Mathias was no longer thinking. As he ran along the sloping snow-covered dirt road, only one thought crossed his mind: help Alcina. It was just that that mattered to him. The mere sight of the Dimitrescu castle in the throes of combat far away, the smoke of the few fires, gripped his heart with deep concern. And if she was... no, he immediately chased that possibility as far as he could. He refused to believe it. He could have chosen to flee to the other side, to find his former life far from this lost valley ruled by monsters and mutants, but he had refused to do so. He couldn't abandon Alcina.

He finally came into sight of the first houses of the abandoned village, sawn-off shotgun in hand and machete on his belt. But very quickly, the first welcoming committee made itself known.

Emerging from the roofs of ruined houses, or from the side streets, a group of four lycans blocked his way. Their white eyes gleamed in the night, as they let their salivating fangs be seen and their hellish grunts heard at the sight of this human prey. Two of them were armed with old medieval iron swords.

Heart pounding, Mathias faced them, standing about twenty yards from them. He was scared, he had to admit it, but he didn't fear them as much as he used to, which surprised him himself. It wasn't a bunch of misshapen, monstrous wolves that were going to prevent him from finding Alcina. This mere thought galvanized him and made him face it, and fight if necessary.

_ "You want me? Come and get me, if you dare!" then said Mathias in deliberate provocation.

The first lycan, trembling like a possessed man hungry for blood and battle, rushed forward, claws and fangs out. But Mathias had anticipated this haste. He waited until the creature was close enough and fired the first round with the shotgun. The detonation echoed with great power, and the lycan was pushed back as half of its face exploded in a splash of blood, flesh and bone. Mathias fell back from the recoil and the force of his gun fire, but recovered quickly, having felt his arm and his whole body shake when he fired.

_ "Wow ... damn ..." Mathias gasped, still reeling from that firepower, and gazing at the lifeless and disfigured body of the lycan lying in the snow and mud.

But as the other three lycans prepared to attack in their turn, they suddenly changed their minds, as if they had received the order by telepathy, and under Mathias' confused eyes, fled, disappearing into the dark streets of the village.

But very quickly, Mathias understood that this was only a very short respite, because a new enemy presented himself before him. Coming out of between two houses to walk to the center of the street, a misshapen monster he already knew now stood in front of him. One of the four lords. Salvatore Moreau. Without taking his eyes off him, and more suspicious than ever, Mathias reloaded his shotgun with two new cartridges. He swallowed softly, guessing that a lord would be much tougher than a simple lycan.

_ "Why ..." the hunchbacked aquatic mutant moaned then, disgusting mud flowing between his lips. "Why are you making it difficult for us? Yet it is clear ... Mother Miranda gave orders, and as long as her children, we must obey."

_ "I am not one of those children." answered Mathias firmly. "And even if I did, I would never agree to obey a weirdo like her. I make my own choices and choose what's right."

_ "You don't have the right to say that!" growled Moreau who got angry more then, clenching his fists and taking a threatening step forward. "But after all, it might be okay for me ... yes ... if I ever capture you, Mother Miranda will thank me for what I would have done for her ... she will love me even more, and I will finally become her favorite, as I deserve, more than all the others."

So, was that Moreau's motivation? To please this madwoman whom he really saw as his mother and wanting to become her favorite child?

_ "You are really pathetic." then said Mathias contemptuously. "Yes ... that's all you are ... a miserable, ridiculous creature who behaves like a child unable to make his own decisions."

_ "No ... no ... I forbid you ... to ... say ... that!" Moreau then growled even louder, as if both he was crying and being in a rage. He then began to have more and more uncontrollable convulsions. Seeing this, Mathias recoiled, frowning and really not liking what was happening.

As he trembled, vomiting a black, corrosive slime out of his mouth, Moreau tore off the black rags that covered him, and finally revealed his body. Mathias thought he was going to vomit. Moreau's body was the most sickening thing he had ever seen. A round, hunchbacked back, covered with huge oozing buboes and several large inhuman protruding eyes, as well as small, squishy, rippling tentacles.

Moreau then fell to his knees in the snow, uttering howls of excruciating pain with his distorted voice, as his already horrific body seemed to visibly grow and undergo even more monstrous changes than it already was. The tentacles on his back were growing. His skin was getting darker and dripping with mucus. Its two arms grew into large, clawed, webbed front legs. His two legs merged to form a huge fishtail. The buboes on his back exploded in geysers of filthy pus, giving way to a sea of amphibian eyes covering his round back entirely. What remained of Moreau's body was gradually covered with a huge amphibian jaw filled with sharp teeth, opening into four parts, much like a carnivorous plant.

Mathias was horrified by this mutation. Moreau had become this tall creature which measured more than ten meters. But obviously, he had transformed in spite of himself, unable to control his mutation.

_ "I'll make you proud, mother ... look at me!" moaned then Moreau in his great pain, his voice having become even louder, but less human, like a concert of throaty sounds.

Moreau, with a deafening roar, launched into the attack, destroying and trampling everything in his path. Seeing this juggernaut coming at him, Mathias had the reflex to shoot, but that didn't seem to hurt the amphibian creature much.

But luckily, in this form, Moreau looked awkward and slowed down by his enormous weight. Mathias jumped up and rolled to the side, avoiding the jaws of the monster, which carried away by its weight and momentum, could not stop for several meters.

_ "Graaaah, stop moving, miserable little human!" growled Moreau furiously.

Mathias knew that by staying in the open, he wasn't going to last like this forever. He ran in the nearest abandoned house and quickly blocked the door behind him. He hoped at least to escape Moreau's sight and have time to reload his weapon.

But very soon, the house was violently shaken as Moreau had loaded on it, covering half of the building with his sticky and slimy body. Above him, Mathias could see the foundations cracking and had to avoid several falling pieces of the ceiling.

_ "You never loved me, mother ... Why? After all I've done for you! But you will see! They will all see what I'm capable of! You will love me, mother, and we will live happily together!"

Moreau shouted these words, in a madness that was both sad and terrifying. He was completely obsessed with his desire to satisfy Miranda, to be the perfect son for her.

Mathias rolled onto the floor, narrowly avoiding a piece of ceiling that fell beside him. But one of the walls shattered to pieces, Moreau's head trying to squeeze through the breach created.

_"I found you!" roared Moreau.

His jaws snapped open and he spat out a stream of a viscous green liquid, which Mathias quickly avoided by bounding into the next room. A few seconds later, everything that had been touched by the liquid began to smoke and dissolve. Acid! Mathias swallowed in horror imagining that his body might have ended up like this if he hadn't avoided.

But Moreau was not determined to give up so easily and by insisting, managed to enlarge the breach of the wall and to enter more and more his head. However, in doing so, the house became more and more fragile and was on the verge of collapsing completely. Mathias had to get out of there before he was buried. To slow Moreau down, he fired the shotgun again, which pierced several of the eyes on Moreau's head, causing him to roar in pain but also in anger.

Mathias took advantage of this moment to run as fast as possible, as everything collapsed around him, and in a last jump forward, managed to roll out, just before the whole house collapsed on Moreau.

Sitting on the ground, breathless and heart pounding, Mathias stared at the smoking pile of debris in front of him, as silence abruptly fell.

But as he rose to his feet, a black tentacle shot up out of the rubble like a rocket and hit Mathias hard, throwing him back. Mathias rolled for several meters in the snow and mud, moaning in pain and coughing, feeling his chest very sore from the blow received.

Moreau slowly stood up from the wreckage of the house and walked clumsily up to the young man.

_ "If you thought that a simple house would be enough to stop me ..." growled the giant mutant.

Looking around despite his slightly cloudy vision, Mathias saw his shotgun, which had been thrown several meters away from him. He wanted to crawl up to him, but Moreau's monstrous paw imposed itself right in front of him, blocking him.

Another tentacle grabbed Mathias by the leg, lifting him off the ground to bring him to Moreau's giant jaws which opened wide. Inside the stinking jaw, Mathias then noticed something that came out of the shadows and approached him ... yes ... it was Moreau's tongue, but ... it had the shape of his head, his upper body and his arms, when he had his humanoid form ... really disgusting ...

The humanoid Moreau approached and with his sticky hands, touched the cheeks of Mathias who was held firmly in the air, upside down.

_ "Thanks to you, me and mother will form a perfect family." growled Moreau happily.

_ "Fuck your family!" Mathias replied angrily.

And with that, the young man quickly took the machete that was still hanging from his belt, and in a swift and as strong gesture as possible, pierced the humanoid Moreau's head, almost cutting it in two. Immediately Moreau let out inhuman howls of pain, moving in all directions. The tentacle dropped Mathias to the ground. As he backed up to retrieve his shotgun, Mathias watched as the giant monster fluttered around, spewing geysers of a mixture of acid and black blood, and destroying several other houses in its path.

_ "Aaaaah ... it hurts! No! No! I don't want to .... No! Mother! Help! Mother! Help me!" Moreau yelled louder and louder and with even more despair, as mortally wounded, his mutated body began to inflate like a balloon uncontrollably. And finally, Moreau's entire body exploded and Mathias had to hide behind an overturned old cart to be protected from the violent splashes of blood, flesh and slime.

Once the silence returned, Mathias came out of his cover to see what remained of Moreau's body. A shapeless, shredded and smoking heap of pieces of flesh, bones and organs, which little by little fossilized and quickly crumbled to dust.

_ "In death as he was in life. Disgusting." then commented Mathias, panting.

He found it hard to believe that he had managed to defeat one of the Lords, but yet he did. On the other hand, Mathias still felt a little pity on Moreau when he saw him behave like a child who just wanted a mother. Yet another victim of Miranda, who hadn't hesitated for a second to use him. Mathias wonders if he could have reasoned with Moreau? Little luck, considering how fascinated he was with her. A real fanatic.

_ "Hmmm ... poor Moreau ... He has always been one of my biggest disappointments ... but at least he will have served a purpose: to keep you here by the time I arrive."

That voice ... Mathias had a deep shiver down his spine when he heard it and turned around, preparing his shotgun. About ten meters from him, she was there ... Miranda, dressed in a big black dress and carrying a white scarf on her shoulders like church priests. And for the first time, she was not wearing her mask, finally revealing her face to Mathias. She looked like an ordinary young woman, with dark eyes and blond hair, but Mathias knew it was only a facade.

_ "You ..." Mathias breathed with suspicion and anger in his voice.

_ "Me ..." Miranda replied without a hint of hesitation, showing a smirk on her lips.

Mathias did not hesitate any longer and fired again. The shot rang out, but to his amazement, Mathias saw that Miranda was completely out of sight, in just a fraction of a second. Yet he hadn't blinked. How ... how did she have?

Stunned, Mathias was then hit very violently on the back of the head, so much so that he fell forward, disarmed. He tried to get up, but a mass of black mold quickly crawled up to him, covering his arms and legs, preventing him from moving. Struggling, he saw Miranda again, who had magically reappeared right behind him and stood above him, smiling and satisfied.

_ "Now, now ... it's time to go. The ceremony must take place on time." she said with unmistakable slyness.

_ "No, stop ..." Mathias wanted to say to threaten her, but was very quickly completely covered by the black mold, which, obeying Miranda, carried its prey towards the place of ceremony.