There are Five Great Powers that govern all of space and time: Order, Chaos, Life, Death and the Balance between them. It is said devas originated from these Powers and thus every deviant carries a little of one of the Five in themselves.
More of a certain Great Power converges in certain beings, however, adding a particular effect to their deva(s) as well as augmenting their personality, physique and other traits in some cases. Such living focus points for the Five are called Champions.
Sunbird Chemistry teacher Gudard Beo, for example, was a Balance Champion, or Balancer as their subgroup was more commonly known. Neana Ilre was an Ordermaker – an Order Champion. Darkalight’s necromancers capable of bringing the dead back to life were Death Champions – Deathlies – respectively.
And then there were creatures like the one Obur Segune turned into via his transformational deva – the Headless Harpy Demon – who were Chaos Champions called Chaotics. As with all the others of his kind, that Demon yearned for destruction, carnage and utter oblivion on a physical and soul level more than anything else.
Facing the Harpy was especially problematic for Gudard, because although he had managed to tame him twice in the past, he hadn’t already spent some of his power on fighting a very capable and strong undead darkan neither of those times. And he hadn’t been in a situation where he could not know how many more enemies he would have to deal with before the end of the big battle he was a part of and therefore – how much energy to use.
Something had to be done to prevent the Headless Demon’s rampage from reaching any of Mr. Beo’s colleagues or students, however, so he launched himself at the creature. Obur’s replacement retaliated with no delay, swinging with his right arm to create a massive vertical cutting wave while directing the palm of his left hand in another direction, Gudard noticing with his peripheral vision a mass of dark purple, black-streaked, magenta-tipped feathers had started forming there.
(Gudard) ‘Not even planning to let me get close, are you?’
(The Harpy) ‘Hey, if you can’t deal even with this, old man, you’ve really lost your touch and have no right to lay so much as a finger on me again!!’
Though their clashes had been far and apart from each other, The Harpy seemed to remember pretty well what Mr. Beo’s deva could do. Without being able to get too close, on the other hand, Gudard had no chance of even wounding the damned creature bad enough to force a switch between it and Obur.
So he was left with little choice. Everything he had absorbed from the darkan captain using his liquid absorption deva, that had deliberately been stored inside his body for later use, was now released. Namely, Gudard channeled it through his muscles to increase their size to absurd proportions, eventually the muscle mass he had become tearing through the upper half of his uniform, the remains of which were left hanging around and under his waist.
With the many layers of protective muscle he had added to himself, Liney’s husband moved on to meet the Headless Demon’s lightning cutter wave head-on, somehow managing to break though it with minimal damage. Right after that, barrages of feathers also clad in magenta lightning to significantly increase their piercing capacity reached him from the side, Gudard relying on his muscle armor to keep him safe as he struggled to get closer to Obur’s replacement.
By the time he had done that to direct his hands forward and start absorbing liquids from his enemy’s body, that enemy was revealed to be a lightning clone, the original having disappeared elsewhere. His location was soon made known as some of the clouds above Mr. Beo were blasted through by a rapidly descending pillar of magenta electricity with a diameter so wide, it was impossible to evade without a teleportation deva.
Gudard’s absorption deva provided no such abilities, barely allowing him to use some of the water absorbed from the battlefield earlier to keep himself floating on a liquid platform in the air. Thus, he was exposed to the full destructive might of the pillar, the entirety of his muscle armor being reduced to ashes to return him to his normal form.
If nothing was done, Liney’s husband would perish very soon. So he had to resort to his other trump card, erupting in a mixture of light yellow and dark grey energy that allowed him to use his Balance Champion abilities.
Through them, Gudard balanced out the Chaos energy emitted by the Harpy’s lightning pillar with its opposite – Order energy, channeling it through said pillar in sufficient quantities to restructure it into nothing. Beyond the smoke risen from the remains of the pillar and partially illuminated by the rays of the sun that had managed to break through the clouds above Dreadblade Fortress here and there, the sort-of-grinning Headless Demon was revealed.
(The Harpy) ‘I knew you’ve still got it, Gudard. Well done, old man.’
(Gudard) ‘So what? All this was a test? You sure you can afford to waste time on antics like that with how little is left of your original body?’
(The Harpy) ‘It’s been a minute since we’ve seen each other, so I wanted to have some fun first. Can’t blame me, can you?’ – with the clenching of his fist, the Harpy turned the clouds around him into gigantic harpy eagles, all of them simultaneously blowing out lightning roars and unleashing torrents of hundreds of thousands of feathers aimed at not only Gudard, but everyone else on the battlefield as well – ‘Now that the warm-up is over, we can start having some real fun! So why don’t you try restructuring away this next attack?!’
The Chemistry teacher had already used up some of his Balancer powers to deal with the darkan captain earlier, but even if he could use their full potential, he alone stood no chance of restructuring away an attack of this size. One way to solve the present problem was to switch to a Death energy focus, use its natural absorption affinity to drain some of the moisture from the air itself and then form water walls out of that moisture to contain the part of the attack he could not restructure.
But considering the summer heat that would keep rising as the day went on, further depriving the air of moisture could seriously weaken his already tired allies and put them in great danger. The demons most of them were faced with now were after all not as affected by drier conditions as humans and in fact they relished the heat, meaning that if Gudard used the tactic he was thinking about, he would save everyone from the Harpy only to deliver them into other monsters’ hands.
And while Liney’s husband had been agonizing over his options, his opponent’s attack had drawn that much closer, leaving little more time for pondering. But before Gudard could make a move, a massive curtain of lightning with a normal color blocked the Harpy’s barrages and roars. That alone was not enough to contain the destruction, but the normal lightning fighting its magenta counterpart was suddenly strengthened by many other active elemental devas, meanwhile tons of debris from destroyed silver waspers and black hearts being rained down on the Headless Demon from above.
Mr. Beo’s distraction from all that was happening around him led to the water platform under his feet vanishing, being saved when a massive bolt of lightning landed nearby to spawn a very wide platform made of electricity. And on it teleported Hikaru along with all the members of the Stormbringers, having confident smiles on their faces to the last one.
(Hikaru) ‘That was a nice save, huh, Beo-sensei?’
(Gudard) ‘You … what are all of you doing here?!’
(Stormbringer No. 1) ‘Well, we went to deal with Darkalight’s aircrafts the way Segune-sensei had ordered before transforming and after we were done, we sort of got caught-up in Hikaru’s fight with this hella scary demon!’
(Stormbringer No. 2) ‘All of us got empowered a second time by Vega and Lahala-sensei then, so we were able to slow down that demon a bit, and Hikaru suggested to use the opening we had to come check on how Segune-sensei was doing.’
(Stormbringer No. 3) ‘Good thing we came when we did, right? Or you would’ve been toast, Beo-sensei!!’
Though all the youngsters had sounded very excited while explaining, Gudard had kept growing more and more terrified the more he had listened to them. So as soon as he got the gist of their journey to him, he started shouting at Hikaru and co.
(Gudard) ‘You need to get out of here right now!!! All of you!!! That’s an order!!! None of you are to get close to that thing!!!
And what the hell is Mara doing?! Wasn’t she controlling you?! Mara, make them go fight some other enemies and let me deal with him!!!’
(Hikaru) ‘Mara hasn’t put anyone under mind control in a while, sensei. And besides, we’ve already fought against other people from Deckstoru, demons, darkans and all kinds of other crazy shit since the start of this battle. How’s …’
(Gudard) ‘You haven’t fought against a Chaos incarnate like the Harpy!!! Now get away before …’
The Chemistry teacher’s biggest fear was realized then as a magenta bolt hit right behind Hikaru, the Headless Demon emerging from it and swinging to strike at the young man and all the Stormbringers with a wide-range attack while from the side was seen the advent of a hellish fire storm full of multi-horned centipedes. Yet as much of a shock as this caused Gudard, it could not even begin to compare to what happened next.
Tens of lightning clones of Obur’s replacement had been created and sent against the youngsters, but as soon as those copies had all tried to attack, Hikaru had channeled his own electricity through them, successfully disintegrating each one and moving on to the original right away. Somehow the cloak of electricity the young Summerbolt had around himself was able to overcome the one the Harpy had instinctively put up, so he smacked him hard and blew up the head-like construct above his neck to pieces.
For someone as experienced as Mr. Beo, there was only one possible explanation for this – Hikaru had managed to adapt to his opponent’s Chaos after coming in contact with his deva earlier to now counter with Order energy, hence subconsciously using restructuring on both the Headless Demon’s clones and his cloak. Considering the mad genius’s heritage, him being a Balancer was a very high probability, but his teacher could have never even imagined he would awaken his powers during this battle in particular.
Obur’s replacement seemed to have been left astounded by this turn of events as well, Gudard making sure to make good use of the opportunity provided by his distractedness and the fact he was now in range of his liquid absorption deva. Applying a Death energy effect to the absorption as well, Liney’s husband drained some of the blood and other liquids from the flesh part of the cursed morph’s body while also taking away a bit of the soul and the Chaos energy housed within.
After channeling the newly absorbed liquids through his body, Gudard became a lot more massive and muscular than earlier, head-butting the Harpy with all his strength to push him a long way away and turning to Hikaru and the Stormbringers right after. There was little time left before the other demon and his centipede storm hit the teacher and his students, so he had to give his commands fast.
(Gudard) ‘Alright, now. Listen.
Hikaru, you hop on my back, move me around with your lightning and take out any long-range attack the Harpy tries to throw at me. Leave the close-range fighting to me.
The rest of you, do your best to keep that centipede demon busy while we bring Obur back to his senses and as soon as we’re done, we’ll come help you. Got it?’
(Hikaru, the Stormbringers) ‘Yes, sir!!!’
Hikaru jumped on his teacher’s back, the two of them turning to face the already returning Headless Demon while the Stormbringers gathered in a multi-elemental rainbow-colored water-based drill with all kinds of wings coming out of it to clash with the other dangerous demon in the vicinity.
Obur’s replacement, who had already got a little less muscular and a lot angrier due to losing some of his body’s water and soul’s energy to the elder Balancer, clad his wings in magenta lightning along the way to make a version of them around the originals that was 20 times bigger, swinging with those like axes to cut up the duo.
As Gudard had ordered him, the young Summerbolt partially blocked that swing by using plenty of clones as well as channeling a lot of electricity through the colossal wings while cladding himself and the Chemistry teacher in lightning to provide further protection from whatever remained of the wings. Those bits of remaining electricity were in turn channeled through the mad genius and the liquid absorber, but the former was able to counter that as well.
He channeled his own lightning through his and Mr. Beo’s body, while the process was rather painful for the latter of the two, both of them still being saved from getting burned up from within via that same process. And considering Hikaru had successfully countered a Chaotic’s immensely powerful attacks time and again despite the fact that hundreds of more experienced and undead darkans had failed to do so strengthened Gudard’s conviction that this boy was indeed a Balancer in the making.
So as both of them charged toward the next wave of attacks the Harpy planned to use to get rid of them without getting within range of the Chemistry teacher’s liquid absorption deva, the old veteran started the training of his unexpected disciple.
(Gudard) ‘Listen up, Hikaru. There’s some stuff I’ve got to tell you.’
(Hikaru) ‘Please don’t tell me it’s some message for your wife in case you die, sensei, because I don’t want to hear stuff like that now!! We’re going to win and come out alive of this whole thing, I promise!!!’
(Gudard) ‘No, no. It’s nothing like that.
You know about the Five Great Powers of space and time, right? And how they’ve all got Champions among the many races of the universe?’
After making a massive sabertooth head blow out a roar full of lightning spears and naginatas to cancel out the same amount of bolts and feathers fired at him and his teacher from the army of harpy eagles manifested by the Headless Demon, Hikaru looked at Gudard to answer.
(Hikaru) ‘I know about those, yeah. Are you saying Segune-sensei’s one such Champion?’
(Gudard) ‘He isn’t, but the thing he turns into – the Headless Harpy Demon – is a Chaos Champion. And I’m a Balance Champion.’ – taking a breath to prepare for the young man’s supposed reaction to the revelation, Mr. Beo continued – ‘From what I’ve seen you do against him so far and considering who your parents are, I’d say you’re a Balance Champion, too, Hikaru.’
After hearing that, the young Summerbolt didn’t look nearly as surprised as his Chemistry teacher had expected, instead only sending forward many full-body sabertooths, each of which rode a separate massive bolt, to meet the harpy eagles and clear a path to the main Harpy himself.
(Hikaru) ‘That demon the Stormbringers are fighting right now – he’s called Ouzu – he said something like that earlier. But what does being a Balance Champion mean exactly?’
(Gudard) ‘Each Champion can use a bit of the Great Power they are a representative of. But we Balance Champions alone can use all other Great Powers, usually adapting to implement whichever Power is a counter to the one our enemy uses. In the Harpy’s case, you’ve got to counter him with Order, the simplest form of which is restructuring.’
Now Hikaru became a little surprised and also more intrigued.
(Hikaru) ‘You mean like Neana’s restructuring?’
(Gudard) ‘Neana’s an Order Champion herself, so we can’t hope to pull off anything even close to her level, but restructuring the Harpy’s attacks to weaken them to a level where our other devas can take them out should be doable.’
(Hikaru) ‘Got it. How do we do that?’
(Gudard) ‘The trigger for using different Great Powers when you’re just starting out is an emotion and a focus on a certain fighting style. The best style for Order is structure making and as for emotions, you need to be at peace, to be calm and very focused.
Considering you use lightning just like the Harpy, if you can master even basic-level restructuring, you’ll be able to take his attacks and turn them into some kind of structure you can use as a weapon against him. So think about something or someone that makes you calm. Could be a person, an activity, a place, anything.’
(Hikaru) ‘Well, painting sure calms me down. As for people, I’d say Yuki calms me down the most. And Lawell-sensei, too.’
No more time for teaching was left, because in the wake of all his harpy eagles being destroyed, Obur’s replacement had finally lost control all the way. He had now clad himself in a cloak of lightning eagle feathers while having created massive eagle claws of the same element around his hands and feet, tearing through the air with big bolt jumps to meet the duo that had dared oppose him up close.
(Gudard) ‘Good, then. Think about all the stuff you said. And stay on your toes at all times, because this is it.
I’ll be able to wound the Harpy now, but he’s a lot more proficient at close-range battle and really pissed off because he still hasn’t managed to take care of us, so he’ll have grown even stronger.
We need to prolong the fight as much as we can. Tire him out and force him to switch with Obur.’
(Hikaru) ‘Got it, sensei!! Let’s get Segune-sensei back, so all of us can take out that shitty demon fighting the Stormbringers together and move on to Deathaxe!!!’
Just as the mad genius had finished saying that, the Harpy reached him and Gudard, making a very wide swing with his right claw and wing simultaneously and roaring all the while.
(The Harpy) ‘I have so many more lives to destroy than yours!!! You will no longer slow me down!!! I won’t even waste time on your death!!! BE CONSUMED BY CHAOS!!!!’
The more he roared, the more the power behind his swing that had been blocked by the Chemistry teacher grew, pushing him further and further back until a point was reached where he overpowered Mr. Beo. Obur’s replacement used his other arm and wing to make an even faster swing then, Hikaru greatly increasing the size of his cloak and enveloping both himself and Gudard in it, though even that could only slow down their opponent for so long.
The Headless Demon kept pushing them back more and more, eventually creating another opening and this time swinging with both claws for maximum destruction, all of a sudden lightning bolts combining a dark red and black color being mixed with the magenta ones he was already using. This was something Liney’s husband was seeing the Harpy do for the first time, but had observed with other Chaotics before – it was an actual manifestation of a Chaos-type deva, meaning the Champion’s true potential had started awakening.
That awakening meant two things – Obur’s replacement could attack in even more destructive ways than before and most likely he could stay transformed for a longer period than prior to the awakening. All in all, Gudard’s idea to draw out the fight for as long as possible had ended up making his and Hikaru’s situation dire.
The Chemistry teacher engaged in close combat with his opponent, first grabbing both his hands to push away before their attack could be completed and then using them as a support to allow him to crush a knee in the creature’s throat. Next up, he jumped slightly above the Harpy to pierce his skull with an elbow, which was quickly followed by a fast spinning kick in the jaw before the cursed morph could even fall flat on the lightning platform presently used as a battlefield for the combatants.
And all the while, he had kept absorbing more and more of his blood and other bodily fluids in order to further weaken the monster and increase his own muscle mass to the max. But that seemed to have barely fazed the Harpy, who suddenly shattered the entire platform they were fighting on, corrupting Hikaru’s normal-colored lightning with his magenta and reddish-black version and transforming all of that into a claw meant to crush the student-teacher duo inside.
(Gudard) ‘Hikaru, I don’t mean to rush you, but using Order to counter this thing’s Chaos any time now would be real good!!! Or not just you and me, but all our friends down there are as good as dead!!!’
The young Summerbolt released bountiful amounts of electricity again to form a massive sphere around the two of them and kept making it bigger in the hopes of being able to tear through the lightning claw before it could crush and burn them, Gudard recognizing this was a fighting approach used by Obur himself. Maybe it was on a subconscious level, but it looked like this young man wanted to bring his teacher back even more than he knew. Which was why he was also channeling his deva through the claw from all the points of contact between it and the sphere’s surface, the cursed morph and his student both roaring with their lungs’ full might as they tried to beat the other.
(Hikaru) ‘I said I’m bringing Segune-sensei back … SO I’LL BRING HIM BACK, NO MATTER WHAT!!!!!’
Gudard then noticed that parts of the claws were in the process of restructuring, using whatever reserves of absorbed liquid he had to mix with Hikaru’s lightning and create a dual element blast while running Order-based restructuring formulas through the explosion. Finally, the claw was destroyed, beyond it waiting the Harpy who had now further transformed.
The feathers in his cloak had turned black, the rest of that cloak – dark red, which was also valid for his eyes and bolt-shaped scar on the left pectoral while more and more blackness kept filling his body that was now entirely made out of electricity. And then the cloak was suddenly expanded to a size even bigger than Hikaru’s and filled up with clones and harpy eagles, all of them coming at the duo together.
To give a proper response to a threat of such level, the young man on Gudard’s back restructured the remains of the claw to add them to his cloak now turned into a triumphantly huge sabertooth head ridden by hundreds of clones, the two attacks clashing with enough force to rip the sky apart for miles on end.
In the midst of the blinding amounts of electricity, the Chemistry teacher saw the Headless Demon coming at him, the young Summerbolt leaping from his back before the monster could reach to hit him in the head with the mightiest roar yet.
(Hikaru) ‘WAKE THE FUCK UP, SENSEI!!!! OR THE STORMBRINGERS WILL DIE AND LAWELL-SENSEI WILL BECOME MY NEW FAVOURITE TEACHER!!!!!!’
Upon closer inspection, Gudard realized Hikaru had enveloped his fist in multiple spear tips and naginata blades made of electricity and though barely noticeable, a different color from the normal type was mixed with it. Lightning combining a light yellow and dark grey color – a true Balancer’s deva.
The restructuring of the lightning mass acting as the Harpy’s head began with that attack, but even then, the creature would not stop, aiming its claws at the young man’s torso. Instead of him, those claws pierced the chest of his Chemistry teacher who had jumped in the way, thanks to Hikaru being so singularly focused on changing the monster back to Obur, not noticing at all and keeping up with his attack. And so Gudard could do the same, channeling as much restructuring Order energy as he could through the Headless Demon’s torso and limbs while draining more and more of his soul with some Death energy.
Gritting his teeth through the blood coming out of his mouth and the growing pain in his chest, he kept up the soul draining to a point where there was an actual risk for Obur Segune to lose his own soul as well. But that risk had to be taken. Hikaru’s determination and extraordinary progress as a Balancer had to be rewarded.
And the reward did come in a few more moments. The Harpy finally stopped struggling, all the magenta and reddish-black bolts he had kept releasing being dispelled and his body starting to turn back to that of Obur.
No time was left to rejoice, however, because due to exhausting himself too much, Hikaru could no longer maintain a lightning platform wide and thick enough to accommodate for all three people on it, the young man, Literature and Chemistry teacher starting a rapid descent toward the chaotic battlefield underneath them. Along the way, the mad genius tried releasing more electricity to sustain the trio, but all his attempts ended in failure, as a result gritting his teeth with all his strength while trying and failing to stop the tears in his eyes from falling.
(Hikaru) ‘W-we … we just did it … it can’t … right after we got sensei back … it can’t end like this! Not before even …’
Gudard put his hand over that of the endlessly trying spiky-haired teenager then, somehow mustering a smile that shocked Hikaru.
(Gudard) ‘It’s OK, Hikaru. You can’t keep all of us up and you don’t have to. Just keep yourself in the air. So you can go and help the Stormbringers bring that fucking demon down the way we did with this one.’
(Hikaru) ‘The hell with that! I’ll be no use to them the way I am now, anyway!!!’
(Gudard) ‘That’s why I’ve been transferring Balance energy to you ever since we started falling.’ – the young Summerbolt was about to say something, but knowing his time was short, Gudard didn’t give him any chances and kept going – ‘Now listen up before you let us go. You can ask Liney about some other Balancer stuff that I’ve told her, but what you need to know right now is this: demons … they’re all Chaos incarnates anyway. So the same trick you used with the Harpy will work on that thing as well.
Do it again and again, protect and empower the Stormbringer brats and make sure you win with all of them alive by your side. You have to.
I’ve got my deputies down there, but Obur doesn’t and I’m sure he’d agree with me 100% on this, so on his behalf I’m promoting you to commander of the Stormbringer unit.’ – the crying Hikaru finally became so shocked that he unintentionally let go of both Gudard and Obur, the Chemistry teacher deliberately pulling himself even further away from his grasp, shouting one last thing at the young man before the distance between them became too great – ‘I’ll be sure to save Obur, so you save everyone else, boy!!! Balance this whole battle in Deckstoru’s favor!!!!’
Hikaru kept shouting something afterwards, but Gudard could no longer hear it. Because the sounds of explosions, weapons firing, devas being released and people shouting from the battlefield below muffled everything else – but also because the old man didn’t want to listen.
All he could think about was how badly the wound in his chest hurt and how sorry he felt for not being able to say goodbye to Liney in person. He had given Zoran a note to pass on to her in case he wound up dying during the battle, but that wouldn’t have quite the same effect. Not for him, anyway.
If only Gudard had known Hikaru would take his place as Deckstoru’s Balancer, he would’ve written him a letter, a whole notebook even, as well. Thankfully, the boy was much smarter and more persistent than his Chemistry teacher had ever been, so knowing that, he could entrust the future to him with no worries.
