"Your role's done, Winters. You eliminated my 'false children' and awakened the great mold. Heisenberg I handled myself, but you fulfilled your purpose."
"No way!"
"Stop dancing, you creep!" Evelyn snapped.
I dropped my bag. Miranda, transformed, spread six wings, dodging my shotgun blast like a ballroom dancer. Mold roots writhed, forming a black dragon (Dimitrescu), a reaper baby (Donna), a dark fish-beast (Moreau), and a mold-made mechanical horse (Heisenberg)—the Four Lords' fakes, straight out of Village of Shadows. The dragon bit, the reaper slashed, the fish spewed, and the horse charged, attacking relentlessly in the tight space. I dodged desperately.
"Coward!" Evelyn shouted.
"Against an unknown foe, attrition is logical," Miranda sneered.
"Gah!" A wing, like branches, slashed my shoulder.
"No need to worry about Rose. I'll give her true happiness."
Close-range was her mistake. I swung Heisenberg's hammer, but she danced away, mold roots attacking. I smashed them with a full swing. This power…!
"We're boosting your abilities without Molded transformation. You're way stronger now!" Evelyn said.
"Got it! Let's go!"
I charged with the hammer, but the Four Lords' relentless teamwork forced me on defense.
"Die forever, Winters! Stay out of our peaceful family!" Miranda taunted.
"You destroyed our family! You used and killed Elena, the villagers, the Four Lords—all for your daughter? Enough nonsense!"
"The villagers and my four 'children' couldn't fill my century-long loneliness. Stop resisting!"
Dodging the Lords' onslaught while targeting Miranda was tough. Prioritize them? Bullets suddenly shredded Donna and Moreau—Chris's sniper fire. Perfect.
"Heisenberg, I'll avenge you. Rest in peace!"
I crushed fake Heisenberg's head with the hammer, then leaped to smash Dimitrescu's core, exploding it. Only Miranda remained.
"Like me, fake families without blood are hollow. But true love makes a family, blood or not!" Evelyn yelled.
"That's your flaw, Miranda! You can't love anyone!" I added.
"No human survives a pierced heart. You're one of us! Don't you understand a parent's love?"
"Why don't you get it? Rose isn't yours—she's mine!"
Darkness engulfed my vision, hiding Miranda and Evelyn, but her voice echoed.
"Ethan, front!" Evelyn warned.
"Die! Die! Die!" Miranda shrieked.
I dropped the hammer, leaped aside, and fired the shotgun where I stood. A scream—vision cleared. She'd used some trick.
"Nice shot!" Evelyn cheered.
"Stop, Winters. It's futile. Don't interfere!" Miranda, now a spider with countless legs, attacked relentlessly.
"Time's up! Die!" she roared.
"Above!" Evelyn shouted.
I leaped as Miranda dove from above, switched to the hammer, and snapped one spider leg. She retreated, jumping again.
"This ends now. I'll make it quick."
"Lame pattern! Marguerite had more variety!" Evelyn mocked.
Miranda dove from a ledge. I dodged, snapping two more legs with a swing.
"She shouldn't move now… that's cheating!" Evelyn groaned.
"The mold saved me from despair, granting this power!" Miranda boasted, her legs morphing into giant wings, launching dark fireballs.
"Seriously?"
I dodged instinctively, but an explosion scorched my back. Bad news.
"This will kill you! I'll reclaim my daughter!" Miranda declared.
"Coward! Fight on the ground!" Evelyn yelled.
My weapons, except the special one, were close-range. Her flight was trouble. As she formed another fireball, she charged. I raised the hammer, but her fireballs rained down, hitting me full force. Damn it!
"Eva, wait… I'll bring you back!" Miranda cried.
"Would Eva want to be revived at the cost of countless lives?" Evelyn shouted.
"She'd be thrilled to see me!"
"She'd be heartbroken!" Evelyn retorted.
Miranda froze at Evelyn's cry, then spun her wings, slapping me into a mold wall.
"Eva is my everything! With the mold and Rose united, she'll live again! I waited a century for this!"
"As her daughter, in Eva's place, I say you're no mom!" Evelyn screamed.
"Don't mock me, failure!"
"Gah!" Miranda dove as a spider, piercing my abdomen, kicking me to the center. She flew up, forming fireballs.
"Ethan, healing fluid!" Evelyn urged.
I crawled to the bag, pouring two vials on my wound.
"Evelyn, let's go."
"Yeah!"
"We are family!" we roared, transforming into Molded Gigant, hammer in right hand, shotgun in left, ready to draw.
"Still standing? Why prolong this futile fight? A dying man—what'll you do with Rose?" Miranda taunted.
"She's my daughter! Back off!"
"We don't care what happens to us! Rose living free matters!" Evelyn added.
"I'll fulfill my dream!"
Miranda charged. I grappled her spider form, stabbed repeatedly, but threw her off, smashing her face with the hammer. Sensing defeat, she turned into crows, reforming as winged Miranda in the sky, both of us battered.
"Don't run! Fight!" Evelyn yelled.
"We're both at our limit. Give me back our daughter!"
"I can become anything—bird, beast, crone, your wife. Great mold, heed my call!"
Roots bound my legs. She formed a massive fireball. I reverted, drawing the magnum.
"Enough, Ethan. Rest. Leave it to me. Sleep."
"Agreed. Take this!" I fired.
"Hand Cannon!" Evelyn named it.
The fireball exploded, embers igniting Miranda's wings. Stunned by the Hand Cannon's power, she roared and charged.
"You're done, Winters! I'll make you mold fodder!"
"Ethan!" Evelyn cried.
I shattered her side roots with the Hand Cannon, firing four more shots, blasting her wings, face, and abdomen. Still, she hammered me. Dropping the empty magnum, I met Evelyn's gaze, morphed my right hand into a Molded blade, and swung. She'd played my wife, Evelyn's mother—grandmother? Family, in a way.
"You're family too!"
"Guaaa!" I shattered her crossed arms, landing a straight punch to her chest. Miranda screamed, blown back.
(Miranda, powered up with fake Four Lords, met her match. Chris's sniper aid took out fakes. The Hand Cannon and final punch sealed it.)
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