Demon Lord Shapeshifting System

[Dear Josephine,

What's in the brain that ink may character

Which hath not figured to thee my true spirit?

What's new to speak, what now to register,

That may express my love or my dear merit?

I am sure you know who has inked such words into paper, into existence. For you and I are the same. We know the Bard's work more than people would expect of us. A woman of your spirit, a man of my impression.

The 108th sonnet. You know in Buddhism, that number is quite special. 108 Earthly desires, 108 temptations, lies, delusions…. Whatever you may call it.

Those were the things we must face before achieving Nirvana, the Spiritual Liberation. An eternity of peace.

I have found a way to reach it. I know what I must do. When my spirit leaves this mortal shell, and my soul has nowhere to reside…. It will reside in the one I love most.

And when the time comes, my beloved shall also perish. But I have the secret to eternity. It was such a simple secret that one could only laugh when they realized it. It follows the Golden Rule, the Karmic Justice, which as a literary devotee such as yourself would also be aware of.

If you want eternal life, to never part with your beloved until the world ends…. Then what you need is to pay the price. To have something to exchange. And 108 is the perfect number for that exchange.

Therefore, you know what I must do. I am sorry. I will be the first, and then you. Finally, I will be reunited with my beloved in this secret, and we shall share this liberation together.

I apologize. Truly.

G.G. Faust ]

Harker frowned. "Damn…. Didn't see that coming. For someone who looks like a bad boy, he sure speaks like a snobby English professor."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "You literally look like a delinquent but still a top scholar, Harker."

"What is that?" Their father suddenly came.

After the lights went out, Howard Jones and the twins rushed after Chloe's doctor, who went upstairs. They heard the shouts, but were completely unaware that it was an attack of the living dead. Harker and Mina went to explain the situation to the people, and told them to calm down and stay put, never leaving this floor. They did the same to the people on the upper floors and spread the word.

Right now, they all huddled in a room as the other people tried to contact the police and authorities. Harker and the girls had to move fast before that happened. They asked Mr. Jones for the diary, who was confused as to why they insist to read it in this situation.

Harker folded the letter over. "Nothing, Dad."

Samson suddenly placed his hands on his groin. "Oh man…. I gotta pee!"

"Then go to the bathroom, you idiot." Samuel rolled his eyes.

"But it's freakin' dark! I can't see nothin'!" Samson said.

Their father sighed. "How about we ask someone for a flashlight? Maybe they have more to spare…. This is really making me nervous, it's a bit hard to breathe…"

Harker could hear his father's heart rate being louder than usual, and he was close to having a panic attack. He placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, Dad…. You'll be okay. Here, take our flashlight and go with the boys." He said.

".... Thank you, son. It's just…. Nevermind." He chuckled. "I just had a familiar feeling, all of a sudden. Like how someone you know is coming over to visit. I can just feel it."

Harker sighed. His intuition must be something he gained from his Dad. Which was more troublesome than helpful for Howard, since he was the type to get easily unnerved and anxious. His Mother often told him it was the result of living in a very loud and chaotic environment back in Nebraska.

He won't be surprised if his Dad suffered from his grandparents there, since he never talked about them nor do they visit.

Mina frowned, their only light being the moon once again. "So Roland's uncle was someone who believed he needed to sacrifice 108 lives to be immortal himself, and he was the one who brought these zombies here?"

Chloe nodded. "He must have also been buried in Marble Cemetery. He wanted to be with my Mom and reach this 'Nirvana' he's talking about. G.G. was involved in all kinds of occult stuff, and he wasn't picky with the belief."

"He practiced Voodoo, Wiccan, Tantric Hinduism, brujeria…. All of it. Mom saw it all, but Dad said that it was harmless and that these beliefs were not necessarily bad. But even if they weren't inherently malicious, the person practicing it may use it for those means."

Chloe looked down. "Like this one."

She pointed to the parking lot below. The body parts that were scattered inside the hospital tried to reach out of the windows, and reunite with the ones on the ground. Harker already spotted about a dozen of them close to completing themselves.

"Shit…. We can't let these zombies get into the highway and the city." He cursed.

"You need to find G.G.'s corpse and kill him." Chloe said. "That's the solution. Then the curse will be lifted, and the corpses will naturally return to their graves."

Mina frowned. "How are you sure?"

"He said it himself. I don't have a flashlight, but look here." She pointed at a certain passage and showed it under the moonlight. "On his second letter. It's ruined but you can still read the cure to the curse."

The second letter's upper passage was barely readable, as there were holes of burn marks on them. This was all they could decipher:

[But shall my beloved decide not to achieve Nirvana with me, then everything will return to its place. It is my beloved's choice. My beloved can take my heart, my brain, my body….. destroy it with the burning passions I wanted to give and yet so coldly get rejected. And my wandering soul shall wander forever, yet not haunt the one I hold most dear.]

"We should burn his body." Harker nodded. "Got it. It would be hard to identify G.G. in the dark, though."

Chloe closed her eyes again, and pointed at somewhere in the room. "There's a lighter on the doctor's desk, under the stack of papers. You can wrap a piece of cloth on the end of the mop over there, and use the paper as fuel to become a torch."

Mina smiled. "Your sister is amazing and clever. I suppose it runs in the family."

Harker reddened a little, but proceeded to do as Chloe said. "I guess it does."

He wondered if Yan could explain why Chloe suddenly had this great sense over the placement of things. This was not a part of his own skills. So what is something she gained from the Shapeshifting Ability, or something else?

He will get his answers out of that eyeball later, as he always does. For now, he had to burn his best friend's uncle.

Mina and Harker jumped down from the window, with Harker's hair breaking their fall. They rushed out to chase zombies with their fancy mop torch.

"I did say you were amazing, Harker sir. But I can prove to be quite amazing too. Just watch." Mina said, summoning her sharp fins and those long nails.

Harker smiled a little. "You already are, no need to prove it. But if we do want to make things faster…. I suppose a little teamwork is necessary."

"Haha, should we keep score? It's more exciting if we keep score." Mina chuckled, and went on a complete zombie rampage with her skill.

She and Harker played Whack-A-Zombie in multiplayer mode, ripping all of these undead to shreds. But just as they were getting into an adrenaline rush...

"Haha! You're a pro at this, Mina—"

Harker stopped as he saw a familiar figure looming by the windows of the 2nd floor. A figure of someone he knew very well and loved.

"..... Mom?"