"Heisenberg!?"
"Madao!?"
Heisenberg's self-detonation with Miranda lit up the night, a blazing end for a man who found freedom in death. Stunned, I felt a profound loss—more attachment to him than I realized.
"Madao… I wanted to talk movies with you…" Evelyn sobbed.
"Evelyn…!?"
The explosion cleared, revealing Mia. But her vile smirk wasn't hers. Gripping Rose's bag tightly, I backed away, reaching for my weapon.
"Miranda…!"
"How'd she survive that!?" Evelyn cried.
"She's precious, isn't she? Our daughter," Miranda taunted.
"She's everything to me. Not yours!"
I fired the grenade launcher, but Miranda's elongated fingers deflected the blast. She approached in Mia's form.
"She's mine too. Heisenberg's gone—what's your plan?"
"You!" Evelyn screamed.
"I don't know… but I'll save Rose! I swore it!"
"Give her to me. I can restore her body. Wouldn't that make you happy?"
"Don't mock me! Rose will live as our daughter, not yours!"
"As my sister too!" Evelyn added.
"Foolish, Ethan. You didn't even notice your wife was replaced," Miranda sneered.
"Ethan!" Evelyn urged.
I morphed my right arm into a Molded blade, striking as she closed in. Her six wings blocked it, unscathed, and a point-blank grenade did nothing. My blade chipped—her mold was harder than Evelyn's.
"Hahaha! Pathetic! Even like this, you can't match me!" Miranda laughed, surrounding us with mold roots.
I discarded the launcher, blasting with a shotgun and slashing with the blade, but her wings held firm. Unmasking, she was untouched.
"You thought that explosion could break my wings? Heisenberg died for nothing."
"Miranda!" I roared.
Her wings snapped my blade and crushed my right arm. I looked to Evelyn for healing, but her wings choked me, lifting me, dropping my shotgun and bag.
"Evelyn! My arm…!"
"Ethan!" she cried.
"There, aren't you, Evelyn?" Miranda mocked. "Lingering as residual thoughts in his cells, from the embryo of my daughter. A failure thinking you can challenge true mold!"
"So… my real mother…" Evelyn faltered.
Thrown against a mold wall, my lungs emptied. Evelyn, a residual thought—a ghost—embedded in me during our last fight. My mind fogged, but I raised my handgun with my left hand, right arm limp.
"Stop. Rose inherited Evelyn's power—no, surpasses it. She'll control minds. I need that body," Miranda said.
"Shut up, you lunatic!"
She opened my bag, taking Rose's flasks into her roots. I fired wildly, swinging my broken arm like a flail, ignoring the pain.
"No need to worry. Rose will return, recorded by these roots. But as my daughter."
"She's not yours!"
Miranda, as Mia, laughed, deflecting my shots. I tackled her, grabbing healing fluid, glancing at Evelyn.
"Evelyn, help me!"
"No! Your body can't take more!"
"I don't care! Please!"
"…Okay!"
Dousing my arm with fluid, mold surged, transforming me into Molded Gigant. Facing Miranda, now an old hag.
"Remember this form? Guiding you to kill the Four Lords was no small feat," she said.
"Dash hag!" Evelyn shouted.
"So you coined that name. Fascinating—you spoke to someone absent. You can converse like this? Intriguing… but I care not for failures."
I swung Heisenberg's hammer, but her staff parried, overpowering me. Her wings pierced Molded Gigant repeatedly, blood and bile spilling.
"Gaaaah!"
"No matter your form, you can't win. You're fascinating, Ethan. Did you create Rose, or your parents' genes? Your power's unpredictable. Interesting!" Miranda mused.
"Damn you!" I roared.
"Die, toxic parent!" Evelyn screamed.
Combining strength, we swung both fists, but Miranda vanished. Her voice echoed around us, rain dousing fires. Where was she?
"Fascinating, but a failure's presence is an eyesore as a lab rat," she said.
"I'm no failure!" Evelyn protested.
"With a body aging rapidly to death, you're not?"
"How do you know…?"
"You don't recall, but I held you as a baby—my child, my grandchild. A failure, reminding me of her. Disgusting!"
"Evelyn's not yours! She's mine! I swore it!" I shouted.
I punched a root, but my arm broke, regenerating with mold. Even Molded Gigant couldn't shatter it.
"Miranda, coward! Show yourself!"
"Yeah! You're scared! I'll snap your neck!" Evelyn taunted.
"Try it."
A squelch—my left chest pierced from nowhere. Molded Gigant's armor was useless. I collapsed, reverting, Evelyn's tearful face before me.
"Ethan! No, no, no!"
"Don't fear, Ethan. Death is instant," Miranda said, forming from mold, holding my bloodied heart.
My strength faded. "No! Ethan!" Evelyn cried.
"Your blood will be studied later, with Eva on my knee," Miranda laughed, crushing my heart.
My body gave out. "When dawn breaks, my ritual completes, and I'll be a true mother! Forever bound by blood!"
"Ethan! It can't end like this!" Evelyn sobbed.
"Cling to that corpse, Evelyn. Never approach us again. You're an eyesore."
She saw Evelyn through my blood. My thoughts faded… I was done.
(Evelyn's a ghost, her cells embedded in Ethan during their final fight, explaining her knowledge and Rose's visions. Blood and mold let others see her.)
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