When Bela and Chris arrived there was no sign of Miranda.
She saw Karl, kneeled beside Ethan, who was bleeding from his chest, similar to Bela earlier that day.
She swarmed to him and Karl seemed to be trying to nudge Ethan awake.
He was shouting at him to wake up, but then she saw his heart discarded on the ground. If Miranda had not taken hers, then she was sure Miranda would have taken his heart instead.
Karl's army was destroyed, and despite the explosion, the mold surrounding the factory did not even budge away.
Karl was angry that the army was blown up but he understood that the mold taking over the factory needed to atleast be neutralized.
But it didn't work.
The mold roots had not even moved a bit, save for the holes now on their sides. But they only regenerated.
The mold would only fix itself if its host is still alive.
...
Bela swarmed to Karl's side and kneeled with him.
She saw Karl gang his head and swear at Miranda.
She couldn't blame him. She knows how that feels.
She sighs as she sat down instead.
She saw more blood pool around Ethan's body, but his huge wound was also starting to heal now.
She looked behind her and noticed that it was already sunset.
The sun was beautiful while it went down. But nothing was beautiful now that Ethan was unconscious and on the edge of a cliff, on the path to death.
She stared at Ethan as the wound started closing.
She heard Chris finally reaching their destination.
"What..." he paused as he saw Ethan's body.
He approached the three of them slowly as he bent down, took off his glove and touched Ethan's neck.
It was cold.
He sighed as he put his glove back on.
Bela swarmed back to her feet but Karl didn't move to change his uncomfortable position.
The blood on the ground around Ethan's body was evident even from afar.
Bela huffed as she swarmed down and grabbed Ethan's body in her swarm.
The blood dripping from his body was coating her flies, but that didn't matter. Not now. And it's not like her clothes would also get stained after she reverts back, after all.
Besides that, she swarms up high again and brings Ethan's body with her.
Chris and Karl watched as Karl finally stood to his feet.
Karl used his metal to float as he commanded his remaining lycans to gather somewhere else, far from the now-destroyed factory.
Chris hid the gun in his coat as he walked away to somewhere else, supposedly to his remaining soldier.
Bela made sure to bring Ethan and the flask he had to Duke.
He was the only being that can help the man heal.
-----
After awhile, Bela finally saw The Duke's carriage.
Unsurprisingly by now, it was heading to where they were.
Bela flew down and The Duke almost immediately greeted her.
The Duke lost his smile when he saw the bloodied Ethan.
-----
"Oh, dear. What ever happened to Mr. Winters?" Duke asked as he prepped the man inside of his carriage.
Bela watched him as he fixed Ethan's position.
"Will he be fine?" Bela asked as she left a fly to land on Ethan's limp shoulder.
The Duke laughed lowly, "Why, of course! Mr. Winters is a super-human, after all."
Bela squinted her eyes at the obese man but said nothing. She knew better than to doubt someone who had helped them before.
Bela also swarmed inside the carriage and sat comfortably in a corner beside Ethan's legs.
She sighed as she looked through the carriage's front. It was already turning dark.
Maybe, just maybe, they can beat Miranda after Ethan hopefully wake up.
Bela knows she can charge herself, but it won't be easy.
A few minutes in the carriage without much to do, she closes her eyes.
She waits.
She feels herself relax despite the bumping and rattling of the carriage's inside.
The Duke didn't speak much more even as Bela closed her eyes.
She needs to rest, even for awhile before killing that witch.
-----
Bela wakes up when she felt pats on her legs and the carriage halt.
She opened her eyes slowly. The first thing she did was look at the sky.
It was still dark, but Duke told her the time. It was 5 in the morning. Maybe Duke had a watch or a clock.
After the Duke spoke to her, she turned her head to Ethan's direction. The man was already sitting up and staring directly at her.
She raised her eyebrows at how fast he recovered. But then again, she took less than three hours to heal herself.
Ethan broke the silence as Bela rubbed her eyes of the sleep.
"I had a dream." he said as he twisted his body to face the exit of the carriage. Bela only swarmed out.
Ethan jumped out as soon as he reached the end of the carriage.
Bela was already on her feet once Ethan jumped down.
"What dream?" she continued for him, thinking it was Eveline as well.
He shook his head. "It was about Rosemary growing up happily." he answered.
Bela paused. That was... a nice dream.
But then she started to walk into the night.
The Duke bid them both goodbye like last time and rode off elsewhere.
Ethan followed her even when she already transformed into a swarm. His energy might have been restored because of the long rest.
"Where are we going?" he asked as he followed closely.
Bela didn't turn around to face him as she spoke, "To Miranda's Ritual sight."
She could literally sense Ethan pause, and tense, and then start walking again.
"So that's where Rosemary is? Then what was the purpose of the flasks?" he asked.
"The flasks held her conscious. Now that we have all four in our possession, surely she would feel her true father's essence." she answered.
Ethan nodded, slowly, as if processing what was being said. Duke might have already brought the flasks to the altar.
And soon enough, once the sun started showing itself again, they reached another clearing. But this clearing was completely filled with mold, and in the distance they saw Miranda with black liquid dripping from one of her eyes.
Rosemary was nowhere to be seen. Ethan saw her and drew his gun from his jacket, silently because they could never get too risky.
When Bela glanced at his gun she also saw his hands for the first time.
His left hand was missing two fingers, and also his ring, but the bleeding was already subsiding.
She gulped lastly before Ethan started shooting at Miranda.
Miranda's head snapped to their direction and Bela took it as her chance to swarm closer to the woman they used to call their deity.
The bullets hit the woman, but she regenerated easily.
Ethan exposed himself on the clearing as he threw his previous gun and grabbed a rifle from his jacket.
How did he fit the rifle there?
He then started shooting at Miranda non-stop as Bela tried to swarm quickly to the other side of the clearing before she fell to the ground in her human form.
She gasped as she fell to the ground.
Her flies were sticking together somehow, making her unable to transform. She couldn't take her flies off of each other.
Ethan kept on firing but Miranda grew her wings and shielded Ethan's bullets. She shouted as more of her mold sprouted from the ground.
Bela saw her hands turn black, like in the cold abyss where Eveline stayed.
She was trapped in her solid form, just like three years ago in the Baker house.
She steeled her nerves one last time before she stood up and ran to the direction of Miranda.
Her wings only covered one side as more and more mold grew around her.
Bela dodged as much mold as she could while she ran, even going as far as sliding down and finally, she reached Miranda.
She quickly took the Dimitrescu dagger from her coat. She shook off the white cloth covering it as she positioned it low, making Miranda unable to see it clearly despite how the former deity could see Bela's upper body while running towards her.
This is her last chance, and she sure as hell would make it count.