Mara Kilzarad had been part of big battles before, but that hadn’t happened in a while, so after reaching the ground near Dreadblade Fortress with the rest of the Sunbird Force members led by Gudard Beo, she had needed some time to find her bearings. One thing that helped more with that than anything else was seeing the undead students from her class come out of the fortress to face against Neana, Zoran and the students from Martian Class No. 1.

As soon as they caught her eye, all the explosions, volleys, screams, roars and other sounds on the battlefield became muffled, the surrounding destruction taking place – blurred. It was as if all she could see and hear were her students. And while Sunbird’s former Psychology teacher kept watching them, she realized her whole body and soul had become paralyzed.

The very thing she had been searching for since the start of Darkalight’s invasion – the only reason for her to even agree to join the Sunbird School Force in this battle – was now right in front of her. From the looks of it, all members of the class were present with the exception of Ulura, Nepalo, Hock and Gorudora. But they were no longer the same – they had become brainwashed undead slaves to the villains trying to take over Deckstoru.

Undead slaves who in the present released a massive amount of steam to impede their opponents’ vision, from within that steam being fired mini-typhoons, coral-colored crystal shuriken, darkness and cyan energy projectiles, orbs of blue flames and many other elemental attacks. Zoran’s class countered with a multi-elemental burst to rip through those and the steam, before that steam had fully disappeared all other undead Deckstorians in the gate area hitting the New Martians.

To further destabilize them, one of Mara’s students, Zalan, used his quake deva to make the ground under his enemies crack and crumble, at the same time rivers of lava bursting forth from between the cracks while a typhoon was sent at them from the sky along with a meteor shower. Zoran countered the typhoon and meteorites by sending a gigantic phoenix made of his flames toward them and making the animal cut through both attacks, meanwhile Neana restructuring the quake waves and erupting lava into nothing.

From there Sunbird’s former headmaster and current headmistress focused on dealing with the other undead ordinari and deviants while leaving the New Martians to face against their predecessors, Mara being familiar enough with her students’ power levels to know they stood no chance of survival in a situation like this.

Coming to that realization almost instantly freed Miss Kilzarad of her paralysis, redirecting her attention to the half of the students from the Two Pillar Guard meant to be guarding her. All of them used different energy compound devas, their leader being Sunbird Physics teacher Xen Ikity who himself could use the pumpkin-orange-colored Normoid.

In the present Xen in particular used his energy compound to increase his skin’s hardness and overall endurance and block a Karaid wave sent at Mara, roaring angrily at his colleague in the wake of saving her.

(Xen) ‘How much longer are you just going to stand there and do nothing, Kilzarad?! I know we’re supposed to protect you and all, but you could at least pick up a gun and start shooting at these bastards!!’

Mr. Ikity had always felt like a nuisance to the Psychology teacher, but never more so than in the present. So she followed his order by picking up a still functional energy weapon that had fallen near her and shooting him in the chest with a stare of utter disgust which soon turned to terrifying resolve.

(Mara) ‘I’ve got a better idea. How about using these ‘protectors’ of mine to go and save my class?’

As soon as Xen had dropped to the ground, Mara took out a knife from the back of her belt and stabbed the battery section of the weapon she was holding, throwing it at a group of undead darkans and demons who were coming at some of the nearby students. In the wake of the following pale green explosion, she activated her mind control deva and her earpiece.

Since half of the Two Pillar Guard was meant to be protecting her, all its members’ earpieces had automatically been adjusted to hear only Mara’s voice, the same being valid for the other half and Rafael Lahala whom they were supposed to protect. That way, if either of the two were separated from their defenders, they would be able to stay in touch and reunite as quickly as possible.

This precaution turned out to be more useful than Miss Kilzarad had expected, because all she really needed to put people under her control was for them to hear her say a particular word.

(Mara) ‘Don’t all of you just hate how this battle is going?’

All the students who became the Psychology teacher’s mind slaves answered in unison moments later as their irises became the same hue of red as her own.

(The Mind Slaves) ‘Yes, mistress.’

(Mara) ‘Great. Let’s change things up a little then.’

She gave orders to her slaves through the psychic link they shared from then on, taking only a moment to study the situation on the battlefield and then formulate a strategy to relay to half of the Two Pillar Guard.

It seemed that out of the three rows of barricades around Dreadblade, the ground forces Gudard was now leading on forward had landed between the first and second row – the wooden/metal spike and debris-based one. The third row was made up of tens of golden beetle tanks and massive cannons firing ridiculously huge pale green energy projectiles that could tear through a whole building with ease. And just beyond those was visible the ramp leading to the fortress’s main gate, where Mara’s class was currently fighting.

The advance of Gudard’s forces was halted when he was attacked by a darkan wearing a slightly different attire than the rest and crushed in one of the masses of spiky rocks placed amid the barricades, Liney Beo – Gudard’s wife and Sunbird Computer Sciences teacher – relieving him as commander of the Sunbird army. Miss Kilzarad couldn’t wait for that army to fight its way through all the darkans and demons in the way and reach the main gate ramp, however, so she led her mind slaves down a speedier route.

First up, she ordered the Flexoid users to combine their extremely fast and long-range teleportation with the increase in movement speed granted by the Daroid of others and get the whole unit over to the ramp in the blink of an eye. To protect everyone from the darkans’ Karaid, the Goroid users were made to cover all slaves with their energy compound and lessen the effects of the one used by the enemy as much as possible. Reloid and Normoid coating was added for additional strengthening of the defenses, at the very front of the projectile half the Two Pillar Guard had been turned into being concentrated Taxoid for liquefying most of the obstacles in their path and Sairoid for piercing through the rest.

With the preparations being complete and a new barrage of Karaid disks, hellish flame bullets, smaller and bigger pale green energy projectiles, standard bullets and energy-clad tank shells being unleashed, Mara gave the order to tear right through all of it in one go.

And that attempt failed miserably not long after it had started.

The teleportation/accelerated march was cut short by an incredibly thick Karaid blanket that had successfully eaten through all the Goroid’s purifying effects, with it and the other compounds disappearing being revealed the Psychology teacher’s force had barely gone past the debris-based row of Dreadblade’s barricades. A single entity was responsible for that – a darkan wearing an attire like the one worn by the villain who had attacked Gudard earlier, this one instead having brought Obur Segune down to crush into another of the nearby masses of spiky rocks.

Mara figured he must have noticed her forces moving forward before Obur leapt back at him in the present, annihilating the wave of pink lightning the Literature teacher had sent from the side with a Karaid-clad swing without even looking while using his other hand to point at Miss Kilzarad’s half of the Two Pillar Guard. He then continued to roar at the darkans in the area in a language the Psychology teacher did not understand, but judging by the attention shift toward her and her slaves, she could guess what he had said – eliminate the mind controller’s forces right away.

As the Reloid-Normoid-Goroid protective walls some of the students around her had been ordered to put up were crumbling more and more under the energy projectile, bullet and tank shell onslaught from one side and were hit by colossal Karaid claws from the other, Mara gritted her teeth in anger. Staying in a spot like this was unacceptable, so a more aggressive approach would have to be adopted to complete the mission Miss Kilzarad had set for herself.

She made the Taxoid users under her command channel their devas through the ground to destabilize it all the way to where the attacking darkans stood, waiting for their attacks to ease up due to being distracted by the destabilization to order the Daroid users to speedily move everyone forward. In the meantime, the Flexoid users were ordered to teleport as much of the tank and cannon fire as possible away from the unit, just when an opening was provided by the Karaid attacks’ decrease in intensity, another problem coming to the fore.

Quite a few demons had taken notice of the Psychology teacher’s force, having focused on taking care of them with a shower of long and thin hellish flame needles in the present, an order to counter them with Sairoid ultra-piercing and bigger needles being given right away. While that attack was dealt with, the darkans once again increased the striking power of their claws, which combined with the tank and cannon volleys brought the defenses on all sides to their limit.

Drastic measures would have to be taken to ensure Mara’s survival, considering the Goroid users could perhaps deal with both the darkans’ Karaid and demons’ flames best of all the slaves at her disposal, all of them being made to stay behind and slow down the enemy. A blast combining the other six energy compounds the mind slaves could use was released to further slow down the villains, right after all attention being focused of pushing through the barrages launched by the tanks and cannons.

This time, no energy was spent on defense. Miss Kilzarad couldn’t afford to worry about that anymore. Instead, the sole focus became an offense as brutal and efficient as humanly possible.

She and her servants became the tip of a blade. One hardened with Normoid. Strengthened by Reloid. Capable to teleport an infinite number of times with the help of Flexoid. Sped up beyond any limit by Daroid. Capable of liquefying everything in its path with the help of Taxoid. And having an unmatched piercing potential granted by Sairoid.

With a unified roar the blade was launched forward, pushing the devas of all who were empowering it to their limit as it raged against the onslaught of attacks. Even massive pale green energy projectiles gave way when faced with it. Tank shells were cut in half by it, the explosions following their destruction becoming nothing more than an afterthought as it passed through them. Bullets were smashed to pieces when trying to pierce it.

In short, nothing worked. Nothing could stop its advance. Nothing could stop Mara from reuniting with her loved ones and saving them.

Several of the tanks and cannons were destroyed, the blasts that came as a result of that blowing up a few others and pushing the soldiers gathered around some distance away, which allowed Miss Kilzarad and her half of the Two Pillar Guard to move on.

Without any of them realizing a moat had been dug after the tank/cannon row of the barricade and before the main gate ramp. Or that the muddy bottom of that moat was littered with metal blades, spikes, stakes and in between them – landmines.

There was not enough time to react, so the Normoid users were ordered to move to the bottom of the blade everyone had formed together and get pierced by the blades, spikes and stakes while the others used them as a platform to jump from and climb beyond the moat. In Mara’s mind, even if any of them did trigger the landmines, the orange-colored energy compound would provide them with sufficient defensive capabilities to have a chance to survive.

In order to reach her goal, she was willing to sacrifice every single one of her protectors. And after coming out of the moat and stepping on the ramp, that goal was closer now than ever.

From this point forward, the mind slave forces were split up – the Flexoid and Daroid users took her to look for Vega while the others used their devas to separate the New Martians from the Old ones they were fighting and then hold off Zoran’s class long enough to ensure the Psychology teacher’s own class could be saved.

(Mara) ‘Vega!!! Where the hell are you, you useless drunk brat?!!’

Just when Mara and co. found him, the ground under their feet shook and then cracked due to the combined effects of a vibration and quake deva, which caused everyone around to lose their balance. In the aftermath of this, multiple typhoon drills were sent to Vega by another one of Miss Kilzarad’s students – Jart.

Some of those drills were aimed at Jart’s homeroom teacher as well, Mara being unable to react and give any orders to her slaves because of the shock that made her feel. Of all the impossible things in the world, she would definitely put one of the students from her class attacking her at the very top of the list.

Luckily, Vega wasn’t as distracted, channeling his pale green energy through the ground to counter the effects of the two destabilizing devas while tens of lightning spears stabbed the typhoon drills from above, Jart himself having been brought down by Hikaru who had landed on him in a fashion similar to his spears. At that point Mara became so emotionally unstable that she could no longer even keep her mind control deva active, leaving her protectors’ side as they started coming back to their senses to run to her student’s aid.

She knew full well she was powerless to help anyone without the support of her slaves, but her heart didn’t care about the knowledge stored in her mind. It only cared about preserving what was within an arm’s reach of her now – which couldn’t happen because Vega grabbed her by the arm to pull her back to himself while Hikaru worked on restraining Jart.

(Mara) ‘Let go of me, you piece of shit! And don’t you dare hurt Jart, Hikaru!!! Or I’ll have the whole Sunbird School Force kill you!!! You hear me?!!’ – to Mara’s own surprise, she quickly turned from angry to desperate, focusing her gaze on Vega now while he observed the capture of Jart with an emotionless face – ‘You can save them, Vega, can’t you? Like how you did with the other people back at Tyra’s outpost! Please, bring them back! Bring them back to how they were!!’

(Vega) ‘Out of all our people controlled by Darkalight, the bastards from your class are the ones most likely to attack us even after I’ve freed them. And I can’t give them the chance to do that right now, cuz there’s other stuff to worry about.’

(Mara) ‘W-what … what are you talking about?’

Before the energy absorber could answer, his mad genius of a classmate roared at Mara with a furious look on his face while repeatedly electrocuting Jart.

(Hikaru) ‘You really can’t see what’s going on around here, Kilzarad?!! Because I saw the whole thing!!

Your broke the formation and moved ahead of the other ground forces right after Beo-sensei was attacked by a strong enemy! Some of the others split up from the main group as well to help you out because of all the enemies your dumb ass drew to yourself and that led to our forces being scattered all across the battlefield!!

All of that just to save these pieces of shit that keep causing trouble for us!!! From what I’ve seen so far, you’re so useless to both Sunbird and Deckstoru that we should just kill you now!!!!’

Only after hearing what the young Summerbolt said did Miss Kilzarad turn around to inspect the battlefield again, all of Hikaru’s words turning out to be true. Apparently having dealt with the Goroid users from her half of the Two Pillar Guard, the darkans and demons had next rallied the forces around the remaining tanks and cannons from Dreadlbade’s third barricade row to go after Mara and co. In response, Sunbird Math teacher Eny Saileen had taken half of the Quake Shield company (roughly a fourth of Sunbird’s total ground forces) to follow and stop them.

They were presently battling by the edge of the moat at the bottom of which the Normoid users were supposedly still lying, meanwhile further back most of the remaining darkans and demons having cornered the ground forces commanded by Liney, the same being valid for the air forces above left leaderless in Obur’s absence.

In a single instant, it seemed the tide of the battle had turned entirely in Darkalight’s favor. And only one person was to blame for that – Mara Kilzarad herself.

Under these circumstances, she realized she had two options.

One: use mind control on however many more students she could to help protect the ex-Martians while Vega frees them of Darkalight’s control and then sacrifice all those students to distract the enemy long enough to let her and her class run away. Two: stay and fight against the villains to increase the chances of not only those she cared about surviving, but the rest of the Sunbird School Force as well – so as to keep the promise she had made to the Summerbolts and Blackscales when first having been freed from her prison.

Before the Psychology teacher could come to a decision, Neana and Zoran came out of a blast of phoenix flames next to her along with many burned undead Deckstorians who were crushed in the vicinity, both of them having dead serious looks on their faces, but only Sunbird’s headmistress turning to Mara.

(Neana) ‘I promised everyone I would heal and protect them, but I didn’t know at the time I would have to deal with your undead class’s bullshit or your insubordination, Mara.’ – then Miss Ilre’s eyes moved away from Miss Kilzarad’s face to someone else, which made her smile a little – ‘Luckily for us, it looks like you’ve got good men behind you to make up for how useless you are.’

This sentence made Mara turn around as well, realizing Xen Ikity was standing behind her, having the other half of the Two Pillar Guard meant to protect Rafael Lahala behind him as well as the Normoid and Goroid users from Mara’s half. All of them were pretty beat-up except for Xen who didn’t seem to have scratch on him, but a resolve equally powerful was burning in all their eyes.

Due to not having worked with anyone from Sunbird in a while, the mind controller had forgotten how annoyingly persistent all of them were.

(Mara) ‘I thought you were dead.’

(Xen) ‘Who? Me or the students you left behind? All of us are a lot tougher than you can imagine, Kilzarad, so you won’t be getting rid of us that easy.’

While Xen kept talking, Neana hammered her foot in the ground to release a restructuring healing pulse spreading far and wide across the Dreadblade battlefield, some of the students starting to scream due to how painful being healed by their headmistress was, others trying to bear it as much as they could.

(Xen) ‘You sure took me by surprise last time, but that won’t happen again, bitch. You won’t be putting anyone under mind control again without my permission, got that? And you’ll make it up to all the brats you endangered by making them go along with you on your stupid class-saving mission. Just like how you’ll make it up to everyone from the Sunbird Force for messing with our strategy.’ – he stepped forward, no longer looking at Mara, but at the undead members of her class wreaking havoc all around – ‘Before that, though, we’re going to capture your class and free them from the enemy’s control, because they’re causing too much trouble.’

Left too shocked to say anything, the Psychology teacher just stood motionless and watched as her colleague redirected his attention to Zoran and Neana now.

(Xen) ‘You two are fine with us borrowing Vega for a bit, right? Just until we’re done with Mara’s brats.

In the meantime, the rest of your squads can capture the other undead Deckstorians here, so Vega can free them, too, when he’s done helping us.’

Before either he or Neana answered, Zoran released multiple phoenixes of different sizes and erected walls made of his flames to keep the opponents they were meant to save away from his allies and thus continue the conversation safely.

The former headmaster and present headmistress then nodded at the Physics teacher, Vega being the one to lash out at all of them now with a look as angry as Hikaru’s from earlier.

(Vega) ‘Hold up! We’re actually gonna be saving the ex-Martians?! Those bastards almost killed us during the Nebula Battle!!! And who knows what they and Mara will do after I’ve freed them?! Is that really what we should be worrying about right now?!!’

Xen didn’t say anything right away, instead first looking at Seiren nearby, who looked as driven as ever. He had just pushed back a student from Mara’s class capable of transforming into a massive spiny-tailed iguana with a blast of vermillion fireworks before blowing out a roar shaped like a hydra head at the tens of clones created by another student from the same class and cutting a third student yet with an explosive hydra tail attack.

(Xen) ‘We came here to do two things, Vega: kill Deathaxe and save any of our people he’s got imprisoned or put under his control. Like Seiren’s brother.’

Hikaru stepped in as well moments later, having become no less angry than Vega.

(Hikaru) ‘Sorry, Ikity-sensei, but Goran isn’t anything like the ex-Martians!!’

(Xen) ‘Really? Didn’t Ulura’s mother manipulate them into fighting for her and then try to kill them herself during the Nebula Battle? Didn’t Darkalight capture, kill and bring them back as brainwashed undead to serve them?

But even if their case was different from Goran’s, they are still Sunbird High School students and count as our people.’ – Xen turned his gaze to Mara again before he continued – ‘I know you brats don’t want to help them anymore than I want to help their bitch homeroom teacher, but as members of Sunbird, there’s things we’ve just got to do. So we’ll do them and keep moving forward.’

Hikaru and Vega made no further comments, everyone noticing the walls of phoenix flames Zoran had put up were barely holding while Neana’s healing session was complete. There was no time left, so Miss Kilzarad came forward to share her opinion on the matter as well, looking at Xen in particular.

(Mara) ‘So you’ll be fighting to save my students, Ikity? After I shot you and risked killing all your squad members?’

(Xen) ‘I told you already, Kilzarad. You’ll have a chance to make up for what you did after we save your brats.’

(Mara) ‘And if I just run away with my class after you free them? Will you stop me? Will you even be able to stop me with everything that’s going on here?’

(Xen) ‘We caught up after you tried to get rid of us once already, didn’t we? Neither you, nor your brats are getting rid of Sunbird that easy.

And if we combine your class’s power with the rest, our school will be at full power for the first time. Darkalight won’t stand a chance.

You’ve seen how tough we are, so how about taking a chance on us and fighting along with the rest of Sunbird before running off?’

For the first time since the start of the battle, Mara smiled. And it was perhaps the first time she was smiling genuinely at anyone from Sunbird outside of her class.

(Mara) ‘Alright, then. Save my students from Darkalight and I’ll give you a shot.’