

Flam... No, Ignis. The Demon Sword with the name of Ignis Tenebris fell from the sky onto Mark's right hand.

The red veins on the blade and body of the sword glowed brightly as if rejoicing its birth.

Black Flames then surged out of Ignis and turned into a ball of flames suspended in front of Mark. Without any hesitation, Mark used his left hand and pierced the ball of flames. As his hand entered the ball, it then spun creating as small whirl that entered the back of Mark's hand. The entirety of the ball entered Mark's hand leaving a new mark on the back of his hand. This time, it was not black but a red-colored one that showed the shape that Ignis currently had.

After taking a good look at Ignis, Mark turned his head towards the creature below without any warning.

"How unsightly."

Mark spoke.

Hearing his voice, the monster below shivered. Who would have known that an evil spirit filled with hatred could feel fear?

However, it could not recognize Mark as the enemy before anymore. As an evil spirit, although it could not be communicated with, it was sentient enough to recognize and understand things. This time, it realized that the enemy was not just a human or an infected.

It realized that the enemy in front of was partly an existence way above it.

The enemy was partly a demon. And it just witnessed the birth of a demon sword.

If it knew, it would have grovelled on his feet. However, it was already late. As an evil spirit, antagonizing a demon would only result in one end.

Mark pointed Ignis towards the monster below and its blade surged with black flames.

SHOOOOOM!!!

A ball of black flame about the size of a basketball flew towards the monster. Fearing for its life, the monster jumped back to dodge.

The monster managed to avoid the trajectory by a good margin. It caused the ball of black flames to fall unto the ground.

BOOM!!

The ball of black flames suddenly exploded. It disintegrated a meter around the point of impact.

Unfortunately for the monster, its right hand was still inside that radius. Half of its hand turned into nothingness.

GRRRAAAAAAAAYYYAAAAAAA!!!

The monster roared in pain hundreds of its heads.

Mark frowned.

"Noisy!"

He shouted as he swung Ignis several times. Several balls of black-colored flames with different sizes flew and hit the monster's struggling body.

BOOM! BOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!

With different sizes of the balls of flames, the monster's body was riddled with different sizes of holes. Its roars became lesser and lesser as the precious body it managed to create after the apocalypse slowly turned into ashes with each explosion.

However, it was not the end.

Mark started to swing Ignis almost everywhere scattering black-colored flames to engulf the whole place. The putrid smell of burning corpses started to permeate the air as the heaps of rotting bodies burst into flames.

Flapping his wings, Mark slowly landed at the center of the area covered in flames.

Step by step, he walked towards the monster who was still trying to escape. However, with its incomplete body, there was no way that it would be able to do so.

With the struggling monster in front of him, Mark smiled sinisterly.

Black flames covered the blade of Ignis. Mark then started hacking on the body of the monster ensuing its screams of both pain and fear.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

Mark laughed sinisterly as he hacked the monster into pieces. Each time a part of the body fell off, he would burn it to ashes.

Unable to endure anymore, the monster slumped down to the ground and turned into lumps of rotting bodies almost immediately. Without the evil spirit preserving the dead bodies it collected, the physical law of the world started to catch onto the bodies.

Realizing that the monster was dead, Mark looked annoyed.

He then kicked the ground with the veins on his legs glowing red.

On the direction, he propelled his body towards, he stretched his hand that he covered in Miasma and grabbed something.

As he opened his hand, a ball of spiritual light appeared while shivering. It was nothing else than the spiritual body of this evil spirit. Commonly known to humans as a spirit orb.

It was something that was composed of pure spirit energy.

As the orb shivered, Mark could tell that it struggling to break free. However, how could he let such a precious thing to go?

Without thinking twice, Mark pulled the sleeves on his right arm revealing the Psycrystal embedded on his arm.

He then shoved the orb unto the crystal.

KKKIIIIRRRRRRYYYYYAAAAAAAAAA!!!

An ear-piercing screech was emitted from the orb as its body started to disappear.

"KUKUKUKU..."

Mark chuckled as the music entered his ear.

After the spirit orb fully disappeared, a black see-through marble-sized crystal came out of the PsyCrystal.

"It looks different."

Mark said as he stared at the crystal in his hand.

"Master, aren't you feeling odd?"

A childish voice of a boy echoed in Mark's mind. He could not help but turn to the sword he held on his right hand.

"Is that you?"

"Yes, master!"

"So, you can do this now."

Mark nodded. It was better this way as he would not need to enter his subconscious world to ask Ignis about things he wanted to know.

"Yeah! I seem so!" Ignis replied with glee. "Wait! That's not the issue here! Master, are you really alright?"

"Hmmm? Why are you asking that? I'm fine. Actually, I feel better. I never felt this way before! As if something locked up finally managed to come out! HAHAHAHA!"

Ignis shivered. Something was definitely wrong.

"HAHAHAHA..."

Mark's laugh however slowly faded.

The darkness in his eyes vanished as it closed and his body fell down surrounded by black flames. At the same time, the black markings that covered his body slowly retracted.

CLANG!

Mark let go of Ignis as he fell unconscious.

Ignis could not help but panic. After Mark let go of it, it started to fly around Mark while calling through his mind. The demon sword did not even realize that it was moving and even flying on its own.