This sensation was truly disconcerting ... a mixture of excruciating burning pain, but soon after becoming tolerable and almost pleasant ... and above all, this power that Mathias now felt in him, flowing through his veins, permeating him forever in every bit of his flesh and bones ... the Derune legacy, after several generations of sleep, had finally awakened.

Surrounded by his flames which he managed to manipulate by telekinesis, with an ease as if it were innate, Mathias managed to keep control of himself, although it was more than difficult.

Alcina's winged form came to rest on the ground, and the Countess, having also managed to regain control of her body and her will, ran to the young man.

_ "Mathias!" she said with a smile filled with hope she never thought she would ever see again.

Mathias smiled at her, opening the circle of flames to let her approach, and the two of them hugged forcefully and their lips even met for a very short but heartfelt kiss. Each thought they would never see the other again, but they were now reunited.

_ "I thought I had lost you forever ... I had lost all hope and I let anger take hold of me ... I'm sorry that you saw me like this ..." said Alcina with tenderness towards her lover.

_ "You managed to come back, that's all that matters to me ..." Mathias answered smiling. "It would rather be up to me to be forgiven. You wanted to send me away from here to protect me, but I chose to come back for you, even if it means putting myself in danger ..."

Alcina listened to him but could not blame Mathias for this gesture. It was the very first time that someone had shown such a sacrifice for her. But suddenly the couple heard a cold sneer coming from Miranda's mouth, who continued to levitate in the air a dozen yards from them, surrounded by the huge, sprawling mold roots sticking out of the ground. Side by side, Mathias and Alcina looked at her with contempt.

_ "Oh, how adorable ..." Miranda commented with sly, not hidden irony, "... the last heirs Derune and Dimitrescu, bound by a sincere and powerful love, but gathered here to die together."

_ "You will not touch my beloved again!" Alcina growled firmly, bracing her long claws again.

_ "We are two against one. Give up, Miranda!" Mathias said in turn, his reptilian eyes shining and preparing the flames he manipulated with his mutant power.

At these sentences, Miranda snickered again and waved her hand. Behind her, the huge columns of mold shattered in a concert of torn flesh. From the slimy black flesh came dozens of new lycans, who barely opening their eyes roared in unison and came behind Miranda to form a new army. Alcina and Mathias, who hadn't foreseen this, swallowed but chose to stay in their places and face.

_ "Two against one, really?" Miranda joked coldly, supported by her newly created troops.

The Lycans were very numerous, and despite their combined strength, Alcina and Mathias doubted they could kill them all without losing their lives. Was this the end? Had Miranda won?

But suddenly, a huge mechanical roar tore the night apart, and Mathias and Alcina, just like Miranda and the Lycans, were surprised to see the enormous mutant form, made up of flesh and metal, of Heisenberg arrive after a masterful and overwhelming leap on the ground which trembled, a few meters from the couple who joined him then.

_ "Surprise, motherfuckers!" Karl laughed in his monstrous voice.

_ "Heisenberg ?! I knew a few Lycans wouldn't be enough to stop you." Lady Dimitrescu said without smiling, but for the first time, happy to see him come to the aid.

_ "There won't be too many three to stop Miranda." Mathias added, also happy to see new help coming.

_ "Three? Oh, I'm not so sure boy ... I also invited a few friends of mine to end the party on a high note." Heisenberg sneered, pointing behind him. Looking then in the direction indicated, Mathias and Alcina showed expressions both surprised but reassured.

From the snow-covered path, a troop arrived, emerging from the twilight of the night. Lady Donna Beneviento, with her Angie doll in her arms, stood there, erect and silent as usual.

_ "Ha ha! Time for the fight! fight! fight!" the doll said with morbid excitement, expressed by Donna's power.

Behind the woman stood dozens of creatures that Mathias saw for the first time. They looked like zombies, but however, all of them got varying degrees of cybernetic upgrades, making them look like soldiers. Plates of metal covering their bodies like armors, and many had had their hands replaced with weapons like drills, blades, or even guns. But the most impressive creature of this army of metal zombies, was a huge monster over two meters tall, and whose appearance was nightmarish.

Its legs were human, but its upper body was a huge, intricate metal engine, roaring and steaming, and the front consisted of a turbine and three large circular saw blades, spinning at full speed like an plane engine. On one of the plaques of his strange body was marked the letters Sturm. Maybe his name.

_ "So... so that's what you were doing in your factory all these years, Heisenberg..." Alcina commented as she gazed at all those improved undead, unable to help but smile. "You bastard."

_ "Ho-oh, what language for a lady of your rank." Heisenberg replied wryly.

As Mathias too looked at these creatures with a mixture of curiosity but also of suspicion, Alcina turned her attention to Donna and grabbed her by the shoulder.

_ "But ... and my daughters? Are they safe?!" the countess asked uneasily.

_ "Yes ..." Donna said, in her own voice, reassuring her. "We left a garrison of Heisenberg soldiers at the castle, to protect them."

Alcina sighed with relief and by her gaze thanked the young Lady Beneviento for having been able to keep an eye on her daughters and her castle during her absence.

Mathias, meanwhile, was more than happy to see all this support behind him. Himself, Lady Dimitrescu by his side ... Heisenberg and Beneviento also standing with them, and behind, the legion of mechanical undead soldiers, ready for battle. For her part, Miranda watched it all, with surprise certainly, but chose not to be intimidated. Behind her, her lycans waited, growling and salivating at the thought of a fight.

_ "See, Miranda?!" said Mathias, surrounded by his allies. "Your reign of horror comes to an end tonight! You wanted to play god, now suffer the wrath of the lords!"

For Miranda, who lost her smile and glared, this time the insolence was too much. Who did he think he was?

_ "Kill them all ..." she ordered coldly, with a snap that broke the brief silence that had fallen on the ceremonial site.

Immediately, the lycans roared in unison in a hellish din and all stormed like a wave. On the other side, Heisenberg, being the leader and creator of these mechanical zombies, gave the order in his turn and with his huge metallic mutant body, rushed to the assault with his troops. The ground shaked as the two monstrous armies were about to collide.

Not being armed and being too vulnerable, Donna Beneviento stepped back and would stay behind, if necessary to use her illusory powers on possible waves of enemies, while being protected by four zombie soldiers that Heisenberg had assigned to her protection, as the last line of defense. While keeping Angie tightly against her, Donna also pulled something out of the pocket of her black dress. A pair of sharp silver scissors, which once belonged to her mother who used them to cut the fabric needed to make the dresses of the dolls she made for her daughter. The thought of her late mother gripped Donna's heart, but she remained focused on the present moment. She might be the weakest, physically, of the lords, but she wouldn't be weak either.

Meanwhile, Alcina and Mathias, while making sure to stay together, remained in the midst of Heisenberg's troops. They looked around for Miranda, wanting to try to attack her together to destroy her once and for all. But unfortunately, she had completely vanished, taking advantage of the chaos that had just erupted.

_ "Where is she? Show yourself, you coward!" Mathias yelled, looking everywhere, enraged and wanting to kill her with his hands.

_ "Mathias, watch out!" said Alcina suddenly, brutally beheading a lycan who had jumped behind the young man's back to attack him. The lifeless head and body rolled to the ground, spilling a puddle of slimy blood in the snow. Mathias thanked the Countess with a nod, and in turn saved her by sending flames, by telekinesis, to cover another enemy who was preparing to attack from behind. The lycan roared in intense pain, devoured by flames and collapsed, charred and smoking.

_ "Let's focus on the Lycans, Mathias, or we'll be completely overwhelmed!" Alcina suggested, to which Mathias nodded, although he really wanted to go after Miranda.

During this time, Heisenberg had charged, like a raging bull, and thanks to his size, his strength and his weight, had managed to directly smash the enemy's first line, throwing a dozen lycans into the air with a simple blow of the arm that swept everything in front of him.

The mechanical zombies and the lycans had collided, and were slaughtering each other in a veritable deluge of blows, explosions of blood, torn limbs and heads ... Sturm was running straight ahead, spinning his circular saws at full speed like a plane's propellers, shredding any lycans who were unlucky enough to get in his way and sending their cut pieces flying in all directions. But several lycans had managed to leap to Sturm's sides and started hitting him with all possible brutality.

Alcina and Mathias then looked around them. The couple were surrounded by general chaos, with lycans and mechanical zombies fighting fiercely, killing each other, and Heisenberg, further away and surrounded by dozens of enemies, gave free rein to his violence and killed a large number of them with heavy blows or crushing them under his giant metal body. The four large stone statues of kings and founders of families, with their frozen gazes, almost seemed to contemplate this battle which was taking place, for the future of this valley, and perhaps of this whole world.

Deciding not to let their allies fight alone, but making sure to always stay together, Mathias and Alcina also fought with all their might, in the middle of the ritual site and the battlefield. With his recently acquired power, Mathias controlled the flames as best he could and used it to burn as many lycans as possible in their fiery and infernal wake. Unfortunately, Mathias could not aim with precision with this power and some of Heisenberg's zombies were also caught in the fire and burned just as much as the enemy monsters which crumbled in excruciating howls of pain.

Alcina, on the other hand, struck with her claws in large, strong, circular motions, slicing, slashing and beheading any lycans that passed within her reach. She grabbed one of them and bit him deep in the throat, bleeding him out in seconds, before ripping his head off and throwing it away. While fighting, out of the corner of his eye, Mathias watched over Alcina, fearing that this new slaughter would plunge her again into her uncontrollable predatory state. For now, she seemed able to control her anger, even though her irises were staining slightly with blood.

Further back from the battlefield, four Lycans had managed to pass and were heading towards Donna and her escort. The zombies stood ready, but Lady Beneviento decided to act on her own. Activating her mutant power, she unleashed an illusion affecting the four enemy monsters, who with their deceived eyes saw Donna completely disappear from their vision, searching for her everywhere in bewilderment. Donna took advantage of their gazes blinded by her power, to come up to them undetected, and one by one, slaughtered their throats with the blade of her scissors. In floods of blood and emptying in a few seconds, the four lycans fell to the ground, in filthy gurgling.

But after completing her kill with satisfaction, proving that she was not weak, Donna suddenly froze, and her illusion shattered, causing her to become visible again. The young woman, a stream of blood flowing from her mouth, then saw Miranda's face right in front of his, showing her a smile and a cruel gaze. Looking down, Donna saw Miranda's claws just piercing her stomach. Behind Miranda, the zombies serving as Donna's escort were all dead, beheaded with formidable precision. Miranda then removed the black veil, revealing Donna's face and her tearful eyes.

_ "My poor Donna ..." Miranda commented "... your illusion may have worked on others, but not on me. Would you have forgotten that it was me who gave you this power? Well now, I am taking it back from you and your heart."

With those words devoid of compassion, Miranda tore at Donna's chest which was frozen in pain, and her heart was mercilessly torn from her body, trapped in the bloodied grip of Miranda who then let Donna fall to the floor as if she didn't. was nothing.

_ "DONNA!!" then came the voice of Mathias, who had just watched with horror at the scene.

Miranda barely had time to look away when Heisenberg's giant form came running up and leaping at her.

_ "It's time to pay, bitch!" roared Heisenberg who with his giant metal fist wanted to hit and crush her. But with a quick flick of her wing, Miranda flew back, avoiding the blow that shook the ground and created a crater.

_ "Stay there!" Heisenberg then said furiously, and chased after her.

Mathias, followed closely by Lady Dimitrescu, ran to Donna who was lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. The young woman Beneviento was moaning in great pain and could barely crawl, reaching out her hand to try to pick up her doll, Angie, who was lying on the floor a few feet from her. Seeing her do it, Mathias picked up the doll and came to give it to Donna, who, in tears, hugged the doll against her like a child in distress. Alcina had knelt in the snow and was holding Donna in her arms carefully. But seeing that his heart had been ripped out, the couple knew that sadly it was too late, and the mere idea only made their anger even stronger for Miranda.

Mouth bloody, eyes streaming, Donna was in endless agony, turning her eyes in distress and pain towards Alcina and Mathias who were near her.

_ "L ... Lady Dimitrescu ... I ... I'm scared ... I ... I want to see my mom and my dad ..." Donna moaned like a sad little girl.

Mathias then remembered that Donna had been mentally ill from birth and had always behaved like a child.

_ "Shhht ... you will see them soon ... don't cry anymore ..." said Alcina, trying in vain to reassure her.

Although she had never really liked the other lords, Alcina felt bad for Donna, because deep down, the latter had never been unpleasant to her.

_ "All .. all I wanted ... was to have a family again ... not to be alone and to be loved ... like my mom and dad love me ..." moaned Donna, l agony making her more and more delirious.

Mathias, taking pity on her, then took her bloody hand in his and squeezed it tight.

_ "You are not alone, Donna ... we are here, and we will remain so ..." said the young man.

Seeing nothing, her eyes clouding, Donna still managed to smile despite the pain, looking happy to hear those words, even though they came from the mouth of this unknown young man she didn't really know.

_ "Thank you ... daddy ..." Donna moaned softly in delirium.

Then the last breath was heard between her lips, and her eyes closed forever, as if she were falling asleep. Mathias and Alcina felt it, as the grip weakened and the arm fell inertly alongside the body. Donna, last heiress and living member of the Beneviento family, was dead, going to join her parents in the afterlife.

Alcina gently laid Donna's body down, while Mathias, kneeling in the snow, clenched his fist and slammed it hard against the ground. Seeing him do it, Alcina strongly supported him.

Under their gaze, Donna Beneviento's body, now deprived of her parasitized mutant heart, petrified and fell into thousands of fragments that quickly turned to dust. Only Angie was left, the doll, now still and forever silent, like any ordinary toy.

Picking up the doll in his hands and looking at it, Mathias, his gaze darkening even more, swore one thing to himself. No more sacrifices will be tolerated! The last line was drawn for Miranda!