402 The Next Day, Explanations and Theories (2/2)

No wonder Mei looked too tired. Mark could not help but caress Mei's head even more. She might have stayed awake that long to take care of him.

While letting Mei rid of her tears...

”Papa!”

Miracle woke up with a shout. She then jumped towards Mark while waking up Abbygale and Iola in the process.

””Papa!!””

The two also followed suit. They were surely happy to see Mark well.

”You're really loved, aren't you Master?”

Ignis teased.

”Shut up.”

Mark replied with an annoyed face as he looked at the sword.

The noise created by the three girls alerted everyone about Mark waking up. Sure enough, it became noisy.

At the same time, Mark was informed about what happened after the fight and when he fell unconscious once more.

Apparently, Miracle and the [Blood Children], even Chaflar, felt the odd incident that happened on Mark during the naming ritual. They had been quite jumpy. They wanted to find Mark, however, Miasma still covered the area they were in.

As the only one able to pass through, Crimson went out. Crimson arrived just when Mark fell unconscious. He even saw Mark talking to Ignis which prevented anyone from thinking that the demon sword was an enemy. After all, Ignis had its appearance changed.

At the same time that Mark fainted, the Miasma protecting everyone vanished enabling them to get out. Mei and the others immediately tried to find Mark since Miracle said that her Papa fainted.

When they found him, Mark was already feverish.

Due to the event, the military surveyed the area if they could prolong the stay here. After all, they could not go on with the journey with the commander being unconscious.

It was a good call. After leaving this place, what they would traverse was the main road going through Antipolo, Rizal. This meant that along almost the rest of the way, they could pass through where the traffic and infected were most concentrated in this municipality. Furthermore, the road they would need to traverse was longer than the previous ones before arriving at the next resting point.

Although it did not mean that they could not do it without him. However, as Chaflar, who was the main firepower, only listened to his orders, things would become harder.

Besides, they found out that the place was safe. That was why some of the soldiers wondered if some survivors lived here before. Not only that but they also found supplies that surely did not belong in this place originally.

If they knew what happened to those survivors, they would not want to stay here any longer. That was for sure.

With the excuse that Mark still needed to rest, he managed to make everyone get out. Especially the noisy Emika and Jaeya who was complaining about what he made her see last night.

After everyone went out, Mei could not help it anymore and spoke to Mark.

”Gege... I getting more worried about you.”

”Worried about what?”

Mark asked.

”You faint a lot. If not, you lose control of yourself and go on a rampage.”

Seeing Mei with an expression that did not know what she should do, Mark shook his head.

He sighed.

Mark told Mei about a lot of things including about Freed. However, he did not tell everything.

Caressing her head, Mark decided to tell a few important things that Freed told him.

”Mei'er... You know? What fever with pain meant after the apocalypse started?”

”Evolution or Mutation, right?”

Mei answered. When Mutagen invaded the Earth, these two things caused a person to get a very high fever accompanied by pain. It was true as many of them here had undergone such experience.

”That's right.” Mark nodded. ”Freed said that my compatibility with Mutagen is very high. That is why my body is taking any possible catalyst that will react with it. It became even more sensitive after I took that [Gene Absorption] ability. Other people might also experience these things. It's just that mine is rather fast.”

Letting Mei rest on beside him, Mark continued.

”For each Mutation, the pain is multiplied. Since my growth is very fast and abrupt, my mind can't cope with the intensity of the pain my body is having. That is why I end up being unconscious as my body's last resort.”

Mark then smiled.

”If the evolution was more natural, I think, the pain will be lesser. But cramming things inside my body, it is not surprising how painful it is. My body is not just getting upgraded, it was more like it is creating something that did not exist before.”

That was the truth in Mark's case.

If it followed the same pattern as the Psychics with Psypathogen. A normal evolution was more like their original abilities getting upgraded. In Mark's case, his body was taking in catalysts and was creating new mutations in his body.

A normal upgrade would surely not give Mark too much pain to the point of collapsing. It was like when he absorbed Rihanna in the Medical Center. Although he lost control of himself due to the influence of Mutagen, he did not fall unconscious as it was an upgrade to his blood.

Mark explained about these things while avoiding a certain topic.

It was the thing that happened last night.

Those four voices, three of them were familiar. Nevertheless, none of them belonged to him.

One belonged to Freed, another belonged to the Deity of Bloodshed. The third one which sounded like a woman should have belonged to Rihanna who he also absorbed.

The last one, however, although it sounded like his voice, Mark was sure that it did not belong to him.

Mark could not help but wonder. Was it connected to one of Freed's theories?

During the time he spent chatting with Freed, there was another theory about Psypathogen that was not confirmed.

What if Psypathogen did not give the Psychics their abilities but awakened their inherent psychic abilities instead. As some theorists on Earth said, every human had psychic abilities. However, not everyone was capable of using it.

But...

What if Mutagen was not using human genes as the main catalyst for the mutation but was actually awakening something from their genes instead?

In that case, was it perhaps that something was awakened inside Mark?

While thinking of that, the image of the consciousness that tried to take over his body when he became a Mutator came up in his mind.

Was it perhaps...