Mutagen

Knowing that they had no other choice to take, the rebels started to fight back. There was no going back when they chose to follow Renz and his plans.

Emellynn was not an unreasonable person. Her rules were all within reason of moral standards. The problem, however, was how she handled punishments. An honest mistake might be forgiven. But intentional ones were immediately given capital punishment.

Their leader killing their members for their mistakes was not an unfamiliar scene in this base. In truth, some of the members even started to get used to it.

And that was what Renz and those that sided with him could not accept. After all, they did not want to be bound to such strict rules.

Now that they blatantly went against her, there would be no future for them unless they killed this monster of a woman.

RATATATATATA!!!

Gunshots coming from different calibers of guns continued echoing nonstop.

However, their efforts were never enough to take down the enraged Emellynn.

Emellynn continued to throw her conjured icicles as she traversed the field. One of the icicles tore a rebel\'s leg. He was still alive, but he was already out of commission to continue fighting. While screaming in pain, he did not notice that Emellynn was already in front of him until she picked him up.

"M-MISS EMELLYNN!!! LEADER!! F-FORGIVE ME! P-PLEASE SPA-"

SPLURT!

Blood splattered, dyeing Emellynn\'s ice armor in red. Without mercy, she tore the rebel\'s body into two with her ice-covered hands.

Emellynn turned to the other rebels that followed Renz\'s orders.

The sight of her bloodthirsty eyes and body tainted with blood was enough to give them nightmares.

"FIRE! FIRE!"

Renz ordered as he picked up an assault rifle lying nearby and started firing at Emellynn.

But of course, the bullets he fired did not do anything to their faction leader at all. Instead, an icicle came flying towards his direction that he frantically evaded.

"Wew..."

Mark could not help but whistle, seeing how Emellynn was brutally killing her former men. There was no remorse or hesitation. There was only pure burning rage from the bottom of her heart.

Nevertheless, Mark was not surprised.

Mutators had mental traits, after all. And Emellynn\'s Mutator Trait was [Revenge].

The urge to make Renz and his men pay for their sins fueled Emellynn\'s rage to an unbelievable degree. Mark could tell that even if he tried to use his [Emotion Induction] to Emellynn and try to convert her fury into something else, nothing would happen.

Emellynn\'s killing intent was already off the charts and was still increasing at this moment.

"Revenge, huh..."

Mark murmured.

"I\'m surprised. How can you tell?"

Suddenly, a voice asked Mark. It was no other than Felix that was sitting not far from Mark.

Mark turned to Felix, but instead of replying, he took the opportunity to observe him.

Felix appeared to be a young man in his mid-twenties. His fringed up hair was ash-colored that looked natural despite not being a Mutator. It was also impossible that he was an albino since, aside from his hair, he looked like a regular person. There was also his eyes that had red pupils.

Mark could not help but think that Felix was some sort of demon. However, it felt that it was not the case. This man had no demonic aura at all. There were no traces of him emitting magical power either.

Felix let out an interesting smile, sensing that Mark was sizing him up. However, he did not say anything about it. Instead, he turned his eyes back at Emellynn and started to speak.

"Miss Emellynn is such a pitiful woman, isn\'t she?"

\'Pitiful? What the hell is this guy talking about?\'

Mark could not help but think.

"Establishing power is the least of her goals. However, to actually fulfill her goals, she needed to establish power first. But despite what she looked like, she valued her position as it didn\'t only protect innocent people in this place, but she was also holding unto the goals of the people following her sincerely."

Felix then shrugged.

"She must be distraught now, seeing that the people following her are now dead bodies scattered around her."

Mark finally understood. This guy was explaining what was happening to Emellynn right now. No wonder that woman was getting increasingly furious as time went on. The more she saw the bodies scattered around her, her urge to seek revenge accumulated deeper.

"Do you want to know why Miss Emellynn became a member of the rebels?"

Felix asked Mark.

Like before, Mark did not reply. However, Felix still continued.

"Miss Emellynn did not share the same visions of the leaders of the NPA before the outbreak. Establishing a new government? Miss Emellynn did not care for any of that. What she wanted is to get revenge on the current Government."

***

A long time ago, there was a family living in the mountains of Catanduanes. It was a family of four. A father, a mother, their son, and the youngest, their daughter.

Yes, it was far from civilization. It was literally at the foot of the mountains, after all.

However, life was good. Their family was able to use their surroundings, farming vegetables and fishing at the river flowing near their house. They also managed to rear a few pigs that they could sell from time to time.

Selling vegetables and freshwater shrimps to the nearest Barangay that was about two hours away gave funds to their necessities.

Entertainment was not an issue as people living a simple life like this was not hungry for such luxuries.

But of course, the parents had better dreams for their children. But unfortunately, their poor family could not afford to give the son proper education and only finished high school. Because of that, they focused on the education of the daughter.

Putting all their extra income into savings, they managed to enroll the daughter into a university, with a course in agriculture. It was chosen by the daughter in order to help her parents in the future.

Because there were no colleges nearby, the daughter had to go to Virac, Catanduanes to study. It was too far from the mountain where they live and the daughter had to live in a boarding house.

Her studies were going smoothly and she was even a candidate for a spot of the Magna Cum Laude. It was just half a year left and she would finish her studies. She could not wait to bring the magnificent news to her parents and brother.

But before she managed to send the magnificent news, news about her family came to her first.

While eating in a cafeteria outside her school, a piece of certain news on the television took her attention as it happened in the area where her family lived.

It seemed that there was an encounter between the military and the NPA. And as the military reported, they managed to kill the group and identify the culprits.

Furthermore, the military was being praised for managing to eliminate the threat in the area, with some of the soldiers receiving medals. Apparently, it was a huge encounter with a group of rebels that were ambushing the military convoys in the area.

And then, the list of casualties was shown on the local news channel.

The eyes of the daughter dilated as she saw that among the list of dead rebels, her father, mother, and brother were included.

It was impossible to happen.

She collapsed after seeing that news.

As soon as she recovered, she did not care whether she had classes or not. She did not even tell the school about anything. Instead, she rushed home, traveling almost overnight.

The next morning, tired and sleepy, she reached her home at the foot of the mountains, only to see it being cordoned by the military.

Rushing towards her house, she was immediately stopped by the soldiers. They immediately recognized her as a college student since she was still wearing her school uniform.

But when she yelled that it was her family\'s house, the expression of the soldiers changed. Their faces did not show vigilance, but instead, pity.

She was still not allowed to enter her house, but she was instead brought to where the corpses of her family were being kept.

Crying, she shouted and yelled to the soldiers. She asked what in the world happened. She explained that it was impossible for her family to be members of the rebels.

The soldiers did not explain anything. They just looked at her with distraught expressions.

She was broken at her loss. She did not know what to do and what to expect of the future without her family.

She did not know what in the world happened, and no one was explaining anything to her.

The only thing that the military said to her was that the military would take over the expenses of the funeral and burial of her family.

That itself was really odd.

The funeral came. It was an empty room with only her sitting in front of three caskets. After all, they had no known relatives. And who would come to the funeral of people branded as rebels?

At the funeral, a lawyer from the military approached her. It was not to talk about laws and stuff, but instead, she was given an envelope.

Her eyes are empty. She did not even eat properly during the duration of the funeral. It was only by reflex that she received the envelope, not even understanding anything of what the lawyer was saying.

She opened the envelope while the lawyer continued to talk. That was when she saw several checks, with a value totaling half a million Philippine pesos. She was also being urged to sign some paper packed with words that she could not bother to read.

That was when it clicked into her mind.

Hush money.

She was being paid to keep silent about what happened to her family.

Many assumptions started to flood her mind, and anger began to show on her face.

Without a second thought, she tore the envelope and its contents, snatched the contract, and slapped it on the lawyer\'s face. She then ran away.

The girl did not know how long she had been running, but she ended up deep into a forest she was not familiar with.

That was when she met a strange man with ash-colored hair.

To her surprise, the man told her the truth about what happened up to the tiniest detail that made it hard to say that he was lying. He even described her family as if he knew them personally.

And there, the daughter learned that her family was shot to death by a deranged soldier that did not follow the orders from their superior.

The soldier was also injured, shot by one of the rebels on his leg. Losing blood, the soldier started to lose the capability to think straight.

The soldier thought that the hut at the foot of the mountain was an outpost of the rebels. After all, who would build a house in such a desolate area?

And then, he fired indiscriminately.

There was no way that a wall made of nipa palm would stop bullets. Thus, the family that was hiding inside because of the gunshots from the encounter were killed on the spot.

Of course, the military knew this mistake but decided to cover it up. Apparently, the order came up from above, the Government.

After all, there were no witnesses, and the military and the Government would not want to face another backlash.

And there, the daughter swore vengeance against the Government. She promised herself to kill everyone involved in the death of her family, whether it be the military, the Government, or the rebels.

That was how the current Emellynn was born.