Worthless

If the journey to the Zeros suċkėd the first time around, the journey back home was beyond unspeakable. Anyone could have seen how gloomy the atmosphere inside the carriage was, any longer, a thunderstorm might appear soon after. 

Even the coachman who was sitting on the outside felt the chills from the carriage stabbing his backside, making him fidget and anxious. He was even sweating cold bullets. 

Like the world had been tainted and corrupted by the devil's spawn and its minions, black and dark miasma could be seen seeping out from the carriage from any gap it could find as it had manufactured and the space could no longer keep them contained. 

The pedestrians within the radius of 10 feet had become their prey and judging by how many humans were spreaded out here, a feast was what it was going to have. 

Creeping out, the dark energy couldn't hold the wicked grin from stretching and latched onto innocent villagers. It absorbed their life force; their energy, turning their positive and exuberant energy into something dark and gloomy. 

Darkness gradually descended. The world was doomed. Chaos was everywhere as it was released into society.

Facing the endless desolation of the destroyed continent and the tragic view of gloomy and lifeless humans, a protagonist was born. With aches in his heart and soul, he could no longer ignore the harm that was inflicted. He had no choice but to harden his heart in order to save the repulsive world. 

Especially when two of his remaining family were in the process of being corrupted. 

The said protagonist, the hero, was no other than our beloved Derek Roderick. 

He had been clambering all over inside the carriage like a mad man, trying not to suffocate from the lack of decent air as the wicked energy emitting from the other two was in process of choking him to death. 

He had whipped out all of his holy weapons, starting from his most prized and trusty spray bottle of holy water to finally chanting mantra, yet none of it worked. It was either the evil spirits were too strong or he was too weak that he needed to cultivate more. 

No matter how heavenly saint he was, he couldn't even swat it away to the point he had succumbed to his carnal dėsɨrės and resorted to begging pathetically.

"Son! Look, isn't the weather so bright today? The cloud is even sending me a gracious smile, don't you think so?!" 

Derek exclaimed, pointing excitedly at the sky from his spot. His eyes were blinking faster than normal and sweats were pooling under his clothes. Anyone could tell he was frantic as hell. 

The atmosphere in the carriage grew even darker once he finished his sentences, causing him to gulp nervously. His idiot son looked even gloomier, if that was even the correct term to vividly describe him. 

'First attempt just went into the drain. Let's try another way.'

"Lynn, my dear! Isn't that your favourite pastries? Why don't we stop by to get some?"

Derek had jumped from one side to the other, this time exclaiming even more desperately. He was pointing at one of the famous buŧŧer croissants they just passed by. Normally Lynn would agree with him instantly, but not at the moment. 

He was ignored and Derek almost let his jaw drop. 

This wasn't normal! 

Lynn would never ever ignore his precious buŧŧer croissant! 

The gray-haired Alpha merely rolled his brown eyes over before pointedly looking away, his expression void of any emotions that Derek's jaw had unhinged completely. He could even hear the joint dislocated! 

'Second attempt failed!' 

But rest ȧssured; Derek Roderick wouldn't give up like that! He was the man of his words! He was persistent! Something like this could never waver his way of life! 

Like a full orchestra of mini little Dereks, they cheered and sang for glory. He was even fueled with more confidence when he saw conductor Derek give him a nod. 

With full force, he slammed himself onto Zeke, plastering himself close as he wounded an arm around his son's shoulder. 

"My Boy! I am here to bear fantastic news for you! There's no need to thank your father for this but I would really appreciate seeing tears of joy, of course. With a genius mind like mine, I managed to sway 'the pretentious bastard' off his little idiosyncrasy--" 

*Pretentious Bastard = Malakhi Zero* 

"More like you threatened him." 

"Hush, don't interrupt me, so, as I said-- Son! You are finally talking to me!" 

Zeke promptly turned away after giving him a deadly stare. 

"Anyway! You just need to make friends with his precious little Alpha and we are all set! We can obliterate the marriage contract that was never even there in the first place-- not that he knew it, he is dumb, after all." Derek huffed, slugging onto his son and waving his hand in the air as he explained. 

"What do you mean by that?" Zeke frowned, the heavy weight of his father was starting to annoy him.

Derek almost sighed in relief causing him to sag all of his weight onto his son. The dark and heavy atmosphere was suffocating him and he didn't want to die that early, he still had stuff to do, things to explain, and feelings to confess. 

"Malakhi Zero is still holding onto that string of hope and I am taking absolute advantage of that. I just managed to postpone it a little while-- no need to look so disappointed, you little shit." 

He ruffled Zeke's neat hair, making a bird nest out of it. "It is much harder to win against a huge stubborn idiot than a cultured man." 

Zeke clicked his tongue. "No promise." 

"Just think of this as a mutual benefit. You're not losing anything from making friends with her, besides there is that beautiful boy that you're quite familiar with, right?" 

Derek's attempt to coax Zeke took an unexpected turn. As if the thunder had struck, the mood that Derek had tried so hard to lighten, only to have it immediately fell back down so quickly that Derek wanted to scream. 

'NOOOOOOO! My hard work!' 

"LYNN!" Derek flung himself off Zeke; with the help from the bumpy road; and onto his next victim: namely Lynn. Lynn just glanced at him briefly, however. He had one hand propped up and leaned against his fist, staring out at the carriage window. 

"What is much more fascinating than me outside?" Derek grumbled. Being a busybody he was, he peeked outside to take a glimpse of what had taken his lovely Lynn's attention from him. 

It was easy to see what had stolen Lynn's attention. That huge fluff of an animal was strolling the sideroad with its owner. It was hard to miss such a huge white cloud in the crowd. 

"Oh my! Isn't that your favorite breed of dog? Didn't you always want one of your own? Why don't we get one, huh? Since our pup is getting bigger and rebellious nowadays." 

Derek openly glared at his son when he said this, who expertly dodged the lazer glare. 

The black-haired Roderick wasn't sure if he had said something wrong, but right after he said that, Lynn's eyebrows furrowed and there was a sudden shift in demeanor. The already darkened ambience had decided to blacken even more. 

And for the second time that day, Derek felt like sobbing into the deepest depth of the abyss. 

'What in the world had happened in the Zero's for these two to behave like this?!' 

XXX

Lynn's eyes widened at Derek's sentences. 'Dog.' 

Dog. Dog. Dogdogdog. Mutt.. MUTT.