After a deep breath, Ashton was ready to chat with the mistress. Little did he know, their chat would soon become a C-grade movie script.
The last time Ashton had heard about Mera, she was on her way to Nirvana to look for her mother. However, that was only the half-truth.
Instead of heading to Nirvana, Mera used her clone to fulfil that purpose. The clone who liked to call herself Nora.
The clone did find their mother, and they travelled back to Lycania roughly around when Ashton left Earth.
But then the undead trouble took a turn for the worse, and the family had to disperse again to handle various matters. The whereabouts of Mera's mother were a massive question mark.
"All this chatter, and still I fail to see how is your family's drama any of my concern?" Ashton's impatience was growing with each passing moment.
"It will be your concern if you learn to shut your mouth." Nora rolled her eyes.
"Nora, careful now," Mera interjected, "Our boy can screw your innards with ease."
"Oh, I have no doubts about it." Nora blew a flying kiss in Ashton's direction, prompting Anna to emit a short yet threatening burst of aura.
"Enough." Ashton tapped the table with his fingers, "Get to the point."
"Very well."
Mera placed a seemingly empty flask on the table. However, Ashton's [Perception] told him things were not as they appeared. The flask wasn't empty but contained transparent smoke, similar to corpsification gas.
"You're thinking in the right direction." Mera continued, "This is the cure to our problems."
"The antidote for corpsification gas!?"
It was unbelievable. But before believing Mera, Ashton wanted to see it work with his eyes. After all, trust wasn't in his vocabulary when it came to Mera.
To nobody's surprise, Mera knew Ashton would ask for proof and had already arranged an undead to experiment on. Nora promptly left the room and returned, dragging an undead mutant like a dog.
Once everything had been set up, Mera unplugged the flask to allow the gas to do its job.
"ARGH!"
The undead began yelling and screaming in pain as soon as the smoke touched him. Nora had to pin the squirming undead to the ground to ensure the antidote could do its work.
Within a minute, the results were in front of Ashton. The patient's skin slowly turned back to a darker shade, and the rotting flesh was replaced with newer scar tissues.
The patient didn't entirely turn back to as he was before, but with complete recovery in sight, it was only a matter of time before he returned to normal.
The undead was slowly turning back. However, instead of turning into a werewolf, the man transformed into an ordinary human being. Ashton was sure about it since he had used [Detection] on the man both before and after the procedure.
Before the smoke took effect, the patient possessed two genes: Werewolf (Deceased) and Undead. Surprisingly, the human gene was found in him after the procedure.
[Huh, no one else's genome was altered due to the antidote. A bit strange, don't you think?]
'There have been some changes.' Ashton thought, 'Not in the rest, but in me.'
[What do you- oh, crap...]
Ashton's genes have been altered quite a bit. Since his [Undead] genes had transformed into [Partial Grim Reaper], that part of his genetics didn't change. But the deceased part of him did.
--
Species: Human-based Tribrid (Active), Carbon-based Space Farer (Active), Precursor's Subordinate (Active), Human (1.27%)
--
'Human (Deceased) turned into Human (1.27%). It looks like the gas can modify undead genes into a human's.'
[And humans could be transformed into werewolves or vampires. A perfect way to regain a big chunk of the lost population.]
'More importantly, since she would play an important role in giving their identities back to the werewolves, they'll be blindly loyal to her.' Ashton continued, 'Unlike her father, Mera would not have to worry about a coup for a long time.'
Meanwhile, the antidote had had quite an effect on Ashton. As if that wasn't enough proof, even the amount of Dark Aura Ashton had stored reduced after coming in contact with the antidote.
More importantly, Astaroth's theory seemed legit. The antidote could be Mera's way to reestablish Lycania with her as the queen, just like she wanted all this time.
"You're cunning. Gotta give you that." Ashton smirked, "After all this time, I thought you would've given up on your fantasy, but I was wrong."
Mera smiled back once she realised the boy had caught on to her schemes, "What can I say? Trickery and deception run in the family."
Avalina already knew about Mera's plan; therefore, she wasn't surprised. But Anna was entirely out of the loop.
"What are you people talking about?" She asked Ashton.
"Our benefactor here," Ashton pointed at Mera, "wants to turn the undead back to being humans, and she would then have a monopoly over werewolf genes. I'm sure you can imagine where I'm heading next."
It didn't take long for Anna to cook up some scenarios. Essentially, only those who supported Mera before would be remade into werewolves, and these people would transform some more, bringing them all under Mera's 'pack'.
Those who challenge her authority would be sent into enclosures to live the rest of their days as humans.
In other words, the entire kingdom would be directly or indirectly bonded to Mera by blood. Making it impossible for anyone to challenge her 'big family'.
"I-I don't know what to say." Anna muttered, "It's such an elaborate plan; I don't think any sane person could have come up with it."
"You are right about everything but a small detail," Mera shrugged, "I won't be the one ruling over them."
Ashton was surprised at what Mera was blabbering about. Seeing the look on Ashton's face, Mera knew it was time to reveal the truth.
"Avalina, would you tell him or should I?" Mera mumbled while Avalina took a deep breath, "I guess I'll have to be the villain once again. Very well then."
"What are you on about now?" Ashton was getting irritated by all the secrecy now.
"I'm not the one who came up with this plan. It was your father's idea to unite everyone under one ruler. It's almost as if he knew how... unique you were and wanted to set up a grand stage for you."
She continued, "As for the one who will turn the humans into mutants, it's going to be you. Not me, not Avalina, but you."