Chapter 1171 The fourth Evolution (1/2)

'No, that can't be true! Mom, cared… she must have cared for me… if she didn't then why would she have risked her life for me at the very end?'

'There has to be another reason for how she treated me! Yes, it must have all been for the sake of Pure! To make me stronger, so I could take over the organisation one day… right?'

These haunting thoughts kept repeating themselves. Layla's mind went over all her interactions with her mother, the images of those times vividly flashing before her eyes. They reminded her of all of the things she had tried to block out and those she had buried deep inside.

Layla couldn't help but focus on Lucy's face in all of those memories. The strange look on her face whenever daughter and mother had interacted. As it turned out, looking back, Layla realised that the few times her mother had told Layla anything about her father, like him being a fantasy writer, she had only done so while facing away.

Had she done so, because she hadn't wanted to think about Layla's father? Was Agent 2 right, that the father she knew she had was actually just something her mother had come up with, to hide the truth?

A smog of negative emotions started to spill out from Layla's body. Normally only her subrace should be able to perceive them, yet they had seemingly reached such an intensity that those around her could see hers and all took a careful step back, afraid since they had no idea what it was.

Her mind had become numb and her eyes were now glowing a slight purple. Layla had still been in her second form, yet she slowly started to change. Her giant tusk-like fangs started to shrink into smaller ones that could fit in her mouth and the horns on her head also started to grow smaller, until they were barely visible through her hair.

In an instant all the smog flew back into her through her mouth, her nose and even her ears. It was a scary sight how that foreign substance appeared to have invaded the girl. The next moment red marks began climbing up from her neck and down her arms, as if all the veins in her body were now pulsating and alive.

Everyone stared at her with a weapon in their hands, yet they all shared one thought at this time. 'What a beauty'. Her skin now looked softer than snow, her hair was flowing lighter than air and even the red markings seemed to form a sort of tattoo which further added to an exotic charm.

”What's happened to her?” Nathan asked, looking at the one vampire in the room that might have an answer. To a lot of them, Layla changing forms came as a shock. Still they held back from attacking her, choosing to trust her as a member of the Cursed faction. As long as she was helping them, they could always try to figure out things after this fight.

Unfortunately, they weren't completely sure if everything would go that way. Layla had started emitting a strange energy, which made all of their legs shake slightly. Then, there was also the look on the girl's face. Her eyebrows were deeply furrowed and her mouth was slightly open baring her fangs.

Luckily, the pure anger and frustration was currently aimed at the one person responsible for her change.

”I have no idea. I don't know much about Hannyas, so this must be one of her forms.” Fex replied. Of course, he didn't tell him that this was the best case scenario. Truth be told, he was worried that the pure anger and bloodlust coming from her, had made her enter a state similar to a Bloodsucker.

To be on the safe side, he made use of this moment when everyone was distracted to attach his strings to Longblade. The Colonel was injured and unable to stand, bleeding out slightly, but the vampire could still hear a heartbeat.

However, if he was to be caught up in whatever was about to happen, today might very well end up being his last day. Before Layla started to act, the vampire pulled him out, and placed him down by the side of Shiro and the others. He proceeded to carefully move over, all while keeping his gaze on the furious girl.

'Layla, please don't make this into a situation where we will have to deal with you as well.' Fex silently prayed, as he readied Agent 11 for the worst case scenario.

Layla herself would be unable to explain what was happening, but one thing was for certain, she had just finished transforming into another form. A form that no one had ever seen before. The one thing all her Hannya forms had in common was the need for powerful negative emotions.

Layla had become quite proficient in controlling her emotions and harnessing them to help her evolve into any of the three at will. To do this she would usually recall a painful memory creating negative emotions in herself.

However, this went beyond any negative emotions Layla had ever felt before, she was experiencing pain beyond what she could have ever imagined which had allowed her to unlock a fourth evolution. One which should be called the True Hannya.

'No wonder, such a bastard has joined the Cursed faction!' Agent 2 thought. 'We would have been better off, if Lucy had allowed us to just get rid of her. Well at least I got rid of the poison during her temper tantrum, but this doesn't look like it's going to be easy.'

Unwilling to take any more risks while fighting against those abominations from the Cursed faction, Agent 2 was forced to activate the fourth stage of Qi once more. He banged his sword into the ground and his skin started to turn red.

The usual energy that was felt from the sudden surge in Qi was felt by everyone there. Those who had been engaged with Pure and had already stopped their fights during Layla's transformation, moved out of the way so they wouldn't be affected by the overwhelming force.

Ultimately, only Layla stood her ground not moving, instead as the wave of energy came towards her, she opened her mouth and let out a loud shrieking sound, almost pushing the energy back. The others were frozen in place as the sound pierced their ears.

”This is like that damn Banshee's scream!” Fex thought doing his best to cover his ears, yet his sharper senses turned out to be a detriment this time. He could feel blood flowing out of them.

The space between Layla and Agent 2, as well as the air itself, was shaking from the colliding powers.