Mutagen

They were happy to avert a slow, but surely an incoming disaster that they would not be able to avoid. Well, unless everyone was interested in abandoning the only safe place they had left. And that was the very last resort they would want to take considering how dangerous it was. Even when hunting animals outside the territory of the Eastern Mountain, there was an immense risk of encountering the infected.

Mind it, that not only that the infected were still capable of magic, they also had highly enhanced bodies, compared to the ones that were not infected. Even if the infected were lacking in terms of intelligence, a single infected Tikbalang could surely wipe the floor against a whole squad of soldiers. There were also the mutations of some that made them even far more threatening than human infected.

None of the residents of the Stone Fortress would want to live in such an environment outside the Eastern Mountain. Thus, the representatives were also happy that their people would not experience as such.

Still, for a threat that they could not do anything about to be killed by a small group, they needed to know the exact details of the event. Especially for the king and queen of the Sylphs, this event meant a lot for the two. They did not only lose their kingdom and people. Some of the members of their royal family were also gone.

In fact, the king and queen of Sylphs caused quite a ruckus together with a few Sylphs and their remaining son and daughter. Apparently, one of the six Sylphs Aephelia took back was actually the infected first princess. She sacrificed herself to let her siblings escape at the last moment. To see her in her current state, it was not wrong for the former royal family to react like that.

Fortunately, Danaya managed to calm them down. In the first place, there was nothing that the Royal Family of Sylphs could do. The princess was already infected. If they demanded to return her, Mark had no problems agreeing to consider that he got some items from their kingdom. However, he would have Aephelia cancel her control on the princess. At that point, the infected princess, who had quite a large amount of magic, would end up endangering everyone.

She would have to be killed to prevent casualties.

Nothing would change, and they would have to see their beloved family member get killed for the second time. They would not want that and just relented.

And thus, after gathering everyone in the meeting room, Diwata Danaya recounted the events she witnessed.

Hearing that their first idea of making everyone march to kill that thing could have ended up in a disaster, they felt shivers on their backs. Then, learning about how Mark dealt with the creature and the thousands of infected Sylphs there, they felt quite nervous. Luckily, they did not try to offend such a being.

Furthermore, Danaya affirmed to everyone that Mark was way more powerful than her. If they offended him in any way, she would not be able to do anything, and they could just pray for mercy.

Therefore, Danaya warned everyone here that even if they chose not to form a full alliance, they should not offend such a Mark and their group.

That made everyone even more nervous. Hieromano reported what had happened this morning. Learning about it, Danaya could not help but frown. She looked at Amayana, who was looking down nervously.

"Where are those idiots now?"

Danaya asked.

"In the dungeons, Diwata."

Hieromano replied.

"Heiromano, lead me there. Amayana, you also come with me. Everyone else can leave."

"Yes, Diwata Danaya."

They all respectfully replied.

Led by the king and queen of the Duendes, Danaya and Amayana went the lowest level of the fortress where the dungeons were located.

And there, they felt a bit confused.

The Duendes in human size guarding the dungeons had nervous expressions while watching the cell holding the brigands. Even the other races imprisoned in their cells were very nervous and were trying their best to shrink themselves to the furthest corner of their cell.

That made Danaya and the others feel strange. It was until...

"Neigh! Geua! Gahhha!!"

They heard painful and choking sounds inside the cells.

Before everyone was able to react, Amayana rushed towards the cells. Danaya, Hieromano, and Malabinia followed behind her immediately.

They were then subjected to a chilling sight.

Mark was there, lifting Narquico, the Tikbalang with red-colored mane, by his neck. No one knew how Mark could have found this place that easily as it was a secured area that no one could enter at will. Furthermore, the cell was still locked from the outside, and yet, he was inside.

Aside from Narquico, the other Tikbalangs in the group were lying down around the cell, wailing in pain with injuries. At the wall of the cell, a large crack could be seen with blood smeared all around it. That was when they noticed that Narquico\'s back seemed to be bleeding profusely.

And the last thing, they saw strands of golden hair scattered on the floor.

Then, with his arm holding the leader glowing red brightly, Mark slammed Narquico towards the wall once more.

BAM!

GUACK!

The slam was too powerful that everyone inside the dungeon felt the tremor. Blood spurted out of Narquico\'s mouth, some of it splattered on Mark\'s arm and face.

That seemed to have irked Mark further. With a fierce expression, he was ready to slam the Tikbalang towards the wall once more.

"STOP!"

Amayana finally managed to react. Her shout made Mark pause and look at her.

"What do you want?"

Mark asked, glaring at Amayana. This sinister glare, accompanied by the blood on his face, was terrifying to see. There was also a very heavy killing intent being emanated from him.

Amayana could not help but step back, causing her horse bottom to knock on the metal bars of the cell at the opposite side of the hallway.

Seeing the Anggitay afraid, Danaya went forward herself.

"Mark, do you plan on killing them?"

Mark turned to Danaya and replied.

"I won\'t. These idiots still have a use for me. Creating an illusion and such. Like how you did around this place. But that doesn\'t mean they needed to have their bodies intact, right?"

Hearing that, everyone that heard him felt chilling shivers crawling on their backs. It was even more for the Tikbalangs that were inside the cell he was in. As for Narquico, he could not react anymore, he was on the verge of passing out.

"Can we talk about this?"

Danaya asked.

"What talk?"

Mark said, tightening his grip on the large neck of Narquico make him choke.

"Could you please put him down first, let\'s talk somewhere else."

Danaya tried to calm Mark as much as possible. She wished that she took a Kibaan with her. In the least, their voices and songs could calm people.

Mark looked at the horse-head on his hands and at Danaya. He had no problems with her, and she tried to be as hospitable as possible after learning what he was. Thus, he did not have problems agreeing with her request. He could give punishment to these idiots for another time.

And thus, like a dirty rag, the blood-covered Narquico, was tossed onto the floor.

Mark then turned into black smoke, which swept across the floor before moving out of the cell through the gaps. He then appeared outside with the golden hairs back on his hand.

The Amayana, Hieromano, and Malabinia were surprised as it was the first time they saw this even after hearing about it from the Diwata. As for the guards and the other prisoners, it seemed that they saw Mark do this before when he entered as they were not as surprised as the three.

"Can you talk now?"

Mark asked.

"If possible, we can talk somewhere else."

Danaya asked once more.

"It\'s fine here. I know that you don\'t have anything to talk about yet. You just bidding for time for an idea."

He said with a nonchalant glare. The Diwata was stumped.

What Mark said was true. They were here to see and discuss what to do regarding the Tikbalangs. Mark\'s appearance here was unexpected.

"You got me."

The Diwata sighed.

"I just want you to stop what you are doing right now. We want to catch them for a long time already, but you know that Tikabalangs are not that easy to contain either. Now that they are caught, they can become a good asset to strengthen our defenses against the Infecta."

"But it is MY WIFE that caught them. The same person that THEY tried to sexually assault along with my companions. They are already lucky that they did not aim for my daughters or they are already dead now despite what use they have."

Mark spoke with emphasis on several things and a chilling glare that could put anyone into the abyss.

Still, Danaya had her won appearance to maintain. She stared straight at Mark not minding how deep his stare was.

"I did not ask for them freely. I know where you are coming from. If not for the current situation, their crimes did not only warrant banishment but public execution. You wanted to punish them for what they did and only needed their magic, am I right? We needed their strength. That is why, if possible, we can arrange some amendments. Although we have not fully decided yet, maybe, we can exchange them for some other Tikbalangs or other races we as slaves and prisoners. So please, suspend what you wanted to do until we could assess things fully."

Mark did not seem to be very contented with that.

That was when Amayana spoke.

"I beg of you not to do anything further."

Mark looked at her and spoke.

"Even if he is like that, he is still your brother, is it?"

Those words shocked everyone. The shock for Amayana was even deeper. After all, no one knew about this aside from her and Narquico. However, the truth was already out of the bag. Amayana folded her leg, lowering her horse body to the ground. She then lowered her body into a bow.

"I beg of you."

It was the lowest stance an Anggitay could give to someone. Furthermore, she was the strongest among the Anggitays and their current representative in this place. For her to lower herself like this in front of everyone was akin to stepping down from her status.

"Tsk." Mark clicked his tongue and turned to Danaya. "I will wait for what you all will decide. Rember that I don\'t want to be on the losing side considering that you all requested this."

He said as he turned into Black Smoke which swiftly disappeared from the dungeons. In his spot, thirty-six strands of golden hair slowly fell down to the ground.

Seeing him disappear, the atmosphere in the dungeons felt several times lighter.

Danaya could now breathe deeply.

As for Amayana, she waited for all the strands of golden hair to fall to the ground, picked it all one by one, before slowly getting up. She felt that her status fell to dirt now. However, she did not regret it. She did not hate her brother and wanted to catch him to change him slowly. Unfortunately, he was too slippery and grew as strong as her. Now that the chance came, she would do everything to not lose it.

Now, however, another dilemma came.

It was because it would be hard to find anyone to compare to this group. Even disregarding their physical strength that Mark did not need, their magical abilities were among the strongest in their races too. It would be almost impossible to find a replacement.

Just what would they do now that they promised something like this?

Things could have been different if these brigands were caught for targeting other individuals. But to be caught because they targeted the people of someone that even she did not want to offend. They were asking to die.

Unfortunately, they could not lose this group no matter what their sin was in the past. They needed every strong individual they could find.

In the Mortal World, the apocalypse could be handled with quantity over quality of quality could not be achieved.

It was different for the Spirit Dimension. They could only aim for quality even if they had quantity. That was the difference in the strength of these individuals.

Danaya wanted to cry for having some idiots in her territory.