Mutagen

Day ▋▋ - ▋▋:26 PM - Outer Area, Kingdom of Black Duendes, Spirit Dimension

Looking at his surroundings, Mark could not help but frown.

Luserio having the title of a King and being the strongest among the Black Duendes was well deserved. Mark had not met him face to face, but it was, without a doubt, his magic that led Mark to this situation.

Making images appear from thin air, dulling their sense of direction, and even obscuring the presence of the soldiers, they had been affected by several of Luserio's illusions in a short period.

The only different one was the fog, as it was not an illusion but an actual thing. Still, the ability to conjure fog and make it disappear quickly was another feat itself.

Fortunately, Mark was not entirely oblivious to the illusions. He noticed that he had already gone half a lap across the town and stopped. He also detected the flying Demons before they got too close.

The fog only vanished because the soldiers that hid inside it already got detected, and a surprise attack was already impossible to achieve. In that case, even to the Demons, the fog would end up obscuring their sight.

At this point, Mark could only flap his wings, waiting for the right time to attack. Mark took a deep breath, and his frown eased. His grip on Ignis tightened as his eagerness for battle heightened.

Mark observed the winged Demons that surrounded him. They were different from the ones at the castle. These soldiers seemed to be experienced in dealing with these kinds of situations. Now, it made sense how they suddenly got surrounded. These Demon soldiers were from the military barracks outside the town. They all got ready because of the alarm and rushed in at once after locating the intruder.

Nevertheless, none of them moved blindly to attack Mark. Both sides were observing each other. These Demons were not careless to charge at the enemy they knew nothing about.

Furthermore, they had to make sure of one thing.

Lumeria must not be harmed at any cost.

In this moment of stalemate, someone arrived. It was the Lizard Demon, General Dregor together with four other people.

Unexpectedly, two were familiar to Mark. One was one of the two Demons that led the ambush on the warriors of the Stone Fortress, the Bladed Demon. The other was the spy that Mark detected first and let go. Both of the two were riding on a large bat-like creature.

"Release Queen Lumeria at once and we will give you a painless death!"

Dregor, who shouted those words, pointed his sword at Mark as he flapped his green-scaled wings.

Of course, they were not here for negotiation. That was a threat towards Mark.

And this time, Mark started to move.

"Hold on tight."

He whispered to Teremillio and Lumeria.

Mark took everyone by surprise as he charged towards Dregor without any sign of hesitation.

However, surprised they might be, but it did not hinder their assessment of the situation.

Given that Lumeria might accidentally get harmed if they all charged towards Mark, only the group of Dregor prepared to engage.

Being Mark's target, Dregor readied himself to defend and counter-attack. Behind him, the other four high Demons aimed to support. Unfortunately for the Demons, the places they could attack in Mark's body was limited due to his body being covered with a cloak of Miasma. They could only aim for physical attacks as magical ones had a low chance of doing harm and had a chance of harming Lumeria instead.

Fortunately, they knew where Lumeria was being kept in his body. That was why they knew where they would aim their attacks.

CLANG!

Ignis and Dregor's sword, which was as thick as a machete and was shaped like a half-meter long cleaver, clashed with a loud sound.

At that clash, a shockwave pushed everyone back aside from Mark and Dregor.

Dregor could not help but grunt as he witnessed something unexpected. Comparing the two weapons by size, his was a finger while Mark's was a toothpick. It was expected that the odd but thin sword would break when the two clashed.

However, not only Ignis held on...

Dregor's large blade was chipped.

Still, it was not enough for Dregor to stop his movements. His counter-attack came as he twisted his blade, making Ignis stuck at the chip before waving his blade backward.

The sword in the enemy's hand was thrown away because of the force to the Demon's delight.

But then....

"AGH!"

A death cry was heard from behind Dregor.

They could not help but look behind. And to the Demon's shock, the Bladed Demon's heart was impaled by the sword that got thrown behind Dregor. As his life started to get snuffed out, he fell from the creature he was riding on.

No one could believe this sight.

Mark, on the other hand, smirked under his mask. It was according to his plan. Even if Dregor did not make that move, he would feint losing grip of Ignis after a few swings. After all, it was not Dregor who was his actual target but that troublesome Bladed Demon. It was better to get rid of him immediately as he had a highly sensitive intuition.

And for sure, even his intuition did not expect Ignis to fly towards him and pierce his heart after being thrown away by Dregor.

Everyone's eyes were on that dying Demon. That lapse of their attention gave Mark an opportunity.

A black hole appeared before Mark as he took out the [Slicer] and [Divider] from it before charging towards Dregor with the two whip-blades.

It was a bad match-up for Dregor as his large blade could not keep up with the fast-moving blades.

"All of you! Attack!"

Dregor shouted furiously as the enemy before him pushed him back relentlessly.

And with that command, the Demons were delighted.

They did not care about Lumeria's well being any longer. Blood rushed to their heads as they saw one of their comrades die for no reason.

Suddenly, everything became chaotic.

Mark could not help but smile.

Chaos was what he wanted to happen. What was more was that he had not used his Emphatic abilities yet to start this riot.

Magic attacks flew towards Mark. However, most of them vanished upon contact with his cloak. Nevertheless, there were still magical attacks that were needed to watch out for. It was the magical attacks with physical properties like [Stone Bullets] and [Ice Spears] that were also flying towards him.

In any case, Mark did not plan on getting hit by those.

Timing the collision of the magic attacks fired at him, Mark vanished. The explosions in the air obscured everyone's sight as he turned into a surge of black mist. He then appeared behind the nearest Demon, as the [Slicer] sliced off the Demon's neck like tofu.

Blood spurted like a fountain as the head and body of that Demon got separated. Black blood rained towards the ground as the Demon's dead body fell.

That was only the start, however.

Mark appeared and disappeared in different places. Every time he appeared, a Demon's head would fly off, separated from their bodies.

Seeing this spectacle, Dregor was growing more and more furious. He could not understand what was going on. The enemy was only a single person. How come that they were having a hard time taking him down? They could not even touch a hair from him, but they were steadily losing people.

Dregor looked behind him.

"Dualla, Vol'ur. Take the enemy down."

The Demon called Dualla glared at Dregor. His pet just died today because of this idiot's orders. And now, this humanoid lizard was ordering him again.

"Don't wanna."

Dualla said, disregarding their general's orders.

"Dualla!"

Vol'ur called out to his friend. Insubordination was one of the things that had heavy punishment in the Demon military.

However, Dualla was not fazed at all.

"As if I will care for this thing. I had nothing to do with this unless someone is going to give me another pet."

Vol'ur could not help but sigh. Dualla's ability was quite unique, but he had a very childish personality.

"Tch." Dregor clicked his tongue. "I'll fine you another one later! Just do your job properly."

Hearing that, Dualla's eyes lit up.

"You better not forget what you said, or the next target of my magic will be you whether you are my superior or not."

Vol'ur ignored the two and started to attack the enemy.

With a wave of his hand, several magic circles appeared in front of him. From each magic circle, a living chain was summoned. Each chained shot forwards towards the target, moving like homing missiles.

On the other hand, Dualla also joined in. He started waving his hand in front of him with his index finger extended out. It was clear that he was writing something in the air.

As he finished the strokes of his hand, ancient letters glowed in front of him.

"Curse of Ill Fate!"

Dualla shouted as the ancient letters crumbled in front of him. Some sort of invisible energy was released from the ancient letters and flew towards the target.

Mark continued with the one-sided battle. Yes, having more people in a battle was an advantage. However, it would only be applicable if the quality of the soldiers were the same. Here, however, Mark was obviously superior to most of the enemies. His skillset was also their bane.

For Mark, there were many enemies to kill while the other side only had one. It gave him more advantage as he could move quickly from place to place, destroying the enemies' formation and defense.

But then, Mark felt some danger as the clanging of chains entered his ears.

About a dozen chains were already flying towards him. It was evident that the goal was to restrain him. Mark maneuvered, evading the chains but they were too persistent. However, this also gave Mark another advantage over the enemy army.

The chains were chasing him and did not care whether there were other obstacles on their paths. And there, the chains ended up blocking or hitting the other Demons, making it easier for him to eliminate them.

Vol'ur was shocked as his chains were used by the enemy in this manner. It was hateful but also amazing.

Still, there was something strange.

"Dualla, you already casted your curse, right?"

Vol'ur asked Dualla only to see him frowning.

"My curse is ineffective," Dualla replied with his hands shaking. "You remember, right, Vol'ur? My unique ability is to alter fate, forcing bad luck and misfortune. But our enemy... he's someone without fate."

A being without fate. Someone detached from destiny.

Vol'ur could not help but slowly retreat as he came to a realization. Without hesitation, he grabbed Dualla and started to fly away. Because of this, his chains disintegrated without achieving any goals at all.

"You bastards! Where are you going?!"

Dregor shouted in anger as he saw the two Demons flying away."

"If you want to die, then don't drag us with you! Idiot!"

Those were Vol'ur's final words as he took Dualla away to escape.

"General, the situation is not in our favor. The intruder is too strong."

The female spy that was the only person left in Dregor's group spoke.

"Also by the looks of it, your order angered the King of Black Duendes. He is not helping us at all."

Her words made Dregor realize. There was no support coming from Luserio. There was no way that the King of Black Duendes could not see what was happening.

In this case, the female spy was spot on.

Luserio was angry about the Demon's careless actions. The main goal for intercepting the intruder was Lumeria's safety. However, the Demons disregarded it. And thus, the King stood at the highest balcony of his castle, watching the demise of the Demons in the sky.

Beside him, Il'vella could only shake her head. She wanted to appeal for Luserio to aid them but because of their actions, it was unlikely. Now, she could only wait as to when the Playful Tyrant would step into battle.