♢
Hope and Ava clashed— his golden shield absorbed her crimson tendril before he landed on the huge lump of Aegis crystals beneath him. The nightmarish form Ava's power had taken let out a deafening bellow and trashed about, breaking and crushing the white floor. Hope hung onto the monster's crimson surface, unwilling to let go.
I snapped from the sight. "Anyway, we need to go. I'll take you two to the airship right now."
"P-Papa!" cried Derrick's daughter.
"He'll be alright. Now, if you excuse me..."
I took a sidelong glance at Hope and "Ava". It appeared that the blond guy had resolved himself for this very moment. Saving Ava. Rescuing her from her own darkness, this task had been given to him and he gladly accepted it.
There couldn't be anyone else more fitting.
I snapped my finger and instantly, the three of us teleported back to the Teria airship. The daughter, and Eugene— he told me his name— looked around in confusion.
"W-What? Eeeh?" Eugene looked left and right, his body turned around to look in one direction and then the next one.
"We will take them both from here," said Klaus, followed by Julia behind him after they entered the lounge section.
"Thank you."
My hand patted the daughter's head and she looked up at me with teary eyes. "Your father will come back soon. Meanwhile, stay here."
"Hello." Ernestine walked over to our side, which prompted Eugene and the daughter to look at her. They didn't say anything. Were they stunned at how Ernestine looked? The mechanical left arm had both of their eyes glued to it.
"I'll send assistance if need," said Klaus to me.
"It's fine. I will update you on the way."
"Wait, put this on. We can see what's happening and help if there's any need to." Klaus handed me a headband, sort of. The black fabric was superbly elastic, and after I put it on, a soothing chill ran through my forehead.
"It's an observation device I designed. It's simple. Has an adequately small camera embedded into the fabric, specially manufactured to be able to see through the fabric and provide a high-resolution image—"
I flicked my wrist and teleported back to my previous spot, inside the fortress. It was a camera, got it, I didn't need to hear the rest of his explanation. Ava's situation was too important for me to waste time on trivial matters.
"Ava, listen to me!" yelled Hope as he held up his shield, in time to brace for a raging multi-colored flame that crashed into it.
I teleported myself to the area down there and went over to Aya's side. She and the others had their eyes locked on Hope and Ava, as expected. Even Alicia who was supposed to be our enemy didn't do a thing and just stood there looking at Ava. Amathelia stared at the whole situation in complete silence. Her hands were desperately trying to pull Hope's spear out of her shoulder earlier but stopped.
It seemed like she was nothing to be scared of, like what Ernestine had said. Is Amathelia waiting for something?
I eyed her warily.
"...Shouldn't we be doing something?" Derrick said.
"I don't want to get myself involved in 'that'. You'll just get yourself killed," commented Miranda.
She put an emphasis on 'that.' I would've agreed with her— since it was a sound judgment as to not exacerbate a situation where you know you couldn't do a thing about. Miranda was nervous, but she didn't let her feelings get in the way of how she would proceed from now.
"But that's Ava," I said to those three. "Aya, I'm sure she would at least listen to you."
Aya shook her head and pointed at Ava. "I-I tried, you know. I tried, but... it didn't work."
"I don't think she can hear us. I mean, if she could, then it wouldn't have gone this way," Derrick said his piece.
"I suppose so."
Aya looked over at Alicia, and their eyes met. It was awkward, in a sense. The mother and daughter pair stared at each other, and I thought that I'd have to say something. If not, then we would really leave Hope alone to handle Ava.
"Mommy..."
Alicia blinked. She reached her hand towards Aya, but hesitated in the end. Though Aya took it nonetheless and held it tightly.
"Rest, Mommy. You don't look so good... Leave the rest to us. And then... well... It can't hurt if I stayed behind with you for a while, right? You must have a lot to talk about, and..."
"Aya," said Alicia with a dry voice.
"Y-Yes?"
Alicia wrapped her hands around Aya and pulled her into her embrace. Aya's pupils dilated— and a silent cry escaped her mouth, tears streaked down her cheeks. For the first time, I'd seen Aya being so vulnerable in front of me.
I never saw Alicia before, but I heard about her from everyone in Lutalo. Ava wasn't fond of her. Ava didn't like Alicia, simply put. Even then, apart from all the bad things they talked of Alicia, Ava didn't add her own opinion of her to me, verbally. Perhaps this is why? Alicia's eyes were almost empty, and yet, there was a hint of kindness far deep inside.
My eyes were filled with tears, but I quickly wiped it off. Looking at Derrick next to me, he seemed to be unperturbed by their interaction. And to prove that statement I thought of offhandedly, he walked towards Amathelia, with a strut resembling someone suppressing his anger.
"Amathelia Lindberg," he said, a few feet away from Amathelia.
He aimed his standard issued 19mm Parabellum-filled handgun at her. Just when he was about to shoot, I caught his arm.
"What are you doing?"
"Venting my anger. I should be the one asking you that question, actually. What are you doing?"
My eyebrows drew together. "One of my objectives is to capture or kill Amathelia. But I prefer the former option. She can't do anything right now. What's more, the information Amathelia has is too valuable for you to just kill her, Derrick. Are you hoping to kill her with just a handgun? You're letting your emotions take control. Calm down."
"...I can't believe you just said that. This woman is responsible for the mass purge happening a year ago. Were you blind?!"
Derrick gritted his teeth and shoved me to the side. Then, with a quick aim, he shot Amathelia in the head.
"You!"
He pulled a second handgun and aimed it at me. "This won't kill her, nor you. But I can't forget those... horrid sights. Back in Finland, I watched as civilians died from the relentless air bombing. Why did they have to die like that?! Tell me. Why?!"
Crash!
A crimson scythe fell onto the ground, sending clouds of dust upward. Ava, in her new form, shot more of her flames at Hope, but he flawlessly absorbed it into his shield while flittingly counter-slashed.
"G H O o o h o l o o a A A a R R r g G G G h H h h h H!"
It was working, to an extent. Hope's blade, the moment it did damage to "Ava"'s exterior shell, absorbed every bit of Aegis crystals it could. If he kept at this, then surely he could reach for the caged Ava inside.
"Are you really doing this right now, Derrick?"
Miranda's long, black blade reached for Derrick's throat in no time and stopped in mid-air. I looked over my shoulder.
"Amathelia is pinned down thanks to that guy, so what we should be worried about right now is Ava. You're letting your feelings get in the way in this crucial moment," she said further.
Derrick clicked his tongue and lowered both of his handguns.
"Hah... Pathetic."
Was that...?
The three of us looked at Amathelia, who burst into laughter while still stuck to the wall. She looked at me, then Derrick and finally Miranda. A sinister grin appeared on her face.
Or so I thought... It vanished and got replaced with a pained expression just as quickly. Amathelia's hand covered her mouth as she coughed blood.
"I... All I ever wanted... F... My family to never suffer again. I don't care a-about anything else... really..."
Miranda pulled her blade back to her side and now, pointed it at Amathelia. She looked at her with disdain, as if Amathelia was never a threat, to begin with.
"You see, moron. I don't care about your lifelong goal or anything, not one bit. But you dragged everybody into this business. Everybody."
She pushed the blade, and it dug into Amathelia's chest ever so slowly. Hatred was evident on Miranda's face.
"Like that girl said, stay put right there and don't move... Not that you can tho'."
"Um, it's Sofeea... Not 'that girl'" I mumbled.
Amathelia stared daggers at Miranda, but she didn't flinch.
"You said that you did all this for your family," joined Derrick. "I was the same, kinda. I want to protect my family, so that's why I joined the military in the first place."
Amathelia shifted her attention to him. "I wanted... to get back at those people what had hurt me... who had hurt my family. But... I don't know... What went wrong? After all I've done, it didn't go as... expected."
"Huh. It went wrong from the very beginning, idiot. The moment you thought of revenge... You should've known, that everything will go wrong from there. I was in the same boat as well because of Ava... She killed my father. But I know he wouldn't like it if I went that path, so... yeah."
Miranda bit her lip, probably regretting what she just said. I looked back at Hope, and he was surely overwhelming Ava, bit by bit. I wanted to help him, but somehow, deep inside me, it felt like I would've slowed him down.
Those two were locked onto each other, so much so that they never paid attention to us over here, not even once. I could trust Hope to do his thing.
He promised, too, that he would be the one to rescue Ava, so helping him when he clearly didn't need it would just be trampling on his pride.
And then 'it' happened—
"GET AWAY!"
Hope's desperate cry caught my attention, and under less than a second, my body moved on its own. I jumped to the side, letting my body fell downwards as gravity pulled it.
Without thinking anything else, I turned my head...
"..."
A large scythe found its mark on Amathelia's body, but that was not all. Wrapping the weapon itself was a nightmarish fire, swathing Amathelia and anything nearby. Derrick and Miranda got lucky. They'd dodged just in time after Hope's warning and if Hope didn't do it in the first place, I was sure none of us would survive from that.
As for Aya and Alicia, they hugged each other, safe and sound. They were far from being exposed to danger. Those two stared at Amathelia and their eyes were fixated on her, their mouth was agape.
Even a scant of a second was not spared for Amathelia, as her body turned into ashes in front of our eyes.
"Tsk!"
I placed four green Aegis crystals hastily; one near Aya and Alicia, the other two embedded into the floor right next to Miranda and Derrick, and the last crystal clattered and slid towards Hope.
"I will get us out of here!" I screamed.
"Ava" let out a deafening roar, and a moment later, her signature multi-colored flames exploded throughout the underground space.
I was just about to activate my Aegis to teleport us back to the airship, when...
Crash!
Hope's golden shield absorbed the flames into it, and like a waterfall being sucked into a vacuum, the flames disappeared from sight.
"Sofeea! Get the rest of them to safety! I'll handle Ava."
Even though he'd absorbed most of the flames, a small area of his forehead caught it along with his right arm all the way to his neck. He was worn out, clearly. Despite the pain Hope was suffering, I didn't see anything but unwavering determination and resolve.
From the very beginning until now, it still hadn't vanished, not even an iota of it.
"We... We want to help Ava too!" said Aya.
"I owe Ava a lot of things. A lot. So... just this once, I want to put myself on the line to rescue her," muttered Alicia.
"We want to help her as well."
Derrick and Miranda nodded in my direction. I knew what they wanted. They were stubborn, yes, just like me. I wanted to stay here after they teleported back to safety, but it seemed like it would have to wait.
"Don't worry about us. Ava is suffering, so I just can't run away with her like this," said Derrick.
The rest nodded in agreement, and Hope and I found ourselves sighing in unison. A smile crept across our face.
"I'll keep Ava's fire in check. You guys are the vanguard," instructed Hope.
"Alright!"
"You got it."
Aya let go of her mother, Alicia, and steeled herself for this upcoming fight. "Ava... As your friend, I will save you, no matter what!"