Resident Evil 8 Village Game Recap

# Resident Evil 8 Village Game Recap

Macatrens – Released by Capcom in 2021 on the Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series, PC and Stadia, Resident Evil Village would be the 8th mainline installment in the franchise and a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Directed by Morimasa Sato and Kento Kinoshita and written by Antony Johnston and Haris Orkin, the game would be a first or third-person survival action horror game that also includes the arcade mode Mercenaries and a six-player multiplayer shooter mode called RE:Verse.

As the game begins, it’s the year 2021 as Ethan Winters, with his wife Mia, tends to their six-month old daughter Rosemary as Mia reads a particularly grim fairy tale. The family has been relocated to Europe to start a new life thanks to Chris Redfield, but Mia has fits of anger anytime Ethan brings up the events that occurred during the last game which were publically covered up.

She refuses to even discuss it, when one night she is suddenly shot down in a hail of gunfire as Chris Redfield himself enters and confirms the kill. The rest of his Hound Wolf Squad surround Ethan and take away Rose, as they knock out Ethan who struggles to reclaim his daughter. He revisits a memory from when Mia was upset and worried about Ethan’s well-being but never explained why, as he is snapped awake when the transport he is on crashes, and his escorts are dead.

Crossing through a snow-covered forest, he finds a house on the outskirts of a village, but is surprised to see the place ransacked and fresh blood spilled. As the sun rises on a new day, he looks over an ominous castle on the far end of the main village, and moves closer to find some help. Among the empty houses he is almost shot by an old man who is terrified of the growls and heavy noises around them.

The man hands Ethan a gun for defense, as he himself is claimed and killed by an assailant above while Ethan is grabbed and pulled below. He is surrounded by dozens of recently killed people, when a man beast lunges at him and rips off half of his hand. Barricading himself in a barn and fending off a horde of feral attackers, Ethan hears a message on the radio telling any survivors to come to Luiza’s house in the fields.

More monstrous beastmen pursue and surround him, weapons in hand and even on horseback, as there is a giant among them who inspects Ethan Winter without killing him. Suddenly, their attention is called elsewhere as they all mysteriously leave, giving Ethan enough time to pull out the arrow in his knee and bandage up his wounds.

Spotting a strange old woman with a staff, Ethan follows her as she recognizes him as the child’s father and he thinks she means Rose. Laughing, the woman confirms this, adding Rose is in danger, and ever since Mother Miranda brought her to the village they have fallen into darkness. Hearing bells chime from the castle, the woman hobbles away saying the bells indicate danger is coming, as she leaves Ethan behind to find his daughter.

Learning the man beasts are called Lycans, Ethan finds the residents here seem to worship Mother Miranda, though there are shrines built in reverence to other people of seeming importance too. Finding other scared survivors, he helps them into Luiza’s house, where the other villagers are confused at what is going on and wary of outsiders like Ethan.

Luiza gives him the benefit of the doubt, but tensions run high among the few still alive. Luiza tells Ethan Winters they were a quiet, devout village enjoying Mother Miranda‘s protection when one day they suffered constant attacks from nightmarish monsters. To calm down, the villagers form a prayer circle and invite Ethan in, and they mention the old woman Ethan saw is crazy even to them.

Suddenly the injured old man Ethan helped before begin to turn feral, starting a fire and driving his machete into Luiza, killing her. He begins ripping apart the other survivors before he is shot down by his own daughter, and as they escape together Ethan thinks his daughter is in the old castle. Unfortunately the girl falls to the flames as the house burns down, and getting out, Ethan spots the woman called Mother Miranda chuckle while killing a hapless villager.

Ethan enters the castle, but is soon halted by a man with a strangely magnetic aura and personality. Intrigued by Ethan, he stabs him with a rod while encasing him with scrap metal dragging him in chains before another cast of curious characters. A tall woman named Lady Alcina Dimitrescu (al-cheena dehmeh-tresck) bickers with the man named Karl Heisenberg about the fate of Ethan, but Mother Miranda reins them all in as they know who he is, and make a sport and spectacle of his death.

As Lycans chase him, he is dropped into a trap that threatens to turn him into a sandwich, using it to free himself as he wonders if they have Rose. Seeking to head into the castle again, he is paused by a large man called the Duke, explaining everyone here knows who he is and more importantly why he is here as he searches for his daughter.

The Duke says the castle is awfully suspicious, but his role in all this is a humble merchant. Not far into his search, Ethan is swarmed by flies that form into three young women, as they drive sickles into his hands and legs and drag him to Lady Dimitrescu. She thanks her daughters while they slit Ethan’s wrist and she samples a bit of his blood, but is disappointed in the quality.

Lady Dimitrescu says she’ll inform Mother Miranda on this and later they can all devour Ethan, leaving him hanging for now. After they leave, Ethan rips his hands through the hooks to escape, applies first aid, and quickly leaves, surprised to find the Duke has his shop set up in the most unlikely places.

The merchant suggests searching for Rose in Dimitrescu’s room, while asking Ethan what he’s buying in a manner similar to an old friend of his. Heading there, Ethan learns Castle Dimitrescu has been home to a legendary winemaking technique famous for enriching the wine with an unique and intense flavor, the most popular vintage being called Maiden’s Blood.

Stumbling into the prisons in the basement, Ethan finds former maids have died due to blood draining, but is surprised to find Mold has revived them into hungry husks. Caught by one of the daughters, Ethan finds bullets don’t work on her, but they do break a nearby window, and the cold wind seems to make her vulnerable again.

Shooting and shattering her, Ethan destroys one daughter, as he soon eavesdrops on Lady Dimitrescu update Mother Miranda on this development, and doesn’t take the order to prioritize the ceremony over her thrist for revenge on Winters all too well. Ethan spots an empty baby cradle, as he is spotted by Lady Dimitrescu who mocks him and tells him Rose isn’t here.

Tossing him aside, Ethan tries to run away as his hand is cleanly sliced off by his huntress, who shows off her razor sharp claws and killing intent. Grabbing his hand and bolting, Ethan marvels at how effective healing potions are, seeing no more reason to stay in this castle. Searching for a way out, he learns there is a type of carnivorous insect similar to a blowfly that uses pheromones to gather in a form that mimics a human.

These flies are unable to reproduce on their own, only created when something called a Cadou (ka-Dough) lays eggs in its host, and are vulnerable to sudden drops in temperature. Using this knowledge Ethan slays the other two daughters, while learning of an ancient demon slayer dagger coated in poison hidden in the castle.

Obtaining the weapon, he is grabbed and stabbed by Alcina, stabbing her back with the poison dagger and seeing it take effect immediately. Writhing in pain, the countess mutates into a massive dragon-like monster, fighting with Ethan among the castle towers, as Ethan manages to defeat her, sending her tumbling down and crystallizing over.

After the battle he finds a curious yellow container and exit, leaving and returning to the village, where he sees the old woman again, worshiping Mother Miranda. She shares that Rose will be sacrificed, but to open the path forward, he will need the crests of the four houses, pointing to a stone relief with an oddly familiar logo in the middle.

Later, he tells the Duke the castle was a dead end, but the merchant points out he found exactly what he was looking for , telling him to look closer at the yellow flask he found. Looking again, Ethan is shocked to find Rose’s head preserved within, but the Duke tells him her essence is still intact, impressed at her unique powers, and says she can be saved.

Finding Rose’s container fits in perfectly into a stone altar with the same familiar logo, Ethan gets a vision of Mother Miranda taking Rose, as he sees evidence of Chris’s team operating in the area. He also finds a note saying a strange key he found in the castle is one part of a whole, and the Duke says Ethan needs to find all of the parts of the key and parts of Rose, all of which are held by each of the four lords.

Elaborating, the Duke explains Mother Miranda rules over this village, and four lords serve under her, Alcina Dimitrescu, Donna Beneviento, Salvatore Moreau, and Karl Heisenberg, marking the location of each on a map. Ethan heads for Beneviento next, crossing into a mist-filled valley where he sees hallucinations of Mia and Rose, and enters the dollmaker’s house.

He finds Rose’s flask in the lap of a doll that gets away with it and all his gear, as Ethan sees someone is making a doll of Mia, with recordings from their home life, a picture of her dead body, and a ring that looks exactly like her wedding band. Strangely the music box commemorating his wedding is also here, as Ethan is somehow present for a phone call from Mia saying she didn’t mean to hide something important from him, unable to say what.

He is interrupted by the cry of a baby nearby, coming face to face with an overgrown, misshapen bloody fetus hungrily dragging itself after him. Escaping from the basement, Ethan’s vision blurs as the house is suddenly filled with dolls, as Donna appears before him, telling him he cannot leave, before vanishing.

Playing a deadly game of hide and seek, Ethan is told things would have been better if Rose wasn’t born, but Ethan repeatedly stabs the puppet, as the illusion drops and it’s Donna he’s killed instead. She crumbles apart as well, as Ethan retrieves the key and Rose’s legs he came for. Unlocking the old town portion of the village, Ethan is besieged by a larger, stronger and more wolf-like monster as he breaks through barriers covered in a thick green slime.

Descending into damp mines, Ethan spies a dimwitted Moreau distracted by television static, leaving Rose’s Arms unattended. Moreau spots him and flails, saying Rose is Miranda’s special child, but then laughs, as he points to Ethan that he trapped him with his act. Forced to detour out to the waterways where fishermen say some folks were eaten by a giant fish in the water, Ethan finds another camp setup by Chris’s team, but this time, is caught by Chris who is surprised Ethan made it this far.

Before they can speak more, Chris is told Miranda is aware he is here, and the sample they have been studying is connected to the Mold. Chris warns Ethan he is in over his head and to leave now, as he pushes Ethan to safety while dodging a massive fish that destroys their camp. Trying not to drown, Ethan is approached by Moreau, who says the exit is now underwater, Miranda is already preparing the ceremony, and insists he should be there by her side instead of Ethan.

Vomiting, he says he cannot contain his form anymore, dropping back into the water and mutating into the giant fish monster from before. Thinking to drain the reservoir he’s stuck in, Ethan drops the sluice gate with Moreau in relentless pursuit, following the fish out of water, and learning he helped plant Cadous inside villagers to see who was strong enough to be vessels Miranda searched for or who would either die or turn into a lycan.

Fighting the fishman as he douses the area in acid, Ethan puts down the pathetic servant, popping him in a disgusting explosion and returning to the village. Passing by Moreau’s shack, Ethan sees what they call a Cadou, along with a note that Miranda seeks to get her real child back using Rose as a vessel.

Suddenly, he is hailed by Heisenburg through the television set, complimenting his progress, and pointing out that even if Ethan gets all the pieces of Rose, he doesn’t know what to do next. So, he offers to help him, first telling him where Rose’s final part is while also testing him, in a stronghold outside the village.

Along the way, Ethan learns from another of Chris’s outposts that the sample they have done a test on has a match to the mutamycete that all but confirms this is the source of the mold that appeared in Louisiana years ago, wondering how the Connections group found and extracted the mold. Upon investigation, they also discovered the fungal colony is not only spread out under the entire village, but is a part of a network of consciousnesses, and the organism acts like a sort of organic data storage unit.

Killing an alpha werewolf and an ax-wielding giant along the way, Ethan fights through a fortress of lycans, taking down the former village chief turned into the head Lycan. Finding Rose’s Torso where Heisenburg said, he then receives instructions from Heisenberg to now put all of the flasks into the Altar and come see him.

Doing so, Ethan is lowered down to the entrance of Heisenburg’s factory, where he is invited to talk about Rose and Miranda. Ethan finds Karl’s conspiracy board, surprised to find Mia on it too, but Heisenberg comes out to say he’s being played. The engineer reveals Ethan was meant to kill the four lords so far as a test to be included into Miranda’s family, something he didn’t want either.

Ethan says he just wants to fix Rose, and Karl says he does too, remarking that Rose is so strong even Miranda is scared of her. He offers to team up and use Rose to crush Miranda together, but Ethan spits on the proposition, choosing to take his chances on his own, and shrugging, Karl drops him below. Fleeing from a legally distinct, propeller-headed foe, Ethan tumbles further into the factory, finding Heisenberg is mass-producing a menagerie of mechanically modified monsters of his making.

Using the tools around him to craft his own keys forward, Ethan listens to Heisenberg relate how he too was taken to be forced to serve Miranda for years against his will. Unlike the other three lords he never held loyalty to Miranda, intending to use his army to destroy her, but Ethan doesn’t care about that drama, sabotaging the factory along the way.

Karl laughs that Ethan really doesn’t see Rose’s power, sending his strongest creations after the man, but Ethan destroys them all, including the legally distinct propeller-head. He finds a note by Heisenberg that says Miranda views all of her children as failed Cadou experiments, some just more so than others, and has the ability to turn into anyone using something called the Megamycete.

Ethan sees a note about him having a unique body too, but is interrupted as Heisenberg approaches him, mutates into a giant cyborg and pushes him out of the way. Ethan is soon found and disarmed by Chris who also tells Ethan he is in the way, but Ethan shouts at him for killing Mia. However, Chris replies he didn’t kill Mia, but Miranda who was pretending to be Mia, explaining she’s a shapeshifting bioweapon that survived the attack anyway, so he’s here to finish the job.

He adds he didn’t tell Ethan right away because he didn’t want a civilian getting in the way. Explaining, Chris reveals this entire village is Miranda’s life work as she experiments with the Mold. Miranda actually infected herself with the mutamycete, gaining the mimicry ability, and used it to imitate Mia and infiltrate Ethan’s home with the goal of kidnapping Rose.

She only pretended to die in the attack, later reviving herself in the truck and killing the transport crew before stealing Rose. Chris promises they will get Rose back, but for now, he’s planting explosives and wants Ethan to take a makeshift Tank he assembled that is made with a metal/polymer composite Heisenberg cannot control.

Confronting Karl, Ethan edges out a win against the would-be usurper, who calls out his boulder-punching ally Chris as he falls. After the battle, Ethan sees Miranda in the form of Mia, admitting she knew of Heisenberg’s betrayal and reverts to her true form. She reveals that Rose is not only the successor to the powerful Eveline and her control over the mold, but also her true, complete form able to fully control the masses.

She adds the Megamycete catalogs everyone, and Rose will be reborn as her daughter. Now taking the form of the odd old woman in the village, she asks how Rose came to be, as Ethan is certainly a special case, but claims his use has now run out, running her arm through him, and killing him, telling him he will be added to the Megamycete’s records.

Ripping out his heart, Miranda says she will sample his blood for later, drinking it while laughing as Ethan’s death is reported back to Chris, who swears she won’t get away with it. Chris remarks how he’s tired of spending the last 3 years trying to end this fight, observing the BSAA now arriving here as well, and wondering why.

Watching a massive mutamycete take down one of the BSAA choppers, the Hound Wolf squad moves out on their own mission, thinking the BSAA also probably had eyes on Miranda. The Village burns as it is destroyed by the mold and the battle with the BSAA, Chris and the rest of the lycans. Hitting the central point with heavy artillery, Chris gains a way underground, as his team confirms again the mold here is the source of the mold that was taken and modified into the E Series.

Destroying an even larger lycan leader guarding the Megamycete, Chris sees the large, fetal-shaped heart of the mold, planting on it an explosive powerful enough to blow up the entire village. However, he refuses to take any chances and wants to kill Miranda first, as his team nags him to admit he should have told Ethan the plan.

Finding Miranda’s lab, Chris reads her observations from her Cadou experiments with the four lords, though she regarded all of them as failed specimen vessels for someone called Eva (EE-vah). Alcina gained rapid regeneration, resulting in an increased body size, fast healing, and growing parts of her body like her nails.

However, in reaction to a hereditary blood disease, her regeneration prompted her to consume human flesh and blood regularly to maintain her unbalanced regeneration. Moreau was always considered a moron and a loser with his unstable fish mutation, but she was genuinely impressed with Heisenberg. Not only was he a genius and highly compatible with the Cadou, but his gaining of electric organs like an electric ray allowed him powerful control of magnetic fields.

Finally, Donna gained the ability to secrete a signal producing substance similar to some flower pollen, able to cause hallucinations, as well as was able to divide her Cadou to control her dolls from a distance. Seeing a live Cadou sample that looks like a miniature Megamycete, Chris also learns Ozwell Spencer once visited this village while he was a young and ambitious medical student, and Miranda once saved his life from freezing to death.

Comparing research, Spencer was inspired by her experiments to transform a human by infecting them with an organism, and while Miranda wanted to only bring back her dead child, Spencer did not think her mold would help him reach the scale he envisioned, thinking a virus would be a better vehicle. 15 years later, Spencer would discover the progenitor virus in Africa and with some colleagues, planned to form the Umbrella company, using the logo he saw in a cave in the village.

Chris cannot believe Miranda was actually Spencer’s mentor and inspiration, and all of this started because Miranda wanted to use the Megamycete to resurrect her daughter Eva who died a century ago from the Spanish flu. For this she searched for a suitable vessel, satisfied with Rose’s regenerative abilities even after being taken apart.

Back then she found the Megamycete by accident, and touching the black substance showed her how it broke down and absorbed the consciousness of those who have died, thinking Eva was recorded there too. For years Miranda infected hundreds of villagers with mold from the megamycete, advancing her research until she created the Cadou, which more quickly filtered through candidates, either turning them into Lycans or something else like Alcina.

One day a group would approach her offering assistance and in return she gave them a mold sample and Eva DNA. However, she considered their attempt with Eveline a defect as well, but was overjoyed to find Rose who would be the perfect vessel. In a cell in the lab, Chris is surprised to find Mia alive, who says she was caught and used in experiments, verifying it is the real Mia as she proceeds to complain and blame Chris for all of her problems.

Chris tells Mia Ethan is dead but there is still time to save Rose, but she pauses him, saying she’s been keeping something secret this whole time about Ethan. Meanwhile, Ethan comes to, unsure how he is alive, as he sees Eveline who says Ethan is indeed dead, or rather, has always been dead and not from Miranda.

She points out to him if he noticed how weird it is that Ethan can sustain so much physical trauma and mutilation, in this game and Resident Evil 7, and informs him he’s always been dead ever since his first encounter with Jack Baker. Eveline reveals his body has been nothing but weaponized mold for the past 3 years, just like the Bakers, and even he has a limit.

Waking up, Ethan finds himself in the back of the Duke’s carriage, who does him a favor and takes him to Miranda. Asking the Duke who or what he is, the merchant gives off a jolly laugh admitting even he can’t quite answer that, but replies somberly Ethan will be unable to return to his old world anymore.

Accepting this, Ethan trudges towards the ritual site as Miranda holds up a reformed Rose, declaring her the resurrection of Eva, but pauses and is shocked her power is somehow leaving her now. One of the Hound Wolf soldiers shoots Miranda in the head, stunning her as Ethan quickly tries to grab Rose back, but she refuses to let go so easily.

Ascending into a monstrous new form, she attacks Ethan, remarking that with his body, he is just as much of a monster as them. Defeating the mother of a legacy of bioweapons, Ethan edges out a win as Mother Miranda crumbles apart, finally rescuing his daughter. As the dawn rises on a new day, Ethan slumps over, his body beginning to break apart now too, as Chris comes in to confirm he did it, but Ethan replies they did each other in.

The Megamycete now rises, giving chase, as Chris tells Ethan Mia is alive, and Ethan says he never stopped loving Mia, handing Rose his jacket, and asking Chris to help raise her to be strong. Pushing them away, Ethan grabs the detonator and limps back to the Megamycete alone, waiting to trigger the bomb just before he fades out.

Chris makes it back to Mia with Rose, who watches the entire village blow up shortly after liftoff. She blames Chris for Ethan not making it, but Chris says Ethan chose to stay so they could all escape. However, Chris is called over to see one of the BSAA soldiers they recovered, but is shocked to see the BSAA actually sent Bioweapons instead.

Collecting his team, Chris now sets his sights on BSAA Europe HQ, determined to get to the bottom of this. 16 years pass as Rose Winters meets with Canine, one of Chris’s Hound Wolf Squad, but refuses to be recruited as part of the team. She hates being a social outcast at school because of her abilities, and Canine says he came to talk to her because there is a possibility they found a way to remove her powers, wondering if she would be interested.

Rose declares she would drop her powers in a heartbeat if she could, and Canine tells her they found more of Miranda’s research which mentions a purifying crystal that can remove the mutamycete from its host. Unfortunately, they don’t have all of her notes on this, but think it was recorded in the Megamycete fragment they have preserved in the lab.

As it absorbs the memories and knowledge of everyone who dies close to it, that would include Miranda herself. He mentions Rose should be able to enter its consciousness with her deep connection to it, and by focusing on it, Rose finds herself diving inside the memories, first recalling the jeers of her classmates.

She soon finds herself in a bizarre version of the village, with a strange crimson mold that seems to react to her touch. Hands form from the mold and attempt to drag her down in it, when another pair of hands reach out and pull her out to safety. Looking to her rescuer, Rose is shocked to see a girl who looks exactly like her, calling herself Rose, who says they must keep moving.

Passing by a few cells that also have copies of Rose in various states of distress, she also passes by mounds of dead Roses, all suffering some sort of decay. She sees the Rose that rescued her suddenly grabbed by a mummified molded, quickly sapping away the essence from its victim, and leaving her decayed like the other dead Roses.

As it lumbers for Rose Winters next, she raises her hand in protest as she emits a light that pushes it away. Seeing strange veins of light glow on her, she flees as the other Roses are devoured by more of the Molded that rise from the crimson mold. As she flees, doorways and messages of light guide her away, as her ghost writer ally is concerned about her safety, urging her to escape, and calling itself Michael, her guardian angel.

Rose insists she finds the purifying crystal before she leaves, as she soon hears the jovial laughter of an obese man in a mask in another room, watching as he passes judgment on a Rose copy and letting the monsters devour her. He shows off the purifying crystal in his grasp, disappointed that no Rose yet has shown to be strong enough to claim it.

The Masked man spots Rose and sends his monsters after her next, as Michael shows his words have weight, allowing Rose to form a real gun just from his message. Defending herself, Rose shoots her way back to the room but the masked man is gone, while the Purifying Crystal is locked behind 3 masks she needs to find.

To help amplify her powers that she needs to progress, Michael leads her to a flask marked as Rose Winters-Variant and Rose indeed feels a new power welling up in her. From curiously highly-detailed notes, she learns the red-hued mold she has been encountering is called liquid void, forming a core called a sclerotia (skl-row-shuh) that Rose finds she is easily able to eradicate with her power to claim her first mask.

She soon learns the masked man is also lost and confused here, but has a hunger to see others in pain and can command his relentless minion to seek prey. As Rose’s powers quickly grow she is able to even halt the molded minions, as she gains the next two masks, but is knocked out by a strong minion. The masked man says this test was built for the real Rose to pass, as Rose gains the Purifying Stone, but it turns out to be a fake.

The masked man says the real one is too valuable to appear on this stratum, trapping Rose and pitting her against the strong minion. After she proves she can fight on her own, Rose is guided to take a leap of faith into a deeper stratum, that Michael says is harder to escape from. Rose is still determined to get the real purifying crystal, passing by her old favorite stuffed animal who says it knows where the crystal is, as she treads through a memory of the village now, that also holds hurtful memories from school for her.

However, she isn’t amused by the heavy handed portrayal of her school bullies, as she avoids mannequins made in the image of her mother who cling a little too closely. Evading patrolling puppets, they make fun of Ethan, but Rose is confused why, claiming to have never met her father and all she knows is he died protecting her.

She confesses she would have liked to have had a father in her life growing up, and Michael shows her memories of Ethan, in his old house, showing her a letter he once wrote to her ahead of time. Within, he says his gift to her for her half-birthday will be a promise to always be there for her no matter what, expressing how much he loves her everyday.

However, Eveline then appears behind her, claiming no one loves Rose, and the purifying crystal isn’t on this level and she’ll have to go deeper. Full of jealous rage, Eveline proclaims she was first and has more control of her powers and yet Rose was chosen, though Micheal helps empower Rose and together they fight and suppress her.

Eveline blasts Rose away but Michael then manifests, shielding Rose and pushing her to the next stratum as he tells her not to give up. Safe for now, she realizes the man had the same voice as her father, realizing Michael was Ethan still protecting and guiding her this whole time. Seeing a giant core and heading to it, Rose sees more dead copies of her and molded that begin to look like her, as she sees the Megamycte fragment actively making more copies of her.

Finding another research table nearby, Rose learns only those attuned to the mutamycete can compose themselves here, and among those is Miranda, who even after death, continues her research of the Megamycete as all of her memories and knowledge were still preserved. Though this realm is powered by the Megamycete, Miranda believes she can learn to control this power and use it to affect the thoughts and memories of others.

Nevertheless she also has not given up on her goal of taking the memories of her daughter Eva and putting them into Rose. To experiment with the idea of reviving stored consciousnesses, she created a new individual, the masked Duke, who resembled a man she once knew, however his psyche was warped and part of his face was missing, prompting the need for the mask, so she saw artificial vessels were not possible here.

Miranda was annoyed by the unintended appearance of Eveline here, acting a nuisance and pursuing her own goals, and has not helped Rose fall into despair and surrender her powers. Thinking to even try making a replica of Rose, Miranda finds something was interfering with the process resulting in living dolls that lack the power of the real Rose.

Unsure of why, she adds it would be easier if the real Rose simply entered this realm and surrendered herself. Currently, she finds some of the replicas are able to gain and use some of Rose’s abilities when in danger, and so has employed her first creation, the masked Duke, to stress test them for results.

Beyond, Rose finds a crystal cavern and a true Purifying crystal, relieved to see it truly removing her power and glad to be normal now. Laughing, Miranda now emerges from the liquid void, introducing herself, and explaining Rose was too powerful for her to subdue alone, and so had to trick her into surrendering her powers willingly.

Canine never led her here as it was all just an illusion made by her, but now, Miranda can turn the helpless Rose into a vessel for Eva. Ethan now appears, telling her to run, grabbing a shotgun and helping her fight her way out while they flee from Miranda. Keeping their foe at bay, Miranda is annoyed at Ethan’s persistence, as he is prepared to sacrifice himself again for Rose’s safety as he is stabbed through the heart again.

But, refusing to accept this, Rose smashes the purifying crystal, which not only restores her powers but her strong will unlocks more of the power that she knows Miranda fears. Rose becomes so strong, even the nightmarish memory of Miranda fears for herself in her own realm as Rose can absorb, control, and weaponize the mold Miranda throws at her.

Ethan sends all of his power into Rose, as the father and daughter combined attack demolishes Miranda, destroying her within the Mold itself. Ethan is glad he can tell Rose how proud he is of her and how much he loves her, as she accepts herself for who she is and replies how much she loves him too. Waking up in reality again, Rose finds she has her father’s wedding ring with her as a memento.

As time passes, Rose finishes reading a child’s story about a father who sacrificed himself to save his daughter from a witch in the woods, while visiting Ethan’s grave on his birthday. She is a lot more confident in herself these days and school isn’t bothering her anymore, as she now chooses to work for the BSAA.

The agent keeping an eye on her tells her she is being called in for her next mission, casually calling her Eveline. Grabbing him, she warns him never to make that joke again, promising to show him things even Chris doesn’t know she can do, and he replies she’s a lot like her father. Acknowledging this, they drive off, pausing as a mysterious figure approaches the vehicle.