Chapter 1107: The Last Group of [Face Wearers], Facing the Result of Naivety and Underestimation

Day 364 - 6:54 PM - Gates, 38th Satellite Settlement, Muria Sacred Fortress, Mount Muria, Kudus Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

Quite a distance outside the gates, the silhouette of a man holding a sword surrounded by six inhuman beings could be seen.

At a glance within the darkness, one would think that the man was in a predicament. But the situation was quite the opposite, especially for those guards atop the walls who could vaguely watch the ongoing fight.

Mark calmly stood in place. With Ignis in his hand, who turned closer into an oriental sword from his original form of a flamberge, he looked like a samurai from Japanese myths facing evil beings with his sword.

As for the six [Face Wearers], their expressions looked ugly.

It had been several minutes since the fight started. Although they were not the strongest of their kind, these six [Face Wearers] were far stronger than their common folk.

Yet, these six [Face Wearers] could not even touch the hem of the cloak the man standing before them was wearing.

And their mission was to kill this man, the creator of the badges that hindered the goals of their kind.

Kill this man? What were they thinking when they thought of such?

This man was no mere human. They underestimated him as nothing but a mere human.

Why would someone like him appear in this place all of a sudden? This question was what the leader of this group of [Face Wearers] had in mind.

"Say..." Mark spoke. "You guys aren't going to run away? I'm pretty sure that's what you guys are best at, right?"

It was a mocking question. However, it was something the [Face Wearers] could not refute, either. Not all of their kind were suited for fighting. In fact, while they had some uncanny abilities that defied the common sense of humans, only a few of them were gifted the ability to fight.

There was nothing wrong with calling the [Face Wearers] a cowardly race. Or else, why would they settle with disguising as humans and slowly whitling their ranks instead of outright fighting them face to face despite their abilities?

And it was going well so far. The [Face Wearers] managed to replace a huge chunk of the human population in this mountain while causing trouble in the dark to reduce their numbers.

It was going well so far, and the humans had no idea at all. After all, the [Face Wearers] could not only disguise but also perfectly copy the personality and habits of the person they disguised after.

If there was something the [Face Wearers] could not copy, it was the uncanny abilities mutants had. That was why these mutants were the second in the list to be eliminated from this mountain.

The latest kills would have been a complete wipeout as the members of the 41st Satellite Settlement faced an unescapable setback.

However, this man before them appeared without warning, discovering the fake Wahyu and revealing the existence of [Face Wearers] to the unknowing humans of the fortress.

Worse, this man began to support the humans their kind hated the most. The 38th Satellite Settlement, specifically, those that carried the ancient bloodline.

Not only did their kind get revealed, but the plan to slowly kill one of the three people first on their list failed. The little girl should have died after some time, turning her soul into nourishment for their kind.

To create a more powerful being among their rank.

Yet, the girl survived, and the creature they reared to harvest the girl's soul somehow did not escape.

The several months of work were all for naught. All of their kind that infiltrated the humans had to escape back to where they came from. They were back to zero for everything.

That was why they had no other choice but to release the specimens as a distraction. It was to draw the bearers of ancient blood away and destroy the cause of their failure.

How naive of them to think they would easily succeed.

"No reply?" Mark asked. "If none of you are going to talk, there's no need to prolong this farce any further. I already got what I want, anyway."

Those words made the six [Face Wearers] flinch.

For several minutes, the six [Face Wearers] relentlessly attacked Mark to no avail. Nonetheless, they were also unscathed all this time.

Now, thinking about it, the man before them never attacked all this time. He only dodged and parried while defending against the ranged attacks from time to time.

They were unscathed, not because they were skilled.

It was because the man wanted something from them.

And, by the looks of it, he already achieved what he wanted.

Without regard for his safety, the leader made a leap of fate.

Mark did not even have to move much. He only raised Ignis in front of him, and the leader impaled himself. But instead of stopping, the leader landed on the puddle of acid and kicked the ground to impale himself deeper.

Ignis was locked in place, clutched within the muscles and bones of the leader as he grabbed Mark within his two muscular arms.

Then, arm-sized bone spears shot from the skinny [Face Wearer] as his arms welt limp. The ability of the skinny [Face Wearer] to shoot out his bones was not infinite. While his bones could regenerate fast to create small projectiles, launching larger attacks would need a sacrifice. In this case, the bones in both his arms.

The bone spears penetrated the leader's body...

CLANG!

...Straight into Mark's armor.

Surprisingly, the bone spears made of arm bones bent at the joints, clutching around Mark's waist as they fixed Mark tighter in place.

Then, a fat silhouette could be seen looming over Mark and the leader. The fat [Face Wearer] also charged and jumped up high as if to flatten the two.

And then...

BOOM!

The fat [Face Wearer's] body exploded as he made his sacrifice, turning his whole body into a massive amount of highly corrosive acid.

SIZZLE!

The massive amount of acid rained on Mark and the leader. The foul stench of the acid spread out as it melted almost everything it touched, even the surface of the ground.

As the skinny [Face Wearer] watched that scene with his limp, boneless arms, he was overwhelmed by emotions. This sacrifice should be worth it. Wahyu's impostor should have gotten away already.

It was because they failed to kill the target.

The leader sure was melted into the puddle of acid. However, the figure of their target was still there, unscathed, even when he was supposed to be drenched with that acid.

"You must be feeling relieved, right?" Mark suddenly spoke to the remaining survivors of the enemies. "But do you know? That guy escaped the first time, not because he can."

AHHHH!!!"

A faint scream was heard from the woods. It was definitely the voice of Wahyu's impostor.

"It's because I let him," Mark smirked. "Only once is enough."

The skinny [Face Wearer] looked at Mark. In his eyes, this was no human anymore. He was a Devil.

They failed. They utterly failed.

With those thoughts, the skinny [Face Wearer] manipulated his neck bones and beheaded himself, turning into ash.

"Welp, I'm done here."

Mark said as a surge of mist came out of the woods before materializing into Crimson and plopping on his head.

Looking at the surroundings and trace left of the [Face Wearers], Mark felt a bit of pity. Not because he pitied the enemies, of course.

"I really want to capture all their souls... But I only have a few canisters. I haven't gotten enough materials to make new ones. I need to leave them vacant for more important souls."

Mark then shrugged as he stretched out his hand, and several mall pylons returned to his grasp.

"I guess you'll do."

Mark said as he raised a different canister with a new soul.

The soul of the leader shivered. He never expected something like this to happen.

"Well then," Mark looked in the northwest direction. "I think I'll still make it to watch the climax."

Mark then turned into a surge of black mist, vanishing from outside the gates.