Chapter 244: Evolving Ghoul

Watching Layla evolve was a surreal experience. This was something Erin had undergone herself, but she had a set evolution path from halfling to vampire. What did this mean for a ghoul?

’Do you have any idea what she’s going to turn into?’ Erin worried.

"I’ll be honest, I’m not sure myself," the system responded, "As a ghoul, there are many possible evolutions. Circumstances and personality can affect the outcome, but there’s still a risk she turns into an uncontrollable monster regardless. Mindlessly consuming flesh with a never ending hunger."

"If Layla was fed quickly, then the chances of this worst case scenario would’ve been lowered significantly, but you two took quite a while."

The words the system voice was telling her made Erin want to tear into it, yelling at how it constantly withheld information from her, but all she wanted to do was be there for Layla. The problem was how?

Layla rolled on the floor, convulsing, and groaning as it felt like every bone in her body broke apart. As the change went on, the pain got even worse, and tears were forming around her eyes.

"Normally, you will not be able to hurt the people you turn, and vice versa, but if she becomes a monster, then that bond will no longer matter," the system warned.

Erin went on her knees, and held Layla’s hands tightly. It was a shot in the dark, but if there was even a chance she could ease her pain, she’d take it.

"Erin, what are you doing?" The system shouted, "If she turns on you, then you need to be the one to kill her."

"She needs me," Erin said out loud, and closed her eyes.

Once, Leo had used his qi to remove the lingering feelings of pain within herself. Now, she was about to attempt that same method on Layla. It was risky, but Erin still tried it.

"Are you sure you know what you’re doing?" The system asked.

"No," Erin responded.

The energies within Layla were constantly changing, and shifting erratically. Focusing her qi, she reallocated a walnut sized amount of energy to Layla, and attempted to quell the pain.

Layla’s tenseness lessened, but at the same time, Erin could hear the rate of which Layla’s heart beat grow further and further apart.

In her attempt to try to help her friend, Erin feared she may have interfered with her life.

Retracting her qi, Erin took a step back, but before her worries could continue, another system message appeared.

[Congratulations, your ghoul has successfully evolved into a vetala]

[1/2 slots remaining for the Night Demons family]

Layla stood up from the floor, and immediately, Erin could tell there were a few visual changes. For one, her skin color didn’t look as lively, lacking the warmth that humans had. Second was her hair. Erin wasn’t sure if it grew out, but there was a messiness to it, like if Layla tried to brush it out, she wouldn’t be able to get it as neat as she used to.

Lastly were her eyes. They stared at Erin, plain and uncomfortably still. She didn’t even blink.

Cautiously, Erin held her hand out, "Layla?"

With the change in her appearance and demeanor, Erin worried that she wasn’t the same Layla she had grown used to.

Layla stared back and replied in a monotone voice, "I am Layla."

The way she responded was too flat, wrong.

’What’s happened to her?’ Erin asked the system.

"This is what I feared. As an undead, they’re often subjected to the most drastic of personality changes when they evolve. You basically have to treat her like a newborn who’s discovering their emotions for the first time, and it might be a while before she’s back to her old self."

A pang of sorrow hit Erin’s heart, but she didn’t want to believe it. Surely there had to be something that survived the change.

Holding Layla’s hand, Erin felt Layla squeeze back, and that strange headache returned. They tried to hold on for as long as they could, but eventually, the pain grew too much for them, and they stepped away from one another.

’I never figured out what the headache meant,’ Erin thought.

"I’ve withheld this information from you long enough, Erin," the system replied, "But the truth is... That headache is the result of your love for Layla. It is a feeling you can only feel when you have feelings for someone you directly turned, and for Layla, she still feels the same way."

"It’s caused by the vampire energy in her being too similar to yours, so your bodies naturally reject one another."

’We’ve felt this way for a long time?’ Erin questioned, then her eyes widened, ’She still feels this way?’

To hear that despite Layla’s sudden change, there was still a piece of her that cared for Erin gave her hope.

Suddenly, they heard a knock on the door, and they both turned towards the direction. The door automatically opened, and a strange floating robot appeared holding several kinds of cleaning equipment.

"Do not worry, this is a device I created to clean messes," they heard Logan’s voice come from the spider bot, "This is an early model, but I suppose this will have to be its first practical usage."

That made both of them realize that there was still a dead body in the room, as well as several signs of a massive struggle. It would’ve been easy to pin them as the culprits of the crime.

"I’ve already changed the locations of your watches to say you two were in my room," Logan explained as the strange robot was repairing pieces of furniture, "This robot will also help clean everything up to a certain extent. It can’t easily hide a dead body."

The spider then jumped onto Luke’s watch, "I’m implanting a set of code to send a fake heartbeat signal, except, they won’t know its fake. Obviously."

Doing something about the dead body was its own major problem. Erin couldn’t ask Quinn to bury it like she did last time, and she couldn’t place Luke’s corpse in the shadow as it didn’t store organic material.

"How about you check to see what Layla can do," the system said, "She could’ve gained a skill perfect for this situation as a result of evolving in it."

Initially, Erin was skeptical, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

[Inspect]

[Name: Layla Munrow]

[Race: Vetala]

[Stats: Their strength scales with their creator’s strength, but all other stats scale at 50% of their turner.]

’So she’s a vetala, and her stats scale in correlation to mine,’ Erin thought, ’But how do I see what she can do?’

"If you select the race option with your mind, it should pull up more information," the system replied.

It was easy enough to figure out, and while she was reading up information about the vetala, Layla was crouched over Luke’s body. Unprompted, she had taken it upon herself to pluck a chunk of flesh from his insides, and plopped it inside of her mouth.

After swallowing it, a connection was made.

Just like magic, the corpse suddenly wiggled, then audibly snapped its joints to stand up in an unnatural way. It was uncanny how the heavily injured body stood straight without any sign of pain.

Somehow, Layla knew exactly how to activate her subclass’s skill: Corpse possession.