Mutagen

Day 138 - 11:22 AM - Dining Room, Cliff House, Mountain Base, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon Province, Philippines

First-hand information about what happened to the Blood Demons, there was no way that Mark would let this pass. The lost Demon Race that almost no one knew about. Right now, only the Eyes and the Observer might possibly know about what truly happened.

Even the things that Bathala showed to them were just what happened in the eyes of everyone that saw it. There was nothing about the actual reason why their extinction was orchestrated by the Observer and the Eyes.

And now, Fourth was talking about the blood of the Blood Demons being contaminated. It was highly important information for Mark, especially now that it was revealed that he had the ancestry of that extinct race.

Unexpectedly, Fourth only looked at Mark with a tilt of her head and did not ask the reason why he wanted to know. And after that, she did not hesitate to tell Mark as she asked him a supposed to be an unrelated question.

"You know about us Eyes from a recluse God, right?" Fourth asked. "Then, you must know the primary duty of the Eyes was after the previous observer was replaced."

"Ousting the foreign Gods and Deities."

Mark replied.

"Yup!" Fourth nodded as she ate another piece of meatloaf. "Although we did not manage to make all of them leave, and some are still left hiding, at least we minimized their influence on Earth. Looking for the remaining foreign Gods and Deities on Earth aside, do you think that it's over with that? Of course, not. Even thought we already reinforced the [Dimension Line], there are still other Gods that would come here from time to time."

And it was the duty of the Eyes to stop them.

According to Fourth, this had been ongoing since the current Observer took the position. Even though they already did all they could to chase away the foreign Gods that walked this world in the past using various means, new ones would just keep coming.

No, rather, it would be strange if not a single new one would arrive, considering that some did it in the past. It was just the Eyes doing their best on their duties and let Earth traverse its right course.

And of course, not every God was cooperative.

"So, the purging that the Blood Demons went to is caused by one of those Gods?"

Mark asked.

"Yeap. That's right." Fourth nodded. "We learned of it late, though."

Apparently, an Evil God managed to force his way through the [Dimension Line].

The [Dimension Line] had many meanings. Some call it the Dimensional Wall or Rift. It was the line of space separating this Universe's Dimension and others. This was a dangerous place as the space in the [Dimension Line] was highly unstable. A normal person would not take even a millisecond before getting ripped apart after stepping inside.

However, there were some existences that were capable of traversing it. It was the Gods and Deities. Of course, there were also others that were just lucky to traverse it. There were also some circumstances that a normal soul or person would be allowed to travel across with the help of an Observer or God.

And to say, that Evil God that managed to force himself through was not a pushover. It took all the Eyes to fight that Evil God, and the battle even affected Earth. It caused some unexpected natural disasters to appear at that time.

In the end, they managed to kill that Evil God at the expense of a few Eyes. But when they thought that it was over, after more than a millennia, they learned that that battle with the Evil God caused a race to emerge.

"It's them, the Blood Demons."

The very first Blood Demon, the ancestor, was actually not born as one. He was a half-demon half-spirit, being born from an unwanted relationship between Red Demon man and a Nature Spirit woman.

Of course, before the ancestor could even know his ancestry, he was thrown into a river at the border of the Underworld and the Overworld. It was not because his parents wanted to, but they had no choice.

"Relationships between Demons and Spirits are forbidden, is it?"

Mark said which made Fourth nod.

"The hate is more on the Spirit's side, though. Most Demons won't really care about something like that."

Both the parents of the ancestor died in that event.

Unknown to everyone, that event was happening at the same time that the battle with the Evil God happened.

During the battle, it was impossible that the other dimensions on Earth were not affected. In that fight, several rifts between the dimensions opened up.

Unfortunately, in one of those rifts, the blood of the Evil God dripped. And from the very slim chance that it happened, that drop of blood fell on the infant ancestor's mouth.

And there, the first Blood Demon was born.

By luck, the ancestor was found and raised by an old Spirit couple that did not mind whether he was a Demon or not. That caused the ancestor to become someone considered as a good Demon.

After the old couple passed away, he had lost his place. He was not a Spirit and was almost killed by that fact. Unfortunately, he was not welcomed in the underworld either, as something unknown to them. Thus, he claimed the border between the two areas of the Spirit Dimension, being able to live there because of his resistance towards the effects of the border to Demons and Spirit races.

From there, many things happened which led the ancestor to lead his own race after learning his abilities by accident. The race slowly grew as beings that shared his ideals flocked to him.

It was unknown when it started, but their race became the guards the stopped a lot of wars between Demons and Spirits from happening.

Being the ancestor and founder of the race, his people worshiped him. Soon, he was slowly making his way to step into Deityhood.

That was where the problem occurred.

"Do you know what Gods do in order to experience life as a mortal without actually coming into a mortal world?"

Fourth asked which made Mark remember a certain fact that he watched from Animes.

"Avatars?"

"Wow... You actually know." Fourth was amused. "That's right. God Avatars. The use of it isn't really forbidden as the Avatar itself had no recollection of being a part of a God. In fact, on Earth, there are a few Avatars allowed to walk with our Master's permission."

And that was where the contamination lay. It was the blood of that Evil God that created the Blood Demons. A catalyst to gave birth to his Avatars.

God Avatars would live and die like a human. However, it was different if they started to step into the way of Deityhood.

When it happened, there were two possibilities that could happen. If the God was alive, they could possess their Avatar. On the other hand, a dead God could resurrect through that Avatar.

The ascension of the Ancestor of Blood Demons into Deityhood could cause the resurrection of that Evil God to happen. In fact, every Blood Demon could cause it once they stepped into that path.

It was lucky that they managed to find it out before the Ancestor became a Deity.

Mark was forcing himself to be calm at this point.

"How can a Dead God get resurrected through that anyway?"

Mark asked.

"Well, you see. The body of a God can be killed but it doesn't mean that it would be easy to abolish their soul. As long as the root of their soul remains, they can come back at some point, especially using an Avatar they left before they died."

Fourth explained.

"Then, why did you Eyes have to use other races to kill the Blood Demons?"

Mark asked another question.

"Hah..." Fourth sighed. "Do you remember? We are not allowed to directly influence the inhabitants of Earth? Killing them with our own hands is out of the question. Blood Demons are included in that since they are all Earthborn. Although we can actually do that, we will suffer heavy repercussions for going against our own rules. It's not like the Blood Demons had actually done a crime either. We are just preventing a possible catastrophe. And think about it if that Evil God was reborn as an Earthborn, just think how hard it will be for us to deal with him."

"In fact, that Blood Demon Ancestor is not far from resurrecting that Evil God since he already started to hear the voice of that God's soul."

At this point, Fourth stopped. She already finished her food.

"Oh, look at the time. I'll go now. See yah."

Fourth did not even stand up from her seat and vanished. She was definitely a carefree one.

However, she did not notice that Mark was frowning deeply.

"Gege..."

Mei could not help but worry as she held Mark's hand.

Fourth seemed to have no idea as she was confident that they had wiped out the Blood Demons at that time. However, Mark was here right now, a Pure-blooded Blood Demon.

More than that, the last words that Fourth said in that story, it was a definite clue about one thing that baffled Mark for quite a while now.

"A voice from that Evil God's soul, huh."

Mark said with a sigh.

The pieces of the puzzle were now coming in together, forming the hidden picture. Mark could not help but slump on his chair.

"Papa, are you okay?"

Miracle asked, reaching for Mark's cheek.

Mark turned at the little girl and smiled.

"I'm okay."

"If that Evil God comes for Papa, I will kill it."

Abbygale chimed in. As usual, she was calm. However, her words were as brutal as ever.

"Haha," Mark could not help but laugh. "I'll leave it to Gale then."

Mark could not help but caress the heads of Abbygale and Miracle. These two were surely lovable girls.

On the other hand, Iola kept silent, staring at Mark at the side. Having memories of Keeper, she had a more mature mind. She could tell that something was wrong.

It did not take long and lunch came. Mark and Mei that had just eaten a late breakfast still ate a bit to accompany the girls.

After that, Mark and Mei started preparing for their departure for the next day. They still had to go to the Spirit Dimension to end their unfinished work there.

Still, the atmosphere was quite cold.

"Gege, you're fine, right?"

Mei asked.

Mark paused and looked at Mei. He wanted to ensure her that it was fine, but could not make himself lie to her.

"Not exactly," Mark shook his head. "But don't worry. It will be fine. I will make sure that it will be fine."

But then, Mei asked a question that made Mark freeze.

"Gege, you can already hear the voice that Fourth spoke about, right?"

That question made him look bitter.

"Is it obvious in my face?"

"No," Mei shook her head. "Gege did well keeping your expression the same, but I can feel that you were shaken when Fourth said that part."

It was a matter of feeling. Mei, who was very sensitive towards things about Mark, could recognize his uneasiness.

Mark caressed Mei's head.

"Don't worry. I don't plan to become an incarnation of some other person. I will find a way to deal it. We are going back to the Spirit Dimension tomorrow. Let's see if we can meet Bathala and ask him."

That suggestion made Mei nod. Nonetheless, there was nothing they could do in this situation.

What Fourth told them seemed to be true, and Mark experienced it first-hand.

In that case, there was only one thing to do and it was to find ways to prevent it.

Unknown to Mark and Mei, Fourth that ran her mouth without breaks was being called once more. This time, however, not for punishment.