The cold wind at the cliff edge carried a thick reek of rot. Mia's figure was moving quickly along the dilapidated village paths.
In this village that seemed frozen in time, even at this late hour, Ryan could faintly make out the twisted creatures crouching on the ruined thatched roofs or lurking in shadowy cellars. They had human outlines, but their muscles and bones had warped severely, and they hunkered down like wild beasts.
Strangely, these bloodthirsty monsters ignored Mia completely as she walked right under their noses, as though she carried some kind of pass that commanded their reverence.
Mia passed through without any interference and finally stopped in front of what looked like an altar plaza at the village's center.
Standing in the middle of the plaza was a tall woman. She wore a long black robe heavy with religious symbolism, a golden mask covering half her face, and six raven-feather ornaments at her back stirring gently in the night wind.
Mother Miranda.
Ryan crouched on top of a ruined bell tower several dozen meters away, pressing his breathing and heartbeat down to the lowest possible level. His enhanced hearing pulled in every sound from the plaza.
"You're later than expected." Miranda's voice was ethereal and cold, carrying the irresistible weight of someone who stood above others.
"There were minor incidents on the way, but my movements weren't exposed." Facing this monster who had lived for more than a century, Mia's tone held none of the tenderness she'd shown Ethan. Only an operative's composure and caution.
Miranda didn't press the point. From beneath her black robe she extended a pale hand and passed Mia a sealed, specially made metal tube. Inside the tube, a clump of black filamentous fungus writhed as if alive, pulsing weakly.
Up on the bell tower, Ryan narrowed his eyes. The biological activity coming off that thing was nothing like Umbrella's t-Virus. It was closer to an ancient aggregate, something with almost neuronal properties.
"The Connections extend their highest respects to you." Mia took the metal tube carefully and tucked it away.
"I don't need your respect, and I don't care what dull waves your tedious organization wants to make in the world." Miranda's eyes flashed coldly behind the mask, her tone arrogant. "I only need to know the status of the E-001 project. You promised you would use my Mold to cultivate the most perfect host."
Mia lowered her head slightly and reported honestly. "The organization has successfully injected the Mold into a test subject still in the embryonic stage. E-001's vital signs are developing steadily. She's already shown astonishing assimilation capabilities, but there are still some extremely difficult technical problems we haven't cracked."
"What problems?" Miranda's tone darkened.
"The stability of her mind control, and the rate of cellular aging," Mia answered. "Although E-001 can infect and control nearby organisms through the Mold, her mental development requires extremely careful guidance, and we've found her psychological state to be extremely unstable. If we force her maturation, she'll very likely trigger an irreversible catastrophe. We need more original data on the Megamycete's core memory network to refine her nervous system."
Listening to their exchange, Ryan's lips curled into a knowing smile on the bell tower.
E-001. Eveline.
The ultimate B.O.W. that had orchestrated the tragedy of the Baker family was still in a petri dish at this point. And The Connections, the organization Mia belonged to, had gotten their original Mold sample right here from Miranda.
"Come with me. I'll give you the data you need." Miranda turned and started toward a heavily concealed underground passage behind the altar. "But remember, I only want the final perfect vessel, the one that can bring my Eva back. If you fail, I'll come tear your lab out by its roots myself."
Mia followed close behind.
Ryan didn't hesitate. He was about to trail them down and take a look at the legendary Megamycete.
Right then, a set of hurried, stumbling footsteps mixed with labored breathing came from the village entrance. Along with them came the crisp snap of dried branches and bones being trodden underfoot.
"Mia... Mia, is that you? What the hell is this place... are you here?"
Standing on the roof, Ryan's feet went still. He looked down, and his eyebrow shot up.
In the fog, Ethan Winters was staggering into the cursed village, gripping a tactical flashlight whose beam flickered from low battery. He was wearing nothing but thin pajamas, shivering hard, and he didn't even have a stick in his hand for self-defense. Clearly he'd woken up in the middle of the night, found his wife missing, followed the faint trail Mia had left, and pushed all the way here on nothing but sheer husbandly determination.
"This kid... he really does have a death-defying kind of romance about him." Ryan shook his head, resigned.
Ethan's flashlight beam swung wildly among the ruined houses. His anxious, fear-soaked shouting might as well have been a mess-hall dinner gong struck in the dead of night through this silent village.
Ryan's senses picked up on it immediately. On the surrounding rooftops, the Lycans that had been kept in line by Miranda's oppressive presence were now, with that pressure gone and with the scent of a living human exciting them, all waking up.
Pairs of red-glowing eyes lit up in the darkness. They fixed hungrily on Ethan, this fresh, defenseless prey without a "pass," and the low growls in their throats kept rising.
Ssshhrrkk...
One of the largest Lycans launched itself off a roof in front and to the side of Ethan.
"What is that?!" A gust of foul air hit Ethan's face, and he went pale with shock. He instinctively raised the flashlight to block, his legs so weak he forgot even to run.
Ryan sighed. He flicked the tip of his foot, and in the same instant his hand closed around a red brick pried loose from who knew where. His mind ran the parabola in an eyeblink, and he was ready to give that Lycan a casual dose of physical salvation.
But Ethan, being a civilian with zero tactical training, reacted like a civilian. Backing up in sheer terror, he caught his foot on a raised paving stone, lost his balance completely, and toppled backward in a graceless sprawl.
The tumbling, flailing stumble was humiliating, but it pulled him clean out of the rescue line Ryan had already locked onto. If Ryan threw the brick now, it was going to split Ethan's skull open first.
Squelch.
In the instant Ethan hit the ground, the Lycan's fangs sank deep into the forearm he'd raised to block. The sharp teeth pierced straight through muscle and even produced a tooth-grinding scrape against bone.
"Aaaagh!"
A lung-splitting scream tore the village's night sky open, sending a flock of crows roosting in the dead trees scattering. Blood poured down Ethan's arm, staining the fog on the ground red.
On the roof, Ryan stopped.
He watched Ethan writhing in agony on the ground, kicking the Lycan's belly with his feet while still desperately shielding his own neck, and the corner of Ryan's mouth twitched. That accidental stumble had just patched the canon plot right back into place.
"Congratulations, Ethan." Ryan muttered quietly into the night wind, watching the faint trace of black Mold already working its way into Ethan's bloodstream through the wound. "The trial card for 'God of War with the Hand Sanitizer' has officially been delivered to your account."