Mutagen

When Mark\'s group left the island of Catanduanes, the battle against the Demons was yet to end. But with the main forces of the Demons scattered and mostly destroyed, it was just a matter of time.

In a few days, the Demon encampment in the Municipality of Bato was destroyed, and most of the captured humans were saved. Only most because a lot of them were not in any condition to be saved any longer. Most of the women that became seedbeds for the Demons were better killed off as their minds were broken and their bodies had been severely corrupted to continue living as humans.

Thus, those unfortunate people were given the fate they wanted long before their sanity vanished. Deaths.

Those who remained, especially the males that became slaves, were escorted to the military outpost in Virac. They should be able to start a new life with the help of the soldiers.

Of course, it was done without the magical creatures under Diwata Iraya showing themselves to the soldiers.

Unfortunately, the arrival of the survivors was a bit wrong timing. It was when the rebellion in Codon was happening, and the soldiers in Virac were also busy. Thus, the reception was not exactly good. However, it was still way better than how the survivors were treated in the Demon encampment.

The Demon encampment was destroyed, and the victims were brought to justice. However, the issue with the Demons had yet to end. Many of them managed to flee into the secluded mountains of the island.

And at the same time, Diwata Iraya was preparing for the incoming catastrophe. After all, there was no way she would leave it to fate as it concerned her people and the lives on the entire island. Fortunately, Mark\'s presence on this island allowed them to know of it and was given a chance to prepare.

Fortunately, the sanctuary was a subspace maintained by Diwata Iraya. Anything that happened outside should not affect it.

Or that was what they thought.

Diwata Iraya severely underestimated the catastrophe. Hiding inside a separate fabric of space did not do them any good.

It was because the moment the catastrophe started, the barrier separating the sanctuary from the mortal realm was instantly broken.

And the moment the sanctuary was fused to the mortal reality, they could only look at the sky while enduring the strong shaking of the ground.

A gigantic piece of space debris was falling unto the island. Everyone felt horror as they watched such a scene, and Diwata Iraya was no exception.

Although a barrier appeared to protect the residents of the sanctuary, there was no way that the impact and other effects of the fall of the debris would not affect everyone inside.

In fact, the impact and explosion alone could annihilate everything since the barrier was only protecting those inside from direct damage. Worse, the sanctuary was not that far from the impact zone and would definitely receive damage and casualties.

And even before the space debris crashed, everyone in the sanctuary could already feel its extremely hot temperature after entering the atmosphere. Everything nearby began to catch fire, especially the flora atop the mountains.

When that thing crashed, everything near its crater became ablaze, and it spread fast. Mountains near it began collapsing while the shockwave brought large stones to shoot everywhere at great speeds. A direct hit from stones alone could kill anyone.

The damage and effects were huge but seemed lacking compared to what they expected.

Maybe because of the protection of the [Eyes], the damage seemed milder than it was supposed to. However, despite the lessened damage, it would still cause catastrophic effects and kill everything in the areas near the crater.

The sanctuary, for example.

Diwata Iraya barely had any time to react and had no other choice.

Using all she had within her abilities, Diwata Iraya prevented the spread of damage, from the shockwave of the crash to the spreading flames around the crater.

That action of saving the island took a huge toll on her body and drained most of her energy.

Fortunately, the [Fusion of Dimensions] began shortly. Despite the strong shaking of the ground, it prevented more damage from the crash from happening further.

The remaining spreading flames were extinguished, and the newly emerged trees and mountains stopped the shockwave from spreading throughout the island.

And because of Diwata Iraya\'s sacrifice, the residents of her sanctuary did not have casualties, despite the great of injuries they incurred due to the earthquake.

Nonetheless, Diwata Iraya expended too much energy in that crisis and fell into the state of weakness that she was still recovering from even now.

***

Mark, Mei, and Amihan listened carefully to the story. It answered some questions they already had but also added some more questions to find answers to.

It answered how the island managed to survive the crash of space debris that could, without a doubt, erase the entire island of everything living. The [Eye of Excitement], Fourth, properly did her job and lessened the damage the space debris could do. Then, Diwata Iraya reduced it further while the [Fusion of Dimensions] erased what remained.

Unfortunately, Diwata Iraya\'s actions only centered around her sanctuary. Since the impact happened southeast of the sanctuary, her actions had effects on the areas to the northwest. On the other hand, it barely had any effect on other areas. Codon Settlement in the southwest, for example, was likely mowed down by the shockwave of the crash.

But then, there was a question that came out.

The subspace of the Diwata Iraya\'s sanctuary collapsed immediately when the catastrophe began. However, remembering their journey in the Visayas, both the secret realms of Mount Madia-as and Mount Canlaon were still intact. Both realms were created using subspaces in Earth\'s fabric of space which was the same principle in the creation of the sanctuary.

But then, Mark remembered something. The secret realm in Mount Madia-as was not exactly unscathed. The group of Bella and Donna fell into a crack in space that led them into the secret realm, after all. However, that crack in space was restored soon after, the same as after the [Encantado] attacked.

It was something confusing and hard to determine. But in any case, that was not the issue to be discussed now.

"That space debris you guys are talking about is the [Giant  Mechid] trapped in the southeast, right?"

Mark asked Diwata Iraya.

"Unfortunately, yes."

Diwata Iraya replied with a nod.

Yes, it was an unfortunate thing. It would be nice if it was nothing but a huge piece of space debris. That kind of thing would not pose much of a threat after crashing down from space. However, it turned out to be a giant space robot afflicted by a machine-hi-jacking pathogen.

Fortunately, it was trapped within the crater made due to its crash landing. If not, even the forces of Diwata Iraya would not stand a chance against it.

"Is that the reason why you sent someone to call me?"

Mark asked, remembering the circumstances this early noon.

"That is correct," Diwata Iraya agreed. "In fact, even without that reason, we would have called you just because of Aliya. But as you already knew, it is the reason."

"Then, you already investigated it?"

That was the question that Mark asked and received a rather troubled reaction from Diwata Iraya and the others in front of him.

This time, Aliya answered the question while hugging Miracle, who was sitting on her lap.

"We tried to send some of our scouts to investigate it closely. However, it seems that approaching the [Giant  Mechid] is out of the question."

Mark listened to the findings and could not help but frown.

It seemed that there was some sort of energy or substance that was being released from the [Giant  Mechid\'s] body. Those magical creatures with non-energy bodies, the [Yasaws], for example, would feel nauseous and weakened when they get too close. As for those with bodies made of magical energy like [Sylphs], they would lose energy and feel instability within their bodies.

"It is the same effects that everyone had when we tried to leave the barrier right after the catastrophe."

Aliya added.

"Radiation."

Mark immediately got the answer from the last bit of information that Aliya gave.

It was the one thing that happened during the fall of the space debris that the [Fusion of Dimensions] could not erase. The radiation that was released by the space debris after entering Earth\'s atmosphere.

Radiation was a form of energy, a kind of electromagnetic energy, to be exact. It was something that could affect living things negatively, and magical creatures were no exception to this as it seemed.

However, it was no surprise for the [Giant  Mechid] to exude large amounts of radiation. Given that it needed some energy source to keep moving, a large thing like this needed something akin to nuclear power.

Unfortunately, this fact just made the [Giant  Mechid] even more dangerous. If this energy source exploded, would it create some devastating nuclear explosion?

This was something that they needed to seriously consider if they thought of fighting that giant space robot.

"If you the scouts can\'t get close, you still can investigate it from a distance, right?"

Mark asked for more details.

"We did do that," Aliya answered. "And we learned a few things, including the fact that it was the source of the constant attacks we are experiencing."

Aliya then turned to Morlkil.

"Morlkil, can you get the few things we salvaged from the other hut?"

The cursed armor nodded as he stood and went out. He came back shortly with some strange items in hand.

Morlkil put the items on the table. Then, Mark immediately recognized the items.

"These are weapons from [Mechids]."

Mark said as he reached out to the items on the table.

There were three items. A mounted laser, something that looked like a plasma shooter, and lastly, an energy cutter-like dagger.

Mark was familiar with the laser as he already saw some from the [Mechids] they encountered around the base before. However, it was the first time he saw the other two kinds of weapons.

"We are constantly being attacked by these enemies having these weapons at a fixed interval," Aliya said. "There would only be two to four enemies at the time, but they are too strong we can\'t fight them directly. In the first time encounter we had, we lost more than a dozen people just from two of them. The next encounters, we had to resort to ambushes and preemptive attacks, but that would not ensure the survival of our warriors."

"And Grandmother is saying that these [Mechids] are coming from the giant one?"

Mark asked, inspecting the weapons.

"There is no doubt," Aliya replied without hesitation. "Our scouts reported seeing smaller enemies coming out of the giant\'s body. They followed those new enemies that could traverse the mountain, and it was the same enemies that were attacking us."

Mark fell silent, tapping his chin. This was something unexpected.

At first, Mark thought that the [Giant Mechid] could possibly be a giant moving fortress. He did not think that there was the possibility of it being a [Giant Mechid] factory instead. Of course, Mark could not be sure. It was also possible that the [Giant  Mechid] only had some smaller [Mechids] stored inside its body, after all.

There was no way it could reproduce, right? Where could it get materials to reproduce new [Mechids] after all?

And then, Mark abruptly stood up.

"Do you have the bodies of the [Mechids] that your warriors defeated?\'

Mark asked.

"We did not keep the bodies since they had that pungent black liquid. Many of us find that liquid extremely repulsive," Diwata Iraya replied to Mark\'s question. "Is there something wrong?"

"I need to see the bodies to confirm something."

Mark said in all seriousness.

But before anyone could give Mark a response, a black blur entered the hut, and a figure appeared beside Diwata Iraya.

Mark immediately saw the figure, and it was the same [Yasaw] who told him to come here.

"The giant enemy spawned another. Only one. New kind. Fast with eight legs. Already traversed the first mountain."

Deriellio said in an urgent manner.

Diwata Iraya frowned as she stood up. She needed to prepare her warriors to intercept the new threat. But before she could say anything, Mark and Mei were already prepared to go.

"Leave this one to us," Mark said. "I need to confirm something anyway and it\'s the perfect opportunity."

Diwata Iraya stared at the guests in front of her. She could only nod as there was no reason to disagree.

"Then, I will leave the enemy to you. Please be careful."

With that, Mark, Mei, and Amihan left the hut. The little girls wanted to come too, but since there was only one enemy, there was no need to. Instead, they were told to spend time with their Grandmother instead.

It was also faster if Mark and Mei went since they could fly toward the enemy faster.