As Ethan battled Eveline, Chris and his Hound Wolf squad were subduing the Lycan-infested village. After defeating Uriaș Străjer guarding the fungal network's core beneath the church, they pressed deeper, but Chris felt a nagging unease.
"Something's off," he said.
"What's that, Captain?" Canine asked.
"Miranda's dead, killed by Eveline. Fine. But the fungal network's growing stronger, spreading beyond the village to the castle, lake, and factory depths. It's unnatural—like it has a will of its own."
"Overthinking it, aren't you?" Canine said. "A blob of mold with a mind? No way."
"No, biohazards often defy logic," Chris said. "Stay sharp. No slip-ups."
Cautiously, they advanced, finding the fetal-shaped fungal core. They rigged it with small explosives and scoured the underground for intel, reaching Miranda's lab. As Hound Wolf collected documents, Chris found one that caught his eye.
"'How to eliminate Eveline'…?" he muttered.
The document detailed Eveline's origin: three years ago, after Ethan killed her at the Baker estate, she reappeared in the village as a mental entity. Born from Eva's embryo, Eveline was a flawed copy, an eyesore to Miranda, who couldn't destroy her since she used the fungal network to manifest and might hold clues to reviving Eva. But, haunted by Eva's memory, Miranda devised a plan: overwrite Eveline's personality with the network's countless minds. As a mere terminal of the network, Eveline could be erased this way.
"But Eveline became the fungal network—something Miranda didn't expect," Chris said. "Ethan, are you okay…?"
"Captain! Mia Winters is in the back!" Canine shouted.
"She's been locked up!" Night Howl added.
"What!?" Chris exclaimed.
"Chris! Where's Ethan!?" Mia demanded, grabbing him as she was freed.
Chris hesitated, unsure how to answer, when she appeared behind Mia. He instinctively shielded her.
"Ethan's dead," Eveline said.
"Eveline!? How are you here!?" Mia cried.
"Hey, Chris. Thanks for the bomb present. I neutralized it," Eveline said.
"Damn it, Evel—gah!?" Chris grunted.
Ignoring Mia's shock, Eveline morphed her arms into fungal tendrils, knocking out the entire Hound Wolf squad in a flash and shoving Chris aside. Grinning wickedly, she rubbed her stomach.
"Long time no see, Mia," she said. "Wanna see Ethan? I'm him now."
"What are you…" Mia stammered.
"I ate him," Eveline said. "No big deal, right? He was already dead!"
Extending her right arm, Eveline grabbed Mia's throat, choking her. Pulling Mia close, she sneered evilly, then raised her left arm, summoning fungal tendrils from the ground. Bursting through the earth, she ascended a towering fungal spire, gazing at the bleak sky.
"You knew Ethan was dead, didn't you?" Eveline said. "But it's fine now. He lives on as me. So love me, Mama."
"Don't mess with me!" Mia snapped. "Rose is our only daughter!"
"Oh… so if I bring back Rose, you'll make me family?" Eveline asked.
"What…" Mia said.
Manipulating fungal tendrils, Eveline summoned a stone chalice, placing it at the spire's center. Spreading her skirt, she casually dropped four flasks, then shoved Mia, binding her to the spire's inner wall. Sprouting Molded arms from her side, she gathered the flasks, placing them in the chalice.
"Karl, Donna, Angie, the sisters, Dimitrescu, Moreau, Miranda, Ethan—I ate them all, killed them all," Eveline said. "Raising Rose as my daughter sounds nice, but you're my first Mama, Mia. I want your love. Love me."
Filling the chalice with black mold, Eveline plunged her hands in, pulling out a restored, wailing Rose, cradling her gently with a gaze of maternal love.
"I'm Ethan too, you know?" she said. "My love for you is real. Is that not enough? Am I not enough?"
"Your madness is too much for me," Mia said. "Give up on me already! Give Rose back!"
Tears streamed down Eveline's face as Mia struggled to break free from the wall. Mia's role as Eveline's "Mama" was only to control her, and when that failed, she rejected her. There was no love. Realizing this, Eveline's face darkened with mold, her expression unreadable. Placing Rose on the chalice, she approached Mia.
"Fine," she said. "I don't need a Mama who won't love me. At least satisfy me."
Her mold-covered face morphed into a Molded's, jaws splitting wide to devour Mia. As Mia closed her eyes, resigned, Eveline's face exploded.
"Gya…!?" Eveline screamed.
"Just in time…!" Chris grunted.
Chris, having scaled the fungal spire, fired his handgun. Eveline's half-blown face turned to him, regenerating instantly with blood and mold. Chris and Mia grimaced at the sight.
"Why're you here?" Eveline said. "This was family time."
"You said you consumed Ethan," Chris said. "Ethan! Was that all your resolve amounted to?"
Charging with his handgun blazing, Chris was countered as Eveline morphed into insects, dodging bullets and opening her blackened maw to consume him. Hound Wolf's gunfire disrupted her form, and a flash grenade from Chris distorted her into an unstable, slime-like mass. Seizing the moment, Chris rushed to Mia, cutting her free with a karambit knife.
"GUAAAH! You'll pay!" Eveline roared.
Reforming as a girl, Eveline lashed tendrils from the spire's wall, striking Chris and hurling him skyward. More tendrils lifted him as the spire morphed into a giant Moreau fish, poised to swallow them all. Eveline slyly pulled Rose to her side.
"Shoot the wall!" Chris yelled.
Flung upward, Chris ordered Hound Wolf to fire on the spire's wall. Their assault rifles shattered it, collapsing the base of the Moreau-shaped tower. Escaping the rubble, Chris saw no sign of Mia. Eveline emerged, dragging an unconscious Mia and holding Rose, forcing Chris to hesitate as he aimed his gun.
"Don't shoot," Eveline said. "I don't want to lose Rose. Mia's whatever, but she's valuable bait, so I'd rather she not die. Please, stop chasing me."
"No way I'm letting a B.O.W. walk," Chris said. "Ethan, are you really done?"
"It's pointless," Eveline said. "Ethan's will is gone—…huh? Why… I consumed him completely…"
Suddenly retching, Eveline spewed an impossible volume of black liquid mold from her small frame. Bewildered, she watched as the mold expanded, forming a humanoid figure taller than her. It took a familiar shape, clenching its fist.
"Ethan, how… gah!?" Eveline cried.
A direct punch to the face sent Eveline flying, dropping Rose and Mia. The figure—Ethan Winters—caught Rose in both hands. Mia, jolted awake by the fall, gaped at Ethan.
"Ethan! How…?" she gasped.
"I swore to save Rose," Ethan said. "I couldn't die there. You're safe, Mia."
"Ethan, you actually answered my call!" Chris said.
"Yeah, Chris, I heard you," Ethan said. "Thanks for bringing me back."
"Impossible!" Eveline screamed, black mold oozing like blood from her face's every orifice, her voice thick with rage. "I consumed you, tore you to pieces, revealed that truth in the mental world! How do you keep your will!? How can you hurt me!? How did you break free!? It's impossible, impossible, impossible! I'm the strongest, so why!?"
"You told me in the mental world," Ethan said. "I'm already dead—a mold husk."
"So what… wait, no way!?" Eveline gasped.
"We're the same mold," Ethan said. "With my will intact, I could seize a chance to rematerialize. Turns out, I'm like you. Thanks to that, I'm back, fully healed, wounds from the village gone."
Clenching his restored left hand, Ethan handed Rose to Mia. His arms blackened, morphing into bladed Molded limbs, and he took a fighting stance.
"Let's do this, Chris," he said. "We take her down and escape this village!"
"She's a sentient fungal monster," Chris said. "Any way to kill an immortal Eveline? The bombs are neutralized, and we're out of options."
"There's one way," Ethan said. "Cover me!"
"Don't mess with me! DON'T MESS WITH ME!" Eveline roared.
Manipulating the fungal network like a tidal wave, Eveline engulfed herself, absorbing village houses and debris, ballooning into a monstrous form. Ethan and Chris charged forward together.
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