It was Monday morning and the girls were getting ready to go to school and Maki to the academy.
While the girls had breakfast, I decided to go out early to look at the garden with Tera.
The morning wind was freezing, for the first time I used the scarf that the girls gave me, the sky was so gray that it became completely strange. It was one of those rare times that I didn't understand the weather; it looked like it was going to rain.
I heard Maki scold Anna and Antonia for taking so long to brush. Sometimes she is very strict.
I have not seen Tera in the garden, maybe she went hunting insects.
In the distance I saw a carriage, I thought it would be K'vool but I remembered that it would return in two months.
The horse-drawn carriage stops on the road and 8 hooded men get out.
I thought they were merchants or something similar, so I approach them.
Do you need something? they are lost? I ask kindly.
But when one of them pointed his finger at me, I realized that thank goodness the girls hadn't come out yet.
"The blood of the sorceress will give us access to our lord" says one of the subjects with his gloomy voice.
In his finger a spark of magic accumulates which shoots out and hits my shoulder, crossing it easily and hitting a wall of the house.
The wound that his sudden attack leaves me is the size of a marble, it quickly fills with blood, my body responds by applying adrenaline to not feel the pain momentarily, but I cannot move my arm, practically that impact destroyed the bone that joins the shoulder With my arm, although I feel no pain now there are pieces of bone that have been nailed to my flesh, the hot blood begins to gush.
DAD! Maki walks out the door scared, but when she sees my condition and then looks at the subjects, it seems like something inside her is changing. The kind, cheerful and quarrelsome girl disappears, her blue eyes turn black, as black as a black hole that absorbs everything without a trace, her expression is so cold and devoid of any positive signs.
"The sorceress saved us the trouble of looking for her" exclaims one of the subjects.
The blood does not stop coming out of my wound, I begin to feel pulsations throughout my shoulder and arm, a strange frost invades my body.
When one of the subjects tries to raise his hands to cast a spell, although they are quickly cut, it was Maki who mutilated the subject, in his right hand he carried a long and thin sword, the blade of the sword was ebony color, while its handle was silver and had decorations written in a language unintelligible to me; drops of blood fall from its blade.
The subject does not have time to react to such a thing, his companions try to step back and prepare an attack spell, but one of them has his legs bite off and immediately his stumps are burned, one of his companions reaches pull it out before it is eaten by a huge fire-breathing salamander. The beast leaves the earth leaving a lava pit; its thick and reddish body contrasts with its flattened shape, it has gills which spew hot steam, it has a large toothless mouth and small eyes, along with a short but thick tail.
Of the eight subjects, two had been mutilated.
"Do you really know what happens when they hurt what we love the most? Tell me Sali "Antonia was just like her two sisters, her blue eyes turn black and full of hatred, the salamander looks at her mistress, that thing was one of her invocations.
Two other subjects fail to touch the ground when two jets of pressurized water pierce their lungs.
"Tell me little sister, were these things the ones who hurt daddy?" exclaims Anna coldly, her mischievous gaze had completely disappeared, I was saying to myself, how was it possible that a girl could change so much? His golden eyes were now red and looked down upon the subjects.
Do not.
The three little angels had transformed into demons.
The remaining four felt fear, dread, and terror. They thought it would be an easy thing, but instead they came across 3 witches who know how to use their abilities.
"Dark sorcery" Maki's sword begins to radiate dark energy, the blood that stained the blade boils until it disappears, she moves her sword and shoots a dark wave which sends all the remaining subjects flying which impact against the chariot.
All 8 subjects are disabled.
"Pathetic creatures, lacking in common sense, animals like you only deserve to die," she exclaims contemptuously.
"I'll come out sick when I eat them" adds Antonia while laughing maliciously.
Should I drown them? Draw their blood? Rip out their veins? Anna wonders, do you know what it means to touch daddy?
A large number of lightning bolts fall on the house.
A huge explosion is created, the house is destroyed while what is left begins to burn, everything we once had is destroyed.
But nothing happens to us, on Antonia's shoulder a small snake moves and surrounds her neck, that little animal had created a shield.
Antonia laughs maliciously as she points to the frightened enemies Look at them Maki! Did they really think they would hurt us? "How funny humans are"
"Anna break their necks," Maki recommends.
"Come on, do kabumm with them" exclaims Antonia gracefully, the salamander seems to know what that means.
Maki moves her sword and cuts the limbs of the remaining subjects at a distance. "Antonia, let your invocation eat them alive," she recommends.
Are they really? The same girls I have cared for for a year, the same girls who ask me to read stories to them, the same girls I ask how their day was.
The little ones who play pranks on each other laugh with me, they can't be themselves.
They have changed dramatically.
Little Tera comes out of the ground and climbs on my shoulder, she uses her stigma like a syringe and injects something into my shoulder, healing my pain, not only heals my pain, it also rebuilds my wound, I can feel how the bone is restored and see how the parts of the destroyed bone come out of the wound, I had heard that magic could not be that precise unless the magician was a doctor, but what Tera just did is at the level of a professional surgeon, I don't think so. that a machine is so precise.
Tera's little act allows me to get up and stop the girls.
I stand in front of them.
"Stop girls, you are not like that" he commented being as sincere as possible. They don't flinch.
"Daddy stay behind, this is none of your business, dedicate yourself to taking care of the house" exclaims Antonia hatefully.
"You're just a pet," Anna says unperturbed.
Listening to what they tell me hurts, it hurts too much, the wound that they made me with magic does not compare with what they say.
"You are not even our real father" Maki joins, then he points his sword at me, "whether you are here or not now nothing changes, you are just one without magic"
This little event brings out the worst of them, but still.
"I promised the angel that I would protect them, I will not let them kill anyone. If they do it once, they will continue again and again "
"Move human," says Maki irritated.
"No, I won't"
"Kill him little sister, if you don't do it now I'll do it" says Anna, changing her objective.
I won't move an inch, I won't let them do that!
"Come out eat it" Antonia orders her invocation.
I still stand in front of them, I am not afraid, I only feel sadness, it seems that everything I have lived with them was a lie. What happened to them.
"Even so I'm not going to move if they want to kill me go ahead try it, I lost everything once and I will not let you girls get lost in the dark, even if it means losing my life"
Maki points her gun at me ready to do it.
"So be human" she prepares to do so.
Antonia's invocation changes its objective, now I am her prey.
Maybe it's my end maybe, I don't know. But I see the moth again fluttering from side to side as it drops its dust.
Everything around me stops, I can see each magical action of Anna or Antonia, I can see how the ether gathers in Maki's sword, the magical formations and structures of the magics, the mana point in the summoned creature.
I see everything, but I don't understand anything.
Then everything returns to normal, Maki's spell continues, the water magic shot continues and the invocation is launched to devour me.
Tera gets in the way of Maki's spell by making her disappear.
The water magic shot goes through my ribs.
The summoned creature manages to disappear for a few seconds before eating me, but even so its excessive heat burns my back.
"What the hell did we do" exclaims Maki crying as she falls to her knees, her eyes full of sadness do not look at me, she does not have the courage to do it, from her heart she knows that she did something stupid.
Anna only looks at her hands, the same ones that were capable of harming her father, then she cries inconsolably, she just cries and cries regretting what happened. (What did I do to daddy)
The magic shield created by Antonia is broken, she made her two invocations disappear, her small eyes do not believe what she did, her expression of terror and shame of what she dared to do to the person she loves the most. Why did I tell you that? Why did you use Sali for that?
The three young women were carried away by their witch instincts, they brought out the worst in them only by a small incident, if it weren't for Tera her father would already be dead.
The amount of derogatory words they were able to say to their father, they feel so pathetic, none of the three could control "that" side, even their mother had taught them how to do it, but it seems that she had failed, they felt like monsters .
Augusto falls from the pain, but you can see a smile of joy, he is happy to see that the girls regained their composure.