Mutagen

Day 154 - 10:31 PM - Mountain Area, Municipality of Badian, Province of Cebu

Gazing at the sky, everyone could see the dimensional crack slowly mend. Ordinary humans could not see it, but many figures currently worked as fast as possible to fix the problem.

Right now, it was not only Fourth, the Eye of Amusement, and Nineteenth, the Eye of Interest, were present. Aside from the two, there were basketball-sized creatures donned with tentacles flying about near the crack.

As Fourth had said before, they called for reinforcements. These ball-like creatures were, actually, floating eyeballs, known as the Lesser Eyes called [Scouts].

The members of Mark's group present during the attack of the infected Bungisngis in the Spirit Dimension remembered these creatures. Small they might be, but their prowess could not be underestimated.

Apparently, these [Scouts] were under Nineteenth's control. It was also why, among the Eyes, she was the most knowledgeable about things. This was also the reason Fourth earnestly asked for her help since if Nineteenth did not, this huge dimension crack would be all for Fourth to fix alone.

The [Scouts] aside, there were another two Eyes present to help.

Looking at the Eye, Mark could not help but wonder what he was doing here.

The first one was a boy. The Eye that barely had any existence, the Eye of Boredom, Ninth. It looked like he came to help all the way from East America.

On the other hand, the other Eye was another little girl. This was the first time Mark had seen her, but as it appeared to be, she seemed to have a close relationship with both Fourth and Ninth.

The four Eyes worked on the Dimension Crack together with the [Scouts], but it looked like that they would still need some time to fully fix it.

While waiting, Pefile was taking care of Celine while being worried about his son.

"Edzel and Pearl haven't returned yet."

Pefile said as he looked in the direction the two ran to.

"Don't worry, they're not too far from here. Let Edzel think it out first. The situation is a huge shock to him."

Mark told Pefile, detecting Edzel and Pearl staying in one place.

"Boss, isn't it better if Sir Pefile told Edzel beforehand?"

To the side, Padua could not help but ask.

"That would cause a situation worse than this." Mark shook his head. "Imagine you're Edzel, who lived his life since he was five without any parents. You don't know who your father is, and your mother died of sickness long ago. Then a strange man that did not look human suddenly appeared and said, he is your father, and your dead mother is still alive. How will you react?"

"Ah..." Padua pictured what Mark said and realized. "I'll think that the man is a freak and will feel angry four trying to desecrate my mother's memory."

"Yes, and it will be unbelievable. Especially since there is no evidence that your mother is actually alive, unlike now where Edzel saw his mother."

Everyone understood what Mark was saying, and even though Edzel's reaction was negative, it was a better option.

"Ah! Master Look!"

Amihan exclaimed, pointing at the shore.

Everyone could not help but look in the direction she pointed at. What everyone saw was the gigantic crocodile opening its huge mouth with its lower jaw submerged underwater.

And then, as the water from the tsunami returned, all debris the water carried were sucked into the monster's mouth.

"It's eating."

Mark said.

The giant crocodile was sucking everything. It did not matter whether it was floating debris or other things. But, of course, its aim was the corpses of living beings swallowed by the tsunami. It was the very same disaster that happened in Liloan Settlement.

"AHHHH!!!"

Suddenly, a loud scream was heard. It came from where the slaves of the Tamawos were left to rest for a while.

Mark could only shake his head. It was the same for Pefile.

That scream came from one of the victims of Terville's [Charm Magic].

The [Charm Magic] was not permanent. Once the caster of the spell died, the [Charm Magic] would be dispelled. It would be fine if the woman had been under its effects for too long. Because they had been under its effects for a long time, it would be hard to reverse its effects even if the magic was already dispelled.

However, it was different if the woman was only affected by the magic for a short time.

The Tamawo's [Charm Magic] would not affect the woman's memories. It only affected their emotions. Thus, a woman under the effect of [Charm Magic] would still remember everything even after the magic was dispelled.

And with how the victims of Terville were treated, now that they were freed from his magic, they began to suffer mental problems.

These charmed women became playthings for the male slaves. It was something that was confirmed before. But why did that happen? What was Terville's reason for doing that?

Unexpectedly, Terville's reason was noble. At least, for their tribe.

Tamawos were reliant on human women to continue their race. However, with the apocalypse happening, the number of humans were drastically decreased. If all humans were killed, the race of Tamawos would soon follow extinction.

Thus, with Terville's anomalous [Charm Magic], he decided to breed humans. And, of course, very few men among the slaves would decline such an offer.

Now that Terville died, all those female slaves remembered how they became tools for human breeding. The nights when they were used, unable to resist and even loving the deed. It was all fresh in their minds.

Something like that would cause trauma and mental breakdowns for the poor women.

"Can't we do anything for them?"

Geronimo voiced out his concern. Even though he was already part of Mark's group, he was still a brave soldier. Someone who protected the weak. It was heartbreaking for him to see such a scene.

Everyone fell silent. There was nothing they could do to help.

Well, there was someone who could. Unfortunately, Mark had no intention to.

***

About an hour passed, and the crack in the sky was still far from being fixed. Mark estimated that the Eyes fixed barely past half of the fracture. In the least, it was much faster than Fourth's complaints before.

Still, for it to take this long, it meant that the prowess of that beam from the giant crocodile was extremely powerful.

At this time, Mark was already in top shape once more. Mei was already done carefully removing his burnt skin from his body. He also changed clothes as his previous one was already torn and burnt.

"Looks like it's leaving already."

Mark said, looking at the shore.

The giant crocodile was already done eating. As it could not find any corpses in the water any longer, it began to retreat back underwater.

"Uncle, is it fine to let that leave?"

Emika asked.

"There's nothing we can to make that stay, anyway." Mark shrugged. "Besides, it probably won't leave the strait anyway. We can just lure it out again if we already have a way to deal with it."

Everyone agreed to Mark's words. There was really nothing they could do but watch it leave.

Mark looked at the sky once more. The Eyes were still doing their best to fix the fracture as fast as they could.

"Boss," Padua called out, looking at the same scene as Mark. "From what I learned since we joined your group, our world and the Spirit Dimension will fuse soon, right? Why bother fixing it? Shouldn't they just leave it alone?"

It was a good question. Actually, Mark was also wondering about that.

"It's because the fusion of the two Dimensions is not something simple."

Suddenly, a voice was heard by them, answering a bit of Padua's question.

No one noticed, but another person was already sitting near them while they talked.

Not even Mark.

No, it was not that Mark could not detect the person. It was just that Mark relied on Mental and Emotional Fluctuations to detect people. But the person that spoke barely had fluctuations. It was not there was none but it was just too calm for Mark to detect immediately.

After hearing the voice, Abbygale could not help but jump from her seat. It was because the person was actually sitting beside her. Running away from the stranger, she hid behind Mark.

Everyone turned to the newcomer, and to say, they were surprised.

"Good evening, everyone." The person greeted the group before turning to Mark. "You must be Fourth's candidate, am I right? Nice to meet you. You can call me Eighth. I believe you already know what emotion I represent from your look."

"The Eye of Calmness, is it?" Mark replied with a frown. "Do you need anything from us?"

Of course, Mark was wary. After all, instead of appearing to help Fourth, the person was here among his group instead.

Looking at Eighth, he had an appearance of a man in his late forties. If there was a word to describe his appearance, it was classy. He looked like a nobleman from the past, complete with a brown coat, a cane, and even a top hat. If not for his two pairs of eyes, he would look like a time traveler from the past.

"You don't need to be wary." Eighth smiled gently. "I just appeared here since I detected a person with strong calmness among your group."

The others were confused and could only turn to Mark and Pefile. After all, among everyone here, the two were the most expressionless and calm.

But, of course, it was not the two. Mark knew that this Eye called Eighth was talking about Abbygale.

Eight then looked at the sky.

"Like the others, I just came here to fix the fracture." Eighth then turned to Padua. "But since I heard an interesting question, I can answer it for you all."

Then, Eighth turned to Mark once again.

"If you will allow me. After all, it seemed that you made your own preparations for the fusion. I heard everything from Fourth, even your theory for the Spirit Dimension being the copy of the mortal world and its effects during the fusion."

Mark did not reply, but his silence was already more of consent as Eighth saw.

"The Spirit Dimension is a copy of the mortal world. That is true. However, that was several thousand years ago. Since the time it was created, its changes have already strayed away from its original copy. Erosion, the fauna, the creatures, many factors contributed to the changes. Thus, while things that exist in both dimensions will merge, things that did exist in both dimension was very few. Thus, when the two dimensions merged, it is expected that the whole world will collapse."

These words stirred Mark's group. It just meant that Mark's preparations around the base were useless. And once the dimensions merged, there was a huge possibility that the mountain where their base was built would end up collapsing. After all, two mountains existing in a single place would cause the volume to overflow, destroying the two mountains in the process.

And this scenario would not only apply to their base but everywhere on Earth.

"That is why we are trying to prevent even a small dimensional fusion until the day our master designated."

"During the time that planetary debris would hit Earth, is it?"

Mark voiced out, making Eighth nod.

"At that time, we will rely on the help of the remaining gods to destroy it. Still, the impact will tear the dimensional barrier apart. At that time, it is our duty to protect Earth and its structure from collapsing completely."

"We can only do it once." Eighth added. "That is why the dimension fusion can't happen earlier or later."

"Is it fine for you to tell us this?"

Mark asked.

"Hoho." Eight laughed. "There is no need to worry. Remember that you already had a deal with us for the future. You are entitled to our support, although it's mostly for small things."

"Well, then. If you will excuse me."

With that sentence, Eighth stood and flew towards the other Eyes. He did not even wait for any other inquiry from Mark's group.

In any case, the question was answered properly. No wonder now why Fourth was too frantic about the fracture.

Ending the short conversation with another Eye, another hour passed. With Eighth joining the repairs of the fracture, their speed accelerated further.

Finally, the fracture was fixed and the Eyes returned to Mark's group.