Mutagen

Morlkil, the [Cursed Armor], closely guarded Diwata Iraya as she inspected the remains of the battlefield. The [Diwata] could only sigh.

Decapitated remains of the perished warriors littered the surroundings. Most of the remains were neatly cut by the [Mechid\'s] blades, but the battler between Mark and the [Mechid] caused many pieces to become mangled and even destroyed completely. There were also those remains with burnt parts and melted holes. It was because of the rain of lasers fired at Mark in the latter part of the fight.

Not to mention there were also remains that got squashed together with the [Mechid] under that giant boulder.

Diwata Iraya raised her hand, and a group of magical creatures immediately heeded her call.

"Gather the remains of our people. We will give them a proper farewell. Remember to be cautious of the black liquid."

"Yes, Diwata."

The leader of the group replied in utmost respect.

With that command, the recovery of the remains, both the dead Magical Creatures and the destroyed [Mechid], began. Of course, the recovery of the [Mechid] was strictly supervised by Diwata Iraya since the black goo scattered everywhere, and she was the only one that could deal with such kind of a mess.

At the same time the Magical Creatures started clearing the battlefield, the members of Mark\'s group arrived and gathered around him.

"This won\'t be the end, right?"

Mei asked, looking at the [Mechid] crushed to pieces.

"Definitely not. But we should have bought some time."

Mark answered while picking up the bladed forelimb that managed to remain mostly intact. The limb was barely filled with black goo, and it was safe to store than the other parts. Of course, Mark took it into his ring for many reasons.

As for Mark\'s answer, while not solid, the possibility was there.

Mark chose and planned the battle to end like this because he wanted to make it as confusing as possible to the enemy. There was no doubt that they were being watched, recorded, and analyzed. Then, it was better to make it harder for the enemy to find answers and loopholes. This way, it would take more time for the enemy to analyze the data they collected and way longer to construct another prototype [Mechid] to send and fight.

Well, at least, that was what Mark wished to happen. But with the unpredictability of the [Mechids], the situation could also result in the complete opposite of what Mark intended.

If the opposite happened, then they were unlucky. In the least, Mark did what he could. And given the lag that the [Mechid] showed before starting shower Mark with lasers, the chances of it succeeding were quite favorable.

After answering Mei\'s question, Mark turned to the currently wobbly Spera.

"You okay?"

Mark asked, making the rest of the group notice that she was pretty pale.

"Of course not," Spera answered with a slight grumble. "Can we go home already?"

Spera\'s state was not surprising. She was stronger than before she joined Mark\'s group. Her portals could open more stably, and the distance and energy consumption of her portals had improved. Even the number of times she could open a portal in a day had increased. Nonetheless, it still had some limitations. For example, how far she could open a portal entrance away from her. It was not like she could not. In fact, it was one of the improvements in her abilities. However, the further she opened a portal entrance from her, the more taxing it would get.

And this time, not only that Spera have to open a portal entrance several dozen meters away from her, she had to do it twice in succession. The size of the portal was pretty large too. It was no wonder she now looked pale and drained.

"Good work."

Mark said with a shrug as he patted the tired girl\'s head.

Spera was surprised and could not help but glance at Mark. However, she did not say anything as she let his hand on her head. This was not the first time Mark patted her head, so it was nothing new. Besides, Mark\'s head pats were far from normal due to his abnormal abilities inherited from his ancestor, Aliya.

"I did well too!"

Amihan said as she flew unto Mark\'s left shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah."

Mark said as he patted her head with his right index finger.

As for Mei...

"Excuse me for a bit."

Mei said to Mark as she grabbed his left arm and took a close look at it. That was when they noticed his injured arm that was in the middle of healing.

"Don\'t worry, it\'s fine."

Mark said as he put his right hand on Mei\'s head affectionately, different from the complimentary head pats he gave Spera and Amihan.

It was wrong to say that Mark came unscathed in that battle. Since he was holding back his cards, it was a foreseeable outcome. The injury on his left arm came from the hit he received with his shield and sent him flying. Unfortunately, contusions that damaged layers of skin and flesh were slower to heal than a cut, and it had yet to fully heal when the battle ended. Furthermore, while he was not hit directly by the barrage of lasers, parts of his clothing got burnt.

Fortunately, Mark was mostly fine, and the injury on his arm was on the verge of disappearing.

While Chimetrice quietly watched at the side and Spera took the opportunity to rest a bit, Mark closely observed the remains of the [Mechid]. At the same time, he looked for parts that could be of interest. Unfortunately, the other bladed foreleg and the mounted lasers of the [Mechid] were smashed to pieces, and there was no point in salvaging parts of goo-covered circuitry that they would never know the function.

Looking at the internal makings of the [Mechids] was interesting on its own. However, Mark soon grew tired of looking at the broken circuitry that had already become more or less an impossible-to-solve jigsaw puzzle.

Thus, Mark decided.

"Let\'s go back. I forgot we haven\'t had lunch yet."

"Finally," Spera sighed. "I\'m not saying anything, but I\'m already hungry."

As such, they decided to go home, and Diwata Iraya ordered Deriellio to bring Mark\'s group to the village.

But as they were about to leave, Mark froze. He felt something strange, along with an eerie stare from somewhere. However, Mark could not detect anything using his [Empath] abilities, but he could feel the stare coming from nearby.

Mark glanced towards the direction of the where he felt the eerie  stare was coming from through the corner of his eye. And to his surprise, he could vaguely see a hazy figure. It seemed to wear a full-body cloak, and, for some reason, Mark could not make up any kind of face under its hood.

Without hesitation, Mark turned his head and stared directly at the figure. But to his surprise, the figure was not there anymore. The eerie stare also vanished as if it was not there at all.

Mark felt extremely baffled as to what was happening.

"Gege, is something wrong?"

Mei noticed Mark\'s strange behavior and asked.

"No, it\'s nothing."

Mark shook the bafflement off. Even so, he decided to make a mental note about this strange event.

With that, they vanished from the location, back to the magical village atop the mountain.

Unfortunately, Mark was not hallucinating since there was a hazy black figure floating in the sky without anyone being able to see it.

"As someone who could affect the book of fate, he is annoyingly active," The eerie complaining voice came from the figure. "People like them affect my work a lot."

The black figure opened his barely distinguishable hand, revealing dozens of minified spiritual orbs.

"These poor souls were not supposed to die yet, but they found their end one month earlier than it was supposed to," The figure then turned to the cracked boulder that destroyed the [Mechid]. "That enemy was not destined to appear, either. Unfortunately, wherever candidates for godhood go, fate becomes twisted. And us who facilitate the world could only cope with the changes."

The figure seemed to sigh as he closed his hand.

"Let us go," The hazy figure turned around. "I will send your souls back to the cycle."

And then, the hazy figure vanished without anyone seeing him directly.

***

In the mountainous crater to the southeast of the unnamed magical mountain, inside the trapped giant alien robot factory, the goo-covered screen was flashing images and recordings.

It continuously repeated the entirety of the recording of a battle at fast speeds, at least a dozen times per second.

Without a doubt, it was the recording of the battle at the southeastern foot of the unnamed magical mountain. It was a recording shown from the perspective of the [Assault Destructor, AD-07013].

In the recording, the figure of a lifeform of this planet could be seen fighting AD-07013. Each of the estimated abilities of the lifeform, like speed and physical strength, was measured in numbers flashing on other monitors around the main one.

But as the machine tried to measure and deduce how the lifeform was able to avoid the attacks of AD-07013, it always ended up with an error. There was insufficient data on the lifeform. All predictions and calculations had to be rewritten over and over to no avail.

Soon, AD-07013 was defeated by an unknown event. But deducing the damage before most functions ceased, AD-07013 was hit by something heavy from above at high velocity. Unfortunately, no footage of what happened could be seen as everything turned pitch black, and even the night vision failed to work.

In the last scene of the footage, the lifeform that fought AD-07013 said something before the lifeform stepped on the Remote Recognition Module, cutting off everything and ending the recording.

After the recording ended, it immediately restarted from the beginning. The monitors continuously showed data of the events shown in the footage, from the physical abilities of the weaker lifeforms to the speed and trajectory of the bullets that hit AD-07013.

Unfortunately, the bullets that hit AD-07013 were among the uncalculable aspects of the battle. Predictions were made, but the accuracy of the calculations was lacking due to the shortage of gathered data.

Several hours passed with the footage of the battle repeated to the nth time. However, the calculations failed to find a concrete countermeasure against the lifeforms that fought AD-07013.

For a futuristic A.I., even though it was under the influence of a hacking pathogen, such a result was unacceptable. However, as it was lacking in both data and materials, it was a result that could not be helped.

And that was the answer the A.I. managed to find. To gather more resources for the time being and, most importantly, gather data about the lifeforms of this planet.

It was not late to eliminate the creatures of this planet and take over its entirety after getting enough data and resources.

And as such, the monitors showed several locations on the island. And the points of interest listed in another monitor were places where most of the lifeforms on this island gathered.

One on the northwest coast, another in the southern mountains, and lastly, on the southwest coast. As for the mountain to the northwest of the landing site, the A.I. decided to mark it as a danger zone.

As such, the A.I. began to work, creating more of its kind specifically designed for reconnaissance and stealth.

Once enough data was gathered for the ultimate Destructor to be created, only then that they would continue to test the inhabitants of the northwest mountain that they were unable to calculate for now.