Mutagen

Day 246 - 12:39 PM - Margaha Valley, Mount Canlaon, Municipality of Murcia, Negros Occidental

There was nothing wrong with what Ilia was saying. Sinogo was never human, to begin with. However, it was not only Mark. The rest of the group, except for Chimetrice, were not really keen on agreeing with Ilia and her words.

As Ilia said, people in the past would have no hesitation in taking apart the bodies of the dead for various purposes, whether it be human or human-like.

Ancient people would decorate places with parts of the bodies of their victims, like putting heads on stakes outside their gates. Or even feeding the butchered dead bodies to animals they rear.

And it was worse for the bodies of Godly and magical beings. Humans would find their bodies as a treasure trove. They would show no hesitation in harvesting anything they could get from their corpses.

However, as time passed and civilization developed, these kinds of practices began to diminish.

Moral standards were built up by principles, beliefs, society, and religion from nothing. And it was what further bolstered the development of such aspects of humanity. It then helped in the creation of rules, laws, and other things that became the foundations of the current society.

And it was moral standards that humans developed that dictated whether an action was good or evil.

In the apocalypse, these moral standards that people had differentiated a human from a monster.

"It's not surprising it won't be something comfortable for the others, but it's weird that you're also against it," Ilia said while looking at Mark. "You have no problems bisecting limbs, beheading people, and even putting your enemies in a state worse than death, but you can't butcher someone. It's not even human. Your boundaries are surprisingly in weird places."

"I get what you're saying," Mark slightly shook his head. "But it's just because I know my tendencies."

These words took everyone's attention.

"I'm the type of person who would sometimes try something a bit, then get used to it, and further down the line, outright not minding it. And worse about it, I won't even realize it until it's all late," Mark explained. "If just agreed to butcher a humanoid now, it won't be surprising if there came a time where I won't even think anything about butchering actual humans."

If Mark explained it like that, then his aversion toward harvesting everything from Sinogo's corpse was understandable.

"I definitely won't be against it if Sinogo just remained on his giant crocodile body."

Mark added.

The only problem was that Sinogo returned to his former appearance and this form definitely looked human despite his size.

Then Mark further added...

"Besides, we can't question and kill cannibals because of their actions if we are also doing a part of it."

These words made everyone look at Mark. So, it was just one reason so he would have a justification to kill a certain kind of people, specifically cannibals who abandoned their humanity to feed on other humans.

"Why are you all looking at me like that?" Mark responded to the stares. "I'm a psychopath with moral standards, alright?"

A psychopath with moral standards... It sounded comedic but kind of made sense since Mark was not someone who would blindly kill people just because he wanted to kill. While Mark did show the tendency to have fun stealing lives, he only pointed such killing intent toward his enemies and those low lives who definitely did not deserve to live.

And despite all that, while Mark would take a thing or two from the corpses of enemies he killed, he would never take their bodies apart as cannibals do. Well, he would not hesitate to take an organ or two if it was for the sake of gathering information like how Mark scooped off the brain matter of the first [Infected] where he found his first [Mutagen Stone]. However, he would not outright butcher a humanoid in a literal manner.

Even the [Infected] in Mark's basement, they were never given any butchered humanoid for consumption. They would be given waste meat from hunted animals, and the worst case was limbs cut off from the other [Infected] they killed.

Whether it was for a reason to kill cannibals or not, Mark would not butcher humanoid creatures for materials. Only things that could be taken externally would do.

It was one of the principles Mark would never let go of even if was already the apocalypse and even if he became a Demon.

Well, one factor that bolstered this principle of Mark was actually freed and his memories.

***

After most of the Capital City fell, Freed and his companions spearheaded an operation to enter the city and gather as many supplies and equipment as they could find.

While looking for supplies and fighting the [Psychic Infected], no, the [Psy-Crazed], they reached their destination, the most populated area of the rich part of the city. It was the Entertainment District.

Due to the high population density of the place, it was one of the places that were barely looted after most of the people turned into the [Psy-Crazed].

Surprisingly, Freed and his companions found survivors living there after a long time. Freed immediately opted for a rescue operation, and the survivors happily agreed to leave the place for somewhere safer.

But while everyone gathered outside for the extraction, Freed felt something was wrong and had the sudden urge to look around the area where the survivors held out without anyone knowing.

Freed did not find anything unusual for most part of the base. It was until... Freed reached a room deep into the base of the survivors.

Upon entering the room, Freed, despite experiencing too many killings since the apocalypse started, almost vomited.

The room was heavily stained with blood, like a butcher's room. However, there were no animals in this place. It would be impossible for the survivors to capture animals and butcher them.

Freed walked across the sticky floor through the room that stank of blood. There was another door further and Freed opened it with shaking hands.

It was a freezer room that somehow still had working electricity. It was not a surprise, considering the technological level of their kingdom.

There, Freed stood frozen. Body parts of children and young women were stacked on shelves. Whole butchered corpses of humans hang on hooks, with their organs removed and frozen for consumption.

It made Freed realize what was wrong from the start. These survivors never looked emaciated despite how long they were stuck in this place. They all looked healthy and stuffed despite the situation. One would think that they managed to gather as many supplies and food, but Freed found nothing of such while he roamed around the base.

Freed walked out of the base and was asked by his companions where he went. But Freed did not answer. Instead, he rushed towards the extraction point and tried to kill all the survivors from the base without hesitation. He was stopped by his companions but Freed ended up killing most of the survivors that had no fighting experience or [Psychic Abilities].

And after the truth came out, everyone had the urge to kill the remaining survivors. The killing intent intensified when they saw the freezer room and its contents. They also found the place behind the base where the bones of the eaten humans were thrown out. There should be around a hundred or so bodies that were butchered and killed by the survivors.

Freed wanted them all killed.

,m However, the remaining survivors were lucky... or not. They were kept alive as criminal slaves that had to work until they died, which did not take too long.

This experience made Freed hate cannibals as much as he hated the [Psy-Crazed] that killed almost his entire family.

***

As Mark inherited Freed's memories, the scenes were fresh in his mind. And by the looks of it, both Aephelia and Iola understood Mark's aversion to butchering Sinogo's corpse. Being Freed's personal maid, Aephelia was also present at that time. Keeper was the same since she was a member of Freed's group. However, since the two were warned beforehand, they did not receive the same shock as Freed felt when he wandered into the freezer room without knowing anything.

"If you don't want to, we won't," Ilia shrugged and sighed. "Anyway, it won't change the issue with the corpse, though."

Ilia was right here. The problem would remain if they did not take action.

"Well, let's just take the corpse back."

Mark suddenly suggested.

"What are you going to do with the corpse?"

Alawana asked, surprised since Mark went against taking apart the corpse for materials. And yet, he suggested bringing the corpse back with them.

"We can't just leave it lying around, and there's no way to safely dispose of it," Mark explained. "Then, we can just store it somewhere safe until we have the opportunity to dispose of it."

Everyone understood Mark's point. Sinogo's body would pose a threat if it was carelessly disposed of. Then, they just needed to keep the corpse somewhere where it would not affect the surroundings until they find a safe method to dispose of it away.

Then, something popped up in Mark's mind making him look at Ilia and Chimetrice.

"Hey, is there a chance that Sinogo's body will decompose on its own?"

Ilia and Chimetrice looked at each other before answering Mark based on their knowledge of the immemorial.

"There is a chance, really," Ilia nodded. "Even Gods with bodies made of flesh will decompose naturally. Since that is the case, Sinogo's body will definitely decompose."

"However, the decomposition would not occur early," Chimetrice continued Ilia's words with a slight shake of his head. "Bodies that contained divinity could last long without decomposing depending on their strength when they are alive."

"Yeah, in Sinogo's case," Ilia supplemented further. "Since he's just a Deity, the decomposition might occur sooner. However, it might also take longer since his body contained a God's power before he died."

"But why did you ask?"

Ilia added a question as Mark's inquiry came too sudden.

"I just remembered something," Mark answered while tapping his chin. "Doesn't decomposing bodies of dead Deities turn corrupted over time?"

It was Ilia's turn to ponder a bit and turned to Mark with a nod.

"They do, I think. Deities, even righteous inclined, had lower divinity than Gods. Their bodies can turn corrupted if left alone to decompose without any intervention. The evil inclined ones had higher chances of becoming corrupted, though. Not only Evil Deities, but corpses Evil Gods would turn a hundred percent corrupted upon reaching decomposition.

"Ah, wait... Don't tell me you're aiming for that?"

Ilia exclaimed in realization.

"What are you two talking about?"

Spera chimed in as the rest of the group could not understand the conversation between the two anymore.

"Well, it seems that Mark here intends to leave Sinogo's body until it decomposes and turns corrupted. Then, he'll likely take advantage of the corrupted energy emitted from the corpse."

"Corrupted energy..."

Spera pondered as she seemed to have heard of such before.

"[Miasma]."

Mei spoke.

"Yep," Mark nodded. "Though I think what I had in mind is impossible. If Sinogo's body starts to decompose in a week or so, it would be nice. But as Ilia said, Sinogo's body might take long before it starts to decompose."

"Maybe we should just get into your idea," Ilia spoke to Mark. "It might not be a quick solution, but I think it's a good investment. In the future, where Sinogo's body becomes corrupted, you can benefit from it."

Everyone seemed to be more inclined to follow this suggestion than Ilia's suggestion to butcher Sinogo's body for materials.

"But Master, where are you going to store the body?" Amihan asked. "Sinogo might be dead, but his corpse might still affect the people at home."

"Well, we have a place, though?" Mark answered Amihan's question. "Inside Chiyo's subspace. Only a small part of it is used anyway and it's only used for storage."

That was right. They had a perfect place to store Sinogo's corpse safely. It was inside the subspace of the Night Everred Pure Spirit Tree.

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