Mutagen

Day 368 - 5:42 PM - Balong, Pucakwangi, Pati Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

While Mark's battle had just begun, the people left behind on Mountain Back were in utter confusion.

It was because the soldiers who went to search for survivors from the main camp returned in such a peculiar manner. They were in such a hurry that they did not feel like trained soldiers but panicking civilians.

Those who approached the soldiers who had already returned immediately asked what happened. However, the answers were vague as they only replied with the sky turning night and a sudden attack from men who hovered in the sky.

But as General Wijaya and Spera finally returned, they immediately closed the portal.

It immediately occurred to them that someone was missing.

"Spera. Where's Master?"

Aephelia asked Spera, who could only sigh after receiving such a question.

The members of Mark's group also approached with the same question in mind.

However, the person who should be the one to ask the question first was not around. When Spera looked around the surroundings, she found the person in question.

Mei, however, was not anywhere near Spera and the others. She was quite a distance away, looking at the western horizon with clasped hands on her chest. It seemed that she already received a message from Mark through their rings.

Seeing Mei's behavior, Spera finally answered.

"The Deity and the Goddess before appeared. They are still fighting, so I don't think they would be the problem."

General Wijaya also had the same answer to the leaders of the survivor groups with them. However, unlike the General, Spera had more information.

"Shin also appeared along with someone else."

Spera added.

"Shin?" Emika could not help but exclaim. "If it's just Shin, there should be no problem, right?"

"If it's Shin, yes," Spera showed a conflicted expression. "But the Shin now isn't the Shin we know. It's... It's The Great One."

Silence befell the group after Spera's words.

Hannah, Elise, Felicia, and Louis were not yet members of Mark's base when the fight against The Great One occurred. However, after arriving at the Mountain Base, they had no choice but to know the story after seeing the aftermath of the battle. After hearing Spera mention that infamous name, they could not help but feel the seriousness of the situation.

"Hey? Who is that with the arrogant-sounding name?"

The childish voice of Kana, the bubbly, blue-haired girl from the 3rd Wave, entered the ears of the members of Evernight. Instead of joining her groupmates to ask General Wijaya, she joined this crowd for some reason.

However, no one questioned her odd behavior due to the situation.

"Another Deity," Spera frankly answered. "Someone stronger and more violent than the one we met in that underground cathedral."

"Hueh?!"

Kana was shocked, speechless. It seemed that despite her bubbliness, she understood the danger.

"Then Mark left there with those dangerous people?"

Kana asked, and everyone could only display the look of dismay.

"Shoul-Should I go there and help?"

Amihan voiced out.

However, the one to answer her question was Mei, who finally walked to join the crowd.

"Stay here, Amihan. Gege said that you need to protect this place."

It seemed that Mei was also against Mark's orders since Amihan would be helpful in his current situation. However, she decided to follow his words.

"Then, what are we going to do? Are we just going to wait?"

Elise voiced out, worried about her Elder Brother.

"If we can only see what was happening there..."

Hannah murmured loud enough for everyone to hear.

"THAT'S IT!"

Emika exclaimed, surprising everyone.

"SIS!," Emika turned to Mei. "THE DRONE! THE DRONE FROM BEFORE! YOU HAVE IT RIGHT? We can watch through that! "

"I do, but..."

Mei answered as she raised her hand, showing her [Spatial Ring].

"Are we going to fly the drone from here to there? That will not work. That's too far."

Spera voiced out.

However, Emika turned to Spera with a "What are you talking about?" kind of look.

"You have portals! Open a small portal! Put the video receiver on the other side and stick out the antenna from the controller! Then control it from here, and we can also watch through the laptop!"

Emika explained her absurd idea.

However, there was a short silence as Mei and Spera immediately made their moves. As absurd as it might sound like, Emika's idea might actually work.

Emika's shouting and the odd actions of the members of Evernight confused the Indonesian survivors even more.

Not minding the confused stares, the members of Evernight began making a makeshift viewing area. It was because, aside from the drone and the laptop, Mei actually took out a projector with the other gadgets.

"Why do you have a projector?"

Spera could not help but ask.

"Don't ask me why..." Mei bitterly replied. "Gege is the one who brought it. I'm just carrying it."

"Still..." Mei looked at the drone in front of them. "It's been a while since we used this."

Mei could not help but have a nostalgic smile as she gazed at the drone. It was the drone Mark got way back in City Mall in Bacoor. It could be counted as one of Mark's oldest gadgets since the outbreak started.

"Spera."

Mei said, making Spera nod. Since everything was set up shortly, it was now time for Spera to participate. After Spera opened a small portal, they moved the drone and the necessary equipment to the other side, leaving a few wires through the open portal and connected to the laptop and projector.

The other survivors gathered, confused and interested as to what the members of Evernight were doing.

Soon enough, the video feed from the drone was projected on the sheet of cloth set up in front of the projector.

What was projected was a scene filled with ruins and trees. It was a familiar scene to General Wijaya and the soldiers that accompanied him.

"Semarang?"

General Wijaya voiced out in askance. However, no one bothered to answer him.

The video was pretty dark. It was as if it was being taken deep in the night, although there should still be some sunlight at this time of day. This was not surprising since the appearance of the Night Goddess in the area was reported. Nonetheless, the expensive drone's camera allowed them to see enough details of the surroundings.

Using the video feed as guidance, Mei controlled the drone to slowly take off.

After nearly a minute of revving up and taking off, the drone flew over the ruins, and everything else blocking its view vanished.

Even so, the surroundings became darker as they could only see the sky in the video.

But as if showing them what was going on, bright meteor-like flames bloomed like gigantic flowers in the sky. It illuminated a figure of a man hovering in the sky, extending one of his hands toward another silhouette with a sword and tainted-black wings.

The giant meteor flew toward the winged silhouette.

However, the winged silhouette charged towards the meteor instead of dodging. And with a flash of his sword, the meteor was horizontally cut. The cut pieces flew past the winged silhouette before exploding.

Without looking at the explosion behind him, the winged silhouette flew straight towards the man who conjured the meteor.

In response to the charging winged silhouette, the hovering man stretched his arms outwards like a T-pose. And from his hands, dozens, if not hundreds, of shimmering marble-sized flames appeared.

Then, the marble-sized flames moved at bullet speeds, flying while leaving curved trails of light, converging at the winged silhouette amidst his charge.

As he faced the incoming barrage, the winged silhouette became clad in mist-like darkness, nearly invisible in the night-like surroundings. However, that dark mist could be seen illuminated by the flames as it erratically swerved between trails of light.

Missing the target, the trails of light fell to the ground. Each impact shook the earth as they exploded into pillars of flames around three meters tall.

But then, the impacts on the ground stopped. The other trails of light that missed the dark mist began sharply curving as they turned around, chasing after their target.

Now, the dark mist was besieged by the marble-sized flames from all directions.

However, when the dark mist was about to get hit by attacks from all directions, it stopped moving.

Then, in the blink of an eye, there was only darkness. The dark mist formed a sphere larger than the meteor before. All the flames that entered the mist sphere vanished without a trace as if the flames were being eaten by the mist.

The mist sphere then expanded, more than quadruple in size, even forcing the hovering man to retreat. In the blink of an eye, all the lights in the area vanished as if they never existed. The marble-sized flames and the traces of fire spread by the explosions disappeared.

And as if it reached its maximum expansion, the mist sphere began to contract. It unstably shrunk and expanded. It was like a raging force of nature trying to break out after being forcefully put under control.

The mist sphere then vanished, revealing the winged silhouette once again.

After exchanging that terrifying round, the two silhouettes hovered in the air, seemingly staring at each other.

"What are we even watching..."

Estia of the 3rd Wave could not help but voice out after seeing the inhuman battle happening in the video. It was not only her thoughts, as everyone watching was the same.

Among the Indonesian spectators, three people had a different reaction.

Dr. Willis was really excited by what they were watching. It was not surprising, considering his profession and personality.

The other one was Devon, who watched the video feed with interest. He sure was quite interested in Val'Flora's client.

Last was Limabela. She stared at the two silhouettes in the video, remembering her prophetic visions. The figures of darkness and flames in her visions were perfectly overlapping with the ones she was currently watching.

It was clear to Limabela that the realization of her visions was coming closer and closer. And it was not a good thing.

The worst thing for Limabela was the fact that her visions stopped after the last one during the time they were still spreading the badges to unmask the [Face Wearers]. It was as if the future had been cut off for her... for everyone.

Limabela could not understand what was happening. It was making her more and more uneasy and unstable about the current situation.

"Limabela, are you okay?" The timid Livia asked Limabela in worry. "You look really pale right now."

"You should rest..." Nelia also chimed in. "You've been taking care of Luna without proper sleep."

Bajing and Edge also agreed with Nelia's suggestion.

However, Limabela shook her head.

"I'm fine. Don't worry."

"You're clearly not," Nelia sighed. "But if you insist... Just don't say we did not warn you if you suddenly collapsed."

Limabela gave he friends a nod and focused on the video feed once again. It was because some change was happening amidst the battle.

Without warning, the video suddenly brightened. The night-like darkness vanished, replaced by the light of the sky amidst sunset.

Looking at that scene, it was clear what happened.

The Night Goddess fled once again. And all that was left were four silhouettes in the sky, with one facing the other three.

Was it a good thing that the Night Goddes escaped? After all, the Deity of Soul Sacrifice failed to catch his creation once again. And if they wanted to catch the Night Goddess, they had to chase after her.

The enemies might choose to just leave.

But when everyone thought that the fight could end here...

"WHA-?!!"

"What!"

"NO WAY!"

A commotion broke out among everyone watching the battle.

It was because everything suddenly went dark. It was still sunset. But all of a sudden, it became night.

With their legs shaking, the survivors tried to deny the reality before their eyes.

However, the members of Evernight had already begun retrieving the drone and their equipment.

CRASH!

With a loud sound, something crashed not too far from them.

"Get ready for battle!"

It was the first time they all heard Mei shout and take the leadership of the group.