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"Large" was no longer enough to describe it.
It was a moving, living mountain composed of flesh and vegetation.
Countless root tentacles, like gigantic pythons, writhed across the ground. Every movement caused the sturdy concrete helipad to groan under the strain, and the earth trembled.
Its main trunk was a hundredfold magnification of the bizarre plant from Javier's Estate. Twisted vines and wildly pulsating flesh intertwined, forming a grotesque pattern that made one's sanity plummet.
At the top of the main trunk, the gigantic "flower," formed by layers of sharp teeth and crimson flesh, slowly opened petal by petal in the setting sun.
As it bloomed, a strange odor, mixing the sweet fragrance of plants with intense bloodiness, spread like a plague, enveloping the entire base.
Leon S. Kennedy and Noah protected the weakened Manuela between them, retreating step by step, their nerves stretched to the limit.
Finally, the enormous flower fully bloomed.
The center of the flower was not a deeper darkness, nor was it a deadly stamen.
Instead, it was a person encased by countless writhing, deformed tumors and blood vessels.
Or rather, half a person.
Javier.
Only his upper body remained, pale and gaunt. His lower half had completely vanished, perfectly merged into the fleshy core of this massive monster.
Countless thick blood vessels and nerve bundles extended from the end of his spine, connecting to every corner of the monster.
He was the monster's brain; he was its heart.
There was no pain on Javier's face; instead, he wore a calm, satisfied expression that was almost divine.
He lowered his head, looking down at the four figures on the ground, small as ants. His gaze swept past the fully armed soldiers and finally settled gently on the trembling girl.
A distorted, hollow voice, yet carrying a hint of strange affection, came from all directions, as if the entire monster were speaking at once.
"Manuela..."
"My child, come."
"Come to me."
Javier, or rather the monster, opened its arms, revealing an inviting smile.
"Like your mother, merge with me."
"That way, our family will never be separated again."
Mother... the word stabbed harshly into Manuela's heart.
A scene she had intentionally forgotten, yet one that was incredibly clear, suddenly rushed into her mind.
The ugly, silent monster in the church, whose pale blue eyes had quietly watched her sing.
The dying beast that Noah had smashed, punch after punch, in the morgue... "Th-that monster just now..."
Her voice was trembling uncontrollably, every syllable laced with profound fear.
"Was that..."
"That's right."
Javier interrupted her speculation with a factual, emotionless tone.
"That was your mother, Hilda."
Manuela's entire world completely collapsed at that moment.
The truth turned out to be so cruel, so bloody, so... absurd.
She thought the gentle mother she had always missed had died long ago.
She never expected the truth to be even more terrifying than death.
She had been turned into a monster that only knew how to kill and feed, by her own husband, her father.
The requiem she had sung earlier in the church, the song she thought was for the dead, was truly for her mother.
Only, she hadn't known that her mother, in her monstrous form, was lurking in the water, listening quietly.
And she had watched with her own eyes as the only person in the world who might still remember her mother completely destroyed her mother's remains.
Extreme sorrow, extreme absurdity, and extreme guilt branded her Soul like a red-hot iron.
"No—!!!"
A shrill, inhuman scream erupted from deep within her throat.
"What have you done?! Why did you do this!!!"
Tears poured from her beautiful eyes like a bursting dam.
She pointed at the man merged with the monster, using all her strength to utter the most desperate accusation.
Faced with his daughter's breakdown, Javier's expression didn't change at all; his grotesque smile deepened.
"I cannot lose you, not a single one."
His voice remained so calm, so matter-of-fact.
"Therefore, become one with us!"
The instant his voice fell!
"Whoosh—!"
An incredibly thick, gigantic tentacle wrapped in flesh and vines swept toward Manuela's location like lightning, accompanied by a shriek that ripped through the air!
The terrifying gust of wind felt like it would tear the skin off a person.
"Manuela!"
Leon S. Kennedy's roar sounded in the fierce wind.
He had no time to think; physical instinct had overridden everything else.
He lunged forward, violently shoving the completely stunned Manuela aside, using his own body as a cushion as he held her and rolled across the ground.
"Bang! Bang bang bang bang—!"
"Boom! Boom—!"
Almost simultaneously, the gunfire from Krauser and Noah exploded!
The assault rifle in Krauser's hand roared like an enraged beast, spewing a violent torrent of metal. Every bullet, carrying his furious roar, struck the side of the tentacle.
The bullets tore through the vines and dug into the flesh, splashing large amounts of dark green fluid, but they failed to stop it even slightly.
Noah's desert eagle, meanwhile, emitted its unique, heavy roar.
Every.50AE bullet spun accurately, striking the most violently pulsating vascular nodes where the tentacle connected to the main trunk!
The immense kinetic energy caused those nodes to burst one by one, spraying foul-smelling liquid and causing a slight hesitation in the tentacle's movement.
But this was only a delay.
The tentacle slammed heavily into the spot where they had just been standing.
"Rumble—!!!"
The solid concrete ground instantly collapsed as if struck by a meteor, forming a terrifying crater more than five meters in diameter. Countless fragments of rock were flung into the air by the massive impact before clattering back down.
The mere aftershock of the attack caused both Noah and Krauser, who had just stabilized themselves, to stumble.
On the other side, Leon S. Kennedy, holding Manuela, crashed hard onto the ground over ten meters away, kicking up large clouds of dust.
Before he could even catch his breath, an overwhelming shadow of death enveloped him from above!
Another tentacle, having risen into the air unnoticed, was now descending with the force of a thunderbolt, slamming down directly onto the two people lying on the ground, who had no time to dodge!
The massive shadow instantly swallowed all surrounding light.
The whistling sound of its descent felt like the Grim Reaper's scythe was already resting on their necks.
Krauser's pupils contracted to the extreme. He wanted to rush over, but the distance was too great; there was simply no time!
Noah's expression also completely darkened. He had even prepared himself to endure an impact.
Time, at this moment, seemed stretched to its limit.
Looking at the terrifying, sky-collapsing shadow rapidly expanding in his vision, a hint of despair appeared in Leon S. Kennedy's eyes for the first time.
Subconsciously, he rolled over, pressing Manuela tightly beneath him, using his back—which was not immensely strong—to meet the fatal impact.
"No—!!!"
A shriek, even more mournful and desperate, erupted from beneath Leon S. Kennedy, from Manuela's mouth!
She didn't want this!
She didn't want to see anyone else die for her!
Mother... Mr. Leon S. Kennedy... No!
In that instant, an unprecedented, scorching pain—hot enough to burn the Soul—suddenly erupted from her right arm!
"Ahhhhhh—!!!"
She clutched her right arm, covered in blue veins, and painfully curled up.
The blood vessels in that arm writhed madly, as if injected with magma, and the tissue beneath the skin suddenly burst forth with dazzling, pale green light!
Within the light, the skin on her arm began to crack inch by inch, and the keratinized outer layer peeled away, replaced by newly formed skin covered in strange blood-red patterns, appearing as if it were burning with fire.
Then, in the nick of time, just as the gigantic tentacle was about to strike.
Manuela's azure blue eyes, drenched in tears and pain, abruptly lifted, fixed intensely on the shadow of death descending from the sky.
A scorching, violent power, seemingly belonging to an ancient deity, burst forth from her arm!
"Whoosh—!!!"
A thick pillar of strange dark-red flame roared out from her mutated right arm like an awakened Dragon, shooting upward and accurately striking the descending tentacle!
There was no violent explosion.
Only a continuous, hair-raising "hissing" sound.
The gigantic tentacle, made of tough vines and resilient muscle that even large-caliber bullets struggled to shake, instantly reacted to the dark-red flame like ice meeting a branding iron.
Starting from the point of contact, its massive body was silently, completely, disintegrated, vaporized, and annihilated at a speed visible to the naked eye!
In less than two seconds, that terrifying tentacle, powerful enough to crush an armored vehicle into a pancake, was completely burned into nothingness in mid-air.
The air was filled with a strong, pungent smell of ozone mixed with scorched unknown substances.
The surroundings fell into an eerie silence.
The enormous monster seemed stunned by this sudden development; its massive body stiffened for the first time.
The pathological smile on Javier's face also froze.
Leon S. Kennedy propped up his upper body, staring dumbfounded at the smoking, scorched black mark burned into the ground nearby, then looked at the girl in his arms who was clutching her arm, panting heavily, as if all her strength had been drained.
His mind was completely blank.
And in the very instant Manuela's power erupted.
Noah, standing further away, suddenly shuddered.
A strange, ineffable sensation of heat, like an invisible current, shot up his spine without warning, rushing straight to the crown of his head!
The blood inside him seemed to ignite at that moment, beginning to surge and roar uncontrollably.
An incredibly familiar sense of resonance, originating from the depths of his Bloodline, from the very bottom layer of his genes, echoed wildly throughout his body.
It was as if the power Manuela had just displayed was also something he possessed.
His face became uncontrollably pale for the first time, and fine cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
Subconsciously, he raised his hand and pressed against his chest, trying to suppress the violent throbbing that felt ready to tear out of his body.
T-Veronica... the name flashed through his mind like lightning.
He sharply turned his head to look at Krauser on the other side.
The tower-like man was standing motionless, like a weathered statue.
The assault rifle in his hand hung limply, smoke still curling from the muzzle.
He wasn't looking at the monster, nor at Leon S. Kennedy or Manuela.
His gaze was fixed intently on Manuela's right arm, which was still radiating residual heat and flickering with an ominous red light.
Deep within those sharp eyes, there was no longer shock, nor fear.
Instead, there was a complex emotion mixed with awe, obsession, and... a hint of indescribable, fanatical desire.
He muttered to himself in a dreamy tone: Is this... the power of the virus...?
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