'What do you think?'
[What do I think? I don't know much about this world, let alone someone I've never seen before.]
'So much for being a Xyran.' Ashton sighed before focusing his attention on the Undead creature in front of him, 'I can't believe even with the [Detection] skill something so trivial would turn out to be so... complicated.'
Ashton had arrived at Transylvania the next day. Alucard seemed very interested in Ashton's genetics and his evolution, but at the moment finding out more about the undead creature was more important.
Thus, Ashton parted ways with the overlord and his daughters to visit the lab the undead was being analysed in.
Ashton accepted Alucard's proposal for two reasons. Firstly, he was hoping to find out more about the undead region of North America that was now known as Nirvana. All because he wanted to get in contact with the man Ashton thought to be his father. And secondly, he wanted to talk to his 'mother' regarding Mera's clones.
Why her? Because she was supposedly an expert in the field and probably the only person who could have helped her. If she hadn't Ashton would apologise for his behaviour the last time and move on, but if she did... then he would have a shit ton of questions Avalina would need to answer.
Thankfully, By agreeing to study the washed away undead corpse, Ashton was automatically brought into contact with Avalina who too was studying the undead to try to find the reason why or how the undead crossed the Atlantic ocean to reach the vampire territory.
The most troubling part was that the creature had crossed the ocean and was alive when found by the locals. It was during the transportation process did the creature 'died'.
Now the question was, how did an undead swim across the ocean which should have felt like crossing an ocean full of poison.
As it was a well-known fact that the undead creatures are extremely susceptible to salt and can be killed by injecting a large amount of highly concentrated saline solution.
Avalina wanted to discuss it all with Ashton and check whether he too had the same weakness or not. She did not have any bad intentions and only wanted to make sure Ashton did not have a weakness any could easily exploit.
But the awkwardness between them was obvious for her to even get close to him, let alone test her theory. On top of that, both of them wanted to apologise to each other, and yet none had the will, words, or courage to do so.
"You've gotten stronger..." Avalina finally broke the silence.
"Uh... yeah. You have to keep getting stronger as the number of people who would want to chop your head off increases." Ashton replied without taking his eyes off the corpse, "It helps to keep them in check."
Avalina nodded and carried with gathering various samples from the undead to analyse, "Being a tribrid must be fun. Especially for having the best of all the species? No wonder you had to hide it from everyone."
"Yeah, being a tribrid is like being a rose. It looks beautiful and harmonious from the outside but full of thorns on the inside. Being someone like me, isn't all sunshine and meadows."
Once again, silence swallowed their conversation.
"Is there anything else you'd like to ask?" Ashton mumbled before finally giving up on making sense of anything out of the undead, "It felt like you wanted to say something before you went silent."
Avalina smiled thinking how much Ashton was like Benedict, his father. Just like she was his mother, Benedict was his father in all the sense of the word. He too had the talent to interpret her silence into words, and although Ashton couldn't do so, he could at least know that something was off with her.
"I'm dumbfounded thinking how you would have had a tough time hiding your powers, waiting for the right moment to reveal it all. To show everyone and everything how strong you are, all the while living under the fear of losing everything. That kind of bravery and patience is rare to have."
She continued, "Just thinking about everything you had to go through makes me... feel like a failure."
[Patience and this brat? You couldn't have been more wrong lady!]
As usual, Astaroth didn't miss the opportunity to pull Ashton's leg. But Ashton had long since learned to filter the Xyran's voice off whenever he felt like it. At that moment, all of his attention was solely on Avalina and nothing else.
At the same time, a realisation hit him as well. Avalina right not have been the one to birth him, but she had been his mother since day one. His hazy memories of them being together was the proof of that, and as he realised that, he felt so ashamed to behave the way he did in front of her.
"I wanted to tell you something as well," Ashton began his forgiveness speech, however, before he could say more, the Undead raised his head and launched itself at Avalina.
"For Nirvana!" The bastard roared loudly and was about to bite her neck.
"No, you won't!"
The Undead must have thought his mission was a success, but to his bad luck couldn't have been worse. As the following moment, Ashton rushed over to them and slammed his fist onto the undead's face, turning the lower half of his mouth into mashed potatoes... with a lot of rancid tomato puree and chunks of rotten teeth.
Ashton then grabbed the creature's head and ripped it apart with ease. But that did not seem to calm his nerves down as he began stomping on it.
"How fucking dare you touch my mother!?"
He kept repeating over and over until Astaroth yelled at him that Ashton had killed the creature a dozen times over. As soon as he stopped, he turned to check on Avalina who was crying tears of joy as soon as she heard him referring to her as his mother.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" Ashton squatted down to check on her, but she grabbed his face and planted a kiss on his forehead as she used to before.
However, before any of them could say a word more, they were interrupted by someone.
"So, you're her son... interesting." Alucard mumbled.