From just a glance, Sam's murderous aura stemmed from pure hatred and contempt. Anyone could tell just from being near him. I knew that his attitude had made people disliked him, but at that time, he was being perfectly clear about it. To put it simply, he hated me.
He raised his right hand slowly. Seeing that, the Teria soldiers aimed their rifles at me and Aya.
"You are a traitor, Derrick," said Sam sharply. "A traitor to the Great Corporate United. Don't worry . . . You will be remembered as such from this day onward."
"I don't want to serve someone like Amathelia, Sam. You know that this country deserves better. She will only bring more destruction and deaths. In fact, I should ask you. Why are you risking your life for a ruler like her?"
Sam gritted his teeth as his eyes shot a glare at me. "Amathelia is the C.U's current ruler. Soldiers like us do not have any right to question her judgments. We are the country's protectors. We fight for our ruler, no matter how twisted she is."
"That is true. Soldiers are the country's puppets. However, we are humans. And humans have the means to differentiate what is right and wrong. Even without rules, anyone can see why killing an innocent child is wrong. Soldiers are given the capabilities to take another human's life by our higher-ups."
"That's common sense," said Sam. "It doesn't change the fact that you defected from your country of origin. Treason. Betrayal. That is enough excuse for every soldier of the Great Corporate United to kill you."
"Indeed."
An explosion from far away shook the ground for a few seconds. Sam looked over his shoulder. When he had focused his attention onto me again, sweat trickled down his cheeks and forehead.
I shook my head slowly. "I don't deny what you have said just now. But, surely you can see why Amathelia's actions are considered evil. Now, she's willing to kill everyone in Finland just to get rid of the pro-Maltyie coup here."
"Pro-Maltyie?" repeated Sam.
"Yes. The coup's objective is to put Maltyie Holm as the next ruler of C.U. I am sure you know how capable she is. After all, you were one of her supporters not too long ago."
Sam clenched his fists. Hearing the name of the woman she admired had revealed his soft side. Sam also wanted Maltyie to be the ruler, but his loyalty was no less than outstanding.
In a sense, he was conflicted.
"I guess this is the first time you have heard of it, huh," I said.
My eyes glanced at Aya, as she formed blood red vambraces on her arms. I knew that this was unavoidable. My forehead throbbed from the pain, but I endured it. Even right then, more blood started to trickle down from it.
Sam's eyes widened. "What are you--"
Aya's vambraces shot out numerous tendrils and it pierced the Teria soldiers' throat with inhuman precision. Seeing that Sam's guard was lowered down, I took advantage of the opening.
My right hand quickly punched at his torso and I followed it with a punch from my left. Then, I repeated the same process, faster and faster each time. When he was about to counter, I did a roundhouse kick at the side of his head and he fell down.
"Argh!" He was groaning in pain, but I ignored him. When Aya and I were about to leave him there, he called for me.
"Why are you leaving me alive?!" he said as he tried to stand back up. "Is it because I'm your friend? Is that it?"
I turned around and faced him. "You knew about Aya. She was hiding in my place back in Stockholm. But you never did tell anyone about it."
Sam's jaw dropped at my statement.
"Consider this as a thank you for that. Though, I do hope you will come around in the end, as an ally . . . Goodbye, old friend," I said.
I didn't look back after that since I knew Sam more than anyone. He needed his own space after what I just said to him.
"Neary and the others are waiting."
,__.__,
,__.__,
We arrived back at the hideout about ten minutes later. Of course, we ran as fast as we could on our way there. Aya stopped to catch a breath and I did too.
"It's . . ." I mumbled.
There was no way I could finish what I wanted to say. The sight my eyes held didn't click to me yet. It couldn't be. Still, I knew those flames were the reality of it, and more so that it felt like my heart was being torn apart.
At that moment, I couldn't help but screamed my lungs out.
The shopping mall where the civilians had been hiding was literally in flames. A huge chunk of the wall was blown off, revealing the raging fire inside the building itself. There were four members of the coup outside, focusing on treating a few other civilians that managed to get out.
"Hey!" I rushed to their side. "The air bombers did this?"
"Those aircraft dropped bombs everywhere! We don't know what happened to the others. It was so sudden . . . No one was able to react!" shouted a guy that was treating one of the injured.
The cracks on the building's walls got larger after a few moments. It would not hold much longer. A small portion of the wall started to shift, and Aya quickly stood in front of everyone. Blood red Aegis crystals sprouted from her back and held the wall in place. After that, small veins from the cluster of Aegis crystals shot into the building. The vein-like crystals maneuvered itself like roots to properly held the other portions of the wall.
"Thanks, Aya!" I said.
I braced myself and ran inside of the shopping mall, with the intention of saving every civilian I would encounter. As I headed straight for the parking lot, the crystal veins rooted itself further throughout the building. Though, the flames itself had spread to the parking lot as well.
By the time I reached the parking lot, there were only red flames in sight. Huge rubble blocked my path from going anywhere up. As expected, the parking lot's ceilings were destroyed.
I had known it judging from the condition of the building. It wasn't hard to know which part of the shopping mall suffered the worst from the bombings.
"Hmm? There's a . . . Baby," I said.
I went over to the emergency staircase, and sure enough, there was a baby there at the entrance. It was the second floor, so that meant a lot of things. Some civilians could've escaped in time using the emergency staircase, but there weren't any of them outside.
"Are they trapped at the ground floor?"
The seemingly one-year-old baby was wrapped in white clothing. I held her in my arms and rushed inside the small space of the entrance. A moment later, a huge explosion not far from the shopping mall shook the ground.
"Why is this baby here? Who was the one that brought her--"
I looked at the foot of the staircase leading to the first floor. There, a familiar guy was lying on the cement with one hand on his bloodied chest.
It was Neary.
I gritted my teeth when I saw that. Despite everything that was going on right then, the baby girl was quiet as it stared into my eyes. "Your father must be downstairs . . . Damn that guy. Did he saved his own skin and abandoned his own daughter?"
I proceeded to climb down the staircase, forcing myself to ignore Neary's dead body. When I reached the ground floor, only nine citizens were there as they tried to push the exit door.
"You guys!"
"General Derrick! Thank goodness! We are trapped here and--"
"I came from the other emergency staircase. It was fine there, but I don't think we can go back using it. The fire had blocked that area when I got into the parking lot," I said.
"Then . . ."
They all looked at each other. Unfortunately, the baby's father was not among them.
"Is there anyone else aside from you guys?" I asked.
"No . . . All of us were in the parking lot when the place got bombed. We . . . We are the only ones," said a bearded man.
I took a deep breath. "We can still make it outside. The fire has not reached the staircase yet." With a tap on my earpiece, I told Aya about the situation and she grasped what she could do to help.
I looked behind me. "The veins . . ."
Aya's crystal veins from before crept along the walls. When it reached a spot near us, it soldered itself together and made a large hole in the wall. Beyond it was the front entrance, where Aya and the few others were waiting. The distance was just ten meters apart. Aside from that, the fire on the ground floor was bearable enough for anyone to run past it.
Still, wasting time wasn't a choice.
I let the civilians escaped through the wall first. Holding the baby in my arms, I carefully maneuvered around the flickering fire. Fortunately, it took only a few minutes for everyone to get out.
". . . No one else?" said one of the guys outside.
I shook my head. "These people are the only ones left. The members of the coup inside are all but alive."
"I see."
"Hold onto this baby for me," I said as he took the baby gently. "We need to get to someplace safe. Judging from the scale of these bombings, it seems like the C.U's military forces had evacuated in time."
"Where is this safe place?"
"There's a bunker not far from here. It was wrapped in an invisibility cloak before, but the device appears to have malfunctioned. We can make it," I said firmly.
Aya's Aegis crystals disintegrated into thin air and the crumbling walls fell down with one quick motion. The ground vibrated for a good amount of minutes before it settled down. She then looked at me.
"Derrick! Jets!" She pointed at the sky.
Dark fighter jets with the Great Corporate United's flag symbol cut through the air high up. Then, it slowed down a bit, as if . . .
"EVERYONE! GET AWAY FROM HERE!" I yelled.
The few civilians scrambled into an alley behind us. Aya, who had manifested a massive blood-red shield quickly stood in front of me. She then planted it onto the ground and lowered her center of gravity.
I knew I was useless in that situation, so I rushed towards the civilians.
BOOM!
"Aya?!"
I looked over my shoulder for a few seconds.
Aya had withstood the jets' missiles using her Aegis shield with no difficulty at all. She glanced at me and nodded.
"Make sure you come back to us," I mumbled.
The jets in the sky circled around the area before pointing its missiles back at Aya. However, another squadron of jets appeared from the left side and struck those ones targeting Aya with multiple missiles.
"Those jets are . . . Russians?" I said as I looked up. After that, I went to the alley where the civilians were hiding. "We can lower the risk of getting exposed if we move using these alleyways. Follow me."
They all nodded and I led the way.
Aya would catch up with us no doubt, so I didn't worry about her. Though, the appearance of Russian fighter jets confused me.
One way or another, the coup back at Russia had stolen those jets that seemed to have departed from Moscow. It could only mean that those rebels were quick to launch another invasion, with Finland being the next target.
"Wait." I halted my tracks and the rest stopped moving as well.
"Something . . . Someone is here."
As soon as I said that, a dark-haired man in casual clothing appeared from the corner at our left side. Behind him was a woman I had known for almost a decade of my life.
"Maltyie?!" I said.
She and the guy beside her stared at me. At that time, Maltyie's silver hair was cut short, where it was only shoulder-length. She was wearing casual clothing and a black hat.
Our reunion was then greeted with a few soldiers appearing from the dark path in front of me.
I didn't know why, but my body moved and I covered Maltyie when the soldiers opened fire.
"Derrick!" called Maltyie.
It was not like my body was filled with holes or anything, but it still hurt.
It hurt so much.
Maltyie and Gray had dragged me the moment those soldiers closed in. A few moments later, we managed to take cover behind a stack of wooden boxes.
"Your right arm . . ." said Maltyie.
Indeed, my right arm was like mincemeat when it took most of the bullets by itself. Apparently, the soldiers had opened fire without thinking, so I was the only one who got injured.
"Arghh . . . Dammit. Forget about me. Get the civilians away from here!" I screamed.