Epiphany Of The Weak 191 Derrick Jones - Major Chapter - Spiritless

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"Hmm?"

The front door of my house was missing—as if it had been torn off from the walls. Footprints dotted the snow covering its front yard, and from I could tell, the footprints belonged to three or four people. My eyes popped open once I saw it.

"Elle! Oh no... No, no, no." I flitted into the living room, glancing at the broken furniture everywhere. Those were signs of Elle and Eugene running away from someone. A certain someone strong enough to break anything thrown at him or her.

I should have hurried over the moment we got into Stockholm, but I was careless. Too careless of the safety of my own daughter. No, this is not the time to regret what you did. She needed my help more than ever, right now.

"Bas.e.m.e.nt."

My body moved without a fraction of delay and quickly went to check the bas.e.m.e.nt. Once I turned a corner that led to the entrance, two tall figures already had their hands on the bas.e.m.e.nt's metal door.

The two figures were silver robots that took a humanoid form, ones who were no longer ma.s.s-produced by the C.U. The machines created to aid Aegis Users for our country's world conquest, possessing similar yet inferior Aegis capabilities to the actual Aegis Users.

"Anciles," I mumbled.

The h.e.l.l are they in my house?!

No, wait, taking two of them on was not an option. Even one was enough to overpower me if I decided to face it head-on. Tsk, the favor was already lopsided. In my hands were a standard pistol given out to soldiers of the C.U, and such a thing could not even hope to scratch the tough robots.

The only logical option for me to take at that time was to retreat. Getting Miranda and Aya's help should be the right thing to do. But...

"P-P-Papaa! Saaave meee!"

Elle's voice echoed throughout the house and I looked behind my shoulder.

A third Ancile had its metal fingers weaved across my daughter's dark hair, with mechanical red eyes staring at me. Oh no you didn't, you piece of sc.r.a.p. Looking at Elle like that— seeing her screaming in pain with teary eyes was enough to make me snap.

"Let go of her right now!" I pulled the trigger of my pistol and two shots rang out. "Get your d.a.m.n hands off my daughter!"

The bullets clattered on the floor and the Anciles tilted its head in confusion. The other two Anciles who were trying to get into the bas.e.m.e.nt's t.i.tanium door had fixated their red eyes on me.

"s.h.i.+t..."

At that instant, numerous thoughts slipped into my mind as I stood there, surrounded by three Anciles. The one holding my daughter raised its free hand and then a silver Aegis blade sprouted out of its metal palm. My heart stopped for a moment.

"Nooo!"

I shot at the Anciles over and over until my rounds all ran out, but not so much as a dent appeared on that robot. My muscles tensed up and sweat trickled down my forehead profusely.

'Am I really this weak? I can't even save my own daughter?' I thought.

"I said, let go of her! Let go of Elle!" I had run out of options at that time. Cornered, all I could at least try to achieve was getting Elle to safety. But how powerless am I at that moment?

When the Ancile pointed its blade at Elle, instinct took control of my body. I threw the empty pistol at it and swiftly went close enough that I could grab Elle. Once the pistol clanged off the Ancile's head, I twisted my body to an angle and kicked.

"Let go of her!"

My foot connected with the Ancile's hand holding Elle by her hair, but of course, nothing happened. I had hoped for some miracle and gave the kick everything I got, and still, it was not enough.

"Yaaaah!"

A wooden chair from out of nowhere flew towards the Ancile and it crashed against the robot's head. Everyone there looked in the direction of where the chair came from, and a dark-haired teenager came into view.

"Eugene!" cried Elle.

A blotch of red stained Eugene's forehead and blood trickled down his mouth. He was holding his right arm tightly as he looked at us with gritted teeth.

However, Eugene's move a few seconds ago was a good enough diversion. A moment later after we s.h.i.+fted our attention to him, the ceiling suddenly exploded, bringing down a cloud of smoke onto everyone.

"Waaah!"

"Elle!"

Red and midnight black flashed in front of my eyes.

Once the smoke dissipated, three metal bodies were on the floor after being sliced into different parts. I hastily rubbed my eyes and stepped towards the spot where I last saw Elle.

"Papaaaa!"

She threw herself at me and both of us hugged each other. Tears started to pour out of my eyes as Elle's wail filled the entire house. I looked up, and saw two girls staring at the Anciles' remains.

"Looks like we made it in time," said Miranda with a sigh. "Sorry for that, Derrick. Kept you waiting, huh?"

"I'm sorrryyyy!"

Aya bowed at me incessantly and muttered countless apologies each time. "I-I took my time and that's why we were late! I'm so sorry!"

I smiled at her. "It's alright, Aya. I am fine, and so is Elle. If anything, I'm the one who should be sorry... I am weak. So weak that I could not even do anything without you or Miranda."

"Hmmmmm." Miranda shook her head a few times. "Ah, I want to know, actually. Why didn't Elle go into the bas.e.m.e.nt? I'm sure you'd noticed the Anciles when they were near your house, didn't you, kiddo?"

"Um... We were about to, but..." Elle wiped the tears streaking her cheeks.

"We can talk about this later," I said.

"No, it's fine, Papa."

Elle looked at Miranda and stood up. "We were about to, but one of them suddenly broke into the house so fast that none of us could do anything. And, when it hit Eugene, I... I don't want to leave him behind."

"So that's why..."

The four of us stared at Eugene, who was treating his own injuries with a first-aid kit.

"Wow. You guys finally noticed me? I thought I am forgotten, here, in this corner of the room. Should just let me be invisible for a while longer. I enjoyed that feeling by the way. Tsk."

"S-Sorry," the one word came out of our mouth. Eugene harrumphed and minded his own business. I didn't quite hear what he was saying to himself as he was treating his injuries.

"Let me do it, young blood."

Miranda expertly wrapped Eugene's forehead with bandages along with his right arm. She mentioned that his arm was not broken, rather, its bone was dislocated. So, after a loud yelp of pain, Eugene held onto his now fixed arm.