Mutagen

"They are too obvious… Well, I guess they can\'t leave their windows open to keep the secrecy of their schemes. We can\'t see what is happening though."

Mark was displeased as he could not directly see what was happening inside. In the least, he could use the emotions and mental fluctuations to monitor the events inside the meeting room to some extent.

As for Mei, she could only eat her soup in silence. She had no idea what was happening inside the room on the opposite building.

"Hmm?" Mark turned his head towards the meeting room. "The show is starting."

He sensed that the man they deliberately ignored as they posed as members of the organization entered the meeting room in panic.

At this time, Mark\'s eyes turned red as he focused on the person who was exuding a natural aura of arrogance and confidence within the people inside the meeting room. For sure, it was the leader of the group inside. Mark then started to influence the subconscious of the man and bolstered the senator\'s urge to know what in the world was happening. At the same time, he also influenced the other people inside differently.

As he succeeded, he sensed that the senator called upon their available shadow people as he sensed the two strange beings appearing inside the room. To get to the bottom of it all as fast as possible, the senator that was influenced by Mark decided to call the two shadow people despite the presence of the other people inside the meeting room.

That was when he succeeded in the second phase.

Since Mark deliberately wore the robes they took from the members of their organization back in NAIA, the survivor of the team that had just narrated the story had his rage flare up.

The man activated his Mutator abilities and transformed while charging towards the two shadow people at the same time.

"Oooops…"

Mark scratched his head.

"Something wrong?"

That action of Mark made Mei ask what happened.

"The show ended already. It just took several seconds… How boring."

Mark complained.

The emotional fluctuations Mark could feel from the survivor vanished. On the other hand, one of the shadow people felt shocked at what had happened.

"Haa… Nevermind. I achieved my goals already. Time for Phase 3. Let\'s go."

Mark downed the contents of his bowl and urged Mei to go. The latter could only copy what Mark did with his food and grabbed his hand.

The two then vanished from the building in a blink of an eye.

***

Day 52 – 8:53 AM – Meeting Room, Government Officials\' Residences, North District, Bay City Settlement, Pasay City, Metro Manila

"ESTRADA! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"

Senator Osmeña furiously shouted while looking at the decapitated body of Fraco lying on the floor.

No one was able to react when Fraco suddenly charged forward with a very thick intent to kill aside from the targets of his attack. Due to suddenly feeling danger the moment they came out, one of the two robed figures counter attacked by reflex and waved his hand towards Fraco. With that counter attack, the transformed Mutator immediately had his head and body separated before falling unto the floor.

The event happened too sudden but the other people here were not stupid.

Fraco had just mentioned that the two people that annihilated his team that was sent to investigate were wearing hooded robes. Before he attacked, he also shouted about the robes the two people Senator Estrada called out.

Although Fraco attacked first, he was easily killed like swatting a fly which also showed that just this two people could be enough to kill those three teams Senator Osmeña sent to investigate.

Everyone in the room looked at Senator Estrada with distrustful eyes.

"You people continue the meeting. I just remember that I have something important to do."

With Raver in the lead, one by one, other members of the faction left the meeting with different alibis. Of course their acting was not good and their alibis could easily be seen through but they did not care anymore. They just wanted to leave no matter what before everything was late.

Without waiting for any reply from Senator Estrada, they scurried off with their guards out of the meeting room. The only one left was Senator Osmeña who was glaring at Senator Estrada.

"I expect an explanation for this you bastard. So much for an alliance."

With those words, Senator Osmeña left without even recovering the body of his subordinate. Although he was infuriated, he also thought that if he continued to stay here, he would be next.

"Devon, what is the meaning of this?"

Senator Estrada turned his head to his guard with a heavy glare. With what just happened, it was very easy to assume the root of this. It could be that Devon moved behind his back and sent his men to kill those survivor teams.

"Senator, we have a deal here, remember? I work following the contract and our organization is the same. It could be that another branch is tasked with this. Or…"

"Or?"

"Someone knew of our organization and was using us to sow discord in the alliance."

Devon said grimly.

If it was the latter case, then, they had been played severely without them knowing. Now that distrust had been placed on the hearts of the leaders of the alliance, their alliance that had yet to take control of the power here in Bay City had already fallen.

This only did not destroy the alliance but also disrupted the plans of the organization behind him.

Devon turned towards the two hooded figures.

"Go investigate the root of this."

The two hooded figures kneeled on one knew before vanishing into their shadows.

With what happened, Devon was itching to punish whoever did this but without any clue, he could only wait.

***

Day 52 - 9:32 AM – Osmeña Residence, Government Officials\' Residences Southwest Building, North District, Bay City Settlement, Pasay City, Metro Manila

"Sir, are you alright?"

His personal guard, Ellisis Siguerra, asked.

Senator Osmeña sat on his chair inside his office bedroom. He was trying to calm himself down but the impact of what happened which kept revolving in his mind was not making him any calmer.

"Damn that Estrada, how could he play us like this?!"

He furiously slammed his fist on his table.

In his view, it was very likely that since the alliance had started to rise due to the huge failure the military made, Senator Estrada decided to weaken the other members of the alliance to remain on top and gain the most power in the settlement. It was easy to have this conclusion given that Senator Estrada\'s thirst for power was too strong even before the outbreak.

Then, Senator Osmeña froze. If that was really the case, he would not bring out his men that could be the main culprits.

He finally calmed down.

"There should be more to this." Senator Osmeña murmured. "Ellisis."

He turned to his guard. However…

What he saw was his guard holding his throat trying to prevent blood from spilling out from the slit on his neck. Ellisis started to stagger backwards slamming on the table and finally falling unto the bed. He tried to scream in pain but only gurgling sounds came out as blood flooded his mouth.

Senator Osmeña on the other hand could not bother anymore about his guard. He was staring at the two figures that suddenly appeared in his office bedroom. One was even holding the bloody black colored dagger that was surely used to slit the throat of his guard.

"To think that I hesitated. Are you two sent by that Bastard?"

He expected that the two who wore the same kind of robes the men of Senator Estrada had was actually sent by him. To his surprise…

"Nope. What\'s in your mind is right. Senator Estrada is not the one behind the killings of your subordinates and the other survivor teams under your alliance."

The man spoke nonchalantly. He was even shrugging his shoulders.

"Wh-what! Then, who are you people! Why are you doing this?!"

Senator Osmeña tried to probe while his hand was moving to grab something from his waist.

Finally managed to get hold of the thing, he immediately pointed it to the assailants. It was a Desert Eagle 1191 semi-automatic pistol. With this, his confidence was raised as he glared at the two assailants.

"Tell me! Why are you two doing this?!"

The male did not seem to mind the gun being pointed at him and was just looking at the retired Senator as if he was an idiot. When the gun was pointed at the female however…

CLACK! TING! TING!

The man vanished and the next thing that the retired Senator was holding a disassembled gun that had its parts fallen unto the floor.

BAM! BAM!

"SIR WHAT IS HAPPENING THERE!?"

The guards outside finally arrived as they heard the commotion inside the room. They started knocking heavily on the door.

"What are you shouting there behind the door?! Get inside already!"

Senator Osmeña shouted. However, the one that answered him was the voice of the male assailant in the room.

"No one will be able to enter…"

Senator Osmena stared at the man that was now standing beside the door wide eyed. He could not hear his guards outside anymore and all he could see was the blood seeping unto the gap below the door.

"What…"

He was horrified.

"I have a question." The male assailant spoke. "Do you know anything about Auraboros?"

Auraboros, a portmanteau of the words Aura and Ouroboros. It was the name of the international underground organization that had influence in almost every country in the world. That was the same organization that founded Death Valley Settlement in Quezon and the ones standing behind Senator Estrada.

"Auraboros… You mean that organization? I don\'t know anything!"

"No? By your reaction, you have dealings with them before. But you\'re not lying. What a blunder."

The male assailant sighed while the retired Senator felt relief. He was not lying at all and knew nothing. There was a deal between him and that organization before but it was all done through a middleman. However, the next words of the assailant made retired Senator Osmeña horrified.

"In any case, you have to die."

"Why?! I told you I know nothing!"

"That\'s not the reason I\'m going to kill you though?"

The male assailant pointed at his partner making the retired senator turn towards her.

His eyes turned wide as the female assailant removed the hood and mask that covered her head and face.

p "Y-you!"

That familiar face known by everyone in Bay City.

"You should be dead already!"

"Don\'t curse her like that." The male assailant walked towards him. "She\'s just abducted, remember? But of course, that is different from what your alliance planned. You all wanted her dead. Well, she\'s alive and will continue living. As for you guys who plotted on her and your arrogant but useless subordinates, you all will die instead."

The man touched the retired Senator\'s neck and he felt something entering his body. Terrified, he tried to resist only finding that he could barely move his body at all. As seconds passed, he started to lose the ability to move even his toe.

He felt weakened and his body felt heavy and his head started to feel dizzy. His whole body felt painful every time he tried to move as if his body was being torn from inside.

The assailant finally removed his hand and the senator\'s body that could not move fell on the floor in the same position. That caused the still living senator to feel pain that was more than equivalent of all the pain he felt in his whole life.

"I turned half of your blood into metal blocking half your blood vessels to limit the blood flow in your body. You will die suffering for a while. Well, if you wanted to die already, just force your body to move so you will tear your blood vessels inside your body and cause internal bleeding. In any case, no one can save you."

The assailant kneeled and whispered unto the retired senator\'s ears. He then stood up and made his way to Mei Xiao and the two vanished from the room as if they were never there.

It took a half days\' time and shocking news shook the entire Bay City. Retired Senator Osmeña and all his men were massacred inside his residences. Fortunately, his family members were fine and were just confined inside one of the rooms.

All everyone knew was that the massacre was caused by two people wearing hooded robes.