As soon as Mara saw the shadow of the meteor that covered the skies all around, she knew it was certain no one – not her, nor any of her students – could be saved from the coming destruction. Only she wasn’t aware of all the facts. And a beam combining pale red and deep orange flames that shot up toward the descending meteor helped clear up some of those facts for her.

Phoenix wings came out of that beam to indicate Zoran was hidden inside, the wings continuously growing larger while the man’s voice was suddenly heard in Mara’s head. And looking over at Xen, it looked like the same was valid for him as well as most likely everyone else from the Sunbird School Force.

(Zoran) ‘Listen, everyone!!! I’m talking to you through one of our Omniseer Squad members’ telepathy deva!! Don’t any of you worry about the meteor falling down!!! Focus on the enemies in front of you and nothing else!!! Neana and I will take care of this!!!’

Completely baffled by the declaration just made by Sunbird’s former headmaster, Miss Kilzarad looked at Xen again, his only answer to her unspoken question being a shrug and a confident smile. The Physics teacher didn’t need to say anything to her, however, because the actions that followed gave Mara all the information she wanted to know.

Neana Ilre was now revealed to be riding the phoenix morph, bursting in energy mixing a dark blue and white color all of sudden, that energy seeping into the flames of the creature Zoran had transformed into. As a result of this the phoenix entered a restructuring phase, seeming to have been hit by the meteor as its first target before being able to complete the restructuring.

The animal and its rider disappeared completely, but this lasted only for a moment, the shadow of the massive falling rock that had blocked out absolutely every source of light the battle under it could produce being completely consumed in a single instant. Blinding white light shattered through the darkness and forced Mara to close her eyes, but this could not save her from the earth-splitting roar of the blast that followed.

Having become deaf and feeling almost completely crushed by the shockwave that hit the ground in the roar’s aftermath, the Psychology teacher opened her eyes, not long after doing so those eyes widening perhaps more than any other time in her life.

An explosion – one probably capable of rivaling that of an atom bomb – had occurred in the sky above Dreadblade, the phoenix flames spewed from it having also taken the shape of a phoenix – one that had spread its wings and had a four-pointed star shining in white with a dark blue outline in its chest. This was a symbol everyone from Sunbird on the field or rather anyone from Deckstoru and beyond who could see it would recognize right away – the crest of the deviant high school Mara Kilzarad had taught at until recently. The one led by Zoran Lawell and Neana Ilre.

And just as she realized that, the roaring voice of Zoran was heard in her head again, but this time accompanied by Neana’s.

(Zoran, Neana) ‘HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, YOU BRATS?!! THIS IS SUNBIRD HIGH SCHOOL’S TRUE MIGHT!!!!!’

While the former headmaster and present headmistress took turns talking to all the members of their forces from there, Mara noticed how Vega had landed nearby, looking drunker than ever, but also clad in obscene amounts of pale green energy. He shouted something at Xen Miss Kilzarad could not understand due to still hot having regained her sense of hearing, Mr. Ikity seeming to be able to hear well enough as he went around the beaten ex-Martians in the area to bring back to the drunken new Martian.

By the time the session of freeing that group of Mara’s students from Darkalight’s control had started, many more familiar faces had arrived around her – the further beat-up and bloodied members of Xen’s half of the Two Pillar Guard as well as the other half protecting Rafael Lahala and led by Jill Lahala. All of them were carrying the rest of the Psychology teacher’s students who had been put under the enemy’s control, having been subdued and captured to the last one, as soon as Vega noticed their presence giving them a wave to go over to his side as well.

And so in unison with the long-awaited salvation of Mara’s class and the realization of Xen and co.’s promise from earlier, Zoran and Neana reached the climax of their speech to the Sunbird School Force.

(Zoran) ‘I want all of you … every single one … to do the same thing you saw me and Neana do right now. Make the same miracle happen. Again and again. Make as many miracles happen as you have to. And don’t stop until we’ve won this battle. Until we’ve crushed Darkalight. Until we’ve saved all our friends and family from them. Until we’ve taken back this fortress and turned it into what it once was – SUNBIRD FORTRESS!!!!!’

(Neana) ‘I can see things well enough from here with my restructuring to know what’s happening on the ground, so I’m talking to you in particular now, Mara. Listen up well, bitch.

You wanted your class to get saved, right? Well, there you have it. We’ve kept our end of the bargain. Now do your thing and make sure everyone on our side survives and wins. Use mind control!!! On all the students who can be affected by it!!!’

(Mara) ‘Hold up, Ilre, you crazy piece of shit!!! How am I supposed to do that with just my …’

(Neana) ‘Did I say I’m done, Mara?!! You won’t be going at it alone! Vega, you empower that bitch and as soon as you’re done with bringing back all the ex-Martians to their senses, empower everyone else from the Sunbird Force!! Xen and his group will give you cover while you absorb more energy from the enemy arsenal, so don’t worry about that and just make everyone go crazy!!!’

(Vega) ‘Time to get them drunk, eh?! You got it, Neana!!! I’ll power ‘em up real good!!!’

(Zoran) ‘And Rafael, stop just standing around there!!! Make Vega power you up, too, take some overdrive shots, I don’t care how, but use your frenzy deva on everyone as well!!!

It’s about damn time we turn this battle around and the three of you are the key to that!!! You’ll have plenty of people to protect you, so don’t worry about any of the enemies and just make your friends as strong as you possibly can, TOGETHER!!!!’

The telepathic link cut off after that, before Mara could fully realize what was happening someone’s hand grabbing her by the arm and pulling her aside. It was Rafael, who looked as madly inspired as ever, starting to drag his colleague through the rubble while shouting.

(Rafael) ‘Didn’t you hear what those two said, Mara?! We gotta get to Vega to get powered up and get to work!!

First you put everyone under mind control and then I’ll frenzy them up! When Vega’s done with your brats, he’ll add the final touch with his empowerment!!!’

Miss Kilzarad wasn’t left with any choice but to obey, soon enough finding herself right next to Vega and the tied-up ex-Martians spread around him and held down by the energy compound users of Xen’s half of the Two Pillar Guard. The last remaining small pieces of the meteor the Psychology teacher’s student had summoned earlier reached that group right about then, Xen creating massive monkey fists of his Normoid to completely eliminate the meteor fragments while looking at Mara for a moment.

(Xen) ‘Don’t you look at anything else, bitch. I’ll protect you. And Jill and her brats will protect Rafael. So you two go all out on the mind control and frenzy front. The sooner you help the others beat all the enemies, the sooner we’ll be able to get out of here, so use that as a motivation, too.’

The ex-Martians’ homeroom teacher smirked confidently at Mr. Ikity, after that grabbing Vega’s hand to have some of his pale green energy channeled through her.

(Mara) ‘You kept the last promise you made, old man, so let’s see if you can keep this one as …’

Mara couldn’t finish her sentence because of how surprising she found the effects of the drunkard’s empowerment. First, she felt very happy. Then euphoric. And finally came the craziness stage where she completely lost control and started laughing manically.

(Mara) ‘Ho-ho-hoooh!!! That’s something else, Vega, you little shit! You should power me up like this more often!! Wow!!!’

(Vega) ‘Finally got you saying some good stuff, psycho bitch!! I like it!!! You help us win this fight and I’ll power you up all you want!!!’ – letting go of Mara, Vega used that same hand to continue dispelling the pale green energy mind control the ex-Martians were put under, using his other hand to channel some of his deva through Rafael as well – ‘Have some as well, Lahala-sensei! I’ll come help with empowering everyone as soon as I’m done with these shits, so just buy me enough time till then!!’

The Fine Arts teacher quickly got in just as crazed a state as his colleague, turning to her and only after looking at him Mara realizing there were some changes in the appearance of people affected by Vega’s empowerment as well. Rafael’s hair was now floating above his head, pale green energy was bursting out of his eyes and mouth and had clad his body, apart from that having protruding veins and cracks on his skin of the same color as the energy. And lastly, he was blowing out a lot of dark green smoke between the teeth of his grin, that smoke starting to mix with his energy cloak and envelop him as well to turn the man into a sort of drunken grinning phantom.

(Rafael) ‘You ready for it, Mara? I’ll get you in frenzy mode, too, so you’ll be able to use even more power. But you’ll tire faster just like me, so we won’t be able to keep this shit up for long.’

(Mara) ‘Fuck it, Rafael! So long as we can turn the tide on Darkalight, I’ll be happy! Let’s go!!!’ – she gave him her hand, right after he took it a new wave of euphoria passing through her body, but this one quickly changing to a more violent form that made Mara want to go and punch someone – ‘Oh, shit! This is even worse!! What the hell are you doing to me, you sick fuck?! I’m gonna lose mah mind!!!’

(Rafael) ‘I know! We gotta work fast! Everyone we use our powers on will be connected to us, so we’ll use them to let it all out!!!’

(Mara) ‘I just hope everybody’s switched to my channel, cuz Imma need all the fuckers here to let this much out!!!’ – she pressed a button on her own earpiece, addressing all the members of the Sunbird School Force now – ‘Everybody hear me? Good! Now tell me, ya fuckin’ brats, do ya hate Darkalight?!!’

Mara’s ears and whole head almost blew up from all the loud shouts she heard through the earpiece moments later, needing to hold on tight to Rafael to stay upright, because it was already hard enough to do that under the effects of his frenzy and Vega’s empowerment.

(The Sunbird School Force) ‘YEAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!’

(Mara) ‘THAT’S WHAT I LIKE TO HEAR!!!! LET’S GO AND FUCKIN’ KILL ‘EM, THEN!!!!!’

The mind control was successful, a visual and auditory link being established between Miss Kilzarad and all the people she could now use as her puppets – pretty much all members of the Force with the exception of the teachers and most of Zoran’s class. As when she had used mind control on so many targets at the same time in the past, in her mind she found herself sitting in a space full of dark red clouds, amid those appearing many smaller clouds of a brighter red color and each one providing picture and sound from the point of view of one of her mind slaves.

Right now all of them were being hit by the frenzy-inducing wave unleashed by Rafael, changes in appearance taking place for those affected by it just as it had been with Vega’s empowerment. In the case of the Fine Arts teacher’s frenzy, everyone’s hair turned into a massive afro, their eyes the irises of which had already turned red due to being controlled by Mara bursting in chartreuse green energy, which was valid for the rest of their bodies as well.

All the preparations were now complete, so it was time to crush the enemy, the Psychology teacher taking another moment to compose herself and sending a volley of orders to the groups her slaves were split up in. First up were those in the worst state out of the whole Force – the active elemental deva users and flying-type transformational deva users from Obur’s Stormbringers.

Obur himself had after all been crushed in one the piles of rock spikes around Dreadblade and was still engaged with one of the darkan captains under Deathaxe’s command. That in itself was not a problem, but unlike the ground forces of Sunbird where they had several teachers to replace the leader in case something happened to him/her, up in the sky there were no other options. The students had been left to fend for themselves, battling not only the silver wasper and black heart aircrafts of their enemies, but an entire company of undead darkans as well while also taking heavy fire from the cannons attached to the fortress’s two front towers – those cannons being the biggest out of all currently used by Darkalight.

Yet another wave combining Karaid and the darkans’ unique darkness deva that completely consumed all weaker attacks was sent to the youngsters in order to push them toward the waspers and the hearts waiting to open fire from point-black range and finish them off, this time, however, that wave being pushed back. Mara had given the order for a much denser multi-elemental wall to be created by all active elemental deva users, while they were holding off the darkans, all aerial morphs being ordered to attack Darkalight’s aircrafts.

The massive cannons down below were also firing their absurdly huge pale green energy projectiles, of course, successfully tearing apart the multi-elemental wall and going after the flying morphs as well. Only the enemy had a surprise coming their way, Miss Kilzarad having also ordered the Stormbringers to replace themselves to the last one with clones made of their devas while the originals teleport elsewhere.

So while the darkans and darkalighters in the air were cheering over their triumph against the copies, their makers had appeared above Dreadblade’s two front towers – the active elemental deva half of Obur’s forces landing atop one of them, the aerial morph half – atop the other.

Single concentrated attacks in the form of an orb combining mainly fire, water, air, lightning and some other active elements and the sprouting of tens of bird and insect wings made of all kinds of devas were enough to tear apart both massive cannons, right after the hot heads responsible for that teleporting back in the sky. The damaged cannons burst in colossal pale green explosions that took out every other enemy weapon and soldier atop the towers along with pretty much half of those towers’ structure, this making it easier for Zoran and Neana’s group at the front gate ramp to press their attack.

Meanwhile the infuriated darkans and darkalighters unleashed an onslaught of bullets, missiles, rockets, energy projectiles and beams mixed with torrents of long claw- and scythe-like blades made of Karaid and darkness against the returning Stormbringers who quickly countered it under their mistress’s control. A massive rainbow-colored energy-based moth which had multiple insect and eagle-like wings was manifested out of nowhere, the barrage of enemy attacks annihilating it amid sprays of pale green energy and blackness, but triggering a trap in the process.

Namely, a very loud sound wave was released from the remains of the eagle-moth along with a gigantic cloud of burning hot steam and multicolored smoke amid which were hidden hundreds of acid projectiles. With that, the Stormbringers’ enemies would be distracted long enough for them to head for where Obur was and help him deal with the darkan captain he was fighting.

From what Mara knew about Obur, he was probably reluctant to completely morph into his monster form even under the present circumstances, her hope being that by showing him the state of his troops and speaking to him through them, she would be able to change his mind. And with the release of the Literature teacher’s true power, all the darkans and darkalighter crafts in the air could be taken care of.

Redirecting her attention from the sky to the ground, Miss Kilzarad didn’t even bother to look at the original leader of her allies there – Sunbird Chemistry teacher Gudard Beo who was presently fighting the other darkan captain atop a pile of rock spikes some distance away from the one Obur was fighting on. Instead she focused solely on the combined forces of the Quake Sword Company led by Geography teacher Penelope Wills and the Quake Shield Company led by Computer Sciences teacher and wife to Gudard, Liney Beo.

They were presently at the edge of the second barricade row around Dreadblade – the one made of piles of debris that consisted mostly of Old Town buildings’ remains – having been cornered on all sides by another company of darkans and hundreds of demons while also being fired on by the cannons and golden beetle tanks in front of the fortress walls. Seeing as how the Quake Sword Company’s attacks had failed to cut down the enemies in the way, its members had moved back to only provide support and keep the Omniseers in the center of the whole ground force safe because among them were telepathy and other communication and sensor-type deviants.

From them the main focus had shifted to the Quake Shield Company who were doing their best to keep the different types of units attacking them from actually taking any lives, seeming like moving forward had become too distant a dream to even try and reach for.

That was until Rafael’s frenzy pulse and Mara’s mind control reached them, anyway, under their effect everyone becoming much more invigorated and a shift in their strategy taking place under the mind controller’s command.

The huge bright yellow trapezium-shaped shields made by Liney’s deva and brought together in pairs to form hexagons were now launched forward in the form of blades that also carried traces of Rafael’s chartreuse frenzy energy, to support them Maths teacher and Quake Shield Company co-leader Eny Saileen putting her leather-making deva to use.

Her very uniform that was fully leather-made came alive, transforming into a sort of blackish-grey leather octopus that had a lot more tentacles than eight, using some of them to hurl Liney’s trapezium/hexagon shield blades even further ahead or whip around the darkans and demons. Those villains wasted no time in retaliating by combining their Karaid, darkness and hellish flames to make colossal black demonic heads with different numbers of horns that blew out fiery roar-beams, shattering the shield blades to pieces and drilling so many holes in the leather tentacles, they caused their complete disintegration.

Liney and Eny’s attack had only been a distraction for Penelope to lead a new march of the Quake Blade Company, however, the Geography teacher slamming her hands in the ground to bring forth vines with big and long thorns coming out of them all around the enemy, the vines being used to whip, entangle, cut or pierce the bodies of their targets. And more and more of them kept emerging from within the broken earth, soon receiving a reinforcement by barrages of spikes, spears, swords, arrows, axes, maces, shuriken and all other kinds of cold weapons made of gold, silver, iron and the like.

Meanwhile the Quake Shield Company provided cover from the sides by constantly erecting more and more thick earth and ice walls, out of and above those being fired glass and crystal shards, beneath them –plant vines and tree roots. The hellish flames incinerated many of these attacks, the darkness and Karaid drained the life of many more, but a great number of them remained nonetheless. And it was that batch of attacks that caused the tide of the battle to start shifting.

Eventually the last stage of that shift came with the long-awaited empowerment granted by Vega’s pale green energy, now everyone on the field gaining an appearance like the one of Rafael next to Mara, going completely out of their minds in fits of manic laughter as they started hitting their opponents even harder.

At the debris barricade row around Dreadblade in particular, Penelope, Liney and Eny combined their devas into a shield blade as big as a building wrapped in leather tentacles and thorny vines, cutting through the villains’ defenses to create an opening for an ally of theirs.

The man, who was part of the Sunbird non-teacher staff, used his deva for de-aging of organic matter to turn quite a few of the already tired demons and darkans into child and baby versions of themselves, that sole feat completely exhausting him, but giving the students everything they needed to push forward. All effort was dedicated to attacking, with a mighty roar multiple earth-ice-metal drills with a crystal, plant and glass reinforcement being sent forth by the young warriors who either ran alongside them, merged with their attacks or rode on top of them.

In response to that, one of the darkans and the demons directed their hands toward the third and final barricade row – the one consisting of cannons and golden beetle tanks – draining some of their pale green energy to infuse with a mass of Karaid, darkness and hellish flames. Those two’s comrades pushed them forward along with the mass that took the shape of a multi-horned centipede combining a black and dark purple color and having multiple red eyes, Liney manifesting multiple shield blades as big as the last one she had used to cut the centipede into segments.

Each of those segments was impaled by thorn blossoms summoned by Penelope, leather claws that were of Eny’s making tearing the remains of the segments to pieces and eventually dragging the demon and darkan who had made them out of their creation.

Pierce-type attacks by weapons made with static elemental devas that were too numerous to count stabbed the entirety of the two villains’ bodies, the same soon happening with the other representatives of their species in the vicinity, the Quake Sword and Shield Companies being able to move on along with the Omniseers. Only the golden beetle tanks and cannons were left to take care of, but after all the challenges everyone had already faced since the start of Dreadblade’s siege, those didn’t seem like much of a threat.

Mara grinned as she observed the ground forces’ progress and back in the real word around her she turned to Rafael on one side and Vega on the other, the two of them enjoying the triumph of Sunbird’s madness as much as her. She was about to mockingly congratulate them for their usefulness, but suddenly hordes of demons attacked the Two Pillar Guard from the side, seeming to have tracked the empowerment, frenzy and mind control responsible for the shift in the battle to the source trio.

Xen and Jill led the terrestrial morph deviants and energy compound users against the monsters who were setting everything around them ablaze, Mara seeing she would now be forced to make the ex-Martians lying on the ground behind her and still coming to terms with their present state to fight as well. The melee outside the fortress was far from over, but the Psychology teacher hoped that at least Zoran and Neana’s group had gotten closer to breaching the front gate and getting inside Dreadblade to kill Deathaxe.

Looking aside to check on their status, she realized their situation had not improved particularly in spite of the destruction of the biggest cannons atop the front towers from earlier. The main reason for that was a horde of demons had attacked them as well, its leader being the only demon seen so far that had a different appearance from the rest. And even from this distance, Mara could feel how much energy he had condensed in his arm clad in multiple hellish flame horns to aim at Seiren Blackscale from behind for a one-hit kill strike.