Epiphany Of The Weak 14 The Great Corporate United

His voice echoed throughout that area and the marching soldiers who heard him replied.

"All hail our Great Corporate United!"

"All live The Supreme Leader! Bow before him, behold His Supremacy!"

Those soldiers chanted in unison as they swarmed the area. No doubt, the soldiers would notice our group if we stayed there.

"Ava!" called Hope in an alley.

I snapped out of my trance. My legs ran as fast as it could to where Hope was hiding. When I arrived, the sight was not anywhere close to pleasant. It was horrid.

Jack was lying down and breathing heavily as he had one hand on top of his chest. His blood kept flowing, staining his grey coat. And there was Hope putting both of his hands on top of Jack's chest and pushed it a few times.

"Papa!" cried Alice. She kept tugging at her father's bloodied coat while Luca was panicking.

"Mrs. Garcia, you have a first aid kit in your bag, right?" asked Hope impatiently.

"Y-Yes."

Luca pulled out a small white case from her bag and handed it to Hope.

"I don't have any knowledge in this sort of thing. P-Please save my husband," begged Luca.

Hope ripped Jack's s.h.i.+rt off and grimaced.

Three gunshot wounds marked Jack's chest. Hope shook his head slowly at the sight. He then proceeded to apply the bandage off on top of Jack's wound, but Jack was losing consciousness as the time pa.s.sed by.

Hope then continued applying pressure to the gunshot wound but he shook his head every time Jack's eyes flicker.

"I-I don't want to say this ever to anyone. But-"

Luca grabbed Hope's shoulder. "No! Please save him. . . There must be a way!"

He narrowed his eyes at Luca. He kept denying any possibility of saving Jack at that point.

"Even if I bandaged your husband's wound, Ma'am, unless I pulled out the bullets inside him, it would amount to nothing. He has lost a lot of blood. His heart and lungs were punctured due to the bullets."

Hope looked away from Luca.

"No. . . "

Luca proceeded to also apply pressure on Jack's wound, where Hope had stopped a moment ago.

Jack coughed. "Honey. . . y-you have to get to. . . the mine."

"Stop talking, Mr. Garcia. Your wound," said Hope.

"I'm about to d-die, right? It's fine," interjected Jack.

"Papa. . . Don't leave me. . . " Alice was sobbing beside her father.

"Dear, I'll save you," said Luca. I could tell from where I was standing that Jack didn't have much time left.

It was a first for me, seeing someone dying up close like that. Luca had an aura about her that stopped me from saying anything. Alice, on the other hand, could not help herself but cried and cried at her father's side.

Hope and I were silent. We knew that whatever kinds of words we tried to say to them, it would all have been for naught.

"S-Say my regards, t-to Beatrice. . . tell her. . . I love her. Alice, I l-love you, and you too, h-honey."

Those were Jack's last words as he closed his eyes. Both Luca and Alice leaned towards Jack as they cried their hearts out. Even though the screams and noise down the road were deafening, all I could hear of right then and there were Luca's and Alice's voices. Their voices were the sounds of someone regretting and wis.h.i.+ng the other one's return from his or her permanent departure.

A streak of tears flowed from my eyes and I rubbed them immediately.

Hope was mulling over something as he watched Jack's lifeless body while clenching both of his fists hard.

"Mrs. Garcia. . . we should get going," said Hope.

Luca's face was obstructed by her long, dark hair. She and her daughter, Alice had stopped crying.

"I knew you lied about Beatrice, Hope Domitius," said Luca.

". . . I'm sorry."

Luca stood up and grabbed Alice's arm.

"Mama! How about Papa?!"

"Alice dear, we have to get to safety first." Luca's voice was soft. My eyes widen at her sudden change of demeanor.

All of us walked briskly out of the alley when gunshots caught our attention. Dozens of soldiers were shooting at the civilians running away, joined in by two military jeeps and the red tank. The general watched over us from his tank, half of his face was shadowed by his black military hat.

"My, my, I was waiting for you to come out. That little girl who was supposed to dead caught my eyes, fortunately. It would be boring if I was chasing you into that alley, isn't it? Don't worry, I've got a lot of spare time before this place is destroyed," said the general.

He looked at his watch. "Hmm. In the evening, this town would be gone."

Luca walked towards the soldiers aiming at her. She trotted over the numerous dead bodies around her and glared at the general.

"Mama!" shouted Alice.

Hope had grabbed her arm in advance.

The general gestured to the soldiers to not fire.

"You killed my husband!" said Luca.

The general grinned at her statement. "Oh? My deepest condolences to you, Ma'am. I promise you I'll have my men bury him after our work is done. Then again, would he still be there? The bombs that my jets have with them are quite powerful. I'm just afraid I might not even find your husband's body after all of this."

The soldiers laughed, and some were crouching on the ground while holding their stomachs.

"Hope, the general's right there. I could-"

"No, Ava. This. . . feels off for some reason."

"Trust me, Hope. You must get Luca and Alice to the mine," I said.

Hope took a deep breath. "But Mrs. Garcia doesn't seem to be budging any time soon. But, I can get Alice to the mine first. Her mother will have to come later if she's in that state."

"That's true. . ." I stared at Luca from my spot.

"You're a monster! All of you are! You kill innocent people," shouted Luca.

The general sighed. "Well, isn't that obvious by now, woman? This town is nothing but a stepping stone for the Great Corporate United. His Supremacy hopes that one day, the world will be united by him, preventing any needless bloodshed. All of us have been doing the same thing for years and years."

"But that's just selfis.h.!.+ How can you take the lives of these people? Do you have no regards for human lives?"

The general pounded his fist onto the red tank's hull.

"ALL OF US had bloodied our hands in the previous conflicts! We fight, we kill, we conquer. Under the order of His Supremacy, we eliminated and absorbed countless nations, countries, islands, into the Great Corporate United. In the end, we're just following orders."

The general closed his eyes for a moment and then looked at me.

"That girl is an Aegis User. I'm an idiot for not realizing that."

He pointed at me.

"She's not my top priority, considering the higher-ups had long given up on her. But she would be a great gift for His Supremacy nonetheless. And that 'squad' would be happy to have another member."

'What is this squad he spoke of? Another member?' I thought.

"Why are you telling me all this?" said Luca.

"Nothing, really. You guys are about to die so it doesn't matter. Oh, and I'm taking back that girl."

The general raised his hand and the soldiers redirected their aim towards Luca and me.

I nodded at Hope before he carried Alice in his arms and dashed to the jungle behind us.

"Take aim! Fire!"

My red dome protected both me and Luca from the streams of bullets and deflected off it in time.

"What's this. . . " muttered Luca.

"It's a weapon."

I walked over to Luca, the large dome changed its shape as I moved.

"Oh. So this is what you've been keeping from us, Ava," said Luca.

"I'm sorry. I also didn't know how and why this weapon is inside me, to begin with."

I adjusted my scarf and pulled my braid over my shoulder.

"There's a lot of things I didn't know. That's why Hope and I agreed to keep this a secret. We're afraid of how you would react, or if you even believed us."

The dome was shaking violently for a few moments, but it was intact. In fact, it did not seem to be in any way damaged.

"It's the tank," I muttered absently.

Luca met my eyes. "Let's go to the mine. Right now, Alice is what matters to me the most. You protected her before so I won't question you. And, thank you."

I felt her gaze seeing through me. There were still traces of tears along with her cheeks, however, Luca was back to her usual self.

I nodded. "Stay beside me."

The dome moved along with as we headed towards the direction leading to the jungle. Looking the ground beneath, we were heading uphill to the mine.

CRAs.h.!.+

A huge impact made us dropped ourselves on the ground.

"What's that?" inquired Luca.

Curiosity overcame me and I retracted the dome into my back. We were quite deep inside the jungle.

The soldiers were far lesser than before, where there were only a few of them left. The red tank suffered damage to its hull but it was not that bad. The general himself seemed shocked and immediately ducked back inside the tank's hatch, moving a bit farther backward.

It was grandpa's group, Freya. A few trucks were loaded with the people that I knew from that group. There was grandpa coming out of one of the trucks wearing a black robe. Inghild followed behind him afterward. All of the members were equipped with rifles similar to that of the soldiers.

I looked at Luca, somehow smiling at her. "It's grandpa's group!"

A moment of realization hit me. 'Why am I happy about that?' I thought.

With no time to waste, Luca and I went into the jungle and hid behind the bushes.

"Aren't you going to the mine?" I asked Luca.

"I want to see the people who dared to go against that whole army fight," replied Luca.

A truck arrived there later than the others before it halted. Two familiar figures stepped out of the truck.

It was Jeremy and Beatrice.