Mutagen

"Steel yourselves!!! Do not falter!!!"

Only those words were what Merio could shout to encourage his men.

Still, it was not something that would help in their current situation.

The Demons in front, the infected at the sides, and the raging flames behind them.

They were trapped. Neither going forward nor retreating was possible.

The only thing that they could do was fight.

Helpless, the remaining warriors could only watch their comrades fall while trying their best not to be in the same circumstance themselves.

Eaten, bitten, and turning to dust, those were the only outcome that they would end up with if the situation kept on.

If not for the fact that Diwata Danaya\'s blessing was protecting them, it would not be surprising that all of them might have fallen already, either by the hands of the infected or the demons.

Even so, their current number was far less than half of what they had before all this started.

But how did all of this happened in the first place?

***

It started just the other day when Teremillio\'s group was suddenly called back to the Mortal World. During their absence, a large group of Spirit Races came to seek shelter from the outbreak. Among that group, the leader was surprisingly the fifth prince of the Kingdom of Black Duendes, just a mountain away at the south.

Without a doubt, he was one of Teremillio\'s siblings.

He was the fifth Prince of the South-East Mountain Kingdom, Tierio.

Together with the arrival of this group, the news about the fall of the Kingdom of Black Duendes came. This large group was among the possible survivors of their fallen kingdom.

And here, things became quite complicated.

Even at the time of their ancestors, Black Duendes were infamous for their negative influence in both the Mortal and Spirit Worlds.

The Duendes, no matter what color, they were playful creatures. They loved to play tricks and pranks on other races, especially the ones bigger than them. Of course, unless they were enraged, their playful attitude barely harmed others.

Well, except for the black ones. They loved seeing others getting hurt by their pranks. Sometimes, this attitude would lead to permanent damage to the victim, or worse, death. That was why other races would rather stay away from them.

However, at this point, every race needed to unite if they wanted to survive. The world where the races could live safely was getting smaller and smaller, after all.

And thus, even though all of them rejected it in their hearts, they welcomed the group into the fortress.

It was a bad idea.

Tierio\'s personality was awful. He behaved like it was an honor for the Stone Fortress to have him around. And the worst part, he demanded to stay in the inner walls of the fortress.

However, it was impossible. The inner areas of the fortress were where the real citizens and very important guests of the Stone Fortress were staying. In fact, even the representatives of the races were not staying here. They were only allowed to go in and out, but they were still staying inside the outer walls. The only time that other races were allowed in the inner areas were during emergencies like back then when the giant infected attacked.

When Tierio was not allowed to do what he wanted, he did not argue too much. However, he and his group started to cause trouble to the others that were staying inside the outer walls.

Just in the few hours that they arrived, complaints about his group\'s behavior piled up.

But the thing that triggered Tierio the most was when Teremillio\'s group returned. Their group brought back unbelievable information about events going to happen in the future. The problem with most of the races not believing the news they brought back was for another time.

But the fact that Teremillio could enter and exit the inner walls freely was unbelievable to his brother that recognized him.

It was not unexpected that they still recognized each other after not meeting for several decades. Most races in the Spirit Dimension were long-lived, after all, and their appearance barely changes even after a hundred years past their adulthood.

A confrontation happened between the two princes of the Black Duendes. Teremillio was shocked by the news that the kingdom he abandoned in the past had fallen. The fate of his beloved mother was unknown.

On the other hand, Tierio could not believe that this traitorous sibling of his was actually held highly in the Stone Fortress. And like a true villain, he tried to ride on the coattails of his younger brother to try and get better treatment in the fortress.

But of course, it would not work here. Even Teremillio did not want to acknowledge any connection to the Black Duendes. This thing was one of the reasons why he left that place and abandoned his position as a prince in the first place.

And as anyone would expect, the jealous nature of the Black Duendes overwhelmed Tierio. He was envious of Teremillio\'s position here. He was envious that while their kingdom had fallen, this classless kingdom carved from a mountain was still standing tall.

Everyone became aware of Tierio\'s state of mind as he started to become more irritable and troublesome.

And then, the next morning, they found out that Tierio and his loyal men left the Stone Fortress. The people of the fortress could not care less, though. They had a lot of problems to deal with and a nuisance like Tierio leaving the place was for the best.

Another night passed, the current day came.

Suddenly, the information of hordes of infected moving towards the mountain for an unknown reason came from the scouts. It was a number that would definitely render the illusion in the forest useless.

The illusion in the forest work through muddling the victim\'s sense of direction, and forcing a large number of infected at the same time would cancel the need for the illusion to have enough space to work.

And thus, the Stone Fortress dispatched their warriors to deal with the incoming horde.

It was a hard battle, but they were doing fine. There were casualties, but as it was a deadly battle, some things could not be stopped from happening.

But then, in the middle of the battle against the infected, the army of demons came out of nowhere. It was a bad timing since most of them were already tired after fighting the infected horde. Besides, they were not even halfway through the battle yet.

Shockingly, they actually saw Tierio and his entourage leading the demons. They could not tell what was going on. Just how in the world did those Black Duendes get into a deal with the demons?

But that was not the time to think of other things. They needed to deal with the current situation first.

The first option in this situation was to retreat. Second, it was to send a messenger to the Stone Fortress to send reinforcements. They picked the latter since there was no way that they would let this huge number of infected into the illusion.

Merio sent an Anggitay messenger to rush towards the Stone Fortress, carrying the information about the current situation.

But then, a minute after their messenger rushed into the forest, the forest burst into flames. As everyone felt the sudden influx of magical energy in the surroundings, they were sure that the forest was magically ignited.

Not only did it cut their ways of retreat, but it also stopped the fortress from sending reinforcements.

Now, it clicked into everyone\'s mind. From the sudden influx of the number of infected to the forest bursting into flames, everything was orchestrated by Merio and his group.

Even maybe, everything that happened so far since Tierio\'s group arrived was a farce, and everything was already planned since there.

Maybe, this would not have happened if they did not let that accursed people enter the fortress in the first place.

Everyone was losing hope. Even Diwata Danaya\'s blessing would not save them from their current predicament. It would be good if the Diwata could come here and aid them, but for sure, she was busy making sure that the fortress did not succumb to the heat and flames.

They were losing hope.

But then, they saw the familiar visage of a dragon coming from the west.

Their plummeting morale started to soar once more.

Not only Merio\'s comrades saw it, of course. The demons too, and they were shocked. Seeing Tierio\'s face warping into disbelief made the General feel like laughing.

Feeling the threat it had, the demons sent their demonic bats towards the dragon.

But everyone saw how it swooped through the hordes of demonic bats, tearing everything that blocked its path.

When the dragon entered the burning forest and was obscured by the smoke, the warriors of the Stone Fortress knew that they only needed to hold their position a bit more.

Soon, help would come.

***

With that reminiscence in mind, Merio slashed an infected in front of him. He then turned towards the demon that was trying to sneak from his back.

CLANG!

The demon\'s claw and Merio\'s sword clashed with a loud metallic sound.

"You must be the leader of these warriors. I\'ll be the one to take your head."

The demon smirked with a bloody smile.

Merio did not care about talking and pushed the demon\'s claws away before trying to slash the demon\'s flank. With the Duende General\'s swift moves, his attack connected with the demon\'s body.

But...

CLANG!

The sword and the demon\'s skin created another metallic noise after clashing.

Then, Merio immediately stepped to the side.

SPURT!

Blood splattered. Merio\'s left shoulder was pierced by one of the demon\'s claws.

The battle-hardened General did not utter any sound of pain as he was lifted off the ground despite his currently human-sized body. This demon was a few heads taller than him and lifted him using that claw with ease. Being lifted like that, however, did not stop the General from attacking with his sword, trying to break himself free.

"Do not bother. I can make my skin as hard as metal." The demon smiled. "Like I said before, I will be taking your head."

Seeing Merio\'s predicament, some warriors charged in to help.

"DON\'T GET AWAY!"

Merio tried to stop them.

CLANG!

One of the warriors managed to land his sword on the demon\'s body. Like before, however, it did no damage at all.

"You\'re in the way."

The demon scored as he waved his free hand towards the warrior.

With a swift movement of the demon\'s claws, the warrior\'s head was sent flying away. The warrior\'s headless body fell on its knees before turning to dust. It was the same end of every Spirit and Elementals that fell in this battle.

Even so, Merio smiled.

"Even if I die here, you bastards won\'t achieve what you wanted."

He said those words, fearlessly staring at the demon\'s glowing eyes.

"Hahahaha!" The demon laughed. "Are you putting your hope on that dragon? Who said that we don\'t have anything that could rival that?"

Of course, demons had all kinds of accursed things. They also had demonic creatures that could rival dragons.

Still, Merio shook his head confidently.

"You will never understand."

That attitude seemed to have irked the demon. He did not speak any further and brandished his other set of claws to tear Merio apart.

The demon swiped his arm. Merio closed his eyes, accepting his end. The other warriors around tried to help, but they were also overwhelmed by the other demons and infected. But then...

CLANG!

A loud metallic sound echoed by Merio\'s ear.

"Looks like you have a plot armor General."

And a familiar voice came along with it.

"Who-who are you?!"

The demon\'s shocked voice was heard as Merio opened his eyes.

Standing before him was the person he was expecting, blocking the large claws of the demon with his armored arm.

The man did not reply to the demon and kicked the demon\'s body away while pulling Merio off from its claws.

"Thank you."

Merio said as the man, Mark, put him down. He was still not safe, though, and his shoulder was bleeding profusely.

"Don\'t thank me. I\'m getting paid for this, you know?" Mark retorted. "Still, I\'m surprised. I didn\'t expect to encounter a Demon Mutator here."

Mark stared at the demon that he just kicked away. On the other hand, the demon was also wary of Mark.

"Well, first of all, I better deal with the forest fire, first."

He said as he raised his hand with a glowing crystal in front of his palm.