Epiphany Of The Weak 196 Derrick Jones - Major Chapter - Down Under Bellow

"It has been two days, but this place is ghostly quiet, huh," whispered Miranda.

The two of us were a bit far away from Aya's room, about a few hundred meters. We proceeded further into the belly of the beast, and even so, nothing showed up. Not even the Anciles, who we thought were patrolling the area. Their absence these past two days sent chills down my spine.

Where is everyone in this HQ?

"This is the furthest we have gone now..." I pointed out.

"True that. Look, that's the elevator leading down towards the underground factory."

"Ah... that one."

I only had entered the factory a few times before. The underground factory back then was used to ma.s.s-produce Anciles, and also give birth to potential Aegis Users. Right now, I was actually curious as to what had happened to the kids down there. I remonstrated to the higher-ups— about using young kids as to produce talented Aegis Users. However, it fell on deaf ears.

Once, I heard that kids had greater potential to master Aegis, and to develop a unique Aegis specialty. Take Ava for example— Her Aegis possessed emotions, and her second Aegis could steal other Users' Aegis.

Simply put, the younger the Users are, the higher the chance they would awaken powerful Aegis specialties.

Anyway, the scientists had escaped to Neo Africa, so perhaps the C.U had somewhat abandoned the 'Aegis Project' entirely. But, that was just me being rather optimistic. It was not like Amathelia couldn't bring in more talent to continue and develop the decade-long project.

"Should we head back first to inform everyone?" Miranda asked.

"Yeah."

♢

Aya's face darkened when we finished explaining the situation to her. She sighed and proposed that Miranda and I should proceed to explore the underground factory without her.

"After all, I need to protect Eugene and Aya here. Still... if things go wrong, or like, you feel the need to call for help, I'll come real quick, got it?"

"I can take care of Elle after that. I swear on my life," said Eugene firmly.

Surprisingly, Elle didn't throw a tantrum this time, and she obediently stayed behind. I asked Aya, what brought the sudden change in Elle, and she just shrugged.

"...I threatened her a while ago, saying that, "If you make a fuss about every little thing, I will make sure your father, and of course you as well, will regret it... real bad," and she becomes a very obedient child immediately. What a miracle!"

Miranda said those words with an evil grin on her face, which caused Elle to shudder and hid behind me. My mouth curved into a wry smile as I watched the scene unfolding— Miranda glaring at Elle as she buried her face in my jacket.

"But seriously, this makes things so much easier," confessed Miranda. "You should stop that nice guy act and be really strict on your daughter. Being austere won't hurt her."

"But this is just how I am..."

"Eh, not my problem. Hit her once a while too. Make sure she remembers the pain you inflicted on her."

"Wow, that's just... evil!" said Eugene.

"By once a while, I mean every day. If I have a kid, that's how I will treat him or her," said Miranda without a hint of hesitation.

"Then I will wish that you will not get married and have a kid."

"...Eugene." Aya and I sighed heavily.

"Anyway, we'll head over to the underground factory right now. Stay safe, everyone," I said.

"Yeah."

"Come back soon, Papa!"

♢

The elevator leading down to the underground factory— it descended ever so slow. I already had an escape plan ready if, by chance, the Pillars or some strong enemies popped up once we arrived.

The last time I was here, Alicia and Alexander were waiting for me. We were to run through what we had learned of Amathelia, when she was still in her liquid chamber. And now, I was about to do the same thing again— meeting them in person.

This rescue mission was in effect because of Aya in the first place. I had to admit, that I wouldn't be a part of this if I were to do it alone. Realistically speaking, I wouldn't make it this far without everyone else helping me.

"Why the long face, Derrick?" said Miranda.

Her voice snapped me back into focus and I cast a glance at her. "...It's nothing."

"Don't think too much about what awaits us."

"...Yeah."

I was actually surprised by how calm Miranda looked. Back then, she said she tagged along purely because of our mission. But right now, she was the most determined person out of all of us, making it seemed like my resolve was only an iota of hers.

As if she was reading my mind, Miranda scratched at her cheek. "Don't get me wrong... I don't have ulterior motive whatsoever. Rescuing those two pitiful Aegis Users is my... only goal."

"...You want to avenge Hughes, right?"

"Huuuh?!" Miranda looked petulantly at me. "Don't push that chivalry thing on me, wouldya'? I am here because I want to. Because I think it's the right choice."

"A choice that both me and Hughes would take, regardless of who we will be up against."

"Ah... I see."

When she spoke of those words, I could see Hughes in her eyes. Like father, like daughter, I suppose. When I was still a general serving the former His Supremacy, Miranda always brought up her father's name ever so often. I could only take it that she admired him so much.

And deep within me, perhaps because it was just me being a father, I wanted Elle to do the same, albeit a little. Though this was only a fragment of my deep desire, nothing more to it, nothing less as well.

"Be on guard," said Miranda after the elevator stopped moving.

Slowly, the elevator's doors s.h.i.+fted open followed with a loud 'ding' sound, when—

"Alicia?!"

Miranda's voice rang out across the white area. The high ceiling was bright white, with a ten-meter 'rainbow' Aegis crystal, resembling a diamond jewel, molded onto its surface. Numerous black tubes of unknown material sprouted out of the crystal and connected to... a beautiful woman with ankle-length dark hair.

Her eyes were deep red as she stared at me. The woman— Amathelia— was standing on an oval metal platform, a transparent gla.s.s encompa.s.sed the cylindrical chamber she was in.

In front of the chamber was a set of sophisticated and colorful computers. Rectangle b.u.t.tons dotted the keyboards installed along with it.

— And the one controlling the complicated equipment was none other than Alica— her haggard stature and sunken cheeks were enough proof of how much Amathelia had worked her for the past year. Alicia Andersson was wearing a dirty lab coat, and underneath it was a red, frilly dress that showed signs of not being cleaned for quite some time.

A needlessly long sash-like pink cloth wreathed around her waist— and its ends coiled around her arms. It swayed lightly from every movement she made.

She, too, stared at me the moment I took a step out of the elevator. Her dark hair was scraggly and unkempt, to the point where she reminded me of Lily back when I first met her.

After a few moments, realization dawned upon her, and those empty eyes brightened up in a split second.

Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. In fact, if there was any, it was too weak for me or Miranda to hear it.

Miranda turned to me with an alarmed look. "Derrick! She's being controlled!"

"I noticed it!"

Miranda dashed towards Alicia and I readied my pistol. However, the woman inside the transparent chamber only grinned at us. Is she not afraid that we can take her out right here and now?

Amathelia had those tubes poking out of her, so I a.s.sumed she couldn't move even if she wanted to. If I had to guess why she was in that state, perhaps it had something to do with the large cannon outside.

This was just a wild guess, but maybe, she was supplying the cannon with her Aegis, to some extent. I didn't know the details, but the setup of this factory— with nothing else other than the equipment and those two people— made me believe that Amathelia was using her Aegis to 'power up' this military HQ.

Is she using her Aegis to make this thing float in the air? Or is it the cannon? I couldn't really tell since there was so little information about this.

Even then, only Amathelia there, and the controlled Alicia at her side. Miranda and I were enough as is to put a stop to them... or so I thought.

"Huh?"

The white walls of the underground factory exploded, sending debris and chunks of it in my direction. I dodged all of it, but what came afterward made my heart thump.

"d.a.m.n! We have been searching for you, and to think that you reached this place when we were not around..."

Yvonne— and her 'clones' popped out of the few holes in the wall, followed by the... Vlasta Maidens?

"What are they doing here?!" I exclaimed.

Neither one of them answered, and instead, all the newly appeared enemies started to flood over towards me. I only had a pistol with me, so taking them head-on was not an option. No, it was never an option in the first place.

"Miranda!"

"I know!"

She halted at Alicia's side— and the scientist only stared at her. Miranda formed black Aegis crystals on her arms and pointed it left and right. "Take this!"

With a deafening, gurgling sound, violent torrents of blue liquid gushed out of the Aegis crystals. Yvonne's clones who were closest to Miranda were struck down with it. Quickly, the rest of the clones were swept along as more liquid filled the area.

That was Miranda's Aegis specialty— Water Production. It was about the same as her father's Fire Production, but this one released liquid instead. If I had to compare, the liquid's composition was close to that of sea water.

Her Aegis had one unique trait, where any living things that were to be soaked top to bottom with it would suffer excruciating pain. The liquid attacked the pain receptors relentlessly, and if one were to endure it for five or minutes or so, then the pain would then disappear.

But to endure the pain of being burned, stabbed, drowned, and various other degrees of pain inflicted on the affected people for five whole minutes was never an easy feat.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Yvonne's clones along with the Vlasta Maidens let out an agonizing scream, one after another. Even though the wave a.s.sault had stopped, those people writhed on the floor, drool and tears covered their faces.

Kat, a member of the Vlasta Maidens held onto her stomach as she let out a silent scream. Her blank eyes opened wide enough that I thought it would fell out of its eye sockets at any moment.

Another Vlasta Maiden had her nails dug into her own neck, foam pouring out of her mouth. Even I couldn't bear to see an enemy in such state.

"This..." might leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Miranda's Aegis specialty, no matter how anyone looked at it, was perfectly suited to be used for torture and information gathering. It was that effective, at least if I were in one of the victim's shoes.

Not that I prayed Miranda would do it to me or anything. Come to think of it, I was kinda glad she didn't snap every time she bickered with Aya before.

"...Ugh."

Miranda cast a prudent glance at me before she s.h.i.+fted her attention to Alicia. The emaciated scientist stared back at Miranda with an expressionless face.

"Let's get out of here—"

Boom!

"What the... did something just exploded?!" Miranda said as I jogged to her side.

I managed to catch a glance at Amathelia, who was glaring at the ceiling, precisely in the direction of the explosion. It happened somewhere on the surface, perhaps the first floor of this military HQ.

Amathelia then took in a long, deep breath with her eyes closed. After that—

"AVAA!" She screamed a girl's name I knew all too well. In an instant, I realized something crucial.

"Ava's here?" Miranda and I said at the same time.