The battle continued, redoubling every second in violence and intensity. Dozens of lycans and mechanical zombies lay on the ground, their bodies lacerated, beheaded and torn to pieces, and their disgusting blood having now completely permeated the snow turned dark brown. But despite the piles of corpses piling up, the monsters did not stop fighting. With each passing minute, new corpses were added.

Further away from the battle, Mathias and Alcina, still together, had run towards the ruins of the great fortress which dominated the valley from this height. Further in front of them, Miranda flew with her mutant raven wings, hinting at her contemptuous sneers as she moved farther away. Heisenberg pursued her relentlessly. Thanks to its enormous metal claws, it clung with all its giant, mechanical body, climbing as best it could one of the ruined towers, in order to be able to pursue and reach Miranda who seemed to taunt him from above.

_ "Come back there! Wait a minute, I'll get you!" Heisenberg roared, furious with Miranda.

Karl summoned his power again, unleashing a new electro-magnetic field. The metal pieces on the corpses of his own zombies broke loose and were attracted to them. Without hesitation, Heisenberg sent this row of metal projectiles at Miranda, but Miranda dodged them all with nimble aerial movements.

_ "Deep down, I always knew you were a traitor, Heisenberg ... but it amused me to see you waste all those years putting together a project that was doomed to failure from the start." Miranda commented with cruel mockery.

_"SHUT UP!" Heisenberg yelled angrily, and with a claw, tried to hit her, but she dodged again.

Meanwhile, Alcina and Mathias ran together towards the ruined tower, to help Heisenberg to stop Miranda. The three of them together, uniting their powers, maybe they had a chance.

_ "Mathias, do you think you could touch her with your flames at this distance?" Alcina asked, watching as Miranda continued to fly over the top of the tower, dodging Heisenberg's blows.

Mathias tried to gauge the distance, but winced in frustration.

_ "She is way too far away. My chances of hitting her are zero. We should be able to bring her down ..."

Lady Dimitrescu didn't blame Mathias for not being able. Come to think of it, she too had had wings when her mutation manifested. But taking the risk of relapsing into this state of frenzy worried her, because she knew that in this state, she would be as much a danger for Miranda as for Mathias.

At the top of the tower, Heisenberg suddenly manages to grab Miranda in one of his giant mechanical hands.

_ "Ha! This time, I have you!" Karl sneered with satisfaction.

_ "Oh do you really think so?" Miranda answered then with a petty smile and her gaze indicated something behind Heisenberg, who then looked, puzzled. A giant sprawling root, summoned by Miranda, arose and violently struck Heisenberg's body which was thrown from the tower. Miranda took advantage of the shock to free herself and fly away again.

From the foot of the tower, Alcina and Mathias gazed in amazement and horror at the giant form of Heisenberg falling straight towards them and about to crush them.

_ "WATCH OUT!" yelled Alcina who grabbed Mathias in her arms and jumped with him and rolled together away. Heisenberg crashed heavily to the ground, just seconds later. The shock was very violent and made the ground tremble, raising a huge cloud of dust. But the weight of Karl's metallic body had greatly weakened the ground, which became covered with more and more large cracks, in a disturbing roar of creaky rock.

In the violent roll, Mathias and Alcina had fallen to the ground, and saw Heisenberg, two meters from them, growling more in anger than in pain, coming to his senses and getting back to his feet after this blow received.

But suddenly, beneath them, Mathias and Alcina felt the ground sagging dangerously and exchanged the same worried look. Their hands barely had to reach out and touch each other when with a brutal crackle the ground collapsed beneath them and the couple then began to fall into the darkness of the bowels of the mountain. Heisenberg was also swept away by the landslide, still trying to hang on and his metal claws scraping the rock in sparks.

In the fall, Mathias and Alcina tried to grab each other by the hand. After superhuman efforts, they succeeded and Lady Dimitrescu encircled Mathias's waist with one of her arms, keeping him very close to her and squeezing tightly. Mathias, to make sure he was hanging on to her and not being separated from her again, put his two arms around her neck. With her free arm, the countess revealed her long claws and imitated Heisenberg, who was falling not far from them. She scraped the rock face with her claws, in a continuous, excruciating squeal, hoping that might slow them down a bit and keep them from landing too hard. Mathias stood firm, closing his eyes and praying that they would survive. Alcina felt Mathias' embrace tighten on her and she did the same, gritting her teeth and making sure to put her own body first, in order to take most of the impact if they crashed. A throbbing pain took hold of the hand, then the arm of the countess, but it still resisted.

And finally, after an interminable fall, the wall disappeared and the trio finally fell into a huge pool of deep underground water, which saved their lives.

Plunged now in these cold and dark waters, but still holding hands, Mathias and Alcina rose to the surface and swam to the rocky shore to extricate themselves from the water and take a few moments of breath. Lying on his back, Mathias was breathing heavily, his heart pounding as if about to spring from his chest.

Sitting next to him, soaked too, Alcina grimaced, looking at her hand with which she had scratched the rock wall for several tens of meters. Her hand was bloody and torn, but it healed in an instant thanks to her regenerative power.

_ "Mathias, are you okay?!" she then asked, taking Mathias by the shoulders with concern.

The young man, after catching his breath, smiled gently at her, and put his hand on her cheek.

_ "Yes ... thanks to you." he answered.

She was reassured and smiled too.

The couple then saw Heisenberg emerging from the water like a devil, swimming and crawling on the bank, coughing and spitting some water out of his mouth. He had returned to his human form, his trusty hammer by his side. If he had kept his mutant mechanized form, he would have sunk like a stone to the bottom of this underground lake.

_ "Oh fuck ... I hate water!" Heisenberg panted, lying on the rocky ground, catching a little breath.

_ "This is the first time I see you in water, Heisenberg ..." Alcina commented ironically. "I was sure you never washed."

Mathias covered his mouth and gave a slight chuckle at the remark. Heisenberg huffed in annoyance and looked at the countess.

_ "Hey, fuck you! I also know soap!" Karl growled, straightening up and retrieving his hat which he emptied of the water it was full of. Alcina did the same, picking up her large, soaked hat and emptying it.

Even in a moment like this, the two of them couldn't help but bicker. Mathias laughed a little at this moment, which at the time surprised the two lords, but who, looking at each other, had to admit that it was a little ridiculous. Even though they didn't really like each other, it was time to unite against Miranda.
Even though they didn't really like each other, it was time to unite against Miranda.
Once standing, the trio turned to begin exploring this huge underground cave they had fallen into and hoping to find a way to come back to the surface. But suddenly they froze in place, their stunned gazes looking at the same thing standing in front of them.

_ "Holy shit ..." Mathias gasped in horror.

_ "By the gods ..." breathed Alcina.

_ "What the fuck is that?" Heisenberg said.

What presented itself to them in this enormous cave was tall ... gigantic! It was the only word in common that came to the mind of the trio. Since his arrival in this valley, Mathias had never seen something so horrible, worthy of the monstrosity of the Great Old Ones from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.

The thing measured more than thirty meters visibly. A mass of red and black flesh, slimy and oozing, the appearance of which made one think of an organ, like a giant, misshapen human heart. The giant thing was suspended ten feet above the ground, being held by large extensions of flesh that stretched out like sticky threads and clung to the rock walls. Black roots, like mold, were also coming out in several places. At a slow but steady pace, the enormous monstrosity contracted, like a beating heart. The rock walls all around the thing were covered with creeping mold and appearing alive.

Mathias showed a deep disgust for this atrocity, and seeing the expressions of Alcina and Karl, he guessed that it was also the first time that they saw it.

But their contemplation was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Miranda, who like an angel of darkness, arrived descending from heights, her mutant wings flapping and levitated near the giant mass of flesh, still showing that same face. devious and contemptible.

_ "You are lucky, miserable lords ..." she said. "You have the honor to behold the very source of power ... here is the great and almighty Black God of ancient times."

So this thing, this giant parasitic colony was this god worshiped by the pagans once. The very origin of the mutations engendered in the lords, but also the origin of the mold ... the incident in Lousiane, the death of the Baker family, the creation of Eveline ... all this came back in the memory of Mathias ... so it was all because of this creature ... Dimitrescu and Heisenberg finally discovered the origin of the parasites that had changed their bodies and had given them these powers ... this revelation made them tremble with anger.

_ "Isn't it beautiful?" said Miranda, who had turned to the parasitic colony and gazed at it with unhealthy admiration. "a survivor of more than ancient times, and his seniority is matched only by his power. A perfect, pure organism that is not constrained by feelings like guilt or hesitation."

_"You completely mad..." Heisenberg said after hearing this.

_ "How ... how can you admire such a monstrosity ..." Alcina growled angrily.

Mathias advanced in his turn, and showing an even more angry look than that of the two lords.

_ "All those innocent people who died because of these mutations ... it's all because of you and your ambition and your pretension to want to play god ... and you think your daughter would have approved of that? " said the young man.

_ "Your judgments have no value in my eyes, young fool ..." Miranda replied firmly. "I only care about success! And for it to materialize, I need your blood!"

With that, Miranda came back to the ground, facing the three Lords who stood ready to fight. Miranda's wings vanished from her back, giving way to something even more terrifying. Huge mutant spider legs, six in total, came out of her back. Behind her, the giant parasite seemed to wake up, its beats getting louder and it emanated from her body like a sort of low growl, like the growl of a giant monster that made the entire cave vibrate.

A pool of mold flowed from the parasitic fungus mass, crawling on the ground and gradually covering Miranda's entire body. The woman moaned with morbid pleasure, as if the mold was strengthening her abilities even more.

Heisenberg closed his hands on his hammer, his gaze focused, as Alcina prepared her claws and made Mathias stay close to her. The young man let her do it, but also braced himself for the confrontation, cracking his fingers. This time, no more room for error. It was time for Miranda to pay for all the wrong she had done. However, a detail jumped to Mathias's eyes. There were no more flames around, and he was only able to manipulate the fire and not create it himself.

_ "Let it be over, once and for all!" Miranda said then with a demented smile, opening monstrous eyes after the mold had permeated and strengthened her body.

With a movement of superhuman speed, she launched into the attack and wanted to pierce Mathias with one of the sharp legs of a mutant spider. Fortunately, Alcina was able to react thanks to her reflexes, and with a sudden but necessary gesture, pushed Mathias who rolled on the side out of the path. With her long claws, the countess blocked the paw in a brutal shock.

_ "You hurt him enough like that, Miranda! It's between you and me!" Alcina growled contemptuously.

Heisenberg leaped up and tried to land a large sideways hammer blow on Miranda's head, but she blocked the attack with another of her paws.

Falling to the ground after being pushed for his own safety, Mathias had moved away a little and was contemplating, with concern, the confrontation which had just begun. Joining forces, Lady Dimitrescu and Lord Heisenberg attacked as quickly as possible in a series of piercing, vertical, horizontal blows, while trying to attack on two sides at the same time, but Miranda resisted with great efficiency, managing to block each of the assaults with the help of her multiple and sturdy arachnid growths. Miranda, while blocking the attacks, laughed more and more hysterically, her insanity and mutation taking more and more of her mind.

Mathias felt completely helpless in the face of this situation. He wanted to help the two lords, but without flames, his mutant power was of no use to him and it was not with his poor physical human strength that he would manage to fight Miranda. Looking around for what he could try to do, he suddenly noticed ... but yes, he wasn't dreaming. It was indeed an entrance hidden in the half-light, at the top of the dressed stone step, at the end of the large cave. As if taken by a very strange presentiment, Mathias felt that he had to go and see what was on the other side. Maybe he would find a way to help his allies. He trusted them to resist until he returned.

Mathias then began to run in the direction of the entrance, narrowly avoiding all the roots of mold that were emerging from the floor or walls to try to grab him.

_ "Mathias?! But ... come back! Where are you going?!" Alcina gasped when she saw him do it, but soon had to focus on Miranda and again blocked one of her attacks. However, another stealthy arachnid leg managed to injure the countess in one shoulder, causing her to wince in pain. Heisenberg leaped in the attack again, striking one of the Miranda's mutant legs and shattering it, causing pain to her, but she fired back with fury, slamming Heisenberg hard and throwing him back. Alcina took advantage of this moment to sever the end of another paw with a violent backhand. Miranda gave a brief cry of pain, seeing black blood flowing from her severed paw and stepped back a few steps. Alcina came to Heisenberg, who was stunned by the blow received, and helped him to his feet so that they could continue to resist together, until Mathias returned.

_ "You are strong, I must admit ..." sighed Miranda, a little breathless by the fight but still able to hold on, her various wounds healing quickly. "But this is my victory. I've been preparing for it for a very long time, and you're not going to take it away from me."

_ "So come and take it!" Alcina replied defiantly, grinding her claws.

During this time, Mathias had entered the secret room which was at the bottom of the large cave of the parasite. And what he found there showed him that his presentiment was right. Gaze fascinated and horrified at the same time, the young man stepped into what looked almost like some sort of sordid underground laboratory. There were several tables and desks, covered with instruments and other scientific objects like glass tubes, test tubes, jars containing organs mutated in formalin or some sort of sleeping parasites, similar to filthy bubonic roots of brown color. There were also a lot of dusty books in piles ... books on medicine, on biology, but also a lot of history books, especially on that of the region of Transylvania ... on one of the tables, Mathias discovered four files filled with cards, each marked with the name of one of the lords ... Dimitrescu ... Heisenberg ... Beneviento ... Moreau ...

Mathias couldn't believe it, but he was sure. He had just found Miranda's lab. It was here that she had started her experiments on the mold, using the very cells of the fungus parasite, this black god.

Another file, written by Miranda, showed that a few years ago she came into contact with an organization calling itself Connections, and sold them samples of the mold. The organization had thus been able to create their ultimate biological weapon: Eveline. So this confirmed that Miranda was responsible for what happened in Louisiana and the death of the Baker family.

While exploring a little more, Mathias discovered, hung on a large stretched wire, dozens of photographs, taken from observation posts. All these photographs showed him, throughout his stay in this valley, and some even showed him with Lady Dimitrescu. So Miranda had watched him from the very beginning and she was aware of the romance between them. The simple thought made him angry.

However, the sounds of fighting echoing in the cave brought him back to the present moment very quickly and he then concentrated on searching for what he hoped to find in all this mess. And after a few minutes, he found it in a small room serving as a warehouse at the back of the laboratory. Bottles, containing oil to power the lanterns.

Without hesitation, Mathias took as many bottles as possible, and one by one began to empty them all over the laboratory, covering all of Miranda's research, the scientific instruments, the jars containing the Cadou organs and parasites, the files. Mathias was determined not to leave anything from this laboratory, so that it would not fall into any other hand and never be used again.

A strong smell of oil reeked in the air, making Mathias cough who then walked towards the entrance of the laboratory, grabbed the lantern that was hanging next to it, and threw it with all his might towards the middle of the room. The lantern glass shattered to the ground and immediately, the tiny flame dancing inside permeated the carpet with oil and in a roar and powerful explosion of heat, spread within seconds, covering absolutely the entire lab. The fire wave was so sudden and intense that Mathias leapt out of the room, rolling down the stairs.

In the center of the cave, while Miranda was still fighting Alcina and Karl, the explosion of flames that emerged from the entrance to her laboratory surprised them all, causing them to turn and look in that direction. Alcina was more than relieved to see Mathias alive, down the stairs and a little dizzy trying to get to his feet.

_ "NOOOOOO! MY LAB! MY RESEARCHES!" Miranda yelled in horror, her eyes bulging.

_ "That was for everything you did to us!" Mathias then said firmly to her, and as a bonus, offered her a very contemptuous middle finger.

At first silent and shocked, contemplating her laboratory and all her years of work having gone on fire, Miranda very quickly let herself be overcome by a madness and an endless rage. Screaming like a possessed, hateful at the highest point, she unleashed her power of mold mastery again.

Mathias, Alcina and Karl could not react as black, living roots sprouted from the ground all around them and immobilized them by the arms, legs, body and neck. The three of them struggled fiercely to free themselves, but the mold was way too strong and they could feel it, tightening more and more on them. They were going to be completely crushed. Mathias and Alcina's worried looks met, each wanting to struggle with all their might to be able to free the other. Karl struggled, spitting curses all over the place.

_ "To hell with the ceremony ... I had to wait nearly a century to be able to bring my daughter back ... well, I would wait another century! As for you, you will no longer be in this world! " Miranda growled with hatred, anxious now above all to kill them all in revenge for the affront she had just suffered.

Mathias was trying to concentrate on handling the flames of the fire behind him, but the roots that held him kept him from moving a single muscle. This time he had no idea how he was going to get away with it. Alcina, for her part, seeing her love being covered by the mold, moaned with rage as she tried to free herself, in vain, from her own shackles.

But suddenly, a form, human in appearance and clad in a dark robe, popped up, as if she was not existing before and becoming visible to everyone, behind Miranda and leaped in her back, stabbing her in the chest with a pair of silver scissors. Miranda gasped in surprise and pain, the tool stuck in the flesh. Mathias, Alcina and Karl, meanwhile, opened wide, stunned eyes at the sight of the mysterious attacker who had just appeared.

It was ... Donna! Donna Beneviento! Dressed in her black dress, but this time stripped of her veil and her face uncovered, her black hair tied in a bun and her right eye covered by that scar. But ... it was impossible! Yet she was dead, they had all seen her ... unless ...

For Mathias, it was obvious, remembering Donna's power. She was able to create more than real hallucinations. So she had passed herself off as dead and fooled everyone, even Miranda, so that she could then attack her in the back. Mathias smiles when he sees this. It was a real stroke of genius.

Miranda having been stabbed, and therefore distracted, the hold of the roots of mold disappeared, allowing Mathias, Alcina and Karl to free themselves. Meanwhile, Donna was screaming like an angry little girl, continuing to latch onto Miranda's back and repeatedly stab her with her mother's scissors. Miranda, driven mad and furious with the pain, managed to grab Donna and threw her over her shoulders. Donna fell and rolled to the ground, hurting herself. Alcina and Karl quickly helped her up, although they were still surprised to see her alive.

_ "Awesome, Donna ..." Miranda growled, pulling the scissors from her flesh and throwing them on the floor. "For a mental moron, you've done a good job of strengthening your power. But don't think I'm going to be fooled once more."

Donna Beneviento hid behind Lady Dimitrescu and snuggled up against her, like a little sister seeking protection from her big sister. Alcina let her do it, protecting her and preparing her claws to face Miranda again. Heisenberg had retrieved his hammer and came to stand beside the countess, also ready to do battle.

Meanwhile, and taking advantage of the fact that Miranda was completely obsessed with her desire for revenge on the lords, Mathias, now free of his means, concentrated his power to the maximum. Spreading his arms, he made all the flames of the laboratory fire come towards him, which gradually came to form a veritable tornado of fire above him. This phenomenon attracted everyone's attention, and Alcina quickly showed great satisfaction and guessing what Mathias was about to do.

_ "Go Mathias!" she screamed.

Mathias also howled loudly, and with a great movement of his hands, sent this infernal torrent in the direction of the giant fungus parasite, and this, under the horrified gaze of Miranda who could do nothing to prevent it.

The fire cyclone created by Mathias struck and covered the entire parasitic giant mass. Immediately, the black god emitted a huge and indescribable roar of pain that made the cave tremble and tore everyone's eardrums, as the fire slowly but surely devoured him, as well as the ties that held him to the walls. Hell-like heat spread through the cave as the giant, millennial parasite glowed like a gigantic torch.

_"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Miranda yelled, helplessly watching this perfect organism she so admired being reduced to ashes.

But Miranda suddenly felt a shadow behind her. She barely had time to turn around when Heisenberg's hammer hit her full in the face, tearing off half of the flesh and slicing open her skull, the bloody brains being visible. Heisenberg then spat on her before stepping back, leaving her place to Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, who with a more than gloomy gaze looked at Miranda.

_ "We made our choice." was the answer given by the countess.

And with these final words to her former leader, Alcina punctured Miranda's chest with her claws, and thus tearing out her heart which she unhesitatingly crushed in her palm, reducing it in pieces that spread between her fingers. Face frozen in a silent and endless cry, face broken and bloody, chest torn and heart torn out, Miranda froze, gradually transforming into a grizzled crystal that crumbled into thousands of fragments that spilled over the ground, at the feet of Alcina, Karl and Donna, and Mathias who joined them and took Alcina by the hand ... all the others could see it, finally ... Miranda, this woman who had destroyed so many lives, who had desecrated their families and their pasts, was finally dead ...

_ "It's over ..." Mathias sighed with welcome relief.

_ "Yes ... now we are really free ..." Alcina replied, smiling at him.

But suddenly the cave started to shake more and more, and bigger and bigger boulders started to rain down from the walls. The giant parasite continued to burn and consume itself, in these inhuman and abominable roars.

_ "Let's get out of here! The whole cave is falling on our heads!" Heisenberg ordered hastily.

_ "Come all to me, quickly!" Alcina tells them, who by managing to concentrate her mutation, somehow manages to make her mutant wings come back behind her back.

The Countess took Mathias in one of her arms and took Heisenberg by the hand. Mathias put his arms around Alcina's neck again to hold himself to her, their faces being very close to each other.Donna latched onto Karl's back with all her strength, which annoyed him a bit at first and had to tell Donna not to put her arms so tightly around his neck so as not to suffocate him.

Once all three were well hooked, Alcina Dimitrescu leapt up and with a great thrust of her mutant wings, flew as fast as she could, climbing upwards, while around, the walls of the cavern crumbled more and more, coming little by little to crush and bury the black god in fire and in agony, burying him, as well as Miranda and all his research, forever.

Alcina, along with Mathias, Karl and Donna, were thus all able to reach the surface through the hole they had fallen into, finding themselves again at the ceremonial site that had become silent again, the lycans having apparently deserted the fight.

Clearing her wings from her back, Alcina Dimitrescu sits down on the snowy ground, needing to catch her breath. Mathias, sitting next to her, had to do the same, his heart still pounding after the stress he had just experienced. Karl, looking reserved, sits on a rock, taking a cigarette out of his pocket to smoke it, and also, picked up and handed the Angie doll to Donna, who more than happy to find her doll, took it and hugged it like a girl finding her favorite toy after having lose it.

Mathias and Alcina looked at this with a smile. The night of fighting was finally over, as a new sun rose from behind the mountains to bring some warmth to the valley. While watching this new dawn, Mathias then felt Alcina's arm delicately surround his shoulder. The couple smiled fondly at each other, more than happy and relieved to be together again, and now free from Miranda's threat.

Meanwhile, from the entrance to the abandoned village, gradually lit by the rays of the rising sun, the Duke, seated in the back of his cart, lit a cigar from which he smoked a first puff, and sketched a smile.

_ "Well done, my lords ... well done ..." he breathed softly with a light, satisfied laugh.